7/21/2003 ·  8/ 6/2003
 5/29/2003 ·  7/18/2003
 4/25/2003 ·  5/28/2003
 3/24/2003 ·  4/24/2003
 3/ 1/2003 ·  3/21/2003
 1/28/2003 ·  2/28/2003
11/30/2002 ·  1/23/2003
11/ 1/2002 · 11/29/2002
 9/23/2002 · 10/30/2002
 9/ 5/2002 ·  9/20/2002
 8/10/2002 ·  9/ 4/2002
 7/24/2002 ·  8/ 9/2002
 6/27/2002 ·  7/23/2002
 6/ 3/2002 ·  6/25/2002
 4/24/2002 ·  5/31/2002
 4/ 1/2002 ·  4/23/2002
 3/ 1/2002 ·  3/31/2002
 2/10/2002 ·  2/28/2002
 1/22/2002 ·  2/ 9/2002
 1/ 3/2002 ·  1/16/2002
12/16/2001 ·  1/ 2/2002
12/ 2/2001 · 12/15/2001
11/ 1/2001 · 11/29/2001
10/16/2001 · 10/31/2001
 9/23/2001 · 10/13/2001
 9/11/2001 ·  9/22/2001
 7/29/2001 ·  9/10/2001
 7/ 2/2001 ·  7/28/2001
 5/29/2001 ·  6/30/2001
 5/ 1/2001 ·  5/21/2001
 4/ 8/2001 ·  4/29/2001
 3/25/2001 ·  4/ 7/2001
 3/11/2001 ·  3/24/2001
 3/ 4/2001 ·  3/10/2001
 2/18/2001 ·  3/ 3/2001
 2/ 4/2001 ·  2/17/2001
 1/23/2001 ·  2/ 2/2001
 1/ 1/2001 ·  1/22/2001
12/18/2000 · 12/31/2000
11/30/2000 · 12/ 7/2000
11/ 6/2000 · 11/28/2000
10/29/2000 · 11/ 5/2000
10/11/2000 · 10/19/2000
10/ 1/2000 · 10/ 9/2000
 9/24/2000 ·  9/30/2000
 9/15/2000 ·  9/22/2000
 9/ 7/2000 ·  9/13/2000

Search rbgilbert.com

This is my blogchalk:
United States, Massachusetts, Boston, Brighton, English, Ron, Male, Photography, Nudity.

Got a nice shot of the western tower of the new Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. In the background is the old bridge of death that will go away. Click the image to see the larger view.

Over to your right, near the top of the links column you will see a genuine advertisement for Netflix. It's for real. If you click on that, you'll go to Netflix. If you sign up while you're there (giving them your real and genuine credit card number) I get SEVEN (7) dollars in Federal Reserve Notes, backed by Alan Greenspan hisself. If two of you do it, I get FOURTEEN (14). The progression continues thusly until they get 100 new members from my little site in one month. When that heady moment arrives (September, I expect) the price goes UP! Yes, this is a great country, isn't it?

The downsides of this are as follows:

1. The ad is animated. Sorry. They don't offer any nice sober stationary ads. But this is the smallest, least offensive one they offer.
2. I've agreed to say nothing negative about Netflix. So far, I assure you, I don't have anything negative to say. As soon as I do, the ad comes down and I tell you all about it.

Chthonic (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['thah-nik]

Definition: Dwelling in or under the earth.

Usage: This is the only English word with a silent "c" and "h". However, they return if the word is prefixed, e.g. "The Ainu are the autochthonous people of Japan." Autochthonous [a-'tahk-thah-nês] (or "autochthonic") means "aboriginal, native to the soil, indigenous" but suggesting rights as old as the land.

Suggested Usage: We would not recommend such pedestrian usage as, "My daffodils succumbed to an attack by some chthonic vermin." Rather, it should be used to distinguish the spiritual or celestial from the earthly: "The chthonic imagery of Norine's apartment, which . . . was black as a coalhole and heated by the furnace of the hostess' unslaked desires" (Mary McCarthy, "The Group," Chapter IV).

