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The EGG hunt is now officially over with three (count 'em), three winners of The Incunabula Papers: Ong's Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions, which is now trading at $200.00 for used copies.

There were actually two acceptable answers to the nebulous questions:

1.) EGG: PBS Art Show covering Burning Man
2.) Eggchair Camp- BELIEVE IN EGGCHAIR (The obvious one)

"Russian Rocket Throws Lifeline to Space Station Fri August 29, 2003 07:17 AM ET By Oleg Akhmetov BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Russia threw a supply lifeline to a two-man U.S.-Russian space crew in orbit on Friday, but dropped a heavy hint to the United States that it would like some financial help to keep its program going.

The Progress rocket, Earth's only supply link now to the International Space Station, was taking food, water, films and a satellite phone to American Edward Lu and Russia's Yuri Malenchenko who have manned the outpost since late April.

But Russian space officials said they would welcome some financial input from the United States to help them handle the costly burden of supplying the $95 billion ISS single-handedly.

Russia has borne the brunt of manned flights and supplies to the 16-nation ISS since the U.S. space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in February killing seven astronauts on board and grounding the three remaining Shuttles."

If our brain or a self-contained part of the brain could be mapped to a Turing machine, what would that signify? There are some significant developments that could come out of such a discovery.

We could start off by the creation of Artificial Intelligence (Artificial only in the sense that it's not in a living human. It would otherwise be a copy of intelligence from a real brain). If we could map the operations of the brain to a Turing machine, then we could replicate this behavior in a machine. We would have a non-organic human mind, living in a computer.

Short Quicktime Movie.

According to fansite Straight to Hell, the long-in-preproduction-hell version of the occult-themed comic book Hellblazer will be heading into production next month.

I have very low hopes. The presence of Tilda Swinton and a score from Dead Can Dance former Lisa Gerrard are both heartening, but transplanting the action to America, teaming Constantine up with a cop, giving Constantine a Batman-like car, these do not bode well.

10.) Some Go Up But Me I Like It Down Here on the Couch Where It's Warm

9.) We Ran to the Park and There Got VD

8.) Once We Were Kings (Albeit with Really Big Hair)

7.) We Fought the Wind Until It Died Down and So Did We

6.) Genius? You Bet I Am!

5.) One Day I Went Running and Then I Got Hit By a Car

4.) Hold Still While I Empty Your Wallet

3.) Me and Ms. Kay Act Like Three Small Bitches

2.) I Crapped In the Parlor and Ten Publishers Came A-Runnin'

1.) I Lost My Stick and Then I Was Sad

More info on the kid here.

"Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, strongly condemned the attack. He says that once again terrorists have killed innocent Iraqis and have proven they will stop at nothing to prevent the emergence of democracy. "


Ha ha, ho ho uh huh hee hee ho ho. *wipes away tears of panged laughter*

Sorry to keep posting these bad articles but I've been on irony alert that last couple of days.

On January 2-4, 2001, a small and very secret team met in the offices of Microsoft's Game Group to plan and design a massive, web-based scavenger-hunt/soap opera. For years Jordan Weisman had been thinking about doing a game that would be sort of like the Beatles Paul-Is-Dead mystery--an elaborate web of clues and possible conspiracies to be investigated by a huge group of fans.

The internet supplied the medium--a place where you could deliver a ton of content, and be assured that players would talk about it with one another. As for the message, the games group had been given the challenge of creating a virtual world to stand behind the new Spielberg movie, A.I.. Spielberg and his producer, Kathy Kennedy, felt that A.I.'s themes made it only natural that the movie's life should expand not in sequels, but on computer. So far, so good.

It's a wrap! The stones were vibrating, order has been restored and Dale's life is back to normal thanks to the dedicated players and PMs for Chasing The Wish.

After a six month run, Chasing The Wish has come to a successful conclusion. The last few weeks have been a frenzy of activity with hundreds of posts to Unfiction alone.

Check out smalldene.com/thewish.html.

Expect a post-game interview with Dave and JM to be published on-line, on this and other game websites in the near future.

08-29-03: Lot's of entries, and so far two winners! One more to go!

I can't tell you where it will be or how to find it. In fact, I shouldn't even be telling you to look for it, since you're supposed to be "...searching for us without knowing it..." Therefore, strike that. I never said anything.

There's a rumor that the first 3 people to email a correct description of the EGG (that doesn't really exist) to this email address will receive a free copy of the now out of print CD-ROM, The Incunabula Papers: Ong's Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions, which is now trading at $200.00 for used copies.
What's acceptable as an entry: A correct description of what it is or a digital picture (both proving that you found it).

