Thursday, July 31

 
Building A Bamboo Farm

 
Bamboo Sourcery

 
Are these good plants for an office cubicle?: "RE: Are these good plants for an office cubicle?
Posted by: MKFaizi Virginia (My Page) on Tue, Jul 8, 03 at 22:49
I think a creeping fig might do well under fluorescent light.
Best of all, at my work, we have a large ponytail palm growing nicely on top of a filing cabinet. I did not think it would do well there. The plant belongs to my doctor and it had been growing by a southern window for a year. I figured it would die on the cabinet with no natural light.
It is putting out new growth like wildfire.
Good office plant if you can put it directly under a fluorescent light.
Faizi"

 
Boston Globe Online / City & Region / Refusing help, woman gives birth aboard T: "About 90 seconds later, Chin said, ''I saw a head, then full baby fall out from her skirt, hit the floor sideways and slide the length of the doorway, stopping when he bumped up against the next row of seats. Still she stared out the window. Either she didn't know it happened or didn't want to acknowledge it.''
Judge bent down, picked up the baby and wrapped it in her scarf, Chin said."

 
Sci-Fi Hi-Fi: Weblog: "A conversation with my friend Josh upon leaving Pirates of the Caribbean last night:
Me: Hmm…so evidently pirates weren’t that bad after all!
Josh: Yeah, they were more like a peacekeeping force!"

Wednesday, July 30

 
The Morning News - Radio Free Marfa: "The next host arrives. His show, it turns out, is, a burned CD copy of the audio portion of the liberal television news show Democracy Now. Though legally blind for thirty years, the man burns the CD at home every day and %u2013 every day %u2013 rides his bike to the studio to play it on the air. And, since Radio Free Marfa is the sole receivable radio station in the area, his show is the only news anyone can get without a satellite (there%u2019s no TV either). Unfortunately, he can only play an hour of the two-hour show because of the limitations of his CD burner. Someday, he tells me, he hopes to get a DVD burner so he can bring in the whole show.
"

 
The Morning News - Radio Free Marfa: "Earlier in the day we visited the Marfa Book Company, the town%u2019s sole bookstore. I flipped through their music racks and noticed that mixed in with all the great country classics were many of the same CDs that DJ Tiger Bomb had brought here from New York, including the new Cat Power and Yo La Tengo albums. Who were the indie-rock buyers who kept the shelves stocked? As it turns out, many are local youths who made their way to Northeastern universities, then made their way back to Marfa for the summers, or sometimes forever. Unlike big-city superstores, the handpicked selection of books and CDs makes almost every item worthwhile. They have, essentially, cut the crap. The art and architecture sections are world class, and the store even carries the Sunday New York Times (hand-delivered each week from El Paso and sold at a loss but still sold %u2013 as a %u2018community service,%u2019 according to the clerk at the store).

"

 
Account E-mail Address

Tuesday, July 29

 
The Write Start: "I was 28 and had been set on being a writer since the age of 15. I had gone about it as methodically as somebody might become a dentist. I chose my college on the basis of the writer I most wanted to study with. I majored in the English honors program because it required me to study the entire literary tradition. I also took as many creative-writing courses as I could. I was monomaniacal about being a writer. But my monomania was dull. It consisted mainly of training myself to sit for long periods alone in a room."

 
The Write Start: "I was 57 when The Bonfire of the Vanities was published. In this day and age, I’ve become convinced that we’ve got to put the American novel on life support. It’s nonfiction that really matters today in the literary sense. Still, like most writers, I like to think my last thing was my best, and that was a novel."

 
The Write Start: "Back then, I thought a teaching job was the ultimate reward for writing a good book. I thought maybe I could publish a couple of books, they wouldn’t sell, but they’d be nicely reviewed in the Times, and we’d move to some nice college town and have the nice middle-class life we’d always thought we wanted. But when I did finally do some teaching, it completely ate me up. I was spending three days a week on one class, and it just didn’t seem compatible with writing novels in the long run."

