http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com

Alaska - the freaking state - is younger than John McCain.
And, for that matter, so is Hawaii. McCain is older than two of the fifty states.

  Yup, this artisan bread thing works.

Me with an Anon... The local chapter of Anonymous spoke at ROFLCON. Very interesting and informative. They also had one of the original Usenet guys from back in the day.  A few have had their cover broken - one was brave enough to sign the protest application, and within a day COS had called to get his name. They filed a stack of papers against him, all but one of which were thrown out.

Also, mainstream media (boo hiss) won't cover the story.. fear of lawsuits.. but there is progress in Texas. 

Want to understand what's going on with food and gas prices, real estate foreclosures and the looming recession?

 Read Robert Reich's blog (22nd Secretary of Labor). It's smart honest and blunt. And scary, to see what's really going on with the Fed and the dollar.

Then vote for Obama.

Alternative to a car, range up to 10 miles. Took it for a short spin.. that's a AGL3080 GPS logger hanging down.

“Frontline” has streamed most of its documentaries free since 2002 (www.pbs.org/frontline), part of an effort to reach younger audiences than typically tune in to PBS. The online viewing to date of “Bush’s War,” which was broadcast in two parts on March 24 and 25, is an estimated “10 times the traffic of a normal show for us,” said Sam Bailey, the program’s director of new media and technology. Viewers are also sticking around much longer than they usually do on the site, typically for 7 to 10 minutes.

Viewers watching the documentary, which drew material from more than 40 past “Frontline” programs, also found an interactive, annotated timeline on terrorism over roughly three decades, including 175 embedded video clips and links to full transcripts of more than 400 “Frontline” interviews. The material remains archived on the site, along with many “Frontline” films.

NYT article - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/business/media/07frontline.html 

 ...is pretty dead-on. Sample: 

#87 Outdoor Performance Clothes

As white people get older, they like to make clear boundaries between their professional and personal lives. They don’t mind talking about their personal life at work, but they hate talking about their work life when they are enjoying a weekend or vacation. But with blackberries and laptops, white people could be working anywhere, at any time. So how do you know when they are off the clock? It’s easy, check their clothes.

When white people aren’t working, they generally like to wear Outdoor Performance Clothes. The top suppliers of these garments and accessories include North Face, REI, Mountain Equipment Co-Op, Columbia Sportswear, and Patagonia.

When you see white people wearing these, it is important that you do not discuss business matters.  Instead you should say things like “where did you get that fleece?” and “what’s that thing holding your keys to your shorts?”  White people will be more than happy to talk to you about their sustainably produced possessions.

American Masters Profile

What Did You Learn In-School Today?

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy 

He's 89 now, still singing to schoolkids and protesting the war. 

http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlantic/tvq/video.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-05-0011.html

"Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.

The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.

 Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted.

If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.

Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down on online bullying. He says that has especially been a problem in his Eastern Kentucky district.

Action News 36 asked people what they thought about the bill.

 Some said they felt it was a violation of First Amendment rights. Others say it is a good tool toward eliminating online harassment.

Representative Couch says enforcing this bill if it became law would be a challenge."

- ya think?

An apropos comic:

Here is a great discussion with George Lakoff about suggestions for Obama's campaign. 25 minute podcast. My crappy notes, which I started about 10 minutes. Thought-provoking stuff.

------------------------------- 

What is america about?
Have to care about people, the land..to not move to the right
Love of the land - environmental issue..repubs screwing up the land.

Poor whites - should be obamas. Strength - believes in empathy, people on the ground. Should attack where Hillary, Mccain are strong.

Pennsylvania?
Rendell - strongly for Hillary
Philly - Black
Rest of PA - rural PA is like rural south.

What should Obama say?
The Iraq recession - 3 trillion Dollar war. Mccain has said he doesn't know economics, doesn't care about economic wellbeing of americans.

"Occupation" - No victory in an occupation.
Framing: both against Mccain and Clinton.

Hillary attack - bankruptcy bill, HC voted for it
Bankruptcy scandal.. people in trouble

New things - that have not been talked about.

Taxes - empathy deficit. Gov is protection and empowerment. Not just military. econ, social, health, developing science, energy, education, banking (keating 5).
Dems will be pro business. Taxes are what you pay to live in America.

Privateering
Those who want to get rid of govt (including JM) done a good job of crippling FEMA, FDA, EPA. Take away moral mission - those who protect and empower. Then private industry comes in, does it at a huge rate with no accountability. They screw up, only care about profit. Katrina, Blackwater. Taking away moral mission of the military - people not bound by laws. Mccain would not be Commander of Blackwater.

