The World's Number One Weekly Weblog - Issue 47 - Week of 11/11/2002 - Monday Edition
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Humor, Satire, Animation and News

Abbreviations
Ananova (A)
Blogdex (BX)
Boing Boing (BB)
Cursor (C)
CS Monitor (CSM)
Dan Gillmor (DG)
Env. News (ENS)
Fark (F)
Guardian (G)
InternetNews (I)
LA Times (LAT)
Nature (N)
NewScientist (NS)
Nat. Geographic (NG)
OpinionJournal (OJ)
Tech. Review (TR)
The Onion (O)
The Register (R)
Salon (SA)
Science Daily (SC)
Scout Report (SR)
Sky & Telescope (ST)
SlashDot (SD)
Space (SP)
Washington Post (WP)
Wired (W)
Yahoo (Y)

Jeb Bush Challenges Al Gore to Hamburger Eating Contest

Jeb Bush and the burger challenge.

Naples, Florida (IWR Satire) - Feeling confident after his victory in Florida, Jeb Bush has issued a challenge to Al Gore to see who can eat the most hamburgers.  "I know Al can inhale a pizza faster than William Bennett, but I think I'll trounce Al's liberal butt when it comes to my favorite food - hamburgers", said the chunky governor.  Jeb Bush currently holds the Guinness Book of Records for eating meatloaf. <permanent link>

The Week in Humor and Kitsch

• 700-year-old picture of 'Mickey Mouse' found in Austrian church
  Experts are now scouring Austria for Huey,  Dewey and Louie!
   

• Sign Up for Mars! [Deadline 11/15]
  Have your name sent to Mars by NASA for free!  You also get a nice certificate.
   

• Stop Oppressive Gardening (SR)
  Here is an organization concerned with the liberation of enslaved garden gnomes.  Funny stuff.
   

• Cowbell Project (Y)
  Based on a Saturday Night Live spoof on songs that need a cowbell, the Cowbell Project is a hoot.  Here is the hilarious SNL cowbell sketch with Blue Oyster Cult, and I liked this version of Uncle Albert too.  You can browse a list of MP3 samples here.
   

• Procrastinate for the Holidays
  The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) has this advice for procrastinators:
  
  Procrastination and the Holidays Colgate University psychology professor Regina Conti is available to discuss procrastination as it relates to holiday preparations -- why people wait until the last minute to buy gifts, send cards and prepare meals? Why do they agonize from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve and then madly rush into the stores? What is the motivation behind this behavior and what might be the cure?
   

• Imagine His Surprise...
  Peek-a-boo!  A humorous story about a not so transparent Iranian bank robber.
   

• Mynah bird owner accused of teaching it to abuse neighbor
  Now, why didn't I think of that?
   

• Which Founding Father Are You?
  Yet another Internet quiz. This one lets you know which of the Founding Fathers that you are most like.
   

• Women are worse at parking than men
  This is news? ;-)
   

Salmagundi

• International Dunhuang Project [Silk Road]
  The BBC rightly calls this web site "A treasure trove of more than 50,000 manuscripts, paintings and artifacts from ancient caves and temples along the Silk Road." 
   
• Apocalypse Now voted best movie
  Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, has been voted the greatest movie of the past 25 years by leading movie critics and film-makers in the UK.
   
• The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairytale (Library of Congress Exhibition) (SR)
  Follow the Yellow Brick Road!
   
• Library of Vanished Sounds (SR)
  Interesting selection of recordings of sounds that are now out-of-date, e.g., Milkman and bottles.
   
• Akiyoshi's illusion pages (BX)
  These are some very high quality motion illusion images that I had never seen before.
  
  Caution: This page contains some works of "anomalous motion illusion", which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick. Should you feel dizzy, you had better leave this page immediately.
   
• Dream Anatomy: Gallery
  This collection of images is from the NIH's History of Medicine Division.  Check this Anatomical Manikin used in Europe circa 1500-1700.

