...more recent posts
Doc Searls points to this Terry Jones (Monty Python) article in the Telegraph which gets right to the heart of the problem with our present "war on terrorism" which, as far as I can tell, is not actually a "war" nor particularly on "terrorism."
WHAT really alarms me about President Bush's "war on terrorism" is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? It's rather like bombing murder.It's about time for the comedians to take some whacks at this thing (although Jones' article is quite serious.)
its a happy new year, no bombs were set off, we can try to live life w/o fear, but it just dawned on me that two of my super hero's died last year, kesey and lilly....
Residents of Lindhurst and Jersey City have been advised to boil their tap water for 3 mins. due to a sewer break.
On Christmas, Jim and I were discussing the difficulties of programming a computer to play Go in comparison to Chess. I said Go might ultimately be beyond the power of a computer because it relied on pattern recognition rather than number-crunching. Jim said he doubted that, because eventually computers would be able to handle complex pattern recognition. Well, it looks like I was wrong, about the nature of the task--it's number-crunching AND pattern recognition--and the outcome. At least one expert concurs that it's not a matter of whether but when. Here's a no-sign-in-required link to the NYTimes article I remembered from several years ago. In relevant part it states: "'It may be a hundred years before a computer beats humans at Go -- maybe even longer,' said Dr. Piet Hut, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and a fan of the game. 'If a reasonably intelligent person learned to play Go, in a few months he could beat all existing computer programs. You don't have to be a Kasparov.' When or if a computer defeats a human Go champion, it will be a sign that artificial intelligence is truly beginning to become as good as the real thing."
The history of Dead Moon another great band from Portland.
I first saw this band in it's incarnation as the Rats. I knew that some members had been in a 60's psychedelic band called The Lollipop Shop but this history states that they hark all the way back to 1964!
The influence of AC/DC and the first two Love albums is present in much of their work.
I recommend!
From a Kodak technical support page:
Among precautions that travelers can expect will be the increased use of new, high-intensity x-ray scanners for checked baggage and hand-carried baggage. Passengers should be aware that these high-intensity x-ray machines will fog and ruin all unprocessed film of any speed, whether exposed or not. Kodak recommends that air travelers do not carry unexposed or unprocessed motion picture film.I wonder if computer hard drives will be affected as well.
Wipers box set released. Original 1981 cover art restored with credit given to which dig med tre'er ?
collateral (bird) damage
I thought we covered this at some point, but I can't find it now, and the Wheel just sent the story to me again, so, for all you debunking fans, here's the current wisdom on the "secret meaning" behind the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Thomas Frank (the Baffler) has a funny op-ed on John Walker in the NYT today. In reply to all the conservative scolding about Walker being a product of "liberal values," Frank argues that "born in the 1980's, John Walker grew up in a time when American conformity was the lamentation not of pampered professors but of Madison Avenue and the cutting-edge management gurus."
Frank continues: "It is from TV commercials for sneakers and S.U.V.'s that we learn of the horror of American sameness, and the freedom and personal authenticity that await us when we fire up a Macintosh or zoom away in a Honda CR-V. Extremism in the pursuit of intensity, the ad men tell us, is no vice. John Walker's generation was encouraged to use 'extreme' cordless drills, buy its Dodges from an extreme used car dealer and catch its trout with an extreme fishing rod. Just for them did ecstatic TV hipsters steer their sedans up Himalayan peaks in search of the phattest possible brand experience. Maybe the boy Talib is simply an attentive consumer, his ill-fated affair with extreme Islam merely a twisted continuation of his search for the weapons-grade authenticity promised him so many times by manufacturers of bell-bottom jeans and lemon-lime soda."
a tree grows...
Recounted Out
It is with the saddest heart that we must pass on the
following news.
Please join us in remembering a great icon of the
entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died
yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from
repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71. Doughboy was
buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of
celebrities turned out to pay their respects,
including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the
California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess
Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The gravesite was piled
high with flours. Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy
and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never
knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly
in show business, but his later life was filled with
turnovers. He was not considered a very "smart"
cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked
schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he
still, as a crusty old man, was considered a roll
model for millions. Doughboy is survived by his wife,
Play Dough; two children, John Dough and Jane Dough;
plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by
his elderly father, Pop Tart.
The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 Minutes.
pornado report : digitalmediatree make-over
"what would Baudrillard say ?" 9/27/01
the first list of British IFAs, or Important Fungus Areas
5 wtc 360 cams
post-martha
megway sales soar!
The Work Dogs : 8:00 pm, Friday December 21 st. @ Max Fish on Ludlow st / new album release party and proformance.
Feedmymeter.com is a New Orleans project that sells advertising to raise money to feed expired parking meters. A flyer is left on the saved car explaining what was done. Included on the flyer are the ads, of course. Genius. Take that Rita.
A usually reliable on such matters friend of mine swears there was a court case in New York City which outlawed feeding a meter for someone else. Can anyone confirm that?
Could this be true?
Michael Moore was the keynote speaker at the convention of NJ Citizen Action which I attended this past Saturday. He told the assembled audience of 100+ people that his publisher HarperCollins had informed him that they will not be selling/distributing his new book "Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation" --already printed -- because the content is offensive. He reported that the publisher also told him that he (Moore) is being "intellectually dishonest" not to state that GW Bush has done a good job in the last few months. Moore said that he has been told that the book will NOT be distributed as is, will be destroyed, and that if he will rewrite AND pay for the repinting of the book Harpercollins will publish the new version!!.I know he's been accused of embellishing the facts before, but this sounds like it might have happened.
"what, its not free? but im a celebrity."
Counting birds online from the Times.