Sunday, August 31, 2003However much .... it's Never Enough!
Listening to The Cure - Love Song all day long...
[hebig.org/blog]
Never Enough
5:39:47 AM 
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Friday, August 29, 2003The Port Authority released more than 1,800 pages of transcribed radio transmissions, much of them from people in and around the World Trade Center. By Jim Dwyer.
[New York Times: NYT HomePage]
3:11:55 PM
comment [] trackback [] Blocker Tags to Protect Privacy From RFID Tags
geekee writes "According to an article at CNET, RSA Security is developing a 'blocker' tag that disrupts RFID tag transmissions, protecting a person's privacy ...
[Slashdot]
2:55:56 PM
comment [] trackback [] The future of money: private complementary currencies
Bernard Lietaer, co-designer of the convergence mechanism of the Euro, talks in a interview about the problem of conventional money systems, what money is, and private complementary currencies.
[kuro5hin.org]
2:03:13 AM
comment [] trackback [] Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg says: "Switch to Mac!"
(via MacAddict.com) [MacOSX.nl]
12:09:13 AM
comment [] trackback [] Wednesday, August 27, 2003Guttata writes: "space.com has posted 1 of 2 images taken by Hubble last night, dubbed the best Mars globe photo ever taken. The second image will be posted at 4 p.m. ET..." [Slashdot]
6:23:41 PM
comment [] trackback [] The gift of sight
The gift of sight is easy to take for granted. Not for Mike May, blinded in infancy, Mike had partial vision restored at the age of 43. This is his journal, written with infectious delight for his new gift and documenting the unexpected problems that the miracle brings. There's much, much more to vision than just the data and Mike is an unprecedented opportunity to better understand how perception works.
[via the Guardian and previously mentioned here]
[MetaFilter]
4:37:48 PM
comment [] trackback [] Stunning photographs
Stunning photographs by Kurt Ross.
These glorious images have lifted my spirit today.
[MetaFilter]
4:36:03 PM
comment [] trackback [] Illustrating Genji
An eighteenth-century scroll illustrating the first sixteen chapters of Lady Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. (In Japanese, anyone? Don't forget to take the photographic tour.) A couple of images from an important twelfth-century scroll are here. UNESCO hosts a full set of seventeenth-century woodblock prints by Harumasa Yamamoto. For the nineteenth century, see a set of color sixteen woodblock prints by Kunisada; and for the twentieth, Shuseki's illustrations of the first eleven chapters. (Those in search of some artistic context should revisit this post by y2karl.)
[MetaFilter]
1:32:48 AM
comment [] trackback [] Tuesday, August 26, 2003(via NewsIsFree) [Robot Wisdom]
11:45:37 PM
comment [] trackback [] Who uses Free MIT?
Two years ago, MIT "open sourced" its course-catalog, putting online the kind of course that most universities charge big bucks for as part of a "distance ed" program. Wired'd got a great piece on who uses MIT-free and why:
"Lam Vi Quoc negotiates his scooter through Ho Chi Minh City's relentless stream of pedal traffic and hangs a right down a crowded alley. He climbs the steep wooden stairs of the tiny house he shares with nine family members, passing by his mother, who is stooped on the floor of the second level preparing lunch. He ascends another set of even steeper steps to the third level and settles on a stool at a small desk, pushing aside the rolled-up mat he sleeps on with one of his brothers. To the smell of a chicken roasting on a grill in the alley and the clang of the next-door neighbor's metalworking operation, Lam turns on his Pentium 4 PC, and soon the screen displays Lecture 2 of Laboratory in Software Engineering, a course taught each semester on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Here," he says, pointing at the screen. "This is where I got the idea to use decoupling as a way of integrating two programs"."(Wired) [Boing Boing Blog]
10:29:14 PM
comment [] trackback [] Monday, August 25, 2003bot writes "There have been a number of stories on Microsoft trying to do a 'Netscape' on Google.. what would a world in which Microsoft provides search look like?... [Slashdot]
12:50:40 AM
comment [] trackback [] Sunday, August 24, 2003"Here you can view over 6500 photos of 462 sites in seventeen countries, with background information and virtual tours." [MetaFilter]
11:36:08 PM
comment [] trackback [] My Boston Globe op-ed on net-politics
I've got an op-ed in today's Boston Globe about the relationship between the Internet and poltiics:
"When Trent Lott's revealing faux pas about Strom Thurmond was lightly touched upon by the press, the Internet's howling masses seized on the story, reviving it with a fresh angle -- Lott backhandedly endorses segregation! -- and kept the news cycle going long beyond its expected lifespan, until Lott crashed and burned and lost his post as Senate majority leader.Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]Huzzah. Of course, Lott is still a senator. In fact, every scandal exposed by or through the net -- INS witchhunts, stubbornly illusory WMDs, awarding of war-pork to Halliburton -- has yielded a decidedly hollow victory.
Information is power, but it's not enough. Modern emperors have learned the knack of spinning revelations of wrongdoing and bouncing back. Thus far, the Internet has lacked the follow-through necessary to make a lasting difference. That's changing. As the Internet matures as a place for political action, services like the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Action Center (punch in your ZIP and e-mail your lawmaker), MeetUp's coordinated nationwide kaffeeklatsches for every Democratic candidate (but especially Howard Dean) and MoveOn's thronged mailing list millions (who can conjure the budget for a major media-buy on 24 hours' notice) are providing the bodies, budget and means for advancing proposals and seeing them through to their ends."
10:05:25 PM
comment [] trackback [] Columbia Newsblaster
...just visited Newsblaster for the first time in a bit. Two new things jump out at me: a search engine, and more significantly, the ability to compare articles about an event written in different countries. [Puzzlepieces]
9:48:12 PM
comment [] trackback [] Visual Human Server
... a virtual anatomy lesson using java.
[MetaFilter]
8:44:49 PM
comment [] trackback [] Technological Acceleration - A Hidden Law of Nature?
"What will happen if technology is, as Ray Kurzweil claims, exponentially accelerating?..."
[Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
Also see: Institute for Accelerating Change
5:53:45 AM comment [] trackback []
Re: WIPO
Slashdot and Canada’s National Post have chimed in on Professor Lessig’s post about the World Intellectual Property Organization… [Lessig News]
4:36:11 AM comment [] trackback []
Saturday, August 23, 20035:31:50 AM
comment [] trackback [] Jon's Radio
Microsoft senior developer Chris Brumme doesn't post often to his weblog often, but every one of his essays is a lengthy, authoritative, and candidly self-critical exploration of .NET and CLR arcana, the sort of thing you might expect to read on MSDN (minus the self-criticism, that is). And in fact, the absence of this material from MSDN is controversial.
[Daypop Top 40]
5:15:37 AM
comment [] trackback [] Brazilian rocket explodes on pad
A Brazilian rocket being prepared for a launch attempt next week exploded on Friday afternoon... [spacetoday.net]
2:44:30 AM
comment [] trackback [] What did Pavlov's dog think about Pavlov?
"Look at the poor man, every time I am hungry, instead of bringing me food, he rings the bell!"
Some people just figure it out, but here on MeFi we already knew it.
[MetaFilter]
1:03:39 AM comment [] trackback []
Say Hello to the New X-Men
The Mountain Dew-fueled all-nighter is history. Today's supercoders work 40-hour weeks, two to a computer. Welcome to extreme programming, the latest revolution to rock the software world. (by Martha Baer) [Wired News]
12:43:54 AM comment [] trackback []
Friday, August 22, 2003Ben Hammersley -- adventurer, athlete, programmer, RSS-wonk, reporter -- has decided to pull up stakes and become a freelance reporter for a while. In Afghanistan. And he's going to report it all in his blog. Jeez.
