Moon Farmer October 2002 Archive
« September 2002 | Main | November 2002 »Ultimately, Fleming's use of brand names, often dismissed as snobbery, was inseparable from his larger strengths as a storyteller. The best popular spy fiction gains its peculiar authority from its knowingness: Authors such as Greene and Le Carre had some experience in the real world of intelligence, and their appeal is rooted in their ability to suggest that they are letting readers in on the inside dope.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 03:59 PM | TrackBack 0
...I have found only two pictures that escape the tunnel vision of the franchise. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" may feature the maligned George Lazenby, but the movie does boast Diana Rigg, and something in its leanness and its glances at mortality%uFFD1Rigg dies at the end%uFFD1pulls it close to the Fleming original. Then there is "From Russia with Love," whose casual cruelties make you long to know what Bu%uFF96uel might have done with it; he would have salivated, no question, over the contrast between Daniela Bianchi, by far the most elegant of 007's blondes, and Lotte Lenya, the crone from SPECTRE with homicidal shoes. Watch Connery checking his Turkish hotel room for bugs; he prowls around in a dark suit, eyes flashing, the camera following like a valet; the great James Bond theme, which we now associate with car chases, plays over the quiet scene and bathes it in both menace and fun.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 03:36 PM | TrackBack 0
...Bond is a sort of grown-up Peter Pan: muscular, violent and - something that JM Barrie would have surely recognised - entirely without heart or conscience.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 03:26 PM | TrackBack 0
It is ironical that one so devoted to the cause of mutual understanding should have succeeded only in adding to intellectual chauvinism and dogmatism. There is a similar irony in the fact that he was one of the last great polymaths - not in the frivolous sense of having a wide general knowledge, but in the deeper sense of one who is a citizen of the whole world of intellectual inquiry. He deliberately ignored boundaries between disciplines, and lack of qualifications never deterred him from contributing fresh insights to established specialisms. Indeed, one of the reasons why he was so hostile to universities as institutions was because their faculty structure prevented the cross-fertilisation of ideas which he saw as essential to the advance of knowledge and of wisdom. The irony is that he was himself instrumental in bringing about an era of far greater intellectual and scientific specialism, as technical advances pushed more and more disciplines out of the reach of the intelligent layman and amateur.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 03:17 PM | TrackBack 0
"To find a star with 20 times less metal than any previously found is astounding," says Catherine Pilachowski, who studies star formation at Indiana University in Bloomington. HE0107-5240 also raises new questions, she says. It contains a "striking excess" of nitrogen and carbon. These 'metals' are never usually abundant in stars of the cool, giant family to which HE0107-5240 belongs.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 03:10 PM | TrackBack 0
As I pointed out in the Melbourne ALSC meeting, it is unrealistic to attempt to include 100% of the worldwide Internet user community into an at large organization. The simple and inexpensive way to build that membership was to offer every domain name holder the opportunity to register as an At Large member, and tie his member identification (for voting purposes) to his domain name (no domain name can vote twice). Domain name holders are natural stakeholders in an entity (ICANN) that deals with the Domain Name System. It was argued this disenfranchised non-Domain Name holders, but this is rather self-defeating as an argument. You simply cannot afford a public outreach to all Internet users worldwide, and certainly ICANN and its funding sources could not manage elections that involve millions of voters using snail mail delivered passwords as was the case in the last election. I submit this is a lesson in the need to simplify such issues and avoid the unbridled zeal of defending the last eskimo and peasant's need (need?) to be involved in the proceedings.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 03:01 PM | TrackBack 0
"On a lot of shows it takes a few weeks for people to develop any sort of emotion. Here they come with a lifetime of baggage," says Price.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 08:24 AM | TrackBack 0
More interesting and perhaps more telling than the growth rate is who's driving it. The people signing up at Nerve are, by and large, young, overeducated professionals. Newly minted doctors, lawyers, journalists, and media executives are flocking to these systems, and recently we saw an ad from our first Victoria's Secret model (she actually wrote, "If you wear J.Crew, don't bother to contact me"). Whereas the short format of print lent itself to desperate, transactional relationships (DJM SEEKS BI-CURIOUS SWF), the endless space afforded online personals is perfect for the legions of smarties who cruise there. They can show off their fancy language skills and quickly cut through a broad pool with Boolean searches. After all, things are left to chance when people don't have the tools to find what they are looking for.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 08:05 AM | TrackBack 0
"Samples need to be pretty clean to extract DNA," the detective, who requested she not be identified, explained. "Dung left in a hamper full of dirty clothes isn't the optimum sample. The contents of the basket could be rife with all sorts of DNA."
