May 07, 2004
Author sues blogger
I just came across this in my referral logs, it's curious how Technorati actually misses alot of the inbound linking.
It seems like alot of people out there may have commented on the affair without me even realising. A good weblog though, he says of me...
Blogger Gavin Sheridan maintains an excellent blog (Gavin's Blog) which I have been reading off and on for some time now. So it was a shock for me to see that he has been asked by Gray's attorney to retract statements he made about the writer (namely that Gray is a "fraud").
I always find it interesting to hear about people reading me, and I have no idea who they are. Very Irish name, but living in Shanghai...
May 05, 2004
My book collection
Author, Title, Year, Publisher
Aczel, Amir Probability One 1998 Abacus
Anderson, Fred Crucible of War 2000 Random House
Appelbaum, David The Vision of Kant 1995 Element
Aristotle Ethics 1955 Penguin
Aristotle On Man in the Universe 1943 Gramercy
Atkinson, Rick Crusade 1993 Houghton Mifflin
Aurelius, Marcus Meditations 1964 Penguin
Bakunin, Michael God and the State 1970 Dover
Barrow John D., The Origin of the Universe 1997 Phoenix
Blackmore, Susan The Meme Machine 1999 OUP
Bobbitt, Philip The Shield of Achilles - War, Peace and the course of History 2002 Penguin
Calvin, William H., How Brains Think 1996 Phoenix
Chomsky, Noam Deterring Democracy 1992 Vintage
Chomsky, Noam Rogue States – the rule of force in world affairs 2000 Pluto
Chomsky, Noam Lessons from Kosovo – New Military Humanism 1999 Pluto
Chomsky, Noam Necessary Illusions 1989 Pluto
Chomsky, Noam Turning the Tide 1985 Pluto
Churchill, Winston The Second World War 2002 Pimlico
Clauswitz, Carl von On War 2002 Wordsworth
Collins, Stephen The Haughey File 1992 O’Brien Press
Conrad, Joseph The Secret Agent 1993 Wordsworth
Conquest, Robert Lenin 1972 Fontana
Davies, Brian Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion 1993 Opus
Davies, Paul The Last Three Minutes 1994 Wiedenfield and Nicholson
Davies, Paul The Fifth Miracle 1998 Penguin
Darwin, Charles The Origin of Species 1872 John Murray
Dennett, Daniel C. Consciousness Explained Penguin 1991
Descartes, Rene Key Philosophical Writings 1997 Wordsworth
Feist, Raymond E Rage of a Demon King 1998 Voyager
Feist, Raymond E The King’s Buccaneer 1994 Voyager
Feist, Raymond E Shadow of a Dark Queen 1996 HarperCollins
Feist, Raymond E A Darkness at Sethanon 1997 HarperCollins
Feist, Raymond E Silverthorn 1996 Voyager
Feist, Raymond E Shards of a Broken Crown 1998 Voyager
Feist, Raymond E Rise of a Merchant Prince 1995 Voyagert
Feuchtwanger, Edgar Bismarck 2002 Routledge
Fletcher, David Tanks and Trenches 1994 Grange Books
Gibbon, Edward The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire Vol 1 1962 Washington Square Press
Gilbert, Martin Churchill – A Life 2000 Pimlico
Gilbert, Martin Challenge to Civilization 1952 - 1999 1999 Harper Collins
Greenfield, Susan The Human Brain – A Guided Tour 1997 Phoenix
Gribbin, John The Birth Of Time 1999 Wiedenfield & Nicholson
Gottlieb, Anthony Socrates 1997 Phoenix
Hayman, Ronald Nietzsche 1997 Phoenix
Herodotus The Histories 1991 Penguin
Hertz, Noreena The Silent Takeover 2001 William Heinemann
Hobbes, Thomas Leviathan 1996 OUP
Hume, David Enquiries concerning Human Understanding & Concerning the Principles of Morals OUP
Joyce, James Dubliners 1993 Wordsworth
Joyce, James Ulysses 1993 Wordsworth
Kant, Immanuel Critique of Pure Reason 1993 Everyman
Kee, Robert The Bold Fenian Men 1976 Quartet
Kenny, Anthony The God of the Philosophers 1979 OUP
Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers 1993 Wordsworth
Lee, George; Bird, Charlie Breaking the Bank 1998 Blackwater Press
Livy The Early History of Rome 1991 Penguin
Locke, John An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1997 Penguin
