weblog
monday, september 30

The left
Let's make a list. Poverty in the developing world for which we -- in the failure to confront our coddled farmers -- are responsible. Tyranny that we support, in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Corruption that we fuel with slapdash aid, bribe-greased arms deals, and bailouts that encourage banks to lend to countries that can't afford to pay the money back.
   Shame this -- a meaty enough agenda for the internationalist left -- seems to have escaped last weekend's protestors in DC, London and elsewhere. They'd rather posture. Richard Just, one of the American Prospect writers covering the Washington DC protests, says it all: "This cannot be the best my generation is capable of. And this is not liberalism -- it's spite."
The Emptiness and the Anger [American Prospect] #

The end of the west?
Anatol Lieven's article in Prospect on European relations with the US is finally accessible online. The gist: "If European governments truly believe that US policies in the middle east are a serious danger to Europe, the region, and the world, then they should be prepared to deny the US military the use of bases on their soil -- and to take the consequences in terms of responsibility for their own defence." #

King Tut
The face of Tutankhamen, the Egyptian king, has been reconstructed by special effects artists. #

sunday, september 29

Iraq -- in pictures
El Pais produces a map showing the range of Iraqi missiles. Other graphics show the location of US and Iraqi military forces, the country's ethnic divisions, and the importance of Gulf oil. #

Nation-building in Iraq: let's not
The Friedman case for war on Iraq is much the same as Condi Rice's. The risks of entanglement are worth the potential prize: a democratic and decent government at the heart of the Arab world. Dream on. As Friedman admits, "It would be a huge undertaking, though, and maybe impossible, given Iraq's fractious history." So let's not do it.
   Given the fractious history that Friedman mentions, a more practical policy would be, well, fragmentation. Like some of the overblown conglomerates of US capitalism, Iraq needs to be unbundled. Nation-unbundling, not nation-building. Support a separate Shiite state in southern Iraq, which would at least be legitimate. And let the Sunni ruling class discover the price of defiance is not merely a readjustment in the clan hierarchy, but the dismemberment of their local empire, and the alienation of their oil revenues. Now that at least would be a salutary warning to the Saudi regime, which also contends with a Shiite population on top of its oil fields.
   As for lighting the beacon of Arab democracy, a fine goal in and of itself, try somewhere else, like Tunisia, Jordan or Qatar -- some place that hasn't been lobotomized by vicious dictatorship.
You Gotta Have Friends [Thomas Friedman] #

Anti-war protests
At yesterday's anti-war rally, among the veteran demonstrators, students and Anglo-Pakistanis: a group of young Palestinians, with fake sticks of dynamite strapped across their chests.
A big day out in Leftistan [Observer] #

European cows
A polemical cartoon, showing EU cows, flying round the world in luxury. It's an illustration of an astonishing fact: the average European dairy cow -- recipient of lavish EU farm subsidies -- makes more money than half the world's human beings.
Moosters Millions [CAFOD] #

Intelligence failures
Exactly what right do FBI and CIA officials have to get upset about the congressional investigation into intelligence failures before the 9.11 attacks? They complain the committee's staff is aggressive. Like that's bad? The FBI and CIA reserve their own aggression for their internal turf wars.
Investigation angers FBI, CIA officials [NYT] #

Europe 15-12 USA
Europe v USA, the new grudge match. Except it's golf, so hard to get worked up about. And I don't see crowds painting their faces with Koolhaas stripes.
Ryder Cup [BBC] #

saturday, september 28

Now playing
Digital cable is great -- except for the profusion of channels. It's a pain in the neck to scroll through the onscreen program grid to pick out a good movie that's about to start. Fortunately, TV Guide Online has a search feature. So here are all the movies starting right now in Manhattan.
Movies now playing [TV Guide Online, with thanks to Anil] #

Smart business
MIchael Wolff on Barry Diller, the head of Universal Studios, and the one media mogul who could say no to a deal. "The point is, he did the thing really smart businesspeople are supposed to do -- that is, bide their time and wait for it to come to them -- as opposed to what media moguls invariably do, which is, at vast cost and assuming great risk, go out and get what they want when they want it."
Michael Wolff [New York Magazine] #

friday, september 27

Flowers from Africa
If the anarchists in DC were demonstrating against the evil American agrobarons, and their political poodles in Congress, I'd chain myself to the railings. Free the Malian cotton farmers. Now that's a cause. Instead, they're protesting, well, what exactly? Anti-Capitalist Convergence, one of the organizers of the Washington DC protests, actually takes the trouble to make a case, for which, respect.
   But what a case. They complain about the promotion of flower growing over sustainable farming, for which read subsistence farming, the Siamese twin of miserable poverty.
   The very existence of protestors in Washington DC is testament to the division of labor, by which factory workers build combine harvesters for farmer to produce grain, which Mexican immigrants turn into wraps for burritos to fuel the college kids in their struggle against global capitalism on the streets of DC, and, if the fascists send in the army, the kids will stake the rifles with flowers, fresh, and flown in that very day from Africa. Isn't global capitalism wonderful?
Why Protest the IMF and World Bank? [Anti-Capitalist Convergence] #

Trade
The World Bank has called for the West to stop blocking goods from the developing world. It's not that often that one can do one's self good by doing good. This is one of those occasions. It's true that there is progress. Textile and clothing trade barriers are due to come down in 2005, as part of the Uruguay trade round. And both the EU and US have made efforts to open up to the very poorest countries. But Western trade protection still costs jobs, money, and lives in the developing world -- and, it's bad for the West. Here's how: I've summarized, below, the most salient factoids from the World Bank report because, let's face it, you're not going to read the damned thing.
· Developing countries exporting agricultural goods to the West face tariffs ten times as high as applies to other exports within the West.
· The highest tariffs by the US -- 28% on agricultural products -- are imposed on the poorest of developing countries.
· Among industrial goods, the US imposes the highest tariffs on textiles and clothing, the industry that many developing countries most rely upon.
· Eliminating barriers to merchandise trade would bring at least $100 billion in extra annual income to developing countries -- and even more than that to the West.
· The United States is still the world's most active user of antidumping investigations, which are generally protectionist loopholes; but developing countries are learning from its example.
· Increasingly restrictive product standards in the EU -- banana shape being the apocryphal example -- have blocked more than 50% of developing country exports of process fish, meat, fruit and vegetables.
· Preferential treatment for the poorest countries sounds like a good idea, but a study shows that less than 2% of Albanian exporters asked for preference although most of them were eligible. The bureaucracy is just too daunting.
· The US has granted preferential trade access to 36 African countries, but only 15 countries have taken up the offer, because of the child labor and workers' rights provisions included.
· Tariffs and subsidies mean farmers in the West get prices 31% higher than the world market, and support to local producers of sugar, rice, cotton and tobacco is among the highest. Oh, yes, those are the crops that tropical countries are most likely to produce.
· Argentine beef, and other meat, faces tariffs of 175% on entry into the European Union. Argentina recently went bust.
Market access for developing country exports [World Bank] #

thursday, september 26

Tablet PCs -- and blogging
Yes, there is a blogging angle to the Tablet PCs that Microsoft and partners are launching in November. And it's not good news. One of the main selling points of Tablets is the ability to browse the web, slouched on a couch, clicking links on the screen, as if you were reading a magazine. In that mode, you're much less likely to flip open the keyboard, and start typing blog comments. So, prediction: tablet users will be lazy bloggers.
Tablet PC [Microsoft] #

Designs for Lower Manhattan
Now that's better. The LMDC, mandated to rebuild the Twin Towers site, has picked six architectural teams for the design stage. The initial plans were unimaginative, and scorned. None of the news stories seem to mention the names: the new list includes Daniel Libeskind, designer of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Norman Foster, Britain's most successful architect, and Richard Meier, architect of the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
Six teams of architects [LMDC] #

Enron memorabilia
The Crooked E symbol from Enron's headquarters has been auctioned off -- for $44,000. #

Ivory Coast: the Muslim factor
News organizations covering the budding civil war in the Ivory Coast have glossed over the key divide in the country. Even the BBC's in-depth item on the rebels' cause ignores the divide between a Christian south, and the Muslim north. I'm not trying to class the Ivory Coast as one of Islam's proliferiating holy wars; but it's much easier to understand conflicts if you at least acknowledge ethnic or religious distinctions.
French fix truce in Ivorian city [BBC] #

