Wednesday, March 31, 2004
pareidolia: "Pareidolia is a type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. For example, in the discolorations of a burnt tortilla one sees the face of Jesus Christ. Or one sees the image of Mother Teresa or Ronald Reagan in a cinnamon bun or a man in the moon."
apophenia: "Apophenia is the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. The term was coined by K. Conrad in 1958 (Brugger)."
Virtual Drum Machines at Audio Playground: "I have recreated some of the Drum Machines from the Audio Playground Museum. The virtual machines run with Shockwave/Flash so if don't have the flash plugin for your web browser you will not be able to see and run the drum machines. But don't despair the flash plug-in is free and can be down loaded from the Macromedia site. If you don't know if you have the flash plug-in just look on this page and if you don't see the moving Audio Playground Logo you need the flash plug-in. If you see the moving Audio Playground logo, your ready to enjoy the virtual drum machines."
print out: "From the desk of Travis Hallenbeck"
newsmap: "Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap's objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe. "
: "Bush wants monopoly on faith
St. Petersburg Times staff writer Bill Maxwell weighs in on a recent faith-based flap between the Bush and Kerry campaigns. While speaking recently at a church in St. Louis, Kerry quoted Scripture to criticize the president. Although Bush frequently relies on faith-based language, his campaign went after Kerry, saying his Bible quote was inappropriate.
Maxwell starts off his column with this quote from George W. Bush: 'As I studied and learned, Scripture took on greater meaning, and I gained confidence and understanding in my faith.'
He continues: 'The Bush administration is feeling threatened ... because it responded in a childish manner to a matter of religion -- the purported essence of this president's character and leadership. Last Sunday, John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, worshiped at a black church in St. Louis and used a Bible verse to describe President Bush's leadership as one that has 'faith but has no deeds.' ? Bush's attack dog Steve Schmidt pounced on Kerry, intoning that the Massachusetts senator's indictment 'was beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse and a sad exploitation of Scripture for a political attack.''
'Did Schmidt forget that he speaks for one of the most 'faith-based' administrations ever? If Bush can be legitimately attacked on any front, it is that of 'faith.' In other words, the president's own public declarations of faith as the source of his leadership and designs on the world are fair game for political scrutiny and attack.' "
All Recipes | Vegetarian | Lentils And Spinach: "'This is my own adaptation of an Indian recipe. It doesn't look like much, but it is surprisingly yummy. Serve this for dinner over hot rice or a diced baked potato. Pair with carrots, cauliflower, or a fresh sliced tomato for a full meal.'"
Lentils with Spinach: "1-1/4 pounds fresh or frozen leaf spinach
1 medium-sized onion, peeled
5 T. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 cup dried lentils, picked over, washed, and drained
1-1/2 to 1-3/4 t. salt
1 t. ground cumin seeds
1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper
Separate the fresh spinach leaves and wash well. Do not discard the pinkish roots. Wash them as well. (They will taste very good when cooked.) Bunch up a few leaves at a time and cut them crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips. Cut each root into 2 to 3 pieces. If using frozen spinach, cook according to directions, drain and chop coarsely.
Cut the onion in half lengthwise, and then cut the halves into fine half rings.
Heat the oil in a heavy, wide, casserole-type pot over a medium flame. When hot, put in the onion and garlic. Stir and saut? for 2 minutes. Now put in the lentils and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat and simmer about 25 minutes or until lentils are just tender. Add the spinach leaves and roots, salt, and cumin. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer another 10 to 15 minutes or until spinach is tender and well-mixed into the lentils. Stir gently a few times during this period. Put in the black pepper and mix again. This dish may easily be made ahead of time and reheated.
Serves 6.
From 'World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking' by Madhur Jaffrey "
[Facs] FW: Thursday visit.: "For more information, call Michele Tomarelli at the Center for Families,
765-494-2448, or e-mail at mtomarel AT cfs.purdue.ed"
Monday, March 29, 2004
Sunday, March 28, 2004
YouSendIt.com | Metafilter: "YouSendIt.com With Google-like simplicity, the free service allows you to email up to 1 GB to anyone without flooding their mailbox. 1 GB... that's a whole lotta pr0n."
Saturday, March 27, 2004
: "WELCOME at CyList.com, where users share their knowledge in short lists!"
Thursday, March 25, 2004
USATODAY.com - They're flipping out over Simon's finger: "Was Simon Cowell subtly giving Ryan Seacrest the finger? Or was it meant for Paula Abdul?"
Yahoo! News - Georgia House Bans Genital Piercings: "ATLANTA - Genital piercings for women were banned by the Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill outlining punishments for female genital mutilation.
