Today in Future Tech

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Photojournalist David Bergman created a 1,474 megapixel composite image of the Inauguration that you can scroll around and zoom with, a la Blade Runner. It takes a while to load, but it’s amazingly cool once you get it. Check it out.

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

Yeow. It’ll be a while before we’re capturing this kind of data with our point-and-shoots, but that it’s possible now at all is pretty cool.

Posted in Pix

You know this scream

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I was sure I’d written before about the Amen Break, a drum break taken from a 1960s group that you’ve heard over and over and over. Actually, it’s this documentary I thought I’d linked — if you haven’t heard it, carve out 20 minutes and listen; it’s worth your time.

Anyway, it turns out that the Wilhelm Scream is sort of the Amen Break of ADR/foley screams, and has appeared in countless fight sequences since its debut in 1951’s “Distant Drums,” including Star Wars. Check it out.

Grrrr

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I don’t mind being on hold. I don’t even mind hold music. What drives me bats is having a recording pop in every 30 or 60 seconds to tell me I’m still on hold. Music’s easy to tune out, so you can get work done while you’re waiting; the recording is interruptive enough to shake you out of whatever task you’re doing while on hold, more or less ensuring that you can do nothing other than sit on hold.

Assholes.

And yet more good news

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Today, President Obama signed orders closing Gitmo and other extrajudicial CIA prisons.

And if that wasn’t enough, his directives regarding disclosure and transparency are worrying convervatives who think they might enable investigations of Bush-era crimes. Make no mistake; their worry is about disclosure, not about crimes, which is so wrong I’m sort of dizzy just considering it. Incidentally, this shift in policy — to lean towards disclosure, not secrecy — is essentially a return to Clinton-era rules:

[The Bush administration’s 2001 FOIA] directive encouraged federal agencies to reject requests for documents if there was any legal basis to do so, promising that the Justice Department would defend them in court. It was a stark reversal of the policy set eight years earlier, when the Clinton administration told agencies to make records available whenever they could, even if the law provided a reason not to, so long as there was no ”foreseeable harm” from the release.

Still catching up, but if you missed it…

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… you should really read these two paragraphs from President Obama’s Inaugural Address:

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

This is going to make your head hurt

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There’s an op-ed today in the NYT that supposes any two-state solution for Israel and Palestine is by default untenable, since both groups have legitimate claims to the land. It’s an even-handed, thoughtful piece about the realities of this aspect of Mid-east politics. Some excerpts:

THE shocking level of the last wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which ended with this weekend’s cease-fire, reminds us why a final resolution to the so-called Middle East crisis is so important. It is vital not just to break this cycle of destruction and injustice, but also to deny the religious extremists in the region who feed on the conflict an excuse to advance their own causes.

But everywhere one looks, among the speeches and the desperate diplomacy, there is no real way forward. A just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians is possible, but it lies in the history of the people of this conflicted land, and not in the tired rhetoric of partition and two-state solutions.

It’s a calm call for the participants to please stop being fuckheads and just get along. And the author is Muammar Qaddafi, I shit you not.

(Via Rob.)

A good sign

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NYT:

Dennis C. Blair, the retired admiral who is President Obama’s choice as the nation’s top intelligence official, pledged in testimony to be delivered on Thursday that he would require counterterrorism programs to operate “in a manner consistent with our nation’s values, consistent with our Constitution and consistent with the rule of law.”

and more:

“I do not and will not support any surveillance activities that circumvent established processes for their lawful authorization,” he said in the testimony. “I believe in the importance of independent monitoring, including by Congress, to prevent abuses and protect civil liberties.”

In an unusual comment from a man who will head the most secret agencies of government, he said, “There is a need for transparency and accountability in a mission where most work necessarily remains hidden from public view.” He said that if confirmed, he would “communicate frequently and candidly with the oversight committees, and as much as possible with the American people.”

Imagine hearing that — or even the words “rule of law” — from a Bush appointee.

You got one job today, Johnny. Can you not get it right?

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You heard right. Chief Justice Roberts bungled the oath.

Granted, this doesn’t actually matter; no oath is required; from Wikipedia:

Article 2 of the the United States Constitution states that the President must take the oath before he enter office. This was superseded by the 20th Amendment[5] which states that the terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January and the terms of their successors shall then begin. This would therefore allow the President to assume the duties of the office without requiring the oath to be administered.

Keep this in mind in the inevitable right-wing chatter about how Obama isn’t “really” the President.

Quickie Inaugural Post #2

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After the actual swearing-in ceremony, we left the Mall area for distant Red Line points in search of warmth and food. En route to the bar, we discovered the reason for the occasionally empty bleachers we later saw on the bar TV: DC crowd management was pretty broken, and apparently had last minute changes not documented in any of the publicly available info source.

Consequently, it would not surprise us to learn that some of those bleachers had become inaccessible islands, with their ticket-holders trapped elsewhere with no way to reach their seats. We have several friends who couldn’t get in (we did, though) despite having tickets owing to the enormous crowds and perhaps questionable crowd-routing choices. Granted, there’s not a lot of precedent for 1-2MM extra people in a town this size, but it was still frustrating.

Joe the Plumber: Still an idiot

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He says the media shouldn’t be allowed to do reporting on wars. And PJTV is paying him to do exactly that.

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think journalists should be anywhere allowed war. I mean, you guys report where our troops are at. You report what’s happening day to day. You make a big deal out of it. I think it’s asinine. You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for’em. Now everyone’s got an opinion and wants to downer–and down soldiers. You know, American soldiers or Israeli soldiers.

I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting. You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, “Well look at this atrocity,” well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.

Buh-bye, Bush

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The Economist on Bush includes some fantastic lines, including this:

Relentless partisanship led to the politicisation of almost everything Mr Bush did. He used his first televised address to justify putting strict limits on federal funding for stem-cell research, and used the first veto of his presidency to prevent the expansion of that funding. He appointed two “strict constructionist” judges to the Supreme Court, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, turned his back on the Kyoto protocol, dismissed several international treaties, particularly the anti-ballistic-missile treaty, loosened regulations on firearms and campaigned against gay marriage. His energy policy was written by Mr Cheney with the help of a handful of cronies from the energy industry. His lacklustre attorney-general Alberto Gonzales, who was forced to resign in disgrace, was only the most visible of an army of over-promoted, ideologically vetted homunculi.

Stupid Weather Tricks

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We’re perfect happy for this guy to do these FOR us so that we can watch from the safety and warmth of Houston, but we’re still glad someone’s doing silly things in absurdly low temperature weather (in this case, -14).

Even better

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Apparently, it “aggravated” Cheney that the NYT won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the illegal, warrantless wiretapping his administration pursued.

What a malignant weasel. Once again, Dick, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on your way out. I have little hope he’ll ever be tried for his crimes, but it IS nice to consider how many nations are essentially closed to him — i.e., that he’ll have to avoid to keep from being arrested.

It’s that time again

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The Buffalo Beast’s 50 Most Loathesome People of 2008 is out. Some highlights:

Antonin Scalia:

it was Scalia’s asinine, compartmentalized semantic parsing on torture that we hoped would give pause to his lionizers. Arguing that torture isn’t “cruel and unusual punishment” because the subject hasn’t been convicted of a crime, so he can’t be “punished,” the so-called Constitutional Originalist puts the framers in the awkward position of saying that it’s wrong to beat up a convicted criminal, but it’s just dandy to kick the shit out of him before he is even charged.

Exhibit A: “Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.”

On Frank “worst impressionist ever” Caliendo:

The retarded man’s Rich Little … His TBS vehicle, “Frank TV,” is the least amusing thing to appear on television since the morning of September 11, 2001.

Sarah Palin:

In the end, Palin had the beneficial effect of splitting her party between her admirers and people who can read.

Rush Limbaugh:

The father of modern stupidity, Limbaugh spins reflexively, never struggling with issues, because he knows his conclusion must favor Republicans, and his only task is finding a way to get there.

Joe Lieberman:

After promising that he was “not going to go to the Republican convention, and spend my time attacking Barack Obama,” Lieberman went to the Republican convention and attacked Barack Obama. But that was just the beginning of his descent into a self-dug hole of betrayal that should have proved inescapable. Lieberman thought it was a good question to ask if Obama was a Marxist. He campaigned not just with McCain, but with Palin and down-ticket Republicans, another thing he said he wouldn’t do. But the most loathsome trait Lieberman exhibits is that most loathsome of all: Smearing dissent as treasonous. The kind of suppressive asshole who would accuse you of helping terrorists by beating him at checkers should not be Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and is not someone worth rewarding for his own dissent.

Rick Warren:

Dubbed “America’s Pastor” by The Nation, he’s duped people from both sides of the political spectrum into thinking he’s the kinder, fatter version of James Dobson. […] Exhibit A: “God tells us that he created all the land animals on the sixth day of creation, the same day that he created mankind. Man and dinosaurs lived at the same time.” Can you feel the wisdom?

Peggy Noonan:

A Catholic hysteric who should be submitting poems about her kitty cats to online poetry-contest scams, Noonan’s call for “Patriotic Grace,” which is nothing more than a call for liberals to stop picking on Republicans for being wrong all the time, comes a little late, after actively helping the most despicable, character assassination-driven campaigns of her lifetime.

The site’s hammered; you may want to wait a day or so before trying to load it. But don’t miss it; they suggest Cheney be eaten alive by baboons, which is really hard to argue with on any level.

Suck it, Sammy

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The SEC’s Florida Gators showed Oklahoma what for last night as Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow bagged their second national championship in 3 years, this time quashing Oklahoma and this year’s Heisman winner Sam Bradford (Tebow, of course, already has one of those). Final score: 24 to 14, but it wasn’t that close.

For their part, the Sooners extended their run of big-game chokes; this is their third consecutive bowl loss for the Sooners (after back-to-back Fiesta Bowls, losing to West Virginia last year and, more memorably, Boise in the 2007 game). In point of fact, the Sooners have only won ONE bowl since their 2003 Rose Bowl win (over Oregon in the 2005 Holiday Bowl; OU’s lone BCS title was in the 00-01 season, over FSU).

Meyer is now the first coach to pick up two BCS-era championships, and raises the SEC to 5 and 0 in the title game (2 each for LSU and Florida; one for Tennessee; unless I’m wrong, Tebow is now the only college QB to play in and win two title games as well.) No other conference has a winning record in this game; in fact, the 2nd place conference has only 2 wins (Big XII, with Texas and Oklahoma) vs. 4 losses (3 x OU, 1 Nebraska). We still contend that the Longhorns would’ve been a better choice for this game, but Big XII rules kept that from happening.

(To round out the BCS tally: The Big 10, ACC, and Big East are all 1-2 in championship play, and the Pac 10 is 1-1. In all, eleven teams have played in the title game, a stat that tells the same story of SEC dominance with a side of Big XII contention: 3 are SEC, 3 are Big XII, 2 are Big East, and 1 each from Big 10, ACC, and Pac-10)

All this, of course, hasn’t escaped journalistic notice.

Final AP standings mirror, sort of, what we’d expect; we find no argument with it based on what we can know for certain in a no-playoff universe:

  1. Florida
  2. Utah
  3. USC
  4. Texas
  5. Oklahoma
  6. Alabama

See you next year. Aside from draft-related commentary, Heathen now returns to a much more pure-geek-and-lefty-politics mode until next August.

It’s Beastie Friday

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Check out their appearance on Letterman from 2004; they start a couple blocks away and work their way into the studio on a long, wide-angle tracking shot.

He didn’t learn manners like that in Texas

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Remember how the Obamas asked if they could move into Blair House early, so that their children could start school in January with minimal turmoil? And remember how the Bush White House said “nope, already booked?”

