June 2000Thursday 6-29Excellent editorial in today's San Jose Mercury, Few resist faulty logic behind aid to Colombia - it's by Alex Coburn, and he names names - those very few people in Congress who areunpersuaded by the administration's arguments that the way to win the war on drugs here is to throw money into the bank accounts of Colombian military officers and Pentagon contractors. Star Wars Origami (sounds better than it is)
Deciphering
Anime, on the "Media Junkies" site. Newcomers
curious about the genre will appreciate
its section: "What's The Deal With Those Big Eyes?"
Monday 6-26The current media focus on Korea reminds me of the (North) Korean Central News Agency -- I've given it the sporadic visit over the years, for a point of view flavored with that Mao-era "running dog Capitalist" rhetoric we'd hear during the Vietnam War -- they're still at it, sounds so archaic today. What's really weird is how this site has a Japanese domain. Meanwhile, down the penninsula, a Marketplace story today described howA computer game in South Korea has single-handedly jumpstarted that country's Internet industry, making it one of the most dynamic in the world. Korean youth is addicted to StarCraft, a science fiction war game produced by the Southern California Blizzard company.
Sunday 6-25Current comic shop buys: Last week, new issue of Harvey's American Splendor and this week, Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud, a wonderfully rich pair of tangential extensions off his earlier book, Understanding Comics. It's enormous, 240 pages; I'm absorbing it just a few panels at a time."THE resource for digital imaging on the web" - user reviews of all the latest gadgets. Found it by searching on a specific camera's model number. Seems unbiased, with a refreshingly clean design. Friday 6-23
Apropos of nothing, my favorite
Watchmen
sequence, offered without explanation:
Wednesday 6-21Excellent Slate column today by Robert Wright, about the folly of the missle defense system against suitcase bombs, drone aircraft and the precision targeting available to anybody now, via Clinton's recent decision to loosen up the GPS.
The official
website of Captain Euro!
Tuesday 6-20Excerpt from latest Red Rock Eater/Privacy Forum Digest, dismay with recent electronic signatures legislation:... and while you're not supposed to be forced to use these hi-tech paper replacements, how long will it be before you find yourself paying more, perhaps much more, if you choose not to do so? The pattern is all too familiar -- first there will be offers of discounts if you'll give up paper, but all too soon the fees for insisting on paper records and physical signatures will become so exorbitant that most of us will give in, whether we really want to or not. Two pointers from Mike's weblog: Heathkit Virtual Museum and The Slide Rule Universe. Great cover on this week's issue of The Economist. Their site's too secure for direct access to the image, but it's at the top of the cover story, "Encounter in Pyongyang" (click quick, that link won't last long). The North Korean Kim-Leader is shown, wearing a green Mao suit, arm raised, Devo-style: Sunday 6-18For the woman who has everything: The TravelMate Device. Now the girls can go just like the boys!courtesy Mr Pants West Coast Blimps & Electronics, in Ridgecrest, California: www.indoorblimps.com
Thursday 6-15My older brother sent me some links, among which was this New York World's Fair site. (Readers interested in this subject should also be familiar with my own.) Turns out the author, Jeffrey Stanton, is not unknown to me - he's done books (and a site) about Venice and Santa Monica, and is a weekend fixture on the Venice boardwalk - I bought my own copy of Coney Island of the Pacific from him there, when it was new. He also has pages about the real Coney Island and Expo 67 - -- the latter's an exceptional reference.
Read some off-hand comment about post-nuclear
fiction somewhere, a musing about how many of
these stories resemble Stephen Vincent Benet's
"By the Waters of Babylon." This was intriguing
to me since, naïve lad that I am, the
only memory this (probably Biblical) expression
triggers is a song from the soundtrack
of The
Harder They Come. Now I've read
the story, and you can too, in a "study
guide" format:
Generation Jones:
Blue News Betrayed by Work in Fast Company: Until the 20th century, work was secondary to other parts of life. We can see this by looking at the words that mean work in different cultures. The Spanish word for work, 'trabajo,' comes from a Latin word for an instrument of torture. The Irish word, 'job,' took on a dual meaning: a temporary assignment, and excrement. For those of you hitting the road this summer, the I-95 Exit Guide could prove useful. (For contrast, check the Guide to I-80 in Nevada.) Searching for enlightenemnt about the expression purdah, I found this site, Sister Noor's Experience -- it's the voice of a young muslim woman, from beyond the veil -- a well-tuned example of the phenomenon of conditioning which William S. Burroughs characterized as the policeman inside your head.
Monday 6-12Back on line -- Updates to resume shortly.
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