Many of you may recall that I subscribe to Sirius (and have since before Howard Stern was signed). My #1 preset is BuzzSaw. Following is an analysis of BuzzSaw's playlist between midnight ET on Dec. 23 and approximately 2:00 pm ET on Dec. 24. The data is courtesy of The SIRIUS Stream Explorer; a condensed form of the data follows the analysis.

In the 38 hours studied, 469 songs were played (counting examples like "Heartbreaker" straight into "Living Loving Maid" as one song), for a mean of 12.3 songs/hour. 384 distinct songs were played. No song was played more than 3 times in the period, implying that the odds are against hearing a song twice within 12 hours.

• 9 songs were played thrice
• 67 songs were played twice
• 308 songs were played once

All in all, I would say that this is a pretty good balance of repetition versus variety, in my opinion. In listening for 24 hours straight, one could expect to hear at most c. 50 repeats.

• .38 Special - 4 plays, 4 distinct songs
• AC/DC - 27 plays, 16 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "Highway to Hell"
  • Played twice: "Back in Black", "Big Balls", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "For Those About to Rock...", "Hells Bells", "Shoot to Thrill", "Sin City", "T.N.T.", "You Shook Me All Night Long"
• Accept - 1 play
• Aerosmith - 25 plays, 21 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Rag Doll", "Same Old Song and Dance", "Walk This Way"
• Aldo Nova - 2 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played twice: "Fantasy"
• Alice Cooper - 8 plays, 4 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Billion Dollar Babies", "I'm Eighteen", "No More Mr. Nice Guy", "School's Out"
• April Wine - 1 play
• Autograph - 1 play
• Axe - 1 play
• Bad Company - 6 plays, 5 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Bad Company"
• Billy Squier - 10 plays, 8 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Christmas Is the Time to Say...", "In the Dark"
• Billy Thorpe - 1 play
• Black Sabbath - 12 plays, 10 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Iron Man", "Paranoid"
• Blackfoot - 3 plays, 3 distinct songs
• Blue - 3 plays, 3 distinct songs
• Blue Oyster Cult - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"
• Bob Rivers - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "I Am Santa Claus"
• Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - 1 play
• Boston - 8 plays, 6 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "More Than a Feeling", "Peace of Mind"
• Buckcherry - 1 play
• Cheap Trick - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Cream - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "White Room"
• David Lee Roth - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Deep Purple - 4 plays, 4 distinct songs
• Def Leppard - 13 plays, 10 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "Bringin' On the Heartbreak"
  • Played twice: "Photograph"
• Derek and the Dominos - 1 play
• Dio - 5 plays, 3 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Holy Diver", "Rainbow in the Dark"
• Dokken - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Eddie Money - 1 play
• Eric Clapton - 1 play
• Faces - 1 play
• Foghat - 3 plays, 3 distinct songs
• Foreigner - 4 plays, 4 distinct songs
• George Thorogood - 6 plays, 5 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Bad to the Bone"
• Golden Earring - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Twilight Zone"
• Grand Funk Railroad - 1 play
• Great White - 3 plays, 3 distinct songs
• Guns 'n' Roses - 9 plays, 7 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Live and Let Die", "Welcome to the Jungle"
• Heart - 4 plays, 3 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Magic Man"
• Humble Pie - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "I Don't Need No Doctor"
• Iron Maiden - 4 plays, 4 distinct songs
• Jefferson Starship - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Jethro Tull - 1 play
• Jimi Hendrix - 16 plays, 12 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "Purple Haze"
  • Played twice: "Dolly Dagger", "Foxey Lady"
• Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Joe Satriani - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Joe Walsh - 3 plays, 3 distinct songs
• Judas Priest - 5 plays, 5 distinct songs
• Kiss - 9 plays, 8 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "I Stole Your Love"
• Krokus - 1 play
• Led Zeppelin - 21 plays, 16 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Black Dog", "Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid", "In the Evening", "Kashmir", "The Ocean"
