November 2001

• Beatle George Harrison dies.
• Last barges head south on the Mississippi.
• Excite@Home could unplug service Friday. Hey, that's today. But then if it matters to you, it's probably already too late. Comcast, Cox Hurry to Build Networks. Besides, the DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems. Yet another reason People are moving back to dialup, perhaps?
• I was surprised to find out that Macintouch does not support robots, last Friday evening. Even those designed to reduce the load on Ric's server. But I've gotten the message loud and clear:

  			I don't support any kind of robotic access to MacInTouch, including
  			change-monitoring.  Please see http://www.macintouch.com/policy.html
  			and be advised that violation of those terms can result in the elimination
  			of access.

  And that's why Macintouch isn't in my Morning News anymore, since I wrote a robot that scans the sites pointed to in that file to see what's been updated in the morning. Robots have been bad, so we all have to put our heads on our desks now and think about the problem. Or just move on.
• Beware of The Poster Police and the chilling effect they have. Especially if you happen to think for yourself.
• Day after Thanksiving not biggest shopping day of the year. And I'm really tired of the popunder ads that snopes feeds me. Anyone know of a better urban legend debunking site?
• Would this be a good way to improve Police Response Time? Seems like it'd work.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 30, 2001     November 30 in History

• Here comes the snow. We had a surprisingly warm November here in Minneapolis. Things are getting back to normal today. There's already a couple inches on top of the cars and trees, but the streets are still clear. That won't last....
• The growth of Twin Cities sprawl is moving farther out. Sigh. Part 2: Wrestling with growth, mostly about Ted Mondale over at the Met Council.
• 'Harry' and The Nation Of Dweebs asks Where are the kids who are supposed to be beating up dweebs who like Harry Potter?
• OPEC v. Russia describes at least part of the reason why you can find gas for less than $1 per gallon in Minneapolis.
• A study shows that Sex and money are incompatible. You can have one or the other. And it was reported in Pravda, so it must be true. Bummage.
• Google vs. AllTheWeb compares search engines. All I know is that the company behind AllTheWeb was hammering my ftp server so hard that I had to blackhole them for a while, but Google's always been well-behaved.
• Bert Is Evil: An Interview From bin Laden's Cave. Muppet Tells All!

Weather in Minneapolis for November 26, 2001     November 26 in History

• 13 percent of turkeys are bad. Full of sam & ella. That's good eatin'.
• Today is Buy Nothing Day. Personally, I cut way down on my shopping in various stores as they put up the Christmas decorations (starting well before Halloween in some cases). Once the decorations go up, I only shop there only if I have to because it's the only store carrying the item I need. I'm happy to shop somewhere that costs more that doesn't slap me in the face with Christmas decorations in October.
• Mastercard baseball tour ripped off from real fans. Fargin bastages.
• Michael Fraase is having More fun with spammers. And I can finally read the article, because the slashdot effect seems to have worn off. Personally, I just route most of the spam through SpamCop, but he seems to have more energy than I do.
• Is there a Fannish Accent among folks who attend cons? Sure looks like it, especially to a mundane speech therapist.
• A Suburban D. C. County outlaws smoking in your own home, if the smoke wafts across a property line. Okay, that makes a kind of sense, but how about we do the same enforcement on cars, buses, leaf-blowers, power plants, flatulent people, and Congress-critters. Or have I repeated myself?

Weather in Minneapolis for November 23, 2001     November 23 in History

• Who is stuck in the Dark corners of the net? Quite a few people, apparently.
• Inside Salon Premium tells about how Salon decided to start charging for content. And it seems to be working.
• They Rule lets you map the relationships between boardmembers of large companies. Fascinating.
• Every now and again I spend a lot of time listening to The Beat Farmers. And I found The Last of the Grown Men: The Life & Death of County Dick Montana which is a pretty good article.
• People are moving back to dialup from broadband. Why? Times are tough and it's a luxury. Oh, and most of the companies who provide broadband suck. Or are MSN, but I repeat myself. And Napster's gone, and people have already downloaded all the good music.
• A Windows XP Billboard in the UK has been repaired. I like it.
• Wacky String Explosion at JPL Damages Car. I wonder if they'll be banning Wacky String from airplanes now.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 21, 2001     November 21 in History

