PSP Glamour: Will Anybody Care That You Liked Gaming Before It Was Cool? Posted by ClockworkGrue at 06:07 PM
The DS was made to change the way that games are played.
If the PSP changes anything about the way games are played, it's that now when you play, you might actually look hot.
psp_mermaid.jpgSony marketing's ability to present the PSP as a "lifestyle accessory" rather than a gaming system has really impressed me. Witness Korean website PSPStyle. This is a series of 3 model galleries on the themes of 3 classic fairytales, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and Cinderella. Throw in some glamour, add a PSP, and there you go.
And that's what's so odd, really. I mean, yes the PSP is a sleek little device. It fits into the style of the photographs, but, I mean, they're so posed and awkward. It's like they decided to do Gothic Lolita night on The Price is Right. It's not really sexy or mysterious, it's just silly.
When it comes down to it, the best glamour shot of a PSP wasn't even made by Sony marketing. It was made by some girl. I linked to the original picture from Kotaku a few days ago. Much to my surprise, the girl writes for gaming blog-thing RedAssedBaboon under the name of Hatsumi. She has in fact written about "the picture," finally proving that ours isn't the only website where women will fondle gaming hardware and then reflect on it.
hatsumi_lick.jpgOne the one hand, I think it's really awesome that our gaming devices can look like something you'd want to be seen using. I remember when critics praised the Gameboy Advance SP because it was so small that respectible people could carry it discreetly. Why shouldn't the world learn to see people who play games as playful, sexy creatures? On the other hand, there's the flag waving nerdcore gamer in me who wants a handheld to be awkward and gangly because it means that when I do see one it's like a little sign saying "I am of your people."
This is, of course, ridiculous. Random guy on the street with a GBA SP is no more likely to be anything like me than random guy on the street with a PSP. It's great that gaming can be trendy, and that the 300 pound guy on the train the other day and Paris Hilton are both PSP owners. Maybe now there'll be some demand for game-related clothing that breaks the basement-casual standard? After all, if there's one thing we gamers know how to do, it's play (and pwn) well with others, and the pool of "others" just got a whole lot bigger. Right now, gamers are coming out of the basement, into the lime-light, and you know what they look like? They look like me. They look like you. They look like Hatsumi. But they're all here because they love games. No doubt we'll get to have arguments over who was a gamer "before it was cool," but if it means that we can argue over a friendly wi-fi deathmatch, then I'm looking forward to such inanities.
Union contstruction workers work mon-thurs then on friday, they go and protest/picket the non-union company that got the contract for renovating our local college. I can't imagine workers being too thrilled with a robotic replacement.
Sunrise doesn't last all morning, a cloudburst doesn't last all day Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning But it's not always going to be this grey All things must pass, all things must pass away Sunset doesn't last all evening, a mind can blow those clouds away after all this my love is up and must be leaving It has not always been this grey All things must pass, all things must pass away All things must pass none of life's strings can last So I must be on my way and face another day Now the darkness only stays at nighttime, in the morning it will fade away Daylight is good at arriving at the right time It's not always going to be this grey All things must pass, all things must pass away All things must pass, all things must pass away
ThinkGeek ThinkGeek ThinkGEEK! The Almighty Buck Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future! from the this-shit-never-gets-old dept. ThinkGeek writes "ThinkGeek ThinkGeek ThinkgEEk ThinkGeek! ThinkGeek ThinkGeek THINK geek think GeEk thinkgEek. ThinkGeek. (TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now). You can also look into the new iPod accessory iCopulate which allows intimacy between mp3 players never before fantasized. And for the suit that has everything, Executve Pong. "
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... ) Apple: EU to Ban Macs Desktops (Apple) Posted by Zonk in The Mysterious Future! from the bite-out-of-the-apple dept. johnalex writes "Digit Online News is reporting that 'The European Union has revealed it is to ban the sale and use of Apple Macintosh computers by 2006 - citing the need for unification in a directive unveiled today.' Reasons for the ban include that 'Apple's lack of floppy disk drive is discriminatory to EU residents, and that the Apple logo doesn't hail from the apple-growing regions of Southern France.'"