Etymology: From Greek khthonios "of the earth" from khthon "earth." The PIE root *dhghem- also lies behind the Greek origins of "chameleon" (from chamai "ground" + leon "lion") and "chamomile" (= camomile from chamai + mel "ground apple."). In Latin this root evolved into two words: (a) humus "earth," from which we derived "humus," "humble," "humid", and (b) homo "person, man," from which we get "homage" and "homicide," French homme, and Spanish hombre.

from www.yourdictionary.com

Signed up yesterday for the $20/month [almost] all the DVDs you can watch deal at Netflix. If any of you have experience with them, let me know how it goes. So far, I find it pretty enjoyable building up the list of DVDs I want to rent, but that's the sort of thing that would appeal to me anyway. They claim to have nearly every DVD that's available, and I have been surprised at some of the things they have available, like Birth Of A Nation, frinstance.

Data on CD-R destroyed by fungus in Belize.

Razdumat (Verb)

Pronunciation: [rahz-'du-mêt' (t' = ty)]

Definition: Today's is a Russian word, meaning "change one's mind"—literally, "unthink" or "unplan."

Usage: The prefix correlates most closely with the English prefix un-: raz-vyazat' "untie", raz-vernut' "unwrap", raz-stegnut' "unbutton, unzip". But it may be attached to several interesting verbs whose English correlates do not permit un-: raz-uchit' "unlearn (= forget how to)", raz-ljubit' "unlove (= fall out of love with)," and today's little gem. This is a usage of the concept behind "un-" that English speakers do not exploit.

Suggested Usage: If you are speaking Russian, these are normal words that fit into conversations in any social register, any time the reverse action is indicated. They are quite usual. We thought you might like, just occasionally, to compare English vocabulary with interesting words from other languages. Let us know what you think.

Etymology: From Russian raz- "un-" and dumat' "think, plan", e.g. ya tak ne dumayu "I so not think = I don't think so" and ya dumaju idti v kino "I think go(ing) to movie = I'm planning to go to the movies." Ironically, Dumat' is related to the word for the Russian parliament, the Duma, the legislative planning branch of the government.

from www.yourdictionary.com

Good on a bad day.

Good on a boring day.

Zoom may possibly move to 02135.

Conspiracy for world-wide domination thwarted by La Verkin, Utah, when it bans occupation by UN troops.

Some Iowans in Mason City are bent on deporting Germans, Scandinavians and other unAmerican filth in order to preserve the purity of their vital bodily fluids. Oh no, my mistake. It's only Mexicans. And only those who came recently. I see. Of course. Those filthy immigrants, not those other filthy immigrants. How 'bout we send our Puerto Ricans to Iowa?

"I find it ironic. Because I cannot think of a single commodity in our country that is less controlled than such substances, nor a single 'war' that is as pathetically futile, vaingloriously chimeric and long-ago-lost as is this one. Wrestle as you will, you cannot reform or arrest human appetite. Ecstasy is as illegal as heroin. This is just the sort of run-amok governmental lunacy guaranteed to ensure that those like myself - and more importantly, our children - will write off that same government and those who enforce its drug laws as out of touch, coercive, morally bankrupt and, yes, un-American. Because America is not, or did not used to be, about throwing 16-year-old kids in jail for - all in the spirit of free-market capitalism and entrepreneurial enterprise - home-growing a little cannabis, even as the rest of us chain-smoke our Camels, sip our Absoluts with a twist, and devour our Prozac." Story about joy, self and happiness discovered in Ecstasy. It takes a bit of stamina to read through the misery at the beginning of this article.

North Carolina law enforcement.

