Archive: December 1, 2003

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Monday,  12/01/03  09:58 PM

Wow, December!  Yippee!

Kofi Annan thinks World Losing War on AIDS.  Today was world AIDS day.  Sadly, Annan chose to blame, instead of focusing on constructive solutions.  This is a societal, behavioral problem, not a medical one.  Really.  And while we blame, there are five people dying of AIDS every minute.

Steven Den Beste observes Pain at the BBC.  "Someone at the BBC really didn't want to write this story.  It's about the US economy."  Shhh, don't tell :)

Every once in a while I read something which totally hits a nail on the head; something which I knew, but didn't know I knew.  So here's godless' Thoughts on Fashion

I watched an assortment of bodies parade by, and was struck by the following realization: nice clothes really don't help women very much.  This is because there are three possibilities:

  1. Lithe, athletic women who look good no matter what they're wearing.
  2. Intermediate Bridget Jones types who could stand to lose 15 pounds and hit the weight room.
  3. Truly overweight/unattractive women who look bad no matter what they're wearing.

It is only the intermediate category who benefits measurably from clothes shopping...

The other day I noted this was cool: 

As Bush described his 'flight from Waco', he mentioned that he and Condoleezza Rice sat in an unmarked car, dressed casually with baseball caps, and that 'we looked a normal couple'.

So two people sent me email asking "what's so cool about that?"  That's even cooler!  Maybe our society is really, painfully, slowly but surely becoming colorblind!

Rob Walker contemplates The Guts of a New Machine.  "Two years ago this month, Apple Computer released a small, sleek-looking device it called the iPod."  Yep, and two years ago I bought one!

Slow Food!  "If we wish to enjoy the pleasure which this world can give us, we have to give of our all to strike the right balance of respect and exchange with nature and the environment."  [ via Ottmar Liebert ]

NYTimes notes a Chinese weblog with 10M readers.  How do you become this popular?  You just have to be an attractive 25-year old woman with an active sex life who blogs about it :)

Book website of the day: Nonzero, by Robert Wright.  "The logic of human destiny."  [ via John Robb ]

Steve Gillmor says Look Out, Outlook, RSS Ahead in 2004.  "You better watch out; you better not cry; you better not pout. Steve Gillmor is telling you why: RSS is coming to town."  Hey, it's been in town all year already.  You are using an aggregator like SharpReader, right?  [ via Dave Winer ]

A Slashdot thread noted TelevisionWeek: Getting Real About the DVR Threat.  Why a threat?  Because the 30-second spot is dead, and there is nothing on the horizon to replace it.  TV broadcasters are losing revenue.  Analyst James Marsh says of current actions "It's reminiscent of re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

P.S. I love my Tivo.  You knew that, but I had to say it anyway :)

The BitTorrent meme seems to be spreading in the blogosphere.  But it has Dave mystified.  It is a weird thing, in that there is no "client" to run.  You find a .torrent file somewhere, somehow, and click on it.

Oh, here we have a digital sundial.  Now is that cool, or what?  Just when you think you've seen everything, you realize "everything" is so much more than you realized...  [ via Cory Doctorow ]

A HeisenBug is a bug whose presence is affected by the act of observing it.  I love it!  Obviously leads to the famous HeisenBug Uncertainty Principle :)

 
 

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