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Saturday, August 03, 2002

Lost Voices of Firefighters, Some on the 78th Floor. A tape found in the rubble shows that firefighters climbed far higher in the south tower than anyone realized. By Jim Dwyer and Ford Fessenden. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Another gripping story of what went on in the towers, with some reports from relatives of some who died, of hearing a tape of firemen inside the building. 7:50:31 PM  Permalink  comment []

Is your IT department full of dope smokers? [Marijuana.Com] 2:35:41 PM  Permalink  comment []

I Didn't vote for this http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/.Pictures/detained.jpg 2:28:00 PM  Permalink  comment []

After Sept. 11, a Legal Battle Over Limits of Civil Liberty. The detention of more than 1,200 people has provoked a legal battle that experts say is redefining the balance between individual liberties and national security. By The New York Times. [New York Times: Politics] To use a cliche, but a true one, every time we lose a liberty, every time the government acts behind our backs, every time we take a shortcut to give ourselves some elusive "safety," we surrender to the terrorists. Every time we assert the freedom that we supposedly love in this country we defeat a terrorist. 2:24:09 PM  Permalink  comment []

Bruce Springsteen's The Rising Well, I've been sort of wallowing in this album since Thursday; I think I've listened to it 5 times now (not bad considering it's 15 songs long, and none are short songs). I keep thinking how mature this album is, mature in the way it handles strong themes, in the way that he's in control of his material, and seems to be saying exactly what he wants to. Mature because he's being both clear and subtle. There are lots of lines that are haunting, none more, probably, than: I want a kiss from your lips I want an eye for an eye There are words that appear across many of the songs, important words like kiss, skin, miss, Mary. hope, faith, dream, love, life. The first two, kiss and skin, really stand out. Lesser artists, trying to come to grips with this new century, have descended into jingoism, judgement, self-righteousness. Bruce takes on the world, and as always, he finds his salvation in freedom through his art and invites us all along. Don't know when this chance might come again Good times got a way of comin' to an end. Don't know when this chance might come again Good times got a way of slippin' away Let's be friends baby let's be friends. 2:19:50 PM  Permalink  comment []

The Others Saw The Others on DVD tonight. Enjoyed the movie quite a bit -- it's rare to find a scary movie these days that doesn't stoop to blood and guts and shocking special effects. This one earns its horror through good story telling. Nicole Kidman is very good, the story is well told, and it has an ending that you can sort of feel coming on, even though you can't quite finger it. Recommended. 12:05:47 AM  Permalink  comment []

The Center of the Galaxy One should never let a day go by without checking out APOD. Today's picture is an absolutely amazing radio image of the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Be sure to click on the image itself to see the large verson. This is a dramatic, violent image: look at those SNRs -- remants of Super Novae, exploding stars. 12:01:13 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.