You've been following Cute With Chris, right? No? Well, it's a blog/show dedicated to one of the two things the internet was invented for: showing pictures of kittens.
On January 30, 2008, the show passed into the realm of the legendary. Below is the whole saga, culminating with The Video of The Stage Show of an Internet Show from a Weblog of Pictures of Puppies and Kittens (Sometimes With Lasers).
Chapter One. In Which There is a Talking Plastic Horse.
Chapter Two. In Which Chris Discovers That Rage is a Lot of Work.
Chapter Three. In Which Urgency Builds! Kelvin is all out of Orange! The Cutedown is Abandoned!
Chapter Four. In Which There is a Pen Crisis.
Chapter Five. In Which The Curtain Goes Up
Everybody can vote, except people named Fran.
Why The Crazy Caucus and Primary Rules Are Legal.
I've been wondering about that very question; nice of Richard L. Hasen on Slate to address it directly. It seems to basically boils down to this: The Democratic and Republican Parties are private organizations, so they can run elections (funded by taxpayers' money) according to whatever rules they want, no matter how many voters get shut out, and the courts won't do a thing about it. Unless somebody tries to discriminate against black voters, which the legal system will step in to stop, because everybody agrees: THAT kind of discrimination is bad. But any other kind? Just more good clean political fun.
I've been wondering about that very question; nice of Richard L. Hasen on Slate to address it directly. It seems to basically boils down to this: The Democratic and Republican Parties are private organizations, so they can run elections (funded by taxpayers' money) according to whatever rules they want, no matter how many voters get shut out, and the courts won't do a thing about it. Unless somebody tries to discriminate against black voters, which the legal system will step in to stop, because everybody agrees: THAT kind of discrimination is bad. But any other kind? Just more good clean political fun.
Nifty Futuristic Cameras
From Canon, a finger-wrap design. The translucent plastic & circuitry look is nice, but what I really like is using a shooting hand posture to shoot a picture. Trigger happy? Only for photo ops!
Kodak goes cyberpunk? This has got awesome written all over it.
Called "Triops", though no manufacturer is credited. It looks like a single underwater goggle. Photo-monocle!
From TechEBlog, which (unhelpfully) does not give many details about these. I'm assuming they're just concept cams.
Ashes to ashes, wood pulp to wood
Saplings in the ruins of what was once the Detroit Public Schools book depository.
A truly amazing blog post from Sweet Juniper and accompanying Flickr photo set.
Downtown Detroit has an astonishing number of abandoned buildings. And not just shabby falling-down warehouses, either. Many once represented some of America's most majestic architecture.
There's a whole subculture that likes to explore urban ruins, and Detroit exerts a magnetic draw over these people. Do some google image searching sometime; the photos are beautiful and haunting.
Among the most striking "ruins" photos I've ever seen - these of the DPS book depository. Trees, growing in mounds of abandoned, rotting schoolbooks. A graffito of a book phoenix, rising from the ashes of burnt school supplies. It's almost too surreal to be true. The subtitle of the whole thing should be "Look, We Can Only Make A Metaphor So Obvious Before It Stops Being A Metaphor."
Glam Cats!
Okay, I know, I know. All reasonable people are supposed to look down their noses at people who dress their pets. Scoff, shriek in mock horror and what-not. But can we make an exception for Cats In Wigs (And Some Small Dogs)? Tell me these animals are not utterly hilarious and awesome.
The pictures come from a Flickr photo pool that is run by the progenitor of KittyWigs.com. I can't decide if the fact that the wigs are $50 a piece makes them more hilarious, or less.
The pictures come from a Flickr photo pool that is run by the progenitor of KittyWigs.com. I can't decide if the fact that the wigs are $50 a piece makes them more hilarious, or less.
Students, Practice Civil Disobedience! Sleep During Class!
What Not To Name Your Blog, from Slate. Believe me, I considered all this good advice before going with the almost completely nonsensical option.
The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade, from The New York Times. The point that teenagers don't function well early in the morning (falling, in fact, somewhere between the cognitive abilities of a rock and a zombie) has long been taken as an article of faith by anyone who's ever interacted with or who has, say, been a teenager. It's good to see people actually talking about it.
Of course, no matter how beneficial it might be for students if schools started later, there will always be strong resistance to this from the after-school sports programs. Underfunded schools are pretty much the norm, and high school athletics provide not only an income boost (I can't prove this, but dude... I've seen the concession lines at high school basketball games), but a status boost, as well. I'm not saying this is bad, exactly, but you'd think the order would be 1)academics, 2)student's well-being, 3)sports, wouldn't you? (Okay, okay, I suppose there's some wiggle room between 1 and 2.)
Starting later would mean games would have to take place later, which would mean the school that opted to do this would be at a disadvantage unless all the schools in the local athletic conference followed suit. They'd presumably be less likely to have winning seasons, thus losing the glory and money that comes with a championship, and all the otherkids school administrators would laugh at them. Too, daily practices would have to be held later (unless you moved them to the morning - but then you risk groggy athletes. Groggy students:okay. Groggy football players:madness.)
Or maybe I'm just a grumpy ol' ex-non-athlete who watched all my favorite high school extracurriculars passed over for funding in favor of sports one too many times. Whatever.
The Paranoia Round-Up!
First Time Airlines Are Legally Accountable For Stranded Passengers, and how they're trying to fight it.
Filmaker Attempts to Sue A Negative Reviewer. Hey, celebrities get to do it. Why not movies?
