Stardock Fences: organize your icons into floating areas on your desktop | freewaregenius.com:

Fences is a free windows enhancement that allows you to create folder-like, semitransparent groups that float on the desktop and allow you to organize your desktop icons within them. It also offers the option to hide all or some of your desktop icons by double clicking on an empty area.

By now, however, I'm not sure I need it as much, I've already taught myself to just deal with it...

Sure I already finished this multiple times on the GameCube, but I loved the controller setup on Metroid Prime 3 so much, I'd love to play this again in full HD, wide screen, with updated controls... I loves me some Metroid

The White House - Blog Post - Relief for Gaza:

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the "Act"), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.

Though even as little as 10 times this much is still a fraction of what goes to Israel and Egypt to keep the Gazans down, and greatly improves the lives of the people of Gaza to the point that they'll no longer support violent means of political change. $20.3 million, however, will barely make a dent and isn't even as much as has been reported that Hamas has put up. Perhaps it's time to go back to the methods of the cold war, less actual war, more competition to out-spend the oppenent...

Religion:

Istiqamah is an important concept of Islam. It has several meanings. It means to be straight, to follow the straight path, to remain firm on one’s principles and not to give up under difficulties or challenges. Some scholars say that it also means to be sincere and do good things in public as well in private life. Some others say that it means to be straight in words as well in deeds. (see Nadrat al-Na’im, vol. 2, p. 304)

Vim documentation: usr_25:

REFORMATTING

The Vim editor is not a word processor.  In a word processor, if you delete
something at the beginning of the paragraph, the line breaks are reworked.  In
Vim they are not; so if you delete the word "programming" from the first line,
all you get is a short line:

		 1	   2	     3
	12345678901234567890123456789012345
	I taught for a 
	while. One time, I was stopped 
	by the Fort Worth police, 
	because my homework was too 
	hard. True story. 

This does not look good.  To get the paragraph into shape you use the "gq"
operator.
   Let's first use this with a Visual selection.  Starting from the first
line, type:

	v4jgq

"v" to start Visual mode, "4j' to move to the end of the paragraph and then
the "gq" operator.  The result is:

		 1	   2	     3
	12345678901234567890123456789012345
	I taught for a while. One 
	time, I was stopped by the 
	Fort Worth police, because my 
	homework was too hard. True 
	story. 

Note: there is a way to do automatic formatting for specific types of text
layouts, see |auto-format|.

Since "gq" is an operator, you can use one of the three ways to select the
text it works on: With Visual mode, with a movement and with a text object.
   The example above could also be done with "gq4j".  That's less typing, but
you have to know the line count.  A more useful motion command is "}".  This
moves to the end of a paragraph.  Thus "gq}" formats from the cursor to the
end of the current paragraph.
   A very useful text object to use with "gq" is the paragraph.  Try this:

	gqap

"ap" stands for "a-paragraph".  This formats the text of one paragraph
(separated by empty lines).  Also the part before the cursor.
   If you have your paragraphs separated by empty lines, you can format the
whole file by typing this:

	gggqG

"gg" to move to the first line, "gqG" to format until the last line.
   Warning: If your paragraphs are not properly separated, they will be joined
together.  A common mistake is to have a line with a space or Tab.  That's a
blank line, but not an empty line.

Vim is able format more than just plain text.  See |fo-table| for how to
change this.  See the 'joinspaces' option to change the number of spaces used
after a full stop.
   It is possible to use an external program for formatting.  This is useful
if your text can't be properly formatted with Vim's builtin command.  See the
'formatprg' option.

Here is an interesting clip, posted by Aly with ultimate props to Adrian, of a "strange" new way to get your news:

Sure it's fun to see these old clips knowing what we know now, but what does this clip tell me? It tells me that only Mr Halloran has his "Home Computer" set up ergonomically. The newspaper computers are all 1 piece jobs with keyboard attached to monitor, and as a result they are all hunched over them in a back-breaking posture:

Also, it's clear, that 28 years ago we slaughtered whole forests for our paper needs. Seriously, the reduction of paper in our lives happened so gradually that frequently I think we still use so much paper, it takes a video like this to remind us of the mounds of paper that we used to bury ourselves under.

