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 | United Stop The War |
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| United Stop The War |
| last updated:26 Mar 2003 09: 44 Webword time, or 26 Mar 2003 14:44 UK time |
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| Webword Statistics - Recent Comments (Comments added for week ending Sun 23 Mar 2003) | View Other Weeks |
| Wrox bankrupt? | Sun 23 Mar |
| In a rush to get books out, they often had four, ten, even fifteen authors on each book. Editing appeared to be non-existent. The books were terrible even when each author tried their hardest. |
| Sun 23 Mar 23:50 | MadMan | Geeky programmers don't look like Mel Gibson. Don't put them on the front cover. ;) |
| 37BetterGoogle | Fri 21 Mar |
| (37Signals) Our idea for 37BetterGoogle was to go beyond Google’s standard search and offer alternatives based on the words you originally entered. (MadMan comments: How does knowing the number of results tell you anything about whether those results are relevant? Is 7821 results better than 5479 results?) |
| Fri 21 Mar 12:49 | JB | I see your point. Only you know what you are searching for, but maybe this feature can help those that are not exactly sure how to get what they are looking for. I don't know if the number of results will make any difference to your decision, but the variation list may assist you in tweaking what it is you are after. |
| Sat 22 Mar 00:41 | Anonymous | No, but 250 results are better than 2 and definitely better than nothing. Google's spell suggestion feature catches my typos all the time, and I imagine it would help even more if I were a poor speller as well as a poor typist. A stemming suggestion algorithm could similarily 'fix' my poor choice of an infrequent variant phrasing for a more common, more useful one. |
| Sat 22 Mar 09:56 | Jason Fried | The idea behind 37BetterGoogle is that it's very difficult to know the best way to search for something. How can you know if 'african coffee trade' is a better search than 'africa's coffee trading' when you're doing research? So, we're proposing that Google add an optional feature that will suggest alternate searches based on slight modifications to your original search. At the very least it provides suggested alternate searches if you couldn't find what you were looking for. And, of course, this is just an idea. |
| Sun 23 Mar 12:08 | Sean | I like it. Automatic Word Stemming = Dumb Lack of Precision = Bad User Controlled Choices = Intelligent Expansion = Good |
| Sun 23 Mar 12:20 | (the other) JS | What Google needs is a Buzzwordometer / Buzzwhack ranking = Modern Fogg Index |
| WebWord Comment | Thu 20 Mar |
| Want to visit Starbucks? Cookies are required. Ha! |
| Fri 21 Mar 21:01 | Gerald | Try cookies required in order to see 200 more such pages. Reminds me of the silly 'This page uses frames, but your browser ...' search results ;-) |
| Sat 22 Mar 04:32 | Matt Round | McDonald's Wireless could easily outdo Starbucks if they tried |
| Sun 23 Mar 07:05 | daniel szuc | Would you like 'fries' with that browser sir? |
| WebWord Comment | Thu 20 Mar |
| The McDonalds Wireless web site is so nasty! Graphics used for text, mystery meat navigation, bizarre use of fonts, and more. |
| Fri 21 Mar 09:52 | daniel szuc | Frierless technology at McDonalds. |
| Sat 22 Mar 02:03 | Anonymous | I am in shock and awe of McDonalds' sense of design. |
| Sat 22 Mar 21:39 | daniel szuc | http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749930137.html The idea of accessing the 'fast' internet independant of location is a nice idea and certainly where we are heading. Just have to improve the battery life of the laptops :) |
| Tivo Not a Threat to Advertisers | Mon 17 Mar |
| Recent internal research by Procter & Gamble Co. indicates that consumers who fast-forward through ads with digital personal video recorders such as TiVo still recall those ads at roughly the same rates as people who see them at normal speed in real time. |
| Tue 18 Mar 01:13 | keith knutsson | i think p&G'S RESEARCH IS FLAWED |
| Tue 18 Mar 06:02 | MadMan | Man, my eyes are more powerful than I thought! Yay! I like this bit: 'That's probably not an unusual finding based on the way people recall things,' Mr. Schar said. 'People hardly recall anything. So you're dealing with low numbers anyway, and differences with low numbers take a lot to be significant. So I could see how statistically you could make that case.' So ads aren't working anyway, which is why it makes no difference whether they're viewed or not? :)) I would love to know how they conducted their research. |
| Tue 18 Mar 07:20 | Anonymous | It would be interesting to know if any agencies construct ads to increase recognition at fast forward. Probably none, but it would be smart to design and test in this way. |
| Tue 18 Mar 09:17 | Bibo | Compose a Tivo ad that is in slow motion so it runs at normal speed when fast forwarded. Place persistent text on the screen that reads, 'If you don't Tivo, you don't understand.' Everyone will think Tivo is the latest drug craze. |
