Never Enough Grave Warnings Department

There's a Christian spacecraft entered into the X-Prize--Micro-Space's Crusader-X.

Pardon me while I shiver. Christians in space... AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Never Enough Dyke Comics Department

OK, I'm going for that dykish Blog*Spot banner ad now--I just added Alison Bechdel's classic strip Dykes To Watch Out For and Joan Hilty's Bitter Girl. They can't ignore our market segment community much longer!

Never Enough History Rants Department

Another reason why I like the Arab press--they are willing to post articles that combine full-blown rants about the inability for Americans to think, anti-Bush rants, and an exposé on how Lincoln went through similar scandals over the Civil War as Bush is encountering with the Iraq war, such as a weak Presidental election, massive anti-war protests, and worries of opportunism. It makes me tingle, it does.

Never Enough Kiwi Dykes Department

OK, it's not gender-bending smut, but it's a start....

According to a study by the Otago School of Medicine, one out of four women have been attracted to another woman at some point in their life, with 17% (that's one out of every six) of all 26-year-old women "currently" attracted to another woman. It is conjectured that, since New Zealand has an older feminist tradition, perhaps Kiwi women are more empowered and better able to shrug off same-sex stigmas.

All I know is, New Zealand is sounding more and more like a lovely place to live.

Never Enough Banner Hilarity Department

I don't know if you've paid attention to the banners that are appearing since I switched temporarily to Blog*Spot, but I think they're funny. One moment, there's a banner for the American Red Cross, and the next, an ad for a cheap copy of the Pungent Stench CD Praise The Names Of The Musical Assassins. And yet--no queer- or tranny-oriented ads yet! I guess I need to be posting more gender-bending smut or something. Hee!

Never Enough Costume Changes Department

So now Iraqis are looting priceless artifacts, destroying those they don't steal, and burning down libraries full of irreplaceable ancient texts. About looting and violence in general, Donald Rumsfield--who has quickly become the most powerful man in the Cabinet--glibly states that "Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." (Guess that means we Americans aren't free anymore.) And the Bush Administration is rattling its sabers again, this time towards Syria.

In many political cartoons, Dubya has been portrayed as a cowboy à la John Wayne. I think he should now be portrayed by a different John Wayne character--Attila The Hun.

Never Enough Chances At Rebuttal Department

After not having enough chances to speak her mind when she read something about her on my weblog, my partner Cynthia has finally set up her own blog. Go check it out, I think you'll find her insights to be quite worthy.

Never Enough Blunt Arabs Department

Lately I've been checking out ArabNews.com for updates on the Iraqi war, mainly because the articles cover a much more impressive spectrum--from support to outrage--than US media coverage, even if you include progressive news venues. And this editorial is but one example why I appreciate it.

Never Enough Compression Fun Department

New Scientist has recently reported that using the Bzip file compression program, scientists have found themselves capable of automatically sorting music not just by genre but by composer as well. Since this strategy is purely algorithmic and doesn't rely on abstractions such as harmony or rhythm, it might be helpful to identify the composer for a work where not much is known about its origin. A similar strategy has also been used to find out whether two sound files containing speech are spoken in the same language.

Interestingly enough, Space.com recently reported that a similar compression program, Gzip, may be used to identify whether microscopic structures within rocks are stromatolites--structures created by microbes--or stromato-like structures created through a chemical process. To wit, the smaller the compressed file, the more orderly the structure, and thus the more likely the structure is a stromatolite. If the process stands up to further study, we may have a ready means to analyze Martian rocks for signs that life once lived on Mars.

I have a feeling that compression programs--once created back when drive space was much more expensive--will be used more and more often to analyze elements of structure in complex data sets. Indeed, I am already wondering if, for example, compression programs can be used to determine authors of texts. Imagine being able to compare the works of Shakespeare and Bacon with an off-the-shelf compression program. Perhaps compression software can also be used to compare images--say, to help differentiate between authentic Van Goghs and forgeries. I'm sure there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of possible applications.

Maybe this is the time to invest in Aladdin Systems, maker of the Stuffit compression suite. Does WinZip have public stock? Or will the use of gzip continue, encouraging the Open Source movement to create new scientific analysis tools with basic compression algorithms at their core? I don't know, but I have seen the future, and it is zipped.

Never Enough Chilling Prophesies Department

We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.

--Abraham Lincoln, letter to Col. William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864, as quoted on the ratical.com site

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.