Thursday, September 19, 2002

On the same note, check this story from CNN: FBI warns of terrorist use of planes. Well, a little fucking late, huh? A quote from the story: "Those detainees told FBI agents that prior to last year's terrorist attacks there were discussions among al Qaeda members about using 10 to 20 Chechen Muslims already in the United States to overwhelm airline crews after taking seats in first class." And I have a really naughty thought - 10 to 20 Muslims sitting in first class? They'd never be able to do that without getting security's attention even before all that...unpleasantness. The FBI also says that terrorists could smuggle explosives onto planes mixed with coffee. Huh?

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posted by XQUZYPHYR at September 19 2:05 PM. I'm sorry, WHAT? MSNBC and Newsweek (plus Fox and a few others not in this specific link) are reporting that an FBI agent/informant had a direct link to the 9/11 hijackers- he lived with them. [MetaFilter] And we don't yet have an independent commission, a la Pearl Harbor, looking into the collapse of US intelligence and law enforcement in the lead up to WTC. Frickin' Whitewater got millions upon millions of dollars and countless man-hours...and this gets, what, nothing? God bless fucking America.

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Robert Scheer. George W. Bush's war plans in the Middle East have more to do with elections than global security. [Salon Headlines] Warbloggers, read this and then argue your case to me.
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'Bullet' Bob Hayes Dead at 59. WBZ Sep 19 2002 2:33PM ET [Moreover - Boston news] Bob Hayes is the only man to win both an Olympic gold medal (as a sprinter at the '64 games) and a Super Bowl (with the Dallas Cowboys). Heard about him on NPR.
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Russia threatens Georgia [Economist: Opinion] "Give us peaches, or Savannah gets it!"
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US threat to stop Iraq inspections [BBC World] Seriously. Powell says the US will 'find ways to stop weapons inspectors' from returning to Iraq. The UN's gotta explain to Iraq why they should co-operate first. I think they can figure it out from the really big guns we're pointing at them, but maybe that's just me.
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I went all sci-fi-geeky a couple days ago and order a hundred bucks worth of books from Amazon. I love their free shipping - saves me the effort of having to, y'know, pay for shipping. =) I'm still a sucker, though - if there's one book I just can't find at local bookstores that I really, really want (in this case, Kage Baker's latest, Black Projects, White Knights), I'll order it from Amazon, but then feel lousy that I don't have enough for free shipping. So I toss on a few more... Robert Charles Wilson's The Chronoliths The two most recent Dune knockoff books (hey, I'm a sucker for decent pulp) - Dune: House Corrino and Dune: The Butlerian Jihad David Brin's Kiln People Robert J. Sawyer's Calculating God ...and we're up to $100. What, I only needed $25 to qualify for free shipping now? Ah well. This is why I own a good twelve hundred or so books at age 24: I can control most of my other spending, but books? It's just really hard to make myself feel bad about buying too many books. DVDs, CDs...yeah, that I can realize that I shouldn't spend my money on. But books? They're good for you! What's wrong with excess there, huh?

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Niiiice...Near Dark is a quality piece of vampire movie. I guess I should see K-19, that Harrison Ford Russian sub flick, after all - it's directed by Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron's ex...who also did Near Dark and one of my favorite not-as-good-as-it-should-have-been-but-still-fun movies, Strange Days. This...this felt like the comic Preacher. How can you find any flaw to a movie with the Cramps' version of 'Fever' on the soundtrack?

9:06:21 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I have had the greatest search referral ever now...someone found this site when looking for, and I am NOT making this up: "fuck stallman" Seriously. Now, you have to be a geek to appreciate that (Richard Stallman is the crazy ideologue whacko of the free software/open source movement...desperately in need of a shower.) but it cracks me up...
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Just watched Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary on the seminal skate group of the '70s, the Zephyr Skate Team, out of Santa Monica. Very, very nice film...as a result of playing a lot of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2+3, I've become interested in skateboarding. Not in the sense that I'd like to go out and do it - I'd fall on my ass all the time. No, I read a great book (Jocko Weyland's The Answer Is Never) on skateboarding's history, with a lot of personal stories thrown in. I had a great conversation with a co-worker who was in the DC skate punk scene in the early/mid-'80s. I watched Dogtown today...interesting stuff. Skateboarding has become a dominant force in American culture, but 25 years ago, it barely resembled what people are doing now... Damn - there was something else I was gonna say, but now I can't remember. I hate that - goddamn selective memory. =) I think I need Chinese food.

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Yes, it's an article seriously looking into Bush's mispronunciation of the word "nuclear". And it turns out that Clinton, Eisenhower, and Carter also butchered the word...that's three Southerners. I don't know where Ike was from, at least not off the top of my head, but Bush, Carter, and Clinton can all potentially blame their "nucular" bumbling on thier accent...
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My head is filled with goo - I hate colds. I hate cold medication too, though. I can never decide which I hate more, at least until I try to go to sleep - at that point, meds are ALLLLLL good. I have to go to work soon...yeah, I know, it's noon and I've been sitting on my butt on a reclining couch. But I can't BREATHE! Dammit. And Tank Girl's on TV, too...
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Rumsfeld Says Other Nations Promise to Aid Attack on Iraq [New York Times: International News] Why do people assume that Hussein would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists? His goal is not to destroy America - he just wants power for himself. He'd NEVER give up any power voluntarily...hence, never give up a weapon of mass destruction to a terrorist. Hell, how could he guarantee he wouldn't get hit by it, instead of the US, Europe, or Israel? This is all insane.

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posted by Mo Nickels at September 19 5:27 AM. Mayan Stairway reveals a longer chapter of missing history. New glyphs revealed by a hurricane at Dos Pilas, Guatemala, tell of "the attack on Dos Pilas by Calakmul in this powerful kingdom’s strategy to control the river trade routes between the Maya Lowlands and the Highlands of Guatemala in the Southwestern Petén and the resulting Dos Pilas’ acceptance of a subservient role in this affair." Same report in Spanish. There is also a weak New York Times report. [MetaFilter]

9:26:34 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Pre-order Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom at a 30% discount! [bOing bOing] I heart Cory Doctorow - read his novella 0wnz0red, buy his book with a great, great title.
9:24:33 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Blargh - I've caught an ugly little cold. The first two people to come down with it at work were a Canadian and a guy of French-Canadien descent, so I assumed that only Canadians caught this cold. Whoops. =)
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