- Jon Udell introduces me to Amtrak Julie, who has been “outed” by the New York Times and to the NPR segment where they have Tom the flight information guy meet Julie called Modern Love.
- Even better is this german forklift safety video.
- Cnet talks about web based remote record for MCE.
- JWZ points to disclaimer stickers for science textbooks.
- First, party and person fidelity pledges, blocking external to the US web traffic, now giant public potraits, WTF?
- Real life mimics video games and Ghost in the Shell with the G-Cans project in Tokyo.
- KC points to a useful look Video Conversion Tool
- Raymond Chen has a nice ShellExecuteEx Wrapper
Thursday Fun
- Raymond Chen points out the ultimate X or not site, AMI BIOS or Not
- The New York Times points out that Google has launched Google Scholar.
- An op-ed in the NYTimes from Irshad Manji explores a difference in the european and american starting points when dealing with Islam.
- Another peice of fun reading: Marine Officers See Risks in Reducing U.S. Troops in Falluja
- Brad DeLong points to Bruce Moomaw analysis of what we are finding in Fallujah, and why the counts might be off.
- Slate chronicles where government secrecy is heading.
- NPR has a small series about detainee abuse from the Department of Home Security.
Wednesday Stuff
- Recursive has a nice link about common misconceptions about liberals and conservatives.
- The business story of the day the Sears and Kmart merger.
- Andrew Sullivan makes the right contrast and comparison between Abu Ghraib, the fatal shooting of a wounded man in Fallujah and what the insurgents where doing there.
- In my new theme of, “Values held in the minority disappear once you are the majority”, I give you an NPR story on how house republicans are considering a rule change to allow indicted members to remain as party leaders, in order to shield DeLay. The rule they are considering overturning was made as a “we are more ethical then you” reaction back when the democrats where in a similar situation.
- NASA set a new air speed record for air breathing engines, 10x the speed of sound.
- dbt and Andrew Sullivan points to a Washington Post article about a local community and church defending a local homosexual against Fred Phelps’s organization.
JWZ Explains That The Roomba Isnt Quite Ready For
JWZ explains that the Roomba isn’t quite ready for prime time.
NPR Afternoon
NPR just started a new mini series on the mix of Muslim identity and Europe by Sylvia Poggioli. The first entry is “Europe, Islam’s New Front Line: The Netherlands“. One section of the city is known as satellite city because of the number of satellite dishes receiving Arabic content.
There are also a couple interesting pieces on Powell now that he’s resigning. The first is Robert Siegel talking with Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Daniel Schorr comments on it in “Powell Served Country, Not Party“. Regarding Rice, “Rice Known for Loyalty to Bush” and “What to Expect from Rice at State Department“. The take from the pieces is that when countries talk to Rice they know they are getting the president’s official position, however they will lose a person who is the backdoor to the president who can talk negotiate and play advocate with other people’s positions. The more ideological position of Rice will cause a lot of friction in the service and will lose a number of senior people. The lack of Powell in the administration also increases the chances of groupthink.
Andrei Codrescu also a commentary on the death of intellectuals.
Malcom Gladwell RSS Feed
I created an RSS feed of Malcom Gladwell’s article archive. I’ve been meaning to follow his work ever since I heard him talk at Microsoft about “The Tipping Point”.
Coding Style
Larry Osterman has a great article about Coding Styles.
Election
Kerry lost, the democrats lost. I had a significant emotional reaction to it, which I wasn’t expecting. 😦 At this point I can just be hopeful that Bush has learned from his past mistakes and will do a better job this time around. I share many of the same high level goals, I just wish we matched more on technique and my expectation of skill level.
Reason vrs Faith
One of the most disturbing meta issues about the upcoming election is the role of faith in President Bush’s administration. I’ve been reading for a while how policy was left to dogmatic truths and maxims instead of pragmatic reality. There are definite pragmatic advantages to this type of decision making. The first is that gives a very consistent record. The second is that it resonates with ideologues and the evangelical. The weakness is in the results. An inability to adapt to new situations and a general inability to admit mistakes and fault. So far all of this fits the administration to a T. I have spent the last couple months looking for signs and hints from the president that it isn’t true, that it is just a categorization made by his opponents. After the third debate, there was no hope left. The only sign in the campaign was a point where Bush said that you can’t truly defeat terrorism. I was overjoyed at the comment, but instead of sticking to his guns and explaining the reality of the statement, it was quickly dismissed and never saw the light of day again. The only hope left is, that as a friend claims, Bush is terrified of saying anything like that because it will get used against him.
Both of the possibilities are frightening. Either Bush is afraid to state the reality of the situation to the American people, or he can’t get passed blind faith to deal with the reality of the situation. Neither allows him to act in the best interest of the country and neither possibility allows me to trust him. The president’s entire campaign message of optimism and steadfastness just becomes an inability to see the truth and an inability to be flexible or agile. These are fatal flaws in someone running America. With the recent change of plans of the company with Longhorn, I was given a stark contrast between Microsoft’s leadership and Bush’s leadership. Microsoft was open and honest about the need to change course to meet our objectives, and after getting over the let down, I see how the new plan is a better plan in the long term.
Ron Suskind recently wrote an article about the nature of faith in the administration, drawing it as “a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.”
That very issue is what Jim Wallis wishes he could sit and talk about with George W. Bush. That’s impossible now, he says. He is no longer invited to the White House.
”Faith can cut in so many ways,” he said. ”If you’re penitent and not triumphal, it can move us to repentance and accountability and help us reach for something higher than ourselves. That can be a powerful thing, a thing that moves us beyond politics as usual, like Martin Luther King did. But when it’s designed to certify our righteousness — that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There’s no reflection.
”Where people often get lost is on this very point,” he said after a moment of thought. ”Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not — not ever — to the thing we as humans so very much want.”
And what is that?
”Easy certainty.”
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