A couple of quotes for Jere. First, about history: Well, it was simple enough, he thought now. Anna was often on his mind these days because of Assaf. And so in the desert this morning his memory had abruptly tumbled back through the years to Stern, all the way back to Egypt and the Monastery where it had actually begun for Anna and him, although neither of them had known then that it was a beginning, so long ago in Cairo. Stern… Anna… secret histories. I suppose we all have them tucked away inside somewhere, thought Bell, these precious and secret events with their secret beginnings. Understanding as little as we do, we always seem to be connected to others in ways we never suspect, in a sweep of time we can’t fathom, in moments we’re only able to recognize years later. As if for each of us the important things in life become but one single story in the end, one beautiful secret dream we grasp too late. ...

Not that I am not all about the Luke Wilson, but I cannot help but think that 3001 ought to list C. M. Kornbluth in the credits somewhere. “Marching Morons” comes to mind. The IMDB boards are all a-twitter because the plot is stolen from Futurama. Which, I guess, is evidence of Kornbluth’s predictive skills.

Kerry raised $50 million last quarter. This isn’t even close to what Bush raised (and both Bush and Kerry are also going to benefit from 527 money (original)), but it’s going to be very important to the Democrats in the months ahead. Note that had Edwards won the nomination, he would have bumped into the federal matching fund caps already. Like it or not, that’s a powerful electability argument. Me, I don’t particularly like it. Maybe I should spend some time teaching my neighbors how to do their own research instead of relying on TV ads.

So, did a lot of stuff happen while I was incommunicado or what? I refer, of course, to Nomar going on the DL. Good things about WDW: The new Kali River Rapids ride at Animal Kingdom. Top-notch water ride with the best line experience ever. Worth going to Animal Kingdom for, which is good, cause not much else is. The new Aerosmith-themed roller coaster at Disney/MGM. It’s got rollover loops, just like a real roller coaster! Add in Tower of Terror, and Disney/MGM is definitely the right place to go for thrill rides at Disney. The Adventurer’s Club at Pleasure Island is good clean fun. Bonus points cause we got to watch the Club’s “maid” badgering underage kids for wearing belly shirts. Epcot. Epcot always rules. Mission Space is a great ride. Test Track disappointed, but so it goes. Reminder to self: Scandanavian history. The weather. 70-80 degrees. And I’m tan now. Well, sort of. DisneyQuest. Free Asteroids, Defender, Stargate, Berzerk, Centipede, Tron, Arkanoid, Joust, etc., etc. No Gorf, though, sadly. And I guess a bunch of modern games but really it’s all about the classics for me. Spoodles over at the Boardwalk. I had a really good Moroccan tuna steak with lovely cous cous. Too expensive by a few bucks, certainly, particularly since the service wasn’t all that, but still very very tasty. Plus cheesecake. Mmm. Chatting with the Splash Mountain manager for about an hour while his ride was down. He was incredibly polite and seemed happy to spend time talking even though he was in the middle of a crisis situation. He handled the crowds really well, too. What’s more, his boss spent some time helping people as well — it’s smart to make sure that even high level managers get face time with customers now and again. Port Orleans French Quarter is a decent place to stay. Not too expensive as Disney goes, and a good location. Although the sheets are too short. ...

That took a lot of the pleasure out of The Apprentice. (Gonna be spoilers here.) Long story short, Trump made two errors: 1. Complaining that Team Troy set the rental price too low at $35-40K. The Director of Sales for the building told them that it had been renting for around $40K; given the time they had to rent it, it made sense to nail down any offer in that range and hope that the other team would whiff, which they very nearly did. ...

Well, that was a vacation and a half. My digital camera broke midway through, so I have few pictures. I still had a metric ton or so of fun. More details later.

Ever wanted a list of Shaw Brothers movies that got four or more stars from Kung Fu Cinema? Yeah, me too. So I made one.

I will not be around this Monday, so there will be no Monday Mashup. This is tragic! To compensate, I will satisfy the legions of people (all two of you) who kvetched about not getting your Partridge Family. Fine! Here’s your precious pre-fabricated pop band. I know nothing about the Partridge Family other than that they travelled around in a school bus and sang. Or lip-synched, one or the other. Anyhow, I’m sure there was music and travel involved and on that thin, tenuous reed must our mashups be built. Oh, wait — for the research-minded, there’s an episode guide. Hey, Ray Bolger played the grandfather, so there’s a Wizard of Oz connection.

[Also written while flying home Sunday night.] Butt-Numb-A-Thon 5 in no particular order except, well, chronological: Haunted Gold, a very early John Wayne movie about a haunted gold mine. John Wayne hadn’t learned how to throw punches yet. There was much booing of the insanely racist dialogue. Return of Captain Marvel, an old adventure serial. Cheesy as hell. I was not too unhappy when it was cut short for the arrival of… ...

So, um, what’s (original) up with (original) Eric Raymond? (Unofficial spokesman for the open-source movement, if you didn’t know.) The big problem with his commentary on IQ and race is the way he misrepresents criticism of the The Bell Curve. He links the criticism of The Bell Curve to criticism of the single-factor IQ model, but that’s simply inaccurate. There are plenty of errors (original) of other sorts in the book. The statistical work is wrong, even according to the conservative magazine Reason: ...