Happy new year links

+ Remember those Rodrigo y Gabriela tips I linked? Went back to them the other night. Way beyond me.

So, instead, here's a bootleg video where they cover Wish You Were Here, inducing the audience to sing along. Rodrigo plays slide with a beer bottle.

+ My official song for the new year will be The New Year by Death Cab for Cutie. I'm not putting it up, but these folks did (if you want to hear it).

(Can the RIAA get me for linking to songs someone else is sharing? ;-)

+ Interesting site: A Low Impact Woodland Home. I think Brad, especially, would like it. Kind of looks like a hobbit hole ;-)

+ More music for your new year: The final countdown. This one is especially for Macon.

This is why we have the Internet: New Year's Eve edition

Felt like looking around in Google Video. Here's what I liked:

+ Charlie Rose fills the whole first page of top-rated TV
+ Reggie Bush Heisman highlights
+ The Play

I'm not one of those Michael Jordan fanatics, but the dude could play. I pulled these out of Google Video's most popular sports videos

+ Michael Jordan - Remember the Name
+ Michael Jordan. The legend
+ Michael Jordan Music Video

Wish you were here and the new year

+ Remember those Rodrigo y Gabriela tips I linked? Went back to them the other night. Way beyond me.

So, instead, here's a bootleg video where they cover Wish You Were Here, inducing the audience to sing along. Rodrigo plays slide with a beer bottle.

+ My official song for the new year will be The New Year by Death Cab for Cutie. I'm not putting it up, but these folks did (if you want to hear it).

(Can the RIAA get me for linking to songs someone else is sharing? ;-)

Comment upgrade: Colombia is passion

My buddy Kurt works for a Columbian company and has fallen in love with Colombia. In a comment on my Hope for the New Year post, Kurt linked this video about Colombia: Colombia is passion.

It looks very beautiful. I would be open to falling in love with it myself :-)

(Of course, the cynical 10% that Kurt mentions in his comment is that you've got the drug cartels and this is deploying our best advertising tricks, including a very cute-voiced bilingual child narrator, to plus up Colombia's PR. But the beautiful 90% remains...)

James, Eddie, Mark, Tom, (me), Rodrigo and Gabriela

+ I'm not a huge James Brown fan. The only two songs of his I really like are I Feel Good and that piece from the Blues Brothers (not even Living in America).

Still, I trust you will know I don't mean any disrespect when I link Eddie Murphy's spot from SNL: James Brown's Celebrity Hot tub.

+ My buddy Mark (ZenPundit) Safranski has a funny, creative post today about an alternate blogosphere. It might only be funny to those of us in the circle he writes about, but, hey, I'm part of that circle and it's funny to me. Here's the excerpt that links me:

Tommy Barnett:

Acclaimed NFL color commentator in Green Bay, " Doc Barnett" pontificates daily on the need to redesign the gridiron into a dodecahedron in order to spread the values of American football to places like Botswana and Montenegro ( Barnett's webmaster, Sean of Interdict, embarrasses his boss regularly with simple grammatical errors and odd uses of syntax).

Be assured that Mark has the highest regard for my command of the English language (sometimes inflicted on him, like, for example, that space between the open parenthesis and and the capital 'B' up there ;-), so this is regarded as a bizarro scenario.

+ I wisely decided last night to NOT keep watching Rodrigo and Gabriela on YouTube. Here are the two I did watch.

I'm especially intrigued by what looks like just 3 bass strings on Gabriela's guitar, at least in the first video, which she flails on while also handling a lot of percussion on her guitar body. Since I love rhythm sections...

So, I'm putting a link to some tips here to watch later. Must not get too sidetracked...

A little global hope for your new year

You know I like the new, shiny stuff, right? I mean, I like new ideas. I lose interest in the old, good ideas. Heaven knows the number of interests I've lost interest in, the number of projects I've started and never finished.

All that to say, I continue to be amazed, two years after basically immersing myself in Tom's thinking, a year after interacting with his ideas literally every day, I still remain interested and just basically think he's right. Today's post that prompted this reflection is entitled Earth is doomed!  Doomed I tell you!

Thumbnail version: we have a long and glorious history of worrying about changes (eg nukes, disease, bugs, pollution, the ozone hole, global warming) that do not turn out to be catastrophic. Amazingly, human ingenuity adapts.

All sorts of dramatic changes are proposed at huge costs, when, of course, for pennies a year we could save the same numbers from all sorts of early childhood diseases or make all sorts of advances in combating this or that affliction right here and now.

Then the close:

So don't surrender the future just yet (always tempting as these end of the year recollections remind you of all the tragedies that beset us over the past twelve month; why? because they're news man!).

We've never had a smaller percentage of humanity involved in organized violence than we do today.

We've never had a more robust or deeply integrated global economy than we do today, nor one growing so steadily and broadly.

We've never had more new scientific knowledge accumulating or smart people being put against tough tasks.

And we've never been more spiritual (outside of Europe, of course).

Humanity will top out at 50% more people than we have today within the next four decades. How we treat these four decades will determine much about the future of our species, but I see that challenge as our best one yet.

Not to be feared but to be relished. Not used to inspire fear but to build confidence. Not avoided but created.

Peace on earth (with justice). Good will to all.

Gerald Ford

I was alive, but barely sentient when Gerald Ford became President. I have no memory of him as President at all. I have no memory of my own that Chevy Chase lampooned him falling on SNL and subsequently became addicted to prescription pain killers. I learned that from Trivial Pursuit. Who was Gerald Ford?

Steve has a nice piece in his honor.

So does Mark.

Everyone I've read or heard agrees that Ford did the right thing when he pardoned Nixon, though it was political suicide and he eventually lost to the relatively unknown Jimmy Carter. Carter acknowledged this move in his inaugural address and Ted Kennedy, who opposed the pardon, later admitted that it had been the right thing.

Ford also seems to have been universally regarded as an honest man of integrity who didn't take himself too seriously.

Ford on Wikipedia. A few highlights:

• Biological father was abusive, but stepfather and resultant family was happy
• Only US President who was an Eagle Scout
• Star football player
• Michigan, Yale Law
• Opposed US entry into WW2 at first, but joined Navy after Pearl Harbor
• His wife, Betty, struggled with alcoholism and addiction and achieved sobriety
• Ford was the target of two assasination attempts, interestingly both by women
  

More adapted headlines

From Knight Still Clinging to His Notion of What College Basketball Should Be

to Knight Still Grasping for How People Should Be Treated

Just a few items for ya...

