Yahoo revises privacy policy - Tech News - CNET.com

"Users will have to click "no" to opt out of receiving e-mails from a selection of 13 Yahoo products, ranging from job listings to new media products to inclusion in Yahoo's user surveys, among other things. The page also has an option for users to opt in to the Yahoo Delivers service, which sends product pitches from third parties. "

WARNING! If you already have a Yahoo mail or egroups account, you may need to manually change your preference to avoid getting spam.

Getting to the Root of All E-Mail (washingtonpost.com)

"If an unauthorized visitor places his hand in the scanner it triggers a lockdown, sealing the intruder in one of the narrow, wood-paneled closets until security forces arrive to remove them."

Rockstarter - Make your own damn band

Thist RULES. Check the beer-bottle playing guy under Misc.

Loxser John finally got his own weblog!
denormalize.net

Crane Accidents

The Seattle Times: Local News: Roving tent city can build on its legal foundation

"So there was no reason for anyone in this hard-luck community to imagine the scene earlier this month when, on a foldout table on the muddy grounds of the North Seattle Church of the Nazarene, Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr signed papers making the tent city, at least temporarily, legal."

Background Research on the Toynbee Affair.

What Is It?

Loxser Johns sent me this bizarre link about cryptic messages molded onto sidewalks out East. It reminds of the omnipresent "pi" symbols you see all over Seattle. I've heard people report that the "pi" symbols appear in Renton and San Francisco, and I've seen on in Tacoma. Anyone got any leads?

Another aritcle

statesman.com | Scientists debunk the debunkers with revelation of oracle at Delphi

Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business

"At a Microsoft employee event last summer, CEO Steve Ballmer apparently suffers a grand mal seizure. Or attempts to dance. One or the other. It's hard to tell. In any case, a video clip of his calisthenics starts making the rounds of the Internet."

graffitinet.

A cool photo archive of shots of the first subway stations in New York.

Some awesome photos of the fountains of Rome, including this little spot where I spent many an afternoon during my semester in Rome.

Archives will be unavailable for a while, as I was forced to move all 62 weeks worth due to lack of space.

Sims Survivor

Combining two things everyone enjoys. Well, combining one thing I enjoy with one thing that I don't enjoy, but that some people I know enjoy.

bluishorange - coming behind her for her pretty sake

Alison has redisigned her blog again, and as usual, it's gorgeous. I still have nostalgia for the one about two designs back though.

Sock Puppet Happiness

Worst Livejournal Icons' LiveJournal -- Entries

A livejournal dedicated to bad livejournal icons.

Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | Britain accused on terror lab claim

"Britain was accused last night of falsely claiming that al-Qaeda terrorists had built a 'biological and chemical weapons' laboratory in Afghanistan to justify the deployment of 1,700 Royal Marines to fight there. "

This is exactly why the White House was pressured to drop the disinformation campaign. Disinformation is a weapon that ends up doing more damage to the democracy that it's supposed to protect than to the enemy.

Yahoo! News - Study: Mobile Phone Users Worse Than Drunk Drivers

"Tests conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory in Berkshire, England showed that drivers' reaction times were on average 30% slower when talking on a hand-held mobile compared to when they had been drinking alcohol."

Air Canada Cyborg Discrimination Lawsuit Imminent?

"My client is a cyborg, not a terrorist."

This not long after Air Canada reverses a decision not to allow Salman Rushdie to fly on their flights.

NetHack 3.4.0: Home Page

New version available!

bits & pieces

hm.

Scientology v. Google from UseNet.

news.telegraph.co.uk - UK warns Saddam of nuclear retaliation

The Daily Rotten

"The search engine Google is censoring the Internet's leading critic of the Church of Scientology, Operation Clambake. The site has been completely removed from the search engine and from the Google Directory, which uses data from the Open Directory Project, DMOZ."

To be fair, the article does not include any comment from Google, or any factual indication that the link was forcibly removed from the index. The circumstantial evidence is compelling, but I'd like to see more proof.

The Village Voice: Nation: Press Clips: Who's Afraid of Mickey Mouse? by Cynthia Cotts

"did she get the boot because her stories were inaccurate, as the Post and Disney say, or because the Post caved in to pressure from one of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch's valued business partners, as Finke's lawyers are ready to argue in court?"

Star Telegram | 03/17/2002 | Expelled student challenges policy

"Taylor Hess, 16, was expelled by Principal Jim Short on March 4, after school officials found a bread knife in the back of Hess' pickup, which was parked at the school. Hess is appealing the expulsion. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday."

