Flutterby™! From 1999-05-01 to 1999-05-28

The Cleverest Band in the World, Columbia University's Marching Band. For instance, from http://www.cumb.org/scripts/yale98.txt

Judas: [pause] Hey, sucks about Peter.

Jesus: What?

Judas: I totally thought you were gonna hook up with him. All that about, "on this rock." That was smooth, man, smooth.

Jesus: Oh yeah.

[ related topics: Religion Humor ]

That aforementioned Lawrence Lee suggestion, Relisoft's MFC considered harmful to programmers paper.

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

One of the absurdities of modern life is that sometime it's easier to bounce a message from Richmond California to Fairfax California to Chattanooga Tennessee and back to Richmond by way of Chicago and San Jose or somesuch rather than try to copy a complex URL across the room. This is one such case: The Microsoft Active Directory Programmer's Guide

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

It's Dork After Dark, the Dommest Dom that ever Dommed, including the Señor Wences School of Fisting. Lots of D/s parody, funny even if you're vanilla.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Humor ]

On the shunga theme, an interesting essay on sex in manga. An essay on shunga, images cropped to leave out the naughty bits, but some background and a reprint book for sale. I ran across "Shunga" today. being a typical westerner, pretty much ignorant of all but the history of the conquering culture, I did a net search. Shunga is a woodcut style of erotic art that came from Japan from the mid 1600s to the mid 1800s, what I think of as typical Japanese art except that the genitals are enlarged and clearly drawn, heterosexual and homosexual content. After looking at a few of these it's clear where the pornographic manga comes from, and it's interesting to see how the restrictions on how sexuality in the latter half of the 20^th century have changed the depictions. Unfortunately few images came up in a web search. The R. M. Degener gallery for Japanese woodblock prints in Germany has a bunch of shunga prints for sale. And Timeless Treasures has a number of prints too, along with Chinese and Indian erotic art. I prefer to help living artists with my higher end art buys, but it seems like at least some coffee table books are in order.

[ related topics: Web development Books Erotic Sexual Culture ]

A page from Black Moon Japanese Culture is one of my links further down, but they've also got some notes on Japanese food that look worth a read.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

The Hindu Tantrik Home Page

[ related topics: Religion Sexual Culture ]

Another page on Tantra and tantric ritual

"If people could get liberated by smearing themselves with dust and ashes, are all the country folk, who live amidst dust and ashes liberated?"

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Sexual Culture ]

SETI would like to use your spare computing cycles to analyze radio telescope data while looking for extraterrestrial intelligence.

I think I've posted this before, but Banned Width has some great Shel Silverstein pages, including the Greatest Smokeoff, which you Bay Area folks should appreciate:

In the laid back California town of sunny San Raphael

Lived a girl named Pearly Sweetcake, you prob'ly knew her well.

She'd been stoned fifteen of her eighteen years and the story was widely told

That she could smoke 'em faster than anyone could roll.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Via Debra, Mark Twain's Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism (ftp://ftp.books.com/eBooks/Fiction/Authors/T/TWAIN/ONANISM.TXT).

[ related topics: Books ]

New at the Society for Human Sexuality, an illustrated article on Ithyphallic Imagery and Sex in Ancient Athens and The Original Whore with the Heart of Gold, or How the Sacred Prostitute Fell from Grace, and How She May Return.

How did the sale of sex go from paying to enter paradise to paying for something vile? If we can make ourselves one with the gods by intake of food and drink - an idea that far predates Christian communion - how much more so through sex, in its full regalia of joy, pleasure and emotional healing. And what exactly is wrong with money changing hands for it? We pay even for sacred food and drink, for ritual wine and bread have to come from somewhere. Why did the archetype of the sacred whore fall from grace?

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Wear A Leatherman is a parody of "Wear Sunscreen" for the BOFH.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Oh, and how could I forget about Jessamyn's naked librarians page? Jessamyn West (no, the other one, not that I'd heard of either before) has some neat pages to get lost in, personal pages taken that extra bit. Her book lists are quite interesting and have a couple of directions I think I should take.