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | apple.slashdot.org ) Linux: Tokyo Zoo Adds Giant Penguin News Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future! from the its-gigantic-i-mean-look-at-it dept. Ant writes "This Yahoo! News story is amusing and cute: "Emperor penguins looked up in awe as Tokyo's main zoo unveiled its latest addition -- a giant penguin said to be suspiciously close in height and weight to a human... As the cameras rolled, the real penguins rose their beaks and gazed up at the purported Lord -- but then walked away disinterested when he took off his penguin face to reveal himself to be zoo director Teruyuki Komiya."
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | linux.slashdot.org ) Hardware: Opera Invents New P2P System Technology Posted by Zonk in The Mysterious Future! from the breakthrough! dept. jeffy124 writes "Opera Software has developed a new P2P communications technology, buzzword description being a platform independent real time short- to medium-range interpersonal communications technology. A press release is available on their website, as is a demonstration of the technology, which Opera has called "Soundwave"."
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | hardware.slashdot.org ) Hardware: Ask Jeeves to Introduce Jeeves9000 Robotics Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future! from the i-can't-do-that-jeeves dept. delymyth writes "The future of search arrives and is brought to you by Ask.Com. He'll help you in your searches, he'll help you at home, and the price is affordable, only $399,99! If you still think it's too much, you can always get a free version, but sometimes he'll suggest you some products (you know, robotic adware). A demo video is available." Personally I still think Ask Jeeves bought for $2 billion is a hoax.
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | hardware.slashdot.org ) Hardware: Screen Cleaner Brightens Fading Displays Displays Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future! from the its-probably-a-worm dept. Dirty Screen Boy writes "Over time, your LCD or CRT monitor will gradually fade in brightness and contrast. This fading is inevitable, because the backlights for LCD screens eventually fade, and the photo-reactive substrate on CRT monitors eventually degrades. ScreenCleaner Pro rectifies this situation by altering the gamma of your monitor to compensate for monitor degradation, so it will look as good as new. Don't toss out that old monitor, just run ScreenCleaner Pro on it, and watch your old monitor gain a new life. Simply let ScreenCleaner Pro run in the background, and it will automatically analyze your monitor's gamm
"Then shall he say also unto them on the left, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."Matthew 25:41 (KJV)
the apples to apples comparison would be the current shipping version of each operating system. for Apple thats 10.3+ and for XP its Service Pack 2. Neither vendor can do anything about being unprotected in the past. I certainly don't grouse about patched vulnerabilities in Linux.
the advantages of firefox to all my co-workers and to family memebers. I usually mention security (along with the great extensions), and tabbed browsing. With more and more vulnerabilities being found, I might need to start recommending other solutions like AvantBrowser or Opera.
Please, just turn your television off. Or if you leave it on, please avoid any channels which are owned by a gigantic corporation...wait...thats pretty much all of em. Yeah, better leave it off. At least for the next few days.
Why should you turn the TV off? Well, for numerous reasons, but the main reason being that the next week will be a neverending stream of propaganda to give you the impression that it's a miraculous, historic, unprecedented turnout of Iraqis who are experiencing freedom for the first time. There will be shitloads of rhetoric, incessant self-fellating and praise about the red, white, and the blue...
This is all bullshit.
Here are facts you will never hear come out of Aaron Brown's mouth...never uttered by any Faux News commentator...never scrolled across the screen in between Robert Blake trial footage and the interview with the teacher that had sex with the student...
We have killed at least 15,000 innocent Iraqis. This is a fact.
In perspective...5 times the amount of people we lost on 9/11.
And Iraq had absolutely ZERO involvement in the 9/11 attacks. So how can any of this be justified?
How can you expect the families and friends of these innocent Iraqis to just "forgive and forget?" Would you ask the 9/11 victims to forgive Osama?
Open your fucking eyes people...we all have blood on our hands.
We can't keep draping ourselves in the flag and shield ourselves from the reality of our government. We can't put ourselves on this pedestal and demonize those who kill, and at the same time kill just the same.
