Archive for February, 2006

Sorkin Gets the Band Back Together

Posted February 28, 2006 By Dave Thomer

OK, I am officially happy that The West Wing has been cancelled. Because now Bradley Whitford is free to join Matthew Perry and Timothy Busfeld on Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s just a matter of time before Joshua Malina shows up, and I’m still holding out hope for Peter […]

Bravo to the Boys from Bemidji

Posted February 24, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I still have one curling match left on my DVR to watch, but I gotta say I’m happy to see that the United States’ men’s curling team beat Great Britain for the bronze medal today, the first American medal in curling. (Granted, curling has only been a medal sport since ’98. Still, a first’s a […]

Can People Handle the Power?

Posted February 23, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I’m taking a couple of political science seminars this semester, for various reasons too boring to go into here. Both focus on different dimensions of how the public makes its desires known and how government responds to those wishes. I’m probably going to do a set of posts musing about some of the things I […]

Cruel and Unusual Death?

Posted February 21, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I’m following this death penalty case out in California out of the corner of my eye. There appear to be some concerns that the chemicals used to execute by lethal injection can cause several minutes of extreme pain before taking full effect, which has raised the possibility that lethal injection reaches the level of cruel […]

Dusty Corners of the Web

Posted February 17, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I will admit that I am occasionally egotistical enough to do web searches for my name. In a small part, this is because I’m looking for folks who might be mentioning or linking to this site. Another large factor is that it reminds me that there sure is not much that gets permanently lost on […]

Red Star on the Silver Screen?

Posted February 16, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I feel like blogging some good news tonight. Universal Studios has optioned The Red Star. There aren’t many details i nthat article, and it mostly focuses on the Russian director that is developing the film, but this is great news for Christian Gossett and the folks at Archangel Studios. Not only is it a nifty […]

Link Updates

Posted February 12, 2006 By Dave Thomer

Just a little bookkeeping right now. Mark Wagner’s Educational Technology & Life blog has moved to http://edtechlife.com/ – Mark’s set up his own WordPress site to get some added functions beyond Blogger. Go check out the place while he’s still remodeling. I’ve also added Robin Zebrowski’s Hyper-textual Ontology to the sidebar. Robin’s a philosopher of […]

Real World Issues in the Virtual World

Posted February 9, 2006 By Earl Green

I found this article (link) to be fascinating reading, regarding an onling game publisher’s quick action to shut down a gay/bi/transgender-friendly “guild” in a popular massively multiplayer online game, and that publisher’s reaction (or at least what’s being portrayed in the article as their reaction) to be troubling. News flash: online gaming has a social […]

Resurrect Dead Tiles

Posted February 8, 2006 By Dave Thomer

One of the things I love about the Internet is the high likelihood that whatever crazy thing I’m interested in, someone out there has put up a web page. Witness, for example, Resurrect Dead, a site devoted to the Toynbee Tile phenomenon. What’s that? You don’t know about the Toynbee tiles? Neither do most people […]

Curling for Democracy

Posted February 8, 2006 By Dave Thomer

I make no bones about the fact that I have been looking forward to curling at this year’s Olympics since, oh, 2002. And you may recall that a few weeks ago I commented on Washington, D.C.’s lack of representation in Congress. Well, not since chocolate and peanut butter got together have I seen a more […]