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God Hates Shrimp

As it turns out, God Hates Shrimp (and all non-scaly denizens of the sea, apparently). Although that’s just the old testament talking, so nevermind. Actually, it turns out that God Hates Shrimp is a parody (but with gen-you-ine Bible quotes!) of real “God Hates Sodomites” protestors. Not so funny: Rhea County, Tennessee initiated a legal attempt to ban homosexuals from living in their county (that decision has since been rescinded; interestingly, CNN kept the original URL but rewrote the story and replaced the headline without making note of any change – always tempting in web publishing, but editorially weak IMO). Long story short, if you ever need a church sign, you can synthesize one in about two seconds. Or, if you prefer, graze through the amazing gallery of real-world church signs.

Music: The Specials :: Do Nothing
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Hans Blix

Went to see CNN’s Christiane Amanpour interview former U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix last night (part of the Media at War conference). A remarkable mind – what struck me most was how totally lucid and committed to his own neutrality he was. It wasn’t that he didn’t have his own conclusions and observations – of course he did – but rarely do you encounter people involved in political processes who so carefully downplay or force aside their own biases, who struggle so carefully and naturally toward the elusive goal of total objectivity. His central problem: The paradox of proving the negative. “How can I prove there is not a tennis ball in this room?” he asked, gesturing to the interior of Zellerbach Hall. Also enjoyed his references to the best headlines he had seen regarding himself in the press, such as “Blix Tricks Irk U.S.”

Dean Schell, in his introduction, quoted Donald Rumsfeld’s tricky koan: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Which is an absurd piece of semantic trickery politically speaking, and yet also philosophically true.

Music: The Heavenly States :: Cumulous to Nebulous
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Open-Source Endangers Economy

Microsoft exec Jim Gray: ‘The thing I’m puzzled by is how there will be a software industry if there’s open-source.‘

So Jim, if I read you right, you’re saying that the commercial software industry is like a charity of sorts, and that customers should pay money for software even if equally good or superior open source solutions exist, because commercial software engineers are somehow entitled to the customer’s money?

While my experience with BeOS and Mac OS X make it clear that some commercial involvement results in higher quality products based on open foundations (due to cohesive vision, clear direction, etc.), it is also clear that many purely open source projects have resulted in products that are as good as or superior to their commercial counterparts.

Want to keep your customers? Then beat open source products on features (or service) — but don’t fool yourself that people will pay needlessly for software just to artificially prop up the industry.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is playing matchmaker – introducing deep-pocket funder BayStar to SCO, resulting in a $50 million windfall for the company that has made it a life mission to suck the wind out of open source’s sails. Microsoft downplays the connection. Riiiiiight.

Music: Gruppo Sportivo :: Radar
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Media at War Conference

Big event being sponsored by the J-School this week: Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, Christiane Amanpour of CNN, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV join 50 other journalists and foreign policy experts conducting three days of panels, lectures and discussions on the topic of journalism’s coverage of and bearing on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

For a change, the J-School is not webcasting this one — campus central command is (though they’re not doing live, which we usually do). Parts of the conference will also show up on C-SPAN. Much of the conference will also be covered in near-real-time by Jim van Nostrand at the Western Knight Center seminar weblog.

Music: Gruppo Sportivo :: No Shampoo (Also Very Nice)
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Planks vs. Boards

kirkwood-tongue.jpg

Took a weekend to play in the snow. Shirtsleeve weather at Kirkwood, perfect blue skies, ten feet of spring sugar on the ground, not too crowded. Except for the fact that I was alone, an almost perfect weekend. Decided to find out for once and for all whether I’m a skier or a snowboarder at heart.
Continue reading “Planks vs. Boards”

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Office of Special Plans, Shwing Vote

At Salon, a former lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Air Force describes in withering detail what it was like to be inside the Pentagon during the year leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Five pages of tales on the “Office of Special Plans,” the neoconservatives who run it, their continuous bungling, and most significantly, their willful and calculated manipulation of reality to build a case for war on Iraq from the flimsiest premises. A frightening read.

Also at Salon — and this comes as a total surprise to me — traditionally apolitical shock jock Howard Stern has come out “shwinging” at Bush, and has suddenly become a rare bastion of hardcore liberal speech on mainstream media. I’ve never been a Stern fan, but now I’m curious.

It’s that relative absence of political discussion on Stern’s show in the past that might make the current anti-Bush barrage more influential. “The fact that his audience does not tune in to him to hear about politics means that he is not just preaching to a choir, in the way that most of the conservative talk-show hosts are doing” …

Music: Charles Mingus :: Love Chant
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Three Enforcements

three_enforcements Somebody’s psych notes, found crumpled in the bushes in our side yard. If you are the owner of this homework and want it back, please contact me via this web site. I am enamored of the choices you have made while highlighting phrases, such as “following the orders,” “grades rise,” and “decrease a particular behavior.”

Music: The Minutemen :: Futurism Restated
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Triplets, Destino

belleville Watched The Triplets of Belleville with Amy tonight (see trailer). Refreshing to see animation that impresses not because of technical sophistication or by breaking any particular ground, but because of pure inventiveness — even though most of the film feels like it could have been drawn in the early 60s, the animators make choices that are impossible to justify even within the film’s own universe — such as the gorgeous and eerie, Giaocametti-tall ocean liners Mrs. Souza and her dog chase across the sea in a paddle boat. Likewise, the simple plot is peppered with such bizarre scenarios — picture three musical biddies who subsist on a diet of dynamited frogs navigating a steel ship of bicycles and a projector through a vision of paris where buildings have giant wine bottles built in, and you’ll start to get a picture of the imagination factor here. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen, but not just “weird” — it’s charming and truly beautiful.

Had read months ago about Destino – the 1946 collaboration between Salvadore Dali and Walt Disney, but never imagined I’d get to see it on the big screen. But we were lucky – Destino screened just before Triplets; perfect pairing. Much of it was exactly what you would expect from these two forces — the best parts were greater than the sum.

Image above snapped with phonecam during Triplets — this is why the Rolling Stones are cracking down on cell phone use at concerts – copyright grey area is simple and instantaneous.

Music: The Polyphonic Spree :: La La
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Choke Collar

Odd – in one day, two examples relating to squashed speech and the RNC:

The Republican National Committee is telling television stations not to run MoveOn ads that criticize President Bush. The RNC is trying to convince network execs that the ads are illegally funded, while MoveOn says that “The federal campaign laws have permitted precisely this use of [soft] money for advertising for the past 25 years.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s top scientific adviser David King warned his government that global warming was probably a greater threat to global security than terrorism — referring to Bush’s policies on climate change. In response, Tony Blair’s private secretary warned King to “limit his contact with the media” and “to decline any interview requests from British and American newspapers and BBC Radio.”

Music: Jean Knight :: Mr. Big Stuff