+ Ken is a nut.

Exhibit A

If both time and money are in short supply this winter, use your body. Romance a lonely librarian. As the movies have taught us, when librarians take off their dowdy glasses and let their hair down, some are real lookers.

Exhibit B

Mindy got me a pair of nose hair clippers this year…but, ironically, I had already sold all my nose hair to buy her a watch fob!

(You can name the famous story he's aping, right?)

+ I enjoyed Google Predictions, 2007.

+ Jaq linked resources for celebrating the Winter Solstice if you've come to fear Cthulhu .

Let's whip through Google's year-end Zeitgeist

And then I'm done for this morning for real! ;-)

Home

What are these things anyway?

Google.com - Top Searches in 2006

  1. bebo
  2. myspace
  3. world cup
  4. metacafe
  5. radioblog [this one looks like it has the most potential for me]
  6. wikipedia
  7. video
  8. rebelde
  9. mininova
10. wiki

I feel pretty out of it to not know 5 of the top 10 searches, and 3 of those are Web 2.0.

Definitions

who is v?

define promiscuous - Nelly Furtado has enhanced everyone's word power! ;-)

how to kickflip

Current Events

I didn't know or care that there was a Project Runway scandal. Was it important, D? ;-)

Milestones

Most of this is a bunch of celebrity crap.

Entertainment

Cheetah Girls tickets were the most popular search in this category. Who knew?

Sports

The World Cup, appropriately, dominated.

Hmm. Not sure any of us have been edified by this exercise, but sometimes you don't know until you try...

Bet you haven't thought this about Iraq

My buddy Dan of tdaxp is an iconoclastic thinker. But he doesn't just smash up sacred cows willy-nilly. He always has good reasons for his thinking.

I've linked him before as someone who thinks differently on Iraq from me, but who may very well be more right than I am. Further more, the more Iraq mires, the more I think Dan might be right.

So let me just copy one of his recent comments in full:

al Qaeda's attack on 9/11 was reaonable given aQ's goal of a restored, reformed Islam. The bulk of the Arab Sunni states, from which al Qaeda generated recruits, had corrupt and unpopular governments. However, most all had governments either directly or indirectly supported by the United States. The rest thrived off the enmity of the US. Getting America out of the picture was vital.

If it would have helped create a Qaedist state in the middle east, the fall of Afghanistan would have been worth it.

The American invasion of Iraq likewise could have led to good things. Either an anarchic Iraq or an Iraq with a corrupt government of fixerswould be acceptable in the short term. Iraq had to be set up for a Qaedist Revolution once America suspeded activities in the broader Middle East.

Fortunately, the breathtaking foolishness of two men, George W. Bush and Abu Musab Zarqawi, made this impossible. George Bush's incompetent attempts to buy off a hostile and noxious Sunni Arab minority are well known, and we can thank God the final defeat of the Bush plan is approaching. For his part, Zarqawi insanely focused on creating a sectarian fight in Iraq instead of uniting Iraqi factions against the United States. If either of them had performed his role much better, a tasteless despotism could have emerged that would have discouraged American actions in the region.

But now we have an Iraq which is every closer in Iran's orbit. Instead of a distant, and thus persuadable, American foe Qaeda now faces a very near, and thus unpersuadable, Iranian enemy. One day, America will leave Iraq because America leaves all the countries she conquers. Iran never will. Iran crouched near the Mesopotamian three thousand years ago. And she will crouch there still three thousand years from now. Worse for our enemy, Shia Arabs are active collaborators in Iraq and a fifth column in Saudi Arabia.

The Sunni hegemony of the Arab world, which began with the fall of the Fatimids in 1117, ended with L. Paul Bremer's dismissal of the Iraqi Army in 2003. In the same way that German hegemony over eastern europe which began in 1226, with the Teutonic Knights' occupation of Culmerland, was ended in 1945 by the Red Army.

This is a fitting revenge for 9/11/2002, as that was a fitting revenge for 6/22/1941.

History has turned.

Now is the time for the victory, the peace, the embracing of constructive forces (sharia, etc), and the marketization with which will eventually come globalization. The real peace.

If Dan's right, then my post from yesterday, addressing what our GIs most need, should have said 'to be pulled out'.

Cleaning out Google Reader

+ This is old, but Paul had an interesting post from the WSJ about how we can free a N Korean refugee from hiding in China for 800-1500$ each.

+ Oh wow. I might die from coolness. Have you seen the scale fly out from Mercury to W Cephei?

(Note going back to our previous debate: Pluto doesn't even rate inclusion! (Remember, it's smaller than Earth's moon.)

+ I have a love/hate relationship with the Eddie Rabbit song 'I love a rainy night.' I am unable to not think of this song on... a rainy night, because I do love rainy nights. And it's kind of catchy.

On the other hand, it's kind of annoying and cloying. So there you go...

+ DrawerGeeks!, every other Friday, all draw a fictional character and post it on their website. Some nice captures here, and some whimsical stuff that Wil really enjoyed. (via kottke)

Jaq, at least, should check out the Wonder Woman page ;-)

+ Did you read about the woman who gave birth to three girls from two wombs? Since we are parents of multiples, we find such things especially interesting...

+ 2 more names I like from the Hype Machine: Deadly Hume and Cotton Mather.

Stuff I read while stuffing myself with stuff to eat

[Note: found this languishing in my Drafts folder :-(]

+ The five Google products . Good to see Google re-tooling and continuing to critique their own performance.

+ The 100% Easy-2-Read standard. Get your design geek on. This makes me want to redesign everything I'm doing or have done right now. Of course, I don't have time ;-)

+ Everyone basically agrees with me on the BCS because I am so awesome. ;-) Well, at least Jason, Kathy, and Desiree do in the comments and Jaq does on his weblog. Not that I expect our sanity to carry the day, because I perfectly don't.

+ NASA's moonbase plan is in the news ( this link from DefenseTech). I'm for it.

Give our GIs what they need the most

Let's adapt this headline: Bush Urges Prayers, Gifts for Iraq GIs

to this: Meade Urges More Money for More Ground Troops.

Merry Christmas from us

(I was trying to smile, but I really didn't know when Christine's dad was going to take the picture ;-)

And, yes, it is nice to have such a beautiful family. And smart. And talented. And... ;-)

Ken will beat you like a rented mule!

