Clark campaigning at light speed

Democratic candidate Wesley Clark said something interesting while campaigning last weekend:

“I still believe in e=mc?, but I can’t believe that in all of human history, we’ll never ever be able to go beyond the speed of light to reach where we want to go,” said Clark. “I happen to believe that mankind can do it.”

“I’ve argued with physicists about it, I’ve argued with best friends about it. I just have to believe it. It’s my only faith-based initiative.” link

Let’s just hope it’s not going to become a running gag like Gore’s “I invented the internet.”

Moby on RIAA

One of the many reasons I like Moby. In a recent post he said this:

so apparently the riaa are sueing one of our very own moby.com board members, liquidlevel, for file-sharing.
personally i just can’t see any good in coming from punishing people for being music fans and making the effort to hear new music.
i’m almost tempted to go onto kazaa and download some of my own music, just to see if the riaa would sue me for having mp3’s of my own songs on my hard-drive.
-moby

Grassroots experiment

Many, including me, have noted a fascination with the current democratic campaigns and their utilization of previously untapped reseources. Namely: the internet.

But often the effect moves from a campaign to the effect too fast or without a good way to trace it. (The nomination of Wesley Clark came out of nowhere for many of us, for example.)

Steven of SteveBerlinJohnson.com started an experiments with a mock-up ad for Clark, here. Only programs readily available to consumers were used in the creation of the original spot, then some volunteers kicked in. The end result is pretty presentable.

Stop calling me, already.

Finally the list that stops annoying telemarketer calls is about to take effect on Wednesday. Or is it?
Opinion Column
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Breaking news, breaking things

I was writing a column on why we need a “no calling list” blocking telemarketer calls to those that do not wish to get them tonight and people kept interrupting me. That’s just the nature of the newsroom though, and I did not think much about it. It did, however, mean that it took me about 2 1/2 hours to finish the column.

After I was done I thought “better check if I have this one fact right” and put “telemarketer do not call list” into Google. A lot of sites popped up but the thing that luckily caught my eye was Google’s news service and a story that had been posted 20 minutes before.

The “do not call list” which had been road-blocked, was out of a sudden in effect. That of course mean that I had to rewrite the whole column.

greek or greek?

Last week our editor in chief wrote a pretty in-depth story about a gay fraternity on campus. It was a pretty good story, but nevertheless had us cracking jokes about him all week, as both our two last male editors in chief came out during their term.

The headline for his story was unintentionally funny though as his parents quickly pointed out when he went home over the weekend.

The stories title “should gays go greek?” was not meant to have any sexual connotation, but apprently “going greek” is a somewhat outdated term for “having anal sex.”

Naturally, he will never hear the end of this one.

shaved kitty

This is just wrong. (scroll down 2/3)

It is not possible to shave this part, even if you try stretching the nose apart. The only way to deal with this is by using a pair of tweezers.

via DarrenBarefoot.

Patriot Act has to be re-evaluated

The Patriot Act, introduced in the weeks following Sept. 11, needs to be re-evaluated now that the nation has better perspective.
Editorial
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Student Government bias in impeachment remains a concern

The current Student Government impeachment hearings have to be free of bias to ensure students at the University of South Florida are fairly represented.
Editorial
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No WMDs in Iraq

Who would have thought that there are not WMDs in Iraq? (BBC) Am I the only one that finds this not shocking at all? I certainly hope not.

Best fill ad ever

When newspapers have room to spare they usually have some ads on hold that they can stick in there called “fill ads.” They usually feature some good cause or non profit organization’s message and are run free of charge.

Since I had some room in my section tonight this fill ad made a debut in the paper. (image inside)
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The healing power of roller coasters

The New York Times has an article on somebody’s eye healing itself during a roller coaster ride. The surgery that was scheduled to fix a lens problem was not necessarry after three consecutive rides.
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Partner in life, but not the Web

Troubled Diva’s Mike asked the question “do our partners read our blogs?” Now statistics from a poll he had running on his site show that most partners (mine included) hardly ever check their significant other’s Web site.
Some pretty interesting stuff.

PowerBook Review

I wrote a review of the updated PowerBook line Apple released last Tuesday for today’s Oracle.
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Headache

I doubt there will be any updated today as I have a killer headache. I even took the night off work, something I have not done in ages.

One word of advice though: If you have a headache that hurts even if you just move your head ever so slightly, do not yell out “Damn!” under any circumstances. Not a good idea.

The Amazing Adventures of Sebi and Poopy Cat

Grace, one of the editors at the paper I work at, drew this cartoon on a whiteboard tonight.

Click on image for larger version.

Guerilla Democrats

This testimonial of an Dean supporter was just posted to Democratic Presidential Candiate Howard Dean’s Web site:

It’s almost 5 a.m. Sat morning and I JUST got home (left here around 11:30pm) (…) Heck, we even placed a “Republicans for Dean” sign in front of the Tarrant County Republican Headquarters on Ballinger Street! They should LOVE that! Check out our HUGE sign on Interstate 30 and Morrison. It’s 20 feet long and 4 feet wide. You CANNOT miss it coming from the Dallas/Arlington area as you are entering Fort Worth. Going to bed now, Have a good Visibility Day! I will get up later and take pictures.

This is Texas the man is talking about! It really cracked me up.

Apple Porn

I am looking at an Aluminum 15 inch PowerBook as I am typing this. This machine is perfect from what I can tell. All the little kinks that used to be problems on the Ti are gone (and there weren’t that many really) so this thing should be one of the most perfect computers ever designed.

(posted at the Apple Store, Tampa.)

Protecting Alien Life

NASA is decommissioning the Galileo probe by having it plummet into Jupiter’s atmosphere after 14 years of operation. That’s pretty interesting in itself but NASA says they are doing this for the following reasons:

The craft is running low on fuel and could collide with one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa.

Europa has saltwater lakes under its surface that could harbour life. Nasa wants to ensure they are not contaminated.

So they are worried life that they don’t know if it exists could be harmed? That’s pretty considerate of them.

And again, there is nothing happening up there.

LBJ on the Patriot Act

Sarken unearthed this quote by former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson:

“You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.”

I can only imagine what he would have said about the Patriot Act.

Phone Booth

Just finished watching Phone Booth and it’s one of the best movies I have seen in quite a while. There are not many movies that can be summed up in one sentence, yet keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end, but this is one of them.

The plot is relatively simple: Guy walks into phone booth, the phone rings, he picks it up. The guy on the other end tells him he has a sniper rifle pointed at him and if he steps out of the booth, he is going to kill him.

When I watched the movie I kept thinking “this the type of movie Hitchcock would have made.” According to IMDB the screenwriter actually pitched the idea of a movie playing out entirely in a phone booth to him in the 60’s but couldn’t figure out a way to get it working. 40 years later he figured it out and wrote a hell of a movie.

The Web has Won

In the 90’s, when the internet was in its infancy but .com was the buzz word for making millions,there were statistics in the papers about how many people currently use the web on an almost weekly basis. Later on, when the internet was more and more accepted as part of our lives, this became a thing of the past.

Today I can announce that the web has gained the most acceptance that it will ever have:

My Mom not only has her own PowerBook and knows how to configure her pop and smpt settings to receive email, she also signs her emails with “ALMI” (All love, Mother Irmgard) now.

I’d say the web has won.

Chancellor Schröder in the New York Times

I literally almost fell of the couch when I saw an editorial written by German Chancellor Schröder in Friday’s New York Times.

It appears that he is going to rally for German and U.N. support in Iraq next week when he addresses the U.N.. This is about as much a course change for his politics as there ever was one.

I am usually against copying entire articles in their entirety (click read entire entry as usual), but I included the editorial here in it entirety. The meat of is is this though:

It is true that Germany and the United States disagreed on how best to deal with Saddam Hussein’s regime. There is no point in continuing this debate. We should now look toward the future. We must work together to win the peace. The United Nations must play a central role. The international community has a key interest in ensuring that stability and democracy are established as quickly as possible in Iraq. The international mission needs greater legitimacy in order to accelerate the process leading to a government acting on its own authority in Iraq.

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Scared yet?

Are you scared yet? But why would you they are our friends, right?