Adam Kazwell is...somewhat concerned

Making Digital look Analog

Nice work by Ambient Devices. My favorite is the Ambient Dashboard. Got (almost) a hundred other ideas about how to modify this device. Think Ambient is hiring?

Also, wonder if the Dashboard will be available to buy before xmas (cough).

Since when did the Onion start writing non-fiction??

Is this supposed to be a joke? The wild, unattached twenties spent at work.

Replace Seattle with Dallas, Advertising with IT, and a sweet TV with a sweet laptop and that bout sums up the last 3 years (oh, and I didn't eat Chinese that much).

Maybe some ideas aren't worth pursuing

I remember when I was a little kid and saw my first spork (such a memborable experience, wasn't it). Kinda good idea, but they combined the wrong two utensils, wouldn't a fork/knife combo have been better??

Well, wonder no more...the Knork has been created! I recommend the flash site for some unintentional comedy of the highest order.

An ownership society?

No one in the history of the world has ever washed a rented car.
-Lawrence Summers (economist)

They say it's the same with all 2nd term presidents...instead of worrying about re-election, they worry about their place in the history books. So now that G-Dub has made it to the second level, everyone's wondering how he's going to spend the next 4 years (spending twice as much time in Crawford, maybe??).

Here's the New Yorker's (and James Surowiecki) opinion about how Bush may be planning a radical overhaul of America’s entire system of social insurance.

Overall, it sounds to me like Surowiecki doesn't think it's a good idea to go ahead and give people the added freedom with Social Security (he points to the people who had 401K's in Enron, Pets.com). But while it might not be good for the masses, there may be a pretty damn good chance that it will greatly benefit intelligent and informed citizens.

What has the return on Social Security been over the years...next to nothing, right? And if the stock market has suppossedly increased at a 10%/yr average...then 10% is a hell of a lot better than 0%. Yes there's added risk, but there's always going to be risk, so you might as well be in control...I think.

People doing cool things

Recently it was announced that 4orty 2wo entertainment was the company behind the ilovebees.com website. I guess it's only a slight surprise to find out it was the same company behind The Beast.

Crazy.

Does Bin Laden want Kerry to win the election?

Based on reading this article on the transcript of the latest Bin Laden video it doesn't take much to see that the message he gives is quite anti-Bush.

For example:

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.

"Every dollar of al Qaeda defeated a million dollars, by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs," he said. "As for the economic deficit, it has reached record astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.

"And it all shows that the real loser is you," he said. "It is the American people and their economy."

"So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threaten his future," bin Laden said.

The thing that I don't get is that with quotes like this:

al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.

you would think that Bin Laden would want Bush to stay in office for as long as possible. If Bin Laden feels so confident about controlling Bush then why diss him on the eve of the election?

My vote's already in, but I'm also suspect of doing anything that Osama Bin Laden seems to want us to do. Your thoughts?

ps. arrived safely in Siem Reap...be here till Sunday.