October 14, 2002
Strike at Government Lab Enters Third Month.
Strike at Government Lab Enters Third Month. This is happening at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which studies highly contagious viruses. Maintenance workers are on strike and the replacement workers have been involved with missing equipment and an accident. The official site boldly declares that "Not once in our more than 40 years of operation has an animal pathogen escaped from Plum Island." Somehow I am not filled with confidence. And, while they say they only deal with animal pathogens, there is a lot of crossover with Foot and Mouth and West Nile. Should we be worried about this?
Can the current prohibition really be blamed on one guy? First he tells Congress that "marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind" and then World War 2 comes and farmers are encouraged to grow it. After the War, he turns around and tells Congress that it could be used by the Russians to make our men lazy and pacifistic. If he had kept his original argument, our men would be insane killers against the Russian army. What would the country be like if there never was a HARRY J. ANSLINGER ?
Why worry about the economy/job market/war/(insert newest overlord to welcome here) when the world is just going to end anyways?
Why worry about the economy/job market/war/(insert newest overlord to welcome here) when the world is just going to end anyways? A humorous take on the many, many ways the universe could cease to exist, manmade and otherwise.
Lowbrow Art
Lowbrow Art takes its imagery from cartoons , consumer packaging, girlie magazines, big-eyed kitsch, and space-age bachelor pad nostalgia, then combines them into surreal and often nightmarish compositions that appeal to the lowest common denominator in all of us.
Can biaised TV coverage of motorsports events be bought?
Can biaised TV coverage of motorsports events be bought? The Aussport Post says it can. According to the linked article, Ford Australia signed a deal with Network 10, which has exclusive rights to telecast the V8 Supercars series, ensuring that other car manufacturers would be unable to advertise during telecasts of the series, in addition to guarantees of a certain amount of coverage of their cars during the series. Ironically, the car that lead the first 30 laps of the biggest race of the year, the Bathurst 1000, did not carry any Ford signage.
A New Milestone for Video Games?
A New Milestone for Video Games? "Three of the nation's top retailers, including Wal Mart, on Monday said they had refused to carry a new video game billed as the first major release to feature full-action nudity and with prostitutes and pimps as major characters." I enjoyed their "banned ads" myself.
Philosophy or religion? Some people like it, some hate it, some have even annotated it. But however you choose to define it, The Book of Heresies is an interesting approach to the idea of disorganized religion in the modern world.
The Fate of JOHN 3:16
Those of you old enough to remember watching sporting events in the late 70's and early 80's may remeber a gentleman with a rainbow colored wig who enjoyed holding up a sign reading JOHN 3:16. That gentleman was named Rollen Stewart and while he was ubiquitous for a time, he came to sad and bizarre end. His rise and fall detailed in this article and a short movie is an interesting cautionary tale about the nature of celebrity in a media saturated world.
Hail Mary, full of....
Hail Mary, full of.... um.... what was that, again? The only Pope many of us have known, John Paul II, has decided that a millenium is long enough to change a prayer. Odd that two millenia are not enough to revisit female and married priests.
Just Duct-y.....
Just Duct-y..... Hmmm. Duct tape seems to be a fix for everything, even curing warts. Err...don't try this on the genital kind, I guess.
Brawny Man Finalists
Brawny Man Finalists In the most tremendously important link of the day, the time has come for the public to select who will be the one and only Brawny man. The field has been narrowed down to several finalists. Which one will it be? Whose pecs will reign supreme?
Colleges losing money to students using cell phones.
Colleges losing money to students using cell phones. I suppose this only makes sense considering the popularity of wireless phones but I just never associated long distance charges as a money making proposition for colleges.
Microsoft counters Mac's 'Switch' campaign
Microsoft counters Mac's 'Switch' campaign using the testimony of an unnamed 'freelance writer' who seems to be all sorts of things, including a stock photography model.
History of Breakdancing
History of Breakdancing Casual fans of hip hop, breakdancing was a fad whose moment passed before the end of the '80s, tossed into the decade's time capsule along with acid wash and decent John Hughes movies.
