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A similar story was out on NPR 8 months ago.

http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfI d=1140957

Although it could be that I'm just unfamiliar with the whole "dating" thing altogether, I hear it involves someone of the opposite sex or something? :)

(And if you don't wanna follow the links, NPR = National Public Radio, a fairly liberal radio network that is mostly funded by donations from listeners. Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! is a "news quiz show" that usually focuses on the weirder and more obscure news items - it's rather humorous, generally.)

Although it could be that I'm just unfamiliar with the whole "dating" thing altogether, I hear it involves someone of the opposite sex or something? :)

(And if you don't wanna follow the links, NPR = National Public Radio, a fairly liberal radio network that is mostly funded by donations from listeners. Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me! is a "news quiz show" that usually focuses on the weirder and more obscure news items - it's rather humorous, generally.)

I would recommend searching the NPR website for less biased info. on gun control. I remember hearing something on an NPR station in the last week or so about a scientist doing a "study without motive" on the statistic of whether guns in the home made people less or more prone to deaths by gun shot.

On the commercialism of Out of Sight, I heard Soderbergh on Fresh Air telling Terry Gross the film was not a commercial success and still hadn't made money. The producers were not pleased with him. That was several years back. The film still has good buzz. Maybe it's raked in enough through video/dvd sales to make up for it by now?

I think this is the real audio of the interview, you can search fresh air by going to the archives from the front page.

In the interview, iirc, he also talks about box office disasters like Kafka and Schizopolis, and acknowledges that he has an obligation to film producers, so he can't totally blow off their concerns.

Solaris seems like a healthy compromise. He made it for like $48 million, which is just a step above a credit card movie by Hollywood standards, i.e., not a big budget film. It probably won't break even in the first run, but it's definitely good enough to be a catalogue item, and may have some revenues from a second run or foreign distribution.

On the commercialism of Out of Sight, I heard Soderbergh on Fresh Air telling Terry Gross the film was not a commercial success and still hadn't made money. The producers were not pleased with him. That was several years back. The film still has good buzz. Maybe it's raked in enough through video/dvd sales to make up for it by now?

I think this is the real audio of the interview, you can search fresh air by going to the archives from the front page.

In the interview, iirc, he also talks about box office disasters like Kafka and Schizopolis, and acknowledges that he has an obligation to film producers, so he can't totally blow off their concerns.

Solaris seems like a healthy compromise. He made it for like $48 million, which is just a step above a credit card movie by Hollywood standards, i.e., not a big budget film. It probably won't break even in the first run, but it's definitely good enough to be a catalogue item, and may have some revenues from a second run or foreign distribution.

This doesn't surpise me at all. On National Public Radio today (All Things Considered) a researcher was talking about the best research tool for tracking down weapons of mass destruction: a 4" x 4" cotton swab. They run the swab over almost any surface and can detect radioactive material to the level of 1 part per billion. Geeez.
--
Trade it on Trodo!
http://trodo.com

I heard her whining on Morning edition yesterday about how put out she has been since they ran an article about her in the WallStreet Journal...

'Spam Queen' Defends Direct Marketing Via E-Mail
(Morning Edition Audio) Dec. 3, 2002
Direct marketer Laura Betterly speaks to NPR's John Ydstie.

Laura Betterly
717 Weathersfield Dr
Dunedin , FL
(727) 733-5335
Data Resource Consulting Inc.
Remember she has a 5,000-square-foot home, with a pool and a Lexus just begging to be filled with your cards and letters. original slashdot posting
Wall Street Journal Story

other mentions:

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/shownotes/story /0,24330,3407845,00.html
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/mon/business/ archive.htm
http://www.angrywhitegirl.com/weblog/weblog.php

This research made some noise (ha!) about ten years ago. A company called Macrosonix holds the patents. Even NPR has covered this in the past ten years.

The best explanation of the technology I've seen is in "Fluid Power Journal."

The "spam queen" was on NPR this morning (this link works but the audio's not available yet as I write this, and NPR might prefer you go thru npr.org, "audio archives" link).

