the Greater Nomadic Council

Australian Aborigines

Jonathan of The Head Heeb has penned an detailed look into the history and contemporary plight of Australian aborigines:

Aborigines are black. Their features aren't particularly African, but the first impulse of a visitor from the United States is to analogize them to African-Americans, with all the implicit assumptions about their history and social position. Those assumptions are entirely wrong.

As an indigenous people, the aborigines' history is closest to that of the native Americans, but not even that captures their experience. In some ways, settler-aboriginal relations in Australia unfolded more like Brazil or the Southern Cone than the other British settler colonies. In the United States, Canada and New Zealand, the settlers' first encounters were with farmers who had organized societies and, at least in some cases, significant military strength. In Australia, the first encounters were with small hunter-gatherer tribes. This set the tone for the following centuries.

The post has lots more fascinating facts about these groups of people and the challenges they face today.

Punctuated Exclamation

It would be nice if there were a punctuation mark to express a level of emphasis between the period and the exclamation point. That is all.

Living Without A Pulse

A new heart pump leaves patients without a pulse:

What makes the VentrAssist different is that it only has one moving part, a spinning impeller that drives a continuous stream of blood. That means the pulse is replaced by a gentle whirling noise that patients describe as similar to the sound of a washing machine.

Science: helping old folks sound like washing machines.

Kerry Speech Reactions

Daniel Drezner thought the foreign policy critiques were solid and sane, although, as a free-trader, he has some problems with Kerry's rhetoric on out-sourcing.

Pejman Yousefzadeh wrote a long, thoughtful analysis of the speech and why he didn't like it, though he focused a bit too much on the style and the command for balloons.

John Joyner and Matthew Yglesias both "thought it was crap." Joyner also has a collection of other reactions at the end of his post worth checking out. Yglesias points though that his opinion doesn't matter.

Andrew Sullivan wrote a few posts about it where he derides Kerry for his personality, decides that the speech was decidedly liberal, but pleasantly optimistic.

Atrios says Kerry was "energetic, optimistic and persuasive" and, later, provides some labor union reactions.

Fabrice Rousselot writes that "I must say I was very impressed by Kerry's speech... he made himself look like a candidate who is completely presidential." Another French blogger, Pascal Riche, thought the speech was "the best of [Kerry's] political life, without a doubt."

Fafblog liked Kerry's plan to "hold true to our ideals with a thousand mighty robots."

Juan Cole gives the specifics of how Kerry's Iraq plan would work.

Michael Totten writes "[t]here has got to be some buyer’s remorse in the Democratic Party right now" as he compares Edwards's speech with Kerry's, which he says he'd "give.. a 50-50 grade on the content of his speech."

Over at Oxblog, Patrick Bolton did some live blogging of the speech.

Ezra Klein thought it was "the perfect speech for John Kerry. It addresses every slander against him and absorbs the vulnerable edges into positive portions of a great man. This is phenomenal."

Finally, Kevin Drum thought it was "not bad, but not a slam dunk killer either."

Quite a mixed reaction, to be sure. Averaging them all out makes me even more confident of the B+ I gave him.

Appreciate Me

Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Bow and worship me, peons. As Cory Doctorow writes:

I'm here to tell you that sysadmins are the secret masters of the universe, underappreciated, all powerful, and indispensable. The world would crumble into dust but for the diligent work of our sysadmins.

Now shower me with praise, money, and drugs.

Convention Speech MP3s

Via Annatopia I discovered this site that has the convention speeches online in MP3 format, in case you missed any or want to listen again.

Initial Reactions to Kerry's Speech

I just finished watching Kerry's acceptance speech and have a few initial reactions. First off, the stylistic aspect. Kerry's not an excellent orator, so sometimes even great lines fall a little flat due to his delivery. Even so, it's really not worth discussing unless you're just looking for things to criticize, so I'll move on to the content. Overall, it was a good, solid speech. He covered all the big policy areas well and in enough detail to give a decent idea of where he stands. His discussion of foreign policy—increase troop size, double the Special Forces—seemed nearly perfect. Obviously he dealt with a number of other issues, but I don't really feel like discussing all of them in detail, just to give my general, overall impression in the hope that the rest of you will chime in as well. If I had to give the speech a grade, I'd say B+.

Early Visual Media

Check out this site that focuses "on Pre-Cinema, Precursors of Photography, Photography & Early Film and Conjuring Arts." Lots of images of death and ghosts.

(via Beyond the Beyond)

Email Phishing Scams Quiz

Can you tell which emails are phishing scams and which are legitimate? Take this quiz and find out.

Who Knew?

The good people of Oregon are trying to save lives every day. Let your office manager know you will not stand for this.

Seeing Better Through Music

I saw these glasses in the paper today, and wondered what some true Vinyl lovers would think. Personally I don't like them. Its the second article down, sorry it's the best pic I could find.

Miéville Creates World

Since one of our authors posted something about Miéville a month ago, I thought I'd be nice and point out this Crooked Timber post about a bad review he received, although that's more of a starting point for the real meat:

Maybe the reviewer is just expressing a profound but completely generalized distaste for the whole venture. What he really wants to say is that a book with such an atmosphere shouldn’t have been written. But if that’s how you feel, quibbling about little details is rather beside the point. Come to think of it, there should be a word for that critical sin. Reviewers called upon to consider a work they just don’t believe could possibly be good, because it’s somehow profoundly the wrong sort of thing, according to them. And then they sort of waste everyone’s time, scrutinizing and pretending it’s some detail that’s vexed them.

John Holbo then goes on to show how this is the typical reaction to authors and architects who create entirely new worlds and visions. Yet another example of good writing today. I think I was a bit hasty is claiming we see little of it on the web; just not enough. More, more, more!

A Plan to Reduce Homelessness

Over at Centerfield, Jon Kay wrote an excellent, detailed post about reforms the U.S. could make to significantly reduce homelessness. I don't know enough about social planning, insurance, or the other topics touched on to know how feasible his plan is, but it passes the common sense test easily. Not only does it seem reasonable, but it's also a great example of the potential of blogging. He's written a serious, thoughtful proposal for ameliorating a serious social ill and people will actually read it. His post is precisely the sort of writing we want, but see little of on the web.

Kerry Demands Devil's Advocate

Via Brad DeLong comes excerpts of a subscription-only Wall Street Journal article about Bush and Kerry's decision-making style. Here's the part that really stood out for me:

Mr. Kerry's advisers say he favors a "devil's advocate" or "Socratic method" approach, even on issues -- such as campaign-finance reform or blocking drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- for which he is widely known as a leading advocate. Aides compare the experience with returning to law school. "He threw question after question after question at me," says former aide Gregg Rothschild about a briefing on whether to back a Clinton-era free-trade initiative. "At one point I tried to catch my breath and sighed. He said, 'Gregg, don't give up, hang in there.'"

The best beliefs to question are your own if you're at all interested in discovering the truth. The fact that Kerry subjects his own views to rigorous analysis before making a final decision is incredibly encouraging. It signals that he's interested in more than mere confirmation of his preconceptions. This stands in stark contrast to everything we know about Bush's process. From the stove-piped WMD intelligence to global warming "science" to stem cell research to tax cuts, Bush has been more interested in having his opinions confirmed and reinforced than challenged. Kerry will still end up with the wrong answer on occasion—that's inevitable—but at least it won't be for lack of trying to get it right.

UPDATE: The Christian Science Monitor has an article detailing Kerry's style of leadership that states:

When it comes to leadership, Kerry has two impulses that sometimes conflict.

He can move fast when he has to.

Combat, after all, is no place for a waffler. But on many matters, particularly those that involve abstract thought, his decision-making process sometimes meanders. He may not make a final choice until he's picked an issue apart and examined its aspects in detail.

Although too much attention to detail can be a liability in some cases, it sounds like Kerry tends to strike a good balance most of the time.

The Silver Bullet for IE

Even though many of you have wisely switched away from IE to better browsers (46% of our hits come from Mozilla now, versus 44% on IE), it still lives on your system, tightly integrated into the OS, right?

Wrong. Microsoft just wants you to think it's integrated. You can actually remove it and reroute all the system calls to IE to your default browser. Glory, glory, hallelujah!

UPDATE: On second thought, I'm not sure it's a good idea to completely remove IE unless you're positive you'll never need it. Some pages are designed only to work with IE for some stupid reason, so if you need to use them, you have to have IE installed, particularly those pages that run ActiveX. Mozilla doesn't support it because it's a gaping security hole, but some developers insist on using it nevertheless.

(via BoingBoing)

Unanswerable Questions

While reading Hayden Carruth's essay, "The Meaning of Robert Lowell", I came across this passage:

In essence, what is my theme? In general, what is my defect?

One does not ask these questions once and then go on to something else; one asks them over and over, as one asks all unanswerable questions. A serious poet moves progressively toward his essential theme, though he can never reach it, by means of exclusions, peeling away, from poem to poem, the inessential, working down to bedrock; and he examines every word he writes for clues to his defect.

What Carruth describes here derives from the process of revision. Each poem is a challenge. The poet must discover the theme of it and remove everything extraneous. Maybe the poem has no discernible theme or maybe the superfluities are so entwined and essential to the poem they cannot be pared away without irrevocable damage; this is often the reason a poem fails. However, on those happy occasions where the theme—or themes in more complex works—holds, where it has an architectural strength, then it's possible to uncover a good poem. Much as Michelangelo saw the sculpture inherent in a piece of marble, the real work is to free it.

Of course, Carruth isn't limiting himself to the process of revision, but expands those concerns to encompass the whole of a poet's work, even the poet themselves. This is the level at which the questions become truly unanswerable. One can attempt to extrapolate a general flaw from the individual poems, but for the poet—particularly for the poet—it will largely stay hidden, just as one sees one's own personality flaws only with great difficulty. Even more elusive, though, is one's essential theme. Carruth suggests that to actually discover it is dangerous:

As I say, Lowell cannot discover the precise specifications of his theme, which is lucky for him. If he were to do so, he would be clapped into silence instantly.

This is a strange idea. One would think that knowing the "precise specifications" of one's theme would be freeing. However, I think what Carruth suggests here is that the struggle with one's own work, the process itself is what's important. To discover one's theme is to quit searching, to quit fighting to understand. As in life, the fight leads to excellence more than any achieved goal. In claiming that these questions are unanswerable, Carruth recognizes that, not only do the answers constantly change and slip away as one gets close, but that they don't matter that much anyway. The work alone matters.

Thoughts of a Fool

A few days ago, while riding my Kawasaki to work, I noticed I have developed some strange daily habits that have become as natural as breathing on my daily commute. Before reading my paper I religiously play a game of solitaire on my cell phone. Everything from the win/loss, difficulty of win, and position of the ace of spades goes into divining how my day will turn out. It's kind of like my daily random horoscope. Does anyone else in this little community have any weird little idiosyncrasies that they were once to ashamed to admit, but now would like to share with the group? BTW, I still won't step on cracks either.

Grade Inflation Deflates Our Souls

I know it's been discussed in the past on notable sites like the defunct Invisible Adjunct, but Phil at Umbrae Canarum has a detailed post up about the causes of grade inflation in the universities. Maybe we can get all the blogging academics to band together in support of grading objectively. You know, a fight for incremental change leading to all the adjuncts and TAs getting kicked out of the academy for daring to give someone a "C". Still, if and when I get tenure many years hence, I plan to grade mercilessly and fairly as my own small contribution to the battle. If the students don't like it, well, maybe they should have read the texts.

Snide remarks and sadistic fantasies aside, I have a suspicion that grade inflation is not an isolated problem. It seems to mirror the triviality of American culture too well to not be related in some way. Few value a liberal arts education anymore as a necessary component of becoming a well-rounded, literate individual, as an end valuable in itself. Instead, as many, many people have remarked, college has become more or less a trade school. You spend your four or five years studying the field you want to make your career. For those unfortunates who either cannot decide or are actually committed to studying the humanities, they find themselves lost upon graduation unless they've developed some marketable skills.

Unfortunately, this trivialization of the American mind, this undue focus on the mundane and shallow concerns of the every day cannot be easily fixed. It results from decades of poor education from childhood on, the obsession with scientific excellence during the Cold War, the self-marginalization of the humanities through too much post-modern, obscurant theorizing, and a multitude of other factors. In the meantime, people lead impoverished lives. I don't mean to come across as elitist or patronizing though. Every life has value and dignity, etc, but just as society looks after the physical health of individuals by trying to provide good medical care, safer cars, and better medicines, so should it look after the intellectual and emotional health of the population through the study of literature, philosophy, and art. A narrow education opens an equally narrow lens through which to view and understand one's own life.

The Melodrama of Writer's Block

Here's an article that blithely accepts the idea of writer's block as an unavoidable component of being a writer:

A friend of mine called me last week, sobbing. She's had writer's block for several weeks, and the more she worries about it, the more entrenched the block becomes. Now she's at the point where she feels as if she's underwater, without enough breath to reach the surface.

I can certainly understand that feeling. I've recently overcome a block of my own.

"Are you afraid you have nothing to say?" I asked. "Do you need to live a little? Maybe let things 'compost' a bit?"

This annoys me. As Yoda would say, write or don't write. If life is getting in the way, then don't worry about it. Who says you need to write every single day to continue calling yourself a writer? Although I don't understand how someone could have all these problems and not write about them—isn't the exploration of one's emotions and problems supposed to be one of the benefits of being a writer?—there are some things in life more important than regular literary output. Even worse, this person is worried about not having written in several weeks. How neurotic. Unless this is a professional writer dependent upon her output to live (which the article strongly implies is not the case) again I have to wonder what the problem is. Just because you're writing every day doesn't mean it's any good. The Romantic idea that the writer must wait passively for inspiration is a disease. Aren't writers supposed to be masters of the word? If you want to write, then write. Even if it turns out to be bad writing, at least you'll get some practice and perhaps some ideas about why that particular piece failed.

Newsflash: Waylon Smithers Gay

According to this article I found via Andrew Sullivan, "[o]ne of the veteran cartoon stars of 'The Simpsons' is coming out of the closet." Speculate wildly.

Ricky Williams Declared Not Dolphin Safe

Although I really don't care about the Dolphins, the recent flap over Ricky Williams leaving right before training camp has generated some interesting commentary. First off, FootballOutsiders predicted that Williams's performance would fall off even more this year due to the enormous number of carries he'd made in previous seasons. King Kaufman called Williams "a punk", then, the next day had some speculation about whether Williams is suffereing from a bipolar disorder. He writes:

Wednesday morning I got this note from a reader who is a pediatrician: "As a medical professional, I am worried about his mental health. We already know about his well-publicized battle with Social Anxiety Disorder. Some of his behavior this week may be giving hints of more sinister forces at play."

Referring to Williams' reported whirlwind travels to Japan, California and the East Coast over the last few days, the doctor continues, "This kind of compulsive and haphazard travel could be a sign of mania. Given his past behaviors and flirtations with depression, he may actually be in the throes of bipolar disorder.

But so far, the best comments I've seen are on Uncertain Principles:

If there were a buck to be made from it, the Dolphins would've cut Williams loose without a second's hesitation, and at the first sign of a slip in his abilities, the fans would've turned on him like rabid jackals. He owes these people nothing. The idea that athletic competition is some sort of sacred and inviolable trust has been moribund since about the time they started letting the participants wear clothing, and the modern media-driven sports business has driven a stake through its heart.

When I first heard the news of his retirement, I thought it was selfish. He's essentially left his teammates in the lurch for the entire season since the offense was built around him. However, I was thinking of his job as roughly analogous to any other job. You don't just quit unless something really goes wrong; you give notice, help train your replacement, etc. Professional football is nothing like my job though. It's brutal and demanding, particularly for running backs. I imagine Williams spent a good amount of time trying to make this decision and only came to it shortly before he announced his retirement. If that's the case, well, tough for the Dolphins, but oh well. The only way I'd criticize him at this point would be if he knew he was going to retire months ago and just now decided to say anything. Then he'd be a punk.

The Nigh Times

This is a few days old and by now most of you have already read it, but in case you missed it, the ombudsman of the New York Times wrote an article last weekend about his own paper's liberal bias. I know this isn't shocking news, but it is at the least an interesting read. This year I made the switch from my hometown Star-Telegram to a six-day delivery of the Times (a move I had avoided for some time, due in part to the Simpsons episode where Homer leaves Marge to live with two gay men and one morning exclaims "Why are you reading the New York Times? You don't live in New York!")

I'm all man in case you've heard otherwise.

