==pla|\|ing lakes==
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Former Powell aide allows Cheney may be war criminal
10:52 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Monday, November 28, 2005
For a change
The NYT 100 Notable Books of the Year
Who knows, you might find something you like.
6:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Asia Times has several articles on shrubco's tipping pointSomething indeed did seem to tip, for when the White House and associates took Murtha on, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats leaped aggressively to his defense. In fact, something quite unimaginable even a few days earlier occurred. When Republican Representative Jean Schmidt of Ohio, the most junior member of the House, accused Murtha (via an unnamed Marine colonel supposedly from her district) of being a coward, Democratic Representative Harold Ford from Tennessee "charged across the chamber's center aisle to the Republican side screaming that Schmidt's attack had been unwarranted. "You guys are pathetic!" yelled Representative Martin Meehan, Democrat of Massachusetts. "Pathetic."
There could, however, be no greater sign of a politically changed landscape than the decision of former president Bill Clinton (who practically had himself adopted into the Bush family over the last year) to tell a group of Arab students in Dubai only two-and-a-half years late that the Iraqi invasion was a "big mistake". Since he is undoubtedly a stalking horse for his wife, that great, cautious ship-of-nonstate, the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, should soon turn its prow ever so slowly to catch the oppositional winds.
1:30 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Zeitgeist is releasing a boxset of the first 4 Atom Egoyan films plus 2 shorts at the end of January
1:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Just found out boondocks is an animated series on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, late Sunday nights
Aaron Magruder interview at Onion A.V. Club"I just tell jokes, and I think a lot of people take it too seriously. It's not that I don't have things that I'm angry about in the world, and I think most decent human beings are upset about things, and even upset about things in their own country, but I'm not a particularly unhappy fellow. I think I'm happy with the show, and I think it's funny and I'm optimistic about it. What's on my mind, what's kind of bugging me, is clearly visible in the strip and in the show, but I still manage to joke about it. [Laughs.] I really get a little bit confused by all this "angry angry angry" talk when all I do is tell jokes and at least some people find it funny."
1:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
makes me giggle file
If there's one national leader in the Western Hemisphere shrubco would like to X out, it would be Hugo Chavez of Venezuela -- so I find it absolutely hilarious that he's signed a deal with Massachesetts to supply way cheap oil to low-income homes
Check out the linx at the above page if you don't know about Chavez and why Bush & co hate him.
9:57 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Monday, November 21, 2005
new netlabel
Josh Russell's Bremsstrahlung Recordings has a new online imprint called trans>parent radiation, featuring limited-time releases including a remix comp of akira rabelais' SpelleWauverynSherde (Christian Fennesz, Kit Clayton, Taylor Deupree + others), with upcoming albums by Heribert Friedl and others
I haven't heard Josh's work yet, but I'm going to d'l this piece from an old stasisfield release tonight.
He also has a new limited edition cd-r at CON-V.
Interestingly, because he has a somewhat common name, I stumbled on what looks a tasty novel on early 19th century New Orleans (as well as the nature of history, photography and art) called Yellow Jack by a different Josh Russell. The back cover blurb calls his writing "an intoxicating hybrid of Caleb Carr, Flannery O'Connor and Vladimir Nabokov".
9:56 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
A "comprehensive collection of images and detailed descriptions of Chartres Cathedral" from the U of Pittsburgh -- over 3000 and counting [via Orbis Quintus, which I found mentioned at Giornale Nuovo]
7:49 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
"Largest searchable electronic archive of information relating to JFK's assassination" is free to search til Jan 1
7:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
The Texas AG and the EFF sue Sony/BMG for spyware violations
7:25 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
The Bishop was just creepy; this guy looks like a gangster
Another high-ranking Catholic poobah in AZ is arrested for sex abuse -- he's a cutie too isn't he?
