drat fink
View current page
...more recent posts
Saturday, May 01, 2004
wholesome american values
"This basic cluelessness explains a great deal, I think. It allows Americans to continue drawing a sharp distinction between their traditional domestic institutions and norms (pluralistic, legalistic and at least nominally democratic) and their behavior abroad (brutal, authoritarian, and, at its worst moments, downright fascistic.) It's a kind of imperial adaptation of what historian Pierre van den Berghe labeled 'herrenvolk democracy' -- in which egalitarian norms within the privileged class or race are combined with paternal and/or repressive treatment of subject peoples."
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004
passion play
lovely
hit by pitch
baseball.insight.daily.
short sharp shack
"I'm Richard Baker and this is my homepage and the central node of my Web presence. I'm a physicist, an entrepreneur, an Extropian, a science fiction fan and a computer geek. Maybe one day I'll be a writer too. I'm also interested in history, philosophy, evolutionary biology, positive psychology and many other things. I have all the standard accoutrements of online life: a weblog, a PGP public key, a Geek Code, numerous wishlists, a PayPal account, a FOAF summary."
duck dodgers
"The Bush administration is bracing itself for the latest memoir by a former insider," The Independent reports. "Joe Wilson, a former ambassador, will this week reveal the name of the government official who 'outed' his wife -- revealing her identity as a CIA operative in apparent revenge for his role in proving the White House made false claims about Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons."
times change
kinsley named op-ed editor of la times.
Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004
tickling the ivories
"Nicholas Turse has been covering the military-industrial-entertainment-scientific complex for Tomdispatch now for many months. His last piece was on the nature-bending activities of the Pentagon's blue-sky scientific operation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. Now, he adds another hyphen to the complex's complex equation, reminding us of the way in which higher education has become a wing of the Pentagon. The ivory tower is, he tells us, being rebuilt out of a high-tensile [classified] material and armed with [classified] [secret] [classified] and so is being readied to face the world explosively."
watching use
"As a result, some analysts say U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials might be starting to track blogs for important bits of information. This interest is a sign of how far Web media such as blogs have come in reshaping the data-collection habits of intelligence professionals and others, even with the knowledge that the accuracy of what's reported in some blogs is questionable."via animal
meet the mutts
"One move won’t do it—the current club has a pallid offense and too many declining veteran pitchers. The Mets must follow a comprehensive plan that incorporates the club’s financial wherewithal (annual revenue estimated at $158 million), the primacy of a strong farm system (cheap parts allow extraordinary flexibility), and the demands of the New York market. Raving yahoos on WFAN—“Trade Tyler Yates for Vladimir Guerrero!”—have no idea how complex reworking a baseball roster in the Moneyball age can get; from luxury taxes to arbitration schedules, carping press-boxers to union grievances, this isn’t some office rotisserie-league team where you just add up the stats. Plausible moves might not get your heart pounding right now, but they are the only way to eventually defibrillate this franchise."via primer
Monday, Apr 26, 2004
lets goo crazy
"Of course, Google's current value stems from the founders' willingness to rethink methods of how to search Web pages, at a time when many Internet experts thought that problem had been solved. And the company now appears to be looking at extending its business in ambitious ways, like a new e-mail service for consumers. But the ambitions of the Google founders wander further afield. They have talked about building space transporters and implanting chips in people's heads that can provide them with information as they think."