spacetropic

saturnine, center-right, sometimes neighborly

December 30, 2004

Vacation Photograph

Last Sunday I watched the Redskins-Cowboys heartbreaker in an Ethiopean bar in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington D.C.

Between plays my oldest and dearest friend John and I talked about women, while drinking the native beer. Lanky men kept climbling the stairs to (what was rumored to be) a back-room cockfighting venue. The bar was filled with cigarette smoke, TV monitors, and shouts of "Goskins!" between hushed Amharic conversations.

It was the least Midwestern scene possible, and a breath of fresh air.

Millenium Elimination Challenge

A U.N. flunky says U.S. tsunami money still isn't enough. The NY Times amplifies this into scathing criticism (as they are wont to do). Meanwhile the Bush administration is working to assemble a separate aid coalition that circumvents development kleptocrats, who traditionally draw a 30% graft commission (nice work if you can get it).

The NYT editorial mentions the Millennium Challenge -- how it's underfunded, and hasn't paid out a nickel. One of the reasons may be because it requires clients to roll-their-own development programs before they get funds.

Are we trying to rig the system so corrupt tin-pan bureaucrats can't steal aid money before it gets to the intended recipients? That sounds reasonable, but it may have the unintended (cynics will claim deliberate) effect of making sure the poor won't see a red penny.

Army Works To Save Marriages

Army Works To Save Marriages

December 29, 2004

Intensive Care Unit

During the past several Christmases, like many in my generation, I have performed the role of ad-hoc PC technician for my family. In exchange for my efforts installing graphics cards, memory, and device drivers (and showing people new software like Google Toolbar and Firefox) I usually go home with cast-off, outdated hardware.

The latest orphan is an HP laptop with a cracked LCD, previously used by carefree college-age siblings. It still works with an external monitor. But as a risk profile, this computer is a bisexual Haitian junkie who never changes needles and turns tricks at the docks. It has spyware, adware, viruses, trojans, and low self-esteem.

Practice safe computing, people, especially if you have a high-speed connection. You don't need a full blown geeked-out firewall setup. But run Ad-Aware often, and ZoneAlarm always. It's dangerous out there.

Blue Blogging Slippers


My sister was innocent of the history behind blogger media with regard to pajamas when she gifted me some neat J. Crew slippers for the Baby Jesus Holiday. She simply noticed I often post late at night, and I promised her a picture as thanks.

The Official Kwanzaa Web Site - The Founder's Message 2000

The Official Kwanzaa Web Site - The Founder's Message 2000

Celestial Rotation and Alignment

Honestly, compared to this unthinkable tsunami disaster, most of our other problems seem very small. If you would like to help, here's a good blog that aggregates real-time information on international aid.

Incidentally, the earthquake may have been so powerful that the planet has sped up slightly and started wobbling. I'm not sure if this justifies arm-waving about mother earth's anger, but it does seem like pretty bad news. Phrases like "that person is grounded" will lose their currency when Earth itself has acquired a permanent shimmy.

And then what if Mars starts feeling a little randy?

Many Happy Returns

After a few days traveling I have returned to Cincinnati, a national model for disaster response, efficent city government, cooperative police, and clockwork-like airline operations.

This blog will soon return, in full force, to self-important bloviations about affairs of the day. But I will also post select details about my holiday adventure, which was indeed fraught with danger.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - U.S. Headlines

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - U.S. Headlines

Cincinnati police 'not cooperating'

Cincinnati police 'not cooperating'

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Man Torches Family Home over Christmas Presents Snub

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Man Torches Family Home over Christmas Presents Snub

December 27, 2004

Turkish Experiment in Westernization

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/December/26o/The%20Turkish%20Experiment%20with%20Westernization%20By%20Habib%20Siddiqui.htm

December 24, 2004

Holiday Road

For the next few days blogging will be very light, as I attempt to make my way from southwest Ohio to the D.C. metropolitan area to celebrate the holidays with the family.

If this post is still here in several months it's because died in a mysterious automotive explosion, or I was ambushed by ice weasels at an exit in West Virginia. In which case I had a good run.

In less than two months, Spacetropic has acquired quite a few regular readers. Once you take away family, friends, and automated software "webcrawlers", I still, amazingly, have quite a few unique visitors. Thank you for your patronage!

Stay warm and safe. Check back again soon. The best is still ahead.

December 23, 2004

Cathode-Ray Comfort

Large sections of America have been buried by snow. Locally they're arresting any non-emergency drivers. You can't leave the house.

