I had a nice time last night, spent some quality chat with the one I care about, and only suffered as a result of some tech troubles through the course of the night. Ol’ ICQ seems to be more troublesome these days than normal…weird connections not making it, or resources being grabbed and not released. Fortunately there are workarounds for that sort of thing, reboots, alternate methods, whathaveyou. Aside from those troubles, it was sweetly pleasant, more comforting than it’s been in a while. I got some good confidence going, and that’s a great thing.

I’m functioning on a different level, and it’s about time it kicked in. 🙂 it’s fantastic what besos and reconnecting words can do. more spring in my step, and made walkies nice this morning.

At about the same time as New York was pointedly asking when they might expect a check, many of America’s largest corporations were receiving millions of dollars in refunded taxes from the last 15 years. This was sold as a shot in the arm for the economy. With more cash on hand corporate America would produce jobs and we’d head off that recession. Uh huh. You know corporate America, when they get extra cash they don’t turn it into executive bonuses, they make jobs.

The “incentive” plan would produce over 170,000 new jobs according to the White House. Um, do the math. Those 170,000 jobs would have a salary of 2.5 million apiece. Well, OK… I’m cheating and not including health benefits.

Just days before Enron filed for bankruptcy and laid off 4,000 people, it paid out $55 million in bonuses to about 500 employees. Those lucky 500 were “key people” that would be needed to get the company back on it’s feet when the situation changed. It was, uh, an *incentive* for them to stay. Yeah, that’s it.

This is the way it has always been. Insiders prosper, outsiders get hosed. The insiders could be born that way by carefully choosing their noble ancestors. The insiders could bludgeon they’re way to the Big Table by being more violent and sociopathic than their neighbors. Hmmmm. Must be noble blood, look how far he’s come.

Or maybe society has evolved beyond that stupid class-conscious nobility thing. I mean, we still need insiders and outsiders, but now anyone can buy their way to the Big Table. All you need is umpty gazzilion simoleons and you’re there. Anyone that is willing to work hard enough can get that. Much better than some system where just because your Dad was something you automatically become important too.

Now here’s the thing. Work with me here because it’s subtle…and do me a favor and don’t assume what I’m railing about is some feeble-minded CapitalismSocialism, poor people goodrich people bad thing. I’m back to the Root of All Evil and virtualization.

Look at all the misery that can result from numbers going up or down. At one level of perception real airplanes smashed into real buildings and killed real people. But there is a virtual reaction to that reality by a bunch of numbers plummeting because of projected perceptions. Then real people lose their real jobs to make the numbers go up again. We read about all these millions and billions of dollars whizzing around and changing hands, but are there trucks pulling up to a corporate HQ with bundles of cash? And even that would be another symbolic transaction.

At one time a noble would have to get some thugs together to kick people out of their homes, a lot of thugs if there were a lot of neighbors. At one time someone wishing to gut the treasury and move on would have to get wagons and horses and hire laborers. And even that would be a symbolic theft, because he wouldn’t be stealing a castle and food and servants and baubles and bedtime companions, he’d be taking gold… He’d have to hire a bunch of warriors to go with him so that he could keep it, and he’d have to pay some exceptionally well so that they’d keep an eye on the others.

Point the folks to things like this horrific series of police mugshots of a Hollywood prostitute/junkie over a ten year period (related: another series; related, but different: Lincoln Clarkes’ Heroines Project).

Drat… looks like most of the links are dead now. (as of 12/7/03)maybe via http:// web.archive.org ??

Point the folks to things like this horrific series of police mugshots of a Hollywood prostitute/junkie over a ten year period (related: another series; related, but different: Lincoln Clarkes’ Heroines Project).

Drat… looks like most of the links are dead now. (as of 12/7/03)maybe via http:// web.archive.org ??

After 10 years, $150,000 and a documentary, Troy Hurtubise is finally going to get to test his armored suit against a bear attack on Dec. 9. I would be remiss if I did not mention that the suit’s construction materials include 2,289 meters of duct tape.

http://www.improbable.com/news/2001/nov/troy-bear.html

Dang, this is something that calls for a live webcast and all we get to see is some guy guillotining his feet instead.

Go Kodiak!

After 10 years, $150,000 and a documentary, Troy Hurtubise is finally going to get to test his armored suit against a bear attack on Dec. 9. I would be remiss if I did not mention that the suit’s construction materials include 2,289 meters of duct tape.

http://www.improbable.com/news/2001/nov/troy-bear.html

Dang, this is something that calls for a live webcast and all we get to see is some guy guillotining his feet instead.

Go Kodiak!

Is Mexican vanilla toxic? Plus: What happens if you microwave the popcorn upside down?
Continue reading a little straight dope… →

Monster Under Bed Is Real
=================================
For a 2-year-old Treemont toddler, the monsters she heard go bump in the night in her room this week were not the product of an overactive imagination. Instead, the monster she told her mother about was actually a burglar who had broken into the family’s home – an intruder who was still hiding in the shadows when her mother came to console her.

Terrorist Attacks Fake Ducks
=================================
A dispute over hunting territory has landed a Muscatine man in jail on terrorism charges…

The argument ended with Roggenbauer pointing his shotgun at the other hunters in a threatening manner and then shooting at their duck decoys, Matthews said.

The Source Of Every Crazy’s Letter, Consultants
=================================
KPMG, an international business consulting firm, prides itself on its “e-business” savvy, and it charges companies boatloads to improve their Web-based businesses.

But this week several website owners were wondering whether KPMG’s Internet acumen was really worth anything at all, as it announced a policy that seemed to breach the most basic freedom on the Web — the freedom to link to any site you want to.

