bOing bOing

GPS will pinpoint Coke prize winners

New York Times: International News

China Angered by Reported Orgy Involving Japanese Tourists

birdhouse.org

Amy in the Fogg. Congratulations to Amy, who was just contacted by Harvard's Fogg Museum -- they want to purchase one of her murals for their permanent collection, and the curator wants another one for her private collection. Between this and Peter Palmquist bequeathing his collection to Yale, this will put Amy's photos in both Harvard and Yale's permanent collections. I'm so proud of her! Music: Brian Eno :: A Secret Life...

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Find, Fix, and See All Your Photos on a PC (PC World). PC World - Toss aside the old shoe boxes and put all your photographs--digital and paper--into your computer.

Washington Post: Front Page

Census Finds Many More Lack Health Insurance

Washington Post: Front Page

Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak

Washington Post: Front Page

Two-Man Race in Calif. Recall?

Washington Post: Front Page

Iraqis Call U.S. Goal on Constitution Impossible

Washington Post: Front Page

U.S. Charges Activist Over Links to Libya

MetaFilter

Oh, it's nothing.... This post is about nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Edgewise

Outmaneuvering the Radical Right.

My Fellow Democrats:

When Arnold wins in California next week, there will be lots of talk that this was a successful plot by the Republican Right to subvert the will of the state's Democratic majority. But really, that's missing the point.

Arnold didn't need the recall to beat Gray Davis. In a general election, you could beat Davis. I could beat Davis. Pretty much everyone but Bill Simon could beat Gray Davis.

No, Arnold needed the recall to get past that straight-talking, unassuming, is-it-just-me-or-is-this-guy-a-little-cross-eyed? political juggernaut the ladies call: (add dramatic echo here) "Tom McClintock." Because in the California Republican primary, otherwise altogether unappealing fellows like Bill Simon and Tom McClintock just can't be beat.

With that boyish grin, and that small-town charm, and that way he's got of staring straight into the camera and...and...never ever raising taxes and stuff, Tom would have pounded Schwarzenegger into a steely-eyed, square-jawed, closet-liberal, Kennedy-loving, Austrian variant on polenta. Much like Simon thumped Riordan. And Dan Lungren thumped...whoever the hell it was he thumped while Davis was off making preparations for his triumphal march.

But not this time. This time the not-quite-so-Right Republicans got wise, see. They hatched a canny plan. And so, my fellow Democrats, take heart. This whole recall thing wasn't a successful plot by the Republican Right to subvert the will of the state's Democratic majority. Far from it! This was a successful plot by the Republican not-quite-so-Right to subvert the will of the Republican base.

Now don't you feel better?

New York Times: International News

White House Denies a Top Aide Identified an Officer of the C.I.A.

New York Times: International News

A Photo Op: O Say, Can You See the Eiffel Tower?

New York Times: International News

Resistance: U.S. Forces Ambushed in Two Towns

New York Times: International News

Costs: G.O.P. Senators Say Money for Iraq Must Be Grant, Not Loan

New York Times: International News

Russian Voter Disillusionment Seen in St. Petersburg Runoff

birdhouse.org

Domino Theory, Pt. IV. Finally, good news in the saga. Plumber came out. Turns out I don't have to replace the flange to replace the bolts -- the bolts were always replaceable; I just couldn't see it because rust had obscured their entry points. Plumber Dude chipped away at rust until gateways opened up... old bolts came out and new ones went in. Since he had to charge an hour minimum, had him install the new toilet, even though...

bOing bOing

P2P Legal defense fund downhillbattle.org launches

bOing bOing

Cramer disses Disney's MovieBeam

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

9.30.03: The Democrats. Senator Edwards' book has a cover now. (and he's blogging in person on his site, excellent!) General Clark has a new official blog. Dean made a giant phone call and is racking up big time money ALSO: President Bush may...

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Miserable Failure: Health Care. George Bush is good if you're a corporation or have six or more zeroes in your bank account. For regular people, he's a complete mistake. Health care costs are soaring again, after several years of stability; average premiums rose nearly...

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Lying Liars: Condi Rice (Again!). Perhaps if we just called them "the fictional administration"? Democrat Disputes Rice on Iraq Claims The leading Democrat on the House intelligence committee yesterday strongly disputed the assertion by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice that there was new information to...

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Mistake In Africa. I think pulling out of Liberia so soon is a mistake. Last month I read a story in Vanity Fair by Sebastian Junger about the current state of affairs in that country, and you would have to be a total...

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Amen. Kicking Ass wonders if the White House will follow the newest law of the land......

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Adventures in Profiteering. As if committing acts of domestic treason wasn't enough in a day's work for the Bush team, along comes some fat contracts in Iraq for Bush pals A group of businessmen linked by their close ties to President Bush, his...

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Treason Watch: The Spin. Maybe it's unfair of me to single Instapundit out, but as the touchstone for all things political in the right-wing alleys of the blogosphere it is telling how he spins a story. Normally there's nary a major political story on...

mamamusings

the last gangstory. I’m not big on crime stories, fictional or documentary. So when Weez recommended Gangstories, I shied away from it. The weblog was wonderfully written, powerful autobiographical stuff…but it was too far away from my world for me to own it, and too dark for me to want to. When D (the author) ended Gangstories last week, however, my curiousity was piqued. “Email me if you want the last story,” he wrote in his last entry. How could I not? What I got back from him was something that bridged the gap between his world and mine. I’ve read his “last...

Washington Post: Editorial

Fighting Over Overtime

Washington Post: Editorial

The No-Call Catch-22

Washington Post: Editorial

Tiny Trigger Fingers

Washington Post: Editorial

Sports Heroes, Corporate Orphans

Washington Post: Editorial

Where's Schwarzenegger's Self-Respect?

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

E-Spying on Your Lover Could Be Illegal - Experts (Reuters). Reuters - A company calling itself Lover Spy has begun offering a way for jealous lovers -- and anyone else -- to spy on the computer activity of their mates by sending an electronic greeting, the equivalent of a thinking-of-you card, that doubles as a bugging device.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

White House Denies Leaking CIA Agent's ID (AP). AP - The White House denied on Monday that President Bush's top political adviser leaked a CIA agent's identity to retaliate against an opponent of the administration's Iraq policy. Prodded by Democrats, the Justice Department said it was looking into whether a full investigation was warranted ÷ a step rarely taken.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Nearly 9 of 10 of Drug Imports Break Law (AP). AP - Nearly 90 percent of the imported mail-order drugs stopped at the borders in a special crackdown by government agents were potentially dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.

Slashdot

iRiver Announces A New Ogg/MP3 Player

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Survey: Women Over 40 Seek Younger Dates (AP). AP - Demi Moore is not alone. Close to a third of unmarried American woman in their 40s through 60s who date are going out with younger men, according to one of the most sweeping surveys ever conducted on the dating habits and sex lives of mid-life singles.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Music Download Suit Settlements Announced (AP). AP - The recording industry on Monday announced settlements with 52 of the 261 Internet users it sued over allegations they illegally permitted others to download music from their computers using popular file-sharing software.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Groups Sound Warning on Large Budget Deficits (Reuters). Reuters - Large and mounting budget deficits represent a threat to the health of the U.S. economy that urgently requires the attention of policymakers, three watchdog groups said on Monday.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Diving-suit marathon man makes for Loch Ness monster's lair (AFP). AFP - A former leucemia victim who hit headlines by taking part in several above-ground marathon races clad in a heavy diving suit has taken his charity quest to the bottom of Loch Ness, with hopes for an encounter with the lake's most famous denizen.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

FDA Finds Hundreds of Unapproved Drug Imports (Reuters). Reuters - Recent inspections turned up hundreds of potentially dangerous prescription drug imports as Americans sought cheaper medicines from abroad, U.S. health officials said Monday.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

White House Rejects Independent Counsel for Leak (Reuters). Reuters - The White House on Monday rejected Democratic demands that an independent counsel be appointed to find out who leaked secret information apparently aimed at discrediting a vocal critic of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

New York Times: International News

A Top Bush Aide Didn't Identify C.I.A. Agent, White House Says

New York Times: International News

New Constitution: Iraqi Groups Are Badly Split Over How to Draft a Charter

bOing bOing

New Roger Wood clock

bOing bOing

Accenture puts Verisign in charge of US Internet voting

Burningbird

See you on the Flip Side

anil dash's daily links

thongs for tweens terrorizes moms. boyshorts seem a wise compromise, but this is the first inkling i've gotten of how the thong meme spreads

MetaFilter

megaman vs. metroid. megaman vs. metroid [Note: Flash]

The Poor Man

Shorter Right-Wing Punditry's Reaction to the Valerie Plame Affair: An Internal Dialogue. Why would master do this? Why he tricks us, and betrays us? No, it couldn't have been master! Master is...

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 10:14 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 10:14 PM EDT // link)

Another big problem with Novak's comments on Crossfire today. Today he said ...

Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this. In July I was interviewing a senior administration official on Ambassador Wilson's report when he told me the trip was inspired by his wife, a CIA employee working on weapons of mass destruction.

But then there's this passage in a July 22nd article in Newsday ...

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

I'd say the story's changed.

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 9:59 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 9:59 PM EDT // link)

A Tuesday New York Times story about Joe Allbaugh and New Bridge Strategies. You're late to the party, guys. But welcome aboard.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

AP: Episcopal Leader Defends Gay Bishop (AP). AP - With two key meetings ahead that could determine whether the Episcopal Church splits over homosexuality, the denomination's leader defended his support Monday for an openly gay bishop in an interview with The Associated Press.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

New Cable Network to Target Auto Buffs (AP). AP - Add 24-hour automotive news and consumer programming to the list of cable networks hoping to find a niche among those already airing round-the-clock shopping, cooking, golfing and other interests.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

N.H. Court Trashes Private Garbage Search (AP). AP - The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Monday that garbage is private, even when it has been put out near the street for collection.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

CBS' "Amazing" Renewal (E! Online). E! Online - Hot off the show's longshot Emmy victory earlier this month over fellow CBS entry Survivor and Fox's American Idol, the Eye has given the go-ahead for a fifth season of its extreme reality adventure series.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Bush Signs No-Call List, Hurdles Remain (Reuters). Reuters - President Bush signed into law on Monday a bill removing a hurdle to the national "do not call" list which officials predicted would be largely effective despite other legal setbacks.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

White House Says Top Aide Was Not Behind C.I.A. Leak (The New York Times). The New York Times - The White House said today that it was "ridiculous" for anyone to suggest that President Bush's top political adviser had leaked secret information.

