the Greater Nomadic Council

Deviant Morphs

Check out these photoshop skills. See Britney Spears turned into a pig. Moderately NSFW.

(via definitely NSFW Fleshbot)

Kerry's Rotator Cuff

A minor news item about a week ago, it turns out that Kerry's shoulder has needed surgery since January. Easterbrook writes:

Kerry, it now seems, campaigned in pain, endlessly raising those arms despite a torn rotator cuff. Good omen for him, perhaps.

I wonder how much pain he really was in considering that he was able to go snowboarding before getting the surgery. Anyone who's experienced the same problem care to assess the pain? Regardless, it does confirm my opinion of him as a fighter, among other things.

You Look Like A Dog

It's true. People look like their dogs.

Le Freebox

Is there something like this available in the US? 1Mbps/128kbps DSL for $30 euros a month with no contract time and free equipment? And I thought my cable modem was nice.

Street Climbing

Go here and check out the Movie of the Week. The site itself is NSFW, but the movie is nonporn. Clicking on the link and then the movie won't show anything objectionable--the movie is some clips of a guy doing various acrobatics around what appears to be the banlieu of Paris.

Btw, this isn't a permalink, so the movie will change on April 5th.

Potential Life on Mars

Methane has been found in the Martian atmosphere which scientists say could be a sign that life exists today on Mars.

Read more here.

The Shame of Colin Powell

A detailed and devastating account of Colin Powell's place in the Bush administration from the new American Prospect:

Misoverestimated by Michael Steinberger

I must admit I haven't really thought about Powell as other than a ham-strung tragic figure, but the Powell this article paints is something else entirely - a man without ideals or ideas, operating in a void of principle and providing loyal service to an incompetent administration.

Via Alterman

Link Roundup

Watch fruit flies fight.

Some Nigerian money collectors have baboons and hyenas as pets.

Aerogel is a solid created by NASA that's 99.8% empty space.

Also from NASA, the X-43A flew at Mach 7.

And finally, Earth has a quasi-moon.

Drum on Clarke

Kevin Drum has a review and summary of Richard Clarke's book and a list of quotes confirming that terrorism was not a priority for Bush before 9/11. Both are well worth reading.

Picking Your Nose Is Good For You

Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies.

Read more.

9-11 Commission Flow Chart

Look at this flow chart that concisely summarizes the hearings so far.

First Commercial Use of E-Paper

It's not bendable or detachable, but it is an electronic book capable of holding approximately 500 books. Ars Technica has the details.

How to Blog

The Introduction and Part Two. I'm glad to say we proud bloggers of the GNC have already mastered these lessons.

(via Jennifer's History and Stuff)

The Anatomy and Rebuttal of an NRO Attack

As a willing part of the Bush attack machine, NRO's Clifford May has a new article up attacking Richard Clarke in order to undermine his potentially damaging claims about the Bush administration. Nevermind that even bloggers like Daniel Drezner think Clarke is credible. Of course, many well-respected conservative bloggers such as Drezner try to honestly assess each issue, whereas most NRO writers seem more interested in supporting Bush via any means necessary. May's article is the latest example, hence this rebuttal.

Auspiciously enough for my task, May opens his article with this:

The Bush administration is now being harshly criticized for (1) its policies of preemption and unilateralism and for (2) not unilaterally preempting the Taliban and al Qaeda immediately after coming into office in January 2001.

This disingenuous attempt to conflate Clarke with war opposers while implying a contradiction in Clarke's position is standard procedure throughout the article. Naturally, May is factually correct about the first point, but the second point is an exaggeration. Clarke is not criticizing the administration for not attacking al Qaeda "immediately after coming into office" but for discounting the threat terrorism in general and al Qaeda specifically posed while largely ignoring his and Tenet's worries about an impending attack. In an interview with Clarke on Salon, he has this to say:

Why do you think Cheney -- and the Bush administration in general -- ignored the warnings that were put to them by [former national security advisor] Sandy Berger, by you, by George Tenet, who is apparently somebody they hold in great esteem?

They had a preconceived set of national security priorities: Star Wars, Iraq, Russia. And they were not going to change those preconceived notions based on people from the Clinton administration telling them that was the wrong set of priorities. They also looked at the statistics and saw that during eight years of the Clinton administration, al-Qaida killed fewer than 50 Americans. And that's relatively few, compared to the 300 dead during the Reagan administration at the hands of terrorists in Beirut -- and by the way, there was no military retaliation for that from Reagan. It was relatively few compared to the 259 dead on Pan Am 103 in the first Bush administration, and there was no military retaliation for that. So looking at the low number of American fatalities at the hands of al-Qaida, they might have thought that it wasn't a big threat.

However, May's exaggeration and simplification of the issue could almost be excused if it were not part of a subtle and dishonest undermining of Clarke's character through the juxtaposition of the two contradictory points he opens with.

Next, May implies that Clarke is interested more in attacking Bush than fighting terrorism:

Richard Clarke, a long-time terrorism adviser, is leading the attack against the president, claiming that the Bush administration "squandered the opportunity to eliminate al Qaeda."

What's curious is that Clarke does not make the same charge regarding the Clinton administration. It was during that administration, you'll recall, that al Qaeda was founded, that it declared war on America, bombed two of our embassies in Africa, and attacked the USS Cole.

Not only does May further tie Clarke in to the anti-war, anti-Bush crowd by claiming Clarke is "leading the attack against" Bush, but he misrepresents Clinton's record against terrorism. Again, from the Salon interview:

The vice president commented that there was "no great success in dealing with terrorists" during the 1990s, when you were serving under President Clinton. He asked, "What were they doing?"

It's possible that the vice president has spent so little time studying the terrorist phenomenon that he doesn't know about the successes in the 1990s. There were many. The Clinton administration stopped Iraqi terrorism against the United States, through military intervention. It stopped Iranian terrorism against the United States, through covert action. It stopped the al-Qaida attempt to have a dominant influence in Bosnia. It stopped the terrorist attacks at the millennium. It stopped many other terrorist attacks, including on the U.S. embassy in Albania. And it began a lethal covert action program against al-Qaida; it also launched military strikes against al-Qaida.

And this, from a recent AP article:

Bill Clinton gave the CIA "every inch of authorization that it asked for" to carry out plans to kill Osama bin Laden, the former president's national security adviser testified Wednesday, bluntly disputing claims that the spy agency lacked the authority it needed.

So, although a criticism of Clinton's approach to fighting terrorism is certainly fair game, May implies here that Clinton did nothing and that Clarke is giving him a pass on the issue. It is possible that Clarke is easier on Clinton than Bush in his book, but if so, there's a perfectly good reason for it—Bush is the current president. Criticizing his terrorism policies might make a difference, unlike criticizing Clinton. Furthermore, it's clear from the substance of his complaints that Clarke finds Bush's actions against terrorism insufficient and much worse than Clinton's. Of course, May has another motive in this passage. He's implying that Clarke is nothing more than an anti-Bush Clinton-lover which is decidedly untrue. Clarke served under four different administrations. Impugning his motives as nothing more than partisan bitterness is ridiculous.

May then digresses so that he can bash Clinton for a while and show that there was practically nothing "President Bush have done between January and September of 2001". When he finishes with that, he gets back to the character assassination:

Clearly, Clarke did not manage to persuade many State Department officials that terrorism was a grave threat that required a robust response. Michael Ledeen, in his fine book, The War Against the Terror Masters, points to an op-ed that ran in the New York Times on July 10, 2001 — almost exactly two months before the 9/11 attack. Written by Larry C. Johnson, a former State Department counterterrorism specialist, it reflected the conventional wisdom within America's foreign-policy elites.

This part is particularly interesting since it actually reinforces Clarke's claims that his concerns went largely ignored. May also manages to imply that it was Clarke's job to sell his ideas, rather than the administration's job to listen to the concerns of someone they had appointed to deal with terrorism. I guess all our government officials should also have degrees in marketing so they can convince the president to listen to them. Regardless, May uses the views of one former State Department employee to suggest that everyone in the administration held the same beliefs when it's clear that Clarke, the terrorism expert, and George Tenet, the head of the CIA, both disagreed and tried repeatedly to convince Bush, Rice, and others of the urgent threat posed by terrorists.

Next, compare this quote:

Despite this, Clarke also goes easy on the State Department in his new book, Against All Enemies. This is puzzling and makes one wonder what theories might be offered by Clarke's friend, Rand Beers, who left the Bush administration to join the Kerry campaign.

With this:

Were you concerned about your friendship with Rand Beers being used, as it is now, to suggest that you did this in order to help John Kerry in his presidential campaign?

This is the most interesting charge against me -- that I am a friend of Rand Beers, as if that's some terrible thing. Who is Rand Beers? Until a year ago, he was someone who was working for George Bush in the White House. He worked for George Bush's father in the White House. He worked for Ronald Reagan in the White House. But now it's a terrible thing to be a friend of Rand Beers? He and I have been friends for 25 years. I'm not going to disown him because he's working for John Kerry. He's my friend, he's going to stay my friend, we teach a course together [at Harvard]. He works for John Kerry. I don't.

The first is from May's article, the second from the Salon interview. This is yet another example of May wrongfully implying that Clarke is a Democrat intent on taking down Bush.

To continue the guilt by association, May writes this:

Clarke also mentions in his book "my friend Joe Wilson," the former diplomat who for reasons that remain mysterious was sent to Niger to check out the possibility that Saddam had attempted to purchase uranium — then launched a media blitz accusing President Bush of misleading Americans regarding Iraq, then also signed on with the Kerry campaign. Clarke charges that the administration took "revenge" on Wilson, a charge as yet unproven.

The funniest thing about this quote is the unproven charge that the Bush administration attacked Wilson for "revenge". The Valerie Plame investigation, despite being ignored by the news media, has picked up steam recently and it's been clear from the start that the outing was meant specifically to harm Wilson.

Finally, May caps his article with the heart of his "argument" and makes plain his motives by questioning Clarke's:

Today, Wednesday, Clarke testifies before the 9/11 commission. Will his testimony be helpful to those seriously attempting to craft an effective policy to defeat terrorism? Or will he be selling books and giving a job interview? You watch and you make the call.

Clifford May is not trying to rebut any of Clarke's claims, but he realizes how damaging to Bush Clarke's book might turn out to be; so, like the good attack dog that he is, he attempts to undermine Clarke's credibility. The entire article is nothing more than a smear on Clarke's motives, not a substantive argument. Even when he attempts to defend Bush's record, he does so weakly and half-heartedly, apparently aware of the dangerous terrain onto which he treads. Why does NRO persist in publishing these thinly disguised ad hominem attacks?

France's Foreign Policy

Winds of Change has a detailed article up that tries to explain France's foreign policy and anti-Americanism. It's a dim view, but also one that is full of generalizations and slight on support for numerous claims. However, given that the author lives in Paris I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. If his analysis is correct, then France is in a serious decline. I don't know enough about the internal politics there to argue any of his claims, but I hope his conclusions are mistaken. Either way, it's a worth-while read, so check it out.

The Hell of Being a Successful Writer

A new and eye-opening peice in Salon, on just what being a "mid-list" author is like. A good friend and former professor of mine falls squarely within this group, and as shameful as it is for me to admit it, the image of his small, graceless apartment, not to mention witnessing his repeated, desperate attempts to get teaching positions, went a long way to easing my turn away from ambitions of authorhood. Now, the only novels I seriously consider writing involve post-apocalyptic scenarios and wisecracking heroes who would make easily licensed action figures (hence the overpoetic breakdown of sci-fi plot mechanics above - I've been thinking about this stuff too much).

However, I'm not sure I can really agree with the bleak assesment that this situation is somehow a blow to the very foundations of civilization. There's nothing inherently holy about the literary novel as a means of cultural transmission. Its decline is not all that significant in the grand scheme, and I can personally entertain the possibility that it's opening up a space for critics and essayists like Chuck Klostermann and, well, me - but my increasingly vested interest on the other side of the equation doesn't make the story any less heartbreaking.

Mind Balance

In Mind Balance, a participant must assist a tightrope-walking (apparently Scottish) behemoth known as the Mawg, by helping him keep his balance as he totters across a cosmic tightrope. All in a day’s work for a typical computer gamer - but a participant at the helm of Mind Balance has no joystick, no mouse, and not even a camera - only a brain cap that non-invasively measures signals from the back of the head.

Does this count as the first telepathic game?

Casshern

Most Sci-Fi or other genre creations are collections, with slight adjustment, of the tropes and elements pioneered by previous creations - this is often true of even the best and most innovative entries. It's like each film or novel is a chess game, with the pieces staying the same but seemingly endless variation somehow emerging. Casshern, then, may turn out to be the coolest motherfucking chess game ever played - the trailer has giant, red-eyed robots, fascistic bureaucrats presiding over gargantuan halls, air fortresses with giant cannons, armies that stretch over the horizon, pink fleshy things that emerge from vats to be revealed as something akin to human. Most importantly, there is a bloody showdown between a red ninja and a white ninja amidst the ancient ruins of a lost civilization, and then the white ninja chops one of the aforementioned robots in half - with his bare hand. It's a live-action manga war movie as directed by Terry Gilliam.

It may well be a full year before we see this in the states, and it may never see theatrical release, but god damn those two minutes up at apple may be the best preview I've ever seen, and I didn't even have the sound on. There are a few things in English on the official site, but really, just watch the trailer - who cares about the plot?

Fiction is Stranger than Truth

Jack Kelley, a five-time Pulitzer nominee and star foreign correspondant, is being investigated by McPaper for Jayson Blairing-up at least eight stories.

(Via Drudge)

Non-Story

If you didn't catch this story, don't worry, because it's not newsworthy. John Kerry was skiing and snowboarding on Bald Mountain in Idaho and two of his agents insisted on following him down. When one of the agents collided with him, Kerry got pissed, telling a reporter "I don't fall down. That son of a bitch knocked me over." Not a big deal, just an amusing image. First, that a sixty-year-old man would snowboard (although when he was knocked down, I think he was on sticks), secondly the behind the scenes look at how any presidential candidate must guard his own image (understandably, he wanted to be solo on the slopes), and lastly how he would undermine that image by speaking that way to a reporter.

Robert Moran compares the incident to Bob Dole's stumble off the stage, legitimately, I think, noting the lack of photographic coverage compared to the former Republican candidate's spill. Of course, neither incident is a real story, but wouldn't you like to see the pictures of Kerry's serious mug blooming into rage when a black-clad Secret Service agent bumbles into him?

Update: Drudge has some pics, but none of the fall itself. Actually, Kerry doesn't look too bad in the snowboard pic. Comparing these to Bush's famous running ability, could this election boil down to issues of cardiovascular fitness? Should we decide it with a triathalon?

Another update: A quote from Dave Berry, via Snopes:

"In conclusion, I want to extend my sincere best wishes to all of my opponents, Republican and Democrat, and to state that, in the unlikely event I am not elected, I will support whoever is, even if it is Sen. John Kerry, who once came, with his entourage, into a ski-rental shop in Ketchum, Idaho, where I was waiting patiently with my family to rent snowboards, and Sen. Kerry used one of his lackeys to flagrantly barge in line ahead of us and everybody else, as if he had some urgent senatorial need for a snowboard, like there was about to be an emergency meeting, out on the slopes, of the Joint Halfpipe Committee. I say it's time for us, as a nation, to put this unpleasant incident behind us. I know that I, for one, have forgotten all about it. That is how fair and balanced I am."

Lucy the Android Orangutan

I made Lucy as an orangutan because, can you imagine how scary it would be if she looked like a human baby? She looks pretty scary as it is. But in addition, people's expectations would be too high if I made her as a human.

You can read more here and here.

(via Boing Boing)

French Horn Player

This guy has talent... and way too much free time.

Why We Should Not Negotiate With Iran

Pejman Yousefzadeh makes some pretty convincing points as to why negotiations with Iran over inspections of their nuclear capabilities would undermine the reformist forces there and strengthen Khamenei. It seems unlikely that negotiations with a fundamentalist regime such as Iran's could produce anything beneficial to our interests. Of course, if the Iraq-hawks are correct, then shouldn't our willingness to attack Iraq have the Iranian ayatollahs cowering in fear and ready to abandon their nuclear programs? Or maybe they realize that our forces are over-extended and our nation isolated from the international community, leaving us unable to launch new wars even if the population were to support another. If Iran fails to act according to US demands does that discredit the deterrent with which the Iraqi war has supposedly gifted us?

Build A Powered Airplane at Home

It's easy.

