Boing Boing published their 2002 usage statistics. I thought this was a good idea, and I followed suit. This is a good read if you are sick of seeing downward pointed graphs in the financial news. :)

MemeStreams usage statistics for 2002

] "The people are now the arbiters of the truth. And this
] is as it should be. The only people who are purely
] interested in the truth are the citizens at large. They
] are, therefore, the only people who can be trusted to
] find it."

A short rant I wrote about the impact that weblogs will have on the media.

Weblogs and Democracy

I have created a few new topics, added some new documents about the site, and I made a change to the privacy policy. This link is for the privacy policy. The change has to do with your reputation data. Its not a change of my policy so much as it is a change in what I realize it is possible for third parties to gleen from the site.

Site updates

] ""The RIAA honestly has no idea what they're up against.
] They will be toast the first time they try to shut down a
] P2P network being used by any serious black hats,"
] Ferrell said."

This article is making the rounds. Its totally wrong but the quotes are funny anyway. I imagine the RIAA gets quite a lot of political milage out of their security problems.

Wired News: Why RIAA Keeps Getting Hacked

] "There are far too many smart, educated, talented people
] operating at quarter speed, unsure of their place in the
] world, contributing far too little to the productive
] engine of modern civilization. There are far too many
] people who look like they have their act together but
] have yet to make an impact."

This is easily the most amazing essay that Fast Company has ever published.

What Should I Do With My Life?

] "North Korea's startling revival of its nuclear program,
] coupled with the unrelenting threat of international
] terrorism, presents compelling reasons for President Bush
] to step back from his fixation on attacking Iraq and to
] reassess his administration's priorities."

Iraq Belongs on the Back Burner

] "A utility that reads aloud predefined web pages."

Back when I was regularily driving between Atlanta and Nashville I really wanted something like this.

Web Talker

] "Specially for orang-utans an Ook# .NET Compiler v1.0 has
] been developed. The syntax only contains one word, namely
] Ook, but pronounced in different tones and emotions it
] can have a different effect. Quite some effort went into
] making sure the word "monkey" isn't mentioned anywhere in
] the sources."

OK, this is fucked up. Who is down for working on porting MemeStreams to ook??

BlueSorcerer.Net - Ook# .Net Compiler - Esoteric Programming Languages

This is a nice full screen QTVR panorama of Times Square for your holiday cheer. Note that this is quite memory intensive.

Happy New Year!

] People in the genetics industy claim that it is a hoax.
] Nobody has seen pictures of the baby yet and there's been no
] scientific proof yet that they've cloned anything, but yet the
] media is jumping on this shit like it's proof.

According to the Washington Post, the Raelians claimed a similar cloning success back in 1978, but further investigation proved it to be a hoax.

The story is also interesting because it comments on the reputation of the ABC Science Correspondent, Michael Guillen, who's going to be conducting the DNA testing of the mother and baby to determine if the cloning is real or not. Evidently a few years back, the James Randi Foundation (http://www.randi.org) gave Guillen its annual "Pigasus" award, for his "indiscriminate promotion of pseudoscience and quackery."

Stay tuned...

Cloning a Previous Hoax?