 
The Write Start: "When I started out as a writer, though, a few years later, I was afraid I’d get eaten up if I moved to New York and be demoralized by the competition and spend all my time earning money. So this is still the advice I give to young writers: Go to, like, northeastern Ohio, and write your first book. Go someplace cheap, and move to New York later."

 
Legal commentators weigh SCO's chances: "As often happens when confronted by a common enemy, the various arguing factions in the Free Software and Open Source communities have suspended their differences to focus on understanding the threat and to defeat it. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Open Source Initiative (OSI) have not traded barbed comments publicly in months. Once common disagreements over which Linux vendor builds the best distribution have subsided. Even those sometimes obstreperous KDE and Gnome desktop groups recently seem to have stayed closer to their respective knitting. There seems to be a generally pervasive understanding that such petty squabbles can wait.
Even more remarkably, people are contributing research outputs, analysis programs and scripts, historical documents, as well as commentaries and ideas. And the power of all their contributions and efforts is becoming apparent in resources that have been assembled, with visible results.
I've mentioned the SCO vs IBM informational Wiki previously, and that is here, providing starting references and analyses. If anyone has additional materials, that's a good place to submit those.
Paralegal Pamela Jones writes the scrupulously researched Groklaw web log. Her entries are detailed, interesting, and clearly instructive about the relevant legal doctrines and points of argument on both sides of the several disputes that might arise. Ms. Jones' crisp and spirited commentaries are easy to read and her essays alone are totally worth the trip. Her awesome Groklaw dissection of the SCO War can be found here."

Monday, July 28

 
Rise in specialty plates' profits credited to 'Mr. Smiley' backlash: "David Thornton, the district chairman for Ducks Unlimited, said he stopped a young driver in Lexington to thank him for supporting the wildlife group by purchasing the plate.
'He kind of looked at me like I lost my mind, and then he said, `I just didn't want one of those other plates,' ' Thornton said.
Hugh Archer is commissioner of the state Department for Natural Resources, which receives money from the sales of three specialty plates with pictures of animals: a bobcat, a cardinal and a new butterfly plate. Archer said the department received nearly $118,000 in June, compared with $61,300 in July 2002. "

Sunday, July 27

 
How Do You Get Work Done?: "None of this breeds any kind of productivity ethic. Even if you are very interested in a field, and approach its study with enthusiasm, you are likely to run out of steam before you reach the end of your study, gradually disillusioned by the degree to which you must endlessly specialize, sublimate your own identity, avoid creativity, sacrifice future freedoms and learn the ins and outs of petty business, all in order to simply build a career doing something you thought you liked.

I personally feel that most men (and women) given a chance would prefer to be craftsmen (and women) of some kind, in whatever their chosen field, bringing a quality and uniquely personal product to the people of their own community. Instead, because of the nature of the modern marketplace, many essentially become clerks and civil servants in one field or another order to be able to draw a wage.

As a result, and lacking enthusiasm, we end up sitting around browsing the Web and dreaming of something better... but those who develop the fortitude to switch inevitably find that their new field is, on balance, not all that different from their last one... still all business, anonymity and colorless, impersonal nonsense. "

 
Internet Privacy for Dummies :: Online Resources for Readers of Internet Privacy for Dummies: "Disabling Windows Messenger Service
Windows 2000
Click the Start Button
Choose Settings > Control Panel
Double-click 'Administrative Tools' and double-click on 'Services'
Scroll down and right-click on 'Messenger'
Choose Properties
Click the 'Stop' button to turn the Messenger service off
Change the 'Startup type' to 'Disabled' to keep it from restarting when you reboot
Click OK and you're done "

 
SeattleWireless: Pig Tail

 
Omni-directional Antenna 2.4 GHz


This has got to be the smallest, cheapest homebuilt wifi antenna I've seen. I'm building one.


 
SeattleWireless: Cardboard Horn

 
The Morning News - Guide to New York Jargon: "Patagroupie (noun): A city-dweller who wears mountaineering clothing for doing laundry or grocery shopping. See also: Patagucci: The same person, equipped with Gucci or Vuitton accessories."

Saturday, July 26

 
The Saint Paul Pioneer Press: "Of all the specialists who puzzle over Garth, of all the expensive drugs dripping into his veins, nothing brings relief. The stomach cramps and constipation persist. He's getting worse. And then his magic bullet arrives.
The remedy comes from an unlikely deliverer known as the Milkshake Man. Jim Mayer is a veteran who lost both legs in Vietnam. Several times a week, he brings McDonald's milkshakes to the amputees on Ward 57. The visits are an excuse to talk and counsel. Mayer arrives this Saturday but Garth refuses the shake. Too rich. Any chance of a Mountain Dew, he asks.
The super-caffeinated soda does it. Caffeine! The next day, Garth is sitting up. His blinds are open. 'Mountain Dew saved my goddamn life,' he says, his voice deep and robust. Suddenly, he is ravenous. 'Domino's keeps showing this commercial for Cinna Stix,' he says. 'You dip them in icing. Man, I want some.'"

Friday, July 25

 
This is the way to download music | Metafilter: "Forget Snapster. What about RobbinHoodSter. (1) Take the same 1,000,000 CD's (as Snapster) or better, even more albums. (2) Go to an offshore haven that is not a signatory to universal copyright. (3) Sell all songs for 20 cents a track, $2.00 an album. (4) Send 65% of the money directly to the artist or artist's management. If the artist can not be found, hold the money is escrow for said artist. (5) Give 5% of the the revenue towards grants for working musicians (sort of a RobinHoodSter N.E.A. program.) (6) Give 5% of the money to better the life and infrastructure of offshore haven. (7) Earn enough with the 25% margin to cover fixed costs, and to grease the local govt to insure that global pressures to close RobinHoodSter are laughed at."

This is great. I predict that the price per downloadable mp3 is going to drop to .50 in the next year, at which point I'll start downloading about 20 songs a month.

 
WISIL HPVers Human Powered Vehicle and recumbent bicycle downloadables

Thursday, July 24

 
Conspiracy theories abound as US releases Uday-Qusay pics : HindustanTimes.com: "On a busy shopping street in Baghdad's Karrada district, Fallahan Hassan, 33, has just finished selling two refrigerators and a water cooler to US soldiers. They smile and exchange handshakes.
But as soon as they leave, Hassan says: 'I don't want anything to do with them.'
He hates Saddam -- 10 of his relatives disappeared in the 1980s -- but he suspects the Americans are here for oil, to control Islam and protect Israel.
'Why did Iraq fall in 20 days and three months later, they still haven't arrested the president?' he asks.
'Saddam is their secret agent.'"

 
Google Search: recovering deleted files group:microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage group:microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage: "Can someone help me? Yesterday I deleted my old email and compressed it (by
> launching Entourage with the option key depressed), but I haven't deleted
> the 'Old Messages' file that was generated yet. Today I discovered that I
> need something that was deleted, and which should be in that 'Old Messages'
> file. Is there a way for me to recover the email from the 'Old Messages'
> file? I'm desperate here!"

 
STONE READER / ***1/2 (Not rated): "In 1972 a man reads a review of a new novel named The Stones of Summer in the New York Times. The reviewer believes it is one of the most extraordinary novels of its generation--a masterpiece. The man buys the novel, can't get into it, puts it on the shelf, moves it around with his books for years, and finally reads it. He thinks it's a masterpiece, too. He goes on the Internet to find out what else the author, Dow Mossman, has written. Mossman has written nothing--has disappeared, it would appear, from the face of the earth. "

Wednesday, July 23

 
American Idle: "A machine removes that punishing presence. A blog, for instance, constantly pushes even slightly stale talking points to the margins (or the bottom of the homepage, or the archive). And while in hope-springs-eternal obliviousness you can always think, in the back of your mind, Oh, I’ll go back and catch up on what I missed or I’ll go back and read the article that was linked to, chances are it’s not going to happen because there won’t be any tangible evidence of your failure to do so."

Tuesday, July 22

 
Using Experimental Teaching Methods: "Here are some points that I've found useful to keep in mind when trying out new teaching methods:
They may not be working well.
This is the most obvious point. You may have misgivings about traditional lectures, but for better or worse they've survived a long time and students are quite used to them. So I think that most people who try something new are, quite reasonably, worried that they might be making things worse instead of better. You shouldn't let these fears stop you from trying new things, but you shouldn't let your enthusiasm for something that sounds good to you in theory blind you to ways in which it might not be working well in practice. "

 
Tour de France Coverage - Obstacle Course: "Armstrong himself has overcome an early-race illness, the first stage crash, problems with a mis-adjusted pedal, an unplanned diversionary route through a field to elude Beloki's fate, losing nearly 13 pounds of water weight in the first individual time trial, and now, gear problems and a crash on the final climb of the 15th stage. Armstrong refused to blame anyone for the crash, saying, 'it was also my fault for riding too much on the right of the road.'"

Monday, July 21

 
Adolf Hitler and methamphetamine: "'I can hardly understand it myself. There must be some basic evil in me. In all men. Mass hypnosis? Hitler cultivated this evil in man. When I saw him in that movie in court, I was swept along again for a moment, in spite of myself. Funny, one sits in court feeling guilt and shame. Then Hitler appears on the screen and you want to stretch out your hand to him . . . . It's not with horns on his head or with a forked tail that the devil comes to us, you know. He comes with a captivating smile, spouting idealistic sentiments, winning one's loyalty. We cannot say that Adolf Hitler violated the German people. He seduced us.' "

 
How to build a tin can waveguide antenna: "How To Build A Tin Can Waveguide Antenna
for 802.11b Wireless Networks
or other 2.4GHz Applications"

Summary: the Nalley Big Chunk beef stew antenna is poised to dethrone the Pringles can.

 
Homebrew antenna shootout: "Waveguide antennas don't use the director assembly (the washery bits), and therefore are much simpler to build. An old tin can of the right size, about $5 in parts and 10 minutes of time are all that are needed. The math for computing correct sizing of the components in a waveguide antenna is simple. Formulas in hand, I started searching my cupboards for tin cans that fit the spec. I found myself staring at the products on the canned food aisle at the grocery store. I even went so far as going grocery shopping with a tape measure. 'No no, this spaghetti sauce looks much better. It's about three quarters of a wavelength in diameter, hon!' "

 
OpenOffice.org: "The purpose of this project is to coordinate efforts to develop integrated file filters for the Corel WordPerfect (tm) word processor. In other words: we want to make it possible for OpenOffice.org users to import and export WordPerfect files."

Sunday, July 20

 
The Truth Seeker - Reflections in a Demon Haunted World: "For its part, the Military/Intelligence complex would have a great interest in acquiring well placed assets in the movie world; in order to help secure it as a means of manipulating public opinion and to help eliminate any ‘subversive’ influences.

In fact a great deal of Marilyn’s future life and career and even her death fits perfectly with a role in intelligence. Admittedly the idea of Marilyn Monroe, ‘super-spook,’ may simply sound like a bad film script; particularly when we think of the qualities needed in an intelligence asset such as anonymity and inconspicuousness. After all few people could have been more famous and conspicuous than Monroe at her peak. "

Marilyn Monroe and the great UFO coverup!

 
Computing.Net - Cloning my Hard drive: "its a one-step dos command with xxcopy
xxcopy c: d: /clone"

 
Spectrum 2002 Interview With Author Steve Quayle: "I'm suggesting that, not only do these [New World Order] people have a plan to kill-off a lot of people, but they have a plan to kill-off the ability to feed the people. I think it's something like 75% of the world's population lives off the ocean. That means they are in close proximity, or eat protein out of the ocean. So, understand this: I believe the New World Order boys want to kill-off 5 1/2 billion people—that's what they've said.

Martin: They're on record."

Scary, amusing conspiracy buffs.

