Entries will be light for
Entries will be light for the next week. Time for a vacation.
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September 28, 2002
September 26, 2002
Questions for The Anti-Invasion crowd:
Cold Fury has some questions for those opposed to invading Iraq. Here’s one of them:
Do you truly believe that Saddam is no threat at all to the US and has no wish to attack us, given that he has attempted to assassinate a former US President, routinely launches SAM's against US aircraft who are enforcing the no-fly zone as agreed to in our peace treaty with him, and has made many aggressive and belligerent anti-US statements over the years, inflaming hatred for the US among his terrorist allies? Would you feel differently if Saddam had attempted to assassinate Gore, Carter, or Clinton instead of George H.W. Bush?
He makes some good points.
This is a curious marketing strategy:
"Forensic photographer Gary Knight listens to music on his iPod as he organizes CCBI’s crime scene photos."
(I'm at my desk in Roxbury playing the Junkie Chase from Superfly on my iPod. But no photos of dead bodies laying around here. Not today anyway.)
An Illusion:
This is a great optical illusion, along the lines of why the moon appears bigger at the horizion. I was skeptical, so I downloaded the image and took samples...
... that speak for themselves.
Money for nothing...
If you ever though about saving up to have your favorite band or comedian perform at a house party, check the prices below.
Best bargain: Lucinda Williams, $15,000.
Most overpriced: Destiny's Child, $250,000.
Here's a partial list, or check the Clear Channel site for more.
Adam Sandler $100k plus
Afroman $7 - 10k
Aimee Mann Band $15k
Allman Brothers Band $75k plus
Aretha Franklin $75k
Arlo Guthrie $7.5k
Art Garfunkel $25k
B-52's $75k
Barenaked Ladies $100k plus
BB King $50k
Beanie Siegel $20k
Beck $75k plus
Bill Cosby $100k
Bill Maher $25k
Billy Bob Thorton $25k
Billy Idol $50k
Bo Diddley $20k
Bob Dylan $75 - 100k
Bob Mould $7.5k
Bobcat Goldthwait $10k
Chris Rock $100k
Denis Leary $40k
Dennis Miller $50k
Destiny's Child $250k
Drew Carey $100k
Dropkick Murphys $15k
Garbage $30k
Gary Shandling $20k
James Brown $50k
James Taylor $60k
Jay Leno $75k
Jay Mohr $30 - 40k
Jay Z $75k
Lucinda Williams $15k
Ludacris` $60 - 70k
Naughty By Nature $12.5k
Nelly Furtado $50k
Pretenders $45k
Public Enemy $20k
Wierd Al Yankovic $20k
Wilco $25k
Victoria Jackson $5k
Village People $30k
September 25, 2002
Haunted by Ayn Rand:
If you’re interested (and some people apparently are) a guy on eBay is selling a paperback copy of Atlas Shrugged that he claims is haunted.
Other haunted items that he might sell include an alarm clock and other books… Macbeth, Tuesdays with Morrie, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. And, a Microsoft corkscrew.
Proof of paranormal energy is provided by “orbs” in photos of the items.
Si hoc signum legere potes...
...operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
(Revera linguam latinam vix cognovi.)
A three hour tour:
If you thought Cast Away was unrealistic, you may not believe this story of a 62 year old man, adrift for three months in the Pacific, who survived on rainwater, fish and seagulls.
He was originally sailing from Long Beach CA to Catalina Island, about a three hour trip, when the weather started getting rough and the tiny ship was tossed. The mast broke and three months later he was found 275 miles southwest of Costa Rica.
Economics trumps legislation:
John Dvorak says its all over for the “music industry.” They just don’t know it yet.
UPDATE: This Wired story underscores the point.
Page Update:
I've redone the blogroll (right) and links (left). Overkill maybe. Theft from other's pages definitely. I'll probably trim back the links I don't use over time, but in the meantime, fell free to borrow.
September 24, 2002
Winning at any cost:
As the Paul Pierce stabbing trial falls apart in an parade of obviously intimidated witnesses, the question to be asked is, does Marty Leppo or John Swomley know what’s going on here? What about Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree, who has expressed his support for the defendants and contributed his name to their defense?
Are these the kind of courtroom tactics he teaches his students at Harvard Law School?
Keeping ISP Logs:
An Australian Internet organization has agreed upon a code of conduct for ISPs to standardize rules for keeping logs for law enforcement subpoenas. The group has chosen to police itself rather then have the rules forced upon them by legislation.
Logs would be held for from 6 to 12 mounths depending on the type of data.
Electronic Frontiers Australia chairman Kim Heitman said he believed most ISPs with more than 100,000 subscribers would employ a full-time staff member to comply with requests by police and agencies for user data and intercepts
September 19, 2002
How to spot an Iraqi terrorist:
Has anyone else noticed that every adult male in Iraq seems to have the same moustache as Saddam Hussein?
September 12, 2002
And for Wednesday, September 11th, the winning New York lottery number is…
9-1-1. --- No Kidding.
It’s either due to tampering, otherworldly interference, or plain chance. Take your pick.
Whatever the cause, it is very weird.
This, though, is obviously random.
September 11, 2002
They’re already rolling:
Here’s how the crew of the USS Belleau Wood commemorated the time of the attacks:
September 10, 2002
The Iranian student movement:
Iranian students are calling for their countrymen and women to gather at major public squares in Tehran for a candlelight vigil and a moment of silence to honor the American lives lost on September 11th. Think of this and remember the Palestinians dancing in the street last year.
(link via Instapundit)
Just do your job:
The toll takers on the Massachusetts Turnpike have announced that on September 11th, at 8:46 they will not take tolls for one minute. I’m as respectful as the next guy, but this strikes me as just a little too self indulgent.
Isn’t it like saying that as a tribute, fast food restaurant workers will, for that minute, be a little less courteous to the public, or that nurses in the emergency room will not monitor their patients for one minute?
The toll takers should honor the moment by working twice as hard. Like these guys.
September 9, 2002
New Music:
Aimee Mann's new CD, Lost in Space is recommended. Also: Los Lobos' Good Morning Aztlán and the Dixie Chicks' Home.
The american war:
Here are two very good columns from two very different writers: Dave Barry and Christopher Hitchens.
Barry gets serious, going to Shanksville to reflect on the heroics of the passengers of flight 93 (al-Jazeera, for what it's worth, tells us now that the probable destination of the flight was the Capitol building.) They were the first to take up arms in this war in defense of the homeland.
Hitchens, with a clarity not often seen on the left points out that this war is a lopsided battle between modern rationality and just plain, old fashion evil. He takes Noam Chomsky to task (without mentioning his name) and notes that our war in Afganistan was conducted with a civility and rational precision that reflects our society, leaving our enemy in much better shape than before. Afghanistan, he observes, is “the first country in history to be bombed out of the Stone Age.”
September 5, 2002
A little publicity:
Quite a day over at the other site that I run, Guardroom.com. Glenn Reynolds was kind enough to give a mention on InstaPundit (which resulted in lots of hits) and on the other side, TalkLeft took note of the caution that I put up about ‘anonymous’ posting. All in all a big day for the site stats. It's all downhill from here.
Here are the...
Top 5 Cosmic Myths, from Space.com, and 1300 Science facts from FirstScience.com.
Fact #12 is a good one: If you could drive your car straight up you would arrive in space in just over an hour.
But then, would the horn work?
Another bullseye:
I hate to keep harping on Lileks’ column, but the fact that he turns this stuff out everyday at this quality continues to be a wonder. Today’s piece particularly hit a nerve. I’ve read a lot (too much!) of 911 material and lots of it has been very good and often moving, but nothing has put the incident into perspective as well as this.
September 4, 2002
Regime Change
It looks like Bush is going to Congress to make the case on Iraq. I also hope he does a Kennedy missile crisis type of broadcast to lay out the case to the American people. I think most people are behind an attack, ahem, “regime change,” but it doesn’t hurt to shore up support for something that could get messy.
Internationally, we have if not Britain, Tony Blair, and Kuwait on our side. I think as a decision is expressed and consultations made, most of the key allies will fall into place, the operative word being key. And of course Israel will be involved in the effort since as soon as we hit Bagdad, Hussein will hit Israel. But with what, is the question.
(Some links via InstaPundit)
Presidential stature
Lileks has a great line about the increasingly irrelevant Bill Clinton. Seeing him on TV or in a newspaper he says, “is like looking at a cover of Entertainment Weekly from 1999, featuring the stars of some high-flying but short-lived TV show.” Two guys, a girl, a pizza and a president.
And on the subject of how Clinton would have dealt with the terrorist attacks, this article was offered.
9-11 Digital archive
I was browsing through the 911 digital archive. There are lots of stories and photos on the site. As time passes, it doesn’t hurt to go back and look at this stuff.