] Geek care and feeding is easier than many think, because
] we are generally healthiest when left to our own devices.
] This doesn't mean we can't do things together; but we do
] thrive when given a little time to do our own thing.
] (This conveniently frees you from having to be part of
] it.)

MSN Dating & Personals - Loving your geek, tolerating his hobbies

] But while there's nothing particularly bleeding-edge
] about eating the hamburger but not the bun, now that
] low-carb dieting has gone mainstream, the diet does
] appear to hold a special attraction for hackers,
] programmers and other close-to-the-machine dwellers. For
] some geeks, the low-carb diet is itself a clever hack, a
] sneaky algorithm for getting the body to do what you want
] it to do, a way of reprogramming yourself. Programmers,
] who are used to making their computers serve their will,
] are now finding that low-carb diets enable the same kind
] of control over their bodies.
]
] Doctorow, who lost 75 pounds by cutting out
] carbohydrates, sees a natural affinity between his
] brethren and the diet: "Read the
] alt.support.diet.low-carb FAQ, and you'll find people
] attacking their bodies like they would attack a logic
] board," he says. "Substitute 'faster bus speed' for
] 'metabolism,' and you've got something pretty close to an
] overclocking FAQ, he adds, referring to a practice
] popular with hardware hackers in which computer
] processors are tweaked so that they run faster than their
] out-of-the-box speeds.

I've been trying to convince Dementia to join me on a revisit to the land of Atkins after I get back from China, because one thing you do need is moral support. You gotta have someone that's in it with you. Anyway, I thought this was a very interesting article in the fact that (1) Cory Doctorow wrote a story about hacking his body and now we learn that he has pretty much done that and (2) it's timely in accordance with what I've been doing and want to ramp up in another week.

Hackers on Atkins

] Washington - Dr Miguel Nicolelis knew he had nailed it
] when the monkey stopped using her arm to play the
] computer game.
]
]
] An implanted device had allowed the monkey to control the
] game using only her thoughts, Nicolelis and colleagues
] report in the Public Library of Science Biology journal
] on Monday.
]
]
] And changes in the way the monkey's brain cells worked
] suggested the brain was physically adjusting to the
] device, they reported in the new online science journal.
]
] Nicolelis hopes the device will eventually allow
] paralyzed patients to regain some ability to use their
] upper bodies - virtually, if not physically.
]
]
] "The monkey suddenly realized that she didn't need to
] move her arm at all," Nicolelis said in a statement.
]
]
] "Her arm muscles went completely quiet, she kept the arm
] at her side and she controlled the robot arm using only
] her brain and visual feedback."

Good applications, scary applications.

IOL : Monkey think, monkey do... now people too?

] Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes
] rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers in
] Montana and across the country as U.S. public opinion on
] the mission sours.
]
] And all the letters are the same.

I am recommending this version of the story because it is more complete. The Army ran an astroturf campaign. They somehow managed to not get everyone's permission before submitting letters to the editors of their hometown papers on their behalf.

Form letter signed by U.S. troops a mystery - greatfallstribune.com

] For the past seven months, I have been fighting for the
] right of all Americans to travel freely in our own
] country. CAPPS II, the Soviet-style internal border
] control system being pushed by the Department of Homeland
] Security, will strip us of that right, and make air
] travel a 'privilege' granted by government.

One cause probably worth donating to.

DontSpyOnUs :: What You Can Do To Stop CAPPS II

] Roy Horn, half of the Las Vegas duo Siegfried & Roy, was
] able to move his hands, feet, and give a "thumbs-up"
] signal Monday, hospital officials said, three days after
] being mauled by one of his tigers during a show.
]
] University Medical Center officials said 59-year-old Horn
] was still in critical condition.
]
] He suffered massive blood loss in the incident, the
] officials said, and also had a stroke after the mauling.
]
] The accident happened Friday night about halfway through
] Siegfried & Roy's show at the MGM Mirage Hotel and Casino
] on the Las Vegas strip.
]
] Denise Previti, who was watching the show as part of her
] honeymoon trip, said Horn introduced a 7-year-old white
] tiger named Montecore to the audience, and then let go of
] the animal's leash.
]
] The tiger started to head offstage, Previti told CNN's
] Anderson Cooper, and Horn tried to direct it back to
] center stage.
]
] "You could tell it didn't want to go, so he had the
] leash, he was trying to get it to sit and face the
] audience, and he had his arm out in front of him," she
] said.
]
] "The tiger bit his arm, [and] he's hitting the nose of
] [the] tiger with the microphone, trying to get it off,"
] she said. "After that it's kind of a blur, but it seemed
] like he almost sat down or leaned back gradually, and
] then the tiger bit his neck

it IS true - you can NEVER trust a "domesticated" wild cat. These guys have LIVED with these big cats for 30 years like they are house pets. If Siegfried and Roy cant tame them, they cannot be tamed!

CNN.com - Tiger tamer gives thumbs-up - Oct. 6, 2003

jessica wrote:
] ] PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Cheap Trick Avenue
] ] instead of Boardwalk? Hernando's Chop Shop instead of
] ] Reading Railroad?
] ]
] ] Black leaders are outraged over a new board game called
] ] "Ghettopoly" that has "playas" acting like pimps and game
] ] cards reading, "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to
] ] crack. Collect $50."

http://www.ghettopoly.com/

I want!

LB

RE: CNN.com - 'Ghettopoly' game causes outrage - Oct. 9, 2003

Go Elonka:)

STLtoday - News - Story

] On its own, Allen's experience seems easy to dismiss, but
] it's part of a pattern, the voting activists say, that
] reveals the voting industry's desire to keep people off.
] The worst transgression, one that almost everyone
] interviewed pointed to, occurred in a conference call on
] Sept. 16. The agenda for that meeting was sent to
] participants before the call, and it clearly states that
] the first order of business would be to approve new
] members, after which the committee would decide whether
] or not the draft standard was ready to be approved. The
] new members up for approval that day were Jim Adler,
] Alice Allen, Chuck Corry, David Dill, G.D. Miller, Ted
] Selker and Barbara Simons -- many of whom are in favor of
] verifiable audit trails in voting machines.
]
] But when people got on the phone that day, Vern Williams,
] a voting security expert at SAIC, an information
] technology consulting firm, suggested that the agenda be
] switched so that new members were approved after the
] committee voted on the draft standard -- a move that
] would ensure that the new members would have no say on
] the proposed standard. Williams' motion passed. Then the
] committee decided to open the draft standard for voting.
] And after that, the new members were approved.
]
] The activists were outraged at this maneuver. "I kept
] saying, 'We've been disenfranchised!'" says Simons, a
] computer scientist who worries about the security of
] electronic voting systems. Simons and others tried to
] reopen the vote on the standard, but one of the committee
] leaders then proposed a motion to adjourn the meeting.
] According to Roberts Rules of Order, an adjournment
] motion takes precedence over other motions. The motion
] won by one vote, and the meeting was adjourned.

More stupid voting tricks from those who would have to significantly alter their software to make it secure. I have to wonder, though, if the systems are this insecure, how hard could it have been to put it in place initially? Come on, even webcam girls have polls on their websites.

Anyway, it's another good look at how the good ol' boys club is trying to keep the status quo.

Another case of electronic vote-tampering?

] Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday ordered federal
] prosecutors to come down harder on criminal defendants,
] instructing them to seek maximum penalties and to limit
] the use of plea bargains.

I can't beleive I didn't hear about this for a week!

Dude, it totally makes sense... all criminals are terrorists. They're trying to undermine the fabric of good, clean, wholesome American society.

I move for one punishment for all crimes -- decapitation. That's right. Hack a computer that's not yours? Decapitation. Have an ounce of weed and a couple of baggies? Decapitation. Question authority, er, i mean, inflame opponents of the U.S. and corrupt the youth? Decaptitaion.

Also, seriously, we need to send a message to all the terrorist kids theiving intellectual property after school that we will not tolerate their actions and that they are responsible personally for the deaths of 9/11/2001.

Honestly, criminals are broken anyway, and you can't fix them, so cap 'em and make life better for all the good, law abiding sheep of the country.

My favorite part of this is the following :

[ "You want uniformity," Mercer said. "You don't want ]
[ someone's viewpoint or philosophy determining the ]
[ outcome. What we are after is eliminating disparity ]
[ from place to place and defendant to defendant when ]
[ the crime is the same." ]

Yeah, we should totally take the human element out of it. Breaking the law is breaking the law, and there's no difference between situations. Sentencing should be handled by a computer. Talk about uniformity. And while we're at it, we don't really need juries or lawyers either. I mean, you wouldn't be in court if you hadn't done anything wrong, right?

Federal prosecutors to seek maximum penalties