The owner of the Meditation Station was a former employee of the Bellevue-based Ultimate Life Church, which throughout the 1980s featured nude female "ministers" who sexually serviced nude men in exchange for donations.

The worlds oldest religion too...

Posted by at March 31, 2001 06:15 PM

HOT NEW RELEASE FROM LOS HOMBRES!

Posted by at March 29, 2001 07:11 AM

Posted by at March 28, 2001 08:55 AM

Press Release (received this morning and duly immediately published)

March 26, 2001

For Immediate Publication

The media are advised that arch-villain Gabrielle Taylor may be travelling to the South-East New Brunswick area in the next 24-48 hours for the purposes of sedition or potentially for permanent residence. She may be using a pseudonym or wearing a hat. The public should use caution when approaching anyone bearing this description. Anyone seen wearing a hat should be reported to local law enforcement agencies for investigation.

For more information, contact:

The Tantramar Morals Squad and Vigilante Justice League
The Woods Behind the Jehovah's Witness Temple
Sackville, NB
E0A 3C0

Posted by at March 26, 2001 05:23 AM

The only two awards NOT given to BATTLEFIELD were in categories where it wasnt even nominated: Worst Actress of 2000 went to last years Worst Actress of the Century Winner Madonna as a Single Mom fighting for custody of her child in The Ham-Fisted Melodramatic Ham-Fest THE NEXT BEST THING. Worst Remake or Sequel was BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH, TOO, which grossed less than $30 million as the follow-up to last years $140 million-grosser THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Posted by at March 25, 2001 11:51 AM

How Wizards of the Coast sacrificed its geeky, Gothic, sex-for-all idealism for Pokmon-size profits and Magic moola. First of two parts.

It's more proof of the, all too short, age of geeks. I guess it's time for a shave and a haircut.

Posted by at March 24, 2001 08:54 AM

Posted by at March 23, 2001 12:43 PM

...it seems to me I've heard this song before...

Posted by at March 23, 2001 10:22 AM

In April, 2001, in celebration of National Poetry Month, we will send to you via email a poem-a-day, along with offering posters to be printed off this website, the question-a-poet contest, and knopf poetry e-cards. Enter your e-mail address below to sign up to receive a poem-a-day during the month of April.

Posted by at March 22, 2001 01:01 PM

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis will be named on Tuesday as a U.N. messenger of peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the United Nations said.

Posted by at March 21, 2001 07:20 AM

Posted by at March 20, 2001 06:09 AM

"These are basic scientific results, not applications," said Marks, who is director of the new Center for Transportation Nanotechnology at Northwestern. "But BN nanostructures could lead to incredibly durable materials that have better electronic qualities and are much easier to work with than carbon nanostructures."

This is exactly why geeks will never lose hope, no matter how many dot-com bubbles are burst. If you're feeling a bit down, then go surf up a little text about boron-nitride nanostructures... feel the rush.... zoom zoom zoom

Posted by at March 19, 2001 05:50 PM

Posted by at March 19, 2001 01:23 PM

But this time I think I've done it. I find myself quite as annoyed by those gloating over the decline of the Nasdaq, the death of the dot-coms and the wreck of high-tech as I ever did with the greedy, self-deluded nincompoops who hyped this stuff out the wazoo to begin with. Talk about never happy. What a grump!

Posted by at March 18, 2001 09:58 AM

Posted by at March 15, 2001 09:22 PM

Posted by at March 15, 2001 09:06 PM

Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hangin' curveball, high fibre, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.

Well? What do you believe?

Posted by at March 15, 2001 08:48 PM

Optical researchers here have demonstrated a 140-GHz serial-to-parallel conversion using nanojoule optical pulses with a novel self-organized quantum-well material.

zoom, zoom, zoom...

Posted by at March 15, 2001 08:14 PM

"ee EEEE ee EEEE eee EEEEE"

Posted by at March 15, 2001 10:29 AM

Posted by at March 15, 2001 06:42 AM

Take, for example, the aforementioned Joneser icon, singer Bryan Adams.