In a letter to a consultant in Britain who runs a personal website that has not been especially nice to KPMG, the company said it had discovered a link on his site to www.kpmg.com, and that the website owner, Chris Raettig, should “please be aware such links require that a formal Agreement exist between our two parties, as mandated by our organization’s Web Link Policy.”

The letter added that Raettig should feel free to arrange this “Web Link Agreement” with KPMG, but that until he has done so, he should remove his link to the company’s homepage.

heh… I put a link to it before, but it’s funny that wired picked it up.

Comic Strip Pulled For Sucking, Not For Espousing Religion
=================================
Beginning Monday, the B.C. comic strip no longer will appear on the daily comics page, though it still will run on Sundays.

The Johnny Hart strip has been the object of more comic criticism than any other. The chief complaint: Mr. Hart not very subtly uses it to espouse his religious beliefs, which readers would prefer he keep private.

It’s not the controversy, however, but the lagging quality of the jokes that led to the move, said Ms. Tuckwood. “We didn’t kill B.C. because of Johnny Hart’s occasional religious cartoons. We don’t mind controversy. What we don’t enjoy is comics that aren’t funny, and B.C. seems to be slipping, so we’re giving it a rest.”

Florida Simply Can’t Count
=================================
Fort Pierce’s closest-ever city commission election isn’t over yet.

A manual recount of ballots will begin at 9 a.m. today at the request of the two losers in Tuesday’s election.

Tuesday night Coke led 865-864, but Wednesday’s recount changed it to 866 for Coke and 863 for Kramer.

“Based on the closeness of the vote and the change in totals, we request a hand recount,” Wallace T. “Toby” Long, Kramer’s campaign treasurer, told commissioners.

Snowboarder Loses Clothing Sponsor; Thinks She Has To Compete Naked
=================================
An Austrian snowboarder who failed to secure a sponsor for her competition gear this season has decided to throw caution to the wind and compete in just a pair of panties and bra.

“Without a clothing sponsor there is nothing else I can do,” the one-time World Cup race winner Sabrina Blassnig told the Austrian extreme sports Web site expeditionzone.com.

Monster Under Bed Is Real
=================================
For a 2-year-old Treemont toddler, the monsters she heard go bump in the night in her room this week were not the product of an overactive imagination. Instead, the monster she told her mother about was actually a burglar who had broken into the family’s home – an intruder who was still hiding in the shadows when her mother came to console her.

Terrorist Attacks Fake Ducks
=================================
A dispute over hunting territory has landed a Muscatine man in jail on terrorism charges…

The argument ended with Roggenbauer pointing his shotgun at the other hunters in a threatening manner and then shooting at their duck decoys, Matthews said.

The Source Of Every Crazy’s Letter, Consultants
=================================
KPMG, an international business consulting firm, prides itself on its “e-business” savvy, and it charges companies boatloads to improve their Web-based businesses.

But this week several website owners were wondering whether KPMG’s Internet acumen was really worth anything at all, as it announced a policy that seemed to breach the most basic freedom on the Web — the freedom to link to any site you want to.

In a letter to a consultant in Britain who runs a personal website that has not been especially nice to KPMG, the company said it had discovered a link on his site to www.kpmg.com, and that the website owner, Chris Raettig, should “please be aware such links require that a formal Agreement exist between our two parties, as mandated by our organization’s Web Link Policy.”

The letter added that Raettig should feel free to arrange this “Web Link Agreement” with KPMG, but that until he has done so, he should remove his link to the company’s homepage.

heh… I put a link to it before, but it’s funny that wired picked it up.

Comic Strip Pulled For Sucking, Not For Espousing Religion
=================================
Beginning Monday, the B.C. comic strip no longer will appear on the daily comics page, though it still will run on Sundays.

The Johnny Hart strip has been the object of more comic criticism than any other. The chief complaint: Mr. Hart not very subtly uses it to espouse his religious beliefs, which readers would prefer he keep private.

It’s not the controversy, however, but the lagging quality of the jokes that led to the move, said Ms. Tuckwood. “We didn’t kill B.C. because of Johnny Hart’s occasional religious cartoons. We don’t mind controversy. What we don’t enjoy is comics that aren’t funny, and B.C. seems to be slipping, so we’re giving it a rest.”

Florida Simply Can’t Count
=================================
Fort Pierce’s closest-ever city commission election isn’t over yet.

A manual recount of ballots will begin at 9 a.m. today at the request of the two losers in Tuesday’s election.

Tuesday night Coke led 865-864, but Wednesday’s recount changed it to 866 for Coke and 863 for Kramer.

“Based on the closeness of the vote and the change in totals, we request a hand recount,” Wallace T. “Toby” Long, Kramer’s campaign treasurer, told commissioners.

Snowboarder Loses Clothing Sponsor; Thinks She Has To Compete Naked
=================================
An Austrian snowboarder who failed to secure a sponsor for her competition gear this season has decided to throw caution to the wind and compete in just a pair of panties and bra.

“Without a clothing sponsor there is nothing else I can do,” the one-time World Cup race winner Sabrina Blassnig told the Austrian extreme sports Web site expeditionzone.com.

You know what I think would be keen? If right in the middle of the Lord of the Rings movie, Skeletor and Hordak suddenly attacked… and then the Masters of the Universe had to come in and save all those hobbits’ sorry butts.

http://www.mariesworldtour.com/

Now, *that’s* a great idea for a journal.

I should make one invoving a trip through Magonia, and it’s environs.

My Squid Suit Brings Isolation, by Brad Eberhard.