West Wing Series Four
A pointer from Motoko to Jump the Shark, a site which identifies TV shows that are past their peak. A candidate for the list: West Wing. The season premiere was yesterday, and disappointing. Josh and Toby discover the nobility of middle Americans, and learn to listen to the voters; Charlie steps up for some black-on-black mentoring; the Republican candidate is a ludicrous exaggeration of George W; and the President's soaring speech fails to soar. Something about the heavens being full of angels tonight. Pray this is an aberration.
The West Wing: Season 4 Episode 1
Jump the Shark #

The case against Saddam
Ross Clark, in the Spectator, questions the case for war on Iraq. Blair's dossier on Iraq's weapons drive was largely circumstantial. And even if one accepts that Saddam would build nukes if he could, he's hardly alone in that. As Clark recaps, other countries -- such as Israel and Pakistan -- have nuclear weapons; and other countries, the US included, continue research into biological warfare.
   Supporters of the war on Iraq should have the honesty to admit that weapons inspections are a legal pretext for toppling Saddam. There is no one reason to invade Iraq. The evil of his nature isn't unique, nor does he sustain Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, nor is he the only leader to desire nukes. His invasions of neighboring countries, an activity in which Saddam is exceptional, were more than a decade ago.
   It is the combination of these factors that adds up to a case for invasion. Would such an invasion do more good than harm? Saddam may be one of many vicious dictators; and Iraq may be one of many countries with nuclear ambitions; but the Baghdad regime is unique in its combination of aggressive intent and potential.
   Beyond that, it's hard to identify the costs. Can Iraq's people suffer any more than they do now? Is there really any potential for Iraq to reform itself? Is the status quo in the Middle East so beneficial that the West should seek to preserve it? Can Iraq export any less oil? Can the Arab street hate the West any more than it does now?
   Don't look for a singular moral case for war on Iraq; there isn't one. But a sober calculation of cost and benefit, both for the West and the Middle East, gives as clear an answer as one ever gets.
Weapons of mass hypocrisy [Spectator] #

The European tour
For an insight into America's fickle relations with Europe, and the administration's difficulty in deciding which European country it likes least, try this movie classic, about a group of American tourists rushing blindly by coach around the continent: If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. #

Designated bogeyman
Since Germany took over as America's designated European bogeyman, the pressure is off the French. An amusing quote from Dominique Moïsi, the French foreign policy analyst: "It is discreetly satisfying for us to see the state of affairs between Germany and the U.S. because the Americans cannot have two crises, one with France and one with Germany, and now the Germans have taken over and that is good." So much for European solidarity.
Tony Blair's Role: Statesman, or Poodle? [NYT] #

Prefabs
Picky about design, but no budget? Try a OA.SYS off-the-shelf house from KFN Products, an Austrian company. KFN produces stylish prefabs -- all glass, pale wood, and modern lines -- designed for container shipping. The cost: $145,000 for 1,400 square foot; and the building can be assembled in hours. Target is exploring the concept. [The photo's of another modern prefab.]
Putting the Fab in Prefab [NYT] #

Why Google's news algorithm gets it wrong
9.45am: check out Google News right now. The lead headline: "Factbox -- Details of Sunday's Serbian election." The story tells us that Serbia has 6,555,405 voters, and there are 11 candidates for president. Fascinating. Now I presume what's happened is this: Milosevic is on trial for genocide, and the Serbian election story has been grouped with that by Google's news algorithm. The election story is from Reuters, which is one of the most ubiquitous news sources, and therefore ranked highly by Google; and it's more recent than the Reuters story on the trial. So the Factbox item -- which no human editor would put on the front page, let alone make the splash -- gets Google News points for ubiquity, recency, and source reputation. Google's news search engine is very good; but they're no good at picking stories.
Google News #

wednesday, september 25

Survivor sex
Take that, you American prudes. Hungary's taken the Survivor concept, and given it a Magyar touch. Two of the contestants had sex on screen. Hungarian regulators fined the program's makers, but only because they showed the act in primetime.
Hungary's 'Big Brother' fined after couple has sex on TV [AFP] #

Rebuilding Afghanistan's economy
Massive post-war rise in production of Afghan opium [Independent] #

Honor and politics
George Bush is upset with Gerhard for -- outrage -- pandering to German voters. So much so that he refused, apparently, to congratulate the German Chancellor on his election victory. Since it's all getting so personal, how about settling this the Peruvian way? Eittel Ramos, a Peruvian congressman, has challenged the country's vice president to a duel with pistols on the Lima beach. If those damned Euros are going to fling around cowboy insults, George W might as well play to stereotype.
Peru congressman throws down gauntlet [Reuters via Spiers] #

Climate change
So the Mars is suffering from climate change. Must be those nasty capitalist industries pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Whoops, wrong planet. Actually, researchers blame wobbles in the orbit of Mars around the Sun. Not much we can do about that one.
   There's a serious point here. Environments change, on Earth as on Mars, and most of the time there's nothing we can do, even if we'd want to. Better to develop the economic capacity to deal with change. The seas are rising. So? We can move the cities inland. As King Canute could attest, sometimes it's better to stand up and take a few steps back.
   And think of the greatest environmental threat to the planet: an asteroid strike, the one event which has been solidly linked to global extinctions. It's only through technological progress, and the development of a robust space industry, that we'll ever be able to nudge a planet-killing asteroid off course.
   Economic growth ought to be an environmentalist cause. Instead, most environmentalists are deeply conservative, transfixed by fear of the unknown. Climate change is inevitable. Unless we Kyoto ourselves into stagnation, we'll deal with it.
Martian 'wobbles' shift climate [BBC] #

Red Herring
A quick research question. It was common knowledge amongst his staff that Tony Perkins, Red Herring's publisher, used to take shares in companies about which the magazine reported. But did anyone ever dig out the specifics? The reason I ask: journalists are now calling the venture capitalists, investment bank analysts and CEOs to account. It's time for some self-criticism. Email me. #

Digital photos
Top tip: they're so much more flattering when the flash is turned off. #

The curse of the early adopter
It's not easy being the first to adopt gadgets, internet booms and fads. A line, from dinner, yesterday. "I suffer from the curse of the early adopter: frustration before everybody else joins in; and guilt once they have." #

Peaceloving Germans
Modern Germans are a US creation, and so the US should stop giving them such a hard time. From Marc Fisher's piece in Slate: "Americans can grumble and mutter about wussy Germans refusing to carry their own weight, but the fact is that this is our own success in, you'll pardon the expression, nation-building: We helped mold a real democracy over there after World War II, and what the Germans have developed since then is the world's most heightened sensitivity to anything that smacks of nationalism, aggression, or cruelty to animals and trees."
Gerhard's Generation - Why the new rift between the United States and Germany is for real [Slate] #

Dumb liberals
Dick Armey, with this priceless quote: "Liberals are in my estimation just not bright people. They don't think deeply; they don't comprehend; they don't understand... They have a narrow educational base, as opposed to the hard scientists." Armey was an economics professor, from the University of North Texas. Yes, I meant to be snobby.
Rep. Decried for Remarks on Jews [AP] #

Libertarian Democrats
Britain's Liberal Democrats are getting interesting. They've been squeezed between a neutered Conservative party and triangulating New Labour, which doesn't leave them with much political space. So the party, which regularly gets 20% of the vote, is pursuing some libertarian policies to mark itself out. First was a proposal to ease restrictions on pornography. And, now, an excellent idea: dismantle the Department of Trade and Industry, the equivalent of the US Commerce Department, and spend the money on adult education. One question: how many socially-conscious anti-government libertarian voters are out there?
Scrap the DTI, says Lib Dem trade spokesman [Guardian] #

Germans
Like the rotating presidency of the EU, American irritation with Europe is ever on the move. France, it is true, is the most reliable focus of American animus. But don't forget Belgium (as a proxy for Brussels and fucked-up nation states, and anti-semitic, of course), Sweden (a country which has taken the place of Massachussetts in right-wing demonology) and now Germany (nasty and aggressive, but not when we want them to be). Funny cartoon: click on the panel for the full version. #

Google News
The Austin American Statesman must have an anomalous PageRank. That's the rating Google gives to sites, based in part on the number of inbound links. AAS has shown up as a source on a whole bunch of top stories in Google's news service, including the Hindu temple attack in India. Google hasn't solved the greatest problem for news search services: how to avoid duplication, when the same wire story is edited and reprinted in hundreds of US local newspapers, and internationally.
Google News #

tuesday, september 24

Sopranos and the Twin Towers
Has anyone noticed that the Twin Towers no longer feature in the Sopranos opening credits? They used to appear in Tony Soprano's wing mirror, as he was driving into New Jersey. No longer. #