According to figures recorded by the Iraq Ministry of Health, from July 2004 - Jan 2005, 3274 civilians have been killed. Out of those civilians, 1233 were killed by insurgents. 2041 were killed by coalition forces.
Who is the bad guy? Who is the enemy? Please someone, answer the fucking question.
Why are we better?
This election is complete bullshit. You can not force democracy with the barrel of a gun. Democracy must not be delivered by a foreign hand. It ceases to be democracy. This is Empire. Why is this not bothering anyone??
Where is the fucking dissent? Where are the voices of the other side..the reality based community? Where have all the hippies gone? When did the spirit of this nation get replaced with a bunch of complacent, detached, ignorant, apathetic FOOLS?
Have you ever heard of Al-Jazeera? Well, they are a news channel in the Middle East, and they are very controversial as they spin their news towards a certain viewpoint of the world. Specifically, they gather their facts and present the news in a format which is construed as "propaganda." They believe that a foreign nation does not have the right to invade another, force it's government upon it, and kill thousands of innocent civilians in the process. Because of this belief, they show footage of dead and maimed Iraqi women and children, and other videos you will never see on any channel you can reach on your remote. They believe that if people are in a war, then simply broadcasting the results of the war should be not only allowed, but encouraged.
Why does our media not feel the same?
Why can we let our government kill others in our name, and yet seeing the murders is "propaganda" and "anti-American?"
Americans are so fucking detached, but pictures make a difference. 9/11 proved that. In perspective, 3000 people, while serious grief is felt for those who fell, is not that many people on the grand scale of things. Many more people die of many more causes for many more preventable reasons.
But the point is, the pictures inflated the trauma. If the movies of the plane crashes, the jumping people, the screaming, crying families...if the pictures were not available the sense of grief would have seriously diminished.
And now this quagmire in Iraq. We have killed 15,000 innocent civilians...yet...let me pose to you a question...
I think this was a good decision by the judge, it frees google of having to research trademarked keywords and yet it still keeps the door open for companies like Geico to sue companies that abuse their trademark.
For John Kerry, the specter of Attorney General John Ashcroft trashing Americans' civil liberties has been a useful campaign prop. In campaign stops, Kerry has promised to "end the era of John Ashcroft and renew our faith in the Constitution." In a Kerry administration, he promised the liberal group MoveOn last year, "there will be no John Ashcroft trampling on the Bill of Rights." In his 2004 campaign book, A Call to Service, Kerry accuses Ashcroft and the Bush administration of "relying far too much on extraordinary police powers."
In contrast, Kerry positions himself as a civil libertarian -- or at least as a proponent of a reasonable balance between liberty and security. "If we are to stand as the world's role model for freedom, we need to remain vigilant about our own civil liberties," Kerry writes in A Call to Service. He calls for "rededicating ourselves to protecting civil liberties."
Kerry, like every other senator in the chamber except Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), voted for the USA PATRIOT Act in the wake of 9/11. Now he is co-sponsoring the SAFE Act, a bipartisan measure that restricts some of the powers that the PATRIOT Act granted the government. Furthermore, he is critical of the package of proposals from Ashcroft's Department of Justice (DOJ) that has been dubbed Patriot II. Citing his experience as a prosecutor -- he was an assistant district attorney in suburban Boston in the '70s -- Kerry writes, "I know there's a big difference between giving the government the resources and commonsense leeway it needs to track a tough and devious foe and giving in to the temptation of taking shortcuts that will sacrifice liberties cheaply without significantly enhancing the effectiveness of law enforcement. Patriot II threatens to cross that line -- and to a serious degree."
Sacrificing Personal Privacy
This isn't the first time Kerry and Ashcroft have been at odds over civil liberties. In the 1990s, government proposals to restrict encryption inspired a national debate. Then as now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and electronic privacy groups locked horns with the DOJ and law enforcement agencies. Then as now, Kerry and Ashcroft were on opposite sides.
