|
Weblogs
Abuddhas
Also Not Found
Bellona Times
Betacorpo
Boing Boing
Consumptive
Dack
Daily Jive
Dangerousmeta
Dr. Menlo
Dumbmonkey
Evac/Flush
FollowMeHere
Ghost/Machine
GmtPlus9
IncomingSignals
Journalista
LAM
Library Stuff
Linkmachinego
MobyLives
Mousemusings
OpenSewer
O.T. Linguistics
Photographica
Plep
Poor Clio
Portage
Post-atomic
Quiddity
RandomAbstract
Random Walks
Red Rock Eater
Riley Dog
Sassafrass
Shikencho
Spitting Image
Travelers
Unknown News
Wood s Lot
xBlog
email me
The Archive
|
Word Scans Indicate New Ways Of Searching The Web
Friday, February 21, 2003
Kleinberg and others have found that despite its anarchy, there is a great deal of "self-organization" on the Web. In a variation on the "six degrees of separation" idea, Kleinberg says, almost every site on the Web can be reached from almost any other through a series of steps. The structure seems to be a bit like the Milky Way galaxy, with a very dense "core" of heavily interconnected sites surrounded by less dense regions. Nodes outside the core are divided into three categories: "upstream" nodes that link to the core but cannot be reached from it; "downstream" nodes that can be reached from the core but don't link back to it; and isolated "tendrils" that are not linked directly to the core at all.
This article has got my synapses popping. Carnivore of course. Since the feds are resorting to electronic snooping, you can be sure they're reading web pages as well. Second is the hype about the Google/Pyra thing.Love us! Validate us! Please!
Third is the annoying and just plain wrong term 'blogosphere'. It ain't a sphere, but more of a galactic supercluster, as dumbmonkey reminds us.
The infinite scales to the quantum level
(Back online in March)
Americans focus their anger on France
Monday, February 17, 2003
OK France, you better support our unilateral invasion of Iraq or we won't buy your overpriced wine and stinky cheese! So there!
Bulgaria "Threatens" France on U.S. Wine Market
Be sure to read the comments.
Congressmen urge U.S. boycott of Paris air show
State rep: Stop selling French liquor
Some dullards can't even find France on a map, which is a big part of the problem with our public view of the world, I think.
From also not found, will we withdraw forces from Germany? I doubt it since it would be abandoning a huge portion of NATO's infrastructure.
In the past couple of weeks, I've seen a lot of blowhard bullying and self righteous indignation against those opposing the Iraq war.
'How dare they oppose us!' is their lament.
'We know what's good for the world!' is their refrain.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
First Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson
Some of us are not convinced of the necessity of bullshit wars for political benefit while the domestic situation in this country goes to hell. Is this war reasonable? I'm not convinced.
We know the score. Pay off those who can be bought in arms, cash and loans (Turkey, Eastern Europe and various Arab states), then arm lock anyone who doesn't go along with it. Get a ratings obsessed U.S. press to discredit and ignore anyone who says war is a bad thing.
It ain't hard. Everybody loves a winner.
Please see the IMC for demonstration coverage. Thanks also to Dumbmonkey, Plep, World NY, Consumptive, RandomWalks and Unknown News for photos and links. :)
My favorite is the understandably small rally at the South Pole.
Coble gets real history really wrong
Friday, February 14, 2003
Last week was not a good week for the North Carolina congressional delegation. First, Rep. Sue Myrick, commenting on the dangers of terrorism in our local communities, volunteered that all of those convenience store owners make her nervous. Then, a few days later, Rep. Howard Coble announced on a radio program that he supported the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It was for their own good, Coble explained, because Japanese-Americans weren't safe on the streets after Pearl Harbor, and what's more, "some probably were intent on doing harm to us."
Here's more proof that Myrick is too damn stupid to be in Congress or any other political office:
Myrick said she simply wanted to remind communities of the threat of terrorism, including "the illegal trafficking of food stamps through convenience stores for the purpose of laundering money to countries known to harbor terrorists."
That's not enough, you say?
Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., boasted that she and fellow conservative House members had purposesly staked out extreme positions "so that we'd make the president look more moderate."
Coble says remarks were historical fact
From last Christmas, let's be sure to remember my own congressman's lawn jockey whitewashing.
Damn, it used to be that all we had to worry about was Jesse Helms ranting about homosexuals and Fidel Castro. What century are living in anyway? Racist twits shouldn't be in government.
Whip My Roman Sex Gods
Friday, February 14, 2003
And all the young lasses in the city would place their names in a large urn, and the city's eligible bachelors would choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman, oftening resulting in marriage. You know, sort of like the Mormons. Only with actual sex. And booze. And without the creepy undergarments.
Happy Valentine's Day to the damned, the depressed, the forgotten, the lonely, the unhappy, the unrequited and the just plain fucked up. Now let's get pissed.
Woo gets expensive -- for men
The National Retail Federation predicts that men will spend an average of $125.96 on their partners. Women, however, will pay a comparatively paltry $38.22, the group said.
Another odd link courtesy of Random Abstract is Earth Erotica.
I've heard the term 'rock hard', but this is ridiculous!
Ashcroft proposes vast new surveillance powers
Friday, February 14, 2003
More totalitarianism coming your way, brought to you by John 'Cover The Boob' Ashcroft.
The Center For Democracy and Technology
The Center For Public Integrity
Clearchannel: Preparing for War
Friday, February 14, 2003
The corporate media erection over Gulf War II is well underway:
Talk shows are also a very important piece to the coverage puzzle. After the long form coverage dies down talk shows should live it and breathe it 24 hours a day. YOU CANNOT OVERKILL this story. It's like disc jockeys playing records. When the jock gets tired of it, the public is just getting warmed up. Stay focused and on Topic 'A'. Fresh angles, relentless promoting and pre-promoting. Talk shows are very important for the public just to vent at first.
U.S. Military Document Outlines War Coverage
Please refer to the PDF file:
1. The United States of America (the “Government”), acting by and through the Department of Defense, believes it to be mutually beneficial to both the Government and news media organizations (“media organizations”) to place selected news media organization employees (“media employees”) with selected military units (“military units”) for the purpose of providing news media coverage before, during, and after military operations. The placement of media employees with military units is referred to in this Agreement as “embedding” or the “embedding process” and will require media employees to live, travel, eat, sleep, and conduct all
professional and personal activities with the military unit to which the media employees are “embedded.”
Obviously, the federal government and the military have well learned the lessons of Vietnam and journalists will be kept on a very short leash.
Squeeze the Truth From Orange Alert, Please!
Alert Partly Based on Lies
DC Journalists Have Escape Plans
Ridge defends `duct tape' tip
No one has made the seemingly obvious point that to protect from biological and chemical attack with plastic sheeting and duct tape, you'd have to make things airtight. Then, you and your loved ones would slowly suffocate. Oops.
Duct tape won't save you, but at least Panic Syndrome is a temporary boon for our NAFTA devastated local economy.
Hooray. . . or something.
Thanks in part to Sassafrass and Poynter Online :)
New York Sun suggests treason prosecution for free speech
Saturday, February 8, 2003
From the original opinion piece, unsigned of course, since it was obviously written by a gutless coward afraid of open debate:
So the New York City police could do worse, in the end, than to allow the protest and send two witnesses along for each participant, with an eye toward preserving at least the possibility of an eventual treason prosecution. Thus fully respecting not just some, but all of the constitutional principles at stake.
Joeseph Goebells couldn't have said it better. Did I fall asleep and wake up in Nazi Germany? The scary part is that the asshole who wrote this doesn't realize that his right to express his opinion is guaranteed, just like the rights of those who he would rather see locked up for their opinion.
Please excuse me, I have to go hose my puke off of the keyboard.
Thanks, La Beta Corpo.
Floppy disks face extinction
Saturday, February 8, 2003
Sad, but long overdue. [Switches to Grandpa Simpson voice] I remember when floppy disks were 5.25 inches and you could bend them! They do make good coasters, but are as obsolete as pages decrying AOL.
My first computer only had 16K RAM. I feel like a dinosaur.
A Widening Gap Between Moviegoers And Critics
Saturday, February 8, 2003
I think this article misses a more important point: if producers of popular entertaiment ensist on maximizing first weekend box office returns above everything else, than by definition, movie theatres will be crammed with mediocre fare.
Most of us just don't have access to movies that are critical darlings because movie theatre chains refuse to run them. They're more than happy to run eight screens of "Men In Black II", but good luck finding a multiplex showing "Y Tu Mama Tambien". I can name several movies that I wanted to see on the big screen recently that didn't air within a fifty mile radius of my house. I don't exactly live in the sticks either.
This was not always so. Producers used to take some chances on unusual or unique television, radio, music and film that they just won't take now. Now we have imitation, not innovation; ten Clear Channel stations in every market but no indie radio; fifty versions of "Survivor" for every episode of "The Sopranos".
Viewers and listeners aren't dumb. Penny pinching marketers are.
Please give us more choices.
Thanks, Arts Journal :)
1978 Philip K. Dick Interview from Aquarian Magazine
Tuesday, February 4, 2003
The capacity for indignation is the most important thing for a creative person. Not the aesthetic capacity but the capacity for indignation. And especially indignation at the treatment afforded other people.
To see some of the things that are going on in the world and to feel indignant, at God, at the Soviet Union, at the United States, at the military, that is the greatest capacity in the world. To see a blind and deaf baby and to feel anger, to feel fury, at the starving of children and the arrest of political dissidents. That is the basis of the writer.
Good point there, Phil. I'm still drawn to the PKD cover gallery, which neatly fits into a online project that I hope to begin in the near future.
Game Theory - Rudy Rucker Revisited
Tuesday, February 4, 2003
There were some big holes in Matrix, for instance, though I did really enjoy the film. The hole that got me was the notion that they were using those people in the toilet things for batteries. Like it's not too hard to see that the energy of keeping a person alive in a glass bidet is going to be a lot more than some millivolt trickle you get out of their nervous system. An SF writer could fix that easily. It's not raw electricity you're getting out of the people, man, it's psionic energy that you put into a quark resonator to convert into electricity. But you don't just pull wattage out of a person like C cell battery, come on.
He thinks The Matrix is horseshit, which is enough for me to like the guy. I dig that he's got lots of downloadable software on his home page (Boppers is fun) as well as zip files from his course at SJSU.
Here's an earlier interview.
Anger May Protect Against Stroke And Heart Disease
Tuesday, February 4, 2003
Men with moderate levels of anger expression had nearly half the risk of nonfatal heart attacks and a significant reduction in the risk of stroke compared to men with low levels of anger expression. In the case of stroke, the researchers found that the risk decreased in proportion to increasing levels of anger expression.
So, let it out, just don't strangle anyone!
Sunday, February 2, 2003
Space Shuttle Columbia - Mission STS-107
Mission Commander Rick D. Husband (Colonel, USAF)
Pilot William C. McCool (Commander, USN)
Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson (Lt. Colonel, USAF)
Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla (Ph.D.)
Mission Specialist David M. Brown (M.D., Captain, USN)
Mission Specialist Laurel B. Clark (M.D., Commander, USN)
Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (Colonel, Israeli AF)
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
"High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Tears. All other words fail me.
|
Search
Google
News
Alternative
Alternet
Arianna Online
CommonDreams
CounterPunch
Cursor
Dan Gillmor
IMC
Memory Hole
Mark Morford
Newcity.com
Spinsanity
WorkingForChange
Arts
AWN
Art Newspaper
Arts Journal
Drug War
Cannabis News
Entertainment
TV Barn
TVtattle
Environment
ENN
Grist Magazine
Tidepool
Viridian Design
General
BBC News
Google News
Moreover
Yahoo News
Media
MediaNews
Paranormal
Anomalist
Surfpocalypse
Sci/Tech
EurekAlert
New Scientist
Science Daily
SciTech Daily
Space
NASA Watch
SpaceRef
Space Daily
|