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04

2004-04 posts.

  1. 2004-04-07t04:21:00Z. RE: aaBlog. Bush. Chicago. Comic Art. Computers. Cyber Life. Elections. Engineering. Faith. Food. Games. Green. Interesting. Iraq. Kids. Martial Arts. Math. Media. Money. Science. Sex. Show Biz. USA. World.
  2. 2004-04-13t18:06:01Z. RE: 9/11 Commission. Chicago. Computer. Cyber Life. Elections. Engineering. Faith. Green. Health. Interesting. Iraq. Money. Photography. Science. Sex. Show Biz. US. Web. World.
  3. Sword-Gun-Weapon Rights. RE: Martial Arts. Sword Control. Gun Control. Politics.
  4. 2004-04-14t22:27:23Z. RE: 9/11 Commission. Bush. Computers. Cyber Life. Elections. Fun. Green. Housing Bubble. Images. Iraq. Money. Politics. Science. Sex. Show Biz. US. World.
  5. 2004-04-23t17:26:44Z. RE: 9/11 Commission. Bush. Comic Art. Cyber Life. Computers. Elections. Engineering. Faith. Food. Fun. Green. Images. Interesting. Iraq. Israel. Martial Arts. Math. Media. Money. Politics. Science. Sex. Show Biz. US. Web. World.
  6. Sword-Gun-Weapon Rights 2. RE: Martial Arts. Gun Control. Sword Control. Politics.

2004-04-07t04:21:00Z | RE: aaBlog. Bush. Chicago. Comic Art. Computers. Cyber Life. Elections. Engineering. Faith. Food. Games. Green. Interesting. Iraq. Kids. Martial Arts. Math. Media. Money. Science. Sex. Show Biz. USA. World.
2004-04-07t04:21:00Z

aaBlog

  • I've fallen a few days behind on my regular blogging. Usually I fall behind because I have a life (work, family, martial arts, etc.), but this time I had another reason for procrastinating: Blogging itself. I've been working on a long post, currently called "Sword-Gun Rights", that I hope to post soon. The key lesson for me is this: A long stand-alone post is no reason to fall behind on my regular blogging because I can work on them asynchronously.
  • I'm going to try to reduce quoting the links so much. I was originally heavily quoting for several reasons.
    1. The content of some sites, like the New York Times, does not stay free forever.
    2. I like to comment on particular parts quotations.
    3. I wanted to stress which parts of the article I thought were important.
    4. I wanted some of the quoted content searchable on my site for my own future usage.

    Those are good reasons but I guess I want my blog to consist mostly of my words instead of quotations.

Bush

  • War Rationale: Version 10.0. Pretty funny.
  • BabesAgainstBush.com. I saw this site a long time ago but I'll post it again just in case it will get 1 more vote against Bush.
  • Bush is just so lame with this 9/11 Commission.
    • Why does Bush need Cheney to support him during his interview? Isn't Bush self-sufficient? Does he really need his ventriloquist with him all the time? Lame.
    • Still nothing really countering Dick Clarke's testimony. Lame
    • After all this resistance about Rice testifying, he's finally going to let her?  Lame. (Esp. considering that Rice is one smart chick and she'll probably do fine)
    • But if the Commission has additional questions, they can't ask other staff? Lame.
    • Bush dude: We want to know what happened and to make sure we're doing what we can to prevent it from happening again.
  • "This Isn't America" by Paul Krugman
    • 'Last week an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin said, "This isn't America; the government did not invent intelligence material nor exaggerate the description of the threat to justify their attack." So even in Israel, George Bush's America has become a byword for deception and abuse of power.'
    • 'And the administration's reaction to Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies" provides more evidence of something rotten in the state of our government. The truth is that among experts, what Mr. Clarke says about Mr. Bush's terrorism policy isn't controversial.'
    • 'This administration's reliance on smear tactics is unprecedented in modern U.S. politics -- even compared with Nixon's. Even more disturbing is its readiness to abuse power -- to use its control of the government to intimidate potential critics. '
    • 'On the terrorism front, here's one story that deserves special mention. One of the few successful post-9/11 terror prosecutions -- a case in Detroit -- seems to be unraveling. The government withheld information from the defense, and witnesses unfavorable to the prosecution were deported (by accident, the government says). After the former lead prosecutor complained about the Justice Department's handling of the case, he suddenly found himself facing an internal investigation -- and someone leaked the fact that he was under investigation to the press. '
    • 'Where will it end? In his new book, "Worse Than Watergate [Amazon]," John Dean, of Watergate fame, says, "I've been watching all the elements fall into place for two possible political catastrophes, one that will take the air out of the Bush-Cheney balloon and the other, far more disquieting, that will take the air out of democracy." '
  • Powell: Some Iraq testimony not 'solid'. No, freaking, duh! It's called unqualified intelligence, fudge, bull shit, deception, etc.
  • Letterman: "George W. Bush Invigorating Ameria's Youth".
    • Ha ha! There are 2 videos:
      • The first video shows a kid standing to Bush's right during a speech, but because it's such a long and boring speech he's yawning, streching, shaking himself, checking his watch, etc. That's pretty cute and funny.
      • The second video has Letterman showing 2 clips from CNN just after they showed his 1st video:
        • In the 1st clip, the CNN person says that the White House said that the kid edited into the video. Dave countered by saying that was a 100% lie.
        • In the 2nd clip, which aired later, the CNN person says that the White House kid was there at the event but not necessarily standing there behind the President. Dave countered by that was a 100% lie.
    • CNN later claimed that they never did get a comment from the White House. That stinks too because then CNN was lying on behalf of the President? So whether or not the White House contacted CNN, CNN still lied for the White House. What losers.
  • Play with the "Dishonest Dubya" action figure. It would be more fun if it didn't hurt.
  • Cheney Tax Plan From '86 Would Have Raised Gas Prices. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
  • A matter of trust: Evidence is growing that the Bush administration has misled the public. But most voters, so far, are inclined to forgive. Even more intersting than the article is the fact that it is from Economist.com, and they are usually pro-Bush! Perhaps the Republicans will start cannibalizing Bush. Note that its a Republican elephant running the Pinocchiometer test.
  • MichaelMoore.com has a photomosaic of Bush made out of US soldiers who have died in Iraq.
  • A special sense of humour.
    • 'I had to share this find. I recently purchased a high-quality computer sleeve from a small boutique manufacturer. I was checking if it could be washed. The photo is the attached tag with the washing instructions in both English and French. The English is exactly what you would expect and so is the French, for the first 6 lines. The last three lines of French are most interesting. "We are sorry that our President is an idiot. We didn't vote for him." Given recent strained relations between our two countries, it's good to see that not all Americans agree with the current administration. '
    • The comments say the bag was made by TomBihn.com, which, in any case, seems to make pretty cool looking bags.

