Category: Links

A few interesting links for November 17th through November 18th:

• Gilbert Arenas: Change We Believe In – NBA Player Blogs – "What I liked about the whole thing was watching that proved that our country is not as racist as people around the rest of the world actually thinks we are. America as a whole spoke and chose the president they wanted. It wasn't just the African-American community that elected Obama, it was America. If you looked at the TV, every color and creed was out there supporting Obama. It should have woke America up to say, "Hey, we're not as racist as people think."

  That was the most beautiful thing about it to me. Look how this one man united the world. You see clips on the TV and they're showing people in Kenya celebrating, people in London … you're just like, "Wow!" That's why I call him a uniter. If I have to describe Obama in one word, I'm going to say: uniter. He unites. "

• Can Danny Davis' star rise with a Moon in the way? | Change of Subject – "In promoting himself as a candidate to succeed Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Chicago) seems to be hoping the public has forgotten his participation in a very creepy 2004 "coronation" ceremony in Washington for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife.

  As I wrote at the time, Davis was an active assistant (see this photo via Rich Miller) in pageantry designed to burnish and inflate the reputation of a man who, divine or not, wants to abolish Western-style democracy, compares gay people to dung-eating dogs, and in exhorting Jews to convert and follow him, told them: "You have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity, Hitler killed 6 million Jews."

A few interesting links for November 16th through November 17th:

• Properly Sauced: The Perfect Manhattan – Sounds delicious actually. I'll have to look for this vermouth.

  "2 oz. Old Overholt rye whiskey
  3/4 oz. Carpano Antica vermouth
  Angostura bitters

  Take a double old-fashioned glass and fill it almost full with cubed ice. Douse the ice with 2 dashes of bitters. Add the rye and vermouth. Stir gently. Serve.

  Most Manhattans use plain old whiskey and bottom-shelf sweet vermouth, resulting in an inspid, sickly-sweet drink. But if you use rye instead, the drink has a persuasive bite on the front end. Paired with Carpano Antica, arguably the best vermouth in the world, the initial sharpness dissolves into a pleasant amber cloud of spice, cherry and vanilla."

• S.E.C. Accuses Mark Cuban of Insider Trading – Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds — DealBook – New York Times – I don't think the New York Times likes Mark Cuban much, for whatever reason.
  "Off the court and on his own blog, Mr. Cuban has been a frequent critic of the National Basketball Association and its commissioner, David Stern, particularly on the issue of officiating, where he once claimed a referee could not run a Dairy Queen. Mr. Cuban then ran a Dairy Queen for a day; even in retribution, he was seeking attention."
• 10,000 Hours – "This idea — that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice — surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours."

  Spending 8 hours a day – that's 1,250 days (or 3.42 years). Hmmm, does drinking wine count? Sex? Seriously, I've probably put that much effort into photography/Photoshop, but I wouldn't consider myself an *expert*, just better than some, and not as good as others.

Some additional reading November 16th from 12:37 to 21:47:

• Consumers are checking their gas bills twice — chicagotribune.com – "Anthony Palermo's Nicor gas bill says he owes $104 this month, but the Melrose Park resident knows better.

  For the second month in a row, the gas company estimated his usage.

  And for the second month in a row, the gas company was wrong.

  Nicor claims he has used 153 therms of gas since it gave him a new outdoor meter this summer. Palermo read the meter himself Nov. 8, a day after he received his bill. His total usage was 49 therms."

• Legume – Wikipedia – "Legume plants are noteworthy for their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, thanks to a symbiotic relationship with certain bacteria known as rhizobia found in root nodules of these plants. The ability to form this symbiosis reduces fertilizer costs for farmers and gardeners who grow legumes, and allows legumes to be used in a crop rotation to replenish soil that has been depleted of nitrogen."
• Talking Points Memo | More Muscle – "Here is something progressives really need to address. On Sunday morning political shows, three Democrats are confirmed as guests: Carl Levin, Barney Frank, and Charlie Rangel. It's as if Democrats didn't just win huge electoral advances in the Presidential, House, and Senate elections. So we get the same thing we've had the past 8 years–republican hegemony on Sunday."

  Probably the biggest reason I don't bother with the Sunday morning talk shows: they are not interested in Liberal viewers like me.

