text:
Eventually the secret ... is revealed. To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It Was All a Dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore.I have noticed that if Ebert merely dislikes a movie, his review is relatively brief and straightforward. But if the picture actually arouses his ire, the review becomes longer, more eloquent, and funnier. My quote is but a small sample of what he has to offer on this subject.
And then keep on rewinding, and rewinding, until we're back at the beginning, and can get up from our seats and walk backward out of the theater and go down the up escalator and watch the money spring from the cash register into our pockets.
31 July 2004
Negative review
Shrodinger's Knight
30 July 2004
Quadruple entendre
I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty.which, by my count, is meant to be read on about four different levels. Cool.
The start was the high point, but the speech did a number of smart things, as one of Clinton's speechwriters presciently described a few days ago.
He should explain what he learned about America from commanding a gunboat in the Mekong Delta. As he said in his announcement speech last September: "We were no longer the kid from Arkansas nor the kid from Illinois. We were Americans --- together --- under the same flag, giving ourselves to something bigger than each of us as individuals." Look for Kerry to explain that, now as then, Americans are "all in the same boat"--and that the nation's leadership ought therefore to do a better job inspiring unity and purpose.For those of you at all inclined to do so, now is a good time to give money to the campaign. Under the campaign financing rules, the convention "resets the clock" for fundraising and makes the DNC the best place to give money for the Kerry campaign now. (And in the name of general lefty goodness, of course, MoveOn PAC gives money to good candidates in close races across the country.)
Comic book movies
All in all, the recent wave of comic book movies have treated us better than we had a right to hope for. The two X-Men pictures were smart and fun, playing well with the background of the comics and making the transition to film well. Hugh Jackman, bless him, nailed the impossible role of Wolverine. The two Spiderman pictures likewise came through with flying colors. Heck, I'd have been happy with the Spiderman "coming attractions" trailers alone.I have the good, the bad, and the coming attractions in more detail...
Not that it hasn't been a mixed bag. Ang Lee's Hulk didn't quite work, but it was a noble failure that had its moments. Daredevil was a turkey --- Ben Affleck? --- but even it had charms: the inspired casting of Michael Clarke Duncan's Kingpin, the inspired performance of Colin Farrell's Bullseye, and the inspired motorcycle-leathers style of DD's costume. Apparently Catwoman is also a turkey, as the filmmakers felt that they didn't need anything beyond Halle Berry a bullwhip and torn leather. (Yeah, I know: they were almost right.) And okay, the less said about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen the better, but at least it put money in Alan Moore's pocket, which is a good thing.
But surprise, surprise: Hellboy delivered in spades. It was lively, fun, gorgeously shot, somehow managed to look like Mike Mignola's art, and was chock full of the amazing Ron Perlman, the only actor on Earth who becomes subtler and more expressive when when you put a few pounds of prosthetics on his face. Maybe someday I'll come back in a later post and sing the praises of Hellboy some more; in spite of a bit of limp screenwriting in the ending, the film is a gem.
So this just makes a comics lover want more, and it is more we shall have.
We have third installments coming for both X-Men and Spiderman, done by the same people. We have a director's cut of Hellboy coming on DVD, with a likely sequel there too.
Better still, we have a proper Batman movie being shot right now. Will wonders never cease?
Christopher "Memento" Nolan is directing Batman Begins. Looking at the trailer, it's obviously heavily inspired by Frank Miller's dark, gritty Batman: Year One comic. The cast boggles the mind. Michael Caine is playing Alfred! Even if you aren't Batman lover enough to know who Jim Gordon and Ra's Al Ghul are, you have to be impressed that Gary Oldman and Ken Watanabe will be playing them. (And as someone who thought the only way to cast Ra's was to get in a time machine and scoop up Omar Sharif when he was thirty years younger, I stand corrected.) Plus we get Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, and a bushel basket of good character actors, with Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne.
It gets better. Neil Gaiman has scripted a picture called MirrorMask that's in post-production now. Dave McKean, the mad genius artist who did all those Sandman covers, is directing. Jim Henson Pictures is producing it, and the budget is low --- down to neither of them getting paid --- which is good news, because they're keeping control. Neil says that when he previewed it to the Sony people responsible for distribution, an exec said "That was like Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast ... on acid ... for kids ... "
So I feel just a tiny bit of anticipation for that one.
Last up, for our sins, it seems that rumors of the death of Constantine were, alas, greatly exaggerated. Keanu Reeves plays shadowy un-super-heroic occultist John Constantine. It's a bit of an odd casting choice considering that in the comics he's a ragged, chain-smoking, working class Brit with blonde hair. Other than that, they haven't changed a thing. Except to give him a big gun. And take away his trenchcoat. And give him a love interest. And add a few explosions.
You can't have everything.
29 July 2004
I've been reading Doonesbury for almost 20 years now. But I've effectively been following the strip for the 34 years since its very beginning, as I discovered it by finding reprints of early strips at the library.
The virtues of Doonesbury are well known. The writing is witty, the commentary on politics barbed, the cast of characters rich and layered after so much time. But in the last several years, though I still read it every day, my enthusiasm for the strip has waned.
Last year, an article by Jesse Walker in Reason put its finger on why: it just has not been as good as it used to be.
Consider one issue where Trudeau's opinion hasn't changed but his tone has: gun control. First examine this 1981 exchange between the strip's resident outlaw and a flunky from the National Rifle Association, set in a Washington bar:Springfield: Duke ... it's me, Springfield! From the N.R.A., remember?
Duke: Oh ... Springfield, what's the idea of sneaking up on me like that? I coulda blown you away!
Springfield: I'm sorry. That would have been your right.
Now jump to 1993, as a giant cigarette and a giant bullet prepare to lobby Congress.Mr. Butts: Still on a tear, Mr. Dum-Dum?
Mr. Dum-Dum: Hey! The N.R.A. never rests! The gun-control nuts keep trying to slip the Brady Bill past us! But it ain't gonna happen! No way! We've been shooting our way out of tight squeezes since 1871! And look at the results! Over 70 million happy gun owners ready and able to defend our way of life!
Mr. Butts: Wow ... are we safe yet?
Mr. Dum-Dum: Not yet. Tragically, many children are still unarmed!
I disagree with Trudeau about gun control, but I still think the first strip is funny. The second one just hectors us. It isn't controversial so much as it's annoying.
He's right: the strip isn't as consistently witty as it used to be. Part of Walker's criticism is that Doonesbury has become self-referential:
In 1972 the strip was engaged with the world; in 2002 it is engaged with itself.
I mean that literally. In 1972 Doonesbury rewarded intelligence; in 2002 it rewards familiarity with its own mythology and conventions. In 1972 it trusted readers to know the politics and pop culture of the day; in 2002 it trusts us to understand that a floating waffle represents Bill Clinton, a floating bomb represents Newt Gingrich, and a floating asterisk represents George W. Bush. The strip has grown so self-referential that it makes jokes about its own self-referentiality, with Sunday strips devoted to charting the relationships among the characters.
He has a point. But lately, Trudeau seems to have gotten his mojo back in the recent sequence about B.D., and as we'll see, the self-referentiality makes possible what I think is the most powerful, poignant moment in the history of the strip — one of the greatest moments, indeed, ever managed in the painfully limited four-panel medium.
For those of you unfamiliar with Doonesbury, B.D. is a major cast member who has been with the strip from the very beginning.
He was originally a lunkheaded college football player ...
who provided a conservative foil for strip's lefty politics.
He dropped out to serve in Vietnam ... bringing his football helmet with him so we could recognize him.
As time went on, B.D. took other jobs.
As a cop:
A soldier again, in the first Gulf war:
As a football coach:
Back to Iraq again this year:
Things got interesting a few months ago: B.D. was shot in the line of duty. It was sad, and scary.
When I saw those strips, the suspense was powerful. Was B.D. going to be okay? Was he going to die? The next day, we learn what happened to him, with Trudeau cleverly using the language of the strip to underline the point. It's a brilliant move: in that last panel, his injury isn't the first thing you see, giving it more impact. The same device makes it clear that things will never be the same.
Interested in what happens next? You can read the Doonesbury archives starting that day. The B.D. storyline has been both wry and serious, often both at once.
If you start reading the strip now, you're not alone — this story thread is still alive a couple of months later, and it's the most interesting stuff to happen to Doonesbury in years. Perhaps ever. The story made the cover of Rolling Stone. And it has inspired the ire of folks like Bill O'Reilly, which I have to take as a good sign.
Shorter Bill O'Reilly
Dissent Stinks if it Exploits the Pain of G.I.s
Turning actual human beings into mincemeat while waging an unprovoked war is one thing, but maiming a beloved cartoon character to make a political point is way over the line.
Commentators on the right are responding to Doonesbury again! Keep it up, Mr. Trudeau.
28 July 2004
Who's responsible?
Today, those who believe that the war on terror requires the sacrifice of our liberties like to argue that "the Constitution is not a suicide pact." In a sense, however, the Declaration of Independence was precisely that.Katherine R, posting at Obsidian Wings, adds this observation ...
By signing Jefferson's text, the signers of the declaration were putting their lives on the line. England was then the world's greatest military power, against which a bunch of provincial farmers had little chance of prevailing. Benjamin Franklin wasn't kidding around with his quip about hanging together or hanging separately. If the rebel American militias were beaten on the battlefield, their ringleaders could expect to be hanged as traitors.
