Mercurial

Comfy?

The This-or-That for today centers on our lust for comfort, that which defines our society, explains our diseases and our wars, our celebrities and our fashions:
1. Lying down on the couch, or stretching out on a recliner? Lying down on the floor, reading a book, sipping a cool juice.
2. Going barefoot or wearing soft slippers? Barefoot. Everywere.
3. Eating ice cream, or pizza? Ice cream ? guilty, shameless ice cream.
4. Watching on TV...a classic movie or a reality show? Classic movies ? or better, cult films, indies, foreign unknown ones.
5. Wearing: blue jeans or sweat pants? Naked.
6. A long, soothing bubble bath or a quick, invigorating shower? Shower! Fast! Cold!
7. Furniture: leather, or something more on the fuzzy side? Leather on skin.
8. Soft, classical music, or upbeat rock & roll? Upbeat hard moving compelling classical music.
9. Darkness or light? Light. More light.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: You get married, or otherwise begin cohabitating with a significant other. S/he moves into your place, but brings with them the UGLIEST chair you have ever seen! You really don't want this thing in your home, but SO says it is the most comfy chair s/he has ever sat in, and no way will they part with it. Do you: grin and bear it, or scheme to get rid of the monstrosity somehow? The chair stays. Haven?t seen a chair I wouldn?t like.
But I wonder, where are the ethical questions lately?

Fictional billionaires

Even though it may be a little self-referential, coming from Forbes , it seems to be specally true of these times:

Nice buttons

via LinkMachineGo, a lot of small buttons for your viewing pleasure. Although I think Mark had shown this link when he had his Platypus going.
My mistake: He had posted Antipixel's buttons.

DJ Name

Get your DJ Name, using the DJ Name Generator. Mine is Missed Cue.
How appropriate.
via My so called lesbian life

Columbia

I love Blogdex. The collective soul min always finds things that are interesting, amusing and relevant - or simply explores that which makes us curious primates. This graphic story here on the various sizes of ships poses an interesting question: Where is the Millenium Falcon?

Singing

Went to what I was expecting was coral music concert, and was more a coral divertimento, a christian men?s choir full of admonition and covers of old rock bands. Condescending, linear, plain and at points infuriating.
It is not only that I enjoy Gregorian chants on their own, their beauty and sublime emotion within their clear melodic line, thus it hurts to see it mangled after a cover from a never-achieving-Pink-Floyd-status band like Mr. Mister.
It was also that, in the middle of the program, they set up this conversion schtick, this pseudo-play by which they portray what happens to all university males that forego religious values and turn into conflicted businesspeople. Did I say males? Yes! No women, of course, unless used as props for their message.
Anyway, a letter from the father: ?Dear Son, it has been two years since we known about you...?.
Manipulative bastards, saying things that hurt so bad just to put a little bit of salt in their bland spiel! ?Your mother and I..? and my two friends were crying with me, because we haven?t seen our families, we can?t change our circumstances, we need our people and our love, and yet we haven?t, we can?t, we won?t!
Next concert I go will definitely be a Gregorian chants ensemble, or a Palestrina, or anything else that makes me want to cry, but of joy.

Pictures from the city

I went to see Maria yesterday, she being back in town for a few days. Beautiful Maria, long hours are being cruel on her, her multiple appointments and her busy agenda being almost as if she were a famed world class athlete. She is, tough.
At any rate, at last I was able to see her pictures, her visual sensibility and the ability to capture people and time.
What should I say, am biased, but those pictures I saw were beautiful; not going on extremes, since it is obvious that technique has yet to be mastered, as in any other skill, but the perception, the ability to capture a story unfolding, and then give it back to us, unsuspecting bystanders, that was magic. Her pictures are not so much about visual aesthetics, although that is clearly basic there, but that emotion that travels from her to the spectator.
There is, for example, the three old ladies, sitting on a stone fountain, resting after shopping at the local market, waiting for the guagua. Her faces are clear, alert eyes, not yet defeated by time, much more together after a long walk. Or a couple after church, she, with a serious face, listening while playing with her shoes, he, older and graying, explaining some fine point, or giving advice. Father and daughter? Priest and parishioner? Alone in that moment, this kid playing on the beach, the sun setting, and the eyes lost in the vastness of the sea, waiting, listening, wondering.
In a twist of the old tale, it is her soul the one being captured in those pictures, and then placed out there to be seen.