Macquarrie, John Existentialism 1973 Pelican
Magee, Bryan Sight Unseen 1995 OUP
Marx, Karl Engels, Friedrich The Communist Manifesto 1967 Penguin
McClure, Stuart; Scrambray, Joel; Kurtz, George Hacking Exposed - Third Edition 2001 Foundstone
McLynn, Frank Napoleon – A Biography 1997 Pimlico
Mill, John Stuart On Liberty 1996 Wordsworth
Mill, John Stuart The Subjection of Women 1996 Wordsworth
Mill, John Stuart Utilitarianism 1998 OUP
Montaigne, Michel De The Complete Essays 1991 Penguin
Mosier, John The Myth of the Great War
Moore, Michael Stupid White Men 2002 Penguin
Nietzsche, Freidrich Twilight of the Idols 1968 Penguin
Nietzsche, Freidrich The Anti-Christ 1968 Penguin
Nietzsche, Freidrich Thus Spake Zarathrustra 1997 Wordsworth
Nietzsche, Freidrich Twilight of the Idols 1998 OUP
Nietzsche, Freidrich Human, All Too Human 1984 Penguin
O’Brien, Brendan The Long War 1993 O’Brien Press
Plato, Republic 1997 Wordsworth
Plato, Symposium and the Death of Socrates 1997 Wordsworth
Plutarch, The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives 1991 Penguin
Popper, Karl, The Open Society and It's Enemies 2003
Powell, Colin A Soldier's Way - An Autobiography 1995 Arrow
Rathbone, Julian The Last English King 1997 Abacus
Russell, Bertrand Roads to Freedom 1996 Routledge
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques The Social Contract and Discourses 1973 Everyman
Sagan, Carl Cosmos
Sagan, Carl; Turco, Richard A Path Where No Man Thought 1990 Random House
Sagan, Carl Billions and Billions 1997 Random House
Sassoon, Siegfried The War Poems 1999 Faber
Schell, Jonathan The Gift of Time 1998 Granta
Schopenhauer, Arthur The World as Will and Representation Vol. 1 1969 Dover
Singer, Peter Ethics 1994 OUP
Stoker, Bram Dracula 1993 Wordsworth
Smyth, Sam Thanks a Million Big Fella 1997 Blackwater Press
Thomson, David Europe Since Napoleon 1957 Penguin
Tirman, John The Spoils of War 1997 Free Press
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Silmarillion 1997 Harper Collins
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings 1997 Harper Collins
Turner, Barry The Writer’s Handbook 2002 MacMillan
Virgil, The Aeneid 1990 Penguin
Voltaire, Candide 1996 Wordsworth
Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary 1971 Penguin
German Philosophers – Kant, Hegel, Schopemhauer, Nietzsche 1997 Oxford
Nota Bene A guide to familiar latin quotes and phrases 1995 Dovetail
Questions on German History 1984 German Bundestag
Explorations in Political Psychology 1993 Duke University Press
To advertise or not to advertise?
If present trends continue I will have to upgrade my server - so many people are visiting now that it is coming close to the 7Gb bandwidth allowance I am allowed each month. If it goes over that limit I have to pay for each and every Mb thereafter.
Upgrading my server will cost me more money, which I do not mind paying, but a little help with it would be nice.
So there are two things I can do, plead for donations, accept advertisements, or maybe both. So what do I do? Go for BlogAds? Google Ads? How much would it help? Is it worth it?
It is something I am considering, my rank on Google recently went up to 7/10, and visitor numbers have grown rapidly in the last 2 months. I think if numbers are reaching 2,500 a day I will have to consider some form advertising, much as I dislike the thought.
May 04, 2004
'Lowering Our Sights'
Robert Kagan, a man I read as regularly as I can, with an article in the Washington Post.(Reg. required) He is associated with another magazine I subscribe to, Foreign Policy.
Faced with that reality, conservatives and even neoconservatives can be heard muttering these days that if the Iraqis won't take responsibility for their own country, we should leave them to their fate. That is what "lowering our sights" really means.
What will be the exit strategy? And will it work?
