These days everyone is so enthusiastic about the evolution of the Web, with its free content, interesting blogs, citizen journalism, and the rest of it. Not me. The big problem, as I see it, is the decline in general perspective, which is due to the decline in the popularity of newspapers and magazines.

It all started with the idea of the custom newspaper. I've always been against it. It's been trotted about as a supposed good idea since the birth of the Internet. "You only get what news you want to get" was the sales pitch. But how do you really know what news you want when the story has not been written? Most people who want custom news tend to want news only about their hobby or interests. Should a plague sweep through their city, they probably wouldn't know about it until they were dying from it.

Meanwhile, the public continues to read about what they already know. And they hang out only with like-minded people. There are huge cadres of people who are practically duplicates of each other. They all think alike, dress alike, and go to the same group-approved places.

So the audience goes to the Net to get information—most of it without perspective, and, thus, the days of a wide public perspective of the world are almost gone. I blame these three factors: the Internet; newspapers, for not acting responsibly and instead cheapening their product; and educational institutions. Schools do not teach kids how to use the Net responsibly. Kids need to be shown how to make it a useful resource rather than a source of disinformation and gossip.

"Losing Perspective" - John C. Dvorak

"No other ticket is capable of rallying this nation around a clearer, more unified message of chaos and hopelessness," the candidates said in unison from three separate podiums, each adorned with its own American flag arrangement and personal message. "Together, we will lead this nation into the future—a future where absolute deadlock over even the most minute decisions and total inefficiency on matters of the war, the economy, and the environment will launch a bold new age of confusion and social decay. For America, the only choice is [indecipherable]!"

"This nightmare ticket presents the American people with an unprecedented lack of opportunity in 2008," Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote Tuesday. "For just one vote, citizens will get four years of McCain's brilliant temper, the incredible inexperience of Barack Obama, and the powerful two-headed monster of Hillary and Bill Clinton."

"It will be very exciting to see what they're capable of destroying, " Cohen added.

"Getting three political all-stars together like this is a clear lose-lose-lose situation for everyone involved," NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell said. "By themselves, none would have been capable of uniting the country. But the possibilities of what they could do together to drive it ever further apart are limitless."

I love The Onion.

Onion - Obama, Clinton, McCain Join Forces To Form Nightmare Ticket

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday. She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts.

Palin argued that there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said.

Alaska Will Sue to Block U.S. Listing of Polar Bears as 'Threatened'

This is an excerpt from an album review that I recently stumbled across.

Then I heard track 21. The "hidden track". Oh, my God. Imagine the most beautiful woman in the world, and making love to her, in an open field, during a full blown thunderstorm. That's how awesome track 21 is.

I think he liked it.

Arkani-Hamed is only in his mid-30s, but he has already distinguished himself as one of the leading thinkers in the field of particle physics.

His revolutionary ideas about the way the universe works will finally be put to the test later this year at Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider, which, when completed, will be the world's most powerful particle accelerator.

A theory that has emerged in recent decades that claims to bring some relief to physics mysteries like these is called superstring theory, or string theory for short. While previously, scientists believed that the smallest, most indivisible building blocks of our world were particles, string theory says that the world is made of extremely small vibrating loops called strings.

In order for these strings to properly constitute our universe, they must vibrate in 11 dimensions, scientists say. Everyone observes three spatial dimensions and one for time, but theoretical models suggest at least seven others that we do not see.

Arkani-Hamed proposed, along with physicists Savas Dimopoulos and Gia Dvali, that some of these dimensions are larger than previously thought -- specifically, as large as a millimeter. Physicists call this the ADD model, after the first initials of the authors' last names. We haven't seen these extra dimensions yet because gravity is the only force that can wander around them, Arkani-Hamed said.

String theory has come under attack because some say it can never be tested -- the strings are supposed to be smaller than any particle ever detected, after all. But Arkani-Hamed says the Large Hadron Collider could potentially lead to the direct observation of strings, or at least indirect evidence of their existence.

Colliding with nature's best-kept secrets

This article triggered flashbacks from PhreakNIC 11.

When I wake up every morning, I'm thinking one thing: It takes a wolf to catch a wolf.

If you want me to help you find plane tickets, you best unlearn all that shit they taught you in Sunday school. I got your back, yeah—but I can turn on you in an instant. I just don't give a fuck. Expedia, Hotwire, Cheapflights? Fuck them bitches. I got my own methods, shit you ain't never seen before. Shit you never knew existed. But I ain't holding no hands, I ain't babysitting—you don't like my style of airline-ticket purchasing, then get the fuck out my home office. Shit.

I ain't afraid to open up my eyes and see the world of air-travel ticket searches for what it is. Sometimes you gotta look right into the credit-card payment field and see that nothing's down there but fear. Sometimes you gotta get your soul a little dirty.

lol

For Acidus...

Trailer for Hell Girl, Volume One:

(no spoilers below, aside from what one could find on the DVD cases)

I received Volume Six (the final volume of the first season) of Hell Girl today. May 20 was the posted release date, but I had pre-ordered it, and I suppose RSI received it early. For those who are into anime, I highly recommend it. I haven't enjoyed a series this much since Cowboy Bebop, which, considering my collection, is saying quite a bit.

The animation is absolutely gorgeous, and the music is great; even the menus are cool. The character interactions and dialogue are realistic, and while Tsugumi Shibata (another seven-year-old girl; not the title character, who's actually hundreds of years old, despite her appearance) does seem a bit precocious at times, it's not enough to make her character unbelievable.

With a few exceptions, most of the characters are adults, so if you've had enough of high school and college age anime characters, this will be a nice change of pace. The series isn't heavy on action, and the plot moves at a slower than normal pace, but it works very well, getting better as it goes along. The series focuses on human beings' inability to forgive and the consequences of revenge, and that's where Hell Girl comes in.

Great stuff! 10/10, five stars, A+, etc.

Rating: TV-MA (not for anyone younger than high school age)

Hell Girl (anime)

Warren Buffett doesn't like Hillary Clinton's gas tax holiday. Doesn't much flip over an estate tax holiday. In fact, doesn't much like any tax holidays. But he does like taxes apparently.

He spelled it out for my colleague Liz Claman on FOX Business Network — did I tell you if you're not getting this fantastic business service, you're really missing out? But I digress.

Back to taxes. The world's richest man seems to like them. I think it's fair to say most other folks do not. I am not here to quibble with the sage, perhaps the single best investor who ever lived. I am here to quibble with his faith in government. After all, taxes support government. And more taxes support more government.

But you'd think this remarkable man, who places so much faith in the government with our money, would share the same view when it comes to his own money. He doesn't. He's already announced that he will give away his entire fortune to Bill Gates' charitable foundation. For good reason. Bill and Melinda Gates are doing a remarkable job at charity. And I guess, by inference, the government is not, speaking very charitably.

So think about that: When the smartest investor in the world had to decide the best use of his money for doing good in this world...he chooses not his Uncle Sam, but his friend Bill. I didn't follow his words. I followed something else. His money.

Neil Cavuto - "World's Richest Man Likes Taxes, but Most Other Folks Don't"

Despite his initial career uncertainty, Birch says he always knew he wanted to work for himself rather than someone else.

"When I was a kid I really liked playing chess, which is pretty geeky; I just enjoyed it - thinking, exercising my mind. And I found computers to be like an eight-hour day chess game. It was the same sense of satisfaction of problem solving and thinking. I really got into it."

So many aspects of life can be compared to chess... or poker... or both.

Michael Birch, Bebo founder: 'The Geek' plots his next move

"The serious problem of many Muslims"
Jamil Kazoun, 3/31/2008

So here we can see the true problem facing Islam in its current political incarnation and practice in Muslim countries. Islam is being used and abused by Muslim so-called extremists, by rules, and by outsiders. I am not interested in any theological debate about Islam and the merit of its values. What is clear to me is that anyone who discourages free speech, as a principal, is causing injury to himself, knowingly or most likely unknowingly.

Muslims and Christians can be equally cruel and unjust in characterizing the other side. The word Islam and Muslim has take a very negative connotation in many parts of the West. That can be very injurious to many. On the face of it, it seems to be out of ignorance. But the answer to such so-called hate speech is not oppression of free speech, but more free speech. You just have to tune out and not listen to bad or offensive speech, and tune your ears to intelligent speech. Freedom is when you can choose.

Islam and Free Speech