March 31, 2008

Monday Skritch'n and Herding

You know what to do:

If you need more than skritch'n to cure your itch you might give cat herding a try:



Via Watermark.

Posted by Steve on March 31, 2008

March 30, 2008

Go Figure...

Men Who Look Like Kenny Rogers

...?...?

Posted by Steve on March 30, 2008

March 28, 2008

Bang Bang

Be safe out there!


Via Composite Drawlings

Posted by Steve on March 28, 2008

Friday Ark #184

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Other Vertebrates

Dogs

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on March 28, 2008 | Comments (8)

March 26, 2008

Need A South Park Fix?

Or wondering why anyone cares?

Well, go for it: all the episodes are now on line!

If you want to quickly understand why parents everywhere tried to keep their kids from watching this show and why the kids, especially the junior high kids, figured out all kinds of ways to flaunt their parents wishes just start out with Season 1 Episode 101: Cartman Gets An Anal Probe. An alien one at that.

Via Mashable.

Posted by Steve on March 26, 2008 | Comments (2)

March 25, 2008

More Tuesday Skritch'n

You know what to do:

Enjoy!

Posted by Steve on March 25, 2008

The Government Is Watching

Do you really want to live in a surveillance state?



4:25 Minutes

Via Samizdata.net

Posted by Steve on March 25, 2008

March 24, 2008

george's Body Count

John at Dymaxion World asks:

4,000 souls to haunt George W. Bush.

How many more?

The 4,000 dead meme has been all around the news and blogosphere today.

Most, like, John seem to ignore that w and his crew should also be haunted by the thousands of wounded and, by the numbers, the many more dead, wounded and uprooted Iraqis.

Update 3/25: For a much more detailed explication of this point please see Anthony Gregory's post, Human Death Toll in Iraq, at Liberty & Power.

Posted by Steve on March 24, 2008

Have you checked in with your robot today?






Via 11D

Posted by Steve on March 24, 2008

War Talk

This kind of talk is not good news:

In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards.

"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force.

"All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts."

Hmm, he must have some pretty interesting evidence. You know, like captured perps, etc. Without that kind of evidence this just continues to be the same ol', same ol' BS reflecting the ongoing bush administration desire to kill.

Via TPM Cafe.

Posted by Steve on March 24, 2008

Spider-Man Has Been Shot!

Here is the scene* in the emergency room:

spidermanusm_30.jpg

Can you figure out the problem with this picture before heading over here to find out?

*Ultimate Spider-Man #30 “Emergency
Brian Michael Bendis, writer; Mark Bagley, penciler

Posted by Steve on March 24, 2008

March 23, 2008

The Real Homer?

Is this Homer?


realhomer.jpg


Or is it a mutant?

Via Stranger Fruit.

Posted by Steve on March 23, 2008

March 22, 2008

Just Say No to Real ID

The other 49 governors need to follow Montana governor brian schweitzer's lead:

Schweitzer emphasized that his state's licenses already contain holograms, secure digital photographs and a magnetic stripe on the back. But says he has no intention of sharing his state's residents' data with the federal government, as required by Real ID.

The information the government wants the states to keep and share in Real ID is ripe for abuse, despite the government's privacy and security promises, he said.

"They tell us our data is safe," Schweitzer said. "You tell that to the passport people," he said, referring to news that State Department employees snooped in all three major presidential candidates' passport files.

"Do you want your government to have the ability to track where you went, how you got there and when you got home?" Schweitzer asked. "It would be naïve for someone to think this information will not be abused in the future. Virtually every decade these kinds of files have been used to violate people's privacy."

schweitzer and the rest of our government servants would do well to apply this kind of thinking and action to any other program that invades our privacy or compromises our personal information with particular emphasis on banking institutions and telecommunications companies that apparently routinely violate our rights.

Via The Technology Liberation Front.

Posted by Steve on March 22, 2008

March 21, 2008

Friday Ark #183

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • Green Gabbro: Friday Rock Repost ~ Sand Boil

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on March 21, 2008 | Comments (5)

March 20, 2008

Law or Legislation?

Really, if it is complex, i.e., hard to understand and changes frequently does it really rise to the level of law?

Borrowers should determine if they live in a state with nonrecourse laws. In general, lenders in those states cannot pursue borrowers for money owed. But these laws are complex and change often, so consulting with a lawyer may be necessary, Mr. Geller said.
I think not.

Rather, it is mere legislation most likely enacted to fulfill someone's rent seeking desires.


Posted by Steve on March 20, 2008

Quoth the Raven....

The Quotable I and the Bird is up at The House and Other Arctic Musings.

