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February 2004 Archives
February 29
reBlog
-- A web site republishing the best blog posts on art, technology and culture from around the web. Brought to you by
Eyebeam, a multimedia atelier here in NYC, and run by a rotating cast of reBloggers.
posted by amberglow at 12:34 PM PST - 6 comments
It's that time of year
- time for thru-hikers to start the Appalachian Trail! Last year, over
1700 hikers started the hike with only 352 completing the 2,200 mile walk from Springer Mtn, Georgia to Katahdin, Maine. Given that walking the AT takes about six months, most hikers start in March and April so they can finish before winter sets in.
With town spread out along the trail, many hikers keep
online journals - probably some of the few blogs where what you had for breakfast and what the weather was like make for interesting topics.
posted by borkus at 9:24 AM PST - 23 comments
Photoshop is fourteen years old this month. I am sitting in its
hometown and have version 7 on my Gateway.
Loretta Lux was trained as a painter and now uses digital images via photoshop for her
art. (NYTimes
article) News photographers have
lost their jobs for using it. Some would argue that photoshop is a new
medium and I would agree. I will use it next to shape the images that will promote my sons' landscaping business.
posted by JohnR at 6:25 AM PST - 23 comments
Dean Didn't Want To Be President
In different conversations and in different ways, according to several people who worked with him, Dean said at the peak of his popularity late last year that he never expected to rise so high, that he didn't like the intense scrutiny, that he had just wanted to make a difference. "I don't care about being president," he said. Months earlier, as his candidacy was taking off, he told a colleague: "The problem is, I'm now afraid I might win."
posted by jbou at 12:28 AM PST - 29 comments
February 28
Current U.S. Administration
chooses "smart anti-personnel mines" versus "dumb mines".The U.S. military will stop using always-armed, live landmines after 2010. Some may appreciate this move as a valid step toward..more "intelligent" mines,
others disagree.
More links inside.
posted by elpapacito at 11:22 AM PST - 23 comments
"XD38" - Nexus Personality
A site for multifaceted people who are technical and artistic, verbal and mechanical, rational and intuitive; who are interested in everything; who find themselves to be a kind of natural link between far-ranging, diverse areas of human endeavor.
posted by konolia at 10:58 AM PST - 50 comments
February 27
inside Haiti
a photo journalist blogs on the conditions in Haiti. No photos yet.
The place is awash with drug money, probably on both sides - Philippe is the former police chief of a town where i've heard reports of people walking down the streets with suitcases full of money, probably not sourced from shaking down shoe cleaners. The chimeres that searched us on the way down from Saint Marc a few days ago were clearly high on some upper, i'd guess coke, amphetamines or both, or maybe crack.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 4:52 PM PST - 26 comments
The Brave Tale of Katherine Gun, aka
The Conscience of the Individual versus the State, aka
"How the 'Land of the Free' Stopped Worrying about Legality and Liberty, and Learned to Love Wiretap and Manipulation": "Katharine made the disclosure because she believed that it was necessary to prevent an illegal war in which thousands of Iraqi citizens and British and American soldiers would die or be maimed.""I have only ever followed my conscience," she said. Pentagon Paper's author Daniel Ellsberg described the leak as
"more timely and potentially more important than the Pentagon Papers. Truth-telling like this can stop a war." Norman Solomon asks
" To what extent is the "special relationship" between the two countries to be based on democracy or duplicity? How much do we treasure the substance of civil liberties that make authentic public discourse distinct from the hollowness of secrecy and manipulation? How badly do we want to know what is being done in our names with our tax money? And why is it so rare that conscience takes precedence over expediency?"
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 3:36 PM PST - 63 comments
"Us intellectuals realized a long time ago that no human society could function without heavy-duty jamming all signals that might allow people to see reality. Because reality is so downright horrible we have to jam it tighter than Castro. The only question is whos going to decide what gets jammed and how to jam it."
The eXile on censorship, why the truth is like kryptonite and how the cast and writers of Will and Grace will end up "
at the bottom of a lime-dusted mass grave".
Warning - highly offensive to almost everyone in places.
via The Early Days of a Better Nation
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:50 PM PST - 16 comments
Singing Babies!
I don't know what to say about it, but
it is worth watching.
