NRDC Action

The fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be determined in mid-September when Congress casts its decisive vote on the budget reconciliation bill. The Bush Administration is pressuring members of Congress hard to make sure that they stay lined up behind a budget bill that would sacrifice the Arctic Refuge to the oil industry. They are closer than they've ever been before to their goal of plundering one of America's greatest natural treasures. But we can still stop them!

The NRDC Action Fund has launched a seven week campaign to save the Refuge. The first step is to Make Sure Congress Gets the Picture by sending every member of Congress a thousand photos that capture the beauty and spirit of the Arctic Refuge. I just sent photos to my representatives in Washington, and I hope you will too. Go to http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticphotos/photos.asp to send a powerful message to your representatives!

Sincerely yours,

John H. Adams
NRDC Action Fund

Microsoft "Genuine Advantage" Cracked

"This week, Microsoft started requiring users to verifiy their serial number before using Windows Update. This was an effort to force users to either buy XP or tell them where you got the illegal copy and iscalled 'Genuine Advantage.' It was cracked within 24 hours."

For those who labour under the WinOS, before pressing 'Custom' or 'Express' buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:
javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

[It turns off the trigger for the key check.]

Better long-term solution, buy Apple. Soon the same chip set as you currently use, only a better OS. [IMO]

The Hidden 'Hidden Mickey' of the Pasta World?

"Romano’s Macaroni Grill has a heart shaped stone located somewhere in the wall of every restaurant, signifying that the kitchen is the heart of the home."

Guess I'll have to look or ask next time we go there.

Fake, Sad, True


(All of the above.)

GAP Swings Towards iTunes

Apple, Gap to launch iTunes promo, no word on if Louie Prima is involved this time.

This is Fake This is Sad

But I guess part of the 'new reality,' in London (and the world). From the web, taken at the Notting Hill Gate.

Note the time: All Day

Sorry folks, while the sentiment is probably true this does look like a hoax now.

There Won't Be Any More Second Chances.

Less than 50 days from today, members of the House and Senate will cast the final decisive vote on the future of the Arctic NationalWildlife Refuge.

The purpose of this post isn't to ask you to do anything, just sharing
the challenge that lies before the NRDC and it's members. Then, in the days and weeks ahead, the plan of action and calling on you to play a key role in helping save the Arctic Refuge.

Either we will win this upcoming vote or we will lose the Arctic Refuge to massive oil development and senseless destruction. I hope that's not an outcome that you and I can tolerate. Which is why it is imperative that we demonstrate strength, spirit and passion over thenext seven weeks.

It's time to show the Bush Administration, the oil companies and their allies in Congress that we will never let their relentless scheming succeed in destroying America's greatest sanctuary for caribou, polarbears, white wolves and other Arctic wildlife.

As things stand right now, there is a serious danger that the Arctic Refuge will fall victim to one of the oldest political tricks in thebook.

The House and Senate have passed a "budget resolution" that paves the way for oil drilling in the Refuge. However, to complete its raid on the Arctic, Congress must still pass a "budget reconciliation" billthat formally opens the Refuge to drilling.

But the Bush Administration and its Congressional allies are trying to declare the battle over. They are working hard to create a sense of inevitability about the Refuge's fate, hoping to break the spirit of its environmental protectors before the decisive vote inmid-September. Don't be fooled!

Their sneak attack on the Refuge back in the spring carried the day by only five votes in the Senate and a mere three votes in the 435-member House. They're in the fight of their lives and they know it! Our job is to make sure that the American people know it, too, because 72 percent of the public is opposed to sacrificing the Arctic Refuge as part of the budget process.

That's why it is absolutely essential that you join together with NRDC Action Fund supporters all across the nation in an all-out effort todefeat this budget bill.

We will be using each and every one of the 49 days between now and the decisive vote to put pressure on members of the House and Senate tosave the Arctic Refuge.

Make sure everyone you know understands that the final "make-or-break" vote on the Arctic Refuge is less than 50 days away. Make it clear to them that a passionate, spirited campaign over the next seven weeks can turn the most serious threat the Arctic Refuge has ever faced into one of the most powerful victories the environmentalcommunity has ever won.