No Takers

Four weeks ago, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau announced in his cartoon strip the "Bush Guard Service" contest: "We're offering $10,000 cash to any witness who can definitively corroborate Mr. Bush's claim" that three decades before he became President, he served in the Alabama National Guard. "So if you served with Mr. Bush - even if only in the officers' club - we want to hear from you right now! Why? So we can put this trash story to rest and get back to the real issues." Well, it turns out that no credible witness has come forward to claim the prize, so this week Trudeau mailed a personal check for $10,000 to the USO.

(via Wonkette)

Of course, it's always possible that this is just proof of how successful Bush's FMA support was at diverting media attention away from the increasingly hostile questions into his service record. As soon as he came out in favor of a discrimination amendment, we stopped hearing anything from the mainstream news media about his spotty National Guard record. O, would that we were blessed with a media able to report more than one story at a time!

City of Heroes

As a followup on sleepnotwork's post on browser-based RPGs, here's a new MMORPG called City of Heroes where you play, naturally, a super-hero. What kind of hero, you ask? According to the site:

City of Heroes allows players to create a tremendous variety of hero-types. Heroes fall into several wide categories called Origins. The Origin types are: Mutant, Science, Magic, Natural and Technology. Each Origin has access to a full range of powers.

Open beta testing starts soon, but it seems the best way to assure yourself of a spot is to pre-order the software. So, yes, it's going to be a pay service, but if it turns out to be well done, it could easily be worth it.

(via Snooze Button Dreams)

The Smallest Hard Drive Yet

Toshiba has made the Guinness record for the smallest hard drive with a .85 inch drive that holds 4GB. I could easily load FreeBSD on there, with X and all my apps along with around 300 mp3s. It could fit on a watch with a headphone jack and plugs for external monitors and keyboards.

The Final "I Did It For Science" Column

In this one, the intrepid experimenter makes a mold of his member, then has an ex-girlfriend strap it on and stick it to him. A fitting end to the series. Since it's all text, it's moderately worksafe, but the firewall at my office blocks this site, so YMMV.

The Onion Prophecy

Further proof that the Onion is prophecy, not parody.

(via Pharyngula)

Iraq on the Record

This database identifies 237 specific misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq made by these five officials in 125 public appearances in the time leading up to and after the commencement of hostilities in Iraq.

This is all over the blogs already, but I thought I'd pass it on as it ties in nicely to my earlier post about Rumsfeld getting caught out. Expect to see even more of it in the future if anyone from the administration is foolish enough to repeat any of the "justifications" for the war in Iraq.

Stupid Americans?

Visit this silly page, hosted by a British server. There is a quiz on the right consisting of 20 questions (appropriately unbiased, of course) with the stated purpose of comparing American intelligence to that of the rest of the world (somewhat insulting to both groups, I would think). Anyway, I happened to get all twenty correct on the first try and the quiz told me that the only way I got them all right was by taking the test fifty times and memorizing the answers. Of course that has to be true with such challenging questions as "who invented the motorcar" (gasp--not an American?), which country put the first man in space (USA! USA! USA! oh, nevermind), and which country is the fattest (yeah, now USA bitches!)

I'm surprised there weren't any questions like "which North American country got kicked off the UN Human Rights Commission in 2001?" or "which is the only country to drop atomic bombs on civilians?" Maybe these come in a later edition.

Update: Okay, I know this is far from balanced Continental journalism, but note the comical polls a little farther down the page. One asks whether America has given anything good to the world (results: toss-up) and compares the US to a Nazi state. Now there's a firm grasp on history.

Clinton Raising Money for Kerry

Clinton issued his strongest public statement to date in support of John Kerry and launched a drive to raise $10 million in 10 days.

When I donated the figure was at $763,449. That's pretty good for the first day and I'm confident that they'll reach the goal given the enormous fund-raising potential of the web, but it doesn't hurt to help, now does it?

(via Salon)

Motion Induced Blindness

A fun optical illusion.

Rumsfeld Stutters

Donald Rumsfeld operates with the hope that Americans -- or maybe just American journalists on Sunday talk shows -- have short memories and lack the powers of Google and LexisNexis.

from this Salon entry

I wish I had seen this. It just shows how out of touch the Bush administration is with how little the public trusts it now. Their campaign seems to be slowly wising up, but it has them scrambling right now and Kerry's on the offensive.

UPDATE: MoveOn has adapted the clip into a commercial.

Calpundit gets it right

While Sullivan and Instapundit whip themselves up into a hissy fit over whether the Spanish elections are a "victory for the terrorists" (somehow every left victory is a "victory for the terrorists" these days), Calpundit seems to be the one on the right track--and more in line with the European media's analysis of the exit polls coming out of Spain.

Both the Socialist and the People's Party oppose terrorism. Fervently. Their disagreements hinge on matters of strategy, like whether or not to attack Iraq.

That said, consider the actions of the Aznar government since the Madrid bombings. They did everything possible to link this incident to the ETA including accusing the ETA straightaway. Finally, thank heavens, they broke down under public pressure and admitted they were actually investigating Islamists on the very eve of the election.

If Reynolds and Sullivan can't see what an outrage that is, then they're the ones who are blind, not us. Aznar's posturing was scary, Orwellian shit. And the Spaniards called him on it.

This is how democracy works. People want a government and a foreign policy that is going to tell people the truth and not use mass murder for political gain.

And finally, as Yglesias points out, it's extremely difficult to tell which way a terrorist attack is going to effect the outcome of the election. In many cases, the voters may go with the party perceived to be "tougher" on terror. Spaniards might have looked at the terror attacks and said--yes, it was best after all to attack Iraq. Look at the precedent-isn't the above the conventional wisdom on why the American people supported the Iraq War?

The truth is, Aznar's opportunism is the far more likely explanation for his party's defeat. And either way, I'm happy for Spain that Aznar and his party are out.

Update:
Robert Greene weighs in.