A lot of what makes the Times so liberal is its treatment of social issues, as Okrent illustrates with his examination of the paper's gay marriage coverage. While I'm generally conservative, I'm rather progressive on many social issues, so I don't notice that sort of thing as often as, say, the frequent ridicule of our President.

Anyway, while most of the Times' political coverage is noticeably, sometimes laughably, liberal, I can get past that for the sake of the rest of the paper. The Times is the 800-pound gorilla of American print media, and its reporters enjoy unparalleled access because of that weight. The Arts section has no rival among newspapers, and maybe no rival among magazines either. The writing, in every section from Sports to World Business, is clever and disciplined and more engaging than any daily I have ever read. It even collapses into a small, pleasant trifold that I love to tuck through my briefcase handles in the morning. That doesn't make me a dandy, does it?

Obama Reactions

Apparently this Obama fellow gave a good speech last night at the convention. So good, in fact, that conservatives are trying to claim it as their own. However, as Jeanne writes at Body and Soul:

I love it. First you make up some nonsense about liberals being faithless, irresponsible and politically correct, and then when a liberal demonstrates that your stereotype is pure garbage, you don't question your stereotype, but instead try to create a world in which progressive values are really conservative ones.

Of course, if you're a conservative in the habit of demonizing your opponents, then it's only natural that a good speech from one of them—a speech so good you find yourself nodding your head—must be, in truth, a conservative speech. After all, we all know nothing right has ever come from the left.

Touch Your Neighbor

I'm throwing a party this Saturday night. I just decided, so I know this is kind of last minute for everyone, but I hope you will be able to make it. It will be a Cuddle party—everyone should show up in time for the Welcome Circle, with clean underarms, carrying a pillow and a stuffed animal, and wearing their flannel PJ's. After we welcome each other, we will dim the lights and arrange ourselves on the floor, sprawling or spooning as is one's inclination. There will be several hours of affectionate touching, napping, and rubbing. However, under no circumstances will there be any sexual gratification—this is a strictly innocent affair. All male invitees should chop their balls off and throw them in the dumpster before you come, because after this you really won't be needing them anymore.

Oh, and bring thirty dollars—the proceeds will be split among the Cuddle Lifeguards and the Cuddle Caddies. I swear to god I'm not making this up.

(Merci à Sale Bête)

The New Dukakis

These photos are being compared to the Dukakis in the tank photos. The Dems are claiming they were leaked to smear Kerry. I don't think they are so bad. He looks nice dressed as a blue noodle. From Drudge Update I found a better article here. Also while searching, I never realized that Kerry has been compared to Dukakis quite often. Almost every photo op with him not in a suit he was compared to Dukakis.

Tonight on Fox News

Check out the transcript of this confrontation between Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore at the Democratic National Convention (via Drudge). Neither man scores a whole lot of points, but in my opinion, O'Reilly may have gotten the better of Moore by sticking to his point of "bad intelligence," and eventually getting Moore to advocate preemptive force (albeit in the context of Nazi Germany). The encounter crumbles to absurdity when the two begin arguing over who would sacrifice himself for what cause.

Searching for Martians

Here's an overview of what evidence scientists are examining to determine if life exists on Mars.

War of Ideas

The Armed Liberal writes about how to defeat terrorists:

We don't need to sacrifice our economic well-being at the levels we did in WW II in order to produce at the level required, and because the boundary between war and peace is fluid we can't treat everyone from, say, Saudi Arabia as an enemy combatant. In fact, a big part of this war will, like wars against street gangs, consist of trying to peel away the less-committed supporters from the core, and to do that will require some form of positive engagement, of 'selling'.

He goes on to discuss a recent NRO article that advocates a military victory first and foremost. I tend to agree with the Armed Liberal's approach of attacking terrorism's "root causes" and weakening those movements through "positive engagement" rather than the "kill 'em all" strategy Leeden advocates:

That's why the public figure who has best understood the nature of the war, and has best defined our enemy, is George W. Bush. Of all people! He had it right from the start: We have been attacked by many terrorist groups and many countries that support the terrorists. It makes no sense to distinguish between them, and so we will not. We're going after them all.

Yes, there are times when military action will be necessary and unavoidable, as in Afghanistan, but I think the majority of that has already passed. Does anyone honestly think invading Iran or North Korea would be wise right now? Perhaps much later, after sanctions, inspections, and containment have sufficiently weakened those nations and made such action feasible, but not now or anytime soon. Bush, however, seems incapable of engaging other nations in any way other than militarily. He's so blinded by his dual-toned worldview that he can't make the sort of realpolitik and diplomatic moves that wisdom and pragmatism require. This is the sort of work Kerry would excel at and would make the nation safer in the long run, yet another reason he's the better choice.

Yeah, But they Don't Have the Fab Five

Apparently Iraq is Americanizing quicker than we thought.

Scientific Caffeine Intake Method

Are you a coffee addict? Then check out CoffeeResearch.org:

The Coffeeresearch.org website is dedicated to advancing coffee quality through education and science. Embedded with over three hundred pages are tips and information on coffee brewing, espresso preparation, coffee roasting, coffee blending, and recipes. Advanced topics include information about the coffee market, consumption statistics, the coffee sciences, coffee agriculture, and the social issues related to coffee.

It's got just about everything you might want to know about the noble bean.

(via Gene Expression)

Smart Jacket

Ars Technica highlights a new smart jacket that contains a 128MB MP3 player and a Bluetooth phone. The jacket has a built-in keyboard on the left sleeve and headphones and a microphone in the collar. When you want to place a call, the "stereo system becomes a headset and the music is automatically interrupted when calls come in." Pretty cool stuff even if it doesn't hold that many songs.

In Case You Missed it

This has been a pretty popular short the past few weeks, but nobody here has mentioned it. It is a nice departure from the mean spirited political assaults going on right now.

Chinese Libertarians

Marginal Revolutions features a quote-heavy post that discusses the differences between Taoism and Confucianism in relating to the state. It reminded me of the odd anti-progress, anti-state themes that run through the Tao Te Ching, but that I had forgotten. Instead, the lasting impression I've taken from the few times I've read it were the more mystical concepts, the images of emptiness and abstract discussions of the formless Tao which, doubtless, says something about my own tastes. Although I'm interested in politics and consider it my duty as a citizen to stay informed, when I'm reading literature or philosophy (or however you want to classify the Tao Te Ching), the stray political comments are not what stick. The lens through which I read largely focuses on ambiguities, striking images, pleasing phrases, and intuitive insights. However, this inverts when I read something like Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals that attempts to lay out its case in an orderly, logical fashion. Then I remember the arguments and the logic rather than the style or images or other woolly-headed concerns. This makes me wonder to what extent I'm capable of controlling the way I read, the things I notice and to what extent I am controlled or directed by the text itself. How much depends upon the author's designs and how much upon my own interests? It seems the better an author, the more successful they'll be in leading the reader's state of mind into realms amenable to the meaning and concerns of the author. Literature as mind-altering substance—I like it. Lick a book today.

UPDATE: In case of blog synchronicity, Bemsha Swing has a similar post up today where he writes:

Since I share certain characteristics of this sort of consciousness myself, I "identify" with it and respond to it. It cannot be totally alien to me, or there would be no point of contact. It even trains my brain to think in those terms, to experience those states of consciousness, or to use a similar language to describe my own thoughts.

Maybe I'm just hallucinating, but he seems to be tangentially discussing the same thing.

Poetic Consistency

Ron Silliman makes a point that the "well-formed book of poems [displays a] self-similarity [in] its contents", I'm just not sure what that point is. The observation itself is fairly obvious once you think about it, so I doubt that's his entire point. He's setting up a rewiew of a Charles Bernstein's "The Sophist", so that's one reason for the post, but it seems that he's also criticizing this "self-similarity" as well. While I can understand attacking books that "appeared to have come all from the same cookie-cutter," stylistic and thematic consistency within a book also serves an important, if obvious, purpose. Take, for example, Louise Glück's Pulitzer Prize winning The Wild Iris, a book-length sequence of poems grounded in the metaphors of flowers. From what I remember, the book is laid out in a formal sequence that further ties all the poems together. However, rather than a cookie-cutter feel, the similarity of the poems combine with the book's structure to create a richer meditation and heavier symbols. It's as if she's created, instead of a book of related poems, a book-length poem broken into self-supporting sections. That is the real benefit of the consistency among poems; they strengthen and enhance one another. The challenge, then, is to create this positive feedback while varying the individual poems enough to prevent boredom due to too much similarity among the works or, even, across books. This seems to be the failure Silliman is actually criticizing and, again, is rather uncontroversial and mundane. Unfortunately, as I wrote earlier, we seem to be mired in a slow news cycle, so I thought I'd toss this off as part of my insidious attempt to morph this into a literary blog. As you can see, I'm really struggling today.

Beauty and the Blog

My beautiful and brainy girlfriend told me about an article in yesterday's Star-Telegram on the popularity of blogging in the Metroplex. It features Byron of the Burnt Orange Report (who lives in Austin, but is listed with us at DFWBlogs.com), the Zany Sports Lady, and a couple of other bloggers that I haven't read before. It doesn't really say anything new, but it is another tear in the veil of blogging anonymity. If a rag like the Startlegram has actually gotten on board, I wonder who's next? The Lubbock Avalance-Journal? The Alvord Sunset Gazette? The Stonewall County Courier?

USA Today Spiked the Punch

-Line. Sorry I couldn't think of anything wittier for a headline. If this is one of the biggest stories to drop during the DNC, it proves that it is, as Mallarme said, a snooze-fest. I dug up Coulter's spiked story, and I don't see it as anything different than she has written in the past. Who did they think they were hiring? I wonder if Michael Moore will suffer the same fate when he reports on the RNC. Ann Coulter is a nut IMO, but the commentary is entertaining.

Biding My Time

In the past, the parties' national conventions have passed with almost no notice from me. Now, since practically every political blogger is covering the Democratic National Convention, I can't get away from it. As far as political events go, this has to be one of the biggest wastes of time. If you enjoy reading or hearing lots of speeches, I guess it's mildly interesting, but there's no actual news being made. Even so, it's being covered so obsessively by so many bloggers, you'd think there was actually something noteworthy going on. Since I rely almost entirely on other blogs for my political news and for inspiration, don't expect to see much in the way of political commentary or links from me for the next few days. Maybe something newsworthy enough to break through all the convention blogging will happen, but I'm afraid it won't. Even worse, it's not like it's just the liberals that are blogging the convention. Most of the conservative sites are covering it pretty closely as well. At first, I thought bloggers going to the convention was a good idea; they could keep an eye on the "real" journalists and point out problems with their coverage, but so far that's not happening. It's just a bunch of posts about checking into hotel rooms, finding seats, listening to speeches, and cheering or jeering depending on the blogger's political temperament. I can't wait until the snooze-fest is over.

UPDATE: Tagorda wonders if blogs are filling any voids in the coverage of the convention. Maybe I am being premature in my judgment and the blogs will come through with something insightful and unique. It's still early, after all, but I already want to kill my newsreader.

UPDATE: The Campaign Desk complains about the convention as well, even though they're there, reduced to fighting to get into parties:

what before would have been a fairly unappealing night out -- fighting past old men in suits and self-important, preening politicos and pundits through an overcrowded bar -- feels essential in some vague way, despite all evidence to the contrary. Perhaps it's because we've convinced ourselves that there's a reason to be here, beyond the scripted live television show being held in the Fleet Center and the endless meta-stories that seem less clever when everyone else is writing them. Talking one's way past a velvet rope feels like an accomplishment, however dubious it may be.

Sounds like fun.

UPDATE: Steve Gilliard has some advice for convention bloggers.

Rate My

...kitten.

For the Ladies (or Men, I Guess)

Be proud with this 100% cotton tee. I'm personally waiting for the "I am an abortion" tee.

Bogart as Frodo

Watch Humphrey Bogart play a solitary Frodo in this Lord of the Rings mash-up. It takes quite a while to download, but is well worth it.

(via BoingBoing)

Convention Bloggers

As you've no doubt heard, bloggers are covering the Democratic National Convention. If you're interested in their coverage, check out this site that aggregates all those posts onto one page.

(via Neuroinflammation.net)

Game Theory and the Tour de France

This post suggests that Lance chasing down Simeoni when he tried to break away may have also had something to do with game theory. Although the vendetta may have been the stronger motivation, I can see Armstrong making a game theory consideration as well when he attacked.

Lost in Translation

If you're gonna move here, learn the language. Just another silly link, but it kept me laughing for a while. Not very PC.

Those crazy Star Wars

It has been announced. I think it's a good move.

Rethinking Kerry

Mark Schmitt thought he had a handle on Kerry, but due in part to Oliphant's article about him, Schmitt now sees the possibility for greatness in him. If Kerry wins, I hope he's right. It's long past time for our politicians to remember how to compromise. The harshly partisan tactics of the GOP under Bush have exacerbated the problem so much that it seems impossible.

Animal Sex

Is this how they do it on the Discovery Channel?

The Stench of Doping

I am a Lance Armstrong fan. I think Lance is the most inspiring and charismatic athlete of my lifetime. His 5th stage win in yesterday's time trial added yet another exclamation point to his incredible achievement. Today, he will win a record 6th Tour in a row in a more dominant fashion than anyone imagined, especially after his difficulties last year. No one doubts that Lance is one of the most professional, dedicated, and mentally tough riders in the peloton and this psychic superiority is essential to his success.

Yet I also believe Armstrong is a doper. As far as I'm concerned, the chances that Lance and his major rivals aren't doping are increasingly slim.

As a fan and someone who loves cycling, this contradiction isn't easy to live with.

There is of course no hard evidence that Lance is doping (yet). But if one pays enough attention to cycling, one notices that Lance doesn't act like a man who is trying to play fair in a sport full of cheaters. Every honest fan acknowledges that Raimondas Rumsas was doping on his way to 3rd place in the Tour in 2002. Did the threat of being upstaged by a drug-using fraud irritate Lance? Hardly. I haven’t heard any words of outrage from Lance on the fact that Rumsas never tested positive for anything, despite being tested 3 times. Zipped lips.

Or consider Lance's buddy David Millar, who was recently forced to admit he was using EPO when he won the final TT in last year's Tour. Has cycling's leading rider issued any words of regret that the peloton was duped by a shameless liar and cheater (who, also, never tested positive)? As far as I know, the silence is deafening.

No cyclist is interested in outing anyone else. Even the athletes that take an active and believable stance against doping consistently refuse to name names. Lance, it should be noted, isn't even one of these. Lance simply insists time and again that he has never tested positive, even after the Rumsas and Millar cases (not to mention countless others) have proven that this defense is completely unsatisfactory.

Defending Lance didn't become any easier after his ill-considered antics regarding his nemesis Filippo Simeoni in Stage 18. Lance was supposedly defending not only himself but also the honor of his friend and advisor Dr. Ferrari. Yet according to former champions Greg Lemond, Andy Hampsten as well as the conventional wisdom of the cycling world, Ferrari has been a major proponent of EPO. By associating himself with acknowledged cheater, Lance does himself and the sport of cycling no good at all. He only adds credibility to David Walsh's (and Lemond's) accusations that he almost certainly used EPO in the past and is probably using it now.

It may well be that Simeoni was lying about Ferrari and Ferrari has cleaned up his act. Lance claims there is a larger history of Simeoni lies, though he doesn't give details. He says he was "protecting the interests of the peloton" (whatever that means). If Lance wants my respect as a fan, he needs to come up with a better story than this. Because from where I'm sitting, by becoming a mafia-like enforcer against one of the only riders with the guts to testify in court against doping and dopers, Lance made a mockery of everything this sport and his own heroism is supposed to be about. By going out of his way to humiliate Simeoni, Lance put himself on the side of doping and dopers, along with their contemptible hypocrisy.

As UT's John Hoberman explains doping has been around a long time in cycling. It definitely didn't simply go away after the scandal of 1998 (which involved, btw, many of today's best riders, including Richard Virenque). As the recent Manzano affair illustrates, doping remains a potentially lethal danger. It may well be that certain banned substances are actually safe and should be allowed. Certainly the peloton itself seems to have made a collective decision to tolerate certain substances, meaning they themselves judge the danger to be relatively low.

Yet the hypocrisy and lying continue. Until the peloton ends its culture of mafia-esque conformity and zipped lips, every single one of them deserves to have their credibility as an athlete doubted.

It is hard to come up with more eloquent words on the destructive force of doping than David Millar’s own in an interview with L’Equipe.

I took EPO while I was in Manchester [prior to the Worlds]. The two syringes that were found at my home are those that I’d injected myself with in Manchester. I kept them at home to remind myself that I had become world champion by doping myself. I had dreamed of becoming world champion. I did it, but I cheated. You dope because you become a prisoner of yourself, of the glory and the money. I’m not proud that I doped myself. I wasn’t happy. I was a prisoner of the person I had become.

The sport of cycling is too noble and dignified to tolerate doping. If Lance is guilty, it will be sad to see his myth marred. But I would rather see Lance marred than for cycling to continue as a sham.

Documents Found, Still Nothing

What do you know? The Bush National Guard records that were supposedly destroyed have shown up. However, since "the records do not give any new information about Bush's National Guard training during 1972" maybe the whole thing was a bureaucratic mix up after all.

Neverending Quest

This is the story of an experience on my quest for the perfect self inflicted orgasm. It is painful at times, fun at times, but I never found quite what I was looking for.

As I returned home from the local video store of ill-repute, I decided to try another prototype on my journey for the perfect male masturbatory tool. Women have all variety of tools at their disposal, but surprisingly men have few. The ones we do have tested woefully inadequate (for me at least). The most promising ones were way up on the monetary scale and had the added inconvenience of where to put them when you were done. Not to mention cleaning. I wanted a "device" that was easy to use, disposable, and felt good.

I decided to head up to the grocer to grab some cola and while walking past the produce section, it hit me. I began to eye the melons seductively, thinking about what was on the inside. Honeydew was of course the first choice. It had the smooth skin, pleasing color, and it's called a honeydew for Christsakes. Then I thought about the relatively firm interior and immediately ruled it out.

Next were the watermelons. They are reddish pink on the inside, one for the plus column. But size, weight and consistency ruled out that bulbous beauty.

In the corner, lying there unassumingly was the quarry of my hunt. It hit me then that the cantaloupe was the perfect date for my evening. Soft seeds and spongy flesh were the way to go.

It was at this time I stopped my lecherous melon coveting and thought about what I was actually doing. Some bizarre supermarket version of speed-dating, but with much more vulgar connotations. I paced the store for a few minutes deciding what I would think of myself if I tried this. "Couldn't hurt", I decided.

While waiting in line with a six pack of Mountain Dew in one hand and my new girl in the other, I started actually getting excited. I wondered how many other people in the world were planning on having sex with a fruit or vegetable that night. I then wondered how many were doing to further male science. I was a pioneer in my own mind.

All this came crashing down when the older gentleman in front of me said "that's a nice lookin' melon you picked out there, sure are pretty this season." Holy crap! Did he somehow know? Had I murmured my intentions out loud? Of course, old folks do sometimes comment on things like that with total innocence. I felt dirty and ashamed. I was going to take a lot to get me through this night.

I threw on the tape I bought at the store and that about did it. My how we underestimate the power of teenage male hormones to flush away shame in most cases. I carved the hole into the melon and carefully shaved the rind around the opening, exposing the soft melon-flesh. I put a finger in to test 'er out, and came upon the first revision needed for my prototype. It was cold.

I soaked it in hot water, all the while getting more and more excited about what this was going to feel like. It was going to be perfect! All of my other trials had failed, because they were man-made. This was natural; it had to be good. It was so simple, it just had to work! 20-30 minutes passed, I had found my favorite scenes on the film and I was ready to retrieve my date. I was disappointed to find that it was still cool. I needed results and I needed them quick.

This is where, I hope, most of the male readers will understand my situation. From inception to this point had been about 2 hours. I had been anticipating release for that long. When you are used to releasing just about 5 min or less from when the desire hits you, 2 hours is an excruciatingly long wait.

Now, I made a bad choice.

I threw the melon into the microwave for 2 minutes. 2 lousy minutes. I pulled it out and the rim of my created orifice was only lukewarm. 2 more minutes it was. I spread a towel on the floor in anticipation of the mess I was about to make and retrieved my melon. It was perfect. I hurriedly, almost greedily scurried to my position on the floor to experience the ecstasy I had weird-scienced for myself. Kelly LeBrock it wasn't, but then, I was in a hurry.

I think I shrieked louder than I ever have before as the MOLTEN insides of the melon surrounded my naughty parts. I immediately became dizzy and disoriented from the pain. It was all-encompassing. Not only the genitals were covered, and I mean ALL of the parts included in that term, but most of my inner thighs were covered as well in that fruity magma that I had made. I jumped across my room running as fast as I could to the sink so as to apply cooling water to my affected areas. I was defeated. I was almost in tears, maybe from pain, but I like to think of them as tears from the subconscious knowledge that I would not be able to achieve the release I had hoped for. It drove me to stupidity to wait for 2 hours, now I would have to wait at least a week.

Aftermath: No permanent damage, trouble walking correctly for about a week, and a newfound respect for pain, the power of the microwave, and taking a date for granted. Any date.

Apparently, seeds and the gooey stuff inside a cantaloupe being a different density than the actual fruit heat at different rates. Also, the middle of stuff from the microwave is usually hotter than the outside. These are things I learned that fateful summer night.

The melons sure were pretty that season.

Let It Be: Naked

When I was in Germany last, I was walking through urban Munich when I happened across a large park. It was something like a much-smaller Central Park: a centrally located partly wooded and partly open natural area right in the middle of downtown. There were nice sidewalks running through the park, with Ice Cream vendors along the paths that were becoming crowded with suits on their way to lunch. I was sort of wandering through one of the larger walkways when I looked to my left and saw a man sitting cross-legged on a blanket in a giant, completely empty field, about twenty feet from and facing the path, completely naked. I was so surprised and amused that I actually took a picture of it (I'm at work now, but when I get home, if I remember, I'll try to find the shot and scan it in). It wasn't his nudity that amused me as much as his nudity juxtaposed with all of the busy men and women that were on a break from work. I mean this guy didn't even walk off to find a more secluded area in which to tan his frankfurter.

(Please see the UPDATE below for some good links)

After a brief pause to snicker and take the photo (it's from far enough away that it really wouldn't be pornographic), I walked off to see the rest of the city. After spending time elsewhere, I was walking back to my hotel through the same park; this time, it was around 5pm and most places were shutting down before the evening business hours. When I walked past that same park, I was amazed to find that the entire field, perhaps 50 acres of open space, was filled with naked people of all ages. I mean just positively brimming with men, women, and families. Most people were reading, chatting, or just looking about. There was a small stream trickling through the field where the youngest children were playing. For some reason, this was less shocking than the solo exhibitionist from hours earlier. It was an unmarked, urban nudist park.

I'm no nudist advocate, and I could certainly go the rest of my life without seeing some of those naked bodies, but it certainly got me wondering about the nudist (or "naturist") scene in the United States. According to this article from NeoGeo, nudism as an activity is growing in parts of the United States. You Austinites will be happy to learn that the Naturist Action Committee is based in your city. (If you happen to be in Montana, though, I would advise you against going buff: skinny dippers get six months for their first offense, a year for their second, and one hundred freaking years for their third.)

Which leads me to my question: What's the attraction in this sort of thing? Why do people like to get naked around each other, and why would you encourage your underage son or daughter to take off their clothes and socialize with grown men and women?

Is there anyone here that has done it, or would do it? And if so, would you encourage your son or daughter to do it also?

UPDATE: I guess the park is more famous (and larger) than I thought--some of you may have heard of or visited it. It's the English Gardens, and has evidently been famous for nudism for some time. Read this for some more information (worksafe, but with some racy but nonpornographic banner ads), or this for some worksafe pictures.

Gagging on Donkey

As you may have noticed, I'm not feeling up to blogging anything that requires actual thought today. In that vein, here's a great quote from a recent Bush speech to the 2004 National Urban League Conference:

Do you remember a guy named Charlie Gaines? Somebody gave me a quote he said, which I think kind of describes the environment we're in today. I think he's a friend of Jesse's. He said, "Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant."

(shamelessly stolen from Wonkette)

Alien Contact in 20 Years

Largely unfounded speculation? Probably. Nevertheless, it's fun to think about. I would be ecstatic if we made contact in my lifetime—unless, of course, the aliens were brown-skinned, bearded Xenofascists bent on converting our planet once they discovered us. What if Earth turns out to be the Great Slatvarx?