It Puts the Butter on the Corn

The economics of movie popcorn pricing is the discussion topic of the morning over at Jason Kottke's blog.

Widgets Want to be Free

Yahoo Inc. has acquired Konfabulator, a tiny software
maker that provides a computer platform for monitoring
the weather, stock prices and a wealth of other
customized information without opening a Web browser.

If this sounds suspiciously like the Mac OS X Tiger's
'Dashboard' you would be correct.

The makers (home to that other awesome Mac GUI add-on,
'Kaleidoscope') are no doubt thrilled to be back and
the "free espresso" at Yahoo! isn't going to hurt
either.

Anyone think the future of the computer OS is going to
be decided by Apple, Google and Yahoo?

Water Water Everywhere

Get some free Propel® Fitness Water!

Great White North

For those of you following the saga of the Canadian HP6, today the mailman brought a little (?) bundle of joy.

Santa Cruz beach here we come!

Kirk Anderson, You Rock


Not on his site yet, hope when they are they'll be bigger.

Go Met (Police)

BBC NEWS | UK | London blasts cause chaos on Tube[snip] "Sir Ian appealed for witnesses with mobile phone pictures of any of the incidents to visit the www.police.uk website."

Disneyland's "Nemo" Attraction to Cleverly Mix Old & New

Looks like the answer to "What are they doing with the Submarine ride at Disneyland," has been answered! (Sort of).

Jim Hill reports that for the purists, "many of the attraction's pre-existing settings & set-pieces are going to stay right where they are. And -- yes -- that includes that silly-looking sea serpent."

Take -- for example -- how the Sub's old "Lost City of Atlantis" sequence is going to fit into "Nemo" 's new storyline. Think back to the scenes from that film that were set in the dentist's office. In particular, how Gil, Bloat & the rest of fish who lived in the aquarium used that fake underwater volcano as part of Nemo's initiation ceremony.

A number of the Submarine's pre-existing settings (I.E. The ones in that cleverly camouflaged show building. Which is hidden under the Autopia track) will be torn out. So that there will then be room for the sub's encounter with Bruce, Anchor & Chum (You know? That trio of 12-stepping sharks who kept chanting "Fish are friends, not food"?) as well as Dory's latest run-in with the jellyfish.

Check out the pix over at Jim's site!

Google Moon

moon.google.com

(try zooming all the way in!)

Hello Computer / Goodbye 'Scotty'



"A long and storied career is over, I knew Jim when he started out in Canada and I knew him in his last years in America, so we go way back. My condolences go out to his family."

-William Shatner commenting on the death of Actor James Doohan

Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov on "Star Trek," said Doohan "was a delightful guy. He certainly could be irascible, but somehow I think that added to his charm. He was a person of emotional depth and could love you as well as be irritated with you all at the same time."

Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, Canada and served as a Canadian soldier in the Allied force that landed in Normandy on D-Day in June 1944.

Doohan was shot six times and lost a finger on Juno Beach, but returned to duty to become a military pilot.

A Video iPod and Content to Fill It

"Steve Jobs has spoken with Disney President and soon-to-be CEO Bob Iger about ways to license various Disney content for a video iPod, according to an internal Disney email I have obtained. That could include anything from clips from ESPN and ABC News to short cartoons."

HP6 Update

"2005/07/19 05:28 International item has arrived in the destination country"

w00t!

15 Year Old Reviews Harry Potter #6

Review: In light of dark turn, Harry still brilliant.

Well written for any age!

Salutations de la part d'Amazon.ca !

We thought you'd like to know we shipped your items today via Canada Post Xpresspost USA (complimentary upgrade), and that this completes your order.Thanks for shopping at Amazon.ca, and we hope to see you again soon!

Pour le suivi de cet envoi, veuillez utiliser le numero de tracabilite: CE342791998GA. Vous pouvez aussi consulter les pages d'aide de notre site ou cliquer sur le lien suivant :http://www.amazon.fr/suivi-expeditions

Total cost: CDN$ 34.58. Knowing I might have done a small thing for the future - priceless.