His famous anthem "Summer of '69" was originally titled "Summer of '75."

It reportedly got kicked back six years under pressure from the Boomer-owned record company, even though Adams himself was only eight years old in the summer of 1969.

"There's been a reticence among Boomers to let the next generation have the spotlight," says Pontell.

Posted by at March 15, 2001 06:38 AM

...Jackson said his opinion of Microsoft was formed entirely during judicial proceedings, where he heard "inaccurate, misleading, evasive or transparently false" testimony from a host of senior Microsoft executives.

Posted by at March 14, 2001 05:33 PM

Posted by at March 14, 2001 05:06 PM

Grand prize: $134 Cdn, a box of donuts and a ball cap. Contest void where prohibited by law.

Posted by at March 14, 2001 12:17 AM

Book guilt and frustration are universal conditions, and are far more acute among critics than casual readers. The most distressing revelation is that many of the authors deemed most impenetrable - Dickens, Hawthorne, the Brontes, Melville- are mainstays on high-school and college freshman reading lists. Students will either take heart or sigh in frustration. On the one hand, it's comforting to know that the pros couldn't slog through these books either. But on the other: If the experts couldn't get through them, how are you supposed to?

Posted by at March 12, 2001 02:49 PM

Mencken's most famous literary battle was fought in 1926, over a forgettable short story he published by Herbert Asbury, entitled "Hatrack." Hatrack was a small-town prostitute whose efforts to reform were indignantly rebuffed. It became her habit to take her Catholic clients to the Protestant cemetery, and vice versa. The punch line of the story occurs when one of the local gentlemen tenders Hatrack a dollar to which she responds, "You know damned well I haven't got any change."

Posted by at March 12, 2001 02:43 PM

Big trouble, soon come.

Posted by at March 12, 2001 10:48 AM

Then again, let's not underestimate the appeal of "Job" star Denis Leary, who plays the beleaguered detective Mike McNeil. Casting Leary as a combustible cop is a no-brainer; the comedian has developed a persona approximating a human geyser, exploding in a rush of steam and heat about every 10 minutes.

Posted by at March 12, 2001 08:07 AM

Posted by at March 12, 2001 05:12 AM

Every day Fred plots a dot on a chart, with price on the vertical axis and volume on the horizontal axis. Then you connect the dots day by day. When the lines connecting the dots complete a clockwise loop, you have a "buy" signal. When they complete a counterclockwise loop, you have a "sell" signal. It sounds crazy. And it looks ridiculous. But it works.

Posted by at March 11, 2001 08:18 AM

Q. Long ago I read a story of a monk transcribing religious documents, who continued to transcribe one Latin word incorrectly, even after having it pointed out. The word is something like 'mumpsimumps'. Can you help me locate this word? [Bonnie Lee]

A. You're nearly right: it's 'mumpsimus'. But the story is not quite the way you tell it. According to the tale, there was once a medieval monk who persistently said a phrase in the Latin Eucharist wrongly, either because he was illiterate and had learned it that way or because it had been transcribed incorrectly in his copy. Instead of "quod in ore sumpsimus", he would say "quod in ore mumpsimus". Now 'sumpsimus' is Latin for "we have taken" (the full phrase means "which we have taken into the mouth"), but 'mumpsimus' is just nonsense.

What made this particular mistake memorable is what the monk was supposed to have said when he was corrected. According to the version of the incident told in 1517 by Richard Pace, later the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London, the monk replied that he had said it that way for forty years and "I will not change my old 'mumpsimus' for your new 'sumpsimus'".

As a result, the word came to be applied to someone who sticks obstinately to their old ways, in spite of the clearest evidence that they are wrong. The word can also have the related meaning of some custom or notion that is adhered to, even though it has been shown to be unreasonable.

