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My inner geek screams So Charles Murtaugh points out this article on Tech Central Station : I had an aunt and uncle who were Communists until the end. They saw any flaw in the capitalist sytem as fatal, and they saw hope in the most tired and discredited leaders and systems (my uncle wrote an exultant pamphlet about Yugoslavia under Tito). I am reminded of my aunt and uncle whenever I read an anti-Microsoft tirade... ...and I can't help but think the author, Arnold Kling, may have a point. My first computer was an Atari 800 with a cassette recorder for data storage. I learned what is now considered an evil programming language, Basic, so I could fiddle with the programs and games that Atari ran. My monsters in "Crush, Crumble, Chomp" were invincible. But I bought the thing to do word processing, because I didn't want to have to do another 1,000,000 words on a typewriter. Word processing is still #1 on my list of Reasons Why I Have a Computer, though Internet resear
Missing the point Theater Company Swaps "Hunchback" for "Bellringer" LONDON -- A British theater company has changed the name of its adaptation of the classic novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so it won't offend people with the disability. Oddsocks Productions swapped "hunchback" for "bellringer" because it did not want to upset people with scoliosis, producer Elli Mackenzie said Friday. The condition causes the spine to curve and, in extreme cases, the development of a hunchback. "We did not want to reinforce any stereotypes about Quasimodo's disability," said Mackenzie. Good grief, what do these clowns think the story is about? It's about the perception of the Hunchback as some sort of monster, as a stereotype, and overcoming that. It's not about overcoming the stereotype and persecution of a bellringer . This is right up there with tossing out "To Kill a Mockingbird" because in illustrating the wrongs of r
Being ridden out on a rail Amtrak - The little engine that couldn't "No one wants to see Amtrak die," Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Tuesday, echoing the consensus about a government-owned corporation that lost more than $1 billion last year. While not literally true, Mineta's statement reflects the political reality that Amtrak will no doubt survive this week's death threats, as it has survived so many before. And that's unfortunate. We need to let Amtrak die, so that others might live. Too late, we've bailed them out again. For this year. Next year....
Who knew.... You sometimes doubt yourself - who you are and what you can do. You're a curious person, with questions and concerns about the world. You go along with the crowd and aim to please others to your best ability. But when you finally discover what you're really capable of, you can do some serious ass kickin'! You're fast and furious, and you will always stick up for what you believe, and those who you care for. Not only that, but you're charming and charismatic, so you get along with people well, and others often look up to you. Now, where's that white rabbit chick....
And the show goes on Game Pirates Rule the Seize Warcraft III, the much-anticipated sequel from Blizzard Entertainment, hits store shelves on July 3. The series, which is the company's most recognizable franchise, hoped its rollout would create a big splash in an industry that thrives on glitz and glamour. That wasn't to be. While designers rushed to complete the game, groups of crackers around the world were trying to get their hands on Warcraft III before it was released. It's a regular dance between game companies and pirate groups. The bigger the game, the more intense the pressure on both sides. In this battle, the game companies almost never win. Three weeks before Warcraft III hit stores, it was cracked. I am reminded of The Day, back when Apple, Atari, and Commodore (oh my) ruled the computer universe, and IBM was just trying to get a PC off the ground. Several, er, acquaintances had vast collections of pirated software. "Demon dialers" would locate other
Political action committees in action From Best of the Web comes a link to the Daily Pundit Archives wherein William Quick reveals a letter-writing campaign organized by MoveOn , a group originally put together to oppose the Clinton impreachment. The focus of their current campaign? Stop any action against Iraq! Interesting. As BoW puts it: "Pro-Clinton, Pro-Saddam?"