Attorneys Find 'Dykes on Bikes' Patently Offensive, Reject Name

Twice, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the Dykes' application, on the grounds that "dyke" is vulgar, offensive and "scandalous." Patent office attorneys even point to Webster'sdictionary, which says dyke is "often used disparagingly."

"The examining attorney found it to be offensive to a significant portion of the lesbian community," said Jessie Roberts, a trademark administrator with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "And we're also looking out for the sensitivities of the general public more thanthat of a specific applicant."

The federal paper-shuffling might seem superfluous to any Bay Area resident who has heard the street chant, "We're here. We're queer. Get used to it." But "queer," a longtime slur for male homosexuals, isdifferent -- at least in the eyes of the federal trademarkers.

In November, the patent office registered a trademark on behalf of the Bravo Network for the hit television show "Queer Eye for the StraightGuy."

"So what's the difference between 'queer' and 'dyke'?" said Brooke Oliver, the Mission District attorney who is handling the Dykes' case.

"Queer Eye" was supported by a deep- pocketed television network versus a nonprofit group full of working- class women.

[SFGate: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/14/
MNGR7DNPOQ1.DTL]

'Glorious Execution' in Magic

Teller, the usually silent half of the magician duo Penn and Teller, reviews the book, The Glorious Deception, by Jim Steinmeyer. It's a biography of the magician known to audiences as Chung Ling Soo, who Teller says was a genuine enigma.

Listen (Real or Windows Media):
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4750603

For Just $2, You Too Can Get Wise, eh?





From the Greenpeace International website comes the great news that Harry Potter's UK publisher Bloomsbury, "will improve the environmental qualities of the next Harry Potter book by printing it on partly ancient forest friendly paper." Reportedly, this will be the first best selling book in the UK to be printed on such a paper.

Publicity manager for Bloomsbury, Katie Bond, has confirmed that the company has ordered a paper containing 30 percent Forest Stewardship Council certified wood pulp for the printing of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

While this is a positive first step, Greenpeace has pledged it will continue to "toil over their cauldrons" to encourage Bloomsbury to take the big leap for ancient forests and print the paperback edition of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,' and all their other titles, on 100 percent ancient forest friendly paper.

The NY Times reported on 07 July that, "as part of a growing worldwide campaign that is prompting a shift in the publishing industry, environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace, are asking Potter fans in the United States not to buy Scholastic's editions and instead to order the new title online from Canada, where the publisher, Raincoast Books, has printed the book on 100 percent recycled paper.

Scholastic says it does use some recycled paper for its books, including the Potter series, but it would not divulge the amount.

Nicole Rycroft, campaigns director of Markets Initiative, a conservation group in Vancouver, British Columbia said Scholastic was the only major publisher environmental groups approached that rejected outright a universal policy of using more recycled paper.

In the introduction to the Canadian edition of "Order of the Phoenix," J. K. Rowling wrote: "Because the Canadian editions are printed on ancient-forest friendly paper, the Harry Potter books are helping to save magnificent forests in the muggle world, forests that are home of magical animals such as orangutans, wolves and bears. It's a good idea to respect ancient trees, especially if they have a temper like the whomping willow."

The cost of ordering the book from Canada on Amazon.ca is about $2 more, not including potential extra shipping costs, than the cost on Amazon.com.

Free Music From Bloc Party & NPR

From NPR Music Notes, July 2005:

Exclusive: Download an MP3 of "So Here We Are" from the album 'Silent Alarm,' performed during Bloc Party's June 16 concert at Washington's 9:30 Club.

Bloc Party's passionate, often manic, post-punk sound makes them one of the most exciting bands to come out of England in recent years. A download of the full concert is available at NPR.org.

Music Notes is a monthly recap of music-related offerings on NPR.org and sent to visitors who request updates on NPR programming. Please help support NPR by purchasing music through our e-commerce partners.