Update: Arrest made! Minn. Teen Faces Internet Attack Charges

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle has confirmed that it will hold a news conference Friday to discuss developments in the MSBlast worm investigation.

U.S. Attorney John McKay and representatives from the FBI are expected to detail progress made in their investigation into the MSBlast computer virus at 1:30 p.m. PT, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington.

Sergei Prokofiev's musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf is popular with children but not with wolf lovers, and two former world leaders -- Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev -- aim to put that right in a new recording.

They have teamed up in a new recording that couples the tale with a contemporary version featuring the same two protagonists but a very different ending.

Prokofiev's version ends with Peter capturing the wolf and leading a triumphant procession to the zoo, paining music-loving environmentalists with romantic visions of wolves in the wild.

In the new version, narrated by former U.S. president Clinton and called Wolf Tracks, Peter again captures the wolf, but this time repents of his act and releases the animal, who howls a grateful goodbye.

The 14-year-old Iranian girl, Hana Makhmalbaf, whose first feature film debuted at the 60th Venice Film Festival Thursday, was almost barred from attending her own premiere.

Under Italian law, minors cannot see movies which have no rating -- even if they directed them.

The computer would have to learn what the user knows, what the user doesn't know, how the user performs everyday, common functions. It would also recognize when the user makes a mistake or doesn't understand something.

The back story of how a 1977 interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger in a now-defunct sex magazine got to be the latest hot story of the campaign is a tale of intrigue on the Internet.

It started with the Web site of online journalist Mickey Kaus.

This summer, Dave Hill got a refreshing break from the run-of-the-mill spam that routinely invades his e-mail inbox. Instead of hawking mortgages, penis-enlargement pills or weight-loss products, a message arrived that seemed straight out of a science fiction novel.

The anonymous e-mail offered $5,000 to any vendor capable of promptly delivering a collection of far-fetched gadgets for conducting time travel. Among the mysterious devices sought by the message's author were an "Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built-in temporal displacement" and an "AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing the GRC79 induction motor." | Why is everyone around here referring to this story as "Wired takes the bait"?

Britain is turning into a nation of gamers, research by the UK games industry trade body suggests.

A study by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association says that soon more people could be playing games than watching TV.

From Bookslut: If you're not reading Bookmunch, you're missing out on some of the most engaging and incisive book commentary in the language. Go there now, then come back here Monday when Bookmunch editor Peter Wild will be guest blogging for Bookslut.

E-books have generated their share of excitement, but with an equal share of disappointment. Despite support from major players such Microsoft (developer of ClearType), the technology has failed to reach true mainstream status. But Hewlett-Packard researchers in England are convinced that some of their new interface ideas, in conjunction with a set of emerging display technologies, will mark a turning point for the underachieving e-book market. At HP's Bristol, England facilities, researchers have developed prototype e-books with Etch-a-Sketch–like displays bordered by touch-sensitive strips. You move your fingers on the strips as you would over the pages or along the page edges of a book, creating a book-like reading experience.

20 years ago, a Boeing 747 was shot out of the sky by a Soviet fighter jet, a U.S. Congressman on-board. Dr. Lawrence Patton McDonald was also simultaneously Chairman of the John Birch Society.

Rense.com has issued an incendiary retrospective of evidentiary articles and documents of the assassination of McDonald, the State Department cover-up of the investigation and a document which, perhaps, led to the decision to "take McDonald out." (Scroll down to the Headlines section) We urge you to visit Rense.com and enlighten yourself of this long-buried tragedy.

An emerging whodunit in Central Oregon hovers amid the smoke draping the east side of the Cascade Range.

Can it be pure coincidence, locals are asking, that two wildfires sprang up in view of the spot where President Bush planned to promote his plan to thin forests for wildfire prevention?

And that they both appeared just as his plans emerged?

"I think everyone in the community here is wondering that," said Judy Wattier, who works at the KOA Campground just east of Sisters, where business is in the doldrums because of the blazes that have covered almost 40,000 acres in the nearby Deschutes National Forest. "Everyone I've mentioned it to can talk about it for hours." [more]

"Bush posing with the environment is like Ted Bundy posing with pretty women."
--Geov Parrish

Bill Moyers: "The facts on the ground. I'm a journalist, reporting the evidence, not an environmentalist pressing an agenda. The Earth is sending us a message and you don't have to be an environmentalist to read it. The Arctic ice is melting. The Arctic winds are balmy. The Arctic Ocean is rising. Scientists say that in the year 2002 -- the second-hottest on record -- they saw the Arctic ice coverage shrink more than at any time since they started measuring it. Every credible scientific study in the world says human activity is creating global warming. In the face of this evidence, the government in Washington has declared war on nature. They have placed religious and political dogma over the facts." [more]

From the Charlotte Observer
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, reportedly plans to introduce legislation in September to further expand federal police powers.