Some additional reading November 16th from 00:31 to 01:37:

• The Center-Right Nation Exits Stage Left – "Rove says, Obama was running to the center. But can anybody make a serious case that people were mistaking him for a center-right politician? Or even a "New Democrat" such as former president Bill Clinton? The McCain campaign was not shy about letting voters know about the elements of Obama's record that marked him as a man of the left. Perhaps voters simply didn't believe a word of it, but a better explanation is that a majority of them heard McCain's warnings and just didn't mind. Center-left nation, anyone?"
• Other People: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac – "
  As many people have noted, it’s not just 200 pages worth of blog posts bound and printed. It is a lucid and thoughtful reinterpretation of the NBA that will be relevant for years to come. I am not sure their “manifesto” actually has the potential to replace traditional forms of basketball fandom, but it certainly has inspired me to move beyond my purely partisan sensibilities. Before FD, I was a Spurs fan. Since I began reading their writing several years ago, I have blossomed into a lover of the entire Association. I still balance my allegiance to the silver and black with my more liberated side (my only serious criticism of the book would be the idea that they do not give the potential for this balance sufficient consideration), but without a doubt their writing has changed the way I think about the game.

  Although the Spurs are the epitome of being “anti-FD,” the Spurs lovers out there will be pleasantly surprised to find an entire chapter dedicated to Tim Duncan."

• iTunes 8 – "SoundJam was able to RECORD directly. That G3 Mac has a native cluster of RCA input output jacks in addition to S-video jacks I/O.…When Apple bought SoundJam from Casady and Greene (the best third party software developer for the Mac ever!), they disabled the Record functions. iTunes became a player and CD ripper only. And a virtual strip mall retail storefront , but don't get me going on that aspect. For instance, Digital Rights Management never came into play with SoundJam , coming or going, back in those halcyon days. But the simple fact that you can rip a CD to your personal iTunes 7-8 library means the code base for recording from nearly any audio source should still be fundamental to the current releases of iTunes.…Apple's iTunes windows and stylishness are reminiscent of Soviet-centralized architecture… blocky grey concrete and dull metal; a blocky onscreen warehouse"

  Ahh, SoundJam Pro was cool.

• Forty years on, McCartney wants the world to hear lost Beatles epic – "For Beatles fans across the world it has gained near mythical status. The 14-minute improvised track called 'Carnival of Light' was recorded in 1967 and played just once in public. It was never released because three of the Fab Four thought it too adventurous.

  The track, a jumble of shrieks and psychedelic effects, is said to be as far from the melodic ballads that made Sir Paul McCartney famous as it is possible to imagine. "

  Probably sucks, but still want to hear it

Some additional reading November 15th from 19:24 to 23:17:

• 48 Minutes of Hell: The Next New Model – "Last June, the Spurs made the move to become the first wind-powered franchise in the league. Since that time, the Spurs have been 100% powered by Windricity, a wind turbine product of CPS energy. Back then Holt said,
  "We are exploring recycling and water conservation ideas as well," Holt said in a press release. "We really want to be a model for arenas across the country regarding sensitivity to the environment."
  Jerry Needham is reporting that Holt's exploration has led to another paradigm-shifting implementation: The Spurs are now conserving 13.2 million gallons of water per year through a variety of eco-friendly adjustments to the AT&T Center."
• The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla – Dick Cavett Blog – NYTimes.com – "What on earth are our underpaid teachers, laboring in the vineyards of education, supposed to tell students about the following sentence, committed by the syntax-serial-killer from Wasilla High and gleaned by my colleague Maureen Dowd for preservation for those who ask, “How was it she talked?”

  My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.

  And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”

  It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any."

Some additional reading November 15th from 00:59 to 01:03:

• Swerve Left: 1 day = 1 year – "Wagoner, the CEO of the mostly poorly-run company in the country, made nearly 40 grand every day (including weekends) last year. It's hard to imagine. In a single Saturday at the golf course, he makes what I get in an entire year"
• The Federalist Papers (118 of 209) – "Were the precaution taken of excluding from the assemblies elected by the people, to revise the preceding administration of the government, all persons who should have been concerned with the government within the given period, the difficulties would not be obviated. The important task would probably devolve on men, who, with inferior capacities, would in other respects be little better qualified. Although they might not have been personally concerned in the administration, and therefore not immediately agents in the measures to be examined, they would probably have been involved in the parties connected with these measures, and have been elected under their auspices."
• Etsy :: michaeluna :: Beep-it – "Beep-it is an optical theremin synthesizer. It outputs a square wave signal whose pitch is modified by the amount of light detected. The sound resembles that of early 8-bit video games.

