New Page 1

(This feature is updated every several days at the main page for www.threerivertechreview.com. This is more like an archive page now in case anybody is reading.)

Just some more great Alan Moore stuff. That's the cover of a recent Promethea. By the way, there's a page of the annotated Promethea.

New Fangled Army bots and droids, some can climb walls, look like snakes...I've always thought these were the new heroes. Give me a mobile droid that can motor at 70 miles an hour and has a vidcam and I Shall Fight Crime...
Another Story About How Wind is a Winner
Popular Science's Top Ten Scientists

Brilliant Fisk. No wonder the Evil Ones hate him so.

"
"Future reaction is equally predictable. Unable to blame their daily cup of bitterness upon Saddam's former retinue, the Americans will have to conjure up foreign intervention. Saudi "terrorists," al-Qaida "terrorists," pro-Syrian "terrorists," pro-Iranian "terrorists" -- any mysterious "terrorists" will do if their supposed existence covers up the painful reality: that our occupation has spawned a real home-grown Iraqi guerrilla army capable of humbling the greatest power on Earth."

Inspiring Kucinich Rant, But I'm Still Not Going to Vote For Him

Funny Dean Jpeg from Fark:

I remember Rudy Rucker was entertaining me with one of his gross visions of the future by way of his book "Saucer Wisdom". In the future, girl kids rebel by growing fingers around their necks as well as other appendages. I thought that was fiction, until I saw this Warren Ellis link to some Russian kid who lost his original equipment...well, look at the picture. Go ahead. Of course, does it, like, work or anything? Is it functional? Just curious out here...

"Science as a Democratizer"
Ribofunk Watch: Grow Your Own Drugs

Here's a great new artist by the name of Leinil Yu. He's very talented. He's also doing an interesting Superman book with Mark Waid.

Late Friday Night

I wrote this over at Technoccult. Here's a snippet:

"No matter what you do out here on the net, there are people who sort of do the same weirdass thing that you thought was your singular solitary obsession. The interdimensional cousins of this blog would have to be New World Disorder, The Incunabula (otherwise known as the Hive) and probably a new blog called Gravity Lens.

The really cool memes over at both New World Disorder and the Hive have to do with the "real" reasons behind the blackout. New World says that it was possibly nuclear power plant sabotage. And in the comments section, someone points out that awful new worm that's going around might not be an accident...Not to be outdone, the Hive tells us that this was the result of an odd electromagnetic effect. Could it be the rumored Tesla-inspired HAARP project in the hands of terrorists, or worse, The French, who believe their heat wave and resultant nuclear meltdowns are US weather control retaliation for not getting involved in our stupid wars for oil expropriation...? I think it's obvious that that's the truth. Just call me Phil Drudge, fair and unbalanced..."

August 12th

Soldiers abroad reveal unhappiness with the war by
using this new thing called the Internet. You wouldn't believe the arguments I'm having about this over at Warblogger Watch. Apparently, all of these real soldiers are just useful idiots in my commie anti-war schemes. I wish.
Actual funny headline about Iran: We Had A Democracy Once But You Crushed It
Freenet Guy To Leave US. Says US Starting To Look Like Nazi Germany (IT's not just me saying it folks...)
Incredible Warren Ellis online novel. Usually, these things don't impress me. This is impressive. He's vibed into that City of Silence poetic rant and it's beautiful.

"I looked out on London at dawn, waiting for the tiny machines in my shoulder to die.

At this time in the morning, the streets still hold the darkness, the spires and domes and towers bobbing above it. A lunatic's armada, masts and sails of copper and slate tacking lazily over an ocean of shadows. The markets would open soon; bananas from the Windwards, strawberries from Norway, Finnish cloudberries, horsemeat from Japan. The Italian coffeehouses unlocking their doors, greyfaced minimum-wage kids exhaustedly wrestling themselves into workshirts and calling themselves baristas. Wishing they'd made the cut for a job at one of the five remaining American-style fastfood places in London. The German stalls frying ribers and bratwurst in the cold air."

The Speculist's online fiction ain't bad either.

Henry Waxman not only wrote a report about how the White House was using science for its own evil ends, but he created a website that is ongoing, which I think is interesting. I've been making the same argument for the last year or so without congressional oversight but there you go...

Nice Green argument for Howard Dean. It's comprehensive. He comes to the same conclusions that I did when I had this debate with Lisa Stolarski, who was pro Kucinich. I don't know what she is now she kinda stopped talking to me...I seem to have that effect on women.

