I am not, at this point, very happy with Six Apart and Movable Type.

We now return you to your original programming...

It's a balmy 73.6 F (according to Weather Underground) as I type this, with a light haze overhead.

I'm having trouble dealing with the Global Warmening up here, but I think I can tough it out...

Apparently some nano-tech research done at Stanford's Department of Materials Science and Engineering indicates that it might be possible to increase the life of a rechargeable lithium-ion batteries by a tremendous amount. The article mentioned the possibility of reaching a 40-hour life.

That's fantastic compared to current (excuse the pun) batteries. I agree with Professor Reynolds: "Bring it on!"

Something else occurs to me; is it possible to scale this technology up? Forty hours at 40 mph could give an electric car a 1600 mile range. Forty hours might be unrealistic (at least at first) but the possibilities are intriguing.

Not only do we need mouth guards and eye protectors, we need to do something about those bloody unsafe metal runners! Yep, it's all fun and games until someone loses a finger...

My proposal is to replace metal runners with Nerf runners. This follows in the footsteps of other great ideas like Nerf footballs, Nerf frisbees, and Nerf dartguns. Mind you, the kids won't go very fast with Nerf runners on their sleds, but isn't that all to the good? God forbid someone might get hurt having fun.

Word to the wise folks: look for the quote marks. If you don't see them, then the reporter is making things up.

Eugene Volokh, Ilya Somin, and Dave Price all agree that Smith never said anything resembling the quote attributed to him.

Mr. Price seems to think that Smith displayed a certain degree of naivety for his general point of view, while the Volokh Conspiracy writers limited their skepticism to the idea that someone like Hitler could be "reprogrammed" or psychologically reshaped; a position with which I agree.

Smith's general point rang a bell with me, and it bothered me for a bit. For quite a while I've held to the belief that no one sees themselves as evil, but I couldn't recall the seed of that belief. Then it hit me: Heinlein, naturally!

Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate--and quickly.

So maybe Will Smith isn't quite so naive after all.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
---

My best wishes and prayers to all, on this most wonderful of days.

Well, I finally listened to me, and here we are. ;) I even have something to blog about. Mozilla v1.71 has been really bugging me for a while; the first time after I turn on the computer and enter a URL, Mozilla just goes librarian-poo and eats up most of the CPU cycles while resolving the DNS. After that it's fine.

Then there's the multimedia files it won't play (but Firefox will quite nicely), the time it takes to save even a single image, the occasional random "Mozilla starts hitting 98% CPU usage" hijinks. Feh. Not to mention the fact that it Just Won't check email until I've sent something to someone else, or specifically told Mozilla to check by clicking on the "Mail and Newsgroups" button. I didn't get email for nearly a week at one point until I realized what was happening.

The Mozilla Foundation has (for me) created in Firefox 2.x an entirely acceptable browser. And, yes, I'm picky. Opera is nice, but they changed too many "default" keystroke commands such as Alt-D for the address bar.

Anyhoo, I used to resist Firefox, as I felt the look & feel was toy-like, and customization seemed limited. This is no longer true. About the only thing missing are the mail/newsgroup settings which have been moved over to the Thunderbird email client. It's true there's a small learning curve. For example, I had to figure out my passwords were no longer in Tools/Password manager as in Mozilla, but are now in Tools/Options/Security instead. But it seems all the important tweaks are there.

Migrating from Mozilla to Firefox and Thunderbird was quite painless as both include import tools. Shortcuts, history, and passwords for Firefox; and not only email/server settings for Thunderbird but the learning rules for the spam heuristics so I don't have to "train" my client all over again. Very nice.

One little detail: I have a question for the more experienced Firefox/Thunderbird users out there. I would like to have some sort of resident system-tray-like utility which regularly checks for mail just like Mozilla used to do. Or will I be forced to click on an icon every time I want to check for mail? My personal preference is for a local daemon to alert me when new mail is available.

UPDATE: for some idiot reason, MT isn't showing anything in the comment pop-up window when you click on "Comments." If you go to the permalink you can enter a comment there. Don't bloody ask me why, but if there's an MT 3.33 guru out there, I'd appreciate knowing. The bloody .cgi script is where it's supposed to be, it has the right bloody permissions now (had to fix that - don't know why as it used to work, but the frame pops up with a blank window. Feh.

First up: Presidential Action Figures, and Celebrity Hubris. How can you stay away?

I just can't wait for when the latest fashion faux pas attracts her Simon-like crtical eye...

And Rachel is turning into a real cut-up! {rimshot}

Sometimes I kill myself...

Godspeed, First Mate, and I pray for good winds on this voyage.

And, skip, tell the Admiral Emeritus happy birthday!

Frank Facts about Fred Thompson.

Some of my faves:
* Fred Thompson has on multiple occasions pronounced "nuclear" correctly.

* Fred Thompson has blasted more people in the face with a shotgun than even Dick Cheney.

* Every night before going to sleep, Osama bin Laden checks under his bed for Fred Thompson.

* Though Fred Thompson left the Senate in 2003, Harry Reid still hasn't stopped wetting his pants.

