Went to the protest today.

It was quite a demonstration; much larger than I had expected. I can't imagine what the republican convention will be like this summer. More pictures to follow.

Oh...my...God. A goatse pumpkin. I have seen everything, my life is complete.

Mary Ellen Mark is doing a seminar at ICP on "Portraying People." Very cool. I think I'd like to take that.

Cool. This interesting article about Sports Illustrated's digital photo workflow points to this page, where SI makes recommendations about camera settings for some Canon and Nikon digital SLRs.

Nice.

Chris is going wacky with Garage Band.

POTD

I just walked past her on the street. I had just purchased some soup. How terribly exciting.

Gavin Sheridan, a writer in Ireland, has been threatened with legal action by John Gray, author of the poop, er, pop-psychology book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus."

Mr. Grey publishes his books under the name John Gray, PhD. His academic credentials, however, have come under question repeatedly. Mr. Grey lists B.A. and M.A. degrees from Maharishi European Research University, and a PhD from Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. These schools have the reputation of being diploma mills; in fact, the "university" in Iowa, whose specialty seems to have been teaching levitation, is now defunct. Yes, you read that correctly. Levitation.

I suppose that is one way to get from Mars to Venus.

Gavin Sheridan recently drew attention to this fact, and has been served (via e-mail) with a Demand for Correction; a threat of libel suit. In what seems to be typical of modern legal representation, Mr. Grey's attorneys have not brought claims against others who have questioned the validity of Mr. Grey's credentials or of the granting institutions.

I'm not sure whether or not men are from Mars, but I'm fairly certain that many lawyers are complete assholes.

No way. William Hung, that insane person who performed "She Bangs" on American Idol, has released an EP. I can only find this on the iTunes music store right now, but that is very strange.

Inspiration - EP (iTunes Exclusive) - William Hung

Inspiration - EP (iTunes Exclusive) William Hung Release Date: March 17, 2004 Total Songs: 4 Genre: Pop Price: $3.96 Copyright 2004 KOCH RECORDS

[iTunes 25 New Releases]

This morning I was reading the story of Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel. Boyfriend and girlfriend, Mieth and Hagel immigrated from Germany to America in 1929. They became two of the more important photographers to document the indigent and immigrant worker populations in the years during and following the depression.

While they produced some stunning photographs, it was their lifestyle that made me think. Otto Hagel took a job as a deckhand on a freighter, and jumped ship once he arrived in the United States. From that point, Otto took odd jobs as a window washer and laborer, making his way across the country from Baltimore to San Francisco.

Would it be possible to do such a thing today? Ignore the difficulty of immigration. Would it be possible to live entirely off of the world's radar? Work for cash, pay for everything with cash, yet make a living?

Can a person still exist in the United States without being numbered, cataloged, tracked, and counted?

I may be a geek, but I can look at this for hours. Fascinating and exciting.

POTD

Praying to the Manhattan bus map.

Only God can help you get from here to Murray Hill.

[Please note that this entry is an optional caption contest. Impress me with your wit and / or vulgarity.]

A Hartland man was treated at a Pittsfield hospital after he nailed himself to a cross. The 23-year-old man apparently was trying to commit suicide Thursday evening in his living room, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Lt. Pierre Boucher said the man took two pieces of wood, nailed them together in the form of a cross and placed them on the floor. He attached a suicide sign to the wood and then proceeded to nail one of his hands to the makeshift cross using a 14-penny nail and a hammer.

"When he realized that he was unable to nail his other hand to the board, he called 911,"

POTD

Snowy, snowy day.

Spokane Spokesman-Review: Bush's partial history. Military rules used in 1974 to ground two Washington Air National Guard airmen with access to nuclear weapons also applied to a Texas Air National Guard unit where Lt. George W. Bush was a fighter pilot. Some military researchers and a former Texas Guard lieutenant colonel believe the stringent regulations -- known as the Human Reliability Program -- may have been invoked to stop Bush from flying Texas Air National Guard jets in 1972.

[via Dan Gilmor]

The content industries and their allies are attempting to use the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceedings on the broadcast flag and on setting new rules for “plug and play” devices to assert widespread control over digital and analog media, according to Public Knowledge and Consumers Union.In a March 15 filing with the FCC on the broadcast flag, the groups said, “We have concluded from reading the full range of submissions in the broadcast-flag and plug-and-play proceedings that full regulatory control over all the ways consumers use content is precisely what certain content holders want.” Had such controls been in effect in 1976, when the video cassette recorder (VCR) was invented, “devices such as the VCR, the TiVo personal-video recorded, and Windows-based ‘media PCs’’ would have been drastically hindered on their way to market – if allowed at all,” Public Knowledge said in its filings.

Via PublicKnowledge.org

Fun stuff! See Rumsfeld stammering on Face the Nation.

[via icis_machine]

I was just tele-marketed by some police organization, asking for donations for some fund. I'm wondering what kind of people they get to make the phone calls.

The conversation started out like this:

Telemarketer: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Telemarketer: I know you can hear me.
Me: Hello?
Telemarketer: Hello?
Me: Hello?
Telemarketer: I know you can hear me.

This went on, and I'm not joking, for about sixty seconds. Back and forth. It only stopped because I was getting freaked out, and asked, "But can you hear me?"

Then he launched into the pitch:

"As you know, police officers have a dangerous job. Sometimes they even get killed. We hate that."

We hate that? Shouldn't these guys be working from a script?

What fucking part of the word "today" is confusing?

Right now. The current date. Look at a calendar, find the box with today's date in it. That is fucking "today." Any other date than the current date isn't the same as "today." The concept of "tomorrow" is the day after "today."

I know this is confusing, as "today" is a relative concept, but deal with it. You can do the math in your head.

The current date minus zero days equals today.

I'm continually surprised that some people are able to tie their own shoes.

[Thank you for letting me vent]

Pimps at Sea?

Apple has released an update to MacOS X, 10.3.3, via Software Update. It is a 58 meg download.

Installing an OS update makes me feel all clean inside.

I have noticed that I progress through several distinct stages when working late. I think I'll share them with you.

• Stage One: "Ok. It is going to be a long night." Resignation creeps in as I think of all thing things I won't be doing this evening.
• Stage Two: "Need...coffee" After about 10 hours of working, my blood sugar crashes, and I need some food.
• Stage Three: "Woo hoo!" No one is here late, so I can play Bob Marley as loud as I want.
• Stage Four: "Danger! Danger!" There is a point when I get really angry that I'm the only one here. What am I doing here? Why am I wasting my life if no one else is? I am very irritable when I get to this stage, and should not be approached.
• Stage Five: "What day is it?" Next I start to zone out. I'm just coding by reflex. I don't know what time it is, my name, I don't speak or walk well at this stage. I look vaguely ill.
• Stage Six: "Straight on 'till morning" At this point, I've got my second wind, or endorphins are flowing, or something. Why stop now? I'll just shower in the gym before everyone else shows up in the morning.

Oh, just get the tat, you pussy.

Wearing one of these is just begging for a beating, if you ask me. Not that you did.