Germany shunned
Oh give me a break. So Donald Rumsfeld snubbed his German counterpart at the Nato meeting in Warsaw. How childish. Because of what, exactly? A German minister who said that politicians -- even Hitler -- use foreign adventures to distract from domestic problems. Or probably more because a German politician dared defy the US to win an election. Imagine the same standards were applied to the US. To those US officials who are so quick to spot European anti-semitism, cowardice, hypocrisy, and ingratitude. And now Germany is bowing and scraping, and trying to repair the damage to its US relationship. I can't decide which government is the more pathetic.
Rumsfeld snubs Germany [Financial Times] #

Tomorrow's Sopranos today
Not sure whether this is a hoax or not, but the first four episodes of the new Sopranos series already appear to be up online. Download Kazaa and see for yourself. Search for "Sopranos pre-air".
Kazaa Lite #

It's about time
INS to fingerprint male Saudi visitors [CNN] #

Google and news
So Google has unveiled its news service. Its new news service, because it's had one for more than a year. Disclosure: Moreover Technologies, my last company, provides news services to AltaVista, MSN and Ask Jeeves. So you won't be surprised if I don't rate Google News. The algorithm by which Google selects stories is flawed. Stories are ranked on how recently they have been published, the number of articles devoted to a given topic and the popularity of the particular news source. It discriminates against an exclusive, which is perverse. A story exclusive to one source -- the New York Times scoop on US war plans, for instance -- will rank low. While a standard calendar-driven wire service story -- reported everywhere, without any great enthusiasm -- scores highly. On the front page of Google News right now: Schroder visits London. Hmm, exciting.
Google enters news arena [BBC] #

monday, september 23

BlogThis!
The BlogThis! button doesn't work. And I'm too lazy to cut-and-paste the links. So reduced posting until Blogger sorts out the problem. Evan? #

sunday, september 22

This week's highlights from Gizmodo
· New Retro Digital Camera from Leica
· Palm's New Flagship PDA
· You're So Vein - Creepy New Biometric Mouse
· A House Vacuuming Robot
· Hubzilla!
· A Keyboard Made of Light
· Japanese Gadget Watch: WiFi-enabled Television #

saturday, september 21

Foetal attraction
The perils of having photographer as a brother-in-law.The latest edition of Kathy Lette's Foetal Attraction has my sister, and her pregnant belly, all over the front cover. Were I a radical Islamist, I'd have to kill her to protect the family honor. #

Modern conversation
KM: So what did you get up to last night? (In IM.)
ND: nickdenton.org/archives/2002_09_01_archive.htm#85476642
KM: This is interesting way to converse. I can imagine in a couple of years I will simply ask questions by providing links to my weblog, and you can answer likewise.
ND: I'll become a celeb interviewee who says: oh, if you want to know about my childhood, you can read about that in my autobiography. #

Profiling
Anil Dash is rightly aggrieved by this nasty incident on Delta last month. [See link below.] An Indian doctor, a former US Army major, was whisked away in handcuffs after an entirely unrelated incident on the plane. Bob Rajcoomar is thinking of suing, and should.
   This highlights an uncomfortable truth. Some form of profiling is essential, unless you want to strip-search Mormon grandmothers on a regular basis. The problem is not so much profiling as the crude profiling by officials who can't tell an Indian from an Arab and, even if they can, don't have the information to make any distinctions than that.
   Information about passengers is divided between multiple databases, and law enforcement is given limited access in any case. So we shouldn't be surprised when police and air marshals judge people by their skin tone, and treat Sikhs with the suspicion they should reserve for Taliban. Well, after all, they all wear turban thingees.
   There's one remedy: better information, about passengers such as Bob Rajcoomar, who may be dark skinned, but low risk by any other measure.
   Civil libertarians may quake at the prospect of a gigantic database covering every citizen and visitor to the US, but they should get over themselves. What we have now are civil liberties predicated on governmental incompetence. We give the FBI a hard time for intelligence failures, and technological backwardness, but then oppose any measure to consolidate information, for fear of infringing on privacy. The approach is inconsistent to the point of absurdity.
   US law enforcement needs better information, if it is to do its job, and not harrass upstanding citizens. And, if one worries that better databases would give government too much power over individuals -- and it should be a worry -- there are plenty of ways to rectify the balance.
Profiling charged on 'nightmare' flight [Philadelphia Inquirer] #

Eugene
Mad Eugene Hutz, Gogol Bordello frontman and deejay impresario at the Bulgarian disco, has a new home. After a fight with the Bulgarians a fortnight ago, he's back with his own people, the Ukrainians. Eugene will be deejaying Friday nights at the Dibrova Social Club in the East Village. A new era begins.
The Sheeet Hits the Fan by Tricia Romano [Village Voice] #

Christy Turlington
One happy Danish boy last night. David, a 20-year-old kid brother visiting New York, tags along to the Cubbyhole in the West Village last night. Bono and Christy Turlington are at the back. David says he'll regret it if he doesn't, so he goes up to Christy and, studiously ignoring Bono, says:
David: You were always my favorite supermodel when I was a kid. (He's still a kid.)
Christy: Oh that's so sweet. Thanks so much. (Or something along those lines, not insulted by the implication that she's been around a while.) Where are you from?
David: Denmark.
Christy: Wow, I know someone from there. Helena Christensen. Do you know her?
David: Well, not personally. (Exits, and with what a story to tell the folks back home.) #

friday, september 20

The imperial doctrine
Scott Rosenberg questions the new US doctrine of overwhelming military force, and he has a point. The British Empire had a policy, that its navy should be twice as large as its nearest rival. Didn't do much good. Better to focus on the roots of power, such as economic dynamism or quality of education, than the manifestations. #

Press releases
Richard Bennett, with a wickedly precise dissection of a typical high-tech press release. #

Married with email
Some couples are so confident of eachother's love and loyalty that they even maintain joint email addresses. One half of a happily communal couple: "We’re good sharers. I never had a second thought about it. When you’re married, it’s like you’re one person." But -- sorry to by cynical -- what if you discover your partner has an email address on the side?
Truelove@Hotmail.com [NY Observer via Rebecca Mead] #

Google News
Google has improved its news search, grouping together articles from different sources by topic. Seems to work well. And stories seem to be prioritized according to the number of different articles on the same story. Hard to avoid near-duplicates, however.
Adrian Holovaty
Google News #

San Francisco real estate
Finding a place to live in America's most liveable city: it's harder than you think, once you've factored in the rent, the microclimate -- and the bum factor.
YF: trying to find a new place to live in SF..
nicknotned: why?
YF: too many bums outside my window. #

Managing MP3 files
Another software recommendation. Audio Converter, which is free for a month, can take downloaded MP3 music files, match them up against an online database of tracks, clean up the file names, and convert a batch to another format such as WMA. All in one pass. Definitely more efficient than using the Media Library functionality within Windows Media Player to clean up a digital music collection. And, because Audio Convertor deals with the file names and formats, any edits or information added are permanent.
Audio Converter 4.05 [Download.com] #

Ozone hole
Mikel Maron writes in with a fair point. While desertification and overpopulation have been overdone by the environmental movement, the shrinking of the ozone hole is testament to early diagnosis, and action, rather than green alarmism.
Why is good news so often used against environmentalists? The reversal of ozone depletion in no way deligitimizes the concerns voiced 20 years ago. Without the efforts of concerned politicians, activists, and scientists, the Montreal Protocol would not have been ratified, and the ozone hole would be a much larger problem today.
Laura Crane -- Matt Welch's favorite environmentalist -- makes the same argument. #

AI
Artificial intelligence, which is broadly the computer-assisted study of patterns, is much disparaged as a discipline: for being long on promises, and short on delivery. But Josh Schachter makes the interesting observation. Speech recognition was once classified as part of AI, until it became practical, at which point it became speech recognition. So, if AI has been a failure, it is because it is definitionally condemned to academic irrelevance. #

Send and receive
Of course, there's one thing, even more than instant messenger, wasteful of time and disruptive to concentration: email. Particularly when new email comes in every few minutes with a ping too tantalising to ignore. Even when automatic send-and-receive is disabled, I click the Send/Receive button like a monkey working for nuts in a cruel Pavlovian experiment. One can remove the Send/Receive button from the menu bar, but Christian reminds me there's always the F9 shortcut.
   So, a business idea: an email client in which send-and-receive settings are set once, and can never be altered. No matter how pathetically you beg. This could be part of a range for undisciplined individuals, along with an alarm clock without a snooze button, or the ability to reset the wake-up time. We'd make a fortune.
Outlook [Microsoft] #

