Luke Gilman points to Toogle, an image search function that “creates images out of the very term that was used to fetch those images.” For example, I searched for AC/DC, and it returned an exquisite, and entirely text-based logo. Sweet.
I got my $100 rebate Visa card back from AT&T, and I knew I wanted to get this incredibly cheap flash video camera I had read such good things about. I had initially wanted to buy Pure Digital’s Flip Phone Ultra after reading some ridiculously good reviews like this one and this one. Then I found out RCA had licensed the technology from Pure Digital and released their own version of the camera called the Small Wonder.
Although the small wonder has less memory than the new Flip Ultra, I ended up buying the Small Wonder for a few compelling reasons:
Here’s the first movie I made when I got home.
It’s really the first time I’ve ever been so close to a video camera, so I’m pretty sure I look and sound ridiculous. Still, this thing is a $100 video camera. Although the video is .avi (not MPEG-2) and the video quality could be better, it’s freakin’ $100! Plus, both the Flip and the Small Wonder are reportedly great in low light, where many more expensive cameras tend to fail. It’s also a lot smaller than most video cameras. The damn thing can fit easily in your pocket. Finally, notice that you can hear my voice loud and clear. That’s not the case with my Canon digital ELPH. Seems like this thing will be perfect for capturing the odd rock band around town.
I’ll try to update you as my feelings for this new machine evolve. In the meantime, here’s a nice comparison of the Flip Ultra and Small Wonder. And here’s another video talking about how awesome the Small Wonder is.
Yeah, so I suppose if you put a gun to my head I’d have to say I think the Utah Jazz are a better team than the Rockets. They’ve got an explosive superstar in Carlos Boozer and the league’s second-best point guard in Deron Williams. They’re also have a deeper and more talented bunch of role players. The pundits at ESPN know this, and they’re certain our Rocks are going down. As you can see, not a single one of them picks the Rockets to take the series.
Well, the available data might support their picks, but it supports another theory as well. The Jazz, along with Dallas and Denver, were one of the worst road teams in the stacked Western Conference bracket, going 17 - 24. And the Jazz, despite being the higher seed, have to play four of their seven games in Houston. Does a team with home court advantage and a 22-game winning streak have a chance against the frickin’ four seed? I’d say they do. For statistical evidence, look no further than the spot adjacent to ESPN’s den of iniquity.
Hmmm, I like those odds.
Rockets in 7.
Hey, I’m back on mrshl.net to register this month’s Emusic downloads. As the image would suggest, April finds me finally getting into Fugazi. Naturally, I’m entering through one of their late-career records.
An editorial in the Chicago Tribune reveals another bombshell about Barack Obama’s embattled friend and minister:
In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.
In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy’s premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief’s medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation.
As far as Wright goes, I’m not super critical of the soundbitten remarks for which he’s become (in)famous. Is he over the top and inaccurate? Sure he is. But so is Rush Limbaugh. So are Bush and Cheney (and the Tribute editorial points out their repeated avoidance of military service). Are his remarks so terrible? Let’s take a look (courtesy of Wikipedia):
Sound bites from a sermon that Wright gave in 2003, entitled “Confusing God and Government”, were also shown on ABC’s Good Morning America[26] and Fox News, in which Wright made statements about God and the U.S. Government. In the sermon, Wright first makes the distinction between God and governments, and points out that many governments in the past have failed: “Where governments lie, God does not lie. Where governments change, God does not change.”[28] Wright then states: “And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness.”[28]
Wright concludes by stating:” The government gives them the drugs,[29] built bigger prisons, passes a three strike law, and then wants us to sing God bless America. No, no, no, not God bless America! God damn America — that’s in the Bible — for killing innocent people. God damn America, for treating her citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she pretends to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent.”[28][30]
Do I think the US is responsible for drug use among blacks? Nope. But the incidental racism of our decades-long drug war isn’t a myth. Our black-letter law says crack dealers have to spend 100 times longer in prison than cocaine dealers. The only difference between the two drugs is that black people are the primary buyers and sellers of crack. It’s right there in the US Sentencing guidelines.
I’m voting for Obama, and it’s not because of his preacher. If I was voting against him, it also wouldn’t be because of his preacher. But it’s worth noting there’s more to Jeremiah Wright than what’s being reported.
I’m a lawyer and health care compliance analyst. I’m also an incredibly lazy rock musician. But I don’t write much about these things. Instead, this is mostly a place for me to engage in an occasional bit of Web dorkery / punditry.
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