Thursday, July 29, 2004once in a blue moon
This weekend there's a blue moon....
posted @ 04:21 PM PDT Tuesday, July 27, 2004too much information
Here's a bit by the ACLU about what ordering pizza might be like in a less private future...
Summer Surveillance Campaign
http://www.aclu.org/pizza/
The government and corporations are aggressively collecting information about your personal life and your habits. They want to track your purchases, your medical records, and even your relationships. The Bush Administration's policies, coupled with invasive new technologies, could eliminate your right to privacy completely. Please help us protect our privacy rights and prevent the Total Surveillance Society.
posted @ 01:20 PM PDT Monday, July 26, 2004server error -27
Google is down temporarily right before their IPO. I have no doubt that there are a lot of people continuously trying to hack it, but I wonder who succeeded & who paid them to do it...
I'm currently working on the text for my new research consultancy website. It's a challenge to explain (in language even a CEO can understand) that proper research is a bit more complex than just typing a few words into Google!
Users who consider Google exhaustive are only fooling themselves, experts say. Today's search engines may be capturing as little as 1 percent of the Web, largely because of how they find and index online resources.
from
"Tinkering with 'crawlers' to capture more of Web :Search engines may be culling only 1% of the information, so tech firms are addressing flaws."
Philadelphia Enquirer
March 27, 2004
posted @ 11:56 AM PDT Saturday, July 24, 2004embracing uncertainty
I have learned that the concept of "security" is largely an illusion. The more I accept this, the more uncertainty (as well as fun, adventure, and romance) I experience!
Surrender is the opposite of giving up. It is freeing yourself from the desire to be in control, letting go of how you think things should be. Surrender is freedom. -- Ariel Spilsbury and Michael Bryner, from the book The Mayan Oracle
posted @ 12:06 PM PDT Friday, July 23, 2004hemp research
In the United States there's a great phobia of the hemp plant because it's related to marijuana (ooh scary) but in Canada there is government research going on that may expand the number of uses of this incredibly versatile plant:
Cover me with hemp
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/0407hemp_e.html
NRC technology could help clothe Canadian athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, B.C. and help pave the way for a range of advanced products made with industrial hemp, such as auto parts and airplane fuselages.
Hemp wasn't always such a taboo in the US... see the 1942 government film "Hemp for Victory!"
posted @ 10:21 AM PDT Wednesday, July 21, 2004silly fortune
Last night a dining companion opened up a fortune cookie to find the following prediction....
You love Chinese food.
Wow, how did they know?
posted @ 03:20 PM PDT Tuesday, July 20, 2004going West
I bought my first ever one-way plane ticket today. I'm moving September 15th!
Cascadia here I come....
posted @ 07:28 PM PDT Monday, July 19, 2004killer instincts
Those who survive war can also be victims of it...
'Enemy Contact. Kill 'em, Kill 'em.'
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=12&u=/latimests/20040718/ts_latimes/enemycontactkillemkillem
Troops, returning home with untreated and little-understood mental health issues, put themselves and their families at risk for suicide and domestic violence, experts say. Twenty-three U.S. troops in Iraq took their lives last year, according to the Defense Department an unusually high number, one official acknowledged.
On patrol, however, all that is available is talk.
"Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill," Hall says. "It's like it pounds at my brain. I'll figure out how to deal with it when I get home."
posted @ 10:21 AM PDT Friday, July 16, 2004family values in action
I find this little piece of hypocrisy highly amusing...
Sex pros get ready for party
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/206962p-178564c.html
With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party.
Agencies are flying in extra call girls from around the globe to meet the expected demand during the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 gathering at Madison Square Garden.
"We have girls from London, Seattle, California, all coming in for that week," said a madam at a Manhattan escort service. "It's the week everyone wants to work."
posted @ 11:03 AM PDT Thursday, July 15, 2004what's a little more deficit, we can just print more money right?
War profiteering is nothing new, but things are getting seriously out of hand in Iraq...
