In the Air. I'd never seen Mount Fuji from the air before. An awesome sight...... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
Say What? [] 5:07:53 PM  Permalink  

Lovin' Spoonful Guitarist Dies. [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

sheesh. not exactly a noteworthy player, but a delightfully goofy personality for about 15 minutes. too bad.

Say What? [] 4:59:41 PM  Permalink  

Singer Gordon Lightfoot released from hospital three months after surgery

Singer Gordon Lightfoot is resting comfortably after being released from hospital this week, more than three months after developing a serious abdominal illness. (Canada.com)

Good news for a change.

Say What? [] 2:13:41 PM  Permalink  

Henry, we hardly knew ye
Henry Kissinger just announced that he's resigning from the 9/11 investigation commission President Bush appointed him to lead. It was becoming obvious that, in order to comply with the law and to allay the concerns of the 9/11 victims' families, Kissinger was going to have to reveal a list of his consulting clients. That, it seems, was far too onerous a price to pay. Or maybe one of the names on the list -- the Saudi government? who knows? -- would have been problematic under the circumstances. Well, the man has made his priorities clear. He's not the only one: George Mitchell, the former senator whom the Democrats named as their top man on the commission, resigned earlier this week, saying service on this commission would take too much time away from his law practice. These men are displaying a surprising lack of dedication to helping the nation find explanations for 9/11. Surely each of them could have made the choice they made before accepting appointment to the commission. Unless there's something else going on here. Maybe they know something we don't. If this commission does its job right, it will have to reach conclusionss that the government doesn't want to hear. What Kissinger and Mitchell both seem to be saying is that truth-telling is not worth the trouble. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]

Wierd.

Say What? [] 10:35:31 PM  Permalink  

Google's 2002-in-review [bOing bOing]

Fascinating - and a good reminder of what went down

Say What? [] 10:30:00 PM  Permalink  

The Village Voice: Nation: Nat Hentoff: We'll All Be Under Surveillance.

Without any official public notice, and without any congressional hearings, the Bush administration--with an initial appropriation of $200 million--is constructing the Total Information Awareness System. It will extensively mine government and commercial data banks, enabling the FBI, the CIA, and other intelligence agencies to collect information that will allow the government--as noted on ABC-TV's November 14 Nightline--"to essentially reconstruct the movements of citizens." This will be done without warrants from courts, thereby making individual privacy as obsolete as the sauropods of the Mesozoic era. (Intelligence from and to foreign sources will also be involved.)

Our government's unblinking eyes will try to find suspicious patterns in your credit-card and bank data, medical records, the movies you click for on pay-per-view, passport applications, prescription purchases, e-mail messages, telephone calls, and anything you've done that winds up in court records, like divorces. Almost anything you do will leave a trace for these omnivorous computers, which will now contain records of your library book withdrawals, your loans and debts, and whatever you order by mail or on the Web.

As Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley pointed out in the November 17 Los Angeles Times: "For more than 200 years, our liberties have been protected primarily by practical barriers rather than constitutional barriers to government abuse. Because of the sheer size of the nation and its population, the government could not practically abuse a great number of citizens at any given time. In the last decade, however, these practical barriers have fallen to technology." [Privacy Digest] [Steve's No Direction Home Page]

Say What? [] 2:18:07 PM  Permalink  

Searching Google for suicide [bOing bOing]

With profound, compassionate wisdom like this, Frank helped us get past the "what ifs" during the first year after Andrew's death, but items like this still catch my eye.

Say What? [] 2:12:34 PM  Permalink  

Snow crash?
Does anyone else find it odd that, when it came time for the Bush administration to replace Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill -- a CEO of an old-line industry who worked with Dick Cheney in the Ford administration days -- it chose John Snow: CEO of an old-line industry who worked with Dick Cheney in the Ford administration days? (It seems the answer is yes: Business Week asks a similar question.) Snow, we're told, is smoother than O'Neill, who quickly developed a reputation as a loose cannon. If that's wrong, and Snow turns out to be another O'Neill in this regard too, we have a new nickname for the Bush White House: Cheney's zanies. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]

Say What? [] 1:56:00 PM  Permalink  

i haven't the slightest idea why the last post sort of showed up twice. bastards!
Say What? [] 1:47:52 PM  Permalink  

Best of the Year.