Would Obama cut off Blackwater?
Maybe - should be under laws of the country.
Constitution - says you *can* have private armies.
We don't have to have an unaccountable, overpriced
San Diego kicked Blackwater out

Same issue - caring for the American people

Obama opposite of HC
Ending interest group politics, incremntalism - not a plan for the country. What you need is a *movement*, a *plan*.

 I was reading the wikipedia page on Propaganda, and they had this list of techniques. I believe that video offers a whole new set (color,wipes, ominous music), but this is an impressive list we can observe everywhere from Madison Ave to political ads, to ourselves talking the wife into buying a gadget.

  "In English, 'propaganda' was originally a neutral term used to describe the dissemination of information in favor of any given cause".  More than enough here to make a bingo card here. 

• Ad Hominem: A Latin phrase which has come to mean attacking your opponent, as opposed to attacking their arguments.
• Appeal to authority: Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to support a position, idea, argument, or course of action.
• Appeal to fear: Appeals to fear seek to build support by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population, for example, Joseph Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman's Germany Must Perish! to claim that the Allies sought the extermination of the German people.
• Appeal to Prejudice: Using loaded or emotive terms to attach value or moral goodness to believing the proposition. For example, the phrase: "Any hard-working taxpayer would have to agree that those who do not work, and who do not support the community do not deserve the community's support through social assistance."
• Argumentum ad nauseam: This argument approach uses tireless repetition of an idea. An idea, especially a simple slogan, that is repeated enough times, may begin to be taken as the truth. This approach works best when media sources are limited and controlled by the propagator.
• Bandwagon: Bandwagon and "inevitable-victory" appeals attempt to persuade the target audience to join in and take the course of action that "everyone else is taking." 
• Inevitable victory: invites those not already on the bandwagon to join those already on the road to certain victory. Those already or at least partially on the bandwagon are reassured that staying aboard is their best course of action.
• Join the crowd: This technique reinforces people's natural desire to be on the winning side. This technique is used to convince the audience that a program is an expression of an irresistible mass movement and that it is in their best interest to join.
• Black-and-White fallacy: Presenting only two choices, with the product or idea being propagated as the better choice. (e.g., "You are either with us, or you are with the enemy")
• Beautiful people: The type of propaganda that deals with famous people or depicts attractive, happy people. This makes other people think that if they buy a product or follow a certain ideology, they too will be happy or successful. (This is more used in advertising for products, instead of political reasons)
• Big Lie: The repeated articulation of a complex of events that justify subsequent action. The descriptions of these events have elements of truth, and the "big lie" generalizations merge and eventually supplant the public's accurate perception of the underlying events. After World War I the German Stab in the back explanation of the cause of their defeat became a justification for Nazi re-militarization and revanchist aggression.
• Common man: The "'plain folks'" or "common man" approach attempts to convince the audience that the propagandist's positions reflect the common sense of the people. It is designed to win the confidence of the audience by communicating in the common manner and style of the target audience. Propagandists use ordinary language and mannerisms (and clothe their message in face-to-face and audiovisual communications) in attempting to identify their point of view with that of the average person. For example, a propaganda leaflet may make an argument on a macroeconomic issue, such as unemployment insurance benefits, using everyday terms: "given that the country has little money during this recession, we should stop paying unemployment benefits to those who do not work, because that is like maxing out all your credit cards during a tight period, when you should be tightening your belt."
• Demonizing the enemy: Making individuals from the opposing nation, from a different ethnic group, or those who support the opposing viewpoint appear to be subhuman (e.g., the Vietnam War-era term "gooks" for NLF soldiers), worthless, or immoral, through suggestion or false accusations.
• Direct order: This technique hopes to simplify the decision making process by using images and words to tell the audience exactly what actions to take, eliminating any other possible choices. Authority figures can be used to give the order, overlapping it with the Appeal to authority technique, but not necessarily. The Uncle Sam "I want you" image is an example of this technique.
• Euphoria: The use of an event that generates euphoria or happiness, or using an appealing event to boost morale. Euphoria can be created by declaring a holiday, making luxury items available, or mounting a military parade with marching bands and patriotic messages.
• Disinformation: The creation or deletion of information from public records, in the purpose of making a false record of an event or the actions of a person or organization, including outright forgery of photographs, motion pictures, broadcasts, and sound recordings as well as printed documents.
• Flag-waving: An attempt to justify an action on the grounds that doing so will make one more patriotic, or in some way benefit a group, country, or idea. The feeling of patriotism which this technique attempts to inspire may not necessarily diminish or entirely omit one's capability for rational examination of the matter in question.
• Glittering generalities: Glittering generalities are emotionally appealing words applied to a product or idea, but which present no concrete argument or analysis. A famous example is the campaign slogan "Ford has a better idea!"