  These are hand-built and assembled by me, signed and individually numbered."

A few interesting links for November 11th through November 14th:

• Betalogue » Blog Archive » Adobe CS4: Yet another lousy Adobe installer – pretty much my experience too. Also, whenever I view a PDF in Safari now, am asked for my administrative password. I never comply, but PDF loads anyway.
• Firedoglake » Uh, Sarah….You Sure You Want To Go There? – "Sarah Palin seems to have a special place in her heart for bloggers:

  Ms. Palin directed most of her media criticism at liberal bloggers, whom she twice called, “those bloggers in their parents’ basement just talkin’ garbage.”

  Of course, most of the highest visibility liberal bloggers don't live in their parent's basement, and have more credentials than Ms Wasilla does. I'm not in that discussion of course, but I don't even have a basement.

Some additional reading November 10th from 23:46 to 23:47:

• The Real Estate Crack Up | It's all fun and games until someone loses a home – It didn’t take them too long to blow through the first bailout; now AIG gets another $150 billion to play with.

  AIG and you, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

• The Real Estate Crack Up | It's all fun and games until someone loses a home – A major consumer retailer declaring bankruptcy just before the Christmas shopping season probably indicates that the holidays will probably be less than merry for most.

  Don’t Outlive Your Money, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

A few interesting links for November 9th through November 10th:

• Gapers Block: Rearview – Monday, November 10 2008 – Coolness
  "Monday, November 10 2008
  by Seth Anderson"
• Why We Do Not Need a Republican Party – "I remember other campaigns smearing the opponent. I don't remember them smearing other people who don't even work for the opponent's campaign. The comparison of Rashid Khalidi and a neo-Nazi was the dirtiest thing I ever heard a campaigning politician say in this country. (I've heard dirtier, but it was in the Balkans.)"

Some additional reading November 7th from 12:56 to 23:55:

• History is Funny: Pimp My White House – Some hard hitting Presidential trivia for your amusement:
  "Various presidents over the years have lent their own recreational touches to the White House's already glamorous facilities. Here are a few of the more pimpin' ones."
• Election maps 2008 – I love information porn like this.
  "Maps of the 2008 US presidential election results"

Some additional reading November 7th from 00:22 to 00:25:

• Daily Kos: Deciding Liebermans Fate – "today's statement runs in the opposite direction: 'Joe's with us on some things, but….' Reid is obviously implying that Lieberman will be punished; just because the details weren't announced today doesn't mean nothing will happen. Rather, Reid is likely working through the Senate mechanisms behind-the-scenes: walking through the complex process of Chairmanship 'musical chairs' that Ari describes here, estimating how many Dems we'll actually have in our caucus, and speaking with all of Lieberman's allies in the Dem caucus so no one goes off the reservation when a decision is announced."

  Lieberman needs to go. Seems like Harry Reid is working in that direction.

• BlueCross just cut off my prescription coverage for the year – Not good. I'm self employed as well, and BlueCross BlueShield is also my insurance company.

  "I am self-employed. I bought, what I believe I was told, was the best self-employed health coverage I could get, from the local CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. And the bastards just tried to charge me $250 for two prescriptions I had filled last month, and paid at the time something around $20 to $40.

  I called BlueCross to find out what was up. They told me that I hit my annual limit of $1500 coverage for prescriptions. $1500? First I ever heard of that one. What other little surprises are hiding inside my $340/month health insurance package? I have numerous prescriptions I have to fill between now and the end of the year"

Some additional reading November 5th from 23:29 to 23:36:

• The monster years – Paul Krugman – Op-Ed Columnist – New York Times Blog – "What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people."
• Lieberman Takes Stage with McCain in Colorado – Jesse A. Hamilton | On Background – "[Observant watchers will have noticed Lieberman mouthing some of McCain's words as they emerged from the Arizona senator's mouth.]"

  Lieberman needs to have his own caucus, and sit with a dunce cap in the corner, away from the Democrats

• Lieberman: What? You Guys Won? I Didn't Mean All Those Things! Really!! | Crooks and Liars – "Lieberman is supposed to meet with Harry Reid later this week. Once upon a time, Reid was insisting that Lieberman was "with us on everything but the war." Of course, that was before he said he feared "America will not survive" if Democrats won 60 seats and before he said Obama "has not always put America first" and said he was "not ready to lead."

