Day: June 27, 2001

Love Shack – an Interview with Alexa Albert — “What is life like inside a brothel? Harvard-trained physician Alexa Albert went to

Nevada’s Mustang Ranch to conduct a safe-sex study, but found herself caught up in

the lives of the women who worked there. She ended up staying for seven months.

The book that came out of the experience, Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women, is

the best kind of accessible sociology — full of empathy, detail and the unique

perspective of an outsider who got deep inside.” Nerve

A Pledge Broken. Foulmouthed racist, sexist, homophobic radio shockjock Don Imus pledged to clean up his act in May, 2000 after journalist Philip Noble’s “Imus Watch” series in Tompaine.com documented his repulsive content. Noble returns to see how Imus’ pledge has fared in the ensuing year. Can you guess? How does one of Time magazine’s “twenty-five most influential Americans” get away with it?

State Farm Insurance’s ten most dangerous intersections in the U.S.

Geologist says Nessie just a trick of tectonics: ”One can imagine [a] peasant feeling a rumble next to the shores of Loch Ness,

turning to the water, and seeing roiled water and bubbles. It is not

likely that the peasant would conclude that he had witnessed a manifestation of

plate tectonics – more likely a sea monster.” [Science knows everything and only backward simpletons believe in the uknown.] Boston Globe

Thomas Book Author Says He Lied in His Attacks on Anita Hill. David Brock’s high-profile repudiation of his right-wing unscrupulousness more than makes up for the former leftie, now-rabid DavidHorowitz! Brock confesses his character assassination of Anita Hill and a witness who corroborated her allegations of harassment by Clarence Thomas… and he had Thomas’ help in the disinformation campaign. New York Times

Now showing: beta of Google image search; returns thumbnails of the ‘hits’ for your search.

Honey, I kidded the shrink… A brief history of the intertwining of psychoanalysis and cinema on the occasion of the Guardian-Observer‘s psychoanalytic film festival.

Results of the Illuminated Keyboard Competition are in. The Register

Virtually human — “I’d like to

subject it to carcinogenic materials. I think you

should be able to give it a suntan or a blister. I’m serious. I

mean, you should be able to cut it. You should be able to have

it cough up a hairball if you want to.” Disappointingly, but realistically: ‘…even the most ambitious modellers are steering clear of

one important organ: the brain. “There is every possibility of

modelling a human neuron, and perhaps a cluster of neurons,”

explains (its developer), “but modelling the human brain is outside the

realm of our reality.” ‘ New Scientist Still, might ethical dilemmas arise about whether to afford it the protections customarily reserved to things we call alive?