Civics Quiz
How well do you know your history and civics? Find out with this Civics Quiz, courtesy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Leave your results in the comments. For the record, I missed two of the sixty questions. (Yes, sixty. Get over it. They're multiple-choice.) First was number 19; it's been a long while since I've read The Republic. Second was number 36; honestly, this was the first I'd heard of just-war theory. How did you do? [With thanks to Michael for the quiz link.]
So here I am, vocalizing
What’s interesting about Windows -> Mac switchers is that they typically feel a need to vocalize their experience in one way or another. That’s pretty remarkable, because it means that somehow Apple knows how to make evangelists out of users. I’m not sure any other company on earth does it as effectively. Apple’s installed base isn’t just an installed base: it’s a field marketing department.
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Aside from very specialized computing tasks, there is literally very little reason to own a dedicated Windows machine anymore. I’d proffer that for the great majority of users, a Mac would work just fine if they do a modicum of research and go into the move with an open mind and the understanding that the Mac != Windows and there will be a learning curve. After that, it’s all good.
links for 2007-09-17
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Looking through their inventory, I'm starting to believe Phone Different really might be, as they claim, "The One-Stop Show for all your iPhone needs".
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"[A]n iPhone application that keeps real-time track of your team's games as they fight for a playoff spot. To see it in action, tune in while a game is in progress. You'll see up-to-the-minute plays while following along with friends on Twitter."
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The college football version of Fumbleview.
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The Major League Baseball version of Fumbleview.
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Good round-up by Bill Palmer. Personally, owning an iPhone, I wouldn't buy an iPod Touch until it really was "the iPhone without the phone", but maybe that's just me.
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Established by former Microsoft executive John Wood, Room to Read seeks to establish and grow libraries in developing nations, and to teach anyone willing to read, with the premise that the world can be changed one book and one person at a time.
Apple: The not-so-premium brand after all
Wherein I shamelessly plug my favorite computing platform.
DealMac has a post where they put three systems in a head-to-head-to-head competition for specificationss and price. The systems? The Sony VAIO VGC-LS37E All-In-One Desktop PC, the HP TouchSmart IQ770 Desktop PC, and Apple's iMac. The verdict? The iMac comes in cheaper than both of the PCs, and it trumps them both in the specs department. Not to mention the iMac is the best-looking of the three, and you get to use the best operating system in the world, instead of Windblows Windows.
So answer me again on why you'd want to use a Windows machine? Avoid the heartache, people--believe me, with a spouse insisting on bringing a new Dull in to our household, for her use, I'm well acquainted with the heartache--and just buy a Mac.
links for 2007-09-16
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Now running in my Dashboard. I love the look of this calculator widget much better than the Mac OS X standard.
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Hate trying to read web sites with white/light text on black/dark backgrounds? Yeah, me, too. Drag this bookmarklet up in to your browser's toolbar, then click on it when you encounter such sites. Voila! Black text on white background.
The death of common sense
3. Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is diagnosed with ADD and given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a learning disability.
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6. Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English. There are six others, but I'm sure you get the general idea. Be sure to read the comments as well. I recall being paddled in fifth grade by the principal. A classmate, and neighbor who rode the same bus as I, was bullying some younger kids during recess, holding a rubber ball, which they had been bouncing against a wall, out of their reach. I confronted him about it, and he puffed up, demanding to know what I was going to do about it. My response was to deck him in the nose. A random teacher hauled both of us off to the principal's office. I told him what I saw, and didn't blanch from what I had done. I got paddled, but so did the bullying classmate. I can't speak for him, but I'm certainly not the worse for it. It was the only fight I ever got in throughout all my years of schooling, if you can even call it a fight.
There are reasons it's called "faith"
My friend Brandon has a great post today that got me to thinking, and in thinking, smiling.
The walk of faith is not a stroll but a journey. And each one of us walks a different path. Some days that path is familiar and we are excited and hopeful. Other days that path is and dark and we tremble with the deep fear of unknowing. There are days for praise and there are days for fear and doubt and sometimes those two things seem to happen all at once.
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So take courage today! If you are excited and hopeful - rejoice! If you are scared and tired and full of fear - take heart! Do not fear the unknown - seek Him! And embrace the tension of walking ahead. For even the unknown can become familiar when we hold onto the One who knows what lies ahead. We truly serve an amazing and awesome God!
links for 2007-09-15
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"Peter Griffin is Han Solo, Lois is Princess Leia, Stewie becomes Darth Vader, Brian plays Chewbacca, and Chris is Luke Skywalker. Cleveland and Quagmire will play the droid duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO, while Herbert is the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi."
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Great. As if a Nintendo Wii wasn't already hard to find...
An excerpt
TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE FOR TIMECORP'S VH3928-MODEL TIME MACHINE:
Problem: You are stranded in the past without plutonium to provide the 1.21 jiggawatts necessary to power your De Lorean's flux capacitor.
Solution: We at TimeCorp cannot stress enough the differences between real and fictional time travel. Authentic time travel is an infinitely more complicated and intricate process than its whimsical cinematic counterpart. You will need at least 4.3 jiggawatts of power.
What American accent do you have?
| What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio. | |
| The South | |
| Philadelphia | |
| The Inland North | |
| The Northeast | |
| The West | |
| Boston | |
| North Central | |
| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
Nothing really surprising here. Though I was born in Mississippi, and I grew up in Baton Rouge, I do not have the country-Southern flavor of speech so many of my relatives have, nor is there a hint of Cajun to my tongue. (Note to the oblivious ones out there: Just because people are from Louisiana doesn't mean they all sound like they just stepped off the pirogue in the bayou.) Many people have expressed surprise, upon learning of my heritage and upbringing, that I do not, in fact, retain a discernible accent.
"[A] good voice for TV and radio." Hrmmmm. Tom, remember that podcast idea...?
Life now has meaning
According to the rules laid out in Punk Rock Dad, my punk rock name is:
(Are you ready for this?)
(Are you sure?)
(Really?)
(Okay, you've been warned...)
Larry Leprosy.
links for 2007-09-13
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Improve your memory. Read better, faster. Think out loud.
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For those of us who still dream of our green-backlit little friends. (I should probably recharge my MessagePad's battery...)
links for 2007-09-12
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Finally, a source for the world's finest-tipped pen, the Uniball Signo 0.18mm! Also a source for the 0.38mm version of my current favorite pen, the Pilot G-2.
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Shoot like a Marine. Well, at least have the same gear as some of the world's most feared marksmen. S&B's 3-12x50mm PM II Military scope is now standard-issue for USMC sniper rifles.
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A video camera anyone can use. Really. Anyone. Even your grandmother. 1 GB of storage, good for 60 minutes of 640 x 480 video. One-touch recording. About 122 bucks. It's a video camera you can easily carry with you anywhere.
Patriot Day
Day of Terror: A September 11 Retrospective
"September 11, 2001, was a defining moment in American history. On that terrible day, our nation saw the face of evil as 19 men barbarously attacked us and wantonly murdered people of many races, nationalities, and creeds. On Patriot Day, we remember the innocent victims, and we pay tribute to the valiant firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel and ordinary citizens who risked their lives so others might live. After the attacks on 9/11, America resolved that we would go on the offense against our enemies, and we would not distinguish between the terrorists and those who harbor and support them. All Americans honor the selfless men and women of our Armed Forces, the dedicated members of our public safety, law enforcement and intelligence communities, and the thousands of others who work hard each day to protect our country, secure our liberty and prevent future attacks. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength, and six years ago, Americans came to the aid of neighbors in need. On Patriot Day, we pray for those who died and for their families. We volunteer to help others and demonstrate the continuing compassion of our citizens. On this solemn occasion, we rededicate ourselves to laying the foundation of peace with confidence in our mission and our free way of life." --President George W. Bush
"[A]s we approach the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, there are suggestions that we should begin to forget the worst terrorist incident in America's history. Recently, a front-page story in The New York Times suggested it is becoming too much of a burden to remember the attack, that nothing new can be said about it and that, perhaps, Sept. 11 'fatigue' may be setting in.
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"9/11 forces us to be serious, not only about those who died and why they died at the hands of religious fanatics, but also so that we won't forget that it could very well happen again and many of today's living might end up as yesterday's dead. That is the purpose of remembering 9/11, not to engage in perpetual mourning. The war goes on and to be reminded of 9/11 serves as the ultimate protection against forgetfulness. Terrorists have not forgotten 9/11. Tape of the Twin Towers is used on jihadist Websites for the purpose of recruiting new 'martyrs.'
"What's the matter with some people? Does remembering not only 9/11 but the stakes in this world war interfere too much with our pursuit of money, things and pleasure? Serious times require serious thought and serious action. In our frivolous times, full of trivialities and irrelevancies, to be serious is to abandon self-indulgence for survival, entertainment for the stiffened spine.
