Drew Curtis' FARK.com -- This week's archives: "William Shatner to record an album with Henry Rollins. And the sun became black as sackcloth, and the moon became as blood"

Script to Implement Red-Eye Removal Technique: "Listing 1. red-eye.scm

To use the script, simply select a few pixels in the red region of one pupil (i.e., draw a small outline with the rectangle selection tool), then run the script (RC/Script-Fu/Selection/Red Eye). Fill in the parameters, which correspond with the ones described above, and click OK. If the result is not satisfactory, click Undo (Ctrl Z) and retry the script with different values. Repeat with the other pupil. A second script included in the file (Script-Fu/Selection/Red Eye Desaturate) uses the red channel desaturate technique, and thus does not require Channel Mixer if you don't have it installed."

Ask MetaFilter | Community Weblog: "A cheap version of the little 'chinese' balls that many guitarists diddle with for hand strength: film canisters. Take two canisters in you hand (kodak film if you've got small hands) and roll them over each other inside a ring made of your thumb and each of your fingers. It's great to keep your attention while driving."

Music industry piracy subpoenas illegal - (United Press International): "'We are not unsympathetic either to the RIAA's concern regarding the widespread infringement of its members' copyrights, or to the need for legal tools to protect those rights,' the court wrote.
'It is not the province of the courts, however, to rewrite (copyright law) in order to make it fit a new and unforeseen Internet architecture, no matter how damaging that development has been to the music industry.'
The decision did not address the legality of the lawsuits that have already been filed against hundreds of individual computer users."

Correspondences - News By the People For People: Who captured Saddam Hussein?: "Well, the cat is out of the bag so to speak. Saddam Hussein was captured by Kurds, not US forces. Here is the story as best I can determine by looking through a number of articles (see full list at end of this post).
Hussein was betrayed to the Kurds by a member of the al-Jabour tribe because Hussein's son Uday had raped a daughter of the tribe. Saddam had previously paid 7 million pounds in blood money to the tribe with the warning that he would wipe out the entire tribe if it ever came out. (Sify report)
He was then handed over to the Kurdish Patriotic Front who negotiated a deal with US forces for political power before drugging and abandoning Hussein for pickup. Ultimately he ended up in the hands of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani (Aljazeera)
Hussein could not escape the hole in which he was recovered because the entrance had been sealed."

PAYCHECK / ** (R): "OK, so the idea is for Michael and Rachel to stop Allcom before it can destroy the world. Destruction is likely, it's explained, because if world leaders could foresee that their enemies planned to use weapons of mass destruction, they would launch a pre-emptive strike to respond to the attack before it takes place. Those wacky sci-fi guys! Their way to derail this scenario, of course, involves a long motorcycle chase sequence and a martial-arts battle."

Mechwarrior 4 trial download (69mb)

Think Secret - Mini iPods, major iLife update focus of upcoming Expo keynote: "Reliable sources inside and outside of Apple have confirmed Apple will announce the new pocket-size iPods in a number of capacities and in various colors, including stripes. Capacities will be 2 and 4GB -- meaning users could store some 400 and 800 songs, respectively. Prices will start at around $100US, Think Secret has learned. It is not known if the new product line will be available immediately after introduction."

: "Alright, this baby is a classic. everyone knows that. It is also an old design so I would not expect it to preform like a truely modern air rifle. These expectations were fullfilled when I tested the Silver Streak. It is a pneumatic and pretty tough to pump, but still within reason.The pump lever is long which gives the needed leverage. The gun is brass and walnut and thus hefty. It looks great"

The Gratis Gamer

Google Search: mechwar freeware

Funagain Games: Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot card game (blue starter deck plus yellow booster deck)

sfbg.com

Cheap eats restaurant reviews

Crosman Airgun Forum: "with some polishing compound and a dremel polish all the contact surfaces from the trigger blade to the hammer, then replace the sear spring with a century or dynaline 9/32' x 1 1/8' x 0.028' spring.

if the trigger pull is still too high, order a trigger shoe."