We do not need to take anywhere near that kind of risk, or any risk at all. Our leaders answer to us --- slowly, reluctantly, and only when they think it puts their re-election in danger, but in the end they do answer to us. We have a say in all this. We do not have to become this kind of country. We do not have to torture people or send them to torturers. We do not have to let Jefferson's eloquent phrases become empty slogans mouthed to justify anything. We do not have to put up with this shit.... reminding us that, in a democracy, we all have moral responsibility for our nation's actions.
26 July 2004
They just can't handle freedom
Imagine yourself an Iraqi. You've suffered terribly under a ruthless dictator. The Americans invade your country under false pretenses. They promise democracy but don't organize elections. They appoint exiles to rule you, exiles who spend most of their time out of the country and the rest in a few highly protected areas. The occupiers break into your homes in the middle of the night and arrest your men, who then disappear, with no accountability. They shoot Iraqis at roadblocks and from convoys. They declare war on the second most popular man in the country, announcing his death in advance. They open the economy to US corporations and give them sweetheart contracts, ignoring local business. Then they write hundreds of laws and establish commissions limiting any future government. They build permanent military bases on your soil. Then they turn your country over to a former associate of Saddam Hussein, also a former CIA agent, known for his ruthless brutality. Imagine that was your country. What would you do?Via Holden at Eschaton, who picked out the money quote above.
Today's quote
You know the old saying: you win some, you lose some. And then there's that little-known third category.He said some more funny things, and then a lot of serious things, too.
Al Gore
Of course, that's not what you want. You want things 9-year-olds think about ninjas. You want the little-known Star of David Ninja Shuriken (which comes with instructions that only the crafty can find.)
You want cool ninja t-shirts. There's plenty. I have for you ninja pirate, only a ninja can kill another ninja, skateboarding ninja, "got ninja?", fractal ninjas (have more points), and killer coding ninja monkeys do exist, plus instructions for how to wear a t-shirt the ninja way.
Bonus for latecomers: Ninja Massage Therapist!
25 July 2004
Part of his excellent ongoing coverage of our need for a better press corps.Powell's presentation relied heavily on the claims of one especially dubious Iraqi defector, dubbed "Curve Ball" inside the intel community .... Nobody inside the U.S. government had ever actually spoken to the informant --- except the Pentagon analyst, who concluded the man was an alcoholic and utterly useless as a source.Wince-Inducing Moment? Wince-Inducing Moment!? WINCE-INDUCING MOMENT!?!?
After reading Powell's speech, the analyst decided he had to speak up .... The CIA official quickly responded: "Let's keep in mind the fact that this war's going to happen regardless of what Curve Ball said or didn't say," he wrote. "The Powers That Be probably aren't terribly interested in whether Curve Ball knows what he's talking about."
The saga of Curve Ball is just one of many wince-inducing moments ....
I wince when I hear George W. Bush try to pronounce "nuclear" or "Abu Ghraib." I wince when my daughter does a belly flop off the diving board. I wince when one of my students misses an easy question in class. One winces when Georgie seeks praise for his skeet shooting, or when Muffy misses her serve again.
When a Deputy to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency --- or somebody at that level --- refuses to do his job, saying that he is not going to provide intelligence to the Secretary of State because the Secretary of State is uninterested in whether what he is about to say to the United Nations is true or not, it is not appropriate to "wince." It is appropriate to be outraged.
24 July 2004
Aye, robot
Think of it not as I Robot, but Robots of the Caribbean, wherein the Three Laws of Robotics aren't so much laws as they are ... guidelines.See, everything is improved by a reference to pirates.
I just bought myself a new motorbike.
The thing that struck me in the process of buying this new bike is what a strange sort of decision it is to pick a motorcycle. To me, the whole point of riding is that it's a full sensory experience. You're not sitting in a cage with a wheel in front of you watching the world go by on television, you're exposed to the world and tangled up with this powerful machine, so you need to find a machine with which you feel a personal affinitiy.
A bicycle has some of that physical immediacy: it's a lever that connects your body to movement through space. It's not as fast as a motorcycle, but the relationship between the movements your body makes and the movements of the fusion-of-body-and-machine is even more intimate. There are variables in choosing a bicycle, like what kind of gearing you want, but mainly you just ask yourself how you want to use the bike and find one that's as sturdy as you need and as light as you can afford. On a motorcycle, there's the way the suspension works and the way the weight is distributed and the engine's power curve and the gear ratios and so on. Every motorcycle feels different.
Sure, a car or a sailboat or a forklift have a lot of variables in how they feel, but the way they feel isn't as immediate and intense. When you drive a car, you don't shift your weight to do it. When you sail a boat, you don't have hurricane winds in your face. When you turn a forklift, it doesn't put whizzing asphalt within arm's reach. How a motorcycle feels matters a lot. How a motorcycle feels is the point.
So it's quite a decision.
My old bike, a red '92 Honda Nighthawk 750 named Katherine Hepburn, has been sick for some time. She has 60,000 miles on her — a lot for a motorbike. Her rings have been going, so her power and fuel efficiency are fading. In recent months, she's started running hotter, burning a bit of oil, and stalling when she's cold.
I've been riding Kate for six years, and like the feel of her very much. I decided to bite the bullet and spend the money to rebuild her engine. But my mechanic, a deeply honorable man at Subterranean Cycles, told me, "I cannot in good conscience take your money. Knowing what that will cost, you should just go get a new bike."
Behold the benefits of bringing a six-pack of Anchor Steam every time you pick up your bike.
Sad for Kate, sad for me. I really love Kate: she's served me well and taken me a lot of places. But also happy for me. I get to buy a new bike! Which one? Which one?
The fools at Honda discontinued the Nighthawk this year, so I can't just replace Kate with a shiny new version of herself, which I might have done.
A few considerations dramatically narrow the field. I favor an upright riding position, and these days, the market is dominated by zip-zip sportbikes which put the rider in a painful crouch and whoa-dude cruisers which lean you back too far. Plus, I have a philosophy that God intended motorcycles to have an air-cooled engines. Most bikes nowadays are water-cooled, with big radiators on the front: decadence and unnecessary complication, I say. I want shaft drive, as the chain has failed on me twice riding Kate and I never want to experience that particular adventure again. So not many options.
My presumptive choice was the BMW R1150R: simple and rock-solid, but a step up from the simple and rock-solid Nighthawk. Heated handgrips, anti-lock brakes, gratuitiously well-engineered suspension, and little touches like a clock on the dashboard.
I rented one last year, when Kate first took ill, and in an empty parking lot I got a taste of that suspension and braking system. I braked as hard as I dared and the BMW didn't even break a sweat: the brakes were smooth and the crazy German suspension meant the bike didn't rock on her springs a bit. I braked a little harder than I dared, and she still had plenty more. It was so good it was a little weird.
On the freeway, she hummed along at a cool 70 so smoothly that I dreaded to contemplate what her top end would feel like. On city streets, she gave me all the accelaration I wanted. My riding is spirited, but not all that fast by biker standards. So though the R is not a sportbike, she's significantly more than I am used to with Kate, and all the power I would realistically need. On city streets, she was a touch heavier than I was used to, but nimble enough, and I remember growing into a heavier bike when I first went from little Lazarus to Kate.
So I liked the R, and BMWs have one other special thing going for them: the odometer. An old car's odometer often rolls over to 00,000.0 at a hundred thousand miles, but any new car you buy today rolls over at a million. Motorcycles are like old cars, with 5.1 digit odometers — except for BMWs, which roll over at a million. Reliability. When you see a picture of some mud-spattered lunatic on a 4,000 mile ride through Africa, the lunatic tends to be sitting on a BMW.
On the other hand, I'm no longer so dependant on my bike for daily transportation, so I don't have to be quite so obsessive on this point. More poetic options are tempting. As with so many things, brains are the most important thing, but that doesn't mean I'm blind to beauty.
As I alluded to earlier, I've been fascinated by the sheer beauty of the Moto Guzzi V11. The Guzzi speaks not only to a sculptural aesthetic, but to an engineering aesthetic as well. The transverse V-twin engine is unique to the Guzzi marque and has a "yes it's weird but consider the advantages" charm, like the Wankel rotary engine, a kneeling chair, or my computer keyboard. I'm a sucker for that stuff.
So I dropped in to Munroe Motors to have a look. And the V11 is indeed gorgeous beyond words. And as expensive as the BMW. And racier than I really want or need. And bigger than I want or need. And doesn't have the little comforts of the BMW, like the hot grips or anti-lock brakes. So for that money, I'd go for the BMW.
But while I was there I got a look at the Guzzi Breva 750. I don't have a good photo of my own, so you'll have to settle for this photo of the same make and color I nabbed from the web.
Though I don't know how helpful that is. I didn't really take to photos of the Breva when I saw them on the Moto Guzzi website, but in the flesh — er, steel ... aluminum ... composite stuff — the bike is quite lovely, if not quite so stunning as the V11. To a biker's eye, at least, it's distinctive-looking in a good Moto Guzzi kind of way. More importantly, it is smaller and a third less expensive than the V11, if actually a bit less bike than I was imagining getting.
So I looked at some reviews on the web. They were positive, though hardly glowing. Reviewers for motorcycle magazines are people who ride obsessively and want to try a lot of different bikes, and so they like performance, performance, and performance. Most reviews said something about "a good, fun bike for first-time riders." But at the risk of the other bikers calling me a sissy, they said that for what I saw as all the right reasons: comfort, versatility, and reliability.