In the too-strange-to-be-fiction category, Ken posts about a professional poker playing atheist who has made a $50,000 bet that he could beat any 'creationist' [specifically defined] in an SAT or GRE math test. Somebody suggested Ken and the poker-playing atheist said he'd take the bet. Ken countered that he'd take the bet if it was combined SAT math and verbal -

Because anyone who consistently misspells "resurrected" as "ressurected" isn't going to beat my SAT verbal score anytime soon.

Aww, yeah! Geek smack-down! ;-)

I'm not making this up, folks.

Now, time to clean out Google Reader

For reasons I'll keep to myself (unless you email me), I've switched from Bloglines to Google Reader for my feed subscriptions. I like it a lot. One of the best things is the integration with Gmail. Now, when I want to email you a post, I click on the 'Email' link and it spawns a Gmail window which, best of all, has my suggest-as-I-type address book. Before, with Bloglines, if I didn't know the email address I'd email something to myself first, then forward it from Gmail.

Anyway, a few links I've been saving up:

+ Jaq linked my post on Ken's evaluation of A Charlie Brown Christmas dancing .

+ Jaq kindly wrote that, if he could, he'd send Tom Brady to throw the ball with me for Christmas. Isn't that sweet, of course, after that his hatred of Tom kicks in...

+ Jaq posted his review of Casino Royale, which he liked.

Okay, I posted the Ken Jennings story by itself, so this turns out to be a solo Jaq post, but I'm okay with that. Enjoy!

The end of American hegemony

It's very popular these days to cry that American power is failing. That's not true, strictly speaking, or at least not the only perspective.

The big story here is that the tide of globalization is raising so many boats. China's so far peaceful rise needn't spell doom for America. It just marks the end of a crazy bit of history where we were unrivaled, especially in the free world.

And the rise of these other countries, including the somewhat-banding together of the EU to leverage a little more influence, is not a zero-sum game. In fact, I bet more wealth will be created in America by everyone growing than if we maintained our huge lead.

It does mean we will have to resort to more diplomacy if we want to get at least some of what we want on the international stage in the future. Wonder if we can revive that lost art. Probably another place where we will have to look to the private sector to find some people who have some experience with this...

Wednesday on the Vision:M

Man, I have good taste in music! ;-)

The first three, especially, were very welcome to get me going this morning on my commute:

1. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
2. So. Central Rain - REM
3. Sabotage - The Beastie Boys
4. Selfless, Cold and Composed - Ben Folds Five
5. All the Way to Kingdom Come - Rich Mullins [Demo version]
   
6. The Kissing Tree - Sarah Masen
7. Find the River - REM
8. Radiohead Quartet
9. She just wants to be somewhere - REM
10. Everything is Alright - Mark Heard
11. Children in Bloom - Counting Crows
12. Hard Day's Night
13. Fire - Mark Heard
14. Whatever - Butthole Surfers
15. Russians - Sting
16. Mr Jones - Counting Crow [VH1 version - SO interesting how he changed the lyrics. But Adam needs to get some sun and fresh air...]
    
17. Stuck in a Moment - U2
18. Eleanor Rigby
19. Take on Me - A Ha
20. if i'm ever around - immuzikation [this one's kind of atypical for a mashup - older and disco-y]
    
21. A Movie Script Ending - DCfC
22. How's Your Wasteland? - The Who Boys
23. Daylight Fading - Counting Crows
24. The Boy with the Thorn in His Side - The Smiths
25. Sympathy for the Almighty - The Kleptones
26. Annie-Dog - The Smashing Pumpkins
27. Verb, that's what's happenin'! - Schoolhouse Rock!
28. To the Roof of the Sky - Vigilantes of Love
29. Push this Party Started - DJ Empirical
30. Nothing Like a Train - Vigilante of Love
31. Mr Jones - Counting Crows [original]
32. Right Here, Right Now - Jesus Jones
33. Old Dan Tucker - Bruce Springsteen
34. The Ocean In-Between - Matthew Sweet

That's all for today. Hope you enjoyed it! ;-)

Tuesday on the Creative Zen Vision:M (30 GB)

My buddy, Robbi, is the greatest, most capable music lover I know. If he didn't have a gap from when he was a fundamentalist, he would be inhuman.

Often, when Robbi sends out an email he'll append to the end what came up on random on his iPod while he wrote. Fantastic.

Can you tell from the title of this post that I have a new, early Christmas present Creative Zen Vision:M (30 GB)? It's great. I love it. I've got most of my music on there already, 1972 songs (Then again, maybe I should just leave that number, because 1972 was a very good year ;-)]. I'm on random, so let me share at least a few:

1. Don't, this way - The 77s
2. Wonderful Merciful Savior
3. Parents Just Don't Understand
4. Talk Show Host - Radiohead
5. Pop Song '89 - REM
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday
7. A Knife in the Dark - Howard Shore, LotR: FotR
8. Give - Third Day
   
9. Everyday I Write the Book
10. Cloth of Life - VoL
11. Help
12. Underwater - DCfC
13. My Friends Over You
14. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle - The Smiths
15. When You Say Nothing at All - Allison Krauss
16. Macho Man
17. Lowell, MA - DCfC
18. Hand in Glove - The Smiths
19. Falls - Ennio Morricone, The Mission
20. Wouldn't it be Nice?
21. This Charming Man - The Smiths [Dang! Lots of Smiths. Not that I'm complaining ;-)]
22. Guilty Partner - New Order
23. All the Way - New Order [Same album. Freaky! ;-)]
24. Half a Person - The Smiths
25. Sit Down. Stand Up. - Radiohead
26. Walk Unafraid - REM
27. Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla - Schoolhouse Rock!

That should do for now, aye. My ears are getting sore (from the buds ;-)

Etymology of the Day

I get the Dictionary.com word of the day and it's okay. I usually know at least the approximate meaning of the word. As you have noticed, the etymologies are most interesting to me.

What we really need is an Etymology of the Day, chosen for interestingness.

It could be in association with the very fine Online Etymology Dictionary. But I assume Doug over there isn't looking for extra work. And I don't have the time.

Airwolf, opportunity, Amazon, and onoma

+ Here's a whole post on Airwolf, including mp3s!

+ Etymology of the day:

Opportune is from Latin opportunus, from ob portum, "toward port." For travelers at sea who wish to return to land, it's a welcome wind that blows toward the port.