7:23 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Sam Jordison's (The Joy Of Sects - An A-Z of Cults, Cranks and Religious Eccentrics) top 10 books on cults and religious extremists [robot wisdom]
7:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
The fluorescent patches in butterfly wings work just like LEDs -- just more efficiently
9:30 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Canada To Launch Underwater ObservatoryA project led by the University of Victoria is about to make oceanographic history. VENUS, the world's most advanced, cabled seafloor observatory, will be installed next month in the waters of Saanich Inlet north of Victoria, British Columbia.
VENUS (the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea) pioneers a new approach to studying the oceans. Through the Internet, VENUS's underwater network of fibre optic cables and instruments will continuously feed data, sounds and images from the ocean depths to laboratories, classrooms, science centres and homes around the world.
7:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
2 more notable film sites: flickhead & Film Freak Central
4:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The uh downside to The Spell
The comptroller general of the United States on how the nation's finances are going to hell• Prescription-drug coverage under Medicare takes effect Jan. 1. Its projected cost, advertised at $400 billion over 10 years when it passed in 2003, has risen to at least $720 billion. "We couldn't afford" it, Walker says of the new law.From USAToday, no less...
• The leading edge of the baby boom hits age 62 in 2008 and can take early retirement. The number of people covered by Social Security is expected to grow from 47 million today to 69 million in 2020. By 2030, the Congressional Budget Office projects, Social Security spending as a share of the U.S. economy will rise by 40%.
• The bulk of Bush's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax-cut program is set to expire at the end of 2010. But Congress is moving to make the reductions permanent. That would keep tax revenue at roughly 18% of the economy, where it's been for the past half-century — too low to support even current spending levels. "We can't afford to make all the tax cuts permanent," Walker says.
• Baby boomers begin to reach age 65 in 2011 and go on Medicare. Of all the nation's fiscal problems, this is by far the biggest. If it grows 1% faster than the economy — a conservative estimate — Medicare would cost $2.6 trillion in 2050, after adjusting for inflation. That's the size of the entire federal budget today.
"Social Security is Grenada," Holtz-Eakin says. "Medicare is Vietnam."
Inaction could have these consequences, experts say: Higher interest rates. Lower wages. Shrinking pensions. Slower economic growth. A lesser standard of living. Higher taxes in the future for today's younger generation. Less savings. More consumption. Plunging stock and bond prices. Recession.
Balancing this will be Americans' innate resourcefulness (among other things), but things are going to be very different soon, nonetheless.
While I don't agree with him all the time, James Howard Kunstler's site (and book) is worth a look for some ideas on how peak oil could change things.
Also Mike Ruppert's Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil.
10:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Michelle Williams' surprisingly tony cv
She's turned up in several indie films I've seen (Dick, But I'm a Cheerleader, The Station Agent) and I liked her, but had no idea about her accomplished background.
10:47 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Danish chirping pillow helps soldiers sleep
4:15 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Saturday, November 12, 2005
So-called "skeptical" archaeologists intentionally falsified information about manmade roads found underwater off Bimini [Syzygy/JOB Discussion Board]Archaeologist William Donato and a team of researchers have confirmed a complex of ancient harbor works in shallow water off Bimini, 50 miles from Miami. In May 2005, the team investigated a little-known line of underwater stones located a mile from a controversial site known as the “Bimini Road.” The new mile-long line of stones was found and videotaped from the air. Subsequent dives revealed several large stone circles on the bottom, formed from large blocks of limestone arranged into circular patterns. The circles were spaced at regular intervals. Stone anchors, identical to ancient Phoenician, Greek, and Roman anchors, were also found. "These finds took us by surprise," stated Dr. Greg Little, who organized the expedition. "The circles may be similar to ancient Mediterranean harbor 'mooring circles.'"Available in screen version, printable .pdf at first link, or on DVD at amazon.
