I'm it: Movie survey

Aaron's back from being a new dad to answer Jaq's tag and then Aaron tagged me, so here we go:

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
16 (+ 6 in the 'I don't really need to keep these, do I?' pile). I'm not counting Christine's or the twins', except for 'The Incredibles', because it's so great.

2. The last film I bought:
'The Incredibles' for the twins.

3. The last film I watched:
'The Secret of NIMH' after having read the excellent children's book 'Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH'. The film was not excellent.

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:

1. 'Raising Arizona' (like Aaron). So funny.
2. 'The Hunt for Red October'. The only movie I've ever watched again the next morning. I almost never get tired of watching this movie. That goes for none of the other Clancy adaptations, but would for a basically unabridged 'Red Storm Rising', but that would be way too long to watch again the next day, so forget it.
3. 'Star Wars: ANH, TESB, and ROTJ'. Shaped my childhood imagination.
4. 'The Incredibles'. Have I mentioned I love this movie? ;-)
5. 'Lord of the Rings'. Helpful supplement to the excellent novels ;-)
   

5. Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal/blog:
(Jeez. I don't really have many 'friends who would write back when two have already done it' on the Blogroll, do I?)

1. Jason
2. Brad
3. From 'Stokes Kith and King', let's try Walter. (Certainly not Macon, since he didn't watch 'Gattaca'* when I insisted over and over that he should ;-)
   
4. Eric
5. Bill H

* Holey mackerel! I knew 'Gattaca' must have meant something, but never put it together until I typed it just now. The title's made up only of letters we use to identify nucleotides in DNA! Google search. But you'd probably already thought of that, right? What can I say... I'm sharp ;-)

Today's links

+ Here's something crazy: I've gotten attached to logging from email. I don't have to log into Blogger, which just makes it one step easier. I can do all the formatting I want. Funny.

+ Brad has a good post on Africa: the debt relief is great. We need the African nations to step up and overcome their sometimes-kleptocracies.

+ Defective Yeti has his own 'Phantom' edit, with rationales. Hilarious (But maybe not for Jaq ;-).

+ Freecycle's cool and all, but I can't imagine actually wanting to get the emails...

+ If you didn't catch Matt's substitute gig on Lifehacker, he's thrown up all of the links in one post. You will thank me...

Tomorrow's links, today

(LIke the catchy new title? ;-)

I'm trying out a Bloglines subscription to Dilbert, and LOL at this one.

+ I've been meaning to link this for a long time from Brad:

Priscilla Owen, the Texas judge whose nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court is creating a storm in the US Senate (actually it has little to do with her personally -- it's a fight over how much power the Senate minority is going to be allowed), is a part of our extended Covenant Church family. Her Austin area congregation, St. Barnabas the Encourager Evangelical Covenant Church, is completing the affiliation process next month.

I'm in the Covenant, too.

What is is about Brad's blurbs that I just end up copying the whole thing? The sheer brilliance? Brad's Brilliant Blurbs (blowing bubbles, biking backwards (extra points if you can name that book)).

+ Since you are a loyal reader, I'lll let you in on the next big thing:

With Bittorrent and RSS, one can easily create an internet-based periodical broadcast of huge files with almost zero distribution cost. With MythTV and Torrentocracy, one can create a set-top box such as a Tivo or VCR that consumes such a broadcast... It's possible to replace your satellite receiver and DVD player with a cheap PC running MythTV.

Can you tell I'm cleaning out my Bloglines again? >40...

+ This just in from from the Totally Obvious desk: Hispanics Are Fastest Growing Minority

+ Interesting British press coverage of Barnett-cosponsored New Map Game

Today's links

+ Matt has a feature on why companies should put ads in feeds.

+ Funny: Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever

+ I link every criticism of PowerPoint because I think we should think about it. So here's the latest: Stop your presentation before it kills again! This one has some helpful diagnostic questions.

