Jason Errett, my mad scientist friend, makes much sense about our current "War On Terror" and the coverage (or lack thereof) in mainstream U.S. media.

Jason Errett on Terror and Our Response To It

As for the open-ended eternal war on terriers, why are people so goddamn stupid as to not realize this is a setup?

Open-ended wars against vaguely defined enemies who hate us for our culture/freedom/"insert vague but noble characterization here" are the bread and butter of nascent totalitarian regimes. This is a textbook example.

I was at a party a few months back. Everyone was sitting around a bonfire, drinking beer and talking about what's going on in the world. One woman seriously thought that "the terrorists" hated us because of "our freedom".

She was very sincere about it......

It just gets better from there. It's as close a summation of my views on the subject as I've read anywhere.

8:51:40 PM     leave/read comments []

Is the press finally finding their cojones? Could be. There's never been a better time for vigorous and rigorous reporting.

This is objective journalism as this administration likes it, all right [~] news you can't use. Until recently, the administration had often gotten what it wanted, especially on television, and not just on afternoon talk shows. From 9/11 through the fall of Saddam, the obsequiousness became so thick that even Terry Moran, the ABC News White House correspondent, said his colleagues looked "like zombies" during the notorious pre-shock-and-awe Bush news conference of March 6, 2003. That was the one that Mr. Bush himself called "scripted." The script included eight different instances in which he implied that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11, all of them left unchallenged by the dozens of reporters at hand.

Six months later, the audience is getting restless. The mission is not accomplished. The casualty list cannot be censored. The White House has been caught telling too many whoppers, the elucidation of which has become a cottage industry laying siege to the best-seller list. Vanity Fair, which once ran triumphalist photos of the administration by Annie Leibovitz, now looks at this White House and sees Teapot Dome. The Washington Post, which killed a week of "Boondocks" comic strips mocking Ms. Rice a few days before her Oprah appearance, relented and ran one anyway last weekend on its letters page, alongside the protests of its readers.

8:50:48 PM    

Pastor Bob's Deep Thoughts

Such a promising name.....alas.

The weblog experience

a journal-like reflection on this process

So, here am I working to see how this process works. Using a nifty Aqua interface, I should be able to post not just thoughts and ideas, but also links like this one which points to my own web pages. I should also be able to post other attachments, binary files such as music and photos, and perhaps other stuff. What I'm going to do here is just post this thing, and see how it looks.

Then I'll edit it, and load it again. Whoops, looks like I just did.

By the way, this is produced using iBlog 1.3.1, a free download courtesy of Apple and my .Mac membership. Entries are in reverse chronological order; you'll see the last thing I wrote first.

My name is Bob, and I'm a preacher.

6:00:31 PM    

From the Houston Chronicle story on the situation:

Two key NASA personnel who objected to sending a new crew to the international space station because of on-board health equipment breakdowns said Thursday the threat of trouble is not immediate but their concerns must be addressed.

"They (the issues) do not pose any imminent danger on the crew," said one of the officials, Dr. Nitra Cintron, who is responsible for the health of the astronauts. "At the current time, we are `go' for continuation of flight pending the resolution of all of these issues and problems."

Cintron and colleague William Langdoc had based their objections, made weeks before the crew left, on the loss of contaminant monitoring equipment on the space station. But their rosier assessment Thursday was supported by American astronaut Michael Foale, commander on the lengthy mission, who said from the space station that he had been fully briefed on the issues before his mission and was not concerned. He and crewmate, Alexander Kaleri, will remain at the station for 6 1/2 months.

While the agency could order Foale and Kaleri back to Earth if conditions worsen, space station program manager Bill Gerstenmaier admitted that the station's future could hinge on having people aboard to respond when critical components breakdown.

If there's a bright side to this, it's the Mission Commander, Michael Foale. During his time on MIR, Foale helped the Russian crew patch a hole in one module and fought a couple of fires. He's got experience improvising solutions to life-threatening problems in space and we shouldn't underestimate the resourcefulness of the Russian space program; they kept MIR flying for years longer than anyone expected.

NASA is understandably twitchy on safety issues, but in some ways the experience gained in non-optimal spaceflight will be invaluable to future generations of spacefarers. We won't be able to send a Progress to Mars to deliver new parts, after all.

5:34:46 PM     leave/read comments []

SUMO!

Yes, in the true spirit of international cooperation and cross-cultural understanding, I present to you:

Hungarian Sumo Wrestling!

You may also view the results and videos from the event.

The first Hungarian Sumó Open took place on 26 Jul-98 in a camping resort of Leányfalu, cca 30 km north of Budapest, Hungary. The competition was carried out under the hot, hot sun on a clay dohyo, constructed especially for the event.

Rikishi from four European countries participated battled in the teams contest as well as all the individual categories: light (-85kg), middle (-115kg), heavy (+115kg), and open.

Mummmmm.....fat, sweaty white guys, gettin' it on in the mud! Sounds like Planet Big at The Stud.

I love this world.

5:16:43 PM     leave/read comments []

From our pals at Neo Tokyo:

friday, on the bus to providence, SOME GUY SHIT HIS PANTS...it was fucking great.  he had the bus pick him up on the most random, sketchy street..then he stood around (even though there were empty seats), swaying back and forth with his eyes closed and then HE SHIT HIMSELF.  it started smelling really bad and everyone was putting their nose under their shirt.  so then, he stands next to the bus driver for a second and his pants start falling down (from the weight of the poop probably) and he tells the bus driver to STOP.  so he gets off after only having been on the bus for about 1 minute and everyone is just like "OH MY FUCKING GOD".  it kicked ass.

But are we laughing at him or with him? I can't tell.

4:56:43 PM     leave/read comments []

Apple's Latest 0.1 Adds a Lot. This week Apple will release Mac OS X version 10.3, the next edition of its three-year-old operating system. Is it worth the price? By David Pogue. [New York Times: Technology]

This is a big week for Apple. Last week the company unveiled the Windows version of its popular, free iTunes music-downloading software - and tomorrow, it will release Mac OS X version 10.3 ( or Panther), the next edition of Apple's three-year-old operating system.

That decimal-point increase (from version 10.2 to 10.3) doesn't give the upgrade's 150 new features enough credit. Then again, Apple's not the only company to have trouble with naming schemes. What's the logic in the sequence of Windows versions - 95, 98, Me, XP?

In any case, Apple has lost no time in exploiting the public's fears of computer insecurity. For example, a new feature called FileVault can encrypt your entire "Home folder" - files, Web bookmarks, e-mail and all - and then decode them automatically and invisibly when you log in. If, say, your laptop is stolen, your sensitive stuff is secure and safe. (FileVault uses an encoding scheme so thorough, Apple says, that a password-guessing computer would need 149 trillion years to break it. Just enough time for Apple to reach Mac OS X 11.)

1:56:37 PM    

Dan's Room- 1985

2:57:42 AM     leave/read comments []

So, like, um, I guess it's really great that the fish can chill, right?

Researchers at Baylor University have found traces of an antidepressant in the livers, muscles and brains of bluegills in a Denton County creek, raising concerns about the welfare of the fish and the people who eat them.

The chemical, fluoxetine hydrochloride, is the active ingredient in Prozac. It likely came from a city of Denton wastewater treatment plant, which discharges into Pecan Creek and flows into Lewisville Lake. Traces of the drug that are not absorbed into the body can flow down the toilet and through wastewater treatment plants, which are not designed to filter out pharmaceuticals.

Eat a fish, feel better.

1:59:32 AM     leave/read comments []

Cool free font: Capitalis Pirata (corporate pirates).

Swelligant font set that mimics corporate logos. McD's, Honda, Ford -- all in there.
Link

(thanks, Invisible Cowgirl!)
[Boing Boing Blog]

1:48:09 AM     leave/read comments []

Originally posted Sunday, October 19, 2003

From Neo Tokyo, a blog:

- barbie apparently cant tell the difference between black and white people.  at one point, barbie said something like "wow, bill and i are the only white people here"...then there was a pause and everyone looked at corey (who is white) and started laughing.  after a minute, barbie got mad and shes like "WHAT THE HELL, MATT, YOU TOLD ME THAT COREY IS BLACK!"

- barbie doesnt know there is a state called "wyoming"...but she thinks there is a state called "naomi"

last night, i had just planned to go to grand union, pick myself up some food and then  head home for the night to eat tv dinners and drown myself in self pity.  once i got to grand union, fucking 8000 people asked me for rides home though (well, actually only 2 people..andy and barbie).  after i drove andy home, matt was done with work, so we just decided to make a night out of it...BAD IDEA.  barbie brought along her friend, jenna, and she SUCKED.  she wouldnt shut up and she kept saying the stupidest shit...after anyone said something, she would immediately say "i'll show you (whatever we were talking about)", for example, when we were making fun of barbie for her bud light incident, jenna was like "i'll show you drunk off of one beer".  matt and i were just like "faaaaack this", so matt kept trying to think of ways that we could get rid of jenna.

Wow, jenna totally sucks. Right?

1:30:01 AM     leave/read comments []

Go to www.spaceweather.com to see if you'll se seeing auroras in your sky over the next night or two!

1:24:46 AM     leave/read comments []

1:16:51 AM     leave/read comments []

1:10:34 AM     leave/read comments []

Boys, boys, boys......

Since when do teenaged boys NOT have a woodie?

The boys took the anti-impotency drug at lunch in the cafeteria, and before long... well, as you can imagine, it was tough to conceal the effects. In an afternoon class, one of the boys, in great discomfort, owned up to what had happened.

The paramedics were called. The boys ended up in the Royal Berkshire hospital until... the issues resolved themselves about 4 hours later.

What? Did the wind stop blowing?

1:08:30 AM     leave/read comments []

America's bloody hunt for Bin Laden in Mad Max territory October 19, 2003 [The Times Online]

A dispatch from the forgotten war in "the most evil place on Earth," Afghanistan:

"The most evil place on earth" is how Shkin is described by Colonel Rodney Davis, a spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan. "Real Mad Max territory."

It is here, in these fortress-like mountains, that the search for Osama Bin Laden is now concentrated. In the past six weeks it has seen some of the heaviest fighting of the whole war in Afghanistan

Be sure you look at the dateline again- it's from this week. Some of the heaviest fighting of the Afghan War was been in the last week.

Thanks to NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence for the link and Lonely Planet for the map.

12:53:02 AM     leave/read comments []

Trouble Down South!

12:46:45 AM     leave/read comments []

Multiple items ahead!

Scientific computing: Apple's next big leap?. The Macintosh may not be an established player is scientific computing, but Apple Computer Inc. is beginning to get some respect as a player in the space, said company Vice President of Software Technology Guy "Bud" Tribble, who pitched the case for the Mac to attendees of the Biosilico 2003 conference at Stanford University on Thursday. [MacCentral]

OS X's Unix heart no doubt has a lot to do with this.

Directors NoteBook offers free storyboard app. Directors NoteBook Software on Friday released Directors Boards Free 1.0, a (as the name implies) freeware storyboard application for Mac OS X. It's based on the company's US$169 Directors NoteBook software for professional directors. and is built to offer a simple application for creating "AV." format storyboards from existing digital scans, illustrations and photos. Directors Board Free prints the boards, presents them as a digital slide show, and exports them to tab delimited text. [MacCentral]

This looks like a cool app for all you basement Penkinpahs and Guy Maddins. (Like me!)

Of course, the big news for today is the release of "Panther" 10.3.

Panther: A look at the new Mac OS. Apple Computer Inc. will officially roll out Mac OS X Panther on Friday beginning at 8:00 pm ET on the East Coast, with events being held at most retail locations across the country throughout the evening. With over 150 new features, analysts think Panther could be the release that has businesses and Mac users that haven't switched to Mac OS X ready to take the plunge. [MacCentral]

12:29:41 AM     leave/read comments []

End of an era for Concorde. The supersonic jet retires in spectacular fashion as thousands watch three land at Heathrow airport. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

Aw gee, an era has truly ended today, as the world's only SST hangs up its sonic-booming spurs.

Concorde has completed its last flight, ending three decades of supersonic travel.

Three flights landed at Heathrow airport within five minutes of each other, watched by thousands of onlookers on Friday afternoon.

12:26:10 AM    

Ali's Camp and Frazier's Bag Are Up for Auction. In an auction this weekend in Atlantic City, N.J., Muhammad Ali's former training camp and Joe Frazier's Everlast heavy bag are up for grabs. By Richard Sandomir. [New York Times: Sports]

Papa's got a brand new stinky old bag! OWWWWWWWWW!

11:14:45 PM     leave/read comments []

Hi folks, thanks for stopping by!

After a major episode of FUBAR-itis, I've got my act a bit more together and have moved my blog (NEW! IMPROVED! BACKED UP!!) to its new home on the web:

What The Hell Am I Doing Here? @ Mediawench.com or, if you like, just plug www.mediawench.com into your browser and off you'll go!

Glad y'all could make it!

I'll be re-posting some of the posts that I could salvage from my big-ass data boo-boo today and tomorrow, along with some fresh bits, so stay tuned and don't be surprised if you're overcome with deja vu. I just made a change in the matrix, after all....

11:06:39 PM     leave/read comments []

Ah, to live in a world where everyone is young, everyone is beautiful and nobody ever gets old. So, maybe you have to have some ponce with a flare gun blast you right out of your pastel Quiana nylon dress when you hit thirty, but hey, at least you won't have to stare down forty from your parents' basement.

Yeah, it's been one of those days, where the world of Logan's Run (well, the first part, actually) is looking pretty good. Nothing like being turned down cold after applying for a couple of crappy McJobs to make you REALLY feel like the lowest of the low. Feh.

Not only that, but even the lowly amoeba has got one on me (two, come to think of it), it has a job and it can achieve virtual immortality through binge eating! How does an amoeba reproduce? It eats. And eats. And eats some more. And when it's had just enough to burst, it turns into TWO amoebas! Immortality through binge eating! And we have the nerve to call ourselves "higher organisms!"

No, we have sexual reproduction, which means two creatures have to get together to make one new creature. And then, to add insult to injury, the two creatures that got it on to make the one new one have to go and die, as to not strain the food supply for the youngsters and their offspring.

So, to review:

Amoebas and "lower life forms"- eat all you want, you'll make more....copies of you!

Humans and the rest of us "higher life form" smartypants- sex=death and ungrateful youth.

Man, that is one sharp serpent's tooth.

8:48:51 PM     leave/read comments []