Brightrock

 An interesting photo essay.  From the photographer's web page:

I wanted to take pictures of people that would reveal a hidden part of their character. So I had them play videogames.

(note:  use the slider at the bottom of his page to scroll through the pictures.) 

Windows Update pushed Internet Explorer 7 to my laptop yesterday.  The first thing I noticed is the welcome addition of tabbed browsing. Better yet, IE 7 adds an interesting new twist: thumbnail tabs.   

Naturally, I had to go and find a Firefox add-on, Showcase, to give Firefox a similar capabilty.

. . . but I've got to finish a work-related project first.

For those of us who have been wondering how the Democrats would try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, this week brought us the "botched joke scandal."  According to the text of Kerry's prepared remarks, he was supposed to say this:

"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

Basically, he left out the word "us".  I saw Tony Snow having great fun on the news claiming that he couldn't see how adding the word "us" would change the meaning, but the difference in meaning looks pretty obvious to me.  (It's still not a great joke, but that's another issue.)

If he had delivered the line as written, I doubt it would have made national news.  Of course, Kerry then made the whole matter worse by saying things like "I apologize to no one" instead of just immediately releasing the text and apologizing for the actual words that he said. While he did apologize, his initial apology left a lot to be desired - see Kerry, In Hole Over Bad Joke, Kept on Digging: Margaret Carlson. What a ridiculous self-inflicted wound!  If I were a Democratic candidate anywhere in this country, I would be more than a bit annoyed about having to deal with this nonsense so close to the election.  (Of course, rank-and-file Republicans would have a similar complaint about the Mark Foley mess.)

As usual, the Daily Show appears to have the best coverage of the incident.  Media Matters also had an interesting take:  Media ignored context of Kerry's remarks and acknowledgments by prominent Republicans that Kerry did not mean to insult troops

The Chronicle is reporting today that a program to offer free flu shots at certain polling places has been cancelled because it might lead to increased voter turnout in Democratic-leaning precincts.  Unfortunately, I have to agree - for the same reason that I think the increased voter identification requirements in Georgia (which would tend to favor Republicans) need serious scrutiny.