the art of writing is discovering what you believe
Windows error on giant Toronto animated billboardCory Doctorow: Windows errors on giant public billlboards are their own cult Internet photo-genre, but this is a great example of the species: an enormous Windows error dialogue-box on the towering billboard across from Toronto’s Eaton Centre. It showed up in my RSS feed of images on Flickr tagged with “Toronto.â€
Windows error on giant Toronto animated billboard
Cory Doctorow:
Windows errors on giant public billlboards are their own cult Internet photo-genre, but this is a great example of the species: an enormous Windows error dialogue-box on the towering billboard across from Toronto’s Eaton Centre. It showed up in my RSS feed of images on Flickr tagged with “Toronto.”
Win Back Respect:Brooke Campbell’s family have felt first-hand the tragic results of George Bush’s foreign policy. Win Back Respect produced this ad to showcase Brooke’s moving, unscripted remarks and contrast them with the President’s flippant attitude and ongoing deception.
Brooke Campbell’s family have felt first-hand the tragic results of George Bush’s foreign policy. Win Back Respect produced this ad to showcase Brooke’s moving, unscripted remarks and contrast them with the President’s flippant attitude and ongoing deception.
Thanks to some contested ballots in a state governed by the president’s brother, a once-proud country has been delivered into the hands of liars, thugs, bullies, fanatics and thieves. The world pities or despises us, even as it fears us. What this election will test is the power of money and media to fool us, to obscure the truth and alter the obvious, to hide a great crime against the public trust under a blood-soaked flag.
This ties in well with the NYTimes piece by Ron Suskind: there’s a mistrust, bordering on hatred, from the heartland for the skeptics who live on the coasts (yes, I know these are generalizations but they’re not completely meaningless).
Crowther/With Trembling Fingers:
I don’t think it’s accurate to describe America as polarized between Democrats and Republicans, or between liberals and conservatives. It’s polarized between the people who believe George Bush and the people who do not.
[via]
This isn’t the war of liberation we were sold.
Quotes of the Week:“When the Americans fire back, they don’t hit the people who are attacking them, only the civilians,” said Osama Ali, a 24-year-old Iraqi who witnessed the attack [in Baghdad]. “This is why Iraqis hate the Americans so much. This is why we love the mujahedeen.” (Dexter Filkins, Raising the Pressure in Iraq, the New York Times, Sept. 14)
It occurred to me that someone must have married the flavors of plums and almonds . . . . if you look at the pit of a plum, nectarine, or peach, you can see a resemblance to an almond.
I think I like the rustic look of the first one of these: the second is nice but not my style.
Weir Cooking in the City: Recipes: Little Almond and Plum Galettes
Fresh Plum Galette
Another batch of plum jam today . . . somehow 3 pounds of plums made 4 16 oz jars yesterday but only 3 today. This batch will be better, I think, since I used pectin rather than relying on the plums’ natural reserves of it. I’m surprised how easy the process is: if I had known, I would have started doing this years ago. With a summer like the one we’re just finishing, it’s a shame not to put stuff up: there has been so much of everything.
Now playing: Mixed Up Love by Roddy Frame from the album “Surf” | Buy it
The Poor Man: Elementary Logic:
Tell me: how rich would you be right now if, every time something was posted on a right-wing message board, or everytime Drudge had an exclusive, or any time Rush Limbaugh revealed a secret truth that the liberal media won’t tell you, you called up your bookie and put down $20 even money on “bullsh*t”? The correct answer is: “pretty f**king rich”. The correct answer is: “I would never, never lose.” So, if anyone doubts my methodology, I have a crisp new $20 bill that just told me that I’m 100% right and you’re just too dumb to see it. If any of you champs out there think me and Andrew Jackson are both wrong, well then, today’s your lucky day, because we’re paying 2:1.
It’s been interesting reading all these comments about how the Bush TANG service documents must be fake since anyone can easily achieve the same typographic elegance with Word. It doesn’t occur to the clueless that Word’s designers were emulating previous standards in typography. Nor does it occur to them that typewriters were pretty damn sophisticated by the 1970 and 80s. Not that any of them have ever seen one, let alone depended on one to get their work done.
He’s back. Or perhaps he never really left . . . the ideals of Nixon live on in the party of Nixon, today’s GOP.
Be the first on your block to flaunt one of these.
Now playing: Radiohead: Scatterbrain (As Dead As Leaves) from the album “Hail To The Thief” | Buy it
As noted a day or so ago, I found out the the iTunes Music Store has an affiliate program: I dutifully applied and am now presenting some ads for new stuff they’re flogging. I’m not sure linksynergy is the most robust of partners to work with: their ad rotation code seems not to work and I’m trying to keep an eye on how slow the site loads as a result of them being in the loop.
Since I can’t rely on them to rotate in new ads, I’ll have to remember to check and swap in new stuff periodically. It remains to be seen how much of a hassle that becomes.
Now playing: Into Temptation from the album “Recurring Dream” | Buy it
I found a workaround that I somehow missed before. I found an online calendar service — ScheduleWorld.com — and used their spiffy Java application to import the CSV file from Yahoo and then export it as an iCal .ics file. Worked like a champ.
I found a workaround that I somehow missed before.
I found an online calendar service — ScheduleWorld.com — and used their spiffy Java application to import the CSV file from Yahoo and then export it as an iCal .ics file.
Worked like a champ. Of course, their online, univerally-accessible calendaring application is pretty interesting. Syncing it with iCal might be useful as well.
So after a lot of back and forth, I’ve decided the trail of 1st Lieutenant GW Bush’s military service is, if cold, plenty twisted.
So after a lot of back and forth, I’ve decided the trail of 1st Lieutenant GW Bush’s military service is, if not cold, plenty confused.
Does it matter if a contender for national office has a military service record? I think not. You can find exemplary presidents who didn’t fight for their country and rascals who did. What does matter is if one choices are consistent with their beliefs and policies. If someone wants to be considered for the post of commander-in-chief, their own decisions on military service should be considered fair game. If they opposed a war and actively sought to get out of it, that may not be the most admirable course but it’s not dishonest. Being willing to let others take your place in a war you support is morally wrong.
So while the president may not have been absent without leave and did, as best we can tell, perform the minimum required to earn his honorable discharge, that’s all he did.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert. C. Lloyd Jr., a former personnel director for the Texas Air Guard during the time of Bush’s service, said of the payroll and personnel records, “This clearly shows that 1LT George W. Bush has satisfactory years for both 72-72 and 73-74 which proves that he completed his military obligation in a satisfactory manner.”
Lloyd was later interviewed by the Boston Globe , which questioned whether Bush had met “minimum training” requirements in addition to “minimum retirement” credits. The newspaper said Guardsman are required to serve 15 days of active duty to meet training requirements. The Globe quoted Lloyd as saying of Bush: ” Should he have done more? Yes, he should have. Did he have to? No.”
So even if you think the president did his duty, keep in mind he did the absolute minimum: if that’s how he handles public service — as a burden to be shirked when it proves inconvenient — is that the best we can do?
