FRQNC


Thursday, January 29, 2009 Interesting Traffic Simulator Watch the "on ramp" closely. Traffic runs along smoothly until some jackass can't merge properly onto the freeway. This confirms what I've always believed about rush hour traffic. Basically that it only takes one or two asshats who suck at the driving game to completely screw over thousands of people behind them. These fuckwits drive the same road, at the same time, every day. Therefore the best way to end the 5:30pm gridlock is to find out just who these people are...and shoot them. j.s.



Friday, January 23, 2009 For Immediate Release January 21, 2009 January 21, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Act A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open Government. At the heart of that commitment is the idea that accountability is in the interest of the Government and the citizenry alike. The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve. In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public. All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA. The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely. I direct the Attorney General to issue new guidelines governing the FOIA to the heads of executive departments and agencies, reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency, and to publish such guidelines in the Federal Register. In doing so, the Attorney General should review FOIA reports produced by the agencies under Executive Order 13392 of December 14, 2005. I also direct the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to update guidance to the agencies to increase and improve information dissemination to the public, including through the use of new technologies, and to publish such guidance in the Federal Register. This memorandum does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register. President Barack Obama Couple this with yesterday's meetings about why the White House should be using open source software, the creation of Gmail accounts for staffers stuck with outdated email software, and all the below changes to the whitehouse.gov website, and I'm thrilled with the direction our Country is heading. grins j.s.



Wednesday, January 21, 2009 I'd like to talk for a moment about the new White House website, and this could potentially get a little geeky...so hold on to your 20-sided dice. They've completely remade the site in XHTML. And while it isn't exactly HTML 5, it's a huge step forward from the hideous Frontpage-esque style of the previous administration. I definitely approve. I also approve of all Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders being listed there for public consumption. There's an official White House Blog now, complete with RSS feed. Whether it will have an independent (and readable), voice, or simply be an online Pravda for Barack's decisions is as yet to be seen. Personally, I think it would be awesome for the President to tote his blogger with him (almost) everywhere he goes. And the blogger should definitely wear his/her pajamas... YouTube! Every Saturday, the President will address the teeming online hordes with a video which will be uploaded to YouTube, and embedded on the whitehouse.gov site. I've no idea what these videos will be about (hopefully it will be Barack being dragged across the Oval Office in the Presidential chair by his new dog), but it's awesome regardless. All data on the site is now under a Creative Commons license This is one of the most exciting things they've done, and it makes me really, really happy. For those who've never bothered to click on that little "CC - Some Rights Reserved" button that's been hiding at the bottom left of my page for the past 4 years, here's a quick video as to why it's made of win. Yes, those who've seen me wearing my "CC" logo t-shirt now know how much of a dork I truly am. robots.txt A "robots.txt" file is a list of words that are disallowed for search engines to index. For example, I don't want people searching for my day job and finding this site, so I include that company name in my robots.txt file and it tells Google, or whoever, that this site shouldn't be associated with that search. In basic English, here is the list of words that the former administration wanted to distance themselves from: User-agent: * Disallow: /includes/ /search/expectmore/earmarks/help/911/911day/heroes/patriotism/progress/remembrance/911response/sept112002/ConferenceAmericas/GOVERNMENT/QA-test/aci/afa/africanamerican/africanamericanhistory/agencycontact/americancompetitiveness/2004-summit/apec/appointments/asia/mrsbush/ask/avian/avianflu/barney/newmedia/beazley/baseball/bioshield/birdflu/blackhistory/budget/calendar/cea/cleanair/cleanenergy/earthday/healthyforests/parks/wetlands/chef/climatechangefactsheet/coalition/competitiveness/contact/deptofhomeland/deptofhomelandanalysis/stemcell/eggsbystate/easter/economy/egov/email/energy/espanol/excellence/fbi/features/fellows/firstlady/fitness/flu/flv/ford/g8/garden/ghosts/global/globaldiplomacy/goodbye/government/greeting/halloween/healthcare/history/art/eeobtour/holiday/bushpets/hanukkah/menorah/pageant/petsculptures/carter/clinton/eisenhower/ford/gwbush/hwbush/johnson/kennedy/nixon/reagan/roosevelt/truman/christmas/thanksgiving/areyouready/firstresponders/progress/stateandlocal/states/homeland/hurricane/hurricanes/inaugural/independenceday/Malaria/21stcentury-economy/economic_policy/afghanistan/africa/aids/agriculture/asia-australia/backtoschool/bioterrorism/blackhistory/budget/bushrecord/cafta/california/canada/children/citizencorps/communityservice/compassionate/consumer/corporateresponsibility/cuba/defense/developingnations/dontcall/earlychildhood/earthday/economicforum/economy/education/teachers/educationreform/elections/enduringfreedom/england/wildlife/europe/eusummit/everglades/faith-based/farminfo/financialmarkets/fitness/freedomagenda/freedomcorps/ghana/ghost/globaldiplomacy/health-care/healthyforests/hivaids/homeownership/human-trafficking/lcheney/illegal-logging/immigration/india-pakistan/internationaldevelopment/ireland/israel/italy/justice/katrina/keyhealthposts/latinamerica/medicalliability/medicare/middle-east/mideast/minority/money/mothernchild/mutualaidagreements/naleaders/nationalsecurity/nato/newcuba/newfreedom/olympics/overseas/pandemicflu/papal/patriotact/progress/ramadan/retirementsecurity/ruralamerica/rx-medicare/smallbusiness/social-security/youth/space/steel/tax-relief/tax/taxes/taxreform/teacherquality/technology/terrorisminsurance/tonysnow/traffic/transition/transportation/tsunami/unga/united_nations/usmxborder/veterans/tuskegee/victimsrights/welfare/welfarereform/womensrights/interactive/kids/baseball/teeball/constitution/dec_indep/free_time/mrscheney/stateoftheunion/traditions/vicepresident/westwing/liberation/library/march11/media/diplomacy/naturalization/national-anthem/navy/nec/news/growthpackage/nominations/orders/press/radio/print/proclamations/infosharing/nsc/nss/waronterror/foia/jobs/mendations/print/amendments/earmarks/expectmore/detail/fedreg/financial/_improper//financial/ffs/fia/grants/info_quality/dissemination/trade/legislative/testimony/no_fear/organization/performance/privacy/procurement/fair/pubpress/recruitment/reform/max-budget/speeches/whatsnew/pennproject/podcast/podcasts/president/100days/american-flag/attack-response/orthosewhoserve/ovaloffice/cincodemayo/healthierlives/pope/popefuneral/rehnquist/samuel-alito/helpingothers/cheer/militarysupport/mourning/multifront/putin/response/september11/iraq/world-leaders/privacyboard/katrina-lessons-learned/leadership/thoughts/tools/rita/rss/stateoftheunion/stemcell/tonysnow/survivors/wmd/privacy/accessibility (I hope you appreciate that...it took me forever to remove all those individual search strings.) Now, by comparison, here is the Obama Administration's robots.txt file: User-agent: * Disallow: /includes/ Yeah, nothing there. Look up anything you like. Now I realize this is more symbolic than anything else, but I still thought it was interesting. [[Thanks Jason.]] Okay, I'm really tired of typing now. Talk more later. j.s.