Breaking News from Ruskie Bloggers: We Planted the WMDs and then we lost them. Russians got this story from libertarian Al Martin.

August 3rd thru August 9th

I couldn't think of anything this week so I'm going with my own art again. That's a very multi-colored Bjork by the way.

Q: What is the matrix?

A: It's a government program that's meant to mimic the dreaded TIA on a statewide level. It's the bureaucratic underpinning of the Orwellian state...

Neo: Gaaawd nooooo this can't be real, this can't be happening...

Morph: I just promised you the truth. I mean, I could have given you some crazy idea about human batteries and subsequently ruin the plot for you but I'm simply telling you about the desert of the real...and related: anti-war left already being tracked by government. Writer says this is fascism now, not latter stages or warning shots...

Update: Over at Technoccult I posted this, which I thought was a better joke:

I mean, I could have given you some crazy idea about human batteries and subsequently ruin the plot for you but I'm simply telling you about the desert of the real...ly nightmarish paranoid style of the Bush administration...

And now links, links, links:

From Jorn Barger's Robot Wisdom (Jorn might not be dead afterall): World Bank Comes To Conclusion that Privatizing Every Solitary Function Not So Good And in related news: privatization in Iraq not so swell either. Also: Can't Miss Cheap Labor Conservatives Complain About WTO anti-tax break ruling. The chickens have come home to roost as one great man put it...
Vasant Corporation Sez Free Energy Might Work...But You Have to Pay Them for Their Detailed "Explanation"
Yet Another Privatized Space Effort Gets Underway

The Situation in Afghanistan: Same as it ever was, same as it ever was...And from Flit: Two really good blogs about Iraq and Afghanistan.
Interesting Charlie Stross Post About Possibly Evil Extropian Behind That Ideas Futures Idea

Two Superhero pieces (Here and here) about the inevitability of super powers (I personally can google faster than a speeding bullet) that I liked. One was even by that evil Instapundit. See? I'm not totally obsessed with his evil position on our evil war. Because if I was I would link to this....And an older story about superpowers that I probably linked to last year...

August 1st

In case you were wondering just how we were going to screw the Iraqis out of their wealth--it's a story that tends to be obscured by our kids getting shot up on a daily basis or dying from an odd illness or committing suicide but it's still important--check out this piece on the sneaky president's executive order essentially giving the oil companies, and nobody else mind you, a get out of jail free card. It's already being investigated by this group, as well it should.
By the way, there's also an Iraqi Coalition (of two) Casualty Count. It's growing.
Cheap labor conservatives. Cheap labor conservatives. Cheap labor conservatives. That's my meme and I'm sticking to it through 2004! Also check out the fine blog that this came from.
Nice Walter Mosley Piece Against the War
Check out this Bill Gross (real genius and founder of Ideolab, still around after the bust) solar breakthrough. He uses genetic programming to improve solar cells and the Stirling Engine. There's a bigger story in this month's Discover magazine.

July 29

Tip of the Hat to Gravity Lens Blog for the Above Pic
Hot off the presses: Village Voice Writes About Trans Humanist conference. Changesurfer radio guy James Hughes gets a quote.
Over at Better Humans, where I owe them a piece or two, there's a new column by James and also a long review of Bill McKibben's new book "Enough", or as I call it "See? The Left fears Change too..." It's written by David Appell who hasn't been blogging lately. He must be dead, like that Robot Wisdom guy Jorn Barger.
Even Big Companies like Amazon and Microsoft Want Broadband Opened Up. They're right. It's a no brainer really. Dialup is cheap because of competition.
Two interesting blogs that I might permalink one day. Angry Asian Man and Harvey Pekar's great new blog. And his wife and adopted kid blog too! Why can't Harlan do this...

Best Piece I've Read ABout Iraqi Insurgency. Big hint: has very little to do with Saddam.

Several years ago over at Nanodot I asked why someone hasn't come up with a superantioxidant pill. Over at Better Humans, I found the people who are making it so.

July 20 thru July 26

A Le Phil Original. Eat your heart out Tom Moody. Where's my New York showing man? (Model is Danielle Dragan, at least that's what she said her name was...A woman would never lie to me afterall...)

July 22

Meanwhile, in Machinima news, Charlie Stross makes an appearance in that 20 minute documentary of theirs, which looks cool. The idea of Machinima is that you use powerful game engines as animation tools. The Scottish guy with long hair looks to be some kind of Warrior Nerd. Also check out the Ill Clan.

