Desultory Thoughts

Two blogs that I really enjoy reading are ones that are not even written so much as spoken by two kids.  Bridger (4) and Sami (5) have been letting the world know their honest thoughts and feelings on a near daily basis for the last several weeks.

Kids have a neat outlook on life.  It’s interesting to read their innocent thoughts.

Bridger:  “Coulter is milking his boat cause he doesn’t want to go to bed.”  His dad explains that the phrase is actually “milking one’s goat” which it to “describe somebody who is loitering or deliberately biding time. His little brother Coulter doesn’t want to go to bed, so he’s being especially cute and nice so he won’t have to.”

Sami: “Jesus made the bunnies because Grandma Lee loves bunnies. She loves princesses, too. (Bridger doesn’t know who Grandma Lee is, huh?)”  The post was entitled “Move Away Bunny, Because My Dad is Coming Through the Road” and she always insists on titling her own posts.

Bridger: “Some bugs are nice and some are mean. Sometimes I wonder why Jesus made mosquitoes have sharp noses. They stick their sharp noses into your skin and suck your blood. They eat blood because that’s what they’re supposed to eat.”

Sami: “I like about princesses and I like to hug them in my heart. I love princesses.  I like about princesses, that they give me kisses on the lips. Girls kissing girls, like me and mommy do.”

Bridger: “I just drink chocolick milk and water and juice, so my muscles are strong. Chocolick milk is not like Coke. You shouldn’t drink Coke because it makes you small and makes your muscles little.”  Then Dad explains “Chocolick milk” is our little code name for PediaSure. But don’t tell Bridger that (he wouldn’t drink it if he knew it was healthy). He’s quite the picky eater and is pretty stubborn about things, so we round his diet out with a little “chocolick milk” on the side.“

Sami: “My name is Samantha Lee, but everyone calls me Sami. I love it because it’s so short. I don’t like my long name because I don’t spell it as well. I love Jesus and I love my heart.”

Catch more of Bridger and Sami at their respective blog homes — The Dinosaur Boy and Sami Lee Stories.  (Bridger isn’t called “The Dinosaur Boy” just for fun. That kid knows a lot about dinosaurs and you might need a pronunciation guide when you read his blog because he’s constantly talking about them.)

In what looks to be some possible competition (or at least an alternative) to Flickr, Google has released a tool that is used in conjunction with the lastest build of Picasa 2.  According to Google:

It’s available by invitation, along with the latest downloadable version of Picasa, and offers:

• One-click web upload using Picasa’s new “Web Album” button
• Free storage space to post and share approximately 1000 photos, with the option to upgrade to more space
• High-quality photos, automatically resized and optimized to fill available screen space
• Pre-loaded images enable quick scrolling using arrow keys, and mimic a desktop experience of “flipping” through photos, even on the web
• End-to-end photo management that makes it easy to download uploaded photos back to your computer

Take a look at this public gallery to see what it’s like to share photos using Picasa Web Albums.

The new version of Picasa includes a ‘Web Album” button that when selected will upload pictures to your own Picasaweb page. This requires an account on Picasaweb.google.com using your Gmail address.

Here is my first album located at http://picasaweb.google.com/tslack

Flickr enthusiasts won’t give a dang about Google’s attempt to further spread their foothold on all things web and will likely ridicule it. I’m so new to both services that I won’t be as biased. As I use both services, I’ll report back and let you know what I think of each.

At first glance, however, it’s obvious that Flickr has a lot more feautures. But for simple uploading and sharing of pictures located on your computer, Google has them beat hands down. Of course, Flickr doesn’t require a program be installed on your computer, which is part of what makes it so easy with Google.

For those of you who are trying this service (it’s only available on an invitation basis), let me know what you think. I think it’s interesting that Google is trying to get away from the “Beta” label on this one. Calling it “Test” instead of “Beta” may be the first time that I’ve seen any company release something that’s in Beta and calling it anything different. We’ll see how their test goes.

From my previous post about the Haditha photo “error”:

Clearly, the bodies in this picture are the victims of the U.S. Marines November massacre in Haditha, Iraq, right? That’s definately what the Times implies by leading their Haditha article with this photo. So your average UK Times reader sees this horrific photo and takes a mental snapshot, automatically associating it with the Haditha incident. Nice, UK Times, nice. The Left is grinning ear to ear…

Your “error” was published by a major news outlet and appeared on millions of computer screens around the globe, not to mention the numerous print copies that cannot be recalled and corrected. After seeing this picture with this caption and headline, I seriously doubt all those budding jihad boys will pay any attention to your apology.

Seems the UK Times apology went completely unnoticed (or ignored). The following editorial cartoon appeared in the June 6 Chicago Sun Times:

Michelle Malkin, who brought this to light in the first place, called the Sun Times on the smear, prompting a retraction and an apology. Again, a little too late.

A cartoon by Jack Higgins in Tuesday’s Chicago Sun-Times incorporated inaccurate imagery to make a statement about the allegations that U.S. Marines killed Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Jack Higgins and the Sun-Times deeply regret the mistake and apologize to the U.S. servicemen, especially those in the Marine Corps, and to our readers who were understandably offended by the cartoon. Higgins, in doing Web research on the Haditha story, searched the Internet for images. A Yahoo search engine displayed a number of photos, one of which was labeled “IraqBodi…rd.jpg.” Clicking on that image took Higgins to the MSNBC/Newsweek site. On his screen then was the original Yahoo search preview image and under it a Newsweek page with a small image of the magazine’s current cover with the headline “The Haditha Question.” Higgins made the erroneous assumption that the image in the photo preview was a photograph of victims of the killings that unproven allegations say were committed by U.S. Marines. Further scrolling down the page would have produced another image of this photo with a caption that clearly identities the dead as victims of Iraqi insurgents. The caption reads, “Insurgents in Haditha executed 19 Shiite fishermen and National Guardsmen in a sports stadium.” Again, Higgins and the editors of the Sun-Times apologize for this egregious error. (emphasis mine)

Ok, so Higgins was duped. But only because the image of victims of Islamic terrorists had already been instantly and globally associated with the Haditha incident, thanks to the UK Times “error.”

But it gets worse. Al Jazeera is running an article about the Haditha massacre that leads with the now famous “inaccurate imagery.” This time the caption (accidently, I’m sure) reads “The Haditha Massacre is far worse than My Lai.” You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. If the jihadis didn’t catch the photo the first time around, Al Jazeera is making darn sure it’s burned into their 15th century brains.

In February, 2004, terror chief Abu Musab al Zarqawi wrote a letter for Osama bin Laden, outlining the importance of using the infidels’ own media against them. We took care of the Zarkman last Wednesday, but influential media outlets, blinded by their leftist bias and hatred of George W. Bush, are clearly playing right into Al Qaeda’s hands. As evidenced by reporting errors like Newsweek’s flushing the Koran story, Islamist fury is a backdraft ready to explode. Just as Newsweeks “erroneous” report triggered mass hysteria resulting in 15 deaths, this inaccurate imagery is sure to play a role in future American deaths.

What makes this all especially sad is that as time goes by, the more we find out about the alleged Haditha massacre, the more it’s looking like an elaborate hoax.

UPDATE: The photo leading the Al Jazeera article has been changed as of 11:00 PM GMT. The caption reads the same.

When I heard that Superintendent Mike Johnsen of Tooele School District talked about a Six Flags coming to Tooele County at the PTA Convention on May 19, I began to search for confirmation. It seemed a fairly credible source and as I searched for more information and came up completely empty handed I thought that I could either “break” the “story” here on my blog or lay low in case it was just a rumor. I’m glad I decided to lay low because, as it turns out, they are indeed just rumors as reported by every major news source in Utah.
Some people, including many Tooele residents, will be happy and will no longer have to contemplate a move to a smaller town. I wouldn’t have minded, having been to a Six Flags in Texas and just loving it, but I know a lot of people who would detest it. Some of the people who were born and raised in Tooele are lamenting the growth that it has already experienced. Still others moved to Tooele many years ago, seeking the small town life. Little do they realize that they’re the ones who started this wave of growth, and it’s not stopping anytime soon.

My family and I visited the new Miller Motorsports Park yesterday and watched the motorcycles race. It was very fun and when I found out that the ticket prices are very affordable, I was an instant fan. Certainly the opening of the new race track will only continue to fuel the growth. I’m one who doesn’t mind. I love Tooele for its low home prices (when compared to Salt Lake Valley), friendly-as-heck people, and decent commute (only 35 minutes to Salt Lake). The mountain views are great, too! Now being so close to the race track is another added bonus for this new fan of racing.

Many bloggers are starting to notice some new referrals from a company called “NetVocates” (mine showed up as coming from arrca.netvocates.com to be specific).

I recently invited a guest blogger (who writes under the pseudonym D. Sirmize) to share his political opinions on my blog. I began to get hits (55 to date) from NetVocates a couple days after his first political post. It would seem that whatever they’re currently looking at is based on opinions of a political nature.

Political posts of the last week or so include titles such as, “My Favorite Political Blogs“, “Liberal Bias in Mainstream Media“, “Liberal Media Bias: Follow-up #1“, and “Google Admits Mistake with China, But…“.

Other bloggers that have written about visits from NetVocates seemed to have an Al Gore video in common. None of his posts mention Al Gore, but it would seem that the common link is certainly of a political nature.

Mindcaster, PSoTD, and Baraka, have all posted about visits and have all speculated as to the whys and whats, but no clear answers have emerged. Robin of cybersoc.com speculated about the relationship between CustomScoop and NetVocates which he says were owned by one and the same, Chip Griffin. That theory was rebutted by Chip [interadvocacy.com] himself, but in his “verbose” post he didn’t answer the more nagging question: Which of his clients are interested in our content and what exactly are they doing with it?

So I asked him.

Verbose is good and, for me at least, you’ve cleared up the speculation concerning the link between CustomScoop and NetVocates.

But we’re still all wondering why our blogs are being visited. It would seem that our political content is the common link. What client of yours might be interested in that? I suppose that would be confidential information, but we’re all dying to know!

As far as knife making goes, I’m sure you could whip something up…if you’re life depended on it.

I’m just curious more than anything, as most of the people who are searching for answers about NetVocates are. Perhaps we’ll find some answers, perhaps not.

Please let us all know what else you find out, or just post a link to your blog and we’ll continue to speculate as to what content they might be interested in specifically.

Perhaps we were targeted by accident since two of our recent titles has the word “bias” in it, which happens to be an acronym for the sub-header at NetVocates.com: Blog Intelligence and Advocacy Service (BIAS).