"FOEs"of Alternative Fuels

Friends of the Earth- an environmental group is afraid that the increased use of bio-fuels will destroy the rainforests. To raise corn and sugar cane to make the fuels takes land and so they are afraid we will have to destroy forests to create these fuels. Amazing! These people obviously have not thought the implications of their ideas when they first promote them. All we have been hearing is how we need to force companies to create bio-fuels. So Britain is about to mandate it and they cry out against it. I think it must be true that their actual agenda is to return us all to the idyllic days of outhouses and horses. Maybe like medieval Japan we could outlaw the wheel. That would go far in destroying our economy and thereby saving the earth!

Who Would Jesus Kill?

Panned Parenthood has their own chaplain who makes the religious argument for abortion for them. Here is a sample:

"The closer Jesus got to the cross, the smaller the crowds got," the chaplain said. "This is pretty close to the cross because [pro-abortion] people have to take derision, ostracism, all that."

You and I both know that many men have faced ostracism and derision but that hasn't meant they are close to God. And yet I find it fascinating that PP knows they need to find a way to "reach" the religious fundamentalists. We are their target group and so this chaplain is here to "pitch" their product to us in what they hope are terms we will understand and come to accept.

ID Cards

Microsoft is against ID cards that use personal things like fingerprints and biometric data. Their contention is that if these are ever compromised, you will not be able to get new ones. Makes sense. The UK is considering this right now.

Ministers propose putting 13 personal identifiers, such as iris scans, fingerprints and facial imprints, on to a central database, along with personal details such as names and addresses. But the technology expert warns that holding these details in one place "is something that no technologist would ever recommend" and could leave individuals helpless if their details were compromised.

Why Men Hate Going to Church

I think I would like to read this book. Here is an excerpt from the critique.

Interestingly, Mr. Murrow notes that, among the major Christian denominations, it is the mainline churches that suffer the largest gender gaps in church attendance. These churches, still pilloried by feminists for their patriarchal pretensions, have in fact become spiritual sorority houses. It is the more conservative denominations, such as the Southern Baptists, that have the most even ratios. In these more traditional churches, many of which do not have female clergy, parishioners hear less about cooperation and feel-good spirituality and more about spiritual rigor and the competition to win souls.

I didn't appreciate her idea though that women like church because it is domesticating and that is the reason men hate it. That doesn't account for the attendance figures for conservative denominations

99 Cent Video On Demand

CBS and NBC are going to allow viewers to download programs for the low price of 99 cents. Isn't this what we were talking about the other day?

Iraq voters back new constitution

BBC:

Iraqis have passed their country's new constitution, according to official results from a referendum dismissed by the opposition but commended by the UN.

I'm not sure if we can trust this result -- after all, Jimmy Carter and his election monitoring group were nowhere near the area...

But in all seriousness, this is a wonderful day for the Iraqis.

Life Hackers

Wasn't sure if you saw this in the magazine section of the NYTimes. It's pretty long, but interesting. In fact, to me it sounds a lot like motherhood!

Once you begin multitasking, a computer desktop very quickly becomes buried in detritus.
This is part of the reason that, when someone is interrupted, it takes 25 minutes to cycle back to the original task. Once their work becomes buried beneath a screenful of interruptions, office workers appear to literally forget what task they were originally pursuing. We do not like to think we are this flighty: we might expect that if we are, say, busily filling out some forms and are suddenly distracted by a phone call, we would quickly return to finish the job. But we don't. Researchers find that 40 percent of the time, workers wander off in a new direction when an interruption ends, distracted by the technological equivalent of shiny objects. The central danger of interruptions, Czerwinski realized, is not really the interruption at all. It is the havoc they wreak with our short-term memory: What the heck was I just doing?

France's Palais de Justice

The French supreme court and criminal court of appeals has what is being termed a "dungeon" attached to it. Prisoners go without food and drink, huddle together for warmth, attack each other and mutilate themselves.

This is not a description from history, but is current.

All God, All the Time

Here is an interesting editorial by someone who doesn't accept Jesus' assertion that if you have seen him (Jesus) you have seen the Father. Yes, God is unknowable for us in a totally comprehensive way, but his Son has revealed to us what we need to know of him.

God is God precisely in escaping and transcending comprehension by human beings. This can seem to mean that God is simply unknowable. If so, humans are better off not bothering about it. Atheism, agnosticism, or childish anthropomorphism -- all the same.

What is the emerging church?

Brian McLaren recently concluded a sermon series at the church he pastors at (Cedar Ridge Community Church) title "What is the emerging church?" They are available as mp3 downloads from the church's website. The series is a great discussion of the EC conversation to this point.

What Is The Emerging Church? (Introduction)

What Is The Emerging Church? Missional, Evangelical, Integral

What Is The Emerging Church? Artistic

What Is The Emerging Church? Monastic and Communal

Emergents, Meet Saints!

Chris Armstrong writes in ChristianityToday:

Lately my days have been taken up with preparing a book and a course titled "Patron (and Matron) Saints" for Postmoderns (see my blog, deadchristianssociety.blog.com). The book, course, and blog feature the lives of Gregory the Great, Margery Kempe, John Comenius, John Newton, Charles Simeon, Amanda Berry Smith, Charles M. Sheldon, and Dorothy L. Sayers.

So the question has haunted me: "Why should Christians today read biographies of 'dead Christians' from ages past?"

One particularly forceful answer has hit me from (what some evangelicals might consider) "left field"—the young movement of Emergent Christian thinkers and leaders...

Armstrong encourages Emergents to read biographies of "dead Christians" and there find inspiration for their conversation about how we do church.

TallSkinnyKiwi calls this good advice, and cites Dietrich Bonhoeffer as the early favorite among German Emergents.

EmergentNo says that Armstrong is trying to hawk his upcoming book, and though they would probably not disagree that we can learn from the lives of those who have come before us, they argue that the Gospel is unchanging, and therefore we do no need to look to how it has been adapted in the past (ostensibly because it has not been adapted). As always, the comments attached to the EmergentNo post are enlightening (pun intended).

The Gift of ADHD

Studies suggest that many of the traits kids with ADHD exhibit can be expressions of deeper gifts: powerful imagination, searching insight and unusual intuition.

Read the rest at MSN Health and Fitness.

Laser Turntable

Need to play your old LP's? Japan has come out with a new laser turntable to play them.

This is a Washington Times article.

California Conundrum

Did you know that in California, child molesters and rapists are a protected class? It's true. Not only are California landlords banned from using the state's Megan's Law database to decline renting their properties to sex offenders, they're not even allowed to warn other tenants that these paroled criminals are now their neighbors. If they do the first, they can be fined $25,000 for housing discrimination. But if they don't do the second, they can be sued for failing to protect tenants against a known danger.

Britain's Energy Concerns

Britain has only 11 days of gas reserves! And we thought we have troubles.

"If we have a cold winter, we are going to throw the switch, businesses will shut down, people will lose their jobs" - Sir Digby Jones, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry

Coffee Shops to Save the World

Put a Starbucks anywhere and people will congregate there. The human connection, the need to belong, the desire for a warm nurturing atmosphere- many find their needs met at the local coffee shop. Need to get more people into a bookstore or library? Put in a coffee shop. Need to feel connected? Go to the coffee shop.

The phenomenon of Starbucks is secular communion. Scones and coffee, after all, aren't so far removed from the ritualized consumption of grape juice and bread; they just taste better.

Musical Code in Rosslyn Chapel

A musical code was hidden in symbols in the Rosslyn Chapel over 500 years ago. The code was hidden in 213 cubes in the chapel ceiling. It took composer Stuart Mitchel 20 years to crack the code. He plans on making a recording using period instruments.