[ related topics: Web development Books ]

Should have looked a little further, the clean interface to those notes on video, audio and such is at the Consumer Electronics Education Project pages. It's not pretty, but there's some great notes on audio, video and manufacturing technology if you're willing to dig a bit.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Music ]

One one of the many Linux mailing lists I inhabit, Chugalug, we've been talking about the ridiculous levels of modern computing technology. This morning on /. there was mention of MOSIX:

MOSIX is a software tool for supporting cluster computing. The core of MOSIX are kernel-level, adaptive load-balancing and memory ushering algorithms that are geared for maximal performance, overhead-free scalability and ease-of-use of a scalable computing cluster. These algorithms are designed to respond to variations in the resource usage among the nodes by migrating processes from one node to another, preemptively and transparently. MOSIX provides some SMP/NUMA functionalities in order to allow a cluster of PCs (workstations and servers) to work cooperatively as if part of a single system.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama ]

Free software to create panoramic images, for GIMP/Linux and assorted Win/Mac editors.

[ related topics: Free Software ]

Another negative population growth organization, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

Next time you're looking for some light SciFi escape reading, consider shareware: Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi is a fun quick read about friendly, but somewhat repulsive, aliens who decide that the right way to go about opening a relationship with earth is through Hollywood. A fun, quick read, if you like it he asks you to send a couple of bucks (he asks for $1, but once you slap a $.33 stamp on that puppy it seems like sending a little more isn't that much of a stretch).

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

I'll remember which web log caused me to pop up this in a spare browser window tomorrow, but Xerox PARC (warning, lots of images for text and requires JavaScript) presents forums on Thursdays from 4-5 that look like they could be interesting. The next Xerox PARC forum is on the future of automated highway.

[ related topics: Web development Weblogs ]

Spy Letters of the American Revolution

Crumpling paper (the author says it better than me):

A while back I spent a great deal of time crumpling paper. Why, you might ask? Well, it turns out that many of the systems that physicists are interested in emit pulses of energy that vary broadly in energy with a power law distribution: a few examples are earthquakes, magnets and noise pulses emitted by materials under stress. Crumpling paper puts a world of interesting physics between your hands.

What's a Szlassi polyhedron? It's a toroidal heptahedron, an example of the smallest number of faces (7) with which one can construct a topological toroid. It also shows that with a map on a toroid you need at least 7 colors. Grab the cardboard and scissors and impress your friends.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Adherents.com:

Adherents.com is a growing collection of over 30,000 adherent statistics and religious geography citations -- references to published membership/adherent statistics and congregation statistics for over 2,500 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, movements, ultimate concerns, etc.

The current featured artist at the Society for Human Sexuality is Glen Johnson, who has some nice environmental nudes in outdoor settings.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

A low level library for reading and writing Quicktime files in Linux. http://heroine.tampa.fl.us/quicktime/

[ related topics: Language Free Software Books ]

Dang it, Lawrence Lee pointed me to yet another piece on MFC bloat, and now I can't find it. I'll dig it out later.

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Susie Bright finishes her acting in porn column series in Salon.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

QOTD:

I'm missing "Rock climbing for Dummies". I see an evolutionary need...

--- Par Leijonhufvud

[ related topics: Quotes ]

It's fun to follow the work of Eric Boutilier-Brown, the last image in the latest entry in Eric's photo diary speaks to me, I'd like to see a print of that at a real size.

[ related topics: Photography Erotic ]

My very own entry in the Internet Movie Database.

Scroll down to the "Computational Matter" message, a quick overview of some chool tech in terms of using lots of really small forces to manipulate objects, specifically paper at 5Gs and actively keeping columns straight to increase their strengthy by 5.6x.

If you're not interested in the meta stuff skip this paragraph. Us webloggers are building up a community of sorts, with our own mythos and all. A recent smug article says that web logs are boring and repetitive, which is probably true, and I try to find original links and, as I'm constantly urged by my readers, enough of my own spin and commentary to make this a little more original. Anyway, Brad has a rant on why he maintains the Bradlands that basically says the same navel-gazing (thanks Brad!) things we all do. Now let's get back to being entertaining.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Weblogs ]

Marylaine passes along Links from the Intersections of Art, Technology, Science & Culture. From Survival Research Labs to Brenda Laurel.

