Around the Web on 11-23-05

Due to holiday festivities with relatives, this post will probably be it for me until Monday. But that's okay! My fellow bloggers, including a few who haven't written in awhile, will take up the slack for your holiday reading pleasure.

This post also appears at Ego. Which award will it get for Martin this week?

Eye and Ear Candy for the Boys

(And one bad joke after another.)

Reader, good friend, and occasional comment-bomber Adrian Hester emailed me the following perky bit of news. (I'd considered submitting this to Boing-Boing, but noticed that the story had made the blogospheric rounds already.)

Computer chips that store music could soon be built into a woman's breast implants.

One ... could hold an MP3 player and the other the person's whole music collection.

BT futurology, who have developed the idea, say it could be available within 15 years.

BT Laboratories' analyst Ian Pearson said flexible plastic electronics would sit inside the breast. A signal would be relayed to headphones, while the device would be controlled by Bluetooth using a panel on the wrist.

According to The Sun he said: "It is now very hard for me to [think] of breast implants as just decorative. If a woman has something implanted permanently, it might as well do something useful."

The sensors around the body linked through the electrical impulses in the chips may also be able to warn wearers about heart murmurs, blood pressure increases, diabetes and breast cancer.

The last bit might sound like good news for the vain -- or the first step on the road to the invention of the Fembot! (And in that context, one could be forgiven for thinking that "Bluetooth" was some Austin Powers villain rather than a technology....) Until then, Paul Hsieh tells us how the human owners of these implants will be able to keep their music warm while keeping emissions of the greenhouse variety down.

The Spy Who Quizzed Me

Lubber's Line offers this cautionary tale from the cold war era about a rather suspicious line of questioning he received from a waiter during a port visit in the Caribbean. Be sure to read the comments, too.

All that ever happened to me during a port visit in the Caribbean was that three different guys offered to sell me drugs while I smoked a Cuban cigar. I had never had such an offer before, nor have I since!

The Fallacy of Self-Exclusion

Amit Ghate tells us about the latest bit of hypocrisy by the feds over at Thrutch.

If the Justice Department, i.e. the very department charged with protecting US property rights around the world, sets the standard that such rights are valid only until someone needs the goods, then how do they ever hope to defend any property rights? Any IP of value is needed, that's what makes it valuable! If it were unneeded, there would be no reason to defend it, since no one would have any reason to steal it. But by this precedent, no defense of intellectual property is possible, and we can kiss goodbye developments in all those fields which are principally intellectual (medicine, technology, etc.).

Now perhaps these government officials were counting on self-exclusion, i.e. they believe that rights and rules apply, unless the government is involved , in which case all bets are off. But such logic applies only in dictatorships (whether fascist or communist), not in a country founded on the very principle of individual rights.

It is terrifying indeed to think that we have now reached the stage where the very officials charged with defending the laws -- not only think that they are above them -- but are even prepared to come out in writing to say so!

Sex Offender Locator

At The Benjo Blog, the General tells us how to find any sex offenders in your neighborhood. This is worthwhile in and of itself, but the discussion was very interesting as well. Be sure to read the comments.

Empires vs. Victory

In a very interesting post, Gideon Reich takes us through the highlights of a review by Angelo Codevilla of "several foreign policy books across the political spectrum". My favorite "Codevillism"? This one: "Dead enemies are the firm foundations of peace." Heh! I concur.

d'Anconia (is Back) Online

After a long hiatus, it looks like Felipe Sediles is back in action at his own blog and as the webmaster of the Egosphere group blog at Objectivism Online. At his own blog, d'Anconia Online, he has a very good post about the importance of context, specifically with regard to Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead.

A New Find

I think this post about Jack Wakeland over at Literatrix is really cute.

Jarhead Savaged by Jarhead

Ex-Marine Nick Provenzo isn't too happy with the movie Jarhead. Read his review to learn why.

On Pre-Invasion Intelligence

Subman Dave explains in great detail what is wrong with how the subject of pre-invasion intelligence concerning Iraq has been discussed lately. (HT: Molten Eagle )

Earth to Hollywood!

Zach Oakes has some pithy commentary on Earth to America .

Don Quixote to Tilt at Windmills from Below the Sea

Bubblehead informs us that Hugo Chavez (AKA El Loco), president of Venezuela, the world's largest Miguel Cervantes fan club, is now shopping for submarines.

Coincidentally, I read Don Quixote during an underway back in my Navy days.

A New Kind of White Flight

My, oh my, things have changed!

Caption Contest

Be sure to stop by this week's caption contest over at Riding Sun. This week's picture is priceless!

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

-- CAV