Stunning Piece By Greg Palast Which Argues that the Gates Philanthropy Is a Sham...I like Greg Palast but I find myself depressed by this story.
Tiny Isle of Tuvalu Believes in Global Warming (They're sinking)
Long History of how Left Has Used the Net
Long Critical Article of the WTO
Whither the Banana?
Update on Wired South Korea. Check out the political implications. Dean fans take heart.
Take the Red Pill: Scientific American Has Story About Universe Being a Big Hologram
Why One Iraqi Quit the Iraqi Council
More News on the Fascist Meme Front
And there's this incredible Atrios link to Italian fascism, lots of parallels here of course...

July 21

Meant to Link To This Earlier: Better Humans Columnist George Dvorsky Rips Apart Tom Paine anti-transhumanist piece...? I really like Tom Paine. Ah well. Apparently, we're neo-eugenicists. Great. Where's my Gene Expression slot? ("I hate the minorities but it's all scientific don't you know, sincerely, Atheist Imperialist")

Long Story About Pro Peace Military Guy Who Was Recently Killed in Iraq
Oldie But Goodie: Dean's 16 Questions for Bush
Nice New Redesign at Technoccult with Courier fonts (looks like). Check out short interviews with Warren Ellis and Bruce Sterling.

Summary of Why Moore Turns Bad on the Big Screen It's the lack of detail, stupid.

Personally, and I'm not sure about the money end of this, I think his stories and his detail would work better in longform over at HBO. In fact, I've been pushing this untrue rumor for years now: "You know, I heard a rumor that HBO was doing a 12 part version of the Watchmen, which will be produced and overseen by Terry Gilliam and feature guest directing stints by Tarantino, Woody Allen, and the Wachowskis...That's what I heard. It will be 14 hours with a two hour premier and a two hour ending. And, get this, I heard Alan Moore gets final script approval...imagine that. And look at the cast: either The American Psycho guy or Redford for Ozymandius, Gandolfini for either the Comedian or Nite Owl, Steven Buscemi or Dennis Hopper as Rorshack, Drea from the Sopranos as the Comedian's daughter, somebody muscular yet cerebral for Dr. Manhattan, and that's just for starters...Well, I hope that rumor is true. And then I heard if that turns out well, Top Ten gets the same treatment.....What a rumor." Watchmen is written by Alan "More than a man, a god! (who oddly enough might be planning that in his guise as a black warlock)" Moore.

July 13th thru July 20th

July 17th

Harlan's attorney isn't going to stop file sharing, even if he wins the case. But he's a very good writer and now he's got a blog.
I give up: I'm permalinking Big Media Matt and Calpundit.

Tons of stuff on the Bush meltdown. I get most of my dirt from Atrios. The groupblog format almost gives me too much info. But for starters: Big Business Hates Bush (Needs Europe and allies in global economy...what a shocker.) and companies that are sidestepping the sanctions of off limits pro terrorist rogue regimes. (Haliburton anyone...what a shocker...)

I'm much more impressed that Dean got this gig than I am by his posts so far. Can Bush even pronounce Intellectual Property? He's also holding out on his DMCA position. Here's a hint Dean: if you want the hip youth and digerati vote go the complete opposite way of Hilary Rosen. Demand misdemeanors or less for file traders and have a long public disagreement with Conyers about this.

July 15th

New Nan Site From A Guy Who Writes For Small Times
And from Small Times: Report about how Nanoshells are being used in Medicine.
Now on the alt science globalization horror front, this piece from Public Citizen: Government trades away food safety, allows uninspected meat onto U.S. shelves
Friction Between Scientists and the Bush Administration or my alt headline: Logic and the Bush Administration Once Again Fail To Meet Middle Ground

Here's the money shot so to speak:

"The administration's stem-cell stand is just one of many examples, from climate change to abstinence-only sex-education programs, in which the White House has made policies that defy widely accepted scientific opinion. Why this administration feels unbound by the consensus of academic scientists can be gleaned, in part, from a telling anecdote in Nicholas Lemann's recent New Yorker profile of Karl Rove. When asked by Lemann to define a Democrat, Bush's chief political strategist replied, "Somebody with a doctorate." Lemann noted, "This he said with perhaps the suggestion of a smirk." Fundamentally, much of today's GOP, like Rove, seems to smirkingly equate academics, including scientists, with liberals."