 
Coincidence: "The Memphis Police also consider the case closed, and the local office of the F.B.I. has turned its attention to other odd happenings. The talk of Memphis at the moment is the bizarre ambush of the city's coroner last month. He was wrapped in barbed wire and left lying in a stairwell of the medical examiner's building with a live bomb strapped to his chest.
Coincidentally, that coroner, O.C. Smith, was also the coroner who did the much-awaited, somewhat controversial autopsy on Don Wiley.
What are the odds of that? "

Saturday, July 19

 
Tour de France Coverage - Ullrich Caps Comeback: "In temperatures that soared to a broiling 97 degrees, Ullrich was fastest at all time checks en route to a 58:32 finish, the only rider to break one hour. Lance Armstrong (USPS-Berry Floor) held on to the yellow jersey but conceded an almost-unthinkable 1:35 to the big German, whose ride vaulted him into second place, only 34 seconds behind Armstrong."

 
Rumsas draws a year's suspension: "Last year Rumsas was involved in a scandal after his wife was caught with large quantities of growth hormones and other drugs after the Tour de France in which Rumsas finished third. She was jailed in France and later released. The rider himself tested negative during last year's Tour de France. "

Friday, July 18

 
Forbes.com: Korea's Weird Wired World: "Koreans realized they had entered a new era after the last presidential elections. By 11 a.m. on Dec. 19, exit poll results showed that the iconoclastic Roh Moo Hyun, 56, a 2-to-1 favorite among youth, was losing the election. His supporters hit the chat rooms to drum up support. Within minutes more than 800,000 e-mails were sent to mobiles to urge supporters to go out and vote. Traditionally apathetic young voters surged to the polls and, by 2 p.m., Roh took the lead and went on to win the election. A man with little support from either the mainstream media or the nation's conglomerates sashayed into office on an Internet on-ramp. The traditional Confucian order had been flipped upside down, and a symbolic transfer of power from elders to youth took place. "

 
SourceForge.net: Project Info - DVDibbler: "DVDibbler is an advanced GUI for the Mac OS port of MEncoder"

 
dive into mark: "Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.
George Orwell, 1984"

 
Creative Loafing Atlanta | NEWS & VIEWS | CAREFUL: THE FB-EYE MAY BE WATCHING: "Back in the store, Trippi gives me his card and tells me to call him if I remember anything. After he's gone, I call my dad back to see if he has calmed down, maybe come up with a name. We retrace some steps together, figure out the article was Hal Crowther's 'Weapons of Mass Stupidity' from the Weekly Planet, a free independent out of Tampa. It comes back to me then, this scathing screed focusing on the way corporate interests have poisoned the country's media, focusing mostly on Fox News and Rupert Murdoch -- really infuriating, deadly accurate stuff about American journalism post-9-11. So I call the number on the card, leave a message with the name, author and origin of the column, and ask him to call me if he has any more questions. "

 
Creative Loafing Atlanta | NEWS & VIEWS | CAREFUL: THE FB-EYE MAY BE WATCHING: "Trippi's partner speaks up: 'Any reading material? Papers?' I don't think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: 'I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that.'
You don't want that? Have I just been threatened by the FBI? Confusion and a light dusting of panic conspire to keep me speechless. Was I reading something that morning? Something that would constitute a problem?
The partner speaks up again: 'Maybe a printout of some kind?'
Then it occurs to me: I was reading. It was an article my dad had printed off the Web. I remember carrying it into Caribou with me, reading it in line, and then while stirring cream into my coffee. I remember bringing it with me to the store, finishing it before we opened. I can't remember what the article was about, but I'm sure it was some kind of left-wing editorial, the kind that never fails to incite me to anger and despair over the state of the country. "

 
Drudging Up Personal Details (washingtonpost.com): "Some folks in the White House were apparently hopping mad when ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman did a story on Tuesday's 'World News Tonight' about the plummeting morale of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.
So angry, in fact, that the next day, a White House operative alerted cyber-gossip Matt Drudge to the fact that Kofman is not only openly gay, he's Canadian."

 
Calorie Needs - Men: "Formula to calculate BMR for men
66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in centimetres) - (6.8 x age in years) = BMR
To calculate your total calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity multiplier:
Activity Multiplier
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) multiply BMR by 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) multiply BMR by 1.375
If you are mod. active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) multiply BMR by 1.55
If you take heavy exercise (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) multiply BMR by 1.725"

 
O'Reilly Network: Antenna on the Cheap (er, Chip) [July 18, 2003]

Thursday, July 17

 
Los Angeles Times: In God's name: Is it madness?: "The sanity of Ron Lafferty, however, was a matter of legal dispute. He wore a sign reading 'Exit only' on the seat of his prison jumpsuit to one hearing because of his belief that an evil homosexual spirit was trying to invade his body through his anus. After a jury found him guilty, a federal appeals court worried that he might not have been competent to stand trial because of his belief that he answered only to the laws of God. The court vacated the jury's verdict — a decision with potentially unsettling implications. As Krakauer asks, 'If Ron Lafferty were deemed mentally ill because he obeyed the voice of his God, isn't everyone who believes in God and seeks guidance through prayer mentally ill as well?'"

Wednesday, July 16

 
Clarion Journals Online

Tuesday, July 15

 
SHOOTING THE DAISY 747

 
D&R Sports Center: MODEL 747 AVANTI AIR PISTOL: "MODEL 747 AVANTI AIR PISTOL

Quantity in Basket: none
Code: DAI747
Price: $109.45

Shipping Weight: 2.50 pounds "

 
Epiphone PR 350SR: ". If you buy one of these fine guitars, get that saddle changed and you've got about as close to the expensive sound as I believe you will get for the money. I would replace it immediately if it were stolen. "

 
Epiphone PR 350SR: "Mine is also the solid wood version referred to in previous reviews, so I won't bore you with details, I bought it from a pro player who removed the pickguard and installed gold grovers and a bone nut and micarta saddle.I contacted Epi also re: the solid vs. laminate issue, and their reply was that all of them (including it's sister the PR-350/SM mahogany) were laminates. That's funny because I have copies of reviews on Harmony Central (not these user reviews) that state they are all solid woods, as well a an Epi ad from a guitar mag that says it is all solid wood! I also inspected the interior and found the grain to match the exterior. At any rate, if Epi can make a laminate sound this good, they need to patent the process.I rate it high just for the solid woods at a great price"

 
Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah: "They Might Be Giants
Wednesday, July 23
Two witty, articulate men in their early forties who write catchy songs about things like thermostats and metal detectors, Flansburgh and Linnell are the elders to a whole generation of smart, earnest 'nerd rockers.'
Advance Price $22/ Day of $24
A $2 facility fee will be added to each concert ticket.

Shawn Colvin
Sunday, July 27
Grammy award winning songwriter and folk singer displays a diverse musical style and emotion-filled lyrics that will please the most finicky music fan. Come prepared to be enchanted and entertained.
Advance Price $24/ Day of $26
A $2 facility fee will be added to each concert ticket.

Lucinda Williams
Thursday, July 31
Her raw vocal talent combined with fabulous country acoustics embodies joy and misery simultaneously. Known for her Grammy award winning albums, 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road' and 'Essence', Lucinda's moving lyrics and trademark voice will stir your soul.
Advance Price $23/ Day of $25
A $2 facility fee will be added to each concert ticket. "

 
Greg Brown Web Site

 
Shop Talk: "When we bought our used minivan, the special deal that the dealership was offering at the time was a free DVD player installed. It has been a lifesaver. The kids can watch DVDs or VCDs, we can play mp3 CDs (although I have never actually done that), and the kids can plug in the dreamcast and play games too (with an inverter).

It's been a lifesaver on long trips. If you get the opportunity to get one, I highly recommend it. "

 
V/Vm : MP3s Main Menu- VVM

 
Printing to Windows from MAC OSX 10.2

 
16 Words, and Counting: "While the scandal has so far focused on Iraq, the manipulations appear to be global. For example, one person from the intelligence community recalls an administration hard-liner's urging the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research to state that Cuba has a biological weapons program. The spooks refused, and Colin Powell backed them.
Then there's North Korea. The C.I.A.'s assessments on North Korea's nuclear weaponry were suddenly juiced up beginning in December 2001. The alarmist assessments (based on no new evidence) continued until January of this year, when the White House wanted to play down the Korean crisis. Then assessments abruptly restored the less ominous language of the 1990's."

