AP: White Chrristmas from Coast to Coast. [Scripting News]
It's going to snow like a beast here tomorrow - they're talking 10 to 20 inches in my general area. At least the roads will be empty - my drive from my mom's is about three times as far as my commute to work is, so I'll be in for significantly more driving than I would in a normal snowstorm. Ah well.
From an AP article at CNN titled Teens, sex, and the 'Santa Claus effect':
School's out for the holidays. Teens have got time on their hands -- and perhaps even a crackling fire to set the mood. What are they planning for vacation?
Apparently, losing their virginity is high on the list for those with significant others, according to researchers who reviewed data from a federal health survey.
...
"With peer influence still being a big factor in sexual initiation, if one's chums are getting it on during the holidays, it is likely that a teen will want to, too," says [Yvonne] Fulbright, a doctoral student in health studies with a master's degree in human sexuality.
Ok, how much of an expert on human sexuality can you be if you say the word "chums"?
Microsoft ordered to carry Java. A U.S. district court judge orders the software giant to include Sun's version of Java with the Windows operating system. [CNET News.com]
heehee! It's not that I'm a huge Java (or Sun) fan, but I love anything that pokes MS in the side. That, and it makes it a lot easier for us to move off Visual C++ crap here at work...which, if I'm lucky, could lead to me not having to support quite so many Windows build machines. As I said - yay!
White Man In Hammersmith Palais
(Strummer/Jones)
Midnight to six man
For the first time from Jamaica
Dillinger and Leroy Smart
Delroy Wilson, your cool operator
Ken Boothe for UK pop reggae
With backing bands sound systems
And if they've got anything to say
There's many black ears here to listen
But it was Four Tops all night with encores from stage right
Charging from the bass knives to the treble
But onstage they ain't got no roots rock rebel
Onstage they ain't got no...roots rock rebel
Dress back jump back this is a bluebeat attack
'Cos it won't get you anywhere
Fooling with your guns
The British Army is waiting out there
An' it weighs fifteen hundred tons
White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution
Punk rockers in the UK
They won't notice anyway
They're all too busy fighting
For a good place under the lighting
The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits, ha you think it's funny
Turning rebellion into money
All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway
I'm the all night drug-prowling wolf
Who looks so sick in the sun
I'm the white man in the Palais
Just lookin' for fun
I'm only
Looking for fun
Rest in peace, Joe. I've had London Calling playing just about constantly since I heard. It's still one of the most amazing pieces of music I've ever heard. I'm way too young to have been there for the Clash - hell, I don't think I was even alive when The Clash was released. But more than any other punk band, maybe more than any other artist from the late '70s of any style, the Clash are still vital, and will be as long as there are angry young men who can still think through their rage. Not to mention their pivotal role in introducing ska and reggae to lily-white audiences in the UK and America, and their influence on hip-hop - before you laugh, listen to "The Magnificent Seven" again and tell me that's not a progenitor of modern rap. Hell, a number of Clash songs have been lifted for rap songs.
If I remember correctly, the Clash are now eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While there's the inherent bizarreness of there even BEING a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Clash MUST be inducted, ASAP. No such place can have legitimacy without counting the Clash amongst its members.
Film Goers Return to Middle Earth. Moviegoers were in the mood to go back to Middle Earth this weekend, earning "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" $101.5 million in its first five days. By Rick Lyman. [New York Times: Business]
That is a LOT of money. Not Spider-Man money, but a lot of money. Wow.
Well, it seems ol' Trent Lott isn't culpable for his statements after all. Y'see, he was set up - trapped by his political enemies. Sure, Trent. The liberals made you say racist things. Rrrright...
RC Car Craze: The Spam Connection [Slashdot]
It was maybe two months ago when the RC car spam started showing up...it now makes up maybe 20% of my non-filtered spam - maybe a bit less, 'cos I think I just filtered away a major source of it. But still - a hefty chunk of traffic.
