12.29.2006
12.28.2006
"Let the 'End-of-the-Year' Lists Proliferate"
Time is, of course, not my favorite source for things, but there are some slightly under the radar sites if you're not too much of a web junkie - "50 Cool Websites".
12.24.2006
Sam Harris spells it out for us.
10 myths and 10 truths about atheism in the LATimes just in time for Festivus. Sam Harris is the author of "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" and "Letter to a Christian Nation."
12.21.2006
12.17.2006
Which one is the lesser evil anymore?
We've been on this for a while and now the big guns have come out - Liberaltarians by Brink Lindsey at Cato and in The New Republic.
12.14.2006
Chess master...Terrorist!?!
Now is not soon enough for Putin and the old KGB (and the old CIA for that matter) to be gone - Garry Kasparov: 'We will march!'. More.
12.12.2006
12.08.2006
Ugly Duckling
I'm working on new CSS for the blog from scratch. I went to 456 Berea Street and worked through a how-to. The colors are intentionally awful & I'm still working through some other stuff. It's been pretty fun & much easier than I expected.
12.04.2006
I'm not alone
Somehow I picked up on this stripping down & redoing meme out of the ether - SimpleBits.
12.01.2006
Ben Cook at Lindys with a great take on the coach search thing
A handbook on how to play "Coach Search": "Sit back and wait and see just who eventually winds up behind the podium being introduced at a press conference ... and hope your man doesn't look scared to death when he's up there.That could be a sign that you will be playing the game again in three or four years."
11.29.2006
11.27.2006
11.26.2006
Sam Harris vs. Dennis Prager
Sam Harris, the author of the 'End of Faith',
puts the wood to a talk show host -
Why Are Atheists So Angry? A Debate with Dennis Prager :: Sam Harris
See also: Richard Dawkins
11.24.2006
11.23.2006
11.22.2006
11.21.2006
11.19.2006
The Hole that Mike Shula's made.
Saturday I tried to fill the hole that Mike Shula's made in my stomach with Key Lime Pie and Swiss Cake Rolls (and Ribs and Steak). The empty feeling I get when I think about our football team that was never there before, even in 1984 or 1998. It comes partially from the guilt I feel for wanting him gone, and the rest from the obvious fact that he's just not very good. Cecil Hurt has the same feeling - CECIL HURT: Does Alabama have the best coach it could have? | TideSports.com
11.16.2006
11.14.2006
Oddly enough.
I watched about 30 minutes of this guy the other day & thought, "He's charismatic but not really funny," and turned it off - now CNN's caught up with me - Is Dane Cook the funniest man in America? - CNN.com.
11.10.2006
11.04.2006
Hard to pass up a list like this.
THE 100 SCARIEST MOVIE SCENES at
retroCRUSH: The World's Greatest Pop Culture Site
11.03.2006
Reading Daniel Dennett makes me happy.
Edge: THANK GOODNESS! by Daniel C Dennett - Yes, I did have an epiphany. I saw with greater clarity than ever before in my life that when I say "Thank goodness!" this is not merely a euphemism for "Thank God!" (We atheists don't believe that there is any God to thank.) I really do mean thank goodness! There is a lot of goodness in this world, and more goodness every day, and this fantastic human-made fabric of excellence is genuinely responsible for the fact that I am alive today.
10.31.2006
10.29.2006
Add George Will to the list.
I guess the pundits have had enough too. Will: Cheney Still Doesn't Get It on Iraq - Newsweek George F. Will - MSNBC.com
10.23.2006
10.21.2006
10.19.2006
10.17.2006
Doesn't sound very socialist to me
George Bernard Shaw at The Quotations Page:
"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw, 'Mrs. Warren's Profession' (1893) act II
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)
10.16.2006
10.15.2006
The God Delusion
One of our favorites - Evolutionary Biologist and Humanist Richard Dawkins interviewed on Salon - The flying spaghetti monster | Salon Books
For my friends who have procreated
Inchworm Shoes Online - Inchworm shoes grow in half size increments. Just push the button on the side, and pull the toe of the shoe to adjust into the next size.
