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« Tuesday « August 31, 2004
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Past Imperfect: The GOP Invention
(Africana.com)
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The party responsible for Emancipation and the 15th Amendment is now the party responsible for illegally disenfranchising black voters in 2000 -- and the one threatening to do so again in 2004. This might be tragically ironic, but it's not accidental.While the GOP goes through their staged play in New York this week, it's a good time examine the historic pattern behind the script.
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Some Bodies That Matter
(Chickenbones)
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With two bills -- the H.R.163 and S.89 sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel and Senator Ernest Hollings, respectively -- being debated, folks have been scrambling to get their kids conscientious objector (CO) status. Given that if either bill passes, women and college students would be 'draftable,' there appears to be a particular urgency to resisting the draft...
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« Monday « August 30, 2004
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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Vol. 01 (2004)
(PopMatters)
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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex debuted in Japan in 2002. The first four of 26 episodes are now available on DVD in the U.S., giving American fans a chance to see whether the strengths of Oshii's original -- sleek styling and philosophical depth -- survived the translation to TV.GITS is the creative spark that ignited "The Matrix," in my opinion.
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The Complex
(Fox.com)
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The Complex: Malibu moves real-life couples into a cliffside apartment building in Southern California's coastal enclave of the rich and famous, and puts their construction, interior design and, most importantly, their relationship skills to the test...Hey, I'm willing to give any Reality TV show with a clear-cut premise an initial look-see before I pass on it for good. But after skimming the "The Complex: Malibu," I've had an epiphany: I want to propose that African Americans refuse any future casting assignments on the reality game shows that depend on social maneuvering, commonly referred to on these shows as "playing the game," or in real real life as lying, backstabbing, bluffing, and cheating. These bruthas and sistas have no fair chance of winning: they are always are outnumbered, they are seen as lazy and troublemaking on first sight, before uttering word number one, and they are almost always the first to get blindsided before they ever get a chance of starting. 16 people in "The Complex: Malibu," and who are the first two folks to be evicted? Oh, you know who. But then again, maybe this show really is "reality." Everyone knows that are no black people in Malibu. Word.
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Hooters sets its eyes on India
(MSNBC.com)
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The Atlanta-based restaurant chain, known more for its scantily-clad female servers than its rib-sticking menu, this week announced it signed a deal to open several Indian franchise locations.I'm just waiting for the passionate outcry on this one: 'You outsource our jobs to India! And now our boobs too!'
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« Sunday « August 29, 2004
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Hero
(RottenTomatoes.com)
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Using the assasination attempt of the historical figure, Chin Shi Huang Di (The first emperor of China) as a backdrop, this film attempts to explore and develop a better understanding of the Chinese concept of a hero.Here's my capsule review: Cinematically beautiful, vibrant, lyrical. Narratively ponderous, inscrutable, unsatisfying. Art, not Hollywood.
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« Saturday « August 28, 2004
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The needed changes in (US Basketball)
(ESPN.com)
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Fran Fraschilla: "Like many others, I have seen the erosion of basketball skills, fundamentals and team play building in the United States over the last decade. There are many reasons for this, and simply put, everyone from AAU coaches to NBA executives are to blame. I am sure we could argue for hours over the problem. So, don't blame Stephon Marbury for not fighting over screens against Lithuania, when he wasn't held accountable by his coaches for doing it on the high school, college or pro level. In other words, it took him 27 years to get this way; Larry Brown wasn't changing those habits in a fortnight. And don't blame Carmelo Anthony for pouting over playing time. After all, he should be entering his junior year at Syracuse instead of being used as a marketing tool to sell jerseys at The NBA Store."Hey, a Bronze Medal isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. At least our team medaled. The real problem with basketball in America is exploitation. The people who pump money into the game -- the owners, the sneaker companies and sponsors of that ilk -- expect to make a profit on their investment, and let's face it: people find "fundamental" basketball boring. And it's debatable whether the money guys really care about the integrity of the game. But don't blame the players, they just do what they know how to do. Blame the owners and financiers. They are the ones who fund the growth and development of the game that we actually see in arenas around the country and the world. Ironically, you can probably blame the owners and financiers for just about every modern problem. They always put their own profit ahead of people and things meaningful to the rest of us, and turn their backs on the problems their greed incites. I know their argument: but if we don't invest in things, nothing will happen. If they invested in trying to find a bottom to their amorality, they could invest forever.
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Feed Search vs. Web Search
(Zawodny's blog)
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Let's think about the differences between the web of the mid to late 90s and the web of 2004 which seems to be overflowing with sites pumping out RSS and Atom feeds on a regular basis.OK, let's...
b/w: Scripting News
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Cancelled Elections, 2004?
(Depression.tv)
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In a Washington Post op-ed entitled, "Terrorist Logic: Disrupt the 2004 Election," he described a meeting in which nearly 75 percent of the professional participants (characterized as "serious people, not prone to hysteria or panic") also foresaw another terrorist attack occurring on American soil before the next election. "Recently, I co-chaired a meeting hosted by CNBC of more than 200 senior business and government executives, many of whom are specialists in security and terrorism related issues," he wrote. "Almost three-quarters of them said it was likely the United States would see a major terrorist strike before the end of 2004." Saying that "history suggests that striking during major elections is an effective tool for terrorist groups," Rothkopf explained why terrorists will most likely target us soon.Add to this:
Bombings in Madrid, terrorists likely, before an election.
And now, in Russia:
On the eve of the RNC, which itself is on the eve of elections, hmmmm. Stay tuned; you may be witnessing one of the greatest staged plays of all time. But aren't these conspiracy theories just silly? I mean, people don't actually plan these things out: they just happen.
Two planes crash simultaneously, 89 dead, terrorists likely, before an election...
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« Friday « August 27, 2004
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Deion 'definitely coming back'
(ESPN.com)
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Don't be so quick to discount Deion Sanders' comeback... [his] time on grass in the 40 is 4.38.If he is really running 4.38 at 37 years old, I want to see him suit up. That kind of speed and that age, hell, at any age, is world-class. Hey, my fantasy team needs some sleepers; maybe Prime Time will return kicks too.
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Advertising's New Wham-Bam!
(reveries magazine)
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Goodson: "Choking on your handheld? Cool. Because the world's charging up to a new ring tone. Mobiles have become the 21st century equivalent of the Swiss Army knife...copywriters will spend more time cmmunic8ing (sic) in txt rather than prose. In terms of consumer behavior and purchase decisions, chat rooms and 'blogs will become more influential than newspapers and corporate websites."If I don't have my Treo with me, I feel half-dressed, and using it to make phone calls is actually one of the last things I do with it. In terms of blogging, it's still sketchy but I have even made blog posts from the mobile. And of course, on my daily commute, most of my blog-scanning is done via RSS with Hand/RSS, a sweet mobile feed reader.
b/w: adverblog
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« Thursday « August 26, 2004
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The haters can't handle the truth
(ESPN.com: Page 2)
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Whitlock: "I must've missed the memo -- the memo that went out to the red-blooded American sports public and explains exactly when it became OK to throw patriotism out the window and openly root against a U.S. Olympic team."I'll tell you when it became "alright" to openly root against a U.S. Olympic team: when all the players on the squad kicked a hip-hop and/or thug-life, tattooed-up-the-ass, hardcore street ball vibe, and rich ones at that. Right, thurr! "Middle America" as opposed to "Urban America" -- since we like talking in "code words," especially in an election year -- just can't get with that, I mean, come on, it's hard enough to act like you can tolerate these people, but they're millionaires too. And hell, if that team fails, with those players, even though from a basketball standpoint they really aren't the right team for this kind of tournament, well, hell, it was just a bunch of n*ggers anyway. Am I missing something? Lay the failures of the nation at the feet of a basketball team that practiced together for 10 days, but heap the praises of the country on an ice hockey team that got lucky 20 years ago.
Hey, look, I trashed this team, too, but only on hoops merits: we still don't have a bona-fide outside shooter, in a tourney that favors that kind of skill. Furthermore, the international game, with its wider lane, its allowance for zone defenses, and its hair-trigger foul calls makes the game more of a pass-pass-pass-pass-shoot game, like Princeton plays in college, so NBA ballers, used more to one-on-one and two-man ball -- by design of a league of Middle American owners who realize they can exploit that kind of game for more profit than so-called fundamental ball -- are at a loss, but what can you do: at least these guys agreed to play. Shaq, Kobe, T-Mac, Kidd -- our true best -- they all stayed home, remember.
Other criticisms go much deeper, but cower from stating the obvious.
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huge cluetrain hole
(gapingvoid blog)
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Macleod: "Found a huge INTELLECTUAL HOLE in The Cluetrain Manifesto:
4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
Wow. That's the most UTTERLY WRONG thing I've ever read in my life. They obviously don't go to the right parties.I agree with Cluetrain: it's not others' voices that's the problem ...it's your own ability to listen; this is different that the ability to hear. Hmm, or maybe I misread that one.
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Cheney's comments on gay marriage...
(rebecca's pocket blog)
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Blood: "Many journalists and commenters consistently underestimate the level of discipline and coordination this administration exercises over its surrogates...There's no dissent here; it's all in the script." (Cheney's comments: WashingtonPost.com)Good point, but here is my question: going all the way back to the whole hanging-chad ballot fiasco in Florida, everyone with eyes could see how phony and 'scripted' this administration was, is, and continues to be ... so why do these dangerous buffoons stand even a snowball's chance in hell of getting another four years? Are we a phony and 'scripted' nation? That question, by the way, is rhetorical; only true students of Bernays, Lippman, Goebbels, Ellul, and other philosophers of propaganda grok.
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Marbury Sparks U.S. Win Over Spain
(Yahoo! Sports)
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Stephon Marbury keyed a fourth quarter run to help the United States beat Spain 102-94 in the quarter-finals of the men's Olympic basketball tournament on Thursday.It ain't over yet for much-maligned Team USA; flaws and all, they will play for a medal. Stay tuned.
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« Wednesday « August 25, 2004
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G.O.P.'s Southern Strategy? Cranking Up Lynyrd Skynyrd
(NY Times)
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Skynyrd is not the only member of the Southern rock delegation: on Monday, ZZ Top is scheduled to perform at a party at B.B. King's; the Charlie Daniels Band and 38 Special will perform the same night at an event at Crobar, and on Wednesday night the Marshall Tucker Band is scheduled to play at a concert at a Midtown club with the Dickey Betts Band (Mr. Betts being a former member of the Allman Brothers).At the end of the day, a lot of people who actually make it to the polls end up casting their votes based on nothing but gut feelings. At that point, they're not studying the party planks, they're just voting for what feels right in their belly -- or more likely, their wallet -- or for at least what feels better to them than the other choice. Now I have to ask any self-respecting brutha out there, can you really vote for anyone supported by semi-talented rock bands who wear the confederate flag like it was a badge of honor? Freebird this! And the deepest irony is that one of these bands is playing their gig at "BB King's"! The horror! Steal the music; pervert it; and then turn around and fly the flag of the people who lost that war. Isn't this f*cking country a blip? (Registration required to access the NY Times' site.)
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QT's Diary
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Goofy-savant-auteur-derivative-director, Quentin Tarantino's new blog... but just on a superficial reading of the blog, I like what the guy at Adrants says about it: "Whether it's real or not, who knows. In the blog, he responds to fan mail, hate mail and talks about the possibility of Kill Bill 3. Just doesn't sound right though." On the heels of my 'Ghost Blogging' post yesterday, are we in for a spate of attention-starved celebrities, and half-celebrities turning to fake -- or maybe even real -- blogs, just to get a little love? And if so, what have they been waiting for?
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« Tuesday « August 24, 2004
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It's In The Game
(EA Sports)
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Oh yeah, video gaming is definitely the new propaganda pipeline into young people's hearts and minds. Here, ramrod noise and mind-altering motion graphics come together and sweep over an individual seamlessly. Here I am -- not so young -- sitting around creating my customized Madden team, which takes a lot of time, making fictionalized versions of myself, at QB, RB, WR, TE, LB, and FS, and between takes, the various songs on the game soundtrack play, loudly... here's a few lines from Green Day's American Idiot (and just so you know, I'm not really a punk/alt rock fan, but these lyrics definitely caught my attention, because they're very, well, political):
I'm old enough to pay attention to this stuff, and discriminate, but I wonder how this stuff plays in the bedrooms, living rooms, and heads of 14-year-olds, and 21-year-olds, and all the others in the 5 million-strong Madden Nation. You spend lot more time playing a game like Madden than you do watching a lame-ass Hollywood movie, or a cheesy non-HBO television program, so if the game is packed with powerful messages, how much deeper will these messages sink into someone's grey matter?Don't wanna be an American idiot. Don't want a nation that under the new media. And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mindf*ck America. Welcome to a new kind of tension. All across the alien nation. Everything isn't meant to be okay. Television dreams of tomorrow. We're not the ones who're meant to follow. Convincing them to walk you. Well maybe I'm the f*ckhead America. I'm not a part of a redneck agenda. Now everybody do the propaganda. And sing along in the age of paranoia...
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Organizr
(Flickr.com)
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Flickr.com: "We're pleased to introduce Organizr, the latest addition to the Flickr toolbox, to help you more easily store, sort, search and share your photos."Organizr is conceptually brilliant! I'll have to play around with it first to report on how it is in action. Stay tuned.
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Mel Gibson, leading the unwashed from the technological desert?
(Canuckflack blog)
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"Even more intriguing was the observation that this DVD would prompt many Christian families to finally move their viewing habits into the 1990s."The lord ... of mass consumption and propaganda, he works in strange and mysterious ways. These days, tablets of stone have now become discs of polycarbonate plastic and laquered aluminum. Damn, I keep forgetting, the Book is an allegory. Deep.
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Ghost Blogging
(Fresh Perspectives blog)
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It has become a writing exercise for a pro that is operating from a creative brief, mixing up the right balance of values and principles, personality and humility, tone and manner..."Gee, why not just hire a fiction writer to start inventing my biography?"I hate to blog about blogging, but when considering that some "famous" people, including a few politicians, are starting to use weblogs to communicate with their various publics, it's f*cked up to think that some of them may be hiring people to 'punch up' their verbiage. Who are you, really? The great thing about blogs is that they have the potential reflect someone's true personality, no matter how jacked-up and off-color that personality might be, and maybe that's what scares some folks. If that's the case, then: don't blog. I know, I know, ghost writers have existed forever, but you can have a decent weblog just posting non sequiturs ; do you need really someone else to transcribe your brain droppings? If someone's famous or in the spotlight, and they blog, I'd much rather get their own funky voice, replete with grammatical errors, than get something polished by a pro. In an age of consummate fakery can't we even get just a little bit of real?
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Amazing Money Jar Bank
(Discovery Channel Store)
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This unique jar recognizes coins as they go in and keeps a running total of their value. A special LCD display in the lid tells you exactly how much you've saved.I need this. I have jarfuls of nickels, pennies, and dimes that have filled up from years of dumping pocket change (and lint) into them. If I knew how much I actually had, that would probably inspire me enough to roll'em up for deposit at the bank. Sorry, but I still haven't found a CoinStar in my area.
b/w: BoingBoing
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« Monday « August 23, 2004
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Swift Boat Veterans for Truth/Talk page archive
(Disinfopedia)
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Stop Thowing Dust In Our Eyes and Just Explain How SBFT Are Lying...
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HDTV, DVD, Hard Drives and the future
(Blog Maverick)
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Mark Cuban: "Personally, I like putting content on rewritable drives. Let me tell you about how I personally made the USB Flash Drives work for me. I had a couple DVDs that I had PURCHASED, that I hadn?t had the chance to watch. I had a couple 512mb Flash Drives that I had bought specifically to test them out for video. I took the first movie, and using an encoder with compression (not going to tell you which one, don?t want to play favorites), I encoded the movies at DVD quality and saved the output onto each of the 512mb Flash Drives. I popped those tiny little puppies into my pockets and off I went to the plane. Keys, some money and my keychain flash drives in one pocket, phone in the other. No hassle, no fuss no muss."Movies in your pocket. Cool!
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The Panopticon
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The Panopticon ("all-seeing") functioned as a round-the-clock surveillance machine.
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44,000 prison inmates to be RFID-chipped
(silicon.com)
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Inmates will wear "wristwatch-sized" transmitters that can detect if prisoners have been trying to remove them and send an alert to prison computers.They can test this in prisons, because inmates have no rights, but once this surveillance technology is perfected, what will prevent its rollout to the general public, where it might be marketed as a "convenience," or perhaps mandated as an "anti-terror" measure? For example, what if the government suggests that you get chipped so that they can verify you're not a terrorist? Will you volunteer?
b/w: Surpriv
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« Sunday « August 22, 2004
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Gibson's Pattern Recognition - what did I miss?
(Philip Greenspun's Weblog)
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Greenspun: "The worst book that I've read during this trip around Japan is William Gibson's Pattern Recognition."Ditto that. I work with people who are so-called "coolhunters" -- market researchers and branding consultants -- and that they didn't even know about this one -- even when if made its debut a while back -- says a lot, in my, uh, book. On the other hand, you can't expect a novelist to score a bestseller every time out. That would be like expecting Barry Bonds to hit a bomb everytime he sees a good pitch... hey, wait a minute...
b/w: Scripting News
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The Olympics through the eyes of Europe
(Marc's Voice)
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Marc Canter: "The commercialization and exploitation of the global economy is where America gets it's profit margins from. The Tobacco industry can afford to pay 100's of Billions of dollars in retraining and penance fees for what they've done to smokers here - with the money they're making from everyone else. So the next time you hear somebody groaning about losing jobs and out-sourcing, remind them of where the dividends are coming from - and what white male CEO types are cashing out for 100's of $millions$."Hey Marc said it, not me. Since the day I first met him, I've always loved his blunt honesty. It's refreshing.
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ESPN.com Fantasy Football
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Anyone out there care to join a free, low-volume fantasy football league? I have plenty of spaces left in my league at ESPN.com. Drop me a line at larrygreen-at-gmail-dot-com before September 1rst, if interested.
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Can it be fixed in seven days?
(ESPN.com)
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It's the closest thing you'll hear to an out-and-out excuse for why the American hoopsters have lost as many games in these Games as they did in their previous, oh, 68 years... As Allen Iverson would say, "Practice?"I've heard all the arguments as to why the men's Olympic team is having problems, and for the most part I agree. If Team USA earns a medal, any medal, after putting together a team in less than a month, as they compete against squads who've been together for months, if not years, that's good thing. My bigger problem is how these guys are acting like they're just learning how to play basketball. Sure, takes time for a team to gel, but do all of your individual skills vanish until the club unifies? I mean, if your job, in which you make millions, is basketball, how is it that you can shoot 6-for-28? That's worse than pickup basketball. Maybe these guys, to a man, really aren't that great at hoops. It puts a big question mark in my head about the actual talent level in the NBA.
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Outsourcing and Patriotism
(AlterNet: Election 2004)
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Lou Dobbs, CNN: "Corporate America has at this time taken controls the national media. It controls nearly every avenue of an American citizen's access to information about the way he or she lives, about those forces that are influencing our lives."Behold the invisible government. Don't worry that you can't actually see them, because they'll tell you what they want you to do, think, and see. And I think part of the problem is, for many, what they tell you is what you want to see, because the majority doesn't really want to open their eyes to reality. That's too brutal. I think the majority, and you know who you are, say: 'Tell me what I should see, but feed me, house me, give me credit cards, a big-screen TV, and an SUV.' They go together, in the good ol' USA: baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.
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Election 2004: Jim Crow is Alive and Well
(AlterNet)
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Voter intimidation and suppression are not problems limited to the South. They are not the province of a single political party, although patterns of intimidation have changed as the party allegiances of minorities, particularly African-Americans, have shifted over the years. They have served to create doubt about the equality of our democracy and cynicism at home and abroad.The more things change...the more America shows it true colors.
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« Friday « August 20, 2004
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The Name Game
(ABCNEWS.com)
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Can a Black-Sounding Name Hurt Your Career Prospects?... [C]apable doesn't always matter. A job recruiter for Fortune 500 companies in northern California revealed an ugly secret. "There is rampant racism everywhere. And people who deny that are being naive," said the recruiter, who spoke on the condition her name would not be used. The recruiter said if she were given two resumes, all else being equal, except one says Shaniqua, and the other says Jennifer, she would call Jennifer first.Wait a minute? There's rampant racism in this country? Get the f*ck outta here!
b/w: grim amusements
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« Thursday « August 19, 2004
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Tokyo Rats a Gnawing Problem
(asahi.com)
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The common roof rat (Rattus Rattus) is to blame, officials say, for the fires and rising complaints about bites and infestations.Tokyo used to be overrun by the larger, aggressive Norway rat, but nowadays, it is the smaller roof rat, suited to tropical climates, that rules the urban roost. They seem to like environments filled with tall, temperature-controlled skyscrapers. Some specialists warn there are probably some 'super-rats' already that are immune to pesticides.Rats that like living in skyscrapers, are immune to poison, preying on the elderly, and starting fires. Good lord. Modern vermin for modern times. If you keep fighting nature, by overdevelopment and poorly-planned urban sprawl -- nature will bite back, with a vengeance.
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Smart tiles add reality to virtual worlds
(New Scientist)
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Intelligent floor tiles that allow a person to walk through a virtual environment while remaining in one spot have been developed by Japanese researchers.
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A Party of Cowards
(AntiWar.com)
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Justin Raimondo:
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Israel and the American Elections
(Counterpunch)
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DNA technique protects against 'evil' emails
(New Scientist)
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A technique originally designed to analyse DNA sequences is the latest weapon in the war against spam. An algorithm named Chung-Kwei (after a feng-shui talisman that protects the home against evil spirits) can catch nearly 97 per cent of spam.Pattern recognition.
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ACLU Pizza
(AdCritic Interactive)
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b/w: pop+politics
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« Wednesday « August 18, 2004
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M(i)Robot
(robosapienonline.com)
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As far as toys for adults go, this one's very nice! Everyone on my floor hates me now, because MiRobot (the name I've given to my model) is cool. I guess no one can resist a smack-talking, bobbing-and-weaving foot-tall robo-sapien; I mean it whistles at honies, it burps, it high-fives, it shakes its ass, but watches it'self. Sarah Connor? Sarah Connor? I think this is one potential precursor to that 'Terminator'-filled dystopian future that computer scientist Bill Joy (and the Unabomber) worried about: they start off as toys and then they become menaces. But don't blame the robots, they just wanna have phun. Plus, the way MiRobot eats battery power, he's not much of a threat.
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Survivor: Vanuatu
(CBS.com)
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In the remote waters of the South Pacific near the tumultuous "Ring of Fire," 18 castaways will compete once again for the million-dollar prize. Who will outwit, outplay and outlast all others in Vanuatu, the Islands of FirEveryone has 'guilty pleasures.' Most people have a couple dozen of them. One of mine is "Survivor." I still think, as far as Reality TV" concepts go, this show has the most pristine, lucid, and easy-to-grok concept: strand a bunch of people in the wild, and tell them the last one standing will get $1 million dollars. It's a crucible for exposing the best and worst of human nature... and greed is good, not really, but I always liked that line for some reason. I'll say this about the Vanuatu cast: it's a pretty good-looking bunch -- which isn't unusual for this show -- but this group looks exceptional. CBS could up the tension and the ante by casting more minorities, but I suppose they have market research that tells them otherwise. Whatever. The tribe has spoken.
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Was McGreevey 'sex scandal' an Israeli Intelligence operation?!
(AlJazeera.com)
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Since 9/11 there has been barely suppressed anger at the fact Israeli intelligence knew about the hijackers and said nothing. Israelis have found themselves under suspicion and restricted by some intelligence channels. The state homeland security position was seen as a back door way of spying on anti-terror preparations in the New York-New Jersey area, and possibly nationally.
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Colin Powell meets feline doppelganger
(Boston.com)
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"We name all of our black cats after prominent African-Americans."Growing up, we used to name all the mice in our house after prominent white people... there's Nixon running off with the cheese! Kissinger always falls for that mousetrap under the sink. Hey, it looks like Reagan's been gnawing through the hominy grits again, and sh*tting all over the place.
b/w: negrophile.
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A Flunky By Any Other Name
(The Black World Today)
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The charge that Black conservatives are simply Republican Party pawns looks pretty undeniable with the selection of Maryland resident Alan Keyes as the GOP candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois...Was there no African American associated with the Republican Party in the land of Lincoln qualified to run for a statewide office?Apparently not. While the Democrats continue to pay lip service to African Americans, they can afford to because the Republicans chronically show that they're just deaf, dumb and stupid in this area. Morons of the highest caliber. What we really need is an independent Black party (or two or three) that would broker deals between the current parties, because it's pretty clear that one side (Dems) take the Black vote for granted, while the other side (Reps) couldn't give two sh*ts about it. F*ck you very much.
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The New Economic Reality Dictionary
(UrbanSurvivial.com)
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« Monday « August 16, 2004
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Opensecrets.org
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Your guide to the Money in the US Elections.This site, along with FundRace.org provides accessible accounting of the legal contributions to political campaigns in the US. I searched my zipcode, and found names of folks I actually know ... and some of the results weren't surprising at all. But, you know what, if this is really a democracy (and that's a big IF in my book) then this stuff needs to be open. By the way, if you look at my zipcode, the total giving is around $1,500,000. The average zipcode in the US is: $30,000. Yo, talk about voting your wallet. Apparently, politics without economics is no politics at all. Democracy, as practiced here, is rapidly coming down to how much influence you can afford to buy, and that sucks, especially if you're struggling to make ends meet; on the other hand, maybe that's the way it always has been.
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Wal-Mart=Bush. Costco=Kerry.
(Slate.com)
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Costco also has the sort of labor policy that would bring a smile to Barbara Ehrenreich's face. Pay starts at $10 an hour...The average wage at Wal-Mart, which has no unions and bitterly opposes raising the minimum wage, is lower than Costco's lowest wage. Turnover at Wal-Mart, according to the Economist, is 44 percent, meaning it has to hire an astonishing 600,000 people every year simply to stay at its current size.They always say that Americans vote with their wallets, or is that just another crackpot theory? Phunny thing here is: I've never shopped at either of these stores, so where do I fit into this socio-politico-economic picture?
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Hip Hop Minstrels
(Afrikan.Net)
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The plot lines are juvenile and based on the show I saw offer no redeeming values or messages other than re-enforcing the prevailing message of mainstream corporate media in general and much of commercial Hip Hop in particular: the promotion of wayward irreverence, incivility and disrespect, crass materialism, misogyny and racial stereotypes of the worse kind.At least one person agrees with me: Method and Red's "show" sucks. No redeeming qualities and, even worse, it ain't even phunny. And it's supposed to be a sitcom. Cancel it, or get better writers... and a new cast while you're at it.
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Comcast to carry NFL Network on digital cable
(SI.com)
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Beginning this month, NFL Network will be added to Comcast's lineup for most of the cable giant's 8 million digital cable customers.Oh yes! I am sooooooo ready for some football! It's about time that Comcast -- overpriced monopolists that they are -- provided a channel that a large proportion of their (paid) viewing public might actually want. Sorry, non-sports fans, but the NFL is a sport made for TV, it's a bona fide juggernaut (ever hear of the Super Bowl?), and since we're already paying an arm-and-a-leg for digital cable, it's about time we get something like this on basic!
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threetwoone.org
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We are just getting started. This website is devoted to the display of information with diagrams. We invite visitors to look around and take a peek at what we've been doing.For all the information architects -- like me -- out there.
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del.icio.us
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del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection not only between your own browsers and machines, but also with others.What Bloglines is to RSS Feeds, del.icio.us is to bookmarks. And the cool thing is, you can get your bookmarks as an RSS feed. An API is provided for developer types who want to manipulate this stuff further. It's still in alpha stage, but works pretty well. Sweet.
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« Thursday « August 12, 2004
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Slap that bass...
(Ibanez.com)
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itunes versus jazz preservation
(harlem.org)
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Without the physical album, online music stores will play a much larger role in teaching new listeners about jazz. While institutions, educators and preservationists will soon face the same challenges, music stores will be the first to use digital interfaces to educate the listening public about jazz. The digital music era should offer listeners more information about jazz, not less. The stakes are high. If jazz fragments into millions of digital files, future generations could be left with a maddening cultural jigsaw puzzle.Solid. Our relentless push to digital forms is quickly eroding our ability to remember things. How will you find stuff if it's poorly catalogued? How do we connect the dots? Maybe that 'Semantic Web' idea could address these problems, but then, when will those kinds of tools be available to everyone but the specialists? When will it become easy to add metadata without being a library scientist? It's all about the metadata.
Related:
Some 'Web as platform' noodling
Yawp! Semantic Web!
b/w: cityofsound blog
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Obama's Speech, plus...
(iTunes Music Store)
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This is cool: all of the DNC 2004 speeches are available as free downloads at iTunes Music Store.
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« Wednesday « August 11, 2004
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Picture What Matters
(Yahoo! Mobile/Yahoo! Photos)
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The nattily-clad George points to this camera-phone contest sponsored by Yahoo!, but I point to this Wired article, Big Business Becoming Big Brother. By entering this contest, you have to give Yahoo! your personal information, including your age, your mobile phone number, and submit a bunch of photos of yourself, your friends, and your interests, all in pursuit of a $10,000 prize, uh, for charity, a reward that no one you know will ever win, just like the state lottery. But in exchange for that slim chance, consider what you give up, voluntarily. What a great and fun way to just hand over a boatload of deeply personal information to Yahoo!, a company who's chairman, Terry Semel, just cashed in about $20 million in stock options (for doing what, exactly? I mean, what new ground has Yahoo! broken in the last few years that merits its CEO that kind of payday?) Even if Yahoo! doesn't hand any of this info over to the guv'mint, you've just made their market research and 'targeted advertising' plans real easy. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Welcome to Surveillance Nation, where people volunteer to spy on... themselves.
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Funniest Man on TV
(TV Guide Online)
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TV Guide coverboy Dave Chappelle has inked a new deal with Comedy Central to continue hosting Chappelle's Show for two more seasons. Chappelle's Show is Comedy Central's biggest hit since South Park, averaging 3.1 million viewers an episode.Contrast with my previous comments about Method and Red's show on Fox: at least Chappelle is phunny, for now. Typically, mass acceptance of an African American artist means that his or her days as a truly unique voice are numbered. My only fear for DC is: as he goes from semi-big time to super-sized (he's got a $50 million deal, yo), that he doesn't have to tone down, and -- er -- whitewash the humor, in order to butt-kiss corporate sponsors, aka The Pricks. I've seen it happen before: bigger paychecks, smaller laughs, less guts and comic hubris, more bitch-ass, watered-down comedy that has no edge and just goes limp. Remember the fate of 'In Living Color'? But, of course, his eventual fade is already foretold: he's on the cover of TV Guide. Nice knowin' you Dave Chappelle. Beyotccccch!
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Red Menace
(TV Guide Online)
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As you read this, Method & Red is taping its 13th -- and possibly final -- episode...Method Man griped to the Los Angeles Times that Fox wouldn't let him keep it 'ghetto' enough. 'This is frustrating for me,' he said, 'and it's not turning out for me as expected.'Hello, knucklehead, the show's on Fox, which is, um, like in the same company as, duh, right-wing Fox News, no? Hmm, even my overactive imagination can't see Fox putting out anything but stock images and stereotypes of Black America, and of course Method Man wants to play right into that, like the genius he is. That is 'creative control' to a fool like that. But hey, that's not really the point here. This is: the show wasn't/isn't FUNNY. I don't give a sh*t if it was or wasn't ghetto enough (though it seems more like insider hip-hop industry humor to me)... but how about giving us something to laugh at, Meth?, if it's a comedy? That's my problem with the show. Take a lesson from Chappelle, if you really want to do something, take your wack show to cable. Shame on a n***a... Also, note how TV Guide describes the show: '...Menace.' That's typical: demonize the bruthas in order to sell your product.
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Joe Schmo 2
(SpikeTV.com)
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The ending, as well as the entire show, was brilliant. This little-seen show, this over-the-top Reality TV parody was the best thing I've seen this year. The only way to take Reality TV seriously, imho, is to send it up. JS2 was so funny that I had to take cherry lozenges after each episode because my throat was raw from laughing so much. It will be interesting to see if they can pull this off one more time, but then, given the number of buffoons dying for their 15-minutes of fame, there are plenty of schmoes out there waiting to be had. They're ready for their close-ups Mr DeMille. Reality TV will eat itself. This show is/was the proof. Bravo!
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« Sunday « August 8, 2004
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Da Ali G Show: Sux
(HBO.com)
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He came. He saw. He startled a few government officials here and there. Now the outrageous comic phenomenon that is Sacha Baron Cohen returns to HBO for a second season of Da Ali G Show.I am a humorist. I love to laugh. I try to look for the funny, chewy, nougat center of every situation, because there certainly is humor in everything, especially when you realize that sooner or later we're all going to die, so you might as well take the lemons of life and laugh while you make the lemonade. Humor, to me, is a way of sugar-coating the raw truth in order to make it easier to swallow. At its core, there's got to be something real behind the punchline. Given that awkward preamble, other than the under-the-top goofiness, I still can't find the truly funny humor in Ali G. Someone h'ep me. F**kin' British humor. It truly sucks, because it just ain't phunny.
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« Saturday « August 7, 2004
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how to be creative
(gapingvoid blog)
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So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years...Helpful.
b/w: blahstuff
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« Friday « August 6, 2004
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Republicans Put a Racist on the Ballot in Tennessee
(Capitol Hill Blue)
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An unabashed racist will represent the Republican party in the November election for a congressional seat after a write-in candidate failed to derail his effort.The GOP shows it's true colors?
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Dubya Does It Again!
(Capitol Hill Blue)
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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we," Bush said.Yeah, this cat puts the "Duh" in Dubya.
b/w: Scripting News
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« Wednesday « August 4, 2004
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Deception Detection
(Science News Online)
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"Is he lying?" Odds are, you'll never know. Although people have been communicating with one another for tens of thousands of years, more than 3 decades of psychological research have found that most individuals are abysmally poor lie detectors.Pants on fire!
b/w: Complexity Digest
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« Tuesday « August 3, 2004
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International exposure: Team USA loses to Italy
(ESPN.com)
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The U.S. men's Olympic team did more than merely lose. It was embarrassed and exposed in its most lopsided defeat since adding NBA players in 1992. Losing an exhibition game for the first time when using NBA players, the Americans were completely outclassed by lightly regarded Italy, never even making it close in the fourth quarter of a 95-78 upset Tuesday. "This is a wakeup call for us," Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson said.No sh*t, AI. Why don't you start "wakin' up" by showing up for team meetings on time, captain, muhf*cka. International sports, that soft proxy for, uh, war, shows you where the country stands: the Italians were taking bows at the end of this game. The Italians think this American team is a joke. Y'all better wake up, fools!
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