I stopped back at Munroe and asked for a test ride.
She was light! At 420 pounds dry, the Guzzi is 40 pounds lighter than Kate, which doesn't sound like much but feels like a lot. I think having a lower center of gravity must also contribute to that, not only in the way the engine is mounted but also in being all-around lower and smaller. The BMW is higher and heavier than the Nighthawk; this was the opposite, and rolling down city streets I felt as though I could have weaved between the cars like an action movie hero. She didn't have quite so much power as I expected — in her prime, I think Kate had a few more horses than the Breva — but part of that is probably the relatively narrow powerband. Keeping her revs where they needed to be, I could move plenty well ... and paying attention to that stuff is fun.
MKB, with his shiny new zip-zip GSX-R, will probably laugh when he reads this stuff. His bike is 65 pounds lighter still, has its center of gravity about eight inches off the ground, and delivers a bit more than twice the horsepower. But because of the sportbike hunched-over riding position, his wrists hurt. Mine don't. While his bike's engine goes buzz-buzz-buzz, the Guzzi's sings.
It felt good sitting on her. I bought the bike. I'm a happy man.
Now I just have to figure out what her name is. My original plan was that my next bike would be named after Lauren Bacall, Betty for short. (Ms. Bacall's birth name was Betty, and she still used the name with friends after she took "Lauren" for the screen.) When I realized I was buying an Italian bike, I thought maybe she needed to be Sophia Loren. I know, Katherine Hepburn wasn't Japanese, but my Nighthawk is red, so don't argue my logic. But "Sophia" doesn't sound right either, so now I don't know.
Another ride, and I'm sure she'll tell me.
Update: "Betty" it is. Sexy.
23 July 2004
CEO shortage strikes nation
The labor market is a slave to supply and demand just like any other market, right?Via Conner.
Odd, then, that CEO pay rose 27% in 2003, isn't it? Did the supply of CEOs shrink last year? Did demand skyrocket?
Arabian candidate
Krugman strikes again.
In the original version of The Manchurian Candidate, Senator John Iselin, whom Chinese agents are plotting to put in the White House, is a right-wing demagogue modeled on Senator Joseph McCarthy.Not to say I told you so, but this is very much what a lot of antiwar lefties like me feared and predicted.
So let's imagine an update .... the enemies would be Islamic fanatics
Who knows? The Arabian candidate might even be able to deprive America of the moral high ground, no mean trick when our enemies are mass murderers, by creating a climate in which U.S. guards torture, humiliate and starve prisoners, most of them innocent or guilty of only petty crimes.
At home, the Arabian candidate would leave the nation vulnerable, doing almost nothing to secure ports, chemical plants and other potential targets. He would stonewall investigations into why the initial terrorist attack succeeded.
President Bush isn't actually an Al Qaeda mole, with Dick Cheney his controller. Mr. Bush's "war on terror" has, however, played with eerie perfection into Osama bin Laden's hands.
(Illustration by the amazing Paul Conrad.)
Today's quote
I'm looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version, in which I will play everybody.Get well soon, David.
David Bowie
22 July 2004
Politics, epistemology, rhetoric
I recently stumbled across an article in the Village Voice in which the reporter recounts some surreal conversations with conservatives.
I open the floor to the question of why they personally revere George Bush.
Ponytailed Larry, who wears the stripes of a former marine gunnery sergeant on his floppy hat, bursts into laughter; it's too obvious to take seriously. "Honesty. Truth. Integrity," he says upon recovering.
"One of the reasons I respect this president is that he is honest. I believe that after eight years, the dark years of the Clinton administration, we finally have a man in the White House who respects that office and who speaks honestly."
I ask why so many liberals believe the administration lies, if there might be anything to the suspicions. What about the report of the Los Angeles Times that morning, that the State Department dismissed 28 of the claims the White House demanded Colin Powell bring before the U.N. as without foundation in fact?
Delores: "You make mention of a paper in Los Angeles that made such and such a report; well, that doesn't mean it's accurate or complete or unbiased."
Why do these folks feel that way?
To a reader like me, that stuff is just stupefying. To my eyes, the three characteristics of Bush and his administration are the Iraq invasion catastrophe, the terrifying disregard for civil liberties, and the unremitting, reflexive lies. As a fair-minded person, I find myself experiencing epistemological vertigo. How could someone interpert things in a way that so contradicts my own understanding? Either they are deluded or I am. And a thoughtful person knows how many opportunities there are for self-deception and must guard against them.
But Bush's pattern of lies is not debatable. Consider this stunning example: Bush explained his decision to invade Iraq, in a joint press conference with Kofi Annan, saying, "We gave him [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." Hans Blix's UN team entered Iraq to begin a series of weapons inspections on 18 November 2002; Bush made this statement 14 July 2003. "Honesty" and "integrity" are not the words that I would choose to describe anyone who could say that.
So how is this possible? I submit that Bush does something with successfully signifies honesty and integrity to conservatives.
Linguist George Lakoff talks about this. He talks about it at length.
Over the last 30 years [conservative] think tanks have made a heavy investment in ideas and in language. In 1970, [Supreme Court Justice] Lewis Powell wrote a fateful memo to the National Chamber of Commerce saying that all of our best students are becoming anti-business because of the Vietnam War, and that we needed to do something about it. Powell's agenda included getting wealthy conservatives to set up professorships, setting up institutes on and off campus where intellectuals would write books from a conservative business perspective, and setting up think tanks. He outlined the whole thing in 1970. They set up the Heritage Foundation in 1973, and the Manhattan Institute after that. [There are many others, including the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institute at Stanford, which date from the 1940s.]
And now, as the New York Times Magazine quoted Paul Weyrich, who started the Heritage Foundation, they have 1,500 conservative radio talk show hosts. They have a huge, very good operation, and they understand their own moral system. They understand what unites conservatives, and they understand how to talk about it, and they are constantly updating their research on how best to express their ideas.
Bush, like the entire Republican rhetoric machine, is speaking using a sophisticated vocabulary that conservatives recognize as reflecting their values. The Republican party is very deliberate about this stuff.
More specifically, for evangelical Christians, Bush is visibly one of them. I don't think that this is simply deliberate; Bush is clearly a genuine evangelical, and speaks that language. PBS' Frontline did a sophisticated documentary on this, "The Jesus Factor," with interviews with major evangelical leaders, footage of Bush, and commentary by some very smart people. Check out the terrific website for the documentary: it has the whole program available online, plus interview transcripts and lots of other goodies.
Notable in that program was the story of the Iowa caucuses during the 2000 primaries. In the Republican debate, the moderator asked the candidates a viewer's question about which political philosopher or thinker the candidate identified with. Steve Forbes picked my own favorites: John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. John McCain went for the Founding Fathers and Teddy Roosevelt. Alan Keyes was also down with the Founding Fathers, using it as an opportunity to wink toward strict constructioninsm. Bush's answer?
Christ, because he changed my heart.
... long pause ...
I think that the viewer would like to know more on how he has changed your heart.
Well, if they don't know, it's going to be hard to explain. When you turn your heart and your life over to Christ, when you accept Christ as the Savior, it changes your heart. It changes your life. And that's what happened to me.
Doug Wead, an evangelical leader who advised the elder Bush's campaign, describes that moment as powerful for evangelical viewers.
I think that was instinctive, and genuine ... It may have helped him, because of the fact that it was so obviously uncalculated to evangelicals. I mean, the media elite and non-evangelicals see that statement, and they think it's calculated. The evangelicals know it's not calculated. They know it didn't help him, so they tend to believe it's true.
With that kind of resonance, Bush projects honesty and trustworthiness and virtue to his base, and that's what his base will see no matter what he actually does.
Westerners in Japan often find the things they see spectral, uncanny, plastic. This is because there's a constant sense that, despite similarities to (or simulacra of) western forms, the social organization of Japan is radically different from what we know in the west. On a superficial level, Japanese cities look like western cities, their parks like our parks, their trains like our trains, and so on. Nevertheless, this 'likeness' is an illusion. 'A train' is a western invention adopted by the Japanese in the 19th century. But when we look at, board, and ride a train in Japan it would be foolish to see it as anything like a western train. It's a set of Japanese etiquettes and assumptions travelling through space. It only looks like a train. Soon, explaining the deep otherness of the superficially familiar things he sees around him, the visitor finds himself saying things like this:I have no idea how wise the essay really is about Japanese culture; I only know that it's consistent with what I saw in just a few short days there. And it's a good read.
That x only looks like an x, something I know well. In fact it is a manifestation of y, something I don't.
21 July 2004
Geek humor
20 July 2004
Whenever I think of culture shock, I think of this disconcerting passage from Samuel R. Delaney's science fiction masterpiece Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, in which the narrator tells a story about being an interstellar diplomat.
I never go into a butcher outlet anywhere on Velm, or anywhere else for that matter, no matter the geosector, without recalling the first time, during my fifth trip offworld, that I was dining with my employer1 and her spouses for my third job1. (The feathers on everything; the very unsubtle music.) I was charmed when they served the meal on narrow plates, about three inches wide, curved around in a circle. You worked your way along from portion to portion — cunning I thought — eating with your fingers; though getting the tastes and smells so confused with one another would never go at home. There was the meat; and I began to tell them about the butcher outlets on Velm, and just what the cloned longpig I'd been raised on was, realizing as I spoke they were a little shocked. I picked up my own bit of roast, bit down — something hard was in it ...