She seems to be on a public relations campaign for spammers in general. She's not identifying a sponsor -- perhaps the the Direct Marketing Association (more here) -- but I doubt she'd deliberately attract so much attention without some reward. Maybe she's just drumming up more business this way. She made her usual claims that she never sends sex-related spam (i.e. porn or herbal viagra), never emails anyone without their permission, and advises listeners if they receive unwanted commercial email they can simply click the opt-out link included in each message. How very helpful.

Anyway, she reports there are more lawsuits in progress against anti-spam organizations, presumably including voluntary blackhole services. She identifies SpamCop as an unethical services because they allow anonymous reporting, and she argues she has the right to confront her accuser -- the interviewer, naive and non-confrontational, doesn't ask how she thought this right applied outside of a court trial, in a voluntary system (not to mention if "joe-jobs" are protected by the constitution). Actually he missed a lot of questions that would be obvious to the average /.-er.

Spammers are an organized, moneyed interest that is lobbying Congress in the US, and will presumably do the same in other countries where it serves them to do so. Spamming may be getting harder, but counteracting spam is also getting harder. ISP's in financial distress will tend to make business decisions to aid spammers in whatever way is still legal.

Email as we know it could become unworkable, and a new protocol may be necessary. As Aunt Tilly gets hooked by more email fraud, and receives more animated .GIF's of women having sex with farm animals, I think the incentive for most users to abandon traditional email will be there when the technology becomes available.

The "spam queen" was on NPR this morning (this link works but the audio's not available yet as I write this, and NPR might prefer you go thru npr.org, "audio archives" link).

She seems to be on a public relations campaign for spammers in general. She's not identifying a sponsor -- perhaps the the Direct Marketing Association (more here) -- but I doubt she'd deliberately attract so much attention without some reward. Maybe she's just drumming up more business this way. She made her usual claims that she never sends sex-related spam (i.e. porn or herbal viagra), never emails anyone without their permission, and advises listeners if they receive unwanted commercial email they can simply click the opt-out link included in each message. How very helpful.

Anyway, she reports there are more lawsuits in progress against anti-spam organizations, presumably including voluntary blackhole services. She identifies SpamCop as an unethical services because they allow anonymous reporting, and she argues she has the right to confront her accuser -- the interviewer, naive and non-confrontational, doesn't ask how she thought this right applied outside of a court trial, in a voluntary system (not to mention if "joe-jobs" are protected by the constitution). Actually he missed a lot of questions that would be obvious to the average /.-er.

Spammers are an organized, moneyed interest that is lobbying Congress in the US, and will presumably do the same in other countries where it serves them to do so. Spamming may be getting harder, but counteracting spam is also getting harder. ISP's in financial distress will tend to make business decisions to aid spammers in whatever way is still legal.

Email as we know it could become unworkable, and a new protocol may be necessary. As Aunt Tilly gets hooked by more email fraud, and receives more animated .GIF's of women having sex with farm animals, I think the incentive for most users to abandon traditional email will be there when the technology becomes available.

All this whining that biodiesel isn't available -- burn used grease of which there is a HUGE supply: Greasecar.

This is now the third time I've posted about Greasecar (not affiliated in any way, but plan to implement a kit in the the next year or so).

Heard a radio story or two recently about diesel and soot. As clean as they can be (nowadays) from a carbon standpoint they have another bad thing about them: soot. Even if the carbon is reduced the soot is sunlight blocking / reflecting and thus weather affecting (kind of like those contrails) -- so much so that even the diesel-guzzling Europeans are beginning to take notice of the problem. I am not sure if the soot issue is resolved at all with biodiesels or grease cars. Still reseraching that one...

A lot of large companies will higher a consulting firm to come up with a name for them.

NPR had a story about this a couple months ago about how hard it is to come up with a company name now adays. The main problem, as already stated, is that most english words are already taken. So actually finding a meaningful word or combination of words is really really hard.

