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Saturday, July 12, 2003 |
Morons Dot Org
Morons in the News: And now, from the "we use too many quotation marks" department.... The Washington Times evidently feels the need to delegitimize gay marriage by incessantly calling it "same sex 'marriage'" and talking about the homosexual agenda to destroy the family.2:18:33 PM 
Howl into the void []
Radio Free Blogistan
Radio aggregator eats pie.Dave Winer has hacked the ability to read pie feeds (a moving target) into the Radio aggregator (Radio UserLand : Radio gets some kind of Echo support).
Welcome to RFB, where it's all syndication all the time.
2:18:28 PM Howl into the void []
Radio Free Blogistan
How dialogue becomes impossible.Dave: "I am absolutely sure I am right"
2:18:25 PM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
"Augmented Reality" For the Assembly Line2:18:09 PM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
Gridwars Parallel Programming Challenge2:18:08 PM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
How to Jam a Worldwide Satellite TV Broadcast2:18:07 PM Howl into the void []
Sam Ruby's Comments
Some Cool .... A .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security by Keith Brown (via Craig Andera) Anatomy of a Well Formed Log Entry: 'nuff said. (Sam Ruby) Menu Power: extend system menu of every running application, it has some nice features: Set application... Excerpt from ManagedComponents.com - Weblog2:18:01 PM Howl into the void []
Sam Ruby's Comments
Experimental not-Echo. I've added a highly experimental not-Echo feed. It is a unified feed that contains both entries, comments and trackbacks. Instead...... [more][back]Trackback from Virtuelvis2:17:59 PM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
xian comments on "Pie progress report". One thing that's been confused me is that with these RSS-to-pie converters, are there assumptions made that turn the loose RSS structure into a tighter pie structure? That is, if it's possible to do a straight conversion, then could people continue to send out RSS and still participate in any future pieways? Or am I missing something?Also, is anyone converting RSS to pie and then the resulting pie feed back to RSS? If so, does it come out the same or is it more like one of the Babelfish/telephone experiments?
2:17:49 PM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Stephen Lester comments on "Pie progress report". Mmm! Pie...2:17:48 PM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Karl Dubost comments on "Pie progress report". Hmmm I'm not sure if it's the validator or my feed which has a problem...http://feeds.archive.org/validator/check?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.la-grange.net%2Ffeed.rdf
UnicodeError Python 2.2.1: /usr/bin/python Sat Jul 12 09:49:01 2003
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
2:17:47 PM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Arien comments on "Pie progress report". Steven, you can simplify that ($time holds the current time):$iso8601 = "Y-m-d\TH:i:sO"; echo substr_replace(date($iso8601, $time), ':', -2, 0);
2:17:46 PM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Paul comments on "Pie progress report". Mark: Just for confirmation, I have encountered the "deleted comment as entry body" bug in Safari as well. Freaked me out the first time I saw it.2:17:45 PM Howl into the void []
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
John Howard Sets An Example. Australia's prime minister, John Howard, used the same Nigerian uranium evidence as part of his case for war in front of the parliament. After finding out now that the evidence was either untrue or tainted, Howard is moving towards an...2:17:35 PM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
The harder they come, the harder they fall. Tenet Had to be Pushed to Take Responsibility. George W. Bush may believe that the yellowcake controversy is over, but the underlings of the fall guy Tenet in the CIA are already starting to sing. The administration have gone out of the way to stress that they still trust the CIA, despite the brewing scandal. So maybe we should all pay attention to these leaks?2:17:15 PM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
Trading on fear. Trading on fear"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship ... That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." - Nazi Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering
2:17:12 PM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
grand theft auto. A bad seafood salad would have crippled the global auto industry. "Doesn't that new Nissan Maxima look like a larger-scale Saturn Ion? Could the Kia Sorento be a Lexus RX 300 in disguise? Doesn't the face of the Nissan Z look like that of the Toyota Celica (and its taillamps like those of the Lexus SC 430)? Is that the new Bentley [approx equal]¥ä or the new Hyundai?" The sudden similarities in automobile design.2:17:10 PM Howl into the void []
Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment
Matters of public record
There's a fascinating dispute in the blogosphere right now that is worth talking about beyond the emotions of the personalities involved, because it touches on a substantive issue: What is the public record of the Web and of blogs?
Dave Winer writes Scripting News, has developed some key blogging software tools (including Radio Userland, which I use for this blog and which Salon Blogs uses), and is now a fellow at Harvard Law's Berkman Center. Scripting News is a widely read and influential blog -- partly because Dave's been at it a really long time, partly because he updates it a lot, but mostly, I think, because he is adept at letting the full span of his professional and personal worlds spill out into his blogging. Dave's life really is an open book, and in demonstrating how to do that he has contributed enormously to all of our understanding of what we do here on the Web.
Dave and a number of other high-profile software developers have recently been engaged in a very public and (to outsiders) arcane dispute over the future of RSS, the protocol most blogs use to syndicate their content. I'm not going to weigh in on that issue, partly because I have neither the expertise nor the time to figure out exactly what I think but mostly because I don't wish to add to the noise.
Meanwhile, however -- whether as a result of that dispute or for other reasons, I don't know -- Mark Pilgrim, who has a highly regarded site that focuses on Web design issues, has begun a site called "Winer Watcher," subtitled, "What did Dave edit today?" He's written a script that grabs Scripting News every five minutes, and he's posting the revisions that Dave makes to his blogs, so that you can see successive versions of Dave's posts. Dave has asked Mark to stop, and as far as I can see, as I write this, Mark has refused.
The whole thing is now turning to the question of whether Mark is using too much of Dave's bandwidth, and whether Mark's republishing of Dave's writing is fair use or not, but neither of these questions is what interests me here.
To me, this disagreement highlights one of the continuing, unresolved questions about Web publishing. We know that a Web page is simply a file on a server, and that files are totally mutable. The only thing that keeps something "published" on the Web once it is first published is the publisher's continued choice to leave the file, unchanged, on his server. Some people view their sites as the bits-and-pixels equivalent to paper publishing, and try to keep as fixed a record as they can of how pages looked and read at the moment they were first published (at Salon we maintain an archive server that allows you to find the original, often creative designs of our earlier issues). Other people view their sites as the Webly equivalent of live improv -- the site is an everchanging thing; you can't step in the same river twice (yes Google has a cache, but it expires; and yes, there's the Internet Archive, but it doesn't scrape any site every five minutes!).
As a journalistic enterprise, at Salon we've always understood that there is a temptation to futz with what you've published, particularly to cover your tracks if you've goofed. We've tried to resist this temptation; if we make a tiny error that does not bear on the substance of an article (misspell a word or a name) we will simply correct it; but if we fix a substantive error after a story has been published, we will post a correction notice, note that the story has been corrected on the story itself, and link the story to the correction notice.
But Salon is a newsroom: we edit everything we publish and we behave like a journalistic organization. A personal blog is another kind of beast. There is no editor. There is -- at least as blogging is most widely practiced today -- mostly opinion, not fact. Corrections are less of an issue.
As I understand the way Dave Winer blogs, he posts constantly through the day and revises quite a bit; by the end of the day he's finished the product, it gets sent out to those who receive it by e-mail, and that's that. So he's exposing his editing process to his readers, by choice. I don't begrudge him this method of working.
In traditional journalism, we produce a piece of writing, get it edited, assure ourselves that it's ready to be published, and then we release it to the world. Part of what makes blogging different is that it's more impulsive, less polished, less filtered. This is fundamentally a good thing. But as a result it's only natural that some bloggers may feel a desire to keep re-editing their stuff even after it's live.
In my blog, I prefer to post and then, if I need to fix something, fix it by posting a new item making reference to the old one, rather than by outright revisions. But my style of working has been shaped by 20 years in newsrooms. Dave has a different modus operandi; he's open about it, and it seems to work for him.
I'm not sure why we're supposed to be upset by the revisions that the "Winer Watcher" exposes. So what if Winer sometimes makes a statement that he later chooses to retract? This isn't presidential diplomacy. Yes, blogs are creating a public record, but they are also highly personal records. And we're each going to approach the recording process in our own way.
If a blogger made a practice of going back deep into his archives and messing around with old posts, I'd consider that a shame -- not because he'd somehow betrayed his public but because he was in a sense betraying himself. But if Dave Winer wants to view each day's Weblog posts as works-in-progress for the day, it seems like a reasonable practice, and one that doesn't deserve to be pursued with an obsessive eye.
11:28:12 AM Howl into the void []
Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment
Unbrand me, you cad!
As a consumer who hates the commercialization of public space, the creeping of logos onto our clothing, the placement of products in our entertainment and the corporatization of our imaginations, I assume I am just the sort of person whom "Unbrand America" is aimed at. This campaign -- which emanates from Adbusters -- seems to involve the placing of a big black blotch on ads and logos everywhere (there's a gallery of examples here).
The Web site offers this explanatory text:
| In the coming months a black spot will pop up everywhere . . . on store windows and newspaper boxes, on gas pumps and supermarket shelves. Open a magazine or newspaper - it's there. It's on TV. It stains the logos and smears the nerve centers of the world's biggest, dirtiest corporations. This is the mark of the people who don't approve of Bush's plan to control the world, who don't want countries "liberated" without UN backing, who can't stand anymore neo-con bravado shoved down their throats. |
But there's a problem here. The idea is to oppose mindless Pavlovian responses to ultrasimplified graphical logo representations of objects of consumerist desire, right? So why is the campaign based around ... an ultrasimplified graphical logo representation of opposition to consumerism? Does Adbusters really think the answer to the logo-fication of the world is to introduce a logo for the anti-logo-ites? Why would one want to protest the omnipresence of advertising campaigns by, in essence, creating a new advertising campaign? Why should we "unbrand America" by creating a new anti-brand brand?
