Sophont

Web Search Garage : "If you thought that Internet searching was just about plugging in a couple of terms into a search engine, think again. Web Search Garage will teach you to search more efficiently -- helping you find what you need faster -- by teaching you eleven principles of Internet searching. 'Regardless of the way you use the web, either for work or play, reading Web Search Garage will introduce new 'tools' for enhancing your skills using the Internet.' -- Barbara Thompson, Research Solutions Principles of Internet Searching Onions. Salt Grains. Reinvented Wheels. What do they have to do with searching the Internet? The principles of Internet search will give you strategies to do your searching efficiently, no matter what search engine or other search resources you're using. Web Search Garage will teach you to: -- Narrow your searches to get a managable number of results, while still finding what you want. -- Find experts and preexisting...

Good Experience Blog : "What if a company stopped advertising altogether and focused exclusively, with undivided laser-focus attention, on the customer experience? Would the CEO be insane? If it was a public company, would Wall Street riot, and would the board ask for the CEO's resignation? In a word, no. I know this because there is a major, established company that is pursuing a strategy very close to that. Its TV advertising budget is zero. BusinessWeek recently interviewed Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos (Aug. 2, 2004). The interview included this exchange:     BusinessWeek: How important is advertising to building the brand?     Jeff Bezos: We don't do any television advertising, and we take     all of the money that we would put into television advertising,     and instead put it into things like free SuperSaver shipping     [free shipping on most orders over $25], lower product prices,     category expansion, and invention of new features. We take those ...

Mongoose Publishing : For All Your Gaming Needs ... : "When PARANOIA was first published almost 20 years ago, amid fears of nuclear war and job loss to those newfangled desktop PCs, it was instantly popular for its vision of a high-tech, post-holocaust, totalitarian future ruled by a deranged Computer. It won attention too for turning the basic paradigm of RPGs—players cooperate—on its head, making all players secret traitors who can only advance by uncovering treason. Happily, today those fears are obsolete. Instead, we have spam, viruses, trojans, malware, distributed denial of service attacks, the RIAA, cyberwarfare, identify theft, terrorists, the Patriot Act, terrifying new diseases, the threat of environmental catastrophe, the grey goo scenario, and weapons of mass destruction."

Online Edition: news : "August 15, 2004 -- A 26-year-old skateboarder is scarred for life after she fell onto a red-hot Con Edison manhole cover — mere blocks from the scene of a tragic death earlier this year when a woman stepped onto an electrified Con Ed cover. Magazine receptionist and DJ Liz Wallenberg told The Post she was skating to see friends at an East Village club early Wednesday when she hit a bump in the road at 13th Street and Second Avenue. 'I landed with my arm and back straight onto the metal cover,' Wallenberg said. 'I noticed it was kind of hot, but I didn't realize how bad it was until my skin started to sizzle.' A distressed Wallenberg lifted her shirt and saw a large red imprint from the manhole cover on her back. She rushed to the next block, to Second Avenue nightspot Second Nature, to get her friends' help. They took her to the emergency room at Beth Israel Hospital, where she spent the next seven hours. 'It was ...

Flash Alert : Snake in the Garden! Worm in the Apple! In a distasteful attempt to exploit the World Trade Center tragedy as a platform for their political agenda, the Republican National Committee has pushed their convention date into September and has decided to come to New York City for the first time in their 150 year history. Axis of Eve is calling upon Eves from all over to join us for a panty performance protest to take place at 6 PM on September 1st at an as-of-yet undisclosed location in Battery Park City. Over 100 fabulous Eves will assemble wearing protest panties (bare-legged, with tights, pinned to clothing) and Axis of Eve tank tops. Some of us will wear American flags as flashing capes. We will perform a MASS FLASH to create a media spectacle that lays bare the shameful tactics of the Bush administration and boldly demands an end to political cover-up. Show the world that the Emperor has no clothes! To join the thong throng for this panty press event, conta...

Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition The IDF will soon begin using cannabis to treat soldiers suffering from combat stress, the military said Wednesday. An army statement said the military medical corps and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem would begin treating victims of post-traumatic stress - commonly known as shell shock - with THC, the active ingredient in the cannabis plant. It said the treatment would begin on an experimental basis. "The use of THC as part of the treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was approved by military and civilian committees relevant to the subject," the statement said. An IDF spokesman said treatment would be given to both conscript soldiers and reservists. ===================== jay: So... if this is sucessfull, the next logical step is to administer it as a preventative, before the stress producing events occur. And for humaniartian reasons, it should be distributed to the Palastienes, who also coul...

"Loved to love" : "Two souls that were destined to meet and fall in love. What happens if one of them leaves this world before even meeting the other? Akiyama (Kenji Sakaguchi) is an elite pilot who trained at NASA, and now enrolled to be a pilot of Japan's first manned space shuttle launch. Reiko (Hitomi Kuroki) is a director at an investment bank that sponsors this space shuttle project. They got the looks, intelligence and wealth. But there is one thing they don't have... which is truly love and to be truly loved. Akiyama and Reiko were destined to meet and to be fall in love. This captivating romantic love story starts on August 6th!" Time Warner Cable / NYC TV, Channel 73 Coverage: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island (all NY 5 boroughs) August 20th, 2004 8:30-9:30pm (New)"Loved to love" #3

Taipei Times : "Australians who want to get away from it all go to Tasmania, an island state of Australia that lists carrots among its major exports. But world affairs caught up with Tasmania recently when a local found himself in court over a terrorism scare. Phillip Lowe, a 60-year-old piano tuner, told a female security guard in a Hobart car park that he had a weapon of mass destruction in his trousers. 'This is a warning story for the whole of Australia, this is,' Lowe told Australia's ABC Radio. 'Anybody can point the finger at anybody and cost them an awful lot of money and an awful lot of anguish -- and you're gone, mate, you're gone,' he said. Lowe doesn't deny the incident took place or that he behaved foolishly. 'I said I had a weapon of mass destruction and I rotated my hips, suggestively, I must admit,' he said. Police charged Lowe with making a false threat, but when the case was brought to court, Tasmania...

News from the Capital Research Center: : "A review of federal grants shows that many support relatively uncontroversial projects. But often that only frees up other nonprofit money for political advocacy. To its credit, the Bush Administration cut back on its grants to two of the most politically active environmental groups—the Natural Resources Defense Council, which specializes in filing lawsuits, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). WWF strongly supports U.S. adoption of the Kyoto treaty, the international treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions to combat the alleged global warming threat. In 2001, the Bush Administration rejected the treaty citing, among other problems, official U.S. government estimates that the treaty could cost the U.S. economy $400 billion per year and double a family’s monthly electric bill. Still, government officials gave NRDC $627,394 in 2003 and WWF $11,677,035 in 2004. NRDC is now spearheading an “Environmental Accountability Fund.” The project will use...

Colorado Voter : "The Boulder County Republican Party was kicked out of Thursday’s official test of the new election system. Election officials insisted that the legally appointed Republican Party representative change his test decks, presumably so that the system can pass the tests. The Republican representative refused, and the clerk told him to leave. Many voters do not follow instructions and instead of filling in the box, will use an “X” or a check mark or circle the box, or instead of using ink will use magic marker, etc. Some voters will object to voting with a ballot that is not secret, and will “white out” or cross out the serial number that uniquely identifies their ballot. In the past, some voters have written notes explaining what they meant to do. The Republican test deck was prepared to verify that these real-life situations will be correctly handled by the untested counting system. Because of the insistence that the Republicans remove these tests, it appears t...

FILMMAKER MAGAZINE : "From independent filmmakers, film critics, Academy members and a wide array of award-granting bodies, to established industry insiders and the heads of the MMPS’ own Specialty Divisions, a singular message was projected loud and clear: the screener ban would be profoundly destructive to the fortunes of independent and specialty-film distribution. Those opposed to the ban called and wrote letters to executives of the MPAA and the MMPS, spoke out in the mass media, published open letters in the trades signed by hundreds of filmmakers, etc. — they dissected the “logic of the ban” and offered to work with the MPAA to find equitable and effective solutions to address their piracy concerns.2 How did the MPAA react to this concerted opposition? On October 23rd the MPAA and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences issued a joint press release announcing that “an agreement had been reached to allow for the distribution of ‘screener’ copies of motion pictu...

nwfusion.com : "The problem is that computer worms that target Microsoft-based computers, including MS-Blaster and Sasser, have increasingly struck hospital networks, where unpatched Windows-based patient-care systems have become infected. Some manufacturers, including Philips, contend that hospitals must do a better job of applying security defenses to protect medical devices by buying intrusion-prevention systems (IPS ) and internal firewalls. However, hospital IT professionals respond that it's not that unusual for medical-device manufacturers to be the origin of worms that get in their networks. There have been several instances in which viruses originated from medical instruments straight from the vendors, says Bill Bailey, enterprise architect at ProHealth Care, a Milwaukee healthcare provider. Medical equipment arrived with computer viruses on it or service technicians introduced the viruses while maintaining the equipment, he says."

Guardian Unlimited : "As to how on earth going early to bed could automatically guarantee riches and happiness, I suppose nothing can be proved, but I'm with Dr Johnson who confidently asserted: 'Whoever thinks of going to bed before 12 o'clock is a scoundrel.' Greatness and late rising are natural bedfellows. Late rising is for the independent of mind, the individual who refuses to become a slave to work, money, ambition. In his youth, the great poet of loafing, Walt Whitman, would arrive at the offices of the newspaper where he worked at around 11.30am, and leave at 12.30 for a two-hour lunch break. Another hour's work after lunch and then it was time to hit the town. ..............The lie-in - by which I mean lying in bed awake - is not a selfish indulgence but an essential tool for any student of the art of living. As Sherlock Holmes knew. Lolling around in his smoking jacket, puffing his pipe, Holmes would sit and ponder for hours on a tricky case....

Google Groups: From: John Schilling (schillin@spock.usc.edu) Subject: Re: Three times fuel costs. Newsgroups: sci.space.policy Date: 2004-08-05 14:24:30 PST Andrew Gray writes: >A figure that gets thrown around a lot when talking about the operating >costs of airlines - and, implicitly, what space travel should be aiming >at - is "three times fuel costs"; it's a number that always vaguely >surprises me, but that's by the by. >A while ago, one of the newsgroups I read had a discussion of the >operating costs of public transport; someone did a quick and dirty >breakdown of an estimate, and concluded: >"This means the fuel cost is going to be something like 30% of the total >cost of operating the bus service." >http://google.com/groups?selm=N48%2ByDLrCe0AFw5B%40nojay.fsnet.co.uk >It mildly surprised me at the time; for some reason it popped back into >my head. It's interesting to see convergence...

Analog Discussion Board By Dr. Sardonicus on Saturday, March 20, 2004 - 10:31 pm: Well, I suppose that, in a sense, computers may be viewed as "psionic tools" -- instruments for exercising mental domination over others. Consider the following hypothetical conversation: Y: "Oh, come on, mind control? It's just a machine." X: "Oh yeah? We can already use this "just a machine" to make people agree to the most outrageous things. Watch this." X then brings up a copy of the "end user license agreement" for his company's new software on his monitor. "Look at this. We're saying our product might not work. It might wreck your hardware. And the poor schmucks agree to all this before they install it! And then, when things go wrong,..." (X laughs uproariously) Thus endeth the hypothetical conversation. I leave you with a time-honored quote, from this very forum: Well, There is another group of people who ma...

