] There are only three exceptions to the draconian new
] typographical rules: telegrams, treaty materials prepared
] by the State Department's legal affairs office and
] documents drawn up for the president's signature, it
] said.
]
]
] The memorandum offered no explanation for the exceptions,
] leaving foreign service officers to speculate as to
] whether the White House, US treaty partners and telegram
] readers are not yet able to handle the change.

heh

US bans timed-honoured typeface. 30/01/2004. ABC News Online

] Three IBM-designed 64-bit microprocessors. The
] combined power of these chips means the Xbox Next will
] have more computing power than most personal computers.
] Earlier versions of these PowerPC chips are used in Apple
] Computer's high-end G5 PowerMac machines now.

[ i'm treating this as rumor, of course, but if true, looks like some serious horsepower. i'm not quite as happy about the possibility of losing the harddrive, b/c saving to flash is lame, and slow. i can only assume they're doing it to curb the piracy issues -k]

Microsoft leaks details on Xbox Next

Decius wrote:
] LAME! They are only giving free itunes in bottles, not cans,
] and the place were I usually buy bottles, my office, has at
] least a month's supply of bottles that aren't part of the
] promotion. By the time they get Pepsi in that is actually part
] of the promotion it will be over. Despite the fact that I
] drink at least two Pepsis a day I'll have to seriously alter
] how I buy them if I'm going to get any itunes.

yeah, it's a bit problematic... i'm gonna have to spring for a few 12 packs of bottles, and put em in the fridge. I knew it was gonna be bottles only... though i wish they'd find some way to do it with cans... i don't like bottles. To my knowledge, no one ever has done this kind of giveaway with cans.

Incidentally, Pepsi is predicting that only 10-20% of the caps will actually be redeemed. I hope to prove them wrong.

I'm also curious how albums will be handled. The promotion indicates that the cap will be worth one track... but albums are 10 bucks, usually for more than 10 tracks. For the sake of argument, say i have 15 caps entered in... if i buy an album w/ 15 songs, do i lose all my caps or 10 of them? Something to keep in mind. I'm probly gonna spend them piecemeal, on individual tracks i want to have... things like Boston's "More than a Feeling", er, i mean, uh... something modern and hip!

RE: Apple - Pepsi

] "I'll get you naked by the end of this song," sang
] performer Justin Timberlake, moments before he ripped off
] Jackson's top, exposing a bare breast -- the nipple
] covered by a metal 'solar' nipple medallion.

[ Silly silly puritans. I saw the picture... crimony, the medalion covered as much of her breast as that dude's hand did when she was on the cover of Rolling Stone. and of course there's nothing wrong with singing about fucking, but an unrestrained (DIRTY, FILTHY) titty on the screen sets loose the FCC attack hounds. Meanwhile Kelis' frickin milkshake song is huge, and the sexual imagery in it and it's ilk (Brittney, Christina, etc.) is only fine because people aren't paying attention. -k]

Janet Nipple - OUCH!

Karen, Birmingham Social Services said, had Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, the mental illness that causes parents to harm their children in an attempt to draw attention to themselves. Her child had been placed on the 'at risk' register even before she was born in December 1999.

awesome. yay big pharm. and also yay stupid ass doctors.

A mother tells how she was blamed when her son died after being given cisapride

] Intelligence shortcomings, as we see, have a thousand
] fathers; secret intelligence triumphs are orphans. Here
] is the unremarked story of "the Farewell dossier": how a
] C.I.A. campaign of computer sabotage resulting in a huge
] explosion in Siberia -- all engineered by a
] mild-mannered economist named Gus Weiss -- helped us
] win the cold war.

i hope safire's not trying to insinuate that we should all lay off the prez and intelligence community for screwing up iraq, but this is a pretty interesting story. i'm glad the pipeline didn't blow up near anything populated... 3 kilotons worth of a natural gas explosion? damn.

Op-Ed Columnist: The Farewell Dossier

Marie and I have recently gotten into watching this show called
"Good Eats" on the Food Network. The host, Alton Brown, offers a
lot of interesting recipes on a geek tip. For example, in one
episode he asks some materials people at GaTech about the
properties of various casserole dishes.

[ i'd like to think that chez biltmore had something to do with getting the cross' hooked on good eats... we've got a lot of time invested in cooking shows. Alton Brown is good because he gives a lot of the why on top of the how, and he drops some science on cooking methodology, which is really appealing to me. definitely one of my favorite shows. -k]

Good Eats Pouches

] It sounds like a sci-fi thriller: a super computer
] program that gathers dossiers on every single man, woman
] and child — everything from birth and marriage and
] divorce history to hunting licenses and car license
] plates. Even every address you have lived at down to the
] color of your hair.
]       It sounds surreal, but former Gov. Mike Leavitt
] signed Utah's 2.4 million residents up for a pilot
] program — ironically called MATRIX — that does just
] that. And he never bothered to reveal details of the
] program to Utah citizens or to state lawmakers who, upon
] learning of the program on Capitol Hill this week, are
] now worried the state could be involved in a program that
] jeopardizes basic civil liberties.

deseretnews.com | Dossier program alarms Utahns

ROFLMAO! Nice knockoff of Google...

If you are under 18, or live in an area where it is illegal for you to view
explicit content, please leave this site immediately.

[ i'm pretty sure they got C&D'd by Google the other day... we'll see how long this lasts. Funny concept tho ]-k

Booble - The Adult Search Engine

] The state's school superintendent has proposed striking
] the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and
] replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over
] time."

[ Awesome! And it's about time we got rid of all that other pesky "science" too. It's all just theories!!! THEORIES! ]-k

CNN.com - Georgia considers banning 'evolution' - Jan. 30, 2004