Here's a blast from the past, Metamorphosis Alpha was the first sci-fi RPG, and the only origonal TSR game I have never played. *sniff*

Interview with Gary Gygax

"The term "geek" is most often used as a pejorative."

Terrorism - Prospects for U.S. Military Action in Iraq

"If all peaceful efforts for inspections in Iraq fail throughout this year, the U.S. administration may determine that there is only one sensible option: a war campaign that allows the extensive searches required to achieve true awareness of the presence of chemical and biological weapon facilities."

Times Online

"BRITAIN is sending a 1,700-strong Royal Marines battlegroup to hunt for Mullah Muhammad Omar, the former Taleban leader. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, told the Commons yesterday that it would be the largest military deployment for combat operations since the Gulf War."

You Are Where You Live

Salon.com People | Scott Ritter

"I don't care about polls -- they are easily manipulated. I don't care that 75 to 80 percent of Americans want to go to war with Iraq, that's not justification for going to war with Iraq. That's why we have laws in this land that prevent mob rule by people storming to the town hall and demanding that somebody be hanged."

Online Urine Sale Ilegal in S. Carolina

Inspirational Sport Statues

International Dada Archive Home Page

Welcome to Pop-Up Stopper Pro by Panicware, Inc.

Popup-stopper stops pop-up ads! Woot! Note, in an ironic, but perfectly logical twist, it also disables the "Blog This" bookmarklet I'm using right now. Fortunately, you can toggle it on or off.

State: 'ATHEIST' plate raises a holy ruckus

Presenting the anti-SUV. And it even looks neat!

Woohoo! I can blog again. Not sure what was up with Blogger, but it was giving me headaches this week. I haven't been bloggin much, as I've been super busy at work. One peice of news that can't wait, however, Philos has moved up to Seattle! Welcome Philos!

Hefty SUVs drive home safety concerns
Police and emergency officials issue repeated warnings year after year not to overestimate a vehicle's capability, citing how some vehicles, particularly SUVs, likely give drivers a false sense of security.

U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms

"The Bush administration has directed the military to prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries and to build smaller nuclear weapons for use in certain battlefield situations, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the Los Angeles Times."

Beer Mogul

Google Why Google loves Weblogs.

Honestly, I haven't had time to do anything but skim it, but it's an interesting read.

GoogleBombs

This article (sent by Loxser John), is the most fascinating thing I've read online all week. It explains what Googlebombing is, why it works, how organizations like the Church of Scientology may be using Googlebombing for their own ends, and how Googlebombing may be used as a tool for activism.

Blog This

"At a time when many dot coms have failed, blogging is on the rise. We’re in a lull between waves of commercialization in digital media, and bloggers are seizing the moment, potentially increasing cultural diversity and lowering barriers to cultural participation."

Thanks to Loxser John for the link.

WIPP Exhibit: Message to 12,000 A.D.

Bill Shatner's got a weblog!

"I had a wonderful experience in Seattle a week ago. Lisabeth and I traveled there for a convention, and took the opportunity before I went on-stage to tour around a bit. We ended up in Pike’s Marketplace. (Forgive me if I don’t get the name exactly right. I was calling it “Pike’s Peak” for a while until several people kindly corrected me. I’m still not sure I’ve got it right.)"

(Wasteful) Actions Speak Louder than (Environmental) Words
"I remember a television program celebrating Earth Day back in the 1990s that had Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams doing a bit about how we have to fix the hole in the ozone layer. It was a somewhat compelling piece...until I saw him outside a Starbucks in Malibu last year firing up a V8 Range Rover (good for around 13 mpg). Certainly, if you asked Meg or Jennifer their position on environmental issues and a camera were pointed at them, they'd be quick to trumpet the party line about saving the planet."

Lord of the Hackers

Have we arrived? An op/ed in the Newspaper of Record tries to make sense of the connections between LOTR D&D and Hacking (e.g. computer culture). While it's essentially misguided, still trying to look at this phenomenon as an isolated realm of geekdom which acts as a subset of mainstream culture, it nevertheless makes some rudimentary connections. We've certainly come a long way from the days of "Mazes and Monsters". But the truth is that LOTR is a part of mainstream culture, as is "hacking". One does not emerge out of the other, but rather they are both part of the same emerging world.

Durty Sanchez Presents: Operation Sombrero

Episode II pics!

Fun fact for the day, GameGrene, an online gaming zine, is now paying for submissions! Can we get a "woot"?

