Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

October 2003

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the Finnish literary scene - Independent [via CR]
"It may be the fire of the century in Southern California" - AlterNet [via ProRev]
"The white-flight gated suburbs insist on impossible standards of fire protection, but refuse to pay either higher insurance premiums or higher property taxes."
US government SLAPPs Greenpeace - Guardian
"A rarely used law forbidding the unauthorised boarding of vessels is being employed"
Noah Feldman says Iraq will be an Islamic Republic - Informed - After Jihad [review]
Israeli army chief criticises Sharon - CSM
New Zealand anti-war protester terrorised by state - SMH [via Link]
charged with "misuse of a telephone" for sending an e-mail to the US Embassy objecting to the war on Iraq
US claims: "Saddam aide linked to Al-Qaida" - Guardian
they've managed to unite Arab nationalists, Islamic fundamentalists, and Iraqi nationalists
Vietnam will use free software to gain WTO acceptance - Silicon Valley [via /.]
"We are trying step by step to eliminate Microsoft"
the US college admission system: five fascinating pieces - Atlantic [via PhilG]
millionaire journalists don't want to rock the boat - Daily Howler [via SideS]
IPv4 addresses - how long till we run out? - Potaroo [via Link]
eating celery produces negative calories - Snopes [via JWalk]
"Celery has about 6 calories per 8-inch stalk"
Google links up with publishers, OCLC - PubWeekly - InfoToday [via WMW]
Archbishop Peter Jasper Akinola, Primate of Nigeria - Atlantic
perhaps the most important figure in the Anglican Communion, worldwide
did an Iraqi RPG kill an M1A1 Abrams tank? - Army Times [via Agonist]
new family of frogs discovered - BBC - Profligate
"The 29th [family] is represented by a single, decidedly odd-looking species described for the first time this month."
more on the music industry versus Oz site+ISP case - AFR
the claim is that links constitute copyright infringement - by both hosting service and web site
European poll: two thirds think Iraq war was unjustified - Scotsman [via Informed]
and only 5% think the US should be in charge of guaranteeing security in Iraq
the latest Zogby poll from Iraq - LA Times [via AntiWar]
most Iraqis oppose the Baath Party and Osama bin Laden - and the United States
securing Joe Average User's computer - Register
"we are in deeeeeep trouble when it comes to securing the computers of these people"
fine Robert Fisk on Iraq "getting better" - Veterans for Commonsense [via AntiWar]
astro-turfing by Halliburton employees - Guardian
management "called on staff to phone their local newspaper to stem criticism about the firm's activities in Iraq"
Delaware law governs more than half of all public US companies - Economist
Privacy, Economics, and Price Discrimination on the Internet - Minnesota [PDF]
"the powerful movement to reduce privacy that is coming from the private sector is motivated by the incentives to price discriminate, to charge different prices to various customers for the same goods or services."
the stupid high-tech arrogance of the US army - Billmon
and the CPA has put up bucolic palm-tree billboards around Baghdad...
natural history and evolutionary biology - Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation [review]
extensive US war crimes in Vietnam uncovered - Guardian - Blade [via LAM]
court orders crucifixes removed from an Italian school - Guardian
the plaintiff wants the Divine Comedy removed from the syllabus, too...
problems with rebuilding efforts in Iraq - MSNBC [3 pages, via Kos]
"CPA is run by a bunch of political hacks and incompetents who have no idea what they're doing"
an interview with novelist Juan Goytisolo - Independent [via CR]
SCO links to Hackers' Dictionary entry for FUD - Jargon File [via LWN]
ESR responds by adding a comment to the entry...
the end of the Oil Age - Economist
yes, that's the Economist, not Greenpeace!