Caffeinol

I was going to go light on the caffeinol dubious origin, but for clear and obvious reasons I think this might be of help.

A Team, revisited

Four G.I.'s accussed of stealign money. A war. Misfits returning from the war, righting wrongs. Pity the fool!
With Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal.

Democracy

this jewel from Diego

Saddam and Arthur Andersen

From the Sidney Morning Herald, Saddam's financial analysis indicates a good performance:

Viernes Cinco

Today’s Friday Five courtesy of the Black Bear, with its throngs of dancing women and static men.
1. What was the last TV show you watched? It has been so long I can’t even remember. Perhaps a re-run of Friends, at Maria’s?
2. What was the last thing you complained about and what was the problem? It is not that I don’t complain, it is that I do not remember what was it. Get it?
3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say? Katie, for her luscious clothes and dancing abilities.
4. What was the last thing you threw away? Paperwork.
5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited? Extreme Tech, for when I build my linux system of total world domination. Or at least an approximation.

little penguins

via dangerous meta, this little Linux PC, which would allow me my dream of becoming a SuperVillain, complete with parallel computing power:

Your turn, Mr. Bond.

Grub

A serious contender to Google appears on the horizon:

Ack

Pollen. Killing. Me.

Igor

Adam goes Frankestein in China, while enjoying pig's brains

D&D

If life were an D&D, these would be my stats
Str: 15
Int: 12
Wis: 17
Dex: 14
Con: 7
Chr: 14

Go check it out here.
I like myself already!
via Minid

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! Go to the EarthDay Network, get involved, create change. Check the guide for events, donate money, time and voice, proselitize and become my hero(ine).
via easy bake coven

Mary-Chan

This beautiful and not at all perturbing illustration from Mari-chan , whose intentions are

Weapons of Mass Consumption

Behold your MWD: Soldiers fround a stack of cash, for an estimated $6000miollion. This is absurd. Surreal.
Who is going to keep the money?
But Bush was right: if there are any WMD, those are.

Not a choice, really

Again, is time for This-or-That, which is easier with time.
1. Yummier: Chocolate ice cream or strawberry cheesecake? Always choose the cheesecake, specially if you are in New York, Madison Square Garden, that cornershop at midnight. Delicious, it melts in the mouth, it is a pleasure and a surprise. Choose the chocolate cake, specially when dark chocolate and no milk, bathed in wine, prepared by your friends.
2. Better to watch on TV: Movies or sports? No TV! Ever heard of going out?
3. A better web browser: MSIE or Netscape (or tell us your own favorite!) Mozilla, even though people won?t use it: My statistics say 5%.
4. A better way to travel: Automobile or bus/train? Walk. Run, if you can.
5. Your preferred camera: Digital or film? Film! Of course, due to environmental restraints, the digital does pose an advantage.
6. A Cooler Vehicle: Motorcycle or sports car? Again, walk.
7. More fun: Video games or board games? Outdoor games.
8. Sexier: A perfect body or an intelligent mind? A sexy intelligent person. With class.
9. A stinkier smell: Skunk or gasoline (petrol)? Gasoline. The skunk liquid won?t give you cancer if you accidentally spill it on your clothes or inhale it, and afterwards you will have a kick of a tale to tell.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: What is more important to you: making a ton of money and being at the top of your field, or finding your soulmate and living a comfortable but not wealthy life? Again, why the choice? If you want to find a balance between your professional life and personal life, you do it. If you consider one thing more important than the other, then, as well, do it. Playing Faustus here is an easy response, escaping responsibilities and negating options. Be both, a top professional and a devoted spouse! Negating that side of yourself that makes you human would eventually show itself as real as your successful career. There is no dichotomy here.

Hyde Park, north corner, 1 pm.

Others

You like spoilers? Good. I have some.
Ms. A invites to watch "Others", with the ever beautiful Ms. Kidman in the role of the overwhelmed mother in a post-war Britain. Carefully created atmosphere, with sensible explanations and credible actors. Too bad that in our era of shrinks and Prozac, the Hitchcock deviations and obsessions are easily modified with a little bit of chemistry, a simple pill to avoid responsibility and ghosts.
But of course, Ms. Kidman lacks this option, so it is left to us, the audience, to busily psychoanalyze the characters, and concluding a mania for her, split personality for the kid, and PTSD for the husband.
And of course, we all have seen movies that have that, and that is precisely the elegance of this film, that it takes all those elements that made us suspicious - because we all saw those movies and their cheap remakes - and presents them on a new light, you know, as if these were not constructs to deceive, but the truth.
Midway through the film you guess the its conclusion, again thanks to the use of classic movie snippets that filter here and there: The fog, the Kurosawa soldier coming from the war, the impossibility to leave the house etc. All those elements combine with the too obvious mission of the three servants, and give the plot away.
However, even after you expect that, even after confirming that suspicion regarding the true nature of the inhabitants of the house and their mission, there is something that comes forward as completely unexpected: The previous to last scene, where the mother embraces her kids and confesses - or realizes - what she made, finally acknowledges herself and her situation, that is a warm scene, one in which it is easy to empathize with the mother, or the suffering, and some kind of hope.
Of course, superb acting. Ms. Kidman is talented, bringing to her role deep structure, from the haughty upper class dame to the crumbling guilty woman.
Exquisite acting.
We could go on, thinking about this movie as a muffled voice to our own desperation, when out of spite, or fear, we see ourselves forced to accept our situation - that which we fight with tooth and nail, and the abysm in which we fall when denying reality. Somehow, this film doesn't give itself to that sensibility.

Year of the RAM

As an update to this post, from Slashdot, a little touch on RAM technology for storage.
Of course, they take you to this eweek article, which makes me think that this whole post is kind of dated.
Anyway. My investment advice of the day: RAM Memory companies, hold for 5 years.

Rules

Jim makes a wish and gets it, with links and all to
Slashdot:

Spam cards

Just as Prentiss shows, opportunity is everywhere for the spammer. However, you can download your own set of cards for Iraq's Most Wanted.
Print it at Kinkos. Have fun.

Unwirer

From Dan Gillmor, a link to a story being written by Cory Doctorow and Charle Stross, online
Behold Unwirer!

Dive into Matrix

Let's go see the Matrix, or if not, read Mark:

Passwords

UPDATE
Just this morning (4-22-2003), I was checking some info my HR manager gave me for their web site; besides the basic verbiage for her page, I received about 100 Social Security Numbers of various employees of the company. That makes me feel so fucking secure!
END OF UPDATE
It is just as good that we refuse to give ourselves in to technology, and even when the case is about revealing our secrets and passwords, we tend to give them away.
About this security issue here: Expected and Accepted behavior. When confronted with some group with authority outside our daily context, we all behave as conditioned, accepting the mild suggestion from others and revealing a lot of information: that is what identifies the social engineering that hackers use, and the strength of journalists and other careers that emphasize interaction and discovery: The question that the journalist makes gets to be validated because they are expected to make questions that ought to be answered. If not the journalist, some other group has then the acceptance that guarantees disclosure of events - physicians, groupies, whatever works at the moment. On many occasions a person will simply accept the other's suggestion and reveal serious personal information, passwords, any checkered past and the kind of medicines they are taking, all in exchange for a little attention and validation.
It is not so much as which info to disclose, but to train oneself not to talk away just because somebody asks.
Just in case, I just changed my password here.

Marathon

Little Pravda, making me feel guilty about staying in bed:

Wishful thinking

The folks at CNN are obviously preparing for happier times, and thus had their readily and open to the public, as you can see in that story by the Smoking Gun.
Now, of course, soulless politician has a new meaning.

Guayaba

vega longs for these Colombian products:

sex, lies and poetry reading

I know, the title is actually sex, lies and video tapes but in my case, being one of the few survivors without a TV yet, the change of title seems to be logical. More even when you are a literature professor, mainly devoted to poetry. By the way, how can you handle talking the whole day about love, idilic sites, nature, romanticism...when your real life is pure chaos in terms of love relationships? Just disconnect. Try to think of something really ugly when you deal with gorgeous country landscapes, or, more convenient, pronounce this sentence to yourself -obviously not aloud in class- when you read a romantic love declaration: "don't trust him honey; he's speaking the same bullshit all men do and very likely he will tell the same to your closest friend " . . . or almost. She was not my closest friend but was starting to become one. Why is life such a bitch and books no help when you are trying to escape reality? Is fiction more real than reality? Are all my relationships ficticious? What is Matrix, and more important, what was the color of the pill you have to take to escape from here? I never remember...In any case the second part is coming, as usual, the same but "reloaded." Like my relationships... But this one promises to be great, thanks to divine Keanu. Men...I'll never learn.

