Teachers' Lounge

The coming tragedy of Barack Obama (revised 10/23/09)

I should be washing my motorcycle instead of writing this, but I'm infected now. Not my choice.

Conspiracy theories  to the right of me. Conspiracy theories  to the left. Stuck in the middle with... mine. 

Barack Obama is doomed. I mean politically, and, yes, physically. As in, dead man walking.

There is an entity, now being created, which will bludgeon Barack Obama, both politically, to the detriment of the country, and physically, to the bereavement of his family. This entity is being created by the far right(aided and abetted by some of those who initially supported his candidacy). Their never-ending bombardment of the American people is ardently, though perhaps unwittingly, creating a doppelganger which will trigger the tragedy that will befall Barack Obama.

"...babe, you're just a wave, you're not the water." - Jimmy Dale Gilmore

Glenn Beck. Ann Coulter. Michelle Malkin. Fox News. Far right extremists across the globe... they're just the waves. I cannot tell you of the water.

Except that it's very deep, and very dark. It is not evil. It just is.  

Barack Obama is doomed.Unless he's not. 

Everything that could happen has already happened. Everything that could happen has yet to manifest. 

We are blessed with a mutable universe. 

You can help turn it around. You really can. Will you? Will you help turn back the water?

  

Put some fun back into learning with...

...Game Classroom

What about walkie talkies?

All he wants for Christmas

 
are precision air strikes aimed at Iran's nuclear plants.

Well, I suppose we could persuade Israel to do it.

It's no game out there.

 

The four ghosts of Christmas

Chase Jarvis knows a good time when he sees one

For a bit of childish fun, we set up a photo booth using state-of-the-art camera and lighting equipment and captured 21,112 photographs in under 5 hours. That's more than 1.5 images every second--the camera shot almost continuously for the duration of the party. That's gotta be some sort of bizarre record or something... The resulting "movie" of those photographs tells a pretty funny tale. Please indulge me here in a little bit of goofing... If you're not hip to some intermittent debauchery, some tomfoolery, and the occasional PG-13 flasher, don't watch this. If you're lighthearted and have been there before, watch and enjoy. And stick with it. Just when you think it's on repeat, somebody ups the ante... 21,112 photographs in under 5 hours  

Slider and Santy wish everyone a Merry Happy Holidays!

Got an iPhone? Getting one for Christmas?

Why then... get started.

Too much guilt for me to bare

I think I'll just kill myself.

I still don't grok Google Wave

but, gosh darn it, I WILL learn to grok.

I thought Seth Godin was the guy behind 'Knocked Up'

I was, like, totally wrong.

You really think this is ugly?

I think it's absolutely gorgeous.  

Kim Peak, the real Rain Man

R.I.P.

Mr. Dan and Dogboy wish you

a very merry Happy Holidays!

And, if that isn't enough to wet your greasy giblets, go ahead and pleasure yourself with this homegrown holiday chestnut.  

Where do YOU sit?

I favor an aisle seat.

So sweet

(This post contains an IMPORTANT UPDATE) Bose, you really disappoint me

Less than two years ownership and our Bose Wave music system multi-CD changer has crapped out, like so many others. Wouldn't play any of the five loaded CDs, nor would it eject them. It's out of warranty so I had nothing to lose by taking matters into my own hands. I got my five CDs back, but I'm afraid the patient died during the extraction.

Please scroll to the end for an important update from Sean Larkin at BOSE Corp.

I know you're in there. Come out, I say!

Aha! Peekaboo. oh CD o' mine. Don't worry. I'm coming.

Gotcha!

Death ain't pretty.  
  

To be fair, I've had excellent performance coupled with perfect reliability from my Acoustic Wave music system II, Companion 5 multimedia speaker system, Bose on-ear headphones, and the Wave connect kit for iPod. But, based on my own experience, coupled with the judgements of many others (do a Google search and see for yourself), the Bose Wave music system multi-CD changer is a dud. (I notice the one they're selling now has been redesigned on the outside. I certainly hope it's better on the inside.)

I hope that the Bose Corporation takes notice of this. (I've forwarded this post to their parts and service department.) Would be a nice gesture if Bose made some kind of restitution to myself and others who got stuck with a poorly engineered home entertainment product.

UPDATE - I spoke today with Sean Larkin with BOSE Product and Technical Support. According to their records, I purchased the changer in December of 2007, so it was about two years old, and a year out of warranty. Sean said that he was concerned that we didn't get a whole lot of use out of it in those two years. As a one-time courtesy, BOSE will send me a new changer with a one-year warranty. I applaud BOSE, and Sean, for taking this step. After all, a happy customer is a, well, a HAPPY CUSTOMER!

An intriguing argument

about global warming. And now it's a book. And... the video comes with an index. And a menu.   

Melanie's new CD release - grab it!

It’s been five years since her last release, Shades of Blue, but Silver City songbird Melanie Zipin’s new album, Here I Am, is her strongest to date. After several chance meetings with Hundred Year Flood’s Bill Palmer, Zipin decided to have him produce the recording sessions at Frogville Studios, in Santa Fe. “What I was after was to have a recording that had an authentic, live, full-band sound. I didn’t want it to have a lot of glitz,” Zipin says.

She and Palmer have accomplished that mission. Folks who like the vocal stylings of Stevie Nicks and the sort of intimate, self-reflective songs sung by Bonnie Raitt will find much to enjoy here. Melanie Zipin and the Z Factor - here I am

More Melanie here

Whoopdeedoo! Finally a great WWI flight sim!

Back in 1985 I spent hundreds of hours "flying" the Fokker Triplane, programmed by Mac fanatic Donald A. Hill. Even though it was black and white and wire frame, I felt like I was really flying. (And, sometimes at night, I'd have these wonderful flying dreams.) One time I even managed to pull off a loop... this plane was hot on my tail, firing his guns, so I dived to gain airspeed and then climbed into a full loop and leveled out right on his tail and I shot him out of the sky. I was walking on air the rest of the day. (Some very interesting Fokker background here.)

Yesterday I loaded up for the first time Rise of Flight. I am a very happy man.

odds and ends

I browse the net every morning via iPhone. Here are some interesting stories/site I've seen...

The Storque - handmade goodies, buy/sell/gawk... New York Times piece peeks behind the curtain.

The question: Is fanaticism always wrong?  Today's fanatic, tomorrow's saint 

The US Senate report blasting President Bush's administration for what is going on in Afghanistan provides covering fire for Barack Obama's speech on his Afghan strategy. The report is also a good opportunity to address far deeper failings in the military effort these last eight years. The continued incompetence of the military operation indicates that the generals and the political elites in our societies are no more "fit for purpose" than those that led the disasters of the 1914-18 war. Then as now there was a social-psychological failure to understand the impact of modern society on war. What a mess our military has made

Why do rappers hold their guns sideways? The answer may surprise you. Or not.

Malicious programs are rampaging through Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, spreading themselves by taking over people’s accounts and sending out messages to all of their friends and followers. The result is that people are inadvertently telling their co-workers and loved ones how to raise their I.Q.’s or make money instantly, or urging them to watch an awesome new video in which they star.

“I wonder what people are thinking of me right now?” said Matt Marquess, an employee at a public relations firm in San Francisco whose Twitter account was recently hijacked, showering his followers with messages that appeared to offer a $500 gift card to Victoria’s Secret. Viruses That Leave Victims Red in the Facebook