10.09.2006
10.05.2006
Victor Davis Hanson has a way of cutting to the heart of the matter
And what have we learned in the last five years from its boutique socialism, utopian pacifism, moral equivalence, and cultural relativism? That it was logical that Europe most readily would abandon the artist and give up the renegade in fear of religious extremists.
from - VDH's Private Papers::Traitors to the Enlightenment by way of Chronicles of Tobermory
10.02.2006
9.20.2006
Q: When is a military coup a good thing?
When the democratically-elected government is thoroughly corrupt? The army commander who seized Thailand's government in a quick, bloodless coup pledged Wednesday to hold elections by October 2007, and received a ringing endorsement from the country's revered king. I'm still not so sure.
9.18.2006
My job situation has been improved immeasurably.
At school I've used Wikipedia as a quick reference for nearly everything, particularly student questions about something of which I'm not sure. I didn't realize my addiction until it was blocked by the school (by mistake/poor decision-making). I complained enough that it has finally been unblocked. Thank the Law of Averages!
9.12.2006
I told P.C. about this story a while back
One scifi-writer/boingboing-blogger Cory Docotorow's best stories - "0wnz0red" in Salon
Drink up
The Ririan Project™: 10 Reasons To Drink More Water - article is well-done & the blog is pretty good, although it's derivative.
9.07.2006
9.03.2006
8.30.2006
Surprise: Thomas Kinkade is a scammer
We saw one of these in Pensacola (around 2000-01) & thought - they can't possibly be making any money - The FBI is investigating "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade and company executives over allegations that they fraudulently induced investors to open galleries, then ruined them financially.SFGate.
8.29.2006
8.28.2006
The Next Net 25
An interesting list of web sites/services from earlier this year - The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web.
8.20.2006
A favorite curmudgeon
H. L. Mencken - "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
First democracy and now computers
Revealed: world's oldest computer may explain a set of brass cogs & gears from 80 BCE.
8.12.2006
8.02.2006
7.31.2006
7.29.2006
Terms of the New.
I've been hearing this and now I understand. The Long Tail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This must be stopped.
The Ad: The mesmerizing ad for HeadOn. - Slate
and The Quackery: James Randi's Debunking
7.28.2006
7.25.2006
7.20.2006
Why I hate natural gas in houses
Near our longtime home - The Crimson White Online - Gas blamed in Calvary explosion - Tuscaloosa - map.
7.19.2006
7.18.2006
7.16.2006
Back from Tuscaloosa
We've had a fun weekend. Paul & Ferlie visited on Thursday. Friday we went down to Tuscaloosa & got to hang out with Patrick and his housemates. Got to eat at City Cafe and Rammer Jammers. All's right with the world.
7.10.2006
We'll be checking this site regularly
DaaVeeDee - your source of rare foreign, arthouse, cult, classic, independent and unusual movies on DVDs, all in English-friendly import releases.
7.07.2006
Hermits again.
Carey stayed with us til Thursday - we watched several episodes of Season 1 of Deadwood, some bad movies on On Demand and had an outstanding time. We'll see him again soon. We'll go back to being Hermits 'til the DQ game reforms on the 22nd. (Except for a visit by Ferlie & Paul next week).
7.05.2006
Almost everyone who reads this has been here
* I finished teaching summer school on Friday 6/30 - it was a grind, but well worth it - $.
* On Friday I played low-money, high-fun poker with my coaching/teaching guys - Lewis, Richie & Mitchell. Had a fine time.
* Billy came late Friday night - we played a game of PS2 NCAA Football and then Cassondra, Billy & I took a very entertaining trip to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night.
* We started playing the new EASports Head Coach game - it is incredibly addictive for OCD football micromanagers like me (and Billy, and Mike).
* On Saturday morning Roach joined us and by afternoon, Joel, Mike M., Mandy, and a their traveling friends, a cool couple with a happy baby, Emma, were all here to eat Billy's barbeque.
* We cooked and played Head Coach all afternoon.
* Billy, Mike, & I stayed up 'til three finally drafting our new players with a night full of trades & free agent signings.
* They took off on Sunday.
* On Monday Cassondra & I got her turtle corral organized and put up the fencing in front of the porch. Carey came to visit and stay with us on Monday - it's great to have him here.
* He spent the 4th with us - we watched Deadwood & cooked out twice (fine Ribeyes at 10pm). I finished putting the low rock wall around the turtle corral. Miss Fred immediately laid eggs in the soft dirt - it was a biological event.
