"Fight Club" on the Packaging for Avery #8293

"Fight Club" on the Packaging for Avery #8293

Weblogger Sean Bonner phonecammed a funny discovery in the laser-printable-label aisle at Staples today -- the "sample address" on the packaging for Avery #8293 is addressed to Brad Pitt's character in the movie Fight Club

...More

(boingboing.net)

Flickr Adds Creative Commons Licenses

Flickr Adds Creative Commons Licenses

Flickr has just added Creative Commons licenses to the photos you upload and share...More

(boingboing.net)

Interview of the President by Radio and Television Ireland

Interview of the President by Radio and Television Ireland

The interview between non-White House Press Corps journalist, Carole Coleman and President Bush...More

(whitehouse.gov)

BBC Opening Up Archive to Public

BBC Opening Up Archive to Public

The BBC has submitted its Charter Renewal documents to the UK Government, outlining its plans for the next ten years. It's a long and comprehensive document, and most excitingly, it describes a free and open Creative Archive intended to provide Britons with access to the material in the BBC's vaults for free viewing, remixing and reuse.

Imagine being able to view and listen -- and even download and own -- extracts from the world's largest television and radio archive.

53% of internet users download content for their own compilations 55. For the first time, the BBC will open up its treasure chest of programmes to the public who own it and make its contents available to individuals and to families for learning, for creativity and for pleasure. Two-thirds of current and prospective broadband users say they are interested in the Creative Archive service.

The BBC Creative Archive will establish a pool of high-quality content which can be legally drawn on by collectors, enthusiasts, artists, musicians, students, teachers and many others, who can search and use this material non-commercially. And where exciting new works and products are made using this material, we will showcase them on BBC services.

Initially we will release factual material, beginning with extracts from natural history programmes. As demand grows, we are committed to extending the Creative Archive across all areas of our output.

...More

(boingboing.net)

Apple Previews Mac OS X Server 'Tiger'

Apple Previews Mac OS X Server 'Tiger'

Apple® today previewed Mac OS® X Server version 10.4 "Tiger," the next major release of Apple's award-winning, UNIX-based server operating system that makes it easy to deploy popular open source solutions for Mac®, Windows and Linux clients. The fifth major release of Mac OS X Server, Tiger Server continues Apple's blazing pace of innovation to deliver over 200 new features including native support for 64-bit applications, ideal for high performance computing; Weblog Server that makes hosting a weblog as simple as checking a box; iChat Server to deploy private, encrypted communications within an organization; and migration tools to make it easy to upgrade from legacy Windows servers to Mac OS X Server.

"With more than 200 new features, Tiger Server is the best release of Mac OS X Server ever," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Tiger Server combines over 100 of the best solutions from the open source world with Apple's legendary ease-of-use to create the easiest way to deploy powerful open source server solutions."

For the first time, Tiger Server can natively run 64-bit processes for database, engineering and scientific applications to take advantage of the increased performance unleashed when accessing massive amounts of memory while still running side-by-side with existing 32-bit applications. Combined with Apple's Xserve® G5 server hardware, Tiger Server offers an affordable, easy-to-manage solution for high performance computing...More

(Yahoo! News)

Microsoft Open to Open Source

Microsoft Open to Open Source

Microsoft Corp. says it is looking to turn over more of its programs to open-source software developers, playing a greater role in a process that the Redmond company has criticized strongly at times in the past.

Money-makers like the company's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite aren't on the table -- or anywhere near it.

But the company has so far released two software-development tools to the open-source community, and it wants to continue the practice, a Microsoft platform manager told an industry group this week.

"There's more of that on the way," said Microsoft's Stephen Walli, who oversaw the process of releasing those tools under open-source licenses. "And it's not just about developer tools. There's other things that we can be looking at when you actually look at the breadth of source code that we have, the breadth of software that we have that isn't actually core (to Microsoft's) revenue stream."...More

(seattlepi.com)

Bush Bargains Badly

Bush Bargains Badly

This week, after 20 months of doing nothing about North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons, President Bush finally put a proposal—a set of incentives for disarmament—on the negotiating table. The remarkable thing is, the deal is practically identical to the accord that President Clinton signed with Pyongyang in 1994—an accord that Bush condemned and scuttled from the moment he took over the White House.

It's good that Bush has at last realized that diplomacy is the only way to solve the crisis. But he's come a bit late to this epiphany. North Korea has greatly strengthened its hand in the interim. Two years ago, its 8,000 fuel rods were padlocked under international inspection. Now, they've been reprocessed into bomb-grade plutonium...More

(Slate)

This Blows Away Lollapalooza

This Blows Away Lollapalooza

Billboard has the lowdown on the Little Steven's International Underground Garage Festival that will be held at NYC's Randall's Island on August 14th. For a mere $20 ($25 the day of the show) you get Iggy and the Stooges, the Strokes, the New York Dolls, Bo Diddley, Raveonettes, the Pretty Things, the Mooney Suzuki, the Romantics, the Chesterfield Kings, the Fuzztones, The Shazam, the Electric Prunes, the Contrast, Cocktail Strippers, the High Dials, the Chains, Flaming Sideburns and more.

...More

(coolfer.com)

Apple's 30 Inch Aluminum Displays

Apple's 30 Inch Aluminum Displays

Apple has announced new aluminim displays to match their G5 PowerMacs. Along with the 20-inch ($1299) and the 23-inch ($1999), a new 30-inch mega-display has been announced that will be driven by a customer dual-DVI video card that will cost $600. I'll get you pictures as soon as I can.

The 30-inch display will cost $3299 without the necessary $600 video card and will be available in August. Unconfirmed resolution is 2560 x 1600.

Looks like the video card is from Nvidia, which would explain that announcement earlier today about SLI, I bet.

Mac OSX Tiger (10.4) will ship in the first half of 2005 and will be native 64 bit instead of the hinky 64/32 bit system from before.

Apple is adopting the MPEG4 .h264 Hi-Definition DVD spec in the Quicktime for Tiger.

Additional support in iChat for 3 more simultaneous video chats, and up to 10 voice simultaneous voice chats.

...More

(gizmodo.com)

Credit Cards Enter the Micropayment Game

Credit Cards Enter the Micropayment Game

If your image of a typical video-game arcade customer is a teenager emptying quarter-filled pockets into a machine to do battle with space aliens, think again. Today's high-tech games increasingly appeal to an older set. And soon those customers will be able to use credit or debit cards as a payment option.

These so-called "micropayments" are gaining currency on the Internet as a way to perform small-ticket transactions such as downloading a song or accessing other online content.

But most micropayment systems require customers to establish prepaid accounts, to get around the hassle and transactional costs of entering card information for each purchase.

Now, however, one player in the micropayments market, Peppercoin Inc., has come up with a system that also facilitates the more familiar way of buying things — by credit or debit card at the time of service.

One early customer is Incredible Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of coin-operated video games like the Golden Tee golf game. It has selected Peppercoin 2.0 to process credit card transactions in its future lineup of games, which will be able to take credit card swipes...More

(Yahoo! News)

Mashup of the Week

Mashup of the Week

Television + Public Enemy = Mashup...More

(coolfer.com)

Disney Debuts New Safer, Quieter and More Environmentally Friendly Fireworks Technology

Disney Debuts New Safer, Quieter and More Environmentally Friendly Fireworks Technology

After years of research and testing, Walt Disney Imagineering has perfected a new innovation in fireworks launch technology, marking the pyrotechnic industry's first major breakthrough in decades.
The new technology uses compressed air to lift fireworks, virtually eliminating the need for smoke-producing black powder and other materials at launch, significantly reducing ground-level smoke and noise while continuing to provide a highly entertaining show. The air launch system debuted when the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, recently unveiled its new summer fireworks show, "Disney's Imagine -- a Fantasy in the Sky."

"The development of this cutting-edge science is the result of many years of hard work, testing and a long-term initiative," said Walt Disney Imagineering Chief Scientist Dr. Ben Schwegler. "We are proud to be pioneering this innovative and beneficial technology."...More

(Yahoo! News)

Will RFID Spark the Next Revolution in Retailing?

Will RFID Spark the Next Revolution in Retailing?

Shoppers leaving Wal-Mart Stores these days are used to long check-out lines. In a few years, however, those lines well might be history. Wal-Mart is introducing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to its products - small devices that emit radio waves containing information about product size, price, etc. Though this scenario is still far in the future, such tags could let the world's largest retailer add up the prices of purchased goods as shoppers leave the store and deduct the tab directly from their accounts. Whether such futuristic practices materialize or not, one thing is certain: RFID has begun to acquire a buzz that positions it as the next revolution in the world of retailing.

How real is this revolution? And what does it mean for retailers and customers? Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that RFID is a potentially powerful technology that several organizations - including retailers and government organizations - are seriously looking at implementing to ramp up the efficiency of their supply chains. While companies like Wal-Mart and Target have already announced plans to roll out RFID programs, others are waiting in the wings. Still, several hurdles remain. One big question is whether the benefits will be immediate or be spread out years into the future. “There’s a bandwagon here and a lot of players say RFID is on the brink of having a big impact,” says Morris A. Cohen, co-director of Wharton’s Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management. “But before that, there are technical challenges to overcome.”

Fans say that RFID technology promises to revolutionize the supply chain through real-time item tracking. Its goal is to keep goods on the shelves, garner more efficiency through better inventory management, enhance safety through smart recalls and cut theft, known as "shrink" among retailers. This is made possible by the fact that when RFID tags emit radio waves, that information is absorbed by a reader, which can then compile and share it with a company's enterprise software. Suppliers can benefit from real-time inventory management that keeps goods on the shelf. Consumers may not immediately see a lot of major changes, but they would certainly benefit from better in-stock levels...More

(Wharton)

Transparent Tiny Meshing Access-Point

Transparent Tiny Meshing Access-Point

The Meshcube is a tiny, kit-built meshing WiFi (802.11a/b/g) access-point. It's kinda pricey (€199 and up), but it looks great and meshing networks are genuinely cool.

...More

(boingboing.net)

A Brief History of iPod

A Brief History of iPod

As the pace and importance of iPod announcements have accelerated in recent days, iPodlounge has taken this opportunity to assemble an "instant expert" guide to the history of Apple's popular device. We'll be updating this piece with additional details, formatting and graphics over the next week, so keep visiting this page if you'd like to learn more about the iPod's short but impressive evolution.

...More

(ipodlounge.com)

The Art of Moira Hahn

The Art of Moira Hahn

Gorgeous work by Moira Hahn...More

(moirahahn.com)

The Woman Who is Taking on Wal-Mart

The Woman Who is Taking on Wal-Mart

When Betty Dukes signed on as a check-out counter assistant at Wal-Mart, the world's biggest supermarket company, it was for five dollars an hour and the chance of moving up through the company ranks. 'I thought I'd move forward quickly. I thought I'd get promoted and get good pay rises,' she says.

She got neither. Instead she got the last thing she was looking for: a starring role in an $8 billion legal battle that could change the face of corporate America and earn her a reputation as the new Erin Brockovich.

Last week a San Francisco judge ruled that Dukes and 1.5 million current and former employees at Wal-Mart could proceed with a lawsuit alleging that the company discriminated against female employees, bypassing them for promotion and paying them less than their male counterparts. It is the largest civil rights case in US history.

'Am I scared of what we are taking on? Fear can hold anyone back - but not me,' says Dukes, who has worked at a Wal-Mart in Pittsburg, California, since 1994. 'The way I see it Wal-Mart is an American company and I'm an American who is protected by the laws of my country, which state I have the right to excel in my job, regardless of gender, race or financial status.'

It would be tempting to describe the battle between Duke and her co-workers and Wal-Mart as David versus Goliath but that would be underestimating the gulf in resources between the two sides. In one corner stand some of the lowest paid, least protected workers in America. In the other corner stands Wal-Mart, an American institution with a million employees, an annual turnover of $254bn and profits of $8bn.

Legend has it that Wal-Mart expanded from a small-town operation to a global conglomerate - it now owns the British supermarket Asda, as well as 3,500 US stores - thanks to the austere but savvy business practices of its founder Sam Walton, the so-called working man's retailer. But, according to lawyers acting for Dukes and her co-workers, the company's expansion was achieved at the expense of its employees, especially women...More

(The Guardian)

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Tops North American Box Office: $21.96 Million

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Tops North American Box Office: $21.96 Million

Michael Moore's red-hot documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" earned more in its first three days of release across North America than his Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine" did in its entire run, the film's distributors said on Sunday.

"Fahrenheit 9/11," in which Moore takes aim at U.S. President George W. Bush, and the war in Iraq, opened at No. 1 after selling about $21.8 million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada since June 25.

The film opened in two theaters in New York on Wednesday to help build even more media buzz before expanding to a relatively modest 868 theaters two days later. (In contrast, most of the other movies in the top five were playing in more than 2,500 theaters each.)

Including the sales from the head start in New York, the film's total stands at $21.96 million. Moore's previous movie, "Bowling for Columbine," grossed about $21.5 million during its nine-month run, during which it peaked at about 250 theaters, according to Moore.

"This is a testament to Michael Moore. His voice resonates across the country in what I think we can all now fairly describe as America's movie," said Tom Ortenberg, the president of distribution at Lions Gate Films, which backed the movie...More

(Netscape News w/CNN)

A New Terror Threat

A New Terror Threat

As the July 4 holiday approaches, Bush Administration officials are bombarding the nation's police, fire, emergency and corporate-security offices with another round of terrorism warnings. Although there are no plans to raise the threat level from yellow to orange, a senior Justice Department official says, "there's very serious intelligence that's corroborated, that's multiple sourced, that indicates that al-Qaeda is intent on hitting us and hitting us hard this year." The official concedes, however, that "we don't have specific information."

Along with this now familiar general warning, the FBI has introduced the specter of a new terrorism threat: booby-trapped beer coolers. A lightly classified bulletin sent to 18,000 state and local agencies last week advised local authorities to look out for plastic-foam containers, inner tubes and other waterborne flotsam commonly seen around marinas that could be rigged to blow up on contact. Also, the bulletin warned, terrorists might attach bombs to buoys. FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials say no such devices have actually been discovered, nor is there any current intelligence that terrorists are hatching plots involving floating bombs. But some officials believe al-Qaeda may be focusing on harbors and shipping channels in an effort to replicate the success of the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in the port of Aden, in which suicide bombers used a small launch laden with explosives to rip a 40-ft. hole in the warship's hull, killing 17 sailors...More

(time.com)

Don't Believe the Hype? Check out the facts

Don't Believe the Hype? Check out the facts

Factcheck.org gives a nonpartial view on politics...More

(factcheck.org)

Time's 50 Best Web Sites

Time's 50 Best Web Sites

Some really interesting sites on here, alot that I haven't heard about...More

(time.com)

Ethical Hacking Is No Oxymoron

Ethical Hacking Is No Oxymoron

Sporting long sideburns, a bushy goatee and black baseball cap, instructor Ralph Echemendia has a class of 15 buttoned-down corporate, academic and military leaders spellbound. The lesson: hacking.

