democrat congressman explains their approach to Health Care legislation
Democrat and impeached judge Rep. Alcee Hastings said this during a House Rules Meeting today in defense of the Democrats’ health care approach:
“All this talk about rules. We make them up as we go along.”
Black is back!
When the US Army adopted the ACU (Army Combat Uniform) with a new digital camouflage pattern, the color black was not to be found in the pattern. The argument was the the color black is not found in nature. I’ve talked with members of the military who were on exercises with people wearing both the ACU and the older BDU uniforms (the BDUs had the woodland pattern) and was told that it was much easier to spot the people in the ACU at night.
It has been announced that the US Army is now producing a variant of the ACU with the MultiCam camouflage pattern. If you look closely at the MultiCam pattern, you will see that it includes the color black.
For now, the MultiCam pattern is only being issued in Afghanistan, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the more effective pattern make its way through the Army supply chain.
There are other changes being made to the ACU, based on feedback from soldiers in the field. One that caught my attention was replacing the Velcro ™ seals on the sleeve cargo pockets with buttons. Makes sense. Buttons are quiet.
Originally published at Urbin Technology
Friday B-Movie Pick: Princess of Mars
A deliciously low budget adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic. Updated a bit, John Carter is no longer a Civil War veteran (from the losing side), but a Marine in Afghanistan. Traci Lords was the “name” actor in this flick, but poorly cast as Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium. The movie was shot on an obvious shoestring budget and was shot in an amazing short time. Just 12 days to shoot a SciFi adventure story by one of the classic writers of the genre. Ya, the acting was bad, the script so-so, and the Tharks only have two arms. Still, not too shabby for the budget they had. I’m betting most Hollywood “indies” couldn’t pull off a feature film with the time and budget constrants this crew had to work with.
Management 2.0
Howard Tharp makes the following interesting comment on what he calls “Team Player 2.0”
Thinking lately about the different kinds of team players.
It’s not about coming to eat birthday cake in the break room.
(Staying at your desk is fine. As a manager, I sincerely don’t see this as anti-social, though I myself like birthday cake. 😉 )
Another kind of team player is one committed to an overarching vision, one who won’t shut up about his or her ideas.
Evangelizing IS a team component. Doing what you’re told without engagement is not. And I don’t feel comfortable when I see staff members get accused of “not being a team player,” when they resist the status quo of more senior staff.
I’m starting to study how to cultivate and reward this new team player.
I think he is on to something here.
Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer
Pretty damn spot on.
Sunday SciFi: Philip K. Dick on Bladerunner
Bladerunner, the 1981 SciFi classic movie based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. A groundbreaking movie that features Harrison Ford getting beat up a lot.
Jason Calacanis has found a letter Philip K. Dick wrote after seeing Bladerunner.
To put it mildly, he liked it. Way cool, cooler than an Oscillation Overthruster sighting.
Compare and Contrast
In St. Louis, a Tea Party protest was planned, 600 people were expected to show up. In reality 2,225 people showed up! A grassroots movement in action.
Also in St. Louis, there was a small amount of leftist Astroturfing. The so called “coffee party” met for a bit of “latte liberal” whining. A whopping thirty people, including the people who were already at the restaurant and the tea party infiltrators.
Interview Toni Weisskopf, publisher of Baen Books
Teleread has a very good interview with Toni Weisskopf, the publisher of Baen Books. Now, as those of you who have followed my ramblings for a while know, I’m a fan of Baen and their policies on e-books. Go read the whole article, but here are some of the “money quotes.”
TW: Well, part of the “secret” there is that we don’t pay for expensive DRM (“digital rights management”) schemes. I’ve never understood why we should add to our costs with the sole outcome that it’s harder for readers to buy and read the books we want to sell. On the contrary, I want to make it as easy as possible for my readers to find, purchase and read my books. That goal influences every publishing decision I make from our marketing to what typefaces we use.
…
Specifically, I think ebooks will extend the market for books, not reduce it. But then what I am selling is good stories; I don’t care what medium I sell those stories in. If my readers tell me they want it chipped on stone, I will find some way to do that. If they want me to beam the story directly to a chip in the brain, I will do that.
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In a nutshell, the problem of the midlist author or publisher is not piracy, but lack of exposure.
…
The other side of the coin is that Jim Baen didn’t believe our readers are thieves and neither do I. I believe they will buy the book when they have the money. And I don’t believe our readers are ignorant. The understand TANSTAAFL. Our readers understand that we can’t continue to find great books and the authors continue to write them if we don’t get paid. So we don’t treat our readers badly by trying to micromanage the use of the ebooks, and we have been amply rewarded for that trust.
Friday B-Movie: The January Man
From 1989 comes this nicely done murder mystery, were tracking down the serial killer is only half the mystery. The cast is top notch. It includes Kevin Kline, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel and Danny Aiello. They really breath some life into a so-so script and make this movie worth watching.
Senator Reid’s wife & Daughter were injured in an auto accident
The most serious injury was to Mrs. Reid, who suffered a broken neck and back in an auto accident today though her injuries are not life-threatening according to a report in Business Week.
May all the injured parties recover swiftly.