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[Jul. 7th, 2009|03:35 am] |
My favorite cartoon when I was an older kid. (And, I just learned, the Academy Award winner for Best Cartoon, quite a few years before I was born:
The Bugs Bunny version (Rabbit Rhapsody) that you've all probably seen was made the same year. Each production team accused the other of stealing the idea. Nobody now living knows the truth; perhaps it was coincidence. That version seems to be unavailable on the Web (gee, thanks Time Warner) but Victor Borge's version should be good for a few laughs if you haven't seen it before:
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| Hitler reacts to new Star Trek movie |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|06:46 pm] |
I think I've seen this same footage with half a dozen different spoof subtitle sets. This one is the best. Kat or Scott, you might want to bring it to Joe's attention.
h/t Fred (only at Facebook, not here, so I won't bother to look up the numbers that are part of his handle) |
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| Rule 34 Bet Still Undetermined |
[May. 30th, 2009|11:24 pm] |
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There exists Parmenter/Dobbs and of course the O'Rourke/Agarn that I predicted, but AFAIK the universe is safe from Agarn/Dobbs. |
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| What is the name of that movie I saw 25 years ago? |
[May. 16th, 2009|09:34 pm] |
Leftist movie made after Germany attacked USSR but before Pearl Harbor. Set in Canada, in a commune, I think. Made in Canada, too, largely by what looked like a local theater company, judging by the credits. But there was at least some budget behind it. The commune is pacifist and slowly comes around to supporting war against Hitler. Very well propaganda for the time.
I'm only assuming the time it was made based on the message and who was sending the message.
I'm watching Mankiewicz's People will talk (1951) now and the production reminds me of the other film.
ETA: The commune was ethnic European. I forget whether German or Ukranian/Russian. The actors/writers may well have just such a commune.
It must have been 49th Parallel, and I was wrong about it being a local theater company. Some of the Hutterites in the colony they used did play themselves, though, I think. |
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| My ideal Diplomacy scoring system |
[May. 16th, 2009|12:31 pm] |
Evey online diplomacy site has their own scoring/rating system, where points are awarded based on whether you won in a solo, drew, survived but were not in the draw (which is impossible in the standard rules, but some sites allow) were eliminated and if so in what order, and how many supply centers you finished with.
As far as I'm concerned, number of supply centers is irrelevant, unless it's over 17 (you won) or 0. If you're hanging on by a thread and the leaders can't figure out how to eliminate you without upsetting the balance of power and thereby throwing someone a solo, you're part of the draw and have accomplished the same thing anyone else who survived but was incapable of getting to 18 SCs. The rules provide for only three outcomes: win; draw; lose.
To accomplish a draw, everyone left must agree that each of them has drawn. But also, if anyone wins and it's not you, you lost. It doesn't matter if you were eliminated in 1901 or finished with 16 SCs—you lost and you get nothing. If you can't win and you want a cookie anyway, you need allies to protect the balance of power.
I think the emphasis should be on winning, but there should be some reward for surviving while preventing anyone else from winning. You could make a case that a 3-player draw is worth no more than a 5-player draw. But I think some incentive is needed to eliminate players who are superfluous to the balance of power. It's also good that the dynamism created by that incentive keeps open the possibility of a solo in some positions where a draw would otherwise be assured.
So here's how I'd do it:
| # of winners/drawers | points per player | total points |
|---|
| 7 | 1 | 7 |
| 6 | 2 | 12 |
| 5 | 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 4 | 16 |
| 3 | 5 | 15 |
| 2 | 6 | 12 |
| 1 | 17 | 17 |
If the site is running a cumulative points system, it doesn't matter that different outcome result in different numbers of total points awarded. If there's a rating system, then you need to know the mean number of points awarded and have players entry stakes scaled to the expected return.
ETA: Oh, and no matter what idiotic changes Hasbro has tried to introduce, in the time period of this game, Finland is part of the Russian Empire. |
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| My frineds get Troi. I get Troi 2nd. |
[May. 12th, 2009|04:15 pm] |
Your results:
You are Jean-Luc Picard
| Jean-Luc Picard |
| 70% |
| Deanna Troi |
| 55% |
| An Expendable Character (Redshirt) |
| 50% |
| Geordi LaForge |
| 45% |
| Data |
| 37% |
| Spock |
| 35% |
| Uhura |
| 35% |
| Will Riker |
| 35% |
| Chekov |
| 25% |
| Worf |
| 25% |
| James T. Kirk (Captain) |
| 20% |
| Mr. Scott |
| 20% |
| Beverly Crusher |
| 15% |
| Leonard McCoy (Bones) |
| 10% |
| Mr. Sulu |
| 5% |
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A lover of Shakespeare and other
fine literature. You have a decisive mind
and a firm hand in dealing with others.
 |
Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz
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| Beating a lame horse |
[May. 7th, 2009|09:24 am] |
Sorry to go on again about Specter, but Nick Lento at Blue Jersey says it in a way that I falied to.Specter is Lieberman in Reverse[,] simply stated, a self serving asshole. Only Lieberman has been the far slicker and more effective turncoat. He actually managed to con the people of Connecticut into electing him.