Chicago

  • The Untitled Project.
    • 'The Untitled Project is a series of photographs of urban settings accompanied by a graphical text layout. The photographs have been digitally stripped of all traces of textual information. The text pieces show the removed text in the approximate location and font as it was found in the photograph.'
    • I wouldn't have posted this link except that they're photographs of Chicago.

Comic Art

Computers

  • Sun's "Project Looking Glass" GUI: Overview and Details.
    • This looks cool but bottom line: I'd have to play with it to see how well it works.
    • I like the idea of rotating a window so that it takes up less desktop space but is still visible. This is currently achieved by resizing a window, but I presume that in Project Looking Glass you'd be able to do both.
    • The 3D icons for a window on the task bar window have a Mac OS X style, but the difference is that the icons are shrunken versions of the window itself so there is additional metadata. This will work well for documents that can be distinguished from each other when shrunk. I personally prefer the conciseness of minute application icons and application name plus document title that Microsoft Windows uses when windows are minimized onto the OS taskbar.
    • I like how they use the "back" and "sides" of windows to store standard as well as user-customized metadata: it's very intuitive.
  • POVRay Short Code Contest - Round 3. 'All images shown here were create with a scene file of no more than 256 characters!'
  • Sun Makes Peace with Microsoft, Restructures
    • 'In a series of bombshell announcements, Sun Microsystems said it accepted a $1.95 billion settlement to end its legal war with Microsoft and will cut 3,300 jobs as part of a restructuring. Under the truce terms, Sun ended patent and antitrust suits against the Redmond, Wash., software giant. The companies also signed a 10-year technology sharing agreement. '
    • Kissy, kissy! We liked them better when the fought. It would be bizarre if MS just outright bought the ailing Sun. After all they still have that $50 billion cash reserve.
  • ITConversations.com. 'Audio and transcripts of interviews and important events [in IT]. '
  • Gateway to shutter stores, cut staff
    • 'The company, based in Poway, Calif., will continue its direct-sales strategy but plans to shut its 188 stores on April 9. Gateway recently acquired eMachines, and following the closing of the stores, the combined company plans to lay off 2,500--38 percent--of its 6,500 employees.'
    • Gateway's still alive? And buying cheapMachines, I mean eMachine helps them how?
  • The Secret Source of Google's Power.
    • 'the story is about seemingly incremental features that are actually massively expensive for others to match, and the platform that Google is building which makes it cheaper and easier for them to develop and run web-scale applications than anyone else.'
    • 'Google has taken the last 10 years of systems software research out of university labs, and built their own proprietary, production quality system. What is this platform that Google is building? It's a distributed computing platform that can manage web-scale datasets on 100,000 node server clusters. It includes a petabyte, distributed, fault tolerant filesystem, distributed RPC code, probably network shared memory and process migration. And a datacenter management system which lets a handful of ops engineers effectively run 100,000 servers. Any of these projects could be the sole focus of a startup.'
    • 'Google is a company that has built a single very large, custom computer. It's running their own cluster operating system. They make their big computer even bigger and faster each month, while lowering the cost of CPU cycles. It's looking more like a general purpose platform than a cluster optimized for a single application. While competitors are targeting the individual applications Google has deployed, Google is building a massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming.'
    • Holy crap! They're making Isaac Asimov's Multivac! Google is fast because their 100,000 server in essence a super computer and yet they aren't listed in Top500.org!
  • How to be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Personal Summary

Cyber Life

  • Chatrooms separate the men from the boys
    • 'The research's abstract explains: "Conflict is an important social force among online communities, as it assists in the construction of hierarchies and social orders without the need for prior knowledge of individual participants or other forms of verification or trust in relation to the claimed identity of others." '
      • Exactly true.
  • A Microchip Makes Its Mark: VeriChip & the Beast. Yes, we have the technology to mark people with microchips. No, it is not Revelations 13.
  • Storage must be getting cheap since people are giving away Gigabytes. YouSendIt.com and Dropload.com.
  • Anything Google does is important these day. They redid their interface in a way that is hardly noticeable but fresh -- that's so typical of Google.
    • GMail.Google.com. Google is working on getting into the free email game but instead of the measly 2-4 MB limitations of Yahoo and MSN, Google is letting you store 1 GB! The premise is that you should be able to save old emails so you can search it and use it as a resource (which, of course, is what Google does best).
    • Google.com/Froogle. Froogle finds sites that sells items you search for. Froogle still doesn't quite work as well as it ought to yet. EG: A Froogle search for "gorget armor" brings up some links but a regular Google search will bring up more links (not all of which are commercial) and some of the links are better (EG: http://www.therionarms.com/reenact/armor.shtml). However when Froogle does get up to speed, it can have a tremendous impact on which sites people will choose.
    • Google.com/dirhp/. I can't believe they took the directory off of the front page. Tsk tsk.
    • Local.Google.com. Nope, this still isn't up to snuff.
  • The web won't topple tyranny. The virtual world will have a relatively small affect on the actual world until a critical mass of people are Internet integrated. Even the US probably has 2 generations to go.
  • Study: File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales. Not that the music industry would believe it.
  • Judge: File sharing legal in Canada. Whoo whee!

Elections

  • KompressorForPresident.com. Even Kompressor would be better than Bush. His view on having children: "Do not have children, soon you have no money and the teenager hates you."
  • In the Heat of the Campaign
    • '"AN UNPRECEDENTED criminal enterprise designed to impermissibly affect a presidential election." That was the heated accusation leveled last week by the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee against the Kerry campaign, an array of outside Democratic groups working to defeat President Bush and several big donors to those groups. The complaint, filed with the Federal Election Commission, involves groups created by Democratic activists to collect and spend the huge "soft money" contributions now off-limits to political parties. '
      • Ha ha! Who's buying this load of shit? Everyone know Bush is the one with the big money behind him. It's as if the GOP has gotten so used to lying that they think they can say anything.

