It's well-known that the way that people choose to appear online is distinct from physical appearance, and this is often perceived as some kind of falsehood. But honestly, for someone you've never met, which is their “real” face? And do you learn more from a photograph or an avatar? This is my first departure from “pragmatic” ideas into somewhat more “spiritual” territory, which I plan to follow up for a few weeks. I hope to explore some of the human side of online interaction, since that's how most free software gets made.

[nicked from digg]

Ghost in the shell | Free Software Magazine

At the end of World War II on August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the Americans. The plants and trees in the area around the epicentre were examined in September 1945. Among the survivors were the four Ginkgo biloba trees shown on this page. They were situated near the blast center and appeared to bud after the blast without major deformations and are still alive today.

Therefore the Ginkgo is regarded as the 'bearer of hope'.

The Trees that Survived Hiroshima

Some movies need the big screen. The Abyss comes to mind--nothing like feeling totally surrounded by water in the dark with a huge screen towering above you. So, when all the hype about this great scary movie, The Descent, was going on, and I figured I was due for a fright (I can only handle one every so often, being overly imaginative. Saw about did me in for two years), my boyfriend and I took the plunge and went to see The Descent. We both figured it was "big screen worthy" (sort of like being sponge-worthy, I suppose), since you want to feel swallowed by the cave.

Was I ever disappointed. I'm shocked with the IMDB ratings and the slew of "wow, greatest thing ever" reveiews. I don't want to offer up spoilers to prove my points, so I'll just rant thusly:

1. Other than an initial "shock value" moment at the start, there isn't anything special about the scares in this movie.

2. I hate people that don't learn from their mistakes. You run away and get separated and you might get picked off. So, after doing something that stupid once, don't you think you wouldn't do it again after regrouping? Yeah, that's what I thought.

3. Make up your mind--are they going to be tough chicks who are logical or are they going to be illogical, whiny, grudge-holding, screaming women. Flip flopping between the two extremes whenever it's convenient for the plot just irritates me.

4. DO NOT USE FLARES IN A CAVE. Duh.

5. All of the inconsistencies, stupidities, etc made it so bad that I actually was hoping for them all to die horrible, horrible deaths (I won't tell you if they do or not). I wanted to laugh, not jump, and I came in there wanting to be truly terrified. I wanted to be so scared that going out to my car in the dark for the next few weeks on my way to the gym tripped me out (this happened with Saw. I thought I was going to die I was so fidgety in the dark for weeks. Yes, I'm a wuss).

6. I got creepier "oooh scary" feelings from the Ted the Caver story on the internet (http://www.holyshiite.com/caver/) which I had read prior to going to this movie. So I was hyped up and ready. Pity it couldn't live up to it.

/rant

I honestly don't get it why everyone's saying it's such a masterpiece of horror and a "gorefest". It's really not. Too many errors. Too many inconsistencies. I just can't believe so many people find it great. I'm sincerely boggled by it.

~Heathyr

ha what a cool review
made me chuckle

The Descent (2005)--Just So Not Worth It

A cosmic collision has supplied direct proof that dark matter really exists, astronomers say. The collision has allowed dark matter to be separated from ordinary matter, casting doubt on the idea that dark matter could just be an illusion due to a flaw in our understanding of gravity.

Cosmic smash-up provides proof of dark matter - space - 21 August 2006 - New Scientist Space

Have we taken our eyes off the prize? The civil rights movement continues, but the struggle today is not so much in the streets as in the home -- and with our children. If systemic racism remains a reality, there is also a far more sinister obstacle facing African American young people today: a culture steeped in bitterness and nihilism, a culture that is a virtual blueprint for failure.

Banish The Bling

Salman Rushdie sprang to the defence of Guenter Grass on Thursday after Germany's Nobel prize-winning author confessed he was once a teenage member of Hitler's Waffen SS.

Rushdie springs to defence of Grass�|�Top News�|�Reuters.co.uk

The disconnects between headline and article were just too great not to pass along. You'll forgive the sarcasm.

Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, of Multinational Force Iraq, said operations in and around Baghdad are designed to reduce murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in the capital.

My, what lofty goals you have! Who needs kindergarten and women's rights when you can have a 50% reduction in the assassination rate?! Honestly!

Caldwell said the core conflict in the country has changed from an insurgency to a sectarian struggle.

