Subterranean Homepage News

Fair and balanced, too!

December 31, 2003, 4:01 p.m. -- (Last week's weblog)

See you next week!

1 Unleash vigilante justice on spammers One activist has proposed filters that launch distributed denial-of-service attacks back at spammers. Great. Just make sure we have the right addresses first.

2 Slash song prices charge 29 cents per download. You''ll make it up in volume.

3 Quit already, Jack Valenti

4 Appoint Larry Lessig to the Supreme Court Is he a Democrat or a Republican? Who cares! Laws governing information flow are the new affirmative action, abortion, and gun control rolled into one.

5 Create the all-in-one inbox Email, phone calls, instant messages - they should all go into a single app.

Thanks to J.D. Lasica for the pointer to this.
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Pete Townshend: Won't get fooled again..: What a long strange interview in the Guardian (U.K.); it ends like this:

What, I ask him, has he learned from all this? 'That this world is all about limits and boundaries,' he says, 'and this year I found the end-stop. When the police came through this door, it stopped being nightmare and insanity, and became reality. I just thought, I have to look at who I am, and what I did, and get through this calmly. Soon after, I realised that the public hadn't bought into it, and that was so humbling. I had hundreds of letters of support from friends and fans and strangers.

'The fact is I've survived. I've learned a huge amount because I've been tested and, more importantly, I've been trusted. I don't know if it's even appropriate to say this but in some ways I've had the most incredible year.'

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The 100-Megabit Guitar: Gibson's maverick CEO wants to shove Ethernet up your ax and rock the music world. From Wired,

Before rock and roll had a past, Les Paul shaped its future. In 1952, the Gibson guitar company worked with Paul to help design a solid-body electric guitar. What he gave them wasn't the world's first, but it was the best alternative to the hollow-body instrument that had become the industry standard. The 12 pounds or so of thick mahogany gave the revamped ax a chunky, rich tone that prefigured rock and roll. Dubbed the "Les Paul," the instrument would become the primary source of rock's power-chord crunch, a legacy that stretches from Jimmy Page and Neil Young through Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Guns N' Roses' Slash. The guitar's noise-canceling humbucker pickups provided a clarity that helped Jerry Garcia sculpt his solos when he wasn't playing custom guitars.

Through all this musical history, the Les Paul has remained virtually unchanged, because no one would dare change it. Except for Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson's mercurial CEO. He wants to shove an Ethernet cable into it....

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William Shatner to release new album: Oh, no... Star Trek's Captain Kirk recorded the worst versions, ever, of Mr. Tambourine Man and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (clips at Amazon), and now he's doing it again. With Joe Jackson and Henry Rollins, according to the Arizona Republic.
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10 ads America won't see: From AdAge.com,

The wierdest is Cockroach Woman:

Americans aren't zen enough to relate to the plight of the Thai woman who is in denial about her reincarnation as a cockroach. Too late. If only she had bought Osram's Sylvania "monk packs" of light bulbs, which include a donation to Buddhist monks and temples, and avoided the bad karma of being reincarnated as a lesser being. The spot is by Saatchi & Saatchi, Bangkok.

Number 10 is actually a link to japander.com -- home of "U.S. Actors in Japan":

American actors cash in by making ads in foreign countries, especially Japan, touting products they would never promote in the U.S., with the contractual stipulation that the commercials never be seen in this country. But now the japander Web site specializes in showing such ads.

You'll see Richard Gere singing and playing guitar and keyboards on Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry (the sponsor is Japan Air Lines); Peter Falk in his Columbo raincoat; Arnold Schwarzenegger looking... Japanese, and Andy Warhol speaking Japanese.
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Photojunkie Zine: The Best of 2003 Photoblogs.
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Shoot Phantom Fireworks Online! It doesn't really deserve that exclamation point, but you can shoot off your own fireworks around the Statue of Liberty if you can find absolutely nothing else to do this holiday. I'll be watching football, myself...
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2004, the year ahead: If you're looking for a preview of your personal 2004, here's a page of astrology forecast links. They'll probably dribble in all next week here. (Some of these are atill last year's forecasts.)
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Our So-Called Boom: Okay, one more bit of gloom, this one from Paul Krugman in the Times:

It was a merry Christmas for Sharper Image and Neiman Marcus, which reported big sales increases over last year's holiday season. It was considerably less cheery at Wal-Mart and other low-priced chains. We don't know the final sales figures yet, but it's clear that high-end stores did very well, while stores catering to middle- and low-income families achieved only modest gains.

