Why does the IT industry continue to listen to Gartner? Same goes for Forrester and, in my experience, pretty much all the rest of those “analysis” firms. They’re almost never right. They miss big trends. You’d be better off asking my grandmother, and she’s been dead since 2001.
(h/t Gruber.)
Randall Munroe’s What If? tackles the question of “What would happen if you gathered a mole of moles?”
In this great behind-the-scenes short from the Hobbit, I discovered that Sylvester McCoy is in the film as Radagast, another of the wizards, i.e. a peer of Gandalf.
McCoy is of course already immortal in fandom as the 7th incarnation of the Doctor back in the 80s; his tenure — the 24th, 25th, and 26th seasons — closed out the original TV series, though he went on to do a TV movie in 1996.
(Giant Nerd Alert: Note that, in Tolkein, wizards are not human beings. They’re closer to angels or demigods.)
Hey, Wiggins likes ’em:
On Sunday, Briton Bradley Wiggins became the first person from the UK to win the Tour de France. It was pretty cool.
Also cool: Part 2 of the Atlantic’s InFocus feature on the Tour, which includes the answer to the question nagging every Tour fan this year: where was the devil?
YES!
Apparently, a judge has ruled that it’s legal for cops to use your phone to impersonate you if the seize it, and that messages that come into the phone after its been seized are no longer worthy of Constitutional protection.
I for one am shocked — shocked! — to learn that the Border Patrol behaves like this.
Oh, wait. No, I’m not.
Again, the only that that will produce greater accountability in law enforcement is civil and criminal liability for the actual officers. The problem with CBP is even bigger, since their victims are essentially powerless, which has clearly led to a situation where they feel they can get away with anything they want — with predictable consequences.
I grew up cringing every time somebody or something from where I lived made national news. I’m therefore delighted to be so proud of my city and our mayor, who was on the Colbert Report last night.
The glorious book nerds at The Folio Society have issued a new edition of Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, printed as Faulkner wished — with multiple colors denoting the time and point-of-view shifts.
It is $345, in slipcover, on archival paper, with a commentary volume, and I WANTS IT.
So it goes: the only decent music station on Houston’s FM dial, 103.7, is switching to a Christian format.
I recently re-read this fantastic piece from the Houston Press, which ran originally back in 2006. Ever since then, I’ve kinda wanted to do my own stroll down the length of Westheimer — though I doubt I’d have as much fun at it as Lomax and Mueller. Who’s with me?
You know, I really DID miss the sorts of storms that we’ve been enjoying the last week or so, but I really don’t need them to be so dramatic as to zap my power.
On the other hand, this is the first power outage of measurable length — 35 minutes and counting — that I remember since Ike back in 2008. Let’s hope this one doesn’t go for 4 day.
Also? All hail iPads with keyboards and 3G.
Think I overpack? Go check out Woz.
The Atlantic’s InFocus this week is all shots of the Tour de France so far. Picture #27 is especially lovely.
Yeah, me too. This Reddit post actually does a pretty bang-up job of explaining how barter, currency-as-marker-for-something-else, and modern fiat money all work.
Like, maybe, 70 years ago? Yeah, well, somebody found it.
(h/t: Senor Mantler.)
Mr Tom Waits was on Letterman last night. Click in the bar to skip to about minute 32 to start with the interview, or minute 38 for just the performance.
Waits will be on Fallon tonight. Plan your evening accordingly.
Perhaps you’ll be delighted to hear that Chris Onstad has been doing some food and travel writing.
(Via MeFi.)
No, not the private sector one. The one that beat us to orbit.
The monument pictured is much more striking in person, which is sort of amazing given how cool the pictures are. I saw it in 1991.
96 year old Latino former Arizona governor detained by border patrol in 100 degree heat because, you know, he’s brown.
Here’s the widely linked video of an employee of the Chicago Music Exchange playing 100 rock riffs chronologically in one take, which is entertaining in its own right, but real music nerds will notice that the truly impressive bit is that he retunes on the fly a couple times.
Anyway, enjoy.
The Worst Marriage in Georgetown is the story of Albrecht Muth and his improbable union with the Viola Drath, some 40+ years his senior.
Wow. Just . . . wow.
You probably heard that there were new docs released regarding 9/11. Here’s Salon’s coverage thereof, but the real takeaway point is this, as articulated by Wil Wheaton:
The thing that I think a lot of people are missing when they read this story is that intelligence worked the way it was supposed to, but Bush the Incompetent didn’t pay attention, because he didn’t care. He was a lazy and stupid son of privilege who was too busy being on vacation to take his responsibilities as president seriously.
Consider this, though: all the laws passed in the aftermath of 9/11, including the PATRIOT Act, that we were told were absolutely necessary to save us from The Terrorists™ just aren’t. The system was working the way it was supposed to work, and the 9/11 plot should have been stopped, but we had an incompetent jackass president who didn’t take it seriously.
Unhappy with their ex-label, it appears that Def Leppard are re-recording their biggest hits to release electronically instead of agreeing to let Universal release the originals.
Think about that for a minute.
TechDirt’s post ends with this probing question: “Makes you wonder if there are any acts who feel they weren’t screwed over by their major label…” My guess is “no.”
Apparently, it’s possible on some Android devices to allow Facebook to take over and manage your address book based on your friends list.
Yeah, I know, right? What a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE IDEA.
If you reacted as I did, it should come as no surprise to you that this turned out to be a horrible, horrible idea.
Don’t outsource that kind of thing, people. Especially don’t outsource it to a “free” service that makes billions by selling information about you, and that has a financial motive to push you away from normal channels of communication and towards methods that rely on a private service.
Facebook will fuck you if you let them. Keep as little information there as you can, and don’t let them worm their way into other aspects of your life. It’s not worth it.
Hey Heathen! How do YOU use Facebook?
Glad you asked.
This means some sites won’t work right for me. I’m okay with that. When I run into a problem site, I switch over to Safari, which is set up with much more permissive settings — but it’s also set up to purge all local cookies and data every time I quit. Chrome runs for weeks at a time on my laptop, but Safari is quit and restarted every time I need it to protect my privacy.
Because Facebook is so craven and shameless about snooping on its members, I only ever visit Facebook with Safari.
It is not:
Libertarianism is a philosophy of individual freedom. Or so its adherents claim. But with their single-minded defense of the rights of property and contract, libertarians cannot come to grips with the systemic denial of freedom in private regimes of power, particularly the workplace. When they do try to address that unfreedom, as a group of academic libertarians calling themselves “Bleeding Heart Libertarians” have done in recent months, they wind up traveling down one of two paths: Either they give up their exclusive focus on the state and become something like garden-variety liberals or they reveal that they are not the defenders of freedom they claim to be.
Sure, I’m two days late. Sue me. But once you get over your shock at my delay, read this. (Via MeFi).
There’s been lots of smart things written about the ACA ruling. Here are a few I found particularly on point:
from Forbes, who are not known for their lefty politics: Don’t Buy the GOP Narrative That Obamacare Is A Tax On The Middle Class — It’s a Lie Designed to Mislead
Wil Wheaton points us to a Daily Show bit wherein Romney is quoted as promising to a few changes (via repeal) to American health care policy — all of which are already part of the ACA. Romney is transparently scaremongering here, and it’s shameful.
Also via Wheaton: What exactly is Obamacare, and what did it change? Seriously, read this.
Finally, John Scalzi has some very smart thinking on the issue of Roberts’ vote in this case. He closes with “I don’t think there’s any question that Roberts is a conservative judge; a look at his track record and even at his ACA write-up makes this abundantly clear. I don’t think there’s any question that Roberts will continue to be a conservative judge. What the ACA ruling serves notice for, perhaps, is that Roberts is following his own conscience and reasoning regarding what it means to be conservative, rather than taking his cues from the the current right-wing orthodoxy. Ultimately, that’s what sending the right wing into their rage about Roberts: That now it’s possible he’s his own man, not theirs.” (By the way, the fact that Roberts has a chronic condition may well have played a role in his thinking here.)
Vacation this week. Look for a bolus of posts STARTING NOW.
Salon is looking to sell the Well, and has apparently already laid off its staff.
That’s been my online home for a really long time. Dialog there is better than on 99% of the web. It’s never been anonymous, which is probably one reason why. Before there was Facebook or social media, the Well was having gatherings and parties and picnics — like, in the 1980s.
With fewer than 2,700 subscribers left, I wonder how long it’ll even exist now — I mean, short of some deep-pocketed angel coming along to save it for the sake of saving it.
(Related.)
From this NYT interview:
Has your relationship with your penis changed?
I would characterize it sort of like a powerful interest group within a political party at this point. It used to be the entire political party.
I’m curious how your tour is going. You have a new album, “Aprés,” and you’re out there with the Stooges. You resolved in 2010 that you wouldn’t stage-dive anymore after you had a mishap.
I said that after doing a concert for Tibet at Carnegie Hall, which I did because Philip Glass asked me to. [Emph. added — Heathen] But yeah, I am a little impulsive, and Lenny Kaye was playing “I Want to Be Your Dog” too damned slow, and I just ran out of ideas and I thought, Well, let’s just stage-dive. Nobody caught me, because it was the Carnegie Hall-Tibetan-whatever audience. I was a little miffed. We’ve done two gigs this year, and I haven’t done one yet. Stages are getting higher and higher, and I’m getting older and older.
If you stop moving long enough, ants will eat you. Especially if you are a dead lizard.
I’m sure enjoying the right-wing freakout on this stuff, but really the most bizarrely delightful aspect of this turn of events is that it means Romney must spend the summer campaigning on the promise of repealing a health care plan authored by the Heritage Foundation that he implemented at the state level in Massachusetts.