Discard any frivolous ideas about reading books, or having meaningful conversations with loved ones. Rummage around for Frito-Lay products, hot cocoa, or microwave pizza. Then prostrate yourself before the magic box:
Or keep watching AMC at 10:00 when they play Smokey and The Bandit II. Bandit is tasked with transporting a pregnant elephant to the GOP convention, but Sherriff Buford is hot on his trail.

Needless to say, hilarity ensues.

December 22, 2004

Santaphobia

This is all over the Internet, but it's too good to miss: The faces of childhood Christmas fear. Click through the menu of runners-up. Number 5 is utterly derranged.

The Large Glass

Some say Fountain was the most influential piece of art in the 20th century. And it did point out that we are living in, and surrounded by, forms first imagined by commercial and industrial designers. (Look carefully around you at work or home if you think I am wrong.)

But to me, the best piece of art was Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachlelors, Even. It's all magnificently there; themes of industry, progress, identity, gender, and imperfection. And unlike Fountain it has a blazing mystery in it's heart.

On the Townies

In 2005 I resolve to engage more local issues, and be a more participatory member of the community. But the local media and blogosphere is often filled with more maneuvering and acrimony than a Lutheran picnic.

Once this publication worked with this one, but then it was splitsville. Another particularly vocal character calls himself 'The Dean' and bills his website as "Cincinnati's Intellectual Headquarters" (What a relief. I'd been driving around looking for that.) And then, of course, Brian Griffin runs the eponymous town blog.

Cincinnati needs more voices, and variety that reaches beyond the basic liberal or conservative polarities. Bring on the socialist grandmothers, one-armed survivalist lesbians, and Afro-Caribbean greens. I'll take anything unexpected.

December 21, 2004

Snow Monkey Scramble

The most entertaining part of winter weather in Cincinnati is the time-honored ritual of sending news crews out to the bottom of one of the larger hills. Inevitably some asshat comes sliding down the icy street smashing into other cars, and the news crew - which usually includes some ditzy communications major, freshly graduated - scrambles to get out of the way.

A wintry forecast is a great for thinning the herd of cub reporters.

But wait. It's not just a forecast, people. It's an "ultimate doppler weather systems forecast", a pricey capitalized project in the affiliate's annual budget. By crikey they're going to get some marketing ROI outta those extra adjectives.

Post and discussion about our forthcoming doom at CinciBlog.

Also, in the spirit of Christmas, remember things are always worse for somebody somewhere else.

Lawyers and Guns Optional

Call me a dirty capitalistic bastard if you like. A button has been added so that altruistic or intoxicated readers can send me a couple of bucks to help cover bandwidth and hosting plans. Any extra jack, after expenses, will be used to pay back the relatives of my lady friend from Singapore. (Hao Shi Duo Mo! I'm begging you.)

NPR : Fat Possum Records Evolves with the Blues

NPR : Fat Possum Records Evolves with the Blues

December 20, 2004

Small World

I just read this column in the Cincinnati Enquirer about Wal-Mart. On December 1st and 7th I posted some things that are similar to what this columnist wrote on the 19th.

Language Avalanche

I finally read yesterday's NYT magazine piece about blogs, and how they straddle the gray area between personal and private life. The author finds two key differences with traditional journalism. First, editors. And second, the confidentiality of sources.

The second item may be a relic of a bygone age. Technology puts our fingerprints everywhere. In the future it will only become harder to maintain that priestly sanctity between source and confidant.

But editors, I think, need to find a place in the blogosphere. I was blessed with a mother who mercilessly redlined my school essays. At the time I was angry and resentful. But I have acquired a lifeline habit of compulsive rewriting for length and clarity.

On the Internet, night and day, untold millions are banging away on email and weblogs. The writing is rife with grammatical mistakes, typos, and complete absence of structure, or even punctuation. Every convulsive thought is recorded using whatever words are handy, and people click 'send' or 'post' before bothering to re-read what they wrote. The how of expression matters less than the open fire hose of words, blasting away in all directions.

Maybe language itself is changing, and old forms are simply being replaced. Maybe I am a relic at age 33. But I still think words have more power when they are wielded with as much care and skill as the writer can muster.

Update: I forgot to mention that the front half of the NYT piece is about blogs, sex, and relationships. Oxblog has a good post.