Specter will not vote much differently between now and the end of his term than he would have voted before.
Had he been left too eat his own karma, he would have lost the Republican primary to a right wing extremist and we would likely have had a far more progressive Democrat replacing him. Now, the Republicans will have a broader field in the primary and just may come up with a more moderate candidate.
I actually watched the way Specter cross examined Anita Hill diring the Thomas nomination hearings. The guy is a prick at heart. It was so obvious that Hill was speaking the truth and that Thomas was/is a sick puppy.
For a Republican, he's halfway decent....but Pennsylvania and America deserves better.
I understand that politics requires compromise, but this is ridiculous.
If Specter manages to win his primary.....and the Republicans field a likeable candidate, he just may lose the seat anyway. |
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| Re-Post from 2004 |
[May. 3rd, 2009|04:45 pm] |
"You can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam." - President Bush, 9/25/02
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties." - President Bush, 9/17/03
"There's overwhelming evidence there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I am very confident that there was an established relationship there." - Vice President Cheney, 1/22/04
"There was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda." - Vice President Cheney, 9/14/03
"Iraq and al Qaeda have discussed safe haven opportunities in Iraq, reciprocal nonaggression discussions." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 9/26/02
"There clearly are contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented." - National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, 9/25/02
"The Bush administration never made any claim that there was a connection between Saddam and al Qaeda." - Senator Arlen Specter, 3/21/04
[EDIT: Pre-emptive reply to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) stormlorde]- I don't necessarily want people who think like me to spend resources in a Pennsylvania primary. But I want it as an option and I want Specter to know that we've got ample reason to, and to have his new Democratic voting habits shaped by that reality.
- Olympia Snowe has never been the blowhard or hypocrite that Specter is.
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| Computer help? |
[May. 1st, 2009|06:30 pm] |
3 problems I've been having for various durations.
1) The speaker sometimes makes clicking sounds, even though there's no application I can see running that should be making sounds. This has been going on since before I reinstalled the OS, so malware is probably not the cause. The speaker driver is up to date (according to Vista, when I use Device Manager to check).
2) When downloading large files, including streaming video, it the computer acts as if it has no CPU cycles to do anything but download. If I use an application other than the one downloading, the computer freezes for seconds at a time. If I'm watching streaming video, the play is very stuttery until the download is completed. This started when I reinstalled the OS a month or two ago.
3) Even when video files are already downloaded, I'm getting intermittent audio. That just started this week.
I'm running Vista Home SP1 on a Sony Vaio VGN-SZ640 laptop. |
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| PA Primary |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|06:42 pm] |
I'd like to see Joe Sestak come at Specter with a commercial showing a clip of Anita Hill's testimony, followed by David Brock repeating his confession that the attempt to discredit Hill was a hit job that Brock was a part of, followed by the clip of Specter, just dripping righteous superiority, at the hearing saying that his years of expertise as a prosecutor absolutely convinced him Hill was committing perjury.
Unfortunately, the DC Democrats must have promised Specter absolute loyalty in the primary, so any challenge will have to be overwhelmingly grass-roots driven, which makes success harder but far from impossible. |
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| Diplomacy Network |
[Apr. 18th, 2009|02:58 pm] |
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I made a network diagram of the Diplomacy map ( Read more... ) Yes, I did have something better to do, but this was a fun way to procrastinate. |
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| Arf! |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|12:52 pm] |
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Just trying out my new icon that's more Facebook-friendly than the old one. |
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| Modern partisan conservatism |
[Apr. 12th, 2009|10:06 pm] |
Hunter has the stomach to explain what depresses me too much to write about.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/12/718102/-ACORN-And-Conservative-Paranoia
The sad thing is, there are presentable conservative arguments that, although in the end I disagree with 90% of the time, are worthy of consideration. And presented well, they could be powerfully persuasive to other people and would have a lasting impact on public attitudes. You won't hear any of them from the wingnuts, though.
EDIT: for a more light-hearted look at the subject, giving FOX all the respect they're due...
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| Meet Dan Ariely |
[Apr. 7th, 2009|08:12 pm] |
I've had the pleasure of hearing behavioral economist Dan Ariely interviewed on the radio several times. He's brilliant. And though he's not political, he often cuts through the muddled assumptions that have propped up the diseased public economics of the past thirty years.
This TED Talk video (h/t cos/coslinks) is the first time I've actually seen him rather than just heard him. The talk's on what influences people to cheat.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/487 |
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