Friday, June 25, 2004
AND THEY CALLED IT "SPIDER-LOVE" [wrench]
Did you know that lovebirds Peter Parker and Mary Jane actually have "a song"?
Yep, according to the annals of Marvel comic lore, it's revealed in Amazing Spider-Man # 153 that Pete and MJ's song is. . . "Kung Fu Fighting."
Posted on
9:46 PM
PATENTLY WRONG... [Chris]
Um, excuse me, but does anyone else have a problem with Microsoft patenting the use of my skin to exchange tiny amount so electricity, light, or sound waves? (ie any subtle bloody vibration at all?)
Here's the patent: Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body.
Here's the trite CNET review of the issue...
Posted on
11:00 AM
Thursday, June 24, 2004
WHAT IS KISMET? [coolmel]
if you Google the word kismet here's what you'll get on the top of the search results -- Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic.
yeah, pretty geeky. but it's actually a word which means Fate; fortune. i like that. Dharmapalooza or bust!
Posted on
12:52 AM
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
CHECK IT, THEN WRECK IT [Matthew]
You have just got to watch this -- the Singhsons. I love worldcentrism!
Posted on
10:11 PM
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
GOOD OLE KUNG FU FLIX [coolmel]
speaking of film festivals, i'm too non-artsy to check out Cannes. i get my movie fix from AtomFilms. the good stuff is there. to prove my point, check out this Kung Fu flix -- Kung Fu Legends II: Turbo Edition - 12:00 - What happens when a classic, arcade-style fighting game comes to life? A fistful of mayhem with bonus attack points! (damn Kung Fu fighting Filipinos. i have a feeling those guys have Friendster accounts too.)
but if you want the real stuff, i've heard of a kick-ass Kung Fu mentor who teaches this ancient art in some hidden location near downtown Boulder.
Posted on
1:27 PM
MICHAEL MOORE AND THE ZEITGEIST [Matthew]
By that, I mean that Moore, the political activist / author / documentarian whose recent movie just won the top prize at the Cannes film festival, is a part of the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. I have blogged at this here Drinking Hole about him because I think his person, as well as his reputation, offers more of a cultural snapshot than your average civic-minded person. Beyond the center of a media circus, he has become, for lack of a better comparison, the political left's version of the right's Rush Limbaugh. That which Moore represents is clearly part of the Zeitgeist, if for no other reason than his media productions are wildly celebrated, and widely dismissed, depending to whom you talk.
Alas, the 'Moore as Rush' insight is not mine, but actually that of the independent (sort of) writer Christopher Hutchins. Actually, I think he would refer to his views as liberal, though not at all in the camps of liberalism that, for example, openly or even blindly despise the GWBush administration, and Bush ad hominem. At the very least, Hutchins appears able to justify the need for some of the values traditionally assigned to conservative/republican thought as crucial parts of most any culture. This point could be argued, but besides the issue for this piece. I do recommend his essays and books, which are surprisingly diverse in subject matter.
The reason I write is that Hutchins wrote an eviscerating review of Moore's aforementioned movie, called Fahrenheit 9/11 for Slate Magazine (and I do love eviscerating things....). Truth by told, I haven't seen F9/11, but for those that have, or will, Hutchins' analysis might be of interest to you. One of many kosmic quotes:But if you leave out absolutely everything that might give your "narrative" a problem and throw in any old rubbish that might support it, and you don't even care that one bit of that rubbish flatly contradicts the next bit, and you give no chance to those who might differ, then you have betrayed your craft. If you flatter and fawn upon your potential audience, I might add, you are patronizing them and insulting them. By the same token, if I write an article and I quote somebody and for space reasons put in an ellipsis like this (...), I swear on my children that I am not leaving out anything that, if quoted in full, would alter the original meaning or its significance. Those who violate this pact with readers or viewers are to be despised. At no point does Michael Moore make the smallest effort to be objective. At no moment does he pass up the chance of a cheap sneer or a jeer. He pitilessly focuses his camera, for minutes after he should have turned it off, on a distraught and bereaved mother whose grief we have already shared. (But then, this is the guy who thought it so clever and amusing to catch Charlton Heston, in Bowling for Columbine, at the onset of his senile dementia.) Such courage.
If you ask me, Moore is a walking pre/trans fallacy. His points, from his previous Bowling for Columbine movie (which I've seen), are generally speaking unconventional and nonmainstream. Because of that, some of his fans appear to assume that his views are thus postconventional, or transconventional. I am not of that opinion. I ask, by and large, do his views move the discussions (on guns, fear, corporatation, government, etc) forward, thus transcending the current debate? Do we get anywhere after we leave the theater? Are whatever new perspectives we have really that informed by fact?
My short answer is no, my longer answer is that skeptical viewers remain unconvinced due to his many documented errors and distortions, but of course I defer to how historians view his work 50 years hence. And here, here, here, and here. I will say that I liked his movie, The Big One where he interviews Phillip Knight, CEO of Nike. Moore helps to reveal Knight's aversion to paying higher wages to Americans who plead with him, via Moore's help, to open a Nike plant in the USA. In any case, he has become, like Limbaugh, a political version of Elvis, and thus a trainwreck you have to watch. Well, for like 15 seconds on a morning often months apart. But those are some fun 15 seconds.
Posted on
9:00 AM
Sunday, June 20, 2004
A JEWISH MADONNA [coolmel]
by now you know that Madonna has a new name: Esther.
But on the other hand, Madonna is not Jewish. And her name is the least of the problem, although she appears to be addressing that issue as well. In an ABC interview that will be broadcast tonight, she says she has taken on the Hebrew name Esther. But Liz Rosenberg, her spokeswoman, denied that she was dropping the name Madonna. "Sometimes people have their secret name, a dream name," said Ms. Rosenberg, adding: "If someone calls her Esther she wouldn't turn around." (from New York Times; sign-up; it's free; they have good stuff.)
(a rose by any other name...)
Posted on
12:57 PM
