David Ricardo

Pessimists might see the House’s passage of HR 1955 as another step on the path to fascism in the U.S. Are they wrong?

The U.S. is sending remote-controlled robots to Iraq. Will there soon be autonomous models to break Asimov’s First Law of Robotics? Beware the future droid army! Read more on Wired.

First, a BBB original — “Needle In A Haystack”:

…and they closed with a spot-on version of “Cinnamon Girl”:

Dusty jams a trombone waltz with The New Hour:

Colorado is chasing away the undocumented folks who work the fields for peanuts. They’re sending prisoners out to do the job instead. I guess slavery is back on the American farm. Inmates Will Replace Migrants in Colorado Fields - New York Times

Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned - washingtonpost.com

Now a government research center is publicly recognizing the threat to democracy posed by electronic voting systems.

Check out the latest demonstration of the insecurity of Diebold electronic voting machines at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. You can also watch the (very clear) video demo on YouTube.

The geekier folks have been shouting about this problem for many years. Here are some more links with information and solutions:

Verified Voting
Open Voting Consortium
Black Box Voting

I don’t want to cause any heart attacks, but…

Ready or not, my band (DRB, http://myspace.com/drbtunes) is playing a show this Saturday, June 3rd, 2006, at the Ivy Room. If you’ve ever been there, you know it’s a laid-back, intimate place to see a rock and roll show. We’ll be on first, so get there by 10pm if you want to see our set.

The other bands:

• The Family Arsenal has a singer with a haircut like Rod Stewart. They are super-tight and refer to themselves as “power-pop.”
• Ride The Blinds is soon playing a concert sponsored by 107.7, “The Bone.” They play drum solos.

The Ivy Room is at 858 San Pablo Avenue @ Solano, in Albany, CA. The cover charge is $7. There’s a pool table if you get bored, and at least 50 feet of counter at the oval-shaped bar.

To review…
WHEN: Saturday, June 3rd, 10pm.
WHERE: The Ivy Room.
COST: $7.
UH, WHAT?: Rock and roll bands, including DRB.

If you want to get email about DRB shows, send me a request at drbmusicATgmailDOTcom.

Sometimes people still ask me to explain semiotics, which I am loathe to attempt.

Although the interface is a bit annoying, the UVM website has a clear, step-by-step introduction called semiotics and ads. You have to keep clicking the “Next” button, and in between sections, you have to “click here to continue.”

Daniel Chandler wrote a more thorough introduction.

Somewhere in Australia, there’s a very large portable music player. [zoom in]

Which would you favor? Get other people’s thoughts here: Next country to invade? (Google Video).

I bet I’m not the only one developing an addiction to Google Video and YouTube. I found this one at bestofgooglevideo.com.

GarbageScout.com might save you time. Though unless you have a portable internet connection, using it will mean you’re not out on the street with the treasure trash. Brought to you by the Google Maps API.

Jeffrey Meikle discusses his history of plastics in Stay Free!

Download public domain movies for free. You’ll need a BitTorrent client. The photo above is a still from Hercules Unchained.

Watch it here.

I found this on the web a few years ago. It still makes me laugh. K actually hosts something called “peanut butter jelly time” every Monday in her classroom. She hasn’t shown this animation to this year’s kids yet, though she heard a middle schooler singing the song to himself this week.