The Null Device

2000/5/5

Good technical detail on the latest nasty email virus to affect Microsoft Outlook users; and this one looks like a real bastard too... (WIRED News)

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Francis "The End of History" Fukuyama on Scottish nationalism and the breakup of Britain:

The advantages of union to the non-English nationalities was the access it gave them to the markets and political opportunities of a realm which encompassed nearly a third of the human race--something for which many were willing to trade their right to local self-governance. With the empire finished and Britain increasingly embedded within the EU, the argument goes, the advantages of union have all but disappeared. Scotland can be just as rich as an independent member of the EU. Size used to matter in a world of competitive nation-states, but the world is more secure now, and inward-looking. Ireland and Norway are arguably better off because they're small.

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A good piece on American comedian and 1940 presidential candidate W.C. Fields. (via A&L)

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SRI researchers develop a technology that generates electricity as you walk, with a small plastic generator in your shoe:

The simple act of walking might generate about one to three watts of electricity. This won't power the 60-watt light bulb in your lamp, but it will suffice for some low-power devices. "It might be enough power for you to listen to the radio," says Pelrine.

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Somewhat cynical ad parody about raves. (Warning: parental advisory.)

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Among the graffiti slogans left by anarchists in the wake of the May Day riots, alongside classics like "smash capitalism", was "MP3". (The Register)
Which reminds me of the local lefty slogans painted around Monash University during the HECS/VSU/fees protests; as well as the usual anarchovegoecosocialist classics were the likes of "Smash Microsoft", and "Linux is the best. GNU's for you"

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Being boring: How Gay has become the New Straight in America:

As humorist Fran Lebowitz put it: "Who are now the most square people on Earth? Who are the only people left who want to go into the Army and get married? Homosexuals."
The modern experience of coming out of the closet has been funneled down to a prescribed set of rituals involving a blase soundtrack of disco anthems, a few white tank-top T-shirts, some boots, some unhappy Thanksgiving dinners with the family, a regrettable tattoo, some poetry scribbled in journals. The majority of gay people do not get pummeled or fired or expelled; they emerge a wee bit neurotic and immediately set about shopping.
The only people still preoccupied with gay male sex are the ones waving "God Hates Fags" posters in front of the statehouse, forever transfixed by the clinical details of sodomy, looking as anachronistic as the white people who yelled at black school kids.

conformism culture gay society straight 0

Woof woof, meow meow, don't tip the cow.

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Pepsi will now contain sweeteners made from genetically-modified corn. (WIRED News)

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