+ One of the many ways in which Christine is awesome is that she manages my gifts. So, she shepherded her mother in shopping from my Amazon wishlist and got me 300 and Father Elijah.

I've talked about 300 a bit lately, but haven't raved about Father Elijah recently. It's about a Catholic monk who confronts the Apocalypse and it is absolutely riveting. It's so good that, as someone posted on Amazon, it's like the anti-Left Behind . Order and read! ;-)

+ More names I like from the Hype Machine:

• How I Became the Bomb
• Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!
• Planningtorock
• Lightnin' Hopkins (in honor of REM)

That's all I got for now...

Communicating with cars

Ken Jennings (Can I call you 'Ken'? ;-) points out an inter-car communication system called Drivemocion. I might really need this ;-)

Want a good laugh?

(Look! Different punctuation in the title! ;-)

+ Check out Regret the Error's list of 2006 media mistakes and corrections . You might want to start with the ones kottke liked.

+ Or take in the Queen's zingers on defective yeti.

No need to thank me. Just helping to put more 'merry' in your Christmas ;-)

Gmail update

Got my Gmail inbox down to *50* today because I am so awesome. I found out it's not that hard. You just leave stuff in there for about 6 months. Then you go through and delete about a third. Last, archive about two-thirds, about half of those with your 'maybe' tag. Voila!

Parts of my Gmail account that are not so awesome: 49 Drafts that I really should cull down and 15650 Spam :-(

Attack of the exclamation marks!

Whoa. Just went back and scanned my weblog and noticed that the last 6 posts in a row, 7 including this one, have titles which ended in exclamation marks. One post even had 3 exclamation marks in it.

This was done unwittingly by me. Guess I'm just feeling exclamatory these days ;-)

Wheel! Of! Fortune!

My buddy Willis is going on Wheel of Fortune. Congratulations, Willis. Say 'hi' to Pat Sajak for me!

Fits in with all the Ken Jennings I've been reading. I hope you win 3M$, Willis ;-)

Ken Jennings is a nut!

(You know, in a good way ;-)

Today's post ranks the dancing in A Charile Brown Christmas.

I finished reading his book, Brainiac, recently and really must write up my review

That was the best Christmas album ever!

I'm not the world's biggest Sufjan Stevens fan. He's the current indie favorite. That's fine. I've listened to a lot of his songs and have only found a couple that I like.

Except for every song in the 5-disc Christmas box set.

I told Christine last night he was giving A Charlie Brown Christmas a run for its money. That's still the all-time favorite, owing largely to nostalgia. But these 40 or so songs are the only thing I'm listening to right now.

I normally avoid 'holiday' songs. It's almost got to be classic, well-done, and somewhat about Jesus's birth for me to listen to it. (Charlie Brown (which does have some classic Christmas songs) and The Nutcracker get a pass.)

But I'm willing to make an exception for Sufjan's Santa songs. He mixes them with Jesus' birth, sometimes in the same song (like 'Let's all boogie to the elf dance', which the twins and I LOVE right now).

I downloaded them back when they were still available for free, but ponied up the 20 or so dollars to get them from Amazon to support the project (I usually buy one new Christmas album every year). This means we would like more next year, please Mr Asthmatic Kitty.

'Get Behind Me Santa' - very clever. 'That was the worst Christmas ever' - 'Father yells, throwing the gifts in the woodstove'. Some good rocking out and some good banjo-pickin'.

If you want to try them out, just cruise on over to the The Hype Machine and search for Sufjan. They're all over it. Or if you're looking for some fresh Christmas music, take the plunge and buy the box set. Great stuff. Sure to make you smile this Christmas season (if not, I'm sending the Ghosts of Christmas to your house in 11 days ;-).

Now that's an interesting etymology!

via Dictionary.com

Syncretic is the adjective form of syncretism, from Greek synkretismos, "federation of Cretan cities," from sunkretizein, "to unite against a common enemy, in the manner of the Cretan cities," from syn-, "with, together" + Kres, Kret-, "Cretan."

Trip Shakespeare!

Got a MySpace invite from an old college friend today and saw the Trip Shakespeare fan page on her profile. Fun! I changed my profile music to their Snow Days, even though we don't have any snow in SC :-(

They are also streaming Unlucky Lady, which I highly recommend.

I liked watching some of the videos, X-Ray and Pearle and Across the universe promo.

Also, from their page, I click over to Dan Wilson's MySpace page. He fronted TS and has gone on to a solo career. I didn't know he wrote Closing Time and I'm Not Ready To Make Nice, both Grammy nominated. I like the song Breathless that he's streaming.

Karibu ni Kenya!

My good friends Paul and Carol Stokes are visiting their daughter, Mary, in Kenya. The travelogue is coming to an end, but if you're interested at all, you should check it out.

Rest in peace James Kim

I wouldn't have noticed James Kim's death, except I've read A LOT of his reviews on CNET while thinking about buying an mp3 player.

It's worth noting that he died trying to save his family when they were caught in a snowstorm. His family survived.

+ On Lifehacker
+ On CNET

Cluephone update on Nothing but Nets

Honestly, Christine must just sit at this computer and shake her head.

Remember my post about Nothing but Nets? Turns out Christine gave enough for 2 nets the first time around, and I gave enough for 8.

So we're up to 10 on account of 2 counts of my cluelessness.

But I guess that's okay, right? ;-)

My indie cred plummets!

OK, buddy. You've grown to really like Death Cab for Cutie, most everything by Ben Gibbard, really, and love The Postal Service.

But you've loved them through the mp3 weblogs, and now it's time to buy some albums.

I'll get my second TPS album, Give Up, this Xmas (unless Scott sends his before then ;-), as a gift or myself.

So, time to choose a DCfC album. Start looking through Amazon. Checking the tracks. Guess which one has the most songs on it that I like?

Easy choice: Plans. The latest one.

Aaaahhhh! Indie cred plummets! They're mainstream now! Major label! Leper, outcast, unclean!

;-)

Buy a net

Did you ever read Rick Reilly's call to buy moquito nets for African children? We really intended to participate and didn't. He had a follow-up this past issue on all the lives that have been saved. If we who have been to Africa and fallen in love with it and taken anti-malarial drugs don't donate nets, who will?

Go to Nothing But Nets and make a donation.

I just went and donated enough money for 4 nets - one for each of us Meades. It's a start.

