drury dot com

"It's just a flesh wound!"

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:12:00 +0000

This could very well be a melancholy iPad first, and not one I am particularly proud of. I arrived home this evening to find my son Tyler enjoying his reward for completing homework, reading, and a bath well before bedtime: a few minutes with his favorite game du jour, Glu Games Dragon Slayer. But he was doing furious on-screen battle with … his pinkies. And losing handily, it must be said.

I asked if this pinkie assault were some new cheat or feint to befuddle the dragons or the game mechanics and he looked at me solemnly, held up both index fingers, and I was shocked to see a layer or two of skin missing from the tip of each.

Now, the iPad screen remains a fairly frictionless surface until heated to a couple hundred degrees by the frenzied jabbing, swiping, slashing, and tapping of two small, unsuspecting fingertips, a device defect which, significantly -- dangerously -- is not disclosed in the product documentation, as my newly-retained legal counsel will make clear should Apple decide against settling out of court for a few more iPads, MacBook Pros, software packages, etc.

On behalf of your Windows computer

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:30:00 +0000

For the second time in as many years I added our phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry, in response to the frequency with with which we've been barraged by spam callers of late, but our experience suggests that this "registry" restricts only those individuals who wish to peddle Guatemalan hardwood flutes, Canadian pharmaceuticals, and Swedish sphincter relaxants all on the same call.

Any number of opinion polls, suspect charities, political interests, and purveyors of window glazing remain free, clearly, to harass the shit out of us each and every evening, and the most frustrating thing is that 90% of the time when we do trouble ourselves to answer the phone there's naught but a few clicks and a disconnect on the other end, denying us (me, really) the satisfaction of belching a sonnet into the receiver, an admittedly childish gesture but one which is rarely construed as "yes," or "please let me send you money!"

Things reached a new low this morning, however, when I took the following call from my old friend "Unavailable" while working from home, alone. Less a spammer and more a criminal, the caller likely hailed from India, with a pronounced accent and prim phone manner -- he was exceedingly earnest at the beginning of the call:

Me: Hello?

Caller: Sir, I am calling on behalf of your Windows computer. You are in trouble, sir.

Me: [Speechless -- I do not own a Windows computer, nor any computer which reaches out in time of need -- but am swallowing air as fast as I can to level Shakespeare at him when the time is ripe]

Caller: Sir, are you there? It is imperative that we check your computer for viruses and worms immediately.

Me: [Still trying to decide whether I simply hang up or play along, but a somewhat slow day at work, from home, urges the latter] Uh, wouldn't you be calling on behalf of Microsoft, and not Windows?

Caller: Sir, this is a serious situation. Your Windows computer contacted our department to let us know that you are in trouble. Please take a seat at your computer. Are you at your computer now?

Me: One second. [I decide to play along until such time as he knows that I know that we both know that he's an a-hole]

Caller: Sooo many computers are infected, sir. We have been very busy.

Me: Golly, I am no longer AFK, I am at my computer. [At this point I affect my best Gomer Pyle, thinking we would quickly reach the a-hole revelation together and get on with our separate days, but he doesn't notice the ridiculous impersonation or doesn't care]

Caller: Now, sir, in the lower left corner do you see the Start menu? Do you see it, sir? Click that menu, please.

Me: Shazam! I have that ol' Start menu up now.

Caller: Very good, sir. Now, can you right-click on the Computer item in that menu. C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R, sir. What do you see when you right-click on Computer, sir?

Me: [Still Gomer Pyling away] Surprise, surprise, surprise, that there menu just says, 'Please inform the caller that a chicken is pecking corn from his rectum.'

Caller: [Pauses] Sir, do you think this is a joke? Do you think that I am playing with you? [His voice breaks with a little laughter and we are nigh on the a-hole revelation]

Me: [Respectful at first but crescendoing to anger with hints of indignant nerd] Well, the problem you're up against, sir, is that I work with computers, have for the past 25 years, and I'm running Linux, so F*CK YOU!

I ended the call with those words and pecked out this angry missive, but just as I was about to get back to work I got another call from Unavailable, this time a recorded message from State Senator Joe Simitian, one I've heard two dozen times already, informing me in a chipper voice that he would be holding sidewalk office hours soon....

Is ridding ourselves of the landline the only remedy?

Rest In Peace, Richard Drury (1936 - 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:24:00 +0000

I lost one of my very best friends New Years Day and, as it happens, the one I've known the longest. He and I didn't always get along when I was in my teens and early twenties but, thankfully, our mutual interests pulled us together over the many years since, and our love and respect for one another only grew with each game of chess, round of golf, layover in Menlo Park, and visit with other friends and family.