* Fred Thompson's gaze can kill small animals.

* Fred Thompson once ended a filibuster by ripping out a Senator's heart and showing it to him before he died.

* Fred Thompson's sense of strategy is so great that he can checkmate you using only a pawn and a knight.

* Fred Thompson can know both the exact position and momentum of a particle. Furthermore, he knows Schroedinger's cat is dead because he personally strangled it.

Hell, I forgot he was even in that movie; it's been too long!..

I've been following the debate over John Edward's decision to keep running, including over at Dean's World. Since that thread seems to reflect some of the "real world," I'll ground my comments from that thread.

First up we have Arnold Harris, who says

If Elizabeth Edwards were my wife, with terminal breast cancer, I would not leave her immediate presence -- except for the obvious and vital sanitary purposes -- for as long as she could live.

I sure as hell would put aside every other activity.

I feel sorry for the former senator, even though I would not want him for US president. I feel sorry for his family. I feel sorry for his beautiful and gracious wife.

Well, Arnold, you -in spite of you very kind words- aren't John Edwards, are you ? Nor am I you.

Which is my point, really. This truly is a personal decision, one which pretty much by definition will be different for each person, as they are different people.

Let's shift the question just a little. The personal pressure a recovering alcoholic faces every day is tremendous, because every day is a new challenge all over again. And it will be that way for the rest of their lives.

My question is: do you think someone who faces that kind of day-to-day emotional pressure can handle the job of President of the United States?

I hope -if you answered "yes"- that you didn't vote for Dubya, since he is in fact a recovering alcoholic, and will be so for the rest of his life.

Let's look at another facet: the men and women who have a spouse in Iraq or Afghanistan. Should we expect that each and every one of them to collapse into a futile heap of emotional goo if their spouse dies? From what I've read and heard, just about all of them (Cindy Sheehan excepted) have managed to master the pain & grief, and get on with their lives.

...How odd it is that I am on the same side as mikeca on this one. :))

I am reminded of the old question: would you rather have a long life, or a glorious one? Or -to rephrase the latter- would you go out fighting?

...Hmmm. How many of you critizing Edwards have seen (and loved! {g}) 300 yet? You know the drill: death before surrender; glory; fight for what you believe in... whoops, isn't that what the Edwards are doing?

Right now I'd like to cite the excellent Captain Ed on this. By way of context, his wife (the lovely First Mate) has faced several health challenges the past few years.

It's a tough call for Edwards to make, and it's tough to criticize it either way. I think it's fair to say that Elizabeth has invested herself pretty deeply into John's campaign up to now, and she probably strongly resisted a suspension in the campaign. If this is what will keep her spirits high, then Edwards made the right decision.

All I can offer is my own perspective. My wife has had a number of chronic illnesses and acute crises, such as the one ongoing now, and one simply cannot stop living life or making a living. That being said, it usually helps to stay closer to home and family, just for one's own peace of mind. Edwards might find himself distracted on the campaign trail, and nagging issues might get blown out of proportion as he gets frustrated with the stress. ...

Edwards has the good fortune to have a fortune, so he can keep his family close while on the campaign trail. If he can balance the needs of his family with a presidential campaign, then he's made the right decision. I'm not hoping he succeeds in his political ambitions, but I do hope he stays strong for his family and that Elizabeth can remain as healthy as possible from now on.

CODA: Joe Gandelman has an excellent round-up, as well as a truly heart-breaking wedding photo of the Edwards. I defy you to look at that picture, and not shed a tear...

Alas, she has become more and more hatefully unpleasant.

The most recent incident (courtesy of Captain Ed) involves calling John Edwards a faggot.

I'd say something about John Edwards, but if you use the word 'faggot', you have to go to rehab.

That's bad enough. What's worse is that many in the audience actually applauded her! In fact a couple of commenters on Captain Ed's post tried to defend her. Sheesh. Thank God there are classy conservative folks like Ed who are willing to call Ms. Coulter out on her hateful remarks.

This is the sort of vicious, mindless drivel that convinces the rest of the world that conservative Republicans really are a bunch of mindless homophobes, no matter the reality. I think the Human Rights Campaign has it about right when Joe Solomonese said

We demand that every single Presidential candidate in attendance at this conference, along with Vice President Cheney stand up and publicly condemn this type of gutter-style politics,” continued Solmonese. “If not, then their silence will be deafening to the vast majority of Americans who believe this type of language belongs no where near the discussions about the future of our country.”

This is exactly the kind of crap which can drive independents such as myself away from Republican candidates. I've known and worked with gays/lesbians for over thirty years in local music, theater, and other areas, and (here in the midwest) they're pretty much like straights. It's just that their compass points in a different direction. One lesbian couple I know own a home, and want nothing more than to get married and raise a kid. How Republican is that!?

Sorry, Annie; you have now been officially defined an Idiotarian by the Gantry Launchpad Mission Control.

A long-time veteran, Palance was one of Hollywood's unsung, underpinning performers, including a classic role in Shane. Alas, the Academy neglected to recognize his work until he won Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers in 1991.

Rest in peace, Jack, and enjoy that long ride across the enternal prarie...