Omega 1000 centrifugal juicer

My juicer died suddenly this morning. I've had it for many years. An Omega 1000. It's a "centrifugal" juicer, meaning it's the kind where the veggies are smashed and then flung into a basket that whirls at high speed to (theoretically) squeeze out all the juice. In theory this type of juicer can be highly efficient extracting juice as the longer you let the basket spin, the more juice you get. But what happens in reality is that every additional item you shove into it piles up on top of what went before which is filling the holes in the mesh of the basket, so extraction becomes less and less efficient. (The Juiceman, in contrast, is a "centrifugal ejection" juicer; self-cleaning, but less efficient at extraction.) Depending on what veggies and fruits you're working with, you can get a maximum of 1 to 1.5 quarts of juice from the Omega before you have to take it apart and clean out the fiber. I broke the top on it once and replaced it. I've also replaced th e blade and the spring/screw device that holds it in place. I've been very happy with it. It couldn't do everything, but it could do a lot and didn't take up a lot of countertop space. What broke today was the arm on the left side. It cracked right across at the bend at the top where it clamps the lid. This seems to be unrepairable. There have been a lot of times when I've gotten an off-balance load in the juicer. This is especially easy to do with something like cantaloupe. The flesh juices nicely, but the skin might stay in one piece. When hunks of solid stuff start accumulating around the inside of the basket then it can become off-balance quickly. It might just make a lot of noise, or it might start walking around the counter. There have been mornings when I'm sure my neighbors thought I was doing some kind of loud woodworking in my kitchen due to the roar from an off-balance load. Usually an off-balance load can be remedied by shoving in more vegetables w ith the consistency of carrots (parsnips, beets, broccoli). Only 3 or 4 times have I been forced to stop the machine and clean out the load before I could continue. It had never occurred to me that those off-balance loads put a lot of stress on the clamp arms as they are all that holds down the lid against all that noise which is, I think, the basket shaking up and down. And that's what happened this morning. Half of a 98¢ per pound American-grown cantaloupe from Bread & Circus was going in. It began an off-balance roar which suddenly changed. I saw that the left arm was hanging off loose and I was all like "WTF?!" An autopsy was performed immediately.

Champion masticating juicer

So now I'm thinking I will step up to a "masticating" juicer, something I've thought about doing almost since I got the Omega. The most well known masticating juicer is the Champion. A masticating juicer relies on its ability to chew up and crush the veggies and fruits to extract the juice in one pass. The clear advantage is that there is no basket to accumulate fiber. In theory you could just keep shoving in stuff all day. The drawback would be that if the mastication process was not really powerful, you'd miss a lot of juice that could have been extracted by centrifuging the stuff. But, from all I hear the Champion is pretty good at what it does. Another big advantage is that a masticating juicer is LOTS better at juicing leafy vegetables. In the Omega, any bit of produce that is thinner than the clearance between the blade and the feeding chute is whisked away and thrown up against the side of the basket for centrifuging. Imagine a leaf of spinach. You can spin it all day and hardly extract a bit because it didn't get chopped up the blade. The instructions for the Omega advise that rolling up leafy vegetables improves their juicing. And it does, but not a lot. The Champion juicer, OTOH, has no such limitations. It can also handle the items that are verboten in the Omega: bananas, avocados, and other very soft fruits. These don't centrifuge well and just clog the basket. I've had problems with overripe pears more than once. But neither juicer is designed to do wheat grass. For that you need an "auger" juicer.

L.A. may get public toilets. The usual claptrap of doom and gloom is predicted.

flaneur \flah-NUR\, noun: One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.

Burrows and Wallace show how New York embraced the idea of the flaneur--of the disinterested, artistically inclined wanderer in the city, of what they call "city watching."
--Jed Perl, "The Adolescent City," New Republic, January 22, 2001

The restricted hotel lobby has replaced the square or piazza as a public meeting place, and our boulevards, such as they are, are not avenues for the parade and observation of personality, or for perusal by the flaneur, but conveyor belts to the stores, where we can buy everything but human understanding.
--Anatole Broyard, "In Praise of Contact," New York Times, June 27, 1982

Baudelaire saw the writer as a detached flaneur, a mocking dandy in the big-city crowd, alienated, isolated, anonymous, aristocratic, melancholic.
--Ian Buruma, "The Romance of Exile," New Republic, February 12, 2001

Flaneur comes from French, from flâner, "to saunter; to stroll; to lounge about."

from www.dictionary.com

Velleity (Noun)

Pronunciation: [vê-'lee-ê-tee or -ti]

Definition: The lowest degree of volition or desire.

Usage: This word allows your vocabulary a wider gradation of volition: velleity, volition, desire, passion (for). It is used far too little.

Suggested Usage: Now you have a word to express the lower end of your desires: "I haven't the least velleity for trying chitterlings, knowing what they are." "I do have some velleity to continue this conversation elsewhere," lets the hearer know the idea does not excite you.

