October 10, 2002

Wired just got hit with the ugly stick
posted by zeoslap at 11:57 PM PST - 54 comments

vs. Spy is going to travel the world!

vs. Spy is going to travel the world! He is planning on going on a round the world trip on little more than some (small amount of) money, some gumption and some luck. By hook or by crook, he's going to go to South America, and then hopefully to Africa and other places after that. I think it's incredibly gutsy to do that sort of thing, just pick up and walk around the world. Anyone else done anything like that? Any advice or links?
posted by geekhorde at 11:31 PM PST - 5 comments

US Dept. of Education to erase website info which "does not reflect the priorities, philosophies, or goals of the present administration."

US Dept. of Education to erase website info which "does not reflect the priorities, philosophies, or goals of the present administration." Can you say 1984? Say it now....OVER and OVER and OVER again so you can GET USED TO IT......a brutal, clever strategy of the Bush Adm.to rewrite reality: erase problematic info and then channel money to people willing to produce the right stuff. Samizdat opportunity -- use a website capture program: WebWhacker costs $, but there are freeware site suckers available too. Orwell is turning in his grave.....Download and archive this stuff before it gets erased. Remember, Information Wants to Be Free!...or does it?
posted by troutfishing at 10:46 PM PST - 8 comments

Ferret Man for Lieutenant Governor?

Ferret Man for Lieutenant Governor? The candidate for Lieutenant Governor of the Libertarian Party of California has made it his personal crusade to legalize the domestication of ferrets in his home state. This is a reasonable political cause, but it has left the impression that California Libertarians are wacko, a trend that even bothers some Libertarians. Oh yes, the official Libertarian candidate for governor is a practicing Druid who lists Gene Roddenberry (?) as one of his favorite political philosophers. Is there something in the water at Libertarian Party meetings?
posted by jonp72 at 10:39 PM PST - 16 comments

Beyond Peyote

Everyone's heard of peyote as a psychotropic drug of choice coming from Native American tradition, but peyote is far from the only kid on the block.
posted by nick.a at 10:25 PM PST - 10 comments

And so it is.

And so it is. At approximately 1:20 a.m., the Senate passed S.J. Res 45, a resolution authorizing the use of military force against Iraq. The vote: 77 yea, 23 nay. Some surprising yeas, including Clinton and Daschle. What happens next?
posted by damn yankee at 10:24 PM PST - 122 comments

"The Bookmobile

"The Bookmobile [Internet Archive version] is a rolling digital library capable of downloading public domain books from the Internet via satellite and printing them anytime, anywhere, for anyone. Just as the bookmobiles of the past brought wonderful books to people in towns across America, this century's bookmobile will bring an entire digital library to their grandchildren."
This, then, is the sharp end of the Copyright extension argument currently before your Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft, [as blogged by all & sundry] [More inside...]
posted by dash_slot- at 7:49 PM PST - 7 comments

Not standing up to Bush on Iraq is costing the Democrasts money.

Not standing up to Bush on Iraq is costing the Democrasts money. I work fund raising for the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC, and all three have seen a drop in fund raising dollars over the last two months. The Dems claim it's a good year no matter what the numbers say, but I beg to differ, as a person working the frontline of their telemarketing campaigns the callers are hearing serious complaints from the donors, and we in middle management are getting no response on what to tell the donors. With the House having voted for Bush's resolution, and the Senate set to pass it, is it too late to save face with their donors?
posted by jbou at 7:14 PM PST - 11 comments

DID YOU

DID YOU EVER WONDER HOW THE FBI KNEW ALL THESE NAMES FIVE MINUTES AFTER THE ATTACK ON AMERICA? I know its just another anonymous site about 9-11 but it does highlight some interesting facts and prompts some questions about what the US government knew prior to the attack.
posted by JonnyX at 5:28 PM PST - 26 comments

You Shall Know Our Velocity,

You Shall Know Our Velocity, but you shall not buy it from Amazon or other large booksellers. The new novel by Dave Eggers is out. The reviews have come in quite positively (Time, Newsweek, NYT, SF Chronicle, among others). The main topic of discussion, though, is not the quality of the book, but the ego/stance/plan of Dave Eggers to not publish and sell it more widely (only 10,000 copies on first run). Will Dave Eggers succeed at NOT being a major commercial success, or will it happen despite his best efforts?
posted by msacheson at 4:33 PM PST - 37 comments

Messenger Spam,

Messenger Spam, for those of you on Windows 2000/XP, you might want to check this out. I don't think it's going to be an isolated phenomena, seeing as how other bloggers (link has a link to a picture) are reporting it. Luckily, the first link has an easy solution to the problem, non-savvy users might be quite perplexed with the "important" looking dialogue box.
posted by geoff. at 3:49 PM PST - 13 comments

Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine is opening tomorrow. I know muckraking Michael Moore is a touchy subject around here, but I found his first feature since Roger & Me insightful in its stubborn search for an answer to the question: "Why is America so violent?" Other reviewers agree. Subtle he isn't, but when the news is as stark as it is today, maybe subtlety is beside the point. I hope that even some of you who aren't predisposed to agree with Moore will give this film a chance. Did I mention it's also entertaining as hell?
posted by muckster at 1:52 PM PST - 48 comments

A Charlotte couple

A Charlotte couple who has been fighting for nearly two years to regain custody of their 10 children from the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services (DSS) could be thrown in jail if a district court judge finds them to be in contempt of court after a hearing tomorrow. When does government have the right to take your children without any explaination? And why will no one from our government discuss this situation?
posted by Macboy at 1:47 PM PST - 42 comments

TiVo, we hardly knew ye.