It is well worth a look.
William Pfaff: An exit strategy based on Iraqi nationalism
I think Pfaff is being just a bit optimistic in this one, things could turn out far worse than he seems to envisage. Civil war in Iraq anyone?
EU's headlong rush toward a flawed constitution: David Howell
David Howell has some views on the EU's constitution - why is there no plan B?
Read on...
Continue reading "EU's headlong rush toward a flawed constitution: David Howell"Martin Cullen on Primetime
Martin Cullen just spent 5 minutes on Primetime, more or less saying that he should get the credit for the decision of the Commission on Electronic Voting.
He did so many somersaults and back flips in the interview I found it hard to keep track. I will be transcribing the whole thing as soon as it becomes available online.
I think I may have spotted several glaringinly obvious waffle-speak/lies/horseshit during the interview too.
Al-Qaeda's resurgence
The June edition of the Atlantic dropped through my letterbox today, as usual there are a huge amount of articles worth reading. But the World in Numbers section this month stands out.
It is a graphical representation of Al-Qaeda attacks since 1996 - when Osama declared a Jihad against US troops in Saudi Arabia. Fascinating stuff. It confirms my long held suspicion and even belief, that the war on terror, far from being won, is in fact having little effect.
In a graph titled "An escalating tempo of attacks" a timeline of 1996 - 2004 is shown, with magnitudes of attacks and ratio of fatalities per attack to operative combatants.
Since the USS Cole attack, the tempo has increasing dramatically - with 18 attacks since then.
It all makes for ominous reading, even the byline - "The ever resilient terrorist group continues to adapt - and is rapidly breeding a fully fledged movement"
Googling Google
The New York Times editorial has some wise words for Google and its impending flotation. There are very serious dangers involved - and Google would be well advised to be very cautious. I think a valid comparison is made with Netscape during the heady days of the browser wars - market share does not guarantee people will stay. Keep reading for the full, but brief, editorial.
Continue reading "Googling Google "AMD outsell Intel
I certainly was not expecting this news, found over on Slashdot. So many people tell me that they prefer AMDs to Intel chips. But 52%? Well done AMD.
Oppurtunity arrives
Oppurtunity has arrived at the Endurance crater - whew that took a while!
Looks like there's lots of exciting science to be done there.
The drama that changed the D12 group's destiny
The well known and dope MC’s from the D12 group used to meet and to rap at the Hip Hop shop at 7 Mile Road. They used to battle and to freestyle. At the hip hop shop, they met a gifted aspiring MC : Karnail Pitts aka Bugz.
Continue reading "The drama that changed the D12 group's destiny"This Time It's Real: An Antimissile System Takes Shape
They are still spending money on this? What is the point? Have they not heard of 737s laden with fuel? Have they not heard of new technology that can avoid missile defence?
Sounds like a big scam to me.
May 03, 2004
India's secret army of online ad 'clickers'
This one from Slashdot:
This sounds like a great way to make money, but could it be called fraud? Google adsense might not be too happy.
A growing number of housewives, college graduates, and even working professionals across metropolitan cities are rushing to click paid Internet ads to make $100 to $200 (up to Rs 9,000) per month.
"It's boring, but it is extra money for a couple of hours of clicking weblinks every day," says a resident of Delhi's Patparganj, who has kept a $300-target for the summer.
BBC introduces flexible TV with online trial
This sounds like a great idea - will this be a killer application of broadband?
So many programmes to download, so little time.
Debbie Mathers' recent reconciliation attempt with Marshall
A mom is making desperate attempts to reconcile with her son. She is dying of breast cancer. A dramatic situation. This woman happens to be Eminem’s mom.
In a recent article from “The Mirror”, she claims: “I am dying of cancer but my son Eminem won’t pay to save me”:
May 02, 2004
Eminem's major musical influences
The musicians who had a major influence on Marshall Mathers are Ice T, the Beastie Boys, LLCoolJ and Run DMC.
Ice T was Eminem’s first musical influence. When his uncle Ronnie brought Marshall the tape of Ice T’s « Reckless » Marshall was so much impressed with Ice T’s music that he made up the decision to become a rapper :
May 01, 2004
Wal-Mart Begins RFID Rollout
This is big news - so many people have not even heard of RFID yet. This might turn out to be one of the biggest technologies of the next decade.
