Molt Be Blog

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

New Crap

Apple announced their new stuff today. An upgraded Mac mini and an iPod boombox. Lame, lame, lame. There's not even an iPod doc in the top of the mini... which would have been excellent... The audio/video out is pretty cool. and should work with the cord I have for the iPod doc if I ever get one of these.
The iPod boombox seems a bit pricey at $349... espeically when the Bose iPod Dock can be found for $216... and they traditionally have much better sound. Thinksecret hinted that there were capabilites of this apple boom box (iPod "Hi-Fi") that would be unique and beyond current third part docking systems... oh well. I'll continue pumping it through the TV for now.

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Duh

BBC Survey: Iraq makes terror 'more likely'

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Friday, February 24, 2006

BIG FAT LIAR

Bush uses the training of Iraqi troops to avoid giving a timeline for troop withdrawal, but he lies about Iraqi troop readiness. He lies about the number of battalions that have been trained, the number that are ready, etc. Then, even after they get one battalion trained... they're downgraded:
CNN Today: Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded - No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support
The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.
The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military.
The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in when U.S. troops will be able to return home.
President Bush in a speech in a Speech to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on November 30, 2005.
[transcript]
At this time last year there were only a handful of Iraqi battalions ready for combat. Now there are over 120 Iraqi army and police combat battalions in the fight against the terrorists, typically comprised of between 350 and 800 Iraqi forces.
Of these, about 80 Iraqi battalions are fighting side by side with coalition forces, and about 40 others are taking the lead in the fight. Most of these 40 battalions are controlling their own battlespace, conducting their own operations against the terrorists with some coalition support, and they're helping to turn the tide of the struggle in freedom's favor.

And this story: U.S. planning to release intelligence on Iraq from early 2003 is just for kicks... How could so many people have been so scared of something dreamed up by Cheney, Wolfowitz, Pearl and friends?

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Thursday, February 23, 2006

Yumm

NPR: All Songs Considered: Secret Machines, Kings of Leon in Concert

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HARLANTURK

Go mike, go: HARLANTURK

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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Reminder

A Book for People Who Love Numbers - New York Times

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Jerks Win, What's New?

Cubicle Culture

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Slashdot | Yahoo! Bans "Allah" in Screen Names

Slashdot | Yahoo! Bans "Allah" in Screen Names

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Unipage Unifier

Another Slashdot item: Unipage.org - Home of the Unipage format and the Unipage Unifier
It's an alternative to pumping webpages into PDFs. It retains javascript, flash, etc. Pretty amazing. Don't know if it works for macs.

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Top 10 Strangest MP3 Players

Thanks, slashdot: TechEBlog » Top 10 Strangest MP3 Players

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Oscars? Anyone?

Plot Summary for Ultraviolet (2006)

Set in the late 21st century, a subculture of humans have emerged who have been modified genetically by a vampire-like disease (Hemophagia), giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence, and as they are set apart from "normal" and "healthy" humans, the world is pushed to the brink of worldwide civil war (a war between humans and hemophages) aimed at the destruction of the "diseased" population. In the middle of this crossed-fire is - an infected woman - Ultraviolet (played by Milla Jovovich), who finds herself protecting a nine-year-old boy who has been marked for death by the human government as he is believed to be a threat to humans.

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There Goes That

Supreme Court Plunges Into Abortion Debate

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Friday, February 17, 2006

You know you're a big shot when...

People apologize for "all that you've been through" after you shoot them in the face, neck and chest: CNN.com - Man shot by Cheney: 'Accidents do and will happen' - Feb 17, 2006

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Australian TV shows more Abu Ghraib images - Feb 15, 2006

Australian TV shows more Abu Ghraib images

Harper's magazine has had articles on this for years as well. And it's not rogue soldiers.... these things are being done often and committed by large numbers.

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Monday, February 13, 2006

CNN.com - U.N. draft: Acts 'amounting to torture' at Guantanamo - Feb 13, 2006

CNN.com - U.N. draft: Acts 'amounting to torture' at Guantanamo - Feb 13, 2006
It would appear that we've become the terrorists. Listen to me. "Become." ha! As though we haven't been bullying the whole world since the end of WWII. What's new?
Just remember, torture relies on terror. We're no better than the terrorists if we keep this up. What ideals will we be fighting for if we give them all up to win?

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Post Column on Heatlh Care Savings Accounts

Ownership Society Redux: I knew these things benefitted the wealthy somehow. Wonder when Bush will come up with something that doesn't...

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The Washington Post Can See Future Jon Stewart Quotes

Interesting... this post article from tomorrow quotes tonight's upcoming Daily Show and Letterman show. Unfair that Washington Post Staff Writer Mark Leibovich gets to see the Daily Show before me! I need to get a job at the Post. If not to get paid for typing, then to get quicker access to my favorite shows. After Cheney's Shooting Incident, Time to Unload: "On 'The Daily Show' last night, Jon Stewart, speaking as a 'concerned parent,' urged viewers never to let their children go on hunting trips with the vice president. 'I can't emphasize this enough,' Stewart said. 'I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulation they're trying to get lifted. It's just not worth it.'

Likewise, David Letterman's Top 10 list was devoted to 'Dick Cheney's excuses,' which included that he 'thought the guy was trying to go gay cowboy on me.'"

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Holy crap!

