Slumberland

Does anyone but me think that this is, perhaps, a bit of an overreaction?

Imagine the air rage now, with passengers who can’t play computer games or bring bottled water on their flights. Is this really going to prevent terrorism in any way?

Merry Christmas! Enjoy your severance package! That is, if you get one.

This is not cheerful news. Gas masks, anyone? I think that investing in companies that make them might be a good idea.

The World Trade Center collapse shook the ground in New York with a force equivalent to a 2.4 earthquake. Found at Fresh Hell.

I sure would like one of these for Christmas.

The John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project recreates John Lennon’s personality in an AI engine. Type your questions and comments to John, and he will respond.

I asked if he had a web site, and the John-bot answered “Doesn’t everyone have a web site? Even better, I have a plan for world peace or domination. I’m never quite sure which it is?”

Like most AI bots, some of his responses were nonsensical. But quite a few were very real and sounded a lot like John. It’s an interesting project.

The same folks also have a Jack the Ripper bot.

Apparently the Clear Channel “banned songs” list wasn’t quite a hoax, after all.

Momus has some interesting things to say in Life During Wartime. Yes, I’ve had that Talking Heads song running through my brain lately, too.

Clear Channel says the banned songs list I mentioned yesterday is fake. Well, that’s what they say, anyway…

Words matter. I hope that Bush and/or his advisors have studied some history and realize why.

Tonight, Olympia’s Gospel Outreach Youth School Choir will probably get the ovation of their life.

FBI Detains 75 in Terrorism Case — which is interesting, to be sure, but this is the part that caught my attention:

Retired CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite called for the immediate appointment of a censorship board to monitor the strict secrecy that Ashcroft has announced. Cronkite said that secrecy is necessary in the war against terrorism, but that the government should immediately appoint a board of journalists and historians that will be aware of all the government’s plans and actions. Secrecy must not be used to protect political decisions or government failures, but only for military purposes, Cronkite said.

I understand “loose lips sink ships” and all, but this still saddens me greatly.

Clear Channel, the world’s largest radio network, has sent their stations a list of songs that are “lyrically objectionable” in the wake of last Tuesday’s
events. “Imagine”? How is that objectionable? “99 Luftballons”? “War”? Good God, y’all, indeed! Apparently anti-war songs are verboten on CC stations.

After I wrote the below note, I thought about it some more and decided I wanted to see what other people thought about the topic, as well. So I posted it on Metafilter, where hopefully there will be some discussion of the issue.

Neil Howe and William Strauss have written a series of books (really, the same book rehashed three times, but who’s counting?) on generational cycles — Generations, 13th Gen, and The Fourth Turning. In the first and third of these books, they discuss at length their theory that we are due for a “fourth turning” in the first part of the 21st century: a catalyst event that causes an extreme change in public mood, causing us to go through a decade or two of crisis. For example, the 1929 stock market crash was a catalyst, and the Depression and WWII were the crisis time.

Whether you agree with them or not, it’s interesting to read that Strauss and Howe have posted their thoughts on whether this is the fourth turning they predicted on their web site forum. What do you think?