OK, I didn't watch the Super Bowl at all. But then, I usually only watch a few minutes of it anyway — before I remember why I'm not interested in football at all. BUT… I do like to see what the ad agencies cook up for this broadcast; and they've been posted on the ‘net afterward for those who ‘missed it'.
So here they are: http://video.google.com/superbowl.html
[Note that we had pointed out another 'book on tape' version of the Bible years ago -- by none other than Darth Vader...]
Set includes 24 hours of audio drama on 20 audio CDs (or 3 MP3 disks) and a bonus 75 minute Behind-the-Scenes DVD featuring interviews with the actors.
The Word of Promise: Next Generation is much more than just a word-for-word reading: it's an all-star cast performing audio drama with a rich original score and Hollywood special effects. When Jesus walks on the water, kids will feel like they're in the boat. When Peter waits in the courtyard during the Lord's trial, the fire will crackle. The ambient sounds of the Holy land, the breath-taking musical score, the world-class young actors and the timeless Word of Promise all combine to deliver an unparalleled achievement.
Starring a Hollywood-level cast of young talent including Cody Linley (Hanna Montana, Dancing with the Stars) as Jesus, AnnaSophia Robb (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as Mary Magdalene, Jordin Sparks (American Idol Winner) as Elizabeth, Cobin Bleu (High School Musical) as Peter, Alyson Stoner (Cheaper by the Dozen) as Martha, and narrated by Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings). The project includes informative book introductions by author Max Lucado and his daughter, Jenna Lucado, who is a speaker on the Revolve Tour.
Enjoy…
This is the British film, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle'; a work that is available on DVD and for free all over the internet, but is not shown to impressionable school children with unabashed glee like Al Gore's lie-fest is. Watch it here or go to the page on Google Video and bookmark it for later. This is likely NOT going to be shared by the Liberals in the Teachers Union; because it defuses and refutes many of the ‘facts' that are included in the ‘authoritative' textbooks that are being shoved down our children's throats.
H/t to Doug Ross for further links to flesh out recent news and commentary on this:
2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved (UK Telegraph)
“Average temperature of the water near the top of the Earth's oceans has significantly cooled since 2003.” (NASA)
The western tip of Lake Superior freezes over in December for first time in recent memory (Duluth News)
“A Scam, With No Basis In Science” (Powerline)
“Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.” (Ventura County Star)
750 years of ice core data show sun drove pre-industrial temp changes (Scientific Blogging)
South America has coldest winter in 90 years (Gateway Pundit)
2008: coldest summer in Anchorage since 1917 [PDF] (Icecap)
Alaskan Glaciers Grow for First Time in 250 years (DailyTech)
Arctic sees ‘massive gain' in ice coverage (DailyTech)
Gov. Gregoire: Record Winter Storms Lead to Statewide Emergency (MSNBC)
Scientist adjusts data — presto, Antarctic cooling disappears (Heliogenic Climate Change)
China struggles to cope with the worst snow storms in over 50 years (BBC)
But Comcast is another story for another day.
Since there are mere weeks before The Man takes away our analog television signals, I sent off for the two $40 coupons the government is providing to reduce the sting of this purposeless change and wandered into the nearest WalMart to pick up a box for our living room, and another for the master bedroom.
But for the two weeks leading up to Christmas Day, that and all other stores we peeked into were completely out of such devices.
Yesterday, however, the woman who promised to love, honor, and adjust my rabbit ears let me stop in after we grabbed a bite sans progeny. And a few hours later, we were plugged in and cruising a plethora of new channels that we couldn't see through our old analog goggles.
Unfortunately, the happiness was short-lived — we heard a high-pitched hiss that nothing we tried could tune out. A quick Googl'ing around led us to the idea that the RF output (the antenna wire) often exhibits this problem; but disconnecting that and using the RCA outputs (right, left, video) instead works just fine. Another 10 minutes of digging around in a spaghetti-mess of spare wires produced the right connectors, and we're back in love with our ‘new' TV again. The thing is, if we hadn't had that cable laying around in a box, we would have been out another $10 per television on top of the over-$40 cost of the converter boxes.