Some references suggest that the story may have been first told by Pace's friend Erasmus; there's also a hint that it may really have been an oft-told joke in medieval times. The word is first recorded in 1530 in a book by William Tyndale, the first translator of the Bible into English, called _The Practice of Prelates_. It was given royal approval in 1545, when Henry VIII referred to it in a speech: "Some be too stiff in their old mumpsimus, others be too busy and curious in their sumpsimus".

It has, perhaps surprisingly, stayed in the language as a learned joke for more than 400 years, and is still to be stumbled over from time to time.

Posted by at March 11, 2001 05:17 AM

I was listening to Ella and Louis sing They Can't Take That Away From Me just now when it occured that today, it would have to be You Can't Take That Away From Me.

Posted by at March 10, 2001 12:34 PM

Here's a hypothetical example of a death-spiral convertible. Acme.com takes a $30 million investment for 30 percent of the company. If Acme's shares rise, the vulture capitalist keeps 30 percent of the business and makes money. But let's say the stock price is cut in half ов which means, of course, that the value of the company is cut in half. By the terms of this death-spiral convert, the vulture's stake cannot fall below $25 million. So instantly, a pile of new shares is handed over to the vulture capitalist, and his stake rises to 50 percent. And if the stock ever recovers, he'll still own half of Acme.com.

Posted by at March 10, 2001 08:19 AM

Paul, who co-founded Stan Lee Media but never held an official job or title there, was cut off from the company in early January. He left behind an enterprise in turmoil. The Securities and Exchange Commission had launched an informal inquiry, and an internal investigation led to the termination of Paul and another executive suspected of involvement in stock manipulation and embezzlement. By then, court documents say, Paul had made plans to flee to Brazil, where he is thought to be today.

Posted by at March 10, 2001 07:28 AM

Ms. Lemieux shifted her criticism to the federal government, saying Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps was wrong when she said in a letter sent to Ms. Lemieux yesterday that Quebec culture is also a regional component of Canadian culture. Ms. Lemieux called this a repudiation of the existence of Quebec as a nation.

...as though Quebec could survive as an independent nation.

I see two circumstances under which Quebec might achieve nationhood. One, is with such a brutal and humiliating send-off that western Canada is finally satisfied that the favorite spoiled child has finally received comeuppance. The other has British Columbia and Alberta also separate from Canada at the same time, and work with Quebec to achieve more alimony. Ontario would then be left to support Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Maritimes, and would have to pawn her pearls.

This is not as bad as it sounds.

Posted by at March 10, 2001 06:52 AM

The British government's top legal adviser called Saturday for a repeal of the 300-year-old ban on Roman Catholics ascending to the throne.

Lord Williams, the attorney general, told the Daily Telegraph that the Act of Settlement of 1701, which says the monarch must not be Catholic or marry a Catholic, was discriminatory.

"I don't like any form of discrimination. My personal view is there should not be any such bar," he said.

Monarchy is based on discrimination by birth.

He said he would welcome any debate that changing the law would bring, for example on the monarch's official position as supremer governor of the Church of England.

A church unsentimentally created by Henry VIII because he felt the need to get married every morning, just after breakfast.

"It's healthy to have a debate about this in a community that now has many different faiths in it."

Next he'll want Muslims to be Pope.

Opposition to the Act of Succession has grown in recent years with lawyers claiming it conflicts with human rights legislation.

That is foolish on so many levels.

Gareth Williams said the monarchy was long overdue for reform. Although he did not want to replace it with a republic, he said the law should be amended to allow royal daughters equal rights to succession.

At present a daughter can succeed to the throne only if there is no direct male descendant.

Queen Elizabeth was crowned after the death of King George in 1952 because he had no son. Prince Charles is now first in line to the throne, followed by his elder son Prince William.