Babies and young children love it! That's why Singing Babies is now one of the best selling baby videos. It is the most fun and entertaining way to teach your child the classic nursery rhymes and toddler tunes! Research shows that babies benefit from watching other babies. Infants learn to talk by studying the sounds and movement made by the human mouth. SINGING BABIES® creatively combines these research findings in a way that accelerates your child's rate of cognitive development, increases capacity to learn language, and enhances your child's natural musical ability.
posted by Slimemonster at 11:34 AM PST - 17 comments
Meet Lucy.
She sure ain't pretty, but she's certainly unique. Steve Grand (interview
1,
2) one of the brains behind
Creatures, has been working for the last three years on building a robot orangutan
in his own house. Those is the South Wales area can catch Steve speaking about his experiences
next month. Steve may well be a non-establishment genius, but when I see pictures like
this, I can't help thinking it's
already been done.
posted by nylon at 9:52 AM PST - 6 comments
D.H.S. - The Series.
"... a multimillion-dollar episodic series, will explore the inner workings of the Department of Homeland Security, teaming the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and National Security Administration (NSA) together with "first responders" such as local police, fire and safety administrators."
The series is being pitched to prospective networks
today and has the full support of President Bush and Tom Ridge. "They love it. They think it is fantastic," say the series' producers at Steeple Productions, located in the
Seventh-Day Adventist Community of
Zillah, Washington. Not familiar with
Steeple Productions? Well, perhaps you might find their four-episode "
Creation Vs Evolution" series enlightening.
posted by grabbingsand at 9:42 AM PST - 16 comments
The recent post that revived the rude
Rainbow kids show sketch reminded me of the our (that is, British) obsession with comic
double entendre - the ability to accept the filthiest things as long as there is a parallel innocuous interpretation. I think it is something to do our love for wordplay and subtext, our innate hypocrisy and the belief that sex is, in fact, rather naughty. Perhaps the prime example are the
Julian and Sandy sketches that ran on the BBC Radio show
Beyond Our Ken from 1964-69. Over Sunday lunch, millions (there was ONLY the BBC in those days) listened to two very camp characters saying outrageous things in
Polari (underground gay slang). A much earlier prime example is the
great dirty joke (its the one in blue at the bottom of the page) that got comedian Max Miller (died in 1963) banned from the BBC for 5 years. A more recent case of innuendo is, of course,
Mrs. Slocombes pussy. Of course the
double entendre can also be
unintentional.
posted by rolo at 9:07 AM PST - 8 comments
February 26
Perversion for Profit linking pornography to the Communism
Citizens for Decent Literature: Sex Bad, violence Good!
I just thought this would be cool to revisit in light of the Mel Gibson, Orson Scott Card Debates.
Intersting what They shppw as to show you what
YOU should not be looking at.
Maybe (NSFW, maybe just NSF-Sanity)
posted by Elim at 3:59 PM PST - 22 comments
Rainbow Innuendo Episode
Evidentially Rainbow was a children's show in Britain (Canada?) in the Late 70's - early 80's. (I never heard of it till now here in Ohio.) Anyway, wether this went on the air or whether it was just a gag reel for the cast and crew... I doubt anyone will know. I went out and found the full 16MB MPEG version for downloading, because I love ya. Must be seen to believed. Possibly NSFW. Maybe.
Can't believe your ears/eyes? Want to see the script?
Here ya go.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 2:13 PM PST - 11 comments
In '
24 Hour Quiz', three contestants spend many days in a mini-Big Brother environment ('The Pod') constantly having questions fired at them with no end in sight.
'off the telly' fill in the blanks: "There's no getting away from it, '24 Hour Quiz' is quite the worst thing currently showing on ITV1 (that's even allowing for 'Footballers' Wives'). That it's spread-eagled across the schedules in three separate editions just compounds the agony. This is cheap, worthless television, offering up a huge mallet with which to beat the ITV network. It plays to our worst suspicions about the channel, and that's just annoying. There's nothing about the show that's prepared to confound or surprise, other than its sheer shoddiness." Has anyone else seen this? Is it really the worst gameshow format ever?
posted by feelinglistless at 1:54 PM PST - 8 comments
Neither rags nor riches.
