Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?
Right. As everyone knows, Mexico is a great power that is poised to take over the entire Southern tier of the United States. And those damned Canadians have been quietly biding their time since the American revolution, lying in wait for just the right moment to arrive. And the European Union is so blatantly an effort to organize Europe for a take-over of the United States that it's a wonder no one's mentioned it before... Clearly, the only solution is for the US to mount a massive attack on all the countries listed in the article at once. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Who's on Twitter?
I'm no twitter as http://twitter.com/dland Nick has been kind enough to mention me several times in his musings on Twitter. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Who's on Twitter?
Julia, OK, that one looks somewhat more interesting than some of the Tweets I see dumped to LiveJournal. Thank you (if you're referring to my twitter feed). I try to remember that the people who are following me (there are a little under a hundred, with some falling off and new ones replacing them over time) are an audience, so I write with them in mind. Then again, the less interesting things are in response to other Tweets, and the person Tweeting the most is engaged in discussions with other folks. In my experience, the least interesting tweeple are the ones who use twitter as a kind of public instant message with their friends. Every message is a reply to someone else, and they often look something like: @boogerbrain *Yawn* @mesopotamia That's what she said! @fooboo Was that thing actually _on_ your plate? @noobee If you say so, but actually, I like em crunchy. I wonder if these people have anything at all to say on their own... There is a hierarchy of engagement on Twitter in which following is worth one point, replying is worth more -- maybe two to five points, and retweeting is maybe double that again. I don't think I've been retweeted. Not bleeding edge enough, I guess. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Government regulation
On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Jon Louis Mann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: the economic boom due to unregulated greed has turned into an exploded bomb - no longer ticking... I like what Tom Evslin had to say about this at http://budurl.com/ejfz: This correction from excess has been violent and in many ways harmful but it HAS cured many of the excesses; the goal shouldn't be to reestablish them. We don't want housing prices to boom out of reach again; we don't want oil prices to go up or credit to be extended promiscuously; we don't want a banking economy based on the third derivative of valueless debt. We need to be wary of those crying crisis because they have a solution to sell. We've already gone too far in pouring aid in at the top of the financial system hoping (to put a good light on it) that it'll trickle down. We will need to cushion some of the pain at the bottom of the economic heap; there'll be more need for unemployment insurance before there's less. We can't afford to let starved states cut back on infrastructure projects both for the sake of the infrastructure and for the sake of the economy. But we also want the excesses that have been corrected stay corrected – at least until the next bubble. We also want the excesses that have been corrected to stay corrected. A nice dream. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Government regulation
To give credit where it is due: Tim O'Reilly posted a reply on Twitter (@timoreilly) to Tom Evslin's (@tevslin) piece. On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 3:52 PM, David Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Jon Louis Mann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: the economic boom due to unregulated greed has turned into an exploded bomb - no longer ticking... I like what Tom Evslin had to say about this at http://budurl.com/ejfz: This correction from excess has been violent and in many ways harmful but it HAS cured many of the excesses; the goal shouldn't be to reestablish them. We don't want housing prices to boom out of reach again; we don't want oil prices to go up or credit to be extended promiscuously; we don't want a banking economy based on the third derivative of valueless debt. We need to be wary of those crying crisis because they have a solution to sell. We've already gone too far in pouring aid in at the top of the financial system hoping (to put a good light on it) that it'll trickle down. We will need to cushion some of the pain at the bottom of the economic heap; there'll be more need for unemployment insurance before there's less. We can't afford to let starved states cut back on infrastructure projects both for the sake of the infrastructure and for the sake of the economy. But we also want the excesses that have been corrected stay corrected – at least until the next bubble. We also want the excesses that have been corrected to stay corrected. A nice dream. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Humor: Wall Street Bailout 409-Scam eMail
Subject: Please to Help To; John Q. Public Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2008 22:22:22 Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 700 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this matter, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gramm, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe. This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as next of kin so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that we may transfer your ocmmission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds. Yours Faithfully, Minister of Treasury Paulson (Any typos are mine -- this was transcribed from uncredited graphics in the November issue of Funny Times http://funnytimes.com/) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Secular belief vs Science
