Barack Obama, John McCain, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin all agree on one important thing: After his conviction, Senator Stevens has to go. Sign our Change Congress petition to ask him to resign, and help us, well, Change Congress.
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Meanwhile, in the economy
» Paul KrugmanISM factory gauge falls off a cliff – worst number since 1982. We need a government of national unity to deal with the economic crisis, starting at, oh, around 8:45 PM tomorrow. No Tags
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10:24 Enormously important news from the Free Software Foundation
» Lessig BlogThe Free Software Foundation has released the GNU Free Document License version 1.3. Section 11 of that license now (essentially) permits certain wikis to be relicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (v3.0) license, so long as the relicensing is completed by August 1, 2009. That means, the Wikipedia community now has the choice to relicense Wikipedia under a Creative Commons license. (Here's the FAQ for the amendment.)
It would be hard to overstate the importance of this change to the Free Culture community. A fundamental flaw in the Free Culture Movement to date is that its most important element -- Wikipedia -- is licensed in a way that makes it incompatible with an enormous range of other content in the Free Culture Movement. One solution to this, of course, would be for everything to move to the FDL. But that license was crafted initially for manuals, and there were a number of technical reasons why it would not work well (and in some cases, at all) for certain important kinds of culture.
This change would now permit interoperability among Free Culture projects, just as the dominance of the GNU GPL enables interoperability among Free Software projects. It thus eliminates an unnecessary and unproductive hinderance to the spread and growth of Free Culture.
Richard Stallman deserves enormous credit for enabling this change to occur. There were some who said RMS would never permit Wikipedia to be relicensed, as it is one of the crown jewels in his movement for freedom. And so it is: like the GNU/Linux operation system, which his movement made possible, Wikipedia was made possible by the architecture of freedom the FDL enabled. One could well understand a lesser man finding any number of excuses for blocking the change.
But here's what Richard said in 2002 in a different context:
"If we don’t want to live in a jungle, we must change our attitudes. We must start sending the message that a good citizen is one who cooperates when appropriate...."
Add "good citizen" to the list of praise for this founder of contemporary freedom.
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10:24
Enormously important news from the Free Software Foundation
» Lessig BlogThe Free Software Foundation has released the GNU Free Document License version 1.3. Section 11 of that license now (essentially) permits certain wikis to be relicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (v3.0) license, so long as the relicensing is completed by August 1, 2009. That means, the Wikipedia community now has the choice to relicense Wikipedia under a Creative Commons license. (Here's the FAQ for the amendment.)
It would be hard to overstate the importance of this change to the Free Culture community. A fundamental flaw in the Free Culture Movement to date is that its most important element -- Wikipedia -- is licensed in a way that makes it incompatible with an enormous range of other content in the Free Culture Movement. One solution to this, of course, would be for everything to move to the FDL. But that license was crafted initially for manuals, and there were a number of technical reasons why it would not work well (and in some cases, at all) for certain important kinds of culture.
This change would now permit interoperability among Free Culture projects, just as the dominance of the GNU GPL enables interoperability among Free Software projects. It thus eliminates an unnecessary and unproductive hinderance to the spread and growth of Free Culture.
Richard Stallman deserves enormous credit for enabling this change to occur. There were some who said RMS would never permit Wikipedia to be relicensed, as it is one of the crown jewels in his movement for freedom. And so it is: like the GNU/Linux operation system, which his movement made possible, Wikipedia was made possible by the architecture of freedom the FDL enabled. One could well understand a lesser man finding any number of excuses for blocking the change.
But here's what Richard said in 2002 in a different context:
"If we don’t want to live in a jungle, we must change our attitudes. We must start sending the message that a good citizen is one who cooperates when appropriate...."
Add "good citizen" to the list of praise for this founder of contemporary freedom.
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in which time is well spent ...
» WWdN: In ExileYesterday, while Anne took Ryan to the airport, Nolan and I found ourselves in the living room. He sat at the desk and played Warcraft, and I sat on the couch, bored with football and contemplating some Xbox.
"Hey," I said, "let's play frisbee."
"Mmmhhhuuhhh," he said, clicking the mouse and doing whatever it is you do when you play Warcraft.
"Hey," I said, again, "Nolan!"
He turned around, still clicking his mouse. "What?"
"I have a hankerin' to play frisbee. Let's go outside and play."
"A 'hankerin''?"
"Ah shore dew. Yeehaw!"
