Nunc Scio

Politics. Media. Culture. Now you know.

Month: August, 2007

Sunday Morning Randomness: Men Without Hats

In my weaker moments, I wonder whatever became of Men Without Hats. Surely the musical vision that generated such hits as “Pop Goes the World” and “The Safety Dance” should have fuelled a long and groundbreaking career. What went wrong? Then I watch this video and stop wondering:

Report: ‘Official’ websites leak more secrets than milbloggers

A report obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation shows that military websites leak more information than the blogs of regular soldiers, making the Pentagon’s moves to censor milblogs look pretty darn stupid. The report, produced by the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell, found at least 1,813 violations of operational security policy on 878 official military websites [...]

Cannibals to Missionaries: sorry about that whole ‘eating you’ thing

The descendants of Papua New Guinean cannabils held a ‘reconciliation ceremony’ to apologize for killing and eating four Fijian missionaries in 1875. This, to me, seems like a bit of an empty gesture. Something like, “Sorry my ancestors ate your ancestors 132 years ago”. Especially since the murders sparked a wave of violent reprisals that [...]

Chavez rides the slippery slope to Dictatortown

Chavez, Chavez, Chavez. Once so full of promise, now a textbook example of the all-corrupting influence of power. You might recall ol’ Chavy shutting down and threatening opposition broadcasters a few months back (here, here, and here). Now, he’s trying to remove presidential term limits, ensuring he can achieve Castro-like tenure over the Venezuelan people. He [...]

Are the Revolutionary Guards Terrorists?

The United States today announced its decision to name the Iranian Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (usually foreshortened to ‘Revolutionary Guards in the West) as a ‘specially designated global terrorist’. The announcement is a precedent setting move, since the AGIR is the first formally-constituted national military force to be branded as a terrorist organization. The designation [...]

Who’s editing Wikipedia?

Ever wonder why some Wikipedia entries read like press releases or alternatively savage their subjects like a Maori war party? Well, now can you peer into the unseemly world of Wiki-edits. A new website created by a CalTech grad student allows users to track who is making changes to a particular post. Wikipedia tracks anonymous edits [...]

Dick Cheney got it right…in 1994

Gobsmacking 1994 video of VP Dick Cheney (fresh off his stint as Secretary of Defense for Bush the Elder) where he explains – quite lucidly – why it would be a tragic mistake for the USA to invade Iraq. He makes several extremely salient and visionary points: No one would support a US invasion, least of [...]