Month: November 2004

Mike Gold, that is. He’s finally got a weblog: Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind

It’s early, but if you remember his commentaries and letter columns, you know you’re in for a good read. Make him feel at home.

Oh My God It Burns!

Our theory is that a simple brita water filter can be used to make bad vodka, into good. In our case this meant turning a Vladimir�, into a Ketel One�. At $11.09 for 1.75 liter (Ketel is 11.99 for the 350 ml), Vladimir is a steal. It is, however, painful to drink, has a repugnant aftertaste, posesses a bouquet reminiscent of rubbing alcohol. Our working theory was that these terrible qualities were caused by a lack of proper filtration, and that running our Vlad through a charcoal filter would remove some of the impurities causing these odors and flavors….

That’s what got scrawled on my name badge at tonight’s Science Fiction Writers of America Mill & Swill. This was the doing of Kathleen David, Beth Glover, and Lisa Sullivan (while Leslie McBain just sat alongside, claiming innocence. Don’t believe her.)

Well, it does seem that I’m hosting a lot of spare weblogs, so I can kinda see it…

Which reminds me, I’m going to be announcing yet another one on my hit parade shortly. As soon as he actually gets around to putting in his first few entries, I’ll let you know.

Man the barricades, it’s Bush again=The Hill.com=

Now it can be told: That mysterious bulge on President Bush’s back during the first presidential debate was not an electronic device feeding him answers, but a strap holding his bulletproof vest in place….

But sources in the Secret Service told The Hill that Bush was wearing a bulletproof vest, as he does most of the time when appearing in public. The president�s handlers did not want to admit as much during the campaign, for fear of disclosing information related to his personal security while he was on the campaign trail.

The suspicion that Bush was, indeed, wearing something under his coat was given further credence by Dr. Robert M. Nelson, a senior research scientist for NASA and Caltech�s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an international authority on image analysis, who conducted tests while working at home on his own computers.

We only note that Bush did, in fact, lie about what it was when asked.

Unless I am misreading these government reports, there are 237,522 more votes for president than there are voters in Florida. This, combined with other voting irregularities in Florida, make me wonder if the state was called too soon– and for the wrong man.

1st SET OF UNOFFICIAL RETURNS

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/StatusRpt.Asp?ElectionDate=11/2/2004&Datamode=E

http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/SummaryRpt.Asp?ElectionDate=11/02/2004&Datamode=E&Race=PRE&Party=&DIST=&GRP=

The following counties have more votes for President than voters:

Collier 943
Duval 357
Glades 742
Highlands 7,495
Lake 187
Leon 85
Miami-Dade 51,979
Okaloosa 222
Orange 1,648
Osceola 18,589
Palm Beach 90,774
Volusia 19,306

Something is REALLY wrong here.

UPDATE: Looking at the numbers, two more anomalies pop out:

* Escambia County seems to have had turnout of 161,183 voters, yet only 142,990 votes for president. 1 out of 8 voters in that county didn’t vote for president?

* Indian River County had exactly the same number of turnout and the number of votes for president. Of the counties that didn’t list more votes than voters, the spread was .055% to 1.045% of people who didn’t vote for president. Getting it perfect is unbelievable.

Thoughts Arguments and Rants: Philosophy in Questionable Taste

The Teleologist: We aren�t meant for each other. (P.K.)
The Deontologist: We aren�t right for each other. (P.K.)
The Consequentialist: We aren�t optimal for each other. (P.K.)
The Solipsist: It�s not you, it�s me. (P.K.)
The Empiricist: I think we should see other people. (P.K.)
The Rationalist: I�m not a priority to you any more. (P.K.)

The Rationalist, v 2.0: I�ve been doing some thinking… (Paul Audi)
The Rationalist, v. 3.0: If you can�t see your faults, there�s nothing more I can say. (P.K.)
The Content Externalist: Ever since we moved, you�ve changed. (Paul Audi)

…and so on.

PRESS RELEASE: Weblogs, Inc., The World’s Largest Blog Publisher, Announces the Launch of Their Two Newest Weblogs, The CSS Weblog and The Photoshop Weblog.

