Black Ships and Samurai

Black Ships and Samurai. 200 Japanese and American graphics depicting the 1853-1854 mission by Commodore Matthew Perry that led to the opening of Japan to the outside world. The Core Exhibit brings together a wealth of rarely seen graphics from both sides of this historical encounter. It is really quite amazing how the different (art) styles and culture saw the same events. Great job by MIT & OpenCourseWare.

People, please erase your old hard drives.

Scramjet going to be tried again.

Bush put on a slide show, calling it the “White House Election-Year Album” at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association 60th annual dinner, showing himself and his staff in some decidedly unflattering poses. There was Bush looking under furniture in a fruitless, frustrating search. “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere,” he said. You see… its funny… because we lied! Zing!

Now for some real news: Richard Simmons Cited For Slapping Man At Airport

Free markets

Much of the right in the US believes that free markets make the best decisions. I’m not sure what they think of this: Gay-tolerant societies prosper economically.

This is an interesting article – Allow a full background check and get a Fast Pass at Airport Security. Good to know, if your boarding pass has ‘SSSS’ on it, prepare to be hassled.

Salon’s must reads for today.

Wired’s blurb on RSS.

Haha, I love it: Project for the new American Empire – a play on Project for the new American Century.

Stevie

Watched a documentary called Stevie last night. It was surreal and very sad. It makes you wonder how their life would be different if certain things changed.

Looks like the 9/11 panel is coming down hard on both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Hopefully there will be some changes and accountability.

Lacuna Inc will fix your unwanted memories. The science of Eternal Sunshine.

Get a CLUE

CLUE and Choicepoint being used for Govt investigations. Ah choicepoint, my old nemesis. A while back I was in a 6 month fight with AAA about my driving record being linked to some crash that occurred before I was even in the country, or had a driving record here.

Needless to say, I don’t have a whole lot of respect for the company. I guess I can look forward to trying to prove I didn’t buy 500lb of fertilizer. Stakes are a bit higher than car insurance rates, no?