Mom Gives Birth to Quints

A 22 year old gave birth to 4 girls and 1 boy. She became pregnamt after one dose of a fertility drug. The single dose was taken because of a hormonal imbalance. Jennell Dickens, a single woman, had been hospitalized since July 12 so that doctors could monitor the babies. Her older sister, 23 year old Sharita Dickens has two children of her own, ages 2 and 5. Sharita said, "They'll definitely be loved. There is plenty of love in our family."

The Dickens Quintuplets Fund has been set up to collect donations.

Read to the end to find out what she named these children.

A couple questions:

1. Why didn't this woman marry the father?
2. Why should I help support her?
3. Doesn't this family believe in marriage? It looks like sis is single too.


This is a Washington Times story so you will have to log in.

Eurabia

Europe- a breeding ground for radical Islam. I have the book by Bat Ye'or called Eurabia. After you read this article you may be interested in the book. Eurabia is fundamentally anti-Christian, anti-Western, anti-semitic. It is also why so much of Europe is anti-American.

Real ID Dangers

Here is a thought provoking commentary on the National ID card that is in the Real ID bill passed by Congress.

No Dead Cats Were Harmed

BERLIN - A German inventor said he has developed a method to produce crude oil products from waste that he believes can be an answer to the soaring costs of fuel, but denied a German newspaper story implying he also used dead cats.

Google Blog Search

Google now has a Blog Search, and we're on it already!

As others have pointed out, Technorati has been dreading this day... Their site is slow and cumbersome, although the content they provide is very useful. Until Google comes out with a Blog Zeitgeist (like their Search Zeitgeist), Technorati will continue to be the only site really tracking what's being talked about on blogs.

Chavez Seizes Land

Is Venezuela going down the Zimbabwe road?

There has been none of the violence and mayhem that accompanied land seizures in Zimbabwe in recent years, but economists and angry land owners fear that -- as in Zimbabwe -- the takeovers will destroy a productive agriculture sector and undermine the economy.

This article is in the Washington Times so you will need to log in.

Chemical Weapons Threat in Iraq

I thought Iraq had no chemical weapons.

An Al-Qaeda-affiliated group has threatened to attack Iraqi and coalition forces with chemical weapons "within 24 hours" if they do not withdraw their troops from Tal Afar...."I believe that the [Al-Qaeda] group acting in Iraq possesses or has produced chemical weapons. The problem lies in how these weapons are used and the targets they are used for. If chemical weapons are used in the open, they must be quite extensive to bring about any effect; but they can be used in closed [spaces] too," Alani said, adding: "We must take the threat seriously."

What IS Yahoo Thinking?

"We already knew that Yahoo collaborates enthusiastically with the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a Chinese police informant as well," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. "Yahoo obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate," the organization said. "But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations? How far will it go to please Beijing? ..."

I must admit I was shocked when I read this on the Silicon Valley blog. Is the almighty dollar their only consideration? What should be the price of doing business in a communist country?The Motley Fool has weighed in also.

The New Monasticism

"A fresh crop of Christian communities is blossoming in blighted urban settings all over America..."

From Christianity Today.

Community Service Doesn't Always Help

We've all read the stories of those convicted of crimes being forced to perform community service as part of their punishment. Supposedly, the community service will help make them better members of society. Maybe it does work for some, but this young man just found more trouble to get into.

A 19-year-old man from Salisbury was supposed to be cleaning up a cemetery last week as part of court-ordered community work after he broke into an apartment building last fall.
Instead, officials said, Neil J. Goodwin Jr. invaded the tomb of a Civil War veteran, pulled apart the 142-year-old skeleton, and then played with the bones, balancing the skull on his shoulder and posing for pictures.

Even the police don't always get it as seen in this quote from a police lieutenant:

"Every time you think you have seen it all, something like this happens," Siemasko said. "We just can't understand why anyone would do this."

Ban on Hate-Speakers

Well a ban on Robertson, anyways.

"Key points
• MP calls for Pat Robertson ban over alleged assassination comment
• Evangelist said Venezuelan president Chavez should be 'taken out' on TV
• Home Office declines to comment on proposed ban under anti-terror laws

Key quote
"My view is that [Mr Robertson] is frankly not the sort of person we would welcome into Britain. The new law would catch him as someone preaching hate and murder" - Nigel Griffiths MP"

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

This site is great and you can download your favorite music, movie, or text.

Library Lending Via the Web

Now this is a good idea. Borrow audiobooks for maybe three weeks and have them downloaded to you. When they are due, they are automatically returned to the library unless you extend. I'd like to see this with regular books too, but I'm sure it's much more difficult. The audio technology is not ipod friendly though it can be used on Windows based MP3 players.

Robertson apologizes

It was the right thing to do for him to apologize.

New Wives=New Hope for Sri Lankan Men

I am almost speechless about this one. Is the Washington Post advocating marriage as a way of making men happy? Are we to learn that deep down men need women to take care of them? I came away thinking that women keep men together, provide a calming and civilizing influence (the men stop drinking). Is that what the Post wants me to understand...that men need women and women are happy when they provide what men lack (at least in Sri Lanka)? If so the MSM is more conservative than I thought. At least when it comes to other "third world" type countries.

Google Talk

Google Talk is live today! Yesterday when I saw the announcement I went to the site (even though it wasn't live at the time) and bookmarked it in del.icio.us. Sure enough, now that the site's live, it's the top hit on del.icio.us/popular, and as you can see on the screenshot, I am the first credited bookmark of the site!



Google Talk is a Jabber server, which is an open-source chat server that they have apparently adapted for their own purposes. This means you can connect to the server using any Jabber-compatible client (like Gaim, etc.). Of course, the Google Talk client has more features than you would get with another client, like integration with your Gmail account.

Dinner With a Perfect Stranger

(W)hy does a popular book like "Dinner"--as well as so much popular American Christianity--feature a personal relationship with God so prominently? The answer probably lies in the adaptive character of the Christian faith. Students of world-wide Christianity have noted that in every region where Christianity takes root it has adjusted to the values of local culture.

You might be interested in reading this book. It is by David Gregory. There are reviews at Amazon, but the price is less at CBD.

Scott: CCPL has three copies in circulation.

Penmanship IS Important

"Handwriting is surviving in a computer age," said Kate Gladstone of Albany, N.Y., who describes herself as a handwriting repairwoman, teaching adults and students how to write more legibly and quickly. "All of us at times, and some of us all the time, find ourselves in a position where they have to write without an electric power supply."

And now that a composition section has been added to the SAT, legible handwriting is important for the high school student too.

Blog Depression

Have you read this pamplet?

New music business model emerging

Declan McCullagh writes for CNET News:

Warner Music Group is creating a new music-distribution mechanism that will rely on digital downloads instead of compact discs.
...
Warner Music's move seems to be a response to the exploding popularity of music-download services and the slowly slipping sales of physical CDs. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, about 180 million songs were sold online in the first half of 2005, up from 57 million in the same period last year. Apple Computer's iTunes recently passed 500 million downloads.

The e-label will permit recording artists to enjoy a "supportive, lower-risk environment" without as much pressure for huge commercial hits, Bronfman said. In addition, artists signed to the e-label will retain copyright and ownership of their master recordings.

Source: Engadget.

This is the obvious trend -- moving away from distribution of music on physical media to making it available for download. P2P has been doing this for years, and it's about time the music industry started to head in this direction. Their cost system was based in part on the capital layout required to burn and distribute discs, and when you eliminate that cost, you can afford to hire more artists and take more chances.