Firefly Review - "Serenity" (14) [Bureau 42]
Having just watched this, the two-hour pilot, I'm even more pissed that Firefly got cancelled. It's a good, good show that's nowhere near where it'll end up being. There's a slow burn going, with mysteries and plots that they seem to have written out for the whole length of th series. Of course, part of how Fox screwed it up was by showing it out of order - there's bits in the pilot that recur throughout the rest of the season , which we just now got to see...since Fox didn't think the pilot was marketable enough. Well, hopefully it'll get picked up by someone - I wouldn't be shocked if UPN brings it back next season. Here's hoping...
Celtics put a stop to it. Boston Globe Dec 22 2002 4:24AM ET [Moreover - Boston news]
I swear, Paul Pierce is going to DIE before the end of his career. It's not yet reached the violence of Allen Iverson cutting to the basket in traffic - that looks like a vicious mugging, every time. Pierce goes flying to the basket and gets HAMMERED. In a game a couple weeks ago against Phoenix (in Boston, I might add), he was taken down by Amare Stoudamire, a 20 year old rookie power forward. And he was taken down HARD - he bounced, face first, off the parquet, chipping his two front teeth and tweaking his knee. No foul was called, which is why I really worry about Pierce - he doesn't get superstar foul calls in the least.
Last night, he was elbowed pretty hard, in the eye, by Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavs center - scratched cornea. Ilgauskas was called for the foul, but Pierce shoved him out of his way to the bench. Ilgausaks, of course, went after Pierce, and the two were kept apart by a maybe 5'6" female referee and Tony Battie, the Celtics center - the ref was actually knocked down at one point. Both Pierce and Ilgauskas were thrown out for fighting, though I don't expect either to be suspended.
But it's worrisome - Pierce is going to snap one day and just go ballistic. It could well be Christmas evening, when the Celtics go to New Jersey...I could easily see Kenyon Martin clotheslining Pierce and things getting way, way out of hand. The C's also don't have an enforcer-type, a Charles Oakley type. I think the Celtics should pull Robert Parrish out of retirement and keep him on the bench as a coach - send him onto the court when things get ugly and have him punch the crap out of anyone who messes with Pierce. This is the man who punched out Bill Laimbeer, after all...ah, good times...
Ashcroft's pro-Confederate, white-supremacist connections questioned [The Smirking Chimp]
Here's the thing: while Ashcroft has a slimy record on race, he's never said anything as stupid as Lott. To get the reaction needed to drive racist bastards like these two (or Strom, or any number of others) out of public office, you need them to have said something REALLY dumb. Trent Lott didn't step down as Majority Leader because of his support of Bob Jones Univeristy's racial discrimination, his connections to the Council of Concerned Citizens, or his Jefferosn Davis-praising interview with Southern Partisan magazine. He was forced out because he (twice!) said that the country would have been better off if Strom Thurmond had been elected in 1948. There's a bit of a difference.
This is not to say we shouldn't press the point. While this seems like a kind of circular way to get Ashcroft, who, in my opinion, represents the greatest threat to American freedoms since J. Edgar Hoover, out of power, ANYTHING that diminishes his credibility, that moves him towards the door, is an inherently good thing. Let's not get distracted by Southern conservatives genuflecting towards the Confederate flag - it's more a symptom of the general repulsiveness of their politics than a disease on its own.
Of course, I'm white and from Massachusetts - it's a little less significant in my day-to-day life than for others. I just want to throw these monsters out. Now.
You know what I like? What I really, really like? Pepperidge Farm's French Toast Swirl Thick Sliced Maple Syrup & Cinnamon Bread. Oh. My. God. So tasty...I snack on it all the time. The most delicious thing ever. Unless...
Y'see, I've never made it into actual french toast. If I were to do so, would it taste TOO good? That's what I fear - reaching some kind of taste nirvana and being absorbed back into the universe. Or something like that.
Yeah, I just wrote about bread. I'll do it again, too. Bread is great and wonderful, be it in tasty candyesque form like Pepperidge Farm's French Toast Swirl Thick Sliced Maple Syrup & Cinnamon Bread, or a more traditional French or Italian bread with olive oil...mmm...