What about you? Interested at all?

I don't care about the BCS

Lots of people, especially people who make their living in sports 'news', are up in arms about the BCS.

Not me. I don't care.

I realized last week that I don't care. I don't care if there's an 'undisputed champion' of NCAA D1 football. Lots of people do. I don't.

Furthermore, the 'undisputed champions' of things like NCAA D1 basketball and NFL football are only the 'undisputed champion' by convention. Sure, everyone agrees to the convention. Everyone also knows it's usually not the best team of that year or season that wins. It might be the best team at the end of the season, after you factor in injuries, strength of schedule, and myriad other factors. It might just be the team that got hot or lucky or __________ [fill in the blank].

Case in point: you're not going to find too many non-Steeler fans who would say the Steelers were the best team in pro football last year, even at the end of the season. There are many admirable things about the Steelers. I'm glad they won. I'm glad they got very lucky and didn't have any major injuries and didn't play like this year and didn't get distracted like this year.

You see what I'm saying? It's all a convention and we all buy into it. That's fine.

I know the outcry is for such a convention in NCAA D1 football. And I think it will eventually happen. The presidents just want to keep the BCS money and all their other excuses are baloney. Public opinion will eventually produce some kind of playoff.

But I don't care. It's college. I don't need an 'undisputed champion'. Do you?

What color is Sooner red?

Dear Dan,

I love you, but I have chosen Oklahoma.

Since I lived in Tulsa when the Sooners won their last national championship, and since I am a Bobby Stoops fan (Iowa alum and all around class act), I will be pulling for OU to beat your Nebraska Cornhuskers tomorrow.

No hard feelings,

Sean

ps: I openly acknowledge that my team's best accomplishment this year was jumping Minnesota and Purdue to the Alamo Bowl :-(

Must empty more links from Bloglines!

I got my saved Lifehacker links down under 130, so I'm happy about that :-(

+ Names I like from Hype Machine:

• DeVotchka
• Nation of Ulysses
• the Wondertwins
• Killing Joke (Batman reference, at least to me)
• Oliver North Boy Choir
• The Rural Alberta Advantage (reminiscent of Iowa Beef Experience)
• How I Became the Bomb (Someone set us up the bomb...)
• And last, but certainly not least, Carpal Tunnel of Love (which, unrelatedly, evokes 'Cradle of Love' by Billy Idol for me)
  

+ Internet videos enjoyed tonight:

• The Spider-Man 3 preview stuff from Fox's airing of Spider-Man 2 Thanksgiving Night.
• HBO Sneak Preview of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  

Good night!

Let's do a Wii post

I've been saving some stuff up. I'm a closet Wii fan. That is, we don't have one yet. Maybe Xmas next year...

+ In praise of third place - It works for Nintendo. (via kottke) Sony and MS are selling their boxes at a loss, locked in mortal combat, and there's still no way I'd way that kind of money for those machines. I don't forsee us having HD anytime soon.

+ Matt Haughey's controller took flight when he was 'bowling' . That straps on there for a reason...

+ kottke doesn"t have one, but he liked the one he played.

Hmm. Thought I had more links than that saved up. Oh well. I even did some googling, but nothing struck my fancy. So that's all you get! ;-)

Idea re: leaked memo

Here's an idea for you. It's so obvious to folks like me who lean left (right of wrong), that I'm sure someone's already done it:

Analyze President Bush according to the criteria applied to Iraqi President Maliki in the leaked Hadley memo.

Like I said - obvious.

The Wired post

Man, there's a lot to like in this latest edition of Wired. Of course, with Shopping Season (America's greatest Holy-days) upon us, the features don't start until page 200.

The cover topic is YouTube, and I really like that coverage. The main article name checks a lot of the videos I have enjoyed on YouTube including The Evolution of Dance and those guys on treadmills.

A lot of the article is about how old media doesn't get it and can YouTube monetize the right amount to be significant in business but not lose its indie soul?

I say yes. They can hit enough of a happy medium (get it? 'medium'? ;-) to make money and still get a lot of participation. Plus, they're now owned by Google, who are the masters of unobtrusive monetization. Sure, plenty of the purists cry foul on Google and YouTube. These are the same kinds of people who can't listen to Ben Gibbard anymore since he's on a major label. Let them slink back to more obscure server farms and continue to fight the cultural power. They talk about maybe attaching advertising videos, but, heck, I don't see why they can't just do text ads on most of the free, personally uploaded content and make their money back that way.

Old media doesn't get it? Who cares? Let them extinct themselves, and good riddance.

The next article's about a Tahoe ad campaign that let people mix their own. [Not available yet.] Many were critical and subversive. It's an interesting experiment, but I don't think this is going to be the next-gen advertising model. For one thing, aren't we more post-major-brand-loyalty than that? What hipster loves her Chevy?

Here's an idea: monitor the major new media streams for brand mentions. Plenty of them are majorly commercial. When Kevin Kelly or Matt Haughey or Jason Kottke or Mighy Girl say they like something, leverage it. Make a special offer through their site. Ask them to indie-produce something for you own back-channel, low-level, weblog or YouTube campaign.

Ohmigosh. I could be a New Marketeer. What should the name of my firm be? seanmeade.net? ;-)

I liked the article on lonelygirl , too. Now those people know what they're doing. One of them (who is a woman to give the right tone) answers 500 email a day. More evidence that old media is dead. If these guys had hit it big on TV they'd have a street named lonelygirl in Burbank. But they don't have an major old media deal to bankroll them to keep doing what they're doing. {Ring Ring} Cluephone. It's for you...

Interesting article called Edifice, Complex [Not available yet]on the engineering of Gehry-esque buildings. Cool stuff.

December Wired

Man, there's a lot to like in this latest edition of Wired. Of course, with Shopping Season (America's greatest Holy-days) upon us, the features don't start until page 200.

The cover topic is YouTube, and I really like that coverage. The main article name checks a lot of the videos I have enjoyed on YouTube including The Evolution of Dance and those guys on treadmills.

A lot of the article is about how old media doesn't get it and can YouTube monetize the right amount to be significant in business but not lose its indie soul.