Engineering

Faith

  • In 12th Book of Best-Selling Series, Jesus Returns.
    • 'Over the last nine years, the "Left Behind" series, which is based on Dr. [Tim] LaHaye's literal, bloody interpretation of the Book of Revelation, has become one of the biggest surprise hits in American popular culture. The first 11 novels have sold more than 40 million copies. The authors have unseated John Grisham as the best-selling novelists for adults and, in some places where evangelical Christians are common, the books rival the Harry Potter series in sales.'
    • Whoo whee! The radical religious right in full swing. However the book sounds interesting.
    • Related links:
  • TV show, film play part in man's killing of girlfriend, confession. Bah, the guy thinks he's saving his soul. Hmm... looks surprisingly like a co-worker of mine.
  • Re-enchantment: A New Enlightenment
    • 'Unfortunately, there has been a massive retreat from Enlightenment ideals in recent years, a return to pre-modern mythologies. There has been a resurgence of fundamentalist religions worldwide--Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Judaism. Added to this are occult-paranormal claims, which allegedly transcend the existing scientific paradigm. In the United States--the preeminent scientific-technological-military superpower in the world--significant numbers of Americans have embraced primitive forms of biblical religion. These focus on salvation, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus. Evangelical Protestant Christians have made alliances with conservative Roman Catholics and neo-conservative Jews, and they have captured political power--power they have used to oppose secular humanism and naturalism.'
    • 'In part such thinking is an understandable response to the two grotesque twentieth-century ideologies--fascism and Stalinism--that dominated the imagination of so many supporters in Europe and betrayed human dignity on the butcher block of repression and genocide. "After Auschwitz," wrote Theodor Adorno, we cannot praise "the grandeur of man." Surely the world has recovered from that historical period of aberrant bestiality. However, many intellectuals are still disillusioned because of the failure of Marxism to deliver on the perceived promises of socialism, in which they had invested such faith. Whatever the causes of pessimism, we cannot abandon our efforts at reform or at spreading knowledge and enlightenment. We cannot give in to nihilism or self-defeating subjectivism. Although science has often been co-opted by various military-technological powers for anti-humanistic purposes, it also can help fulfill ennobling humanitarian goals. '
    • See also: MetaFilter thread
  • "What America Can Learn From Its Atheists: Under God and Over" by Leon Wieseltier
    • The is a very important and very well written piece. Wieseltier watched the Supreme Court case of Elk Grove Unified School District v. Michael A. Newdow, where Newdow defended his lower court victory to have "under God" stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance. For some of the radical religious right, this case of "GOD ON TRIAL", but actually it is more like "America's honesty to itself about religion on trial".
    • 'I had come to witness a disputation between religion's enemies and religion's friends. What I saw instead, with the exception of a single comment by Justice Souter, was a disputation between religion's enemies, liberal and conservative. And this confirmed me in my conviction that the surest way to steal the meaning, and therefore the power, from religion is to deliver it to politics, to enslave it to public life. '
    • 'Some of the individuals to whom I am attributing a hostility to religion would resent the allegation deeply. They regard themselves as religion's finest friends. But what kind of friendship for religion is it that insists that the words "under God" have no religious connotation? A political friendship, is the answer. And that is precisely the kind of friendship that the Bush administration exhibited in its awful defense of the theistic diction of the Pledge.'
    • 'They were, many of them, Deists--which is to say, the United States was created in the very short period in history when it was theologically respectable to believe in a God that never intervenes in the world that He (the pronoun is ridiculous) created. In the matter of our religious origins, then, we were freakishly fortunate. No theology more convenient for a secular democracy ever existed. '
      • And boy do we Brights love to point that out.
    • 'The brief further notes that the introduction of God into the Pledge in 1954 had "a political purpose," which was to "highlight the foundational difference between the United States and Communist nations." (The brief does not cite some of the embarrassingly sectarian expostulations in that congressional debate.) It is certainly correct that the materialism of communist ideology offended many Americans; but the American dispensation differed from the Soviet dispensation in many significant ways, and it is foolish to impute all the evils of the Soviet Union to its godlessness. '
    • 'The distinction between religion and morality was championed by religious thinkers in all the monotheistic faiths, who worried that religion would be reduced to morality. Now we must worry that for many Americans morality is being reduced to religion.'
    • 'Newdow was right when he insisted that there is nothing paradoxical about a godless patriotism, when he ringingly concluded with the hope that "we can finally go back and have every American want to stand up, face the flag, place their hand over their heart, and pledge to one nation, indivisible, not divided by religion, with liberty and justice for all." '
    • 'To cherish religion for its political utility is to cherish it narrowly, selfishly, consequentially, because it allows you to accomplish one of your objectives, because it works. American conservatives love to chant Richard Weaver's old slogan that ideas have consequences; but if you are chiefly interested in the consequences, then you are not chiefly interested in the ideas. If you care primarily about patriotism or "national unity" or "civilization," then you will concern yourself with the practical impact of the phrase "under God" and not with its theoretical implication. You will neglect religion even as you denounce others for doing the same. '
    • 'Breyer suggested that the God in "under God" is "this kind of very comprehensive supreme being, Seeger-type thing." And he posed an extraordinary question to Newdow: "So do you think that God is so generic in this context that it could be that inclusive, and if it is, then does your objection disappear?" Needless to say, Newdow's objection did not disappear, because it is one of the admirable features of atheism to take God seriously. Newdow's reply was unforgettable: "I don't think that I can include 'under God' to mean 'no God,' which is exactly what I think. I deny the existence of God." The sound of those words in that room gave me what I can only call a constitutional thrill. This is freedom. And he continued: "For someone to tell me that 'under God' should mean some broad thing that even encompasses my religious beliefs sounds a little, you know, it seems like the government is imposing what it wants me to think in terms of religion, which it may not do. Government needs to stay out of this business altogether."
    • 'There are two words in the phrase "under God." Each of them is indeed descriptive--but it is not our history that they describe. They describe our cosmos. Or rather, they purport to describe our cosmos. They make a statement about the universe, they paint a picture of what exists. This statement and this picture is either true or false. Either there is a God and we are under Him--the spatial metaphor, the image of a vertical reality, is one of the most ancient devices of religion--or there is not a God and we are not under Him. Since 1954, in other words, the Pledge of Allegiance has conveyed metaphysical information, and therefore it has broached metaphysical questions. I do not see how its language can be read differently. During the deliberations at the Court, only Justice Souter conceded that a cosmological claim, a worldview, is being advanced by the allusion to God in the Pledge.'
    • 'To recognize the plain meaning of the words "under God," and the nature of the investigation that they enjoin, is to discover the philosophical core of religion. This is not at all obvious to the modern interpretation of religion, and not to the American interpretation of it. After Kant explained that we can have no direct knowledge of the thing itself, and certainly not of God, religious statements have tended to be not propositions of fact, but propositions of value--expressions of inner states that are validated by the intensity of the feeling with which they are articulated. Certainty weirdly became an accomplishment of subjectivity. Kant thought that he secured religion by placing it beyond the bounds of knowledge. But this was a false security, because the vocabulary of theism continues to point to more than emotion or experience or tribe or culture.'
    • 'Theology, if it wishes to be regarded as more than a cerebral fantasy, cannot be content to have its basis in the imagination; it must appeal to the authority of philosophy if it is to continue to speak about what is true. Many modern believers, and modern commentators on religion, resent this. A recent historian of atheism, a Jesuit scholar, laments that in modern theology "religion was treated as if it were theism," as if it had no resources of its own to guarantee anything generally binding and true. But if religion is not theism, if its ground is not an intellectually supportable belief in the existence of God, then all the spiritual exaltation and all the political agitation in the world will avail it nothing against the skeptics and the doubters, and it really is just a beloved illusion. '
    • 'There is no greater insult to religion than to expel strictness of thought from it. Yet such an expulsion is one of the traits of contemporary American religion, as the discussion at the Supreme Court demonstrated. Religion in America is more and more relaxed and "customized," a jolly affair of hallowed self-affirmation, a religion of a holy whatever. Speaking about God is prized over thinking about God. '
    • 'For this reason, American unbelief can perform a great quickening service to American belief. It can shake American religion loose from its cheerful indifference to the inquiry about truth. It can remind it that religion is not only a way of life but also a worldview. It can provoke it into remembering its reasons. For the argument that a reference to God is not a reference to God is a sign that American religion is forgetting its reasons.'
  • SourceryForge.org. A wiki for wikkans! Actually its a wiki for esoteric subjects.

