Bad Karma

The article everybody’s talking about. The last paragraph nails the anxiety I’ve been feeling for a while about Rumsfeld’s approach.

The New Yorker

“In an odd way,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, “the sexual abuses at Abu Ghraib have become a diversion for the prisoner abuse and the violation of the Geneva Conventions that is authorized.” Since September 11th, Roth added, the military has systematically used third-degree techniques around the world on detainees. “Some jags hate this and are horrified that the tolerance of mistreatment will come back and haunt us in the next war,” Roth told me. “We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.”

Madeleine L’Engle interviewed on MSNBC. MSNBC – “I Dare You”

“I sometimes think God is a s–tóand he wouldnít be worth it otherwise. Heís much more interesting when heís a s–t.”

Spies and Ads

Wired News: Sick of Spam? Prepare for Adware

Almost everyone I know has ended up having to reformat their drive or something lately due to a spyware install or other virus situation.

I’m so glad I have a Mac. (*knocks aluminum*)

StockIcons.com – Info



The Iconfactory is pleased to announce a new service that brings you professional-quality, royalty-free icons at affordable prices.

I just discovered this new addition over at Iconfactory, some old buddies that I haven’t seen in a while. Mass manufacture of icons! They rock.

Dibbel’s Money

For the last year or more, JULIAN DIBBELL’s “Play Money” Blog detailed how he spent a great deal of time in virtual environs making real money from virtual possessions. And I didn’t find it until now.

I finally finished dragging my rear enough to finish a review of Mike Kuniavsky’s Boxes and Arrows: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research, and it’s posted at that link on the Boxes and Arrows website now.

Bush Began to Plan War Three Months After 9/11 (washingtonpost.com)

Here’s the quote that I heard on NPR this morning that I just couldn’t believe I was actually hearing:

Asked by Woodward how history would judge the war, Bush replied: “History. We don’t know. We’ll all be dead.”

Check out the post “AI” fare:
Robot Stories
and
I Robot

I loved AI. It still ranks among my most favorite films. But, hardly anybody else did, it seems.

I have a thing for all things robot. Really.

Evidently MP3.com’s “rock star parties” weren’t all that and a bag of gourmet chips.

Wired News: MP3.com Loot Hits Auction Block
But those working for MP3.com didn’t just live like rock stars. They partied with them. HR booked Billy Idol for the Christmas party, and The Fixx jammed in the office late one Friday afternoon.

They’re proud of this?!?!?

stray meme

Charlie Fink’s Quote of the Week – Quotes by Andrew Hinton

Ok… I wrote this thing called the Information Architecture Manifesto a while back. And I did a little ego surfing and discovered that part of it is quoted online, in this thing called “quoteorama.” But it’s quoted very very wrong.

See, when I first wrote the Manifesto, it got noticed by a bunch of other web heads out there, other info-architects, etc. Some loved it, and many slammed it. Because, after all, we are a snarky lot, and snarking is what we do. (example: here) (Clay Shirky, whom I dig generally, called it “dorky” …heh…)

Among the snarking, Matt Jones pointed out that the theses may not be all that helpful because they could be about anything, like if you substituted the word “porn” for the word “information.”

Hence, the twisted version that shows up in the esteemed Quotorama.

I did write the archive’s owner and asked if he’d change it. I haven’t heard back. But, you know, I’d really really hate to end up being quoted in something down the road and end up being famous for pontificating on the relevance of porn.

I did some searching on the quotation and it has definitely made the rounds… how odd. I had no idea. Luckily it’s almost always quoted correctly.

here; here; here; here; here; here; here; and here

I’m thinking of writing something up about “The 25 Theses… do I still believe this sh*t?”

CNN.com – Spalding Gray found dead – Mar 8, 2004

I discovered Spalding Gray’s wit when I first saw Swimming to Cambodia in the theater in… wow, it must’ve been 1987 or so? I saw it with my girlfriend, who later became my wife. We were both confused at first in the film, then amazed that one guy sitting at a table with almost no props could keep us enthralled for about 2 hours.

Later we got to see him live in Louisville, KY, doing his Monster in a Box bit.

I wonder what went on with him after his accident in Ireland in 2001? I wonder too if the 9/11 situation affected him much, in concert with whatever else he was experiencing… I think the emotional fallout from 9/11 is much more significant than anyone wants to admit.

Anyway, a great artist, terrific writer and performer. Sad to see him go.

Philosophical Warning Labels

This is just funny enough to blog.

Example entry:
Cartesian Evil Genius Alert:

The reader is advised that he or she may be subject to an illusion
generated by an evil genius, and that his or her “sensory fibers” may
be falsely manipulated at any time with neither advance warning nor
any possible legal remedy.

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