+ Cringely

• thinks Apple and Intel are coming together, maybe to the point of purchase. This would be good for everyone except Micro$oft, and especially consumers.
• says we should follow those phishing links and enter false data to make it less profitable. Might try that...
• says: 'Steve Jobs is thinking in terms of his place in history, and he isn't even remotely satisfied with the current story. Bill Gates once told me that Steve could never win.' I don't know...it depends on how you're keeping score. Raise you hand if you love anything ever made by Bill. Raise your hand if you love anything ever made by Steve *raises hand for iTunes, 'Toy Story 2', and 'The Incredibles'*
• DayJet May Be the First Peer-to-Peer Airline
• 2nd DayJet column:

The programming challenge that occupied two Russian PhDs for three years was to schedule the most profitable usage for the three seats available in 40-300 DayJet aircraft operating in a region about 500,000 square miles in size, and to do this all within five seconds.

Then, Cringely asks, what if we applied that software to car pooling?

Today's links

+ Tony Blair Wins Few Promises From Bush. Wonder if old Tony feels like this relationship is a little one-sided... 'I just give and give and give and I never get anything in return!' 'I can't live...if livin' is without you. I can't give...I can't give anymore!'

+ UI offices, classes mall-bound. See. This is what I've been saying all along. (Well, technically, I've been saying they should use it for a Student Center, but using the mall any way is a step in the right direction for downtown.)

+ And, just to prove that IC isn't perfect, they're letting Super Wal-Mart in.

+ The story of Lawrence Lessig facing his childhood abuse is harrowing and riveting. (via kottke)

+ Great Googley-moogely! If you're interested, chances are you've seen it: the upcoming Google Earth (their adaptation of the Keyhole software they bought) looks amazing.

+ The Beeb is broadcasting Beethoven's Symphonies and then making them available for free download. 1-5 are available today through the 14th. Go Beeb! Gotta' get 'em all!

+ This quote (source) perfectly captures the difference between hierarchies and tags:

Give up on hierarchical categories; these can screw up your tags.

I haven't ever seen it put that starkly. I don't think he was trying to be stark or apply to universal circumstances, but it sure captures my attitude toward tags and hierarchies. Honk if you care ;-)

+ I'll just paste this whole blurb from Brad:

"Bats live in the majority of Iowa homes without the owners even knowing it, said experts with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources." If true, can you imagine how mosquito infested Iowa would be if the bats weren't living in most homes?

Bats: good. Mosquitoes: bad.
If bats are good and mosquitoes are bad, and
If Iowa has lots of bats which eat lots of mosquitoes,
Then, Iowa is good.

Gotcha' in the iron vise of reason. (Incidentally, I gotcha' all in check, too.)

(Yes, I am feeling a little strange today...)

Today's links

Yankees Lose Again, Fall Below .500. Guess it takes more than just money to win. ;-)

Go Trojans! Our high school won the state tournament in soccer again this year, our third title and our second in the last two years.

They re-opened the little rides at City Park (in Iowa City). I used to love those things. Fond memories...

Expansion Management magazine, the one that ranked the IC School District 5th in the nation a couple of weeks ago, ranked IC a Five Star Knowledge Worker Metro (top 20% in: percentage of the population with advanced degrees and those in engineering and science jobs, number and type of colleges in metropolitan area and amount spent on research and development in the area's universities and colleges). Have I convinced you IC is a great town yet? ;-)

Now testing this

Testing emailing posts to my weblog. How does it come out? Does it handle titles? We'll see...

Finally, a cogent, non-jargon Tom Barnett post

If you don't normally read my Tom Barnett posts, please consider reading this one. I will try to de-jargon it and I think it has some really clear thinking in it.

Tom has a great article in this week's newsletter (beginning at the top of p4). First, in light of Memorial Day, he puts our recent combat losses in perspective.