It's nice to see twice or even three times as many channels as I could pull in with analog — but you need to understand the basic difference between analog and digital reception. With analog, you might be on the fringe of receiving some stations; that would mean a fuzzy picture, or one with ‘ghosts' across the image. With digital, being on the edge of a transmission means not seeing any picture at all. However, if you do get the picture, it is amazingly clear. On our first evening, we watched an episode of classic Trek that was so clear we both just sort of sat there with our mouths open for the first ten minutes.
Digital transmissions tend to work well with a directional antenna — for example, the kind that has two square ‘loops' that can be rotated around atop your television set. Rabbit ear-style antennas will work; but are not as easy to ‘point'; if you live in an area halfway between two major cities, you'll want to be able to direct your antenna at the point of origination. The short version is that you shouldn't be surprised if at least one of your televisions requires a different style of set-top antenna if you aren't close to the stations you want to watch.
Now, on to why all of America is having to do this in the first place…
The rhetoric is that the change to digital is being forced for the convenience of consumers, for a better and clearer picture, and so that we can see programming information on-screen that until now has only been available to cable and dish subscriber networks.
But improving the quality of service is not really what is driving this migration — most of us are happy enough with the quality of our (free) rabbit-ear-fed picture and would never have asked the FCC to inconvenience millions of Americans like this. The real driver is that manufacturers see a burgeoning market of new wireless services for public safety and emergency rescue communications, commercial uses (like taxicabs and contractors), and consumer wireless products. They need more real estate in the air — more ‘bandwidth' — to place these services so that they can sell them to consumers.
The manufacturers and carriers saw an opening in public and legislative opinion when the first-responders involved in rescue operations after the 9/11 attack were unable to interoperate because they all had disparate communication equipment that kept one agency from talking to another — such was the confusion that there were firefighters standing 20 feet from each other that couldn't talk to each other. The companies providing industrial-strength radio gear to them have since spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress and the FCC to force these changes so that they could benefit — not so ‘Desperate Housewives' will come in more clearly on your 19″ set. Unfortunately, the headlines are rife with complaints from police and fire departments that the new digital gear they've purchased in the ‘new era' are inoperable, don't meet basic specs, or are simply not designed for the type of field use that these departments depend on to do their jobs.
Why would the FCC care how much bandwidth is allocated to these manufacturers and carriers? Because they auction off portions of that bandwidth; the more bandwidth that is available for 'sale', the more revenue the FCC collects.
Now, don't you feel quite well-taken, I mean well-taken-care-of?
Further reading:
Converting to digital television is supposed to be simple. It's not (IEEE.org)
Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 (NTIA.doc.gov)
The FCC and Congress should consider consumer rights when making the transition to DTV (Law.Duke.edu)
How UHF spectrum will appear after the transition date and who the primary bidders were for the auctioned-off portions of the spectrum (SoundAndCommunications.com)
ArsTechnica.com: DTV transition
FCC commissioners fan out to reassure/terrify TV watchers (ArsTechnica.com)
Civil rights groups hit panic button on DTV transition (ArsTechnica.com)
The FCC Spectrum Auction: A Missed Opportunity (FreePress.net)
Save Our Spectrum Coalition Asks FCC To Create Wireless Broadband Competition (CommonDreams.org)
The Impact of Public Advocacy Reforms on the Spectrum Auction Process (MediaResearchHub.SSRC.org)
From the mailbag:
FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: Everyone
RE: Christmas Party
DATE: December 1I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23, starting at noon in the banquet room at Luigi's Open Pit Barbecue.
No-host bar, but plenty of eggnog! We'll have a small band playing traditional carols… feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus!
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FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 2
RE: Christmas PartyIn no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we're calling it our “Holiday Party.” The same policy applies to employees who are celebrating Kwanzaa at this time.
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FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 3
RE: Holiday PartyRegarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table … you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, “AA Only”; you wouldn't be anonymous anymore. We're not trying to exclude anyone, honest! How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody?
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FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 7
RE: Holiday PartyWhat a diverse company we are! I had no idea that the party occurs during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs. Perhaps Luigi's can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party — the days are so short this time of year or else package everything for take-home in little foil swans. Will that work?
Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Overeaters Anonymous to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the restrooms. Did I miss anything?
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FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 8
RE: Holiday PartySo December 22 marks the Winter Solstice… what do you expect me to do, a tap-dance on your heads? Fire regulations at Luigi's prohibit the burning of sage by our “earth-based Goddess-worshipping” employees, but we'll try to accommodate your drumming circle during the band's breaks. Okay???
