June 30, 2004
Photo Caption Non Sequitur
#"Fashion is the most intense expression of the phenomenon of neomania, which has grown ever since the birth of capitalism. Neomania assumes that purchasing the new is the same as acquiring value. . . . If the purchase of a new garment coincides with the wearing out of an old one, then obviously there is no fashion. If a garment is worn beyond the moment of its natural replacement, there is pauperization. Fashion flourishes on surplus, when someone buys more than he or she needs". ~Stephen Bayley (b. 1951), British design critic. Taste, pt. 2, "Fashion: Being and Dressing" (1991). *
EPOW: Ecology Picture of the Week
"EPOW was developed to share stories about plants, animals, ecosystems, and other aspects of the natural world, from my own personal experiences and photographs. Bruce Marcot takes responsibility for any inadvertent inaccuracies or errors in the text presented in EPOW."
archive
Photo Caption Non Sequitur
To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt. ~Mikhail Bakunin (1814-76), Russian political theorist.
That's No Lie: Wireless Polygraph on the Way
The American government is funding (a joint venture of the Israeli Atlas and the American Whizsoft)...of new technology for a polygraph machine that is capable of identifying whether a person is telling the truth, without physically attaching him to the equipment. There are also plans to develop a mat of sensors that will be used in airports to test the answers of passengers during questioning.
...what is unique in this project is the ability to process the information in real time and the ability of the sensors to evaluate from a distance the condition of the person interrogated.
story
VMOC: Military Eyes in the Sky
The VMOC (Virtual Mission Operations Center), essentially computers with a routine Internet browser, use a secure Internet connection to access satellite data. That allowed an Army sergeant at Vandenberg on Tuesday to order up a space-based map of Indianapolis, for example.
"We all have kids who go out and play on the Internet and they pull pictures down, so what's astounding about this? What's astounding about this is, with the same ease of use, these guys are able to task satellite platforms and get the information requirements - the pictures that they need," said Steve Groves from the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command Battle Lab. "It's not high tech at the user end."
Rather than needing to know latitude and longitude, military users can simply use basic computer technology to draw a box on a computer screen and obtain the detailed satellite data.
article via: earthfirstalert
~Looks like the military found out about googling.
June 29, 2004
The advantages of electronic voting are obvious
People can't eat their ballot papers. You think I'm kidding? Then check this out.
When the party of family values comes to town...
Sex pros get ready for party: "With thousands of Republicans set to invade the city [New York City] this summer, high-priced escorts and strippers are preparing for one grand old party."
Hell freezes over
This is very cute: "Iraq will have the formal powers of a sovereign state, but it is not clear what will happen if the U.S. disagrees with decisions." Yeah, I wonder what will happen. Hmm, let me think about it. I think I might need some time to figure it out... That's a tough one...
And then that article continues "Even though the United States has the leverage of troops and billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts, Iraqi complaints of American interference could embarrass an administration eager to prove to the world that Iraqis are now in charge." Embarrass? What kind of word is that? Have we ever seen any indication that this administration could be emberrassed by anything, regardless of how dumb it is?
Maybe the writer should look for a new job and write stories for Nickelodeon. That'd be more appropriate for his intellectual capacities.
Fun with Photoshop/Photo-caption Non-Sequitur
"Lonliness, the sword we draw against those who love us.
The cruelty that horrified me in Picasso was my own;
still he was able to protect her from himself with his enormous activity.
But I? With what?" ~Elias Canetti
Wi-Fi Finds the Way When GPS Can't
A Wi-Fi based positioning system developed in the US and the UK works best where GPS fails: in cities and inside cavernous complexes like shopping malls. And because cheap Wi-Fi technology is already appearing on a raft of gadgets like PDAs, cellphones and laptops faster than more expensive GPS receivers are, the developers predict that Wi-Fi could become central to new location-based applications. They say emergency services in particular could find the system an essential back-up.
story via: reenhead
White House Complains to Irish Embassy about 'Disrespectful' Interview
Bush has little experience with real reporters, as they're quite rare in America, but that's what Carol Coleman seems to be. She asks real questions -- not even particularly tough questions. She's presumably accustomed to receiving reasonably thoughtful answers, and Bush gives her pabulum instead, repeating his favored clichés and memorized talking points.
story/comments/transcribed inteview (and many links to past similar 'incidents')
~It's not so good to be the king?