Rest in peace, Richard Drury. You died as bravely and serenely as you lived. Few people leave this world with so many wishing you hadn't. I may never be half the man or friend you were to so many but I hope to be every bit as good a father and husband.

Richard Drury with granddaughter Katrina, Ukiah, CA, 2004

Move Over, Leica

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:03:00 +0000

I have long lusted after the German-made Leica M rangefinder cameras, both the "older" film versions (M3, M6 and M7) and the newer digital incarnation, the M9. But even were I able to divest myself of $7,000 for the M9 camera body, I would still need to spend $4,000 to $10,000 each for the beautiful little lenses I'd want to accompany this camera (28mm Summicron, 35mm Summicron, 50mm Noctilux, 75mm Summicron, and 90mm Summicron, just in case anyone's in a gifting mood).

Now, suppose for a moment that you actually owned this outfit with all the aforementioned lenses. It would have a street value in excess of $35,000, not the sort of thing you'd want to carry -- much less flaunt -- in public without an armed escort, sadly, and I don't think I'd really be comfortable unless it were locked in a safe most or all of the time.

Enter Fujifilm and the company's new mirrorless X-Pro1, pictured below. It's not a true rangefinder with a full-frame sensor, as is the M9, but it's clearly aimed at Leica and those who admire/acquire the German brand. The camera offers some seemingly amazing technology to complement what will surely be outstanding optics in the initial three prime lenses and, perhaps best of all, the body will "only" cost about $1,700, with the lenses running round $650 each, a mere fraction of the cost of the Leica gear.

The only possible drawbacks to receive mention prior to release are that auto-focus may be on the slow side and that the lenses are not manually coupled to the camera and, thus, manual focus is achieved suboptimally via "fly by wire." But if those are the chief complaints leveled against this camera and its lenses I will be an owner shortly after it's release in February 2012.

McDonald's: Powering Olympians

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:07:00 +0000

When McDonald's assures me in their Olympics television commercials that I "needn't be an Olympic athlete to eat like one," I'm reminded of the Quarter Pounder® with Cheese I ate not too long ago, and how, after taking the last bite, I knew without question that my colon would medal in the peristalsis freestyle 8-10 hours later, which brings me full circle to McDonald's marketing.

And the same thing could be said for Coke.

Have social networks killed my blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:09:00 +0000

I don't spend a great deal of time on Facebook, but it seems that most of the random musings, videos, photos, and links of interest I would normally share here, end up there. Add to that an occasional tweet and the fact that I'm the network creator for a number of Ning networks (I work at Ning), including http://comfortfood.com and http://nwprr.net, and that pretty much claims the little time I have for online interaction.

But I miss adding content to this blog, and generally dislike being limited in the number of words I may add to a Facebook update and, especially, to a tweet, so I hereby resolve to add something of interest here at least once per week, even if that means merely rehashing and expanding upon what I've already posted to Facebook or Twitter. In the meantime please let me know if you, too, face this dilemma and, if so, how you plan to overcome it.

The genesis of human swine flu infection

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:08:00 +0000

Cute (if gross), but a hungry pig can bite your lip off:

Riding a bike as art form

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:41:00 +0000

Yes, on some level this is pointless, but you really must admire the athleticism and balance Danny MacAskill displays on a bike. Especially at about 3:10 into the video, when he uses a tree to do something I'm sure few if any other people in the world can do. Check it out:

Ain't it the truth

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:08:00 +0000

And they're still laughing, every single one of them:

"The pile of dung that is Bernie Madoff"

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:02:00 +0000

The following video makes my list of required viewing for all Americans, even school-age children. It is enlightening, humorous, and distressing all at the same time, and Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, really brings home how broken the Securities and Exchange Commission truly is, with its "investigations" of large Wall Street players like Bernard Madoff. More politicians need to take this hard line with our inept bureaucracies, immediately, especially when they fail so spectacularly:

And here's video of the Markopolos testimony mentioned in the video above. Harry Markopolos tried repeatedly to bring Madoff's scheme to the attention of the S.E.C. for almost a decade, to no avail:

Skier suffers serious exposure

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:26:00 +0000

This happened New Years Day and, though not truly newsworthy given current world events, most skiers will attest it's likely the first incident of its kind. As an avid skier myself, I would rate what befell this gentleman just a notch or two less serious than, say, breaking one's leg. For the unabashed, more images and an incomplete summary of events that led to this man's predicament may be found here, though the meat of that report follows:

JANUARY 6--In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday morning. The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin. It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding.

The Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair's botched boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair.

