Flutterby™! From 2002-05-01 to 2002-05-31

I posted about the last delivery of cranes to Oakland, then posted a bunch of pictures of cranes passing under the Golden Gate. They're going to run cranes under the Bay Bridge tomorrow at 9:50.

[ related topics: Photography California Culture Machinery ]

May is National Masturbation Month! If you're a fundraising sort of person, you might want to participate in the Masturbate-A-Thon. Over at Clean Sheets they're celebrating, one article asks about "the first time you ever masturbated?"

[ related topics: Good Vibrations Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Further proof that we need to revamp the "Attractive Nuisance" laws: The owner of a clay pit is held liable when a 16 year old is injured exploring it (Lyle v. Bouler, 547 So. 2d 506 (Ala. 1989). as cited in that article above), but Microsoft gets off scot-free while the the creator of the 'Melissa' virus gets 20 months in prison.

[ related topics: Microsoft virus moron Law Current Events ]

No kids jumping off cliffs in my camera of late, but biking in to work last week I did take the slightly longer way through the Richmond marina early in the morning.

[ related topics: Photography Boats ]

My friend, tom, pointed me to this test to check the consistency of your beliefs. I took a couple of direct hits on my beliefs but I would argue their definitions on a couple of things that resulted in this.

[ related topics: Religion Games ]

Lyn pointed me towards media coverage and other mentions of the National Acadamies Computer Science and Telecommunicationns Board Youth, Pornography and the Internet study.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Journalism and Media ]

Tee hee hee. Phyllis Schlafly and Nadine Strossen co-author a letter to the editor of the NY Times. When those two agree that the proposal put forth by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, for standardized drivers licenses is a bad idea, I think it's safe to assume it's a bad idea.

[ related topics: Politics Privacy ]

Watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch last night. Maybe my expectations had been raised too high, but I was disappointed. It wavered between trying to consciously manufacture a Rocky Horror Picture Show experience, and being a transvestite rock (as opposed to pop) version of Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately the ending didn't tie back to the motivations of Hedwig that I cared about enough to make it a satisfying movie. Might be one to watch stoned with a good surround sound system, or as the live production, but didn't really work as a straight movie.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Movies Theater & Plays Rocky Horror Picture Show ]

In her most recent diary entry, Debra points to Time: The Secrets of Autism. As Time Magazine is wont the presentation is fairly high level, but several bits resonate. One article quotes Temple Grandin: "I had no idea that other people communicated through subtle eye movements, until I read it in a magazine five years ago." I think many of us for whom human interaction is a consciously learned activity can relate. Worth a look.

[ related topics: Quotes ]

Our favorite moral bully, John Ashcroft, is at it again. Pouting about the spanking he recently got from the Supreme Court, he's introducing yet another piece of legislation to ban fake images.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Ethics Current Events ]

Robert Heinlein wrote http://www.luna-city.com/sf/rah.htm about Lazarus Long ("Time Enough for Love" http://www.ozcraft.com/scifidu/bk_time_enough.html) going back to earth for a 6 week regeneration - what once seemed fantasy may be reality as stem cell research advances. (From slashdot) http://www.stemsource.com/products.htm -- these guys are actually storing us for the future. Does that mean I can eat junk food now and fix it up my clogged veins later?

Cool!

[ related topics: Erotic Food Heinlein ]

For every one who lives in a subdivision -- I think Dan Akroyd did this as a movie - it was almost as funny as real life...

http://www.knology.net/~carlos/redneck.htm

[ related topics: Movies Coyote Grits ]

Via Tanuki, in the Monastery, Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs

[ related topics: Religion ]

Charles passed along a report that the Atlanta Segway trials are not without setbacks. This is one incident, after a few months I wonder what the per-passenger-mile accident rate relative to, say, cops on bikes will be.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Segway/Ginger/IT ]

Two absurdities for the morning. Charles passed along a girl suspended for drawing stick figures of her teachers with arrows through their heads, aaaand, the headline reads "Man Held in Brutal Beating of Mother", what leaped out at me was:

"Some areas of the apartment appeared to have been cleaned, maybe to destroy evidence," Dixon said.

See: If I clean up, and someone gets beaten near my house, I'm a suspect. This is why I don't clean up.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama ]

"the average guy has sex once a week if he's single; twice a week if he's married and three times a week if he's living in sin. "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/....cgi?f=/n/a/2002/04/24/MNsex.DTL

hhhmmm - I should get married, it seems....

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Sociology ]

When we rented Hedwig and the Angry Inch it was two for one night. The only non-one-day rental that leaped out was Pump Up The Volume(wow, someone apparently transcribed the whole damned thing) so after a long day, with huge trepidation that teenage angst doesn't age well, we watched it on Friday. The writing's still pretty damned tight, the story doesn't come together 'til the very end, there's some brilliant direction and some that isn't so good, but I was pleasantly surprised that it still held up. And saddened that the core message is as relevant today.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Movies Writing ]

Phil has been pushing to do another photography show, but as usual none of us has enough stuff to fill a space with, so a few weeks ago Nathan, Cindy and I gathered at his place to compare work and see what we could come up with. None of our work had good common themes, so rather than put together something that'd be massively disjointed, we decided to pick a compositional theme and see if our variations on that theme came together well. We agreed to come back in a few weeks with images of circles, where one was fully visible in-frame and had a diameter of at least half the short side of the image. So I've been working on it, most of mine are kind of industrial, but this one seemed apropos of a sunny Sunday.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Work, productivity and environment Art & Culture ]

Go. Now. Read David Chess on the CBDTPA. He says most of what I want to say, only eloquently. And while we're at it, LawMeme: Top 10 New Copyright Crimes.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Privacy Law ]

Next time some socialist apologist breaks out the "Northern Europeans have it right" whine, you might want to point them towards current numbers: Via the newly returned Lake Effect (Welcome back, Dan!) Study discovers Swedes are less well-off than the poorest Americans:

STOCKHOLM - Swedes, usually perceived in Europe as a comfortable, middle class lot, are poorer than African Americans, the most economically- deprived group in the United States, a Swedish study showed yesterday.