When there are no real words left, the firm then gets to make up a word that brings out the values of the company, while not sounding to outlandish. It's actually rather interesting how random sounds put together can make someone thing a particular thing when it has no real basis in english. I'm guessing it's based a lot on roots and prefix's used in english.

All in all though, such a firm should be responsible for making sure the name is not already taken.

"All Things Considered" from NPR had a story about this on Wednesday night.
You can listen to ~4 minutes of the piece with comments by the artist here:
http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_ 858257.html

"...just like no U.S. news source mentioned the softwood logging tariff..."

You mean like this?

I understand that that is old news but we do get some Canadian related material even if it is few and far between.

However, I must agree that Americans can be extremely US centric in their news. I see quite a bit of world wide information in news.bbc.co.uk but nothing like that on CNN. However, I must say that we have news that doesn't quite make the limelight that is US based that I feel should so it's not just Canadian news that is pretty much ignored.

Well, maybe Bob doesn't mind, since Bob is also a radio personality himself.

(admittedly, for non-commercial NPR, and he does a great show that skewers the media -- including NPR -- for their biases and kowtowing to sponsors, but still...)

Hey, you laugh...but they arn't. They now know your average demographic, and pick a product to suit it. Well, that or you start seeing pictures of this on the side of the road...

I heard this guy interviewd on NPR on the way to work about a month ago...
Here's the link: NPR Story It's a real audio file.

Is it me, or does it seem that most spam pieces slant toward the "pro-business" aspects of it, and take everything they say at face value.

If a journalist wants to show spammers for what they are, just ask: "Do you relay your mail off of unauthorized open mail servers?" According to Ralsky's record on Spamhaus, he does, or did.

On Aug. 15, Ralsky was interviewed on NPR. It was the typical pary line, about how it's not illegal, and they don't send porn, and they honor removes, etc., all very cheerful. But, once, she asked whether he used "blind relays"....

Quietly, he answered, "I won't make a comment on that." I wish she would have elaborated on it, because most of the listeners wouldn't have understood that this means hijacking open mail servers, which is generally considered theft of service.

This is now old news, it was a part of the Homeland Security bill which just passed.

In the past two weeks there has been talk of this in the New York Times (registration blah blah blah), The Washington Post and
Harper's weekly review, to name a few. NPR's All Things Considered had a commentary on this (RealAudio) the other night.

Last week was the time to prevent it, now it's probably too late -- it's law.

This is now old news, it was a part of the Homeland Security bill which just passed.

In the past two weeks there has been talk of this in the New York Times (registration blah blah blah), The Washington Post and
Harper's weekly review, to name a few. NPR's All Things Considered had a commentary on this (RealAudio) the other night.

Last week was the time to prevent it, now it's probably too late -- it's law.

Because EVERY one knows that terrorists don't use the Postal System to plan and execute terrorism.

NPR

PRI

Wow, I heard a clip about this the other day when I was listening to NPR. It's a really interesting audio segment that explains the problem and how it might happen again soon due to an El Nino condition this year. The link to the page that has the audio story is here. Note: This is in RealAudio format.

Regards, Montag

Wow, I heard a clip about this the other day when I was listening to NPR. It's a really interesting audio segment that explains the problem and how it might happen again soon due to an El Nino condition this year. The link to the page that has the audio story is here. Note: This is in RealAudio format.

Regards, Montag

I use Total Recorder to capture the audio, which is the only method I've found. Unfortunately, quality is lost in the conversion, and its one of the few programs that keeps me booting windows. Here's hoping someone uses the recently release realaudio source to come up with a better Linux solution.

All these shows take up a lot of space though. The Bantam BA350 holds 128mb + a 128mb flash card. Recharges from the USB port and works well. My favorite MP3 player to date, though it has a windows only interface.

I use Total Recorder to capture the audio, which is the only method I've found. Unfortunately, quality is lost in the conversion, and its one of the few programs that keeps me booting windows. Here's hoping someone uses the recently release realaudio source to come up with a better Linux solution.

