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Senator Kerry, we all know that George W. Bush (43) looks just like George H. W. Bush (41) for obvious reasons, but can you explain your own peculiar resemblance to Andrew Jackson ?

On last Friday's Science Friday program they covered this topic.
Science Friday
TOTN Audio

For those interested, it is available in Real or WMF format.

For those interested, it is available in Real or WMF format.

For those interested, it is available in Real or WMF format.

For those interested, it is available in Real or WMF format.

And the labels took a big chunk of any money customers paid for a record.

It was a deal with the devil.

The major record labels were just a bank to finance the artists' distribution & marketing, a specialized bank for artists and musicians but just a bank nonetheless. The artists might as well go to a Credit Union--they've got much lower rates I hear. hehehehe No, better yet, let's view the NEWER business models.

I'm just going to name 2 ways artists are making money now which I listened to on npr.org this week. Now, you don't need these companies to do biz as an artist or "independent creater", but just look at the way the business model CAN BE now without the RIAA.

Artistshare

Maria Schneider, a well-known and highly regarded jazz arranger/band leader now uses artistShare which uses the power & money of the artist's fans and she now makes a little money compared with losing money the past 3 years without her fans' help.

With artistshare, you can buy into various "plans" and get otherwise unavailable CDs, unreleased clips, Schneider's own annotations. At the very top are "Gold Participants" who, for $1,000, get their names listed on her next CD as an underwriter.

Bitpass

Fans make micropayments for specific songs. A comics artist was sick of giving his works away and not receiving any sort of compensation. With bitpass, his fans come back for more while making micropayments and both sides are happy.

Calling him a modern Hitler is hyperbole, but such low opinion of him is not unfounded.

His raging militarism alone would justify such a comparison. Expansion of government power at the expense of civil liberties; secret extra-judicial detentions; and the sanction of inhuman treatment of prisoners from the highest levels of government (only a fool could ignore the evidence that this was premeditated) only make it more apt.

One of the things this story brings up is that independent film makers trying to get studios to make their films will have more difficulty due to there being one less studio to shop around to.

I, for one, welcome our new entertainment overlords.

Yesterday on NPR's Fresh Air, I listened to long-time Austin reporter Wayne Slater talk about his book (soon a movie) "Bush's Brain", about Karl Rove and the power behind the president. Rove is a master of dirty tricks, and damned proud of it. I see his hand at work.

His methods, dating back to Bush's election as Texas' Governor, are to get dirty deeds done in ways that can't possibly be traced back to him or his candidate. Things like the whisper campaign against Ann Richards here in Texas, the "McCain is crazy" rumors in the primaries, and the Steamboat Veterans (whatever) for Truth fiasco now.

What could be better than creating an obvious forgery about Bush's service, and slipping it into some CBS exec's inbox? It fits Rove's pattern perfectly: the president will have a chance to look persecuted, everyone will be angry at whoever was evil enough to try to set up Bush. There will be enough of us liberals who fall into the "we got him!" trap to keep Rove's fingerprints off the whole thing.

I also think Rove is behind the supposedly-unexpected appearance of demonstrators at Bush's appearances... listen to the Fresh Air interview with Slater, especially the part where he sets up a nearly identical disruption of his opponent's event in the early '70s.

This is complete BS. I've seen O'Reilly quite a few times, and the only times he's cut someone's mike is when either (a) they were passing off completely unsubstantiated lies or (b) they were completely dodging O'Reilly's questions.

Thanks. You just confirmed that O'Reilly does say "Shut up" to his guests in a unprofessional manner. All you did is try and justify it with your weak and twisted reasoning. O'Reilly isn't a man who can listen to facts or reason. He just likes to shout and cause a lot of drama. I have very little regard to people like O'Reilly. I'd rather see two intelligent well informed and respectful opponents debate things out. With O'Reilly its about him shouting and getting in the last word. You can't take an immature guy like him seriously

Yes. The fact that you aren't aware of them just means that you don't pay enough attention. The fact that Fox News watchers probably have other sources of news as well (other than Fox or the traditional media) is not what the traditional media wants. For information on Iraq's WMD finds, see here and here, not to mention the WMD that were shipped to Syria and used in an attempted assassination of King Hussein of Jordan.