Folks, We talk a lot -- some might say too much -- about the pernicious effects of blind religious belief, especially as it prevents rational thought about science. You might say that Science is sacred around here. But secular belief can be just as blinding just as stupid dangerous. Consider the caller Charlane on NPR's Science Friday just now. The topic was the (now thoroughly-debunked) concerns about links between vaccines autusm and other vaccine scares. She was adamant about not having her baby immunized on the CDC-recommended schedule because, among other things, she didn't think that it was safe to give a baby six immunological agents at once. Nothing the guest scientist said could convince her. She demanded to know how many tests had been conducted specifically testing the interactions of multiple vaccines at once. The guest thought about it replied, In the high hundreds to low thousands. Before he even finished his answer, she talked over him, saying, I don't believe it. My mind boggled. Why ask the damn question, then? Dave Frames trump facts Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hamcam fire view
Folks, It comes to my attention that the tinyurl in my previous post is bogus. It works if you happen to be on the network at LiveWorld, but not so much if you're out there in the wide-open interwebs. This one should go to that overlong URL that you _could_ have reconstructed by hand if you were so inclined: http://tinyurl.com/2sw2we Dave Not Licked Yet Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Bush: I'd rather be right than popular
Doug Pensinger wrote: But of course he's neither. He's about as far right as I care to stomach. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Science Blog: Our grip on reality is slim
I think we all knew this, but: The neurological basis for poor witness statements and hallucinations has been found by scientists at University College London. In over a fifth of cases, people wrongly remembered whether they actually witnessed an event or just imagined it, according to a paper published in NeuroImage this week. http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/our-grip-on-reality-is-slim-10871.html Dave No, really, I read it! Land ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Was the 2004 Election Stolen
Friends, After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election. I came across the above in a very well-written (if extraordinarily long) article in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/print or http://makeashorterlink.com/?S2586163D or http://shorl.com/gydrofridrohyfry (Incidentally, TinyURL seems to be broken tonight) You probably know that I'm steadfastly resisting the urge to turn into a conspiracy theorist, but frankly, I'm sick of being labeled one just because I hold out the possibility that my government has been taken over by a power-mad bunch of freaks. One is not a conspiracy theorist if the theory turns out to be true. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: The Worst President in History?
Folks, http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/ This piece appeared in the Rolling Stone last Friday. It considers, without immediately jumping to its conclusion, whether GWB may be what the title suggests. (For our international readers, that's Worst US President, of course -- I'm sure that Brazil, Australia and wherever else we hail from have had their own Boneheads of State.) He's up against the likes of the corrupt but apparently likable Warren G. Harding and the corrupt and eminently unlikable Richard M. Nixon. It's a longish piece, but has some interesting moments. After reviewing a 2004 survey of 415 historians, of whom 81% rated Bush's administration a failure (and of the remaining 19%, a tenth only considered him to be the best president since Bill Clinton), he goes on to say: The lopsided decision of historians should give everyone pause. Contrary to popular stereotypes, historians are generally a cautious bunch. We assess the past from widely divergent points of view and are deeply concerned about being viewed as fair and accurate by our colleagues. When we make historical judgments, we are acting not as voters or even pundits, but as scholars who must evaluate all the evidence, good, bad or indifferent. Separate surveys, conducted by those perceived as conservatives as well as liberals, show remarkable unanimity about who the best and worst presidents have been. Historians do tend, as a group, to be far more liberal than the citizenry as a whole -- a fact the president's admirers have seized on to dismiss the poll results as transparently biased. One pro-Bush historian said the survey revealed more about the current crop of history professors than about Bush or about Bush's eventual standing. But if historians were simply motivated by a strong collective liberal bias, they might be expected to call Bush the worst president since his father, or Ronald Reagan, or Nixon. Instead, more than half of those polled -- and nearly three-fourths of those who gave Bush a negative rating -- reached back before Nixon to find a president they considered as miserable as Bush. Dave Heckuva Job, Georgie Land ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Should be Illegal
Folks, From Craigslist: 01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning. 02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way tha hanging around tall people will make you tall. 03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract. 04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal. 05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed. 06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children. 07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children. 08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America. 09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children. 10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Amazing Art Installation: Toast Mosaic of a Toaster
Folks, It's not lyrics from a song we love to hate. It's not the latest political outrage. It's not even a sci-fi or anime reference. It's just toast: 2500 pieces of toast in various degrees of toastedness arranged into the ginormous image of a toaster in Buenos Aires. http://www.fa-art.pp.se/Baires.htm Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tales From Earthsea.........Anime!!!!!