Etymology: Latin velleitas from Latin velle "to wish." From the Proto-Indo-European root *wel-/*wol- which devolved into English "well (as one wishes)" and "will." The O-form also appears in Latin: "voluntary," "benevolent," "malevolent," Russian volya "will," and Serbian volim "I love."

from www.yourdictionary.com

40 years of congestion GONE after adding just one lane?! Maybe we didn't really need the whole Big Dig.

Will "The Etiquette Man" man mark the beginning of a much needed change?
And related to that: "To their surprise, the men also found the experience of practicing shooting guns (as research for their unfazed but cautiously worded chapter on weapons use) 'strangely exhilarating' in a Libertarian kind of way. 'I really felt I got the sense of the juice people feel when they hold guns,' Wollock says. 'And the power.'"

New light rail proposal in Kansas City. An unlikely city for light rail due to low density and general lack of real civic pride, this plan is WAY better than the stupid one proposed about 10 years ago which would have done nothing more than connect downtown to the Country Club Plaza. A train from a wealthy middle class area to a dead zone only about 3 miles away?! Dead on arrival! More info here. Official website here.

Are you sick to death of people who blindly rely on spellcheckers, or who don't use them at all, or who just PLAIN CAN'T SPELL?! Then this site is for you! It's time once again for the kids who can spell to laugh at those moe-rawns who can't.

We have to begin to consider how to defend ourselves against aliens. REAL aliens.

• I wish I'd known about this BEFORE my recent visit to NYC.
• and peanutbutterlovers.com

One reader complains that the Log has become "lean!" Well, if it's fat you want, it's fat you'll get, or I'm not a gummint "worker."

Bend Dubya to your will!

Pressure in controled fusion reaction doubled, but scientists unable to push it beyond the 2 second barrier yet.

Cutaway view of DIII-D Tokamak reactor

• Lots more info here
• Photos here

Roy Scheider! We need ye…again!

I am given to understand that things like this do go on.

Thieves using stolen windshield toll transponders have charged about $4,000 worth of food at McDonald's. The future. It just keeps on comin'.

"But this year, Lance was stronger than ever. He showed no weaknesses. I'm finished." -- Jan Ullrich.

On this rest day Lance has an astonishing 5 minute, 5 second lead in the yellow jersey. Standings.

Today on the Big Dig

Local Dunkin' Donuts set to "win at all costs" in the war with Krispy Kreme, which plans to invade the Boston area in 2002.

• Dunkin's home page
• Krispy's

RAGBRAI is underway. Another story here. And here.

Back in the '60s I was a Boy Scout at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in southern Missouri. Today I happened to run across a Bartle Scout Reservation webring with a dozen sites. None of the sites are very good, but if you went camping at "Osceola" you might find them interesting.

• The Bartle Scout Reservation webring
• Maps to and of Bartle Scout Reservation
• Here's a pic of the swimming pool at Sawmill in 1999. It hasn't changed a bit except the style of swimwear for the older boys (staff, probably) has certainly improved! Bartle is made up of 3 camps. Sawmill was the one I was in.
• This is a more realistic picture of life around the pool.
• Preparations for a meal. Hasn't changed one goddammed bit, including the full loaf of sandwich bread on each table. The ceiling fans might be an addition after my time. Those melamac plates are the same, though.
• Same ol' same ol'.
• Yes, we had campfires!
• And, yes, we had ugly, obese men for leaders. If this is an example of heterosexual leadership, I don't know why they're bumping gay men out of scouts.
• Uhh, lesbians are okay??
• The text said this was the "fuzzy-wuzzy skit" but it all looks a bit ambiguous to me.

Important detail in this story is that in California jaywalking laws apply only to streets controlled by traffic lights!

Smart-ass objectivists

"If you teach a child how to use a condom, you're promoting safety -- not usage." If you teach a child how to use a gun…what? From Capitalism Magazine.

This comes from here.

Standing in line at a government agency is SO popular, people will tolerate almost anything to do it. Not for the faint of heart/stomach/nose.

Heterosexuality: A choice, or just a sickness?

The future Chicago episodes of Real World continue to spin out of control.

Homeless life at Logan airport. What I'd like to know is whether she has a preference for certain terminals. I would think the shuttle passengers in Terminal B might be more likely to drop valuable stuff, while Terminal E with its international flights is probably mostly cheap tourists taking jumbo tours.

Well, what would Jesus do? Apparently, call the Coast Guard, if these Presbyterians are any indication.

In America it's aliens who perform "anal probes" on the sleeping. In Zanzibar it's a ghost who sodomizes mostly men. "People claim his presence in a house is revealed by an acrid smell and a puff of smoke." Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that ghost! If you're doing Viagra when you hit the "acrid smell," don't breath deeply.

Urination as a parliamentary tactic in (where else?) St. Louis.

Man urinates into bosses Mountain Dew. Dimwit boss doesn't think the Dew was improved.

"Police say man urinated on customers." There has got to be a little more to this story…from Connecticut.

rodomontade \rah-duh-mun-TAYD or rah-duh-mun-TAHD\ (noun)
1 : a bragging speech
2 : vain boasting or bluster : rant

Example sentence: In Charles Dickens' Hard Times, the arrogant Mr. Bounderby is given to frequent flights of rodomontade about what a hard-working, self-made man he is.

"Rodomontade" originated in Italian poetry. Rodomont was a fierce and boastful king in the circa 1485 epic Orlando Innamorato by Count Matteo M. Boiardo -- and later in the sequel Orlando Furioso, written by poet Lodovico Ariosto in 1516. In the late 16th century, English speakers began to use "rodomont" as a noun meaning "braggart." Soon afterwards, "rodomontade" entered the language as a noun (meaning "empty bluster" or "bragging speech") and later as an adjective (meaning "boastful, ranting"). The noun "rodomont" is no longer used in English, but "rodomontade" is still with us.

from www.Merriam-Webster.com

"Rearden Steel," they call it.

Subways and water mains and phone lines are not the only amazing technologies buried beneath the pavement of New York City.

Due to the incessant drumbeat of demand, I must update Ron's Log. Last weekend I was in NYC. Don't expect a lot of productivity from me this weekend either.

In Los Angeles County, there are nearly 5 million registered cars, but just 80,000 registered motorcycles. Yesterday was "Ride [your motorcycle] to Work Day."

"If they don't [grow cannabis]," said Nizan Hamadeh, an agricultural engineer with the U.N. program here, "they will starve."

To Arby, Best - Garrison Keillor
Some friends are kind enough to remember me even when I'm not around:

Click for a bigger size
Or click here to see a scan of the whole page.

If you are a fan of the Ledges in Vermont, then you should read this e-mail regarding the formation of a "Friends of the Ledges" group.

Gateway to Heaven flowchart

San Francisco's problems with their public toilets.

Looking at the worldwide distribution of billionaires in a nice interactive graphic on Forbes' site. I've made this little analysis comparing Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Massachusetts.

1. Flatley real estate
2. ECM computer hardware
3. Boston Scientific medical devices
4. Boston Scientific medical devices
5. Mediaone cable
6. Fidelity
7. Fidelity
8. ViaCom

ASCII-art

• ASCII-art animals
• ASCII-art dictionary
• ASCII-art webring
• Chris' collection of ASCII-art

     _O_        _____         _<>_          ___
   /     \     |     |      /      \      /  _  \
  |==/=\==|    |[/_\]|     |==\==/==|    |  / \  |
  |  O O  |    / O O \     |   ><   |    |  |"|  |
   \  V  /    /\  -  /\  ,-\   ()   /-.   \  X  /
   /`---'\     /`---'\   V( `-====-' )V   /`---'\
   O'_:_`O     O'M|M`O   (_____:|_____)   O'_|_`O
    -- --       -- --      ----  ----      -- --    -t. pruss
    STAN         KYLE        CARTMAN       KENNY
 

The very beginning of the user interface we know so well today. Film from 1968 in Realmedia. Like Edison's sneezing man.

"Who is Ayn Rand?" I was asked that recently by a friend of mine. A friend who I've known for about 20 years! This made me think I may have been too low-key about Ayn...or maybe it says more about the general state of communication between me and my friend. Ayn Rand was a novelist and philosopher who strongly espoused her love for freedom, capitalism, selfishness, individualism, and intellectual clarity. That's the short of it.

From the Ayn Rand Institute:
Ayn Rand was once asked if she could present the essence of Objectivism while standing on one foot. Her answer was:
     Metaphysics: Objective Reality
     Epistemology: Reason
     Ethics: Self-interest
     Politics: Capitalism
She then translated those terms into familiar language:
     "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."
     "You can’t eat your cake and have it, too."
     "Man is an end in himself."
     "Give me liberty or give me death."