Food

Games

  • Reflections [Flash]. Fun geometric game playing with lasers, reflections, and refractions. I spent a few minutes on it and only go to level 8. I'll try it again later when I have more time.
  • LittleFluffy.com. Site linking to all sorts of games or printable activities.
  • Sesame Street 35th Anniversary Trivia Game. This game is actually for grown ups.
  • KaplaWorld.com. 'Building sets such as Leggos, K-nex, Lincoln logs, etc. all require careful sorting and planning from dozens of different pieces before building can begin. Imaginations are often frustrated by the limited number of specialized pieces in a set and the wasted time searching for them. KAPLA, on the other hand, uses just one versatile building plank shape. This means that building begins at once with no meticulous sorting and planning. Creativity can flow as the artist grabs another handful of planks and continues the creation. '

Green

  • Soya-powered planes promise greener air travel
  • Imagining a $7-a-Gallon Future
    • 'Adherents of the "peak oil" theory warn of a permanent oil shortage. In the next five or 10 years, they maintain, the world's capacity to produce oil will reach its geological limit and fall behind growing demand. They trace their arguments back to the geophysicist M. King Hubbert, who in 1956 accurately predicted that American oil production would reach its apex around 1970. In a recent book, "Hubbert's Peak," Kenneth S. Defeyes, an emeritus professor of geology at Princeton, wrote that "Global oil production will probably reach a peak sometime during this decade." Current prices, he adds, "may be the preamble to a major crisis."

      In "Out of Gas," David Goodstein, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, also argues that world oil output will peak "most probably within this decade" and thereafter "will decline forever."

      For Americans rattled by current prices, this theory holds out the unsettling prospect of gasoline prices at $5, $6, $7 a gallon and higher still. In the face of such a grim prospect, $1.76 - last week's national average - fades in importance. '

    • I've talked about peak oil before but it's good to get it from the press to. Also I believe it will occur around 2050 instead of 2015. You can't rely on finding more oil -- it will eventually run out. So why wait? Invest in alternatives now. This is where public policy should overtake private policy. Capitalists will suck the earth dry when it isn't necessary. There needs to be non-free market pressure to force the conversion from oil.

Interesting

  • How to fold clothes [video 3.5 min]. OMFG! This link is important. It's in Korean or something but this is an ingenious way to fold clothes 50% faster! I'm saving this video, replaying it until I've go it right, and then I'm going to use it so that the technique becomes a permanent part of my life.
  • Nazi and East German Propaganda Guide Page
  • http://www.artshare.com/trixie/. The Trixie Update. OK, most baby sites have cute kids but most of them are really only of interest to the relatives. In contrast this site also does some interesting charting and telemetry. People raising babies know that sleep is rare and extremely important. My wife and I have charted feeding and diaper usage. As far as sleep, we assume that we just won't really get much until a kid is say 3 years old.
  • Kansas Killer Resurfaces After 20 Years. Creepy. The BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) strangler returns. More in depth link: All American City.
  • SamsToyBox.com.
  • Eudaemonia, The Good Life
  • Envelope and Letter Folding. Actual images of how to fold origami-like envelopes. 3 coincidences:
    1. I've been folding envelopes for my daughter to use so we don't waste regular envelopes.
    2. This guy is GHH.com, which is not too far from georgehernandez.com. (No, GH.com is not available).
    3. This guy is part of the Albion School of Defense (which does historical stage combat), while I am part of the ChicagoSwordPlayGuild.com (which does historical combat).
  • Obscura.tabias.com. 'But my weakness is old photographs; the older, the better. Strangers, frozen in history, peerin' out from old paper. Mine for a buck or less.'
  • StudioTanuki.com and TanukiDesign.com. Some weirdo French company that does games, graphic design, in a Japanese anime style.
  • The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival. Awesome ice sculptures.
  • GFXArtist.com. Some very good work in 3D Modelling, Drawing, Painting, Photo Manipulation, Photography, and Design by a large number of artists.
  • Greenway.org.
    • 'Walkers, cyclists, and other trail advocates have joined forces around an audacious project, a 2,600 mile traffic-free path linking East Coast cities from Maine to Florida. Launched only 10 years ago, this vision for an urban alternative to the highly popular Appalachian Trail is quickly becoming a reality.'
    • Perhaps I should skip rope the entire trail.
  • After Life -- Streatham Cemetary [interactive Flash]. Sort of soothing and yet eerie.
  • Police stop short of calling abduction a hoax
    • 'For example, Seiler told police that after taking her at knifepoint, her captor used duct tape, rope, cold medicine, a gun and a knife to keep her under his control. Although those items were found in the marsh where she was found, buttressing her account, police obtained videotape Thursday that showed Seiler entering a store in Madison and buying those items, he said. '
    • Silly girl. Sounds like she did it for kicks or she's messed up.
  • Ian's Shoelace Site. How to tie your shoes: basics and some fancier stuff.
  • SandwichGirl.com. Gee, there's fun, adventure, science, and girls in bikinis in Antarctica! (Just forget that it's friggin cold and makes Chicago feel like a day at the beach). Don't go looking for Artic sex.
  • The Three Faces of Victim. 'Victim-hood consists of three positions outlined by Stephen Karpman, a teacher of Transactional Analysis, on what he called the "Drama Triangle". .... I call it the "shame machine" because through it we unconsciously re-enact our vicious cycles, thereby creating shame. Every dysfunctional interaction takes place on the Drama Triangle! Until we make these dynamics conscious, we cannot transform them. Unless we transform them, we cannot move forward on our journey towards re-claiming our spiritual heritage. Karpman named the three roles on the Drama Triangle Persecutor, Rescuer and Victim and placed them on an upside down triangle representing the three faces of victim. Even though only one is called Victim, all three originate out of and end up back there. Therefore they are all stopping places on the road to victim-hood. We each have a most familiar, or what I call, starting gate position. '
  • Photos of Luminous Organisms
  • Funny how the fire breathing site all basically start with "don't try this"
  • Mexican Woman Performs Own Caesarean to Save Baby. Incredible! Now that took guts! (no pun intended)

