11.17.06
For you music fans out there
Check out Musicovery. Very cool selection matrix/criteria. Wonderful, in fact.
Yet another bad sign
Hellmann’s (Best Foods in the West) Mayonnaise is now made with a new fomula: sweeter, with a tangy chemical aftertaste. It is unbelievable, but it’s been confirmed. Too late to stock up. Now we just have to make our own—or start enjoying the tangy taste of chemicals.
On Uncle Choc’s farm
The Son wanted me to talk a bit more about that summer on Choc’s farm.
That was the summer I learned to drive. He had a Model A Ford (which required you to advance the spark and such things—nothing automatic) that was started by a crank (and he showed me how to hold the crank to minimize the chance of a broken arm in the event of a backfire). I had been driving the tractor a bit, so I was sort of accustomed to driving.
I didn’t get to drive the Ford on the highway—or even the road. I drove across the fields. Once I didn’t see a gully and got the Ford almighty stuck, but Choc just drove the tractor down and pulled me out. He didn’t seem upset—this apparently was more or less what he anticipated in a beginning driver.
As my driving improved, he even let me drive his pickup on the highway—with him sitting quite alert beside me. He told me to look at the grease stripe down the middle of the lane and put my butt just above that and slide on down the road.
It occurs to me that grease stripes on the highways are much less distinct nowadays. I imagine that engines leaked more back in the 50’s.
So I became a driver. 
Unlicensed, but experienced.
A couple of other memories: drawing water from the well. It was just a well-pipe, about 5″-6″ in diameter, and the “bucket” was a long section of pipe that had a little sort of trigger at the top that would lift the bottom to let the water flow out. I pulled it up with a frayed wet rope that ran over a pulley.
He had another pulley mounted on a tree branch—probably for slaughtering and butchering. I recall getting an old head gasket and attaching it to the rope, figuring I could put my feet in the holes and use the pulley to lift myself into the air. Alas, too little knowledge of physics: as soon as I pulled hard on the rope, my feet went into the air and my back hit the ground.
Another time insufficient physics knowledge tripped me up: he had an electric fence to keep the few cattle in their grazing ground. I discovered that, with my rubber-soled tennis shoes, I could hold the fence without feeling a thing. Some cousins came by, and after showing them the sword that Choc had brought back from Italy (he was there and elsewhere in WW II), I took them to the electric fence, trying to get them to grab it. They were reluctant, so I showed them it was harmless. I was still holding the sword, which I stick into the ground in a pose, and with the other hand grabbed the wire—whoops! Extremely well grounded through the metal sword, the electric pulse almost knocked me down. A good laugh was had by some.
We went squirrel hunting a couple of times. The wily squirrels would run high into the trees as soon as they heard interlopers, and would maneuver to the other side of the tree. We walked about 100 feet apart, so that when the squirrel moved from the sight of one hunter, the other had a clear shot (upwards, away from each other). I didn’t do so well, but Choc was a deadeye, and we had several squirrels for dinner. Fried squirrel is just wonderful eating: sweeter and not so dry as rabbit.
Beltway pundits: Please report for duty in Iraq
The Beltway Pundits Club (aka the Kewl Kidz) is really insufferable (and stupid). Go read Glenn Greenwald’s cruel takedown (cruel because he quotes them).
It’s Friday: take a break
NSFW, alas: sound—and video. But really great. You will be offered the choice of first seeing Animator vs. Animation before watching Animator vs. Animation II. Do watch the first one first.
The HS Press Corps is back
Just when you thought they would have learned their lesson. Digby sums it up well:
Man, are these catty little MSNBC snots enjoying their full-on Demo bitch fest. They are partying like it’s 1999. Norah O’Donnell, Lawrence O’Donnell, Mary Ann Akers, and some other person I don’t know have just spent half an hour discussing the fact that Nancy Pelosi ruined her own honeymoon and now it is really questionable whether she can lead. Meanwhile, the dirty netroots and Howard Dean must have done something wrong because James Carville is hanging out all the Democratic dirty laundry (while his wife cackles with glee, no doubt) and he wouldn’t do that unless there was something to it.
After a thorough discussion of how hapless the Democratic nerds have already proven to be, Mary Ann Akers whispers that reporters all over town are “loving” this story. It’s so much fun! All the kidz squealed like schoolgirls at prospect of the merciless going-over they are preparing to give these totalbigfatlosers. (“We’re so not being mean or anything cuz they like totally deserve it cuz they just don’t get it, ok?”)
The spite girls are back in town. It isn’t so much a matter of substance. You can argue that talking about the majority leader race is worthwhile and that it says something about Pelosi’s leadership style. The Carville sideswipe at Dean is interesting. That’s not the problem. It’s that the patented 90’s style smug, juvenile, derisive Kewl Kidz tone is once again ooozing through everything they say. (I could have sworn I heard the “Friends” theme song in the backround.)
It’s as if all these unpleasant events of the last six years never happened and we are back in the days of endless cable bitch-fests filled with sniggering about unauthorized blow jobs and earth tones and “grown-ups” who eat PB&J’s and travel with their favorite pillies.
I knew it would happen in one form or another. (We caught a glimpse of it with the John Kerry apology treatment.) The DC press corps hates having to criticize Republicans. Republicans make them feel all icky and call them liberals (which they so, like, aren’t!) I confess, however, that I’m a little bit awed by how smoothly they have transitioned back into their assigned roles. I thought there might be a moment or two of cognitive dissonance as they went from grim and serious reports about terrorism and war to shallow personality politics and tabloid character assassination. I assumed they would at least wait until the presidential campaign took off to contrast the manly Republican Alpha with the loser Omega Dem, but I guess I didn’t realize how much they’ve missed their fast times at DC High.
They were certainly enjoying themselves tonight. Rolling their eyes and laughing and even snorting a time or two at the completely absurd sight of Democrats in power. I expected to see Yoohoo spray out of Norah’s nose at one point. It was just so, like, awesomely super-fun!
It’s worth noting that the last time the House turned over, in 1994, Tom Delay beat Newt Gingrich’s handpicked choice for majority leader and somehow the whole town didn’t interpret that as Newtie’s waterloo. As a matter of fact, the press was giving him such wet slurpy blowjobs they could hardly come up for air.
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was given five months before TIME put him on the cover as the Incredible Shrinking President saying this:
“While the staff can be blamed for some of the confusion, even his closest advisers insist that Clinton is a big part of the problem. ‘A lot of it can’t be laid at anyone’s doorstep but his own,’ said one last week. Democratic Party elders admit to being stunned by Clinton’s judgment lately. Having his $200 haircut and allowing a Hollywood producer to work out of a White House office and then intervene on behalf of friends to win White House air-charter business have done serious damage to his public standing. ‘The best politician the Democratic Party has turned up in a long time turns out to have a tin ear,’ said a longtime friend. ‘He has squandered his moral authority with a lot of this stuff. It leads people to say, “This man isn’t really a populist; he is a phony, a fraud.” And though this perception is completely wrong in substance, it is enormously damaging and has to be dealt with. He has to regain the moral authority to call people to sacrifice.’…If he fails to adjust quickly, he will confirm the widespread belief that the biggest problem with the Clinton presidency is Clinton himself.”
There are no honeymoons for Democrats. Remember that. And “moral authority” is about haircuts and Hollywood, not torture and illegal wars. It is not merely a fight against the Republicans or a fight over politics and policy. It is a non-stop battle with the press to cover events with seriousness and responsiblity. For some reason, when Democrats are in power the press corps immediately goes from being merely shallow to insufferable, sophomoric assholes.
The 2006 election was nine days ago and this is what CNN had on their screen today:
These are Clinton rules, folks. Get used to it.
And while you’re at it, read this, too.
Free commercial software
Also via Lifehacker, Giveaway of the Day:
Every day we offer for FREE licensed software you’d have to buy otherwise!
Our new initiative, Giveaway of the day, is finally open to its visitors and ready to present hot software titles and best software authors from all over the world. We wish you a Happy Giveaway! Giveaway of the day is a win-win solution for both publishers and clients
The idea behind this initiative is that many sites and publishers offer trial downloads; but only we offer giveaway downloads. What does that mean?
Basically, every day we nominate one software title that will be a Giveaway title of that day. The software will be available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by software publisher) and that software will be absolutely free. That means — not a trial, not a limited version — but a registered and legal version of the software will be free for our visitors*.
The software product will be presented in its full functionality, without any limitations save for those mentioned in Terms and Conditions [e.g., no updates, limited support - LG].
The download link will remain on our web-site for the agreed period of time, together with the review of the software product and the information about other products from the software publisher presenting the giveaway title.
Both reviews and the information on the product line will remain active even when the Giveaway period is over. Read the rest of this entry »
Excellent software: Phrase Express
Via Lifehacker, Phrase Express solves a problem: remembering common phrases so that you can easily insert them. This would include URLs, for example. Windows only, but the Mac probably has the capability built in, right?
Gitmo is a big stain on the US
George Bush is ruining the US in many ways, and one is by creating operations that totally undermine what the US has historically represented. The Gitmo operation is one. From the AP:
The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were “enemy combatants,” according to a new report.
The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, aided by more than two dozen law students, found that hearings that determined whether a prisoner should remain in custody gave the accused little opportunity to contest allegations against him.
“These were not hearings. These were shams,” said Mark Denbeaux, an attorney and Seton Hall University law professor who along with his son, Joshua, is the author of the report. They provided an advance copy of the report to The Associated Press late Thursday and planned to release it Friday on the Internet.
Their report, based on an analysis of records of military hearings of 393 detainees, comes as the U.S. government seeks to severely restrict detainee access to civilian courts, arguing that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals should be their main legal recourse.
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, dismissed the findings as “recycled allegations,” and noted the tribunals gave each detainee an opportunity to contest their designation as an enemy combatant.
“It is not a criminal trial and is not intended to determine guilt or innocence,” Gordon said. “Rather, it is an administrative process … to confirm the status of enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo as part of the Global War on Terrorism.”
The military held Combatant Status Review Tribunals for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in southeast Cuba between July 2004 and January 2005 and found all but 38 were enemy combatants. Handcuffed detainees appeared before a panel of three officers with no defense attorney, only a military “personal representative.”
According to the report, the representatives said nothing in the hearings 14 percent of the time and made no “substantive” comments in 30 percent. In some cases, the representative even appeared to advocate the government’s position, the report said.
The report is based on transcripts of tribunals that the government first released earlier this year in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press as well additional records provided by lawyers for 102 Guantanamo detainees.
Twenty-one first-year law students at Seton Hall University in Newark, N.J., analyzed the documents to create a database analyzed by eight second- and third-year students.
Among their findings:
- The government did not produce any witnesses in any hearing.
- The military denied all detainee requests to inspect the classified evidence against them.
- The military refused all requests for defense witnesses who were not detained at Guantanamo.
- In 74 percent of the cases, the government denied requests to call witnesses who were detained at the prison.
- In 91 percent of the hearings, the detainees did not present any evidence.
- In three cases, the panel found that the detainee was “no longer an enemy combatant,” but the military convened new tribunals that later found them to be enemy combatants.
“No American would ever consider this to be hearing,” Denbeaux said. “This is a show trial.”
The U.S. military now holds about 430 men at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban and holds Administrative Review Boards for them once a year to determine whether they should still be held, released or transferred to another country.
The Military Commissions Act, which President Bush signed on Oct. 17, strips all non-U.S. citizens held under suspicion of being an enemy combatant of their right to challenge their detention in civilian courts with petitions of habeas corpus.
Governments should respect privacy
But they don’t. The US, over many protests, is putting RFID chips into its passports and requiring other countries to do the same. The UK apparently has already done so. This story from the Guardian:
Six months ago, with the help of a rather scary computer expert, I deconstructed the life of an airline passenger simply by using information garnered from a boarding-pass stub he had thrown into a dustbin on the Heathrow Express. By using his British Airways frequent-flyer number and buying a ticket in his name on the airline’s website, we were able to access his personal data, passport number, date of birth and nationality. Based on this information, using publicly available databases, we found out where he lived, his profession, all his academic qualifications and even how much his house was worth.
It would have been only a short hop to stealing his identity, committing fraud in his name and generally ruining his life.
Great news then, we thought, that the UK had just begun to issue new, ultra-secure passports, incorporating tiny microchips to store the holder’s details and a digital description of their physical features (known in the jargon as biometrics). These, the argument went, would make identity theft much more difficult and pave the way for the government’s proposed ID cards in 2008 or 2009.
Today, some three million such passports have been issued, and they don’t look so secure. I am sitting with my scary computer man and we have just sucked out all the supposedly secure data and biometric information from three new passports and displayed it all on a laptop computer.
Read the rest of this entry »
Millet-hull pillow
I use a buckwheat-hull pillow, which I like a lot: it’s easy to reshape, and then holds the new shape. Regular pillows just deflate (down) or won’t reshape and are hot (foam). The smaller buckwheat pillow is the best size: larger ones are too heavy to tussle.
So when I came across a millet-hull pillow, I had to give it a go. It arrived yesterday, and I see that the “tiny” size (12″ x 16″) is just a little too small. I’ll give this one to The Wife (who’s also a buckwheat-pillow fan) and get the small (14″ x 21″). I do like the soft touch of the millet hulls—but will probably follow the cat’s example and use one for a while, then switch to the other for a while.
If you haven’t yet tried a millet-hull or buckwheat-hull pillow, I highly recommend them. Extremely comfortable. YMMV.
More info here and through Google. FWIW, my original buckwheat pillow is the Makura pillow, which I see now is the same 14″ x 21″ I should have specified in the first place for the millet-hull pillow. (Again, avoid the larger size: too heavy.)
The Friday shave
I continue to lather on my face—one thing kitties teach us, if we observe them carefully, is that it’s good to change habits from time to time: one favorite resting spot gives way to another, one little play routine segues to something else, and so on. So the switch from the lathering bowl to lathering on my face has been very pleasant.
Used a Simpson X 2 Best and Em’s Woodstock glycerine shaving soap in the tub (photo above): “Patchouli, Sandalwood, Balsam, Cinnamon and Ginger. Has a rich, earthy, woody herbaceous scent with a hint of spice.”
The Slant Bar with the Feather still going strong. The Injector gave a good shave, but I stubbled up sooner than with a Slant Bar shave. Used the alum bar—took a few days off—and finished with Pashana aftershave. Extremely nice.
Sophie on casual Friday
Sophie on casual Friday. Looking forward to the weekend, and the short week beyond. Plus all Christmas presents get shipped on Wednesday!