NewsWeird

• 2003 Colossal Colon Tour
  These guys can't be serious.  Can they?
   
• Not Such an Inflated Notion
  Hey just what we need to stamp out terrorism - blimps.   Perhaps the blimps will be in the shape of white elephants. ;-)
  
  It's the blimp Frank. It's the blimp!
   
• Firefighters cut up wrong car with jaws of life
  Doh!
   
• Man sucks blood of 207 goats and wants more
  Weird no?
   
• Swazi Mom Throws in the Towel
  Lindiwe Dlamini had asked the court to force the royal family to release her 18-year-old daughter, Zena Zoraya Mahlangu, from a royal guest house. Mahlangu and two other women were picked by King Mswati III's aides in September after the king decided they would be his 10th, 11th and 12th wives.

Animation and Shorts

11/11/2002  -  This week I found a strange early film of Edison's Research on the Pull of Gravity from the Annals of Improbable Research. 

Also, check out the Dark Side Switch Campaign and the even funnier Canadian Switch program.  Both parodies are based on Apple's "Switch" commercials. 

Or how about a cool Simpson's Flash Quiz from Rolling Stone or a hilarious Fox Blooper?

Finally, there is this serious Flash on the UN Security Council resolutions on Iraq.

<IWR Interview with Animator Edgar Beals>

<Animation and Shorts Archive>

Lynne Cheney Hospitalized
 After  Seeing New Eminem Movie

Lynne Cheney

Bethesda (IWR Satire) -  Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, was hospitalized earlier today after viewing Eminem's 8 Mile movie at a private screening at the Vice President's residence.  Doctors at Bethesda Naval Hospital were able to stabilize Mrs. Cheney's hysterical condition with a mild dose of valium.  Mrs. Cheney was reviewing Eminem's movie before putting it on her American Council of Trustees and Alumni blacklist.  "It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life.  I just hope we can censor these awful terrorist movies in the future," said a visibly disturbed Mrs. Cheney. <permanent link>

"Technical Glitch" Prevents Bush From Congratulating Lott

President Bush saying
"Can you please speak up there, Trent boy?"

Washington (IWR Satire) - President Bush tried to congratulate Senator Trent Lott for winning back the Senate early Wednesday morning, but aides did not want to spoil the moment by telling the president he had his phone mouthpiece reversed.  "The big lug does this sort thing all the time.  Around here, we have a saying for these little executive errors - Bush backwards.  Anyway, we just told him there was some technical glitch," said Ari Fleischer Wednesday afternoon at his press briefing when questioned about the Reuters photo.
<permanent link>

Humor and Satire on the Net

Tom Daschle at American Politics

Official GOP Survey
by Whitehouse.org

Bomb Iraq Song
by the Capitol Steps

Republicans Mount Campaign To Rename Alzheimer's 'Reagan's Disease'
by The Onion

The November 6 edition of the New York Times.
by The Weekly Standard

Betty Bowers GOP Christmas 2002 Newsletter
by Betty Bowers

Ryder Vows to Find the Real Shoplifters
by BBspot

Ann Coulter Poster at Whitehouse.com

Iraqass The Movie
by Mark Fiore

This Modern World
by Tom Tomorrow

Election 2002
by Clay Bennett, CSM

Moon The White House
by www.moonthewhitehouse.com

Flight of the Chickenhawks
by www.toostupidtobepresident.com

It's the stupid Democrats, stupid!
by angrydems.com

Computing and Technology

The Week in Computing

• Guess Who Yahoos? Saddam's Son
  If you are interested in sending an email to the coward, murderer, rapist, torturer and smuggler, you can email, Uday, the son of Saddam Hussein at:
  
  udaysaddamhussein@yahoo.com
  
  I wonder if he has a web page on geocities?
   

• Stage Set for Homeland Act
  This Wired article points out  a little known Orin Hatch amendment that further erodes our Internet privacy rights.
  
  A little-known amendment in the Senate version of the bill makes it much easier for ISPs to disclose e-mail communications without being served with a warrant, which had been prohibited before the Patriot Act of 2001.
  
