The Null Device

2002/5/7

The Axis of Evil grows: Cuba, Libya and Syria are now officially Evil, according to our leaders.

axis of evil cuba libya syria the long siege 2

Only in America: A petition to rename "The Two Towers" to something less offensive.

Those of us who have seen The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring know what an amazing director Peter Jackson is. When I learned that there apparently was to be a sequel, I was overjoyed. However, Peter Jackson has decided to tastelessly name the sequel "The Two Towers". The title is clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center. In this post-September 11 world, it is unforgiveable that this should be allowed to happen. The idea is both offensive and morally repugnant. Hopefully, when Peter Jackson and, more importantly, New Line Cinema see the number of signatures on this petition, the title will be changed to something a little more sensitive.

(via Anton Sherwood's blog)

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In Defense of Scarcity: The printer industry has taken a cue from the copyright industry, and started embedding features in their cartridges whose only purpose is to prevent third-party refilling. Some cartridges now contain chips which authenticate the cartridge to the printer and invalidate it, or shut down the printer, if an attempt is made to refill it. And under proposed US laws, the chips may be "authentication features", whose circumvention carries criminal penalties.

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Looks like Australia is getting its own "anti-terrorist" legislation, giving sweeping powers to intelligence agencies and the authorities, including the power to jail people for possession of any artifact used in terrorism. The legislation will also be useful against dissident groups (such as anti-detention-centre protesters). If you want to do something about it, see this page and contact your local ALP senator. Hopefully Labor will have been sufficiently stung at the polls to not unquestioningly parrot the dogma of "national security" in the hope of not being "unpatriotic".

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Music Theory for Geeks: 1, 2. And be sure to read the comments as well.

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Remember WIRED Magazine; that MONDO 2000 for the masses? Well, they've now got an issue on the future of music, in which they got various musicians to talk about how they work with technology. Malcolm McLaren comes across as pretentious, Jean-Benoit Dunckel (of Air fame) seems obsessed with bootywhang, while Björk sounds, well, Björkish.

air björk culture futurism malcolm mclaren music wired 2