Trillian
Ah, there's nothing like falling in love with a new piece of software. Trillian is an instant messaging service that connects to Windows Messenger, AIM and Yahoo IM users, all at the same time. I'd tried Trillian before, but it used to crash my machine.
   The latest version seems stable, and it's the best piece of personal software I've come across in a while. Obviously, there's one single list of buddies online, regardless of the three main IM systems they use. The software lets you rename contacts, which means you can get rid of their silly screen names.
   The default Trillian look is a tacky console, but there are other options. Download the Windows XP skin. It looks just like Windows Messenger, but there are little icons, indicating the service used by the online buddy. See the screenshot to the right.
Trillian
Windows XP skin #

thursday, september 19

Suicide and politics
A university study shows a 17% higher suicide rate in the UK under Conservative governments, compared with liberal or socialist administrations. Hmm, not sure I buy this. Conservatives have been in power during some of the gloomiest periods of 20th century British history, such as the 1930s and 1950s. Not really their fault. And countries with strong collectivist traditions -- such as Denmark, Austria and Hungary -- have the highest suicide rates. Verdict: more study required.
More suicides under right-wing governments [New Scientist] #

Iraq, Upside Down
Tom Friedman argues the US should invade Iraq, not to forestall an attack by Saddam, but to create a democratic model for the Arab world. His depiction of the "undeterrables" -- Arab men who hate the US more than they love their own lives -- is much the same as den Beste's.
These undeterrables are young men who are full of rage, because they are raised with a view of Islam as the most perfect form of monotheism, but they look around their home countries and see widespread poverty, ignorance and repression. And they are humiliated by it, humiliated by the contrast with the West and how it makes them feel, and it is this humiliation — this poverty of dignity — that drives them to suicidal revenge. The quest for dignity is a powerful force in human relations.
Iraq, Upside Down [NYT]
 #

Den Beste's enemy
A powerful and controversial essay from Steven den Beste. It's the collected highlights of his earlier writing. The basic thesis: the West's enemy is not so much Osama or Saddam, but reactionary Arab-Islamic culture; it's a deep problem, because the roots lie in the objective failure of the region; in order to save the Arab world, and ourselves, we have to reform it; and only by breaking Arab pride will that be achieved.
The nations and the poeples within the zone of our enemy's culture are complete failures. Their economies are disasters. They make no contribution to the advance of science or engineering. They make no contribution to art or culture. They have no important diplomatic power. They are not respected. Most of their people are impoverished and miserable and filled with resentment, and those who are not impoverished are living a lie... They have nothing whatever they can point to that can save face and preserve their egos. In every practical objective way we are better than they are, and they know it. And since this is a "face" culture, one driven by pride and shame, that is intolerable.
Who is our enemy? [Steven den Beste]
I'd agree with most of den Beste's diagnosis, but I think he's being overly sweeping. There are plenty of countries in the Islamic world, if few within the Arab core, which are capable of reforming themselves. Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Tunisia, Malaysia, Morocco: all more-or-less on the right track. The West can encourage, as well as punish. #

All about oil
The war against Iraq may indeed be, partly, about oil. But not in the way you might think. The international oil companies best placed in Iraq aren't American: they're TotalFinaElf of France, and Lukoil of Russia, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal. Which explains why those two countries have muted their opposition to US military intervention.
Oil Fallout From Iraq War [WSJ] #

Pissing vodka
From Tyco's suit against Dennis Kozlowski, the company's high-spending former CEO, here's an internal memo describing his wife's birthday party: "Big ice sculpture of [Michelangelo's] David, lots of shellfish and caviar at his feet. A waiter is pouring Stoli vodka into [the statue's] back so it comes out [its] penis into a crystal glass." All paid for by Tyco shareholders.
Details of party Kozlowski threw with Tyco funds emerges [CNN/Money] #

Space exploration
Glenn Reynolds, writing in Fox News about space, likes the Wild West model of exploration. The subject's coming up now because a US company called TransOrbital is planning a Moon mission, and some beknighted Brit astronomer is complaining about anarchic adventurers. Reynolds believes anarchic adventurers built America, and makes the legal point that private property is not prohibited in space, even if the Outer Space Treaty prevents nations from making claims.
   Which begs the question: if competing private companies will bring a bit of energy to space exploration, why not let nations elbow for position too? Look at the exploration and colonization of the Americas: driven, not just by the search for gold, but by a struggle for national advantage. Nothing would do more to stimulate the US space effort than a Chinese claim to the Sea of Tranquility. So let's have a bit of healthy rivalry in space, or even vicious rivalry, not just between companies, but between nations. And if anyone's feeling squeamish about the idea of burger joints and military perimiters in space, remember the greatest of human achievements are so often driven by the basest of motives.
The Case for Space Cowboys [Fox] #

wednesday, september 18

Banning IM
Companies may pretend that they're banning instant messaging services such as Windows Messenger because of security concerns, but the real reason is this: IM is a huge opportunity to goof off. And the IM lovers are always the people with the shortest concentration spans, and the most prone to distraction. In the wired workplace, it's a wonder any work gets done.
IM Bans Hush Workplace Chatter [Wired News] #

Environmentalist catastrophe
If I remember right, there were three great environmental tragedies in the making in the late 20th century. The ozone hole, which was going to fry us all; the relentless advance of the deserts, which would bake us; and the population explosion, which would leave us fighting over fixed food supplies.
   Catastrophic news for environmental doomsayers. More people have adequate diets than ever before in human history, and a couple of recent articles have punctured a couple of other tenets.
   Atmospheric scientists are now forecasting the ozone hole will close in the next 50 years. And the New Scientist reports that the Sahara is -- wait for it -- retreating. The desert has been shrinking for the last 20 years, but the UN Environment Programme didn't notice. The UNEP reported to the World Summit in Johannesburg that over 45 per cent of Africa is in the grip of desertification. And you still wonder why environmentalist warnings aren't taken seriously?
Africa's deserts in spectacular retreat [New Scientist]
Ozone hole to close by 2050 [Reuters] #

Blogroll etiquette
Jeez, can a man change his blogroll [see right] without getting grief from those he forgot to mention? Rule number One of blog etiquette: never ask for a link. And, as far as I'm concerned, rule number Two is this: never say thank you. That makes it sound like the linker has done you a favor; a post should stand on its own merits. Just as a public relations person insults a reporter by calling to say thanks.
   In case you track these things, I've dropped Andrew Sullivan from the list. It was always the link that remained unclicked the longest. I guess I'm just bored of his relentless sycophancy towards the Bush administration. Oh, and the Raines bashing. Everything, in moderation. Sullivan isn't one of those who've written in to complain. #

Muriel's baby
For Matt Welch, Emmanuelle Richard, Anita Roddick, and all Muriel's other blogworld friends: her latest output.
Lucy Rose Tymezuk #

Atkins diet
Meme alert: the Atkins diet is back, bigtime. The first hint, last week, when Patrick Nielsen Hayden suggested we eat sushi, and explained that he was staying off carbohydrates. And now I see Doc Searls (down 16 pounds in a month) is an Atkins believer. And other webloggers. While it would be amusing to believe this phenomenon was coursing through weblogs, and about to burst into the real world, it all began of course with the New York Times Magazine cover story, a couple of months ago.
What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? [NYT Magazine]
Doc Searls
Russell Beattie
Ugo Cei #

Grenade design
You know how in war movies, there is a mad rush to lob back the grenades before they explode. It still happens: there was at least one case in Afghanistan of US and Al-Qaeda fighters playing high-stakes catch with live grenades. The Al-Qaeda guys lost. Anyway, it's time someone took another look at grenade design. Instead of a timed explosion, how about remote control? Or some kind of motion sensor, to detect if the grenade is picked up by the intended recipient? #

Special forces
I have it on authority that US special forces are getting chatty with reporters. No, not in the spirit of public disclosure; it's all part of the budget lobbying game. And the special forces are tired of seeing the Marines get credit for military accomplishments as trivial as the preparation of a base. The Marines are famously effective at public relations. This all seems petty, different branches of the military competing for attention, and budget allocation. Yet there's something oddly heartening about the process.
   Most military organizations are secretive, and it's behind closed doors that inefficiency and abuse of power can flourish. Now here's the elite arm of the US military, opening up to the public. Not because it particularly wants to, but because it recognizes who controls the pursestrings. In a dictatorship, you need only the favor of the supreme leader, and his viziers; in the United States, the public, and the politicians that pander to it, has the clout. Military PR campaigns reflect that. #