Have a Blast!

Sure, July 4th is past for 2005 but it's always time to check out some
fireworks label art from then and now. (Caution: some NSFW.)

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/firecracker-labels/default.php

UNDAUNTED

undaunted, originally uploaded by dario.agosta.

'bout says it all, no?

Follow the link for t-shirt buying info....

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_is_Right_pricing_games

Description of every (?) minigame on the Price is
Right.

Did I tell you that we stayed in a hotel right across
the street from CBS studios? Never saw so many people
all in the same shirts outside of a themepark before.

____________________________________________________
Sell on Yahoo! Auctions – no fees. Bid on great items.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

Sure, This You'll Sign

A website that wants to "Feed Lindsay" has gathered over 12,000 signatures.

Diane Duane Podcasting!

Authour of several (good) Star Trek books and the 'Young Wizard' series of books ("So You Want to be a Wizard," etc), is soliciting questions for an inaugural podcast set for an August first release.

DD will answer questions from readers and fans, talk generally about the series, and -- starting in mid-August -- will read material from the new YW novel presently in progress, A Wizard of Mars. This material will not appear "in print" on either of the Young Wizards websites until late in 2005, well after the October release of Wizards at War.

Go to her WizCast for all the info and an eMail link to ask a question or six.

Diane Duane currenly lives in Ireland but interacts on the internet almost as much as J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) used to - i.e. tons.

I'm a Cliche

Not the X-Ray Spex song and not the furniture retailer, this site is
about crates and barrels in videogames. The collection is rather small
but they ask you send your own screenshots to this site.

http://medien.akbild.ac.at/armin/crates_and_barrels/index.html
mailto:crates_and_barrels@yahoo.com

Busses Resume and Thoughts of London

DSCN0083c, originally uploaded by Larsz.

Looks like busses are running again in London, at least according to this post on Flickr.

Took a train in and out of King's Cross station 'round a year ago so can sort of picture the area. (FYI: This is Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Mainline Station.)

Thoughts and wishes to those in (from) London right now.

Take a Stand

It seems about only 390,000 Americans had visited the ONE Campaign site to ask President Bush to stake a stand and put our nation's resources at the front of the fight against poverty.

If you watched just a minute of the Live 8 concert or if you have just a tiny shred of compassion, go here:
The ONE Campaign | Take Action

Boring Postcards from Sweden

Z-mail

If you have been to IKEA then you owe yourself a look at these boring postcards from Sweden.

from memepool

Happy 3rd of July

Stanford University had their big party on the 3rd so we made a batch of sushi (3 different types), loaded up the ol' picnic basket, grabbed some wine and headed over to the Frost Amphitheatre for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and fireworks.

Hope all of you had a blast as well! (No pun intended)

History of Photoshop As Told By GUI

History of Photoshop As Told By GUI

A great collection of screenshots of Photoshop from 1990 up to today, going from v0.63 to CS2 (its ninth iteration).

Girly Man

Bush in a skirt, originally uploaded by Ariel Cat.

Bush decides to come out, explaining that his hostility toward Iraq was mainly based on the fact he never got that part in SF's "Beach Blanket Babylon."

Video: Stella Artois' "Bench" Commercial

Quite possibly the strangest commercial ever made. If you are a silent
movie fan you have to check this out!

http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/1774/

Through a Haze, Darkly

From Ara Rubyan's "E Pluribus Unum:"

The map for Washington DC contains a pixellated section that covers the
US Capitol Building, the Russell and Hart Senate Office Buildings, and
the Rayburn and Cannon House Office Buildings.

Everything immediately surrounding those buildings on the DC map is as
sharp as a tack. Even the White House, the Supreme Court, and by God,
the Pentagon.

But not the US Capitol complex:
http://www.rubyan.com/politics/archives/USCapitol.html

Because It's The Friday Before a Long Week-end

The game designers across the nation are playing is; can they design a logo and get it approved without the client realising it's a penis?

The answer seems to be 'yes:' B3TA : FEATURES : PHALLIC LOGO AWARDS.