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E-mail me at david_isbister@hotmail.com
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Off-Topic/UnrelatedWill is set to play Ignatius J. Reily in the movie of A Confederacy of Dunces 01:55 p.m., Tuesday, September 16, 2003 They claim that milk labelled "growth hormone free" is hurting their sales of milk produced by homone-injected cows. You know, a truly free market involves fully-informed consumers. If people truly believed that the hormones were safe (and Monsanto was telling the truth), then they would BUY the Monsanto-milk. Monsanto-milk cartons are free to display information about the supposed harmlessness of growth hormones. The arguments against voluntary food labelling are completely ludicrous. 11:31 a.m., Tuesday, September 16, 2003 I don't know how I missed this item, but apparently, in Boston: Ashcroft was bombarded by cries of "Shame!" and the sound of the "Imperial Death March" from the movie "Star Wars" as he entered a meeting with law enforcement officials in Faneuil Hall. 11:49 p.m., Monday, September 15, 2003 I asked Botero [Schwarzenegger's "Latino-issues specialist"] to sum up Schwarzenegger's message to Latinos. "Viva Arnold," he replied with a chuckle. After a pause, he added, "Dot-com." Could the cynicism get any more over-the-top? I'm suffering from outrage fatigue at this point. 04:32 p.m., Monday, September 15, 2003 This sounds like it's going to be hilarious, without a lot of the horrible stuff (love subplots, etc) that ruins many comedies. 02:40 p.m., Monday, September 15, 2003 New Lethem novel out! I love all of his books, and this one sounds like a winner as well... iPod integration done right. This one actually hooks into the car stereo directly (no tape adapter or heinous FM modulator to deal with). The latest in the SCO-Linux wars. Linus Fascinating story in this week's New Yorker about "Jake Leg," a hooch-related disease from the 30's which paralyzed thousands of people, leading to the term "Jake Walk," which described the dangling-legs shuffle of the victims. Back then, class action-style lawsuits got you laughed out of court, especially if the plaintiffs were (as they mostly were) poor minorities. The author of the article calls this Pharmo-musicology. Sorry for the lack of link, but you'll have to buy the magazine (email me if you see it online anywhere). 01:53 p.m., Friday, September 12, 2003 Great NYT article on happiness and the difference between our predictions and reality. Hopeful and dangerous, the article points out how happiness and "success" are completely decoupled. thanks, BB 11:11 a.m., Sunday, September 7, 2003 The Wave uses the Voight-Kampff Test (from Blade Runner) to determine the human-ness of the current San Francisco mayoral candidates. 03:29 p.m., Friday, September 5, 2003 Think you're feeling the pinch? Chances are, if you can read this post (with your internet-connected computer), you're doing just fine. 11:24 a.m., Friday, September 5, 2003 Adbusters is set to market an answer to Nike shoes. Is this culture-jamming, or is it just another way to market "cool?" 04:17 p.m., Friday, August 29, 2003 In Alabama, of all places, a referendum is on the ballot to raise taxes and make them less regressive. It is being pushed as the "Christian" thing to do - sounds good to me! this is what I call a good mix of religion and politics. Hypocrisy-free! 04:31 p.m., Thursday, August 28, 2003 Asked if he felt "exploited" by women who pursued him because of his physique, Schwarzenegger said, "No, I'd feel used only if I didn't get something out of it. If a girl comes on strong and says, 'I really dig your body and I want to fuck the shit out of you,' I just decide whether or not I like her." 04:14 p.m., Wednesday, August 27, 2003 Lorelei from the Shimmer Kids blogs our last show with Mike the drummer - a bittersweet sunny Sunday in the Superfund section of San Francisco. 11:58 a.m., Monday, August 25, 2003 This movie about "Gator" looks great. I posted a link to a synopsis of Gator's bizarre life. The ending is especially strange, with Gator trying to explain his actions with a fucked-up mix of repentance, claims of innocence, and born-again self-righteousness. 02:36 p.m., Friday, August 22, 2003 of the Bush family's history of corrupt business deals. This stuff makes Whitewater look like jaywalking. 09:46 a.m., Thursday, August 21, 2003 "In the old days, there used to be a term, 'buying your gross,' " Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax, told the Los Angeles Times. "You could buy your gross for the weekend and overcome bad word of mouth, because it took time to filter out into the general audience." But those days are over, because the technology of hand-held text-message devices has drastically cut down the time it takes for movie-goers to tell their friends that a heavily promoted summer action movie is a waste of time and money. Cry. Me. A. River. Sorry you can't buy an audience anymore, Hollywood. Try and focus on your "core competencies" - making movies, and stop worrying so much about the marketing - if you make a good movie, these evil text-messagers will give you valuable word-of-mouth marketing, for FREE! 04:02 p.m., Tuesday, August 19, 2003 I had forgotten how much I loved the Pet Shop Boys back in high school/college. Tons of great songs here. 10:23 a.m., Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Gregory Kane asks a puzzling question. There are some great opportunities for everything from uplifting dramas to hilarious dark comedies in the world of social work. Get to work, Hollywood! 