We had a little lost visitor today- Sassy, the cat! She'd been hanging out around the back porch since last night and this afternoon she started scratching at the back door to be let in. So, I checked her collar, looked up her address on mapquest and saw that she was a quite a way from home. I gave her people a call and a very relieved dad picked her up fifteen minutes later, much to everyone's relief.

She's a sweet little cat- got a motorboat purr and is very talkative. Not too fond of Bob and Scooter; there were growls and hisses to be had. She liked Domino and even gave him a little bump.

Scooter wasn't very happy about another cat on her turf, but Bob seemed to like the idea that a younger woman was in the house. Bob looooves da ladies.

You can see Scooter glowering in the background of the photo on the left.

A Sassy Photo Gallery

5:00:50 PM     leave/read comments []

BoingBoing gets all medieval on A&E's ass:

A&E gratuitously slams science fiction.

A&E has produced a craptacular Flash site to promote Lathe of Heaven, a telepic adapted from an Ursula K Le Guin story. The promo copy contains this grotesquely patronizing bit of gratuitously insulting analysis of science fiction, apparently aimed at ensuring that any science fiction fans who enjoy the work are put firmly in their place and instructed that this is different from that crappy rocket-ship stuff that they're accustomed to. I thought that this kind of thinking was dead and buried, but apparently, it's alive and well at A&E's marketing department. Flash Link, click "Author"(Thanks, Emilyg!)
[Boing Boing Blog]

Hit 'em again!!!

1:29:53 PM     leave/read comments []

Hampton Court 'ghost' on film Hampton Court Palace is well known for tales of ghostly activity. Never before, however, has anything truly suspicious been captured on film. Yesterday it emerged that a mysterious pale figure, dressed in a long black coat, had been caught by CCTV cameras tampering with a set of fire doors. [The Telegraph]

Ohhhhh spooky!!!

Could it be the ghost of Jane Seymour's agent, looking for her career? Or maybe it's actually Gareth, of TV's The Office, looking out after fire regulations, because after all, not only is he in the territorial army:

One of the palace's security guards said: "It is incredibly spooky because the face just didn't look human."

Definitely Gareth. Because it sure isn't a ghost.

Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychology researcher from Hertfordshire University, yesterday cast doubt on the footage.

He said: "It is either a publicity stunt by the Palace, which I doubt, or it is a member of the public thinking they were being helpful by shutting the doors."

12:00:29 PM    

Screentest: Scooter a 1 minute movie.

(Quicktime .mov 11M)

12:04:34 AM     leave/read comments []

The Paris Hilton Barbie Sex Tape

This page must infringe at least a dozen copyrights whilst violating good taste.

BRAVO! Says I!

Link props to Sister.

11:19:49 PM     leave/read comments []

Record Industry May Not Subpoena Online Providers. A federal appeals court ruled that Internet providers cannot be forced to reveal the names of subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music. By David Stout. [New York Times: Business]

Yay!

A federal court shuts down the Music Gestapo!

``It's an incredible ruling, a blow for the little guy,'' said Bob Barnes, a grandfather in Fresno, Calif., who was targeted by one of the earliest subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America but isn't among the hundreds who have been sued so far.

The appeals court said the 1998 copyright law doesn't cover popular file-sharing networks used by tens of millions of Americans to download songs. The law ``betrays no awareness whatsoever that Internet users might be able directly to exchange files containing copyrighted works,'' the court wrote.

Not exactly a total victory, but a step in the right direction- protecting the rights of the individual over the billion dollar profits of multinational corporations.

What the ruling means for file swappers

10:58:30 PM     leave/read comments []

George W. Bush: Heretic

Messianism
When Bush, then Governor of Texas, decided to seek the presidency, he described his decision in terms evangelicals would understand as a divine mandate: He had been "called," a phrase that evoked the prophetic commissions of the Hebrew scriptures. He summoned to the governor's mansion all the leading pastors of the region to carry out a ritual of "laying on of hands," a practice that corresponds above all to ministerial ordination. He told the pastors that he had been called (obviously, by God) to be the presidential candidate. This language of divine calling has been frequent in his declarations and at a much accelerated rhythm since September 11, 2001.

It gets worse, my brethren.

6:45:50 PM     leave/read comments []

Beagle 2 separates from Mars Express. The British-built Beagle 2 spacecraft successfully separated from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft on... [spacetoday.net]

Beagle 2 will land on Mars on Christmas day, UCT. Merry Christmas Invasion, Martians!

NASA releases first images from, new name for, SIRTF. NASA on Thursday released the first images taken by its new Space Infrared Telescope Facility (... [spacetoday.net]

Click photo at right to enlarge.

Allen revealed as SS1 backer. Billionaire Paul Allen confirmed late Wednesday that he is the financial supporter of Scaled Composites'... [spacetoday.net]

Hey, Micro$oft isn't totally worthless after all!

Allen said in a press release that he has sponsored the SS1 project, which is attempting to win the X Prize. Allen had long been rumored to be the backer, but he had declined to confirm the speculation until after SS1 performed its first powered flight test on Wednesday. Allen was on hand for the test flight.

That's your Space News for today!

1:20:34 PM     leave/read comments []

Yeah, it's another quiz.

You are 60% geek

You are a geek. Good for you! Considering the endless complexity of the universe, as well as whatever discipline you happen to be most interested in, you'll never be bored as long as you have a good book store, a net connection, and thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Assuming you're a technical geek, you'll be able to afford it, too. If you're not a technical geek, you're geek enough to mate with a technical geek and thereby get the needed dough. Dating tip: Don't date a geek of the same persuasion as you. You'll constantly try to out-geek the other.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

1:12:26 PM    

WHAT?

oh.

never mind.

1:04:58 PM     leave/read comments []

I have no idea what Rob Sheffield is talking about:

He's the perfect pop star for a moment when American culture is so passionately committed to conformity that the term "hater" gets applied to anyone with an opinion more personal than "click-to-add-to-cart." That isn't Justin's fault, needless to say. We live in an age silly enough to turn Paula Abdul into Martha Wash, yet pompous enough to expect teen-pop pretties to namecheck Donnie Hathaway the way the New Kids were expected to namecheck Big Daddy Kane. There's no coherent pop mainstream for ambitious musicians to cross over to, or to react against, or to skim energy from, or to influence.

Didn't get a word.

In a related story, phil gets all lowercase on sasha frere-jones.

12:18:59 PM     leave/read comments []

Science breakthrough: proof of our exploding universe. Findings settle arguments about age and composition of cosmos. [Guardian Unlimited]

Yes, our universe is expanding just like your holiday waistline. And, not unlike yourself, you can blame a mysterious substance- dark matter, that disappearing last slice of pie in the fridge of cosmology .

Welcome to the dark side. Around 73% of the universe is made not of matter or radiation but of a mysterious force called dark energy, a kind of gravity in reverse. Dark energy is listed as the breakthrough of the year in the US journal Science today.

The discovery - in fact a systematic confirmation of a puzzling observation first made five years ago - paints an even more puzzling picture of an already mysterious universe. Around 200bn galaxies, each containing 200bn stars, are detectable by telescopes. But these add up to only 4% of the whole cosmos.

Interestingly enough, purloined leftovers make up 4% of all holiday eating binges. Coincidence?!?

I think not!

11:43:12 PM     leave/read comments []

Which Letterman Lawsuit Are You?
brought to you by the good people at cuddlybunnies.com

Props to Don

9:20:50 PM     leave/read comments []

The new Gift Shop has all sorts of What The Hell Am I Selling Here merch, and other Mediawench goodies, now all in one convenient place! Check it out!

I promise this will be the last time I flog the store this week.

3:46:13 PM     leave/read comments []

NEW ITEM!

Wet Cat Jr. Spaghetti Tank
$19.99

Because julie asked for one.

3:07:02 PM     leave/read comments []

Flashmobbing gets sense of purpose. Online: The favoured pastime of bored students and the radically hip loses some of its radical edge with one of the first ever publicity stunt flashmobs. [Guardian Unlimited]

Standards are down all over.

In a related story, local cats, dog, jump on flashmob bandwagon.

2:22:44 PM     leave/read comments []

10.3.2 available for download. Apple has released Mac OS X v10.3.2, an update to its "Panther" operating system, available for download through the Software Update System Preferences pane. Apple also notes that a standalone installer should be available, though it didn't appear to be available yet as MacCentral posted this article. The new update is recommended for all users, according to Apple. [MacCentral]

1:13:00 PM     leave/read comments []

DIY medieval tapestry.

Vanessa sez, "This is just amazing -- the authors manipulated images from the Bayeux Tapestry and created a Flash-based kit where you can make your own medieval comic strip. Images are scalable, type can be colored. You can send your images as ecards to the medievalists of your acquaintance." I made an Orwellian one that I'm quite proud of, in my own, quiet way.

Link

(Thanks, Vanessa!)

[Boing Boing Blog]

1:11:07 PM    

Segway Stumbles in Europe. The Segway Human Transporter isn't making it to the top of many European Christmas lists this year. In addition to costing thousands of dollars, the two-wheeled scooter appears to be illegal in most of the EU. By Jeroen van Bergeijk. [Wired News]

Whoops!

1:03:56 PM     leave/read comments []

Dead Logo Graveyard.

A wistful, meandering walk through the graveyard of dearly departed logotypes. Link (thanks, Jean-Luc)

[Boing Boing Blog]

12:59:02 PM    

Canadian Feds adopt RSS. The Canadian government is syndicating its daily news items as RSS feeds. There are a bunch of feeds running, including:

National news

Regional news
Aboriginal peoples

Business

Children

Educators

Link

(Thanks, Andrew!) [Boing Boing Blog]

12:58:29 PM    

The Slat Rat provides the laugh of the day!

This is for Peter: Evil almost always wears a Yankees cap..

From Jack Hoya via Dowbrigade. [The Slat Rat Chronicles]

12:28:20 PM    

Spread the cheer, buy this T-shirt!

Reindeer Dog Ash Grey T-Shirt
ONLY $16.99

All profits go towards getting me out of Nebraska. And that's what I call cheer.

5:12:19 PM     leave/read comments []

Vote Now!

5:05:35 PM     leave/read comments []

SpaceShipOne breaks the sound barrier. SpaceShipOne (SS1), the suborbital RLV being developed by Scaled Composites, broke the sound barrier on... [spacetoday.net]

Unlike the folks at Kitty Hawk today, the Rutans are oozing the Right Stuff.

SpaceShipOne Test Pilot, Brian Binnie then flew the ship to a stable, 0.55 mach gliding flight condition, started a pull-up, and fired its hybrid rocket motor. Nine seconds later, SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier and continued its steep powered ascent. The climb was very aggressive, accelerating forward at more than 3-g while pulling upward at more than 2.5-g. At motor shutdown, 15 seconds after ignition, SpaceShipOne was climbing at a 60-degree angle and flying near 1.2 Mach (930 mph).

I think the Wrights would have approved- look forward, not back.

4:50:23 PM     leave/read comments []

Historic US flight attempt fails. An attempt to recreate the world's first powered human flight fails as a replica of the plane breaks apart. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

Guess they didn't have the Wright stuff.

4:46:40 PM     leave/read comments []

Arrrgh.

Elections can't come soon enough.

4:45:32 PM     leave/read comments []

Anti-road-piss campaign from Washington State. Washington State highway cops are sick of picking up the bottles of piss and poopie that truckers (and other long-haul drivers) toss out their windows, so they've started a campaign to warn and fine scat-flingers and piss-pitchers.

Link

(Thanks, Psylux!)

[Boing Boing Blog]

1:59:50 PM    

(via /.) [Boing Boing Blog]

Spot-on.

Another example of big entertainment's "punish the customer for our mistakes" policy.

1:57:28 PM     leave/read comments []

Saddam must have been drugged before capture, says daughter Saddam Hussain must have been drugged before he was captured by US forces, the ousted dictator's eldest daughter, Raghad, told Al Arabiya TV yesterday. [Gulf News]

Now, does that look like a man on drugs?

No way. A crazy-ass wino, sure! That homeless guy who pees on your neighbor's mums, hell yeah! But on DRUGS?

"How do you believe they can capture him if they didn't drug him? I don't doubt it, I'm sure that they couldn't (have captured him otherwise)," she said, speaking by telephone from Jordan, where she was granted asylum after the US-led war to oust Saddam.

"Saddam Hussain is still my father. Every honourable person, and every person who knows him or knew him ... knows that the person on the television was a drugged Saddam Hussain," she said.

Well, yeah. He does.

Shoot, if I was living in a hole, hiding from U.S. Special Forces, I'd sure as hell be doing some drugs. POWERFUL drugs. None of that Robotripping crap, like those kids in Korea. Nope. I'd go for the good stuff.

11:49:37 PM     leave/read comments []

Report: Space Adventures sells two seats on future Soyuz missions. Space tourism company Space Adventures has sold seats on two future Soyuz flights to the... [spacetoday.net]

Well, SOMEONE'S going to get a ride into space.

The report, which quoted Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, said that two unidentified Americans have agreed to spend $20 million each for the flights. One of the tourists will fly on a mission in the third quarter of 2004, while the other will fly sometime in 2005. ird quarter of 2004, while the other will fly sometime in 2005. No details about the tourists were provided other than that one of them is a 38-year-old male Manhattan real estate developer.

Bastard.

And here I am, still waiting for my frickin' jetpack.

11:28:48 PM     leave/read comments []

Saddam should die, says Bush. President Bush calls for Saddam Hussein to face the death penalty. [Guardian Unlimited]

George Dubya Boosh finds yet another way to piss off our allies and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, by insisting on death for the man who tried to kill his daddy.

11:25:19 PM     leave/read comments []

Oh hell. I want one.

Either that, or I'd like Adam to teach me to make a crossbow.

Wrist-mounted catapault watch. The Catapault Watch fires BBs and similar projectiles from your wrist. Link (Thanks, Samari Chop!)
[Boing Boing Blog]

11:14:52 PM    

Victorian Queen When Linda Blacketer bought her 1865 Victorian, she knew it needed TLC. "Fixer" didn't even begin to describe it. The previous owner was a reclusive S&M practitioner who sold off bits of the house to pay the mortgage. [SF Gate]

And you thought your house was a nightmare!

Talk about triumph over adversity.

The former owner, an eccentric single white man who had lived there in semiseclusion for 10 years, didn't help sell the place. To pay the mortgage, he'd sold off pieces of the house -- doorknobs, faucets, fireplace bricks -- at local flea markets. He'd placed cheap wooden lattice over all the windows as a nearly useless security measure and lived with a single toilet and no shower or bath -- and, as an S/M practitioner, he had left various hooks and accoutrements in the ceiling of his bedroom.

To top it off, all the restoration was done over 25 years on a nurse's salary.

11:09:37 PM     leave/read comments []

Space Weather clues us in to a daytime planet spotting:

DAYTIME JUPITER: Jupiter is bright enough to see in broad daylight--if you know where to look. Today you can find it using the moon as a "landmark." The quarter moon and Jupiter are only a few degrees apart. Scan around the moon with a pair of binoculars, and you might be surprised to see Jupiter pop out of the bright blue background.

Remember folks, you're looking at the MOON, not the SUN.

11:57:23 AM     leave/read comments []

Yes, it's time for my parents' annual holiday letter and I'm the one who cranks 'em out. So, here I sit, watching the HP printer spit out one after another.....

(click on the graphic to see a BiG version)

4:24:46 PM     leave/read comments []

Studio Warns Kung Fu Site. The operator of a fan site for Kung Fu films gets a cease-and-desist letter from Miramax, demanding he stop selling movies for which the studio owns distribution rights. Trouble is, the site doesn't sell any films. By Katie Dean. [Wired News]

Yet another example of how corporations fear free speech and will do anything to control the discourse. In other words, if it isn't an ad or marketing collateral, shut the fuck up and spend money, you criminals.

Jason Schultz, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Miramax got its facts wrong when it targeted Pollard.

"Once again this shows how overzealous enforcement of copyright has an effect on free speech," Schultz said. "This guy clearly runs his website to give his opinion about movies that he loves, and links to more information on the movies, such as where you can buy them."

Links are "a part of a discussion ... you're not only writing what you think but you are providing additional information about what you think and it's all interwoven together as speech," Schultz said.

'Zacktly.

3:49:38 PM     leave/read comments []

Boneheaded ideas, that is.

Bone Conduction Cell Phone (Nikkei BP). Japanese will get to buy the world's first cell phone using bone conduction technology. [Nippon Goro Goro]

Think this'll catch on like Side Talkin'?

3:15:32 PM     leave/read comments []

DPRK Rejects Latest US Proposal (with audio) [VOANews]

North Korea today rejected a U.S.-backed proposal on ending a crisis over its nuclear weapons program, and warned that Washington's "strategy of delaying talks" would only prompt the communist government to step up its nuclear activities. [Nippon Goro Goro]

3:10:49 PM    

How, um, cheezy.

The new NPR Vintage Collection is being produced for NPR by Signature Wines, a company that offers custom labeling for businesses and individuals, and it includes several varieties, sparkling to merlot, from California vineyards like Franciscan Oakville Estates and Ravenswood. If listeners tire of placing repeated orders, they can join the new NPR Wine Club and receive monthly packages of one NPR-labeled wine and one non-NPR wine.

As in, wine, cheese, NPR.

What next, FoxNEWS branded bourbon?

2:56:29 PM     leave/read comments []

Oh, what the hell. Seems like everyone else in my corner of Blogistan is doing it, so why not?

You're a True Punk.
You know that punk isn't all
about studded jackets and mohawks. If you're
political, you're actually informed. Most of
the stuff you love is from before the 80s,
though you know bands like Fugazi kept the
spirit going.

You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla

Of course, if I was really Punk, I would buck the trend and not do what Adam and jb and Melp have done, which is post this quiz on their blogs.

But the Quiz says I'm Punk, so dammit, I'm punk. And besides, the guy in the photo is an Osterberg, too.

1:25:16 AM     leave/read comments []

Apple's Panther bares its teeth. Apple, fed up with playing second string to Windows, is taking its operating system from strength to strength. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

A ringing endorsement of Apple's latest OS.

The Panther interface gets back to basics

The result is a new front end and some very solid Unix technology under the bonnet. Mac OS 10.3 or Panther is more stable, more capable and more adaptable that any Macintosh operating system before it.

Obviously, the correspondent didn't have a Fire Wire hard drive to mess up.

12:54:39 AM     leave/read comments []

A shootout among yakuza in Saitama-ken today leaves five gangsters dead. [Nippon Goro Goro]

Keeping current on Yakuza news.

12:46:25 AM     leave/read comments []

Click to make BiG.

11:51:05 PM     leave/read comments []

Click the photo to download the movie. (.mov 775K)

movie and music by maggie

9:16:57 PM     leave/read comments []

Click the photo, make it BiG.

Mmmmmmeatloaf.

5:19:18 PM     leave/read comments []

Click to make BiG.

G'night, all.

12:50:49 AM     leave/read comments []