] The images above - exclusive to the Wooster site and
] provided by Banksy - are of Banksy installing four pieces
] in New York's most prestigious museums - The Brooklyn
] Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of
] Modern Art, and the Museum of Natural History.
]
] Dressed as a British pensioner, over the last few days
] Banksy entered each of the galleries and attached one of
] his own works, complete with authorative name plaque and
] explanation.

Artist installs work without museum's knowledge

This paragraph is from the Washington Times:

] The CIA's chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out
] the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
] were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003
] invasion, citing "sufficiently credible" evidence that
] WMDs may have been moved there.

Sounds like WMD probably went to Syria from Iraq...

This text is from the Washington Post:

] Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions
] by shipping military and other products across its borders,
] the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or
] intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of
] such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of
] Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were
] "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited
] WMD-related materials."

Liberal Bias?

The Times doesn't respond to this quote:

] Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the
] administration asserted was a grave and gathering
] threat that required an immediate military response,
] had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators
] found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the
] program."

But

] Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he
] intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the
] U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan
] Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of
] rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."

Thats the key question isn't it?

The times says:

] Clearly, the media needs an object lesson in an old
] truth: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Yeah, but is it ok to actually launch a war based on a total absence of evidence? Is a sentence like "Years later, there is still absolutely no evidence that the Bush administration's justification for the Iraq war was accurate." a reasonable enough headline for you? You really have no idea whether or not you were right. You've grabbed onto the tinyest thread left to uphold your position. This is the kind of crap I expect from silly online debates. This is not something that I want to hear coming out of the US Government.

There is absolutely no proof that bunny rabbits don't have tea on pluto. However, its extremely unlikely, and most people would tend to beleive that it isn't true. At what point to you admit that the idea that there was an imminent threat that Saddam would give WMD to a terrorist organization is extremely unlikely, and start asking objective questions about whether or not it actually made sense to re-elect a political team that sent thousands to their graves based on what was most likely a bad call? Oh no. We couldn't do that... That might involve voting for a (blech) liberal. Fuck Liberals. They suck. Conservatives rule!

Links:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-10-06-wmd_x.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12115-2004Oct6.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/25/AR2005042501554.html
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050427-121915-1667r.htm
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050427-110457-2216r.htm

Liberal Bias or Crazy Moonies

Decius wrote:
] ] File-swappers who distribute a single copy of a
] ] prerelease movie on the Internet can be imprisoned for up
] ] to three years, according to a bill that President Bush
] ] signed into law on Wednesday.

No one here is going to say pirating things is legal. Its not. You will get punished for it. However, like some of the "manditory" drug sentencing, this way too extreme.

What I am surprised about is no one (other than CNN) is reporting what *else* this law does. It protects starts ups and other projects that circumvent DVDs "Do not skip" feature among other things.

The MPAA had said that aftermarket devices that skip through scenes or change dialog are illegal because they are modifying the MPAA's copyrighted work. However this law basically says changing the content on a DVD, or skipping through scenes/removing dialog is perfectly legal. "Unlocking" your DVD to get around this annoying features is now legal. Creating devices that control the DVD, even if they circumvent, is legal.

This is a good thing for Fair Use. I'm willing to put up with some larger than necessary punishments for an illegal act for that.

RE: Bush signs law targeting P2P pirates | CNET News.com

] Collaborative Filtering Research Papers
] Summary: 48 abstracts with links to the full papers and
] reader comments.

Nice summary as I madly implement my last alogrithm

Collaborative Filtering Research Papers

] To make fire from a can of coke and a chocolate bar is
] actually quite easy, and you don't need any tools.

Reminds me of the survival challenge in the back of the first issue of Make.

Making Fire from Coke and a chocolate bars

] Brilliant "console cowboy" Bobby (David Holcomb)
] persuades his reluctant partner Automatic Jack (Adam
] Bitterman) to rip off Chrome (Tenny Priebe), a mobster
] queen with vast financial holdings and a lethal
] reputation.
] Chrome's cash is hidden deep in the Matrix, a glorified
] Internet where world commerce, legal and non, is
] conducted. First, the partners must hack through the
] "black ice"--the deadly countermeasures--protecting the
] dough. The scam is complicated when both guys get a yen
] for Rikki Wildside (Piper Henry), a free spirit who has
] come to town hoping to star in "simstim"--a virtual
] reality medium in which the actors replace their eyes
] with cameras. Although Jack's love for Rikki is true,
] he's destined to download the blues.

More like inspired by Gibson's novel: 2/3 of the characters don't exist, and the story/roles of the remaining ones is pretty different. Cool attempt though.

Update: Whoops! Bobby, The Finn, and Automatic Jack also are in Count Zero. This does follow Gibson's short story, Burning Chrome.

Gibson's Burning Chrome: The Play

Big list of differetn companies and their phone numbers, with instructions on how to get a human operator

Find-A-Human : Escape Automated Phone menus

] "They are shamelessly copying us," he said during
] Thursday's annual meeting.
]
] "They can't even copy fast," he said.
]
] "Innovation is the only way to win," he said. "You just
] have to stay ahead of people."

To paraphase Armageddon "Apple technology, Microsoft technology, all comes from Xerox."

Jobs: Microsoft copies us!

Decius wrote:
] ] My Search History lets you easily view and manage your
] ] search history from any computer. This feature of Google
] ] web search enables you to find information you thought
] ] you lost. And over time, you'll see an increasing number
] ] of relevance indicators in your search results that help
] ] you find the information you want.
]
] So, Google retains all of this data whether you like it or
] not. If they are going to do that, its nice to be able to
] access it and put it to use. So this feature isn't really a
] bad idea. However, I'd rather have some local software doing
] this kind of profiling for me and have google politely toss my
] search history in the bin.

This is a BIG red herring. They are not giving you your entire search history. They are giving you a limited amount of the actual data that they collect. You can turn this feature off, or pause it, or leave it active. But know that the fact of the matter is that they collect much more data on you than this leads you to believe.

I posted about this on slashdot recently: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=146731&cid=12292095

And the discussion went further in the binrev forums: http://www.binrev.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12014

I really think everyone should read them both to see the facts behind the story.

RE: Big Google is watching you

] ROME Apr 22, 2005 %u2014 Italy's president Friday asked
] Silvio Berlusconi to form a new government, two days
] after the conservative media mogul stepped down as
] premier following a crushing defeat in regional
] elections.
]
] The new government would be Italy's 60th since the
] republic was founded in 1946.

... ... No comment necessary

(Yet another) New gov't for Italy!