Matt Drudge Gives Away West Wing Winner

Tonight was the long-awaited Election results episode on The West Wing, where Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnie Vinick (Alan Alda) have been duking it out for the highest position in all the land. While our TiVo dutifully recorded it, and awaited our viewing, I had not anticipated running across any site that would carelessly blurt out the result before I had the chance to see it for myself. Unlike a sports event like the Olympics or Super Bowl - where I could go out of my way to avoid seeing the score, I didn't fear this issue with a simple TV drama. Unfortunately, in the evening, I visited Matt Drudge's Drudge Report and encountered a headline "SURPRISE! (PARTY NAME) WINS 'WEST WING' PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION...", only the words "Party Name" were replaced by the actual party of the TV show's nominee.

While I of course enjoyed watching the show after 11 p.m., I had already known the outcome, and had to be good - not telling my wife of the result, and not being caught up in the drama that entailed of who was going to gather the final electoral votes from toss-up states. The right thing to do for Matt Drudge, and he knows better, was to have put the word "Spoiler" before the link to warn potential viewers.

Listening to ''String Theory'', by Alex Gold (Play Count: 1)

ANtics Episode 2.7: Crosby Wellness Clinic 101

This week's episode of the ANtics focuses on Ken Macha and the team's approach to shortstop Bobby Crosby's apparent fragility, in a piece titled "Crosby Wellness Clinic 101"! May we never have to create an upper division course with the same name...

Click to See Larger Comic


ANtics Archive: 2005/06 ANtics | PDF

View Your iTunes Library on the Web

I may have mentioned KavaSoft on this site before, but the one-person company just released an update to their iTunes Catalog software which dramatically improves their online cataloging features - making it appear just as you were viewing your iTunes library, and it browses your personal music as if you were at the iTunes music store.

If you have a Web site, or just want to poke around with one of the very best independent software applications for the Mac I've ever seen, check it out. And it handles large libraries just fine, as you can tell with my 3,400+ song, 18 days, 28.5 Gig demo.

http://www.louisgray.com/music/

Bush Considering Nuclear Attack on Iran

It seems unthinkable, but in highly classified discussions about how to approach Iran's continued development of nuclear plants, presumably for weaponry rather than their said need for power, the White House administration is strongly considering preemptive attacks against production plants in Iran - and not just with conventional weapons, but nuclear weapons. This has come to light from a piece in The New Yorker, by Seymour Hersh, the same investigative reporter who uncovered My Lai in the Vietnam War, and first disclosed the treatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

We've already seen widespread acceptance for the concept of preemptive war - Iraq being the best example, but Hersh reports that the Bush administration's focus all along was on Iran, and that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is seen as a potential Adolph Hitler, having already stated his belief that the Holocaust was a fable, and that Israel should be "wiped off the map". But I am surprised that the United States would discuss the usage of nuclear arms as part of a campaign to thwart a hostile country's acquisition of nuclear weapons themselves.

Given Hersh's background and reputation for accuracy, combined with the administration's history for aggressiveness in the Middle East, this is an eye opening development.

The New Yorker: The Iran Plans
CNN: Report: US Steps Up Iran Options
Google News: "Seymour Hersh & nuclear"

Listening to ''Adrenalin'', by Purple Haze (Play Count: 1)