Tuesday, April 29, 2003

From NPR, Deducing Deep Throat's identity. (Audio)
Students at the University Of Illinois-Champaign believe they've uncovered the true identity of "Deep Throat," the mysterious source used by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to investigate the Watergate conspiracy. Jay Field of Chicago Public Radio reports.
This raises an interesting debate about journalists' duties to protect their sources vs. their counterparts' interests in uncovering stories. Bernstein says that the investigative journalism students have "no business" undertaking this type of probe.
Build a zoetrope.
From the makers of Sodaplay, SodaRace is the online olympics pitting human creativity against machine learning in a competition to construct virtual racing robots
James Thurber: "The Catbird Seat", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"

Monday, April 28, 2003

Wilco's new E.P. "More Like the Moon" is available for download on their website.
Three stolen paintings, a Picasso, a Van Gogh, and a Gaugin, were recovered with rainwater damage.
If this happens to your Picassos, you'd be best served to have described it with ObjectID, the international standard for describing art, antiques and antiquities.
Philly lawyer sends a bill for an 81-hour day.
What the what the right thinks the left are saying in right-ese. (warning: bileous)
Environmentalism: 1) A way of stopping America's technological progress, farming practices, new housing and job creation. This is perpetrated by a cabal of both tassled-shoe lawyers (who have never actually stepped foot in a wilderness area) and scraggly neo-hippies. 2) Repeating the mantra that Republicans are "poisoning the air and water" to a gullible public. 3) An attempt by "progressives" to regress technologically by reestablishing the technology of the 19th century here in America.
The last of the token suckers. Thanks, Metafilter
Madonna decoy remixes take off

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Mr. Toothpicks, that's his name.. That name again is Mr. Toothpicks. Courtesy of the Shocked and Amazed newsletter.
WTF, indeed. Madonna floods file-sharing networks with this question for her fans. Hey Madonna, calm down- you kiss Mr. Ciccone with that mouth. From what I've heard about the techno clunkers on her latest, this may be the best track. Taken as a Madonna release, It's actually pretty nicely recorded and underproduced. I found it interesting that her engineer added slight reverb and definitely more than a little compression, and wisely left out the digi-vocoder, phased delay, and electroharmonizing fluff that's all the rage with lightweight pop these days. It sounds like she's right up on the (condenser) mic with no pop filter even. How long before a remix artist has this embedded in a dance track that'll be making rounds at clubs? Will she want royalties?

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Philip K. Dick, The Unicorn, and Mind Control
Man barks at a police dog, gets popped for a misdemeanor.
World Wide Retro's vintage pulp fiction cover art gallery.
Politics abhors a vacuum. Iran begins moving influence into Iraq. (NYTimes)
Strange new mice and keyboards including this swanky vertical thingy.
The dynamics of spear-throwing.
LuntzSpeak! Teaching Republicans to put a friendly spin on environmental assault.
President Bush has proposed increased snowmobile use in Yellowstone, tried to open ANWR to oil and gas exploration, and has pushed to restrict the amount of land protected by the Interior Department. His air pollution plan would roll back current Clean Air Act protections and replace them with something weaker, and his Healthy Forests plan allows for unregulated cutting of large, fire-resistant trees.

Friday, April 18, 2003

The monkey-man that terrorized India in 2001
Apropos of nothing, I came across this great pic of a radio controlled Twiki (w/ Dr. Theopolis around neck) from Buck Rogers in the 25th century.
Many of you are struggling just to scrape by in this nightmare economy. Most markets are failing miserably, but there are those who've entered more creative segments like, say manufacturing $105,000 toilet seats, that are flying high. So get off of your collective asses and bend your energies toward satisfying the caprices of the entitled rich.
From sharpeworld, the NJ Transit bus fanpage. I can't get enough of sites like this.
Terrorism in HO scale: Owners of a miniature model train villiage are forced to close the attraction due to insurance problems over terrorism. The insurance companies are claiming that visitors to the miniature train set are likely terrorist targets.
"We got feedback from Royal and Sun Alliance that, since September 11, tourist venues like the model village pose a high risk and as a result they were refusing our cover," he said. "We were told the site was uninsurable because of the high risk factor."
U.S. Soldiers in Iraq asked to pray for Bush's corporate-oil/war machine.