Yo: a monarchy is a prettified relict of Stone Age tribalism where whoever whacked the most guys over the head with a stick (or later, over the head with a spin doctor) got to say what happened with the women, the food, and the booze. It can be argued that it does represent superior genetic stock because whoever was that strong or clever was likely to pass on his genes to a woman he chose (increasing the odds of good stock on both sides). These days, it's a nice symbol for a country to get behind and I'd like to be a queen as much as the next woman. It can stand for a certain amount of internal revision, like allowing women to freely ascend the throne, but even allowing persons of different faiths to head up the C of E may be more than it can stand in these days of ruthless practicality without regard for morale or good sense.

Posted by at March 10, 2001 06:42 AM

Posted by at March 09, 2001 07:20 PM

Posted by at March 09, 2001 04:52 PM

Posted by at March 09, 2001 04:51 PM

Doctors from Italy and the United States said on Friday they intended to push ahead with their plans to clone human beings, despite the objections and doubts raised by religious and scientific groups.

Posted by at March 09, 2001 06:00 AM

"Earthlink protects your privates."

Posted by at March 09, 2001 05:55 AM

Posted by at March 08, 2001 06:09 PM

Indeed, despite all the noise, the gravity of information technology so far has pulled only a few corporate planets significantly out of orbit. Over time, however, both the pull and the resistance to it will increase. Change will happen more violently, and with more unexpected and unintended consequences. Historian James Burke refers to this phenomenon as the "pinball effect."

Posted by at March 08, 2001 01:32 PM

Posted by at March 08, 2001 11:36 AM

Posted by at March 07, 2001 05:46 PM

As far as users are concerned, they have been paying for their content since the day they logged online. And it is not a monthly bill they are quite so used to paying yet. Why should they pay more for individual sites or services?

Posted by at March 07, 2001 04:51 PM

This year's nominees for most egregious privacy offenders include the FBI, for its "Carnivore" e-wiretapping system; IBM, for what Privacy International deputy director Dave Banisar said is a history of anti-privacy stances; and the city of Tampa, Fla., for running an experimental video surveillance system during the Superbowl which aimed to pick the faces of wanted criminals out of the crowd.

Posted by at March 07, 2001 04:27 PM

$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;$t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=( $m=(11,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])&110;$t^=(72,@z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16 -2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12:0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);if((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h =5;$_=unxb24,join"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--$h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$ d=unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])<<9|ord$b[3];$d=$d8^($f=$t&($d12^$d4^ $d^$d/8))<<17,$e=$e8^($t&($g=($q=$e14&7^$e)^$q*8^$q<<6))<<9,$_=$t[$_]^ (($h=8)+=$f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}print+x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval

Posted by at March 07, 2001 03:57 PM

Posted by at March 07, 2001 06:13 AM

This destructive worm appears as a forwarded e-mail with "Naked Wife" in the Subject line. Readers who click on the attached file, called "Naked Wife.exe", will not get a nude picture, but will instead see a short cartoon followed by a vulgar message, signed by "BGK (Bill Gates Killer)."

...and emails itself through your Outlook address book... Where's the class action suit against Microsoft for coding such a shoddy OS?

Posted by at March 06, 2001 04:56 PM

Posted by at March 06, 2001 10:14 AM

According to Bibliofind.com's spokesperson Jim Courtovich, the breech was discovered on February 26, when the site's homepage was defaced with electronic grafitti.

It took Bibliofind four months to notice it had been hacked.

(Also, that's "breach", unless it was a violation of Bibliofind's pants.)

Posted by at March 06, 2001 10:11 AM

Posted by at March 06, 2001 10:09 AM

Posted by at March 06, 2001 10:07 AM

Dotcoms that failed in 2000 were more likely to receive media coverage when they closed than while they were still in business.

No surprise there... I would link to the original story at CNet instead of the precis at Nua, but I am boycotting CNet and ZDNet over those filthy awful enormous ads they plunk in the middle of their copy. As if their material is so much more valuable that I should have to slither through a huge pile of marketing bullshit to get to the kernels (as it were) of story.

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:53 AM

Overcrowded Venice is begging tourists to stay away. Since 1999, Mayor Massimo Cacciari has tried hard to convince visitors to go somewhere else. He installed giant plungers near the Grand Canal to represent the unwanted elements clogging the city.