Elections Soon

Primary season is almost over, and a nominee will soon be anointed to take on the sitting president. At issue are philosophical differences on how to stop financial fraud, how government should operate and what role law enforcement should play.

But Bush-Kerry this is not. This is the all-out, bare-knuckles campaign for the presidency of Alphaville, the biggest city in The Sims Online. And this Saturday, two challengers will square off in a final primary for the opportunity to unseat Alphaville's incumbent president, the appropriately named Mr-President, in next month's general election.

Read more. (via Boing Boing)

A Call to Kerry

Josh Marshall makes some excellent points in this post where he recommends that Kerry needs to start attacking Bush on defense immediately. I agree and would add that, for Kerry to do so successfully, he needs to point out the numerous ways that Bush has failed to make the nation safer from terrorism. First, the war in Iraq was merely a distraction that has made our military harder to deploy elsewhere while allowing people like Zarqawi to organize mass bombings in the nation and Bin Laden to remain at large. Second, I would point out that Bush's disastrous mishandling of the economy will undermine future defense efforts by seriously weakening the economy and has already saddled us with a record deficit of over half a trillion dollars. From there, Kerry must lay out a positive plan to demonstrate what he would do differently and how it would protect us more effectively; essentially, he must run slightly to the Right of Bush on this issue. Furthermore, as Josh Marshall lays out so well, he needs to start now while the White House is staggered.

Todd Bertuzzi and the Phenomenology of Sporting Violence

Todd Bertuzzi, 10-year NHL veteran and the league's best power forward, has been suspended by the League for the remainder of the season. Bertuzzi is among Canuck leaders in goals, assists, and plus/minus, and along with Markus Naslund is the natural leader of a team that is currently fifth overall in the Western Conference and three points ahead of the hot Dallas Stars in the playoff race. Even the casual sport fan has probably seen tape of the vicious hit on rookie Colorado center Steve Moore from Monday night. In case you live in Germany (Scott) or shun sports like a leprous crackwhore (David), Bertuzzi's hit was in retaliation for a hard check by Moore on teammate Markus Naslund in February. Bertuzzi, 6'3", 245 lbs. skated up behind Moore, 6'2", 205 lbs, and swung a gloved fist at Moore's right ear. Moore collapsed immediately and Bertuzzi put his hands on Moore's shoulders and bodyslammed him into the ice face first. Moore suffered facial lacerations, two fractured vertebrae, and a concussion.

The NHL made the right move with the suspension by sanctioning a bankable star in a major market (Vancouver) right before the playoffs. Consider Sammy Sosa's eight-game suspension for corking a bat which was appealed (i.e. postponed until after the weekend's much-anticipated New York series) and then reduced to seven games. In fact, baseball has an unwritten rule that suspensions are invalid during the playoffs and are tolled until the following season. The NHL's decision is even more remarkable given the market equity that hockey has relative to baseball. The NHL, forever the stunted sibling in the Four Major Sports group, has seen declining attendence and TV ratings since The Great One retired in 1999. Now, at least for a week, hockey has been the lead story on ESPN and Fox Sports because of this cowardly attack on the ice. The clip and its ancillaries (Bertuzzi's press conference, tape of the Moore-Naslund hit, the Marty McSorley-Donald Brashear assault with a stick, and, jeeringly, tape of Bertuzzi's public statement following the McSorley hit) have been in a steady rotation since Monday--the most coverage any NHL event, including the All-Star Game (in which Bertuzzi played) has received all season.

Can this coverage be good for hockey?

I don't know. One could consider that no pub is bad pub and compare the coverage to a spectacular crash in NASCAR; certainly these things attract people that would not ordinarily watch the sport. On the other hand, people that don't watch and don't understand hockey may get the impression that this sort of violence is frequent in the game and may be further turned off by it. I'm not sure I can buy either side completely. For the first argument, people that are attracted by things like this can get their fill on SportsCenter. These people probably understand hockey about as much as I understand motorsports, which is to say not at all. They are unlikely to watch a two-and-a-half hour hockey game (even a very exciting, hard-hitting game) just for the possibility of seeing a career-threatening injury. For the second argument, people that are turned off by this sort of violence, as discouraged by the league as it is, probably don't draw as fine a line between what is appropriate and what isn't. That is, part of what makes hockey so exciting is the hits, the enforcers, the fights, the checks, and the intensity of the game. If you don't get that, then you don't get hockey. I doubt that there are people that get this passion, but are moved 180-degrees into revulsion by a hit like Bertuzzi's. For my part, I love the intensity of the game, but hate what Bertuzzi did. However, I don't hate why he did it--retaliation is and should be part of the game--I just hate how he did it.

Hockey does fights right. If baseball had fighting rules like the NHL, we wouldn't see these silly bench-clearing brawls that end in dogpiles and no real conclusion. Baseball has a stern rule against attacking anyone with a bat, so nobody does that anymore. If baseball put in a rule, like hockey, that anyone leaving the bench for a fight is suspended or penalized, then nobody would leave the bench. When a batter rushes a pitcher, everyone should go to their corners and the umpires, or at most the coaches, should break up the fight. I'm not saying that baseball should let the two players pummel each other like hockey (baseball players aren't tough enough for that), but some appropriate rules should be put in place to prevent these mêlées from breaking out.

Hockey does a lot of things right; you guys should watch more. If I hadn't already written so much, I would write a brief hockey primer or manifesto for you, but maybe I'll do that later. At least check out some playoff games: they begin in April. Some quick links: Dallas Stars, NHL, RDS (En français. C'est principalemant actualités des équipes canadiennes comme Vancouver.)

(By the way, the title is only a joke--fireworks to attract you intellectual dynamos.)

