Quips: Quick commentary on politics, technology and life, I think.

Saturday, March 27

Time for another roundup

Ran across too many way too interesting things on a recent surf-around to ignore. So here are some pointers to things you might like:

• The Times did a piece on the Sandhill Crane migration in my old hometown that includes photos by someone my photo friends know.
• Woods gives his take on the Richard Clarke vs. Bush brawl. Doesn't seem like arguing the other guy is "soft on terror" is going to be a winning strategy. Too much grandstanding and chest-beating results.
• Buzzworthy has a nice collection of links on why the iPod mini has become such a hit. Of course, there's also an item that says print designers and layout artists might get "offshored" in the future.
• Gotta love Google. Especially if you're in the media. Newsweek has a cover story. NYT's Circuits includes an excellent column of hints (I did not know there was a calculator included). And Tidbits chimes in on Google tools
• Michael Kinsley takes on Bush's assertion that Kerry voted to raise taxes 350 times during his Senate career. (Of course, if we project Bush's "revenue enhancements"...) Had to highlight this quote:

The only tax increase on Bush's list (counted twice, but hey . . . ) is Kerry's support for Clinton's 1993 deficit-reduction plan. That's the one that raised rates in the top bracket and led to a decade of such fabulous prosperity that even its most affluent victims ended up better off.

And finally, there's a few things to add to the roll.

• Political Aims by Amy Sullivan
• Design Observer, originally pointed out by Kottke
• The most-excellent photolog at rion.nu
• And Noam Chomsky has joined the blogosphere. Doesn't look like much yet, but I'm sure there'll be some more good thought there.

Posted by jb, 1:25 AM :: :: #

Tuesday, March 16

Sometimes, I feel like an elf-ninja

If you must categorize people, might I suggest plotting them on the elf-dwarf, pirate-ninja scale. (via boing boing, which I don't visit often enough, but thanks to gillmor for reminding me.)

Posted by jb, 4:16 PM :: :: #

Friday, March 12

License plate wisdom

Seen this morning on the drive to work:

LV DNT H8

Posted by jb, 2:36 PM :: :: #

Wednesday, March 10

More ignorance than abstinence

There's been quite a few stories about teenage sexual activity and the results of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, especially what reseachers found out:

A pledge to refrain from premarital sex, the researchers found, did tend to delay the start of sexual intercourse by 18 months.

Oh good. And then what happens?

88 percent of those who pledged chastity reported having had sexual intercourse before they married. (By age 23, half the teenagers who had made virginity pledges were married, compared with 25 percent of those who had not pledged) ... The researchers tested the participants for three common sexually transmitted infections — chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis — and found that the rates were almost identical for the teenagers who took pledges and those who did not.

And it gets better:

The teenagers who had taken pledges were less likely to know they had an infection, raising the risk of their transmitting it to other people.

Don't get me wrong. Abstinence is a good thing. But, in the name of procreation at the very least, we have to expect that at some point these people are going to start having sex (yes, even you conservatives who expect they're going to get married). So we'd better give them some information.

Posted by jb, 7:05 PM :: :: #

Monday, March 8

Trying to be more opinionated

I've got a note here that says I should be more opinionated. Which means I'm going to have to go to the trouble of forming opinions about more things. In any case, I'll give it a shot. Note the new symbol (») which will suffice to signal my thoughts, just to avoid confusion.

• Bush Seeks to Bolster Regular-Guy Image
    » It will be interesting to see how this media meme plays out. Seeing as "Bush as dumb guy vs. Gore as stiff guy" got quite a bit of play during 2000, it'll also be interesting to see if Kerry's penchant for hunting, quite a "regular guy" pursuit, does anything to offset the "privileged Easterner" profile that's being set up. Especially seeing as they both went to Yale.
• GOP Faces Climb to Gain Bush Black Votes
    » Even more to the point, the graphic that accompanies the story shows that Republicans got more than a quarter of the black vote way back in '36 and about a third of it in Roosevelt's next two elections. Eishenhower hit the high-water mark in '56 at 39%. Even Nixon got a third of it against Kennedy in 1960. But passing the Civil Rights act may have been in a factor in LBJ getting 94%. The Republicans have never recovered.
• What Newspapers and Their Web Sites Must Do to Survive: The newspaper industry will die if it doesn't begin more accurately matching its wealth of content to each reader.
    » My problem with this is that I've never seen anyone guess how many readers will actually go to the trouble of setting up all this personalization. They seem to give up and go somewhere that gives them the content of interest much more readily.

