Bloggerly Love
Zoe's blogging sporadically, but at an all-time best. An afternoon perusing her content on Foucault, drug policy, and press work is not nearly as enjoyable as say a Sparky's tete-a-tete, but is evidence of the indefatigable, charismatic, brilliant, sarcastic, and busy-as all-hell friend I do not see nearly enough. She really is the activist CJ Cregg. I missed her post Gas Masks in Action during the Pitas archive divide; read that too.
Media "Consolidation"? Here's what Cato has to say... There is a lot more to the issue than just what they mention. Lessig linked to William Safire's piece too, but he doesn't really get it either. Check out Slashdot where posters are anticipating another California energy crisis style partial-privatization-disguised-as-free-market policy. Alternet calls its own bluff about the vast right-wing media conspiracy. They've got an article up on Clear Channel Radio's hunt for leftie Limbaugh and O'Reilly's.
Unrelated, nevertheless, WSJ today on the new book "Clueless in Academe". The editorialist is sympathetic to Gerald Graff's cause, yet dismisses him as a postmodernist. Ouch
Sunday, May 25, 2003 02:48 p.m.
Logan's Run Was Way Off
These men are modeling soldiers uniforms of the future at the grand opening of MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology. Speaking of the great, forgotten sci-fi classic, it occured to me this afternoon watching the film, from now on science fiction with always include cyberspace. Only ten years ago it was optional
Saturday, May 24, 2003 08:21 p.m.
Recycling
A friend of mine said this was my best post yet. I archived almost immediately after putting it up, so here it is again for everyone who missed it the first time:
Eat to the Beat
There are few conversation pieces as masterbatory and unneccissary as food and ailments. Got a toothache? Sorry to hear, just don't tell me about it for the next twenty minutes. Similarly, I can't stand hearing about individual dietary restrictions. Food science is sorority science. Who cares whether A has x number of proteins and y number of carbohydrates? Does it ever fucking matter unless you are trying to lose weight? (And that the cost of maintaining a diet rarely excess the benefits of weight loss is commentary for another post.)
Look, healthy food is common sense. If it's green and comes from the ground it's probably good for you! But common sense isn't good enough for the bumbling general public that wants so badly to come accross like chemistry experts when it comes to the kelvins and the calories of what we injest.
I eat nothing but peanut butter sandwiches all day and never get sick. Maybe I could write a best-selling diet book! Or maybe at every party the host should round up all the Atkins dieters and hypocondriacs so they can annoy each other all night long
Saturday, August 23, 2003 06:23 p.m.
Genius + Love Awww... a new biography of Marie Curie reveals her softer-side, ie partner in lab and love, Pierre Curie. Read the whole thing. It's touching.
Friday, May 23, 2003 05:40 p.m. Open Up
Here's a pretty good article from IHT on government open-source initiatives abroad. I'm surprised Microsoft isn't lobbying as heavily in Europe as they have in Latin America and India --or maybe they are? It's an interesting story combining all my little pet issues -- public choice, international business, and tech -- but also, a one of great complexity. And here's something from Information Week on Linux's time advantage
Sashay, Shante
A part of TIA is designed to identify the way you walk. Gait signature" is picked up by radar at a distance of up to 600 ft.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 10:42 p.m. Forgetting How to Think
I want everyone to read Andrei Codrescu's "Eulogy for a Certain Someone" via link from New City. Alina's a fan. She gave me a book of his poems for Christmas last year.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 10:26 p.m.
Neo Qualms
Jonah Goldberg has a surprisingly good column on what is a neocon ending with this:
If neoconservatives are hawks who favor democracy, then most conservatives and Republicans are neocons and therefore the term is too broad to be useful. If neocons are Jews, then stop calling Max Boot, Dick Cheney, and Newt Gingrich neocons. If neocons are ex-liberals stop calling Bill Kristol a neocon and start calling the founders of National Review neocons. And so on and so on. If you mean "hawk" say hawk. If you mean "Wilsonian" say Wilsonian. If you mean "Bill Kristol" say Bill Kristol. And, if you mean "Jew," for goodness sake, say Jew.
