] VATICAN CITY (AP) -- In an unusual spectacle at the
] Vatican, Pope John Paul II presided over a performance of
] break-dancers who leaped, flipped and spun their bodies
] to beats from a tinny boom box.
]
] The 83-year-old pontiff seemed to approve, waving his
] hand after each dancer completed a move, then applauding
] for the entire group. He watched the performance from a
] raised throne.

hehehe

CNN.com - Papal blessing for break-dancers - Jan. 26, 2004

] Meanwhile, I'd suggest being careful about repeating my
] experiment yourself at home. Maybe it's just
] Philistinism, but I had no real desire, and certainly
] none of the resources, to join my audiophile friends on
] their journey. You might not be as lucky: A little sonic
] education might well lead to desire, which as every
] Buddhist knows, is the cause of all suffering.
]
] Or, as was explained to me by veteran audio designer
] Demian Martin: "Until you know it could be better, you
] don't know that it's bad."

A really interesting article about taking ipods to high-end audio shows, but most importantly is the theory discussed in the final quote-- I have long said this. Truly bothersome thing about audio equipment.

WSJ.com - Portals: My iPod's Encounter With High-End Stereo Left All of Us Wiser

] "DeCSS has been available on hundreds if not thousands of
] websites for 4 years now," said EFF Legal Director Cindy
] Cohn. "We're pleased that the DVD CCA has finally stopped
] attempting to deny the obvious: DeCSS is not a secret."

It's about freaking time. Once it gets to a certain point, the cat is out of the bag and there is nothing you can do to return it to the status of trade secret. Hence why you must take reasonable efforts to protect, catch it early, prosecute the first person A LOT , and try to seal the whole thing down with a protective order. And on those accounts, the DVD-CCA sucked it. Of course, with this having happened, really all it will do it push them to put the next standard out and screw us all again into buying new technology. Not like current dvd players will last longer than five years anyway.

EFF: DVD Descrambling Code Not a Trade Secret

] As one who does not support Dean, I would like to say
] this to you: DON'T GIVE UP. You have done an incredible
] thing. You inspired an entire nation to stand up to
] George W. Bush. Your impact on this election will be felt
] for years to come. Every bit of energy you put into Dr.
] Dean's candidacy was -- and is -- worth it. He took on
] Bush when others wouldn't. He put corporate America on
] notice that he is coming after them. And he called the
] Democrats out for what they truly are: a bunch of
] spineless, wishy-washy appeasers who have sold out the
] working people of America. Everyone in every campaign
] owes you and your candidate a huge debt of thanks.

Michael Moore.com : Mike's Message

] It seems that it's 4GB MicroDrive isn't soldered to the
] rest of the device, so with a little work, you can remove
] it, replace it with a 1GB MicroDrive and use the 4GB
] drive in your digital camera or PDA. Why would you
] bother? Because the $299 MuVo2 costs considerably less
] than a standalone 4GB MicroDrive (which on its own goes
] for about $499).

Hacking the MuVo2

The iTunes RSS Feed Generator lets your get hourly updates to top artists, songs, featured content and more via RSS.

iTunes Music Store RSS Generator

] After his dismal fourth-place showing in Iowa, Richard
] Gephardt has decided to call off his quest for the White
] House. What's going to happen to the millions of dollars
] still in Gephardt's campaign war chest?

Good explanation of a question that I had asked myself.

Who Gets Gephardt's Cash? - Where war chests go when campaigns fold. By Brendan I. Koerner

] Will he report that bankruptcies are at a record high,
] that more women this year will declare bankruptcy than
] will graduate from college? That Americans owe 15 times
] more on their credit cards than they did 25 years ago?

absurd.

Blog for America : The State of the Union can and will be greater | January 20, 2004

Is that our productivity is up but we aren't producing enough.

We've got all of these people who are unemployed or underemployed or who've exited the market. We have all of this potential energy that we aren't applying.

At the same time we're operating a dangerous trade deficit. The world doesn't want what we're selling. Not enough of it anyway. Read Buffet and Gross.

And we're exporting jobs, good ones, which is only going to contribute to that trade deficit.

Economists have been saying throughout the downturn that its not as if consumers are being stingy. If consumers reacted to this crash as the last one we'd be in another depression. We're not, because people are confident in general. What economists are saying is lacking is corporate investment. Companies are not building for the future. They're not creating new products.

Venture Capital is a wasteland. Years later they are still in maintenance mode. They aren't investing in new companies. They are trying to keep their present ventures afloat. No new companies. No new innovation. The VC are trying to give money back to their investors.

Steve Roach responded to discussions about outsourcing by specifically saying that it is critically important that we determine where the growth is going to come from.

Said another way, we're not growing.

Our productivity is up. We're cutting the bottom lines. Everything is on the up and up for business owners, but not in a real positive way. Saving money is only useful if you have a way to apply it. Money is a means and not an end. Money that isn't moving doesn't exist. Economic success is a measure of the velocity of money. Depressions in history were created by individuals who hoarded money. Today it is the leadership who is doing it. The outcome is the same.

Eventually the bottom is going to fall out of this thing. Everyone who should know is saying it. This is not sustainable.

There is but one reasonable way to address this problem, and that is to innovate. We need people who are offering a vision of a better future. There are many technologies we ought to pursue. There are great ideas from the dotcom boom that were run into the ground by people who tried to crunch ten year business plans into 2 years. There are new possibilities in the fields of robotics, new networking technologies, and new biotech. Right now Japan is blowing our doors off in pursuit of two out of three of those things. They are going to end up with a lot of people who know an awful lot about two very important industries in a few years, and we're going to be buying it all from them. They have the patience to see these things through even if they don't have an "exit event" in the extreme short term.

What are we focused on? Healthcare. Yes. Very important. I don't want to disparage that at all. But all this focus on it is rooted in our narcissism. *WE* having an "aging population" but the WORLD does not!!! T... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

The Problem...

] "I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the
] courageous spacial entrepreneurs who set such a wonderful
] example for the young of our country."—Washington,
] D.C., Jan. 14, 2004

Bushism of the Day By Jacob Weisberg