Quite a good human interest story from yesterday's Guardian about what happens to clothes after they go in the recycling bin or off to the charity shop.
posted by biffa at 1:36 PM PST - 7 comments
"I don't think that there's any question about the fact that the weapons that they have did not come from Haiti," says Kurzban. "They're organized as a military commando strike force that's going from city to city."
Parts of the rebellion's leadership,
such as head of military operations Louis Chamberlain, were leaders in the attempted 1994 Hatian coup that resulted in the use of 20,000 U.S. troops. A coup which, according to the U.N. Human Right Commission, was
supported and aided by the CIA. In other words, this wouldn't be the first time that the U.S. has played on both sides of a Haitian military uprising.
Meanwhile, Bush refuses to protect President Aristide's life - and perhaps the lives of thousands of Hatians - citing
the opposition's refusal of a U.S. peace plan. Silmultaneously, he issued a harsh pronouncement warning refugee Hatians off from American shores.
"It is clear that the right wing in this country does not support that democracy,"
said Jesse Jackson, today. "(Bush) is, in fact, supporting overthrow of this government in this hemisphere."
posted by kaibutsu at 11:03 AM PST - 22 comments
Backwards . . . into the future
A cab driver in India, who's driven only in reverse gear for the last two years (at speeds up to 85 kph, and without accident), hopes his upcoming trip will bring about peace with Pakistan.
posted by lelilo at 10:39 AM PST - 10 comments
Best. Airtight. Alibi. Ever.
Agence France-Presse said a Taliban source had identified Abdullah Khadr as the attacker who on Jan. 27 jumped on Murphy's jeep and blew himself up. He is the 22-year-old son of Ahmed Said Khadr. "If I was the suicide bomber, I wouldn't be doing this interview with you right now," Khadr told CBC News on Wednesday.
posted by riffola at 9:11 AM PST - 6 comments
Mario Brothers, a tragedy in three parts (
1, 2, 3).
Potentially more to come, too! Enjoy! (Warning: Flash)
posted by dazed_one at 7:37 AM PST - 19 comments
From the
Liberation Journal, Gregory Flanagan's "Libercratic"
[?] Website:
Misogyny on TV; Feminazi Propaganda:
Portrayals of amazon freaks denigrate and pervert females, attack feminine identity and incite in men a lust for sexual violence...
#4. Charlie's Angels (80s) ... Among the many barbaric and obscene shows, one featured women playing tackle football.
#18. Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (90s) ... the idiotic vampires are just the excuse--their real enemy is femininity.
#25. Xena: Warrior Princess (90s) ... Extreme, obscene violence that provokes in men an overwhelming, obsessive lust to rape and slaughter these bitches.
See also:
Misogyny in the Movies, etc etc.
They're
out there, folks. This man needs his ass kicked by a "girly girl" martial artist. Or maybe that's secretly what he wants?
(Site hosted and LOTSA POPUPS by directNIC.com. For shame, dierctNIC!)
posted by Shane at 6:24 AM PST - 18 comments
God loves Republicans...
Governor Huckabee of Arkansas, while speaking to the Republican Governors Association meeting
pretended to get a phone call from God, who seemed really friendly to the Republicans.
Isn't this blasphemous? And why can't I find any other reporting of this amazing display of religious fanaticism in any other outlet of the "liberal media?" [more inside]
posted by jpburns at 6:22 AM PST - 84 comments
Diesel Global Bad Record Amnesty
-
Specially trained BAD record DJs will be spin the best of the worst albums handed in, and if your BAD record is played then you will walk away with a ringing in your ears and an exclusive Greatest Hips 12" vinyl collection of 12 albums and collectable Diesel record bag, a Diesel Greatest Hips Wall clock or Slip Mat.
posted by boost ventilator at 4:56 AM PST - 10 comments
And then Kofi said 'no way!' and Clare said 'way!' and...
British agents bugged conversations of Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq War. Former Minister Clare Short (who's made some wild claims in the past but presumably wouldn't state something of this magnitude without being sure) read some of transcripts and 'presumes' that this is all legal...
posted by humuhumu at 2:04 AM PST - 25 comments
Howard Stern yanked off six Clear Channel radio stations
The kingdom of the self proclaimed king of all media has been trimmed after Clear Channel dropped the Stern show on Tuesday after he allegedly aired sexually obscene and racist material.