[ related topics: Web development Marylaine Block ]

Well, this blows the premise of one of my all-time favorite short stories (I think it's the second of the Kim Stanley Robinson "It Came from Katmandu" trio), but Todd's been forwarding me messages all day from the current expedition which has found the body of George Mallory on Everest.

[ related topics: Web development ]

If you read the article I pointed to earlier about bloatware, Microsoft's RegClean tool in particular, the discussion continues in RISKS, the latest issue has a very precise breakdown of where the memory goes

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Microsoft ]

Surprise! Some of Fox's "World's Wildest Police Videos" is staged. And I'll bet next they're going to try to tell us that pro wrestling is faked, too.

[ related topics: Web development Technology and Culture ]

A few days ago I linked to an apparently inaccurate article that said that the U.S. federal government was going to require vendors it did business with to have handicapped accessible pages. Apparently that's not the case at all, the rule applies to government agencies. Actual rule on handicapped accessible web pages and an accompanying FAQ on section 508. Once again the mainstream media lets us down.

[ related topics: Web development ]

After mentioning Eric Boutillier-Brown yesterday, he added the latest update to his photo diary. His latest photo diary entry has a few neat images, the studies of the nude figure in the latticework of the bridge are neat, but the image of the woman languidly draped over the rock above the surf on the right just passed midway down has wonderful composition and a remarkable tension which is extremely effective.

[ related topics: Photography Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Interesting article in Salon this morning on a non-traditional mothering arrangement.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Via Robot Wisdom, a short article talking about the free love movement of the late 1800s, with mention of the recent state breakup of the Divilbiss family of Tennessee.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Web development ]

Keith Knight has trouble distinguishing The Phantom Menace from the war in Kosovo.

[ related topics: Humor Web development Star Wars ]

The new issue of Clean Sheets is up.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

Via Hack The Planet comes this page on using DVDs under Linux. This is way cool, it means that the next thing I buy for my stereo rack is going to be a web server that speaks to the house network and runs Linux.

[ related topics: Free Software ]

Morbus passed along a Wired article talking about alternatives to broadband.

[ related topics: Web development ]

In Salon, James Poniewozik complains that we are all page-view whores now. But as usual this is a matter of journalists thinking they've rediscovered something, actually it's slightly more complex than he lets on. It's not just page views, but it's page views by active consumers. Thus the reason that CBS's older demographic shows fail. Advertisers want people who buy and are easier to influence, and so advertiser supported media will always be targeted towards the lower intelligence more easily swayed consumer.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Here's a spoiled highschooler: He doesn't want to show up at school early enough to get a parking space, so his parents bought him a house next to the school for him and his friends to park at. The local zoning commission is not amused.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

The other side of climbing Everest, the daughter Mallory left 75 years ago speaks. The lure of heights must run deep, she also lost a husband in a '47 climbing accident in Tennessee.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Crypto export rules are unconstitutional. Hallelujah!

[ related topics: Business Web development ]

Presenting the iNax: Sit Different.

Oh. My. It's the Quakarena, the dance craze that's sweeping the country.

And comics-wise I'm thinking I need to put Ozy & Millie and Kevin & Kell on the rotation.

Via /., an Amazon interview with Neal Stephenson in which he denies that the Cryptonomicon actually exists. I smell a cover-up. At any rate it's definitely time to make a bookstore run.

[ related topics: Books ]

Phantom Menace reviews. Summary: It's being compared to "Godzilla". I'd include some of the more witty passages, but that might get close to spoiler territory, and I'd guess that there may be a few fans reading this.

VARIETY REVIEW

TIME MAGAZINE REVIEW

NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE REVIEW

[ related topics: Web development Star Wars ]

Tom Mangan has been trying to decide what his web page is for. It doesn't matter, really, I've found him entertaining enough that I keep his writing on my regular rotation no matter what he's doing, but he thinks he's found a direction which looks promising:

"...all future updates here will be devoted to people, places and other stuff I should've known about at my age, but didn't."

