Category: Uncategorized

Take a second, customize this letter, and send it to your Congresscritter. The DMCA is the worst piece of legislation this side of the PATRIOT Act. HR 1201 aims to reform some of that awful legislation by removing and clarifying what is and is not infringing (the current lawsuit-initiator du jour).

EFF Action Center

They have Lemmings for the PSP! Man I love that game.

Lemmings Plunge Onto the PSP – Kotaku

Voltaire said, “If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.” He was right, and both extremes in the abortion controversy demonstrate that. But the ‘pro-life’ side has a worse case of absurdity than the pro-choicers, and that won’t change until (at a minimum) they face up to what they really want.

Say what you want about Eric S. Raymond, and many have, the man makes compelling arguments. I highly recommend reading the entire article; I guarentee pro-abortion activists will remember this one.

Armed and Dangerous – Blog Archive – The Rape Exception

Today is Purim, the Jewish holiday commemorating the story of Esther (full back story here). Why should us goyims care?

We are also commanded to eat, drink and be merry. According to the Talmud, a person is required to drink until he cannot tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai,” though opinions differ as to exactly how drunk that is.

….

It is customary to hold carnival-like celebrations on Purim, to perform plays and parodies, and to hold beauty contests. I have heard that the usual prohibitions against cross-dressing are lifted during this holiday, but I am not certain about that. Americans sometimes refer to Purim as the Jewish Mardi Gras.

Aw yeah. And it’s good prep for St. Patty’s. See, Irish Catholics, you have lots in common with other religions. Note to Protestants: Seriously, you left the best parts behind, didn’t you? No wonder this country is going to hell; all the cool people stayed on the other side of the ocean.

Happy Purim 5766!

So, Frank Turner is a little, uh, touched, which is something I didn’t know. Not “stab you on the subway” touched (we don’t have a subway… sheesh), but “God has told me to do this really, really silly thing” touched. Frank wants to host a radio show on 1340 WEXL-AM (AM?) and needs the prayers of all Detroiters to do it, something about contracts. DetroitWonk says:

Well, I’m fairly certain Channel 7 may allow him to have all of the time he needs, because the attorneys are most likely working round-the-clock to get him off of their payroll as quickly as possible.

After seeing Frank’s website, I believe that’s the most accurate statement of the week. Just how bad is Frank’s situation with regard to his contract with Channel 7? If you believe Frank, it’s downright Biblical.

Didn’t our Apostle Paul suffer threatening, jailing, beatings, near-drowning, false accusations, scorn and ridicule to build the Lord’s first congregations of believers and boldly preach the gospel of salvation even under the most hostile situations? [source]

Scorn and beatings, Frank? Been going to a few too many City Council meetings lately?

Thanks to DetroitWonk for the tip-in

SXSW (that’s South by Southwest) is going on. SXSW is a huge media festival, for lack of a better term. It’s tons of indie bands, movie makers, and media types (a growing number of which are Web media types) gathering in Austin to be… well.. corporately sponsored.

But, they do draw an incredible amount of very cool, very unknown (to a national audience) entertainers. And, as a bonus, they release all that music for free.

You can now get the torrents for the music here. Last year there was about a months worth of music and I kept a great deal of it. I hope this year is even better.

Enjoy

Check out the interface on this!

CeBIT ’06: Asus R2H Keyboard Interface – Gizmodo

I don’t know why, but this made me laugh this morning. Requires sound and low expectations.

[ via Wired:Table of Malcontents]

“Kevin O’Connor of University College Dublin and his colleagues heated polystyrene foam, the generic name for Styrofoam, to convert it to styrene oil. […] the scientists fed this styrene oil to the soil bacteria Pseudomonas putida, which converted it into biodegradable plastic known as PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates).” It’s about time because 2.3 million tons of polystyrene foam (styrofoam) are dumped in US landfills each year, and over 14 million metric tons of the stuff are produced annually around the world. Since the foam is very light (95% air), 14 million tons takes up lots of volume.

If this is viable, how hard would it be to scale up? Or can someone make money from it? Because if they can, this will take off in a huge hurry. Maybe the local recycling authority will start taking the stuff, too. Oh, what bliss that would be.

Treehugger: Finally Something To Do With All That Styrofoam?

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A criminal justice professor at Grand Rapids Community College has resigned after showing a video in class of a man having sex with a pig, students and a faculty representative said.

Ah, home. Grand Rapids, that is. Not GRCC or video-making facilities of such repute.

Link