Halliburton bills taxpayers $45 per case of soda, $100 per bag of laundry
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/whistleblower_hearings_denied.html
Five former Halliburton employees and one former executive of a Halliburton subcontractor describe egregious examples of abuse involving Halliburtons Iraq contracts. In a letter written by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), these whistleblowers describe instances where Halliburton employees would abandon or torch new trucks -- worth $80,000 -- if they acquired a flat tire or other minor mechanical problems. Halliburton would subsequently purchase new trucks with U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The former employees also described repeated instances of theft involving both Halliburton and Army personnel. One employee complained to Halliburton's KBR chief, Randy Harl, about the contracting abuse, but two weeks later he was fired.
Another former employee said Halliburton purchased soda for $45 per case and laundry bags for $100 each.
posted @ 11:21 AM PDT Wednesday, July 14, 2004"aggressively friendly" women who want you to look at their chests
Advertising is so everywhere that many people have learned to tune it out.
Unfortunately, there are people out there working hard to think up new ways to get our attention and fill our heads with marketing messages...
'Billboards' that walk, talk, and even flirt a little
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0708/p11s01-wmgn.html
"When a beautiful girl walks up to you, and she's wearing the TV commercial on her chest," says Hollander, "you just can't get away from it."
But that sort of statement makes some experts groan. "There are so few people in the world saying, 'I wish advertising were a little more intrusive,' " says David "Jelly" Helm, a longtime adman now at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore.
posted @ 11:20 AM PDT Tuesday, July 13, 2004short-term thinking and greed in action
Much of the environmental progress made in the 1990s is currently being trashed...
US to end national logging ban
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3889573.stm
The US administration has announced proposals to scrap a national rule which protects a third of the country's forests from road-building and logging.
Bush Team Pushes Huge Timber Sale Under Guise of Fire Protection
http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000150.php
Under the guise of preventing forest fires, the Bush administration is planning the biggest timber sale on public lands in modern history. The Biscuit Project would allow logging of 372 million board feet of timber across 30 square miles of southwest Oregon's Siskiyou National Forestenough timber to fill 70,000 logging trucks. The logging would be done on wildlands of uncommon beauty and ecological diversity, far from any community that could be damaged in a fire.
posted @ 10:36 AM PDT Monday, July 12, 2004Superdudes
I definitely have a soft spot for geeks, but these guys are too much....
posted @ 05:17 PM PDT Wednesday, July 7, 2004police fund raising
I got a $110 ticket this morning for not stopping completely at a stop sign (when no one was coming) on my BICYCLE!
I'm going to investigate my options for contesting it, but I've heard it can take months...
/grumpy
posted @ 09:27 AM PDT Tuesday, July 6, 2004good news on food additives
The Bird's Eye Foods company is removing synthetic additives from its products in the UK because of popular demand!
The British public is more sensitive & aware of food issues than we are in North America (largely due to Mad Cow) but I predict we will see this kind of thing happen on this side of the pond soon too.
Birds Eye additive decision shakes up ready meals sector
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=53335
Bird's Eye is removing additives from all its products in the UK, a move that could send shockwaves through the lucrative but under-fire ready meals sector.
The frozen food manufacturer has spent 4 million overhauling its range in order to guarantee that all 130 of its products are completely free from artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives. The company says that it has dropped about 100 artificial ingredients including modified starches and thickeners.
posted @ 09:44 AM PDT Monday, July 5, 2004invisible realities
I had a professor in college who said, "Physics is just like Philosophy, except you have to prove it."
Most of universe invisible, experts say
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040617.wuniverse0617/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/
Everything you can see from a distant nebula to the family dog makes up only about 5 per cent of the universe. The rest is mystery stuff dark matter and dark energy.
We should be wary of equating existence with visibility because most of the universe is not something we can see, University of Toronto astronomy professor John Percy told globeandmail.com.
posted @ 11:01 AM PDT
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