Introducing ChenZhen’s New Blog!

Well, its technically a blog…

It’s ChenZhen’s Diggs!

Now, I say its technically a blog because it uses the wordpress.com site and has a comments section and all that, but its main purpose is to serve as a link aggregator for Digg (appropriately, I chose the Digg 3 column theme).  Since Digg makes is easy to generate RSS feeds for everything, I can track topics, websites and even other Digg members’ activity right in the sidebar.  So, the “blog” is really just a tool that I (or, now, anyone else) can use, and it pretty much runs on autopilot.  And since there appears to be a higher maximum number of RSS feeds with the Digg theme (the Chamber’s theme only allows a maximum of 9), I can really go nuts with it.

Advertisement

Dog pulls trigger on shotgun and kills owner

CSI determined that the killer got careless and left muddy paw prints on the trigger.

VIDEO | digg story

Seriously though, how bad does your luck have to be?

Making Sense Of Bush’s Latest Executive Order

The top story on Digg right now is “So, as of yesterday, If you protest the war, the Prez can take your stuff” (over 1,000 comments, 5,600+ diggs) and it’s referring to this: Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

Now, the diggers may be more than a tad alarmist here, as the Order doesn’t refer to protesting specifically. It’s referring to acts of violence, either directly or indirectly through some material support. I’m no lawyer, but when I read it, it seems to be talking about directly assisting the Iraqi insurgency.  From the document:

…any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,

(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:

(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or

(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;

(ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or…

I think the diggers are flying off the handle here.  In fairness, however, there were plenty of them that pointed this out, and I definitely think this is worth debating.  The Order does effect U.S. citizens, after all, and it’s somewhat vague in it’s language.  In fact, when I read it I was immediately reminded of a letter written by a soldier in Iraq, accusing the media of indirectly assisting the insurgency:

“Hello media, do you know you indirectly kill American soldiers every day? You inspire and report the enemy’s objective every day. You are the enemy’s greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us on the battlefield so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the American public and American government.

“We go out daily and bust and kill the enemy, uncover and destroy huge weapons caches and continue to establish infrastructure. So daily we put a whoopin on the enemy, but all the enemy has to do is turn on the TV and get re-inspired. He gets to see his daily roadside bomb, truck bomb, suicide bomber or mortar attack. He doesn’t see any accomplishments of the U.S. military (FOX, you’re not exempt, you suck also).

Also, I haven’t really seen any coverage on this beyond Digg.  That in and of itself is a bit odd I think, since the E.O. is talking about property rights of U.S. citizens (not to mention Iraq, which is of course on everyone’s mind these days).  Maybe what’s behind the knee-jerk alarmism is the fact that Bush issued it and it seemed to have snuck in under the radar.  Or, the problem lies in the “any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense” line.  I dunno.  Like I said, I’m no lawyer.

Digg Search RSS Feeds Seem To Work For Every Keyword Except ‘Moonbat’

This is the oddest thing…

 A few months ago, I had this semi-snarky idea to use one of my 9 allowed RSS feeds to display a Digg search for the word ‘moonbat’ (see my post New Feature: Moonbat Watch).  For a while, it worked pretty well.  It was actually kinda neat to see how many Digg stories contained the word in the title or description.  Then, all of a sudden, it stopped working.  After a couple of attempts to re-do the widget, I finally gave up.  I guess I just assumed that Digg had changed something in their search RSS’s that was incompatible with WordPress or something. 

Today, I tried a different keyword for the search:  Bush.  I clicked on the little , copied the url, and pasted it into the RSS widget.  Guess what?  It works like a charm!  What’s going on here?

So, someone please tell me that I’m not crazy.  Go to Digg, search for any keyword, click , and you should see the feed page.  Then try ‘moonbat’ (or even ‘moonbats’) and see if it works.  When I try it, I get this error:

The XML page cannot be displayed

Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.

---

The following tags were not closed: rss, channel. Error processing resource ‘http://www.digg.com/rss_search?search=moonbat&area=all&type=both§ion=news’.

 

I can’t seem to get that error for any other keyword. What happened Digg?  Did you sabotage me?

Update: I tried a few more words, and I did manage to get the error code for the word ‘witch’. I’m not sure if there’s any logic to what works or doesn’t. It should be noted, I guess, that ‘wingnut’ works just fine, however.

Wal-Mart Chooses HD-DVD

Gotta love Digg.   

There is one retailer that has the power to call the winner of the protracted Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD fight and that vendor is Wal-Mart.

read more | digg story

I have to admit that initially I thought that the Blu-ray format was going to win this one, solely based on the fact the the PS3 is also a Blu-ray player.  Sony has had a bit of a shaky launch of its new gaming console, however, and the regular stand-alone players are still more expensive than their HD-DVD counterparts.

Honestly, I haven’t been terribly impressed with either format.  Most of the players available have plenty of glitches (1st gen. machines tend to have that), and the quality of the content is currently only a benefit to those who a) have an HDTV, and b) are unsatisfied enough with regular DVD to make the plunge into a newer, more expensive format.  That isn’t a big market right now.