11:47 a.m., Saturday, August 16, 2003 and piss off DeBeers in the process. 04:12 p.m., Tuesday, August 12, 2003 for not going to this Bjork concert. Damn! 10:56 a.m., Monday, August 11, 2003 As they say - Damning! 10:59 a.m., Friday, August 8, 2003 They now want $32.00 per device that runs Linux. Let's see... VxWorks costs anywhere from $.50 to a few bucks; Windows CE is down to under $10; Nucleus and psOS are under a dollar in volume. I'm not sure how a few lines (out of millions) in a FREE operating system translates into thiry-two dollars in licensing fees. This is nonsense, but it goes beyond that, into greedy madness. In a lawsuit-wary world, I could see OEMs coughing up a few pennies per copy of Linux to SCO, which could net SCO huge sums of money. Instead, they have demanded such ridiculous fees that they have completely guaranteed their well-deserved demise. And if the rumors of executive stock "pumping-and-dumping" have any merit to them, they may also find themselves facing some jail time. 07:06 p.m., Wednesday, August 6, 2003 along with the optimism of the nineties. Extropians are these smug nerds who want to live forever, and now they're setting up fun little games like the "terrorism futures market." At what point do these geniuses wake up and realize that their faith in the almighty marketplace is misguided and dangerous, not to mention unfair? 10:22 a.m., Tuesday, August 5, 2003 This is the perfect example of breathless engineers with no concept of the ramifications of their projects. 05:07 p.m., Friday, August 1, 2003 The department's "Defense Advanced Research Project Agency" designed what it calls the "The Policy Analysis Market." The program works much like the financial markets where traders buy and sell "futures" based on the possibility of a specific event in the Middle East, 11 News reported. Some of the examples listed on the agency's Web site include the assassination of Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat and a missile attack by North Korea. Bidders would profit if the events for which they hold futures occur. It's the new imperialism meets the free market! What's NOT to love? 04:13 p.m., Monday, July 28, 2003 Scientists have improved the performance of musicians by up to 17% by teaching them to control their thoughts. I didn't realize you could quantify performances... 04:17 p.m., Friday, July 25, 2003 Find out, thanks to the EFF... 03:44 p.m., Friday, July 25, 2003 Chock full of deleted goodness! 02:28 p.m., Thursday, July 24, 2003 In exchange for their fawning and ass-kissing, Bush has promised to veto any attempts to roll back the recent FCC rulings. Congressmen on both sides of the aisle were starting to wake up to this issue (and the public's near 100% opposition to the new rules), but Bush obviously doesn't give a shit. 06:40 p.m., Tuesday, July 22, 2003 You know, when Jacko thinks you're nuts... 01:22 p.m., Tuesday, July 22, 2003 Choice bit: "With more than 2.4 million Linux servers running our software, and thousands more running Linux ever day, we expect SCO to be compensated for the benefits realized by tens of thousands of customers," said SCO CEO Darl McBride. "Though we possess broad legal rights, we plan to use these carefully and judiciously." "Your" software, Darl? Don't you mean a couple of disputed lines in a giant operating system which you didn't even create? Just tell us which lines of code are disputed, and we'll re-write them. 03:53 p.m., Monday, July 21, 2003 Working at his desk in the Oval Office, President Bush reviews the State of the Union address line-by-line and word-by-word. 02:46 p.m., Friday, July 18, 2003 21 bucks a month for 12 Mbps connection, plus free VOIP calls to Yahoo BB customers. 02:09 p.m., Tuesday, July 15, 2003 Massively-multiplayer OFFLINE role-playing game, that is. It's called real-life, you CHUD. 11:16 a.m., Monday, July 14, 2003 It's 7/11, so the Slurpees are on the house! Including the newest, most extreme Slurpee of them all: Mountain Dew Live Wire. 11:57 a.m., Friday, July 11, 2003 Michael Bauer loves it! 11:16 a.m., Friday, July 11, 2003 A man in Mountain View just woke up from a 19-year coma. Apparently he still believes it's 1984, and Reagan is president, etc... Not too far off, I'd say. 11:06 a.m., Wednesday, July 9, 2003 First post in a while (getting married kind-of takes over your life... ;) ) We put him on the board and [he] spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company. He said, well I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board. And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know. Anyway, I haven't been invited to the White House for any things. 04:59 p.m., Wednesday, July 2, 2003 This stuff is actually really cool. Download their mp3s, and check out their lyrics. Funny, yet still catchy. Sample lyrics: Level 13: ADVENT You call this an adventure. And I call it a joke. Just where's this hidden treasure? 