It is useful, in this regard, to remember that America's cumulative losses in combat since the end of the Vietnam War are roughly equal to what we lost respectively on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June 1944 and in Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1941 (i.e., in the range of 2500 to 3000). To note that is not to diminish anyone's sense of loss, which is always profound when a loved one dies in combat, but simply to reassure us that as far as America is concerned war is becoming an ever smaller portion of our reality thanks to such ultimate sacrifices.

Tom addresses the very important Quadrennial Defense Review. If you care about the military, its plans, funding, and the politics surrounding it (in the Pentagon and on the Hill), then you need to know about the QDR. Great power war should now be 'logically considered to enjoy far less priority than' shrinking the Gap (ie, bringing disconnected nations into the global community in a way that improves their quality of life), including the Global War on Terrorism. We must:

demote the concept of great power war from its perch as number one ordering principle of the Pentagon to that of merely hedged-against conflict scenario, meaning we dedicate a certain portion of our scenario planning and force generation against this particular scenario, trusting in our ability to maintain a sufficient hedge against what's out there in potential great power foes...This is not a guns-versus-butter choice, but a submarine-versus-body-armor sort of choice...[Otherwise, we] stock up on platforms we're extremely unlikely to need while denying our boots on- the-ground the equipment they are certain to need.

We will kick ourselves later if we don't make the body armor choice. What are the most likely near-term intervention scenarios? North Korea aside, they're places like Afghanistan and Iraq, places like Sudan and the Balkans and Somalia and Palestine/Israel. We will want to help stop atrocities in these places and to help them get connected up to the rest of the world. If we don't, they will become the new breeding place for terrorists. What's good for the citizens of the old Soviet -Stans and the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa is good for us: a rising standard of living, increasing connection to the rest of the world, and absence of the conditions for growing terrorists.

Tom makes an interesting comparison between shrinking the Gap and policing the American frontier of the 19th century. This is what our force needs to look like to help connect disconnected nations: lots of boots, very mobile (here comes the Cavalry!), fairly autonomous.

Naturally, risk is associated with both sides of this choice. But ask yourself: is it easier to manage the risk of a rising, increasingly developed China or the descent/collapse of failed or authoritarian regimes in the Gap? Which of these two great strategic scenarios of the 21st century do you think we can manage on the side, treating it as a lesser included to which we devote incremental efforts?

Later on in the same newsletter (p10) Tom articulates one of his key concepts for bulding the right kind of police/occupation (which he calls SysAdmin) force:

Here is the paradox to the U.S. military: seed that SysAdmin force and it's very existence will allow you to remain more Leviathan-like. Don't seed that force and you will be forced to do SysAdmin across the dial, and in that evolution you will most certainly lose far more of your warfighting capacity.

What he means here (from previous reading) is that if we will build such a basically no-platform force, other nations of the world will be eager to join us. This is the kind of action they might be able to do. No one can join us in actions that require our incredibly expensive platforms (esp. Air Force and Navy). They can't compare. But if we build the right kind of Army and Marines many nations will want to join in and do their part in nation-building-type actions.

My current thinking on China

+ Rumsfeld warns China on lack of democracy Do what? Turns out Rumsfeld didn't actually warn China. That's not his job. This is a little bit of a case of headlines gone wild. He commented about China. In some ways, it's his job to be cautious about China (especially when he's the civillian boss of so many career military personnel who feel that a SinoThreat is the butter on their bread).

+ President Bush is stuck between a rock and a hard place on China. As a conservative Republican, he is typically a friend to both big business and the military. But you can't have it all on China. Big business (barring defense contractors) wants closer ties with China and a good wroking relationship. Some of the military want us to see China as a near-peer (which is a joke in itself) so we can build our military over against a trumped up version of theirs. Here's hoping big business wins out over the military SinoHawks...

+ Tom says one of the reasons some don't want peace with China is so we can keep a big, bad military funded over against China as spectral near-peer.

Watergate: Wow!

