Skeuomorphism — mimicking real-life objects on the computer screen — may have died along with Steve Jobs.

And it seems doomed if it's viewed as cute or ornamental, but there's also the argument based on functionality.

You might wonder why beauty for it's own sake won't work as an argument, but the problem is those in a position to decide probably committed to an aesthetic that aligns beauty and simplicity.

"To be fair and consistent, you have to read this as a posthumous indictment of Joe Paterno..."

This = "The charges filed last week accusing three former Penn State administrators of engaging in a 'conspiracy of silence' to cover up child sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky raise questions about whether legendary football Coach Joe Paterno could have been charged if he were still living."

When Chris Wallace raises the topic of Libya, David Axelrod laughs.

On Fox News Sunday just now:



ADDED: Here's the transcript.

"A rising tide of outrage is forming after pictures emerged of a 20-year-old diver who dragged a giant Pacific octopus from its watery home..."

"... and then killed and ate it for his friends art project."

[Dylan Mayer] now is in the position of having to justify to the diving community why he hunted the gentle and intelligent animal....

'I eat it for meat. It's no different than fishing. It's just a different animal,' said Mayer...

So what is it — meat or art? Let's not overdo the denunciations. Portraying him as an artist....

ADDED: Octopus art should relate to "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife."

"Little girls should not be exposed to naked men, period."

On the other hand: "The college cannot discriminate based on the basis of gender identity." And: "This is not 1959 Alabama. We don't call the police for drinking from the wrong water fountain."

At Obama's Milwaukee rally, Katy Perry sang "Let's Stay Together" and then ripped off her dress...

... to reveal a tighter, shorter dress that Obama's slogan/Wisconsin's motto "Forward" written on it in big letters. That was Milwaukee. Monday Obama comes to Madison, but we get Springsteen, not Perry.

MOOCs — Massive open online courses...

"... have caught fire in academia." 

They offer, at no charge to anyone with Internet access, what was until now exclusive to those who earn college admission and pay tuition. Thirty-three prominent schools, including the universities of Virginia and Maryland, have enlisted to provide classes via Coursera.

For his seven-week course — which covers advanced math and statistics in the context of public health and biomedical sciences — [Brian] Caffo posts video lectures, gives quizzes and homework, and monitors a student discussion forum. On the first day, the forum lit up with greetings from around the world. Heady stuff for a 39-year-old associate professor who is accomplished in his field but hardly a global academic celebrity.

“I can’t use another word than unbelievable,” Caffo said. Then he found some more: “Crazy . . . surreal . . . heartwarming.”

A crazy, surreal, heatwarming, graduate-level math class.

“The real question is, if you start to get very good online MOOCs, why do you need a university?” said Joseph A. Burns, dean of faculty at Cornell University. “And what does an Ivy League university bring to the table? What do you give to students that they can’t get sitting at home and eating potato chips?” The campus ideal, he said, “of a teacher and five students crowded around their feet on a sunny lawn or something like that — that’s gone.["]

The NY Daily News endorses Romney.

It endorsed Obama in '08, but it doesn't always endorse the Democrat. It endorsed Bush in 2004.

Here's today's endorsement.



Interesting halo effect around Mitt's head. I thought that was reserved for Obama.

At the Mid-Autumn Café...

... sharp contrast.

Romney up by 1 in...

... !!!... Minnesota!

"Unprecedented micro-targeting by campaigns creeps out voters."

And they're especially willing to say so when they're targeted by their zip code and they don't agree with the party that dominates there:

"It was Mitt Romney saying, 'I know you have an absentee ballot and I know you haven't sent it in yet,' " Trulen said in an interview. "That just sent me over the line. Not only is it like Big Brother. It is Big Brother. It's down to where they know I have a ballot and I haven't sent it in! I thought when I requested the ballot that the only other entity that would know was the Mukwonago clerk.... It's alarming to me.... It's just not right. . . . It's like you can feel the tentacles creeping into your house under your door."

The calls to Trulen were likely part of the GOP's effort to get out the vote in what the party considers one of its strongest counties. Waukesha County is traditionally a Republican stronghold, just as Milwaukee tends to go for Democrats.

The irony is that the robocallers apparently haven't figured out Trulen is actually a minority in her county: She has been voting Democratic.

For comparison, check out the "report card" the liberals send to our house yesterday... "I'm sure they chose Meade as a recipient based on our zip code."

"Billionaire Thomas Peterffy's ‘socialist’ ads raise questions."

Headlines Politico, pointing its readers at a very effective ad that they might otherwise avoid:



The "questions" referred to in the headline are about who is helping Peterffy, a political neophyte, to make and place such ad. But there's nothing interesting there, and Peterffy comes across as an intelligent, persuasive independent:

Typically, such ads call for supporting or opposing specific candidates, but Peterffy’s ad is more vague because it doesn’t mention specific candidates — only an encouragement to vote Republican....

Peterffy said he supports Republican candidates because he sees the rhetoric of social justice and fairness from Democrats, including President Barack Obama, as a slippery slope. He also said Romney’s 47 percent comment reflected his own fears about the future of the country and was taken out of context.

“My understanding was that he said he had no ability to influence the 47 percent,” Peterffy said. “That’s the very logic I’m based on. I’m worried about when that 47 percent goes to 60 percent.”

What time do polls close?

Here's a useful map for those of you who are trying to picture the way the news will roll out on Tuesday night. What places will we hear from first? Where might we see surprisingly early evidence of a Romney blowout, if that's what's about to happen? The earliest sign might come from Virginia, where the polls close at 7 ET. I was imagining Pennsylvania as the possible first sign, but polls don't close there until 8, at which point we'll be seeing Michigan and Missouri. Ohio and North Carolina come in at 7:30, so the impression from Ohio will precede Pennsylvania.

"Thugs have been masquerading as Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) workers, knocking on doors in the dead of night."

In Queens, where people "say the real workers have been nowhere in sight" and they're "arming themselves with guns, baseball bats, booby traps — even a bow and arrow — to defend against looters."

"California grandmother steps forward just in time to claim $23 million lottery jackpot."

The 5 months had nearly passed, and the newspapers, hoping to prompt the ticket buyer into noticing, put up a blurry picture of the woman who seems to have bought the ticket:

On Thursday, someone texted [Julie Cervera] a photo of her daughter, Charliena Marquez, buying the winning ticket for her at a Palmdale Liquor store....

“I put my 99-cent glasses on, and I had to put two pairs on to see it,” said Cervera, 69, of Victorville. She recognized her daughter in the grainy photo, but she still couldn’t read the caption....

Cervera, a widow who has lived on disability for 20 years, said her family has been through difficult times recently. Last year her 47-year-old son Rudy was killed in a motorcycle accident, leaving four teenage children.

“I’d give it all up to have my son here again,” she said and began to cry...

“My grandkids are all going to be taken care of, and my (three) daughters,” she said. “I’m just so happy. I’m going to buy me a pair of Reeboks.” 

We called in Language Log — over the Biden gaffe/non-gaffe — and Language Log responded.

"There's never been a day I wasn't happy to oblige either Ann Althouse or Ron Hardin, and especially not both of them."

LOL. Thanks!