Intresting discussion of varous speeds of light. Its slower through water - wonder why?

http://www.what-is-the-speed-of-light.com/

What does light weigh?

[ related topics: Community ]

Moore's Law, Elzinga's Corollary, Amdahl's Law, Gustafson's Law, Shannon's Law, Arnold's Laws of documentation, Brooke's Law, the Laws of Computer Programming(1 thru 10), Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology, Zawinski's Law, Sturgeon's Law, Finagle's Law, Pournelle's Law of Costs and Schedules, Sattinger's Law, Zimmerman's Law of Complaints, the Ninety-Ninety Rule, the one line fix, Gates's Law, the ELIZA effect, Murphy's Law,

[ related topics: Humor Coyote Grits Software Engineering moron Work, productivity and environment Cryptography ]

Something you'd not expect to find in Whitwell TN is a boxcar used to transport Jews to concentration camps. However, due to a unique project the railroad car ended up being donated to the school. I'd heard about the project some time ago, but on my way to hike in Savage Gulf today, I stopped by the boxcar. There are only a few of these in America.... and it's a pretty chilling sight.

[ related topics: Religion Photography Chattanooga ]

Wow. Someone in Peru seems to "get it". This Letter from Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva Nuñez to Microsoft Peru on a bill he's sponsoring to mandate that the Peruvian government purchase only open source software shows a clear understanding the difference between the public and the private sector, and makes some really good arguments on those points. Recommended.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Software Engineering Consumerism and advertising ]

Walking through the mall this weekend, something on a perfume box caught my eye. We don't buy perfume (Katrina's allergies keep a lot of scent-oriented products from our home) but something about the box in the window of L'Occitane...

Upon closer inspection, I found that the box had braille on the side. In fact, all the packaging - boxes, bottles, etc. - included braille. I have no idea if their perfume is any good or not, but I found this very cool.

[ related topics: Consumerism and advertising Marketing ]

Howl... Digital Droo took the Ballmer monkey video and few others and spliced them into a deliciously hilarious Music Video. You'll laugh.. You'll cry.. you'll kiss microsoft goodbye.

[ related topics: Humor Music Microsoft moron Macintosh ]

Over on /. they're talking about the success or failure of attempting to set up online communities based on geography as well as interest. This is of course not new to us here at Flutterby, but I found it interesting that the concept may be taking off in the maintream world.

Years ago, I tried to start a business based on a commercial version of this concept (it failed and in the process I learned that I am not, nor do I want to be, a businessman) and I'm starting a new project to help keep employees of Humongous Entertainment together and active with each other.

Is this the future of the social landscape? Or is it just a bunch of geeks, who otherwise don't run in social circles, attempting to duplicate/recreate a system that they simultaneously despise and desire?

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Flutterby Meta Sociology Community ]

Steve Jobs on "Rendezvous": "You want computers to discover each other and just share stuff". Not to put too fine a point on it, but: Hell no, I don't.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Privacy moron security ]

A discussion of Jews and a belief in god

"It is the Atheist rather than the Agnostic, the denier rather than the doubter who creates the problem for Traditional Judaism." ... "The Torah talks about loving God and knowing God , but nowhere talks about proving the existence of God."

and its corollary, Can Sex and Religion go together?

"The Biblical laws of marriage require, as we have mentioned, a man to provide for his wife sexually."

Can Sex and Religion Go Together

Fascinating!

[ related topics: Religion Erotic Sexual Culture moron Sociology Community ]

This is why Penthouse is crumbling: Nude Pictures aren't of Kournikova, they're actually of Judith Soltesz-Benetton.

[ related topics: Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events ]

CNN reports Sony is releasing an Aibo SDK. A Robots.net discussion forum might give more information if you swing that way.

[ related topics: Robotics ]

An Oklahoma couple were arrested for taking [innocent] pictures of their daughter. After being ambushed at their house by police cars, $20,000 in legal bills, having their daughter taken from them for almost two months and lost wages, the judge has ruled that the pictures were "not intended as a sexual stimulant". But the stigma remains:

Last week, Beverly Compton returned to work. Her husband continues his job as a computer programmer. They say they know some people will always think of them as guilty.

[ related topics: Photography Sexual Culture Nudity Law Law Enforcement Civil Liberties ]

Lawsuits against employers are getting out of hand. Here are the 10 craziest from last year

"A company who fired an employee for working in the nude at the office on Thanksgiving Day could be sued for religious discrimination. A security guard turned in the employee for "violating the company's dress code." The employee is suing for failure to provide reasonable accommodation for his religion: shamanism"

"A female employee in a Minneapolis sex-toy shop sued for sexual harassment because of all the lewd talk she had to listen to during her shift"

Its the legal system , and underlying that, the culture, and underlying that, the subjective, social construction of reality folks at our universities who are the culprits, if you ask me.