I'm in a good, good mood. I'm reading a bunch, I've got some great presents for my friends and family, I've recently gotten a raise and promotion at work, and I've got a relationship going with a great, great girl. There's only one problem: I haven't been blogging near enough. Mea culpa, mea culpa...I'll work on it. Hopefully you all will forgive me - when it comes to choosing between spending time with A____ or writing, well, she wins. =)
F-22 Raptor. The F-22 Raptor is the next generation fighter for the United States. At nearly 97 million each, it will be deployed in 2004.This site gives a remarkably detailed report regarding its design and function. Including such gems as "first-look, first-shot, first-kill capability" and " Humans are good differentiators, but they are poor integrators." [MetaFilter]
I'm sorry, that's $97 million per plane? For fighters? Jesus. Here's the thing: if there's competition enough to merit spending $97 million per plane on a new design, rather than significantly less per plane on F-16s, F-15s, or F-14s, then that competition is probably going to take out a few of your spankin' new $97 million planes. Which seems to me to be a waste of a hundred million freakin' dollars. Fuck. And people are going hungry right now.
Iraq accused of UN violation. The US ambassador to the UN says the "omissions" in Iraq's weapons declaration constitute a material breach of a UN resolution. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition]
For some reason, I've got "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" stuck in my head after reading this.
I've done it. I think I've come up with the perfect Xmas present for A____. I'm not telling, 'cos she could be reading - can't be too safe with a good secret. And I think this is a GOOD one. =)
Did we forget to AD the movie?. Ad this.
After seeing a movie premiere last night my idea of advertising is tainted. The movie was listed to start at 12:01 am. Unfortunately there were some ads to kick off the feature. The first ad was met with an ovation of boo's...followed by the next 8. Then came the trailers...another 6. Ironically, an actor from the movie was present and introduced himself much to everyones enjoyment. However, he preceded to plug his next movie (aaaahhhh). Finally came the movie came...just under a half hour later.
Point -> The whole process seemed to take the wind out of the start of the film. [MetaFilter]
It wasn't quite as bad at the showing I was at - there were only two ads, less than normal, and maybe 8 trailers, for a grand total of maybe 15-18 minutes of delay. However, the trailers were not interesting. The only ones to stick in my mind were When Harry Met Lloyd: Dumb and Dumberer (witty teaser consisting solely of text and some giggling), The Core (with the not so exciting final frame saying "Coming This Fall! (copyright 2002)". Whoops.), and Bulletproof Monk, which got some laughs at the name and me smirking at the idea of a kung fu movie starring Chow Yun Fat and...Seann William Scott. Yeah, the guy from Dude, Where's My Car?. In a serious movie. Called Bulletproof Monk. There's no way this can fail, right?
A Director and His Hero Find Answers in the Details. Denzel Washington's directorial debut is so profoundly in touch with its own feelings that it transcends its formulaic tics. By Stephen Holden. [New York Times: Movies]
With the next week and a half seeing the release of Antwone Fisher, The Hours, Gangs of New York, 25th Hour, Narc, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Pianist, Max (some only in NY/LA right away, but eventually heading to wider release), and the already released About Schmidt and Adaptation, it's a good, good time to be a movie fan. I'm quite seriously planning to go to a movie a day from the 26th through the 31st - I've got some time off from work and I'm going to use it. =)
Oh, c'mon. Law and Order just busted out a line that even I thought went too far - as a cop walks by with a trash bag filled with dead attack dogs, Brisco says "Brings a whole new meaning to 'doggie bags'." Oy.
Alright, I'm off to take a nap. A_____ (I went with Charly's suggestion) will be coming over later this evening, and I need to catch up on my sleep a little bit.