Mike's best album of the year list; I've been meaning to link to it for a while. A good list!

Several I haven't heard, but need to listen to. Ralph Stanely's T-Bone Burnett-produced album isn't there, and the most recent Buddy and June Miller work isn't either. This is some pretty amazing music, when you stop and look at the list, a really incredible variety of music.  [Steve's No Direction Home Page]

Thanks to Steve for linking to my list.  In retrospect, I can think of several records that I should have included.  First of all, Ralph Stanley's new record is pretty good.  But I have been especially impressed with Buddy Miller's Midnight and Lonesome.  As long as we're having fun, I'd also like to include the following:

* Blue Country Heart - Jorma Kaukonen
* Rise - Kim Richey
* Brainwashed - George Harrison
* The Ragpicker's Dream - Mark Knopfler

Say What? [] 10:15:26 AM  Permalink  

From Steve Martin's tribute to Paul Simon at last night's Kennedy Center Honors:

"It would be easy to stand here and talk about Paul Simon's intelligence and skill," Martin said, "but this is neither the time nor the place." He noted that Simon had had a long relationship with Art Garfunkel, "which unfortunately ended in an acrimonious split. We know about his relationship with Sony Records, which also ended in an acrimonious split." And then he began shuffling through his cue cards and tossing them aside, muttering, "Acrimonious split, acrimonious split, acrimonious split."

"I, however, have had a long relationship with Paul, but that's ending tonight."

He claimed that Simon had once called him to claim he had written a song called "47 Ways to Leave Your Lover," "and I said, 'Why not 50?'?"

"I can only think of 47," Simon allegedly replied.

Simon once apologized for interrupting Martin at home, the comedian claimed, one evening while he was cooking a chicken.

How are you preparing it, Simon allegedly asked.

"With parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme." Bada-bing.

"I don't use the word 'genius' very often," Martin said, and stopped. "I just thought I'd mention that."

But seriously. He said Simon had given a great gift to America and all future generations, "but not my future generations because I've had a vasectomy." (Washington Post)

Say What? [] 11:48:21 PM  Permalink  

Show and Tell Music - Thrift Store Vinyl.. Show and Tell Music - Thrift Store Vinyl. There are lots of vinyl sites out there, but some of the items in this collection had me floored. And the quantity is just as impressive as the quality -- several pages of unintentionally funny Christian vinyl you have to see to believe. MP3 samples too! Via BoingBoing, but got lost under a lengthy EFF post (which was also good). [MetaFilter]
A must-see! [Steve's No Direction Home Page]
Say What? [] 5:30:22 PM  Permalink  

New in OJR: Early adopter and interesting guy Harry Shearer (the voice of Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Ned Flanders on "The Simpsons") sounds off about digital television, the disappearance of local radio, and record companies "bloviating." [JD's New Media Musings]

 I happen to believe that when record companies, in particular, start bloviating about "artists' rights," it is time to head for the hills with a week's supply of food and water. These guys wouldn't recognize an artist's right if it was shoved up their pantlegs.  The CD business was, and still is -- see a story in [last] week's NYT -- based on an interesting premise -- use the dubious claim of better sound quality to induce boomers to buy their favorite music again, and, hopefully, again.  When that merry-go-round slowed down, they had a sales slump.   And they blamed the consumers, for downloading instead of buying their fine new music.  Blame, threaten and sue your customers -- now there's a business model to emulate. 

[Steve's No Direction Home Page]
Say What? [] 5:28:09 PM  Permalink  

Barlow's reasons for joining the EFF [bOing bOing]

this shit ain't no joke. it's a genuine nightmare. stay informed.

Say What? [] 12:26:57 AM  Permalink