The Internet's primary oversight body approved a plan Wednesday to create a virtual red-light district, setting the stage for pornographic Web sites to use new addresses ending in "xxx"

...
In sum, this is going to start a constitutional fireworks show.
...
.XXX is simply a bad choice for a domain name. They should have used .SEX. XXX implies hard core porn. SEX is far more likely to be acceptable to a wider range of websites and I think would result in fewer legal battles. For example, sites about sex education would love to be listed under .sex, but would refuse to be classified as XXX. However, the conservative christians will want them clumped into the red light district so they can block them more easily, and so the fireworks...

[ But dude "SEX" is a dirty word. Just having that word entered into the official cannon of standard address suffixes would be an offense to Jesus Christ himself. Acceptance of people's interest in sex is a sign of the end times. -k]

CNN.com - Stage set for '.xxx' Internet addresses - Jun 2, 2005

Friends, let us speak candidly:

Could is possibly be worth $12 and a 45-minute drive to watch Batman Begins on IMAX?

My vote is yes. The series starts over again, they get the killing of Batman's parents correct (insofar as the comics are concerned) and, let's be frank, the previews look kick ass. We've been let down in the past by guns-blazing previews (Blade II, Star Wars Episodes I and II, Transporter,...well, the list goes on and on), but are we so jaded as to allow our entrenched cynicism to preclude us a truly awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience? Does it matter since I'm only working part time this summer and would have nothing to stop me from trekking up there on Wednesday the 15th?

These are the questions that DEMAND answers.

-janelane, mirthfully

[ Count me in, unless it starts before 6 or something. -k]

Batman Begins: Notions of the Experience

] One provocative hypothesis that might account for the
] rise of spectrum disorders in technically adept
] communities like Silicon Valley, some geneticists
] speculate, is an increase in assortative mating.
] Superficially, assortative mating is the blond gentleman
] who prefers blondes; the hyperverbal intellectual who
] meets her soul mate in the therapist's waiting room.
] There are additional pressures and incentives for
] autistic people to find companionship - if they wish to
] do so - with someone who is also on the spectrum. Grandin
] writes, "Marriages work out best when two people with
] autism marry or when a person marries a handicapped or
] eccentric spouse.... They are attracted because their
] intellects work on a similar wavelength."
]
]
] That's not to say that geeks, even autistic ones, are
] attracted only to other geeks. Compensatory unions of
] opposites also thrive along the continuum, and in the
] last 10 years, geekitude has become sexy and associated
] with financial success. The lone-wolf programmer may be
] the research director of a major company, managing the
] back end of an IT empire at a comfortable remove from the
] actual clients. Says Bryna Siegel, author of The World of
] the Autistic Child and director of the PDD clinic at
] UCSF, "In another historical time, these men would have
] become monks, developing new ink for early printing
] presses. Suddenly they're making $150,000 a year with
] stock options. They're reproducing at a much higher
] rate."
]
]
] Genetic hypotheses like these don't rule out
] environmental factors playing a role in the rising
] numbers. Autism is almost certainly not caused by the
] action of a single gene, but by some orchestration of
] multiple genes that may make the developing child more
] susceptible to a trigger in the environment. One
] consequence of increased reproduction among people
] carrying some of these genes might be to boost "genetic
] loading" in successive generations - leaving them more
] vulnerable to threats posed by toxins in vaccines,
] candida, or any number of agents lurking in the
] industrialized world.

Really interesting. Really interesting. Really interesting. Really interesting. Really...

[ Truly. Very fascinating article. -k]

Wired 9.12: The Geek Syndrome

[ Responsive environments are cool as fuck. -k]

SENSACELL

] The measure approved Thursday would require store owners
] to determine which games are too violent or sexually
] explicit for anyone under 18. Anyone selling them to a
] minor could be fined.

[ Let me get this straight.... is this saying that the stores need to set policied on which games shouldn't be sold to minors, but if it's determined after the fact that they were wrong, then they get fined? What total horseshit. ]

This is just golden:

] The sponsor, Sen. Deanna Demuzio, denied the measure
] would interfere with free speech rights.
]
] "Video games are not art or media," she said. "They are
] simulations, not all that different from the simulations
] used by the U.S. military in preparation for war."

[ I think they're both art and media, as well as simulations. I also think this Senator is an extremist who's letting her false sense of morality get in the way of whatever intellect she actually has. ]

But the saddest thing in this entire article is:

] "I'm going to vote for this bill, but I'm voting for it
] for one reason: because this is a political bill,"
] said Sen. Mike Jacobs. "If I vote against it, it will
] show up in a campaign mail piece

[ Yeah, that's total bullshit. Welcome to the end of respectability... stupid stupid stupid public. -k]

Senate OKs Video Game Restrictions

] Yet long before the sentence was handed down many
] concerned Australians had elevated Corby to martyr
] status. But a martyr to what cause? There are 155
] Australians in foreign jails on drugs charges, two facing
] the death penalty.

] Death sentances for pot are not just.

[ I should say fucking not. ]

] However, it is absolutely clear that pot smugglers from Austrailia
] are not funding military juntas in Myanmar

[ Particularly not with 10 pounds of weed in the hands of a girl who, by all accounts, isn't likely to be part of organized crime. ]

The Government of Austrailia is likely to negotiate treaties that allow its citizens to be extradicted back home to be tried for crimes committed in other countries.

[ I'm not so sure. I'm not an expert on south-east asia, but any country in which it's possible to be executed for having marijuana would seem to be not very likely to have any interest in looking weak by permitting such extradition. The hardliners would make it appear like they were letting horrible deviant criminals get off clean, by going back to their country for a slap on the wrist. I just don't see it.

Ultimately, it looks like in this case they essentially used the "This was in your bag, thus it's yours. End of story." argument. All the news stories indicate that the judges discounted damn near everything else. Apparently the fact that she has no criminal record and was composed get her off "lightly".

Interestingly, the proscecutor indicated that they were going to appeal, because Corby deserves a life sentence. Does anyone else think that if you're going to issue a life sentence, you may as well just kill them? I hope the guy was grandstanding, because I just can't countenance anyone having that opinion for real. Completely asinine.

It seems like anyone travelling in that region should have some idea of the laws, and know that that much was pretty much guaranteed to be found. She's either monumentally stupid or she got set up. Assuming the latter, I'd be about ready to hire some serious PI's to track down whoever put it in there. That way, even if new evidence doesn't get you out, you can have them dealt with as slowly and painfully as possible. -k]

Corby verdict the inevitable - Editorial - Opinion - smh.com.au

OK, I usually don't succumb to memeing those silly internet videos that people send around, but this is absolutely hillarious. Self defense courses for women in Tokyo must be hard core.

[ Jesus. Any word on if that guy is still alive or, you know, paralyzed. -k]

daynews.ru - Tokyo purse snatcher gets nailed

] Odilia Bermudez, PhD, MPH, studied the reported diets of
] a large nationwide sample of American adults. Among
] respondents to the 1999-2000 National Health and
] Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), more than two
] thirds reported drinking enough soda and/or sweet drinks
] to provide them with a greater proportion of daily
] calories than any other food. In addition, obesity rates
] were higher among these sweet drink consumers. Consumers
] of 100% orange juice and low fat milk, on the other hand,
] tended to be less overweight, on average.

[ If you want to lose weight, cut out soda. -k]

Preliminary Data Suggest That Soda And Sweet Drinks Are The Main Source Of Calories In American Diet

] Mattel is suing to shut down a BBQ joint in Quebec called
] "Barbie's," on the grounds that very stupid children
] might wander alone into the bar/restaurant and order ribs
] under the mistaken impression that they have something to
] do with the Barbie dolls. Mattel: "we think our customers
] are morons(TM)".

[ Heh. -k]

Boing Boing: Mattel: kids will mistake BBQ joint for a Barbie doll

] California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger dispatched a
] road crew to a residential street in San Jose to create a
] pothole, which he later turned up and filled, grinning
] for news-cameras and declaring his willingness to
] increase funding for transportation projects. The
] Potemkin pothole was later sealed by a roadcrew with a
] gigantic roller truck...

[ Nice. -k]

Boing Boing: Schwarzenegger creates, then fills Potemkin pothole