The offensive exchange reportedly occured when a caller asked ex-Paris Hilton boyfriend (and sex-tape co-star) Rick Salomon if he had ever had oral sex on a black woman. The caller used the N-word to describe the black woman. Then the caller asked Salomon if it tasted like watermellon.
Is this grounds to fire the talk show host, or is it more politically motivated and the beginning of the end of free speech... of highly rated powerful talk show hosts who
blast the FCC and
aren't Republican.
entire stern show
here. (
BitTorrent rq'd)
posted by tsarfan at 1:47 AM PST - 91 comments
February 25
Birth of a Nation:
one of the most
controversial films in american history.
The film "...was banned in more than a dozen localities (and furthermore has been the most banned film in American history) because of its white supremacist sympathies, racist stereotypes, and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan..."
Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy,
Marjorie Heins.
Given the recent controversy over Gibson's film, where do we draw the line between
freedom of expression and
censorship? when are these debates influenced by politcal agenda rather than sincere concern?
posted by poopy at 7:41 PM PST - 27 comments
OK, remakes. While channel surfing tonight I noticed that there is a new miniseries on the box called
Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital starting soon, on a channel near you. No doubt it will go the way of other King TV Greats, as the trailer suggests (Ed Begley Jr. in another hospital role). I am more interested in the way that it is being marketed - with the explicit "Stephen King" moniker. Similar to other less than stellar US remakes of European originals, (
Point of No Return /
Nikita, the weird case of
Spoorloos /
The Vanishing(same director for both), I could go on). Given the explicit reference in the title to King, do you think that people will seek out the original? Can you think of instances where the remake outdoes the original?
posted by grimley at 6:49 PM PST - 24 comments
Stag World
Before there was Maxim there were these manly men's magazines from the '50s and '60s. Take that, you metrosexual pansies!
posted by owillis at 4:43 PM PST - 6 comments
The vertical nature of New York City has long helped define its image, with families stacked on top of each other and penthouse apartments reaching the clouds. But for generations, tens of thousands of people have made do with another New York reality - the basement apartment - and they literally climb out of the ground to enter the city that is always on top of them. As mentioned in
literature,
personal ads--and soon to be the penthouse of
urban worker housing everywhere
.
posted by y2karl at 1:51 PM PST - 11 comments
Welcome to
"Ask the White House" -- an online interactive forum where you can submit questions to Bush administration officials. Currently taking questions:
NASCAR's Michael Waltrip.
Pandering doesn't get any more naked than this, does it? (Via
TPM)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:01 PM PST - 33 comments
MouseCount
counts the number of times you click your mouse--information useful to computer usage studies, ergonomics, repetitive stress measurement, and more. This program saves you the trouble of counting all those clicks yourself! Screw that, I'm just a curious dork. (fyi: link goes to description page only, but the download is a .zip file)
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:42 PM PST - 6 comments
Oral Sex Link to Mouth Cancer
"Although the risk is small and it is more likely to result from heavy drinking and smoking, scientists have uncovered evidence that oral sex can cause mouth cancer."
Bummer.
posted by fenriq at 12:24 PM PST - 43 comments
SCOTUS rules for seperation of church and state for once.
The court's 7-2 ruling held that the state of Washington was within its rights to deny a taxpayer-funded scholarship to a college student who was studying to be a minister. That holding applies even when money is available to students studying anything else.
"Training someone to lead a congregation is an essentially religious endeavor," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court majority. "Indeed, majoring in devotional theology is akin to a religious calling as well as an academic pursuit."
posted by skallas at 8:47 AM PST - 42 comments
February 24
As Attorney General for the State of North Dakota, I am pleased to enclose payment for your claim in the settlement of the Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation. Checks have gone out to people who "purchased prerecorded Music Products, consisting of compact discs, cassettes and vinyl albums, from one or more retailers during the period January 1, 1995, through December 22, 2000." Mine was for $13.86. I think I'll go buy an indie CD.
posted by travis at 8:40 PM PST - 24 comments
Is Salt The New Olive Oil?