The students huddled over laptops at a Los Angeles-area college have paid nearly $4,000 to attend "Hacker College," a computer boot camp designed to show how people will try to break into network systems -- and how they will succeed.

"It's an amazing thing how insecure the big corporations are," Echemendia said during a break in the weeklong seminar. "It's just amazing how easy it is."...More

(Yahoo! News)

Perfect Beer Pouring Device

Perfect Beer Pouring Device

A Caledonian University student claims he has made an important breakthrough in how to pour "the perfect pint" during Euro 2004.

David Stevenson, from Helensburgh, said his device is "fool-proof" and enables football fans to watch games without worrying about pouring problems.

The Homer beer pourer was one of 60 designs on display during the university's Product Design Week.

Students were asked to create a product "from the inside, out"....More

(BBC News)

Skype Project to Dial Real Phone Numbers

Skype Project to Dial Real Phone Numbers

I just spent nearly ten minutes on the phone to Paris, at a cost of about 10 pence. Using Skype, dialling a Paris landline number, that is. Any Skype user will tell you, you can't do that. You can only dial other Skype users. Well, not any more. OK, so it wasn't that secret: Niklas Zennstrom announced his plans for SkypeOut, which makes this possible, at VON Europe a couple of weeks back. But it wasn't released with much ballyhoo: so it is a surprise to find that if you download the latest version of Skype today, you'll get an extra feature on your screen; beta SkypeOut is there, and it works.

This means that mobile users can use Skype from public hotspots to place all their business calls, not just calls to other Skype users.

By the way, don't bother using the Skype "check for updates" option; it will tell you you have the latest version. You don't if you don't see the "dial" option on the home screen. Download again!

Really, Skype is an Instant Messenger - like MSN and AIM and YM - but instead of doing typewritten chat with voice as an optional extra, it does voice as its main function. At a point in history when Yahoo! appears to be throwing the plot away by abandoning its YM for corporate customers, Skype has expanded its offering...More

(The Register)

Fahrenheit 9/11 Doing REALLY WELL

Fahrenheit 9/11 Doing REALLY WELL

Fahrenheit 9/11 banked $8,200,000, pretty darn good...More

(boxofficemojo.com)

A Corporation That Breaks the Greed Mold

A Corporation That Breaks the Greed Mold

The bottom-line dictates that wages and benefits be slashed and that offshoring be pursued with a vengeance. It's not personal, just business.

Do big time CEOs -- no matter how compassionate and cuddly they might be personally -- have to be SOBs on the job?

Yes, says the conventional wisdom of greater CorporateWorld. The bottom-line dictates that wages and benefits be slashed and that offshoring be pursued with a vengeance. It's not personal, just business. "Look Ye to Wal-mart," boom the Market Gods, directing CEOs to follow the anti-labor, low-wage, no benefit, 'move it all to China' ethic of this giant. The gods decree that no one can out-compete Wal-Mart, so best to imitate the beast.

Apparently, Jim Sinegal has been going to the wrong church. He's CEO of Costco, the profitable warehouse club retailer that's fast growing across the country. He takes a shockingly heretical view of his job, boasting of his company's fair treatment of employees: "We pay much better than Wal-Mart," Sinegal says. "That's not altruism. It's good business."...More

(alternet.org)

Wal-Mart for Beginners: The king of big-box retailing fleeces the public to the tune of one billion dollars, Good Jobs First reports

Wal-Mart for Beginners: The king of big-box retailing fleeces the public to the tune of one billion dollars, Good Jobs First reports

Faster than an in-store price change,
more powerful than its under-funded opponents,
able to leap environmental regulations in a single bound...
Look, off in the distance!
It's a new hospital!
It's a new school!
No, it's a Super Store!"
--with apologies to "Superman"

San Francisco - June 22 -- Associated Press - A federal judge... in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has approved class-action status for a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores... [that] could represent as many as 1.6 million women who work, or formerly worked, at Wal-Mart's stores since 1998; this makes the suit the nation's largest class-action case. The lawsuit accuses Wal-Mart of paying women workers less than men for comparable jobs. It also alleges that the retailer overlooked women for key promotions.

Some swear by the low prices; big-box-ophiles maintain there will be jobs and prosperity a plenty; stressed out City Councilpersons and beleaguered Boards of Supervisors hope tax revenues will revitalize their cash-strapped communities.

For critics, it is unbridled capitalism running amuck...More

(workingforchange.com)

Syrian Liberalization Hits Internet Wall

Syrian Liberalization Hits Internet Wall

When he downloaded some material on Syria and emailed it to his friends, Abdel Rahman al-Shaghouri did not think he would end up in prison.

Al-Shaghouri, 32, already in prison since February 2003 for his "offense," was sentenced this week to two-and-a-half years imprisonment by the security court.

He was held guilty of "disseminating false and exaggerated news that saps the morale of the nation." He cannot appeal against the sentence.

The articles he downloaded from the site This is Syria were found by the authorities to contain "ideas and views opposed to the system of government in Syria." The Human Rights Association of Syria has called for the immediate release of Shaghouri, and condemned his imprisonment as "a dangerous precedent against Internet users, and another step backwards." The association called on interior minister Ali Hammoud "not to ratify the verdict of the court and release Shaghouri and all political detainees in Syria." Amnesty International has described the trial as "grossly unfair" and highlighted the cases of other men held on similar charges. Brothers Muhammed Qutaysh and Haytham Qutaysh, and Yahia al-Aws face trial in August on charges of "sending false information abroad to an electronic newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates." They also face charges of "receiving secret information on behalf of a foreign state which threatens the security of Syria." A fourth detainee, student Masoud Hamid, is in prison for "unlawful" use of the Internet after he posted photographs of a Kurdish demonstration in Damascus on a website. Amnesty says he is being held in solitary confinement...More

(antiwar.com)

Bill Gates has a Blog

Bill Gates has a Blog

Bill Gates has a reputation for coming late to the party, then making a big splash when he arrives.
That's what happened after the Microsoft chairman realized the potential of the Internet. And it may happen again if he starts his personal Web log.

Yes, the world's richest man may start his own blog, one of those online diaries that have been the rage among techies for the past three or four years.

Bill's blog won't be all business, either. He's expected to share personal details such as tidbits from recent vacations, according to tech pundit Mary Jo Foley's Microsoft Watch newsletter. Citing unnamed sources, she reported yesterday that Gates is about to start blogging "real soon now."

Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray would not confirm the story, but left open the possibility, saying, "Bill would love to do his own blog at some point in the future, time permitting."

Murray noted that Gates talked up blogging at gathering of executives in Redmond last month...More

(Seattle Times)

WiMax in the Wings

WiMax in the Wings

A key electronics industry group has approved a significant standard for wireless broadband specifications known as "WiMax," giving a boost to a technology proclaimed as a breakthrough for cheap high-speed Internet access.

WiMax is essentially radio technology that promises to deliver two-way Internet access at speeds of up to 75 megabits per second at long range. Its backers claim that WiMax can transmit data up to 30 miles between broadcast towers and can blanket areas more than a mile in radius with bandwidth that exceeds current DSL and cable broadband capabilities.

As a result, some believe that it could slash the cost of bringing broadband to remote areas and potentially open the doors to new broadband competition, leading to lower prices and faster consumer adoption.

In a campaign speech Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry sang the praises of wireless broadband as a fix for the anemic state of the country's Internet fabric, which lags other developed nations such as South Korea. But the technology is still in the early test stage, and many of its claims have yet to be proven in real applications...More

(News.com)

Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

President Bush wants to return to the moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space.

Edwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors.

"It's not new physics — nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up."

Edwards is not just some guy with an idea. He's head of the space elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont, W.Va. NASA already has given it more than $500,000 to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more.

"A lot of people at NASA are excited about the idea," said Robert Casanova, director of the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts in Atlanta...More

(Yahoo! News)

Paper Placemats

Paper Placemats

Art placemats in book form.
“40 paper placemats from 40 contributors, bound on one side with glue. You can rip out each placemat and use it! Conceived as a public art project, J&L (the publisher) will be distributing free copies of these placemats to diners across the United States. Additional copies will be sold domestically and internationally in bookstores.”. Limited edition of 2000. Softcover, 40 pages, full color, 9.7" x 13.2", $25. Not available at Amazon.

...More

(mocoloco.com)

Friendly Dog Prevents Killing Spree?

Friendly Dog Prevents Killing Spree?

A Canadian man, driving a car packed with weapons and ammunition, was intent on killing as many people as possible in a Toronto neighborhood but gave up the plan at the last minute when he encountered a friendly dog, police said on Thursday.

The middle-aged man, who police said was mentally disturbed, had planned to carry out the shooting spree on Wednesday to ensure he would be put in jail permanently, Toronto police said.

He had set himself up in an east-end park to load his weapons and then planned to drive around shooting. He later told police that a dog then approached and started playing with him.

The encounter melted the man's heart, and he then went in search of police to give himself up, police said.

"He happens to be a pet lover, and decided that since there was such a nice dog in the area, that people were too nice and he wasn't going to carry out his plan," Detective Nick Ashley told reporters...More

(Yahoo! News)

Who is Barack Obama?

Who is Barack Obama?

Who is Barack Obama and why is everybody talking about him?

Well, not quite everybody -- yet. But if there is a media darling in this year's election, it is the 42-year-old Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. Obama has been the subject of sympathetic profiles in The New Yorker and The New Republic and more national attention is on its way. Already there's speculation that he might be the first African-American president of the United States -- and he's only a state senator.

If you wanted to be cynical, you would accuse journalists of falling for the too-perfect story line about the biracial son of a Kenyan father and an American mother. His dad disappears from his life when he is 2. He graduates from Columbia University and then works as a community organizer. He goes to Harvard Law School where he's the first black president of the law review.

He gets elected to the Illinois state Senate, then loses a primary for a U.S. House seat. He stays at it, reaches for the big time and wins a sweeping victory in this year's Senate primary. He gets a big vote even in white wards where what's left of the legendary Democratic machine was, in theory at least, pushing for a candidate of its own.

Oh, yes, and he's a dad with two kids, ages 5 and 3. When you sit down with him, his kids are the first thing he wants to talk about.

But Obama would not be getting the ink and the swoons with only a great bio, or just by being smart. Brainy guys often lose in politics. His is a political mind that can incorporate the opposition's best arguments into his own -- by way of answering them -- and then take clear and unequivocal positions.

Obama is someone who can make staunchly progressive positions sound moderate by being quietly reasonable. And he breaks with his own side's conventional wisdom not in search of a phony bipartisanship, but to advance a stronger critique of the status quo...More

(workingforchange.com)

Fahrenheit 9/11 Sets US Alight

Fahrenheit 9/11 Sets US Alight

For the second time in a week, the liberals of New York stood in line for their cultural sustenance.
On Monday night they waited to snatch the first autographed copies of the memoirs of the former Democratic president Bill Clinton.

On Wednesday they went to watch Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, a film aimed, at least in part, at ending the incumbency of of the current Republican president, George Bush.

The film officially opens today in 900 theatres - three times as many as for Mr Moore's previous film, the Academy Award-winning Bowling for Columbine. But New Yorkers got an early sight, along with premiere-goers in Washington DC.

What was billed as the launch of a film, however, looked more like the beginning of a political campaign.

Both left and right encouraged their supporters to write, email and fund-raise to either talk up or rubbish the movie, while the Democrats and the White House are wondering respectively how to capitalise on the film or minimise its impact.

The Washington showing was attended by several prominent Congress figures, while in New York activists of the Democratic National Committee collected money outside the cinema, from which people emerged after seeing the film saying they were moved to tears. The Bush administration had heated discussions on how to respond, with those who advocated a blitz of refutations losing to others who believed it best to ignore the film rather than give it credibility.

Like Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, which energised the right, the disputes reveal a huge overlap between politics and culture in this election year...More

(The Guardian)

iChat AV at 35,000 Feet

iChat AV at 35,000 Feet

Can you astroturf your own marketing dreck? I suppose it's just coincidence that in the screenshot Apple's product line manager took for this Apple Hotnews story he casually mentions to a friend that "Sales should be up significantly this quarter." But fine, we'll excuse the iShill since the page is actually pretty cool -- it details the "first commercial in-air videoconference," between two Apple employees, one in Cupertino, and the other on a jet using Lufthansa's wireless high-speed internet ground-to-plane internet.

...More

(gizmodo.com)

Nookies

Nookies

Toshiba claims fuel cell breakthrough

Bizzare Spider-Man Comic Strip Remixes

Star Wars/Office Space Mashup

Fun World Statistics Comparison Site

Sweet Looking Gameboy

Fun World Statistics Comparison Site

P2P Hits Without Radio Airplay

Presidential Elections Should be for All of Us

Presidential Elections Should be for All of Us

Every presidential election matters, but 2004 has particular significance. Re-election of George W. Bush with the return of Republican majorities in the U.S. Senate and House could tip the ideological balance of the Supreme Court and federal courts for a generation. It could trigger a wave of Democratic retirements in the House that might cement Republican domination on Capitol Hill for decades. It could unleash a wave of hard-right policy initiatives.

So everyone should be involved, right? In a democracy, it's one person, one vote?

There's just one problem: that's not the way we elect the president. We cling to a thoroughly outmoded Electoral College that divides us along regional lines, undercuts accountability, dampens voter participation, and can undermine legitimacy when the electoral vote trumps the national popular vote. As the bumper sticker notes, Democrats have to RE-defeat Bush this year because the Electoral College denied Al Gore's popular vote advantage of a half-million votes in 2000.

Instead of a simple national election, we hold 51 separate contests in the states and the District of Columbia, with each state having a number of electoral votes equal to its number of U.S. Senators and House members (ranging from three electoral votes in the states with the fewest people to California with 55). This arrangement awards more electoral votes per capita to low population states which tend to be conservative, giving Republican candidates an unfair advantage. It's like having a foot race where one side starts ten yards ahead of the other.

A presidential candidate needs to receive the highest number of votes in the right combination of states to win a majority of the Electoral College vote. The perverse incentives created by this method are painfully obvious from this year's campaign -- most states already are effectively ignored by the candidates and groups seeking to mobilize voters because in a competitive national race most states are dominated by one party or the other. Most campaign focus and energy -- and increasingly, even the candidates' messages for how they plan to govern -- are pitched to undecided swing voters in the key battleground states. If you feel like your issues and concerns are being ignored, chances are it's because you live in the wrong state and/or are not part of the faceless slice of undecided swing voters.

The Electoral College's democratic deficit is compounded by the use of plurality elections -- the candidate with the most votes wins 100 percent of the electoral votes from that state, even if less than a majority. Plurality elections mean that a popular majority can be fractured by the presence of a third party candidate. Far more than any ballot corruption in Florida, Al Gore was hurt by the nearly hundred thousand voters in Florida who supported Ralph Nader...More

(workingforchange.com)

Why We Should Tax Advertising

Why We Should Tax Advertising

Taxes have traditionally served chiefly to raise revenue for the government. However taxes also change the behavior of businesses and consumers. Because of this, by applying taxes to activities which are harmful to society taxation can be used to improve the efficiency of the economy and to promote the wellbeing of the public. Such "taxes on bad things" are referred to by economists as Pigouvian Taxes. These taxes provide a double benefit to society, firstly they reduce the level of the harmful activity, and also they reduce the need to tax other things such as work or investment, which are generally held to be good things. In order for a Pigouvian tax to be economically justified, it is not necessary to prove that the activity is entirely harmful, it is simply necessary to prove that the activity has negative consequences which are not included in the price paid for the activity. i.e. that the activity has what economists call negative externalities, or external diseconomies. For example, few people would argue that beer has no positive qualities, but it has negative effects on society when consumed to excess and is for this reason often the target of special taxes.

So here I will try and describe why I believe that advertising is damaging from both an economic and social standpoint, and that because of this the amount of advertising should be reduced by making it more expensive...More

(kuro5hin.org)

More Police Power = Less Security

More Police Power = Less Security

Bruce Schneier's just published a fantastic editorial about how expanded police powers make us less secure:

The United States is admired throughout the world because of our freedoms and our liberties. The very rights that are being discussed within the halls of the Supreme Court are the rights that keep us all safe and secure. The more our fight against terrorism is conducted within the confines of law, the more it gives consideration to the principles of fair and open trial, due process and "innocent until proven guilty," the safer we all are.

Unchecked police and military power is a security threat -- just as important a threat as unchecked terrorism. There is no reason to sacrifice the former to obtain the latter, and there are very good reasons not to.

...More

(boingboing.net)

The World's Largest Private Army

The World's Largest Private Army

A fortnight before Iraq is to be handed over to a new government, the world's largest private army is being set up by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former British commando who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world.

United States taxpayers will pay up to $293 million for a contract to Aegis Defence Services of London, a new company created by Spicer, to create an "integrator" or coordination hub for the security operation for every single reconstruction contractor and sub-contractor throughout Iraq, effectively creating a private military that can attack Iraqi protestors at any time anywhere in the country.

There are currently several dozen groups in Iraq that provide private security to both the military and the private sector, with more than 20,000 employees altogether. The companies include Erinys, a South African business, that has more than 15,000 local employees charged with guarding the oil pipelines; Armor Group, a British company that provides security to Bechtel and Halliburton; and North Carolina-based Blackwater Consulting, which provides everything from back-up helicopters to bodyguards for Paul Bremer, the American ambassador in charge of the occupation.

The military will pay all of Aegis' expenses, plus a pre-determined percentage of whatever they spend, which critics say is a license to over-bill. The company has also been asked to provide 75 close protection teams -- comprised of eight men each -- for the high-level staff of companies that are running the oil and gas fields, electricity, and water services in Iraq...More

(workingforchange.com)

Powell & Bonnell Airstream

Powell & Bonnell Airstream

MoCo conversion of vintage RV.
Originally created for an interior design show by Toronto design firm Powell & Bonnell, this vintage Airstream was completely gutted and then filled with custom-built fittings and furniture. The mobile home has a full bathroom/shower and a separate shaving stand/sink (the equivalent of 1.5 bathrooms!) as well as a galley style kitchen with stainless steel, mahogany and granite surfaces and recessed lighting...More

(mocoloco.com)

Magnetic Lights

Magnetic Lights

Tubular light. A remote controlled magnetic grip that glides up the backside of this tube determines the intensity of the colored light emitted by each of the three translucent sections of the tube. The remote also regulates light intensity...More

(mocoloco.com)

MP3: Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" Played by School Percussion Ensemble

MP3: Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" Played by School Percussion Ensemble

Lovely. I don't know much about this one, but I can tell you it's a school band covering Radiohead's "Paranoid Android." Kicking and squealing Gucci little piggy. Link to MP3 file.

...More

(boingboing.net)

RIAA Dumps Unsold Inventory to Settle Anti-Trust Case

RIAA Dumps Unsold Inventory to Settle Anti-Trust Case

theodp writes "A music windfall promised to WA public schools and libraries from last year's $143M anti-trust settlement with the recording industry wasn't all it was cracked up to be. While WA got 115,241 music CDs out of the deal, folks aren't quite sure what to do with the odd collection, which includes 387 CDs containing explicit lyrics by Big Pun, 310 copies of Will Smith's Willenium and 48 copies of Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween from Martha Stewart."

...More

(slashdot.org)

Tool Lending Libraries

Tool Lending Libraries

A decade ago some community librarians in California initiated a great idea: why not lend tools as well as books? The idea slowly spread to a couple of dozen other US towns, but the most active and well-stocked tool libraries are still in the Bay Area -- one in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. The typical tool lending library offers basic hand tools, and a selection of garden, landscaping and construction tools. The hot items with waiting lists at the San Francisco Tool Lending Library (now in the middle of a move to a new location on Howard Street) are heavy duty power tools. The top four borrowings are: an electric jack hammer, a drain snake for clearing sewage lines, an electric weed wacker (the library only deals with electrical tools, no gas), and rotary impact drills. There are racks of shovels, rakes, stampers, crow bars, pliers, and the usual shop tools, but the Saws-alls, belt sanders, wet tile saws, and other not-so-often needed tools get the most rotation. Many of these occasional tools are what you might find at a tool rental shop; indeed anyone with a city library card -- including contractors -- can, and do, borrow tools for the maximum 3 days.

Lending tools, like planting trees, is unalloyed goodness. Tool Lending Libraries are a great idea that should be duplicated everywhere. The biggest cost is not the tools but the liability insurance for the power tools. Patrons are pretty good at returning things in good order -- they want to be able to use 'em again...More

(Cool Tools)

Go See Fahrenheit 9/11

Go See Fahrenheit 9/11

Last night, I got a chance to see a sneak preview of Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 9/11. It is an incredibly powerful movie that lays bare the cynicism and greed behind Bush's war policy. And the astonishing and revealing footage in it has the power to change the course of the 2004 election. (There's a full review below.)

Given how devastating the movie is to President Bush's carefully crafted facade, it's hardly surprising that right-wing groups who call Moore a "domestic enemy" are using censorship and intimidation tactics to try to get it pulled from theaters. That's why we've got to do everything we can to make the opening a huge success.

Today, we're asking MoveOn members to pledge to see the film on the opening night -- Friday, June 25th. (If you can't make it on Friday, pledging to go on Saturday or Sunday is fine, too). It'll be fun, of course -- you'll be watching the movie with lots of other MoveOn members. It'll also send an unmistakable message to the media and theater owners that the public is behind this movie.

To see the Fahrenheit 9/11 trailer and pledge to see the movie on the opening weekend, go to:

http://www.moveonpac.org/f911/?id=2949-3503139-1SXasKXbDKyioJ1v6oJ_Lw

Then please pass this message on to your friends, family, and co-workers.

Fahrenheit 9/11 isn't just the most powerful and complete indictment of the Bush administration that I've ever seen - it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's a knockout blow: a poignant, darkly funny film that deftly interweaves footage of the President, his allies, and the Americans his policies betrayed. As Fox News' reviewer put it, the movie "is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty - and at the same time an indictment of stupidity and avarice." (See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122680,00.html for the full review.)

Despite years of television coverage on Iraq and the war on terror, most of the movie consists of footage you'd never see on TV. There are heart-breaking interviews with troops in Iraq, chilling scenes of the civilian consequences of that war, and footage of Bush so candid and revealing that it's hard to imagine how Moore got his hands on it. In one unforgettable scene from the morning of September 11th, Bush blithely reads a children's book to a classroom of kids for seven long minutes after his chief of staff quietly informs him that the second plane has hit the World Trade Center and "we're under attack." The film is filled with this stuff, and it's hard to imagine seeing it and not being moved, shocked, and outraged.

Fahrenheit 9/11 opens with footage of Bush administration officials putting on their TV makeup. Paul Wolfowitz sticks his comb in his mouth, slathers it with spit, brushes it through his hair, and grins a toothy grin. Colin Powell eyes the camera nervously as a makeup artist dusts his face. And, moments before President Bush goes on TV to somberly announce the beginning of the Iraq war, we see him goofing around, making funny faces at the folks behind the camera.

These candid portraits encapsulate the genius of Moore's documentary. Compared to his other films, there's little pranking or moralizing. Moore basically stays out of the picture: he doesn't have to indict the Bush administration, because with powerful and indisputable video, Bush and the rest indict themselves.

As Moore unravels Bush's story, he joins it with the stories of the real Americans who have shouldered the burden of the post-9/11 war policy. In Flint, Michigan, we hear from a group of inner-city kids whose only option for education and a better life is to enlist in the Army - and then, in a scene that's both humorous and deeply creepy, join two Marine recruiters as they case a local mall for possible enlistees. We watch a California peace group that was infiltrated by the local police department under the Patriot Act. And, in the final heartbreaking scenes, we witness the pain of a mother who lost her son in Iraq.

In the hands of other directors, the content could easily feel exploitative. But Moore is grounded by a patriotism that rings through every frame of the film. Compassion and love of country give the film its striking authenticity: it's clear that what stings most about the President's behavior, for the subjects of the film, is Bush's betrayal of our country's soul.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a film with the power to change hearts and minds. It's brilliant, funny, moving, and authentic. And together, we can make it a huge success.

Watch the trailer and pledge to see the film opening night at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/f911/?id=2949-3503139-1SXasKXbDKyioJ1v6oJ_Lw

Sincerely,

--Eli Pariser
MoveOn PAC
Wednesday, June 16th

P.S. Fahrenheit 9/11 has already reaped widespread praise from critics. Here are just a few samples:

Roger Ebert, "Less is Moore in subdued, effective '9/11'," Chicago Sun Times, May 18, 2004

"Despite these dramatic moments, the most memorable footage for me involved President Bush on Sept. 11. [Ebert goes on to describe the scene.] The look on his face as he reads the book, knowing what he knows, is disquieting."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/eb-feature/cst-ftr-cannes18.html

Mary Corliss, "A First Look at "Fahrenheit 9/11," Time Magazine Online, May 17, 2004

Corliss calls the film, "Moore’s own War on Error."
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/
0,8599,638819,00.html

Frank Rich, "Beautiful Minds and Ugly Truths," International Herald Tribune, May 21, 2004
"'Fahrenheit 9/11' is not the movie Moore watchers, fans or foes, were expecting. (If it were, the foes would find it easier to ignore.)"

http://www.iht.com/articles/521066.html

Roll Your Own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod

Roll Your Own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod

BoingBoing reader Philip says,

"After playing around with the new iTrip mini, the FM broadcasting accessory for the iPod our little minds got working on some ideas. We thought we might be able to make the range of Griffin's iTrip mini a little better if took it apart and exposed the antenna, turns out we could. And then we thought, hey -- we could use a couple iPods to broadcast something we wanted to get out there. Perhaps not 'should' that is, but could. Here's the How To."

...More

(boingboing.net)

John Ashcroft is the Worst Attorney General in History

John Ashcroft is the Worst Attorney General in History

No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history.

For this column, let's just focus on Mr. Ashcroft's role in the fight against terror. Before 9/11 he was aggressively uninterested in the terrorist threat. He didn't even mention counterterrorism in a May 2001 memo outlining strategic priorities for the Justice Department. When the 9/11 commission asked him why, he responded by blaming the Clinton administration, with a personal attack on one of the commission members thrown in for good measure.

We can't tell directly whether Mr. Ashcroft's post-9/11 policies are protecting the United States from terrorist attacks. But a number of pieces of evidence suggest otherwise.

First, there's the absence of any major successful prosecutions. The one set of convictions that seemed fairly significant — that of the "Detroit 3" — appears to be collapsing over accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. (The lead prosecutor has filed a whistle-blower suit against Mr. Ashcroft, accusing him of botching the case. The Justice Department, in turn, has opened investigations against the prosecutor. Payback? I report; you decide.)

Then there is the lack of any major captures. Somewhere, the anthrax terrorist is laughing. But the Justice Department, you'll be happy to know, is trying to determine whether it can file bioterrorism charges against a Buffalo art professor whose work includes harmless bacteria in petri dishes.

Perhaps most telling is the way Mr. Ashcroft responds to criticism of his performance. His first move is always to withhold the evidence. Then he tries to change the subject by making a dramatic announcement of a terrorist threat.

For an example of how Mr. Ashcroft shuts down public examination, consider the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former F.B.I. translator who says that the agency's language division is riddled with incompetence and corruption, and that the bureau missed critical terrorist warnings. In 2002 she gave closed-door Congressional testimony; Senator Charles Grassley described her as "very credible . . . because people within the F.B.I. have corroborated a lot of her story."...More

(The New York Times)

White House Officials and Cheney Aide Approved Halliburton Contract in Iraq, Pentagon Says

White House Officials and Cheney Aide Approved Halliburton Contract in Iraq, Pentagon Says

In the fall of 2002, in the preparations for possible war with Iraq, the Pentagon sought and received the assent of senior Bush administration officials, including the vice president's chief of staff, before hiring the Halliburton Company to develop secret plans for restoring Iraq's oil facilities, Pentagon officials have told Congressional investigators.

The newly disclosed details about Pentagon contracting do not suggest improper political pressures to direct business to Halliburton, the Houston-based company that Vice President Dick Cheney once led.

But they raise questions about assertions by Mr. Cheney and other administration officials that he knew nothing in advance of the Halliburton contracts and that the decisions were made by career procurement specialists, without involvement by senior political appointees.

Kevin Kellems, a spokesman for the vice president, would not comment on the disclosure, except to say, "We stand by our earlier statements on this matter."...More

(The New York Times)

Meet Joe Blog

Meet Joe Blog

A few years ago, Mathew Gross, 32, was a free-lance writer living in tiny Moab, Utah. Rob Malda, 28, was an underperforming undergraduate at a small Christian college in Michigan. Denis Dutton, 60, was a professor of philosophy in faraway Christchurch, New Zealand. Today they are some of the most influential media personalities in the world. You can be one too.

Gross, Malda and Dutton aren't rich or famous or even conspicuously good-looking. What they have in common is that they all edit blogs: amateur websites that provide news, information and, above all, opinions to rapidly growing and devoted audiences drawn by nothing more than a shared interest or two and the sheer magnetism of the editor's personality. Over the past five years, blogs have gone from an obscure and, frankly, somewhat nerdy fad to a genuine alternative to mainstream news outlets, a shadow media empire that is rivaling networks and newspapers in power and influence. Which raises the question: Who are these folks anyway? And what exactly are they doing to the established pantheon of American media?...More

(time.com)

Five Bloggers to Watch

Five Bloggers to Watch

For everything from shrewd political analysis to good old-fashioned gossip, Chris Taylor finds the blogs worth a visit.

Drew Curtis / fark.com

ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FARK

Back when the air was still warm inside the dotcom bubble, registering a new Web address meant you harbored a foolproof scheme to make billions. But not Drew Curtis. In 1997 the programmer, based in Lexington, Ky., snapped up fark.com. Why fark? It's a nonsensical word Curtis says he sprinkled randomly in his conversations. By 1999 he had dreamed up a couple of equally random uses for his Web address. One was to create a database of different curries. The other was to use it as a venue for posting the odd pictures and news items he liked to gather and send to friends in endless, annoying e-mails.

Unfortunately for the world of Indian food, Curtis chose the latter. Now, with at least 5 million readers a month, Fark has become the No. 1 blog for weird and titillating links. It's a supremely simple setup. Every day Curtis posts 20 to 30 of his favorite curiosities with one-line descriptions and a small button to instantly tag the content — the labels range from INTERESTING to OBVIOUS to ASININE. Links to sites and stories you wouldn't want your boss to catch you looking at are helpfully marked "not safe for work."

The site pays for itself with advertising; his wife takes care of Fark's finances. Curtis starts blogging at 7:30 a.m. and is usually done by 9 a.m. The links are timed to appear throughout the day to give the impression that Curtis is hard at work. In fact, he says, "you'll find me in sports bars most of the day."

Fark is a must read at many media outlets, but Curtis doesn't care much about the veracity of news he posts. Earlier this year he linked to a fake story on the Hoosier Gazette, a humor website, about a man in a devil costume disrupting a screening of The Passion of the Christ. The Gazette later e-mailed Curtis excitedly to say the story had been spotted on a CNN ticker. Curtis' response? "Kick-ass, that's cool." As the tag line goes: "It's not news, it's Fark."

Cory Doctorow / boingboing.net

MR. WONDERFUL'S WEB DIRECTORY

Back in 1988, a group of San Francisco journalists launched bOING bOING, an irreverent underground magazine dedicated to pop culture and technology. Almost as an afterthought, they also began a website, for which they called on the services of a writer named Cory Doctorow. Don't bother searching newsstands for the magazine. It's long gone, but the blog boingboing.net — "A directory of wonderful things," as its slogan goes — is more popular than ever. And although it has four main contributors as well as a rotating guest blogger, Doctorow is commonly identified as its author. The reason? "I'm the one least capable of doing things in moderation," he admits...More

(time.com)

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Gets Standing Ovations

'Fahrenheit 9/11' Gets Standing Ovations

The crowd that gave Michael Moore's controversial "Fahrenheit 9/11" a standing ovation last night at the Ziegfeld Theatre premiere certainly didn't have to be encouraged at all to show their appreciation. From liberal radio host and writer Al Franken to actor/director Tim Robbins, Moore was in his element. But once "F9/11" gets to audiences beyond screenings, it won't be dependent on celebrities for approbation. It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.

As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, "F9/11" — as we saw last night — is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty, and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice. Readers of this column may recall that I had a lot of problems with Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," particularly where I thought he took gratuitous shots at helpless targets like Charlton Heston. "Columbine" too easily succeeded by shooting fish in a barrel, as they used to say. Not so with "F9/11," which instead relies on lots of film footage and actual interviews to make its case against the war in Iraq and tell the story of the intertwining histories of the Bush and Bin Laden families.

First, I know you want to know who came to the Ziegfeld, so here is just a partial list. Besides Franken and Robbins, Al Sharpton, Mike Myers, Tony Bennett, Glenn Close, Gretchen Mol (newly married over the weekend to director Todd Williams), Lori Singer, Tony Kushner, "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt, Jill Krementz and Kurt Vonnegut, Lauren Bacall (chatting up a fully refurbished Lauren Hutton), Richard Gere, John McEnroe and Patti Smythe, former Carter cabinet member and ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Carson Daly, NBC's Jeff Zucker, a very pregnant Rory Kennedy, playwright Israel Horovitz, Macaulay Culkin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kyra Sedgwick, Linda Evangelista, Ed Bradley, Tom and Meredith Brokaw, director Barry Levinson, NBC anchor Brian Williams, Vernon Jordan, Eva Mendez, Sandra Bernhard and the always humorous Joy Behar.

If that's not enough, how about Yoko Ono, accompanied by her son, Sean, who's let his hair grow out and is now sporting a bushy beard that makes him look like his late, beloved father John Lennon?

And then, just to show you how much people wanted to see this film, there was Martha Stewart, looking terrific. I mean, talk about eclectic groups!...More

(foxnews.com)

Enter the Patent Busting Contest!

Enter the Patent Busting Contest!

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Patent Busting Project is here to protect you from dangerously bad patents. And you can help us pick which patents we're going to bust first!

We're currently seeking nominations for ten patents that deserve to be revoked because they are invalid. Sadly, we don't have the resources to challenge every stupid patent out there. In order to qualify for our ten most-wanted list, a patent must be software or Internet-related and there must be a good reason to suspect that the patent claims are invalid. We're especially interested in patents that target tools of free expression, such as streaming media, blogging tools, and voice over IP (VoIP) technology. Most importantly, the patent-holder must be aggressively enforcing its patent and suing (or threatening to sue) alleged infringers. We're particularly interested in cases where the patent-holder is trying to force small businesses, individuals, nonprofits, and consumers to pay licensing fees. Deadline to enter is June 23...More

(eff.org)

Ethics Complaint Filed Against DeLay

Ethics Complaint Filed Against DeLay

A freshman Democrat -- already defeated for re-election -- filed an ethics complaint Tuesday against House Republican leader Tom DeLay.

"It's my opinion Mr. DeLay is the most corrupt politician in America today," Rep. Chris Bell of Texas said after filing the complaint, which stretches to 187 pages, including copies of tax forms, newspaper articles and other supporting material.

Bell's filing ended a seven-year informal ethics truce between the parties, in place since ethics charges destroyed the careers of two sitting speakers -- Democrat Jim Wright and Republican Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich filed ethics charges against Wright in 1987, alleging financial improprieties over a book deal. An embattled Wright resigned two years later.

Gingrich was later reprimanded for using tax-exempt donations to fund his political action committee and fined $300,000. Gingrich resigned in 1998 after his party lost House seats they expected to win.

Democratic leaders deny they orchestrated Bell's actions, though a leadership aide acknowledged that Bell told top leaders of his thinking "several months ago" and they did not discourage him from moving forward.

But DeLay blamed the Democratic leaders for "character assassination" and said they want "to destroy people personally in order to gain power."...More

(cnn.com)

Montel and Morgenthau for Pot

Montel and Morgenthau for Pot

Who could ever have predicted that Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and talk show host Montel Williams would ever join forces? And that their cause would the legalization of pot? Morgy and Montel appeared together yesterday at a press conference, imploring the legalization of pot for medial purposes. Morgenthau said, "It should be available to those whose suffering would be eased by the use of marijuana. There is absolutely no reason for not using marijuana for medical purposes. It's another weapon in the arsenal." He is supporting a marijuana legalization bill that's in the state Legislature; Morgenthau noted that he spoke with his daughter, a doctor who has treated drug abusers and who told him that marijuana use for medical purposes was valid. Williams told reporters that "There are days I don't feel like getting out of bed," due to the pain from having multiple sclerosis. Williams also pointed out "Why is it that doctors in California can ease my pain and doctors is New York can't? I am a card-carrying prescription marijuana user in Canada and California." Gothamist can't speak for Canada, but did Governator smoke a little wacky tabacky? Other states that allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington...More

(gothamist.com)

IBM Teams with Software Makers on Grid

IBM Teams with Software Makers on Grid

Hoping to broaden the appeal of grid computing, IBM and a handful of software makers said Wednesday that they have retooled their business applications to be grid-ready.

Grid computing, in which the processing workload is spread across several machines to tackle tasks more efficiently, has often been used in academic and specialized commercial settings.

But rather than esoteric scientific programs, the IBM partners sell mainstream business applications. They include Citrix's MetaFrame software for running desktop applications on server computers and business reporting software from Cognos and Actuate.

The new business applications are the first fruits of an IBM effort, launched earlier this year, to get its application provider partners to "grid-enable" their products. As part of this effort, Big Blue provided technical resources and guidance on how to best take advantage of grid-based software available on the marketplace. Other application companies to have completed the grid compliance work are Engineous Software and Sefas, as well as Abaqus and Fluent which sell specialized software for completing complex calculations on a computing grid.

IBM expects other companies to make their applications grid-ready, said Steve Gordon, grid alliance executive at IBM. The company hopes that by providing the grid-enabled applications, it can demonstrate real-world uses for the technology and drive sales of its hardware, software and services...More

(news.com)

Urban Archeology

Urban Archeology

This is an amazing website that explores the ruins of old buildings and structures in New York. Kind of creepy, kind of cool...More

(darkpassage.com)

Tricky Dick Cheney

Tricky Dick Cheney

Nearly three years have passed since 9-11, yet one wonders if Vice President Dick Cheney ever abandoned his "secure undisclosed location."

He still seems to be secreted away somewhere, only coming out of hiding long enough to resell the Iraq war on some friendly neocon stage lent for the spread of more false propaganda.

After Cheney shovels it out, he flashes his sinister grin and scurries back into his hole, out of sight again and accountable to no one – not the press corps, not the Congress and not the American people, who will pay for the White House's dishonest war with their lives and treasure for decades to come.

Tricky Dick Cheney has been allowed to tell war whoppers with virtual impunity, including ones involving his old firm's war-profiteering, and they've now reached such a critical mass that the public must demand he answer for them either in a press conference or public testimony, or preferably both. And right now. The nation can't wait for, or count on, the vice presidential debates (assuming Cheney stays on the ticket) to melt back this congealed evil accumulating on its soul.

Whopper No. 1: On Oct. 10, 2003, Cheney told neocons at the Heritage Foundation that Saddam Hussein "had an established relationship with al-Qaeda," a charge contradicted by U.S. intelligence briefings Cheney has received...More

(antiwar.com)

BitTorrent of Daily Show on Ashscroft's Refusal to Turn Over Torture Memo

BitTorrent of Daily Show on Ashscroft's Refusal to Turn Over Torture Memo

A Boing Boing reader sez: John Stewart tears Ashcroft a new one over the torture legalizing memo. And it's funny."

...More

(boingboing.net)

Any Song. In Any Room. Anywhere.

Any Song. In Any Room. Anywhere.

Sonos is the first and only digital music system that lets you play all your digital music, all over your house - and control it all from the palm of your hand. Best of all, you don't need a PC in every room, a music server or a wireless network. Just a Sonos ZonePlayer and speakers in the rooms of your choice and a Sonos Controller in hand to access all your digital music, no matter where it's stored.

...More

(sonos.com)

How To Skin a PC to Look Like a Mac

How To Skin a PC to Look Like a Mac

Engadget has a great step-by-step HOWTO for skinning your WinXP box until its desktop is nigh-indistinguishable from a MacOS X box.

...More

(boingboing.net)

Velvet Rehash, Beasties To Unseat Usher

Velvet Rehash, Beasties To Unseat Usher

Hits is pretty reliable in its predictions, and they're guessing that the Velvet Revolver's debut album, Contraband, will scan up to 250,000 units in its first week out and may overtake Usher for the top slot. It's reign at the top will definitely be short-lived, as the following week sees a new album by the Beastie Boys. They're predicted to scan a cool 500,000 units of To The Five Boroughs on 1.5 million shipped.

Let's talk Amazon sales rank as of Thursday morning: Velvet Revolver sits at #1. The Beasties' album, out next Tuesday, is currently at #2. PJ Harvey is #6. Wilco, which comes out the 22nd, is at #12. Usher isn't as relatively popular with the Amazon.com crowd--he's at #25. Sonic Youth...#35, only two slots ahead of Wilson Phillips...More

(coolfer.com)

Stealth Ships Steam Ahead

Stealth Ships Steam Ahead

The Swedish Navy is testing out a new ship which is believed to be the most "invisible" yet. The Royal Navy and the US Navy both have plans of their own for similarly futuristic "stealth" ships. BBC News Online investigates the shape of the future of naval warfare.

Ever since radar was invented by the British during World War II, military boffins have been trying to think of ways to beat it.

The US Air Force invented the first "stealth" aircraft, the U-2 spy plane, in 1954, and 10 years later they unveiled the Lockheed Blackbird.

Both planes were designed in such a way as to keep their radar "signatures" to an absolute minimum.

Now naval architects have come up with a similar way of beating the radar...More

(BBC News)

Duofold Varitec T-Shirt

Duofold Varitec T-Shirt

A friend turned me on to these fabulous shirts about five years ago; now I won't ever wear a cotton tee-shirt for any strenuous activity. These synthetic fabric shirts dry super-quickly, keeping you cool during intense activity. Conversely, in colder weather, the quick-drying feature keeps you warmer.