Then I realized: Bone!
This had once been walking around with a skeleton inside. Although I didn't, many times when I've told the story, I've said I left the table.
Different things shock different people.
Fantasy and moral clarity
Some assumptions are commonly made about fantasy that bother me. These assumptions may be made by the author, or by the packagers of the book, or both, and they bother me both as a writer and as a reader of fantasy. They involve who the characters are, when and where they are, and what they do. Put crudely, it's like this: in fantasy, 1) the characters are white, 2) they live sort of in the Middle Ages, and 3) they're fighting in a Battle Between Good and Evil.She goes on to unpack these three points, most notably observing that contrary to popular belief, The Lord of the Rings is not really about a Battle Between Good and Evil. Speaking to that third point, she has this timely thing to say ...
Immature people crave and demand moral certainty: This is bad, this is good. Kids and adolescents struggle to find a sure moral foothold in this bewildering world ...... which serves as a jumping-off point for ever-pointed Yezida's ruminations on the danger that "moral clarity" brings.
In comments, Kira alludes to LeGuin's famous Bryn Mawr Commencement Address. It's long and good and full of zingers like this ...
You came here to college to learn the language of power --- to be empowered. If you want to succeed in business, government, law, engineering, science, education, the media, if you want to succeed, you have to be fluent in the language in which "success" is a meaningful word.... and is very much the sort of thing you'll like if you ever like that sort of thing.
19 July 2004
Strange brain tricks
More importantly, the categorizations in this guy's blogroll are the coolest ever. Update: No longer true. When I get time, I'm ripping off his idea.
Say hello to the new boss
Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.The story isn't getting picked up by much US media, natch, but Holden at Atrios is on the case.
A former CIA officer, Vincent Cannisatraro, recently told The New Yorker: "If you're asking me if Allawi has blood on his hands from his days in London, the answer is yes, he does. He was a paid Mukhabarat [intelligence] agent for the Iraqis, and he was involved in dirty stuff."
Sydney Morning Hearald 17 July 2004
Update: more on the story:
[Morning Hearald journalist Paul] McGeough cites the opinion of former CIA case officer, Reuel Marc Gerecht, who told the New Yorker: "He [Allawi] was a very effective operator and a true believer. Two facts stand out about Allawi. One, he likes to think of himself as a man of ideas; and two, his strongest virtue is that he's a thug."So I was wrong: our press isn't ignoring the story.
In the first three weeks of the interim government, Allawi's unelected and despised administration has assumed the power to impose martial law, ban demonstrations and monitor citizens' phones and email. He has declared his intention to recruit the military and intelligence operatives of Hussein's regime and this week announced the formation of a secret police agency to "annihilate" opposition. He is already being contemptuously referred to in Baghdad as "Saddam without the moustache" or "America's Saddam".
Far from denouncing the Bush administration for establishing a US-protected police-state in Iraq, commentary over the past week in the New York Times and the Washington Post has lauded Allawi for his reputation for sadism and ruthlessness ....
Magick smackdown: The motion picture
If you think about it, it's pretty astonishing that Uncle Al has apparently never been portrayed on film, with the possible exception of turning up in a movie of sketch comedy with his name misspelled in the credits, or in the form of the character "Oliver Haddo" in a nearly-forgotten silent film adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Magician.
Even if you don't believe in magic, Crowley's biography boggles the mind. He was one of these larger-than-life Brits like Sir Richard Francis Burton or Lord Byron. He was a childhood chess prodigy. He was one of the great mountaineers of his time. He wrote poetry. He traveled the world. He had lovers of both genders --- during the Victorian era. He was in an occult secret society together with heavy hitters like William Butler Yeats. And then there's the actual occult stuff: even if you stick to the historically verifiable events, you have all this great secret society / mysterious manuscript / declaration of a New Aeon stuff. We now have two good biographies on the shelves: Kaczynski's and Sutin's. How could you not make a movie?
One wonders if Revolt will be the treatment that one would hope for. There's a fly-by-night scent in the air. The film has an impressively lame website. I'm talking 1994 lame. It's not bad in the "I hired an incompetent graphic designer with delusions of grandeur" way, or the "I hired a teenager who put in a lot of gratuitous spinning icons" way --- it's bad in the "I just built my first website typing HTML into Notepad, but I was in a hurry" kind of way. And the producers apparently make reality TV shows. Or try to: everything they list on their website is in pre-production. A web search reveals only that they have published a direct-to-video Corey Haim slasher movie. Not inspiring.
On the other hand, and this is a big other hand, Lon Milo Duquette is credited as one of the two screenwriters. Duquette is a good writer and a serious occultist. His The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed ben Clifford is the best (and funniest) concise introduction to qabalah I have read, his My Life with the Spirits is likewise a wry autobiography of occult practice, and he's written a bushel basket of very serious occult books. He's heavily involved in the OTO, Crowley's initiatory organization, so knows about as much about Crowley as anyone and understands that the man was an egocentric shmuck but hardly the sinister figure of legend. So who knows?
18 July 2004
Snoop: I know what its mascot should be .... The Carrboro Communists.If you're laughing --- and again I know who you are out there --- follow the link: there's a bit more.
Lex: Oooooh. I like it.
Snoop: The Fightin' Commies.
Lex: The marketing possibilities alone are almost limitless.
Snoop: Yeah, I figure the football team could be called the Red Menace. They'd, you know, wear red uniforms.
Lex: Sure. With a hammer and sickle and a star on the helmets.
Snoop: And instead of having their last names on the backs of the jerseys, all the jerseys would just say "labor."
17 July 2004
Breaking of the vessels
Bob Dylan, perhaps in kabbalist mystic mode, teaches us that everything is broken.
Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.
Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken.
Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is broken.
Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face
Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is broken.
In that spirit, I offer you a heartwarming little parable passed on by the aptly-pseudonymed Heartsdesire. Ordinarily, "heartwarming" is not territory I enjoy &msash; I hear you laughing out there! — but this one has a little allusion to good design, and is worth a peek if you at all enjoy parables or heartwarmingness.
16 July 2004
Every man and every woman
Society is not your friend. It doesn't care about you.I'm not quite in a foul enough mood today to entirely believe this sentiment. But after a week wandering the office parks and minimalls of America, I'm close.
We're logs for the steam engine of society.
Shove us in and burn us up to keep the wheels turning.
So throw the machine into reverse.
See, there is no massive world conspiracy to keep things crappy.
There's a business plan. There's a million business plans.
And they're based into coercing you into buying their products.
And cheating the other people who have products to sell you.
There are no secret chiefs. There are no space aliens or supernatural entities running things.
Just governments. And governments are essentially incompetent.
In Britain, there are government cameras on the roads. Big Brother, right?
But most of them don't have any film in.
That's not a competent Scary Government.
But an incompetent with a gun can still kill you. That's why they're dangerous.
Running a war badly still gets people killed.
So you know what we need to do?
We need to become the Secret Chiefs, and the space aliens, and the supernatural entities.
15 July 2004
It has come to the editor's attention that the Herald-Leader neglected to cover the civil rights movement. We regret the omission.Via Athenae at Atrios, who muses about what contemporary stories will merit similar corrections in a few decades.
14 July 2004
Great Wall of China
I'm not going this year, and strangely, more than almost anything else this makes me wish I were going.
Liberte, egalite, fraternite
Today's quote
The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being.If you don't know who Emma Goldman was, spend a minute with her WikiPedia entry and improve your life. Although of course my witty, sophisticated regular readers know all about her, I'm sure.
Emma Goldman
13 July 2004
But most amazing of all is a dark, brilliant Lego sculpture by a Polish artist. I won't tell you what it is: you'll recognize it immediately. There are more pictures in the series, reminding us that everything in our world is reproduced in pixelated form in Legoland.
12 July 2004
Insert Jerry Lewis joke here
French popular music sucks. It actually sucks in so many ways, in so many genres, that I could not keep proper track of its promiscuous modalities of inadequacy. A friend suggested to me that the French never made the categorical distinction between "rock" and "show tunes" that is fundamental to Anglo-American popular music, so that French pop sounds more or less like Barry Manilow. But that doesn't explain the travesty that is French hip-hop. Nor does it explain the curious fact that although experimental French art and literature have in fact rocked almost continuously for the past 175 years, no French music of any kind has really mattered to the rest of the world since the mid-thirteenth century, when the hot new musical form known as the "motet" took Europe by storm. I welcome your theories about this. (Before anybody gets all weird with me about Berlioz and Satie, all I have to say is, two exceptions in 750 years prove the rule. And the incomparable Django Reinhardt wasn't French, he was Manouche.)But hey: what about MC Solaar, who raps in French? If that's not a mutant superpower, what is?
11 July 2004
A political game hits with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but that's the point; like a political cartoon, its simplicity tries to clarify the issues.He's on to something. A couple of weeks ago, I spent a good chunk of time playing an epic game in which you take on George W. Bush. The game plays with the conventions of computer games, as well as lots of pop culture references, and is often very funny: You can fight as an '80s hero, for instance --- Mr. T or Hulk Hogan. In between the action scenes, there are some great infographics and animations of pure political stuff, like how the Bush administration has rigged the tax system for the benefit of the rich.