But there was a noteworthy difference in those days. Then it was Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) who argued alongside the ACLU in favor of the individual's right to encrypt messages and export encryption software. Ashcroft "was kind of the go-to guy for all of us on the Republican side of the Senate," recalls David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
And in what now seems like a bizarre parallel universe, it was John Kerry who was on the side of the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the DOJ. Ashcroft's predecessor at the Justice Department, Janet Reno, wanted to force companies to create a "clipper chip" for the government -- a chip that could "unlock" the encryption codes individuals use to keep their messages private. When that wouldn't fly in Congress, the DOJ pushed for a "key escrow" system in which a third-party agency would have a "backdoor" key to read encrypted messages.
In the meantime, the Clinton administration classified virtually all encryption devices as "munitions" that were banned from export, putting American business at a disadvantage. In 1997 Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed the Secure Public Networks Act through his committee. This bill would have codified the administration's export ban and started a key escrow system. One of his original co-sponsors was his fellow Vietnam vet and good friend from across the aisle, John Kerry.
Proponents such as McCain and Kerry claimed that law enforcement could not get the key from any third-party agency without a court order. Critics responded that there were loopholes in the law, that it opened the door to abuses, and that it punished a technology rather than wrongdoers who used that technology. Some opponents argued that the idea was equivalent to giving the g
I won't deny that gerrymandering food service jobs into manufacturing is an underhanded tactic, but none of your links confirm that that actually took place. All of them state that it was under consideration, with no action taken.
From the salon link:
"Sometimes, seemingly subtle differences can determine whether an industry is classified as manufacturing. For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service."
That seems like a pretty valid question to me. I would hazard a guess that the food service industry hasn't had much of an increase in demand for workers and wouldn't account for very many new jobs.
BY JOHN F. KERRY Thursday, February 5, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST
(Editor's note: Sen. Kerry delivered this speech on the Senate floor Feb. 27, 1992. The previous day, Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Vietnam veteran and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke in Atlanta, where he criticized fellow candidate Bill Clinton for his lack of military service during Vietnam.)
Mr. President, I also rise today--and I want to say that I rise reluctantly, but I rise feeling driven by personal reasons of necessity--to express my very deep disappointment over yesterday's turn of events in the Democratic primary in Georgia.
I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning.
What is ignored is the way in which our experience during that period reflected in part a positive affirmation of American values and history, not simply the more obvious negatives of loss and confusion.
What is missing is a recognition that there exists today a generation that has come into its own with powerful lessons learned, with a voice that has been grounded in experiences both of those who went to Vietnam and those who did not.
What is missing and what cries out to be said is that neither one group nor the other from that difficult period of time has cornered the market on virtue or rectitude or love of country.
What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be refighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary.
The race for the White House should be about leadership, and leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them; that one help identify the positive things that we learned about ourselves and about our nation, not play to the divisions and differences of that crucible of our generation.
We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?
Are we now to descend, like latter-day Spiro Agnews, and play, as he did, to the worst instincts of divisiveness and reaction that still haunt America? Are we now going to create a new scarlet letter in the context of Vietnam?
Certainly, those who went to Vietnam suffered greatly. I have argued for years, since I returned myself in 1969, that they do deserve special affection and gratitude for service. And, indeed, I think everything I have tried to do since then has been to fight for their rights and recognition.
But while those who served are owed special recognition, that recognition should not come at the expense of others; nor does it require that others be victimized or criticized or said to have settled for a lesser standard. To divide our party or our country over this issue today, in 1992, simply does not do justice to what all of us went through during that tragic and turbulent time.
I would like to make a simple and straightforward appeal, an appeal from my heart, as well as from my head. To all those currently pursuing the presidency in both parties, I would plead that they simply look at America. We are a nation crying out for leadersh
Slashdot Mirror
or is it psuedo64 like OSX?
He then went on to say that homosexuals want to molest young boys.
Do you know of any straight men that molest young boys?
PSP Glamour: Will Anybody Care That You Liked Gaming Before It Was Cool?
Posted by ClockworkGrue at 06:07 PM
The DS was made to change the way that games are played.
If the PSP changes anything about the way games are played, it's that now when you play, you might actually look hot.
psp_mermaid.jpgSony marketing's ability to present the PSP as a "lifestyle accessory" rather than a gaming system has really impressed me. Witness Korean website PSPStyle. This is a series of 3 model galleries on the themes of 3 classic fairytales, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and Cinderella. Throw in some glamour, add a PSP, and there you go.
