I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Weekend Linkee-poo is fooling himself, he don't believe it

I was pretty harsh regarding the Olympic Opening Ceremony on twitter last night. I was able to see the finale a few moments ago, and I take it all back Briton. You know how to end a party well. However, I don't regret my comments about the NBC commentary. That still sucked.

Mary Robinette Kowal walks the walk and word-processes like a steampunk. Or something like that. I've always been fascinated with moding equipment. Unfortunately my tendency to be cheap has usually stopped me (ie. I can't afford to mess up expensive equipment).

Jim Hines also walks the walk, but about a different subject. This is why I have a bro-crush on him.

Jim Wright with a follow up to his post on the Aurora shootings.

The long running theme on the death of publishing. In this case, one designer's take on the appalling quality standards in the physical properties of books, as evidenced in 1919.

Kerning type and why it's important. Although I take exception to some of their thinking as we tend to read words in a single gulp, rather than reading individual letters. Actually we read the shape of the word in most circumstances. And there is some research showing that we read the shape of groups of words. But getting kerning is one of those things that separates professional designers from those who just know how to run the software.

The first one is free. A cautionary tale about trying to change business models from free to fee. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

"I guess this is just one more example of critics who are absolutely certain that the government is always terrible … right up to that moment when they desperately need government to swoop in and help them out of a bad situation." (Grokked from the Slactivist)

"Don’t they owe us some level of fidelity for living out what they merely preach? Or did we only matter to them when our stories affirmed their cost-free convictions?" Another conservative joins the ranks of, "It was okay when everything was going good, but now we're in dire straights, so all that stuff we believed before is not looking so good right now." For this person it hasn't changed their core beliefs. They're just wondering why, since they did everything they were supposed to do according to the conservative creed, why didn't things turn out better for them. The answer is, because those core beliefs didn't take the reality of the situation into count. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

In 2004, 2008, and 2010 there was a running meme about how Democrats would go and talk to Republicans and then realize, ZOMG, we're conservatives! Rah rah team! I'm not glad that this election cycle seems to have reversed that cultural conversation (conservatives coming to grips that their party is out of touch/doesn't represent them or conservatives having a come-to-Jesus moment finding out that what the believed was true about the world just didn't hold up in the light of day). It's a hard thing to realize what you've been supporting has been eroding your life and distracting you so you didn't notice. It's a bitch to have your cherished myths dashed on the hard rocks of reality. It sucks. I know cause I've been there. So I welcome these awakened people to the party. I just wish one side of our political discourse hadn't seen the need to create such fantasies in the first place and instead would have worked with us instead of keeping their eyes on the places and trappings of power.

"In some areas, the offices that issue IDs maintain limited business hours. Rural areas… are served by part-time ID offices… the researchers found the office in Sauk City, Wis., is open only on the fifth Wednesday of any month. That would limit the office to being open just four days this year." I'm sure that won't cause any problems for people getting the proper photo ID to vote this fall. Not at all. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Oh, look, real voter fraud in the form of absentee voting by someone who is dead. Oh, wait, it's another Republican. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Say, you know how Mitt saved the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics? You remember how he did it, don't you? He got a federal government bailout. And much of that money went to profit a select few people. Seems the more the Romney Campaign tries to say how wonderful Mitt's record is, the more information comes out about just how he did these things. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Wait a sec, I thought the conservative joke was Al Gore invented the internet? The anatomy of how the conservative information bubble is built. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

What's the difference between corporatism and Soviet style totalitarianism? Not much, it appears. Actually this speaks to some things I've heard regarding the death streamlining of book distribution. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Tweet of my heart: @rnalexander: As an American I'm embarrassed that we had to outsource giving Romney the bollocking he deserved to the UK.

Double dip: @TheTweetOfGod: Do what you love and the money will follow right behind you and make fun of you and run away when you try to grab it.

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