The Hatch bill, entitled the Victory Act (Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act), is seen by some to be a substitute for the so-called Patriot Act II -- the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 -- which was leaked and caused a furor in Congress as well as among liberal and conservative civil liberties groups. A draft copy of the Victory Act has been posted on the Web (www.libertythink.com).

Holy crap! I just realized that the Charlotte Observer only linked to the head of Libertythink, not to the permailink of the story in question (which by now has been pushed down quite a bit in the list). That means that all day long, anyone clicking in from the Observer story has been seeing the Guns and Dope Party campaign pic first thing! OMG! Hahahahahahahaha! The $50,000.00 question at this point is: "Which Libertythink admin will crack first and push the correct story to the top?" ;)

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush, marking Thursday's 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, urged the nation to "continue the march to equality and opportunity for all."

Un-fuckin-believable. This is beyond irony. We've slipped into the realm of the utterly surreal.

"THE lights came back on in London late last night (early this morning AEST) after a major blackout during rush hour stranded hundreds of thousands of commuters, snarled up traffic and shut down most of the public transport system." Via news.com.au

Uh oh. It's a fad.

The Dutch PC-Active magazine has done an extensive CD-R quality test. For the test the magazine has taken a look at the readability of discs, thirty different CD-R brands, that were recorded twenty months ago. The results were quite shocking as a lot of the discs simply couldn't be read anymore. | Via Blogdex

| Via disinfo

Venice film festival, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, may not yet have the clout or glamour of Cannes, but its line-up reveals several eyebrow-raising films which are expected to hit headlines.
Following on from this year's Cannes festival, which was described by some critics as the "worst in living memory", Venice has the chance to hit some headlines of its own.

The spread of rumours of arrests by pagers and text messaging following the riots that rocked Mumbai on Monday has become a matter of concern for the Indian police. Senior police officials felt such rumours could have led to communal disturbances in the city besides hampering police investigations, according to Cities Express.
For more on rumours spread by SMS, see SMS and Politics category in textually.org.

Mars and Earth make a "close encounter" about every 26 months. These periodic encounters are due to the differences in the two planets' orbits. Earth goes around the Sun twice as fast as Mars, lapping the red planet about every two years. Both planets have elliptical orbits, so their close encounters are not always at the same distance. In its close encounter with Earth in 2001, for example, Mars was about 9 million miles farther away. Because Mars was much closer during this year's rendezvous, the planet will appeared 23 percent larger in the sky. Mars will not be this close again until 2287.

A Brazilian telephone company is offering a helping hand to Latin lovers who are lacking inspiration with animations of sexual positions based on the Kama Sutra flashed directly to their mobile phones.

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is now home to the United States' fastest operational unclassified supercomputer. The laboratory's 11.8 teraflops industry-standard HP Integrity system came to full operating power this week, marking the next advance in high-performance computing designed to enable new insights in the environmental and molecular sciences, including chemistry, biology, climate and subsurface chemistry.

People are paying for songs on the iTunes Music Store because they think it's a good way to support musicians. But by giving musicians just a few cents from each sale, iTunes destroys a huge opportunity. Instead of creating a system that gets virtually all of fans' money directly to artists-- finally possible with the internet-- iTunes takes a big step backwards. Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but really they're just letting record companies force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium.

A German conductor is incorporating mobile phone ringtones into his orchestra's performances.

Bernd Kremling, who runs the Drumming Hands orchestra in Wuerzburg, used ringtones ranging from Bach and Mozart to Old McDonald Had a Farm.

"All of these are the kinds of signals that wake you up," Mr Kremling told the Berliner Zeitung.

With the growing risk of a backlash against nanotechnology, the US National Science Foundation has announced unprecedented funding to support study of nanotechnology's societal implications.

The NSF has announced two grants of more than US$1 million apiece.

New York City Blackout as Photographed by John Wehr

As millions of computers strain under the weight of e-mail generated by the Sobig virus, the writers and the cybersleuths who aim to hunt them down are engaged in a never-ending game of cat-and-mounse.

The hunt is on. Teams of FBI experts are poring through computer databases in the US, tracking a shadowy quarry through cyberspace. They do not know their target's name but they do know he is clever and that he must be stopped.

He is a virus writer and mastermind behind the fastest computer virus ever devised. His creation spread its tentacles around the globe last week, smothering countless computer systems with its sheer weight of e-mail traffic. It was called Sobig.F, and it lived up to its name by becoming so huge that by the end of the week one in 15 e-mails across the entire world was coming from the virus.

But the identity of Sobig's creator, like so many in the world of computer viruses, remains a secret. He could be a teenager, holed up in a bedroom and nursing a juvenile grudge against the world. Or the virus writer could be on an ego-trip: simply wanting to see his creation dominate the world's computer systems. He could be a criminal, working in the pay of "spammers" who send mass junk e-mails across the world and who want to learn new techniques from the virus's astonishing speed.

The recording industry provided its most detailed glimpse to date Wednesday into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign to cripple music piracy over the Internet.

The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. The recording industry disputed her defense that songs on her family's computer were from compact discs she had legally purchased.

Using a surprisingly astute technical procedure, the Recording Industry Association of America examined song files on the woman's computer and traced their digital fingerprints back to the former Napster file-sharing service, which shut down in 2001 after a court ruled it violated copyright laws.

Also see: RIAA turns up heat on subpoena fighter

The revolutionary DivX technology first emerged as a spoof of a failed scheme of the same name and has slowly usurped the MPEG-4 initiative. For all practical purposes, it has become MPEG-4. DivX can turn a 4.7GB DVD into a 700MB disc with no degradation in quality. The implications are huge.

The technology has been flying under the radar for a while, but that will end in a few months, when DivX-compatible DVD players will flood the market. How did all this happen so smoothly?

A group of small Webcasters on Wednesday filed an antitrust suit against the Recording Industry Association of America, alleging that the trade association tried to push independent music stations offline.

"I catch fish in the morning and Americans at night,'' he said. "Catching Americans is easier than catching fish.'' from da ny times

It's an historic event, one not to miss, but those who watch the sky for clues to the future of an uncertain world say little good will come of it.

Soothsayers from India and Hong Kong to a tent outside a temple in the heart of Cambodia's capital say Wednesday's close encounter with Mars spells natural or man-made disaster on Earth.

You have until Monday to vent your spleen or display your expletive skills for posterity.

So far, more than 500 callers have dialed "Swearline" to record their diatribes in answer to a year-long appeal by Lucky Pierre, a five-artist Chicago collective.

A selection of the recordings will end up on compact discs and put in a jukebox, possibly to be displayed in a willing art gallery or museum. Some examples, most laden with repeated variations on the f-word, are viewable on the group's Web site, http://www.luckypierre.org.

A rambler attempting to walk from Land's End to John O'Groats in the nude has vowed to carry on with his attempt after being released from prison in the Highlands.

After enabling viewers to vote by SMS in immensely popular programs such as Pop Idol, Fame Academy and Big Brother, the next step in interactive gaming will allow viewers to shoot, kick or punch other people on screen over a mobile handset, reports the BBC.

There already are shows in Finland and the Philippines where people can become part of the action on screen.

A little slide show.
Also see: Close Encounter with Mars Excites Stargazers

(Full Online Novel) by Douglas Rushkoff


CLICK HERE

Rushkoff, a New York-based journalist, goes west to Berkeley for a look inside Cyberia—the emerging countercultural terrain of computer hackers, "smart" drugs, house music, and a range of alternate "cyberpunk" lifestyles and anarchic philosophies.

This largely sympathetic report from the latest frontier will undoubtedly strike many older readers as outrageous, but others (especially those with clear memories of the 60's) may find much of the rhetoric familiar, even nostalgic. In fact, many of the ingredients hark back to the Berkeley scene of nearly three decades ago: the text is full of references to acid trips, pagan rituals, and Grateful Dead concerts, and even Timothy Leary puts in an appearance at a virtual reality demonstration. The most significant new element in the mix is the computer— especially when used to connect with other computer users around the world. Leary advised dropouts to "find the others," and computer networks like the WELL have made it easier than ever for Cyberians to locate those of similar beliefs.

Rushkoff interviews authors, drug dealers, musicians, and hackers; watches two electronic outlaws stealing ATM codes; joins a role-playing game in which he acts the part of a thief; and talks to eco-terrorists and cultists about their beliefs. While some readers might wish the author had kept his nonsense detector more finely tuned, much of the book's value lies in Rushkoff's ability to resist patronizing his subjects. A provocative, wide-ranging survey of the current state of the interface between the longings of youth and the wild potentials of computer technology. —Kirkus Review

It's now available for free online in an HTML format as well as printer-friendly text format.

The Burning Man festival, a prominent artistic and countercultural event that draws tens of thousands of people to the Nevada desert annually, is in danger of cancellation this week because "no one had their shit together enough to even make it," organizers said Tuesday.

"Jesus Christ, this is pathetic," said event coordinator Ethan Moon as he angrily gestured toward the empty Black Rock Desert basin expanse, known as the playa. "We've been promoting this thing all year. You can't start panhandling quarters for gas the week before the festival and expect to make it here in time, man."

Lawmakers yesterday vowed to use the final report on the space shuttle Columbia disaster as a "road map" to oversee far-reaching changes in NASA that could dramatically alter the manned space program. Via washington post

hmmm. dramatically alter, huh? How so? There's some very confusing talk in there that seems to say there will continue to be manned space flight but without shuttles.

The Japanese government party is drawing up proposals to change the clause in the constitution which renounces war, a party official said yesterday. Via the Guardian

Kinda makes you wonder. Is this for offense or defense?

On August 25, 2003 we photographed Mars from Fernandina Beach, FL. A series of ten images were taken within a five minute period at a very high light exposure setting using a Kodak 4.0 megapixel digital camera.

Two of the images that were captured on this night are represented at http://www.retinax.com/mars

On this page, to the right is an accurate depiction that seems normal. The shot to the left is the next shot in the series using the same settings. The camera and tripod were in exactly the same position in both shots.

In these shots of Mars, a strange object was exposed that clearly resembles a human-like figure. This is NOT a hoax. These shots are very real and very thought provoking, possibly even disturbing.

Please pass this image on to the rest of the world.

For those of you who think that Slashdot doesn't update often enough, we have created the Slashdot Story Generator (SSG). Developed in PHP and utilizing the powerful and flexible Kozzmo Generation Engine (including random typos for Added Realism(tm)), the SSG removes the annoying wait between Slashdot story postings. Just press the convenient "Next Story" button and you'll get the rush you desire when you see your chance to make the "First Post!"

A mysterious crate labeled "Wild Animals" and blasting out lions' roars in a German town had locals running scared and animal lovers up in arms before it was revealed as an advertising stunt, police said Tuesday.

Yahoo! News syndicate via RSS

Glub-glub-glub all you little feedsters.

An article about the increasingly common use of "autotuners" in live music performances. These digital-processing systems capture and re-transmit an artist's vocals in real-time, pitch-correcting for off-key vocals or dissonant harmonies.

It begs the question of what else is being "corrected" or "hamonically adjusted" in the music, perhaps subliminally, perhaps without even the artist's awareness.

"British Aerospace scientists have developed a revolutionary airborne computer system that they claim can land aircraft safely without human air traffic controllers. It will enable a pilot to determine an aircraft's landing path simply by pressing a button in the cockpit. The new technology has been developed by BAE Systems, the British defence and aerospace company, and aims to eliminate human error, save on fuel and increase flight safety. If successful, it will also threaten the jobs of 40,000 air traffic controllers worldwide."

Would you be interested in a once-in-a-life-time chance to discover Our Hollow Earth first hand? We invite you to join us now on an expedition to Our Hollow Earth!

This proposed expedition would like to conduct some scientific observations in the Artic that is hoped will resolve once and for all whether the hollow earth theory has any validity. The indigenous Eskimos believe there is a hole in the Arctic Ocean. Observations of several Arctic explorers of mirages of land in the Arctic indicate that the most plausible location for a north polar opening that leads into the interior of the earth is located at 84.4 N Latitude, 141 E Longitude. To check out this theory, a group of hollow earth believers and scientists would like to charter a Russian Nuclear Icebreaker into the Arctic sea.

A rash of books is celebrating courtesans' erotic triumphs, but what about their anguish?

A sexy summer craze has swept the world of books: three publishers have brought out biographies of courtesans, top-class prostitutes of the 18th and 19th centuries whose skills and ambition earned them the patronage of powerful men. It seems that even when reading history, there are few places we would rather be than in the bedroom.

Grains the size of dust that can sense their environment, orient themselves and assemble in groups have been developed by a team of California chemists who want to build miniature robots.