• Loverboy - 1 play
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - 10 plays, 8 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Sweet Home Alabama", "That Smell"
• Metallica - 10 plays, 9 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Seek and Destroy"
• Molly Hatchet - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Montrose - 1 play
• Motley Crue - 8 plays, 7 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Girls, Girls, Girls"
• Motorhead - 1 play
• Nazareth - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Hair of the Dog"
• Neil Young - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Night Ranger - 1 play
• Ozzy Osbourne - 11 plays, 9 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "Crazy Train"
• Pat Benatar - 4 plays
• Pat Travers - 1 play
• Queen - 12 plays, 7 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "Fat Bottomed Girls"
  • Played twice: "Another One Bites the Dust", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Stone Cold Crazy", "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions"
• Quiet Riot - 2 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played twice: "Cum On Feel the Noize"
• Rainbow - 3 plays, 3 distinct songs
• Ratt - 5 plays, 3 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "Round and Round"
• Red Rider - 3 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played thrice: "Lunatic Fringe"
• Rick Derringer - 1 play
• Robert Plant - 1 play
• Robin Trower - 1 play
• Rolling Stones - 7 plays, 4 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Gimme Shelter", "Honky Tonk Women", "Sympathy for the Devil"
• Rossington Collins... - 1 play
• Rush - 15 plays, 12 distinct songs
  • Played thrice: "The Spirit of Radio"
• Sammy Hagar - 8 plays, 7 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "I Can't Drive 55"
• Saxon - 1 play
• Scorpions - 8 plays, 7 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Rock You Like a Hurricane"
• Steppenwolf - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Magic Carpet Ride"
• Stevie Ray Vaughan - 5 plays, 4 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Pride and Joy"
• Styx - 2 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played twice: "Renegade"
• Sweet - 3 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played thrice: "Ballroom Blitz"
• T. Rex - 2 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played twice: "Get it On (Bang a Gong)"
• Ted Nugent - 5 plays, 5 distinct songs
• Tesla - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Modern Day Cowboy"
• The Allman Brothers Band - 1 play
• The Amboy Dukes - 1 play
• The Black Crowes - 4 plays, 4 distinct songs
• The Charlie Daniels Band - 1 play
• The Cult - 6 plays, 5 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Fire Woman"
• The Doors - 2 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played twice: "Roadhouse Blues"
• The Edgar Winter Group - 3 plays, 2 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Frankenstein"
• The Firm - 1 play
• The Kinks - 1 play
• The Runaways - 1 play
• Thin Lizzy - 5 plays, 4 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "The Boys Are Back in Town"
• Tom Petty - 1 play
• Triumph - 2 plays, 2 distinct songs
• Twisted Sister - 2 plays, 1 distinct song
  • Played twice: "We're Not Gonna Take It"
• UFO - 5 plays, 5 distinct songs
• Van Halen - 19 plays, 12 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "And the Cradle Will Rock...", "Everybody Wants Some!!", "Feel Your Love Tonight", "Hot for Teacher", "Panama", "Runnin' with the Devil", "Unchained"
• WASP - 1 play
• Whitesnake - 4 plays, 4 distinct songs
• Y&T - 1 play
• Zebra - 1 play
• ZZ Top - 14 plays, 10 distinct songs
  • Played twice: "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "La Grange", "Sharp Dressed Man", "Tush"

It's been a while since I last posted. A rundown of what has happened in the interim is well beyond the scope of this JE.

I. Have. Fallen. Hard. For. This. Girl.

She's a coworker of mine (at least for now...). There's been one encounter outside of work which sorta-kinda evolved into a date (with me, the "first date" has always been somewhat nebulous... each of my previous relationships grew out of a friendship; thus by the time it progresses to a stage where it's undeniably a date, it seems kind of ludicrous to declare that landmark in time as a first date... in short, in matters of the heart, I'm an evolutionist, not a creationist [though with more than a little bit of intelligent design thrown in for good measure ;o) ]).

She's a vegan. My diet is, um, highly carnivorous. We're talking about there being no greater delicacy than a giant cheesesteak (be it Philly or New England style).

She's a member of PETA. She supports, at least at some level, at least one group branded by the powers that be as a terrorist group. In short, she's likely vegan for moral reasons above all else (a ubiquitous "Meat is murder" button on her jacket is possibly also evidence of this).

The conflict should be apparent.

It can't possibly work out, can it? Could you carry on a relationship with someone you view as at least an accessory after the fact to murder? Could you carry on a relationship with someone who would be delusional if they didn't view you as a murderer?

Now, I'm horrid at reading women (or people in general, for that matter), but she seems to be genuinely interested in me. I have no choice but to take her statement-in-passing that I'm the first non-vegan she's socially dined with in some time as some kind of honor: out of the 99-plus percent of the male population that's not vegan, she's at least considering me.

(For the record, I studiously ordered pasta primavera... while not vegan [yummy alfredo sauce], it's a rare meat-free meal for me.)

Given the shyness that breeds the friendship-first phenomenon (see above), I thus tend to evaluate LTR potential (note that this is not an expectation thereof but simply a contemplation there of) before jumping in. This fundamental issue is about the one unresolved one in my mind.

I'm never going to feel comfortable (nor, I suspect, will she) consuming meat in her presence (ovo-lacto type product could very well be acceptable; she herself consumed chocolate cake with whipped cream for dessert; I won't tell any of her vegan friends) nor in any way asking her to be a party thereof.

Can I be an ovo-lacto-vegetarian? A vegetarian/dietary vegan? A dietary vegan who shuns leather (but accepts, say, wool)? A full-on vegan?

Tried to amend my carnivorous habit
Made it nearly a pair of days...
Cheeseburger at City Jake's
-- With apologies to Jimmy Buffett

From Saturday afternoon (I have forgotten when exactly I ate that stromboli) until noon today, I consumed no meat, sort of to see whether I could. There really wasn't anything planned about this... I have no doubt that my crash veg diet was horrible for me and that with enough research and so forth (or simply a knowledgeable vegan to cook for me... ;o) ), I would do much better.

I gotta run, so I'll post this rambling missive as is... post comments below.

Just read Jacob Sullum's column about CrossBalls , on Comedy Central. I had not heard of this show, but I must watch it at some point.

Reason contributing editor, escapee from Communist oppression, Xena fan-fic author, and Boston Globe columnist Cathy Young comments. Too much good stuff to pick out a quote, so I will abstain.

Jesse Walker pretty much sums up my view... [apologies to HuSi readers who have already seen this...]

The Democrats have nominated a senator who--just sticking to the points listed above--voted for the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, McCain-Feingold, and the TSA; who endorses the assault on "indecency"; who thinks the government should be spending even more than it is now. I didn't have room in my top ten for the terrible No Child Left Behind Act, which further centralized control of the country's public schools--but for the record, Kerry voted for that one too. It's far from clear that he'd be any less protectionist than Bush is, and he's also got problems that Bush doesn't have, like his support for stricter gun controls. True, Kerry doesn't owe anything to the religious right, and you can't blame him for the torture at Abu Ghraib. Other than that, he's not much of an improvement.

Yet I find myself hoping the guy wins. Not because I'm sure he'll be better than the current executive, but because the incumbent so richly deserves to be punished at the polls. Making me root for a... blowhard like Kerry isn't the worst thing Bush has done to the country. But it's the offense that I take most personally.

If you're from one of the following states, odds are that you're an overall contributor to the Greatest Country in the History of Earth (in descending order of chance of being a contributor)

• New Jersey
• Connecticut
• New Hampshire
• Nevada
• Massachusetts
• California
• Illinois
• Minnesota
• Colorado
• Delaware
• New York
• Washington
• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• Texas
• Oregon

Congratulations to all of you!

Indianans aren't contributors, but you aren't leeches on those of us who contribute. Just keep this in mind.

And now it comes to the less fun part of this exercise. Who are the leeches? Who's on welfare? Odds are, if you're from one of the states below, you're a despicable person who's dependent on the largesse of the states above (ranked ascending order of leeching):

• Florida
• Georgia
• Ohio
• Wyoming
• North Carolina
• Rhode Island
• Pennsylvania
• Kansas
• Vermont
• Utah
• Nebraska
• Arizona
• Maryland
• Iowa
• Tennessee
• Idaho
• Maine
• Missouri
• South Carolina
• Louisiana
• Virginia
• Kentucky
• Oklahoma
• Arkansas
• Hawaii
• South Dakota
• Alabama
• Montana
• West Virginia
• Mississippi
• Alaska
• North Dakota
• New Mexico

John Edwards' Bursting Media Bubble
Charles Paul Freund

News stories that describe a candidate's apparent weaknesses can allow that candidate to address such issues in public. It's not as if only reporters could see, for example, that Edwards didn't know what he was talking about during some of the candidates' debates. Many voters could see it, too. With no sustained public dialogue about it, Edwards really had no obvious way to resolve voter doubts, leaving voters to take those doubts with them into the polling booth.

[SNIP]

A stark fact that is sometimes obscured by Edwards' positive coverage is that his best claim is to have exceeded early expectations without being able to build on his early success. Indeed, he won no more primaries than did Howard Dean or Wesley Clark: one. Aside from his native South Carolina, Edwards didn't even do well in the South, running behind in such states as Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. Despite his efforts to cherry-pick primaries (another relatively unexplored subject of campaign coverage), he couldn't beat Clark in Oklahoma, couldn't sell protectionism in the Rust Belt, and couldn't make any headway at all against Kerry when they were last two serious candidates standing. True, he had outlasted other Democrats with far more experience, but Edwards' candidacy in its closing days was very like his early candidacy, when few people had heard of him. It had failed to develop depth.

A story I submitted got posted to YRO: Yay! Just posting this for the benefit [???] of any fans who ignore YRO.

Note that it was timothy and not michael who posted it...

An interesting piece by Jesse Walker regarding Reagan's willingness to betray the major constituencies that helped to get him elected:

And if Reagan didn't live up to the expectations of his libertarian supporters, the flipside is that he did the same thing to his backers on the Christian right, and among that species of anti-Communist that seemed unconcerned with the specter of nuclear war.

Due to volume of comments (IINM, my most heavily commented JE yet... 'tis always amazing how popular meta-wankery can be from time to time), I suppose I'd address some of the issues brought up in a second JE...

"Emigrate" may have been a poor choice of word, or it's quite clear that clarity is a good thing . I'm not suggesting that we abandon Slashdot, or even the JE's. I think that SolemnDragon got the gist of what I was thinking about: a sort of complement to the JE's. Cross-posting wouldn't/shouldn't be "against the rules".

History. There is a history of sites that broke off from Slashdot and succeeded (at least for a significant period of time). Kuro5hin is, of course, the dominant example. HuSi, which basically was where a significant portion of the "Kool Kid5" of K5 went when things started going downhill is perhaps even more directly applicable to this idea.

On Scoop. Scoop has a counterpart to messaging called the Hotlist. As implemented at HuSi (which started life as little more than a testbed for Hulver's patches to Scoop), every story (including diaries) that you post is added to your hotlist. Every time a reply to one of your comments is posted, an entry is added to your hotlist. Additionally (and this was the extent of the K5 hotlist for non-subscribers), you can hotlist a story that's particularly interesting and thus be alerted when new comments are posted. K5 subscribers (and all HuSi users) also got the ability to hotlist users, so that whenever they posted, a hotlist entry would be displayed. UI conventions on Scoop sites are to place the hotlist on every page. I know of no limits on hotlist sizes, though I haven't really looked at Scoop's code in a loooong time.

A rough vision. This would not really be a competition to Slashdot. It wouldn't be stories that got rejected by Slashdot (not that there's anything wrong with that or such should be verboten). Would there be a general topic? Not really, though I suppose "the most intelligent user community on the web" might be apt (if possibly a bit conceited). K5's "Technology and Culture" may well be the best summation of what I'd like. We're all reasonably cultured and all reasonably knowledgeable on technology and such; we've got the expertise.

Political commentary: yeah

Game reviews: yeah

Music/Movie/TV/Book reviews: yeah

Interesting news: yeah

Interesting sites: yeah

Random shit from our daily lives: yeah

Humor: yeah

Fiction: why the hell not?

Community structure. I think HuSi has the right idea: if you want to join, fine. If you crap all over the lawn, we'll clean it up and ban you. Knock yourself out.

AC posting. One idea I've had brewing for a while is that AC posting should be preserved, but not immediately visible (as it is open to abuse). Logged-in users get the ability to promote/make visible AC posts. If one logged-in user promotes a post (and thereby essentially certifies, under risk of dire consequences that it's not crap), it's visible for all to see and treated just like any other post from a logged-in user. If three vote "It's crap", the post is no longer eligible for promotion.

Marotti.com. Yes, thoughts of Marotti.com have gone through my head. IMHO, Marotti "failed" because it didn't really differentiate itself from Slashdot (by which I mean the front page). As much as we bitch about the editors here, the story selection, the dupes, and so forth, the fact is that it's difficult to imagine a successful competitor to Slashdot in the "News for Nerds" market. Accordingly, Slashdot's FP should not be the model.

Has the time come for the "FK Circle" (to use a possibly somewhat inaccurate term) to emigrate from Slashdot and move to our own territory, where rather than earn ad money for OSDN, we could have control over how the ad money is distributed?

Maybe something along the lines of Scoop... I realize that K5 is junk nowadays, but I don't think there's a community CMS that matches Scoop in the medium-sized community area (cf. HuSi).

There's enough interesting people who post in this circle to assure no end of content. If things get slow, we could always line up another Guy vs. Dayton no-holds-barred cage match :oD. Get Google ads going and generate enough to pay for hosting (or get somebody to donate a server for sponsorship mentions on every page, or some such), with the extra proceeds being used for charity or something.

If you have a comment, please post in this follow-up JE

My prescription:

• Find the sick Iraqi fucks who beheaded the American, plus their home villages.
• Every unit that had a single person involved even peripherally in the Abu Ghraib torture incidents, military or civilian gets rounded up.
• Everybody in the above groups is furnished with a machine gun and more than sufficient ammo.
• Mark off an area of the desert about four miles square.
• Set 'em against each other.
• Last one standing is beheaded for murder.
• Sell pay-per-view TV of the entire spectacle ($15 sounds reasonable)
• Proceeds from the PPV go to funds to build a functional society in Iraq and help the families of fallen servicepeople.

At least then some good might come out of this whole affair.

• Rhythm & Light , by Carrie Nuttall. A photo collection by Neil's wife of the drum master in the studio.
• Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times , by Neil Peart. This looks like a sequel to Ghost Rider, detailing Pearts travels between dates on 2002's Vapor Trails Tour. Examining the cover art, I make the following observations:
  
  It looks to be done by Hugh Syme (Rush's long time artist). The ear in the rearview mirror resembles Neil's. The cover art to Ghost Rider can be seen in the mirror. The overall style is very reminiscent of Power Windows.

For the past couple of weeks, I have had a Sirius satellite radio.

It. Kicks. Ass.

That's all I can say on this subject.

The New England Patriots have acquired runningback Corey Dillon from the Bengals for the 56th pick in Saturday's NFL Draft.