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 08:02 AM | TrackBack 0
Mr. Kernighan's course is a kind of intellectual smorgasbord, combining public policy - like technology's impact on privacy, copyright and antitrust matters - with large helpings of practical knowledge of how things work, from operating systems to disk drives. Still, some students said that the single class session that made the strongest impression was Mr. Kernighan's lecture on binary numbers, also known as binary digits or bits. In his talk, Mr. Kernighan explained that everything a PC does - handling text, music or video - is all just a matter of processing 1's and 0's to the machine. The difference between today's multimedia notebooks and the room-size calculators of computing's early days, he notes, is mainly faster bit-processing engines and increasingly clever software.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 07:36 AM | TrackBack 0
In an unprecedented marriage of high technology and environmental activism, Adelman, a 39-year-old computer programmer from Santa Cruz County, has taken 7,000 aerial photographs of the California coastline -- one roughly every 500 feet. His quest, which could spell trouble for developers building illegal seawalls or blocking public beach access, is to photograph every inch of the state's 1,100-mile shoreline from Oregon to Mexico.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 07:30 AM | TrackBack 0
"The only way to bring costs down is to increase production," said Struve, who is based in Chicago and studies the effect of new technology and environmental rules on automakers. "If they can pull it off, their fuel economy would be beautiful and they'd never have to worry about emissions.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 07:20 AM | TrackBack 0
A businessman has been sentenced to a year in jail for staging a sexual fantasy in which he hired someone to rob his store and tie him up naked with an unsuspecting woman.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 06:51 AM | TrackBack 0
The government of Canada warned "Canadians who were born in [Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria] or who may be citizens of these countries to consider carefully whether they should attempt to enter the United States for any reason, including transit to or from third countries," the advisory said.
Posted by GeeTee at October 31, 2002 06:45 AM | TrackBack 0
Most analysts, however, are worried by the plan's vague wording and what they suspect are loopholes which officials could use to soften the overall impact. This might be less of a concern if the plan were the first attempt to deal with the chronic problems afflicting the Japanese economy and, above all, its financial system. But this is the latest in a long series of attempts to get to grips with a financial problem that affects the wider economy: bad debts make it difficult for the banks to lend money for new investment that might galvanise economic activity. Previous reform efforts have fizzled out, in large part because of political and institutional resistance to change.
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 04:43 PM | TrackBack 0
Some inkjet printer owners use their own refill kits to save even more money on ink. These kits are available even in some standard stores. They include a syringe, large bottles of ink and instructions. You fill the syringe and then inject your cartridges. There's the danger of a mess, and of voiding the warranty, but there's also the prospect of saving 80 percent to 90 percent. Smart chips in cartridges will also be able to terminate this savings. Once a cartridge is detected as empty, the chip can refuse to recognize it again as full.
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 04:32 PM | TrackBack 0
One study suggested that one in 10 children are being raised by men who are unaware that they are not the father.
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 04:29 PM | TrackBack 0
"I'm very concerned that this addition [of the word "embryos"] will serve to seriously politicize the reconstituted committee," said Robert R. Rich, executive associate dean of research at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who had been a member of the old committee. "Embryos are not included as human research subjects, according to [current federal regulations]. It will be impossible to gain consensus around this issue if appointees to the new committee represent both sides of this very contentious issue, since it is governed by emotions and beliefs and is really not amenable to rational or scientific discourse."
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 02:09 PM | TrackBack 0
The prosecution says what took place there was indecent according to the norms of Canadian society. The defence says those norms have changed and, while some people may find the idea of having sex in a whirlpool bath that is regularly used for that function unappealing, that doesn't make it indecent.
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 02:07 PM | TrackBack 0
Under [a new 'safe third country' agreement with the United States] agreement, refugee claimants would be turned back at the American border and forced to make their claims in the United States, where deportation rates are much higher and many refugees are held in criminal prisons while their cases are heard.
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 02:04 PM | TrackBack 0
Hilary Rosen asks "Put up your hand if you download and burn music" (most hands go up). She then asks "Keep you hand up if you buy more music because of it" (many stay up). She gets worried and immediately asks some different and confusing set of people to put their hands up, causing everyone to look miffed, and everyone putting their hand down)
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 01:48 PM | TrackBack 0
Ben-Eliezer's resignation came after Sharon's rejection of a tentative budget deal with Labor. The proposed deal was believed to contain language promising that social programs would have parity with funding given to Jewish settlements.
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 10:35 AM | TrackBack 0
Mark Rankov, one of 750 hostages held by Chechen extremists inside a theater here last week, had a message for the Russian people while he was a captive: "Your TV is lying."
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 10:29 AM | TrackBack 0
"If the assigning system isn't corrupt, ask yourself: why aren't attractive female associates ever out of work?"
Posted by GeeTee at October 30, 2002 08:46 AM | TrackBack 0
This page is about me and why everything I like is great. If you disagree with anything you find on this page, you are wrong.
Posted by GeeTee at October 29, 2002 06:23 PM | TrackBack 0
The author takes a particular dislike toward those who argue that animals, being incapable of dwelling on their mortality, therefore don't really suffer the way neuronally well-endowed humans can suffer. He also finds fault with those he considers moral relativists, like the philosopher Peter Singer, who has argued that reason, rather than knee-jerk compassion or squeamishness, should dictate what we deem the comparative worth of the lives of animals or severely handicapped infants. Scully can wax self-righteous and absolutist, and he considers the ''squeamishness factor'' to be a handy indicator of something, like a factory farm, that is morally wrong. ''It is usually a sign of crimes against nature that we cannot bear to see them at all, that we recoil and hide our eyes,'' he writes, ''and no one has ever cringed at the sight of a soybean factory.''