Iraq

  • Enraged Mob in Falluja Kills 4 American Contractors.
    • The extremists in Iraq want to kill, mutilate, burn, and hang Americans; the moderates think it's sufficient to just kill or expel Americans.
    • And now we've surrounded the entire town.
  • Iraqi intellectuals flee 'death squads' ' "Iraqi universities have lost 1315 scientists who hold MA and PhD degrees," al-Ani said. "This number constitutes eight per cent of the 15,500 Iraqi academics.'
  • Chalabi: A Questionable Use of U.S. Funding and WMD claims: US to probe charges against Chalabi. 'US Congress investigative arm -- General Accounting Office -- is opening an inquiry into whether the Iraqi National Congress, led by controversial financier Ahmad Chalabi, used US taxpayers money and broke the law to prod US into war on false pretenses, a media report said today. '
  • Lookout: Let's Make Enemies
    • 'At the end of March, building on his Order 39 of last September, Bremer passed yet another law further opening up Iraq's economy to foreign ownership, a law that Iraq's next government is prohibited from changing under the terms of the interim constitution.'
    • 'The CPA has also confirmed that after June 30, the $18.4 billion the US government is spending on reconstruction will be administered by the US Embassy in Iraq. The money will be spent over five years and will fundamentally redesign Iraq's most basic infrastructure, including its electricity, water, oil and communications sectors, as well as its courts and police. Iraq's future governments will have no say in the construction of these core sectors of Iraqi society. '
      • Ah, yes White Man's burden. Heaven forbid that the ignorant natives rebuild their own country.
    • 'Bremer has issued an executive order stating that even after the interim Iraqi government has been established, the Iraqi army will answer to US commander Lieut. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. In order to pull this off, Washington is relying on a legalistic reading of a clause in UN Security Council Resolution 1511, which puts US forces in charge of Iraq's security until "the completion of the political process" in Iraq. Since the "political process" in Iraq is never-ending, so, it seems, is US military control. '
      • If I were an Iraqi this sounds like the US invaded and now the US rule Iraq and the June 30 hand over is just imagery.
    • 'Taken together, these latest measures paint a telling picture of what a "free Iraq" will look like: The United States will maintain its military and corporate presence through fourteen enduring military bases and the largest US Embassy in the world. It will hold on to authority over Iraq's armed forces, its security and economic policy and the design of its core infrastructure--but the Iraqis can deal with their decrepit hospitals all by themselves, complete with their chronic drug shortages and lack of the most basic sanitation capacity.'
    • 'Few seem interested in the question of whether the invasion has made Iraqis feel safer, which is too bad because the questions are intimately related. As Khamis says, "It's not the war that caused the hatred. It's what they did after. What they are doing now." '
  • Modern Mercenaries on the Iraqi Frontier.
  • Eight U.S. Troops Killed in Shiite Uprising: Occupation Forces Battle Cleric's Followers As Widespread Demonstrations Erupt in [Baghdad,] Iraq [2004-04-04 Sun]
    • 'The day's events constituted the most serious challenge yet to the U.S.-led occupation by an element of the country's majority Shiite population, which for most of a year has observed a broad tolerance of the United States and its allies. '
      • O great. Now we've got both the minority Sunnis (like in Falluja) and the majority Shias (like in Baghdad) steaming at us.
  • A Young Radical's Anti-U.S. Wrath Is Unleashed
    • 'For months, as American occupation authorities have focused on a moderate Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a radical young Shiite cleric named Moktada al-Sadr has been spewing invective and threatening a widespread insurrection. On Sunday, he unleashed it. '
  • The battle the US wants to provoke: Bremer is deliberately pushing Iraq's Shia south into all-out chaos
    • 'Sadr is the younger, more radical rival of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and portrayed by his supporters as a cross between Ayatollah Khomeini and Che Guevara. He blames the US for attacks on civilians; compares the US occupation chief, Paul Bremer, to Saddam Hussein; aligns himself with Hamas and Hizbullah; and has called for a jihad against the controversial interim constitution. His Iraq might look a lot like Iran. '
    • 'Here's one possible answer: Washington has given up on its plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, and is creating the chaos it needs to declare the handover impossible. A continued occupation will be bad news for George Bush on the campaign trail, but not as bad as if the hand-over happens and the country erupts, an increasingly likely scenario given the widespread rejection of the legitimacy of the interim constitution and the US- appointed governing council. But by sending the new Iraqi army to fire on the people they are supposed to be protecting, Bremer has destroyed what slim hope they had of gaining credibility with an already highly mistrustful population. On Sunday, before storming the unarmed demonstrators, the soldiers could be seen pulling on ski masks, so they would not be recognised in their neighbourhoods later. '

Kids

Martial Arts

  • Marines' weapon loaded with 'scream'.
    • 'US troops are to be armed with a stun gun that uses a baby's high-pitched scream to bring the enemy to its knees.'
    • 'While the sound gun will normally be fired at just 110 decibels - a level that causes the human skull to vibrate - it can travel as far as 300 yards at 145 decibels. The human threshold of pain is usually between 120 and 130 decibels.'
    • Ha ha! Wouldn't this be cruel and unusual? Doesn't this go against the Geneva convention? This device could be used to deter teen pregnancies if used in sex ed classes! The megaphone should be shaped to look like the head of a crying baby.
    • Related link: Holosonics.com.
  • Stick Figure Fight Club [animation]. I've seen this before but it's still fun.
  • Inside camp of troubles. We knew the military was using depleted uranium but it is unbelievable that we used it in a way that was unsafe for our own troops!

Math

  • The Sound of Mathematics. 'This site has GM MIDI files of algorithmic music determined by mathematics and the musical preferences of a human.'

Media

  • The Clear Channel Controversy, One Year On (Why Howard Stern's Woes Are Your Woes, Too)
  • AirAmericaRadio.com.
    • Progressive media finally hit the radio a few days and I've been listening almost every day! The thing is they don't need to reach me, they need to reach other Americans who need to hear the other side of the issues.
    • Air America shows are like antidotes to the Conservative media (like Rush Limbaugh). Hopefully there will be conflict between the 2 camps about the issues. I would also hope that if 1 side is caught in a mistake or a lie, that they would just own up to it. It's pretty serious but entertaining stuff.
    • It's sort of fun listening to them working out the kinks, the mechanics, of actually producing a radio show. It makes you appreciate the operational smoothness of shows that have been on longer.
    • Current stations:
      • New York (WLIB AM 1190)
      • Los Angeles (KBLA AM 1580)
      • Chicago (WNTD AM 950)
      • Portland, OR (KPOJ AM 620)
      • Inland Empire, CA (KCAA AM 1050)
      • San Francisco, CA (soon)
    • Current line up. Times shown are EST. EG: In Chicago the O'Franken Factor is on 11-2.
      • Morning Sedition, Weekdays 6am-9am
      • Unfiltered, Weekdays 9am-noon
      • The O'Franken Factor, Weekdays noon-3pm, Repeat: 11pm-2am
      • The Randi Rhodes Show, Weekdays 3pm-7pm, Repeat: 2am-6am
      • So What Else Is News?, Weekdays 7pm-8pm
      • The Majority Report, Weekdays 8pm-11pm
      • The Laura Flanders Show, Saturdays 7pm -- 10pm; Sundays 6pm -- 9pm
  • http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm.

