Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The $2,130,000 Comma
Ok, I think that's Canadian dollars but still, commas in contracts are significant.
Solar Flare v. Earth
Tufte's latest book Beautiful Evidence makes a point that including a scale on images helps a lot. Here's a perfect example. We've all heard of solar flares and have seen photos of them like this one taken July 1, 2002. But what makes it is the inset Earth. I believe the relative sizes are right but the distance isn't.
Absolutely Disgusting
Allegedly on March 12, US solders raped a 14 year-old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family. The case was made public last month but the details came out today from a hearing trying to determine if they should face a court martial. If this is true, I think they fry or give them to the Iraqi's to deal with.
This article from The Age in Australia is just a description of what supposedly happened, as a result it's very dramatic and compelling. This story in the Seattle Times has a little more info.
This AP story by Ryan Lenz tells how combat stress played a role. I don't care, there's no excuse. "U.S. officials have said they were concerned it could strain relations with Iraq's new government if Iraqis perceive that the soldiers receive lenient treatment." Well it should strain relations and they shouldn't receive lenient treatment.
Reminds me a lot of Brian De Palma's underrated film Casualties of War which told a similar story set in Vietnam apparently based on real though unnamed events. The cast of Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox (yeah really), John C. Reilly helped though it was all sold by the amazing and tragic performance of Thuy Thu Le as the victim.
This article from The Age in Australia is just a description of what supposedly happened, as a result it's very dramatic and compelling. This story in the Seattle Times has a little more info.
This AP story by Ryan Lenz tells how combat stress played a role. I don't care, there's no excuse. "U.S. officials have said they were concerned it could strain relations with Iraq's new government if Iraqis perceive that the soldiers receive lenient treatment." Well it should strain relations and they shouldn't receive lenient treatment.
Reminds me a lot of Brian De Palma's underrated film Casualties of War which told a similar story set in Vietnam apparently based on real though unnamed events. The cast of Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox (yeah really), John C. Reilly helped though it was all sold by the amazing and tragic performance of Thuy Thu Le as the victim.
Misfit Toys
Yet another photoshop contest. This one on Misfit Toys. My favorite is the play school switch blade.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Apple Time Machine
The much anticipated keynote of Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference was today. The new Mac Pro and Xserve machines were announced, everything is Intel now. They previews a number of features of Leopard (due out in Spring) and while there was a lot of just evolutionary things (virtual desktops, spotlight improvements that should have been in Tiger, better mail/ical stuff) there was one thing that's truly amazing.
Apple seems to be addressing the backup problem, namely that people don't do it. But rather than take the standard approach of letting you schedule backups, they did something completely new. Apparently the system will automatically backup everything on your machine that changes. And to make it better you can a version of anything from any time in the past. In fact the feature is called Time Machine and the Interface for it is astounding. You have to watch the video of Time Machine.
Apple seems to be addressing the backup problem, namely that people don't do it. But rather than take the standard approach of letting you schedule backups, they did something completely new. Apparently the system will automatically backup everything on your machine that changes. And to make it better you can a version of anything from any time in the past. In fact the feature is called Time Machine and the Interface for it is astounding. You have to watch the video of Time Machine.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Reutersgate
Pajamasmedia seems to have a good set of links on Reutersgate! The Tipping Point about some Reuter's photographs from Lebanon that have been photoshopped. Reuters has admitted it's true. The photographer, Adnan Hajj, has been under suspicion before for his photos of Qana.
The Sound of Clothes
Show Studio has a collection of various projects but the one I saw first was The Sound of Clothes which is quicktime clips of a model putting on haute couture and swishing around into a microphone. Hear a rubber top, oversized sequins, a leather cape, PVC pants, etc. Not safe for the office.
DCI Group Abusing YouTube
It all started on May 24, 2006 when a 2 minute spoof, Al Gore's Penguin Army showed up on You Tube. It's kinda odd and has Linux's Tux being bored and brainwashed by Gore dressed as the Batman villian, the Penguin.
The video clip says it was posted by toutsmith a 29 year-old who according to his myspace page lives in Beverly Hills and doesn't want children.
However the Wall Street Journal found that it was really posted by the DCI Group, who ABC calls a slick Republican public relations firm. Is that fair? Well looking at their leadership you see a few ties to several Republican campaigns. Source Watch makes it clear. The main partners all worked in the 1990s for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and has the quote "We are a political firm and all of our partners have political campaign experience". They are "associated with telemarketing company Feather Larson & Synhorst DCI" which gets a lot of money from the RNC and has "close ties" to Karl Rove.
Faking grassroots campaigns is known as astroturfing and it seems to be a specialty of DCI Group. Do Democrats do this? Can anyone give me an example? Personally I like how the first two links on their site, About Us and Our Approach have exactly the same content.
The video clip says it was posted by toutsmith a 29 year-old who according to his myspace page lives in Beverly Hills and doesn't want children.
However the Wall Street Journal found that it was really posted by the DCI Group, who ABC calls a slick Republican public relations firm. Is that fair? Well looking at their leadership you see a few ties to several Republican campaigns. Source Watch makes it clear. The main partners all worked in the 1990s for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and has the quote "We are a political firm and all of our partners have political campaign experience". They are "associated with telemarketing company Feather Larson & Synhorst DCI" which gets a lot of money from the RNC and has "close ties" to Karl Rove.