Clearly one of those situations where all modesty, pride, and decorum disappear, but I'm wondering if Skier X tried to calm his child while hanging upside down sans pants, declaring with all the authority he could muster, "Don't worry, sweetie, everything's under control. The ski patrol will have us down in a few minutes. I'm fine, fine. Just keep looking at the trees...."

World of World of World of Warcraft

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:51:00 +0000

I bought Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft" about six months ago, just to better understand the state of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), something in which I've had a casual interest ever since the protogenic "Dungeons and Dragons" burst into nerdly bedrooms back in the 1970s. Problem is, one must devote a *great* deal of free time to the game to become proficient and advance in player level, and free time is one thing I have little of these days. Hence, my seventh-level Paladin was all but abandoned in the ether several months ago, and I finally canceled my account a couple weeks ago.

I'll no doubt return to WoW or something like it in the near future, perhaps when my kids have cajoled my wife and I into letting them play online games, but in the meantime I have The Onion to make be feel good about my abstinence:

Please vote "No" on California's Proposition 8

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:41:00 +0000

For the past few days now my Google Ad space in the lower right corner of your browser window (perhaps below the fold) has carried a single "Yes on Prop 8" message (Prop 8 is California's initiative to ban same-sex marriage). The text varies but the message is always "Yes on Prop 8." I can only conclude that whoever is paying for these ads is spending a great deal of money if their efforts end up on my blog, as none of the content I've written shares any affinity with this position. If gay people wish to take part in the absolutely *bankrupt* institution that is marriage in the United States, where the divorce rate hovers near fifty percent, I welcome them with open arms -- they can't screw things up any worse than heterosexuals already have.

California's Proposition 1A, "Rails of Dreams"

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:10:00 +0000

I really like trains. Always have. I belong to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Historical Society, am a closeted model railroader, and am also a card-carrying member of the Sierra Club, so you might think I'd support California's High Speed Rail Initiative, Proposition 1A on this year's ballot. But you would be wrong. Much as I want to support a project like this, the current incarnation before voters is an absolute disaster. Every projection bandied about by Prop 1A supporters is mired in fantasy. Something akin to a Hollywood mania or mana has enveloped the project, one with the mantra, "if we build it, the hundreds of millions of riders will come, at no cost to anyone."

But please don't take my word for it -- watch the following three short YouTube videos, wherein HSR expert Joseph Vranich testifies at a State Senate Committee hearing and thoroughly tears down the "business plan" of the HSR Authority. I just wish these videos had been seen by more California voters before today's election:

Beware the fairy princess and the puppy dog

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of year, and that's even more true now that I have children. The near-infinite, oft-mysterious possibilities Halloween night offers to imaginative young minds draws me back, strongly, to the days when my two brothers and I would set off with friends down our dark street in search of sugar, however packaged (about the only thing I shunned as a kid was coconut which, thankfully, wasn't found in too many candies). Back in the early 70s, neighbors still gave popcorn balls and caramel-covered apples, and these were eaten with little or no concern for safety.

The only real danger associated with Halloween night in Ukiah, California, where I grew up, was the older kids with their penchant for throwing rotten eggs. I got hit by a few, at least, and needed to run quickly to avoid being hit on several occasions, but this generally added to the excitement of the evening, rather than detracting in any way (never mind the smell of a rotten egg, of course). I hope that my children and yours make it through their trick-or-treating careers as safely as I and my brothers did, and that Halloween still holds some magic and mystery for them when they have children of their own.

Stupid effing people

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Name your daughter "Sarah McCain Palin" and display your dumb mug for all the world to see:

Highest federal budget deficit EVER!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:35:00 +0000

I'm continually amazed by the number of people (many of them good friends and acquaintances) who vote Republican for one overarching reason: They can't abide "Big Government." Remarkably, Big Government for these people isn't synonymous with a Big Deficit. For a good many Republican voters the deficit represents considerable pork that makes its way directly or indirectly to their tables, but what about rank and file Republicans? Remember so many years ago now, during the Clinton Presidency, when we had a budget surplus? Why isn't everyone outraged by news such as the following?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal budget deficit soared to $454.8 billion in 2008 as a housing collapse and efforts to combat the economic slowdown pushed the tide of government red ink to the highest level in history.

The Bush administration said Tuesday the deficit for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was more than double the $161.5 billion recorded in 2007.

It surpassed the previous record of $413 billion set in 2004. Economists predicted a far worse number next year as the costs of the government's rescue of the financial system and the economic hard times hit the government's balance sheet.

Some analysts believe that next year's deficit could easily top $700 billion, giving the next president a formidable challenge.

Christopher Buckley's parting shot

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Christopher Buckley, the conservative commentator who disclosed he would vote for Barack Obama in November, has resigned from the National Review, the magazine his father William F. Buckley founded. He had the following to say about his resignation and the conservative movement in this country, a movement that grows ever more bowel-like as the election season draws to a Democratic-friendly close:

"While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of 'conservative' government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case."

Et tu, Cadbury?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:20:00 +0000

Apologies for the rant but I've had it. As both a parent and a consumer I've had it with Chinese food production safety issues. It isn't enough that Mars' brand M&Ms and Snickers -- Snickers! -- are made in China, where recent product shipped to Indonesia contained melamine. No, I now come to learn that Cadbury, the venerable English chocolatier with a near-200-year history as a company, is pimping out production to a Chinese firm which cannot kick a melamine habit. And I'm reasonably certain these reports are just the tip of a food safety iceberg that's on a collision course with a U.S. food industry rushing headlong to China's shores to save a buck or billion.

But the worst part is that I have no easy way of knowing where much of my packaged and "fresh" food comes from. Where it's grown and processed. Sure, I'd like to buy nothing but locally-grown foods but that isn't realistic for the vast majority of Americans, no matter the current popularity of farmers' markets in California and elsewhere. In digging a little I was amazed to learn how lax our country is in terms of "Country Of Origin Labeling" (COOL) for foods, how little is required and how many exemptions are in place. Dammit, we label our toys with country of manufacture; I see no reason why we can't require the same for our food, inarguably the more important of the two imports for which to have this information.

So, rather than just rant passionately if ineffectually in this blog I decided to do something about the issue. I created an online petition which I plan to send to Congress if I get more than a few signatures, and I'm asking you, dear reader, to read and sign that petition:

Require Country of Origin Labels on all U.S. Foods

Heard at the breakfast table this morning

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:21:00 +0000

My kids and I were at the breakfast table early this morning, eating cereal and chatting about those things that most interest a 6-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, when my daughter began prattling on about her new secret diary, and after a few moments it became clear she was lording it over her younger brother, who has no such secret.

My son Tyler, who is becoming very much his own person these days, suffered this indignity with grace as long as he could before interjecting, "Katrina, I don't have a secret diarrhea, and I don't think I want one." To which Katrina replied in a confidential whisper, "Tyler, I have a secret diary, not diarrhea. Diarrhea is hard to keep secret because it's so noisy."

"Making America Stupid"

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:59:00 +0000

From today's New York Times Op-Ed section comes this sensible piece written by Thomas Friedman:

Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of “drill, baby, drill!”

I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — “Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!” — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.

Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”

Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years, but instead of exalting that — with “drill, baby, drill” — why not throw all our energy into innovating a whole new industry of clean power with the mantra “invent, baby, invent?” That is what a party committed to “change” would really be doing. As they say in Texas: “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”

I dwell on this issue because it is symbolic of the campaign that John McCain has decided to run. It’s a campaign now built on turning everything possible into a cultural wedge issue — including even energy policy, no matter how stupid it makes the voters and no matter how much it might weaken America.

I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now the same guy, who would not sell his soul to win his party’s nomination, is ready to sell every piece of his soul to win the presidency.

In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track, McCain has decided to play the culture-war card. Obama may be a bit professorial, but at least he is trying to unite the country to face the real issues rather than divide us over cultural differences.

A Washington Post editorial on Thursday put it well: “On a day when the Congressional Budget Office warned of looming deficits and a grim economic outlook, when the stock market faltered even in the wake of the government’s rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when President Bush discussed the road ahead in Iraq and Afghanistan, on what did the campaign of Senator John McCain spend its energy? A conference call to denounce Senator Barack Obama for using the phrase ‘lipstick on a pig’ and a new television ad accusing the Democrat of wanting to teach kindergartners about sex before they learn to read.”

Some McCain supporters criticize Obama for not having the steel in his belly to use force in the dangerous world we live in today. Well I know this: In order to use force, you have to have force. In order to exercise leverage, you have to have leverage.

I don’t know how much steel is in Obama’s belly, but I do know that the issues he is focusing on in this campaign — improving education and health care, dealing with the deficit and forging a real energy policy based on building a whole new energy infrastructure — are the only way we can put steel back into America’s spine. McCain, alas, has abandoned those issues for the culture-war strategy.

Who cares how much steel John McCain has in his gut when the steel that today holds up our bridges, railroads, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure is rusting? McCain talks about how he would build dozens of nuclear power plants. Oh, really? They go for $10 billion a pop. Where is the money going to come from? From lowering taxes? From banning abortions? From borrowing more from China? From having Sarah Palin “reform” Washington — as if she has any more clue how to do that than the first 100 names in the D.C. phonebook?

Sorry, but there is no sustainable political/military power without economic power, and talking about one without the other is nonsense. Unless we make America the country most able to innovate, compete and win in the age of globalization, our leverage in the world will continue to slowly erode. Those are the issues this election needs to be about, because that is what the next four years need to be about.

There is no strong leader without a strong country. And posing as one, to use the current vernacular, is nothing more than putting lipstick on a pig.

Sex, Drugs, and Rocks and Oil

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:19:00 +0000

It comes as absolutely no surprise during the Bush presidency -- unquestionably the worst in the history of the United States -- when we uncover the kind of corruption in our government employees like that described below. The entire federal government is in bed with the oil and gas industries, and prostitutes itself with impunity, no less! From CNN:

WASHINGTON -- Key government officials overseeing the energy industry had sex with, used illegal drugs with, and accepted gifts from representatives of oil and gas companies they were supposed to be regulating, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Department of the Interior's inspector general.

The $5.3 million investigation "uncovered recreational marijuana and cocaine use" by "a handful" of Interior Department staff, and found two federal employees "engaged in brief sexual relationships with representatives from companies doing business" with the department.

Two Interior Department employees "received combined gifts and gratuities on at least 135 occasions from four major oil and gas companies with whom they were doing business -- a textbook example of improperly receiving gifts from prohibited sources," Inspector General Earl Devaney says in a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne accompanying the report.

Randall Luthi, head of the Minerals Management Service at the Interior Department, said the public had not suffered financial losses as a result of the employees' behavior.

Some of the government employees tried to hide their close association with the industry they were supposed to be regulating, the report says.

The investigation turned up e-mails in which MMS employees "preparing to attend industry events used such language as 'this trip is to be kept quiet,' or were asked to RSVP 'in private' by their supervisor," the report says.

"When we asked we these one of these employees why they needed to avoid discussing their social activities with industry, he responded with a slight chuckle, 'They might have, you know, contacted the [inspector general],' " the report says.

The investigation appears to have been prompted by an internal whistle-blower's report in 2006, and concerns activity from 2002 to 2006.

The report alleges inappropriate behavior by 19 members of the Royalty in Kind program -- about one-third of the department. Some have since left the department, making it unclear what kind of disciplinary action they could be subject to.

Bride of Cheneystein

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:17:00 +0000

Well, John McCain and his GOP handlers finally surrendered in this election year of "change" to the realization that they can't simply load their ticket with the familiar comforts of another grumpy older wealthy white male (nothing against older wealthy white males, as I hope to be one some day), so they've settled on the butt-cheese of all compromises: A vindictive smarmy wealthy white female who could be Dick Cheney Jr. were she less competent with a firearm.

Crass and unfair to Sarah Palin, you're thinking? Probably true, but listen to what two of the staunchest Republican supporters (Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy) have to say off-mic about Palin as a choice for Vice President:

Your daily dose of Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:18:00 +0000

In the Spring of 1982 I was living in a college dorm (yes, I'm that old) and, at the time, didn't have a real passion for video games, though I'd certainly spent my share of idle nights plying the games at the local video arcade while in high school. But sometime early in the Spring semester a new video game was installed just outside the dining room, one named "Donkey Kong". At first the game held little interest for me, as it was competing with some older, known favorites, as well as the stunningly new and advanced "Dragon's Lair" (a game that cost two quarters to play, which limited its adoption amongst the relatively poor denizens of the dorm).

But at some point my good friend Craig Swarthout convinced me to play Donkey Kong more and more frequently, perhaps because he often gifted me the quarter just to have someone to play against, and it didn't take long for a fierce rivalry to develop. It matters little that I, in my mind, at least, became Donkey Kong Champion of Craig Hall, but it was a great deal of fun, and the game still comes up in conversation whenever I speak or exchange email with Craig.

So, a company called Widgetbox has turned some of the classic video games of the 80s into web-installable widgets. Below is the Donkey Kong Widget. To play, merely use your arrow keys to move right, left, up, and down (for the ladders), and the space bar allows you to jump over the barrels and other offending nastiness. Once you reach the girl-in-distress at the top of the ladders you have successfully completed the level. Give it a try, and relive a little of the early 80s:

Donkey Konggreat free widgetsWidgetbox

From Putin, with love

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Drury) — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:23:00 +0000

I have no idea what Gary Kasparov (former world chess champion and aspiring Russian politico) is telling this small gathering of reporters, but I'm sure his cause is little advanced by the sudden appearance of the oddest of remote control ... aircraft. A deft if underhanded statement by Gary's opponents, and one the Russian press will not soon forget (click here for a still image if the video doesn't make clear that which assaults Gary):