When she was living she seemed to be the lone voice in the wilderness. Now, perhaps because of her, there is wider support (or maybe just tolerance) for her ideas. Norman Greenspan (for example) was a member of her intellectual inner circle in the 50s and 60s.

Most people find her writings very exciting, one way or another. She pisses off a lot of people, and that's good. Those people usually recognize that Ayn Rand is attacking the basic premises of their lives: altruism, religious faith, sacrifice, muddle-headedness. And there are a lot of people whose reaction is "Omigawd! Someone who makes sense! I'm not alone!" I know one person who was neither excited nor disgusted by Ayn Rand, but who just thought that Atlas Shrugged needed to be edited down a bit. Clearly there was no living mind at risk there.

The Ayn Rand Institute is the official word on Rand these days. They're responsible for the movie Ayn Rand: a sense of life which I have on DVD, if you'd like to borrow it.

Reading list:

• Atlas Shrugged - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) This is it, her big novel, the one that lays it all out for you. If you read nothing else by Ayn, read this. Science fiction, soap opera, torrid sex (hetero only, regrettably), civil disobedience, gigantic heroes. And when you've finished try to write a summary while dropping acid. Your life will never be the same. It's over a thousand pages. A few people have rolled their eyes at Galt's speech which presents all of Ayn Rand's philosophy. But I think that by the time you get to Galt's speech you will have such a hardon for freedom and capitalism that it will read like pornography. If not, then you're not trying hard enough.
  
  "Man's life, as required by his nature, is not the life of a mindless brute, of a looting thug or a mooching mystic, but the life of a thinking being — not life by means of force or fraud, but life by means of achievement — not survival at any price, since there's only one price that pays for man's survival: reason."
  
  That's basic Ayn Rand, from Galt's speech.
  
  Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957, hit the bestseller list, and has never gone out of print since. The total quantity sold is fairly impressive, for a novel representing a minority view. It's being made into a mini-series now by Turner. May be out in 2002?? I can't believe her estate would allow Galt's speech to be cut one bit, but it would take a lot of TV time. We shall see how they handle it.
  
  The Unofficial Atlas Shrugged Movie Homepage
  Atlas Shrugged Movie Yahoo group. Just chat. People argue about what actor could be the best Hank Rearden, Dagny Taggart, or even John Galt. Not too valuable, but occasionally there is a lead here on some official word about the mini-series. You will also find messages from people who claim to have actually read Atlas Shrugged, but who assert that you can simultaneously be a born again Christian and embrace the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Uh, back to the books, boys!
  An excerpt from the novel.
  
  
• The Fountainhead - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) Now a movie! Actually a movie for quite awhile. Starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. The book was published in 1943 and has been in print continuosly since then. I know a lot of people who are curious about Rand who pick this up rather than Atlas Shrugged because Fountainhead is shorter and looks more accessible. Don't make that mistake. Fountainhead was written before her philosophy was fully formed and will leave you a little confused. Sure did me. And most people will ask "What about that rape scene?" To which Ayn's answer is "That was no rape." Ayn like it a little, uh, rough, see?
  
  
  
• We The Living - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) An earlier novel, set in the new Soviet Union, where exciting opportunities for oppression and death greet you every morning! Ayn immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 20s. A really interesting thing about this novel is that Mussolini had it made into a film (without seeking proper copyright permission from Miss Rand!) because he thought it was anti-Soviet! When it hit the cinemas of Italy it was obvious to even the average Italian (who was considerably more intelligent than Big Benito) that the story is anti-authoritarian, and whether those authoritarians are fascists, communists, or the Pope in Rome is irrelevant. The movie was quickly pulled and hidden away in the vaults not to be discovered until the 1980s! Now available on VHS and DVD! Thank you Benito. (Amazon link for the movie)
  
  
  
• Anthem - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) Novelet set in a far future time when the ego and singular, first-person pronouns have been eliminated...or have they?
  
  
• Night of January 16th - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) A play written in the 30s. Is occasionally performed.
  
  
• The Virtue of Selfishness - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire books) This is the basic non-fiction guide to her philosophy. It's short. It's clear. It means what it says.
  
