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May 20, 2008 archive
May 20 2008
Muse in the Morning
May 20 2008
The Stars Hollow Gazette
So I was poking around in one of my boxes of salvage parts today and I ran across an old IBM keyboard.
Not so old because it has one of those PS/2 connectors instead of the older style AT (the main drawback is that people plug their mice into the wrong hole) but old enough that IBM was still making a point about their keyboards and how nice the feel was.
People claim that the IBM Selectric Typewriter had the best keyboard ever. I know that my Olivetti portable had a real snappy action. Early on in my computing career I got myself 2 Northgate Omnikey Ultras, THE BEST KEYBOARD EVER, with function keys where God intended them, across the top AND down the side. Sadly they each need about $50 dollars of repair that is not in my current budget, the last one having gone down a little less than a year ago.
Since then I have suffered with a “Windows” keyboard of the mushiest kind imaginable with innumerable function keys to run your Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. You have to turn them all off to make it not screw up your whole system.
It worked, but it was like pushing your fingers into squishy memory foam. I’m quite happy to have snappy keys that push back under my digital control again.
May 20 2008
Dewey’s dream and education for social change
This is a book review of Benson, Harkavy, and Puckett’s book of last year,
Dewey’s Dream (Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2007), which picks out a moment in John Dewey’s opus in which he is recommending a rather activist model of schooling. The authors of Dewey’s Dream then criticize Dewey for deserting this vision, largely to be found in Dewey’s (1899) text The School and Society, and suggest that Dewey’s leaving Chicago (and his experimental school) was a disaster. I agree, and further suggest that there are insights to be found in Dewey that go beyond those to be found in Dewey’s Dream.
(crossposted at Big Orange)
May 20 2008
An Egomaniacal Anthology of Stop-Gap Holding Patterns
It’s really all about me.
I know, I know, I’ve said it before, and many times, but this time, I mean it oh so much more. Honest. So yes, it’s come to this, a phone-in diary that nevertheless must be connected, because while there have been some valiant attempts to revive a rabid addiction to meta among the raging hordes of Soapbloxia (yes, I coined that term), none has really seemed to take a permanent hold upon my crotchety sensibility. I used to live for meta, man. I used to suck it up like 1980s-moms snorted “Days of Our Lives” or “General Hospital” and other such genially geriatric baubles. I used to live for it, just like that, and since I have not been able to satisfy my perverse urges with the efforts of others, I shall subject myself to the merciless jaws of the Nostalgia Beast. Most of you won’t care. That’s absolutely fine. For those who do, though, you get a rank compendium of stale Liner Notes. Yep, for every diary I’ve ever written (pre- and non-DD* diaries linked in orange). Re-issue, repackage, revival. Don’t worry, it won’t take up too much of your time. Come and see…
May 20 2008
Camelot
I was only a kid but I remember the day JKF was killed. I remember the unity of a nation in mourning at the loss. They were indeed America’s Camelot days, or were they. My CT hobby developed during research on globalization during business school continues. Even mainstream media has covered such previously “top secret” locations like Iron Mountain and the Microsoft sponsored global seed vault. What, do some people think, or actually want me to make me tack up my Apocalyptic horse.
May 20 2008
Media War! MSNBC and Fox, Plus…The Maddow Movement: Letters!
The feud between Fox’s O’Liely and MSNBC’s Olbermann has apparently spread to their bosses! With Bill-o, thug that he is, backed by Ailes, perhaps when it comes to the destruction of the Free Press that has helped land us where we are…The Worst Person In The World!
Bill-o, is actually using his bully pulpit to go after and smear the head of GE, NBC’s parent company! A “news anchor,” with the backing of his bosses, going after the corporate head of his rival! Trying to smear him…
Last week, in an unrelated segment with CBS’s Kimberly Dozier about being injured in Iraq, O’Reilly used a graphic that combined GE’s logo with a photo of Ahmadinejad. The heading: “Business Partners.”
…in an attempt to control the content of MSBC’s news! Even if the content they are trying to control is Just Olbermann’s attacks on O’Reilly. And it may indeed, be more than that..
O’Reilly initially retaliated in 2006 with a petition on his Web site that urged MSNBC to fire Olbermann. But he does not mention Olbermann’s name on the air. Instead, he routinely assails NBC — sometimes naming Zucker and Capus — as an organization that “spews out far-left propaganda,” is “the most aggressive anti-Bush network” and is “in the tank” for Barack Obama.”
Though knowing Bill O’reilly, it is probably just about…him. But the precedent being set here is simply stunning! This is a true media war, with O’Reilly and Fox apparently trying to “take down” or at least heavily influence, not just a rival newsman or organization, but the head man of a giant corporation…. because of the news content of their subsidiaries subsidiary. Iow, Fox is tryig to bully MSBC into submission!
Interesting times!
May 20 2008
Even the Army gets the spirit on Moratorium day
What do we do in Milwaukee when the temperature finally hits 70 degrees? Go to the lakefront? Grill brats in the back yard? Skinny dip? Take off our longjohns?
If it’s the Third Friday — Iraq Moratorium day –we meet in the heart of downtown for an hour, fill all four corners of the intersection with people, flags, banners and enthusiasm, and call for an end to the war and occupation. We had a diverse group of kids, college students, parents, and grandparents, about 70 in all, counting one small dog with a “Puppy for Peace” jacket.
We’re getting used to support from rush hour drivers, who honked their horns almost non-stop tonight, including a lot of county bus drivers and one trucker driving a huge tractor-trailer with a big air horn. One driver got out of his car (while the light was red) to chat and say something supportive to one of the vigilers. We leaflet pedestrians, and one young Iranian couple, downtown shopping, stopped to express their support. But our favorite anecdote of the day was the two Army recruiters who drove past in an Army vehicle — while one of them gave the protesters a thumbs-up.
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