 
Tour de France Coverage - Armstrong Goes Off Road: "Meanwhile, close behind, Armstrong was forced off the road, where he magnificently--one would even be tempted to add miraculously--rode through a hay field. The champ in a cool and confident manner lifted his bike over a ditch, hoped on his Trek, and began racing again.

'It was the most terrifying moment of my life,' Armstrong said on French television immediately after the finish. 'It was a real panic. In a moment like that... it was a reflex of survival.' He also said rather astutely that between crashing and cyclocross, he made the best choice. Few argued."

Monday, July 14

 
The Harvard Crimson Online :: News: "Following a widely-publicized report that Hornstine had plagiarized material in articles she wrote for her local paper, the Harvard admissions office has rescinded her offer to attend Harvard in the fall, according to a source involved with the decision.
Her acceptance came under scrutiny after her local newspaper, the Courier-Post, reported that Hornstine had “misused sources” in five stories she wrote for the paper and had lifted extensive material directly from speeches and papers published on the Internet. The media attention followed her decision to sue the Moorestown, N.J. school system to ensure she graduate as sole valedictorian of her high school. A federal judge ruled in Hornstine’s favor last month and forbid the school district from naming a co-valedictorian."

 
The Harvard Crimson Online :: News: "Following a widely-publicized report that Hornstine had plagiarized material in articles she wrote for her local paper, the Harvard admissions office has rescinded her offer to attend Harvard in the fall, according to a source involved with the decision.
Her acceptance came under scrutiny after her local newspaper, the Courier-Post, reported that Hornstine had “misused sources” in five stories she wrote for the paper and had lifted extensive material directly from speeches and papers published on the Internet. The media attention followed her decision to sue the Moorestown, N.J. school system to ensure she graduate as sole valedictorian of her high school. A federal judge ruled in Hornstine’s favor last month and forbid the school district from naming a co-valedictorian."

Thursday, July 10

 
Sublime Archive

Wednesday, July 9

 
NEWS.com.au | Marriage 'tames' geniuses, criminals (July 10, 2003): "Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, noting their age at the time when they made their greatest work.
The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert Einstein, who wrote in 1942: 'A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.'"

That is so nice to hear.

 
Intellectual Work of Program Administration: "
Doug's academic achievements, especially as a classroom teacher, have made it likely that he will be tenured and promoted. His pedagogical efforts take forms recognized by his colleagues and his institution and they are assigned value by accepted procedures. In combination with his published scholarship (and typical departmental committee service), Doug's teaching--which has been evaluated and quantified and made visible--becomes a strong factor in his promotion. Doug is also an innovative teacher who has shared his contributions to curricular design and pedagogy through workshops at his own institution and through presentations at national conferences. Besides having value for his colleagues and for students, these efforts appear on his vita: they constitute an important part of his reputation as a professional.
"

 
28 DAYS LATER / *** (R): "
Director Danny Boyle ('Train-spotting') shoots on video to give his film an immediate, documentary feel, and also no doubt to make it affordable; a more expensive film would have had more standard action heroes, and less time to develop the quirky characters. Spend enough money on this story, and it would have the depth of 'Armageddon.' Alex Garland's screenplay develops characters who seem to have a reality apart from their role in the plot--whose personalities help decide what they do, and why.
"

Sunday, July 6

 
Idle Words: "Stated simply, the problem is this: Dave Winer is the writer of several widely-used Net protocols, and his journal is the most linked-to weblog on the Internet, but he has the emotional maturity of a hamster. Specifically, a bipolar, sanctimonious hamster with weak technical writing skills.
This shouldn't matter. Pocket Napoleons abound online — that's what the Internet is for.
But people see Dave Winer's contributions to blogging, his seniority in the community, and his large audience, and naturally assume that he must be cut from the same cloth as a Linus Torvalds, Bruce Perens, or Larry Wall. In other words, a wizardly, technically adept, emotionally stable leader of a large online community.
It takes a while to realize that he's actually a freaking nutbag. "

Friday, July 4

 
Young dictators group forming: "Hello, I am a young dictator in search of other dictators to hang and drink beer with, play frisbee with, and who love ruling others with brutal impunity.