I'm really getting into this Watergate thing. It's interesting in a particular way to me because I didn't live through it in a sentient way (I'd just been born January 2nd, 1972). Most of my news has come through the Post (which requires a free registration). Here's their splash page on Watergate/Deep Throat. Of course, the Woodward article is required reading if you're interested in this thing at all. There are lots of other good links, too, depending on your interest.

At long last

I've been making notes for posts, but for some reason I haven't been posting them. Hope you're not too disappointed.

+ Fascinating story on new school firefighting in Wired: The Fire Rebels.

Over the last three decades, building materials have changed dramatically. Plumbing, flooring, siding, roofing - most are now made from synthetics. The same goes for the stuff inside the building, like foam rubber seat cushions, plastic computer cases, and nylon carpet fibers. As a result, today's blazes produce two to three times as much energy as a typical fire did in 1980, and most of that energy emerges as flammable gases. Those gases don't escape from newer buildings, which are well insulated and tightly sealed. Fires now project their energy much farther from their cores, making them more dangerous and more difficult to extinguish.

+ The last Wired also had an article on DreamWorks animation saying they can't compete with Pixar on quality, so they're going for quantity. Still, their stock price is falling. Here's a quote for you I keep thinking about:

With a legendary thirst for power, Katzenberg has developed DreamWorks into a high tech version of the old studio system, a centralized organization in which talent is kept under contract and often shuttled from project to project. While Pixar director Brad Bird got to follow his own vision for The Incredibles, DreamWorks offers less room for creative freedom. Katzenberg takes a producer credit (he's usually the executive producer) on nearly every movie and uses at least two directors on each project, sometimes four. He favors the talent he calls the "quiet giants" - directors and storyboard artists like McGrath, Darnell, Tim Johnson, and Conrad Vernon, people he says call the day-to-day shots on DreamWorks movies. "Do I think the world will ever see them as the equivalent of Brad Bird?" Katzenberg asks after viewing the director extras on The Incredibles DVD. "No, but there are other ways of doing things. They just don't have the same ego Brad has."

The irony in this statement didn't strike me the first time I read it.

+ Did you see the Ben and Jerry's Pint Lock? Reminds me of that beer commercial with the beer lock-thing. But this is real!

+ Ego surfing. I'm 2 of the top 10 results under holey moley in this Yahoo search (as of this writing ;-).

+ I'd been waiting for Tom's take on the Base Realignment and Closure process. Short take: he's OK with it. Comment: the subs are going away.

+ Need some hope for the Middle East? Try this Barnett quote on for size (source post, answer # 8):

So many experts in my country fear that Iran will dominate an Iraq that is itself dominated by Shiites, but I think it is the other way around. I think Iran's mullahs have much to fear from a Shiite-dominated Iraq that is democratic. I think a democratic Iraq can have the same destabilizing effect on the mullahs' rule in Iran as the rise of Solidarity in Poland in the 1980s ultimately had upon communist rule in the Soviet Union.

Scary thought (since the post focuses on Turkey): Turkey could easily be the next target of Islamic radicals, especially as Turkey pursues closer ties with Europe. It will be relatively easy to get at, and a 'logical' target.

+ Another cool note from Tom: some US cities are voluntarily signing on to Kyoto (last full paragraph).

+ The developing world will make the stuff for life as we know it now. If the developed world is going to keep up, we'll have to make the stuff for the world as it's going to be.

[P]lan on your retirement funds to support you through 125 years of age, just to be on the safe side. It's been my operating theory in investing for 15 years now.

Whoa. And Tom's 10 years older than me. How long do I get to work productively to build up that kind of retirement? And what does it do to Social Security.

Bringing you your daily dose of...

my opinion! ;-)

Though I don't work that hard at finding cheap gas, this application of Google Maps is cool.

If you wonder where I am, I'll be over at Blogging the Future, the new Tom Barnett-centered bulletin board.

Go, Steve

Not only did Steve Nash win the MVP and lift the Suns over his old team, in some ways they did it by out Maverick-ing the Mavericks, out Nelson-ing what used to be Nelson's team: running and scoring like crazy. Good on ya. Keep it up.