I say yes. They can hit enough of a happy medium (get it? 'medium'? ;-) to make money and still get a lot of participation. Plus, they're now owned by Google, who are the masters of unobtrusive monetization. Sure, plenty of the purists cry foul on Google and YouTube. These are the same kinds of people who can't listen to Ben Gibbard anymore since he's on a major label. Let them slink back to more obscure server farms and continue to fight the cultural power. They talk about maybe attaching advertising videos, but, heck, I don't see why they can't just do text ads on most of the free, personally uploaded content and make their money back that way.

Old media doesn't get it? Who cares? Let them extinct themselves, and good riddance.

The next article's about a Tahoe ad campaign that let people mix their own. Many were critical and subversive. It's an interesting experiment, but I don't think this is going to be the next-gen advertising model. For one thing, aren't we more post-major-brand-loyalty than that? What hipster loves her Chevy?

Here's an idea: monitor the major new media streams for brand mentions. Plenty of them are majorly commercial. When Kevin Kelly or Matt Haughey or Jason Kottke or Mighy Girl say they like something, leverage it. Make a special offer through their site. Ask them to indie-produce something for you own back-channel, low-level, weblog or YouTube campaign.

Ohmigosh. I could be a New Marketeer. What should the name of my firm be? seanmeade.net? ;-)

I liked the article on lonelygirl, too. Now those people know what they're doing. One of them (who is a woman to give the right tone) answers 500 email a day. More evidence that old media is dead. If these guys had hit it big on TV they'd have a street named lonelygirl in Burbank. But they don't have an major old media deal to bankroll them to keep doing what they're doing. {Ring Ring} Cluephone. It's for you...

Interesting article called Edifice, Complex on the engineering of Gehry-esque buildings. Cool stuff.

Ooh, forgot one

A couple of my favorite Clash songs (Rock the Casbah and Should I Stay...) linked in this post with the great title By order of the prophet, we ban that boogie sound!

Peace!

Indie is the new pop

Had a big argument with Terry back in 1998-ish about whether Pearl Jam was pop or not. His brother settled it with the question 'Do they play it on the radio every day?' ;-)

+ A few more names I like from the Hype Machine:

• Arcwelder (since I currently sell welding supplies ;-)
• Garmisch Partenkirchen - I don't know what this means, but IIRC, Garmisch is a German city/area in Bavaria. 'Kirchen' is churches. And I think 'Parten' should be 'parties'. Thus, I read it as 'Garmisch Partychurches' ;-) Google translates it as ' Mix part churches'. Turns out rather boringly that the whole name is a city and a region in Bavaria.
• The Shackletons - you know, Endurance and all that
  
• The Maccabees
• Misty Mountain Hop

+ David Brooks of the NYT had an interesting column Saturday about Borat and how he basically does the standard lampoons of the 'educated bourgeoisie'. I'd be interested in commentary from Dan who recently wrote about Borat.

+ Matt Haughey got a Wii and wrote a review. Short version: he loves it. Xmas 2007, here we come ;-)

+ defective yeti's last Bad Review Revue was pretty funny. (I also liked his [Political] Silver Linings, but that's REALLY old news now.)

+ I liked Defense Tech's recent post [historical] Lessons of the Dreadnought.

+ Ken [Can I call you Ken? ;-)] had a punctuation post where he referenced 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves' with pretty much the same reaction I had to it.

+ Dan links to The Nietzsche Family Circus: 'which is a random Nietzsche quotation combined with a random Family Circus drawing'. Can't not link it.

There you are: You are the beneficiary of Wil waking me up before 6 ;-)

Cleaning out Bloglines

Here's an old post that got lost in my Drafts folder. None of it is now news.

+ Story of a guy who got addicted to World of Warcraft and then quit. Cautionary tale or cultural data. (via Matt)

+ Funny/sad Onion headline: N Korea Detonates 40 years of GDP (via Defense Tech)

+ Jaq's got a post on the NFL that's similar to my recent ramblings.

+ Interesting Wired article Attack of the bots: bots, botnets, DDOS, DNS attacks, and how some rogue took down Blue Security, an anti-spam company from Israel.

Cherry picking

Let's pick a few things to post on saturday morning:

+ No longer news but still good: NASA's fixing Hubble. I kept hoping this would happen, especially since Hubble's undoubtedly the best thing they've got.

+ Aaron sounds like he could about go pro in poker.

+ defective yeti: Better PR for grilled cheese in the morning and Job (double meaning) quarterly report.

+ Morbid but funny: Suicide Letter Wizard for Microsoft Word.

+ Funny Dilbert about loss of personal meaning.

+ Interesting names from The Hype Machine

• Handsome Boy Modeling School
• The Metric Mile
• Zelienople (hail the Pittsburgh MSA!)

+ Ken Jennings' life is very interesting now. His bishop called him about his bad language and he told an unwitting lady at church that he was being Ken Jennings for Halloween.

+ John Hardy has had some interesting Laptan posts on The Evolution of Numbers, Counting by hand around the world, and The Floating Islands of Zacatón.

+ This post is brought to you by old-school Vigilantes of Love: Earth Has No Sorrow, Goes Without Saying, and Resplendent.

MyFM this morning

Well, I don't know if anyone cares but me, but I thought I'd write some more about music this morning.

First off, Jason picked up on my Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs post and picked 50 . Go read it!

Second, saw the Lyrics Born/U2 mashup Callin' on Sunday linked on the Hype Machine this morning. I really like this mashup. You should check it out.

I talk big, but I'm not ready to take on the RIAA yet, so I won't be posting any mp3s myself. I guess I could do something anonymously. Then I could be like 'Wow! That Guy In Columbia links such great music! Listen to everything he posts! ;-)

I have in mind to do more with a ranked list of my favorite mashups, but I'm not promising that's going to happen.

Last, my playlist from the commute this morning. Shorter because the bus had already cleared out.

Don't You Want Me Baby?
Jesus Walks (Know what the Midwest is? Young and restless...)
Living in Oblivion
Love Walks In
Mad About You

Next: Gonna Make You Sweat

Turn on some music. Rock out a little bit. Celebrate Christine's birthday. Peace!

More on music: commuting

Why am I posting so much about music these days? It's not like I'm listening to lots more than normal. Some of it is the continuing dividend of copying all of my mp3s from the desktop to the laptop.

Anyway, I got to thinking this morning, if everyone listened during their commute to the music I listen toduting my commute, everyone would be happy. We'd be looking at each other, bobbing our heads, smiling, pointing at the radio.

