9/11 - v2007

To celebrate (?) the anniversary of 9/11, the New York Historical Society is exhibiting a collection of some of the photos gathered by Here is New York, an organization with which I was involved. Tonight was the gala opening. They wouldn't let me take photos (I had to take these on the sly) so I got bored and left. Way to go and turn down free publicity, NYHS.

It's Giuliani's Balls time

(in case the references are lost on anyone)

Great Moments in History

"There, there.. it's always darkest before the dawn..." President Nguyen Van Thieu (South Vietnam) and President Lyndon B. Johnson , 07/19/1968

"Smile, motherfucker, or we leave you here when we go..!" 8/22/2007

Still a pathological liar alcoholic with delusions of grandeur, after all these years...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 — When President Bush is asked what he plans to do when he leaves office, he often replies curtly: “I don’t have that much time to think beyond my presidency” or “I’m going to sprint to the finish.”

[...]

“I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers.” With assets that have been estimated as high as nearly $21 million, Mr. Bush added, “I don’t know what my dad gets — it’s more than 50-75” thousand dollars a speech, and “Clinton’s making a lot of money.”

(link goes to rest of article)

Is it just me who has these daydreams that, for the rest of his days after he leaves the trappings of the presidency, this man will be shunned by all good, right people? That he will be turned away at restaurants, receive response letters from the American Enterprise Institute (!) saying "we appreciate all you did during your terms, Mr. President, but our speaking calendar is booked for this season.." ? That no-one will return his calls? Who, to verbize a name, will Frost him? (And what a horrible, pointless, thankless, go-through-the-motions-for-nothing task that would be; I'll pass.)

Even with a bad jaw, Roger Ebert socks it to me and makes my head spin

If booze companies advertise for responsible drinking and tobacco companies warn of health hazards, why don't gas companies ask you to buy a hybrid?

(what a place to have your head spun around with that thought; that’s why I like the guy).

His rhetorical question is part of his review of The 11th Hour, the recent environmental docco sponsored by Leo DiCaprio. And it is a valid thought... In the two examples given, alcohol & tobacco industries, their admonishments /warnings result in a reduced consumption of their product (or are seen as doing so, anyway) but they are also a strategic move on their part in order to give society an out for allowing those industries to otherwise do what they are going to do anyway. (Let's all be slightly cynical here for a second).

Given that thought scenario, why don't petroleum companies, instead of this quasi-apologetic-but-more-really-like-avoiding-the-bloody-issue ("we support".. "we believe"...), buy themselves more (albeit very finite) time by acknowledging the fact that limited consumption of their product is preferable to unlimited, wanton debauchery...?

ExxonMobile, BP, Shell, et al: It's 1964 and you've been called to task by the Environmental Protector-General; what you gonna do?

Like watching a slo-mo video of a runaway train crashing into a school bus full of children...

A Feature You Shouldn't Need

From the "You have got to be kidding me" file.... (link goes to HP's page explaining this)

		To use the slimming feature, first take a photo. Then, while in playback mode, use the arrows to select an image and press OK. Highlight the Design Gallery menu tab using the arrows.
		Use arrows to highlight Apply Artistic Effects and press OK. Then highlight Slimming and press OK.
		Adjust the slimming level using the arrows. Then press OK, and you're finished.

I think I could get rich selling a box for smokers to hang around their necks which, when they enter into a fit of hacking cough, covers it up with the sound of childrens' laughter or perhaps the 1812 Overture.

Why Linda Ronstadt is my gal

OK this is from 13 years ago but it's my blog and I can do anything I want in this very tiny corner of the Universe, even bend time and pretend to be timely. My heart has had a "Welcome" sign for Linda since a couple of years ago when she was booed off not just a Las Vegas stage, but the entire Hotel that she was staying and performing in. Below is what caught my attention today (full article from 1994 here):

[...]She says she hasn't heard Frank Sinatra's popular Duets album but confides that she was asked to sing with Old Blue Eyes. Producing friend Jimmy Webb's new record took precedence, she explains, saying she would love to do a duet with Sinatra - if she could produce it. Then she adds, "It just hasn't commanded my attention the way that it would if Aaron Neville called me up and said, 'Hey do you want to sing, you know, the phone book?' Fine, let's get together and sing the phone book. No problem. Aaron's my guy."[...]

Here you go, Al, now you have a picture of yourself with the president...

(click on Al to watch video)

(and, sorry about giving you jaundice)

ISP network traffic as weekly cycle productivity meter

The above is a chart of the network traffic of an Internet service / connection provider over the course of seven days. Note that while Monday-Friday shows a pentuple self-similar pattern of the daily cycle, the amount of network utilization actually drops a regular percentage every weekday, where on Friday it is significantly lower than what it was Monday. Something we all knew, now quantified down to the byte.

Also interesting is that Saturday and Sunday are mirror images of each other, with most of the activity on Saturday happening early in the day and vice-versa on Sunday. I would have predicted the opposite, but that just speaks to my own lifestyle, I suppose.