'cause I want to go home. Wait just a second now... What is this that I just found? I've scored a map, I've got my compass, and my handheld stereo. Now I know where to go. I've searched north and west and east and south and up and down. And even underground. I'm making headway. I'm almost out of trouble. I think I see some light, At the end of the tunnel. I've found a map, I've got my compass, and my handheld stereo. Now I know where to go. As long as I don't run out of hearts and my torch maintains its glow, I've outsmarted the Nintendo. 11:22 a.m., Thursday, June 19, 2003 You know, if the White House wants to ignore the EPA in its policy-making decisions, that's one thing, but this whole "change the report" stuff is complete bullshit. Have the balls to stand behind your ideology, people. 10:44 a.m., Thursday, June 19, 2003 Time for our idea: Bearitos (tm) - tiny genetically modified bears. "All the bear, none of the vicious mauling!" 10:37 a.m., Thursday, June 19, 2003 05:41 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2003 Great. No really. Great idea, Orrin... 03:22 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2003 Our consumerist technological zeitgeist is summed up in a question from Stuff, the techno-geek mag, in a recent article despairing of cyborg technology: "We've launched missions to Mars, so why can't we build a robot to pour us a drink?" The proper answer, surely, is that while interplanetary exploration is conceivably a noble human aspiration, needing a robot to pour your pop is the hallmark of the idle ponce. 01:57 p.m., Tuesday, June 17, 2003 with more apocalyptic nuttiness. He doesn't think we can "exclude" the possibilty of striking a North Korean nuclear power plant. Yikes. 07:37 p.m., Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Moyers provides some historical perspective as well as fuel for the progressive fire at the "Take Back America" conference. We need him to run for president. On the current administration: It is the most radical assault on the notion of one nation, indivisible, that has occurred in our lifetime. I'll be frank with you: I simply don't understand it – or the malice in which it is steeped. Many people are nostalgic for a golden age. These people seem to long for the Gilded Age. That I can grasp. They measure America only by their place on the material spectrum and they bask in the company of the new corporate aristocracy, as privileged a class as we have seen since the plantation owners of antebellum America and the court of Louis IV. What I can't explain is the rage of the counter-revolutionaries to dismantle every last brick of the social contract. At this advanced age I simply have to accept the fact that the tension between haves and have-nots is built into human psychology and society itself – it's ever with us. However, I'm just as puzzled as to why, with right wing wrecking crews blasting away at social benefits once considered invulnerable, Democrats are fearful of being branded "class warriors" in a war the other side started and is determined to win. I don't get why conceding your opponent's premises and fighting on his turf isn't the sure-fire prescription for irrelevance and ultimately obsolescence. But I confess as well that I don't know how to resolve the social issues that have driven wedges into your ranks. And I don't know how to reconfigure democratic politics to fit into an age of soundbites and polling dominated by a media oligarchy whose corporate journalists are neutered and whose right-wing publicists have no shame. 03:10 p.m., Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Replay has confirmed they are removing Commercial Advance and Internet Video Sharing. Lame. I hope they at LEAST leave the 30-second skip button in. DVArchive will take care of internet show sharing. Commercial Advance is cool, but the 30-second skip button works pretty well. Please don't disable my current 5040, though. 11:02 a.m., Tuesday, June 10, 2003 He puts into words what a lot of us are feeling, yet have a hard time expressing. thanks, TrollKing 05:05 p.m., Monday, June 9, 2003 Frank Washington, the CEO of System Integrators Inc. until the Sacramento newspaper-software company was sold in June 2000, heads a new company these days called Moon Shot Communications. And his new goal is to make a lot of money in the next several years by buying TV stations across the country, waiting for their value to increase, and then selling them to the highest bidders. ... Washington and four partners are working with investors and the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., a major private-equity firm, to line up stations they might buy. They figure they can assemble groups of TV stations for good deals now, by purchasing TV stations owned mostly by small companies outside large U.S. markets. Washington counts on the sellers not seeing the same potential in their properties that he does. 05:15 p.m., Sunday, June 8, 2003 Let's start the class warfare, people. 10:24 a.m., Friday, June 6, 2003 the priorities of press coverage these days? You know what? I could give a FUCK about the "troubles" at the New York Times. Ditto for Martha Stewart and her penny-ante insider trading deals. Double ditto for Hillary's new fucking book. Right now, we're headed for a $44 TRILLION deficit when the boomers retire, and Bush is giving out tax cuts (but not for the poor). NO WMDs have been found in Iraq, and the whole world hates us. The FCC has given away the airwaves to their generous buddies - wonder why we're not seeing anything critical of the administration lately, just these fluff stories? 10:41 a.m., Thursday, June 5, 2003 Microsoft was granted a patent for pretty much any form of video-on-demand. Damn! I wish I would have thought of that! 01:23 p.m., Wednesday, June 4, 2003 Ever since I heard that MarioKart Double Dash (or "Double-Ass," as this guy refers to it) wasn't very fun, I've been in a funk about my Gamecube. This guy can be pretty harsh (I liked Mario Sunshine - so sue me...), but he's also right-on on a lot of points. 11:20 a.m., Wednesday, June 4, 2003 Pretty cool. Now, if Lorelei could get some Hulk money, everything would be cool. 10:43 p.m., Monday, June 2, 2003 Good news, if a bit ambiguous. Not sure why McCain is against overturning this mess. 03:23 p.m., Monday, June 2, 2003 Creepy. Is there an opt-out for this? Time to look at ReplayTV, folks. 11:35 a.m., Monday, June 2, 2003 Ruthless! 01:41 p.m., Friday, May 30, 2003 Not your average "give-myself-more-gold-and-hit-points" hackers: "At first, players started speculating that there was a really bad bug in the game code," player Tim Wheating said. "Then we realized that somehow an insane god had taken control of our world and was out to kill us all." The population of an entire Shadowbane town was forcibly moved to the bottom of the sea, where they drowned. City guards turned feral and attacked town residents. Mobs of never-before-seen superpowerful creatures, seemingly spontaneously spawned from the ether, began to prowl the streets unchecked, killing characters in the most painful way possible. Mike Gontelli, a late arrival to the game that evening, said that when he arrived in Shadowbane "there were hundreds of tombstones. New players were being beaten and tortured. Newbie blood was flowing like a river. I knew it wasn't real, but it was oddly terrifying." 10:18 a.m., Friday, May 30, 2003 Dry reading, to be sure, but what it says is the GWB has declared a national state of emergency. Why? To prevent lawsuits over the reconstruction contracts for Iraq. You remember those? The ones that weren't supposed to be an oil giveaway, but turned out to be... an oil giveaway. thanks, TrollKing 11:01 a.m., Thursday, May 29, 2003 Wow. This is horrifying. 09:45 a.m., Wednesday, May 28, 2003 Get your swerve, er SwerveTM on. As Dunstan says: They should have just called it Malk and stuck a picture of a rat on the front ... 04:45 p.m., Friday, May 23, 2003 Down to under 20Mbps for 802.11g-only networks (how many of these will there EVER be?) and to 10 Mbps for mixed 802.11g/b networks. 802.11a is looking more and more attractive. 09:33 p.m., Thursday, May 22, 2003 Parents have put the brakes on a plan to provide iBooks to students because they could potentially access open 802.11b networks and *shudder* be exposed to porn! "My concern is that the parents are unaware that even if they place filters on their Internet service provider, the children have unfiltered access through the iBooks on other networks," Custer said. Custer said children are left to explore the Internet unfiltered once they leave the school building. And she doesn't want to take any chances with children in elementary school being exposed to adult content. "You can walk down the street with the iBook, and it can recognize the air ports in other homes," Custer said. "Frankly, most people aren't aware that these networks are accessible." Custer and Strait said other parents in their community have voiced the same concerns and hope they'll see more computer security after addressing school officials at tonight's meeting. "Unless we know what these iBooks can do," Custer said, "we can't do our jobs as parents." 04:40 p.m., Thursday, May 22, 2003 VCRs have been able to remove commercials for years. Replay just makes it more convenient. As for show-sharing, they have a pretty fair model in place already. If these suits would just go to trial, I think Replay could win them. 01:57 p.m., Thursday, May 22, 2003 This spreading, melting, flowing together of what once were distinct and separate media, that’s where I imagine we’re headed. Any linear narrative film, for instance, can serve as the armature for what we would think of as a virtual reality, but which Johnny X, eight-year-old end-point consumer, up the line, thinks of as how he looks at stuff. If he discovers, say, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, he might idly pause to allow his avatar a freestyle Hong Kong kick-fest with the German guards in the prison camp. Just because he can. Because he’s always been able to. He doesn’t think about these things. He probably doesn’t fully understand that that hasn’t always been possible. He doesn’t know that you weren’t always able to explore the sets virtually, see them from any angle, or that you couldn’t open doors and enter rooms that never actually appeared in the original film. 11:35 a.m., Thursday, May 22, 2003 Amazing stuff. Some great applications, and since this is unexpected, many applications haven't even been considered yet. 11:29 a.m., Thursday, May 22, 2003 Chris Hedges, who wrote the incredibly moving book - War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, was booed off the stage at a graduation this week. I've read a bunch of these disturbing stories this week. College graduation speeches are supposed to be thought-provoking. If you want a bullshit "you are our future" speech, go back to high school. 