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FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 9
RE: Holiday PartyPeople, people, nothing sinister was intended by having our CEO dress up like Santa Claus! Even if the anagram of “Santa” does happen to be “Satan,” there is no evil connotation to our own “little man in a red suit.” It's a tradition, folks, like sugar shock at Halloween or family feuds over the Thanksgiving turkey or broken hearts on Valentine's Day. Could we lighten up for a minute?
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FROM: Pat Lewis, Human Resources Director
DATE: December 10
RE: Holiday PartyVegetarians!?!?!? I've had it with you people!!! We're going to keep this party at Luigi's Open Pit Barbecue whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the “grill of death,” as you so quaintly put it, and you'll get your salad bar, including hydroponic tomatoes. But you know, they have feelings, too. Tomatoes scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream, I'm hearing them scream right now!
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FROM: Teri Bishops, Acting Human Resources Director
DATE: December 14
RE: Pat Lewis and Holiday PartyI'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Pat Lewis a speedy recovery from her stress-related illness and I'll continue to forward your cards to her at the sanitarium. In the meantime, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd off with full pay.
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I was told the following Christmas Songs for the Disturbed are now available on iTunes:
Another gem from the mailbag:
When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.
When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.
Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.
Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug , and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.
Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said very cheerfully, ‘Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'
And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.
(If you cannot see this here, try visiting http://www.noradsanta.org/map.html .)
(Windows is just below 90 percent and the rest is Linux distributions.)
InfoWorld.com reports that ‘due to its highly regarded Mac OS X Leopard operating system' and an ‘unhappy reception for Microsoft's Windows Vista'… The Mac isn't just a second-class citizen any more.
It's a second-class citizen with forward momentum.
Now if only we had a MacOS X netbook hovering around $500, like HP's 2133 MiniNote (9.8″ diagonal at 1280×800, 120Gb HD, 1Gb RAM). Then it would be a very merry Christmas indeed.
Pardons Granted by President G.W. Bush (2001-Present)
Commutations Granted by President G.W. Bush (2001-Present)
UPDATE: press release for those added to the list 12/23/08Commutations granted by President W.J. Clinton (1993-2001)
Pardons granted by President W.J. Clinton (1993-2001)Pardons and Commutations granted by President H.W. Bush (1989-1993)
Applcation forms are available; perhaps Obama will bail you out in a few years.
On Dec. 24, 1955, a call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. However, this call was not from the president or a general. It was from a girl in Colorado Springs who was following the directions in an advertisement printed in the local paper – she wanted to know the whereabouts of Santa Claus.
The ad said “Hey, Kiddies! Call me direct and be sure and dial the correct number.” However, the number was printed incorrectly in the advertisement and rang into the CONAD operations center.
On duty that night was Col. Harry Shoup, who has come to be known as the “Santa Colonel.” Col. Shoup received numerous calls that night and rather than hanging up, he had his operators find the location of Santa Claus and reported it to every child who phoned in that night.
Thus began a tradition carried on by the North American Aerospace Defense Command when it was formed in 1958. Today, through satellite systems, high-powered radars and jet fighters, NORAD tracks Santa Claus as he makes his Yuletide journey around the world.
Every Christmas Eve, several hundred volunteers staff telephone hotlines and computers to answer calls and e-mails from children (and adults) from around the world. Live updates are provided on the NORAD Tracks Santa Web Site (in six languages), over telephone lines and by e-mail to keep curious children and their families informed about where Santa really is and if it’s time to get to bed.
In November and December 2006, the NORAD Tracks Santa Web Site received nearly a billion hits from 210 countries and territories around the world. More than half a million people called the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline, and volunteers received nearly 12,500 e-mails from children around the globe.
NORAD Tracks Santa has become a magical and global phenomenon, delighting generations of families everywhere.
NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa – radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets.
Tracking Santa starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system consists of 47 installations strung across the northern border of North America. On Christmas Eve, NORAD monitors the radar continuously for indications that Santa Claus has left the North Pole.
The moment that radar indicates Santa has lifted off, we use our second detection system. Satellites positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth’s surface are equipped with infrared sensors which enable them to detect heat. Amazingly, Rudolph's bright red nose gives off an infrared signature which allow our satellites to detect Rudolph and Santa.