Such a surprise NEA: Statement -- Statement of Bob Chase, President of the National Education Association on the U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Private School Tuition Vouchers The National Education Association pledges to continue to fight for children and public education - and oppose divisive and counterproductive proposals to divert energy, attention, and resources to private school tuition vouchers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris , the Cleveland private school voucher case. Just because vouchers may be legal in some circumstances doesn't make them a good idea. Except in this case they were arguing that children be forced to attend one of the worst schools in the nation. This is to their benefit how? For the last 30 years I've watched schools go straight down the tubes. Where is the "improvement" Chase cites in his statement? He writes that reading and match scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress have "
Driving is not a "right" Lifting Veil for Photo ID Goes Too Far, Driver Says MIAMI, June 26 -- A Muslim woman who says the state is violating her religious rights in demanding that she remove her veil for a driver's license photograph will be in court this week to try to regain her driving privileges. So don't drive. I'm in California. All through driver's ed it was drilled into me that driving is not a right, it's a privilege granted by law. You need to meet certain criteria, obey a set of laws, etc. In Florida, you are required to submit a "full-face" photo for your driver's license. This lady refuses, ergo no license. Where's the bad? Her attorneys are amusing. "Are we suggesting that it's O.K. for any police officer to stop her and require her to remove her veil just so she can be identified?" said Randall Marshall, legal director in the Miami office of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which is helping to r
This is our opinion...maybe Judge Stays Own 'Pledge' Ruling A day after he shocked the nation by declaring the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, a federal appeals court judge in San Francisco put his ruling on hold Thursday. What, he's surprised by the typhoon he and the others created? I can see him now, mumbling to himself, "I'm not gonna take the heat alone. Let's get all 11 of us to vote! Why in God's (unconstitutional) name did I have to write that god(oops)damn opinion?!?" I'm telling ya, this is one of the funnier political and judicial moments in US history. Ron Barrier of American Atheists Incorporated in New York endorsed Wednesday's court ruling and said atheists are standing firm in the midst of the decision's criticism. Barrier said the government needs to recognize that there are millions of Americans with no religious beliefs who still are patriots and citizens and taxpayers. And many millions more who hold strong relig
Why Ted Kennedy is an idiot After hearing of the Supreme Court decision unholding the Constitutionality of school vouchers, CNN reports and quotes Senator Ted Kennedy as saying: Private school vouchers may pass constitutional muster, but they fail the test when it comes to improving our nation's public schools. It's flat wrong to take scarce taxpayer dollars away from public schools and divert them to private schools. Despite the Court's ruling, vouchers are still bad policy for public schools, and Congress must not abandon its opposition to them. They're not "private school vouchers," Ted. They're vouchers that allow a parent to choose what school to send their child to. They're not an attempt to improve public schools, except in encouraging them to clean up their act and actually do the job of teaching, something they're horrible at right now. Of course, since this is a report from CNN, that's the major quote in the entire story. And I guess
European oddities persist Here about this one on Rush, and had to pass on that the European Union has been trying to regulate the size and shape of fruits and vegetables. However, these EU rules have not enforceable in England! For 29 years, they have kept Britain's cucumbers and bananas on the straight and narrow. But now two judges have decided that the b̻tes noires of Eurosceptics Рthe EU fruit and vegetable regulations Рhave no force in law. ... [W]hile officials in Brussels and London insist the rules are designed to protect consumers, the pedantic nature of some of them has provoked widespread derision. Rule 1677/88, for example, stipulates a cucumber can have a premium "Class One" classification only if it curves less than 10mm for every 10cm. Similar rules have applied on the shape of bananas since 1994. Lovely. And I thought US regs were, er, ridiculous.
YIPPEE!!! Court upholds school vouchers The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the use of taxpayer-paid school vouchers to send children to private schools, finding that a Cleveland program does not violate the Constitution’s church-state doctrine even though the majority of students use the vouchers to attend parochial schools. Of course, since this story is on MSNBC.com, it reeks of bias. Gads, it's not even subtle! "The 5-4 ruling led by the court's conservative majority...." How come nothing else is ever reported as being led by the "liberal majority"? Why does this matter? The implication is that this is purely a conservative vs. liberal matter, and if that's the case the matter isn't being resolved by the law but by political ideology. And if that's the case, which "side" is letting ideology lead the way, because that side isn't doing their job. "...lowers the figurative wall separating church and state..." How in the
The start of something...huge Best of the Web also pointed out a post by Den Beste, on his USS Clueless blog, an interpretation of President Bush's speech on the Middle East. In short: This wasn't a speech about peace; it was preparation for war. It wasn't a peace plan, it was a plan to cease efforts at peacemaking. It wasn't engagement by the US, it was a decision by the US to disengage. Den points out the seemingly endless parade of news "reports," opinion pieces, editorials, etc., that have said over and over that Bush can't do anything about Iraq until the Palestinian issue is settled. Nonsense! Remember the Gulf War? Saddam shot Scud missiles into Israel in an effort to distract Coalition efforts against him. The supposed purpose was to get Israel to retaliate directly, pissing off the rest of the Arab world, and starting a general bruhaha. Didn't work. The same thing is going on now. "No no," the opponents of action say. "Can'
Saudi tolerance Best of the Web pointed the way to this marvelous story: Riyadh Daily: MoC Bans "Star of David" Spoon The ministry of commerce prohibited the circulation of a spoon bearing "Star of David" given as a gift by a certain company when a customer buys a certain product. To this effect, the ministry issued a warning to the company not to distributed these give-away to all its branches all over the Kingdom, Al-Eqtisadiah Arabic newspaper reported yesterday. According to the paper, the ministry did not object to the product itself because it is good and safe for human consumption. The director of the ministry’s branch at Asir, Mohammad Abu Kharsha, told the paper that inspectors of commercial fraud in Asir withdrew children’s pistols also bearing "Star of David", the six-cornered star. Also withdrawn are types of sweets which has the same "Star of David" label. In the same development, the ministry’s inspectors in Jeddah confiscated a la
A lucid moment BBC News: Cuba backs permanent socialism After three days of speeches, the Cuban National Assembly has voted to amend the country's constitution, making its socialist system of government untouchable. "A return to the past is undesirable, unthinkable and impossible for our people. The revolution is invincible," Vice-President Carlos Lage told the assembly. Oh, such a suprise. The moment of lucidity, however, comes from the BBC's Havana "correspondent," and makes a beauty of a wrap for the report: The BBC's Daniel Schweimler in Havana says opposition in Cuba has been stifled and many said they felt pressured into signing the petition. ... Our correspondent says only the most committed sincerely believe that 99% of Cubans support Mr Castro's government, but it is clear that 99% do not feel they can oppose him either. See, lucid reality in the press. A thing of amazement!