09:52 a.m., Tuesday, May 20, 2003 If you feel that the RIAA is not worthy of your valuable music dollars, grab the bookmarklet over at this page and you'll never have to wonder if you made the right choice. WARNING - so far, this has only hung my browser. 09:45 a.m., Tuesday, May 20, 2003 Bye bye Fleischer. Time for a new obfuscator. 09:34 a.m., Monday, May 19, 2003 Finally IGN has some movies up of some of the new games. First up, Tony Hawk Underground, which looks to somehow make the Tony Hawk series even BETTER, with face mapping (download your own face), time-of-day selection, trick creation, and other fun stuff like walking, climbing and driving, to get to hard-to-reach areas. Also, check out these movies of the new MarioKart, which I've been waiting for since the N64 version. Nothing (other than maybe GoldenEye) ever came close to the addictiveness of four-player MarioKart. Now, the series adds 8-player LAN racing, along with new two-characters-per-kart gameplay. Plenty more stuff at IGN.com. 11:04 a.m., Thursday, May 15, 2003 The publicly-available-but-soon-to-disappear files of the 9/11 hearings that Dubya doesn't want you to see. 11:55 a.m., Wednesday, May 14, 2003 Don't ask these Christian goofballs: Christians must realize that people are not the problem, powerful and ancient entities are behind such anti-Christian activities. In the air above and the earth beneath are nefarious progenitors of Burning Man mysticism. “Gods” to some and “demons” to others, such forces have numerous titles. They can appear in hideous forms or as beautiful angels of light. They are the “wicked spirits” (poneria: the collective body of demon soldiers comprising Satan’s hordes), “rulers of darkness” (kosmokrators: governing spirits of darkness), “powers” (exousia: high ranking powers of evil), and “principalities” (arche: commanding generals over Satan’s fallen army) of Ephesians 6:12. As the "gods and goddesses" of the underworld, they live today and encourage mysticism among pagans, witches, New Agers, church-goers, and Burning Man participants... 10:39 a.m., Friday, May 9, 2003 Rove's crass exploitation of "unending war." 10:32 a.m., Thursday, May 8, 2003 You know, the scandals coming out of this administration are so far above and beyond the level of the PATHETIC penny-ante stuff dug up on the Clintons, it would be funny, if these bastards weren't starting wars and killing thousands of people to make a profit for their buddies. When will a democrat get the plums to start crowing about this? 10:08 a.m., Thursday, May 8, 2003 Stewart Butterfield, creator of Game Neverending, a web-based MOO-ish "game," which I'm still utterly confused about, talks to MindJack about the work they're doing over at Ludicorp. Large bonus quote from my friend Ben, who introduced me to Stewart a couple weeks ago during the Emerging technologies conference. 11:34 a.m., Wednesday, May 7, 2003 The people over at Television Without Pity weigh in. I just started getting into this show, and the season finale blew my mind. There are many theories in this gigantic thread, some of which are interesting, and, more importantly, plausible (as long as you consider time-travelling/soothsaying plausible). 05:35 p.m., Tuesday, May 6, 2003 AMAZING resource for stories that get buried. I could spend all day looking at this. 01:03 p.m., Tuesday, May 6, 2003 AT&T may change your mind. Slate had a story on this that made me giggle. Choice bit: Is this really what the college students of America find funny? That group is supposedly a key market for collect calls; AT&T says its primary target is the 18- to 24-year-old age group, with 12- to 17-year-olds as the secondary target. (Another group that makes a lot of collect calls is prisoners, but that's another story.) But I am too optimistic to believe that tomorrow's leaders find authentic humor in Carrot Top's act, so I can only conclude that something more subtle is going on. Spokespeople for collect-call services tend to be either babes (Jamie Pressly, Alyssa Milano) or absurd (Mr. T). Babes make sense (for about half the audience, anyway) for obvious reasons. The absurd choices—and this would include Carrot Top—must appeal to the budding ironist. So perhaps Carrot Top is presiding over some sort of massive meta-ironist performance piece. 05:31 p.m., Monday, May 5, 2003 We need as much of this as possible these days. 07:24 p.m., Saturday, May 3, 2003 I didn't realize these jerks ever had to pay any taxes in the first place. 04:39 p.m., Saturday, May 3, 2003 Comes with a cool-sounding CD of "Situationist remixes." 02:08 p.m., Friday, May 2, 2003 This, from the guy who complained when Motorola VOLUNTARILY stopped making parts for landmines. I gotta remember to never design in a part from Cypress again. 01:49 p.m., Friday, May 2, 2003 ... 