If you oppose mindless Pavlovian responses, you manifest that opposition by thinking, and perhaps acting on that thinking -- not by trying to counter mindlessness of a corporate species with mindlessness of a leftist species.
11:28:09 AM Howl into the void []
Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment
Some friends
I met Scott "Understanding Comics" McCloud eight years ago (at the first Digital Storytelling Fest in 1995) and have been following his work with enthusiasm from a distance ever since. The concept of "micropayments" (small-amount payments directly from readers to content creators) was very much in the air then. McCloud now has a real-live micropayment-supported product out there: It's a comic called "The Right Number," which he's publishing in three installments. Each installment costs 25 cents to read; you have to put a minimum of $3 into a Paypal-like account run by BitPass to get started.
I just paid my two bits and read the comic -- a noirish (or, given its palette and ever-so-slightly adult nature, I should say "bleuish") tale about "math, sex, obsession and phone numbers." I found it more than engaging enough to bring me back for parts II and III, which is more than I can say about most Hollywood products that demand macropayments.
Meanwhile, if you're here in the Bay Area and haven't already heard the buzz, Josh Kornbluth has a great new solo show called "Love & Taxes" at the Magic Theatre, and it's just been extended to early August. The show uses a comic saga of Josh's deepening debts stemming from a failure to file his tax returns to make some deeper points about the purpose and value of the tax system -- points that are hugely important at this moment in history, when the very notion of using public levies to support public goods is under assault by the president himself. At 4:30 on Sundays, after the matinee performance, Josh is also hosting free public forums called "Tax Talkbacks" with experts (this coming Sunday, New York Times tax-beat reporter David Cay Johnston is the guest).
If you don't trust my enthusiasm -- yes, Josh and I are old pals -- you can check out the enthusiasm of other critics who aren't friends with him.
11:28:07 AM Howl into the void []
kuro5hin.org
The Big Red Dot. I have a dream! That one day, my kids will be able to judge a Mars Bar not by the allure of its packaging, but by the content of its calories. Read on for more about the Dot.11:27:54 AM Howl into the void []
How to Save the World
THE FIVE SENSES (posted from Amsterdam). i. [touch] -- pas de deux, étrangers at first i don't even notice you sitting opposite me in the commuter train. the heat is fierce and i'm preoccupied with finishing writing down some half-formed thoughts and with finding a place for my briefcase in the crowded space between the foursome of seats. my legs straddle the case, my right leg right up against the floor vent by the window. i look up when i feel your leg against mine, calf against calf, ready to move apologetically. but i'm immediately taken by your runner's legs, young, tight, muscled, and the fact you're wearing white shorts suggests you're not part of the usual commuter crowd. you're lost in some large artistic magazine and i can't see your face, or much beyond the hint of a white tee-shirt, a baby-blue sweater draped over one bare arm, and those remarkable legs that ripple with the movement of the train, caressing me carelessly, rhythmically, until i can't concentrate at all on my writing. i just want the soft pressure of your lovely calf on mine to go on and on. i tense my leg muscles, partly to make my legs feel fitter than they are, more like yours, but also to see if you respond, if the seductive, insistent back-and-forth movement, le va-et-viens, is deliberate, exaggerated, or completely innocent. slowly, imperceptibly, i press my legs just a bit harder against yours each time the rocking of the train moves them in that direction. i pretend to stretch my leg, slouch down a bit, move my leg a tiny bit towards yours. i look up and discover in shock that you've put down the magazine and you're staring absently out the train window. but your leg never moves, continues its maddening, thrilling stroke in perfect time with the movement of the train. and now i'm tightening and easing my legs in concert with the rhythm of the carriage, our legs are dancing and my breath shortens and your thigh is glistening with summer sweat and i can smell the tension, the restraint, the quivering, the feigned indifference rising like steam. ii. [sight] -- conspiracy you are at a nearby table when our eyes meet, fleetingly, then you lower your gaze quickly i look away, towards the bar, and then you glance sweetly back at me as you talk with the people you came with and a slow smile comes across your face. i look back-at-you-and-away, back-at-you-and-away, quickly, as if we're seeing each other by accident but now i'm smiling and you know you have me hooked your cryptic smile turns to a grin and then a laugh as you turn to direct it to the waiter you're almost whispering to him it's a conspiracy now, on the surface shared with others but really only ours, as if we were the only ones in the room. i try my pensive gaze on you -- first eyes up towards the ceiling, as if lost in thought, then downcast, as if the thought is heavy, sad but in between a flicker towards you and away and i'm smiling too, our secret shared. and then you slow it down, looking away, then down, then slowly, slowly up at me with penetrating gaze, an