Archive for 1/24/2008 - 17 Shevat, 5768

Microsoft sues Mike Rowe for creating mikerowesoft.com. Mike Rowe ends up with Free XBox and lots of free publicity

Google has just sued Booble - a Porn search engine. They’re now getting a lot of free publicity.

hmmm…now that I know how to get some free publicity, what company should I choose, and how can I utilize the 10-15 minutes of fame it will generate for me to advantage? I want more than an Xbox, I know that.

should’a” known: Dizney.com is already taken.

They’re under contract to do 2 more movies, but after that, Pixar Animation is going solo.

They felt they were paying too high a distribution fee to Disney, Disney refused to negotiate a lower fee, so Pixar said, “You’re the Weakest Link, Good-bye.”

So it looks like Disney is set to lose a second hot property in 2005.

The other item of note in the above news story is the name of the CEO of Pixar. Steve Jobs. It’s not a coincidence, it’s the same guy. I had no idea someone could be the CEO of two companies simultaneously. I thought CEO was like a full-time job. But I guess it’s a fair bet that Pixar does its animation on Macs.

Many people are predicting Lord of the Rings will be the first Fantasy/SF movie that wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.

If revised to “First Fantasy Movie”, it’s an accurate statement.

but there is one SF movie that wasn’t overlooked. Well, at least kind of. 1956’s Best Picture, Around the World in 80 Days, was based on a Jules Verne novel. But that’s the only one. It’s been slim pickins.

It’s sheer poetic bliss.

Disney, the company singlehandedly responsible for extending US copyright in 1998 another 20 years to protect their characters, is being sued for — Copyright infringement!

Actually, the lawsuit is 10 years old, but it is approaching its final stages. A.A. Milne - creator of Winnie the Pooh — assigned the US rights to his characters to the Slesinger family in 1930. They worked out a deal with Disney in 1961, but they claim that Disney has denied them their share of royalties since then, and are suing for a billion dollars. (insert appropriate Dr. Evil laugh)

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Disney’s appeal.

A trial is set for Jan 2005. The Slesingers have hired….Johnnie Cochran!

Pooh is Disney’s biggest ‘cash bear’ - at about $3-6 billion a year.

You have a Hollywood producer claiming the Pope said something, and the Vatican denying it. Which one are you going to believe?

Quotes from article:
“Still, it takes a particular sort of chutzpah to put a phony quote in the mouth of Pope John Paul II.”

“The Web site promoting Gibson’s film…proudly displays a pair of articles…which the pope is said to have watched a tape of the film…then commented: “It is as it was.”"

“in a widely overlooked story circulated by the Catholic News Service on Christmas Eve, two unnamed Vatican officials were quoted as denying the pope had expressed any opinion concerning Gibson’s film. ”

“Whatever one thinks of John Paul II, he never has had any trouble making himself clear, and it might have occurred to somebody, somewhere along the line, that “It is as it was” sounds a bit like a screenwriter doing additional dialogue for an Eastern Yoda.”

Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.

From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight — and with what tactics.

The Republicans have an interesting defense: It’s all right to commit burglary when the door is left open. Or as they put it:

As the extent to which Democratic communications were monitored came into sharper focus, Republicans yesterday offered a new defense. They said that in the summer of 2002, their computer technician informed his Democratic counterpart of the glitch, but Democrats did nothing to fix the problem. Other staffers, however, denied that the Democrats were told anything about it before November 2003.

My history is sorta fuzzy, and since I was born in 1969 I was fairly young at the time, but I seem to recall that Watergate centered around a similar burglary. I realize this is the GOP Senate, and not the President. It will be interesting to see if Bush makes any statement condemning the actions of the Senators involved.

Just added a link to comedienne Margaret Cho’s blog on the right. Great humor.

Stonewall Jackson (b. 1/21/1824) “I like liquor - its taste and its effects - and that is just the reason why I never drink it.”

Benny Hill (b. 1/21/1925) “Just because nobody complains doesn’t mean all parachutes are perfect.”

Geena Davis (b. 1/21/1957) “I’ve always looked up to him, even though he is shorter.” (about Dustin Hoffman)

John Newmark (b. 1/21/1969) “Everything somehow looks different when you’re wearing the silky underwear of the girl you love.”

Other people I share my birthday with:

Telly Savalas (interesting, some people have called me Kojak because of my receeding hairline)

Steve Reeves (no one’s called me Hercules before…)

Wolfman Jack (people have remarked about the quantity of hair on my face, and elsewhere)

Placido Domingo, Billy Ocean, Mac Davis, Richie Havens (You do not want to hear me sing, believe me)

I’m now closer to age 70 than I am to the day I was born. That’s a scary thought.

(Borrowed and modified from a friend who is 25…..ohhh, to be 25 again.)

With something like 98% of the votes in from the Iowa Caucuses:

38% - Kerry
32% - Edwards
18% - Dean
11% - Gephardt

Instead of his former plans to fly to NH tomorrow morning, Gephardt will be on a plane to St. Louis…it is assumed by the pundits he will be dropping out of the race. With those results, that seems likely.

