] A man described by authorities as a known sexual predator
] was chased through the streets of South Philadelphia by
] an angry crowd of Catholic high school girls, who kicked
] and punched him after he was tackled by neighbors, police
] said Friday.

now that's the greatest story opener i've read in a long time.

CNN.com - Girls pummel man who exposed himself - Oct. 31, 2003

a variant of this story gets run pretty often, but still, usually some interesting things come out of it...

Ideas Unlimited, Built to Order

Imagine what would happen if the filthiest bastard in Russia decides to one up Brittany Spears/Christina Agulera for the sick-mother-fucker pseudo-underage-porn shit. Well, dude succeeded, if that's what you call it.

Pervert popstar manager confesses all

] What is the worst lie a president can tell?
]
] "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss
] Lewinsky."
]
] Or ...
]
] "He has weapons of mass destruction -- the world's
] deadliest weapons -- which pose a direct threat to the
] United States, our citizens and our friends and allies."

a link to the full excerpt is available at the bottom of the page (after watching an ad }:-P )

Michael Moore - Dude, Where's My Country Excerpt

] "FTAA: A Threat to Freedom and Free Trade"

something to be aware of, among the many other issues at hand...

IP Justice: IP Justice White Paper

] Have you ever wondered why you vote the way you do? Why you
] adhere to a religion? Why you hold to a political philosophy?
] Well, our good friends at the University of Berkley have come up
] with an answer for this perplexing life question. Unfortunately,
] they only have the answer if you’re a conservative. The
] professors at Berkley have harnessed all their intellect and
] wisdom to conclude that you’re mentally ill! Their conclusions,
] published in the American Psychological Association's
] Psychological Bulletin is claimed to be drawn from “over fifty
] years of research literature about the psychology of
] conservatism.” The conservative psyche, they say, boils down to
] this:

] Fear and Aggression
] Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
] Uncertainty avoidance
] Need for cognitive closure
] Terror management

I can't really see anyone being surprised by these results.

Josef Mengele Moves to Berkley

] Introducing CEO of AOL - Jon Miller
]
] - AOL users don't have to put in their Credit Card. Can
] enter their AOL ID and that's it.
]
] - Talking about AOL's music store. Going to put iTunes
] buttons next to every song/album on AOL's music site.
] Will launch iTunes and show the song/album
]
] - Exclusive partnership with AOL and Apple.
]
] - But what if that's not enough? What else should we do?
] We're going to make it really easy for 25 million online
] users to discover music to get iTunes... to do that, we
] are announcing a partnership with AOL.

this is a guy typing while watching the apple presentation... exclusive partnership w/ AOL! as much as i hate AOL sometimes, thats 35 million consumers that will be one click away from buying straight from iTMS. this is smart, if you ask me.

MacRumors.com - Live Apple Music Event Coverage

"On January 22, 1879 -- the legendary "Day of the Zulu," when more than twenty thousand Zulu warriors nearly wiped out the forces of the invading British army -- even the sun was on the side of the Zulu Nation. A partial solar eclipse during the battle obscured the view of the redcoats, making it difficult for them to see the attacking Zulu warriors. But the Zulu triumph on that day was no freak victory: it came about through a combination of superior battle strategy and fierce weapons, aided by potent traditional medicine.
...
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Of course, the Zulu might never have vanquished the British at Isandlwana without the help of traditional Zulu medicines. Some scholars have suggested that Zulu pharmacopoeia provided more of a psychological boost than any real physiological effect. But recent scientific studies show that the medicines contained some very potent drugs. For example, warriors were given a cannabis (marijuana)-based snuff to take during battle. Analysis of the snuff has revealed that it contained extremely high levels of THC, a powerful hallucinogen, and yet no detectable levels of the chemicals that cause the sedative effects of marijuana.

Also in the Zulu war medicine chest: the bulb of a flower in the Amaryllis family, called Boophane disticha, or the Bushman Poison Bulb. Studies have shown that the bulb -- which was also used by southern Africans to help mummify bodies -- contains buphanidrine, an alkaloid, like codeine and morphine (although it is not related to them) with hallucinogenic and pain-killing properties. According to botanist Ben-Erik van Wyk of Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa, the dosage of buphanidrine necessary to reduce pain is very close to the toxic dose, "but in a very experienced traditional healer's hands it should be safe. They usually assess the strength of a bulb by testing it on themselves."

In addition, warriors sometimes ingested a hallucinogenic mushroom containing a toxin called muscimol. The chemical, present in fly agaric -- a mushroom that can attract and kill flies -- is said to induce a state of expanded perception in those who ingest it. Warriors who consumed those mushrooms, researchers speculate, might have been utterly without fear, believing themselves impervious to British bullets. "

I saw this last night. Fuck amsterdam, go to africa and become a zulu warrior.

Day of the zulu

"The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence. From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back into bondage."

Alexander Tyler - 1787

(Actually, I think the present dependence is part of an 80 year cycle rather then a 200 year cycle, but we'll see...)

[IP] A forecast of the future of the US?

] With the recent demise of the Bush administration's
] controversial Terrorist Information Awareness (TIA)
] programme to monitor everyone in the US, citizens now
] have a chance to get their own back. A website to be
] launched later in 2003 will allow people to post
] information about the activities of government
] organisations, officials and the judiciary.

thoughts? will a distributed, citizen-run watchdog system make this country better? will it work at all?

Government Information Awareness?