Utterings in an age of unreason

synchronized peer to peer listening

We're too far behind here in the US when it comes to music technology. With stuff like tunA happening in Europe, I'm tempted to move.
posted by William Slawski at 8:29:01 PM
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Proud of my country

Every so often, it's good to be able to say that I'm proud of my country. I am, since they stood up to defend a muslim girl's right to wear a scarf in school.
posted by William Slawski at 8:09:49 PM
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Chuck's Place

The first rule about... damn. that's probably no way to talk about the online forum generously run by Chuck Palahniuk. This writing workshop at ChuckPalahniuk.net looks like it's an excellent way to start learning to write well.
posted by William Slawski at 8:07:39 PM
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active - passive

There are times when my writing becomes too passive, or too active. Now there's The Passivator to help when that happens. We need more tools on the web like this. [this is good]
posted by William Slawski at 8:04:02 PM
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living in a dialup world

I surf the slow net at home, and I'm not really that upset over it. I suspect that my net usage would be much different if I had broadband. I guess if the experience was too good, I'd never get some sunlight. Some folks don't like Life in the Slow Lane.
posted by William Slawski at 8:02:31 PM
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Voting for Songwriters

There are some great songwriters nominated for the Songwriters Hall of Fame Virtual Museum. I'd probably vote for Steve Cropper or Al Green if I were a dues paying member. Joe South and the duo Strong and Whitfield would be good choices, too. (via metafilter)
posted by William Slawski at 7:02:38 PM
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Who is the Robin Hood?

I recently read an article on Robin Hood, and the mystery that surrounds him. Often the subject of poems, plays, and legends, there seems a possibility that some of the tales of Robin might have been about men who lived at different times.

I've really just started to investigate the subject, but I've found some helpful links. For instance, the people working upon the Robin Hood Project, from the University of Rochester, have collected a number of tales of Robin's adventures. And some nice illustrations, including more than a couple penciled by Howard Pyle.

Paula Kate Marmor's excellent Legends pages explore a number of legendary and mythological characters, starting with a good look at Robin Hood.

Quite a few places lay claim to Robin Hood, such as Barnsdale and Sherwood, though he is also claimed by Loxley, and Britannia has a nice online tour of Robin's Nottinghamshire.


The beginning of August marks the 20th Annual Robin Hood Festival in Nottinghamshire. And the pictures of Edwinstowe on the Robin Hood's Village site make it appear to be a charming place to visit.

I learned quite a bit from the Robin Hood Wiki. I'm not sure that I want to become a complete Robin Hood expert, but I do like a good historical mystery. I may just print out a copy of this Robin Hood Booklist, and take it to the local University Library.

I'll try to uncover more of the mystery as I find it.
posted by William Slawski at 6:20:40 PM
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Is it science, or is it magic?

This is as close to a blog about magic as I've seen: The Linking Page - Magic Newswire
posted by William Slawski at 1:02:40 PM
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fun with the raveonettes

Should a site play music without warning? The homepage of the raveonettes just starts playing their songs without warning. I know a lot of people who that might make mad. Me? I'm probably going to run out and buy their latest CD.
posted by William Slawski at 12:07:36 PM
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new bloggings

Love him or hate him, he does have some interesting things to say: Noam Chomsky's blogging at Turning the Tide. It's good to see.
posted by William Slawski at 7:59:01 PM
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surplus secrets

I remember when a friend bought a warehouse full of computer parts from the US government for $900.00. I wondered what might be hidden on the hard drives of that equipment, then figured that I really didn't want to know.

But, it often isn't difficult to find out. An article by someone who has made a hobby of peeking at the palimpsests that surplus computer's Hard-Disks have become warns of the dangers of thinking that your old files are gone just because you deleted them.
posted by William Slawski at 7:01:50 PM
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writing tips from Uncle Jim

He's not my Uncle, and it's likely that he's not your Uncle either, but there's a lot of fun, and some interesting statements about writing in this thread on how to Learn Writing with Uncle Jim. If you like the idea of learning how to be a better writer, you could do worse things than spending a few minutes there.
posted by William Slawski at 6:47:46 AM
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Passing Judgment on foreign judgments

Should US Courts base their decisions on laws and judicial decisions from outside of the United States? Or should the "comparative analysis" undertaken by the Supreme Court avoid looking beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the United States?