You really buy into this don't you. Look, go read a real newspaper or something that has standards in journalism. Quote me something from the Wall Street Jounral or another conservative newspaper that has similar standards, not the radical news sources you've quoted me. Both Colin Powell and David Kelly have both said that WMDs will probably never be found in Iraq. Fresh doubts over Iraq's arsenal. Its a shame and tragic that Hans Blix was not allowed to finish his job and the administration was just itching to get into Iraq, damn the consequences.

Rice "We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9-11."

Bush said there was no attempt by the administration to try to confuse people about any link between Saddam and Sept. 11 "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th," Bush said. "What the vice president said was is that he (Saddam) has been involved with al-Qaida

Previous comment: "Is there a connection between Iraq and 9/11 ?"

Yes! Hussein Al-Hussany, who helped McVeigh in the OKC bombing, was a member of the Republican Guard, and after the OKC bombing went to work for Logan national airport. Hussein Al-Hussany sued Jayna Davis for slander for publishing reports about this, AND LOST. Ramzi Youssef, one of the ones who carried out the first WTC bombing, was being employed by Iraq at the time. Anyway, it's a long connection, but the imminent connection is between the larger war on terror and Iraq, and between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, which noone denies exist

Apparently, I'm separated from the President by two people from two different sets of people. Guess what? It doesn't mean much. John Walker Lindh (American Taliban) and Richard Reed (shoe bomber) are citizens of the U.S. and the U.K. yet do we claim that our country and others harbor terrorists? What kind of asinine argument are you trying to pull when you say that a country is responsible for terror because the terrorist lived there. Well, didn't Mohammad Atta live in Hamburg, Germany. Maybe, we should invade Germany, just in case they forgot their lesson right? Listen buddy, maybe you should take a closer look at Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, instead of barking up the wrong tree (or country so to speak) and lay of the crack. The irony of me arguing this with you is that you are the polar opposite of a Islamic fundamentalist. You'r

Doesn't that seem logical? Isn't that corroborating evidence for the whole tragic arc of the last two years?

Kerry supported giving the President the authority to initiate the war in Iraq. That's not the same as launching the war. When Bush and his campaign say that Kerry "voted to go to war," they are lying.

And yes, Kerry may have to deal with the aftermath of Iraq in the same sticky, deliberate way that Bush will. There's no easy way out; that's why they call it a quagmire. But re-electing Bush gives him four more years to invade more countries unnecessarily. When I read the transcript of John Kerry speaking to the Senate in 1971, I can't help but feel that this man is more to be trusted with our troops than a man who spent the early '70s "boasting about how much alcohol he had consumed the night before."

Hey, I like Ace of Base, and I'm a triple j & npr listener!

They allow all Amish people to experience technology every day, they just control what technology. Different groups allow different things, but technologies such as the wheel and woven textiles are pretty ubiquitous. Buttons (clothing fasteners) are not allowed in some communities, but others allow cell phones (at least in barns).

Anyway, the phenomenon you re referring to is called rumspringa.

How would limiting the number of hours per week a corporation is permitted to force an individual to work increase unemployment? If anything, this change will force corporations to hire more individual workers, which you think would decrease unemployment?

You could argue that this will negatively affect the national economy, limiting our ability to compete in the global economy. This is madness. For decades, many European nations have enjoyed shorter workweeks. Here in the United States, corporations are squeezing every last drop of efficiency from their workers, in an effort to maximize profits. Rather than switching to the European model, the United States is forcing European nations to increase their workweeks to keep up. This is unnacceptable.

it's from 01, but it's pretty intersting.

NPR has a cool piece regarding how radio may not be the best approach to looking for ET life.

I have always thought quantum mechanics and physics were rather like micro and macro economics. Both are fundamentally correct within their own context. Both also happen to be largely mutually exclusive from the other. Have you ever heard a micro and macro economics duo get into a debate?

NPR makes almost all of their shows available online.

Seriously, though. After Betamax and TiVo lawsuits, what makes them thing they're so special? Hell, you can't even use the DMCA in this case as he's only grabbing the analog of the broadcast.

Try the USA. 1.3 million more Americans live in poverty Welcome to George Bush's America.

I was reading slashdot, and he left a message for me.

Give me all your money - I know who you are. ps. I accept paypal

So I clicked away as fast as I could and started reading fark - but he was one step ahead.

If you don't give me all your money I'll disable your SETI@home account!

I was terrified. This guy was good. So I thought I'd try something else, I went to google news - how was he doing this? There in the headlines:

iraqWarDeathToll++;
Stem Cells blocked by extremists citing Satan - Christopher Reeve unavailable for comment.
I Said Send Me Your Money.
jobsAvailable--;

I'd had enough, I turned off my computer and ran to a newspaper.

95% of the money in the world controlled by 5% of the population, 50% controlled by 1%.
Economic middle-class taxes and expenses rising - wages stagnant.
Super-rich get tax break on overseas investements.
Incumbent campaigns to convince citizens that they will be rich - fights for lower taxes.

And I realized there wasn't anyone stalking me. The messages weren't directed at me alone, but at me as a member of the economic middle-class. I thought I was a bully's target, and I guess in a way I am. I'm personally affected by every corrupt policy, every writ of habeas corpus, every war, every genocide.

VOTE, if you care.

I've never heard of it until it was reported on National Public Radio two days ago on All Things Considered

(cool! They're running Apache/PHP on Linux)

This land is your land, this land is my land
From the redwood forest to the New York island.
From the snow-capped mountains to the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me.

As I go walkin' my ribbon of highway
I see all around me my blue blue skyway
Everywhere around me the wind keeps a-whistlin'
This land is made for you and me.

I'm a-chasin' my shadow out across this roadmap
To my wheat fields waving, to my cornfield dancing
As I go walkin' this wind keeps talkin'
This land is made for you and me.

I can see your mailbox, I can see your doorstep
I can feel my wind rock your tip-top treetop
All around your house there my sunbeam whispers
This land is made for you and me.

"Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted, said 'Private property.'
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
This land was made for you and me."

• At an NPR story: here and here
• Here for more info.
• Here for info from the Woodiy Guthrie foundation.
• Here for the Lyrics from Arlo Guthrie, Woody's Son.
• 
  
  IMHO whoever claims to "own" this is as sick as the people who claim to "own" the image of Martin Luther King as property. See the commentrary at the internet archive: here.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From the redwood forest to the New York island.
From the snow-capped mountains to the Gulf Stream waters
This land is made for you and me.

As I go walkin' my ribbon of highway
I see all around me my blue blue skyway
Everywhere around me the wind keeps a-whistlin'
This land is made for you and me.

I'm a-chasin' my shadow out across this roadmap
To my wheat fields waving, to my cornfield dancing
As I go walkin' this wind keeps talkin'
This land is made for you and me.

I can see your mailbox, I can see your doorstep
I can feel my wind rock your tip-top treetop
All around your house there my sunbeam whispers
This land is made for you and me.

"Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted, said 'Private property.'
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
This land was made for you and me."

• At an NPR story: here and here
• Here for more info.
• Here for info from the Woodiy Guthrie foundation.
• Here for the Lyrics from Arlo Guthrie, Woody's Son.
• 
  
  IMHO whoever claims to "own" this is as sick as the people who claim to "own" the image of Martin Luther King as property. See the commentrary at the internet archive: here.

check out:

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=38585 60

I hope the link still works when I post, as it has a space in the URL in the preview pane ..