Looters, by Coalition

from PatrickNielsen, who got it from John Quiggin, this story from the very prestigious Times Online, telling on April the 5th that the Coalition was encouraging the looting, as a way to prove once and for all the demise of the Republican Guard.

Privacy Czar - as in not any more

from Die Puny Humans and Brooke, the news that a former exec from Doubleclick will be the new privacy Czar. Of course, after naming Norton as protector of the environment, anything is possible.
This is the beauty of doublespeak, as gWb says one thing, but enforces the complete opposite one.

Saddam and Star Wars

This has been done already, but what the hell:

Real news

Aaron asks about the real content on the news, and why is it that newspapers fail to notice those relevant pieces of our daily experience that are shaping our history and understanding of the world. So disconnected he has been,

Postings

Finally Ana, taking time out of her personal and professional life to give a comment to this blog, told me that I have lately been too focused on the war, that my blog is political.
Of course I am the first one surprised by that: My opinions, although with an obvious bias, were just answering to the current situation, much more as an editorial on newsworthy events than a political expression.
And I remember that for a long part of my life, as a student, I was apolitical - as a matter of fact, I was on a student association that was non-profit, apolitical and non-discriminatory.And really, if you are not political when a student, when are you going to be?
But recent events may have forced this out of me - this need to be so vocal about things and events. And then I remember that, yes, as a matter of fact my latest tasks have implied a bit of that: taking a stand, asking for answers, risking a little bit more than just a bad night.
I don't think of this blog as political, though. Opinionated perhaps, but not even much - long posts are scarce around here.
Time to focus on other things, then.

Gunter Grass, pro-American

via Elton Beard, a link too an editorial by Gunter Grass

Pressing circumstances

Kottke adopts a pragmatical stance on the CNN debacle, criticizing those that, such as me are rendering their vétéments on the callousness of CNN, which opted to censor itself instead of evaluating much more deeply its involvement with the Iraqi government.
I agree with Jason, practicality is necessary, specially on some assignments: A journalist won't divulge the location of a person that may be fleeing the law, or perhaps a corporate whistleblower. A journalist may agree not to divulge information regarding a corporation's dealings. A journalist can not be the juror and the executor of a person who hasn't been proved guilty yet.
At the same time, a journalist can not be made party - and shouldn't allow themselves to become one.

No leaf unturned

Thanks to Fredo, I get much more than I wanted to see, a veritable meat market or comparison piece, according to your orientation.
Not safe for work. Nor sane.

Editors

Answering a post from Bea who is up to here with trolls and crackpots, one thing regarding this internet-blogging thing: You have become the editor of your own e-zine, you choose content, and you have to deal with the usual letters of protest.
Better, even, as that protest email won't fill any trashcan, won't degrade our environment, and you have always the power to press "delete", which feels goood.
And that is the beauty of free speech, free as in everybody: We all get to say to the others that we don't like them - and we all get to delete their inane drivel. Or not, but that is your choice.
And while blogging we get to learn about the culture, what can be said - or not - and what we said regardless of stupid political correctness.
Just so you know, I support Bea 110%.

Rosario

Burn to forget

From Shawn to Danny O'Brien, how libraries burn in Baghdad

Free speech, as in beer

Interzone received a Cease and Desist Letter forbidding their panelists presentation

RAM, Forrest, RAM!

One of these days, within the next three years, when you buy your next computer that instead of hard drive has a staggering five giga in RAM - and thus blindingly fast - you can blame Anil for the idea of having all your info in RAM instead of working directly in the hard drive.
Yet it would be übercool! computer eternally on, dumping info on the hard drive just when idle, and the big RAM factories chugging along, delivering huge amounts of memory for our memory intensive games!
Because any 3D app should be wicked in an environment like this

Bastion

From bastion

staff god for hire

The existence of religion in the Americas has been dated as far back as 2250 BC. To find remnants from a culture so ancient - for America - is quite a remarkable event. However, I remember a discussion about the possibility of older pieces, located all of them in hard to reach places. The thing goes like this: since the missionaries purposefully destroyed everything that seemed to compete with the Catholic religion, only in those really remote places any indication of previous cultures or developments would remain, as the mere presence of carved stones and the like would be a signal of heresy which had to be erased.
Thus, the claims from anthropologists about discoveries in the savannahs of the Orinoco, or high in the Andes, in lost or hidden cities - where the hand of the missionary movement could not reach.
It would be interesting to se whether this staff god is somehow connected to the later legends of staffed strangers - they all had staffs - that went around giving knowledge and saving the communities from the disasters that ignorance or simply evil would bring upon them.
And whether we may need one of those now.