Also so very interesting is what hasn't changed:

• We still have a fascination with putting tons of workers in one big fat room and expecting them all to be productive. I know in these clips the news room is still setup in a "secretarial pool" style, and not a more moder "cubicle hell" style, but still it's efficient use of space with no regard for how people actually get work done.
• The "less than fashionable cubby hole" could have the old PCs removed and replaced with new iMacs and you'd think it was from today. Even the geeks still dress the same.
• Mr Halloran's outfit wouldn't even get a 2nd notice today. I guess wealthy San Franciscans can wear 28 year old suits and be fine.
• "We're not in it to make money", still true today, newspapers don't know how to make money. Zing!
• The advertisement's newspaper headline reads: "More arms spending". Now that's depressing...
• We still drink coffee!
  

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If so, any good?

Oh the tears are a flowing. Teen age angst has nothing on 2 year old frustration with a world that won't bend to her (or his) will. Luckily she gets over it quickly, and all is forgiven.

History did not begin with the Qassams - Haaretz - Israel News:

The siege of Gaza did not begin when Hamas seized control of the Strip's security organs, or when Gilad Shalit was taken captive, or when Hamas was elected in democratic elections. The siege began in 1991 - before the suicide bombings. And since then, it has only become more sophisticated, reaching its peak in 2005.

The Israeli public relations machinery happily presented the disengagement as the end of the occupation, in brazen disregard of the facts. The isolation and closure were presented as military necessities. But we are big boys and girls, and we know that "military necessities" and consistent lies serve state goals. Israel's goal was to thwart the two-state solution, which the world had expected to materialize once the Cold War ended in 1990. This was not a perfect solution, but the Palestinians were ready for it then.

Gaza is not a military power that attacked its tiny, peace-loving neighbor, Israel. Gaza is a territory that Israel occupied in 1967, along with the West Bank. Its residents are part of the Palestinian people, which lost its land and its homeland in 1948.

I am rather frustrated with the current affairs in Gaza. I can't imagine how anyone sees the situation differently than I do, but more importantly I can't imagine, whatever side you are on, why the current bombing is necessary or good. Guess there is not much I can do, there are calls for boycotts (not convinced that they will really help, or that they are even coordinated well). There are calls for donations (of course Israel is stopping any money, aid, doctors, IRC, and everything else from getting to Gaza). But I can at least appeal to my elected government officials. So I sent the following to my US Representative, both of my Senators, President Bush, and President Elect Obama:

I implore you to take action on the recent troubles in Israel/Palestine. It would seem to be clear to anyone with any moral fiber that Israel has more than "retaliated" for any actions taken by Hamas especially since it is clear that Israel is the violator of the most recent cease fire. The people who are forced to reside in Gaza, who have no escape, no means to defend themselves, no means to even feed themselves and keep warm under the current blockade, are clearly victims of the worst kind.

I don't expect that anything will resolve this current escalation to any one's satisfaction, but at least we can pressure the Israeli government to stop the carnage, and we can work to stop supporting a country that most of the world, and the UN, have branded a criminal due to this and other recent actions which they have taken in clear violation of criminal law. To believe that this is simply "defense of Israel" is a joke as clear as day when the casualties on both sides are compared, and when we remember that Gaza is nothing more than a giant prison.

Please do your best to find any way to cease the current hostilities and save any lives possible if simply just to save the innocent from the arrogant men who presume to speak for them.

Maybe you agree with me or not. But I still wonder why violence and war is the solution we turn to so often to resolve our differences. Sure this is a big complicated mess, but the world is not a zero sum game, I truly believe we can all "win".

