Among the design professions, graphic design is an embarrassingly low-risk enterprise. Our colleagues in architecture, industrial design and fashion design are tormented by nightmares of smoldering rubble, brutally hacked off fingers, and embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions. We graphic designers flirt with...paper cuts. Thus liberated from serious threats, we invent our own: skating on the edge of illegibility, daring readers to navigate indecipherable layouts, and concocting unlikely new ways to solve problems that don't actually exist.

The fate of a bill to raise the general excise tax for Honolulu mass transit grew more uncertain yesterday after a typo was discovered in a veto message sent by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Just as Lingle was telling legislators that they must amend the tax bill to allow the counties to handle all tax collection, lawmakers discovered her veto notifications were flawed with wrong bill numbers, meaning that the tax bill may become law anyway.

Monday was the deadline for Lingle to send the Legislature formal notification of the bills she intends to veto.

But the typos in five veto messages raise the question that the veto notifications are invalid and the five bills, including the transit tax increase, will become law.

The following can be attributed to Timothy H. Edgar, ACLU Policy Counsel for National Security:

"Spies and cops have different roles and operate under different rules for a very important reason: to ensure that our law enforcement agencies stay within the Constitution. This proposal could erode the FBI’s law enforcement ethic and put parts of the FBI under the effective control of a spymaster who reports to the president - not the attorney general."

"This proposal upsets the delicate compromise Congress adopted last year which recognized the importance of keeping the FBI under the control of a director who reports to the attorney general. The Patriot Act has already given these agents access to a wide range of tools that might be, in some cases, unconstitutional. The United States does not need a domestic intelligence agency - a fact that was made clear by the 9/11 Commission, when it said the FBI should maintain responsibility over domestic surveillance to better protect our rights."

The theory that the mind works like a computer, in a series of distinct stages, was an important steppingstone in cognitive science, but it has outlived its usefulness, concludes a new Cornell University study. Instead, the mind should be thought of more as working the way biological organisms do: as a dynamic continuum, cascading through shades of grey.

The issue split the Liberal party, with the Cabinet minister for economic development in Ontario, Joe Comuzzi, resigning over the bill on Tuesday.

But supported by most members of the Liberals, the Bloc Quebecois and other allies, the legislation passed easily.

"We are a nation of minorities and in a nation of minorities, it is important that you don't cherry pick rights. A right is a right and that is what this vote tonight is all about," Mr Martin said before the vote.

The national co-ordinator of Canadians for Equal Marriage, Alex Munter, had said the bill's approval would be "a victory for Canadian values".

"I think this is going to be a proud and exciting day to be a Canadian because we are... affirming to the world that we are a country that is open, inclusive and welcoming," he said.

Sadly, founder and President of popular Internet hosting company GoDaddy Bob Parsons has chosen to post a blog entry coming out in favor of torture. Having done business with them in the past, it disgusts me that I have underwritten their success if this is what they believe in.

Needless to say, I will be withdrawing all my business from GoDaddy. I urge you not merely to do likewise, but to spread the word as well that an account with GoDaddy subsidizes the support of torture.

This July 4th, a diverse coalition including individuals and organizations ranging from Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, The Center for Constitutional Rights, Code Pink, The Culture Project, Not In Our Name, United For Peace and Justice, and WEDO (Women's Environment & Development Organization) are asking people across the United States to join the call to shut down the Guantánamo prison camp and demand an immediate independent investigation into the widespread allegations of abuse taking place there.

[...]

This Independence Day, American flags declaring: "Torture Is Immoral and Unpatriotic, Shut down Guantánamo" will be distributed across the country and displayed in a show of support for the democratic values outlined in our United States Constitution. Ordinary citizens are mobilizing to read from testimonials of Guantánamo detainees, their families, and their lawyers this July 4th in a show of support for the laws under which this country was founded.

[...]

Fliers, the petition, and "Torture Is Immoral and Unpatriotic, Shut down Guantánamo" American Flag, will be available for download at the Guantánamo Action Center:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/gac/

In New York City:
JOIN: Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, Center for Constitutional Rights, Code Pink, The Culture Project, Not in Our Name, United for Peace and Justice, and WEDO
WHAT: Readings from testimonials of detainees, their families, and their lawyers.
WHEN: Monday, July 4th, 2005 10am – 12NOON
WHERE: 34th Street and 6th Ave., New York, NY

Advertising spending growth may slow from next year as TV networks in the U.S. are forced to cut rates as audience levels fall, Saatchi & Saatchi Chief Executive Kevin Roberts said at an industry conference.

