Ante Imperum, Post Imperum

Flexible Renamer

2009-01-14T15:58:54Z

Flexible Renamer is perhaps the most singularly useful program I've found in a while. It's capable of sorting, renaming, copying and sorting files based on numerous different ways of searching and organizing them, including regular expressions and wildcards. So, you have a ton of files that need renaming or sorting by category, it's pretty amazing.

It also has the ability to read things like ID3 tags and rename your entire MP3/WMA collection by artist, title, or anything else.

Shoe Toss

2008-12-15T15:31:18Z

Steampunking it up

2008-12-02T14:57:48Z

I'd like to clarify something for.. well, for all of you. Out there.

Steampunk items should take on the character of artifacts of a past future that never was.

Steampunk should not be shorthand for adding an antiqued paint job and brass fittings to every single solitary fuckin' thing.

Because this is just stupid looking.

One Day More.

2008-11-04T22:01:13Z

One night more, actually. But hey.

Master

2008-09-08T15:50:23Z

I am the master of my destiny. I am the dragon slayer. I'm on the march to Berlin, toppling the Reich singlehanded.

I am my own fucking soundtrack.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

2008-08-26T15:28:56Z

There are few forces on this earth that could make me see a movie featuring Paris Hilton.

Making a science fiction/horror biopunk rock opera featuring some pretty good talent, including a cameo by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, would be one of them. And that's exactly what REPO! the Genetic Opera is. I'm cautiously excited about this film. It's certainly going to be a pretty film, and Anthony Stewart Head AKA Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a fantastic voice. It's only having a limited opening, so I'll probably only catch this one on DVD.

Trailer:

Zydrate Anatomy (song):

Racist old farts

2008-08-12T18:25:14Z

So, I'm reading an article about how Obama has an 'age' problem, where McCain sole consistent base of support is older white Americans who 'do not share younger American's views on how the country has changed.' these people are apparently the sole reason McCain is even near electable.

My only thought is, so, young people can be criticized as frivolous celebrity gawkers, but the apparent factual evidence that there's a large damaging section of our population that are old racist codgers who want someone to wave a magic wand and make all these crazy new gadgets go away is somehow verboten.

In a Changing Corner of Pa., a Glimpse of Obama's Age Problem

The Only Answer

2008-08-04T17:34:18Z

"Against a lawless system, defiance was the only answer." - Howard Zinn, People's History of the United States

It still is the only answer.

If you are a pacifist, let your pacifism be militant.
If you are a militant, let your defiance be known.
Defy. They rely on your bitter surrender.

Do not let the silence that is your consent remain.
Let the consensus be shattered.
Speak. Your soft words are louder than any televised scream.

Individual rebellion must transform into collective action.
Defy, and urge all others to defy with you.
Organize. Nothing scares them more.

There is no greater clarity than the moral purity of the dispossessed.
Defy. Speak. Organize.

Think.

Fair. Balanced. Asinine.

2008-07-07T18:35:46Z

The Wall Street Journal editorial page has managed to sink to a new low, and has produced perhaps the stupidest editorial I have ever read in a newspaper published by anyone other than a local high school. It is a stunning combination of fearmongering, cheap neocon word play, cheaper invocations of fascism and the kind of denialism which is a Valentine card to corporate interests. Add in a bit of 'look at what those horrible foreigners are doing', and it's yellow journalism at its finest, discussing a proposed and sure to be defeated plan for rationing carbon emissions in the UK. Bone appetite.

War-time-like energy rations are a clear illustration of the extent to which environmentalists hope to control every aspect of modern life. Do you really want to blow much of your annual "ration" on that long carbon-spewing jet flight to Florida, or should you swap that summer AC for weekend drives in the country?

The global warmists want you to sacrifice for their cause. And the duration of their war on carbon will make the decade-and-a-half of British rationing during and after World War II seem like a fleeting moment.

Global warmists?!?! Really, gentlemen? Really? I mean, points for crafting such an ugly word for your opponents which manages to invoke a crazy religious cult, atheists, Marxists and all your other failed boogymen. But this is what you have left now? Environmentalism as an affront to personal freedom and a Trojan horse for fascism?

If there is anyone left in the media suited to lecture anyone about affronts to personal freedom, you are not them.

Link - Wall Street Journal

Putting your waterboarding where your mouth is

2008-07-03T13:52:49Z

There are a select few people in this world who I immensely respect precisely because I disagree with them. And in those disagreements, I see the profoundness of their intellect and their commitment to their view of the world, and I see no hypocrisy or logical fallacy, only a different conclusion.

One of the few living people who fall into this category, already occupied by such men as Descartes and William Tecumseh Sherman, is rabid atheist and Iraq war supporter Christopher Hitchens, whom I have admired since a year ago when I discovered his incredible speech on the dignity and absolute sanctity of free speech. He is not without his intellectual faults, but I forgive him that, since he seems to have come to his conclusions with a vicious streak of honesty I can admire.