Search Results

Search Results

December 19, 2004

Ukrainian Orange

Yushchenko is now campaigning in the eastern Ukraine. This is even bolder, in political terms, than hosting the GOP convention in Manhattan. The people who oppose him include KGB goons, and they literally tried to kill him. And that eastern part of the country has always been friendlier towards Russia, and less fond of independence.

Some cynically discredit Ukrainian democracy because it is supported by the U.S. This is blind Bush-hatred, taken to extremes. If Tianenman Square happened today, and this administration voiced it's support, would the cause be any less worthy?

Eastern Europe does have more affection towards the U.S. than France or Germany. But if any neocons think they've got an immediate ally in the Ukraine simply because they are another democracy, it's worth remembering the run-up to Iraq, when the Turkish parliament told us where we could stick our 4th infantry.

Democracy is democracy, like it or not. Red and blue staters alike should be united behind one color on December 26th.

The Japan Times Online - Zoku Bilingual

The Japan Times Online

Scoop: Police Brutality Mars Peaceful Smoke In

Scoop: Police Brutality Mars Peaceful Smoke In

Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Why women are better astronauts than men

Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Why women are better astronauts than men

Sunday Blogger Sunday

Two media items are worth noting today for the benefit of readers who do not spend hours surfing the blogosphere.

First, ur-dweeb Mike Kinsley nails down the reason why blogs are intrinsically better than traditional commentary for honest intellectual debate. Second, Powerline was named "blog of the year" by Time magazine - a de facto admission that the Rathergate Memo scandal was a watershed moment in journalism.

Sooner or later blogs will play a role in discrediting Republicans; but not with something fraudulent, like the National Guard memos. Bogus scandals wont survive. But a real example of corruption, greed, or stupidity which damages the Right? Hell itself will be unleashed.

The bloggers who uncover that scandal will be carried aloft down Madison Ave, while Pete Jennings and Katie Couric feed them grapes.

Turkey with Pickle

Turkey and the European Union have signed an agreement to begin talks to discuss the outline of a framework for one day allowing for the possibility of Turkey joining the E.U. on a provisional basis.

It's all very progressive and European. It's so contingent it makes me want to put on a record and dance around to one of the old hits of the Albright-Clinton era of foreign relations.

There’s even a built-in timetable to allow for increasing Eurpean-Islamic tensions. To be fair, the Turks were asked to recognize Cyprus in advance of the agreement. But nothing was said about requiring xenophobic Brits to recognize Turks.

Stay tuned. This story has the potential for multi-directional irony!

December 18, 2004

Successful Gestures

Maggie Downs is experiencing feelings of deprivation over not having the Prada, sushi, and other material benefits she expected from this phase of her life.

When I was 17 I liked to paint. I thought this might lead to New York, a studio, gallery shows. I liked making art, and I liked the myth of the quirky and preoccupied painter; Cezanne hurling canvasses out windows, or Duchamp playing chess with naked women.

My plans did not work out that way. By 25 I was living in Ohio with a newborn baby, an ill-advised first marriage, unpaid bills, and a customer service job. Since those days my circumstances have changed yet again, partially because I have learned the importance of tenacity, a sense of humor, and patience.

Downs did write a thoughtful piece about her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease which I liked much more than this recent one.


Iranian adulteress faces noose or stoning

World News Article | Reuters.co.uk

We are the deep-in-debt generation

We are the deep-in-debt generation

December 17, 2004

Friday Roundup

Miscellany aggregated, for your perusal.

Twenty More Billion

No reasonable person expects Basra or Fallujah to be lined with clean, safe boulevards, children playing hopscotch, or Ford Contour sedans.

Most Americans would settle for a reduction in troop strength, a partially democratic election, or even a thoughtful card saying, "Thanks about Saddam." Doesn't have to be something fancy. Just give any standard for success George, Rummy, and you can have your extra billions.

Corporate America loves "metrics" that measure how objectives are attained. It does make sense, because otherwise people keep moving the goal posts. Is that too much to ask in Iraq, a place where our guys are having their limbs blasted off?

Merry Culture War

Each year at this time we discover news articles and commentary about religious sensitivity gone haywire. They are almost as big of a Christmas tradition as Santa Claus, Nativity scenes, and a bleak sense of alienation.

Sensitive, bitter leftists get offended on other peoples behalf. And conservatives respond with paranoia, rage, and defensiveness. Even Brits and Canadians are sputtering indignantly about it this year.

I can't add much to the debate. Except to say "Peace on Earth, goodwill towards men" doesn't seem like a harsh concept. Except, of course, for the gender specifics, and the exclusionary bias against people from other planets.