| Tue 18 Mar 09:55 | Alan Fisher | The BBC used to do something like this. They'd put a lot of their education service information on static screens overnight, but cycle them very quickly. The idea was that you taped it and then went through the tape, using your video's pause button to allow you to read it. |
| Tue 18 Mar 13:03 | Eric | They obviously haven't heard of the cool 30 second skip feature on Tivo. I never see more than a 10th of a second of any commercial. |
| Tue 18 Mar 14:02 | Anonymous | do not anger Profit & God |
| Tue 18 Mar 16:12 | Beth Mazur | Surely they jest!?! Then again, I'm perfectly happy for the advertisers to think that their commercials are being seen. Otherwise they'll start doing those annoying things like putting 'em as scrolls in the actual program content. |
| Tue 18 Mar 16:25 | Lydia | Hey, it's just like blipverts! Relax and enjoy the show. |
| Tue 18 Mar 19:01 | Bernard | Sheesh. Save the rest of us 29.5 seconds then and just play _every_ ad super-fast. Until they design this study correctly, that is. |
| Sat 22 Mar 17:08 | Anonymous | Those interested in more formal research in this area should see Wildemuth, et. al. 'How fast is too fast?' |
| Eve of destruction | Wed 19 Mar |
| That this war, like Bushs larger war on terrorism, has no clear definition of its aims, its scope or its foes and that such a war has no end in sight and can have no victory. (Comments: Thats the point. Bush doesnt want a clear ending. The presidents real goal in Iraq) |
| Wed 19 Mar 15:29 | Mac | 'It is just Tony Blair and George Bush against the rest of the world. None of the public want this, Mr Blair is acting against our will.' 'We are a peaceful movement. We are not here to cause a riot, but we don't think children are listened to.' |
| Wed 19 Mar 15:51 | Mac | 'The US doesn't want war just to remove Saddam Hussein. It wants to show that it can use its military power to impose its will anywhere in the world. The easier the US finds that in Iraq the more likely it will go on to use military power elsewhere. Bush already has a list of possible targets-Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Cuba. The US has already meddled with attempted coups against the elected government of Venezuela in South America. And the US backs the right wing government in a civil war in neighbouring Colombia. A quick victory in Iraq will make war more likely in these areas. It would also mean the US would push even harder to impose its interests and those of the corporations that back it across the globe. There would be even more savage IMF austerity programmes to suck wealth out of indebted countries. Multinational drugs companies would be more determined to deny AIDS treatments to the poorest countries of the world. US power would also swing even harder behind regimes such as Israel, so bringing more suffering to the Palestinian people. Everywhere there would be the spectre of an emboldened US military in the wings to ensure no government dared cross the US. Of course, even the mightiest empire is not immune from mass revolts which can humble it.' From Socialist Worker this week. |
| Wed 19 Mar 18:02 | MICK | you got politics in my usability! you got usability in my poitics! *pause* eww, this tastes like shit |
| Wed 19 Mar 18:35 | John | ::yawn:: What's the matter, don't have your own website to spew forth this stuff? Ya gotta clutter up this site? There are hundreds, ney, thousands, of sites I can read this shit. Mr. Rhodes, are you letting your (otherwise excellent) usability site be hijacked? |
| Thu 20 Mar 09:46 | Jimbo | This is a pertinent issue. Begin asking yourself what good a usability engineer is during a world war. Most WebWorders live in a country that practically taunts terrorists to attack because of the country's imperialist behavior. Mac, weren't there any bodacious babes at the protest demonstrating in the same manner as that child? |
| Thu 20 Mar 18:44 | Anonymous | Mac goes on vacation and doesn't share a single pyramid photo. What, you want us to watch The Learning Channel or the Discovery Channel or the Travel Channel or the History Channel instead? Come on, give us a break. |
| Fri 21 Mar 01:32 | Wik | Wil cuts to the chase. 'I believe that Mr. Bush's justifications for it are based on lies.' There. It's said. We don't support this war because we don't trust the people bringing it to us. |
| Fri 21 Mar 11:47 | Mac | RE: Holiday Snaps This is a taxi driver we met in Egypt last week. He will now be without a job, and many ordinary people in Egypt now have no way of earning a living because the tourist industry will be practically destroyed. He was not anti-western at all, but I wonder if he will feel the same way in six months? |
| US Department of Laughs | Wed 19 Mar |
| The US government has a new website, http://www.ready.gov/. Its another attempt at scare mongering in the style of the old duck and cover advice after WWII. The fun thing is that these pictures are so ambiguous they could mean anything! (MadMan comments: Hey, a war-related piece thats actually linked to designing infographics. See, we knew wed find a usability connection. The US government really needs to hire better designers, eh? Thanks Morgan) |
