Saturday, February 22, 2003

somethin' for the ladies in Little Saigon, they call it Ngau Pin. in my house, we call it Beef Penis. no matter how you slice it, that's a whole lot of cow. thank heavens it comes with "Handling Instructions." [the reverse cowgirl's blog] 5:33:41 PM    comment []

Island nation collapses. Nauru, a south-seas island, has dissolved into chaos. Nauru used to be one of the righest nations in the world, until its lucrative phosphate mines dried up, leaving a "moonscape" behind. No one on the island had been paid since last year, and the plan to become an offshore tax haven resulted in the nation becoming a money-laundry for the mob. There seems to have been a presidential coup on Jan 8, and all communications with the island have been cut off since then, except when visiting ships dock long enough to gather bits of news like the fact that the presidential palace has been burned to the ground. The problem is so bad that more than 400 banks were registered to one mailbox alone, international investigators say. The island has also begun interning asylum seekers while their applications to live in Australia are processed, in return for aid from Canberra. However this appears to have gone badly wrong. Late last year, Australian immigration officials admitted that the asylum seekers, mainly Iraqis, had been running their own detention centre since officials abandoned the site following a riot. "Effectively you could call it a self-managed centre," a senior Australian immigration official told an inquiry. Link Discuss (Thanks, Paul!) [Boing Boing Blog] I've always enjoyed stories on islands.  I remember when the DNR in Minnesota sold a lighthouse on an island for $80,000.  I was crushed that I didn't know about it before hand. 5:01:40 PM    comment []

How many parents call their baby "it?". This is funny as hell. Via Metafilter. [The Doc Searls Weblog] This is just so funny.  I saw so much of myself in this one, and it was only the first volume.  A must read.  Wanna see my Photo Album B?   4:52:31 PM    comment []

Ethnomathematics - What Next?. Mathematics is the same everywhere in the world. It is a true universal language. But some folks are upset about it, because of its Western roots. So now we get Ethnomathematics! From the New York Times (free subscription required), we learn: The only possibility of building up a planetary civilization depends on restoring the dignity of the losers.'' Robert N. Proctor, who teaches the history of science at Pennsylvania State University, says he wants to counter the notion ''that the West is the be all and end all'' when it comes to mathematical studies. ''After all,'' he adds, ''all math... [Useful Fools] 4:37:16 PM    comment []

Faking the Lomo effect. I've always liked the look of Lomo photos (typically bright colored and highly saturated with darkened edges), but I didn't want to worry about getting another camera or messing with film & scanning. Yesterday I asked people if there was a Photoshop filter that could turn a regualr photo into a Lomo-style photo. Several people responded with the Melancholytron filter and a tutorial on achievin... [kottke.org] 4:32:47 PM    comment []

SF Anti-War Crowd Estimates Were Too High. The San Francisco Chronicle commissioned an aerial survey company to count last weekend's anti-war crowd. The results show that police and organizer's estimates of 200,000 were 3 times too high. [kuro5hin.org] 11:23:09 AM    comment []

There was a screen shot included in the piece. I got an upset email from Jacob Levy asking if George Matesky knew I was broadcasting the fact that I was considering hiring him. Heh. There really was a George Matesky, but he died before I was born. He was a semi-famous anarchist who blew up phone booths in New York. One of the first terrorists? [Scripting News] 11:18:06 AM    comment []