Wal Mart plans to put them in every single container and shipment - it's but a matter of time before there is an RFID tag in every product they sell.
April 30, 2004
More pictures emerge - British troops urinating on Iraqi prisoner
More trouble for the coalition tonight as pictures emerge showing British troops beating a prisoner with rifle butts and then urinating on him.
This does not look like the best PR for the coalition, after the 60 minutes program showing US troops involved in plainly sick behaviour. If I was an Iraqi I would be getting seriously pissed off. No, that pun is not intended.
Google's unusual SEC filing
This is one of the most curious things I have ever read -
Everyone should have a read - what are these guys up to?
Here is an exerpt from this very unusual filing:
DON’T BE EVIL
Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.
Google users trust our systems to help them with important decisions: medical, financial and many others. Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating. We also display advertising, which we work hard to make relevant, and we label it clearly. This is similar to a newspaper, where the advertisements are clear and the articles are not influenced by the advertisers’ payments. We believe it is important for everyone to have access to the best information and research, not only to the information people pay for you to see.
MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE
We aspire to make Google an institution that makes the world a better place. With our products, Google connects people and information all around the world for free. We are adding other powerful services such as Gmail that provides an efficient one gigabyte Gmail account for free. By releasing services for free, we hope to help bridge the digital divide. AdWords connects users and advertisers efficiently, helping both. AdSense helps fund a huge variety of online web sites and enables authors who could not otherwise publish. Last year we created Google Grants—a growing program in which hundreds of non-profits addressing issues, including the environment, poverty and human rights, receive free advertising. And now, we are in the process of establishing the Google Foundation. We intend to contribute significant resources to the foundation, including employee time and approximately 1% of Google’s equity and profits in some form. We hope someday this institution may eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world’s problems.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Google is not a conventional company. Eric, Sergey and I intend to operate Google differently, applying the values it has developed as a private company to its future as a public company. Our mission and business description are available in the rest of the prospectus; we encourage you to carefully read this information. We will optimize for the long term rather than trying to produce smooth earnings for each quarter. We will support selected high-risk, high-reward projects and manage our portfolio of projects. We will run the company collaboratively with Eric, our CEO, as a team of three. We are conscious of our duty as fiduciaries for our shareholders, and we will fulfill those responsibilities. We will continue to attract creative, committed new employees, and we will welcome support from new shareholders. We will live up to our “don’t be evil” principle by keeping user trust and not accepting payment for search results. We have a dual-class structure that is biased toward stability and independence and that requires investors to bet on the team, especially Sergey and me.
In this letter we have explained our thinking on why Google is better off going public. We have talked about our IPO auction method and our desire for stability and access for all investors. We have discussed our goal to have investors who determine a rational price and invest for the long term only if they can buy at that price. Finally, we have discussed our desire to create an ideal working environment that will ultimately drive the success of Google by retaining and attracting talented Googlers.
We have tried hard to anticipate your questions. It will be difficult for us to respond to them given legal constraints during our offering process. We look forward to a long and hopefully prosperous relationship with you, our new investors. We wrote this letter to help you understand our company.
Fistful of euros
The guys over at a Fistful of euros have added me to their blogroll, not sure how that happened. I have noticed people visiting from one of their other sites, Living in Europe aggregator. I shall have to reciprocate, and read them more often.
On another note this has been my busiest month since I started blogging, and that includes the month of the John Gray saga. According to Sitemeter my total for the month of April will stand at about 26,000 visitors/35,000 page views. Average is now 1,000 visitors a day, while webalizer is saying im getting in around 1800 visitors a day.
I'm not quite sure why this is, but my server is chewing up about 5GB a month.
All very interesting this visitor dynamics.
Des Bishop
American comedian, but Irish resident, Des Bishop has a blog. I think he might need some help adding in some links to other blogs - and maybe a comments option rather than having to register for the forum. No email address either that I can see. And no Sitemeter...
Anyways by linking to him now it will help his Google rank as at present googling his name won't bring up his site. I wonder how high I will rank now that I have used his name as a heading.
