Here's the poster to the film adaptation of Nancy Drew, the premiere of which I suspect will be a Dateline pedophile raid. As the poster implies, this case features N.D. hot on the trail of finding out who shaved this fat little Ewok in the lower left.

HA! I hate to say it, but the kid really does look like an Ewok. Ouch, er, zub-zub.

I Watch Stuff! - Nancy Drew Poster

There's a Latin phrase, "Et ego in Arcadia," which means roughly that even in the midst of utopia, there is the threat of death.

Johnson and his wife are living that maxim now. If Johnson recovers, he and Barbara may look at life and its fragility differently. They will share a Christmas story replete with lessons about what really counts.

Meanwhile, I'll remember how the specter of death intruded on a holiday scene and was overshadowed by something much colder: politics.

There's not much more to this little op-ed, but I was wanted to meme it more because i was struck the same way. When I heard about Johnson, my first thought was, "That sucks, strokes are bullshit." but it was followed, with unnatural rapidity, by a pit-of-my-stomach quaver as I realized that his incapacity endangers the Democrat's political control.

I found myself pissed off at the slavering mouths of the right wing pundit class as they extemporized with barely restrained joy at the prospect of snatching back the senate before the Democrats have a chance to do anything.

At the same time, I have to wonder if I'd have thought any differently. To be sure, I'd have felt guilty about being even indirectly pleased at someone else's hospitalization or death, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have thought, "Well, at least we got the senate back... so some good will come of this guy's massive brain hemorrhage."

It's natural to care less about the wellbeing of people you don't know than those you are close to, of course, but I'm still surprised just how callous we can be these days.

Then again, looking at it another way, one could make the argument that (R) control over the senate (and the implicit support of the president conveyed by such control) endangers a lot more lives, so in some sense, it really is more important than the health of any one man. I guess I just wish I'd thought of the political repercussions later, not as an immediate reaction. -k]

The Seattle Times: Local News: A personal crisis becomes political

As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.

An incredible story from scott adams...

-k

The Dilbert Blog: Good News Day

[ David Pogue lampoons Vista. Pretty nice. Important to note that widgets ≠ gadgets -k]

New York Times Video

[Gold Star. I'm tempted to give it two. This is hands down one of the best essays I've ever read.

I think that I'll have a lot to say about it, but I'm going to need to spend some time on it. In the meantime, go, read it.

It is vrey much applicable to those of us in the InfoTech/InfoSec world. I see many parallels in our work to those of a tradesman -- writing software can be dull and monotonous or it can be vibrant and engaging, largely depending upon the personality and skill of the developer, but also largely depending on the environment in which he works.

I'll stop, but I'll be back with more.
-k]

The New Atlantis - Shop Class as Soulcraft - Matthew B. Crawford

With OmniPlan, you can create logical, manageable project plans with Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, milestones, and critical paths. Break down the tasks needed to make your project a success, optimize resources, and streamline budgets. It's project management made painless.

For y'all MS Project haters out there who are also Mac users, here's a potential alternative. Omni makes good stuff, and i'm a user of their OmniOutliner Pro product.

It's not a complete rethinking of the project management methodolgy or anything... essentially it looks to still be a Gantt builder. That being said, making that process easy would put it well in front of ^&($@&$)_^%&#^% Project, which makes me want to stab out my own eyes.

Anyway, if you're into this sort of thing, worth a look i reckon.

Also, 2000 K-rad points to anyone else who catches the reference they're making with the human resources in the screenshots (without Google, cheaters).

-k

The Omni Group - Applications - OmniPlan

NEW YORK (AP) -- By the year 2030, New York City could have so many people straining its infrastructure that it won't have enough electricity or housing to meet demand, and rush hour traffic will last all day.
...

Atlanta can't be too far behind...we don't have any natural boundaries, but it seems traffic is terrible in midtown all the time and we don't hardly have a mass transit system to update.

-janelane, the choir

[ That's true, but at the same time, not having much of a transit system should theoretically mean we don't have a lot of inertia holding us back.

What's holding atlanta back is asshole suburbanites who see public transit as a gift to the poor and who do everything they can to keep their money out in the burbs. It means nice big houses out there, but the city itself will be bankrupt before long if the trend continues.

I seriously think atlanta is fucked. Not because it's not possible to create a true modern urban environment here, but because the people here don't seem to get what that means or want it even if they do understand. -k]

New York faces all-day rush hour by 2030 - CNN.com

On January 27, 2006, our great friends and Channels members J. Robbins and Janet Morgan welcomed their first child, a son named Callum.
...
As Cal grew, though, his parents began to notice that the expected development milestones - biting his toes, squeezing Janet's finger, even rolling over and sitting up unsupported - weren't happening.
...
Sometime around Cal's 8-month birthday in September, J. and Janet learned that Cal was born with a genetic motor neuron disease called Type 1 SMA, or Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

[ I'm not really the type to do this kind of thing, but in this case, the people involved are somewhat relevant to my life and the situation is particularly horrible.

J. Robbins is a name you may know from his bands Burning Airlines or Jawbox (any self-respecting indie rock kid certainly should own some of each).

Anyway, I'm not gonna overstate it -- charity is a personal thing and I'm not here to be preachy, but I wanted to share the link and if you feel it, you feel it. -k]

DeSoto Records: For the Benefit of Cal Robbins

According to the suit, Load 'N Go sells both DVDs and iPods and loads the former onto the latter for customers who purchase both. The company then sends the iPod and the original DVDs to the customer. So the customer has purchased every DVD, and Load 'N Go just saves them the trouble of ripping the DVD. The movie studios' suit claims that this is illegal, because ripping a DVD (i.e., decrypting it and making a copy) is illegal under the DMCA. The suit also claims that this constitutes copyright infringement.

predictable, but still bullshit.

Boing Boing: Paramount/MPAA: it's illegal to put DVDs on iPods

How obscenely rich is the U.S. We don't riot over food or water or government atrocities, but the most overpriced, overhyped game system in history? Oh yeah, I'll fucking kill you for your PS3.

PS3 crime spree! - Engadget