[...]

In the U.S., television networks ``seem to be gouging advertisers,'' Roberts said. ``Their rates are going up and the return on investment is coming down.''

Saatchi & Saatchi, once the world's largest advertising agency, is owned by Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA and makes commercials for companies including Procter & Gamble Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.

About 8,000 people from advertising agencies worldwide and marketers from companies such as Procter & Gamble, McDonald's Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. are in Cannes this week for the 52nd annual ad festival. The program culminates with a ceremony tomorrow that is dubbed the ``Oscars'' of advertising.

The Hillsborough County Commission approved by a vote of 5 to 1, with one abstention, a policy that directs the county government to "abstain from acknowledging, promoting or participating" in gay pride recognition or events. The measure was passed on June 15, after a Gay and Lesbian Pride Month display at the West Gate Regional Library here upset some library patrons.

The commission also voted to require a supermajority vote of 5 to 2 to overturn the policy.

[...]

"From a national perspective we haven't seen anything like this," said Paul Cates, the American Civil Liberties Union's director of public education for lesbian and gay rights.

Community leaders here said the policy damaged recent efforts to promote the Tampa region as being multicultural and diverse. Addressing an arts group the day after the commission's vote, Mayor Pam Iorio of Tampa said: "Gays and lesbians are part of our diversity and deserve our respect. That is a value that I hold dear. We should build on tolerance, not intolerance."

Drudge is gripped by Cruise vs. Lauer transcription-mania, but we much prefer this illustrated version, which we think places Suppressive Lauer’s leading questions in the proper light.

The bear and cow tvs are actual stuffed plush toys encasing a slim and light LCD screen. Your kids can hug their tvs to sleep while watching commercials for toys (sorry, is that a movie?). Cute, but a little disturbing.

The cello model is made of wood and mimics the elegant curves of the instrument. I don't know if this makes tv watching a more "emotional" experience as Hannspree claims, but nice-looking things can be more enjoyable to use. (interesting book about this concept: Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things.)

Hannspree will also be releasing models that are branded with pro sports teams. Every Major League baseball team and NBA team will have a model designed with its logo and colors. Someone who just generally enjoys a sport can have a tv shaped like a ball.

The televisions will be available in October and will run anywhere from $450 to $1400.

We concur with Gawker, the Kimora Blog is the clearest signal yet that blogging has jumped the blue whale. Your asteroid should be falling from the sky in 20 or so.

But the new interpretation allows investigators to go after so-called "secondary producers," including webmasters who buy or steal content from someone else. Critics claim that the government could even target online museum exhibits or news coverage of the pictures from the Abu Ghraib scandal. (Images created before July 3, 1995 are exempt.)

The Justice Department's new interpretation raises a slew of issues. Adult performers fear their real names, addresses and ages will end up in the hands of countless webmasters who must now keep these records. "We deal with stalkers now," said Bill Rust, webmaster of Arikaames.com, a soft-core site featuring his wife. "We've had people who join the site and try to track her down, send cakes and candies to her parents' house."

Rust said he stopped providing the site's content to hundreds of affiliates because he wasn't willing to give out his wife's personal information to comply with the new rules.

There's another potential problem with the regulations. According to Odenberger, the law would require websites to store every explicit image they ever post. The government, he said, doesn't realize "there are such things as 19-year-old (live web) cam girls sitting in a trailer with $200 in their bank accounts, going online solely to support their child. To require them to buy terabytes worth of storage puts down an impossible barrier between them and internet access."

Even without seeing the film I could tell from the clips and the description by Spurlock that this was nothing more than junk science masquerading as legitimate scientific discovery.

[...]

If by "health food" you are referring to seaweed and new-age-type food products that taste like cardboard but claim to have great health benefits, no, McDonald's isn't what is considered to be a "politically correct" source of food in our current cultural climate.

[...]

It's time to take a stand against these food cops and health nannies who won't be happy until we are eating only food approved by a small group of people who claim to have our best interests at heart but whose real agenda seems to be more about scaring people than in truly educating the public. Spurlock is merely an agent of those who would seek to control our lives and limit our choices "for our own good".

[...]

There are plenty of people, doctors included, who have a lot of time and energy invested in believing that certain types of food are "bad" for you, and I'm sure they are just horrified at my dietary adventures under the Golden Arches. Unfortunately, no matter what my results, these people and "experts" are far more interested in controlling our eating habits using fear and confusion rather than educating people about good dietary habits. Me & Mickey D is a threat to those who rely on knee-jerk response to control the public mind set.

"Conveniently split into two PDFs for your reading pleasure"

so many things wrong with this sentence....

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

A smartly dressed, flesh-tone female receptionist robot greets and directs visitors with blinks and hand gestures, fielding questions in four languages. Fuel-cell hybrid buses ferry passengers, driverless, between buildings constructed with bioplastics and reused steel, their facades enveloped by plants and cascading water for natural cooling. Diners eat rice bowls and curries using biodegradable utensils, which are composted or burned at high temperatures to feed fuel cells for on-site power.

This vision of an eco-utopia is made real at the 2005 World Expo, an international exhibition of new technologies and global culture running through Sept. 25 outside Nagoya, Japan.

"Want drive fast cars?" asks an advertisement, in broken English, atop the Web site iaaca.com. "Want live in premium hotels? Want own beautiful girls? It's possible with dumps from Zo0mer." A "dump," in the blunt vernacular of a relentlessly flourishing online black market, is a credit card number. And what Zo0mer is peddling is stolen account information - name, billing address, phone - for Gold Visa cards and MasterCards at $100 apiece.

The giant pop was supposed to have been able to withstand the heat for some time, and organizers weren't sure why it didn't.

More than a year after gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, Gov. Mitt Romney said Thursday that he would support a newly proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would overturn that right.

"My view is that marriage should be defined as a relationship between a man and a woman," Mr. Romney said at a news conference, adding, "I hope that this amendment will ultimately be the one which the citizens have an opportunity to vote on."

Mr. Romney's endorsement of the amendment is likely to inject new vigor into the efforts of gay marriage opponents, who failed to block a court decision that allowed the marriages to begin in May 2004.

WHAT: Democratic Hearing on Downing Street Minutes and Pre-war intelligence

WHEN: Thursday, June 16, 2005, 2:30pm

WHERE: HC-9 The Capitol
(Overflow Room – 430 S. Capitol Street, SE – The Wasserman Room)

WITNESSES: Joe Wilson, Former Ambassador and WMD Expert
Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst who prepared regular Presidential briefings during the Reagan administration
Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen American soldier
John Bonifaz, renown constitutional lawyer

Name: The CAToLOG District ("Can't Afford To Live On Gramercy")
Submitted By: David Schleicher
Boundaries: 23rd to 34th Street, from Madison to the East River
Description: A neighborhood that actually needs a name (look at the cab maps -- it's the only one in the city that's gray -- and, no, Rosehill does not count) and is full of young people who can't buy anything except what they find on Gap.com.

The bedrooms gave off the type of warmth normally reserved for Marriott Courtyards, although without the feeling that something dirty might ever have occurred there. I assumed the bedroom with the two twin beds were for John and his wife Jane, who - fulfilling their godly obligation to perform the unsavory task of procreation - have now constructed a permanent 3 foot buffer zone between them. No monkey business there.

Certainly the Army must feel, if not fear, at least irritation—as they so often do with the glory-grabbing antics of the jarheads. The Army had to settle for a version of the pixelated MARPAT scheme with the black removed. This is embarrassingly similar to the camo of the overly passive Canadian army.

[...]

At least the army got pixels instead of blobs, which are so, well, Gulf War I. The old "camel-shit" pebble and boulder look of the Schwartzkopf era seems downright venerable now. The new camo is all of a style with the pixelations of video sat phones and blurouts to protect faces and name bars. “Pixelation” is to the current run of wars what “night vision” was to Gulf War I—the stylistic keynote.

You also did something called You wrote it, you watch it. What was that all about?
When we graduated from NYU there was a show on MTV called You wrote it you watch it. Jon Stewart was the host and the premise was basically that they would interview people on the street and have them tell stories and the cast of this show would then make a sketch out of the story. As the New Group we signed on as an autonomous entity and made 30 some-odd sketches for that show. Based on those sketches, we got a chance to make a pilot for The State and then went on and made the series.

