So some misguided people have decided to perform a denial of service DNS attack on the English language web site of Al-Jazeera Television.

Listen up, so called "hackers" to what 2600 magazine has to say:

...we call on whoever has taken it upon themselves to keep Al-Jazeera's reporting hidden from the eyes of Americans to step down from their self-appointed role of censor. We are capable of making up our own minds.

Yes we we are, aren't we?
Of course the little anti-establishment/paranoid/survivalist voice inside me thinks that I'll end up on some Homeland Security list merely for linking to these sites, but whatever.

Besides, wasn't Freedom CyberForce Militia from a comic book or something?
Get a real hacker group name already, k?

Paul forwards this quote from the ever-clever Charles Barkley:

"You know the world is off tilt, when the best rapper is a white guy,
the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest basketball player is Chinese, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

Today was one of those days when I felt like I had changed jobs, if not careers.
Instead of my normal tasks of building backend software and maintaining automated content publication, instead I produced some content with our object-based page building tools and spent time doing business partner relations work via phone and email.
It's good to do something different for a change, even if it's at the same desk in the same building.

Apparently winter can't leave the stage of Spring without an encore, so the snow will be back this week in the Twin Towns.

As if there weren't already enough people, Woman, 96, Welcomes 100th Great-Grandchild.

Honestly, I expected better from U2 at the 75th Annual Academy Awards.

The very subtle, backhanded changes to the lyrics of The Hands That Built America were probably missed by 99.9% of the viewers. And does it matter if the song is still a hymn to the US anyway?

We didn't tape the performance, so I can't provide a transcript of the topical lyric changes, but it was something like "desert sky" inserted, and even that's too easy, because about a third of their songs have that word choice anyway.

But I could only stand the Oscars for so long, so we popped in a tape of Wag the Dog, which was a nice antidote to the manufactured media madness that surrounds us.

Taking a page from Somewhere in the Digital Forest, I've added a bike log to my site.
Al will almost certainly be ahead of me all season, being in a warmer climate and being more dedicated, but by adding the gym miles he ignores, I can give him a run for his money.
I suspect there were miles back in January and February and maybe even early March that I've forgotten about, but you have to start somewhere.

Arah and I were wondering, are there more people of Norwegian descent in Minnesota than in Norway?
Because if you live around here, the local Norsk would want you to believe that.

I stumbled across The North Atlantic Population Project while trying to find some facts.

There are five countries in the world that possess completely digitized individual-level censuses for the late nineteenth century: Canada, Great Britain, Iceland, Norway, and the United States. At the end of the nineteenth century, these five nations were closely connected by economic ties and migration flows.

But there are about four and a half million people in Norway, and about 5 million Minnesotans.
While four out of five Minnesotans are probably Vikings fans, I doubt that many eat lefse.

From the weather file, Blue's News points to a CNN article about how the Australian weather service is using aboriginal meteorological lore to extend western wx knowledge.

Everyone is spouting their favorite rhetoric these days, so I'll go back 2300 years for mine.

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting.
He captures their cities without laying siege to them.
He overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

Sun Tzu, "Ping Fa" ("The Art of War" translated by Lionel Giles)

Not that I would ever attempt to use this site for the crass commercial purpose of swaying public opinion on a particular product, but...

RealBeer is running their survey again, pitting Summit Great Northern Porter versus Deschutes Black Butte Porter and Widmer Hefeweizen versus Pyramid Hefeweizen in a "Battle of the Beers".

Vote however you like, and may the best beer (Summit) win!
Please note that voting ends today at midnight Eastern.

Enjoy travel essays?
Take a look at Outside magazine's top 100 list of books for 1996.
Picky?
A new list was published in the January 2003 issue of the magazine that narrows the canon down to 25 books.

I would also add the "what went wrong" essays like Lonely Planet Unpacked and Again.
Maybe not breathtaking or awe inspiring, but sometimes quite comical.

He climbed up on the hood of the car and he tried to head butt his way through the windshield.

Savvy Traveller has an interview with the publisher Tony Wheeler.