01:44 p.m., Friday, May 2, 2003 This whole concept makes me sick. Just one more nail in the coffin of American democracy. Thanks, RNC! 01:31 p.m., Friday, May 2, 2003 As long as it's across the street, around the corner, and out-of-sight of the President, you can protest to your heart's content! 04:31 p.m., Thursday, May 1, 2003 This time it's from those dirty hippies at Fortune magazine. Seems without Rumsfeld, there wouldn't be any WMDs in the hands of "evil" countries. 11:17 a.m., Thursday, May 1, 2003 I know that swastikas are also Buddhist symbols, but how did this get past the marketing guys at Coca-Cola? 10:46 a.m., Thursday, May 1, 2003 President Bush vs Governer Bush. 09:47 a.m., Thursday, May 1, 2003 The original broadband case against Howard and Krautz alleges they used hyped projections about a video-on-demand joint venture with Blockbuster Inc. BBI.N in a scheme to boost Enron's earnings with $111 million in bogus revenue. The two, who have pleaded not guilty, allegedly lured investors into a partnership that paid Enron cash for future profits from the deal even though the two men knew the technology behind the venture was not working. This is pretty funny - I used to work at ReplayTV, and we bent over backwards trying to help these guys spec and design the set top boxes for this service. It seemed fishy at the time, and of course, it WAS fishy. 05:01 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2003 This guy has mastered the art of 360 degree image capturing and manipulation. You can drool over his technical prowess, or just enjoy the artwork. 03:50 p.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2003 On April 2, 2003 the White House officially nominated right-wing extremist Daniel Pipes to the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and the nomination has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions for approval. As the Washington Post has written, when many first heard the news they thought it was a joke. Pipes, perhaps best-known recently for launching “Campus Watch”, a surveillance network and website reminiscent of the McCarthy era, has not only been widely criticized as a racist, particularly with respect to Arabs and Muslims, but noted for advocating the use of force and fear rather than negotiation as the means of choice for conflict resolution. Enough of this crap! Loggers in charge of forests, accounting lawyers in charge of the SEC, and now this. I'd love to have some witty "what's next?" thing to say, but we're way past what's next and into a frightening bizzaro-world. This politics of spite is not the way to run a country. 11:28 a.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2003 "Congress regularly makes rules that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens," the court said in a summary attached to the opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Yeah, Billie - and that's the kind of shit you guys are supposed to stop. 04:51 p.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2003 so I could tell these self-righteous jerks that I only share my own damn music. 04:34 p.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2003 For real? The end of this article says that US officials still think he's alive. 02:41 p.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2003 He's put out a $1,000,000 bounty for the rumored naked Bush daughter video that's supposedly "floating around." 11:19 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2003 Why do I ever post anything from AICN? Their "sources" seem to usually consist of anyone who can think up a dorky pseudonym. 03:12 p.m., Monday, April 28, 2003 TNR's Michelle Cottle thinks so. 02:01 p.m., Monday, April 28, 2003 So now Jack Kirby doesn't get credited for The Hulk? Enough, already. 10:24 a.m., Monday, April 28, 2003 Scientists who study AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases say they have been warned by federal health officials that their research may come under unusual scrutiny by the Department of Health and Human Services or by members of Congress, because the topics are politically controversial. The scientists, who spoke on condition they not be identified, say they have been advised they can avoid unfavorable attention by keeping certain "key words" out of their applications for grants from the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those words include "sex workers," "men who sleep with men," "anal sex" and "needle exchange," the scientists said. Truly Orwellian. 01:55 p.m., Friday, April 25, 2003 A judge has ruled that since the new (non-Napster) filesharing networks have non-infringing uses, and are not supervised by the software vendors, they are legal. Good stuff. We'll see how long this takes to get overturned. 01:02 p.m., Friday, April 25, 2003 at the cynicism of the Bush team. They figger - "Well, no queer-lovers are gonna vote for us anyway - might as well go after the bigots." How is it "inclusive" to equate homosexuality with beastiality? Well, according to Ari Fleischer: "The president believes the senator is an inclusive man. And that's what he believes." 10:32 a.m., Friday, April 25, 2003 This thing should kick the ass of all the other FM transmitters, as long as the signal is strong enough. 