10 July 2004
On the road again
Today's quote
Yeah, that's right. I'm a bottom feeder. But look what I found when I got down there.He's the defender of Jessica Lynch's honor and he's called for a national day of prayer. Larry Flynt is a great American.
09 July 2004
Naming convention
Part I: Brought to You By the Letter YIn a hurry? Check out the Worst Of page!
Part II: God Wants You to Name the Baby After Him
Part III: Easy to be Scarred
Part IV: Babies or Blotter Acid?
Part V: Big Chief Mucous Stink
Part VI: When You're in Love, the Whole World is Welsh
Part VII: Jesus' Mom is No Saint
Part VIII: Of Thee I Scream
Part IX: Bad Baby Names From You!
Part 10.1: More Bad Baby Names From You! (revised)
Part XI: Even More Bad Baby Names From You (confirmed sightings edition)!
Part XII: Baby's Got a Bad Bad Combo
Part XIII: Fellow Collectors
Part XIV: Voyage to the Bottom of the BBS
Part XV: Flights of Fantasy
08 July 2004
The Chairman's open house
Now, in Austin, which is where I live, we have this social event every year which is called "South by Southwest." South by Southwest has three wings. It's a cultural conference. It's a festival, I guess you would call it. There is South by Southwest Music .... There is South by Southwest Film .... Then there is the third part, which is my people here, which would be South by Southwest Interactive .... which is the geek set in my town, right?How did the hot chicks end up at the Chairman's house? It turns out that this is symptomatic of a problem, a really thorny problem. The Chairman proposes some technical solutions, which are metaphorically deep. Go read the story and see.
Every year I have a party here at South by Southwest. It's my Open House Party. It's a very "Information Wants to be Free" kind of party. I just go there .... I give a speech or something and traditionally I end my speech by just inviting the whole audience over to my house for free beer. "Aw boys, we're all going over to my house for free beer!" They show up. It's not difficult to give away free beer.
Actresses are showing up, which is sort of interesting because there is never much cross-over into the film thing. Guys are coming up and saying "Bruce! Your party's full of hot chicks!" There are girls in lingerie tops with stiletto heels. They aren't actually partying. They're not eating. They're there to display themselves so they kind of swan anorexically through this crowd of unix sysadmins and they're, like... They're awe-struck. Somebody had told them that it was sort of necessary to go make the scene at the novelist's house and they sort of arrived in a bloc, united by phones, I assume, and then departed.
07 July 2004
Athenae at Atrios suggests that, in response to the growing Republican mutterings about how John Kerry is a rich elitist we also remind America that our current Presdent is himself very wealthy. Join the fun!
Today's quote
While Moore has done us all a great service by bringing to light the footage of the president not reacting to the second WTC attack, he fails to make what I think is the most important point here: The President's own aides have such a low opinion of Bush's leadership capabilities that they didn't think it was immediately necessary -- or, perhaps, desirable -- for him to take charge of the situation right away.That's certainly not what would have happened in the Bartlett White House.
06 July 2004
Qapla' !
Product endorsement
There isn't much I can say about Katharine Hepburn that hasn't already been said, except this: She is why when I was a little girl I dreamed of being a smart businesswoman with a clever boyfriend and my own apartment instead of some fairytale princess in a frou-frou dress who needed rescuing all the time.Or at least, I admire the pitch for it on the catalogue page.
Guess whose dreams came true.
05 July 2004
More Independence
Morgan Freeman delivers the goods in the introduction, proving once again that the presidency is his for the taking if he ever decides he wants it. "Scholars believe Jefferson intended for the Declaration to be performed, and not just read. ... It's a safe bet the Continental Congress never had in mind a performer like me."
And forgive me using this opportunity to rant, but this reminds me of something that really bugs me. There's a wingnut meme that the left is uncomfortable with patriotism. It's just not true. What bothers lefties like me is "patriotism" of the creepy "my tribe can beat up your tribe" variety. But when it comes to the iconography, legends, and ideas of America, the left's patriotism is strong. Check out that video: you want to make a little movie about the Declaration, and Whoopi Goldberg shows up.
My personal example is The West Wing on TV, a romantic lefty fantasy of working in government. First there's all of the God Bless America stuff in the show itself: the parade of Immigrants With A Dream, of Ordinary Americans whose Heroism Shines Through, of Public Servants who take their Obligations to the American People Very Seriously. But more symbolically, there's the opening credits to the show. Okay, a third of it is the usual hero shots of the cast adorably looking into the middle distance. But the other two thirds? There's black and white pictures of presidential iconography: the oval office, motorcades, and the Presidential helicopter Marine One. And there's American flags waving in the background, and plenty of 'em.
I have them on DVD now, and I watch the credits every time because I love that stuff. I'm not proud of it—it's silly and shmaltzy and I feel a little silly doing it—but I'm not ashamed, either.
The centerpiece of that summary is a quote from the beginning of a detailed analysis by Paul Lukasiak. I'll give you the key sentence.
An examination of the Bush military files within the context of US Statutory Law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of that era lead to a single conclusion: George W. Bush was considered a deserter by the United States Air Force.In brief: Bush skipped out, and pulled strings to avoid the consequences. Since then, there's been extensive tampering with records to cover it up.
Update! Brad DeLong offers the helpful long summary that I didn't have time to prepare.
04 July 2004
Independence Day
Independence Day is the High Holy Day of American political identity. If you think about it, the Fourth of July is a strange choice of date. Consider the French equivalent, Bastille Day, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille and thus the event which demonstrated that the French monarchy was over. By similar reasoning, we should be celebrating when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on 19 October, the battle of Lexington & Concord on 19 April, or (my favorite as an occasional lefty activist) the Boston Tea Party on 13 December.
But we don't. We celebrate the day that a bunch of guys signed a piece of paper.
I've posted before about how the American veneration of documents in our political culture reflects our Enlightenment conception of the nation as a human creation, composed of ideas, rather than any essential volkish link from country to nation. Nowhere do we see this more strongly than in our choice of the Fourth of July, the day men signed the Declaration of Independence.
It's easy to forget what an achievement the Declaration really is. But 1776 was a world of kings, and finding a way to think and talk about a political order without kings was very, very hard.
A look at Jefferson's intellectual sources shows how just hard the problem was at that time. Here's David Hume trying to find a moral theory for equality in world that only knew the divine right of kings:
Whatever actually happens is comprehended in the general plan or intention of Providence; nor has the greatest and most lawful prince any more reason, upon that account, to plead a peculiar sacredness or inviolable authority, than an inferior magistrate, or even an usurper, or even a robber and a pirate.Here's John Locke trying to talk about individual human rights.
The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.Now here's Jefferson summing it up perfectly in the Declaration.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness --- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.Those are the principles, in two hundred and three words.
I'd like to say that you couldn't improve it by changing a single one of those words. It's very, very close. But those two uses of the word "Men" really stick out. I'm prepared to forgive Jefferson that one. He was a man of his time. He knew that the principles he describes meant that America was engaged in a terrible evil in the form of slavery. (Check out his rough draft of the Declaration: it's right there.) And so also, deep in the Declaration is the principle that all people are equal, and I suspect that Jefferson knew it without knowing it, but didn't know how to fit it into the language. Maybe not, but I prefer to believe in the Declaration as it should have read.
I gave you the best part, but hey, you really ought to take a few minutes in honor of the day and read the whole thing --- it's really good stuff.
Bonus followup post: Hollywood movie stars and me ranting about liberal patriotism!
Bonus followup post: Hollywood movie stars and me ranting about liberal patriotism!
03 July 2004
Marlon Brando
Greatest actor in American film
For a man who hated the job, Brando was a hell of an actor. He had all of the ingredients of talent as a film actor in vast measure. The most important, and inexplicable, was his screen presence.
I will grant that actorly craft can help to create screen presence. Consider all of those well-trained British actors who turn up in American films — Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and so on — who are able to command the screen with their mastery of the craft. It's something you can learn.
But it's also a talent, a weird and inexplicable talent. It's a thing that can make actors with mediocre skills into great movie stars. Think of Katherine Hepburn or Keanu Reeves. They can't act all that well, but they have that thing. Brando was a great actor and he had that thing. He had as much of it as anyone else who ever worked in the medium. Probably more than anyone else who ever worked in the medium.
There's a scene in Last Tango in Paris where Brando is idly drumming his hands against the wall. That's all that's happening, and it lasts a couple of minutes. It's a scene of a man standing drumming his hands. It should be duller than a Jarmuch film and put you to sleep. But the scene is utterly hypnotic — more movie than you get from most entire feature films.
Talent. Magic.
When I first told my folks about discovering Brando, about seeing this scene, they both became angry. He cheated us, they said. He should have made more films. Maybe so.
But could he ever have made enough films?
Salon has a dazzling feature with pages and pages of quotes about him by everyone cool who ever met him. Check it out.
Microsoft and security
The security of your computer and network depends on two things: what you do to secure your computer and network, and what everyone else does to secure their computers and networks. It's not enough for you to maintain a secure network. If other people don't maintain their security, we're all more vulnerable to attack. When many unsecure computers are connected to the Internet, worms spread faster and more extensively, distributed denial-of-service attacks are easier to launch, and spammers have more platforms from which to send e-mail. The more unsecure the average computer on the Internet is, the more unsecure your computer is.Not surprising to me. Microsoft makes their money by selling you software that creates problems for you, then selling you software which solves those problems ... but then gives you new problems, so they can sell you software which solves those problems ... but then gives you new problems ... and so on.
