] Waxy has posted a Quicktime of the entire John Kerry
] interview on the Daily Show (Kerry proposes to hold the
] inauguration on the Daily Show!).

Note: BoingBoing now carries annoying, not exactly work safe Suicide Girls banner ad. I've nothing against the Suicide Girls but there are certain circumstances when you just don't want to pull that up on your screen.

[ I noticed that too. I'm glad I have an office, with a door. -k]

Boing Boing: John Kerry on Daily Show

] It's the Internet Revolution meets the Industrial
] Revolution: a new program that lets people design 3-D
] objects like car parts and door knobs in metal or plastic
] then order them online.
]
] Programs for computer-aided design, or CAD, have been
] around for decades, but eMachineShop.com appears to be
] the first service that checks whether a design can be
] made, tells the customer how much it will cost. If the
] customer wants the item the design goes to a "real world"
] machine shop for manufacturing.

For years I've had to put off projects because while I had access to a rather complete wood shop, and didn't have access to a metal working machine shop. Nice to technology filling this niche.

[ Indeed... i memed the gizmodo link earlier in the week, but since no one likes me ;) i'll bump this one. It sounds like a really bitchin' service. -k]

Internet machine shop offers custom tooling

] The star is like our sun and just 50 light-years away. A
] light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about
] 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). Most of the
] known extrasolar planets are hundreds or thousands of
] light-years distant.
]
] The star, mu Arae, is visible under dark skies from the
] Southern Hemisphere. It harbors two other planets. One is
] Jupiter-sized and takes 650 days to make its annual trip
] around the star. The other planet, whose existence was
] confirmed with the help of the new observations, is
] farther out.
]
] The three-planet setup, with one being rocky, is unique.
]
] "It's much closer to our solar system than anything we've
] found so far," said Alan Boss, a planet-formation
] theorist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington.

Space is cool.

Earth-like planet discovered 50 light-years away

] Asymmetrical subjects were more likely to slam the
] telephone receiver down at the end of a call than
] symmetrical people, indicating that rejection made them
] angrier, the researchers report in the American Journal
] of Human Biology1.

[ I wonder if I'm lopsided... I never noticed, but I've been known to slam the phone down. And punch holes in drywall. -k]

Lop-sided features linked to temper

In brief, the new album from Sahara Hotnights is 34 minutes of up-tempo punk-pop fun.

Reviews from Muze/Rhapsody and All Music Guide:

Instead of digging up age-old guitar riffs from long-dead bluesmen, Sweden's Sahara Hotnights seem intent on playing up the celebratory aspect of basic rock 'n' roll. The songs are big and loud, but the exuberance is all pure pop and glam rock. If you dig handclaps, low-slung guitars and chicks, you'll love this.

Vocalist Maria Andersson shines as a singer; she's vocally focused in her delivery while the harmonies coming from the Asplund sisters are equally fine-tuned, making Kiss & Tell fun right from the start. From the brassy cheers of "Hot Night Crash" and "Who Do You Dance For?" to the foxy Runaways-like impression of "Walk on the Wire," the energy of Kiss & Tell seduces you to twist your hips like never before.

[ I will now acquire this record. I didn't know they had a new one out, but their prior two are both really damn good - was just listening yesterday, as it turns out. What I'm really looking forward to is seeing them live again. They played Echo Lounge a while back (over a year, at least) and completely rocked the fucking house. I've seen a lot of shows, but they stood out for the pure hold-nothing-in-reserve intensiy. In my top 20 shows of all time, easy. -k

edit: FUCK! Aparently i missed them back in July. How the hell did that happen!]

Sahara Hotnights

] Tell us where you are, and we'll broadcast your location
] to all your friends and let you know if any friends-of-friends are within
] 10 blocks.

[ I dunno if this will catch on, but it seems cool, and the logo is totally awesome. I wonder if the guy who created it was thinking of Krazy Kat getting clobbered with a brick by infatuated Ignatz. That's what i was reminded of anyway. -k]

dodgeball.com :: mobile social software

For most Americans, the last four years have represented a low point in our economic history. But for the big-business interests financing the Bush campaign, these have been high times.

American Prospect Online - ViewPrint

] The doctors behind one of the nation's most comprehensive
] public health studies have concluded what most dieters
] already know: Chugging down sodas packs on the pounds.

No more Dr. Peppers for me.

[ Yeah, i've been trying to kick soda too. Damn it's hard. -k]

Researchers link soft drinks to diabetes

] The father then walked into the garage, picked up a
] propane tank, a lighting device and a can of gasoline he
] used to douse the van, police Capt. Tony Rode said. He
] smashed the van's window, got inside and set it ablaze,
] despite attempts by the Marines to stop him, Rode said.
]
] The Marines, reservists who are members of a military
] Casualty Assistance Calls Officer team, pulled Arredondo,
] 44, from the burning vehicle and extinguished the flames
] on him, police said.
]
] Arredondo was initially taken to Memorial Regional
] Hospital in Hollywood with burns over as much as 50
] percent of his body, emergency officials said.
]
] Melida Arredondo told the Miami Herald that her husband,
] an immigrant from Costa Rica, "was very proud of Alex
] serving," though he wished his service would have been
] during a "more peaceful" time.
]
] But Luz Marina Arredondo, Alexander's grandmother, felt
] the government was at fault for her grandson's death.
]
] "I blame them a lot," she said. "They send them like
] guinea pigs over there."

ABCNEWS.com : Man Burns Marine Van After GI Son's Death

As someone who works in New York City, I take very seriously the almost daily stories about security concerns. New York has been on terror alert level orange since September 11. Please, protestors who are planning civil disobedience or other actions that will cause havoc during the RNC, stay home. New Yorkers don't need this kind of stress in their lives. Getting to work that week will be stressful enough without people like this woman insisting on her illegal march to Times Square.

[ I don't have the level of intensity that Flynn did in his response, but it sounds pretty crass to dismiss this lady's right to be heard over a matter of stress. There were many responses to 9/11, but I've never been comfortable with the "Batten down the hatches" approach that seems so common. A lot of people felt like this was the end of the world. I'm not trying to minimize the event, but it wasn't like whole cities were vaporized in a nuclear strike. It just wasn't the end of the world.

I say, if you want someone to be angry at, be angry at the callous and opportunistic asses who chose to hold their convention in New York to capitalize on the imagery of 9/11, re-instilling the american people with xenophobic terror for political gain. Be angry at these people who will curb our freedoms and chip away our liberty, who will thereby play directly into the hands of our enemies, for pure greed or power or political expediency. Be angry at those who will talk constantly about winning the "war on terror" while simultaneously abandoning Afghanistan and bin Laden, destroying our worldwide credibility, engendering hatred across the muslim world, and spending all the money that COULD have been spent on port inspections, first responders, air marshalls, in short, on homeland security, on a misguided and misrepresented war in Iraq.

I don't doubt that it's going to suck to be a New Yorker for the next couple of weeks, but the blame must necessarily fall squarely on the RNC and the administration. -k

edit 8/26 : here's a link which touches on some of the very point i made:

http://dailykos.com/story/2004/8/26/112826/771 ]

New York Braces for Protests