He who pays the piper (should) call the tune...

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture moron Sociology Law Work, productivity and environment California Culture Machinery Fabrication Education ]

Whoa..a good article about how backlinking is effecting bloging. Talk about a google flare.

[ related topics: Flutterby Meta Cool Technology ]

More reasons I'm fed up with "journalism". Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn was shot and killed. Fortuyn was described in the U.S. (and bits of Canadian that I get) press as a "hard right-winger", a "Dutch le Pen".

Fortuyn's platform seemed out of place in the Netherlands, which has a reputation for liberalism. It was the first country to legalize gay marriages, regulate prostitution, approve and control euthanasia, and tolerate the over-the-counter sale of marijuana in hundreds of "coffee shops."

So far as I can tell, Fortuyn was in favor of all of these things, and a raving communist besides. The thing that earned him the label "right wing" was pointing out Islam thinks very poorly of homosexuals like himself, and that Muslim cultures tend to treat woemn very badly. He also noted that the Netherlands are overpopulated. And for this he's tossed into the same camp as Pat Buchanan? Adam Curry follows the story from a Dutch resident's perspective.

[ related topics: Politics Journalism and Media ]

Keith Knight on the fan's responsibility to the Star Wars universe.

[ related topics: Humor Star Wars Space & Astronomy Comics ]

Speaking of photography contests: Via Daze Reader, the Sex Project. In addition to some creative shots, it's interesting to see what other people consider "sexy".

[ related topics: Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Art & Culture ]

And via Birdherder, via Daze Reader - rejected Hallmark teddy bear ideas.

[ related topics: Humor ]

What will the future of online entertainment look like? Perhaps we can look at the online porn industry for some answers. A well written short article, talking about how online porn is the group that has been blazing the trail. I'm not sure I agree with the prediction of user class stratification but most of what is said seems plausible.

[ related topics: Erotic Games Sexual Culture ]

Shawn has contacts in the Millerswork group, so he probably won't post this, but I thought Hanne Blank reviewing some of the Millerswork videos in Scarlet Letters was worth a read.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

Hey, weren't we trying to talk Dan into buying one of these earlier? They look pretty tough for a little car.

[ related topics: Humor Automobiles ]

Sugar pills better than most anti-depressants:

The new research may shed light on findings such as those from a trial last month that compared the herbal remedy St. John's wort against Zoloft. St. John's wort fully cured 24 percent of the depressed people who received it, and Zoloft cured 25 percent -- but the placebo fully cured 32 percent.

[ related topics: Health Antidepressants ]

Nathan, Julie and I went to the Odeon last night to vary the Scotch Night venue a bit. Kiki was supposed to make it, but flaked, and Ruby joined us later. Fun place, well-run painted black dive bar in the early evening, with Khyla the Jamaican bartender who did a fantastic job of keeping the conversation along the bar flowing. The entertainment was late, I left at eleven after the first warm-up act, a lithe young woman doing a straight-jacket escape routine on the shoulders of two audience members. The featured musician sounded pretty good (albeit eclectic), so I'm sorry I couldn't stay, but school night and all. Anyway, there will be future expeditions down to that end of the mission, that was fun!

[ related topics: Bay Area Art & Culture ]

Sorry, I'm hung over and in a nasty mood: Fucked Company pick of the moment: The "closely held Delaware company headquartered within the Silicon Valley in beautiful Los Gatos, California" ImdiVisual. Hopefully that's closely enough held that nobody's grandmother is going to lose their retirement. Apparently their product is that for fifty bucks they'll run some GIMP Script-Fu that collages your images into a text masked layer (called a "Collagapolooza", complete with cheesey definition and trademarking (scroll to the bottom)), and give you a print.

[ related topics: New Economy California Culture ]

They actually ran this story on NBC news in prime time last night.This guy gets mad about the poor signage on an LA freeway and decides to fix it himself. Cal Trans didn't notice for 9 months. Way to go DUDE...

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Current Events California Culture ]

I've been catching up on a lot on missed reading thats been stacking up for the last few months and recently discovered REST. I found myself nodding and going "Yeah Duh" a lot (picture yourself reading a newspaper and seeing an activist group advocating round tires). I don't want to try to take away from the guy making square tires because exploration is cool. On the other hand do we need a new group and new acronym to remind us that round is cool? here is some example code of a web interface done first in SOAP & XML-RPC and then the old REST way. I know there are some SOAP & XML-RPC fans out there, why would one change from REST???

[ related topics: Web development Content Management Dave Winer Todd Gemmell Invention and Design Journalism and Media ]

Gadzooks! I'm turning 36 tomorrow and will packing up the family to take them on vacation for a week. They mentioned wanting to observe some eskimo custom by putting me on an iceberg and letting me float out to sea but I feel pretty safe in these latitudes. You all be good and be sure to give Dan a hard time in my absense I'll see you all sometime around the 20th...

[ related topics: Humor Todd Gemmell Bay Area Sociology Boats ]

Marin is becoming too L.A. like. Went to Insalata's last night. The waiter wasn't an unemployed actor, probably an out-of-work .com VP, nice enough, but not terribly competent. The table next to us was a couple of posers talking about "Y" versus "V" rated tires. My duck was okay, although the portions were small, but Charlene's salmon was a little gamey and the sauce was indistinguished. A shame, because that's the first less than excellent meal I've had there.