Faking grassroots campaigns is known as astroturfing and it seems to be a specialty of DCI Group. Do Democrats do this? Can anyone give me an example? Personally I like how the first two links on their site, About Us and Our Approach have exactly the same content.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Iraqi Civil War
And now we spend the time debating if it's a civil war. And by we, I include
U.S. troops.
U.S. troops.
Tom Friedman: About Face
Unfortunately his articles for the NYT are part of Times Select and you must pay to read them. But Think Progress reports that after years of saying "give it 6 more months" in today's column, Tom Friedman says it's time to get out of Iraq.
Checking Out Cheney's Story
Here's a 10 minute You Tube video of some guy doing a Mythbusters thing doing A Ballistics Test: Checking Out Cheney's Story on his shooting of Harry Whittington. Pretty interesting. Not a slam dunk, but I'd like the real Mythbusters to do this.
Update: Of course there's more to this
Update: Of course there's more to this
Thursday, August 03, 2006
As Seen on the Daily Show
The Rapture Index where you can learn things like "Satanism is reported to be flourishing in Russia". Also in the Mark of the Beast category they for some reason list "The U.S. Patriot Act has failed to get enough votes for extension." Then you get to crazy self-referential stuff like "The occurrence of the 06/06/06 date has increased interest in numerical date speculation." Yep, the rapture is right around the corner.
The MacBook WiFi Exploit
Here's a good description of what we know of the MacBook WiFi Exploit in the news.
No More Swift-Boating
Apparently Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) successfully defended himself from being swift-boated today. And without the help of the DNC. At least according to some marketing guy who worked on the Kerry campaign.
Many Haditha Probe Non-Updates
Here are four articles (one, two, three, and four) that proport to be updates on the investigations into the Haditha incident last November. I found them all unclear and difficult to follow (particularly chronologically).
What we know is this. On Nov 19, 2005, marines were in an incident in Haditha. 24 civilians died (including 11 women and children) and there are two ongoing investigations by NCIS. One is looking into the incident to see if marines did anything wrong and the other into the officers in the chain of command to see if there was a cover up of the incident. Neither probe has released anything official.
In March a Time magazine report said the killings were deliberate acts. On May 17, Rep John Murtha (D-PA) said he had heard the killings were done "in cold blood". Yesterday one of the marines involved filed a federal suit accusing Murtha of making false claims.
The news in these articles seems to be that some unnamed (and untitled) officers have said that evidence shows the killings were in fact deliberate. But really is that anything new? We still need to wait for the investigations to be complete and any charges to be filed. Oh and one of these says the report on the possible cover-up is 3-4 thousand pages.
Well at least Rumsfeld decided to testify in public. Maybe we'll get clarification this? Nah.
What we know is this. On Nov 19, 2005, marines were in an incident in Haditha. 24 civilians died (including 11 women and children) and there are two ongoing investigations by NCIS. One is looking into the incident to see if marines did anything wrong and the other into the officers in the chain of command to see if there was a cover up of the incident. Neither probe has released anything official.
In March a Time magazine report said the killings were deliberate acts. On May 17, Rep John Murtha (D-PA) said he had heard the killings were done "in cold blood". Yesterday one of the marines involved filed a federal suit accusing Murtha of making false claims.
The news in these articles seems to be that some unnamed (and untitled) officers have said that evidence shows the killings were in fact deliberate. But really is that anything new? We still need to wait for the investigations to be complete and any charges to be filed. Oh and one of these says the report on the possible cover-up is 3-4 thousand pages.
Well at least Rumsfeld decided to testify in public. Maybe we'll get clarification this? Nah.
NORAD Tapes from 9/11
Michael Bronner has written an interesting article for Vanity Fair. He was an associate producer on the film United 93, which I think is the best film of the year so far. As part of his research for the film he requested tapes from NORAD from 9/11 (just how do you do that?). He got snippets and made do. Seven months later he got the full 30 hours of tapes. 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes is the result. The website lets you play the audio of the recordings.
The recordings show the array of misinformation that was going around and restraint of the military. "What emerges from the barrage of [misinformation] flying... from all directions is a picture of remarkable composure. Snap decisions more often than not turn out to be the right ones " To tell you the truth, I think seeing United 93 helped me appreciate this article more.
Which makes it all stranger that the other thread running through this article is how the military lied to the 9/11 commission about their ability to take down United 93.
Read the article.
The recordings show the array of misinformation that was going around and restraint of the military. "What emerges from the barrage of [misinformation] flying... from all directions is a picture of remarkable composure. Snap decisions more often than not turn out to be the right ones " To tell you the truth, I think seeing United 93 helped me appreciate this article more.
Which makes it all stranger that the other thread running through this article is how the military lied to the 9/11 commission about their ability to take down United 93.
Read the article.
Orrin Hatch Supports Torture
Andrew Sullivan has a letter from a reader who corresponded with his Senator, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) about the US torturing prisoners. I liked Sullivan's summary: "It's amazing that a president who claims to see the world in black and white, and good and evil, sees the question of torture as one full of gray."
Kansas is Evolving
The New York Times reports on a recent election in Kansas that ousted the conservative majority on the board that was pushing for intelligent design. They seems to see-saw every few years, but this is at least good.
The Media Aims its Missiles
Here's a long article from the Jerusalem Post on the media's bias in the current conflict. The print view is easier to read.
Chad Vader
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Rumsfeld is Shy
Donald Rumsfeld would deny us more poetry. He says he's too busy to testify at a public Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Iraq War. He will speak in front of the whole Senate at a closed session and feels that's enough. So much for that open government we used to have.
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