] "It is hard to explain," Mr. Durbin said, "how they could
] attack John Kerry for even considering a 50-cent gas tax
] a decade ago which he didn't introduce or vote
] for, and ignore Cheney's own legislation in 1986 also a
] decade ago which would have dramatically raised the
] cost of gasoline. If every vote and every statement made
] by John Kerry is fair game, the same thing is true of
] President Bush and the vice president."

[ Bolded parts are mine. If only there was a way to erase the damage those misleading ads have already done. Is anyone else seriously sick and tired of these pot-meet-kettle incidents? Is there any recourse at all? Seems to me like TV plays too much of a role in politics these days... it amplifies the negative tactics over the positive. No wonder people are disenchanted with the political system... they only ever see the bad shit. Of course, that's because deep down, humans love the spectacle of battle, even (especially?) if they're waged unfairly. So we get sound bites and blips explaining why the other guy sucks, because that resonates better with people.

I don't think it would be a bad thing to completely eliminate message oriented political advertisement. Let candidates get their platform out through speeches and interviews and actual interaction with the citizens they wish to serve. At least there's a chance an interviewer or speech commentator will have done the research to call out these bullshit moments... some of those mystical "journalists" of legend.

Incidentally, I'm not sure it's relevant that Cheney supported a gas tax in 1986... people change their minds all the time... that's a good thing, so if that's the case, fine. It's an issue because these fuckers have used a similarly irrelevant and aged comment to distort what their opponent currently believes. That they should quit that shit is clear, but since they aren't likely to, then they shouldn't get to bitch when the same tactics are turned on them (though they will, loudly protesting the "blatant mischaracterization" and beating their breasts about how they've been wronged by those unethical, elitist, lying (REMEMBER CLINTON! HE LIED ABOUT SEX!) Democrats. -k]

Cheney Tax Plan From 86 Would Have Raised Gas Prices

] Royal Device has on its own developped and built the
] biggest subwoofer of the world for an AUDIO/VIDEO room
] that can be also considered as the biggest AUDIO ROOM for
] private music listening of the world. The audio
] reproduction is focused on the speakers output capability
] more than electric power output of the amplifiers with no
] need of KWatts power supply lines, releasing more than
] 110 dB/1W/1 meter sensitivity starting from below 10 Hz
] focused on the listening position.

[ Wow. Now, that's a serious listening space. -k]

Giant Subwoofer, not suitable for 'blingin''

] "PlayFair is an integrated utility that removes the DRM
] from AAC music files protected by Apple's FairPlay
] encryption. Information is limited, but the source code
] is on SourceForge.net and it appears to actually remove
] the encryption itself and not simply hijack the QuickTime
] audio stream as earlier methods did. The cracking
] operation can only be done on songs the user has already
] has valid licenses for and requires either an iPod or a
] windows computer for key recovery. If you choose to
] redistribute these songs you will be violating the
] contract you bought them under: better hope they aren't
] watermarked or you might end up paying for releasing one
] in the wild. To me the authors are vandals not
] revolutionaries, and may have ensured WMA becomes the
] standard."

[ Hear - hear. Was it that tough to burn the CD and re-rip it? -k]

Slashdot | New Tool Cracks Apple's FairPlay DRM

] When the 40,000 subscribers to Reason, the monthly
] libertarian magazine, receive a copy of the June issue,
] they will see on the cover a satellite photo of a
] neighborhood - their own neighborhood. And their house
] will be graphically circled.

[ Interesting marketing. Sure to get the debates running strong. -k]

Putting 40,000 Readers, One by One, on a Cover

] Guitar virtuoso performs Super Mario Brothers theme
]
] This is an absolutely stellar video of Japanes guitar
] virtuoso KeiicHi performing a rendition of the theme from
] Super Mario Brothers, hendrixing power-up and coin-grab
] sound effects by wringing his axe's neck with long and
] clever fingers. Tasty. 3.7MB WMV Link (via Boing BOing)

[ Totally sick. Especially impressive is the NOTE PERFECT rendering of the "got a coin" sound. The rest are pretty spot on, but that particular sound element is exact. Impressive. -k]

Guitar virtuoso performs Super Mario Brothers theme

] Pioneer Corporation and its subsidiary, Pioneer FA
] Corporation, announced today that they have jointly
] developed a high-precision electron beam recorder (EBR)
] by utilizing their fine-processing technology and
] equipment technology, which will make it easier to
] manufacture master discs for next-generation optical
] discs such as Blu-ray Discs.

[ Holy fuck! 50 GB / side of a 12 cm disc == a-ok! -k]

JCN Japan Corporate News Network - Pioneer To Introduce High Precision Electron Beam Recorder

] FlashMob's goal was audacious and, it turned out,
] unreachable: Making a machine fast enough to rank among
] the top 500 of global supercomputers.

[ Memed a few days ago about this attempt to create an adhoc supercomputer. As it turns out, it seems the variability of hardware issues is what killed it -- too many different kinds of system.

Nonetheless, they got 256 nodes running and pulled a respectable score. As a proof of concept, it proved that the software needs to be more flexible at handling varying hardware. -k]

FlashMob I - Partial Success

] The Treasury Department (news - web sites) directed
] career employees to analyze tax ideas proposed by
] presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) and
] other Democrats after a request from House Majority
] Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, officials said Wednesday.

[ I'm sure it was because the Republicans are just doing their best to take all good ideas and apply them to their own activities. I'm *positive* that none of this data will end up in Bush's campaign activities. Just like Bush's visits to NH, Florida, etc during the Democratic primary season were in no way planned to coincide with the actual primaries and debates -- he just happened to have those places on his schedule, and it's ok to use government resources, because it wasn't at all campaign related. Uh-huh.

Give me a fucking break. Why doesn't the fucking TREASURY DEPARTMENT analyze the tax ideas PUT IN PLACE by the PRESIDENT? This seems like a gross misuse of public (i.e. your and my) resources. Bush can afford to use some of that $170 MILLION to buy private analyses of Kerry's proposals if he wants that.

The analysis concluded that "hardworking individuals and married couples could have their taxes raised" by amounts that ranged from $201 billion to $477 billion.

Way to go with the neutral wording. "Hardworking individuals"! For fucks sake. -k]

Yahoo! News - Treasury Analyzes Kerry's Tax Proposals

] In papers published in the journal Science, two research
] teams describe newfound powers of leptin, the mysterious
] hormone that helps govern hunger and satiety.

[ Pretty interesting science here. -k]

Scientists Detail Hormone's Role in the Impulse to Eat (washingtonpost.com)

] The corruption trial of ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski
] ended in a mistrial Friday after a juror thought to be
] holding out for acquittal received what was being called
] a "coercive letter" in the last 24 hours.

[ Looks like some probable Grand Larcenists get to walk, for now. How do you steal and spend 600 million dollars by the way? Seriously. It's like the movie Brewsters Millions. I'd run out of shit to buy.

funny quote btw : Razzano said that it's not surprising that
the only lawyer on the jury might end up being the only holdout.

"Juror No. 4 was a lawyer, and the problem with having lawyers on
juries is they bring into that jury room with them three years of
legal training. And one of the things that legal training does to
you is it basically beats the common sense out of you," he said.

Judge declares mistrial in Tyco corruption case - Apr. 2, 2004