the art of writing is discovering what you believe
King Solomon: Pro-Infant Vivisection:
But more seriously, I think I can do Rangel’s solution one better: introduce a bill to let soldiers get a General Discharge, no strings attached, if they give two week’s notice. Call it the “Take This War And Shove It Act”. I think even Antiwar might be able to puzzle that one out.
we just had an actual thunder and lightning storm. with multiple occurrences of each. right overhead. wit hail (just pea-sized to marble-sized — nothing too dramatic).
Those of in the Central and Eastern Time Zones would not care a fig for something like this, but it was damned impressive for us here and the time of year made it still more remarkable. I had to power-down all the wired equipment here, not out of any fear of electric shock but in case of unscheduled power-downs — I prefer the scheduled sort.
Temperatures have dropped like a rock, so that was quite a storm.
Cory Doctorow: Flickr is publishing an amazing concordance of stats about the cameras used by its members: which cameras are popular, which are gaining, and so on. You can also browse photos by camera to see which ones please you most: this is the world’s best consumer-guide for cameras.
I mentioned this yesterday in my links roundup, but seriously, does Cory think the camera takes the picture? Is he so wedded to the Singularity that the human element is no longer a factor?
(seriously, I realize he’s just being a gadget-nerd, but buying a camera based on the pictures you’ve seen made with it makes as much sense as buying the same computer as your favorite writer will make a published writer. Great pictures were made before there were cameras, as we know them today. I was ranting to someone about a camera-pr0n thread on Flickr, where Leica fetishists doing what they do, so this is apropos.)
from fortune(6)
I think that I shall never see
A thing as lovely as a tree.
But as you see the trees have gone
They went this morning with the dawn.
A logging firm from out of town
Came and chopped the trees all down.
But I will trick those dirty skunks lousy chumps
And write a brand new poem called ‘Trunks’ ‘Stumps.’
Neither my mind nor my hands are quick enough. But I surely appreciate what others can do.
Brrr.
Be honest. Be as honest with us as you are with yourself.”
Poison Plot Targeted Supremes – November 17, 2006:
NOVEMBER 17–Until former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently spilled the beans, federal prosecutors had succeeded in keeping quiet the details of a plot to poison all nine members of the high court as well as two top FBI officials. During a speech at a legal conference in Texas last week, O’Connor made a passing reference to the scheme as she talked about assorted attacks on the judiciary.
It really did happen: the list of targets/intended victims is pretty broad. They also include the chiefs of staff of each branch of the armed services. The sentencing memo (available at the link above) is interesting, if you’re at all interested in how these cases are unraveled. Typewriter ribbons, fibers from clothes, lists and various minutia, it’s like something of Sherlock Holmes.
The boys at Sadly, No! are better at tracking this but I haven’t seen any howls of condemnation from the “Rule of Law” crowd.