Cowboys Sign Eddie George

For me, this is bigger news than the signing of Testaverde, which had been predicted for quite a while. They signed him to a one-year contract, much like with Vinny, so clearly realize he'll be nothing more than a temporary help to the team. Still, what a help. There's already been a fair amount of speculation that Parcells is planning a running back committee approach for the upcoming season while hoping Jones shows he can be a successful every down back. By adding George, that committee now has some real depth and experience that should help immediately while providing the team with someone who can mentor Jones in whatever areas he will need improvement. If whoever fills the right side corner position (likely Hunter) plays well, I predict the Cowboys will make it to at least the second round of the playoffs this year, quite possibly not as a wildcard.

Fleep

Check out this comic:

Fleep currently appears in the weekly newspaper, "Asian Week". It's about a boy who wakes up in a telephone booth which has been mysteriously sealed in an envelope of concrete. Using only the contents of his pockets (two pens, a paperback novel, three coins and 20 ft of unwaxed dental floss) our hero must fashion and execute an escape plan before he runs out of oxygen."

(via Metafilter)

An Alternate Take on Bush's Support

Redstate has an interesting post up about how approval rating has historically matched or even under-predicted support on election day. Following that logic would suggest that Bush could very well get over 50% of the vote since most polls show his approval rating to be around 48%. The one big caveat is that national polls mean little when trying to predict an election. If one could show that his approval in a good portion of the swing states is that high, then I think there would be a very strong case that he'll be reelected—and easily. However, both Election Projection and electoral-vote.com have Kerry ahead in electoral votes. Still, those are based on a different poll than Bush's approval. Does anyone know where there's a state-by-state breakdown of Bush's approval ratings?

Plungers Where They Shouldn't Be

This is one of the funniest and most excruciating stories I've read in quite a while. Why is it that another's suffering can be so hilarious?

9/11 Report

No, this isn't a discussion of the report. That's being done in many other places already, but I did come across this version of it that's been cleaned up, optimized for faster download, given bookmarks, and made searchable.

(via BoingBoing)

Cheney vs. Leahy

The New Yorker pokes fun at the Washington Times' description of the Cheney/Leahy incident on the Senate floor. Of course I've already given it away, but when I began to read it (via the Political Theory Daily Review), I wasn't aware that it was satire until the second paragraph.

I proclaim this to be the most whimsical jove of the season.

Why Whoopi Matters

Thane Peterson is trying to convince you that Hollywood's political opinion matters.

Why should anyone -- especially conservative Republicans -- care what these people have to say? Because their numbers include some of the absolute best and brightest of American culture, people whose novels and paintings your great-grandchildren may be studying decades from now. And because they're raising important issues that should be of concern to the right and left alike. My hope is that voters of all political stripes will start paying more attention to the broad civil-liberty issues the artists are raising.

Convinced? Me neither. Peterson is grasping at straws here, presenting two absurd arguments: First, that because people paint or write, we should care about their opinion. Strange that Peterson leads off the article with a sob-story about Whoopi Goldberg, but leaves "acting" out of the list of evidently respectable professions that make a person's opinion more weighty. I can imagine how the paragraph might have read:

Because their numbers include some of the absolute best and brightest of American culture, people whose novels and paintings and "Hollywood Squares" reruns your great-grandchildren may be studying decades from now.

Anyway, it's silly to conflate the importance of an artist with his or her personal politics. Picasso was a profligate womanizer, Bobby Fischer is a anti-semitic conspiracy theorist, and Bill Clinton...well...

Peterson's other argument is simply that the artists are making valid points. So what? Their opinion can be valid, but that doesn't mean I should pay attention to them. Intelligent people can agree with stupid people, but for different reasons. That their opinions intersect doesn't lend the latter any of the former's credibility. America pays too much attention to these detached, self-absorbed plastic faces already. Celebrity is out of hand in this country—let's not take it a step further by listening to Whoopi Goldberg's whining.

Democracy and Blogs

Doc Searls has a fascinating post about how individuals are using non-mainstream media like blogs and independent films to recall Bush due to the decidedly undemocratic way he became president. He goes so far as to call it a constitutional crisis:

Rationalize the election of George W. Bush any way you want, it was still a huge train wreck with a highly compromised outcome that carried no popular mandate and should have prompted a constitutional crisis. Now we're having that crisis, only it's not playing out in the papers or on television. It's happening in Do-It-Yourself-ville.

While I think that may be an exaggeration, this will still be the first election in a long time where ordinary individuals have a substantial hand in shaping stories and opinions, traditionally a monopoly of journalists and campaign operatives. All hail the mighty blog!

Praising Kerry

Two recent articles on Kerry praise his character and attempt to counteract the negative Bush ads. First, the Thomas Oliphant article which says, along with other good things, this:

[Kerry] is a contemplative, serious person -- well-grounded in progressive principles -- who has the good habit of getting interested in new ideas that survive scrutiny. His work habits reveal an iron butt for grunt work, as well as considerable experience in working across party lines.

Then there's Sidney Blumenthal's short piece on Salon that discusses his investigative record:

From his first appearance on the public stage, giving voice as a decorated officer to the antiwar disillusionment of Vietnam veterans, when President Nixon and his dirty-tricks crew targeted him, Kerry has uncovered cancers on the presidency, and this is especially why the Bush administration fears him. He has explored the dark recesses of contemporary history, often without political reward or even acknowledgment. Tarred as a "flip-flopper" by Bush's $85 million TV ad campaign, Kerry in fact is one of the most consistent political leaders of his generation. The truth is a vivid and unbroken line, but only sketchily known.

Both are worth reading, especially if you're looking for reasons to support Kerry.

Digital Literacy

Via Techdirt, here's an article on the growing digital literacy of average computer users:

If you'd asked a group of average consumers ten years ago whether they would like a telephone that had menus, a memory and a software system to organise their contacts, they would probably have laughed at you. Last week, I walked through a restaurant in the Midlands and saw, at the same time, six different groups of people at different tables doing something with a mobile phone - playing games, sharing content, laughing at a photo and so on. It all goes to show that the level of technical literacy required to be classified as a geek nowadays has increased dramatically. By the standards of ten years ago, we're all geeks.

Personally, it really bothers me to hear people in restaurants and other public places talking about RAM, hard drive size, viruses, and anything else related to computers, particularly those that do so in a less than fully informed fashion. That's just because I deal with the things all day though, so I don't want to hear about them outside of work, too. I'm slowly getting over it since I realize that it's only going to get worse. I might as well learn to tune them out. But, back to the article. It also mentions in passing what I think is the most important part of the whole phenomenon: digital illiteracy. Even though I think the decline in reading is a disturbing trend, it's equally important to be computer literate now. How many people are we leaving behind, condemned to a technological backwater? Does it even matter as much as we think?

Surface Poetry

Via Bemsha Swing I found this post by Josh Corey about a the style of a few women poets. He starts out with this question:

To elliptically insist on the topic of profiling: what are we to make of a middle-aged woman in a sunhat browsing the poetry section who looks only at books by Louise Gluck, Jorie Graham, and Mary Oliver?

And later writes:

Maybe what really bothers me about these poets is their language--it just doesn't carry the word-by-word charge that I demand. I like some of Gluck's work, particularly The Wild Iris, but her vocabulary and diction don't sizzle and pop enough for me. (One might say the same about George Oppen, but a) I think there actually is considerable verbal surprise in his terseness and b) his engagement with the larger political world compels me more than Gluck's sometimes melodramatic self-intimacies.) Mary Oliver is, in my opinion, a second-rate Wordsworth; I'd rather read the original. Graham is often intellectually exciting, but her long, discursive lines often fail to hold my attention as raptly as it wants to be held. I open up Never and I'm primarily struck by an impression of endlessness, an experience of sheer verbosity.

First off, read the post. He's actually scolding people who read certain poets for what they signify, not what they write, which is a valid criticism. He also points out the importance of style in sustaining a reader's attention when he writes "I can't get any purchase of pleasure on the surface of their language."

While I sympathize (I have yet to read any substantial amounts of Graham due to the pretentiousness and willful obscurity of her style), I think he's missing the pleasure of Glück's writing in particular. Read some of her poems and tell me that language doesn't "sizzle and pop". However, from reading some of the samples of his own poetry Corey provides on his site, it seems that he is more interested in unusual word choices and juxtapositions—the "word-by-word charge" he describes—than the broader excitement of lucid images, detailed examinations of emotions, and intellectual explorations that Glück's poetry provides. Even so, I would argue that her poems excite on the musical, word-by-word level as well. Yes, the diction is plain and unadorned, but the precise word choice leads to a tight rhythm and melody in her best work. Of course, I say this as someone uninterested in, even dismissive of poetry that relies mainly on surprising or exotic words for impact. One of the marks of excellent poetry is using plain language in fresh and precise ways. That is the true challenge.

I don't mean to belittle his taste or his poetry which, from the samples I read, is clearly written by someone with talent who is serious about the craft. Still, it leaves me cold, perhaps for the same reason he dislikes Glück and the others he mentions. It's the style. It seems to get in the way of the subject matter, the thoughts, and the emotions. It's as if the style is the subject. Once you get past the verbal pyrotechnics, it's unclear what he's actually trying to say in many of his poems. Perhaps I'm being overly critical due to my own failure to connect though. These reviews seem to suggest as much, although reviews, of course, are always a bit effusive.

Even so, this leads me to what I think may be my actual point. Style can be an important indicator of one's attitudes towards poetry. T. S. Eliot, whom I seem incapable of not referencing, famously believed that good poetry should be obscure. It signals to the reader that the poem is dealing with difficult subjects and will reward a careful reading. Corey's style signals that he likely agrees with this sentiment. I disagree, but that's another, more involved, topic.

Eco Envisions the World War

What if our forays in the Middle East were to spark a new World War? Umberto Eco lays out the possibilities in a 2001 article. The translation was originally posted over a year ago, but this is the first time I've seen it, so there ya go.

Administrivia

In order to further combat comments spam, I have installed the MTCloseComments module. This works by closing old comments threads, since it's much more likely that comments on old posts are spam. If you honestly want to comment an older post, just send an email to mallarme at monkeymask dot net and I'll re-open the thread.

A Story With Pictures

My African parents were in the United States recently to see some family. While they were here, they spent a lot of time collecting things that they can't get at home for inclusion in their one-time freighter shipment that leaves next month. This is evidently a giant crate at a warehouse in Dallas that will leave at some unknown time, travel to some mysterious dock on the Gulf, be loaded onto some anonymous freighter no doubt to be piloted by a sea-hardened Senagalese captain named Babukar Barro-Diene, and eventually be unloaded on Bioko Island, subject to President Obiang's customs inspection. The enormity of the trip makes what follows even more absurd.

My parents called last week—it turns out that the crate is only half full, so now they have a long list of extra items that they would like to be included. Most of the items are sensible: an air compressor, some non-perishable bulk food, giant bags of coffee beans and the like. Other things, that were bulky expendables when they thought the crate would fill fast, are more indulgent. Which brings me to the liquor.

They are building a modest house on the island that will have a bar area. Being the entertainers that they are, they couldn't possibly do with the Glenfiddich that is available in country, so I was asked to posse-up an assortment of hooch. Because I had never spent so much at a liquor store in my life, I took some photos for your amusement. Sorry about the quality; my camera is prewar.

Just an overview of the selection. There are about 26 bottles of inexpensive wines and the rest is an assortment of liquors.

Yes, that’s moonshine in the middle and no, I didn’t get that at Majestic.

A fuzzy close-up of the Glengoyne 17-year and the Espolon Añejo.

That’s another tequila on the right. On the left is a really nice Venezuelan añejo rum. Behind those are a cognac and a couple of scotches.

And lastly, I thought this deserved it’s own picture even though I didn’t get it at Majestic. It’s a nice bottle of scotch that my mom got for my dad a while ago. If my parents happen across this pictorial spread of the booze that will soon be on its way across the Atlantic, they will notice that the level in this bottle hasn’t changed. That’s self-restraint.

The bill:

Math Nerdery

Largely for my own future reference, here's a highly detailed explanation of Bayes's Theorem.

Artistic Light

In reading Hayden Carruth's Selected Essays and Reviews I came across this striking passage:

In great works of art we recognize a great and splendid light; perhaps not in the works but behind them, a luminosity beyond the realm of art, which only artifacts of the first magnitude permit us, still darkly, to descry. It is a radiance we find in the ceiling frescos of the Sistine Chapel, in passages from Dante and Shakespeare, in some of the music of J. S. Bach; or occasionally stranger places, like the final part of Gulliver's Travels or certain episodes in Huckleberry Finn. Always we stumble when we try to define this light. Even the words we apply to our own state of consciousness when we are seeing it remain inexact: wonder, exaltation, the gentle shock of sublimity. Yet we know what it is...

The mechanism that allows us to recognize this light when we see it is, in part, informed by aesthetic taste, a thing that must be learned and trained through careful study of the great works of art. Part is also our natural sense of beauty, sufficient for appreciating trees, but insufficient for works of art. They are, as Carruth writes, artifacts—artifacts of humanity's attempts to understand itself and the world while creating new beauty to transcend the individual. Unlike in nature, there is an aesthetic history—a conversation among the generations—that must be understood to gain a more complete appreciation of these artifacts.

The Education of Taste

At Shades of Gray, Phil details the two necessary components of good taste in literature and art in general: education and leisure. He also links to a recent, brief discussion we had on the decline of reading, so is worth reading for that alone—not that the post isn't worth reading on its own merits.

Although I agree with everything he writes, I think one point is missing from his post and other discussions on the topic, that of why a well-developed aesthetic sense is necessary. For those of us who think it is, the reasons are likely self-evident, but is it possible that all these discussions about the decline in reading, the education of taste, and the importance of art and literature come off as nothing more than bloviating elitism to those for whom those reasons are not obvious? This applies not just to the blogosphere, where it seems more likely that people will be in agreement on this point if they're bothering to read such posts, but in more mainstream discussions as well. I'm not going to attempt a defense of aesthetics here, but it's something to consider when we bemoan the lack of a well-educated populace.

Risky Foreign Policy

First, look at this post comparing our strategy in the Middle East to a game of Risk. Next, read this post from Juan Cole that argues:

The same techniques used to get up the Iraq war are now being applied by the political Right in the United States, including President Bush, to Iran. These include innuendo, guilt by association, vague fears, and hyped capabilities. If Bush gets a second term, it seems very likely that his administration will make war on Iran.

Both are simply speculation—although Cole's is, as usual, very well informed—but if it's true that Bush has plans on Iran it's certainly worth discussing. First off, where are the troops going to come from? Is freeing up our forces another one of the reasons the administration was in such a rush to hand over power in Iraq? It seems unlikely that Iraq will be in a position to defend itself anytime soon, but, as has been publicly stated several times, if the Iraqi government asks our troops to leave, we'll withdraw. That would disentangle us from what should be a long, serious commitment to the security of Iraq under the cover of respecting their wishes, a double win. It certainly seems likely that, wisely or not, the Iraq government will, at some point in the not too distant future, request or demand that we withdraw our troops. If that's the case, then we suddenly have enough troops to commit to another war. They wouldn't be enough to tackle Iran, but that didn't stop Bush from going into Iraq, where things are limping along when they could have been, with proper planning and resources, unqualified successes. However, as Juan Cole writes:

Iran is 3 times more populous than Iraq, however, and its population is highly mobilized and nationalistic. A US invasion force there will be greeted in a way that will make Iraq seem tame. Moreover, the fallout from Shiites in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq itself (who will almost universally side with Iran against the US in any war) will put US troops and citizens in enormous danger.

Given that Iran has been actively cooperating in capturing al-Qaeda terrorists and has a history of fighting against the Taliban, we'd need some truly excellent evidence that there's a reason to attack them before it should even be considered. Unfortunately, reliable evidence is not the Bush administration's strong point. I hope this is all unfounded, but what does it say about his presidency to date that it's actually reasonable to discuss the possibility of another war in the Middle East? Is this just a result of paranoia driven by unfair characterizations of Bush or is it based on clear-eyed observations of his past behaviors and policies?

Reviewing 1984

John Bruce has several posts up reviewing 1984 and discussing how it relates to the bourgeoisie and misogyny. I haven't read the novel in a long time, so I don't really have any comments, but I know that at least one of our posters is a huge fan of the book, so maybe he'll have more to say. One note about the link above, since that site is on blogspot, the archives don't really work. Just scroll down until you reach the post titled "Misogyny and Bourgeois Discontents I". He doesn't start discussing 1984 until a couple of posts later, but that's where he begins the thread.

The Purpose of Religion

Over at Gene Expression, razib posits some of the possible functions of religion and is asking people to vote for which they think is correct. It's an interesting question—though probably offensive to believers—but the poll should be checkboxes instead of radio buttons. That would allow you to choose multiple options, which seems to best explain what purpose religion serves. Personally, I think it's a mix of emotional comfort, social glue, proto-science, and meme in roughly that order. On the emotional comfort aspect of religion, razib writes:

Intelligent non-religious people in my experience tend to emphasize functionalism, religion as proto-science and memes. Proto-science and memes are all about ideas and information, something that the hyper-intelligent can understand. More typical emotional needs might be more difficult for some individuals to grasp.

I think this must be a result of the fact that he likely socializes mainly with scientists and others whose fields are more about reason than emotion. It doesn't seem at all likely that intelligence is in any way correlated with an inability to understand the emotional needs that are satisfied by religion. Who hasn't experienced directionless longing, fear of death, and bewilderment? They seem like fundamental aspects of human life for most of us and are all assuaged by religion. However, if you're an overwhelmingly reason-drive person—almost to the point of being emotionally stunted—as we can presume many scientists and such are, it becomes understandable why they might not grasp that particular appeal of religion. Anyways, now that I've offended both the religious and the scientists, I'll stop.

Why Kerry is the Favorite

Although this is not news for us poll watchers, this post at Crooked Timber collects information from numerous sources to show why Kerry is the favorite right now. Of course, Bush still has a powerful campaign apparatus that could turn it around between now and November. Plus, there's always the possibility for a single unforeseen event to upend the race. Still, if things continue as they are and the Democrats don't become complacent, we'll see a President Kerry in 2005.

More on Bush's Strategy

Here's a Salon article breaking down the expected and observed support for Kerry and Bush among various demographics. It suggests that Bush has more or less maxed out his support among the base. The votes he must now reach for are largely moderates and liberals, not an easy group for him to persuade. Here's an excerpt:

Kerry nearly matches expectations among moderates and is running six points better than expected among liberals and five points worse among conservatives. By contrast, Bush reaches expectations among conservatives, with 76 percent of their votes. His shortcomings rest with moderates (six points below expectations) and liberals (11 points below expectations). A typical Republican should expect to do no better than Bush is doing among conservatives.

There's not much information about the methodology of the survey, so it's hard to tell how predictive these results might be, but it seems to fit fairly well with other observations and polls so far.

Jeopardrink!

For the Ken Jennings lovers and haters out there, there's now a drinking game to watch the show by. Of course, since it comes on fairly early in most places, it's probably best to make sure you have nothing else to do the rest of the night. Also, the season ends this Friday, so it's quite possible Ken hasn't lost yet even though he's home.

Questionable Strategy

Mark Schmitt writes about Bush's apparent campaign strategy and suggests they're making a pretty huge strategic mistake in "aggressively shoring up his base and quietly courting the swing voter" instead of the more traditional, opposite way. I'm not sure to what extent Bush's strategy so far hasn't been out of a measure of necessity rather than miscalculation. His fiscal profligacy and insufficient social conservatism has angered a significant number of true conservatives and libertarians. Maybe Rove feels the base's support has weakened. Although that wouldn't lead to more votes for Kerry, it could certainly lead to fewer for Bush—enough to lose the election. Without a solid turnout from the base, Bush would have to win the votes of almost every swing voter, an unlikely scenario. I imagine Rove had hoped to have sufficiently shored up the base vote by now to be able to turn to more swing-friendly talking points, but still feels they're too weak on that front to make such a move. Of course, there's always the possibility that this strategy is what Bush wants to do. He seems quite conservative when it comes to social issues—even if he hasn't been able to do enough legislatively for social conservatives' tastes—which is what the die-hard Republicans seem to care about most. Given his proven lack of reflection, he may simply feel that the current strategy is Right and will grant him the win due to his perceived moral superiority. Either way, I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'd be happy to see him run as far to the right as he can.

UPDATE: Noam Scheiber weighs in.

The NonSublime Repulsiveness of Tom Lykis

Last night I was surprised to flip on 104.3 here in Austin and hear that they’d switched formats from fun, creative idiocy (i.e. hip-hop) to boring, nauseatingly stupid idiocy (i.e. talk radio). That’s right, The Beat, once Austin’s crappiest hip hop station, home to a half-dozen fortysomething DJs who would consistently trail off uncomfortably after halting attempts to spit “the lingo,” has now become The Coyote (I’m not kidding), “Austin’s FM Talk Station.” It’s amazing how they do these format changes – there’s literally no warning to the listeners, at midnight they just flip a switch, and that’s it. There were ads starting a few days ago that Stern would be on in the morning, but he was saying “I’ll be on the Beat.” Very strange.

Anyway, this is not really the main point. The first thing that I heard when I switched to what I now know had become “The Coyote” was the grating, domineering voice of one Tom Lykis. If you haven’t heard this guy, you should tune in for at least a couple of minutes – actually, if you have any kind of conscience and/or a functioning brain, a couple of minutes is probably all you’ll be able to handle, as Lykis is probably the most hateful figure I’ve ever run across on talk radio.

His shtick is an absolutely relentless hatred of women, who he asserts must be “treated like crap” if men are to have any kind of leverage in a relationship. The segment I initially stumbled upon was called “Talking to the Haters,” in which Lykis took calls from those who had criticisms of his show and his philosophy – most of these callers were women, and pretty much every one of these he immediately mocked as fat and ugly (“I can tell by your voice”). He told one caller that the only reason a woman would take pride in being able to support herself was if she was too ugly to get a man to support her.

Lykis, unlike certain others with vaguely similar viewpoints, is not the least bit funny, and not the least bit complex. Stern, while often vocally misogynistic, is still at the core an insecure geek who is truly in awe of women. Don and Mike (all of these shows are like a package deal of “rock talk”) are mostly just silly, in a “Man Show” sort of way. Lykis is just a boor, an abrasive asshole with an anemic and mean-spirited sense of humor. The fact that he is actually fairly popular (and worse, that some of the positive calls he got were from women) is utterly terrifying. It’s sad that so many people are so dissatisfied with one another that they’ve reduced their conception of sex and relationships down to a question of who can avoid getting screwed over, while exercising maximum psychological control over their partner, and extracting sadistic pleasure out of that domination.

I was extremely proud that the only man I heard call in to critique Lykis, and the only one of all the callers to not be thoroughly browbeaten by him, was a man from Texas who calmly asserted, not some moral imperative to equality, but the greater effectiveness of Southern gentility in wooing women. I have to agree, on principle and in practice – I mean, do misogynists really get laid all that often, or do they just talk about sex while they sit around drinking beer and playing Playstation?

Ahead of the Curve

Untucked shirts are in. That means that I'm ahead of this particular sartorial* trend by oh, about 15 years.

*man I love that word

Explaining a Plaque

Everyone has seen the plaque that was attached to the Pioneer 10 probe. Ever wondered what all the symbols mean? Defective yeti explains.

Four Pong

Two balls, four paddles, insanely difficult.

(via Aeiou)

Tour Technology

Here's an interesting article on the technology used in the Tour de France (why don't we call it "Le Tour de France"?) to time the riders.

My Triumphant Return

...will be delayed until tomorrow. I'm too tired to do any substantial blogging today. Instead, I'll just post a few pictures from the trip in case anyone is interested. I have some better pictures with people in them, but I doubt any of them want them online, so here are the nice, impersonal ones.

Many small Texas towns have these sorts of murals. Usually they're somewhere along the main street, which is typically an antique downtown that looks like it should have cowboys getting drunk and shooting at each other.

Another such mural.

This is an old drive-in restaurant in Clovis, NM that's been around for many decades. A Sonic precursor, it's notable for serving vanilla cream Dr. Peppers.

A view from the car on the way home. Completely typical of west Texas.

The closest you'll get to seeing a picture of me on the blog.

Congratumalations

Big ups to our friend and sometime contributor Piraeus, who got married over the weekend. The ceremony was Saturday, and was unfortunately missed by the lot of us, but we are all very happy for him. The newly-minted Mrs. Piraeus is a wonderful girl and I know the couple will enjoy taking their place among DC's socialites. Congrats.

Mandela, Clinton, and AIDS

Nelson Mandela had less strong words than Kofi Annan, but still conveyed his displeasure with the West in particular on the issue of AIDS relief. It's a bit disturbing to see Clinton at this thing, as my understanding is that his administration