Do you have a military uniform? A beret? Funny facial hair? Come on board! We will discuss the future of independent dictators in the age of CIA puppets and how to utilize religion to justify to the masses your needing several high-priced German automobiles.

Benevolent dictators also welcome.

We will vote on who gets to lead the meetings, but I'll tell you right now I will be leading this group any way I see fit until I'm too old and my son gets voted in to take over.


it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests "

 
First in Her Class: "At Moorestown High, the calculations for valedictorian are made at the end of the first semester senior year. Just a few weeks before that semester ended, Blair dropped AP European History--one of the two courses she was taking at the school--citing exhaustion. 'The papers are killing her,' Judge Hornstine told the child study team while trying to withdraw Blair from the class. At the time, Blair had an A- in the class. It would have been one of the lowest grades of her high school career. "

When I went to high school I barely understood what AP classes were. I used to get excited about B+'s, and didn't realize you could even drop classes.

 
First in Her Class: "The case immediately made headlines, and not just because of the eye-popping price tag. There was also her choice of lawyer. Instead of hiring an expert in education law, Louis Hornstine hired Edwin Jacobs Jr.
JACOBS is something of a legend in Jersey legal circles. He first rose to prominence in the mid-'80s defending Nicodemo 'Little Nicky' Scarfo, a legendary Philly mob boss. With a practice in Atlantic City, Jacobs has represented a colorful array of organized crime figures along the Broad Street-Boardwalk corridor. How good is he? In 1998, he represented Philly drug kingpin Louis Turra, accused of plotting the assassination of underboss Joseph 'Skinny Joey' Merlino. Jacobs never got to show his stuff on that case--Turra hanged himself in his cell before the trial started. But just three years later, Jacobs was defending Skinny Joey, who needed help beating a rap for three murders, two attempted murders, and a murder conspiracy charge. "

This is the lawyer for Blair Horstine, the young lady who sued to be valedictorian. New Jersey! New Jersey! This is weirder than the film "Election." I have to say that during my brief three day visit to Jersey I found it very pleasant.

Thursday, July 3

 
Shirky: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

 
Scott McCloud Tries Webcomic Micropayment: "Let's get some perspective. Name anything that provides more than 15 seconds worth of enjoyment for a dime. Give it a shot. Even a quarter. What can you buy for a quarter? Anything? You probably couldn't get a hobo to kick you in the nuts for a quarter. Whining about the epic, tragic loss of a dime? That's comical. Griping that even an entire cent is too much to support the artists you like? That's insulting."

Tuesday, July 1

 
Google Search: speedometer cable group:rec.autos.vw group:rec.autos.vw: "First, extracting the odometer is extremely easy. With practice,
it can be removed in 10 minutes as follows. Remove the plastic
trim over the dashboard and the lower dash cover. This entails
removing the metal rail that runs the width of the car. At this
point, you can access the speedometer cable from the bottom and
disconnect it. After removing the four screws that attach the
instrument cluster, the cluster may be lifted out from behind
the steering wheel by rotating its top toward you.

Now retire to an indoor work area and disassemble the cluster.
If you study it for a few minutes you'll see that the odometer
can be removed by removing/loosening about half a dozen screws.
The offending gear is easily accessed. I repaired mine with
fine nylon thread and epoxy over two years ago and have had no
problems since. Others have recommended fine wire.

This is also a good time to disable various warning mechanisms
if you are so inclined. But be careful installing the repaired
cluster as minor installation errors will cause your speedometer
to freak out. I recommend driving the car for 10 miles or so
before reassembling the dashboard.

This is an easy repair, well within the abilities of most adults
and requiring a surprisingly small number of tools. And it would
be difficult to follow the directions to my house, or measure oil
consumption without an odometer. (The trip odometer is really a
service interval odometer.)"

 
FARK.com: Drew Curtis' FARK.com: "Rumsfeld says don't call Iraq a 'quagmire,' because calling Iraq quagmire makes Rummy angry, you no like Rummy when he angry. ARRRRGGHHH! Rummy smash puny liberal press!"

 
Oh might Lazy Web, create me a portal page with links to all free music, streaming and otherwise, complete with good user reviews. And let it not link to country music."

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