December 16, 2004

Zell on Fox

The pugnacious blue-dog with red state credibility (who once famously challenged MSNBC’s Chris Matthews to a duel) has now inked a deal with FNC. The details aren't yet clear.

I'm hoping for an action-adventure show with a "revenge" theme, like The Punisher or Batman. Zell stars as a streetwise anti-hero who hunts down the old gangsters of the Democratic Party, and gives them a righteous verbal whup-ass before flaying them with his rusty Confederate sword.

Picture Tom Daschle leaving a posh K Street law firm late at night, his footsteps quickening when he sees a shadow behind him. And the season cliff-hanger: A brawl with Clinton, while they exchange tirades, in southern drawls, on political centrism and betrayal.

The New Republic Online: A Fighting Faith (1 of 2)

The New Republic Online: A Fighting Faith (1 of 2)

Dick Morris on the Ukraine

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion

Newsday.com - AP National News

Newsday.com - AP National News

From the J.G. Ballard desk -- researchers looking for a sunken Japanese midget submarine have found the wreckage of enormous seaplane which had hithertofor been lost.

December 15, 2004

Give Me Centrism or Give Me Death! :: SPIN MAGAZINE ONLINE :: ALL THE MUSIC THAT ROCKS

Give Me Centrism or Give Me Death! :: SPIN MAGAZINE ONLINE :: ALL THE MUSIC THAT ROCKS

Weather Outside is Frightful

Here's a fun new twist to the global warming issue. Some Eskimos think climate change might be a violation of their basic human rights, and they're working with the Organization of American States to lay the groundwork for a lawsuit.

Against who you ask? Well, certainly not Alignak, the Inuit weather god. Rule number one in litigation - sue the folks with the money.

But they better move quickly. Professor Chronis Tzedakis from Leeds University in the U.K. is advancing a theory that involves forest growth and a forthcoming ice age, which we possibly were supposed to have anyway, and could be currently delayed by global warming, but will eventually be caused by it. (As theory goes, that's a win-win.)

Clearly Mike Crichton will need to digest all this information before working on a sequel.

'Dear Friends -Music From FINAL FANTASY-' Concert Series to Kick Off February 19, 2005, in Chicago

'Dear Friends -Music From FINAL FANTASY-' Concert Series to Kick Off February 19, 2005, in Chicago

MERRY CHRISTMAS (In Legalese):

MERRY CHRISTMAS (In Legalese):: "THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS:

Whereas, on or about the night prior to Christmas, there did occur at a certain improved piece of real property (hereinafter 'the House') a general lack of stirring by all creatures therein, including, but not limited to a mouse.

A variety of foot apparel, e.g., stocking, socks, etc., had been affixed by and around the chimney in said House in the hope and/or belief that St. Nick a/k/a/ St. Nicholas a/k/a/ Santa Claus (hereinafter 'Claus') would arrive at sometime thereafter. The minor residents, i.e. the children, of the aforementioned House were located in their individual beds and were engaged in nocturnal hallucinations, i.e. dreams, wherein vision of confectionery treats, including, but not limited to, candies, nuts and/or sugar plums, did dance, cavort and otherwise appear in said dreams.

Whereupon the party of the first part (sometimes hereinafter referred to as ('I'), being the joint-owner in fee simple of the House with the party of the second part (hereinafter 'Mamma'), and said Mamma had retired for a sustained period of sleep. At such time, the parties were clad in various forms of headgear, e.g., kerchief and cap.

Suddenly, and without prior notice or warning, there did occur upon the unimproved real property adjacent and appurtenant to said House, i.e., the lawn, a certain disruption of unknown nature, cause and/or circumstance. The party of the first part did immediately rush to a window in the House to investigate the cause of such disturbance.

At that time, the party of the first part did observe, with some degree of wonder and/or disbelief, a miniature sleigh (hereinafter 'the Vehicle') being pulled and/or drawn very rapidly through the air by approximately eight (8) reindeer. The driver of the Vehicle appeared to be and in fact was, the previously referenced Claus.

Said Claus was providing specific direction, instruction and guidance to the approximately eight (8) r"

Angels Bearing Idols

You cannot conceive a more appropriate scene for a video game awards ceremony: Victoria's Secret models in angel costumes descending from the rafters to hand out gold statues of a monkey king holding onto a joystick.

Purple Prose at Lunch

Around noon we form a line. At the sound of the 'BING' a woman retrieves her container. The next worker advances, closes the door on his lunch, and sets the timer.