A fairly lengthy story on NPR yesterday presents an 'outsiders' view of RPGs; Includes brief audio from D&D co-creator Dave Arneson and adult players of the game.
They do cover the crossover and influence on computer games, one interveiwee labeling the game "the first virtual reality". Worth a listen.

I would consider playing such a game. The problem with all the MMORPG of today is that too much is handled by the computer. You camp an orc village, monster spawns, you kill it, rinse, repeat. There needs to be DMs. MMORPG are just graphical chat rooms, where players shout "*DING* Lvl 58!". I wish there was a MMORPG where professional DMs ran adventures.

But your price tag is a little too steep. Perhaps paying 9.99 a month, while charging extra for adventures. Sunday afternoon, 3 hour adventure - Only $10.00. It would be cheaper than a movie, more entertaining than TV, and would require some thought. Now that I would pay for.

On another note, NPR had an interesting feature this morning on Dungeons and Dragons turns 30; where they discussed it's affect on computer gaming.

The author was recently interviewed on NPR. http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=38163 14

Pogo Radio YourWay Looks like just about the same product (less quality, and less storage, but still).

This is weird. Just today, I heard a report on NPR's Day to Day saying that the Department of Homeland Security is going to have their own mascot, too, with an accompanying naming contest. The mascot is gonna be an "American Shepherd." The kicker being, NPR apparently talked to the American Kennel Club, who registers no such breed. (There may or may not be a "North American Shepherd.") The article's the third one down on this page. (Sorry, it's an audio article.)

http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?displayValue= day&todayDate=09/10/2003

One of these atheist Chinese engineers might be an Islamic extremist. Riiiiiight....

Actually there are muslims in China.

http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_ 3842900.html?place=home01

"...government's effort to raise western China's standard of living. The aim is to make the Muslim minorities less likely to revolt."

The economics of a website like Craigslist, or your local weekly want ad flyer, is pretty interesting stuff. Both of these publications specialize in the one & only form of advertisement that people all over the place are actually interested in: classified ads. Lots of people pay for their local newspaper just to throw away everything but the jobs section, the automotive & real estate listings, the movie listings, and similar classified ads.

Publishers know and depend on this fact about their audiences, and use the revenue stream they get from these ads to help subsidize the unprofitable work they do in other areas -- journalism, for instance, or printing a dead tree newspaper every day, or running a bunch of servers.

In the case of Craigslist or the want ads, they dispense with the journalistic front matter and let the audience have the ad listings. This has the dual effect of eliminating a major cost center while also making it obvious to the public that this is a place that focuses on just the kinds of ads they like, and not those nasty popup ads or whatever that the other commercial sites all have.

The funny thing is that Craigslist has done this so well that they've been able to make a very nice living for themselves while more than covering their expenses and they haven't even had to charge most of their customers for the service.

Other publishers are aware of this phenomenon, and terrified of it.

Consider what Craigslist's competition must be thinking. Ebay skims a commission off every sale that happens on their site; Craigslist doesn't. Match.com charges a listing fee to place a personals ad; Craigslist doesn't. Monster charges a fee for job placements; Craigslist doesn't. Your local sites charge fees for real estate listings; Craigslist doesn't. All of these publishers are being completely undercut by a competitor that can afford to do for free what they're trying -- and increasingly often, failing -- to get people to pay money for.

***********

About a year ago, NPR had a All Things Considered piece on the rise of Craigslist, and how by charging only for job listings in the San Francisco Bay area, they could subsidize what they were doing everywhere else for free. Among the people interviewed for this piece was the person in charge at a major regional newspaper's website. She had some bland remarks about how what Craigslist is doing is very interesting and has really caught the attention of people in the rest of the industry. *yawn*.

A few weeks after that interview was on the air, I ran into that person in Home Depot, so I stopped to say hi and to tell her that I heard her on the radio recently, and to ask what she thought about Craigslist. Her response, roughly, was this:

Craigslist? Yeah, they are going to

kick our asses.

