More weather misery expected
Grok Headline matches for More weather misery expected
Ambient Weather® and Weather
Underground® Launch World's Largest Free
Personal Weather Station Network
Ambient Weather® and Weather
Underground® Launch World's Largest Free
Personal Weather Station Network
07/20/2004 02:44 AMNew Weather Exchange Windows Desktop PC application utilizes exclusive
live personal weather station network to provide up to the minute
worldwide weather conditions. The free desktop application is
available at http://www.AmbientWeather.com . [PRWEB Jul 20, 2004]
Air2Web And The Weather Channel Develop
New Mobile Weather Application
Air2Web And The Weather Channel Develop
New Mobile Weather Application
07/27/2004 05:59 AMSpace Daily Jul 27 2004 8:53AM GMT
Sweet misery
Sweet misery
09/26/2004 07:14 AMJust this morning, we were in the shower together, quoting
Eddie Izzard to
each other and laughing.
Now, a few measly hours later, my love is gone again,
going back North, and the house seems so awfully empty. The sun is
shining, it is warm outside, like a summer's day, and a lost fly flies
frantically about in my apartment, desperately seeking something but
only finding a place to die.
I still have packing to do, as I am leaving for Stuttgart in a couple
of hours.
I wrote some code yesterday morning, as she was still sleeping, as I
did not have the heart to wake her up.
I just miss her so terribly already.
Gel 'will end the misery of acne'
Gel 'will end the misery of acne'
04/21/2004 07:57 PMA scientist says he can develop a gel which will treat acne.
at the heart of so much human misery
at the heart of so much human misery
05/04/2004 07:48 AMKass or Nussbaum on Disgust? .. more» ..
more
boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/05/02/you_stink_there
fore_i_am?pg=full
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ESPN.com: Page 2 - The MLB Misery Index
ESPN.com: Page 2 - The MLB Misery Index
04/14/2004 06:22 AMCaple's ranking of how miserable it is to be a fan of a team .. ESPN
DOES ITS OWN MISERY
INDEX
sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/040407
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site | 5 links
Hurricane leaves Florida misery
Hurricane leaves Florida misery
08/14/2004 09:39 AMHurricane Charley leaves an unknown number of dead and widespread
damage as it slams through Florida.
Misery loves company. And Nortel
Misery loves company. And Nortel
09/16/2004 09:11 AMStill no accounts, now a profit warning too...
Operation For Obesity Leaves Some in
Misery
Operation For Obesity Leaves Some in
Misery
05/03/2004 07:26 PMGastric bypass has become big business, but experts fear that
inexperienced surgeons and inadequate screening and follow-up may harm
patients.
How came any reasonable being to subject
himself to such a yoke of misery?
How came any reasonable being to subject
himself to such a yoke of misery?
04/05/2005 04:25 PM
Con
fessions of an EBay opium addict -
Like anyone trolling the
Internet at 4 a.m., I had been looking for some kind of temporary drug
fix. I found it on eBay under Crafts>Floral Supplies>Flowers,
Foliage>Dried. (via Alternet) Many face needless asthma misery
Many face needless asthma misery
07/20/2004 06:24 PM
More than 500,000 people have an avoidable asthma attack almost every
day, finds research.
Phone spam misery looms Stateside
Phone spam misery looms Stateside
08/05/2004 07:50 PMJust the fax
Federer Hits Form, Misery for Sharapova
Federer Hits Form, Misery for Sharapova
09/04/2004 10:44 PMReuters via Wired News Sep 5 2004 1:42AM GMT
Panther FileVault data-loss misery
Panther FileVault data-loss misery
11/04/2003 01:18 PMAnother Year of Living Misery in Baghdad
(washingtonpost.com)
Another Year of Living Misery in Baghdad
(washingtonpost.com)
06/24/2005 03:17 PMwashingtonpost.com - BAGHDAD, June 23 -- In the streets of Baghdad,
people wondered Thursday what else could possibly go wrong.
Jeanne Delivers More Misery (Los Angeles
Times)
Jeanne Delivers More Misery (Los Angeles
Times)
09/27/2004 05:30 AMLos Angeles Times - STUART, Fla. — Storm-weary Floridians
weathered their fourth hurricane in six weeks as Jeanne lashed the
Sunshine State with 120-mph winds and torrential rains Sunday that
turned neighborhood streets into muddy rivers, ripped roofs from
trailers and knocked out power to 2 million homes and businesses.