He shook his head. "You are so weird."
Weird has become Nolan's go-to word for just about everything recently. He doesn't say it unkindly, but it's a stand-in for lame, or other expressions of mild disapproval. If I'm too friendly with someone while we're at the store, it's weird. When we watched my episode of Criminal Minds together, it was weird to see me being Floyd. When I complimented a little kid on his awesome Darth Vader costume, and when I told a mom that dressing her little kids up as Popeye and Olive Oyl was adorable, it was weird.
"Yeah," I said. "You've mentioned that."
We looked at each other. I sensed an opening.
"Come on, Nolan, we can sit here and have our backs to each other, or we can do something fun together."
I didn't say it out loud, but I thought to myself, I'm not going to be an old man and wish that I'd played more video games ...
"Augh!" he said, with mock irritation. "Why do you have to make so much sense!?"
"Because I'm weird." I said.
He gave me a look. I'm not quite sure, but I think it was the I-see-what-you-did-there look. He turned around, typed something into the chat box, laughed, and shut the game down.
"People are so stupid," he said. "I'm 8 and 1 in this match, but when I stop to talk to you and get killed, some guy on my team tells me that I'm a dipshit. And that guy was 1 and 6." He shook his head. "This is why I only like to play with my friends."
"That's what I'm talking about when I say 'don't be a dick,'" I said. "That guy would never talk to you like that if you were face to face."
"Meh, whatever. I don't care." He said. I obviously cared about it more than he did, both as a gamer and as a dad.
I walked to the closet in the entryway, and discovered that our frisbee wasn't there.
"Oh, it's still in the trunk of your car," he said.
"Augh!" I said. "Let's go get a new one."
"Don't you just want to wait until mom gets home?"
"It'll be dark by then, and I really want to play with you." It had become, as we say, a thing.
I grabbed Anne's car keys, and a few minutes later, we were in Target. I yanked a bunch of 175 gram frisbees off the rack, trying to get at a particular one near the back.
"Are you getting seven frisbees?" Nolan said.
"Nope, I'm getting this one." I handed it to him. "It glows in the dark, so we can squeeze a few more minutes out of the dusk."
He barely nodded, a generous expression of approval.
When we got home, we played in the street, long after the sun had turned the sky above us purple and its rays barely lingered, pink and gold, on the bottoms of clouds in the West. We stopped only when our depth perception couldn't pick out the softly glowing green disc with much accuracy, and the stars were starting to come out.
I woke up this morning with searing pain in my left arm and shoulder. It was joined by some pain in my right hip, and even though I'm pretty damn achey today, it's worth it. I'm not going to be an old man and wish that I'd played less frisbee with my son.
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Californians: Vote NO on Prop 8
» WWdN: In ExileProposition 8 and the people who support it disgust me. Want to know why? Replace every instance of "same-sex marriage" with "interracial marriage" and see how bigoted and discriminatory it is.
Here, these guys have done it for you:
I can't believe it's 2008, and this is still an issue. Contrary to the lies spread by its supporters, Proposition 8 is not about education, it's not about forcing anything onto churches, and it's not about protecting anything. It's nothing but hate and discrimination, and it's wrong. If you're a fellow Californian, please vote no on proposition 8 tomorrow. In polling, it's very close right now, and every vote is going to count.
ETA: If I wasn't clear enough, reader swordman69 makes it crystal clear: "One thing to remember, voting NO changes nothing. It doesn't affect a single thing. Only a yes vote changes what is currently legal here in California. Do we teach same-sex marriage in schools now? NO. Is it affecting you in any way now, NO. Only a yes vote changes anything. A Yes vote puts discrimination into our state constitution."
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16:46
Winning Tuesday: An urgent plea to Obama supporters
» Lessig Blog
I awoke in New Zealand today to an article in the New Zealand Herald, and I had a strange sense of deja vu. It is still Monday in America. And like the Monday before the 2004 election, and the Monday before the 2000 election, there is enormous confidence among Democrats that we are going to win this.
But as with 2000, and 2004, I have become a bit terrified about where we’ll be Tuesday. For as presented by the New Zealand Herald, however optimistic the static view of the swing states is, the dynamic view — what is the trend — is sobering, to say the least. As this graph shows, only Florida is trending in the right direction. Every other critical state is trending away from Obama.