The Callahan email
Lockhart Steele pings me to explain why Mary Callahan's email is bouncing. "I happen to know Mary Callahan, and the email exchange is very real. In the first 24 hours after sending it, she received 500 emails from across the world ranging from guys asking her out on dates to death threats. As a result, the email account was shut down. It's pretty amazing to see the inside of an email phenomenon like this. She knew there was a problem when the HR dept. of PWC called her Friday morning to ask about the deluge of emails that had poured into the firm. FWIW, she still has her job." #

French philosophers
Bob Skinner reminds us that Jean Baudrillard -- who has just published a pyrotechnic on 9-11 -- isn't the only intellectually empty French philosopher. He has a nice quote from Foucault, and this classic example from Jacques Derrida: "reason, science, progress and liberal democracy" [are] "culturally specific weapons fashined to rob the non-European Other of his difference". Could anyone tell me what that means?
Bob Skinner #

Gallup on Iraq
I know consistency isn't the voting public's strongest quality, but this is too much. A full 72% of people polled by Gallup believe Saddam Hussein will eventually use weapons of mass destruction against the US; but only 37% would support military action against UN opposition. Which leaves a group of straddlers who would rather New York was nuked than upset the international community. Though, presumably, for the UN, the nuking of New York might also be inconvenient.
Public Supports Bush Positions on U.N. Involvement in Iraq [Gallup] #

Hoax warning
Mea culpa: I relayed an email hoax without checking. A reminder: this is the email from one Mary Callahan, mistakenly sent to a suitor, when she meant to forward to a girlfriend. See below. But I just tried sending an email to the supposed sender, and got this reply.
Subject: Misdirected email
was not delivered to:
mary.b.callahan@us.pwcglobal.com
because:
User mary.b.callahan (mary.b.callahan@us.pwcglobal.com) not listed in public Name & Address Book
 #

tuesday, september 17

Weblog squabbles
I haven't been following either of these rows, and don't intend to continue, but they are getting nasty. In the weblog sexism discussion, Dave Winer says women aren't properly represented in blogrolls because men are afraid of being called nasty names if they're critical. And then there's the debate about standards for content syndication, also featuring Winer, in which the West Coast uber-techie says he'll call the police if he receives any more threats. Is this how Usenet died?
· Weblog sexism [Winer on Blogroots]
· Monsters [Winer] #

Schroder's move
The Washington Post -- and the administration -- may berate Gerhard Schroder for his opposition to the war on Iraq. Today's Post editorial says a Schroder's victory will cost Germany in international prestige. Maybe. But the Bush administration should draw another lesson. It's the summer's bellicose rhetoric from the US, as well as the underlying pacifism of many German voters, that gave Schroder his political opportunity. Bush, as well as Schroder, is paying a diplomatic price for domestic politics.
Mr. Schroeder Ducks [Washington Post] #

San Francisco's depression
A Silicon Valley executive now working as a cabbie. Apocryphal story, right? Nope, Tim Lucier, interviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle, was financial controller at AltaVista, but now drives a cab round San Francisco. The difference: this time he's no doubt under-reporting revenues.
Cabbie has tales to tell [SF Chronicle] #

Armani Exchange
Take a look at the photo on the right. It's the main image for Armani Exchange's new campaign, and all over Manhattan. The guy dancing with the girl is blatantly checking out another guy, in front of him. Am I reading too much into the look? Don't think so: in gay-friendly men's magazines, the girl, and everything to her right, are cropped out. Talk about multi-purpose advertising. #

Invitation of war
A spoof Evite from George: "Hello World Leaders! Come join us, The United States, as we wage war on Iraq, November 14th in Bagdad! It should be a good time: CNN is coming, and we have some really cool new missiles and stuff. Saddam is totally evil, so you're not going to want to miss this!!!!" Look at the mock replies, such as the UAE's: "You will be opening the gates of hell. Also, we have tickets to Ozzfest that day, sorry."
War on Iraq!! [Evite] #

Libertarian Times
In the US, where newspaper markets are local, and provide room for only one or two major dailies, the idea of a libertarian-tinged publication is preposterous. Social liberals who distrust government: that's still only 10-20% of the population. Not enough to support a newspaper in a metro area.
   However, the UK is a national newspaper market, with a dozen dailies, each searching for a niche it can call its own. Rupert Murdoch's Times, once the paper of record, has gone downmarket in the last two decades; of all the broadsheets, it now has the least distinct personality. It should embrace the libertarian ethos.
   Robert Thomson took over the editorship of the Times of London earlier this year. His background -- an Australian who ran the US edition of the Financial Times -- suggests he'd move the paper upmarket, and make it more international. However, London media scuttlebutt says he's going after the Daily Mail, the mid-market tabloid, which has alienated its soccer mom readership with rabid politics. Or he could mercy-kill the Independent, which launched in the 1980s as a middle-of-the-road alternative to the partisan broadsheets.
   But all those niches are already occupied, or boring. There's a more interesting strategy. Leave the retired army officers to the Daily Telegraph; the wishy-washy lefties to the Guardian; the internationalistas to the Financial Times; and the outraged matrons to the Daily Mail. Give the Times a feisty libertarian personality. Bash bureaucrats, corporate fatcats, idiotic anti-globalizers, politically correct New Labor commissars and UN timeservers with equal vigor and enjoyment. Glenn Reynolds wouldn't mind writing a letter from America, and he'd be a helluva lot cheaper than Tina Brown.
Robert Thomson [Guardian] #

Deference
Research shows interviewers, among other people, adapt their tone to those they respect. The media bias watchers will have a field day with this. "In an analysis of 25 interviews recorded between April 1992 and July 1993, the researchers found that Mr. King's voice changed far more with President George Bush and the "60 Minutes" host Mike Wallace than with the director and actor Spike Lee and Vice President Dan Quayle."
Research Brings a New Dimension to 'a Candidate's Voice' [NYT] #

Iraq's surrender to UN inspectors
Do people seriously think this is a triumph for Bush foreign policy? So, the inspectors return; they find very little in the way of weapons facilities; the Iraqis obstruct, but never enough to exasperate the UN. And we're back where we were in the mid-1990s. Sullivan et al think this was a cunning Bush strategy, scare the UN with unilateralist rhetoric, and then ram through the resolution. Right. A more plausible scenario: Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted to go ahead without the encumbrance of allies or UN resolutions, but ultimately lost their nerve.
U.N. Inspectors Can Return Unconditionally, Iraq Says #

Collector's item
Enron is selling off computer and office equipment. A Herman Miller Aeron chair, once sat on by Ken Lay: what better symbol of 1990s corporate excess? I want it.
Enron Corporation Auction Details [DoveBid via Spiers] #

Jonno
Jonno is back, and blogging, after a long summer hiatus. The design is white-on-black, pretty but unreadable. The content -- wisdom teeth extraction, the appeal of Guidos, gay bar conversation -- is as well-observed as ever. #

monday, september 16

Hi-speed internet in New York
The nightmare is finally over. Two months after moving into a new apartment, and the high-speed connection is working, and the WiFi box is spreading internet joy throughout the space. Time Warner Cable took four trips to get the connection up, but at least they called to check whether the system was working. After an encounter with Verizon DSL, I'm pathetically grateful for even token customer service.
Time Warner Cable #

When the world was whole
To the archive of the European diaspora, add this terrific database of snapshots from the 20th century. Centropa has collected images of people, places and documents, and added eyewitness context, to provide a searchable record of Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust.
Witness To A Jewish Century [Centropa] #

Ursula Le Guin
Margaret Atwood explores the Ekumen universe of Ursula Le Guin, who's just published a new book of short stories. Le Guin is often cited as an example -- sometimes as the one and only example -- of science fiction that transcends the genre. The Dispossessed, for instance, is one of the great political tracts of the 20th century. Le Guin: if only there were more like her.
The Queen of Quinkdom [The New York Review of Books] #

Oops
In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the misdirected email exchange doing the rounds of Wall Street. The storyline: Tripp asks Mary out on a date; Mary intends to forward the note to a friend, with various snide and mercenary comments, but hits the Reply button instead; Tripp forwards the embarrassing reply. Ten days later, and the whole world knows.
------Original Message-----
From: Tripp Murray
To: Mary B Callahan/US/ABAS/PwC@Americas-US.com
cc:
09/05/2002 10:01
Subject:


So are you off to the Bon Jovi show tonight in Times Square? Sounds like it is going to some turnout. What division of audit are you in for PWC?
Are you heading out tonight? A friend of mine is leaving for MBA School in France so, he is throwing himself a going away party at Park, ever been? What are the plans for this weekend, recovery from the long weekend or adding just a little more hurt to the situation?

TTFN,

Tripp Murray
Associate
TM Capital Corp.

-----Original Message-----
From: mary.b.callahan@us.pwcglobal.com
[mailto:mary.b.callahan@us.pwcglobal.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 10:48 AM
To: Tripp Murray
Subject: All time low


Ok first -- here is the e-mail I received from Tripp, the new guy I met last week. If you want to go out, perhaps we can get him to pay for drinks at the Park. Since we have not slept together, he will of course be trying to impress me and will, therefore, do anything I ask.

Unlike John, who fell asleep during sex last night. I went over to his place last night around 11:30. We started having sex. When I noticed his eyes were closed for a little too long, I said "John wake up." At which, point he shot up saying "what'd I miss." Yes, I think that is a new low.

Let me know about tonight. I think you need company.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tripp Murray
To: Christopher R Cattani
cc:
01:38 PM
Subject: FW: All Time Low


Please, read my email first. Then read her email, I think that she was forwarding my email to a friend but hit reply instead. You will love this.

 #

saturday, september 14

Al-Jazeera
The Economist reviews a book about Al-Jazeera, and tempers the enthusiasm for the satellite news channel. Though the Arab satellite news channel is a breath of fresh air, it depends on "princely handouts" from the Emir of Qatar. Free media will last as long as it's convenient to him. #

The internet, and movie marketing
A Yahoo executive in LA: "One of the most amazing things about the Internet is how well and how quickly you can get to know your audience. On a daily basis, we receive detailed statistics about what upcoming films, actors and TV shows are hot, and what's not... "Indiana Jones 4" and "Spiderman 2" are already buzzing on the Web." Except... wouldn't you expect sequels to get a disproportionate share of clicks, just because of the name recognition? Marketers will need more sophisticated metrics than clicks to work out, not just what was hot, but what will be.

Is Yahoo now big man on the Digital Coast? [Venture Reporter via Olivier Travers] #

Al-Shibh's capture
So Atta's roommate, one of the planned team of hijackers, has been captured. Three points.

· Al-Shibh was caught in Karachi, which adds to evidence that the Pakistani city is now Al Qaeda's main center.

· after being rejected for a visa, he is thought to have funneled funds to the hijackers. Al-Shibh may be able to lead investigators back towards the financial source.

· the captured operative was one of the stars of Al Qaeda's latest propaganda tape. It's pretty embarrassing for them that he was detained so soon after it was aired.


U.S. Says Suspect Tied to 9/11 and Qaeda Is Captured in Raid [NY Times] #

The Schroder lesson
What was the line, again? Ordinary Europeans love the US, and are gung-ho for a war in Iraq, and it's just the elitist establishment that questions American policy? That's what you'd think by reading some hawkish US commentary. Dream on.

   Gerhard Schroder and the Social Democrats were trailing in the polls, until he tapped into the pacifism of the majority of German voters, and closed the gap. If you want European politicians to be answerable to their voters, if you're itching for them to be more populist, these are the policies you'll get. European voters, at least on the Continent, just don't have the appetite for war, even just war.

   The US needs a reality check. America's view of world public opinion is about as realistic as was its vision of happy anti-communist villagers in the strategic hamlets of the Vietnam. The suspicion of American militarism runs deep; and with the exception of Iraq, Iran, and the UK, runs deeper among the people than the elites. Populist policies and democratic reform -- whether in Venezuela, Egypt or Germany -- are often going to run counter to America's immediate interests.

Fox versus hedgehog [Spectator]
2 Germans Tinge the Political Debate With Personal Attacks [NY Times] #

friday, september 13

Cellphone discrimination
Cameron Marlow explains that cellphones on airplanes are problematic -- not because they interfere with the avionics -- but because they confuse the cellular networks. Read on. #

thursday, september 12

Turn off your cellphones
I've always assumed that hospitals and airlines are just bamboozling the public when they say that cellphones will interfere with essential equipment. Here's an old Wired News piece, that confirms the suspicion. Why don't the airlines just tell the truth? Please turn off your cellphones, because your yammering may annoy your neighbor, and we'll have to break up the fight, when we'd rather be dumping mini-pretzels into your lap.
Is Phone Interference Phony? [Wired News] #

Body shaving
You might have seen this story: four men on a Northwest flight taken into custody after going into the restroom to shave their body hair. How did the crew know what they were shaving?
New Information On Diverted Flight [KARK.com] #

Internet 1 - China 0
China took on Google, and lost. After the search engine was blocked, Chinese internet users complained loudly, and it's now accessible again. Looks like the Chinese have become too pragmatic, and addicted to free information, to turn back now.

China Ends Blocking of Internet Search Engine Google [AP] #

wednesday, september 11

9-11 reading
I've put aside the New York Times, and spent most of the morning browsing Glenn Reynolds from this time last year. There's none of the sentimentality and purple prose that infected the mainstream news media then, and does again now, on the anniversary. But Reynolds, and the articles to which he links, display a level of political wisdom no other country, even the UK, can match.

   It's all there: quiet resolve; the need for a proportionate response; satisfaction in the least-bad rather than the dangerous search for perfection; an understanding of human and organizational frailty; confidence in individuals, and their self-organizing properties; an unerring instinct for self-serving cant; a permanent state of alert to the danger of over-mighty government; the readiness to use force; and the reluctance.

   Nothing has happened since, except events. The intellectual response emerged, fully-formed, within days, within hours, of the attack on the Twin Towers. Foreigners forget: the US may be a young country, but it is an old democracy. And the foundation of that democracy is, not the formal separation of powers, but a race-memory which emerges in these posts from twelve months ago.

Archives for 9/9/01 [Glenn Reynolds] #

elgooG
More on unjamming Google. This site provides a mirror-image of Google. Literally. But in English, which isn't of much use to the millions of Mandarin speakers out there. #

Lest we forget
Bush, on this day, a year ago: "We will make no distinction between those who committed these acts and those who harbor them." Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia: they should be captured, killed or deposed by now.

Bush statement [US DoD] #

Unjamming Google
Annoyed by the Chinese government's blocking of Google, Olivier wonders what would happen if millions of sites plugged into the Google API to replicate the search engine. Samizdat Google, smuggled into China. Google, how would you feel about that? This is the Cold War all over again, in which radio transmissions, now internet transmissions, are jammed, then amplified.
Olivier Travers #

tuesday, september 10

Overrun by dossim
Guy Paisner, just back from Jerusalem, writes: "Your MT column will no doubt piss off the usual people. I can't help feeling that, irrespective of whether the argument has any merit, it will only further the cause of those seeking to destroy Israel. Having said that I am increasingly pessimistic about the future for secular Jews in Israel. Jerusalem is overrun by dossim, and the demographic explosion of the ultra-orthodox population will only be reinforced as rational-thinking Israelis bugger off to California and New York." #

Yet more on triple kissing
Will they please make up their minds? Jon Burke, who is marrying a Brazilian and should know, explains: "Your enigmatic mermaid has it wrong. A lot of Paulistas (people from Sao Paolo) never leave Sao Paolo and don’t know or consider how the rest of Brazil behaves. It’s true that the triple kiss has become tacky in Sao Paolo, and that old people always kiss you three times so that you will get married, but in Rio and the rest of Brazil its still common practice to triple kiss to signal availability." #

Yisroel -- background
The Management Today column -- linked next post down -- is for print. So background hyperlinks are here instead. Special credit to Ken Layne, who broached this theme first, disguised as humor.

· Anti-Semitism on the Rise in America [Anti-Defamation League]

· Yiddish [Michael Chabon in Civilization]

· How 'Bout Relocating Israel to Mexico? [Ken Layne on Fox]

· Hollywood Jews [Spectator]

· Excerpts From The Jewish State [Herzl]

· The Uganda Plan and Territoritalism [World Zionist Organization]

· Jewish lunar base [Rand Simberg on Fox] #

Yisroel
Here's one that will get me into trouble: a column for Management Today on Israel, and how it's in the wrong place. "There is, already, an alternative Jewish homeland. It's a country in which Jews are numerous, safe and powerful; in which Jewish culture is supreme; and in which there is a rising tide, not of anti-semitism, but of philo-semitism. The promised land is right here, hidden in plain sight, in the United States of America."

Yisroel [for Management Today] #

monday, september 9

Buying WiFi antennas
Thanks to Scott Gowell, Christian Bailey, and Cameron Marlow for their recommendations.

· NetStumbler [info on wireless antennas]

· FabCorp [buying wireless antennas]

· CDW [for wireless cards]

· Lanstreet [for Lucent card] #

Cramer on the war
I'm just repackaging Glenn Reynolds today. Here's a powerful editorial from James Cramer that Glenn picked up.
In years to come, there will be people who stayed pacifist or ignorant or oblivious to what has happened, and they will be looked upon in later history as cowards or dreamers or fools. And then there will be the people who saw Sept. 11 for what it was, a declaration of war against us, and acted accordingly.
 #

Why Hitchens fights
Christopher Hitchens, in the Boston Globe, found by Glenn Reynolds and others, with another pure blast of intellect and passion. Hey, Bushies, you're wondering how to persuade people to support the war? Rather than mouthing platitudes about freedom and evil, try thinking for a moment why you believe in the West and put aside the complacency of power for long enough to communicate that message.
In order to get my own emotions out of the way, I should say briefly that on that day I shared the general register of feeling, from disgust to rage, but was also aware of something that would not quite disclose itself. It only became fully evident quite late that evening. And to my surprise (and pleasure), it was exhilaration. I am not particularly a war lover, and on the occasions when I have seen warfare as a traveling writer, I have tended to shudder. But here was a direct, unmistakable confrontation between everything I loved and everything I hated. On one side, the ethics of the multicultural, the secular, the skeptical, and the cosmopolitan. (Those are the ones I love, by the way.) On the other, the arid monochrome of dull and vicious theocratic fascism. I am prepared for this war to go on for a very long time. I will never become tired of waging it, because it is a fight over essentials. And because it is so interesting.
 #

Ruthlessly tacky girls
Yet more on triple-kissing, a subject on which, thanks to readers, I'm becoming increasingly expert. Jason Shellen wrote in the other day to say how useful he found the Brazilian custom: a left-right-left kiss is a signal of availability. But an email from Enigmatic Mermaid in Sao Paulo -- see her enigmatic photo on the right -- puts a different slant on the practice: "Triple kissing is considered very tacky in Brazil. And it's not used to signal availability at all. The origin is an old wives' tale/ superstition that says that the third kiss 'é para casar', it will help you get married. Only desperate spinsters or ruthlessly tacky girls will give you three kisses. The number of kisses given in Brazil can be a little confusing, I admit it. For starters, we kiss just about everybody on the cheek: friends, your mom's seventy year old friend, your doctor, your workmates. Generally, it's two kisses for people you don't know very well and one kiss for a close friend, usually with a little hug as garnish." #

Weblog panel at Berkeley
If you're in San Francisco, mark your diaries. On September 17th, the Berkeley School of Journalism is putting together a panel discussion on weblogs. A good group of panelists: Rebecca Blood, Dan Gillmor, Meg Hourihan, JD Lasica, and Scott Rosenberg.

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 6:30 pm

Journalism School Library

North Gate Hall, UC Berkeley #

WiFi antennas
As part of my endless quest for high-speed internet access, I'm looking for an external antenna. So that I can piggback off neighboring wireless networks. Oops, did I say that? I've found a good PC card with a slot for an external antenna -- the Cisco AIR-LMC35X, recommended by Christian. But every web page about antennas is full of DIY instructions. First, eat the contents of a pack of Pringles; then, take the container... They just don't get it. I've never bought Pringles in my life, and don't intend to start now. I'm a consumer, and I'm lazy, and I'm not about to build my own antenna. I don't care how easy it is. So will somebody please just let me spend some money on an overpriced piece of metal. Just tell me what to buy.
Antennas: The Key to Maximizing RF Coverage [80211Planet] #

Moreover and Microsoft
Let me toot Moreover's horn briefly. That's the news search engine I helped found back in 1999, which underpins news results on sites such as AltaVista and Ask Jeeves. Only, sorry, it's not a news search company any more. Oh, yes, CI-Metabase actionable information corporate solutions. I could never say that with a straight face. Which is why I should never do an enterprise business again. Anyway, jargon aside, Moreover's news is now all over Microsoft's intranet.
Microsoft case study [Moreover Technologies] #

Hitchens's war
Christopher Hitchens in The Age, sounding ever more like George Orwell. Hitchens' fierce contempt for obscurantist religion, which prompted him to attack a modern-day saint like Mother Teresa, has now fixed firmly on fundamentalist Islam as its target.
It is also impossible to compromise with the stone-faced propagandists for Bronze Age morality: morons and philistines who hate Darwin and Einstein and who managed, during their brief rule in Afghanistan, to ban and to erase music and art while cultivating the skills of germ warfare. If they would do that to Afghans, what might they not have in mind for us? In confronting such people, the crucial thing is to be willing and able, if not in fact eager, to kill them without pity before they can get started.
 #

What's up with Daypop?
Ah, that's what's wrong with Daypop. The news search engine is down, Dan Chan's in Italy, and he says he can't debug remotely. Ouch.
The Daypop weblog #

sunday, september 8

A small upheaval
A new outbreak of moral relativism ahead of the 9-11 anniversary. Dave Winer, among others, thinks we should worry more about Aids, and famine in Africa, and less about the "small upheaval" of the attack on the Twin Towers. I'll let Richard Bennett and Jeff Jarvis answer.

· Richard Bennett

· Jeff Jarvis #

French philosophy
Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher, in his latest book: "In terms of collective drama, we can say that the horror for the 4,000 victims of dying in those towers was inseparable from the horror of living in them -- the horror of living and working in sarcophagi of concrete and steel.'' Except for one difference too prosaic to interfere with Baudrillard's intellectual pyrotechnics: the dead were crushed, or burned alive; and the living were blissfully unaware of the horror of their existence.

Notes on the Darkest Day [NY Times] #

Reimagining Lower Manhattan
The New York Times -- pulling together architects such as Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid -- comes up with a much more imaginative plan for Ground Zero, and its environs. The core of the idea: put West Street underground, turn the space into a tree-lined boulevard, and build a string of residential, office and cultural buildings along the center of the axis. On the World Trade Center site itself, two new twisted towers conceived by Guy Nordenson.
Don't Rebuild. Reimagine. [NY Times] #

Intelligence lessons
A useful reminder, from the New York Times, that the US intelligence system hasn't paid the full price for its failure. Sure, there have been some reforms: slightly better coordination, a relaxation of political correctness, new spending on human intelligence. But political capital has been squandered on a proposal, the department of homeland security, that is irrelevant at best. And Bush -- out of loyalty or inertia -- has left in place most of the officials who presided over the disaster.

   It's an underlying principle of bureaucracies: only through promotion and demotion, hiring and firing, can leaders exert their will. How else did the US intelligence services become so squeamish in the 1990s? Consorting with criminals and torturers became career-toxic. If US intelligence is to become as flexible, ruthless and coordinated as its opponents, bureaucrats will have to be taught a lesson. They respond only to personal reward and punishment, mainly punishment, and it's time for the training to begin.

   So if you're the low-level US diplomat who failed to pass on a warning from a Taleban official, you're fired. Lots of noise? Unfair? Tough. You were the director of the CIA during the greatest intelligence failure in 50 years: you're out, notwithstanding your personal chemistry with the president. Find out where the memos stopped, and eliminate everyone in the vicinity.

   What the US security services need, just like US corporate world, is a purge so bloody that the lessons will be etched into the minds of trainees for the next 100 years. Let them be terrified, not of the mewling of politically correct children, but of the fierce rage of taxpayers who spend $30bn a year and expect a modicum of competence. And let George Bush decide where he wants to stand, in the firing squad, or in front of it.

Little Change in a System That Failed [NY Times] #

America's complacent press
Reynolds and others discuss a theme raised in Editor and Publisher: why does so much of America's public despise the press? My problem is not with political bias, but the lack of energy. Most US dailies are hidebound gerontocracies. And it all boils down to economics.

   In the UK, a dozen lively national newspapers compete furiously for readers. Editors in the UK are brutal with journalists who get scooped by the opposition. I know. There's powerful pressure to hype up the story, which makes for more interesting copy, even if sometimes it prompts a rush to declare massacres in Jenin. And the struggle means talent gets promoted, rapidly. The two leading contenders for editor of The Guardian were both a year below me at high school. The Financial Times is run by people in their mid-thirties to early-forties. Piers Morgan became editor of the Mirror in his twenties.

   With the exception of New York, the US dailies are local monopolies, and so they have no need to be responsive to readers. They disdain populism, and popularity, for that matter. Even star foreign correspondents, if they come back to base, have to serve out their time in suburban counties, lest the rule of seniority be broken. No one is ever fired; they just go up to that great editorial board in the sky. And what on earth is a gifted writer like Ken Layne doing without a job? That's against nature.

   So what to do? Well, trustbust the joint operating agreements, which embody the local monopolies. Break up the newspaper trade unions, which have power in the US they lost two decades ago in the UK. Give Ken Layne a column. Wait for technology -- high-speed internet connections, wireless networks and tablet computers -- to change the economics of newspaper distribution. And, as Glenn Reynolds advises, read weblogs in the meantime.

Glenn Reynolds #

Blog peace campaign
Kelly of shinybluegrasshopper.com wants all bloggers to put up a message of peace and healing for the anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers. "We feel that by continuing to perpetuate the cycle of violence and retaliation, we are doing a grave disservice to the victims of September 11th and their loved ones."

   I don't want to be too mean to Kelly. Her sentiments are laudable, and her arguments are impossible to disagree with, because she has none. So some friendly advice. Kelly, sweet, avoid referring to your feelings, because this is not a row with a boyfriend, but a debate; you insult and annoy your opponents by presuming moral superiority; feelings are unanswerable, and about as persuasive as the presumed rage of the Arab street; define what you mean by peace, because it is open to all interpretations; present a thesis, test it against historical precedent, and use all the other wonderful intellectual techniques of the western enlightenment. Make a case, then people might actually listen.

    But don't spam me with empty sentiments. Oh, and isn't it about time to change that peace logo? A dove, for chrissakes.
Honor Them with Peace, Not War #

saturday, september 7

Thin media
Henry Copeland muses on the editorial style of commercial blogs, referring to Weird Files, Gizmodo, and MediaNews, among others. He calls it "thin media" -- vertical online publications run by 0.25 to 1.5 people. Henry seems to think the prose a little too spare, and could do with more editorializing.
Henry Copeland #

friday, september 6

Tina Brown
Her column will be compelling reading, but The Times -- of London -- won't splash out for the parties that Tina Brown used to throw when she commanded the strategic heights of US magazine journalism.
The Times of London signs former Talk magazine editor Tina Brown as columnist [AP] #

Don't be rude
Maggie Berry's latest etiquette column -- on throwing a party -- includes this wise observation: "Overzealous hosts who send invitations several weeks in advance are setting social traps. How can the polite, but unwilling, friend possibly find a reasonable excuse?"
The Morning News - Don’t Be Rude: Part III, Socializing [Maggie Berry] #

The week in gadgets
This week's highlights from Gizmodo, the gadget blog. [Disclosure: I'm a backer.]

· Mini Disc player less than 1cm thick

· World's First Wireless Home Digital Projector

· Toshiba's iPod Clone's Sluggish USB 2.0 Connection

· First Four Megapixel Digital Camera with 8x Zoom

· A Great Deal on a Pocket PC Phone

· A Monitor No One Else Can See #

Tablets for kids
Another reason Tablets will take off: they're great for games. Take a two-year-old who wants to see the "noisy bottom" interactive Flash cartoon. And try getting her to use trackpad and the left-click button, and pay attention to what happens on the display. I know adults who still can't manage that. Much more natural just to touch the screen. #

Tablets
A foolhardy prediction: Tablet PCs will take over the laptop market. I mean: why wouldn't you prefer a Tablet to a standard notebook. The same functionality, more or less the same cost -- plus the ability to browse weblogs on the sofa. I'm buying. Then again, I still have a gorgeous but useless Apple Newton brought out only to impress gadget geeks. So don't mind me.

Tablet PC [Microsoft] #

Wall Street
File under harsh-but-fair, a passionate indictment of Wall Street at the front of the latest Fortune. "Despite sporadic reforms, almost everything Wall Street does is inefficient and benefits select insiders at the expense of regular investors. Many of its services aren't just useless, but damaging -- constituting a sort of aristocratic tax on America's economic activity."

Is Wall Street Good For Anything? [Fortune] #

American capitalism
A great feature in Fortune about US companies and their efforts to clean up corporate governance, and reporting. Two readings: one cynical, another attempt to hoodwink investors; or, more generous, evidence of the self-correcting nature of American capitalism. I'd like to believe the latter.
In Corporate America It's Cleanup Time [Fortune] #

thursday, september 5

Triple-kissing, Brazilian-style
Jason writes in with another take on the triple-kiss. "The Brazilians really know how to do it. A kiss on each cheek for most people. People known to be single exchange three kisses. A signal to all of their availability. After my last trip to Brazil I want to abandon handshakes!" #

Saudi with a sense of humor
A fascinating conversation in the Spectator between Boris Johnson, a British conservative, and Ghazi Algosaibi, the Saudi poet-ambassador to London famed for his ode to a Palestinian suicide bomber. I hate to say it, but Algosaibi is quite refreshingly frank, and amusing. The Saudis should put him on the US talk shows.
Are you now avenging angels? Once you finish with the dictators, then you go to the regime which does not allow women to drive; and then to the people who cut off hands and the people who circumcise. What is this? The Lord of Hosts couldn’t manage that!
 #

Last one out
By IM, more depression humor from the Bay Area: "Last one out of San Francisco switch off the laptop." #

Laptop to stereo
A neat little device that lets you take MP3s from your laptop, and play them through a legacy stereo system.
Xitel HiFi Link Computer to Home Stereo Connection Kit [Amazon] #

The Rules of Attraction
Another Brett Easton Ellis novel, my favorite, makes it to the screen. The transition can't be any worse than that of Less Than Zero or American Psycho. Though the theme of Rules of Attraction -- the subjectivity of memory -- must be particularly hard to capture on celluloid.
The Rules of Attraction [Apple trailers] #

The beginning of history
More alternate history from mainstream writers. Summerland, Michael Chabon's latest, is set in a magical alternate America. And, according to New York Magazine, Chabon is starting yet another: an alternate reality in which the Jewish state is Yiddish-speaking, and located in lower Alaska. In related SF news, Ursula Le Guin's brilliant Lathe of Heaven has been made into a TV movie, and shows on A&E this Sunday night. The hero is afraid to go to sleep at night, because his dreams change the future, usually for the worse.

   By the way, I have a little theory about the enthusiasm for science fiction, and alternate history in particular. When the world was frozen in standoff between the West and the Soviet Union, particularly after a few decades of stasis, there wasn't much to speculate about. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Francis Fukuyama might have announced the end of history -- but it was the beginning of history or, rather, the resumption of history after the detours of the 20th century. History, unpredictable; scientific progress, accelerating; possibilities, endless. And smart SF is a way for us to explore this future.

   Here's a pre-order link to Summerland, an earlier list I put together of the best alternate histories, and some video clips from Lathe of Heaven.

· Summerland [Amazon]

· Alternate history [nickdenton.org]

· Lathe of Heaven [video clips] #

Cockup theory
I was hoping Andrew Sullivan would come back from his Provincetown break refreshed, but he's as tediously forgiving of George Bush as ever. The latest absurdity: Sullivan's hope that the administration's confusion over Iraq is deliberate, and brilliant. Oh come off it. There are two theories of history, as my high-school teacher used to say, one in which events are shaped by conspiracy, and the other in which cock-up is the rule. When in doubt, always assume cock-up. Here's Sullivan...
Maybe, as some of you imply, Bush has indeed played this superbly. He has let the debate unfold, without tipping his hand too much. He has let the anti-war left overplay their hand. He has identified who his real domestic allies and opponents are. And he has used the time to orchestrate an arms buildup for the Iraq campaign.
Andrew Sullivan #

The triple kiss
Pretentious Manhattanites. I was walking through SoHo yesterday and saw -- I'm not making this up -- a European-style triple-kiss. Jeez, some people just can't come to terms with being American.
French kissing [nickdenton.org] #

Digital video recorders
Finally, a reason to