...More

(kk.org)

Legalize Marijuana, Says Right Wing Think Tank's New Report

Legalize Marijuana, Says Right Wing Think Tank's New Report

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian right wing think tank, says we've lost the war on drugs, so pot should be legalized. It's a simple matter of economics, says Stephen Easton, the report's author.

"If we treat marijuana like any other commodity, we can tax it, regulate it, and use the resources the industry generates rather than continue a war against consumption and production that has long since been lost," Easton said.

He says that in BC alone the Marijuana industry is worth $7 million...More

(suicidegirls.com)

Bush's Buggies Keep Summit Green

Bush's Buggies Keep Summit Green

President Bush has been trying to shake off his Toxic Texan image by driving an electric buggy around the G8 summit.

All eight leaders at the event have been supplied with their own vehicle, painted in their national colours.

Mr Bush has used his to give lifts to British PM Tony Blair and the new Iraqi President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar.

Russia's leader Vladimir Putin looked comfortable in his high-tech buggy, but France's Jacques Chirac chose to move around on foot.

The Global Electric Motorcars have been supplied by DaimlerChrysler.

The zero-emissions vehicles were chosen as part of an effort by the Sea Island Summit Planning Organisation to create a "green" event.

A DaimlerChrysler spokesman said: "These provide quiet, convenient, low-cost transportation and they fit perfectly with the summit setting."...More

(BBC News)

Broadvoice: Cheap Unlimited Internet Phone Service

Broadvoice: Cheap Unlimited Internet Phone Service

This phone over the internet works wonderfully and cheaply if you have a high speed internet connection. You go to the Broadvoice website and subscribe. You select a new phone number (out of the numbers they list as available) in almost any area code you prefer (you can get your own number transferred but that's supposed to take a month)...then you wait a few days till they send you a little box. You also need to buy a router ($40-$50)... follow the simple installation noted on their website, then plug any phone (wired or wireless) into the phone box. You get a dial tone and voila, call anywhere in the US, as long as you like, for $20 a month. Just amazing.

...More

(kk.org)

Five Short-Range Wireless Standards Seen Combining

Five Short-Range Wireless Standards Seen Combining

Five short-range wireless connection technologies are fighting for the industry limelight, but sector specialists said on Friday that companies would eventually combine the five to make life easier.

Automatic wireless connections between electronic devices are the Holy Grail of the computer and consumer electronics industry.

Companies hope consumers will buy new devices once they are able to listen to their music collections anywhere in the house or on the road, see DVDs and photo albums on any screen, or program their hard disk recorders from a Web site.

This brave new world, in which a car's lights, speakers and cell phone are all connected to the dashboard with wireless chips, may be here in a few years, or in some cases sooner.

"We haven't even scratched the surface," Paul Marino, manager of connectivity at Philips semiconductors unit, told Reuters at a Wireless Connectivity industry show...More

(Yahoo! News)

Bush Should Fear Nancy Reagan's Ire

Bush Should Fear Nancy Reagan's Ire

While trying to avoid ostentatious gloating, Republican operatives quietly confide their hope that the public tributes to the late Ronald Reagan this week will lift the sagging George W. Bush. That may happen for a time, just as the capture of Saddam Hussein briefly bolstered the President. By Election Day, however, memories of Reagan are unlikely to motivate anyone who wouldn't have voted for Mr. Bush anyway.

Meanwhile, with typical taste and restraint, the Bush-Cheney campaign has erected a "living memorial" to Ronald Reagan on its Web site. Such strained attempts to associate their candidate with his professed role model may prove less profitable than they expect. Placing him alongside Reagan isn't necessarily flattering to the incumbent, in terms of substance or style.

Both Presidents passed ill-advised and unfair tax cuts, but Reagan then raised taxes and closed corporate loopholes, which would be unimaginable for Mr. Bush. Both claimed to be opponents of bigger government, but Mr. Bush expanded federal entitlements and corporate welfare with his prescription drug bill. While both wielded American military power, Reagan did so without rupturing our traditional alliances, as Mr. Bush has so stupidly done. Indeed, this reckless, regressive Presidency has somehow made that one look cautious and prudent.

And although Mr. Bush resembles Reagan in his detachment from policy detail, the old actor's public performance and rhetorical skills far surpassed those of his aspiring heir. For conservatives, this contrast must be painful to contemplate.

Invidious comparisons aside, the Bush team may confront yet another problem if they are tempted to exploit Reagan's legacy. Her name is Nancy Reagan...More

(workingforchange.com)

The Beatles To Enter The 21st Century?

The Beatles To Enter The 21st Century?

After a long holdout, according to a CNET article, the Beatles' music may soon be available on online music services. CNET reported that MSN's upcoming music store is a frontrunner for the sought-after catalog.

iTunes and Napster users, don't hold your breath, says CNET. "It may be some time before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Let it Be are sold on Apple Computer's iTunes or on Napster."...More

(coolfer.com)

Reagan the New Face of the $10 Bill?

Reagan the New Face of the $10 Bill?

Ronald Reagan's face could one day adorn the $10 bill or half the dimes minted in the country, if fans of the late president get their way.

On Tuesday Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed that he is considering sponsoring legislation in the Senate to have Reagan's image replace that of Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first treasury secretary, on the $10 bill.

Meanwhile, an effort is underway in the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), to put Reagan's face on the $20. And Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) wants to swap Reagan for John F. Kennedy on the 50-cent piece.

If either of the bill-changing efforts is successful, it would represent the first change a person on U.S. currency since 1929, when the nation's paper money was standardized in size and general design. Although various anti-counterfeiting measures have altered the look of paper notes since then, the principals depicted have not changed.

The proposal has the support of Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, which is headed by Grover Norquist, an influential conservative activist.

Democrats in Congress may not be ready to embrace the idea, though none has publicly declared opposition after Reagan's death Saturday.

A change would require majority votes in both houses of Congress...More

(CNN Money)

Google Mulls RSS Support

Google Mulls RSS Support

Google is considering renewing support for the popular RSS Web publishing format in some of its services, CNET News.com has learned, marking the latest twist in a burgeoning standards war over technology that could change how people read the news.

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, lets online publishers automatically send Web content to subscribers, giving readers a powerful tool to compile news headlines on the fly from several sources at once. Next to Atom, which launched as a challenger last year, RSS has become a leading candidate to form the basis of an industry standard for an entirely new style of Web publishing.

In April, Google seemingly chose sides, bypassing RSS support for most subscribers of its Blogger publishing tool in favor of rival Atom. But now, there are signs that Google may be poised for a change of heart, as support has grown inside the company to restore equal footing to both formats.

According to an internal Google e-mail seen by CNET News.com, the company has been considering the change and last month assigned at least one staffer to write a memo summarizing technical details relating to RSS. The request came amid a broader discussion touching on extending RSS support for new Blogger subscribers and Google Groups, which supports Atom but not RSS in a test version of the service.

"I did ask (a Google product manager) to develop a summary...about RSS feeds, including the ways they are produced and consumed, which platforms/devices they run on, and information on the various formats (RSS 1.0, 2.0, Atom)," Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management, wrote on May 22. The message was part of a thread addressed to Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, CEO Eric Schmidt and others...More

(news.com)

Is the Linux Desktop Getting Heavier and Slower?

Is the Linux Desktop Getting Heavier and Slower?

"Bob Marr wrote an interesting editorial about what many of us have have noticed lately: the three most popular Linux distros are getting "fatter" in terms of their memory footprint and CPU demands for their graphical desktops. Fedora Core 2 isn't usable below 192 MBs of RAM while Mandrake and SuSE aren't very far off similar requirements either. There was a time when Linux users would brag that their favorite OS was far less demanding that Windows, but this doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Modern distros that use the latest versions of KDE and (especially) Gnome feel considerably heavier than before or even than Windows XP/2k3. Sure, Longhorn has higher requirements than XP (256 MB RAM, 800 MHz CPU) and the final version will undoubtly be much more demanding, but that's in 2-3 years from now. For the time being, I am settled with XFce on my Gentoo but I always welcome more carefully-written code."

...More

(slashdot.org)

Nintendo Changing Game Plans?

Nintendo Changing Game Plans?

Nintendo's president said Wednesday that the Japanese video-game company will debut a new console next year that will take a different tack than its competitors, hinting that the company will try to attract more-casual gamers.

The new console, code-named Revolution, will be shown as a prototype next year and in final form at the annual E3 game conference in 2006, said Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Iwata said the current model of the video-game business -- trying to attract gamers with hardware that features ever-more-dazzling graphics -- is dying. With game sales steadily declining in Japan and growth slowing in the American market, he said it's going to take more than dazzle to sell new machines. Console makers sell their wares at a loss in hopes of making a profit from game software sales.

"We need to propose a new idea so that the game industry can overcome its current crisis," Iwata said, according to a report by the Associated Press. "What we need is not a next-generation machine but a next-generation way of playing games."

He didn't elaborate. He also wouldn't give the specifications of the new machines for fear of competition, he said.

Nintendo -- which single-handedly revitalized the home video-game business in the late 1980s -- has been losing steam in the hardware business. It lost its lead in the console business to Sony's PlayStation in the mid-1990s and is facing even more competition from Microsoft's Xbox, which is preferred by more mature video-game fans. In addition, Nintendo's best-selling Game Boy Advance handheld game machine will face a formidable challenge from Sony's PSP handheld, slated to come out in a few months...More

(wired.com)

Join the Revolution

Join the Revolution

A new threadless.com shirt, get yours today!...More

(threadless.com)

Film Industry Gives Controversial Iraq Film Ovation

Film Industry Gives Controversial Iraq Film Ovation

Director Michael Moore's controversial anti-Iraq war film "Fahrenheit 9/11" won a standing ovation on Tuesday night from an audience of film industry professionals attending its West Coast debut at Academy Award headquarters.

After an audience of more than 600 people in the theater of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cheered, whistled and laughed their way through the two-hour film, they jumped to their feet to give Moore a standing ovation as he took the stage.

Clearly buoyed by the reception, Moore, whose film is scathingly critical and mocking of President Bush, declared: "There has been a shift in this country. ... The average American is finally beginning to figure it out. We were duped (into invading Iraq)."

"I hope this country will be back in our hands in a short period of time," he added...More

(Yahoo! News)

More Enron Tapes, More Gloating

More Enron Tapes, More Gloating

The Department of Justice reportedly has thousands of hours of Enron employees recorded during the West Coast power crisis. Now, some in Congress want all the tapes released.

"I want to make sure that no federal agency suppresses this information, makes the case harder for us to get relief," says U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

After CBS broadcast the voices of Enron energy traders gloating over the crisis they helped create, more tapes were released.

In one tape, an employee says, "You gotta think the economy is going to f------g get crushed, man. This is like a recession waiting to f-----g happen."

The tapes show Enron tried to bring California to its knees.

Elsewhere on the tapes, another employee says, "This is where California breaks."

"Yeah, it sure does man," says another.

And they proposed to do that by exporting energy out of the state so the company could drive up prices even more.

"What we need to do is to help in the cause of, ah, downfall of California," an employee is heard saying on the tapes. "You guys need to pull your megawatts out of California on a daily basis."...More

(CBS News)

The Irresponsible Investor

The Irresponsible Investor

Plug into a Google search engine the words ''investors'' and ''corporate corruption'' and you could spend the rest of your life reading about the many ways in which the former have been abused by the latter. Plug the same words into the company Google and you'll get a strikingly different result. In their recent letter to financial markets in which they lay out the ground rules for their public-share offering, the company's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, insist that Rule No.1 will be ''Don't be evil.'' This, they seem to think, will strike their audience as a radical idea. That is because the audience consists, mainly, of investors. Five long years in Silicon Valley have apparently taught the Google founders a great deal about the people who are about to make them billionaires. The rap sheet on the American investor is long, but it can be briefly summarized:

1) The investor cares about short-term gains in stock prices a lot more than he does about the long-term viability of a company. Indeed, he does not seem even to notice that the two goals often conflict. ''Outside pressures'' from investors, write the Google founders, ''too often tempt companies to sacrifice long-term opportunities to meet quarterly market expectations.''

2) The American investor's short-term greed leads him to be more interested in the appearance of a business than its substance. ''Sometimes this pressure has caused companies to manipulate financial results in order to 'make their quarter,''' the Google founders write. The investor, of course, likes to think of himself as a force for honesty and transparency, but he has proved, in recent years, that he prefers a lucrative lie to an expensive truth. And he's very good at letting corporate management know it.

3) Investors, in their shortsightedness, encourage companies to neglect their social responsibility. Actually, the view emanating from the Google boardroom is harsher than that: the founders clearly believe that investors require corporate executives to sacrifice their souls. To save themselves, they've concocted an extraordinary plan to contribute 1 percent of their company's profits to something called the Google Foundation. The investor who purchases Google's shares will find himself the owner of not just future profits from the search engine but also a charity. ''We believe strongly that in the long term we will be better served -- as shareholders and in all other ways -- by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short-term gains,'' the founders explain. To further prevent investors from subverting their idealism, the Google founders have created, unusually, two classes of shares: one, which investors will be allowed to buy, will come with one-tenth of a vote; the other, controlled by Google employees, will have full voting rights. To investors, Google is as much as saying, ''We'll take your money and give you even more back, but please keep your views and your values, such as they are, to yourselves.''

...More

(The New York Times)

New Service by TiVo Will Build Bridges From Internet to the TV

New Service by TiVo Will Build Bridges From Internet to the TV

The Internet, in jumping past the personal computer and into the living room television set, is starting to give viewers the possibility of bypassing traditional cable and satellite services.

TiVo, the maker of a popular digital video recorder, plans to announce a new set of Internet-based services today that will further blur the line between programming delivered over traditional cable and satellite channels and content from the Internet. It is just one of a growing group of large and small companies that are looking at high-speed Internet to deliver video content to the living room.

The new TiVo technology, which will become a standard feature in its video recorders, will allow users to download movies and music from the Internet to the hard drive on their video recorder. Although the current TiVo service allows users to watch broadcast, cable or satellite programs at any time, the new technology will make it possible for them to mix content from the Internet with those programs.

"This is the fourth electronic video service, and it is an alternative to cable, satellite and broadcast television," said Tom Wolzien, an analyst at Bernstein Investment Research and Management. Those traditional services, Mr. Wolzien said, "have been the monster gatekeepers, but this is a way for content providers to get past them."...More

(The New York Times)

Step Aside TiVo, Here Comes Freevo

Step Aside TiVo, Here Comes Freevo

Tired of TiVo's monthly fees and eager for even more control over their television programs, computer enthusiasts are building TV recording devices out of personal computers and new software packages.

