Tuesday, May 10, 2005

William Gibson, from Pattern Recognition: "The future is there...looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now...The past changes. Our version of the past will interest the future to about the extent we're interested in whatever past the Victorians believed in. It simply won't seem very relevant." 3:10:43 PM   permalink   comment []

A law similar to the slavery-history bill proposed for NC causes headaches for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (WSJ, subs. req.): J.P. Morgan's unusual odyssey into the history of slavery began after Bank One, which it acquired last year, financed a bond issue for the city of Chicago in May 2003. The move triggered a city rule, called the Business, Corporate and Slavery Era Insurance Ordinance, that requires companies doing business with the city to disclose any ties to slavery. Enacted two years ago, the ordinance is meant to show the impact of slavery and promote a national dialogue on reparations to descendants of slaves. It spurred another big financial firm, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., to establish that the company's founders bought at least one slave and may have owned others. Detroit and Los Angeles have similar laws; Philadelphia's city council approved a measure in March and North Carolina lawmakers introduced similar legislation in April. Some descendants of slaves have filed lawsuits against large companies that they claim profited from slavery, but their efforts have been unsuccessful so far. 12:13:28 PM   permalink   comment []

Design the logo for PodcasterCon, win an iPod Shuffle (plus fame and glory). 12:08:04 PM   permalink   comment []

Tierney tired of hearing about suicide bombers. War is hell for columnists too, huh, John? But, bravely: "I'm not advocating official censorship." He does realize that suicide bombers blow up other people and things too, doesn't he? It's not just suicide, it's bombing, dude. Related. UPDATE: AP: "BAGHDAD, Iraq May 10, 2005 — A car bomb exploded in a business district of central Baghdad on Tuesday morning, and a police officer said at least seven people were killed and 16 wounded...On Saturday, two car bombs exploded a few hundred yards from the site of Tuesday's blast, hitting an American security company convoy and killing at least 22 people including two Americans. That attack also wounded at least 36 Iraqis, three Americans, an Australian and an Icelander." 6:53:31 AM   permalink   comment []

GiT: "Greensboro represents at BlogNashville." Not only were there four GSOers participating in the program, but I think I talked about what was going on back home at every session I attended. 6:45:25 AM   permalink   comment []

More new media coverage coming from the Times, as part of a biz-section revamp. 6:42:41 AM   permalink   comment []

Carolina Christian Conservative still doesn't think Laura Bush was funny. 6:41:01 AM   permalink   comment []

Doug Clark has some thoughts on the East Waynesville Baptist Church, roadside flowers, and the ill-advised nature of Confederate History week. 6:39:16 AM   permalink   comment []

Chewie has some nice pictures of this area's different faces. 6:33:55 AM   permalink   comment []

JR: "We won't make a decision until AP sets a rate structure, which is scheduled to come this summer." 6:32:23 AM   permalink   comment []