Breakdancing may have died, but the b-boy, one of four original elements of hip hop (also included: the MC, the DJ, and the graffiti artist) lives on. To those who knew it before it was tagged with the name breakdancing, to those still involved in the scene that they will always know as b-boying, the tradition is alive and, well, spinning.
Remember Brendan Thompson, the little boy with terminal cancer whose neighborhood put together an early Halloween so he could trick-or-treat? Well, he lost his battle on Thursday morning, but it sounds like his last month was a good one. (scroll to second story)
The fate of Israel’s 10 lost tribes, which, after being driven from ancient Palestine in the eighth century B.C. by Assyrian conquerors, disappeared into ethnic oblivion, ranks among history’s biggest mysteries. Some Israeli rabbis believe descendants of the lost tribes number more than 35 million around the world and could help offset the sharply increasing Palestinian population. The Bnei Menashe of India are part of the solution to Israel’s demographic problems.
How to build a bomb
How to build a bomb isn't all there is to the Internet as press would have you think. Anyway it's harder than just getting some plans, as this guy found out.
So why not build a bomb shelter instead? Or build your own train, hovercraft, speedboat, car or plane - can't fly - don't worry build a flight simulator! Toast your success with DIY firewater cooked with your solar furnace. Enjoy your CB radio, listen to MP3s or toy with your sextant. And with all the kinky clothes and loads of pervy toys to make who has time to build bombs? I can see the bumper stickers now "Make leg spreaders, not war!"
Critique of the Pax Americana
Critique of the Pax Americana by Jay Bookman; a response by Donald Kagan, one of the plan's architects; and a response to Kagan by Bookman. (via Tapped)
Tools you can use.
Tools you can use. In my line of work, I'm often tasked with finding out information about local telephone numbers. This website is an invaluable aid to that end such as the ability to type in someone's area code and prefix and find out where the number is located, or to find out all the prefixes in a given area (ratecenter). Now you too can identify strange unidentified phone numbers your Caller ID reports to you.
"No sir, that's not my fido."
"No sir, that's not my fido." Iranian cleric denounces the "moral depravity" of owning dogs, and calls for their arrest. (Both dogs and owners.) "In our country there is freedom of speech, but not freedom for corruption," he said. Why do we pretend to understand the culture of the middle east?
Facing Time:
Facing Time: A family's yearly self-portrait from 1976 to 2002 is both uplifting and unsettling; a bit like human life itself. How does one separate the morbid fascination with aging from the spiritual joy of growth? Not to mention the element of voyeurism... [From ZoneZero, via Eclectica.]
So, I saw an interesting film this weekend. Here's a great site about the experiment on which it was based. Here's another equally disturbing experiment. Or you can just have fun running some psychological test on yourself. But, at the end of the day, who are we? Of what are we capable?
Wisconsin "loses" 2,900 sex offenders.
Wisconsin "loses" 2,900 sex offenders. It seems that the state of Wisconsin has "misplaced" approximately 2,900 of it's 9,000+ population of registered sex offenders. Apparently, they've moved within or out of the state without letting the state know. Jim Stingl of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel thinks we should all pitch in and help find those missing offenders, and offers some ways he's helping out already
Adipose Nation: It's Time To Tax The Fat
Adipose Nation: It's Time To Tax The Fat A Swiftian proposition to create a "glutton tax" for the ever-growing numbers of obese Americans. This topic is being thrown around a lot these days. Yesterday's New York Times (nyt registration req'd) presented a more factual, sober accounting of it stating yet again, that nearly two-thirds of Americans adults 20 to 74 years old are classified as overweight.
Cruelty.
Cruelty. (.swf file) Via the NYT Review of Books. Felix Jung hijacks your cursor (briefly) for a poetry break.
They don't mean it
They don't mean it Maureen Dowd suggests an Orwellian vision in Washington, wherein the Democrats and their Republican opponents say what they don't mean and mean what they don't say.
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