I read Le Guin at the same time in my life when I was listening to Baby I'm-a Want You and Please, Mister, Please and thinking they were really good stuff, so I'm reluctant to be too excited about this, but Holy Flaming Snot may be right! Dave That is what you meant, right? Land :-) Damon Agretto wrote: HOLY F^%$# S^*% Damon. As reported yesterday the Studio Ghibli website has relaunched, their new URL is http://www.ghibli.jp/. Via the revamp, the studio has revealed their next animation film project will be Gedo Senki (with English subtitle TALES from EARTHSEA) directed by Goro Miyazaki (Hayao Miyazaki's son). The new movie is adapted from American writer Ursula K Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. The planned theatrical release in Japan is July, 2006. Additionally on the new site you can view a production and director's diary. Readers may recall on September 20th ANS was the first English news source to report on this possibility. A blog entry of an anonymous editor working for a publisher in Tokyo then predicted the next film animation work to be tackled by Studio Ghibli would be based on the Earthsea series of novels by American fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin. When presented with only a last (family) name we incorrectly assumed Hayao Miyazaki would be directing although at the time he was the only publicly known Miyazkai directing films at the studio. The Japanese editor reportedly first learned of this news when a film rights option was being sought by the book's Japanese publisher Iwanami Shoten. The America-based Sci-Fi Channel adapted Le Guin's Earthsea series to TV in 2004 in it's Legend of Earthsea miniseries. The author has expressed her disapproval of the faithfulness to the original works of the above TV version. Hayao Miyazaki, has in the past admitted being an admirer of Le Guin's writings. Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html Now Building: EE's BRDM-1 Recce Vehicle -- Dave Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
FEAR NOT
Folks, I re-read the article and when I got to the part where the ads work through a nano-technology brain implant, my skeptometer began ticking. Then, at the very bottom of the article, there's a link to Ancestral Advertising: Reaching an Untapped Demographic with a URL that looks totally unlike all their others, which contains only the words Happy April Fools Day. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hello (hello, hello) (Or, The thread that will not die)
___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hello (hello, hello) (Or, The thread that will not die)
David Land wrote: ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l There was more to the original message, but I think Nick's server may have gobbled it up. I'll talk to him tomorrow and see if that's the case. In the meanwhile, talk (or sing) amongst yourselves. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dr. Demento (was Re: Hello (hello, hello))
Mauro Diotallevi wrote: And tuxedoed dolphins bring you breakfast And even appropriate for the purported topic of the list! I feel better than James Brown I feel better now I feel better than James Brown I feel better now I feel better than James Brown I feel better now, how do you feel? I feel the shock of recognition. One of my favorite CDs of the mid-90s. Thanks for the reminder. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: A very sensible idea
PAT MATHEWS wrote: Someone on FourthTurning came up with a very sensible idea. It was that the only time the federal government should interfere with state law is if the state is violating the Bill of Rights. (This does not restrict the power of the feds to regulate air traffic, public health, etc...we're talking about laws affecting individual liberties.) And that every Constitutional amendment from #1 on down should carry the proviso, now used for the newest ones, that the Congress shall have the power to enforce this amendment. Works for me. But would it require a constitutional amendment to retroactively add those words to the amendments that do not explicitly have them? I have no problem with this, but it doesn't address the greater problem - an executive that considers himself above the bill of rights and possibly, with its new justices, a Supreme Court that might agree with him. No, but it gets the structure in place. As for the situation you describe, it's for the people to turn him out (in 2008) and the Congress to put a leash on him and the opposition party to come up with better arguments and ideas in order to do so. Of course, the brilliance of the two-term Presidency will do that for us, but what remains to be seen is whether the country figures out that keeping his ilk in power for four, eight, twelve more years (about as long as it'll take to completely end the American Experiment). I wonder which state will receive the most attention on Tuesday evening. The one whose population almost elected him once and barely did a second time, or the one that he invaded without provocation? I'm not taking any bets, because I'm fairly certain it's the latter. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: What some women have always known . . .
Or, put briefly, Not tonight, honey. I have a PhD. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: What some women have always known . . .
Deborah Harrell wrote: David Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Or, put briefly, Not tonight, honey. I have a PhD. scratching head - I mean *forehead* - in puzzlement I must be rather thick today...care to elucidate further? Are you trying to say that you're promiscuous? (puzzled -- possibly unintelligent -- small brain -- sexy, according to study), or if you really don't understand... I'll assume the latter, at the risk of having my sexual prowess challenged for showing the slightest sign of intelligence here... The joke, if that's the word I want, was that a PhD (presumably a smart, large-brained person) would not have much interest in sex, due to the damage that all that brain mass has done to his testicles. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Granny D -- We are Resolved to Follow Our National Dream
Folks, You might remember Doris Granny D Haddock as the 89-year-old who walked 3,200 miles in 1999 to dramatize the issue of soft money regulation. You might not remember her at all. In any event, she delivered a speech at Orchard House in Concord, MA on October 6 that I enjoyed a heck of a lot, and thought some others might, too. We are Resolved to Follow Our National Dream http://www.grannyd.com/speeches/orchardhouse.htm She begins by comparing our times to the moments leading up the Civil War: In some ways the conflict of the Civil War was not resolved, but rather accommodated, in the same way that smoldering coals under ashes are but a fire asked to bide its time. Do not the sparks now swirl up fresh? Is the heat and danger we feel not the old conflict between those who believe that authority comes from above: from an Old Testament God, delivered through husbands, presidents, preachers, ayatollahs and plantation overseers to people arranged in layers according to their worth--is it not a conflict between those authoritarians and those others who instead believe that all men are created equal, and that the authority to govern issues forth from them, upward to their government--their common vessel of community--and not downward? Is this not the divide of 1860 and also of our own time? She concludes by calling upon qualities that have made America great: Are your hearts perhaps stronger and your souls deeper than you imagined? Yes, this is what you came here to do. There is no greater gift than to be given a life of meaning. There is no greater heroism than to bravely represent love in a dark time of fear and danger. We are resolved to help each other. We are resolved to represent love in the world and to follow our national dream. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Hello. My name is Harriet, and I'm a crony. (Hi, Harriet. Welcome!)
Folks, Politics is rife with cronyism. Nothing new there. But I think it used to be kind of a dirty little secret, or at least something that people didn't talk about, except as a way to criticize the other guys. The Bush administration turns that logic on its head... Here's the transcript of an October 6 conference call that brought together top RNC strategists and White House staffers to rally support for the President's nomination of Harriet Miers: http://www.nocrony.com/ #conferencecall (a recording of the call is also available at http:// www.crooksandliars.com/2005/10/06.html#a5253). The transcript contains a wonderful piece of unintentional transparency at about 23 minutes: He and she [the president and Miers] both understand that if she were to get on the court, and she were to rule in ways that are contrary to the way the president would want her to approach her role as a justice, it would be a deep personal betrayal, and would be perceived as such both by him and by her. So much for the President's yak about how important it is for Supremes to be independent. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Fear The Future[tm]: View-Once DVDs From Microsoft Promise More Petroleum Waste
Folks, Some ideas are so stupid that they should be quietly killed before they see the light of day. I think I found one: View-Once DVDs. Reminds me of a very funny piece by Colin McEnroe: Why Gasoline Costs So Much (http://tinyurl.com/czvfu). The DVD story is below, with link to original. Dave Microsoft invents a ‘one-play only’ DVD to combat Hollywood piracy By Tony Glover Technology Editor, TheBusinessOnline.com, 2-Oct-2005. http://tinyurl.com/7qb3v COMPUTER software giant Microsoft has developed a cheap, disposable pre-recorded DVD disc that consumers can play only once. The discs would give Hollywood increased control over the release of new films and allow consumers the chance to watch a film at the fraction of the price of an ordinary pre-recorded DVD. More important, the discs would prevent copying and digital piracy, which is costing the film and music industry billions in lost revenues. The revolutionary product could be on the market as early as next year, with the new DVD players needed to view them. Microsoft hopes it will help the company dominate home entertainment as it dominates the desktop computer market. The film industry has been growing increasingly alarmed at the prospect of film fans using the internet to download pirated films, just as music fans download copyrighted songs on their personal computers. Researchers at Microsoft believe they have a simple solution to the challenge of piracy. Hollywood’s movie moguls are said to be excited at the prospect of having a piracy-proof means of distribution. Buying an ordinary DVD of a new film costs between £15 (E22, $26.40) and £20. Microsoft’s new disc will enable the studios to release a “play-once, then throw away” copy for as little as £3, much the same as renting a video or DVD. But unlike a rented DVD, the new disc allows consumers to decide when they watch films and there is no need to return it. The new generation of DVD disc will spearhead a fresh assault by Microsoft on the home-entertainment market. A big chunk of its $7bn research budget is spent on digital rights management (DRM). A senior source in the company says Microsoft is in talks with the main electronics manufacturers about developing DVD players to play the new discs. And when the movie industry does find the courage to move to a fully internet-based distribution model, Microsoft wants its DRM software to be the industry standard, giving it dominance of the server market, and the telecoms and cable companies that need to store and manage their video-on-demand services. Chairman Bill Gates has been working on a solution to the film industry’s piracy problem since making a now legendary pitch to the industry in September 2002. Showing a video of himself dressed in a sailor suit pretending to audition for the blockbuster Titanic, Gates pitched Hollywood with the proposition that only Microsoft could solve its piracy problem by making its DRM software a standard across every home entertainment playback and recording device. By installing its DRM software in every device used to play or store movies, Microsoft plans to dominate the home entertainment industry in the same way it does the desktop computer software market. This will mean convincing competitors such as Sony – whose Playstation rivals Gates’s XBox – that allowing Microsoft dominance of the home entertainment software market is a price worth paying to establish a single global DRM standard. But despite the telecoms and cable companies’ plans to offer video-on-demand through the internet, the most popular internet-based movie service in the US is still a company called Netflix, which posts DVDs to users’ homes. The customers only use the internet to make a selection from Netflix’s store of 42m DVD discs and place an order online. Netflix has more than 4m subscribers, but its founder and head, Reed Hastings, last week told Newsweek it will have more than 20m subscribers by 2010 and that DVD discs will not be entirely replaced by newer digital technologies for at least another 20 years. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: MTG fans: Yer missin out...
Damon Agretto wrote: The first unofficial MTG tourney to be held in NW AZ is less than 12 hours away. Pass... Damon, got trapped in collectable games, learned his lesson, and now has deep philosophical opposition to the concept... Hi. I'm Damon, and I am a cardaholic. Hi, Damon, Welcome. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
George, I'm sure this has come up before, but what software is there out there that can help you manage versions. As I get further into my English program, I find that I'm having a hard time keeping track of what's what and when I wrote what when? Low- and no-cost preferred but I am interested in all. With what do you write? What word processor, what platform? Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Meet The World
Brazilian artist Icaro Doria interprets flags of various countries as statistical graphs: http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/ Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Intel quietly Adds Palladium DRM and Backdoor Networking to New Processors
KZK wrote: http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4915 Intel quietly adds DRM to new chips Microsoft and the entertainment industry's holy grail of controlling copyright through the motherboard has moved a step closer with Intel Corp. now embedding digital rights management within in its latest dual-core processor Pentium D and accompanying 945 chipset. Understanding fully that it's only a matter of time before IBM and Motorola start thus encumbering their PowerPC chips, and acknowledging last week's rumor that a certain computer company down the road from here is (once again) considering the use of Intel silicon in their products, I am reminded again why it is that I prefer computers from Apple. Oh, wait. They're the bad guys now, because of the iPod's proprietary AAC nonsense. Dave Can't Win, Can't Lose, Can't Even Quit Land ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Revenge of the REAL George Lucas...
Its one thing to put your faith in a religion founded by a real person who claimed divine revelation, but its something else entirely to have, as the scripture of your religion, a storyline that you know was made up by a very nonprophetic human being. Its a terrible thing, I suppose, for a writer to invent a religion and then discover that he and all his friends are on the wrong side of it. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/167/story_16700_1.html ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Play the Future: Sony Patents Mind-Control Device
Folks, http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624944.600 http://tinyurl.com/6gf46 Dave - Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix - 07 April 2005 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition Jenny Hogan Barry Fox IMAGINE movies and computer games in which you get to smell, taste and perhaps even feel things. That's the tantalising prospect raised by a patent on a device for transmitting sensory data directly into the human brain - granted to none other than the entertainment giant Sony. The technique suggested in the patent is entirely non-invasive. It describes a device that fires pulses of ultrasound at the head to modify firing patterns in targeted parts of the brain, creating sensory experiences ranging from moving images to tastes and sounds. This could give blind or deaf people the chance to see or hear, the patent claims. While brain implants are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the only non-invasive ways of manipulating the brain remain crude. A technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation can activate nerves by using rapidly changing magnetic fields to induce currents in brain tissue. However, magnetic fields cannot be finely focused on small groups of brain cells, whereas ultrasound could be. If the method described by Sony really does work, it could have all sorts of uses in research and medicine, even if it is not capable of evoking sensory experiences detailed enough for the entertainment purposes envisaged in the patent. This was a prophetic invention. It was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction technology takes us Details are sparse, and Sony declined New Scientist's request for an interview with the inventor, who is based in its offices in San Diego, California. However, independent experts are not dismissing the idea out of hand. I looked at it and found it plausible, says Niels Birbaumer, a pioneering neuroscientist at the University of Tbingen in Germany who has created devices that let people control devices via brain waves. The application contains references to two scientific papers presenting research that could underpin the device. One, in an echo of Galvani's classic 18th-century experiments on frogs' legs that proved electricity can trigger nerve impulses, showed that certain kinds of ultrasound pulses can affect the excitability of nerves from a frog's leg. The author, Richard Mihran of the University of Colorado, Boulder, had no knowledge of the patent until New Scientist contacted him, but says he would be concerned about the proposed method's long-term safety. Sony first submitted a patent application for the ultrasound method in 2000, which was granted in March 2003. Since then Sony has filed a series of continuations, most recently in December 2004 (US 2004/267118). Elizabeth Boukis, spokeswoman for Sony Electronics, says the work is speculative. There were not any experiments done, she says. This particular patent was a prophetic invention. It was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: SSN 711
Damon Agretto wrote: So it wasn't that he had the bad luck to hit an uncharted undersea mountain in an area that was supposed to be charted. Rather, he was going at a reckless speed in uncharted waters? Probably, or at least that's my interpretation. Really a combination of both, though (bad luck in that the sea mound was uncharted, but reckless because he was going 30+kts in an incompletely charted region). But even if it wasn't the captain (say the XO decided to do some high speed drills), the Captain would still be responsible. Even if he wasn't in command, he's still in Command. I'm not sure if anyone's seen the pictures, but they're here: http://www.navy.mil/view_gallery.asp?category_id=17 What's amazing to me is how high the damage goes -- practically all the way to the deck. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: NASA envisions Mars warmed up for life
Robert G. Seeberger wrote: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002172407_mars06.ht ml http://tinyurl.com/58hnw Global warming may be a scourge on Earth, but injecting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere of Mars might be just the thing to turn the barren planet into a living, breathing world that could support future human colonies, NASA researchers said. And why not? Left Behind-reading, Biblical-literalist eco-terrorists are plotting the demise of Earth in order to force God's hand and bring about the end of days anyway. They need somewhere for La Haye's sick fantasy of suffering for people who don't believe just like him and his kind to take place. God help us. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: SpamAdaption
Trent Shipley wrote: I really do not get that angry with spammers. They are just rational entrepreneurs. I take from this it that you are some kind of extreme libertarian that rejects both property and privacy. What would you say to the overt act of stealing a speaker truck (with the intention of returning it after using it for your entrepreneurial purposes) and driving around neighborhoods hawking sexual enhancements at all hours? Would that, too, be rational entrepreneurship? Spam -- especially this adaptation -- is theft and harrassment. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Songs You Cannot Expel
Did you ever know that you're my hero? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
SCOUTED: Humor: The US government has a new website
Blogger Sean Young hilariously misinterprets graphics from ready.gov: http://www.msxnet.org/humour/terror_alert ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: mail-archive.com ??
Gary Nunn wrote: Occasionally I do a search on Google for my name and email address just to see what pops up. Typically only the MCCMEDIA archives show up, but today I ran across Brin-L archives at mail-archive.com. Not a big deal, just surprised that we were being archived somewhere other than mccmedia. http://www.mail-archive.com/brin-l@mccmedia.com/ It really isn't a big deal, but it is a Good Thing[tm]. Nick knows the guy who runs mail-archive.com, who has been archiving brin-l for quite a while. Peace, Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities
Alberto, John Horn asked: Some members of br military during the brazilian dictatorship of 1964-(1980 or 1985 or 1989) had some similar plans - maybe the source was the same. They would explode a huge gas reservoir in Rio downtown, blame the commies, and start a pogrom to kill them all. The plan was aborted by the heroic acts of one man. This sounds very very interesting and I've been wanting to respond ever since you originally posted it. Do you have more information about this? Yes Maybe it's just me, but this answer strikes me as somehow missing the point, or trying to be a smart-alek. Allow me to restate John's question as a request: Please post more information or a link to more information. Thanks, Dave Pedantic Nonsense Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: 38 Dishonest Tricks from Straight and Crooked Thinking
Folks, With the quadrennial American exercise in rhetorical excess well under way to elect the Leader of the Free World[tm] (no apologies to so-called free countries who don't get a vote), I thought this extract from the 1930 book Straight and Crooked Thinking might be worthwhile reading: http://www.246.dk/38tricks.html Rather than a scholarly listing of logical fallacies, the book (and this brief extract) aims to be a practical and useful guide: Practical convenience and practical importance are the criteria I have used in this list. If we have a plague of flies in the house we buy fly-papers and not a treatise on the zoological classification of Musca domestica. As a bonus, in keeping with the discussion of SPSS and figures that lie, the above-linked page also contains a list of ways to make misleading graphs. - Rule 1: Show as little data as possible (minimize the data density) Rule 2: Hide the data you do show (minimize the data/ink ratio) Rule 3: Ignore the visual metaphor altogether Rule 4: Only order matters Rule 5: Graph data out of context Rule 6: Change scales in mid-axis Rule 7: Emphasize the trivial (ignore the important) Rule 8: Jiggle the baseline Rule 9: Alabama first! Rule 10: Label: (a) illegibly, (b) incompletely, (c) incorrectly, and (d) ambiguously Rule 11: More is murkier: (a) more decimal places and (b) more dimensions Rule 12: If it has been done well in the past, think of a new way to do it - Over and Out, Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Not a PDA
Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote: Bryon Daly wrote: (I'd even demand cell phone capability, but the largish displays on PDA make them not very conducive, shape-wise, to being phone handsets.) Use a headset instead of the holding the whole thing up to your ear? My BlackBerry is a PDA/Cell phone, and I have to admit that I have had a few folks wonder why it was that I was holding my PDA against my head... The headset helps with that, and also avoids getting ear oil all over the screen (please begin throwing up now). I don't know how long it'll be before RIM puts a music player in there, but I wouldn't hold my breath: they're very business-focused. It took them /forever/ (in highly accelerated gadget-time) to get around to having color screens. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Weasle
The Fool wrote: http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/000679.html Compare the new BSA's mascot for propaganzing children to classic villian comics (the chest numbers were prison numbers not gang numbers). It's not a weasel. It's a rat. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: NYT admits shoddy Iraq reporting
William T Goodall wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/international/middleeast/ 26FTE_NOTE.html?8dpc To those who hold the belief that there is a liberal bias in the media, and the NYT in particular, what do you make of this sloppy assumption that the story put forward by the adminsitration and its Iraqi story-tellers was true? I have to believe that most of what passes for liberal (or conservative) bias in the media is just sloppiness, hurrying and laziness. Dave (who did not check any facts in the construction of this post) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Symbiosis
A thread drifted, then: Got me, what is the difference between disease organisms and parasites? Delineating one from another is not always straightforward. My Steadman's definition of parasite is 1) an organism that lives on or in another and draws its nourishment therefrom The word comes from the Greek, and means one who eats from someone else's table. (Para = beside, Sitos = grain, food). Practically speaking, I think what makes something a parasite involves the eeuuww! factor: tapeworms are just *gross,* while cold-causing viruses really aren't. Not necessarily, but people who have 'em sure are! If anyone's really interested, Google will locate any number of med school syllabi on the subject, including this one: http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~terry/229sp02/lectures/Lect10.html Dave I am Joe's Mitochondria Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Cults vs Religions, was Bullying and Battering
David Hobby wrote: I think the more common behavior is pushing back the predicted date of the apocalypse. But I guess one can only do this so many times. Indeed: http://www.freeminds.org/history/list.htm Amazing. Especially for people who claim to speak with the authority of God, given that Jesus said No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matthew 13:32). From the above document: ... this measurement [of a length of an interior passageway discovered inside the Pyramids - it has no reference in Scripture] is 3416 inches, symbolizing 3416 years ... Let's see... that's about 285 feet, and also about 87 meters, which means that they missed the end by a little more 3000 years. It's also about 9000 of my little pinkie widths, which means we have a long time to wait. Dave What's that come to in skoshes? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: More Spent on Drugs for Behavior Disorders in Children Than on Asthma Medications and Antibiotics
Another take on drugging kids: http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/ritalin.htm Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Bullying and Battering
While I was in the Bruderhof neighborhood... http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/Fight-or-Flight.htm There /is/ an alternative to the kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out mentality. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dog's breed can be determined from DNA with 99% accuracy . . .
Ronn!Blankenship wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/science/21dog.html NPR's coverage of this story highlighted the fact that some very different-looking dogs are actually fairly closely related, and among the group of breeds most closely related to their wolf ancestors: everything from Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies, which most people would agree look pretty much like wolves, to Pekingese, Shih Tzus, and Shar-Peis, which hardly anyone would take for a wolf. Dave Yappy Little Throwbacks Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: group still active?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Voice of the web server: What do you mean it was out? Golly, it's nice out. I think I'll leave it out. Nick's server has been out of the server closet for a couple of years. Aww come on, it was in by a mile! Are you blind? It's not mcenroemedia.com, you know. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Disturbing evidence of torture
Mike Lee wrote: Gary Denton, putting me in Oh, Please! mode: Cool! Gary found a switch. Is there one marked off nearby? Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: What America Does with its Hegemony
The Fool wrote: The world Orwell described does not require complete control of the press, just a very large market share. -Kuro5hin Poster Does anybody remember Neil Postman's excellent Amusing Ourselves to Death from the mid-80's (Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2uvuo)? Using 1984 and Brave New World, he made pretty much the point above. No central agency of government control is needed to enslave the minds of the masses: just give 'em American Idol, Fear Factor and Fox News (are the last even two different shows?), and they'll gladly enslave themselves, and pay for the privilege. Now, excuse, me, the NBC Blockbuster Television Event 10.5 is on. Dave Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Winning the War on Terror
Folks, Ah, but it is so easy to whip mobs into a murderous frenzy. At least in some parts of the world, including my own. Sometimes, all it takes is the home team winning the SuperBowl. A friend of mine -- then a videographer for KRON in San Francisco -- was assigned to cover the crowds spilling into the streets after the Niners won. He wasn't out there very long before someone took a baseball bat to the back of his head to steal his camera. A videographer from another station caught it on tape. Paul told me that he watched it once, and never could again. He continued to have horrible headaches and other neurological effects from the attack years later. Ironically, Paul went on to create the TV series Cops, American Detective, and World's Scariest Police Chases. Paul pretty much invented the reality TV genre with his. I wonder if he would have aired that footage on one of his shows if it hadn't been his own head getting bashed? Paul died almost exactly one year ago when he fell from a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean while hiking along the Oregon coast with his fiance. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Winning the War on Terror
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OTOH what religion does dance in the streets when innocents are killed? Don't forget hanging mutilated corpses on bridges and dancing around the bridge chanting death to Americans... Sorry, but I feel compelled to state that Islam didn't hang mutilated corpses from bridges or dance around the bridge or chant death to Americans. A mob of deranged people did that. Believe me, I am no apologist for Muslim culture, I just know the difference between a set of beliefs and an angry mob in a famously violent city. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tyranny
Folks, The question, however, is whether our civilization will be undermined by: ... 3) permitting homosexual couples to adopt or to artificially create children. Thus the need for a constitutional amendment banning homosexual couples from playing The Sims. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Rumsfeld caught lying on Face the Nation
Folks, That he didn't take 30 seconds to have some bright intern type in a quick search, and go around spouting off about how certain he is he never used that phrase, is just.. well, nutty. I sincerely believe that he didn't have a bright intern type do that simple search because he doesn't care and doesn't think he has to. He and his boss really believe that it doesn't matter whether there were WMDs or not (Bush's exact words to Diane Sawyer: what's the difference?). They don't really care whether people think they did the right thing or not, whether some lefty media types think they lied to the American people. Crusaders don't need approval. Dave David M. Land[EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Anatomy of a rape culture
Fool: Don't use absolutes. Ever. Allow me to say that Top-posting is no worse than bottom-only-posting. In my brief sojourn here, I have observed that most people practice and prefer a more sophisticated intralinear style of posting. Perhaps you'd like to attack bottom-posters, too, for failing to observe /that/ convention? Is 'being an anti-social pedant' one of Dr. Brin's memes? Dave The Fool wrote: From: Travis Edmunds [EMAIL PROTECTED] How about freedom? -Travis as a cause I mean Edmunds Don't top-post. Ever. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Doing Business With The Enemy
Folks, Gautam: Teddy was probably drunk off his ass, or too busy drowning innocent young women to think about what he was saying - something like that. Reggie: Personal attacks make for good arguements since when? Maybe you've been working such long hours that you've forgotten that one of the principles of this list is to attack the argument, not the person who made it. Tell us why Ted Kennedy's arguements are wrong without resorting to bringing up an incident that happened ... how many decades ago? Ronn!: Mary Jo Kopeckne is still dead after all those decades. Dave: Which doesn't make Gautam's ad hominem attach justifiable or Reggie's rejoinder any less on point. I thought that Reggie was pointing out that the Senator probably wasn't busy drowning innocent young women, as that event had taken place decades before the Iraq comment. On the other hand, if Senator Kennedy *had* come up with his statement on the Texas oil-interest origins of the Iraq war when he was, as Gautam so delicately put it, busy drowning innocent women, then he has some prodigious prophetic powers. Sincerely, Dave Dave Land[EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Janet Jackson: 1, George Bush: 0
President falls asleep, misses the whole thing: http://tinyurl.com/2szso Dave Land[EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: LotR and Conservatives
Folks, With respect to the ongoing debate about Left vs. Right, the the current administration's willingness to trade freedom for security, consider the following quote, and try to guess who said it. The URL of a web page with the answer is at the end of this email. You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or a right. There is only an up or down: up to man's age-old dream -- the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. A Libertarian friend urged me to be skeptical of the false dichotomy of Left vs. Right. Some of you may be familiar with the Nolan Chart, or diamond quiz created by Libertarian party founder David Nolan. It measures political beliefs on two axes: personal liberty and economic liberty. It neatly preserves the prevailing Left-center-Right axis, from the left (people who place high value on personal liberty, less on economic liberty) to the right (high value on economic liberty, less on personal liberty). The new vertical axis runs from Libertarian at the top (value both personal and economic liberty) to Authoritarian at the bottom (at least the trains run on time). The origin of the quote at the top of this email is at http://www.friesian.com/quiz.htm. I know almost nothing about the publishers of the page that contains the quote above. If you see something there that you like, feel free to let them know. If something there pisses you off, feel free to take it up with them. Dave Dave Land[EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: did I break it?
Folks, The choice of email vs. voicemail seems to me to be a cultural thing on several levels. I've worked at big high-tech companies that were almost pure email cultures -- pretty much the first thing any new group did was to set up the email alias for the group. Then again, it may be that a company prefers voicemail as a general rule, but a particular organization (divisiton, department, task force, what have you) prefers email. Or vice versa. And of course, there's the business of personal preference. I've called people whose outgoing voicemail announcements said, in effect, Go ahead and leave me a message if you don't care to hear from me. Otherwise, send me an email. Some are friendly and funny, some are genuinely snarly about it. Finally, there is the great advice offered earlier: if your boss wants you to use voicemail, use voicemail. But send an email that says that you just left a voicemail, but wanted to make sure that the message got through, so you're following up via email. I often did this to good effect, though usually the other way 'round: sent an email with all the details, and a quick voicemail follow-up. Be sure to CC: your boss so that he sees that you're following his instructions. Dave Dave Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] 408-551-0427 Connect to the Conversation -- Identify Influencers, Topics and Trends ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