E-voting climbdown
What a great day, to my absolute surprise the Commission on Electronic Voting has decided that the system is not reliable or secure. Martin Cullen featured on the News At One, and refused to resign over the issue. He brands himself an 'innovator' and tries to spin it so the whole thing does not sound like a mess.
In reality it demonstrates the sheer incompetence, arrogance and stupidity of the Fianna Fail/PD government.
I am delighted, and oh look the Electronic Voting website is down.
Great. Read the full report here.
Update: Wohoo! It's been Slashdotted.
April 29, 2004
EU expansion a yawn in U.S: Roger Cohen
One of the most interesting pieces I've read on the subject this year - the apparent lack of interest in the US at the EU's impending expansion.
It is a significant development in global affairs - the EU will be a bloc with a population of almost half a billion people, bordering countries such as Ukraine, Belarus and more importantly Russia, for the first time.
It is curious that Americans can't understand why we have not let in Turkey yet - it is something of an inevitable fact that someday soon Turkey will have to join, as far as I can see any form of European growth could not be sustained without the workers needed from such a populous country as Turkey.
Here's the full text:
Continue reading "EU expansion a yawn in U.S: Roger Cohen"Google to sell $2.7bn in shares
Well it has finally been announced, Google are floating.
Here is my prediction:
Hype and more hype, within 2 years the market will have changed entirely - and Google will be another player in a hugely competitive market. I can see its share value staying high for a while, but if it stays high too long it will be down to dotcom sentiment rather than sensible economics.
"6 In The Morning"
« 6 In The Morning »
You could hardly be indifferent to D12’s « 6 In The Morning ». The D12 soldiers are ready to fight, more offensive than ever. Eminem introduces the song and he is determined more than ever to puch his assaillants’ face with his powerful words.
Continue reading ""6 In The Morning""April 28, 2004
D12 World album review
Guess who’s back ? D12 is back with a brand new album. An album that differs from « Devil’s Night » and that may surprise some D12 fans.
Of course, it is still offensive, thug styled with the well known Detroit underground flavor, but there is less « beef » inside than in the former album.
The most amazing tracks of the album are certainly « Git Up », « 40 Oz », « 6 In The Morning », « American Psycho II » and « Good Die Young ».
The album may surprise you, but it won’t disappoint you . « D12 World » is supposed to be the second part of « Devil’s Night ».
April 27, 2004
D12's New Album Out Tuesday
D12's New Album Out Tuesday
(LAUNCH, 04/26/2004 3:00 PM)
April 26, 2004
The PowerPoint Guide to Nation Building
Matthew Yglesias with an interesting presentation from the CPA.
Also note that the vast majority of Iraqi police are untrained. Not as in they went through the training program and it's no good. They just didn't get trained. At all.
Hm.
NUTS? OR JUST PLAIN CRAZY?....
Kevin Drum quoting Eric Alterman in the Nation...
That's too bad, because unfortunately Cheney is nuts. As Powell puts it, Cheney was in the grip of a "fever," no longer the "steady, unemotional rock that he had witnessed a dozen years earlier during the run-up to the Gulf War. The vice president was beyond hell-bent for action against Saddam. It was as if nothing else existed." Woodward gives us the backstory: Cheney, confirmed by his equally fevered aide "Scooter" Libby, repeatedly pitched--as he does today--the apparently imaginary meeting between Mohamed Atta and Iraqi intelligence in Prague. Powell/Woodward aptly term this contention "worse than ridiculous." It goes on. "Cheney would take an intercept and say it shows something was happening. No, no, no, Powell or another would say, it shows that somebody talked to somebody else who said something might be happening. A conversation would suggest something might be happening, and Cheney would convert that into a 'We know.'"
U.S. Government Was Taking Photos of Soldiers' Coffins
The other lesson here is the way independent news operations like the Memory Hole are helping to reshape journalism. The little guy, in using the Freedom of Information Act, did something that most of the established media didn't bother to try.
Diplomats attack Blair's Israel policy
A blistering attack on Blair and his foreign policy.
The virtually unprecedented letter criticises the prime minister for claiming influence over the US president, George Bush, and American policy, then backing the Israel policy when it was already "doomed to failure".
"We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment," the letter said.
European constitution referendum
Tom hopes that everybody will be voting Yes to the European constitution referendum in the UK. I for one will be voting No in the referendum here, that is of course if we have one. And I guess it won't make a difference either, since we will just keep having referenda until its pushed through.
