The last week’s worth of Daily Shows and Colbert Reports had some very good moments, so I thought I’d summarize and link to the stuff I found interesting. To start off, the show November 28, 2012 – Frank Oz (The Colbert Report) included a really strong “The Word” segment, shown and transcribed by yours truly below.

The Word – Sisters are doing it to themselves (The Colbert Report)

In this clip above, Stephen addresses a column by Fox News staff columnist Suzanne Venker—a so-called journalist to whom I would ordinarily not pay any attention but Stephen did such a sterling job... [More]

A public service announcement, brought you by “The Big Think” through Slavoj Žižek. Transcript follows the video.

We Need Thinking by Slavoj Žižek (YouTube)

“More than ever, we need philosophy today. Even the most speculative—in the sense of reflecting on itself—science … has to rely on a set of automatic presuppositions. Like a scientist simply presupposes in his or her very approach to nature, a set of implications of how the nature functions, what’s the causality in nature, and so on and so on. And philosophy teaches us... [More]”

1. Crank (2006) — 6/10
2. Crank: High Voltage (2009) — 5/10
3. Hudson Hawk (1991) — 6/10
4. Franklyn (2008) — 6/10
5. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) — 7/10
6. Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) — 5/10
7. Casa de mi Padre (2012) — 5/10
8. Green Lantern (2011) — 5/10
9. I Am Comic (2010) — 6/10
10. Aliens (1986) — 8/10
11. 2081 (2009) — 7/10
12. Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States E01 (2012) — 10/10
13. Prometheus (2012) — 7/10
14. Tower Heist (2011) — 7/10
15. Nosferatu, eine... [More]

tl;dr: if you can’t read the BSOD message or need to examine the minidump files generated by Windows when it crashes, use the BlueScreenView utility to view them. Windows 8 kept crashing on shutdown for me because of an errant 56K modem driver. Sad—so sad—but true.

My Windows 8 installation went off with just one hitch: the machine crashed on shutdown. Every. Single. Time. This made it impossible to use the hibernation feature, which was a blocker issue for a laptop.

So, how to solve the... [More]

Your New TV Ruins Movies (Prolost) is a wonderful, eye-opening article about flat-panel TVs. If you care at all how your television looks—and whether it all matches the original intent of the director—it’s well worth your while to read the whole thing (it’s not that long).

However, here are the main points:

Plasma > LCD

If you don’t have a flat-panel television yet, or you’re in the market for a new one, strongly consider buying a plasma screen instead of an LCD. Why? Because “plasma TVs can... [More]”

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) — 5/10

This sequel, worse than the original, is, on top of it all, showing its age. This time, Max cynically helps a settlement try to get petrol while the forces of Humungus (the evil, Bane-like leader of the marauders) try to destroy them and steal all of their supplies. Everything is very post-apocalyptic and the final half of the film is an interminable truck chase across the Australian wastelands. Not really recommended; watch the first one instead.... [More]

There's no cure… by Bronn/Tyrion (YouTube)

The following ruminations were written seven years ago but have held up remarkably well. They have been published with minor updates.

This article deals with the situation illustrated below, specifically the question raised in the comment.

if (! $folder_id)
{
  $this->db->logged_query (“SELECT folder_id FROM” .
                           $this->app->table_names->objects .
                           “WHERE id = $obj->object_id”);
  if ($this->db->next_record ())
    $folder_id = $this->db->f... [More]

The following article was originally published on the Encodo blogs and is cross-published here.

In the latest version of Quino—version 1.8.5—we took a long, hard look at the patterns we were using to create metadata. The metadata for an application includes all of the usual Quino stuff: classes, properties, paths, relations. With each version, though we’re able to use the metadata in more places. That means that the metadata definition code grows and grows. We needed some way to keep a... [More]

I was recently redesigning a web page and wanted to make it easier to use from touch-screen browsers. Links made only of text are relatively easy to click with a mouse, but tend to make poor touch targets. If the layout has enough space around the link, this can be remedied by applying CSS.

The basic box

Suppose we have a box with three links in it, as shown to the right.

Setting the height

The first step is to make this box taller, so the logical thing to do is to set the... [More]

In 2009, Side-by-side in Gaza noted the disparity in the damage caused by Palestinian ordnance versus that caused by Israeli. As revealed in pictures from Israel—Gaza conflict (Big Picture Blog), the stark difference remains in 2012. Is it clear that, while the Gazans are capable of producing some weaponry despite the strict blockades (and allegedly with Iran and Arab countries in its corner), its firepower pales in comparison to that of the Israelis (with the U.S. in its corner). Having the right friends makes... [More]

Without deviation from the norm, Progress is not possible by Frank Zappa (YouTube)

“I think that progress is not possible without deviation.

“And I think that it’s important that people be aware of some of the creative ways in which some of their fellow men are deviating from the norm.

“Because, in some instances, they may find these deviations inspiring and might suggest further deviations which might cause progress.

“You never know.”

The U.S. elections have come and gone. People in other parts of the world—I can attest to Switzerland—were at times exasperated with the amount of coverage in their home countries. That coverage, it seems, pales in comparison to the deluge of information to which Americans themselves were subjected for at least a solid year. And some candidates even started campaigning two years out. The intensity of media saturation was reported to have been prodigious.

Unsurprisingly, many are just glad... [More]

A friend of mine in California asked for my input on the ballot propositions in California in November 2012. Here’s my quick impression of these issues. YMMV.

I used Ballotpedia (Ballotpedia) as my reference. They have good sections showing who’s for/against and why. It’s also a good way to test the wind by seeing which way Democrats or Republicans are voting. Also interesting to see which and how many papers endorsed one way or the other.

Prop 30—Jerry Brown’s Tax Increase (revenues for general fund... [More]

Equal rights or saving the children. You can’t have both.

The following quote floated through the Internets, bubbling along on the social-network streams. It was written in support of voting for the candidate that supports gay rights, for one who supports equal rights for all Americans.

The third debate was eons ago, the election is tomorrow and, if we’re very lucky, we’ll never have to hear about Mitt Romney again. Sure, we’ll still be stuck with Obama but, as the Economist so lovingly put it, better the devil you know.

The best way to listen to the foreign-policy debate was the Expanding the Debate Special on Foreign Policy (Democracy Now!), which featured two of the other candidates—Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party—who offered much smarter and less... [More]

The title of the essay Which one? America could do better than Barack Obama; sadly, Mitt Romney does not fit the bill (Economist) sums up its contents, to some degree. The conclusion to which they came is justified given some of their arguments. But some of their other arguments are just not supported by any tangible evidence. That is, the Economist shows in a short and eminently readable essay why you can’t really trust them for cogent analysis. Not only does their ideology gets in the way, but they... [More]

The interview Obama and the Road Ahead by Douglas Brinkley (Rolling Stone) is generally softball and sycophantic. It wouldn’t be worth of noting except that it included a supposed broadside by Barack Obama against Ayn Rand. As usual, those with their panties in a bunch cited it completely out of context. This is a shame, because the broader point is more interesting. It’s not like Obama just slammed Ayn Rand for the hell of it; he actual gave a relatively good justification for why it’s a bad idea to put pure objectivists in... [More]

Republican Rape Definition ChartAlong the left-hand side is a handy chart published with the article The Republican Rape Advisory Chart (AlterNet). It features some of the most stupefying and misogynistic things that politicians have said about rape in the last year or so. We will return to it soon, but let it provide contrast to the French social policies detailed in the article French teens to get the Pill for free (France 24).

The main point is as follows:

“French teenagers aged 15 to 18 will have their contraceptive pills reimbursed 100... [More]”

Wild West

The facts of the case, as described in the article Unarmed and Gunned Down by Homeowner in His ‘Castle’ by Jack Healy (NY Times) are distilled below:

“Mr. Fredenberg […] strode up the driveway […] to confront Brice Harper, a 24-year-old romantically involved with Mr. Fredenberg’s young wife. […] he walked through Mr. Harper’s open garage door […] Mr. Harper aimed a gun at the unarmed Mr. Fredenberg, fired and struck him three times. Mr. Fredenberg crumpled to the garage floor, a few feet from... [More]”

A recent email exchanged that I partially documented in Benghazi: a storm in a teacup continued and the suggestion that I was providing information that “did not make sense” (read as “did not fit into preconceived notions”) and was “not very patriotic.” Again, I tried to respond with more background, though with waning hope.

Email Exchange

Not very patriotic? Me? Good. Patriotism is for those unwilling to think. I think I made my case very strongly that your laser-like focus on Benghazi is... [More]

The following are a series of responses I wrote to a friend in response to accusations that the liberal media was deliberately ignoring the story of what had happened in Benghazi. The implication was that the Obama administration had committed a severe transgression in its handling of the whole affair and was trying to cover it up.

Response #1

I did no special research in order to compose my initial reply, instead relying simply on that which I had picked up in various places.

Benghazi is a... [More]

Hat tip to ”English is a little bit like a child” by Mark Liberman (Language Log) for the reference.

Ze Frank sums up the third debate in five minutes. A taste:

“And of course our military’s in trouble. What’s scarier? A gun with a sword on it? Or a horse with a gun with a sword on it? You know why they phased it out right? Because the guys with the gun with the sword on it, wanted a gun on the end of the sword. And then those guys wanted a sword on the end of the gun. Turtles all the way down … and that’s how you get a budget deficit.”

The Final Debate Finally by Ze Frank (A Show)

2012 Presidential Candidates

The 2012 Presidential Candidate Match (I Side With) is quite nicely done and should be very helpful for most. It takes 5-10 minutes at the most. I recommend choosing “other stance” on almost every question instead of just “yes” or “no” because those choices are much more refined and likely to accurately reflect your opinion. Don’t forget to adjust the more/less important bar on the left to add weight to your more important issues—or to remove weight from those that you either don’t know or care about.
... [More]

The first Obama/Romney debate happened what must seem like an eternity ago in this social-media–mad world, but the pace here at earthli News is a bit slower and more contemplative. Well, slower anyway. This article encompasses reactions and articles related to both debates.

On Romney’s positions

I read some articles on the first debate. The most staid and steady of these was the article The US presidential debates’ illusion of political choice by Glenn Greenwald (Guardian), which pointed out all of the issues that would not... [More]

I only watched a brief recap (shown below) but I feel like I got the gist of this debate.

VP Debateness by ZeFrank (A Show)

So the buzz is that Biden was a big, fat meanie and not worthy of his office and poor, little, beleaguered, doe-eyed Paul Ryan could barely fluster out his ideas in the face of that mighty onslaught. That’s what I heard from others who neither watched the debate nor have access to anything other than the mainstream American media.

For example, the Washington Post was typically rabidly right-wing in the... [More]

David Gregory—who is pretty much the epitome of a sellout newsman (not a journalist, mind you)—interviewed Stephen Colbert. He was out of character, for once, and was quite eloquent in answering Gregory’s question as to what Colbert thinks of the two candidates: