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Tuesday, February 27 2001

Ugly Betty

Colombia's all atwitter over a telenovela (soap opera, sorta) in which a beautiful actress plays the ugly main character; will she turn beautiful at the end of the series, or no? Does she end up with the rich, stupid, beautiful man or the geeky, smart, not-so-handsome one?

Monday, February 26 2001

Selling torture tools

U.S. companies (and thus, through licenses and taxes, the U.S. government) make money by selling torture equipment to folks in foreign lands.

Tuesday, February 20 2001

Los Bros Hernandez

Salon has an article on the women of Love and Rockets, The Hernandez Brothers' long-running alternative comic series; and an interview with the two writer-artists.

They've been publishing since 1982, but I didn't get into them until the 90s; their (comic) books are like literary soap operas. In a good way. There's more info on them at the Fantagraphics Books website.

Friday, February 16 2001

Truth in clothing

Slashdot points to a Village Voice article about a guy who ordered sneakers with the words "sweatshop" from Nike's personalize-your-Nike-gear website. Nike refused to make and send him the sneakers; the email exchange between the gent and the corp is in the article.

Thursday, February 15 2001

Genetic non-determination

The two competing human genome projects say we've got about as many genes as a corn plant; 1/3 more than a fruit fly. Which seems to indicate that genetics means a lot less in terms of determining what we'll be like than people like to think (unless you'd like to posit that there's as much diversity in how corn plants end up as there is in how people end up). Much DNA consists of "semidecrepit strings of DNA that migrate like viruses in and out of our genomes with mysterious purpose."

Nature's section on the genome; and Science Magazine's coverage.

Estate taxes

Salon has two articles on estate taxes: (1) obscenely rich people who are against repealing estate taxes; (2) a short history, back to Adam Smith ("father" of capitalism), of prominent capitalist thinkers who believed inheritance from familial generation to generation should be greatly limited, as it changes our societal/economic structure from one of meritocracy to "aristocracy."

Back as a senior in college, I wanted to write my final paper in an ethics class on drastically increasing the estate tax as a step in reducing economic disparity in the U.S. My TA wouldn't let me, saying the idea made no sense; maybe he would've changed his mind if I'd known that I had Adam Smith in my corner.

Friday, February 9 2001

whitehouse.[com|org|gov]

Official White House presidential page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/.

Friend Risa pointed out http://www.whitehouse.org/president/ (note the picture).

And, of course, there's the more risque http://www.whitehouse.com/president/.

Thursday, February 8 2001

Electrorgasms

Medical device typically used for back pain supposedly can trigger orgasms for women when used correctly (or maybe that's incorrectly). The man who discovered the technique has patented it; if he's smart (and greedy) he'll patent it twice - the second time adding the words "on the Internet" somewhere in there.

Wednesday, February 7 2001

And cell phones don't cause cancer...

Danish study provides strong (though not conclusive) evidence that cell phone use does not increase risk for cancer. (I'm a little obsessed with this topic.)

Tuesday, February 6 2001

Disposable chopsticks

Environmentalists in China are convincing restaurants (and people in general) to stop using disposable wooden chopsticks; they say that "at the current rate of timber use... China will consume its remaining forests in about a decade."

Monday, February 5 2001

SF Chinese New Year

Walkin' out of the gym Saturday night, I noticed police cars blocking Market Street and some people walking around with balloons and painted faces. Turns out I'd missed the Chinese New Year Parade. Though I did get to mill around with the crowd a bit in the aftermath.

Swiss Dormant Accounts Website (re: Holocaust, money)

NY Times article points to a Swiss website listing accounts at Swiss banks, with money from over 50 years ago, which victims of Nazi Germany (or surviving relatives of the victims) can lay claim to, if they can prove that they are (or are related to) the original account owners.

About this site

This is the personal web site for Edward (Ed) Piou. Consisting mainly of a blog (operational since 1999) and various photos.

Some online projects I'm working on

Politics

Charity, Non-profits...

A while ago, I decided to put my money where my mind is on a (roughly) monthly basis and give to:

Photos

Public events documented through pictures...