[ related topics: Food Bay Area ]

Doc Searls linked to Reid Stott's skepticism about "Gonzo Marketing":

[Pause] OK, will my sponsorship be a prominent part of the site's design and branding? You know, Joe's Garage Talk is brought to you by Acme Auto Parts, plastered all over the pages?

No, this is a community, and they pride themselves on their independence. But if you underwrite this community of shared interest, well, you can't quantify the good will that will buy your company.

What struck me most about this is that these (very rational and believable) arguments against sponsorship without advertising are a damning indictment of the American political system. Because folks, like, say, Steve Jobs, will just try to convince us that they're participating in the community and the political process when they give a quarter of a million bucks of, say, Pixar's money to the Democrats.

[ related topics: Pixar Politics Consumerism and advertising Marketing Community Currency ]

After a few weeks of trying to decide what to buy, I ordered a Canon A10 from Amazon (after various discounts they ended up at the same price as the "discount" sites). I had a friend order it for me and it was shipped to his house in Knoxville. We then spent two weeks trying to get it to Chattanooga. Last night, care of his mother, it arrived. The damned thing didn't work! Now I get to navigate Amazon's return (and have the replacement sent to Knoxville) or Canon's Factory Service (which is where my S100 has been for the past six months...). I'm not a happy camper...

[ related topics: Books Coyote Grits History Work, productivity and environment Chattanooga ]

And you thought they coddled prisoners in the US: acording to the People's Daily http://english.peopledaily.com...00205/13/eng20020513_95532.shtml

Northern China has opened its first jail supermarket.

[ related topics: Machinery ]

Over at Hornswoggled, they snitched the last link like this from Flutterby with the tag "shit you didn't even know you craved". In the Scary Devil Monastery someone described the Jewett Products Model SR1211-3 Body Storage Rack as an essential part of the well-equipped machine room, and someone else pointed out that while that may be handy in dealing with lusers in the short term, pretty soon you need a TABO cremator type VL-2 to complement it.

[ related topics: Machinery ]

In what could have a chilling effect on free speech (an aspect that nobody except the ACLU seems to be talking much about), the Supreme Court has opinined that it is not unconstitutional to restrict internet speech to the lowest common denominator (conservative communities).

The Supremes ruled that the federal appeals court's decision that COPA's [Child Online Protection Act] "community standards" bar was too vague, and had the effect of imposing the most restrictive community's standards to the whole Internet, did not meet the requirement of being unconstitutional. Although they did imply that the law might be found unconstitutional for other reasons, and so sent it back for review.

ZDNet has a different version of the same story (as opposed to everyone else, who just slap the AP article up wholesale).

[ related topics: Politics Erotic Sexual Culture Technology and Culture Free Speech Law Current Events ]

Ananova has the story of how a local paper, The Sun [Bremerton], caved under pressure from angry/offended letter writers and has printed an apology for printing a story about an Australian brothel being forced to close down (I can't find the original story on The Sun, but Ananova has it) because US sailors exhausted their employees.

What's next? "Due to our readers being unapproving of drugs, we are not going to be printing a story about a meth lab that has been discovered in the basement of a local school. Thank you for reading the Socially Sanitized and Approved Public Paper."?

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Political Correctness moron Current Events Journalism and Media ]

like an angry child will, who has asked for love and is unanswered still....

--- Jackson Browne

I guess it's normal for ya'll, but I'd not be comfy with this. I hope everyone's fine and nothing's been shattered but china and dreams in California.

WARNING: javascript ahead. California as I see it.

[ related topics: Bay Area California Culture Earthquake ]

While the shakin' was goin' on I was working on a little 'bot to go out and find weblog entries with similar links to ones on Flutterby. You can see some of this in the Pym Fortuyn entry. I'm still scraping the HTML, which means that new sites are going to be a pain to add for a while, and the links to the archives must be in the entries for now (alas, Daze Reader won't be one of the first few sites up), but it's an experiment, we'll see where it goes. It also means I've got to do something CSS-ish so that I can get these things out from between the comments and the comment box.

[ related topics: Weblogs Flutterby Meta Invention and Design ]

An interesting future is in store for us if things go on like this.

We have the first amendment, thankfully. The trend in employment law is to address the feelings of the receiver instead of the objective harm received. This is a slippery slope.

Ziffle

[ related topics: Free Speech Civil Liberties ]

Echoes of Hornswoggled on skating to pose, the Chronicle looks at the problems Nike et al are having marketing to skaters.

[ related topics: Consumerism and advertising Marketing Skating ]

1. Class is given assignment to write an essay on the subject "How does your body betray you?"
2. Boy writes story about a boy who is embarrassed when he is called to the front of the class while he happens to be sporting wood
3. Boy is suspended from school for writing "sexually offensive" essay.

What the heck did they expect the kids to write about, with a topic like that??

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Free Speech Writing Child-Freedom ]

Via Daze Reader: Three different stories - with an amazingly wide range of (even contradictory) "facts" - about the president of Luther College banning the traditional nude soccer match at the end of finals.

...he also announced the sanctions that will be imposed on students who defy the mandate.

Future participants will be subjected to a $250 fine, one-year disciplinary probation and forfeit the opportunity for a campus work-study position.

In addition, students living on campus will be required to vacate their residence hall rooms immediately.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Coyote Grits Nudity Sports ]

Those super-expensive ads the ONDCP has been running? Those ads appear to have no effect on teenage drug use. In fact they might even raise it (shades of D.A.R.E, which has been widely shown to increase drug use among its graduates). One possible explanation? Lack of credibility, because the federal government grows lousy weed.

