Click photo to make BiG.

5:08:48 PM     leave/read comments []

Gibson Guitar Corp. in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee has won a trademark infringement case against manufacturer Paul Reed Smith. The claim involved Gibson's Les Paul single cutaway guitar with a body design which Paul Reed Smith used without permission or compensation to Gibson. This case declared that Paul Reed Smith infringed Gibson's valid trademark.

Hummmm....Tennessee court, Tennessee company.....I smell an appeal.

3:27:28 PM     leave/read comments []

OK, I've found a religion to supplement my hermit Buddhism:

12:20:00 PM    

A Legoland Folksong (Sung in the Legolashian language)

If it's good enough for Sigur Ros, it's good enough for me.

A regular MP3 can be found at my MacIdol site.

11:41:30 PM     leave/read comments []

Japanese Firm Sold Libya Uranium Conversion Plant (Reuters).

A company from Japan, the only country to be attacked with an atomic bomb, sold Libya machinery in the 1980s that Tripoli used in its unsuccessful attempt to build a nuclear weapon. (NGG note: NHK TV leds its 9 p.m. nationwide newscast with this item.) [Nippon Goro Goro]

3:45:34 PM     leave/read comments []

argh! NASA's making fun of me now with their wake-up music! OMG, I am soooo dusty and disgusting right now!! I have red grime everywhere, especially under my abrasion instruments! It's no wonder I can't grind anything! I find evidence of past water, but I can't even find a puddle to splash my treads in here! I so need a shower. And a manicure. OMG, what if Stardust saw me like this?!

via julie

12:55:07 AM     leave/read comments []

Mostly good news, but NASA head honcho, Sean O'Keefe, is claiming that the Shuttle is just too dangerous to fly anywhere but to the ISS and back.

Horse hockey!

12:34:37 AM     leave/read comments []

I could watch that for hours.

12:27:13 AM     leave/read comments []

Screenshots don't lie.

Is there an echo in there?

Click the graphic to make BiG.

2:40:45 PM     leave/read comments []

The great escape. Immediately after 9/11, dozens of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family fled the U.S. in a secret airlift authorized by the Bush White House. One passenger was an alleged al-Qaida go-between, who may have known about the terror attacks in advance. Our first excerpt from "House of Bush, House of Saud." [Salon.com]

Bedfellows, as in, strange. Or dangerous. Worth clicking through the ad.

But Osama bin Laden was Saudi, of course, and he was not just any Saudi. The bin Ladens were one of a handful of extremely wealthy families that were so close to the House of Saud that they effectively acted as extensions of the royal family. Over five decades, they had built their multibillion-dollar construction empire thanks to their intimate relationship with the royal family. Bandar himself knew them well. "They're really lovely human beings," he told CNN. "[Osama] is the only one ... I met him only once. The rest of them are well-educated, successful businessmen, involved in a lot of charities. It is -- it is tragic. I feel pain for them, because he's caused them a lot of pain."

Like Bandar, the bin Laden family epitomized the marriage between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Their huge construction company, the Saudi Binladin Group, banked with Citigroup and invested with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Over time, the bin Ladens did business with such icons of Western culture as Disney, the Hard Rock Café, Snapple and Porsche. In the mid-1990s, they joined various members of the House of Saud in becoming business associates with former secretary of state James Baker and former president George H.W. Bush by investing in the Carlyle Group, a gigantic Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm. As Charles Freeman, the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told the Wall Street Journal, "If there were ever any company closely connected to the U.S. and its presence in Saudi Arabia, it's the Saudi Binladin Group."

1:18:23 PM    

Morrissey Gets A Job

I was looking for a job

and then I found a job

heaven knows...