Also, the jump from regular DVD to HD/Blu-ray isn’t as significant as the previous jump from VHS to DVD.  Think about it.  When DVD was introduced roughly 10 years ago, the benefits over VHS included much better picture and sound quality, as well as convenience features like no rewinding, chapter selection, multiple audio tracks and subtitles, repeat functions, etc.. When you go from standard DVD to these HD formats, you’re really only gaining some picture quality (the sound is also higher resolution, but most people would be challenged to notice).  Simply stated, these formats aren’t nearly as groundbreaking as the last one, and I think it’s quite possible that they could both flop.  That, or they may wind up being used more for computer and professional applications than movies, since an optical disc that can hold up to 50 gigs could have a lot of uses besides the ability to see T2 in a little higher picture quality.  Add to the equation the rise in on-demand and downloadable content, and you might just see your average consumer paying $5.99 to watch a new release one time off their HD cable box instead of using one of these new players.

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to watch this play out. 

Another related Chamber post: Adult Movie Makers Are Embracing HD

What’s With All The Impeachment Talk?

Digg quote:

Vermont’s senate in an honorable and patriotic move, voted to Impeach Bush Friday

read more | digg story

The skinny:

MONTPELIER, Vt. Apr 20, 2007 (AP)— Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised “serious questions of constitutionality.”

The nonbinding resolution was approved 16-9 without debate all six Republicans in the chamber at the time and three Democrats voted against it.

Moonbats! 

Update:  Found another WP blogger lookin’ at the Cheney angle:  Scholars and Rogues PING! …looks like a good one for the blogroll too

Paranoia Run Amok

After a short break from posting in here (I’ve been out playing on other blogs the last few days), I figured I’d post something that cought my attention today: Princeton Law Prof Added to Terrorist Watch List after Criticizing Bush

A top Constitutional scholar from Princeton who gave a speech that slammed Bush’s executive overreach has been added to the TSA’s terrorist watch list. “I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list,” he said. When he asked why, the clerk asked if he had been at any peace marches. We ban a lot of those people.

digg story

This hit the top story on Digg today.  Keep in mind that this appears to be second-hand info posted on a blog. This is the blog post in question.  It will be interesting to see if this really is true, and if it is, well, I’m kinda speechless.  Maybe it’s just a coincidence/mistake.  Or, maybe we really have seen the beginnings of some Orwellian fantasy world. In the meantime, I’ll be hiding under my desk.

Update:  Here is the link for the audio interview with Professor Walter F. Murphy…very interesting.  (Hat Tip: Dr. Kenneth Noisewater)…He was allowed to fly (after quite a hassle), but his luggage was ‘ransacked’.

The Official 11 Point Plan for Victory in Iraq

I saw this on Digg, tell me what you think (from Pat Dollard)

EXCLUSIVE: THE FULL 11 POINT PLAN FOR VICTORY IN IRAQ by General David Petraeus Commander of all U.S. Forces in Iraq, Admiral William Fallon, Centcom Commander, Middle East, and Ryan C. Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.

1. U.S. troops are to be gradually pulled back from all Iraqi cities and towns and sent to seal the borders with Iran and Syria. The real insurgency is not indigenous to Iraq, but being pumped in through Iran and Syria.

2. Ramadi and Baghdad will be two of a handful of initial principle exceptions, as major U.S supported military engagements are in process in Baghadad and gearing up in Ramadi.

3. Iraqi Military Units meeting standards of “militia cleansing” ( ie militia free ) and ideologically dedicated to a United Iraq will be upgraded to Elite Status and given full operational autonomy.

4. Generals and leaders from Saddam’s Baath party, many out of work for three years, will be encouraged to rejoin the military enticed with high-pay and bonuses designed to serve as retrograde pay for their time off. The Baath party generals will be key to victory in Al Anbar Province, as I will lay out later today or tomorrow.

5. The state of security in each Area of Operations will dictate the tempo of U.S. pullback from towns to the Iranian and Syrian borders.

My Take On The New Digg Feature

I’d just like to give a big thank you to Mark in the WordPress support room for doing such a good job with this.  It really is pretty cool.  If you haven’t signed up yet, I think you should: Digg.com  My first impression of the Digg community is that it’s kind of like a bloggers ‘lounge’.

This tool allows me to post my entries to the entire Digg audience, like here , and quickly import other bloggers’ stories to my blog (called “Blog it!) with a couple of clicks.  My previous two entries were done in this fashion (I added the logos and had to change the categories).

For entries that I submit, I can add a button here that allows visitors to ‘digg’ it (like a recommend tab; scroll down to the ‘Bachmann’ post to see one), thereby moving the post up a bit within Digg’s hierarchy.  All in all, a very nifty tool that I can use to share my thoughts with the world and interact with my fellow bloggers.

Update:  There are a lot of complaints out there about stories being “buried” or labeled as “inaccurate” by what LGF and others claim are rabid mobs of “leftist” Diggers, so it would be important to note that there was a site created to track Digg and buried stories (a result of an apparent design flaw in digg; you can’t tell who’s burying the stories): Dugg Trends

Bush’s “delusion”: A psychiatrist’s perspective.

References to Bush’s “delusions” have appeared in the MSN (notable on “Scarborough Country”) and throughout the blogosphere. As a psychiatrist, I understandably get concerned when I see clinical terminology bandied about in political discourse, and thought it might be of interest to share my own perspective on this question.

read more | digg story