• I went out early Saturday morning to look at the Leonids. They were pretty good, since I could still see them in spite of the incredible amounts of light pollution in Minneapolis.
• Police State: If the United States is at war against terrorism to preserve freedom, a new coalition of conservatives and liberals is asking, why is it doing so by wholesale abrogation of civil liberties?
• The Way We Were by Edgar J. Steele is a good rundown of the state of the Bill of Rights.
• Is the Shrub Seizing Dictatorial Power? It sure looks like it. Hello Police State. Bush going too far curtailing our rights
• James Lileks on the war. The citizens of Aghanistan are saying, "History be damned. Let's dance.". He also blasts Noam Chomsky a bit.
• All-Negative, All the Time. Heh. I hope it's a parody....
• Don't get too excited about the fall of Kabul: Taliban Withdrawal Was Strategy, Not Rout. Or was it? Who can tell with all the misinformation? And remember that Victory Gets Complicated.
• Apparently the governement is starting to Destroy The Reports. Information that might be useful to a terrorist can't get into the public's hands.
• Remember how I mentioned I should update my The state of the Bill of Rights page? Maybe Dave Winer will pick up the slack with his What will become of freedom? directory.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 19, 2001     November 19 in History

• I grumble a bit in MacMall loses a customer. Someone should whack them with a clue-by-four. I asked Doc Searls if there was a Cluetrain Hall of Shame, but there isn't. Apparently TDCRC's Iceberg Award is the spiritual successor, but that's not real active either.
• I've been taking more trike rides lately. The weather has just been too darned nice for November in Minnesota. I wish I had some software to help me generate maps of the routes I've been taking. It wouldn't have to be a super-detailed map, bit it'd be kind of cool to watch all the various bike trails around town get covered up by rides.
• You might be from Minnesota if....
• There are supposed to be Jaw-dropping Leonids this weekend. Maybe some of the bits will land on MacMall.
• Is this baseball Contraction? Or a new Era of Post-Expansionism?. A lot of the symptoms are looking the same as the last time baseball contracted in 1899. Things were stable until 1961. Why? Because the new-fangled concrete stadiums were too expensive for teams to build until Minnesota built a stadium to lure the Senators here.
• How vital are the Twins? Well, they generate about $65 million in revenue in a $160 billion state economy. Lawyers debate Twins' legal position since there's a possibility they could be forced to play here next year.
• The rush is on to save the Twins, including some Senators trying to limit baseball's antitrust exemption. Paul Wellstone hopes to enlist Congress in fight to keep the Twins in Minnesota.
• Which teams to eliminate in MLB contraction. There are 28 teams that should go before the Twins and Expos.
• Selig to Minnesota critics: Look in the mirror. It's all our fault for not building a new stadium.
• Hmm. Maybe Major League Baseball needs a good thumping with a clue-by-four, too.
• A friend had some fun Installing Mac OS X.1. It's gonna be a busy day for the clue-stick.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 16, 2001     November 16 in History

• Bin Laden: Yes, I did it. Well, there it is, then.
• The Sims Take on Al Qaeda. A new type of wargame is being developed to figure out how to handle terrorist networks.
• What if today's media covered World War II? This shouldn't be so funny. Or sad.
• You know you are a superpower when... you can go to war without any belt-tightening.
• N.Y. Wildlife Group Calls Hunting a Terror Threat.
• Clash of Wills over protest at Ft. Benning. The School of the Americas (our own terrorist training center) has been renamed, but is still operating. Protests there are deemed unpatriotic. And here I've been told we're supposed to be fighting terrorism and those who support it.
• U.S. Will Monitor Calls to Lawyers. Rights? Well, it's only terrorists who have to worry, right?
• What will you do about national I.D.? It's another step towards a police state.
• This just in. Bush won.
• I really need to find the time to update The state of the Bill of Rights. It's in much worse shape since the USA/PATRIOT act became law.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 12, 2001     November 12 in History