And that's what's so odd, really. I mean, yes the PSP is a sleek little device. It fits into the style of the photographs, but, I mean, they're so posed and awkward. It's like they decided to do Gothic Lolita night on The Price is Right. It's not really sexy or mysterious, it's just silly.
When it comes down to it, the best glamour shot of a PSP wasn't even made by Sony marketing. It was made by some girl. I linked to the original picture from Kotaku a few days ago. Much to my surprise, the girl writes for gaming blog-thing RedAssedBaboon under the name of Hatsumi. She has in fact written about "the picture," finally proving that ours isn't the only website where women will fondle gaming hardware and then reflect on it.
hatsumi_lick.jpgOne the one hand, I think it's really awesome that our gaming devices can look like something you'd want to be seen using. I remember when critics praised the Gameboy Advance SP because it was so small that respectible people could carry it discreetly. Why shouldn't the world learn to see people who play games as playful, sexy creatures? On the other hand, there's the flag waving nerdcore gamer in me who wants a handheld to be awkward and gangly because it means that when I do see one it's like a little sign saying "I am of your people."
This is, of course, ridiculous. Random guy on the street with a GBA SP is no more likely to be anything like me than random guy on the street with a PSP. It's great that gaming can be trendy, and that the 300 pound guy on the train the other day and Paris Hilton are both PSP owners. Maybe now there'll be some demand for game-related clothing that breaks the basement-casual standard? After all, if there's one thing we gamers know how to do, it's play (and pwn) well with others, and the pool of "others" just got a whole lot bigger. Right now, gamers are coming out of the basement, into the lime-light, and you know what they look like? They look like me. They look like you. They look like Hatsumi. But they're all here because they love games. No doubt we'll get to have arguments over who was a gamer "before it was cool," but if it means that we can argue over a friendly wi-fi deathmatch, then I'm looking forward to such inanities.
Union contstruction workers work mon-thurs then on friday, they go and protest/picket the non-union company that got the contract for renovating our local college. I can't imagine workers being too thrilled with a robotic replacement.
Sunrise doesn't last all morning,
a cloudburst doesn't last all day
Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning
But it's not always going to be this grey
All things must pass, all things must pass away
Sunset doesn't last all evening,
a mind can blow those clouds away
after all this my love is up and must be leaving
It has not always been this grey
All things must pass, all things must pass away
All things must pass none of life's strings can last
So I must be on my way and face another day
Now the darkness only stays at nighttime,
in the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
It's not always going to be this grey
All things must pass, all things must pass away
All things must pass, all things must pass away
ThinkGeek ThinkGeek ThinkGEEK!
The Almighty Buck
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the this-shit-never-gets-old dept.
ThinkGeek writes "ThinkGeek ThinkGeek ThinkgEEk ThinkGeek! ThinkGeek ThinkGeek THINK geek think GeEk thinkgEek. ThinkGeek. (TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now). You can also look into the new iPod accessory iCopulate which allows intimacy between mp3 players never before fantasized. And for the suit that has everything, Executve Pong. "
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... )
Apple: EU to Ban Macs
Desktops (Apple)
Posted by Zonk in The Mysterious Future!
from the bite-out-of-the-apple dept.
johnalex writes "Digit Online News is reporting that 'The European Union has revealed it is to ban the sale and use of Apple Macintosh computers by 2006 - citing the need for unification in a directive unveiled today.' Reasons for the ban include that 'Apple's lack of floppy disk drive is discriminatory to EU residents, and that the Apple logo doesn't hail from the apple-growing regions of Southern France.'"
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | apple.slashdot.org )
Linux: Tokyo Zoo Adds Giant Penguin
News
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the its-gigantic-i-mean-look-at-it dept.
Ant writes "This Yahoo! News story is amusing and cute: "Emperor penguins looked up in awe as Tokyo's main zoo unveiled its latest addition -- a giant penguin said to be suspiciously close in height and weight to a human... As the cameras rolled, the real penguins rose their beaks and gazed up at the purported Lord -- but then walked away disinterested when he took off his penguin face to reveal himself to be zoo director Teruyuki Komiya."
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | linux.slashdot.org )
Hardware: Opera Invents New P2P System
Technology
Posted by Zonk in The Mysterious Future!
from the breakthrough! dept.
jeffy124 writes "Opera Software has developed a new P2P communications technology, buzzword description being a platform independent real time short- to medium-range interpersonal communications technology. A press release is available on their website, as is a demonstration of the technology, which Opera has called "Soundwave"."
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | hardware.slashdot.org )
Hardware: Ask Jeeves to Introduce Jeeves9000
Robotics
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the i-can't-do-that-jeeves dept.
delymyth writes "The future of search arrives and is brought to you by Ask.Com. He'll help you in your searches, he'll help you at home, and the price is affordable, only $399,99! If you still think it's too much, you can always get a free version, but sometimes he'll suggest you some products (you know, robotic adware). A demo video is available." Personally I still think Ask Jeeves bought for $2 billion is a hoax.
See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.
( Read More... | hardware.slashdot.org )
Hardware: Screen Cleaner Brightens Fading Displays
Displays
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the its-probably-a-worm dept.
Dirty Screen Boy writes "Over time, your LCD or CRT monitor will gradually fade in brightness and contrast. This fading is inevitable, because the backlights for LCD screens eventually fade, and the photo-reactive substrate on CRT monitors eventually degrades. ScreenCleaner Pro rectifies this situation by altering the gamma of your monitor to compensate for monitor degradation, so it will look as good as new. Don't toss out that old monitor, just run ScreenCleaner Pro on it, and watch your old monitor gain a new life. Simply let ScreenCleaner Pro run in the background, and it will automatically analyze your monitor's gamm
"Then shall he say also unto them on the left, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matthew 25:41 (KJV)
the apples to apples comparison would be the current shipping version of each operating system. for Apple thats 10.3+ and for XP its Service Pack 2. Neither vendor can do anything about being unprotected in the past. I certainly don't grouse about patched vulnerabilities in Linux.
the laptops are very competitively priced FOR THE QUALITY OF WHAT YOU GET.
Yes, you get laptop manufactured in Taiwan by Quanta that might have white spots on its screen, a failing motherboards, or faulty batteries
d'oh I was thinking of Michael Crichtons Eaters of The Dead
he has also been hired to write the script for the sequel (Eating the Dead), and has an option for a third film if the first two don't flop too badly.
What happened to the story about mplayer getting shut down for patent infringement? It was there one second and gone the next.
the advantages of firefox to all my co-workers and to family memebers. I usually mention security (along with the great extensions), and tabbed browsing. With more and more vulnerabilities being found, I might need to start recommending other solutions like AvantBrowser or Opera.
button on the top left of each window?
do you gag on steve jobs' cock?
yhbt
Please, just turn your television off. Or if you leave it on, please avoid any channels which are owned by a gigantic corporation...wait...thats pretty much all of em. Yeah, better leave it off. At least for the next few days.
Why should you turn the TV off? Well, for numerous reasons, but the main reason being that the next week will be a neverending stream of propaganda to give you the impression that it's a miraculous, historic, unprecedented turnout of Iraqis who are experiencing freedom for the first time. There will be shitloads of rhetoric, incessant self-fellating and praise about the red, white, and the blue...
This is all bullshit.
Here are facts you will never hear come out of Aaron Brown's mouth...never uttered by any Faux News commentator...never scrolled across the screen in between Robert Blake trial footage and the interview with the teacher that had sex with the student...
We have killed at least 15,000 innocent Iraqis. This is a fact.
In perspective...5 times the amount of people we lost on 9/11.
And Iraq had absolutely ZERO involvement in the 9/11 attacks. So how can any of this be justified?
How can you expect the families and friends of these innocent Iraqis to just "forgive and forget?" Would you ask the 9/11 victims to forgive Osama?
Open your fucking eyes people...we all have blood on our hands.