Burningbird

Crescent Moon

New York Times: International News

China Angered Over Reported Japanese Orgy

New York Times: International News

Tony Blair Fights to Regain Traction at Party Meeting

New York Times: International News

Paris Journal: A Photo Op: O Say, Can You See the Eiffel Tower?

New York Times: International News

Palestinian Ends Defense in Murder Trial

Slashdot

Few Takers For RIAA's "Clean Slate"

Slashdot

Software Tweak Makes Linux Boot In Under 200 ms

bOing bOing

Arthur Andersen puts Verisign in charge of US Internet voting

Orcinus

Conservative media bias
. That damned conservative media.

Everyone else (especially Atrios) is tracking the Valerie Plame matter better than I could, so I'll say little about it here.

But has anyone else noticed how slow the so-called "liberal" media have been to pick up on

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Bush Signs Do-Not-Call List Into Law (AP). AP - The bewildering fight between the government and telemarketers over the national do-not-call list took another turn Monday when a second federal agency said it would enforce the program, promising that consumers would soon see some reduction in telephone sales pitches.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

N.J. Criminalizes Driving While Tired (AP). AP - As if staying alive were not enough of an incentive, motorists in New Jersey have another reason to make sure they are well-rested when they get behind the wheel ÷ a first-in-the-nation law against driving while drowsy.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Smallpox Vaccine Could Prevent AIDS (AP). AP - Could a smallpox shot protect you from the AIDS virus? It's a tantalizing idea that scientists at George Mason University are studying. Early findings are very preliminary and based on lab tests of a small number of blood samples.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Safeco to Cut Jobs, Exit Life Insurance (Reuters). Reuters - Safeco Corp (SAFC.O) on Monday said it plans to sell its life insurance and investments business to focus on property and casualty coverage and that it would cut at least 500 jobs to reduce costs.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Sun to Post Deeper First Quarter Loss (Reuters). Reuters - Sun Microsystems Inc.(SUNW.O) on Monday warned of a larger loss in the current fiscal first quarter than Wall Street had expected, leading it to record a $1 billion tax charge and revise its previously reported fourth-quarter results to show a loss.

The Poor Man

Shorter Right-Wing Punditry's Reaction to the Valerie Plame Affair: An Internal Diague. Why would master do this? Why he tricks us, and betrays us? No, it couldn't have been master! Master is...

The Poor Man

Politics Is Stupid. Saw the Democratic debate the other night, and it was fairly awful. I'll start with the unoriginal observation that there...

MetaFilter

and we'll have fun fun fun until daddy takes our t-cells away. smallpox vs. aids: the pandemic smackdown!! Researchers are [very, very cautiously] suggesting there might be a link between the end of smallpox vaccinations in the early 1980s and the rise of HIV. Pinwheel, in the RFID thread: "All I can say is that it's a great time to be a lazy paranoid schizophrenic--modern society is doing all of the work for you."

bOing bOing

Dean campaign enlists clueful roster of net-advisors

bOing bOing

TSA-appointed "passenger advocate" in cahoots with CAPPS II contractor

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

AP: Episcopal Leader Defends Gay Bishop (AP). AP - With two key meetings ahead that could determine whether the Episcopal Church splits over homosexuality, the denomination's leader defended his support Monday for an openly gay bishop in an interview with The Associated Press.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Agency Belittles Information Given by Iraq Defectors (The New York Times). The New York Times - A Pentagon review has concluded that debriefings provided by defectors made available by an Iraqi exile group were of little value.

Orcinus

The Fresno case
. Seems the Free Republic's complaint about being labeled a "hate group" has created a big dustup at Fresno City Hall, with Republicans coming out of the woodwork to demand the removal of the Human Relations Commission chair who issued the press release.

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 7:28 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 7:28 PM EDT // link)

Bob Novak is is now saying that his source says that Valerie Plame was an "analyst" and not an "operative" at the CIA. Joe Wilson remembers their conversation in July a bit differently.

According to what Wilson told TPM early Monday evening, when Novak first contacted him in July, he told him that he had a CIA source that told him that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a "CIA operative."

Would Wilson confirm it?

Wilson declined to discuss the matter, as Novak's original article made clear.

When Novak's article appeared it sourced the story to "Two senior administration officials."

Wilson says he called Novak back and asked why the article said two senior administration officials, whereas he had earlier sourced it to someone at the CIA.

According to Wilson, Novak said "I misspoke the first time."

What this means is that, according to Wilson, Novak knew Plame was an "operative" rather than an "analyst" at the time he placed his first call to Wilson.

Slashdot

Cable Companies Reject Tiered Pricing Model

California Insider

USA Today explains poll sample. Jim Norman, the polling editor of USA Today, has just sent me a note trying to answer some of the questions that have been raised about the poll released Sunday. I am reprinting most of it here: "Gallup initially interviewed...

California Insider

Too little, too late?. This was given to me by a person whose motive was to get some good news out there about the state's budget picture, but here are the latest numbers on tax receipts from the state Department of Finance: An internal...

California Insider

CRP backs Arnold. The California Republican Party board of directors has just voted to endorse Schwarzenegger in the race to replace Davis if he is recalled. I have questioned the value of this endorsement in the past, and even suggested that it might...

Slashdot

The Design Of The Google File System

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Bride, 12, Storms Out of Romania Wedding (AP). AP - It was billed as the Gypsy wedding of the year. But the ceremony, launching a three-day party, got off to a bad start: The 12-year-old "princess bride" ÷ daughter of a self-proclaimed king ÷ stormed out of the church in protest in front of 400 guests.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Peer-To-Peer Networks Unveil Code of Conduct (Reuters). Reuters - Several Internet "peer-to-peer" networks unveiled a code of conduct on Monday to encourage responsible behavior among the millions of users who copy music, pornography and other material from each others' hard drives.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Molecule Found in Meat, Milk and Tumors - Study (Reuters). Reuters - A non-human molecule found in red meat and milk makes its way into the human system when eaten -- and seems to build up especially in tumors, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Tomalak's Realm

LA Times: Law Won't Deter Spam, Experts Say. That's the conclusion of a range of experts on the plague of electronic advertising known as spam. They say the new law, touted by state politicians as the toughest in the country, is at best a toothless, feel-good measure and at worst might spur frivolous lawsuits.

anil dash's daily links

will Reuters succeed where Trillian hasn't?. they've got their IM system talking to AOL, Lotus, and MSN. a dark horse?

Slashdot

FCC To Enforce Do Not Call List, Not FTC

Tomalak's Realm

Wired News: Indian Net Ban Overshoots Its Aim. A government ban on an Internet discussion group run by an obscure Indian separatist movement has ended up blocking hundreds of unrelated Yahoo forums, preventing nearly all of India from using the popular online service.

Tomalak's Realm

NY Times: In Handling Innovation, Patience Is a Virtue. For a time-honored company, breakthrough technologies can be as disruptive inside the company as they are externally. Too many companies are not structurally prepared to handle them, said Professor Roberts of M.I.T.

MetaFilter

Begins with me in a red dress demonstrating different ways to take a pie in the face.. "You men are visually stimulated creatures. Seeing a woman, in hot clothes, get pelted by pies is a rarity." Meet Phoebe Rodriguez everyone. Read her story, and of course, watch her videos (nsfw or pies)

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Cirque Du Soleil Bares All in New Vegas Erotic Show (Reuters). Reuters - Nubile women caress each other as they swim in a huge, see-through fish bowl; two male dancers indulge in a long, lingering kiss and a nearly nude female trapeze artist groans with simulated sexual pleasure.

New York Times: International News

White House Says Top Aide Was Not Behind C.I.A. Leak

New York Times: International News

First Lady, in Paris, Oversees U.S. Return to Unesco

New York Times: International News

Ex-Premier Goes on Trial in Paris on Party Graft Charges

New York Times: International News

China's Ties With Japan Strained by Racy Report

New York Times: International News

European Union Ministers Support Iraq Handover

Meme List

Return of the King trailer. Gotta love those Bagginses - Fredo, Mickey, Pepin, and Sam

MetaFilter

Peer-to-peer lobby. P2P United, the new lobby set up by peer-to-peer software developers, publishes a code of conduct.

MetaFilter

Get your mix on. My Mixtapes is a site for users of emusic. Members can post album reviews, create mixtapes, and compile thematic lists of albums, all with direct links to the songs or albums so that subscribers to the mp3 service can download directly "via" my mixtapes.

MetaFilter

RFID: Taking Away Your Privacy One Product at a Time. We've discussed it before, but RFID, that fun-loving little radio transmitter that can be attached to everything from that stereo system to a carton of milk, is plowing ahead faster than you can say "unregulated." Earlier this year, Wal-Mart issued a mandate that required its top 100 suppliers to include RFIDs on their merchandise by 2005, bringing new meaning to the phrase "panties in a bunch." (Incidentally, Wal-Mart was also the benign corporation that ushered in bar codes for mass consumption in the late 70s and early 80s.) With no regulations on the table, the New York Times reports that the Defense Department plans to issue a statement requiring all suppliers to use RFID. Hitachi has even offered to put it in your currency. Imagine a store a few years from now that can track all of the objects in your cart, and that, thanks to a microscopic RFID stuck to your shoe when you slide through the doors, can determine how many seconds you or your children react to a display. Imagine a world that tracks exactly where each one of your dollar bills go. (So much for the anonymity of johns and porn enthusiasts.) Is this the kind of world we want to abdicate to large retail corporations? Is this the kind of information that governments or private institutions are entitled to know? Discuss.

Orcinus

Conservative media bias
. That damned conservative media.

Everyone else (especially Atrios) is tracking the April Plame matter better than I could, so I'll say little about it here.

But has anyone else noticed how slow the so-called "liberal" media have been to pick up on th

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

World's Oldest Man Dies in Japan at 114 (AP). AP - Yukichi Chuganji, a retired silkworm breeder documented as the world's oldest man, died at his home in Japan at age 114, his family said Monday.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Bush Signs Do-Not-Call List Into Law (AP). AP - While court fights continued, President Bush on Monday signed legislation to ratify the Federal Trade Commission's authority to set up a national do-not-call list that could lead to fines for telemarketers.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Tech-Job Certifications That Still Matter (NewsFactor). NewsFactor - For IT professionals looking to advance their career or move into another specialty, tech certifications present a quandary. In these post-boom years, most IT professionals now know that certification does not equal employment and a high salary. All those tests and fees have become a turnoff for many.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Bush Signs 'Do Not Call' Registry Law (Reuters). Reuters - Saying Americans were losing patience, President Bush signed a law on Monday removing one -- but not all -- of the legal hurdles facing the national "do not call" registry, an anti-telemarketing measure blocked over free-speech concerns.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Agency Belittles Information Given by Iraq Defectors (The New York Times). The New York Times - A Pentagon review has concluded that debriefings provided by defectors made available by an Iraqi exile group were of little value.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Hundreds of Tourists Accused of Three-Day Orgy (Reuters). Reuters - Hundreds of Japanese tourists and local prostitutes held a three-day orgy at a luxury hotel in southern China, newspapers said, sparking outrage and prompting police to launch an investigation.