For the Icelandophiles, reading Frost on my Moustache is mandatory after completing Letters from High Latitudes.

Finally, for a different sort of travel, Arah points to a BBC article about honoring space aliens with a national holiday.

If we can capitalize on something that did or did not happen in 1947 then it can help the entire state.

Only in Roswell. Either you believe or you don't.

As I've said before on this site, one of the best parts of my job is the viewer mail.
Viewers send the craziest stuff to the various sites' weather departments.

Johnny Z. directs the weather department at ChannelOklahoma to an awesome movie of a lightning strike triggered by a flying airplane.

The airplane was an ANA flight from a city in Japan to China.
It happened at take-off, the plane returned to the airport, with no
injuries, and no Boeing support was required, a person on the ground caught the pictures.

I would be so freaked out if this happened to me.

As Rob would say, describing a particularly choice run of powder:
sick!

John forwards a bad omen regarding the future of EA's online games.
He suggests that I pull up stakes and join his guild's migration to Horizons instead.

Since my partner in crime spent the weekend in sunny Florida, leaving me to freeze in sub-zero temps, I played online games like a madman.

Just how severely did I geek out this weekend?
See for yourself how I advanced my various avatars:

The foolish Bard progressed to 53 after months of stagnation.
Recently the enterprising Trader gained a point of exploration to reach 77th level.
The steadfast Paladin (now in his 40th month) finally reached level 37.
Eventually the hapless Bureaucrat achieved lucky level 13, still a lowly clerk.
Finally I put a new level on the ponderous Thane, still wallowing in his twenties.

Not healthy, no.
So I took a break from the fake world and helped Jeremy put up cove molding on the ceiling in his office.
It's nice to work with your hands, breathe some sawdust, and get some splinters after a completely virtual existence.

Blogdex points to news of Afghan Internet Domain Launches on Wired.
This ".af" top level domain is a sign of progress that I find heartening.

For too long, country codes have been subordinated to North American interests.
Try to find a ".tv" site that is actually in Tuvalu.
Or try to find a ".to" site that is actually published for a Tongan audience.
Regardless, Afghans, get on the phone to Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai and get hooked up!

Last, but not least, webcam guru TJ recently installed the Miami Dade Fair Cam courtesy of Click10.com.
Everyone loves a fair.

It's an absurdly busy day here at work.
Big news, and lots of changes to various systems, local and remote.

Still, I would be negligent if I didn't pass on this silly video sent to me by Parker of Channel4000 fame.

Found in the forties on Blogdex, Gerry McGovern tries to explain why most content management systems don't work.

In gaming news, Oracle Magazine presents an interesting article about the infrastructure Electronic Arts has implemented to keep The Sims Online running:

"Oracle allowed us to meet our goal of 27,000 SQL calls per second," says Rizzo, who served as chief architect for the RAC/Intel/Linux design.

Still, I'd be more than a little wary of abandoning good old symmetric multiprocessing architecture for something with a "hip" name like Cache Fusion.

Slashdot points to a Washington Post article detailing how AOL plans to make money by out-sourcing their instant messenger to businesses.
I have to admit that AOL is on to something here.
Back here at the Convergence Chateau, we couldn't get through the day without AIM.

From Reuters UK by way of Fark: Girl baffles teacher with SMS essay:

"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc."

Kids these days. Ya' gotta' love 'em, but ya' gotta' wonder...

Discovered by my coworkers, Snowflake Construction Kits:

• Aron's choice
• Rebecca's choice

From the gaming news file, FunCom tries to lure me back:

Today, on the 3rd march 2003, your Anarchy Online account has been re-activated for a free 30-day trial of our recently released "booster pack", The Notum Wars.

If our Scandinavian Friends have fixed all the annoying lag and absurd nerfs that my bureaucrat toon suffered, then maybe they'll get my monthly fee.

Speaking of lag, Earth to Earth and Beyond!
Come in Electronic Arts.
We are just barely receiving your signal... especially in the Antares Sector!

Finally, it's that time of year again, return of the Bourbon Street Webcam, courtesy of TheNewOrleansChannel.
Et toi!