  
• Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books)
  
  
• For The New Intellectual - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books)
  
  
• Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) And still unknown...even in Singapore and Hong Kong, but we're doing better.
  
  
• The Romantic Manifesto: - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) Ayn thumbs her nose at the Marxists and other drab people.
  
  
• The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution - (Amazon) Remember the 60s? It's in this book where Ayn lets us know that she considers nice, clean frozen (or canned) vegetables to be morally superior to those slimy, non-standard fresh veggies which have to be lugged home on a nearly daily basis. Sometimes she was just a nut!
  
  
• Philosphy: Who Needs It - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books)
  
  
• The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books)
  
  
• The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books)
  
  
• THe Early Ayn Rand - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) A collection published posthumously by her "intellectual heir" Leonard Peikoff. We all know Nathaniel Branden should fulfill that role, but there was that little matter of the love affair and the cheating and hurt and anger — the timeless story.

• Judgment Day, by Nathaniel Branden - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) where he mostly fesses up for the long, torrid affair that tore apart his marriage and Rand's intellectual circle, but which may have been responsible for the genius of Atlas Shrugged. Hey, win some, lose some. Later revised to My Years With Ayn Rand
  
  
• The Passion of Ayn Rand, by Barbara Branden - (Amazon) (Laissez Faire Books) yes, ex-wife of above, who found shortcomings in Nathaniel's confession and filled in some of the gaps. A much better read! I have it on DVD, too, if you'd like to borrow it. ("Yeah Ayn, take that and that! Bark like a dog! Again!")

• Ayn Rand on Altruism, Egoism, and Rights essay by George H. Smith.
• A more complete list of her books here.
• The basics of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's philosophy.
• Brief bio of Ayn

Information on Spaghetti Beach in Provincetown. This is the recently-legal nude beach owned by the town. This site includes a map!

Click for full size

Very recent news on Spaghetti Beach.

"Teachers Panel Drops Measure on Gay Safety"
Whew! That was close. I was afraid the NEA was about to show more concern for the children they are teaching than for the reliability of their paychecks. Not gonna happen this time! Business as usual with our nation's teachers.

Lunch with friend Geo today at Bangkok City on Mass Ave. As we ate, his eye was caught by a young red-headed man who passed back and forth on the sidewalk at least a half a dozen times. Excitement rose when the man entered the restaurant, but our hopes were dashed to the floor like cheap dishes when we saw he had been waiting for a takeout order, which he grabbed and ran with. Geo wanted you all to know about his embarrassment.

The official site of the Tour de France (English version). The tour starts tomorrow.

Check out the Flash version of the map.

Brixton

"I put Viagra right up there with the polio vaccine." The L.A. Times considers the use of Viagra in the porn industry to be news.

Who coined the phrase "big dig?" Nobody seems to know.

The R.C. church chooses efficiency and conformity over bringing peace to the dying.

It seems Austin, Texas, is getting public toilets, too. But these sound like your standard, nasty porta-potties. Mmmmm! I think I'd rather use the alley, thank you.

Housekeeping day. Sorry for being a lazy ass and going so long without archiving. Things should go much faster now. I hope you've noticed the NEXT and PREVIOUS links I've added at the top and bottom, which will make it easier if you want to peruse the archives. I also moved the webring links from the bottom of this page off to their own separate page. I moved the recommended reading list to its own page, too. I hope to expand that. There are a lot more books I'd recommend. I just haven't bothered to list them. The blue ribbon campaign logo is not gone, but has moved to the bottom of this page.

First amendment abrogated in Franklin County, Ohio.

The C-SPAN American Writers series will be broadcasting a program about Ayn Rand scheduled for October 22 and 26, 2001.

"Indians were useful in World War II because both the gas and the clutch were controlled on the left side, leaving the right hand free to fire a weapon." Omigawd, I couldn't possibly handle it. The quote is from an article on the revived Indian. James Dean rode an Indian.

Albert.com is making available a new search engine demo. Might be good. It found something that Google couldn't find for me.

I created a website just like this one for my condo associatiion, but they nixed it because they felt it was too stodgy.

