Friday, May 20, 2005

Plush Cthulhu

Is a child you know having nightmares? If not, you can always give them this

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Shut up and teach

Apparently 1/3 of the faculty at Calvin College is comprised of jackasses. The President is scheduled to be their commencement speaker and they're braying about the war.

Two bodied guitar?

Seeing is believing. The owner, Glenn Branca, plays it with a slide.

I'd call it weird, but then blogging about it from my phone isn't exactly mainstream either.

From Gizmodo.

Treo 650 blogging

If you see this post, it can be done. It isn't the easiest way, but then I really ought to RTFM about this keyboard.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

We do too have standards

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I've seen the future, and it's creepy

People with less compassion and taste than I have been known to compile lists of tasks that could be performed by the profoundly disabled. Most of these involved things like buoyancy, body heat or inertia. Others proposed that the person in question leave their tongue hanging out for the moistening of stamps and envelopes.

Technology has rendered that moistening function mostly obsolete nowadays. But as it takes, it also gives in return. Now these people who can't or won't be productive otherwise can be used as a supply for this device which produces electricity from human blood.

Actually there are better things to be done with these devices, which run on glucose in your blood. I wonder if these somehow could be used to help diabetics regulate their blood sugar. Or perhaps it could power, say, little plows to clear away emboli in the bloodstream. Less exotically, perhaps they could power pacemakers.

Kofi Tweed

There's good work here on the renovations planned for the UN. But it's on Power Line, so that goes without saying.

I'm guessing that it's not easy to impress NY commercial real estate people with renovation costs, but as one writes in the post, "the UN could tear down the entire facility and rebuild it brand new with the most state of the art improvements for 40-50% of the proposed renovation." It goes on to say that "incompetence alone does not account for the astronomical cost of the proposed renovation".

Maybe this is good news. After all, inflated construction costs on NYC landmarks led to the end of the incredibly corrupt "Tweed Ring".

Wow, another coincidence. Both the UN and Boss Tweed had support from the Democratic Party.

Political whore

I despise Ron Reagan. The least the pipsqueak could do is change his name.

Inspired by this MSNBC video.

We heard the same sorry line about how Iraq was our ally while the Kurds were being gassed in the late 80's during "my father's" administration. Good thinking, Ronnie boy. Now let's blame Roosevelt for every atrocity committed by the Russians during WWII while they were our allies against what's his name.

You like moral equivalency, Ronnie? How about you and a pus from a chancre on a Nazi's bung?

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Ballblogging...

You'll see some of the best ballroom dancers in the country there in the Brunswick Hilton Hotel and Towers at the American Star Ball this weekend. All of youse New Yorkers who have more culture than Charlie the Tuna should be there - East Brunswick isn't that far away, even if it is in NJ. I'll be there watching some of my professional friends compete. Anyway, there's more info here.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Chutzpah

NARAL Pro-Choice America, the abortion lovers, are not content with simply doing their utmost to see that more fetuses (that's "babies" to normal people) are killed. Now they want to kill some judicial nominations.

Yep, they've hired some slimemeisters to request financial disclosure records for various judges who are possibilities for nomination to the Supreme Court. Conservatives, that is.

Of course this is permissible, and the financial disclosures are required. But this is different:
Jones was not alone as a target, and Rice is not just a nosy citizen. He and Craig Varoga, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, are partners in a California political consulting firm. Their May 5 petition requested financial information on 30 appellate judges in all but one of the country's judicial circuits, including nine widely mentioned Supreme Court possibilities. Varoga & Rice's client: NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Nobody can recall any previous mass request for such disclosures by federal judges.
The Dems are nothing if not innovators, especially with sliming their opponents.

But I'm sure that this isn't the end. How much do you want to bet that the day will come that NARAL will insist that the judges in question recuse themselves from NARAL cases on the grounds that they might hold this snooping against NARAL?

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Dennis "Cat" Avner

Right here. What can be said?

Travel guitars and amps

I flew into town for the current gig, which is expected to last about a month. Flying and guitars don't mix so well, so I didn't take one with me.

But I suffered withdrawal symptoms and had to go find a cheapie locally that I can ditch later if I can't fit it into the vehicle I'll be driving back. Or maybe give to a young relative. Nah, Goodwill sounds better - it might get destroyed either way, but that way I won't have to watch.

Of course someone else thinks they have the answer for guitarists who travel. Behold, the SoloEtte Travel Guitar. I haven't tried it, but it got a testimonial from Sharon Isbin. If she says it can help her maintain her technique and repertoire it's good enough for me.

More venerable is the Chiquita, which appeared in a Back to the Future movie and was used by the likes of Billy Gibbons. The ad says it's about a foot shorter than a Strat.

What about amplification? Here I show my age by mentioning the still-available Pignose. Or Tom Scholz' Rockman, which was noisy and had no speakers but was terrific for its time. The more modern musician might want this, which as the ad says, "great for running out of your girlfriend's house after a fight".

This gizmo probably doesn't belong here, but then why would I start showing any discipline now? Anyway, plug in your guitar, mic, line in, line out or headphones and you're in business - speed up or slow down music without shifting pitch, or shift pitch, or endlessly repeat something until you get it down - man, what I wouldn't have given for this 20-odd years ago. Throw in some Practice Tracks like these and you can jam 24-7 all by yourself, and the whole works is small enough to travel with.

Now if you'll pardon me, it's jam time...

Convergence

Gimme gimme:
Touch screen, VoIP, IPTV, HDTV, dual boot Linux and Windows, DVD player, 5.1 Dolby Sound, USB 2.0, and starting at $850.00. This device is destined to end up in hotels, hospitals, conference rooms, dormitories, airports, and consumer homes. Combine it all and here you have it: the all-in-one for the budget consumer.
Via
LIVEdigitally

PETA Kills Animals

More here.

Dirty pool? Yep. And who deserves it more than PETA?