On the passing of Michael Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Who's bad? Wake up and smell the coffee, folks. Michael Jackson is done. Ten years ago, Sony would not have been in a position to dream about bullying Jackson, then the biggest star in the universe. But really, didn't we all know he was done when "HIStory" was released in 1996? People should have noticed how resistant the supposed Jackson-loving masses were to that year's media blitz. Ouch! And that's one of the mildest comments....
A new SST? Japanese jet prototype to rival Concorde It looks like a winged javelin and would zip along at twice the speed of sound, with the supersonic boom reduced to the tolerable rumble of a Boeing 747. It would go twice the distance of the Concorde, seat three times the passengers, and cut emissions by 75 percent. Sound like science fiction? Japanese researchers say they're ready to prove it's not. What with the Airbus A380 and the Boeing Sonic Cruiser, the commercial air industry is everything the space shuttle "industry" is not. That is, alive and well.
Is this why my cameras collect dust? Kenneth Brower writes about Ansel Adams at 100 . I've never been a huge fan of Adams, preferring pictures with more people than just the photographer in them. And, voila, Brower sums it up as: His critics have conceded Adams his pre-eminence in the history of modern photography, his eloquent composition, his technical mastery of printmaking, his ingenious "zone system," and his vast influence as a teacher. But the consensus seems to be that Adams did all these things too well. Today in photography we are seeing a retreat from Adams-style classicism, a glorification of images that look accidental. Photographers with whom I work, men and women who spent years mastering their trade, are dismayed by this development. Morning is no longer the photographer's hour. The young editor or curator complains about the prettiness of low-angle light. Couldn't the photographer shoot more at noon, when the light flattens everything out? Where i
Yasir, we barely know ye.... David Brooks gives A Brief History of Yasir Arafat : Yasir Arafat claims that he was born in Jerusalem, but he was actually born in Cairo. He claims to belong to the prominent Jerusalem family of Husseini, but he is at best only distantly related to it. He claims that he turned down a chance to go to the University of Texas, but according to one biographer, the Palestinian-born writer Saïd K. Aburish, it is highly unlikely that he was ever accepted. He claims to have disabled ten Israeli armored personnel carriers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but Israel didn't even have ten APCs in the sector he was in. He claims to have made millions as a businessman in Kuwait, but this, too, is almost certainly untrue. Obviously, Arafat is a congenital liar. But there's more to it than that....
A report on Minority Report So, we went and saw "Minority Report" on Friday, opening night. And again last night, so we could actually see it this time. Friday night we were jammed into the front rows. It was an interesting view of Tom Cruise’s nose hairs. It was less than thrilling for seeing the movie. I liked it. I thought it was excellent. I would be ecstatic if the last minute (literally) could be cut off. The last minute is so awful that it could destroy the glow from the film, so I ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist. Spielberg has no equal working today, yet he constantly undercuts himself. Maybe he’s not cynical enough, maybe it’s a lack of faith in the material. I have a minority opinion that "A.I." was better than most believe. It starts coming undone by the end, though, because it won’t end. It keeps going and going and going and going and… You get the picture. Everything it shows is beautiful unto itself, but it keeps coming. Gads, just let it end, S
A new legal high Pledge Declared Unconstitutional SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - For the first time ever, a federal appeals court Wednesday declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of the words "under God" added by Congress in 1954. Oh, how we tremble before three letters. That someone can get so annoyed whenever someone declares a love for God and country, or even just God, is just amazing to me. That someone got so annoyed that they took the issue to court is beyond the pale. However , I find myself wondering what in the heck the Congress was doing in 1954, inserting that little "under God" phrase. Apparently the pledge was just peachy until then. The only reason for adding "under God" was to declare a religious affiliation. Adding that to the pledge stands on its face as an endorsement of a given religious belief. It's amazing it lasted this long.
