Month: July 2004

what journalists (used to) do

ongoing · Malice and Incompetence: A Student of the World That’s what I’d like to be, into my grave. I’d like to be more than a student, I’d like to be a scholar. A scholar is defined as one who reads the primary sources and does not make arguments without quoting the evidence. If you’re a journalist or a commentator or a politician and you’re getting paid for making comments in public on the war and the intelligence failure, and you haven’t read all 521 pages of this report, you’re not a scholar and you’re not a student, you’re a whore.

ongoing · Malice and Incompetence:

If you’re a journalist or a commentator or a politician and you’re getting paid for making comments in public on the war and the intelligence failure, and you haven’t read all 521 pages of this report, you’re not a scholar and you’re not a student, you’re a whore.

I haven’t read it yet. But the only intelligence failure I’m really concerned with has nothing to do with the CIA and everything to do with the trumped-up case for invading the house of cards formerly run by Saddam Hussein.

Continue reading “what journalists (used to) do”

how I lost the audio arms race

Aargh, those lossless files are HUGE.

Aargh, those lossless files are HUGE. I ran out of disk space and am having to go back and re-rip those same CDs as 192 kbit AAC (mp4) files. Some examples of the difference (first numbers are in the lossless format):

paul$ du -sk Private Revolution/
276488 Private Revolution/
paul$ du -sk Private Revolution/
64164 Private Revolution/

paul$ du -sk Legend/
320184 Legend/
paul$ du -sk Legend/
72580 Legend/

About 4 times the size of the 192 kbit AAC files. There’s no way I can see going the lossless route without an investment in some disk space. And then I have to wonder how much my iPod will hold.

Continue reading “how I lost the audio arms race”

the audio arms race

I’m sufficiently in the audiophile mode to run all the CDs I’ve imported into iTunes through Apple new Lossless Encoder. I dunno how lossless it really is, but I had noticed that a lot of stuff I had imported had been ripped at appallingly low rates (160? Bleacgh!). Looks like I ripped a few disks without walking through the prefs first. So it needed to be done anyway.

I’m sufficiently in the audiophile mode to run all the CDs I’ve imported into iTunes through Apple new Lossless Encoder. I dunno how lossless it really is, but I had noticed that a lot of stuff I had imported had been ripped at appallingly low rates (160? Bleacgh!). Looks like I ripped a few disks without walking through the prefs first. So it needed to be done anyway.



how can anyone be this naive?

Jollyblogger: What are the weapons of our warfare?: It makes me wonder if they haven’t lost their ability to distinguish the cause of Christ from the cause of the Republican party, or the cause of George W. Bush, or the cause of the war on terrorism.

On the topic of Focus on the Family publicizing Michael Moore’s home address:

Jollyblogger: What are the weapons of our warfare?:

It makes me wonder if [Focus on the Family] haven’t lost their ability to distinguish the cause of Christ from the cause of the Republican party, or the cause of George W. Bush, or the cause of the war on terrorism.

This fellow seems reasonable and intelligent, but to suggest that perhaps a group like Focus on the Family can no longer see the difference between it’s agenda and the GOP’s is just a bit behind the times. He’s worried that Christians are not taking the teachings of Christ seriously and living by his example. Perhaps he can explain this new book — If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat: How to Beat the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It — published by Nelson Ministry Products, targeted at “people of faith” as a call to action, and how it ties into Christ’s message.

liberal media exposed

OUTFOXED: About Outfoxed: “Outfoxed” examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, have been running a “race to the bottom” in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public’s right to know. The film explores Murdoch’s burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person. Media experts, including Walter Cronkite, Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society…. I was looking for a quote that pre-dates Google, wherein Murdoch is so incensed with CNN’s liberal bias, he dares Ted Turner to let him “sit in the control room and edit the news.”

OUTFOXED: About Outfoxed:

“Outfoxed” examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, have been running a “race to the bottom” in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public’s right to know.

The film explores Murdoch’s burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.

Media experts, including Walter Cronkite, Jeff Cohen (FAIR) Bob McChesney (Free Press), Chellie Pingree (Common Cause), Jeff Chester (Center for Digital Democracy) and David Brock (Media Matters) provide context and guidance for the story of Fox News and its effect on society.

This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it’s like to work for Fox News.  These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a “right-wing” point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said “There’s no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can’t be crossed.”

I was looking for a quote that pre-dates Google, wherein Murdoch is so incensed with CNN’s liberal bias, he dares Ted Turner to let him “sit in the control room and edit the news.” Now, at the time, that struck me as bizarre, as if Ted were coaching his on-air staff through the teleprompter or revising copy at a desk. But now we see that Murdoch got his wish. Rather than buying or building a news organization and letting reputable journalists run it (like Tom Johnson did at CNN), he owns a house organ that broadcasts his views as news.

if there’s someone you can thank, now would be a good time

Obsidian Wings: Failures of Imagination: If we’re safe, it’s not because of any of virtue on our part. It’s because of a blind, lucky accident of birth. Or, depending on your interpretation, because our parents, grandparents, or more distant ancestors risked the journey here from someplace else. Or because exactly 228 years and 5 days ago, a group of Englishmen imagined a different sort of country.

Obsidian Wings: Failures of Imagination:

If we’re safe, it’s not because of any of virtue on our part. It’s because of a blind, lucky accident of birth. Or, depending on your interpretation, because our parents, grandparents, or more distant ancestors risked the journey here from someplace else. Or because exactly 228 years and 5 days ago, a group of Englishmen imagined a different sort of country.

I don’t have to look all that far back to see an Englishman who imagined something different: my father emigrated for a better life, more opportunity, more than 30 years ago. Not all the immigrants who come to the US hoping for the future are historical figures. Some of them are still available to have a beer with.

Continue reading “if there’s someone you can thank, now would be a good time”

something strange

I am using the Desktop Manager application from Darwinports: it gives you virtual desktops like you get in an X-based environment. Pretty handy if you can keep your work segregated, always a struggle for me, but things seems to be movable from desktop to desktop. So, on the topic of movable, noticed you can drag the little iconic images in the desktop panel and the application window will move. Drag Safari’s icon and see the Safari window move. I did it with Mail.app and somehow the main window became detached from the Mailboxes drawer.

I am using the Desktop Manager application from Darwinports: it gives you virtual desktops like you get in an X-based environment. Pretty handy if you can keep your work segregated, always a struggle for me, but things seems to be movable from desktop to desktop.

So, on the topic of movable, noticed you can drag the little iconic images in the desktop panel and the application window will move. Drag Safari’s icon and see the Safari window move. I did it with Mail.app and somehow the main window became detached from the Mailboxes drawer. The drawer could now be moved independently. (See the screenshot for more).

detached
[click for larger image]

what happened to the War on Drugs?

Google Search: rehnquist placidyl

So we have the chief justice of the Supreme Court on opiates in the early 80s, noticeably unable to reason or even speak as a result, and now we learn that Cheney’s personal physician has been dropped from Cheney’s medical team due to his abuse of prescription drugs–which Cheney has known about since 2000[1] (via[2]).

And we can’t forget Limbaugh and his addiction.

What’s up with the party of personal responsibility, anyway?

fn1. http://talkleft.com/new_archives/007165.html

fn2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/05/politics/05doctor.html

mysterious

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed: Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed What’s curious about this is that no mention was made of these records being lost before now: if they were lost in 1996/7, why is it only coming to light after a FIOA request?

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed:

Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed

What’s curious about this is that no mention was made of these records being lost before now: if they were lost in 1996/7, why is it only coming to light after a FOIA request?