Based on these reports, you may be tempted to speculate that the economic recovery is an exclusive party, and most people weren't invited. You'd be right.

... According to the most recent estimate, only 8 percent of corporate taxes were paid by the poorest 60 percent of families, while 67 percent were paid by the richest 5 percent, and 49 percent by the richest 1 percent. ("Class warfare!" the right shouts.) So a recovery that boosts profits but not wages delivers the bulk of its benefits to a small, affluent minority.

The bottom line, then, is that for most Americans, current economic growth is a form of reality TV, something interesting that is, however, happening to other people. This may change if serious job creation ever kicks in, but it hasn't so far.

The big question is whether a recovery that does so little for most Americans can really be sustained. Can an economy thrive on sales of luxury goods alone? We may soon find out.

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Happy new year, everyone. It's got to get better one of these years...

December 30, 2003, 6:30 p.m.

Scrambling during a compressed week here, so the blogs today and tomorrow will be short.

Updates from Lou, 1:44 p.m. Wednesday:

Listening to the Maldive Islands right now.
Best tip: don't go for the easy things, strange sites that don't speak English are not getting slammed.
English speaking sites are getting rolled.
Webcams aren't doing well at all.

2:55 p.m. On now: Radio Free Dom from Reunion Island.
Doing a live phone in..but the guy doesn't give the phone number...
Not your fathers talk radio station..
But its very live...

In Providence there'll be an artist-run, arts-oriented celebration called Bright Night, the fledgling successor to Providence First Night, which encountered money problems. With a full schedule of events beginning at 5:30 p.m., there'll be a mini-WaterFire at Waterplace park and fireworks at midnight. Tickets are $10, four for $35; WaterFire is free.

Westerly ($10), Newport ($7), and nearby Fall River (free) and New Bedford, Mass. are all having First Night celebrations. All are previewed here. (reg.req.)

Staying in with the kids? Here's what you'll find on TV. (Yes, the Sci-Fi Channel is doing another Twilight Zone marathon.)

New Year's Day, there's the Tournament of Roses. The 115th Tournament of Roses Parade begins at 11 a.m. on ABC, CBS, HGTV, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, Discovery, and the Travel Channel. The 90th Rose Bowl Game (Michigan vs. Southern California) starts at 5 p.m. on ABC.

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2003 Year In Review: If you're into looking back, fimoculous has compiled a list of links to all the year-end lists so far. (There are dozens, and more to come this weekend, for sure.) Here are a couple of samples: Yahoo's picks of the year; Dave Barry's year in review; 2003 Great American Beer Festival Winners List from BeerTown. ...

If that's not enough, yet more are at blogcritics.org's 2003 In Review.

With 2003 whimpering to a close with events like those below, I want to forget this year and start over again....
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The fish that threatened national security: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette prints a tale by a college student trying to fly with a plastic bag containing a small, rainbow-colored fighting Betta fish named MJ. The airline was fine with it, but security balked.

This is right up there with FBI urges police to watch for people carrying almanacs.

Sleep tight, America.
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December 29, 2003 6:30 p.m. -- (Last week's weblog)

Has everyone simply forgotten about Osama bin Laden? Here's the winner, by Brent Alan Bachelder of Providence, of projo.com's Bad Santa photoshopping contest. Runner up: Santa "borrows" a car on Washington St. by John Pennypacker of Coventry, R.I. Link to this item | Comment

On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago - on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shutting down the federal government the following Monday.

By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.

