] The godfather of gonzo says 9/11 caused a "nationwide
] nervous breakdown" -- and let the Bush crowd loot the
] country and savage American democracy.

Salon.com News | Hunter S. Thompson

] Not long ago, I had dinner with a former military officer
] who participated in information warfare "what-if"
] exercises that the Pentagon and the White House ran in
] the late 1990s.
]
] "If Saddam ever attacks the U.S. through the Internet and
] takes out a telecommunications firm, we'll be in a state
] of war," my dinner companion told me. "All bets are off.
] The Fourth Amendment is on hold. If EarthLink is
] attacked, the Army could show up and seize control of
] their servers."

Perspective: The first 'e-war'

] China has vowed to push ahead with plans to launch its
] own first manned space mission this year despite the
] Columbia tragedy, state press reported on Monday .
]
] "China will launch its first manned space shuttle this
] year," said Tu Shou'e, an astronautics academic at the
] Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to the People's
] Daily.
]
] "The key work now is to learn lessons from the accident
] to make our programme better and to make the dream of the
] Chinese people of reaching into space come true."

Go China! The more countries and corps putting their efforts into the exploration and colonization of space, the better. Now more then any other time, we should be keenly aware of how easy it is for major setbacks to occur in humanity's endevour to push this frontier.

I hope all the players in the space game truly do believe that this is a "humanity" thing, and not a "country" thing. If we do not enbrace that belief, we will be doing ourselves a great disservice.

China firm on its first manned space flight : HindustanTimes.com

] SADDAM Hussein's senior bodyguard has fled with details
] of Iraq's secret arsenal.
]
] His revelations have supported US President George W.
] Bush's claim there is enough evidence from UN inspectors
] to justify going to war.
]
] Abu Hamdi Mahmoud has provided Israeli intelligence with
] a list of sites that the inspectors have not visited.
]
] They include:
]
] AN underground chemical weapons facility at the southern
] end of the Jadray Peninsula in Baghdad;
]
] A SCUD assembly area near Ramadi. The missiles come from
] North Korea;
]
] TWO underground bunkers in Iraq's Western Desert. These
] contain biological weapons.

Something about this does not seem right. Why is this public right now? If this is true, wouldn't it be best to keep it secret from everyone other then the weapon inspectors? They are the ones who need this information right now. If this is true, and its not acted on quickly by the inspectors, then when they get there they will find only burned out facilities.

Herald Sun: Saddam's bodyguard warns of secret arsenal [02feb03]

] After an expert NASA panel warned last year that safety
] troubles loomed for the fleet of shuttles if the space
] agency's budget was not increased, NASA removed five of
] its nine members and two of its consultants. Some of them
] now say the agency was trying to suppress their
] criticisms.

Safety experts muzzled, they say

] Embrace file-sharing, or die
]
] A record executive and his son make a formal case for
] freely downloading music. The gist: 50 million Americans
] can't be wrong.

Very good. Quick rant time.

This wraps up a number of points made recently by people such as Tim O'Reily, John Perry Barlow, and Prince into a very nice argument targeted at NARAS.

NARAS is a good target for this argument too, IMHO. The artists will get hip before the record companies. The artists' representation is a good group to start to warming up. The RIAA will not swing untill the finical aspects of embrasing all this new technology have been worked out. The RIAA represents a handfull of CEOs. Their constitution is written in black ink, if you catch my drift.

The industry is used to a hundred years of product scarcity, and it is their busines model's foundation. Thats why the album product cycle exists the way it goes. I think "step one" for them is to realise that this "product cycle" is a thing of the past, and the first player who finds a way to do away with it will be an instant industry leader. When the way artists are marketed starts to fall in line with how prolithic that artist is, and not an album release/recoup schedule, consumers will begin to stop hating the record industry.. I theorize that one of the cheif reasons people hate the industry so much is because they feel they act like a gatekeeper between them and the artist, a gatekeeper that they don't want. They want demos. They want outtakes. They want to be connected to the artist. They don't want the industry filtering for them. They want the industry to provide access to what they want, not to tell them what to think.

New technology has empowered the consumer. The comsumer, in its mob-indirect-not-fully-aware-of-its-own-power kinda way, has realised this. They want a change. The record industry thinks its a subscription service, but its a little more then that. The consumer wants a complete revamp in the way artists are marketed and sold. They care about the work of the artist, and if they like that work. And if they do, they want access to as much of it (the artist) as possible. They want the market to be driven by their tastes, not their tastes to be driven by the market. The consumer is kinda pissed off that their culture is driven by a select few who get to pick what gets big. While that may not be entirely accurate, thats what most think, so thats the idea that wins.

Its going to take them awhile to see the writing on the wall, longer to interpret it, and yet longer to start following its instructions. The consumer will keep the fire under their ass growing, and they will figure it out eventually.

Either that, or they will start die one by one. The new system will arise sooner or later, either way. That is the nature of human evolution, its about ideas and technology now.

Salon.com | Embrace file-sharing, or die

] Since they were enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention”
] provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”),
] codified in section 1201 of the Copyright Act, have not been
] used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to stop copyright
] pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to
] copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended
] for that purpose.[1]
]
] In practice, the anti- circumvention provisions have been
] used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather
] than to stop copyright piracy. As a result, the DMCA has
] developed into a serious threat to three important public
] policy priorities:

EFF Unintended Consequences: Four Years under the DMCA

How To Fly Without ID

It's Easy If You Know How!

In the last two years, everyone flying on a commercial airline has stepped up to an airline's ticket counter and heard the agent recite a familiar litany. The monologue goes, "has your bag been unattended; have you accepted gifts from a stranger; can I see your identification please?" The traveler docilely murmurs answers, and produces a driver's license or some equivalent.

As a die-hard Constitutionalist, I believe that we still have an absolute, unfettered, God-given right to travel from point A to point B without permission from the state -- in the air, as well as on land. This Nazi procedure of "your papers, please" has never been appropriate for our country. I have had occasion to travel a good deal in the last several months, and on those trips I decided to research and test this issue about the necessity for producing identification. I have talked with agents, and their supervisors, of several major airlines in cities across America, and have gradually pieced together a rather complete picture of the real legal situation regarding our right to travel.

How to fly without ID!

] Ali G will make his US debut next month on cable channel
] HBO, the home of hit shows including Sex and the City,
] The Sopranos and Six Feet Under.

Decius:
] More potentially good television. Ali G is an english
] gangster (read drum and bass) who interviews people who
] have absolutely NO sense of humor....
]
] F B ... aaaiiihhhh!

Oh boy, here comes Ali G.

I saw a movie/collection of stuff from Ali G's UK TV show a while back. I was enjoying it for about the first 3/4 of it, then durring the last 1/4'th I found I was already getting tired of it. Now, undoubtly, he will wind up becoming all the rage in the states, and I will go from indifference to hating him within months..

Maybe, we will see.

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Booyakasha! Ali G goes to the States

] President George W. Bush will propose a nearly $470
] million boost in NASA's budget for fiscal 2004, an
] administration official said on Sunday, promising
] investigators would look into whether past cutbacks
] played any part in the space shuttle Columbia disaster.

Someone shouldn't have had to die in order to make this happen.

Forbes.com: Bush to propose budget increase for NASA