Fahrenheit 9/11: A Conservative Critique
"I just returned from viewing Fahrenheit 9/11 here in Appleton, WI. I went to the 1:30 PM showing, which was - astonishingly - sold out. The crowd was overwhelmingly white and middle-class (this IS Wisconsin, remember), ranging in age from early teens to retirees. The people were polite, friendly, well-mannered (something we shouldn't take for granted on the part of contemporary theater crowds). There was tumultuous applause at the end, punctuated by a moment of reflective silence as we read the dedication card invoking those murdered by terrorists on 9/11, and those murdered through state terrorism in the aftermath. [...]
"There were no screaming Bolsheviks (one viewer had an anti-animal rights T-shirt) or marijuana-scented bohemians in the crowd. This wasn't the sort of crowd you'd see at a Phish concert, or storming McDonald's at an anti-WTO rally. There were Wal-Mart customers, people who probably listen to country music (even Toby Keith), and even vote Republican. And they were PISSED - quietly, but palpably. A would-be political prisoner Martha Stewart would say, that's a good thing. And well overdue."
June 28, 2004
Expect to hear more on this
While Bremer leaves the country and Quisling takes over we get this:
"Billions of dollars belonging to Iraq is not accounted for by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was given responsibility by the United Nations for the country's finances, British lawmakers and aid activists said Monday." (story)
Bush's "Humane" Torture Policy Hits a Speed Bump
...Bush had "extensive discussions" involving the "complex legal questions" of whether the Geneva Conventions apply to the al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured by U.S. forces, because his February 7, 2002 order stated precisely that.
In his order, Bush "accept[s] the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva." Gonzales would have us believe Bush accepted the Ashcroft/Justice Department conclusion without even reading any memos.
We are being asked to take it on faith that even though Bush had extensive discussions with lawyers from the Defense and Justice Departments before issuing his February 7, 2002 order, he conveniently wasn't privy to later memos that justified torture. Most significantly, we don't know whether Bush signed any directives on prisoner interrogation after February 7, 2002.
Harvey Volzer, counsel for Army Spc. Megan Ambuhl, said: "Isn't it amazing that hooding, nudity and physical contact short of death and organ failure all are mentioned as techniques, and yet the administration would have us believe that they were not employed when Bush was getting no results from interrogations"?
article
Art Reveals Dark Side of Occupation
Testimonies by 70 soldiers used in the exhibition Breaking the Silence reveal the use of Palestinians as human shields and graffiti reading "Arabs to the gas chambers".
A video of the testimonies has been confiscated by the Israeli army, which is seeking evidence of crimes committed against Palestinians in Hebron.
The soldiers who staged the exhibition have accused the army of trying to harass them with the investigation.
Exhibition co-organiser Yonathan Boumfeld said: "We would be quite happy if they were going to investigate the crimes committed against Palestinians. But this is just an attempt to keep us quiet. The problem is not with what the soldiers say they have seen, it is with the army as a whole."
story / Hebron Diaries
"...the work not of professional photographers but of soldiers.."
link to photos/audio at NPR
link to story/audio-slide show/video at CNN
or comments via Rense
Burying the Lead (Photo Harassment of Another Kind)
~At the bottom of a (June 25, 04) NYTimes story about the 'Time Warner Center' in Manhattan was this:
"...a photographer for The New York Times, Nancy Siesel, was taking pictures for this column. Although she was on the sidewalk in front of the Time Warner Center, she said two security guards, neither of whom would identify himself, insisted that she stop.
"You're not allowed to photograph the structure of the building," Ms. Siesel quoted the first guard as telling her. She showed them her press identification card, issued by the Police Department, and insisted that she was within her rights to photograph a building from the public way on assignment. But she said the second guard told her, "If you persist, I'm going to call the police." Pressed, he backed down from this threat.
Though unfamiliar with the particulars of the encounter, Mr. Himmel said, "If someone on our security force stopped a photographer from a newspaper from photographing the building, they probably overstepped."
"There should be no restrictions in terms of the public's ability to photograph the building from the outside," he said, "because it's a public space."
story via: LeShow
Doonesbury: The Return of Iraqi Sovereignty!
link thanks jason
See also US Edicts Curb Power of Iraq's Leadership
Among the most controversial orders is the enactment of an elections law that gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support...