  The new rules, if adopted, would modify the Patriot Act's fairly strict "reasonable belief" test with a "good faith" provision, allow disclosure to "any federal, state or local governmental entity," not just law enforcement agencies, and removes an "immediacy" requirement.
   

• Copy protection on CDs is 'worthless'
  A a computer scientist from Princeton University is out to demonstrate that CD protection schemes are "fundamentally misguided".  In other words, they are stupid and don't work!  Also, see this LA Times Op-Ed by Ernest Miller of the Yale Law School on DGA recommendations on DVD copy protection.
   

• Open Source Initiative OSI -  [Microsoft] Halloween Documents
  The open source initiative has released its annual scathing Halloween document on Microsoft (7).  Here is a sample of what we can learn:
  
  The messages and tactics the open-source community has developed over the last five years are working well. Our memes about security, TCO, and competitive impact have achieved deep penetration in Microsoft's survey population. Abstract arguments about intellectual property rights, on the other hand, have served Microsoft just as poorly as they have served us.

  Microsoft's FUD attacks on open source have not only failed, they have backfired strongly enough to show up in Microsoft's own market research as a problem. This means we don't need to put a lot of energy into anti-FUD defending the open-source way of doing things. Indications are we've won that battle; effort should now go elsewhere.
   

• Chinese province issues swipe IDs to Internet cafe users
  I hope Ashcroft doesn't read this article.
   

• Introduction to the DOM Inspector
  Try Mozilla's DOM Inspector if you haven't already, and you may find it an invaluable part of your web and application development, as well as your page poking. Mozilla uses a standard and complete DOM for the structural representation of web pages and of its own user interface, and the DOM Inspector lets you view, traverse, and even dynamically update that DOM.
  

The Week in Computing (Cont.)

• Movielink ready to roll
  You can now get movies on your broadband connection.
   

• Too Much Screen Time Can Make Computer Users Sick
  I'm all for a 5 hour work day!
  
  "This result suggested that the effect of duration of daily VDT use on these scores has a threshold effect, and the prevention of mental disorder and sleep disorder requires the restriction of VDT use to less than 5 hours per day," the researchers write.
   

• f*ckMicrosoft.com
  Yet another "flame Microsoft" web site that asks the musical question: What's so bad about Microsoft.  This site also has some good advice to get rid of all those hidden files that IE creates.

Security, Scams, Hacks and Patches

Microsoft stitches up net glitches
CNET (11/11/2002)

Why does my typing appear on my neighbour's PC?
Register (11/07/2002)

Navy Sites Spring Security Leaks
Wired (11/06/2002)

SAML 1.0 specification gets a thumbs-up
Infoworld (11/06/2002)

Blogging in the Rain

• The Waypath Weblog Linking Project
  The Waypath Project's Related Weblog Navigation engine analyzes weblog entries to determine their core conceptual makeups, compares them with one another to find out how related they are, and presents you with its best guess as to what's related to your original input. This is done all automatically, using available technology.  
   

• iBlog
  Yet another new blogging tool.
   

• Craig's BookNotes
  Craig Jensen writes about his fears of what he calls "A jingoistic plutocratic oligarchy [that] now controls the US government".

Politics of Computing

Wired News: Why MS 'Ruling' Is Dangerous
Wired (11/11/2002)

Panama bans voice over IP
Register (11/11/2002)

XML Zooms Onto Gov't Tech Agenda
Wired (11/11/2002)

Science and Health

The Week in Science and Health

• U.S. Surprises CITES with Support of Ivory Trade
  What an outrage.  Now that conservatives have control the whole US government, they can just do what the hell they want with the environment.  This kind of short-term thinking won't stop until there is nothing left to plunder on this small planet.
   

• Sun's rays to roast Earth as poles flip
  'Reversals happen every 250,000 years or so, and as there has not been one for almost a million years, we are due one soon.'

