One more Hallow33n link: A site dedicated to Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella Magazines.
Found on the utterly fantastic Record Brother site, that's worth spending some time at.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 30, 2005
A 1979 Ford Escort is among the cheapest, ugliest cars ever made. One just sold for almost $700,000. No air conditioning.
The Gallery at the Museum of Talking Boards has plenty of pics of Ouija boards, from the 1860s to the present. If you want to play around with one, be careful... The guy's from theshadowlands.net have dire warnings. 
Friday, October 28, 2005
Astounding. Forbes magazine recommends that corporations profiled by blogs issue swift personal vendettas against the bloggers that criticize them. Becuase... you know... corporations are the real victims here, and without exception act in the interests of the public good and can always be expected to behave honestly and lawfully. If you've ever posted anything online, you have to read this to understand how the conservative mind views journalism and free speech.
Among the tactics that Forbes magazine recommend is filing harrassing, phony lawsuits against parties known to be un-liable (!!!!) to get at those with opinions that run contrary to the corporation's profit-minded goals:
"ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also: Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address." *
(* fair use)
The Daily Jive, meanwhile, is still awaiting its multimillion-dollar guaranteed, no-compete, no-bid contract.
Among the tactics that Forbes magazine recommend is filing harrassing, phony lawsuits against parties known to be un-liable (!!!!) to get at those with opinions that run contrary to the corporation's profit-minded goals:
"ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also: Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address." *
(* fair use)
The Daily Jive, meanwhile, is still awaiting its multimillion-dollar guaranteed, no-compete, no-bid contract.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The Cost of War at Walter Reed Hospital
Inside Walter Reed Army Hospital is the horrible reality of the Iraq War, a reality that few Americans see, and fewer want to see.
Inside Walter Reed Army Hospital is the horrible reality of the Iraq War, a reality that few Americans see, and fewer want to see.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Groovy Babes posing with old synthesizers, as a follow-up to last month's post on groovy-babe-less synth pics. Some are good, but the designer never heard of aspect ratio.
Folk Remedies, sorted alphabetical-wise by yer' ailment. These people are into ginger and vinegar in a big way.
American Science: Least Likely to Succeed
A majority of Americans don't believe in evolution, and believe that God either created humans in their present form or guided species development.
A majority of Americans don't believe in evolution, and believe that God either created humans in their present form or guided species development.
Friday, October 21, 2005
A look at the devices and homemade techniques used to create old-time radio sound effects.
The Rat-Monster Joke: I hear this is an oldie but a goodie. I had never seen it before, so it's new but good. Laugh along with me, rubes!
Thursday, October 20, 2005
‘Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy’
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I believe that Larry Carlson has created a new style of Flash. You won't see anything else even remotely like it.
The Treasure, the Strongbox, and the Crowbar (pt.1)
An outstanding interview with Middle East expert Juan Cole on how the Bush Administration manufactured reasons for the Iraqi war in order to crack the locked oil market. (from MotherJones, reprinted from the TomDispatch blog, where you can now read part 2 of the interview.)
JC: My guess with regard to Cheney is that his experience in the energy sector and with Halliburton as CEO must have been influential in his thinking. For the corporate energy sector in the United States, Iraq must have been maddening. It was under those United Nations sanctions. It's a country that, with significant investment, might be able to rival Saudi Arabia as a producer of petroleum. Saudi Arabia can produce around 11 million barrels a day, if it really tries. Iraq before the war was producing almost 3 million barrels a day and, if its fields were explored and opened and exploited, it might be up to the Saudi level in twenty years. This could bring a lot of petroleum on the market. There would be opportunities for making money from refining. There might even be an opportunity, if you had a free-market regime in Iraq, for Western petroleum companies to go back to owning oil fields -- something they haven't been able to do since the 1970s in the Middle East when most of these fields were nationalized. All that potential in Iraq was locked up.
An outstanding interview with Middle East expert Juan Cole on how the Bush Administration manufactured reasons for the Iraqi war in order to crack the locked oil market. (from MotherJones, reprinted from the TomDispatch blog, where you can now read part 2 of the interview.)
