December 2001 Archives
It seems to me that such a game would lend itself to a kind of group storytelling weblog; In fact, I think Rossi may have proposed such an idea in passing once. A while back, there was a weblog called Dark Currents where the author was gradually telling a supernatural horror tale "in character"; unfortunately, that site has long since disappeared. Maybe someday, once I've gotten a couple of other projects out of the way...At the heart of many Lovecraft stories is the confession, the story, the correspondence, as embodied by “Call of Cthulhu” and “The Whisperer in Darkness”. This book proposes that the readers embark on a similar venture. Adopt a persona (1920s or contemporary) and begin writing to friends and others interested in this. Write in character. Slowly, amongst yourselves unveil a horror that haunts humanity. Intersperse the correspondence with normal correspondence, and bring others into your web – begin corresponding with other personas – reporters, archaeologists, police officials and others. Keep duplicates of all the letters. Keep a “Se7en” type journal possibly as well… Create a web of international correspondence, where you may never be certain how and where your little story can begin and end.
At 8:48 this morning, we received our first warning to avoid opening e-mail from a virus-infected user.
Aaaaah. Exchange.As far I can tell, this sort of self-centered xenophobia makes a much better argument that the Olympics should boycott us.The United States should boycott the Winter Games for a selfish reason as well: We're no good at these so-called sports. It's humiliating to celebrate an eighth-place finish in the luge. It's un-American to place eighth in anything. Are our boys fighting in Tora Bora so that we can finish eighth? If we're not pulling gold medals, we're letting Osama win. Why are the Summer Games so much fun? Because we rule them.
We should also quit so we don't have to pay attention to the dreary teams that do dominate the games. The countries that have won the most winter medals—besides the fourth-place United States—are Russia, Germany, Norway, Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland—not a one you'd want to spend the afternoon with. Their Olympic heroes are instantly forgettable. Who remembers Matti Nykanen? Bjorn Dahlie? The Protopopovs?
I'm glad companies seem to putting a seriousl effort into developing alternate and more efficient uses of fuels, both for environmental reasons and in hopes of reducing out petroleum addiction.While most fuel cell vehicles store hydrogen as a gas, the Natrium generates its hydrogen on demand from sodium boro-hydride, a compound related to borax, a naturally occurring substance used in laundry detergent.
The Natrium generates non-toxic sodium borate as a byproduct, which can be reprocessed and reused in vehicles, according to Thomas Moore, vice president of DaimlerChrysler's Liberty and Technical Affairs group. Moore said that when the minivan is taken to a fueling station for a refill, the sodium borate will be simultaneously extracted. Tanker trucks would then pick up the sodium borate from the fuel stations and deliver it to regional processing plants.
— Kofi Annan, in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture. [via rc3]A genocide begins with the killing of one man – not for what he has done, but because of who he is. A campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' begins with one neighbour turning on another. Poverty begins when even one child is denied his or her fundamental right to education. What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life, all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.
St. Charles is a quiet town just across the Missouri River from St. Louis County. It has a picturesque little "old town" Main Street a block off the riverfront, with lots of little antique shops, boutiques, and cafes; they even have period-costumed carolers on weekends during the Christmas season. There are also a number of professional offices on Main Street, including those of Quilogy, the technical consulting and training company that MiTek uses from time to time. This week, a cow orker and I were taking a class in SQL Server programming, in the second building south of Jefferson on Main.
We were working on the final chapter of the course, discussing query optimization, when we started hearing sirens getting very close. Suddenly, we heard four loud reports; while we were trying to figure out whether they were gunshots or mechanical noises, we heard another fusillade that removed any doubt. The shots sounded very close, so we all hit the floor, staying below the level of the brick part of the wall while we tried to figure out what was going on. After things stayed quiet for several minutes, we made our way to the front of the building where a crowd had gathered and rumors were flying.
Apparently, a high-speed chase had just been stopped just east of Main on Jefferson. The driver of the stopped car had allegedly been talking to the cops surrounding him, with a gun in his hand, for a couple of minutes when he made the fatally stupid mistake of pointing his gun at one of them. He never got a shot off; the poice all had clear shots to hit him without harming any bystanders, although a couple of parked cars were hit.
It took a while for everything to calm down, but eventually we finished up the class, at least as well as we could concentrate under the circumstances.- Some sort of (alien?) plants that grew like kudzu on steroids, especially when growing in animal (and human) tissue
- An ocean, possibly on another world, covered over with glass, possibly to keep the aforementioned plants contained
- Living in a house in a residential neighborhood (vaguly like my grandmother's) where something (meteorites? planes?) kept crashing into other homes, and being reassured that this was perfectly normal.
 | If I were a work of art, I would be Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night. I am a tiny village at peace while overhead rages the tumult of the heavens. Objects whirl and flash around me in a fevered haze only partially reflected in reality while I remain grounded and secure in my isolation. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test |
[via David Chess]
I don't fly a flag myself, or bear any of the related symbols like red-white-and-blue ribbons, partly because I feel that if you want to use such an important symbol, you need to do so with greater care than I believe I could manage. I've seen a lot of examples of patriotic cluelessness over the past few months — car-based flags that obstruct the driver's view, etc. The worst I've encountered was the pickup truck in a parking lot with a number of huge American flags (including a pair flying from the back that I had to fight my way through to get out of my car) and a couple of Confederate flags.Sure, assholes like this are the exception, but he makes for a stellar example, not just of how meaningless symbols can be in the hands of the clueless, but how the improper use of symbols degrades their meaning. I could never quite articulate just why all this flag flying bothered me, but now I know: when the display of the American flag becomes a fad, a mindless display, a pompous badge, it turns that act from something noble and purposeful to something as vacuous as wearing a t-shirt with a Nike swoosh. I have more respect for those who burn the flag in protest than guys like Minivan Man; the flag-burners at least recognize the importance of the flag, even if they reject what it stands for.
I've been pretty ambivalent about the Confederate flag for a long time. I come from Mississippi, where the state flag incorporates a Confederate flag, and it was ever-present as I was growing up. It was so ubiquitous that it never had much meaning for me. At best, it means "home" in a way that only other Southerners seem to understand, with all the good and bad that implies; I suspect that's what it means to most of those who choose to fly it. Over the past few years, I've seen a lot of protest from those who revile that flag as a symbol of repression; I can hardly disagree, except to say that, to many people, it's more complicated than that. My attitude towards the debate over the flag is that I'd be glad to see it go, just to end the divisiveness; I've never been upset over the flag itself.
But somehow, seeing the Confederate and American flags together on that truck really offended me. It seemed like someone was putting on a show of embracing one symbol, but without putting enough thought or care into it to abandon other, incompatible symbols. And I think that has finally burned any remaining positive feeling for the Confederate flag right out of me.
