Drooling the drool of a techno-geek

Somebody just did key drives one better with credit-card-sized flash drives that will be available up to 2GB. In your pocket. They also seem to cost a lot less than current small flash drives. I think that the completely portable (and anonymous) office (see also here) is close to being in everybody's reach...

(via boing boing)

Perspective-bending

Check out this map of the world, scaled by population. China is *huge*, Canada a mere fringe along our northern border. There's a tiny inset with the more familiar map for comparison.

(via boing boing)

Clearing up some confusion

Emma at Gendergeek provides a FAQ for those perplexed or threatened by feminism and discussion of same.

I don't see why x, y, or z is a gendered issue.

Just as fish don't know they're swimming in water, it's very difficult for members of any patriarchal society to see the gender-blindness that surrounds them. Feminism would argue that all issues require to be the subject of a gendered analysis, or goods, services, policy, and legislation will be developed without understanding the needs of women. The issues addressed on Gendergeek are not only gender issues, but we are offering a gendered analysis of them.

For those times when "get over your special little self" just doesn't seem productive...

Gerrymandering goes to court

The Supreme Court has agreed to review the (ridiculous) redistricting plan pushed through in Texas by Tom DeLay. Remember when all the Democrats fled the state in order to prevent a vote insituting this new map? it's that one. Even the Justice Department is on record saying it fails most relevant tests. The case will be heard and decided during the spring term (so Alito's confirmation could get even more heat)...

Two countries: the racial divide

Ampersand has an excellent and disturbing post up at Alas a blog cataloging the remarkable ongoing discrimination practiced against black people going about their ordinary business: they may find themselves stopped or arrested just for being black people doing what white people do everyday (the stories described and linked are pretty comprehensive). Amp concludes that white and black folks in this country are living under entirely different conditions:

As a white person, I live in the USA, land of the free and home of the slogan. But a lot of blacks in effect live in a totalitarian state "behind the iron curtain" in a cold war movie - you know, the sort of movie where police constantly stop ordinary citizens and demand to see their papers.

Too true. I am reminded of a profiling case brought against the state police in the St. Louis area when I lived there -- it has a cross-bridge commuter class not unlike Philly, and from a town not unlike Camden. One lawyer testified that he was a black guy driving a nice car (something German, I think) and would get pulled over every day by the police to check his registration. A reminder that the privilege of the majority is often the privilege not to be aware of your protective bubble.

Every day. Imagine how you'd start to feel about your government and your stake in the nation.

Quote of the day

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

- Johann Wolfgang van Goethe,
poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

(via A.W.A.D.)

New Orleans being left to sink into the mud?

A grim editorial in yesterday's New York Times decries the "death of an American city" as the Bush administration sends a mere pittance to salvage New Orleans while spending unimaginable amounts in Iraq.

Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?

Losing a major American city.

Their point is that a slow response, in itself, dooms the city, as displaced residents make new lives elsewhere and the infrastructure decays to unsalvagable. To really hurricane-proof the place would cost some billions (but a fraction of the number noted above) and require that local officials really prepare to re-plan their city from scratch. But not doing those things means accepting the erasure of both a city and a unique culture (or, just as bad, reducing both to Disney-esque tourist versions of their former selves)...

If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

Not a pretty option, but we can't pretend that both action and inaction aren't choices . . .

(via This Modern World)

Update: in related musings, see this new term/concept.

Update 2: jeez! a Bush advisor says that "Katrina has fallen so far off the radar screen that you can't find it." I'm sure that the nation finds that very reassuring.
(via Body & Soul)

IKEA: the anti-Wal-Mart

Well, in refreshing news, a successful and popular business that actually practices good world citizenship as well! "Low Prices, But Not at Any Price." yay!

Getting ever more hard up

Military recruiting is not going well (when recruits know where they're headed), but still it looks pretty grim when the Army is calling up 40-something single mothers for active duty . . .

As Christmas nears, Arndt, 43, is trying to sell the Medford home she says she will not be able to keep on an Army salary of approximately $60,000 a year, and is searching for someone to care for her 13-year-old son, Shane. She expects to train for an 18-month tour of duty that could take her to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Yeeesh...

(via Atrios)

Science you can taste!

The cover story of Science News is about the chemistry of beer flavors, and especially to unwanted flavors that arise during production or storage.

