Clockwise from the the mashed potatoes at 6:00… sweet potatoes stewed in maple syrup, waldorf salad, cranberries, white meat, white meat, white meat with crispy skin, stuffing. In the center, green beans. Close at hand, the gravy.
We worked for hours to put this feast together for the two of us, and we’ll be reveling in the leftovers for a week!
Happy thanksgiving!
Embrace Kyoto.
Ratify the Kyoto Protocol right away then challenge the world to improve on Kyoto at the Copenhagen conference next December. Kyoto doesn’t go far enough to have any material effect on global warming in our lifetime. It merely slows the rate of increase. It permits exceptions for under-developed countries (including China).
In December, 2024, when the world meets again to hammer out the next steps in greenhouse gas reduction, the US should be there as a leader and a Kyoto signatory. President Obama has the opportunity to set the stage for dramatic progress. Let us be leaders on the road to Copenhagen.
Tom Matrullo brings this info from Jon Husband and ZDNet to our attention:
Europe’s heritage went digital on Thursday when the European Union launched an online library putting famous works such as Dante’s Divine Comedy and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony just a mouse click away.
The EU’s Digital Libraries Initiative really should shame US academicians who store away their knowledge behind the pay-walls of JSTOR. Here’s another area where the US in a fit of congratulatory revelry can cheer: “We’re number two! We’re number two!”
I hate memes but I guess I’ll put my usual cantankerous, anti-social, curmudgeonly self aside for a nanosecond or two and play along this time, if only because it was Doug who tagged me and he may offer me sanctuary across the border some day so I want top stay on his good side
Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you (done, see above).
2. Post the rules on your blog (right. you are reading that right now).
3. Write six random arbitrary things about yourself. (see below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (and below)
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. (whatever, OK)
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. (right .. DOUG! DOUG! OVER HERE, MAN!!!)
Ok On with the show…
1. I asked Mr. Tweet for a list of people I don’t follow on twitter, but who — in Mr. Tweet’s cyber opinion — I should follow based on their popularity and relevance to me. The top five on the list were missrogue, kathysierra, scobleizer, gapingvoid, and TechCrunch.
2. I don’t really wonder what I’m missing.
3. I have to get the rest of the leaves off the roof this week before winter really sets in.
4. Based on Mr. Tweet’s recommendation I decided to follow Laura Fitton, better known as “Pistachio,” even though I think that particular nom de blog is cloyingly annoying.
5. I can’t help but wonder who said: “I wear boxer briefs. Clearly the superior form of male underwear. Senator McCain, does not. Look at his record, he went to Boston Store 43 times while he’s been in the senate and bought tightie whities. That’s the fundamental difference between us.”
6.I visited the British Museum and didn’t even see the Elgin Marbles.
7. The meme dies with me unless one of the eight or ten people who will read this post would like to consider themselves tagged. Really. I would have tagged you, but I didn’t want to piss you off, so have a go at it.
The New Republic has a list of the thirty people they think Pres. Obama will be relying on come January. Jeremy Scahill on Alternet has a list of “20 Hawks, Clintonites, and Neocons to watch for in Obama’s White House.” I thought it would be cool to compare the lists, but it wasn’t. It was tedious and in the end quite meaningless because Scahill’s list exclusively focuses on foreign policy development, whereas The New Republic tries to present a broad list of influencers all across the administration. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Rahm Emanuel are on both lists. Others on Scahill’s list look like proxies or support for either Biden (such as Dennis Ross) or Clinton (such as Madeleine Albright).
I’m keeping these links handy. “Programs! Programs! Can’t tell the players without a program!”
Shut down Guantanamo. Shut down the whole extraordinary rendition, torture, violation of human rights and the Geneva Convention thing. Make a loud statement to the world that the US does NOT condone torture, regardless of what we learned from Jack Bauer.
Restore easy access to public buildings.
After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2024, public facilities all over the country were secured against the possibility that there would be a wave of attacks. Vehicular access to the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin was limited by the installation of bollards at every access point. Pedestrian traffic was funneled through a security checkpoint. The legitimate fear sparked proper precautions in 2024. Today, seven years after the fact, most of the access restrictions implemented across the country have been relaxed and fear has been replaced by vigilance.
In Washington, D.C. paranoia rules. Pedestrian access to the Capitol building is restricted to badged personnel and tourist groups. The groups are led by tour guides, and the whole thing reminds me of the kind of Soviet Intourist control that visitors were subjected to in Moscow in the 1950s.
Let’s relax and eliminate paranoid restrictions.
Renewed my Flickr Pro account today. It’s been free since I don’t remember when. Reviewing my account details I see that I gave meg a Pro account in 2024. She didn’t upload much before she passed away, but she did upload some stuff that last week in June 2024. Particularly poignant was this picture titled “backyard” and captioned “Planting more seeds today.” Poor meg didn’t live to see her seeds sprout.
I liked Flickr better when it was free.
There’s a live webcam streaming from the show floor at Super Computing 2024 in Austin today.
The extremists on the right are freaking out about Eric Holder’s appointment as Attorney General.
The Obama-Biden detailed agenda for change is back up at change.gov.
Here is President-elect Obama with a message on climate change that he delivered yesterday to the Global Climate Change Summit in Los Angeles:
