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November 26, 2004
AutoBlogging Friday: Dream vs Reality: Subaru Re1
Sometimes production cars are faithful to the
dreamy show cars that inspired them. The new
Beetle, the MINI, the PT Cruiser are all
successful examples of prototype to production
fidelity.
Subaru disappointed us with its Re1 minicar.
|
The dream: show car
Bulldog-MINI-like stable stance. |
|
The reality: production car
Narrow wheels and tires. Indicator through door handle ridge Messy door frame to roof interfaces. Colour less vibrant. |
Posted by omor at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2004
Firefox Talkback
Firefox is a fast featureful web browser (previously known as
Mozilla, Camino, Firebird) and just had its 1.0 release.
Alas, it has a mean time between failure (MTBF) of about
10 minutes under heavy use.
At least with release v1.0 it's easy to determine
if my edition of FireFox is up to date. Previously
the 'about FireFox' would take me to a Firefox web site,
encourage me to download, but not tell me
* my version is 0.9.1
* the current version is 0.9.3
* therefore I should update.
Another interesting FireFox feature is Talkback, which
sends info about FireFox crashes to the developers.
I hope my Talkback data is of good use.
Posted by omor at 05:07 AM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2004
Dedication of the Clinton library
In his speech, Clinton sought to clarify the present by his broad
analysis of globalization -- an age of interdependence with new
possibilities and new dangers -- and the offer of conciliation:
America has two great dominant strands of political thought; we're
represented up here on this stage: conservatism, which at its very
best draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which
at its very best breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or
should never have been erected in the first place.
[Who amongst us is a liberal ? -- SF]
In his effort to transcend the division of America into two nations,
red and blue states, Clinton was applying his tradition -- the absence
of dogma, the belief that good ideas can come from anywhere, and that
solutions cannot be imposed but must be worked out in democratic
politics by building coalitions, compromises and experimentation, of
which he was leading practitioner and survivor, ever the Comeback Kid.
Posted by omor at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2004
AutoBloggging Friday: thetruthaboutcars, with Robert Farago.
AutoBloggging Friday: thetruthaboutcars is an excellent though less frequent
autos blog with contributions from Robert Farago.
Recently reviewed: Mercedes Benz C320 Sport.
As I guided the C320 Sport down I-95 in driving sleet,
the car provided rock steady handling, effortless lane
changing, perfect comfort and superb visibility. I reckon
it's this quartet of characteristics that defines the
Mercedes brand, and makes Mercs the logical choice for
customers who view driving as a means to an end. Still,
even with a reasonably powerful, sweet-spinning V6
engine in the engine bay, these attributes don’t add
up to “sporty”.
Posted by omor at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2004
More post-election maps
Historical map comparisons to the 2004 election:
(Previously: maps, land mass for Bush.)
CLIOPATRIA recalls the Red vs Blue of 1896, an almost mirror
image of 2004, except that the parties exchanged colours.
Sean Wilentz, a professor of history at Princeton, saw two
instances in history when the American electoral landscape
resembled that of today. "They are kind of scary examples,"
Professor Wilentz said. "One is 1860, and we know what happened
after that one, and the other was 1896, the McKinley-Bryan
election."
Political Animal and Ken Laynes note the parallels of slave vs free states and today's
Red vs Blue states.
Finally, the NYT's excellent John Tierney agrees those proximate to water votes blue
while the parched hinterland votes red.
Of the major cities, the ones with the smallest ratios
of children to adults are all on the water: San Francisco,
Seattle, Honolulu, Boston and Portland. "Your hip,
well-educated, 20- and 30-somethings come to the great
cities to get their career cards punched and meet mates,"
said Fred Siegel, a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute
and the author of "The Prince of the City," a forthcoming
book on Rudolph W. Giuliani and New York.
The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into
Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans,
Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them,
too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and
we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries
in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue
States and have gay friends in the Red States.
-- Senator Barack Obama
See also nationalatlas voting maps page.
Posted by omor at 06:56 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2004
French Capture Yasser Arafat dead or alive
November-October surprise: French Capture Yasser Arafat Dead or Alive is
the headline I would have expected from Taranto.
Update 2004 Nov 12
Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.
-- Hilaire Belloc
Posted by omor at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2004
Americans fleeing to Canada ?
The meme of Americans fleeing Bush2, fleeing to Canada is
alive in this Reuters story and the NYT 1, 2, 3 and Salon 1, 2.
Note that qualified Americans might make good use of a
NAFTA TN visa and not wait more than a day.
Dominion Paper picks up the story and runs it with a marry a
Canadian theme, and Canadian Alternative tempts Americans
with Canada's 'High quality of life. Low crime rates.
Progressive social policies. A strong economy. There’s a lot to
love about Canada.'
Mena (who also demonstrates why workers comp insurance
is so expensive in California) is not moving, but I infer from
her map, is not delighted about the election results,
either.
Also, Australians dissatisfied with John Howard's re-election are
thinking of moving to New Zealand. In a satirical column in The
Bulletin magazine, Tim Blair wrote:
"The malaise among this bunch is so profound, many are
threatening in various online forums to leave Australia
for New Zealand, which is as close as you can get to
committing suicide while still registering a pulse."
From Sorry.
Mahalanobis, DailyKos, and the Left Coaster, Andrew Sullivan, and Montreal Blog
on this story.
Democratic Americans migrating to Canada. [Reuters | Yahoo ]
Unhappy Democrats Need to Wait to Get Into Canada
Wed Nov 3, 1:16 PM ET
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Disgruntled Democrats seeking a safe Canadian haven
after President Bush (news - web sites) won Tuesday's election should
not pack their bags just yet.
Canadian officials made clear on Wednesday that any U.S. citizens so
fed up with Bush that they want to make a fresh start up north would
have to stand in line like any other would-be immigrants -- a wait
that can take up to a year.
"You just can't come into Canada and say 'I'm going to stay here'. In
other words, there has to be an application. There has to be a reason
why the person is coming to Canada," said immigration ministry
spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi.
There are anywhere from 600,000 to a million Americans living in
Canada, a country that leans more to the left than the United States
and has traditionally favored the Democrats over the Republicans.
But recent statistics show a gradual decline in U.S. citizens coming
to work in Canada, which has a creaking publicly funded healthcare
system and relatively high levels of personal taxation.
Government officials, real estate brokers and Democrat activists said
that while some Americans might talk about a move to Canada rather
than living with a new Bush administration, they did not expect a mass
influx.
"It's one thing to say 'I'm leaving for Canada' and quite another to
actually find a job here and wonder about where you're going to live
and where the children are going to go to school," said one government
official.
Roger King of the Toronto-based Democrats Abroad group said he had
heard nothing to back up talk of a possible exodus of party members.
"I imagine most committed Democrats will want to stay in the United
States and continue being politically active there," he told Reuters.
Americans seeking to immigrate can apply to become permanent citizens
of Canada, a process that often takes a year. Becoming a full citizen
takes a further three years.
The other main way to move north on a long-term basis is to find a
job, which in all cases requires a work permit. This takes from four
to six months to come through.
Official statistics show the number of U.S. workers entering Canada
dropped to 15,789 in 2002 from 21,627 in 2000. Early indicators on
Wednesday showed little sign of this changing.
A spokesman for Canada's foreign affairs ministry said there had been
no increase in the number of hits on the Washington embassy's
immigration Web site, while housing brokers said they doubted they
would see a surge in U.S. business.
"Canada's always open and welcoming to Americans who want to relocate
here, but we don't think it would be a trend or movement," said Gino
Romanese of Royal Lepage Residential Real Estate Services in Toronto.
Those wishing to move to Canada could always take a risk and claim
refugee status -- the path chosen earlier this year by two U.S.
deserters who opposed the war in Iraq (news - web sites).
"Anybody who enters Canada who claims refugee status will be provided
with a work permit ... it doesn't matter what country they're from,"
Iadinardi said.
Refugee cases are handled by special boards, which can take months to
decide whether to admit applicants. The rulings can be appealed and
opposition politicians complain some people ordered deported have been
in Canada for 10 years or more.
Posted by omor at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2004
Land Mass for Bush
The state-by-state maps show a preponderance of land mass for Bush.
[See previous: US map scaled by population.]
The total population is close to evenly split between Kerry
and Bush, but Bush's states are big and empty. What's more,
within each state, the populated areas support Kerry, and the
sparse areas lean toward Bush, in accordance with the Retro vs Metro
meme.
The finer we cut the data, the more we observe the phenomena
of Bush's support being strongest on the emptier land masses.
Here's swing state Missouri with NYT polling data:
Below are fundraising maps from FundRace.
| State: |  |
| Zip3 |  |
| County |  |
Bigger maps.
| State | |
| Zip3 | |
| County | |