Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Edison Film and Sound: Chronological Title List of Edison Motion Pictures - 1891-1896
Some of the videos at the Edison Film and Sound site are really amazing, particularly the old videos of Los Angeles. Check it out. (from Laobserved).
Saturday, November 27, 2004
The New York Times Finally Makes Sense!
Translate anything into Redneck. The whole world is now open to y'all.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Friday, November 12, 2004
Firefox Rocks
Let me be the very last blogger to confirm what everyone's saying: Firefox 1.0 is awesome. It runs like butter, its open source architecture provides an incredible palette for modding, and it has built in RSS support. All that, plus tabbed browsing, better find functions, etc etc etc have made it clear to me that Firefox isn't just an great competitor to IE - it's a generation ahead of it. Definitely worth a look.
Friday, November 05, 2004
A Readable Lament
Michelle Cottle's piece in the New Republic is one of the better post-election laments I've read. Here's a few snippets:
"Now I realize that regaining your zip can be difficult when everyone's yammering about the utter bleakness of your position. So to help jumpstart the recovery, I'd like to point out a handful of bright spots to come out of Tuesday. Most are minor, but, hell, this week, non-conservatives have gotta find solace wherever we can:
The Iraq mess. As badly as his team has bungled the occupation thus far, Bush still has a better shot at making things right than Kerry did. If nothing else, George and Dick will have greater freedom to request more money or troops (or, alternatively, to start calling the troops home) than would a Democratic commander-in-chief who had to keep one eye on the Republican Congress and one on his reelection chances."
A little honest realism there. Takes some guts to say that when your party is reeling.
"We will all be spared Teresa Heinz Kerry as First Lady. Forget Hillary: A few months of the imperious, impolitic Tuh-ray-zah would have convinced all of red-state America (and a fair chunk of blue) that maybe the Taliban was onto something with that policy about women being neither seen nor heard"
Yeah, Teresa got annoying fast. I tried to like her, but in the end, I think everyone realized that 4 years of Teresa would be intolerable. Half-drunk eccentric socialite heiresses are better left to the foreign countries they came from. Teresa is politics' answer to Karen from Will and Grace, and like Karen, Teresa can only be taken in small doses (aka, less than 23 minutes a week, with a much-needed break in the summer).
"Now I realize that regaining your zip can be difficult when everyone's yammering about the utter bleakness of your position. So to help jumpstart the recovery, I'd like to point out a handful of bright spots to come out of Tuesday. Most are minor, but, hell, this week, non-conservatives have gotta find solace wherever we can:
The Iraq mess. As badly as his team has bungled the occupation thus far, Bush still has a better shot at making things right than Kerry did. If nothing else, George and Dick will have greater freedom to request more money or troops (or, alternatively, to start calling the troops home) than would a Democratic commander-in-chief who had to keep one eye on the Republican Congress and one on his reelection chances."
A little honest realism there. Takes some guts to say that when your party is reeling.
"We will all be spared Teresa Heinz Kerry as First Lady. Forget Hillary: A few months of the imperious, impolitic Tuh-ray-zah would have convinced all of red-state America (and a fair chunk of blue) that maybe the Taliban was onto something with that policy about women being neither seen nor heard"
Yeah, Teresa got annoying fast. I tried to like her, but in the end, I think everyone realized that 4 years of Teresa would be intolerable. Half-drunk eccentric socialite heiresses are better left to the foreign countries they came from. Teresa is politics' answer to Karen from Will and Grace, and like Karen, Teresa can only be taken in small doses (aka, less than 23 minutes a week, with a much-needed break in the summer).
Thursday, November 04, 2004
If the Country Is Divided . . .
. . . the dividing line is placed in some spot in which the Republicans win everything.
Not that the House and Senate races weren't fairly predictable. Last December, I guessed 54-46 for the Senate, just based upon state stereotypes. I was only wrong about Daschle, who I expected to win back then. Little did I know Thune was such a star. Watch out for him. A handsome guy, that one, and to quote Chris Rock, "he's so well spoken!"
Anyway, as for the President thing, it looks like Kerry finally took control of his campaign, although it was one day too late. Mary Beth Cahill and Edwards seemed to think that Ohio could be won by the sheer force of lawyers. My theory is that thousands of lawyers were necessary not to file complaints, but to vote a couple of times for Kerry, thus making up the 125K+ deficit in Ohio. I'm glad he didn't take that route, although he didn't have much choice, given that he had a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Call it virtue by necessity.
Lastly, this map of the results by county is interesting:
Alaska doesn't have counties, it seems.
Not that the House and Senate races weren't fairly predictable. Last December, I guessed 54-46 for the Senate, just based upon state stereotypes. I was only wrong about Daschle, who I expected to win back then. Little did I know Thune was such a star. Watch out for him. A handsome guy, that one, and to quote Chris Rock, "he's so well spoken!"
Anyway, as for the President thing, it looks like Kerry finally took control of his campaign, although it was one day too late. Mary Beth Cahill and Edwards seemed to think that Ohio could be won by the sheer force of lawyers. My theory is that thousands of lawyers were necessary not to file complaints, but to vote a couple of times for Kerry, thus making up the 125K+ deficit in Ohio. I'm glad he didn't take that route, although he didn't have much choice, given that he had a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Call it virtue by necessity.
Lastly, this map of the results by county is interesting:
Alaska doesn't have counties, it seems.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Advice
It's almost 3 AM. My thinking is clouded, but this much is clear to me: Kerry is really making a mistake here. He desperately needs to weigh his chances of victory with the reputational harms of dragging this on. He could've left a tiny bit of uncertainty and ended the campaign on a note of class. Instead, he just brings out the Edwards puppet show and leaves everyone in the lurch, which I think says a lot about what kind of person Kerry is, and what kind of president he would've been.
P.S. Edwards' gestures after his speech were so embarrassing, I really felt bad for his party. If these are the shining stars, better start from scratch.
P.P.S. Phrases I'd prefer never to hear again until I die:
It's a divided nation (or its close cousin "this nation has never been more divided").
This could go on for a long time (as Wolf Blitzer licks his chops at the thought of an extended ratings boost)
Every vote needs to be counted (as if this has anything to do with whether one should concede or not. If Kerry had won by 350 electoral votes, would we respect Bush for not conceding because "every vote needs to be counted"?)
Bedtime.
P.S. Edwards' gestures after his speech were so embarrassing, I really felt bad for his party. If these are the shining stars, better start from scratch.
P.P.S. Phrases I'd prefer never to hear again until I die:
It's a divided nation (or its close cousin "this nation has never been more divided").
This could go on for a long time (as Wolf Blitzer licks his chops at the thought of an extended ratings boost)
Every vote needs to be counted (as if this has anything to do with whether one should concede or not. If Kerry had won by 350 electoral votes, would we respect Bush for not conceding because "every vote needs to be counted"?)
Bedtime.
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