Free Bud

If you promise to be safe, here is some free bud. No strings attached.

Sheep Groove

Make the lowly sheep musicians play your masterpiece.

(via SF/J)

Dead Milkman

I was hoping that my first post would be something witty or funny.
Unfortunately I am reporting a death.

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Dave Blood, bassist for defunct Philadelphia rock act the Dead Milkmen, committed suicide Wednesday, according to a post by his sister on the band's official message board (http://deadmilkmen.com).

In a subsequent post, Milkmen drummer Dean Clean confirmed the news.

"This morning Dave Blood is no longer with us," wrote Blood's sister, Kathy. "David is my brother. Since the breakup of the band David has never really found his niche in life. My brother was a smart, clever and talented person. Inner peace has seemed to elude him for the last many years. Sometime last night David chose to end his life. He left a note that I don't know all of what it said, he was not elaborate -- but he said he just could not stand to go on any longer."

A memorial service will be held in the Delaware County area of southeastern Pennsylvania at some point in the near future, with details to be announced.

"I'll miss Dave as a friend and a bandmate," Clean wrote. "He helped make lots of folks here very happy with the music we all made together. He will not be forgotten."

The Dead Milkmen formed in 1983 and quickly rose to prominence in the college radio circuit. Their 1985 debut album, "Big Lizard in My Backyard" boasts the cult-classic single "Bitchin' Camaro," but was overshadowed in 1988 by "Punk Rock Girl," which was an MTV staple of the time.

The band dissolved after releasing "Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig)" in 1995. In late 2003, Restless/Ryko released a retrospective of early and rare recordings, "Now We Are 20," and the "Philadelphia in Love" DVD, which compiled all of the band's videos.

In recent years, Blood had stopped playing bass due to extreme tendonitis. In the mid-'90s, he enrolled at Indiana University to study Yugoslavian culture, and spent nearly a year in the country between August 1998 and April 1999. In an e-mail interview (http://www.markprindle.com) late last year with journalist Mark Prindle, he expressed interest in returning to the country in the near future.

Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Wake Up America: This Is How Our Allies See Us

The caption, setting a new standard in German media bias, says "One Year Ago Bush Ordered the Iraq War" and then "How America Lied to the World".

Here is a translation of the main article's lead sentence.
"The war lie – We know with certainty that the justifications for the Iraq campaign were pretexts. Stern reporters outline in detail how the entire world was deceived."

Stern is an ideologically moderate, mainstream German magazine that is generally believed to stand between the more liberal Spiegel and the more conservative Focus (which, btw, is also fervently anti-Bush).

Just how enthusiastic do we expect European law enforcement agencies, not to mention the population in general, to be about helping America root out Al Qaida and other terrorists, when the above is Europe's picture of America and its leadership? As some of you know, Michael Moore has led the German book charts for months on end. Some on the American right explain this by insinuating Europeans are, unconsciously, insanely jealous and "resent" us. Want a far more likely explanation? Here it is. American arrogance and duplicity has provided rational justification for some of Moore's most hysterical claims.

It goes without saying that this state of affairs makes every one of us less safe.

The fact is, the editors of Stern are not Michael Moores. These are serious journalists who have to maintain credibility. I'm not saying this isn't biased journalism. But when you think about it, so is mainstream media in the States. Because the evidence for this article is out there. I just with the American people could see it.

The Sloganator

The Bush-Cheney '04 site has a Sloganator that lets you make custom posters.

(via Wonkette)

Die Terrorist Maggots...Die.

That's about as close to an honest reaction as I can get. At this point there's no telling who is really responsible. Only, it's damn hard to imagine these bombings having any redeeming value. Or that the people who did this could ever climb out of the abyss and live responsible and meaningful lives.

On Edit: Just a bit more. I'm not going to deny that social unjustice played a causal role here, or that Bush and Aznar's policies and their stupid decisions in the war on terror didn't contribute to this happening (whether it is the Arabs or the Basques who did it). There is no question that they have to take some responsibility and it will be a shame if they benefit politically from this.

But the actual people who did this (that is, distinguished from the people they claim to be representing) are beyond anyone's help. There is no use negotiating.

Update: Yahoo is reporting Al "fucking" Qaida might be behind this (although that *** Aznar seems intent on pinning in on the Basques). CNN reports they've found some additional evidence (that is, detonators and Korans).

Browser-Based RPGs

Warning – here come the nerds. As things cool down a bit at work, I’ve been searching for ways to occupy my quickly-dissolving brain. So I’ve found these cool little web RPGs. They’re extremely simple, but they satisfy the basic guidelines for the genre – you kill things, collect treasure, and slowly improve your stats. For reasons, apparently, of bandwidth, they also constrain you by limiting the number of turns you can play each day, and most, after a trial period of about a month, charge a small fee. I’m amazed, but I think I might actually be willing to pay to be able to kill mutant bikers surreptitiously at work.

My favorite so far is Prison World . . .

My favorite so far is Prison World, based in a Mad Max-esque futuristic desert world. The design is simple and elegant, with a network of towns that you must travel between to accomplish various missions, and fairly decent visuals. I’ve also tried Warriors 2, which has a lot more bells and whistles (including pets and sidekicks) but satisfies a bit less, for various reasons I won’t be nerdy enough to go into right now. These are apparently pretty much the cream of the crop.

There are nice lists of other games of the type at Apex Web Gaming. Watch out, though – there’s some real garbage out there, and a lot of pokemon-esque pet games.

Both of these games, and from what I gather many others in the genre, are written in English, but authored in Nordic and Eastern European countries. I think that this may have something to do with relative availability of technology, or just with the fact that people in socialist republics have nothing better to do than get free health care and surf the web all day. But it means that the writing, frankly, sucks.

