August 27, 2002
Bye Bye Betamax
from the you're-kidding-right? dept.
Sony is finally discontinuing production of Betamax VCRs, I thought they did that 20 years ago. Shows what I know.
August 23, 2002
Winona in Plea Negotiations?
from the court-ordered-rehab,-here-we-come dept.
So, supposedly Winona Ryder's lawyers are in meetings with prosecutors, leading to speculation that she may be in the process of working out a plea bargain for her drug-possession-cum-shoplifting thing. I suppose I should have expected that, but I confess to being a little disappointed that there won't be more celebrity hijinks to follow as the trial runs its course. Anyway, here's my bet: 6 months' probation and a mandatory visit to a drug-treatment center, in return for pleading guilty to various misdemeanors. Remember: you read it here first.
al Queda's Fantasy Ideology
from the all-the-world's-a-stage dept.
From Policy Review Online comes one of the more sensible things I've read yet about what the events of 9-11 signified. You should really go read this. Be aware, though, that after crafting a deeply insightful analysis of the true motivations of the 9-11 attackers, the author veers off into his own fantasy ideology, in which righteous physicians eradicate (read, "exterminate") the disease represented by radical Islam. Oh, well. You can't have everything, I guess. Where would you put it?
August 14, 2002
Padilla Dirty-Bomb Plot Charges Unravelling
from the creeping-totalitarianism dept.
So, it now seems that Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen who was arrested on U.S. soil, then held in a Navy brig for the last two months without being charged or allowed to speak with a lawyer, probably didn't have any actual connection to al Queda, or to the "dirty bomb" plot the FBI made a big show of having "thwarted" by his arrest. This is a test case, people. You want concentration camps? Families turned out of their homes at gunpoint in the middle of the night? Suspension of rights for anyone even remotely suspected of being a terrorist? A Muslim? An atheist? A civil libertarian? This is how it starts.
August 13, 2002
Internet Explorer SSL Flaw
from the those-bastards dept.
Seems that for the last 5 years Internet Explorer has had a serious security flaw, seems it doesn't verify any kind of digital certifications. This is a hell of an error to slip though the cracks. Read all about it.
August 11, 2002
The History of Michael Jackson's Face
from the not-really-suitable-for-children dept.
A nice visual wrap-up of the changes in The King of Pop's face over the years, with accompanying commentary. Nothing new, really, but still, like, whoa.
August 10, 2002
Plans for Operation TIPS Updated
from the spies-like-us dept.
The very bad men who are using the terrorist attacks of September 11 to root out the last remnants of what makes this country special have revised their plans for mass amateur domestic spying. Under fire from all over, the Bush administration is now saying Operation TIPS should specifically exclude from the list of people who are encouraged to report on their neighbors those whose jobs require them to frequently visit people's homes (like mailmen and meter readers).
August 09, 2002
Tool-Making Crow Shocks Scientists
from the I-could-while-away-the-hours dept.
From CNN comes the story of a crow that makes tools, specifically, bending a piece of wire into a hook in order to reach a small bucket of food. Okay; fine. Maybe she can make a tool. Let's see her make an H-bomb, and threaten the entire biome with instant annihilation. That's one area of intelligence where good ol' Homo sapiens is still #1, thank you very much.
Quantum Cryptography
from the super-science-from-2525 dept.
The ability to safeguard secret messages using the quirks of quantum physics has been thoroughly demonstrated in the laboratory. Now field tests of quantum cryptography are showing that the technology can withstand the rigors of real-world communications.
August 08, 2002
Britney to Take a Break from Music
from the aw.-and-she-made-such-GOOD-music,-too. dept.
Heeding the old showbiz maxim that you should always leave the audience wanting more, Britney apparently is going to take some time off from her music career. "She has been touring non-stop and she understandably needs to take a break," said a spokesperson for Britney's Jive Records label. "She's looking forward to having more time for other activities: making movies, smoking, having sex, and giving people the finger. But she'll be back."
August 07, 2002
Silly Cartoon About Lenin's Beard
from the slow-news-day dept.
I'm posting this because I can, mostly. It's a cartoon that Janus seems to think is funny, because he keeps mentioning it in the mud, about how this guy trims his beard to look like Lenin's and suddenly he has supernatural revolutionary powers, or something. Mostly I'm just checking to see if my latest attempt to fix Slash (since I broke it upgrading my redhat distribution recently) has taken. Enjoy!
August 06, 2002
Condom Applied to Ancient British Carving
from the penises-of-the-gods dept.
The story itself isn't much; just some hokum about the British Family Planning Association putting a condom on a giant 3000-year-old rock carving of a club-wielding man with an erection, but it brings home to me how little I know about this big, wacky world we live on. Why did I never read about this sculpture in school? What other amazing things are the powers that be keeping me in the dark about?
August 04, 2002
More Detail on the Anna Nicole Show
from the putting-the-'ew'-back-into-ew.com dept.
From the celebrity-obsessed folks at Entertainment Weekly comes an article that goes into some more depth, and dishes some new dirt, about the upcoming Anna Nicole Show.
August 01, 2002
Kali
from the human-scarifice dept.
Amazingly enough, human scarifice to the goddess Kali still takes place in India. Kali worship and scarfice seem to be on the rise as a means of keeping up with the jones'.