Posted by GeeTee at October 29, 2002 01:58 PM | TrackBack 0
"There are certainly strange aspects to this," Jordan said. "You can hit each other hard enough to leave little bruises, and there are bigger versions of the equipment we're using which could really cause some damage."
Posted by GeeTee at October 29, 2002 01:43 PM | TrackBack 0
"There was a lot of unknowns about college," he says after he thinks about it. "It was going to be this big, tough, hard, hard time in which all you'd do is write papers, which I don't like to do." So for now he assembles air conditioning ducts in a factory, for $7 an hour, which is as much as his mother makes in her new job at the bank, her first sit-down job in all the years she's been raising him.
Posted by GeeTee at October 29, 2002 10:53 AM | TrackBack 0
Well? What are you waiting for? Get a group of your ugly biker friends, take a picture, and send it in.
Posted by GeeTee at October 29, 2002 10:13 AM | TrackBack 0
Posted by GeeTee at October 29, 2002 04:21 AM | TrackBack 0
Firefighter Douglas Henry Eastaugh, 37, was charged with four counts each of procuring a person for the purpose of prostitution and living off the avails of prostitution, and one count each of being the keeper of a common bawdy house and threats to cause death or bodily harm.
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 09:40 AM | TrackBack 0
"Remembering someone's phone number is delightful; balancing a checkbook is delicious," Cytowic said in an interview. "It's also a rule of thumb that exceptional talents come at a cost. [Synesthetes] often have trouble with arithmetic, right-left orientation and finding directions."
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 08:35 AM | TrackBack 0
Messages sent to the account, Iraq's version of president@whitehouse.gov, run the gamut from fawning solicitations for autographed photos and media interviews to obscene death threats.
The e-mails sent to press@uruklink.net were obtained earlier this month by first clicking on a link, labeled "Check your e-mail in Uruk," on the homepage of Iraq's state-controlled ISP, Uruklink.net, then guessing the login name and password -- both of which were the same, five-letter word.
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 08:05 AM | TrackBack 0
Thus, the inclusion of the term ‘in Honor of Alfred Nobel’ in the title created the necessary bridge to the Nobel prize, and by exactly mimicking the process, the Bank created all the conditions enabling the association and even the identification of its prize with those established by Alfred Nobel at the turn of the century. Note that, for obvious reasons, it is much simpler to say ‘Nobel Prize in Economics’ than ‘Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Honor of Alfred Nobel’! No surprise that, since 1969, all journalists and economists have commonly referred to the Bank of Sweden Prize as ‘The Nobel Prize in Economics’. The strategy was a complete success.
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 07:22 AM | TrackBack 0
They were popping champagne in Washington when the phone rang this morning in New Zealand to inform me that The Chronicle of Higher Education was successful in its bid to extract Arts & Letters Daily from the bankruptcy court in New York. A little early in the day here for champagne, but the news seemed to make my coffee taste better than ever.
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 07:16 AM | TrackBack 0
Wark is happy to see CSIS's budget increase, but pointed out it merely makes up for funding cuts that resulted in the agency's workforce plunging to 2,000 employees in 1999.
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 06:34 AM | TrackBack 0
"Anu Garg’s many readers await their A Word A Day rations hungrily. Now at last here’s a feast for them and other verbivores. Eat up!"
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 06:23 AM | TrackBack 0
This is the first election ever in the Arab gulf region where women were allowed to run and vote, and their husbands have quickly discovered what that means. The king's wife, Sheika Sabika — in an unprecedented move in this conservative region — campaigned publicly for women to go out and vote. She visited a Shiite Muslim community center and an elderly woman stood up to say: "Thank you. [Because we can now vote,] for the first time our husbands are asking us what we think and are interested in what we have to say."
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 06:20 AM | TrackBack 0
First, here's a little background on my life: I live with a family that lets me stay in their basement. During the week I do odd jobs around the house. On the weekends I hang out with my friends (like Robot Ron [the red robot] and my human friend Bruce, The Rock Star.) The family recently bought a computer so I am teaching myself to build a website.
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 05:26 AM | TrackBack 0
The police and courts "are not equipped to deal with a Cathy Fordham anywhere, because she's such a lying, manipulative person," Brown said. "If you have someone who's lying on the stand and manipulating the system, then they're very hard to identify."
Posted by GeeTee at October 28, 2002 05:05 AM | TrackBack 0
The common law of this jurisdiction derives from British precedents observed in Maryland [from which the District of Columbia was formed] in 1801. Courts of that state have construed indecent exposure as the willful and intentional public display of one's private parts or person. When, for example, these terms were applied to males in a number of nineteenth century English cases, the Queen's Bench determined that they served as euphemisms for penis. American common law cases are in accordance with those of England. Hence, "person" in the statute corresponds to genitalia portions of male and female anatomy; by inference then, exposure of one's bare buttocks is not interdicted.