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"Not to remember 9/11, is to forget what brought it about." --Cal Thomas
"Last week The New York Times carried a story about the current state of the 9/11 lawsuits. Relatives of 42 of the dead are suing various parties for compensation, on the grounds that what happened that Tuesday morning should have been anticipated. The law firm Motley Rice, diversifying from its traditional lucrative class-action hunting grounds of tobacco, asbestos and lead paint, is promising to put on the witness stand everybody who 'allowed the events of 9/11 to happen.' And they mean everybody--American Airlines, United, Boeing, the airport authorities, the security firms--everybody, that is, except the guys who did it.
"According to the Times, many of the bereaved are angry and determined that their loved one's death should have meaning. Yet the meaning they're after surely strikes our enemies not just as extremely odd but as one more reason why they'll win. You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen. But that's the American way: Almost every news story boils down to somebody standing in front of a microphone and announcing that he's retained counsel...[T]hose 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child's death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth
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"On this sixth anniversary, as 9/11 retreats into history, many Americans see no war at all." --Mark Steyn
links for 2007-09-11
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I am way impressed.
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The odd-looking but operator-approved Duostock is a must-have for those in close quarters battle situations. Consider a purchase if you have a loved one serving in a combat zone. (Or if you just want a really comfortable stock for your own AR.)
Currently reading
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling (hardcover)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've only read the first Potter book once before, way back when it was released. So now I'm going through the whole series. And does anyone actually buy the paperbacks of the Potter books? Have parents actually made their children wait a year after each novel is released so they can buy the paperback because they're that...thrifty? - Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
Does this man ever use quotation marks to designate dialogue? - The Hunters – W.E.B. Griffin
The third in the Presidential Agent series, following By Order of the President and The Hostage. The paperback won't be out until December, so if you must read it now, nab the hardcover. Apparently I'm in a fiction mood at the moment, and a widely varying one at that. Fantasy, western, and modern thriller. Yes, I am a man with many sides...
links for 2007-09-10
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Since I cannot make use of our pool right now, thanks to the busted foot, perhaps this would be a fun project...
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Free fonts from pop culture: movies, music, games, and random corporate life.
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"The web's top 500 free fonts!"
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Huge collection of more than 8,000 free fonts and dingbats.
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I don't spend any time on IRC, but if you do, this looks like a nice Mac OS X client.
Don't Suffer the Little Children
The constrained vision indicates that world harmony and universal satisfaction are mirages. People are innately selfish, and they'll always desire more goodies. This means that tradeoffs between competing wants are inevitable. My wife and I therefore forbid our children to use the word "fair." Parents still in the thrall of the unconstrained worldview are prone to manipulation by their kids, who like little human-rights lawyers insist on fairness as an imperative. And don't get me started on the damage that an exaggerated sense of fairness and entitlement has done to public schools. In our house things are much simpler: That last piece of cake had to be divided somehow, and in this imperfect world your brother got the extra frosting. Deal with it.
While the unconstrained worldview teaches that traditions and customs are to be distrusted as holdovers from benighted generations, those of us with the constrained view believe it's good to make our children address their elders properly, refrain from belching at the table and wear clothes that actually cover them. Mr. Sowell noted that some benefits from evolved societal rules can't be articulated, because they've developed through trial and error over centuries. This reveals the sublime wisdom in that time-honored parental rejoinder: "Because I said so."
It's not surprising, then, to see Mr. Sowell approvingly cite Edmund Burke's observation that traditions provide "wisdom without reflection." This is lived out in our house by the dictum that parents are to be obeyed first, and politely questioned later. That seems oppressive to parents with the unconstrained worldview, who want to nurture Junior's sense of autonomy and broad-minded reasoning. It's awfully useful, however, when Junior is about to ride his bike into the path of an oncoming car. Obedience may be a dirty word in progressive schools and enlightened parenting circles, but it saves lives.
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I sometimes speak to groups of high-school and college students, and I have taken to disabusing them of the feel-good notion that they can do anything they want so long as they are passionate about it. Intentions, as Mr. Sowell observes, mean very little in the constrained worldview--and, besides, individuals are neither equal nor perfectible. This means that some of us will dig ditches for a living, especially if those certain someones, who know full well who I'm talking about, don't stop shooting spitballs at their brothers and get back to their math workbooks. Firmly in the constrained camp, I'm less concerned that my children self-actualize at an early age than that they learn a trade and get out of the house. And since I've gone and quoted about half of the piece, you should just go and read the whole thing.