] Ardent Atheistic Darwinist Richard Dawkins even wrote a
] book1 about how to spread ideology as a type of
] "biological weapon" using jingles and pop-culture.

[ HA! They're talking about memetics! There are some seriously insane people out there man. Their homepage has the baby jesus crying... FUCKING LITERALLY! GO THERE! If this is a hoax, it's the best one i've seen in a while... it's really, stunningly absurd. -k]

OBJECTIVE: Creation Education: Evolutionism Propaganda

] "Our goal is to keep the U.S. economy growing and keep
] U.S. jobs in America. Sometimes this requires hiring a
] limited number of highly educated foreign professionals
] to fill technical or specialized positions," Sandy Boyd,
] chair of the group, said in a statement on Wednesday.
] "Reaching the 2004 visa limit less than halfway through
] the fiscal year is clear evidence that the system needs
] to be fixed."

[ To the extent that permitting positions to be filled by H1-B's keeps a certain number of positions from moving permanently offshore, which is obviously better - at least H1-B holders are spending most of their money here and (i think?) paying taxes here. Still, it's not that comforting to the coder who's unemployed. This is gonna only get bigger from here. -k]

Reforms demanded as H-1B visa limit reached - News - ZDNet

[This is a gallery of different images of human social networks.]

look at the highschool friendship image, see the few nodes (kids) with no connections...man, how much is that the suck...

--Abaddon

[ Yeah, high school sucks all right. -k]

Gallery of network images

[ Holy crap! I sure hope they don't fuck this up. -k]

News about Ender's Game: The Movie

] The content available online is much less important than
] the manner in which it is delivered, indeed, the way the
] Web is structured. Its influence is structural rather
] than informational, and its structure is agnostic. For
] that reason, parental controls of the sort that AOL can
] offer gives no comfort to conservatives. It's not that
] Johnny will Google "hardcore" or "T&A" rather than
] "family values;" rather, it's that Johnny will come to
] think, consciously or not, of everything he reads as
] linked, associative and contingent. He will be
] disinclined to accept the authority of any text, whether
] religious, political or artistic, since he has learned
] that there is no such thing as the last word, or indeed
] even a series of words that do not link, in some way, to
] some other text or game. For those who grow up reading
] online, reading will come to seem a game, one that
] endlessly plays out in unlimited directions. The web, in
] providing link after associative link, commentary upon
] every picture and paragraph, allows, indeed requires,
] users to engage in a postmodernist inquiry.

[ very intriguing -k]

CTHEORY.NET : Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left by Peter Lurie

] Researchers have begun to treat cancer with the surgical
] equivalent of a bat's squeak. They have developed
] invisible scalpels of ultrasound that can roast a tumour
] a bit at a time in a series of two second bursts -
] without cutting any other tissue, and often without side
] effects.

[ sounds promising... cancer is total bullshit. -k]

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Ultrasound could kill cancer cells

] CrossID, an Israeli startup founded by two engineers
] formerly at the telecommunications equipment provider RAD
] Group, has developed an innovative, chipless RFID system
] that can protect sensitive documents, such as
] intelligence agency reports, financial securities and
] banknotes. The technology could also be used to create a
] "hands-free" bar code.

[ fuck man. that's nuts. -k]

RFID Journal - Firewall Protection for Paper Documents

[ An interesting argument in favor of shortening the process of campaigning and getting to the GE faster. I can't decide. -k]

CBS News | Nine More Months To Go%u2026 Spare Us | February 12, 2004 17:10:20

] Mr. Brown "philosophically" prefers bottom up. But his
] strongest examples of design are top down: not only
] iTunes and Disney World, but also Ideo's design for
] Prada's New York store, which opened in December, 2003.
] There, every item, room, frequent shopper and salesperson
] is tagged with technology designed to enhance -- and
] control -- well, everything. Prada's pricey products are
] the high end of fashion: Many are one-offs or made in
] small quantities. The company aspires to discreetly
] "control" every aspect of its customers' experiences.
]
]
] If you're a frequent Prada shopper, the loyalty card in
] your wallet or purse contains a radio frequency
] identification (RFID) tag that announces your arrival in
] the store. When you encounter a saleswoman, her handheld
] computer brings up your tastes, buying history, vital
] statistics and personalized suggestions from in-stock and
] coming inventory; the handhelds also place orders and
] book change rooms. Every item for sale bears an RFID tag.
] The tag certifies the authenticity for Prada's pricey
] togs -- and discourages theft (setting off alarms) and
] counterfeiters (it's nearly impossible to copy).
]
]
] Prada's change room is certainly an experience. Its RFID
] reader electronically detects every item in the pile
] you've selected to try on. A video screen displays
] alternative colour combinations and co-ordinates. The
] room's mirror has a delayed-action camera so it can offer
] a 360-degree view of that fashion item on your body after
] you twirl around in front of it. The overall "experience"
] is sealed at the moment of transaction with a unique,
] Ideo-designed "Prada way of scanning." The only bottom-up
] part is the mirror in the change room.

[ Welcome to the future, people. This bit captures perfectly both the promise and the danger of these sorts of new technologies. I like the idea of being in the changeroom with a pair of pants and having the system make suggestions about matching shirts, or alternative colors. It's totally cool to use the tags as antitheft devices. What's not so kosher is storing personal information and accessing it, unprompted, as soon as i show up. Of course, if you shop with credit cards, this tracking is already done, only there's no way to scan your card while it's still in your wallet.

There's gonna be a lot of debate about this sort of thing. At the moment, it's confined to places i don't shop (i.e. Prada), but it won't be long before Wal-Mart implements all sorts of nasty RFID tech, and somehow i doubt they'll be interested in all the neat customer service applications for the tech. Cheap cheap cheap. -k]

The Globe and Mail

] Herr, 33, of Denton, said he declined to fill the
] prescription for the so-called "morning-after pill"
] because he believes it could have killed the embryo if
] the woman already had conceived. Though he had declined
] five or six times in the past to fill such prescriptions,
] it was the first time he had been handed one for a rape
] victim, he said.
]
]
] "I went in the back room and briefly prayed about it,"
] said Herr, who had worked for Eckerd for five years. "I
] actually called my pastor ... and asked him what he
] thought about it."

[ It's tempting to put this story into the category of religious fundamentalist moral imposition, but perhaps the issue is more complex than that.

Certainly, from a legal standpoint, the employment agreement the guy entered into forbade him from refusing to fill this prescription, fine, he should've read it and, recognizing a moral conflict, turned down the job, or negotiated for a policy change.

That being said, if you're a person who believes that abortion (even this form) is murder, it would seem that you have a moral obligation to refuse to perform a job task that will result in one, even if it may cost you your job. I may think it's wrongheaded and foolish, but at least it's consistent.

What bothers me more is that none of the 3 pharmacists present would fill it. In this case, there was a pharmacy down the block who was willing to fill the prescription... what if there was only one pharmacy in town? I suspect that this sort of thing is more common than we know...
-k]

CNN.com - Pharmacists fired for denying 'morning after' pill - Feb. 12, 2004