School apologizes for Nazi flag flap
Grissom said it was part of a show entitled "Visions of World War Two," in which the flags and music were intended to represent the warring nations.
The director said the musicians didn't anticipate the reaction of the crowd at Hillcrest High School. "We were booed," he told the newspaper on Monday. "We had things thrown at us. We were cursed."
Via Fark
Yahoo! News - Justice Probes Leak of CIA Operative's ID
The department notified the counsel's office about 8:30 p.m. Monday that it was launching an investigation but said the White House could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said.
Via Fark
Can computers help reverse falling employment?
Anyone who writes programs or plans system deployment should start thinking, "What can I do to bring average people back into the process of wealth creation?"
I'm not sure that computers actually make us more efficient. Nor am I sure that that increased efficiency will cause unemployment in the short run (while I am sure that it helps in the long run). Regardless, his suggestions are still Good Things To Do for your community.
via slashdot
i was just minding my own business when alex scarred me with this. :p :)
NEWS.com.au | Girl, 5, makes bong in class (September 29, 2003)
A five-year-old Territory girl shocked teachers when she showed her class how to make a bong out of a Coke bottle during a ``show and tell'' session.
Via Fark
A few weeks ago Alyssa and I were sitting in Sushi Tae talking about RoShamBo. She was talking about her old collage professor's unbeatable gaming statagy for RoShamBo, and offered to demo it by kicking my ass. Being and idiot who has never really thought about RoShamBo I was in a panic trying to figure out how not to get my ass kicked by Alyssa. On the fly I decided to repeat on a lose, and go to the weaker on a tie. This led to much hilarity as I took an imediate lead then we stabilized and tracked evenly.
We compared algorythms and my early advantage was the repatition on a lose.
It seems that now there is a contest to write the best RoShamBo software. In the results are some interesting descriptions of the problem space and some myth truth responses to educate those of us that aren't ai/game theory people.
Via Fark
November is don't-buy-any-CDs month. You can supposedly learn more about it at www.righttomusic.org, but their site appears to be having trouble at the moment.
Actually, I don't really buy a lot of CDs anymore. The good stuff is hard to find, and I'm lazy. So I retreat into my Velvet Underground and old punk albums. I can just add November to my long list of months where I haven't bought any CDs.
The good news is, Lookout! Records of Operation Ivy fame is not on the list of RIAA members, so we can keep buying their stuff.
Read this all the way through if you can, it's pretty funny. I particularly like the portrayal of Lucifer as a put-upon engineer who keeps getting ridiculous specs from the marketing department. And you wonder why he rebelled. Genesis Project Notes
I'm posting this mostly because golf takes three of the top ten spots, yet that's all I can find on TV on a weekend afternoon (and yes, I shouldn't be watching TV on a weekend anyway, and maybe that's the point). I also wanted to note my objection to NASCAR being in the top ten, on account of it not being a sport.
1. Dogfighting
2. Pro Wrestling
3. Bullfighting
4. Pro Boxing
5. PGA Tour
6. PGA Seniors
7. LPGA Tour
8. NASCAR
9. Major League Soccer
10. ATP Men's Tennis
Source: The Associated Press
CNN.com - Poll reveals most hated sports include dogfighting, golf - Sep. 27, 2003
Shane (1010 Golf Emeritus) writes:
Orson Scott Card, he of Ender's Game, has a website full of his rants and raves and weird tales. You might appreciate "Uncle Orson Reviews Everything", especially this column, which tackles Pirates of the Caribbean, LXG (i.e. the movie, not the comic book), and Italian Job, all in one giant entry. He does a lot of his reviews (natch) from the writer's and actor's perspective, which isn't surprising, since he's an author and theater (stage plays, mostly) nut.
He also likes video games, which is cool, and I did notice, in my younger days, that he provided the most excellent swashbuckling dialogue game from Monkey Island.
Card is also kind of crazy, but he's extremely nice in person, and certainly one of the most interesting authors I've ever met, in terms of actually conversing with. He's not afraid to voice his opinion, and he's one of those guys who I disagree with a lot, but still love to read.
If you haven't already encountered his site, there's a chance you'll spend a lot of time reading it.
the cia is scary... but so is alex. here is one of his favorite sites:
this came up as we read meta's post. interestingly enough, that statistical website takes their info from the 2002 cia world factbook.
Ya'll have probably heard me rail, in my math-dorky way, about how people accept so many of our political problems and wrong-headed aspects of foreign policy because they don't understand numbers and statistics. Hence the phrase "5 trillion dollar deficit" doesn't mean much to them, or they don't get what they may be missing out on when the president gets $87,000,000,000 to spend on Iraq.
This site bucks that sad, sad trend in a wonderful way. Some of their maps are beautiful and telling. I have already wasted pathetic amounts of time there. I don't think they do a perfect job, and I could nitpick, but I do think they do a good job, which is rare. Go! Know that beauty is truth when it's good statistical information that is well presented!
Dogged Engineer's Effort to Assess Shuttle Damage
"It was Tuesday, Jan. 21, five days after the foam had broken loose during liftoff, and some 30 engineers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its aerospace contractors were having the first formal meeting to assess potential damage when it struck the wing.
Virtually every one of the participants - those in the room and some linked by teleconference - agreed that the space agency should immediately get images of the impact area, perhaps by requesting them from American spy satellites or powerful telescopes on the ground.
They elected one of their number, a soft-spoken NASA engineer, Rodney Rocha, to convey the idea to the shuttle mission managers.
Mr. Rocha said he tried at least half a dozen times to get the space agency to make the requests. There were two similar efforts by other engineers. All were turned aside. Mr. Rocha (pronounced ROE-cha) said a manager told him that he refused to be a "Chicken Little." "
Management ignoring engineers - this was the same root cause of the challenger accident. Last time it was an Oring this time a piece of foam.
Via slashdot
the line: "I have a bad feeling about this" is in every star wars movie. (courtesy of alex)
Cheney's Ties to Halliburton (washingtonpost.com)
A Congressional Research Service report released yesterday concluded that federal ethics laws treat Vice President Cheney's annual deferred compensation checks and unexercised stock options as continuing financial interests in the Halliburton Co.
Democrats have aggressively challenged Cheney's claim that he has no financial ties to Halliburton, despite those arrangements.
Via Fark
Yes, Talk Like a Pirate Day has come and gone, but that's no reason not to post a link to a Pirate Translator. For example, from the The Marathon Blog:
I was at the port-a-potty when they lined swabs up at the starrt, so I lost me friends. Fortunately I found me buddy Kevin by pure luck, 'n' we figured we'd run the thin' together.
The Onion | Idaville Detective 'Encyclopedia' Brown Found Dead In Library Dumpster
"It's true that Detective Brown and I didn't see eye to eye, but I would never do something so downright dirty rotten as murder him," Meany said. "Besides, it's a matter of public record that, at the time the crime was committed, I was at the North Pole watching the penguins."
Yahoo! News - Second Federal Judge Blocks 'No-Call' List
U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham in Denver said "the Federal Trade Commission has chosen to entangle itself too much in the consumers' decision by manipulating consumer choice and favoring speech by charitable (organizations) over commercial speech," the judge wrote.
Studios move to block piracy of films online | CNET News.com
"the Motion Picture Association of America, began an advertising campaign, with the theme "Movies. They're Worth It." It profiles, among others, a set painter, stuntman and makeup artist."
The thing that pisses me off about those stupid ads is this: set painters, stuntmen, and makeup artists don't get a cut of the gross or even the net. They get a salery or a wage. They get paid the same ammount if everyone or no one sees the movie. Or is the MPAA trying to subtiley threaten us? Are they going to stop making movies period if people pirate them?
In collage I was the lucky recipiant of pirated versions of Episode 1 and the Matrix. I still saw the Matrix 4 times in the theater... Ep1 I saw once because it sucked ass. Good movies will always draw crowds because a good movie is best sceen in a theater with digital 9.x surround sound and a huge screen. That will always be true.
Via Fark
BBC NEWS | Business | Wal-Mart battles huge sexism claim
US supermarket titan Wal-Mart is struggling to fend off a huge sexual discrimination lawsuit, which could turn into the biggest civil-rights court case in history.
Via Boing Boing
Slashdot | House Votes to Launch Do-Not-Call List
Yahoo! has a story on how it took less than an hour with a final vote of 412-8 to approve the 'do not call list'.
Newsday.com: Texas University Shuts Down Bake Sale
A sign said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie. The price was 75 cents for white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks.
Via Fark
Toons sent me this link about puns gone wrong:
- Waitress says Hooters restaurant promised her a Toyota...
It's a good thing that pqbon always answers the phone at 1010:
U.S. court blocks anti-telemarketing list - Sep. 24, 2003
All the 1010 blog denizens saw the White Stripes at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Sept 13. Rubin provides us with photos:
Neverthere Photographs :: White Stripes at Berkeley
FOXNews.com - Politics - Recall Booster May Back Davis After All
It seems Issa hates Bustamante more then Davis!
Take 3 geeks a huge budgit and a house deviod of technology. 3 geeks are set to take a 4 member family into the 21st century. However, like anytime you do something with too many variables you run into some problems.
Via Slashdot.
ajc.com | Opinion | Mistakes of Vietnam repeated with Iraq
"There is no plan B. There is no exit strategy. Military morale declines. The president's popularity sinks and the American people are increasingly frustrated by the cost of blood and treasure poured into a never-ending war."
It has been lamented that my generation doesn't have a Vietnam war. It seems now we do. Via Boing Boing
Talk Like a Pirate Day Rules: Boing Boing's rules for talk like a pirate day
Arghhh, ye land lubbers. Ye shan't be talking like scurvy dogs, talk like a pirate!
i am a star wars heathen. so i try to make up for it. one of these days, i will watch all the star wars movies. till then:
(also from my blog)
i posted this on my own personal blog, but i thought i'd just post it here for fun as well:
i personally find "peeps" disgusting/revolting. i think they were put to better use here than in anyone's stomach. :)
though apparently, they could be fun to watch as they grow to ten times their size in microwaves.
Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
"In this UK Independent article, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and creator of Maus Art Spiegelman says he quit his job as an illustrator for The New Yorker because the magazine was sucking up to the government in order to retain access to Washington VIPs. Spiegelman also talks about his latest comic, "In the Shadow of No Towers," and how The New York Times wouldn't even reply to his offer to let the paper publish it. He ended up selling the strip to a German paper."
Sept. 11th isn't the first tough subject for Mr. Spiegelman. Maus is a book about the holocaust and how his parents got through it.
For those not Familiar with Maus: Pantheon Publisher Page
Meta and Goonley have left for Maui. This isn't what this blog is for but in this case I'm making an exception!
Good luck Meta! Do well and don't hurt yourself. Ken can't take care of 2 gimps!
Here is Meta's marathon blog: Metamarathon
BoingBoing posted a link to this week's WashingtonPost Style Invitational, which reminded me that it's been awhile since I've gone through them. So without adieu, I bring you:
Week 518, in which entries had to complete the phrase "You know it's time to ---- when ------."
You know it's time to feel good about yourself when, in a contest of arbitrary rules, one group of strangers whom you probably wouldn't like very much if you actually knew them defeated another group of strangers employed by a corporation from a city geographically farther from your home than the corporation employing the first group of strangers. Yep, that really validates your existence. (Mike Connaghan, Alexandria)You know it's time to buy your wife a $4 million ring when the best explanation you have is that it wasn't a felony, it was just a cheap sex act in a hotel room. (Josh Borken, Bloomington, Minn.)
You know it's time to sell your biotech stock when it falls below 60, without any advance knowledge of any impending FDA announcements. (M. Stewart, New York)
Flypaper can do an excellent bikini wax. (Chuck Smith, Woodbridge)Mashed potatoes applied to bars can simulate Doric columns. Use fingernail or back of spoon for fluting. Or try small cauliflower florets at the capitals for a whimsical faux Corinthian. (Brendan Beary, Great Mills)