  For more than 100 years, scientists have noted the strength of Earth's magnetic field has been declining, but have disagreed about interpretations. Some said its drop was a precursor to reversal, others argued it merely indicated some temporary variation in field strength has been occurring.

  But now Gauthier Hulot of the Paris Geophysical Institute has discovered Earth's magnetic field seems to be disappearing most alarmingly near the poles, a clear sign that a flip may soon take place.
   

• What Did Poe Know About Cosmology? Nothing. But He Was Right.
  Great story on how insightful amateur astronomer Edgar Allen Poe really was. In his book Eureka,  he anticipated the Big Bang, black holes and the expanding universe.
   

• Coffee drinkers have lower diabetes risk
  Finally, scientists have come up with a benefit for my coffee addiction.
  
  After analysing over 17,000 Dutch men and women, researchers found that those who drank seven or more cups of coffee a day were half as likely to develop the disease than those who drank two cups or less. The study was led by Rob van Dam while at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment in Bilthoven.

Health

Cannabis smoke 'worse' than tobacco
BBC (11/11/2002)

Mothers 'get Alzheimer's boost'
BBC (11/09/2002)

Coffee drinkers have lower diabetes risk
NewScientist (11/08/2002)

Cannabis link to schizophrenia
BBC (11/06/2002)

Cannabis drugs pass testing 'milestone'
NewScientist (11/05/2002)

Bread Crust And Stuffing Rich In Healthy Antioxidants
ScienceDaily (11/05/2002)

Traditional medicine takes on the world
BBC (11/05/2002)

Astronomy, Physics and Space

Leonid Meteor Shower Special Report
Space (11/12/2002)

Universe 'mostly made of dark energy'
BBC (11/11/2002)

Hubble snaps Little Ghost nebula
NewScientist (11/08/2002)

NASA challenges Moon hoax claims
BBC (11/07/2002)

Martian meteorite mysteries resolved
NewScientist (11/07/2002)

Ghosts of Impacts Past: Ancient Hidden Craters on Mars Revealed
Space (11/05/2002)

Probe returns asteroid image
BBC (11/05/2002)

Environment and Nature

EU backs calls for end to cod fishing
BBC (11/11/2002)

New Hope for Renewal of Africa's Desert Margins
ENS (11/11/2002)

Scott's penguins at risk
BBC (11/11/2002)

Sea lanes may open as polar cap melts
Mercury News (11/10/2002)

Mysterious Kenya Flamingo Die-Offs Tied to Toxins, Study Says
NG (11/08/2002)

Darwin's finches at risk
BBC (11/08/2002)

Conservation Groups Fear Republican Congress
ENS (11/07/2002)

Wildfires blamed for greenhouse gas rise
BBC (11/07/2002)

Community Ecotourism in Malaysia's Largest Wetlands
ENS (11/05/2002)

Quarter of U.S. Birds in Decline, Says Audubon
NG (11/05/2002)

Fiery Ice From The Sea [Methane Ice]: A New World Energy Source?
ScienceDaily (11/05/2002)

Bees keep elephants off crops
Nature (11/05/2002)

Psychology, History and Human Origins

Bloody teeth boost memory
Nature (11/05/2002)

Schizophrenics may lose nerve links
Nature (11/05/2002)

Homosexuality is biological, suggests gay sheep study
NewScientist (11/05/2002)
 

Politics and Commentary

The Weekly Rant

• Election Debacle 2002
  I was hoping, like Wall Street, that the Democrats would have maintained control of the Senate for this would insure gridlock and prevent the government from doing much of anything.
  
  Gridlock is good thing in most cases.  In fact, these checks and balances are what the Founding Fathers had in mind. 
  
  Unfortunately, conservative Republicans now control the majority in all major branches of government.  Remember it was the conservative Supreme Court that "appointed" Bush president in the first place.
  
