4/5/00 - I found this site because I was looking for good pictures of the limestone pavement at Malham Cove, and it has one.  But I never noticed this big error on the first line (and from a member of Mensa no less): 

"The warmest February day since time immoral saw a multitude of mensans congregate near Malham Tarn for a walk in limestone country."

4/5/00 - Clearing the bookmarks, part three.  Javascript bookmarklets to generate today's news stories.  British news from the Express and the Times.  Music news from Pitchfork. 

4/5/00 - This story reminds me about police behaviour at the Seattle WTO protests, if the police break the law it can be months before a court can rule they did so, and by then it's a bit late: 

"The Metropolitan police today admitted they broke the law in their handling of demonstrators during the state visit of Chinese president Jiang Zemin last October."

"The survey of 1,001 Britons revealed that: only 16% knew how many American states there are (50); 62% thought there were 52 states; 31% thought Hollywood was a state, 54% believed New Orleans was a state and 40% thought Las Vegas was one; 24% regarded Mexico as a state and 12% thought Canada was a state."

4/5/00 - This new computer virus, I LOVE YOU, can be described as many things: disruptive, destructive, annoying etc.  But I think deadly is going a bit far. 

4/5/00 - It is said that the number of baseball bats sold in Britain far outweighs the number of people who actually play baseball.  Mainly for this reason: 

"A burglar badly beaten by a home owner with a baseball bat got what he deserved, a judge ruled today."

4/5/00 - Project Censored's list of the 25 most underreported news stories in the United States.  (via Bird on a wire) 

They're all from a liberal perspective, the right wing prefer stories like Clinton's cocaine use: 

"On national TV Wednesday Gennifer Flowers imitated how Bill Clinton scratched his head after he snorted cocaine. 

No one has yet claimed to have seen George W. Bush use cocaine or said someone with firsthand knowledge told them they saw him do it. And, no one has come forward to say that Bush recounted to them the affect cocaine had on his body. All three are true in the case of Bill Clinton, but the media don’t care now and they didn’t care in 1991 or 1992."

4/5/00 - A profile of Jorn Barger, of Robot Wisdom fame.  I really had wondered what he did for a living, and now I know.  (via Metafilter) 

4/5/00 - Mr. Pants relates a funny cultural misunderstanding: 

"this didn't happen to me, but to a friend. here's the short bulleted version 

• at doctors office.
• nurse hands friend a thermometer.
• friend puts thermometer in mouth.
• nurse gasps.
• nurse takes the thermometer back.

because in japan, apparently, you don't put the thermometer in your mouth. 

!!!!!!! 

you put it under your arm."

4/5/00 - Oops, the color that is shown below is one Stephin Merritt sings about, not the new one. 

3/5/00 - More stories to make you not trust anyone.  The US Army had experts in psychological operations working at CNN and NPR. 

3/5/00 - This probably meets every definition of irony.  The website for the Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain has to be moved to a US based ISP to avoid censorship. (via YAWL) 

3/5/00 - The plot summary for 'Het Dak van de Walvis' ('On Top of the Whale'): 

"A parody of anthropology, linguistics, and cultural imperialism. The film follows an unlikely team of linguists into the wilds of an ersatz Patagonia to study the last speakers of a dying language. That language apparently consists of a single word, which therefore means everything."

"It may all mean nothing beyond how exquisitely it doesn't mean anything - or it may constitute a sweeping dismantling of reality, a syntactical relief map of the end of civilization as we know it." 
-- Richard T. Jameson, 7 Days

3/5/00 - A C code browser. 

3/5/00 -  The New York Times report on the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.  (via Spike) 

And then FAIR's response. 

3/5/00 - Clearing the bookmarks, part two.  Some of my favourite music artists, The Mountain Goats, Dave van Ronk, Black Box Recorder, My Dad Is Dead, Portishead, Spacemen 3 and Pulp. 

3/5/00 - Clearing the bookmarks, part one.  Great British comedians Max Miller and Will Hay. 

3/5/00 - Want to know why you keep getting junk mail?  The USPS sells your details of course. 