JC: My guess with regard to Cheney is that his experience in the energy sector and with Halliburton as CEO must have been influential in his thinking. For the corporate energy sector in the United States, Iraq must have been maddening. It was under those United Nations sanctions. It's a country that, with significant investment, might be able to rival Saudi Arabia as a producer of petroleum. Saudi Arabia can produce around 11 million barrels a day, if it really tries. Iraq before the war was producing almost 3 million barrels a day and, if its fields were explored and opened and exploited, it might be up to the Saudi level in twenty years. This could bring a lot of petroleum on the market. There would be opportunities for making money from refining. There might even be an opportunity, if you had a free-market regime in Iraq, for Western petroleum companies to go back to owning oil fields -- something they haven't been able to do since the 1970s in the Middle East when most of these fields were nationalized. All that potential in Iraq was locked up.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
EFF reveals that Kinkos/Xerox puts secret tracking codes on color documents you copy at their stores.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Strange video Nothing special, but clever editing of some people jumping around. They took out all of the feet touching the ground, and left only the in-air parts. cool results.
Friday, October 14, 2005
It looks like Bush's fake, rehearsed talk with soldiers is (justifiably) getting good media coverage.
At what point doesit cease to be a democracy when even the paranoia of potential off-message comment mandates a play-acted production instead of an honest discussion about this idiotic war?
The president went on to read some dreck about how our foreign hostilities will 'never stop'.
Before the teleconference, Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense, went through a rehearsal of the scripted question-and-answer session, telling the troops that any non-scripted questions from the president should be handled by Kennedy.
At what point doesit cease to be a democracy when even the paranoia of potential off-message comment mandates a play-acted production instead of an honest discussion about this idiotic war?
The president went on to read some dreck about how our foreign hostilities will 'never stop'.
Before the teleconference, Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense, went through a rehearsal of the scripted question-and-answer session, telling the troops that any non-scripted questions from the president should be handled by Kennedy.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
More Rock, Paper, Scissors trashtalkin'
In RPS circles, rock is seen as aggressive. "When people get backed into a corner, they throw rock because they want to come out strong," Walker said. It's popular with the intoxicated - RPS has no banned substances - and the college-age male set.
Scissors is considered a more devious move, mechanical and cold.
Paper is passive-aggressive - seemingly flimsy but able to defeat the mighty rock. A lot of women - and journalists - seem to throw paper, the experts say.
In RPS circles, rock is seen as aggressive. "When people get backed into a corner, they throw rock because they want to come out strong," Walker said. It's popular with the intoxicated - RPS has no banned substances - and the college-age male set.
Scissors is considered a more devious move, mechanical and cold.
Paper is passive-aggressive - seemingly flimsy but able to defeat the mighty rock. A lot of women - and journalists - seem to throw paper, the experts say.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Theshadowlands.net, the web's largest and oldest ghost story repository just passed the 10,000 submission mark. The hosts run South Jersey Ghost Research, where they capture some spooky audio during investigations.
Another 50 free mp3s from amazon.com (or, you could always join the Army and get 3 free mp3s).
Concreteships.org: A sign by the edge of the road says that it is the remains of the S.S. Atlantus, one of twelve experimental ships built of concrete during the First World War, but "proven impractical because of weight."
Hearse cufflinks? No problem. Coffin Luggage? Check.
Pushin' Daisies: The Mortuary Novelty Shop
Pushin' Daisies: The Mortuary Novelty Shop
Saturday, October 08, 2005
The Bubble Project
A good anti-ad art project: A guy printed 15000 blank speech bubbles, and puts them on street ads. People fill them in, photograph them, and send it all back to the site where you can read them.
A good anti-ad art project: A guy printed 15000 blank speech bubbles, and puts them on street ads. People fill them in, photograph them, and send it all back to the site where you can read them.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The hurricane season is proving to be a windfall for GOP-connected companies such as Halliburton, which are being rewarded with lucrative contracts despite their shoddy performance in Iraq. In the vocabulary of crony capitalism, the word "shame" does not exist.
Excellent Mother Jones interview with Chris Mooney on how Republican politics undermines science
We have to ask ourselves whether we can really rely on the federal government to use science to protect us anymore. When science isn't being used properly to protect us on something like global warming or other environmental risks, those are just obvious risks to the public. And we have to wonder whether the people making decisions are incompetent, or whether they are going to twist the information around, or ignore it completely. And that goes to the very core of the government's function.
We have to ask ourselves whether we can really rely on the federal government to use science to protect us anymore. When science isn't being used properly to protect us on something like global warming or other environmental risks, those are just obvious risks to the public. And we have to wonder whether the people making decisions are incompetent, or whether they are going to twist the information around, or ignore it completely. And that goes to the very core of the government's function.