vedana.net

Dan Gillmor: "Prediction: Bush Will Use Word "Weblog" in Speech Before End of Term"

I don't know why, but I found this headline hilarious.

Incredibly cool: The World as a Blog. Like the scrolling search projection in Google's lobby, this is yet another representation of humanity's stream of consciousness. Fascinating.

JohnOfSaintJohn: "I'm watching a couple of decent flicks on television this week. One movie is about the relentless, unquenchable thirst for power and the millions of people who are led to believe a massive lie about "purity." The other is about Adolf Hitler."

From an interview with John Gruber (of the Daring Fireball) over at waferbaby:

"now how could this be, that your typical graphic designer can perceive and appreciate the mac's advantages, but most pc industry experts can't? it's because these guys are a bunch of jerk-offs. if they covered restaurants the way they cover technology, instead of evaluating how the food tastes, or the quality of the ambiance, they'd base their analyses on the chemical composition of the food."

Matthew Cheney: "Want a glaring example of the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy? Compare Iraq and the Congo:"

"Freedom is God's gift to every person in every nation," President Bush said recently, explaining what he claimed to be the ultimate goal of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

The president will have to excuse history professor Didier Gondola for not buying it. "Double talk," he calls Bush's pronouncement. "It is so hypocritical, because it is not in American interests to have democracy everywhere. In Iraq, there was a government holding valuable resources the U.S. could not control. So the U.S. took action. In Congo, the U.S. controls the government and the resources, so it doesn't really matter that millions of Congolese are dying."

At least 3.3 million people, in fact, have died in Congo over the course of the past four and a half years of a brutal civil war. Gondola, a native Congolese and the author of "The History of Congo" (Greenwood Press, 2002), still has family in Congo. He despairs that no one is sounding the alarm about the devastation of his homeland. "The real tragedy of the whole war is that it has attracted so little international attention," he says. "The death toll is higher than any conflict since World War II, and people don't seem to care." more...

"Not enough for you? Then consider the consistent reports of cannibalism amidst warring groups in Congo."

Larry Lessig: "End to End has gone presidential."

Robert Scoble: "Look at the weblogging industry. UserLand: three to seven people. Pyra: three or so people. MoveableType: two or so people. The entire weblogging industry is being done by, what, 20 people?"

Brent Simmons, author of NetNewsWire: "I probably wouldn't hire anybody for anything unless they had a weblog."

...

"As your body is to your physical presence, your weblog is to your web presence."

(Read the rest of the interview...)

Thanks to the new, wickedly cool "Read it to me," I was able to listen to Ben Hammersely's new-fangled Arr-Ess-Ess on my way to work this morning. (on the old-skool iPod, of course; check out a sample here.) Now if I could only get Victoria with a pommie accent... ;-)

Looks like the EU is going to develop its own version of GPS...

Hmm, I wonder how I got to 16th place on Sunday's Popdex?

Check out this 360° panorama from the top of Mount Everest. (Requires Quicktime, also be warned that this page will resize your browser window, grr...)

[via Popdex]

I did my weekend homework for Professor Lessig, how 'bout you?

I got back from Portland late last night, it's a very pretty area, lots of green nature everywhere. The weather was overcast the whole time though, which meant I only caught a few glimpses of the mountains surrounding the city. Oregon Falls is neat, including all the ugly industry built around it to harness its energy over the past ~150 years (pictures 1, 2 and 3).

Going to Portland for the weekend, see y'all later.

BoingBoing: "Twenty-seven-year-old Swedish postal worker Patrik Ahlvik is attempting a North to South European crossing by riding his mail delivery bicycle on a 3 month trip from the Northern tip of Norway down to Gibraltar. Patrick's efforts will be recorded with a Benefon Esc GPS mobile phone and a Nokia 3650 mobile phone. His position will be tracked through his Benefon Esc GPS mobile phone which will be sending positioning information to the Mobilett Position service."

"A web page will display the latest report position on a European map. Patrick will be sending information about his journey by sending e-mails, photos, and SMS messages from his Nokia 3650 to this Moblog.biz mobile blogging site created for the occasion."

Dan Benjamin: "It was dark when you went to sleep, and light when you woke-up. As you opened your eyes, your primary cat was right there, standing on your chest, staring, staring. I'm ready to eat any second now, he said. Have been for hours."

Hmm...

Dervala Hanley: "Normally, I am serene about this stuff. Like a good little Buddhist, I try to work up perfunctory compassion for their hard lives, their ignorance. I send interstellar messages of loving-kindness to their unfortunate wives via Radio Free Dervala."

"Not today. Today I'm simmering in a soup of PMS and they're fucking with the wrong gringa."