Now of course, maybe not quickly enough. Of course, the advantages are significant, especially relative to 2004. And of course, McCain would have to move mountains to overcome the enormous machine that the Obama campaign has built.
But here’s the weird deja vu I feel. In 2004, I got on a plane Tuesday to fly to London. When I got on the plane, I watched every pundit, as well as Kerry’s daughter, speak about how all the polls were with Kerry. The “exit polls” indicated a clear Kerry victory. But then when I landed, I sat it utter disbelief in the United lounge at Heathrow, watching the Ohio numbers go against us, and therefore, delivering 4 more years to Bush.
We Democrats have trouble closing the deal. We have trouble continuing the push to the very last moment. We have repeatedly been blindsided by the fact that the other side votes regardless of the expected result, while we’re more contingent — making the effort if it seems necessary, relaxing when it doesn’t.
Please, don’t let this happen again. Please, if you’re an Obama supporter, do absolutely everything you can in the next 24 hours to make sure every single possible Obama vote turns out to vote. Volunteer for a phone bank, or use my.barackobama.com to phone bank from home. And beyond this, do the sort of things that too few of us ever have the courage to do: Express to your friends, and anyone you know, why you want them to support your candidate. Send an email with a personal story, or an argument important to you, to as many people as you can. Apologize for the intrusion, but intrude nonetheless. (How weird is it that engaging people about democratic issues in a democracy is generally viewed as inappropriate). And don’t let up until 8pm Pacific time.
I’m doing this. I’m exhorting you. I’m writing to everyone on my twitter/facebook/indenti.ca/flickr lists. If I can find an smtp server that will let me, I’ll dump an email to as many of my friends as I can telling them they this is so important. And when my plane lands in the US Tuesday morning, I will join my wife (who is running a phone bank in San Francisco), spending the day on the phone). I will mark myself as weird in doing all this, no doubt. But we can all afford this, if only just once in our life.
I understand the other side has their reasons. I respect them, even if I disagree with them. But I am genuinely afraid about what happens to our side if we let this slip away. There is enormous energy and passion among young people for Obama. There is a passion and hope that makes me cry each time I think about it among African Americans, and those who think about and live the discrimination of our past, and present. There is an energy I have never imagined could be behind any politician. I have known for more than a decade that this man is the real deal. And it gives me enormous hope for this democracy that we are about to vote to make him President.
Unless we don’t. Unless we let this slip by, again. Unless we sit in our comfortable cubicle, and let politics be run by the other side.
Don’t do this. Do something this time. Please at least help spread this message. Make sure everyone who could matter here knows what you believe. And don’t stop until the clock runs out.
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16:46
Winning Tuesday: An urgent plea to Obama supporters
» Lessig Blog
I awoke in New Zealand today to an article in the New Zealand Herald, and I had a strange sense of deja vu. It is still Monday in America. And like the Monday before the 2004 election, and the Monday before the 2000 election, there is enormous confidence among Democrats that we are going to win this.
But as with 2000, and 2004, I have become a bit terrified about where we’ll be Tuesday. For as presented by the New Zealand Herald, however optimistic the static view of the swing states is, the dynamic view — what is the trend — is sobering, to say the least. As this graph shows, only Florida is trending in the right direction. Every other critical state is trending away from Obama.
Now of course, maybe not quickly enough. Of course, the advantages are significant, especially relative to 2004. And of course, McCain would have to move mountains to overcome the enormous machine that the Obama campaign has built.
But here’s the weird deja vu I feel. In 2004, I got on a plane Tuesday to fly to London. When I got on the plane, I watched every pundit, as well as Kerry’s daughter, speak about how all the polls were with Kerry. The “exit polls” indicated a clear Kerry victory. But then when I landed, I sat it utter disbelief in the United lounge at Heathrow, watching the Ohio numbers go against us, and therefore, delivering 4 more years to Bush.
We Democrats have trouble closing the deal. We have trouble continuing the push to the very last moment. We have repeatedly been blindsided by the fact that the other side votes regardless of the expected result, while we’re more contingent — making the effort if it seems necessary, relaxing when it doesn’t.
Please, don’t let this happen again. Please, if you’re an Obama supporter, do absolutely everything you can in the next 24 hours to make sure every single possible Obama vote turns out to vote. Volunteer for a phone bank, or use my.barackobama.com to phone bank from home. And beyond this, do the sort of things that too few of us ever have the courage to do: Express to your friends, and anyone you know, why you want them to support your candidate. Send an email with a personal story, or an argument important to you, to as many people as you can. Apologize for the intrusion, but intrude nonetheless. (How weird is it that engaging people about democratic issues in a democracy is generally viewed as inappropriate). And don’t let up until 8pm Pacific time.
