May 2002 Archives

Sandra sent in a couple of news tidbits :

Quite possibly one of the best quotes ever:

A friend of Susannah, a former girlfriend of Viscount Linley, said today: "They woke up one morning and their hands felt sticky, there was a funny smell in the room and they both felt hungover."

Contrary to popular belief...eating dog meat and composing music are not on the same cultural parallel. Who knew? Why, Brigitte Bardot knows!

"Eating dogs is not culture, it's grotesque," she said, "Culture is composing music like Mozart."

Forwarded chat from my partners in crime on nycbloggers.com :

codeaddict: liz. you asked a while ago what a meme is...
codeaddict: we're a fucking meme
ashidome: yes
ashidome: no
ashidome: wait
ashidome: you're frying me
ashidome: i don't understand
ashidome: i thought i did
codeaddict: a meme is an idea that spreads (often quickly) through a society
ashidome: right
ashidome: like the concept of our map
codeaddict: like MAHIR (the kiss you guy) was a meme
ashidome: right
codeaddict: anything that spreads like hotcakes across the net is kind of a meme
ashidome: well i guess we qualify then
codeaddict: if everyone is talking about it, it's a meme of sorts
codeaddict: so, we're a meme
ashidome: that's pretty intense
ashidome: ish should blog that

We're up to 425 bloggers with more to approve in the hopper. Plus links from webmonkey, straphangers, and according to our logs, the National Review, although I can't find the link. We've got the Big Mo.

Those who care may highlight the space below to see the result of the first game of the 2002 World Cup; those who wish to wait for the highlight reels to become available can skip it.

France 0–1 Sénégal

'Nuff Said

I'm furious at the lack of attention that the NYT has been paying to the India-Pakistan conflict in the last three weeks. The Financial times has had this as its leadoff story every day ! We're coming hugely close to catastrophy, and the times cares more about a handful of casualties in Israel and whether domestic partners get 9/11 money than about informing us that the US government is getting ready to evacuate all US citizens from the region - USA today got the scoop on this !!

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is drawing up plans for a mass
evacuation of some 64,000 Americans from India and Pakistan as tensions
escalate between the two nuclear foes over disputed Kashmir (news - web
sites), USA Today reported on Thursday.

A U.S. government team is in India working on a contingency plan to evacuate
1,100 U.S. troops on three bases in Pakistan and up to 63,000 U.S. citizens in
both countries, the newspaper reported."

For better coverage try: The London Times, Manchester Guardian, the Financial Times, The Hindustan Times, Indian Express, the Hindu, or just about anywhere else !!

[Update - OK maybe the reason why the NYT is not running the evacuation story is because the pentagon denied it. Still, the general point about the quality of the coverage holds]

For those interested in the tiniest niches of typography, there’s the article about chronological appropriateness of typefaces in movies. (Link via The Dancing Sausage, in turn via NYCB)

It’s been mentioned in comments in this blog that “they”, meaning the Democratic party and its benighted followers I imagine, should “get over Florida” (twice in one discussion, in fact)
But there are, in fact, some other interested parties who aren’t quite ready to let it go.

We're in Slate! And we're currently #3 on Blogdex! And we're up to 134 155 200 270 blogs. Not bad considering we just launched this yesterday Tuesday.

Update: We're currently #2 on daypop. Wow.
Update (Tk): Now appearing on the first page of the Blogger site? That’s right, NYCBloggers.com. (And on Scripting.com yesterday.)

As I'm going through validating NYCBers, I'm running across some interesting stuff. Via expat fredosite : the world's smallest website. Somehow I don't think they're going to get Bobby approval anytime soon.

This ESP Experiment freaked me out for about ten minutes before I realized what was going on. Even more freaky: the wacky theories on how it works. Link via fellow nycblogger GeekLife.

So a ways back, I met a fellow blogger named Liz, and we discovered that we were both New Yorkers. I remarked that there should be a list of New York bloggers, and she said why don't you make one, and I said wouldn't a map be cool, and she said I'll help you build it, and after some amazing coding and design from her and her friend Matt we are now proud to announce the launch of nycbloggers.com. It's a map of the city's blogs, organized by subway line. Liz and Matt have done an amazing job putting this together, and I hope that it'll fill up with blogs right quick. Also thanks to Ishbadiddlers Trip and Andrea for their help with this. Check it out! Put yourself on the map!