Olmert says he talked Bush out of cease-fire vote - Los Angeles Times:

Reporting from Washington -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert boasted Monday that he successfully pressured President Bush last week to reverse course on U.S. diplomacy over fighting in Gaza, in an episode that could sharpen tensions between the close allies at a sensitive moment.

Speaking to an audience in Ashkelon, Israel, Olmert said he had called Bush last Thursday and convinced him that the United States should not vote for a pending U.N. Security Council resolution urging a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

 

Olmert said Bush's agreement "embarrassed" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice because the resolution was one that she had "cooked up, she organized, she formulated, she maneuvered," according to comments reported by Israel Radio.

"And she was left pretty embarrassed, abstaining on a draft resolution she organized herself," Olmert added.

Just when you thought Bush could do no more harm...

My wife likes this show, and I told her that it was canceled, guess that was mostly just a rumor?

Lipstick Jungle (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

On November 13, rumors emerged that NBC would cancel the show due to low ratings and it was unclear if the remaining episodes would be aired in the current time slot. However, these rumors are, as yet, unconfirmed. Lipstick Jungle will continue to air their remaining episodes due to a 50% increase in ratings. NBC Chairman Ben Silverman stated that they "may" order more episodes down the line if ratings were to improve.

Not sure if this is the way you compete with low ratings, but convincing people that you're probably going to cancel their show. Wonder if the same goes for "My Own Worst Enemy"...

My Own Worst Enemy (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

My Own Worst Enemy was an American television drama airing on NBC, and Global in Canada. It premiered on October 13, 2008. The series was produced by Universal Media Studios. Jason Smilovic was the executive producer; David Semel was the director and executive producer. It ended on December 15th after 9 episodes. The final episode ended with a cliff-hanger, and the major plot lines ended without resolution.

Nope, appears that one is dead. NBC already killed "Journeyman" which we both enjoyed. Still can't figure out why "Chuck" is still on, or why "Heroes" isn't rated higher. Clearly I'm not anyone's target audience, or even a good judge of what it takes to run a TV network...

And here's the proof:

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | The 'misunderestimated' president?:

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."

- W

FogBugz - Project Management Software:

FogBugz helps teams work together by tracking, prioritizing, and coordinating the thousands of small tasks a development team has to do.

On the tip from A.San I checked out FogBugz and I'm glad he mentioned it. Much easier to get tasks in the system, much easier to group, categorize, organize, and manipulate tasks; and much easier to close them out than my previous solution of Salesforce. And I've only just scratched the surface...

A while back I read about a new symbol that could be appearing on my consumer products:

Marks on products to indicate the Kosher Certification of one authority or another are quite familiar to most Americans (I think) and "Halal" marks are common throughout the Muslim world, but this mark seems to be the first effort to mark products as acceptable to Muslims in the US. The growth of this sort of thing, especially in the US environment, is clearly going to be a slow thing, but this morning I noticed the mark on a product that was already in my medicine cabinet, Deodorant - Apricot Long Last Stick (2.25oz 18P).

IFANCA: About Us:

IFANCA's halal certification symbol, the Crescent M, can be found on thousands of products around the globe. In addition, IFANCA maintains close working relationships with many Islamic centers and Islamic organizations throughout the country and the world.

The seem to know their stuff, but who knows what process they go about when certifying products. Still I'll trust this mark over nothing, and it's better than my trying to review a product for Kosher marks, since there is a ton of difference between those marks as well, and I also then have to search for anything with alcohol in it.

Amazon.com - Wish List:

Universal Wish List allows you to add products from any website to your Amazon Wish List with one simple click, making it easier than ever to keep track of all the gifts you wish for, all in one place.

And since I'm apparently some sort of Amazonaphile I've promptly moved my list off of Kaboodle and back onto Amazon.com.

