This quote from Dolly Parton, for whom I have a lingering childhood admiration, is circulating the web:

“Some things are strange to me, and some things are odd. But I don’t condemn. If you can accept me, I can accept you. Having a big gay following, I get hate mail and threats. Some people are blind or ignorant, and you can’t be that prejudiced and hateful and go through this world and still be happy. One thing about this movie [Transamerica] is that I think art can change minds. It’s all right to be who you are.”

Sony Pictures has posted a new promotional image of Spiderman 3. On the site, it’s presented as a Daily Bugle front page. It looks like the rumors are true we’re definitely going to see Venom make an appearance.

From a recent, lefty petition:

“Seriously, this war and war budget are beyond crazy. Newspapers are saying another $72 billion is a shoe-in. How have we let this happen? How can we stop it? One clear way is forcing any half-responsible Reps to stop funding what most Americans and most Congresspeople know is a losing mistake.”

It seems to me that the war is over. At this point, we’re deciding whether or not to fund the reconstruction of iraq. I may not like that fact that we’re in this situation, but nor do I see much of a choice. The power vacuum that we would leave in our wake at this point could be catastrophic in the middle east, with effects rippling globally.

I’ve had little time to read up, recently. What justfication is there to simply pull out?

Popular Science this month profiles Juan Lozano, a retired Mexican engineer who is building his own rocket belt for self-controlled flight. All sorts of interesting factoids in this article. For instance, did you know that there have actually been a dozen people who have taken a ride on a jetpack, from NASA engineers to Kimee Gibson, whose pack closed every show of Michael Jackson’s ‘Dangerous’ tour (and who will let you ride his for $10,000). However, only one other person has built their own pack from scratch, and he had a great deal of specialist help. Juan has only a 24-year old Rastafarian who mixes his rocket fuel. You cannot make this stuff up. The story can sound a bit ridiculous, but after a couple of pages I found his journey incredibly inspiring. Make sure to check out the slideshow images, which are at times even more surreal than the story itself.

[via DefenseTech]

From the trailer of David Choe’s upcoming bio-documentary:

One day, when people stop buying my paintings, quit wearing my T-shirts, I can still rob your fucking house.

Dust off your copy of “Rising Sun.” It’s the 90’s all over again:

In an industry where others are sputtering, Toyota is a juggernaut. It is producing nearly 50 percent more cars than in 2001 and this year it will almost certainly pass General Motors to become the world’s largest auto company. Toyota alone earned more than all the rest of the world’s 12 largest auto manufacturers combined — $11.4 billion. And it is pioneering a new technology for the 21st century that will shrink gasoline consumption and limit greenhouse gases. (Emphasis added)

Along with hybrid sales and good styling, Toyota is credited with developing some really innovative cost-cutting technologies. Example: new mold technology has cut the cost of their V-6 engines by 50% since 2003.

The US Ambassador to Iraq responds to rumors of government death squads. He warns:

“American taxpayers expect their money to be spent properly,” Zalmay Khalilzad said. “We are not going to invest the resources of the American people into forces run by people who are sectarian.”

If only the same could be said right here in the US of A.

Bruce Sterling, writing a speculative article in a financial magazine, invites you to imagine a future where you would do no such thing.

Imagine that you no longer read speculative articles in financial magazines. You don’t pay to read ink in magazines. Nobody does that kind of data transaction anymore. Instead, imagine yourself confronted by an electronic Web page that is eager to read you. Once it learns who you are and how much you have to offer, it make a ferocious effort to convince you that the money game is transforming, with profoundly new players, unimaginable new rules. Then it offers you money to believe what it says. It demands that you act as its broker and send it to all of your friends.

No comment; just sickening. Click with caution: Daily Kos (via the Tree)

Update: BoingBoing.net has the torrents for an Australian news program containing all 60 images.

More: from Salon.com. I shouldn’t be looking at these at work; I end up being emotional for the entire day. There is one, in particular, that gives me very visceral sense of what the suffering must have been like.