"So, anyway. I figure it's about the time this nano-publishing journalism-of-the-future meme started to get off its collective bottom. So I'm off to Afghanistan for your education and pleasure. I fly to Islamabad tomorrow, and from there by train or bus to Peshawar. On Saturday I'll be crossing the Khyber Pass and making my way to Kabul. All being well, technology and men-with-guns willing, I'll be posting from every stop, and weblogging from Afghanistan for ten days or so. Movable Type meets Mujahedeen. It's going to be fun."[Boing Boing Blog]
2:43:26 AM
comment [] trackback [] Beyond Fear: Required reading for Ashcroft's America
One of the books I'm delighted to have had the chance to read here is Bruce Schneier's latest, Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. I reviewed three or four drafts of this while Bruce was working on it, and I am completely delighted with how it turned out.
In Beyond Fear, Schneier has utterly demystified the idea of security with a text aimed squarely at nontechnical individuals. He takes his legendary skill at applying common sense and lucidity to information-security problems and applies it to all the bogeymen of the post-9/11 world, and asks the vital question: What are we getting in exchange for the liberties that the Ashcroftian authorities have taken away from us in the name of security?
This is possibly the most important question of this decade, and that makes Schenier's book one of the most important texts of the decade. This should be required reading for every American, and the world would be a better place if anyone venturing an opinion on electronic voting, airline security, roving wiretaps, or any other modern horror absorbed this book's lessons first.
[Boing Boing Blog]
2:40:19 AM comment [] trackback []
Wednesday, August 20, 2003And Brits to switch from MS Word to PDF.
[Blogalization Community]
11:19:09 PM
comment [] trackback [] Interesting 600k Martian-crater closeup
(via NewsIsFree) [Robot Wisdom]
10:51:52 PM
comment [] trackback [] So you want to be a brain surgeon...
The Harvard Brain Atlas has a veritable plethora of images of the brain, whether normal or diseased. Tours, 3-D Java exploration and a [very difficult] quiz are available. Plus: the top 100 brain structures!
[MetaFilter]
2:35:35 PM
comment [] trackback [] Finland: Information Economy, Multilingualism, and Public-Private Partnership
"Finland is seen as a pioneering adapter and an important research centre of the new technology. " But you know you've been in Finland too long when ... [Blogalization Community]
1:58:53 PM
comment [] trackback [] Net censorship in India?
"The thought police is gearing up to storm the virtual world. In what appears to be its first serious attempt to monitor the Internet, the Government of India has outlined an official procedure for blocking websites."
[Blogalization Community]
1:56:35 PM
comment [] trackback [] Tuesday, August 19, 2003owlmon writes "CNET Asia is reporting that China has outlawed foreign software in government applications. I expect that software buyers outside of the ... [Slashdot]
12:41:33 PM
comment [] trackback [] Images of Native Americans
from UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, is comprehensive online exhibit of over 400 years of text and images of Native American history. [via a Berkleyan article that has sample images and more info] [MetaFilter]
3:33:04 AM
comment [] trackback [] Monday, August 18, 20031:59:02 AM
comment [] trackback [] Sunday, August 17, 2003Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads, here's a man...
[Industrial Technology & Witchcraft]
1:16:44 PM
comment [] trackback [] On the %$*& Moon...
Here's what Neil Armstrong really said when he walked on the moon (Flash).In 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first man to walk on the moon, uttering the immortal phrase, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Or did he? Previously suppressed footage discovered by blogjam shows that Armstrong's reaction was a great deal more uninhibited than history suggests, and that a hasty editing job was needed to prepare the astronaut's moment of glory for broadcast. Via linkfilter. [thanks to The Cartoonist]
%$*& funny!
12:33:11 PM comment [] trackback []
He who lives in stained glass houses...