The Bush Administration and its Congressional allies tucked away these new executive powers in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, a legislative behemoth that funds all the intelligence activities of the federal government. The Act included a simple, yet insidious, redefinition of "financial institution," which previously referred to banks, but now includes stockbrokers, car dealerships, casinos, credit card companies, insurance agencies, jewelers, airlines, the U.S. Post Office, and any other business "whose cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory matters."

Related: Faith-based National Parks: From PEER News,

This fall, the Park Service also approved a creationist text, “Grand Canyon: A Different View” for sale in park bookstores and museums. The book by Tom Vail, claims that the Grand Canyon is really only a few thousand years old, developing on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale. At the same time, Park Service leadership has blocked publication of guidance for park rangers and other interpretative staff that labeled creationism as lacking any scientific basis.

Last month, the Park Service announced that it would alter an eight-minute video containing photos and footage of demonstrations and other events taking place at the Lincoln Memorial. Conservative groups have asked to cut out footage of gay rights, pro-choice and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations because it implies that “Lincoln would have supported homosexual and abortion ‘rights’ as well as feminism.” The Park Service has promised to develop a “more balanced” version that include rallies of the Christian group Promise Keepers and pro-Gulf War demonstrators though these events did not take place at the Memorial.

The Park Service is also engaged in an extended legal battle to continue displaying an eight-foot-tall cross, planted atop a 30-foot-high rock outcropping in the Mojave National Preserve in California. PEER Board Member and former-Park Service manager Frank Buono filed suit to force removal of the cross. That suit is now pending before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

... (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local, state and federal resource professionals, working to protect the environment.)

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Iraq TV url for sale: Back in February, the Iraq satellite TV site seemed to have been hacked, but Lou Josephs and I poked around and found that the domain had lapsed -- probably due to the embargo -- and subsequently registered by a Florida man, Robin (Jim) Poole. Here's the blogging on that.

Poole sent an email with the news that the url is now for sale:

You covered my website http://www.iraqtv.ws on Feb 19,2003. Thought you may be interested in the fact that I listed it today for sale on Ebay! I lost my job due to the threats I received about the site and have decided to sell it at Ebay!'s free listing today.
Robin Poole

Sure enough, here it is on eBay, with an asking price of $3,000 and 3 more days to go in the auction:

Infamous Web Site Once Operated by Saddam
Saddam's Satellite TV Web Site Link
This Web Site http://www.iraqtv.ws was once operated and published around the world on Saddam's Website as the link to connect to his satellite TV Website. On this site Saddam terrorized the world by showing videos of his torture and killing of the Iraqi people. I took over this site and have held it since Feb 16, 2003 as documented in the NY Times article published on Feb 20, 2003. Now that Saddam has been captured and is no longer a major threat I need to sell this site for financial reasons (lost my job due to emailed threats from "Saddam" to me personally and other threats). This site has important historical significance and is suitable for reaching the Iraqi people. I have received up to 1000 hits/day on this site and I am personally not well suited to maintain or capitalize on this site. I have used the site as a Christian message site and it currently publishes the Sermon of the Mount from Jesus Christ. I wish to sell this site to someone who will be able to use it for good and protect people from evil people such as Saddam.

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Is Beagle stuck in crater? AFP reports,

LONDON - Earth still did not hear from Beagle 2 yesterday, prompting scientists to wonder if the pint-sized British probe that should have touched down on Mars on Christmas Day is stuck in a crater.

Landing in a crater is among a number of scenarios being examined by scientists trying to regain contact with the probe after a sixth opportunity to hear its signal passed yesterday without success.

The Beagle2 site and meager weblog state nothing new.

Now it's NASA's turn: Spirit is supposed to land Saturday on Mars, and its twin, Opportunity, on Jan. 24.

