Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Entries Tagged as 'Internet'

Books: “Too Slow a Form of Information Delivery”

July 13th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Books, Culture, Education, History, Internet, Lit, Mythology, News

Scary quote of the week: In an article from the LA Times about the sad passing of another indie book store owned by a wonderful old eccentric — which is kind of like losing one of the last 12 rare rhinoceroses or something – anyway, toward the end of that article, we read this: Dowdy […]

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Great Moments in Misplaced Modifiers

July 13th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Culture, Grammar, Internet, Language

Spotted just now in an online customer review for a handheld vacuum: We have a 2 year old daughter who loves to throw food and her five cousins who ride in the car. … those poor cousins, being thrown around the inside of a car by a freakishly strong two-year-old! I hope the grownups at […]

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Update: Internet Radio Gets a Reprieve

July 13th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Activism, Culture, Internet, Media, Music, News

For those who’ve been following the “Internet Radio Is in Danger of Being Shut Down Forever” story (background here), there’s some good news. According to Wired News, as a result of the massive outcry Congress heard from listeners, SoundExchange is backing away from the draconic royalty rate structure that would have put Internet radio out […]

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Roundup: Cannibal Cane Toad Edition

July 9th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Cannibal Cane Toad Edition · Activism, Blogs, Comics, Culture, Education, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Human Rights, Internet, iTunes, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Organic Food, Pets, Politics, Restaurants, Roundup, Science, Tech, Vegetarian & Vegan

John Conyers tells it like it T-I-Is: Conyers says Bush spared Libby from jail to keep him from singing. This is patently obvious to just about everyone, but of course the White House immediately called the charge “ridiculous and baseless.” Which allows it to join the distinguished list of other ideas the administration considers “ridiculous […]

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Roundup: Solar-Powered Wi-Fi Turtle Edition

July 5th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Apple, Business, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Film, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Healthcare Crisis, History, HIV/AIDS, Internet, LGBT, Media, Music, Nature, News, Politics, Racism, Roundup, Science, Tech

Nicole at Crooks and Liars puts it well: It’s ironic to be celebrating Independence Day during a time when we have a virtual King who defies the law with impunity, and is not held accountable to the people he governs. Revolution? What revolution? Also at C&L, what a TV newscast looked like on July 4, […]

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Music: Talk Talk, “Such a Shame”

July 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Music: Talk Talk, “Such a Shame” · Culture, Film, Internet, iTunes, Music, New Wave, Performance, Video

I found an old posting I made to the Planet-Earthlings Yahoo Group several years ago, back when the group was new and we were talking about favorite videos from the New Wave era. Most of the ones I wrote about are up on YouTube, so I figured I’d work my way through ’em till I’ve […]

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Ceci N’est Pas Une Vice President

July 2nd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Internet, Politics, Science

The award for the best Cheney post of the past week goes to Bob Harris, hands down. It starts out good: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the last six and a half years would make a lot more sense if the GOP were actually performing a sophisticated Dada art exhibition. This […]

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Or We Could Just Go with a Picture of the Comic Book Guy

June 30th, 2007 · Comments Off on Or We Could Just Go with a Picture of the Comic Book Guy · Blogs, Comedy, Comics, Culture, Film, Internet, Journal, TV

Okay, since I always like to follow the lead of the RubberNun, I took my best shot at recreating myself as a Simpsons character (courtesy of the avatar builder at the Simpsons Movie site). Of course, being the multi-faceted Gemini Rising type that I am, I had to do four different versions. Figure A: The […]

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Save Internet Radio Campaign Update — Day of Silence Tuesday, June 26

June 25th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Activism, Business, Culture, Internet, iTunes, Media, News, Politics, Tech

July 15 is “the day the music dies” — the date that Internet radio will be essentially destroyed by new draconic royalty fees approved by the Copyright Royalties Board if Congress doesn’t take action to fix the situation. The exorbitant new rates force stations to pay a fixed fee for every song they play, regardless […]

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Roundup: Irish Sea Eagle Edition

June 22nd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Blogs, Climate Change, Culture, Feminism, Film, Internet, Law, LGBT, Media, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Politics, Roundup, Science, TV

POLITICS: The Senate Judiciary committee has voted 13-3 to authorize subpoenas for documents related to the NSA warrantless surveillance program. That includes three Republicans on the committee voting in favor of the subpeonas: Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Poland “stuns” other members of the European Union by demanding that […]

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Michael Moore’s Sicko: Willing To Be Patient

June 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Michael Moore’s Sicko: Willing To Be Patient · Activism, Culture, Film, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Internet, Media, News, Politics

So there’s lots of news buzz this week about how Michael Moore’s health care industry documentary Sicko has already been pirated to YouTube and other places, two weeks before the film’s original June 29 release date. And as a result the movie will be opening early, with sneak previews in 27 selected markets. I think […]

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Roundup: Tiny Four-Eyed Turtle Edition

June 18th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Tiny Four-Eyed Turtle Edition · Activism, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Education, Health, Human Rights, Internet, iTunes, Labor, Law, LGBT, Music, Nature, News, Pets, Politics, Science, Tech

POLITICS: In “Hillary’s Labor Problem,” Joe Conason points out that Hillary Clinton’s top political strategist, Mark Penn, is the CEO of a union-busting law firm. “Having started in a tiny, two-man polling operation in a New York City mayoral campaign, he is now the CEO of Burson-Marsteller Inc., one of the planet’s largest P.R. shops, […]

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Roundup: Green Blood and Near Beer Edition

June 11th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Comics, Culture, Hate Crimes, Heroes, Human Rights, Internet, Journalism, Language, LGBT, Media, Music, News, Politics, Roundup, Tech, TV

POLITICS: Department of things that should be perfectly obvious to everyone: Colin Powell says we should close Guantanamo. “Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it and it is causing us far […]

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Russell Hoban, The Kraken, and the US Edition of Linger Awhile

June 5th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Internet, Journal, Lit, Mythology, News, Online Communities, Russell Hoban, Science Fiction

A few days ago I got a package in the mail from the David R. Godine publishing house, who last year republished both of Russell Hoban’s hilarious Captain Najork children’s books in the US (and did a lovely job of it). Inside the package was an advance copy of the forthcoming US edition of Russ’s […]

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