The
New York Times [
registration required] thinks so and
Peter Hertzmann, on his superb
a la carte website, offers an expert analysis of the difficulties of seasoning well. Even the greatest chefs feel insecure with salt, even though most of them would consider it to be, by far, the most important ingredient of all. At least those I've asked. [
I always ask them what 3 ingredients they couldn't do without]. It's cheap; it's essential and there are now so many kinds to choose from. Will this current brouhaha be enough to convince the larger population that
much is lost in using only the industrial, refined stuff? [
Of course, for someone from Southern Europe, olive oil and good sea salt aren't exactly new, so take this with a grain of you know what.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:48 PM PST - 28 comments
That's right, we're offering $10,000 cash! Yours to either spend or invest in job creation. All you have to do is definitively prove that George W. Bush fulfilled his duty to country. Garry Trudeau, like the rest of us, is weary of the "partisan assault on [Geo W's] character," and is taking brave steps to finally end the liberal accusations...
posted by Shane at 4:20 PM PST - 36 comments
Bush calls for same-sex marriage-ban amendment
Pres. Bush called for a constitutional amendment against gay marriage today, blaming "activist judges", the Massachusettes Supreme Court, and the mayor of San Francisco, among others, for attempting "to change the most fundamental institution of civilization."
How this call for an amendment plays out
remains to be seen, but Bush is taking a strong stance on this issue, in what some see as another 'big headline' proposal during the election season. What will this mean for the civil rights of homosexuals in this country? And how will voters react in November?
posted by nyukid at 8:51 AM PST - 377 comments
Dear Mary,
your father, recently said he would support adding anti-gay prejudice to the US Constitution, making you and millions of other Americans second-class citizens. As an open lesbian who has worked for years as a public advocate for gay civil rights, you are in a unique position to defend yourself and your community in this dire hour.
You're right, this is very personal.
posted by alms at 8:11 AM PST - 12 comments
Brian Wilson performed
Smile last Friday, in its entirety. One of the most anticipated lost albums of all time (a great deal of the material was released on other Beach Boys Albums, as well as the Good Vibrations Box set). Smile was Brian Wilsons answer to the Beatles
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The now legendary tale speaks of Brians slow decent into madness and drug abuse during the recording of Smile, (for example, when he was recording Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, otherwise known as the Fire element to Smile, he and the orchestra all had to wear plastic firefighters helmets. When he got home from recording, there were news reports of a huge fire in the area he was recording in, causing him to believe the vibes from the music started the fire. Needless to say, he freaked out a bit.) The album was shelved at the last minute, and for decades, Brian either told people that the Smile sessions had been destroyed, or flat out refused to speak of it at all.
Now,
after 37 years of wondering,
Smile is finally going to be released!!!
posted by Quartermass at 7:21 AM PST - 30 comments
Thanks to PATRIOT Act, FBI wiretaps reach record numbers.
'Thanks to the bundle of anti-terrorism measures known as the USA Patriot Act, the FBI is conducting a "record amount" of electronic surveillance, including the use of wiretaps and bugs, according to an FBI spokesman and a Justice Department budget document. Yet the bounty perpetuates an old problem: The bureau can't keep up with all the information pouring in.'
posted by busbyism at 7:05 AM PST - 48 comments
February 23
Don't try this at home.
We picked up the drill, the gloves, sterile gauze, sheets of plastic, sodium chloride, hypodermic syringes, sterile wipes, irrigation syringe, etc. etc. After acquiring all that we needed, we set up my best friend's bedroom as the operating room and prepared to perform the operation.
While I have heard of
this practice before, this article really shows how far some people are willing to go to enhance their consciousness. Apparently this has been going on for
some time.
First link possibly NSFW due to bloody pics
posted by bashos_frog at 11:52 PM PST - 37 comments
You gave your life to the military, you voted Republican for many years, you say you served in the Pentagon right up to the outbreak of war. What does it feel like to be out now, publicly denouncing your old bosses?
Know what it feels like? It feels like duty. Thats what it feels like. Ive thought about it many times. You know, I spent 20 years working for something that at least under this administration turned out to be something I wasnt working for. I mean, these people have total disrespect for the Constitution. We swear an oath, military officers and NCOs alike swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. These people have no respect for the Constitution. The Congress was misled, it was lied to. At a very minimum that is a subversion of the Constitution. A pre-emptive war based on what we knew was not a pressing need is not what this country stands for.