And finally, J K Rowling Goes Crazy & tries to claim copyright protection prevents published discussion of the Harry Potter-verse. I'm beginning to think she should've quit while she was ahead.
Just for fun, here's a robot. Playing air hockey.
The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade, from The New York Times. The point that teenagers don't function well early in the morning (falling, in fact, somewhere between the cognitive abilities of a rock and a zombie) has long been taken as an article of faith by anyone who's ever interacted with or who has, say, been a teenager. It's good to see people actually talking about it.
Of course, no matter how beneficial it might be for students if schools started later, there will always be strong resistance to this from the after-school sports programs. Underfunded schools are pretty much the norm, and high school athletics provide not only an income boost (I can't prove this, but dude... I've seen the concession lines at high school basketball games), but a status boost, as well. I'm not saying this is bad, exactly, but you'd think the order would be 1)academics, 2)student's well-being, 3)sports, wouldn't you? (Okay, okay, I suppose there's some wiggle room between 1 and 2.)
Starting later would mean games would have to take place later, which would mean the school that opted to do this would be at a disadvantage unless all the schools in the local athletic conference followed suit. They'd presumably be less likely to have winning seasons, thus losing the glory and money that comes with a championship, and all the other
Or maybe I'm just a grumpy ol' ex-non-athlete who watched all my favorite high school extracurriculars passed over for funding in favor of sports one too many times. Whatever.
The Paranoia Round-Up!
First Time Airlines Are Legally Accountable For Stranded Passengers, and how they're trying to fight it.
Filmaker Attempts to Sue A Negative Reviewer. Hey, celebrities get to do it. Why not movies?
And finally, J K Rowling Goes Crazy & tries to claim copyright protection prevents published discussion of the Harry Potter-verse. I'm beginning to think she should've quit while she was ahead.
Just for fun, here's a robot. Playing air hockey.
My State Jumps Queue - Vote Creatively, Kids!
Politics in my first post! For shame! Somehow that makes me feel a little bit dirty - and that's not a bad way to start out.
Michigan will be holding its Presidential Primary Election tomorrow, January 15, 2008 - making it only the third in this year's National Primary 'N' Caucus Extravaganza. In a bid for greater relevancy, the eighth most populous state voted last year to bump up its primary election up a couple months.
Naturally, as any five-year-old can tell you, cutting in line just meant Dog-Barks-At-Mitten just pissed a lot of people off. The major candidates of the Democratic Party, with the exception of Hillary Clinton (for reasons I don't know and to be honest am rather afraid to research), self-righteously abstained from the state. The only big player on the Democratic Primary ballot will be H.C. (Also Dennis Kucinich, for what it's worth.)
The Republican Party had no such scruples over a little queue-jumping and toe-stomping & proceeds with (as far as I know) all candidates on ballot.
However, Michigan does do some things right. As it stands, any registered voter can vote in any party's primary. None of this loyal®istered-Dem-only, loyal®istered-Repub-only nonsense. So! A Michigander who was slightly left-leaning, but not a fan of Hillary Clinton, would still has several viable options:
- They could vote for their favorite Republican candidate, in a lesser-of-two-evils vote.
- They could vote for their LEAST favorite major Republican candidate, hoping to give the eventual Democratic nominee a weak opponent. (This is being advocated by Big Liberal Blog Guy as the best policy. It seems like dirty politics as usual to me, but I can see how it's appealing, if that's your game. And as a general principle, if you don't feel you have a good, legitimate option, then the opportunity for general mischief becomes irresisitable.)
- Or our hypothetical voter could use the "Uncommitted" option on the Democratic ballot, indicating a vote of no confidence in Clinton, but unspecified support for some Democratic candidate not on the ballot. (There's been grassroots support for this movement, too.)
As with most political drams, this whole thing is bizarre, depressing, and yet - strangely interesting.
Michigan will be holding its Presidential Primary Election tomorrow, January 15, 2008 - making it only the third in this year's National Primary 'N' Caucus Extravaganza. In a bid for greater relevancy, the eighth most populous state voted last year to bump up its primary election up a couple months.
Naturally, as any five-year-old can tell you, cutting in line just meant Dog-Barks-At-Mitten just pissed a lot of people off. The major candidates of the Democratic Party, with the exception of Hillary Clinton (for reasons I don't know and to be honest am rather afraid to research), self-righteously abstained from the state. The only big player on the Democratic Primary ballot will be H.C. (Also Dennis Kucinich, for what it's worth.)
The Republican Party had no such scruples over a little queue-jumping and toe-stomping & proceeds with (as far as I know) all candidates on ballot.
However, Michigan does do some things right. As it stands, any registered voter can vote in any party's primary. None of this loyal®istered-Dem-only, loyal®istered-Repub-only nonsense. So! A Michigander who was slightly left-leaning, but not a fan of Hillary Clinton, would still has several viable options:
- They could vote for their favorite Republican candidate, in a lesser-of-two-evils vote.
- They could vote for their LEAST favorite major Republican candidate, hoping to give the eventual Democratic nominee a weak opponent. (This is being advocated by Big Liberal Blog Guy as the best policy. It seems like dirty politics as usual to me, but I can see how it's appealing, if that's your game. And as a general principle, if you don't feel you have a good, legitimate option, then the opportunity for general mischief becomes irresisitable.)
- Or our hypothetical voter could use the "Uncommitted" option on the Democratic ballot, indicating a vote of no confidence in Clinton, but unspecified support for some Democratic candidate not on the ballot. (There's been grassroots support for this movement, too.)
As with most political drams, this whole thing is bizarre, depressing, and yet - strangely interesting.
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