I am so embarrassed.

I’ve lived around Boston my whole life, and worked in the city for several years, and I haven’t seen such a disappointing show of stupidity since we elected Romney (though we have the whole state to blame for that) because:

1. If you see a dude climb a bridge in broad daylight and hang a brightly lit cartoon character in a very obvious place, it’s not a terrorist. Don’t you think a terrorist would plant a bomb where it WOULDN’T be found, under cover of night, so they could actually claim some casualties? Think about that for more than two seconds. Sure, kudos for trying to save the world, but try the common sense filter next time.
2. I love Boston. It’s a beautiful city and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but face facts! We JUST figured out how to get a major highway to the airport. We are not a world class city yet, so we don’t get to have terrorists. Look for drama elsewhere.
3. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a damn funny show. If we weren’t living in such a cultural backwater, we might have gotten through the day without ruining everyones’ commutes! Ten other cities in the US have had these same “suspicious devices” up for TWO WEEKS and no one got their knickers in a twist over it.

Now I hear they arrested the local dude who put the signs up. He was hired by a PR firm to do it. Not like arrests are warranted in this case, but at least go after the PR firm first. City officials are all pissed off because they grossly overreacted to a non-threat, and all disruption and fear could have been avoided with about one minute of common sense, a small clue about pop-culture, and a timely phone call to a network, but they screwed up, so instead they’re trying to deflect blame and ruin the life of a guy trying to make a living.

C’mon Boston, grow a pair and a sense of humor. You’ll live longer.

Weekend Simpsons Quiz no. 1

My new idea for a weekly (weekendly?) feature. The questions are supposed to be somewhat hard, but not unreasonably so. I’ll adjust them next time if they seem to be too hard or easy.

This week, they all come from Season 9 (1997-8).

1. What fictional ethnic food does a street vendor sell to Homer near the World Trade Center in “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”?

2. What’s the name of Snake’s convertible that Homer buys at a police auction in “Realty Bites”?

3. When Jasper freezes himself in the Kwik-E-Mart freezer to prolong his life in “Lisa the Simpson”, what name does Apu give him, as a sort of freak show attraction?

4. Whose portrait (giving a thumbs-up with one hand and an OK sign with the other) is on the trillion dollar bill that Burns has stolen in “The Trouble with Trillions”?

5. Whose voice? Who voices the real Seymour Skinner (as opposed to the impostor Armin Tamzarian) in “The Principal and the Pauper”?

6. Complete the line. Complete Homer’s line from “The Last Temptation of Krust”: “Whoops, sorry son. I didn’t know you, Jay Leno, and a monkey were __________.”

Here comes the stampede

Feinstein supports moving presidential primary to February

States should agree on a rotation system where different states are earlier in different presidential elections, to put an end to this madness. It could kick in once a large number of states pass it into law, like the National Popular Vote Bill would work.

The lame attack on Obama

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/index.html

I don’t think this is gonna last as “news”. The “evidence” for the school being anything like a madrassa is so weak that I don’t think it’ll persuade even the only-one-rung-above-the-dumbest undecided voters. It’s also like a year plus whatever until the primaries. Unless they show he trained with the Taliban or something, I think we’ll have long forgotten about this by then.

As for the lengths to which some organizations are willing to go to smear people, it’s still disgusting, but nothing new.

General Election, meet Major Lee Premature

A few recent polls on the 2008 general election for President on pollingreport.com show Edwards (to my surprise) and Gore faring much better against a GOP candidate than Clinton and Obama would. For the republicans, McCain and Giuliani do well against Dems, while Romney completely tanks.

I got odds II

It’s been a month since the first I got odds…

Hillary Clinton    3:1
John Kerry         5:1
Barack Obama       8:1 
John Edwards      10:1 
Al Gore           12:1 
Christopher Dodd  14:1 
Wesley Clark      15:1
Tom Vilsack       19:1
Bill Richardson   19:1
Joe Biden         22:1 
field             26:1 
Mike Gravel       80:1
Dennis Kucinich   80:1
Al Sharpton       80:1
Lyndon LaRouche  320:1

 moving up
 moving down

Since last time: Obama continues to get much more attention than anyone besides Hillary... Edwards and Dodd are officially in... Bayh dropped out.

Rating songs?

How many of you rate songs on your computer?

The only way I listen to music is via MP3 player or on the computer (iPod and iTunes, not that it matters for this). Pretty much every MP3 player and media application will let you rate your songs. But it always seemed like so much work. I just want to listen; I’m not typically interested in thinking about what I’m listening to, and how it might compare to other things I might not be listening to at the moment.

But am I missing important metadata that, while of limited use today, will someday be invaluable as music applications get smarter?

Am I better of spending time now, perhaps with no particular rush, so it will just be done with?

“The cause of all mankind”

Though they give it a superficial treatment, Wonkette points out it’s the 230th birthday of the first edition of Common Sense.

Not everyone realizes that in Common Sense, Thomas Paine was 230 years ahead of his time in addressing issues like:

Wiretapping and opening of mail by President Bush:

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

The Bush administration’s unitary executive:

Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.

The religious right’s influence today:

…mingling religion with politics, may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.

Prohibition of gay marriage:

[A] long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.

OK, so he didn’t have those specific issues in mind. They still apply

One more time…

From BoingBoing:

John McCain: lying extremist

By Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow: John McCain gets a bit of a free ride from lefties — if he can show up on The Daily Show and pitch jokes at Jon Stewart, he can’t be all bad, right? Wrong. Check out McCain’s record of changing his position to whatever whacko Rapture Republican belief will get him closer to the White House. He’s a lying opportunist who’ll say or do anything to sell himself to the GOP apparat.

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks. (Indeed, McCain has now hired Falwell’s debate coach.)

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

Link (via Making Light)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll be saying it until Nov ‘08:  why do smart people still think McCain is so great?

The Unofficial Apple Weblog says:

Help PBS pick a new science show

By Scott McNulty on WiredScience

Filed under: iTS, Video

PBS is in need of a new science show, and they have a conundrum on their hands. They need one new science show, and they have three pilots for science shows. What’s a non-profit network to do? Why, make all three shows available for free on iTunes (and other places) and let the viewers choose which one will make it into full pledge series-dom.

The three shows are (all iTunes Store links):

• Wired Science
• Science Investigators
• 22nd Century

Watch them, and let PBS know which one is the best.

It’s great to see PBS staying up front with smart ideas.