Tuesday, January 20, 2009 Did anyone else notice that Bush & Co. entered from the "Crypt" area of Lincoln's Memorial? =]



Two million people chanting "O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!" just sent a chill down my spine... **Note to self: Make sure at least a million people chant "JER-E-MI-AH! JER-E-MI-AH!" at some point in life.



To MSNBC and CNN: Your Inaugural Webcasts suck miserably. I'm connected via a T-1 in my office, and it's chopping like I'm running a 28.8 modem. L2Server. j.s.



Friday, January 16, 2009 Joe the Plumber is a war correspondent? The obvious ~~rip-off~~ homage to Keith Olbermann vis-à-vis Edward Murrow notwithstanding, how does something like this even happen? And, of infinitely more import, how is it that Joe the Fucking Plumber is earning a paycheck for his "journalism," and I'm bringing in less than $100-a-month on mine? Now I'll grant you, he's working for some piddly neo-con website that I've never even heard of...and one that I won't link here because that's exactly the kind of response they were hoping for. To increase traffic and thereby their perceived legitimacy, all by doing outlandish and horrid things. It's like media cell terrorism. So, in the hope that someday I'll be able to grow into a "real journalist," I need one of you to call me "Tom the Streetsweeper" or "Henry the Landscaper" or "Elvis the Proctologist," live on camera. Because apparently that's how one lands a gig these days... j.s.



Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Hi there. So, let's update a bit. Yes, Sobriquet and I are still together and doing quite well, thank you all for asking. February will actually be our 6 month mark, and as it turns out I'm very much in love with her. (The poor girl.) We've taken exactly one of two ballroom dance classes she gave me for Christmas, which was a really good time, despite our Russian instructor having an unseemly predilection toward high-fiving everyone in the room, and being incapable of pronouncing my name. ("Jeres, Jammah, Jishme, Jeryiah?") The first class touched on the Waltz and Foxtrot, both of which we picked up rather easily. Although I will admit something rather embarrassing to you all... I have a hard time not "sexing up" whatever dance I happen to be doing. And while I do realize that, in theory, the Foxtrot calls for little in the way of swaying hip motion (by the gentleman anyway), I simply cannot stop. I blame years of club abuse. Wow, I really haven't written about what I've been doing for a long time. This is harder than I remember. Let's see... Oh! I crashed into a piece of plywood on the freeway yesterday morning. That was interesting. It seems the air flow from the USPS 18-wheeler in front of me created just enough lift to allow the slab of wood to go airborne from the pavement, and I plowed directly through it at 65mph. Left a gash on the outside of my right wheel well, popped the turning signal out of its socket, and rained splinters everywhere inside the Jeep. (Yes, my top is still off.) Which reminds me, I need to bring some duct tape downstairs when I leave and attempt to seal it back on the inside of the wheel well until I can get a new one. Worse, this happened mere minutes after I'd drove by a homeless guy wearing just 3 short-sleeved t-shirts and wrapped in a tattered blanket. The temperature was supposed to drop to freezing last night, and I happened to have an extra sweater next to me in the Jeep, so I turned around and gave it to him. (Apparently I'd used Skim Milk of Human Kindness in my coffee that morning.) So much for karma. Although it was suggested to me today that, if I hadn't given him that sweater, perhaps I'd be headless at this very moment...decapitated by a plane of pine veneer and glue. Possible I suppose. Tonight I'm doing dinner with Suse and Neighbor Julie, tomorrow evening is our second dance lesson (Swing and Mambo this time I believe), and Friday Gram is taking me to lunch for fixing her computer. I think that brings us about up to speed, for the time being. So I'll leave you with Jib, performing the World's Worst Noise When Hungover: j.s.



Friday, January 09, 2009 You'll never guess who was approved for their SXSW Press badge again this year. grin j.s.



Wednesday, January 07, 2009 I'm still quite busy, but I wanted to share an excellent write-up on the reasons behind the rocket attacks on Israel...written by an Oxford professor of international relations, and former member of the Israeli army. And no, it doesn't read the way you'd think. It also happens to echo what I've always thought about the Gaza Strip/West Bank. Which is that, in a purely strategic sense, there's only one reason to split a nation in half. And that's to conquer it. And, for further consideration, I believe they did that very same thing again with this newest ground invasion. I found this map online, and have shaded the area that Israel has invaded. (Kinda crude, but you get the idea.) Now the Israelis are currently moving northward from Gaza City, exterminating Palestinians as they go. (They're also demolishing cities in the far south, most likely to keep the militias down there occupied, rather than have them rush to the north to defend the Israeli advance.) From what I can see (and this is conjecture on my part), the plan is to occupy the entire area north of Gaza City, and essentially annex that land for Israel. Thus further shrinking the "prison" allotted to Palestinians. Obviously Israel is quite concerned about the upcoming Obama administration attempting to curb their aggression, blockades and general inhumanity against the people of Gaza. (And rightly so.) That's why they've chosen this convenient time to irrevocably invade. And sometime around Jan. 20th, Israel will most likely announce a cease fire, and proclaim victory and an end to their campaign. There will be two reasons for this: One, they'll flow with the "Change!" current people will be feeling toward our new administration. "Peace in the Middle East!" will get bandied about ad nauseum on the networks, and the hope will be that the Obama team will want to attribute that "peace" to their rise to power in Washington. And two, if Obama does decide to get involved, they can twist and pressure him as simply inciting more division after they'd already "ceased all aggression." sigh Anyway, sorry to be so pessimistic. It's a very good article. You should read it. j.s.



Monday, January 05, 2009 So, how long has it been since I just sat here and typed some stuff? Answer: quite a while. And I'm afraid it won't happen anytime soon either, since it's End-of-Monthiness and Deadline Week. Will be back as soon as possible though, and then I promise to ramble on incoherently for several paragraphs. j.s.



Sunday, January 04, 2009 Remember how I said that skydiving was utter lunacy, and that only people with a deathwish would want to leap out of a perfectly good airplane? Well call it a deathwish if you must, but there's no plane involved here. And I *need* to fly in one of those wingsuits. j.s.