Posted by GeeTee at October 26, 2002 08:38 AM | TrackBack 0
Google refused to reply to a list of questions that CNET News.com sent via e-mail, including which sites have been delisted, how many sites have been delisted, what standards are used, and what other Google-operated sites have less-than-complete listings.
Posted by GeeTee at October 26, 2002 08:30 AM | TrackBack 0
The most striking physical feature on the Internet Refrigerator is the 15.1-inch color monitor on its right-side door, which tilts out for better viewing. This flat touch-screen serves as the TV and video screen and controls the custom-made PC, with its modified version of Windows and its 20-gigabyte hard disk. On the home screen, nine circular icons are displayed, which, when touched, chime and launch one of the computer's applications. There are various wallpaper displays available. We chose one of large green peapods that might encourage healthy eating.
Posted by GeeTee at October 26, 2002 08:29 AM | TrackBack 0
Conservative MP Bill Casey says that problem surfaced. Casey says prisoners wound up with people's names, phone numbers, credit card numbers, and possibly when their homes were going to be empty.
Posted by GeeTee at October 26, 2002 08:26 AM | TrackBack 0
The authorities reported that a woman hostage was shot and killed Wednesday night when she defied her captors. Her body was brought out Thursday evening. Other sporadic shots and explosions have been heard throughout the crisis, but it remained unclear what was happening.
Posted by GeeTee at October 25, 2002 03:19 PM | TrackBack 0
"Businesses can't simply deem customer consent to the use of personal information for secondary purposes, on the basis of hidden contract terms or website postings. In order to meet legal standards, consent must be obtained in a manner that ensures that it is conscious, informed, and intentional."
Posted by GeeTee at October 25, 2002 12:06 PM | TrackBack 0
Common-law couples, same-sex marriages and an increasing number of households with just one person are some of the newer dynamics making up Canadian families.
Posted by GeeTee at October 22, 2002 08:13 PM | TrackBack 0
A judge's silence, on or off the bench, does not guarantee his impartiality. Any "appearance of impartiality" conveyed by a judge's silence may be an illusion. It may also reflect ignorance or indifference. The only genuine determinant of judicial impartiality is the integrity of the judge himself, not appearances, and a reputation for candor is a better gauge of integrity than a reputation for silence.
A judge's silence, on or off the bench, does not guarantee his impartiality. Any "appearance of impartiality" conveyed by a judge's silence may be an illusion. It may also reflect ignorance or indifference. The only genuine determinant of judicial impartiality is the integrity of the judge himself, not appearances, and a reputation for candor is a better gauge of integrity than a reputation for silence.Posted by GeeTee at October 22, 2002 08:06 PM | TrackBack 0
No sign of a fig leaf, but upon closer examination, there definitely was something missing.
Posted by GeeTee at October 22, 2002 07:18 PM | TrackBack 0
Barbara Hewson, from Swansea, south Wales, suffered injuries including a blood clot in her chest, torn leg muscles and acute sciatica and remains in pain two years on.
The obese passenger had only been able to fit into her seat by raising the arm rest, which meant her body parts weighed down on Mrs Hewson.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 03:27 PM | TrackBack 0
Because the risk is new, it is also uncertain. As Mr Viscusi points out, people tend to overestimate unknown risks. Economists call this %uFFD2risk-ambiguity aversion%uFFD3. And in this case the main source of information for Washingtonians is the blanket, sometimes hysterical coverage from television and newspapers, which tends to exaggerate the perceived risk further. Everyone knows the number of murders. Few know how many people live in the affected area, or the murder rate.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 02:56 PM | TrackBack 0
...one return flight from the United Kingdom to Florida produces, per passenger, as much CO2 as a year's driving by the average British motorist, according to environmental campaign groups.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 02:26 PM | TrackBack 0
You're a designer and you know how to sketch to get your ideas across -- quickly. Now you can be even better. Use the power of the new integrated paint and sketch functionality in StudioTools combined with the high-resolution display of a Cintiq tablet.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 02:24 PM | TrackBack 0
It is becoming a serious problem, he said, because fewer Canadians care about politics. He said increasing corruption and examples of patronage mean fewer people vote in federal elections.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 01:16 PM | TrackBack 0
What might surprise you is that AI and computer science experts like Dr Randy Goebel, of the University of Alberta, and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto, don't entirely dismiss this idea. They do, however, see some potential problems. Dr. Hinton points out that a key to Artificial Intelligence is computers that can learn, and we're still just scratching the surface of this problem. Dr. Goebel raises the perhaps more fundamental issue that there's both technologically and philosophically no way to prove that a mind transferred into a computer has retained what makes it truly human.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 12:56 PM | TrackBack 0
Moments after the amnesty decree was read on state television Sunday morning, the authorities threw open the gates of the country's most notorious prison, the high-security Abu Gharib complex on the outskirts of Baghdad, allowing several thousand dazed and scruffy men to walk out of their cramped cells and into a throng of cheering and wailing relatives who had surrounded the vast penitentiary.
Posted by GeeTee at October 21, 2002 12:54 PM | TrackBack 0
...Bishop Wilton Gregory said he expects the differences can be reconciled by next month. "We're dealing with basically a sound document that needs modification rather than recasting," he said.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 05:17 PM | TrackBack 0
"We can't bring the bodies home. We can't bring the stone home. But we can bring a picture of it home," he says. "This is the next best thing."
