From the monthly archives:
I get this weird behavior with UserLand sometimes where it either fails to publish an update, leaving only previous updates on the page, or it provides only a blank white page where my blog should be.
It usually self-corrects, but not always quickly enough for my impatience. I can sometimes force it to update by pushing through a couple of test messages, so if you ever see that, now you’ll know why. Sorry for the annoyance or inconvenience.
War angst.
Tuesday last week, I was riding home from work on the F train. The train was crowded and so I was leaning against a door–the door opposite most of the entrances in that part of town so I wouldn’t have to move for people entering and leaving.
Around about 23rd Street, an agitated man got on the train. Although I was listening to music on my iPod, I could hear him muttering to himself. The mutterings grew louder until he was literally shouting.
“That motherfucker sent us to war? For what?! What are we trying to do? My baby brother’s over there and I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. Did you see the pictures on the news? Those boys were shot dead. Their brains were all around ‘em on the ground! Their blood was everywhere! My baby brother’s over there and I don’t know if he’s alive or dead!”
This man was also standing by a door, but because he was on the side where the door opened at each stop, passengers had to pass him to enter or leave. He shouted at them all: “My baby brother’s over there!”
As he ranted, he grew increasingly agitated. “That stupid white motherfucker sent my baby brother to die. And for what?! What’s the point?! My brother gonna die and for what?! Why’s he over there? Why’s any of ‘em over there?”
I watched others on the train shuffle, try to look away. A few people laughed nervously, some moved away from him, others remained near him as if making a point.
“That stupid white motherfucker sent my baby brother over there and if he dies… If my brother dies, I’m going to shoot all of you white motherfuckers. I’ll come back here and I’ll blow up this motherfucking train car and I’ll blow up all you white motherfuckers.”
I still had my iPod on but I could hear him even with the volume all the way up. He took a seat when one opened and berated two women standing nearby: “Get yer goddamn white asses outta my face! What makes you think I want your asses in my face. I’ll shoot you white motherfuckers.”
He kept on like this, talking to everyone, no one, himself. Shouting. When the train pulled into Delancey, I remembered that the door would open behind me. I stepped backwards out of the door and hustled to the next car.
Barry Steinhardt’s notice from the front page of the CFP 2003 site:
…I am pleased to announce that audio recordings of all the plenary sessions and keynote addresses will be posted on this site at the end of each day during the conference. The audio files will be available both in a streaming format and for download as MP3s.
This is excellent news for me, since my work schedule and finances will keep me from attending this year. And as my roommate just pointed out to me, I can stick the MP3s on my iPod and listen on the train!
Anna, if you’re around, this means you’ll probably be able to hear Lessig’s keynote.
I really need to email these people with my gratitude.
Take Stock in Weblogs. Take Stock in Weblogs - Blogshares is a web-based simulation of stock market where the commodity is weblog linkage. Currently, Metafilter is worth $27774.44. What’s your weblog worth? [MetaFilter]
Probably nothing, but I’m working through the registration process to find out.
What’s So Free About This DVD?. A documentary filmmaker who labored for years on a film about open-source software programmers — including Linus Torvalds — releases it on DVD, without any copyright protection. He hopes people won’t pirate it. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]
Uber-cool librarian Jessamyn West discusses USA Patriot, its effects on libraries, and why you should care:
You should care about the PATRIOT Act if you frequent libraries or bookstores, use pay phones, use an Internet service provider, go to school, go to the doctor, use credit cards or banks, have a lawyer, leave the country, go to jail, belong to an activist organization, read alternative publications [like this one] or know anyone who is contemplating any of the above activities, or maybe if you’re just a fan of freedom or the Bill of Rights. Why? Because the assumptions you may be making about your privacy, and your right to it, may be all wrong. Your rights to do all of these things, or do them free of surveillance and/or harassment, have changed in the past two years.
[Slingshot, via BoingBoing; see more Jessamyn at Jessamyn.com and librarian.net]
BusinessWeek on creeping BigBrotherism (follow link for full story):
In wartime, privacy and civil liberties are usually among the casualties. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, the right of prisoners to petition their case before a judge. Woodrow Wilson approved the arrest of pacifists during World War I. And Franklin D. Roosevelt interned thousands of Japanese Americans in World War II. All three arguably made the wrong decision. But all three also reversed those excesses when the conflicts ended.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11 — and with the U.S. invasion of Iraq now in full force — the balance is once again shifting toward security at the expense of privacy.
[From BusinessWeek Online, via Privacy Digest]
Every afternoon, on the F train, somewhere between York St. and Bergen:
“Pardon me, my name is Sonny Payne. I’m homeless and I’m hungry. If you don’t have it, I understand, ’cause I don’t have it. But if can you spare some change, a sandwich, a piece of fruit, I’d appreciate it.”
Every afternoon, Sonny Payne steps onto the F train at York St. and makes his way slowly along the train, switching cars at each stop. Sonny, an elderly black man with a white grizzled beard, shuffles through the car, back bent, an F-train stocking cap on his head, carrying a black plastic bag. Today, he carried a box of store-brand corn flakes.
I see this man at least three days a week. I’ve never seen him on the F in Manhattan; he only appears at York St. or at stops further along the Brooklyn segment of the F.
I’ve never given him money.
[Edited 5/21/04 to correct the spelling of his name and the beginning of his speech.]
New Scientist reports on creation of artificial synapse:
Since synapses are typically around 50 nanometres across, and each chemical puff contains just a few thousand molecules, building an artificial synapse is a huge challenge. But Mark Peterman and Harvey Fishman at Stanford University in California are getting close. They told a biophysics conference in Texas earlier in March that they have created four “artificial synapses” on a silicon chip one centimetre square.
To cells on the surface of the device, the artificial synapse is simply a hole in the silicon. But each hole opens into a pipeline etched into a plastic layer on the back of the chip, connected at both ends to a reservoir of neurotransmitter. When an electric field is applied, the neurotransmitter is pumped through the pipeline, and a little of it squeezes out of the hole, stimulating nearby cells.
[via Boing Boing Blog]
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Recently there has been some confusion as to the origin of French’s mustard. For the record, French’s would like to say, there is nothing more American than French’s mustard….
This is not a joke.
EDIT, 10/26/04: The link above is broken, but many webbies have archived it. I wonder, if you pitted French’s mustard against Heinz catsup, who’d win?
