] State attorneys opposing a challenge to the Pennsylvania
] law that requires ISPs to block access to websites
] containing child pornography argued to a Philadelphia
] federal court this week that "a URL is neither a person,
] nor a real forum, nor a limited commodity."
]
] "It is a little string of letters and numbers that acts
] as a superficial label," they argued in a brief.
] "Disablement of an ISP's customers' access to a
] particular URL for even an indefinite time does not
] implicate First Amendment rights."

Child porn clearly poses a dangerous threat to our society. Not only is it a product of despicable crime against children, but our outrage towards it causes some really bone head laws to get made.

Wired News: Child Porn Law Debated in Court

Decius wrote:
] Hit Altavista at random to widen a search. They've got an
] interesting new feature. Search results are clustered by
] topic.

Interesting.. It gives options for various additional keyword and keyword combos which can be used to narrow a topic. When you select one, it appends it to the search. For instance, if you search for 'memestreams' and click on the Weblogs link, the search becomes 'memestreams weblogs'.

Update:

This is beatiful! The keywords on Altavista deliver!

] Computer Science
] Internet Content
] People Work
] Social Web
] State Of The Art
] Surfing Tool
] Blogs
] Blogging
] Memetics
] Nashville (ha!)
] Preferences
] Weblogs

Bang. Coming next year.

RE: AltaVista Search: memestreams

] Seismologists may soon have the ability to predict
] earthquakes several months in advance, say a team
] of researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles.

They predicted the recent Central California and Japan shakers. They have not analyzed data on Bam (yet).

] Although the group prefers not to announce predictions
] to the public for fear of causing panic and economic
] damage, UCLA did reveal in a press release Tuesday that
] the team is now watching for a possible 6.4 magnitude
] quake in a sparsely populated area south of the Mojave
] Desert sometime before Sept. 5.

Wired News: Predicting the Next Big One

This is the website for the New Life Lodge, a drug crisis treatment center outside Nashville, Tennessee.

In lieu of sending flowers for Brad Blines (crankymessiah), it has been asked that donations be made here.

New Life Lodge
Alumni Association
P.O. Box 430
Burns, TN 3702

New Life Lodge

] President Bush "was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf
] people" during Cabinet meetings, his former Treasury
] secretary, Paul O'Neill, told CBS News' "60 Minutes" in
] what the network said was his first interview about his
] work for the administration.

Lets start confirming some of Nick's worst fears!

] Describing his first such meeting with Bush, O'Neill said,
] "I went in with a long list of things to talk about and, I
] thought, to engage [him] on. ... I was surprised it turned
] out me talking and the president just listening. ... It was
] mostly a monologue."

He was thinking. I wonder what's for dinner? The economy.. Yummy. The economy is good for my teeth. Chomp Chomp..

] White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dismissed
] the characterization of Bush's style. "It's well known the
] way the president approaches governing and setting
] priorities," he told reporters. "The president is someone
] that leads and acts decisively on our biggest priorities,
] and that is exactly what he'll continue to do."

Its well known? We don't know shit about this administration that they have not wanted us to know, aside from when someone comes out and says "he is really an idiot." That remains very scary and occurs regularly.

CNN.com - O'Neill: Bush 'like a blind man' - Jan. 9, 2004

So what to do?

Tom Friedman returns from the holidays with some deep thoughts about the future. Stay tuned.

War of Ideas, Part 1

] Five opioid-dependent volunteers each received a single
] subcutaneous depot injection containing 58 mg of
] buprenorphine and were assessed for at least four weeks
] for signs and symptoms of opioid withdrawal, first
] residentially and then as outpatients. Depot
] buprenorphine appeared to provide effective relief from
] opioid withdrawal, with no participant requiring
] additional medication for withdrawal relief following
] depot administration.

Its time for an end to heroin chic.

Please..

I've seen the movies.. I've seen the friends die.. Its done. Its trite. There is no hip factor attached. You get no points. The education you receive is only in the economics of need.