A House Appropriations panel on Thursday approved a spending bill that would cut the budget for public television and radio nearly in half and eliminate a $23 million federal program that has provided some money for producing children's shows that include "Sesame Street," "Clifford the Big Red Dog," "Between the Lions" and "Dragon Tales."

By a voice vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee adopted a measure that would reduce the financing of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that directs taxpayer dollars to public television and radio, to $300 million from $400 million. The subcommittee also eliminated $39 million that stations say they need to convert to digital programming and $50 million for upgrading aging satellite technology that is the backbone of the PBS network.

The cuts in financing went significantly beyond those requested by the White House and are likely to be approved next week by the full Appropriations Committee and then by the House. Lobbyists for public television and radio say they hope to have the money restored in the version of the bill prepared by the Senate, where they have support from several senior Republican members. The final legislation will be the product of negotiations between the House and Senate.

Different from their crystal-capped sisters (like the new UPS logo or John Deere), these logos have been pneumatically inflated to 33psi like pool float toys. Yes, they break the traditional logo rules with gradients, but, technically, we’ve overcome many of the production issues that used to give shading a bad name. Much like the complete suite of Microsoft Office logos that drift around our desktop, these logos draw your attention regardless of your personal persuasion. Three-dimensional logos will continue to thrive in a two-dimensional world. The good news is you won't hurt yourself if you accidentally fall on one.

Citigroup said Monday that personal information on 3.9 million consumer lending customers of its CitiFinancial subsidiary was lost by UPS while in transit to a credit bureau -- the biggest breach of customer or employee data reported so far.

Citigroup, the nation's biggest financial services company, said that UPS lost the tapes while shipping them to a credit bureau in Texas.

Similar services are already available on international flights operated by Lufthansa and Japan Airlines, among other carriers Wi-Fi is also available in terminals across the country.

[...]

Lufthansa, which offers Wi-Fi on many of its international flights, charges a flat fee of $29.95 for an entire flight or $9.95 for a half-hour.

Major domestic airlines like United are trying to find new sources of revenue and rein in costs. Many are cutting back on perks or charging for things that used to be free, including food. American Airlines eliminated pillows from coach on its domestic flights last year, prompting Northwest and Delta to follow suit.

More high-tech amenities have traditionally been a marketing tool of low-fare carriers like JetBlue, which offers in-flight DirecTV service at every seat and is now installing XM Satellite Radio in its planes. Song, the low-fare subsidiary of Delta, offers a touch-screen audiovisual system with on-demand movies, video games and music.

[...]

United's Wi-Fi system will piggyback on its existing onboard phone network, which is operated in a partnership with Verizon. Data will be transmitted to and received from the planes through towers on the ground.

Federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe marijuana to ease pain, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.

The decision is a stinging defeat for marijuana advocates who had successfully pushed 10 states to allow the drug's use to treat various illnesses.

[...]

"I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Diane Monson, one of the women involved in the case.

Stevens said the court was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits of marijuana, and he noted "the troubling facts" in the case. Monson's backyard crop of six marijuana plants was seized by federal agents in 2002, although the California law was on Monson's side.

In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that states should be allowed to set their own rules.

Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki said the department is pleased with the court's decision, but refused additional comment about whether federal prosecutors would pursue cases against people like Monson.

Under the Constitution, Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders. The California marijuana in question was homegrown, distributed to patients without charge and without crossing state lines.

Within six years of purchase 29% of upright Dyson vacuum cleaners and 22% of their cylinder vacuums needed repairing. The Dyson repair rate is also getting worse. A 2002 survey found that 21% of the company's upright vacuums needed repairing within six years, and a 2001 survey revealed that 14% of its cylinder vacuums broke down.

But despite ranking low in reliability, Dyson owners are still relatively likely to recommend the products to a friend. An average of 38% would recommend their Dyson, making it the fifth most popular vacuum cleaner, despite being the least reliable of those surveyed.

Separate tests by Which? have proved the Dyson cleaners to be among the most effective vacuums, despite them breaking down more. "It's a real shame [that Dysons break down]", the magazine says, "because its vacs are the only upright models we've found that clean really well."