I’m doing this. I’m exhorting you. I’m writing to everyone on my twitter/facebook/indenti.ca/flickr lists. If I can find an smtp server that will let me, I’ll dump an email to as many of my friends as I can telling them they this is so important. And when my plane lands in the US Tuesday morning, I will join my wife (who is running a phone bank in San Francisco), spending the day on the phone). I will mark myself as weird in doing all this, no doubt. But we can all afford this, if only just once in our life.
I understand the other side has their reasons. I respect them, even if I disagree with them. But I am genuinely afraid about what happens to our side if we let this slip away. There is enormous energy and passion among young people for Obama. There is a passion and hope that makes me cry each time I think about it among African Americans, and those who think about and live the discrimination of our past, and present. There is an energy I have never imagined could be behind any politician. I have known for more than a decade that this man is the real deal. And it gives me enormous hope for this democracy that we are about to vote to make him President.
Unless we don’t. Unless we let this slip by, again. Unless we sit in our comfortable cubicle, and let politics be run by the other side.
Don’t do this. Do something this time. Please at least help spread this message. Make sure everyone who could matter here knows what you believe. And don’t stop until the clock runs out.
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The decadent left, in its enclaves on the coasts
» Paul KrugmanIt depends on the meaning of the word enclave From Sam Wang. Reference explained here. No Tags -
Bumper sticker
» Paul KrugmanOn my way to teach, this morning: “Vote for the hero and the hottie.” Yes, it was on a pickup truck. No Tags -
Time and chance
» Paul KrugmanIt was Lehman wot did it There will be endless bloviating over the significance of today’s results; I plan to do some bloviating myself. But we shouldn’t ignore the importance of chance events, or at least the chance timing of events. Without 9/11, what would have become of George W. Bush? My guess is that he [...]
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in which wil attempts to collect all his writing resources into one post
» WWdN: In ExileI'm not doing NaNoWiMo, but I know a lot of people who read my blog are, so I thought I'd collect some of the writing advice I've found over the years and put it all into one easily-bookmarked post.
Before I get to the older stuff, a couple new things I've found:
- io9 (which I feared would be lame like Gawker, but is awesome like Lifehacker) collected some secrets to creating great characters, according to six science fiction authors.
- I wrote about the weird feeling of emptiness that I always experience after I finish a project. Charlie Stross expressed something similar in a post titled On finishing.
Got it? Yay! Let's move on to some older stuff:
- five simple ways to Just Keep Writing
- Elizabeth Bear, Cherie Priest, and John Scalzi are three authors who are as generous with their advice as they are awesome and successful.
- One more post with lots of links to and wisdom from Elizabeth Bear.
- Five writing lessons I wish I'd learned the easy way.
- Even Neil Gaiman struggles from time to time. This is very comforting to me. (Interesting note. If you read that linked post, you'll see a mention of my friend who quit his safety net job to be an actor. He's on Heroes this season. Go David!)
- Neil Gaiman, it turns out, is very reassuring to me.
- Sometimes, you just get writer's clog. This is okay, and it will pass.
- I explored some of the differences I've encountered between writing short-form and long-form fiction. Related to that, from the common sense file: When working on short short fiction, which I'd say is between 500 and 1000 words, I can keep stuff in my head and write it all on the fly. Since I've moved into longer-form stuff this year, I've discovered that I absolutely must have an outline to follow, so I write that first (I spend a lot of time on it) and then use it as a memory map (much like I use my own memories when I write my narrative non-fiction stuff) when I write the story. I did this with both Star Trek mangas and with one of the two short stories (~15,000 words each) I've been working on since June. Of the two, guess which one has been enjoyable to work on? [::headdesk::]
- A collection of resources that I've come across, which I found useful as a writer.
- John Rogers writes very candidly and frequently about writing for television and movies. He is awesome, and so is his blog.
If you're doing NaNoWiMo, remember that the whole point of the thing is just to get a whole bunch of words together in a hopefully-coherent story that you will have to edit, rewrite, and polish. It is not supposed to be good, it is not supposed to be perfect, or even ready for anyone but you to read. The idea is to write, and write a lot, so let me close with Wil's Fundamental Truth of Writing: Don't be afraid to suck. It is easier to fix a broken scene than it is to fill up a blank page.