invitation, you're drawing me in, teasing me, being coy and it's my move, as a latin song comes on and all across the room bodies start to move faster, caught up in the rhythm and i rise and walk towards you, moving with the music peacock preening, over to your table but just a little to your left -- last chance to walk away, end the play -- but instead you move towards me 'til we're nearly cheek to cheek and i lower my lips to your ear and whisper lady with the lovely smile perhaps you'd like to dance? pronouncing every syllable like a secret vow of love and you're way ahead of me already caught my hand and moved me to the floor brushing up against me, softly and whispering back your name. iii. [sound] -- l'animatrice at three a.m. they broadcast news from foreign capitals and from france deux comes the voice of a woman announcer, an exquisite parisienne articulation of the day's events. she speaks with perfect elocution, effortless elaison, the words flow like a perfect mountain stream, cascading over each other in flawless fluid motion, her voice slightly smoky, the rolled 'r' voluptuous, not vulgar, seductive, a lullaby of lilting 'l's. and the pout of 'ou' sounds so soft and real you can see her lips extend into the shape of a kiss. Alors que l'été des festivals a perdu, jeudi 10 juillet, deux de ses plus grands rendez-vous, les Festivals d'Avignon et d'Aix-en-Provence, le ministre de la culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, a déploré "un terrible gâchis" et estimé que "le public, les artistes, les techniciens et les villes (avaient) été pris en otage à des fins de propagande politique et syndicale". the voice is like a song, the lyric unimportant, just hanging on the tender sounds, the 'p's, the 'd's, the 't's, the 'b's, so soft your mouth must move to mimic their exhale, the 'f's and 'v's so sweet you feel the pressure of her breath, the hard c's and g's as gentle as a lip's caress the s's, x's and sh's pleading silence, bringing calm. you picture her, petite and lovely, fragile as a crystal dove yet bright, with winsome smile and bcbg easy grace and style articulate and well-informed, as if the script she reads were off the cuff, completely impromptu and then the final coup, the quality that steals your soul the sudden catch in the voice as it rises in a joyful oui alors her perfect laugh caught mid-syllable, captured in you memor y, your heart vanquished in the mystery of prosaic song as graceful as a dance. (to be continued, two more 'senses' to come) |
11:27:52 AM Howl into the void []
birdhouse.org
Accident. So 80% of my bicycle commute is off city streets. The remaining 20% is still in the car-o-sphere, as I discovered this evening when a woman with no insurance (of course) hooked a sudden left in front of me. Half a second to react, and I was looking at a horizontal Honda in my path. That quick pang of inevitability before my front wheel hit her flank and I went sailing over the trunk. Right...11:27:44 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Paul Michael Smith comments on "Pie progress report". OMG. I used to think I was a geek but you guys take the biscuite (in a good way). I have no idea what you are talking about Mark but keep up the good work anyway. ;-)11:27:42 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Mark comments on "Pie progress report". The no-colon thing would be a good note to add to the documentation, esp. if PHP doesn't support it natively.11:27:41 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Steven Garrity comments on "Pie progress report". Chris, I ran into the same issue with the missing colon in the timezone. Oddly, the PHP date() doesn't seem to support this.Here's a little workaround we used (PHP):
// Output timezones in iso-8601 format. $tz = date("O",sqldate($postdate)); $tz = substr($tz,0,3).':'.substr($tz,3); echo "<dc:date>".date("Y-m-d\TH:i:s",sqldate($postdate)).$tz."</dc:date>";
Mark - sorry for the tangent.
11:27:40 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
David Czarnecki comments on "Pie progress report". Valid PIE being generated by blojsom (http://blojsom.sf.net) and on my bloghttp://www.blojsom.com/blog/blojsom/?permalink=ECF55A3157D963A9543DD22DE65618A9.txt
And the necho feed validation: http://feeds.archive.org/validator/check?url=http://www.blojsom.com/blog/?flavor=necho
Thanks again for all the work on the FEED validator as it did spot an error we had in the timezone which is now fixed.
11:27:40 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Jim comments on "Pie progress report". Is there any need to include support for pie in the ultra-liberal feed parser? I thought that the whole reason for that parser was because the RSS specifications were confusing and lots of generators were doing it wrongly.I didn't think this was going to be a problem for pie. Is it really a good idea to put a pie parser out there that doesn't even conform to the XML specification?
11:27:39 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Mark "Hex" Hershberger comments on "Pie progress report". Chris,Your timezone needs a colon.
11:27:39 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Chris Lawrence comments on "Pie progress report". Mark: the validator seems to be very confused in parsing the dates in my Necho feed. I get a bunch of messages like "modified must be an ISO-8601 date" and "Date should include a timezone"; however, the modified date is an ISO-8601 date:"[modified]2003-07-12T02:07:08-0500[/modified]"
(Angle brackets replaced with square ones.)