The bill would make such mutilation punishable by two to 20 years in prison. It makes no exception for people who give consent to have the procedure performed on their daughters out of religious or cultural custom.
An amendment adopted without objection added 'piercing' to the list of things that may not be done to female genitals. Even adult women would not be allowed to get the procedure. The bill eventually passed 160-0, with no debate.
Amendment sponsor Rep. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.
'What? I've never seen such a thing,' Heath said. 'I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing.'
The ban applies only to women, not men. The bill has already been approved by the Senate but now must return to that chamber because of the piercing amendment. Both chambers of the Legislature must agree on a single version of a bill before it can go to the governor for final approval. "
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Wired News: Dogging Craze Has Brits in Heat: "Giving new meaning to the term 'flash mob,' the British have invented a new sex craze called 'dogging' that mixes sex, exhibitionism, mobs and the Internet.
Dogging combines technology with swinging, cruising and voyeurism. To wit: Crowds big and small watch exhibitionist couples who've met on the Net have sex in cars, and sometimes join in.
'Dogging is the broad term used to cover all the sexual outdoor activities that go on,' says the dogging FAQ at Melanies UK Swingers, a popular dogging site. 'This can be anything from putting on a show from your car, to a gangbang on a picnic table.' "
miami, fl
pittsburgh, pa
oklahoma city, ok
trenton, nj
mobile, al
tibido, la
charlotte, nc
las vegas, nv
louisville, ky
dallas, tx
underground reports weekly
Learning to Walk in Size 17 Pumps: "On television, male makeovers are all the rage. There is 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' on Bravo and NBC. There is its spoof, 'Straight Plan for the Gay Man,' on Comedy Central. But advisers like Mr. Gorski, a former female impersonator whose customers know him as 'Rain,' engage in the most dramatic of transformations: teaching men how to dress and act like women."
Need a login? Try
this link at BugMeNot.com.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Bway.net - AnonDSL: "Bway.net believes it should be your choice to be as public or as private on the Internet as you want to be. To accomplish this, Bway introduces:
· AnonDSLTM - the ultimate tool for protecting your identity from tracking by the RIAA, MPAA or anyone else.
· AnonDSLTM makes your online activities untraceable - except, of course, for email and any other activities that require authentication.
· AnonDSLTM is perfectly legal.
· AnonDSLTM is available only on some, but not all, ADSL circuits. Please call us for complete details. "
Button Maker :: Kalsey Consulting Group: "This is a user interface to Bill Zeller's brilliant button maker application."
Boing Boing: Pink Girl subculture photography from Tokyo: "On Matthew Gilbert's PhotoMatt site, pictures of 'Pink Girls' hanging around outside the Gap in Harajuku, Tokyo."
Boing Boing: Guess What? Vaginamabutt.: " I have no idea WTF this is. Alright, I have *some* idea. It's -- like -- an X-rated pop art Farkistani Where's Waldo. Someone made this Keith Haring-esque Photoshop file of a vagina dentata assmonster. They invite you to download the file, print out, take photos of it in odd situations, then email in for inclusion on vaginamabutt.com."
Boing Boing: Peter Bagge's libertarian comics for Reason: "I used to dislike Tom Tomorrow's comic strip, This Modern World. I'm not entirely sure why it didn't work for me, but I think it is because he would set up right-wing straw people to say exaggerated things to make them look bad. Lately, I've been enjoying his strip a lot more, and I think the reason is because the right-wing is now so outrageous, he doesn't need to exagerate to show how bad they are. The truth is funny without having to embellish it.To me, Peter Bagge is the opposite of Tom Tomorrow. I love the stuff he did for Weirdo, Neat Stuff, and Hate. Now he's doing a libertarian comic strip for Reason, and like a mirror-image Tom Tomorrow, he tries to make his point by exaggerating the kinds of things left-wingers say. And just as Tomorrow's early work wasn't funny, Bagge's recent Reason work doesn't make me laugh either. I did read Bagge's latest Hate Annual and thought he was in top form, so this criticism only applies to his Reason comics."
Yahoo! News - Colonoscopy Parties Remove Fear Factor: "PLANO, Texas - When oncology nurse Audrey Thompson invites her friends to a party, she often dares them to bare their bottoms.
On a recent Saturday, a dozen or so of her co-workers took the challenge. They arrived at Medical Center of Plano as early as 6:30 a.m. to drop their pants - for a colonoscopy.
