do you remember the time?

do you remember when i used to post on this thing all the time... and by all the time i mean maybe once a week? yeah. that was the best. for anyone who actually still reads this thing, i'm headed to new zealand on the 9th. hip hop hooray.

i got a couple of my first palgrave jackets back from the printer and, i'm not gonna lie, they look pretty sexy. thumbnails here and here.

this bullshit in the middle east is out of control. as my cousin pointed out yesterday, we've successfully created a crescent of shiite controlled countries surrounding israel, so there's really nothing to stop arms trafficking between iran and hezbollah stationed in lebanon. well done u.s., for taking out saddam and completing that nice little trade route. and well done israel, bombing both a u.n. station and 50+ refugees. i read in the post today that over 500 lebonese have been killed, most of them civilians. this isn't justice. it's revenge.

Man moves things with brain.

A paralyzed man with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to control a computer, a television set and a robot using only his thoughts, scientists reported yesterday.
-NYtimes.com (courtesy of Claire)

The hell? If this doesn't result in a cyborg army snuffing out the human race, I don't know what will.

Cyborgs are cool.

achenblahg

Joel Achenbach's Sunday piece about blogging and journalism is pretty good. Here are the first paragraphs:

"In the news media there is much talk of "interactivity," of breaking down the wall between journalistic producers and consumers. No longer will the news be proprietary to a professional elite that attempts, in an Olympian voice, to speak down to the unwashed masses. Instead, everyone will be an equal, fully respected partner in the news process, including nitwits, fanatics, the extremely daft and the recently straitjacketed.

"I'm all in favor of this, as I have a blog, with many excellent commenters, some of whom comment on the comments of other commenters and manage to develop, over time, a kind of cult following of their own, such that the readers of the blog tend to forget all about the writer to whom the blog technically, in an old-fashioned sense, "belongs." Which is fine! Into the future we go! My feelings aren't hurt. We all know who's actually getting paid around here. Paid. Paid. Not to rub it in. Paid."

Most of it is old hat, but it's entertaining and the last paragraph is an unexpected, but welcome, tack off course, revealing the larger implications of the blogosphere on public discourse.