“I find it interesting and amazing, and she would have stood alone among all the prochoice members of Congress, all the members of the Massachusetts delegation," Capuano said in an interview. “She claims she wants to honor Ted Kennedy’s legacy on health care. It’s pretty clear that a major portion of this was his bill."

I'll be voting for Coakley because she had the courage to stand up. I don't care if Capuano later changed his mind (which he did), that clarity of purpose and understanding of this core human right makes me respect Coakley. It was a defining moment for me in this senatorial election.

I've signed up as a volunteer (something I always mean to do but rarely get enough together to do) and I'll be voting for her on December 8th.

I think its fair to say that the idea that humanity has not been the only resident of the earth, and it may not currently be the only resident is a staple of horror and conspiracy genres, and certainly of the "secret service" style.

Secret races, antediluvian survivors, and even aliens all seem to fit into this, and most seem to be heavily inspired by Blavatsky.

• What are folks favorite versions of this, the ones that work particularly well for you.
• Can anyone think of non-Blavatsky influenced versions, is that even possible?

My thoughts on how a Delta Green/Ordo Veritas/Aegis organization might look. ( An outline )

This article on Ecocomics explores one of my favorite What If? scenarios in superhero comics, and probably the thing that would most likely to get me gaming in a superhero universe.

The same thing can easily apply to the supernatural. While I am certainly a fan of secret histories, I think both of these could do more with a shot of alternate history at times.

Makes me want to run a Lexicon for the first time in a long while. Or maybe this is something Wave can be good for (still trying to get my mind around Wave)

Thanks to telepresence I've received a Google Wave invite. Which is way cool. Unfortunately, it seems that Google Wave does not like Internet Explorer without the Chrome plugin -- which is a big no-no at work (we have locked down desktops, yeah 21CFR part 11 requirements!)

So I can only Wave from home. Hopefully this is something Google fixes.

DARPA is studying a concept of taking a large spacecraft and splitting it up into several smaller, interconnected components

I, for one, look forward to DARPA's decision to utilize stylized lion designs for spacecraft.

I have two questions arising from this chart. The first is why is any horror movie ever made as big budget? You'd think the studios would start a scholarship fund and just hand out $20k grants to film students and art school types. Cheaper than what they do to make horror movies, and if only 1% of them en up being good they still make a ton of money.

The second questions, is why aren't I making a horror movie?

Far from the shore stands the gray lighthouse, above sunken slimy rocks that are seen when the tide is low, but unseen when the tide is high. Past that beacon for a century have swept the majestic barques of the seven seas. In the days of my grandfather there were many; in the days of my father not so many; and now there are so few that I sometimes feel strangely alone, as though I were the last man on our planet. -- HP Lovecraft, "The White Ship"

The Bray family of Gloucester has gathered from far and wide for the family funeral of Alison Gerard, daughter, wife and mother of the family, who recently passed away. Funerals are always strange in large families. While it is a chance to say goodbye to a member of the family, it can also be the only time a far flung family gets together, which can bring out old rivalries and forgotten events.

As members of the Bray family you have come from far and wide to Gloucester to say goodbye to one of your own. Each of you has a particular background, and set of skills, which has made Michael Bray, aged patriarch, call upon you to look into the strange events of Alison Gerard’s death.

This is a Halloween-themed Gumshoes game set on the coast of New England, with a focus on the ocean and its borders, including lighthouses and shipping. Discover the hidden and not so hidden legacies of your family, and the mysterious haunted coast of New England.

So I read that

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.

Can anyone on my friends list share a personal example? I'm having trouble using this idea for a story I'm working on.

I wonder, has anyone written a good book recently on the history of vaccine hysteria and the role of conspiracy thinking? The current anti-H1N1 vaccine hysteria is ripe with conspiracy craziness.

And for the record, my entire family will be receiving the H1N1 vaccine as soon as possible. It is no different then the flu shot they just got and have received every year.

Anyone know any alternate histories where Henry Wallace continued as VP and succeeds Franklin D. Roosevelt and not Truman?

peaseblossom already wrote up our thoughts of Paranormal Activity here. I'm pretty sure it has little replay value. I do have to go and watch Blair Witch project to see if it has replay value.

I think the building of mythology is crucial to the horror experience (the mythology doesn't have to be right, it just has to have resonance), and its lack in this movie is probably one of its greatest failings.

I also have to wonder if the underemployed quasi-hipsterness of Katie and Micah is a something that will date the movie.

Also, the actress who played Katie reminds me of a co-worker.

What exactly does the National Republican Congressional Committee mean when it says that Nancy Pelosi needs to be put "in her place"?

Does that "place" involve a back hand slap? A punch to the gut? A tumble down stairs?

Does it perhaps involve any of the following list?

• monitors what you're doing all the time
• criticizes you for little things
• constantly accuses you of being unfaithful
• prevents or discourages you from seeing friends or family, or going to work or school
• gets angry when drinking alcohol or using drugs
• controls how you spend your money
• controls your use of needed medicines
• humiliates you in front of others
• destroys your property or things that you care about
• threatens to hurt you, the children, or pets, or does hurt you (by hitting, beating, pushing, shoving, punching, slapping, kicking, or biting)
• uses or threatens to use a weapon against you
• forces you to have sex against your will
• blames you for his or her violent outbursts

Scarily enough, it kind of does.....

So not only are republicans starting to sound more and more like Klansmen, they are woman abusing klansmen as well (wait is that redundant?)

All those celebrities pinning for Polanski should instead find the money to help these fellows out. There are huge problems with sex offender laws in this country, but they mostly have to do with the long-lingering never ending punishments of those who have served their time. Some of them after having committed crimes as minors.

Anyone complaining about justice being misserved in arresting a 70 year old fugitive from justice should think of what justice means, and if they still think maybe this is too much they should think of those who served their time and get a whole lot worse.

And don't even get me started on the massive victim blaming that's going on. Anyone who mouths that sort of obscenities does not deserve my time.

Roman Polanski is a convicted rapist who plead guilty and then fled the country where he's been a fugitive ever since. Everyone who argues any different is an idiot and should be ashamed.

I hate all the laws this country has passed that require GPS anklets and announcements and even can allow states to keep child rapists in jail for ever. However, I equally hate the idea that anyone can get separate treatment because they are an "artist" or because they are rich. Both of what Polanski has been getting away with for decades and what anyone who is decrying his arrest is basically saying should be the way things are done.

Today at the Farmer's Market we ran into Mayor Menino (who bought the last apple pie!) and he commented on how cute starchild was, and we exchanged a few words. The starchild was obviously more into the cider or the strawberries, because when we got home and I mentioned that to peaseblossom, the starchild was all "We met the mayor?"

Recently I read Leonard Zeskind's Blood and Politics, an excellent overview of rightwing extremism, charting every twist, turn and rivalry of various groups, movements and adherents that are "hate-oriented toward particular religious, racial or ethnic groups, and are mainly anti-government,and provides a context in which to assess them and offers an extended look inside a little-understood cultural zone that is really a panoply of small groups. I think this is one of the best overviews of the subject I've read. The continuity he provides to these various groups and the growth of ideas really puts a lot of current political discourse from the right in perspective, which is why I think more folks should read it.

I certainly find myself returning to it everytime I read about Glenn beck, birthers or even the health care debate.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Queen and Country, but this article where they say a movie based on the Rucka comic would be the female version of The Bourne Identity is hilarious. Seeing as its the female version of The Sandbaggers with a de-emphasis on the cool politics of the Sandbaggers (Tara is a woman Willie Caine, which is funny since there is a male version of Willie Caine too).