Things I tripped over on my way to the internet.

Ooh, they're real scared.

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:18:49 -0700

The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board says, “Enough already”, the Legislature should stop grandstanding and pass the budget. I’m sure they’ll get right on it now.

In other news, a radio talk show host said something obnoxious.

This looks like a good place to cook (via...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:50:31 -0700

This looks like a good place to cook (via indieindex)

You’re right. We need more pictures over here. This is a good one.

Lifehacker: Layered Desktop Wallpaper Organizes Your Icons This...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:47:39 -0700

Lifehacker: Layered Desktop Wallpaper Organizes Your Icons

This is the best idea I’ve seen yet for desktop wallpaper.

Most wallpaper assumes the only purpose of the desktop is to display pretty pictures. But, in reality, the pretty pictures get covered up because you use the desktop to, you know, put stuff on.

This give you a nice visual way to organize the stuff you put on it.

"When religions make mutually exclusive truth claims, they both can’t be true."

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:36:13 -0700

“When religions make mutually exclusive truth claims, they both can’t be true.”

- sds

Bingo.

poppytalkhandmade

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:07:26 -0700

poppytalkhandmade: If you like Etsy you’ll like this. (via morrismaven)

Obama and Off-shore drilling

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:17:00 -0700

sds:

Wall Street Journal:

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst said in a report there is a lot of offshore crude that can be produced relatively quickly. The problem: It is located off California, where politicians have built careers opposing new drilling.

“California could actually start producing new oil within a year if the moratorium were lifted” […]

Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s “fast-track” plan for reducing foreign oil imports will take a minimum of 10 years and has no guarantees.

According to the Obama campaign, only plans that “would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence…would be worthy of our consideration.” And 10 years with no guarantees is a better plan?

As Lileks said, “We do have oil. We can get to it soon. It will make a difference.”

"Two-point-six million acres in Alaska opened up for oil exploration, and it could be producing by..."

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:07:00 -0700

“Two-point-six million acres in Alaska opened up for oil exploration, and it could be producing by 2010. As in “less than two years from now.” Granted, that’s because we have the infrastructure in place up there, but this goes counter to everything I heard from the clipboard people outside the grocery store – we have no more oil, it’ll take too long to get it, and it won’t make a difference. We do have oil. We can get to it soon. It will make a difference.”

- James Lileks

Political apathy is no longer cool

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:45:55 -0700

Political apathy is no longer cool: This is a potentially big deal.

Coffee and the Bible

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:33:00 -0700

A random comment from a colleague led me to the discovery that there is very little in the internets about coffee and the Bible. Turns out there’s a very good reason for that.

Coffee beans, which are actually the seeds of a berry, were chewed as a stimulant; this use was recorded in the Koran and the Bible. —some botany website from UCLA

Uh, no. There are no direct references to coffee in the Bible and, while there may be in the Koran, I couldn’t find any specific references to them.

National Geographic says (via the awesome Food Timeline) even the chewing didn’t start til around 800 A.D. and the brewing didn’t start til around 1000.

That explains it then. (Since the Koran was finalized by 650 A.D it’s not likely coffee is in there either but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.) Even so, this has got to be the most comprehensive treatment of Coffee in the Bible on the web:

Coffee as a Means of Grace

Quote: Sen. John McCain’s chances of winning California this fall are looking poorer, as a...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:32:49 -0700

Quote:

Sen. John McCain’s chances of winning California this fall are looking poorer, as a new Field Poll shows the likely Republican nominee trailing Sen. Barack Obama by 24 points. (from today’s Capitol Alert)

Quote:

State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, [incumbent Governor Pete Wilson’s] Democratic opponent and the latest member of the Brown political dynasty to seek the California governorship, has slipped into second place after leading the race for the better part of a year, at one time by more than 20 points. (NYTimes, Sept 19, 1994)

Quote:

Wilson defeated Kathleen Brown by 55 percent to 40 percent. (The Weekly Standard, Oct 20, 2003)

Observations:

1) The change in the Brown/Wilson race was a swing of more than 35%. “Political experts” were predicting there was no way Wilson could beat Brown. [citation needed]

2) McCain’s chances of winning California have never been anything other than poor.

