Monthly Archives: July 2004

duck and cover!

Posted on Monday, 2004 July 12 by Anton

The pointless “assault weapon” ban of 1994 is about to sunset, and the usual suspects are twitching. The Violence Policy Center . . . notes the 1994 law does not cover new assault weapons that have entered the market place. At the … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, weapons | Leave a comment

cast against type

Posted on Sunday, 2004 July 11 by Anton

Watching Kurosawa’s 野良犬 Nora Inu (Stray Dog) (1949), it’s often hard to believe that the earnest, clean-shaven rookie detective is Mifune! Conversely and even harder to swallow, the subhuman hooligan of the title will become the idealistic young samurai in … Continue reading →

Posted in cinema | Leave a comment

Peter Parker picked a peck of plutonic protons

Posted on Friday, 2004 July 09 by Anton

I hadn’t been out to the pictures in a while, so today I went to see Spider-Man 2. I don’t remember the first one as quite so soggy with angst; and the scientists’ lines are occasionally painful. (Hint to any … Continue reading →

Posted in cartoons, cinema | Leave a comment

legacy systems

Posted on Thursday, 2004 July 08 by Anton

the Talmud and the gopher protocol

Posted in neep-neep, religion | Leave a comment

see also Pratchett, Small Gods

Posted on Wednesday, 2004 July 07 by Anton

Simulation and Simulacra: The whole concept of patriotism is nothing more than a simulacr[um] for the ideals supposedly put forth at the founding of the United States. I would even argue that the Constitution itself is a poor simulacr[um] of … Continue reading →

Posted in politics | 1 Comment

a kind of sprachbund

Posted on Saturday, 2004 July 03 by Anton

Wikipedia tells more than you might imagine asking about the heavy metal umlaut. (Cited by Desbladet in a comment on John Holbo‘s blog.)

Posted in language, music+verse | Leave a comment

I could live with that

Posted on Saturday, 2004 July 03 by Anton

A is for Anonymous: All Vespuccian citizens have the right to keep their biometric information (their photographs, fingerprints, retina prints, etc.) strictly apart from their financial information (their assets, debts, account numbers, etc.). A Vespuccian driver’s license has a photograph … Continue reading →

Posted in tax+privacy | Leave a comment