Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

March 2004

<< February 2004 | April 2004 >>

The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales - UNC [PDF via Register]
"file sharing has no statistically significant effect on purchases of the average album in our sample"
meet the plaintiffs in Goodridge - Guardian
what do you do when your daughter says "You two don't love each other. If you loved each other, you'd be married." - you go get married, of course!
how low can Bush go? - Nasi - Lemak [PNGs]
scarily convincing automated Warblogger - R. Robot [via Cosma]
Dalrymple corrects VS Naipaul's shonky history - Guardian [via Cosma]
"after the pogroms of Gujerat and the inaccurate rewriting of textbooks, Naipaul's misleading take on medieval Indian history must not go uncorrected"
Rush, Newspeak and fascism - Orcinus [lh sidebar] - Cursor [nicer HTML]
a long piece on fascism and its potential in the United States
"dead zones" threaten the oceans - Guardian
sewage and fertiliser run-offs are creating oxygen starved areas
baroque comic tales of a fantastic China - The Wallet of Kai Lung [review]
the difference between Bush and Blair - Slacktivist [via SideS]
I've finally finished writing up last year's trip - Scotland + Northern England
it needs some editing, so let me know if you spot any errors, unnecessary verbiage, etc.
the US's intelligence problems in Afghanistan - DH [via AntiWar]
strange finds in Stanley Kubrick's archives - Guardian [via LAM]
Aus music industry has best year ever - SMH [via /.]
but tries to hide it while scapegoating file-sharing
methane on Mars suggests volcanoes or microbes - BBC
some Australian ant photos - MiyakyoU
The Life of Brian versus The Passion of the Christ - Globe [via Max]
outsourcing personal medical records... - SFgate [via CT]
Mirsky reviews a range of books about Vietnam - NYROB [via LAM]
tempting: Larry Addington's America's War in Vietnam ("If you want to read one book about Vietnam, read this one") and Duong Thu Huong's novel Memories of a Pure Spring (Amazon links)
Noam Chomsky has a blog! - Turning the Tide [via LAM]
a shockingly bleak report from Baghdad - Reason [via Informed]
a New Zealander with attitude spends a week in Iraq - Blogjam [via Raed]
"And then do you know what Fiona Katie did next??? Fired an AK47! Yes, the very first thing I did in Baghdad" - and she visits Fallujah, too
Dave Barry on the evils of carbohydrates - IHT
riding through the Chernobyl dead zone - extreme4 [via Link]
"no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or some dog... a last day of Pompei sort of place"
David Attenborough has come out against whaling - SMH
"There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea"
Chennai bans Ensler's Vagina Monologues - ExpressIndia [via Kit]
organiser: "Obviously Madras has no vaginas. If Madras has no vaginas it must be full of a**holes"
a visit to NE China in winter - RToddKing [via JWalk]
Beijing, the Great Wall, Harbin, with superb photographs
Juan Cole reviews two books on Iraq - Nation [via Informed]
he argues against a "three state" solution
New York <-> Boston highway blocked by crash - Guardian
which transport nexus is most critical to your city?
50 US generals, admirals call for missile shield delay - Reuters [via Orcinus]
"untested and a poor use of scarce defense dollars"
"spend the money instead securing potential terror targets"
1,000 calories: the deep-friend chocolate sandwich - PakDT [via ProRev]
why rubber bands decay - New Scientist [via ProRev]
specialists were taken off bin Laden hunt to invade Iraq - Guardian [via Atrios]
"Fifth Group Special Forces were a rare breed in the US military: they spoke Arabic, Pastun and Dari."
WTO rules US must allow online gambling - Seattle [via /.]
well, if the US wants to run roughshod over other countries' social and environmental regulations...
Brazil's legal system is in need of reform - Economist
Archbishop of Canterbury praises Pullman's attack on religion - Guardian
the folks at Language Log hoe into the Plain English Campaign - Mark - Geoffrey
"they are humorless hypocrites, 'short on judgment, common sense and consistency'"
a critical look at string theory - arkiv [PDF, via Cosma]
"The theory has been spectacularly successful on one front, that of public relations."
