free online book

art of assembly language programming

] It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around
] $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as
] much as they spend attending professional sporting
] events, buying music or going out to the movies.

“It employs an excess of 12,000 people in California. And in California alone, we pay over $36 million in taxes every year. So it's a very sizeable industry,” says Bill Lyon, a former lobbyist for the defense industry.

Then there are the big hotel chains: Hilton, Marriot, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn, which all offer adult films on in-room pay-per-view television systems. And they are purchased by a whopping 50 percent of their guests, accounting for nearly 70 percent of their in-room profits. One hotel owner said, "We have to have it, our guests demand it.”

Very interesting 60 minutes article on the state of the porn industry. Brings up an interesting point concerning obscenity prosecutions: What community standard do you apply when the porn doesn't make it to the community-- ala individual distribution?

And beyond that, considering something like 70-80% of americans partake in porn, what are the current community standards anyway?

CBS News | Porn In The U.S.A. | November 25, 2003 12:55:49

] Bypass Compulsory Web Registration

Just enter the url of a site which requires registration and you're in.

BugMeNot.com

A decent discussion why spam continues to exist... because it's profitable.

The economics of spam (The Register)

The Internet Worm case.

United States v. Morris

] "We can easily distort memories for the details of an
] event that you did experience," says Loftus. "And we
] can also go so far as to plant entirely false memories
] - we call them rich false memories because they are so
] detailed and so big."

I read the book that was coauthored by Elizabeth Loftus "The Myth of Repressed Memory" in my Science vrs Pseudoscience philosophy class that I took in college. I must say, it was a pretty interesting, as well as disturbing book to read. While reading it, you begin to wonder if your memories are really correct or not - and I recommend the book if you are interested in the subject, although the focus is on people "remembering" sexual abuse.

Guardian Unlimited | Life | 'We can implant entirely false memories'

re:If they are going to shop around for juries who will execute their bidding instead of REALLY turning to the community, then they aren't actually running jury trials. So, what is the point of participating if its just for show?

I guess, though with more forsight than biology, social systems still are fairly limited to evolve mostly from their previous form... sort of like how nature doesn't produce animals with wheels since it has a lineage of only bones and muscle to work with.

Executed Offenders - Last Statements

] So maybe we can stop having the tiresome argument over
] Big Government vs. Small Government. The Republicans have
] shown themselves to be no different from the Democrats on
] that score.
]
] The argument was always a little off-point anyway. The
] size of the government matters, but not as much as
] something else - whose side the government is on. Does it
] work for the general public or the favored few?

DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: Editorial: A short history of government

ah ha ha ha ha ha! what a fucked up prank!

Yahoo! Top Stories - Bogus Dictionary Lands Tourists In Trouble!

Rattle wrote:^

Great link, as well as that "operation clambake" link mentioned in it. This email exchange found there is such a wonderful example of theoretical parasitic memes in action:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/free_speech/fool.html

MemeStreams - It's Raymond Re-Run Good.