Radio Free Blogistan

Like 'what is jazz' but bloggier.

Just as a novel approach to time is part of what makes jazz jazz, the reverse-chronological format of weblogs are their defining element, says Michael Feldman in Dowbrigade News.

But for me, the crucial factor is that a blog is a web site organized in REVERSE chronological order, and this makes all the difference in the world.

And you can quibble about running the current day's items in forward-chronological order and still being a blog, but it's true that having the newest stuff above the fold just makes good sense. It is a form that the medium demands.

The web is about now. The web is about "What have you done for me lately?"

I'm glad Michael hearkened back to Greek and Roman concepts of storytelling, because someone once told me that modern people look at time as if we are on the prow of a ship cutting through the sea. The past is behind us, the future lies ahead. This is the heroic American posture familiar from film and legend.

The Greeks, my friend told me, viewed time as if we were in the stern of a ship moving across the ocean looking back at our wake. As I thought about it, this metaphor is in many ways more apt. We back into the future. We can't see it. We can only see the past, but even then we can only see the ripples and memories of the past, gowing fuzzier and fainter as they recede into the distance.

While running backward, blogs actual face forward, each new post an updating of the constantly moving now, already gone when written, long gone when read. (But the slicing of time before, during, and after now gets more refined, as the filters and the obstacles and the editors and the gatekeepers and the schoolmarms are removed from the workflow.

The quickly dying moment is noted. With it's last breath it pings Weblogs.com or some other page of recently updated blogs. Perhaps someone sees it, is reminded, takes a chance, encounters the noted moment only recently deceased, still warm.

The dead past is still smelly when you stumble across it on a blog.

Michael says,

Blogs... follow a chronological order which is neither random nor abstract. It is simply straight chronological order IN REVERSE. This is again a direct result of the technology used to create blogs, and defines their basic nature. A blog, if you read it every day, is an evolving, unfolding story as seen through the eyes of the blogger, but to a new reader it unfolds backwards as one reads down the page.

Yes, sure, till you're caught up, like asking your mother what happened on the soap opera in the last week or so, and in fact this is disorienting to new blog readers! Too bad it's not easy to backfill, add roadmarks at some good starting points for various story arcs. But, hey, it's working.

I would quibble with "it's a direct result of the technology used to create blogs" only insofar as to point out that the technology itself evolved in response to the needs of the living web, where things that are not easily updatable and that don't advertise their freshness fall out of circulation.

I think Michael gets very close to the nut of the thing when he writes "A blog... is an evolving, unfolding story."

Slashdot

India Blocks Yahoo Groups Over Political Content

Slashdot

AMD Moves Closer To Linux PDA

The Motley Fool

Grow Your 401(k) -- Automatically. Plus, Janus blew it, and some (wildly) profitable characters.

The Motley Fool

A Wal-Mart Monopoly?. As competitors dwindle, could Wal-mart gain pricing power?

The Motley Fool

50 Cent Value Investing. Rapper 50 Cent shows how cash, cost of revenue, and cost of capital lead to value creation.

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

A Matter of Security. One party cares about national security. It should be two. General Wesley K. Clark Calls For An Independent Investigation Into Leak of CIA Agent's Identity "The Administration should not play politics with this matter. This issue is too important for...

bOing bOing

Voice-Over-IP-over-WiFi phone ships from Pulver.com

bOing bOing

Tickle Me Elmo fur coats

bOing bOing

Australian 5-year-old makes bong for show-and-tell

bOing bOing

Disney's Utopian EPCOT in an academic book

bOing bOing

Eat your spectrum: Clearchannel, the restaurant

MetaFilter

Off with their heads!. D/collet/ takes you on a fascinating guided tour of decapitation through the ages that covers biblical head severers Judith and Salome, the hapless victims of the Tudor axe, as well as the dreaded guillotine. Site contains some mild artistic gore, but nothing too horrendous.

Meme List

The old East Bay Key routes. via Beastblog, which covers the shaded area (thus leaving out East Oakland and Richmond)

plasticbag.org

Around the back of Broadcasting House...

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Economics May Be Behind Your Baby's Gender (HealthDay). HealthDay - MONDAY, Sept. 29 (HealthDayNews) -- Difficult economic conditions in a country may result in fewer male than female births, says a study from the University of California, Berkeley.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Orangutans Could Go Extinct in 20 Years (AP). AP - Habitat destruction by illegal loggers could mean the extinction of orangutans within 10 to 20 years, a Harvard researcher studying the apes said Monday.

Morons Dot Org

Random: Stories we missed on Sep. 26, 2003. Here are URLs that were submitted to our queue on Sep. 26, 2003 but didn't make it into actual stories...

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 3:46 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 3:46 PM EDT // link)

Oh that's classic. Again in NRO, Mark Levin says it's really Joe Wilson's fault. After all, he brought all this attention on himself, says Levin. He should have known that someone in the administration would blow his wife's cover to get even.

("Listen woman! If you didn't nag me so much, I wouldn't have to hit you!" Sounds sorta the same.)

In any case, Levin's piece along with Cliff May's noted earlier shows the dimensions of this story -- there's no spinning it. This mumbo-jumbo is the best they can come up with.

As the lawyers say, when the facts are on your side, bang the facts. When the law's on your side, bang the law. When you've got neither, bang the table.

We you don't even got a table, it would seem, you bang yourself.

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 3:19 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 3:19 PM EDT // link)

A couple more issues to watch.

According to this morning's Washington Post, the president's "aides said Bush has no plans to ask his staff members whether they played a role in revealing the name of an undercover officer who is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV."

Today Scott McClellan said Karl Rove "wasn't involved. The president knows he wasn't involved."

That sounds like the president has asked one of his staff members, i.e., Karl Rove.

Let's say this is true -- that Rove wasn't involved. And frankly I'd be surprised if the White House would be so stupid as to say this if it weren't at least true in some narrow, technical sense. But, again, let's assume McClellan did not flatly lie in the president's name this morning.

If that's so, it sounds like the president requested and got a denial from Rove. But McClellan didn't offer a blanket denial for anyone else. It seems like the president -- or someone acting on his behalf -- got a denial from Rove but didn't get one from others, or knew not even to ask.

What's clear from McClellan's statement is that a lot is already known in the White House -- probably everything -- and they're trying to keep a lid on it.

Point two.

We've heard a lot about how blowing Plame's cover was probably illegal and certainly dishonorable. But let's walk through what the implications are.

Plame's beat, if we can use that word, was weapons of mass destruction. And, of course, WMD is the big issue. It's why Iraq, why Joe Wilson, why Niger, why CIA referrals. That's what's at the bottom of all this stuff. Keeping WMD out of the wrong hands is, or was, Plame's job.

If that's her job you can figure that over the years she's been involved in various operations aimed at tracking proliferation, worked with various human sources, all sorts of stuff like that.

Now Plame's name has been splashed across papers all over the world. And the folks that leaked her name made sure that they used her maiden name, Plame -- the one she did most of her work under -- rather than Wilson, the name which I'm told she now goes by.

So now her name's out. And now every bad-actor and bad-acting government knows that anything that Plame was involved with, any operation, any company she was supposed to be working for, any people she worked closely with, are probably also CIA or at least work with CIA. WMD bad-guys now know to steer clear of them.

Let's say there's some operation Plame hasn't been involved with for a decade -- but it's still on-going. People will remember she used to be in on that operation and thus it's tagged as an Agency operation and it's useless. Everyone will know to steer clear.

Now, I have no knowledge of any operations Plame was involved in or covers she used. These are hypotheticals. But it gives you a sense of the sort of work she was involved in and the potential collateral damage of exposing her cover. And consider what her work was: protecting Americans from weapons of mass destruction. Chew on that irony.

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 2:01 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 2:01 PM EDT // link)

Some interesting whistling past the graveyard on Wilsongate by Cliff May in NRO.

May says of Wilson's investigation in Niger ...

Equally, important and also overlooked: Mr. Wilson had no apparent background or skill as an investigator. As Mr. Wilson himself acknowledged, his so-called investigation was nothing more than "eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people" at the U.S. embassy in Niger. Based on those conversations, he concluded that "it was highly doubtful that any [sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq] had ever taken place."

Compare this to the fairly extensive description of his visit to Niger (I think the most extensive published) that Wilson gave when TPM interviewed him two weeks back (that discussion comes about half-way through the interview.).

So May's point is that the attempts to discredit Wilson -- what got the White House into this mess -- didn't go far enough.

May also argues that the whole disclosure isn't such a big deal since it was somehow widely known that Valerie Plame was CIA. To this I would only say, Cliff, pursuing this line of inquiry/argument could lead to some really awkward surprises. Just heads up.

Another point. May hits again on the theme that Wilson is some sort of Bush-Bashing fanatic who can't be trusted. To this I would only ask, if Wilson is such a left-wing freak, why does the president's father think so highly of him?

One more point. One of May's points is that part of the problem was that the CIA sent out someone to Niger who wasn't sufficiently loyal to the president. This gets said a lot privately among hawks who are close to the White House.

The argument -- which I've had repeatedly told to me -- is that the real mistake in this whole mess was sending someone out to Niger who wasn't politically and ideologically loyal to the president. Wasn't one of our guys, etc. That attitude, of course, tells you a lot about how these fellows got into this mess in the first place.

Gawker

Gossip Roundup. á It's hard to stay on the cutting edge of hipsterdom. "The Prez and Mrs. Bush just watched Sofia Coppola's...

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Letter to Gawker from Gavin McInnes. In our final installment on Vice magazine today, a letter -- and a confession -- from co-founder McInnes on the...

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After the Journal, a Life of Pain. Last week, a story about a now-homeless Wall Street Journal reporter made the rounds. He's lived in his car for...

Gawker

Gavin McInnes' Tattoo. In their story on Vice Magazine yesterday, the Times evidently mis-reported Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes' tattoo (we'll check the corrections...

The Motley Fool

The Chips are Up. Semiconductor sales rose again, hitting August levels not seen since 1990.

The Motley Fool

Kozlowski Faces the Music. The former head of Tyco heads to trial.

The Motley Fool

The Perfect Card for Perfect People. What's the right card for a credit goody two-shoes?

Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid

What Does The President Know?. It appears that he knows Karl Rove isn't responsible......