The veil of silence is broken only by the hum of the microwave, and whispered numbers and codes from a cubicle nearby. We stare and await our turn while the Southwest Style Enchiladas rotate serenely.

How the Faithful Voted: Political Alignments & the Religious Divide in Election 2004

How the Faithful Voted: Political Alignments & the Religious Divide in Election 2004

wonkapalooza

December 14, 2004

Short Winter Days

This is the coldest night of the winter so far. I'm under blankets trying to read, for about the third time, Anna Karenin. (Yeah, I know, real tough guy.)

I did consider wrapping myself in strings of Christmas lights, opening the curtains, and walking around the house drinking beer while trailing around the extension cord. But I've been doing that too much lately, and I usually wake up the next day very confused.

The website traffic has spiked in the past few days. I wish I had more clever material for you new folks. Please peruse the archives, or send me pictures of your pets dressed in holiday sweaters.

Political Note: Tommy Franks did a soldier’s job. And Bremer nabbed Saddam, and ran a fake play at the handover. But George Tenet gets a medal too? Without the faintest whiff of W.M.D.?

December 13, 2004

Gordo and Whiplash

Pause for a moment and think of Gordo.

On this day in 1958 a brave little squirrel monkey rode into the sky on the hot flames of Cold War military ambition. For fifteen minutes he floated in the heavens while chittering in amazement, before tumbling back to Earth. Then his parachute failed to open as he re-enterted the atmosphere over the South Atlantic.

The US Navy looked around for a couple of hours before packing it in.

And besides blazing a trail for Mercury, Gemini, and mighty Apollo, Gordo is surely the spiritual ancestor of Whiplash, the rodeo wrangler who delights families with his antics all across the nation.

Manufacturing Dissent

The linguist from Lexington is back, giving aid and comfort to people who value consistency and moral equivalence more than pragmatic politics. I don't recommend the material for people who do not intuitively distrust everything about the United States.

As usual, Noam is a master of unattributed, passive sentence constructions. It takes skill to regularly deploy assertions that begin with phrases like "It has been suggested ...", and still enjoy the reputation of an academic.

Perhaps a helpful undergrad can show the professor how to use hyperlinks. He sometimes sources his assertions to leftist think-tanks, but you are otherwise left to piece together your own conspiratorial counter-narrative. It's a lot of work, but some resources do exist.

Chomsky's influence is deep and wide. The hot ticket towards the DNC chair is promoting a PowerPoint slideshow that links facts with supersition to explain the nettlesome Republican media conspiracy. (Actual policy that connects with voters must be passe.)

Monkey see, monkey do - Science - www.theage.com.au

Monkey see, monkey do - Science - www.theage.com.au

December 12, 2004

Samizdata.net

Samizdata.net: "Karl Popper"

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World

December 11, 2004

Caught, Can I Get A Witness

Gift idea for your favorite blogger: The College Dropout, by grammy-nominated rapper Kanye West. Besides getting near-universal praise from divergent musical tribes, the album apparently* drops some advanced semiotics.

West is not a Christian rapper by trade (though such creatures exist), but Jesus is the lyrical subject of a rap on which he samples beats from Brand Nubian, a hip-hop outfit staffed mostly with Muslims.

Turntable warfare is a better alternative than invasions, terrorism, and jihad, and it's more danceable. As a way to reconcile cultures, it beats distorted polemics and missionary fanaticism any day.
* San Jose Mecury is a free registration site.

English "The Little Bride"

English "The Little Bride"

December 10, 2004

New Site Upgrades

Geeky improvements to Spacetropic include archives for older posts, an XML feed for newsreaders, and a 'Blogroll'. For the layman, that's a list of links to other websites I read with some regularity.

On the national list you will find a mix of viewpoints that rile my interest. Locally most bloggers angle towards the Left. But it's a small community and people have been cordial and tolerant towards a dirty Moderate like myself.

I do strongly suggest that partisans read both sides. If you won't do it to broaden your horizons, at least do it to get a better tactical understanding of the folks you oppose. People spend too much time nodding at each other in an echo chamber.

Steely-Eyed Councilmen

Once I owned a car that would overheat after 45 minutes. Costly repairs or a new ride were not in the cards, so I became an expert at planning short trips. A little unexpected traffic would cause the needle to creep up, and eventually steam to rise from under the hood.

One day I locked my keys in the car with the engine running. I was parked in a downtown garage. The local security guard, an ancient elf-like man, did not have a way to unlock the door. But after I told him about the engine, he solemnly handed me a giant steel wrench.