Thompson, a self-described health crusader, has organized several parties in the past year, partly for selfish reasons. And, no, it is not to see her friends in uncompromising positions. "
Monday, March 22, 2004
Salon Mustreads 3/22/04: "The Washington Post reports that the Bush White House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for FBI counterterrorism funds in the weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks. An internal administration document was one of several given to the Post by the Center for American Progress, a liberal group run by former Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta. 'The papers show that Ashcroft ranked counterterrorism efforts as a lower priority than his predecessor did, and that he resisted FBI requests for more counterterrorism funding before and immediately after the attacks,' the Post writes. "
Salon.com Books | You can save the endangered midlist author: "If you're outraged because you wish you had my problems, take a writing class from a midlist author at your local independent bookstore, start writing whatever's in your heart and head to write, and maybe soon you will. "
Salon.com Books | The confessions of a semi-successful author: "I've published several books, won adoring reviews, and even sold a few copies. But I've made almost no money and had my heart broken. Here's everything you don't want to know about how publishing really works."
Friday, March 19, 2004
Guess Who Doesn't Believe In God?
Ten percent of Protestants, 21 percent of Roman Catholics, and 52 percent of Jews do NOT believe in God.
That's the surprising word from a new survey by Harris Interactive of 2,306 adults that shows belief in God varies quite widely among different segments of the American public. How often do we go to a place of worship? Not much. Most people attend a religious service less than once a month. Still, Americans are far more likely to believe in God and to attend religious services than people in most other developed countries, particularly in Europe.
Who believes in God?
While 79 percent of Americans believe there is a God, only 66 percent are absolutely certain of it. Nine percent do not believe in God and 12 percent aren't sure. And weirdly, not everyone who calls himself or herself a Christian or a Jew actually believes in God.
Who worships at a religious service?
Just over half (55 percent) attend a religious service a few times a year or more. Thirty-six percent attend once a month or more often, and just 26 percent say they attend every week. Forty-one percent of women and 31 percent of men attend once a month or more. Protestants (47 percent) are more likely to go to church once a month or more often than are Roman Catholics (35 percent). Jews are least likely to go with 16 percent saying they go to synagogue once a month or more. Church attendance is highest in the Midwest and lowest in the West.
Belief in God by geography and age
Eighty-two percent of Midwesterners and Southerners believe in God, compared with 75 percent in the East and West. Our beliefs get stronger as we age. Of those 25 to 29 years old, 71 percent believe in God. That number jumps to 80 percent for people over 40, and hits 83 percent for those 65 and over.
Other fascinating facts about who believes in God:
* 84 percent of women believe in God, compared with 73 percent of men.
* 91 percent of African Americans believe in God, compared with 81 percent of Hispanics and 78 percent of whites.
* 87 percent of Republicans believe in God, compared with 78 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Independents.
* 82 percent of those with no college education believe in God, compared with 73 percent who went to college.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Iraq on the Record
The Iraq on the Record Report, prepared at the request of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, is a comprehensive examination of the statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq: President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. "
Christian Joy
While working for designer Daryl K in her 6th street store in Manhattan, Christiane met Karen O., lead singer of the New York City band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Mutually admiring one another's aesthetic, Christiane began designing all of Karen O's stage costumes. One of her first creations was the "Hated Dress", made from newspaper, packing tape, staples and acrylic paint. Christian's designs have helped to create and define Karen O's unique stage persona, and has also led to Karen being called a "fashion icon" by the international press.
Bailey
14th03/04
0=0 - In The Studio
Fracture & Neptune – Too Doggone Funky – (Inperpective)
0 = 0 – Soul Hunter Testifies – (Inperpective)
0 = 0 - In The Mix
0 = 0 – In Your Eyes – (INP)
Stranjah – Ruinz – (White)
Chris Su – Satisfy – (Critical)
Miracle – Hurtful Motives – (White)
0 = 0 – You Are My Angel – (White)
Stranjah – Chordz – (Synaptic Plastic)
Hive – Last Call – (True Playaz)
Miracle – Breakin Barriers – (Synaptic Plastic)
Enduser – East Side Breaks (Synaptic Plastic)
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
For Orlando Soto, No Day Is Complete Without Some SpamNEW YORK -- Orlando Soto looks forward each evening to spending time on his home computer after work. But when he logged on one Wednesday night last month, he was disappointed: There were 17 spam e-mail messages waiting for him.
"Only 17," he lamented, scrolling through them. "That's a very light day."
Mr. Soto routinely comes home to some 150 e-mail pitches, and he loves getting them all. The 45-year-old grandfather opens most of them. He answers spam questionnaires. And he buys stuff pitched in spam e-mail -- again and again. "Everyday people call it spam," says Mr. Soto, who prefers calling it "unsolicited" e-mail. "But I'm open to everything."
If everyone hated spam, it would disappear. But like the traditional direct-mail marketers and telemarketers who came before them, spammers survive public outrage, filters, lawsuits and regulations because innumerable times a day, somebody, somewhere responds with money.
One such somebody is Mr. Soto. He buys spam-pitched aromatherapy oils for his wife and pharmaceuticals for himself. His bookcases are lined with first-edition mystery novels he bought via spam. In a corner of his two-bedroom midtown-Manhattan apartment stands an antique pinball machine bought via spam. He plays Internet bingo at five cents a game on a Web site pitched to him by spam a few weeks ago. He buys stuff via spam for himself and to resell on Web sites he sets up -- a business idea he got from a spam pitch.
Spam helps him "unwind" and "lose the stress of the day," Mr. Soto says.
DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Local News Columnist Steve BlowA story in the business section last Sunday reported that the advertising agency has been hired to create a whole new image for the city. The goal is to get hordes of conventioneers and tourists clamoring to visit our dear old Big D.
Well, I invited readers to provide some similarly honest slogans for our city. And it wasn't pretty.
"Dallas - A Step Back in Time." "Dallas - And What Church Do You Go To?" "Dallas - Blend In or Butt Out." "Dallas - It's All Done With Mirrors."
Some were poetic. "Dallas - World Class? My (Assume you know the rest)."
And then there was the blunt "Dallas is Callous."
Monday, March 15, 2004
Read his lips: No new jobsThe Washington Post provides a reality check on President Bush's frequent assertion that his tax cuts will create jobs. 'When President Bill Clinton raised taxes in 1993, the unemployment rate dropped, from 6.9 to 6.1 percent, and kept falling each of the next seven years. When President Bush cut taxes in 2001, the unemployment rate rose, from 4.7 to 5.8 percent, then drifted to 6 percent last year when taxes were cut again,' the Post writes. 'It has become conventional wisdom in Washington that rising tax burdens crush labor markets. Bush castigated his political opponents last week for 'that old policy of tax and spend' that would be 'the enemy of job creation.' Yet an examination of historical tax levels and unemployment rates reveals no obvious correlation.'
'The fact of the matter is, we have much higher rates of employment today than we did in 1954, but our level of taxation is considerably higher,' said Gary Burtless, a labor economist at the Brookings Institution. 'You simply can't look at total taxation to find employment levels.' "
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Henna gaijin strange foreigners living in Japan and learning the Japanese language and Japanese culture: "But the henna gaijin do not fit the mold -- they creep out the Japanese by acting too Japanese, even though they blatantly look like foreigners. Henna gaijin can speak Japanese, use chopsticks, eat natto with relish, know more about Buddhism and garden landscaping than most Japanese people, and even use the elevators correctly. They blur the distinction between gaijin and nihonjin, raising all sorts of the disquieting questions about what it really means to be Japanese. Surely it cannot be merely a question of physical appearance, now can it?"
Metropolis - Big in Japan: Natto: "They say it takes four times to 'get' natto. This is pure twaddle. Maybe it takes four exposures to get past the furtively - glancing - around - the - room - for - the - source - of - the - abominable - smell stage. After that, a few more tastings before you begin to buy the assertion that appreciating natto is just like appreciating a fine, aromatic (read: stinky) cheese. But to liken it to cheese does both a disservice; natto won't spread on bread, nor does it pair well with a fine, tawny port. Cheese doesn't taste good in miso soup. "
All Consuming: "All Consuming is a website that watches weblogs for books that they're talking about, and displays the most popular ones on an hourly basis. You can also use this site to add a list of books to your own weblog (and you don't need to know HTML)."
The Sect of Homokaasu: "The rasterbator is a web service which creates huge rasterized pictures out of relatively small image files. The pictures can be assembled into extremely cool looking posters! Enter the gallery to see what the images look like.
"
Everquest Daily Grind: "There are the stories about how partners of Everquest players are left handling most of the daily life chores and responsibilities while their players are sitting on their arses, immersing themselves into ignorant self-focused dreams of a better life. At the cost of their loved one(s). Is that what relationships have come down to? Riding on the back of others?"
Friday, March 12, 2004
ic Wales - His dark classroom materials: "THE leader of the Church of England has called for one of the most powerful atheist tracts in modern literature to be used as part of pupils' religious education.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, pictured below, advocated pupils studying Philip Pullman's controversial trilogy His Dark Materials at an address to religious leaders and academics hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Harlech-educated Pullman's Whitbread-winning trilogy - now a stage hit - has been branded anti-Christian propaganda by critics.
