Monthly Archives: February 2004

Will WiFi end up free?

via Slashdot

Homogenized and pasturized for your protection.

via Jeff Jarvis

I just finished Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. He may be a freaky cult leader, but the dude could write. It did drag for a while in the middle, but I really enjoyed it. The book, not the dragging in the middle.

Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead are going to be made into a movie. I was underwhelmed by the books, but I could see them being good movies.

I’m not exactly sure why I think this, but this is the wrongest thing I’ve ever heard, well, today anyway. You break the law, I break the same law, the same thing should happen to us, regardless of our incomes. It would be wrong to give someone greater punishment because they are poor, why isn’t it wrong if they are rich?

UPDATE: Pete explains why I am wrong. He makes some good points but he hasn’t changed my mind. And I’m not going to argue with someone that wants to go to law school.

So, it appears the campaigning is beginning for real. w00t!

And “feckless crapweasel” is just plain funny.

The burglar was forced to mow the lawn while the victim figured out what to do with him. I love this country.

ABC mentions there might be a liberal bias in the media. Make sure you follow the link and read the whole thing.

The tin-foil hatters were right. NASA did mess up the images coming from “Mars”.

I like these comment spammers. Very polite.

I wouldn’t be surprised, but this is bad news for Kerry if it’s not.

via Inoperable Terran

Common sense regarding aliens. Er, extraterrestrial aliens, I mean.

Don’t open that attachment. Actually, Doomjuice doesn’t spread through attachments, but if you don’t get Mydoom, you don’t have to worry about it. So don’t open attachments.

Of a sarcastic Iraqi blogger.

Media spin on Iraq and Al Qaida links.

Global Warming. It would make a great book. But I want to know what they plan to do when the magnetic poles switch.

Or the pundit that ate D.C.

Freaky.

Environmental activism from robot dogs.

Joyful Christian on a downer:

Ulitimately [sic], I believe, we’re all doomed. Not just the Republic, but the whole world. And whether or not the people understand the workings of republican goverment won’t change that ultimate fate; it will only affect the timing.

But he’s right.

Casting for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is finalized. I hope this is good.

Since it’s Reagan’s birthday today, here’s my favorite clip of his.

In surprising numbers.

It seems odd there are so many more accidents involving trousers than chainsaws, (1148) but everyone has trousers and hardly anyone has chainsaws.”

And there’s this classic line

“Underpants, for instance, cause a lot of accidents. You get changed, you get into bed, you may leave your underpants on the floor . . you’ve got a polished floor, you get up in the morning, and crash.”

yep, you guessed it, it’s from Fark

Unless the meat was ground and mixed with something, I don’t see how you could confuse dog and beef. Dog is more venison-like than beef-like.

via Fark

Unless of course, you count Marlon Brando.

As I write these words, we have yet another probe scooting around on Mars, and it has been sending back exquisitely detailed photographs of: rocks. At this point, I, for one, am willing to stipulate that Mars is, basically, covered with rocks, but our space scientists apparently do not intend to stop until they obtain photographs of every last one of them.

VDH

I am sorry that the United States has established a hair-trigger reputation in matters of deadly agents of mass destruction — but apparently other rogue nations now believe that the burden of proof is no longer on us to establish that they have them, but rather on them to ensure the world that they do not. And that is not necessarily a bad thing if we ponder that the lives of thousands may hang in the balance.

It cracks me up that the spammers, including today’s idiot who was spamming the old fashioned way, one at a time, pick entries from months ago. If it’s not on the front page, the chances of it being read are infintesimal. Silly kids.

You should get that fixed.

Kick over a rock and watch the bugs squirm. Enterprise is cleaning up its act, a little.

And as an aside, T’pol is the most emotional Vulcan ever. She’s moodier than most of the crew. Maybe she’s an Andorian spy.

Some idiot is filing a class-action lawsuit against Janet Jackson, MTV, Viacom, and various others. I hope the judge laughs this out of court.

Notice the new look. Well, new to you. I’ve always seen it like this in my head. But I finally got it up, thanks to some helpful help from my brother.

The always entertaining, in spite of his dislike of Dr. Pepper, Andrew Stuttaford on McDonald’s latest ploy.

Our government at work.

Senator Lamar Smith of Texas – chairman of the Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee – yesterday produced from nowhere extensions to the 1946 Trademark Act that would make giving false contact information for a domain name a civil and criminal offence.