Google Groups: From: Alex Terrell (alexterrell@yahoo.com) Subject: Re: Water Well Drilling Accidents or near misses View this article only Newsgroups: sci.space.policy Date: 2004-07-30 02:38:26 PST rht@allweb.com (RH tOWNSEND) wrote in message news: ... > I am in litigation support. I have a project that I hope someone or > everyone on this list might be able to help me since you have > apparently been involved with water well drilling equipment or > involved in the industry. I am interested in any incident at anytime > since 1970 thru current. I am searching for those that were injured or > almost injured because of a falling or flying object. I am seeking > knowledge of incidents wherein injury has been suffered by anyone of a > water drilling crew member by a falling object even through to the > current time. I am also interested in reports of near misses as well. > Please feel free to call me at 1.800.308.7716 ext 4010. > > ...

CBC News : HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY - A woman from Labrador was in hospital on Tuesday, recovering from face and head injuries she suffered when a whale whacked her boat with its tail. On Sunday, Brenda Hancock was taking an evening cruise on Forteau Bay with her husband Regg and another couple when a whale surfaced, flipped its large black tail out of the water and struck the Hancocks' brand-new boat. The blow knocked out the windshield and struck Hancock on the head, causing minor injuries. No one else on board was injured. 'My wife has this terrific fear of whales and every time you go near a boat she is always talking about 'Don't go near whales,'' Regg Hancock says. 'I used to always laugh at that and say, 'There is no way a whale will come near a boat.' Well, she proved me wrong.' Brenda Hancock is recovering from her injuries at Charles S. Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony."

Radioactive Consumer Products : "For fun, I measured the radionuclide activities in one sample of cat litter. The results were as follows: 4 picocuries per gram (pCi/g) for members of the uranium series, 3 pCi/g for members of the thorium series, and 8 pCi/g of potassium-40. At these concentrations the exposure rate at six inches above a box of cat litter would be approximately 0.1 micro roentgen per hour (uR/hr) above background. Since cats don't spend a lot of time in the litter box (you never see them taking along something to read when they are heading that way), the radiation exposure is probably minimal. I've seen varying estimates of the amount of cat litter sold in the US, but for the sake of the calculation, lets assume 4 billion pounds per year. If true, this means that approximately 50,000 pounds of uranium and 120,000 pounds of thorium are purchased in the form of cat litter each year by the American consumer."

EFF: Deep Links : Turns out Woody Guthrie lifted the melody of 'This Land is Your Land' essentially note-for-note from 'When the World's on Fire,' a song recorded by country/bluegrass legends, The Carter Family, ten years before Guthrie wrote his classic song. Here's a short snippet (380k mp3) of the song (the song can be found on the box set, The Carter Family: 1927-34). You don't need to be a musicologist to hear what we're talking about. Now we've got nothing against Woody's borrowing. In fact, it's a part of the 'folk process' that Woody himself championed. I can't imagine that The Carter Family minded. But in the letter threatening copyright litigation over JibJab's animated political parody, 'This Land,' Ludlow's lawyer goes out of his way to attack JibJab for copying 'the entire melody, harmony, rhythm and structure of the [sic] Mr. Guthrie's song.' Er, sorry there Ludlow, but actually...

A Geen Legacy Of Death : In April 1972, after seven months of testimony, EPA Administrative Law Judge Edmund Sweeney stated that “DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man. ... The uses of DDT under the regulations involved here do not have a deleterious effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds, or other wildlife. ... The evidence in this proceeding supports the conclusion that there is a present need for the essential uses of DDT.”* Two months later, EPA head [and Environmental Defense Fund member/fundraiser] William Ruckelshaus - who had never attended a single day’s session in the seven months of EPA hearings, and who admittedly had not even read the transcript of the hearings - overturned Judge Sweeney’s decision. Ruckelshaus declared that DDT was a “potential human carcinogen” and banned it for virtually all uses.** Since Ruckelshaus arbitrarily and capriciously banned DDT, an estimated 12,836,229,417 cases of malaria have caused immense suffering and pover...