Fly on in and join the wordbirdfest.

Posted by Steve on March 20, 2008

March Madness Waiting Room

CBS is offering on demand viewing of all this year's NCAA tournament games.

The first game tips off at about 12:20 EDT and the on demand doors just opened (11:54 EDT).

A few minutes ago there were 218,000 users in the combined general admission and VIP waiting rooms. Already over 70,000 VIP users are in the arena and there are currently 141,000 general admission users just starting to enter.

CBS must have a huge server farm and L...O...T...S of bandwidth ready to go.

It will be interesting to see what the quality of the viewing experience will be.

Posted by Steve on March 20, 2008

March 19, 2008

Playing Glasses

Just listen:

Via In the Agora.

Posted by Steve on March 19, 2008

March 18, 2008

Why Would You Use Microsoft Hotmail?

That's a good question.

Microsoft gives you some reasons.

The answer, though, is that maybe you shouldn't except as an absolute last resort:

However, some tests I ran over the weekend shed some light on some of the ways that Hotmail/MSN/Live.com handle spam: They apparently are simply deleting inbound email with no bounce messages, no flags, no notification -- nothing.

I can replicate this at will. When I send an email from my mailserver (located on a commercial circuit) to my gmail.com account, live.com account, and other personal accounts, they all arrive -- except to my live.com/Hotmail account. It simply never appears, and no bounce message is ever seen.

If Microsoft is really dropping legitimate emails without any notification to the sender or the receiver then, well, it is time to drop Microsoft mail services.

Posted by Steve on March 18, 2008

March 17, 2008

Megan Says...

...read Radley.

This is definitely a case where you should do what Megan says!

Read Radley!

NB: If you are not into it you may skip his American Idol posts.

Posted by Steve on March 17, 2008

March 14, 2008

Friday Ark #182

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Birds

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Posted by Steve on March 14, 2008 | Comments (6)

March 13, 2008

Endings

Via Kottke is this PDF listing the 100 best ending lines from novels.

Your mileage may very; mine does. They left out this:

He fell in October, 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.

He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1928)

Posted by Steve on March 13, 2008 | Comments (2)

Browsing the Stars

For all of you backyard and desktop sky watchers Google just announced Google Sky. From the Google Lat Long Blog:

And so I'm delighted to announce the launch of the web version of Google Sky, which turns your browser into a virtual telescope that can zoom and pan across the entire cosmos. You now have several ways to easily explore the universe:
* Powerful search that lets you browse tens of thousands of named objects.
* Three optical sky surveys that show you what your naked eye would see if it had a really good zoom lens. Try switching to infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, or x-ray to see the sky in a completely different light. Or blend between these views to create unique visualizations on the fly.
* Galleries highlighting the best images from Hubble and many other telescopes.
* Current planet positions and constellations.
* Overlays of custom KML content. (Simply paste a Sky KML URL into the search box, just like on Google Maps.)
* Last but not least, the Earth & Sky podcasts gallery is not to be missed, particularly for those who run a classroom.
All of this is accessible from any web browser, on any operating system, with no extra download required.
I haven't had but a few minutes too work with this but it looks to be quite cool.

However, one of the first things I wanted to do does not appear to be currently available: give it an address and have it present the night sky from that location. I may have missed it so please let me know if you figure out how to do this or something similar with latitude and longitude or....

And, you can zoom beyond the resolution they currently support.

Posted by Steve on March 13, 2008

March 12, 2008

The Microsoft Way

Introduced by Steve Balmer:



Posted by Steve on March 12, 2008 | Comments (1)

March 11, 2008

Tuesday Skritch'n Time

Ok, take a deep breath, relax and then, well, you know what to do:

Want to ruffle feathers instead? Fly over to:

Posted by Steve on March 11, 2008

March 10, 2008

spitzer: More Do As I Say Not As I Do

eliot spitzer, governor of New York, likes to pretend that prostitution is naughty:

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. “It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

It seems, though, that dear eliot is a user:
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.
Of course, innocent until proven guilty.

However, I suspect the court of family and public opinion have already made their rulings.

Posted by Steve on March 10, 2008

Pet Peeve: Littering Smokers

I'll grant those who choose to smoke cigarettes their right to do so.

Just as long as they do not inflict their smoking on others.

To that end smokers who toss cigarette remains on the sidewalk, street or in the gutter are flipping the finger to the rest of us who should neither have to look at the mess nor pay towards cleaning it up.

Perhaps if enough folks speak up when they see this happening we can put an end to it!

BTW, smoking in a truly public place like a bus stop, walking down the sidewalk, in a park, etc., surely constitutes a form of assault if your smoke ends up in someone else's nostrils.