~Also: On Saturday, Bremer signed an edict that gave U.S. and other Western civilian contractors immunity from Iraqi law while performing their jobs in Iraq. The idea outrages many Iraqis who said the law allows foreigners to act with impunity even after the occupation.. story
~From the wealthiest nation on earth to some of the most brutalized people... the gift of freedom. USA! USA! USA!
Corruption Fighters Tookit
link via: Transparency International
~ UN inspired "civil society experiences and emerging strategies" from around the globe. Not applicable within the USA. We have a free press.
The Multibillion Dollar Robbery the US Calls Reconstruction
...if financial scandals made you blush, the entire reconstruction of Iraq would be pretty mortifying. From the start, its architects rejected the idea that it should be a New Deal-style public works project for Iraqis to reclaim their country. Instead, it was treated as an ideological experiment in privatisation. The dream was for multinational firms, mostly from the US, to swoop in and dazzle the Iraqis with their speed and efficiency.
Iraqis saw something else: desperately needed jobs going to Americans, Europeans and south Asians; roads crowded with trucks shipping in supplies produced in foreign plants, while Iraqi factories were not even supplied with emergency generators. As a result, the reconstruction was seen not as a recovery from war but as an extension of the occupation, a foreign invasion of a different sort. And so, as the resistance grew, the reconstruction itself became a prime target.
article by Naomi Klein via: truthout
~Is Naomi Klein suggesting that the Iraqi people expect their government to give them jobs? How crazy is that? Don't the Iraqis realize the sooner Halliburton et.al. teach them the efficiency of privitization the sooner they'll be able to compete like Americans in the world market? With the benefits of free trade available to all?
June 27, 2004
Just in case you're wondering...
I keep getting junk mail from the Kerry campaign asking me to contribute to "defeat" Bush jr. Needless to say, I wouldn't dream of donating. And if you did or think about doing, here's where a lot of the money goes: "John Kerry may be only a candidate for president, but he and his entourage travel like kings. A month ago, his campaign began chartering a gleaming 757, packed with first-class seats, fine food, sleeping accommodations - even a stand-up bar. They hardly shy away from fancy hotels, like the Four Seasons in Palm Beach and the St. Regis in Los Angeles." - story
16 Deaths in Detention Centers Since 2001
...16 prisoners have died in Native American detention centers since 2001. For several weeks the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs has been collecting information to review allegations of neglect and abuse within the 74-prison system.
The federal investigation initially began when Ed Naranjo, a former special agent in charge of law enforcement for the BIA, videotaped poor conditions at several facilities...
story/ also
~Too far from Iraq to make international news?
These people must have missed out on the free medical care offered in American prisons.
Senate Backs Ban on Coffin Photos
Jun 24 - The Republican-controlled Senate backed the Bush administration's policy of banning photos of flag-covered coffins of service members killed in Iraq, defeating on Monday a Democrat-{Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ)} initiated legislation to force the Pentagon to allow them.
story
~This bill was defeated more likely because of its proposed amendments to the $447.2 billion Pentagon spending plan for 2005 than the photos. Continuing the ban is the icing on the Republican's contract-awarding cake.
link to more photos via The Memory Hole
See also the original story that highlighted the Pentagon's ban via the Seattle Times
~Lest we forget.
Paintball Jihad Trainees Get Life/85 Years in Prison
According to court records, Khan, 32, and Chapman, 31, who received sentences of life and 85 years respectively, were convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges, largely in connection with military training they received in Pakistan with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a militant Muslim group committed to driving India out of Kashmir.
The government confirmed Chapman’s assertion that he left LET immediately after the September 11 attacks, which led Brinkema to dismiss the government’s most serious charge: that Chapman planned to fight against US troops in Afghanistan.
But Chapman and Kahn were both convicted of providing Wireless Video Camera equipment to an LET official in England in 2002. The State Department had declared LET a terrorist organization in December 2001.
Chapman’s contact with the LET official, combined with the weapons used while training in Pakistan and Chapman’s possession of Saiga .308 assault rifle, allowed prosecutors to seek (and the judge to grant) what the Washington Post described as a "sentencing enhancement" for supporting terrorist activities. The weapons charges brought mandatory minimum sentences and apparently forced the court’s hand.