So Saddam missed his last chance to disarm, did he? Coming just after the US' favorite Iraqi exile groups came to an "agreement" on the future of Iraq, and with January just around the corner, it sure seems like they've got the war scheduled. Britain started mobilizing yesterday, too. But you know what my favorite part is? It's not even mentioned in the CNN story on the Iraqi exiles, but Chalabi, the erstwhile leader of this particular conclave, said yesterday that he won't honor any oil contracts made by Saddam's government. While there almost certainly will be quite a bit of compromise (considering the majority of the potentially screwed corporations are Russian, French, and Chinese), this feels like a blatant case of forcing the door open for American oil companies - who aren't allowed to even talk to Saddam. I heard some American commentator on the BBC as I was driving to the movie last night...I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was something along the lines of "Commercial oil interests don't control American foreign policy." Which is, when you get down to it, a truly comical statement. Of COURSE, they control American foreign policy. What do you think Bush and Cheney are, if not commercial oil interests?
The Two Towers. At the time of posting, Rotten Tomatoes has 1 'rotten' review and 76 'fresh' reviews for Peter Jackson's The Two Towers. I thought it was a superb film, but I hardly thought it would unite the critics like this. This has got to be one of the most universally praised films of all time! [MetaFilter]
It's not a perfect movie - there's some flailing-for-interest segments with Frodo and Faromir, and I'm sure I could find some other nits to pick if I wanted...but on the whole, it's a good movie. There's the amazing battle sequence, the whole look and feel, etc...it's also much faster paced than Fellowship. Definitely worth seeing - I'll be seeing it again this weekend...I can never quite remember what I saw at midnight showings. =)
For a guy who barely slept last night, I'm having a remarkably productive day. I've written a big chunk of a couple documents, fixed a few user problems, ran a couple builds...I shouldn't even be conscious now, let alone useful. I have a feeling I'm going to crash hard in, oh, an hour and a half... =)
...yeah, it was good. Only problem is that it was too fast paced for me to go right to sleep. So I'm going to whack my head into the wall 'til I pass out... =)
Guilty confession: part of why I've actually been blogging tonight (rather than reading, video gaming, etc) is that I thought this would keep me awake for the half hour or so I needed to push over the hump...I get exhausted every night at sometime between 9 and 12. It's transient - tonight it hit at about 10:15. I started yawning. Big yawns. I knew I was going to pass out...and it's not like I even have a good sit-in-this-chair-to-stay-awake chair, just the bed and the ridiculously cozy reclining sofa and loveseat. I tried a couple things to wake me up, and they didn't take. So I fell to my last resort, dear reader - you. I hope I haven't made you feel cheap, and I PROMISE to call in the morning. Cross my heart.
Oh, and I'll be back around 3:30 with a three sentence review of the Two Towers. I'm pretty much expecting it to be along the lines of "Rohan are cool. Helms Deep is very cool. I am very very tired and must die now." We'll see.
Woohoo! Larry didn't get the team in Charlotte! Come back to Boston, Larry! Run the team you were MEANT to run!
I've finished most of my Xmas shopping - did about 60% of it in one fell swoop Sunday night. Thank GOD for Amazon. But I'm left with one dilemma: what do I get the girl I'm dating?
Here's the thing: I've been dating her for a month and a half or so...and yes, avid readers, this is the same girl I first mentioned back at the beginning of November. Well, it seems to be working. Quite well, actually. We see each other once or twice a week - we're both reasonably busy, and she's living with her grandmother (which leads to all kinds of comedy, but we don't need to get into that now, do we?), email every day...I mean, it's definitely working. And it's exactly what I want it to be, exactly as serious as I want right now, especially considering I wasn't actually sure I wanted to be dating in the first place. Yeah. Now I'm sure.
I know what she likes, I bet I could figure out a pretty decent present with relative ease. That's not my problem. I'm far more concerned about magnitude: what do you get a girl you're awfully fond of, but not officially in a boyfriend/girlfriend kind of relationship? I'm not talking jewelry or anything like that...but flowers? Are those ok? Alright, that's almost certainly stupid - of COURSE, flowers are ok. Right? I just don't know these things. Flowers and a book? Argh, I feel like a moron. Shouldn't I just *know* what's appropriate? Why is it that I have to think about it?
That last sentiment is one I get a lot of, though. I don't seem to have been born with an intuitive ability to know what I'm supposed to do in terms of first moves, ice-breaking, increasing the seriousnes level, etc...I'm fine once we hit a new plateau, but I just have no clue how to get over that hump. I've theorized that I'm a coward - I'm so afraid of making an inappropriate or unwanted move that I just wait patiently for someone else to let me know where we are. How can I stop acting like this and start freakin' acting like a human being with a spine?
...did I mention that she's great? I've been asked not to call her by name here - she's been known to read the blog, and has no problem with being mentioned anonymously. So I need to come up with some kind of code name for her. Which is really kind of silly, and I probably should stop talking now. =)
Jury Finds ElcomSoft Not Guilty.. Wired News: Jury Finds ElcomSoft Not Guilty. [Hack the Planet]
Screw you, DMCA!
All LUG, No Nuts? The Lesbian Fad. Plastic::Etcetera::Queer: "In the guise of open-mindedness and having new experiences, a growing number of heterosexual college women are experiementing sexually with each other. " [Plastic: Most Recent]
Uh, this is news to people? Only to anyone who hasn't recently been at a liberal college...
What Every NBA GM Wants For Christmas. Plastic::Media::Sports: "For those of you who don't know, LeBron James is a senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and virtually guaranteed to be the No. 1 pick in this year's NBA draft." [Plastic: Most Recent]
...and if you honestly expect him to end up anywhere but New York, you're dreaming.
Senator Blanche K. Bruce. Senator Blanche K. Bruce was the first black person to serve a full term in the United States Senate (representing Mississippi from 1875 to 1881), and the first person born into slavery to preside over the Senate. The Senate Commission on Art recently unveiled a newly-acquired portrait of this determined leader. [MetaFilter]
...and, might I add, an Oberlin College alum. We're everywhere.
Forgive me, forgive me, for I have been slacking off. I haven't even been busy, per se, the last couple days - I mean, I've been too busy at work to write anything when I'm there, but that shouldn't stop me from writing when I'm at home, right? No, I just haven't been in the mood. I'm hoping it's just a passing thing - I'm going to try to kickstart my blogging again with a romp through the wonderful land of the news aggregator, but I've only got maybe forty minutes...I'm giving in to my geek-side and going to a 12:05 showing of The Two Towers tonight. Which my mom mistakenly referred to as The Twin Towers, caught herself, and felt truly horrible. It was funny, in a bad way. =)
Oh yeah, there is that one little piece of news from today. No Gore in '04. Ah well...maybe Kerry can grow a spine now, since there's no real competition for him on the horizon. Seriously - who's going to get the nomination? Edwards? Not likely. Leiberman? That won't fly...he's too conservative and not actually appealing in any way I can see. Daschle? Ha. Ha. Ha. No, right now, it's Kerry on his own. I'm not sure how I feel about him...he's close to being what I want from a candidate, and he's local, but he's got no spine. At all.
Though one way of looking at this is that the field is wide open for a man who'd get massive support in the general election, and could most likely clean up in the primaries as well. Problem is he's not in the party quite yet...well, and he's not going to run. But really, McCain could clean up in this situation.
Damn - who the hell is going to run? I know, everyone's going to say "There was no one in '91! Clinton won anyway! Blah!" but there's no CLINTON on the radar. Not by a long shot. Is there anyone I'm not thinking of? (and don't say Sharpton.)
...I just decided to take a look at the news aggregator and came to a realization: it ain't very practical to go through four days of news. Eh. I'm just gonna watch Royal Tenenbaums and go to sleep. Work tomorrow and all.
God, I've become boring. Ok. Maybe become isn't actually the right word. =)
It's astonishing - I've had absolutely nothing to say. For days.
