Ellison...

Ellison's in the Nay column on the FISA vote.

For those others:

As the Cheney-Bush Administration regime has proved repeatedly to its great benefit and the nation's grave risk over the past six years, fear-mongering works. More

ARGH!

My paper's on walkabout! And, their computers and customer care representative also gone on walkabout...

The New York Times & Failure modes

The New York Times has an online system for Customer Service.
It's down this morning. They send you to their phone service.
Because the automated, online system is down, the phone service pauses and then dumps you into the "Please wait for the next available customer service representative."
Then the "You call is important to us. You can use the New York Time's automated system to, 1) wash your car; 2) pay off your mortgage; 3) tell us you didn't get our paper. Press 1 to access this service."
If, as I did, you press 1, it pauses and then places you back in the "Please wait for the next available customer service representative." queue.
Their other you've been waiting too damned long message is "You can access New York Times Select (insert favorite fantasy service here) online. Please press 2 for the location."
Which is oh so nice when it's down.
The Customer Service guy, when I finally got to talk to him said the same message. Him at least I got to tell that their fucking online system was down as well.

Shrimp Truck!

We're back for our 30th year in the Twin Cities

Fabian Seafood truck returns on

THURSDAY AUGUST 9
RICHFIELD NOON - 6 pm PUMP & MUNCH STATION 6300 LYNDALE

( Read more... )

Heck of a Job Nominations:

Pawlenty's Bridge Inspection Team?

Carol Heck of a Job Molnau: "Entrusted with more responsibility than any lieutenant Governor in modern times, Carol Molnau serves Minnesota both as the state's number two executive and also as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation."

What to say after the horse has left the barn: “This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota. We want to say to the families who are being impacted by this that our hearts and prayers are with you. But we also want to make sure that you know we are doing everything we can to make sure that we respond as quickly as we can to the needs of this emergency.”

What he does not want to hear: "I gotta lawyer and I'm gonna sue your incompetent ass."

Dork Dems

Enough Already with the Pathetic Excuses
by Meteor Blades
Sun Aug 05, 2007 at 05:50:52 AM PDT

I know what a lot of you 57 Democratic Representatives and Senators are going to be saying over the next month while you’re speaking on the home turf. You did it to protect Americans. You didn’t want to take a chance. You had to stand up to the terrorists. You really had no choice. More

Loose lips?

And then he was sitting in a crowded Iraqi canteen with hundreds of soldiers and Donald Rumsfeld came on the television to thank Joe Darby by name for handing in the photographs. More

Hmm, not quite in focus... but who do I know who might like this?

(no subject)

We’re All Geeks Here
By MANOHLA DARGIS

(Note: This article will appear in this Sunday's Arts & Leisure section.)

San Diego

THEY came, they saw, they conquered and were conquered in turn — willingly, deliriously, gratefully. With dazed smiles, sweat-stained Superman T-shirts, pink hair, deathly pallor, yards of tattoos, rolls of fat and an occasional pair of detachable devil horns, troops of comic-book fans, collectible professionals and enthusiasts, science-fiction nerds and circling Hollywood sharks descended on the San Diego Convention Center last weekend for the 38th annual Comic-Con International. Happily adrift and at times gaga from sensory overload, I did too. More

Just a Taste of Home

Swing de Paris Adapted From Django

¼ grapefruit, peeled

½ thin slice of fresh jalapeño, or to taste

3 sprigs cilantro, or to taste

2 ounces Charbay ruby red grapefruit vodka

¾ ounce Cointreau

½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

½ ounce simple syrup.

Muddle the grapefruit with the jalapeño and cilantro in a bartender’s glass. Fill with ice, then add the vodka, Cointreau, lime juice and simple syrup. Shake vigorously and strain into chilled glass.

Yield: 1 serving.

More

Testing the Thinkers

August 5, 2007
Re:Framing
Testing Testers, Finding Flaws
By DENISE CARUSO

SOME problems are particularly tough nuts to crack. From cancer to computer viruses, no matter how much time and money we spend, they seem to defy all attempts to solve them.

Two computer science researchers at Keele University in England say they believe that more progress can be made by shifting our focus from the problems themselves to the people who strive to solve them. The researchers, Gordon Rugg and Joanne Hyde of Keele’s Knowledge Modelling Group, have come up with a process they call Verifier that is designed to seek out mistakes in existing research on difficult problems.

By applying the scientific method to knowledge itself, Verifier has proved adept at exposing gaps in logic that can result from expert biases and mistakes, gaps that can invisibly skew their research results. More

Autism

( Read more... )

What Autistic Girls Are Made Of

What Autistic Girls Are Made Of
By EMILY BAZELON

Caitlyn & Marguerite sat knee to knee in a sunny room at the Hawks Camp in Park City, Utah. On one wall was a white board with these questions: What’s your favorite vacation and why? What’s your favorite thing about yourself? If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Caitlyn, who is 13, and Marguerite, who is 16 (I’ve used only their first names to protect their privacy), held yellow sheets of paper on which they had written their answers. It was the third day of the weeklong camp, late for icebreakers. But the Hawks are kids with autistic disorders accompanied by a normal or high I.Q. And so the main goal of the camp, run on a 26-acre ranch by a Utah nonprofit organization called the National Ability Center, is to nudge them toward the sort of back and forth — “What’s your favorite video game?” — that comes easily to most kids.

Along with Caitlyn and Marguerite, there were nine boys in the camp between the ages of 10 and 18. They also sat across from one another in pairs, with the exception of one 18-year-old who was arguing with a counselor. “All I require is a purple marker,” the boy said over and over again, refusing to write with the black marker he had been given. A few feet away, an 11-year-old was yipping and grunting while his partner read his answers in a monotone, eyes trained on his yellow paper. Another counselor hurried over to them.

Marguerite was also reading her answers without eye contact or inflection. “My favorite vacations were to India and Thailand my favorite thing about myself is that I’m nice to people if I could choose any superpower I’d be invisible,” she said in an unbroken stream. She looked up from her paper and past Caitlyn, smoothing her turquoise halter top over the waist of a pair of baggy cotton pants. Caitlyn was also staring into the middle distance. She has gold-streaked hair, which was bunched on top, and wore a black T-shirt with a sunburst on the front and canvas sneakers with skulls on the tops. The girls didn’t look uncomfortable, just unplugged. More

The new table @ Chez Dinh

Blue dress?

I'd rather have a blue dress than have a bridge fall on me or the Iraq War.
via TREO
Larry