Follow up inside.

Jaguar offers limited edition black iPod

My god...it's full of songs... :Jaguar
offers a monolithic black iPod

AT&T Wins $3.6 Million Hosting Contract
From Blue Cross And Blue Shield

Big Blue, Blue Titan boost SOAs

True blue Big Brother too blue for MPs
(Reuters)

Blue Bands for Blue Budgets

I had to go all the way over to LISNews< /a> to find out that a sister Library System here in Illinois has started a totally awesome project called Libraries Matter. Here at home, our kids saved up some money to buy the 10–pack of Lance Armstrong yellow wristbands because they’re all the rage at school. Can you imagine if we could start something similar with these blue ones for libraries? Brilliant job, Alliance Library System!

One thing, though – how about offering packs smaller than 50 so that ordinary folks like myself can buy some and give them out to friends, kids, etc.? Let’s get some grassroots support going, not just top down from the institutional level! Then, let’s think about how we can use these on Advocacy Day this year.

Tangent: When visiting the ALS web site tonight, I realized they’ve added blogs to the home page (kind of, sort of). Sweet! Unfortunately, no RSS feeds to be found anywhere, which means I won’t be able to add them to my aggregator, which means I’ll have to keep relying on other web sites to highlight ALS projects for me. Not sweet. C’mon, ALS, show us the RSS!

Sony's PSP: Available in Black, Black,
and Black

Looks like all those pastel PSPs Sony was showing at E3 were just a tease. According to an interview in Japanese game magazine Famitsu, Sony claims the various color PSPs were "just for reference. We plan to make the system black." I wouldn't worry too much, though. I'm sure if the PSP does well at all, color models will start showing up in no time at all.
Read [IGN via Portagame]

Chris Abraham: Evil Man in Black and His
Evil Black Suitcases Tackled by the Good
Guys

chrisabraham.com/2005/04/evil_man_in_bla.html
track this site | 5 links

"how-to record on your ipod (for free) -
ipod hacks - ipod.hackaday.com"

BLACK
HUMOUR

No one who has read The Boondocks has a neutral opinion about its writer, Aaron McGruder. You either love him or hate him, or vacillate between the two extremes. The twenty-something radical leftie is working on a Simpsons-style animated series that will air, ironically, on Fox, probably next year, and as the New Yorker reported last month, he's managed to outrage almost everyone of every political stripe, including other cartoonists who say that he's gotten lazy (the strip is now drawn by Jennifer Seng, though McGruder still does the writing), and that he's relentless to the point of being tedious and unfunny. He is the most banned cartoonist in history, with many of the 300+ papers carrying the strip having cut it at one time or another. But as I think the above strip from last week shows, McGruder's biting wit has lost none of its edge, and demonstrates a fearlessness that goes beyond even what Doonsbury and Bloom County achieved.

BB-Shopping Is One of the Best Resources
for Mobile Phone Accessories, Ipod
Accessories (Ipod, Ipod Arm Band)and
Many More

Black. Duncan Black.

THINK
GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL: PETER SINGER'S
ONE
WORLD

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that I'm opposed to unregulated 'free' trade, very worried about the extraterritoriality of the WTO, NAFTA, Davos and other corporatist captives, strongly opposed to domestic corporations 'offshoring' jobs, using influence with the Bush regime and other right-wing governments to circumvent social and environmental laws and responsibilities, and a great believer in taking the pledge to buy local, and in community self-sufficiency. At the same time, I'm a strong supporter of the UN and other multi-lateral NGOs, and I believe that we each have a responsibility for the well-being of all the people and creatures of this world. Some readers have said this view is inconsistent, and I wasn't quite sure how to respond to such charges. Fortunately, Peter Singer, in his recent book on global ethics, One World: The Ethics of Globalization, has come to my rescue. Singer sees no inconsistency between strong local autonomy, community, and self-sufficient economies on the one hand, and global responsibility on the other. The book is based on the Dwight Terry lectures at Yale in 2000, but has been updated to incorporate reflection on the events of 9/11 and the appalling Bush social, environmental and economic record. I'll have more to say next week about Bush's fraudulent and despicable Earth Day media blitz, and the major media's shameless lack of critical evaluation of the utter nonsense that his propaganda machine has been churning out this week on the environment -- newspeak of Orwellian proportions. The first part of Singer's book deals with environmental responsibility, and his prescription for increasing it -- immediate ratification of Kyoto by the US and other holdout countries, and introduction of an emissions trading mechanism to make the realization of Kyoto feasible (subject to the need for some oversight on the disposition of the proceeds of such trading when it involves autocratic governments). The second part of the book deals with the global economy, and Singer adroitly tears apart the Economist's (and other neocons') naive assertion that economic globalization somehow benefits both rich and poor countries. He then goes on to prescribe a substantial reform of the WTO and the GATT, which could actually lead to more equitable distribution of wealth and more efficient production of economic goods, while safeguarding human rights, labour and the environment. Unfortunately, the multi-national corporations and corporatists who hold sway in the WTO would never tolerate Singer's prescription, since it would entirely divert the benefits of economic globalization from their pockets to those of the world's poor. The third part of the book deals with international law, and Singer lashes out at Bush for his unconscionable refusal to ratify the International Court of Justice, and for the UN's continued hesitancy to accept a duty (not a right) to intervene in situations of genocide and other humanitarian crises, even within a single nation. Singer is sanguine about the limitations and dangers of 'global government', but supports strengthening the UN to enable it to act as a 'protector of last resort', and including in its mandate the responsibility to supervise elections in all member nations. The fourth and final part goes back to ethical principles and proposes that countries must, in this world where national boundaries no longer have any logistic meaning, set aside national interest and embrace, once and for all, global interest, impartially. That does not mean cultural homogenization, but imposes a responsibility for the reduction of inequality, both of economic resources and personal rights and freedoms. Always the pragmatist, Singer concludes by worrying out loud about how the responsibility for a global ethic could be managed: It is widely believed that a world government would be, at best, an unchecked bureaucratic behemoth that would make the bureaucracy of the EU look lean and efficient. At worst, it would become a global tyranny, unchecked and unchallengeable. These thoughts have to be taken seriously. How to prevent global bodies becoming either dangerous tyrannies or self-aggrandizing bureaucracies, and instead make them effective and responsive to the people whose lives they affect? It is a challenge that should not be beyond the best minds in the fields of political science and public administration. I'd like to believe that this was possible, because if it isn't, we're in serious trouble. We cannot expect national governments to set aside parochial interests, especially when this entails accepting a responsibility that would, for the richer nations, inevitably lead to a drastic redistribution of wealth to poorer nations and hence a sudden and sharp reduction in, at least, economic living standards (if not necessarily well-being). But as John Ralston Saul has so eloquently argued, larger organizations and institutions, whether public or private, are almost always, and inherently, less efficient, less agile, more resistant to change, more hierarchic, and less transparent than smaller organizations. So the challenge is to achieve the best of both worlds, having organizations of global scope and authority and responsibility, but broken up into sufficiently small, autonomous and dynamic units that they are sensitive, resilient, responsible and responsive to the people and communities they serve. We can only hope that "the best minds in the fields of political science and public administration", wherever they are, are up to the task.

News: Griffin ships AirClick Remote for
iPod, iPod mini

Griffin intros soft auto cradle for
iPod, iPod mini

Apple iPod: Apple's Evolutionary iPod
Gets Better But Leaves Room For
Improvement

The iPod's thoughful design and features make it an excellent MP3 player. But for picky buyers who are holding out for the ideal portable music device, the wait continues. By Eric Dahl, PC World

Digital Lifestyle Outfitters debuts
iBoom, the first boombox solution for
iPod & iPod mini

Win an iPod mini at the South Beach iPod
Garage Party

Mad Catz iKit cables for iPod and iPod
Mini [Flickr]

MacMerc.com posted a photo:

Mad Catz announces iKit cables for iPod
and iPod Mini

Holy Dichotomy! Writer Calls iPod
'World's Most Elegant' Nine Days After
Writing Dell DJ 'Surpassed' iPod

PodGear offers speakers for iPod, iPod
shuffle

iBoom turns iPod, iPod mini into a
boombox

Notes and Tips: iPod Mini, iPod Deal

iPod/iPod mini firmware update posted

iPod mini vs. standard iPod in weight,
size

Tunewear intros new iPod, iPod mini
accessories

Griffin unveils 3-in-1 RoadTrip for
iPod, iPod mini

DLO debuts iBoom boombox for iPod, iPod
mini

To black hole, or not black hole, that
is the question

iPod finally outdone... by iPod mini

Carboard iPod stand made from an iPod
box

So maybe there is a black iPod. And a red one. And a blue one.