Blog
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links for 2008-11-04
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Creates small, vertical calendars
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The comments on this story just show how clueless many, many people are.
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A Song for Wednesday
The Kinks – This Time Tomorrow
This time tomorrow where will we be
On a spaceship somewhere sailing across an empty sea
This time tomorrow what will we know
Will we still be here watching an in-flight movie show
I’ll leave the sun behind me and watch the clouds as they sadly pass me by
Seven miles below me I can see the world and it ain’t so big at all
This time tomorrow what will we see
Fields full of houses, endless rows of crowded streets
I don’t where I’m going, I don’t want to see
I feel the world below me looking up at me
Leave the sun behind me, and I watch the clouds as they sadly pass me by
And I’m in perpetual motion and the world below doesn’t matter much to me
This time tomorrow where will we be
On a spaceship somewhere sailing across an empty sea
This time tomorrow where will we be
This time tomorrow what will we seeThe Kinks – This Time Tomorrow
(Buy it at iTunes, Amazon MP3)
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links for 2008-10-28
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This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere.
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Want A Laugh? The Ann Arbor News' Non-Endorsement
I would to introduce you to one of my favorite Dutch phrases: plaatsvervangende schaamte. Here’s how to pronounce it (no, that’s not me).
So, what does plaatsvervangende schaamte mean (if you haven’t clicked that link above)? It means “place exchanging shame”, or, the shame I feel because you aren’t ashamed of what you’re doing. You know, like when you’re friend is singing terribly but thinks they sound like a pop star?
Or, say, when you’re the biggest newspaper in the most liberal town in the state, and you can’t even find your dignity to choose a candidate to endorse for one of the more important Presenidential races in history. Yet that’s what I feel today for the editorial board at the Ann Arbor News.
Granted, this is the paper that twice endorsed George W. Bush. But, today less than 2 weeks before the election, the AA News endorsed… no one. In 816 words they managed spit out every Republican talking point, most of the Democratic points, a smear or two, and still say absolutely nothing.
As one commenter put it, this is the “coward’s way out”, which indeed it is. We haven’t subscribed to the News in many years and I see there’s no reason to give them another look. What a waste of an opportunity and potential.
Plaatsvervangende schaamte.
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links for 2008-10-25
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The Daily Show after Cheney shot his lawyer friend. This episode makes me laugh every time.
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The McCain Campaign Enters the Self-Parody Stage
You just can’t make this stuff up:
Madam President, the amendment before the Senate is a very simple one. It restricts the use of campaign funds for inherently personal purposes. The amendment would restrict individuals from using campaign funds for such things as home mortgage payments, clothing purchases … and vacations or other trips that are noncampaign in nature. […]
The use of campaign funds for items which most Americans would consider to be strictly personal reasons, in my view, erodes public confidence and erodes it significantly.
Who said that? John McCain. In 1993. You know, when he was still standing up for the American people. Not when his party was footing the bill for his VP’s wardrobe to the tune of $150,000.
Now, a certain regular here will say something like “they’re both so bad”. Which is true to a degree. But this is just patently wrong. This crap defense that the clothes will be donated to charity is bull. Really? All the clothes purchased for the Palin kids and Todd Palin are going to be taken back from them and given to… who, exactly? And if that was always the intent, how stupid does your campaign staff have to be not to use that as a selling point? Seriously, how hard is it to say “Gov. Palin’s clothes for tonight’s debate were purchased at a union shop and will be donated to the Salvation Army after the event.” Bam! You got union points and a photo-op the next day.
Face it, you got caught; suck it up, apologize and move on. Don’t bullshit us with some idiotic story about charities and donations? Nevermind that the purchase of those clothes may actually be illegal under US Tax Code. Oh, and the best part? Guess who pushed that section of the tax code into law?
John McCain. (See Section 313, para (b), sub-section (B)) [see also: original Senate bill, overview of S.27, bill’s complete history]
Idiots. I don’t want McCain to win, but this is pathetic. At least stand for something. At least have the balls to tell your party when they’re wrong, not repeat the same stupid excuse and defend an apparent violation of a bill you sponsored.
Senator McCain, I wanted you to be the nominee in 2004. I wanted to vote for you so badly then. I even watched you this season, hoping you really weren’t the stooge for the Bush administration that you appeared to be in the years following, hoping I could vote for you this time. But I can’t, and I’m getting close to giving up on Republicans in general.
I really believe that you think you’re doing the best thing for the country. But by allowing the political players to game the public in an attempt for votes, you’re sacrificing every shred of integrity and, dare I say it, status as a maverick you’ve built over the last 20+ years as a Senator.
As Christopher Buckley said, “I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.”
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A Few Steps Closer to Blu-Ray and Netflix
We have yet to make the leap to Blu-Ray. Frankly, I haven’t seen the point yet. Yes, I’d love to see what the quality would be on our TV, but I’m not willing to shell out $300+ for a new player and then $30-60 for movies that I likely already have. We did buy an up-convert DVD player when we got the TV and, so far, movies have looked pretty damned good.
But, today was yet another step closer to our purchase of a Blu-Ray player with the announcement of Samsung adding Netflix streaming capability to a new model of their Blu-Ray players. We’ve been using the Blockbuster service for a while now. It started at Blockbuster because we could exchange mailed movies at the store for in-store movies, and we got a coupon every month for a free game rental. It was a sweet deal until Blockbuster jacked up the price. We downgraded, still getting movies via mail, but no in-store exhange and no monthly game rental.
To be honest, the only reason we didn’t switch was a) the price at Netflix at the time was the same and b) we had hundreds of movies queued up and were too lazy to re-do all that work on Netflix. (Hint to Netflix: find a way to import my Blockbuster queue and you might have a deal.)
Of course, in the long run, this announcement may not push us over the purchasing edge at all; the Xbox announcement in July hasn’t because of the Xbox Gold requirement (seriously? I have to pay to watch content I already paid for once? Lame.) But, if I own the player and there’s no fee to watch the movies I’ve already paid Netflix to see, that’s a pretty tempting deal.
Wonder if these will be out by the time tax season rolls around…