3/5/00 - It's the little things.  The Sweeney's Regan saying 'Shut It!' [warning: sound] 

3/5/00 - Odd little story: 

"The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt was able to make the ultimate contribution to society last week when he was asked by Pantone, the world-renowned authority of color and provider of color standards, to name one of their brand new, never- before-seen new colors for the newest version of their Pantone Matching System."

3/5/00 - William Goldman spins a few tales about his work on 'Good Will Hunting': 

'Here was my solution - I had met these two very untalented, very out-of-work performers, Affleck and Damon. They were both in need of money. The deal we struck was this: I would give them initial credit, they would front for me at the start, and then, once we were set up, the truth would come out."

3/5/00 - Another British weblog, kitschbitch. 

3/5/00 - A story about payment rates for writing on the web.  (via UNPOPULAR.com) 

3/5/00 - CNN had an interesting piece on the London Mayoral election and made reference to both this story: 

"A KEY member of Ken Livingstone's campaign team has quit, saying that the favourite to become London mayor is a "loose cannon" who cares only for himself and threatens the capital with disaster."

"KEN LIVINGSTONE claimed yesterday that he had never heard of the aide who resigned from his London mayor campaign team in protest at his "dangerous" policies."

"Andrew Ridgeley 
The less famous half of pop group Wham! has given up the life of hedonism he enjoyed in the eighties and now lives in an isolated farmhouse in Cornwall with his girlfriend, Keren Woodward, a former member of girlband Bananarama. Eco-friendly Ridgeley spends his time campaigning for pressure group Surfers Against Sewage."

"Orville 
The little greeen duck who spent 13 years on our screens with ventriloquist Keith Harris's arm up its plumage is still alive and well on the entertainment circuit. In fact he is currently touring sports clubs around the country with a new "adult" show. Mr Harris claims "the men love it"."

"TOOTHY BALDING-PERMED ventriloquist invented to make BOB CAROLGEES look like a genius. Orville was a pathologically feeble green duck in a nappy with unmentionable hit single. Cuddles was nasally-blocked orange "cheeky" monkey, and no better. Apparently there was also a "punk skunk", but enough. The usual songs and sketch format, with musical guests invariably including Matt Bianco and Red Box."

"KIDDIE DANCE TROUPE FEATURED "FLEDGLING" NAOMI CAMPBELL IN ARGUABLE CAREER PEAK."

30/4/00 - I wonder if anyone will kick up a fuss about this:  (via Cryptome) 

"MI5 is building a new £25m e-mail surveillance centre that will have the power to monitor all e-mails and internet messages sent and received in Britain. The government is to require internet service providers, such as Freeserve and AOL, to have "hardwire" links to the new computer facility so that messages can be traced across the internet."

30/4/00 - British war veterans up in arms about U-571 (which from the trailers looks only a fraction as good as Das Boot). 

Controversy about Hollywood's (non) portrayal of British war efforts goes back a long way e.g. Objective, Burma! with Errol Flynn from 1945: 

"The film scored well with wartime American audiences as a rather suspenseful first-rate morale booster. But across the sea, our British allies were less-than-enthusiastic as the film ignores the contributions of the Allied forces, including the long-suffering British 14th Army, which had spearheaded the Burmese campaign."

29/4/00 - A good story, a high school football captain comes out, and isn't murdered, harassed or otherwise abused. 

29/4/00 - A good cause, the Wen Ho Lee defense fund.  (via email) 

29/4/00 - The Elian picture contest.  (via 0xdeadbeef) 

This one made me laugh: 

29/4/00 - Confederate belt buckles.  (via email) 

29/4/00 - The A-Z of Englishness:  (via email) 

"O We'll give O to Oscar Wilde. I remember my father, who died in 1950, talking to me about homosexuality. He said: "In my father's day, people like Wilde were put in prison. In my day, it was illegal, but we tried to turn a blind eye. However in your day, son, it may become compulsory, so watch out." I think promoting it is going too far, but a sympathetic understanding is important. Tolerance has always been an English virtue. I am proud to be English because this country is tolerant of everything except intolerance."

It's all in Japanese but there some good photos. 

29/4/00 - Oh to be a kid again.  (via bud) 

29/4/00 - Rolling Stone journalists report from London:  (via My Science Project) 

"A couple of weeks back, your intrepid columnists made one of their tri-annual trips to their spiritual homeland. As ever, we spent too much money on booze, records, cabs, etc., so all you folks get is this Stupid Column..."

"...You won't pull off the road just to look at an alligator. 
...You understand the utter futility of exterminating cockroaches. 
...You don't even consider Miami a nice place to visit."

29/4/00 - Today's Time Machine playlist. 

I got a mondegreen call today.  He wanted to know why Mountain sing 'Went down around Pittsburgh, around Louisiana way' in the song 'Mississippi Queen'.  The lyrics show it as 'Went down around Dick's place, around Louisiana way'. 

28/4/00 -  Action will be shown on FX: 

"The critically acclaimed but little-seen Hollywood-skewering Fox sitcom that was canceled after eight episodes, has been picked up by FX. The cable channel will air all 13 installments, include [sic] five never-before episodes [sic!]."

"AR: Something else interesting I remember reading was that you had expressed interest in financing Mean Streets as a black exploitation film. Is that right? 

RC: Yes. He [Martin Scorsese] came to me with the idea and I liked it, but at that time the black films were really very successful. I'd been thinking that I wanted to make a black film and I thought, this film would really work well as a black film. He then took most of my crew and what most people don't know about Mean Streets--even the New York critics commented on how much of a New York picture it was--he shot most of that picture in Los Angeles, utilizing my crew. It was a great Italian film, but it would have been just as great a black film!"

"Casino Royale is thus a metafilm on the process of the "real" Bond cinema, which, beginning with Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, updated and altered Fleming's original novels until only character names and vague plot directions were employed. Ultimately, even the titles ran out, but this 1967 film is far more Weltanschauung than spy narrative."

28/4/00 - An interview with Sigourney Weaver has this interesting anecdote: 

"HERE'S proof - if proof were needed - that Hollywood studio executives have the memories of gnats: when Sigourney Weaver heard about a forthcoming sci-fi spoof called Galaxy Quest, she did not expect a call from the casting director. "They didn't want anyone who had ever done any science fiction before," says the actress, one of whose first and best-known roles was as Ripley in Alien, the landmark space fantasy of the late 1970s. "The next thing I knew, they'd offered it to me.""

An another one with Elian's family tree.  Like Bad Hair Days I had assumed that the Miami relatives were related to the dead mother, but no, they are related to the father, which makes the whole thing even more bizarre. 

28/4/00 - Report on preparations for Monday's protest in central London. 

An older article about an Alternative Spring Break, preparing for non-violent protests (although the headline 'Have a nice riot' lays out the newspapers general position): 

"'You know the conundrum, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it really fall?' asked Roselle. 'My version is, if a tree falls in the forest and there wasn't a hippie chained to it and a camera crew filming it, did it really happen?' 
... 
On one evening a Catholic nun, Sister Pat Daley, from an organisation called the Interfaith Centre for Corporate Responsibility, addressed the meeting on 'the sin of passivity' and the fine details of corporation stockholding and pension investment. (She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt showing a cartoon of the star of Bethlehem hovering over the stable, with the caption 'It's a girl!')"

"And where Gates and Microsoft favour a Borg-like approach to business - they call it "embrace and extend", forgetting to add "assimilate" - Ellison sees himself as a samurai or a ninja warrior. He has been credited with using Genghis Khan's line, "It is not enough that we win; all others must lose", and an anonymous industry figure quoted in Time magazine said: "In every private conversation I've had with Larry over the past 15 or 20 years, the metaphors when he's speaking of competitors are always violent. He'll say, 'This is the quarter we put a knife in their chest', or, 'The life will be choked out of them.' The metaphors don't come from chess, and they don't come from the Bible. He sees this as personal combat.""

"However the McDonald's team seriously underestimated the local people, who immediately formed a resistance campaign: Residents Against McDonald's (Ram). The struggle that followed included what is believed to be the longest protest occupation of a site, over 500 days, endless appeal hearings and a bitter public confrontation which, it is alleged, spilt into violence."

"Here's how it works. Below I provide the titles of six upcoming movies that will open in North America during the summer. You send me a message guessing how much money you think they'll make in North America during the summer. In addition, as a bonus question, choose the summer film not on the list I provide that will make the most money in North America during the period. The only prize is public recognition and the awe-filled admiration of the readers of the Usenet movie newsgroups."