It will be interesting to see if they take on distributing the MP3s (or whatever) themselves or license them to Apple (for iTunes) and other outlets like Music Giants.

Technorati Tags: music, music industry

Pat Robertson calls for assassination of foreign leader

AP:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson called on Monday for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, calling him a "terrific danger" to the United States.

Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a former presidential candidate, said on "The 700 Club" it was the United States' duty to stop Chavez from making Venezuela a "launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."
...

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
...
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said.

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

This is going too far. Apparently being an American Christian, complete with the right to be safe in our country at any expense, is the most important thing he can strive for.

I just think it's sad when a Christian leader calls for the death of someone else.

Edit: This guy is right on:

The world needs Pat Robertson’s Christianity as much as it needs Osama bin Laden’s Islam.

Another take:

And to think, all these years the preacher was actually saying "Do unto others BEFORE they do it unto you."

Also: USAToday CNN

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Venezuela, Robertson, assassination

Michael Graham Fired

Here are Michael Graham's comments on the events surrounding his dismissal from WMAL and ABC Radio. Also, there is a link to the original piece that inflamed CAIR.

Technorati tags: Islam, radio

'Mob scene'

Richmond got national attention today when several people were trampled at the Henrico County's sale of approximately 1000 used Apple laptops. I knew this was gonna be bad when I heard on a television report last night that the school had hired "several" off-duty cops for crowd and traffic control. What were they thinking -- "several"? They could have used "dozens"!

Here's NCB12's story:

Starletta Wilson came to the sale but when the gates opened at 7 a.m., chaos broke out.

“Yeah, they pushed me, look at my child's stroller... they actually pushed me and stampeded over me. Those people who are down there now were behind us," Wilson said.

Dustin Coppinger, who attended the sale, said he saw an older man get trampled.

"An old man in a walker was trampled to the ground. Trampled to the ground... walked all over," he said.

Dozens more were pushed to the ground as the crowd races through the gates.

A one-year-old baby almost became a victim. Her father pulled her out of her stroller.

"Look at her stroller. Her stroller's demolished. Look at my stroller,” said Wilson.

Alice Jemerson was one victim who got trampled.

"Look at my knees. They ran on top of me. I just starting kicking the people," she said.

A man who had been standing in line since 2 a.m. came to Jemerson’s rescue. Bair Hossai was almost guaranteed to get one of the coveted computers.

"I'm not going to leave somebody who's hurt. It's not worth it. I could have been in the line, but I'm not going to do it, because it's not worth it," Hossai said.

Witnesses could not positively identify those responsible for the trampling, although several people thought they recognized certain Richmond City Council members.

Drudge picked up on the story sometime in the afternoon, and the networks followed suit soon after.

CNN's coverage.

The Times-Dispatch has a story with a great slideshow of the action, second by second.

Update: some smart mouth is selling a t-shirt on Ebay that says, "I went to Henrico County for a $50 iBook, but all I got was Kicked in the Balls!"

Tags: Richmond, iBook, Henrico

An Interesting Field of Study

Let's say you are an 18-year-old kid with a really big brain. You're trying to figure out which field of study you should devote your life to, so you can understand the forces that will be shaping history for decades to come.

Go into the field that barely exists: cultural geography. Study why and how people cluster, why certain national traits endure over centuries, why certain cultures embrace technology and economic growth and others resist them.

This is the line of inquiry that is now impolite to pursue. The gospel of multiculturalism preaches that all groups and cultures are equally wonderful.

A Sign of True Change?

Is it possible that "the times, they are a-changing"? Is it actually possible that the Left and the MSM will be held accountable for what they say? Am I hoping against hope that the end of false ads, false(but accurate) documents, false false reports is close at hand?

To think that NARAL had to pull their ad! And isn't it interesting that Pelosi and Reid said they had not even seen the ad.

Vonage goes WiMax

I predicted that WiMax was going to be big a while back -- imagine wireless Internet access spread out over huge areas by far fewer towers than the cellular network requires, and of course the best part--no wires!

But lately, reading stories about Internet over power lines and seeing ads for Verizon's Wireless BroadbandAccess made me wonder if those technologies were going to hit before WiMax could even get off the ground.

WiMax has now gotten a big shot in the arm, as Vonage, the VoIP pioneer, has announced a partnership with TowerStream, a provider of Internet access using WiMax. Together they can offer VoIP wirelessly over ranges of up to 30 miles.

Vonage claims to have nearly 800,000 subscribers already, and I've heard good things from those who have switched from the POTS to VoIP. If using WiMax proves to work well, this could help it take off big time.

NBC Out Of Ideas

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the tank is run dry at NBC and they are begging writers for ideas:

Attention comedy writers: NBC wants your passion projects. Quickly.

That's the message the struggling network is putting out around town, according to sources, to get a glance of good material in advance of its competitors.

With its lineup undisturbed by any new hit comedies, NBC is seeking to fast-track at least one spec script to a pilot order for midseason consideration...

NBC is hoping to capture the lightning in a bottle that jolted ABC last season, when writer Marc Cherry submitted on spec the script that became the megahit "Desperate Housewives." That said, NBC probably wouldn't turn its nose up at drama scripts, either.

Writers do not usually write a script for a show until they have a deal, so asking for scripts on spec means that writers have to accept the risk of the time and effort they put into writing the script just for NBC to take a look at. Since NBC is only looking to fast-track one or two shows, the chances are pretty slim -- but for the one that wins, it's a shot at the big time.

Microsoft Windows Vista

ExtremeTech has the first really good set of screenshots that show what we can expect from the next version of Windows (coming out in Q4 2006).

On a side note, Internet Explorer 7 (due to be released before Vista) will not be backwards-compatibile with any OS before XP. Since 45% of IE users are not using XP (98, ME, and 2000 still have plenty of users), they will have to get next-generation browsing software from somewhere other than Microsoft, which opens a big opportunity for Firefox, Opera, and other 3rd party browsers.

Dean

As reported at CNSNews, Howard Dean, speaking to the College Democrats of America last Friday,

"said the president was partly responsible for a recent Supreme Court decision involving eminent domain.

"'The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is 'okay' to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is.'"

Blaming Kelo on Bush is absolutely ridiculous -- it's as though Dean didn't even bother to check to see who voted with the majority: Breyer, Stevens, Bader-Ginsburg, Souter, and Kennedy. Not exactly Bush's pocket men.

That guy is either intellectually vacant, or he assumes that young Democrats are. If the latter, at least Democrats are consistent in treating their supporters like they're stupid and naive.

Liberal vs. Conservative

Most conservatives see the opening on the Supreme Court left by retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as a chance to pull the court farther to the right and avoid the frequent 5 - 4 rulings that went against them with O'Connor as the swing vote. Jonathan Rauch writing in the National Journal describes Cass R. Sunstein's theories put forth in his book Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America, which a slightly more nuanced view of the positions held by the court members, holding that conservative and liberal do not apply once you are on the court. Sunstein lays out four different philosophies:

• Perfectionism
  
• Majoritarianism
  
• Minimalism
  
• Fundamentalism (Originalism)
  

He goes further into describing what each type means. The book title is off-putting, but his ideas about this sound right. Rauch guesses that Roberts is a minimalist.

The Island

Maegan and I saw The Island tonight. Before we went I listened to the Ebert and Roeper movie review podcast when they discussed this movie, and they said it was like two movies, the first half all sci-fi and the second half all action, and they were right on. I liked it a lot -- the future it was set in is very believable, and the action scenes are fresh and exciting.

