An unfortunate choice of words? Commenting on whether or not networked communication isolates us, Mark Dery said:

[T]here’s also an upside to sociological clustering, at least online. In the 1950s, if you had the hapless happenstance of being born gay in Oklahoma, you might have spent many a lonely night biting your pillow and cursing the heavens for making you the only gay on earth. Now any 18-year-old with a modem is just a click away from a universe of fellow travelers, and to me, that’s a good thing.

Emphasis mine. I thought it was funny.

Okay, so there’s nothing more to this post, really. Even the interview (a round table with rockstars Tim O’Reilly, Malcolm Gladwell, Clay Shirky, Mark Dery, Esther Dyson, David Brooks, and Moby) was lame. I assume they were speaking down to/edited down for the Time readership.

Land and Living posted about the current state of the art in mining technology: bucket wheel excavation. Or, as they dubbed it, “Frankenmining.”

I’m sure that there are places where these behemoths serve some economically vital function. Perhaps this type of mining makes possible all the technology I take for granted. Heavy metals come from somewhere, I guess.

My absolute favorite use, however, is mining for diamonds. Check out the De Beers site, boasting their ultra-efficient diamond extraction tech. The bucket wheel extractor is at the bottom of the page, tearing up some West African hillside at 255,000 cubic meters a day so that every Westerner can spend two months’ salary to show someone how special they are.

Yeah, I’m in a bad mood.

Oh, and Logan insists that I change the image header. He thinks it looks like a gaping anus. Which, I think, is simply indicative of what’s on his mind.

Venezuela seeks nuclear technology — The Washington Times: There have been occassional rumors , lots of blustery rhetoric… but this is not the first go-around, nor will it be the last. Despite the potential grave outcome, the situation is kind of amusing to me because three weeks ago I was taking notes for a story I’ll write someday-real-soon-now, in which Venezuela had been levelled by American nuclear weapons. In my vision it was to end the alleged drug trafficking, but I suppose offensive capabilities are a better cover story.

In case you hadn’t heard, the Washington Times is about as close to a direct right-wing religious mouthpiece as one can find. The crazed billionaire owner/cult leader, Reverend Sun Myung Moon (of the mass-marrying Moonies), has insinuated himself in Washington power circles over the past several decades, resulting in some very bizzare scenes. I’m sure Logan could have a field day with the language in this article. See how many implicit incriminations and leading narratives you can find!

Between this article and Radical Cleric Pat Robertson’s unsolicited fatwa, one has to wonder if this is the fringies way of communicating their strategy suggestions to the President: with another war brewing, suddenly his domestic agenda looks a lot less quarrelsome. Or maybe this is just the old guard stirred up by the same old fear of Godless Communism encroaching. Either way this vocal minority is making some consistent noises. Time will only tell if they reach the echo chamber.