Recent items
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Sad Voter of the Day
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole smiles after casting her vote in Salisbury, N.C., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Ohhhh, Liddy, Liddy, Liddy! Hey! You got a vote today!
Bye, Liddy. -
Some Things Just Go Perfectly with Pumpkin Cashmere
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Also: did that really take two hours? Yes, that really took two hours. -
Photoblogging: Virgin Video
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Click for 1200x900
OK, I'm back from Tucson! I shot the above photo from Sparkledad's Prius (Go Dad!). It was fun! I saw brother and sisters and nephews and parents and old friends 'n' such. I visited the stupendous Desert Museum for the first time in 15 years. I went to an excellent art opening on Congress (and purchased a great print) and was glad to see that downtown Tucson is still pretty trashy and weird despite all the misguided efforts of those who should know better; I'd say it's been fixed up just enough, but not too much. I got to hear (but not see) my parents' jack-o-lantern get eaten by appreciative javelinas (they left the stem and most of the candle). I was chagrined to see that Arizona design still consists entirely of dusty pink and peach geometrics with turquoise and copper accents, and was horrified to encounter the awful Kokopelli in myriad ghastly forms.
So anyway! I'm back. What's up? I hear there's some sort of contest going on today?
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one last time . . .
» WWdN: In Exile
I want my country back, and I want the despicable campaign of hate, fear, lies, and division run by John McCain and personified by Sarah Palin to be repudiated by a massive Obama win. We can make this happen. The polls all say we're going to make this happen . . . but I remember 2000 and I remember 2004, and even though the polls say that we vastly outnumber the people who tragically support John McCain, we've got to get to the polls and make sure our votes count.
So.
Make sure you get out and vote tomorrow, especially you younger people. You guys are overwhelmingly Democratic (yay!) but you're also notoriously unreliable (boo!) so if you think you're going to be in line for a long time and you're going to get bored, bring a book, bring a DS, bring a PSP, bring a deck of cards, bring your cellphone and liveblog or Twitter the whole thing . . . just don't get out of line and don't leave without voting!
Everyone else, if you think it's not worth waiting a few hours (or several hours) to cast an important vote in a close state, I have two words and one initial for you: George W. Bush.
Also, voter suppression is a terrible fact of life all over our country, and the ACLU has prepared a great resource for all 50 states, with printable sheets you can take with you to know your voting rights wherever you are.
I seriously hope that Obama gets to 270 before the polls close on the West coast, but even if he does, it's still important to get out and vote in California. We must defeat Proposition 8, and we can't take anything for granted.The Voting Rights Project of the ACLU is dedicated to providing citizens with information and assistance in exercising their right to vote! We are urging citizens to ACT this election year. For more information or to voice a voting rights complaint, call 1-877-523-2792 [...]
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Radio Free Burrito Episode 13
» WWdN: In ExileEnclosure: [download]
Holy Halloween Podcast! It's a new episode of Radio Free Burrito!Show Notes:
- The logo was designed by WWdN:iX reader Marc, who asked that I not link to his "in progress" website. Thanks, Marc!
- I drop at least one F-bomb in this show, so you probably shouldn't listen to it around little kids, people with sensitive ears, or at work. Especially if you work in a daycare for kids with sensitive ears. (Hi, Natasha!)
- I went ahead and made this an enhanced podcast. You know, for kids. Enjoy the pictures and links.
- Podshow wants me to say "Some of the music provided tonight is from the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at 'music.podshow.com'"
- What's that? You want to have links to each artist's page? I can totally do that:
- Halloween by the Coffinshakers, purveyors of fine Swedish Horror Country music, direct from Minnesota.
- Halloween is Awesome by hypernonsense, a mysterious band from California.
- the unknown halloween version by Savant Trigger , "an unknown student residing in the midwest".
- That Halloween PSA really needs to be seen to be fully enjoyed.
- Similarly, The Trick from Jack Chick also needs to be seen to be fully enjoyed. I edited the hell out of it (see what I did there?) to stay safely within fair use. Jack Chick strikes me as the kind of corporation that has no sense of humor, but a lot of lawyers.
- Reader Jeremy pointed out that Don Hinson, the genius behind the awesome Monster Dance Party album (which provided the catchy Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood) has a website, including a store where you can buy Monster Dance Party on CD. It's not the full album that I've had since I was a kid, but it's still wonderful.
- Finally, I want to thank all the artists and labels who are participating in the podsafe music network. I hope this exposes your music to new listeners and you're all buying mansions and yachts. If you can't afford to buy them, I hope you can at least build them out of the bones of your enemies.
- The show weighs in at 18.5MB and is 20 minutes long.
Okay. Got all that? Then please:
Download Radio Free Burrito Episode 13
As ever, if anyone mirrors the file, please let me know and I'll update this post accordingly.
And here they are. Thanks, guys!
- Blake made an mp3 mirror.
- Craig Steffen made an original file mirror.
- jbay also mirrored the original file.
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England is Just About Ready for This US Election Business to be Over, Please
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
An effigy of U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, accompanied by presidential candidate Barack Obama, is unveiled by designer Mark Oldroyd ahead of a bonfire night celebration in Battle, England, Saturday Nov. 1, 2008. Six weeks of intricate work have gone in to creating the 12ft-tall papier mache figure, which will form the centrepiece of the town's 400-year-old bonfire celebration. Attached to Palin is a model of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a hockey stick in a nod to her 'hockey mom' image and a moose to highlight her hunting background.(AP Photo/Gareth Fuller-pa)
Um, yes, so we have our work cut out for us on the world stage no matter who wins. Totally unfair!
And OMG, I'm still in Arizona, OK? And I'm kinda trying to use my parents' computers, but they're all, like, fully computers belonging to old people and they have them set up in mysterious ways that totally confound me, so sorry about the "no new posts" thing. Getting this one up is exhausting!
But anyway, here's another look at the mean teabag Palin/Obama float:
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Discussion groups
» Paul KrugmanThose of you out there who’ve been adding my email to your discussion groups, no doubt with the best of intentions (but who then ignore requests to take my name off), here’s what happens: to keep things manageable, I have to add everyone on the list to my spam filter. So if any member of [...] -
Alas, Doug Holtz-Eakin
» Paul KrugmanOK, so John McCain’s chief economic spokesman, who I thought did a good job at the CBO, issued a statement on the GDP report: Today’s announcement that third quarter GDP fell at a 0.3 percent rate confirms what Americans already knew: the economy is shrinking. Barack Obama would accelerate this dangerous course. According to the independent [...] -
The Republican rump
» Paul KrugmanWhat will the Republican party look like after this election, assuming that McCain doesn’t pull an upset? I’ve been doing a bit of math (but not, like Karl Rove, THE math) using Larry Sabato’s predictions for the House and the Poole-Rosenthal ideological rankings. Sabato predicts that 15 incumbent Republicans will lose their seats. (Democrats will also [...]
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life's no fun without a good scare
» WWdN: In ExileThis is Halloween! This is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!
Lalalala!
via SF Signal, please enjoy The Best Lines from Plan 9 from Outer Space:
via me, please enjoy my the Wheaton Family Punkins from 2006:
via my friends at CliqueClack TV, please enjoy a comprehensive and awesome guide to all the Halloween programming on television today and tonight.
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Eastern Europe 2008 = Southeast Asia 1997
» Paul KrugmanFrom Bloomberg: Foreign-denominated loans helped fuel eastern European economies including Poland, Romania and Ukraine, funding home purchases and entrepreneurship after the region emerged from communism. The elimination of such lending is magnifying the global credit crunch and threatening to stall the expansion of some of Europe’s fastest-growing economies. The key to the Asian crisis — [...]
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19:43
Remix book party video
» Lessig BlogRobert Greenwald and friends put together this extraordinary video for the extraordinary REMIX book launch party in San Francisco, obviously with the intent to demonstrate just how remix can be an extraordinary distortion, because obviously, I don't use the word "extraordinary" so frequently.
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plan b
» WWdN: In ExileMy plan to be Doctor Horrible for Halloween was disrupted when I couldn't find the appropriate lab coat and goggles anywhere. Luckily, I had a much more disturbing Plan B.
