Yahoo cannot keep their grubby hands off anything!
I went to altavista.com to access Babelfish (an online translator), clicked the link, and was redirected to Yahoo! Babelfish (http://babelfish.yahoo.com/?fr=avbbf-us). The address was formerly as follows --> babelfish.altavista.com. Guess I'll just have to use Google Translator.
*sigh*
Ze Baron
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
OPERATION CHAOS
What an election this is turning out to be. Hillary and Obama have both managed to hold on this long, constantly bickering back and forth. The media is counting Hillary out. TIME magazine, to which I subscribe, is counting Hillary out. Ann Coulter, my bemusing conservative compatriot, is counting Hillary out. But I'm not!Right now it is 1588 to 1462, Obama's lead. She's only 162 delegates behind! From my understanding, there are about 250 superdelegates floating around either neutral or undecided. There's also about 174 delegates from states yet. Now, granted, the Democrats' system where the winner doesn't take all will sustain Hillary but will make it hard for her to beat Obama. On top of that, the superdelegates are awfully greasy. It's hard to get your hands on one and it is even harder to hold on to it, as Ms. Clinton has been noticing as of late.
The good news for Hitlery is that a Rasmussen poll puts her at 56% over Obama's 27% in West Virginia, the next state to vote with 28 delegates. A SurveyUSA poll puts Hillary over Obama 62% to 28% in Kentucky that has 51 delegates for grabs, up after WV. Oregon, the largest prize left, has 52 delegates available with Obama 51% Hillary 39%.
The way that is explained is that Hillary has a big lead in each a medium and large state, while Obama has a small lead over Hillary in the biggest state. Buckle that with the fact that Hillary has two states but a deficit and you've got a hell of a race. That doesn't even make mention of South Dakota and Montana with admittedly small amounts of vital candidates.
A Gallup poll puts Obama at 48% and Hillary at 46% nationally for the nomination. That hardly discounts this as a blowout race in which Hillary should drop out! I'm shocked at the axe job she's gotten in the media recently. It's not even a sizable lead at all, especially when Gallup cites a ±3 percentage points margin of error! Theoretically it could be Hillary 49% Obama 45%.
Even though I love Rush Limbaugh's idea of Republicans voting for Hillary (for which this post is entitled, which apparently paid off for her in Indiana), and I love the idea of splintering the Democratic party, this race needs to be fought to the convention unless there is a clear leader. I'm really interested to see how it turns out if it is indeed fought to the convention, though.
Last time the Democrats were in such a fuzzle it was 1968, and you see how that election went for them with Richard Nixon winning the presidency. This bodes amazingly well for John McCain, who doesn't have much support from hard-right conservatives and thereby doesn't have a secure holding on the GOP voter bloc, not to mention that it would have been unimaginable for a Republican to have a flying chance in 2008 looking at the race from 2005, 2006, or even most of 2007.
This gives him time to let the public get sick of a Democratic candidate, whichever wins the nomination, by having another Democrat rip him apart, saving McCain time, money, face, and attacks on his own character. He's just happily watching from the sidelines, raising funds and whatnot.
Even if a lot of Republicans don't like John McCain, well, gosh darn it, I like him! I'd rather have a war hero Senator in the White House with a pretty wife than a lawyer with a scandalous hubby or a lawyer with an unpatriotic wife. That, and he's a Republican! Look, God handed this race to the GOP on a silver platter with the divided party, the Republican candidate Democrats can vote for, and an early sealed nomination, even in spite of a very rough-looking political situation that GW left us.
So eat, drink, and be merry... the forecast looks good in November.
-Ze Baron
Thursday, May 1, 2008
S.H.I.T.
A man is having morning coffee when his wife comes running down the stairs.
She says, "T-G-I-F!"
He replies, "S-H-I-T!"
"What does that mean?"
"Sorry Honey, It's Thursday."
*sigh* I want it to be Friday.
-Ze Baron
She says, "T-G-I-F!"
He replies, "S-H-I-T!"
"What does that mean?"
"Sorry Honey, It's Thursday."
*sigh* I want it to be Friday.
-Ze Baron
Saturday, April 26, 2008
DESPERATION AND THAT '360' THING
After what was equatable to a riot happened on the Y!360 Team Blog when they announced 360 was closing, people started to panic and everyone practically launched into trying to save the Y!360 blogging platform. When it was apparent that wasn't happening, first a few people came to Multiply, and then more and more. By late October, about a week after the group was founded, we had a membership of over one hundred members. Well, here we are six months later with over 1900 members.
360 is a virtual wasteland. Very few of my contacts (I'd guestimate a dozen or two of over 90) are still active there. Most of the active ones are posting the same stuff both here and there. There is a vain effort going on to save 360, and the petition starter even started a 360 page to try and bolster support. It looks like they are a little late to the show, though, having only started the effort at the end of March. There's even been a startup at Ning.com called "180" that uses the catchphrase "Half The 360 Bullshit". Following their logic, if 360 is full of it, then 180 is still... half full of it? New motto: "Y!360 Refugees: None of the 360 Bullshit."