The Doctrine of Preemption

Eric's got a post on Preemption that I left a long comment on, so I thought I'd reproduce it over here:

are you clear on the fact that Barnett favors a military takedown of Korea akin to our takedown of Saddam? he wants it to be in cooperation with the other 'six parties', especially China, and this is where we cooperate with China and get out of bed with Taiwan. the only way he wants us to 'defuse' the Korean crisis is by 'defusing' Kim Jong Il and his son.

O'Hanlon's entitled to his opinion. like you, i'm sticking with Tom on Iran and China. we really need to get together with these nations. we need a solid player in the Middle East, and China's going to become the next great power. preemption with either of these nations is not an option we even want to have to consider. many of us are squeamish about working closely with 'non-democracies', but the practical needs and emerging future realities demand it. besides, connectivity does amazing things, as we have already seen with Russia and China. if we can play a little ball with some of these 'non-democracies', some kind of both democracy and free-market capitalism will almost certainly break out.

i'm obviously in favor of Tom's version of preemption, which would say you only preempt in the case of politically bankrupt Gap nations, with the approval/endorsement of the UN Security Council and the G20, and with a coalition of partners (especially for the reconstruction).

need any more of my opinion? ;-)

I'm it: If I could be...

Jaq tagged me on this topic that's going around. Complete 5 from the following list:

If I could be a musician...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a justice on any court in the world...
If I could be a world famous blogger...
If I could be married to any current world politician...
If I could be a scientist...
If I could be an actor...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an innkeeper...
If I could be an agent...

1. If I could be a musician, I'd be a singer (which some people see as a contradicition in terms). I've always wanted to be the front man for a band.

2. If I could be a linguist, I'd study Proto-Indo-European and, maybe, since I have some background in Hebrew, if PIE had any interaction with Proto-Semitic and how.

3. If I could be a writer, I'd write lots of young adult fiction in the mold of Ursula K LeGuin - fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction (especially set in a PIE-type context). Of course, Tolkien would be my major influence, though I don't think I'd be suited to write such 'epic' work (who is?). Other major influences in this regard would be Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper.

4. If I could be a professor, I'd teach these big, sweeping classes that would try to cover great breadth and integrate as much as possible. I have no desire to be the world expert on anything. I'm too interested in everything.

5. If I could be an athlete, I'd be just a respectable pick-up basketball player, something you can do for a lot of years (since we're dreaming, I'd like to add being good at Ultimate).

As to the chain letter part of this theme, who might be willing to play this reindeer game? I pick Jason, Paul, and Eric.

audiopost: Everything Bad is Good for You

audiopost: cutting through the Episcopalian parking lot

Multiple intelligence

I'm a firm believer in different kinds of intelligence: IQ. EQ. What have you.

I don't necessarily subscribe to Howard Gardner's formulation (Gardner's site) as determinative, but it's a jumping off point, a place to start discussion.

Brief overview
Wheel of domains. Here's my improved pie chart:



He's got an inventory. I like taking things like this. You might hate them, like Christine. I took it. I adjusted it a little (I especially thought the 'Interpersonal' questions were a little skewed, so I padded my score.). I was interested in putting it on a graph like he has, so here you go:

(It's not working right in Blogger right now, and I'm sick of it, so I'm done. But you could still copy into NotePad or whatever and use it if you wanted.)


Naturalist X
Musical X
Logical X
Existential X
Interpersonal X
Kinesthetic X
Verbal X
Intrapersonal X
Visual X

score----------10--20--30--40--50--60--70--80--90--100

I'm also intersted in looking at what my twins' strengths might be. I have ideas, of course, but this would be a little more systematic.

Anywho, you might want to take the inventory.

Beyond that, I've created a little spreadsheet that'll produce a pie graph based on your scores. Here's mine:



If you get that into it, email me for the file.

Everything bad is good for you

Kottke's really into this book.