And here's a theme I've been pushing over at Better Humans:

"The Bush administration's dismissiveness toward scientists could also have serious consequences, from delaying vital new medical therapies to eroding America's general lead in science."

Older Voice Article About An AIDS Cure No One Can Afford
Wired Story About DIY Television Networks and Stations (I would love to do my own MTV...)

July 6th through July 12th

All Your Film Belong to Us: The Maladjusted Fanboy Comic Geeks. On the other hand, Alan Moore is really really good. I've written, for Locus no less, the world's greatest Alan Moore suckup quote. I bested Claude's assertion that Alan was the greatest writer to ever write comics by saying that Alan is more than just the greatest writer to ever write comics, he's one of the world's greatest living writers, period. I then continued about how I would rather be seen in a pit of my own filth than share the same page with this great, totally Su-perior man...(By the way, if you just read one comic this year, try the above...) (Damn! The direct link to the Python sketch doesn't work...put in the phrase "In a pit of my own filth" and you'll get the reference...)

Speaking of Python, here's the "Dead Parrot" sketch updated to aWol's Iraqi quagmire reality...

Scott McCloud, tired of waiting for the future to catch up with him, is putting his micropayment theories into action. It also has some very cool bits of animation and the storytelling method is completely different. You just haven't seen anything like this before, even though I sense that McCloud is a better critic than an artist. Go support this effort, especially if you would like to make money doing this online stuff one day. It's easy to do if you have either Paypal or a credit card, which I think is every person on Earth. I threw in my quarter with pride. Here's to our self-sufficient future.

Thanks to the now must read daily Gravity Lens Blog for not only pointing out some of my Red Hour columns, but also giving me the latest heads up on the Whole Earth Catalog's Singularity issue. Very cool.

This is the great work of Esteban Maroto. Interesting link that reflects on those great Warren artists.

The entirety of the new Wired Magazine in now online. And it's pretty good. Top Stories include new ways of massive planetary and/or stellar death. (rogue black holes anyone?)
There's an interview with Robert Moog about his new snyth project. Moog got input from Rick Wakeman of Yes and Bitches Brew Jazz godz alumni Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock.

And there's a nice story about Burt Ruttan and the whole private space race movement which has incredible potential.
Very Good Salon Piece About the Public Research Movement. The ACLU ad nicely sets it off I must say. The group behind it also has a site here.
Just go read the latest Tom Moody Posts. Most literate Hulk review, ever. Nice review of a laptop band as well.

File Sharing Services Add Anonymity in wake of RIAA legal Crackdown. Boy, I sure hope Emule and Edonkey do this kind of privacy thing, not that I would care, of course, because I'm not some kind of lawless cad enjoying his rare Mahavishnu Orchestra video clips. Not me.

June 22 thru June 28th

You know I never wrote a review of the Hulk. I actually kind of liked it. Hulk smash. Me like. I also thought the science was pretty cool even though Nan looks to be the gamma radiation of our times. More over at Majic 12 at a later date...

June 27th:

Well, like a pundit I admire, Max Sawicky, I'm going to go over what I got right and wrong about Moveon's online primary. (By the way, this is very unlike Instapundit and Pejman "Soon I Will Be Named The King of Persia!" Yousefzadeh who never admit they're wrong, at least not in public.)

I was right that Dean would probably win the vote. I was right that he probably wouldn't hit 50 percent. That was just too high. However, over at American Samizdat where I've been debating Dean Vs. Kucinich (You just have to scroll down. You know how blogger is with permalinks.), I made it clear that I wasn't that impressed with Kucinich's online efforts thus far. I was wrong. He came in second. That's pretty impressive or it was a sabotage vote from the usual Freeper suspects, but to believe in a fair and loving world for a moment, that's still pretty impressive. Hey, the guy beat Edwards, Kerry and Gephardt. Not bad. I also remarked where's the guy's blog? Well, Kucinich does have a blog here. In fact, Kucinich seems to be doing more original posting than Dean. So, while I don't think Kucinich has outperformed Dean on the net, it's clear that the former Cleveland mayor has outperformed every other candidate.

It also proves that the net offers a level playing field. Where would we be without this wonderful form of expression and change...