It's still kind of funny in a somewhat pathetic way, though. "180" has (drumroll) 85 members. Y!360 Refugees has just under 2000 members. Umm, yeah. The petition has 5600+ signatures. The problem with that, though, is that Yahoo! isn't going to listen. They are the number one ranked site on Alexa.com. 5600 signatures is nothing to them, what with millions and undoubtedly billions of daily users.
While the 360 Rumor Control still doesn't like Multiply, it seems that Yahoo! has managed to suck the gusto right out of some of their staunchest supporters. Their recent writings have a dejected aura to them. They've even changed their profile photo to a violin, ie, they (and the 360 community) have been "played". They again only have 198 friends with their cause.
With Yahoo! trying to reinvent themselves, launch new services, and fight off Microsoft, it's unlikely that anything is going to be done to 360 -- either to improve or termanate it -- let alone to try and get together a decent successor 360 and Mash (now it it's final death throes.)
I don't know what is to be said of this whole debacle, except I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad Multiply works so well. I'm glad it has a dedicated staff. I'm especially glad for this group.
Ze Baron
360 is a virtual wasteland. Very few of my contacts (I'd guestimate a dozen or two of over 90) are still active there. Most of the active ones are posting the same stuff both here and there. There is a vain effort going on to save 360, and the petition starter even started a 360 page to try and bolster support. It looks like they are a little late to the show, though, having only started the effort at the end of March. There's even been a startup at Ning.com called "180" that uses the catchphrase "Half The 360 Bullshit". Following their logic, if 360 is full of it, then 180 is still... half full of it? New motto: "Y!360 Refugees: None of the 360 Bullshit."
It's still kind of funny in a somewhat pathetic way, though. "180" has (drumroll) 85 members. Y!360 Refugees has just under 2000 members. Umm, yeah. The petition has 5600+ signatures. The problem with that, though, is that Yahoo! isn't going to listen. They are the number one ranked site on Alexa.com. 5600 signatures is nothing to them, what with millions and undoubtedly billions of daily users.
While the 360 Rumor Control still doesn't like Multiply, it seems that Yahoo! has managed to suck the gusto right out of some of their staunchest supporters. Their recent writings have a dejected aura to them. They've even changed their profile photo to a violin, ie, they (and the 360 community) have been "played". They again only have 198 friends with their cause.
With Yahoo! trying to reinvent themselves, launch new services, and fight off Microsoft, it's unlikely that anything is going to be done to 360 -- either to improve or termanate it -- let alone to try and get together a decent successor 360 and Mash (now it it's final death throes.)
I don't know what is to be said of this whole debacle, except I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad Multiply works so well. I'm glad it has a dedicated staff. I'm especially glad for this group.
Ze Baron
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Language Post Criteria
As a newly appointed admin, I'd like the membership to be involved in what this group should be in the future. I want us to work together to hammer out what the criteria should be for the language posts.
I've got the basics -- there will be three posts per language. The first is a brief history or 'about' of the countries it is predominantly spoken (Spanish -- Spain/Mexico, English -- US, UK, Austrailia, etc) and information about dialects, second, a vocabulary blog, and third, a mechanics and usage blog.
The first is fairly definite and I'm working on an example to show you. The second has been discussed a bit, and this is what we've got:
Colors
Numbers (0 through 20 plus multiples of 10 to 100)
Alphabet (If not Latin characters; If Latin characters, only anomalies like German eszett)
Phrases [To be determined]
Nouns (family, household items, daily encounters, professions)
Nouns (seasons, weather, months, days of week)
Conjugation of "is" verb (or equivalent.)
Verbs, 3rd Person Singular (dailiy encounters)
Adjective (pairs of postive and negative, like good/bad big/small)
Pronouns (first and third persons, or equivalents)
It's certainly open to revision. The third also needs work. What should, in general, be included? I want to provide minimal guidelines so that the multiple blog series will be uniform, but will still allow the individual authors some creative license in how to get across what information they need people to know.
Any thoughts on what I have outlined?
Ze Baron
I've got the basics -- there will be three posts per language. The first is a brief history or 'about' of the countries it is predominantly spoken (Spanish -- Spain/Mexico, English -- US, UK, Austrailia, etc) and information about dialects, second, a vocabulary blog, and third, a mechanics and usage blog.
The first is fairly definite and I'm working on an example to show you. The second has been discussed a bit, and this is what we've got:
Colors
Numbers (0 through 20 plus multiples of 10 to 100)
Alphabet (If not Latin characters; If Latin characters, only anomalies like German eszett)
Phrases [To be determined]
Nouns (family, household items, daily encounters, professions)
Nouns (seasons, weather, months, days of week)
Conjugation of "is" verb (or equivalent.)
Verbs, 3rd Person Singular (dailiy encounters)
Adjective (pairs of postive and negative, like good/bad big/small)
Pronouns (first and third persons, or equivalents)
It's certainly open to revision. The third also needs work. What should, in general, be included? I want to provide minimal guidelines so that the multiple blog series will be uniform, but will still allow the individual authors some creative license in how to get across what information they need people to know.
Any thoughts on what I have outlined?
Ze Baron
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
NOVEMBER: SUNNY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF INDEPENDANTS
The day was abuzz with politics as the Pennsylvania primary was well underway. I shared some of my thoughts with you before in "Ode To Pennsylvania." As this crucial April 22 draws to a close, I have more thoughts to share.
Firstly, I haven't watched the news at all today. I haven't even read any election coverage online. It's been a busy day. But I'm going to make a prediction. My prediction is the Hillary is going to sweep Pennsylvania by double digits, my guess being 10% or 12% over Obama at most. There are two reasons I say that... first, it'll be that much because she's been canvassing Pittsburgh, Philidelphia, and the liberal hell-hole Johnstown (of John Murtha fame.) Chelsea's been hitting up college campuses for quite a while. Slick Willy has be been riding up and down PA hitting small and medium sized towns for votes. Obama is just one person.
But Obama has many volunteers. Not only that, he's outspending her three- or four-to-one. Obama started commercials fast and thick, but Hillary now has about the same number as him. In my town, there are many, many Hillary signs and only a few Obama signs. Less than a week ago the Obama HQ here got real Obama signs. Previously they were displaying a fairly well-done hand-drawn Obama sign in the window.
I think Obama's going to take Philidelphia, hands-down. He'll get Pittsburgh, too. Hillary, though, will get everything outside Philly limits, like the suburbs, as well as everything between Philly and Pittsburgh. You see, Pennsylvania, overall, is a red state. There are just so many people in the liberal Pitts-Philly areas that it counterbalences it. That's why we're traditionally known as a swing state. We bleed purple, like a few other states.
Hillary is going to take the traditionally red country area. She's the less psycho-liberal of the two. She's got major campaigning going on, she's got the support of the gov'nah and John Murtha. She was also born here, little do most people know.
Anyway, I think she'll win by double-digits. She needs to win by that much to give the superdelegates doubt at the convention (and split the party, to the GOP's cheers.) If she loses, or wins by a very narrow margin, and Obama gets the nomination, well...
I can see her running independant. She has the balls to do it. The Clintons hate losing -- they're a vicious couple. Whether she could pull it off... that would be something else entirely. I think if Obama could round up the money, he might do alright as an independant. Hillary, though, is the type of politician who could handle an independant run.
Anyway, even then, it would more effectively split the Democratic party than would any faltering at the convention. I think even though 2006 was bad for the GOP and 2008 was forecasted to be worse... well, I think it's going to be better.
-Ze Baron
Firstly, I haven't watched the news at all today. I haven't even read any election coverage online. It's been a busy day. But I'm going to make a prediction. My prediction is the Hillary is going to sweep Pennsylvania by double digits, my guess being 10% or 12% over Obama at most. There are two reasons I say that... first, it'll be that much because she's been canvassing Pittsburgh, Philidelphia, and the liberal hell-hole Johnstown (of John Murtha fame.) Chelsea's been hitting up college campuses for quite a while. Slick Willy has be been riding up and down PA hitting small and medium sized towns for votes. Obama is just one person.
But Obama has many volunteers. Not only that, he's outspending her three- or four-to-one. Obama started commercials fast and thick, but Hillary now has about the same number as him. In my town, there are many, many Hillary signs and only a few Obama signs. Less than a week ago the Obama HQ here got real Obama signs. Previously they were displaying a fairly well-done hand-drawn Obama sign in the window.
I think Obama's going to take Philidelphia, hands-down. He'll get Pittsburgh, too. Hillary, though, will get everything outside Philly limits, like the suburbs, as well as everything between Philly and Pittsburgh. You see, Pennsylvania, overall, is a red state. There are just so many people in the liberal Pitts-Philly areas that it counterbalences it. That's why we're traditionally known as a swing state. We bleed purple, like a few other states.
Hillary is going to take the traditionally red country area. She's the less psycho-liberal of the two. She's got major campaigning going on, she's got the support of the gov'nah and John Murtha. She was also born here, little do most people know.
Anyway, I think she'll win by double-digits. She needs to win by that much to give the superdelegates doubt at the convention (and split the party, to the GOP's cheers.) If she loses, or wins by a very narrow margin, and Obama gets the nomination, well...
I can see her running independant. She has the balls to do it. The Clintons hate losing -- they're a vicious couple. Whether she could pull it off... that would be something else entirely. I think if Obama could round up the money, he might do alright as an independant. Hillary, though, is the type of politician who could handle an independant run.
Anyway, even then, it would more effectively split the Democratic party than would any faltering at the convention. I think even though 2006 was bad for the GOP and 2008 was forecasted to be worse... well, I think it's going to be better.
-Ze Baron
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