Weblogs, Inc., The World�s Largest Blog Publisher, Announces the Launch of Their Two Newest Weblogs, The CSS Weblog and The Photoshop Weblog.

Weblogs, Inc. is the largest publisher of professional blogs. Today the firm announced the launch of their 58th and 59th Weblogs: �The CSS Weblog� and �The Unofficial Photoshop Weblog.� Weblogs, Inc. also produces Engadget.com, BlogMaverick.com, Autoblog.com and Bloggingbaby.com.

New York, NY (PRWEB) November 4, 2004 – Today Weblogs, Inc. (www.weblogsinc.com), the largest publisher of professional blogs, announced the launch of their 58th and 59th Weblogs��The CSS Weblog� with James Jackson and �The Unofficial Photoshop Weblog� with Glenn Hauman. The blogs can be found at http://css.weblogsinc.com and http://photoshop.weblogsinc.com.

Jason McCabe Calacanis, Weblogs, Inc. co-founder, says, “We’re thrilled to expand our web development and design category, especially with these two gurus who are working in this space 24×7.”

24×7? That’s a small screen size for Photoshop… oh wait, that’s the time I’m supposed to be… oh man, now I have to add more hours to the day AND more days to the week…

Well, let’s see– I’ve started building the official website for GrimJack. Yes, if you haven’t heard, John Gaunt’s back and Cynosure’s got him. Or Mayfair’s got him. Or– well, why spoil the surprise? Go over and look for yourself. (Note to any comics journalists: there’s at least one surprise on the site…)

And I’ve just started writing the Unofficial Photoshop Weblog over at photoshop.weblogsinc.com — a filtered and balanced weblog. Brought to you by the same folks who bring you Autoblog, Blogging Baby, Engadget, Gadling, hack a day, Joystiq, and Blog Maverick.

Now all I have to do is to get Blog Maverick to fund Lot Auctions, and I’m all set. Heck, I’ll just be happy if he bids on some of the upcoming auctions– we’ve got about $1-200,000 worth of comic books about to go up for sale, and a collection of Magic cards and Nevada gaming tokens, and–

Man, I gotta get back to work.

Black Box Voting – Bev Harris – one of the leading groups doing voting machine investigations. A nonpartisan, nonprofit, consumer protection group for elections.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Nov 3 2004 — Did the voting machines trump exit polls? There’s a way to find out.

Black Box Voting (.ORG) is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history. At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.

America: We have permission to say No to unaudited voting. It is our right.

Among the first requests sent to counties (with all kinds of voting systems — optical scan, touch-screen, and punch card) is a formal records request for internal audit logs, polling place results slips, modem transmission logs, and computer trouble slips.

An earlier FOIA is more sensitive, and has not been disclosed here. We will notify you as soon as we can go public with it.

Such a request filed in King County, Washington on Sept. 15, following the primary election six weeks ago, uncovered an internal audit log containing a three-hour deletion on election night; “trouble slips” revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even, in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists.

Black Box Voting is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer protection group for elections. You may view the first volley of public records requests here: Freedom of Information requests here

Responses from public officials will be posted in the forum, is organized by state and county, so that any news organization or citizens group has access to the information. Black Box Voting will assist in analysis, by providing expertise in evaluating the records. Watch for the records online; Black Box Voting will be posting the results as they come in. And by the way, these are not free. The more donations we get, the more FOIAs we are empowered to do. Time’s a’wasting.

We look forward to seeing you participate in this process. Join us in evaluating the previously undisclosed inside information about how our voting system works.

Play a part in reclaiming transparency. It’s the only way.

Take this for what you will:

I was just at my local supermarket getting food for dinner, and Rep. Robert Menendez (D) was out there shaking hands. No big signs, just him and a few workers with him.

I spoke with him and asked if he’d been seeing the big numbers on CNN. He said that he’d getting reports on his Blackberry, and the numbers looked really good.

Then he said something shocking.

I asked if he needed anybody driven to the polls with two hours to go. He said, “No, I think we’re good. But thanks.”

You heard it here first– a politician turning away last minute offers of help to GOTV.

I think the numbers are going to be really big, folks.