Gulfstream

http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/main.cfm/media/features50 Features of the new $50. “Your old money will always be good. Every U.S. currency note issued since 1861 is still redeemable today at full face value.” It’s rather brave to guarantee that all notes will be valid for all time, I think. Also odd that this—the official site of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing—is a .com. 18:39

http://slate.com/id/2107438/ “Who Really Deserves a Silver Star? The military’s unfair awards system.” 18:37

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/
040903 What was great about 1984. 00:03

http://slate.com/id/2107361/ More plagiarism from Harvard profs… 19:56

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/magazine/26BLOGS.html Fair—and lightly disparaging—story on political bloggers. 19:48

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA6DF.htm Against McDonald’s or against McDonald’s customers? 23:33

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1306267,
00.html Exalting prostitution: “But one of the main reasons I enjoy prostitutes is because I enjoy breaking the law—another reason I don’t want brothels made legal. There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it desirable. When I have dinner every evening in Soho I always think: isn’t scampi delicious—what a pity it isn’t illegal. I’m sure I am not alone in this. …” 23:12

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4509184,
00.html Dining in the dark in Paris. “Eating is challenging. Scooping a fork across the plate often comes up empty. Celine advises fighting the temptation to eat with your hands—something a blind person tries to avoid in public. But, lowering the head to the plate seems just fine. Nobody can see.” 04:47

http://www.anticlown.com/images/20040812_boobs.jpg 04:44

http://www.cyberniklas.de/pongmechanik/videos/pong_web_hq.mov Strange—and very German—video describing a mechanical version of Pong. (more info) 07:18

http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?040927ta_talk_surowiecki James Surowiecki: to help poor people, sell them more stuff. 21:27

http://slate.com/id/2106946/ Where Kerry Stands on Iraq—A Kerry–English Translation. Some of this seems a little inaccurate. For example, I don’t think Kerry is saying that the United States shouldn’t have invaded Iraq full-stop. He seems to be saying that had we known then what we know now, the U.S. shouldn’t have invaded Iraq, which is not the same thing. (“We now know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and posed no imminent threat…”) 19:20

http://img2.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img2&image=20040914_miss_
universe.jpg Miss Universe before/after. Awful Plastic Surgery has a similar series on Paris Hilton. 17:20

http://slate.com/id/2106833/ “In short, Bush has pulled Guard troops away from their homeland security duties to fight and die in a war unrelated to the service for which they enlisted. A guardsman who did less than he signed up for is coercing other guardsmen to do more than they signed up for.” 21:11

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040913/pf/431238.pdf Bush and Kerry answer science policy questions—not very informatively, as it happens. (Horrible Flash/HTML version.) The BBC has a rather clumsily-written summary. 19:29

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/nyregion/14subway.html Asking for a seat on the subway: “The seemingly simple assignment proved to be extremely difficult, even traumatic, for the students to carry out.” 20:24

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?040920ta_talk_radosh “It turns out that almost nothing about Borat’s Kazakhstan withstands scrutiny.” 22:08

http://slate.com/id/2106590/ Does God endorse George Bush? “Of course, it’s always possible God did put George W. Bush in the White House. But if He did, it doesn’t theologically follow that He wants him to have a second term. …” 20:33

http://theorganiccow.com/organicoverview/cowcare.html “Sometimes, despite our best efforts, a cow does get sick. When a cow is ailing, we use aspirin, massage and other natural treatments that enhance and strengthen cows’ immune systems to fight off infections. Should a cow worsen to the extent that she needs antibiotics, she is treated and brought back to health but she is not returned to the milking herd.” Where does Daisy go? 23:29

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/06/1094322711575.html “In search of an ex-Liberal who backs the PM.” 22:29

http://slate.msn.com/id/2106287/ Backgrounder on Chechnya. The author speculates that Chechen terrorists are particularly keen on hostage situations because it worked spectacularly well once before: in 1995, after terrorists took patients at a hospital hostage, Russia agreed to pull out from Chechnya and let the terrorists get away in exchange for the hostages. 04:03

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/40398110.html “My friends are fond of saying that my last words on this earth will be something akin to, ‘hey y’all, hold my beer and watch this!’ Well, I have outdone myself once again.” (Other good posts: 1, 2, 3.) 00:03

http://www.feer.com/articles/2004/0409_09/free/exclusive1.html Interview with Charles Robert Jenkins, the U.S. soldier who disappeared while on patrol in Korea in 1965, and who has lived in North Korea since. He seems a little confused. I’m also surprised North Korea didn’t take good care of him. (He says that a fellow alleged deserter regularly beat him.) 02:17

http://paulgraham.com/essay.html Paul Graham essay on “the essay.” (Contains a typically provocative explanation of how English Professors came to do what they do.) 21:02

http://www.viceland.com/issues_au/v2n3/htdocs/the_vice.php Vice’s Guide to Everything: “If you are on the train and you see one of those poor motherfuckers in a dead sprint toward the closing subway doors, DO just fucking hold it for them, please. The MTA is lying: It will not delay other trains, and it’s not ‘safer’ just to wait for the next train—the conductor isn’t going to gas it with some woman’s leg hanging out of the car. Plus it’ll give you this really cool man-over-machine triumph-type feeling.” 01:16