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 03:52 PM | TrackBack 0
We are well-liked by Black people so we're psyched (since lots of Black people don't like lots of White people)!! We thought it'd be cool to honor our exceptional status with a ROCKIN' domain name and a killer website!!
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 03:03 PM | TrackBack 0
"No one would consider training convicted pedophiles in the art of daycare management, so why would anyone think it is a good idea to teach prisoners how to obtain information from Canadians about their lives?" asked Greensmith.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 02:55 PM | TrackBack 0
"We can absorb students as quickly as they come and the quality will go down, or we can start turning students away," said University of Alberta vice-president Doug Owram.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 02:52 PM | TrackBack 0
The root of his problem is that the law says that possession of child pornography is (believe it or not) a "crime of violence" and the law states that violent criminals shall be detained during their appeal unless we can prove "extraordinary circumstances" exist. The court did not feel that we had "extraordinary circumstances". Being innocent is not considered"extraordinary circumstances". Having a sick dying Mother who needs Larry's help is not "extraordinary circumstances". We submitted 20 affidavits from people who have known Larry (in some cases) all of his life who swore that Larry was not a violent person. We even submitted an affidavit from a doctor that said that Larry was not a pedophile.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 02:27 PM | TrackBack 0
The first systems produced by these efforts will likely be specialized applications in fields such as surgical planning and automobile design. But versions cheap enough to serve as home entertainment applications should quickly follow—after all, millions of video game players would give their left control-pad thumbs to step into a fully 3-D version of Mario’s world—perhaps forever rendering obsolete the two-dimensional views to which most screens have been limited. In short, sums up NYU’s Ken Perlin, “All the reasons for putting up with the artifice of things being flat will go away.”
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 02:12 PM | TrackBack 0
The contradiction at the center of Naqoyqatsi -- the reliance on state-of-the-art technologies in an attack on technological advances -- doesn't bother Reggio. He wants Naqoyqatsi to enter the "vascular system" of modern culture, using what he calls "the evil of manufactured images" as an "inoculation or a vaccine."
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 02:08 PM | TrackBack 0
Vinkent Pang, 35, pleaded guilty to mischief by improperly interfering with human remains. He had originally been charged with possession of stolen property, theft and indignity to human remains.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 02:06 PM | TrackBack 0
The bill is intended to encourage transfer of intellectual property from academic institutions to businesses, expedite patent procedures and nurture legal and other experts.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 06:26 AM | TrackBack 0
The review also places several new digital copyright issues on the table. It creates the disturbing prospect for "linking liability," questioning whether merely providing an on-screen link to a Web site that hosts infringing material should itself be considered copyright infringement. It also raises the possibility of broadening the definition of "fair dealing," an important exception to copyright infringement, to make it more like the fair-use doctrine found in the United States.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 06:24 AM | TrackBack 0
The vote comes despite a warning in September by the outgoing head of the church, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, that the Anglican Church could be fragmented by the debate.
Posted by GeeTee at October 19, 2002 06:07 AM | TrackBack 0
As the cost of going to the movies has escalated to $20 or so for a ticket, parking and popcorn, teens are paying more attention to the fact that the movie will be out on DVD in just four or five months at a rental fee of $4 or $5 or a purchase price of $12-$15.
Posted by GeeTee at October 18, 2002 08:30 AM | TrackBack 0
The Bush administration has said repeatedly that the separation of powers doctrine shields those documents from outside review because they might show the administration's internal, deliberative process.
Posted by GeeTee at October 18, 2002 08:12 AM | TrackBack 0
Happy neurons result in a plastic brain - one that is able to reformat itself to suit changing needs.
Posted by GeeTee at October 18, 2002 08:08 AM | TrackBack 0
"We are building stripped-down mini-brains, if you will, directly on a chip," says Miro Pastrnak, business development director of Tensor Biosciences of Irvine, California.
Posted by GeeTee at October 18, 2002 07:27 AM | TrackBack 0
"Alexander lived only five months after being diagnosed and yet his medical bill totaled nearly $250,000," Horwin said. "If you take even one-half of $250,000 and multiply it by 1.3 million people, the dollars are staggering."
Posted by GeeTee at October 17, 2002 07:02 PM | TrackBack 0
In some instances at least, the very act of explaining what has been fixed by a security patch could be construed as explaining how the security of a product could be breached, and hence could be viewed as a breach of the DMCA.
This is of course ridiculous.
Posted by GeeTee at October 17, 2002 01:44 PM | TrackBack 0
The ad, printed in black lettering on an all-white background starts out with: "Boo Hoo, People like my music--this sucks."
Posted by GeeTee at October 17, 2002 01:24 PM | TrackBack 0
``Because the pressure is off to deal with this, they've kind of done this hatchet job on their Web sites and are making no real effort to repair them,'' said Sean Moulton, a policy analyst for the group.