Memo to Republicans

With all due respect, this is the kind of thing that makes civilized people shun your party.

Via Yglesias, we see the next line of attack may be that Kerry enjoyed reading Andre Gide. You know, the FAGGIT. Lord knows, he was French, so was probably a COMMIE too.

McCain as Kerry's Veep?

Or so wonders the speculation mill.

Because he seems to be a stand up guy, Dems generally like McCain more than most Republicans (although I'm anything but a big fan!). And Kerry and McCain seem to genuinely like each other. If this is really a possibility, then Kerry had better entertain it. This would be a massive boost and generate tons of positive media.

Edited to link to a Kos thread on the same topic.

Still, I can't imagine McCain abandoning the GOP without some enticement. He'll want a certain role in the administration, for instance free reign to make certain decisions and champion selected issues. I would be comfortable with this as long as he keeps his hawkish hands off national security. But what domestic cause is McCain interested in these days? Are his current domestic preoccupations compatible with a Democratic administration?

The Inexhaustible Pleasure of Mocking "Lame" Bands

My apologies to Strokes fans, but this is too goddamn funny not to link to.

And on edit--in case anybody really is offended, this feature has taken down many bands I like in the past. It's still hilarious.

The Problem with Welfare Queens

Pretty entertaining excerpt from John Stossel's new book over at Reason.

Superman #1

The entire Superman Action Comics No. 1 scanned.

Is it just me, or does Superman seem a lot less like a goody-goody here than he's portrayed later?

A Poet on Death Row

And a good one, at that. Don't let this give you any ideas, though, M.

Registration required.

Minority Report

If you subscribe to the Word a Day feature from Wordsmith, you may have already seen this story--it appears that English is sooooo 20th century. Prepare yourselves; this can help.

Perry Update

The Burnt Orange Report has a new post on the fallout from the Perry/Connor sex rumors->here. Someone has threatened to prevent the author of the report from "sitting for the bar" based on slander. You should read through the comments; they're pretty funny. The guy (Ricky) pretty clearly doesn't know what he's talking about, but I guess the author (Byron) got at least a little spooked and decided to research the possible repercussions. Any adverse affect on Byron is, of course, absurd for a number of reasons.

But don't take my word for it...

Three Headed Frog

The story and then the pictures.

Futurist Predictions

Glen Heimstra, a professional futurist who consults with business and government, says "Wanted: 'smart paper' or 'nanopaper' that would act as flexible computer display, and wireless Internet device" in passing during an interesting interview about what we'll see in the future. Looks like I'm not the only one waiting for his dream device.

Paul Erdos

Paul Erdos died September 20, 1996 at the age of 83. I had read about him briefly before, but saw a documentary on him last night that went into way more detail. Erdos was amazingly brilliant. He was a nomadic mathematician who carried all his belongings in two, half-filled suitcases on his travels around the globe to meet with other mathematicians and pick up immediately the problem they were last working on, maybe years ago. You can read more about him at this tribute site.

One thing that really interested me about him was his moral system, or at least, what little of it he expressed during the documentary. He thought of morality as a game against the Supreme Fascist, which he denoted by SF. For every sin of commission, the SF gains 2 points, for every one of omission, 1 point. When you are "fine", as Erdos put it, no one gets any points. The goal is to keep the SF's score low. He was a perfect example that geniuses the same caliber as Archimedes and Newton still exist. The documentary is named N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdös.

Rampant Suspicion

I suspect the most innocuous events as being political stagecraft conceived not just partly, and not even mostly, but entirely for political gain.

It's not paranoia if it's true. Can it be disputed that the Bush administration is one of the most politically and tactically focused in at least the last century? Discuss, plebes.

Getting Closer

My dream device is one step closer.

Real Life Far Side

See Far Side cartoons come to life.

A Murder Trial

Here's an interesting account of someone's experience being on the jury of a murder trial. Start at the bottom and scroll up to read the entries in order.

Tour Chernobyl

See what Chernobyl looks like from this woman's tour on her motorbike.

The Jay-Z Construction Kit

The Jay-Z Construction Set is a toolkit with all of the necessary software and raw materials to create a new remix of Jay-Z's Black Album. It includes nine different variations on the Black Album, over 1200 clip art images, and a couple hundred meg of classic samples and breaks. Jay-Z Construction Set is being distributed off-line via CD-ROM and on-line through filesharing networks and protocols such as BitTorrent.

Read more here.

Day by Day Armageddon

Something truly great is being created here. Ignore the amateurish Soldier of Fortune imagery, jump right to the first entry, and prepare to be sucked in. The premise is simple, and classic – in a time and place much like our own, a strange disease emerges out of China, then within a matter of days a plague sweeps the face of the globe, killing the vast majority of the population. But unfortunately for the survivors, the plague’s victims don’t stay dead for long – and when they rise up, they are motivated only by their hunger for living flesh.

That’s right, it’s a zombie story. But it’s written as a blog, with the main character sitting down every once in a while to give an update on his struggle to survive. More importantly still, Raptorman is a truly brilliant writer, and plays it entirely straight – the desolation, loneliness, and existential dread that he conjures up are palpable, and the experience is greatly enhanced by the blog format.

Sometimes the entries are the brief, clipped sentences of a man who just wants to get the facts down, while those written during more peaceful moments in the narrative are allowed to stretch out. The two main characters are richly sketched, coming across as entirely real as they cope with the magnitude of their situation. Raptor is also clearly ex- or current military, and his considerable knowledge of the details of survival tactics, from guns to generators to combat techniques, brings the story to life.

I know many of you switched off as soon as you hear “zombie story,” but this is genuinely gripping, terrifying stuff, and I would implore you to give it a chance. I’m by no means a connoisseur, but this is the best use of the web for fiction I’ve seen to date (this notwithstanding). This guy is going to publish a book someday and make a million dollars, and he’ll deserve every penny of it.

Via Sensible Erection, a great group blog that also happens to be NSFW.

Also, I just noticed that Movable Type's Spell Check doesn't recognize "blog."

Comparing Miscegenation and Same-Sex Marriage

Eugene Volokh wrote an excellent post that shows why the comparison between bans on interracial marriages and same-sex marriages might be inaccurate. Alas, A Blog thinks a ban on same-sex marriages still qualifies as sex discrimination. She also links to Galois's response, which is a bit better reasoned than hers (as she admits).

Although Volokh has far more legal knowledge than myself, I still think his reasoning is slightly flawed. He compares race with sex. However, the comparison should be between race and sexual preference. He argues that laws banning miscegenation were found unconstitutional because there is no fundamental difference between individuals of different races and that the laws were meant solely to preserve white superiority. Sexual preference should be viewed the same way. There is no difference between a gay man and a straight man other than what sex they are attracted to. Should one be barred from the potential stability and happiness of marriage because of this unalterable facet of his identity? Is this not preventing one from the pursuit of happiness, while allowing it for the other based on a difference similar to race?

Still, that is not the entirety of Volokh's argument. He also discusses the chance that "that future generations would be better raised by male-female couples than by same-sex couples." Here we move from a concern with equality to one of social pragmatism, another valid consideration in determining the legitimacy of laws. Even though I disagree that children raised in a male-female marriage would be better off than if raised in a same-sex marriage, I will accept this premise for the sake of argument. However, as Volokh admits, anyone likely to be influenced by the laws related to marriage are already on the margins and hence, a very small portion of society, certainly much smaller than the number of homosexuals. Therefore we must weigh the potential benefits of pushing those marginal cases towards a male-female marriage against the substantially larger benefit of allowing homosexuals to marry. If social stability and the happiness of individuals are both good and desirable goals for our society, then opening marriage up to homosexuals furthers both.

I realize other objections against same-sex marriage exist, but I just wanted to deal with these two this time. As a sidenote, I must admit to being very impressed by Volokh's attitude towards this and, by extension, any other change to institutions as basic as marriage. His phrase "sensibly cautious and methodologically conservative" describes the attitude I think we should all strive for when considering such issues. I know I sometimes allow my feelings and unexamined opinions to unduly influence my political opinions, but I try to keep that impulse in check through deliberation and moderation. I believe that to be the ideal for any debate and what we should all strive for when discussing this or any other issue.

Return to the Culture Wars

Republicans plan to use Congress to pull Sen. John F. Kerry and vulnerable Democrats into the cultural wars over gay rights, abortion and guns, envisioning a series of debates and votes that will highlight the candidates' positions on divisive issues, according to congressional aides and GOP officials.

This is just lovely. I guess the Bush administration's constant politicking has seeped into Congress, too. Purposefully scheduling votes on divisive issues to try and weaken the opposition? How is that not an abuse of the system? It's sickening, no matter who does it.

Interesting Virus E-mail . . .

I got this today, bounced back from one of our law applicants -

Dear user, the management of Vanderbilt.edu mailing system wants to let you know that,

Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper using in next
three days, if you are still wishing to use it, please, resign your
account information.

For further details see the attach.
In order to read the attach you have to use the following password: 33230.

Have a good day,
The Vanderbilt.edu team http://www.vanderbilt.edu

There was a .zip file attached that undoubtedly contained some godawful virus. If not for the poor grammar, I could see this fooling a lot of people - it makes very clever use of the domain name. So watch out.

The Drain

I've driven past this place many times, nearly wrecking trying to see more of the great pieces. Maybe I should just stop by sometime and really look.

Unicycles

Skate video style.

American Coup in Haiti?

Democracy Now is reporting Aristide's claims that U.S. military forces kidnapped him and forced him out of the country. Jay Smooth has done a nice roundup on posts on the subject.

Apparently many of the policy decisions leading up to these actions can be traced back to Roger Noriega, an ally of Jesse Helms decribed by Billmon as "Undersecretary of State for Overthrowing Latin American Governments." The viewpoint of he and his allies is that Aristide was "another Castro." There are also links between Noriega and those who attempted to overthrow Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Whether or not Aristide was actually kidnapped, it's clear that an irresponsible, vindictive and short-sighted U.S. policy towards Haiti over the past three years has led inexorably to his fall, as this Times article hints at, even though its main thrust is trying to tar Aristide himself as an authoritarian.

I don't have anything to say that wouldn't be obscenely tired. Deposing (or, in this case, mostly just failing to back up) a democratically elected government for the sake of convenience? Old hat. Willfully undermining regimes seen as having anticapitalist agendas? Blase. Colin Powell dancing a pleasant little jig when Dubya tugs on his string? Still painful to watch, but that's slowly going numb, too.

Panoramic Amsterdam

See Amsterdam in 360 degrees.

Sensing Magnets

I am now able to perceive magnetic fields in ways not naturally possible.

Read more here.

I'm all for adding to the number of senses we possess. I'd especially like to be able to see infrared and ultraviolet, as well as have sonar. Sensing the earth's magnetic poles would be handy when navigating. The ability to see thermal images would make it much more difficult for someone to surprise you, especially if coupled with sonar. Thinking the thoughts of passing people would be interesting, provided you could turn it off when you wanted. Otherwise your ego boundaries might start to fray. Although that might be a good thing for brotherly love (and manipulating others), it seems like it would make it hard to meditate on specific ideas without physically isolating yourself from society (an increasingly difficult act). What senses would you like?