The actual factual list of stations is currently short, but you can listen online with the Real Audio Player.

Right now they've got Atrios on talking about Clarke and the media. It's a little rough still, but all and all, good stuff. Check it out.

I accidentaly stumbled upon^* the single most beautiful watch I've ever seen. The video of it running is stunning (make sure you have the volume turned up). I don't even wear a watch and I want one.

^* Mix one part default search domain hicup with Firefox's Google Feeling Lucky search for domains that don't resolve and you've got an unexpected web site in your browser.

I'm the number one search result for: magicly thing that are real.

I'd like to think I'm a pretty regular guy. That I'm real for normal reasons. Like a stork, or a turkey baster, or some of that good old fashioned sex. The idea that I may be the result of a shirtless guy dancing around a glass box while Enya plays is a bit off putting.

If this revelation came from some guy off the street... or even my arch nemesis, I'd pay it no mind. Yet this is Google. I don't know where to find corndogs between 5 and 25 dollars. Google does. Google knows things I don't. Google is smarter than me.

I don't feel so well.

Maya is the cutest puppy in the whole wide world.

It's been much too long since I've seen good live music. I've got no one to blame but myself. ...So I bought a bunch of tickets last week.

First up, on this very eve, is Stereolab at the Fillmore. I've heard many times that they put on a fine live show. One of the best even. Goldman and Eugene saw them years ago and still talk about it.

I can't wait to see for myself.

Update: Go see Stereolab. You don't have anything better to do.

The Blogger team brought back some sort of horriable flu like sinus like flu thing from SXSW in Austin. It's been taking people down for weeks... Hanging around like a wet fart, as an English fella I used to work with would say. I've managed to avoid it... Till today. Now my deal is busted. I could really use a nap face first in the bottom of a cool muddy pit.

On Nelson's suggestion, I just listened to Terry Gross interview former Counter Terrorism Chief Richard Clarke.

Clarke repeatedly suggested to the Bush Administration that invading Iraq not only had little to do with stopping terrorism, but would also increase it. He eventually quit his job when it became clear to him that "[The Bush Administration] could not be stopped by rational argument".

In the interview Clarke is well spoken, logical, and free of political posturing. He comes across as a man speaking not of ideologies, but of professional rigor.

A re-occurring theme in his recounting of the events leading up to 9/11, and then the war with Iraq, is a lack of that rigor on the part of President Bush and his administration. Post 9/11, Clarke was asked to look for connections between al Qaeda and Iraq. He didn't find any. He was asked to try again. He did... And still didn't find anything. This final report was never shown to the President. Additionally, no professional analysis was done on the actual immediate threat Iraq posed, or on the pros and cons of invading Iraq. Which is to say, we went to war on a hunch.

10,000+ (and still counting) civilian casualties... All for a hunch.

In my ideal society, that would be a criminal act.

In this society, it can make you a role model.

Q: What is the sound of one hand clapping?

A: The pupil faces his master, takes a correct posture, and without a word, thrusts one hand forward. ...And continues with a conversation meant to determine faith.

So says an excerpt from The Sound of the One Hand: 281 Zen Koans With Answers.

A review of the book at Amazon points out that the original Japanese version was twice as long. The English translation kept all the questions and answers, but removed the lengthy critique of the Rinzai school from which they came. In the early 1900's the school had become rather rigid and dogmatic in their instruction. The point of the book was to expose the lack of truth in it.

Roughly 60 years later, Yoel Hoffmann translated it and offered it up as a guide to truth. Judging by the $35 price tag for a used paperback copy on Amazon, folks have taken him up on it.

"War is never anything less than accelerated technological change. It begins when some notable disequilibrium among existing structures has been brought about by inequality of rates of growth." - Marshal McLuhan

That makes a lot more sense to me than "This war was started by evil. Evil must be destroyed" - Or buzzword based arguments of "Freedom".

It's not that there are people who do not like us because we're free. It's that there are people who do not like us because we do not share what we have (or have taken) in anything remotely close to equal amounts (if this is how we treat or friends, imagine how we treat our enemies).

The long term goals of our "nation building" is to create countries we can better profit from. Creating countries that one day may surpass us is a clearly stated non-goal.

Continuing at the current pace is going to get very ugly...

I love OmniGraffle. It's quickly becoming my go to tool. I use it for everything - documentation, mockups, sketches, wire frames, in place of paper testing, and on and on...

For wire frame's, I started out using Michael Angeles' excellent wire frame pallet, but quickly found myself making the same changes and additions to his default shapes. So I made my own.

Upon showing it to Mr. Wetherdeal. He suggested I start charging for it. That's a little much. Instead, you can download and use it for free (OmniGraffle 3 required).

I hope you find it as useful as I do. ...If not, I'd love to hear suggestions for improvements.

The BART that connects to CalTrain, that takes me to a shuttle, that goes to work, was late today - Again. It happens a few times a month. ...Adding an extra 40 minutes and an overpriced cab ride to my already 2 hour commute.

At leas it was nice outside. Sitting in the sun and doodling somewhat makes up for it.

...If only I didn't really need that 40 minutes for getting work done.

The extended homestand has come to an end - I'm back in Mountain View.

A guy from the helpdesk just came around asking if it was okay to upgrade my 20" and 19" LCD monitors to two newer 20s.

Some days it pays to come into the office.

Update: The color seems a little off... and I can kinda see lines for the horizontal rows... none the less, hot damn! That's a lot of screen space.

While most of the boys are off at SXSW, I've been working from home. No early as frunk alarm clock. No two hour morning commute. A sunny bay window. Open windows. Fresh air. Music without headphones. Lane. No flourecent lights. Time to do things after work.

A boy could get used to this.

Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.

...

The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."

But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government.

For years, Wisam painted pictures of Iraqi suffering. But did it out of sight, in a small, dark, seventh floor apartment--where Saddam's henchmen and women--could not see. These paintings did not glorify the regime or Saddam or the Batthists. That was the donkey toil of the day. This was moonlight work, powerful and contradictory to the public face of the Saddam's Iraq. It is work that could've put him behind bars again--or worse.