The Fruit Game is the most annoying game ever.

OpenP2P.com: Hailstorm: Open Web Services Controlled by Microsoft [May. 30, 2001] Definitions and Descriptions: This is the most audacious aspect of HailStorm, and the core of the describe-and-defend strategy. Microsoft wants to create a schema which describes all possible user transactions, and then copyright that schema, in order to create and manage the ontology of life on the Internet.

I replaced blogvoices with a mailto link until blogvoices comes back up. Comment away!

It seems, yet again, I cannot sleep.

BBC News | EUROPE | E-mail users warned over spy network Computer users across Europe should encrypt all their e-mails, to avoid being spied on by a UK-US eavesdropping network, say Euro-MPs.

The Long Now Foundation: Ito The Long Now is defined as the last and next 10,000 years.

Richard Brautigan
The Final Ride
The act of dying
is like hitch-hiking
into a strange town
late at night
where it is cold
and raining,
and you are alone
again.


Lately my writing has been drying up. I've decided it's because I've forgotten my Richard Brautigan. Truly a great writer, the most underrated of the beats.

Los Angeles Times says

Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously. That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today.

CNN.com says:

Warning that Afghanistan is "on the verge of a widespread famine," Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday announced a $43 million package in humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people.

So what's the story? Are we financing a bloodthirsty despot, or joining with the UN to help out those poor, hungry Afghans? Do we even know?

it's a bloggin' small world

Today I was over at the Globe cafe with Tony Sacco and David when I saw a blue-dyed dreadlocked girl with a tattoo of a tillium on her arm. It was Ariel, of course, having breakfast with Andreas and friends. Since I know Ariel has also visited my site, I introduced myself. I guess that's one of the things I love about blogs. It's still a small world.
Note Blogspots is down today, so the link to Ariel's blog may not work.

Maybe we need a corporate death penalty
How would a corporate death penalty work? Perhaps, after the civil litigation was resolved, the remaining assets of the company -- at least those that were legally gained -- might go on the auction block, with the proceeds going to taxpayers.

Link gleaned from Slashdot.

Farida and I were married just over four months ago. Getting married changes a lot of things in your life, including your point of view. I knew I shouldn't have looked at the Jerusalem wedding disaster videos at CNN.com, but I couldn't help it. Watching those people plunge to their deaths shook me up in a way my video-culture jaded self hasn't felt in a long while. That's why it was all the more dismaying to see this in our Inbox from weddingchannel.com and Good Morning America the very next day. I'm sure this is a coincidence. If it's not, we have to leave here. We can't live in this country any more.

Do you have a wedding disaster to laugh at and share with America? Did you catch it on tape? Our television division is looking for fun home videos of your wedding mishaps to broadcast to other couples. That's why we're here -- to help our brides and grooms avoid disasters and to keep them smiling on their special day. So you may be glad you caught that romantic first dance on tape, but we're excited about seeing the footage of your best man...flying off the dance floor and into the cake. Or the "before" scene of your snowy white dress -- and the "after" take where you're all wet and muddy because the sprinklers came on during your ceremony.

Plastic: Altculture Aimee Man, Haruki Murakami and the Bat Boy!

Shamans set up a code of ethics to fight shams For the first time, Amazonian medicine men have drawn up a code of ethics and established a union to police themselves, complete with membership cards. The union of Colombian shamans is trying to weed out people who are exploiting traditional ways for big profits and cheap thrills.

CNN Report: The Cell Phone Bill
Some folks say this is a bill that should have been passed years ago.

For your amusement: Mitchell sings.

www.paperfolding.com, an origami site.

The Green Tricycle: All Issues Poetry and prose on the themes of "Sea," "Wish," and "Love."

Green Tricycle finally published that piece of mine they accepted a couple of months ago.

"It's high school, Let it go."

This was high school Prom Queen Kara Johnson's reaction when a lesbian was elected prom king, beating Johnson's boyfriend. I predict a great future for this girl who has discovered one of the great and deep secret wisdoms of the universe. It's only high school.

BBC News | TV AND RADIO | Survivor starts TV ratings battle British viewers will finally get to see Survivor on Monday night, one of British TV's most talked-about new programmes.

Farida with our new car





Click for larger

Announcement!

You can now see the beta of Julia-z. It may be down at times as I work on the scripts, but the layout, at least, can be seen.

The Seattle Times: Local News: E-mail's bright idea: your own blackout An anonymous mass e-mail dubbed "Roll Your Own Blackout," is circulating through cyberspace, asking readers to kill the lights from 7 to 10 p.m. June 21 - the summer solstice - to protest the president's lack of emphasis on conservation, efficiency and alternative power.

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters "H.R. 1486 - Sponsor: Rep Grucci, Felix J., Jr.. Title: To amend section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 to require schools and libraries receiving universal service assistance to block access to Internet services that enable users to access the World Wide Web and transfer electronic mail in an anonymous manner."

" What Kind of Cat Would You Be?"
Thanks to Zannah for the link.

Ananova - Police suspect 'monkey man' is alien or remote-controlled robot Local officials told The Hindustan Times they suspect the 'monkey man' is an alien or a robot. The attacker has struck 65 times.

Robert X Cringley: "What gives SPIKE a chance against Bluetooth is pure economics. Bluetooth chipsets right now cost around $100, while SPIKE costs $6.25"
Picture 16 people walking into a room with an Xbox and using 16 different wireless controllers to play at once. Is SPIKE the Bluetooth for the rest of us?

Cold era testing recently brought to light show us that canned beer can survive a nuclear blast.

I'm sure it seemed to be a good idea at the time. Thanks to John Mon for the link.

Plastic: Work reports: "The ex-CEO of WebVan, George Shaheen, who stepped down in mid-April, will receive $375,000 per year for the rest of his life, even though he presided over the company's screwed-up initial IPO and watched the stock decline from $34 per share to 0.16, ... not to mention he got to repay a 6.7 million dollar loan with $150,000 of WebVan shares."

New Halo Video!. It's under "Video".

Update: Some of you know about Julia-Z, our literary webzine project. I thought I'd just let you know that we finished up the design and layout on Sunday and hope to have the commenting and editorial system working this week. We've also got an excerpt from a just-published novel for our first feature and we're actively looking for submissions. More news as it develops!

Seattle Indymedia - The Seattle Police Department is requiring the Fremont Arts Council to ban, and assist in the arrest of, any nude bicylists at this year's Fremont Solstice Parade; this is at the direction of mayoral candidate and Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran. Some FAC members believe this to be a political ploy by Mark Sidran to assist in his race to be elected Mayor of Seattle, others believe it to be more of a crude attempt to appear to be "cracking down" on events which might be portrayed in the media as reminiscent of Mardi Gras.

Includes a great pic of bicycle cops shmoozing the girls at last year's parade.

We all know there's something going on with Mars, something more than what NASA, the government and the spacefaring nations want us to know, but the face of the real Mars conspiracy is yet to show itself. We've seen a few mentions of the "Mars Terraforming Initiative" in the press, carefuly presented as "theoretical" moves for a "possible" future, but in fact the conspiracy is even now finalizing their plans. There's been a lot of talk about structures on Mars. Most of these, like the Elvis face and the seahorse are well known to be fakes. This is just to divert our attention from the landing pads and underground tunnel complexes. Yet what most people don't konw is that every one of these structures lie in the lowest regions of the planet's surface where the atmosphere is most dense. If the terraforming project ever gets underway (and it's much, much closer than you think), these regions will be buried under hunderds of cubic meters of water. Yes, the image of a green mars is nothing more than a plan to send advance scouting teams to explore these ruins, steal their secrets for a select few, and hide the evidence under the sea. By the time the first colonists arrive, there will be nothing to see but the sea shore and a few hardy palms waving in the breeze. Take heed, Joe Nerd, for someone seeks to pull the wool over your eyes!