10:22 a.m., Friday, April 25, 2003 He was quoted as saying "no I'm not." 02:26 p.m., Thursday, April 24, 2003 Are you safe? Is your FAMILY safe? 01:47 p.m., Thursday, April 24, 2003 The same day -- same day -- that American's flight attendants followed its mechanics and pilots in voting to give back hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and benefits to keep the company out of bankruptcy, news spread that American planned to give huge bonuses to seven top executives, presumably for their stellar work in driving the company to the edge of bankruptcy. American also provided millions more in extra pension benefits for 45 top executives. 01:33 p.m., Thursday, April 24, 2003 Crony capitalism that makes "Travelgate seem like a tempest in a Teapot Dome." 03:10 p.m., Wednesday, April 23, 2003 Hee hee. 05:43 p.m., Tuesday, April 22, 2003 This could set an ugly precedent if decided for the plaintiffs. Just the settlements alone could bankrupt the Shimmer Kids. 03:26 p.m., Tuesday, April 22, 2003 Universal healthcare? Non-religious schools? Free elections? Is this Iraq or CANADA? 04:35 p.m., Monday, April 21, 2003 Saddam's "love shack" found. 11:01 a.m., Saturday, April 19, 2003 this history of modem development is a great read. 10:20 a.m., Friday, April 18, 2003 Quibbling over merchandising rights, Stan Lee attempts to "de-license" Spiderman from Sony. 11:23 p.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2003 Garbage in - oil out! 03:58 p.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2003 We have good old GM to thank... 10:11 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2003 This new ridiculous law levies 25 YEAR jail sentences for any promoter who throws a party or concert where drug use is taking place. BACK TO YOUR TELEVISIONS, SHEEP! 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 16, 2003 Karl Rove, whining about too much polling? Boo-hoo, Prince of Darkness! 10:45 a.m., Saturday, April 12, 2003 Phew. This is some ruthless shit. One thing we've learned in this war is that Saddam and his sons were effin' psychos. 10:43 a.m., Saturday, April 12, 2003 Want some ammo to take on your gloating pro-war acquaintances? 10:38 a.m., Saturday, April 12, 2003 WAY cooler (and way more complicated) than the tiny RC cars... 05:40 p.m., Friday, April 11, 2003 Now, with minor plot spoilers! 05:03 p.m., Thursday, April 10, 2003 Say what you will about Geraldo, a self-aggrandizing cartoon, an action junkie, you name it: The guy is in no danger of living a small, gray, forgettable life. Staley went on to say, "A handful of troops here wanted pictures with G and autographs. A few shook his hand. Others here wanted to harm him, were disgusted with him, thought he should have been sent home in a Humvee (a 40-hour drive south through the desert). "We later found out a few who shook his hand had put those hands in unmentionable places prior. Army justice?" 10:09 a.m., Tuesday, April 8, 2003 Well, it's a(nother) START... 05:16 p.m., Monday, April 7, 2003 Soldiers must now "pray" for the shrub: Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports U.S. soldiers in Iraq are being asked to pray for President George W. Bush. Thousands of Marines have been given a pamphlet, put out by In Touch Ministries, called "A Christian's Duty." It is a mini prayer book that includes a tear-out card to be mailed to the White House pledging that the soldier who sends it has been praying for Bush. "I have committed to pray for you, your family, your staff and our troops during this time of uncertainty and tumult," says the card. "May God's peace be your guide." 12:20 p.m., Sunday, April 6, 2003 This guy has "copyrighted" Bikram yoga and is sending nastygrams to yoga studios to get them to pay him for using "his" poses. When asked how he could make such drastic statements, he told Business 2.0 magazine: "Because I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me." REAL enlightened, bro. 11:03 a.m., Friday, April 4, 2003 A new Sony PVR/DVD recorder, which would be "Hollywood's worst nightmare" if released in the USA. Here's the machine-translated webpage, including such gems as: 3. The various contents are enjoyed with the television Note: The knitting machine does not correspond to memory stick PRO. 08:40 p.m., Thursday, April 3, 2003 No comment. Here is the list of idiots who passed this garbage. 12:20 p.m., Tuesday, April 1, 2003 I'm watching Rummy and Meyers, and it's pretty wacky. Rumsfeld just managed to pin the war plan (which he claims is a great plan, of course) on Franks. Earlier, when pressed about his comments decrying press scrutiny of the war plan as "not helpful," Meyers backtracked, saying "the constitution..." and then laughing. Sobering up, he said "the press is fine if it's 'fair and balanced' (Fox News' slogan!)." Now Rumsfeld is PISSED, and is ending the press conference. Whoops - not yet... Meyers ends the conference with a "thanks to Hungary." Phew! That was rough! I gotta find some new stuff to do with my time. 11:45 a.m., Tuesday, April 1, 2003 Ouch! This is what happens when you put a chickenhawk in charge of the military - they care nothing about logistics or loss of life - only about validating their (in this case erroneous) ideology. 04:02 p.m., Monday, March 31, 2003 Good summary of the bleak times we're facing. 03:08 p.m., Monday, March 31, 2003 This article breaks down the neocons' arguments and goals, and lets you see where this war is leading us. It is surprisingly spin-free, and illuminates the pros and cons of the neoconservative movement. 