LA Weekly interviews
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, retired, Pentagon insider present at the creation. Skeletons from the closet tumble.
posted by y2karl at 10:32 PM PST - 59 comments
Walkie Talkie Man
A heck of a yarn of a song.
What promises to be one of the those super over hyped videos, see it now before it becomes passe.
And the song is pretty good too.
posted by fenriq at 6:25 PM PST - 20 comments
The Audio Kitchen.
Music, spoken word, conversations, phone messages and anything else recorded played on a radio program. Most of the material is found in thrift stores and flea markets. [RealAudio required]
posted by pedantic at 2:32 PM PST - 4 comments
Rod Paige Criticizes Teachers Union
Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during a private White House meeting with governors on Monday.
Democratic and Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the National Education Association.
posted by Postroad at 1:54 PM PST - 39 comments
Interesting info for even the ardent
salad dodgers
(via bifurcated rivets)
posted by johnny7 at 7:54 AM PST - 9 comments
Secret Report (drudge) shows Israel has 82 nuclear weapons. With Ariel Sharon's latest [in]actions towards lasting peace, goodwill and calls of corruption, is it time to reevaluate our friends?
posted by omidius at 7:29 AM PST - 29 comments
February 22
CNN
In Feb. 8, 2002 I posted a link hoping Arnie's movie career would keep him too busy to become governor. Twenty-one months later he took office, (obviously I was being tongue-in-cheek, I had no idea it would actually happen). It seems he has his sights set pretty high.
posted by tetsuo at 4:30 PM PST - 53 comments
February 21
Big Box Juggernauts
are taking control of the landscape across North America. How does it impact how we live, and where we live? [Flash]
posted by benjh at 2:52 PM PST - 29 comments
OSHA to whistleblowers: bankers' hours only
- Why would part of OSHA's Inspection Database restrict public access to 8 am to 6 pm est, M-F? Confined Space, a workplace health & safety and labor blog, reports on this odd phenomena
here and
here. OSHA claims that this is to "manage the costs of providing public access to this data." Huh? Can anyone tell me how that would work? I can't ask OSHA since they apparently disable their
feedback mechanism on weekends too.
posted by madamjujujive at 2:32 PM PST - 30 comments
Out of the shadows.
John Cassavetes' dumped and reshot much of the first version of his film 'Shadows'. Critics who were able to compare it to the second 'more Hollywood' version thought it was a very bad mistake, that by censoring the original he was depriving the world of the modern classic and something which could have influenced film makers for years. It disappeared into legend. There was only one surviving print and Cassavetes himself didn't even know where that went. Ray Carney spent decades obessively searching for it, even though he suspected it to be an impossible task. Then he heard that someone might have left it in a box in a subway in the 60s because it wasn't the porn film they had been expecting ...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:05 PM PST - 12 comments
Journal of a Schizophrenic
Over the next several weeks I heard the voice every once in a while, but always in the house, when I was by myself. I became used to it, looked forward to it on occasion. I started playing pool with it. We would play a regular game of eight ball, me with the right hand and the voice with the left. I had never shot with my left hand before, but the voice won as often as not.
posted by moonbird at 12:16 PM PST - 32 comments
How dogs became man's best friend:
Dr Hare's hypothesis is that dogs are superbly sensitive to social cues from people...
His experiment was simple. He presented his animal subjects with two inverted cups. Then he hid the cups behind a screen, put a small piece of food under one of them, and took the screen away. The animal had to choose which cup to look under. If the experimenter gave no cue, both species got it right 50% of the time, as would be expected. However, if he signalled in some way which was the right cup, by pointing at it, tapping it, or even just gazing at it, a dog would choose correctly every time, while a chimpanzee would still do only slightly better than chance. [More at
Harvard Gazette]
-- My question: are you able to reproduce his results?
posted by MzB at 7:50 AM PST - 21 comments
Creative Internet Techniques a large
Ohio ISP was shut down by the FBI for "IRC network" violations. If
you need to get at your hosted data "please contact the Bureau via email
to rwhite3@leo.gov. Make sure to include in your email your name, mailing address,
and telephone number with area code."