The theme of the movie is similar to Gattaca, dealing with the choices humanity will be faced with as science and technology progress.

****/5

First Daschle, now Byrd?

Anyone remember how in an election year, Tom Daschle, Democratic senator behind enemy lines in a conservative "red state," had to praise President Bush in local South Dakota media (the national media helpfully squelched the story for the most part) in an attempt to gain back some ground lost in his many tirades against the war in Iraq?

It looks like Robert Byrd is heading down the same path:

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, one of President Bush's harshest critics, has become an unlikely ally on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr.

"I said to him, 'I am shouting your name from the steeple tops for reaching out, reaching across the aisle,'?" the West Virginia Democrat reported after taking a phone call from Mr. Bush to discuss a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

After Mr. Bush nominated federal Judge Roberts this week, Mr. Byrd again issued a statement praising the president. "I thank President Bush for reaching out to senators on both sides of the aisle as he worked to select a nominee for the court," Mr. Byrd said. "I hope that this bipartisan cooperation will continue as the confirmation process begins."

The senator's praise of Mr. Bush is turnaround from a year ago when the West Virginian accused Mr. Bush of being a "green and arrogant president" who went to war before exhausting diplomacy...

Mr. Byrd embraced the same judicial philosophy as the president in his memoir, "Child of the Appalachian Coalfields," released earlier this summer. In the book, he repeatedly blamed "liberal judges" and "activist judges" for many of the nation's problems.

"One's life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America's large cities," he writes. "In my judgment, much of the problem has been brought about by the mollycoddling of criminals by some of the liberal judges who have been placed on the nation's courts in recent years."

Mr. Byrd essentially endorsed Mr. Bush's primary stated strategy for picking Judge Roberts and other judicial nominees. "The high court's share of the responsibility for our increasing lawlessness lies in two areas -- its zeal for bringing about precipitous social change, and its overconcern for the rights of criminals and its underconcern for the rights and safety of society," he writes.

Byrd has been a senator in WVA for a long time, and the electorate in West Virginia has become more conservative over the years. In 2004, the state's 5 electoral votes went to Bush by a 13 point margin. This may explain the sudden swerve to the right.

Interesting that though his memoir was released earlier this summer, the mainstream media had no mention of the senator's parallel statements with Bush on the judicial issue. Now with the appointment of Roberts, Kennedy and Schumer are out in front from the Democrats, and Byrd is nowhere to be seen.

I hope he follows Daschle right into retirement.

It's about the empire

Omar Bakri Mohammed:

"I would like to see the Islamic flag fly, not only over number 10 Downing Street, but over the whole world."

This has nothing to do with the "haves" and the "have-nots".

Robotics show Lucy walked upright

BBC:

Australopithecus afarensis, the early human who lived about 3.2 million years ago, walked upright, according to an "evolutionary robotics" model.

The model, which uses footprints to predict gait, suggests "Lucy", as the first fossil afarensis was called, walked rather like us.

This contradicts earlier suggestions that Lucy shuffled like a bipedally walking chimpanzee...

Some scientists maintain she was probably rather stooped and may have shuffled awkwardly, much like a modern chimp does when it is walking bipedally for short distances; while others think she was upright, routinely walking tall on two legs...

Now, a team of scientists from around the UK have used computer robotic techniques to work out the most energy efficient gait for afarensis based on Lucy's skeleton and the Laetoli footprint trails.

They claim to have cleared up the debate by finding that, based on their model, Lucy almost certainly did walk tall.

Here's the best part:

...[I]t doesn't end the argument because there is still the possibility that there were different creatures around at the time.

I would have thought since the science is so clear and definitive that the "shuffled awkwardly" group would have to be convinced. But it seems like they're just going to go on believing what they've always believed, with their usual, almost religious fervor...

Blogs Get a Big Boost from CBS

I can't add anything to this, nor edit any word out -- I'll just copy and paste the Scrappleface piece here verbatim:

In an effort to bring credibility to a media realm populated by "agenda-driven, rumor-mongering, unedited hacks who blur the line between fact and opinion," CBS News announced today it would launch a 'blog' called 'Public Eye'.

"The word 'blog' -- short for weblog -- has traditionally meant an online journal of commentary on the news which uninformed readers often mistake for actual news," said Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News. "Public Eye will bring legitimacy to the medium the way United Nations involvement legitimizes U.S. foreign policy."

'Public Eye' will differ from the vast majority of news-oriented blogs, Mr. Heyward said, "because it will be written by attractive veteran reporters, dressed in business attire, rather than disgruntled journalist-wannabes, lounging in pajamas."

"The blogosphere should welcome the arrival of this 900-pound gorilla of the news business," he added. "The presence of CBS News in the blog market will breathe new life into a dying beast, and rescue it from extinction. The blogosphere will soon be associated with the trust that Dan Rather and other unbiased CBS journalists have earned over the decades."

Priceless.

"This is a horror"

Molly Ivins comes clean:

In a column written June 28, I asserted that more Iraqis (civilians) had now been killed in this war than had been killed by Saddam Hussein over his 24-year rule. WRONG. Really, really wrong.

The only problem is figuring out by how large a factor I was wrong. I had been keeping an eye on civilian deaths in Iraq for a couple of months, waiting for the most conservative estimates to creep over 20,000, which I had fixed in my mind as the number of Iraqi civilians Saddam had killed...

...Ha! I could hardly have been more wrong, no matter how you count Saddam's killing of civilians...

...There have been estimates as high as 1 million civilians killed by Saddam, though most agree on the 300,000 to 400,000 range, making my comparison to 20,000 civilian dead in this war pathetically wrong.

I was certainly under no illusions regarding Saddam Hussein, whom I have opposed through human rights work for decades. My sincere apologies. It is unforgivable of me not have checked. I am so sorry...

OK, she made a mistake, and she apologized for it. I'm willing to accept that.

But where are the gatekeepers? You know, the ones Hillary says are supposed to stop this kind of thing from happening?

Americans expect attack, poll finds

...and by the way, if you read far enough down, the president's poll numbers are up:

President Bush urged Americans on Monday to maintain their resolve in the face of terrorism, even as a poll suggested that last week's bombings in London rattled U.S. residents.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken after explosions rocked the British capital revealed a surge in U.S. anxiety that there will be further acts of terrorism at home...
...

8 paragraphs later, at the end of the piece...

...
...
...
...
...
...

However, Bush's approval rating rose enough that more Americans now approve than disapprove of the job he's doing — 49% to 48% — for the first time since late May.

The poll numbers don't matter -- Bush is doing what he has to -- but this should be a significant news item. So why is it buried way down in the last paragraph?

Wi-Fi Crime

Looks like a new set of laws will have to be written governing Wi-Fi usage and Wardriving.

"The information age is over. The information is out there," said Jim Guerin, technology director for the city of Dunedin, which will soon be the first city in Florida to go completely Wi-Fi. "Now it's the connectivity age. It opens up a whole new area for ethics, legal boundaries and responsibilities. It's a whole new frontier." There's a dark side to the convenience, though. The technology has made life easier for high-tech criminals because it provides near anonymity....

Last year, a Michigan man was convicted of using an unsecured Wi-Fi network at a Lowe's home improvement store to steal credit card numbers. The 20-year-old and a friend stumbled across the network while cruising around in a car in search of wireless Internet connections - a practice known as "Wardriving."

Lifeblog

Introduced by Nokia, this helps you record and organize your life.

• Nokia Lifeblog automatically builds your diary as you take photos and videos, and send and receive messages.
• To clear up space on your phone, connect to your PC and let Lifeblog save and display your items securely and efficiently.

This would be interesting to try.

Steal (and Share) this Book!

Cyberpunk author James Morris is encouraging people to rip him off -- by buying his book in PDF format and giving it away to as many other people as you want!...

The media establishment is still having trouble coming to terms with the digital revolution. The Internet remains impossible to control, being global, unlike the legal system. The only answer from big content owners seems to be imposing even more draconian restrictions than were in existence before digital technology hit the scene...

Fortunately, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig is trying to forge a way somewhere in between the total copyright control preferred by the RIAA and MPAA, and the free-for-all of the Bit Torrent sites. His new Creative Commons licenses (creativecommons.org) are starting to win favour around the world. It’s copyright informed by a heavy dose of Open Source. Some types of Creative Commons license even give free rein for reuse in new works, although the original creative works are still owned commercially by their authors alone. In all cases, however, non-commercial sharing is entirely freed up...

This why I have chosen to publish my first novel under a Creative Commons license. It’s called The Escapist, and you can read more about it at TheEscapist.co.uk . Creative Commons doesn’t mean that much for a paper printed work. You can share a book around legally already, and photocopying or scanning an entire literary work is too impractical to be much of a danger. But my book is also available as an Ebook – and not just a non-printable, non-copy-able encrypted digital reader format, but a standard PDF you can print or share as much as you like. The only thing you can’t do with it is sell the copies you make. So, if you like the sound of The Escapist and do buy it in one of its forms, please share it around as much as you like. Be my guest and rip me off!

Buy the PDF for BP 1.99 or get the softcover straight from the publisher.

Jaschan and the Sasser Worm

I find it interesting that they called this young man a "boy". Am I to think he did this all as innocent fun and had no idea what the results could be? And as is noted near the end of the article, he is the son of a computer repair shop owner...hmmm.

UPDATE: Silicon Valley has an interesting blog. Seems he got community service.

UPDATE 2: July 12- Liked this Commentary from NYTimes.
It gives much better sentencing ideas- making the punishment fit the crime.

7/7

Bombs go off in London, and the Internet is there:

A pool on Flickr has started up here -- so far they've got over 600 photos taken in London near the bomb blasts.


A very extensive and comprehensive entry in Wikipedia with all the latest info has already sprung into existence:
7 July 2005 London bombings

The media is wrong to back up Judith Miller

So says FindLaw's Louis Klarevas in this great piece examining existing case law regarding confidentiality of sources and the freedom of the press.

Best quote: It's time to chill out on the "chilling effect" clichés.

Victim's Xanga entry leads to capture of killer

A story appearing in the May 17, 2005 NYDailyNews reports that Simon Ng's Xanga entry contained enough information to point police to the man now supect of killing him and his sister Sharon:

...Anyway today has been weird, at 3 some guy ringed the bell. I went down and recognized it was my sister's former boyfriend. He told me he wants to get his fishing poles back. I told him to wait downstair while I get them for him. While I was searching them, he is already in the house. He is still here right now, smoking, walking all around the house with his shoes on which btw I just washed the floor 2 days ago! Hopefully he will leave soon, oh yeah working on the jap report as we speak!
Posted 5/12/2005 at 5:05 PM

From the story:

...Cops said that Ng, 19, let Lin [the suspect] into the second-floor apartment in the late afternoon when Lin asked if he could wait for the 21-year-old Sharon.

Sgt. Michael Breidenbach, head of the 107th Precinct detective squad, said the entry turned Lin's alibi upside down.

"That puts him in the apartment," said Breidenbach, adding that investigators got Lin to confess after confronting him with the entry.

Lin told cops he wanted to rob her to help him buy a plane ticket back to Hong Kong, law enforcement sources said...

As of this date, over 3200 comments have been left on Ng's last entry, most consisting of three letters...

r.i.p.

Interesting suggestion

The NYDailyNews has thought long and hard about this vacancy on the Supreme Court and their recommended replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor is...



No joke.

Confessions of a cut & paste artist

William Gibson has an essay in this month's Wired:

...We live at a peculiar juncture, one in which the record (an object) and the recombinant (a process) still, however briefly, coexist. But there seems little doubt as to the direction things are going. The recombinant is manifest in forms as diverse as Alan Moore's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, machinima generated with game engines (Quake, Doom, Halo), the whole metastasized library of Dean Scream remixes, genre-warping fan fiction from the universes of Star Trek or Buffy or (more satisfying by far) both at once, the JarJar-less Phantom Edit (sound of an audience voting with its fingers), brand-hybrid athletic shoes, gleefully transgressive logo jumping, and products like Kubrick figures, those Japanese collectibles that slyly masquerade as soulless corporate units yet are rescued from anonymity by the application of a thoughtfully aggressive "custom" paint job.

We seldom legislate new technologies into being. They emerge, and we plunge with them into whatever vortices of change they generate. We legislate after the fact, in a perpetual game of catch-up, as best we can, while our new technologies redefine us - as surely and perhaps as terribly as we've been redefined by broadcast television...

From hammer and sickle

to scissors and pastepot

.

Bee Can't Verify 43 Sources in Columns

From the AP:

A newspaper investigation of a former columnist for The Sacramento Bee could not verify 43 sources she used in a sampling of 12 years of her work.

Diana Griego Erwin resigned May 11 as she came under scrutiny about the existence of people she quoted. She has denied making up information, but Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez said the Bee should have been able to locate the people named in the stories.

"It kills us that we can't," said Rodriguez, whose comments were included in a story about the investigation published in Sunday's Bee. "We still hope they will turn up, but we're presenting the facts as we found them. Obviously, we feel strongly that we should have been able to find these individuals."

Griego Erwin, who has said her resignation was for personal reasons, joined the Bee after a distinguished career at other newspapers. She worked on a project that won a Pulitzer Prize at the Denver Post in 1986 and also won a George Polk award and the 1990 commentary prize from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. [More]

Where are the gatekeepers?

More music consumers using legal downloads

From Reuters:

Around 35% of music consumers now download tracks legally via the Internet and the percentage will soon pass the 40% who have pirated music...

Fear of prosecution, Internet viruses, and inferior quality were cited as the main deterrents against illegal downloading, the report said. Nearly two-thirds of music consumers said immediate availability was the key reason for buying tracks online.

"The findings indicate that the music industry is approaching a strategic milestone with the population of legal downloaders close to exceeding that of pirates," Entertainment Media Research chief executive Russell Hart said...

...a couple of times since 2000

A brief sentence in an op-ed by Douglas Turner in the Buffalo News titled "Clinton's distrust of media runs deep" reveals another disparity in the media, though I don't think the author realized anyone would use this piece to make this point:

Clinton has met with the New York press corps only a couple of times since 2000. By contrast with the Moynihan regimen, where the reporters had a share in the agenda, Clinton totally controls it.

One technique is the "conference call" open to Washington reporters, and radio and television stations across the state. They are very brief, focused on an issue of her choosing. Sometimes she declines to take questions on any other topic, or closes off the session with a cheerful, "Gotta go."

Wait a second. Where have I heard this before about Hillary avoiding direct confrontation with the media? Oh yeah, never! That template has already been applied to Bush (the idiot)! But Hillary is the smartest woman in America -- what's her excuse?

Nothing bad happened until /. happened...

This is a followup to mypost from a week ago about the LATimes setting up "wikitorials" in which anyone could participate in the creation of an editorial. Now the NYTimes has a story that covers the demise of the wikitorial:

A Los Angeles Times experiment in opinion journalism lasted just two days before the paper was forced to shut it down Sunday morning after some readers repeatedly posted obscene photos. [more...]