Orange punters face more mobile misery
Orange punters face more mobile misery
06/11/2004 11:18 AMNumber's up
Art Imitates Iraqi Life in All Its Chaos
and Misery
Art Imitates Iraqi Life in All Its Chaos
and Misery
07/24/2004 02:52 PMThe war has been especially disillusioning for young Iraqi artists,
many of whom believed the American promises of freedom.
Millions face rail travel misery
Millions face rail travel misery
06/21/2004 12:39 PMUp to 15,000 workers on Network Rail and London Underground call a
joint 24-hour strike over pay.
"Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The
Ideologies of Web Design"
"Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The
Ideologies of Web Design"
08/31/2004 08:45 PMShaq's Dunk Delivers Lakers From Misery
(AP)
Shaq's Dunk Delivers Lakers From Misery
(AP)
04/18/2004 08:33 AMAP - The playoffs arrived, and the Los Angeles Lakers hardly looked
like championship material. But Shaquille O'Neal was in the right
place to bail them out barely in time. O'Neal's only basket of
the second half, a dunk off an airball by Kobe Bryant with 17.4
seconds remaining, provided the winning points in the Lakers' 72-71
victory over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.
South Asia flood misery spreads
South Asia flood misery spreads
07/17/2004 07:59 AMMore than 20 million people are stranded and hungry as floodwaters
surge through South Asia.
Mastery, Mystery and Misery of the User
Interface
Mastery, Mystery and Misery of the User
Interface
09/01/2004 11:32 AMJakob serves up a classic analogy to describe the current state of UI
design.
Motorola slashes Freescale float as
misery grips IPO market
Motorola slashes Freescale float as
misery grips IPO market
07/16/2004 10:18 AMeFinancial News Jul 16 2004 1:40PM GMT
Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The
Ideologies of Web Design (Jakob
Nielsen's Alertbox)
Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The
Ideologies of Web Design (Jakob
Nielsen's Alertbox)
08/30/2004 08:53 PMMastery, Mystery, and Misery: The Ideologies of Web Design .. Jakob
Nielsen's latest essay
useit.com/alertbox/20040830.html
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AUTHENTIC
MISERY
AUTHENTIC
MISERY
12/19/2004 02:54 PM
Have
you been suffering from annoying bouts of optimism and hopefulness
that
things might actually get better soon? Now you can banish those
anxiety-causing thoughts forever with Dr. Ebenezer Scrooge's masterful
program of despair, Authentic Misery®. Here's how it
works. Simply select the three statements from the list of 24 below
that you most
agree with. The words in bold in those three statements are your
Signature Weaknesses. In order to experience Authentic Misery, simply
dwell constantly on these weaknesses and berate yourself for them.
Assure yourself that they're all
your fault,
because they are! You are obviously weak, and have inferior values, or
you would be cheerful and care-free like the US Presnit.
- I am unimaginative, uncreative, a copier and a follower in
everything, and I don't have an original bone in my body.
- I am
bored and indifferent,
always waiting for someone or something to entertain me. If that
doesn't happen, I look for someone to hurt or something to set fire
to,
to amuse myself.
- I am intolerant and blindly accepting,
always believing what others tell me, no matter how ludicrous. I am
quick to find fault, and I am arbitrary on who I blame, damn you.
- I am ignorant, and like it that way. Books put me to sleep.
They're too long and complicated.
- I am aggravating and stupid, and others
view me as prejudiced, biased, judgemental and idiotic, when they can
stand putting up with my company at all.
- I am cowardly. I never stand up for my
convictions, and watch other people do what I used to dream of doing.
Fear is a great de-motivator.
- I am a procrastinator and quitter. I give up easily and leave
things half
- I am dishonest. I'm never straight with people and never say
what I mean. Not even about this.
- I am lazy. I
don't care enough to be diligent and am half-hearted in everything I
do. Don't bug me.
- I am distant.
I don't get close to people or let them get close to me. Leave me
alone. Not that alone.
- I am stingy and
selfish. I don't share, don't care. It's all about me, me, me.
- I am insensitive. I am able to offend and hurt people without
even trying, you piece of excrement.
- I am greedy,
petulant and irresponsible.
I take credit for others' work and stab people in the back. And I
complain and whine non-stop. Jesus, this list is long. Is there a
point
to this post?
- I am unfair and
unreasonable. Justice is for fools. And I'm the judge.