There is a methadone clinic a few blocks away from my house.. I get to see the hardcore street junkies all the time, when they are really hard up. I was just relaying a story last night about this pathetic incident watching a street junkie shoot up between the toes. Fun stuff. Let me tell ya. Got a lot where those come from, collecting new stories all the time.

Lots of different types of junkies. I theorize the largest group are the folks who hold together a somewhat normal life, just with their one all encompassing hobby. The maintenance junkie. I've known a few.. They seem to go on for years, as opposed to the high schooler junkies, who tend burn up real fast.

So what's the message to the riders? "Stop." Sure, that's effective. I only hope that as time goes on, it will be successfully treatable as a medical condition. Hope is present that better tools are on the way. Maybe. Could just be a morning after pill with a new set of easy outs and associated problems. Who fucking knows..

I do have advice for those buying into the chic: Don't. Really. Just don't.

Well.. This will certainly be a theme that keeps coming up. Anyone else on the system riding the horse? I'd help you if I actually had any fucking clue what to do.

Death to Heroin Chic

From Flynn23:

It is with an extraordinarily heavy heart that I post that my good friend, Brad Blines, died on Thursday morning of a heroin overdose. Folks on memestreams will know him as crankymessiah. People from the 'scene' in Nashville will remember him from the days of Dragon Park, countless concerts and shows, and Predators games.

Brad was one of the lights of my life. We shared the same giddy excitement over music, film, and creativity that few people can understand. We had that kind of brotherly relationship where you don't really have to say anything to hear the other person. I hope that I will be able to still hear his infectious laugh in my head for the rest of my life.

Goodbye my friend.

Brad Michael BLINES
Nashville, TN
Age 35
January 8, 2003
January 8, 2003. Survived by parents, Michael and Diana Blines; sister, Kristin (Richard) Vik; grandmothers, Bonnie (Lloyd) Holt, Ruth Allen; nephews, Ethan Richard Vik, Brennan Michael Vik. The funeral service will be held at 3 p.m. at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home with Bro. Doug Varnado officiating. Pallbearers will be Chris Scheele, Richard Vik, Michael Dodson, Rich Husband, Jim Folger, Ernie Simon. The Interment will follow at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the New Life Lodge. Visitation will be Friday 5-9 p.m. and Saturday 1 p.m. until service at HARPETH HILLS FUNERAL HOME, 9090 Hwy. 100, 615-646-9292

I'm going to miss him too.

I'm at a lack for words right now.. I'm sad and angry.

I am sad, and unhappy...

This is one damn fine piece of web art. No, its many little pieces of webart loosely connected. A check at archive.org indicates it has existed since at least April 1, 2001. Its one of those sites that is very hard to come up with a description for. So give in and take a multi-media journey to the heart of ADD geek hipster university, where you will be learned in nothing particular. You will need flash. You will need RealPlayer. Yet, you will only need to point and click. At times you will be given choice, but do not dismay, because you are only going one way.

These robots are programed to rock.

Ming the Merciless

] US publisher Take-Two Interactive went on a pre-Christmas
] trademark registration spree, the products of which point
] us tantalisingly towards the likely name of the next
] instalment of the massive Grand Theft Auto series.
]
] On December 17 2003, Take-Two - parent company of GTA
] publisher Rockstar - registered three GTA trademarks, we
] can reveal. Crucially, the trademark "GTA: San Andreas"
] was registered on this date under the Goods and Services
] category as "Computer game programs and software and
] computer game cartridges".

Oh yeah! My town!! (Please be true!)

I can't wait to ram people off the Bay Bridge with a big SUV! Dirty Harry hill jumping shit through the Sunset! Launching rockets at cars driving down Lombard! This is going to be too much damn fun!!

I know its only going to be very loosely based, but hey.. As long as I can run around something that looks like The Embarcadero tossing grenades at groups of innocent people, I'll be happy.

GTA: San Andreas