[ related topics: Drugs Politics Health moron Current Events ]

Be afraid: An organization called Alliance for Marriage is pushing a Federal Marriage Amendment:

Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

[ related topics: Sociology Law Civil Liberties ]

So long RealNames and goodbye Napster. I talked with one of the VCs behind RealNames at an NBMA meeting a while ago, and for all of Keith Teare's whining, I can only say "you guys had it coming". A great comment on the Fucked Company thread referring to the /. threads (1, 2):

There's no better indication that your product sucks when slashdot is collectively defending Microsoft for their actions. Congratulations Mr. Teare, it's a cold day in hell right now thanks to you.

As for Napster, some of what I can rant about is covered by NDA, so I won't. Well, maybe a little: As much as I hate the RIAA, helping other people steal, even trying to defend their right to steal in court, won't ever be a profitable business model. But I've got to cut it short there, alas.

[ related topics: Business Microsoft New Economy moron Current Events ]

Diane says she's got something to say about: 13 year old boy faces 8 years in detention for spitwad firing. Take it away in the comments...

[ related topics: Children and growing up Law Law Enforcement ]

Secrets of the September 11^th attacks revealed in the $20 bill. Conspiracy theorists, start your engines.

[ related topics: Humor moron WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

"If it's your job to hunt Islamic fundamentalist terrorists," said Rafael, "Then it's your job to know that they don't hang out with Jewish lesbians in San Francisco."

"Each incremental taking away of that privacy by the government becomes much more important."

In the war on terrorism, they should - Declare War -; instead they practice war on US citizens. If they would declare war then all these actions would be seen as part of the war effort, and temporary - instead they are slowly destroying our freedoms. Damn them!

Americans Who Criticize U.S. Complain Of Harassment By Feds (http://news1.iwon.com/article/...ional|05-16-2002::06:10|cbs.html)

Dan -whats the trick to get the url under the caption?

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Privacy Bay Area History moron Heinlein California Culture ]

In Cincinnati, "Killings up 87% over last year " - Mostly Black males, and mostly over drugs. When you read the article, substitute "Beer" for "drugs", and notice that we are much better off with legal beer than with illegal beer - and they should do the same for drugs. I stopped doing drugs years ago, but they should be legal.

No one can hear the individual rights arguement, so maybe they can hear the practical argument - death is the result of our drug laws.

http://enquirer.com/editions/2...16/loc_1killings_up_87_over.html

[ related topics: Drugs Health Law Beer Civil Liberties ]

Last time we were in Oliver's Bookstore in San Anselmo, Charlene picked up Sultry Climates: Travel & Sex by Ian Littlewood (University of Sussex press release). It started a little dry, but now I'm fascinated by tourists, from James Boswell's explorations, through the gondoliers of Venice, to Byron's running off to Italy for "trade", to Paul Gaugin's spreading disease across the South Pacific while he tried to keep himself kept by 14 year olds. For those of you considering travel in the near future:

In a letter to Charles Kains-Jackson, who had complained that he could not see the beauty of the Swiss, [Arthur] Symonds wrote from Venice, `A friend of mine, an attaché at St Petersburg, says what is true: "You do not feel the beauty of a nation till you have slept with one of them"'.

In a footnote, Littlewood expands:

Compare, for example, the comment of a young Sudanese on his experiences in Britain: 'One thing I noticed was that you can never understand a people well enough ... until you are in bed with a woman.' (Hopwood, 245.) Or the photographer Mirella Ricciardi on her affair with a black fisherman in Kenya: 'At one with him, I was at one with Africa.' (Telegraph Magazine, 21 October 2000, p. 44.)

[ related topics: Books Sexual Culture ]

The headline says Bush: America has turned to prayer since 9-11. Given that Bush was warned about the September 11^th attacks and is making up stories about his campaign promises, I guess prayer really is the last resort. I don't think I'd be bragging about it, though.

[ related topics: Religion Politics WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

[deep breath] I've made it known that I'm leaving my current employment. It's just verbal right now, details are yet to be resolved, I haven't signed papers on the "to" yet, but I wanted to make sure that there was enough time involved to leave everyone on solid footing, and that involves some leaps of faith. More details as I feel comfortable talking about them. And although it's an open secret to longtime readers, maybe I'll feel comfortable mentioning who I've actually been working for for the past year.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Work, productivity and environment ]

I was bumming around last night when a friend said he had an extra ticket to the premiere of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I'd heard reviews that said it was good. It wasn't just good, it was awesome! I need to see it again to actually catch all of the plot (it moved some fast I know I missed some details)... And then go see it a third time to pick apart the effects... And then see it a fourth time just to see YODA KICK SITH ASS!!!

[ related topics: Star Wars ]

A little nerdliness this morning: Dave Winer: Shneier, Sun, SOAP, Reed. Some clarifications: Dave, you might not have seen SOAP as a deliberate firewall run-around, but Microsoft pushes SOAP as designed to get around firewalls:

Remote objects can give a program almost unlimited power over the Internet, but most firewalls block non-HTTP requests. SOAP, an XML-based protocol, gets around this limitation to provide intraprocess communication across machines.

Bruce Schneier may spend a lot of time bashing Microsoft software, but I'm not getting megabytes of virus email every day from holes in, say, Pine or Netscape Mail. Microsoft is not the anti-christ, but neither can we call it "bashing" when security conscious people call them out for their flaws 10 times more than others, because they have at least an order of magnitude more security holes than any other offender. It's not profiling if you're busting each for their proportions of committed crimes.

