I know that we've had a lot of posts on this topic recently, but Bush's most recent comments on the Iraq situation require some comment. In a MSNBC article today Bush is quoted as saying:
Any attack of Saddam Hussein or a surrogate of Saddam Hussein would cripple our economy...This economy cannot afford to stand an attack.
First off, nice attempt to try to make Hussein and al Qaida interchangeable, but since when are al Qaida or bin Laden surrogates of Hussein? And does this mean that if we suffer another al Qaida attack we'll automatically attack Iraq?
Second, nice attempt to try to use the shitty economy as a justification for war. Too bad for Bush that this constant war talk seems to be making an already bad economy worse.
Then there's the Administration's position on the situation in N. Korea, which is basically a non-position. Now they're saying that they think economic sanctions will bring the North Koreans around. First off, hasn't worked in Cuba or Iraq, why in the world will it work with N. Korea? Secondly, how does putting the economic squeeze on a country that has nuclear weapons and material that it can sell make sense considering the state of the world today?
I don't see how anyone who had taken the Bush Administration's statements on Iraq at face value can now view them with anything but a huge measure of skepticism and cynicism. This gives Islamic extremists all the more fuel with which to stoke the flames of hatred against the U.S. Even those in the region with moderate views could not be blamed for believing that the reason we're dead-set on invading Iraq is 1) for their oil and 2) to assert control in the region.
Does anyone else feel like this Administration is spinning out of control?
I've noticed more and more street grafitti in Chicago in the past few months. It's popping up in a bunch of different areas/neighborhoods. This doesn't bode well for broken window theorists (me among them). Has anyone else noticed a similar trend where they live?
The soccer moms are not happy about Scott Stapp's performance with Creed in Chicago the other night. Sounds entertaining to me though.
I just simply could not believe what I was seeing before my eyes. Drinking, stumbling on stage, garbling lyrics, lying on the floor and sitting on the drummers platform singing, throwing microphones, walking off stage, and most importantly the lack of respect he showed for his fans and band members, especially Mark Tremonti. It was so obvious that Scott was not sick with the flu, but drunk and perhaps high on something as well. I think it is very sad that my son and other younger children had to witness Scott's performance and behaviors. All who attended the Creed concert last night are due an explanation.
What are the promises you're planning to make (and break?) in 2003?
In The Origin of Religions, From a Distinctly Darwinian View (N.Y. Times) Dr. David Sloan Wilson argues that religions evolved much like gangs; They helped make groups of humans comparatively more cooperative and thus able to present a formidable front against bands of less organized adversaries.
I think that religion has been very good at rearranging the nonreligious furniture of our mind into a coherent whole. It takes things like faith, which is what allows you to keep going even in the absence of information, evidence or immediate gratification, and which everybody needs, and it takes forgiveness, which is what you ask for when you transgress, and it reworks these modules, to put it crudely, and tries to set them in a permanent "on" position.
I don't think I've ever heard more people say "the fact of the matter" than when they're discussing the Iraqi conflict. It seems like everyone's argument hinges on "the fact of the matter." It humors me, as a matter of fact, when so many people on both sides think they know "the fact of the matter."
Still looking for the perfect Holiday™ gift for a friend or family member? Consider giving a donation to a charity in their name. The Morning News has created a great list to get you started. Give for Change allows you to donate to hundreds of charities in such categories as civil rights and the environment. Not only will it give you warm fuzzies, a donation will spare you the indignation of your loved ones' false excitement upon opening that re-gifted package of tube socks you've been squirreling away since last year.
So you've walked the tightrope of living life without medical insurance for a few months -- you survived a dangerous body-meets-rock accident 700 ft. above the ground while tethered to a 9.8mm strand of nylon, countless close calls with speeding pine trees, and a drink from the wellspring of the developing world.
Then you breathe a sigh of relief when the paperwork goes through and you're finally covered. You now have a blue cross to ward off nasty spirits and a matching blue shield to combat invading microbes.
Then one day, your tooth hurts. "No problem," you think, as you whip out your blue shield. And yet this time, it bows like a wet noodle. "Teeth aren't covered by your plan," she states casually over the crackling telephone line. Funny, all this time I thought those little pieces of minerals protruding from my gums were part of my body. Silly me.
To hell with crosses and shields, then. What I need now is an ice skate and a large rock. And maybe some local anesthetic.
Now that's universal health care.
So the new plans for ground zero were unveiled today, nine in all. There's an article about the unveiling in the N.Y. Times today along with an opinion piece by the Times' architecture writer, Herbert Muschamp, here.
I think that it will be entirely impossible to come up with a plan that satisfies everyone, but I can't help but feel disappointed by this latest set of concepts. Though they're definitely more interesting than the moribund concepts that were originally presented, none really capture the imagination. They all seem to be more architecture for architecture's sake than anything that comes close to capturing the "specialness" of the site.
I tend to agree with the position put forth in an article in the Times Magazine a couple of months back that this endeavor should be viewed as much more than just a redevelopment of the WTC site but, instead, as a re-imagining of lower Manhatten as a whole. Anyone who's lived in NY knows that lower Manhatten has always been a strange area -- rich with commerce during business hours, but largely empty and lifeless afterwards.
9/11 was an incredible tragedy and it's presented the city with an enormous challenge, but that challenge can also be an opportunity to effect change in ways and to a scale that would not have been possible otherwise. I sincerely hope that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation takes a broader view of the task they have at hand and breaks out of the "site-specific installation" mentality that they currently seem to be stuck in.