The trend is perhaps a touch of bitter irony for TiVo Inc., whose personal video recorders started out as a "disruptive technology" aimed at cable and satellite companies. The devices allow users to digitally store their favorite shows and skip commercials.

Getting the power of TiVo and updated TV listings without having to pay the monthly fee has apparently made some software quite attractive. At SnapStream Media, a maker of PC-based video recording software, business is growing 20 percent a month, the company said. The company declined to disclose its number of users, however.

"Consumers are becoming aware of the fact that they can transform their PCs into entertainment centers that are very powerful and still very easy to use," said Rakesh Agrawal, SnapStream's chief executive officer...More

(CNN Money)

Bilderberg: The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory

Bilderberg: The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory

The Bilderberg group, an elite coterie of Western thinkers and power-brokers, has been accused of fixing the fate of the world behind closed doors. As the organisation marks its 50th anniversary, rumours are more rife than ever.

Given its reputation as perhaps the most powerful organisation in the world, the Bilderberg group doesn't go a bundle on its switchboard operations.

Telephone inquiries are met with an impersonal female voice - the Dutch equivalent of the BT Callminder woman - reciting back the number and inviting callers to "leave a message after the tone".

Anyone who accidentally dialled the number would probably think they had stumbled on just another residential answer machine.

But behind this ultra-modest façade lies one of the most controversial and hotly-debated alliances of our times.

On Thursday the Bilderberg group marks its 50th anniversary with the start of its yearly meeting.

For four days some of the West's chief political movers, business leaders, bankers, industrialists and strategic thinkers will hunker down in a five-star hotel in northern Italy to talk about global issues.

What sets Bilderberg apart from other high-powered get-togethers, such as the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), is its mystique...More

(BBC News)

2,000 Suicide Bombers Recruited

2,000 Suicide Bombers Recruited

Soome 2,000 Iranians, one as young as seven, have signed up with a shadowy Islamic group to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel, a Teheran newspaper said yesterday.

'So far, 2,000 people have registered,' group spokesman Mohammad Samadi told the reformist newspaper Shargh.

'Twenty-five per cent are under 18 years, 55 per cent are between 18 and 40, and the rest are 40 to 80,' said Mr Samadi of the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the World Islamic Movement. 'The youngest is a seven-year-old child.'

The group launched its recruitment drive late last month, taking names and telephone numbers of volunteers after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Fridays.

The action was intended to 'show our friends in Iraq and all other Muslims that we are ready to give our lives to defend our honour and Islam's', Mr Samadi said then, pointing to US military operations in the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, which are revered by Shi'ites in Iran as well as Iraq...More

(straitstimes.asia1.com.sg)

Check Out the Invisibility Cloak

Check Out the Invisibility Cloak

Flying cars, transparent cloaks, technology which can read minds and games played by brain waves - the stuff of fiction, surely? Not so, these seemingly far-fetched inventions - and more - are now reality.

For a vision of what the future holds, thousands of nay-sayers and believers alike have got an up close and personal glimpse at NextFest, an expo in San Francisco organised by the technology magazine, Wired.

"This is a city that is always looking at what is next," says editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. "We have brought the most innovative minds and extraordinary technologies from around the world and here is what's next. These are the things that will change the way we live and work and play in the future."

The 110 exhibitors were chosen from 2,500 research and development projects underway at universities and corporations worldwide...More

(BBC News)

News Audiences Increasingly Politicized

News Audiences Increasingly Politicized

Despite tumultuous events abroad, the public's news habits have been relatively stable over the past two years. Yet modest growth has continued in two important areas online news and cable news. Regarding the latter, the expanding audience for the Fox News Channel stands out. Since 2000, the number of Americans who regularly watch Fox News has increased by nearly half from 17% to 25% while audiences for other cable outlets have been flat at best.

Fox's vitality comes as a consequence of another significant change in the media landscape. Political polarization is increasingly reflected in the public's news viewing habits. Since 2000, the Fox News Channel's gains have been greatest among political conservatives and Republicans. More than half of regular Fox viewers describe themselves as politically conservative (52%), up from 40% four years ago. At the same time, CNN, Fox's principal rival, has a more Democrat-leaning audience than in the past.

The public's evaluations of media credibility also are more divided along ideological and partisan lines. Republicans have become more distrustful of virtually all major media outlets over the past four years, while Democratic evaluations of the news media have been mostly unchanged. As a result, only about half as many Republicans as Democrats rate a variety of well-known news outlets as credible a list that includes ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, NPR, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, the New York Times, Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report.

CNN's once dominant credibility ratings have slumped in recent years, mostly among Republicans and independents. By comparison, the Fox News Channel's believability ratings have remained steady both overall and within partisan groups. Nonetheless, among those able to rate the networks, more continue to say they can believe all or most of what they hear on CNN than say that about Fox News Channel (32% vs. 25%)...More

(people-press.org)

Dancing With Cats

Dancing With Cats

I just got home from having coffee with a friend at my favorite cafe in West Hollywood. There's a zany new age bookstore down the street. Sometimes I pop in for the sole purpose of sneering at book titles like Tantric Sex for Dummies and Is Your Pet Psychic?

But tonight was no ordinary night of snorting and hiding my face in the Feng Shui soy candle display. Tucked away on the shelf below that black velvet UFO portrait of The High ECK Master, I found Dancing With Cats (Chronicle Books, 1999). Been around for years, but I'd never seen it before. Filled with pictures of humans fannying about in tights, striking "I-Wish-I-Were-Baryshnikov" poses -- together with cats who doing the same thing. The text is rich. "Multicat" interspecies dance ensembles as a tool for enlightenment; think Busby Berkeley with hairballs and chakras. Dig the pre-dance exercises:

Before we can begin dancing with our cats, we must first make contact with them. We can't simply put on music and expect that our cats will dance with us. We have to first align our dynamic vibration systems with theirs and bring those systems into a kind of confluence before we can build the energy levels through the dance that are necessary to attain the higher vibrationary states which enable us to channel the infinite power of the universe.

You see, human beings and cats are not simply physical bodies confined within a barrier of skin or fur. We are also made up of dynamic energy systems which extend out, and interact with, every other energy system

...More

(boingboing.net)

Arty Light-Up Squishy Doorbells

Arty Light-Up Squishy Doorbells

Spore's <$100 doorbells are pretty cool -- gell-filled, illuminated interactive door-art....More

(boingboing.net)

58 Senators Seek Looser Stem-Cell Rules

58 Senators Seek Looser Stem-Cell Rules

Fifty-eight senators are asking President Bush to relax federal restrictions on stem cell research, and several said Monday that the late President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease underscored a need to expand the research using human embryos.

The senators' letter to Bush was sent Friday, before Reagan died after a long struggle with Alzheimer's.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said: "This issue is especially poignant given President Reagan's passing. Embryonic stem cell research might hold the key to a cure for Alzheimer's and other terrible diseases."

Last month, Nancy Reagan appeared at a fund-raising dinner in Los Angeles to promote stem cell research.

"We would very much like to work with you to modify the current embryonic stem cell policy so that it provides this area of research the greatest opportunity to lead to the treatments and cures for which we are all hoping," the senators wrote Bush.

The letter was signed by 43 Democrats, the Senate's one independent and 14 Republicans, among them conservatives who oppose abortion. In April, 206 House members sent a similar letter to Bush.

Stem cells typically are taken from days-old human embryos and then grown in a laboratory into lines or colonies. Because the embryos are destroyed when the cells are extracted, the process is opposed by some conservatives who link it to abortion.

Bush signed an executive order in August 2001 limiting federal research funding for stem cell research to 78 embryonic stem cell lines then in existence...More

(Yahoo! News)

The Free & The Unfree: Producers vs. Pirates vs. Consumers

The Free & The Unfree: Producers vs. Pirates vs. Consumers

The notion that ideas can be protected, like land or gold, from bandits predates Gutenberg's printing press. But only in the digital age has the concept of intellectual property set off an international free-for-all.

On the one side are the intellectual property holders, predominantly citizens of Western nations. They're squaring off against IP outlaws, who tend to live in developing countries. The propertied class loudly asserts its ownership and control. The insurgents cry for openness and exploit technological loopholes with abandon.

This clash of cultures demonstrates how intellectual property, a phrase with a tidy and proper ring, is actually a messy business. The core concept is deceptively rational: Creators of an idea deserve protection for a set period of time so that they may gainfully exploit their work. Such protections, whether through copyright or patents, have enabled great innovation; we wouldn't have antibiotics or Apple or Avril Lavigne if the brains behind them weren't allowed to capitalize on their successes. But it's not easy to tell at what point protecting yesterday's innovation is holding back tomorrow's. When does market protection become a monopoly? Who's to say when a discovery's social benefit outweighs an individual's reward? When is sharing stealing? These aren't idle questions. Affordable health care, digital piracy, genetically modified food - all come down to disputes over the limits and rewards of IP.

Against this backdrop, Wired offers an atlas of the intellectual property world. The maps and charts on the following pages show how IP enforcers are manning the ramparts while IP antagonists are challenging the protection regime. We focus on four industries: media, medicine, agriculture, and software. And while the battle rages, here and there a few pioneers are redrawing the map, marking a third way that respects patent protections and copyright controls while trying to foster more opportunities for broader access. The beginnings can be found in Linux and The Grey Album, generics and the Creative Commons. Use this atlas as a guide to two worlds in collision - and an outline of a new frontier...More

(wired.com)

US Plans Big South Korea Troop Cuts

US Plans Big South Korea Troop Cuts

The United States has proposed withdrawing 12,500 of its 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea by 2006.

US officials told South Korean counterparts of the plans ahead of talks in Seoul on troop movements.

The reduction would include 3,600 troops which Washington has already earmarked for redeployment to Iraq.

The US has said it needs to modernise its forces, but the proposed speed and scale of the move may leave the South feeling vulnerable to North Korea.

"US officials told us last night that under their Global Defence Posture Review they are planning to reduce the number of U.S. troops here by 12,500 by the end of December 2005," said Kim Sook, head of the South Korea Foreign Ministry's North America bureau...More

(BBC News)

Tenet Now, Rummy and Wolfie Soon

Tenet Now, Rummy and Wolfie Soon

he resignation of CIA Director George Tenet comes on the eve of a Senate committee’s release of a very critical report on intelligence gathering surrounding Iraq’s pre-war “weapons of mass destruction.” Tenet was a very political CIA director, who was eager to skew intelligence to the policy predilections of both Democratic and Republican administrations, and deserves to go. But Tenet’s failures, although great, pale in comparison to those at the high levels of the Pentagon.

The Bush administration is trying to make Tenet a sacrificial lamb for its blundering into an Iraqi quagmire. But that ill-advised military adventure was actually championed by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and their subordinates. Either blinded by preconceived notions of a nefariously dangerous Iraq or cynically citing any evidence that would buttress their case for invasion, these war hawks embarrassed themselves by relying on false intelligence from Ahmed Chalabi--an Iranian sympathizer and maybe even an Iranian spy. Chalabi, in turn, showed his disloyalty to the United States by divulging to the despotic Islamic regime in Tehran that the United States could read encoded Iranian government transmissions. Chalabi’s shameless and ungrateful action worked against the interests of a U.S. government that had given him countless millions to undermine Saddam and was made possible by the illegal passing of highly classified information to him from his allies in the Bush administration—most likely from the Pentagon. To better his position in Iraq, Chalabi sold out the United States to curry favor with the Iranian government, the world’s most notorious state sponsor of terrorism. So much for Bush’s “war on terror.”...More

(antiwar.com)

Free VOIP

Free VOIP

Net-phoning provider StanaPhone Communications unveiled on Monday a new offer that resurrects a doomed business model of the late 1990s: free phone calls between a computer and any home, office or mobile phone.

StanaPhone now gives customers downloading its VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software 100 free voice minutes every 30 days. Other VoIP providers charge for connections--some by the minute, others monthly--for as low as $20 a month for unlimited dialing.

As with other VoIP software, StanaPhone's product enables users to make unlimited free phone calls between PCs or laptops--calls that sidestep traditional telephone networks.

New York City-based StanaPhone is among the first of the new generation of VoIP providers to recycle a strategy from the '90s, when Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft's MSN introduced Net phone calling through their instant-messaging applications. At first, the scheme prompted millions of minutes of calls, according to Sarah Hofstetter, vice president at Net2Phone, which was hired to provide the bridge between PCs and phones...More

(News.com)

Apple Unveils Wireless Station to Stream Music

Apple Unveils Wireless Station to Stream Music

Apple Computer Inc. on Monday unveiled a mobile wireless base station that lets users play digital music from their iTunes music libraries on a Macintosh or Windows computer over home stereo systems.

The device, called AirPort Express, is slightly larger than the power adapter for a Macintosh notebook computer and works with a new version of Apple's iTunes digital jukebox software.

AirPort Express comes as PC makers like Gateway Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. and consumer electronics companies such as Sony Corp are seeking to gain a foothold in the digital living room with entertainment PCs.

Apple said AirPort Express is simple in that it allows digital music to be beamed to a home stereo, and it is a portable wireless base station that uses the 802.11g standard. It can be used in hotel rooms with broadband connections or for setting up instant wireless networks.

"This is really the product that brings these two worlds together," said Greg Joswiak, head of Apple's hardware product marketing, in a telephone interview, referring to wireless connectivity and digital music...More

(Yahoo! News)

What Re-election Stunt Will the Bush Admin Pull in October?

What Re-election Stunt Will the Bush Admin Pull in October?

October Surprise is asking people to predict the re-election trick that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney have in store for October. Results so far:

Osama bin Laden captured! 33.3%

Spectacular terrorist attack on US soil! 23.6%

Vote is threatened by terrorist attacks, vote suspended due to red alert. 14.6%

Diebold Election Systems fixes the vote in battleground states. 11.4%

Escalation in Israel, Iran, or North Korea. US opens a new war front. 8.1%

US pulls out of Iraq in October, leaving the UN in charge. 4.9%

WMD's found in Iraq! 4.1%

...More

(boingboing.net)

Ads on Pringles Chips

Ads on Pringles Chips

Procter and Gamble is selling advertising space on individual Pringles chips.

