January 8, 2004
Stardust
Close-up images of comet Wild 2 were taken by the Stardust spacecraft on Jan. 2, and NASA released 2 of them this week. The spacecraft flew within 149 miles of the comet, 242 million miles from Earth. Stardust has been overshadowed by the Mars Exploration Rover, but I find it just as impressive, if not even more so. Now I'm looking forward to the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which will reach Saturn on July 1.
Small. Mini. Kingsize. iBed. 10,000 songs under your duvet.
Forget iPods and mini iPods. This guy is going large and wants to build an mp3 player into his new bed. I'm sure you're saying this has been done before. Well, not quite. This is a bed that looks like Luke Skywalker's landspeeder decked out in tan suede. '70s junk meets 2004's latest technology. But can we point him to a solution to his mp3 playing problems?
Marginalia and Other Crimes
Marginalia and Other Crimes: I’ve always had an intense hatred for people that deface books, and if they're my books, the intensity is doubled. But imagine the atrocities the average librarian faces every day...
Witness this display of damaged and defiled books from the Cambridge University library, with attached sarcastic commentary. The horror! Not for the squeamish.
Final Fatality: the direct-to-video movie title generator.
Final Fatality: the direct-to-video movie title generator. Now all you need is Chuck Norris or the guy from Beastmaster and a DV camera! And, Ka-Ching! Watch the money roll in!
Buy this art!
Buy this art! or just spend a lot of time looking.
Eleventh hour stories
Eleventh hour stories: a project to gather true tales of war from the past 100 years from civilians, soldiers and veterans: " The telling and the receiving of these stories are activities that say: 'This must stop here and now.'"
The phrase ''Banana Republican'' comes to mind
I.M.F. Report Says U.S. Deficits Threaten World Economy
With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund. Prepared by a team of I.M.F. economists, the report sounded a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits pose "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world. The report warns that the United States' net financial obligations to the rest of the world could be equal to 40 percent of its total economy within a few years--"an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial country," according to the fund, that could play havoc with the value of the dollar and international exchange rates.
From The Brookings Institute: Sustained Budget Deficits: Longer-Run U.S. Economic Performance and the Risk of Financial and Fiscal Disarray (Full Report PDF)
With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund. Prepared by a team of I.M.F. economists, the report sounded a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits pose "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world. The report warns that the United States' net financial obligations to the rest of the world could be equal to 40 percent of its total economy within a few years--"an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial country," according to the fund, that could play havoc with the value of the dollar and international exchange rates.
From The Brookings Institute: Sustained Budget Deficits: Longer-Run U.S. Economic Performance and the Risk of Financial and Fiscal Disarray (Full Report PDF)
What busking could teach the music industry
What busking could teach the music industry An intelligent essay on how the music industry should adapt to the new digital realities, drawn from the author's experiences as a street (well, subway) musician. No one who could learn from it will read it, of course.
Gulag
City on Fire
City on Fire - a fairly long article on the effects of a large (300 kt) nuclear detonation. Gives new insight into the potential dangers of nuclear proliferation.
Greek Urban Blues
Rebetika, Music of the Greek Underground • "It originated in the hashish dens of Pireaus and Thessaloniki with the forced immigration of 2 million Greek refugees from Asia Minor." Audio samples here, more backstory, photos and a curious site supporting "Rebetiko Dechiotification and Bouzouki Detetrachordization".
Googlearchy
Googlearchy: How a few heavily-linked sites dominate politics on the Web. [pdf file] Political communities exhibit winner-take-all properties. Surprising?
Photoshop BS
Photoshop BS - Photoshop CS blocks you from using, opening, or pasting certain images. Namely, this image.
Electronic gaming monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly published this. It's a photoshopped picture of a group of Russian soldiers holding the game Socom 2. Trouble is the picture should have looked like this, Russian soldiers holding up pictures of soldiers who died in Chechnya. Whatever you think of that war this is in pretty poor taste (added to the fact it's an advert for a shoot 'em up), but thankfully there is now an online petition to get them to take it down.
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