I'm miserable now

In my life

why do I smile

at people who I'd much rather

kick in the eye

1:02:10 PM     leave/read comments []

The Homeless Guy

There's a new link on my blogroll, please check it out. The Homeless Guy is a damn fine writer and he puts a face on folks who are all too often faceless. What the Hell is Wrong With you People? puts it better than I:

For instance, while browsing through some blogs from my hometown, I came across this man's page; he is a homeless man living on the streets, publishing his blog daily from the public library just a few miles from my house. He has apparently attracted a lot of attention from several media sources, but I only stumbled upon him the other day, and I read through 2 years of archives in a few hours straight. The stories he tells (quite eloquently) of life on the streets of a very different city than the one I know are fascinating by themselves, but what's more fascinating to me is that this is the first time in history that someone like him could have a voice with which to reach the entire world, while living on the streets without a roof over his head.

I know we've all heard a thousand stories about the internet changing the world & the way we live, yadda yadda yadda (remember to thank Al Gore), but it's one thing when you & I can hook up our expensive computers to our cable lines that we pay out the ass for to download free porn & music, and quite another when a man who comes from a station in life that has been in many ways completely ignored by our society - the kind of man you usually try to avoid contact with, try not to look in the eye, and certainly not the kind you expect to teach you anything - can walk into a library, sit down at a desk, and project his thoughts to & communicate with people across the entire globe. While reading his journal, I could see that just the act of creating this webpage acted as a kind of catharsis, and even served as a sort of virtual home for him in a way; a reason for him to keep going from day to day. His efforts have also resulted in better living conditions for many homeless people here by helping to expose the poor conditions in many of the local rescue missions; several policy changes resulted from the attention brought by blogging.

Go check it out.

12:02:29 PM     leave/read comments []

Yes, that's right- a lamb of God could actually be a lamb. But a Lhasa Apso is more likely.

What drew Ms. Wilkinson back into the fold was a new monthly program the church introduced -- Holy Communion for pets. As part of the service, the 59-year-old retired portfolio manager carried her 17-year-old tiger cat to the altar, waited in line behind three panting dogs to receive the host and had a special benediction performed for her cat, Purr Box Jr. "I like that the other parishioners are animal people," Ms. Wilkinson says.

With pews hard to fill, a small number of otherwise-traditional clergy are welcoming animals into the flock. Some are creating pet-friendly worship services, while others have started making house calls for sick animals. Some are starting to accompany pet owners to the vet when they euthanize a beloved pet. Occasionally, clergy are even officiating at pet funerals and group "bark mitzvahs." Congregants at temple Beth Shir Sholom, in Santa Monica, Calif., have an animal prayer sung to the tune of "Sabbath Prayer," a song from "Fiddler on the Roof": "May our God protect and defend you. May God always shield you from fleas."

I think I'll start telling folks "May God always shield you from fleas."

Also, I want stipple WSJ-style portraits of MY cats, dammit!

11:50:01 AM     leave/read comments []

Bob answers your audio questions-

Q: Is there a difference in the sound produced by a system running on nuclear-generated electricity vs. one running on hydroelectric?
-Ted Crilly, Republic of Ireland

A: Oh, absolutely! Nuclear power plants use the GE 16000 turbine for power generation and that runs in the 6000-7200 RPM range, which creates a 15000-Hz pulse across the spectrum of transmission. Now, this isn't a problem if your utility or MUD uses the GE 89456 Compensating District Transformer, as it will buffer the pulse in the downstage. Unless of course you've got a Denon 45b turntable with a Grado 44 cartridge, in which case you're fucked, even with hydro.
-Bob

1:29:09 AM     leave/read comments []

To Hear Him Talk, Nothing's Like Tape. A Sony stalwart has spent three decades pushing recorders that have nothing to do with music. By Seth Schiesel. [New York Times: Technology]

Speak man, so that I might see you!

1:09:49 AM     leave/read comments []

"It's in the interest of -- uhh -- uhh, long-term peace in the world that we -- uhh -- work for a free and secure and peaceful Iraq. A peeance, freeance secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact." -Dubya ( That's really how he said it, and we have the audio to prove it, Oct. 27, 2003)

7:00:07 PM     leave/read comments []

I can't believe that NASA has so bought into Chimpy's screwed-up priorities so much that they'd let Hubble die, without so much as a planned replacement. Schande!!!

4:51:04 PM     leave/read comments []

UnSuper-size me!

Death Rate From Obesity Gains Fast on Smoking. Obesity is near to overtaking smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, government researchers said on Tuesday. By Reuters. [New York Times: Health]

We're number one! But for how long?

Hold the Fries. Hey, Not All of Them!. Whether prompted by consumer demand or regulatory threat, changes are occurring in the fast-food industry. By Marian Burros. [New York Times: Health]

Abstinance works, but only if well, it works.

Study Finds That Teenage Virginity Pledges Are Rarely Kept. Teenagers who pledged not to have sex before marriage also developed sexually transmitted diseases at about the same rate as adolescents who had not made such pledges. By Lawrence K. Altman. [New York Times: Health]

That's the answer to everything. Just stop having sex, you nasty women and then the Justice Dept. wouldn't be forced to violate you.

Justice Dept. Backs Off Its Demand for Abortion Records. The move came in response to a decision on Friday by a federal judge in San Francisco, who found that the government's demand was an undue intrusion on patients' rights. By Eric Lichtblau. [New York Times: Health]

Don't you just love two-fers?

2:37:56 PM     leave/read comments []

Says what it does; does what it says.

2:28:01 PM     leave/read comments []

Exchange between myself and my therapist:

"Maggie, you have to have a sheath for your sword, to protect it from the weather."

"That's pretty phallic."

"OK, let me re-phrase that. Your weapons against the demons, those things you have to fight off the darkness.....oh you know, your pen is mightier..."

"That's pretty phallic, too."

"OK, then how about your dictaphone?"

1:28:17 PM     leave/read comments []

My father and mother were on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. They faced jail, societal disapproval and assault from both the police and the bigots because they believed that Freedom is something sacred here in America, and that all American citizens deserve the same treatment and courtesy under the law. They know just a wee, little, tiny goddamn bit about the Civil Rights Movement, and they're behind this. Where were you, Mr. Jacoby, that you know so much about it? Were you at Selma? Were you in Montogmery? Were you in Memphis? Were you at Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham? How about Albany? Atlanta? Greensboro? No, you were too young for that. So, if it's OK with you, I'll listen to the folks I know personally who were fuckin' THERE to tell me about Civil Rights. I'll trust them, and I'll trust my own mind and instincts to tell me that, at the root of it, you're afraid. The thought of someone standing up to the status quo, of people demanding they be treated like PEOPLE, that makes you piss in your Dockers. And I pity you.

Fuckin' A, Bubba.

2:46:14 PM     leave/read comments []

Cool comic about birds and death and stuff..

Susannah spotted this lovely comic art piece by this guy in this discussion forum on this site.
Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Be sure to click on the comic excerpt- you don't want to miss the full strip.

1:03:16 PM     leave/read comments []

Crap.

Relatives of Spalding Gray have been told by authorities that a badly decomposed body pulled from the East River yesterday may be that of the missing actor. It was found in the water off the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, near Kent Avenue, at around 3:00 p.m. Sunday.

John Perry Barlow reflects on how Spalding's life turned dark. Lots of interesting comments there, too.

I had a cassette of Gray's Sex And Death to the Age 14 when I was in high school and I used to get in my car and drive and drive, listening to that tape again and again and again, thankful that there was someone who actually thought like I did and who actually seemed to be making a living at thinking like that. I may just have to get a bottle of Mr. Boston vodka, wrap it in butcher paper, put it in the freezer for a while and then go and have luncheon with some thimble-belly friend. And I won't worry about getting caught, because YOU CAN'T SMELL VODKA!

Here's to you, Spud.

12:51:00 PM     leave/read comments []

A Dominatrix is more fun than a plain old dominator.

He was trying to figure out what influences the perception of pain. What he discovered was that both men and women were willing to take more pain from a woman than from a man.

"A person's perception of pain doesn't necessarily depend on the intensity of the stimulus," Mr. Williams said in a telephone interview from his home in Stevenage, 30 miles north of London. It depends on environmental factors, like who is inflicting it. The 40 people who were tested waited longer to say "stop" when a woman was causing the pain than when a man was.

I blame the nuns at Catholic schools.

7:08:04 PM     leave/read comments []