Posts from — November 2008

Ha:

My faith in the Lord is about the pure, simple values: raising children right, saying grace at the table, strictly forbidding those who are Methodists or Presbyterians from receiving communion because their beliefs are heresies, and curing homosexuals. That’s all. Just the core beliefs. You won’t see me going on some frothy-mouthed tirade about being a comfort to the downtrodden.

In case you haven’t seen it, this clip from the discovery channel is pretty amazing:

If you haven’t seen I.O.U.S.A. (documentary about the national debt), you should watch the video below. The creators of the movie created a 30-minute version and are distributing it free online. I saw the whole thing in the theater, but I’m watching the new version now. It’s worth your 30 minutes:

Here are a bunch of interviews from NPR’s Fresh Air that I’ve enjoyed in the last month. You can listen to them with the links below…

James Franco – Discussing his recent movie Milk and his past work. I was really impressed to learn that he was currently in school getting a master’s degree in creative writing (or something). His discussion of his role on Freaks and Geeks makes me want to watch that show again.

Stephen Colbert – Talks about his Christmas Special (last weekend) and a bunch of topics. Always entertaining.

Bill Ayers – Terry Gross took to a different interviewing style in this one, which was abrupt, but I think the interview is still worth listening to. Definitely far from perfect.

Artie Lange – Talks about his work with Howard Stern, acting and his personal struggles. His stories about his USO tour were interesting and entertaining. He can tell some really dark stories, but be incidentally hilarious at the same time.

Two journalists talking about Obama’s and McCain’s strategies – After the election, I thought that this segment provided the best review I’ve seen (er, heard).

Bill Moyers and Mickey Edwards – Moyers talks about the state of the country and the media, Edwards discusses the future of the conservative movement.

Tina Fey – Discusses Sarah Palin, 30 Rock, etc. Definitely worth a listen if you’re a fan.

Seth Meyers – Head writer on SNL… some interesting perspective in this one, too (ideally listen to this one along with the Tina Fey one).

Momentarily not exhausted during my trip back east, here’s a haiku:

Stop in Chicago
Try to avoid Bill Ayers!
Threat level orange

Deep dish layover
The airport from Home Alone!
We’re The Wet Bandits!

I’ve seen this video on a few blogs, and it’s worth watching. From Boing Boing:

This video sequence offers a compendium of appearances (covering the 2006-2007 period) by Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff, who is a frequent — and frequently disrespected — talking head on cable news shows. What astonishes is not just the accuracy of his dour predictions about the economy but the sheer arrogance of every other person appearing on these programs.

I don’t have a problem with people being incredibly wrong about things like this, but the vehemence of their opinions, mocking of Schiff and complete lack of nuance is quite a spectacle. Clips like this make me glad I don’t watch cable news much. The worst part is, I don’t think that this will negatively affect their careers.

“Our country deserves better”

SearchWiki was launched today, letting you edit your search results on Google. Here’s a quick overview:

I found the buttons to be a bit distracting, so I wrote a Greasemonkey script to hide the buttons. If you have greasemonkey installed and want to hide the buttons, try my script. You can show and hide the buttons by pressing ‘W’ on the keyboard.

I like SearchWiki, but I think this change makes it a bit better for me. Let me know if you find it useful!

John Hodgman visited Google a week ago as part of the book tour for More Information Than You Require. His companion on the book tour is Jonathan Coulton, whom I hadn’t really heard of until Girts introduced me when we saw a concert last year. Coulton is to music as Hodgman is to language and history, perhaps.

You can preview or download any of his songs on his website. I recommend exploring, as well as seeing him live if you get a chance.

Here’s his interpretation of the Sir Mix-a-lot classic “Baby Got Back”:

“Future Soon” is one of his original songs that I like:

(I couldn’t find a live version with good audio, unfortunately)

A recent post from Bruce Schneier brought up Aspidistra, a system of radio broadcasts that the Allies would use to impersonate German broadcasts during an air raid:

With a staff of fake announcers, a fake German band, and recordings of recent speeches from high-ranking Nazis, they would smoothly switch from merely relaying the German network to emulating it with their own staff. They could then make modifications to news broadcasts, occasionally creating panic and confusion.

German transmitters were switched off during air raids, to prevent them from being used as navigational aids for bombers. But many were connected into a network and broadcast the same content. When a targeted transmitter switched off, Aspidistra began transmitting on their original frequency, initially retransmitting the German network broadcast as received from a still-active station. As a deception, false content and pro-Allied propaganda would be inserted into the broadcast.

If you’re interested in WWII electronic warfare, you’ll enjoy this hour-long talk I saw at work “The Secret History of Silicon Valley”:

This is one of the most interesting talks I’ve seen.