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 Monday, October 4, 2004
The Psuedo-Religious President. Amy Sullivan has a nice article in TNR about Bush's church-going habits, or lack thereof:
What most--including many of the president's fiercest supporters--don't know, however, is that Bush doesn't go to church. Sure, when he weekends at Camp David, Bush spends Sunday morning with the compound's chaplain. And, every so often, he drops in on the little Episcopal church across Lafayette Park from the White House. But the president who has staked much of his domestic agenda on the argument that religious communities hold the key to solving social problems doesn't belong to a congregation.
[snip]
[A]fter the flood of coverage around Bush's first--and only--visit to a neighborhood church during inauguration weekend in Washington, D.C., no one has bothered to report on the president's whereabouts on Sunday mornings.
[snip]
The first excuse conservatives provide is that Bush can't possibly be expected to have time to go to church, what with being leader of the free world and all. Yet, during Jimmy Carter's four years in the White House, he found time not only to attend a Baptist church in the Washington, D.C., area, but to teach Sunday school there as well. For a presidential delegator like Bush--who has freed up enough time to spend approximately one-third of his presidency on vacation--finding a few hours for church should be a snap.
But, even if Bush had the time for church services, supporters protest, the security precautions necessary for a presidential visit would drive congregants away.
[snip]
As it happens, I attended Foundry United Methodist Church for several years during the late '90s when the Clintons were members there. The only imposition was the extra ten seconds it took to walk through a metal detector. Parishioners did not leave the church in droves; on the contrary, many were pleasantly surprised to find that the Clintons played an active role in church life, particularly while Chelsea was involved in the choir and youth group.
[snip]
"I really don't get it," one prominent Bush partisan told me. "There's no reason why the president couldn't find a church around here if he wanted to."
[snip]
When Bush moved to Washington in early 2001, many religious observers bandied about the question of which church the incoming president would attend. Four years later, the answer is hidden in plain sight: The emperor has no church.
If Bush had not shoved his "religion" into everyone's face for the past four years this would not be an issue. But he has, and fundies are the core of his base.
Yet the man does not go to church, has been somewhat cryptic in explaining what his beliefs actually are, routinely fumbles any attempt to quote scripture, and has taken many actions that directly contradict his supposed Christian beliefs.
One can only conclude that he affects a born-again air in order to hoodwink the fundies, and it has worked well for him. It's time to call him on it. [First Draft]
Yep, our most religious President, the one who wears his faith on his sleeve, does not attend church. It seems amazing that we could have a President in this country who does not go to church. I guess it is only Democrats, like Kerry, Clinton or Carter, who have to miss those Sunday football games. 11:35:11 PM 
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Windows desktop monopoly threatened by secure, safe Apple Mac OS X. "There are a few straws blowing in an increasingly strong wind for Apple Computer. Straw 1: When the White House's former top cyber-security and anti-terrorism expert, Richard Clarke, visited Australia and new Zealand recently, he carried an Apple Macintosh, not a Windows machine," David Frith reports for Australian IT. "Clarke, who served under four presidents but is no friend of the Bush administration, says he chooses a Mac because it protects his data from more than 99... [MacDailyNews - Where Mac News Comes First]
An anti-terrorism expert and a Mac user. When is he going to be a a commercial for Apple. 11:14:43 PM
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Wow. It is amazing what can be done today, with the new technology. NDN has put together one that looks like a movie trailer, a trailer for a movie that I REALLY want to see. Plus it is a Quicktime movie. The DCCC one is a Windows media one. Bad marks for them. Another reason why I think the NDN gets it and the other groups do not. You have to provide your materials in formats that everyone can get to, not just the most popular. 9:45:29 AM
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Babies with Grown-up Brains. The soft spot on a baby's head may be able to tell us when our ancestors first began to speak. We have tremendously huge brains--six times bigger than the typical brain of a mammal our size. Obviously, that big size... [The Loom]
A nice puzzle. Part of what makes us who we are may come from the fact that, in contrats to most other apes, the largest part of the develpment of our brain takes place outside the womb, over a long perod of time. This extra stimulation could have huge effects on what our brains are capable of. Finding when this sort of development happened in our family tree would tell us a lot about how humans came to be. 9:35:33 AM