28/4/00 - At least you know it won't be taking backhanders from lobbyists. Vote Ficus in 2000. 

28/4/00 - Fame at last!  The Spike Report links to me. 

28/4/00 - Anne Widdecombe joins the ranks of Bill Gates and Willie Brown and gets pied.  The story or the story with pictures, (which will expire). 

28/4/00 - The Ecstasy story is here.  It was your typical sensationalist drug story, lots of vague statistics e.g.: 

"Emergency room doctors say they're seeing a rise in overdoses, a condition that can result in increased body temperature, brain damage and sometimes death. In the last few years, 1,100 cases have been reported."

"Barton says that when he began using Ecstasy, he thought that serious problems were very rare. He found out the hard way that the drug can be more dangerous. Barton's best friend, Jason Austin, bought about eight pills at a rave in Florida. Barton believes his friend may have taken as many as five of them."

28/4/00 - 60 Minutes II had an interesting piece on a new sign language invented by deaf Nicaraguan children, (although I missed some of it as I was stunned by the shallowness of the previous piece on Ecstasy): 

"Prior to the Nicaraguan revolution in 1979, Deaf people throughout Nicaragua lived in isolation from one another. In the early 1980's, however, Deaf children from Managua were enrolled in schools for the Deaf for the first time. In 1986, at the request of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education, linguist Dr. Judy Shepard-Kegl traveled to Managua where she evaluated the sign language phenomenon that was occurring in the school system. It was evident that even though the official philosophy at that time was to teach lip reading rather than sign language, students were communicating manually with each other anyway. Judy recognized that a new sign language was evolving in the Deaf school population. In just a few years, a complex and sophisticated human language system came into being. There were, in 1996, in excess of 800 speakers of Nicaraguan Sign Language living in and around Managua."

I did find out, in another discussion, that British Sign Language (BSL) is quite different from American Sign Language (ASL) as it uses two hands to create letters not one.  It therefore looks very different.  There is an article on the incorporation of BSL into theatre performances.  (via Arts Journal) 

28/4/00 - Welcome Back, Virulent Memes! 

27/4/00 - I know I'm getting old, I think this is a very worthy cause: 

"Welcome to Ban da' Boom of Tallahassee, Florida.  We are a group of citizens united in our annoyance at the blaring, blasting, booming bass that reverberates through the very core of our being at every stop light in this town!"

"Sty, by Adrian Mole. 

The pig grunted in its sty. It was deeply sad. Somehow it felt different from the other pigs with which it shared a home. 

"Look at them," thought the pig. "They are oblivious to the fact that they are merely part of the food chain." The pig had felt discontented since it had glimpsed Alain de Botton's TV programme, Philosophy: A Guide to Life, through a gap in the pig farmer's curtain. The wisdom of Socrates, Epicurus and Montaigne had brought home to the pigs that it was completely uneducated and knew nothing of the world beyond the sty. 

Notes on new novel 
1. Should the pig have a name? 
2. Should the pig's thoughts be in quotes? 
3. Has the story got legs? Or is the main protagonist (the pig) too restricting a character, ie, being (a) unable to communicate with the other pigs and (b) never leaving the sty?"

"From the St Pete Times: 

I'm Just a Bill, Conjunction Junction, and Lolly, Lolly, Lolly (Get Your Adverbs Here) jump to life as the American Stage version of SchoolHouse Rock Live! starts at 7 tonight and runs Wednesdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and 9 p.m. May 5 at the American Stage Playhouse, 211 Third St. S, St. Petersburg. Under the direction of Jay Berkow, cast members pull these famous 1970s short cartoon lessons out of the television and onto stage. SchoolHouse Rock Live! runs through May 14. Tickets are $15 adults, $7 children 12 and under. This performance is recommended for children ages 6 and older. Call (727) 823-7529."

27/4/00 - Interesting article on the 25th anniversary of the PC: 

"In a competition to mark the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Altair, Weil's computer museum recently offered a $15,000 prize to the person with the oldest computer in everyday use. The winner was a lawyer from Illinois who still used a 22-year-old MITS machine, which cost him $1,300 when he bought it."