[ related topics: Dave Winer Microsoft virus Cryptography ]

Japanese Guy http://www.w2knews.com/rd/rd.c...nt_Scanners&mid=7574819783299094 defeats the fingerprint detectors with a cool process - he'll be arrested I suppose if he comes to the US....

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

I'd hoped to have a large update on my Marin Open Studios visits this weekend, which had a few standouts, or maybe just yesterday's drenched hike (Rain in May in California?), or the garden I helped our new neighbors fence in, but too much going on right now. Hopefully one of the other contributors will step up to the plate, or you'll have to wait a day.

[ related topics: Dan's Life ]

"May you live in interesting times." Tracking down the origins.

[ related topics: Books Art & Culture ]

Mark linked to a press release from Rick Stanley, Colorado Libertarian U.S. Senate hopeful, on trial for openly carrying a firearm. Said the judge:

"I already sent you an order in this case. The order has been mailed to your offices. You are not to mention the Constitution during this proceeding. Do you understand?"

Obviously this is a one-sided account, but I thought it worth a read.

[ related topics: Politics Libertarian Law Civil Liberties ]

I'm baaaaack. hope you all enjoyed your vacation fom my rambling post. One of the two books I got to read between drunken nautical activities was Good Omens so I already had an antichrist complex going but to be greeted by hail, snow(at sea level in May) and tornados was a little over the top. ok ok I get it! BTW it looks like the movie is in trouble again :(

[ related topics: Books Movies Todd Gemmell Bizarre Boats ]

For all the good stuff I've got queued up, you'll have to make do with this: Last night, with the rain putting a cramp in skating and us being generally brain-dead, Charlene and I rented Not Another Teen Movie. Reasonable stupid laugh out loud funny with some slow bits, better if you recognize what the take-off is from. References to Pretty In Pink, Breakfast Club, Risky Business, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Beuller's Day Off and so on. If the '80s were a part of your life you'll probably find something to snicker at, it's not a great movie, but it's definitely not trying to be one either. Not two wasted hours (Unlike the reports I hear of the X-Files finale...).

[ related topics: Movies Pop Culture ]

It took me nearly a week to get to Whyte's Booksmith to pick it up, but I got my copy of A New Kind of Science yesterday. It'll be a little while before I can crack it, to tide us over /. has a review which starts:

First things first - have I read this book? Hell, no, and if anybody else says THEY have in the next year, they're lying thru their teeth. This book is so dense that if Wolfram had added a single additional page, the whole thing would have imploded into a black hole. That's got to be the only reason he quit writing and finally went to press.

[ related topics: Books Invention and Design Whyte's Booksmith ]

"rfc-ignorant.org is the clearinghouse for sites who think that the rules of the internet don't apply to them."

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

No... I didn't say the bush was thorny! I said the bush looks horny

[ related topics: Politics California Culture ]

Just in case I haven't driven all the PETA people from the site. I think this link should do it.<snicker>

[ related topics: Law ]

Terri and I had planned to spend a few days on Tybee Island and Hilton Head, but the weather was cold. We chose to improvise and visit some parks and lighthouses. I noticed this alligator coming out of an algae coated pool in Hunting Island State Park, so I thought I'd sneak up close for a picture. The gator was not amused.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

Ya knew it was going to happen: Keith Knight reviews the new hot movie.

[ related topics: Humor Movies ]

Jed Margolin's Web Site has a bunch of cool stuff, like The Secret Life of Vector Generators as used in old console video games.

[ related topics: Hardware Hackery Games Graphics Mathematics ]

An interesting story comparing the approaches of the Microsoft vs Sony for online console games. Sony has made a deal for the Sims to be one of the first online titles. <giggle> guess who's gonna get their clock cleaned?? I don't know if I agree with their assertion that the Disney approach is wrong but Sony will most certainly have better titles....end of line.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Business Humor Games Microsoft moron Current Events ]

h'ok. One of things I like about Flutterby is that discussion is usually at a pretty high level and people tell you that you are wrong in the most elegant ways so here's a topic that should have people on both sides of the fence. I think I am in the minority thinking this IS a GOOD idea. I have been against relagating sites of a specific group to a certain designated domain (i.e. porn to a .prn or .xxx)because this quickly becomes censorship.....but if a certain group wanted form their own community and standards fine, more power to them.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Free Speech Current Events Net Culture Community ]

Since kids seem to be on our minds recently: Abercrombie & Fitch get more free publicity with "Kiss Me" and "Eye Candy" thongs for girls.

"It's not appropriate for a 7-year-old, but it is appropriate for a 10-year-old," said spokesman Hampton Carney. "Once you get about 10, you start to care about your underwear, and you start to care about your clothes."

This after their "Two Wongs(sic) can make it white" publicity stunt. Skipping over the "who, besides gay men and 10 year old girls wears Abercrombie & Fitch?" issue, I'd like to go off in a completely different direction: Do we help or hurt kids by prolonging "childhood"?

I'm of two minds about this: On the one hand, in that thread about spitballs I seem to be pushing adult responsibilities on kids early, on the other hand (and I'm too lazy to dig through the archives right now) I know I occasionally rant about not pushing children to adulthood any faster than we have to. Maybe it's because in the former case I'm talking responsibility, and the latter consumerism, and to a lesser extent learning patterns. So how do we, and should we, ask kids to emulate adults in restraining their behavior, while asking them not to emulate adults in other ways?

