two dimensions

Posted on Sunday, 2003 November 09 by Anton

Tim Lambert (Deltoid) is compiling a table of bloggers’ scores in a Political Compass quiz. I scored in the middle of the Right Libertarian quadrant, close to Will Wilkinson (The Fly Bottle). I suspect I’d be further left if some of the questions were worded differently.

Later: I wonder whether the creators of the Compass website are doing any factor analysis on the responses (analogous to that which produced the Animation of Congress) to check the validity of their scoring rules. (I also wish I had a clue about how factor analysis is done.)

Update!

2006: I didn’t record my exact score back then; so I did the quiz again just now and scored (+4.63, -5.85).

Posted in blogdom, me!me!me!, politics | 4 Comments

the swarthy Canadian menace, II

Posted on Saturday, 2003 November 08 by Anton

A year ago Maher Arar, a citizen of Canada, was arrested at a New York airport on his way home, and deported to Syria. I suspected he’d never be seen again, but he is now back in Canada, much the worse for wear.

Nov.15: a longer story (New York Times)

Posted in race, security theater | Leave a comment

the turning of the year

Posted on Saturday, 2003 November 08 by Anton

Rainy season has begun.

Posted in California | Leave a comment

tangled threads, but not infinitely so

Posted on Saturday, 2003 November 08 by Anton

U.S. Surname Distribution. (Link from James Grimmelmann.)

Most of the names I tried show an anomaly in some part of the Deep South (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana); for example, Sherwood is rarest in Alabama. Exceptions include Wheeler, about equally common in every State, and Manlove, almost unknown outside Delaware.

Posted in history, language | Leave a comment

overlooked aspects of Web infrastructure

Posted on Saturday, 2003 November 08 by Anton

One useful 404 notice:

The requested URL /~bthomas/vamp/vampecology.htm was not found on this server.

bthomas is not a current Leland user.

That saves me the trouble of climbing down the directory tree.

Posted in neep-neep | 1 Comment

our shows are formidable

Posted on Saturday, 2003 November 08 by Anton

Oo, if I’m very good will Santa bring me a replica of King Arthur’s helmet (as worn by Graham Chapman)? (link from Jo.)

Posted in arts | Leave a comment

if youth knew, if age could

Posted on Saturday, 2003 November 08 by Anton

Jim Henley wrote a year ago:

Sadly, Unqualified Offerings changed its mind about drug prohibition well after it was too old to benefit personally.

That’s odd. Jim is a couple of mere weeks older than the Ogre, who remains convinced that a change in drug policy (particularly an amendment by shredder) would do him some good.

Posted in blogdom, drugwar | Leave a comment