An unusual resolution, H. RES. 568, introduced in the US House of Representatives on March 17, by a number of members of that body, has been sent to the committee on the Judiciary:

RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that judicial determinations regarding the meaning of the laws of the United States should not be based on judgments, laws, or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws, or pronouncements inform an understanding of the original meaning of the laws of the United States.

Whereas the Declaration of Independence announced that one of the chief causes of the American Revolution was that King George had `combined to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws';

Whereas the Supreme Court has recently relied on the judgments, laws, or pronouncements of foreign institutions to support its interpretations of the laws of the United States, most recently in Lawrence v. Texas, 123 S.Ct. 2472, 2474 (2003);

Whereas the Supreme Court has stated previously in Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 921 n.11 (1997), that `We think such comparative analysis inappropriate to the task of interpreting a constitution . . .';

Whereas Americans' ability to live their lives within clear legal boundaries is the foundation of the rule of law, and essential to freedom;

Whereas it is the appropriate judicial role to faithfully interpret the expression of the popular will through laws enacted by duly elected representatives of the American people and our system of checks and balances;

Whereas Americans should not have to look for guidance on how to live their lives from the often contradictory decisions of any of hundreds of other foreign organizations; and

Whereas inappropriate judicial reliance on foreign judgments, laws, or pronouncments threatens the sovereignty of the United States, the separation of powers and the President's and the Senate's treaty-making authority: Now, therefore, be it


Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that judicial determinations regarding the meaning of the laws of the United States should not be based in whole or in part on judgments, laws, or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws, or pronouncements are incorporated into the legislative history of laws passed by the elected legislative branches of the United States or otherwise inform an understanding of the original meaning of the laws of the United States.

The Court should not be a legislature. It shouldn't create laws based upon what it finds others doing in the rest of the would.

But the wishful thinking that this resolution presents, that the Court ignore the rest of the world competely in their analysis and deliberations, seems myopic. Is it possible to divorce, within your minds and thoughts, any knowledge of how the rest of the world might be addressing specific problems and challenges? Should we cast a blind eye to how Courts in other countries look at problems? Shouldn't our legislatures be doing that?

Yes, we want laws which are based upon the spirit upon which this country was founded. Does this resolution help? Not really.
posted by William Slawski at 1:39:26 AM
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Paying for Prison Time

There seems to be no shortage of bad ideas when it comes to laws, regardless of their country of origin. For instance, one that requires those incorrectly imprisioned to pay food and lodgings they received during their period of incarceration.
posted by William Slawski at 1:01:03 AM
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TV on the Internet

A test run which showed off TV-style internet ads on four fairly popular web sites - About.com, CBS Sportsline, Gamespot, iVillage and Lycos, seemed to show that people disliked those types of ads less than others.

The article reminded me that I hadn't been to any of those sites in quite a while. It also provided me with at least one really good reason to never visit those sites again. I don't want TV on the internet, thank you very much. I have a television. It works fine. Show your ads there. Don't suck up all of the bandwidth with a poorly conceived notion that the rubbish you show on television is something that people want to see when they surf the web.
posted by William Slawski at 12:32:09 AM
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Dunsany online

Lord Dunsany's The Wonderful Window reminded me a bit of looking through a monitor into the world wide web.

It's one of a number of story's from The Book of Wonder from Lord Dunsany.
posted by William Slawski at 9:53:31 PM
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I love this stuff

If you know of some other archives of video clips like the The Open Video Project, please leave a link. I could watch these things all day.
posted by William Slawski at 9:39:11 PM
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Wilco reformed

I hadn't seen Filter before, but the news that Wilco is changing their lineup brought it to my attention. Nice stuff.
posted by William Slawski at 6:12:48 PM
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It's the style

I came across this anecdote earlier this week, and really enjoyed it. It is written by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, a chapter from a book about writing called On Style.