Posted by Steve on March 10, 2008 | Comments (4)

March 9, 2008

Are You An Aquaman Fan?

If so check out Tegan's new Aquaman WIKI.

Via Eric.

Posted by Steve on March 9, 2008 | Comments (1)

March 8, 2008

Nullify the Drug War

In an essay in Time magazine 4 of the writers of The Wire commit:

If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun's manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.
One of the writers, Dennis Lehane, was interviewed today on NPR by Scott Simon. It is well worth the 4 minutes.

Here is one of the exchanges:

SS: Some of the most articulate and passionate proponents of drugs laws and, in fact, fierce and aggressive police action to enforce the drug laws are people who live in inner city communities...who say drugs have ravaged our neighborhood. They've taken almost half of an entire generation from us. We have to stamp this out.

DL: There is absolutely no way I can argue against that argument. I am not argueing for mass legalization of drugs. I'm argueing for a different, more common sense approach to the drug war, if you will. And, saying, I don't believe that the drug war as it is being fought now is working is working.

Since Dennis won't argue let me, in radio sound bite form, do it for him.

The drug war is the monster that has ravaged your neighborhoods. End it and you will be able to reclaim your neighborhoods. To end it you must hold accountable the stakeholders in the drug war: the politicians, the DEA, the police departments and prison industry whose livelihoods depend on ravaging your neighborhood. The blood is on their hands.

If the drugs had been available in the corner drug store like beer or the liquor store like Jack Daniels you would not have lost half of an entire generation. Yes, prohibition must end; there must be mass legalization.

Would folks still use and abuse drugs? Sure. Just like folks, including most of the drug war stakeholders, use and abuse alcohol.

What you would not have is drug war related brutality in your neighborhoods, 1 in 15 of your young men in penal institutions, or drug gang related mayhem throughout much of the world.

Take one small step to End it now! Vote to acquit when there is no violence involved.

On a related note see these posts on jury nullification by Radley Balko.

I'd certainly do this. If only I'd get called to jury duty. I've been around long enough that you'd think it would happen, but no. In the meantime Mrs Modulator has been called many times.

Posted by Steve on March 8, 2008 | Comments (2)

March 7, 2008

Friday Ark #181

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

March 6, 2008

Mortgage Walkers

Buried toward the bottom of a gloomy report on home foreclosures is this:

The threat of so-called "mortgage walkers," or homeowners who can afford their payments but decide not to pay, also increases as home values depreciate and equity diminishes. Banks and credit-rating agencies already are seeing early evidence of this.
Banks should persue these folks aggressively!

Really, someone thinking of moving that is in this situation probably shouldn't be moving unless their new employer has a great relocation package. Their creditors should make sure that the potential perps know that they will have to pay out lapsed payments and any shortfall in equity.

There were quite a few folks in this situation in the early to mid '90s. During that time I was in a negative equity position for a number of years but time cures many ills and even in the current market I am substantially positive.

During that same period I spent a brief stint as a realtor and sold a neighbors house. As part of the transaction his corporate relocation folks had to pick up nearly $100,000 in negative equity. Those times were not pleasant and a lot of people simply had to stay put until market values turned up.

Posted by Steve on March 6, 2008

The obama Sunstein Knows

Some obama material contra to some of the stuff linked in this post.

Cass Sunstein, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago writes:

Not so long ago, the phone rang in my office. It was Barack Obama. For more than a decade, Obama was my colleague at the University of Chicago Law School.

He is also a friend. But since his election to the Senate, he does not exactly call every day.

On this occasion, he had an important topic to discuss: the controversy over President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance of international telephone calls between Americans and suspected terrorists. I had written a short essay suggesting that the surveillance might be lawful. Before taking a public position, Obama wanted to talk the problem through.

In the space of about 20 minutes, he and I investigated the legal details. He asked me to explore all sorts of issues: the President's power as commander-in-chief, the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Authorization for Use of Military Force and more.

Obama wanted to consider the best possible defence of what Bush had done. To every argument I made, he listened and offered a counter-argument. After the issue had been exhausted, Obama said that he thought the programme was illegal, but now had a better understanding of both sides. He thanked me for my time.

This was a pretty amazing conversation, not only because of Obama's mastery of the legal details, but also because many prominent Democratic leaders had already blasted the Bush initiative as blatantly illegal. He did not want to take a public position until he had listened to, and explored, what might be said on the other side.

Sunstein has more to say...go read the rest...and, for my part, I find this a very positive recommendation.

