Design Matters: Blue vs. Pink

After Jay Jacobs shed 30 pounds with the help of “The Beck Diet Solution” by Judith S. Beck, he decided to shed something else: the book’s bright pink cover.Skip to next paragraphJay JacobsA substitute dust jacket that a male reader made for a diet book.He said he felt silly being seen with it at Starbucks. “You’ve got a guy sitting there who weighs 300 pounds reading a pink book,” Mr. Jacobs said. “The Beck approach was clearly being targeted to women, and I wanted to create a paradigm shift.”

So by using graphic design software, Mr. Jacobs scanned the book’s dust jacket, substituted a blue color scheme, and printed out that version for his copy. He also made a blue cover available on his Web site and said that dozens of men had downloaded it.

Judging a Diet Book’s User by Its Bright Pink Cover - New York Times

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

More Moz….two version of one of The Smith’s best songs, the first one at the last show The Smiths ever played -Brixton Academy, 12/12/1986…and then nearly two decades laters…hard to fathom, really…

And 2004 on Jools Holland…

The Stuff Of Impeachment

Very good and important story in Newsweek this week from Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas. I don’t thing the significance of this entire has even started to dawn on people yet for the most part, but it’s pretty clear that President Bush was breaking the law on purpose and trying to get justification for it. (emphasis mine)

Bush’s role has remained shadowy throughout the controversy over the eavesdropping program. But there are strong suggestions that he was an active presence. On the night after Ashcroft’s operation, as Ashcroft lay groggy in his bed, his wife, Janet, took a phone call. It was Andy Card, asking if he could come over with Gonzales to speak to the attorney general. Mrs. Ashcroft said no, her husband was too sick for visitors. The phone rang again, and this time Mrs. Ashcroft acquiesced to a visit from the White House officials. Who was the second caller, one with enough power to persuade Mrs. Ashcroft to relent? The former Ashcroft aide who described this scene would not say, but senior DOJ officials had little doubt who it was—the president. (The White House would not comment on the president’s role.) Ashcroft’s chief of staff, David Ayres, then called Comey, Ashcroft’s deputy, to warn him that the White House duo was on the way. With an FBI escort, Comey raced to the hospital to try to stop them, but Ashcroft himself was strong enough to turn down his White House visitors’ request.

The morning after the scene at Ashcroft’s hospital bed, the president met with Comey. “We had a full and frank discussion, very informed. He was very focused,” Comey later testified, choosing his words carefully. But it wasn’t until Bush had met with Mueller that the president agreed to take steps (still unspecified, but probably involving more oversight) to bring the eavesdropping program back inside the boundaries of the law. Mueller has never said what he told the president, but it is a good bet that he said he would resign if the changes were not made. Bush could not afford to see Mueller go, nor could he risk losing the rest of the Justice Department leadership over a matter of principle in an election year.

Bush’s Monica Problem: The Gonzales Mess - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

Department Of Homeland Huh What?

Claims of terrorism represented less than 0.01 percent of charges filed in recent years in immigration courts by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a report issued Sunday by an independent research group.

This comes despite the fact the Bush administration has repeatedly asserted that fighting terrorism is the central mission of DHS.The Transactional Records Action Clearinghouse said it analyzed millions of previously undisclosed records obtained from the immigration courts under the Freedom of Information Act.

Of the 814,073 people charged by DHS in immigration courts during the past three years, 12 faced charges of terrorism, TRAC said.

Those 12 cases represent 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed.

“The DHS claims it is focused on terrorism. Well that’s just not true,” said David Burnham, a TRAC spokesman. “Either there’s no terrorism, or they’re terrible at catching them. Either way it’s bad for all of us.”

Group: Terrorism not focus of Homeland Security - CNN.com

Irish Blood, English Heart

I just love this song so much - and here’s something I didn’t know…from Wikipedia.

An edited version eventually became one of the songs on the EA Sports videogame FIFA Soccer 2005’s soundtrack. The game’s version does not include the line “And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell/And denounce this royal line that still salutes him. And will salute him, forever”; instead, after the verse “I’ve been dreaming of a time when/The English are sick to death of Labour and Tories”, the song reverts back to the line that begins “To be standing by the flag not feeling shameful/Racist or partial”.