The third tracking system is the Santa Cam network. We began using it in 1998, which is the year we put our Santa Tracking program on the internet. Santa Cams are ultra-cool, high-tech, high-speed digital cameras that are pre-positioned at many locations around the world. NORAD only uses these cameras once a year on Christmas Eve. The cameras capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world.
The fourth system is made up of fighter jets. Canadian NORAD fighter pilots flying the CF-18 intercept and welcome Santa to North America. In the United States, American NORAD fighter pilots in either the F-15 or the F-16 get the thrill of flying alongside Santa and his famous reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and, of course, Rudolph.
Read other Santa-related posts from previous years…
“The electors of President and Vice President of each State shall meet and give their votes on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following their appointment at such place in each State as the legislature of such State shall direct” -United States Code: Title 3, section 7
My calendar says that's December 17th, in 2008.
From Electoral College - Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.) (Archives.org):
How did the terms “Elector” and “Electoral College” come into usage?The term “electoral college” does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to “electors,” but not to the “electoral college.” In the Federalist Papers (No. 68), Alexander Hamilton refers to the process of selecting the Executive, and refers to “the people of each State (who) shall choose a number of persons as electors,” but he does not use the term “electoral college.”
The founders appropriated the concept of electors from the Holy Roman Empire (962 - 1806). An elector was one of a number of princes of the various German states within the Holy Roman Empire who had a right to participate in the election of the German king (who generally was crowned as emperor). The term “college” (from the Latin collegium), refers to a body of persons that act as a unit, as in the college of cardinals who advise the Pope and vote in papal elections. In the early 1800's, the term “electoral college” came into general usage as the unofficial designation for the group of citizens selected to cast votes for President and Vice President. It was first written into Federal law in 1845, and today the term appears in 3 U.S.C. section 4, in the section heading and in the text as “college of electors.”
Why do we still have the Electoral College?
The Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. It would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system.
Note that the 12th Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and the use of the popular vote in the States as the vehicle for selecting electors has substantially changed the process.
Many different proposals to alter the Presidential election process have been offered over the years, such as direct nation-wide election by the People, but none have been passed by Congress and sent to the States for ratification. Under the most common method for amending the Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States.
What proposals have been made to change the Electoral College system?
Reference sources indicate that over the past 200 years, over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. There have been more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject. The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral College as “archaic” and “ambiguous” and its polling showed 69 percent of lawyers favored abolishing it in 1987. But surveys of political scientists have supported continuation of the Electoral College. Public opinion polls have shown Americans favored abolishing it by majorities of 58 percent in 1967; 81 percent in 1968; and 75 percent in 1981.
Opinions on the viability of the Electoral College system may be affected by attitudes toward third parties. Third parties have not fared well in the Electoral College system. Candidates with regional appeal such as Governor Thurmond in 1948 and Governor Wallace in 1968 won blocs of electoral votes in the South, which may have affected the outcome, but did not come close to seriously challenging the major party winner. The last third party or splinter party candidate to make a strong showing was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 (Progressive, also known as the Bull Moose Party). He finished a distant second in electoral and popular votes (taking 88 of the 266 electoral votes needed to win). Although Ross Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote nationwide in 1992, he did not win any electoral votes since he was not particularly strong in any one or several states. Any candidate who wins a majority or plurality of the popular vote has a good chance of winning in the Electoral College, but there are no guarantees (see the results of 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000 elections).
What is the difference between the winner-takes-all rule and proportional voting, and which States follow which rule?
There are 48 States that have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these States, whichever candidate receives a majority of the vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate) takes all of the State's electoral votes.
Only two States, Nebraska and Maine, do not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In those States, there could be a split of electoral votes among candidates through the State's system for proportional allocation of votes.For example, Maine has four electoral votes and two Congressional districts. It awards one electoral vote per Congressional district and two by the state-wide, “at-large” vote. It is possible for Candidate A to win the first district and receive one electoral vote, Candidate B to win the second district and receive one electoral vote, and Candidate C, who finished a close second in both the first and second districts, to win the two at-large electoral votes. Although this is a possible scenario, it has not actually occurred in recent elections.
Further reading:
U.S._Electoral_College (Wikipedia.org)
RealClearPolitics Electoral College (RealClearPolitics.com)