Baltimore City Paper: News Hole (April 4 - April 10, 2001) World Bank and Multinational Corporations Seek to Privatize Water

Douglas Adams, whose cult science fiction comedy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" drew millions of fans and spawned a mini-industry, has died at age 49.

Driving isn't a sign of maturity. It's not a rite of passage. It's just a peculiar skill that happens to be almost indispensible in our society. If playing live action role-playing games were an essential skill, we'd all own a lot more crushed velvet.

Did you watch "Survivor" closely and ridicule his Texas stolidity? Did you hoot at his flirtations with Jerri, until, George W. Bush-like, he got himself back on track and focused on accepting his destiny? And would you have bet cash money he'd apologetically but determinedly leverage Keith as his best chance to win?
Me, too.

So long, Survivor II, and thanks for all the memories.

"For the last few months I've been trying to wrap my mind around Apple's new operating system, which is both Macintosh and Unix at the same time. The Mac OS X users I email with seem a bit like fish out of water, gasping for sustenance, and finding that the air is breathable, even if it is a strange experience."

Dave Winer, the Dark Yoda of the computing world.

"What is there about NMD that produces heat-not light-when the issue arises?"

From the "Things you might want to know about technology" file.

Slashdot | The Rise of Steganography If the recording industry begins to include watermarks in its song files, Windows would refuse to play copyrighted music that was obtained illegally (as defined by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, written by corporate lobbyists, enthusiastically passed by a Congress besotted with corporate money, and signed by a pliant President Clinton two years ago).

Cnn.com--Study Finds U.S. Traffic Getting Worse-- May 7, 2001 . And note that Seattle is in the top 3!

CNN.com - Pope pleads for Muslim, Christian forgiveness - May 6, 2001 Pope John Paul II has become the first pontiff to enter a mosque during his groundbreaking pilgrimage to Syria.

CNN.com Safely back on Earth, Dennis Tito, the world's first paying space tourist, summed up his adventure this way: "It was perfect. It was paradise."

Once upon a time there were many men who had a dream of a city. They all set out to find this city. They did not find it, but they did find each other...


There's something about Seattle. Everyone who comes here is fleeing something, or looking for something. They come here because where they were before there was something they did in secret, in their bedrooms, in their basements. They came and here they found others with the same passions. Perhaps they were the only person with green dyed hair in a small town. Perhaps they wrote poetry in a steel mill. Maybe the sat at a computer for hours while their peers played football or drank beer in parking lots. Whatever the reason, they are inclined to see Seattle as their city. It isn't their city. No city is your city until you tell your story about it.


CityStories.com

"The United States lost a seat on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights yesterday for the first time since it was established in 1947, a vote that diplomats said was a sign of irritation over such issues as the Bush administration's stands on global warming, missile defense and AIDS medication."

I'm not entirely sure that this is a good thing.

By the way, in case anyone's wondering why I'm not posting much these days, it's because I've become obsessed with solving the murder of Evan Chan, a massive internet puzzle set up by... well I don't know WHO set it up, but they're pretty darn weird.

SiliconValley.com - Dan Gillmor's eJournal "If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants".

Mammy's Revenge?
"'The Wind Done Gone' puts a chokehold on Scarlett & Co., but the South's infatuation with its past will never die"

Gregory Maguire wrote, "Had the gloom-haunted Edward Gorey found a way to have a love child with Dorothy Parker, their issue might well have been Lemony Snicket..." Monday, May 7th, at 3:30 pm, Lemony Snicket will appear at the University District Store of the University Bookstore (Seattle, WA). Actually, his representative, Daniel Handler, will probably show up in his stead (Mr. Snicket is often ill with a bug.) He will present The Vile Village: A Series of Unfortunate Events Book the Seventh.