Nuclear war starting in 10 days? – Pravda.Ru: Political Scientist’s Opinion Alexander Prohanov, the main editor of ‘Zavtra’ Newspaper:’Apocalypse Tomorrow’ – The pulling of the trigger leading to the tragic chain of events has been done. Syria and Iran will be pulled into the war right after Lebanon. Israeli and American attacks on Iran will […]

Times of Oman: Maybe it was those explosive “liquid chemicals” they were planning to smuggle aboard the planes. After all, it’s only 160 years since nitroglycerin was invented. It’s a mere eleven years since Al Qaeda associate Ramzi Yousef plotted to blow up 12 airliners flying across the Pacific at the same time with nitro […]

Crooked Timber » » Flights of fancy: On reflection, maybe the ban on carry on luggage won’t be so bad: without a pc, let alone a phone, there need be no guilt about watching some movies on the seat-back video instead of working. ——- I wonder if it might be worthwhile to think of these […]

Book Meme: A book meme that’s going around. This is courtesy of Jonathan Sterne. 1. Chose the book closest to you at the moment. 2. Open to page 123 3. Find the 3rd sentence 4. Post in your blog (plus the instructions) 5. Don’t choose the book, just pick up the one closest to you. […]

the Phat Phree -The World: 10: red rover. Kids just must have been out of ideas when they came up with this game. You literally just run as hard as you can into the opposing team and hope that you are able to break through their in-locked grasp. The game is essentially a self-inflicted clothesline. […]

more on yellow elephants: A hallmark of this war turned occupation is the lack of real support and sacrifice from the general public. Particularly interesting is the reluctance of able bodied supporters to actually enlist – like Mr Cheney during the Vietnam war, they all seem to have other priorities. One wonders if there will […]

Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology released under a Creative Commons license: Yale University Press has graciously agreed to release an online version of my 1998 book, Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology, under a Noncommercial Sharealike Creative Commons license. The book was the first to show how to use the theory of memes in […]

Device Art (article): Michelle Kasprzak pointed me to this paper by Machiko Kusahara. Some points of interest: “Device Art is a concept for re-examining art-science-technology relationships both from a contemporary and historical perspective in order to foreground a new aspect of media art. The term “Device Art” may sound obscure, or even self-contradictory, but it […]

investing on fear: A serious item to ponder is the acceptable radius for ground transportation. In the NorthEast Corridor, many of us find Amtrak a viable alternative to the airlines. It wouldn’t take much to create attractive bus service – examples exist. My guess is that ground alternatives to flying are viable for trips up […]

First They Came For the Nail Clippers….: So can someone tell me where the madness is going to end? My back of the envelope says about as many people die in the US every month in highway accidents than have died in all our domestic terrorist incidents in the last 50 years. Untold numbers of […]