"Son, I can't do the honors. But I can suggest them smaller windows in the back. Cost less to replace." A few minutes later there was glass everywhere, and the engine was off.

A heavyset businesswoman materialized next to me. "Oh my Gawd, what happened?! They broke your window!" Before I could explain, she continued. "I can't believe they're down here too!" Color was rising in her cheeks, and she ran off, short of breath.

When I hear the story of (local city councilman) Jim Tarbell's victorious encounter with petty criminals, I am pleased. Not everyone can (or should) stand up to a kid with a knife. But criminals are only part of the problem. We also have far too many hyper-reactive ninnies who respond to urban life with fear, flight, and paranoia.

BLOGROLL

NATIONALS

Google News
Andrew Sullivan
Talking Points
Instapundit
Powerline
Wonkette
Slashdot
DailyKos
Oxblog
Daypop

LOCALS

Enquirer
City Beat
CIN Weekly
Cincinnati Blog
Schizophelia Jones
Blue Chip Review
Perpetual Blonde
Red-State Ohio
Covington Blog
Walk In Brain
Nick Spencer
Benquirer

December 9, 2004

The Rat Bastards

And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
My friend Marshall and I were once in a band together playing noisy, rockabilly- meets-the-Pixies music. He always had mad talent with equipment, and would build guitars, computers, anything. After college he got a job as a Java developer.

In 2002 he joined the Army National Guard, and he's now a First Lieutenant and platoon leader in an unit called "The Rat Bastards" stationed in the outback of Afghanistan. Visit the site. Send them coffee. Their job involves using lethal equipment to help islamo-fascists achieve martyrdom, so they need to stay awake.

Marshall was and always will be a techie, but I happen to know that he also once took a Shakespeare class, read six major plays, and actually enjoyed it. We went to a Jesuit high school where they made you read books and expected boys to become "men for others".

Let hardcore pacifists claim hypocrisy. I think that Marshall is in Afghanistan right now living out that directive on our behalf.

Death by Tannenbaum

This is one of those perennial stories that newspapers keep on hand to use as filler during the holiday slowdown. It's the same each year. Occassionally they update the statisics, or add a little anecodote about some local nitwit falling from a roof.



Health News Article | Reuters.com

December 8, 2004

Tastes Like Human

Some creationists reckon that the whole history of everything has lasted for no longer than six thousand biblical years, from "without form and void" through this Thursday.

Answers in Genesis is one of the leading groups that support that view of things. And, local angle here -- they are building a museum near Cincinnati. So I visited the website, and was immediately surprised by the claim that scientific facts are not at odds with the old testament. This intrigued me, so I hoped to discover detailed biblical rebuttals to concepts like carbon-dating and the redshift.

Ersatz science is an underappreciated artform. But predictably the explanation devolved into bible quotes and straw man nonsense.

Science is often out of whack with culture, but that doesn't mean it can't coexist with faith. The bible, the Talmud, and the Koran are not books about physics or biology. Conversely, reductionist arguments that explain humans and the universe as atoms and cells have been found to queerly lacking by scientists.

In related news that will surely disturb creationists (but maybe reassure the French) we are genetically 60% similar to chickens.
Some original linkage credit to Cincinnati Blog and Walk In Brain.

December 7, 2004

The New York Times > Business > What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence

The New York Times > Business > What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence

Belly of the Beast

Last night I stopped at the Wal-Mart in Lebanon, Ohio. As an American I am a whore for convenience, I needed one item, and it was on the way. Attentive readers will recognize two familiar topics, the Bush-voting exurbs, and the big-box retail bully.

"Hey," I told myself, "This is a chance to make wry observations that I can later post on my nerdy weblog."

So I girded my disdain. "Look at that stupid white fascist," I snarked, while observing a grandmotherly type heap clothing into her cart. "And there's a Jesus-happy security Mom, unable to vote her own economic self interest." A frazzle-headed woman was trying to corral her two kids in the canned goods aisle.

I was losing steam, but still I pressed on. "These people are just consumer automatons, engaged in the rituals of what Marxist critic Fredric Jameson called 'late capitalism'!" I scoffed. "Not only that, the racial hegemony of these comm -- "

I saw a black guy with his son picking out Christmas lights. The wind had came out of my sails. I guess I tire easily when it comes to cynical condescension. So I'll console myself with an old Christian saying, secularized for your protection, and applicable to both commerce and politics: Hate the shop, not the shopper.