How To Post Absolutely Anonymously?. The year is 2007. The "war on terrorism" has gone on for years and there is no end in sight. FBI investigations of "suspicious persons" at American companies and the media frenzy about Middle Eastern terrorists has gotten to the point that many Muslim Americans have lost their jobs because they are considered "security liabilities." Word leaks out that the all-seeing eye of the Information Awareness Office, headed by Bush's crony John Poindexter (the Reaganite of Iran-Contra fame), is using its powers to spy on "leftist radicals," which in actuality is just about anyone criticizing Bush, Israel, American foreign policy in the Middle East, reading Chomsky, or sympathizing with the plight of Muslims. It is the new McCarthyism, and you do not want to be its next victim. What do you do? [kuro5hin.org]
At this point, I have no interest at all in posting anonymously. If I get in trouble for speaking out, so be it. I don't think we've fallen to that point - yet. Admittedly, I have certain advantages - I'm not exactly going to be racial-profiled any time soon, I can afford legal representation if needed, etc... but it's because of those advantages that I consider it important that I speak out publicly and identifiably. If Cisco decides they don't want me working here because of my political views or because I've criticized the corporation for selling censorware to the Chinese government, well, I'm pretty sure that's wrongful dismissal. I'm not afraid, and refuse to be afraid.
That said, if things get worse - which they could - I'm prepared. It's not a bad idea to get your hands on a copy of PGP or GPG now, to give yourself encryption capabilities before a serious attempt is made to restrict them or ban them completely.
Off to see the Izzard. Cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard on big breaks, serious roles and talking crap. [Salon Headlines]
I love love love Eddie Izzard...maybe the funniest stand-up working today. You haven't lived 'til you've heard the Action Transvestite bit.
Rumsfeld Said to Back Brigade of Light Armor. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld will recommend $1.5 billion in next year's budget to field the Army's fourth brigade of light armored Stryker vehicles. By Thom Shanker. [New York Times: National]
Oh god. This is the most terrifying piece of Army news I've seen in a long, long time.
It looks like even the Army has fallen into the trap of Cool Misspellings. Or trademarkable misspellings. Either way, I'm frightened. It starts with the "Stryker" vehicle. Next it'll be "l0010ant". We're doomed, I tell you.
Twenty-two years ago, Trent Lott, then a House member from Mississippi, told a home state political gathering that if the country had elected segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond to the presidency "30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." The phrasing is very similar to incoming Senate Majority Leader Lott's controversial remarks at a 100th birthday party for Thurmond last week.
[Blog Left: Critical Interventions]
Don't forget that Lott also filed an amicus brief in support of Bob Jones University's "right" to practice racial discrimination in 1983...
McCain, Chafee, Hagel - I'm looking at you. Step up and kick this man out of power. He simply should not be in the position he's in. The three senators I listed are Republican senators that I admire. I may not agree with them on everything, but everything I've seen suggests that all three of them are men of principle. If that's the case, it's time to show it: throw out Lott now.
Preemptive Strikes Part Of U.S. Strategic Doctrine (washingtonpost.com). Following Richard's posting below on US threatened nuclear strike as retaliation for nuclear strike, here's another scarcy report leaked from Bush administration that they are prepared to launch preemptive strikes against countries that even possess so-called weapons of mass destruction and that they have a secret list of countries that they are ready to hit "with overwhelming force." This administration is overwhelmingly aggressive and scary!
Preemptive Strikes Part Of U.S. Strategic Doctrine (washingtonpost.com) [Blog Left: Critical Interventions]
Why are we surprised? I mean, c'mon - shouldn't we expect Nixon/Reagan administration-style behavior from an administration controlled by two guys from those groups (Rumsfeld and Cheney)? Of COURSE we're going to threaten to nuke everybody. It worked with the USSR, didn't it?
Among the celebrities to sign that anti-war petition:
Well, great. It sounds like terrorists almost got their hands on Scuds. They've found at least a dozen Scuds on a ship headed towards the Horn of Africa from North Korea...and, well, it's not like Ethiopia, Eritrea, or Djibouti is going to be buying mid-range ballistic missiles any time soon. Somalia is, of course, a total anarchy, with al Qaeda allies controlling a good swath of it. Just something to make your night a little more cozy...