It also complains about the [email] tag in the [author] tag, even though [email] appears at http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/Syntax
To repeat, visit: http://feeds.archive.org/validator/check?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.lordsutch.com%2Frss%2F%3Fnecho%3D1
Thanks for the validator!
11:27:38 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Dare Obasanjo comments on "Pie progress report". Randy, Like my post says I'm too busy to track this stuff let alone work on it. All I want to make sure, is that when I do finally have time to work on this that it would already have been taken care of by the Echo API instead of me coming up with my own solution.11:27:38 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Arthur comments on "Pie progress report". I like Pie.11:27:37 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Randy comments on "Pie progress report". Dare, this is my soap/rss rpc which i'm adding echo too http://www.kbcafe.com/iBLOGthere4iM/comments.aspx?guid=20030709143822 if you are interested in collaborating Dare, I'd appreciate it.11:27:36 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
ralph comments on "Pie progress report". Maybe it should be called "Feed" instead of Pie or (n)Echo.11:27:36 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Joe comments on "Pie progress report". http://www.fishrush.com/warnocksdilemma.shtml11:27:35 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Dare Obasanjo comments on "Pie progress report". [The following is reposted from Sam Ruby's blog since no one answered my question there]I'm too busy with work and play (RSS Bandit/BlogX) to track the Echo project so I have a question. Currently I've only seen proposals for a RESTful Echo API, what about a SOAP API?
More importantly what is the plan for allowing extensibility of the API. As it stands the proposed API is minimally functional and doesn't hit the 80/20 mark for what I'd like to expose to blog posting clients from BlogX. I can think of a number of extensibility mechanisms using XML Web Services technologies and would like to ensure they are not overlooked for the RESTful API.
11:27:35 AM Howl into the void []
Workbench
Lend an eyeball to the RSS Validator. Based on some comments on Scripting News, some people are wondering what changed recently with the RSS Validator.
It appears to be related to the duplicate element issue that was described here and quickly fixed.
Mark Pilgrim writes:
... the spec has absolutely nothing to say about the case where a feed contains two elements that mean the same thing. We had been around and around on this issue, and no one could tell us what to do, so we made a judgement call. ... as far as we could tell, we were the only 2 people in the world who gave a shit. I didn't see anyone else even bothering enough to care until a few weeks ago.
Once SSF-DEV set themselves up as the group who cared about this sort of RSS minutia, we immediately deferred to their judgement. Thank God *someone* cares; ... I hope they clarify the rest of the manure that is the RSS spec; the validator will be the first beneficiary of their efforts, I promise you.
This duplicate-element issue sounds like an honest mistake. Pilgrim and Sam Ruby tackled the thankless job of writing a validator for a loosely specified protocol without many volunteer eyeballs, from the looks of the project's mailing list. As one of the only people poking around OPML, I can sympathize.
11:27:29 AM Howl into the void []
She's Actual Size, Nationwide, Believe
So I spent the morning at the Irish Consulate.
It has a lovely, light-filled waiting room decorated in hunter green and gold with a wall of bulletproof glass that looks into an office cubicle maze. You sit at the glass wall and wait for someone on the other side to notice you're there.
My visa application tells me, on one page, to include two passport photos, and on the next page, to include four passport photos. It also says to refrain from making travel reservations until I have my visa, then, on the next page, to include a photocopy of my plane ticket or travel itinerary.
*sigh*
11:27:23 AM Howl into the void []
Sam Ruby's Comments
Recent Changes. (2003-07-12:12:30+01:00) Necho and MetaPub appear to be the current front-runners in ProjectNameProposals. Suggestions that there is WikiChaos suggest that those who know the answers maybe should take a break from expressing them and do a bit of... Excerpt from Formerly Echo11:27:21 AM Howl into the void []
Sam Ruby's Comments
exploding archives. Astute readers of the actual HTML representation of this site will notice that the archives section just exploded. In a desire to aggregate (literally) nearly everything I've published online, I've replicated each Stating the Obvious piece I... Excerpt from this is sippey.com11:27:20 AM Howl into the void []
Sam Ruby's Comments
Pie progress report. Echo API draft 3 is out. The validator now validates feeds in the new format, and my ultra-liberal parser now parses them.... [more][back]Trackback from dive into mark11:27:18 AM Howl into the void []
STANDING ROOM ONLY
LUST FOR LIFE
Thereâs a thin line between Not Getting Laid and Celibacy. While the boundaries may seem murky at best, Iâve realized I may be in the no-manâs land (literally) between the two and strolling towards the Big C. Iâve been pondering the differences and have asked myself, where do I distinguish both areas? When did I shift from just not having sex to being Celibate? When do we morph from going home lonely to just going home alone?
People are eager to share details of their Sumpinâ Sumpinâ in a heartbeat but the mention of Celibacy is guaranteed buzz kill. People do anything to get laid - I know from personal experience - and refusing what others have and would kill for seems almost wasteful. ãThere are people in China going without sex! Now flirt!ä My current position seems somehow beyond comprehension to many, as if I announced Iâd given up breathing.
THEM : I want a boyfriend.
ME: No you donât, you just want sex.
THEM: Doesnât everyone?
ME: Not really. I havenât had sex in two years.
THEM (in tones of Shock and Awe that would make GWB proud): YOUäRE KIDDING??! REALLY??
Yes, really. They then proceed to stare with an expression somewhere between sympathy and fascination - the look you might give to someone in an iron lung. Itâs as if the rest of the planet views sex as a must-have, not a Choice, with most people eager to stick a thumb in any pie available in hopes of pulling out a plum. After all, who doesnât want pie? The only reason not to gorge on pie is if someone keeps it from you. Evil cunts. Canât you see I need pie? If you arenât getting laid or at least working on it, the obvious reason is someone is denying you your god given right.
Celibacy, on the other hand, is about refusal. Me? Not so interested in pie right now, thanks bunches. I have eaten more than my share of pie in life and frankly, Iâm full. I canât think of anything Iâve wanted to do sexually that I havenât at least tried. Yup, done that. Uh huh. Oh yeah, we all did that. One bonus of being Celibate is it doesnât require any work which is only a good thing. Celibacy means thinking about something other than your hips and to some people, this means not thinking at all.
Iâm certainly not promoting Celibacy. If someone has never had sex with another person, then for godâs sake, get to work. For the rest of us though, please give us a break. No, Iâm not looking at your chest and Iâm not flirting when Iâm nice. I donât care, I donât have to. Iâm Celibate.
11:27:12 AM Howl into the void []
dive into mark
Pie progress report. Echo API draft 3 is out. The validator now validates feeds in the new format, and my ultra-liberal parser now parses them. (524 words)11:27:02 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
Xbox Hackers, Linux, the DMCA, And Modchips11:27:01 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
Zen And The Art of Nomad Hacking11:27:00 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
AOL: Amazon Who?11:27:00 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
X Prize Race Heats Up11:26:59 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
Digital Domesday Defies Doom11:26:58 AM Howl into the void []
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Olmos Tells Fans: "Don't Watch Galactica"11:26:57 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
Quakeworld Physics Captured in Quake311:26:56 AM Howl into the void []
Slashdot
The Double Edge of Copyright Extensions11:26:55 AM Howl into the void []
Radio Free Blogistan
Meta meta meta blogging.Metafilter is hosting one of the many discussions of the latest round of the Dave vs. Mark pissing match entrancing a tiny minority of humanity these days.
Don Park's blog post comments section is hosting a better one (if you can ignore my double-posting there).
Scott Rosenberg has an opinion on this too.
Me, I'm chilling in humid New York. My computer is too hot. Have fun, everybody!
11:26:53 AM Howl into the void []
Morons Dot Org
Morons in the News: Polyamory and the Unitarian Church. CBS News carried a story on July 8th about the Unitarian Church's acceptance of polyamorous relationships. The story meant a lot to me, as I have, at various times, considered myself a polyamorous person.11:26:48 AM Howl into the void []
Morons Dot Org
Morons in the News: CIA Takes the Fall for Bush. The official explanation has now solidified.11:26:48 AM Howl into the void []
Rayne Today
Too Weird! the sequel
Okay, I think I need to take a break and step away from media.
The television was left on by the kids; the VCR turned off, leaving the television set to local public school programming. Featured is a second grade class singing in the less-than-melodic fashion inimitable to 8-year-olds; theyâre doing a medley of American folk tunes. As I read the news and type up a blog post, I pay desultory attention to the mindless little ditty theyâre singing:
ãPeas, peas, peas, peas, eatinâ goober peas·
Goodness theyâre delicious, eatinâ goober peas!
Peas, peas, peas, peas, eatinâ goober peas·
Omigod, I am so creeped out·did I actually hear them sing THAT??? Do I dare call the school and ask???
I turned off the television. And Iâm logging off, right now, even if CIA director Tenet did just fall on his sword.
11:26:44 AM Howl into the void []
Rayne Today
| ¤ |
Bookreporter.com Poll this week: Do you know what Chick-Lit is?
Select one of the following answers:
[>] Yes
[>] No
[>] WHAT are you talking about?
I could point to it, but I couldnât define it. Thankfully, there are others who have.
Perhaps this poll would have been more effective if it had also asked, ãDo you read Chick-Lit?ä
I would have to check Yes, I know what it is, and No, I donât read it.
What about you? Let me guess·
11:26:27 AM Howl into the void []
Rayne Today
| î |
Too weird!!!
After reading Miss Nevaâs post, Which 2004 Presidential Candidate Are You?, I took the test and got these results:
1. Kucinich, Cong.
2. Dean, Gov.
3. Kerry, Senator
No surprise, of course, that Bush was in the basement in these results.
The surprise was Kucinich; I guess I didnât realize some of my ideology was that close to his. After a little poking and nosing around, I think I figured out how Kucinich came out above Dean on my scores. Itâs both a function of prioritization on each subject, and on a better published voting record on Kucinichâs part as a Senator. Dean is still a bit of an unspecified entity since he doesnât have the voting record to pin down his position by issue. Kucinich has become something of the Democratic conscience, picking up the banner where it was left after Senator Wellstoneâs untimely demise.
The really freaky part? The Kucinich campaign just called me for a donation. They called me, had my address, pegged me for a Democrat ö even though my number is unlisted.
If it had been any other political party, Iâd have sent them packing and drilled them about where they got my number.
Just wish I could believe that a donation to Kucinich would do any good; I genuinely donât believe he stands a chance even through the first couple of primaries. Heâs way too left to appeal to the centrists among the Dems, too much the old school Dem to appeal to the fiscally conservative-socially liberal New Dems.
11:26:05 AM Howl into the void []
Rayne Today
Build-A-Meme Project: Take out the opposition by demanding the truth
Pardon me, please, Iâm a little rusty yet. I'm still re-gearing after one of the longest vacations Iâve had in my adult life. For this reason Iâm going to borrow some material for my first post-vacation posts under the Build-A-Meme category from our good friends at MoveOn.org.
One of the critical components of an effective offense is not only to make sure your team is built properly and moving in the same direction as your vision, but that your opposition is taken out of play.
In this case, the Bush Administration deservedly needs to be held accountable for the outrageous distortion of the truth used to promote war. The price for this swashbuckling, swaggering stretch of the truth is thousands of civilian deaths, a fractured formerly sovereign nation, hundreds of American troop deaths, and an as-yet untold tens of billions (possibly hundreds of billions) of dollars in cost at a time when the American economy can afford this least. We, the voting American public, deserve to know the real truth behind the rationale to unilaterally and preemptively strike against
Do your part and check out MoveOnâs effort, sign the pledge and ask your Congressman to support an independent commission to seek the truth.
-----
From MoveOn.org:
Three weeks ago, MoveOn launched a petition asking Congress to create
an independent commission to investigate whether the Bush
Administration manipulated and distorted evidence to take the country
to war in
is literally taking up our call: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has written
a bill that would create just such a commission, and it's already
co-sponsored by a wide array of moderate Democrats -- including many
who voted for the war.
This commission can really happen -- and the truth about the Bush
Administration's manipulation of evidence can really come out -- but
we'll need your help. We're launching a drive to get every member of
Congress to personally pledge to support and vote for the independent
commission. Please take a moment to ask Congressman <i>(Your House
Representativeâs name here)</i> to pledge today at:
http://moveon.org/wmdpledge/?id=1504-3069701-wmpu8fIJk8n.VykJ8YoYRg
If you sign right now, your comment may be among those read on the
House floor by some of the Representatives pushing this resolution.
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), George Miller (D-CA),
Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and a
number of others are looking forward to hearing what you have to say
and reading some of the messages into the Congressional Record on the
House floor.
It's hardly a secret that members of the Bush Administration used
misleading and scanty evidence to bolster their case. As US News and
World Report noted in early June, even Colin Powell became alarmed at
the level of intelligence distortion. When he read the first draft of
his speech to the UN -- prepared for Powell by Vice President Richard
Cheney's chief of staff -- he was so upset at the weakness of some of
the evidence that he lost his temper, throwing several pages in the
air and declaring, "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit." (
and World Report,
Breaking news over the last few days has shown how untrustworthy the
Bush Administration is on this issue:
* The White House has finally admitted that the President's State of
the Union statement that Iraq was trying to procure nuclear materials
from Niger was wrong, but officials remain adamant that the
Administration did not mislead the public.
* Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was sent to
determine whether
concluded in a recent New York Times Op-Ed that "I have little
choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to
nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
* An official British investigation into two trailers found in
northern
said, "We found the weapons of mass destruction" -- has concluded that
the trailers were definitely not related to weapons production. As
one scientist told a British newspaper, "They are not mobile germ
warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological
weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the
Iraqis said they were - facilities for the production of hydrogen gas
to fill balloons."
The evidence that supported the war is unraveling, and it's time for
Congress to hold the President and his administration accountable. As
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said in a recent statement, "What else
did the Bush Administration lie about? What other faulty information
did Administration officials, including President Bush, tell the
American people and the world? Did the Bush Administration knowingly
deceive us and manufacture intelligence in order to build public
support for the invasion of
threat to our nation? These questions must be answered. The American
people deserve to know the full truth."
