] One of the nation's wealthiest towns will soon have
] cameras and computers running background checks on every
] car and driver that passes through.

The license plate takes another step closer to it's destiny.

[ Awesome! I wonder if they could tie it to medical records too... keep all those filthy sick people out of their town, anyone who's ever been in a mental hospital, etc. Why not put up a damn stockade. Oh that's right, because then people would KNOW you're a bunch of paranoid lunatics.

Fuck florida. If i ever say i want to go there, remind me that i hate the whole state. -k]

newsobserver.com - Florida town to use surveillance cameras

] The Bush administration is spending $18 million on a new
] round of taxpayer-funded television advertising to
] promote the Medicare discount drug card, the Medicare
] administrator said Tuesday.

So id this an $18 million dollar ad to try to get people to vote for the shrubbery or is it $18 million dollars that could be spent on something practical, like maybe a medicare system that doesn't suck?

And oh yeah... this is the benefit plan that it was said would "only" cost $400 billion, whenthey hid numbers saying $500+ billion, and it is only covering about 7 million out of 41 million people eligible?

Wait... does that mean if everyone signs up it costs $3 trillion???

[ As far as i can tell it means "fuck off, no coverage for you" for the vast majority of people.

400 billion, 500 billion, what's the difference? Dammit stop distracting us from the real issues. You're going to be gassed in your sleep by Osama if you question medicare. Why do you hate america so much?

Mars, bitches! -k]

Yahoo! News - White House Spends $18M on Medicare Ad

] University officials eventually discovered an online
] journal Stanzak kept about his experiences and relocated
] him to a free dorm room last Tuesday.

The library staff didn't find him. The janitors missed him. The only way they found out about him was through an online journal? Wow.

[ Yeah, that's quite a lot of fortitude. I'm sure i would have given up long before living in the basement. I had no idea NYU was that expensive. I'm pretty sure frickin' Vanderbilt was just barely more than that including housing. Edumacation costs a damn lot. -k]

NYU student sleeps for months in library basement

] Personally, I think it looks like a $1200 shower curtain, but
] what do I know about this. We tried taking pictures of this
] lovely white garment but it didn’t look right on the hanger as
] you can see, so my sister says, "You need a model." Well, quite
] frankly my sister isn’t exactly small, (like a size 12 is?) so
] she wouldn’t pose for the picture. Seeing as I have sworn off
] women for the time being and I ain’t friends with any, it left me
] holding the bag. I took the liberty of blacking out my face -
] not to protect the ex-wife but to protect me from my bar buddies
] and co-workers finding out about it. I would never live it
] down. Actually I didn’t think my head would fit in the neck
] hole, but then I figured she got her Texas cheerleader hair
] through there I could get my head in it. Though, after looking
] at the pictures, I thought it made me look fat.

[ Awesome! -k]

eBay - Divorced Man Models ex-Wife's Wedding Dress

] US firm Microvision has developed a system that projects
] lasers onto the retina, allowing users to view images on
] top of their normal field of vision.

[ Personal HUDs here we come... one step closer to merging your digital world with the real world. For good reason, these sorts of devices have been a staple of scifi for many years. The benefits to be gained by realtime, contextually aware data being available anywhere are extreme... -k]

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Laser vision' offers new insights

] Such scientific conundrums are of only passing interest
] at Superpower, a four-year-old subsidiary of
] Intermagnetics General, and at other companies like it.
] After years of false starts and setbacks, these companies
] say they are closing in on the goal of producing
] relatively inexpensive superconducting wire for power
] generators, transformers and transmission lines.

The Biggest Jolt to Power Since Franklin Flew His Kite

This is a 4 minute thing that they blast 5 times a day. There is a sample on this site. For the most part I think its cool. I wouldn't mind it especially in an urban area. But, of course, I mostly like it because its alien. Others will hate it for the same reason.

I think the critical question is, at dawn? If this thing is loud enough to wake people up its a no go. I strongly support your right to blast islamic rites (or heavy metal for that matter) as long as you're not interfering with other people's sleep.

[ This is an interesting issue to consider. Fundamentally, yes, anything that is detrimental the majority of people in an area shouldn't be imposed. Waking everyone up at 5:30 in the morning (or whenever sunrise is...) is almost certainly a problem.

The concept of a minaret spiking into the sky in my neighborhood, broadcasting a call to prayer (though real people would be cooler than loudspeakers...), is sorta romantic in the abstract, and diversity (as the bolded section above notes) is certainly a positive force. From that standpoint, I support this kinda thing.
However, in reality, I may well tire of the sound after time, or if it were very close and very loud, during dinner, or during my favorite show or while talking to grandma on the phone.

As Decius says, community standards have to define the community environment, but i do have trouble with it when people make foolish, ignorant choices, based more on xenophobia and short sighted value structures than on policy of acceptance and cultural adaptability. Obviously, that's based on my own progressivism, and I can't force anyone to think my way, but I have no problem telling people they're being irrational or unfair.

Like a woman named Dembowski wishing people could be more "American". -k]

Cultures collide in diverse Hamtramck

] A militant group has threatened to kill three Italian
] hostages unless their countrymen demonstrate against the
] presence of Italian troops in Iraq, according to a video
] aired on an Arabic news channel.

[ This is new to me, though perhaps others can refute... i've never before seen hostage takers issue demands to the public at large like this. Certainly it's common enough to take prisoners and then demand that the nation withdraw their support, etc. etc., but that's directed at governments, at the leaders. It seems like a unique capability of the current media centric world that these people can demand action of the entire nation of Italy, directly.

Will the government of Italy consider a demonstration (if the people acquiese) valid? Will it carry more weight than the terrorists' previous demands directly to the government? Can people, large numbers of them, be motivated in this way? -k]

CNN.com - Protest 'or Italian hostages die' - Apr 26, 2004

] Vectorial Elevation is an interactive artwork that allows
] participants to transform the sky over Dublin, Ireland.
] Using a three-dimensional interface, this web site lets
] you design huge light sculptures with 22 robotic
] searchlights located on and around O%u2019Connell Street.
] A web page is made for each participant with photos of
] their design from four cameras located around the city.
] The piece will be live from April 22 to May 3, 2004 to
] celebrate the expansion of the European Union. Check out
] this video to see what the project looks like in Dublin.

[ Pretty rad... this is the second major event I've seen (though I expect there have been more) which allowed internet users the oportunity to take part in an IRL activity by proxy -- controlling systems half a world away through public interfaces. I really hope this becomes more and more popular, letting everyone participate in the fun. -k]

Vectorial Elevation, Relational Architecture 4

] SmarterChild, for those not in the know, is America
] Online's artificial intelligence program. That's right -
] an AOL IM AI.

Elonka says:

The IM-bot SmarterChild disappeared for awhile, but seems to be back now. I find it enormously useful, since it's a quick way to get word definitions, find out what movies are playing, check the weather in a city that I'm traveling to, look up an encyclopedia entry, check a stock quote, etc. etc., all in plain english queries, "What's the weather forecast for Butte, MT?" "What time is Hidalgo playing?" or "What time is Hidalgo playing at the St. Charles 18?"

Or, when I'm really bored (or just want to procrastinate), it's fun testing the limits of its conversational ability, like to ask it about its parents (which it does indeed respond to).

If you haven't checked this out this bot yet, I recommend it. Just open an IM window and send a message (any message, even just "hi!") to "SmarterChild", and watch the time-wasting begin. :)

[ It's pretty rad. Certainly if i didn't have sherlock to answer this sort of thing, i'd use it pretty much all the time... when i'm away from the mac, i'll definitely use it... -k]

Observational Humor - Conversations with SmarterChild