In other words, the sovereign central government is firmly enmeshed in a civil war. "Keep up the good work!," says Caldwell. "Our job here is almost done."

Shiite death squads and Sunni terrorists in Baghdad are locked in a mutually reinforcing cycle of sectarian strife, Caldwell said.

If you look at my chart here, you'll see it's clear that both targeted assassinations and random violence are strongly on the rise over the last six months, and our analysts expect this trend to continue into the fourth quarter.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has launched a propaganda campaign that seeks to portray the terror group as a legitimate political organization and an alternative to the legitimate, democratically elected government of Iraq, Caldwell said.

You know, like Hamas and Hezbollah.

However, the group does not protect citizens, but kills them.

Ah, the old bait and switch. How many election cycles does it take to learn that everyone breaks their campaign promises?

Al Qaeda in Iraq is still bringing in foreign fighters to randomly kill innocent Iraqis.

If only we could get them to do something productive; we could certainly use the cheap immigrant labor. But it turns out these foreign fighters are rather lazy; they make a few killings, and then they think they're entitled to sit around all day sipping tea and reading classic literature.

The group has encouraged sectarian violence and sees it as a road to civil war.

Those fools! Here they are trying to build a road, and I've just told you we're already there! Why can't they see that?

Coalition Officials See Positive Trend in Baghdad | DefenseLink

In novels, plays, essays and newspaper interviews, Günter Grass has often told Germans what they did not want to hear: about their history, about their politics, even about themselves. For many on the left, since the 1960’s he has come to represent the conscience of a country with much to lament.

After winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, he explained his obsession with Germany’s past. “There were extenuating circumstances,” he told the Swedish Academy, “mountains of rubble and cadavers, fruit of the womb of German history. The more I shoveled, the more it grew. It simply could not be ignored.”

But now, at 78, Mr. Grass has stunned Germany by confessing that he too has a buried past. In an interview with a leading German newspaper, he revealed that in the final months of World War II, when he was 17, he was drafted by the Waffen SS, the military branch of the notorious Nazi corps that played an important role in the Holocaust and other atrocities.
....
that the country’s most prominent writer should have hidden this while hectoring others for their political and social sins from the comfort of the moral high ground.

sad yes
ironic yes
facing the ghosts of the past
I wonder what Primo Levi would have said

Günter Grass Under Siege After Revealing SS Past - New York Times

More than 300 British soldiers who were shot during World War I for military offences are to receive formal pardons, Defence Secretary Des Browne has announced.
...
Private Bernard McGeehan, of the Liverpool King's Regiment, was executed on 2 November 1916, after being found guilty of desertion.

Aged 28 and from Derry, Northern Ireland, he had been transferred to the front line just after the Battle of the Somme earlier that year.

His second cousin, John McGeehan, is a member of the Shot at Dawn campaign group.

He said: "They suffered from the endless onslaught of the German shell-fire and merciless machine-gunning and Bernard cracked.

"He couldn't cope. He was shell-shocked completely, shaking, bewildered and lost.

"He went for a walk one day out of his lines and five days later walked back in again, looking for his regiment.

"He was arrested, court martialled and shot at dawn - for alleged desertion.

"I've always contended that anybody who walks back into his lines again is not planning to desert."

306 men shot for cowardice
703,000 United Kingdom servivemen killed between 1914-18 [source Wikipedia]
I can't begin to comprehend it

BBC NEWS | England | Shot at dawn, pardoned 90 years on

Last weekend saw me squeezing through the crowded aisles of the Mandarake comic store in Tokyo's Higashi-Ikebukuro neighborhood on a quest for a Star Wars comic. Specifically, I was looking for fan-created manga revealing the untold love story between C-3P0 and R2-D2.
...
This is the world of doujinshi, or self-published fan fiction -- a part of a healthy Japanese visual arts scene based on the appropriation and reuse of commercial characters.
...
But when it comes to creating derivative works, the commercial comic and anime companies look the other way. As a result there's consumption, but there's creativity too.

If and when Japan does become a major exporter of its unique brand of "cool," I hope it will preserve and export the doujinshi ethic as well. Perhaps America needs to learn more than the difference between Doremon and Pokémon. We need a new way of looking at creativity that borrows and builds on the work of others.

Wired News: Harry Potter Loves Malfoy