drat fink

Saturday, January 27, 2001

repeat performance

"LEXINGTON, Ky., Jan. 26 (UPI) -- An Italian doctor and fertility expert told a lecture at Samaritan Hospital that he plans to attempt to clone a human being within the next year. Dr. Severino Antinori of Rome said he is treating 10 couples -- including one American couple -- who are candidates for what he described as a therapeutic procedure. Antinori said this is the first time he has made his intentions public. "Whether we like it or not, we will have cloned individuals in the very near future," said Dr. Panos Zavos, a friend of Antinori, who delivered his lecture Thursday. Zavos told Friday's Lexington Herald-Leader, "If it's done sensibly and responsibly enough, I think there is a place for cloning in this world. It's going to happen." Antonini, 55, who is known for his work in assisted reproduction techniques and in developing methods have allowed even women in their early 60s to get pregnant, said the chance to help infertile couples outweighs the ethical objections to his procedure, which he describes as safe. "Life is important," he said. "The goal to be a father, to be a mother, is a human right, an absolute human right." Antonini said the cloning attempt likely would be made somewhere in the Mediterranean."

leftcoasters

sf moma

clearout sails

Martindale's 'The Reference Desk'
The Argus Clearinghouse
libraryspot
x-refer

forgotten fruits

American Cultural History - The Twentieth Century
manray-photo.com/
Cinema Sites
gutenberg.net/

eyes that are ourselves

searchable satellite images of the earth -- terraserver.

blogspotting

pearls that are his eyes

indieshite

dratfink should have known about freakytrigger.

idle on high

Bentley Arnage Red Label: The Colors of Money

sign wave

"Search engine and portal Subjex.com thought it had found an extraordinarily inexpensive way to advertise during the Super Bowl. Rather than pay for a commercial during the game, the thrifty dot-com planned on paying attendees to promote the company. For each second a person in the stands was able to get a Subjex.com sign on television, the company would pay that person $1,000, considerably less than shelling out a couple million for a 30-second spot. Unfortunately for Subjex.com, the marketing plan has been derailed by legal threats from the NFL. "As a public company our main goal is profitability through unique and cost-effective advertising concepts that build our brand," says Andrew Hyder, president and CEO of Subjex.com. "It was interesting how quickly the National Football League perceived our little contest as such a big threat. First we tried to appease its legal representatives by changing our contest name and rules with no success. While we still disagree the NFL has the right to control what people may wear or hold while attending games, we don't have the resources to take the organization on in court and we don't want game attendees getting barred or kicked out of the Super Bowl." The company has since notified participants that the contest has been canceled and posted a note on its Web site."

cheap eats

why is getting to the superbowl actually a money losing venture for teams in the shortrun?

you will buy this

this guy has directed some of the most effective and effecting television ads of alltime. check out this profile of joe pytka.

Friday, January 26, 2001

buy me to the moon

great blog o' the week at blogger -- who would buy that?

middleground

SmackDabMedia.com - NOVA

channel islanders

"Why can't we agree that Britain is a European country? Because it is not so simple, says Timothy Garton Ash--our ties with the English-speaking peoples remain very strong. Britain is a country of multiple identities or it is nothing. But a deeper European identity is there for the making--if we want it."

kickstart

another soccermate with an alt lifestyle --

flatnessisgod
Audio | Ryan McGinness
designing buzz

fuzzy matter

everything isnt black and white

nostagliart

nostalgia and the 20th century

not so smart

looking out for some Strategic Intelligence?

lamb shanks

Adopt a Lamb and Steal its Coat then put its Picture on your Wall

urinary tract

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Naphthalene, which gives mothballs and public restroom deodorizers their distinctive aroma, causes cancer in rats, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday. Rats who breathed naphthalene fumes developed cancer at a rate high enough to worry scientists at the National Toxicology Program (NTP), who must now decide whether people have the same risk. The rats especially developed rare cancers in the nose, the researchers found. ``The rats in the study were exposed by inhalation, just as most people are, in doses comparable to some human consumer and workplace exposures,'' the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which administers the NTP, said in a statement. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies suggested the tests after some German workers exposed to naphthalene developed cancers including larynx, gastric, nasal, and colon cancer. The report was the 500th issued by the NTP using laboratory rats. ``Since NTP was established in 1978, its reports have changed how substances are handled in occupational and home settings, and in the more general environment,'' it said in a statement. Some chemicals restricted because of its tests include tetrachloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride, once used in home cleaning fluids; mirex, which was restricted in its use as a pesticide and fire retardant; benzene, an ingredient in gasoline, and phenolphthalein, once an active ingredient in most over-the-counter laxatives. ``Unlike the old cliche that 'everything causes cancer', almost half the chemicals tested do not produce tumors in laboratory rodents, and with a few rare exceptions, chemicals that cause tumors or other diseases in rodents eventually are found to cause similar if not identical problems in humans,'' the NTP said. "

