approved links A Miracle of Science Angels From Another Pin Talking Points Memo Roger Ebert The Institute of Official Cheer Fourmilab ToastyFrog Jump! Micronaut Homestar Runner Bob the Angry Flower Narbonic

03.23.03 My God. I've finally found a political cause I can rally behind. For some time now, what is commonly referred to as "middle America" has been depopulating -- specifically, people are leaving small Midwestern towns in droves, heading for the big city. Many of the smallest towns are on the brink of vanishing forever. This is, of course, music to my ears -- but now there's a problem. Someone is pushing a New Homestead Act of 2003 whose purpose is to reverse this trend through tax and loan credits for new-age homesteaders and business incentives to relocate in the country. This must be stopped. Think of the starry-eyed emigrants who will head out to the frontier only to discover that the nearest movie theater is twenty miles away! Think of the agonizing social conformity and lack of privacy that epitomizes small-town life! Think of the children yet unborn who will grow up in the cultural and economic wasteland that is rural America! For God's sake, won't somebody think of the children?? 03.22.03 It feels a bit, well, blasphemous to hear that your nation's army has crossed the river Euphrates. This is, after all, the cradle of civilization we're talking about here, even if its government hasn't been acting very civilized for a number of decades. I would like to think that when all this is over, war will not return to Iraq for a very long time. Those people have been through enough. (Mind you, hearing that the army has crossed the Euphrates is a lot better than hearing they've failed to cross the Euphrates. That wouldn't be good at all.) Meanwhile on the home front, I find that my apartment is now located within a no-fly zone and will be protected by combat air patrols for the duration of the weirdness. Um... I guess that's good. 03.20.03 I am second to nobody in my mawkish patriotism. I just want to make that entirely clear. Here you can read how all this trouble got started. An interview with the man who made a Hollywood career out of impersonating Saddam Hussein. The skinny on Microsoft's last-ditch plan to save PC gaming. I don't think the patient has a chance, but full marks for effort. And here's some news analysis of the results from the Microwave Anisotropy Probe, with speculation on the true shape of the universe and how to establish it once and for all. 03.19.03 How odd. Right up until the last minute, I genuinely thought he was bluffing. Good luck, everyone, and thank you. 03.17.03 Nervous. Very, very nervous. Something tells me I'd better post this link to the Random UN Security Council Resolution Generator quickly, while there's still time. Speaking of fossils, take it for what it's worth, but there are theories that dwarf mammoths may have survived into historical times, and that one might have been presented to the Pharaoh of Egypt. Someone got to this page searching for the phrase "go kicky fast ok". Sorry, friend, I don't know where it comes from either. I think I saw it at Twoflower's LiveJournal. The oldest footprint in the world: 385,000 years old. 03.13.03 Greg Costikyan reports from the Game Developers Conference on the state of the industry. I suppose I should write more about the game industry on this blog, since I actually work in it and have some first-hand inside knowledge about the whole thing (unlike most of the other things I pontificate on here.) Um, I suppose I should probably clean the kitchen too while I'm at it. New you-know-what, you-know-where. You know what to do. Malcolm Gladwell, the smartest man in the world, gives us the skinny on intelligence. No, the other kind of intelligence. I'm going to try to not ramble so much about political subjects on this blog, because it just makes me look like the uninformed boob that I am. I would, however, like to mention that today Afghanistan has its top-level domain back. It's a nice contrast, considering that under the Taliban use of the Internet was punishable by death. Don't let nobody tell you the US never did anything good in the world. 03.11.03 All cars entered in the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne the other day were impounded overnight before the race. I don't know anything about cars, but wow. The sad story of the Avro Arrow, the last fighter jet designed and built by Canada. It was a beautiful plane and the story of how every prototype was deliberately destroyed brings tears to my eyes. The conspiratorial-minded might suggest that the Arrow was killed thanks to pressure from the United States. Although there's no evidence to support that accusation, I could well believe it anyway -- it's exactly the sort of dumbass thing this country does all the time. Oh, and speaking of dumbass things done by this country: So people ask me, they ask, "How can you be so sure there won't be a war?" What with three hundred thousand troops cooling their heels in Kuwait, Rumsfeld slavering at the end of his chain and all. It's very simple, I reply. You just need to look at history, and how the United States has dealt with international crises for almost a hundred years now. America can always be counted on to do two things: a) stab our friends in the back in the vain hope of currying favor with some other people who will always hate us no matter what we do; and b) act against its own clear short- and long-term interests in favor of some hazily utopian scheme that promises nothing and is then swiftly forgotten about anyway. Extra credit c) is awarded the more money and time is wasted in the process, with a double bonus for wasting the money and time of as many other friendly nations as possible. (For further information on these deeply American ways of approaching the world, look up the Suez crisis of 1956.) Spending a year massing troops in the desert, ratcheting tension to a fever pitch, and then giving up and going home would accomplish all of this in spades, and so that's exactly how it will play out. There will be no war. 03.08.03 You know, somebody could have told me it still said "2002" at the top of the blog archive pages in giant fifty-point lettering... Seven warning signs of junk science. Read it, learn it, live it. Micronaut's home page has been added to the approved links at left, simply because they are so damn awesome.

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