Does anyone still use IRC? Does anyone intend to "please contact the Bureau
via email to rwhite3@leo.gov. Make sure to include in your email your name,
mailing address, and telephone number with area code". Does anyone have
any ideas what this is REALLY about?
posted by arse_hat at 12:17 AM PST - 27 comments
February 20
Halifax under curfew.
The Globe and Mail and
the CBC are reporting that the Province of Nova Scotia has placed Halifax, Canada, under a curfew tonight. The city has taken this unprecedented peacetime action to allow the snow plows to deal with the 100cm (~50 inches) of snow that has fallen in the last 24 hours. Anyone caught on the streets between 11pm and 7am faces a CDN$1000 fine.
posted by tiamat at 5:25 PM PST - 35 comments
Israelis kill crops to oust beduin
"Nonetheless, government ministers and officials accuse the beduin of "invading state lands" by refusing to be moved from their historic villages. Sharon himself gave a speech shortly before he became prime minister in which he said: "The beduin are eating away at the last land reserve of the state."" - via
american samidizat
posted by specialk420 at 2:19 PM PST - 36 comments
An American in Mongolia.
A new breed of American soldiercall him the soldier-diplomathas come into being since the end of the Cold War. Meet the colonel who was our man in Mongolia, an officer who probably wielded more local influence than many Mongol rulers of yore.
posted by kablam at 1:10 PM PST - 7 comments
Justly Married
Derek Powazek shares a series of images of same-gender couples who were married in San Francisco over the last week, and sells one stark image in poster form to raise funds for
DontAmend.com, an organization committed to fighting the radical right's efforts to add an anti-gay marriage/union amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
posted by Dreama at 12:09 PM PST - 309 comments
Free-Speech Zones come to Boston this July.
Protesters at this summer's Democratic National Convention in Boston may be confined to a cozy triangle of land off Haymarket Square, blocked off from the FleetCenter and convention delegates by a maze of Central Artery service roads, MBTA train tracks, and a temporary parking lot holding scores of buses and media trucks.
Under a preliminary plan floated by convention organizers, the "free-speech zone" would be a small plot bounded by Green Line tracks and North Washington Street, in an area that until recently was given over to the elevated artery. The zone would hold as few as 400 of the several thousand protesters who are expected in Boston in late July.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 11:56 AM PST - 54 comments
Eddie Clontz,
longtime editor of the
Weekly World News, creator of Ed Anger, Bat Boy and other semi-real totems of society's fuzzy underbelly, is dead at 56.
The fact that I had to find this out in
The Economist, of all places, makes me madder than -- than -- than George S. Patton at a Peace Rally.
posted by chicobangs at 8:02 AM PST - 26 comments
"Don't Vote: Blog"
is the message to supporters of reform in Iran, as today's parliamentary elections are marred by mass disqualification of reform candidates by religious authorities and protest resignations by sitting parliamentarians (via
Joi Ito.) Check
IranFilter for English-language posts and updates. Will this be the blogosphere's finest hour to date?
posted by hairyeyeball at 5:44 AM PST - 8 comments
Is Alex Ross Trying Too Hard To Be Eclectic?
It's a great article but, imho, a few false notes are struck here and there. Can you love classical and popular music at the same time? Classical types always like the same popular stuff (Dylan and Pink Floyd, of course) and popular types always like the same classical stuff (Wagner, Puccini, Mahler) but somehow the suspicion remains that one's heart can't be in two places at once. There's something ingratiating and icky about attempts to pretend "it's all music". It isn't, is it? Also, God forgive me, 20 is
way too late to start listening to Pop.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:35 AM PST - 50 comments
Lost Liberties?
Salon has an interesting two part series on the tensions between antiwar protesters and law enforcement.
Part 1: "Outlawing dissent: Spying on peace meetings, cracking down on protesters, keeping secret files on innocent people -- how Bush's war on terror has become a war on freedom."
Part 2: "A thousand J. Edgar Hoovers: State and local police are taking it upon themselves to investigate antiwar activists -- and in the computer age, the threat to our civil liberties is even greater than it was in Hoover's day." Does
Protester = Criminal?
posted by homunculus at 12:53 AM PST - 2 comments
February 19