Posted by jb, 7:56 PM :: :: #

Friday, March 5

What's intriguing today

It's a big group today, but I've been at work for a long time.

• Bush Campaigns Amid a Furor Over Ads
• BUSH ADS DEBATED: Using 9/11 images is an insult, some say: including this quote:

  "I find it hypocritical that he would use 9/11 images and then not cooperate with the commission."
    — Stephen Push, cofounder of Families of September 11.

• Report Finds Republican Aides Spied on Democrats
• Signing Is Delayed in Iraq: The scheduled signing of the interim constitution for Iraq was delayed indefinitely after five Shiite members of the Iraqi Governing Council raised objections. — I especially like the photo that was chosen.
• In Texas, Hire a Lawyer, Forget About a Doctor?: A Texas company run by doctors has been operating a Web site that compiles and posts the names of plaintiffs, their lawyers and expert witnesses in malpractice lawsuits.
• Apple Opens a Store, and It Clicks

And now, on to the sports section

• Colorado Places Stringent Limits on Its Recruiting — We'll see if others follow along, or if some places continue to use "young women whose primary duty is to promote The University of Texas football program, while assisting the staff with the recruiting of prospective student-athletes. "
• MITCH ALBOM: Golf needs to be more like hockey.
• Pudge makes immediate impact: The Tigers had plenty of contributors in a 5-4 victory over Montreal at Marchant Stadium. But if anyone led them to victory, Rodriguez did.
• Special delivery : U of Louisville guard kept pregnancy secret for 8 months

Posted by jb, 7:47 PM :: :: #

Thursday, March 4

The perils of politics and tragedy, and the exploitation thereof

Some relatives of 9/11 victims are unhappy with President Bush's ads promoting his "Steady leadership in times of change" specifically using 9/11 imagery.

"We're not going to stand for him to put his arm around one of our members on top of a pile of rubble at Ground Zero during a tragedy and then stand by and watch him cut money for first responders."
  — AP quote of Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Union, which posted an expanded statement.

Posted by jb, 4:05 PM :: :: #

Wednesday, March 3

Gentlemen, start your campaigns

Couple of "new favorite" political sites: The Blogging of the President, which linked to the U.S. Election Atlas (make your own electoral map).
  BOP also has a post from Jay Rosen about "off the grid" journalism - an effort by the Sacramento Bee to [shudder] interview the voters, rather than just polling them.
  As for Mssrs. Kerry and Bush, I expect to be sick of your ads well before Halloween, living in a battleground state like I do. And since I haven't mentioned it yet, check out the Times On the Trail feature.

Posted by jb, 5:03 PM :: :: #

Tuesday, March 2

Post for a "special" day

For those of you with an intense interest about what happened on this date in history.
  And some of today's headlines, with the usual caveat that I haven't read all of them, they just looked interesting:

• The Doctor's Seussentennial
• Libya Taps Ice Age Water
• Novel About Nazi Pornography Scandalizes German Literati
• Country Day stands firm: Detroit Country Day has reaffirmed its position that the school did nothing wrong when Chris Webber played basketball there, and the Yellowjackets aren't giving up the three state titles he helped them win.
• DREW SHARP: Steroid silence not golden for baseball
• BIG MUSCLES, BIG TROUBLE: Experts fear that the steroids and dietary supplements popular with teen athletes carry long-term risks
• NASA Reports Evidence Mars Was Once Soaked

Posted by jb, 4:02 PM :: :: #

Monday, March 1

Yeah, tell us about it

From a story that should come as no surprise to anyone here: Study: Blogging Still Infrequent

For most bloggers, it's not an all-consuming, all-the-time kind of experience.
  — Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which chose this headline: 44% of U.S. Internet users have contributed their thoughts and their files to the online world

Posted by jb, 8:20 PM :: :: #

 More in the archives.

 j b 7 n e t [ a t ] e x c i t e [ d o t ] c o m