Maybe I should invest in one of those little devices that broadcasts your music from your mp3 player to your radio. Get the strongest one, then print a bumper sticker that says:

Listen to MyFM:
Tune to XX.X
seanmeade.net

I'd be gettin cards and letters from people I don't even know ;-)

Anyway, this morning's playlist:

Baba O'Riley - The Who
Breathless - The Corrs
I Ran - Flock of Seagulls
Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
Don't Go Breakin My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee

(As you can tell, my commute's not very long, and that was even behind the school bus this morning.)

Who wouldn't love it? At least until you get to work ;-)

99 of my favorite songs

This is a not-much-ordered list developed from my Last.fm top tracks page. (I did try to put the very favorite favorites at the top.)

1. R.E.M. – Gardening at Night
   
2. a-ha – Take on Me
3. Vigilantes of Love – Resplendent
4. Pierce Pettis – God Believes in You
5. R.E.M. – Fall on Me
6. New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
7. The Dream Academy – Life in a Northern
8. Dexy's Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
9. Toad the Wet Sprocket – All I Want
10. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
11. Modest Mouse – Float On
12. R.E.M. – Shaking Through
13. Vigilantes of Love – Skin
14. Alison Krauss & Union Station – Down to the River to Pray
15. The Clash – Rock the Casbah
16. Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body
17. U2 – Beautiful Day
18. R.E.M. – Near Wild Heaven
19. The Smiths – Girlfriend in a Coma
20. Vigilantes of Love – Offer
21. Fischerspooner – Never Win
22. Cutting Crew – One for the Mockingbird
23. blink-182 – I Miss You
24. The Cranberries – Linger
25. The Sundays – Here's Where The Story Ends
26. Radiohead – Airbag
27. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink
28. New Order – Regret
29. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression that I Get
30. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
31. Erasure – A Little Respect
32. Counting Crows – A Murder of One
33. The Corrs – Breathless
34. Matthew Sweet – Sick of Myself
35. 'Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
36. Kirsty MacColl – You and Me Baby
37. The Go-Go's – Head Over Heels
38. The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never
39. Sister Hazel – Change Your Mind
40. Death Cab for Cutie – The New Year
41. The B-52's – Roam
42. Radiohead – Let Down
43. 10,000 Maniacs – Verdi Cries
44. R.E.M. – Nightswimming
45. Beastie Boys – Sabotage
46. Underworld – Born Slippy
47. Evanescence – Bring Me to Life
48. Linkin Park – Somewhere I Belong
49. Death Cab for Cutie – Underwater
50. Beastie Boys – Intergalactic
51. Rage Against the Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire
52. Liz Phair – Extraordinary
53. The Smiths – Death of a Disco Dancer
54. R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
55. The Human League – Don't You Want Me
56. The Police – Every Breath You Take
57. Greg and Rebecca Sparks – Day Like Today
58. R.E.M. – Leave
59. R.E.M. – Begin the Begin
60. R.E.M. – It's the End of the World as We Know
61. The Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm
62. R.E.M. – Sweetness Follows
63. Rich Mullins – Sometimes by Step
64. Indigo Girls – Closer to Fine
65. R.E.M. – Superman
66. Rich Mullins – Calling Out Your Name
67. Electronic – Getting Away With It
68. The Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star
69. The Alan Parsons Project – Don't Answer Me
70. R.E.M. – I Believe
71. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
72. Joy Division – Love will Tear Us Apart Again
73. The Postal Service – Nothing Better
74. Anything Box – Living in Oblivion - Original
75. Soft Cell – Tainted Love
76. The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
77. Vigilantes of Love – Parting Shot
78. R.E.M. – King of Birds
79. The Smiths – I Started Something I Couldn't
80. The Cranberries – Zombie
81. The Smashing Pumpkins – Today
82. Trip Shakespeare – Pearle
83. R.E.M. – Time After Time (Annelise)
84. The Postal Service – Brand New Colony
85. Vigilantes of Love – Glory and the Dream
86. Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
87. The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
88. R.E.M. – Exhuming McCarthy
89. Rich Mullins – If I Stand
90. Modern English – I Melt With You
91. The Postal Service – We Will Become
92. Snap! – The Power
93. Elton John and Kiki Dee – Don't Go Breakin My Heart
94. Radiohead – Karma Police
95. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
96. R.E.M. – Feeling Gravitys Pull
97. The Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane
98. The Smashing Pumpkins – Perfect
99. The Cranberries – Dreams

Incidentally, I did not set out to come up with 99 tracks (Jay-Z's misogyny keeps running through my head, unfortunately. Or Nena). That's just how it worked out.

How about you. Wanna list some of your favorites? Any on this list?

This is a not-much-ordered list developed from my Last.fm top tracks page.