Thursday, January 25, 2001

professor al

al gore has accepted an offer to teach for two semesters at columbia university. guess he wants some of that nyc spotlight that the clinstones have cornered.

up from the underground

really welldone indierock site --basement-life

indiearing

Nice Collection of Real Audio Trax
at Splendid: Boombox

drat thinks

Sleeping Rats May Dream of Maze (washingtonpost.com)

Wednesday, January 24, 2001

animal fodder

a friend of mine got home this afternoon and his dog was at the computer reading dratfink. and its in the referal log. i just wonder how he used the google search. i told him that i had signed up with one of those spam email sites that promises increased traffic to your site. i guess they are communing with some dark voodoo spirits. okay. none of its true. call me a rube. to think, a dog could read. what a maroon...

sneak attack

"Four years after he pulled the same stunt at President Clinton's second inauguration, a man without the proper clearance walked through security checkpoints and then stepped up and shook President Bush's hand shortly after the swearing-in, sources familiar with the incident said yesterday."

illegal defensiveness

nj sportwriter on what ails the offensive production and boring play in the nba.

presidential fervor

-- i was thinking that i had done something stupid and that when i saw the person related to the event in which i performed said stupid act i would give them $10 as a payment of a fine for the act i perpetrated. sort of a moveable kangaroo court. i needed to pay the fine so i could move on to the healing process as the dimension of my stupidity were weighing on my shoulders and unlike atlas i could not shrug. so i figured if i could pay my fine id be done with it. then i thought there could be a sliding scale of indemnity for a whole range of activities and in fact if you in turn wished to chasten someone you could refer to them in a frowning tone by the first name of the person on the bill that relates to the severity of their indiscretion. so say someone just kept talking your ear off. you could say to them, "easy up, george." if they continued to annoy you, maybe even said something offensive, the logical rejoinder would be -- "hey abe, dont make me emacipate your ass!" then, of course, on the next level you might find yourself really start to lay it all out there. "ALEX, DONT MAKE ME PUT A &#$@! CAP IN YOUR DOME!" you can just imagine what a dr dre, a ulysses or a big ben might mean. some serious shit. no doubt. so dont be no george.

to the hole

for only the second time does a woman basketballer dunk twice in a college season.

grrl power

"The Giants have wisely embraced and encouraged this minor phenomenon. The history of professional football is nothing if not the history of testosterone-addled men and the women who try to put up with them. There was Vince Lombardi, whose maniacal quest for perfection drove his spouse to alcohol and depression. There was the former Philadelphia Eagles safety Wes Hopkins, whose marriage collapsed one blustery afternoon in Veterans Stadium when his wife discovered a second Mrs. Hopkins in the stands. And then there were certain tomcatting members of the early-90�s Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys who actually stockpiled an entire mansion called, of all things, �The White House� with their mistresses."

spy v spy

The Spy on the Wall Tour: Washington's Cold War Monuments (washingtonpost.com)

Tuesday, January 23, 2001

i go to rio

U.S. Penis Comes Up Short in Size Survey?

hothouse flowers

U.N. Report Warns of Global Warming

boys will be boys

the only person to drop a name faster than dennis miller is hunter s thompson.

state of the nation

None Dare Call It Treason (1)

money talks

sportstalk is looking for investors. got a spare 10000 for a piece of a sportal?

Monday, January 22, 2001

dick traces

Sketches of the proposed Clinton Presidential Center

diner food

director barry levinson on football and baltimore.

hitch it up

washington journal welcomes christopher hitchens this morning, while frank rich sidles up to the breakfast table.

easy targets

TOMPAINE.com: The Loyal Opposition
GOOD RIDDANCE TO ALL THAT

foxy laity

"Fox is a delightful case study of the dissonance between economic and social conservatism. The first says "Let the market decide. If 'Temptation Island' makes a profit, it's a good program." The latter says--well, you already read that paragraph. It's the same contradiction bedeviling Bush and the other leaders of the Republican Party: How do you keep both the free-market, anti-regulation CEO crowd and the regulate-public-morality conservative religious leaders happy? Strange bedfellows? Shocking infidelity? Yes on both. Now that's just the sort of thing that could make for a very successful television show."

westwinging it

A Clinton speechwriter on Bush's speech: "like watching Yogi Berra reading Shakespeare." � by Paul Glastris

academic concerns

academic navel gazing version 2001 considered.

the big onion

The Onion Makes Its New Home in an Old Target

insurgentseed

media / From AOL to W by MICHAEL WOLFF (01/29/01)

CEOdor

david brooks almost gets it right until he caps it with an odious conclusion. tailored, no doubt, to those that would normally read forbes.

opeds lament

Bill Clinton Missed the Chance to Build a Better World