Slashdot

FBI Investigating Lamo Via Patriot Act Provision

Slashdot

Microsoft Sends Takedown Notice To MSFreePC.com

anil dash's daily links

making sense of adsense. i wrote a post on google's adsense last week, in case you missed it. some nice feedback about the arbitrary nature of some parts of the system.

anil dash's daily links

gleaning and exchanging: MIT press and weblogs. I like the idea of following in Twain's footsteps

anil dash's daily links

tablet PCs are taking off. see? i told you.

anil dash's daily links

interview with krishna bharat of google news. it seems the news search's bark is worse than its bite

anil dash's daily links

The Image of Librarians in Pornography. the linked page is work safe. the cliched images of glasses being removed and ponytails being undone are probably less work safe.

anil dash's daily links

Skyhigh Airlines. great spoof site made to promote alaska air

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Gorilla Escapes at Boston Zoo, Injures 2 (AP). AP - A 300-pound gorilla will be kept off display after it escaped from its zoo enclosure for the second time in two months, snatching a 2-year-old girl and injuring a teenager, zoo officials said.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Iraq, 9/11 Still Linked By Cheney (washingtonpost.com). washingtonpost.com - In making the case for war against Iraq, Vice President Cheney has continued to suggest that an Iraqi intelligence agent met with a Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker five months before the attacks, even as the story was falling apart under scrutiny by the FBI, CIA and the foreign government that first made the allegation.

plasticbag.org

On Gordon Brown's Speech...

anil dash's daily links

meet the stans. central asia and the coming war over water are going to be the part of the world we most regret overlooking

anil dash's daily links

homemade segway. i really like the comparison chart for building materials

anil dash's daily links

in defense of CSS makeovers. "The truth is, the majority of these redesigns are done by CSS enthusiasts for fun and as a personal challenge."

The Motley Fool

Buffett Takes on Debt. Berkshire Hathaway is selling bonds for the first time in years. Why?

The Motley Fool

Grow Your 401(k) -- Automatically. Here's a way to increase the chances your retirement savings will replace your income.

Meme List

Be Choire's stringer. pronounced Cory, like Choire Doctorow

Meme List

lotr3_trlr_dl.mov">Return of the King trailer. Gotta love those Bagginses - Fredo, Mickey, Pepin, and Sam

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 2:01 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 2:01 PM EDT // link)

Some interesting whistling past the graveyard on Wilsongate by Cliff May in NRO.

May says of Wilson's investigation in Niger ...

Equally, important and also overlooked: Mr. Wilson had no apparent background or skill as an investigator. As Mr. Wilson himself acknowledged, his so-called investigation was nothing more than "eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people" at the U.S. embassy in Niger. Based on those conversations, he concluded that "it was highly doubtful that any [sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq] had ever taken place."

Compare this to the fairly extensive description of his visit to Niger (I think the most extensive published) that Wilson gave when TPM interviewed him two weeks back (that discussion comes about half-way through the interview.).

So May's point is that the attempts to discredit Wilson -- what got the White House into this mess -- didn't go far enough.

May also argues that the whole disclosure isn't such a big deal since it was somehow widely known that Valerie Plame was CIA. To this I would only say, Cliff, pursuing this line of inquiry/argument could lead to some really awkward surprises. Just heads up.

Another point. May hits again on the theme that Wilson is some sort of Bush-Bashing fanatic who can't be trusted. To this I would only ask, if Wilson is such a left-wing freak, why does the president's father think so highly of him?

One more point. One of May's points is that part of the problem was that the CIA sent out someone to Niger who wasn't sufficiently loyal to the president. This gets said a lot privately among hawks who are close to the White House.

The argument -- which I've had repeatedly told to me -- is that the real mistake in this whole mess was sending someone out to Niger who wasn't politically and ideologically loyal to the president. Wasn't one of our guys, etc. That attitude, of course, tells you a lot about how these fellows got into this mess in the first place.

X-POLLEN

Schwarzenegger is scary.

Last night I saw Arnold's "Indian Gaming" add and when he said, "I promise you, things will change" I suddenly realized that we are in fact a phantasm in the mind of Philip K. Dick, still transfixed by a sourceless beam of pink light, turning Hollywood into reality, one politician at a time. On the right coast a treason scandal is erupting. Is Jerry Bruckheimer advising any of the candidates?

Textism

Pompignan Wine.

Photographs of this year’s harvest.

This marks a first for my friend No[OE]l, at least as proprietor of his own cave (previous posts on the matter here and here), construction of which was just finishing as the grapes rolled in. The new winery still has no name, though that has more to do with the pleasures of navigating French bureaucracy than anything else.

Everyone seems to agree this was a good season, grape-juice-wise: very little disease in the vines hereabouts, and this year’s, um, diverse weather may have caused untold mayhem, but it was conducive to good plonk.

Most notable, of course, is that I got to ride the machine.

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment

Editors vs. bloggers
So,, thanks to the controversy about Sacramento Bee columnist/blogger Dan Weintraub, there is now a growing discussion about whether blogs appearing as part of a larger journalistic institution's enterprise should be edited. (For independent blogs, it's not really an issue -- they are generally one-person operations anyway.)

As an editor and a blogger, I find that the perspectives on this tend to fall into two camps talking past each other.

Bloggers and those who view blogging as a genuine new online form decry the notion that blogs should be edited; they prize the un-mediated spontaneity of the unedited blog, and believe that editing is contrary to the very heart of the blogging enterprise. Editing in a true blog happens live, in public, in a continuous dialogue between the blogger and his or her readers (and other bloggers).

Many professional journalists (people who earn their living by reporting, writing or editing)scoff at this. They have been trained in an ethos according to which no one is above editing; even when editors-in-chief writes something, somebody else edits it before it's published. So when these journalists hear bloggers saying, "We don't need no stinkin' editors!," what they hear is a claim of privilege, and their response is to think, "Buddy, who do you think you are? Everyone gets edited!"

My heart is with both of these perspectives; I think they're both right. Great editors make for great journalism, and many editors have rescued many writers and many publications. Blogs, however, are something different, and they do benefit from presenting the unfiltered, warts-and-all perspective of an individual.

We are getting into trouble, I think, because blogs have acquired some small amount of buzz and excitement, and media organizations are jumping on the bandwagon, but in the process they are aping the superficial qualities of blogs and failing to embrace their essence. If a blog were just "short items organized in reverse chronological order," every newsroom has one already -- it's called the wire feed. And that, sadly, is what some media operations are now providing as they try to bring blogs into their universe. (Just compare CNet's "Wi-Fi Journal" to Glenn Fleishman's Wi-Fi blog to understand the difference.) Meanwhile, when a newspaper actually puts a real blog in the hands of a writer, as the Sac Bee apparently did with Weintraub, editors freak out and other reporters get jealous. It can be done -- Dan Gillmor has been doing it for a long time now -- but it's not easy.

A newspaper or magazine editor considering what to do about blogs can either say, "This is an experiment, go, blog, you don't need an editor," and make that clear to the readers, and persuade the newspaper's lawyers to relax. (That last bit is probably the hardest.) Or she could say, "Look, blogs are great, but they're not what we do." If it were me, what I'd probably do is encourage my reporters to keep blogs in their spare time. (The union would probably not be happy with that, however.)

But I wouldn't waste my time trying to push blogs back into the old template of the newsroom. The world is richer for the existence of well-edited newspapers and unedited blogs. I want them both -- they complement each other nicely. And there's no reason we can't have both. What we don't need is the same old news product in new blog-shaped bottles.

STANDING ROOM ONLY

TOP TEN REASONS TO READ STANDING ROOM ONLY

10. Because laughing at yourself is a good thing.

9. Because you get to see inside L.A. without having to look at Big Hair.

8. Because of the pretty pictures.

7. Because it's Gay.

6. Because of the educational value.

5. Because I have friends in high places.

4. Because Make Believe is fun.

3. Because Noone likes a whiner.

2. Because we're all a member of the club.

and the Number One Reason to read Standing Room Only:

1. Because our Planet is not that big.

STANDING ROOM ONLY

GENESIS

Today on the one year anniversary of Standing Room Only, I thought I'd give you a brief history of how this Blog came about.

I started SRO driven by one of the most primal instincts - one that has bred great careers, one that has caused wars and one that Jesus probably used a time or two to keep going - the satisfaction of being able to say ãFine. Iâll do it my way.ä

I had written a few items which had been published but I found editors to be the most unreliable people on Earth, possibly due to that whole My Girl Friday vibe theyâd like to imagine themselves part of but minus the witty banter and Rosalind Russell. Alot of what I was submitting was about current media events, topics whose pertinence withers like dying flowers in a time lapse film. I would get positive and often flattering responses but the moment had passed, blah blah blah. I was left with a cache of homeless writing, articles I was proud of and wanted read.

Iâd come across some information about Blogs including Salonâs own Scott Rosenbergâs but it didnât seem my cup of tea. Blogs were already being mocked as either mundane, self-centered details of neurotic life or political soapboxes supporting Nobodies and their amateur ranting. Yawn and yawn. (Granted, I havenât always avoided the mundane here but youâll almost never read about politics other than my admiration for Shwartzennagerâs ass in Terminator.) But what, I pondered, if I just put all the stuff I was constantly writing either literally or in my head on a Blog. My audience would be limited but thatâs an up-stat after Just Me reading them. The cost was minimal, I wasnât dependent on itâs success, I had nothing to lose.

My one concession to living surrounded by The Industry was a comedy class I took a couple of years ago in hopes of gaining more insight into writing. My opinion of the class? There are alot of people in LA who think they are funny and so, so arenât. One of the questions we were asked was ãIf you had a one-person show, what would you call it?ä My answer was Standing Room Only because of the obvious theatrical implications but also because as someone whoâs both extremely tall (6â6ä) and big (240), I often find myself squeezed into space like an enormous stuffed animal into a gift box. Itâs one reason I hate crowds. People apparently canât see that Iâm a person, they perhaps think Iâm a padded wall in their cell they can hurl themselves against. Maneuvering through them is nearly impossible, Dorothy surrounded by surly, poorly dressed Munchkins. In the end itâs usually easier to just stand and being still has the advantage of increasing the opportunity to observe.

So I started posting under the banner line of ãMEDIA/HUMOR/TELEVISION/GAY/LIFEä, a broad categorization which encompassed my initial vision of posting humorous critiques. I knew the process of setting up a Blog on Salon was entirely Democratic but I liked to think the Bloggers here were somehow sharper, more literate. A Virtual Salon of writers, I could be Dorothy Parker with an iBook, who toasted over a vow to encourage input and dialogue in hopes of keeping the quality and integrity of the Blogs housed here as high as possible.

Boy was I wrong. My attempts to illuminate poor writing or pompous and bigoted opinions were met with scathing criticism, some of it delving into Gay Bashing which I certainly had no intention of enabling. I also had an e-mail conversation with the Reverse Cowgirl whose Salon Blog I felt the most kindred to at the time. ãJust singä and ãYour Blog is a dictatorship, not a democracyä were her invaluable words of advice and the insight altered how I thought about SRO. I changed my banner line to ãLove in the Middle of Warä. The ãWarä was the War our country had entered, the struggle over doing the Right Thing I constantly referee and my physical War of twenty years of being HIV positive and having AIDS.

I have learned to stop being judgmental about my writing. I am extremely critical about everything I post, some things I love more and some I just toss off, but Iâm still constantly surprised by the response. You Just Never Know what gets under peopleâs skin, good or bad. Iâve realized that in the end itâs not my job to decide what touches people, just provide the material, the scene, the picture, the trip. We are both riding together over winding roads through the canyon. Look, thereâs a cool tree! Look, arenât actors weird? Look at the clear blue sky shining over the city, the oasis we created, here in the Middle of War.

STANDING ROOM ONLY

BLOCK PARTY

The middle class suburban neighborhood in Northern Florida where my Mother lives has had several new homeowners lately. One of the couples is apparently Adam and Steve not Adam and Eve and according to my Mom, they are the toast of the neighborhood. It seems the High School Foodchain lives on and if you want a good time, you can always count on the Art and Drama Students. Their bar-b-ques are a veritable Whoâs Who of the cul-de-sac and my info comes straight from the horseâs mouth as my Mom has become a part of their clique.

She was initially invited as a guest of her neighbor, like a Sorority Rush. Apparently she passed and was able to act cheerful and bring food, an achievement she pretends amazes her. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. After all, this is the areaâs one and only gay couple (my age as well) and I told my sister they probably had her Number from the get-go.

ãThey could smell she had a gay son. Forty-two years old, never been married...ä

ã...lives in West Hollywood...ä my sister added.

ã...went to the Cher concert.ä I admitted.

ãYou know, Iâve asked her several times if I could come with her and she blows me off.ä she continues. ãItâs like she doesnât want her own daughter to be part of her little crowd.ä

ãYou are Living In Sin.ä

ãPlease.ä

ãJezebel. Ho. Drunkard. Jerry Springer Show.ä

ãYeah, thatâs me.ä

Last night it seems My Motherâs Gang went to a birthday party at one of the quasi-gay restaurants in Jacksonville : Metro. Just Like Paris. The restaurant was actually started years ago by my best friend from High School who went to Harvard and dedicated her thesis on Gay Rights to me. She was the first friend I came out to, the first friend I told I had AIDS and was supportive and comfortable with both. Naturally under her care, Metro would have been very gay friendly. My friend eventually sold the restaurant and she and her husband moved on to other things but Metro retained their ease. Years later, because of me in some way, her Gay Neighbors chose this particular place for a party, a place where they would feel comfortable and welcome. What could be a more appropriate and safe environment for my mother?

ãYou know,ä my sister added,ä I asked her if sheâd told them she has a gay son and she said she hadnât.ä

Then it hit me. My mother wasnât being snobby about my sister coming at all, she just didnât want my sister spilling the beans about my sexuality. They might even figure out I have - gasp! - AIDS. Probably not but I know the second I meet them, they will know Iâm Family.

I tell my sister. ãTheyâll know when they see me. Trust me. Gaydar. That and the little tanktop and nylon shorts Iâm going to wear in the front yard. Waving a rainbow flag...ä

ãI have a batonä she offers.

ã...Cher blasting from the house...ä

ãCher T-shirts for everyone!ä she screams in glee.

What, I wonder, will they talk about at the bar-b-ques then?

Gawker

Port Authority, Eighth Avenue. Business Sucks Sale [Meccapixel]...

Workbench

Calling real police for virtual crimes. A BBC News story poses this question: Should law enforcement become involved when someone mugs your EverQuest character and takes all his money?

"I'm not sure that governments would care to prosecute thefts of online goods at this point in time, but I have no doubt that the argument that such items are valuable is strong." -- Jennifer Granick, Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society

Slashdot

Turn Your GBA Into A Game Console

Slashdot

Practical mod_perl

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Adobe Releases Updated Creative Suite

Slashdot

Computers, Unemployment and Wealth Creation

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Few options left to goose the economy (USATODAY.com). USATODAY.com - Sales are rising, profits are growing, investment is picking up and the stock market has rallied. After three years of financial implosions, terrorist attacks and wars, the U.S. economy is coming out of hibernation and could soon expand at a pace not seen since the boom years of the 1990s. An employment recovery from the longest hiring drought since the Great Depression might be underway finally led by small businesses, services and high-tech across the South and West.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Five Rules on How to Cheat by Cell Phone (AP). AP - "Five Golden Rules" offered by Italian detective agency as a guide for cheating spouses to avoid getting caught from cell phone use:

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Ex-Tyco Chief, Free Spender, Going to Court (The New York Times). The New York Times - L. Dennis Kozlowski has become a symbol for the corporate excesses that cloud the boom years of the 1990's. His trial begins Monday.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Cleese Plays Daddy, Beau on 'Grace' (Reuters). Reuters - Monty Python alumnus John Cleese is flying to "Will & Grace."

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

White House Denies Rove Leaked Secret Information (Reuters). Reuters - The White House denied on Monday that President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was behind a leak of secret information apparently aimed at discrediting a vocal critic of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

MetaFilter

100 Documents that Shaped America. 100 Documents that Shaped America. (Via Fark, of all places.)

Meme List

The frogs go marching one by one. via the invaluable Kevin Drum

The Motley Fool

Apple. Is Apple dying a slow death?

The Motley Fool

Do You Really Need an Emergency Fund?. You may not need quite so much cash on hand.

The Motley Fool

Disney's Beaming New Venture. MovieBeam will send movies straight to your TV.

The Motley Fool

No Call, No Quarter. Should you take in any telemarketing stocks after the No Call brouhaha?

Tomalak's Realm

NY Times: In Handling Innovation, Patience Is a Virtue.

Tomalak's Realm

Wired News: IBM Examines How Inventors Invent. On a bright, warm morning at IBM's research center here, seven of Big Blue's scientists gathered around a conference table to consider a nonscientific question: What helps inventors invent things?

MetaFilter

Modern Furniture Design. Is This All There Is To Modern Design? Although Design Within Reach is a commercial website, it's well put together, with interesting features that provide biographies and a a potted history of modern furniture design. However, like the plethora of coffee-table books on the subject, the uncomfortable (!) feeling remains that it crystalizes the accepted and the historical - the so-called modern classics - rather than engage with what is truly contemporary. This is, after all, highly traditional modernism and post-modernism. And it's rife. Where is the avant-garde? Is there one on view to ordinary mortals? You end up feeling that the truly new designs - this century's, after all - are being swept under the carpet, awaiting some boring committee process of consensus and approval.

MetaFilter

Drug War Victims. Drug War Victims. "Increasingly, people are dying because of the tactics of the drug war. Military operations are being conducted on our soil, and collateral damage is inevitable... Every now and then, a death happens that is particularly grotesque -- that points out the horrific folly of our actions. This page presents some of those deaths." This is part of the Drug WarRant blog. [Via TalkLeft.]

MetaFilter

My Precioussssss. Final Lord of the Rings trailer [Quicktime Movie]. No sign of it yet on the official site. (Via BBC)

Macromedia - Designer Developer Center

JDs Forum Top things I heard in the lists, blogs and forums this month by John Dowdell; re: Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Studio.

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 12:12 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 12:12 PM EDT // link)

Coming later this week, the TPM interview with Wesley Clark.

RSSlet

September 29th, 2003 -- 12:03 PM EDT. (September 29th, 2003 -- 12:03 PM EDT // link)

Gagglepalooza from this morning. Some cards get put on the table ...

QUESTION: Scott, what does the President think about Justice investigating this alleged leak of the identity of a CIA operative? And what instructions is the President giving the White House aides about cooperating with it?

McCLELLAN: One, the President believes if someone leaked classified information, particularly of this nature, that it is a serious matter and it should be looked into and pursued to the fullest extent possible. The Department of Justice would be the appropriate agency to do so.

What was the second part of your question, Mark?

QUESTION: What instructions is Mr. Bush giving to top aides about cooperating with the investigation?

McCLELLAN: Well, of course, in any matter like this, we would cooperate with the Department of Justice.

QUESTION: But the Department of Justice is --

McCLELLAN: There has been no information brought to us or that has come to our attention, beyond the media reports, to suggest that there was White House involvement.

QUESTION: Scott, The Washington Post is reporting that the President is not going to ask his top aides about it, who did the leak. Is that true? And, if not, why not?

McCLELLAN: Well, what did I just say? I think I just answered that question. I said that there has been nothing that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest that there was White House involvement.

QUESTION: Is anyone going to, at least, you know, ask around? Say, what's the deal with --

McCLELLAN: And, secondly, the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency to look into matters like this.

QUESTION: If anybody did this, will they be fired?

McCLELLAN: Mark, if -- one, no one was authorized to do this. That is simply not the way this White House operates. And if someone leaked classified information, it is a very serious matter and it should be pursued to the fullest. You're jumping to a lot of assumptions now about the White House. We --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

McCLELLAN: No, I mean, I think that's obvious -- it's obvious, that if someone leaked classified information of this nature, yes.

QUESTION: Scott, what about the questions over the credibility of the administration investigating itself -- i.e., Justice doing the investigation rather than, as some Democrats have called for, an outside investigation?

McCLELLAN: We believe the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency to look into matters like this, as they would in any other matter of this nature.

QUESTION: So you're rejecting the call --

QUESTION: Why is it not a conflict for a political appointee, the Attorney General, to be investigating --

McCLELLAN: Well, one, you're assuming certain things are happening. The Department of Justice, I believe, will tell you that there are procedures that they follow. You need to ask them, one, those questions: are they; who's involved. So you need to ask them those questions.

QUESTION: You're suggesting -- you're suggesting that somehow a political appointee, such as the Attorney General, will be --

McCLELLAN: Well, you're assuming that he is involved in some sort of probe or looking into this.

QUESTION: Are you saying that he was the --

McCLELLAN: Ask the Department of Justice. I don't know who would be involved and whether or not they -- where this stands, in terms of the Department of Justice looking into this. You're assuming certain things.

QUESTION: Let's try to quantify what kind of investigation is going on. Has --

McCLELLAN: If there is one.

QUESTION: Has the Department of Justice --

McCLELLAN: I mean, I saw the news reports where it said that the first step for the Department of Justice would be to look to see whether or not it warrants further looking into.

QUESTION: Has the Department of Justice contacted the Counsel's Office here, or anyone else in the White House --

McCLELLAN: No.

QUESTION: -- to start asking questions?

McCLELLAN: No.

QUESTION: No contact at all?

McCLELLAN: No.

QUESTION: Zero? You checked today?

McCLELLAN: Yes. I mean, well, as of about an hour ago. So, no. But, obviously, we will cooperate in any way if there are requests.

QUESTION: Does the President want to know whether or not there was a leak?

McCLELLAN: The President -- I said at the beginning -- believes that leaking classified information is a serious matter and that it should be pursued to the fullest, and the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency to do so. There is a lot of speculation in the media reports --

QUESTION: -- inquiries?

McCLELLAN: -- let's let the appropriate agency look into it.

QUESTION: What about an independent counsel? There are some senators who are ready to call for that.

McCLELLAN: Yes, I think I answered that; someone asked that a minute ago. We believe the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency to look into this matter.

QUESTION: -- just flatly reject the idea --

McCLELLAN: I think the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency.

QUESTION: Ambassador Wilson has said that he has information that Karl Rove condoned this leaking, and I've seen your comment that that's absolutely false --

McCLELLAN: It is ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

QUESTION: What do you --

McCLELLAN: And keep in mind, I imagine that only a limited number of people would even have access to classified information of this nature.

QUESTION: So he doesn't have information?

QUESTION: Can I follow up?

McCLELLAN: Yes, go ahead. And, Helen, you may always follow up. Go ahead.

QUESTION: What, then, do you think the -- given that you say Rove condoning this is ridiculous, what do you think Ambassador Wilson's motivation is for leveling such a scurrilous charge?

McCLELLAN: I can't speculate about why he would say such a thing. I mean, I saw some comments this morning, where he said he had no knowledge to that effect. But I can't speculate why he would say that.

QUESTION: Did Rove say, "ridiculous"?

McCLELLAN: I did, for him.

QUESTION: Did you speak with him about it?

McCLELLAN: Yes, I've spoken to him.

QUESTION: But he told you, "ridiculous"?

McCLELLAN: No, I said -- I told some of your colleagues that it was ridiculous. And, remember, I said this back -- what, July and September this issue came up, and said essentially what I've said now.

QUESTION: Can you characterize your conversation with him about this?

McCLELLAN: I talk to him all the time, so --

QUESTION: About this?

McCLELLAN: No, about a lot of issues.

QUESTION: But can you characterize your conversation about this subject with him?

McCLELLAN: I don't think there's anything to characterize. I mean, I think that what I said speaks clearly, that the accusations just simply are not true.

QUESTION: Scott, the President came into office promising public integrity would be restored to this office and accountability. Isn't that true, he expects that from all members of his staff?

McCLELLAN: Yes, the President expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct.

QUESTION: All right. If that's the case, then why does he even need an independent investigation? Why doesn't he simply call those who are responsible to come forward --

McCLELLAN: Do you have something to bring to our attention? I mean, let me make clear, if anyone has information about this leak of classified information, they need to report it to the Department of Justice -- anyone.

QUESTION: Why doesn't he simply ask those -- if, indeed, this is true -- to come forward and --

McCLELLAN: Ask who?

QUESTION: The President of the United States --

McCLELLAN: Ask who?

QUESTION: The limited number of people --

QUESTION: -- he can direct, he can send a memo out --

McCLELLAN: That's the Department of Justice, I just said, is the appropriate agency.

QUESTION: Why doesn't he ask them to come forward and hand in their resignations?

McCLELLAN: But who? I said that it's a serious matter, and anyone should be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.

QUESTION: -- why doesn't he use everything in his power to smoke them out?

McCLELLAN: The Department of Justice is looking into this. I've made it very clear the President believes the leaking of classified information of this nature is a very serious matter, and it should be pursued to the fullest.

QUESTION: By them. And he has no -- his hands are tied? He can't simply ask his staff --

McCLELLAN: Well, do you have any information to bring to our attention, Paula? Do you have any information to bring to our attention? If you have any information, that should be reported to the Department of Justice, and they need to pursue this to the fullest.

QUESTION: And he can't do anything on his own?

McCLELLAN: I think I've made it very clear what I -- we don't have any information beyond what we've seen in media reports that has come to our attention to suggest White House involvement. If I chased every anonymous source in the media, I'd spend all my time doing that.

QUESTION: Can you explain why the President wouldn't want to have an independent counsel? Because if you -- if you say --

McCLELLAN: I think I explained that we believe the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency to look into this.

QUESTION: So the point that I don't understand is --

McCLELLAN: The Justice Department is charged with looking into matters of this nature.

QUESTION: I appreciate this, but --

McCLELLAN: I think the CIA has spoken to that, that if they receive information, then they give it to the Department of Justice to look into. That's the --

QUESTION: But surely the President would want the White House to be cleared by an independent judge?

McCLELLAN: Well, you're making assumptions of certain things. Like I said there's --

QUESTION: -- not assumptions, the allegations --

McCLELLAN: -- nothing that's been brought to our attention or come to our attention to suggest White House involvement beyond what I've seen in the media reports.

QUESTION: Has the President either asked Karl Rove to assure him that he had nothing to do with this; or did Karl Rove go to the President to assure him that he --

McCLELLAN: I don't think he needs that. I think I've -- and I've spoken clearly to this publicly that -- but it's -- yes, I've just said it's -- there's no truth to it.

QUESTION: But I mean --

McCLELLAN: So I think it doesn't --

QUESTION: But is the President getting his information from you? Or did the President and Karl Rove talk, and were there assurances given that Rove was not involved?

McCLELLAN: I've already provided those assurances to you publicly.

QUESTION: Yes, but I'm just wondering if there was a conversation between Karl Rove and the President, or if he just talked to you, and you're here at this --

McCLELLAN: He wasn't involved. The President knows he wasn't involved.

QUESTION: How does he know that?

QUESTION: How does he know that?

McCLELLAN: The President knows.

QUESTION: What, is he clairvoyant? How does he know?

QUESTION: You spoke specifically -- you spoke to Rove specifically about this matter, correct?

McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: You spoke to Rove specifically about this matter? You asked him whether or not he was the leaker, or --

McCLELLAN: I don't know what the relevance of getting into every private conversation, John -- is, John. I've made it very clear that it's simply not true.

QUESTION: Based on what?

QUESTION: Based on what?

QUESTION: What are you basing -- what are you --

McCLELLAN: Someone asked me if I had spoken with him, and I said, yes.

QUESTION: And you spoke with him about this issue?

QUESTION: Did you ask him, directly?

McCLELLAN: I have spoken with him, yes.

QUESTION: But the President hasn't spoken with him directly about this issue? You have and the President hasn't?

McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Keith.

QUESTION: Well, that was the question.

McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: You spoke directly with Rove about this?

McCLELLAN: I have spoken -- I speak to him all the time, on a lot of things.

QUESTION: He categorically denied to you --

McCLELLAN: I just told you, it's simply not true.

QUESTION: Yes, but you refuse to say whether or not it was Rove who told you it's untrue.

McCLELLAN: No, no, I spoke to Rove. I spoke to him about -- no, I spoke to him about these accusations, I've spoken to him.

QUESTION: And Rove told you that they were not true --

McCLELLAN: That's why I would be telling --

QUESTION: -- or is it just you --

McCLELLAN: That's why I would be telling you what I did.

QUESTION: -- or is it just you who is telling us?

McCLELLAN: No, I have spoken to him and been assured. And that's why I reported to you and reported to the media that it is simply not true. I like to check my sources, just like you do.

QUESTION: Scott, when you say "limited number of people," could you give us a ballpark? A dozen, a hundred? How many people have access to --

McCLELLAN: I don't know. Maybe you should direct those questions to the CIA or the Department of Justice. But I think common sense kind of tells you that if there's a covert CIA agent, then a limited number of people should have access to that information.

QUESTION: Was it a view within the White House that, in fact, Wilson was a non-objective source on this investigation? Was this something you all had discussed, that he might be compromised because of this?

McCLELLAN: Because of?

QUESTION: Because of his wife's position?

McCLELLAN: That he might be?

QUESTION: Did you all think that Wilson was a compromised source to investigate? Is that something you discussed?

McCLELLAN: We've seen the media reports. We've seen the media reports, we addressed that issue in the context of when it came up. And so, I mean, I'll leave it at that.

QUESTION: Do you know of any people on her staff or in the liaisons abroad that might have been injured by any of the revelations? I mean the identification of the --

McCLELLAN: No, I think you need to direct questions about her position or her status to the CIA. I don't --

QUESTION: But do you know of any damage that was done --

McCLELLAN: I've seen media reports where the CIA hasn't confirmed or denied whether or not she was a covert agent.

QUESTION: Scott, just to confirm, the President would rather the Department of Justice launch an investigation of this White House or the broader administration, rather that than him, you know, sort of broadly saying, anybody who works for me who was involved in this, you better 'fess up now, because we don't want to go down the road with the FBI. He'd rather the FBI do it, rather than him give the directive, himself?

McCLELLAN: I think I've made it very clear publicly that if anyone has information relating to this they need to report it to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice is the one charged with looking into matters of this nature. It's a serious matter, and it should be looked into. And the Department of Justice should do that. Now you're jumping ahead with a lot of speculation about where it may be or what they may do. You need to direct those questions to the Department of Justice.

QUESTION: But is the White House not conducting any sort of internal investigation?

McCLELLAN: No, the Department of Justice is the agency charged with looking into this.

QUESTION: We've seen in the past when there's an investigation like this in Washington that oftentimes parties involved, even if they're innocent, will go and hire outside counsel. Do you know whether anyone within the White House --

McCLELLAN: I'm not aware of anything.

QUESTION: -- has hired outside counsel, including Mr. Rove?

McCLELLAN: No.

QUESTION: No one has, or you --

McCLELLAN: I'm not aware of anybody.

QUESTION: Has anyone called Bob Novak?

QUESTION: Did Director Tenet inform the President before you --

McCLELLAN: Keep in mind, what we know is what we've seen in the media reports.

QUESTION: Sorry. Did Director Tenet inform the President, or the White House, before he informed the Department of Justice that he was requesting this investigation?

McCLELLAN: No, I don't believe so. I mean, I haven't asked, but I don't believe so.

QUESTION: So the first the White House learned of it was --

McCLELLAN: I mean, you're asking me -- that's a wide-open question. I'd have to go back and try to check and I'd be asking a lot of people.