Fool me once, shame on me.... Palestinians Set Elections for January 2003 JERICHO (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority under pressure from President Bush to dump Yasser Arafat as its leader, announced Wednesday that presidential elections will be held in mid-January. Pretty words, but how do you trust them? Arafat dismisses chunks of his council in a move toward reorganization, but weren't those men elected? (Maybe not, I really don't know.) Arafat was "elected" in January, 1996. I see cites that say his "term of office" ended some three years ago, so how legit is the claim that he is the "democratically elected" leader of Palestine? Then again, I haven't been able to find anything that outlines how elections are held within the PLO, or the Palestinian territories, etc. So, how was an election held, who organized it, etc.? In short, there's this claim that Arafat was elected, but what is the term of office? Was he elected for life? If so,
What's in a name.... I've noticed that OpinionJournal has taken to referring to our current military actions as World War IV. Turns out their using the notion of Eliot Cohen, who wrote World War IV , which has this straight-to-the-point quote: The enemy in this war is not "terrorism"--a distilled essence of evil, conducted by the real-world equivalents of J. K. Rowling's Lord Voldemort, Tolkien's Sauron or C. S. Lewis's White Witch--but militant Islam. The enemy has an ideology, and an hour spent surfing the Web will give the average citizen at least the kind of insights that he might have found during World Wars II and III by reading "Mein Kampf" or the writings of Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Those insights, of course, eluded those in the West who preferred--understandably, but dangerously--to define the problem as something more manageable, such as German resentment about the Versailles Treaty, an exaggerated form of Russian national interest, or pe
More "science" Study: Humans overtaxing the Earth - June 25, 2002 WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The consumption of forests, energy and land by humans is exceeding the rate at which Earth can replenish itself, according to research published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Wait, something's missing from this story. Ah, here it is: ...Wackernagel and his team found that in 1999, each person consumed an average of 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares). The global average was significantly lower than industrialized countries such as the United States and United Kingdom where 24 acres (9.6 hectares) and 13.3 acres (5.3 hectares), respectively, were consumed per person. I knew there had to be an anti-West slam in there somewhere! Never mind that the US exports much of what it produces, especially food (and in the case of food, the amount of farmland shrinks while food production increases). Adding that in will spoil the message, that this entire "ecological
Sick puppies A mother’s blessing to kill GAZA CITY, June 25 -- Mariam Farahat interrupted the somber greetings offered by a visitor. "I don’t want condolences, I want congratulations," she said. "I encouraged my son to sacrifice himself. It is a victory." She was speaking of her firstborn, Mohammed, 19, who was killed in March during a one-man raid on an Israeli settlement in the southern Gaza Strip. Armed with an assault rifle and grenades, Mohammed killed five students at a military school for religious Jews and wounded 23 other settlers at Gush Katif before he was gunned down. ... Farahat said Mohammed informed her beforehand that he was preparing an attack on a settlement. He disappeared for a while, but on the eve of the assault, he came to the house for lunch. Farahat fixed him kebab and cucumber salad. Mohammed told her he had inspected and photographed his target, and was ready to act. He said he dreamed of Paradise, where virgins are promised the martyr, s
Thieving bastards! News: Microsoft sued over 'shocking' Xbox ad French filmmaker Audrey Schebat filed suit in a Paris court claiming that a TV commercial for Microsoft's video game console was copied from her short film "Life," according to Toronto's Globe and Mail. Is Microsoft incapable of making anything original?!?
Oh, but they're not illegal, just undocumented.... 7 Killed, 31 Injured In Border Crash EL CAJON, Calif. -- Seven people were killed and 31 others injured when the wrong-way driver of a van filled with illegal immigrants struck four vehicles as he tried to avoid a border checkpoint in El Cajon, authorities said. Marvelous. One of the fatals was an elderly gentleman just driving down the road, minding his own business, when the van struck him head-on. Not that INS takes any of this seriously anymore. Obviously if we would just open our borders and let everyone in -- no checks, no procedures, etc. -- this problem, and others like it, would go away. Never mind all the new problems that would crop up....
NASA grounds space shuttle fleet MIAMI, June 25 -- NASA has grounded the U.S. space shuttle fleet indefinitely after finding small cracks in propellant lines on the main engines of two shuttles, U.S. space agency officials said on Tuesday. The discovery of the cracks on shuttles Atlantis and Discovery during recent inspections will delay the scheduled July 19 launch of shuttle Columbia, which was to carry the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and six others on a science mission. The youngest shuttle in the fleet (Endeavour) is eleven years old; the oldest (Columbia) is twenty-one. There is no replacement on the drawing board. There are "concepts" in the works. Expendable boosters, while based on decades old designs, have undergone such a series of "updates" as to become Something New. Not the shuttle.
Burn, baby, burn! Interesting opinion piece of our current fires: Born to be Wild? You don't read about fires on forestland owned by private timber companies, which have long used controlled burns and selective logging to protect their assets. Farmers have an intense interest in maintaining the health of their land. Property owners willingly spend gazillions planting trees, flowers and shrubbery--and then protecting it from the elements. Is public ownership of vast tracts of land the only way to arrange for the environmental amenities that we seek? Europe seems to get along without "wilderness" areas, though nobody would deny it has a great deal of environmental charm. What has always amazed me is the environmentalist assumption that given modern regulation, plus profit motives, lumber industries and the like are just out to destroy the source of their income, i.e. trees. The thought that maybe, just maybe, they see trees as a renewable resource and therefore manage that
OpinionJournal - Thinking Things Over So the epic trial ended with a government victory. But one that brings to mind Pyrrhus of Epirus, king of an ancient country in northwest Greece. Plutarch reports that after defeating the Romans in the battle of Asculum in 279 B.C. Pyrrhus said, "One more victory like this will be the end of me." His name lives on in the word for victory at too great a cost.