Initial news stories reported that Microsoft would make this [security-oriented] upgrade available to all XP users, both licensed and unlicensed. To me, this was a smart move on Microsoft's part. Think about all the ways the company would benefit. Licensed users would be more secure and happier. Worms that attack Microsoft products would be less virulent, so Microsoft wouldn't look as bad in the press. Microsoft would win, its customers would win and the Internet would win. It's the kind of marketing move about which best-selling books are written.
Then Microsoft said the initial comments were wrong; SP2 would not run on pirated copies of XP. Only legal copies of the software could be secured. This is the wrong decision.
Now that Windows is fairly reliable, they need to get us into some serious pain over security so that they can ride in on a white horse and fix that problem. We're just not in enough pain yet.
02 July 2004
Heroic art
Which turns out to mean lots of Heroic Figures. I have a soft spot for this kind of stuff. I know it's kitchy, and I don't really want to have any of it in my home, but I do think it's often the right sort of thing for public spaces: think of all that great 1930s WPA art.
But looking at the gallery, the relentlessly Exultant Figures of Human Aspiration start to get faintly creepy, and the descriptive text doesn't help.
My goal is to portray the heroic and romantic in human nature and human achievement in a realistic style and a modern setting.I start to think about Leni Riefenstahl, but that's not quite it. Then one of the pieces makes it click --- these are like the paintings and sculpures that Ayn Rand described Howard Roark admiring. And sure enough, you can buy prints of cover art for Ayn Rand's books!
Art that points a way forward to the limitless aspirational possibilities of life-affirming and mind-affirming conscious existence.
01 July 2004
Pants on fire
These are all lies, told by the President himself. This doesn't include any distortions, half-truths, or exaggerations, or any lies told by senior figures in the administration. These lies are big and small.But hey, he hasn't lied under oath about his sex life, and isn't that the important thing?


text:
Act against violent forces in society: Jayalalithaa
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Monday called for robust action to put down forces that threaten to make society prone to violence.
She said violent clashes along sectarian or caste identities needed to be quelled, and information sharing between states was necessary for the purpose.
The chief minister made the remarks at the 16th National Integration Council (NIC) meeting here.
"There is perceptible, in modern Indian society, a telescoping tension and intolerance, which threatens to make it more confrontationist, belligerent and prone to overt acts of violence based on various sectarian and caste identities. These have thrown up major challenges to the state and even to society at large," Jayalalitha's speech read.
The speech was delivered by K.P. Munusamy, Tamil Nadu Minister for Municipal Administration, Rural Development, Law, Courts and Prisions.
Jayalalithaa urged the centre to recognise that the maintenance of law and order and police are state subjects in the constitutional scheme, and that the states should be treated as equal partners. She said "co-operation between the states and the centre should prevail over narrow political considerations".
Referring to the demand for enacting the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, Jayalalithaa said many of the provisions of the bill are vaguely worded, with the risk of being misused.
"Above all, the bill is against the constitutional scheme of distribution of powers between the centre and the states. Clause 20 of the bill, which gives extensive powers to the central government and the proposed National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation, is a direct assault on state autonomy," she said.
Stressing that her government is using preventive detention laws to maintain public order, Jayalalithaa complained that the centre, for political considerations, is setting aside the state government orders, thereby encroaching upon the state's powers.
According to Jayalalithaa, the need of the hour is to develop an Indian identity that is founded on a scientific temper, social and economic equality, and a melding of our diverse faiths and cultural practices to foster integrity.
Urging the centre to enhance funding for modernising communication technology, Jayalalithaa said the proactive use of social media as an effective means of mass communication and source of correct information also needed to be focused upon.
"But the risks of using social media including hacking, cyber bullying and capture by anti-social elements have to be mitigated through appropriate safeguards and effective monitoring and administration of such sites by trained and empowered personnel," she said.
(Posted on 23-09-2013)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Even the city's most famous and exotic visitor, the sun lighter and hero named Hayden Griffin, refuses to turn aside from his commission to build a new sun for a foreign nation. He will not become the hero that Leal knows the city needs; so in the end, it is up to her to listen, and ultimately reply, to the worldwasp.
Take another trip to Virga.
©2009 Karl Schroeder; (P)2009 Macmillan Audio
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text:
by Dr. Lisa H. Upshaw
We are all connected, moving to a similar pulse, hungry and thirsty for the same thing, wanting to feel that we matter. This connection provides us with a network that when used to it's fullest capacity can cause electric transformation and change. If you conceive of an idea born from guided inspiration that may be of great benefit to someone, chances are that that someone is waiting for your gift to be shared.
What we need to remember is that when we light a spark from heart led inspiration, it will ablaze. If you want to set this world on fire and be a positive, impactful force– you already have everything you need. We were all given uniquely different talents to contribute to this life experience. Do something you have never done before in a whole new way with the intention of feeding the world with the tools and gifts that only you have.
You may wonder, what is spirit inspired action? A clue I can share is if you've been absent of any real passion, exuberant joy, or fulfillment then you likely have not been living life from a such a place. When you are making choices that are in alignment with your gifts, talents or that come from the heart AND you get an buzz doing them, it's safe to say that you are in the right place. It is when you operate from this awesome feeling with clarity, focus and determination that your spark catches fire and others want to drink your Kool Aide.
You know you are out of alignment with heart led inspiration when you:
• Hate waking up in the morning to go to work
• Feel unfulfilled
• Know that you are holding back
• Have an idea for a project, business, movement that you can't let go of
• No one else knows how magnificent you really are
• Are frustrated because you are not living the life that you dream of and are capable of living
Here's what you can do about it:
• Celebrate your uniqueness
• Get in the habit of sharing what makes your soul sing
• When great things happen for you remember to pay it forward
• Choose and commit to making a life change that will make you feel magnetic
• Create an affirmation for yourself that keeps you on track. For example, "Each day I create an opportunity to enhance my life and the lives of others"
• Trust your Intuition!
• Live your life for yourself not for your parents, friends, siblings, etc.
It does not take a grand master plan to make an impact– just the ability to let go. Allow your glorious spirit to lead you to the perfect way to express yourself. It's usually that thing that's been shoved to the back of your mind; the idea that just won't go away. When you move with meaningful action you are connected to the greater purpose and feeding a need. You know your spirit better than anyone else. If your soul is stirring you are in the right place. Here's to your spark!
About the Author — Dr. Lisa is all about grabbing life by the horns and living out loud. Acknowledging that life is so precious in our physical bodies, she is passionate about making the absolute most of it.
By trade she is an Acupuncturist, Chiropractor and owner of an online nutrition business. A firm believer in mind-body healing, Dr Lisa H. Upshaw's practice combines Chinese medicine and functional nutrition with Chakra balancing and affirmations. She is passionate about empowering others with tools to enhance their life experience. Living by her mantra,"follow your bliss", Dr. Lisa loves coaching and supporting those who may be in a stuck pattern, wanting greater alignment with the spirit and the physical.
She is happy to share all she knows and looks forward to meeting you on your journey.
Please take a moment to visit Lisa's website http://www.beingwellbody.com


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Movie Review of Friends With Money Starring Frances McDormand and Jennifer Aniston
Summer Netflix Challenge: McDormand in Friends With Money
The film is by director Nicole Holofcener, who completely wooed me with the recent Please Give. While I don't think Friends With Money is quite as good, there are a few common attributes. For one, you have Holofcener's female leads — all flawed and unlikeable, yet incredibly interesting. There's Franny (Joan Cusack), the rich pal with tons of money; Christine (Catherine Keener), the friend who has nice things, but a terrible marriage; Jane (Frances McDormand), the successful but argumentative designer; and Olivia (Jennifer Aniston), the mess of the bunch who works as a maid. Ready to hear my thoughts? Just
I feel like I should forewarn you that this film isn't the grabbiest; instead, it's more of a character study. But in the interactions of the four women you see glimpses of your own friends — a more conflicted portrayal perhaps, instead of the shiny-happy one we often see in chick flicks. Best of all, they get you thinking. At one point, Franny questions whether she and Olivia would be friends if they didn't have history (given their two very different incomes and circles of friends, they don't have much in common any more). While it's a tough question, I think it's one we've all asked ourselves at some point, even if money isn't the issue. But I do have one large complaint: Olivia. Aniston does a nice job with the role; however, I didn't like how they wrote the ending for her character. Watch, and you'll see what I mean, but basically, it's too contrived for such a smart script.
If you're going to rent it, I say watch it for the ensemble. All four actresses (especially McDormand) do a great job in their parts; they're real, honest women without the Hollywood sheen — something you don't typically see at the box office.
Want to review and chat about your own Summer rentals? Join my Netflix challenge group, pick your theme or actor, and get watching! You may see your own posts right here on BuzzSugar.


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A volleyball clinic is being held on Monday, May 16 through Thursday, May 19 at 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Carbon High School for fifth through ninth grade.
A registration fee of $15 can be paid before the clinic begins on Monday. If you have any questions, you can call Coach Bean at Carbon High, 637-2463.