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Law Consumerism and advertising Education ]

David Chess had an interesting experience on a flight to New York, which leads to some musings about involuntary commitment.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality ]

Dori coins a new word: Blogsturbation.

[ related topics: Language Weblogs ]

Doh! Ok folks if your going to surf for porn while your students are taking exams, PLEASE make sure you system is not still hooked up to the LCD projector Doh! Doh! DOH!

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture moron Current Events Monty Python Education ]

Remember Jarts? In the Monastery, Jeff McAdams pointed out that Lockheed built a full-sized version: The X-7. A page with more info also has pictures, note the one post-landing in the upper-left.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Aviation Cool Technology ]

It's the Barbie drug of the 21st century.

[ related topics: Cool Science Health Bioinformatics Biology ]

Ok perhaps not for everyone but we have a movie here of a Puppy raping a Pickchu or maybe it's consensual. I laughed but I am starting to realize I am not a well person. Anyhow I think this director has promise. He tells a story with a goofy dog and a plushy doll, go figure.

[ related topics: Humor Sexual Culture Movies ]

The New York Post reports that a New Jersey judge has ruled "no harm, no foul" (my words) in the case of a female teacher who had a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student.

So many angles to discuss, but the two most prominent that come immediately to mind are the title question and, "Would the ruling have been the same if - all else being equal - the genders had been reversed?"

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Law Current Events ]

A very interesting (depending upon your view) listing of goings on...

Now Endorses Polygamy -- Ten Thousand Gods Cast Votes in India -- Multiple-Personality Disorder Brings Multiple Bills (psychotherapist billed her insurance company for "group" therapy) --- Thinking Technique Increases Breast Size -- Disposable Circumcision Device Approved -- Rabbi, Dressed As Cowboy, Spotted At Nude Bar --- Bigamist Pleads Not Guilty ("I'm Mexican. I never knew you could go to jail for marrying two women, or I never would have done it.") --- 'Family Values' Leader Owes $20k Child Support -- Surprise! Mormon's 'Wife' Was Really a Man --- Preacher Jailed For Having Ten Wives ( only six allowed - 4 of the wives were jailed for allowing the extras)

and even Inmate Sues Self: Violated His Own Religious Beliefs

See it all -- http://www.positiveatheism.org/tocapox4.htm#10-96

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Sociology ]

Months ago, when Dan was visiting Chattanooga, Topspin conjured a project involving a theremin at least 2 volunteers and a tent. The basic idea was to run the capacitance antenna(s) (that makes a theremin change pitch and volume) throughout the tent so that the people in the tent cause the theremin to react. Today, on a lark, I bought a theremin kit from NightDiver. The kit is neat because it has schematics and tips on modifications. Topspins idea was setting it up un-obtrusively in a tent at Burning Man and seeing what people did with it. I think he wants to take theremin dancing to the next (logical?) level. Anyone want to play?

[ related topics: Burning Man Music Chattanooga ]

I'm not much of a flag waver, but in the "woohoo, first three day weekend of summer!" attitudes I think we've lost a sense of reflection that would do us all good: Take a moment to think about the causes you'd consider dying or killing for. Even if you're a die-hard pacifist who believes that killing, even to save your own life, is wrong, there are probably things you're willing to die for. Give a moment's reflection to those who believed strongly enough in the way of life that you're living right now to lay down their lives for it. Life has a human cost, let's be conscious of it.

[ related topics: Politics Dan's Life ]

Just in time to be late for memorial day we have the flash film happy tree friends. Now just because some of you will take this the wrong way, I'll say this is not a political statement about vets from me, the only area where this resonates with me is with treatment of cute furry creatures.

[ related topics: Politics Humor ]

I'm reading Pat Cadigan's Synners, and it's taking me back to the early '90s when we only imagined that we'd be living in a media run dystopia, but 'til I finish up a longer rant on that topic, we'll make do with the absurd: Via this week's Need To Know, why am I not surprised that the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants shows up as the first result on A Google search for "accuntants" (sic).

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Television ]

Digital Verité needs films! If you have a short film that would like some exposure, get in touch with Christopher, or Tom, or even me, 'cause we need some content!

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

I've helped butcher animals. I've had my face and mouth covered in blood from rescue breathing for someone whose face was badly damaged. I've had all the usual pet experiences, and a few of the baby ones. Last night I removed a possum who'd electrocuted himself in the inside of the back of the dryer, and started to smell. Well, I say "started to" because that sheet metal and venting sure hides a lot. I will have trouble sleeping for another few nights. Wow, was that gross. I hope the disassembly and bleach rub-down gets the smell out, or I might be shopping for a new dryer.

[ related topics: Dan's Life ]

touching people is a page of videos of people pretty out of touch. The Anna Nicole Smith demo reels are hilarious and the Marin support group kinda creepy. The Winabago CEO had a nice calming effect at the end, he does have tourettes syndrome right??

[ related topics: Bay Area ]

Some of you might <cough> be slightly familiar with the Gracenote database and may find it interesting that a yet to be released CD is already #2 on the play list. This reminds me of the time when Id sold 300k more help manuals for Doom than they sold games.

[ related topics: Business Music Games Current Events ]

I finished Pat Cadigan's Synners on the bus this morning. Remember cyberpunk? Breathless prose delivered through a half-inch fuel line with no restrictor plates, prose so lean we risked melting our brains with the nitrous? Anyway, I got to thinking about the future that Cadigan and Gibson and Sterling et al imagined. Remember...