Posted by GeeTee at October 17, 2002 01:11 PM | TrackBack 0
"The doctor who did my scan said they'd seen some research where mice that had been scanned ran around wildly in circles counterclockwise for 10 minutes after the procedure, so I was kind of relieved that I didn't do that," the volunteer said.
Posted by GeeTee at October 17, 2002 12:55 PM | TrackBack 0
Although the ad appears to be from a "real person," similar to the Apple campaign, Microsoft said it commissioned the posting from a freelance writer who was paid for her work, although the company claims her experience was genuine. Microsoft also said that the photograph of the "convert" was actually a stock photograph.
Posted by GeeTee at October 17, 2002 12:48 PM | TrackBack 0
[ Photography by Brian Ernst ]
Posted by GeeTee at October 16, 2002 03:04 PM | TrackBack 0
This time around, the office is again asking for specific examples of cases where the law's restrictions cause "actual instances of verifiable problems occurring in the marketplace." Inconvenience or "theoretical critiques" are not enough, the office warned.
Posted by GeeTee at October 16, 2002 03:03 PM | TrackBack 0
Artists and other rights holders deserve fair compensation and the ability to protect their own intellectual property. But this should not be done unfairly on the backs of people who do not copy music illegally.
Posted by GeeTee at October 16, 2002 02:09 PM | TrackBack 0
"He received the NZSO promotional CD, put it into his computer and then he was prompted to put the titles in," said Constable Todd Webley, to whom the student unburdened himself when the titles became news.
Posted by GeeTee at October 13, 2002 08:55 AM | TrackBack 0
It was challenged by six women who either sell sex aids or said they need them for sexual gratification.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 03:37 PM | TrackBack 0
"Our models of the Fomalhaut disc suggest that a planet similar in mass to Saturn is creating a wake or trail of dust. The gravity of the planet creates points near its orbit called "resonances", where comets get trapped. When two comets collide, they release a shower of dust that we see as a bright spot in the disc."
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 01:44 PM | TrackBack 0
Enacted in 1897, the law allowed females aged 15 to 34 to be jailed for "incorrigibility" for such behaviour as public drunkenness, promiscuity or pregnancy out of wedlock.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 01:39 PM | TrackBack 0
Moxon, a welder, told police he believed he and Natalie Scott, 21, were involved in an internet game and she had been sent to kill him.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 01:35 PM | TrackBack 0
"This is a little bit of game playing, saying this is a very important speech but at the same time not taking the next step and asking the networks" to carry it, the news suit continued. "Clinton never did this, Bush [senior] never did this; they never said, 'This is an important national speech but we're not asking you for time.' "
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 01:31 PM | TrackBack 0
Takahashi confirmed data transmission through the body is possible at broadband speeds. Attached to a PDA, the device reportedly developed can transmit weak electrical signals using human bodies as circuits instead of wire.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 11:30 AM | TrackBack 0
Asked by a reporter if it was a "kick in the leg" at Washington, Berge said: "Yes, the answer is an unconditional 'yes."' On Friday, Carter declined to comment on Iraq.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 10:27 AM | TrackBack 0
Faced with a motion calling on Ottawa to share its budgetary surplus with the provinces, Mr. Chrétien had said, "We control our expenses better than the provincial government, which continues to open supposed Quebec embassies all over the place in the world."
Mr. Landry said, "I formally ask the Prime Minister of Canada to apologize for the contemptuous behaviour towards the Quebec nation," adding that Mr. Chrétien built his political career by attacking Quebec.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 10:11 AM | TrackBack 0
Hospital staff working in the emergency ward sent her to the waiting room. There were 20 other people waiting for admission to emergency.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 10:08 AM | TrackBack 0
Bypassing protection technologies that prevent copying would be forbidden, although private individuals could still make copies if the end result is used only privately. Consumers could also legally avert the regional coding of current DVD players, and take their players to repair shops that can remove the coding.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 07:59 AM | TrackBack 0
According to Mr Short, lemons could be used as a contraceptive by soaking a piece of cotton wool in the juice and inserting it into the vagina before sex.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 07:26 AM | TrackBack 0
Bernard H. Ridder Jr., a former St. Paul Pioneer Press publisher who helped create Knight Ridder, the nation's second-largest newspaper group, died Thursday. He was 85 and died in San Mateo, Calif., of complications from a stroke.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 07:25 AM | TrackBack 0
Outside the Board of Foreign Trade where the negotiation was held, dozens of college students protested against the U.S. demand, shouting ``Knowledge can't be monopolised.''
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 07:20 AM | TrackBack 0
While continuing to battle California's clean-car goals, carmakers say the legitimate market demand for low-emission cars will be met with gas-electric hybrids and, eventually, hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles. Only Toyota still offers an all-electric car, the RAV4-EV, to U.S. consumers -- and expects to sell only 200 or 300 this year.
Posted by GeeTee at October 11, 2002 07:14 AM | TrackBack 0
Effective immediately, anyone can get the names, addresses, phone numbers,
ages and other information for Orange County's 150,000-plus schoolchildren.
Reacting to news that the school district had been sharing the information
with political consultants and others, the Orange County School Board voted
6-1 Tuesday to release the information to everyone.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 01:19 PM | TrackBack 0
"This is what is wrong with Berman-Coble, with DRM, with TCPA, and with Gator. It's my computer, dammit. If I don't give informed consent, you can't use it."
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 01:15 PM | TrackBack 0
Using it, a condom can be put on in just three seconds, compared to the standard 30-40 seconds, the developers say.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 12:18 PM | TrackBack 0
The MDI engine incorporates various innovative and novel systems, not only the basic idea (energy in the form of compressed air), but the materials it uses (glass fibre body or the use of edible oils) and the technical design. Regarding engine design, there is another innovative factor, the system of articulated conrods which allows the piston to pause at Top Dead Centre (TDC), creating a constant volume chamber for the air to expand. As a matter of fact, this system can be adapted to a conventional petrol engine.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 11:23 AM | TrackBack 0
"Two doctors have said that my cancer is a smoker's tumour and, since I never smoked a day in my life, this is second-hand smoke related," said Crowe.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 10:47 AM | TrackBack 0
The "mission" of this page is to poke a little fun at famous people who advertise in Japan but don't do it back home.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 10:13 AM | TrackBack 0
To acknowledge this landmark case [Eldred vs. Ashcroft], an exhibit will celebrate "degenerate art" in a corporate age: art and ideas on the fringes of intellectual property law.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 09:30 AM | TrackBack 0
In a not-unexpected but nevertheless painful move, ABC has been forced to cancel two new dramas, "Push, Nevada" and "That Was Then," because of low ratings. "That Was Then," about a man who gets the chance to relive events from high school, was a weak performer on Friday night, while "Push" managed a strong audience in an initial Tuesday outing, but got clobbered in its regular Thursday night timeslot opposite two of primetime%uFFD5s biggest hits, "CSI" and "Will & Grace." Media Life%uFFD5s Dan Jewel predicted that the timeslot would be a problem but gave the Ben Affleck-produced series a critical thumbs-up, writing, "%uFFD5Push, Nevada%uFFD5 succeeds as a sort of %uFFD4Twin Peaks%uFFD5 Lite, filled with oddball humor and a smooth noir look." At least one more episode of the series will have to air so that writers will get a chance to insert a clue that will allow viewers to solve the mystery and compete for the promised $1 million prize.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 07:56 AM | TrackBack 0
To some, this is a sign of a nation gone perilously soft. They worry that the cosseted Japanese youths of the future, sitting dreamily on air conditioned thrones, will be no match for their squat-toilet neighbors — the worker bees of industrial China or the spartan soldiers of North Korea.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 07:21 AM | TrackBack 0
Mr Maia said that if Rosinha Matheus became governor of Rio de Janeiro state he would ride around the city naked.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 07:19 AM | TrackBack 0
...compared with a VCR or DVD player, a TiVo is difficult to set up and maintain. It's not rocket science, but to mangle the words of H.L. Mencken, lots of businesses have gone broke underestimating the technophobia of the American public. For a nation that still prefers to access the Internet via the "sandbox" of America Online, hooking up a hard disk to a television seems like a fairly Byzantine task. When a British media consultancy recently distributed some TiVos, 30 percent of the recipient households "never really got to grips with them" --or, in other words, they preferred to let the pricey boxes gather dust rather than waste another second figuring out the labyrinthine menus.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 07:17 AM | TrackBack 0
Jot McCloud, a 28-year-old retail consultant, says a good example is the sometimes hostile attitude of Mr. Krabs, the proprietor of the local hangout, the Krusty Krab, toward SpongeBob, who works there as a fry cook. Mr. Krabs "doesn't like to be around SpongeBob because SpongeBob's so flamboyant and outgoing," says Mr. McCloud. The interaction is "like a straight person who for whatever reason is thrown into a situation where they are around a gay person and they don't have that comfort level."
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 07:12 AM | TrackBack 0
The high cost of shipping led 17 per cent to abandon their carts. In fact, 59 per cent of online shoppers believe they're being gouged for further profit on shipping costs.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 06:29 AM | TrackBack 0
It may also be the first circuit court decision to hold that online contracts regarding software downloads (usually called clickwraps) may not be valid because of where the legal terms were placed. In this case, the contractual terms were one page below the button that launched the software download on the Netscape page, which would have required the user to scroll down to see them.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 05:57 AM | TrackBack 0
The book -- to be released this month -- investigates the social impact of mobile and pervasive computing. In eight chapters, Rheingold chronicles how "smart mobs," defined as "people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other," are reshaping the way societies organize and interact.
Posted by GeeTee at October 10, 2002 05:54 AM | TrackBack 0
The Constitution allows Congress to give authors and inventors the exclusive right to their works for a "limited" time. The Supreme Court will look at how Congress handled that matter, and if the latest extension can apply retroactively.
