H5N1 why don't you love me.

Has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

Say what you will about AOL, their new AIM.com mail service (which gives everybody with a AIM screen name a mail account) offers 2Gb of IMAP mail.

This will complement my gmail account very very nicely...

Most any Sigur Rós news is good news.

MUSIC: Sigur Rós "More Rock and Roll" on New Album: "Sigur Rós have spent over a year and a half working on their fourth album, according to their recent interview with Icelandic newspaper morgunbla?i? (what vowels are those?), and the results might surprise long-time fans of the band.

The songs i heard didn't exactly fall under the short pop/rock structure which is rumoured to be the theme of the new album, but it's clear that there is a transition in style here: the songs are more focused, while at the same time more 'rock and roll' than previous material. Kjartan, the keyboardist, goes on to say later in the interview that this is precisely what sigur rós is all about: rock and roll. Somehow it is a more popular opinion that the members of Sigur Rós are tea drinking new age hippies who write songs about elves and lava. Jónsi exclaims 'no, we only drink hardcore coffee around these parts'. but then he adds with a smirk 'well, hardcore coffee topped off with a little soy milk'.

Their official site says that the as-yet-unnamed (as if we'd understand it, anyway) album will feature ten songs, has been completed, and is being mixed in New York as we speak.

Suddenly i decide to make a bold move, and ask plainly whether there is any ideology behind the new album. Kjartan does the talking: 'Hmm. It was just a natural progression from the last album. The last album was so heavy, so it felt better to rock this one out. Damn, that was a really lame sentence.'

[Hat-tip: One Louder]

(Written by: Keith)

"

(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

Check out the picture associated with the article.

They have found a second instance of mad cow in the US in less than two weeks.

Factoring in the industrial capture of the US Agriculture Department, this is likely in indicator of a much much larger problem. Now would probably be a good time to stop eating regular beef from your supermarkets, and asking questions when you go out to eat at any restaurant.

Thank the gods I can afford Organic Beef.

I guess it is pork from here on out.

pissing off the roommates

I threw out the roommate's coffee into the kitchen sink.

It was sitting on the island in the kitchen on this warm day, all
lonely.

I opened it, checking to see if it still looked good, but it had a
old milk in coffee thing going.

The small paper cup it was in, a greek cup, was tossed, with its
white plastic cover, slightly stained, unceremoniously into the trash
can, joining the empty can of sweetened condensed milk.

Alas, the roommate still wanted yesterday's coffee.

Alas.

Google for @$$ to @$$.

Jeopardastic

Brandy (yet another friend from Ted' s home town) won on Jeopardy
tonight.

College Quiz Bowlers rock.

gmail tempations

Gmail dangles html editing buttons in front of my face.

So tempting. No. I must resist.

Also, must stop gratuitous use of the ellipsis.

..

FW: [IP] Flag-Burning Amendment and Another Word War

Note that the Daily Show "accidentally" juxtaposed a patriotic sparkler and a small American flag, leading to a flag burning, earlier this week.

To the tune of "killing me softly" now:

Burning my flag for my country...
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Thursday, Jun 23, 2005 6:29 am
Subject: [IP] Flag-Burning Amendment and Another Word War

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: June 22, 2005 10:41:29 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: Flag-Burning Amendment and Another Word War

Dave,

The proposed amendment reads:

"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration
of the flag of the United States."

Since it specifically says "physical," we can assume that non-physical representations such as illustrations, photos, and so on are not
covered.

But what does "desecration" mean in this context?

Public burning is obvious, but what about hanging the flag in
unusual orientations, making subtle (or obvious)
alterations/additions, or juxtaposing the physical flag with
unsavory or unpopular items or imagery? We've been trying for
decades to deal with the meaning of "obscenity" -- are we now
setting up for similar battles over yet another word?

One thing seems pretty certain. The passage of such an amendment
would convert the currently very rare, generally ignored act of flag
burning in this country into a potent symbol of political protest
with vastly expanded power to draw attention. As such, we're likely
to see a massive *increase* in flag burning -- and subsequent
crackdowns -- as a result.

One hopes that this isn't what the proponents of the amendment
actually have in mind.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@eepi.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
- Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com

-------------------------------------

If you're a history/sci-fi buff, you should pick up Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent The Years of Rice and Salt. A lot more on this in there.

When Zheng He sailed the ocean blue: "

History buff that I am I was shocked to learn from July's issue of National Geographic Magazine that I had never heard of Admiral Zheng He. His story is movie-worthy and his exploits provide a new lens through which one may view South Asia during what were the Dark Ages in Europe and much of Asia. The article about Zheng He was brought to my attention by my father (because the article that immediately follows it was about the Mars rovers). From the article by Frank Viviano [I transcribed most of the quotes below since the full article is not available online]:

Exactly 600 years ago this month the great Ming armada weighed anchor in Nanjing, on the first of seven epic voyages as far west as Africa-almost a century before Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and Vasco da Gama's in India. Even the European expeditions would seem paltry by comparison: All the ships of Columbus and da Gama combined could have been stored on a single deck of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail under Zheng He.




Its commander was, without question, the most towering maritime figure in the 4,000-year annals of China, a visionary who imagined a new world and set out consciously to fashion it. He was also a profoundly unlikely candidate for admiral in anyone's navy, much less that of the Dragon Throne.




The greatest seafarer in China's history was raised in the mountainous heart of Asia, several weeks' travel from the closest port. More improbable yet, Zheng was not even Chinese-he was by origin a Central Asian Muslim. Born Ma He, the son of a rural official in the Mongol province of Yunnan, he had been taken captive as an invading Chinese army overthrew the Mongols in 1382. Ritually castrated, he was trained as an imperial eunuch and assigned to the court of Zhu Di, the bellicose Prince of Yan.




...Renamed Zheng after his exploits at the battle of Zhenglumba, near Beijing, he was chosen to lead one of the most powerful naval forces ever assembled.

"

(Via Sepia Mutiny.)

TECHNOLOGY: Microchip Pioneer Dies at 81: "Over at TotalFark, we call this [sad]

DALLAS - Nobel laureate Jack Kilby, whose 1958 invention of the integrated circuit opened the way for the microchips that are the brains of today's computers, video games, DVD players and cell phones, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 81.



[. . .]



In 1958, his first year working with Texas Instruments in Dallas, Kilby used borrowed equipment to build the first integrated circuit, in which all the components were fabricated in a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. He also co-invented the hand-held calculator.



Kilby's fingernail-size integrated circuit, a forerunner of the microchip used in today's computers, replaced the bulky and unreliable switches and tubes that had been used in the first computing devices.



He won the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for his work, which according to the Nobel citation 'has laid the foundation of modern information technology, particularly through their invention of rapid transistors, laser diodes and integrated circuits.'

Without Mr. Kilby's work, there would be no Suicide Girls . . . and a world without hot goth boobies on my computer is a world I don't even want to think about. So thank you, Mr. Kilby. May you rest in peace.



The full story, including some pretty cool thoughts from his friends and co-workers, is at Yahoo News,

(Written by: WilWheaton)

"

(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

Nooooooooooo

Nooooooooooo
Originally uploaded by Valeriekt.

Cyrus is a man.