Money

  • WorkLessParty.org. I'm all for working less! I don't want to work, I want to bang on the drum all day.
  • Turning Bangladesh's Beggars Into Businessmen
  • GrossInternationalHappiness.org.
    • 'The Gross International Happiness Project ('GIH') is based on the insight that conventional development concepts such as GNP and Per Capita Income do not properly reflect the general well being of the inhabitants of a nation. In order to develop real progress and sustainability and to effectively combat trends which compromise the planet's natural and human ecosystems, GIH aims to develop more appropriate and inclusive indicators which truly measure the quality of life within nations and organizations.'
    • Yes! People, planet, profit dudes.
  • How India is saving capitalism
  • Retired Truck Driver Claims $239M Jackpot. Sweet. Always take the lump sum, esp. if you're older.
  • Drug Policy: Prohibition v Legalization: Do Economists Reach A Conclusion On Drug Policy? [PDF]. It seems that some major economists and a majority of economists are for drug legalization and decriminalization.
  • U.S. March job growth strongest in 4 years.
    • Yay! 308,000 jobs instead of the Wall Street prediction of 103,000. So last month was almost Clinton-like growth. I guess when growth gets so bad, sometimes the next month looks good in comparison.
    • Unfortunately unemployment went from 5.6% to 5.7%
    • Don't forge that Bush's forecast (upon which he's based his glorious economic plans) assume 320,000 jobs a month and 2.6 million jobs in 2004.
  • There Goes the Neighborhood: Why home prices are about to plummet--and take the recovery with them
    • 'There are many strange things about the choppy recovery we're in, but among the most curious is that it is being fueled largely by consumer spending. Why consumers should continue to spend, and why they've done it throughout the recession, is not immediately obvious. ... Economists have advanced two main reasons. One is that Americans have so lost their moorings that they've had few qualms about going deep into debt. ... But there's another reason, too: Americans have been using their homes as ATM machines, refinancing their mortgages in order to fund their spending.'
    • 'Greenspan has played enabler to this boom. But with the Fed fund's rate at 1 percent, the chairman can't do much more to sustain it. Tens of millions of Americans have already refinanced their mortgages, and at current rates, can't be induced to do so again. This small window is closing, fast: For six months, refinancing has been tapering off, and economists expect it to narrow further--many economists have argued the gains from refinancing are likely to halve ths year. Moreover, as soon as interest rates rise (as Greenspan himself has said they will within the next year), virtually all refinancing will cease. '
    • 'Let's assume for a moment that enough people get fooled, and the refinancing boom gets extended for another year. Then what? The real problem hits. Because if you think Greenspan's being cagey on refinancing, the truth he's really avoiding talking about is that we're in the midst of a huge housing bubble, on a scale only seen once before since the Depression. Worse, the inflated housing market is now in an historically unique position, as the motor of the rest of the economy. Within the next year or two, that bubble is likely to burst, and when it does, it very well may take the American economy down with it. '
    • 'Truth is, in most of the country there's no housing bubble. Perhaps the crucial ratio from which economists determine whether housing markets are out of whack is the ratio of home prices to annual income. In most of the country, it is modest, 2.4:1 in Wisconsin, 2.2:1 in Kentucky, 2.9:1 in Illinois. ... Only in about 20 metro areas, mostly located in eight states, does the relationship of home price to income defy logic. The bad news is that those areas contain roughly half the housing wealth of the country. In California, the price of a home stands at 8.3 times the annual family income of its occupants; in Massachusetts, the ratio is 5.9:1; in Hawaii, a stunning, 10.1:1.In California, a middle-class family with two earners each making $50,000 a year now owns, on average, an $830,000 home. In the late 80s, the last time these eight states saw price-to-income ratios this high, the real estate market collapsed. '
    • 'By other measures, too, the market is badly bloated. One index of housing inflation is the difference between house prices and rents. In a healthy market, driven by demand, rents and sale prices ought to track roughly together. But while sale prices have soared, rents have stayed flat; and in some of the most overheated markets, like San Francisco and Seattle, they have actually been declining. Such a gap, the economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has written, suggests "that people are now buying houses for speculation rather than merely for shelter," evidence that he called a "compelling case" for a housing bubble. "Within the next year or so," The Economist argued in a May 2003 editorial, these regional "bubbles are likely to burst, leading to falls in average real home prices of 15-20 percent" across America. And, of course, in the most heated markets the drop is likely to be steeper yet. '
    • See also: The Housing Bubble Continues to Inflate
  • Confessions of a Welfare Queen: How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars. I've never felt much sympathy for folks who build houses next to beaches and forests and then cry about it when nature takes its course. It's one thing if you've built inland and a hurricane hits but those other folks are just losers.

Science

  • PandasThumb.org. 'The Panda's Thumb is dedicated to explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims of the anti-evolution movement, and defending the integrity of science and science education in America and around the world.The Panda's Thumb is dedicated to explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims of the anti-evolution movement, and defending the integrity of science and science education in America and around the world.'
  • Methane on Mars could signal life. Wow! We were looking for water and we found, but methane?! That's astounding.
  • Livermore Scientists Team With Russia To Discover Elements 113 and 115
    • 'Now, a joint American-Russian team has found two new elements--numbers 113 and 115 on the periodic table--hinting at an impending breakthrough in creating novel forms of matter that will test our understanding of atomic behavior.'
    • Whoo whee! It's been years since we've had any new elements! On the other hand it's not like they discovered Carbon or something but still it's pretty neat.
    • I noticed that WebElements.com has kept up with this but ChemicalElements.com is slacking.
    • Related links in: Discover, Nature, New Scientist, and PhysicsWeb.

