Emails from the Edge

A good friend of mine stayed up way too late last night and seems to have been caught in the internet equivalent of a sushi loop. You know, you sit at the bar, sushi floats by in little boats, you pull one out, more comes by... before you know it, you've spent your entire afternoon eating raw fish.

Happily, our friend sent me an email with every new sushi boat she picked up last night, here's the view from our very own internet exploress. (is that a word?)

Ten By Ten shows you the top 100 things happening right now, its a place to get your news. I got stuck here for a while, but then I'm kind of a "news buff."

Just Curio.us I love this one, you can ask any question you like, and have it answered by strangers. It's like your very own Zogby poll, sort of.... here's an example from the site- I ask- what's the best website on the internet? and almost instantly, I get this.

Nice.

WordCount is a place to see a visual representation of the relative usage of words in the english language. You can look up where your favorite words rank. For example, scrotum falls right between secularist and lucian. Lucian? That's a name right? Imagine the headline:

Lucian beaten by Scrotum again!

But I digress, the next one requires a direct quote from our Duke City Diva (turns out that exploress isn't really a word)

okay, and this one searches blogs every five minutes for images beginning with V O R and N, so the images change every five minutes and you have random links to blogs.
Not sure this one is doing anything for me... but thought I would pass it on since I'm on a roll with this.

http://understandingvorn.org/

Oh, you are definitely on a roll my dear.
There were a lot more than these, but you get the idea. The one I like the most is a real work of 21st century art, a beautiful thing to behold: Clock.

We are all on the internet every day, and somehow we only see a small part of it. It's like staying in your neighborhood your entire life because you don't have to leave, everything you need is right here.

Steven Vincent Murdered

If you haven't ever looked at his blog, In the Red Zone, You ought to today. Steven Vincent, a former food critic, went to Basra, Iraq to report on that part of the world. He recently published articles in the NY Times and Christian Science Monitor. Here's a sample from the last post on his blog, describing an interview with a USAF Captain by Steven and Layla (his translator / girlfriend):

And there it was, the familiar Cultural-Values-Are-Relative argument, surprising though it was to hear it from a military man. But that, too, I realized, was part of American Naiveté: the belief, evidently filtering down from ivy-league academia to Main Street, U.S.A., that our values are no better (and usually worse) than those of foreign nations; that we have no right to judge "the Other;" and that imposing our way of life on the world is the sure path to the bleak morality of Empire (cue the Darth Vader theme).

But Layla would have none of it. "No, believe me!" she exclaimed, sitting forward on her stool. "These religious parties are wrong! Look at them, their corruption, their incompetence, their stupidity! Look at the way they treat women! How can you say you cannot judge them? Why shouldn't your apply your own cultural values?"

It was a moment I wish every muddle-headed college kid and Western-civilization-hating leftist could have witnessed: an Air Force Captain quoting chapter and verse from the new American Gospel of Multiculturalism, only to have a flesh and blood representative of "the Other" declare that he was incorrect, that discriminations and judgment between cultures are possible--necessary--especially when it comes to the absolutely unacceptable way Middle Eastern Arabs treat women. And though Layla would not have pushed the point this far, I couldn't resist. "You know, Captain," I said, "sometimes American values are just--better."

It's unclear whether he was murdered by a religious group or militia who didn't like his reporting, or a group of zealots who didn't like him having an Iraqi girlfriend. Layla was shot also, and is now in hospital in serious condition.

I encourage you to take a little time to look at what he died for.

GEEK ALERT

Just warning you, before you scroll down, the next post does not mention any celebrities or American Idol winners.


Speaking of geeks, Clay Aiken announced yesterday that his fans (Claymates) are getting on his nerves and that we should give him a break on the blogs.

Whatever, I still think he's an obvious closet case. Before you reply, CBM, remember, some women are in love with Elton John, that doesn't make him straight.

Apple Computers Become Less Lame

Apple announced today that it's lame computers will have a new mouse, one with multiple buttons and a scroll wheel. I would like to welcome all you apple users into the real world! I have to use an apple at work, it has one button, it makes me feel retarded. I can do less than half the things I do with my mouse at home. I doubt if any of our readers are apple fans, if you are, just trust me, drop it off at the dumpster and get yourself a grown-up computer. An apple is basically an overpriced cd player. Get yourself (or better yet, build) a nice intel-based machine, and if you still need to be a rebel, you can install linux. (Don't forget: Gnu's Not Unix!)

Yes I know you think you have to use one for graphic design. YOU DON'T. The intel machines are every bit as fast as the suped up motorolas you are running on, and you don't have to overcome a childish toy-like operating system to use them.