USA Exquisite Corpse

AlterNet: Patriot Raid

"'You have no right to hold us,' Asher insisted.
"Yes, we have every right," responded one of the agents. 'You are being held under the Patriot Act following suspicion under an internal Homeland Security investigation.'"

Have you called your congressperson yet?

eBay Seller List: kazad_bolg@ntlworld.com

Fat Bloke's sellin' his White Scars! For those not in the know, Fat Bloke is the editor of the Warhammer magazine, White Dwarf. Pics of his White Scars army have features in the mag many times.

Salon.com Technology | I have seen the future of music and its name is iTunes

"Hunter S. Thompson never actually said that 'the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.' The quip, from Thompson's 1988 'Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s' ,was in fact meant to describe the TV business."

dtoy_vs_byokal

Art

"AARON exists; it generates objects that hold their own more than adequately, in human terms, in any gathering of similar, but human-produced, objects, and it does so with a stylistic consistency that reveals an identity as clearly as any human artist's does. It does these things, moreover, without my own intervention."

1 Pixel per meter

"The images below are all exactly to scale, each pixel equals one square meter. Internet Explorer users may Click and Drag the starships to compare them as you like. Below are some contemporary vehicles and buildings for reference, scroll right and down for starships. Have fun!"

Salon.com Comics | This Modern World

1700 pt Chaos roster: Alpha Hockey Legion

"Finally, here's the Zamboni."

Chainsaw Warrior

"Can you save New York in 60 minutes? The fate of the World depends on your success! Kit yourself out with some of the finest military and illegal weaponry the US Army's Special Ops Unit can supply. Then go kick some butt!"

Montreal Gazette - Story - canada.com network

"Deborah Wolfe, a Canadian citizen who was just breast-feeding her son and changing his diaper while en route between Houston and Vancouver, says her 'subversive' actions led to her being threatened with detainment, RCMP involvement and legal charges for terrorist action against a U.S. citizen in international airspace while on an American flight during a time of war."

Pregnant Pope
"To stop them, Arwen teleported to land and summoned a pack of wild dream beasts to attack the crew. Each taking the form of whatever their victim feared most, the crew was hard pressed. Thanks to their electrified cutlasses, space muskets, and a small gatling laser cannon, the beasts were all slain, but their blood had stained the crew red, and as long as it lasted they would be shaken and afraid."

Salon.com News | U.S. examines ways to punish France

"Every country has the right to its own opinions, the official said. The difference between France and Germany is that France energetically tried to organize other countries against the United States, the official said on condition of anonymity."

I, Cringely | The Pulpit

"Some readers recalled this week that it has been a year since I wrote about the death of my son Chase, who was a victim of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) at age 74 days. They asked for an update and truthfully, I can’t point to much progress in my fight against SIDS. In large part this comes from one fact I left out of that column from a year ago, which is that Chase had a twin brother, Channing, and we had our hands full for many months keeping him from following his brother. In fact, Channing, who is now 14 months old, only gave up his heart monitor for good a month ago."

Travelers Urged to Avoid Toronto Because of SARS

"The World Health Organization added Toronto today to its list of places that travelers should avoid because of an outbreak of a contagious respiratory disease, shattering this city's image as a safe place to live and visit."

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Unused Audio Commentary By Howard Zinn & Noam Chomsky, Recorded Summer, 2002, for The Fellowship of the Ring Platinum Series Extended Edition DVD, Part One

"Chomsky: The film opens with Galadriel speaking. 'The world has changed,' she tells us, 'I can feel it in the water.' She's actually stealing a line from the non-human Treebeard. He says this to Merry and Pippin in The Two Towers, the novel. Already we can see who is going to be privileged by this narrative and who is not."

Thanks to the unflappable Philos for the link.

Massive Haul of Ancient Coins Fished out of SW China River

"Some five tons of ancient coins dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) had been retrieved from the Jialing River, a major tributary of the Yangtze at its upper reaches, in southwestern Chongqing municipality by Wednesday."

I took the day off work so that Orkgrrrl and I could have a quiet day together before the baby comes, and go see Holes at the Meridian. I was mightily impressed. I think it may be one of the best movies made from a book that someone told me I should read but I didn't. And as an added bonus, the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean shows great promise indeed!

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Jazz great Nina Simone dies at 70

"Nina Simone, the jazz great whose rapsy, forceful voice helped define the civil rights movement, died Monday at her home in France, according to her U.S. booking agent. She was 70."

Legions of Fish

Hello Jeremy!

Else Katharine Denlinger Gerber

Congratulations, Laura and Mike!

Peep Show at the Library

What you see may shock you. Don't claim I didn't warn you.

Las night I had the coolest dream about Lego. Lego released a new virtual reality technology where you could enter an online evnironment about the size of a city block. It had walkways like an outdoor pedestrian mall. Throughout the entire space, every Lego peice in existence could be plucked out of the air. Anything you built would stay where you built it, or float in the continual stream of Lego objects.

Senate OKs 'up-skirt' measure

"A bill making it illegal to film up women's skirts, threatened by recent legislative jockeying, passed the Senate unanimously yesterday."

Rogue's gallery of blonde bombshells - War on Iraq - smh.com.au

"The downfall of dictators is always somehow tinged with pathos. You think of the Emperor Nero on the brink of his suicide, proclaiming insanely, "What an artist I die!", or Hitler in his bunker studying a model of the ideal Nazi city as the Russians advanced through Berlin. Poor aesthetic judgement is an archetypal part of this wretchedness - all that vulgarity exposed."

CNN.com - 'Knight Rider' coming to big screen - Apr. 15, 2003

Link thanks to Denormalize

A grande deal for Starbucks

"Starbucks Corp. has agreed to acquire Seattle Coffee Co. from its parent company for $72 million in cash."

SAM restoring St. James' Renaissance treasure

"Nobody knows how a 15th-century painting of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus wound up at St. James Cathedral in Seattle. 'We know where it was 500 years ago,' said church administrator Larry Brouse. 'Between now and then? No.'"

A Rocker and a Revered Author Bond for a Cause

"Dr. Coles, 73, who has been on the Harvard faculty for nearly three decades, and Mr. Springsteen, 53, who dropped out of Ocean County Community College in Toms River, N.J., have quietly been friends for nearly seven years. Since discovering a shared admiration for the novelist Walker Percy, they have engaged in extended conversations about other chroniclers of the American soul, like James Agee, William Carlos Williams, Flannery O'Connor and Ralph Ellison."

Thanks to Greg for the link

interesting...

Legislative jockeying may kill 'up-skirt' ban

"Political infighting appears to have killed legislation that would make it illegal to film up women's skirts."

I can't beleive that our legislative body can't even ban something so universally veiwed as a violation. How much are we paying these guys?

The News We Kept to Ourselves
"
Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff."

Salon.com News | The last place we liberated

"President George W. Bush signed the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act into law last Dec. 4, authorizing $3.3 billion in economic, political, humanitarian and security assistance for Afghanistan over the next four years. The next month, Bush submitted the 2003 budget authorization to Congress but requested slightly less than that. As in: $0.00."

I'm famous!

New Picture!

30 new pictures have bee added to the banner rotation (for those of you who don't know, you get a new picture in the banner space when you refresh the page). There are now 60 pictures. I don't have plans to add any more any time soon. I'll update the galleries some time next week. Enjoy!

Pastor returns from waging peace

"Weldon Nisly has spent much of his life practicing and teaching non-violence. He follows examples set by Jesus and Gandhi. He even tries hard not to raise his voice.

But in downtown Baghdad, he saw a crater where a market used to be. He met a young boy whose legs were shredded by shrapnel and pieces of a television set that shattered in a bomb blast."

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | "Sesame Street" cred

"After 33 years, Snuffleupagus isn't imaginary and Elmo gets too much airtime, but the best kids' show ever still educates with honesty, humor and loads of charm."

Orkgrrl sent me this link weeks ago, and I finally got around to reading it.

Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent

"Working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said today."

Q: How many Al-Queda cells have law enforcement rooted out since 9/11?

New Page 1

"The excitement has gone but the feeling of awe has settled deep in my being. I still have a hard time believing I won six demons at this years US Gamesday. I have always believed that if I went to Gamesday I would enter as many categories as possible so I would have a better chance of taking home at least one trophy. This shotgun approach, while reasonable on paper is very difficult to make a reality. Time is the most important commodity we have and I just spent 5 months of my life for this endeavor. In those 5 months I did over 1000 hours on nine entries [I only took 8]. If you do the math this is an average of 50 hours a week for 20 weeks. I also work full time so most evenings were filled with painting and weekends went by in the blur of a brush."

This article can only be of interest to a true fanatic, but some of the figure galleries are quite nice anyway.

Just a quick update. I'm back from Grand Tournament, and quite pleased with how it went. I had some great games, and the GT was well organized and run. My final record was 2-3-1; repectable, but not great. I didn't get the painting score I had hoped for, but I did get a certificate for 3rd place in sportsmanship, which makes me happy.

Titusonenine - Who is Khazraji?

"The implications of the Al-Majalla article referenced below are momentous if they are true. It makes sense of the timing of Khazraji's departure from Denmark and it means he may have been the key outside source (there were undoubtedly inside sources) for the attempt to kill Saddam at the beginning of the war on Wednesday night. It further follows that the attempt on Saddam failed."

What Natalie Mains from the Dixie Chicks Really Meant to Say

"I hope everyone understands, I'm just a young girl who grew up in Texas. As far back as I can remember, I heard people say they were ashamed of President Clinton....I heard LOTS of people disrespecting the President. So I guess I just assumed it was acceptable behavior."

Seattle Mennonite Church's Pastor Weldon Nisly's op-ed on his Experiences in Iraq

The Perpetual War Portfolio

"The Perpetual War Portfolio is an evenly weighted basket of five stocks poised to succeed in the age of perpetual war. The stocks were selected on the basis of popular product lines, strong political connections and lobbying efforts, and paid-for access to key Congressional decision-makers."

Yahoo! News - Iraqi forces fire on coalition troops from revered shrine

"'Coalition forces early Wednesday were receiving fire from Iraqi forces positioning themselves inside the Ali mosque,' Ensign David Luckett said here at the US Central Command's forward planning base. 'We're refusing to return fire at the mosque,' he added Wednesday. "

lumpley games: MechaTon

"The mech on the left gets 1 red die at Long Range for its left arm, nothing special. The mech on the right gets 2 red dice at Long Range. Tremble before the sniping action of its magnifying glass!"

Thanks to feng for this awesome link!