A new Comes Naturally column titled "Art and the Eroticism of Puberty".

[ related topics: Web development ]

Helping you make a decision in the next presidential election: http://www.gwbush.com/

[ related topics: Politics ]

Whump/More Like This pointed to this awesome article by Doc Searls on advertising and the web.

Let's face it: there are only two kinds of advertising demanded by their consumers: yellow pages and classifieds. It's not coincidental that they're both ugly. Beauty isn't a value when the only purpose is to answer the simple demand for useful information.

[ related topics: Web development ]

A lot of folks have pointed out this Jaron Lanier rant about piracy and the music industry. It's pretty plain that the push against new technologies in music delivery comes from the entrenched music industry rather than musicians. It's long been the case that record contracts have been "let 'em make their money on performance" deals, and it's true that musicians, certainly smaller acts, have little to worry about. I also think that we're going to see a change in the cultural perceptions of piracy and copyright because there are so many situations right now where the effects of unauthorized duplication are so obvious.

[ related topics: Language Web development Books Music ]

The Perfect Day

Shel Silverstein dead at 66. Poet for both children and adults, Playboy writer and cartoonist, and generally cool guy.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

One of Brad's friends is concerned that straight people have cracked the code:

"Hell, putting a rainbow flag sticker on a bright yellow Miata driven by a thirty-something single man is practically redundant anyway."

[ related topics: Web development ]

Via Whump/More Like This comes a story on Disney hooking up with the Free PC trend:

Marketing products for children has always been simple -- kids see the toy, kids want the toy, and parents buy the toy to shut the kid up. But adults with no children remained just out of reach.

FreeInfant.com aims to change that quicker than a smelly diaper. This June, the shady Pasadena company will hand out 25,000 free newborns to childless adults.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

It's Tax Freedom Day, when your average American has earned enough to pay for their annual tax bill. If I go on I'll just get cynical and end up crying, so I won't go there.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Web development Privacy ]

From Salon comes anohter harsh reminder that wilderness is not a separate place, and that it's important to change the way we live so we don't have to go there. Well, it isn't phrased that way, but the article about two yuppie tourists visiting Alaska is worth a read:

Noticing our incomprehending looks, he explained to us. "Off the grid means off the power grid in Homer. So we don't use electricity and contribute to the oil-producing economy."

I asked how they heated their homes and what they used for light. "Kerosene."

[ related topics: Web development Cool Science ]

So I was listening to a couple of U.S. Diplomats drone on about China and North Korea on a broadcast of a Commonwealth Club last night, and I realized that in the '80s we were worried about rogue financiers and large entrenched states, and in the '90s we're worried about rogue states and terrorists and large entrenched corporations.

Wesleyan University is reconsidering a course titled Pornography: Writing of Prostitutes. Despite positive reviews from students and faculty, the university president is bowing to outside perceptions.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Keith Knight on the 8 morning signs that you're gonna have a bad day. Also in Salon, a look at a Mount Holyoke erotic dance class ( http://www.salonmagazine.com/b...999/05/12/strip_class/index.html), something of a fluff piece, but still interesting.

[ related topics: Humor Web development Books Erotic ]

Via Whump/More Like This comes a great article quoting various sysadmins about what they like and don't like about NT and Linux as web serving and infrastructure platforms. Definitely worth reading if you're looking at deploying web related infrastructure any time soon.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Web development Microsoft ]

Oh, and we've figured out what George Lucas can do in case Fandom Menace bombs. Take a hint from Steve: iTroopers. I need to track down some pictures this weekend and see if I can GIMP them appropriately.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Star Wars ]

Sam passes along this:

K-Y2K Jelly - For when you'd like 4 digits to fit where only 2 did before.

Wal-Mart says it won't sell a 'Morning After' Pill. Yet another reason to pay a little bit more to support your local merchants.

Via Need To Know, the EMF shielding "silver lining" undergarments:

This silver-plated, stretchable, washable nylon mesh is electrically conductive. It reflects radiation. Plus you won't get those static shocks as you used to in dry weather and your clothes won't cling to you! Fabric provides up to 35dB of shielding at 100 MHz. Surround what you want to protect!

[ related topics: Web development ]

Via Salon's people column comes the QOTD:

"Martha Stewart is backing Al Gore. She always liked elaborate, motionless centerpieces."

--- George Mair

[ related topics: Quotes Politics Web development ]

Eric passes along this note about Silicon Graphics embracing Linux:

To the extent that Irix has features that are still lacking in Linux, the company is expected to work to add them to Linux. It is also expected to make available some of its Irix technology under an open-source licensing agreement...

[ related topics: Free Software Web development ]

A new Susie Bright column in Salon, on how the pornography crusaders have have figured out that absent any indications that porn harms women (in fact, in the face of overwhelming evidence that it doesn't) and have brought up harm to children as their next straw man. Meanwhile, the vast right-wing conspiracy hasn't lost its distaste for tales of pornographic downfall and redemption like Gene McConnell's. But as a marketing strategy, it's replaced Linda Lovelace with Tinky Winky. I guess these days you just can't raise enough money for the cause of saving grown-up women from unspeakable depravities, because frankly, the big girls have already spoken for themselves.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Salon treads that fine line between journalism and arousal (treads, hell, they just wander all over the map) in this tale of a professor in love.

[ related topics: Web development Books ]

In the poetry corner, a lament about tech support.

[ related topics: Web development ]

On the other hand, Salon has a good article on Camryn Manheim and Manheim's book Wake Up, I'm Fat.

[ related topics: Web development Books ]

Squirrel fishing.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Keith Knight takes on perspective in newspaper stories.

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

Via Robot Wisdom, comes an article about Leon Botstein, who wants to abolish high school. As school administrators around the country are doing their best to force a repeat of the Columbine incident, Botstein has some good suggestions. "the values of high school are the opposite of the values of life."

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Children and growing up Web development ]

Key escrow really for espionage, says EU. Sure 'nuff, whenever you hear "child pornography", "domestic terrorism", or "for the chillllldrunnn", the facts don't add up:

The U.S. government misled states in the EU and [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] about the true intention of its policy," the report adds.

"Between 1993 and 1997 police representatives were not involved in the NSA [National Security Agency]-led policy-making process for key recovery. Despite this, during the same period the U.S. government repeatedly presented its policy as being motivated by the stated needs of law-enforcement agencies."

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Welcome to the Revolution: The iBrator.

[ related topics: Web development ]

According to CNN, German sex firm Beate Uhse AG launched a share flotation on Wednesday.

Europe's largest purveyor of erotica, formed in 1946 by one of Germany's first female pilots, said it will raise up to 60.3 million euros ($64.11 million) to fund purchases and dominate the world market.

Update 2001-07-20 (see entry on Beate Uhse's death on that date): Above link is dead, here's a TheStreet.com article about the Beate Uhse AG IPO.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

To go with my brands as lifestyles rant, just ran across an old copy of EW in the bathroom. Inside the back cover there's an ad for a Sony/Citibank Visa card: "Use the new Sony Card and turn the things you buy into everything Sony." Now you can listen to your Sony music on your Sony headphones while playing Sony video games on your Sony Playstation and your Sony television while you're waiting for your Sony movies to come on.

[ related topics: Web development Music Games Technology and Culture ]

The AP reports that pornography on the computer of Harvard Divinity School's dean forced him to resign. Some free clues: If you've created a "Center for the Study of Values in Public Life" predicated on the belief that sex is sinful, learn how to copy your own damned files. And get a bloody ZIP drive. Sheesh. It's time to start a campaign to bring back evolution.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

More wackos on parade: Paco Rabanne predicts Paris will be destroyed by Mir on August 11^th. I wonder how many people are gonna take their cues from a guy who's well known for his recycled plastic and silver chain mail outfits... No, wait, cancel that. I predict terror in the streets and a mad exodus.

A question for users of my Nibelung list of web logs: Should I create another list for my daily comics, or just add it to the current list of web logs?

