Somewhere out there is a person with enough gumption and perseverance to write a Venus filter that would strip Planets of idiotic memes using some kind of clever heuristic or learning system. Perhaps we can call this the immoral study of “eumemics”. 
Because this would just be cheating:
exclude = (the nearest book)
WordCamp Australia 2008 will be held in Sydney at the end of the month, right before OSDC… and I intend to celebrate my first WordCamp by giving a talk!
Yes, I will dimly glow next to such bright stars in the universe of WordPress as Matt Mullenweg and Jane Wells (who is kicking butt with the WordPress 2.7 admin redesign), as I present an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the recently launched Australian über-blog-network, Crikey Blogs.
WordPress lovers and the blog-curious should come along and join the fun!
This is so chock-full of incredible goodness, I simply can’t comprehend how many layers of awesome there are. John Williams film music + Star Wars to song + choral incredibility + split-screen hilarity.
President-Elect Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was the inspiration for The West Wing’s #1 White House hottie, Josh Lyman.
(Interesting aside: After serving as Deputy Chief of Staff to Leo McGarry through President Bartlet’s administration, Josh Lyman became Chief of Staff under President Matt Santos at the end of the series. The eerie similarities between Obama’s reality and The West Wing’s storyline continue…)
Ari Emanuel was the inspiration for Entourage’s hilarious super-agent, Ari Gold.
Ezekiel Emanuel is a medical ethicist.
Screenwriters, start your engines!
Yeah, perhaps the Emanuel family won’t be scoring a hat trick.
Update: Jonathan informs me that the Emanuel brothers were interviewed by Charlie Rose this week. Now to find it online!
I was born by the river
In a little tent
And just like the river
I’ve been running ever sinceIt’s been a long, long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it isIt’s been too hard living
But I’m afraid to die
I don’t know what’s up there beyond the skyIt’s been a long, long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it willThen I go to my brother
I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my kneesThere’s been times that I thought
I wouldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh, yes it will
— Sam Cooke, A Change is Gonna Come
Thank you to all my friends in the USA, at both ends of the political spectrum… and thank you to Barack Obama and everyone who participated in this historic campaign. It’s a giant first leap to renew America’s image throughout the world, and there are so many of us who couldn’t be more excited that you’re back on track.
The idea of America is amazing. That a country and people of such breadth and depth hangs together as a democracy is incredible. It has been so disappointing to see that idea dragged through the mud for the last eight years, but tonight was wonderful and uplifting.
… and hopeful. There, I said it.
Much of Australia went into DST mode this week, with the only holdouts being the odd little backwaters of our country (generally referred to as “Queensland”) for whom daylight saving is a threat to curtains or farm animals… and anyone relying on PHP5’s bundled timezone database.
I filed a bug and test case regarding the problem (which will hopefully be be fixed with an official update, given that Hardy is an LTS release), but here’s a quick guide to work around the problem in the mean time. Thanks to Andrew “ajmitch” Mitchell for pointing me in the right direction!
apt-get install php5-devphpize./configure --with-php-config=/usr/bin/php-config5makesudo cp modules/timezonedb.so /usr/lib/php5/20060613/20060613+lfs.sudo vi /etc/php/conf.d/timezonedb.ini
Yes, this is a new file. Content: extension=timezonedb.sosudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reloadNow your PHP has the very latest timezone data up its sleeve, so you can rest easy knowing that your web visitors won’t think you’re a Queenslander.
Zing!
Update: The php5-timezonedb extension was added to Debian, but removed from intrepid… seems it was because intrepid’s php5 has a patch to use the system tzdata. It would be awesome to get that patch into hardy!
Update: Uh, what about make…?
I like Blizzard’s latest gimmick… memebait that is actually interesting. Here’s my YouTube Four, care of the very appropriately named Firefox Awesome Bar:
… and a bonus one because I can’t resist. But also because 5 is a much cooler number than 4. I don’t know what Chris has been smoking.
(Hooray for Viper’s Video Quicktags! Except for that bug with incorrect YouTube links in my feed…)
surge, noun — Throwing good after bad. Such as: money, lives, reputation, international good-will.
Recent examples of use: Iraq, Wall Street, deregulation, tax cuts for the top 1%, War on Drugs.
