Contrasts

This time last year we were waiting for the big winter storm. This year (in the Boston area, anyway), it’s “Winter? What winter?” 55F, sunny, breezy…. (OK, occasionally more than breezy.)
Also looking back at my posts from last year, I never did get to see Aliens of the Deep. I guess I should pick up the DVD.
And that week I was also waxing lyrical about the T-shirts from JiNX. Of course, back then I didn’t have a grandson to indulge… Anyway, I just bought him the perfect thing for a 7-month old hacker….

So much for "Web 2.0"

Great rant by Zeldman on the Web 2.0 meme:

But nothing, not even the rants of political bloggers, was as exciting as the scent of money. As the first properly valued “Web 2.0” properties began to find buyers, a frenzy like the old one popped hideously back to life. Yahoo spent how much? Google bought what? Here was real blood in the water.
But how to persuade the other sharks in the tank that this blood feast was different from the previous boom-and-bust? Easy: Dismiss everything that came before as Web 1.0.
[…]
As for me, I’m cutting out the middleman and jumping right to Web 3.0. Why wait?

(Via Slashdot.)

Disillusioned about Harvard

I really have to stop raising my blood pressure by reading The Weekly Standard. However I followed a link to a piece by Harvey Mansfield (William R. Kenan Jr. professor of government at Harvard) entitled The Law and the President, and thought it might be interesting. It was – but not in the way I thought. It was sophomorically bad. Is this bozo REALLY a tenured professor at Harvard?
An example from the very first paragraph: “But enemies, being extra-legal, need to be faced with extra-legal force.” Say what? Aren’t all criminals “extra-legal”? Does this mean we give the police “extra-legal” force? Or take this sentence: “The Federalist tells us that a republican constitution needs energy and stability, terms taken from physics to designate discretion and law.” In what way does “energy” correspond to “discretion”?
Of course all of this is in service of his dubious thesis that the Constitution should be interpreted as endorsing a unitary (unchecked) executive:

In rejecting monarchy because it was unsafe, republicans had forgotten that it might also be effective. The Framers made a strong executive in order to have both power and security, and they took note of emergency occasions when more power gives more security.
Separation of powers was a republican invention of the 17th century, but the Framers improved it when they strengthened the executive. They enabled the executive to act independently of the legislature and not merely serve as its agent in executing the laws.

Note the selective use of the word “emergency”. Mansfield (and others of his way of thinking, like Alito) introduce the word to justify exceptional action in exceptional conditions, and then quietly drop it to leave the impression that they’re talking about ordinary, everyday powers. The equivocation is relentless – and blatant.
For a more complete take-down of this “profoundly silly” piece, see David Luban’s analysis over at Balkinization.

Music recommendation: "Back to Mine"

Over the last few months I’ve been collecting a series of CDs called Back to Mine. The idea is that musicians – especially those known for their skills in remixing material – are asked to put together a “personal collection for after hours grooving”. So far I’ve acquired the results from Faithless, the Pet Shop Boys (two CDs – one by Neil, the other by Chris), Underworld, and (today) Orbital. The collections are all excellent, and very diverse.

  • For the Faithless collection, Rollo and Sister Bliss concentrated on contemporary sounds, including “Another Night In” by Tindersticks and the unforgettable “Solo Flying Mystery Man” by Pauline Taylor. There’s also a family feel to it, with tracks from Dido and Dusted.
  • Each of the two PSB discs includes a track by Dusty Springfield. Apart from that, they’re as different as can be: Chris stays in his zone, while Neil explores all of the nooks and crannies of his musical world, including jazz and classical.
  • Underworld approached their offering as a remix project, structured very much like a typical Underworld album. They anchored the work on two tracks: Gil Scott-Heron’s powerful political rap “B Movie”, and the seminal rocksteady track by Toots and the Maytals: “54-46 That’s My Number” from 1968.
  • As for Orbital, “eclectic” doesn’t even begin to cover it. From 1960s TV theme songs, to the Tornadoes (yes, the “Telstar” guys), to Jethro Tull, Tangerine Dream, PJ Harvey, Severed Heads and Susan Cadogan… it’s wonderfully surprising (and surprisingly wonderful). The two pieces that stand out are both filed under “reggae/ska”: “Celebrate the Bullet” by The Selecter, and Orbital’s own “Ska’d For Life”

What next? I hear that the Orb‘s Back to Mine is outstanding. (I’ve also been warned off the Groove Armada collection.)

Local warming (think global, act local)

[Updated] This afternoon the temperature here in Brookline hit 61 degrees Fahrenheit. (Normal is about 36.) It’s now almost midnight, and we’re still up at 46. But it’s all downhill from here: 24 hours from now it’s expected to be around 14 7, with several inches of fresh snow, a wind chill of -4 -11, and NW winds gusting to 36 45 MPH. It’s been an odd winter so far….

Distracted

I’ve been getting a little behind in my reading recently… and staying up too late some nights. The reason: I picked up the quad DVD of the complete Firefly series, and I’ve been working my way through it as fast as I could. I’d never seen it on TV; the first I saw of Joss Wheldon’s western/sci-fi ‘verse was when I saw the film Serenity.
I finished it this evening (including the various extras). Man, what a great trip!