Dubya and the Honky Cat

This past weekend, Laura and George attended a Kennedy Center farewell party for administration moderates. In attendance were Warren Beatty, Billy Joel, and Sir Elton John, with his partner.

I can't see this president suddenly deciding to court the good favor of the entertainment industry. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, tiny dancer?

December 6, 2004

Know Your Rights

The first amendment only goes so far. One topic I will never write about too explicitly on this weblog is my employer. In these posts you won't discover much about my line of business, except that I work in an office.

Because I have this nightmare: I'm sitting in a dimly lit room with a cheerless ACLU attorney. He's reading through a printout of this weblog, while checking the terms of my employment, and quietly clearing his throat every 15 minutes. Nearby in the waiting area a hairy man in American-flag lingerie is busy rolling a cigarette.

To avoid that fate I can't write too directly about my job.

But I can strongly recommend the BBC import 'The Office'. The show consistently nails the awkward, almost unbreathable banality and seriousness of office life. It's painfully funny. Friends suggested it for quite a while. I finally hunted down the DVD rental of the first season -- it's not easy to obtain in Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati Post

The Cincinnati Post

December 5, 2004

Microsoft Notebook: Tool connects 'Halo 2' with ... Excel?

Microsoft Notebook: Tool connects 'Halo 2' with ... Excel?

Google Search: bird virus

Google Search: bird virus

"Experts predict bird flu disaster" 5-100 million dead

Holiday Oven Stuffers

There’s a horrifying scene in Aliens where a man is found, barely alive and covered in goo, deep in the momma aliens’ lair. “Please. Kill me,” he whispers when the space marines pass by.

I'm reminded of this when I see the office admin assistant during the holidays. “Please. Eat some,” she whispers when co-workers pass by. Her workstation is the makeshift depository for butter cookies, chocolate pretzels and treats sent from the clients -- food people didn’t want at home, or near their desks. The admin looks really depressed, and there is powdered sugar all over her sweater.

The holidays are a rough time for Americans, who are, in general, a bunch of porkers. (But we're not alone. The Brits are getting tubby too.) Here in Cincinnati, city of pastries and sausage products, the kids are so gigantic they are having their stomachs removed.

And the problem isn't limited to the earth. True news item: Astronuats on the space station are unexpectedly eating their way through the food supply too quickly. They may have to abandon ship before Christmas if they can't pull back from the buffet.

Newsweek's Emotional Crisis

Blogs can be many things -- just like a magazine can be anything from a underground punk 'zine to the Atlantic Monthly. Newsweek is practicing "faint praise" towards a format it recognizes as a threat with this column about college bloggers.

The columnist simplifies the phenomenon to the point of idiocy, and implies that blogs are simply public diaries of personal rants and reflections. Yes, blogs are used that way, and self expression is a perfectly justifiable use of the format. (Although it gets tedious when 19-year-olds assume their lives are always infinitely fascinating.)

Recall, only about 10-12 years ago people asked "why use email?" Now it's exploited for every type of communication. The business world would collapse without it; but email is also used for diplomacy, seductions, debate, tirades, porno, and personal minutiae.

Weblogs are similar. The article Newsweek cannot bring itself to write is about the massive changes to the media that are partially the result of more journalistic blogs. But as usual, there's no shortage of expertise when it comes to misinterpreting new technology.

UPDATE: BusinessWeek turns in a more fearless analysis of blogs as a nascent advertising market.

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: I am Michiko Kakutani

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: I am Michiko Kakutani

Obese children battle for health, normal lives

Obese children battle for health, normal lives

-- a chorus of support
people have too many incentive to eat unhealthy food -- as a matter of convenience and economy, I can spend $5 at Taco Bell and consume a mountain of food (and probably more calories and saturated fat than I should eat in a whole week)

December 3, 2004

Friday Roundup

Once a week I have a fire sale on web links and short items that never became longer posts. It's a feature I like to call the 'Friday Roundup'.

So saddle up. Let's ride.
  • Everybody's favorite gay semi-conservative has done the math on red vs. blue divorce.

  • Ohio, rarely at the cutting edge of anything, apparently gives good legislation when it comes to fighting SPAM.

  • This site with pictures of puppies is so freaking cute I practically want to stab myself.

  • Japan has a problem with real, old-fashioned racism.

  • My stepdad's new book, not yet published, is listed on Amazon.

