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I won’t do any blogging for the next week, so I have collected these items to make up for the lost time. Those lower down are links to older articles I had never had gotten around to posting.

I got most of links from these news sources:

Arts & Letters Daily
SciTechDaily
BusinessDailyreview

Public Relations on the cheap:

PR on a Low Budget: Combine 3 Tactics for Peak Impact

A long-awaited “Star Wars” role playing game is set to be released for the Xbox this month:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

It’s set 4000 years before the movies, though.

How to become a disastrous boss:

7 Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

US companies can now officially be sued for defending themselves against criticism:

Supreme Court paves way for trial on Nike’s free speech rights

A bubble bursting?

Gartner says Wireless LANs fair way away

Working overtime to make mischief:

Virus writers boost output in 2003

Patents granted for somewhat peculiar inventions:

You Can Patent That?

I just might try the “Semen taste-enhancement dietary supplement”.

Future interconnected networks of sensors:

Sensors of the World, Unite!

Proposed new airport scanners reveal a bit too much:

‘Nice Bombs Ya Got There’

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in computer games

Mind Games

Electronic Arts becoming”the greatest entertainment company ever”?

Could This Be the Next Disney?

Bjørn Lomborg and Olivier Rubin review the latest edition of “Limits to growth”

Chris Taylor whose company made the great roleplaying game Dungeon Siege on the Future of PC Gaming

The Spectator on the “savage new religion of celebrity”:

Why our gods must die

Comedian Jeff Wayne does to Michael Moore what Moore did to Roger Smith:

Michael And Me

A great book review by Paul Krugman, from the time before he became a political activist:

The Accidental Theorist

An article that claims that Moore’s Law isn’t good for the high tech industry:

Forget Moore’s Law

A not quite official homepage of the science fiction author Larry Niven:

Known Space

The hierarchy of High School:

Why Nerds Are Unpopular

There’s been some discussion on blogs about this column by one of the Anglosphere’s deep thinkers. The idea is that atheists should call themselves “brights” as a way to distinguish themselves and to intellectually one-up those benighted believers.

This is a bad idea and won’t fly. Many Americans are religious and would reasonably take offense at the clear implication of the word “bright” as used in this way: that religious people are stupid. This point, and the likelihood that even many atheists would prefer to avoid conveying such sneering disrespect for alternative views as use of this word, in this context, conveys, are going to make a lot of people reluctant to use it. And if it doesn’t catch on here it isn’t likely to become a standard term in the way that “gay” has.

But I understand why people who hate religion would try to convince everyone else to use a term such as “bright.” Its use forestalls argument by assuming a conclusion — a conclusion that it asserts up front as though it were as obviously valid as someone’s name, and how dare anyone challenge it. (Are atheists bright? Yes, they tell us so themselves.) You have to wonder about the judgment and intellectual confidence of people who try to gain adherents to their position by using verbal sleight-of-hand rather than rational persuasion.

“Bright” has been compared to the aforementioned “gay,” but I think a better comparison is to the word “liberal” as it is used in the U.S. to describe political orientation. Americans who call themselves liberals are really socialists. But socialism doesn’t sell here, so American leftists play word games to avoid defending their positions via straightforward arguments in which they would be at a disadvantage. They use “liberal” in the same way as Dawkins uses “bright” — to avoid dealing with opposing views on the merits. Ask what liberals believe, and why, and you are likely to receive a circular response asserting that since the word “liberal” implies tolerance and love of freedom, people who call themselves liberals must favor these things, and therefore (it is implied) if liberals support something it must be favorable for tolerance and freedom. Thus, for example, the American Left favors racial discrimination as long as leftists are in charge of it and do it out of self-declared good motives. This doesn’t seem very liberal to me, but they keep telling us that it is, and since they are “liberals” who am I to object? This is a neat trick, and lots of people still fall for it (though less so over time, as leftists’ increasing use of the word “progressive” in place of “liberal,” presumably in response to how their own actions have discredited liberalism, suggests).

We had a band practice for the first time in 13 years on Saturday. We had three out of four of us. I’m the singer. I’ll go to my grave amazed that talented people are willing to put up with me. But, hey, count your blessings. I guess I add something. Boyish enthusiasm, maybe. Our drummer played guitar at the practice, which he’s actually better at these days, and since his drums have been at someone else’s house for some number of years. He showed up nattily attired in a Ramones t-shirt. I had my Eyeliners t-shirt on. Our monstrously good guitar player, who can take five notes you whistle and turn it into a rock song, is in New York now. But we decided to just get started despite age, fat, decayed skills and absence of our best guy. The goal: twelve songs, 25-30 minute set performable somewhere in Chicagoland sometime reasonably soon. In other words, we aint in any hurry. We’re all keepin’ our day jobs. We decided we’d try a bunch of covers, and as we got going on that we’d maybe see if inspiration struck for some new originals. We’ll resurrect a few of our old originals as a last resort. We rehearsed “Don’t Push Me Around” by the Zeros, “Cesare Said” by Buck, “Everything’s Geometry” by cub (which I’m not sure works with a guy singin’ it …), “Spare Change” by the late, great Chicago all-girl band Bhang Revival. We took a swing at “Pancho and Lefty”, which may not work out, though I still have hope for it, it is such a good song. And we did a shorter version of our old cover of Ace Frehley’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “2000 Man”. So far so good. I drank Pilsner Urquell throughout, which worked well for me. My kids sat on the basement stairs and watched this whole thing, with unreadable expressions. They seemed to like it OK, once they got used to it. They are stuck with a “weird” Dad. Could be worse. At least we have health insurance.

If this band ever actually plays out, I’ll announce it here. Road trip to Chicago. All ChicagoBoyz readers can crash on my living room floor. Ha. Just kidding.

(I see there are two copies of our ancient vinyl 7 inch ep, only 5 Euros! Woo hoo!)

Evilusion is developing a biblically themed role playing game:

“The main concept behind Eon of Tears is that the player will get a shot at the biggest events in the Bible: unleashing the ten plagues of Egypt, seeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, leading the conquest of Canaan, or performing some of the miracles as Jesus-Christ.

…

The game offers the chance to explore the events of the Bible and rewrite it to a certain extent. Your in-game journal consists of the Bible writing itself; if you do exactly what Moses did, you’ll end up with the very same Bible we know today. Chances are, however, that you will do a few things differently. All in all the choices the player makes steer him on one of the three paths: following the law of God, helping Satan destroy Him, or doing your own business to save your skin.

These choices will have a big impact on your quest. For example, a player that acts evil most of the time won’t get to play Jesus, but Judas instead, or a Pharaoh’s troop commander instead of Moses. Sometimes it is the psychology of a character which changes – an evil player will still play as Joshua, but instead of “liberating the land of Canaan from the evil-doers”, he will “exterminate the sinners to the bitter end”.

That sounds actually pretty good to me. If the concept is well executed I`ll be sure to get this game. Link via Slashdot Games.

As its critics say the so-called “road map to peace” is indeed a benighted attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but at least one thing has to be said in its defense: Even a much more thoughtful and credible approach would have led to the same increase in attacks we just witnessed. The terrorists simply don’t want peace and will respond to any proceedings to that effect with violence in order to derail them.

Israel is well advised to continue in its attempts to stamp out Hamas and all the other terrorist organizations. There is no guarantee that it is going to work much better than it used to, but it still is the best hope to at least weaken them to such an extent that they’ll be unable to sabotage the next and with some luck more comprehensive peace-plan. And there is one thing which is different from the past – an American administration that unambigously assigns the responsibility for the violence to the Palestinian side. The road map’s failure has given GWB some first hand insight into who the real culprits are (and that may be another good thing to say about it). If he follows through on that he’ll give Israel carte blanche on dealing with Hamas et al. and that might make the crucial difference.

Now if only the European Commision could finally understand that Hamas’s so-called “political wing” is nothing but terrorist infrastructure some real progress might be made (link via the Shark Blog). Since the EU is no more of a fast learner than another supranational institution I could mention I’m not holding my breath, though.