Monday, April 28, 2003 12:36 a.m. Better Humans has an article today about the first private space program. I'll comment on this and have several other posts for you when I'm back in town on Wednesday.
Saturday, April 26, 2003 11:44 a.m.
Bloggerly Love
Jeremy Lott is thinking about using a comment I made about an essay of his for a blog "endorsement." Ah, take this instead: "Charming, Delightful, Authentic, and Witty"
Neocons Don't Grow On Trees But in certain circles it seems that way. This NY Observer article maps out the key players
Wednesday, April 23, 2003 10:59 a.m.
Talk the Talk
After about seven months of seeing the phase "jumped the shark" tossed about, I finally decided to find out what it means. Stoopid. Add it to the list I keep of words and phrases to avoid like "highly recommend" or "huballoo."
I will admit that "metrosexual" has slipped in my immediate vernacular, but maybe that just speaks of the people with whom I bide time...
Wednesday, April 23, 2003 10:38 a.m.
"Anti-Semetic" Tribunals Planned on College Campuses
Rick Santorum will introduce "ideological diversity" legislation to cut federal funding for thousands of American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which Santorum considers to be an act of "anti-Semitism."
Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:40 a.m.
Garbage In, Oil Out
I don't read Discover magazine often, so when I read this article, at first I thought it was a joke. Read it yourself. It says scientists have developed a machine that can change almost anything into oil.
Nine in ten (90 per cent) of office workers at London's Waterloo Station gave away their computer password for a cheap pen, compared with 65 per cent last year.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:07 a.m.
Arista Eats Itself
To prevent piracy,
Arista Records copy-protected their disks so they cannot be played on PCs. The Age reports radio stations that use PCs to play tracks on air, are dumping Arista disks in the trash. Heartwarming, but it's doubtful the music they play in lieu of Arista artists is any better.
Monday, April 21, 2003 06:56 p.m.
Rare Glimpse Into My Internal Conflicts
Apply the law of dimminishing marginal returns to personal space and what you have past the margin is loneliness. I went on a stellar job interview to work as a real economist at an airline consulting firm. It's a great job, a lot of money, but it will be ... lonely. As it's an office of seven people (all of them except me are middle-aged men,) I got to meet with half the employees. They all mentioned it's not really a social atmosphere and am I ok with that? Yes, of course. But now three hours later a little voice is asking am I? Do I want to be doing regressions on Excel all day in an empty office in Alexandria for at least the next year?
I live alone. I go out alone. I like being alone and need to be alone probably 75% more than the average person. When I did the think-tank thing, I would get stressed out from talking to people all day. But I too get lonely, and it's a painful aching feeling. Perhaps during a recession it's too much to ask for an environment in the middle of both extremes.
Update: Forget it -- I got it and I'm taking it. BLING BLING
Peacenik Prat
There really is no appropriate antonym to "afterglow." Othewise, I would use it to describe how I feel about the "endgame." Piers Morgan in The Spectator feels the same way:
If I meet one more smug, smirking pro-war protagonist who greets me with that ‘Hey, peacenik — you must feel a right prat’ look, I fear I shall arm myself with a few of those elusive WMDs and take out whole swaths of Wapping, Kensington and Downing Street. If there’s one thing worse than the world’s most powerful military force waging an unlawful, unethical war against a clapped-out old tyrant’s ragbag excuse for an army, then it’s surely the quite absurd rash of gloating and triumphalism that has engulfed large parts of our country. I am all for saluting the efficiency and bravery of the armed forces in doing their job, but did anybody really ever doubt that we’d win the military conflict? Do we cheer when Australia thrash Bangladesh at cricket, or throw street parties when Brazil drub Lithuania at football?
He ends the paragraph noting
look closely at the US flag put over Saddam’s head on that statue before it toppled. It was the same flag, we discovered later, that had been flying over the Pentagon on that fateful day in September 2001. This was payback. On the wrong bad guy.
Is that really fucking true? Jeez...
Sunday, April 20, 2003 01:07 p.m.
The RIAA Hates You
In the January, the RIAA filed suit against Verizon demanding
the internet provider identify an individual who -- gasp! -- was using their service to download music off of Kazaa. Wired Safety, an anti-internet stalking group, imagines unless Verizon's appeal passes, stalkers will file DMCA complaints to get information about their victims
using their automated C and C++ source code inspection service, Illuma (http://www.reasoning.com/solutions/index.html), found that there were 0.10 defects per thousand lines of source code (D/KLSC) in Linux's 2.4.19 TCP/IP stack compared to an average of 0.55 D/KLSC in five different proprietary TCP/IP implementations. Four of the five proprietary stacks have been on the market for over ten years. In short, Linux triumphed over mature, proven programs.
Still, I'm nodding along with the article, "Open Source Chic," in Spiked. Open Source is great; it's a weird and wonderful phenomenon. But it's a trend, not a revolution.
The Lady is a Techie
Here's an appropriate tribute to Anita Borg from Katharine Mieszkowski. There's a fuss on the blogosphere over this BS test, a Meyers-Briggs for gender-identity and cognition. Basically it says women cry at movies and men like to fix things. It also says I have a severe case of Asperger's.
Now, nature vs. nurture is a can of worms I don't care to deal with right now. Obviously in every situation it's a little of both. However, AFAIK, there is no statistically signifigant evidence showing women are genetically inferior to men in maths and sciences.
Sunday, April 20, 2003 12:09 p.m.
Per Request I get about five hits a day from people looking for "Those Bold City Girls lyrics." It's a b-side from The Shins that I adore. I transcribed a live version, it's proabably all wrong. Here goes:
Those Bold City Girls
You slide out at night to show your self
you should hang yourself
on the water hangs your cool friends
memorized a thousand lines
and kissed your thousandth guy
none pack more than cool
So you wake up
the taste of the night before
has grown somehow
you memorize your make-up
You're free from their eyes
and all they laughed about
Sailboats will never float in heads of lead
or hold your ego down
what's a taste of ambivalence?
Well, as someone who might just help you row
but never can amend the trends
Towards the rocks
weilding the knives
beneath your breasts
and all your waves
they never break
within our sight
So come on
treat me right...
if you could keep him
you'd dump him
the rock would ace them
two to one
the powder from your empty boxes
was ground from your whole empty you
And still you wake up
the taste of the night before
has grown somehow
you take off your make-up
You're free from their eyes
and all you laughed about
