Archive for November, 2005
Thus spake Antropologo
November 30, 2005 at 10:31 pm
All Things Considered, November 30, 2005 · Eager to see more good news in Iraqi newspapers about the role of U.S. troops in that country, the Pentagon has been paying a Washington, D.C.-based firm to produce positive stories, translate them into Arabic and have them placed as legitimate news in Baghdad newspapers. Link
Personally, I think that our propaganda only serves to fool ourselves…
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 7:17 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 6:24 am
 “Peace is paying dividends in Sierra Leone. The same civil war that depleted the country of tools and work is now providing ample raw material for recovery: weapons. Enterprising blacksmiths and metal workers convert them into farm implements so that a Kalashnikov becomes hoes and axe heads and a rocket launcher transforms into pickaxes, sickles and even school bells. The indisputable heavyweight champ is a tank (or a heavy duty 16 wheeler) that can provide a year’s work for 5 blacksmiths, turning it into 3,000 items vital to equip a farming village of 100 families.”
This is an awesome idea. I’ll buy them a tank right now if they’ll let me keep just one rocket launcher for myself. Link
(Reclaimed from Boingboing)
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Tycho
November 29, 2005 at 8:50 am
 “If You Can’t Slap ‘Em, Snap ‘Em”
Hollabacknyc lets women, and the occasional man, document lurid harassment from strangers in public places. Fascinating stories along with the occasional cell phone pic of the pervert involved.
Link.
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Tycho
November 28, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 9:24 am
 …or so say the rumors on the internets. According to Paul Harvey, members of the cast and crew of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest have been attacked and robbed on multiple occasions, and in some cases forced to flee for their very lives.
Click here for the streaming audio archive, and fast forward to 6:10 (six minutes and ten seconds), to hear all about it.
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 7:35 am
…and seventeen other anatomical tricks can be found here, including:
- How to stop a nosebleed
- How to prevent side stitches while running
- Relieve toothache pain by icing your hand
- Prevent near-sightedness
More…(via Boingboing)
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 7:08 am
 …or, more accurately, icebergs resonate, producing music that can be heard when sped up to human audible frequencies. It sounds kind of like a theremin. Listen to it here:
iceberg.au
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Antropologo
November 25, 2005 at 6:18 pm
Here’s a response I got from a Kansas State School Board member. She is a moderate Republican and voted against changing the school board policy to permit the teaching of creationism.
Thank you for your message. November 8, 2005 the six member majority on the state board finally exercised their majority vote and adopted science standards that change the definition of science to include supernatural explanations of natural phenomena. I believe these adopted standards are seriously flawed and need to be rescinded. For the record the vote was six fundamentalist christians yes votes (Abrams, Bacon, Willard, Van Meter, Morris). Two moderate republicans (Gamble, Rupe) NO and two democrats (Waugh, Wagnon ) NO.
This has stopped being about science or education it is now about stopping a political movement that wants to turn our education system back to a time that we did not expect that all students could learn to high expectations. If we don’t stop this movement now it will harm our economic viability both at the state level but also nationally because this is a national movement.
Kansas has a long history of very strong education. Currently Kansas is rated in the top 10% of about anything that is used to measure educational quality nationally. That is one of the things that the minority on the state board finds so troublesome. We feel the quality of our education system is jeopardized as a result of this action that weakens science standards.
In 1999 a previous state board adopted science standards that seriously de-valued evolution. In 2000 the Kansas electorate removed three of the four members who voted for the 1999 flawed standards. I hope they will do the same in 2006 because I am convinced that the action of the six member majority does not reflect the wishes of the majority of Kansans.
Four of the six member majority will be up for election in 2006: Bacon, Van Meter, Willard, Morris. I am compiling a list of folks from all over the world who want to help defeat these four. If you would like to help just let me know and I will add your name. Thanks for caring.
Sincerely,
Sue Gamble (msgamble@swbell.net)
PS: The standards as now approved by the six member majority do not include the words creationism or intelligent design but the definition of science tacitly includes the acknowledgment that there are other explanations for science than natural ones. The language is subtle but the concepts are there and I think they weaken the science standards and I won’t give up until they are rescinded.
PPS Please forgive the delay in responding to your message; however, we have been flooded with messages from around Kansas and around the world. The vast majority have expressed anger and outrage at the actions of the six member majority.
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Tycho
at 4:05 pm
Thus spake Tycho
November 24, 2005 at 9:54 pm
Thus spake Antropologo
November 23, 2005 at 1:31 pm
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 9:06 am
 Check out this visual representation of just how many systems are estimated to have been taken over by Sony’s DRM rootkit, an “anti-piracy” measure that opens up users’s sytems to several remote attacks, and is a mandatory part of any Sony CD or DVD.
Link
(Stolen from WeMakeMoneyNotArt)
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 8:49 am
 “Sam, the tiny dog whose hairless body and crooked teeth earned him a reputation as the World’s Ugliest Dog, has died.
The pooch died Friday, just short of his 15th birthday, his owner said.