June 24th

I'm voting for Howard Dean on Tuesday. My vote isn't etched in stone and I may change my mind before the Pennsylvania primary. Yet Dean to me has a few qualities that I think stand out. One: he's one of the two candidates that opposes the Iraq war. I believe that the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are nightmarish and that American casualties will probably mount. I believe Dean, who is by far the most photogenic and dynamic of the Democratic speakers, can best exploit and explain this position. Two: He's run a brilliant campaign so far and he's the only candidate that I believe understands the net and understands it's potential. Why is this important? Because traditional politics poisoned by hard money combined with the decided FCC lean of the corporate media will give the Republicans a decided Orwellian advantage. Yet on the net, where Dean's Meetup sign-ups are nothing short of astonishing, it can be a fair vote. Let a thousand Three River Techs bloom, all of which endorse Howard Dean. I think we can make a fight of it out here. Three: Looks count and see one again. It matters how you look on television. Whenever I see Howard speak I feel like saying "Give 'em Hell Howard". Four: A vote for Kucinich is a vote for Graham or God help us Leiberman. I have nothing against Dennis, in fact I think he would be a great secretary of labor. But after watching him in debates, I just think that Dean can reach more voters. That's just a gut feeling. My gut told me the same thing about Bill Clinton. Charisma matters. He will also clean Bush's clock in a debate, decisively. It will be the guy who can talk against the guy who can't. I can't wait.

June 18th

If you want to read something very sad, then go over to Unknown News and read about the impromptu visit to the emergency room. It's located on the site's left hand side. They'll probably be about four grand in the hole at the least. They're not insured.

Scott Bateman's Funny Pro Kucinich Ads (I'm probably going with Dean, though. The few things I don't like about him make him more electable come November.)
Here's a nice ocean tide alt fuel contraption devised by the Brits. If they scale it up, it could replace half of that country's nuclear energy output.
Interesting Argument About How To Get the Public More Involved in Science Policy Issues
Our loyal ally Spain considers charges against us for deliberately targeting their journalists.

Nice Explanatory Article About Publicly Available Peer Review and this is a related story and link about peer reviewed inventions. Reads completely science fictional...

Here's a writer who I should have linked to long ago because she's digging in the same vein that I am (a left view of technology) except people pay her a decent wage. Her name is Annalee Newitz. She has a website, but doesn't blog so you have to look around for her newer stuff. She wrote the piece above about open peer review and publishing. I really liked her piece about Cuban science, here and here. I'm also convinced that given a choice between the standards of our client states in Latin America, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras (being the main ones), and what looks to be the Mad Max style ruins in construction in both Afghanistan and Iraq, then I would take Cuba.

June 16th

Independent Science Agency Comes Out Against GM Foods
and here's the site for the Independent Science Panel
Classic Rall: "They Impeach Murderers, Don't They?"
Guys With Great Racks (Warren...You Missed This? Beaten by a corporate media hack like Dvorak...what would Spider say...?)
A Geek Volunteer Overseas
Horrific House Vote (yet again, sigh) Against Class Action Lawsuits
How Do You "lose" a 727 Exactly...Sounds Very X Filish or very prelude to terrorist action ish...

Calling the Instapundit Propaganda Crowd: Please Rebut Mr. Beers, (trying to see the big picture here...wants to force a larger investigation, possibly state that someone told him to lie, someone higher up...oh lawd let it be Rove) if possible. Also check out this Cursor commentary:

"In accusing the Bush administration with 'Dereliction of Duty' in its war on terror, Paul Krugman refers to Monday's Washington Post interview with Rand Beers, the former top White House counterrorism adviser who quit days before the start of the Iraq war and has recently become a volunteer national security adviser to Sen. John Kerry. While only a handful of U.S. news outlets have picked up the story, it has been linked to by more than 100 blogs."

Here's my new meme (catch it!) "The Internet: It's the new counterculture...man..." And oh, loyal allies the Brits say we suck as imperialist occupiers...

That's a classic Heavy Metal cover by Rich Corben, done in the 70s with Old School 3D, way before Poser. Impressive. And I hope he's a fair use kinda of guy. He's built like Den. I don't think I would like him when he's angry...

Remember: go out and collect all the www.warprofiteers.com cards.

My new Red Hour Orgy piece is up at Better Humans where I take on the New Atlantis (or the Stop Self-Evolution Crowd) and where I make the suggestion that Leon hisself is reading our words of wisdom. It's always good to have fans. And as usual, here's some of my breathless unbeatable prose:

"On the whole, I find the enterprise to be somewhat irrelevant and preachy, which is probably what I should expect from the editor Eric Cohen, a Weekly Standard alumnus. Here is a man who on the net can be quoted as saying that he wants "a role for religion in public life". I'm sure that's what science needs, just a touch of Wiccan lore added to that proteomic mix, or quantum computing spells conjured up by the dead Warlock Aleister Crowley (death shouldn't stop him), or Hare Krishna chants thrown in with your GPS tracking or imaginary beings in the sky who watch over your particle acceleration runs and yet have time to talk to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson about their money problems. Thanks for nuthin' Eric."