6.25.2006
The Weekend
6.23.2006
6.22.2006
6.18.2006
Weekend Adventuring
Spent all day & night Saturday running a Dragonquest roleplaying game based in the world of my short story, "The Ancient Bridge" with six of my good friends from college. A fine time was had by all.
Interesting and a little unsettling
HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway - The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming “North American Union” that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.
6.16.2006
6.13.2006
6.10.2006
6.06.2006
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Southern Counties | Honours for Britain's oldest man
Honours for Britain's oldest man - 110 year-old WWI vet - : "In the past Mr Allingham has put the key to his old age down to 'cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women'."
6.02.2006
6.01.2006
This is exactly what we need
Bacteria-eating chocolate that produces hydrogen waste that can be used to generate electric power! - New Scientist Tech.
5.31.2006
5.23.2006
5.22.2006
5.20.2006
5.17.2006
For Tobermory: More of what we were worried about
Wired News: AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence and EFF: Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T for cooperating with NSA taping of the internet backbone to spy on American citizens.
5.14.2006
5.08.2006
Oh my.
Imagine having computer memory so dense that a cubic centimeter contains 12.8 million gigabytes (GB) of information. - Dateline Drexel
5.06.2006
5.02.2006
4.30.2006
Thumos...I like the sound of that.
Christina Hoff Sommers' Review of Manliness by Harvey C. Mansfield.
For Tobermory - Europe's powder keg
If we're lucky, the clash of civilizations will not end with a bang but a whimper, not with a mushroom cloud but the cry of the baby that brings a Muslim majority to Western Europe - newsobserver.com.
4.28.2006
Outstanding! One of the best shows on TV.
Rome Begins Production of second season
HBO's epic drama series ROME has begun production on its ten-episode second season, it was announced by Carolyn Strauss, president, HBO Entertainment. Filming of the new episodes will continue at Rome's Cinecitta Studios through next October, with debut set for 2007.
4.27.2006
Teddy
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." --Theodore Roosevelt
4.25.2006
Our good friend Paul is now a famous online boxing writer/guru
See Alexander "The Pretty-good-so-far" Povetskin
By Paul Clemmons at touch gloves.
Paul is also the main contributor to the Boxing Blog.
We want to be in his entourage.
4.23.2006
4.22.2006
4.19.2006
I have been saying this for 15 years:
"If you want to know where technology is going, follow the porn" - Porn Industry Again at the Tech Forefront - Los Angeles Times - - "The simple fact is porn is an early adopter of new media," said Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto.
4.15.2006
4.14.2006
4.09.2006
Does this article border on aiding & abetting?
I don't much care for this writer, but the info is very interesting - Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb? in the New Yorker.
4.08.2006
4.06.2006
4.02.2006
Talking and mowing
- This morning I talked to my good friend Joe Abreu for about an hour & a half. He works for the feds, lives in Fredericksburg & has two kids. We miss getting to hang out & play roleplaying games together. When I was first BoG Chair at Mallet, Joe helped me run things (or more accurately - I helped him). He was great friends with Cassondra & I was his best man. We talked about possibly getting online together for a game.
- Been communicating with Patrick about baseball & got 2/3 of the free agents I wanted.
- Mowed the field, made things look a lot better.
4.01.2006
Anniversary
Cassondra & I have been married for 20 years today. She is a great wife and genius. We had a good day. Eating, hanging out, talking, and burning limbs in our new copper outdoor firepit. I'm a lucky man.
-- The Tuscaloosa County Courthouse where the deed was done.
3.31.2006
Texas Hold-em
Friday (after the Baseball Draft), I went and played poker with a few coaching friends. It was the first time I'd played poker in probably 20 years. I started out betting too much on weak hands and almost went out. Once I figured out about how strong a hand needed to be and at what level each guy seemed to bid when he had a good hand (and they'd had few more beers than me) I turned it around and ended up a little ahead. It was a lot of fun, I expect we'll do it again in a few weeks.
Fantasy Baseball Draft Completed.
Friday I drafted my fantasy baseball team for this year. In the league are Patrick Link, Trevor Jay, Kurt Morton and old friends Mike DeHaye and Ted Stafford. They are all Malleteers. The other guys in the league have winning fantasy experience, it should be tough. Basically out of spite (and the hope he has a good year) I took Barry Bonds.