Studying the chemical constituents of beer is "like looking at the night sky," [Morten C. Meilgaard] says. "The closer you look, the more stars you can see."

mmmmm, beer at night....

(via boing boing)

Ouch!

Harry Reid lets Lieberman know he's out in the cold.

Joe is a fine man, he has strong feelings, but he's just alone. Even Republicans don't agree with Joe.

Yowza! run for cover!

(via kos)

Quote of the day

The eyes are given to see;
the soul to see further.

--Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid `Inayat Khan

From: A Meditation Theme for Each Day
Selected and arranged by Hazrat Pir Vilayat `Inayat Khan

(via A Mindful Life)

A little happy news

A post at dailyKos enumerates recent advances in solar technology that range from sheets of paper imprinted with solar-circuitry ink (no, really) to new panels for use atop hybrid vehicles. Pretty exciting potential! Personally, I've been shooting hungry looks toward these . . .

Spinning ourselves more than dizzy

An article at Slate looks at the difference between spin and propaganda, and how the Bush administration has become a huge peddler of the latter.

To spin is to offer a contention, usually specious, in response to a critical argument or a negative news story. It does not necessarily involve lying or misleading anyone about factual matters. Habitual spin is irksome, especially to the journalists upon whom it is practiced, but it does not threaten democracy. Propaganda is far more malignant. A calculated and systematic effort to manage public opinion, it transcends mere lying and routine political dishonesty. When the Bush administration manufactures fake "news," suppresses real news, disguises the former as the latter, and challenges the legitimacy of the independent press, it corrodes trust in leaders, institutions, and, to the rest of the world, the United States as a whole.

Buying pundits here has extended to planting stories abroad, and when you combine that with the conscious decision that all major speeches will be given before miliatary backdrops audiences, it's starting to look a lot like fascism...

(via rc3.org)

Not just for geeks

Gamespot magazine has a long series on the Greatest Games of All Time, video classics from Lode Runner and Pac Man to the Sims and Everquest. Good summaries of each and what made them great. Take a nostalgia trip or find a new addiction (or grumble about the obvious absences, like Doom and Myst).

(via kottke)

A few interesting late-day bits

• Reid has had enough of Lieberman v. Murtha and requests an end to unilateral pronouncements by Democrats. Interesting to see who does or doesn't listen.
  
  
• A UMass professor explains Incompetent Design, which points out the numerous engineering flaws in human design, all of which make simple sense for evolution but sort of make a recent creator look a bit underqualified.

  All of our pelvises slope forward for convenient knuckle-dragging, like all the other great apes. And the only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution's way of modifying something or else it's just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student.

  heh. Both serious and tongue-in-cheek.
  
  
• Mike Wallace pulls no punches on the state of the nation --- leadership, press, et al...

  Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?
  
  A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? ...

  Read the whole thing. Feisty bugger.

Today's apt cartoon

...comes from Tony Auth. Indeed we live in an Orwellian era of language distortion!

.

In case you like these

An on-line advent calendar, now in its fifth year, gives you a dollop of thought, reminiscence, and/or visual stimulation for each of the days from December 1 until Christmas.

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

Thursday kitten-blogging: bengal love!

A couple of great shots, one from the last week or two and the other more like 4-6 weeks old. Both show the contrast between brown and snow bengal coloration (even their eyes!), both show off our beloved babies...


A little co-napping interrupted...
[Pasha is 5 months here and Pixel 7]


An earlier nap & patty pat...
[subtract about 6 weeks from the ages above;
Pasha really looks like a toddler!]


Past kitteny goodness (reverse order): 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0

Daily Snark

For some reason, Bill O'Reilly's Christmas-related persecution complex has decided to take on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart had some fun with that last night, pointing out that in order to make even this (lame) attack work, O'Reilly had to dig up footage from a year ago (a painfully pregnant Samantha Bee was clearly separable from the slim wit in the clip). This morning, Greg Saunders at This Modern World also takes aim at O'Reilly's obvious lameness:

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Bill, but Jon Stewart is a Jew and Jews don’t celebrate Christmas. When you’ve sunk to the point that you’re attacking non-Christians for not celebrating Christian holidays, your witchhunt has completely jumped the shark. I say you hang this one up and prepare for your next crusade.

heh, about right. Some amusing other associations are included there too...

Irony update: check out these screen-grabs from O'Reilly's site... heh heh