Dean who the media was declaring the front runner is now “bleeding” according to them. It’s probably an apropos metaphor.

My quick analysis, which means absolutely nothing, is that it appears Iowans have a rabid distaste for negativity, and Dean and Gephardt’s attacking each other in the last few weeks sent many caucus goers searching for someone else, and they split almost evenly between Kerry and Edwards…with a slight favoring to Kerry. Maybe because he had higher name recognition, or people felt his veteran status could help against Bush.

I’m hopeful Kerry can beat Gen. Wesley Clark (and Dean) in NH. Unlike Michael Moore, I am not too fond of Clark. He said he couldn’t remember whether or not he voted for Reagan. I can tell you who I’ve voted for for President in every election, and I don’t trust anyone who says they can’t. (Either they’re lying, or they didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about their choice..which indicates they don’t think who they vote for is important. Either way isn’t good.)

If Clark and Dean can be eliminated from the race, I’ll be happy. I feel I can support either Edwards or Kerry in a race against Bush. I’m sure I’d end up voting for Clark or Dean…but I’d be voting against Bush…I feel I could vote for Kerry or Edwards. (I’d vote for Kucinich too, but he is too far behind in the polls to stand a chance, and I also don’t think he’d have a chance against Bush. I’d be voting against Bush if Lieberman or Sharpton were the candidate, but they too appear to be too far behind in the polls to matter.)

Will I vote for Kerry or Edwards in the Missouri Primary? Not too sure. I’m gong to have to analyze the positions of the two some more. I had been assuming I would be voting for Gephardt…

CBS has rejected MoveOn’s 30-second anti-Bush ad.

The reason they give is:

A CBS spokesman said the decision against broadcasting the spot had nothing to do with either the Super Bowl or the ad’s specific issue but was because the network has had a long-term policy not to air issue ads anywhere on the network.

Here is a list of All Advertisers who have purchased spots for the Superbowl.

Let’s See…
We have the American Legacy Foundation’s anti-smoking ad
Anheuseur Busch is listed with 1 “responsibility’ spot
The NFL is listed as doing a United Way related spot
Phillip Morris is listed with it’s anti-smoking/responsibility ad

While the AB, NFL and Phillip Morris ads could be considered as promotional of the corporations even though they are focused on an issue, rather than the product, The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has also purchased an ad. Like the American Legacy Foundation, they’re not pushing any products…just their issue.

That wonderful organization, the American Family Association, is conducting a poll on views of Homosexual marriage.

The truly wonderful thing is that support is winning…with 60% so far…so obviously more than just their members are voting. Obviously I’m not the first person to post this link.

Stand up and be counted

(One risks getting on the AFA mailing list…but hey, if they want to send me regular updates on what they’re up to, I have no problem with that. I’m sure I’ll find some interesting things to post about…)

the headline says 3-way tie in Iowa. But it’s not a 3-way tie, it’s a 4-way tie.

Kerry, Dean, Gephardt and Edwards is the order the poll came up with, shocking all pundits by placing Kerry in front of Gephardt and Dean for the first time in the campaign, but all within the margin of error, so anyone could really be on top.

Gephardt probably has the strongest organization, which matters in a caucus, since it takes dedication to show up, especially if the weather is cold, as it often is in January in Iowa. (Not quite sure what’s forecast for Monday).

Update: Weather forecast for Monday: High 35 deg, low 19 deg, with a 10% chance of precipitation. In other words, balmy. Iowans will be wearing short sleeves.

Kvell - Yiddish - usually used to describe the feeling of pride a parent or grandparent has when their kid or grandchild does something wonderful and they must simply tell the world about it.

Could linguistically be used to describe generic tribal pride when someone new is revealed to be a “Member of the Tribe”.

Apparently Prince Michael Jackson, and Paris Jackson (The Pop Star’s two eldest) are members from birth. (Jackson’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, is allegedly scared the Nation of Islam may try to convert their kids)

Joy.

As usual, I have received as gifts several books within the past month, along with a handful of CDs and DVDs, and I have begun to read/listen/watch them.

In the collection of books were some “Required Liberal Reading” as one person I heard recently put it. Notably Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose’s Bushwhacked and Joe Conason’s Big Lies. I highly recommend Bushwhacked. I felt the (best/scariest/most troubling) chapters were on the weakening of the regulations on the USDA. My feelings after reading those chapters are akin to how I felt after reading Sinclair’s The Jungle many years ago. However, after reading The Jungle I was able to say to myself (That was almost 100 years ago, it’s not that bad anymore). Then I came home from vacation — where I had been news-deprived for 10 days or so — and discovered Mad Cow had hit the US. I’m not surprised. The two largest recalls of Beef in our nation’s history have already occurred during this administration.

I’ve just begun Conason’s book, and it is equally depressing/enjoyable reading (depending upon one’s word choice.) More as I continue.

On the lighter side I received several books of translated poetry (1 collection of Yehuda Amichai’s and 2 collections of Victor Hugo), Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, and Jimmy Carter’s novel on the Revolutionary War.

Over the next few weeks on this blog I will be sharing my thoughts on what I am reading with anyone interested enough to read them.

The unofficial blog of the President’s dog.