Americans must fight for peace

New Scientist - Water on Mars

"The new evidence that significant amounts of water remain frozen just under the surface is encouraging in the search for Martian life."

Waiting for the A Train, the Sophisticated Pigeon

"But one subway animal story has been so persistent and widespread that it simply cried out to be investigated: the case of the train-riding pigeons of Far Rockaway."

Search Results - canada.com network

"But they can be obtained only from embryos which cannot survive the procedure."

"Extra" can be such a loaded word.

Thanks to Toast Davis for the link.

Welcome to Entropia Stratics!

I> "With real money at stake, it's a given that players will be concerned over the safety of their "investments". MindArk has instituted several protective measures. First of all, every single item, including credits, has its own unique identity number. Not only does this protect against duping measures, but it allows for the company to trace suspicious items. So even if an item is stolen, MindArk can easily see who it went to and take appropriate steps. In fact, MindArk has devoted an entire server towards regulating the economy and protecting the player's credits."

Yes, it's here. In Entropia, players can spend real money to buy vritual stuff, and convert their virtual money into real dollars. I'm interested to see if the game is actually playable without spending any real money into it. After all, I'm all about playing games for free.

Who Lost China's Internet?

"Chinese xenophobia has led many other U.S. companies to play similar games, but Yahoo! was particularly eager to please. All Chinese chat rooms or discussion groups have a "big mama," a supervisor for a team of censors who wipe out politically incorrect comments in real time. Yahoo! handles things differently. If in the midst of a discussion you type, "We should have nationwide multiparty elections in China!!" no one else will react to your comment. How could they? It appears on your screen, but only you and Yahoo!'s big mama actually see your thought crime. After intercepting it and preventing its transmission, Mother Yahoo! then solicitously generates a friendly e-mail suggesting that you cool your rhetoric--censorship, but with a New Age nod to self-esteem."

[...]
"But what is "normal" in China can be altered under duress. When Chinese authorities ordered Microsoft to surrender its software's underlying source codes--the keys to encryption--as the price of doing business there, Microsoft chose to fight, spearheading an unprecedented Beijing-based coalition of American, Japanese, and European Chambers of Commerce. Faced with being left behind technologically, the Chinese authorities dropped their demands. Theoretically, China's desire to be part of the Internet should have given the capitalists who wired it similar leverage. Instead, the leverage all seems to have remained with the government, as Western companies fell all over themselves bidding for its favor. AOL, Netscape Communications, and Sun Microsystems all helped disseminate government propaganda by backing the China Internet Corporation, an arm of the state-run Xinhua news agency."

If you read one blogged article this week, read this one. Technology poses a huge threat to privacy and freedom. In the United States, we fight this threat every day. And thanks to the freedoms that the United States offers us, we are able to fight. In countries like China, this battle isn't going so well at all.

Scientists take art into fold

Origami: The Japanese craft of paper bending helps solve design problems in spacecraft and offers clues in microbiology. In return, computer users embrace and expand the art.


Maybe there's a NASA career in store for me after all! Thanks to rcg51 for the link.

Student Press Law Center - News Flashes

"A routine maintenance service call last week turned up an electronic surveillance device imbedded in the office walls of the Quaker Campus. It is not known how long the bug, which was not functioning when pulled from the wall, was hidden. The device was capable of transmitting a radio signal to any receiver, tuned to the correct frequency, within a three-mile radius, editor Amy Stice said."

Independent News

"After more than 10 weeks of investigation, neither Mohamad Chehade nor any of Global Relief's other full-time employees in the United States has been detained or accused of wrongdoing. In fact, the only ostensible reason for Haddad to be behind bars is a minor visa irregularity. The tourist visa he used to enter the country most recently in 1998 expired after six months, and at the time of his arrest he and his wife were in the process of applying for permanent resident status, in accordance with a visa amnesty law passed in the dying days of the Clinton administration."

Believe me, it's quite easy to make a minor mistake in dealing with the terribly complicated world of immigration law. The problem is, this can mean being stuck in these United States without the protection of the constitution or law.

When did ESPN.com turn Evil?

I can't tell my ESPN.com from my MSN any more (who am I kidding, it's not my MSN, in fact, I want nothing to do of it. There's a sneaky little MSN link hovering near the top of the page, and an MSN search right where I'd expect to find an ESPN search. And also, I can't find my Hunter Thompson back articles. Whow knows, maybe it's always been this way, and I didn't know. I'm confused. I can no longer remember the days when it was all free. I am old.

Nothing happens today. Nothing I feel like discussing, anyway.