Woah, I'm being EvDotted.

Via Steve Hall's excellent AdRants, "Hummer Ad Concepts That Didn't Quite Make Client Approval:"

They're originally from Fark (where the rest are), and they're brilliant.

Need some flattery? Here's some, automagically.

[via Robi]

The effects of Qigong meditation on the human immune system: "Why qigong and meditation can effect the release of beta-endorphins from the human brain? The exact mechanism is not yet clear. However, some scientists believe it may relate to the significant change in the alpha-wave of the EEG (brain wave) patterns."

[via SarahZ]

The Head Lemur: "Its [the web and html] whole design and purpose is to transmit data. This data may be truth, lies, opinions, conjecture, or my personal favorite, raving lunacy. But it is communication on a scale only imagined by science fiction writers, that is now in front your eyes. The ability that we have to present thought, information, speculation, news, and history not only for personal or professional reasons is the most liberating creation in history."

It's an excellent essay, do read the rest...

Yahoo News, Meditation Shown to Light Up Brains of Buddhists:

"Using new scanning techniques, neuroscientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, which indicates positive emotions and good mood. This happens at times even when they are not meditating."

Well duh, all those 10-day Vipassana courses I do aren't for nothing, y'know. ;)

[via MattB, who *needs* to start a blog so I can cite him appropriately!]

Update: Here's the BBC's article on the same subject, via Sieburg.

BeneathMyFeet.com: "An (almost) daily catalogue of the textures beneath my feet."

[via Mike]

There's an awesome astronomy picture of the day today, of the Golden Gate Bridge plus the moon in its various phases of eclipse.

Dan Gillmor has the scoop on what we're up to: "The first order of business for Evan Williams and his team was to upgrade the blog-posting software, and to put the Blogger-hosted weblogs on Google's more reliable server computers. But Williams said the team is also looking hard at the element of the read-write Web that Google does so well -- finding stuff."

[via Dad]

It's Powerbook day!

Steven Johnson: "What happens when you start seeing the Web as a matrix of minds, not documents? Networks based on trust become an essential tool. You start evaluating the relevance of data based not on search query results but on personal testimonies."

[via Ev]

Erik Benson: "I've been letting my mind wander into stupid morbid thoughts lately, and I rediscovered the realization that when we die we basically lose all of our money and possessions."

One word: detachment

So yeah, I decided to redesign/rebrand; it was about 1.5 years with the old design and 2 years with the old domain. No worries about mandarb.net though, it will always work in your web browser and emails sent there will always reach me...

Notables to the right- blog and photo searching, a randomized travel photo from my wanderings, the 5 latest comments left on this site, an automated "currently reading" section courtesy of AllConsuming, a randomized photo of my cat Oliver, and the latest music to which I've been listening on iTunes.

Also, the little "up" and "right" arrows below each post indicate popup & inline links to trackbacks and comments. Accessibility-wise, popups are the worst, but they're also very convenient. Thus, I chose to use both and let the user make the call...

And lastly, I tried my best to make it look decent in the various web browsers/platforms, but there's bound to be some funkiness... Email me and I'll see what I can do.

Counterspin:

"Uh-oh. Bush promised to bring the al-qaeda terrorists responsible for the Saudi attacks to justice."

"You know what that means."

"We'll be starting a war with North Korea in about 8 months."

Rock on, Spaniards.

[via Counterspin]

Whitehouse.org: Patriotic Posters

My favorites are: "You mess with Jesus, you get a Texas Lead Enema" and "Be Afraid! Because Paranoia is Patriotic"

[via JOHO]

Kurt Vonnegut, "Strange Weather Lately:"

"Shock and awe."

"What are the conservatives doing with all the money and power that used to belong to all of us? They are telling us to be absolutely terrified, and to run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off. But they will save us. They are making us take off our shoes at airports. Can anybody here think of a more hilarious practical joke than that one?"

"Smile, America. You're on Candid Camera."

"And they have turned loose a myriad of our high-tech weapons, each one costing more than a hundred high schools, on a Third World country, in order to shock and awe human beings like us, like Adam and Eve, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers."

"The other day I asked former Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton what he thought of our great victory over Iraq, and he said, 'Mohammed Ali versus Mr. Rogers.'"

[via BoingBoing]

The Memory Hole: Documents From Congress' Joint Inquiry into 9/11, "Download it now, mirror it now"

The Daily Show: President Dubya vs. Governor Dubya, an open and honest debate. Requires RealPlayer.

[via Shellen]

This one's for Ryan: "Sexism. Racism. Guns. Jingoism. Jesus fetishism. Psychopatriotism. Rampant pseudo-religious family-values faux-ethical circle jerking masquerading as Christian humility. Wal-Marts like giant florescent-lit viruses. Strip malls like a stucco plague. Ho hum, ain't that America. It so is."

"Let's face it: We in S.F. live in a cultural bubble. A giant tofu-huggin' gay-lovin' lusciously fed hippie liberal sunshine-y cocoon that might as well get blasted by terrorists and die of AIDS and drop off into the ocean for all the relevance it has to the rest of the world..."

[via Ev]

Doc Searls: "See, even if we can't ultimately own our ideas, nobody else can own their source. We are the exclusive wellsprings of our own originalities."

We're on the cover of Forbes.

Wired News: "In October, the BBC plans to flick the switch on an ambitious website designed to help Britons organize and run grassroots political campaigns. The site, dubbed iCan, is designed to help citizens investigate issues that concern them, find others who share those concerns and provide advice and tools for organizing and engaging in the political process."

"It's a big change for the BBC," said James Cronin, the project's technical lead. "It's ceasing to be just a broadcaster. It's starting to enable conversations."

...

"On the other hand, the effort is intended to counteract what officials at the broadcasting network feel is widespread political apathy in the United Kingdom, marked by low voter turnout at elections and declining audiences for its political programming."

TruthBook: "What a paradox," says Gregg Carter, a sociologist at Bryant College in Smithfield, R.I. "Christ's central messages on how we should come to terms with our enemies-through love and charity-are ignored, overlooked, and disregarded by a nation and a majority of its people who claim to be the heirs of these messages and of their author."

TruthBoook: "A society's commitment to gender equality and sexual liberalization proves time and again to be the most reliable indicator of how strongly that society supports principles of tolerance and egalitarianism."

Doc Searls: "Networked markets get smart fast." See Smart Mobs and The Memory Hole for examples of this quote in action.

Will the real Saddam please stand up?

[via Margo T]

Salam Pax is back.

[via SteveJ]

"Hyperreal media, [Jean] Baudrillard proposed, are the ultimate refinement of capitalism, generating desire for consumption simply by manipulating the simulation of the moment. Selling people beliefs, hopes, and distractions generates profits at the same time it pacifies and neutralizes possible resistance from consumers. There are only a few necessities of life to turn into products, but an infinifty of symbols, and a pacified population of symbol-consumers, in hyperreality."

-Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs (the Dead Tree, not the blog)

This is the subject matter of Fight Club, and what Marilyn Manson was talking about in his interview in Bowling for Columbine ("They pump you full of fear, cut to commercial, then you go consume," etc.)

Doc Searls: "If you want to see the future of advertising, and of the stuff it supports, consider the growing fortunes of Overture and Google."

...

"Like I said here, the new advertising game is low-overhead classifieds with high accountability. The holy grail: Ads that work by making themselves useful. Period. We're almost there."

Hoy es el Cinco de Mayo- ¡Viva México, Cabrones! Lunch today was a a full-on Mexican feast, no comida Mexicana I've ever had can compare... (don't tell Marta, but hers comes closest) And what Cinco de Mayo fiesta would be complete without music? Nevada Backwards was playing on the deck, and thanks to the sunny weather virtually all of Google was sitting on the lawn eating and enjoying! It literally felt like being at a concert in the summertime...

Mercury News on Google, Part II: "Google, the world's most-used search engine, has become a fixture of digital life. Able to instantly search more than 3 billion Web pages about virtually any subject, Google is altering social and business habits -- from dating to hiring."

This picture is my first Segway-sighting, from my first day at work three weeks ago; it also happens to be Larry Page! (thanks for the correction, SteveJ)

We're on the cover of today's Merc: "In Silicon Valley, the Mountain View company is the hottest private company around, with a good shot at becoming a business legend like Netscape, Apple or eBay."

JWZ: "Uh, but I thought that was supposed to be the whole point? Moving presentation games into the style sheet and using only semantic markup in the body?"

"(Of course I know that's not really the point of CSS, really the point is that the "designers" wanted to do pixel-accurate layout. But they always tell you that it was about semantic purity and accessibility, just like wars are never about oil, and the pro-hemp lobby cares deeply about the economics of the textile industry."

[via Dave]

Hiker Amputates Arm, Rapels to Safety: "Pinned by a boulder for five days and having run out of water, a climber amputated his own arm with a pocket knife, rappelled down a cliff and walked until rescuers found him."

Photo of the new world record extreme kayaking ~100-foot waterfall drop. Keep scrolling down once you get there.

GlennF: Google's Director of Technology Talks: "When Google acquired Pyra Labs (Blogger's creators), none of the press speculated that they might use blogs internally, but that's the first thing the group suggested when they came on board."

[via Dad]