mondrian’s neon fantod

There’s this thing, see. It’s called Newsvine. It’s a site on the internet where people can interact all 21st Century-style with “the news.” You can write your own stories. You can “seed” links to stories at existing websites (mainstream, not-so-mainstream, blogosphere, you name it). You can comment on the stories of others and get comments on your own stuff. Eventually they’re supposed to be implementing an ad program and possibly paying their contributors (a little) via those revenues, even.

So, courtesy of Patita (courtesy of someone else) I wound up with an invite and signed up. I’m experimenting with it but it seems at least a little bit cool. And it’s more what I want out of the “writing for the internet” thing, in general, than blogging. “How so?” you ask. Well, it gives me an outlet that other people are using, too, so it’s not so incumbent upon me to produce daily content to keep people coming back. There’s always new stuff to read over there and I’m not the one who had to make it. It’s perfect for my lazy ways!

Anyway, you should check it out just to see what all the noise is about. And if the concept of it intrigues you, let me know and I’ll drop an invite on you.

Oh, and in case you care to read what I’m writing over there, check the Newsvine Content page of this here blog thing, over there (→) in the sidebar. That page holds a little hunk o’ javascript that Newsvine provides its authors that essentially syndicates their headlines. So do the click thing and see what you can see from me.

I’m not sure what else I can say.

Almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes happen within three seconds of some form of driver distraction, according to the report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

The two research groups monitored the behavior of 241 drivers in 100 vehicles for more than a year. During the 2 million miles of the study, the drivers were involved in 82 crashes and 761 near-crashes.

Reaching for a moving object multiplied the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times, according to the study. Reading, applying makeup, or dialing a handheld device tripled the risk.

“All of these activities are much more dangerous than we thought before,” Dr. Charlie Klauer, a senior research associate at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

“But also we’re very concerned about the fact that not only are we drinking our coffee and we’re disciplining our children and we’re eating sandwiches in the car, but the proliferation of technologies in the vehicle have just exacerbated the amount of time that drivers are distracted,” she said.

Using cell phones was the most common distraction for drivers, the study found.

And while talking on a cell phone was less risky than dialing, it was a factor in almost as many crashes because it was done far more often, the researchers said.

Read more.

I does the decidinatin’!

Well, now he’s on record for “hearing the voices” at least…

Why is it so hard for “America’s CEO” to listen to the advice of his directors and can the crappy director? It happens in corporations, you know. And if the fascists in the white house are modelled on anything (outside of, say, nazi germany) it’s supposed to be corportaions, isn’t it?

Lono’s assertions aside, I still think Ron Paul is generally insane. And yet, once again, he speaks intelligently…

“There is no evidence of a threat to us by Iran, and no reason to plan and initiate a confrontation with her,” argues Representative Ron Paul, the conservative from Texas who has in recent weeks voiced the loudest and most consistent objections to attempts by the Bush administration and its allies in Congress to suggest that U.S. military action may be needed to avert a supposed nuclear threat from the country.

Read more.

It doesn’t really matter if this is fact or ficiton. It doesn’t even matter if you read the whole thing. It only matters that you read and understand this paragraph:

Democracy as a government relies upon the ability of factions to compromise on divisive issues through rational debate instead of violence. The current political power brokers have figured out how to short circuit this process by focusing national attention on issues which are based on differences of non-negotiable, irrational moral sentiment, and are thus not subject to resolution through rational reconciliation. They’ve broken democracy.

And it matters that you think about it for a while. And it really matters that you decide to do something about it.

So, the Florida Marlins are seriously thinking about leaving Miami, since they can’t blackmail the city into giving them a new stadium. Fair enough. I mean, I’ve got some pretty strong feelings about baseball teams trying to bully their cities into buying them stadiums so I think it’s great that Miami is just going to let ‘em walk.

It turns out that one of the cities in the running to land the Marlins (sorry, I had to) is our very own San Antonio. There’s all kinds of things the folks of SA should be leery about (lest they also find themselves blackmailed somewhere down the line) but I could be very, very down with having a major league team (NL, no less!) just a short 90 minutes or so away. It would sure be easier to get to games in SA than it is to get to Houston or Dallas.

One serious concern, though, is what might become of the San Antonio Missions (the Mariners’ AA club) and, to a lesser extent, the Round Rock Express (the Astros’ AAA team) if a big league team settles in the vicinity. Then again, DFW is home to the Texas Rangers and the Frisco Rough Riders, so maybe there’s hope.

The biggest issue if they’re going to wind up in SA, though, is what to call the team. In my opinion, there’s nothing worse than a bad team name. It undermines all confidence and interest in the team. I mean, lame names are ok for minor league teams, but for a Major League team it’s just like naming your kid Tegwin, Quinn Allyse or Anakin.

So here are a few proposals from yours truly:

1. The Bears. Not only would this be an homage to the San Antonio Texas League team from the 1920s, it’s also a pun that only folks who know the area will get. At least, that would be the case if I didn’t explain it now. See, San Antonio is in Bexar County. Bexar is a Spanish name that is pronounced (approximately) the same as the English word Bear. See? It’s funny. Of course, there’s probably some kind of prohibition in the MLB to keep teams from encroaching on each others’ names, and the Cubs would probably cry foul on this one. Oh well, so much for my dream.
2. The Scorpions. This is really only because there are actually scorpions in the area. Which is a good enough reason for me. That and it gives the local sports writers some easy words to use in their headlines. Stung, pinched, creeped out by.
3. The Javelinas. This is really Patita’s choice, but I can stand behind it. Way, way behind it. If you don’t know javelinas, then you don’t know stink.
4. The Jackalopes. It’ll never happen, but it’s cool because Jackalopes are cool. There’s even a Shonen Knife song about ‘em. How much cooler could it be?

As an educational service, let’s take a minute to look at names not to use:

• Anything “cowboy”. Seriously, we’re saddled (sorry) with enough of these already so let’s avoid this trite crap entirely. Boots and broncos and six guns and rifles and lassos and so on should be avoided.
• Two (or more) word names. The San Antonio Cactus Bats is lame.
• Singular names. The San Antonio Thunder is lamer.
• Multiple “regions” in the name. The San Antonio-Hill Country-South Suburban Austin Anything is the lamest.

Or we could just call ‘em the Land Marlins and be done with it.

And it’s politics, so I should probably just move on, but I simply cannot pass this up:

DeLay to abandon reelection bid

His decision to leave will put him out of the reach of the House ethics committee, which admonished him three times in 2004 over separate issues. The panel urged him to “temper” his future actions to comply with House rules and standards of conduct.

But surely that’s not why, is it?

“I feel that I could have won the race,” DeLay told Time. “I just felt like I didn’t want to risk the seat and that I can do more on the outside of the House than I can on the inside right now.”

Out of the big house, that is. In any case, it’s a banner day for the State of Texas. Now we just have to go through all of the internal squabbling about whether his seat can have a different fascist candidate or not, since he clearly won the primary and all. Stay tuned, kids. This could be interesting.