2.8.2002
"He just took the White House illegally. But I would shake his hand. It would be an interesting moment."
-- Sandra Bernhard, sitting next to Liz & me at a Chelsea restaurant.
Alex writes:
Thought you guys might enjoy this article. I thought it was fascinating. I've always thought it was strange to know which people on my buddy list are available at any given time. -- Alex
The prospect of information that can reveal a person's availability at a given moment, anywhere in the world strikes many people as both creepy and intriguing. Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, an assistant professor at New York University who conducts research on Internet relationships, has found that people are comforted when they can see the distant movements of people from their inner circles, like family and friends. Devices that use presence technology could provide such reassurance."You could see that you could instantaneously reach these people if you need them," Dr. McKenna said. "I know my mother would be extremely reassured if she could see, `Oh, she's off the plane; her cellphone came on; she's landed.' "
But along with comfort comes the unnerving feeling of being watched, a lesson that has been experienced by millions of instant messaging users. By keeping track of the activity on their Buddy Lists, people with I.M. can use log-in information to get a sense of their buddies' routines � when they arrive at work, when they are online at home on a weekend, or in some cases how long they have been away from their computers. Information that was private (or at least not easy to acquire) can become known � with little effort � by employers, co-workers, friends, family members and, sometimes, by strangers.
[NB: Speaking of being watched: this Florida family wants to be the first to receive the Mark of the Beast -- I mean, have an ID chip implanted in them. Also, remember that game Assassin, where you ran around campus shooting each other with plastic darts? Well, now you can use your cell phone to locate, and "kill," your target. (Of course, both the Palestinians and the Israelis use cell phones to actually assassinate people. Don't touch that dial.) And the latest to fall victim to our surveillance society: seals in the Antarctic. (Click here to watch seal cam. Cool!)]
This from Matt's former employer:
MSNBC has its signature voice man, and he�s a doozy: Dee Snider, the former lead singer of the heavy metal band Twisted Sister. . . .
"They really wanted that guy that I am when I�m doing my morning radio,� Mr. Snider said. �Just sort of self-assured��I know what the fuck I�m talking about, and you want to listen to me because I�m the shit. And if I say that MSNBC is the best news on cable, then it is the best news, because I said so.�� . . . .
Mr. Snider said his sandpaper-like voice is the byproduct of decades of wailing at the top of his lungs. The singer, who records his spots from his home studio, said he never smoked, drank or did drugs. �But I did screech my brains out night after night after night for thousands of shows, and it gave me a voice-over career,� he said.
Do you think they know that he's really Christina Aguilera?
2.7.2002
King 'Diddle,
This being Black History Month, here's a link to a piece on Martin Luther King - his findings and teachings - that we won't find in "victim complex" advocacy sheets like the New York Times or Village Voice. As such, it gives elevation to the ever-popular terms, "cogent" and "thoughtful". Enjoy.
-Marcus
2.6.2002
Just when I think I've seen the worst of 9/11 Marketing, I'm astounded by yet another example. Now the tragedy is being used to market. . . a dog show! I kid you not. In this week's New Yorker, there is an eight-page, full-color spread (on nice stock to boot) advertising the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, featuring the heroic search-and-rescue dogs who worked at Ground Zero. The dogs pose with various celebrities -- Matthew Modine, James Gandolfini, Janeane Garafalo, Peter Gallagher -- against the (broken) New York skyline (as seen from Brooklyn, natch.) Many of the celebs are wrapped in the flag. The dogs' handlers rate a small inset picture. Famke Janssen gets a whole page. No apparent irony is intended.
Is it just me, or is this a new low? Debbie points out the irony that they're resorting to using celebrities to advertise a dog show. "It's not like you're going to actually see Angie Harmon walking the dogs." True, the ad says that the dog show and USA Network, which is showing the event, will make a donation to an appropriate K-9 non-profit. But the amount is unspecified -- I'd like to know how much it is relative to the cost of the spread.
If anyone finds a baser example of 9/11 Exploitation, please let me know.
No celebrities here, just heroes.
* A book about some of the last of Hitler's relatives - living in America - who have decided not to have any children so as to terminate their bloodline. here
* An article about another American Taliban supporter - this one a Puerto Rican dropout from Trumbull College: here
2.5.2002
Well I guess Stephen Hawking was right about the robots after all. . .
"Robots are being let loose in a colony of machines in an attempt to find out whether they can learn from their experiences. . . . The larger predator robots get their energy by locating and hunting down the prey to extract their battery power. The robots all operate without any human intervention, and are designed to learn by themselves and evolve."
Link from It's a mystery.
2.4.2002
About a month ago, a local car repair service put leaflets on the windshields of the cars in our neighborhood. They had a flag on one side and the ad on the other. Of course, people threw them away, and there were dozens of these American flags lying in the gutter. Needless to say, I won't be taking my car there.
I see nothing wrong with explicitly mixing politics and capitalism. I buy Ben & Jerry's because of their politics; I avoid Coors for the same reason. But it's one thing to promote yourself as All-American; it's another to profit off of tragedy. This article in Saturday's New York Times discusses marketing patriotism, and how in their rush to get to market, some companies have created charity-supporting products that aren't actually supporting charities. That's about as low as the New York hotel guilty of price gouging right after the attack.
Update: I saw this on the back of a car in my nabe last night. Glad to know that the naked-chick-sticker folks are on the patriotic bandwagon. If anyone spots mudflaps, let me know.
From one of my Muslim listservs.
*****************************************************
----- Original Message -----
From: Tarek Fatah
To: NPM - Network of Progressive Muslims
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 1:17 PM
Subject: [NPM] When OBL met the promised Virgins in heaven
After getting nailed by a Daisy Cutter, Osama bin Laden made his way to the pearly gates. There, he is greeted by George Washington. "How dare you attack the nation I helped conceive!" yells Mr. Washington, slapping Osama in the face. Patrick Henry comes up from behind. "You wanted to end the Americans' liberty, so they gave you death!" Henry punches Osama on the nose. James Madison comes up next, and says "This is why I allowed the Federal government to provide for the common defense!" He drops a large weight on Osama's knee.
Osama is subject to similar beatings from John Randolph of Roanoke, James Monroe, and 65 other people who have the same love for liberty and America. As he writhes on the ground, Thomas Jefferson picks him up to hurl him back toward the gate where he is to be judged.
As Osama awaits his journey to his final very hot destination, he screams "this is not what I was promised!"
An angel replies "I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you. What did you think I said?"
Well, we've now topped 1,000 visitors since I started tracking back in October. Ain't that grand? Expect a redesign before we hit 2,000.
And then came the 9/11 tribute. It started well enough -- Bono singing the lyrical elegy "MLK" as the names of the dead scrolled up a huge screen behind the band. And then they launched into "Where the Streets Have No Name." I pictured a widow, seeing her husband's name, then jump-cut to a shot of cheering twentyites. I was reminded of the vigil held in our nabe in honor of the fallen of Brooklyn's Squad One. Toward the firehouse, we held candles and sang, several songs rolling out among us at once, a fugue of mourning. Further away, another group was waving flags, cheering "USA! USA!"
Worse than the cheering crowd: as the song wound down, the screen dramatically fell in waves of fabric. But they hadn't finished the names. They'd only made it to the F's. Which made the list a design element subservient to the length of the tune. Seeing all the thousands of names would have been more powerful -- and respectful of the dead from G to Z. I couldn't help but think that Bruce Springsteen, who has a sense of the American tragedy, wouldn't have stood for that -- and wouldn't have flashed the stars-and-stripes on his jacket lining. (What was up with that?) So much for being wide awake in America.
