The Longest Now

Candidates seem to feel such a great need to express love for other races and religions — that fervent desire to be smiled at or noticed that is so repulsive in high school kids and candidates alike.  I suppose back in middle school, when you might carry gum around just so that people could ask you for a piece, it didn’t grate as much.  Hearing Lieberman or Clark send glowing regards to all celebrating Ramadan only makes me feel…cheated of real conversation.  Even if sometimes I dearly hope they mean what their speechwriters have them say.

Get to know your local candidates, all ye Cantabridgians.  Elections are coming up on Nov 4.

Old men crying — the subject matter is most compelling; articles thankfully accompany most images.

Airtoons — more than just Fight Club versions, though it’s hard to improve on a perfect execution.

Then there are the copycats of glory, like Nothoo.   And even Harpers liked the J-Dogg transcripts enough to publish a few last month.

There are few good metrics for how well-developed one’s academic, physical, spiritual, or career plans are. At least, according to university educators at large, and those at Harvard in particular.

On the other hand, career and life counselors the world over have developed their own idiosyncratic collections of metrics, many quite elaborate and detailed. Some may be better than others, but all are better than none — and most are better than that lone career-office standby, the Myers-Briggs test.

Let’s take a look at how Harvard counsels its undergraduates in various facets of life… [read more]

Of course, now someone has to come up with metrics for how much coordination synergy and productivity are lost as the number of available tools increases, how much time it takes to become fluent with a toolbox of a given size, how these things break down with fatigue, debility, and stress, etc.

We don’t want any “massive Ginger recall initiated due to injuries when it runs out of power” oversights for brainstem implants, do we?

Channelling spare cycles into new [limbs] …

Intersting.  If only “school district” could come to mean “local power base” and source for political mobilization and change.  Education is such a natural center for communities to rally around, though right now it only applies to K-12 education… if it expanded to cover all of life, and to include community education such as tutoring, social dancing, skilled public service and shared games have for the longest time, it would make sense for people to think locally of themselves in terms of their school district.  Return of the polis!  What a cute way that would be to return to democracy.

On wind farms in school districts …

Before a good watch stops ticking? Two of mine are sitting alone in a corner. Stats for the month:

   Toolchain items destroyed:  4    ...with replacement:  1
   Former links still broken:  5    ...and partially: 2 + 1
   Weekends that have sucked:  2    ...with redemption:   1 
   Cancelled events: 2  [I hate people.]      ...trips:   1  [Yes, you.]
           ...dates: 3  [And you.]         ...and lips:   7  [Even you.]
   Dormant projects:  3   Merely needy and understaffed:  2
   Mentors located:  -1   Advising satisfaction [0-5]:   0.5
   Official requests ignored:  5+
   Classes of [t]ots unmeshed: 4+   ...merely unacquired: 6

“Dead” lines: 3. Time for another Timex.

Dies age 90. Wrote memoirs of his time in the secret service during WWII (some of it under Ian Fleming’s command).

James Bond role model …

I’ll say one thing for General Clark — by the time a man gets to be his age, he’s responsible for his face. As my father would say, Clark has a good face… [read more]

All about Wesley Clark …

Compare the official draft-Clark movement to the unofficial, exuberant one. Which was shifty, evasive, and dishonest? Which was wildly successful in mobilizing interested voters? Compare hispanosconclark.com with latinos4clark … which one is obviously genuine, after a split-second’s viewing? which one is depressing and lifeless? There is *nothing* about modern technology that should make campaigns any harder; generating the images and text that make up latinos4clark in-house would mean the hard part of real hispanic collateral was done, in any media. If a 5-person team with 3000 active users to deal with (and meticulously outwit) can put together something as seamless as the online mystery hunt associated with AI in a couple months, complete with tens of distinct immersive websites and polished down to the owner-names and -dates on the domain-name registration for said sites, a serious campaign should be able to at least approximate the right tone and feel for each new audience.

Oh, it’s just too good.  First, his name is Bartman.  I didn’t realize any real person had that name.  Second, he’s a total Cubs fan — went to spring training — and he teaches baseball for a living.  And there’s a good chance he will spend his entire life wondering whether he single-handedly kept the Cubs from winning the World Series.  Aeschylus couldn’t have worked up a better skeleton plot.  Now all we need is an emotional family twist, the possibility of an anguished suicide, and a little editorializing by the gods who arranged all of this.

Third, the reactions in Florida are delightful [emphasis mine]:

       In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush said an offer of asylum to Bartman might be a good idea…
      …an oceanfront retreat in Pompano Beach offered him a free three-month stay if he needed to get out of Chicago.
                                      [quoted from an article today on MSNBC.com]

Steve Ballmer, talking about computer researchers who publish vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s products [emphasis mine], after recent outbreaks of MS-security violations, and email-worms exploiting Outlook security holes:

“I wish those [researchers] just would be quiet… It would be best for the world.“

Security channels …

or, ‘what happens when you lose your taste buds but refuse to notice’.  On literary prizes, “isn’t that better than nothing?”, and Stephen King.

Clark & Son (Clark Jr, screenwriter) storm Hollywood, starting with the Clintons’ cadre of long-time friends.

Hollywood Access #: Clark & Son …

I have one word for you.  Magnatune.

Value judgement is ther name of a fantastic thought-channel, currently only in limited blog-format, but excellently constructed on a fetal level.  And while I’m mentioning cute new channels, the DNC’s Kicking Ass blog is a cute gimmick that’s actually useful — there’s no other good source for images from official conferences and up-to-the-hour reflections of the stories and spins being passed about the Committee.

Value Judgement …

Could be nothing.  But don’t go acting all surprised.

Clinton prepares to run? …