- I am passive.
I do what I'm told and don't think, or act, for myself. Let someone
else do it. You do it.
- I am angry and
vengeful. I have a long memory and I hold grudges.
- I am egotistical. If you don't toot your own horn, no one
else will do it for you.
- I am reckless. Speak and act first and think later, if at
all.
- I am undisciplined. Gimme those chips and chocolates, and
stay out of my face.
- I am unappreciative. Life sucks and then you die. Thanks for
nothing, asshole.
- I am ungrateful, and take everything for granted.
- I am pessimistic. Everything's going to hell. Not like the
good old days.
- I am unpleasant. The only joke around here is your face and
your friend's bad taste.
- I am agnostic. There is no purpose or meaning to life. Only
shit is real. Please kill me already.
Once you have identified your Signature Weaknesses, blame yourself
incessantly for them. You can only be truly
miserable when you realize that the situation is absolutely hopeless.
If you harp on this fanatically enough, you can actually get yourself
into a catatonic state of suicidal despair. This is the ideal 'zen'
state of Authentic Misery.
If this isn't enough to keep you truly and perpetually miserable, try
this Being In The Moment exercise. Go and visit your local factory
farm, penitentiary, crack neighbourhood, women's shelter or soup
kitchen and talk to the people there. Hear their stories. Then realize
there are millions, billions
of pathetic people and suffering animals living in environments that
are even worse,
every day for their increasingly long lives, and that no one is
willing
to take responsibility for what has led to their situation, and that
between environmental destruction, corporatism, endless wars over
increasingly scarce resources, profligate spending, interminable cuts
to government services, and skyrocketing corporate subsidies, their
situation is going to get unimaginably worse still very soon. And the outlook for the next
generation is ten times worse again.
Another excellent exercise for entrenching your state of Authentic
Misery is called Negative Imaging. Picture yourself as the nurturing,
caring wife of a brutal and abusive man who has convinced everyone you
know that he is the perfect, strict father. He drinks himself into a
constant blind rage and takes it all out on you and your nine deprived
and starving children. He gambles away all the money you earn and
save,
which he's lost to his incredibly rich poker buddies. Are you getting
into the Authentic Misery spirit yet? Great. Because it's really that bad.
Now, let's rewrite that obnoxious Serenity Prayer in the spirit of
Authentic Misery. The original version, which was plagiarized anyway
reads:
Grant
me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to
change
the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Ugh. Here's a better version:
You
can't change anything, and you're stupid to try. But you should still
feel guilty about it, because it's your fault it's so bad in the first
place. And it's a lot of other people's fault, too, so you should be
very angry with everyone else as well.
Christmas is a great time to spread Authentic Misery to everyone
around you. Why not buy a copy of Dr. Scrooge's great new book The Power of Negative Thinking
for everyone on your list. Make Christmas a season of unbearable gloom
for everyone you foolishly love and care about. After all, if you're
not happy, why should anyone else be? And what's the point anyway?
[with sincere apologies
to Martin
Seligman]

On a more serious note, here are my personal answers to the questions
I posed
in October on the subject of happiness, and their implications for
saving the world:
- What is happiness?
The absence of
suffering.
- Does happiness
drive our behaviour? In a way -- it makes us passive. It is
only when we are really unhappy that we change our behaviour, and
act.
- Does more
information actually inhibit our ability and willingness to
act? Absolutely. At best, it can paralyze us with uncertainty
and doubt. At worst, it can be an excuse for doing nothing.
- Which is the
easiest
route to happiness: lowering your expectations, putting your
dissatisfaction in rational perspective, or focusing on the
positive?
Depends on the individual. For the optimist, it's the first, for the
pragmatist the second, and for the pessimist and idealist (that's me),
the third. But none of them is that easy.
- Would you trade
away your ability to think, for permanent happiness?
In a heartbeat. I guess that shows my age. Or my mental state.
Thinking
is overrated. Sensing and instinct are more powerful, and important.
I'm looking forward to Malcolm Gladwell's new book Blink
("The Power of Thinking Without Thinking"). Gladwell says: "You could
also say that it's a book about intuition, except that I don't like
that word." Intuition is a great word with a bad rap -- I wish I'd
known the thesis of the book before he excised this word from it. I
might have got him to change the title.
- Is news really
information, if it doesn't inform us what to do?