text: Alex Gall fans, want to win 1 of 50 limited edition, signed and numbered, previously unreleased Trainwreck Pro Models from Zero? All you have to do is send in footage of your best switch ollie, front board or back lip with a shout out to Trainwreck inside the clip. Post the clip to the Blackbox Facebook page. Alex Gall will pick his 3 favorite winning entries. Deadline is end of the year 2010. Check out the Trainwreck Flashback for inspiration.


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Headboards (104 products)
1 - 50 of 104 items
Make your bed the centre of attention with a striking headboard. From natural pine to chic chenille and contemporary leather effect, there is a headboard to suit every d�cor.
Bring your bed to life with colourful bedding and cosy accessories, whether you love subtle patterns or eye-catching colours, we've got the bedding sets for you. Don't forget we've also got a range of bedroom furniture, including bedside cabinets.


text: Governor's Office, Tim Larsen [ Sweeney Says Christie May Have 'Prayed' for Hurricane By Associated Press January 7, 2013 New Jersey's Democratic Senate leader says Gov. Chris Christie may have "prayed" for Superstorm Sandy because it has given him cover for what he says are the governor's failed economic policies. Read More|Comment Category: TS net, TS nj, TS pol Tags: Chris Chrsitie, NJ, political, Sandy, state of the state 2013, Steve Sweeney Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


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Current Book Club Selection
DSF Blog
Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder
By - Richard Louv
Why don't children play outside anymore? Last Child in the Woods is a conversation about our collective disconnection from nature, a condition author Richard Louv identified as "nature-deficit disorder". In the new edition, Louv provides updates on the research linking the lack of nature in children's lives with the rise in obesity, attention disorders and depression. The book also provides practical advice for kids and families wanting to reconnect with the natural world.
Has nature saved you?
By - Lindsay Coulter, Queen of Green
Sometimes I get cranky.
What if nature could make you feel better? (I know you're thinking of a time when it has.)
Get email updates
"Reading these books and educating myself has profoundly changed my life in the fact that I have gained so much knowledge about these things that matter to me. I have become so much more aware of all the everyday things that affect our mother earth. I am no longer ignorant...I am AWARE!!!!"
- Amy Sztupovszky, Oliver BC
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I hope tey remember the part where Kings says all men are created equal and follow that as opposed to today's society excusing irresponsible and illegal activity based on race. Hold the individual responsible for what they do irregardless of color.
Flash Forward | The Week Ahead
Children's Museum celebrating Martin Luther King Day
Associated Press
In this Aug. 28, 1963, file photo, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. waves to the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington.
On Monday, Betty Brinn Children's Museum celebrates the day with a series of activities focusing on Martin Luther King and his work. »Read Full Article


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Bud Selig gives Mets Ownership a vote of confidence
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig offered a vote of confidence in the Mets Ownership group at the Owners Meetings in Chicago yesterday, according to David Lennon of Newsday.
"It's interesting how you rebuild or how you do things. Spending money doesn't guarantee anybody anything," Selig explained, according to Lennon. "As far as the Mets are concerned, I know they're very comfortable where they are and they're very optimistic. I'll take them at their word."
In regards to the possibility the Mets could trade R.A. Dickey after winning the Cy Young Award this week, Selig said "I'm just not going to comment on speculation. The Mets haven't said anything about that and I've spent the last 24 hours with Fred Wilpon. I don't know where this speculation came from."
When asked if big market teams should still invest in their big league rosters during a rebuilding process, Selig said, "You bet. But there are different ways to try to compete, and sometimes you've got to be realistic."
Matthew Cerrone, Lead Writer
I realize there are lots of concerns among fans and media, etc., about what the financial future is for the Mets. I get that. The thing is, it's a private business and only the Mets know the answer. I believe you win in MLB by building up your farm system, creating a base and momentum, and then spending wisely on free agents and making trades to complete the roster. So, I'm willing to let the jury remain out on the financial side of things… for now. The thing is, they're building their base, hopefully they find some momentum next year, and then – when a significant chunk of money opens up in the budget after next off season – they start spending again on better, more appropriate players for the team they're building now. If that happens, I think some fans will cool on their obsession with spending, and I think some media will relax their rhetoric. However, if payroll keeps dropping and the team keeps losing, despite freeing up money, then I think all hell will break loose. Right now, the Mets can point to Johan Santana's contract, and still Jason Bay's, and argue they are 'spending,' and that's technically true. But, the real proof will be in their actions one year from now, and everyone will be watching.
Michael Baron, Contributor
I still don't understand the argument among many fans that spending immediately equates to winning. It just doesn't – the Red Sox, Angels, Marlins, Cubs, and the Mets are all prime examples where the argument fails. And that's just in 2012. This year's weak free agent class is a prime example of that, where early reports suggest the top of this class is in search of big money and making them extremely overvalued, should they sign for anywhere close to what they're asking for. It's not that I don't think there are any number of free agents available who could make the Mets better, nor do I think the Mets can continue to not invest in the big league roster. I understand the message spending sends and what it means in particular with the Mets, especially after what the organization has been through in recent years. And, I think it's important the Mets prove they have the ability to make investments to the roster. But history has proven that throwing every last resource at free agent is not the answer to success, and the Mets are the prime example of that.
If you've followed me on Twitter, I've said on countless occasions that the $100 million the Mets are investing in 2013 would be a lot different than the $100 million they would invest in 2014 (assuming they invest $100 million in 2014). And, even if the Mets payroll were to (hypothetically) invest $80 million in 2014, their roster would likely be way more balanced than it is today. Why? Because they have such an imbalance of resource allocation on their roster in 2013, and much of that (in the form of Johan Santana's and Jason Bay's deals) won't exist at this time next year. Don't misunderstand that as my advocating for the Mets to spend less: it's a call to spend wisely. Going forward, the Mets should be able to invest in healthier contracts – be it through free agency or trade – and they can get better bang for their buck in the process.
Remember, nearly half of Sandy Alderson's payroll projection is dedicated to two players right now, both of which have grossly underperformed the dollar value of their contracts. They had $80.5 million committed to six players before they cut Bay and restructured his deal, and that didn't include the $2 million the Mets owed to Bay as part of his signing bonus. Even with a nominal increase in flexibility, it's incredibly difficult to operate under those conditions.


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The 72-mile strip of Florida shoreline directly east of Orlando was nicknamed the Space Coast for its slew of NASA-related attractions: Port Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center, the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and more. But the area has plenty of other attractions to offer vacationing families. In Cocoa Beach—the town where I Dream of Jeannie was set—you can fish off an 800-foot pier, learn to surf (or tour the Surfing Hall of Fame) and unwind over fresh fish sandwiches at Coconuts on the Beach (321-784-1422), while the kids join a pickup game of volleyball on the sand. Nearby are stunning wildlife preserves, swamp rides and some quirky interactive museums—all less than an hour's drive from Orlando.
Join the Space RaceIf you can visit only one space-related site, make it the Kennedy Space Center (321-449-4444; kennedyspacecenter.com), on Merritt Island. You'll see the launch pads, touch a Mars rock and check out a full-scale replica of the International Space Station. A five-minute ride in the Shuttle Launch Experience, which opened in May, will make you feel as if you're orbiting Earth.
Where the Birds AreGrab binoculars and head for the Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary (321-868-1123; brevardparks.com). This 436-acre reserve on Merritt Island is home to egrets and wood storks, herons and pelicans, ospreys and lesser scaup, American coots and yellow-rumped warblers. The observation tower offers a terrific bird's-eye view.
Animal EncounterGiraffes will eat crackers from your hand and jorikeets can sit on your shoulder at the Brevard Zoo (321-254-9453; brevardzoo.org). An old-fashioned animal center in Melbourne, the zoo is filled with wallabies, cotton-top tamarins and ring-tailed lemurs. Its Wetlands Outpost offers an Africa Exhibition kayak tour of white rhinos and other elusive beasts.
Reporting for DutyLearn all about cop work at the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum in Titusville (321-264-0911; aphf.org). A real guillotine, an electric chair and a gas chamber are on display, as are two chilling walk-in jail cells. See how chemicals can reveal blood and fingerprints at crime scenes. The names of 8,000 officers killed in the line of duty are etched on a somber memorial wall. Besides all that, there's an air-conditioned shooting range; helicopter rides are offered, too.
Rocket ScienceSpace fanatics will get a thrill at the U.S. Space Walk of Fame (321-264-0434; spacewalkoffame.com), a storefront Titusville museum filled with such minutiae as space-shuttle sleep shorts, John Glenn's hard hat and caps worn by Russian cosmonauts. Children can flip switches from the actual Atlas controls—the museum snagged the equipment when the Atlas program ended in 2005.
Right on TrackLet the kids loose at the Andretti Thrill Park in Melbourne (321-956-6706; andrettithrillpark.com). They'll get hooked on the go-kart courses—that is, if you can get them past the 7,000-square-foot arcade, the batting cages and the laser tag arena. The whole family can play miniature golf or ride the paddleboats. Wet and WildTake a guided airboat ride through some of Florida's famous wetlands. Propelled by huge fans, the boats zip over the reedy marshes of the St. Johns River and Lake Poinsett, populated with alligators, bald eagles and river otters. Operators include Old Fashioned Air Boat Rides (407-568-4307; nbbd.com) and Grasshopper Airboat Eco-Tours (321-631-2990; airboatecotours.com). Call for trip details.


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It may be nothing more than the wild imaginings of an aspiring automotive designer, but the Chevrolet Volt-based Saab Fashionista concept could be 'just what the doctor ordered' for the ailing Swedish automaker.