Google faces trademark infringement suits in France - EandP
the actual text of Mahathir's "anti-semitic" speech - bernama [via WarB]
I don't read that as even remotely anti-Semitic; it's very much "look what they've managed to do, why can't we do that?"
interesting poll of Iraqi political sentiment - Yahoo [via AntiWar]
End User Licence Agreements on woodworking tools - GripeLog [via /.]
the effects of spam on email use - Pew survey [via /.]
why trees are a problem for trains - Guardian [via CT]
new EU guide to open source migration sounds useful - Register
lots of goodies in the latest issue - NYROB
on Paul Krugman, Eminem, Einstein, Orwell, ...
more "collateral damage": British aid funding slashed to pay for Iraq - Guardian
cultural cluelessness by the US army sparks a demonstration - Riverbend [via Informed]
what do they expect as a response to public desecreation of the Koran?
air strikes kill 12, wound 80 in Gaza - EI
the predictable result of air strikes on urban civilian areas
dissection of "Microsoft more secure than Linux" claim - GrokLaw [via /.]
Thai farmers use voodoo magic against Bush - SMH [via MSpeak]
sometimes satire is scarily easy... - Students for an Orwellian Society [via ODP]
inequality in the United States - Billmon
Australian music industry sues web site, ISP - News - ZDnet - ABC
the site in question appears to only link to MP3s
Mother Teresa, "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud" - Slate
background on the Bolivian revolution - Progressive
iTunes and Microsoft - Register
monopoly against monopoly
poetry and politics in 19th century Korea - The Poet [review]
the first part of my travelogue - Heimaey, South Iceland
Satan defends General Boykin, Rumsfeld - AntiWar
prayer has no health benefits - Pakistan Daily Times [via ProRev]
the decline of America's car industry - Economist
a shortage of translators hinders wiretaps - MSNBC [via Agonist]
"before 9/11, the FBI had only 40 Arabic and 25 Farsi speakers to listen to national-security intercepts"
Iraqi Jews want Saddam Hussein back?! - Al Jazeera - Salam Pax
not much peace in Somalian peace conference - Taipei Times [via Agonist]
making electricity from water - Scotsman
"The system relies on the natural electrokinetic effect of a fluid flowing over a solid surface."
racist Arabophobia in Iraq - Guardian
applying open source approaches to other areas - Wired [via LWN]
eating slugs can be dangerous - SMH
Australians boo John Howard at a football final - Crikey [via RtoS]
"The Prime Minister is a political figure, and in the great Australian tradition will always be booed."
security and cyberterrorism: a Bruce Schneier interview - CSO [via /.]
George W. Bush, poet - Missouri Review [via Moor] - CNN
Australian PM declines Bush appointment as "sheriff" - SMH
will the US give us a carrier battle group or two to go with the badge?
the end of the Concorde - Economist
the Bush administration's Orwellian sales strategy - NewsDay [via Billmon]
"Someone needs to write a sequel to 1984. It would be called 2003."
the US has wacko evangelical generals - Guardian
"I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol."
report on a Mexican free software conference - NewsForge [via LWN]
survey finds low morale among US troops in Iraq - SA Independent
nearly half of those surveyed don't plan to re-enlist
Fidel Castro reviews Gabriel García Márquez - Guardian [via CR]
compare Trotsky - On Literature and Art [old review]
Bremer illegally orders Iraq opened for pillage - Guardian
next generation Pentium processors may consume 100+ Watts! - Register
with one of those, I wouldn't need a separate heater in winter
"Day of the Jackal' fake passport loophole to be plugged - BBC [via CounterPane]
US vetoes UN condemnation of Israel's apartheid wall - Guardian
Orwell on mining towns and class in 1930s Britain - The Road to Wigan Pier [review]
some US baggage screeners are given no training at all - CNN [via MLite]
Microsoft hit by anti-trust action in Israel - Register
do daughters break up relationships? - Active Sydney
no appeals to evolutionary biology, thankfully
an amusing spoof: Barbie Linux - Division Two [via Link]
"restrictive EULAs, proprietary file formats, and digital rights management technologies were not popular with pre-adolescent females"
Amartya Sen's broad-ranging popular economics - Development as Freedom [review]
an end to 12 years writing for Computer Shopper - Charlie Stross
"I don't need to swallow shit from a twenty-something drone in a corporate office churning out propaganda"
the rise of "sastra wangi", sexy Indonesian chick-lit - MSNBC [via Moor]
accidents involving British nuclear weapons admitted - SMH/Guardian
caring for the injured at a US army hospital in Iraq - Guardian
Gaza: 1500 homeless, 60 wounded, 2 children killed -- 3 tunnels found - Guardian
I did a short walk last weekend in the mountains - Mount Solitary
the US is using collective punishments in Iraq?! - Independent [via Billmon]
"soldiers driving bulldozers have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas"
nice piece on the UK government's free software trials - BBC [via /.]