According to the release, first up will be a promotion involving one of Hasbro's (NYSE: HAS) popular board games, "Trivial Pursuit Junior." Questions from that brand will be featured on the crisps, along with the answers, of course. (Actually, P&G should consider placing the questions in one canister of crisps and the answers in another canister to double sales -- as well as the anger level of consumers, I suppose). The launch of this initiative is scheduled for summertime.

...More

(boingboing.net)

Giving 'Burger King Moms' a Voice

Giving 'Burger King Moms' a Voice

She was working the drive-through window at 4 in the afternoon. But whenever there was a lull between orders, the young woman returned to a table in the corner of the local Burger King. Three kids were sitting there, with schoolbooks, papers and pencils all spread out, doing their homework. And Mom was helping as best she could while keeping straight the orders for Whoppers, fries and chicken nuggets. Given her low wages, this single mother was no doubt balancing more than fast food and homework; she was also deciding between paying the rent, going to the doctor and getting prescriptions when somebody gets sick -- or worrying about winter boots for her kids. I call her "Burger King Mom."

"Soccer moms" and "NASCAR dads" have received much attention in recent election campaigns. But who will speak to or for Burger King Mom? She may live in a red or blue state, but neither party is much interested in her or her family's issues. She is part of the low-income demographic most unrepresented in U.S. politics, with the lowest levels of both voter registration and turnout -- and with a high percentage of immigrants. Many low-income people have a hard time connecting to voting: it's too complicated, there are too many other things to worry about, and there is too little reason for confidence that the outcome will make much difference for them.

The Republicans look after their wealthy constituents, and the Democrats want to be the champions of the middle class. Neither makes a priority of the needs of the poor. Is that because the problems of poverty are disappearing in America? Hardly. The poverty rate (including that for children) has risen over the past two years. More people than ever are without health insurance. Increasing numbers of people can't find affordable housing. The minimum wage hasn't been raised for seven years.

Yet poverty is simply not a political issue. The "p" word came up in the Democratic primaries only in the speeches of John Edwards and, briefly, Howard Dean. It has not been mentioned since. John Kerry has hardly said a word about low-income families as he reaches out to the middle class.

And George Bush's faith-based initiative has been reduced to a photo op, while domestic spending that most affects the poor has been drastically cut in favor of war, homeland security and tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich. The media have yet to report on the condition of low-income American families who have also become the casualties of war.

We need to redefine the poverty issue as one of growing income inequality in America, and one that increasingly affects working families. American inequality is now greater than at any time since the roaring injustice of the 1920s or the rampant wealth and poverty of the Gilded Age in the 19th century. The Bush administration's tax policies seem deliberately aimed at returning to the wealth distribution of those periods. But especially since the 1990s, both parties are following the dictates of their corporate donors more than the dictates of compassion or justice. The Republicans run as compassionate conservatives and then govern as corporatists, while the Democrats run as populists, then also govern as corporatists...More

(workingforchange.com)

Albums of the Year...Thus Far

Albums of the Year...Thus Far

We're only barely inside June, but why not go over some of the best albums of 2004 thus far? Now, I'm not saying these are the best albums of the first few months of 2004. But they are my favorites.

Feist: Let It Die. I've had to give this one a rest for fear of reaching burn out. I've posted about this before but I'll say it again: Leslie Feist's solo debut is incredible. It completely diverges from what most of us would expect from a member of Broken Social Scene--rather than guitar-driven indie rock, Let It Die is a very unique singer-songwriter album, carefully crafted songs born from folk and '70s rock radio. Plus, she covers Ron Sexsmith's "Secret Heart" and gives it a little extra bounce.

David Byrne: Grown Backwards. Look Into The Eyeball was an excellent album, but Grown Backwards is better. Bryne's use of the Tosca Strings, the Texas-based chamber group, adds emotion, depth and at times a happy buoyancy. It's nice to see that he is far from running out of fresh ideas. And his cover of Lambchop's "The Man Who Loved Beer" is wonderful.

Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand. This one really lives up to the hype. I think this album is best enjoyed in a vacuum, far away from all the hype, all the "next big thing" statements, separate from all the comparisons to Gang of Four and other post-punk bands. (Personally, I hear a lot of Magazine and Talking Heads.) Take it simply for what it is: An energetic album filled front to back with gritty, tight, great songs.

Blonde Redhead: Misery Is A Butterfly. Another great album from Blonde Redhead. Not a surprise there. This one, though, is something special. There's a heartache in these songs that is very moving. And this isn't a typical rock record. The guitars don't kick in until the album's almost over. Excellent nonetheless.

Fennesz: Venice. This one I don't even own, but I've heard it twice and has blown away. Every now and again I wonder what electronic music has in store. So often an artist will break new ground, an entire school will build itself around that new style, and there's a genuine lack of progress as the trend gets a bit stale. Venice is great for two reasons: it's a fabulous album, and it shows electronic music has progressed. Though Venice is very experimental, I find it very listenable as well.

Modest Mouse: Good News For People Who Love Bad News. How nice that a band with so many albums under its belt has changed its sound and put out another really great album. A lot of people will say "it's not as good as their old stuff." Hard to say. It certainly doesn't sound like their old stuff, that's for sure, and I love it when a band risks taking a new direction and it pays off.

Lali Puna: Faking The Books. The always great Morr Music has another winner with Lali Puna's latest album. What's not to love? I love electronic and I tend to love indie rock. Combining the two just makes sense.

Fiery Furnaces: Blueberry Boat. This isn't out until July, but I was fortunate enough to hear it the other day. It's a challanging record, that's for sure, and it's engrossing and fascinating as well. Judging from the negative reactions of some who also heard it, it's safe to say this record isn't for everybody...More

(coolfer.com)

Nine Iraqi Militias to Disband

Nine Iraqi Militias to Disband

Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, has today announced that nine of the country's major militias have agreed to disband, with militia members either joining the country's legitimate security service or re-entering civilian life.

The agreement follows legislation that banned the militias, which have been battling coalition troops, Iraqi police and ordinary citizens since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mr Allawi said that the militias agreeing to be brought under state control included Kurdish peshmerga militias and the Badr Brigade of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shia party.

It is reported that the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had not agreed to disband.

Mr Sadr's militia have been pulling out of the holy city of Najaf after reaching a truce with the US troops they have been battling for two months.

Mr Sadr's fighters have been allowed to keep their weapons under the deal, and the US has dropped its demand for the cleric's arrest.

Mr Allawi today hailed the agreement with the nine militias. He said: "All of these parties have accepted detailed plans, timetables and terms for the transition and reintegration of the armed groups under their authority, or have already disbanded their militias."

"As of now, all armed forces outside of state control, as provided by this order, are illegal. Those that have chosen violence and lawlessness over transition and reintegration will be dealt with harshly," he added....More

(guardian.co.uk)

MP3 Interviews with Philip K Dick

MP3 Interviews with Philip K Dick

David sez, "A friend loaned me a bunch of tapes, and one of them turned out to be an audio interview of Philip K. Dick, interviewed in his home. You can hear the television on and his kids playing in the background. Very relaxed and chatty. I transfered it to mp3s. Everything you hear is exactly what was on the tape...More

(boingboing.net)

stealitback.com

stealitback.com

Get cheap stuff auction style. This site has all kinds of junk that was once in police custody...More

(stealitback.com)

Last Widow of a Civil War Veteran Dies

Last Widow of a Civil War Veteran Dies

Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died on Memorial Day, ending an unlikely ascent from sharecropper's daughter to the belle of 21st century Confederate history buffs who paraded her across the South. She was 97.

Martin died at a nursing home in Enterprise of complications from a heart attack she suffered May 7, said her caretaker, Dr. Kenneth Chancey. She died nearly 140 years after the Civil War ended.

Her May-December marriage in the 1920s to Civil War veteran William Jasper Martin and her longevity made her a celebrated final link to the old Confederacy.

After living in obscurity and poverty for most of her life, in her final years the Sons of Confederate Veterans took her to conventions and rallies, often with a small Confederate battle flag waving in her hand and her clothes the colors of the rebel banner.

"I don't see nothing wrong with the flag flying," she said frequently...More

(CNN.com)

Atlantis: Discovered at Last?

Atlantis: Discovered at Last?

"The BBC is reporting that recent satellite pictures may show the location of the fabled city of Atlantis, as described by Plato. It is in Southern Spain, though, and not on an island as is commonly believed. Here's an image of the concentric rings over the alleged area." This story has gotten a lot of submissions; it's worth noting that it's also shown up off Cyprus, or near Cuba, or is Crete, or... It is worth noting that that Ubar was found this way...More

(slashdot.org)

Veep Contenders

Veep Contenders

After John Kerry eliminated his serious competition for the Democratic presidential nomination in March 2004, speculation began on possible running mates. A number of people have emerged as the top contenders, coming from a variety of backgrounds, regions and political viewpoints, all potentially bringing positives and negatives to the Democratic ticket.

Top Contenders

• Wesley Clark
• John Edwards
• Dick Gephardt
Bill Nelson
• Bill Richardson
• Tom Vilsack

...More

(cnn.com)

showgeorgethedoor.org

showgeorgethedoor.org

Get rid of Bush, great grassroots site...More

(showgeorgethedoor.org)

Rock Band Creed Breaks Up

Rock Band Creed Breaks Up

There is a God...More

(suntimes.com)

TheyWorkForYou: finest advocacy web-app in the world

TheyWorkForYou: finest advocacy web-app in the world

TheyWorkForYou.com -- a project from the FaxYourMP team -- has launched today. This is the most amazing, subversive piece of political webware I've ever seen. It scrapes the Parliamentary record and makes the entire thing commentable, searchable and permalinkable. It compiles stats of which MPs vote against their parties most often, which ones speak most often, which have made the most motions and so forth. I've been beta-testing it and the code and UI are brilliant. It's like they've poured Parliament into LiveJournal -- and in so doing, have cutg overnment down to a human-addressable scale. We need one of these in every country in the world...More

(boingboing.net)

20 Lectures on Science Fiction as MP3s

20 Lectures on Science Fiction as MP3s

The University of Minnesota has posted the audio from 20 lectures from its "Studies in Narrative: Science Fiction and Fantasy" distance-ed course. I haven't listened to them yet, but I've put 'em on my iPod for long plane-trips...More

(boingboing.net)

Solar-Powered Gadgets on the Move

Solar-Powered Gadgets on the Move

Gadget lovers are using solar panels to power their toys in the remotest places -- like Mt. Everest, altitude 29,029 feet.

"The sun was so bright at 18,000 feet that it wasn't a problem at all," said Sean Burch, who climbed the world's highest peak alone last year, the 50th anniversary of the first climb, and did not have the human power to bring along hundred-pound batteries like bigger crews do.

In the wilds or on the road, solar panels that fold into notebook-size cases are charging everything from notebook computers to cameras and Palm Pilots.

Bike riders attach a panel to their luggage racks and backpackers cascade a few down the back of their rucksacks, giving the sun a full day to charge up batteries while they are on the move. Burch, who climbed to the top of Everest without oxygen, except for the last day's push to the top, charged his equipment in base camp with a Powerline system from Original Power while he prepared for the big climb.

"It was nice because I had my computer, solar panels and phone and I could communicate as well as anyone," he said...More

(http://wired.com)

Breakdancing Transformers Video

Breakdancing Transformers Video

Breakdancing Transformers? Breakdancing Soundwave, the boombox Decepticon? I screamed, and my sine wave pierced the spheres....More

(gizmodo.com)

Riding the Antiwar Backlash

Riding the Antiwar Backlash

Bush knew! says Capitol Hill Blue, a Washington-based website, a rumor which, if true, is perhaps why POTUS is getting himself a lawyer:

"Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq."

That's why I'm proud to be an American: because here, not even the President is exempt from the rule of law. He can't run around covering up his misdeeds, and committing perjury, or stand idly by while his subordinates commit a felony by outing an undercover CIA agent.

Meanwhile, down the street from the White House, investigators are strapping high-level civilian officials up to polygraph machines and asking them how Ahmed "Hero-in-Error" Chalabi got his hands on top-secret information subsequently leaked to the Iranians. And they'd have every reason to treat them as "enemy combatants," although somehow I doubt Pentagon officials will be subjected to the same Gitmo-ized interrogation methods they apparently mandated in Iraq.

As the roof caves in on this administration, with multiple scandals threatening the Bush White House from every side, the unfolding disaster illustrates everything about this great country of ours that's worth fighting – and, yes, even dying – for. The system – the mighty accomplishment of the Founding Fathers: rusted, neglected, and abused, lo these many these years – is still working, albeit creakily and inconsistently.

Praise the Lord, and pass the popcorn – this is going to be quite a show...More

(antiwar.com)

Dark Age Ahead

Dark Age Ahead

Some running notes:

What I find most useful about reading Jacobs is how well her arguments scale. They're scale-free arguments. Through her discussion of large cities in The Death and Life of Great American Cities and of entire civilizations in this book, you can see instantly how the problems and solutions she examines could be used to describe smaller entities like towns, families, large corporations, project teams, blogospheres, online communities, etc.

Dark Age Ahead is ultimately another in the this-world-is-going-to-hell genre of media, but Jacobs makes it seem OK somehow. Maybe it's because she's really concerned about it and not selling fear like everyone else?

Several mentions of Canada and Toronto (Jacobs' current place of residence) in the book so far. I wonder about generalizations being made about specific situations in Toronto; something to keep in mind.

Jane Jacobs hates cars. Absolutely can't stand them. I thought this book was about a possible coming dark age, not her dislike of automobiles.

As I'm reading, I'm flipping back to the endnotes. Many of her sources are either the Toronto Star or private conversations she's had with people. One gets the mental picture of an elderly woman sitting at her breakfast table, reading the newspaper to guests, and getting so worked up about it all that she writes a book about the coming dark age.

Best chapter is Dumbed Down Taxes, about how the collection and distribution of funds by the government has become disconnected with the needs of people. Jacobs makes the excellent point that maybe the rules and structure we came up with for governing the county 200 years ago isn't necessarily the best way to go about it now and should be reexamined. Why is New York City part of a state? Does it benefit the state or the city in any way? And what about states? Do they still make sense? (And don't even get me started on the electoral college.)

...More

(Kottke.org)

Second CIA Official Expected to Leave

Second CIA Official Expected to Leave

A second top CIA official is expected to announce his departure today, just a day after the agency's director, George Tenet, resigned amid mounting criticism of the intelligence service.
A senior intelligence official said last night that James Pavitt, the head of the CIA's clandestine service, plans to announce his retirement. Mr Pavitt heads the agency's best-known division, which is responsible for gathering foreign intelligence.

An unnamed CIA official told the Associated Press that Mr Pavitt had taken his decision several weeks ago, and had not known of Mr Tenet's impending resignation. In an emotional speech to his agency yesterday, Mr Tenet cited personal reasons for his departure.

Mr Pavitt has been with the CIA for 31 years, and Stephen Kappes, an agency veteran of 23 years service, is expected to replace him.

Mr Tenet's resignation and Mr Pavitt's retirement come as the CIA braces itself for a series of reports into the failure to prevent the September 11 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington and the glaringly inaccurate assessment of Iraq's weapons capabilities in the run up to the war.

A national inquiry into the September 11 attacks, due to be published next month, is expected to lay blame on the intelligence agency for failing to detect the terrorists' plans.

A report from the Senate intelligence committee into the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction will be "a very stinging report of failure inside the CIA", according to Senator Carl Levin, an intelligence committee member. The report was handed to the CIA for comment in May, and will be made public this month...More

(guardian.co.uk)

Iraq Seeks '.IQ' Domain to Make its Mark on Net

Iraq Seeks '.IQ' Domain to Make its Mark on Net

Iraq is making its first claim for an internationally recognized presence on the Internet.

Iraq's media commission and the U.S.-led administration in Iraq want to set up Web addresses using the domain code ".IQ" as the final tag. That would mean addresses for Web pages would be distinctively identified on the Internet with Iraq's own country code.

The Iraqi chairman of the National Communications & Media Commission, Siyamend Othman, said the .IQ domain name would allow Iraqis to stake a "virtual flag" in the worldwide Internet community. It is "an important tangible and symbolic milestone for this nation, as well as the freedom and hopes of the Iraqi people," he wrote in a letter dated May 20 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Although Internet cafes are popping up throughout Baghdad, few people own computers, and even fewer have regular access to the Internet. A recent survey cited by the U.S.-led administration in Iraq found that about 6% of Iraqis say they have access to the Internet but fewer than 2% use it regularly. About 12% of the population reports having a computer.

Iraqi officials say the rebuilding of Iraq has been hampered by poor national communications...More

(Yahoo! News)

Preaching to the Anti-Corp Choir

Preaching to the Anti-Corp Choir

Take the power and cultural reach of the Roman Catholic Church, the British monarchy or the Soviet Communist Party at their respective heights. Add a suit and tie and lots of legal wiggle room. Plaster logos on every square inch of available space. Replace any deep sense of social responsibility with a profit motive. Boom! You'll have The Corporation, the most pervasive political-cultural force in the world.

At least that's the argument filmmakers Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan build in The Corporation, a provocative new documentary opening this week in San Francisco and later this summer in cities around the country.

The Corporation provides a methodical indictment of corporate power, accusing big business of being environmentally destructive, amoral and exploitative. It even invites an FBI psychologist to diagnose corporate behavior with a standard psychiatric checklist. Corporations, he concludes, are psychotic.

Lumping Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola in with John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer might seem like a bit of a stretch, but The Corporation is quite rational and level-headed. It plays more like a jazzy, well-researched essay than a left-wing rant, and even pops in a few wry visual references -- bits of animation, old instructional videos -- to lighten the tone.

The American corporation has relatively mundane origins. In the early and mid-1800s, states began assigning businesses rights parallel to those of human citizens. By the end of the century, the Supreme Court affirmed those rights -- it was a boon for business owners, who now had personal protection from liability. As laws separated the business from the business owner, The Corporation argues, corporations were unleashed from their responsibilities to their communities.

Corporations became wealth-producing machines, damn the human and environmental costs. Want examples? The Corporation cites plenty: Shell's oil-extraction practices in Nigeria; the marketing of products to very young children; Fox News' squashing of an investigative report implicating one of its advertisers; IBM's partnership with the Third Reich.

The film becomes less sure of itself as it scans the future. How will the corporation evolve in a decentralized, wired world? Who will make best use of new technologies: the corporations, which can use them to transfer wealth instantly around the world, or the anti-corporate activists, who do the same with information?...More

(wired.com)

Minimalist Muji House

Minimalist Muji House

View Image

This open plan house, designed by Kazuhiko Namba and sponsored by Muji, was recently chosen for publication in the prestigious GA Houses 80. Muji has worked with architects and designers before to create new spaces, most recently with Tokujin Yoshioka for the ultimate minimalist apartment renovation. Naturally, the homes are filled to the brim with Muji. Nice.
...More

(mocoloco.com)

CD Prices Continue to Fall

CD Prices Continue to Fall

CD prices are continuing to drop, says NPD Group's MusicWatch PriceLab.

We already knew that the average price for a full-length CD in the last quarter of 2003 was 2% lower than the previous year. Now NPD says the average price for the first quarter of 2004 was a 4% lower than the same period in 2003.

In dollar terms, the average sale price now stands at $13.29, down from $13.79.

There are a number of factors in this drop. Universal Music Group's lower list price for new releases is one. The low price of most album downloads is another. Pressure from DVDs and video games is another.

Other interesting tidbits:

- The average price of a catalog CD (defined as a release that's at least 18 months old) was $12.99.

- Prices at mass merchants fell 5%.

- UMG's titles dropped in price by 5%...More

(coolfer.com)

40" OLED Television Revealed at SID

40" OLED Television Revealed at SID

"Seiko Epson has unveiled a massive 40 inch OLED display prototype at this years Society for Information Display (SID) symposium in Seattle. The display was printed on to a backplane containing the drive electronics with a specialized inkjet process using Phillip's PolyLED technology. Samsung and Phillips also showed large scale OLEDs they say can also be scaled up to 'television sizes.'"

<...More

(slashdot.org)

Can the PR - Get the Facts: On Enron tapes and the Lynching of Pat Tillman

Can the PR - Get the Facts: On Enron tapes and the Lynching of Pat Tillman

CBS News has acquired tapes of Enron employees boasting about how they were "f-----g over" California during the late, great "energy crisis" there.
My favorite segment in these charming conversations is the dismay at Enron when local utilities try to get the money back. "They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" inquires an Enronite. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"

"Yeah, Grandma Millie, man."

"Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a-- for f------g $250 a megawatt hour."

Grandma Millie. The nerve of her. Imagine thinking it's wrong to rig a market and overcharge by billions of dollars. But hey, no worries at Enron, because George W. Bush is about to be elected president. "It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay secretary of energy."

"When this election comes, Bush will f------g whack this s--t, man. He won't play this price-cap bulls--t."

Bush said obligingly in May 2001, "We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse, and that's why I oppose price caps."

Bush eventually changed course, as he so often does, which adds such special piquancy to his campaign against John Kerry for "flip-flopping."

Since we're having a bad language day, I may as well quote Ben Bradlee, longtime editor of The Washington Post, who had a great fondness for "Holy s--t!" stories, meaning those where your reaction is, "And I thought I'd heard everything!"...More

(WorkingForChange.com)

More Personal Video Players from Computex

More Personal Video Players from Computex

The Register's Tony Smith has even more about all the personal video players that are popping up at Computex, including this very iPodesque X-Fram II from TwinMOS (also sold as the Mobinote 7010) with a 7-inch, 754 x 480 LCD and a 20GB 1.8-inch hard drive. They are even calling its bundled app 'DVX-POD,' just so you don't mistake their intentions. It's got an AV port for on-the-fly MPEG4 encoding (although only at 352 x 288) and can play back a wealth of formats, including Divx 3/4/5 (although no word for XviD), WMV, and Quicktime 6, which is a rarity...More

(gizmodo.com)

All-Wood Floor Lamp

All-Wood Floor Lamp

Solid pine or walnut lamp with wooden lampshade made in Argentina, from LA-based Sundayland. “Los Angeles, with its ocean, mountains, sun and vibration; together with our Buenos Aires city boy and tango background, is our inspiration…”. Sundayland’s Fidji lamp and Pantone carpet adds some color, the Cactus table (cactus included) recalls the LA hills, the Pinetree table a bit further North, there’s a sheepskin beanbag called Pouf and a knotty pine veneer water dispenser, Water Boy...More

(mocoloco.com)

Enron Traders Gloating about Screwing California

Enron Traders Gloating about Screwing California

CBS has got hold of tapes of conversations between Enron employees during the California rolling blackouts. The conversations are amazing, basically a bunch of crooks gloating about the savage rogering they're giving to the people of California and how much money they're making. This has put fresh fire into the bellies of lawmakers who have renewed their vows to decapitate Enron's management and stake their heads on pikes outside of every polling place before election day.

Employee 1: "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?
Employee 2: "Yeah, Grandma Millie man.
Employee 1: "Yeah, now she wants her f-----g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a—for f-----g $250 a megawatt hour."

...More

(BoingBoing.net)

Probe into Alleged Chalabi Leaks to the Iranians may Widen

Probe into Alleged Chalabi Leaks to the Iranians may Widen

The Iraqi exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi—formerly a key ally of the Bush administration—is suspected of leaking confidential information about U.S. war plans for Iraq to the government of Iran before last year’s invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, government sources told NEWSWEEK.

The allegation that Chalabi may have supplied the Iranians information about U.S. military plans comes on the heels of recent disclosures that Chalabi or others in his organization may have compromised more recent U.S. intelligence operations by leaking what officials initially described as “extremely sensitive” and “highly classified” information to Iranian officials—information which could “get people killed” if abused by the Iranians.

NEWSWEEK has learned that the National Security Agency first uncovered evidence indicating Chalabi’s possible compromises of U.S. intelligence and sent a criminal referral to the FBI requesting an investigation into the alleged leak to Iran. A similar referral was sent to the FBI by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which until recently was responsible for managing Pentagon payments to Chalabi’s group and for supervising its intelligence-collection efforts.

Last week, U.S. intelligence officials requested that NEWSWEEK and several other media organizations refrain from publishing some details about what kind of intelligence information Chalabi and the INC were alleged to have given to the Iranians. After some details surfaced in print and TV reports earlier this week, however, officials withdrew their requests, leading to a spate of media reports alleging that Chalabi or one of his associates told the Iranians that U.S. intelligence had cracked a secret code system used by the Iranian intelligence service. U.S. political activists close to Chalabi have told reporters in recent days that Chalabi learned about the codebreaking in Baghdad from a drunken U.S. official...More

(msnbc.com)

Fahrenheit 9/11 Trailer

Fahrenheit 9/11 Trailer

Watch the trailer...More

(fahrenheit911.com)

The Way the Music Died

The Way the Music Died

Watch the PBS clip on why music sucks today...it's pretty good stuff...More

(pbs.org)

Music Picks of the Week

Music Picks of the Week

MTV/M2 fans may want to stop by Northsix to see Puny Human so they can gawk-n-stalk drummer Iann Robinson. Or, if you happen to be so cool that you found out before it quickly sold out last week, you can drop by the Knitting Factory to see PJ Harvey. Marah gets a lot of Bruce Springsteen comparisons; they're at Southpaw. But the show of the evening could very well be at Irving Plaza: My Morning Jacket, who put on one heckuva great live show. If you haven't seen them, by all means get over there tonight because you missed the show last night. Veeeery recommended. (M Ward, who isn't too shabby either, opens.)

On Thursday, Coolfer will definitely be at Rothko to check out a live performance by Warp Records' newest signing, Home Video (for fans of Boards of Canada or Lali Puna). Also on the bill: a DJ set by Keith Tenniswood (Two Lone Swordsmen), a Mr. Negative decks & fx set and a DJ set by Alex English. So hot. Many of you will want to see Beth Orton at Pianos. Yeah, that Beth Orton. I ain't crappin' ya negative. (Tickets are no longer available at Ticketweb, by the way.) Over at Northsix, Beulah will be playing its lovely brand of pop music (they're at the Bowery the following evening). Beulah puts on a great show and is a pop-lover's dream. Finally, have you never seen the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra? This is your chance. They've got a record release party at the Bowery Ballroom. It'll definitely be a fun show. (They play Saturday as well.)

Friday night is packed. They Might Be Giants (along with David Cross, Todd Barry and People are Wrong) are at Southpaw to play a benefit for 826NYC, a tutoring center that will open in Brooklyn this summer. Tickets are $50, but c'mon, it's for a good cause. Good cause or not, I'll be elsewhere. Coolfer may stop by the Mercury Lounge to see On The Speakers, the new band of former Creeper Lagoon frontman Ian Sefchick. The Knitting Factory's Tap Bar hosts the Sub Pop Records Release Tour featuring The Catheters, Crack Torch and Salo Rex. Could be a good show. Way, way out at Jones Beach, David Bowie and the Polyphonic Spreee perform. Singer-songwriter T.Griffin is at Pete's Candy Store. And I'd like to throw in a mention of the droning psyche rock of Vietnam, who play at Sin-e with The Double. Good rawk, that Vietnam. They've got an EP coming soon on ultra-hip NYC label Vice Records...More

(gothamist.com)

Newsweek Discovers Smartphones, Confuses Them With PCs

Newsweek Discovers Smartphones, Confuses Them With PCs

Although it took them three writers to do it, Newsweek takes a look at the smartphone trend, trying to pose the seemingly deep question "Will Phones Replace PCs?" while blissfully ignoring the fact that the only possible answer is, you know, 'maybe.' That's some thought-provocation right there. Still, there's some good stuff in the article, like a stop-smoking program that sends encouraging messages to Japanese students, and (hypothetical?) examples of two single people hooking up in a bar using Symbian Dater...More

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Cool Looking Audio Players

Cool Looking Audio Players

Two new mobile players in BenQ's Joybee line, the Joybee 102 and the Joybee 180 (pictured right). The 102 is billed as the world's smallest, a moderately-contested title that we'll let those to whom size matters sort out, and comes in 128MB and 256MB versions and three different colors. It is also interesting to note that along with Windows and MacOS, the Joybee is specifically listed as support Linux...More

(gizmodo.com)

ForwardTrack

ForwardTrack

Eyebeam has launched their latest project, ForwardTrack. It's a system for diseminating petitions that not only keeps track of who supports the petition, but how that support has developed. The description from the site:

ForwardTrack is a new system created by Eyebeam R&D designed to promote on-line activism. The system tracks and maps the diffusion of email forwards, political calls-to-action, and petitions. Our goal is to help people understand decentralized networks and see the power of "6 degrees of separation." ForwardTrack technology helps prove that one person can make a difference.

...More

(Kottke.org)