Early color photography




Color photography was invented in the early 1900s, and the French used it to document the First World War. Here are some photos. Funny how color changes perception. When I look at these pictures, WWI doesn't seem that far off.


I didn't know Jesus could sing like that

Cracker Barrel studios presents.

Hat tip to Blogenlust.

UPDATE

This is really funny.
11.4.05 13:46


Bloggers v Journalists


It seems to me that the entire blogs v mainstream media argument comes down to this Earth-shattering proposition: that thoughtful blogs are more thoughful that unthoughtful media outlets. And also, if my Aunt Betty had balls, she's be my Uncle Bob.

Aaron Swartz, one of those thoughtful bloggers, falls into this trap in an otherwise, er, thoughtful post about his participation in the blogs panel at the recent Bay Area Law School Technology Conference. He compared New York Times coverage of the 2004 Presidential campaign to coverage by the blogosphere. He notes the conservative bias of the Times, natch, and the uncritical coverage of Sadaam's WMD. Blogs, Swartz tells us, are better than that:
In all these areas, the blogs bested the Times. Some tracked the spreading meme that Kerry was elitist, others pointed out that Bush wasn’t much of a down-home cowboy himself, still others carefully debunked each new right-wing myth. Blogs pointed to people like weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who correctly pointed out there were no WMDs, or the Iraqi defector who explained they had all been destroyed. Blogs 1, Times 0.

The second thing I noticed during my study was that reporters rarely pointed out Bush was lying, corrected his lies, or even conceded that an objective reality containing a truth existed. You don’t have to trust me on this one; I spoke to Washington Post campaign reporter Jim VandeHei about it when he visited Stanford. Some things are undoubtedly true, he said — he got very animated — but editors won’t let reporters print the facts. He wanted to do a piece where he compared Bush and Kerry’s stump speeches to see how many lies they contained, but editors just wouldn’t let him.

So instead you get the results so perfectly parodied by Paul Krugman, who commented that if the administration announced the Earth was flat, the lead story in the Times the next day would be “Shape of Earth: Views Differ”. In fact, we don’t really need to leave that sort of thing to the imagination anymore. The other month ABC ran a show which balanced people who claimed they had been abducted by aliens against respected doctors who explained that their experiences resulted from a condition called sleep paralysis. Who was right? ABC refused to say.
Swartz' point holds up if you lump all blogs together, or conveniently ignore Powerline, Free Republic, and a hundred thousand wingnut sites that can't bother to spell Schiavo correctly. And by doing so, Swartz falls into the same trap as the wingnuts who cry about "the liberal media", as if that's all there is.

The blogosphere's major advantage over legacy media outlets is the freedom that blogger's enjoy to write about what they want, for whom they want. No editors to please, or advertisers to appease. Legacy media outlets are trapped in a conflict-consensus model where they need to strike a balance between between telling some readers what they don't want to hear, while appearing balanced to so as not to offend readers and advertisers. That doesn't apply to bloggers.

But that freedom represents the proverbial double edge sword: bloggers have no one to answer to, other than their hit counterw. And for every John Marshall and Andrew Sullivan that's both thoughtful and burning up the bandwidth, there's dozens of Captain's Quarters and Luciannes with their own legions of readers.

And the blogosphere is better, how?


And speaking of wingnuts

Could Powerline's Hindrocket being any dumber? The lawyer turned blogger turned embarassment-to-his-kids sees a Time Magazine ad that pictures a praying US serviceman, and he sees - liberal media bias!
12.4.05 15:33


It's National Poetry Month


THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

- Dylan Thomas

Hat tip to Scott


Revelations

My fellow secularists are muttering over the religious right's coup d'etat over at NBC, as the peacock network kicks off its miniseries Revelations based very loosely on the bible's apocryphal book about the end of mankind. After reading a few reviews of the show's first hour, I'm struck by how ordinary the story is. If secularists have anything to worry about, it's not because radical clerics have taken over the television stations. It's because pseudoscientific claptrap is here to stay. Hollywood has been passing off urban legends and assorted snake oils as "true stories" since the first TVs flickered. Think Amityville Horror, and every psychic crimebuster you've ever heard of. Revelations is no different. So quit pretending like it is.
13.4.05 03:21


Bad boys, bad boys



I'm all for locking up criminals, but there's something about Operation Falcon that smacks of political opportunism. CNN reports that over 10,000 fugitives were apprehended in a six-day period this month, of which 1,613 arrests were for murder, rape, robbery, and gang related activities. That number also includes 106 "unregistered sex offenders", whatever than means. I guess you need permission nowadays.

In additon to making our streets safer, Operation Falcon makes it safer to like Alberto Gonzalez, the newly-appointed, pro-torture attorney general. I can imagine the Justice Department advisors telling their new boss that he needed to do something high profile that didn't involve naked pyramids and fake menstrual blood, and after his initial disappointed died down, Gonzo gave the go ahead to bring in 1,600 violent criminals, and 8,400 mattress tag removers.


TaraPfiefer.com nominated for MKEonline Blog of the Week

I know, they're passing out nominations like fresh jammies at Neverland, but I just thought I'd mention that TaraPfeifer.com has been nominated.

Her website is best described as a thoughtful cross between literary criticism, pragmatic feminism, and progresssive politics. She is particularly sharp when criticizing federal reserve policy, or defending an independent judiciary, her two favorite subjects which she can blend with relative ease.

When she's not blogging, Tara volunteers at the local battered women's shelter, where she teaches adult literacy courses and watercoloring.

I hope you win, Tara. You rock, girl. Vote here.




Monkeywire.org

One of the downfalls of our predominant liberal media is that you just can't get enough good monkey news. So thank the Lord for Monkeywire.org, the website that bills itself as "the premier source of monkey and ape news for all primates."

If we didn't have monkeys, we wouldn't have comedy. Think about it. Take the most maudlin paragraph you can come up with, insert the word "monkey", and let the hilarity ensue.

NOT FUNNY: After my second wife left me, the drinking got really bad. I lost my job at the car wash, and my kids stopped calling. I was really thinking of killing myself, and then I gave my life to Christ.

FUNNY: After my second wife left me, the drinking got really bad. I lost my job at the car wash, and my kids stopped calling. I was really thinking of killing myself, and then I gave my life to monkeys.
14.4.05 21:59


Friday monkey blogging


Because you just can't have too many monkeys.




Shout out



Congrats to Julie Saltman for her guest blogging gig at Washington Monthly.
15.4.05 19:20


Comedy movie madness

MSNBC has listed 64 great comedies, and listed them March Madness-style so movie buffs like me can list their faves.

My final four came down to American Pie, Animal House, Spinal Tap and Arsenic and Old Lace. It was a touch choice, because I had to choose, Sophie-style, between American Pie and the Big Lebowski in round four. I went with Pie because I'm still a little sore from laughing so hard the first time I saw it. But alas, I chose Arsenic and Old Lace as my favorite all-time comedy. They say comedy doesn't age well, but this comic gem is as funny today as it was in 1944, when Americans really needed a good laugh.

Hat tip to The Carpetbagger
15.4.05 23:04


Yale bitchslaps Limbaugh


This is beautiful.

Talk radio wantwit Rush Limbaugh has been carping about the recent conference at Yale on progressive jurisprudence put on by the American Constitution Society:
A bunch of liberal elitists gathered up at Yale to have this little pretend new Constitution. What it should say, what it should be, what the principles and guidelines of the new Constitution ought to be. So while there are those of us who are devoted to defending the current US Constitution, there are a bunch of leftists and liberals out there that are toying around with the idea of rewriting and changing it. (interruption) Well, I don't know if they've banned me, I haven't read everything that everybody there posited or wrote. Let me get the piece at the next break and I'll share with you some things that people are saying.
Here's the beauty part: Yale students responded with an incredibly gracious letter to Rush, inviting him to New Haven to talk about the constitution!
"We are flattered by your interest in our conference and would be honored to have you visit Yale as a guest speaker. As you discussed in your broadcast, over 600 progressives - practicing lawyers, policy makers, academics, students and others - came together to discuss a progressive vision of the constitution, just as the Justice Department of the Reagan administration had done in the mid-1980s to produce a conservative vision of the Constitution in the Year 2000. You mentioned the possibility that you might be banned from such events. To the contrary! We would welcome you to Yale, and believe that an even featuring you would be well-attended by our members, other students at the law school, faculty members and representatives of the larger university.

In your broadcast you mentioned our "little pretend new constitution." Enclosed please find our gift to you: A pocket sized copy of the US Constitution. Since the Founding it has belonged to all of us. While it is "little", it is certainly not pretend. We hope that you will come to Yale to take part in this very real dialogue.

Please let us know if you will accept our invitation. We understand that you are very busy and would work around your schedule to put together an even entirely at your convenience. We look forward to hearing from you.
That Rush would never share a stage with elitists, defined as anyone who didn't drop out of community college, is a given. But regardless, the invitation was a classy move on the Yale students' part. One way for progressives and "elitists" to make their message heard is to engage bloviating right wing gas bags in open, public forums, which are to Limbaugh and his ilk what light is to a cockroach.

Hat tip to Josh.
16.4.05 16:06


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