| Wed 19 Mar 17:04 | Lydia | I remember getting duck and cover drills in school, albeit not as rigorous as what my sisters had to go through. I think that preparedness is a good thing; it helps to avoid panic. However, when creating a site on preparedness for terrorism, it helps to keep in mind an already hysterical public. 'Soothe and inform' should be the motto. |
| Wed 19 Mar 18:53 | JF | What's the alternative? What would you have done? |
| Thu 20 Mar 18:42 | Ernie | Place a floating rubber ducky in the upper right-hand corner of every page. How can you be scared with a cute rubber ducky looking at you? |
| Thu 20 Mar 21:34 | Lydia | Now that I look at it, I think my use of 'however' might be out of place (if you are directing your question at me, JF). I was thinking out loud (in print?) that when creating a site on terrorism preparedness it is helpful to design for an audience that is probably already tense (which is why they are looking up info). I wonder who the designers had in mind? |
| How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows | Mon 17 Mar |
| (Fast Company) The cardinal rule at Google is, If you can do something that will improve the users experience, do it. It is a mandate in part born of paranoia: Theres always a chance that the Google destroyer is being pieced together by two more guys in a garage. |
| Wed 19 Mar 06:18 | daniel szuc | Like how google gets constant feedback from the market. Be interested to know how they manage all the feedback and roll it back in the product development. |
| Thu 20 Mar 18:45 | Anonymous | Google ate my dingo! |
| Optimising your website design | Wed 19 Mar |
| Im an efficiency nut. (Comments: This is an interview with Andy King. Web Site Optimization) |
| Thu 20 Mar 10:21 | Alan Fisher | One of his suggestions is to remove 'comments and white space' from the HTML code. Surely this would only serve to make the code less maintainable in future? All good coders I've known stress the importance of properly commented code. |
| Thu 20 Mar 11:48 | Su | Yes, well he also tells you to minimize your prose. If you're trying to raise the 'content-to-markup ratio,' isn't it a bad idea to be simultaneously removing content? Let's not even get into how weird it is to edit content just to make your site go faster, which I find questionable. Andy seems to be suffering from a problem similar to Nielsen: Decent ideas that are getting distilled a little too close to dogma to make practical sense anymore. But they make for some goooood quoting. He shouldn't be telling people not to use DHTML menus at all; they will anyway because that's what they(or their client) want to use. Tell them to use optimized code for whatever particular thing is it they are doing. The book site doesn't seem to eat it's own dog food, incidentally. As a side-note, I thought stylesheets were cached(just ask any Mac/IE user) so isn't CSS sub-optimal, and also damaging to your content:code ratio? |
| Thu 20 Mar 11:51 | Su | Oops. Meant: 'so isn't embedding CSS sub-optimal, and also damaging to your content:code ratio?' |
| Thu 20 Mar 16:07 | Matt Round | Careful use of DHTML can speed up a site (as the .js file gets cached, and you can give immediate feedback), and CSS common to multiple pages should be put in external files; I think the 'Be especially wary of multiple .js and .css files' comment was aimed at sites that load far too many external files. For example, some sites will have a JavaScript file for an ad banner, another for tracking, another few for a ready-made DHTML library, a dropdown menu script (many of which are enormous), and so on. Obviously you want to break things into sensible chunks, but it's a balance against optimisation. As for removing comments and white space, well it's helpful to have tidy-looking source code, but HTML is no place for developers to put their documentation. Comments, apart from those used for diagnostics, can be put into server-side scripting and not sent to the browser. ColdFusion in particular can generate vast quantities of white space if used without care. CSS layout usually speeds sites up immensely, both in terms of perceived speed and actual overall download time. Even if you're only concerned with broadband users, it's always good to reduce your bandwidth bill and save users a little bit of time. |
| Thu 20 Mar 18:40 | Anonymous | Removing white space from code isn't a problem for those of us who use a web design program that does it for us on-the-fly. Page on web server: super small. Page on hard drive: bloated with space. |
| Buzzwordometer | Wed 19 Mar |
| Its the ultimate tool for scoring and ranking web pages by their Buzzosity™. Buzzwordometer will examine any page you submit, and give it a score on the industry-standard Buzzosity™ index. (MadMan comments: Any of you working on cutting edge solutions still? ;) |
| Thu 20 Mar 06:56 | Anonymous | Now this is useful. |
| Thu 20 Mar 15:21 | Lydia | Fun! A good way to embarrass the marketing guys into writing informative stuff instead of that vague, perky pap they usually churn out. As marketing ploys go, I like seeing this kind of thing. It's fun and well-done, and should lower the defenses of someone looking for software services. It's a great lead-in. |
| Thu 20 Mar 18:37 | Jeffrey | Rezize the typeface on buzzwordometer.com. Watch Derek's scalp open and close. Use CTRL-MOUSE WHEEL for fast head chopping fun. |
| Just bluffin' | Wed 19 Mar |
| Here are some terms you should be aware of when next you have to talk techie or pretend you know what your manager is talking about. If there is a phrase you dont know about, you should know that you can find out about it. (Comments: Thanks Daniel Szuc.) |
| Wed 19 Mar 08:29 | Anonymous | In about twenty years, give or take, the young people of a (then) truly technology savvy society will look on this fascination as we look on amazement of the Amish over the wonders of electricity. Stop telling me about 'technology that can give you a range of experiences you couldn't dream of' and start providing those experiences. Apparently fascination with anything running electricity is keeping these wonders off store shelves. Stop the fawning before this magical thinking starts the next vapor cycle in the economy. |
| Wed 19 Mar 13:15 | Don M | Even that article isn't totally right. It says programmers program in binary code. Really in this day and age, how many programmers actually use binary code outside of computer science classes. |
| Wed 19 Mar 13:41 | Anonymous | 0101001101101111011100100111001001111001001011100000110100001010 01001001 0110010101111000011100000110010101100011011101000110010101100100 01110111011011110111001001100100 011101110111001001100001011100000111000001101001011011100110011100101110 |
| Wed 19 Mar 20:53 | Anonymous | Read before deleting, please. 01001001011001100010000001110100011010000110010100100000011 00001011000100110111101110110011001010010000001110000011011 11011100110111010000100000011011010110000101101011011001010 11100110010000001101110011011110010000001110011011001010110 11100111001101100101001000000110100101110100001001110111001 10010000001100010011001010110001101100001011101010111001101 10010100100000010010100110111101101000011011100010000001100 10001100101011011000110010101110100011001010110010000100000 01100001001000000111000001101111011100110111010000100000011 00001011000100110111101110110011001010010000001101001011101 00001000000111011101110010011010010111010001110100011001010 11011100010000001101001011011100010000001100010011010010110 11100110000101110010011110010010111000100000010010010010011 10110110100100000011100110111010101110010011001010010000001 10100001100101001000000110010001101001011001000110111000100 11101110100001000000110001001101111011101000110100001100101 01110010001000000111010001101111001000000110010001100101011 00011011011110110010001100101001000000110100101110100001000 00011000100110010101100110011011110111001001100101001000000 11000110110010101101110011100110110111101110010011010010110 11100110011100100000011101000110100001100101001000000111000 00110111101110011011101000010000001100010011001010110001101 10000101110101011100110110010100100000011010010111010000100 00001110111011000010111001100100000011000110110111101101101 01110000011011000110010101110100011001010110110001111001001 00000011000100110010101101110011010010110011101101110001000 00011000010110111001100100001000000110100001100101001000000 11000110110111101110101011011000110010000100000011100110110 10010110110101110000011011000111100100100000011010000110000 10111011001100101001000000110000101100100011001000110010101 10010000100000011000110110000101110010011100100110100101100 00101100111011001010010000001110010011001010111010001110101 01110010011011100111001100100000011101000110111100100000011 01101011000010110101101100101001000000110100101110100001000 00011011000110111101101111011010110010000001110000011100100 11001010111010001110100011110010010111000100000010011110110 10000010000001110111011001010110110001101100001011000010000 00111001101110101011000110110100000100000011010010111001100 1000000110110001101001011001100110010100101110 |
| The Arrogant Empire | Mon 17 Mar |
| (MSNBC) By contrast, the United States will spend as much next year on defense as the rest of the world put together (yes, all 191 countries). And it will do so devoting 4 percent of its GDP, a low level by postwar standards. |
| Mon 17 Mar 23:05 | Anonymous | One of the reasons the USSR crumbled economically was its huge military budget. I'm sure there were many causes, but I have to wonder how much longer America can stay afloat at the largest debtor nation in the world. Carrying the biggest stick won't assure its supremacy forever. Americans continue to believe they're the best and have the best quality of life in the world. Not so, among developed nations. |
| Tue 18 Mar 01:01 | Anonymous | All the countries should just ask USA to pay them back, bankrupting the country. Then we Russians will march all over the puny americans and take over. hahahahahahaha! |
