it just hit me

Posted on Thursday, 2005 April 21 by Anton

In The War of the Worlds, the Martians’ principal weapon is a heat-ray. In Robinson’s RGB Mars, at one point the badguys use a heat-ray against Martians.

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anti-government extremists attack peacekeeping force

Posted on Tuesday, 2005 April 19 by Anton

April 19 is the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, the “shot heard ’round the world”. It has been remarked that the political establishment takes little notice of the occasion. This, I suggest, is as it should be. How sad if a momentous uprising against established authority should become yet another occasion for the politicians to glorify themselves!

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QotD

Posted on Monday, 2005 April 18 by Anton

Will Wilkinson:

It is especially incoherent when welfare liberals accuse markets of involving BOTH radical cooperative interdependence, such that much of a society’s wealth is a “social product” to which individuals have no moral claim independent of some rule of distibutive justice, AND a kind of radically fragmented free-for-all state of nature war of all against all.

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temptation

Posted on Friday, 2005 April 15 by Anton

A spam this morning from someone who wants to “invest” in my website and improve its search-rank; apparently he believes I’m selling something. I’m way tempted to call the 877 number and string them along, seeing how long it takes them to figure out that my only website is personal.

And then I think, could that itself be an advertising tactic?

  1. Send a pitch clearly inapplicable to most recipients, tempting me to telephone and waste your time;
  2. Wait for me to call, and then once I’m on the line,
  3. ???
  4. Profit!!
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yo-yo

Posted on Wednesday, 2005 April 13 by Anton

Comcast’s DNS has been flaky of late, making me wonder: why doesn’t the browser cache IP addresses?

Posted in neep-neep | 1 Comment

a first time for everything

Posted on Wednesday, 2005 April 13 by Anton

Date: 13 Apr 2005 15:37:12 -0000
To: bronto@pobox.com
Subject: QUERIDO MIO
From: JAMES UDO INIEKPO

Estimado Sr.

Les saludos, soy JAMES UDO INIEKPO un director con el departamento de los recursos del petróleo y de la secretaria del agrupacion de revisión de contrato (CRP) de los Corporacion National Nigeriana de Petroleo (NNPC).

. . .

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black with white stripes

Posted on Tuesday, 2005 April 12 by Anton

Thoughts on my way to sleep:

Strong marijuana often smells of mercaptan. Do unscrupulous pot-farmers encourage skunks to spray near their patch?

The smell of a distant skunk can be pleasant; has anyone tried using mercaptan (much diluted!) as a seasoning?

And finally, did Walt Kelly create Miss Mamzelle Hepzibah in response to Pépé le Pew?

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