Cluster

Remember my plaintive post about how nobody reads my blog? Yeah, I know, what a freakin' whiner.

Well, I found a tool that will show me the geographical location of my visitors(if any).
It's from ClustrMaps and it's on the right sidebar..a little ways down.
On my site it's pretty pathetic...not too many visitors right now, but what I find intriguing is trying to guess who I know in that part of the world that might be visiting.

I know the dot in the SF Bay Area is large because I access this site to add posts, etc. But, what re those dots in the Mid-West? I already know the East Coast(Thanks Paracelsus) and Florida( Hi elf)....but not the others. At any rate, as ridiculous as it sounds, it's pretty fun. Kind of like throwing a message in a bottle out to sea. Good, clean, lonlely fun.

Car of the Future

At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney or Jerry Seinfeld: What is the deal with these Gull Wing doors?
As long as I can remember, every auto show has a prototype "car of the Future" which invariably is equipped with the futuristic Gull Wing Door. But have you ever seen a production car with these doors?? Outside of the DeLorean and a Mclaren SLR, they don't really exist.
And why is that? Why is it that almost every other cool car gadget has come to fruition, like GPS on your dash, integrated phones, heated seats, etc., but the Gull Wing Door? Nope.
Is it a safety issue? I mean, if you flip the car, you're pretty much screwed and it's not like these things are going on station wagons(Well,the Ford Airstream pictured here is breaking the mold, but trust me...).
Is it a convenience issue? Maybe they are impractical in cramped parking garages? And what if your battery dies?
They always seem to open with a whooshing Star Trek door kind of efficiency.Hardly worthy of someone manhandling the thing to get it open.

I think the real answer is this: Designers use the Gull Wing Door as an easy out. It's got to be tough coming up with daring new designs every year..what's a designer to do? I bet they just get to a point where they tell the intern,"Put some damn gull wing doors on that design" and then they go out for beers while the hapless intern slaves away.

Fair and Balanced

Wait, that's Fox News...
If you live in the Bay Area, you may be familiar with KSFO Talk Radio. It's the home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Dr. Laura. You get the idea. A real bastion of Progressive thinking.
Anyway, Spocko has apparently run afoul of these guys...See, he had this great idea of sending sound clips of some of the shows aired to the advertisers. Now, KSFO is owned by Disney, so they have a lot of clout....They can attract big name advertisers(and hence big bucks) based on that affiliation, and they can also unleash their lawyers on whomever they do not like. Guess what? Goliath is trying to smash David again. Only this time, David might get stomped. Disney issued a cease and desist order to Spocko, who does NOT have their clout, and promptly was effectivley shut up.(He removed the sound clips from his site).

Luckily, you can listen to them HERE

Free Speech is an integral part of our society and KSFO has every right to spew its venoumous, hate-filled, slanted idiocy all it wants. But I think it's also OK to inform the advertisers just what they are being associated with..It's not Mickey and the Mouseketeers guys, it's more like Adolf and Brown Shirts.

Other Links:
CrooksandLiars

MediaMatters

DailyKos. Eh, way better written than mine!

Happy New Year

Here's a good resolution: This year, I'm going to BUY a country. I mean, if Madonna and Angelina Jolie can buy kids and some warped sense of...something, then I can buy a country.
It just so happens one is available!
Yeah, I'm pretty good at CIV III, so I figure I could run this place. After all, it's just an old anti-aircraft gun platform. Of course, I have big plans...BIG plans for that place my friends.

Oh, I know Slashdot and Boing Boing beat me to it, but who cares...We'll see what they say to me when I'm KING.