Mayeul Walser, a 24 year-old design student at French creative college Creapole-ESDI, designed the Fashionista as a 2+2 sports coupe, with its name drawn from the car's fashion industry inspirations: Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld.
The ultimate aim for the Fashionista was to design a sports coupe that borrows the clean and simple lines of sci-fi movie cars, while taking inspiration from the fashion icons.
Mayeul envisions a V6 petrol engine replacing the regular four-cylinder unit attached to the Volt electric motor, providing a total output of around 223kW.
Of course, this setup would alter the Volt system somewhat, as the four-cylinder engine exists to charge the electric motor, not motivate the car itself.
As concepts go, the Fashionista delivers a clever merging of futuristic concept styling with only a short step to production-ready practicalities.
Filed under: hybrid, Concepts, Saab, concept, News, saab fashionista, fashionista
Gallery: Saab Fashionista Concept
Or use the form below, without registering.
- So why call it the Fashionista? Apparently this Saab concept partially takes its inspiration from Chanel's collection, created by leading designer Karl Lagerfeld. It also features future technologies drawn from science fiction, such as the gullwing-esque front doors, and the lower section which apparently moves "out and then backâ€Â.


text: Michael J. Miller | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information Official Broadway League sites: - sites - broadway.org broadwayleague.com broadwayfanclub.com kidsnightonbroadway.com stagespecs.org tonyawards.com Quick Search For: In This Category: All Show People/Org. Theatre Season Michael J. Miller Performer Male Productions ProductionsDate of ProductionsThe Water Engine / Mr. HappinessThe Water Engine[Play, Original] Performer: Michael J. Miller [Bernie]Feb 28, 1978 - Mar 19, 1978 Find out where Michael J. Miller and are credited together © 2001-2015, The Broadway League, All Rights Reserved. (Copyright and Disclaimer)


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The face of retail has certainly changed from even a decade ago. According to Retail Week, there are artificial intelligence displays being tested right now. These kinds of displays may be soon coming to a store near you. But for now, you want to make sure that you are doing all you can to make your POS stand out from the rest so that you are able to get the sales. Below are some tips and suggestions from Business 2 Community that you can use to help with making your POS displays stand out from the rest.
Be Bold to Get Attention
A bold, bright design is going to attract your customers' eyes. Use compelling, large designs that match the theme of your product. Play with contrasting, bright colors that are hard to ignore. Be sure that the display you have is standing out from the other POS efforts for merchandising.
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Simple Tips to Make Your POS Display Stand Out
Sometimes we face a dilemma in deciding which call plan to subscribe when we are changing our mobile phone plan or switching between mobile network providers (a.k.a. telcos). There are so many different packages and bundles available from each telco and it's really hard to tell which is better. Therefore, here I'm putting all the figures into an organized table for side-by-side comparison and sharing my views on all postpaid call plans (with/without data) from 4 major telcos in Malaysia, namely Maxis, Celcom, DiGi & U Mobile.
I leave Yes 4G out of the comparison even though their user base has been expanding since the launch in 2010 because their WiMax network is not compatible with GSM phones that most of us are using. Besides, I only select call plans without phone bundle in order to keep the comparison simple and straightforward. Please note that only 2 call plans in my comparison are contract based, which are Ultimate Device Plans (24-month) and U Platinum (36-month) by U Mobile. Otherwise, we are free to switch plans at anytime.
Main factors influencing your decision
As we can see from the full table above, call plans from all telcos have limited data quotas which make filtering through these call plans a lot easier. Furthermore, we don't make calls or send SMS as many as we used to, all thanks to the new generation messaging and VoIP (Voice over IP) apps, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Google Hangout, Facebook Messenger and Skype.
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Which Postpaid Call Plan (With Data) By Major Telcos In Malaysia Is Best For You?
When it comes to picking the right laptop backpack for ourselves, the selection decision usually will come down to the factors such as design, safety features, comfortableness, capacity, weight, etc. Not all laptop backpacks are created the same, some are having more storage compartment, some look more sporty, some are built with stronger and more durable materials and some are lighter. Anyway, we'll pick one based on our personal preference and needs most of the times.
It is not hard to choose a backpack that suits you at MalaysiaBag.com as they are a laptop backpack supplier in Malaysia that offers a wide variety of laptop backpacks, from top of the range executive laptop backpack to budget ones. They have all kinds of laptop backpack that suit your need as listed below, just to name a few :-
- BL1139 – High quality executive laptop backpack made of Polyester. Good for business use.
- BL9260 – Multipurpose laptop backpack made of Nylon 1680D, with multiple storage compartments.
- BL1671 – Convertible laptop backpack that you can turn it into a shoulder bag.
- BL1133 – Canvas laptop backpack that students will love it.
- BL3571-II – Budget laptop backpack made of Nylon 1680D with vibrant colours.
BL1139 – High quality executive laptop backpack made of Polyester. Good for business use.
Creating illustrations can be a lot of fun. The more talented you are, the more your talents are going to be in demand. Of course, when you first get started out trying to sell your illustrations, you might feel a little lost. The good news is there are many opportunities for you to make the most of your illustrations when you look to sell them online. You open up your market to a much wider audience, and you have the ability to make a real name for yourself. In other words, this means learning how to utilize the tools available to you online as well as making the most of your time. Marketing yourself online can be tricky and it can take a lot of hard work. However, with these tools, you can get what you are looking for in a much shorter period of time.
Second Hand Selling Sites
According to Mashable, there are plenty of sites available to help you sell your illustrations online. All you need to do is find the different sites that concentrate on the illustrations you are looking to sell and you are going to find it's easy to sell illustrations online. The one thing to remember is these sites make their money by taking a cut of the money you are going to make by selling your illustrations. When you set your prices, you might want to set your prices to accommodate for the amount of money the site is going to take as their commission. This way, you are still going to get paid the amount you want to get paid and the site is happy because it's able to make enough money to stay in business. Keep in mind these sites can take a while for your illustrations to sell, but as long as you put a lot on the site, you are going to have an easy time of seeing a constant income.
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Sell Your Illustrations Online to Your Target Market in Less Time
How many times do you see your smartphone lockscreen a day? I can safely say it's very very often. Looking at the same lockscreen every time we check our phone is just too boring. Well, thanks to Android being a highly customizable platform, there are some cool lockscreen replacement apps available free in Google Play Store.
Time Machine Locker – Android Lockscreen App
I would like to introduce an interesting award-winning lockscreen app called Time Machine Locker. This free app is able to automatically identify memorable photos from your social network and other sources using a special algorithm and display the photo on your lockscreen with added beautiful effects. In other words, your lockscreen won't always be the same picture and you'll also be surprised occasionally with new photos when you unlock the screen.
Wonderful pictures on lockscreen, always!
Time Machine Locker App Interface
Time Machine Locker app uses Facebook login for user authentication and the app requires permission to access to your Facebook profile, pictures, some public information, etc. From my experience in using the app, it's able to analyze my current relationship and memorable moments in Facebook and uses photo of wonderful places I've visited and people that I care. I guess that's why my wife's photo is appearing very often on my lockscreen and it always puts a smile on my face when I see it. If I come across a picture that I like, I can even share it to my Facebook or cast it to my Facebook friends.
A few weeks ago, I received a CityLite II Ultra Backpack from Targus for review. CityLite II Ultra Backpack is one of the latest models in Targus CityLite II series that they just launched in April 2014. I've been using it daily and truly love it as my primary laptop bag now.
Targus CityLite II Series
The latest Targus CityLite II series consists of the following 4 new models (as shown in above picture) :-
- 15.6″ CityLite II Ultra Backpack (rightmost) RM238
- 15.6″ CityLite II Max Backpack (leftmost) RM238
- 15.6″ CityLite II SL Backpack (2nd leftmost) RM288
- 17″ CityLite II Ultimate Backpack (2nd rightmost) RM319
Prior to using this CityLite II Ultra Backpack, I've always thought the free laptop bag that comes with any purchase of a new laptop is good enough for everyday use. I had to change this misconception of mine after using a CityLite II Ultra Backpack because I was impressed with the extra protection it offers and some features that totally worth the money.
Targus CityLite II Ultra Backpack (TSB798AP)
Targus CityLite II Ultra Backpack, like all the backpacks in CityLite II collection, is designed for travel and everyday use. It is great for business commute, travel, and as a carry-on for airplanes too. The safety lock anti-theft puller system prevents easy access into the backpacks. It's very effective to avoid unwanted opening of the bag and makes it harder for pickpockets to unzip and steal anything from inside the backpack. This feature provides better safety against pickpockets and thieves especially when commuting.
Anti-theft Puller System


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Orlando Magic v Atlanta Hawks
Kyle Korver of the Atlanta Hawks takes a shot against the Orlando... News PhotoAtlanta,Atlanta Hawks - Basketball Team,Basketball - NBA Pro,Basketball - Sport,Georgia - US State,Kyle Korver,Orlando Magic,Philips Arena,Shooting Baskets,Sport,Taking a Shot - Sport,USA,VerticalPhotographer Scott CunninghamCollection: National Basketball Association 2013 NBAEATLANTA, GA - MARCH 30: Kyle Korver #26 of the Atlanta Hawks takes a shot against the Orlando Magic on March 30, 2013 at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2013 NBAE (Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images)