For the first time in quite a while, Davezilla had something worth referring others to, to wit, Google’s list of the many different ways to spell the name of that jailbait pops(tar[t]).

as I took careful stock of my family's history over the last sixty years, I could trace the powerful and long lasting benefits that had accrued to me and my family because of affirmative action programs. I began to notice the numerous ways that my father and I, and indirectly the women in my family, had benefited from policies which either explicitly favored or showed a preference for white men, or explicitly excluded people of color and white women from consideration altogether.

If you have the bandwidth for it, this is mighty hilarious. Answers the question, can a robot be a tortured artist? Hell yes...

While on the subject of the Fuckup Bureau of Investigation, you may want to read this article in the Voice which chronicles the agency's woes.

Welcome Google searchers for Teddy Bear Virus! For the real story on this virus hoax, go here.

Caffeinated Soap. Link via aurorachair.

Did you know that it was National Salad Month? And that you can celebrate it at the Dole Museum of Salad, right here in New York City?

"Featuring an interactive tour of the business of pre-washed and packaged salad from start to table. Presentations on the history of salad. Create your own 'virtual salad.' 11:00 am-5:00 pm."

I'm betting that the Salad Museum is not on the terrorist watch list.

In reference to the "What did the President know, and when did he know it" debate below, M_____ sent in a link from little green footballs on this subject, referencing a comment on the likely liberal reaction to any action we might have taken prior to 9/11, which starts:

Let's go even further: assume that the FBI had information on the exact date, time, flight number, and descriptions of suspects. So they raid all the planes, and arrest the 19 dirtbags...

...And then what? Not much, I imagine. Oh, CAIR and it's ilk would be having a fit, of course, complaining to everyone including George W. about profiling and unfair targeting of Arab-Americans. After all, just what did the FBI find? Some box cutters? Those aren't illegal on airplanes. Flight manuals? These men were all attending accredited flight schools, trying to achieve the American dream, etc. etc.

We're up to twenty comments on the affirmative action post from last week -- an Ishbadiddle record!

"Children of alumni at Harvard University in 1991 were three times more likely to be accepted than other prospective students. At Yale, children of alumni are two and a half times more likely to be admitted.

Dartmouth in 1991 gave admission to 57% of its legacy applicants, and only 27% of other students. Sixty-six percent of alumni children were accepted at the University of Pennsylvania. Twenty-five percent of Notre Dame's freshman class is saved for the children of alumni." [From here, citing John Larew, "Who's the Real Affirmative Action Profiteer?" The Washington Monthly, June, 1991]

Another source , citing the same article says: "Legacy admissions were started in the 1920's by elite eastern schools to give the children of old monied white families an edge, a clear preference over the children of Jewish and other recent immigrants who were outscoring them on entrance exams ... Legacy admissions are clearly preferences for less qualified students. The Office of Civil Rights found that the average admitted legacy at Harvard between 1981 and 1988 was significantly less qualified than the average admitted nonlegacy"

This author is himself a USC legacy, and and states "I was told that if I wanted to go to my father's university, USC, that I had an excellent chance of getting in because my father had gone there regardless of my qualifications". Given that the parents of legacies benefitted from racial discrimination in their favor, why should we give their children a leg up ? Doesn't this simply perpetuate the effects of racial discrimination into a new generation ?

[As for why some poorer asian kids are able to gain admission to elite schools despite the hurdles in their path, the reason is simple, their parents went to college back home, in a state funded system that opened the door to people far poorer than the ones who go to college in the states. This boosted them up so that, no matter what jobs their parents took when they came to the US and what their family income, they were very different from other poor applicants. If you control for the effects of parents education and status in the home country, I've been told that racial differences in performance dissapear.]

http://www.monstor.com

Via XBlog

New York made from Legos. Link via ashidome.

From the New York Times:

Parse those sentences!