All these shows take up a lot of space though. The Bantam BA350 holds 128mb + a 128mb flash card. Recharges from the USB port and works well. My favorite MP3 player to date, though it has a windows only interface.

I use Total Recorder to capture the audio, which is the only method I've found. Unfortunately, quality is lost in the conversion, and its one of the few programs that keeps me booting windows. Here's hoping someone uses the recently release realaudio source to come up with a better Linux solution.

All these shows take up a lot of space though. The Bantam BA350 holds 128mb + a 128mb flash card. Recharges from the USB port and works well. My favorite MP3 player to date, though it has a windows only interface.

I suppse you forgot about NPR?

I think your thinking of the Todd Solondz movie Storytelling . It was Fine Line who demanded an R rating at any cost, so Solondz included a clause in the contract to keep them from editing it, and did the thing with the black boxes as a form of protest. He talked about it with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. The archive is here.

btw Solondz is from New Jersey-- but maybe you're really thinking of somebody else.

I heard an interview with the researcher on NPR this morning (recording of the show), and there is no known cause.

The researcher's hypothesis is that the irritation of the tape encourages immune response. One piece of anecdotal evidence supporting that is that some people claimed that other warts elsewhere on the body were also affected to some degree.

Actually, the morning NPR coverage was pretty disappointing. Props to them for giving the case 7 1/2 minutes in the morning, but their article suggested the case was about whether the present copyright holder or internet publishers got the rights to the work. That kind of misses the point that if Eldred wins we all get the works for free from now on.

Also, just for kicks, they tossed in the point that if CTEA is overturned, new derivative works could include pornographic ones. While that's true, this case is about free public access. The pornography angle amounts to **AA FUD.

The 5 minute spot in the afternoon that summarized the Justice's questioning was better.

Check out the NPR summary of the questioning and the responses.

I think things sound pretty bad for Eldred and Co. There seems little hope that the Court plans to invalidate the life plus 70 term for new works created after 1998. At best, it sounds like the Court might invalidate the retroactive part of the law. This wouldn't be a complete defeat for Eldred, since many of the valuable old works whose creators have been lobbying Congress would be among those that would lose copyright. Therefore, less incentive to lobby.

Check out the NPR summary of the questioning and the responses.

I think things sound pretty bad for Eldred and Co. There seems little hope that the Court plans to invalidate the life plus 70 term for new works created after 1998. At best, it sounds like the Court might invalidate the retroactive part of the law. This wouldn't be a complete defeat for Eldred, since many of the valuable old works whose creators have been lobbying Congress would be among those that would lose copyright. Therefore, less incentive to lobby.

You can find the specific coverage on NPR's Morning Edition here. Search for "Supreme", it's near the middle of the page. The Real stream is about 7 minutes long.

Morning Edition

NPR has a pretty good link to an explanation. At the top of the article, there's an real audio recording of the actual report that I listened to this morning. I thought it was fairly accurate, and should give some explanations.

To be precise about it, these fellows did not "discover" apoptosis, they have done a lot of very good work defining the genes and methods responsible for triggering it. From what I've read, though, they certainly deserve the prize.

NPR has a pretty good link to an explanation. At the top of the article, there's an real audio recording of the actual report that I listened to this morning. I thought it was fairly accurate, and should give some explanations.

To be precise about it, these fellows did not "discover" apoptosis, they have done a lot of very good work defining the genes and methods responsible for triggering it. From what I've read, though, they certainly deserve the prize.

NPR's All Things Considered did a story about this. Except, they did the story on Thursday, April 1, 1999.

And I personally have to agree. The US and EU have unique positions as national superpowers with the ability to eradicate many of the world's ills, but with the system-wide problem that the only way these countries are set up to do so is through profit motivated reseach, not simple and unglamorous program implementation.