Perhaps I've explained it before, but we aggregate lists published by governments of "bad people" that other companies can then search via website, web services, or various batch reports to ensure that they are not doing any kind of business with said "bad people". But how often does this sort of thing make the news?

U.S. Links Iranian Bank To Fifth Avenue Building - washingtonpost.com:

Citing a series of alleged sham transactions and e-mails, Treasury and Justice write in court documents that Assa Corp., which holds the 40 percent interest, is a shell company that funnels the rental proceeds through a parent company in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France, to the Iranian bank, which is wholly owned by the Iranian government. Under various laws and presidential orders, the government of Iran and related entities are prohibited from doing business in the United States without a license from Treasury.

And yes, Assa Corp. is now designated "bad people".

Yes, I am redoing my work site. ColdFusion 5 to ASP.NET 3.5, so there is lots of potential for improvement. One such improvement is localization. The last time I tried localization I was on ASP.NET 1.1 I think, and it seems some improvement was made in ASP.NET 2.0/VisualStudio 2005 (and it all still works with 3.5/2008).

CodeProject: Globalization and localization demystified in ASP.NET 2.0. Free source code and programming help:

Globalization and localization are two important processes which every developer should be aware of while creating global products or applications. Though there are many articles which explain the subject well, I did not find a single resource which explains all important concepts regarding globalization/localization, practically and comprehensively. This article aims to provide practical step-by-step approach to globalizing a web application in ASP.NET 2.0.

Relatively painless so far, though I am taking shortcuts by only using language and not culture, so I'm not going to be changing symbols or currency markings, etc. Plus I'm not tackling support for RTL languages, I'll worry about that later...

So I'm converting an Excel Spreadsheet to a SQL script and I forgot to escape the single quotes before surrounding all of the data with single quotes, which won't run in SQL of course. Usually I just start over, today I took it upon myself to determine how I can find these offending single quotes with a vim RegEx. Voila:


The only ones this misses is single quotes at the beginning or end of a field, like: ''Bobby Smith'', which should be escaped '''Bobby Smith''', but these are much easier to hunt down with all other cases taken care of with a simple :g//s//''/g knowwhatimean?

Prison cops in five-hour Muslim riot | The Sun |News:

A FIVE-hour rampage by young Muslim prisoners armed with hammers and chisels was broken up by a riot squad yesterday.

Dozens of inmates barricaded themselves into a workshop and grabbed tools including saws.

Riot police and 100 specially-trained prison officers — kitted out with body armour, shields and helmets — were called in.

When negotiations failed, the officers moved in and overpowered the prisoners — many of whom were teenagers.

No injuries to staff were reported but there was said to be “considerable damage” to the workshop.

Some of the rioters suffered minor bruises.

It is believed the rampage at Aylesbury Young Offenders’ Institution started after inmates celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid which marks the end of Ramadan.

Commenter "Bettymac":

When are they going to stop calling this the "Religion of peace"?

Because, of course, criminals are known to be the exemplar of following rules...

Mac is just *nix under the covers, so this was a bit odd that these two popped up next to each other on Twitter:
And I haven't changed anything, I'm Even Steven!

Authorities Shut Down Major Spam Ring - NYTimes.com:

“This will send some real shock waves through the spamming industry, but even if these guys were running a substantial botnet of compromised computers, there are always spammers looking to take their place,” said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, a spam-fighting security firm. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if people don’t notice any difference in their in-box tomorrow morning.”

My GMail spam folder now holds about 1/4 the spam I had become accustomed to. The only reason I even read this story is when I remarked on that fact, and was tipped off by mexijew and sspenguin on Twitter.

Now that Za is on the TV/Game room TV much of the day, I've been DS and iPod Touch gaming a lot more. iPod Touch mostly for Cross Word Puzzles, and my DS has been destroying Castlevania, but I'm just about done with that so what's next? Looks like some DS PoP action, please.

Official Google Reader Blog: Is Your Web Truly World-Wide?:

Believe it or not, the web truly is world-wide. That means there is a lot of interesting content out there in languages other than your own. You might have missed out on this content in the past, but now, with automatic translation in Reader, you don't have to miss a thing!

Next time you find an interesting feed in another language, just subscribe to it as normal in Reader. When you view the feed in Reader, check off "Translate into my language" in the feed settings, and (voila!) the feed will be immediately translated for you. Also, this setting will be saved so you can always view this feed in your own language.

Now I can get the gist of my wife's blogs, mostly written in Bahasa Indonesia which I'm still a neophyte in. I probably already know what they say, since we do live together and all, however regardless of that, thank you Google, bawk bawk!

Official DC EID Site:

New DC Convention Center  (Hall C)

801 Mount Vernon Place, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Entrance on 7^th and L Street NW

 

Eid Prayers

7:30am - 1st prayer and Khutba

8:30am – 2nd prayer and Khutba                  

9:45am – 3rd prayer and Khutba

11:00am – 4th prayer and Khutba

Can Oracle 10g Express do SOAP calls?

I may have to generate some sample code for accessing a web service I publish using Oracle, and I don't want to get too far in if I can't do it from the free version. (I.E. if it costs money, I want to budget first, learn later...)

So, are you an Oracle guru? Can 10g Express do direct calls to a SOAP based web services (that is without relying on some other middle layer like PHP, Java, or .NET - unless of course that is the "official" way to support calls out of Oracle...)

Thanks!

Forms Authentication, Identities and Roles from a Database:

One of the most useful and perhaps most misunderstood authentication schemes built in to the ASP.NET runtime is Forms Authentication. Useful, because it is highly extensible and flexible (as we'll see in a moment). Misunderstood, because most developers don't get past the default setup described in the documentation and therefore never find out how to extend and customize it.

I still don't understand why I have to roll my own Forms auth with Roles, I would expect that everyone would want to use roles, but oh well...

Dr Pepper to deliver on its free-soda promise - Yahoo! News:

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.

Props: Maaaark

DPWT - Highway Maintenance: Leaf Vacuuming:

The Leaf Collection Program will be conducted for approximately 6 to 8 weeks, and includes postings for 2 scheduled pick-ups. We will post green signs throughout the work areas several days before our crews' arrival. We will attempt to allow a weekend for residents to rake their leaves to the edge of the road for vacuum pick-up. Signs will be removed after our crews complete each street. The second and final fall collection will begin after Thanksgiving. The timing will depend on weather conditions. Red signs will indicate that this is the final collection. The same procedure of posting, collection, and sign removal is used for the final vacuum collection.

I saw people collecting leaves, I never saw any green signs...

Kearns, Detailed Name Information with Meaning & Origin at nameLab - FamilyEducation.com:

First name origins & meanings:

1. Celtic: Warrior
2. Gaelic: Dark

First name variations: Karney, Karny, Kerney, Kirney, Kearney, Curran, Kearn, Kearne, Kern

Last name origin & meaning:

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Céirín 'descendant of Céirín', a personal name from a diminutive of ciar 'dark', 'black'. English patronymic -s has been added superfluously.

Kearns — Infoplease.com:

Kearns (kûrnz) [key], uninc. town (1990 pop. 28,874), Salt Lake co., N Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Alfalfa and barley are grown and cattle and sheep are raised. There is copper mining nearby.

Like buying a new 50″ TV each year and tossing it in the dumpster. — CancelCable.com:

What if you could eliminate your gas bill and still drive 95% of the places you currently go? Or stop paying for heating by keeping your thermostat two degrees cooler? These aren’t possible, but you can stop paying for TV and still watch most of your favorite shows.

Budgets are tight. But most people are still reluctant to give up cable. Even when it may be financially crazy to keep it. Paying $95/month for cable? That’s over $1100 a year. Or enough to buy a 50″ HD Plasma TV each year.

Save the money or put it towards that new big screen TV. Then use free digital broadcast TV and avoid paying monthly cable tv fees. Save the money and earn interest on it. With a 6% rate of return…

• After 3 years you will have saved $3747
• After 5 years you will have saved $6648
• After 10 years you will have saved $15,621
• After 20 years you will have saved $44,083

Congratulations! You have now turned a major expense into an investment.

What are you missing? Not much. We did it and still watch all our favorite shows. Most were broadcast (Lost, 24, etc.) . Using a $16 digital antenna our picture quality is actually better than our old digital cable. Most of our favorite cable shows (Daily Show, Colbert Report) are available for free on the Internet. Our kids watch videos on Disney.com and Nick.com and we get current movies and HBO shows with a Netflix subscription.

Props: CancelCable.com via Washington Post via Lord Scarlet

UBI continues to deliver the love:

Not only does the game look stunning, but I could watch the demo to the official site a dozen times over. Now I know why I still have a PS3 (and, of course, replaying Ratchet & Clank since I had no backup of my game save...)

Props: FitzGerlad

When I got my T-Mobile G1 I couldn't find anywhere around here with street view. Thanks to Thayer Ave I now know that Silver Spring is full on robot street view, and Bethesda they're just getting started. Here's the back of my house:

View Larger Map

And I can't get enough of the "Graphic Novel" artwork style:

Check out:

ALIAmerica Home:

Arabic Language Institute of America (ALIAmerica) offers professional Arabic language teaching, training, and tutoring services for both adults and children in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Yes, this is a plug for a friend, but he's good, really really good...

Decided to trade in the Jetta, picked up a Mazda5. More seating room, lower monthly payment, not as good millage, but as much as I drive, it still won't be more than I'm saving a month on the payment, so I come out ahead. Basically it looks like this:

Mine is dark silver, though, and doesn't have fog lamps, or the cool honeycomb grill, or the roof things for luggage. So far so good. Drives real nice, and even with 4 cylendars it has quite a bit of zoom zoom...

Activision and Blizzard parent merge in $18 billion deal - Joystiq:

File this under "straight out of left field" -- Activision, the publishing powerhouse behind the Call of Duty and Tony Hawk series; and Vivendi Games, owner of Blizzard Entertainment, which you probably don't need us to tell you is behind the Warcraft and Starcraft series, are coming together to form "the world's most profitable games business," cleverly named Activision Blizzard.

So when is World of River Raid coming out?

Anyone who has lived in DC for a while knows that with each new administration, it means new restaurants. Bush Sr. liked Chinese. Clinton like Mickey-Ds and Dominoes, when W got here we got some Austin-style Tex-Mex. So what can we expect from the Obama camp?

Seems reports are he likes to cook Chili and serve it over rice. He also seems to like Pizza and comfort/soul food. I'm hoping it gets Rick Bayless to open a real Mexican place in the city. Chicago dogs? Kansas ribs? Hawaiian spam and poi? Doubt it means Kenyan or Indonesian food, but how great would that be? What are you hoping for?

Uh, what's happening CC?
They still call it the White House
But that's a temporary condition, too.
Can you dig it, CC?

...

There's a lot of chocolate cities, around
We've got Newark, we've got Gary
Somebody told me we got L.A.
And we're working on Atlanta
But you're the capital, CC

...

Hey, CC!
They say your jivin' game, it can't be changed
But on the positive side,
You're my piece of the rock
And I love you, CC.
Can you dig it?

Hey, uh, we didn't get our forty acres and a mule
But we did get you, CC, heh, yeah
Gainin' on ya
Movin' in and around ya
God bless CC and its vanilla suburbs

...

You don't need the bullet when you got the ballot
Are you up for the downstroke, CC?

...

And don't be surprised if Ali is in the White House
Reverend Ike, Secretary of the Treasure
Richard Pryor, Minister of Education
Stevie Wonder, Secretary of FINE arts
And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady
Are you out there, CC?
A chocolate city is no dream
It's my piece of the rock and I dig you, CC
God bless Chocolate City and its (gainin' on ya!) vanilla suburbs

[ Chocolate City - Parliment ]

Seriously, though, let's start talking Obama's cabinet...

Some said it would never happen, I say it's about time:

2008 Election: Winners and Losers - The Fix:

All the talk that Obama's poll numbers were inflated as a result of the fact that voters did not feel comfortable telling pollsters they would not vote for him due to the color of his skin proved to be bunk.

In Harlem convenience store, an immigrant enclave - On the Scene: Witnessing History - msnbc.com:

“People will love the United States more than ever,” Barrie said. “Do you know why? Because we showed the world already that this is United States. … We are human beings, everybody is equal.”

Obama's victory caps struggles of previous generations - CNN.com:

Moses says he is amazed that Obama has helped lead the country through a racially transformative moment without anyone getting killed. Pivotal events in America's racial history -- the debate over slavery, the assault on segregation -- sparked widespread violence, Moses says. "I don't think people appreciate how delicate it is to move the society around these questions without descent into chaos or into pockets of chaos," he says.

Nation Finally [Crappy] Enough To Make Social Progress | The Onion - America's Finest News Source:

Although polls going into the final weeks of October showed Sen. Obama in the lead, it remained unclear whether the failing economy, dilapidated housing market, crumbling national infrastructure, health care crisis, energy crisis, and five-year-long disastrous war in Iraq had made the nation crappy enough to rise above 300 years of racial prejudice and make lasting change. (courtesy Grossberg)

NAACP:

Yesterday, we ushered in a new era. Yesterday, we destroyed the remnants of Jim Crow, abolished a one-color-fits-all definition of leadership, and declared that our nation would rise above the politics of the past. Yesterday, we witnessed the most inclusive election enjoyed by the largest best- informed, motivated electorate in our nation’s history. Yesterday, we elected an African-American man to President of the United States of America.

I pray that Obama does such a tremendous job that this is never an issue again, and we look forward to future presidents of all genders, races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds!

French Revolution: The Wheel of Fortune:

Wagon Wheels with Sauce Roquefort

1 pound of wagon wheel pasta (recommended: Barilla Mini Wheels)
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and left whole
Zest of half a lemon
1/3 pound of Roquefort, crumbled
2 cups of whole milk
2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup parmesan, grated
1 ½ tablespoons of parsley

1. Cook the pasta to “al dente” in a large pot full of salted boiling water. Drain.
2. While the pasta is cooking, begin with a standard béchamel with garlic and lemon. Melt the butter at the bottom of a sauce pan over medium heat, and add in the whole smashed garlic cloves and the lemon zest, along with salt and pepper. Season well—milk sauces have a tendency to be bland.
3. Add in the flour, and cook for a minute. Whisk in the milk, raise the heat, and bring to a simmer.
4. Allow the sauce to cook until it thickens. The test is to dip a wooden spoon in the sauce, run your finger down the back, and if the sauce stays divided, the béchamel is done.
5. Add in the Roquefort, and stir until it is combined.
6. Toss the drained pasta with the Roquefort sauce, and pour into a large serving bowl.
7. Mix together the parmesan, walnuts, and parsley. Scatter over the top of the pasta.