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

A reason for Shockwave: the JOesterizer 10 speed Frog Bender 2000.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Well, my Star Wars: Episode I: The Fandom Menace review is up. I think I've avoided all spoilers, which probably means my review sucks, but I'm not good at writing reviews anyway. Summary? Wait for the video. If you do go see it in the theatre you'll be glad I lowered your expectations.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Star Wars ]

Brought to you by the SFTBOSMP, the Society for the Betterment of Stupid Movie Puppets: http://www.jarjarsucks.com/ (ihatejarjar.com and kiljarjar.com are taken, but have no web pages).

Ebert's Phantom Menace review sums it up perfectly: This was a special effects platform.

The discovery and testing of Anakin supplies the film's most important action, but in a sense all the action is equally important, because it provides platforms for special-effects sequences.

[ related topics: Web development Star Wars ]

Mouthorgan this week is a guest piece by Henry Jenkins on violence and video games and popular culture. I want to read his book.

[ related topics: Books Games Sexual Culture ]

Via Scripting News, a report that Amazon has dropped a book under Scientology pressure

[ related topics: Web development Books Dave Winer ]

Via YAWL comes Postcards From The Edge of the Galaxy, Carrie Fisher reminiscing about Star Wars:

The actor who played Boba Fett stood behind me while I was wearing the bikini, and he could see all the way to Florida. My mother was always the girl next door. I wasn't quite girl-next-door material; I was the girl-next-dogstar, the one in the titanium thong.

[ related topics: Web development Star Wars ]

Other Phantom Menace notes: Some woman was walking around the line to get into the theatre with one of those Darth Maul two headed lightsaber thingies. I kept thinking it was something I was way more likely to find at Good Vibrations.

[ related topics: Good Vibrations Star Wars Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Stupid NT tricks: Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del. Bring up the process manager. Click on the "Performance" tab. Move the mouse pointer over the desktop and depress and hold either the right or the left mouse button (not both!). Watch the CPU usage peg to 100%.

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

QOTD:

In my (admittedly limited) experience, lusers generally don't complain about knowing nothing -- they complain about the consequences of knowing nothing, and then reject the connection between the lack of knowledge and the consequences.

-- Kyle Haight

[ related topics: Quotes ]

Dan continues his bad mood from yesterday: The Mr. Cranky 3 part review of Phantom Menace (4 bombs), and this added comment on the top 10 reasons not to like Phantom Menace.

[ related topics: Web development Star Wars ]

In celebration of National Masturbation month, Good Vibrations presents the Masturbation Hall of Fame.

[ related topics: Good Vibrations Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Star Wars in incredible ASCIImation (turn on Java, it's worth it).

[ related topics: Web development Star Wars ]

Via the Daily Illuminator, for those of you who've finished cleaning out your pants from the Echelon papers last week and the revelations of NSA key tampering and misrepresentation to the EU this week, http://www.americansecurity.net/ presents the CONPASS X-1280, like having a Flouroscope or that scanner from Total Recall except with a radiation dose of .5mR per inspected human.

The CONPASS x-1280 allows a fully clothed individual to be totally x-rayed and analyzed within 10 seconds without an intrusive, labor, and time-intensive physical search.

[ related topics: Web development ]

"fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering; suffering connected to the hip-bone; the hip-bone connected to the..." (Thanks to Tom Lokovic for the push in that direction)

Via the Bradlands, an awesome article by Dan Savage taking on the Littleton shootings. As usual, Savage is an optimist:

The power cliques that rule American high schools are every bit as murderous as Harris and Klebold, only their damage is done in slow motion, over a period of many years, and fails to draw the attention of parents or teachers

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

The Jon Katz /. articles mentioned further down are Voices from the Hellmouth, More Stories from the Hellmouth and The Price of Being Different. Meta: I'm normally not much of a fan of Jon Katz, he writes for an audience that isn't me, but his /. articles on the Littleton shootings were well worth reading, and Jon Katz is nice enough to mention Flutterby in his latest article on electronic communities. Thanks! Now if I can get some of the software written that'd take this from munication to communication things would be really cool, but the installations for Burning Man are highest on my queue right now.