  Lieberman may once have been "an important vote for our caucus," as Reid said in defending Holy Joe this summer. But he's irrelevant now, and deserves the fate he has earned."

  Asshole.

Some additional reading November 5th from 13:33 to 16:39:

• John McCain's verdict on Sarah Palin: more trouble than a pitbull | – "So now we know what John McCain really thinks of his running mate Sarah Palin – and that's not just because of the awkward body language between them during his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona.

  An exasperated McCain has been telling friends in recent weeks that Palin is even more trouble than a pitbull."

• TidBITS Just for Fun: Top 10 Screensavers for the 21st Century – Love interesting screensavers myself. Am adding about 6 of these to my rotation

  "When I went in search of new and interesting screensavers, I was looking for three things: screensavers that could change and develop over time, screensavers that made use of input devices or updating information, and screensavers that put a fun twist on age-old tricks like clocks or photo slideshows"

Some additional reading November 4th from 16:19 to 17:20:

• The Raw Story | Two-page letter on Palin's health leaves unanswered questions – ""The timing of the release should also surely be interpreted as a giant finger to the press," Sullivan added. "Releasing this letter one hour before polling day begins and refusing to provide any actual documentation is not an answer. We need documentation to verify the last pregnancy: the amniocentesis results with Sarah Palin's name on them, for example, would be readily available and easy to disseminate, and would help raise awareness of Down Syndrome. "
• The campaign, start to finish | Steve Chapman – " I've been covering it since 2000, even if I didn't know it then.

  One night that November I got a rare invitation to appear on a local TV news show to discuss the electoral college with some other panelists. One of them was a young state senator I had never heard of. I don't remember what he said, but he struck me as appreciably more impressive than the average state legislator. So the next day I asked my editor, "Do you know this guy Barack Obama?"

• Sharing Your Experiences … – "When we got there a 97-year-old Black man was being wheeled out of the polls in his wheelchair. It was the first time he had ever voted in his life. When he came outside he asked if anyone could give him an Obama button. There were none left at the Democrat's booth so I gave him mine. He was so proud and I started crying. He looked at me and said, "why are you crying? this is a day for glory." I am still crying."

Some additional reading November 4th from 14:27 to 14:58:

• Maddow and Martha – "The only thing left was to make a drink, something Maddow, an accomplished amateur mixologist, is very good at. Noting that the long night ahead made it a high ball kind of day, she offered instructions for a "Joe Rickey:" two ounces of bourbon in a tall glass over ice topped off with seltzer water and the juice of half a lime. "Is it a Joe Rickey as in Joe the Plumber?" asked Stewart. Maddow laughed. "We could call it a Wurzelbacher Rickey!"

  Stewart just took a sip. "It's very delicious," she said. "I think I'll start now, and keep filling the glass till midnight tonight."

• Sarah Palin sounds like she knows she lost. She also refuses to say if she voted for Stevens. – Palin "did next to no real interviews, never held a press conference, and McCain hasn't held one in two and a half months. And the media did nothing about it. On that account, they let us down. Yes, there is something they could have done. How about not letting Palin and McCain go on SNL and Letterman and every other goofy fluffy show until they hold a real press conference? How about pulling your reporters off their bus and their plane? Our media allowed McCain to set a precedent where presidential candidates are no longer required to be publicly accountable. Yet another way in which the Republicans are continually watering down our democracy, and the media, the supposed watchdogs of that democracy, yet again are complicit."
• Obama Denounces Baggy Pants Crackdown – November 4, 2008 – "After telling MTV that "brothers should pull up their pants," Obama noted, "You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on." He added, "Some people might not want to see your underwear–I'm one of them."
• US election: Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago confident in his chances – "A stocky plain-spoken man in his fifties, he said he felt proud and excited to have cast a vote for a black president. "I never thought he would come this far. I really didn't. I think it's great for America. Not just black America. But all of America…."

  And then his voice cracked. And then he cried. Walking away to compose himself he came back. "I'm sorry he said. I never knew this thing went so deep.""

• inessential.com: ‘That new sound’ – The Clash, and Barack Obama. Can't go wrong!

  "In 2004 we were watching the Democratic National Convention on TV, and were mesmerized by a speech from a state legislator from Illinois. “Why aren’t we voting for him?”

  I feel like, this year, I get to vote for the new sound I’d been waiting for without knowing it. It seemed to come from nowhere. There was no reason to expect it."