2008 August | Idle Musings

Archive for August 2008

My 50 Favorite Books

In Books on Aug-20-2008 with
no comments

I had some friends over last weekend and a few had never seen my library, where I have around 750 books. Most were stunned that (1) I had so many books that take up an entire room and (2) That I even read anything at all that isn’t online. As we started to talk about books, something I could do for hours and hours I had a thought. If I could only have 50 books which 50 would I choose?

Really no rules to how I choose, other than I stayed away from business books and autobiographies. I also could only include one book from each author (which made things both easier and harder). These are in no specific order, just how I wrote them down:

Hamlet, William Shakespeare.
Republic, Plato
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs.
Ulysses, James Joyce.
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury.
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut.
Neuromancer, William Gibson.
The Metamorphosis, Frank Kafka.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.
The Stand, Stephen King.
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole.
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera.
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger.
Creation, Gore Vidal.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck.
Watership Down, Richard Adams.
Lolita, Vladamir Nobokov.
Life of Pi, Yann Martel.
Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins.
In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead, James Lee Burke.
Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis.
Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy.
Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman.
The Hot Zone, Richard Preston.
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer.
Mody Dick, Herman Melville.
The Call of the Wild, Jack London.
Walden, Henry David Thoreau.
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Carlos Castaneda.
Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick.
Snow Falling On Cedars, David Guterson.
The Infinite Plan, Isabel Allende.
The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass.
The Art of War, Sun Tzu.
The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway.
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius.
The Third Policeman, Flann O’Brien.
My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor.
The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig.
Lamb, Christopher Moore.
Next Man Up, John Feinstein.
Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose.

Some other lists of books I’ve enjoyed recently:

So what did I miss? Share in the comments!

Finally, Rachel Maddow Get Her Own MSNBC Show

In Media on Aug-19-2008 with
no comments

For the life of me I have no idea why this took so darn long:

Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election, MSNBC is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, removing the longtime host Dan Abrams—its onetime general manager—from his 9 p.m. program and replacing him with Rachel Maddow, who has emerged as a favored political commentator for the all-news cable network.

The moves, which were confirmed by MSNBC executives on Tuesday, are expected to be finalized by Wednesday, with Mr. Abrams’s last program on Thursday. After MSNBC’s extensive coverage of the two political conventions during the next two weeks, Ms. Maddow will begin her program on Sept. 8.

Rachel’s show will follow Keith Olbermann’s Countdown. The Olbermann/Maddow 1-2 punch will be potent. Now, we just need to get a decent lead-in for Keith, we’d have a serious three hour block of programming.

Google Leads in Search Satisfaction

In Technology on Aug-19-2008 with
no comments

A study by the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results, which measures consumers’ online satisfaction, found something about Google that I think often goes unmentioned, Google provides the best search results. In fact, Google’s consumer satisfaction increased more than 10 percent from their previous years ranking:

Google posted the highest score in its sector since the American Consumer Satisfaction Index began its surveys 14 years ago, notching an 86. The other portals didn’t fare so well. Yahoo was down 2.5% to 77, MSN remained stagnant at 75 and Ask declined 1.3% to 74. AOL rose by 3% to 69 but is still recovering from a sharp drop in satisfaction in 2007.

It should also be noted that in June Google accounted for 69.2 percent of all searches, up from the year-earlier period of 63.9 percent.

New HBO Series True Blood Trailer

In TV, Video on Aug-18-2008 with
no comments

A Buddhist Prayer For Peace

In Miscellaneous on Aug-17-2008 with
no comments

While reading Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide this weekend I came across this, which I thought was pretty neat:

May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses.

May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free.

May the powerless find power, and may people think of befriending one another.

May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness—the children, the aged, the unprotected—be guarded by beneficent celestials, and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.

Affiliations Of Cable News Watchers

In Opinion, Politics on Aug-17-2008 with
no comments

According to a recent Pew Research survey, the political affiliation of cable news viewer break down as follows:

CNN: 51% Democrats, 18% Republicans, 23% independents
MSNBC: 45% Democrats, 18% Republicans, 27% independent
Fox News: 33% Democrats, 39% Republicans, 22% independents

I find this interesting on so many different levels. But one of the most interesting things is the response from popular liberal bloggers. Many are saying stuff like maybe it is time to “rethink the no liberals allowed on the teevee rule.” Of course those on the right will say wrong, the media is already too liberal.

I personally, as a very proud liberal, think this misses a much more important point. The media shouldn’t be liberal or conservative. It should report the news, the facts if you like, and let the audience draw their own conclusion. The American public is a lot smarter than the media, talking heads, and politicians think. If you give us factual information, even complex information, we can figure it out.

The problem is the major TV media outlets effort to be “fair and balanced.” This means that if you watch almost any 24/7 news channel there is a person to the right and the left debating any given topic. Of course I have no problem with this, you need to report both sides of the story.

No the problem is they don’t fact check both sides of the debate. It seems that in an effort to be fair both sides (and I am calling out my party as well) can say anything they want, cause I guess the news producers think this gives the public a “fair” debate. This of course is total BS.

It shouldn’t be the sole job of the person on the other side of the issue to point out misleading facts or outright lies, the person conducting the interview should be educated on the topic and step in and inform the viewers what is factual and what isn’t.

One of the best recent examples is the Republican talking point that expanding offshore oil drilling would lower gas prices and give consumers (insert voters) relief at the pump. Now of course we’ve all heard it would take 5-7 years for the new found oil to hit the markets. But what is almost never said is that Bush’s own experts on this topic, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that:

Offshore drilling would not have a significant impact on oil prices.

Now this isn’t some liberal think tank, this is the EIA, the government experts on this topic. Yet I have not really heard this mentioned once on any 24/7 news channel. So the entire house of cards related to this debate, more drilling will equal lower oil prices, isn’t correct. Or if it is correct, but we are talking pennies not dollars of savings per gallon.

I am betting the public, which a vast majority are in favor of more drilling, might change their minds if they actually knew the facts.

Small Talk With A Web Designer

In Design, Humor, Infographic on Aug-16-2008 with
no comments

Huge Ratings For NBC And The Olympics

In Advertising, Sports on Aug-15-2008 with
2 Comments

I have to admit I am a little surprised by these numbers:

NBC Universal’s Olympics coverage is drawing huge audiences, helped by the extravagant opening ceremony and swimming star Michael Phelps, and setting the stage for what could be record TV ratings for the Games. NBC Universal said the first two days of the Beijing Olympics drew an average audience of 29.1 million, making it the most highly rated broadcast of the Summer Games held outside the United States since 1976.

In total, 114 million viewers tuned in for at least part of its broadcast in the first two days, about 20 million more than the 2004 games in Athens, NBC said, citing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Since NBC paid $900 million for the rights to broadcast these games I am sure a few executives are breaking a fairly large sigh of relief. And also, if you are actually watching the commercials it seems NBC is doing a stellar job of using the games to promote their upcoming fall television schedule.

Update: Via Advertising Age:

Buoyed by better-than-expected ratings performance, NBC Universal said it has sold an additional $25 million in advertising for the Beijing Olympics and it’s hard at work trying to sell another $5 million to $10 million. The network has already said it had secured around $1 billion in Olympics-related advertising from about 100 marketers.

Cool “Finish Line” Doormat

In Design on Aug-14-2008 with
no comments

[Found via Fred & Friends]

Cool “Finish Line” Doormat

In Design on Aug-14-2008 with
no comments

[Found via Fred & Friends]

← Before After →

← Back to Home