Cacciari also hired controversial advertising firm Benetton to create ads showing pigeons attacking tourists.

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:42 AM

A low-cost chip Microchip Technologies PICmicro PIC18C452 is running the LiveDevices embedded software.

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:39 AM

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:36 AM

Mr. Harris sold We Live in Public to Panopticon Inc., which plans to sell camera and audio kits to people who want to live on the Web. Mr. Harris, whose wealth has dropped to about $5 million from $16 million, supports the idea. But he said living in public was a bit too much for him.

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:28 AM

Content providers will have to decide how their material would be classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) before posting it on the web.

It will become a crime in SA to post content that could be rated R, X or RC under OFLC guidelines.

If a complaint is made, police will have the power to begin a prosecution without independent classification of the material, based on their own assessment of its relative offensiveness or unsuitability for minors.

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:22 AM

...the Yankees are about to get a raucous new fan at the Stadium, and his name will be Roger Clinton, famous brother of incoming New York Mayor Bill Clinton, previously of Washington D.C. That is the best early bet on the Political horizon right now, for good or ill.

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:16 AM

They advise, for instance, that writers avoid the "trivial use of metaphorical language referring to sexual experience or sexual violation," [End Page 552] such as, "This is the virgin forest, where the hand of man has never set foot." Stupid, to be sure; but the stupidity occurs after the comma, in the form of a mixed metaphor, and I'm amazed that a committee of twenty-one university press editors fails to get it. We don't need a bias-free guide to tell us not to confuse metaphors. The real question is whether ancient, uncut forests should be referred to as virgin. Since they have raised the issue, the Bias Persons owe us an explanation: is the phrase virgin forest insensitive to virgins? Did the task force interview any virgins who have an opinion on the subject?

Posted by at March 06, 2001 05:08 AM

Hotmail customers are automatically added to Infospace's Internet White Pages directory unless they remove the check from a box in their registration form and "opt out," company officials said.

Posted by at March 05, 2001 04:51 PM

Posted by at March 05, 2001 09:03 AM

It's much more than Web sites reconfiguring content, so it can be accessed on different kinds of devices. It's a new depth of connectivity, giving users greater mobility and wrapping the Internet around their lives.

Lots of companies will jump on the trend. Computer-game maker Electronic Arts is starting to test the limits of this connectivity. Its new game, Majestic, is tagged ''the game that plays you.''

Instead of being something you play on a PC, the mystery game leaves clues and sucks you into situations by contacting you every which way -- e-mail, instant message, phone calls, faxes. Every communications device you own becomes part of the game. ''It invades your life,'' says Electronic Arts' Joe Keene. Much as the Internet will.

Posted by at March 05, 2001 06:34 AM

For the first three weeks of the "Year in Pictures 2000" contest, in which visitors to the MSNBC Web site vote for their favorite photo of last year, the picture of the boy was the clear leader. But after a widespread e-mail campaign by supporters of Israel urging a vote for any other photo, MSNBC said it was besieged by votes for a puppy with maimed hind legs, a dog in desperate need of a fire hydrant and a variety of cute and cuddly animal pictures. Though no one can say for sure that it was the result of the e-mail campaign, the photo of the boy dropped to No. 6. But supporters of the Palestinians say they have not given up.

Posted by at March 05, 2001 06:29 AM

Waterloo's Mr. Goyer is eyeing HavenCo Ltd. as a possible site for his cloned Napster computer server. The company rents computing power and Internet data storage space to those seeking to avoid government laws. It operates from an ocean platform called Sealand, which has operated for 30 years as a sovereign territory off the coast of England.

Goodness gracious, does that mean the seconds are over and HavenCo is fully operational?

Posted by at March 05, 2001 05:50 AM

The Quebec legislature, including PQ members, passed a motion last December censuring Michaud for saying Jews believe they are the only people who have ever suffered in world history.

...Michaud, who decided in the end to abandon his political plans, still plans to petition the legislature for an apology [for censuring him].

