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The Guardian UK points to a question that sort of plagues me: why do people feel guilty about not reading? It sort of goes back to the whole "dead white men" culture war that was so hot during the 80s. Back then, conservatives treated books like flossing or vitamin E, something that must be "good for you" because it's not really pleasant in itself. The Guardian thing is more about middlebrow guilt (snobbery?) about "not reading." I have that towards myself, about not reading enough, or not reading good enough/smart enough books. Maybe it goes back to status? I remember reading something that Christopher Hitchens said about how, going from the front of a plane to the back, the reading habits change. In first class, no one reads; in business, people read beach books; in coach people read The Mill on the Floss. The people in coach are striving for status; the people in first class, hey, they've already got it, baby.

There's something to all this mediation that makes me completely lost and depressed. It's really a hopeless place, and I recall it pretty well. Then something happens that wakes you up. You're part of a network, no matter how hard you tried to get off that grid. You can't make the choice to go away, hide behind a text editor. It might take a pedestrian's four-letter words to get you to that reality. But there you go.

As I walk through This wicked world Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity. I ask myself Is all hope lost? Is there only pain and hatred and misery? And each time I feel like this inside, There’s one thing I wanna know: What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? ohhhh What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding?

Tired of the negativity, but always interested in the outcome of the insane act.

The new microprocessor also is expected to be able to run multiple operating systems and programs at the same time while ensuring each has enough resources. In the home, that could allow for a device that's capable of handling a video game, television and general-purpose computer at once. "It's very flexible," said Jim Kahle, an IBM fellow. "We support many operating systems with our virtualization technology so we can run multiple operating systems at the same time, doing different jobs on the system." -- Yahoo! News - Microprocessor Challenge to Intel Launched

It occurred to me that one day Chris will stop blogging his mixes. A dark day that will be.

I have mixed feelings about Snow Patrol. On the one hand When It's All Over is good. But the more recent one is kind of annoying in a huge, commercial ballad-y way that is almost unforgivable. There's a weird echo of Coldplay in all this.

Willing to hold out. The benefit of a doubt is good. Unwilling to see it any other way. Getting used to the notion of thinking like this. You get used to things. The boiler broke and the temperature is around 55 degrees. I had a cup of tea. Restless and unwilling to do gruntwork.

Strange malaise. Feeling sad and unmotivated. I doubt things that once appeared certain. And I need to read a lot about C# and get a handle on Test::More .

What we missed in boston from the NYT. Instead of scorning the event, the networks would do better by working with convention planners more closely. Both have plenty to gain... Ratings for cable news and PBS increased over the convention. If the broadcast networks had provided more coverage and given a sleeker presentation, millions more viewers might have been tempted to tune in. Conventions will never get huge ratings or make the networks money, but they only come once every four years. I completely agree. They package things even more boring than the convention and it sells. Packaging matters. And saying that the news is "not consequential" is really protesting too much, when networks now create news whole cloth in the form of reality programming. Kind of weird that they are shying away from the ultimate reality show. Why couldn't they do a sort of political Real World or something equally ridiculous?

Isn't it weird how the Woodward thing has sort of slid off Bush entirely? But everything has been sliding off.... just when I think they are missing the point, it turns out that the President is "strong on the war on terror" whether we see results or not. I still think that Iraq could hurt him, things could get worse (though I would prefer they get better and endure 4 More Years of Cheney). And Iraq could hurt him if god forbid there were another attack on US soil, or some American tourists were killed in Europe or something.

To do: A recent flurry of questions to the Perl-XML mailing list points to the need for a document that gives new users a quick, how-to overview of the various Perl XML modules. For the next few months I will be devoting this column solely to that purpose. -- XML.com's Perl XML Quickstart: The Perl XML Interfaces

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows a remarkable turnaround in 17 battleground states where polls and historic trends indicate the race will be close, and where the Bush campaign has aired TV ads. Those ads say Bush has provided "steady leadership in times of change" while portraying Kerry as a tax-hiking, flip-flopping liberal... I worried about this. To win elective office, you need name recognition and a fundraising machine. That's it. No policy, no ideas, no political party. Just two things. Our future, peopled with celebrity Governators and political dynasties, will make today's politicians look as wise as the Founding Fathers.

NPR Executive Vice President Ken Stern told The Post that the firing of Edwards was part of a "natural evolution" that had "to do with the changing needs of our listeners." What "natural evolution"? What does that mean? And what "changing needs"? Listen, Ken, my needs haven't changed. I still want news in the morning. I still want smart features. - from Cohen in the WaPo's "Empty Talk at NPR"

So I haven't posted for a million years, but then when I read that Bob Edwards is leaving Morning Edition , I have to say I was shocked and dismayed. I remember his shows with Red Barber. He's sort of the epitome of the NPR sound: folksy (in a good way and bad), and very old-school radio. So I'll miss him, ok?

I'm still undecided about the legal aspects of Grey Tuesday . I think if you wrote the beat, you should be compensated. Now, I know that Danger Mouse made it for fun, and wasn't trying to make money, but now, after all the hoo-ha, he could . So the posturing about how this is "art" rather than "commerce" is of a relative nature. (And I know EMI could put it under Creative Commons , but they haven't). If his art is not commerce just because there's no "product," that's a pretty thin reed to hang it on, especially because today's "illegal art" is tomorrow's Warhol greeting card. If Danger Mouse becomes even more famous, and the Grey Album becomes a product, who should be compensated? Clearly, if I sell a beat you wrote, you have a right to get that money from me. On the other hand, people say, Danger Mouse is not competing with either Jay-Z or the White Album, he isn't taking any money away from them, so is it ...

Ron Paige says disagreeing with Bush = terrorism. Are these guys all complete tools? And why does the media allow Bushies to rant about "lobbyists" without a reality check? "It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms."

No, Ralph, stop. I'm quite disapointed that chose to run. Will he actually build a movement? Will he form a coalition made of Greens and young Dean supporters? Will he change the political landscape? Well, no, actually. Super-lefts want a candidate that lets them feel morally superior to Dems, but their litmus-test ideology actually accomplishes the destruction of the very things about which they say they care most. Having George W. Bush win, only to appoint the next supreme court justice (who will undoubtedly be anti-choice and Ashcroft-friendly) is not my idea of "progressive accomplishment." When the American left trains its eye on results, moral purity will be seen for what it is, the luxury of the marginalized.

This hit pretty close to home: Another human dream was crushed by the uncompromising forces of reality Monday, when the restaurant day job of 29-year-old former aspiring cartoonist Mark Seversen officially became his actual job. -- the Onion "Day Job Officially Becomes Job"

Great piece by the always suprising Michael Lind in the new Nation: For at least two decades, in foreign policy the neocons have been wrong about everything. When the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, the hawks of Team B and the Committee on the Present Danger declared that it was on the verge of world domination. In the 1990s they exaggerated the power and threat of China, once again putting ideology ahead of the sober analysis of career military and intelligence experts. The neocons were so obsessed with Saddam Hussein and Yasir Arafat that they missed the growing threat of Al Qaeda. After 9/11 they pushed the irrelevant panaceas of preventive war and missile defense as solutions to the problems of hijackers and suicide bombers.... David Brooks and his colleagues in the neocon press are half right. There is no neocon network of scheming masterminds--only a network of scheming blunderers. ... If they now claim that they never existed--well, you can hardly blame them, can ...