We can't keep draping ourselves in the flag and shield ourselves from the reality of our government. We can't put ourselves on this pedestal and demonize those who kill, and at the same time kill just the same.
According to figures recorded by the Iraq Ministry of Health, from July 2004 - Jan 2005, 3274 civilians have been killed. Out of those civilians, 1233 were killed by insurgents. 2041 were killed by coalition forces.
Who is the bad guy? Who is the enemy? Please someone, answer the fucking question.
Why are we better?
This election is complete bullshit. You can not force democracy with the barrel of a gun. Democracy must not be delivered by a foreign hand. It ceases to be democracy. This is Empire. Why is this not bothering anyone??
Where is the fucking dissent? Where are the voices of the other side..the reality based community? Where have all the hippies gone? When did the spirit of this nation get replaced with a bunch of complacent, detached, ignorant, apathetic FOOLS?
Have you ever heard of Al-Jazeera? Well, they are a news channel in the Middle East, and they are very controversial as they spin their news towards a certain viewpoint of the world. Specifically, they gather their facts and present the news in a format which is construed as "propaganda." They believe that a foreign nation does not have the right to invade another, force it's government upon it, and kill thousands of innocent civilians in the process. Because of this belief, they show footage of dead and maimed Iraqi women and children, and other videos you will never see on any channel you can reach on your remote. They believe that if people are in a war, then simply broadcasting the results of the war should be not only allowed, but encouraged.
Why does our media not feel the same?
Why can we let our government kill others in our name, and yet seeing the murders is "propaganda" and "anti-American?"
Americans are so fucking detached, but pictures make a difference. 9/11 proved that. In perspective, 3000 people, while serious grief is felt for those who fell, is not that many people on the grand scale of things. Many more people die of many more causes for many more preventable reasons.
But the point is, the pictures inflated the trauma. If the movies of the plane crashes, the jumping people, the screaming, crying families...if the pictures were not available the sense of grief would have seriously diminished.
And now this quagmire in Iraq. We have killed 15,000 innocent civilians...yet...let me pose to you a question...
When is the last time you saw a movie of an Ir
I was a little bit taller
I wish I was a baller
I wish I knew a girl who looked good and I'd call her
here
I think this was a good decision by the judge, it frees google of having to research trademarked keywords and yet it still keeps the door open for companies like Geico to sue companies that abuse their trademark.
For John Kerry, the specter of Attorney General John Ashcroft trashing Americans' civil liberties has been a useful campaign prop. In campaign stops, Kerry has promised to "end the era of John Ashcroft and renew our faith in the Constitution." In a Kerry administration, he promised the liberal group MoveOn last year, "there will be no John Ashcroft trampling on the Bill of Rights." In his 2004 campaign book, A Call to Service, Kerry accuses Ashcroft and the Bush administration of "relying far too much on extraordinary police powers."
In contrast, Kerry positions himself as a civil libertarian -- or at least as a proponent of a reasonable balance between liberty and security. "If we are to stand as the world's role model for freedom, we need to remain vigilant about our own civil liberties," Kerry writes in A Call to Service. He calls for "rededicating ourselves to protecting civil liberties."
Kerry, like every other senator in the chamber except Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), voted for the USA PATRIOT Act in the wake of 9/11. Now he is co-sponsoring the SAFE Act, a bipartisan measure that restricts some of the powers that the PATRIOT Act granted the government. Furthermore, he is critical of the package of proposals from Ashcroft's Department of Justice (DOJ) that has been dubbed Patriot II. Citing his experience as a prosecutor -- he was an assistant district attorney in suburban Boston in the '70s -- Kerry writes, "I know there's a big difference between giving the government the resources and commonsense leeway it needs to track a tough and devious foe and giving in to the temptation of taking shortcuts that will sacrifice liberties cheaply without significantly enhancing the effectiveness of law enforcement. Patriot II threatens to cross that line -- and to a serious degree."
Sacrificing Personal Privacy
This isn't the first time Kerry and Ashcroft have been at odds over civil liberties. In the 1990s, government proposals to restrict encryption inspired a national debate. Then as now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and electronic privacy groups locked horns with the DOJ and law enforcement agencies. Then as now, Kerry and Ashcroft were on opposite sides.