the US admits sending unfit soldiers to Iraq - Seattle [via AntiWar]
an update on the fighting in south Wazirstan, Pakistan - Asia [via Atrios]
"there have been confirmed reports of dissent among the ranks of the Pakistani para-military troops and the army sent into the semi-autonomous region "
Islam in the Malay and Indonesian elections - Guardian
Islamic fundamentalists have never had more than marginal political influence in SE Asia
Tim Dunlop is blogging Clarke's book - RtoS - Amazon
with extensive quotes and commentary
dams are killing the Mekong - Guardian
"giant Chinese dams and engineering works are threatening the livelihoods of up to 100 million people"
LinuxBIOS: a vendor-independent, architecture-neutral BIOS - LinuxJournal [via /.]
is the world facing another oil shock? - Economist
"Last year, China overtook Japan as the second-largest consumer of oil after America"
a must for bird-watchers visiting Iceland - Icelandic Bird Guide [review]
why sopranos are hard to understand - PhysicsToday [via Lang]
violinists claim pay raise for "playing more notes" - Guardian
"on the grounds that they play many more notes per concert than their musical colleagues"
an RFC on why .xxx/.sex is a bad idea - IETF [via WMW]
while not as bad an idea, PICS has similar problems
Predator's guide to drain exploration - CAT
the British poet laureate at work - Simon World [via RtoS]
Indian police want to arrest a US historian - BBC
for writing a book (my review) about a 17th century figure!
Juan Cole on the killing of Ahmed Yassin - Informed
"The US can to some significant degree thank Ariel Sharon's iron fist for the distrust and suspicion with which their presence in Iraq is greeted."
a journalist apologizes for his Iraq war coverage - Houston [via ProRev]
"the military had herded us into the press center so that we could be kept away from information"
another challenge to copyright extension - Kahle v Ashcroft [via /.]
trying to claim "orphaned" works for the public domain by challenging the abandonment of registration and renewal requirements
partitioning Kosovo may be necessary, but what of the consequences? - Guardian
Pakistani army convoy ambushed - Guardian
I doubt this has anything at all to do with Al-Qaeda... there's a reason parts of Pakistan are still under tribal rule
British police hassle foot photographer - SensitiveLight [via JWalk]
eating monkeys is bad for you - Nature
"Hunting and butchering of bushmeat is infecting people in Central Africa with a new virus"
French supermarket dating - Age
poverty among Australian university students - Age
US Supreme Court to rule on "under God" in pledge - IHT
right-wing terrorists found with cyanide bombs - Guardian
"Some of the scariest [terrorists] are 100 per cent, red-blooded Americans"
"ferocious" national security hardliner slams Bush as weak on terrorism - Billmon
"I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it."
joint Sunni-Shiite protest against US in Baghdad - ME [via Informed]
why women live so long: the importance of grandmothers - Economist
James Laine's controversial book - Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India [review]
for details of the controversy, see the CR Quarterly
great science fiction and fantasy works - greatSFandF
a guide to quality writing
US ambassador to Spain a "famously venal businessman" - OCW [via Atrios]
a grumpy editor's hunt for a Linux calendar app - LWN
Pakistan's army is fighting in the tribal areas - Guardian
I spent some time in NW and North Pakistan in 1999, and it's damn rugged
  
a dodgy road between Shandur and Gilgit (left); huge alluvial fans in the Hunza valley (right)
a detailed British bird and butterfly survey reveals looming extinctions - IHT
a bad idea that will not die: a .xxx domain - CircleID
would I have to get a .xxx domain just for some of my pages? and who would decide which ones - or would I be penalised for guessing wrong?
editing the photos from the Super Bowl at two images a second - RG [via JWalk]
it's taken me months to go through the 2000 photos I took in Iceland and the UK!
is Microsoft thinking of buying AOL? - NYpost [via /.]
Bob Zangas' last blog entry before he was killed in Iraq - MilitaryPages [via Kos]
a Boston bookshop closes down - Avenue Victor Hugo Books [via CR]
12 reasons for the death of small and independent book stores: "Corporate law, Publishers, Book buyers, Writers, Booksellers, Government, Librarians, Book collectors, Teachers, Editors, Reviewers, and the Public"
European Commission talks with Microsoft break down - Tech [via /.]
a fine of 100 million to a billion euros is likely
Japan, the United States, and Iraq - NationInstitute [via Informed]
"Although Japan's economy is roughly equal to those of Germany, France, and Britain combined, the prime minister would never risk offending Washington by taking a 'French' or 'German' stance"
a poisoner employed by a university to teach medical ethics - London [via CT]
the latest survey of world attitudes - Pew [via CT]
George Bernard Psschaughal collects his Nobel prize - LJ [via Lang]
personally, I think speaking reform is a better idea than spelling reform
Al-Qaeda wants Bush reelected? - Yahoo [via RtoS]
"not possible to find a leader 'more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom'"
12kB viruses take out 1.5gB OSes - Register
"if Windows XP were the Empire State Building, then the little barking Beagle virus can come in through the front door, lift its leg, deliver its payload, and cause the entire building to come crumbling down."
