Progressive Review: How Nader won. A dream.

Windows-Help.NET News: New V.92 Analog Modem Standard. If you’re using dial-up access via an analog modem, a new ITU standard will offer some improvements, which modems available in the fourth quarter of 2000 will implement:

An increase of more than 40% in the maximum data rate

towards the network (Upstream) to a new maximum of 48

kbit/s on the best connections (above the former 33.6 kbit/s

upload maximum – download speed remains at 56 kbit/s max)

Significantly quicker start-up times on recognized connections

The ability to put the modem ‘on-hold’ when the network

indicates that an incoming call is waiting

Upgrade if you do alot of uploading from your present modem and your analog phone line is clear enough to realize the maximum speed improvement.

Meta-content: Starting to think about the backcountry vacation I’m taking at the end of August, when this weblog will languish for two weeks. Worrying about losing loyal readership that’s been painstaking and slow to amass. Do you other webloggers out there see a decline when you take a vacation from blogging? Does anyone have a ‘bot that’ll go out across the web, find the interesting content I would’ve found if I’d been at the computer during that time, and keep weblog entries coming in my absence (grin)? Comments?

This is maddening. I’m going to repost this now, as I think I have a few more readers (grin) than when I originally put it up in April. So far I’ve gotten no responses. Can anyone enlighten, please?

The Infamous Eagles Joke: I’m ashamed to say I have returned to this “intelligence

test” at intervals since it was first emailed to me several weeks ago, and I still haven’t a

clue. If you get the joke, please let me know, thanks!

Addendum:Thanks to the reader who sent me the solution to this!

CNN Transcript – Burden of Proof 7-5-00: ‘Harry Potter’ Book Lawsuit: Legend of Rah and Muggles Author Claims Trademark Violations. Reading this transcript of an interview with author Nancy Stouffer, it appears her pitiful claim of trademark violation is a real stretch and she’s got some real “ambulance-chasing” attorneys. Here’s how she frames it:

Well, I think the biggest

problem here is a level playing field. My muggles are human characters, they

just small human characters who are non-magical people. J.K. Rowling’s are

full-sized human characters as well, and it creates a confusion that is too difficult

to overcome.

Their “muggles” are both non-magical, human characters??!! How blatant is that?? Then she goes on:

And there are other similarities. I have a “Larry Potter” character and she has a

“Harry Potter” character. And I think those are really the two, although there are

many other areas that we have problems with, those two major character

problems really cause the unfair trade for me, and the usages of my mark. It’s

almost impossible to overcome them when the marketplace is not only driven by

just published work, but also the derivative products, such as licensed products,

such as toys or any other ancillary products. So when you have a confusion like

that, there’s no way that I have a capability to market my properties.

Comes off sounding abit mercenary, doesn’t she?

But I’m having an interesting experience of the derivativeness of the Harry Potter books. As each one has come out, my now-6 y.o. son and I have read it aloud (we started Goblet of Fire last night), and in between we’ve been immersed in reading The Lord of the Rings. My son has been commenting upon the convergence between, on the one hand, Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort and the Dementors and, on the other, Gandalf, Sauron and the Ringwraiths. But perhaps it’s just the mobilization of the archetypes when you’re writing about the battle between good and evil in the context of wizards and servants of darkness?

Culture jamming update: In June, I posted a blink to the CokeSpotlight website, an Adbusters-Greenpeace joint effort

to put heat on Coca-Cola as one of the world’s worst commercial HFC

polluters. Today,Adbusters announced: “Victory! We’re sending our thanks and congratulations. The

jam paid off: Coca-Cola has committed to stop keeping drinks cool

while warming the planet with greenhouse gases.

From the moment it “went live,” CokeSpotlight was crowded with

visitors from around the world. You downloaded stickers and posters,

you signed your names to petitions and letters – and you won.”

Yahoo: X-Men I wouldn’t usually be interested in something like this but the film is directed by Bryan Singer, whose previous credits include The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil. The director is again paired with Sir Ian McKellen, who gave a devastating performance in Apt Pupil — simple concept (the attempt to dominate evil corrupts an innocent) unforgettably and disturbingly executed. McKellen’s well-designed website posts personal reflections on the making of the X-film (as well as his involvement in the upcoming film of the Lord of the Rings!) . There’s a porrtrait of Bryan Singer and the new film in today’s Arts & Entertainment section of the New York Times, but so far no online link to the article. Part of what makes this potentially interesting is that Singer was never a fan of the X-Men comic books as a child and has no need to be reverent to the comic book tradition. So the movie is not likely to be an over-the-top caricature. I’m not expecting highbrow, but it should be fun.

Use your mosquito repellant this summer, wherever you live: West Nile virus causes an encephalitis for which there is no specific treatment and which seems to kill around 10% of those infected. Spread to humans by mosquitoes infected after biting birds which are a reservoir of the virus, the virus appeared in New York last year (either via an imported bird or, for you conspiracy buffs, released from an experimental protocol at Sloan Kettering) and a massive mosquito eradication effort has apparently not impacted on its persistence in New York area birds, where it was hoped that it would not survive a winter. Now researchers say that there are 77 species of migratory birds in North America capable of carrying the virus and that it has probably spread all over the continent by now. Experts project a Gulf Coast outbreak where migratory birds congregate. A finding of infected birds in a region could trigger targeted mosquito spraying to reduce risks of transmission to humans, but debates rage among public health officials about whether funding for extensive screening of wild birds would be “cost-effective”. For those who think the undisputed triumph of 20th century medicine was the control of microbial illness, if you haven’t been chastened over the last decade by AIDS, keep an eye on the ongoing outbreaks of often mysterious emerging infectious diseases.

Born with the munchies. Naturally-occurring cannabinoids have been detected in human and cow’s milk and their levels are highest the day after giving birth. Their function, and the evolutionary significance of human sensitivity to them and hence to cannabis, has been puzzling. Now, a biologist in Israel reports that the chemicals might be necessary to jumpstart feeding behavior in the newborn; when neonatal mice were treated with a cannabis blocker, they didn’t feed and didn’t survive, but when given enough THC to overcome the blockade, they developed normally. Many of you are not surprised, I suspect, by the notion that cannabis is necessary to survival…

Pass it on. A Canadian research team reports that an artificial extra chromosome manufactured to contain a specific gene can be incorporated into the genome of a mouse, passed on to its descendants, and remains active, with no apparent harm to the three generations so far studied. Speculation of course abounds about possible mind-boggling human implications. ‘Such techniques might soon make it possible to treat patients by loading their cells with extra chromosomes that are

purpose-built to produce a therapeutic protein and operate entirely independently of our natural chromosomes. It

might even be possible to treat genetic diseases with extra chromosomes that can themselves be inherited, though

this would mean challenging the taboo against “germline” gene therapy.’ The research team reporting this works for a Canadian biotech firm about to go public, so you can either (a) rush to buy in; or (b) take the whole thing with an enormous grain of salt.

New Scientist: Sudden increases in placental oxygen levels during the first trimester of pregnancy are a stressful event for the fetus and may cause some unexplained miscarriages; high doses of antioxidant vitamins are being studied as a possible preventive measure. But: how safe are they to the first trimester of fetal development?

GettingIt: A rant, not about “reality TV” but its critics: “…there’s really nothing to be

said about excrement, aside from the

occasional poop joke. So shut the fuck up. It

is stupid and redundant to scrutinize it at

length with your college-educated mind (or

even better, criticize it from a distance) and

declare that it smells bad. “

Think Tanks: the Rich Get Richer.

While this survey reveals that media show a greater reliance on think tanks than at the time of the last survey two years ago, the

constituencies representing a center/right debate have further cemented their positions as media-friendly analysts. In the survey of 1997,

conservative or right-leaning think tanks received 53 percent of all citations, 32 percent of citations went to centrist think tanks, and

only 16 percent of the citations went to progressive or left-leaning think tanks. The percentages for progressive or left-leaning think

tanks have declined slightly since then.

WTO/IMF Globalization Protests– comparing the coverage by mainstream and alternative media. Few surprises here: “…media critic Norman Solomon says the corporate globalization bias of

America’s mainstream news outlets makes them ill-positioned to shed light on the

underlying issues protesters raise. ”

oneworld.net: Internet Sapping Broadcast News Audience: Just as people lamented that broadcast news was supplanting print newspapers, there’s a rapid increase in the number of people going online for their news instead of sitting in front of the other box. But overall, the American appetite for news is declining, according to the Pew Research Center’s biennial survey of the national news

audience. [They should try weblogging; it’s certainly reinvigorated my news habits…]

Bumper stickers appear to be a dying means of self-expression; reasons include the lack of discrete bumpers on new cars; the prevalence of leasing; the moderation of baby boomers’ attitudes as they age; and fear of retribution in this age of road rage.