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A Puzzle for the Autumnal Equinox. Every now and then you come across a scientific hypothesis that is so elegant and powerful in its ability to explain that it just feels right. Yet that doesn't automatically make it right. Even when an elegant hypothesis gets support... [The Loom]
A great example of how science differs from creationism. We have a nice hypothesis that fits well with our preceptions: Leaves turn color to tell insects to stay away. But, data suggests another possibility. So, do we simply teach each hypothesis, giving any supporting evidence? No, we work out a set of experiments to see which one is more likely. This ability to falsigy a hypothesis is critical but is impossible in creationist argument. 9:30:11 AM
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Editor's Cut: FOX Rejects 'The Nation'. Cowardly FOX is running scared. [The Nation Weblogs]
Just another example of what kind of raging capitalists the liberals are, publishing ads fom their rivals simply to get the money, while the conservatives have wishy-washy principles regarding what sort of ads they will use. Wait. Did I just enter Bizarro World? The Nation carries ads for Fox, even if it loses subscribers, but Fox will not carry an ad for the Nation. How quiant. 9:23:13 AM
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Nobel and Darwin. Congratulations to Linda Buck and Richard Axel for winning the Nobel Prize for Medicine today. They won for their pioneering work on the 600 or so receptors that we use to smell. As is so often the case these days,... [The Loom]
Great to see. this is really interesting work, not only what it tells us about one of our sense, but what it tells us about our origins. Also, they have written quite readable papers that, thanks to open access, can be read by anyone. 9:19:20 AM
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"BQ'Podcasting for libraries: Great outreach tool in time?. David Rothman writes "In DIY radio with PODcasting, blogger "Doc" Searls discusses the new podcasting trend.
Podcasts send audio to iPOD-style gizmos through desktop computers, with downloads of selected "shows" happening automatically or at least regularly.
Some possible library-related apps:
--Daily audio book excerpts, within the limits of copyright law. Perhaps local drama students could read from the most popular works in the public domain. Or arrangements could be made to read all or parts of best-sellers in installments.
--Broadcasts of meetings of local book clubs.
--Courses in literature and other subjects.
--City council and school board meetings.
Podcasting is one more way to use the Net to do the equivalents of radio broadcasts aimed at very small, specialized audiences. Listeners can set up their software to "build" their own newscasts, talk programs or other shows from selected feeds.
This technology is harder to set up than it should be right now, but it will get simpler and is something to keep an eye on right now.
More at TeleRead." [LISNews.com]
If blogs are the new newspapers, podcasts are the new radio. This serves as a great example of how even relatively open standards between differnt technologies can be fused by innovators to create something entirely new. I do not know where this will go but you can bet that if we lived in a totally MPAA/RIAA world, this would never have happened. 9:16:25 AM
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Sony drops copy-control CDs. Sony Corp's music unit is abandoning its CDs that use built-in technology to limit copying them, after pushing the program for two years.
In general, they are abandoning this because the message against illegally copying CDs for uses such as in file-sharing over the internet has widely sunk in, and Sony Music has learned that only a small part of the population illegally copy CDs.
News24.com [LISNews.com]
I wonder if there is any business decision in this, like they also sell MP3 players? It is nice to see though, especially the small number that illegally copy CDs. Seems to me that it always has been and always will be largely a young, college-aged male thing. You need that extra time and the close access to others that do have the music. I did it in the 70s with cassettes. Once I got out into the real world, I just was never close to anyone with a large enough collection to copy many songs. It just became easier to join Columbia House, get m 13,15 18 records for a nickel and quit once I had my membership done. 9:13:14 AM
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Before I Give You My Wallet, Smile For The Camera Phone.... There have actually been a bunch of stories recently about people catching criminals via camera phones -- which is becoming a nice counter balance to all those stories about just how evil camera phones are. However, the latest one involves someone who was being mugged at knifepoint and then chased. There's also something about throwing a garbage can. So, here's the question: at what point, while being attacked by a man with a knife (and a garbage can) do you pull out your camera phone and snap a picture? It's great that this worked -- the guy was caught within 10 minutes thanks the picture -- but it just seems odd.
[Techdirt]
I do not think it will take too llong before the mugger really beats someone to a pulp for taking out a cellphone to take a picture. OWrks now because people still are not too aware of the tech. That will change very quickly. 9:09:01 AM
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Even Bill Gates Gets Spyware. For all those people who are complaining about how difficult it is to avoid spyware and adware on a Windows machine, take comfort (or be very, very afraid) in the knowledge that Bill Gates knows the same pain. In announcing that Microsoft would offer an anti-spyware utility of their own creation, Gates said: "I have had malware, (adware), that crap" on his home machines. Anyone want to suggest BillG start using Firefox to protect himself?
What does it say when even Bill Gates can not keep his compuetr safe at home? To ay one else, it would suggest they get a safer, more stable operating system.
[Techdirt] 8:58:48 AM
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Blame The Internet For Making People Uncontrollably Horny. It seems like there are some psychologists who simply have to come up with random reasons to blame the internet for just about everything. The latest is that some German psychologists are suggesting the internet is to blame for some people having uncontrollable sex obsessions -- though, they can't figure out how big a problem it really is because not too many people seem to be complaining willing to admit they have a problem. They psychologists say this isn't an inborn behavior, but one that is learned from constantly visiting online porn sites and sex chat rooms. It makes you wonder how they determine the cause and effect here. How would they know such things aren't "inborn" or caused by other issues, which are then brought out by the easy access to porn and chat rooms? It seems a little too easy to simply blame the internet for the issues, rather than get at the real cause of whatever problems these people have.
[Techdirt]
One of the more interesting ideas displayed in the otherwise pedestrian movie Brainstorm dealt with this potential problem. This movie dealt with a process that could record people's experieces and then replay them directly into the brain of aother person, allowing them to directly feel what had been experienced. So, one of the techs made a recording having sex with a woman. Then be put the recording on a loop and just played it back again and again anad again. As I recall, they found him many hours later, in a completely decimated state. That much sex, even vitual, was not good for him, In the movie, he was never the same again. SOunds like these guys have a small inkling of what could be in store for them. 8:56:36 AM
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His only position is prone. I've heard of not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time, but this is ridiculous. From today's New York Times: "I don't want to say somebody is the winner or somebody is the loser tonight," said... [Body and Soul]
ice spin from his nephew. The main thing to hope for is that he not fall on his face? That really is lowering the bar. 8:30:24 AM
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Apple offers presidential debate via iTunes. Apple Computer Inc. in conjunction with Audible.com is offering a free download of last Thursday night's first debate between incumbent American President George W. Bush and his Democratic Party challenger, John Kerry. The download is available to users of Apple's U.S. iTunes Music Store. The 90-minute debate focused specifically on foreign policy, and was moderated by PBS anchorman Jim Lehrer. Audible.com's audiobook of the event was created using coverage provided by political cable channel C-SPAN. [MacCentral News]
One of the reasons I love Apple. they did this also with all the speeches at both conventions. You can download these for free and listen to them again and again. MS never thought of providing such political discourse directly to the people. This should get more attention. 8:28:26 AM
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Very cute article, particularly if you like Macs and dislike Windows. 1:47:08 AM
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Morons in the News: Fox News Pulls Second Stunt in Two Days. Desperate to equal the Weekly World News in credibility, Fox
News has pulled its second stunt in two days...
Yesterday we reported on Fox "News" outragously contriving Kerry
quotes and publishing them as though they were real in a news
story on their web site. Now as reported by Atrios, we find
that Fox has pulled its second stunt for Bush in two days.... [morons.org headlines]
Just a reminder than not only CBS can get caught in election year miscues. Surprisingly, Fox screws up with 'news' concerning Kerry. Wonder how that happened? Considering the reporter following Kerry for Fox appears to be extremely partisan (and whose wie worked for Bush's 2000 election), why would anyone be surprised. 12:18:33 AM
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Good as his.... Good as his word ... "Nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers, and other security personnel are working today. And that total will rise to 125,000 by the end of this year. The Iraqi government is on... [Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall]
Whenever anyone in the Administration mentions the 100,000, they need to be reminded that the actual number is 22,700. Most have not been trained. To say so is incorrect. 12:09:25 AM
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Report: Feds Ordered Salmon Study Rewrite [AP Science]
Another example of this Administration's replacement of science by politics. Government scientists cannot write about things things that go against the current political dogma. So we get EPA releases flasely claiming the air around the Twin Towers is fine. Or that fish will not be harmed. This is becoming more and more the sort of sscence done in the old USSR. The government decides what the results will be, vetting them for their political worth, not scientific. 12:02:02 AM
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