Ask MetaFilter | Community Weblog

Select a Mirror

Google Search: frank wang california: "Frank Wang, (510) 523-2231, 2163 Lincoln Ave, Alameda, CA 94501 Yahoo! Maps MapQuest
Frank Wang, (626) 443-3987, 3815 Baldwin Ave, El Monte, CA 91731 "

Google Search: mark voigtlaender washington: "Mark and Lara Voigtlaender, (509) 464-3266, 5705 W Dorothy Ct, Spokane, WA 99208 "

Google Search: james beddoes utah: "James M Beddoes, (801) 501-8402, 9199 Peruvian Dr, Sandy, UT 84093 "

Google Search: duane griffin utah: "Duane and Heather Griffin, (801) 379-0605, 284 S 1680 W, Provo, UT 84601"

Google Search: kevin klundt utah: "Kevin and Becky Klundt, (801) 568-1846, 1420 W 8700 S, West Jordan, UT 84088"

Gawker : Peter Jennings: Out of the Loop?: "George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson were doing the live coverage on ABC when Saddam Hussein was busted in his little hidey-hole. Peter Jennings was claimed to be shooting a documentary with the police in Los Angeles, and therefore unavailable, but maybe he just needs a new beeper. A reader claims, that's 'total crap. My boyfriend was standing in the security line of LAX at around 4:30 AM, bullshitting with Peter.' They recall a conversation with Mr. Jennings as this:
BF 'So, big news today, huh.'

PJ 'How do you mean?'
BF 'You know, that they caught Saddam.'
PJ 'I'm sorry - What did you just say?'
BF 'I just heard it on NPR. They caught Saddam Hussein.'
PJ looks around stunned.
PJ 'Excuse me.'

Peter proceeded to flip the f*ck out - he leapt out of the security line, turned on his cell and started dialing/screaming."

Strom's Skeleton - The late segregationist's black daughter. By Diane McWhorter: "Strom's Skeleton
The late segregationist's black daughter.
By Diane McWhorter
Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2003, at 12:11 PM PT





Thurmond: curiouser and curiouser
In all the words spent on Strom Thurmond's life and times since his death last week, I have seen no acknowledgment of the most interesting of his sundry racial legacies. She is Essie Mae Washington Williams, a widowed former school teacher in her 70s, living in Los Angeles. Presumably she did not show up for any of the obsequies even though Strom Thurmond was almost certainly her father. Williams is black.

Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson present persuasive evidence in their 1998 biography, Ol' Strom, that Thurmond sired a daughter in 1925 with a black house servant named Essie 'Tunch' Butler, with whom he reputedly had an extended relationship. Though 'Black Baby of Professional Racist' would seem to sail over the man-bites-dog bar of what is news, the story has never really gotten traction. The particulars of this family saga simply do not fit into the 'redemption narrative' Americans tend to impose on our more regrettable bygones: Better that ol' Strom 'transformed' from the Negro-baiting Dixiecrat presidential candidate of 1948 to One of the First Southern Senators To Hire a Black Aide in 1971."

Montreal Gazette - Story - canada.com network: "'So each of these computerized soldiers is assessing the environment around them, drawing on a repertoire of military moves that have been taught them through motion capture - determining how they will combat the enemy, step over the terrain, deal with obstacles in front of them through their own intelligence - and there's 200,000 of them doing that.'

Basically, all the necessary information for decision-making was fed into this network of computers without determining for them whether they would win or lose.

But this attempt to ensure that they acted spontaneously almost sabotaged the the battleground sequences.

'For the first two years, the biggest problem we had was soldiers fleeing the field of battle,' Taylor said.

'We could not make their computers stupid enough to not run away.'
"

Democrats Go Off the Cliff

Eagle Mountain City: City Council: "In 1986, Mr. Madsen received his first invitation to travel to Central America; by 1988 he was involved in that region full time. Mr. Madsen traveled extensively in Central America during these Cold War years, working in the field - often in harms way -- and in Washington, to support freedom fighters and to bring down tyrannical socialist governments in the region. "

dooce: " It was on this second night that both of our hands started to bleed and the dog, high on chemical fumes, started barking in Russian. In a delirious moment before we fell into bed that second night I half-heartedly suggested that we leave a small square of solvent on the floor overnight, just to see what would happen, even though the directions on the side of the can say DO NOT LEAVE OVERNIGHT. When we woke the next morning we found that the solvent had turned the asphalt adhesive crust into butter, and that instead of five more days of scraping we were only going to have to do a couple hours of half-assed wiping, and then we both started crying: I love you, wood floors. I love you, wood floors."

dooce: "I had no idea the actual physical toll this project would take on my already ravaged and swollen body, or that I would become so desperate as to end up on my sliver-infested knees promising the Mormon God that if he would just make it end already I would stop telling my sister’s children that sacrament bread is laced with arsenic"

The New Yorker: Fact: "The problem with the way the U.S. has been fighting the Baathist leadership, he said, is �(a) we�ve got no intelligence, and (b) we�re too squeamish to operate in this part of the world.� Referring to the American retaliation against a suspected mortar site, the former official said, �Instead of destroying an empty soccer field, why not impress me by sneaking in a sniper team and killing them while they�re setting up a mortar? We do need a more unconventional response, but it�s going to be messy.�"

The New Yorker: Fact: "A new Special Forces group, designated Task Force 121, has been assembled from Army Delta Force members, Navy seals, and C.I.A. paramilitary operatives, with many additional personnel ordered to report by January. Its highest priority is the neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination. "

The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town: "Other politicians have also failed to grasp the seriousness of the food-allergy issue. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is a board member of F.A.I., said that he had written to Jimmy Carter after Carter sent a letter to the airlines in defense of packaged peanuts as an in-flight snack. "

I wouldn't be real comfortable driving around with a TV sitting
unattached on top of the folded down seat, but our our TV/VCR unit
wedges nicely on the floor between the front seats. We keep a book
under the front edge to angle the screen up for better viewing and to
provide circulation under the unit. The only direction it would move
in an accident--if at all--is forward, at floor level. Safety is
absolutely a valid concern.

ongoing ? On Search: Robots: "All obvious stuff, now; but at that point maybe 100 people in the world had had that bomb go off in their head. I was so excited that I was physically shaking on and off for the next couple of days. I sold my CEO on the idea and spent six months writing the software, and in April 1995 the Open Text Index of the Web launched, and in January 1996 we did an IPO on NASDAQ, and Open Text is now a big, successful, profitable company (but no longer a search company)."

The Psychology of Shooting - 8/98: "to achieve great PERFORMANCE, one must not 'think' at all!!' What this means is that you must be extremely analytical and cognitive in the effort of learning and perfecting the skill of shooting in order to come up with a good technique. But, when actually performing, you must let the mind/body combination operate on the subconscious level, and so do what it was trained to do without the interference of the conscious mind. And, all effort and focus is to be on execution of the act of firing a shot or a series in perfect conformance with the model you derived from all that cognition and rehearsal - not what the results of this execution might yield. "

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Inaugural Speeches from Our Action Heroes: "He-Man
Although I realize that I was not elected by a majority, I pledge to represent the interests of all. I have also retained many of my father's advisers to guide my way.
I will cut taxes, balance the budget, and rid the world of Skeletor. Skeletor is evil. Skeletor does not believe in free trade. Perhaps my words are too moralistic, too black and white. But look at him—his face is a skull! He sits on a throne made of bones. This is an evil man, working in evil times. And I know, from various intelligence sources, including my trusted aide Man-at-Arms and my Security Adviser Generic-Noun-Name, that Skeletor has been working on a new weapon: a weapon that could destroy the nation. You in the media don't believe me. Some have cynically reported that I am using fear to gain votes. If any members of the press corps wish to find out what Skeletor is up to, they can take a trip to Castle Grayskull, expenses paid from my Mattel stock options. Any takers? I didn't think so. "

moovl: built with Processing

Wow!

Beyond the Beyond: "In November 1999, as Milosevic is still in power,
Suba falls asleep in his Brazilian home studio,
drops a lit cigarette, and then gallantly dies of
smoke inhalation while trying to rescue Bebel
Gilberto's original tapes from the rising flames! "

Works in the public domain in Australia fifty years after the author's death

DVD Ripping on OS X: "Appleguru's quick but very usable DVD Rip Tutorial:"

Amazon.com: Books: Houdini's Box : The Art of Escape: "'We cannot describe ourselves without also describing what we need to escape from, and what we believe we need to escape to,' argues psychoanalyst Phillips"

Fun Supply's Talon ( Gunpower Stealth ) Forum: "A Mars bar brought home from work is far more meaningful to women than a diamond ring.

Women like small details and men think that making a big splash is better. It is not in their eyes. Be romantic, be gentle and be kind.

When she notices what is going on, you simply tell her that you are learning from a bunch of airgunners.

She will never object to another airgun."

Crosman Airgun Forum: "I found, what turned out to be, the perfect match to the Sherwin paint. It is called

U-Fix-It
Satin Finish Paint
For Exterior Trim.

$7.99 a can.
P/N 47-1023-0

This stuff should be tough as nails, as it is for exterior automotive trim, which can take quite a beating from handling and weather. "

Tribe.net: Tribe Discussion: boingboing: "I read Ann Landers* with a cynical but devoted eye for many years, and I can attest without hesitation that the most useful thing she ever wrote was this piece of advice: 'If you want to get someone to talk, ask them about themselves'. "

Street Tech :: hardware beyond the hype: "Going to the Moon is a fool's errand. In peacetime the space program gives the nation direction and provides money for industrial and technological innovation that spurs achievements in a wide selection of sectors. In war time, and when the country is in deep financial trouble, proposing to go to the moon is an obvious ploy to turn attention away from our problems and turn them towards easier successes. It worked for Kennedy, but that was a different time. We were in a cold war, and funding the space race was a way to make ourselves look like a peaceful nation while channeling money into technology that would benefit both civilian space tech and military tech as well. But this isn't the 60's and Bush isn't Kennedy. Not by a moon-shot."

Entertainment Story - canada.com network: "The samurai, who have protected the Emperor for centuries, are obsolete in this new scheme, and Algren finds himself suppressing 'another tribal uprising,' as he puts it in his journal (he journals to relax, and also to provide more Moses voice-over). Yet, when finally face to face with the great Samurai leader, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), Algren discovers not a savage, but a holy man. Watanabe is a star in Japan, and with his trash-pail-sized skull, he is charismatic as hell, looming over Cruise, The Littlest Samurai. In more ways than one, Algren comes to look up to his Buddhist friend who can appreciate pink flower blossoms as well as he can slice a man's head off with a wrist-flick."

Entertainment Story - canada.com network: "The man may be good with a sword, but his arsenal of weaponry really starts with that tightly held muscular jaw, the slight flinch, the eye water. All these tics are Cruise's way of communicating with us, as a monkey might, that he just wants to be a decent man, goddammit."

XS-B3-1 AK47 air rifle: "Weight, total
Length, total
Barrel length
Action
Stock
Pull
Grip
Sight
Safety
Base
Trigger
Cocking effort
Piston seal
Metal finish
Accuracy
Recommended pellets
7.25 lb.
35' stock open 24' stock closed
14 inches
Side lever-cocking, single-shot action.
Metal folding AK style.
12.25'
Pistol grip
Hooded adjustable front. Rear adj. for elevation.
Manual trigger safety.
scope rail
Non adjustable
20 pounds
Leather
Blued
1' or less @30 yd.
Chinese 7.6 gr. flathead match for .177
Daisy Maxspeed for .22"

24" Barrel .22 cal. -- PyramydAir.com: "The new 24-inch barrel from AirForce, maker of the Talon and Talon SS air rifles, has added a 24-inch Lothar Walther barrel to their line. The new barrel can be fitted to either rifle in about five minutes and immediately changes the nature of the rifle. It takes the .22-caliber Talon SS from 26 foot-pounds maximum to over 42 foot-pounds, depending on what pellet is used. The new barrel is a premium choked Lothar Walther airgun barrel that delivers extreme accuracy with quality pellets like JSB and H&N. By adding the new barrel to a standard SS, the shooter gains an entirely new air rifle suitable for hunting larger airgun game like woodchucks and raccoons at much longer ranges than most air rifles are capable of."

