npr's new show, day to day, is a collaboration between npr and slate. opb finally picked up the show so i got to listen to one of the funniest things i've heard in a while today. it was the guy who says "this is npr" reading lines from movies nominated for academy awards. even better was the older bit where he read the lyrics to welcome to the jungle. it's the best four minutes you'll spend on the internet today.
man, it's clear nader is a total ego maniac. the dems don't want him to run, the green party doesn't even want him to run, about the only people who do want him in the race are republicans (oh, and pat buchanan what ever party he's with now).
i guess i'm just bitter because i voted for him in 2000 (not that it made any difference in nevada). it's hard to look back at the last three years and say that there would be no difference between bush and gore. i doubt we'd be in iraq and we probably wouldn't be facing down record deficits.
billmon has a great article that examines the way that the differences between democrats and republicans will affect the global warming issue. some of the comments link to some pretty scary topics.
the peak oil link has me a bit freaked out. the short of it is that oil production follows a bell curve. the initial production is the easiest and cheapest creating a growing demand. once the peak it hit it becomes exponentially more expensive to produce oil but because of a lack of alternatives, demand can't decrease. the big question is when we hit the peak. the alternative fuels can't sustain our economy. nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, the won't work in planes, boats or cars and they can't be used to make fertilizer or plastics. if some magic energy source came along tomorrow we'd still have to convert all our infrastructure over to it. it's real easy to get from here to a mad max scenario.
with that kind of epic problem it is pretty easy to say well democrat or republican it's doesn't really matter. the point that billmon makes in his article is that, yes, it does matter. the democrats may not do much but the republicans' actions have bordered on willful negligence.
krista, nick, his friend dereck, and i went and saw black heart processional and built to spill play tonight. the sound for black heart was horrible i couldn't even understand the lyrics they finally go it worked out for the last two songs but by then i was ready for them to be over. on the other hand, built to spill was amazing, one of the best shows i've seen in a while.
the register has a great interview with jim griffin, former director of geffen's on the coming end to the copyright wars.
after 5+ years of riding regularly i finally got hit by a car. actually, let's say bumped, it's more accurate. i was riding down market st and crossing park ave as a honda sedan pulled out in front of me. i couldn't tell if they were going to punch it or stop so i started cussing at them as i slammed on the brakes and tried to point the bike out in front of them so if it came down to it i'd end up on the hood instead of tacoing a wheel in to their door.
when she finally stopped my thigh was pretty much resting on her hood. if it hadn't been for the clipless pedals i probably would have stayed on my feet. as it were i couldn't kick out and ended up with a bruise on the back of my calf from hitting the top tube as i fell over. i was pretty pissed when i got to my feet. the girl and her friend got out. she was white as a sheet. the four pedestrians that had just crossed the street helped me move the bike out of the street and reminded me to check that it was alright.
after looking at the bike next thought was settlement. i've got a few friends who've gotten new bikes after getting hit. i felt fine and i didn't really want to fuck with. it was a bad intersection and obviously an accident, i was in a hurry to get down to senator smith's office to drop off the moveon.org petition. with an hour of hindsight i realize i could of at least gotten a free tune-up out of it.
but let this be a lesson for you. no matter how fine you feel, always get their information, you can always throw it away later.
2004.02.19 16:39i can't help but get a smile on my face every time i think about all those gay marriages in san francisco. go look at these photos, they're great. while it's really more of a publicity stunt (and possibly grounds for future lawsuits) i just love hearing how outraged all the wingnuts get about it. who knew that a few queens in san francisco getting married could cause irreparable to the institution of marriage?
good links i've come across reading comments on blogs
miss molly mott has a post on the simple joy of being a left hander in a room full of left handed desks. oh those poor people.
krista and i went over to the other side of the river to eat dinner and see a movie. we go there early so we went to kill some time at the powell's. age old friend chris larson was working at the coffee shop there. spent a while talking to him between customers. found out he's getting married on tuesday. what i forgot was his birthday is the day before my brothers (valentine's day). the flake that i am i didn't even say happy birthday. so i'll try it here. congradulations chris and sierra and happy birthday chris.
when you're shopping for your next president you might find this product comparison handy: kerry vs bush, the war years.
i've been following the story of bush's missing months of guard duty with quite a bit of interest. they've gone and released a bunch of documents late on a friday night of a three-day weekend where so as it'll drop right out of the news cycle. funniest of all apparently there's nothing new to them but the administration is sure to claim that since they've released everything bush must have completed his guard duty. keep an eye out.
former un weapons inspector scott ritter gets to say what's long overdue: "i told you so..."
on thrusday i read cory doctrow's new book eastern standard tribe as a pdf on my laptop. friday i replaced my venerable hp-48gx with a ti voyage 200. on saturday i converted est to the ti-reader's ebook format. now instead of playing games on my calculator i can read instead.
risks digest had an interesting post describing a novel solution spammers found to the captcha problem. captchas are those images of distorted text that sighted people can read but most computer programs can't that are used to prevent bot from signing up for free email accounts. just show them to someone trying to get into a free porn site then use the answer to sign up for free email accounts.
i've moved three wagon loads of stuff to my new apartment. i've very much in like with it. i can't say i mind the internet. i've got to have all my stuff moved by sunday night. it seems like a good reason to get rid of some of the crap i've been hauling around for the last four moves.
i was at my father's house (the resturaunt/bar) and ended up in a conversation about the meaning our irony and how one horrid song changed it's popular meaning. bill spaceman mentioned that there was only one instance of irony in said song. a quick google search turned up an excellent analysis of the lyrics.
bill spaceman spent a chunk of the day trying to work out the next issue of bui but due to lack of sleep in my case and a severe hangover in his we just poked around on the internet instead. while bill was reading his email i picked up a copy of modern drunkard magazine a fine, focused publication if ever there was one. my favorite article in this issue was how to ace an intervention. i'd encourage all the drunks to go take a look.