Cheney’s office under attack over shooting

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Sunday, February 12, 2006

Hrmm ... Maybe Syria isn't "next"

US prepares military blitz against Iran's nuclear sites
Of course, this story is just meant to get people's attention... The US military probably has blitz plans for all of the current non-nuclear countries on earth just in case they ever get close. Ridiculous.

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Saturday, February 11, 2006

Holy Sh*t! Snow! What to do we do?




DC is busy freaking out thanks to reports that we might get 7" (count them. inches.) of snow this weekend.
Whole foods was chock full of people with lines running down all the aisles and shopping carts filled with granola and Odwalla hand squeezed juices
I braved the lines to obtain cat food, croissants and some Tropicana Orange/Pineapple juice (the stuff is delicious).
After WF I went next door to stock up on razors for the snowstorm... not really... but I did buy that new Gillette Fusion with five blades. Too bad that Gillette is still synonymous with vivisection for me. They shave bunnies and cover them in Edge shaving gel (or at least they used to). This new razor has 5 blades. Overkill, you say? Yes. Apparently, these smaller, thinner blades "reduce irritation and increase comfort." I'd like to see them reduce irritation without increasing comfort. It would seem difficult.
R and I joined a gym last weekend, which may be why I haven't typed much in ye old blog in a while. We went there an hour after breakfast and I huffed and puffed through two and half miles on the treadmill.
We came home from the gym and caught up on the Lost episode that we missed last week, as well as a few episodes of the Daily Show and Colbert Report.
After that, we went and walked around the neighborhood, as it started to snow. That's where I snapped the non-razor related photos to the right.

Not too much going on here otherwise. Listening to the testimony of Attny General Gonzalez at Congressional hearing re: wiretapping earlier this week was frustrating as hell. The guy was spinning things left and right. Basically trying to convince everyone that what was going on was legal and that it was necessary, but not answering as to why it was so necessary not to go through a secret FISA court. Ridiculous. Cheney did the same thing the next night on the New Hour with Jim Lehrer. Then the whole thwarted terrorist attack on LA three years ago was announced on Thursday or Friday. They're not even faking that the announcement of an attack thwarted was political. The logic behind the announcement is just as dangerous as it is political: Cheney stressed in his interview that public knowledge of the NSA's (Isn't it funny that the spell checker's first suggestion for "NSA's" was "Nazis"?) domestic wiretapping program was bad for national security... I can't imagine that revealing a thwarted terrorist attack is great for national security either. Given the total lack of details surrounding this supposed attack plan, I have to wonder if it was ever even very close to happening and not just something made up by Cheney et al. to try to get people to back the NSA program.
I'm not against listening in on people who are calling Al Qaida, but I am against there being no checks on the NSA for doing so (like a secret court, for example).

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Monday, February 06, 2006

Well Planned Spontaneity

This rioting sounds like a well organized Bush press conference. An interesting description of another riot in the Cartoon Crisis: Rioting with well-planned spontaneity

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Sunday, February 05, 2006

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Also amusing... but probably very nerdily so... The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

This link and the last found through the magic that is del.icio.us. Behold.

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Amusing Exercise

This is amusing.
My answer [you should really click the link before reading]:
Measure the length of one of the dildos (metric or standard measurement... equal opportunity and all that). Multiply the length of one by 100 to get the total length of all the dildos.
Next, think of another length (i.e. the distance from your house to France).
Create a scale using your dildos by dividing the distance from your house to France by the total length of all the dildos.
Finally, lay the dildos out in a long line and say that that length in dildos represents the distance from your house to France on a scale of one dildo equals 45km or some such number. Everyone will be impressed at how much easier it is to visualize the distance to France when they think of it in terms of dildos. Trust me.

I realized after entering this that my math is a bit off... but you get the idea.

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See the Cartoons

If you haven't been following this story about anger over 12 sketches, originally published in September, depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, Wikipedia has some text on the subject as well as the original images.
Let's just hope I don't get a fatwah issued on me for linking to this.
I definitely understand why muslims would be angry over something like this, especially when large numbers of muslims live in countries with little separation between church and state and little religious freedom. At the same time, I can only see violence resulting from outrage over a cartoon as complete and total fanatacism at a level that I will never be able to respect.
Killing someone for blasphemy seems like such an absurd concept to Americans and Europeans and I suppose this lack of respect and understanding may be what escalates a situtation like this into violence.
Or not... I'm just rambling.
Ironic that things are now being blown up because of a cartoon depicting the prophet as a blower-up of things.

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Who Knew?

That Google had all of these Search Features? I new about the Definition function, but there's a bunch of other stuff it can do.

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Saturday, February 04, 2006

UUUHHHGGG-rrrr!

UUUHHHGGG-rrrr!

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Friday, February 03, 2006

Reminder

Get Pressure Drop

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Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Picasa Update

Google's Picasa is now available in 25 languages, now how about a flipping OS X version?!? I'm sick of iPhoto! It's crappy!

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My, what a lack of updates

What with a quick trip to Brooklyn this past weekend for merriment, getting back late on Sunday, working on Monday, and being sick all day yesterday there haven't been many updates to ye old blog. In my illness I also managed to miss the rhetoric-fest that is Bush's State of the Union address. Here's a link to the Full Transcipt for me to have read to my later by the macintosh (if I'm feeling too lazy to read it, that is).
Gotta work. Need food. Have Dayquil, Zicam, Oddwalla Citrus C-Monster kicking in. ick.

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