Reviewing Toolbar - Microsoft Word Forums - WordForums.com // Microsoft Word Forum // Free Microsoft Word Help and Support: "Sub ReviewDisable()
System.Cursor = wdCursorIBeam
If MsgBox('Click Yes to disable Reviewing toolbar.' & vbCr & _
'Click No to re-enable.', vbYesNo, 'Disable Reviewing
toolbar') = vbYes Then
CommandBars('Reviewing').Enabled = False
Else
CommandBars('Reviewing').Enabled = True
End If
End Sub

Copy and paste it into the Immediate Windows of the Visual Basic (Macro)
Editor."

Shared Governance at UC: "Shared Governance at UC: An Historical Review

John A. Douglass
University of California - Santa Barbara
10.23.95

Two major features in the historical development of the University of California distinguished it from other major public research universities. The first is the university's unusual status as a constitutionally designated public trust -- a designation shared by only five other major public universities. The second is the University of California's tradition of shared-governance: the concept that faculty should share in the responsibility for guiding the operation and management of the university, while preserving the authority of the university's governing board, the Regents, to ultimately set policy. Both of these organizational features of California's land-grant university, combined with a massive investment by tax payers to expand enrollment and academic programs, has resulted in a university enterprise of international distinction and vital service to the people of California. As in so many other aspects of the university's operation, the concept of shared governance has evolved over time, often in reaction to significant internal and external challenges, and revolving around the development of the Academic Senate. Reflecting the dynamics of decision making within a growing and multi-campus university, the root of the contemporary notion of shared governance has emerged not only from the formal delegation of authority to the Senate, but also from informal modes of involving faculty in the management of the nation's largest land-grant university. The following briefly outlines four periods in the evolution of shared governance in the University of California. The intent is to provide context to the contemporary debate among faculty, Regents, students and administrators, regarding the role of faculty in university governance and management.
"

Short Stories by Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game: "'If that's true, sir, then at least we all know that Ender is making it possible for the others of his age to be playing in the park.'

'And Jesus died to save all men, of course.' Graff sat up and looked at Anderson almost sadly. 'But we're the ones,' Graff said, 'we're the ones who are driving in the nails.' "

Chicago Sun-Times - Entertainment: "I feel liberated in films where I have absolutely no idea what will happen next. Lena and Barry are odd enough that anything could happen in their relationship. A face-to-face meeting with the Utah porn king (Anderson regular Philip Seymour Hoffman) and another meeting with the four blond brothers are equally unpredictable. And always there is Barry's quick, terrifying anger, a time bomb ticking away beneath every scene."

A Whole Lotta Features: "Make no mistake, last month PVRblog made a lot of money from Adsense. When was the last time you heard someone say they received a check for advertising on their hobby site that could be used to purchase a fully loaded Aeron chair? Sounds like something you might have heard in 1998, no? Well it's true today, and I hope a lot more people meet with the same success.
"

MSN Money - 9 ways to look rich but live cheap

Digital FM Transmitter

New look at dark accusations: "Besides the pictures, Dworin was suspicious of the setup he found in Jackson’s bedroom.
Dworin: “You had to approach the bedroom by a hallway. And in going down this hallway, it sets off an alarm in Jackson’s bedroom.”
Mankiewicz: “Which suggests what to you?”
Dworin: “To me, it suggested that it was a warning in case something was occurring that was improper, that that activity would stop.”"

Squirrel_Fishing: "Kentucky has a two week spring squirrel season, immediately following the first breeding season, around the first of June. This is a great time to hunt from a boat since there are many young squirrels who have never been hunted, and they are not the least cautious of a boat cruising up and down the shore."

Disturbing.

Educational Technology Email Lists

The Guts of a New Machine: "What I had been hoping to do was catch a glimpse of what's there when you pull back all those layers -- when you penetrate the aura, strip off the surface, clear away the guts. What's under there is innovation, but where does it come from? I had given up on getting an answer to this question when I made a jokey observation that before long somebody would probably start making white headphones so that people carrying knockoffs and tape players could fool the world into thinking they had trendy iPods.

Jobs shook his head. ''But then you meet the girl, and she says, 'Let me see what's on your iPod.' You pull out a tape player, and she walks away.'' This was an unanticipated, and surprisingly persuasive, response. That's thinking long-term, I said. ''No,'' said Steve Jobs. ''That's being an optimist.'' "