Roy Hattersley disagrees with me.
Fighting breaks out in Falluja
More fighting has broken out in Fallujah, it looks like this might get messy.
Nathan Mathers has already some psycho fans
A few months ago, I decided to write an article about Eminem's
brother Nathan. Knowing how much supportive Nathan is towards his
brother and that he is also an aspiring rapper, I wanted to gather
enough info about him for people to know more about him. My
intentions were also to honor him as a supportive family member of
Eminem. I also admire the fact that he wants to rap too. Which means
that he will have to work very hard.
April 25, 2004
Poetry I would like to share with you
In my opinion, my friend Timothy Wright from Warren, who is also a huge Eminem fan, is gifted for poetry. I like the texts he has written and I would like to share them with you.
Continue reading "Poetry I would like to share with you"Street Freestyler (freestyle, by me)
Nobody’s iller than this street killa
April 24, 2004
In memory of D12's deceased member Bugz
Karnail Pitts aka Robert Beck aka Bugz was born in 1978 around May.
He was loved and appreciated by all the D12 members for his rapping skills.
His life ended tragically on May the 21st in 1999: he was only 21 when he died.
April 23, 2004
Fallujah
An anonymous person left the following comment in relation to Dick and Jon's analysis of casualties in Fallujah. Such a lengthy comment has been rewarded with being posted - it adds to the debate at least.
Say you're on the street in fallujah and a man of about 60 comes out with an AK-47 and begins shooting at you. You shoot him in the chest twice and he dies or is dying. What are you trained to do? You need to secure that corpse if you can get to him. So what do you do? You move up to his position, take the AK-47 and search him for intelligence. You are not trained to leave the weapon with him, at worst you take the ammunition and dispense of it and leave the weapon, but you're not supposed to leave his weapon. Later on, with this 60 year old corpse laying in the street is hauled to the local hospital where it quickly becomes apparent that he is a civilian because he obviously didn't have a weapon on him.
Unfortunately these people use kids and other young extremists as well. If you're a marine and a 15 year old with an AK is firing at you, unfortunately you are in the situation where you must kill the 15 year old. Say you shoot him in the leg and he lives and your marine unit withdraws, the 15 year olds unit leader takes his AK and drops him off at the hospital, he is now one of the children that the big and ugly marines shot at. I've heard of this happening to kids even as young as 10 or 11 years old.
My points are this:
First, These people (Iraqi supporters of this battle) are not going to leave weapons and ammunition with the corpses, that would be a waste of very valuable resources and it adds to the illusion that our boys are running around fallujah like rednecks popping off civilians.
Second, Fighting age is entirely subjective in this climate. Just because someone is younger than 18 years of age doesn't mean that he or she couldn't pick up a weapon and kill marines. However, it does mean that once the marines terminate that individual, that his weapon will be removed from the corpse and he will be dropped at the hospital where he conviently becomes a mere child thus inflating the number of civilian casualties that observers (who didn't observe the 15 year old firing the AK)are looking at.
Third, Old Iraqi women do not know what US Marine Snipers are. They don't know the difference between 7.62 Nato Rounds, 5.56 Nato rounds, and 7.62 x 39 rounds are. They aren't qualified to say who hit them with what. Iraqis firing off rounds from the hip (as every Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran says they shoot) are more likely to cause civilian and friendly fire casualties than a MARINE INFANTRY unit who are all qualified to 300 meters (barring the snipers who can hit targets as far as a mile depending on weapon).
Fourth, I would venture to say that the Spectre Gunships and bombing causes more civilian casualties than the marines on the ground. Think of the Gunships as a Steak knife and the Marine Infantry Regiment as a scalpel.
I am not a marine but I am in the Army and can tell you these things based off interviews with some of the veterans. I also felt compelled to talk a bit about the Insurgent strategy.
April 22, 2004
Jeff Jarvis on Rumsfeld
Jeff Jarvis is live blogging a dinner that Don Rumsfeld is attending.
We can only hope that he's as tough on journalists' bosses as he is on journalists.
A tale of two soldiers
Kevin Drum has some insight into the military records of both George W Bush and John Kerry. I think his analysis is correct - the Republican game here is pretty low, and I don't think they can win the argument.