According to the London Observer, they have obtained a 69 page, 1962 document ordering bishops worldwide to the utmost secrecy on sexual abuse cases, and threatens anyone who breaks that silence with excommunication. The document has the seal of Pope John Paul XXII, which kind of limits their avenues for... [Teal Sunglasses]
12:16:22 PM comment [] trackback []
Saturday, August 16, 2003Heise reports on the hijacking of a Chinese state television satelite by the Falun Gong movement (German text) [heise online news]
4:13:38 PM
comment [] trackback [] Thursday, August 14, 2003As you go into Baghdad from the west there is graffiti on the walls that says "Welcome to the Republic of Darkness and Unemployment".
Salam Pax [The Guardian]
11:46:34 AM
comment [] trackback [] The real WMD
Gamma-ray weapons could trigger next arms race: "An exotic explosive that blurs the distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons could shift the global balance of power."
New Scientist [Follow Me Here...]
1:21:14 AM
comment [] trackback [] Study of Bush's Psyche Touches a Nerve
"A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in 'fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity'.
As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.
All of them 'preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality'.
Republicans are demanding to know why the psychologists behind the report, Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, received $1.2m in public funds for their research from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The authors also peer into the psyche of President George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case. The telltale signs are his preference for moral certainty and frequently expressed dislike of nuance."
Guardian/UK [via CommonDreams] [Follow Me Here...]
1:15:07 AM comment [] trackback []
Wednesday, August 13, 2003At tolerant Microsoft, some wonder when journals will cross line..
Allen, a Microsoft program manager for Web data, may have been the first company employee to begin blogging, launching his weblog about three years ago. Today, about 150 Microsoft employees maintain personal weblogs, by some estimates, and the number is growing steadily.
"My main worry with a lot of new webloggers coming on board is that somebody is not going to know where to draw the line and blow it for everybody else," Allen said in an interview. "But I think people just kind of try to use common sense."
(TODD BISHOP
- SeattlePI) [via Technorati]
11:57:16 PM comment [] trackback []
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation: (11/19/1863)
And now please welcome President Abraham Lincoln.
Good morning. Just a second while I get this connection to work. Do I press this button here? Function-F7? No, that's not right. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to reboot. Hold on a minute. Um, my name is Abe Lincoln and I'm your president. While we're waiting, I want to thank Judge David Wills, chairman of the committee supervising the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. It's great to be here, Dave, and you and the committee are doing a great job. Gee, sometimes this new technology does have glitches, but we couldn't live without it, could we? Oh - is it ready? OK, here we go:....
(via Teal Sunglasses) [via Christopher Ireland's Fresh Perspectives]
3:09:23 PM comment [] trackback []
Mr. President, everything is finished How the Iraq war was lost. "'These were the orders of an imbecile. Qusai [Hussein] was like a teenager playing a video war game,' [Republican Guard Col. Raeed] Faik, 33, said in the cool reception room of his Baghdad home, gesturing to his teenage son banging away on a computer combat game." "We were like 10 different armies fighting their own private wars," said another Iraqi soldier. An account of the war as seen through the eyes of the Iraqi military. [MetaFilter]
2:34:33 PM comment [] trackback []
The Colours of Numbers
For the math geeks out there (which I'm not - maybe his theories will be shot down in flames), Karl Palmen has discovered that numbers can be assigned one of eight "colours", related to their prime factors. He goes on to show the interesting mathematical properties of these colours. A novel way of playing with numbers. Software is on offer. [MetaFilter]
2:30:41 PM comment [] trackback []
Walk the Great Wall of China
or rather, take a virtual stroll through the use of a QTVR-esque java applet along a good stretch of the Wall that seems to be in pretty fair shape. For the vast majority of us that will never get there in person, this is an interesting close up. [MetaFilter]
2:23:45 PM comment [] trackback []
Newfound Moons Tell Secrets of Solar System
"Not too long ago, it was easy for an armchair astronomer to keep up to speed on the moons of the solar system. There was the Moon, of course, and the four Jovian satellites spotted by Galileo, those two around Mars, and some odd ones here and there that weird fractured cue ball orbiting Uranus, for instance.
These days, though, it is tough to tell the moons without a scorecard. In the past six years, dozens of satellites have been discovered around the giant planets, more than doubling the total in the solar system. Jupiter is the current leader, with 61, followed by Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The tally for these four planets is 124 (the other five planets have only four among them), but that number is sure to change in the next year or two.
(S)cientists say these moons offer some of the only clues to the early years of the solar system. They are a window into the past, some 4.5 billion years ago, when the planets formed from a swirling nebular disk of gas and dust."
[Follow Me Here...]
6:41:51 AM comment [] trackback []
Japan Apologizes to China for Injuries From Remnants of War
Japan acknowledged that chemical weapons left in China by Japanese troops at the end of World War II caused 36 people to get sick early this month. By Norimitsu Onishi. [New York Times: International]
6:35:31 AM comment [] trackback []
'Bring us home'
GIs flood US with war-weary emails: "An unprecedented internet campaign waged on the frontline and in the US is exposing the real risks for troops in Iraq... (amidst) rising fears that the conflict is now a desert Vietnam."
(via Guardian/UK) [Follow Me Here...]
6:05:10 AM comment [] trackback []
Model plane goes transatlantic
An international team of enthusiasts are claiming the first successful transatlantic flight by a model aircraft. [BBC News | Europe | World Edition]
5:52:15 AM comment [] trackback []
Saturday, August 09, 2003[Robot Wisdom] (via NewsIsFree)
2:14:34 PM
comment [] trackback [] High burnout-rate at Indian call-centers
[Robot Wisdom] (via NewsIsFree)
2:13:15 PM
comment [] trackback [] Arachnophobia
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider. I was looking online to try and identify the freaking huge spiders I saw today (possibly wolf spiders), and I came across this hand spider identification chart. Slightly unnerving when the spiders randomly wiggle. Perhaps more so if you have a problem with spiders. [MetaFilter]
2:06:53 PM
comment [] trackback [] The hidden cost of hardware
Why does first sale not apply to software? [Hack the Planet]
2:01:44 PM
comment [] trackback [] John Kenneth Galbraith
"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."
[Quotes of the Day]1:02:53 PM
comment [] trackback [] How Do I Make the Particles Accelerate?
At Fermilab , one of about seventy high energy particle accelerators on the planet, scientists offer day-by-day, hour-by-hour reports of experimental progress and setbacks. Science in action looks tedious. This reads like a particle physics blog. [MetaFilter]
12:55:54 PM
comment [] trackback [] East on the Danube: Hungary's Tragic Century
You know immediately when you arrive in Hungary from Austria that you have crossed from one historical zone, one domain of experience, into another... By Richard Bernstein. [New York Times: International]
12:47:47 PM
comment [] trackback [] Iran Translated
"things you always wished your english speaking friend could read ..."
[Blogalization Community]
2:42:54 AM
comment [] trackback [] Salam Pax has a photoblog
The aliased Iraqi warblogger responsible for "Where is Raed" now has a photoblog, which contains some wonderful street scene images from Iraq. (Thanks, Emily!) [Boing Boing Blog]
2:30:07 AM
comment [] trackback [] The Original Smiley Face
Hrmph. Somebody once told me it was Milton Glaser who invented the Smiley. Not true. In fact it was Harvey Ball, a designer from Worcester, MA, who created the very first Smiley design for a local client. Find out everything about the smiley at the World Smile Foundation.However, Milton is still one of the best around - famous for his "I love NY" button designs and all sorts of other great stuff. Art is Work. [The Cartoonist]
1:17:40 AM comment [] trackback []
Octopus Hijinks!
Nature is amazing. "Camera approaching coral with no sign of animal. As the camera gets closer, an O. vulgaris that was camouflaged changes color to white and becomes visible." This page leads to a video clip containing "special effects" that put the movie industry to shame. (via Looka!) [MetaFilter]
1:15:44 AM comment [] trackback []
Thursday, August 07, 2003Jeff Jarvis: Hoder, the pioneering Iranian blogger, has an interesting idea: using RSS with peer-to-peer distribution to get around government censorship. One of his comments points out that this is what Freenet is intended to do. The difference, I imagine, is that using RSS allows any weblog to be published or read as is, around censors. [Der Schockwellenreiter]
1:33:55 PM
comment [] trackback [] Karl Marx: Capital in Lithographs [Der Schockwellenreiter]
1:29:53 PM
comment [] trackback [] Branch Out
ecotonoha [medium high bandwidth flash link] [via Abstract Dynamics]... [Ross Mayfield's Weblog]
12:37:29 PM
comment [] trackback [] 11-Pound Model Plane Vs. The Atlantic, Again
Luap Nanreffeh writes "Last year, Maynard Hill and some retired NASA buddies tried to set a record for flying a model aeroplane across the atlantic ocean (from Newfoundland to Ireland). Their plan, using GPS, onboard controllers, and a gallon of gas, would have been the first to cross the Atlantic under FAI rules. They didn't have much luck last year, but now they're at it again. The first launch should be tonight." [Slashdot]
Whereupon GreenCrackBaby (203293) on Wednesday August 06, @05:30PM (#6628811) (http://slashdot.org/) ...hits it on the head with:
So, how long until drug runners send little planes from Columbia to Florida? This gives me too many ideas...
Unto which missing000 (602285)
A potential terrorist device?
I can see it now. Our next military campaign will be to eradicate model airplane building materials from the rest of the globe.
I don't know about you folks, but thinking along these lines gives me the heebie-fscking-jeebies!
Earth to Anglican leaders... earth to anglican leaders....hello... do you copy?
1:12:29 AM comment [] trackback []
Anglican Leaders Warn of Global Schism Over Gay Bishop
Church leaders in Africa and Asia reacted angrily today to the confirmation of their first openly-gay bishop. By Marc Lacey. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
12:56:01 AM comment [] trackback []
Technology and Language
Some thoughts on the impact of technology on language. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
12:47:06 AM comment [] trackback []
Wednesday, August 06, 2003The sentiments expressed below by Jim McGee creep up on us all too easily in these days of blundering bureaucrats and power mongers at the Homeland Security Department, Transportation Safety Administration, and Ashcroft's Department of Justice. As Jim says:
My secret hope for blogs. The last few days in my aggregator have been discouraging. Today's nonsense was this from Gizmodo:
Airlines on the look out for gadgets. In light of the recent discovery a whole panoply of gadgets in al Qaeda hideouts that had been converted into weapons or bombs (like camera flashes that turned into stun guns), the Department of Homeland Security is issuing a warning to airports to be pay extra close attention to passengers with computer equipment [...] [Gizmodo]
Boing Boing is full of similar distressing items ranging from:
TSA adds "sarcasm" to list of aviation risks
[...]
to John Gilmore's recent experiences as a "suspected terrorist."
As I read these and other tidbits offered up through my aggregator and through news channels, I fear we are a civilization that has abandoned the capacity for rational thought. [...] [McGee's Musings]
Why even I -- stanchion of lighthearted optimisim, purveyor of pleasantries, and stalwart believer that the Truth shall overcome -- have days when I think most of the country has lost it's mind. But history says these are not the worst of times, and it does us good to remember how far we've come -- if for no other reason than to ensure we never go back.
