Der Spiegel has a fascinating interview with Pan Yue of China's ministry of the environment, "The Chinese Miracle Will End Soon":This miracle will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace. Acid rain is falling on one third of the Chinese territory, half of the water in our seven largest rivers is completely useless, while one fourth ( Read more... )

It seems the City of Seattle is paying buskers to play in City parks on weekdays. The buskers come cheap, about minimum wage, but I guess you could call that a 'floor' salary as they can pick up tips as well.

What a great idea!

You have 72 hours left to you; what do you want to do with them?

It is been on and off more times than I can remember, but FirstShowing.net is reporting that the Neuromancer movie has a budget and is being fast tracked. Of course it probably won't be the Neuromancer we all know and love:The novel examines the concepts of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, multinational corporations ( Read more... )

In a previous post I discussed the posthumous attacks on Jerry Falwell and why I found them unseemly.

The funny thing is, Yahweh Ben Yahweh also died recently and no one seems to have noticed. It isn't like his preachings were any less toxic than Falwell's rantings. It isn't like he didn't actually order (and possibly participate in) the deaths ( Read more... )

It is all over the MSM and the Blogosphere: Jerry Falwell is dead. Most people are treating it as an opportunity to dance on the grave of someone who would gladly have danced on theirs. (No reason to bother with links here; I'm sure you've already seen the posts ( Read more... )

Ken Kesey's family is trying to restore Furthur, the 1939 International school bus painted in psychedelic colors that Kesey's Merry Pranksters tooled around the country in during the 1960's.Stephanie Kesey, who is married to the late author's son Zane and is overseeing the project, said the bus has been cleaned up a bit, and singer Willie Nelson ( Read more... )

One year ago today I posted the entire text of the Declaration of Independence. If you can't remember how it goes, I suggest you go read it now and remind yourself just what it is you are celebrating!

Me? Today I'm thrilled to report that I live in a country where twelve neo-Nazis can get a permit to protest in my State Capitol, and five-hundred ( Read more... )

In today's Seattle PI there is an interesting opinion article about the real underlying problem the US forces face, "Tribalism is the real enemy in Iraq":Forget the Quran. Forget the ayatollahs and the imams. If we want to understand the enemy we're fighting in Iraq, the magic word is tribe ( Read more... )

There is a report that al Zarqawi was tracked before his death using a military variant of RFID technology:Some forms of Smart Dust are believed to be in use in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's also believed that Smart Dust played a role in the recent death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi. In this case, if someone were able to sprinkle some Smart ( Read more... )