benzado

OVERCOMPENSATING: The Journal Comic With a Seething Disdain for...

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:20:48 -0400

OVERCOMPENSATING: The Journal Comic With a Seething Disdain for Reality.

Congratulations!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:41:23 -0400

Intersection

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:19:31 -0400

On Stack Overflow, a site for programming questions, somebody asked What real life bad habits has programming given you? I received a “Nice Answer” badge because my answer about improv was voted up more than 10 times.

"Congress was designed by the Founding Fathers to move slowly, precisely to avoid the sudden panic of..."

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:28:01 -0400

“Congress was designed by the Founding Fathers to move slowly, precisely to avoid the sudden panic of a one-week solution that becomes a 20-year mess. There are four major questions that have to be answered before Congress adopts a new $700 billion burden for the American taxpayer. On each of these questions, I believe Congress’s answer will be “no” if it slows down long enough to examine the facts.”

- Even Newt Gingrich thinks Paulson’s plan is a bad idea!

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over..."

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:12:19 -0400

“Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

- John McCain, in an article published this month, simultaneously taking credit for the banking deregulation that led to the current financial crisis and promising to bring the same to healthcare. (via Kos via Krugman)

hey have you seen this guy before he might make a good...

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:48:00 -0400

hey have you seen this guy before he might make a good president

"It might have been the right thing to run down to the river with buckets to collect water to throw..."

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:31:18 -0400

“It might have been the right thing to run down to the river with buckets to collect water to throw on the burning building, but it would have been much better to have better fire codes and a functioning fire department.”

- Atrios, regarding all the bailing out that the Federal government is doing

Based on these two Representatives, what party seems more...

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:03:22 -0400

Based on these two Representatives, what party seems more credible on the economy?

The Giant Pool of Money

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:10:50 -0400

The Giant Pool of Money: Now would be a good time to listen to this episode of This American Life. It was produced back in May, but the story it tells explains how Wall Street got to where it is today, on fire.

Vote for Change

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:14:25 -0400

Vote for Change:

rubysneakers:

charlietodd:

Register to vote (or make sure you’re still registered) in 3 minutes. Send this to everyone you know!

register! it’s so quick!

If registering to vote was a horrible painful lengthy process, I would still not forgive you for checking out when it really mattered.

I completely forgot that yesterday was 9/11/08, until I was reminded at UCB Cage Match that night....

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:06:00 -0400

I completely forgot that yesterday was 9/11/08, until I was reminded at UCB Cage Match that night. I was in Ithaca on 9/11/01, and although I was shook up by the experience, I am aware that it didn’t affect me like it affected the people living in New York City on that day. I moved here only a few days before 9/11/06, to work in an office overlooking Ground Zero. Or, on an optimistic day, The Freedom Tower Construction Site. Sometimes I feel guilty about moving here five years after-the-fact, as if I haven’t earned it.

To be honest, my immediate concern is what the world will look like on 9/11/09, and how 11/4/08 will determine who takes a very important oath on 1/20/09.

Sarah Palin is refusing to schedule any interviews or press conferences where reporters will be able...

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:10:13 -0400

Sarah Palin is refusing to schedule any interviews or press conferences where reporters will be able to ask her questions directly. This, more than anything else, will backfire for the McCain campaign, because it is irritating the media itself. Even Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday mentioned it several times, despite that it is pretty much his job to make the Republicans look good.

I’d like to give thanks to the people who posted a diagnostics guide, a disassembly tutorial,...

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:47:13 -0400

I’d like to give thanks to the people who posted a diagnostics guide, a disassembly tutorial, and a dirty sensor case study. Without them, my Roomba would still be driving in circles and angrily beeping at me.

Re: Firefly

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:51:38 -0400

Jess and I are doing a thing where I loan her a compilation of Achewood comics and she loans me a DVD. Through this program I have watched the first season of Battlestar Galactica and, now, the first three episodes of Firefly.

BSG is OK. There’s a lot to like about it, but something about the overall feel doesn’t sit right with me. I figured it out when I watched some of the DVD extras: the producers used the behind-the-scenes material on the DVD to congratulate themselves for making a sci-fi show that was really about people and not about robots and lasers. I found this attitude kind of insulting, because every good story, sci-fi included, is about people.

If you only know Star Wars from the fans who attend conventions in costume, you might think the film is just about droids and spaceships. In truth, all that stuff is only background for the film. What makes Star Wars so great is that the background is so richly detailed you almost believe it’s a real place, which in turn makes the people in the story more interesting to watch.

Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, has a subtle contempt for the background. For example, the colonial government’s parliament is called “The Quorum of Twelve.” It irritates me each time I hear that, because “quorum” has a specific meaning that doesn’t quite fit the way they are using it. It reeks of a writer who was picking an unusual word that sounded governmental. To me, it makes the government seem fake.

Also, when they recover the Cylon raider and discover that, instead of a traditional spaceship, it is actually a big organism with organs and blood inside, nobody seems to think much of it. But as far as I can tell, even within the BSG universe, that is incredibly weird. It seems like the writers thought it was better to avoid any dialogue about spaceships and technology (which would make the show seem nerdy) than to have the characters deal with this weird discovery. Again, it just makes the show seem fake.

Anyway, the point of this post is to discuss Firefly. All I wanted to say about it was:

I didn’t know much about the show beforehand, so I was surprised to find it styled so much like the American Wild West. Cool!
While it is technically true that sound doesn’t travel in space, it isn’t much fun to watch a spaceship zoom away silently.

Coke Zero, bulk purchase savings

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:11:09 -0400

Prices are from Gristedes, except for the 20 oz bottle, which is the price at the Parisian Deli across the street. One can is 355 mL. (Tumblr won’t let me format this as a table, even if I write the HTML myself. Lame.)

1.5 L bottle @ $1.69 = 40 cents per can
2 L bottle @ $2.39 = 42 cents per can
12-pack of cans @ $6.79 = 57 cents per can
6-pack of cans @ $3.49 = 58 cents per can
20 oz bottle @ $1.50 = 90 cents per can

Qualitative considerations:

Aluminum is a better thermal conductor (drink is perceived to be colder).
1.5 L and 2 L bottles require a drinking cup, which must be washed.
Plastic bottles have a smaller carbon footprint.
Cans are pre-portioned.

"The only way McCain can top this is if he does his convention speech from inside that torture camp..."

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:12:29 -0400

“The only way McCain can top this is if he does his convention speech from inside that torture camp he was a prisoner in. You know, the one that everyone brings up anytime they mention McCain.”

- Ladies Be Shopping !!$$!!: Lets Discuss Politics.

"There are plenty of very experienced female politicians out there to choose from, both Republican..."

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:25:29 -0400

“There are plenty of very experienced female politicians out there to choose from, both Republican and Democrat. But McCain chose the young, inexperienced former beauty pageant contestant. And remember, McCain is a guy who dumped his first wife (who stood by him throughout his captivity) for a much younger (and richer) former beauty pageant contestant.”

- The Anonymous Liberal: Palin?

"I don’t think much of McCain’s choice of a running mate. It is obvious he chose her..."

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:53:48 -0400

“I don’t think much of McCain’s choice of a running mate. It is obvious he chose her because of gender and nothing else which is stupid. Women don’t vote for other women because of gender they actually put some thought into the candidate (or I would like to think they do).”

- my mom, who hates talking about politics, via email

"There’s no question: Barack running for president changes everything. Attention black children of..."

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:43:31 -0400

“There’s no question: Barack running for president changes everything. Attention black children of America: in addition to rapper, basketball star, comedian or charismatic drug dealer — your television is now telling you that you can quite reasonably picture yourself as President of The United States. It’s so insanely huge I can’t believe we all don’t talk about it every day.”

- DNC Day 4 - willhines.net

iamachilles: A Hillary supporter / Obama hater appears on Larry...

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:50:24 -0400

iamachilles:

A Hillary supporter / Obama hater appears on Larry King Live and totally comes off as the unpopular girl she probably was in high school. (Thanks, Hal)

Oh wow, this is strangely compelling.

Right at the start she explains she needs to be “courted” before she will vote for any candidate, and throughout the interview continues to make a strange analogy between the electoral process and sexual relations. Around 2 minutes in she says, “They need to earn my vote. I’m a good Catholic girl from Massachusetts and I don’t vote on the first date.”

She goes on to explain how Obama hasn’t earned her vote because he hasn’t really asked her for it, so King asks if she is still open. Her response: “I am a tiny, tiny bit open but I need to say my ballot box is pretty closed…”

Then King plays the video of Clinton’s speech at the convention, and asks for her reaction. She says: ”My vote is my own, my vote is my choice, my vote is precious and it needs to be earned. Period. The end. I don’t just give it away.”

I think she may never have voted before.