3) Obama will win California in November but it will be much closer than 24%.

4) People are a) sheep and b) fickle.

A Crunchy Con Manifesto

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:34:23 -0700

A Crunchy Con Manifesto:

hilker:

Rod Dreher:

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.”

10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.

thanks, to this i09 Wall-E post, i think i found a label politic… .

I don’t know about #6 and #7—I’d say that depends—and #10 is a bit vague—what Permanent Things? What moral truths? If this is referring to the principles of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” referred to in the Declaration then, I’m game—otherwise, spot on.

The Classic : The Twist

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:17:00 -0700

The Classic:

Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Potatoes

The Twist:

Rosemary and Tabasco Roasted Apples

"We need a rapper who’s entire act is about proper punctuation whose handle is M Dash. Or did..."

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:56:00 -0700

“We need a rapper who’s entire act is about proper punctuation whose handle is M Dash. Or did The Electric Company do that 20 years ago?”

- wendell | MetaFilter

Geekdad from Wired.com There’s awesome, wicked awesome,...

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:17:46 -0700

Geekdad from Wired.com

There’s awesome, wicked awesome, and then robotic lawn-mowing sheep. That is a whole new level of awesome.

Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:49:06 -0700

Found Cameras and Orphan Pictures: If you lose your camera, the pictures will probably end up here.

Helpful

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:42:26 -0700

A blind gentleman, complete with white cane, asked me for directions just now. Of course, I pointed in the direction he should go. Anything I can do to help.

"Quick, name the fastest growing city in California? San Jose? Riverside? San Diego? Nope, nope and..."

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:28:00 -0700

“Quick, name the fastest growing city in California? San Jose? Riverside? San Diego? Nope, nope and nope.

The state’s fastest growing city over 100,000 population between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, says the Census Bureau, was — drumroll, please — Victorville in the so-called “high desert” northeast of Los Angeles. In fact, it was the second fastest growing city in the nation at 9.5 percent.”

- California Political Columnist - Dan Walters: California by the Numbers

Heh, Victorville in the SacBee (a so-called “newspaper”)

“Percentage of CT readers.” What is that, 28 people?...

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:21:47 -0700

“Percentage of CT readers.” What is that, 28 people? Actually, as Squashed points out, it should say, “Percentage of CT readers who responded to an online poll.” So, more like 9 people. Ok, enough snark. To be fair, CT notes the number of votes for each date ranging from 1500 - 3200 and warns, “take the polls with a grain of salt”. However, online polls are notoriously, uh, worthless.

Nevertheless I think we can make 2 observations from this data:

people are sheep.
Christians never liked Hillary very much.

(via squashed)

'8th-graders face algebra mandate '

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:06:00 -0700

'8th-graders face algebra mandate ':

Phoblographer*:

Good, eighth graders should be expected to learn algebra. High school seniors should be expected to learn calculus for that matter.

And draft a basic business letter using correct grammar.

That would be awesome, no?

According to the article, many are “outraged” at this new expectation. It’s unfair to expect youngsters to learn the “notoriously difficult subject without a massive infusion of cash to pay for books, computer programs, and more class time and more qualified teachers.”

If there were EVER a subject that required no materials, it’s math. A pen and an overhead projector or a chalkboard and some chalk are pretty much all you need. If the math teachers we have now can’t teach algebra, then fire them.

[…]

I hate when people whine about math being haaaard. It’s not. We’re just lazy.

This mandate will probably never take hold or never be enforced in a way that gives us a generation of leading Californian mathematicians and scientists, but wouldn’t that be great?

Yes. Ditto. (emphasis added)

Wonder why it seems so hot this week? We had it nice for a...

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:21:05 -0700

Wonder why it seems so hot this week? We had it nice for a while.

(Inspired by the Sac Bee’s graphic Tuesday.)