A flurry of quick things
- Am I the only one uncomfortable with “too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release” apparently being a legit category? Doesn’t that pretty much read as “we can’t prove you did shit, but we’re going to keep you in jail anyway”? I officially call bullshit on that. Of course it should come as no surprise given that the current Administration (with the tacit help fo the mainstream American media) is more-or-less covering up murders at Gitmo.
- If I were a dog guy, I would totally have dog armour (check out the domain name there).I wonder if the dude would make armour for yappy dogs, because I know someone… actually forget I was thinking that, that kind of amusing myself would probably get me killed.. Actually that site also has something that might give Trish nightmares: imagine her nemesis upped his game.
- Somewhere in a box, I have all these books, in those particular editions, with those exact glorious pulp covers. When I get around to starting my small press, which will have the Complete John D. MacDonald Library as its keystone, the McGee series reprints will have a uniform trade dress that will feature key elements with this pulp aesthetic. (It will also bring back into print lots of good novels that are currently MIA.)
- I thought growing up in a town of 50,000 people where the only bookstores (for new books–the used market was great) were mall bookstores was bad. Imagine living in a city of a quarter million people with no bookstore, and none within 150 miles. On the plus side, if you’ve got a credit card, there’s always the Interweeb, but what about the children? What about the children!? (insert obligatory and boring Texas joke here.)
- David Rees, much like Ferocious J earlier in the week, captures my feelings about the current US legislative bodies.
- I have three of the things on David Bowie’s iPod in my collection: the two Canadian artists and the Gavin Byars stuff (there’s a Tom Waits connection there)… but the rest of it, well, let’s just say I plan to check that stuff out. If it’s good enough for Bowie, I should give it a listen, right?
- I’m not sure about the use of the term “rich”–but it comes as no surprise to me that the salaried workers at the high end of the salary scale have a lot less “leisure time” than people at the low end, and that a much larger portion of that “leisure time” is structured and stressful. It you’re working for someone else (i.e. drawing a salary), and making a lot of money, then you’re going to spend a lot of time “doing compulsory things and feeling stressed”. If you can afford to be involved in a lot of organized leisure, especially with kids, then a lot less of your non-work time is “free” than if you can’t.It doesn’t require, or deserve, sympathy, it’s part of the deal.
- California switched to pre-filled tax forms, where the government filled in all the stuff it already knew for you, leaving your work to be very, very simple for most people, and found that processing them cost only 13% of what it costs to process a traditional paper form. Who’s the biggest roadblock to getting that same plan done at the federal US level? Intuit–the guys who make the tax software. Ironically, they argue that it would be a “conflict of interest for government to be both tax collector and tax preparer” while somehow missing out on the fact that the very fact that they are making an argument is the essence of conflict of interest.
- I am cynically amused by this paradigm case of the “news organization sensationalizes non-story with science words, making everyday things sound shocking and horrifying” report. (Note to Trish: do not read linked article, or you will never be able to buy clothes again.)
- Hell yes I would watch a stage production of Julius Caesar where everyone looks like Eternals .
- As with so many other things, one of the main things about user interface design it to work at the right level of abstraction.
