http://www.moonfarmer.org/ Embedded in my pigmentation en-us Weekly Standard In fact, the "right" kind of intelligence--call it Upper West Side smarts--is in some ways more tyrannical than the old Upper East Side, world-at-their-feet arrogance bred in "the best" prep schools three generations ago. While the Andover kids were at least taught manners and noblesse oblige, today's aspiring intelligentsia (especially in the bigger cities) too often learn that bright makes right. To wit: A jeweler I know brags that his 9-year-old son, away at overnight camp, mouths off to the counselors--"because he's so much smarter than they are." A friend can't decide whether he'd prefer his brilliant but... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_04.php Lawrence Lessig We have launched a petition to build support for the Public Domain Enhancement Act. That act would require American copyright holders to pay $1 fifty years after a work was published. If they pay the $1, the copyright continues. If they don't, the work passes into the public domain. Historical estimates would suggest 98% of works would pass into the pubilc domain after 50 years. The Act would do a great deal to reclaim a public domain.This proposal has received a great deal of support. It is now facing some important lobbyists -- opposition. We need a public... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_03.php Zug So my question was, how crazy would I have to make my signature before someone would actually notice?... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_03.php Economist.com | Economics focus Technological progress is not the only reason why spectrum markets would be a second-best solution, Mr Benkler argues. For one, they are likely to come with high transaction costs. If spectrum is priced efficiently in an increasingly dynamic wireless world, the necessary overhead in network management and metering is likely to be quite costly. Innovation could suffer as well: rights holders could ignore technological improvement just because it does not fit their business model. With spectrum as commons, anybody can innovate, as users do on the internet.... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_02.php Yale Book of American Verse "Thus much is saved from chance and change, That waits for me and thee; Thus much—how little!—from the range Of Death and Destiny."... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_02.php The Globe and Mail The officers said a CSIS mole was part of the conspiracy and may have been told to back away from the group a few days before the 1985 explosions to ensure that CSIS would not be implicated in the deaths.... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_02.php WSJ.com So protective is McDonald's of the character's mystique that men who play Ronald are never to admit that they do. Ronalds in costume aren't to say who they are in civilian life. That rather annoyed Craig A. Oatten, a police chief in Michigan, when a Ronald, in full red-and-yellow regalia, got into a fender bender near Saginaw a few years ago. Asked several times, the Ronald steadfastly refused to give his name for the police report.... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_06_01.php Yahoo! News ''Pitchers are saying, 'Enough is enough,' '' San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean says. ''Pitchers have been giving away the inside part of the plate for too long. Now they want it back.''... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_31.php Metropolis Magazine | June 2003 Mitlin holds up a large piece of metal with corrugated curves. "I can only do this with the formulas that Haresh gives me," he says. "There's a whole new body of shapes and forms that have come out of his work that allows us to do things that have never been seen before. It's opened up the design palette enormously."... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_31.php The Courier Mail: [26may03] THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_27.php wankholidaymonday.co.uk Armresty International announce a day of autoerotic arrest in respect for the blind. It's very simple. Just divert finances away from masturb-aids (e.g porn, warm fillet steaks) to the RNIB's donations page for one day.... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_27.php Slashdot DrLudicrous writes "The NYTimes is reporting that the platinum-iridium standard mass for the kilogram is shedding at an appreciable rate -- at least compared to other reference masses. The Pt-Ir cylinder is kept in France, and measured annually, and the slight discrepancy is important because the kg is an SI base unit- thus other quantities such as the Volt are based on it. A new standard is being sought- the two frontrunners are counting the number of atoms in a perfectly spherical single crystal of silicon, and another technique uses a device known as the Watt balance."... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_27.php Economist.com | The beauty business The emerging beauty industry played on the fear of looking ugly as much as on the pleasure of looking beautiful, drawing on the new science of psychology to convince women that an inferiority complex could be cured by a dab of lipstick. Even then, ruthlessness and outright quackery lurked behind the façade. On launching her famous eight-hour cream, developed for her horses, Arden quipped: “I judge a woman and a horse by the same criteria: legs, head and rear end.”... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_26.php revoketheoscar.com Bowling for Columbine violated the Academy's own rules. These limit the documentary competition to nonfiction films. Bowling isn't nonfiction. Whenever it was necessary to his theme, Moore invented facts, fabricated events, staged scenes, or doctored the depiction of what actually happened. When Heston, for example, gave a mild and concilliatory speech, Moore simply edited the footage (and inserted footage from a different speech a year later) to make it sound arrogant.... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_26.php spacetoday.net Even though either option could have been too risky to carry out, their existence contradicts earlier claims by NASA officials that there was nothing they could have done to save the crew. Gehman said those rescue options make decision by NASA not to seek spy satellite images of the shuttle "even more ominous."... http://www.moonfarmer.org/archives/2003_05_26.php