And just to increase my linkiness, Instapundit and Joyful Christian discuss anonymous bloggers.

I’m not saying I agree with all of it, but this is pretty funny, eh.

“There are features in this soil unlike anything ever seen on Mars before,” said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science instruments on the two Mars Exploration Rovers.

The article is here.

Everyone is all in an uproar about censorship, puritianism, etc. on TV. But I have another solution: Instead of trying to out-debauche each other, Hollywood and the entire entertainment industry could start showing a little class. Radical idea, I know. It’ll never sell in Peoria, will it?

Now 3 year olds are on drugs.

For many parents, like Texas schoolteacher Chapline, the drugs are a last resort. Her daughter Emily suffers from selective mutism. Children who have this disorder become too afraid to speak in social situations like classrooms and doctor’s offices. At home, however, they almost always regain their ability to interact with others.

How did shy kids get by for the last few thousand years without Prozac?

The Pakistani fall guy is pardoned by the Pakistani President.

On Patrick Stewart:

And Patrick Stewart has now become T. J. Hooker. I know him not.

And Kerry:

God no. Please no. I think I speak for millions when I say that I am deathly sick of the counterculture sixties. The music, the war, the protests, all the hagiography – it’s not a reflection of the era’s importance but the self-importance of the generation who hung on the bus as it trundled along down the same old rutted road of history.

What he said.

Fark has a great headline for this story:

Mel Gibson cuts out controversial scenes from The Passion, such as Matthew 27:25 and the scene where Darth Vader orders Jesus frozen in carbonite.

That’s gold, Jerry! As the kids say, mad props to the writer.

And speaking of Fark…

Over at Right Wing News.

Pictures of the little tyke.

Anne Applebaum of Gulag: A History (an excellent book, btw) fame, discusses North Korea’s concentration camps.

We shake our heads self-righteously, certain that if we’d been there, liberation would have come earlier — all the while failing to see that the present is no different. Quite a lot has changed in 60 years, but the ways in which information about crimes against humanity can simultaneously be “known” and not known hasn’t changed at all. Nor have other interests and other priorities ceased to distract people from the feelings of shame and guilt they would certainly feel, if only they focused on them.

In my continued irritation with the insistence that water=life on Mars, why can’t we imagine a non-water based life, if we’re going to imagine extra-terrestrial life at all.

FYI: “Goethe” is pronounced “Gerta”. I learned that one the hard way, I’m just trying to help you do it the easy way.

But I’m not dead yet. I feel happy!

My knees ache just thinking about it.

Ouch. When it rains, it pours. And here is Mark Steyn on the BBC.

via Instapundit

Sharpton came in third in South Carolina! Bwahaha!

I cant’ explain it, they’re down south. It’s like another state down there.

We learn nothing from history.

Spirit and Opportunity are both operating well.

People vs. Plants/Animals.

Over at Scrappleface.

And it’s good news, well, sort of. Sure the guy that brought the lawsuit is an idiot, but he got shot down.

via Best of the Web

Not only does milk last forever nowadays, my yogurt nowhere on it says “Keep Refrigerated”. I’m scared.

Chirac seems to be in a bit of trouble.

In Brazil.

And the coming election.

First, Democrats are now largely a party of providers of government services (public school teachers, government employees unions) and people dependent on those services. By deepening the culture of dependency, Democrats expand their political appeal — and serve the left’s traditional preference for equality of condition over freedom.

Second, Republican strong-government conservatism contracts the dependency culture and expands the sphere of choices, thereby enhancing the individual’s competence and responsibility. This validates Republicans’ claims to power — and serves the right’s traditional preference for freedom over legislated equality.

via The National Review

Earth-shattering news. Elements 113 and 115 found. I didn’t know they were lost.

I knew you could.

The father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb has confessed to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, but authorities have yet to decide if the national hero will go on trial, officials said Monday.

via Drudge Report

It’s Groundhog’s Day.

The Patriots Win.

Oh, and could Americans please remember that we are not some third-world soccer loving country and stop destroying everything in sight. Thank you.

Here’s the Positive Quote of the Day:

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. –Aristotle

My, doesn’t that go directly against affirmations and various faith teachings everywhere.

Apparently some people are against nanotechnology. Those novels, they’re fiction, folks.