  • And if you've been holding back on sending a Hallmark card to DaimlerChrysler CEO Jurgen E. Schremp, the time is now.

Imagine All the People

Imagine for a moment that the lawsuit filed by Jesse, the Kerry campaign, and the Greens and Libertarians did cause a recount, and it was determined that Bush actually lost Ohio.

This requires that we imagine state, local, and federal election officials working together to suppress votes or create fraudulent ones. And we must imagine all those people remaining quiet, untroubled by conscience. AND imagine the Democrats conducting themselves in a pristine way, but not, on November 2nd, watching the diabolical Republicans very closely.

(Some may suggest that we are imagining our way into the land of black helicopters and electric brain implants, but stay with me.)

Imagine John Kerry's inauguration in January, having won Ohio and therefore the electoral college, but not the popular vote. Imagine all of the people previously upset by the election in 2000 of a man who was "not their president" -- imagine them living in a world after the 2004 election where three million more of their fellow citizens (much larger than the Florida margins) voted for the other guy.

Or do we have to go back and imagine away those three million votes too? It's hard to keep the conspiratorial narrative strait sometimes, with all of this imagining.

I'm not claiming that some of the actions of local officials were not suspicious or stupid. But yes, I am suggesting that Bush won the election. Isn't it wiser to focus on mid-terms, or the possibility of election reform that will create a system where nobody, from either side, can summon the vote-fraud bogeyman?

Puppies

December 2, 2004

Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Work of art that inspired a movement ... a urinal

Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Work of art that inspired a movement ... a urinal

Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' has been named the most influential piece of modern art. I think they're close, but incorrect.

Duchamp's 'Bride Stipped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even' had all of the technology and societal changes of the past 100 years wrapped up in in one enigmatic multimedia package, complete with that self-referential spidervien of cracks. It's hideous, beautiful, brilliant and nonsensical all at once.

Sunset in Babylon

People in their 20s and 30s don’t imagine getting old. We’ve got too much going on with careers, romance, and the occasional budding family. But like it or not we will one day be standing in line at the Shoney’s buffet in Boca Raton and arthritically grooving to the Chili Peppers on oldies stations.

Of course, we might be living in alleys and scraping out tin cans with a rusty spoon, the way social security is currently headed.

On the up side, we will reap some benefits on the coattails of the baby boomers, the enormous bulge in the population that will process through the system like a baby goat through a boa constrictor.

Given the self-involvement and materiality of that generation, hospitals and retirement homes should by then look like palaces. Medicine, already miraculous today, could be on par with storybook magic. Rested and healthy, we will spend our time using our cool cybernetic limbs to freak out the grandkids.

And we will likely have robot companions to chase after us, bleeping, should we ever wander off into the night.

Lost, Found, Lost

Google Search: elderly

December 1, 2004

Yahoo! News - Ohio Lawmakers OK Bill That Sends Spammers to Jail

Yahoo! News - Ohio Lawmakers OK Bill That Sends Spammers to Jail

The Colossus of Bentonville

Wal-Mart is an economic leviathan that exploits every conceivable advantage of the world economy to deliver products at cheap prices to the down-market segments of society.

The retail colossus is responsible for a huge chunk of the U.S. trade deficit. They utterly destroy many local businesses when they build each store. They brutalize suppliers until labor costs are contained by overseas outsourcing. And many overseas partners are oppressive, anti-democratic regimes whose "unions" are government goons in cahoots with Wal-Mart.

Those are just the facts. Onto the opinion.

If prices are everything, lets reverse engineer Wal-Mart prices to show consumers exactly where and how the materials and labor for each good were produced. Just like "Nutritional Information" had to be expanded to give consumers a better idea how much crap they've been eating, we need more context and explanation for price.

Do this by lopping off Wal-Mart's famous razor-thin margins, and showing true numbers on how much of the cost for that $12.97 handbag went to U.S. workers and companies, and how much of it went to countries without any meaningful trace of democracy. Geek these numbers into a database with all of the publicly-available information on supplier agreements and international wage statistics, matched against the actual prices for products on Wal-Mart's website.

If democracy is truly worth dying for, even on behalf of others, don't we have a right to know how much of it went into a DVD player?

The Japan Times Online

The Japan Times Online

Steve McGowan was only trying to buy eyeglasses, but he was turned away. And the owner made the reason clear. He didn't like black people.

CNN.com - Publisher: 'Blog' No. 1 word of the year - Nov 30, 2004

CNN.com - Publisher: 'Blog' No. 1 word of the year - Nov 30, 2004