I just spent 45 minutes wandering around my neighborhood, trying to find cheese. Seriously. I need cheddar for the casserole I'm making for dinner tonight, and completely forgot to get some while I was at the grocery store. Of course, I remember this just as traffic is as about as bad as it ever gets here, so it'd take twenty minutes to drive to the grocery store, twenty minutes to just buy one item at the grocery store, and then twenty minutes to drive BACK from the grocery store. I think to myself - c'mon, I live in an urban area. There's "convenience" stores all over the place. Surely one of them has CHEESE.
Well, yes, one does. But it's the 8th store I tried. Seriously. All these identical convenience stores had the exact same stuff in them...until I made to a Store 24 about half a mile away. I didn't actually know there WAS a Store 24 up there - turns out there's a whole lot of stuff just up the road that I never noticed. But anyway, I got my cheese, but felt kind of silly walking home. I mean, c'mon. 45 minutes to find cheese? What's wrong with me?
Makin' Bones About Bones. Atapuerca (in Spanish, with incomplete English translation) is the site of the earliest European hominid ancestors yet found in Europe. Two of the most stunning finds are Gran Dolina, where the first Homo antecessor fossils were found, and Sima de los Huesos, site of the most complete Homo heidelbergensis fossils ever excavated. And soon: an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in New York. I know my plans for January 11th. [MetaFilter]
Ooooh...
Cracks open in Iran judiciary. A senior member of the conservative judiciary offers his resignation in protest at the death sentence imposed on a reformist academic. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]
More specifically, the spokesman for the judiciary, Hussain Mir-Mohammad Sadeghi, has offered his resignation. That's right - the public face of one of the most conservative institutions in Islamist Iran has said that the death sentence on Hashem Aghajari "had catastrophic consequences for the judiciary and the country as a whole." Damn.
Ok, this actually makes a bit of sense. Yes, Bush the Elder is still alive, but he was a naval aviator, so naming an aircraft carrier after him isn't completely unrelated, a la the USS Ronald Reagan...
An Ancient Link to Africa Lives on in Bay of Bengal. Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago east of India, are direct descendants of the first modern humans to have inhabited Asia. By Nicholas Wade. [New York Times: Science]
Further detail on the story I mentioned below, explaining, among other things, how there seem to be two original waves of emigration from Africa to Asia, and the genetic evidence to back that up...
When doves cry. Washington dispatch: Want to find out about the anti-war movement in America? Forget network news and tune in to Jerry Springer, says Duncan Campbell. [Guardian Unlimited]
It took Jerry Springer, of all people, to say the unsayable - that most ordinary Americans are very keen on tackling Osama bin Laden and al Qaida, but have no great interest in extending the war to Iraq. All a war would achieve, he said, would be to create a whole new generation of people who hated Americans and it was thus patriotic to oppose the war.
Yeah, that's right. Jerry Springer.
Two Southern Senators [Washington Post: Editorial]
It's a little late, but the mainstream media is finally picking up on the Lott-as-unrepentant-racist story. NPR covered it yesterday, CNN's acknowledged it, it's popping up in editorials...good. I need to find Gore's comments - they were great, coming as close to calling Lott a racist as you can without actually crossing that line...
Genes Reveal Andamanese Origins. A new study unravels some of the mystery of the beginnings of the remote indigenous people of the Andaman Islands. Also: Scientists search for autism's causes.... Europe stands tough on genetically modified organisms.... All in this week's XY Files by Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News]
Cool story on the Andamanese, one of the most isolated peopels on the planet. Give it a look.
Suitor Interest in Bayer Drug Unit Fades. But after a flurry of interest from potential suitors, the outlook for Bayer has dimmed. By Suzanne Kapner. [New York Times: International]
Oh no! My outloook has dimmed!
Oh, they meant the drug company?
...
I'm sorry, I can't resist making Bayer aspirin puns. It comes with the name.
Enter ... the Rawhide Kid!. Enter ... the Rawhide Kid! Marvel is about to unveil the first openly gay gunslinger. Name's the Rawhide Kid. Its creators say it will likely be campy. With a name like that, how could it be anything but? [MetaFilter]
Joe Quesada and Bill Jemas, the editorial powers-that-be at Marvel, have really had a thing for controversy! controversy! controversy! and having a gay cowboy character from the '50s is just another logical step. Oy.