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Get your war on #23
The Kid from Hoboken: The Autobiography of Bill Bailey. (available online in its entirety)
It was a sad period in America, and sadder still when fear was able to reach into the homes and workplaces of people. In a Midwest city, someone sought signatures on a petition at a busy street corner. The petitioner simply asked people to sign their names to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States. It was a simple request that most people would have been delighted to perform, but not during this period. McCarthy had already put out a warning that the petitions were a ploy of the Communists. People feared signing anything but their paychecks. It was that fear, the cream and substance of McCarthyism, that slowly but surely entered into the lifestream of American society. It would remain there for a long time to come. Our conditions would be undermined. Our trade union movement would receive its share of kicks in the "`stones" from those wearing the Florsheims, and civil rights would fight for survival.
China's great wall blocked plant gene flow.
Nearly a mile long and 25 stories high, Freedom will be the largest vessel to ever sail the seven seas. PM also has a story on the current largest cruiser with a great break-away graphic.
"Taller than the highest buildings in most American cities and topped with a runway that can handle jets, Freedom may someday be the globe-trotting address for 17,000 homes and 4000 businesses. Its dimensions are so colossal that it will have to be assembled at sea. Once it's built, Freedom will circle the earth every two years, following the balmy breezes as it approaches the world's major ports (see map above). The wealthiest of her "citizens" will leave their 15-ft. by 80-ft. ocean-view apartments and board their private jets or yachts for jaunts to shore. Meanwhile, the 15,000 people who work aboard the ship will gear up for the next on-rush of day visitors anxious to shop at its duty-free stores and guests checking in to vacation in its hotels and time-share condominiums."

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Saddam Hussein: Gay porn actor?
Calling the Kettle Black: AOL Sues "Spammers". I'm usually for anyone who goes after spammers, but AOL? How many landfills worth of disgarded 'try-me' CDs are they responsible for?
The Lynch collection of outsider art. Many pics unfortunately in B/W
Hollywood to shift focus of anti-copying technology from players/devices to software (NYTimes)

Friday, April 04, 2003

Stonepages - megalithic Europe.
Iraq Psy-Ops propaganda leaflet art gallery slideshow!
Best euphamism for war: "The British Soldiers are working in your region."
Photographs of early 20th century Australian Brass Bands
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum

Thursday, April 03, 2003

Very interesting comment from former CIA Director James Woolsey, who says that the U.S. is engaged in World War IV. Regardless of how you feel about the current war in Iraq, we've been told that its goals were definite: to remove this dictator in this country. Woolsey's comments are the beginnings of non-speculative, insider commentary on what a long-term agenda might be. While Saddam is widely dispised as a threat to the U.S. as well as his own citizens, the administration has faced difficulty 'selling' the war to the international community. If the agenda is as broad as Woolsey predicts, what will the foreign reaction be when sights are pointed elsewhere in the middle east where there are no 'Saddams' to remove?

"As we move toward a new Middle East," Woolsey said, "over the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of people very nervous."
Singling out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people."

Woolsey's comments also raise the question of whether an effort of this nature can withstand a possible change in administration. Is this a uniquely 'Bush' war, or is this an ideology that will work in a broader political context?

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Washington's Columbian war, fought by highly paid CSC/DynCorp Soldier-of-Fortune mercinaries.

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

I swear this isn't an April Fools joke: White House Backs Rumsfeld against Critics of War Plan
Now hold on just a darned minute here... You'll have me believe that both the White House and Rumsfeld share a warmongering bloodlust and an impaired intellect so remarkably similar that they actually see eye to eye on this complex issue?! What are the chances of that?
``The president has tremendous faith in Secretary Rumsfeld and his generals, Secretary Rumsfeld's leadership, Secretary Rumsfeld's decisions and it's borne out by what the president views as a successful military campaign,'' the senior official said.
Great Metafiter today!