No. The word 'information' means "to put meaning around". News is
mostly meaning-less, an addiction, like gambling and fast food. Very
dangerous, but curable if you quit cold turkey.
- Are children, as a whole, happier than
adults in the same culture and economic situation? Yes, because
they sense more and think less. They are wiser than we are.
- Is the role of
modern Western man to write and direct his own story?
Yes, because he has lost his way. Many great stories are about finding
one's way home, and that is the story that modern Western man is
writing, each one a lonely, individual story. They are sad, violent
stories compared to the great stories of prehistory -- stories of joy,
of belonging, of community, of relationship. Collective stories.
I don't really believe in Authentic Happiness, so it is perhaps unfair
of me to satirize it. I keep saying that Things are the way they are for a reason,
and I believe the endemic unhappiness in our world of unprecedented
wealth is completely authentic, and not the creation of advertisers
trying to instill unhappiness to drive more consumption. The more we
know, the more unhappy we are, and to me that legitimizes our
unhappiness. I do love the James Thurber quote:
"I always say you can have too much philosophy", Mrs. Kirkfield said.
"It isn't good for you. It's disorganizing. Everybody's got to wake up
sometime feeling that everything is terrible, because it is."
So what do we do with all this wisdom about unhappiness? We cope with
it. We keep looking for answers that will make the world much less
"terrible". We acknowledge that in a terrible world we are justified
in
being unhappy and likely to spend most of our lives that way. If we're
really convinced that there's nothing we can do that will make any
significant difference, we escape the pain as often as possible, using
any means at our disposal: Sex, drugs, music, prayer, self-delusion,
denial, feigned ignorance, suicide -- whatever works for each of us.
And if we believe there is something we can do that will make a significant difference, then
we either do it or die, or, worse, we
wimp out, and feel guilty our whole lives for not acting on our
instincts, and then die regretting what could have
been.
At this season when our society's happiness and unhappiness both reach
their annual crescendo, I wish you -- not either of these two
delusional states -- but instead, courage, to do. Your instincts will tell you what to do.
|
"Weather"
"Weather"
04/08/2005 10:10 AMAlways take the weather with you
Always take the weather with you
12/22/2004 01:53 AMLast week, I suggested that someone built a weather forecast podcast.
This week, Jorge Velázquez has built it, using the weather.com web
services, Lame and some XPath madness. I'm using it: it's really good.
And now I have a Crowded...
PHP Weather
PHP Weather
01/01/2004 08:35 PMPHP Weather version 2.2.0 released
BBC Weather goes 3D
BBC Weather goes 3D
08/23/2004 12:18 PMRealistic raindrops indoors and out
PHP Weather 2.2.0
PHP Weather 2.2.0
01/01/2004 08:36 PMShows the current weather conditions on your Web page.
PHP Weather 2.2.2
PHP Weather 2.2.2
06/17/2004 11:46 AMShows the current weather conditions on your Web page.
Z-Weather
Z-Weather
04/09/2004 09:10 PMTest
Weather
Weather
09/02/2004 02:39 AMprohosting.fatpickle.com/search?q=weather
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The weather guy with my name
The weather guy with my name
12/19/2004 03:02 PM During my final morning in Denver during Digital ID World, I had the
odd sensation of seeing my name on the TV screen as a weather
forecaster spoke. Of course, it was another Scott Mace, the
meteorologist. He even...
Kwiki-Weather-0.03
Kwiki-Weather-0.03
07/20/2004 06:13 PMXML Weather Data Available
XML Weather Data Available
12/17/2004 06:32 PMAs Kevin notes, the release of NOAA Weather data in XML is a big deal.
Not only will this make it easier for the smaller guys to start
offering weather related services, it means that anyone with with a
few free hours and some scripting skills can build the applications
that nobody else offered. Having written the Geo::METAR perl module
ages ago (I'm so behind on patches, it's not even funny), I really get
why having this in XML rather...
DevArticles: PHP, GD, The Weather and
You
DevArticles: PHP, GD, The Weather and
You
12/23/2003 09:35 AMDevShed has a new piece posted
this morning that might interest those out there that might be a bit
frustrated with integrating dynamic content with PHP and GD.
One-Wire Weather 0.81.0
One-Wire Weather 0.81.0
07/19/2004 04:21 AMClient program for the Dallas 1-wire weather station.
Grok Description matches for More weather misery expected
GrokA matches for More weather misery expected
More weather misery expected