One of these faults, until this month, was doubting the effects of waterboarding being torture. So someone offered to do it to him.

And so, he showed himself to be exactly the man I respect him for, and accepted. And immediately reversed his position on the entire subject afterward.

Oh, McCain

2008-06-23T23:54:25Z

A chance meeting in Defiance, Ohio

2008-06-17T14:23:20Z

I went in for coffee this morning and I noticed the cute barista downstairs was wearing an Against Me! t-shirt. We got talking about music from there, and she recommended a band called Defiance, Ohio. They describe themselves as "folk-punk". You have to respect a band that uses a fiddle and bass for punk music, and their complete shunning of any electric instruments leads to a very interesting sound.

I tracked them down, and they have all their albums for free online. I recommend checking them out. They are definitely an indy band, so the audio quality could be better, but it's otherwise terrific. My favorite of album of theirs is The Great Depression, available streaming online.

Link

Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky are in a plane over the Atlantic...

2008-06-03T14:41:41Z

The London Times had a wonderful article on a book called Hammer and Tickle, a collection that tells Soviet history through Soviet jokes. Here's one of the highlights.

A man is thrown in a Soviet prison cell and the other inhabitants of the cell crowd round him. "How long you in for," they ask. "Ten years," the new man laments. "And what did you do?" "Nothing. I did nothing". "You liar," the prisoners shout. "For nothing you get five years."

The ensuing comment line has become a lovely collection of Soviet humor.

Link

Brief thought

2008-05-15T03:25:38Z

Organized religion and unquestioning faith is a crutch. But I'd never deny a man with a missing leg having his crutches, until he starts beating me over the head with them.

Just a little something worth sharing

2008-05-14T04:48:58Z

A little something I whipped up in a few minutes on a fit of inspiration.

Inverse Illuminati

Iron Man has AC 20

2008-05-13T15:11:45Z

Did you like Iron Man? You might just want to thank Dungeons and Dragons. The director has come out as an avid roleplayer, and as having a preference for Bilbo Baggins and Tolkien more than comic book heroes.

Some filmmakers get their start making shaky home movies, others catch the bug in a high school drama class or maybe through an art institute where they put paint to canvas. Favreau has more of an eight-sided education.

"It was Dungeons & Dragons, but I wouldn't have owned up so quickly a few years ago," Favreau said sheepishly.

"It's rough. It's one of the few groups that even comic-book fans look down on. But it gave me a really strong background in imagination, storytelling, understanding how to create tone and a sense of balance. You're creating this modular, mythic environment where people can play in it."

Maybe there should be a new Hollywood respect for eight- and 10-sided dice and a talent for troll tales: Robin Williams, Mike Myers, Stephen Colbert and Vin Diesel have all professed their passion (past or present) for the role-playing game.

For Favreau, it was the fantasy element that pulled him in, but it was the sense of story that he carried with him.

"It allowed me to not tamp down my imagination; I think there's a tendency to turn that part of you off," he said.

"Every kid has imagination, but at a certain age, that spigot gets turned off. I set it aside in high school. I really couldn't do it now," Favreau said, shaking his head. "There's something in my heart -- there was such a stigma to it.

"When I was young, it was exciting, but as I got older it felt like it was keeping me from progressing. You're social in your small circle, but it's asocial to the wider world."

Favreau read comics, but he connected more with J.R.R. Tolkien, especially with Bilbo Baggins, the homebody-turned-hero of "The Hobbit."

Link: Jon Favreau is the action figure behind 'Iron Man'

Sleek, Awesome, EcoFriendly

2008-05-13T14:02:06Z

Wired has a great online slideshow of the conceptual offerings in the next-generation of motorcycles - featuring hybrids, trikes and electrics of all sorts. My personal favorite, and not just because its named after my all-time favorite fourth dimensional object, is the Yamaha Tesseract. But nearly all of them look like they escaped from the Minority Report or are about to transform into mighty robots that will battle Unicron.

Link: With Motorcycles, Eco-Friendly and Badass Can Mix

Best Quote About Hillary Today

2008-05-08T14:28:00Z

"She is the Japanese soldier in the Pacific island that hasn't been told the war is over," said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. "Occasionally she picks off a few islanders and considers it a victory. Well, yesterday she found out the war was over."

Link: Clinton Still In The Race, But Faces Major Hurdles

Wil Wheaton on Hillary Clinton

2008-05-08T14:10:24Z

From one despised character who hung around did they could get rid of him to another...

Wil Wheaton, who played Ensign Wesely Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, is a better blogger and writer than actor, IMHO. He's also an avid geek, and a politically active supporter of Barack Obama. He's penned a lovely short essay about the primaries, titled hillary clinton: the psycho ex-girlfriend of the democratic party.

It's 2:31 AM. The Democratic Party is sleeping peacefully when it hears its phone buzz on the night stand. It rolls over and sees "Hillary" on the caller ID. It pauses briefly, considering pushing "END" and not dealing with this shit tonight. The thought is appealing but the Democratic Party knows that if it doesn't take this call, another one is only minutes away.

