Amazon's new search engine has some nice features. For instance, they keep an indexed history of all my searches. Google also keeps this data, Amazon makes it available to me instead of simply using it for their own purposes. In addition:

] A Diary so you can take notes on any web page, and
] reference them whenever you visit that page, on any
] computer that you use.
]
] Easy to use Bookmarks (Favorites), which are stored on
] our servers so you can access them from any computer.

A9.com - Company - Why use A9.com?

] 'Bring them on!" President Bush challenged the early
] Iraqi insurgency in July of last year. ... Almost
] every day, in campaign speeches, Bush speaks with
] bravado about how he is "winning" in Iraq. "Our strategy
] is succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard
] convention on Tuesday.
]
] But, according to the US military's leading strategists
] and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already
] lost.

[ There's not even a single key quote to meme here. Every single paragraph is damning. Ret. Gen. Odom led the NSA, Ret. Gen. Hoare headed Cent. Com., Jeffrey Record and W. Andrew Terrill are professors of strategy at two US war collges.

These aren't armchair pundits like we are... they know a few things, and they bring up failures on a ton of fronts. Go read it. -k]

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Far graver than Vietnam

] Deaf children thrown together in a school in Nicaragua
] without any type of formal instruction invented their own
] sign language -- a sophisticated system that has evolved
] and grown, researchers reported on Friday.

This is tots def interesting.

Deaf Kids in Nicaragua Give Birth to New Language

The picture of the day archive at the Earth Observatory is very interesting. This page includes two images of New York City taken on September 12th, 2001.

9/11 from space

Why isn't there a webcam in space? I ought to be able to go to a webpage a look at a picture of the earth from space! Look at the weather patterns and the like... Does anyone know of anything like this?

Ivan from space. I like this one in particular:

http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/news/camex/photos/iss009e22187.jpg

NASA Hurricane Photos - Marshall Space Flight Center

Finally! A map of everyone's favorite fictional berg, Springfield!

map of springfield

] Amendment supporters contend the flag deserves special
] protection as an important national symbol, while
] opponents, including Kerry, have argued that flag
] desecration can be punished under criminal statutes
] without tampering with the Constitution.

In other words, no one is interested in the idea that flag desecration is protected speech.

] The flag proposal, which would empower Congress to
] ban desecration of the U.S. flag, would be the second
] GOP-sponsored constitutional amendment to come to a vote
] in the Senate this year.

Except this one has passed the house, and has support from all 50 state legislatures. We are literally within a handful of Senate votes of flushing the first amendment down the toilet.

Think about it this way. These same people who don't have the basic intellectual capacity to parse their way through the implications of a flag amendment are making all of the important decisions concerning our foreign policy in the middle east, decisions which if made incorrectly will easily plunge the entire world into total war.

To me this is amendment is a symbol. It symbolizes the fact that our society does not know right from wrong. It we can pass it, we can do anything.

Kerry, Edwards and Daschle May Face Vote on Flag (washingtonpost.com)

] For a small but powerful minority in the Cuban American
] community, the Posada gang are freedom fighters. But
] Sept. 11 taught the rest of us about the danger of
] political fanatics who seek to rationalize their
] violence. To uphold his oft-stated principle that no
] nation can be neutral in the war on terrorism, shouldn't
] President Bush have condemned Moscoso's decision to
] release these terrorists? To protect the sanctity of U.S.
] borders and the security of Americans, shouldn't the
] administration have taken all available steps to keep
] known terrorists out of the United States?

There seems to be some meat to this story. Two weeks ago Panama suddenly pardoned four men who apparently have very long, violent terrorist rap sheets. Three of them were happily admitted into the US. No problem.

Regardless of what you think of Castro, it must go without saying that blowing up airplanes and an attempted assasination by blowing up a meeting with college students are not acceptable, legal means of warfare, and those responsible for that kind of violence should not be protected by this country. What the fuck!?

LATimes via Daily Kos :: Amid Cheers, Terrorists Have Landed in the U.S.

] Those with money and power are approaching Hari
] Seldonesque abilities, gradually steering public opinion
] using knowledge of how groups think, and I only see that
] trend increasing as basic human instincts are
] incorporated into more realistic game theory models.
] Individuals, on the other hand, often don't have the time
] and/or inclination to dig into any particular issue for
] themselves - meaning that many people will tend to
] make decisions using the very instincts that are most
] easily manipulated.

John Shirley asks several scifi authors about the future.

Locus Online: John Shirley: Global to Local