• The big news this week seems to be contraction in baseball. And it's got the politicians talking again. Hatch plans suit to stop Twins contraction and Wellstone plan would revoke antitrust exemption. It's pretty hard to argue that the baseball owners are participating in any kind of sport anymore. It's just a business.
• Laid-Off: A No Nothing Production. Wow. I like it. And so does everyone else, apparently. Ditto for Unemployed Theo.
• This week, I got my second small furry visitor of the fall. First one succumbed to The Better Mousetrap when baited with peanut butter. This one was able to eat the peanut butter without triggering the trap four times before its luck ran out.
• Utah Brewers have unleashed Polygamy Porter on the world. The slogan? Why have just one? Olympic brew-haha over polygamy comes to head has more.
• In Digital photos 'endanger the past', photographer Jayne West argues that news organizations using digital photos are losing the context provided by the other images on the same roll of film. I think the assumption is that digital photographers do a lot more editing (deleting) of photos in the field. I'm not sure if that's a good assumption to be making, since 69megabyte flash-cards for digital cameras cost like 23 dollars (yes, the numbers are made up - what was your first clue?).
• I've added a recipe and a few more trike rides.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 9, 2001     November 9 in History

• Have you felt the Chilling Effects of Anti-Terrorism yet? You will. An Intelligence Giant in the Making is going to be able to snoop on you at will.
• Matheson seeks ID checkpoints at U.S. airports. There's a word for people like Rep. Matheson. That word is fascist.
• The National Guard patrols Golden Gate Bridge. The last time I remember seeing soldiers stationed on a bridge was in Hungary in 1981. I seem to recall something about soldiers being there proof of some sort of evil empire.
• EFF Analysis of USA PATRIOT Act (Oct. 31, 2001). Read this closely. And then be afraid.
• So the feds are carrying on A Deliberate Strategy of Disruption against possible terrorists. Never mind their rights.
• The only good news is that the federal government is so incompetent even though the CIA was meeting with bin Laden last July, he's still walking around.
• Finally, in case you've been hiding under a rock, the Diamondbacks win World Series. This year's Fall Classic was pretty darned good ball. Four games won in the ninth (or later) inning, seven games. Wow.
• Oh, and I wrote up some trike rides I took, one with a couple pictures.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 5, 2001     November 5 in History

• I added some photos to my set of trike pages.
• Well, I guess it has been ten years since the halloween blizzard of 1991. Man, that was a shitload of snow. I shoveled my car out on Friday, trying to get to work to get my paycheck (made it to work, but the accounting folks who were supposed to give me the check didn't), later on Friday to get into the driveway, and again on Saturday morning to go to the bar for breakfast. I'm so glad this year is a bit milder.
• Cleaning The Fucking Kitchen For Dummies was the number one link on Wednesday in the Daypop Top 40 Links. For good reason. I sometimes wonder how many people can't read Dave's Picks because I link to things like that. And type words like shitload.
• Survival Research Laboratories is at it again. This time, they're testing a Flame Hurricane. Seems you could hear it from 5 miles away, and that was without the flames. Thanks to Aaron for pointing it out.
• So our local fear-mongers are at it again. Anxiety / It surrounds Americans today is their take. Is it any wonder Average Americans Frustrated with Press? Maybe the press ought to get the hell out of their newsroom and briefings and actually talk to some people, but this sort of editorial makes me want to stick my head out the window and yell I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!
• Votes are lined up to eliminate Twins. It'd be a real shame for Minnesota to lose the Twins, but I can't see Carl Pohlad turning down $250 million to close up shop. Then again, this article comes from Sid Hartman, who's pretty much the official mouthpiece of the Twins, so who knows how accurate the article is.

Weather in Minneapolis for November 2, 2001     November 2 in History