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came across this short story by borges yesterday - was featured article on wikipedia.



here's the spanish original

i can honestly say its the best short story i've ever read and i shall probably be thinking about it for the rest of my life.

software for machine cogs - thought technology and its regressions:

"philosophy done in the analytic tradition aims at truth and knowledge, as opposed to moral or spiritual improvement . . . the goal in philosophy is to discover what is true, not to provide a useful recipe for living one’s life."

126 years after frege's begriffschrift, a point at which the transcendental wurst had long been reclaimed by historical knowing subjects, anglo-imperialist epistemology remains unreflective and desperately clings to whereof we can speak without having to remain silent. after all, emeralds are "grue" and non-ravens are non-black.

World fears new Bush era

a clear majority have grave fears about the next four years.

whilst

Mr Bush proclaimed his inauguration as "a sign of hope for freedom-loving people everywhere".

But beyond the traditional scientific economy of prestige and the generous funding that follows it as night follows day, money has distorted the scientific process as a once purely academic pursuit has been commercialized to an astonishing degree by the researchers themselves.

Mark Thatcher admits coup role in plea bargain, The Guardian,Thursday January 13, 2005

Mark Thatcher today admitted his role in a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea under a plea bargain that saves him from prison.
The Cape Town high court ordered the son of the former prime minister to pay a 3m rand (£265,000) fine and gave him a four-year suspended prison sentence. Judge Abe Motala warned Thatcher that if he does not pay the fine he will face a five-year prison sentence with a further four years suspended for five years.


"save me mummy"

Born with twin Carol on August 15, 1953

· Left Harrow with three O levels. Did not go to university and studied to be a chartered accountant but failed exams three times

· Set up Mark Thatcher Racing in 1977, which hit financial problems. In 1982 got lost in the Sahara during rally, sparking international rescue operation

· In 1984 his mother, then prime minister, defended him in the Commons over reported involvement in £300m contract to build university in Oman

· Moved to Texas in 1984. Married Diane Bergdorf, daughter of millionaire car dealer, in 1987

· Faced allegations of racketeering in a multi-million civil action in US in 1994. Settled out of court

· Moved to South Africa in 1995, where he came under investigation by authorities over loans schemes in 1998

· Arrested last August by South African police over a failed coup in Equatorial Guinea, and said later: "I feel like a cork floating down the Colorado river."

Poolside plots: the chronicle of a coup foretold

Wer einen Beruf ergreift, ist verloren.

My friend sent me this e-mail about a potential South West Libertalia...



.... and was wondering if you would like a room with
a fantastic sea view and private beach, not to mention
the ballroom. I'm planning with a few friends to open
this hotel as a squat with alot of potential for
fun... Up for it?

Jet Is an Open Secret in Terror War

The airplane is a Gulfstream V turbojet, the sort favored by CEOs and celebrities. But since 2001 it has been seen at military airports from Pakistan to Indonesia to Jordan, sometimes being boarded by hooded and handcuffed passengers.

The plane's owner of record, Premier Executive Transport Services Inc., lists directors and officers who appear to exist only on paper. And each one of those directors and officers has a recently issued Social Security (news - web sites) number and an address consisting only of a post office box, according to an extensive search of state, federal and commercial records.

Bryan P. Dyess, Steven E. Kent, Timothy R. Sperling and Audrey M. Tailor are names without residential, work, telephone or corporate histories -- just the kind of "sterile identities," said current and former intelligence officials, that the CIA (news - web sites) uses to conceal involvement in clandestine operations. In this case, the agency is flying captured terrorist suspects from one country to another for detention and interrogation.

The CIA calls this activity "rendition." Premier Executive's Gulfstream helps make it possible. According to civilian aircraft landing permits, the jet has permission to use U.S. military airfields worldwide.

Analysis of the plane's flight plans, covering more than two years, shows that it always departs from Washington DC. It has flown to 49 destinations outside America, including the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba and other US military bases, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.

Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes, which do not have special facilities for prisoners but are kitted out with tables for meetings and screens for presentations and in-flight films.

'Abduction' jet makes Shannon stops From the Irish Echo

DUBLIN -- A U.S. military jet used in the transport of Al Qaeda suspects from locations in Europe and the Middle East has used Shannon airport on at least 13 occasions in the last four years, it's been confirmed.

'Sex, Sin and Smörgåsbord' Sweden also in on the act...

30 books, not one review

Chomsky and Academic History

micropope gates smells commie conspiracy behind free software movement

Questions: In recent years, there's been a lot of people clamoring to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, "We've got to look at patents, we've got to look at copyrights." What's driving this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed?

Gates: No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.

And this debate will always be there. I'd be the first to say that the patent system can always be tuned--including the U.S. patent system. There are some goals to cap some reform elements. But the idea that the United States has led in creating companies, creating jobs, because we've had the best intellectual-property system--there's no doubt about that in my mind, and when people say they want to be the most competitive economy, they've got to have the incentive system. Intellectual property is the incentive system for the products of the future.

commies vs competition.. yeah..