| Tue 18 Mar 06:36 | Philip Chalmers | It shows how history is speeding up. It was not until about 1500 A.D. that settled, urbanised Western civilisations could cease to fear barbarian invasions. As recently as the early 1980s we all feared the Soviet Union - it appeared that its ability to give military spending a high priority might more than compensate for its poor economy. The moral now is, if you want to be powerful you need a capitalist economy AND a democratic government which is as subject to the law as its citizens - it's the ony way to provide the economic and technological strength which is now the foundation of military power. The 2 biggest threats to the USA are both economic - too many entitlements and the risk that the bureacracy will eventually strangle the economy, as it did in China after 1000AD. If you doubt this, read 'The Road to Riches' by Peter Jay. |
| Tue 18 Mar 10:16 | Anonymous | make sure your e-commerce interfaces will be Euro-friendly. Look for the Euro to replace the rogue US Dollar in the global economy (that's part of why the US is after Hussein and tried to topple Chavez). Also, this further sends the US economy into a tailspin so start saving as much of your income as you can now. Military might can be strangled financially so it's a moot point (unless GWB decides to nuke the rest of the world... which isn't out of the question nowadays) |
| Tue 18 Mar 10:27 | Richard Lehoux | This is a great article. It understand the feeling of the rest of the world, even in France, toward USA. I'm french-canadien and I know that french people LOOOOVE america. Bruce Willis, Stallone and all the rest, they are huge stars their. In one word, we love america but, please, stop spitting in our face. |
| Tue 18 Mar 11:40 | Anonymous | I've decided to become a hobo. It's the only stable profession. |
| Tue 18 Mar 13:54 | Anonymous | In quotes: World leaders react to Bush ultimatum |
| Tue 18 Mar 14:09 | MICK | the bit that everyone seems to be overlooking: 'And it will do so devoting 4 percent of its GDP, a low level by postwar standards.' |
| Tue 18 Mar 15:06 | boysen | Once we've removed Saddam's regime and given Iraq's government back to the people he abused, we'll show the world all the information that makes this war the right thing to do. Even when that happens, the people who oppose Bush will concede nothing. Many of the anti-war crowd don't so much believe that peace is the answer but rather that Bush is wrong. Nothing will change their minds, even the truth. |
| Tue 18 Mar 16:28 | Anonymous | Boysen, you put an awful lot of faith that they're telling the truth, despite all the evidence to the contrary. |
| Tue 18 Mar 16:38 | Bubba | I think that's the truth no one wants to say out loud. If the Bush administration has no credibility in your eyes, it doesn't matter what he says because you look at him and think 'liar.' |
| Tue 18 Mar 16:45 | Anonymous | What does this all have to do with the usability of ...well, anything? The usability of the middle east? Hmmmmmm... I ain't buying it. John Bedard |
| Tue 18 Mar 18:20 | Anonymous | You couldn't buy Saddam's book anyway. Iraq is under embargo. |
| Wed 19 Mar 15:41 | Mac | Boysen, I would gladly kiss Bush's Ass for a month, if he would just stop trying to be John Wayne and stop the war now. |
| An Open Letter To The Hollywood Bunch | Sun 16 Mar |
| (Charlie Daniels) Why you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic, spoiled mugwumps. get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning. (Comments: Mugwumps is a real word. Fascinating.) |
| Mon 17 Mar 03:25 | Anonymous | Too bad the author incorrectly used 'mugwump.' If he's not specifically referring to the 19th century republicans, then the term is used to describe a person who is 'straddling the fence' or being neutral. Taking a peace / anti-war stance is not being a mugwump. By the way, my dog's name is Mugwump, which is a family tradition of sorts. We prefer to pronounce the word 'mug-whomp.' The article is not educated (informed) or thoughtful. It does not advance the pro-war agenda and merely rolls eyes with the anti-war folks. It's pure rant. |
| Mon 17 Mar 05:06 | MadMan | Awwww.... somebody needs a hug! This article has many logical fallacies. It is also factually incorrect in many places. It would take me a while to destroy the whole thing. Oh well, it's a slow afternoon, what the heck. Let’s say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires. Fallacy: False Dilemma I don't think anybody wants the entire military to be eliminated. Not wanting military action isn't the same as not wanting a military. Why you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic, spoiled mugwumps. get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning. That was the Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden, which the US has already bombed. There's no evidence linking Saddam Hussain to the WTC attack. Not one of the terrorists involved in the hijackings was an Iraqi. Saudi, yes, Egyptian, yes. Iraqi, no. (Potential red herring. Maybe he's just misinformed.) Barbra Streisand’s fanatical and hateful rankings about George Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a railing. Dissent is hate? What does Michael Jackson have to do with anything? Personal attack, unsubstantiated by anything else. Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked, long distance truck driver that you don’t think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong. Fallacy: Appeal to belief. What one person believes doesn't change the merits of the case. How is a truck driver more of an authority on war and terrorism than anyone else? Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the military that you think the United States has no right to defend itself. Appeal to emotion. The US does have a right to defend itself. Perhaps if Iraq actually attacked USA... Go down to Baxley, Georgia and hold an anti-war rally and see what the folks down there think about you. Appeal to ridicule. Sean Penn, you’re a traitor to the United States of America. You're a traitor if you don't agree with everything your goverment does? Can you spell 'democracy' and 'freedom of speech'? You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this earth and won’t lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby. Freedom of choice you say? Wow, he even brings the abortion issue into a discussion on terrorism. This guy is amazing! (Some might say the US was evil when it supported Iraq in the war against Iran.) You scoff at our military who’s boots you’re not even worthy to shine. They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you can live in luxury. Protesting against military action isn't scoffing at soldiers in the army. If anything, not going to war could save some of these great lives. (He does sound like Jack Nicholson from 'A few good men', doesn't he?) The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced with the undeniable truth that the war against Saddam Hussein is the war on terrorism. Saddam may be an evil, cruel, dictator (he is) but what's the evidence supporting his direct involvement in any terrorist attacks on USA? I don't think he even has the missile range to deliver any weapons as far as USA. Non sequitur. America is in imminent danger. You’re either for her or against her. There is no middle ground. The old 'with us or against us' line. See earlier link for False Dilemma. The truth is rarely black and white. In a democracy, it is completely possible to have a position between extremes that supports fighting terrorism but is opposed to just attacking a foreign country on just suspicion. Like the earlier poster said, this is just pure rant where the only argument is 'you are all traitors if you disagree with GW Bush'. Now why did I spend time writing this? |
| Mon 17 Mar 10:14 | Tom - Attack Iraq | Well, I'm not about to defend this particular article. I wonder why, of all the articles that might have been posted that defend the war with Saddam or attack the so-called peace movement, this one was chosen? Could it be so you have an easy strawman to knock down? No, surely Webword wouldn't lower it's standards of what to post for that reason! Was the attraction of the word mugwumps really that interesting? Tom |
| Mon 17 Mar 12:02 | Jerry | Tom, you need to learn what a straw man argument really means. It's not one that's easily dismissed. Why don't you post your own article? (Why is the peace movement 'so-called'?) |
| Mon 17 Mar 12:24 | Amy | Why does Tom want to attach Saddam? Sounds painful. |
| Mon 17 Mar 12:55 | Anonymous | attach, v. tr. 1. To fasten or secure. 2. To assign personnel to a military unit on a temporary basis. 3. To seize (persons or property) by legal writ. Amy, Tom may have intended to write 'attack,' but his 'attach' typo can still convey similar meaning. straw man, n. 1. An argument or opponent set up as to be easily refuted or defeated. Jerry, a straw man really is an argument that is easily dismissed -- by the audience being presented the straw man argument. mugwump, n. 1. A person who acts independently or remains neutral, especially in politics. 2. A Republican who bolted the party in 1884, refusing to support presidential candidate James G. Blaine. Not My President, the author could have intended mugwump to refer to people who do not support President Bush, ala James G. Blaine. If so, it's a poor example because it implies Bush will end up as obscure and unimportant in the eyes of history. |
| Mon 17 Mar 13:12 | Gerald | You should read the Charlie Daniels Message Board - frightening would be an understatement. |
| Mon 17 Mar 15:11 | Tom - Attack Iraq | Jerry:>> Why don't you post your own article? (Why is the peace movement 'so-called'?) Okay since you asked... http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,6141557,00.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35568-2003Mar16.html http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110003205 |
| Mon 17 Mar 17:41 | JB | Ok...but the US and its blind allies are still going to war. I wonder how many people will be cheering in the US, UK, Spain or Australia when the body bags start coming home. I am surprised in the US at least that it is dismissed with the price of war, or the price of freedom - can any family be so stupid as to think that their off spring are expendable? Remember everyone, Uncle Sadam has done nothing but 'try to kill my Daddy' |
| Tue 18 Mar 06:25 | Alan Fisher | 'Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of that term - namely, a credible device capable of being delivered against strategic city targets.' Who said that? Robin Cook, in his speech yesterday when he resigned from Tony Blair's government. I don't know how widely this is being reported in the USA, but Cook was Blair's first Foreign Secretary, from 1997 to 2001, and remained a member of his cabinet until yesterday. He's seen all the same intelligence sources which Blair, Bush, Rumsfeld and Straw have seen, and he doesn't think there's a credible threat. For the full text of his speech, go to Cook's resignation speech. |
| Wed 19 Mar 02:01 | Lyle Kantrovich | Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction? Yet? VX gas is damn dangerous - does it really matter whether or not they have a long-range missle to deliver it? Couldn't they deliver it other ways (e.g. briefcase bomb)? Check out these resources: VX? It's in that hole over there... - a Marine Corps Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Specialist gives a chilling explanation of why we shouldn't believe Saddam's regime has destroyed their chemical weapons. 'It is likely that Saddam will use chemical weapons to attack his own people and then try to blame the Americans' - so says Mohammed Nafee, a former general in the Iraqi army. Vexing Questions On Iraq's Arsenal - 'According to Black, a batch of liquid anthrax could be mixed up in about a week.' Iraqi chemical weapons official shot after trying to escape - He was allegedly shot in the head just after the UN inspectors’ arrival. Books: Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Growing Crisis in Global Security The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq Without war, we'd still have Hitler's version of Peace. |
| Wed 19 Mar 07:08 | Alan Fisher | All very interesting stuff, Lyle. But Robin Cook has had access to all this and all the stuff that the ordinary public will never get to see, and he still doesn't think war is justified. I don't think this point has been stressed enough - this is the first instance of someone who has been on the inside of the Bush / Blair stockade for the last few years, and who has now broken cover and said No. Doesn't that give you pause for thought? P.S. He's not even French. |
| Wed 19 Mar 12:04 | MadMan | And if Saddam has a few tactical nukes hidden somewhere in America, may The Force save you guys. He's a lunatic; don't think he'll just sit on his arse and do nothing. (BTW, they too can be hidden in briefcases.) I'm still wondering why, with all these weapons he has, he hasn't attacked USA in any way in the last 12 years. (This isn't supporting him; just trying to counter your argument.) North Korea has nukes. Why isn't USA invading them? They're not exactly a 'peaceful' nation. Pakistan has nukes and is run by an army general dictator who toppled a democratic government and took over. No US troops there. Oh wait, no oil there either. |
| Internet Parody Hands French Military a Defeat | Mon 17 Mar |
| But a Web page says no documents are found when searching for French military victories using Googles Im Feeling Lucky button, which bypasses the list of search results and jumps directly to the first Web page in the list. |
| Tue 18 Mar 00:28 | Morris Cox | Sounds like a Google Bomb to me. I think it's kinda amusing. :) I also think everyone should have to take a class before they get on the Internet. Cuts down on gullibility. I hope. I remember my best friend and I trying to explain to the sysadmin of my previous college that the Good Times Virus didn't really exist and to take down the flyers he had posted. He should have known better. I once convinced a guy that I had managed to conceal a virus in a jpg and his computer was now infected. (Yes, I now know that some guy managed to use a graphic to carry a virus payload.) And I once set the command prompt of a XAX/VMS shell account to say 'Morris Virus alert!' and one of my bosses thought it was a real alert and started panicking. Hee hee. She about killed me when I told her the truth. I do think that a lot of the jokes about France is an attempt to get them to join the USA. It's an immature way to do things. I also wonder what is going to happen after this war, not just what will happen during it. I expect a lot of abuse of authority. When we give up some right in the cry for safety from 'terror', when can we expect to get it back? |
| Tue 18 Mar 09:12 | Anonymous | ehhhhh. Do people really use the 'I'm feeling lucky' button? It's always been an annoying space waster for me. When I show Google to people they concur, thinking it's stupid. At best, a marketing gimmick. Unless I I compose a complex query (phrase + word + word), my target link is usually ranked 2-10. |
| Tue 18 Mar 14:07 | MICK | a lot of peopleuse it as a replacment for the address bar; Type in a URL, hit 'I'm feeling lucky' and you're there. |
| Tue 18 Mar 23:13 | MadMan | Real Nerds just like to think they'll get lucky. Well, at least on Google. :) |
| Japan's money will be used after Iraq war | Sun 16 Mar |
