Plurib.us

This guy lives in Baghdad, and he has a weblog.  It's being updated fairly frequently.

dear_raed.blogspot.com/

We're at war.

"And the poor young man covered his face with his hand; and many a time afterwards, in the course of his life, he shuddered at seeing how much inhumanity there is in man, how much savage coarseness is concealed in delicate, refined worldliness and, O God! even in that man whom the world acknowledges as honorable and noble."

-Nikolai Gogol, The Overcoat
geocities.com/short_stories_...

(thanks to chrisgregory at metafilter.com)

Everyone remembers those old fairy tales, like "Guilty Looks Enter Tree Beers" and "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut."  Right?

justanyone.com/allanguish.htm...

(via memepool.com)

The Museum of Online Museums is why the internet was invented.

coudal.com/moom.php

If you're a hermit with an internet connection, you're probably familiar with this site:

hermitary.com/

"Resources and reflections on hermits and solitude."

The patron saint of circus workers is Julian the Hospitaller, and the patron saint of protection from vermin is Magnus of Fussen.  If you have an occupation, condition, or place of residence, you probably have a patron saint.

catholic.org/saints/patron....

(It seems that St. Magnus can also be invoked vs. caterpillars.  Just in case.)

A superb radio series by Radio Netherlands on the ways in which wars are promoted.  (Needs RealPlayer; each episode is ~30 min.)

rnw.nl/special/en/htm...

From the first episode: "A system which relies on majority consent develops sophisticated methods of achieving it."

An alternative to war for defeating Saddam Hussein--it's a religious initiative, and it even seems reasonable.

sojo.net/index.cfm?acti...

"Anti-war" doesn't mean anti-change.

It seems that you can make traffic better simply by being nice.  A multi-page detailed description, complete with animation!

amasci.com/amateur/traffi...

Longbets is a site where people can make predictions about the future, and bet thousands of dollars that they're right.  The bettors are fairly well known in their fields, and the predictions are interesting. 

An example: By 2010, more than 50 percent of books sold worldwide will be printed on demand at the point of sale in the form of library-quality paperbacks.

longbets.org

Longtime plurib.us readers will probably have no need for this, but for all you neophytes out there, here's a brief tutorial on how to slam-dance safely:

wiu.edu/users/mureg3/a...

Punkrock played by classically trained musicians!  Just last night I was whining that there's no way for a bassoonist to achieve true rock 'n roll superstardom--it seems that I'm just living in the wrong state.

punkrockorchestra.com/main.htm

For those who are interested in the future of computers...  I am about a third of the way through this.  It is largely an unbiased report on the state of things, but he uses some particularly ruthless language with regard to Microsoft.  Also, it cites many internet articles that I have already read.

aaxnet.com/editor/edit029...

This is the best plan I've ever heard for helping the homeless.  It's boldly optimistic, practical, and reasonable.  Do whatever it takes to make this work.

trinityfi.org/trinity/projec...

What's more, the parent organization (The Trinity Foundation) also investigates fradulant tele-evangalists, and also publishes The Door, which bills itself as "The World's Pretty Much Only Religious Satire Magazine". 

thedoormagazine.com/about_the_door...

If you're looking for pictures of celebrities talking on telephones, "Celebrities With Phones" is the site for you.

rtf.kracked.com/cwp.html

A list of US bombing missions on Iraq, from 2000-2003.

ccmep.org/usbombingwatch...

When you bomb a country more than 20 times a year, for more than 3 years, doesn't that mean that you're at war with them? 

On the future of computers:
newsforge.com/newsforge/03/0...

These are some interesting ideas, and I have had some ideas about what a more ideal computer world would look like (but they are not particularily refined).  I think we might benefit by giving programs less freedom to do what it wants with a computer.  I think I want something in between what OS'es do now (e.g. programs running in windows), and a GameBoy Advance playing a GameBoy advance game.

What is needed is well defined.  I want to edit pixels; I want to organize text; I want to view the internet.  I don't need a program that optimizes my hard drive, or goes in any freaky "full-screen" modes.  In fact, I would rather that programs weren't capable of it.

(Disclaimer: this flies in the face of some other things I think.)

A single new icon.  I hope to make a companion to this one soon, but for today I have expelled all my icon-making energy reserves.

plurib.us/1shot/2003-02-...

What the world thinks about almost everything:

people-press.org/reports/displa...

(This is the summary page--the huge .pdf report is a link off to the right.)

I didn't know anything about the "long-range hydrophobic force" until now.

newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?... via robotwisdom.com/

The greatest book review of all time, on the worst book of all time.

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/article...

(The article might require registration--I urge you to lie boldly.)

Overture, a huge internet ad agency, is going to buy AltaVista.  Goodbye AltaVista.

corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site....

dubster.com/cars/ via marusin.com/

The latter has a funny excerpt from the former.  (I went to the latter because it had a URL that reminded me of this one.)

This is interesting (though I don't know why.)
theregister.co.uk/content/59/293...

(And this)
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/...

However, the cuteness of puppies is augmented with cute captions.
babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urlt...

Puppies and kittens, as seen through a fish-eye lens.  They're unbearably cute.  (Note: the text on the page is Japanese--luckily, the cuteness of puppies crosses all linguistic boundaries.)

e-michael.jp/gallery.htm

While its usefulness and versatility is widely recognized by handymen, duct tape turns out to be really bad at sealing ducts.  (A study by the acronym-eschewing Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Environmental Energy Technologies Division.)

ducts.lbl.gov/ducttape/

I have been realizing the joy that is "Right-click : Block Images from this Server" in Phoenix.  Goodbye remotely hosted ads. (The more annoying the ad, the better the chances it is remotely hosted - try it out yourself.)  Goodbye mercilessly graphical (yet informative) message boards.  There is one thing better than an internet where there are no ads: an internet where you get to block ads.  It is enlightenment.

No link!

Googlefight lets you enter 2 phrases, and then tells you which one has more hits in Google.

googlefight.com

In case you're wondering, "old-school" beats "new-school" by more than 100,000.

When Saddam speaks to the west, he is clear and concise.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi...