Haven’t had an update for two weeks. Eek. I’m still alive. Just not in the mood for writing much lately. Plus the Saints started their regular season at home last week, and the six-game home-stand wore me out.
Found one interesting tidbit, though. Six games of sitting on a hard aluminum bench seems to be better for my back than I expected. In fact, I was feeling significantly better after the home stand than I was before. Interesting. Well, to me at least.
- Proving that people generally are pretty okay, even when they’re New Yorkers, tweenbots are little robots that roll along in a straight line, relying on the kindness of strangers to get where they’re going. Cool beans, indeed. [schneier]
- The Open Source Photography Guides still need a lot of raw data pumped into them, but if you’re looking to photograph an area that’s already been covered, it’s a great resource. [night photo]
- More from the Hope and Change files: Obama proposes Indefinite Preventive Detention without trial. Isn’t this worse than the sort of thing people were complaining about GWB doing? [boing boing]
- Or for a more obscene take on the facts, The Puppet Theater will get you your daily quotient of f-bombs. Or for a less ranty verision, read The Puppet Theater Tamed. Your choice.
Yesterday, Chad stopped by and put up my trellis / Pergola. It’s nice looking, and the hop plants near my front sidewalk are hopefully going to enjoy it. I’d have a picture, but in the past 18 hours I haven’t managed to get the camera with the photos of it and the card-reader to get the photos off the camera to the same location. I hope to fix that later today.
Beyond that, not too much excitement on the home front. The Saints begin their regular season at home next Tuesday, and I’m still trying to get my back happy enough that I’ll be able to go to games and not hurt the next day. Wish me luck.
- Interesting. Justice Scalia makes comments saying that he doesn’t think we need more privacy, and then a class at Fordham compiled a dossier of publicly available information about him. Details at Justice Scalia’s Dossier: Interesting Issues about Privacy and Ethics. Scalia was pissed, and seemed to back off on his earlier comments a bit. Sounds like a good teaching exercise all around. [boing boing]
- Speaking of privacy, this data about The Electronic Police State puts the US in the top ten. That’s not the right end of the scale to be on. [boing boing]
- More on the
Change
front: Pelosi confronts justice looking for de-facto immunity from investigation for members of Congress. [vinnie] - So Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games for positive drug test. Good that they caught him. But bad for baseball in that there are still folks trying to cheat. Not that cheating in baseball is necessarily bad, but MLB needs to actually clean this up, and they should have started more than ten years ago, rather than in 2003. I blame Bud Selig. [sportsshooter]
- I agree that it was a Sad day in Mannywood, but I disagree on a few things. First, I don’t think Bud Selig should apologize. I think he should get a kick in the nuts for every single juice-aided home run that’s been hit since he became commissioner. Second, I don’t think I owe MLB anything. They need to clean things up, and that needs to start at the top. If baseball can’t clean itself up, maybe it’s time to end Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption. If nothing else, that might finally get Bud Selig’s attention.
Today’s the Saints first pre-season game down in Miesville. I had a bunch of things to do before I felt I could do down there, but due to getting started at 8am, it’s noon and I’m basically ready to go. Except that I’m still dealing with a gimpy back, and I don’t think an hour each way on pot-holed roads would do it any good. So I’m still waiting for my first game of the season.
I bought a new chair for at work last Monday. It’s a SitOnIt @Work which seems to be a lot better for me than my Aeron was. So if you’re local, and looking for a (used) Aeron, I’ve got one I’m planning to sell. Drop me a note.
- I don’t much like URL redirection services like tinyurl, bitly, etc, but GiantURL.com shows some promise… [metafilter]
- These PowerShot G10–Service Notices point to a recall of some Canon G10s. Might want to check yours. [sportsshooter]
- Looking for some fun reading? texts from last night got multiple laughs from me.
- It’s not all that often I read stories at the Huffington Post, but this one Padres All-Star: Clean Players vs. Dirty Players Class Action Suit, Why Not? has me agreeing. A-Rod should be out. Barry Bonds should not have a record (or should have an asterisk). Mark McGwire should have an asterisk. The list goes on and on. It’s one of the big reasons I have very little interest in MLB anymore. I did thoroughly enjoy Neil Leifer's Ballet in the Dirt, but I don't have much interest for anything past the year they took away the world series.