| As the United States and Britain move toward a war with Iraq, the international community is expecting Japan to shoulder a portion of the costs, mainly by offering aid to refugees as well as helping rehabilitate postwar Iraq. (Comments: Can someone explain this to me? Why would Japan be expected to pay?) |
| Mon 17 Mar 07:55 | Anonymous | Because Japan has publicly stated that their government agrees with the US position, and IIRC, has agreed to help with post-war and/or refugee costs. Sources too numerous to mention, but Japan declared for the US at least a couple of weeks ago. |
| Mon 17 Mar 08:29 | John S. Rhodes | Thanks JK. Surprisingly, I did not hear this before... |
| Mon 17 Mar 13:27 | ptr | Japan imports more mid east oil than any other country. They have zero natural resources. |
| Mon 17 Mar 15:52 | Tom - Attack Iraq | And all this time, I thought it was to make up for submersing the world in Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. |
| Mon 17 Mar 17:49 | JB | Japan support cannot be in the form of military input due to their constitution. The US know they have truck loads of cash sitting around, even after being in a recession for 10 years and figures then next best thing to military support from an ally is bling bling support. bling, bling! |
| Mon 17 Mar 20:31 | Richard Lehoux | Blin bling??? I love it! This would be a great headline on CNN: 'Latest news: Japan offer bling bling support to USA' |
| Good News Web Designers Association | Fri 14 Mar |
| Do not do any webwork that contradicts the Bible, the Church, or the unconditional love of the true Christian lifestyle, nor attacks Catholicism or any other expression of Christianity. (Comments: Religion + Web Design = oil and water, or a perfect match?) |
| Mon 17 Mar 15:10 | Lydia | Morris, it is illegal to ask, but who is going to report an employer that does so? How could you possibly prove it? I was turned down because they found someone more qualified, not because I refused to answer his question. Had they said 'we can't hire you unless you are Christian' I might have had a leg to stand on. My experience with Mormon missionaries has been only positive. Two nice boys helped me move my couch once, and didn't even linger to talk. I offered them water and everything. When I was a teenager babysitting for my sister (who lived in the city), two guys helped escort a homeless person off the front porch, then offered to hang around in case I was scared he'd come back (hey, I came from a small town, I've gotten tougher since then). I also witnessed what I would term a miraculous event: hastily arranged study group at the house of a mormom family; walked in to find mom humming and making dinner, even though many children were running around the kitchen, yelling, begging for a peanut butter sandwich, and so on. She was surprised to see us, then invited us all to dinner. I just wanted out of there! |
| Amazon Early Adopters | Sun 16 Mar |
| Amazon.com is home to the most innovative products available anywhere, and were committed to having them first. Check this list frequently to find the latest additions. |
| Mon 17 Mar 04:23 | MadMan | Jeff, how long before you are bled dry of cash? How long before you can sustain profits? [voice who='Jerry Maguire'] Show me the monnnnnneeeeeeeeey! [/voice] |
| Mon 17 Mar 12:46 | Frank Lynch | I was hugely disappointed by this... I expected a line of new products which represented new product ideas, not new items in established products. You know, perhaps some new kitchen gadget that answers a heretofore unaddressed need, like a marinade fountain or marinade meat flipper, for those who can't be in the house to turn their meat in the marinade... Or an umbrella that signals a pager on your belt when its been left behind. The kind of item of minimal use, for which there was a reason it wasn't made before. Nothing to bookmark here, I'm afraid. |
| 100 words everyone's gotta know to be smart | Thu 13 Mar |
| You may be well-read.You may even be well-spoken. But unless you can properly use bowdlerize, moiety and ziggurat in a sentence, youre just another literati wannabe in need of a good dictionary, according to the editors of the American Heritage College Dictionary. (MadMan comments: What utter crap. As if good writing is about using big words...) |
| Mon 17 Mar 10:05 | Alan Fisher | chicanery - n., the science of racing track design. euro - n., monetary unit designed to confuse Americans. lexicon - n., person pretending to be Lex Luther. oligarchy - n., name used to refer to the very short period in the mid-20s when Oliver Hardy was mistakenly declared President of the USA. |
| eBayersThatSuck.com | Fri 14 Mar |
| A public posting forum for ebay members to inform ethical ebay users about problematic members, suspicious occurrences, and criminal activity taking place within the eBay community, thus allowing you to trade more safely. |
| Mon 17 Mar 09:21 | Wolf | Philip - You're right; I don't get it. I also don't ascribe his site with benevolence, either. The site owner had a view, wanted to make it, and the internet provided his pulpit. I'm using this thread the same way. Anyway, no offense taken. |