Umm, you can blame Tam & Julie for this one. If anyone from the ASPCA is reading, "Elphay, orfay ethay ovelay ofway odgay, elphay!"

Cute, wiggly or an alien from another planet, the kids today love Angus.

I have been working on an idea that gina and nick were discussing at lunch one day. Basically, its a more sophisticated alt text/title popup. It's born out of a frustration with title text in Mozilla that won't wrap lines, and fades too quickly to read any large amount text. I call it alt alt text.

Examples:

1. Here is a bit of text that I wish to annotate, so I add a span with a question mark at the end of the line that will pop up some more info related to the text ?.

   Notice that the box will fade/close after a bit, but you have the option to stop the box from fading if you wish to keep reading the text.

   Here is the markup used to create the popup:

   <span onmouseover="showAltAlt(this, 'anno', 150);">
<a href="#" onclick="return false;">?</a>
</span>.

<div id="anno" style="visibility: hidden">
<span>
This is an example of an annotation using alt alt text </span>
</div>

   The first span has the javascript onmouseover call.

   showAltAlt(this, 'anno', 150);.

   The first param to the function is a reference to the entity you wish to annotate (mainly for cleanup). The second param is the id of a hidden div with a child span in the current document. This is where the text for the annotation popup is defined, in this case we created a div with the id anno. The third param is the width of the popup, in this case the popup will be 150 pixels wide. So basically, when the the showAltAlt() function is called it references the hidden div with id 'anno' to populate a popup with anno's markup.

2. This next example is one that annotates an image when you roll over it. In this instance the popup will not fade by default.

   

   The only major difference in this example from the first is an extra parameter passed to the showAltAlt() function. To keep the popup from closing we pass a fourth param of true.

   <img src="/images/lemon.gif" width="25" height="20" onmouseover="showAltAlt(this, 'lemon', 200, true);">

   showAltAlt(this, 'lemon', 200, true);

I have provided the source for anyone bold enough to crash their browser with my javascript: altalt.txt

any feedback is most appreciated.

Holy fucking faith based misdirection Batman.

The Bush Administration has decided that it will stand by its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Park Service Sticks with Biblical Explanation for Grand Canyon - Peer News

- via wonkette

Also in the news, the Bush administration is drafting legislation requiring any science teacher when asked the question "Why is the sky blue?" to also provide the alternative answer, "Because Jesus is looking down upon us from heaven with his big blue eyes." When asked what if a child is Jewish or Muslim President Bush responded, "Well, the sky ain't brown now is it, heh heh."

The Economist endorses John Kerry.

Guant�namo Bay offers constant evidence of America's hypocrisy, evidence that is disturbing for those who sympathise with it, cause-affirming for those who hate it. This administration, which claims to be fighting for justice, the rule of law and liberty, is incarcerating hundreds of people, whether innocent or guilty, without trial or access to legal representation. The White House's proposed remedy, namely military tribunals, merely compounds the problem.

America's next president The incompetent or the incoherent? - Economist

Some more, and I might say better-er, lunar light from mouser.org.

A grainy shot of the lunar eclipse, and a little mood music (639kb .mp3) to go along with it.

the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.

- 1984 George Orwell

A brief fall sojourn to Vermont for the Old Shaw Farm Worker Appreciation Festival, and a little leaf peepin'.

Also, all this talk about Angus and anger has left Uther feeling a little left out, so here's to Der Gute Hund.

Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004 - Hunter S. Thompson.

War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war. --RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

. . .

Richard Nixon looks like a flaming liberal today, compared to a golem like George Bush. Indeed. Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?

Julie does a little research for Angus' um, condition, and finds more than she bargained for - The Flat-D.

Now you can go out in public without fear of embarrassment due to the odor of excessive intestinal gas - FLATULENCE - caused by any reason or condition! Say Good-bye to malodorous gas -PERMANENTLY! Live Life Again!

People who use The Flatulence Deodorizer for the first time say:

• Oh my God this really works!
• This has changed my life
• NOW I don't have to worry about what I eat!
• This product will eliminate your flatulence odor problem as soon as you start using it.

"But what about my dog's Flatulence?" you ask. Dogone to the rescue.

The Dogone - Dog Gas Neutralizing Pad is a comfortable and least intrusive means for deodorizing gassy discharges in a thong design. This will eliminate pet odors and dog odors from flatus or flatulence.

William Jefferson Clinton speaks after a viewing of The Hunting of the President, A documentary about the Whitewater Investigation.

The central insight of the framers of the constitution was that a democracy is about not just majority rule, but about minority rights.

Audio clip (.mp3 87k - 00:42 seconds)

Ring, ring...

Mark: hello?
Telemarketer: Hello, can I speak with Mrs. Gaither?
Mark: Sorry, she's not in.
Telemarketer: Can I speak with Mr. Gaither?
Mark: No such person here.

Telemarketer silently slips his hand towards his sword...

Telemarketer: Can I speak with the person who makes the decisions regarding your phone service?

Mark fu, with his cat like senses, feels a slight tingling in his chi, he raises his right eyebrow.

Telemarketer kicks a stool in Mark fu's direction and then slices towards his chest...

Telemarketer: MCI is offering a great deal on local phone service today.

Mark fu slips effortlessly to the right, and thrusts his hand into telemarketers chest, the five point palm of death.

Mark: I'm sorry, but I am not interested, and can you please take us off of your calling list.

Telemarketer stand motionless as blood slowly drips from his lips. He stares with disbelief at Mark fu, and then falls helpless to the ground, dead.

Telemarketer: It will take about seven days to get you off our list.
Mark: Thank you.

Click...

Mark fu stands over the dead body of Telemarketer, his hand out streatched and shaking...

Mark fu: *almost in a whisper* I have avenged you, teacher...

God warned Pat Robertson about war in Iraq. President Bush Ignores God.

Robertson: I warned Bush on Iraq casualties - CNN

"I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy," Robertson said. "I warned him [President Bush] about casualties."

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

- filed under "what the fuck?"

Fleshbot Films releases Ed Wood's "Necromania" on DVD, available for preorder from Amazon. What better way to buy porn and pretend it's because you're a film buff.

To further the interest of cute wiggly things, Julie demands more photos of Angus.

- filed under angus

Update: Julie has noted that she is no way involved in the advancement of the cute and wiggly. Nor does she in any way approve or support the infusing of the cute and wiggly here at bitterpill.org. I must remind Julie, and the readers here, that most things posted here are blatant lies. Sometimes, albeit rarely, truthful statements do slip through my team of editors, but I assure you, it is purely accidental.

It has truly been a great couple of weeks, for me at least. First, Bill O'Reilly is sued for sexual harassment. Then, Tucker Carlson is called a dick on cable television. Now, if it turns out that Ann Coulter is secretly in love with Bill Clinton (you heard it here first) I'll die happy. Oh, and if it turns out that Rush Limbaugh is a drug popping felon.

- filed under anger

"Words fail me. . ." - Peter

Dungeon Majesty

Dungeon Majesty is a cable-access TV show in which four young women play Dungeons and Dragons -- the show is intercut with Z-grade green-screen masks of them staging D&D fights in front of fakey caves or deep in spooky woods, and illustrated with flip-book animations fo D&D monsters drawn in pen on lined paper. This is really fantastic stuff -- it's got nerd pride to burn, and production values that make MST3K look slick.

Quicktime Teaser

-via boing boing

I voted today via absentee ballot. Why wait until the election rush? All the really good candidates are taken up by then.

I sing with a voice of one in a choir of millions. But as Peter always says, "If you don't play, you can't win."

So people, and by people I mean Gina, have mentioned that I have been quite political here at the pill as of late, and maybe even a wee bit angry. Honestly, I'm in a neurotic panic about the state of the union, and I am engulfed in an elephantine fear for the future of these United States of America, and the world for that matter. And, maybe, a tad bit angry.

And so the plea was made, less anger and more angus*. I leave it to the reader (I would like to say readers, but there is a direct correlation between loss of traffic and angry...er thoughtful political commentary here at bitterpill.org) to help define the future direction of content here at bitterpill.org**. Let the surveying begin:

* Angus is a cute and politically unaffiliated French Bulldog. However, I think secretly he is a Libertarian. Angus (the puppy of principle) photos to be found here.

** survey data will most likely be ignored, and content may actually veer in an opposite direction of the survey results out of spite.

Jim reveals the truth behind pod-casting, and in the telling brings a tear to my eye.

It's all about liedercasting - operablog.20041010.mp3 (.mp3 - 460k)

Going Up River
(quicktime .mov - 671 megs) - imdb info.

This revealing documentary chronicles Senator John Kerry's tour of duty (as the skipper of a Swift Boat) in Vietnam, his controversial contributions to the peace movement that followed and, ultimately, the shape his political career took after the turbulent 1960s.

A sound clip where twenty seven year old John Kerry testifies before the senate relations committee regarding the war in Vietnam - Thursday, April 22, 1971:

excerpts from John Kerry's Testimony
(mp3 - 364k - 3:05 minutes)

...when, in 30 years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory but mean instead the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning.

Just a quick note regarding tonight's debate. If John Kerry is on the far left, then I'm the Grand Exalted Poobah of the KKK.

There's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far-left bank

- President Goerge W. bush

Gleaned from a review of Camera Obscura, a collection of photographs by Abelardo Morell in the back of Scientific American. Here is a link to some of his camera obscura work online.

He blacks out windows, leaving a pinhole opening in one of them. Because of the nature of refracted light, the scene outside the window is projected upside down into the dim room.

- Scientific American

- - -

The Camera Obscura (Latin for Dark room) was a dark box or room with a hole in one end. If the hole was small enough, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall.

- A History of Photography - Camera Obscura

Supreme Court to Hear Case on Display of Ten Commandments - New York Times

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said the city sought to reflect the cultural, historical and legal significance of the commandments. Rehnquist noted that justices' own chambers includes a carving of Moses holding the Ten Commandments.

In related news, the court also announced today that they would hear arguments on the case of Little Billy Johnson vs. Mommy. More famously known as Mommy V Boogie Man. Little Billy Johnson has contested that the Boogie Man is hiding in his closet just waiting for the light to go out so he can eat him. His mother's attorney has argued that Billy shouldn't stay up late and watch horror movies, and please just stop crying and turn out the light.

Justice Clarence Thomas said, "What did Scalia say? Ok, me too."

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, though not convinced of the existence of the Boogie Man, noted that there is a good chance that it might actually be the Devil masquerading as the boogie man, and that is definitely not constitutional.

update: Justice Clarence Thomas has been forced to recluse himself in the case of Mommy V Boogie Man. Allegedly, he was the one waiting in the closet to eat Little Billy.

Justice Thomas, the Devil or the Boogie Man?

Let me get this straight, Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. They had no capacity to build weapons of mass destruction. They had no real plans do develop the capacity to build weapons of mass destruction. They were basically crushed by the first gulf war, and since then have had no real prospects for building weapons of mass destruction. However, Saddam Hussein really wanted to build weapons of mass destruction, and if U.N. sanctions were lifted, he would have started to develop a plan to start building these weapons. Somehow, this all still justifies war with Iraq. Check, one two, check, sibilance, sibilance, is this thing on? anyone? anyone?

Duelfer found no formal plan by Saddam to resume WMD production, but the inspector surmised that Saddam intended to do so if U.N. sanctions were lifted. Bush seized upon that inference, using the word ''intent'' three times in reference to Saddam's plans to resume making weapons.

Bush, Cheney concede Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction - Boston Globe

With recent (and not so recent) news regarding weapons of mass destruction and America's ever changing justification(s) for war, I felt the need for a little history. What follows is a list of entries on bitterpill.org related to war. In the end, these posts are my logical and emotional reactions to war, but it creates a bit of a timeline, for me anyway, of America's war in Iraq. I'm sorry, I meant the international coalition's war in Iraq (I forgot Poland).

John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation - March 01, 2003

We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government...

media-opoly - April 06, 2003

As I have watched our country move its people, forces and will towards war, I have been struck by the might of the modern political PR machines that help define public opinion and public consensus.

War, what is it good for - April 22, 2003

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.

the certain agony of the battlefield - Aug 28, 2003

The War on Terror was never a war in the traditional sense. It is, instead, a kind of brand, an idea that can be easily franchised by any government in the market for an all-purpose opposition cleanser.

stand up and be counted - Nov 5, 2003

Even supporters said the continuing toll of casualties made it hard for them to explain their vote to skeptical constituents back home.

can't make them undead - Nov 17, 2003

It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. . . You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead.

Jimmy Carter - Nobel Prize - Dec 10, 2003

In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents.

the good news about war and warriors - Jan 03, 2004

We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe that we should ever apply that economic, political, and military power unilaterally. If we had followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn't have been there. None of our allies supported us. Not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning.

as liberators - January 19, 2004

...our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators...

reexamine our reasoning - May 15, 2004

These men are liars and cheats and they gamble with your freedom and your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the reputation of your country.

ties, ties, ties with Al Qaeda - July 07, 2004

The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Saddam's ass, Monkeys - July 12, 2004

We removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder.

a system of ideas of right and wrong conduct - Aug 04, 2004

How does a government add up the numbers and deem a certain number of innocent deaths acceptable or even redeemable.

Because, if we had found weapons of mass destruction that we said we would find we would have proved that we could find what we didn't, because if we didn't find what we said we would, we would have proved otherwise.

Cheney Says Report Finding No Illicit Arms in Iraq Justifies War - New York Times

Vice President Dick Cheney asserted on Thursday that a finding by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq that Saddam Hussein's government produced no weapons of mass destruction after 1991 justifies rather than undermines President Bush's decision to go to war.

So go out there and vote:

vote till it hurts,
vote bigger and badder than ever,
vote 'till your voting stick goes limp,
vote like an electrified voting machine on the votingest voting day in votesville,
vote your flippin' ass off

Here are some interesting voter statistics for the 2000 election. Out of almost 206 million Americans of the age to vote (*Voting Age Population, VAP) about 156 million were registered to vote. Out of those registered voters, about 105 million voted. That brings us into the 51 percent range for voter turnout for VAP and into the 67 percentile for registered voters who actually voted. There are states that have turnouts of less then 45 percent VAP.

Of the 105 million voters who voted, about 48 percent of them voted for the current president, a bit more than that voted for Al Gore (around 50.45 million for Bush and 50.99 million for Gore).

Only about 25 percent of VAP voters voted for the current president, and I imagine the statistics will be very similar in the 2004 election (regardless of who becomes president).

A percentage of Americans are of age to vote, but are ineligible because of felony conviction or other reasons, *disfranchised. Righttovote.org puts that number at around 4.7 million.

In the end, only about 52 percent of the people who are eligible to vote in this country actually vote.

Of Age Voters (VAP*)	Disfranchised Voters **	Eligible Voters	Registered Voters	Voted 2002
206	4.7	201	156	105

 numbers in millions

* VAP refers to the total Voting Age Population of the State as reported by the Bureau of Census. Please note that the VAP includes all persons over the age of 18 -- including a significant number of people not eligible to vote in U.S. elections.

* * Felony disfranchisement is the prohibition of people with felony convictions from voting in local, state or federal elections.

Inspired by Gina's Firefox extension prowess, I decided to dip my toes into the extension pool.

w3ctextarea

w3ctextarea is a Firefox extension that allows you to validate data within a textarea as XHTML 1.0 Strict using the w3c xhtml strict validator.

w3ctextarea allows users of web based content management systems (eg: movable type / blogger ) to validate the data they are about to enter into the system. Normally, with a tool such as movable type, you are forced to publish content, and then you can validate it using a validator such as the w3c validator when it is public. This extension allows you to validate your input before it goes into the system.

keeping america scared ( 5232.63kb .mov ) - via peter

update: video by Brennan Houlihan via Oliver Willis

After years of saving, scraping and selling blood, Uther is finally able to afford his own car.

I want to serve my country. I want to help make the world free for democracy, and maybe suck a few pounds off of my butt and a little tuck around the belly area.

"Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible," Dr. Bob Lyons, the chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center, said recently, in his office in San Antonio. It is true: personnel in all four branches of the military and members of their immediate families can get face-lifts, nose jobs, breast enlargements, liposuction, or any other kind of elective cosmetic alteration, at taxpayer expense. (For breast enlargements, patients must supply their own implants.)

- All That You Can Be - The New Yoker

I can just here the war cry: "I want to be an airborn ranger, I want to have a breast augmentation."

And why is it that the League of Women Voters withdrew their sponsership again? (- via jessamyn )

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debates... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.

Ah...apparently an informed public is, well, an informed public.

I did. I lost. I knew I was going to lose, but I kept up a glimmer of hope that through perseverance I could pull through and win. But, unfortunately, I didn't have what it takes to bring truth and honesty to the debates. I couldn't muster the will to prevent the blase political rhetoric that panders to the middle and denies any frank open discussion about the world that we are living in. I lost, and I knew the outcome before it began. I, always the fool, hoped for more, hoped for some shred of truth in a world of spin and politic. I did my best, gave my all. I'd like to thank you all for your support.

Impressions from last nights debate.

George W. Bush: Me smash puny terrorists, and I'll use preemptive unilateral war to do so.

John Kerry: Me smash puny terrorist, and I'll use preemptive war with a coalition to do so.

They are both so strong and decisive, I just don't know who to love more.