At the time I posted this, Better Humans was having some problems, so you can find Red Hour Orgy, raw and uncut, right here as well. (I wasn't going to link to my raw version this time because Simon added some important things to the piece that I didn't know and of course I always want to take full credit for the "brilliance".)

Speaking of Red Hour Orgy, in a past column I made an original argument (sez me) that we probably don't have to fight a war over oil if science progresses at even a conservative rate. I thought that if you combined wind, conservation, nan breakthroughs and the Turkey Guts fuel conversion people you would end up a situation where you wouldn't have to kill anybody over oil. Turns out that there's a buncha' nanotechnologists who are making the same point, and it will be archived on video. Two interesting companies will offer speakers, Konarka and another company that specializes in Solid State light. And these dry battery guys sound interesting.

Here's a place where you can find online left video. The Internet: Today's Counterculture. Can you dig it man...?
(From Daily Wireless) Pentagon Plans to Ring Country with Surveillance Blimps...Feel Safer Already. He also thinks this company represents Wifi's next big thing.

Naomi Klein on the Privatization of Iraq (It's not pretty and this isn't what happened in Germany or Japan.) And in a related story, the plunder and misery and backlash continues here and here and here.

(From Boing Boing) A nice history of those early media pirates: The Film and Music Industries.

More of Brendan McCarthy's Incredible Artwork

June 6

I'm permalinking the Center for Digital Democracy. Their Principle meme seems to be Cheap Broadband for the Masses. You can also see Jeff Chester speaking now over at a "Take Back the Media"Conference over there at C Span, which also features a funny Eric Alterman monologue. Chester has an interesting 12 point media plan which I've probably linked to before, but I don't mind doing it again.

Here's a completely depressing portrait from prison written by a non violent prisoner. It's not quite OZ, but it doesn't sound like fun. Well-written.

I saw this on Tech TV. It feels a lot like Bit Torrent and it's called E Mule. It seems like a more effective version of Kazaa. Let's put it this way: Overnight, at a lawless friend's house where they simply don't respect the RIAA or the wonderful choices in music I'm being given by Clear Channel and MTV these days, a half hour concert of Frank Zappa was completely downloaded (the bad person has dsl broadband). It was about 250 mbs.

My lawless friend who doesn't love America and/or Hilary Rosen is now taking legitimate shots at live videos from Allan Holdsworth, Traffic and Bjork, all about a half gig apiece.

Nice Appell Piece on How States Are Leading on Environmental Issues
Jeremy Rifkin Sez the EU doesn't like GM foods because they like really good food and don't want their country turned into one big mall.
On a related note, here's why Canadian farmers don't like GM foods.

There are three good pieces by Robert Cringely that would usually be pointed out to me in Robot Wisdom, but Jorn hasn't posted anything in a while. One piece has to do with how Open Source could be compromised. And I guess on a related note, he writes two columns ( here and here) on how he senses Microsoft's Dark Hands are manipulating the SCO vs. Linux dispute..

June 3

I was involved in a debate with someone on the Instapundit side of the spectrum and she told me that she wished somebody would shut down Greenpeace because...well her reasons didn't make sense to me. I thought Greenpeace didn't like France either? Oh well.

Anyway, curious as to what Greenpeace was up to of late, I checked out this. They even have downloadable videos which I'm going to look at certainly.

Or you can read this:

"Greenpeace Victories in 2002: Check out this new video highlighting two of Greenpeace's major victories in the past year: ratification of the solar bond initiatives in San Francisco, which put in place the largest investment in renewable energy in U.S. history, and an historic decision, backed by research from Greenpeace, which led to the shutdown in the trade of illegally logged mahogany from the Amazon."

Gawd, sounds terrible. Alt fuels and environmental protection. Should be stopped at once.

Here's an interesting story about a local activist, whose office space houses our new Pgh Indy Media office and other "radical" and "dangerous" activities.
Gene Expression Call Your Office and Resign: Ghana Creates Its Own Competitor to Microsoft Called "Soft"
Back when I wrote "Why I Don't Support Harlan Ellison's Lawsuit Against Internet Piracy" I noted that even if he was able to shutdown Kazaa and Aimster, that would do nothing to stop portable big gig devices that you could carry house to house on a keychain. And sure enough: There's this new 1.5 gig hard drive on the market that's about a big as a USB microdrive. Oh woe to the man who insists upon the worldwide integrity of his Deathbird Stories copyright...