I still can't define "neoconservative," but it's an apt derisive synonym for "statist" when applied to the young blue blazer crowd. Shesh, a demographic we could do without...
Update: Semi-related --Here's the LA Times on the rise of conservative newspapers on college campuses (via bene Political Theory)
You really need to get a comments sections so I can post things like this:
The fallacy of Goldberg's argument is his first line, "If neoconservatives are hawks who favor democracy, then most conservatives and Republicans are neocons..." The fact is that going abroad in search of monsters to destroy in the name of democracy is not a conservative principle. It is very anticonservative. What sets neoconservatives apart from conservatives is that they don't just want to defend the country (fighting the Contras was arguably defending the country--at least in their minds), but also want to convert the world by force. Not something JC would do.
Hmm. The word "Conservative," like any other word used to identify a political belief, is moot. And I use the word "moot," because it's an annoying word that described both something worthy of debateand unworthy of debate. Conservatives are all neocons now, and aren't going to ditch the base of the word because of a meaningless prefix.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 07:06 p.m.
Lame
The $80,000 exclusion on income for Americans working abroad is now getting framed as a "tax loophole." WSJ says if it gets dumped many expats are likely to go home.
Terrence Valeski, chief executive of Prague-based Eurotel, a telecommunications company with $1 billion in annual revenue and 2,500 employees, said he feared the scrapping of the tax will mean the end of Prague's reign as a magnet for foreign investment by U.S. companies. He said the repeal of the tax would make it very difficult to recruit senior managers from the U.S., who were already reluctant to leave American-style income taxes behind.
Roger Adams, a Lisbon-based American accountant who advises American expatriates on their income taxes, warned that the repeal of the tax would be a double blow to workers as well as companies. For example, he noted that, under the current exemption, a single person living in Portugal, who makes $100,000, would pay $2,704 in income taxes to U.S. tax authorities. If the tax break is repealed, that same person would pay $24,308 in income taxes.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 11:09 a.m.
DARPA Reloaded
Everyone's linked to the Wired story on LifeLog, but The Register has more. They call it DARPA's real life "Matrix"
:: Caesura ::
I've ... got nothing. My laptop's in the shop, so I'm hoping from pc to pc to check email. DOesn't look like I'm missing anything big --only the spectrum story that is far to complex and irritatating for me to begin to post about here. This is the best I can find today: PC World on Spain's legal download site: puretunes.com.
Puretunes says it will let music lovers download all the songs they want, legally, for $3.99 a night or $13.99 a month--and the artists will get a cut of the proceeds thanks to a licensing deal with the Spanish Association of Authors and Editors (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, SGAE) and the Association of Artists, Performers, and Players (Asociacion de Artistas, Interpretes y Ejecutantes, AIE), it said in a statement.
Yeah, big deal you're thinking. But it is. The recording industry is going to feel the brunt of paid alternatives to peer-to-peer, such as PressPlay, as they get cheaper. That's why we need to keep them safe.
I keep meaning to write an essay about how to approach the IP issue from an anti-IP standpoint: you've got to take a few steps back to go forward. I'm no legal positivist, but there are laws in place prohibiting copyright violations and they aren't going away. There are also laws permiting "fair use," laws we need to keep an eye on to preserve, and squeeze to the last drop.
Org Off
The Register reports the .org domain registry has collapsed. Insert your own non-profit joke.
Monday, May 19, 2003 02:23 p.m.
Untie Big development from Georgetown neurobiologists researching dyslexia. It's a right-brain, left-brain issue. Good readers learn to supress the right-brain in the process, as it creates to much interference with phonics cognition
The More Things Change... More local news for you: The Post today notes "Pockets of Poverty" are growing in the District. The number of people living in high-poverty neighborhoods has tripled since 1990.
If you think of NW and Capitol Hill the "city" and all other quadrants as the burbs, the findings make more sense. Residents of Anacostia are no closer to the heart of the city than those in Alexandria or Silver Spring. It's much harder to "gentrify" a suburb than a downtown neighborhood. Northwest is where people work and play so of course they're going to want to live there. No one will venture toward the ghetto nether-regions for reasons besides fiscal limitation. What's the point of urban-dwelling if you still need to drive everywhere?
Saturday, May 17, 2003 02:11 p.m.
The Murder City Devils
City Paper this week mentioned Safe Streets DC, an excellent resource on DC's high (and stagnant) crime rate. Last month they reported we're number one (again) over Detroit as having the highest murder rate among American cities. Celebrate with a malt beverage from your favorite Souffeast corner store!
Safe Streets notes the infamous Boss Hogtie, Chief Ramsey has requested a $25,000 raise. Why don't we just fire him instead? But in the meantime they've got a petetion up to freeze his pay. DC residents, go sign it now.
That brings me to the point of what it is DC officials can do with the alacrity and efficency of a well-oiled machine: regulate the district's nightclubs and restaurants. Basically they want the city to be like Footloose before Kevin Bacon stepped in. Here's another grassroots organization setting things straight: DC Nigtlife Coalition. Speaking of grassroots, you should all have read Grassroots Tyranny by now
Saturday, May 17, 2003 01:33 p.m.
If You're A Libra We're "Compatable"
And here is something for us summer lovers hungry in anticipation of frenzied courtships with dangerous people this season: Vice mag's A-to-Z Guide on "Getting Crushed Out." I like the advice from err.. "J"
After masturbating about her 16 times, she is basically your girlfriend (in your head). Therefore, the next time you see her you’ll be all laid-back and casual, touching her shoulder and saying, “What’s going on?” in a relaxed, long-term boyfriend kind of way.
and also the instuctions to settle down and not be weird the first time -- "Snap out of it, guy, she’s going to think you’re Crispin Glover." Read the whole thing. It's hilarious
Saturday, May 17, 2003 01:18 p.m.
Nano Naysaying
My former boss Wayne Crews has a piece on Tech Central Station seperating the wheat from the chafe over nano hype. Best line:
Politicians have no innate ability to pick among competing technologies, whether nano, macro or otherwise. If they did, they'd be entrepreneurs themselves.
Also on my tech-news aggregator this week was Hilary Rosen's desperate effort on Business 2.0 to convince readers the RIAA is a friend to innovation. "I'm every bit as passionate about music as you are," she says.
Saturday, May 17, 2003 01:14 p.m.
Not Ready for Retro
Eight years ago trip-hop was the bleeding edge and Starbucks was something chic. That year also, Salon made it's debut. Have a look at it's first issue. (link via The Black Table)
Saturday, May 17, 2003 12:58 p.m. This House is Not a Home
I've had an especially strange living situation, as many of you know. Last August, my parents ordered me out of my apartment -- an inconceivable steal, a basement on 17th and U for $600/month -- when it was robbed and my laptop was stolen. My aunt (an aunt by marriage) had a house in Falls Church that she visited every few months but never used. She'd been delaying renting it out because of sentimental attachment to it (her father was its architect.) She offered it to me for the price of only utilities for the rest of my school year.
Here's the back porch during last February's snowstom
At firt I was delighted to have my own place. After my roommate Krista moved out, some strange character you can only get from the City Paper classifieds moved in. He was either madly in love with me or a closet homosexual (and really, who isn't either?) and either way, annoyed the hell out of me that summer. Then as the weather got colder, it started to feel stranger. Living alone is great if you've got an active social life and are .. ahem ... employed. It's not so great if you're looking for a job in a chilled economy and stuck inside by yourself all day. It is a family size house that can never feel full because it's just me there. In addition, as this is not the home of a blood relative, I could only feel like an overnight guest. The furnishings -- as you can see in the picture, all swinging 70s shag carpet, pea-green, and gilded paraphernalia -- have nothing to do with me.
Well, I've decided upon my first paycheck to find lodging more appropriate to a twenty-two year old. But before then I will certainly be throwing a party or two.
