Music, opinions, and portfolio of Mark Eagleton, musician and web developer in Northern CA.
Comentary about things I have found around the web.
Divya Manian has some really good use cases for using CSS generated content on Dev.Opera. I think my favorite is rendering icons for file formats and external links using CSS3 substring selectors. It’s a well documented, concise article. It made my bus ride this morning.
I would purchase copies of these for my personal library, were they available.
U is for Uhura and Ultraman on a unicorn underwater.
via Michael Lopp
A huge repository of independent music performances. There is way too much goodness here to do anything else for the rest of the year. Subscribe.
My buddy, Ivan made flickr’s Explore page (refresh until you see Dunnigan Hills) today with his fantastic shot of the Dunnigan Hills. This shot is my favorite to date, mostly due to the fond memories of this commute to the best job I ever had. The place really looks like this in real life, folks.
More tumblr magic. This time from the folks who brought us three frames.
My wife and I skim interior design magazines. This is next level shit.
Michelle Setzer teaches kindergarten at C.E. Dingle Elementary School in Woodland, CA.. She’s a remarkable person. She taught my daughter Ella’s class of 25+ rowdy kids while with child and never showed anything less than 100% enthusiasm to be doing so. She is currently teaching my son. We hope to get Poppy into her class in 2015 ... or would that be 2016?
At any rate, it turns out she is even more remarkable than we may have initially thought. She started blogging about the inner-workings of the American Public School system last month, with the aim of inspiring citizens to push for reform. The best part is that she’s doing this the scientific way—by publishing statistical data and factual information.
If you didn’t already know, the bureaucracy of the American Public School system makes Innotech look like a well oiled machine. If exposing abuse with facts and stats gets you revved up, this is going to be a bottomless pit of inspiration.
Back in July, I linked to an article about Atheist Ireland’s plan to publish a formal blasphemous statement to challenge Ireland’s new blasphemy law, which goes into effect today. The law imposes a €25,000 fine on any person or organiation who utters or publishes a blasphemous statement about any religion in Ireland.
I said that I couldn’t wait to hear the zinger. Well, they decided to publish 25 blasphemous zingers by a whole slew of notable public figures including, Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet Mohammed, Pope Benedict XVI, Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie, Frank Zappa, George Carlin, and many more.
Why you should care: language in this law is being used to pass a similar restriction on the UN for discussing anything negative about Islam. That one is Islam only, though. Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. would still be fair game here.
One of the best bands in the world finally gets the interent makeover they deserve. And by one of the best web designers in the industry, no less.
Complete with sweet Webkit CSS transforms. View with Safari, Chrome, or a webkit nightly for best results.
Awesome! But can you call in an airstrike?
21st Amendment is on Virgin America. Yet another example of why cans are the superior beer container.
The White House debunks myths about their “health care” reform plan on a new Reality Check section of their website. Topics covered include rationing, cost, seniors, burdening the government, and more!
I have submitted a request to the White House address the controversial excerpt of page 16 that all the right wing pundits have had a field day with lately.
Personally, I am fine with any solution that will reduce my health care expenses by any degree. Since we are already being rationed by insurance companies, I see no down side to a government option. Paying for health care is the single most cumbersome aspect of being American.
Armin Vit on the new Radio Shack “The Shack” campaign:
Radio Shack needs a major overhaul and it should take advantage of the idiosyncratic products they carry that you can hardly find anywhere else, a sort of geek thrift store. The Shack campaign is insipid at best and harmful to the brand at worst.
As is usually the case, I mostly agree. However, the notion that Radio Shack needs a major overhaul is subjective. They are, after all, possibly the most profitable electronics retailer in the country.
This is the full version of Sam Harris’ piece for the New York Times on Francis Collins’ appointment to the National Institute of Health. This took me three days to get through, but it was intriguing to the last drop. As to be expected, Mr. Harris’ case is dead pan reasonable.
Cold Stone Creamery Gotta Have It PB&C Shake. 2,010 calories. 131 g fat (68 g saturated). 153 g sugars
I love reading these articles. It makes all those high calorie beers I drink look light by comparison.
Just stumbled upon this group who helps support a non-profit prostate cancer education and support group called Us TOO. Drinking beer just got a whole lot better for you, boys.
... by decriminalizing personal possession of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
I, myself, am in favor of decriminalizing all of the above drugs in America. Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t. I tend to favor ideas that have been proven to work.
PZ Myers stumbles upon an elegant rebuttal video to Fox News coverage of Amsterdam’s so called decay into corruption.
Ireland just passed a new blasphemy law. Say something offensive about a christian god and get a €25k fine. Atheist Ireland is going to test it:
Atheist Ireland members voted to test the new law by publishing a blasphemous statement, deliberately designed to cause offence. The statement will be finalised in the coming days.
I totally can’t wait to hear this zinger.
Evolutionary psychologist, Hank Davis tells the National Post (Cananda):
We name our daughters Faith and Hope. We never name them Doubt or Skeptic. Those are not valued traits. I believe they should be.
The subject of Dr. Davis’ new book is a topic I think a lot about. The interview is short and sweet. The book is now at the top of my to-read list.
I. Need. This.
Kevin, the pseudo himalayan monal pheasant from Pixar’s new movie, “Up” was based on a specimen at the Sacramento Zoo.
Google just announce a new project called Wave. It is essentially the new email. Real time communication, collaboration and much more. This isn’t just a new service that Google is offering, its essentially a new open communication protocol and framework. Just as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Apple are email providers, they can also be Wave providers.
This video is very long and a little painful to watch, but I really think this is going to finally make email obsolete, among many other communication protocols.
Juan Forero had a great four minute piece on Morning Edition today about a weekly TV show that Hugo Chavez has been doing for the past ten years. He is the host. He is producer. And apparently there is no limit to how long he will go. His previous record was 8 hours. He’s currently in the middle of a LIVE four day broadcast! If you ever had any doubt as to the level of sanity of Venezuela’s presedent, well … there you go.