But there was a noteworthy difference in those days. Then it was Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) who argued alongside the ACLU in favor of the individual's right to encrypt messages and export encryption software. Ashcroft "was kind of the go-to guy for all of us on the Republican side of the Senate," recalls David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
And in what now seems like a bizarre parallel universe, it was John Kerry who was on the side of the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA), and the DOJ. Ashcroft's predecessor at the Justice Department, Janet Reno, wanted to force companies to create a "clipper chip" for the government -- a chip that could "unlock" the encryption codes individuals use to keep their messages private. When that wouldn't fly in Congress, the DOJ pushed for a "key escrow" system in which a third-party agency would have a "backdoor" key to read encrypted messages.
In the meantime, the Clinton administration classified virtually all encryption devices as "munitions" that were banned from export, putting American business at a disadvantage. In 1997 Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed the Secure Public Networks Act through his committee. This bill would have codified the administration's export ban and started a key escrow system. One of his original co-sponsors was his fellow Vietnam vet and good friend from across the aisle, John Kerry.
Proponents such as McCain and Kerry claimed that law enforcement could not get the key from any third-party agency without a court order. Critics responded that there were loopholes in the law, that it opened the door to abuses, and that it punished a technology rather than wrongdoers who used that technology. Some opponents argued that the idea was equivalent to giving the g
I won't deny that gerrymandering food service jobs into manufacturing is an underhanded tactic, but none of your links confirm that that actually took place. All of them state that it was under consideration, with no action taken.
From the salon link:
"Sometimes, seemingly subtle differences can determine whether an industry is classified as manufacturing. For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service."
That seems like a pretty valid question to me. I would hazard a guess that the food service industry hasn't had much of an increase in demand for workers and wouldn't account for very many new jobs.
This little statement (new jobs created are lower quality) gets passed around quite a bit, and I'd like to see a source that confirms it.
BY JOHN F. KERRY
Thursday, February 5, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST
(Editor's note: Sen. Kerry delivered this speech on the Senate floor Feb. 27, 1992. The previous day, Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Vietnam veteran and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke in Atlanta, where he criticized fellow candidate Bill Clinton for his lack of military service during Vietnam.)
Mr. President, I also rise today--and I want to say that I rise reluctantly, but I rise feeling driven by personal reasons of necessity--to express my very deep disappointment over yesterday's turn of events in the Democratic primary in Georgia.
I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning.
What is ignored is the way in which our experience during that period reflected in part a positive affirmation of American values and history, not simply the more obvious negatives of loss and confusion.
What is missing is a recognition that there exists today a generation that has come into its own with powerful lessons learned, with a voice that has been grounded in experiences both of those who went to Vietnam and those who did not.
What is missing and what cries out to be said is that neither one group nor the other from that difficult period of time has cornered the market on virtue or rectitude or love of country.
What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be refighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary.
The race for the White House should be about leadership, and leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them; that one help identify the positive things that we learned about ourselves and about our nation, not play to the divisions and differences of that crucible of our generation.
We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?
Are we now to descend, like latter-day Spiro Agnews, and play, as he did, to the worst instincts of divisiveness and reaction that still haunt America? Are we now going to create a new scarlet letter in the context of Vietnam?
Certainly, those who went to Vietnam suffered greatly. I have argued for years, since I returned myself in 1969, that they do deserve special affection and gratitude for service. And, indeed, I think everything I have tried to do since then has been to fight for their rights and recognition.
But while those who served are owed special recognition, that recognition should not come at the expense of others; nor does it require that others be victimized or criticized or said to have settled for a lesser standard. To divide our party or our country over this issue today, in 1992, simply does not do justice to what all of us went through during that tragic and turbulent time.
I would like to make a simple and straightforward appeal, an appeal from my heart, as well as from my head. To all those currently pursuing the presidency in both parties, I would plead that they simply look at America. We are a nation crying out for leadersh
Why do we keep getting these "Nothing to see here, move along" messages when we click on some stories?