The Catholic Herald condemned his work, which reverses Milton's tale of the war in heaven, as 'fit for the bonfire'.
Rupert Kaye, chief executive of the Association of Christian Teachers, said Pullman's 'blasphemy is shameless'.
But the Church in Wales yesterday issued a statement quoting from the Archbishop's lecture to signal its agreement with his position.
A spokesperson said, 'The Church in Wales would be in agreement with the Archbishop of Canterbury in his insistence, 'That religious education should include serious examination of what loss of faith involves and what are the elements of belief that provoke doubt and conflict is surely axiomatic. But it is in showing how religious beliefs sustain themselves in such circumstances that we best educate students in a critical understanding of their own faith and a critical understanding of faith in general'.'
The spokesman continued: 'The three pillars of Anglicanism are scripture, reason and tradition and all three should surely be part of what religious education is about.'
Educationalists also welcomed the Ystradgynlais-born Archbishop's suggestion."
cadence90: "Some blogging principles "
Dallas Observer | dallasobserver.com | News Amateur Hour,Congressional candidate Mike Murphy feels the strong arm of the GOP,By John Gonzalez The Alternative Dallas connection for events, event listings, music reviews, CD reviews, and all : "Telford was recorded saying that the relationship between Hall and the president 'goes back a long way--they've helped each other for forever and a day, and the White House won't rest until he wins.' Then, later: 'Just consider what you're doing now. You don't want to have the freakin' president of the United States mad at you for the rest of your life.' And, finally: 'It will help you immensely to not do something that won't take you anywhere in a practical manner and that will really screw up your chances down the road...If you step off this cliff, gravity never goes up, it goes down.' "
CNN.com - RNC tells TV stations not to run anti-Bush ads - Mar 7, 2004: "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican National Committee is warning television stations across the country not to run ads from the MoveOn.org Voter Fund that criticize President Bush, charging that the left-leaning political group is paying for them with money raised in violation of the new campaign-finance law.
'As a broadcaster licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, you have a responsibility to the viewing public, and to your licensing agency, to refrain from complicity in any illegal activity,' said the RNC's chief counsel, Jill Holtzman Vogel, in a letter sent to about 250 stations Friday.
'Now that you have been apprised of the law, to prevent further violations of federal law, we urge you to remove these advertisements from your station's broadcast rotation.'
But MoveOn.org's lawyer, Joseph Sandler, said in a statement that the ads were funded legally, calling the RNC's letter 'a complete misrepresentation of the law.'"
Thursday, March 11, 2004
KoffeeKup: "I haven't posted in a while. I've had some serious medical issues. I went into the emergency room earlier this last week for severe abdominal pain. I think it was like an hour before they accepted any other reason besides the 'you're just pregnant'. Finally they made me take a test and hmmmmm duh, results were negative so they actually started to pay attention after that. 6 hours later, and many many different tests and they discovered that my uterus has convienently grown over my cervix and that my ovaries cannot release and are becoming inflamed and swollen. Let me just tell you all that the pain that I am feeling is the worst pain you every, partially due to its consistancy I believe. I'm on pain pills of course which helps a little to ease the pain. But, it doesn't quite make the whole painful feeling go away. "
Boing Boing: Madrid, te queremos.: "More than 185 people lost their lives today in Madrid. This graphic homage at left from an illustrator named Forges at El Pais, by way of Spanish blog caspa.tv. As it was here in New York, in Spain everything will now be spoken of in terms of 'before March 11,' and after. "
Jewish.com™ Store: "A fun and educational way to involve children in the Passover experience. Symbols for each of the 10 plagues are included."
Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, The Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power: "From New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Robbins
Based on interviews with more than 100 Bonesmen
An Expose of President George W. Bush's Secret Society
Secrets of the Tomb "
Sports Hollywood - Ten Questions with Sarah Silverman: "SportsHollywood: What is the worst sports movie ever made?
SILVERMAN: Schindler's List."
FrogPad: "FrogPad™ is a one-handed keyboard to be used with USB Keyboard compatible PDA's, Pocket PCs, Tablet and Wearable PC's, and other mobile applications.... "
Inference Group: Dasher Project: How does Dasher work?: "Dasher is a zooming interface. You point where you want to go, and the display zooms in wherever you point. The world into which you are zooming is painted with letters, so that any point you zoom in on corresponds to a piece of text. The more you zoom in, the longer the piece of text you have written. You choose what you write by choosing where to zoom. "
close your eyes: mp3 blogs/rotation etc.: "There are quite a lot of blogs out there which host mp3s or links to mp3s somewhere on the internet and whose authors usually write something about the music."
Sunday, March 07, 2004
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