DEMS: ...Hello?

Hillary: Hey baby.

DEMS: C'mon Hillary. Enough with this.

Hillary: Don't you get it? You NEED me.

DEMS: No, I don't. It was fun while it lasted but I'm with Barack now. I made my choice, it's done.

Hillary: You can't really mean that. How can you say that after all the good times we had?

DEMS: To be honest, I started hanging out with you because Bill's pretty awesome.

Hillary: But I'm just like Bill!

DEMS: No, you're not. Bill is charismatic, inspiring, and gets me really good weed.

Hillary: Fuck you. You're elitist!

DEMS: I'm going back to sleep.

Flag Graphs

2008-05-06T15:08:14Z

Using statistics as art, Brazilian artist Icaro Doria has created a series of "flag graphs", highlighting the issues, the problems and the glaring disparities of their associated countries.All of them are incredibly jarring, though ironically, the American one the least so.

Link: BrazilianArtists.net

A hardy slice of elitist punk

2008-05-05T23:09:18Z

Small-town voters got you down? Feeling a bit bitter yourself? Tired of the stupid, the meek and superstitious having more sway over this country than a man who makes bacon has over dogs?

Have a heaping helping of NOFX, with songs unapologetically leftist, elitist and college punk; about how the Right is so very wrong about just about everything. Just the thing for Obama supporters and McCain haters feeling a bit down.

The Idiots Are Taking Over - a fan-made typographic video, made with humble After Effects and Illustrator

Franco Un-American

Leaving Jesusland

You're Wrong

Seal rapes penguin

2008-05-03T06:41:37Z

The BBC reports an incident where a young male Antarctic fur seal knocked over a king penguin and... well... forced itself upon the penguin, in front of scientists and their cameras.

The bizarre event took place on a beach on Marion Island, a sub-Antarctic island that is home to both fur seals and king penguins.

Why the seal attempted to have sex with the penguin is unclear. But the scientists who photographed the event speculate that it was the behaviour of a frustrated, sexually inexperienced young male seal.

Question, since king penguins mate for life, does that mean this one is unfit for marriage?

Link: 'Sex pest' seal attacks penguin

Against Me! Rocks The Vote

2008-05-02T15:43:18Z

The anarchist band Against Me! has created a rather kick-ass Rock the Vote ad.

Of course, anarchists endorsing the democratic process is rather ironic. But the revolution is hardly nigh, so I guess they do what they can.

Also worth listening to from Against Me!:

Stop! Full Version

White People For Peace

Baby, I'm An Anarchist - this song qualifies as the new youth anthem for anarchism

The Outnumbered Republicans

2008-05-02T14:32:24Z

Alan Abramowitz at RealClearPolitics shows some rather harsh statistical data about the consequences of Bush and Rove's strategy of being the party of only a dedicated fanatical right-wing religious base, relying on low voter turnout and religious devotion to their party. Long and short of it, in a diversifying secularizing America, their short-term gains will lead to long term ills for their party. Perhaps to the point of self-destruction.

The Religious Right has become a albatross around their neck, not a key to victory.

Since the potential for additional Republican gains among married white Christians appears to be limited, Republican leaders will need to find ways to reduce the Democratic advantage among voters who are not married white Christians in order to maintain the party's competitive position. However, given the generally liberal views of this group, this will not be easy. In 2006, according to data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, 57 percent of these voters supported a woman's right to choose an abortion under any circumstances, 66 percent opposed a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage, and 71 percent favored a single-payer health care system. Any attempt by Republican leaders to significantly increase their party's support among voters who are not married white Christians would therefore require changes in some of the party's longstanding policy commitments -- changes that would clearly upset a large segment of the current Republican base.

Link: The Incredible Shrinking Republican Base

A Soviet Poster A Day

2008-05-01T18:46:43Z

While having a rather inaccurate title (a Soviet poster every once in a while would be more appropriate), A Soviet Poster A Day is a blog that serves as a collection of vintage Soviet posters from all eras, with a in-depth description of the background behind each poster.

Smoke cigarettes
I. Rosanov, S. Sakharov, 1950

Just smoke cigarettes. No brand advertized whatsoever. This was because in the Soviet times all the factories were controlled by the ministries, which were specifying the amount of goods to produce. So to meet the goals (fulfill the plan, sent down by the Party) the ministries were issuing orders to the factories and works to make quantities of, say, cigarettes for a certain amount of money. The factories were producing them, utilizing the suppliers (which were in tern coordinated by the same ministries) and paying with the money from ministries. The stores were to sell these goods at fixed prices. A planned economy that is. The only thing not set in the equation was the client. This year he needs more shoes, next time the interest is driven to hats. The planned economy is too sluggish to follow the trends, and moreover it cannot follow the demand, resulting in constant shortages.

Link