[ related topics: Burning Man Children and growing up Flutterby Meta ]

Interesting AP/CNN article on the decline of "professional" full length pornography. Nominally it's about the low-rent section of the Cannes festival, but Ricardo Billi, Italian president of Gold Films, is quoted as saying "There's no more market for professional pornography. The market is being saturated with poorly made amateur videos -- no story, no decor, just pure sex". We couldn't have gotten clearer indication that professional porno films generally have no real sex. If I had inclinations towards that business and heard someone saying things like that I'd be renting some high end gear and tracking down people who were feeling exhibitionist and making well made amateur videos. If you're saying "We're not making films the market is buying, but we know what they are buying" it's hard to find pity...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture ]

There are a bunch of articles about Canada's Supreme court declaring heterosexual definition of spouse unconstitutional, in effect legalizing same sex marriage.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Marriage ]

Sunday, May 23^rd, 1999, after many good years and a shorter time less good, Catherine and Dan have decided that we're growing in different directions and we'd do that better if we did it independently. So we've decided to separate. Specifics are still being worked out. And I (Dan) am still trying to assimilate this, as I assume is Catherine.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Dan's Life ]

That Jon Katz article about web logs has hit /., I expect Flutterby will get nailed with hits.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Lost: one release print of Phantom Menace. If found, please call the Ranch.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Star Wars ]

A Bug's Life in an alternate universe.

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

Having trouble dealing with the PHBs? Want to get work done, but exist in a Windows shop? Now Linux has a boss-key, a Blue Screen of Death simulator. The other articles on the site are worth reading too.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft ]

QOTD:

Kiki: "The KKK are pure *evil*. There's nothing good about them at *all*."

Loren: <pause> "They don't even have picnics?"

[ related topics: Quotes ]

Two about Australia from /.: The Australian government intercepts international communications of citizens, as a part of the Echelon ystem shared with the US and UK. And Australia has also passed draconian net censorship legislation. If ever there was a reminder that the second amendment that we have here in the US is important, these are it.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development ]

Roger passes along this note about a woman using cleavage as an egg incubator, she's trying to hatch a speckled green and brown curlew egg. There are some limitations, but sometimes, like writing poetry, these can be viewed as interesting challenges:

"Her husband, Knut, was under instructions not to touch her breasts for fear of cracking the egg."

[ related topics: Web development ]

Yow. The game industry sucks right now. Sierra On-Line laid off approximately 150 people. I think this is a symptom of the tendency of companies, game developers in particular, to hire people with a little too much specialization, which drives development costs way up and ends up being a very short term strategy. I mentioned the demise of Purple Moon a short while ago. Upside has an article that expands on that, including an interview with Brenda Laurel, that's worth reading.

[ related topics: Web development Games ]

Interesting Salon article about Joseph Kramer, founder of the Body Electric massage school which does a lot of work with erotic massage.

"The short version of it is, the core of my Christian background is to be of service to others, to look at what my gifts are and see how I can best use those in the world."

[ related topics: Religion Children and growing up Web development Erotic ]

Via Ars Technica, here comes a guy who's using mineral oil to cool an overclocked Pentium

"Where does this project stand right now? I will be building the new and improved "case" this week. This will allow the coils to be fully immersed and this will eliminate the condensation problem. I will then be able to run the ac on FULL-TIME to hit the MAXIMUM cold that this setup can attain. It should be VERY close to -40 C!!!!!!!!!! :)"

Whoops! The second intentional interstellar broadcast shows humans as unintentional bumblers.

A production flying car? 5 miles per litre, 600 mph.

Debra reviews Phantom Menace:

"The Jedi Knights are a bunch of gay leathermen with a preference for natural fiber clothing. (Works for me.) And the death scene between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan was the most touching homoerotic farewell ever. Romantic sigh."

[ related topics: Star Wars Sexual Culture ]

Following up on my rant on brands as lifestyles, Kevin points out "that Ralph Lauren, nee Lipschitz, isn't just satisfied with clothes, eyeglasses, sheets & towels, furniture, fragrances, and jewelry. He is now opening a restaurant, and has been nominated as a role model for children." That last nomination is so utterly fawning it'll make you want to hurl. In the future the name on your T-shirt or jeans label is likely to mean quite a lot...

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]