1. R.E.M. – Gardening at Night
   
2. a-ha – Take on Me
3. Vigilantes of Love – Resplendent
4. Pierce Pettis – God Believes in You
5. R.E.M. – Fall on Me
6. New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
7. The Dream Academy – Life in a Northern
8. Dexy's Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
9. Toad the Wet Sprocket – All I Want
10. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
11. Modest Mouse – Float On
12. R.E.M. – Shaking Through
13. Vigilantes of Love – Skin
14. Alison Krauss & Union Station – Down to the River to Pray
15. The Clash – Rock the Casbah
16. Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body
17. U2 – Beautiful Day
18. R.E.M. – Near Wild Heaven
19. The Smiths – Girlfriend in a Coma
20. Vigilantes of Love – Offer
21. Fischerspooner – Never Win
22. Cutting Crew – One for the Mockingbird
23. blink-182 – I Miss You
24. The Cranberries – Linger
25. The Sundays – Here's Where The Story Ends
26. Radiohead – Airbag
27. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink
28. New Order – Regret
29. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression that I Get
30. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
31. Erasure – A Little Respect
32. Counting Crows – A Murder of One
33. The Corrs – Breathless
34. Matthew Sweet – Sick of Myself
35. 'Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
36. Kirsty MacColl – You and Me Baby
37. The Go-Go's – Head Over Heels
38. The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never
39. Sister Hazel – Change Your Mind
40. Death Cab for Cutie – The New Year
41. The B-52's – Roam
42. Radiohead – Let Down
43. 10,000 Maniacs – Verdi Cries
44. R.E.M. – Nightswimming
45. Beastie Boys – Sabotage
46. Underworld – Born Slippy
47. Evanescence – Bring Me to Life
48. Linkin Park – Somewhere I Belong
49. Death Cab for Cutie – Underwater
50. Beastie Boys – Intergalactic
51. Rage Against the Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire
52. Liz Phair – Extraordinary
53. The Smiths – Death of a Disco Dancer
54. R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
55. The Human League – Don't You Want Me
56. The Police – Every Breath You Take
57. Greg and Rebecca Sparks – Day Like Today
58. R.E.M. – Leave
59. R.E.M. – Begin the Begin
60. R.E.M. – It's the End of the World as We Know
61. The Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm
62. R.E.M. – Sweetness Follows
63. Rich Mullins – Sometimes by Step
64. Indigo Girls – Closer to Fine
65. R.E.M. – Superman
66. Rich Mullins – Calling Out Your Name
67. Electronic – Getting Away With It
68. The Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star
69. The Alan Parsons Project – Don't Answer Me
70. R.E.M. – I Believe
71. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
72. Joy Division – Love will Tear Us Apart Again
73. The Postal Service – Nothing Better
74. Anything Box – Living in Oblivion - Original
75. Soft Cell – Tainted Love
76. The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
77. Vigilantes of Love – Parting Shot
78. R.E.M. – King of Birds
79. The Smiths – I Started Something I Couldn't
80. The Cranberries – Zombie
81. The Smashing Pumpkins – Today
82. Trip Shakespeare – Pearle
83. R.E.M. – Time After Time (Annelise)
84. The Postal Service – Brand New Colony
85. Vigilantes of Love – Glory and the Dream
86. Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
87. The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
88. R.E.M. – Exhuming McCarthy
89. Rich Mullins – If I Stand
90. Modern English – I Melt With You
91. The Postal Service – We Will Become
92. Snap! – The Power
93. Elton John and Kiki Dee – Don't Go Breakin My Heart
94. Radiohead – Karma Police
95. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
96. R.E.M. – Feeling Gravitys Pull
97. The Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane
98. The Smashing Pumpkins – Perfect
99. The Cranberries – Dreams

Incidentally, I did not set out to come up with 99 tracks (Jay-Z's misogyny keeps running through my head, unfortunately). That's just how it worked out.

How about you. Wanna list some of your favorites? Any on this list?

Yikes!

Lying in bed last night, wondering where some of my email had gone, when it finally dawned on my: my Spam folder. Since there are, as of this writing, 7445 messages from the last month in that folder, I try not to go in there.

But, sure enough, I found 72 false positives so far, mostly free but ad-supported service email that I do want to get.

Time to make sure they're added to my address book and keep a close eye on it for the next couple of days.

How about you? Getting any false positives on spam?

More on atheism and modernism

I've gotten two comments, one here and one from Jaq on his weblog asking what I meant by 'Modernism is dead'.

Philosophically speaking, Modernism includes the belief that we can know many important things. It was part of the whole Enlightenment project.

Think about Descartes: Cogito ergo sum. 'I think, therefore I am.' He was trying to establish a foundation of knowledge. But many people have said he should have said Dubito ergo sum. 'I doubt, therefore I am.' I think that's a pretty convincing criticism. Sure, Descartes has a good point about knowledge. And I would accept it as something along the lines of 'We can't help but think that we know.'

That's what Hume said: 'There's no guarantee when I get up from this desk and go into the next room that the billiard table will still be there. But I can't help but believe that it will.'

Kant, to name one other Enlightenment epistemologist, wrote much that was useful. I'd phrase one part as 'Our minds are prewired (categories, types, etc.) to give us knowledge from sensory data.' You can't 'prove' it, but it's interesting.

See, as far as I'm concerned, it all ends up being basically an academic exercise within the parameters set by Modernism, and they're probably not even the right parameters. Modernism probably asks the wrong questions and goes about asking them the wrong way, and then answering them the wrong way.

And one of the big things to come out of Modernism is Science and the Scientific Method and (what I would call) Scientism. Science is good. The Scientific Method is great. But if you get sucked in to thinking Science is the only way to determine 'Knowledge', I call that Scientism, and it's already been eviscerated. In fact, the death of Modernism is sowed in the seeds of Modernism itself. The Subject is important. That's where Descartes started. And when you get started with subjectivism the logical result is solipsism and complete relativism. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard knew this before the modern prophets of PostModernism, like Sartre and Camus and later Foucault and Derrida.

Everybody in the Liberal Arts and the Humanities knows that Modernism is dead. They know that we need to talk about 'knowledge', if we're going to talk about it at all, in different terms.

But somehow some of these Scientism-ists, like the New Atheists, never got the memo. They keep pushing their knowledge agenda evangelistically. In many ways we'd really get the best outcome if we'd just ignore them. Unfortunately, the world is not populated with Philosopher Kings like me and you, fair reader ;-) So people get sucked into this debate.

Now fair is fair. I can critique the church on Modernism all day long. Happy to do it. Did you know that the conservative (Fundamentalist and Evangelical) and liberal wings of the Church in the 20th Century in America were both Modernist? They had the same goal: knowledge - justified true belief. For the Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, they needed to base it on the Bible. Liberals went the Scientism route and carved out much of orthodoxy. Much of it was a stupid (not to mention non-Biblical) debate the whole time.

So what do we get today? Vestigial Modernists of the Scientism-ist and Fundamentalist variety arguing a last century debate about evolution and creation, and the public getting sucked in. Yuck.

What do I want? Not that everyone should be conversant in philosophy. Just a little respect (me, Aretha, and Erasure ;-). There are lots of Xians who dis science and scientists and I'm sorry. It stinks. And, obviously, there are many atheists who dis Xians. It's these fundamentalists, of the Xian and Scientism-ist variety who we need to ignore. Let them stay in their weltschmerz ghettos. We need civility on both sides. We believe differently. You can't prove your beliefs to me. I can't prove my beliefs to you. Let's tolerate each other a little bit.

(I hope it doesn't derail you when I say this entails at least presenting some of the criticisms of evolutionary thought in public schools.)

(This is not a systematic or comprehensive treatment. I'm not doing much more than dashing this thing off at this point. If you want to debate it, great. Chances are I'll accept your queries or suggestions. No need to gird your loins for battle.)

So, what do you say? Can we respect each other, at a minimum? Can we stop the stupid, old debate and reframe a different discussion?

For further reading, check the Wikipedia articles on Modernism and Postmodernism.

(And, say, glancing over them, I'd say I did pretty well off of the top of my head ;-)