Apparently everyone wants some first-hand impressions of the new T-Mobile G1 Android phone. I've only had it for just over a day, and can't quite give it the full review that it deserves, but here are a few highlights:

• Smaller than I thought. Apparently some people think it is big, but perhaps they aren't used to carrying around a smart phone.
• Battery life sucks. Seriously. If you have ever complained about battery life, you will certainly complain about the G1. Seriously.
• App store is empty. Well, it is growing, but it's nothing like the Apple D App store at it's launch. I do expect great things, however.
• Keyboard. Nice to have one, but as I've seen elsewhere it isn't really raised and doesn't provide the tactile feedback that a sidekick keyboard does.
• Integration with Google. Wish I could do 2 Google Apps for my Domain accounts, but the integration that it does have is great.
• WiFi. Haven't tried that yet.
• GPS. Tried once, but it couldn't get a bead.
• Case. There really isn't one, just a soft pouch. Had to buy something else.
• Screen. Bright. Very bright. I have the screen turned down in brightness, and still the color pops nicely.
• However. Screen is also a magnet for finger prints. I have some screen protectors on order, but we'll see...
• Mini track ball. Just like the new Sidekick and Blackberries. And it's nice.
• The notification bar? Just incredible. Reason enough to leave my Windows Mobile device in the dust.
• SMS is threaded. Nice.
• Camera is a bit weak, but nice enough to power some UPC lookup software.
• The "Locations" app. You can save locations (based on GPS or WiFi Mac address location) and then trigger events like new ringer, new wallpaper, volume settings, sending a twitter... Nice.
• Shazam app lets you sample a song near you and it tells you what the song is. I think iPhone has that, plus 1/2 a dozen other phones, this is the first phone I have that can do it.
• Phone. Such a low priority for me, but I did receive one call already, and I could actually hear them. That's a plus. Haven't tried my Bluetooth headset though.
• Voice dialer doesn't work well when you are trying to call "Sriwiyaty", apparently not a "normal" name...

So far, so good. I can live with the meager battery, and to be honest I have been playing with the phone non-stop, so it's pretty heavy battery use, but even if I was doing very little it would suck. They should have replacement better batteries at some point, so waiting might help with that one. I'm still waiting for some cool apps too, but they should be along soon enough...

The Food Issue - An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief - Michael Pollan - NYTimes.com:

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

And so on, and so on for like 9 pages. I believe I agree with every word of it. Someone should put Michael Pollan in charge of the whole lot and get the US to start thinking about food again. Oh, and Victory Gardens! He wants to bring them back. Sounds good to me.

As you can see, my bro-in-law, Kole, says the new sate (satay to you gringos) grill is A-OK...

TGS08: Castlevania: Order of Awesome Trailer - DS Fanboy:

The first minute and thirteen seconds consists of Order of Ecclesia character/location art, so if it's gameplay you're after, you'll want to skip to around one-third of the way through

Just finished a most outstanding book, and I believe a must read for all Muslims, and any non-Muslims concerned about the world. Professor El Fadl lays down a very convincing argument for the reality of the split in world Muslim population between what he terms "purists" and "moderates". As a moderate Muslim who thought he, at best, didn't agree with the purists, I think I am now convinced that the "purists" are truly a cancer in the body of Islam and must be removed in any way possible. The first step? Clearly identify this cancerous growth, which is exactly what the esteemed professor has done. Next up? Fight the cancer with the best weapons we have, which apparently is intellect, scholarly pursuits, and the dissemination of proper Islamic teachings to expose these twisted "puritan" beliefs for what they are, and steal back our faith.

From: I introduce the KazooKeylele! This is what the internet was invented for!!!!!

Props to fitzgerlad.

Imam Zaid Shakir of the Zaytuna Institute, and proud American and Air Force Veteran, would prefer you know a few facts that clearly refute and denounce the recent plague of propaganda you may have found in your local newspaper:

Carrying the Word:

Recently, 28 million copies of the anti-Islamic propaganda documentary, Obsession, were distributed free of charge in what are being considered the “swing” states in the current election campaign. This effort is clearly designed to leverage the idea in the minds of many Americans that Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim (he is not), and therefore, he is to be identified with the images and statements of some Muslims, which give the impression that Islam is a fanatical, bloodthirsty religion, whose adherents are hell-bent on destroying America. In essence, it is a diabolical attempt by dark forces to sway an American election.

Still no answer on why the DVD is named after a Calvin Klein fragrance...