This is a key development in what we hope will one day make possible the development of robots the size of a grain of sand," Michael Sailor, leader of the research team, said in a statement.

Now, only a decade after scientists first took note of them, these unusual insects have become the most popular symbol of an emerging field called "synchrony," or, more commonly, "sync."

Synchrony appears throughout the natural world. It is most obvious in schools of fish turning suddenly in unison, or birds wheeling through the sky in formation, or in the perfectly timed chirping of crickets.

I am not a member of a satanic cult and I did not kill Laci Peterson.

I'm not actually accused of killing Laci Peterson, the pregnant California woman who disappeared earlier this year and whose body was recently found. Scott Peterson, her husband, is currently the prime suspect. But his defense team has floated the theory that a satanic cult may have murdered his wife. The "evidence" for this theory is the paintings of a group of artists collectively known as SNIFF, with which I have been associated for four years. Via Alternet

Ever wonder why people get "butterflies" in the stomach before going on stage ? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps ? And why antidepressants targeted for the brain cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take such drugs ?

The reason for these common experiences, scientists say, is that the body has two brains - the familiar one encased in the skull and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut Like Siamese twins, the two brains are interconnected ; when one gets upset, the other does, too.

The gut's brain, known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Considered a single entity, it is a network of neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found m the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce gut feelings.

The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery. But few people know it exists, said Dr. Michael Gershon, a professor of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New-York.

...you're going to get what you deserve. Trent Reznor - Head Like a Hole

"American Catholics are about to experience major changes in the Communion rite as dioceses begin implementing updated General Instruction of the Roman Missal. The major change will require the faithful to break the habit of immediately returning to their pews to kneel in prayer after Communion. Communicants returning to their pews will be asked to stand and sing until everyone has received Communion and the priest has sat down to pray. Other changes include asking worshippers to raise both hands upward at the Lord's Prayer. The raised arms go back to the way Jesus and early church members prayed, diocesan liturgists said. They are a symbol of surrender to God and Christian belief in Jesus' victory over death, Woost said."

It's things like this that make me glad I'm not Catholic.

It seems that the White Hats have decoded the 109kB binary that the SoBig email worm sends along, and have learned that it was using 20 compromised DSL-attached PC's to drop code into infected machines. Swell...*another* reason for that early morning knock on my door.

For me, I crossed a milestone with SoBig this weekend. The path started back on Tuesday of last week, when my servers starting getting hit with 109kB attachments of the SoBig email worm. Since then, I've had roughyl 100 messages a day from dozens of Mail Delivery Subsystems, telling me that messages SoBig fraudulently signed with my return address failed to reach their recipient. This weekend, though, I finally transcended, having received the SoBig virus emailed to myself...from myself.

At least the virus isn't shopping for me on Ebay, right?

"Mr Holland's idea is that a conscious robot would have to build up internal models - one for the 'self' of the robot and another for the world around it."

That was my idea three weeks ago... seriously.

Do you really have to have a brain? The reason for my apparently absurd question is the remarkable research conducted at the University of Sheffield by neurology professor John Lorber.

When Sheffield's campus doctor was treating one of the mathematics students for a minor ailment, he noticed that the student's head was a little larger than normal. The doctor referred the student to professor Lorber for further examination.

The student in question was academically bright, had a reported IQ of 126 and was expected to graduate. When he was examined by CAT-scan, however, Lorber discovered that he had virtually no brain at all.

Sally Baron hailed as hero by many

The story of Sally Baron, a Stoughton woman whose obituary asked that memorial funds go toward the removal of President Bush, was catching hold across the country as her family held memorial services Friday.

Dozens of people from around the United States have written to The Capital Times saying they will make donations to various organizations in her name, and the request was aired on national TV Thursday night.

Baron's story is also being hotly discussed on online bulletin boards, among both liberals and conservatives.

Baron "has become a sort of poster girl for all of us who despise George Bush," wrote Nancy Tonies of Appleton.

Baron raised six children, one of whom died of leukemia at age 21, in the timber and mining country of Iron County. Her husband was crushed and nearly killed in a 1969 mining accident and died seven years ago, shortly before Baron moved to Stoughton.

Her family described how their mother - a waitress, cook and factory assembly worker - was furious with Bush for what she saw as a stolen election and dishonest statements. Baron's favorite nickname for Bush, which she used to shout at the TV, was "whistle ass."

More on this story

Jon gives us a wonderful summation of some of the happenings at IC²'s 2nd Annual Games Development Workshop: Artificial Intelligence, Interactivity & Immersive Environments.