...when "the net" was going to spontaneously create intelligence that would help us fight off the encroachment of the conspiracy?

Instead we discovered that when our collective unconscious comes alive the resulting being sits on the couch watching TV and drinking PBR, belching, farting and hollering "m3 t00!!!" any time we try to communicate.

...when Wired was a crude rip-off of Mondo 2000 which was a popularization of the drug-addled Reality Hackers, but that was okay because anyone who actually knew read InterTek?

Then Steve Steinberg went off to work for Wired, and Wired became the next Cosmo, and the only magazine left with any technical insight is Forbes, which used to be derided as a lifestyle rag.

...when patents were going to be about who controlled the PetaBaseT jack into your thoughts?

Now they cover ways we could swing on a swing or calling writev() with a pointer list that changes.

...when piracy was about stealing the plans for that jack and building the devices in your parents basement?

Now it's about going to the bathroom during commercial breaks (original article costs $3), or Finding ways to consume the latest consumer crap before anyone else.

...when rebellion meant breaking into the computers of the megalopoly, finding out that all of the friends you could turn to for help have been "disappeared", being pursued through the underground by agents of the conspiracy?

Today it's giving one super-hyped effects movie a bigger opening weekend than another which happens to be a sequel to one of the worst movies ever that still did $400M, as if opening weekend could possibly be about anything but blindly succumbing to hype.

Now that the punk hero has sold out his band-mates I guess it's fitting that cyberpunk has lost its luster, but damn-it I want technology to be fun and edgy and maybe a little bit dangerous again, rather than just another commodity for the half-wit MBAs to pimp. I want heroes that go beyond the BOFH and Sluggy's Bun-Bun, because taking pleasure in slapping around the incompetent when we're bailing their sorry asses out yet again is just a little too close to reality.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Business Technology and Culture Health Movies New Economy Current Events Consumerism and advertising Television ]

Since it looks like virtual mannequins might be in my future, in yesterday's Clean Sheets there was a display of work by Reed VanQuel.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

Un*x geek alert: I'm running some diagnostic code, and outputting the data into a file called stuff. So I found myself typing less stuff over and over. A coworker pointed out that, unlike most Americans, I was a GNU zealot, and therefore not typing more stuff. I was reminded of that old post about finding love on the Internet.

[ related topics: Humor Net Culture ]

I've read some particularly bad E3 reports this year, but the reports from Hornswoggled aren't lame: first day, second day.

[ related topics: Games ]

Metafilter pointed to this New Scientist article about a study showing a link between Catholic piety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

[ related topics: Religion Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality ]

MOSEX Museum of Sex will be opening soon. I don't make it to New York very often but if I go there this looks like a cool touristy type thing to do.

note:lot's of javascript from adobe golive but it looks cool in exploder

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Invention and Design Art & Culture ]

OK Danea(wife) & I decided to think about balancing our karma against owning our Expedition. We are looking at EVs but so far the choices are not great. The most promising so far is the Toyota EV RAV4. Can this erudite crowd enlighten me to the choices out there??

[ related topics: Todd Gemmell Consumerism and advertising Automobiles Cool Technology ]

At some point (and I may not have even been a part of the conversation then), Faisal mentioned "the line" in racing, and passed along a page with lots of physics on it. I wish that page had better navigation, because I'd like to see the follow-on to it; this description assumes constant speed through the curve, more advanced techniques start to use the beginning of the corner as the final part of the braking, and let the radius increase to allow for acceleration through the curve.

[ related topics: Sports Automobiles ]

A lot of the current criticism of the FBI has seemed to me to stem from the ability of the human mind to retroactively match patterns into a system where there may have been none. But the critics are making reasonable cases that there was active bumbling, the Rowley memo gets pretty nasty and Meuller's contradictions are making a few people uneasy. So the response to internal incompetence and a lack of infrastructure to analyze existing data? Let the field agents go trolling. Um. Yeah. Like more data that isn't correlated or acted upon is going to help? Be afraid.

[ related topics: Politics Privacy Law Enforcement ]

This morning there was a radio ad for Acclaim Technologies, talking about "the cutting edge of collaboration", and the first thing that came to mind was "Viva la resistance! Death to ze collaborators!". Of course now I go Google search for "Acclaim technologies" and they're not in the first three pages of results. Oh yeah, there's a "cutting edge" company I'd want to work for...

[ related topics: New Economy Work, productivity and environment ]

This week's NTK pointed to this wonderful explanation of generation loss in digital music include some media recommendations:

Maxell 700 MB silver top for more detailed highs, Maxell Music gold for a fatter, more solid mid-to-bottom. Fuji 80 Minute Audio cds are my next favorite, Sony and Memorex 700 MB are close, the BASF is in there...

Next week: Benchmarking different CD-R media and oxygen infused copper alloy monitor cables to see which gives you higher frame-rates on your pirated games.

[ related topics: Humor Music moron ]

Maybe I'm just not enough of a player, but I was in the bathroom where there's a copy of Rolling Stone, in which is an ad for the Hard Rock Hotel which consists of a big picture of three women clad in leather, posing pseudo-seductively on a roulette wheel, wearing collars and holding riding crops menacingly. I'm pretty vanilla, but doesn't the crop kinda contradict the collar? Poser frat boys as target audience, I guess.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Consumerism and advertising Travel ]

Sometimes the system does work. I'm still waiting for someone to say "April Fools" but it is June after all...

[ related topics: Coyote Grits Work, productivity and environment ]