Phyrfight Intel

Michael Crichton on the current state of science and the history of how science came to the point it is at.

There is a new product out for the XBOX 360 that has two extra fans to cool the console, as well as converting the proprietary input to work with most standard A/V cables and includes a 4-port USB hub. What more could a gamer ask for….and it is only $30. IGN has a first look at the new add-on.

I had nothing but disdain for Molly Ivins and this below articulates better than I could, why. She made Rush Limbaugh seem like a voice of moderate reason and I was fairly certain that her incessant colloquialisms were just plain made-up shit.

This from our friend Britt.

“After the death of Molly Ivins, the Star Telegram went nuts over her passing. Every day there were anywhere from one to literally six pages (yes, one day there were six pages) of adulations over her life, works and contributions to society and how great of a woman she was. I have never seen so many articles and so many square inches of print devoted to any one subject.

Yesterday, the below appeared in the Letters to the Editor section.”

“After seeing the paeans to the late Molly Ivins on your opinion pages, I realize this letter has about as much chance of being published as a meatball has of getting past Luciano Pavarotti, but here goes.

It’s clear that Ivins was a hero to liberals because she captured and personified the left-wing mentality in her writing and represented the quintessential far-left position of “Always pander; never listen.”

Her columns pimped and catered, producing sounds that only a fellow left-winger could hear. But that was her audience, because that was her rice bowl. Like many professional liberals — Bill Moyers, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart come to mind — Ivins learned early that a livelihood could be had by slavishly procuring applause from the left.

She prided herself on her writing — basically a mealy, watery brand of aw-shucks invective mingled with childish attempts at country-fried pseudo-endearments that rarely made sense and were often idiotic and silly (“mad as a peach orchard boar”).

The fact is, she lived her life in a state of perpetual tantrum, hands clamped tightly over her ears, all traffic outgoing, nothing resembling intellectual or reasonable discourse allowed in.

Trying to reason with Ivins was like X-raying lead. Once she had established herself in her own mind as Will Rogers’ evil twin and got paid for it, she was immovable, dense and impenetrable. Never swayed by logic, undeterred by reason or facts, she played strictly to her liberal audience for the sweet sound of unconditional approval and, of course, was never disappointed.”

John Stevens, Perrin

When I first played the demo for Lost Planet, I had high hopes for the game and the graphics looked amazing. Sadly, Ars Technica’s review of the game points out some major flaws, while referencing one of my favorite movies; Starship Troopers.

From: CNET

In a rare open letter from CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, Apple urged record companies to abandon digital rights management technologies.

From the EFF

As law professor Michael Geist explains in an editorial this week, “In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the ‘user experience’ from the user.”

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