Here's a left argument against germline engineering that I should attempt to make fun of over at Better Humans.
Cool John Ridley Profile (Must Get His Newest Novel About Superheroes)
More Evil From My Own Home State: State Attorney General Won't Tell Me Which Sites Have Been Blocked
...Now that's good for Democracy... I am also permalinking the Center for Democracy and Technology, probably Lawrence Lessig and I'm dumping Winterspeak (it just got boring.) And where's Jorn over at Robot Wisdom? Hope he's okay even if he is a jerk...
Nice good cop/bad cop rant for Fantagraphics from Warren Ellis (From Gravity Lens Blog), even though they are easy to hate and according to them what Warren does isn't really "Art" they'd probably sniff contemptuously from their critical heights... I'll probably buy something, maybe that hot porn of theirs...

Check Out the Plausible Futures Newsletter

I like this kind of guerilla campaign that will be will waged against Bush Lite.
Pentagon Seems to Declare That Space is Off Limits to Non Americans...Ahhh to live in the Empire.
Speaking of our friendly military, the Memory Hole scores a valid journalistic coup by acquiring never before published papers about Operation Phoenix.
A group that studies how many pollutants are in your body or why we still need those pesky environmental laws.
Scary Site About Untraceable Ballot Box Tampering
Good Story about the war brewing over GM foods over at Quark Soup. His publisher wouldn't print it so he put it online.
And from that story, Dave gives us some pretty cool links to the Genetic Engineering Action Network and The Genetic Bill of Rights
Another Good Noah Story on Hi Tech Military Advances
Open Access or Peer Reviewed Journals Online
Depressing Yet True Accounts of all the Media Firings That Have Occurred Since 9-11 (kinda not a liberal media...)
(From Gravity Blog) Long interesting Interview with Greg "Blood Music" Bear.
Disturbing Account of the Rise of the Russian Mob...It evolved because we didn't invest in their rebuilding efforts. It's sort of what happens here in the black community or what we see happening in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tech Improvements in Television
Evil Pennsylvania (my evil state) Targets Municipalities That Start Their Own Broadband and here's a story about public telcos.
List of Science and Science Fiction Shows Across The Country
The Hydrogen Economy, Fueled by Nuclear Power (!?), When we're on the verge of a nan fueled energy revolution...how did Charlie Brown put it....Aaagh!

Here's an interesting story: Biotech firms hurt Indian Kids and this is the interesting site that it came from.

Thanks to Warren Ellis to this link to Brendan McCarthy's Incredible Artwork!

May 20th

I just can't get rid of that Brendan McCarthy piece yet. My review of the Matrix is over at Majic 12 Blog. I also have two posts over at Warblogger Watch. My most sarcastic bits:

"Glenn, it's about time that you admit that the situation in Iraq has evolved into what you yourself have defined as a marginal and/or substantial loss by Allied forces in Iraq. And you should apologize, preferably in public, your head bowed in shame, your face full of wet mucousy tears. It's time for the pro war side, whose hideous jingoism you ably represent, to admit that the rebuilding of Iraq would be a tough job for people who are competent, not bought off or are wholly owned subsidiaries of the fossil fuel industry, and understand the complexities and mechanics of the Iraqi society...let alone the Bush Administration. It's time for the pro war side to admit that the war has done nothing to disable terrorist groups and in fact has strengthened their recruitment and fundraising, just as Osama had wanted. And finally, it's time for the pro war side to admit that stealing a country's oil in broad daylight is a tough, if not impossible job, and that Iraq would be better served by 100,000 United Nation troops (armed with nonlethals) and headed by a multilateral coalition that's actually interested in creating a real democracy in Iraq and not some puppet regime, as the Iraqi people themselves have called for. By the way, if you're looking for a way to do that then please reread the works of Lani Guinier and take a good long look at the South African constitution, which was inspired by her work. (It's why the white minority hasn't been slaughtered.)"

