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 Monday, October 21, 2002
Maybe this would work. There is a nice discussion of what to do when good causes have bad leaders who use horrible tactics (and he was not talking about Bush and the US but about the IRA and the Palestinians). His thesis: Let's all agree to go to war against Iraq but only if Bush is not involved. Cute. 3:13:11 PM 
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H. L. Mencken. "Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." [Quotes of the Day]
A great quote. ALways good at networking events. 2:53:47 PM
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Open Spectrum. It seems to be pretty important to figure out whether Kevin Werbach, David Reed, Bob Frankston, and company are right... Werbach Open Spectrum Paper Spectrum Series Working Paper #6 October 2002 Open Spectrum: The New Wireless Paradigm By Kevin Werbach* Almost everything you think you know about spectrum is wrong. For nearly a century, radio frequency spectrum has been treated as a scarce resource that the government must parcel out through exclusive licenses. Spectrum licensing brought us radio, television, cellular... [Semi-Daily Journal]
An important paper and one that I will spend some time studying. 2:51:18 PM
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Conspicuous Consumption. Paul Krugman (in "For Richer") writes: "Still, even J.P. Morgan didn't have a Gulfstream." Paul is way behind the curve. Microsoft founder Paul Allen doesn't have a Gulfstream, or even a Gulfstream II. Paul Allen has two Boeing 757s.... [Semi-Daily Journal]
Consequences of Income Distribution. Back in 1970 the top ten-thousandth of Americans (American taxpaying units, that is) received 0.5% of all the income earned in America. Today the top ten-thousandth receives 2.5% of all income--a relative share five times as great. Thirty years ago a member of the top ten-thousandth had 50 times the income of the average--now he or she has 250 times the income of the average. How does all this matter for American politics and society? Certainly Scarsdale and the Upper... [Semi-Daily Journal]
More on income inequality. Wasn't that what the French Revolution was initially supposed to be about? Oh well, at least I did not bring up the Nazis.It seems that Godwin's Law is now permeating all political discourse, not just Internet. So, if you mention the Nazis you automatically lose the argument. I'd love someone to invoke this on the floor of the Senate. Someone like Richard Byrd. It might be fun. 2:46:01 PM
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Microsoft Kills Another Case Study. Microsoft is now dropping another one of their "case studies", a 12 year old boy who supposedly used Encarta to write a paper. This is related, of course, to their recent Switcher fiasco. [ Go ] [ Previous Articles ] [The FuzzyBlog!]
This is so much fun. They need to stick to the truth because people smell a rat whenever MS says that Windows is easier. 2:37:50 PM
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Wow. Apple is trading at only a ~18% premium to cash. Amazing. Basically, investors think it will never make a profit again. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
I am sure we will once again be reading articles about Apple's upcoming demise. Happens everytime. 2:35:52 PM
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A Biotech Outcast Awakens. New York Times Oct 19 2002 5:48PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]
Some biotech companies refuse to die. I am sure Imclone will re-emerge again sometime soon (It already has started making the first steps). 2:29:52 PM
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Digital Killed the Video Star. Alan Graham shows how to create videos with just a scanner or digital camera, a $10 shareware app, and an OS X Mac. [O'Reilly Network Articles]
I will defintiely be reading this one. Recreating Ken Burn's Civil War technique of panning across static pictures with a $10 shareware product in order to make my own documentary. Cool. First the film, then it is on to the film festivals. 2:03:49 PM
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Suzanne Necker. "Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them." [Quotes of the Day]
I think we will see the true measure of many people in the coming years. Let's remember the good ones and try to forget the bad ones.
Douglas Adams. "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be." [Quotes of the Day]
So true. Being adaptible will be a very large plus in the coming years.
Henry Allen. "It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it." [Quotes of the Day]
Civilization always appears to be going down the drain. That is because it is always changing and to some people this is a very bad thing. 1:48:41 PM
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French Soldier Missing in North America: "France has alerted Interpol about a French army deserter who is known as a marksman and is missing in North America. A Defense Ministry spokesman said there was speculation of a link to the investigation into the Washington-area sniper." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson]
SInce all the media have reports that 2 people were arrested todat at a pay phone driving a van, this report adds more spice to the mix. I hope they caught the guy but I wonder how much of the story we will ever know. You can just bet we will have to relive it again as some sort of TV miniseries sometime during sweeps. 1:42:46 PM
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Brain tumour causes uncontrollable paedophilia. New Scientist Oct 20 2002 7:01PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]
Again, New Scientist gives us information that is truly weird. I wonder if the man was able to get his sentence altered at all since it was discovered that his behavior was caused by a brain tumor. Or what happened with his family. Removing the tumor changed the behavior. Tumor regrowth brought the behavior back. Very interesting. 1:38:29 PM
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The Poison Ivy Is Beautiful This Time of Year. New York Times Oct 20 2002 11:45PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]
An entertaining article about the lovely Fall Foliage Festival they have in the Texas panhandle. Considering that there really aren't any trees to speak of, it is very well done. Usually humans destroy any forests they find, usually for fire wood or building materials. It is nice to see us creating forests, or at least their West Texas relatives. 1:34:24 PM
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"Phil Gramm equates taxation with Nazism" [Daypop Top 40]
The article is much more than this headline. It talks about a previous Gilded Age, with it Morgans and Carnegies. It descibes how we are living in another Gilded Age, a time when the middle-class is just not very important in politics. We see a polirization of political discourse, virtually all of which revolves around these economics. The first Gilded Age rose from the huge money that was created by the Industrial Revolution that occurred towards the end of the 1800's. This Gilded Age has been fostered by another economic upheaval. Society will recover eventually but I am more and more afraid that it will be at least a generation. And we may have spent our energy on dreams and nightmares with little longterm importance. 1:23:07 PM
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"What a Difference Four Years Makes: Why U.N. inspectors left Iraq--then and now" [Daypop Top 40]
Interesting how it went from the US withdrawing from Iraq to Saddam kicking us out in just 4 years. We left because Saddam would not let the inspection teams do their job. He did not expell us, yet that is the message every media site is giving. I guess it makes it a lot easier to get upset when we say he kicked us out rather than we left. The underlying cause is the same (i.e. no inspections were being done) but it helps the casus belli if he did the kicking rather than us doing the leaving. As I recall, one of the things that Saddam was upset with was that CIA spies were being included in the inspection team, something that the head of the inspection teams was upset with also, since it endangered their mission. 12:59:53 PM
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