] The Safest Rest You've Ever Had
] Protection from Bio-Chemical Terrorist attack
] Protection from natural disaster

America protect your family, get them a quantum sleeper today.

It's sorta creepy.

[ If you buy this bed, the terrorists have already won.

It's more than sorta creepy. It's completely fucked up is what it is. -k]

Quantum Sleeper

] The St. Louis-based appeals court said an injunction
] benefiting Steve Warnock, an art teacher and school bus
] driver, should have been granted because the DeValls
] Bluff School District endorsed a religion -- not just
] because Warnock was offended
]
] "We believe that prayers at mandatory teacher meetings
] and in-service training conveys ... a decisive
] endorsement," the appeals court wrote

Excellent. Now if they'd only get rid of that Moment of Silence bullshit. My high school defended it saying its not a religious moment, but a chance to reflect on the day ahead. Reflect on the day ahead? How the hell can I reflect on something that hasn't happened yet.

[ This seems like a good decision. I'm not against the moment of silence thing really. People can use it how they want, and I see nothing wrong with that. -k]

School loses prayer appeal

These guys are of the "I'm so far left I think the Taliban were in the right and should still be in power" side of the fence. I usually hate those guys. Then again, those guys usually think disabling a bus is an act of speech.

In this case I found them entertaining. These signs are cool. I guess its because I have respect for real acts of speech. Particularly when they are subversive, without being coercive.

FREEWAYBLOGGER.com - Free Speech: Use It or Lose It

Truly decentralised peer-to-peer (P2P) software can't be held accountable for its misuse, according to a US federal appeals court.

US Circuit Court in Los Angeles, threw a major brick in the path of entertainment companies which have been trying to have the courts shut down companies running the P2P networks.

"From the advent of the player piano, every new means of
reproducing sound has struck a dissonant chord with musical
copyright owners, often resulting in federal litigation. This
appeal is the latest reprise of that recurring conflict, and one
of a continuing series of lawsuits between the recording
industry and distributors of file-sharing computer software."

"[W]e live in a quicksilver technological
environment with courts ill-suited to fix the flow of
internet innovation....The introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through well-established distribution mechanisms," the court wrote.

National Business Review (NBR) - Business, News, Arts, Media, Share Market & More

] Ever since man put a price on time, Timepieces have been
] judged for their horological or decorative values, but
] rarely for their aural experience, that is, until the
] much recent rise of the quartz movement. Ask any watch
] aficionado today about their mechanical collection, and
] they won%u2019t fail to mention the sound and feeling
] they get when they wind up their mechanical watch.
]
]
] With this in mind, I recently had a conversation with
] Douglas Repetto, the creator of the Sine Clock, a sound
] sculpture that keeps time with sound by encoding it in a
] set of sine waves:

[ Pretty Rad. There's a software version too : http://www.music.columbia.edu/~douglas/portfolio/sineclock/SineClock_software.shtml -k]

[object HTMLImageElement]

] enter eMachineShop.com, an amazingly rad combination of
] software and sweat, which allows you to design a part in
] a CAD-like program and then send it over the internet to
] a real machine shop where, given that it's something
] feasible to create (and the software helps you determine
] that), a team of 17 machinists will craft your part,
] bundle it up, and send it back to you via post. The turn
] around is about 30 days, but that's fine - there's
] nothing else like it. It's not even that expensive; the
] article listed 10 custom made brass doorknobs being
] milled out for around $150. Considering there's a labor
] cost in there, too, it sounds totally reasonable.
]
] I am so captivated by the concept that I'm toying with
] the idea of designing and ordering something, myself. I
] don't need a metal gear with the Gizmodo "G" carved out
] of the middle, but it doesn't mean I shouldn't get one,
] right?
]
] Oh, and my lord. Think of the spoilers the rice kids will
] be making now.

[ Kick ass... let the custom machined nerdery begin. -k]

Gizmodo : eMachineShop Obviates Your Greasy Cousin

] Tempra Technology has developed the I.C. Can, a "100%
] safe and environmentally friendly" aluminum can that uses
] a self-chilling process involving a cooling gel,
] desiccant, and heat sinks. They claim to be able to drop
] the temperature of the 10-ounces of beverage inside by 30
] degrees Fahrenheit in three minutes.

[ Sounds kinda wasteful, but then, the thought of being able to carry around beverages that can be cooled on demand is pretty enticing too. Not that I'm ever more than 5 minutes from a store or a vending machine, but, still, if you like, wanted to hike, you could get some insta-cooled water bottles and not have to dick around with coolers or ice. -k]

Gizmodo : Self-Chilling I.C. Can

] What is this cloud thing? Well...photos are posted here
] on this site randomly distributed over time from several
] users scattered all over the world (mostly Europe). A
] cloud here is defined to simply be a meltdown of these
] images into one single image - an image that obviously
] becomes more and more chaotic over time.

[ Kind of a neat concept... -k]

Peffisaur - A Multiuser MMS Weblog Community

] "If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your
] information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron
] than they are.

[ That's a fair statement, but to say that music and politics can't be joined I guess just proves his point about rockers being morons... maybe he was just self projecting.

I mean, he's talking about Bruce fucking Springsteen, here! I've heard one or two of the Boss' songs and, well, I'm pretty sure they were about politics, or at least about social conciousness. He wrote "Born in the USA" for gods sake... I think he's into politics, just a little. Is Alice Cooper saying that Springsteen sucks? He better not tour in New Jersey anymore.

I'm not gonna say there's no place for vapid, content-free music designed for pure entertainment (a la Alice Cooper), but most of the best stuff has some inherent meaning about life, relationships, culture, society, etc. etc. Not to mention Rock has a long history of political activism. It's not the opposite of politics... if anything, you might say it's anti-authority, or rebellious, but that's hardly inconsistent with having an opinion.

Anyway, Alice Cooper can shut it, mostly... that's pretty much how I've always felt about him talking, or singing. -k]

Alice slams anti-Bush rockers

] President Bush yesterday repeated his condemnation of
] unregulated money that he said was "pouring" into the
] political process. But he stopped short of denouncing the
] ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which is being aired
] in three battleground states and is funded largely by
] Republicans.

Many media outlets, including MSNBC and the (British) Independent got this wrong. Bush did not specifically condemn that Swift Vet Ad. Once again, he *did* blast 527 group spending. Bush never had any problem with such spending back when Republicans benefited from it (think 2000 in the Florida Recount).

[ Yeah, it's really Bush's only move. If there was any class left in this battle, he'd say it like "I like to fight my own battles, and I don't appreciate the way this group is attacking my opponent." He could even tie in an anti-527 message to that. Except I'm pretty sure I recall that he specifically opposed measures of the M-F bill which limited these groups. I'd have to research to verify.

Regardless, even conceding that he genuintely doesn't like 527's, he does appreciate the message, obviously, because it's the standard tactic of avoiding any kind of actual issues discussion while keeping silly crap above the fold. The only response kerry has to this kind of stuff is to a) point out that his refusal to directly denounce this crap is in contradiction of his prior statements of respect and honor for Kerry's service, b) point out that Mr. Bush was never wounded, superficially or otherwise, because he didn't *go* anywhere and c) drill home some points on other issues.

I think the more time he spends bringing out vets that support his side of the story and whining to FEC just makes it worse and lets it dominate the news. The media eats up anything it can jam into a he-said/she-said framework because then they can keep writing more of the same as the endless stream of rebuttals and counters come from each side. The non-journalists that dominate this process seldom bother to research either the he-said or the she-said to get some objective truth into the story, so the cycle keeps rolling. It's good business, but bad reporting. The Post is better at this than others, but i imagine it's discounted by a lot of people for it's "liberal bias".

I still can't believe the legs this story has. -k]

Kerry Team Lines Up Vietnam Witnesses (washingtonpost.com)