Has anyone else seen the concepts? If so, any thoughts?
William Faulkner: "The past is never dead. Its not even past." (referenced in this interesting article about Trent Lott and the rise of the G.O.P. in the south)
Frank Zappas reply to Tipper Gore's claim that rock lyrics incited deviant behavior: "I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyones teeth get cleaner?" (mentioned in The Juice)
Human nature is fascinating. How Stuff Works dissects tipping and uncovers some very interesting behavior (and advice if your job includes receiving tips).
A study that involved giving customers a piece of candy with their bill showed an increase in tip percentage from 15.1% to 17.8%. Another study in which servers gave each customer two pieces of candy with the bill increased the tip from 19% to 21.6% of the bill. Still another study showed that the way the server gave the customer the candy had the largest impact on the increase of the tip: This study had the server initially give each member of the customer's party one piece of candy and then "spontaneously" offer a second piece of candy. This method increased the tip to 23% of the bill!
Sugar sells.
What should we call our book on contingency design? We're looking for a straightforward title (and/or subtitle) that will quickly communicate the subject matter to people who don't know what "contingency design" is. Give us a quick, snappy way to sum up a book that instructs people how to design for when things go wrong online and offers guidelines for error messages, help sections, out of stock items, poor search results, etc. If we wind up using your title, you'll get a free book and our heartfelt thanks.
Ben Stein gives us 12 ways to ruin American Enterprise. Here's a snippet:
Make it a general rule that anyone with more money than a plaintiff is responsible for anything harmful that a plaintiff does. Promulgate the pitiful joke that Americans are hereby exempt from any responsibility for their own actions -- so long as there are deep pockets around to be rifled.
There's plenty of material in this article to become SvN's most popular post. Have at it.
Froogle (beta) is Google's new test site that focuses exclusively on products for sale. The site says it intends to make money by selling advertising above and to the right of the shopping search results, as Google does on its main site.
Today I ask you
To predict 2003
In rhyming haiku
As you may have noticed, we've changed a few things around here. Signal vs. Noise has a new look and a big, honking Movable Type backend. So take a look around and kick the tires -- we hope you like what we've done with the place.
We couldn't have brought it all together without the help of Jeremy, Todd, and a collection of MT plug-ins and hacks from Brad, John, and Phil.
Enjoy!
Now (on PBS) had a great bit on filmmaker Albert Maysles recently. Check out these great Maysles video clips that are posted at the site. The most recent one is "Before I Leave" where Maysles asks a variety of people how they wanted to be remembered before they go for good.
Albert Maysles was teaching psychology at Boston University when he made his first film in the late 1950s, a study of mental institutions in the Soviet Union. He soon teamed up with his brother, David, to produce some of the most acclaimed, and controversial, documentaries of the latter half of the 20th century, including SALESMAN (about door-to-door bible salesmen in Boston), GIMME SHELTER (about the Rolling Stones' 1969 tour and the killing of a spectator at Altamont), and GREY GARDENS (a portrait of a reclusive mother and daughter living in a decaying Long Island mansion).
Just when you thought there was nothing interesting left to say about Eminem, Neal Strauss (in N.Y. Times, beneath the bit on Axl Rose) uses Em's cultural "leap" as proof that "the visual sense dominates the auditory in our society."
Strauss says Em's albums offer much better (albeit more provocative) art, entertainment and even drama and comedy than his movie. Yet while no song, album or interview could change the public's perception of him, a movie did.
The reassessment of Eminem is an interesting statement about the role of movies in popular culture versus the influence of music. Movies generally pull people together, while music tends to divide them. Among teenagers, nearly everyone in school sees the latest "Star Wars" film, but within any school there are fundamental social divisions reflected by music preferences. Be they ravers, rap fans, punk rockers, teeny-boppers, metalheads or jam-band-loving latter-day hippies, most teenagers look to music to find an identity that sets them apart from some and draws them closer to others. Thus listening to Eminem can be a badge of individuality (or at least it was before Mom and Dad started liking him), while watching an Eminem movie can be a conformist gesture.
Come on... Be witty. Say something witty. Be the wittiest.
So, Bush and company sent out 1,000,000 Christmas cards this holiday season. But, the best part of the story is how even the selection of the manufacturer of the cards is a political decision. Bush picked Hallmark...
For Hallmark, the order also marked a return from its exile during the Clinton administration, which for eight years turned to the company's chief rival, American Greetings, to print the White House Christmas cards... During Mr. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, Hallmark gave $110,000 in soft-money donations to the Republican National Committee, and no money to the Democrats... In that same time, the chief executive of American Greetings, Morry Weiss, gave almost as much to the Republican National Committee, $100,000, and also no money to the Democrats - even though American Greetings had lavishly contributed to Democrats when Mr. Clinton was in office.
Ahhh, American Greetings was just $10,000 short. Guess that makes Hallmark an easy decision. Only in America.
Last month we posted a Macromedia contingency design snapshot on Design Not Found. Today Erik Larson, Sr. Product Manager for Macromedia Contribute, detailed the changes they implemented to fix the problems we reported.
Gotta love a company that recognizes their mistakes, thanks you for bringing them to their attention, fixes the mistakes, and then publicly posts the changes. Nice job Macromedia.