"I should say in passing that even if we had followed those suggestions [in the Phoenix memo] at that time, it would have not given what we know since Sept. 11 had enabled us to prevent the attacks of Sept. 11."

-- Robert Mueller III, Director of the FBI

"This case presents a unique question, whether a cow is a forum or a forum a cow, and then when and where such a cow/forum may be found."

-- Federal District Court Judge Victor Marrero, on whether those cow statues in New York are free speech.

Irrational Exuberance Department

"I see people are still buying cars, still making home improvements. Things can't be that bad if so many people are driving these big, fancy S.U.V.'s."

-- Ann Perry, on why the economy seems good.

I’ve posted a few links to pieces by or about him over at Bleahh.

From the helpful folks at the Harvard School of Public Health: "Another hot spot for fecal bacteria: How about your toothbrush? Apparently, every time you flush, aerosolized particles from the toilet float as far as 6 feet away. So flush with the toilet lid down - and get a new toothbrush." [EEEEEEUW !!!] Taken from the article on "Overkill: How Our Nation's Abuse of Antibiotics and Other Germ Killers is Hurting Your Health and What You Can Do About It"

Very strange: Racial Slur Database. Except that it isn't really. And some of what they're saying is wrong factually. It's a very long list of racial terms. Put some of your favorites into the comment section !! Here are a few of mine:
Crotchless Pants, Feb, Democrats, Golden Toe, Lefty, and Linthead.

From today's IMDB news:
"NOTE: In Friday's edition, we cited a quotation from The Weakest Link host Anne Robinson that appeared in that day's London Daily Mail: "I saw George Bush at a benefit concert actually waving at Stevie Wonder. ... Someone had to tell him 'he can't see you.'" Washington Post columnist Lloyd Grove wrote on Friday that Robinson "seems to have deeply enjoyed our March scoop about Bush's wave to Stevie Wonder -- so much so that she claims to have actually witnessed it." The story has been debunked, however, most prominently by the artistic director of Ford's Theatre, who was seated next to the president. Grove himself reportedly examined a video taken by the "presidential isocam" and concluded that Bush, if he was waving at all, raised his hand to get the attention of Kelsey Grammer, the show's MC"

Two interesting things - one that Anne Robinson claims to have seen this occur, second that the director of Ford's theater went back and checked the videotape for it. So much for urban legends ...

Colin made reference to this, but I figured people might need some background. Also highlights how hard it is to keep track of all telecomunications everywhere. Also see STATE, ENEMY OF starring WIll Smith (AKA PRINCE, F.)

Does voice-activated eavesdropping technology listen in on phone conversations for suspicious "keywords"?

NB: See also this Village Voice article on Echelon. And while you're renting movies on surveillance, watch The Conversation with Gene Hackman. Really good.

Okay, so, I have a general rule of trying not sending out depressing news clips (I try to keep things generally relevant and analysis-oriented). This is pretty creepy, but I think it's valuable to get a different perspective on the state of the head of the head of state. It's an inside look at some of the political drama that doesn't usually get reported. The writer is Howard Fineman, who occasionally has some good personal perspectives on the wacky world inside the beltway. I wish we had more information like this (or maybe I don't).

And, while the eeuuww-faucet is on, it's refreshing to see that, in an attempt to change the focus, Cheney (imperious enough now to bear the Trump-esque title, "The Dick") is back to delivering those vague-but-urgent warnings, saying, "We don't know if (the next massive Al-Queda attack) will be tomorrow, next week, or next year, but it will definitely happen." THAT makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Meanwhile, remember, we're NOT supposed to ask why this was all allowed to happen in the first place (according to The Dick, we're supposed to remain "vigilant"... except where the Cheney-Bush agenda is concerned) or how we might improve that process. That, of course, would be unpatriotic.

Vigilantly yours,

cjl

PS -- A hearty howdy to the boys down at ECHELON! Can you hear what finger I'm holding up?

"I Sniff Some Politics"
Bitter about the capital storm, Bush needs to get over his anger and give up his love of secrecy and surprise

The Events of September 11 : Thoughts and Emotions by S. M. Atif Imtiaz.

The following are some of my thoughts and emotions about what we have experienced in recent months. My aim is to help Muslims articulate their feelings (even through disagreement) and to help non-Muslims understand where some of us are coming from.

