House of Shh
From the anarchist librarians list this morning, an article in the Guardian about “Bush, the Saudi billionaire and the Islamists: the story a British firm is afraid to publish”: A book investigating links between rich Saudis and US politicians has been suppressed by the giant publishing firm Random House because, it says, of growing “libel tourism” by wealthy foreigners, and exorbitant legal “success fees”. Libel lawyers are stifling free speech, the deputy chairman of Random House, Simon Master, said yesterday. The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks…. [read...
Read MoreNewsmap
Yet another beautiful Flash hoomiejobbie: “Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap’s objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.” I would like one of these for my brain,...
Read Moreremind us
I woke up to NPR stating that Condoleezza Rice will testify publicly and under oath after all. And then someone posted this poignant Flash movie to the muck, and I realized it doesn’t matter what Ms. Rice says, under oath or not under oath, in private or in public. Too much damage has already been done, and there are people in power who blatantly lie to us while most Americans sit passively and do nothing to change the regime. I still look forward to November, but now I’m just nauseated whenever I think about the presidential election. There’s always that possibility that we won’t re-defeat Bush, and then what? Time to move to Europe? Bah. Happy...
Read MoreSecond Life, First Post
When I ponder over a decade of muds, mucks, and mushes, it’s hard for me to imagine wanting to experience anything other than a text-based virtual environment. After all, I have always been in love with words. And then I think of Second Life. I like having someplace to go like this Tree Isle of Teal. I like having a friend like Jopsy to visit, watching fireflies from our perch in a giant tree-swing. And we can talk, or we can sit silently and watch the sky deepen into dusk. Second Life is the perfect place for an introvert, because she can spend hours roaming the various lands and never have to interact with another being. She can fill her head with foreign incantations in an attempt to create the smallest of useless objects. She can ride a cable car...
Read Moreto retain freshness
At some point Friday night the MSG and I ran out of wine and went to the corner store to buy another bottle. While he perused the selection, I made a horrible discovery. “Caramel Ho Hos!” I exclaimed, delighted. The MSG merely said, “No.” “Yes! Caramel Ho Hos! Let’s get some!” “Why?” “Because I want to see how gross they are!” I beamed, gripping the slippery white plastic wrapper and plunking it down on the counter. Sometime on Saturday, we would discover the Caramel Ho Hos in the freezer. Neither one of us had any clear recollection of how they got in there. Another day passed before we decided to actually try them. “They don’t taste like chocolate,” the MSG said, wincing...
Read MoreJawbreaker?
From the Detroit Free Press, found by my dad: Touching off a scientific furor, researchers say they may have discovered the genetic mutation separating early humans from their apelike ancestors that led to smaller, weaker jaws and bigger brains. [read more]
Read Moreaddicted to happiness
Ah, as another Sunday winds down, I upgrade Movable Type to the current version and surf MT plugins for kicks. I’m ripping three new CDs that have replaced extremely worn-out tapes in my collection: Black Flag’s Damaged, The Clash’s London Calling, and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. My apartment is sort of a mess, and my mom arrives in twelve hours, so I think I’ll persuade her not to come over just yet. And the most beautiful note of all: I’m actually looking forward to going to work again. My weekend with the MSG was quite laidback, unlike some of our other recent ones, and it was so nice to enjoy every lazy moment of it. Last night we cooked together (yay) and made buffalo roast in a red wine sauce with...
Read MoreQuicksilver
Like my friend Gregory, I used LaunchBar but never got hooked on it. His post on Quicksilver as an alternative to LaunchBar intrigued me, so I installed it. With just a few keystrokes, I have the ability to browse just about anything I want on my laptop, including my iTunes library, address book entries, bookmarks, plus a robust clipboard and a “shelf” that I haven’t figured out how to properly use yet. Hooray for Quicksilver! Edit: This is Panther-only software. (Sorry,...
Read MoreDriver tried to hit Osama lookalike
From The Guardian: A French motorist has been given a three-month suspended prison sentence for doing his level best to run over a pedestrian he mistakenly identified as Osama bin Laden. The self-employed man of 35, named only as Pierre, was found guilty in the southern city of Montpellier on Tuesday of pursuing his intended victim through several red lights and then into a pedestrian zone….
Read Morethree from mefi
I know someone who’s going to enjoy these three links from MetaFilter very, very much … theyrule.net: “They Rule is a website that allows you to create maps of the interlocking directories of the top 100 companies in the US in 2001. The data is static, so it is fast becoming out of date, as companies merge and disappear and directors shift boards. A second version of They Rule is planned, and has been started. No completion date is set, though it will hopefully appear sometime mid 2004.” Political Friendster: “Political Friendster is a parody of the social network Friendster. It allows a visualization of the connections between players in the political game.” Registering allows you to add new people to the database. ...
Read MoreNestcam
The cam was last on Friday, May 4.
Hello What
I am Halsted, a/k/a cygnoir, and I do stuff with words.
My favourite things to do with words are keeping this diary, writing stories, and organising information.
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Reading
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Tenacious D
3 days, 15 hours and 41 minutes ago - To Be The Best
Tenacious D
3 days, 15 hours and 42 minutes ago - They Fucked Our Asses - Explicit Version
Tenacious D
3 days, 15 hours and 43 minutes ago
Plugging