is WiMax hot air or the way of the future? - Economist
leishmaniasis parasite has infected at least 500 US soldiers - WnetD [via AntiWar]
"leishmaniasis might take as long as 20 years to show up"
copyrights, patents, and the Aus/US trade agreement - Roger Clarke
Murray Bail's novel about travelling Australians - Homesickness [review]
in which surreal museums reflect the tourists' obsessions
some photos of desert mountain sheep - Jerry Tompkins
Jerry, a reader of my book reviews, passed away recently
a Spaniard's account of 11-M and aftermath - Kuro5hin
"a victory of the PP would have confirmed that governments can lie in this democracy and avoid paying for it"
were a million Europeans enslaved in North Africa? - Guardian [via MH]
see also Captives: Britain, Empire and the World 1600-1850
you are a 14 year old Arab chick who's just moved to Texas - short story [via Moor]
computers have far more germs than lavatory seats - BBC [via /.]
but telephones are an order of magnitude worse again!
(and remember what happened to Golgafrincham)
the US has secretly funded opponents of Chavez in Venezuela - Independent [via CD]
a comic version of Queneau's Exercises in Style - ArtBabe [via JWalk]
apparently there's an OuBaPo, a comics-oriented version of the OuLiPo
an expatriate's visit to Iraq - Shiachat [via Informed]
bribery on the border, insecurity and kidnapping in Baghdad, a meeting with Ayatollah Sistani, the Karbala bombs
a US government department produces its own news coverage - 2004
Blair has lost Labour its traditional support from British Muslims - Guardian
Hooligan Days: a coastguard memoir - ProRev
Robert Fisk looks back at one year of war in Iraq - Independent [via AntiWar]
trying not to crow too much over being right about... nearly everything
new notebooks, and a new layout - Cosma
an overview of broad free software economics - MLUG [via OSAU]
free trade deal with US threatens Australian software industry - Age [via OSAU]
Socialists win elections in Spain - Guardian
Aznar out, Blair, Bush, and Howard to go...
India-Pakistan cricket helps mend bridges - Guardian
the OED is collecting citations for science fiction words - JessesWords [via Lang]
Beijing, Peking, or Peiping? the names of the Chinese capital explained - Lang
a readable text - An Introduction to the Biology of Vision [review]
an interview with a US soldier in Iraq - Intervention [via RtoS]
Aznar's government blames ETA before looking at the evidence - Asia - Economist
Korea in turmoil following impeachment - UPI
California Supreme Court orders stop to gay marriages - Scotsman
climbing the mountains inside Seoul - IHT
Microsoft, Sun, and IBM fight over UK desktops - Register
"the desktop is roadkill... the real war will be fought out at the systems upgrade level"
a gamelan for sale on eBay - Ebay [US$75,000]
constitutional reform in the UK? - Economist
"Iraq's rival factions have agreed a constitution. Even the quarrelsome Afghans have done so..."
BOFH spoof of SCO case - Register [via Link]
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - NYROB - CR - Amazon
sounds fascinating, but 1100 pages with a fourth book still to come...?
Gollum as teacher - LJ [via CT]
"Ssstudentss. Filthy, sstinking, ssstupid studentsss. We hatess them, we hates them forever!"
huge bomb attack in Madrid - Guardian
Al-Qaeda or ETA?
criticism of the UN Global Compact - EarthRights
"the high profile participation of Nestlé in the Global Compact, even as the company continues its long history of violating UN principles and undermining regulatory efforts"
US trade negotiator boasts of having conned Australia - news.com
women in Saudi Arabia get to vote in local elections - Guardian
dark Korean stories of love, obssession, and illness - The Wings [review]
Geoffrey Robertson pressured to quit Sierra Leone war crimes court - Guardian
one of his books criticises some of the defendants
US anti-terrorism measures successfully stop incoming cookies - IHT
can you identify the US states? - pibmug [Shockwave, via JWalk]
I only scored 20/48
"abstinent" US teenagers have the same STD rates as others - BBC
they have less sex, but don't use condoms
public transportation figures for US cities - SFbiz [via ProRev]
only 5% of US workers commute by public transport -- makes Australia seem progressive!
