Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Mighty Mashup

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

A while back, probably in the DangerMouse era, about half of everyone who is anyone in the techno corner of the blog world got very excited about mashups. Former DJ that I am (a fact that inevitably shocks my students, proving that they clearly have a very partial image of their professor), I went and started downloading mashups.

But they just didn’t do that much for me. Maybe I’m too much the purist or something.

But here’s a marvelous mashup that I think really works, producing a new whole that equals the sum of the very classy parts: No One Takes Your Freedom. Wish I knew who it was by. It’s by DJ Earworm. Is there more where that came from? And, yes, there’s more where that came from!

Posted in Kultcha | 1 Comment

‘Clark is like JFK, Edwards is like FDR’

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Over at The Blogging of the President, Stirling Newberry explains, better than I could, why Wesley Clark and John Edwards seem far and away the most attractive candidates for the 2008 presidential election. Have a look at Clark is like JFK, Edwards is like FDR.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | Comments Off on ‘Clark is like JFK, Edwards is like FDR’

His Lips Are Moving

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Bark Bark Woof Woof catches Rush Limbaugh sliming Cindy Sheehan on Monday, and denying he said it on Wednesday.

I would imagine that the vast majority of the people who listen to Limbaugh’s stuff are never exposed to any of the evidence of the litany of lies and fabrications (cf. Media Matters). To my mind, the ability of cable TV stations to sustain a hermetic envelope of alternate reality is the fourth leg of the big box structural impediments to restoring our democracy.

(The others are gerrymandering, campaign finance, and the manipulation of the mechanics of voting [voting on Tuesday, complex registration/ballot access rules/butterfly ballots, insecure voting machines].)

Posted in The Media | 3 Comments

Coming Soon to All Kansas Schools?

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Wikipedia’s deadpan explanation of a parody religion based on the Flying Spaghetti Monster, AKA Pastafarianism.

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on Coming Soon to All Kansas Schools?

The Return of the Command Line

Posted on August 19, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

There’s an enormous amount to consider, and the slightest whiff of marketing-speak, in Jim Moore‘s
Fifteen reasons why DIY Web Superservices will transform the landscape.

But there’s one point in there that was an aha! moment for me:

We are experiencing the return of the command line in computing.  The URL has become a the command line for open superservices.

The classic Google interface, for example, is now seen by web superservices hackers as a command line generator.  The Google interface is code generator.

Here is an example:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=geocode&btnG=Google+Search

This command causes the Google machinery to perform a search and render the results in a particular manner.

Posted in Internet | 2 Comments

First Blood Against Roberts

Posted on August 18, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

The first thing I've learned about proto-Justice Roberts that I think hurts his candidacy — and makes me think he really is outside the mainstream: back when he was a young hot-shot GOP politically appointed government lawyer, Roberts wrote against anti-discrimination law aimed at curbing sex discrimination. But he didn't just oppose these laws on libertarian grounds (which I would consider wrong, but principled) but also asked whether “encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good.” Which is casual sexist pig talk.

Had Roberts written this in the 50s, we could dismiss it as the times. But Roberts wrote this yesterday, in the Reagan administration.

And this is the guy who is slated to replace the first female Justice?

No way this is fatal on its own, more a big scratch than a deep wound (and Sen. Santorum agrees, anyway), but it's the first thing to draw blood.

Source: Guardian via TalkLeft: Roberts to Women: Stay in the Kitchen.

Posted in Law: The Supremes | 2 Comments