Though he never fought with the Taliban or other armed group against the United States, Kahn’s post-September 11 activities with LET resulted in his conviction for seeking to levy war against the United States.
article
~You can tell by their harsh sentences that these are the worst terrorists arrested in America since passage of the Patriot Act. (Is it safe?)
Can you have anything but contempt for the people responsible for this mockery of justice, this insane abuse of state power?
June 26, 2004
Mystery Science Theater Digital Archive Project
"It takes a few days to download an episode via eDonkey, but every episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that isn't commercially available on DVD or VHS (through Rhino or Best Brains) is here. If you're a huge MST3K nut (me) this is like discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls or twenty lost episodes of Star Trek. All highly watchable and, hands down, still the best show _ever_". --jason/atomgrid
Justice System is 'Broken', Lawyers Say
"We can no longer sit by as more and more people - particularly in minority communities - are sent away for longer and longer periods of time while we make it more and more difficult for them to return to society after they serve their time," (Dennis W. Archer, a former Detroit mayor and the Amer. Bar Assn's current president) said at a Washington news conference. "The system is broken. We need to fix it."
Between 1974 and 2002, the number of inmates in federal and state prisons rose six-fold. By 2002, 476 out of every 100,000 Americans were imprisoned, according to Justice Department statistics. That compares with 100 per every 100,000 in Western European countries such as England, Germany and Italy.
article
~Ignoring the established law & order revenue flow/contracts...with so many snitches, future 'witnesses' for the cops and D.A.'s, (generations of informants) more and more women ex-cons & their kids on the streets, cheap labor for all, would anyone in power seriously try to change a thing?
What do you think will happen [needs to happen] sooner: America stops it's unilateral military aggression towards other nations or massive reform in America's criminal justice system with sentences reduced, non-violent offenders freed, and the decriminalization/'medicalization' of drug abuse?
I believe a jail or prison will be my retirement home, my hospice. Articles like this one remind me of my future.
The Passion of Michael Moore
"Needless to say, Fahrenheit 9/11 never waffles. The liberals' The Passion of the Christ, it ascribes only the most venal motives to the other side. There is no sign in the filmmaker of an openness to other interpretations (or worldviews). This is not quite a documentary?which I define, very loosely, as a work in which the director begins by turning on the camera and allowing the reality to speak for itself, aware of its complexities, contradictions, and multitudes. You are with Moore, or you are a war criminal. The film is part prosecutorial brief and part (as A.O. Scott has noted) rabid editorial cartoon: a blend of insight, outrage, and sniggering innuendo, the whole package threaded (and tied in a bow) with cheap shots, some of them voiced by Moore, some created in the editing room by intercutting stilted images from old movies." - story
June 25, 2004
Pre-Surgery "Time-Outs"
The "Universal Protocol to Prevent Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery" asks that patients, when possible, oversee the marking on their body where the surgery will take place. The time out itself happens in the operating room, when the surgical team huddles briefly to make sure it's the right patient, the right surgery, the right surgery site. And to double-check that the X-rays, medical files and scans being used are turned the right way and belong to the patient on the operating table.
Dr. Neil Whitaker, Intermountain Health Care Urban South Region, gave frightening examples of errors averted in the operating room. He told of a surgeon who discovered that the wrong ankle had been prepped for surgery. And of a woman who had fluid in her chest cavity and a collapsed lung. Had staff not noticed the X-ray was flipped, they could have entered the wrong side of her chest, imperiling the working lung...
"Time out is good for everyone.. . . As a patient you're going to protect your body parts".
story
~In this day & age you'ld think there would be a high-tech way to do this? (Or is this the fix for previous 'high-tech' protocols?)
The Mounting Cost of the Iraq War
~Your tax dollars making the world safe.
link via: The Institute for Policy Studies
~or as Jason/Atomgrid puts it:
"The fundamental justification for Bush's "liberation of Iraq" was to
transfer vast sums of taxpayer monies into the coffers of large
corporations. Far too many of the President's and Vice President's friends and former associates are slicing up the war contracts pie and far too many contracts were awarded as "no bid." And that's the contracts that we _know_ of. The Vice President's supposedly blind trust is making a killing off of the war.
