Some people in Kentucky have been without power for days now. Good thing whoever took these pictures had enough batteries for their camera. Some of them are simply amazing.
Archive for February, 2003
Kentucky Ice Storm Pictures
Friday, February 21st, 2003
Beautiful Things
Wednesday, February 19th, 2003It’s nice to remember that humans do more than just kill each other. Sometimes they create beautiful things. Thanks Ailina!
Real Alternative
Monday, February 17th, 2003UPDATE: Real Alternative for Winamp never worked well for me, but I did find some Codec pack that, in combination with Flashblock, now allows me to view embedded media without installing crapola software.
If anyone knows of a good substitute for Real Player, email me. I don’t care how great their compression algorithm is supposed to be, it’s bloatarific spyware, and I have to do without the streaming content from most large media outlets because I refuse it install it.
Audioblogging
Sunday, February 16th, 2003EDIT: 02/12/07 - I wrote this almost exactly 4 years ago. Podcasting was years from becoming a word.
I wonder how long it will be before this technology is combined with news aggregation and text-to-speech to output RSS feeds to audio…
I really like this idea. I know it’s geeky, but I could so use this. Imagine driving down the road and hearing updates to your favorite pages on your radio at specified intervals. Of course, you can’t edit the audio once it’s been posted, though you can re-record until you get it right, so if you’re not careful you end up sounding as dorky as I do in the clip. I used to carry a pen and paper around with me, but something about having to translate your thoughts into writing takes away some of the inspiration. I used to keep a mini tape recorder in my bag, but I never really used it because having to stop and dig it out wasn’t convenient enough. This is perfect, since I always carry my phone with me. I can see my private page filling up with audio posts. I wish the audio was better, though.
I just came back from the Circle Bar, where I heard Hot Club of New Orleans for the first time. Instead of writing about how cool it was, I could let the ultra-low key jam band speak for itself.
Total Information Awareness update
Wednesday, February 12th, 2003UPDATE: Congress Nixes Total Information Awareness (link via Smart Mobs)
Total Information Awareness update at Science Blog.
The Department of Defense will establish two boards to provide oversight of the Total Information Awareness Project, the program designed to develop tools to track terrorists. The two boards, an internal oversight board and an outside advisory committee, will work with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as it continues its research. These boards will help ensure that TIA develops and disseminates its products to track terrorists in a manner consistent with U.S. constitutional law, U.S. statutory law, and American values related to privacy.
Members of the outside advisory board are:
Newton Minow (chairman), director of the Annenberg Washington Program and the Annenberg Professor of Communications Law and Policy at Northwestern University;
Floyd Abrams, renowned civil rights attorney;
Zoe Baird*, president Markle Foundation; A New York blue-blood foundation funding “development of innovative media products and services”.
Griffin Bell*, former U.S. Attorney General and Court of Appeals judge;
Gerhard Casper, president emeritus for Stanford University and Professor of Law;
William T. Coleman*, former chairman and CEO of BEA (world’s leading application and infrastructure company) and now Chief Customer Advocate; and
Lloyd Cutler*, former White House Counsel.
* - 4 out of 7 definitely on the hard-core conservative, and politically connected side. Possibly have a financial interest in wide-spread implemantation of technologies developed by TIA.
Now for a little “taking out of context”:
“TIA has never collected, and has no plan or intent to collect privately held consumer data on U.S. citizens…This is and will continue to be the responsibility of the US foreign intelligence/counterintelligence agencies”.
Political Correctness is the ‘escape route for less able minds’.
Sunday, February 9th, 2003There’s been some talk recently about attempts to legislate diversity. Whatever side of the fence you are on with respect to this issue, This is something you must read:
“Whereas the Victorian ladies were concerned about evolution’s challenge to conventional religion, their equivalents today are worried about its impact on the egalitarian premise on which democracy is based. Perhaps, Hamilton suggests, Darwin’s lesson, put simply, is that all men are not born equal. He considers the current academic enthusiasm for political correctness - an ‘escape route for less able minds’ - an institutionalised form of denial.”
Weblog History
Sunday, February 2nd, 2003Weblog History by Rebecca Blood.