Sandra writes:

While searching for the contact info for a Congressional Chief of Staff, I saw the link for Congressman Gary Condit. Temptation got the better of me, so I clicked to find a very toothy Gary greeting all visitors to his site.

Guess what else is on his homepage? This link:

www.missingkids.com

NB: There's also this:

The Lubavitchers are out in force; it's coming on to Shavuot, and they're stationed by the subway at Grand Army Plaza.

Anonymous is a place to blog anonymously. A needed service, and it's also a fascinating read.

Let me know. I'm at work on a very cool project with ashidome.

Arts & Letters Daily is brought to you by the same fine folks who bring you Lingua Franca, that for-intellectuals-only college info publication. Since they were acquired by a corporation, I can’t legally file a review under the aegis of Aortal, so I’m bringing it up here.
Really, it’s more content than you can shake a stick at. Even if you did, it’s so much content that it would probably grab the stick from you and beat you over the head with it. Go, read, now.

Update: Who knew this was already linked from the menu bar? Probably you. So consider it a second recommendation from an independent observer.

Modern Ruins : pictures of abandoned places. Link via Vianya.net.

Woody Allen Eats The Rapture for Breakfast. Really.

Tucked away in a corner of CNN today is the report that a Michigan appeals court reversed (NB: not using legal terminology there; I know that ‘reversed’ has a specific meaning) a lower court's ruling that the University of Michigan’s admissions standards “relied too heavily on race”. For those of us who think that race-based admissions considerations are no different (and, socially, possibly better) than preferred admissions for athletes, violinists, international students, or children of alumni, this is good news.

U.S. to employ truckers and bees in the war on terrorism. The Pentagon will neither confirm nor deny that puppies and Little League teams are next to be drafted.

Second in a continuing series of sketches made on my Palm. This portrait's a bit more abstract.

Lines and Splines, the typography blog, has closed up shop. There ought to be more sites like it: focused, pithy, and collectively smart. (For instance, read this bit on the Wall Street Journal's redesign.)

And in other bad news for the typographically minded, the folks at Apostrophic Labs are talking about shutting down because their freeware fonts are being sold by others. It appears to be still up for now, though; I suggest you stop by while you can.

Why does Buffy sound so funny in German? Link via Cootiehog.

Study Ties Adult Intelligence to Nutrition in Infancy. Another salvo in the breast-feeding-or-not conflict.

Looks like Matt and Laura are on the cutting edge. They sent me the news that the majority of the population will be twins from 2127 on. It makes sense -- since twins tend to give birth to twins, their numbers should increase geometrically. But crikey!

I've received two warnings today about the Jdbgmgr.exe "virus" -- but according to Symantec it's a hoax, designed to get people to delete a legit file on their system. As a general rule, a quick Google search will tell you if the virus alert is real or not.

A meme is a terrible thing to waste.

Ish killed off the Subway Bestsellers list a while back, but if it were still there, I’d have to add that in the past three days, two different people on my subway trains have been reading Steven Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. And when the SO and I were in Florida in late March, my 92-year-old grandfather, who pretty much uses his computer as a big expensive electronic typewriter (now with Windows XP! ick), borrowed the same title from his almost-equally-old-but-former-engineer neighbor. A questioning of the nature of the universe because somehow the world just doesn’t make that much sense, or just a bizarre coincidence? You make the call.

Web Designer Builds Home out of Flash

Two articles sent to me today on the subject. MS recommends this article by Jay Michaelson, "possibly the smartest person I know:" On Being a Leftist and a Zionist

In the last five years or so, Zionism has come to be one of those ideas that puts up the walls. It's just accepted that, on the Left, you are against corporate control of politics, in favor of multiculturalism, against imperialism, in favor of the Palestinians. . . . [But] traditional loyalties of the Left - democracy, economic justice, favoring of displaced peoples' right to self-actualize, concern for the underdog - ought to favor Israel, not the Palestinian Arabs.