• Half-truth: A half-truth is a deceptive statement which may come in several forms and includes some element of truth. The statement might be partly true, the statement may be totally true but only part of the whole truth, or it may utilize some deceptive element, such as improper punctuation, or double meaning, especially if the intent is to deceive, evade blame or misrepresent the truth.
• Intentional vagueness: Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application. The intent is to cause people to draw their own interpretations rather than simply being presented with an explicit idea. In trying to "figure out" the propaganda, the audience foregoes judgment of the ideas presented. Their validity, reasonableness and application may still be considered.
• Obtain disapproval or Reductio ad Hitlerum: This technique is used to persuade a target audience to disapprove of an action or idea by suggesting that the idea is popular with groups hated, feared, or held in contempt by the target audience. Thus if a group which supports a certain policy is led to believe that undesirable, subversive, or contemptible people support the same policy, then the members of the group may decide to change their original position. This is a form of Bad Logic, where a is said to equal X, and b is said to equal X, therefore, a = b.
• Oversimplification: Favorable generalities are used to provide simple answers to complex social, political, economic, or military problems.
• Quotes out of Context: Selective editing of quotes which can change meanings. Political documentaries designed to discredit an opponent or an opposing political viewpoint often make use of this technique.
• Rationalization: Individuals or groups may use favorable generalities to rationalize questionable acts or beliefs. Vague and pleasant phrases are often used to justify such actions or beliefs.
• Red herring/Chewbacca Defense: Presenting data or issues that, while compelling, are irrelevant to the argument at hand, and then claiming that it validates the argument.
• Repetition: This type of propaganda deals with a jingle or word that is repeated over and over again, thus getting it stuck in someones head, so they can buy the product. The "Repetition" method has been described previously.
• Scapegoating: Assigning blame to an individual or group, thus alleviating feelings of guilt from responsible parties and/or distracting attention from the need to fix the problem for which blame is being assigned.
• Slogans: A slogan is a brief, striking phrase that may include labeling and stereotyping. Although slogans may be enlisted to support reasoned ideas, in practice they tend to act only as emotional appeals. Opponents of the US's invasion and occupation of Iraq use the slogan "blood for oil" to suggest that the invasion and its human losses was done to access Iraq's oil riches. On the other hand, "hawks" who argue that the US should continue to fight in Iraq use the slogan "cut and run" to suggest that it would be cowardly or weak to withdraw from Iraq. Similarly, the names of the military campaigns, such as "enduring freedom" or "just cause", may also be regarded to be slogans, devised to influence people.
• Stereotyping or Name Calling or Labeling: This technique attempts to arouse prejudices in an audience by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience fears, hates, loathes, or finds undesirable. For instance, reporting on a foreign country or social group may focus on the stereotypical traits that the reader expects, even though they are far from being representative of the whole country or group; such reporting often focuses on the anecdotal.
• Testimonial: Testimonials are quotations, in or out of context, especially cited to support or reject a given policy, action, program, or personality. The reputation or the role (expert, respected public figure, etc.) of the individual giving the statement is exploited. The testimonial places the official sanction of a respected person or authority on a propaganda message. This is done in an effort to cause the target audience to identify itself with the authority or to accept the authority's opinions and beliefs as its own. See also, damaging quotation
• Transfer: Also known as Association, this is a technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or blame) of a person, entity, object, or value (an individual, group, organization, nation, patriotism, etc.) to another to make the second more acceptable or to discredit it. It evokes an emotional response, which stimulates the target to identify with recognized authorities. Often highly visual, this technique often utilizes symbols (for example, the Swastika used in Nazi Germany, originally a symbol for health and prosperity) superimposed over other visual images. An example of common use of this technique in America is for the President's image to be overlayed with a swastika by his opponents.
• Unstated assumption: This technique is used when the propaganda concept that the propagandist intends to transmit would seem less credible if explicitly stated. The concept is instead repeatedly assumed or implied.
• Virtue words: These are words in the value system of the target audience which tend to produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue. Peace, happiness, security, wise leadership, freedom, "The Truth", etc. are virtue words. In countries such as the U.S. religiosity is seen as a virtue, making associations to this quality affectively beneficial. See ""Transfer"".

Did a search for an album and it turns out that Goog groks music now, You can find all versions of a song, lyrics, or discuss the group on Google Groups. Searching for an album or artist returns the Goog link up top. I can't decide if this is evil or not.. it goes beyond pure search engine behavior, and lets them inject a result as the #1 hit, looking like an organic result.

Heard y'all were a lot of gamers, so maybe someone can help. I have a modded Xbox running XBMC. Getting to files on disk over FTP is no problem.

Recently Burnout Revenge won't save profiles, "The profile data is damaged!" ...anyone know there these files are stored?