If you haven't read about it yet, the thesis of Johnson's book is that some activities that are regarded as a waste of time, like playing video games and watching television, can actually be better for you than reading. Reading is very passive. It's a solitary activity.

The Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker review (via kottke)

And Johnson himself on how he's more of a technological determinist than an economic determinist (the latter term being one which Barnett claims for himself).

Standard link list

+ Tom briefed Senator Kerry and had dinner with our lead negotiator on North Korea .

+ Only one state produces more graduates from rural schools than Iowa

+ Here come all of the politicians with their indignation, their absolute pronouncements. Must be base closure time. We were watching this pretty closely here in SC, but our bases actually gained jobs.

+ Yahoo! News Tag Soup is a cool new tag app.

You really ought to give Iowa a try!

Iowa City public schools were recently ranked number 5 in the nation. West High ,where Jason and I attended, was once named the best public high school in the US.

In other Iowa education news, Christine sent off our last check to the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation today. We went to dinner tonight to celebrate. Nice, huh?

'Balance' on DeLay

Paul emailed me a WSJ article on the non-nonpartisan watchdogs who are going after DeLay: In Washington, Watchdogs Bear Watching.

I have no doubt that these folks are biased. But I didn't see anything in the article that actually refuted the allegations against DeLay, or even cast doubt on them. Did you?

It's OK if they're out to get him if he's guilty ;-)

That's about all the balance I can muster up. Am I missing something?

I haven't posted on Tom in a while, aye?

Tom says

And those that say we shouldn't get into bed financially with China until they end things like their political re-education camp system have it backwards: they'll end that system as a result of that connectivity. This is a war we win without ever firing a shot-and that's very good.

To get better connected to the global economy in a broadband sense is to see the rise of legal rule sets that attract those necessary levels of trade and investment, but such a development would likewise empower the population to increasingly take the government to task for past sins in a sort of slow-motion truth commission. So to develop Russia is to exorcise the Soviet Union.

But there is an underlying reality here: Bush [and, I guess, the US and its citizens, generally] is far more admired in the New Core than people in America realize, and far more disliked in the Old Core than we realize. That isn't just a Bush thing, it's a 21st century reality that's only going to grow with the global economy.

Good post on China and N Korea

Both China and the U.S. know what the other side wants and needs over the long haul. The mystery to me is why the deal-making is non-existent in this strategic environment. Why this administration continues to wait on this relationship to develop on its own by and large is beyond me.

I'll tell you why: This administration is trading on the future for leverage in the present. The specter of a military and economic near-peer can be used for leverage. Plus, this admin. is so idealogical when it comes to 'freedom', they have trouble 'trafficking' with China, even though you would think the trade and debt service realities would be enough to shake them back to what is actual.

It's so good, guess I'll just quote this whole post:

Afghanistan's parliament is smart enough to realize that the real definition of a "failed state" is one that cannot attract America's attention, much less it's military help, to prevent its collapse into civil strife.

You know what the biggest cause of civil war is in the world? It's civil war. That's right. Most civil wars start within a few short years of the last one, meaning the biggest cause of civil wars are the affected countries' inability to move beyond that reality without lapsing back into it.

What's the cure? Foreign troops that keep the peace and prevent that relapse.

Guess what today is...

+ Doggone Onterrio Smith is in drug trouble again. Here's the deal: if he wants to stay with the Vikings, he should be required to do rehab and 12-step, something very serious and club-supervised. Otherwise, see ya. We want him. He's a good runner. But he's got to straighten up.

+ How does he do it? The dude's just good. Matt broke a video made by the Department of Homeland Security for their New Jersey exercise onto the web.

+ Get your book on NPR. Do you listen to NPR often? Man, they hawk their employee's books. Some show's always doing something with Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, and their really pushing some dudes Pretty Birds. Mutual Admiration Society much?

+ Lurie Says Eagles Won't Renegotiate Terrell Owens' Contract. Good.