Related: Bill Ferris, of the Cosmic Voyage site for amateur astronomers, posted this ditty on Usenet with the intro,

"Here's a little holiday ditty I wrote back in 1997. It seems somehow appropriate to re-post it given the season and circumstances:"

"Martian Wonderland"
(sung to the tune of Winter Wonderland)

Hello Mars, are you listenin'
Here on Earth, we're transmittin'
The last month or two
No signal's come through
Missin' in the Martian wonderland

Gone away is Surveyor
Where did I put the Bayer
An aspirin or two
I'm still feelin' blue
Missin' in the Martian wonderland

Send a picture of a Martian flood plain
Evidence of water rushin' 'round
People say you're broken, I say no way
But when ya' gonna send a signal down

Later on, we'll conspire
As we boost the signal higher
To send an upgrade
Of the software we made
Missin' in the Martian wonderland

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Zenball with Belichick: Patriots quarterback Tom Brady: "We just enjoy playing ball and we like going out there and competing. You know, it has been fun to be a part of a team that doesn't have an ego."

Related: Patriot Nation felt bad for Drew Bledsoe, the beleaguered former Patriot and current Buffalo quarterback, after the 31-0 payback game Saturday. And Bledsoe seemed to regret that he's not still a Patriot, riding that wave into the playoffs. But we wouldn't trade him for Brady, no way.

Buffalo coach Gregg Williams was fired today, with Bills' offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride expected to go next.
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Reviews: Digital Music Stores at BBSpot.

Brian Briggs tackles iTunes Music Store, Napster, Musicmatch, Rhapsody, Wal Mar,BuyMusic and EMusic. If you want to cut to the chase, here's the Final Thoughts and Recommendations page. (Nothing's perfect.)

Suggestions for your Digital Music Budget

With $5 a month to spend on music I would subscribe to the $2.95, Musicmatch streaming service and spend the $2 on other songs at any store for purchase.

With $10 a month to spend on music I would subscribe to the $2.95, Musicmatch streaming service and spend the $7 on other songs at any store for purchase. Or, EMusic Basic if it fits your musical tastes better.

With $15 a month, I would spend $4.95 a month for the Musicmatch streaming service and $10 a month purchasing songs either through EMusic or the other stores.

With $20 a month, I would subscribe to the Napster Premium service and buy $10/month in songs but still use Musicmatch as a jukebox. Or, sign up for EMusic Basic, MusicMatch Platinum and spend $5 at the other stores.

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Journos' Dean book called a must-read for political reporters: This is an L.A. Times story (reg.req.) but Jim Romenesko sums it up:

"Howard Dean: A Citizen's Guide to the Man Who Would Be President" is in its second printing with over 30,000 sold. The idea for the book didn't stem from some altruistic effort to contribute to the greater political knowledge, writes Eric Slater. Rather, two small, financially strapped Vermont newspapers were looking for additional revenue. "In May, there was a brainstorming session — how can we make money in this tough economy besides publishing newspapers?" says Dirk Van Susteren, the Sunday magazine editor at the Rutland Herald and its sister newspaper, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, and the book's editor.

Dirk Van Susteren was a section editor here when I first started on the night news desk almost 19 years ago, and yes, he's Greta's brother. Dirk described her as a "hotshot Washington lawyer" then, in her pre-TV days.

More: From Who Is Howard Dean? (This is a partial transcript from On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, November 10, 2003).

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, Ham, in terms of writing this book, how is the editor in this book, Ham?

(LAUGHTER)

DAVIS: The editor was superb. I know this is a loaded question, Greta. The editor of this book was Dirk Van Susteren (search), who is Greta's older brother and is a long-time friend of mine. We've worked together for 30 years. He did a superb job. We put this book together in six weeks flat. And I just think it's terrific. And it could not have been done without a tremendous job of assembling all the writers, putting them in the right places, getting the very best effort out of them, and then putting the whole thing together and having it come out as smoothly as it did. It was just superb.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I will tell you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a loaded question. It's too bad we're out of time because I got lots of stories about the editor, too, which are vastly different than yours, having grown up with him.

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Lights of our lives: If you've seen projo.com's slideshows of readers' Holiday Lights and Christmas Tree photos, you might want to check out the international scene: PlanetChristmas.com has kilowatts on display. But my favorite is Ugly Christmas Lights.com -- which aren't at all as ugly as you might think.
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Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com