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Friday, August 09, 2002 |
Good to hear this, I was worried:
If you see a bigfoot, experts say: don't worry, they probably won't attack you. "Sasquatches have likely had many opportunities to attack humans," according the BFR's Web site. "However, only two reports describe violent attacks on humans."
However, if you have a dog with you, you might have some trouble.
"Sasquatches are known to kill dogs that chase or threaten them," the site reads. "Aggressive dogs have been found torn apart, with Sasquatch tracks around the remains."
But I do have a dog to worry about. Via James Randi, this is one of the dopiest articles I've seen in a long, long time (well, at least since I watched Bill O'Reilly last).
4:35:43 PM Permalink
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UNC Sued For Assigning A Text on Islam to Freshmen. The Washington Post reports that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "finds itself besieged in federal court and across the airwaves by Christian evangelists and other conservatives" for assigning incoming freshmen a book about Islam. The Post reports that Fox News Network's Bill O'Reilly "compared the assignment to teaching 'Mein Kampf' in 1941 and questioned the purpose of making freshmen study 'our enemy's religion.'" [kuro5hin.org]
Yeah, we sure don't want anyone learning anything about anyone else's religion!
3:46:22 PM Permalink
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1. "drink her own breast milk" (22.0 points) [( blogdex : recent )] A Long Island mother is fuming that JFK Airport security guards forced her to drink her own breast milk in front of other passengers before boarding a flight - to prove she wasn't carrying any dangerous fluid to wreak havoc. "It was very uncomfortable and very embarrassing and very disgusting," said Elizabeth McGarry, 40, of the April 2 incident.
Another day in George W. Bush's America. I guess that's OK if we are all safer from the terrorists!
2:59:00 PM Permalink
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A stigma that never fades. Economist.com | Prison and beyond America's incarceration rate was roughly constant from 1925 to 1973, with an average of 110 people behind bars for every 100,000 residents. By 2000, however, the rate of incarceration in state and federal prisons had more than quadrupled, to 478. America has overtaken Russia as the world's most aggressive jailer. When local jails are included in the American tally, the United States locks up nearly 700 people per 100,000, compared with 102 for Canada, 132 for England and Wales, 85 for France and a paltry 48 in Japan.... [Moon Farmer]
2:54:08 PM Permalink
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My Tivo just came! Only about 6 months after I first ordered one. I won't get it hooked up until tonight at the earliest. I'll play with it for awhile the way it is before I start hacking the sucker.
10:36:22 AM Permalink
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posted by owillis August 8 11:24 AM | 111 comments. Is modern literature too pretentious? "In the bookstore I'll sometimes sample what all the fuss is about, but one glance at the affected prose -- 'furious dabs of tulips stuttering,' say, or 'in the dark before the day yet was' -- and I'm hightailing it to the friendly black spines of the Penguin Classics" This essay from B.R. Myers in The Atlantic has been expanded into a book. I thought this defense of Raymond Chandler makes a good point about how literature (or at least its critics) can be exclusionary. [MetaFilter]
I enjoyed the Atlantic article when it appeared; the book might be fun, though he's got to broaden his argument and the authors he discussed more. There are lots of good comments on the Metafilter link above.
10:35:02 AM Permalink
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Book Excerpt: Beyond HTML Goodies. Goodies is as goodies does--or something like that. Our excerpt from chapter 6 of "Beyond HTML Goodies" runs through a collection of basic JavaScript-based form tricks, including auto submitting a form and select box-based navigation. From Que. 0809 [WebReference News]
7:57:02 AM Permalink
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Now Ain't The Time For You Tears
Dave Marsh on record company cupidity. "No artist ever lost money auditing a record company." Excellent piece, via Expecting Rain. After Mike's recommendation of Marsh a couple weeks ago, I've been dipping into his book on rock singles, "The Heart of Rock and Soul." Good stuff, perceptive.
For instance: Did you know that record companies can be audited only on documents they provide? Manufacturing and even shipping records are off limits. That auditors are hired by the artist but the labels have the right to veto the artist's choice? (One reason Wilhelms is brave.) That the contract allows no auditor to have more than one active record biz case? That opening balances on statements often bear no relationship to the closing balance on the previous statement? That although the artist can only audit for the preceding two years, record companies make "adjustments" four or five years after the fact? That record companies often charge pension and welfare payments against the artist's royalties? (That one's a violation of Federal law, never mind contracts.) That these debits from the royalty account often do not correspond to the amounts paid to the pension and welfare fund? (The amounts paid are, of course, invariably lower, sometimes zero.)
"So, at the end of an audit, which may be a couple years after the first demand for one was made, the artist finds himself at the poker table with the company again," Wilhelms said. "there is a very good chance the artist has not been paid anything in the interim. IN the middle of the table is what the auditor has found for the artist. Does the company fold and simply push the chips to the artist? Not unless the artist has a current hit."
Of course, these are the people that want to invade our computers.
(A terrific comment at the end of the piece, calling Steve Earle "the real Neil Young.")
7:47:31 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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