'Einstein' probe heads into space
This is a huge amount of money to spend - but it might well be worth it. I am looking forward to the results - my bet is on Einstein being right.
I do remember on Carl Sagan's excellent Cosmos series that an experiment was performed on how time slows down as you move. An atomic clock was placed on the ground, and synchronised with another on a 747, which then flew for a certain distance at a speed that planes do. On return it was found that there was a discrepancy - when you fly on planes you are relatively becoming slightly younger.
Hard drive speed limit is reached
The limit of hard drives has apparently been reached. But at least its not likely to affect the production of drives for some time:
The bad news is that this upper limit means that the fastest data can be written using changes in magnetisations is 435,000 million bits every second.
The good news is that this is still one thousand times faster than the best magnetic hard drives in use today.
Dublin Elevation
Feel like controlling some beams of light above Dublin? Get your 15 seconds of arty farty stuff here. I do wonder what May 1st will be like in Dublin, perhaps I should take a trip up.
Blair: a no vote means no
Blair's remarks are curious to those of us in Ireland who voted No in both identical Nice referenda. He seems to be talking around the issue rather than directly answering the questions posed.
I would imagine that if the UK does vote No to the referendum that Blair will go back to the EU and attempt some kind of renegotiation, followed by a second referendum. This will be just a small bit more than the Irish government tried to do - it simply put the same question a year later.
Could this become a trend in European nations?
Irish diplomacy hailed at EU talks
CNN has a story on our own Bertie Ahern and his reputed expert negotiating skills. Curious that CNN make this kind of statement:
A veteran of Northern Ireland's peace process, Ahern's diplomatic skills were honed helping to heal centuries-old sectarian divisions in the British province.
Does Britain even have provinces?
Facts about Swifty Mc Veigh
Swifty Mc Veigh
“Don’t playahate, play along”
Continue reading "Facts about Swifty Mc Veigh"USA Today's Top Editor Resigns
Interesting news from the media world...
Remember Jack Kelley, the reporter for USA Today who was fired after a scandal in which it was disclosed that he had fabricated many stories for the paper ? Last night, Karen Jurgenson, the top editor at USA Today and an employee of the paper since its inception in 1982, abruptly resigned over the Kelley matter.
April 21, 2004
Weblogs gaining maturity, becoming more useful
Dan Gillmor with a great piece on the evolution of weblogging.
Keep talking, Miss Alvarez. Nobody cares.
A bored manicurist certainly wants her 15 minutes of attention in the press:
Continue reading "Keep talking, Miss Alvarez. Nobody cares."April 20, 2004
Hunt is on for ships used by Greece in Persian Wars
Interesting story about the hunt for Greek ships, such as the ones used to attack Troy. And that film will be out in May. The article seems to have been edited badly, it cuts off at the end.
Continue reading "Hunt is on for ships used by Greece in Persian Wars "The Practice and/or The Tool: Journalism and Blogging
Mary Hodder with a view from BloggerCon in Boston posing some interesting questions on journalism and blogging. Quite a witty post. :-)
Journalism and blogs are the karass and the granfalloon. They need each other, but can we please please please stop talking about either/or or and or but or if? As if? Really. I've had it. Get over it.
I realize there are lots and lots of people that don't know what a blog is, so fine, give them the five minutes to catch up. Here it is: new posts go to the top, time date stamp, aliveness and linking. Flexible personal publishing. Maybe a little conversation. Maybe not. Okay then. Disintermediating as hell. Uncontrollable granfalloon. Do we have to talk again about whether blogs are staying, jacked up on the rant as they pull down the pants of the Big J, wrecking that perfect karass that still wants to bath us in our favorite celebrity porn or everybody's premiere-content but-we're-behind-the-firewall-and-therefore-unlinkable paper. Little b is just a fccing tool. BTW, in case you're wondering, this is a blog. Yes, folks, Napsterization. Just a blog. In case you were reading this and didn't know. But frankly it could just as well be done with some other tool. The point is, now our tools (and practices) are about interchangeable parts and air-compressor nail-guns instead of handmade hammers and nails. Interchangeable digital media that reduces everyone to 15 bytes of fame and poke in the eye all at once. Get used to it.Now.
