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/_/_/ |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html
2003-03-04
Don't listen
###!!!!!###### DAVOS ###############################(RW)##################
This is a very readable, engaging and interesting account by an attendee at
the WEF in Davos:
http://www.fultonchaindesign.com/mt/garret.txt
- The global economy is in very very very very bad shape. Last year
when WEF met here in New York all I heard was, "Yeah, it's bad, but
recovery is right around the corner". This year "recovery" was a word
never uttered. Fear was palpable -- fear of enormous fiscal hysteria.
The watchwords were "deflation", "long term stagnation" and "collapse
of the dollar". All of this is without war.
another quote from the same source:
- I learned from American security and military speakers that, "We need
to attack Iraq not to punish it for what it might have, but
preemptively, as part of a global war. Iraq is just one piece of a
campaign that will last years, taking out states, cleansing the
planet."
There is much much more in this article, representing the spread of opinion
among delegates at the meeting. The story is verified here:
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=938
and there is further background on the author, Laurie Garrett who is a
science journalist and a Pulitzer prize-winner
###!!!!_###### CONFUSING ###########################(IB)##################
Interesting story from Incublogula:
The alleged mastermind of Sept.11 attacks has been arrested:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2815403.stm
But how does that reconcile with this story from the Asia Times:
http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2003_03_03_index.html#90399493
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DJ30Df01.html
"Now it has emerged that Kuwaiti national Khalid Shaikh Mohammed did
indeed perish in the raid, but his wife and child were taken from the
apartment and handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
in whose hands they remain."
A look at google.news.com shows no obvious mention of this contradiction in
the first 30 stories or so on the topic. Whatever the facts, this raises
questions. If authorities made a mistake before when they declared this
man dead, then how sure can anyone be that they have not made a mistake
with the current captive. If the man did die, then that would make the
current situation very bizarre indeed!
###!!___###### MNFTIU ##############################(##)##################
You want this on a tshirt:
http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/store.html
Much more Get Your War on Stuff there also.
Where the royalties (from GYWO) go:
http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/mdc_team_5.html
Future victims of landmines? Not if motherfuckin'
MDC Team #5 can help it!
###!!___###### BABYTRON ############################(IB)##################
Raelians announce plans to create an artificial womb, to be called
the "Babytron",
http://www.surrogaid.com/
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-02-25-1
###!____###### INFRA ###############################(##)##################
MP3 Player Box HOWTO
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MP3-Box-HOWTO.html
Linux Infrared Remote Control
http://www.lirc.org/
Serial Port Receivers
http://www.lirc.org/receivers.html
###!!!__###### LISP ################################(RW)##################
Description of how the fore-runner of yahoo stores got ahead of the
competition by using the LISP programming language. Good read.
During the years we worked on Viaweb I read a lot of job descriptions.
A new competitor seemed to emerge out of the woodwork every month or
so. The first thing I would do, after checking to see if they had a
live online demo, was look at their job listings. After a couple years
of this I could tell which companies to worry about and which not to.
The more of an IT flavor the job descriptions had, the less dangerous
the company was. The safest kind were the ones that wanted Oracle
experience. You never had to worry about those. You were also safe if
they said they wanted C++ or Java developers. If they wanted Perl or
Python programmers, that would be a bit frightening-- that's starting
to sound like a company where the technical side, at least, is run by
real hackers. If I had ever seen a job posting looking for Lisp
hackers, I would have been really worried.
http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/paulgraham/sec.txt
###!!___###### MATH ################################(##)##################
Harry J. Smith's fun with mathematics
http://pw1.netcom.com/~hjsmith/index.html
Big numbers:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html
Notation:
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/cyc/b/big.htm
###!!___###### ENERGY? #############################(##)##################
As Mr. Fosgard of G.M. put it only half-jokingly: "I don't want to say that
this car will eliminate war, but we might not have wars for energy anymore.
We'd have to find different reasons to go to war."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/21/opinion/21KRIS.html
###!!!__###### WAR #################################(RW)##################
Terry Jones:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0223-05.htm
Powell's speech brings up one of the most outrageous but least examined
aspects of this whole war on Iraq business. I am speaking about the
appalling collateral damage already being inflicted on the English
language.
...
Like the whole idea of a 'war on terrorism'. You can wage war against
another country, or on a national group within your own country, but
you can't wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you've
won? When you've got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?
###!____###### COLOMBIA ############################(##)##################
US considers direct military action in Colombia:
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,901180,00.html
###!____###### PEACHY ##############################(LR)##################
Professor Francis A. Boyle is offering to impeach Bush and Co. for free if
any member of the House of Representatives is prepared to sponsor articles
of impeachment. Apparently waging a war of aggression is illegal under the
Nuremberg Charter, which has the full force of the US Constitution.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Ramares010403/ramares010403.html
###!____###### WORK ################################(##)##################
Americans work 15 weeks more per year than Europeans:
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7297
###!!___###### IRELAND #############################(##)##################
A New York Times report "Ireland, Once a Celtic Tiger Slackens Its Stride"
features in Dean Baker's economics reporting round up:
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7300
Addresses significance of Ireland's membership of the euro.
###!!___###### ECONOMICS ###########################(##)##################
Collection of articles describing economic research in UCD. Much of it is
quite historical, as opposed to mathematical.
http://www.ucd.ie/~economic/workingpapers/2002.htm
This sentence, from an article by Desmond Norton, sort of grabbed my
attention:
In the late 1980s and early 1990s the author acquired about 30,000
letters written mainly in the 1840s. These pertained to estates
throughout Ireland managed by J.R. Stewart and Joseph Kincaid.
He has written a series of articles drawing on this correspondence.
###!!___###### SHRUB ###############################(RW)##################
New York Times article describing some of the lapses of honesty of the
current White House regime:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0225-02.htm
New York's elected representatives stood side by side with him a few
days after Sept. 11 in return for a promise of generous aid. A few
months later, as they started to question the administration's
commitment, the budget director, Mitch Daniels, accused them of
"money-grubbing games." Firefighters and policemen applauded Mr. Bush's
promise, more than a year ago, of $3.5 billion for "first responders";
so far, not a penny has been delivered.
###!!___###### AFGHANISTAN #########################(##)##################
Although Bush mentioned Afghanistan in his State of the Union address, and
pledged to help rebuild the country, the amount of money he requested in
his budget for the task was $0. ZERO. Nation building comes cheap I
guess.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7280
###!____###### CAT5 ################################(##)##################
Conor Daly reports that T. O'Reilly Electrical in Santry sell 300m of CAT5
cable for EUR35 + VAT. This seems pretty cheap, and 300m would go a long
way (to which the wags reply, "well, yes, it would go 300m"). Bear in mind
that maximum cable length without additional hardware (repeaters?) is 100m.
Connectors in maplin are EUR3.50 for 10, and can surely be bought cheaper,
if not much more conveniently, elsewhere. Crimping tool can be got in
Peats for about EUR25.00, and it will do RJ11 phone plugs also.
http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2003-February/001265.html
Related, is David Ryan's tutorial on how to cable your house:
http://www.linux.ie/articles/tutorials/networking.php
He does a rather thorough job, but even a length of cable between two rooms
can be very handy for moving and sharing files, and not-moving and sharing
printers.
###!____###### FRIACO ##############################(##)##################
Flat rate internet charges set by eircom: EUR 12.77 per customer per month
wholesale rate.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29458.html
###!____###### I-CHING #############################(RW)##################
A very short history if the I-Ching
http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_resources/history.html
- In fact, of course, the history of the I Ching did not come to a halt
once it reached its present form. The I Ching is not only a book: it
is a conversation between countless generations of questioners, over
thousands of years, and the spirit that speaks through the book. That
conversation continues, with every question revealing new depths and
patterns of meaning.
###_____###### END #################################(##)##################