The LATimes simply has this notice in place of the wikitorial:

Unfortunately, we have had to remove this feature, at least temporarily, because a few readers were flooding the site with inappropriate material.

Thanks and apologies to the thousands of people who logged on in the right spirit.

The NYTimes story quotes an LATimes editor who says that "Nothing bad happened really until after midnight on Saturday," which was shortly after a Slashdot story highlighted the wikitorial. The LATimes editor calls the /. crowd "malicious" and pretty much blames them for forcing the LATimes to remove the feature.

A /. story today covers the sordid disaster -- /. user RayDude commented "It would have happened sooner or later, they should thank us for finding the bugs right away." (His post was quickly modded "Funny.")

Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine picked up on the spin that the rest of the old media will now use:

"The New York Times and other media outlets have covered the collapse of its wikitorial project and I've heard more than one old-media person say, well, I see LA tried wikis and it's dangerous.

But no. This is like hearing Kathie Lee Gifford try to rap and then, upon hearing the results, declaring hip hop dead."

The concept of the wiki is sound -- Wikipedia is a great resource that opened up not only its editing functions to ordinary users, but also the moderating functions. To quote Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice: "Once again: the CONCEPT was sound; the execution needs some mechanism to weed out the dorks." That's the secret: if you let the mob in to write content, you've also got to unlease an army of moderators, and the tiny staff that the LATimes devoted to this was nowhere near large enough to handle the task of watching over their experiment. Where do you get that army? The answer is the same: open-source it.

Censored Nagasaki Bomb Story Found

George Weller, an American reporter, was the first foreigner who made it to Nagasaki immeditately post-atomic bomb. His account never made it past the censors, but now, sixty years later, a Japanese paper is running the story:

"The atomic bomb may be classified as a weapon capable of being used indiscriminately, but its use in Nagasaki was selective and proper and as merciful as such a gigantic force could be expected to be.

The following conclusions were made by the writer - as the first visitor to inspect the ruins - after an exhaustive, though still incomplete study of this wasteland of war...."

Read the rest in the Mainichi Daily News.

Durbin's pal and prisoner abuse

JWM writes on John In Carolina about prisoner abuse in Dick Durbin's backyard:

"Illinois Democrat Senator Richard Durbin compared American servicemen and women serving at Guantanamo to Hitler's Nazis, Stalin's gulag thugs, and Pol Pot's murderers.

But I could find no criticism by Durbin of his pal, political ally and Cook Country's Democrat Sheriff, Michael F. Sheahan, who's run the notorious Cook County Jail since 1990. I used Google and Yahoo search engines. The Senator's office didn't return a phone call inquiry about Sheahan and prisoner abuse at the jail.

During the 15 years Sheahan’s run Cook County Jail, there have been numerous reports by rights groups, attorneys, and a grand jury documenting systematic prisoner abuse there, including rapes and beatings by guards."

More...

Would if this could get some attention in the MSM.

Accelerando

A couple of days ago, Charles Stross released his new book Accelerando on the web in several different formats, in what he calls a "marketing exercise" to determine if more people will buy the physical book from Amazon or traditional booksellers, and to see if, after a spike in downloads from his site, a spike in sales occurs.

The RIAA should be interested in an experiment like this -- but they wouldn't be.

Which theologian are you?

Anselm 87% Karl Barth 67% Jonathan Edwards 60% John Calvin 53% Charles Finney 53% Martin Luther 47% Augustine 47% Friedrich Schleiermacher 47% Jürgen Moltmann 40% Paul Tillich 33% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I looked it up, and Cur Deus Homo? can be read here in its entirety.

LA Times gets Wiki with it

The LATimes posted an "Editor's Note" on Sunday with a line introducing a new feature of their website:

"Watch next week for the introduction of "wikitorials" — an online feature that will empower you to rewrite Los Angeles Times editorials."

This should be interesting.

[Via blogging.la]

Euro and EU Trouble on the Horizon

Countries in the EU are considering using their own currency again. Italy especially is considering bowing out. This will only hurt what stability is left in the Euro. If the US fixes its deficit problem and China stabilizes then this is an even greater disadvantage for the Euro. The EU is also worried that countries like Poland and the Czech Republic will lose interest in joining because of this. And another harbinger of trouble is the no vote on the EU referendum in France and the Netherlands.

Bait Cars

These are some great short actual videos of cars being stolen. It's a program called Bait Cars and is being used to catch car thieves. They've now started a program of Bait ATV's, Snowmobiles, and Watercraft.

Neistat Brothers

These guys are funny guys! Read their bio to see what they have overcome. Some of their movies are really funny like:

I Think
Bike Theft
Blizzard Jump
Ipod's Dirty Secret
Atoms for Peace
Brillo Pad

Morals without Religion

Are reason and individualism really enough to form proper moral values?

The real alternative ... is a morality of reason. Such a morality begins with the individual’s life as the primary value and identifies the further values that are demonstrably required to sustain that life. It observes that man’s nature demands that we live not by random urges or by animal instincts, but by the faculty that distinguishes us from animals and on which our existence fundamentally depends: rationality.

Who's on First

A great update of the classic "Who's on First" using movie titles.

Study shows G-rated fare more profitable

A new study set to be released Tuesday shows that family-friendly movies are more profitable than R-rated films, throwing more fuel onto the fire of the long-running debate over sex and violence in entertainment -- and whether it sells...

In a follow-up to a 10-year study commissioned by the foundation in 1999 -- which found that between 1988-97 the average G-rated film made eight times the profit of an R-rated picture -- an extension of that study found that trend continuing and expanding...

"While the movie industry produced nearly 12 times more R-rated films than G-rated films from 1989-2003, the average G-rated film produced 11 times greater profit than its R-rated counterpart," said Dick Rolfe, the group's founder and chairman...

Rolfe said the foundation does not seek to eradicate R-rated films, and has endorsed select movies that have a redemptive message, including "Saving Private Ryan," "Schindler's List," "Amistad" and "The Passion of the Christ."

"Dove is not suggesting that Hollywood produce only G and PG movies," he said. "We just think the proportionality is out of balance, given the relatively few, highly profitable family-friendly movies released each year. Our study reveals that Hollywood is not serving the most prolific audience segment in the entertainment marketplace: the family..."

Do the chickens have large talons?

Headline: Spelling Bee contestant does a Napoleon Dynamite impression

"...One of the funniest moments of the National Spelling Bee yesterday (it was on ESPN) was when contestant Dominic Ranz Ebarle Errazo, before spelling his word, blurted out in his best Napoleon Dynamite voice: "Do the chickens have large talons?" The knowing kids in the audience laughed, but the adults were puzzled. The TV commentator said something like, "I wonder if he's giving some kind of code."

mp3

Hilarious.

United Airlines to Offer Internet Access

Figures. They won't have this on our plane, but wouldn't that be cool? ;-)

Small is the new big

From Seth Godin's blog:

Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune...

And then small happened...

Read the rest.

A Study in Abuse

We've all heard or read the reports from Guantanamo of how some guards stepped on a Koran, splashed a Koran with a water balloon, and how a guard's urine got on a Koran. But that isn't the worst of it: the very worst Koran desecrations have come at the hands of a suprising group of people: the detainees!

From a piece in the Weekly Standard by John Hinderaker of Powerline, quoting the report by Brigadier General Jay Hood looking to allegations of abuse of the Koran at Gitmo:

On 14 MAY 03, a guard observed a detainee rip his Koran into small pieces. The guard recorded the incident contemporaneously in a sworn statement.

