It’s raining now.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the rain might cool things down a bit, which will be nice for the long run I was planning on doing tomorrow morning. On the other hand, the Trek bar, which I planted this afternoon at the corner of Olcott and Moores Pike so I could eat it for energy on my run tomorrow, might not last the night.
The Weezer song that is currently number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart starts with the line “Where I come from isn’t all that great”. That’s Rivers Cuomo singing and that’s Storrs, CT he’s singing about. He is our one celebrity, and we’re proud of him.
That said, I don’t think the song is his best work. But maybe that’s just because I am hopped up on Swedish pop and out of my senses.
Sambassadeur – Between The Lines
I have no idea what they are singing about, even though they are singing in very understandable english. I have no idea what they are singing about because I am just dumbstruck by their voodoo Swedish production values. It seems like no matter what the Swedes do, no matter how much they cobble together garbage with duct tape, it comes out and damn: it just kinda works. Must be something in the water.
That said, what a happy song. It’s like a cross between The Shins and Frente. Plus the whole Sweden thing.
P.S. I’m Swiss, not Swedish. They are like a thousand miles apart.
It’s called “procrastinatorial explosion”. It’s a word play on “procrastination” and “combinatorial explosion“. I’m not yet sure what it means. Any suggestions?
I generally don’t like attempts to compare the current war in Iraq to the Vietnam War. People seem to suggest that because the current situation is similar to the situation in Vietnam that it will fail just like Vietnam. But that argument is nonsense; it’s a false analogy.
That said, I find it interesting that a public opionon poll in October 1967, approximately a year before bombings were to cease, suggested that only 46 percent of Americans thought the war was a mistake.[1] In comparison, AP polls this week suggested that 53% of Americans say the Iraq War was a mistake.[2]
If a tide of public opinion was really what caused the end of the Vietnam war, what is different today?
If I have to point my finger somewhere, I would point at party loyalty. Bush doesn’t need to keep his approval ratings over 50% in order to function because 90% of his supporters will stick with him to the end no matter what his failures. The thinking is: you don’t begrudge a good man his failures. Better to have a good man who is a failure than a wicked success.
And with 45% of the electorate on your side in all weather foul or fair, you just need to find 10 or 20 million voters to vote with their emotions and tada, you’ve won yourself an election.
So I say to you, dear public opinion polls: thanks, but no thanks. I appreciate your attempts to console me with news that am I not alone, but your promises are hollow. Your numbers haven’t arms to raise in congress or memos to send in newsrooms. Years ago, you were the violent crest of the tide of public opinion; the undeniable hammer of truth. Today you are a pale reflection of a stymied political system reduced to meaningless chest-beating.
[1] http://www.vietnamwar.com/Timeline65-68.htm
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062400971.html
The computer is an information lubricant without limits. A global commons of thought is inevitable. Ignorant Americans are a local majority and a global minority. There is hope.
(thoughts after reading this)
Jon “Hannibal” Stokes tells us Ten things he learned about the future at the Wired NextFest. Warning: geek humor ahead.
Tenzing: Hero of Everest reads like a Lord of the Rings FAQ: terribly written and devoid of any sort of literary structure at all, but enthusiastic enough and devoted to such an enthralling subject that it is a worthwhile read for like-minded geeks.
Reading about Tenzing’s early drive to break into the mountain guide industry and his later passion for getting on top of Everest has rekindled the pioneering spirit in me, and I have been looking for an outlet to test my mettle. The mountains in Indiana are pathetic, so I figured I’d have to find a horizontal expedition, rather than a vertical one.
And by horizontal expedition, of course I mean a very long bicycle ride. I’d recently tried and failed to reach Monroe Dam, covering 30 miles in the process, so this time I geared up for a slightly longer trek: 24.9 miles to Hardin Ridge Recreation Area and 24.9 miles back.
Click for a closer view
Despite today’s high of 92°, which probably happened during my ride, some time between 10am and 4pm, I made in safely home. I don’t think I’ve cooked my brain, although that remains to be seen. In the end, I put in 55.4 miles, after accidentally taking a detour down to Old Route 37. A nice old lady gave me directions and filled my water bottles. She and her female companion were very excited about the parade that was coming through, and lamented the fact that I’d be missing it. I was just glad to be drinking water with ice cubes in it.
I am pretty drained, and probably done with long distance rides for a while. Perhaps when it cools down I’ll give a longer ride a go. Or maybe I’ll cycle up Hoosier Hill.
It feels good to put myself to the test.
I lucked out today. I thought I’d go to the diminuative Tuesday farmer’s market–as compared to the dimaxuative Saturday one–to get some new potatoes. I passed them up on Saturday and regretted it. But when I arrived to pick over the half dozen stands, I found something even better: STRAWBERRIES!
I was a little sad when I arrived at the market on Saturday that the one thing I really wanted to buy (strawberries) was not being sold. I guess I just came to late. But today there were pints and pints of them, for $4. Not cheap, but hey… you don’t get local strawberries every day.
Anyway, I picked up a pint of Edy’s vanilla on the way home ($1) and am now enjoying the most delicious bowl of ice cream with strawberry sauce. The bumpy ride home had the effect of squashing all of the overripe strawberries, which mean I could easily pick them out to use for sauce. The juice in these things is so dark, it’s almost maroon. And they are just the slightest bit sour, to balance the insane sweetness. Soooo soft and ripe.
It almost makes me want to become a vegetarinan.
There was some hoo-ha in the House yesterday about a memo from the British government that suggests Bush made up his mind about the war and then tried to gather intelligence to support that strategy. The Christian Science Monitor has a good collection of opinions about the topic.
Now, whatever your opinion about “impartial journalism” (or whether it exists at all), you should know that of the eight news outlets I probed, only one failed to mention this event entirely. Which outlet?
That’s right, Fox News.
Everyone else at least threw the article under “Other News” on their politics page. But all of the readers of Fox News, even if they pour over every word on the politics page, they still won’t have a clue about what the memo is, or about the panel that was held in congress yesterday.
I can’t blame people for supporting news outlets that promote their values and beliefs. But you’d think in between promoting those beliefs there’d be a little bit of room for the news.
Here are the details:
MSNBC – Not a news item, but it is on the main page, under “Newsweek.com ONLINE EDITION”, in the “Clift: Can Bush redeem himself on Iraq?” article. There’s also a headline on the news page under the Politics section: “Russert: Bush must address public on Iraq”.
Fox News – Not on the main page, or any other page. If I search for “Downing” I find the AP article, but if you didn’t already know about it, you wouldn’t see it. The newsroom appears to be ignoring it entirely.
CNN – Not on the main page. It is on the Politics page though, under “IN OTHER NEWS: Democrats urge Iraq inquiry”
Google News – On the main page, second article under Politics.
Yahoo News – On the main page, fourth article under Politics.
ABC News – Not on the main page. It is on the Politics page, third entry under AP Headlines.
New York Times – Not on the main page. On the Washington page, fifth article.
Washington Times – Not on the main page. On the politics page, under “Other Top Stories”, six articles down.