Sunday, 12/30/01
Je m'appelle TiVo! 02:47PM «
Saturday, 12/29/01
Who is Bill Keller? I've never heard the name before, but he wrote a marvelous essay in the NYT on the military agenda for missile defense, which I've been trying to understand since about 1999. And now I do. 02:59PM «
Saturday, 12/22/01
I'm getting on a plane in a few hours, and there's this exciting news report from earlier today about a passenger who tried and failed to ignite a little cache of C4 he had cleverly hidden within his shoe. The plane, en route from Paris to Miami, was rerouted to Boston (my destination) "escorted [...] by two F-15 fighter jets." All the stories I've heard seem to imply that the military escort was for the plane's own benefit. How would that work, exactly? 07:07PM «
Thursday, 12/20/01
Words provoking unforced jollity, first in a series: Megalodrama 08:57AM «
Tuesday, 12/18/01
Stopped at a light today behind a car with a bumper sticker that said, "Proud parents of a SAILOR" with the current Navy logo and 800 number for recruiting. Their license plate was 862-HMS. 01:19PM «
Tuesday, 12/11/01
Google just took the wraps off their usenet archive, going back to 1981. There's a fascinating timeline of the first usenet mentions of various events, including AIDS, Madonna, the Challenger explosion, the Mac, AOL, and "Star Wars Episode 6", excerpted in part below:
The release date for us humans that want to see it is still the summer of 1983. I guess it takes that long to score all the music, do all the film-editing, prepare all the promo material, and all that junk.
I wish Lucas & Co. would get the thing going a little faster. I can't really imagine waiting until 1997 to see all nine parts of the Star Wars series.
Turns out I've met the author of that one -- Randal Schwartz, Perl hacker of wide repute. Perl was invented five years later; the first usenet mention of which that I can find appearing in a notice announcing the slightly later birth of one of Larry Wall's daughters. 11:12PM «
Since Salon put Jake Tapper behind the curtain, I've been reading a lot more of Slate. In addition to a particularly great Supreme Court reporter in Dahlia Lithwick, and they've got a refreshingly inquisitive relationship with numbers. Last year they trotted out regression to the mean to explain why Barry Bonds wasn't going to break the home run record (good try), and today there's a great piece about how poorly the annual percentage rates of check-cashing outlets compare with those of neighborhood loan sharks.
Elsewhere, the resolution of National Bank of Mexico vs. Narconews, a NY Supreme Court opinion explicitly recognizing Internet-based news with the same libel protections extended to print and TV. The EFF, which filed its usual amicus brief, says it's "tickled that the court heeded our advice," which struck me as sort of a punch-drunk thing to say in public. I can't remember the last time EFF had such a clear-cut victory. 10:28AM «
Friday, 12/07/01
"[After the burning of the Reichstag,] Hitler was asked by a corespondent of the Daily Express whether the suspension of liberties was permanent. He answered in the negative saying that full rights would be restored as soon as the Communist danger was over."
12:08PM «
Thursday, 12/06/01
Pleasantly weird John Ashcroft synchronicity today -- it always gives me a bit of a start when Molly Ivins and William Safire wind up on the same team. Today, Ivins uses the same term ("honorable exception") to praise Safire that Safire uses to praise Patrick Leahy, which is almost apocalyptically odd.
Then there's Jon Carroll:
"ASHCROFT IS ALSO calling for a relaxation of rules regarding spying on religious and political organizations. [...] 'If religion is hijacked and used as a cover for killing thousands of Americans, we're interested.' For two decades now, religion has been hijacked and used as an excuse for bombing abortion centers and killing abortion providers. The original anthrax scares were at abortion clinics, not in the halls of Congress. Ashcroft was not interested then; apparently his fury depends on which religion is being hijacked."
What he said. 01:51PM «
Wednesday, 12/05/01
Seasonal Enron haiku:
Happy holidays
are here again, courtesty
of schadenfreude
Indict-ees include Wendy Gramm, wife of Phil. I feel a grin coming on. 08:23PM «
Tuesday, 12/04/01
Hints that one might not be getting a balanced picture of the war in Afghanistan: how many journalists do you think have been killed? Ted Rall paints a picture. If I'm not hearing about the deaths of journalists, what else am I missing? 06:43PM «
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