Crack a "Numbers" Station
Posted by Hemos on Sat 27 May 01:35PM
from the cool-insight dept.
boss soul writes: "On Friday, NPR did an excellent story on those infamous 'Numbers Stations' that broadcast on shortwave radio. Since the 1950s, these stations have been broadcasting nothing but an unidentified human voice reading a string of numbers. Though most people believe that these broadcasts are used by intelligence agencies to communicate with their agents abroad, there has never been any way to confirm this ... until now! The makers of "The Conet Project" (a four-CD set of numbers-station recordings) have thrown down the proverbial gauntlet and announced a series of "cryptographic challenges" -- the object of which is to crack an actual numbers station broadcast. Dust off your Crypto caps, everyone -- I want to see a slashdotter win this one! "

An excerpt from NPR's Lost & Found Sound:
"Eventually, if listeners dig around [the shortwave spectrum] long enough, they'll tune across voices reciting endless strings of numbers. These broadcasts have been heard for at least 40 years. The signals are powerful, but they contain no information about location of the transmitter or the intended audience. Most listeners linger for a short time, then tune away, utterly baffled."

When I discovered these myself, I found them bizarre, chilling- and intriguing. In order to get some background, I ordered a 4-CD set from Irdial recordings in the UK called The Conet Project... highly reccomended.

What is perhaps the most surprising is that the number of numbers stations boradcasting on the shortwave band are only increasing- variously attributed to the increasing sophistication of organized crime, drug cartels, terrorist/separatist organizations and an increasingly fractious global intelligence community.

Do follow the links above if this intrigues you in the slightest- and just try going back to your insular world-view afterwards; "the enemy" is out there, and he's hiding right out in the open.

By this definition, every search engine that points to that web site in respose to a search for "FARC" would be guilty. It's also assuming that providing information is the same as providing material support. By that logic, every news organization that tried to explain the mindset of a terrorist (including NPR which read a terrorist's statement on the air last week) would be guilty as well.

Well, perhaps not, but today is the twentieth birthday of the emoticon!! Check out this interview (Requires Real) with the first person to ever use the ubiquitous smiley.

Obligatory link to NPR stream of same.

What if Iraq launches a chemical weapon on Israel? We have to go in and support them, because the US (most of the time, to my knowledge) backs our allies. History repeats, and the World War I scenario happens again.

What if the US goes in after Saddam? We (possibly) will set up a puppet government and anger people in the Middle East, but it seems the Iraqis like the idea of self-rule, even if their comrades are holding automatic weapons...

Either way everyone loses, because lives are lost, but I don't want to be drafted to fight a war.

NPR has commercial free coverage, but then that's not out of the ordinary for them.

For your best media coverage in the US, please turn to listener supported NPR. Here in Austin, TX, I have the impression that Clearchannel is taking a day to build a brand name. NPR is doing what they always do, trying to represent as best as they can the events that happen.

Save bandwidth. Listen to the radio. Or, if you're at work and can't get radio reception (like me), their live program stream is available in Quicktime, Real, or Windows Media. Politics aside, most people's computers can handle one of those programs.

Their online coverage is available here, and their program schedule is here. Please note that all times are in Eastern time.

For your best media coverage in the US, please turn to listener supported NPR. Here in Austin, TX, I have the impression that Clearchannel is taking a day to build a brand name. NPR is doing what they always do, trying to represent as best as they can the events that happen.

Save bandwidth. Listen to the radio. Or, if you're at work and can't get radio reception (like me), their live program stream is available in Quicktime, Real, or Windows Media. Politics aside, most people's computers can handle one of those programs.

Their online coverage is available here, and their program schedule is here. Please note that all times are in Eastern time.

For your best media coverage in the US, please turn to listener supported NPR. Here in Austin, TX, I have the impression that Clearchannel is taking a day to build a brand name. NPR is doing what they always do, trying to represent as best as they can the events that happen.

Save bandwidth. Listen to the radio. Or, if you're at work and can't get radio reception (like me), their live program stream is available in Quicktime, Real, or Windows Media. Politics aside, most people's computers can handle one of those programs.

Their online coverage is available here, and their program schedule is here. Please note that all times are in Eastern time.