Just another nerd.
Unlike CNET and other online news sources, The Register makes it clear exactly how Stephen King’s “The Plant” fared.
King took in US $721,448 and scored a net profit of $463,832. His normal publisher’s take? $0.
King says that the profit isn’t the point, but of course it is. It demonstrates that if done correctly there is indeed an audience for selling books electronically and cutting out the publishing companies completely.
BBSpot has hilarious Slashdot story generator.
The Guest Choice Network is a coalition of restaurants and taverns that “stands up against the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, vegetarian activists and meddling bureaucrats who ‘know what’s best for you.'” It recently released its 3rd annual Nanny Awards given to those individuals and groups going to any extreme to protect people against themselves.
The group awarded its “Most Outrageous Quote of the Year” Award to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals‘ European campaign coordinator Toni Vernelli. According to Vernelli, “Serving a burger to your family today, knowing what we know, constitutes child abuse. You might as well give them weed killer.” (Or perhaps give them PETA propaganda).
It also gave the “Spoilsport of the Year Award” to United Poultry Concerns for that group’s campaign against the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
Source:
2000 Nanny Awards. Guest Choice Network, Press Release, 2001.
In case you don’t read Seventeen or any number of other teen magazines you might have missed the latest anti-drug ad from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The government’s full page ad tries to discourage kids from smoking marijuana by linking it with another dangerous and uncool activity — mathematics.
Above a teenage girl’s head is the tag line, “No way. I’d rather go to math camp than smoke a joint.”
Judy Franz of The American Physical Society wasn’t pleased with that ad saying it was “…awful. Ads like this, that make math drudgery, are the exact opposite of what we want to do. It seems like there are plenty of genuinely yucky things they could have picked.”
Please don’t give them any ideas Ms. Franz. How long before we see the “I’d rather read a whole book than smoke marijuana” ads?
Source:
Anti-drug ad miffs mathematicians. Karen Thomas, USA Today, February 5, 2001.
Camille Paglia is pro-choice but, like me, she is troubled by the extremism of much of the core of the pro-choice movement. In her regular column for Salon.com, Paglia rips into groups such as Planned Parenthood which often seem more concerned with being adjuncts of the Democrat Party rather than providing reproductive health services. Paglia writes,
…As a member of Planned Parenthood, for example, I am outraged by the obscene waste of assets by abortion rights organizations whose leaders have become shills for the Democratic Party. The funds diverted to endless “emergency” ads and mailings calling for political action should directly support women’s health care instead. If all the pro-choice men and women in this country would donate their money to needy women instead of to politicians and fancy fundraisers, government support for abortion services would be less critical.
Bush’s cutoff of funding for overseas abortion counseling, virtually the first act of his presidency, hardly made a ripple in public consciousness (though the Philadelphia Inquirer tried to whip things up by making it the lead headline). If national support for choice is starting to slip, as has been reported, it’s because of the arrogant insularity of the feminist elite, who for 20 years have ridden roughshod over the legitimate ethical objections and arguments of abortion opponents. Though I firmly support unrestricted access to abortion, I feel the nation has been polarized and doctors endangered by an intolerance and extremism that began on the secular left.
Well put.
Source:
Crying wolf. Camille Paglia, Salon.Com, February 7, 2001.
Andrew Stepanian is an animal rights terrorist who was convicted of smashing the windows of a Long Island, New York, fur store. In typical activist faction, while he was awaiting sentencing Stepanian distributed a letter over the Internet calling on animal rights activists to engage in acts of violence and property destruction in solidarity with him (Andy Stepanian Whines About His Upcoming Sentencing).
Animal rights activists are now circulating an e-mail asking for people to write letters to Stepanian. According to the e-mail,
Thanks to your support, imprisoned activist Andrew Stepanian of the Long Island Animal Defense League has received over one hundred and fifty emailed letters, and numerous personally sent letters.
…By supporting Andy you support more than animal rights. You support our attempts to make free speech truly legal and to end the harassment and intimidation tactics the FBI uses.
Leaving aside the vandalism=free speech nonsense, why not send Andy Stepanian a letter telling him exactly how you feel about acts of terrorism? Letters to Stepanian should be sent to:
Andrew Stepanian 8/8/78
100 Center Dr.
Riverhead NY 11901