CNN, that bastion of ethics!

Accusations that CNN manipulated their broadcast of Michael Moore's speech at the Oscars:

Tuesday thingie!

from Christine, on this incredibly bright Tuesday.
1. File taxes as early as possible, or wait until the last possible minute? File al early as possible. January the first. Now!! Mail the check paying taxes at the last minute, though.
2. File electronically, or mail paper forms? Electronically, baby.
3. Prepare your own taxes, or have someone do it for you? Me, myself.
4. Are you a saver or a spender? save? what's that?
5. Do you prefer to carry cash, or pay with plastic (credit/debit cards), or by check? I like to pay with plastic, so I have the electronic trail and can later reorganize my finances and see where the money went. That said, it is surprising how easy it is to lose track of money when you are getting all your statements one month later.
6. You're broke and desperately need a job, but the only places that are hiring are retail or fast food places. Which would you pick? Retail. Actually, I might need to do that.
7. Keeping track of your money: are you more meticulous or careless about it? Exceedingly careful, know where everything went. What I don't have is any common sense, nor any priority idea: I would spend first in impulse things, such as books, and then have to worry about that bill coming alter on the month. Not that I worry, but you get the idea.
8. What do you do if you find yourself with a lot of change weighing down your purse/pocket/wallet? Do you try to spend it to *get rid of it*, or do you put it in a jar or a piggy bank? Put in a jar, and after a few weeks have enough money to put gas in my tank, or whatever.
9. Which form of fake money do you like better...Monopoly money or those chocolate coins covered with gold foil? I like the real stuff. Actually, I like bills from other countries, which have beautiful designs, colors, texts, birds etc. Dollars are absolutely dull in that respect.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: You find a wallet containing $5,000 in cash, as well as several credit cards and the owner's drivers' license. Your rent is due tomorrow and you're short $200. Do you take the money (some or all of it) and mail back the wallet anonymously...or do you return the wallet with all contents intact? I return the wallet with all the money and cards. One thing has nothing to do with the other.
That being said, if the money emergency was an absolute and complete urgent matter, and I needed these US$200 bad, I might ask for a loan from that person. With interest.

Osama linked to Saddam

From Diego, the definitive connection between Osama and Saddam, using the Oracle of Bacon:

Compromises

The dilapidation of journalistic integrity, of personal dignity, and basic respect for human life, CNN became an accomplice to Saddam's horrors, by keeping silent, just for a few reports.

SARS, made in?

So far only a technical question, but there are suspicions regarding the origin of the SARS:

Operation

Although this still looks like an anaconda getting ready to swallow its victim, it is really part of an independent video, The Operation, winner of an award at the 1995 Chicago Underground Film Festival. What makes it interesting? It has been filmed in infrared, capturing the artists' bodies as lines of heat instead of light.
And since the them of the video is sex, heat pretty much travels all over the place.
via Die Puny Humans

Customer Survey

From The Martian, this Regime repair customer satisfaction survey:

Interview

Been surfing around, and found this comic, from Small Stories, a site run by Derek Kirk Kim.
via generation rice

hood advice

If you want different advice to getting your new home, go here for the clearest explanations; here are some titles:
Your agent is your bitch.
Your broker is your pimp.

Word up

This is what happens when you have too much time, or know too much about words: Vitamin Q

Wordlog

From Emily, WordLog, a collective experiment in alternative words.

Looting in the Museum

Update on the war. Tired of this war. And now, looting in the Iraq National Museum has left it without anything of value:

Marketing schemes

This has to be a slow day when all I see is Cheapass Computers.
These people must have gone to some intense marketing program, to come up with such a name!

They are lying, then?

So obvious! I had found the convenient presence of an APC to pull the rope on the statue a little bit convenient, but not on this scale: A The photograph of the moment when the statue if Saddam was being toppled leads to other disclosures:

Long run

Not long after the main battles are won, the Arab world is demanding an Iraqi government, and the cease of occupation by the USA:

Help

This photoshopped picture has been going around, labeled as "the best anti-war photo". However, from my days as an editor I know it was actually taken during revolts in Colombia, about 2000. Anyone knows where to get it, or who has a pointer to it? Google has proved useless on this thing.

Kevin sites captured and released

Read the latest adventure of CNN journalist Kevin Sites, on how he was detained by Iraqi troops, and later released:

Pin-ups!

I know that beauty is a cultural construct, mostly shaped by our accepted views, our current definition, and what our media throws back. That said, it is refreshing to see these PinUp Girls from times past, when stylized forms and full figures went together in the definition of women, a popular art of sorts - a simplicity of form that appeals even now.
via Robyn, and let's hope I wrote her name right!

(Im)Purity Test

Perhaps I should get out more.

Mesopotamia

Long before the war, the main reference to the Tigris and Eufrates would be as the cradle of human civilization, the birthplace of writing - Mesopotamia, the land between rivers, known as the fertile crescent.
And I was talking about it yesterday with a friend, how we seem to have forgotten all our history in lieu of stories of carnage and invasion. That is why it was so refreshing to find this link to the British Museum exhibit about Mesopotamia, in this post from Rael.
Of course, now that I have found that again, I should sit down and relearn all about Hammurabi, or perhaps read again my favourite, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Can't think- Friday Five

the friday five Because I really had to work today.
1. What was the first band you saw in concert? Guns'n'Roses.
2. Who is your favorite artist/band now? Cat Power
3. What's your favorite song?
Friday I'm in Love
4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? Piano
5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why? Bach.

Sevillanas

My friend was bored, so she played this music. Afterwards, she was nostalgic AND bored. Nothing like feeling nostalgic to start torturing yourself with music from your own beautiful town.
On other news, "Sevillanas a Sevilla" available here, as an mp3.

Spanish Media, bravo!

A little recount from The Prandial Post about the response from the Spanish media to the death of José Couso, one of the cameramen killed when the tank fired a round against the hotel where the journalists were staying:

Sitzpinkel

via fredo, a critique on the German toilet:

In Extremis

¡Vámonos de paracaidistas ya que te gustan las situaciones extremas!

Quilotoa

Dervala about the nades

Trackbacking

In brilliantcorners, Bill makes a illuminatred exposition about the possible use of trackback:

Pillow Book

Jonathon describes Sei Shonaogn, the author of The Pillow Book, that X century Japanese classic. MOre to the point, he goes on to show what does the book does to him:

Guest / Invitada

Perhaps you have seen that Ana has started to post around here. What gives? well I needed bad another convert to the blogging world - and she was around with a very serious comment.
So, let's see how she feels posting.

Impuestos

Estoy a punto de cometer suicidio conmigo misma. No salgo de la pagina 2
de los impuestos y siempre vuelvo al mismo sitio, es un LABERINTO!!!

Homesick

Camilo, me quiero ir a mi casa..... sob.

a little bit of This or that

Time for This-or-That, with the timeliness of the classics:
Who is:
1. Sexier (female)...Pamela Anderson or Jennifer Garner? Jennifer Garner. Electra complex, perhaps?
2. Sexier (male)...Ben Affleck or Matt Damon? you’ve got to be kidding me!
3. The better piano player...Billy Joel or Elton John? Elton John. Sir Reginald has always been the best.
4. Funnier...David Letterman or Craig Kilborn? Collin Powell.
5. The dumber cartoon cat...Stimpy (of *Ren & Stimpy*) or Tom (of *Tom & Jerry*)? Stimpy! Weak pussy!
6. A better news anchor...Tom Brokaw or Dan Rather? Brokaw. Just for the book.
7. A better TV chef...Emeril Lagasse or Jacques Pepin? Emeril, for making it seem effortless and easy.
8. The trashier talk show host...Maury Povich or Jerry Springer? Springer is classier :)
9. The worse fast food burger joint...McDonald's or Burger King? McDonald’s. BUt it is just a reflection of the mood of th American consumer.
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: Only a handful of U.S. Presidents have been considered to be *great* Of the following two, which one do you consider to be greater...Franklin D. Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln? Why? Lincoln. Although both presidents went to extremes to support unpopular policies, and were forced to resort to war later on, Lincoln was defending basic values and beliefs, ones that proved to be basic to the very understanding of individual dignity and its importance to the spiritual health of the nation.

Evil

The Evil is with us today, via my so called lesbian life

We are trapped

Just because it can, the FBI is being absolutely intransigent:

Sex and Cities

At last it happened. I gave the URI of my blog to a friend, who said ”very...interesting”.
With ellipsis and all.
Is ithis what I get after slaving for hours in from of the computer? an "interesting"? Oh, I am so disapointed in her!!
My silence must have been telling her something, because, finally, she asked “don’t they have blogs about Sex and the City? Perhaps then I would write about it!”
yeah, right. although she might.
And today, to Leon's, to have drinks and be merry!
More to the point, Who would you kill from Sex and the city?

Blogs save lives

This particularly engaging piece by that accordion guy is the reason why of blogging! not money, not even chicks, but life!

Kill people, go to Heaven

As if on cue, stupid fanatics are turning this war into a religious conflict, coloring every action with their own particular interest

Crush'em like bugs

After all these preparations, and they go and find some pesticide

Differences

There are seven differences between this two pictures. Find them!

Baghdad Airport

It doesn't seem clear the control of the USA forces over Baghdad's airport, according to this report, from a site in Russia:

But most troubling of all, this is the analysis that echoes the sentiment of many senior officers in the USA army:

This is via Kuro5hin

Inert bombs

Dop you remember old comics, when a big anvil woudl fall on the hapless Coyote? RAF is going to do the same with concrete bombs, big bricks designed to hit and not explode. Just kinetic energy, not much of an explosion, I suppose.
Can this war turn more surreal?

Battle for Bagdhad

Robert Fisk with a different view of this triunfant Battle of Baghdad

Fiendly fire

John Simpson, travelling with American Special Forces, describes the scene after getting attacked by an USA plane.

Gibson's parties

Just finished William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties, which I read at Borders, between coffee and conversation.
Must say that, after reading the last chapters I was swept into an alternate reality: Things stopped making sense, and for a while I was expecting somehow to transport myself to that interstitial space being documented by Tessa, not wanting to identify people and friends - just lost in the space provided by the story.
No I was not expecting the bridge nor the characters. Just that everyday reality seemed to acquire a different hue after the intensity of purpose of the characters, the single point of their existence being that particular instant.
Afterwards, everthing unravels, melts, and the story vanishes in the air. Superb.

Word on the street

From Reuters, here reports on the presence of Saddam in the streets of Baghdad, urging the people to resist.

Nothing to fear

Reading Insect Dreams I came to the famous words of FDR's inaugural address, and was profoundly moved by the sentiment expressed in them, the absolute faith in a better country, a fairer America, an opportunity land again. I was shocked to see that what was urgent then is urgent now, that the major problems from that era continue to be current.
I was elated to read wise words on fear and terror:

rations vs bombs

I had to check the date of this report, stating that children may confuse bomblets for drinks.

Cargo Cult

Because, in these days, it is god to rememer this, from Kuro5hin:
Cargo Cult Catechism

BlogWorld

Blogtree, via Jose Luis
This post had two different purposes: The first, and obvious, was to say something about the BlogWorld thing. Great for navigatin'.
The other one was about trying a hack for MT by which you can actually send pictures using your tracback, as reported by Stavros. Didn't work, though, even though I copied the metadata description, the whole hidden comment thingie and stuff.
So, as soon as I am finished with my cargo cult approach to hacking, I may try actually reading something about PHP and XML. Keep posted.

TGIF

And it is Friday Five:
1. How many houses/apartments have you lived in throughout your life? With my parents: Three. On my own: 15.
2. Which was your favorite and why? My apartment in Bogota. Beautiful place, excellent location, incredible view from a ninth floor. And I could walk around naked and nobody would notice.
3. Do you find moving house more exciting or stressful? Why? Do you like carrying stuff in boxes boing or entertaining? Exactly my point. Specially when you do it on a quarterly basis. Right now, I am considering classifying myself as "nomad".
4. What's more important, location or price? Both: I always lived in high price places, thanks to their incredible location. Snob, I know.
5. What features does your dream house have (pool, spa bath, big yard, etc.)? Bed. Kitchen. Library. SDL access. Forty deciduous trees.