Posted by at March 05, 2001 05:46 AM

In its 51-page report, the task force concludes that the blood agency has made genuine efforts to be more open to public scrutiny than was the scandal-plagued Red Cross, which it replaced in 1998. But it also warns that many people don't think much has changed and that the new agency has not lived up to the key recommendations of Justice Horace Krever's 1997 report on the blood system.

Posted by at March 04, 2001 06:07 AM

Quebec's language law bars immigrants from attending English-language schools until the end of high school.

Posted by at March 04, 2001 06:04 AM

As the monkey watched the experimenter's hand pick up the object and bring it close, a group of the F5 neurons leaped into action. But when the monkey looked at the same object lying on the tray, nothing happened. When it picked up the object, the same neurons fired again. Clearly their job wasn't just to recognise a particular object.

Posted by at March 03, 2001 06:07 AM

McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's have switched to a product, without disclosing its risks, that may cost human lives. What is the difference between this and the kind of thing over which consumers sue companies every day?

Posted by at March 02, 2001 08:13 PM

The Secret Mexican
by Ken Layne
ISBN 1 875989 97 8
$19.95
Publication date: June 2001

Posted by at March 02, 2001 08:06 PM

Several 17th-century clay pipes found on the site of William Shakespeare's home may have been used to smoke marijuana, scientists have reported.

Yet another study that... somebody funded.

Posted by at March 02, 2001 07:56 PM

"The sacrificial animals will be slaughtered in line with religious requirements in a hygienic environment and in the presence of a notary," the statement said.

Posted by at March 02, 2001 07:52 PM

In Steilacoom, near Tacoma, more than 200 patients at a state hospital for the criminally insane were moved to another ward after inspectors condemned a building.

I live in Steilacoom, but not (yet) at the state hospital.

Posted by at March 02, 2001 04:54 PM

In the course of his 30-year career, Jake has pulled just about every trick imaginable, making over a half-million dollars in the process. Jake does not, though, consider himself to be a particularly bright person. "It's not how smart I am," he says, "it's how fucking stupid people are. It's almost a joke. How much of an asshole is this person? It amazes me."

Posted by at March 02, 2001 03:38 PM

If we've overcome bias, why do the words "feminist" and "literary", even "woman" and "technical expertise", still sound odd in conjunction?

Posted by at March 02, 2001 03:31 PM

Bush: Well I still think you... all right. Doesn't matter. As I said, no matter where I am, I am honored to be here this morning.
Gore: Afternoon.
Bush: What?
Gore: Not morning. It's 12:01 p.m. Afternoon. It's a math thing. Go on.

Posted by at March 02, 2001 02:35 PM

The new restrictions that Napster said will go into place this weekend presumably will block some but not all of the recording industry's copyrighted songs.

Posted by at March 02, 2001 01:03 PM

The provincial government has given communities one month to change their signs.

But Montreal says it can't afford to replace them all at once ов a move the city estimates would cost $400,000.

Posted by at March 02, 2001 10:53 AM

"Everybody knows how much money there is to be made in the banking business. You've heard that money makes money ... and banks make money with other people's money!" says the advertisement. "If you're looking to open a FULLY LICENSED BANK which is authorized to carry on all banking business worldwide, the MOST ATTRACTIVE JURISDICTION is currently the REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO!"

Posted by at March 02, 2001 08:34 AM

Posted by at March 01, 2001 08:44 PM

Sluggy Freelance Camp Heartland Charity Raffle>

Posted by at March 01, 2001 02:40 PM

Posted by at March 01, 2001 06:13 AM

Posted by at March 01, 2001 06:11 AM

Meanwhile, another production company is planning The Big Diet, in which inmates of a Big Brother-style house will be held captive and filmed round the clock. They will be selected for their inability to diet and will be tormented with tempting foodstuffs at all hours. The person who loses least weight each week gets chucked out.

Posted by at March 01, 2001 06:07 AM