    •  

Sex

Show Biz

USA

World

  • Why Terror? If he were alive today, how might Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest apostle of non-violence, challenge Osama bin Laden's worldview?
  • T-Shirt Travels
    • Last night I saw an excellent PBS documentary called T-Shirt Travels. T-Shirt was a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking film on Zambia's woes that uses a seed topic of the phenomena of second hand clothes sales in Zambia and Africa in general.
    • Much of the clothes that we Americans donate to charity are eventually sold as second hand clothes in Africa where they are the largest import to that continent. T-Shirts uses the oddness of this situation to explore the history, problems, and future of Zambia/Africa.
      • Zambia was agrarian but self-sufficient.
      • In 1889, Zambia was taken and ruled by British colonialist and industrialists, esp. copper mining. A country is essentially raped as White Man's burden.
      • In 1964, Zambia acquired independence from Britain. Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda implemented a socialist government. EGs: mining was nationalized, public schools and health care, farmers were subsidized.
      • In the 1970s, oil prices went up, copper prices went down. Zambia had to borrow money from the IMF (International Money Fund) and WB (World Bank). The lenders have dictated that the country should be run via "structural adjustment programs," or free market reforms. It has been downhill since.
        • Local industries were stripped and sold: so Zambians became poor.
        • Schools and health care were no longer free: so Zambians became sick and under educated.
        • Farms lost subsidies: so Zambians became malnourished.
    • Clearly it is not a matter of "public v private" but a matter of balancing "private and public" partnerships. Kaunda was overly public-oriented. The lenders were overly private-oriented. The second hand clothes industry has killed the local textile and clothing industries.
    • In the eyes of capitalists, certain people, pockets of people, and even entire countries may become zero, worthless, ignorable, liabilities in the global economy. Are people ever worthless?
    • Zambia is now like a desert island with no resources: It needs to find its inner waters. Zambia is in a terrible hole: It needs to fix itself and it needs some debt forgiveness. T-Shirt ended with people full of hopes and dreams, open-minded people who are willing to work hard and sacrifice.
  • Terrorists Don't Need States: The danger is less that a state will sponsor a terror group and more that a terror group will sponsor a state--as happened in Afghanistan
  • Ivory Coast peace effort is shattered. Aka Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.
  • APlaceInTheSun.ca. Some would like to make the Turks & Caicos Islands (east of the Bahambas) the 11th Canadian province. I'm all for it provided that the natives are for it, the natives truly benefit from this, and environmental preservation is kept in mind. This can be a very good win-win situation.
  • Senior US Officials Cozy up to Dictator Who Boils People Alive and Karimov: U.S. ally with poor rights record. Let's see one of the reasons we have a mess in Iraq (besides Bush) is because we "used" and befriended a villain like Saddam Hussein for short term goals. So now we're doing the same thing with Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan? I guess we're doomed to repeat ourselves.
  • Ghosts of Rawanda. PBS does it again with a documentary on the 10th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide where 800,000 people were killed.
  • US fingerprints 'allied' visitors. If we do it then every country should do this with every other country as well.

2004-04-13t18:06:01Z | RE: 9/11 Commission. Chicago. Computer. Cyber Life. Elections. Engineering. Faith. Green. Health. Interesting. Iraq. Money. Photography. Science. Sex. Show Biz. US. Web. World.
2004-04-13t18:06:01Z

9/11 Commission

Chicago

  • City worker took leave to serve prison term
    • 'A former accountant for the Public Building Commission of Chicago rose to assistant finance director and doubled his salary in five years, despite taking off six months to serve time in federal prison for fraud, commission officials said Monday.'
    • Ha ha! Talk about doing double time!

Computer

Cyber Life

  • Soople.com. Exploit Google in a fast and friendly way.

Elections

Engineering

Faith

Green

  • The Heavyweight Sea Snail.
    • 'Scotland, like many other European areas, must comply with regulations requiring that a mandatory percentage of the energy it uses comes from renewable sources. For Scotland, this percentage will be 18% in 2010 and 40% by 2020. In "Tidal farming's new wave," Red Herring explains this why Scotland is very supportive of Ian Bryden's sea "Snail" program. The Snail is a 30-ton anchoring device which uses hydrofoils -- wings that "fly" in the water -- to generate enough power from tidal waves to service 10,000 homes by 2007. '
    • And does the US have a similar requirement about mandatory renewable resources? No? We like being dependent upon foreign oil? We want other countries to get the jump on the technology?
    • photo of the Scottish Sea Snail which generates electricity from waves

Health

Interesting

  • Speech Accent Archive. 'This site examines the accented speech of speakers from many different language backgrounds reading the same sample paragraph. Currently, we have obtained 329 speech samples.'
  • Papers won't run PETA ad linked to Pickton case
    • 'One section of the ad that was to have run Thursday, reads: "They were drugged and dragged across the room... Their struggles and cries went unanswered... They were slaughtered and their heads sawed off... Their body parts were refrigerated... Their bones were discarded." '
    • ' "PETA has just released a print ad that illustrates the well-established connection between animal abuse and acts of severe violence against people, and compares what is done to animals on factory farms and slaughterhouses to the ways in which accused serial killer Robert William Pickton apparently dealt with his human victims," says the press release. '
    • I have nothing against eating a reasonable amount of meat, but I think we should raise and slaughter these animals in a way that dignifies the sacrifice they make. If it costs a little more to treat our farm animals more humanely, then so be it. The only difference between killing a pig is and killing your pet dog is that you know the latter more intimately. People should occasionally kill the animals they eat because the experience (tactile, visual, audio, time exposure, etc.) makes you appreciate the sacrifice more. The difference between the small time farmer (who kills with his hands) and the corporate ranches (that kill en masse with machines) is like the difference between stabbing someone and pressing the button to deliver an atomic bomb.
  • The latest fashion must-have: eyeball jewellery. It looks better than having your tongue forked.
    photo of jewelry implanted onto an eyeball
  • William Hung, the reject from the American Idol TV show, is rocking on! His CD, Inspiration [Amazon], is actually hitting the charts! He may have no particular talent but he's persistent and sincere and that, my friends, is valuable.
    the William Hung CD
  • SubservientChicken.com. This is a pseudo-commercial Burger King. It looks like there's a web cam of a guy in a chicken suit, and you can type what you want him to do and he'll do it. My kids and I loved it!
  • Doing the dance machine with one leg [video]. Awesome dude!
  • Chinese logic game [Flash].
    • To start: Press the blue circle to start.
    • Objective: Get everyone across the river.
    • Rules:
      • 1-2 people may cross at a time.
      • At least 1 adult must be on the raft.
      • Dad cannot be with a girl if Mom is not present.
      • Mom cannot be with a boy if Dad is not present.
      • The prisoner cannot be alone with a family member.
  • The Geek Hierarchy. This has become a classic. Here's the abridged version 2.0.
    the infamous Geek Hierarchy chart
  • The Tutu. With my daughter in ballet, I may need to know the history of the tutu. Related links: picture; Making the tutu; tutu measurements; finished tutus; Design Scene: The Making Of A Tutu; From Russia with Love
  • N [download Flash game]. 'play as a ninja trapped in a world of well-meaning, inadvertantly homicidal robots'
  • The bitch cheated on me [video]. It's a commercial but still a sweet little story.
  • Archaeologists cross the Rubigen
  • Egads. Here be Camel Spiders!
    photo of some huge Camel Spiders
  • Where Dungeons & Dragons Fails Video Games
    • 'an examination into the flaws behind transitional Computer RPG (CRPG) that attempt to convert their rules from classic Pencil/Paper RPG (PPRPG) derivatives.'
    • Interesting for those who are into game design. It also has some Artificial Intelligence applications.

Iraq

  • Holy city of Najaf not under coalition control: Rumsfeld.
  • Pictures of the killed, mutilated, burned, and hung Americans.
  • Plea to lift siege as toll mounts
    • 'Two hundred and eighty people have been killed since the start of the siege and 400 more injured, said Tahr al-Issawi, the director of Falluja's hospital on Thursday.'
    • 'US helicopters and snipers are firing on ambulances and civilian vehicles trying to take the wounded to clinics or the hospital, the correspondent said. "One civilian car trying to reach a clinic hoisted a white flag but still came under fire," he said.'
    • Yep, Bush definitely puts the "terror" in "terrorism". Bush is churning out more terrorists every day.
    • Do you feel safer? Are there more Iraqis that hate Americans now than before the invasion?
    • photo of an Iraqi baby killed this week
  • Will Falluja be leveled?
    • 'Iraq analysts fear that the U.S. is about to commit a war crime by laying siege to Falluja and punishing its citizens by disallowing shipments of food and water. With no independent reports from Falluja, Iraq analysts warn the world could be kept in the dark about scores of civilians likely to be caught in military confrontation between U.S. forces and Iraqi resistance. '
    • 'Iraq is entering a perilous phase as Iraqis begin to realize that the freedom they were promised was a thinly-veiled farce aimed at extorting the country of its mineral and oil wealth. There is open revolt in the south of Iraq where the young cleric, Muqtada Sadr, has declared that negotiating and/or exercising democratic tools like protests and demonstrations has not worked with the Coalition. His Mahdi army has seized several police stations throughout the south of Iraq. U.S. forces retaliated by seizing a Sadr office in Kirkuk. As the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad arrives, the fall of Iraq into absolute anarchy seems imminent.'
  • White House Blames Minority Extremists in Iraq but [thousands of] Iraqi marchers break through US roadblocks in bid to relieve rebel bastion. Something aint right.
  • A U.S. journalist's firsthand account from inside Fallujah [2004-04-11]. 'Nothing could have been easier than gaining the good-will of the people of Fallujah had the Americans not been so brutal in their dealings. Now, a tipping-point has been reached. Fallujah cannot be "saved" from its mujaheddin unless it is destroyed.'
  • Seeds of the Revolt: U.S. Targeted Fiery Cleric In Risky Move
  • 'Damn the US and damn the resistance'
  • The delusions of war. 'There is no word more hateful than 'intractable'. The idea that a problem cannot be solved, no matter how hard good and intelligent people try to solve it, feels itself like a negation of goodness and intelligence. The options are resignation and cynicism. At the moment, a year after the fall of Saddam, these are the sentiments that are winning out.'
  • New nationalism that unites Iraq. 'Tony Blair and George W. Bush must come to grips with the fact that they are not fighting 'terrorism' in Iraq, they are fighting nationalism - a struggle they will lose sooner or later.'
  • 'Expect Snipers on All Minarets'
  • One Year After Saddam. 'A whole year has passed now and I can't help but feel that we are back at the starting point again. The sense of an impending disaster, the ominous silence, the breakdown of most governmental facilities, the absence of any police or security forces, contradicting news reports, rumours everywhere, and a complete disruption in the flow of everyday life chores. '
  • Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis'
  • Powell Calls U.S. Casualties 'Disquieting'.
    • Ooh. What's this? Someone in the administration is actually admitting it?
    • 'This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.'
  • Talking points memo- by joshua micah marshall april 10, 2004
    • 'General Kimmet is wrong if he thinks that he will destroy the Badr brigade or Sadr Army as a military organization because there isn't really one ... he will disperse them into small, highly armed teams of friends and ... voila! Al Qaeda-Iraq or Hezbollah-Iraq will be borne in numbers we will not be able to control. '
    • 'The correct answer is to back off, leave Sadr alone and start to throw lots of money into jobs projects and utilities for the south before this summer's electricity and gas shortages ... will that work? Probably not. But we have just antagonized the core of the Shiite resistance and putting them to work is better than letting them fight us 24/7. General Sanchez is right about one thing ... this is not Vietnam ... Oh no, its not that easy. I refer you to Israel humiliating defeat in Southern Lebanon by Hezbollah's armed resistance for a reference to our potential future. '
  • Iraq - What To Do: Drop The Hammer Now. I'm not too sure about this one.
  • Don't let Iraq's tempest in a teacup rattle you. 'The Iraqis will go with the winning side. And, though the Americans had a bad week last week, the insurgents had a worse one, losing as many men in seven days as U.S. forces did in the last year. The best way to make plain you're the winning side is to crush the other guys -- and rattle their teacups so loudly even CNN can't paint it as a setback.'
  • What Should Bush Do? The President must decide how to stabilize Iraq. A diplomat, a Senator and a general weigh in on the options

Money

Photography

Science

Sex

Show Biz

  • Sound and fury seeking a tale
    • 'So, when I add that the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is, as a work of cinematic art, ham-fisted, shallow, bombastic and laughably overrated, don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Jackson and his hard-working team. The larger issue is Hollywood and the degraded state of big-budget movies.'
    • 'Talking about the theatre of his time, Greek philosopher Aristotle listed the elements that go into a good drama. The least important, he argued, was spectacle - the staging, fancy costumes and special stage effects (such as the deus ex machina) the Greeks used in their theatres. Most crucial for intense dramatic experience was an effective plot and interesting characters. Except for the technology escalation, not much has changed in 2500 years.'
    • Yep, the movie's good but the book is better. Stars, sex, and special effects are not enough: We want stories!
  • Pootie Tang Screen Test [see the 4 minute video]. Whoo whee! The belt-whippin' brother does some Capoeira! Pootie Tang in IMDB, trailers, and Amazon.
    the Pootie Tang DVD
  • A Grand Unified Theory of Filesharing. 'The theory says that the net effect of filesharing on CD sales is roughly zero, because of a balance between the negative impact of the Free-riders and the positive impact of the Samplers. '
  • Spider-Man 2 [see the Quicktime trailer]. It's usually very hard to beat the original but from the trailer, it looks like this will be an awesome sequel! It looks like they're using multiple classic Spider-Man themes: Peter Parker's job suffers because of his moonlighting as Spider-Man, PP wants to give up being Spider-man (but you know he can't), someone attempts to unmask Spider-man, multiple adversaries (Osborne & Doc Ock), etc. The special effects look even better but the key thing is they have a story source that is very rich and many years long.