May 15th

Quietly Alarming Roundup of Real World Nan Products
From Science A Go Go: Story about Artificial Proteins
(I'll probably permalink them just because of that cool name.)
Intimidating Paul Orwin Outline for a Novel
Gene Expression Call Your Office: MIT Tech Review
Debates Future of Genetic Scripting by Race
Garbage Into Oil Machine Gets Animated (MIT Tech Review or the other less well known Tech Review)

May 14th

Thanks to Warren Ellis to this link to Brendan McCarthy's Incredible Artwork!

Very Needed and Decent Petition Against Media Consolidation or "Clearchannel owns my local radio, tv, and newspaper and I don't know what's going on in the world..." (I'm signin'..)
On a related note, I discovered this site called The Future of Music while sifting through the above link.
Webcam Security over at Wired. David Brin has been talking about this sort of thing for years...
Krugman on Our Bought Off Privatized Media
Narco News on Bought Off Media and Blair Controversy (Nice analysis here)
Greg Pallast Interview and Related Story: They Plan on Doing it Again, Nationwide...Where are the Dems on this? Shouldn't there be a preemptive lawsuit, something about the roll erasures being known at least six months before the election...?
Long Chip Delany (legendary science fiction writer and one of the world's great stylists) Interview

May 12

Art from Tom Moody's High Brow weblog. He is, thus, permalinked.
Painfully Hilarious Post On "Our Glorious War Thus Far" By Max Sawicky
On a Related Note: The 14 Signs of Fascism or "Welcome to the U. S. of A."
Update on Nonlethals Over at Popular Science
Nanotube Based Ram From A Company Called Nantero
Interesting Profile of French 3D Film

I actually thought this movie had its moments. I find the politics behind the X Men more interesting than the fight scenes, though the intro scene with Nightcrawler was very very cool. Personal teleportation can be a very potent weapon it seems. I also agree with Big Media Matt (his last name frightens me) that it's not clear to me that Magneto is the bad guy, other than his complete disregard for human life. It seems to me, and this is a question that the American Left itself might have to face (soon), sometimes force might be appropriate, especially in self-defense against the Stryker/Ashcrofts of our imagination and our reality. We may have to become the monster in order to fight it. Best bits of writing: When out actor Ian McKellan deliciously smirks about just how "good" adroit shapeshifter Mystique happens to be. She probably turns into Brendan Frasier when she's sleeping with old Ian. I also like the prison break and the slow buildup to the birth of Phoenix...(!)

Heavyweight artist/writer Tom Moody has a blog online.
America's Broadband Dream Is Alive in South Korea. There's also some commentary here from the Daily Wireless guy.
Nice Quark Soup Piece on the New McKibben Book

May 7th, 2003

Here's an update on E Ink (think flexible computers and wifi cloud connected clothes that flash sites, art, music...) and here's an older explanation at How Stuff Works.
New Nader Corporate Accountability Group: Points out that not only was Haliburton Iraq deal sleazy (big shock there), but they've skirted rules prohibiting them from dealing with Axis of Evil countries.
And related: Long Public Citizen PDF on just how really baaad the new energy bill is.
Estimated Cost of the War: Between $120 billion to $1.75 trillion dollars
In related news and not linked to by Instapundit: Occupation not as cool as once believed.
US Fails to Provide Iraqi Heathcare and
Urgent Steps Needed to Protect US Troops, Iraqis from the Effects of Depleted Uranium
RIAA Dreams Up Software Bullets for Peer to Peer
There are lots of interesting political posts that I've been slowly digesting. God I hate that metaphor. Here's one from Max Sawicky, and here's another one. Here's Oliver's visit with John Edwards. I'm leaning toward Dean by the way (just once I'd like to elect a real democrat into office). Here's the official site and here's the "fan" site.
Here's an interview with Margaret Atwood and her impressive new book (critically anyway), even if it does sound firmly entrenched in the McKibben just say enough school of science.
Canadian writer wants a publicly-owned paper. That would be nice here as well.

May 1st

Warren Ellis (Die Puny Humans) thinks this list is silly, but I've always worshipped Frank Frazetta.

Week of April 20 thru April 26

Burt Rutan intends to start his own space program. Check out that cool alien design man.

From Medpundit, an art exhibit that features Nanobots. Here's a definition of what you're seeing.

The above and below is from Pittsburgh Indy Media. Below is from the weekend's slightly more rebellious anti-war demo.

Where do they get those cool corporate flags?

In other news:

Best Left Television I've Seen So Far
China Shoots For the Moon (Chung Kuo, SFnal story of China Ascendent, At Last?)
My New Column is up at Better Humans where I Give the Heads Up on anti-nan group text called the The Big Down