Ask your Member of Congress to pledge to reveal the truth right now by
signing the petition at:
http://moveon.org/wmdpledge/?id=1504-3069701-wmpu8fIJk8n.VykJ8YoYRg
We should know if the war in
Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
P.S. For more information, check out our recent bulletin on about
intelligence:
http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin21.html
P.P.S. The article in which Colin Powell is quoted as saying "I'm not
reading this. This is bullshit." is available online for $2.95 at:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/archive/030609/20030609040506.php
11:25:48 AM Howl into the void []
Rayne Today
26 Things: Water
Water, water, everywhere...
Which one to pick? Worse yet, I have many more from which to choose.
Top: Lake Superior, looking east from below Big Bay lighthouse
Bottom: Foot of Alder Falls, outside Marquette MI
11:25:22 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
An American Soldier in Iraq. An American soldier maintains a weblog from Iraq. It contains details about his day to day life as a non-combat (and non-career) soldier during this conflict. Some people think he is an imposter, others think he's a dissident for using his voice in any manner other than as a Stars and Stripes reporter would. Thanks toI thought his weblog was interesting, including his responses to people's assertions that he isn't real or is somehow a dissident for using his voice.
Thanks to Sensible Erection for the link.
11:24:52 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
Soundtoys - cool interactive audio visual projects. Soundtoys - cool things you can click on, prod, poke, play with, drag, chew on & diddle...a gallery of interactive audio-visual projects from a variety of web designers, musicians and programmers. Absolutely no uranium involved!11:24:50 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
'No real planning for postwar Iraq'. 'No real planning for postwar Iraq' "The officials didn't develop any real postwar plans because they believed that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops with open arms and Washington could install a favored Iraqi exile leader as the country's leader. The Pentagon civilians ignored CIA and State Department experts who disputed them, resisted White House pressure to back off from their favored exile leader and when their scenario collapsed amid increasing violence and disorder, they had no backup plan.Today, American forces face instability in Iraq, where they are losing soldiers almost daily to escalating guerrilla attacks, the cost of occupation is exploding to almost $4 billion a month and withdrawal appears untold years away."
Bring 'Em On!
11:24:48 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
Journalism in New Iraq. Baghdad Bulletin [approx equal]¥[fl]The Baghdad Bulletin is Iraq[approx equal]¥ús only English-language newsmagazine and one of the country[approx equal]¥ús only independent publications. The third issue (published Monday, July 7) is now being distributed across Iraq and in Jordan.[approx equal]¥ÿ They have a short bit about how Chemical Ali may have escaped Baghdad.11:24:44 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
Van Gogh's Moon. Van Gogh's Moon Shines Again This Weekend If you go out this Sunday evening and look up at the Moon, you will see not only our closest celestial neighbor, but a piece of art history as well. The rising full moon will appear exactly the way it did 114 years ago, when Vincent Van Gogh captured the scene in his famous painting "Moonrise.". Also learn how the moon helped date the painting.11:24:39 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
anywhere but here?. where r u? where would u like 2 b? Just answer those questions in the popup window (hit "click here to find out how..." or via email or text message)--your response will live online and will be launched at sunset from the banks of the River Avon on July 13th 2003...Possibly to be discovered by someone, somewhere. More info here (you can be anonymous if you wish, and javascript and flash are in the popup)11:24:36 AM Howl into the void []
MetaFilter
I want MadamJuJuJive & widdershins as my two wives!. The best thing about Polygamy.com is not the educational benefits (for example, did you realize that Polygamy is the ultimate feminist lifestyle?), it's reading the personals, such as this heartwarming story of Adolph & his two wives - they're looking for a 3rd sister wife, if any female mefites are interested.11:24:34 AM Howl into the void []
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
A Constitutionally Mandated Beyonce Break. Thigh-revealing jumpsuits have always been bipartisan....11:24:28 AM Howl into the void []
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
Why it May Become A Quagmire. It's not that our soldiers can't do the job. It's that the people they answer to have been so blinded by hype and their own puffed out chests, they screwed over our soldiers and the Iraqi people. This is the...11:24:26 AM Howl into the void []
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
"Bring 'Em On". Support for Bush Declines As Casualties Mount in Iraq Public support for President Bush has dropped sharply amid growing concerns about U.S. military casualties and doubts whether the war with Iraq was worth fighting, according to a new Washington Post-ABC...11:24:25 AM Howl into the void []
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
Tenet Takes Blame For Sluggish Economy. (Washington) - One day after CIA director George Tenet accepted culpability for the uranium falsehood in President Bush's state of the union address, he also admitted that the CIA also approved the following text in the President's speech: "The tax...11:24:23 AM Howl into the void []
Salon.com
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". Despite Sean Connery and some impressive 19th century gloom, this big-screen translation of Alan Moore's culty comic-book series falls to earth with an incoherent splat.11:23:48 AM Howl into the void []
Salon.com
The trouble with Howard Dean. As a social liberal and fiscal moderate, he's lured students, professionals and the antiwar left. But he's more George McGovern than Bill Clinton.11:23:45 AM