Yeah, turns out it wasn’t. The supposed booking — for one night, for right-wing darling John Howard, PM of New Zealand Australia (thanks, I.K.; mea culpa) — hadn’t happened yet. And Blair House? 119 rooms, 35 bathrooms. As the linked story points out, that’s more than enough room for a family of four plus a visiting dignitary for a single night. Hell, for a single night, it’s not at all clear why Howard couldn’t stay in the White House itself.

Classy to the end, these guys. Don’t let the doors hit you on the ass on the way out.

One way of interpreting the BCS

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Over at Salon, King Kaufman has an amusing take on the mess that is the BCS Championship this year; for those not paying attention, the only undefeated squad left is Utah, who beat usual SEC powerhouse Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Bama very nearly played for the championship; they lost of Florida, who will play Oklahoma for all the marbles tonight.

Kaufman:

This column has already crowned its national champion. With its background in the boxing world, this column believes if you’re not going to have a fair championship system, the best alternative is to crown the guy who beat the guy who beat the guy.

That guy is Tulane.

The Green Wave went 2-10 this year, but they made those wins count. One of them was over Louisiana-Monroe, so I think you see my point.

No? OK: Tulane beat Louisiana-Monroe, who beat Troy, who beat Middle Tennessee, who beat Maryland, who beat Wake Forest, who beat Mississippi.

Aha! Mississippi!

What do you mean, so what? Ole Miss beat Florida. But that’s not all. The Rebels also beat Texas Tech, who beat Texas, who beat Oklahoma.

There’s a direct line of losing from both teams in the BCS Championship Game to Tulane. That’s what makes Tulane, last seen losing 45-6 to Memphis, your 2008 national champion.

Ben Stein Hates Science

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Check it out:

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Even the National Review is slamming him over this.

Ah, Alabama

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It shouldn’t really surprise me that letters to the editor in (in particular red state, small town) newspapers are filled with the stupid, since really they’re just a manual version of modern comment-on-story features at newspaper web sites — and the only thing dumber than those chuckleheads are YouTube commenters.

Still, when you run across something like this, it does sort of make you think we’re all fucking doomed.

Good News/Bad News

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The good news is that for thirty cents a track, Apple’s iTunes Music Store will allow you to upgrade any 128kbps DRM’d tracks you bought previously for DRM-free 256kbps versions, which is kind of a no-brainer.

The bad news is that you can’t do this for anything that’s been withdrawn from the iTunes store, and some of the DRM’d music I’d like very much to unlock and improve is on the Complete U2 digital box set — which Universal (who are still assholes) has apparently pulled from iTMS as of about a year ago.

(Obviously not all 446 tracks, mind you; that’d cost almost as much as the box set did to begin with — I really just want to unlock the live/unreleased/rare stuff that isn’t duplicated with CDs Mrs Heathen and I already own.)

Fuck.

Change.

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As head of the Office of Legal Counsel — the Executive unit that Bush used to spread the notion of the imperial executive — Obama has picked Dawn Johnsen, the Indiana U. law prof who has been publically assailing “Bush’s corrpution of American ideals” for years:

Upon the release last spring of a secret Office of Legal Counsel memo that permitted the aggressive interrogations of terrorism suspects, she excoriated the unit’s lawyers for advising Bush “that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted.”

“One of the refreshing things about Dawn Johnsen’s appointment is that she’s almost a 180-degree shift from John Yoo and David Addington and (Vice President) Dick Cheney ,” Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe said, referring to the main legal architects of the administration’s approval of harsh interrogation tactics.

Either they have no shame, or they’re COMPLETELY un-self-aware

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John Bolton and John Yoo are in the Times today insisting on what amounts to rollbacks of Executive power.

They begin, again, without ANY note of irony whatsoever:

THE Constitution’s Treaty Clause has long been seen, rightly, as a bulwark against presidential inclinations to lock the United States into unwise foreign commitments. The clause will likely be tested by Barack Obama’s administration, as the new president and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, led by the legal academics in whose circles they have long traveled, contemplate binding down American power and interests in a dense web of treaties and international bureaucracies.