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For Jerry
» Paul KrugmanHere they are My friend Jerry Goodman, aka Adam Smith, keeps asking (in regard to the financial crisis), “Where are the tumbrils?” So this is for him. No Tags
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Metablogging: Pink State Bound
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
You'd think that with the election so close, I'd be more interested than ever in remaining an East Coast Elitist™. You'd be wrong! I'm heading out this morning to visit the family in sunny (yes!) Tucson in pink state (LOL) Arizona. I'll be back on Tuesday to cast my ballot. I should be able to do some blogging-lite while I'm gone, but don't expect the heavy posting I've spoiled (?) you with over the past month. But who knows? Maybe I'll meet Cindy! God, I wish I had my "Cindy is my homegirl" t-shirt. -
Product Placement
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signs autograph at a rally in front of Ross County Courthouse Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, in Chillicothe, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
Does anybody really believe that reg'lar folks just happened to show up at the Palin hootenanny wearing "Clean Coal" caps? A cursory examination of other shots from the rally seems to reveal a curiously high number of brand-new-looking white baseball caps. Here's a few more:
So to whomever the genius coal industry rep was who had the bright idea to pass out hats at the rally: well done. Let's keep an eye open for more of these, shall we? -
9 out of 11 Peruvian Shamans Agree: Obama will Win! So Stop Whining, Already.
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Peruvian shamans perform a ritual with photos of US Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., bottom left, and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to send good vibes to their favorite candidate on La Herradura Beach in Lima, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008. Nine of the 11 faith-healers from the Apus-Inka healers' association said they foresee Obama winning the election.(AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Three of my coworkers independently approached me today, wringing their hands, agitated 'n' such, about being worried that McCain is somehow going to be our next president. Each time their reasons were vague but the same: I saw this poll, that poll, race tightening, etc., etc. It was kinda cute but got old real fast. I pointed them all to fivethirtyeight.com, explained to them about, you know, how the electoral college works and that the state polls were more important and totally in the tank for Obama. I pointed them to this article, for instance, so that they would calm down.
But, hey! Now I really know how to ease their fears, because the shamans have spoken and, you know, that's that.
Here's another photo from AP's set, because it's hard to imagine getting any cooler an election-related shot than this:
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I'm Totally in the Tank for Margaret and Helen
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
OK, so Margaret and Helen are two 80-somethings who are best friends since, like, forever. One of them moved far away, so Helen got her son to set up one of those blog thingies for her so that she could keep in touch with Margaret. And then before you know it, Helen's off on a wild tear, writing the most hilarious and awe-inspiring rants about Sarah Palin you've ever read. Helen's not afraid to call Sarah a bitch and she'll tell you exactly why.
Some people are calling bullshit on Margaret and Helen, but I've got no reason to doubt their story. If it's fake, it's pure genius; if it's real, it deserves the American Medal of Freedom. I seriously don't have enough sparkley parts on my body to thrust way, WAY up in the air to communicate my approval of this magical site.
I gather this has been lighting the interwebs on fire for a little while now, so I may be late to the party. So pardon me if you already know about it. -
Touching Campaign Moments Captured with What Would Be, to McCain, New-Fangled Technology
» Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog
Clever blogger Alli has gone and done a magical thing: rendering memorable campaign moments with the magic of Etch-a-Sketch. So good! I just know you'll laugh, cry, stand up and cheer, etc. My favorite one, obvs, is above.
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stretch out and wait
» WWdN: In ExileWhen I finish a big acting or writing project, I have this massive crash, like the world's worst hangover combined with a profound sense of emptiness and loss. I understand that this is really common for creative people, but understanding that doesn't make it any easier for me to accept it. I AM SUPERMAN, GODDAMMIT! I CAN DO ANYTHING!
Um, except that I can't.
I've felt this ickyness for the last couple of days, and though I know it will eventually pass (it always does), it's incredibly difficult for me to give myself permission to take a fuck off day or two, when I already feel like what I do isn't real work anyway, and people I know are getting laid off left and right.
Anyway, in an effort to balance out teh emo, please enjoy this picture I drew while I was on the phone with Andrew yesterday:
"Unlike the boring experience of taking notes in a text editor on the computer, using an actual pen and actual paper presented the opportunity to draw an actual unicorn, with a star for an eye, a wheel instead of back legs, riding on the leading edge of a rainbow.
AWESOME.
It's blurry, because it's just a stupid crappy camphone shot, but I think that's part of its charm."
I thought it was riding the front edge of a rainbow, but a consensus is emerging that it's actually farting a rainbow. I can accept either one of these interpretations. The important thing is, I have a unicorn with a star for an eye and wheels for legs.
ETA: See, this is why I love the Internets. Reader B says "I loved your unicorn phone doodle and was moved to draw this..."
