] The United States does not lack - either now or in the
] foreseeable future - sufficient numbers of capable people
] who would like to work in IT," Ellis wrote.
]
] "But those people may not be willing to conclude that
] long-run demands for their services will be good enough
] to support IT as a sensible career choice."

Experts debate future of technology careers - billingsgazette.com

] Attorneys general and securities regulators in more than a
] dozen U.S. states are investigating possible cases of
] wrongdoing among mutual fund companies, and a number will
] file suits in coming weeks, three government officials
] tell Forbes. The actions could involve criminal as well
] as civil actions, the sources say.

Forbes.com: States To Move Against Mutual Funds

] Given the state of world affairs in March 2003, we have
] made this place for war murals and other graffiti artist
] war reactions.

In response to Rattles recommendation of Grafarc, I offer this: 8 pages of war related murals.

Art Crimes: War Art

Just like clothing, our language reflects who we are.

Envision a heated debate on the floor of the Senate in the year 2020. The "gap" has completely disappeared, but Robert's Rules remain firmly in place.

The Bad Words Won't Go Away

The name says it all, just play it.

Escape From Neverland

] Own A Piece of BellSouth History…

] Due to downward trends in payphone usage, BellSouth plans to
] discontinue providing services to its payphone location provider
] customers.
]
] In partnership with BellSouth Public Communications, the BellSouth
] Pioneer Volunteers are offering for sale original renovated and
] completely operational BellSouth payphones and coinbox doors.

No longer do you need a crowbar to have your own payphone..

BellSouth Renovated Payphone Sale

] Matt Adams has a different idea. He's the co-founder of Blast
] Theory, a digital-arts group based in the United Kingdom
] that creates mobile multiplayer games that fuse wireless
] virtual space with real space.

Worth a look if you're interested in how people might use location based services.

Wired News: On Your Mark, Get Set, Unwire!

The demand for truthful answers to the most essential questions is more and more often dismissed as "partisan" or, worse, "unpatriotic" ... integrity made to seem weak ... what could be more terrifying than the prospect of a society that no longer has the desire, the will, the energy or the ability to distinguish between the truth and the spin that our leaders would prefer us to believe?

2003's Ideas: The Most Overrated and Underrated

Nor do many of them view shopping and the receiving of gifts as a rare experience, or as a reward, but as a ritual practiced almost daily.

Child, to Mom: "Toy shopping? Again? Do I have to?"

Santa Needs an Image Expert

So, not taking my own advice about Christmas news, I hit Google news, and there I'm presented a top headline with an unusually charged title: "Four Palestinians Murdered in Fresh Zionist Attack in Gaza." So I click on it, and I find this website. Jihad Unspun, which offers a view of the middle east that is both anti-american, and anti-semitic, to the point where it breaks with sanity. I doubt even BL's followers view the situation this way. Crazy conspiracy theories are presented, and the english reader is told that people who buy into them are "independent thinkers" whereas those who criticize them are lemmings. Its almost a caricature of left wing literature, except they aren't kidding.

All of this is, of course, presented as an unbiased, spin-free view of the situation, an explanation that is now formally synonymous with "whacked out ramblings of crazy radicals," thank you very much Mr. O'Reilly. Double-speak is clearly not just the providence of governments anymore.

So, I'm curious what people have to say about this website, so I google it, and of course I learn that the best response to insanity is more insanity. I'll spare you the websites explaining that Jihad Unspun is a CIA front and proper young men looking to "get involved" with terrorism should look elsewhere. The other side of the picture is this website: http://internet-haganah.net/harchives/001236.html Its a bunch of jews who track down and shut down islamist websites. Apparently they managed to get jihadunspun's Cafe Press store pulled. (The store apparently sold pro terrorist clothing for children.) They seem to be having difficulty understanding the distinction between speech by people who appear to like murderers and speech which directly insights or assists violence. Fortunately for them, they don't operate through actual courts, and so they can freely propagate misconceptions about the notion of freedom of expression because most companies simply don't want this stuff on their networks and will take it down on the slightest pressure, with the most simplistic justifications.

The two things worth thinking about here are:
1. Whose worse, the islamists or the anti-islamists? Its really hard to say. On the one hand we have liars, and on the other hand we have censors (which is sort of like saying tomatoe or tomaato.)
2. Should Google news consider this a valid news source? What is it about a website that ought to qualify it for inclusion in Google News. It seems to me that they either include anything that does original news reporting, or they employ editorial control. Where should they draw these lines?

Jihad Unspun - A short adventure in the media information war