] I do mind when anybody who doesn't have a child, doesn't
] have a child at war, or isn't or won't be in harm's way
] themselves, is encouraging that there's "no shame in not
] voting" "if you don't know what you're talking about"
] (Mr. Stone) without mentioning the shame of not knowing
] what your talking about, and encouraging people to know.
] You guys are talented young guys but alas, primarily
] young guys. It's all well to joke about me or whomever
] you choose. Not so well, to encourage irresponsibility
] that will ultimately lead to the disembowelment,
] mutilation, exploitation, and death of innocent people
] throughout the world. The vote matters to them. No one's
] ignorance, indcluding a couple of hip cross-dressers, is
] an excuse.

This is an interesting and misguided attack. From a response interview on salon (http://www.salon.com/ent/col/fix/2004/10/11/mon/index.html):

% On Sunday, Parker and Stone responded during an interview with
% Salon's Heather Havrilesky. According to Stone, "when you read it,
% the letter comes from such a high place of arrogance, you know,
% [deep, serious voice] 'You guys are young guys! If you don't have
% children, you can't say anything about anything!' And the whole
% voting thing. All we ever said was that we thought that uninformed
% people should not vote -- on either side of the political
% spectrum. It doesn't matter who you're gonna vote for. If you
% really don't know who you're gonna vote for, or are uninformed, or
% haven't really thought about it? Just stay home. Don't let people
% fucking shame you into going to the polls."
%
% Added Parker: "If you have absolutely no idea, fuck it."
%
% "If you really don't know or you're just going vote for George
% Bush because he's already in office, or you're gonna vote for John
% Kerry because he's on the cover of Rolling Stone, don't do that,"
% Stone said. "That's lame. Just stay home. That's all we ever said."

I can't really disagree. I know one or two people who don't follow politics, actively, and don't plan to vote. What I find odd about Sean Penn's attack, in particular, is that his PS really seems to emphasize the point that Trey and Matt are making. He suggests that becoming educated is the key to overcoming ignorance as to the import of the election -- by that very metric, for the people who /can't/ just go take a guided tour of Iraq, and can't be bothered to keep up at all, why should they vote? I could badger my non-voting friends into voting, and I'll kick myself if Pennsylvania falls to Bush by a vote or two, but that's not within the goals of our republic, votes through shame.

DRUDGE REPORT 2004®

] We got some queries on what our F-Cabir tool looks like
] from people who don't have a Symbian Series 60 phone to
] check it out. Here's a picture of F-Cabir in action.

A look at the next wave of antivirals.

F-Secure : News from the Lab

] Researchers have discovered that there are two distinct
] lineages of modern lice, one of which presumably evolved
] on the scalps of another human species before making the
] jump to our own.

news @ nature.com - Early man left trail of licebreaking science news headlines

] As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in
] 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''

Following up from an earlier meme from today -- Al Gore cites Jon Stewart in his op-ed piece for Kerry. The /only/ citation.

The New York Times: Opinion: Op-Ed Contributor: How to Debate George Bush

] It's a sort of show-and-tell folding map intended for
] both soldiers and private contractors working in Iraq --
] with lots of little pictures you can point to in front of
] an Iraqi person to say things like "is the improvised
] explosive device hidden under the dead goat?" and "was
] the bomb maker planning manual or remote detonation?"

I await the 'Get Your War On' treatment.

Boing Boing: Iraq visual language survival guides for military personnel

] In a recent survey, viewers of Stewart's "The Daily Show"
] on Comedy Central tested better than Letterman and Leno
] viewers on a six-question politics quiz.

Does this speak more to the intelligence and format of the show -- fake news backed by real news -- or the lowering of the bar by the rest of the media?

CNN.com - 'Daily Show' viewers ace political quiz - Sep 28, 2004

] EasyNews, a provider of Usenet newsgroups, said it has
] identified two JPEG images that take advantage of a
] previously identified flaw in the way Microsoft software
] handles graphics files. Windows users could have their
] computers infected merely by opening one of those Trojan
] horse images.

The sample toolkit is interesting. Code in the wild, more so.

Trojan horse exploits image flaw | CNET News.com

] LOTHARIOS everywhere will be pleased to hear that
] monogamy does not appear to be a natural human state.

Economist.com | Human evolution

] We report a reversible liquid-solid transition upon
] heating of a simple solution composed of a-cyclodextrine
] (alpha-CD), water, and 4-methylpyridine. These solutions
] are homogeneous and transparent at ambient temperature
] and solidify when heated to temperatures between 45° and
] 75°. Quasielastic and elastic neutron scattering show
] that molecular motions are slowed down in the solid and
] that crystalline order is established. The solution
] "freezes on heating." This process is fully reversible,
] on cooling the solid melts. A rearrangement of hydrogen
] bonds is postulated to be responsible for the observed
] phenomenon.

...Dude.

A Liquid that Goes Solid when Heated

] U.S. District Judge Harold Baer ruled that the statute
] banning bootlegging is unconstitutional, because it
] states that copyrights on live performances are protected
] forever. This, he said, conflicts with the "limited time"
] requirements of copyright law.

Wait... is this an example of reason?

Federal Judge: Anti-bootlegging law is unconstitutional - Sep. 24, 2004