Posted by GeeTee at October 09, 2002 07:11 AM | TrackBack 0
We've read more than a decade of press coverage about online relationships -- much of it written since my son and I made this trip together. Journalists love to talk about the aberrant qualities of virtual sex. Yet, many of us embraced the Internet because it has fit into the most personal and banal spaces of our lives. Focusing on the revolutionary aspects of online courtship blinds us to the continuities in courtship rituals across generations and across media. Indeed, the power of physical artifacts (the imprint of lips on paper, the faded petals of a rose), of photographs, of the voice on the telephone gain new poignancy in the context of these new relationships. Moreover, focusing on the online aspects of these relationships blinds us to the agility with which teens move back and forth across media. Their daily lives require constant decisions about what to say on the phone, what to write by hand, what to communicate in chat rooms, what to send by e-mail. They juggle multiple identities -- the fictional personas of electronic wrestling, the constructed ideals of romantic love, and the realities of real bodies and real emotions.
Posted by GeeTee at October 09, 2002 07:09 AM | TrackBack 0
"Whereas their parents experienced rising wages over their lifetime, Generation X may not. So college may have been a bad investment," says Wolff, the NYU economist. Adds Bruce Tulgan, a Gen Xer and founder of RainmakerThinking, a consultancy that studies labor trends: "I had a college president say to me, 'I don't know how much longer I can pull this off because people will start to ask, Is it worth this much money to be that much smarter?' "
Posted by GeeTee at October 09, 2002 07:06 AM | TrackBack 0
Bertelsmann's newest biography is a damning potboiler. The subject? The company's own Nazi collaboration in World War II Germany. Having fessed up to its Third Reich past, how quickly will Bertelsmann be able to leave it behind? That depends on the outlet you're reading.
Posted by GeeTee at October 09, 2002 06:51 AM | TrackBack 0
Although Winnipeg claims to be the world's coldest city, with temperatures regularly falling to -40C, apologetic officials admitted the bad weather had taken them by surprise.
Posted by GeeTee at October 09, 2002 06:39 AM | TrackBack 0
Azael doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs. He exercises regularly and eats a high protein diet. In preparation for this event, Azael has abstained from sex for three days. Nevertheless, he's not a hundred percent confident that he'll be able to come twenty times in a row, even though he says his record at home is forty times.
Posted by GeeTee at October 08, 2002 04:07 PM | TrackBack 0
The magazine Lingua Franca and its parent company University Business LLC filed for bankruptcy earlier this year (Trustee, Robert L. Geltzer, of Tendler, Biggins & Geltzer, 1556 Third Avenue, Suite 505, New York, NY 101128). We understand that the assets of University Business, including this Website, are to be auctioned in New York City on October 24, 2002. For further information, we suggest contacting the Trustee.
Posted by GeeTee at October 08, 2002 03:58 PM | TrackBack 0
"What is shocking is they have produced copies of Hong Kong star Jackie Chan's movie The Tuxedo," which has not yet been released in the US, he says.
Posted by GeeTee at October 08, 2002 07:36 AM | TrackBack 0
Mr. Coderre said he would ask officials to explain why three wives of Winston Blackmore, former leader of the polygamist community in Bountiful, B.C., were granted permission to enter the country.
Posted by GeeTee at October 08, 2002 07:30 AM | TrackBack 0
It is highly unlikely that a single company owns the copyright both to George Harrison's songs and to child porn materials. The most likely explanation is that the list was generated by a "bot" that had been programmed to search for all files with the name "harrison" in them -- and that the results of its search were incorporated without a glance into the copyright owner's 512(c) notification.
Posted by GeeTee at October 04, 2002 07:05 AM | TrackBack 0
The majority of the successful attacks on operating systems come from only a few software vulnerabilities. This can be attributed to the fact that attackers are opportunistic, take the easiest and most convenient route, and exploit the best-known flaws with the most effective and widely available attack tools. They count on organizations not fixing the problems, and they often attack indiscriminately, scanning the Internet for any vulnerable systems. System compromises in the Solar Sunrise Pentagon hacking incident, for example, and the easy and rapid spread of the Code Red and NIMDA worms can be traced to exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities.
Posted by GeeTee at October 03, 2002 01:21 PM | TrackBack 0
When the startled policeman on the other end of the line in Linz, Upper Austria, asked the young caller what he thought the police should do, the boy was clueless, the report said.
Posted by GeeTee at October 03, 2002 11:28 AM | TrackBack 0
"In an effort to be sure we are as cutting-edge as possible with our on-screen persona, please refer to this slang dictionary when looking for just the right phrase," reads an internal Headline News memo obtained by the Daily News.
Posted by GeeTee at October 03, 2002 06:59 AM | TrackBack 0
Posted by GeeTee at October 03, 2002 04:30 AM | TrackBack 0
Until, now, it seems. CHUD dug up this report from the Vancouver Film Festival, where Simpsons executive producer Al Jean happened to be in attendance. Jean apparently told a room full of people that the principal cast of the show had all signed on for no less than three motion pictures. The comment got an immediate positive reaction from those present, as can be imagined.
Posted by GeeTee at October 02, 2002 05:11 PM | TrackBack 0
"This is a young man who should have a nice, healthy looking cervical spine and this is not a nice healthy looking cervical spine."
Posted by GeeTee at October 01, 2002 07:23 AM | TrackBack 0
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Comrades
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Notables
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News and useful sites
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