Sam won the ugliest dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair this summer for the third year in a row. The pedigreed Chinese crested had made appearances on TV in Japan, radio in New Zealand and in Britain’s Daily Mirror tabloid. He also had met Donald Trump on a talk show set.”
Link
(Editor’s Note: Dog was alive at time of photo)
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Adrian
November 22, 2005 at 9:13 pm
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 12:48 pm
  Apparently, none other than Ozzy Osbourne is writing a musical based on Grigory Rasputin, the Russian mystic who figured prominantly in the Romanov dynasty:
“Osbourne was inspired to write the show after watching a BBC documentary about Rasputin. Though he came from humble beginnings, the so-called “Mad Monk” became a leading figure in the Romanov dynasty during the early 20th century. Rasputin, said Osbourne, lived the rock’n'roll lifestyle before it was invented. He drank heavily, was a womaniser, disregarded personal hygiene and was linked with witchcraft and the occult. He was also famously hard to kill - his assassins had to poison, shoot and drown him.”
Link (stolen from Boingboing, yet again)
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Sheni
at 11:04 am
Chip recently posted a call for people to tell him about personal web based calendars. I have a slightly different question. At work, we’ve recently migrated all of our mail out of Exchange, but we’re still tied to Exchange for the calendar service. Does anyone know of an enterprise Exchange Calendar replacement (outside of Lotus)? Something open-source sure would be nice.
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Ennui
at 9:51 am
Thus spake Ennui
at 5:33 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
November 21, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 12:16 pm
What do Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and Ukraine all have in common?
They are all currently part of the Coallition forces in Iraq. Let it not be said that we don’t have international assistance in this conflict.
(thanks to Antropologo for the globalsecurity.org recommendation)
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 9:12 am
 Check out this case study concerning the feasiblity of turning Saturn into a small star in order to be able to colonize the moon of Titan.
Now that’s an ambitious public works project.
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Joanne
at 9:05 am
Thus spake Joanne
at 8:02 am
Thus spake Joanne
at 7:25 am
Former “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss, whose previous career running a call-girl ring landed her in prison, is returning to the world’s oldest profession — to open a Nevada brothel catering to women.
Fleiss said she is taking applications from men seeking to work in what she says will be the world’s first licensed brothel catering exclusively to female clients.
Categories: Uncategorized
53 Comments »
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 7:01 am
 The bombing of innocent Moslems and threats against the Jordanian king have finally come back to haunt al Qaeda leader Al-Zarqawi, who has been disowned by his family and tribe:
“The statement is a blow to al-Zarqawi, who will no longer enjoy the protection of his tribe and whose family members may seek to kill him.
The statement said anyone who carried out such violence in the kingdom does not enjoy its protection.
“A Jordanian doesn’t stab himself with his own spear,” they wrote. “We sever links with him until doomsday.”
Link
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Antropologo
November 20, 2005 at 2:40 pm
Before the media (conservative and liberal alike) rip this guy’s statement to shreds, it’s better to hear what he actually said himself.
Rep. Murtha says: “The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion….” Read more
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Evil Overload
November 18, 2005 at 1:41 pm
At Antropologo’s gracious request, here are some links to stories you won’t hear from most media outlets about some of the good news coming out of an Iraq freed from the tyrrany of Hussein.
Here’s one about professors returning to Iraq who were forced out in the brain-drain during Saddam’s reign:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1209/p01s03-legn.html
The Marsh Arabs, forced out of their ancestral lands by Saddam Hussein draining the wetlands, are now able to return to their homes, and Iraqi engineers are working with coallition engineers to restore the wetlands to their former state:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/05/marsh.iraq/
Sunni leaders encourage their followers to support the democratic process:
http://www.almendhar.com/english_5688/news.aspx
Iraqi security forces have taken over policing the predominantly Sunni area of Diyala Valley, where violence has given way to political participation:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0830/p01s04-woiq.html
The U.S. has turned 24 military bases over to the Iraqi army as of August 21st, reducing U.S. involvement and troop commitments:
http://www.blackanthem.com/TheAllies/2005082604.html
City council established in the formerly anti-coallition town of Wynot:
http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sep2004/a091504c.html
3,100 schools renovated, electric power use above pre-war levels, and how Iraqi citizens hate the insurgency enough to risk threats of death for the sake of voting:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/16/good_news_from_iraq/
And, of course, the Kurds are quite pleased to have gained democracy and freedom in exchange for a racist dictator pleged to kill them:
http://www.theotheriraq.com/addendum.html
Not that the war hasn’t been without tragedy and hardship, but let’s not completely ignore what has been accomplished there, and what will be lost if we withdraw our support before greater stability is achieved.
Categories: Uncategorized
88 Comments »
Thus spake Adrian
November 17, 2005 at 8:09 pm
If one smoking a cigarette is approached by a shady character who asks, “Do you smoke cigarettes?” — how does one answer exactly?
Categories: Uncategorized
Add a Comment »
Thus spake Ennui
at 2:21 pm
|
