] Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the
] fight scenes or special effects would measure up to the
] first film - it was the metaphysics that bothered me.

What every geek is talking about these days. That is if you paid attention in philosophy class.

The Matrix Reloaded: The Corporate Mofo Guide

] For 17 years, the pride of the Iraqi navy - two small
] warships - have been moored in the middle of a Nato naval
] base in northern Italy, unable to sail because of a UN
] embargo. The 12 crewmen still scrub the decks daily, but
] for whom? Sophie Arie is granted a rare audience with
] Saddam's forgotten sailors

'We stopped getting orders from Iraq a long time ago'

digitalreporter wrote:
] As Pentagon press conferences blend into each other and war
] coverage churns on, Salam Pax, whoever and wherever he is, has
] captivated the world's attention.
] Blending sarcasm and apparent sincerity, Salam Pax, an
] Austrian-educated architectural engineer, and his Web site,
] "Where Is Raed?" - http://dear_raed.blogspot.com - has
] chronicled life outside his Baghdad window since September.
] His daily Web diary, or Weblog, had so many readers over the
] weekend, more than 1 million, it crashed the small, free
] Texas-based Web server he was using to post his photos. Google
] has since stepped in and offered to be host of the site and
] its photos through its company, Blogger.
]
]
]
] But now, Salam Pax, a pseudonym for the author, is missing. He
] hasn't been heard from since Monday, and yesterday chat rooms
] across the country were abuzz over whether or not he is still
] alive. Many sent messages in case he was monitoring, telling
] him to lie low and stay safe.
]
] Pax's appeal lies not in just his compelling portrayals of
] everyday life in Baghdad buying vegetables or waiting in line
] for gas, but in his disarming (apparent) honesty. He speaks
] the casual international language of a tech-savvy, disaffected
] youth.

He's back:
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

RE: Salam Pax has gone missing

] The SARS virus can live for days in the stool and urine
] of patients, the World Health Organization said Sunday in
] a new report that could shed light on the frightening
] spread of the disease.
]
] Hong Kong scientists have suspected the virus could live
] in sewage -- something that could help explain an
] outbreak that affected residents at a large apartment
] complex.

Which explains why it's centralized in China, and why all the people walking around with surgical masks are idiots.

SARS Lives Long, Prospers in Poop

The Washington Post gives Billy Hoffman the Quote of the Day.

DID YOU HEAR? . . . (washingtonpost.com)

A mortal decision made: Journalistic objectivity is casualty of firefight

by Jules Crittenden
Sunday, April 13, 2003

...

Down the broad avenue, the column halted in front of a Versailles-like palace, topped with four gargantuan and very bizarre busts of Saddam in an arabesque war helmet that caught our attention briefly, but the fire coming from the ditches under roadside hedges distracted us.

It was here I went over to the dark side. I spotted the silhouettes of several Iraqi soldiers looking at us from the shadows 20 feet to our left. I shouted, ``There's three of the (expletive) right there.''

``Where are the (expletive)?'' Howison said, spinning around in his hatch.

``The (expletive) are right there,'' I said, pointing.

``There?'' he said, opening up with the 50. I saw one man's body splatter as the large caliber bullets ripped it up. The man behind him appeared to be rising, and was cut down by repeated bursts.

``There's another (expletive) over there,'' I told Howison. The two soldiers in the crew hatch with me started firing their rifles, but I think Howison was the one who got him, firing through the metal plate the soldier was hiding behind.

Some in our profession might think as a reporter and non-combatant, I was there only to observe. Now that I have assisted in the deaths of three human beings in the war I was sent to cover, I'm sure there are some people who will question my ethics, my objectivity, etc. I'll keep the argument short. Screw them, they weren't there. But they are welcome to join me next time if they care to test their professionalism.

A mortal decision made: Journalistic objectivity is casualty of firefight

John O'Farrell
Friday April 18, 2003
The Guardian

The Baghdad branch of Neighbourhood Watch has been completely overwhelmed this week. "If you notice anyone behaving in a vaguely suspicious manner, please contact the police immediately," say their little signs on the lamp-posts, but these were all brazenly nicked, along with everything else in the city that wasn't nailed down.

As the war stumbled to a confusing and chaotic end, lawlessness swept across the country as thousands of people helped themselves to computers, stereos and other electrical goods. Such is the state of anarchy in the country that many of them haven't even sent off the little guarantee postcards yet.

Western leaders have been reluctant to condemn the looters, perhaps because the clamour for material goods is partly what this war was all about: bringing western-style consumerism to a former Islamic "socialist" republic. With sufficiently aggressive advertising, within a few weeks the rioters will become vaguely dissatisfied with that Sony Playstation they seized and will feel the urge to go out and loot Playstation 2 with integral DVD player.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | John O'Farrell: The thieves of Baghdad

] Washington - House Judiciary Chairman F. James
] Sensenbrenner Jr. said Thursday that he would fight any
] effort now to make permanent many of the expanded police
] powers enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks as part of the
] USA Patriot Act.

Some good news from Washington.

JS Online: Sensenbrenner says he'll enforce sunset of police powers

] Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey
] guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light
] Texas crude each year
]
] Gory refuse, from a Butterball Turkey plant in Carthage,
] Missouri, will no longer go to waste. Each day 200 tons
] of turkey offal will be carted to the first
] industrial-scale thermal depolymerization plant, recently
] completed in an adjacent lot, and be transformed into
] various useful products, including 600 barrels of light
] oil.
]
] In an industrial park in Philadelphia sits a new machine
] that can change almost anything into oil.
]
] Really.
]
] "This is a solution to three of the biggest problems
] facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of
] Changing World Technologies, the company that built this
] pilot plant and has just completed its first
] industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process
] can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our
] dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global
] warming."

Anything into Oil

] UMM QASR, Iraq -- Ahmed Ali believes Saddam Hussein can
] never die. All his life, the 23-year-old laborer has
] heard about the dictator's powerful stone.
]
] Saddam, the story goes, had the stone made shortly
] after he came to power 24 years ago. Its powers were
] first tested inside a chicken. One of his soldiers pulled
] out a gun and shot at point-blank range. The chicken's
] feathers fell off, but it lived.
]
] So the dictator implanted the stone in his upper arm.
]
] As the curtain falls on Saddam's reign, many ordinary
] Iraqis are reluctant to believe that their much-feared
] dictator has lost power, much less that he is actually
] dead. Stories abound of Saddam's mystical powers that
] have helped him elude assassination attempts and missile
] strikes.
]
] "The stone makes him bulletproof," Ali, a slim man
] with a Saddam-style moustache, said in a serious voice.

Talk about urban legends . . .

Myths About Saddam Fuel the Fears of Iraqis