It makes it clear to me that I'd much rather have a beer with obama than the mccain depicted here. It also makes clear to me that even though I'm likely to disagree with both of these guys on many issues with obama there is a small chance, remember he is a politician, that I might get a reasoned depiction of why he has taken a particular position.

But obama is still a liar.

Posted by Steve on March 6, 2008

Will You Vote for A Liar?

If your answer is no then you will not be voting for obama, clinton or mccain.

Posted by Steve on March 6, 2008

Fly In Movies

I and the Bird #70 Back to the Movies is up on 21 screens at Earth, Wind & Water.

Take plenty of popcorn!

Posted by Steve on March 6, 2008

March 5, 2008

WAMU: Never Mind the Losses Give'm Their Bonus

We sure wouldn't want 3000 Washington Mutual execs to feel short-changed for screwing up:

WaMu has revised its bonus plan for nearly 3,000 top executives so continuing damage from the subprime lending collapse won't crimp their annual awards.

The struggling Seattle-based lender said in a regulatory filing Monday it will exclude the cost of soured real-estate loans and foreclosure expenses when it calculates net operating profit, the biggest component of executives' 2008 bonuses.

Not only will they be excluding those real expenses but they want to make up for the losses on the back of their retail banking customers by including this new criteria in the bonus calculation:
Fees from retail banking — a new factor, weighted at 25 percent. Many banks including WaMu have been increasing fees for services such as ATM withdrawals by non-customers to compensate for losses in other areas.

These fees also include over-draft charges that hammer those account holders with the fewest resources.

Posted by Steve on March 5, 2008

Lunch Time Diversions

As it is still lunch time or will be in the Pacific Time Zone and points west divert yourself over to PZ's place for a couple of short videos to go with your food.

Of course, the videos will be equally entertaining at other times of the day.

Posted by Steve on March 5, 2008

March 4, 2008

Caucus Farcus

It looks like some of the Texas democratic caucuses were even more of a mess than the ones we had here in Washington:

This was essentially a cattle call - people were herded in to sign their name, list their preference, and then most left. It was not like the Iowa caucuses at all - and we are all at the mercy of the eventual signature counters.
A Publius says:
It's quite possibly the worst delegate-selection system ever.

Surely the democratic party can come up with a democratic system of delegate selection like, well, maybe elections in which everyone can participate. Oh, and in which everyone's vote carries the same weight.

Posted by Steve on March 4, 2008

Telecom Immunity

It is likely that congress is going to roll over for the bushies once again and grant immunity to some telecom companies who broke the law.

As noted at The Left Coaster the issue from the administration perspective is not about the dollar penalties that might be assessed. It is about covering the administration's ass.

So why are the dems licking it?

The only reason that I can think of is that the congress critters and their presidential candidates think that violating the 4th amendment might be a good tool for them to have in their kit as well.

It is not as if the democratic party has ever been all about respect for individuals and their rights both real and as expressed in the constitution. Quite the contrary.

Posted by Steve on March 4, 2008

March 3, 2008

The Straight Shot Express Flip-Flops

john, prove it isn't so!

Steve Benen reports that there are "some inconsistencies" in mcain's record:

And if we’re playing by Republican rules, McCain’s “inconsistencies” should be a fairly serious problem.

With this in mind, for the first time in months, I thought now would be a good time to update the list of John McCain’s Biggest Flip-Flops. There have been some key additions since the last time I did this (in November).

Uhhh, more than a few. Consider your top 2-3 issues and then go look at the lists of flip-flops.

You may agree with his most recent position but can you trust him to hold that position a year from now?

Via Kevin Drum.

Posted by Steve on March 3, 2008

New Zealand Olympic Singles Trials

Today, weather permitting, is the 3rd of a best of 3 series to determine the New Zealand Olympic rowing singles entrant.

New Zealand, who cares?

Well, the competitors are Mahe Drysdale, 3 time world champion, and Rob Waddell, two time world, 2000 Olympic champion and still the 19-29 Men's world record holder at 2000 meters on the erg.

Everybody in the world rowing community will be interested. As for the rest of you....unless you join in on the fun you will be missing out on great athletes performing at the top level of one of the world's most demanding sports.

Here is a news clip from after yesterday's second race.

And, here is where to catch today's race live at a to be determined time (there are weather issues) or streaming later.

BTW, time in New Zealand currently appears to be about 3 hours behind US PST.

Update 3/3: The race has been rescheduled to 3/5 at 9:00 AM (I believe Noon PST)

Posted by Steve on March 3, 2008

March 2, 2008

Gmail Amusement

Gmail determined at a legitimate Google Alert message was spam.

Posted by Steve on March 2, 2008