China has 40 million men without women - Guardian
the fruits of the one-child policy: by 2000, the ratio had shifted to about 117 boys to 100 girls
software as commodity - OSDir [via /.]
coffee is a health drink? - BBC
debunking the demonology of Jane Fonda - Nation [via SideS]
Sargasso Sea sampling: 1.2 million new genes and 1800 new species - ENN
including 800 new genes for photoreceptors!
terrorists: people the Bush administration doesn't like - Orcinus [via SideS]
"the folks who brought us Oklahoma City are still out there, still looking for opportunities to strike"
Coke's bottled water is "purified" tap water - LAM
the state of international tourism - IHT
"The big loser is North America, with a 17% drop in the number of international visitors arriving for recreational purposes" from 2001 to 2003
an Italian crackdown on fertility treatments - Guardian
"Italy has declared that a fertilised egg has the same rights as a citizen"
looking back at the British miners' strike of 84/85 - CT
a nice text - Molecular Evolution: a Phylogenetic Approach [review]
fierce disagreements over Iraq's interim constitution - Kos
personalities feud in defence of French - Guardian
an update on the Brazilian economy - Economist
-0.2% growth in 2003, but things should get better
Salam Pax is alive - and had a great time in Karbala - Raed
"The heretic fagot getting a blessing from an Ayatollah. that is how great those four days were."
Turkey and the EU: an overview - IHT
Joel is blogging from New Guinea - Far Outliers [via referers]
"Exploring migrants, exiles, expatriates, and out-of-the-way peoples, places, and times, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region."
Afghan farmers face storage and transportation problems - IWPR
the Supreme Court almost overturned Roe vs Wade in 1992 - CHB [via ProRev]
why the US and France removed Aristide - Guardian
"he never learned to pander unreservedly to foreign commercial interests... he remained indelibly associated with what's left of a genuine popular movement for political and economic empowerment"
Bush spared terrorists to protect case for war against Iraq - MSNBC [via Kos]
"the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation - and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself - but never pulled the trigger"
Lawrence Lessig looks back at the Eldred case - LegalAffairs [via LWN]
"We had in our Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would have made them see differently."
details of (confirmed real) leaked SCO memo, and more - GrokLaw
apparently SCO contemplated trying to "impound" all Linux software at Bank of America?!
Goodridge - the full text of the Massachusetts gay marriage ruling - MassLW
five opinions, including three dissents
is the Itanium chip doomed? - Economist
"Fred Weber, technology chief at AMD, likens Itanium to Esperanto"
porn-friendly political party has billboard ad pulled - News [via EFA]
a review of Ginsburg's The Cheese and the Worms - Yale [PDF] - Amazon
a 16th century miller's intellectual framework
critique of UNESCO/WIPO proposal for folklore rights - Lang
"helpful-sounding principles with a staggering potential for tyranny in practice"
the Ethiopian government plans to move 1 million people - Guardian
away from the drought-stricken central highlands
should India's elite business schools be subsidised? - IHT
an easy daywalk north of Scone - Burning Mountain
a burning coal seam produces a pseudo-volcano
I have an ADSL connection, yay! - Swiftel
only 256/64, but ssh sessions are so much more responsive
hundreds killed in attacks on Shiite shrines in Iraq - MSNBC [via AntiWar]
with a simultaneous attack in Pakistan...
product placement in literary fiction - BBC [via CR]
Ford pays British novelist to tout Ford cars
ultra-conservative Michigan politician backs gay marriage - MLive [via Atrios]
"So if we can put aside the teachings on women, on divorce, on the Sabbath -- and those are all things that we choose -- then why not on homosexuality, when we don't choose our sexual orientation?"
from the 4th to 12th centuries - The Rise of Cities in North-West Europe [review]
Cambodian refugees flee Australia for France - SMH
Frederick Crews on repressed memory pseudoscience - NYROB
abuses of Amazon's "top reviewer" system - DancingBadger
maybe they could use a system like the Advogato trust metric
some nice photographs of Joshua Tree national park - JWalk
the US is shafting the Kurds - LATimes [via AntiWar]
a Stalin-launched army overruns northern Norway - SMH
and it's feared they could reach Gibraltar
US helps terrorists overthrow elected government of Haiti - Toronto [via ProRev]
one puritan gets new music ratings for Australia - SMH
"So now we have a new classification system, introduced with virtually no debate, based on questionable claims about increased complaints"
a brief survey of the films about Christ - Economist
"All the best films about Christ have been controversial"

<< February 2004 | April 2004 >>

Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee