__ _____ _ ___ __
\ \/ / | | / / | / /
\ / /| | | /| / / |/ /
/ / ___ | |/ |/ / /| /
/_/_/ |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html
2003-01-16
Last week's pet, this week's special.
############## TEST ##########################################
TV test card gallery (BB):
http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/index.html
Includes the famous "Test Card F", which you can download from the BBC here:
ftp://ftp.bbc.co.uk/pub/video/stills/tcf.gif
"Did you know that the X on the noughts and crosses board was included
to indicate the approximate centre of the card?"
This BBC page has a fair bit of detail on sizing digital images for TV
broadcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/branding/picturesize.shtml
Also on the ftp site and maybe of interest to people, are tomorrow's world
screen-savers:
ftp://ftp.bbc.co.uk/pub/tw
############## CROP ##########################################
Incredible looking crop-something-or-other. Crop circle certainly does not
do it justice:
http://www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=495
############## MOTO ##########################################
Incredible looking machine, the caption is included below, click the link
for the pic:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030107/80/di0pg.html
Dodge introduced its Tomahawk V-10, 8.3-litre (505 cubic inch) concept
motorcycle at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on
January 6, 2003. The superbike features independent four-wheel
suspension, and its engine, borrowed from the Viper sports car, can
propel the Tomahawk at speeds of nearly 400 mph, according to Dodge.
This turned up in the Irish Times motoring supplement also.
############## SOFTWARE ######################################
For the unfortunate souls still being used by Windows, GNUWin II is a
compilation of GNU software for Windows. There's a list of applications
here:
http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/apps/en/index.html
There are CD-Rom ISO images, and individual packages can be downloaded. And
it is all free (both "as in beer" and "as in speech").
############## MAILER ########################################
Interview with Norman Mailer:
http://www.amconmag.com/12_2/mailer.html
"Behind the whole thing in Iraq is the desire to have a huge military
presence in the near-East as a stepping stone for eventually taking
over the world."
############## THE HORROR ####################################
Detentions in the US: comparisons with internment of Japanese-Americans
during the Second World War:
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000794.php#000794
############## UH-OH! ########################################
John Perry Barlow (former lyricist for The Grateful Dead, and a leading
activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation), has a good name for this
decade, "the Uh-Oh's"
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000789.php#000789
As in: Total loss of privacy. Uh-Oh. The death of copyright. Uh-Oh.
Children more powerful than their parents. Uh-Oh. Bill Gates ruling the
world. Uh-Oh. Ten million Americans in prison. Uh-Oh. Black market
plutonium. Uh-Oh. Absolutely everyone packing a cell phone. Uh-Oh. And
constantly talking to everyone else. Uh-Oh...
Also discusses the difference between sleeping and pretending to be asleep.
############## EU ############################################
Apparently, EU copyright law lasts only 50 years. This is highlighted by
the NY Times and the IHT, who think it will lead to a lot of early to mid
1950's music becoming available for free (like penguin/Wordsworth classics,
or project Gutenberg). Apparently, the 1950's marked the beginning of the
LP record, and significant improvements in recording quality.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/international/02CND_COPY.html?pagewanted=all&position=top
http://www.iht.com/articles/82078.html
(NYTimes needs registration)
Dean Baker, at TomPaine.com, has commented on some of the remarks contained
in the NYT story, and makes the point that while copyrights are intended to
encourage creative output, extending existing copyrights does nothing to
incentivise such work and increases costs to consumers.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7048
############## CONSCIENCE ####################################
IHT reports that Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that reserve soldiers do
not have the right to refuse to serve in the occupied territories:
http://www.iht.com/articles/81867.htm
############## SUN ###########################################
Sun gives software to schools in Denmark,
http://www.iht.com/articles/82114.html
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20030102_1515.html
though formerly StarOffice was given away for free. Now, the schools can
download it for free or pay $1.40 per cdrom (Sun used to even mail you the
cdrom for free, only had to register your name and address on their
website). Still, at least there's always the truly free OpenOffice (which
is from the same code as StarOffice). This is available on the GnuWin CD.
############## WORDS #########################################
Lake Superior State University's list of banned words. Nothing blue, just
words and phrases that should be avoided. The nominations came from the
public, then a final list was compiled. Some funny.
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current/default.html
Examples:
UNTIMELY DEATH -- Balky attempt to make some deaths more tragic than
others. "Has anyone yet died a timely death?" asks Donald Burgess of
South Pasadena, California.
CHALLENGE -- "No one has problems anymore, they only face 'challenges.'
Sonia Jaffe Robbins, New York, New York.
"I think it's a weasel word. 'Challenges' only have to be met. Problems
require solutions!" Ray Lucas, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
############## MATRIX ########################################
Are you living in a simulation? Philosopher says "probably".
http://www.simulation-argument.com/classic.html
How Hitler and Bush's reactions have come to resemble each other:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_inganamort_123102_irrational.html
also maybe of interest is this link from the text:
The Psychology Behind Mass Subservience to Tyranny
http://www.heartcom.org/psychtyranny.htm
############## SPIN ##########################################
Spin(s) of the year:
http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc934.html
Suddenly, facts that their own correspondents confirmed three years ago
in interviews with top U.S. officials are being recycled as mere
allegations coming from Saddam Hussein's regime.
############## CONSPIRACY ####################################
A compilation of 10 conspiracy theories dealing with Sept. 11.
http://www.popmatters.com/features/021227-conspiracy.shtml
Many are referenced to pretty respectable sources. I think the last
paragraph of the introduction sets the tone well:
Following are the ten most alarming theories about September 11, the
"war on terror," and the future of the world. Feel free to accept them
as gospel, study them as symptoms of a traumatized culture, or scoff at
them as anti-American propaganda: I'm only the messenger.
############## IONS ##########################################
Repeated airborne infections of the bacteria acinetobacter in an intensive
care ward have been eliminated by the installation of a negative air
ioniser.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993228
############## LIES ##########################################
Do corporations have the right to lie? Nike is fighting a case on this
issue. (They have been accused of deceptions relating to worker conditions
in sweatshops.) Has an interesting mini-history of how corporations in the
US slyly gained the same rights as humans. The author suggests
corporations should have to obey Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0101-07.htm
############## LAOS ##########################################
Danny O'Brien
http://www.oblomovka.com/entries/2003/01/01#1041472680
invites donations for a project to bring computers to remote villages in
Laos. He has written about his in The Irish Times already:
http://www.oblomovka.com/writing/irish/2002-09-27%3ALee_Felsenstein.php3
Donate here:
http://www.jhai.org/donations.htm
############## HIVE ##########################################
http://www.libertythink.com
http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2003_01_04_index.html#90140904
Research Hive
Wanna join the media (re)evolution? Wanna be a memory hole mousetrap?
It's totally free.
Join the LibertyThink Research Hive in 3 easy steps:
1.) Click on the url http://www.blogger.com and start your own blog.
2.) Scan the datasphere for news and information of interest and post
it to your own website in real-time.
3.) Tell us about your blog. Send us a message and we shall post a link
to your site on our LibertyThink Research Hive page. (coming soon)
What have you got to lose?
############## BIZARRE ########################################
Some strange bits and pieces:
http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2003_01_02_index.html#90134403
The National Reconnaissance Office (the guys&gals in charge of US spy
satellite network) was to conduct an emergency drill in which a simulated
plane from the nearby Dulles International Airport would crash into their
building, and the date for the simulation was September 11th. Government
says it was a "bizarre coincidence".
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_news&Number=303925&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1&t=-1#Post303925
http://www.911pi.com/honneger.htm
http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/autonomy_samples/autonomysuggest/autosuggest.jsp?docid=43843&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aviationnow.com%2Fcontent%2Fpublication%2Fawst%2F20020603%2Favi_stor.htm
Other links from the incunabula story appear equally ...
Senator Bob Graham on foreign nations' involvement in 9-11
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/911-graham-admits.htm
Keep away from the Bin Ladens:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/911.html
Fox News report on Israeli advance knowledge of the attack:
http://www.libertythink.com/video/israeli.WMV
http://www.libertythink.com/2003_01_01_archives.html#85633888
############## PRISON ########################################
Finland finds that humane prison and policing is a more successful than
brutal alternatives. In thirty years they have switched from a repressive
Russian influenced prison system to a progressive one, and have
simultaneously gone from having one of the highest imprisonment rates in
Europe to the lowest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/international/europe/02FINL.html
############## PALESTINE #####################################
UK Guardian reviews Palestine (found link on robotwisdom.com):
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,6121,868704,00.html
a comic by Joe Sacco. 8 Sample pages are available online (and enjoyable
to read):
http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/sacco/palestine_gal/pa1.html
############## SURPLUS #######################################
Aircraft:
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=1290&y=8893&z=12&w=2
############## UFO ###########################################
images
http://www.ufomag.co.uk/euroseti.htm
############## PSYCH #########################################
You got your psychosurgery, psychopharmaceuticals, psychochemistry,
psychophsics, and now
"humanity stands on the brink of a psychotronic war"
http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2003_01_08_index.html#90160216
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/98spring/thomas.htm
paper by Gary T. Marx, that enlightens us with Eleven behavioural techniques
of neutralisation intended to subvert the collection of personal
information....
http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2003_01_08_index.html#90158996
http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/tack.html
############## BOOK ##########################################
Cory Doctrow's new novel "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" is available
online, for free, here:
http://craphound.com/down/download.php
One can buy it too. Warren Ellis comments:
Cory Doctorow's DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM is only about 50,000
words, you know. At a novelist's speed of 2000 words a day that's,
what, a shade under four weeks for a first draft? Provided you didn't
do a Mike Moorcock and bat the f**ker out in four days.
(the asterisks are my doing)
############## FEED ME #######################################
Transdermal Nutrient Delivery System
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/11/0234245&mode=nested&tid=126
http://www.sbccom.army.mil/products/food/TDNDS.htm
############## JOIN ##########################################
Dishonesty in US military recruitment practises:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=2829
Written by an ex-Marine infantryman with experience as a recruiter
assistant.
Meanwhile, in old blighty, the MoD randomly spammed 100,000 companies to
warn them that army reservists might be taking an extended overseas trip
some time soon:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28799.html
############## END ###########################################