Bush is thinking

In perspective

A visual account of money spent on war, reconstruction and humanitarian aid to Iraq

Propaganda

Marines taste defeat on football pitch, by the BBC.

Then they proceed to tell about the inhuman conditions of life in Umm Qasr, obviously fault of Saddam.
That is why it is so refreshing to hear from David Leigh, when points out the extremes to whcih the coalition (USA and UK) have gone to stamp out the shadow of truth, using a gullible and willing media:

A propos of freedom

Neal Pollack agajin, with an article about our increasingly polarized view of the world, and the effects in what was once deemed an open society:

Life

This little graphic is full of points, where each one represents one more day that I may get to enjoy.
In a year, I would have taken three lines off that graphic.
Not many more are there.
My life is going away.

Authority

Even though we are faced with tons of info every day, it is not the authority of the blogger but whether we like or not what is being said, and the way that they say it. Particularly in this medium, where we reinvent content and analyze from various sources, stickiness doesn’t come from a source from above, some mythical authority. Nor their voice has to be that of a careless young professional, unencumbered by life’s little dismissals.
Perhaps, that which makes a blog worth reading is the ability of the author to immerse us into their view of the world, in an intelligent, thoughtful way, without much consideration for authority – either as savvy or ascendancy – but for acknowledgement.
This article about the authority of the blogger as the definite reason to visit falls short of that, making it stickiness dependant only on some obscure technical reason or how the author’s life has evolved up to this moment.
Perhaps blogs have their success in the fact that they are being updated – and thus, demand time and attention. Perfect for young professionals that choose this as an avenue for expression; other people might have other forae.

Why more marines are needed

General (r) Hoar points out the reasons why this war might not be as easy this time around, in an OpEd in the NYTimes

Near Baghdad

Never so close so as to win completely, thoughm, the forces are already within 90 miles of Baghdad according to the BBC. Among many concerns, though, is the possibility of extended urban combat

It's alive!

For a while I woudl have thought that it makes sense, since life processes are, inherently, pattern generators. But of course it is tru as well of inert processes. At any rate, you can compressidetect life by how well the images of a fossil compress under Zip.

Coffee

I must be a coffee addict: I walk past the coffee machine, and mutter to myself “musss have, my preshoussss”
I don’t even like Tolkien.

Dream Anatomy

Jacques Gamelin
(1739-1803)
A beautiful gallery of anatomical depictions through the ages, with incredible detail and variety, at the National Library of Medicine.
via Giornale Nuovo

Empire strikes back

Now it makes sense: Emperor George

Civilians

And now the ugly spectre shows its face: <Civilian deaths

War stories

British soldiers being killed by US soldiers. It is not so much about mistakes, but a general disposition regarding human life and non-combatants. The link is here

Information, dis-

It is not so much as censorship as discrediting the voices that have a clear and profound analysis of whatever our conflict has become, and the alternatives we have if we want to continue as a functioning society. When some people start using their public voices to advocate death for any particular group, that is when we have gone too far. Patrick Nielsen posts to that respect, saying Electrolite: Apocalypse now:

Not that it is not happening already.

Britney Spears

For you, nice people searching for
Britney Spears' pictures, here are some.
Just so you don't waste this google.

eche la leche

The PETA are always trying to draw attention to themselves, either by demosntration or by mistake

Woof! Guau!

I have been reviewed by The Talking Dog.

This or that - I am not serious!

This-or-That: April 1: The Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie, Filet Gumbo Edition, and these are not the usual ones!
1. The Bogey-Man or Henry Kissinger? Henry Kissinger. Frightening.
2. Whips 'n chains or soft ropes with furbound cuffs? Whips, baby!!
3. Fish sticks or Amazon.com? Amazon piranhas.
4. Whitewall tires or color TV? Nike air
5. Leather or lace? Leather
6. Abraham Lincoln or leftover turkey? Lincoln logs.
7. Movable Type or Star Trek? Movable type. Make it so.
8. Happy Happy Joy Joy or Bounce Bounce Bounce like Tigger? Bounce bounce bounce
9. The Michelin Man or the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man? Michelin - no boicott here.
10. Thought-Provoking Question of the Week: If you HAD marry one of the talking M&M's in the TV commercials, would it be the red one or the yellow one? Why? The sexy green one - she looks good in green!