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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2002

cancel my subscription

be you patriot or multiculturalist, there is something here for almost everyone. i know sam adams is doubly proud to peddle suds and skin.

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lance armstrong

what frightens me most about this story is that he has $20 million to blow on a space jaunt.

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Tuesday, Feb 19, 2002

long view

"Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Copyright Extension Law"

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major amplitude

"The stock market is schizophrenic, tech investors are paralyzed and the publishing business is in its worst shape in years. Sounds like a great time to start a tech magazine, huh?

David Bunnell and Fred Davis think so. The tech publishing veterans have thrown sanity to the winds with the planned launch of Dig-It, which the duo call -- stop me if you've heard this one -- ``the Rolling Stone of tech.''

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group effort

"The "magic number" of people needed to create a viable population for multi-generational space travel has been calculated by researchers. It is about the size of a small village - 160. But with some social engineering it might even be possible to halve this to 80."

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strategic intelligence

"WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries, military officials said."

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new cosmos

“Our readers are seeking emotional stability. We won’t make them feel guilty if they are not having a one-hour orgasm. Readers think women will have fewer partners and be less promiscuous. Cosmo girl is not a ‘ladette’, she is quite vulnerable emotionally and I will produce a ‘softer’ magazine.”

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memory booster

"The "next generation" of DVDs, able to hold almost six times as much information as current discs, has been unveiled by major technology companies."

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curious george

"Now, this could be, anti-George people (there must be some) might argue, because he doesn’t entirely engage. George, for all his intensity, is also an observer; there’s something positively disassociated about him, it sometimes seems. Or it could be because he engages too much—he’s one of those overcommitted, 24/7, nineties types, who, having burned out (he went into therapy and onto Zoloft when he was working at the White House), has to cut his emotional ties and start all over again."

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sachs titles

"NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Financial giant Goldman Sachs & Co. has signaled it has set aside more than $1 billion to start a magazine unit, and it’s approaching top magazine executives in hopes of reeling in one of the industry’s biggest names to run the business."

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body double

"Johnson wrote a book during his FCC tenure, How to Talk Back to Your Television Set. This link takes you to the full text version, which Johnson has graciously posted online. It's amazing how relevant the book still is today, including its withering assessment of the government's chief regulatory body overseeing the television business ("It has failed," Johnson writes, "because it has, in effect, been captured by the industry it was established to regulate")."

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sailing denial

"CIA Director George Tenet told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during their meeting Saturday in Sharm el Sheikh that the United States has already decided to attack Iraq, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal reported Sunday."

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radioactive man

"'Earth lost its protection against ultraviolet solar rays and for several hundred years the planet would have been battered by intense radiation. All sorts of mutational damage to animals' DNA would have occurred. New species could have emerged as a result. It is possible Homo sapiens may have been one of these.'"

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expert systems

"The agency which Poindexter will run is called the Information Awareness Office. You want to know what that is? Think, Big Brother is Watching You. IAO will supply federal officials with "instant" analysis on what is being written on email and said on phones all over the US. Domestic espionage. You want to test it out? Text-message any American friend, "Bmb OK. Allah gr8"."

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al news, al the time

us set to unleash j-lo and propaganda on middle east radio

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duly noted

howie's feeling libby today.

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marin county hottub party

at berkeley they can go to strip clubs for class credit. i wonder if i was in school now would my vietnam class have taken a fieldtrip to the dmz?

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whats on

"Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the struggle for survival is how easily organisms can be harmed by that which they desire. The trout is caught by the fisherman's lure, the mouse by cheese. But at least those creatures have the excuse that bait and cheese look like sustenance. Humans seldom have that consolation. The temptations that can disrupt their lives are often pure indulgences. No one has to drink alcohol, for example. Realizing when a diversion has gotten out of control is one of the great challenges of life."

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