Month: February 2001

Linux catching up to Windows in server market
“Although the figures show that Windows shipments increased 20 percent, Linux outpaced it with a 24 percent increase. Linux grabbed 27 percent market share in 2000, up from 25 percent the previous year. In 1999, Linux also was the fastest-growing server operating system.”

After reading this article several months ago I applied for an ISSN for PlasticBoy and today it arrived. You are reading registered serial 1534-0694. I encourage you to head directly to your local library and ask for the latest issue of PlasticBoy.

Today on PlasticBoy we present a sermon on ethics and love from the Principia Discordia:

One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach the Goddess
and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards the
radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said YES?

“O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! Concubine
of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to lift a heavy burden from my
heart!”

WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON’T SOUND WELL.

“I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Everywhere
people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole
societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children
perish while brothers war. O, woe.”

WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?

“But nobody Wants it! Everybody hates it.”

OH. WELL, THEN STOP.

At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial and left The
Polyfather stranded alone with his species.

SINISTER DEXTER HAS A BROKEN SPIROMETER.

High-fat diets linked to poorer brain function. Or, as Brian says, “Are you sure it isn’t the other way around?”

Is ‘Super Slow’ the Way to Go?
“I was a runner, and I still go out running sometimes,” he notes. “But it’s a waste of time compared to doing load-bearing exercise. What I’m adding [by slow weight lifting] is more muscle, which requires more oxygenated blood. It’s the muscles that create the demand to improve, and running doesn’t put that kind of demand on your system.” NB: read the article, these claims are mostly debunked.

Wow! Ever seen a sonic boom?

Supreme court considers legality of thermal search in drug bust
In court papers, government attorneys compared the thermal imaging scan to an officer observing someone’s home. They argued that the scan does not penetrate the house and reveal private activities, and is not a constitutional violation.
The “government investigator stationed in a public place used a thermal imager to observe an area exposed to the public – the roof and exterior walls of a house – and did not observe private activities,” they wrote.

Farmers look forward to hemp legalization
Hemp proponents call it a miracle crop. Its fiber can be blended together to create a Fiberglas-like material lighter and stronger than steel, which can be used to make a variety of products, including cars. Hemp can also be used in textiles, building materials, carpeting, even circuit boards. As a replacement for petroleum-based products, hemp would lessen dependence on foreign oil and is a renewable resource. It is also biodegradable. Hemp car bodies could be shredded and dumped in landfills.

John Medeski hones his point of view
The Grateful Dead had this romantic but lazy idea about getting on stage and “freaking out” a lot of people by just “blowing something to wiggle to,” as Medeski puts it. They did not have the tools to enable them to express their own personality. Medeski considers the jam band appellation to be “anti-intellectual and insulting. Anyway, we do much more than jam. We work very hard at music. It’s an ignorant term. On the positive side, what’s been happening is the creation of improvised experiences that can be danced to. And there’s the beginning of respect from a new generation that is growing to like that cathartic experience you get from great improvisation.”

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