Sunday, July 11, 2004

Keeping America Safe from elections Newsweek: "American counter-terrorism officials, citing what they call 'alarming' intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the US this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack." [Scripting News] Keep in mind that there's a difference between plan making and policy making. It is the job of the planners to prepare a course of action for any scenario, plausible or implausible. The existence of a plan does not on its own imply a non-zero chance of its adoption as policy. As with all breathless news that "X has a SECRET plan to do Y", I would actually be more suprised if they did NOT have such a plan available. That said, I wish I had faith that the current policy makers were not peeking over that wall. In other news, "Vote is threatened by terrorist attacks, vote suspended due to red alert" is ranked third at octobersurprise.com. 11:39:58 AM     Categories: Keeping America Safe LiveJournal

© Copyright 2004 Matthew Ernest. Last update: 8/12/2004; 7:50:48 AM. hT This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.

radaR's LiveJournal   7:43AM PST OMG!. The good news: Fraggle Rock is starting to appear on DVD. The bad news: for now the only store that can carry it is WalMart. Fraggle Rock on DVD -- finally and wonderfully. This amazing, lengthy review of the new Fraggle Rock DVDs does a great job of placing the series in its historical context ("The Monchichis had a show that year, and so did Rubik the Amazing Cube... and don't forget the Mork and Mindy - Laverne and Shirley - Fonz Hour. Basically, 1983 was the year that all the TV producers in the world just said, screw it, we get rich no matter what we do, let's turn any old thing into a cartoon and then pay some Koreans two bucks an hour to animate it.") and picking out the elements of the show that made it so very good: Gobo: First up to get the mail, now out to the Gorgs' garden... It's turning out to be a dangerous day. Wembley: Yeah, but we love it, don't we, Gobo? Gobo: Well, to tell you the truth, Wembley, sometimes I get sick of it. Wembley: Yeah, me too. Gobo: ... You sure do like to agree with a person. Wembley: Oh, I gotta agree with that! Heh. And there you have it. That's Wembley. In six lines, you get his whole character: his indecision, his affability, his attachment to Gobo, and his willingness to try anything. That's economical writing. Plus, it's funny, so it's got that going for it too. Link (via Waxy!) [Boing Boing] By radar@poboxes.com. Toy!. Ride the Dragon: CoasterDynamix's home model roller coaster ships. We first mentioned this way back in March during those shadowy first weeks of Engadget, but CoasterDynamix says that “The Dragon”, their expandable and customizable home model roller coaster kit, is finally for sale. You better really love toy roller coasters, because this thing’ll set you back five hundred bucks. [Engadget] By radar@poboxes.com. Ooops #2. The applicator for my bottle of Krazy Glue came apart. How do you put that back together? By radar@poboxes.com. Ooops. I just managed to knock something off my table which just managed to hit something else which just managed to hit the power strip just right to shut off the power to two computers. I alwasy wondered how long it would take to resync that 120GB raid... By radar@poboxes.com. Horray for merchandising!. LotR official body jewelry. There's an official, licensed Lord of the Rings Elvish navel ring. As Diane Duane (author of the "Young Wizards" books) notes, "This takes things just a little too far. What's that high-pitched whining sound I hear? Could it be J.R.R. spinning...? ...There may be the occasional Young Wizards coffee mug or sweatshirt. But there will never be a Young Wizards navel ring." Adorn your belly with Elven beauty wearing this Arwen Pendant Navel Ring. Weighing 14 grams and made out of surgical steel, this ring features the design motif from Arwen's necklace and earrings set and is sure to turn heads. The bottom ball is cubic zirconium and measures 5mm in diameter. Link (via Out of Ambit) [Boing Boing] By radar@poboxes.com.