Near the new site is the Bimini Road, a misnamed J-shaped underwater formation of stone blocks. A careful search there yielded two stone anchors in the 1800-foot long stone formation. "One of these is identical to unusual ancient Greek anchors found at Thera," Little related. Several other artifacts were found, "but the most important finds directly contradict skeptical claims." The team found numerous multiple tiers of blocks including one set of three on top of each other. "The top block has a U-shaped channel cut all the way across its bottom," Little said. "The most definitive evidence was found under the massive blocks. We found rectangular slabs of smooth, cut stone literally stacked under several blocks. These were used as leveling prop stones. This is proof that the so-called Bimini Road was a breakwater forming an ancient harbor."
11:01 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Macedonia -- with aid from the US and computers from China (Imperial "beneficence" anyone?) -- will be the first "wireless country"
8:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Friday, November 11, 2005
They just don't get it file
Sony's CD anti-piracy software hijacked by hackers to hide viruses
Kind of like figuring invading Iraq would stop Islamic terrorism...
6:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Follow-up to last post
I see that you can order the 2 Wayne Ewing films (Breakfast with Hunter & When I Die) on disc directly from his company
Nice to know since netflix carries neither of them, and even though Breakfast With Hunter is in my county library network, as usual I can't access anything Embry-Riddle Aeronautical holds -- unless I go there, and it's around 70 miles away.
Here's a review of BWH.
4:04 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Memory Lane
Looking for info on an old dub album I remembered from the 70s by Dennis Bovell (Blackbeard was the alias he used for the album, which I think was I Wah Dub) I found out there's a PAL-only DVD of Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Dub Band live in Paris available, though recent and not cheap; then searching netflix for any LKJ on DVD, I discovered a mostly forgotten but interesting-sounding Sidney Lumet film from '73 starring Sean Connery and Ian Bannen called The Offense which is not released on disc yet, though it is on VHS; also found this item on the debut of Wayne Ewing's hour-long When I Die -- a doc covering the successful campaign to fulfill Hunter Thompson's last wishes, and the subsequent memorial service -- this Saturday at the Starz Denver International Film Festival
1:50 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
The new edgy yet cozy Weather Channel will feature Lewis Black of stand-up and Daily Show fame starting tonightThe Weather Channel hopes occasional celebrity guests liven what's often a staid presentation. The network has begun experimenting with a weekend morning show that puts the weathercasters on couches instead of behind desks, and is considering a weekday show that Connelly called a cross between "The View" and Martha Stewart's daytime program.ick.
Still I like Black and it might be fun, if I remember to watch.
7:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Finally...
Personalized broadcast TV debutsComcast will offer the programs for 99 cents each shortly after they air on the West Coast. The reality shows, which typically don't do well in repeats, will be available all season. Dramas will be available only until the next new episode airs, but viewers with digital video recorders (DVR) can save copies.I would much rather pay on a per-show basis, have no ads, and (most of all) personalize the channels I get from cable.
[...]
Hours after they initially air, DirecTV will transmit them to the hard drive in homes that have receivers with the new DirecTV Plus DVR, which the company says will hit the shelves this week.
Viewers will be charged 99 cents to watch an episode as often as they wish for 24 hours. It will be wiped off the hard drive once the next episode of the show airs and cannot be saved on other devices.
7:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Links on weather manipulation from Three World Wars
11:19 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Preston Neal Jones' new book Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter looks like a must for fans of film art as well as lovers of the film and/or Mitchum -- but especially Charles Laughton
5:33 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
Friday, November 04, 2005
Why would the US military pick the frequency that garage door openers operate on for their new communications system, no doubt knowing how it would interfere with them?
10:12 PM - [Link] - Comments ()
For some reality adjustment re the Libby indictment and the "looming birdflu pandemic", see the last few xymphora posts
6:51 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
.term has posted their choices of the public remix project based on the Kenneth Kirschner piano sketch which formed the basis for post piano 2
6:48 AM - [Link] - Comments ()
and s-integrator
@me
Rarely has reality needed so much to be imagined.
--Chris Marker