I once happened to be standing in a corner of a ball-room when there entered the most beautiful girl these eyes have ever seen or now—since they grow dull—ever will see. It was, I believe, her first ball, and by some freak or in some premonition she wore black: and not pearls—which, I am told, maidens are wont to wear on these occasions—but one crescent of diamonds in her black hair. Et vera incessu patuit dea. Here, I say, was absolute beauty. It startled.

I think she was the most beautiful lady
That ever was in the West Country.
But beauty vanishes, beauty passes.…

She died a year or two later. She may have been too beautiful to live long. I have a thought that she may also have been too good. For I saw her with the crowd about her: I saw led up and presented among others the man who was to be, for a few months, her husband: and then, as the men bowed, pencilling on their programmes, over their shoulders I saw her eyes travel to an awkward young naval cadet (Do you remember Crossjay in Meredith’s The Egoist? It was just such a boy) who sat abashed and glowering sulkily beside me on the far bench. Promptly with a laugh, she advanced, claimed him, and swept him off into the first waltz.

When it was over he came back, a trifle flushed, and I felicitated him; my remark (which I forget) being no doubt ‘just the sort of banality, you know, one does come out with’—as maybe that the British Navy kept its old knack of cutting out. But he looked at me almost in tears and blurted, ‘It isn’t her beauty, sir. You saw? It’s—it’s—my God, it’s the style!’

The rest of the chapter is worth reading, but I especially enjoyed this segment of it.
posted by William Slawski at 11:43:14 PM
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salvation for vinyl orphans

I feel much better now about the fates of those old grooved records from days gone past now that I've come across the pages of Vinylorphanage.com
posted by William Slawski at 6:22:19 PM
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What's a sadgeezer?

I've been slowly learning British English. My lessons are coming along well, too. I'm learning the difference between trousers and pants. I can tell when something is dodgy. I now know the real name for soccer. It's spelled "license" when it's a noun, and "licence" when it's a verb. Colour, and honour, and a number of other words have a "u" in them for no apparent reason. Civilization on this side of the Atlantic has a "z" in it, and on the the other side exchanges that "z" for an "s". Some other good British words working their way into my vocabulary: crikey, cheers, optimisation, and a whole host of others. I also now know what a SadGeezer is.
posted by William Slawski at 10:26:23 AM
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You think your Kungfu is tough, huh?

I spent too much time last night playing with the I Know Where Bruce Lee Lives, [KeyJay, ultrainteractive KungFu Remixer]. It's a good thing that I'm so easily amused by such mindless entertainment.
posted by William Slawski at 6:35:40 AM
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A Frank Frazetta Art Gallery Roadtrip

I'll be firing up the old jalopy, and getting out to northeastern Pennsylvania sometime this April to visit the Frank Frazetta Art Gallery. I didn't know this museum existed, or that it was only a few hours away.
posted by William Slawski at 6:22:22 AM
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The healthful effects of coffee

I'm glad to hear the announcement that coffee is a 'health drink'. Makes me feel a little better about that large cup of it I have most mornings.
posted by William Slawski at 6:10:37 AM
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Dumbing down Shakespeare for mass consumption

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare


Part of the challenge, part of the charm, part of the value of Shakespeare's Sonnets is to force a reader to worry forth the meanings of the words upon the page, to listen to them spoken and deduce what they mean.

It's a task worth undertaking, finding meaning in a poem that is pregnant with it. If someone learning language and how to read and write has to crack the binding of a dictionary, there's value to that also. Learning to read, growing to think, overcoming obstacles; those all can be difficult, but they can allow us to achieve a sense of accomplishment.

In the article To read or not to read, we're introduced to the "No Fear Shakespeare" books which are meant as tools for struggling readers. I'm trying to decide whether it's good or bad to let loose upon the world a "Shakespeare for Dummies."
posted by William Slawski at 6:00:19 AM
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