Nifty - all I had to do to get the new laptop online was plug it in. No bother registering the new MAC address or anything. Now I just need to figure out why the display is a little too bright...
One more time to clear up a couple other annoyances - and I figured out what my problem was re: slow right-click menus. McAfee - for some reason, it hosed the system when I tried to right-click in IE. Kill McAfee, and I'm fine. It's a crap virus scanner anyway. =)
...well, that didn't actually work worth a damn. Radio somehow reverted to the default template...here's an attempt to get it straightened out...
Just transferred Radio over to the new laptop. Seems to be running ok, if a little cranky - there's a delay whenever I right-click on anything in an IE window, for a good second or two. I'm sure this'll go away, probably with the next reboot, but it's still a little annoying. This is my last test - if this upstreams properly, I'm going home and trying tonight without the old laptop. Wish me luck - you might not hear from me again 'til sometime tomorrow. =)
Police infiltrate swingers' club; Pelham orders shutdown. WBZ Dec 9 2002 6:10AM ET [Moreover - Boston news]
Local TV GOLD! There's nothing to make local TV newspeople happy quite like a story that lets them say "Police shut down a house where people pay a cover charge to have sex with strangers!" Which is exactly the bit I heard in a commercial during the Simpsons last night. Ah, what a wonderful world we live in...
Bush's next target. North Korea: The west is running out of patience with North Korea's leadership, writes Simon Tisdall. [Guardian Unlimited]
Tisdall makes an interesting point: one reason that Bush can be expected to go after North Korea eventually is that he made this about him and Kim Jong-Il, declaring his hate for Kim. We all remember his repeated, almost manic naming of bin Laden as an "evildoer", casting the erstwhile "War on Terror" as a very personal conflict (one which Bush has pretty decisively lost, so far). And who can forget his argument that one of his casus bellis against Iraq was that "he [Saddam Hussein] tried to kill my dad."
Is this healthy, turning geopolitics into an individual battle? It doesn't feel appropriate to me, not in the least. There's a certain irony to Henry Kissinger, master of realpolitik, working for a president who doesn't seem to grasp the concept in the least. When Bush was running for President, his foreign policy inexperience was questioned, and his pre-9/11 time in office did little to bolster his reputation in that regard. Since then, nearly everything he's said about foreign policy or other foreign powers has been expressed in a personal sense. The country's enemies become his personal enemies. His personal friends become the country's allies. Is this the only way he can function on the global stage? It may be a healthy and rational way for him to react to the role that history has thrust upon him, but is it good for the country? I tend to doubt it.
Knicks' Stars Are Calling for the Ball. The equal-opportunity nature of Coach Don Chaney's motion offense limits individual production, say Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston of the Knicks. By Chris Broussard. [New York Times: Sports]
"Star" players complaining that they're not getting enough touches - a sure sign that a team is in the shitter. And have no doubt, the Knicks *suck*. Bad. Which pleases me to no end. The world is a better place with the Celtics 7 ½ games ahead of the Knicks, and then there's the 4-1 whipping the Bruins gave to the Knicks' sister team, the New York Rangers.
I was going to mention how the Bruins are 13 points ahead of the Rangers, but it turns out that's not quite as significant as I thought - in the NHL, Boston and New York aren't in the same division. You could *never* do that in basketball, baseball, or even football. In all the discussions surrounding realignment in the NBA (expected to come after the new Charlotte expansion team is awarded, bringing the league to thirty teams), there are only a few cardinal rules. The biggest? Boston, New York, and Philadelphia *have* to be in the same division. But in the NHL, the Rangers and Islanders are in the Atlantic division, along with Philly, New Jersey, and Pittsburgh, while the Bruins are in the Northeast division with Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. Which also makes sense, when I look at it - Montreal v. Boston is another classic rivalry, a greater one than Bruins v. Rangers. I'm sure you all really cared about this little sidetrack, so I'll stop talking now. =)