  In other words, watch out as individual privacy rights erode to levels on a par with a South American police state, the rights of corporations will be protected from any new regulatory controls (expect more Enrons), the environment will be plundered, abortion  rights will be restricted, more tax cuts for American Brahmins [but no payroll tax cuts], huge deficits, more war mongering and wars, more expensive Pentagon white elephants but only peanuts for anti-terrorism (See below what the government has in store for High School Students).
  
  In the end, the only hope is that the Republicans will hang themselves with all this extra rope, but my fear is the kind of that can be done to this country in the meantime.
   

• No Child Unrecruited
  It's interesting with all the laws passed since 9/11 that gun rights have not been changed at all.  Corporate and gun rights are all important to the conservative Republican, while the rights of civil individuals are considered expendable.  This includes the privacy rights of High School students, which the Mother Jones reveals have been violated by allowing the government, specifically military recruiters access to information on students.
  
  Sharon Shea-Keneally, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont, was shocked when she received a letter in May from military recruiters demanding a list of all her students, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. The school invites recruiters to participate in career days and job fairs, but like most school districts, it keeps student information strictly confidential. "We don't give out a list of names of our kids to anybody," says Shea-Keneally, "not to colleges, churches, employers -- nobody."

  But when Shea-Keneally insisted on an explanation, she was in for an even bigger surprise: The recruiters cited the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's sweeping new education law passed earlier this year. There, buried deep within the law's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all federal aid.
  
   

• Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans
  It looks like the work of Big Brother [Ashcroft] will be fortified by Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, an Iran-Contra veteran and Nazi emulation specialist.
  
  As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.
  
  Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States.

The Weekly Rant (Cont.)

• No Iraqi Smoking Gun
  Despite all the Bush Administration allegations [bold face lies mostly] that Saddam Hussein had a hand in 9/11, there is still no evidence of any linkage.  But hey, he tried to kill "my dad".  This one is to avenge old Poppy.

Commentary and News of the Week

Behind the Smile
Bob Herbert, NYT (11/11/2002)

Lost in a Reagan Time Warp
Sebastian Mallaby, WP (11/11/2002)

No to a Far-Right Court: Use Filibusters
Op-Ed, LAT (11/11/2002)

Election 2002
Bill Moyers, PBS (11/08/2002)

Into the Wilderness
Paul Krugman, NYT (11/08/2002)

Democrats who vote with Bush, should expect defeat
Joe Conason, Salon (11/07/2002)

Democratic Catastrophe
E. J. Dionne Jr., WP (11/07/2002)

The American Idol [Clinton in Berlin]
Thomas Friedman, NYT (11/06/2002)

Middle East and The War on Terrorism

Antiwar views split along generation gap
Ann Scott Tyson, CSM (11/11/2002)

Antiwar Activists [450,000] March in Italy
LAT (11/10/2002)

Baghdad's Moment of Truth
Colin L. Powell, WP (11/10/2002)

War Plan in Iraq Sees Large Force and Quick Strikes
NYT (11/10/2002)

Frederick's of Riyadh
Maureen Dowd, NYT (11/10/2002)

Clear U.N. Message to Iraq
Editorial, LAT (11/09/2002)

How Powell Lined Up Votes, Starting With His President's
Steven R. Weisman, NYT (11/08/2002)

UN, Afghans spar over statues ruined by Taliban
Peter Ford, CSM (11/08/2002)

Under the Ramadan Moon
Maureen Dowd, NYT (11/06/2002)

Bush Administration

After Iraq, Bush will attack his real target [Iran]
Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun (11/10/2002)

The news media [lapdogs] treat King George II like royalty (C)
Joel Connelly, Seattle Post (11/08/2002)

Second Chance on Judges
Editorial, WP (11/08/2002)

Mr. Pitt's Belated Departure
Editorial, NYT (11/07/2002)

Bush Lies, Media Swallows
Eric Alterman, Nation (11/07/2002)

A triumph for Mr Bush, but we [the world]  may all bear the cost of the Democrats' failure (C)
Independent (11/07/2002)

White House Maps Ambitious Plans
D. Milbank and J. Weisman, WP (11/06/2002)