College freedom of expression Chas Rich at Sardonic Views has the complete tale of UCSD vs The Koala, a satirical campus newspaper that had the audacity to poke a little fun at a campus group known as Mecha. The UPI story he quotes starts with: The University of California at San Diego administration colluded with a Mexican-American student militant who threatened violence against a campus magazine's staffers in a failed bid to punish the disfavored publication, a series of e-mail messages revealed. ...and keeps getting better. Gads, I love this state (of insanity) called California!
Halleluiah, I can see the light! What revelations have led to this? Arafat ready to accept Clinton plan NABLUS, West Bank (CNN) -- At the end of a week in which Palestinians killed 31 Israelis in terror attacks, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told a newspaper he was ready to accept a proposal first made by U.S. President Bill Clinton as a framework for a Mideast peace settlement. ... Clinton's plan offered Palestinians control of most, but not all of the territory taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and called for Palestinians to scale back their demand for the right of return of refugees, a move Palestinian officials said earlier this week they were willing to make. Isn't this what many have been saying all along, that Arafat walked away from a deal that gave him something like 95% of what he was asking? Now it's good enough? What made the difference? Oh, maybe that even his supporters are saying he's useless ? Hmm, could be.... And this is just cynical: Arafat
Hollywood, gotta love it Harry Potter at the mercy of pirates? Seems that AOL/Time-Warner shipped an unknown quantity of "Harry Potter" DVD's without analog encryption, meaning that you can make clear, beautiful copies of the film, DVD to video tape. Digital encryption remained in place. And why would they do this? Jon Peddie, analyst at Tiburon, Calif.-based Jon Peddie Research, said the studios for now are spending substantially larger amounts of money lobbying Congress for new copy-protection laws and regulations than they are spending to install copy controls at the content level. "I am speculating that Hollywood’s rational for dumping millions of dollars into lobbying and soft money to influence Congress is viewed as a one-time expense, as opposed to an ongoing expense of paying for the encryption license for each and every movie they make," Peddie said. So all their customers are presumed guilty, and everyone gets to pay so they feel...Safe. Meanwhile, &qu
Go, Stevie, go! FUTURE TENSE / Spielberg returns to form with menacing, suspenseful 'Minority Report' In "Minority Report," Steven Spielberg has made the least sentimental film of his career -- and the shrewdest movie of the season so far. Creative energy and intelligence inform every frame. Nothing is left to chance. This is the kind of pure entertainment that, in its fullness and generosity, feels almost classic. My son and I see it tonight, and since we're both big Spielberg we're already halfway to loving it. Bias? Heavens, yes. Meanwhile, the New York Times review is a little more restrained, but still one of praise. And Desson Howe at the Washington Post is flat-out snooty, with the zinger, "Everyone's too busy shooting, firing, running away or cajoling someone for information to get down and act ." But I love Ann Hornaday's summary (also with the Washington Post): So where does "Minority Report" stand? As an adult summer m
The French roast of the town Berkeley ordinance would ban all but politically correct coffee Berkeley, a place passionate about coffee and progressive politics, could become the only city in the nation to ban coffee not grown with strict protections for workers and the environment. The proposed ban -- contained in an initiative crafted by a lawyer one year out of law school -- has gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, City Clerk Sherry Kelly announced Thursday. ... "When I'm drinking my coffee, I'd rather not be destroying the environment or exploiting workers," said Berkeley lawyer Rick Young, 36, who graduated last year from UC Berkeley's Boalt law school, where he wrote a paper on the legality of such a law. He turned in petitions containing about 3,000 signatures Monday. There's a reason.... No, scratch that. There are reasons why it's referred as the People's Republic of Berzerkley. The mayor's comments are love
Where there is smoke.... Robert X. Cringely from The Pulpit , on the many thefts of Microsoft: Also, Why Microsoft Keeps Getting Sued This is far from a new story line [MS's alleged theft of a new video compression technology]. 3Com claimed that Microsoft did much the same thing with OS/2 LAN Manager ("You made a mistake, you trusted us," said 3Com founder Bob Metcalfe, quoting an unnamed Microsoft executive.) Jerry Kaplan claimed Microsoft did exactly the same thing, stealing technology from Go Computer for its Windows for Pen Computing. Stac Electronics claimed that Microsoft stole disk compression technology from them in a similar manner, though in Stac's case, it isn't alleged: They took Microsoft to court and won. This is happening so often, I'd say there must be something to it. But I have to wonder why Microsoft would engage in such foolishness. They could have bought Burst.com at any point, and never even been able to detect a level change in Microsoft
And a view from abroad Arafat is only interested in saving himself Then there is Yasser Arafat and his circle of associates, who have suddenly discovered the virtues (theoretically at least) of democracy and reform. I know that I speak at a great distance from the field of struggle, and I also know all the arguments about the besieged Arafat as a potent symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli aggression, but I have come to a point where I think none of that has any meaning any more. Arafat is simply interested in saving himself. He has had almost 10 years of freedom to run a petty kingdom, and has succeeded essentially in bringing opprobrium and scorn on himself and most of his team. Why anyone for a moment believes that at this stage he is capable of anything different, or that his new streamlined cabinet (dominated by the same old faces of defeat and incompetence) is going to produce actual reform, simply defies reason. I never thought I'd ever agree with anything Edward
Effective leadership in action Palestinian Gunmen Kill 6 in Jewish Settlement JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen killed six Israelis, including a mother and three of her children, in a raid on a settlement in the West Bank on Thursday, hours after Yasser Arafat demanded an end to attacks on Israeli civilians. One can't help but observe the bravery of these "gunmen." I'm sure they were worred about the fierce resistance the children would put up. After all, they teach their own kids how to wear explosives.... And I can't help but notice, again, that Arafat is pointless. At best. At worse, he puts on a public face of condemnation while in the background he's planning all this shit. Either way, he's an asshole in need of...relocation.
Empires on the edge Dan Gillmor's reaction to Microsoft's stance of "no compromise": Microsoft leaves no doubt in blowing off judge's order ...We've made our deal with the feds, proclaimed the lawyers [of Microsoft]. We're not going to even consider a compromise. Of course they would say that. The deal with the Justice Department, plus the nine other states that went along, is one of the most remarkable government gifts to a lawbreaker since Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. At least Ford sincerely had the national interest in mind. All this energy, all this time, and all because a thuggish company was allowed to get away with theft so often for so long. Well, theft as far as I'm concerned. Theft of the base MS-DOS code, theft of the very nature of a GUI, theft of...oh, on and on. If laws involving the protection of legit intellectual property rights had been properly enforced, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. I am loathe to see a governmen
The future's so bright.... Wired 10.07: Citizen Plane That's what's so audacious about Vern Raburn's vision: He wants to give birth not just to a new plane but to an entirely new mode of air travel. Call it the on-demand airline. If Eclipse takes off, it will have changed air transportation and introduced the most innovative private plane since the Learjet first flew in 1963. The low price and operating costs will be unprecedented. If he can make this work, the possibilities are interesting. Certainly more so than high-speed trains in California [snort].
Loverly Public Protests NPR Link Policy People who'd like to link to NPR can do so easily by filling out the online form -- it asks for a linker's name, e-mail address, physical address, phone number, information about the linking site, how long the link will remain on the site, the "proposed wording of the link and accompanying text," the U.S. state in which the linking site is incorporated and if it's a commercial site. Of course, credit where credit due. A big round of applause for Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing for making this public , or at least blogging it out there. And even in this, the hypocrisy of NPR oozes out: It isn't only commercial activity that concerns NPR. Asked if a link from someone's noncommercial homepage would bother the company, Dvorkin [Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR ombudsman ] said: "It depends on your homepage -- what if you're an advocate for left-handed socialist diabetics? We wouldn't want to give support to advocacy groups.
"Version fatique"? Glenn Harlan Reynolds (aka, Instapundit ) over at Tech Central Station : TCS: Tech - 'Version Fatigue' I'm tired of learning how to do new things. Well, not really. But I've noticed that my tolerance for reading the manual and familiarizing myself with all the aspects of a new product or piece of software is much, much lower than it used to be. I find I've adopted the same attitude. At the moment, it's caused me to jump off the upgrade cycle. I'm relatively happy with Windows 2000, M$ Office 2000, and Corel WordPerfect Office 2000. All the XP and 2002 versions can just...wait. What I fail to understand is when a company adds a feature, maintains support for that feature, but won't let you use it anymore. For example, in previous versions of WordPerfect, I let the software number chapters in a manuscript. I could move an entire chapter to a different place, and the software would re-order all the numbers. (Neat little trick I
Empires Fall, the latest chapter Microsoft won’t back Sun product Just before closing arguments in its antitrust case, Microsoft delivered a broadside to one of its bitter software rivals, declaring Tuesday it will stop supporting Sun Microsystems' flagship product by 2004. Microsoft cited Sun's opposition in the case as the reason for the decision to remove support for Sun’s Java programming language from future versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.) "The decision to remove Microsoft's Java implementation was made because of Sun’s strategy of using the legal system to compete with Microsoft," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said in a statement. A Sun spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment. For a company that is so all-fired concerned about its customers, to the point of bolting other applications into its operating system for "customer convinience" -- and, coincidentally, co
Inflammatory, indeed So I'm driving into work this morning, listening to the local news station, when they talk with ABC correspondent Ann Compton (and if I misspell the name, tough). They're talking about the "latest round of violence" in the Mideast and what this means to the "peace process." So then Ann says that the latest Israeli response to murder-suicide bombers is "inflammatory," the sort of action that will inspire more murder-suicide bombers. (All right, she said just "suicide bombers," but that term is woefully inadequete.) "Inflammatory"?!?!?!? So according to this ABC correspondent, it's all the Israelis fault? Just makes you wanna scream. PS - There is no such thing as a "peace process." The sad fact is that in that neck of the woods, and probably the world 'round, peace comes from the barrel of a gun.
The heart of the matter Hollywood vs. the Internet Excellent piece of Mike Godwin, who distills the discussion over the DMCA and Hollings's "bill in progress" as: One way to understand the conflict between the Content Faction and the Tech Faction is to look at how they describe their customers. For the content industries, they’re "consumers." By contrast, the information technology companies talk about "users." If you see people as consumers, you control access to what you offer, and you do everything you can to prevent theft, for the same reason supermarkets have cameras by the door and bookstores have electronic theft detectors. Allowing people to take stuff for free is inconsistent with your business model. But if you see people as users, you want to give them more features and power at cheaper prices. The impulse to empower users was at the heart of the microcomputer revolution: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak wanted to put computing power into ordina
Brutal film So God finally allowed me to see "Black Hawk Down." What do I mean by that? When it was at the theatre, each and every time we were going something happened. Like what? Broken car, sick kid, dead grandmother--literally! The final blow was standing in line, all kids away elsewhere, free time to ourselves, no long lines, money in hand.... "Sorry, but the projector is broken. We hope to have it working for this evening's showing." I gave up and waited for the DVD, which I bought the day it came out. The curse continued for over a week, however, as I was unable to watch it. Now I have. E-gads. I liked the book. Bowden did an excellent job gathering together his sources, documenting each and every detail, and then writing a comprehensive tale that is easily read, and makes the sheer confusion at the time accessible. Kudos! Ridley Scott does the same with the film. Regretably, he does this at the expense of creating any single character who is memorable. I
A slight double standard Ruling Bans Disability Access Lawsuits WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court Monday unanimously ruled that punitive damages may not be awarded to people suing cities and government boards that do not accommodate the disabled with wheelchair ramps and other modifications. The court said boards and agencies that accept federal money can not be sued for punitive damages. They can face lawsuits, however, and be forced to pay actual damages and make changes in accommodations. So if you are a federal, state, or local agency you're protected, but if you're Joe Average Business man...watch out! Marvelous. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said that adding punitive damages in cases like this "could well be disastrous." He said recipients of federal funds probably would not agree "to exposure to such unorthodox and indeterminate liability." Again, marvelous. Everyone else can be made to pay through the nose, because the money lies in th
Depressing Salon.com Technology | The end of the revolution It is a sad story, in the end, this "taming of the Net." In "Ruling the Root," Mueller, with all the precision and economy of a masterful prosecuting attorney, demolishes the techno-libertarian myth of the Internet as a new space for human interaction that is uncontrollable and inherently independent. Despite the widespread belief that the Net is so decentralized and distributed as to be able to elude governments and even nuclear devastation, there is a central point of control -- the so-called "root." Sounds like fascinating reading.
I thought she was supposed to kick his butt Woman Accused of Cutting's Off Man's Buttocks BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A woman enraged at her boyfriend attacked him with a utility knife and cut off nearly all of his buttocks, leaving him near death on a dark, rural road, a prosecutor said Thursday. No comment.
Our honored allies... Saudi Broadcasts Promote Anti-Semitism, Martyrdom NEW YORK -- A television station backed by a Saudi prince has sparked outrage by broadcasting clips that show young children being taught to hate Jews -- referring to them as "apes and pigs" -- and embrace martyrdom. It gets "better"... During a May 7 episode of Muslim Woman Magazine, anchorwoman Doaa 'Amer asks her special guest, a 3-year-old girl named Basmallah, a series of questions the youngster quickly and calmly answers. "Are you familiar with the Jews?" Amer asks. The girl says yes, and says she does not like them "because…they’re apes and pigs." The girl says she learns this from the Quran. I doubt she's reading it directly, so some adult is giving her an, er, interesting interpretation. I love the description of the network: Widely watched Iqraa television is ART's effort to provide "a focused insight into the teachings of the Quran" to "
Ah, "science" in action.... BBC News | AMERICAS | Q&A: The US and climate change Why has the US refused to go along with international efforts? As the world's biggest polluter, no real dent in global warming can be made without the US. The US contains 4% of the world's population but produces about 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions. By comparison, Britain emits 3% - about the same as India which has 15 times as many people. ... The average American produces six tonnes of carbon dioxide, the average Briton three tonnes, a Chinese 0.7 tonnes and an Indian 0.25 tonnes. Oh my, how horrific of us. They also say.... US industry is largely dependent on coal and oil, the fuels that produce the most carbon dioxide. May I have nuclear energy? Please??? According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center , pre-industrial (1860) concentrations of carbon dioxide were 288 parts per million, while the figure for 2001 was 369.4ppm. (Read report here .) So that's...
Cue the "Jaws" Theme Tuning in to a deep sea monster Scientists have revealed a mysterious recording that they say could be the sound of a giant beast lurking in the depths of the ocean. Say, let us go for a swim....
Everything is all our fault Yes, we're bastards. West's pollution 'led to African droughts' Scientists in Australia and Canada say that pollution from western countries may have caused the droughts which ravaged Africa's Sahel region in the 1970s and 1980s. ... The research says that sulphur dioxide from factories in Europe and the United States has cooled the Northern Hemisphere, driving the tropical rain belt south - away from the Sahel. But if sulfur causes cooling, and carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) causes warming, do the two cancel? Which rules? Which is it? I am soooooo confused. Or maybe it's the "science" that's confused. At least one of the researchers has the courage to admit "[i]t's still speculative, and the model isn't very refined, but it's very interesting."
Overstated case? Technology Review - Power to the Players Suppose a Federal Judge was asked to determine whether books were protected by the First Amendment. Suppose instead of seeking testimony from noted literary scholars, examining the historical evolution of the novel, or surveying the range of content at the local bookstore, the judge choose four books, all within the same genre, to stand in for the medium as a whole. Better yet, suppose the judge didn't even read the books and instead simply listened to the prosecutor read excerpts aloud. Would this seem remotely adequate? Thus begins a June 7, 2002, artitcle posted on MIT Technology Review's online site. It refers to an April 19, 2002, finding by U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr., (related to Rush?) that video/computer games contain "no conveyance of ideas, expression or anything else that could possibly amoun to speech" and they therefore were not entitled to free speech protections under the First
From FlashBunny.org, a report on the Gun Show Loophole . Provided in the public interest. (And thanks to InstaPundit for pointing it out....)
Maybe it's the weather... So I'm reading a Matt Welch column on manufacturing dissent , and I find the name Barbara Kingsolver as one of them, so I get curious and check out her website (yawn) and that leads to Common Dreams - News & Views for the Progressive Community . Why is it considered "progressive" to assault any notion of western thought, philosophy, capitalism, etc.? I found one article that was critical of Arafat, but only after making sure you understood that the Israelis and the US were still all wrong. Others had little blurbs like: Mr Bush's Titanic War on Terror Will Eventually Sink Beneath the Waves Dirty Bombs, Blowback, and Imperial Projections Have You Had Your Bush Outrage This Week? Tainted Corporations Sing the Blues Is Henry Kissinger a War Criminal? Cheney's Mess Worth a Close Look Perverse Incentives of Terrorism War United Spies of America The Jihand Against 'Jihad' [my favorite title] So again I ask, why is all this cons
Good grief! In a previous post I noted a story coming out of the SF Bay Area about two kids being convicted of felony assault and battery for shooting a spitwad at another kid. Some juicy quotes included: Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the criminal prosecution "is another example of our society moving toward criminalizing kids. I don't know what purpose this serves." Macallair said the incident "sounds more like a typical schoolyard prank that resulted in an incident in which someone got hurt" as opposed to an intentional act of violence. Attorneys for the boys said today that they will appeal the convictions pending a June 6 sentencing hearing in Martinez. "What we have is an unfortunate accident with injury to a child, but what one time had been horseplay has now been, by the D.A., elevated to felony status, just on the basis of the unfortunate outcome of an accidental act" sai
You can just choke on the irony Hunger talks start with lobster and foie gras THE opening day of the UN World Food Summit, dedicated to combating global hunger, was marked yesterday by a sumptuous lunch for the 3,000 delegates served by 170 Italian waiters. The summit leaders were offered foie gras, lobster, and goose stuffed with olives. followed by fruit compote. The Rome lunch was a symbol, for Western leaders at least, of the extravagant and bloated bureaucracies that the aid business has created, and went some way towards explaining why so few of them were in attendance yesterday. I can't help but wonder that many places in the world today would be better off if the UN would just...go away. I loved this portion, too: A stream of limousines and police outriders escorted the leaders from the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a sprawling United Nations bureaucracy housed in the former Fascist Ministry for the African Empire near the Colosseum, to the l
Next? Activists Awarded Millions In Suit Against Police, FBI OAKLAND -- Two Earth First! activists have been awarded approximately $4.4 million by a federal jury in their suit against Oakland police and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. The verdicts and awards from civil juries stopped meaning anything to me when they blamed McDonalds for a lady spilling coffee on her lap, and thus awarded her millions (though the award was greatly reduced on appeal). Still, I continue to be amazed by police officers who feel compelled to manufacture evidence. The implication here is that someone attempted to murder two people, and that someone is still out and about.