3.30.2006
In and out at Decatur General
Thursday I went to the hospital at 6:30am to get blood drawn for the last of these damn physical tests. It was actually pretty fast. I was the first patient, checked in, got registered & got my blood drawn & out the door by 6:45am. Of course then I was way early for school.
3.28.2006
Stress indeed.
Tuesday I took a stress test as part of a heart checkup. It was quite a show, more later.
3.26.2006
Now it all makes sense.
Religious experiences of the prophets caused by altitude sickness? - The Sydney Morning Herald
3.25.2006
3.22.2006
Picked up the DVD's. This show is indeed awesome.
Firefly (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia contains a wealth of info.
3.19.2006
Suddenly this firefox extension has gotten popular.
I've used it for weeks, it's very useful - Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info:Tab Mix Plus - All Releases
3.13.2006
Really like this blog.
Ace of Spades HQ - "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
3.12.2006
Let the juicing begin
I think steroids should be legal and this brave ESPN columnists explains why - ESPN.com: Page 2 : Let the juicing begin.
A literary hoax for the San Francisco crowd
Began to unravel here - Who is JT LeRoy? The True Identity of a Great Literary Hustler and collapsed here - She is JT LeRoy | Salon.com News. The whole thing is oddly compelling.
3.09.2006
Oh so close to finding life.
Liquid water erupting on the Saturn moon Enceladus. The Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of liquid water spewing from geysers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life.
3.08.2006
Our favorite economist.
Free Markets and the End of History - Milton Friedman interviewed at New Perspectives Quarterly.
3.07.2006
Mendez has a blog.
One of my favorite people in the world has a blog. I'm excited. A forum to harrass Mendez. We'd not seen each other in a couple of years & this fall we stayed up all night like little kids at Billy's mansion because it was too quiet & not cold enough for big boys to sleep. He's taken on The Amazing Race & the Oscars already. I love me some Mendez -
I wanna be cool.
I called this a year ago:
Once parents actually understand the curriculum this is likely to happen:
IB program under fire: Some calling it anti-American, anti-Christian.
3.06.2006
3.05.2006
I've been using the term "Leftist Fundamentalists" this week & now this:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | In thrall to the green god - "Environmentalism has become a religion, writes Martin Livermore in this week's Green Room."
3.03.2006
my cult of personality grows
After last week's link on BoingBoing this week I had a comment on Lifehacker (about a topic I seem to have become too aware of, cleaning up old hard drives). I guess I'm a commenter on all the gawker media websites now. Now if I just had anything useful to say...
Quality geek poll
What D&D character are you ?
Neutral Good Half-Orc Barbarian. About right, but a handsome half-orc.
3.02.2006
2.27.2006
2.26.2006
Pro Danish Protests - Outstanding
Pics at Corsair the Rational Pirate, including our favorite former leftist, Christopher Hitchens (by way of Tobermory).
2.25.2006
Not your average documentary
We watched Grizzly Man tonight. The slightly crazy guy killed by one of the bears to whom he had devoted his life. It was well worth the three hours. If you've ever enjoyed being alone in the woods, you'll get it.
Additional links: Anchorage Daily News Obit., Tim Treadwell in Wikipedia, Grizzly People (his org.), a Google Map, Katmai National Park.
2.24.2006
2.19.2006
2.18.2006
Hey! I'm linked from the web's busiest blog!
Boing Boing: New episode of The IT Crowd, awesome sysadmin sitcom. I'm at the bottom (of course).
2.16.2006
Internet villian wins gold medal in moguls
I've been checking this out today: Dale Begg-Smith an Australian/Canadian and internet millionare won a gold in the moguls - link. I looked into his internet stuff like 2nd Thought & it is/was some of the worst sort of nasty malware/adware browser-hijacker stuff. Here's the best article about him at a blog for the book Spam Kings. And for fun here's a ticked off post from a 2003 forum. Plus some Aussie goodness on him.
Been thinking about this idea and here it is
Prayers for the Assassin a novel Robert Ferrigno - Prayers for the Assassin is set thirty-five years from now, after a civil war in which most of the United States has become a moderate Islamic republic and the Bible Belt has broken away to become a Christian nation. This political shift was precipitated by simultaneous suitcase-nuke detonations in New York, Washington, D.C. and Mecca. - oh my...
2.14.2006
I guess we'll have to get the DVD's finally
You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy it when anyone but a friend tries to tell you that should act differently. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.  QuizFarm.com :: Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: With which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com I cleaned up the HTML, but I like the quiz, as these things go. |
|
2.12.2006
One of my favorite magazines
I used to read this in a doctor's office waiting room. Its tone is exactly the sort of applied leadership that interests me, just that it's in business - Fast Company | Management, Leadership and Career Advice for Business Executives - there are no (okay, very few) education people who think this way.
2.11.2006
2.10.2006
2.08.2006
The Fall of the Warrior King
My friend Brad met Sassaman, the Warrior King, at a football clinic. I'm not real sure on the organization, but the story is excellent - The Fall of the Warrior King.
2.07.2006
2.05.2006
We are all Danes now
From The Boston Globe (of all places): Make no mistake: This story is not going away, and neither is the Islamofascist threat. The freedom of speech we take for granted is under attack, and it will vanish if it is not bravely defended. Today the censors may be coming for some unfunny Mohammed cartoons, but tomorrow it is your words and ideas they will silence. Like it or not, we are all Danes now.
2.04.2006
2.03.2006
2.02.2006
There is no way to rationally deal with these guys
CBS News | Protests Over Muhammad Cartoon Grow
The only copy of the controversial cartoons I could turn up:
Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_drawings.jpg from Wikipedia
A Timeline of the Events - as Muslims burn & break things more western news outlets publish & show the cartoons. Interesting that it's a Muslim attack on freedom of the press that has finally gotten the mass media fired up.
1.31.2006
All they really had to do was give a Senator an iPod.
Yesterday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the Broadcast Flag--and its younger, brattier, brother, the RIAA's proposed "Audio Flag"--swung a little wildly from its pre-ordained course - History and Senator Stevens' iPod - EFF: DeepLinks.
1.24.2006
1.23.2006
We've been making this argument for five years now
The Republicans are no longer the party of limited government - Triumph of the Redistributionist Left | csmonitor.com
1.22.2006
Penn Jillette has a radio show.
One of our heroes, Penn Jillette, has a one hour radio show and of course it's available on podcast/mp3.
1.21.2006
Ok my brilliant friends...
This site is driving me crazy, and I'm up to 26/33 - MENSA INTELLIGENCE TEST. Update:27, no googling!.
1.20.2006
Anime Weirdness
Friday on Anime Unleashed while decompressing from Battlestar Galactica - Cromartie High School.
1.18.2006
Stardust Canister Opened: 'A Huge Success'
“It exceeds all expectations,” said Donald Brownlee, Stardust’s lead scientist from the University of Washington, Seattle. “It’s a huge success” - Space.com. Sweet.
1.16.2006
1.14.2006
Stardust is back
Farthest-traveling and when it reenters, fasting-traveling man-made object NASA's Comet Hunter Stardust is on Final Approach for Sunday Landing (plus cool photo/animations)
Title says it all:
Wired: The 50 Best Robots Ever
15 Tech Concepts You'll Need To Know In 2006
Popular Mechanics
1.11.2006
Reminds me of the good old days of Bureaucracy-busting.
The day before classes started at Alabama every student got an email telling them their classes had been dropped - chaos (nearly) ensued - The Crimson White Online - Errant e-mail confuses students.
1.10.2006
1.09.2006
1.08.2006
Catching up
I have put off posting with the intention of writing an extended holiday post about what a great time I had seeing & talking to our friends & family. Instead I've gotten busy catching up with my online psychology (ugh) classes.
These are the links I have checked out this week:
I bookmarked:
Battlestar Galactica at Wikipedia - Lists of Bests (Movies) (working on the "Desert Island 25") - Internet Review of Science Fiction - The Chronic of Narnia - The Best Game you Never Played - CHESS OPENINGS GUIDE - and, sadly, at my students nagging myspace.com/gatetree.
at del.icio.us:
Torrent Bulletin Board - The 6 Myths Of Creativity - Top-100 essential downloads of free software & freeware for Windows XP - CreativeGuy » Free online file storage/sending
at Digg
What I learned at MIT - Top 10 tips to keep that new computer spyware-free - Five best freeware games of 2005