Asked if he expects Owens to be with the Eagles next season, Lurie said, "If he wants to win a Super Bowl, he should be."

"At this level, with multimillions (of dollars), you're just trying to leave a legacy and win Super Bowls, as far as I am concerned. And he's got a great opportunity," Lurie said.

Now that's some fine trash.

+ Mark me down as 'not interested' in Yahoo's music rental service with an extra fee to burn CDs. I want to own my music. I want it to sit on my hard drive for me to listen to or transfer to my mp3 player or burn CDs.

+ I've been watching kottke.org for a re-org since kottke went pro. He's starting some redesign stuff now. I'm not crazy about the Ajax box, that I like what he's after. He's certainly got good points about archives.

+ I have opinions (shocker!) about Latvia and Georgia and Putin. But you can guess what they are. I'll just say that a US President as the Guest of Honor at a commemoration of Soviet valor is CRAZY!

+ In other Eurasian news, Russia and the EU are trying to get closer to each other. ' The pact encompasses four key areas, known in EU parlance as "spaces" -- the economy; freedom, security and justice; external security; and research, education and science.' How much of this is motivated by being able to compete with the US? I'm not saying that in any kind of jingoistic way; just wondering...

Stored up Google Sat images

(all via Google Sightseeing)

• Forest fires (I think it's interesting that these were captured by satellite)
• Trees, horizontally and vertically
• Reliant Astrodome, Stadium, Arena, and Center
• Stealth bomber and fighter
• I couldn't resist this Correo de Toros in Tijuana. The Google Sightseeing post said the fence just to the north is the one between Mexico and the US. Crazy.
• Carowinds (official site map - easiest to match up if you rotate the map in Acrobat): Looks like the park was empty in this shot, including no water in water attractions. From top left clockwise: the Thrill Zone (used to be the Hurler), Rip Roarin Rapids, Palladium, North Gate area, Wild Thornberrys River Adventure (Log Ride-type deal), Kid's Studio (amphitheater), Scooby-Doo Ghoster Coaster, Road Rally, Soundstage Picnic Shelter, South Gate, Top Gun (roller coaster) Action FX Theater, Thunder Road (roller coaster - heads due west), County Fair, Waterworks (waterpark, including wave pool), Carolina Boardwalk and Carolina Skytower dead center. One impression: too much branding. Why did I work all of that out? Just got interested I guess ;-)

Don't stop me now...

I'm on a roll!

+ Tom DeLay is guilty! Jack Abramoff is totally shady. Earlier article. AP has a timeline. Today's article.

+ President Bush makes me crazy, mostly. But I really do like the First Lady quite a bit. Those two feelings don't jibe, do they?

+ Have you checked out my audioscrobbler lately? Man, I like my taste in music ;-) Makes me happy :-)

+ Did you see Tom Brady got the extension he deserves? While I'm talking Brady, did you see him talking about going into politics in the future? Would you hate that, Jaq? ;-)

+ Speaking of Jaq, did you see the robot suit that kind of looks like and Imperial AT-ST Scout Walker?

Gotta get this post out while the race is still going...

+ Did you know there's a metal group named Ephel Duath, Tolkien's Mountains of Shadow? Neither did I.

+ Sounds like Tom would like Bolton to lead a US push to take down Kim Jong Il. Hmm. I don't like Bolton. Hmm.

+ Race weekend in Darlington.

Another post, and so soon

+ Flag propaganda. Pretty effective way to make a point: turn flags into 'propa-graphs'. Visual must-see, but rife with agenda. (via kottke)

+ The U of I's trying to get a Union rennovation together. I think they should buy the old Old Capitol Mall [sic], and turn it into a Union, with parking. Do something else with the old Union.