On 5 JUN 03, a guard observed two detainees accuse a third detainee of not being a man. In response, the detainee urinated on one of their Korans. The detainees resided in adjacent cells. The event was recorded in FBI FD-302s, on 5 JUN 03 and 19 JUN 03.

"ripped pages out of his Koran and threw them down the toilet"

On 19 JAN 05, a detainee tore up his Koran and tried to flush it down the toilet. Four guards witnessed the incident and it was recorded in the electronic blotter system.

On 23 JAN 05, a detainee ripped pages out of his Koran and threw them down the toilet. The detainee stated he did so because he wanted to be moved to another camp. Four guards witnessed the incident and it was recorded in the electronic blotter system.

Not to mention the numerous Koran defilings and desecrations that have happened as a result of suicide bombers attacking mosques in the Middle East -- or is blowing them up OK?

EmergentNo

"Exposing and examining those things which are connected to, and promoted by, the 'emerging church' movement."

Interesting read. The discussion in the comments of each post is pretty good from both 'sides'.

"Rapid coloured afterimage"

Cool visual effect (bigger image at link):

"On the right you see a circle of blue-violettish (=magenta) patches, one of which briefly disappears, circling around.

Let your gaze rest on the central fixation cross, but observe with your “inner eye” the patches just when they disappear. With good fixation, you should see a strong greenish colour whenever the violet patch has disappeared.

When you are fixating well, after a few cycles you will actually see a rotating green spot! If your gaze is really steady, the magenta patches will disappear, leaving only a rotating green spot!"

Western Ideals Only Ones Left

Victor David Hanson writes an interesting article on the decline of all other political ideals when compared to ours- and globalization is bringing it about as people in other countries see our standards of living and can compare them with theirs. We may not be perfect, but we still give hope to much of the rest of the world.

And to go with this read a history of our relationships with the French.

And read David Brooks essay on how the EU is discrediting American Liberalsim.

Loss of Middle Class a Crisis for Dems

A report released yesterday by Third Way says support for Republicans begins at much lower income levels than researchers had expected: Among white voters, President Bush got a majority of support beginning at an income threshold of $23,300 -- about $5,000 above the poverty level for a family of four.
The report says the economic gains of Hispanics have translated into strong Republican gains, as have economic strides across every category, save for black voters.
"As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats -- the self-described party of the middle class -- who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich," the report says.

So, as people start making their own money, they want to keep it. Hence they become Republican?!

Internet Builds Communities

This is some of what we were talking about.

"People are physically more connected to their community because of Internet use," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which researches the impact of the Internet on everything from families and communities to education, health care and politics. "People can give an increment of their time because the Internet is facilitating that."

History of Wyoming and a series of letters from Charles Miner to his son William Penn Miner, Esq.

These letters desribe a "Martin Breakall", on July 12, 1780, being tried for and "found guilty of intending to desert to the Indians, take with him the Tory prisoners, and threatening to scalp one Adam Sybert". He was sentenced to "run the gauntlet four times to the troops of this garrison," and the sentence was carried out the next day.

1780 is the earliest mention of the name Breakall that I've ever seen.

Google Content Blocker

The newest Google web solution. It gets rid of the annoying web content so you can focus more clearly on the ads. It should not be used in conjunction with ad-blocker software.

Streamload

Streamload gives you a fast and easy way to send videos to all your friends and family. Streamload is the only service which lets you share your most special moments with everyone!


Streamload is a free service to share your videos. Paying users enjoy Unlimited Storage and no restrictions. Signup today and start sharing.

New Car Magnet

The web site is not up yet. I heard Mike Feeley (the designer) say that it should be up by Friday June 3. But you can read about these car magnets under "Left Jabs" and maybe then you will inderstand the discouraging time he has had trying to find a market for them.
I heard the interview on Mac Watson's show on Tuesday- it was a guest host. I wish you could have heard the interview. It was satire and irony at its best.

Wi-Fi Church

Cardiff vicar has addressed the problem of falling congregations by offering his flock a quiet wireless hotspot in which they can seek the meaning of the word salvation on Google while chewing the fat via email with Pope Benny 16.

Handwriting Analysis

Write a paragraph, then answer questions about your handwriting. It is time consuming but I think fairly accurate. Here's a sample from my analysis:

The total lack of dotted 'i's in the script indicates that the subject is extremely independent in nature and many, if not all, of the following points will apply:-
She is very likely to be cheerful, resilient and placid, and will also be less concerned about the opinions of others. She will be less fearful of the future and more active in her approach to life. Because she seldom broods on past mistakes she will have a tendency to feel less guilt for her actions. Her resilience allows her to go through a crisis without experiencing as much stress or fatigue as the average person. She is a self-sufficient, resourceful individual who prefers to make her own decisions and resolutely stick to them.
The comparative height of the capital letters to the 'ascenders' in the script indicates that the subject has a mildly assertive personality. In conjunction with a large signature this means that she will be more confident and dominant in relationships and can find it relatively easy to strike up conversation with strangers.
She is likely to speak out forthrightly and can defend herself quite well if under attack. In a quarrel she could argue quite openly to defend her rights. She is more likely to complain about shoddy goods or poor service. She will also make a good host and can liven up a party.
The handwriting shows some signs of expansiveness, and this is an indication of an extrovert personality. The writer has an above average need for space and dislikes being confined. This hunger for space is reflected in the script.
This expansiveness shows in the subject's social relationships. She is likely to be more comfortable in company than on her own, and perhaps takes life more lightly than the average person. She may become quite easily bored, and often yearns for change and variety.
She is likely to express her feelings and moods quite freely, and is reasonably unconcerned with disorder or lack of control.

WinRoll

"Make a window roll into its title bar, send it to the back or make it stay on top. Minimize, maximize or close all visible windows, including minimizing to the tray area. Make a window translucent on Windows 2000 or above. WinRoll is lovingly hand-crafted in 100% pure assembly language to give the fastest response and the smallest memory footprint. WinRoll is proudly a FREEWARE and OPEN SOURCE application."

Mac users have had this feature in their OS for years. I'm trying it now -- it's pretty useful.

So Long, Garage Jammers. Nowadays Laptops Rock

Sitting in Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan last week, Michael Cobden could hardly be blamed for tapping his toe. It was a glorious spring day, and he was playing hooky from his job as a restaurant manager on the Upper West Side. Like a lot of people in the park, Mr. Cobden was enjoying a bit of alfresco media, with a Mac G4 laptop and a set of headphones.

Except Mr. Cobden, 28, was not checking e-mail messages while listening to music, he was creating a pop song called "Bryant Park." In doing so, Mr. Cobden joined millions of people - trained musicians and amateurs alike -

"Computers are the new garage."

who are using powerful laptop tools to produce music that in an earlier age might have wailed out of a garage. "An artist is an artist, even if he is using things he found or stole and arranging them in an artful fashion," he said. "There are many composers who never played an oboe, but they write the music and give it to an orchestra to play." For himself, Mr. Cobden tapped the Mac in front of him lovingly. "I have a computer," he said. (Hear the song he created here.)

"Computers are the new garage," said James Rotondi, the editor of Future Music, a new magazine packaged with enough free software to get any would-be Moby started. "A lot of people who are making music right now have never recorded to tape. The concept is completely foreign to them."

Read the rest...

It seems to me that there are two things happening here:

More people will be creating content of all kinds since it's so easy to be in many forms of media. An example of this is Quantazelle (profiled in this post on CreateDigitalMusic), a "talented IDM, musician/producer; creator/editor of the electronic music zine Modsquare; owner of the jewelry company Zella (catalog); and founder, manager, and designer of the subvariant record label." She is the perfect example of a new kind of renaissance man.

In addition to those who will quit their day jobs and dive into the deep end of the new media, there will be a lot of hobbyist-types who give away the content they create, in exchange for donations perhaps. I think this NYTimes piece is a confirmation of that idea.

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

"HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries."

1. The Communist Manifesto
2. Mein Kampf
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
4. The Kinsey Report
5. Democracy and Education
6. Das Kapital
7. The Feminine Mystique
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy
9. Beyond Good and Evil
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Honorable mention: The Population Bomb

Complete story at Human Events Online.

Japanese Warning Signs

A very informative and amazing look at Japanese warning signs- all photographed by a German photographer living in Tokyo.

Music Video

This guy always wanted to be in a music video...so he recorded his own! Very nice! Scott and/or Mike could easily do this too!

BTW- I downloaded it for those with slow speeds- just let me know you want to see it.

Secularism and the Meaningless Life

Dennis Prager takes on the question of what gives life meaning and what the consequences of an irreligious (secular) life are.

Most irreligious individuals, quite understandably, do not like to acknowledge the inevitable and logical consequence of their irreligiosity — that life is ultimately purposeless

Movie Review Podcast

This is a cool blog/podcast: Family Reviews, where a family watches movies and then reviews them together. They've been doing reviews this way since November of last year, and since then they've reviewed Racing Striped, Incredibles, Ocean's Twelve, Napolean Dynamite, and a few others.

I found it when Adam Curry mentioned it on his show "The Daily Source Code" -- he always plugs new and cool podcasts to listen to.

Download podcast software to subscribe to the podcast feeds, and then when a new program is available it will download it for you. I'm listening to a couple of podcasts in the morning before I listen to Rush.

Most boys at Christian schools say no to sex

Here's an excerpt from a report from the Evening Standard of London:

A Christian education makes teenage boys less permissive, according to research out today.

Boys at private Anglican and Catholic schools are more likely to oppose sex before marriage and be less tolerant of pornography.

They are also less likely to feel depressed or consider suicide, according to a survey of 13,000 teenagers by Professor Leslie J Francis from the University of Wales, Bangor.

So education was the answer all along -- a Christian education!

Funnyfox Flicks

These Firefox promo videos hit the net a couple of weeks ago.

Now Wired has a story that says the videos have been downloaded almost 2,000,000 times.

If the Bible was Blogged

Jesus wrote in the sand with his finger. No doubt a Wiki-man who would have preferred his own Wiki Sandbox.

Solomon would have sent out his proverbs with an daily RSS feed, perhaps using a blog as a home base for his feeds.

Matthew. A hyperlink geek who would blog with a constant stream of links back to the original prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures. Most blogging programs make that easy. But a blogging editor lets you do it all offline. I use Ecto.

Read the rest ...

The Amazing Rise of the Do-It-Yourself Economy

Great story on the popularity of DIY projects on the Internet.

Will You Pay?

In an effort to make money (since print subscriptions are down) the NYT will start charging 49.95 for a yearly subscription to their Op-Ed pages and certain "big name" news writers. They are calling it Times Select. I guess this is one option I won't waste my money on!

BTW- I didn't know this interesting fact. I wonder who voted.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing industry in Fortune's 2005 list of America's Most Admired Companies.

Store Wars

A great 5-6 minute parody of Star Wars.
Meet, Cuke, C3Peanuts, Darth Tater and others.

Spong Strikes Again

His new work "The Sins of Scripture" can give liberals a way to fight back against those fanatic Bible-thumping reactionaries. Find out how the Bible was used to condone slavery and mass-murder and was used to keep women and minorities in their place.

"Liberals can and should confront Bible-thumping preachers on their own terms, for the scriptural emphasis on justice and compassion gives the left plenty of ammunition. After all, the Bible depicts Jesus as healing lepers, not slashing Medicaid."

No More Books

University libraries in S. California and Texas are beginning to ditch books for computer worktables. They say this is the future.

But, will ALL books be digitalized and available online?
As new books are written are they automatically digitalized?
Does the library pay a subscription fee to have the right to let students view non-public domain materials?
What if you don't have internet access at home. How can you "sign out a book?"

These are just a few questions I have.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Disney has put out a teaser trailer [mov] for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (official site), which is to be released December 9, 2005.

Mae: The same actress who played Gabriel in Constantine is playing "Jadis the White Witch".

Tango DropBox

This some cool software -- it lets you create "dropboxes" that you can drag and drop files into, and it will automatically copy the files you dropped onto the FTP location associated with the dropbox, according to FTP account info you give it. This can save a lot of time logging into FTP servers and navigating through the remote location with slow and clumsy software. Via del.icio.us/Tuxhedoh

Mozilla Vulnerablilities

Two vulnerabilities were found in Mozilla Firefox that combined allow an attacker to run arbitrary code. The Mozilla Suite is only partially vulnerable.

By causing a frame to navigate back to a previous javascript: url an attacker can inject script into any site. This could be used to steal cookies or sensitive data from that site, or to perform actions on behalf of that user. (Affects Firefox and the Suite).

A separate vulnerability in the Firefox install confirmation dialog allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code by using a javascript: URL as the package icon. By default only the Mozilla Foundation update site is allowed to bring up this dialog, but the script injection vulnerability described above enables this to be exploited from any malicious site.

Read the rest to see what to do.

>[May 12] Update by Scott:
As I said in the comments to this post when you first put it up, the true test of the quality of a pice of software is not whether or not the software has vulnerabilities (all software has holes), but how quickly a patch is released once vulnerabilities have been disclosed.

Mozilla did not fail me. Firefox 1.04 has just been released, patching the vulnerabilities announced May 8. Four days -- not too shabby. Just click the red arrow in the top left corner of the Firefox window to begin the Update process, or click Tools | Options... | Advanced | Software Update | Check Now.

Blair Wins, the Media Spins

Evan Coyne Maloney puts the British election results in a little better context:

Britain's Labour Party won re-election in Parliament, which ensures that Tony Blair will continue on as Prime Minister. Already, the media is spinning the election as a terrible rebuke for Blair over the Iraq war. Setting aside the fact that this terrible rebuke resulted in Labour winning its third consecutive election for the first time in history, the numbers simply don't bear out the media's contention.

As of this writing, the election results show that the Conservatives have gained 33 seats in Parliament, while the Labor Party lost a total of 47 seats. In other words, over 70% of the seats lost by Labour were picked up by the other major party that supported the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. This hardly seems like a stunning victory for the anti-war side.

EPIC 2014

from the Museum of Media History.

John Leo says

"The video appears to be an unusually dry satire, but taken at face value, most of it is plausible— and scary. Without gatekeepers, no one stands ready to verify reports as accurate, so there's no difference between real news and agreed-upon gossip or low-level fluff. Issues debated today— Are bloggers real journalists? Is there a clear line between news and entertainment? — would be irrelevant. Everyone would be a journalist. And though some contributors would be paid, it isn't clear that the flow of money would be enough to fund complicated reports and investigations. Reporters would be paid according to how popular their stories were. Good luck if your job is to cover Rwanda or global warming."

Interesting conclusion with more than a grain of truth- what do you think?

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

15% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Clusty

 Here's an interesting search engine. I like the list on the left side that categorizes the search. So instead of searching 102,987 hits, I can pick a category. This is still in beta, butI see they even have wikipedia on their tab