From my friend Tyrone the attorney comes the following:
From "The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I," by Thomas Fleming -- what it was like at home after the United States entered WWII in 1917:Sen. Hiram Johnson of California led the fight to kill a one-paragraph clause in an omnibus appropriations bill that would have given the WhiteHouse and Department of War the power to censor all newspapers in the country. "Patriots" in Milwaukee used machine guns to stop patrons from seeing the German play "Wilhelm Tell." Lutheran schools and churches were raided and searched for pro-German material; former president Theodore Roosevelt called for a ban on teaching the German language in schools. In Lansing, Mich., a man named Powell was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for complaining about pressure to buy war bonds; the mayor of Lansing was sent to jail for contempt of court when he rose to defend Powell. At least 100 conscientious objectors, especially socialist political leaders, were sentenced to 10 to 30 years in federal penitentiaries; Mennonites were sent into empty fields and pursued by motorcyclists until they collapsed. Labor leader Eugene Debs, who supported the war, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for attacking "superpatriots." Citizens Protective League vigilantes loaded 1,200 union miners and dissidents into railroad cars and dropped them in New Mexico deserts -- "a lesson that the whole of America would do well to copy," said a Los Angeles Times editorial. The general counsel of the U.S. Post Office, William H. Lamar, closed several magazines, including The Nation, denouncing them for "pro-Germanism, pacifism and highbrowism." The Saturday Evening Post called on America to get rid of German-Americans and Irish-Americans, "the scum of the melting pot." Robert Goldstein, director of "Spirit of '76," a film that depicted 18th-century atrocities by British soldiers during the American revolution, was arrested and sentenced to prison for 10 years. Morris Ryskind was expelled from Columbia Journalism School for making fun of the school's president, Nicholas Murray Butler, who fired any faculty who spoke against the war. He went to Hollywood and wrote movies for the Marx Brothers. (and my personal favorite -- TF) Baseball fans at an exhibition game in Texas cheered Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers when he slid into second base spikes high and then pummeled the bleeding second baseman, Buck Herzog of the New York Giants, yelling, "German! German!"
Always remember, it could be worse. And it has been. Let's just be sure we don't go back. [b.cognosco]
My take: Although now long past, the absurdity of these reactions is reason enough to remain wary - very wary of what, where and whenever one's fellow man is capable of.
Not that I'm such a pessimist at all, I just wouldn't want to underestimate the human capacity for folly.
11:47:52 PM comment [] trackback []
silence today
Today is the anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb on a civilian population. Independent of your view of the rightness or wrongness of the act, it seems reasonable to reflect on the innocents and of what this... [tingilinde]
11:25:22 AM comment [] trackback []
Tuesday, August 05, 2003"I'm spending several days at the Vermont headquarters of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, studying a breakthrough in American politics." [Scripting News]
8:18:43 PM
comment [] trackback [] Tea
This story is about good teas and how to brew them. [kuro5hin.org]
8:14:21 PM
comment [] trackback [] Powered by Blood
Anonymous Coward writes "Bringing us one step closer to becoming centrally-controlled meatbots, Japanese scientists have developed a device that produces power ... [Slashdot]
5:16:52 AM
comment [] trackback [] Sunday, August 03, 2003This slashdot interview with lobbyist Reed Morgan is a great tutorial on how Washington works. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs]
11:47:57 PM
comment [] trackback [] Great firewall of Burma
"Burma's military regime has reluctantly dipped a toe in the cyber sea, but for most of the country's population owning a modem without permission means 15 years in jail." I guess I should stop complaining about my dial-up connection. [MetaFilter]
11:45:05 PM
comment [] trackback [] Saturday, August 02, 2003This was just too funny to not share - it's Zen Judaism!
[The Shifted Librarian]"Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as the wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with posture like that.
There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?
Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.
To practice Zen and the art of Jewish motorcycle maintenance, do the following: get rid of the motorcycle. What were you thinking?
The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao is not Jewish.
Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkes." [PeteBevin.com, from the book Zen Judaism by David M. Bader]
2:57:04 PM
comment [] trackback [] Student Challenges Basic Ideas of Time
A bold paper published in the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters seems set to change the way we think about the nature of time and its relationship to motion and classical and quantum mechanics. The work also appears to provide solutions to Zeno's paradoxes. (Via Kurzweilai.net. More inside...) [MetaFilter]
5:31:57 AM
comment [] trackback []
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