QUESTION: Did the President receive the letter from Porter Goss and Jane Harman; does he welcome it and is he going to act on it?

McCLELLAN: I don't know that he's received the letter. I'd have to check on that one, Wendell. And what was the second part of it? I mean, I think the letter was --

QUESTION: Does he welcome their findings and is he going to act on them?

McCLELLAN: Was the letter addressed to Tenet, I believe? Or -- yes, the letter was addressed to George Tenet.

QUESTION: But, presumably, a copy was sent here. Does he welcome the findings and does he intend to act on them?

McCLELLAN: The findings? I mean, they said that they were still -- if you look at what they said in the letter, they said this was some preliminary assessment. The CIA put out a statement saying they stand -- "the intelligence community stands fully behind its findings and judgments as stated in the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs." Let's also keep in mind --

QUESTION: So the President has no concern, then, about the preliminary findings of the two -- the ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee?

McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: Consequently, the President has no concern --

McCLELLAN: No, the CIA has made it clear that they stand fully behind it and that was -- we look to that National Intelligence Estimate because that's the judgment of the intelligence community.

QUESTION: And so Mr. Bush is not troubled by the findings then, the preliminary findings of the --

McCLELLAN: I think you need to speak to the different leaders, because they had different interpretations of exactly what it said.

QUESTION: Why did they have different interpretations?

McCLELLAN: Chairman Goss had different views on what exactly it said --

QUESTION: But he gave them the same material --

McCLELLAN: And, you know, look at the whole letter. And the CIA said that -- they went on to say that: David Kaye has for two-and-a-half months been attempting to unravel Iraq's WMD programs. His effort, which has only just begun, will be important in that process of continuing self-evaluation.

But the CIA made it very clear in their statement that they stand fully behind the judgments.

QUESTION: Scott, what does the President think should be done to any officials who might have leaked this? Would he -- how would he want them dealt with?

McCLELLAN: They should be pursued to the fullest extent by the Department of Justice. That's what he believes.

QUESTION: Would he want them working on his staff?

McCLELLAN: I think I answered that question earlier, I said, no. The President expects his administration, everyone in his administration to adhere to the higher standards of conduct. And that would not be.

QUESTION: Scott, the allegation is being made that by virtue --

McCLELLAN: But you're speculating about a lot of things at this point.

QUESTION: The allegation is being made that by virtue of her position, Joe Wilson's wife was able to send him on a plum trip to Niger to investigate these allegations of Ira

QUESTION: buying uranium. Does the White House consider an unpaid 10 day trip to Niger a boondoggle?

McCLELLAN: John, I think that this issue was addressed back in July when Mr. Wilson was speaking about it.

QUESTION: But would you characterize a 10 day trip --

McCLELLAN: No, I would characterize it the way we characterized it back in July.

QUESTION: Scott, would the President cooperate with a congressional investigation into this Wilson matter?

McCLELLAN: I'm sorry, I'm not aware of any --

QUESTION: Does he think that --

McCLELLAN: I'm not -- I think I've said that he believes the Department of Justice is the appropriate agency to look into it. They are the ones charged with it.

More to come certainly ...

California Insider

An Issa-Davis debate?. Rep. Darrell Issa is challenging Davis to debate the recall, saying that since he was the major force behind it, Davis should argue its merits with him while staying out of the discussion on question 2. Creative ploy. But I...

California Insider

More on CNN/USA Today poll. Here is a link to the USA Today chart on the CNN/USA Today Poll. It shows the 63-35 margin for the recall among "probable voters," which seems to be their word for what others call "likely" voters. Among all registered...

Edgewise

Blood in the water.

Talking Points Memo has a transcript up of today's White House press conference. Here are a few highlights:

QUESTION: Ambassador Wilson has said that he has information that Karl Rove condoned this leaking, and I've seen your comment that that's absolutely false --

McCLELLAN: It is ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

(In the future will we hear McClellan say, "I said it was ridiculous, but I never said it was false"?)

My favorite sequence deals with the selective clearing of Rove:

McCLELLAN: He wasn't involved. The President knows he wasn't involved.

QUESTION: How does he know that?

QUESTION: How does he know that?

McCLELLAN: The President knows.

QUESTION: What, is he clairvoyant? How does he know?

Gawker

Commission List. Remember when blogs used to be interesting? Yeah, me neither. But they could be useful at least. To that end,...

Textism

Pompignan Wine.

Photographs of this year’s harvest.

This marks a first for my friend No[OE]l, at least in his capacity as proprietor of his own cave, construction of which was just finishing as the grapes rolled in. The new winery still has no name, though has more to do with the pleasures of navigating French bureaucracy than anything else.

Everyone seems to agree this was a good season, grape-juice-wise: very little disease in the vines hereabouts, and this year’s, um, diverse weather may have caused untold mayhem, but it was conducive to good plonk.

Most notable, of course, is that I got to ride the machine.

Fanatical Apathy

The White House Gremlins Strike Again. Condoleezza Rice says she knows nothing about those leaks that dangerously exposed an undercover CIA agent as retribution for a...

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Saudi Weds Four in One Ceremony to Spite Ex-Wife (Reuters). Reuters - A Saudi man married four women in one night only to prove to his estranged first wife that he was still attractive, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

CNN's Tucker Carlson Angry Over Phone Flap (AP). AP - Conservative CNN commentator Tucker Carlson's snide humor backfired on him ÷ and his wife. While defending telemarketers during a segment on "Crossfire" last week, the bow-tied co-host was asked for his home phone number. Carlson gave out a number, but it was for the Washington bureau of Fox News, CNN's bitter rival.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

China fury over mass orgy, demands Japan teach tourists to behave (AFP). AFP - The Chinese government has ordered Japan to teach its citizens how to behave following an "extremely odious" mass orgy between hundreds of Japanese tourists and Chinese prostitutes.

Workbench

Phone and cable corporations route around Internet. A technology story made Project Censored's Top 25 underreported stories for 2002-03.

Slamming Shut Open Access, a Sept. 2002 report by Arthur Stamoulis in Dollars & Sense, claims that cable and phone companies are working to keep competitors out of the high-speed Internet business. This is a dramatic change from the dial-up Internet, where open access to the phone lines enables anyone to start an ISP, and it would give the broadband companies the ability to block or inhibit a wide range of Internet content:

The monopoly power being handed over to the cable and phone companies will also encourage them to sell different levels of Internet access, much like they do with cable television. For one price, you could access only certain pre-approved sites; for a higher price, you could access a wider selection of sites; and only for the highest price could you access the entire World Wide Web. This is already the way that many wireless Internet packages operate.

I've often thought that the free-wheeling nature of the Web, which enabled a nebbishy CBS gift shop employee to compete for clicks on equal footing with the New York Times, was a party that would eventually come to an end.

Here in St. Augustine, my choice for DSL has been either BellSouth or nothing at all. Service is comparably dismal to what I've received from the local cable monopoly and DirecTV's near monopoly.

Macromedia Resource Feed

JDs Forum Top things I heard in the lists, blogs and forums this month

The Motley Fool

Energy Surprise. Energy Conversation Devices asks for a filing extension for its 10-K.

The Motley Fool

No Rest for Drugists. Drugstore management must execute, execute, execute.

The Motley Fool

Janus Blew It Big Time. Will Janus ever earn back investors' trust?

The Motley Fool

10 Great Characters. Fact may be stranger than fiction, but not more profitable.

Gawker

The Lowdown. It's gossip-boy Lloyd Grove's first day in print at his new home, the NY Daily News. Mr. Grove previously penned...

Slashdot

Smart People in the News: Rheingold, Gosling

Rayne Today

Ý

 

WARNING: SLOWISH BLOGGING TODAY

 

A sick kid here at home, parents stopping in and out, and an interview on my schedule this morning mean that Iâm going to be quite busy.

 

Sure hope youâll keep me posted on developments with the CIA/Valerie Plame story!

 

I should be back this afternoon to fill you in about the interview.  Oh joy.

 

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

British Explorer Breaks Atlantic Balloon Record (Reuters). Reuters - British explorer David Hempleman-Adams on Monday became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic in an open wicker-basket hot air balloon -- but not before Concorde gave him a supersonic fright.

Yahoo! News - Most Emailed

Kazan, 'Waterfront' Director Filmed Gritty Tales (Reuters). Reuters - Stage and film director Elia Kazan, who died in New York on Sunday aged 94, made film classics "On the Waterfront," "East of Eden" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" filled with gritty tales of social realism.

Rayne Today

U

 

Build-A-Meme Project:  Status Report: Project Frog-walk

 

Both Rob Salkowitz at Emphasis Added and Kriselda at differentstrings.info are all over this developing story this morning.  You need it, theyâve got it, short and sweet with link-rich posts.

 

If youâve got a lot more time on your hands, be sure to check in at DailyKos, Atrios at Eschaton, and Talking Points Memo.  But be prepared to be there awhile.  Yesterdayâs post at DailyKos was well over 364 comments deep when I checked it early evening; you can get lost in that kind of crush.

 

Never fear -- thereâs a new thread started for the Frog-walk project at the Freedom 2004 website.  Feel free to share your efforts, add your two-cents, read along with team members as the action moves along.  Hope to see you there!

 

By the way, Iâm sure some of you are wondering why the use of Frog-walk for this project instead of Frog-march.  Yes, thatâs what Joe Wilson said, ãfrog-marchä, but tracking this phrase will be quite difficult with the amount of press working on this story.  It will be easier for us to track our efforts at the index sites and Google if we use Frog-walk.

 

Besides, I have a feeling that at some point somebody will ãfall on their swordä and walk out the front door of the Administration before allowing themselves to be marched out the side door.  Or at least youâd think the Administration would be smart enough to encourage the culprits to frog-walk under their own power than under forcible Justice Department escort·

 

Which leaves me wondering along with countless others: 1) Does Ashcroft do the right thing or does he squelch this?  2) Who are the unnamed official(s) guilty of leaking a covert operativeâs name?

 

The Poor Man

Priorities. The importance of keep phone records secret when evidence emerges that White House officials have been leaking classified information to...

John Robb's Weblog

NHK has prototyped a new Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV) system.  It has a whopping 4,000 lines of horizontal resolution (33 m pixels).  So, this is one good answer as to what your PC's massive hard drive is going to be used for by the end of the decade.  This is similar to the ViewSonic's amazing LCD monitor I mentioned earlier.   At 18", the eye needs 204dpi to be fooled into thinking the image is real.  At 6', what is the dpi level needed to do the same thing?  How big could the screen be then if there is 4,000 lines of horizontal resolution?

Recording the massive amounts of data needed to produce UHDV definition also posed a problem for NHK. Its engineers were originally only able to make 34 seconds' worth of recording. They have now built a disc recorder system made up of 16 HDTV recorder units with a capacity of about 3.5 terabytes, allowing them to shoot 18 minutes of UHDV footage.

John Robb's Weblog

Very interesting.  A quick check of iBlog's popularity on weblogs.com shows that it already has a whopping 12% marketshare (at least for those weblogs that ping weblogs.com).  I personally think that a weblog tool and aggregator that sits on the desktop is a killer combo.  Here's why:

1) It offers the ability to integrate into other desktop applications (in this case:  iPhoto).

2) Installation and operation is fast (faster than the Web) and easy.

3) The application can leverage the desktop's CPU and O/S.

A slick package for Microsoft is next and then the tool debate is all over.

How to Save the World

HOW HARD IT IS TO BE DIFFERENT.

We are social animals. It is our nature to want to belong. It is Darwinian: We learn from each other and we survive by working in teams. We help each other out. Our community, our tribe, adopts us, accepts us, and teaches us what we need to know. Our very existence is in many ways indistinguishable from that of the groups we belong to. For most of humanity, life has enduring meaning only with others of our own kind. In light of that incredible imperative -- physical, social, emotional, intellectual, moral, rational, instinctive -- to belong, it is amazing that we are different from each other at all. What reason is there to be different? Especially since, as ee cummings tells us, it's so much easier to be the same?: to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting Linguists now believe that all human languages descend from a single proto-language, and that (following something called the Chomsky-Lenneberg Critical Period Hypothesis) the neural structures of our brains are actually formed to reflect the languages we learn in early childhood (which is why 'wild children' not taught languages until after puberty are believed unable to learn languages at all, and despite sometimes remarkable intelligence think in ways that the rest of us cannot begin to fathom). So the language and culture we are taught literally programs our brains, instructs and forms the tool by which we think and make decisions and which governs how we behave and what we believe. Similar arguments have been made, by Daniel Quinn and others, that a single human 'taker' culture with a remarkably, perhaps dangerously, homogeneous value and belief system began to squeeze out all other human cultures about thirty centuries ago, and is now virtually ubiquitous on Earth. Some recent scientific studies have suggested that evolution on Earth has largely ground to a halt, a consequence of the massive loss of biodiversity as our monolithic species and culture squeezes out all other life forms on the planet, as medical advances allow the weak-gened to proliferate as well as the strong, and as continued intermixing narrows the diversity of the human gene pool. We are in fact both 'punier and smaller-brained' than our Cro-Magnon ancestors, for reasons not well known. Perhaps our culture and homogeneity have lowered the barriers to human survival, or perhaps our ancestors were just too strong and too smart for their own good. So with all of these forces working to make us more the same, what is it that drives us to be different? What is it that has made individuality, individual rights, personal freedoms, and diversity not only acceptable but admirable, desirable, even worth dying for? Why are Roddenberry's Borg Collective the ultimate alien bad guys and not the model of human perfection? Despite all our chemical and social programming we are not all alike, and with the possible exception of American neocons (I'm being sarcastic) we don't want everyone to be and think alike. Is this Darwinian as well? Is the need for incessant evolution, the constant trying out of minor (and sometimes major) differences in the makeup of species to see if the survival result is a little better, even more ingrained in humans, and in fact in all life, than the need to belong and conform? I think our reverence for individuality and 'different-ness' can be explained in a single Darwinian word: competition. We compete with other species, and with others of our own species, by using our competitive advantages. These competitive differences determine our success at choosing a mate and our role and rank in our community. If all ganders in a flock were identical, the process by which the geese selected their mates would be chaotic, and the process of determining the rank in the migration pattern would be anarchic. We celebrate our differences because they determine our life partners and our roles, what we do in our communities, and, as I've said before, what we do defines who we are. So all of life is a continuous tension between the imperative to belong, to conform, and the imperative to be different. Too far in one direction and we're a nondescript drone, a non-breeder. Too far in the other and we're a lone wolf, an outcast. Ultimately, however, we are not much different from each other. I believe humanity would be more resilient, smarter, and perhaps living a utopian existence if there were much more diversity of human cultures, values, beliefs and behaviours than there is in the brave new world of 21st century Earth. And that raises yet another question, one that is perhaps more important than the question of why we tolerate and even celebrate difference between individuals. And that question is: What can we do to encourage even more difference, more diversity, more distinctions that could re-jump-start the process of evolution and perhaps at the same time save us from pandemics like AIDS (which thrive on our homogeneity) by increasing our species' genetic resilience? The book I'm now writing, or which more accurately is writing itself, is a future utopia with a much reduced human population and an absence of physical suffering and deprivation, achieved by simply re-channeling human energy and ingenuity from trying to sustain unlimited growth to trying to optimize well-being of all life on the planet at an eminently sustainable level. What is interesting is that this utopian world also produces rapidly increasing human diversity, as a byproduct of (i) a radically decentralized politic and economy, and (ii) the freeing up of time from the struggle to survive, allowing serendipitous, highly focused human activities towards new scientific and artistic goals that were previously unimaginable (or at least unimagined). When I was younger, I was a great believer in centralization. One world government, I was sure, would lead to global peace and prosperity and quick solutions to global problems. It seemed to me to be more efficient, to allow greater interchange of different cultures and hence to produce pragmatic, innovative solutions that would probably not occur to more parochial local authorities. The problem, as I've learned since, is that centralization just doesn't work. What it accomplishes is to isolate decision-makers from both the source of the issues and problems their decisions are about, and the impact of those decisions. Any efficiency achieved by reducing functional duplication is more than offset by the cost of insensitive, undifferentiated and ill-informed decisions and actions that the isolated central authority takes. Despite examples to the contrary (the DMV and megalomanic condominium councils come to mind) I now believe that governance of communities, nations and corporations is best when it is as decentralized as humanly possible, where the people making the decisions are personally affected by them and face to face with others affected by them. My novel is leading me to believe that decentralized organizations are also likely to be more diverse, in fact astonishingly so. You've seen some of the isolated New Guinea tribes on National Geographic. You've seen the strange proclivities of inner city subcultures. Be prepared for some surprisingly unusual characters, events and innovations in The World That Could Be. This book is turning out to be a lot more fun than I'd expected, and an amazing mental exercise. (Artwork above: Hummingbird Muses by Saskatoon artist Jonathon Earl Bowser)

dive into mark

Not for you. Some webloggers simply need a different publishing tool, maybe one that works like Amazon's 1-click shopping cart. (222 words)

Pesky the Rat

Rat Rewind.

As Susan the Human has been working 14 hour days through the weekend in Minnesota during her business trip, I have been unable to garner her assistance in writing a new story. So I offer this reprint of a previous story, which I think pretty much says everything we need to say about the California Recall. Coming later this week: Susan the Human's Cockroach Chronicles.

People of California sign petitions to recall themselves

Many of you may have heard about a recall petition circulating in the state of California by Republicans who wish to recall Democratic Governor Davis. What you may not have heard is that another recall petition has already received the 1.2 million required signatures and is headed for the ballot this November: The Petition to Recall the People of California. My Extremely Reliable Anonymous Source, Lumpy the Mongoose, is in Sacramento, California, with the details. Lumpy my boy, what's the scoop?

"Well Pesky, it's like this. Though the Republicans want to recall Davis because of California's sorry budget, to understand the origins of the state's misery you have to go back a lot further.  You see, back in the 70's the people of California got this brilliant idea that if they could just make all the important decisions themselves, using initiatives, they wouldn't have to listen to whiny politicians. So they got this initiative process going, where they could put anything on the ballot if they got enough signatures.

It worked all right at first. An initiative to make the sun come up a little earlier, an initiative to make flatulance less offensive, an initiative to allow shockingly untalented Austrian guys make blockbuster movies.  In other words, nothing to worry about.

But then special interest groups got wind of this initiative thing. They discovered that if you got enough signatures to get something on the ballot,  Californians will vote for just about anything. So various interest groups started fielding dozens of initiatives, sometimes competing against each other, year after year, ballot after ballot. In a spectacular display of how bizarre the initiative process had become, two years ago the people of California approved for the ballot, by signing petitions, the following two simultaneous initiatives sponsored by two competing groups of junior high school girls:

 Proposition 145: Resolved, that from this date forward, Jenny Smith will not diss Annie Lopez in the cafeteria, and that she will refrain from spreading totally bogus lies about Annie's sex life or lack thereof and her relationship with a certain Phil Rubenstein, who is way too cute for her and she should totally know that but she is such a ho. 

 Proposition 146: Resolved, Annie Lopez is, like, totally such a ho on wheels. She stuffs her bra and she can't get Phil to even look at her 'cause she's such a dorkwad and she's got a face like a horse's butt. She should shut up or Jenny will kick her big fat ass. She is such a wench.

Astoundingly, when faced with the two initiatives, the people of California approved them both, by margins in excess of 90%.

Over the years the initiatives have, among other things, regulated the saltiness of seawater, restricted the number of times a little brown bat can "fake out" a mosquito before putting it out of its misery, and slashed property taxes to limit educational funds and thereby guarantee the gullibility of future generations to suck up and approve even more initiatives.  One initiative even authorized the authors of weblogs to write exceptionally long nonsensical drivel without proper punctuation or grammatical structure.

The result of this initiative madness has been threefold:

 1. The majority of California's state budget is now constitutionally "locked up" for specific purposes, such as Poodle Olympics and the realignment of the Sierra Nevada mountains to resemble Bob Hope's profile.

 2. Term limit initiatives have insured that only the most qualified lobbyists with the biggest promotional budgets are able to serve in the state assembly and senate. For example, three bars of soap were elected to assembly posts after a massive campaign funded by Irish Spring.  

 3. The average Californian now signs sixteen initative petitions on his way into Wal-Mart, and thirty-seven more on his way out. This seriously cuts into the time he needs to properly watch "America's Next Top Model" on television.

And so, after this twenty-some-odd year initiative orgy, Californians are now taking a cold, hard look at themselves, and not liking what they see. They have essentially run their state by a massive 32 million person committee, and like most committees, drank too much caffeine and and ate far, far too many doughnuts.  However unhappy they may be with the hapless Governor Davis, they know they have a bigger problem: themselves. 

So a group of self-aware Californians has been circulating a new petition: a petition to recall the People of California. The petition as acquired enough signatures to put the recall on the November ballot. Organizers say that if the recall passes, the People of California will be replaced by ants."

Er, Thanks Lumpy. As a Californian, I think I might have signed that petition. I wasn't really paying attention.

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