TiVo, we hardly knew ye. After burning through $200 million in capital since 1997, TiVo has yet to turn a profit. Despite a cult following and 500,000 subscribers, Brendan Koerner concludes that TiVo is destine for the ash heap of history. So what do you think? Will TiVo be the next Apple Newton or Commodore Amiga?
posted by ncurley at 12:31 PM PST - 79 comments

"Your car will be watching the road even if you're not"

"Your car will be watching the road even if you're not" Or so says DaimlerChrysler in their new ad campaign. Electronic eyes, infrared systems, ways to keep your eyes on the road better.... All in good time, as we all expected - but wouldn't you be worried if your car could just stop itself if it saw a squirrel in the road? (via the Wall St. Journal ad 10/9/02)
posted by djspicerack at 11:15 AM PST - 23 comments

Digital Clendening

Digital Clendening The University of Kansas Medical Center has an interesting archive of images and text relating to the medical profession. I'm not sure how I happened on this (I was just cleaning out my bookmarks - some google search found this but I don't recall what I was searching for).
posted by substrate at 10:19 AM PST - 6 comments

Pigs aren't the only animals getting cosmetic surgery:

Pigs aren't the only animals getting cosmetic surgery: Cows in dairy shows are getting all manner of 'boob jobs' in a practice some compare to primping for the Miss America Pageant. "People really hate it when I compare cows to humans, but it's kind of the same," says one dairy farmer. Let's ignore the potential danger to human health of injecting stuff like silver directly into udders. My question is: Is there really such a wide gulf between Western culture's obsession with womens' breasts and and our refusal to wean ourselves, unlike the rest of the world, from milk?
posted by soyjoy at 9:42 AM PST - 76 comments

People are talking. Now, someone's listening.

People are talking. Now, someone's listening. Late-from-the-gate tech startup BuzzMetrics "analyzes, measures, monitors, & influences the unaided consumer discussions that naturally occur in online communities." If that's not spooky enough, they continue: "Some consumers have more influence over public opinion than others, but targeting them has always been extremely difficult." BuzzMetrics is happy to identify negative posters and research their posting histories, among other services. Does this toe an ethical line? Does it change how you post to online conversations? Oh, yeah -- they're hiring.
posted by busbyism at 8:04 AM PST - 9 comments

"I've halved my motoring costs since I started running my diesel Subaru on cooking oil. The car runs just as well and even smells a lot better than diesel."

"I've halved my motoring costs since I started running my diesel Subaru on cooking oil. The car runs just as well and even smells a lot better than diesel."

The police 'Frying Squad' are on the case and "home in on any car smelling like a mobile fish and chip shop". Other than the dreadful puns, are there other reasons why we shouldn't all run our cars on Mazola?
posted by niceness at 7:58 AM PST - 42 comments

When pigs fly

When pigs fly - This journal by the artist Andy Feehan details his work with tattooed hairless animals. Regardless of your immediate reaction to the art, Feehan's compassion and love for the animals is sure to win you over. Normally, I disprove of weblog cross-posts, but I couldn't resist sharing after finding this via memepool.
posted by dirtylittlemonkey at 7:45 AM PST - 8 comments

Henrietta's Cells

Henrietta Lacks, a Baltimore housewife, died in 1951. Some of her cells did not die. In fact, had they been allowed to grow unchecked, they would have taken over the world by now. As it is, even as they proved invaluable to medical researchers, their baffling ability to regenerate resulted in contamination of three decades of cellular research, costing medical researchers millions of dollars. As far as science can tell, Henrietta's cells will never die. Creepy!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:39 AM PST - 29 comments

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's decision to postpone the selection of a new dean of the Graduate School of Journalism and instead form a task force to rethink the school's direction and purpose has inspired some media commentators to ask the question: do journalism schools do any good? Claire Hoy is skeptical; Jack Shafer seems to be neither for them nor against them.
posted by mcwetboy at 7:38 AM PST - 7 comments

Ignore the fact we fired the last guy who spoke up. Anyone else want to say anything?

Ignore the fact we fired the last guy who spoke up. Anyone else want to say anything? Aquila head asks for comments, and fires the guy who points out that the $7.6 million severance package given to his brother would have kept 152 employees on the payroll at $50,000 each. (He also copied 1 or 2 thousand of his closest friends.) Who's right here? Would you express yourself freely?
posted by kcmoryan at 6:18 AM PST - 37 comments

San Francisco Psychedelic Poster Art Archive

High Art. Rick Griffin's famous flying eyeball poster is considered by many to be the single finest example of San Francisco psychedelic poster art. The image comes from this fabulous motherlode of eye candy that is Paul Olsen's Fillmore and Avalon poster collection. It is the largest and most complete collection of its sort. He would like to sell it as a whole--The Whitney Museum wants to buy it but can't afford it. That should tell you something. Come step behind the Indian bedspread curtain and smell the incense.
posted by y2karl at 6:12 AM PST - 20 comments

Nobel Prize for Literature.

Nobel Prize for Literature. We've got a winner. Imre Kertesz from Hungary. Ever heard of him?
posted by ushuaia at 4:01 AM PST - 16 comments

That's "hearts and minds" to you, sunshine.

That's "hearts and minds" to you, sunshine. As a former PSYOPer my ownself, I found this Village Voice primer on the field reasonably accurate on the facts, if rather skewed as to their interpretation. But what's a nonviolently-inclined soldier to do? What other methods of "winning without fighting" might be acceptable to a leadership seemingly hell-bent on bloodshed?
posted by adamgreenfield at 1:29 AM PST - 11 comments

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