+ What I need is a tagging system for my weblog. I know I have some potential readers who aren't interested in most of what I do, but would be interested in some. They could subscribe to certain tags and see posts with those tags in the reader/get an email. Could someone cook that up for me? ;-)

+ Matthew Baldwin is tearing it up:

• Episode 3 to the tune of 'O Susanna'
• Spoofing the Republicans a la 'Crisis on Infinite Earths'
• Confessing to not owning a cell phone, inspiring Jason in sympathetic confession, then visiting Jason's site. (don't worry. Jason played it cool. He didn't go all fan-boy. It's good to know Matthew, with all of his comedic interweb fame, can still visit lowly sites like Jason's and mine.)

+ Ooh! The thing I like best about this Google Maps-Yahoo Traffic mashup (which doesn't work for me, probably because I live in a burg) is the near full-screen GMaps interface.

+ kottke got to see a commercial e-book with electronic ink and was very impressed. Cool.

+ Dorothea watched episode 2 for the first time. And she hated it (Jaq, you really shouldn't read it unless you want to get mad). The most interesting part of this post, to me, was the things she liked: the costumes, the design of ships and aliens, the kid playing Boba Fett, Christopher Lee and Ian McDiarmid (though I think she has a thing for British actors). I especially agree with the part about ships and aliens. I noticed that last time we watched. There are a lot of people doing good work at Lucasfilm whose stuff is just a small detail whizzing by (not that little details should be more prominent...).

+ Freakonomics sure has been getting a lot of airplay. I would like to read it. I'll have to talk to my local librarian ;-)

What is it with me and Thursday?

+ Jason left a link in my comments about the Verve and Bittersweet Symphony and the Rolling Stones and copyright and... gross.

+ Matt's crazy about his new Dyson. But if you go to the Flickr stream, you see that Consumer Reports ranks some cheaper vacuums higher .

+ John's got an interesting post on the number of the beast.

+ Jaq's got an interesting Surprising Admissions post (though I think 'Confessions' might be better word choice here, given common usage. Otherwise, the first thing you think is 'He got to cut in line at Episode 3!' ;-).

Do I have any confessions to make? Any you want to nominate, those of you who know me? (How's that for living dangerously?)

+ Tom had a post linking an alternate opinion to his pessimistic one on Benedict 16. Finally followed it over to Flit, and a fairly optimistic take on B16, though still through Toms' Core-Gap grid. Though I wasn't thinking about it with this kind of precision, this is more in line with my hopes for B16.

+ Walter links a review of Despair's new book that includes some of the history of the company.

My first use of the free 25

Did you see that Rhapsody will give you 25 free plays each month? They think people will subscribe, which I will not. But I did try to very strategically use my 25 free plays. Here are the recent 3:

• "My Happy Ending" - Avril Lavigne
• "I Miss You" - Blink 182
• "Seven Nation Army" - The White Stripes

I didn't play them in this order, but decided instead to try to go back in and arrange them by date. I'm not going to go look up the dates. This is to the best of my recollection. Here are the ones from the eighties:

• "Running On Empty" - Jackson Browne
• "Kiss On My List" - Hall & Oates
• "I Ran (So Far Away)" - A Flock Of Seagulls
• "Only Time Will Tell" - Asia
• "The Best Of Times" - Styx
• "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - Yes
• "Jessie's Girl" - Rick Springfield
• "Video Killed The Radio Star" - The Buggles
• "Come On Eileen" - Dexy's Midnight Runners
• "The Reflex" - Duran Duran
• "West End Girls" - Pet Shop Boys
• "Africa" - Toto
• "Don't Answer Me" - The Alan Parsons Project
• "Voices Carry" - Til Tuesday
• "Life In A Northern Town" - Dream Academy
• "Take On Me" - A-Ha
• "One For The Mockingbird" - Cutting Crew
• "Roam" - The B-52's
• "All I Want" - Toad the Wet Sprocket

I don't really want you to weigh in on if you like these or not, on if I had good taste in the eighties or not. See, that's the point: stuff from this age slips in before you develop taste. And it influences your later taste. What I'd be more interested in, if you feel so inspired, would be for you to reflect on your own nostalgic picks. Any of these in there? Any of these take you back? Others?