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MONTHLY ARCHIVE: January 2004

January 16, 2004

melville is loquacious

file under: technology

my spam filters have been getting progressively more sieve-like. the spammers are getting smarter at disguising their drivel. at least the email titles provide some entertainment value. for your sampling, here is a list of recent subjects:

  • melville loquacious january moliere
  • afghanistan down
  • draftsman marvelous maudlin gar
  • bolshevik hereof cone
  • Re: MDM, grunya! what's this
  • Re: HDIIKINY, the procurator understood
  • beauregard actinium roof
  • hackneyed every michaelangelo
  • gallberry formatted ceil foot
  • expletive haunt maul exclaim osaka
  • hydrometer messy nitrogenous hartley adultery
  • bitwise narcosis gelatin mart
  • academy andorra influenza

it's hard to pick my favorites, although any spam email that includes an element from the periodic table in its subject is pretty cool in my book. go actinium! (Z = 89)

Posted: 01.16.04 at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

rhino life support

file under: thoughts about things

after a few million years of evolution, humans have grown from knuckle-dragging primates into amazingly sophisticated thinking and artistic machines, with massive civilizations capable of seemingly endless achievement. and let's not forget the place where we really earn our evolutionary stripes - as overblown life support systems for germs.

sure, we can jump and shout about technology and art and science, being the top of the food chain, going to the moon, making iPods. blah blah blah. but when it really comes down to it, what can everyone do effortlessly, from birth and without training? become hacking, sneezing, phlegm factories.

as i was laying on the couch last night, propped up to avoid death by drowning, i was thinking about our curious relationship with these little bugs. specifically, i was wondering, why do we feel sick when we're, well, sick?

...

nasty, but relatively benign, little pathogens like the rhinovirus (aka, the common cold) and influenza have to be the worst house guests ever. i mean, seriously:

  • they come uninvited
  • they don't leave when they're told
  • they prevent sleep
  • they make us socially undesirable
  • they turn us into whiny, disgusting blobs of sniffling, sticky goo
  • they prevent certain other things from happening bewteen consenting adults... (not that you would want to, if you're conscientious about your loved ones)

why why why? i mean, from an evolutionary standpoint, it makes no sense. doesn't it make a lot more sense to have a virus that (1) makes you spew pheromones that say i'm-hot-and-sexy-and-available, and (2) causes you to unconsciously lick your hands repeatedly and in private? skip all the crappy feelings and other gooey side effects. just think of the transmission rate (all that kissing as a result of (1), then plenty of door knobs and elevator buttons and shaken hands covered with invisible cooties from (2)). heck, everyone would probably want to get sick.

stephen jay gould probably wrote an essay about this very topic. maybe i should go read one of his books.

i'm feeling kinda tired, though. i'll get to mr. gould right after my nap.




PS: the astute reader with a long history on this blog will (hopefully) forgive me for having written on this topic before. what can i say? when you're cooped up at home for a few days, you get bored and feel like sharing. hey, it's better than going outside and sneezing.

Posted: 01.16.04 at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 15, 2004

shameless plug

file under: my life

i recently collaborated with my friend Katherine Aoki on a Flash project...the goal of the project was to look at issues surrounding technology and personal privacy, using a combination of art and storytelling. the result can be seen within the Alternative Museum web site (look for "six degrees of personal privacy" in the left column).

if we had had lots more time, it would have been more animated, more interactive, and more, well, flashy (ahem). the usual excuses apply (namely, having full-time jobs outside of this work...). anyway, we were both pretty happy with how it turned out, since our goal was to share some of our ideas and concerns about recent social, political, and technological events.

Posted: 01.15.04 at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)