PlayTarot, taking child toys to new levels. Everyonce and a while a website makes me say, "Now why didn't I think of that." This is one of those.

Announcing the return of one Hunter S. Thompson. Was he ever really gone? See him predict of 'Big Darkness" to come and believe!

I find this a frighteningly real possibility. In the modern age of information running everything. Those who have the information will remain in control.

Rebecca Blood makes a few interesting points about the direction cultural literacy is taking. In one phrase, "Pattern Recognition." (see William Gibson's same titled book.)

Spam attacks Spam. Film at Eleven. Hormel should just give up and save itself the lawyer fees. The funny thing about this article is they got the origin of the slang use wrong. It actually began on MUDs, Multi-User Domains/Dungeons, where are interacting text based environments where users can roleplay or chat. The term Spam was coined when a newbie, or a user with malicious intent, would log on and start to post large volumes of text just to get attention. So the important dialogue would get 'Spammed' off the screen. This was a real problem as most people were on 2400 baud modems or slower at the time. Eventaully the offender would get @toad'd (turned into a toad) and forced to behave or be kicked off the MUD.

Thus endeth the history lesson for today.

Webcasters fight back. The internet offers many new exciting technologies. Among those are the ability to provide mini-radio stations where content can be tailored to micro-audiences (around 100 to 1000 listeners at time). Something I would love to do. However, with the way royalties are set up now, the cost would be prohibitive even though the technology is dirt simple.

The old saying on the internet is "Information wants to be free." Free as in free from constraints, one of which is high prices. If prices are high enough to be considered censorship (by the owner of the information of the gov't) then the internet will consider that as damage and route around it. The information will then be made available in some other manner.

In this case, I think it behoves the recording industry to practically pay people to set up these micro internet stations. It's free publicity of the good kind. Right now all they're getting is bad press and they're not winning over any new customers that way.

Posit for the day. Are the Harry Potter books an allegory for the publishing world? Do the forces of Dumbledore the JK Rowling's of the world represent the people who write for the masses? How about Voldemort's group? Are they the high-falutin writers penning for the elite readers? And the muggles? The general audience for whom the fight for control over.

I don't know. But it's an interesting reading of the texts.

You Are A Pirate!


What Type Of Swashbuckler Are You?
brought to you by Maddog Varuka & Dawg Brown

Falling Angels Art: Air Force 1st Lt. Tamara Long Archuleta was killed on Sunday March 23, on a Mercy mission in Afganistan when the helicopter she was co-piloting crashed. This site has been left up as a tribute to her.

This poor guy deciphered a code that was used as a PR stunt for Neal Stephenson's latest novel. Worth a read.

Amazon World: reviews of various Amazon.com reviews. Hilarious!

Here's a brief guide to the amazing depth of acting ability possessed by one of my favorite actors.

Okay. My Dad's nickname is 'Otter'. Although he collects pictures, cartoons, stuffed animals, etc.. of the furry creature, he has never ever considered going as far as the owner of Plushie Forest. Thank God!

More interesting reading regarding the Medical Malpractice 'crisis'. These doctors and insurance companies have probably spent more money of PR in the last year than medical malpractice payouts.

Quote for the day: Kids are like pancakes... you always mess up the first one.

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It doesn't get much uglier than this. My website if designed by some color blind nut.

An absolutely wonderful look at Portland architecture through the years. The Las Vegas area had no significant population or industry until the early 40s and there is little if no respect for buildings from the past here. I do think Portland's solution to urban sprawl would work in the Las Vegas valley. However, we are limited by our water use as much as a geographic bounderies.

Christopher Elkins's reminds me of a great passtime -- Movie Location Hunting. I'm always on the lookout for places where movies have been filmed. It was a bit easier when I lived in Bubank, but there have been a number of films shot in and around Las Vegas. Surprisingly, CSI, although set in Las Vegas, does most of its filming in the LA area.

I'm reading one of my favorite books again, "Beauty" by Sheri S Tepper. The whole book is a unique retelling of some of our common fairytales leading upto a death and redemption of the earth and all its beauty. I've just come to one of the crucial passages and was struck, as I am each time I read it, by the gravity it lends to the situation of the world today. So, if Ms. Tepper does not mind, I will repeat the passage, in which our heroine is attempting to save the earth via an environmental group, here:

We have been thwarted at every turn by god. Not the real God. A false one which has been set up by man to expedite his destruction of the earth. He is the gobble-god who bids fair to swallow everything in the name of a totally selfish humanity. His ten commandments are me first (let me live as I please), humans first (let all other living things die for my benefit), sperm first (no birth control), birth first (no abortions), males first (no women's rights), my culture/tribe/language first (no human rights), my politics first (lousy liberals/rotten reactionaries), my country first (wave the flag, the flag, the flag), and, above all, profit first.

We worship the gobble-god. We burn forests in his name. We kill whales and dolphins in his name. We pave prairies in his name. We have retarded babies in his name. We sell drugs in his name. We set bombs in his name. We worship him everywhere. We call him by different titles and commit blasphemies in the name of worship.

I've never read this blog before today, but Waldo Jaquith makes a couple of excellent points in this post and the one that proceeds it. With approx. $8000 in time and equipment he'll save his town millions and turn a downtown street into a mecca for tech and business types.