04:01 p.m., Friday, March 28, 2003 Plus, this choice nugget: Even with no requirements for participation on the coalition list, several of those countries have expressed issues with their inclusion on the list. "The Government is completely unaware of such statements being made, therefore wishes to disassociate itself from the report," Solomon Islands Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza said Wednesday. He had signed a letter in favor of the U.S. campaign against terrorism, not Iraq, he said, according to Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation. A spokeswoman for the Irish government told the Irish Times that Ireland was not supporting the war either privately or publicly, despite its inclusion on the State Department's list of countries secretly supporting the war. The Czech Republic is listed as a coalition member, though Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and President Vaclav Klaus have denied participation. Angola vanished from the White House list of coalition members for four days, only to reappear Tuesday night. Of the 48 countries on the White House list, only nine have expelled their Iraqi diplomats, as the U.S. requested. And of those nine, Jordan has said that Iraq can send replacements at any time. "This is a vast coalition that believes in our cause," Bush said, "and I'm proud of their participation." Blair, conversely, responded to the same question with what seemed like a soft slap at his ally's response. "There are countries that disagree with what we are doing," he said. "I mean, there's no point in hiding it; there's been a division." 09:28 a.m., Friday, March 28, 2003 Perle's out... Sort-of. Why do I get the feeling he'll have the same level of influence without the scrutiny in his new, lower-profile post? 05:11 p.m., Thursday, March 27, 2003 "5-year-old girl fights python to save kitten." 02:34 p.m., Thursday, March 27, 2003 We've been wondering a lot about "Josh Gracin," the Marine-turned-wannabe-pop-star who has somehow made it to the finals of American Idol while singing like a bad country singer, and BEING MARRIED (that stuff doesn't usually fly with "Teen Beat"). Also, isn't there a war on right now that he might want to BE IN? Apparently (*shock!*), there have been some behind-the-scenes shenanigans... 01:27 p.m., Thursday, March 27, 2003 Wear one of these T-shirts to work tomorrow. 11:02 a.m., Thursday, March 27, 2003 Jon Stewart is disgusted, and Stephen Colbert is at a loss for words. 10:39 a.m., Thursday, March 27, 2003 It's pretty simple. S.C.U.M.B.A.G. 04:53 p.m., Wednesday, March 26, 2003 South Carolina wants to not only force an (already given) apology from the Dixie Chicks for their treasonous comments. To their credit (I guess), the Dixie Chicks say they are through apologizing. 11:13 a.m., Wednesday, March 26, 2003 Finally, FERC has found "widespread manipulation" of energy prices in CA. Why do I find it a little disingenuous when Commissioner William Massey said he "regretted that FERC did not intervene earlier." Maybe he didn't catch the Frontline special that handed him the case on a platter. In other news, California managed to get good ol' El Paso natural gas to kick down another $1.7billion (nearly matching the $1.8billion that FERC ordered EVERYONE ELSE to pay) in a settlement. All of this is good news, but the dollar amounts still fall far short of the amount we were allegedly overcharged. 10:12 a.m., Wednesday, March 26, 2003 We'll see how long this lasts before crapping out. You have to spoof your location, so if you don't want to muck around with web proxies, etc, don't bother. It was pretty easy to get it working for me, though. 03:22 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Whoo-hoo! An excerpt from the latest article "Frivolous Lawsuits 9: Lethal Justice:" Murderer Sues Prison for Unwise Investing Eighteen years ago, John Duggan was convicted to life in prison for beating his wife to death. And how did the prison staff reward him for this? By putting his money into a zero-interest prison account! This wicked deed will not go unpunished, and with justice on his side, John is now suing the prison system for an undisclosed amount of money he feels he would have earned through proper investment. Despite the possible loss of funds, the prison is still finding new ways to improve conditions. In fact, right after the announcement of the lawsuit, the prison guards announced a new holiday, Free Knife For Everyone Except John Duggan Day. 02:48 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2003 List of 50 most loathsome people in New York City. The editors explain: By what criteria did we prepare the final list? Loathsome, yes, but we were looking for people who were loathsome in an especially New York way. Thus Ben Affleck, who received many, many votes and may even have a part-time Manhattan mailing address, remains very much a Hollywood asshole. Yet Martha Stewart, who heads out to either Connecticut or Long Island after a hard day of being a bitch, handily makes the list. 02:22 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Archives |
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