Israel now has nuclear-missile capable submarines - LA Times [via Kos]
"Officials confirm that the nation can now launch atomic weapons from land, sea and air."
the Pentagon plants astroturf letters from Iraq - Olympian [via Informed]
"none of the soldiers said he wrote it, and one said he didn't even sign it"
Juan Cole disses Stanley Kurtz - Informed Comment
"Noted ignoramus Stanley Kurtz, an India anthropologist... who knows nothing about the Middle East..."
six dead and fifty injured in Gaza attack - SMH
Grenada as a precursor to Iraq - Guardian
"[Thatcher] knew when the Americans were going wrong and was not scared to tell them. The contrast with Blair is sad."
an interview with economist Amartya Sen - Atlantic
a critique of Leo Strauss on Thucydides - Crooked Timber
I can't say that inspires me to read Strauss, but maybe it's time to reread Thucydides...
the clear injustice of our social welfare function - Brad DeLong [via Cosma]
hiding the jewelry in case the Americans raid the house - Baghdad Burning
Bremer's lies about progress in Iraq - Billmon
the war on the Barberry Bush - Profligate
should the US have an 18c coin? - Discover [via Kos]
"Australia got rid of both its 1-cent and 2-cent coins with nary a whimper"
is sonar giving whales and dolphins the bends? - SMH
background on new Iraqi security force - Sunspot [via AntiWar]
some of them barely adults, but they are being armed anyway
is the shift key in violation of the DMCA?! - Kuro5hin - BusinessWire [via /.]
at first I thought these stories were spoofs...
trade in Southeast Asia - Economist
"If they are to open up to each other economically, ASEAN's members may have to open up to each other politically as well"
looks like trashy "science as marketing", without content - Centre for the Mind
and just watch them drop those names!
US do-not-call site has web bug!? - Register
some great photography - Macro & Micro [via JWalk]
no habeas corpus in Iraq - Guardian
order and anarchy in Afghanistan - TomPaine [via Cosma]
a strange comic about Taliban Afghanistan - e-sheep [via Cosma]
a multi-year deal between AOL and Google - BusinessWire [via WMW]
politics from the Ottomans to Saddam Hussein - A History of Iraq [review]
their typically acerbic take on blogging... - the Register
...for a different view on BloggerCon - ShiftedLibrarian
Terry Jones on Tony Blair - Guardian
"the vacuous, incoherent ramblings of a demagogue"
banned books just aren't what they used to be - Daytona/CD
"Even literary subversion has been franchised by the ordinary and the predictable"
cronyism in the rebuilding of Iraq - Paul Krugman/CD
"at the time of the Marshall Plan, Americans were very concerned about profiteering in the name of patriotism"
CIA threatened to torture British businessman - Guardian [via Agonist]
but US agents weren't nearly as scary as Saddam Hussein
US troops use "hajji" as a generic term of abuse for Iraqis - Raleigh [via Agonist]
I've just migrated my girlfriend's computer to Linux
we had to pay for a WinModem driver... the small sin is balanced by the greater good
Halliburton share prices move with their Washington handouts - PollKatz
problems with draft Australian anti-spam laws - EFA
there's no understanding that "bulk" is a key component of spam
Robert Fisk on the state of Iraq's oil industry - Seattle Post/CD
background to the imminent papal succession - Economist
Amartya Sen on Rabindranath Tagore - nobel.se
a female detective in Botswana - The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency [review]
Chinese launching manned space program - SciAm
"Within a decade, China's space activities may well surpass those of Russia and the EU"
Philip Pullman on teaching writing to children - Guardian [via RW]
increasing trilateral links between China, India, and Russia - Asia
Aus file-sharers to be sentenced by prosecutor, not music industry - news.com.au
the long-term effects of non-fatal Iraq casualties - CSM [via AntiWar]
an American geologist in Australia - Steve Lonker
plant trivia: botanical record-breakers - Palomar [huge page, via JWalk]
(this would work much better as 22 separate pages)

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Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee