Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2840

Watching The Watchers

Ambinder stands up for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange:

I want Assange to remain a free man. I want him to publish what hefinds worthy of publishing, consonant with his own values and hisobligations as a citizen of the world and of Iceland. I also understandand believe it to be reasonable that the intelligence community and theDepartment of Defense are worried about Assange, and that they aretrying to figure out the best way to mitigate the effects of a majordocument release. Their equities...

Face Of The Day

Ethnic Uzbek women
care for their children under a tent by Kyrgyz-Uzbek border near the
village of Vlksm some 20 km outside Osh on June 18, 2010. The World
Health Organisation said today that it was working on a worst-case
estimate that the crisis in Kyrgyzstan may affect up to one million
people, about a third of whom could be refugees. By Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Image.

Kyrgyzstan - Osh - Refugee - Asia - Business and Economy

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

I disagree about Baca.  Angle has nuanced points that go beyond soundbytes. When she says she wants to transition out of social security to personal accounts, that's a valid position.  The reporter doesn't seem to understand that; he just tries to "gotcha" her by saying she's trying to save social security "by transitioning out of it?"  Yes he's persistent, but he's not after the full truth - only soundbytes.  Yes, he's more persistent than the MSM is with Palin, but he seems...

Nathan Baca: Journalist, Ctd

A reader writes:

What this showed to me, above all, is why local news is so important.  It's probably more important now than it's ever been  The journalists working in these markets seem to be more willing to pose harder questions because they have no access to lose.  It makes one wonder if the reporter/stenographers in the national media, especially the White House press corps, ever had the balls this guy has.  And what's sad is that he doesn't even really have big balls, he's just doing...

Another Palinite

Palin endorsed Star Parker yesterday:

When she is not delivering fiery speeches at right-wing conference, Parker has been busy suing the White House over its efforts to rebut misinformation regarding health care reform and warning that marriage equality in Washington DC wouldlead to the spread of HIV and was akin to thinking "that serving upanother glass of wine is the way to help a drunk" all while declaringthat "it should concern every American as we watch our nation's capitalcity transform...

"Fox News North" Ctd

A reader writes:

If you want to see Kory Teneycke in a discussion about the new channel, please watch this YouTube clip from CBC yesterday.  This is what passes for contentious debate up here.  If Teneycke thinks that he will import the Fox model and see much success, I believe he's sorely mistaken.  I can tell you that there really is not much appetite for that in Canada.  And I say that as a born and bred Calgarian.

A sneak peek of a Sun News segment here.

Canada - Kory...

The American View Of Soccer, Ctd

A reader writes:

And I for one don't want soccer in the US to become as popular as the NFL or even basketball. I love that I can buy a season ticket package for my local team for the cost of one seat at an NFL game. I love that I can watch nearly any soccer I game I want from any league in the world on ESPN, FSC or GolTV. I love that the US players are hard-working, honest guys who play for each other and hustle until the last whistle. I love that I can listen to podcasts from the US or the...

Pixar Perfect

Chris Orr puts his finger on the studio's secret to success: "constant revision and
incremental perfectionism":

It's a luxury unique to animation, though one of whichfew animators take comparable advantage. Live-action filmmakers areessentially slaves to a shooting schedule. They go in with a script,storyboards, etc., and come out, several weeks or a few months later,with the footage they will assemble into a motion picture. Once thesets are broken down and the cast-members scatter to their...

Carbon Taxing - And Its Limits

Free Exchange looks at the British example:

The latest target is a 34% cut [in emissions:], compared to 1990 levels, by 2020.

Whenthe good folk at Cambridge Econometrics fed this requirement into theirmodel, it began spitting out prices of many hundreds of pounds per ton,far beyond anything that could be seen as politically plausible by eventhe most starry-eyed environmentalist. Indeed, the prices were so highthat they were pushing up against the limits of the model, and anynumbers generated...

Mental Health Break

Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

This is the second trip of my home made high altitude weather balloon photography project, Pacific Star.

The balloon was launched at 5:37pm (PST) from Oxnard, CA and reached an altitude of 125,000 feet snapping photos and recording video along the way.

(Hat tip: GOOD)

Vimeo - Weather balloon - Photography - Colin Rich - Altitude