As you can imagine, this wasn't quite how she phrased her remarks on the radio, but it certainly expressed the same idea with a lot less ambiguity. :-)

***********

I'm not going to identify this person or the company -- you'll figure it out if you listen to the NPR piece off their web site -- but in any case the point is much broader than just with this one company.

Craigslist is doing some so radically & dangerously different than anyone else in the publishing industry that they are a major threat to all kinds of companies. That's both good and bad. Maybe we don't need to have every newspaper & tv station in the country publishing the same news wire feeds that you can get anywhere else. Maybe we can do without that. But if these companies get out of that kind of work, will they also feel they have to get out of local news coverage online? If so, where will people turn to for that -- blogs? Somehow I don't think that would work.

Moreover, is this also a threat to dead-tree publications who won't be able to depend on the classi

Futures markets are attractive mostly because the perception of the group is so often accurate. This reminds me of something I heard on NPR a few weeks back. Here's the link

They were interviewing the author of this book about how the average of guesses made by a crowd of normal people compared favorably to those made by lone geniuses.

I imagine that there was similar reasoning behind the Pentagon's recent terrorism futures market. Of course what they didn't predict was that most people would find it disgusting and they would have to shut it down as a result.

SharkJumper

By putting their advertisers' interests above their readers', news sites risk alienating their core customers. Without us, there wouldn't be any advertisers to appease.

This is one more reason why anyone who cares about the content of the news they read should ensure that they read some non-corporate news sources.

As a reader, you should demand that your media keeps your interests in mind, not just the interests of people who want to sell you things.

I heard about these worms via a segment on All Things Considered Friday. The authors of this new study were fun to hear.

I heard about these worms via a segment on All Things Considered Friday. The authors of this new study were fun to hear.

The worlds oceans are going to be one of the last bastions of untouched life. Shores and beaches are being dug up and recreational boating and such already puts alot of pollution into small bodies of water like lakes and streams, not to mention industrial waste. In the middle of the ocean is one of the last places where life can grow unhindered. For the most part.

"Hemi" is an old type of engine and it is an ad campaign. It sounds to me like you bought into the hype on tv.

From the first link:
"It was once called the "finest engine of its kind in the world," the Hemi Magnum engine once ruled the track and the streets. If your muscle car had the Hemi under the hood, very few other vehicles could beat you off the line. They had that much power. But when the oil crisis of the 1970s hit, the Hemi lost its luster. Sure, it was still fast, but it wasn't as fuel efficient as other engines, especially the ones produced by Japanese auto makers. So Chrysler shelved the demon and moved on to more civilized ideas like minivans."

From here:
"If HEMI engines have all these advantages, why aren't all engines using hemispherical heads? It's because there are even better configurations available today.
"One thing that a hemispherical head will never have is four valves per cylinder. The valve angles would be so crazy that the head would be nearly impossible to design. Having only two valves per cylinder is not an issue in drag racing or NASCAR because racing engines are limited to two valves per cylinder in these categories. But on the street, four slightly smaller valves let an engine breathe easier than two large valves. Modern engines use a pentroof design to accommodate four valves.
"Another reason most high-performance engines no longer use a HEMI design is the desire to create a smaller combustion chamber. Small chambers further reduce the heat lost during combustion, and also shorten the distance the flame front must travel during combustion. The compact pentroof design is helpful here, as well."

Also.

I have a considerable amount of broken computer and electronic equipment, but leaving it on the curb for someone to pickup and discard in a landfill runs counter to my goal of eliminating the waste. But Office Depot's legitimate recycling program could ultimately end up polluting some river in China or India with lead, cadmium, etc.

Note that the US is not one of the signatories to the 1989 Basel Convention which establishes guidelines on the export of hazardous waste. Therefore, the US can export hazardous electronic waste to other countries for recycling. While countries which sign the Basel Convention (including China and India) are not permitted to accept hazardous waste from non-signatories, it's a profitable business. Brokers from South and East Asia will happily "recycle" shipfuls of dead monitors at rates cheaper than the estimated $25 per unit.

The problem is that the recycling procedures in China and India pollute more than merely dumping the material in a landfill. This article notes the common procedure of burning piles of wires to collect the metal--releasing dioxins and covering the city in toxic ash.

So forgive me for wondering if "free" means that the cadmium from my cordless telephone or the lead from my dead 27" TV is going to end up eventually in the South China Sea and my tuna fish sandwich.

I have a considerable amount of broken computer and electronic equipment, but leaving it on the curb for someone to pickup and discard in a landfill runs counter to my goal of eliminating the waste. But Office Depot's legitimate recycling program could ultimately end up polluting some river in China or India with lead, cadmium, etc.

Note that the US is not one of the signatories to the 1989 Basel Convention which establishes guidelines on the export of hazardous waste. Therefore, the US can export hazardous electronic waste to other countries for recycling. While countries which sign the Basel Convention (including China and India) are not permitted to accept hazardous waste from non-signatories, it's a profitable business. Brokers from South and East Asia will happily "recycle" shipfuls of dead monitors at rates cheaper than the estimated $25 per unit.

The problem is that the recycling procedures in China and India pollute more than merely dumping the material in a landfill. This article notes the common procedure of burning piles of wires to collect the metal--releasing dioxins and covering the city in toxic ash.

So forgive me for wondering if "free" means that the cadmium from my cordless telephone or the lead from my dead 27" TV is going to end up eventually in the South China Sea and my tuna fish sandwich.

>>NPR has a good audio linkhere for you non-readers.
Thats funny.

The big push to seriously expand NASA occured during the Kennedy administration, where JFK was litterally reading some science fiction books, and got a sort of stary-eyed vision about where NASA could go.

Sorry, I don't buy it. While JFK was responsible for the big push to the moon, it was hardly a new idea. Werner von Braun was promoting a vision of the space program that included space stations and moon landings back in the 50s.

He even did a TV series (scroll to Tomorrowland) with Disney that was so realistic the Eisenhower administration gave it to the military as background info.

As for me personally, I never have watched the Superbowl and probably never will, even though I'm an 18-to-30-year-old male. Once in a while I watch spanish-language TV or anime with my wife. On the radio, I tend to switch between WNZK (Arabic- and Spanish-language programming), the local NPR station, and CBC radio 2/A> (classical music broadcast from Canada). Obviously this requirement won't affect Canada, and I thought NPR already made a permanent archive of their broadcasts available.

The USPS's April fools joke this year was this exactly. Read about it here.

As covered by NPR

Check it out here.

My appologies, instead of "9/11 report", I should have said "9/11 hearing testimony". Specifically the NPR coverage found here.

Ironically a report out earlier this week shows that the US imprisons more people than any other developed country. To give you a few figures from the article on
prisons not the answer for social problems, "There were 715 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents last June. Mexico's incarceration rate is 169 per 100,000, and Canada's rate is 116."

There are currently more than 2 million people in US jails. NPR is running a series this week on the ineffectiveness of the prison system.

Now I don't think for a minute that this sentence will ever be carried out. For one, didn't we already determine that most pirated movies come from people who get advanced copies on DVD? Can't find articles on that right now.

But if you want to change this ridiculous system of punishment please support initiatives like Downsize DC.

Ironically a report out earlier this week shows that the US imprisons more people than any other developed country. To give you a few figures from the article on
prisons not the answer for social problems, "There were 715 inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents last June. Mexico's incarceration rate is 169 per 100,000, and Canada's rate is 116."

There are currently more than 2 million people in US jails. NPR is running a series this week on the ineffectiveness of the prison system.

Now I don't think for a minute that this sentence will ever be carried out. For one, didn't we already determine that most pirated movies come from people who get advanced copies on DVD? Can't find articles on that right now.

But if you want to change this ridiculous system of punishment please support initiatives like Downsize DC.