Interesting: list of stolen art maintained by the LAPD. Among the items 9 personal letters from Ayn Rand to John Hospers! Other artists include Man Ray, Tiffany, Picasso, James Joyce, Dali, Erte and Warhol. For example:

No Hummel, though. Also missing is an Edith Head pastel sketch of Lucille Ball in a 1930s long flowing evening dress for which they don't even have a photo! Oh, no! That one's gone forever!

Complete 1880 U.S. census published on 56 CDs by those Latter Day Saints. The longhand records were transcribed by 20,000 church volunteers. Included in that census are Wyatt Earp and Samuel Clemens.

If you were in Des Moines:
Spamburger giveaway at Iowa Cubs games

Fans at Iowa Cubs games today and Friday can feast on Spam.

The Spammobile, a 25-foot-long Spam can on wheels, will give away thousands of Spamburger hamburgers at Sec Taylor Stadium during the games.

The Spammobile crew will be handing out hamburgers starting at 5:15 p.m. today and 6:15 p.m. on Friday.

And here's something from Nevada, Iowa:
Prisoners pay $41,000 in rent for time in jail

Story County officials collected about $41,000 in rent from prisoners at the county jail during the past year.

Sheriff's officials began a program a year ago for prisoners who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced. The prisoners pay $48 a day for room and board at the jail.

"I feel strongly that someone convicted of a crime and sentenced to serve time in the county jail needs to take responsibility for his or her actions," said Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald.

About $262,000 has been billed to prisoners in one year. Officials have collected about 15 percent, or $41,000, Fitzgerald said.

Iowa law allows counties to charge prisoners room and board fees. Story, Black Hawk, Linn and other counties use the law to generate money that can be used for staff salaries, jail expenses and maintenance.

$48 a day works out to $1460 per month, or $17,520 per year. No word on what they do if the guy just can't pay. I know if I were paying rent, I'd expect to have quite a bit of say in the quality of services I received in return. Don't the Turks or Mexicans do something like this? Maybe I'm thinking of the jails in Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities.

Earthquake humor

Spy museum operated by the National Security Agency.

Smoke it if you got it...in Lambeth.

COSPAS-SARSAT. I never heard of this, but it's been a cooperative venture between the U.S., Canada, France and the Soviet Union/Russia since 1982! Basically you have a beacon in your aircraft, on your maritime vessel, or on your person. Disaster strikes and you trigger the beacon. Satellites identify and locate you and before too awful long the local authorities are there to rescue you. Worldwide, this system has rescued 12,081 peple since its inception.

It's the "M"
And I don't mean "Male." Here it is. Real proof that I am legally permitted to go out and pop wheelies and stuff right there on public thoroughfares.

We get letters. Words of encouragement from a prominent member of the tough young gay intelligentsia in Boston (I have removed identifying information, so you won't accuse me of namedropping).

ronald,

just wanted to comment on excellent month of news and entertainment. i also saw the critical mass and thought - wow where can i sign up and get a tshirt out of it, but you dispelled the truth to me. thanks.i know people who have those jesus's, and they are better people because of it. well they did tell me that i am going to hell tho. i suppose they should know. thanks for the break, now back to studying physics for morons.

"An Israeli, who with one hand clutched a corner of the cot that held the dead man, reached into his pocket with the other hand, withdrew his cell phone, flipped it open and launched into conversation." Cell phone horrors.

"faster than the bus and it's cheaper than a cab. You can't beat it." And the Santa Ana cops are shuttin' 'em down. The explanation: "We don't get a lot of complaints." Why am I confused?

The claim is made that Boston is finally getting public toilets. I'll get you some photos, if it's true.

Review of Des Moines Gay Men's Chorus inaugural performance.

From the L.A. Times

James Ellis; Computer Security Expert Helped Popularize Internet James T. Ellis, 45, the computer scientist who helped popularize the Internet by creating its forerunner Usenet, died June 28 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at his home in Harmony, Pa. In 1979, Ellis and three other young computer scientists started Usenet, a widely distributed messaging system that links thousands of discussion groups involving millions of computer users. Usenet remains in use, although most modern computer users are more familiar with e-mail and other communication systems that have supplanted it. Born in Nashville, Tenn., and reared in Orlando, Fla., Ellis earned bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from Duke University. He went on to work for the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University. Considered an expert on computer security, he was working on security issues for Sun Microsystems at the time of his death. A short history of Usenet.