Many of us also understand that Israeli treatment of Palestinians has been immoral and outrageous. . . . Far from being self-hating, Jews are affirming the highest values of their culture and religion when they conclude that being pro-Israel today requires pushing Israel to end the occupation and break the cycle of violence on both sides.

The truth behind the "work from home" flyers.

Looks like it's my turn to wear comfortable shoes. I'm heading out to Sacramento tomorrow for my grandmother's funeral. Betty Ornstein Rothschild lived to be 94 years old. She lived on her own terms, staying in her house by herself with only the help of her generous neighbors, up until a month ago. She was the kind of person who adopted strangers, left cookies for the garbage man every week, and was famous for her hugs. She kept a beautiful garden, and I can still taste the jam she made from her own plum tree. I'm sure I'll have more to say when I get back. Here's the poem I'm to read at the service on Wednesday. It says a lot about her.

If
Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

[I'll be back this weekend, so no posts from me until then, but the rest of the team will surely be blogging away in my absence.]

a blog and so much more.

The Art of Turboing

Just thought it worth mentioning that this question came up in an email exchange I had today. With an avid knitter. So avid that she bought a knitting machine. So avid that she’s actually thinking about buying a sheep for the wool. And if you’re interested, there’s a farm in Enumclaw, Washington, looking to unload some of its ovines.

Ishbadiddle's guide to occasional music.

Each week one of our guests selects a music-listening occasion, gives his or her top music list (singles, albums, box sets, EPs, whatever) and suggests a new category.

This week's guest: Chris Molanphy

Music occasion: Music for listening to after the breakup.

Billy Bragg, "Valentine's Day Is Over"
The Beatles, "Yer Blues"
The Police, "So Lonely"
Violent Femmes, "Kiss Off"
Fine Young Cannibals, "I'm Not the Man I Used to Be"
Beta Band, "Dry the Rain"
Liz Phair, "Divorce Song"
Marvin Gaye, Here, My Dear
(he was forced to record this album and give its royalties to his ex-wife as part of their divorce settlement)

...and of course:
J. Geils Band, "Love Stinks"

Chris' new category: Music for playing after making love. (Do I sense a thematic progression here?)

Other categories:

Music for Road Trips
Music for Practicing Your Dance Moves In Front of the Mirror
Music for Giving To Someone Who Knows Nothing About Jazz
Music You Haven't Heard But Should

If you'd like to be a guest LISTener, or suggest a category, email me or leave a comment.

Inspired by this guy, I decided to post (sporadically) some sketches I've made on the subway with my Palm.

If you're curious, the program I've used to sketch is Diddle, and this fella will convert your drawings to bitmaps, right online.

The Webby Awards: People's Voice.

Have you heard about this?

It's called the simputer, it's really cool. It's like a palm pilot for the masses of the third world - a non-typing, tablet computer that is cheap to assemble and runs on batteries.

Now if only we could hook it up to a Stirling engine, we'd be in business. It's things like this which make me wish I wasn't so damn cynical - then I'd be a technophile.

-- NS

It looks pretty interesting ... the idea is that a community could buy one (@ ~$200), and that multiple community members could use it by inserting their own smart cards. I'm curious how the post-literate interface works, though. Their work reminds me of what the Freeplay Foundation is doing in helping to provide non-battery powered devices to those third world masses you mention. The Simputer folks might want to look at the Freeplay model, which is to sell a device for lots of money in the first world (does anyone use that term anymore?) to subsidize distribution in the third world. There's also a slashdot thread on the subject you can read.

she knits, she designs, she's a fellow New Yorker, she's got lotsa tattoos. And she's got a good blog, so go check it out.

Jesus Saves . . . Again!

"The scientists were able to make the rats run, turn, jump and climb where they wanted from distances of up to 500 metres (1640 feet) away ... A "turn left" signal was interpreted by the rat's brain as a "touch" on its left whiskers. If the rat correctly followed the cue and turned left, its reward-centre was stimulated, filling the rat with a feeling of well-being. "

There has to be a "Rats, Foiled again" joke in here somewhere, but I can't find it. Failing that, a Borscht Belt type joke about the fact that this is nothing, my wife controls me from miles away (rimshot). Generally creepy shit. See here for the text version and here for the broadcast ...

e.thePeople