is a blog by Brendan
Why is Apple trying to sell a “shuffle” feature as a huge megagenius innovation? It’s been available on most mp3 players since there started being mp3 players, and on CD players for about two decades. Maybe they they’re just trying to extend the model of “you don’t know what’s playing now,” since it has no LCD screen, to “you don’t know what’s playing now–or later!”
But I can’t help it. I still want this, if mostly because of the second footnote on that page.
There’s not actually a Carver Street in Louisville, but I think this McDonald’s is on my block.
I don’t know why I don’t immediately subscribe to everything Sumana mentions, because her taste in blogs is pretty impeccable. Case in point: Real Live Preacher, whose journal I started reading only because she belted out its praises day and night. His entry today about lemons, among other things, is touching and real and sublime.
It’s so hard to make things that are quirky in real life interesting in writing. Real quirks tend to seem forced when written down, and people who lift quirks from fiction are just annoying. Gordon Atkinson’s ability to write about the facts of his life as he does is extraordinary; he illustrates the beautiful potential that public journals have, and almost always fail to fulfill.
I can’t believe they actually did it.
If you don’t live in Kentucky, you’re almost certainly unaware of this story (and likely won’t care about the rest of this entry), but in the November elections, Republican candidate Dana Seum Stephenson defeated Democrat Virginia Woodward by over a thousand votes for the 37th District state Senate seat. The 37th District is Jefferson County, which is now effectively metro Louisville.
The only problem was that from 1997 until December of 2000, Stephenson lived in Jeffersonville, Indiana. She owned a house there. She paid Indiana taxes and voted in two Indiana elections. According to the Kentucky constitution, you must be a legal resident of Kentucky for six years before you’re eligible to run for state Senate; Stephenson was three years short.
The news about Stephenson’s residency issues only came out close to Election Day, when she was already on the ballot. She dismissed the whole thing, saying she had remained a resident of Kentucky the whole time because she “always intended to return.” She pretty clearly won the popular election. It was only a couple weeks ago that a judge ruled that she wasn’t eligible to run in the first place. The judge refused to issue an order for Stephenson to concede, however, passing the buck to the Senate.
They took it, appointing a special committee to determine the issue. That committee recommended, 5-4, that Stephenson be rejected and Woodward seated.
You have likely guessed by now that last night, the Senate ignored the constitution, the judge’s ruling and their own committee, voting 20-16 straight down party lines to swear in Stephenson. One Republican, Bob Leeper of Paducah, abstained and announced he’d be drafting a letter of resignation (he later said he’d decide for sure “within a few days”).
The other Republican abstention was, presumably, Stephenson’s dad, Senator Dan Seum of Louisville. He’d earlier stated he was going to abstain, at least, so good for him, I guess. Oh, and by the way, this state is currently running without a budget.
KENTUCKY.
Kris Straub’s been on a hot run anyway lately, but yesterday’s Checkerboard Nightmare is a perfect example of why I think it’s the best webcomic out there. The joke requires a little background to get, but if you read my journal or Websnark, I think you have it.
I type a standard email (low error rate) at about 70 words per minute. I speak and read aloud at about 200 wpm. I read things that require only light processing at about 500 wpm; for heavier stuff like Vitanuova or Neal Stephenson being expository, that drops to around 200 wpm. (Textbook reading / comprehension speed varies too wildy to be really useful for this thought experiment.)
My question: which of these most closely approaches my (mode average) speed of thought?
I wonder if Toonami is going to change its name due to backlash.