In it's simplest form, the entire Iraq war is just one giant carpetbagging operation."
'Burning Bush': Fahrenheit 9/11
"...the question that informs every frame of Fahrenheit 9/11, an appalling and timely exposé of the connections, machinations, and financial dealings of the Bush administration. But as shocking as these are, the movie's most devastating indictment is reserved implicitly for our mainstream news media, whose indolence, subservience and cowardice appear immeasurable. As one horrifying image follows another, and each revelation is superseded by one even more disturbing, the deficiencies of the fourth estate cannot be ignored. Why is it left to Moore to present us with an uncensored copy of Bush's military records, and disclose coherently the highly suspect actions of Dubya's relatives in the 2000 election debacle? And how does Moore manage to embed his own camera crews in Iraq--obtaining footage of civilian casualties and abuse of Iraqi prisoners well before Abu Ghraib--while our networks feed us the pre-digested pablum prepared by the White House?
article By Jeannette Catsoulis
~Damn liberal media!
Man Caught on Tape Peeping Up Girl's Skirt
Police in Clackamas, Wash., are searching for a man who has been using a video camera to peep up the skirts of women.
Police say the man follows women around the store. Then, they say he drops a piece of clothing and angles the camera so it is pointing up the victims' skirts.
His latest target was a 12-year-old girl.
A store security system caught the act on videotape.
story w/video & video stills (of the man)
Ancient Faces
"There are countless genealogy resources online, but this site is unique. AncientFaces is a photo exchange, a database of photos submitted by users that enables people tracing their family trees to place faces with names. At present, the site contains over 5,000 photos. These may be searched by keyword, name, date, or location. They can also be browsed alphabetically by surname. There are several special collections here as well, including military photos..."
link via: internet scout project
Nippy & Tucked: Fat Pets
The only evidence of the waddling and the slowness and the shortness of breath is two small rectangles of shaved hair enveloping two inch-long scars.
That's where the veterinarian sucked the fat from Pumpkin's hips.
"It was about three quarters of a pound of fat," confided owner Jessie Schultz. "Before, it was really an effort for her to walk."
story thanks jason
June 24, 2004
Efashion
"With over 1,000,000 indexed fashion pages and browseable stories collected from a wealth of Websites and publications..."
Sensor Expo's "Best of Sensors"
~For 18 new "SENSORS PRODUCTS" (self-contained devices that detect a property and produce a signal, and may or may not include "smarts"):
press release w/urls-links to producers.
June 23, 2004
Cyberspies
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Internet has become sprinkled with self-proclaimed intelligence agents and freelance threat analysts like Rossmiller — ordinary civilians who comb Web sites and chat rooms for hints of the enemy's next move. The phenomenon, propelled by the Internet's anonymity and worldwide reach, is unique to the war on terrorism.
A few, like Rossmiller, take their pastime further...
Posing as an Algerian with ties to that country's outlawed Armed Islamic Group, she sent Rashid an e-mail with the subject line "A Call to Jihad." Rashid responded by asking if it was possible that a "brother fighting on the wrong side could defect."
Over a period of four months, Rossmiller drew out Rashid through a series of 27 e-mails. She learned, with growing alarm, that he was a National Guardsman about to be deployed to Iraq. And he appeared willing to share information on American troop vulnerabilities with the enemy. Rossmiller provided the information to the Department of Homeland Security, which passed it to the FBI and the Army.
The arrest in that case of Ryan Anderson, 26, a troubled Muslim convert and a specialist in the Washington state National Guard's 81st Armor Brigade, was splashed across the country's newspapers in February. It was a direct result of Rossmiller's work, and she is expected to be the reluctant star witness at his pending court martial. She testified in a preliminary hearing last month...
story thanks Jason/Atomgrid
~I don't know who's more loathsome; crazies like Rashid who answer "a call to jihad" from a stranger on the interent or the ordinary ciitizens like Rossmiller who goad the crazies because "they just have to do something".
see also: 7Seas Global Intelligence
Masonic Blueprint of Washington D.C.
The city of Washington was intended not only to be the capitol of the United States, but covertly, the capitol of world Free Masonry. Mason architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant laid out the street plan to harbour two sacred symbols of Masonry — the compass and square, and the pentagram — within its grid. The pentagram paid tribute to the importance of Satanism in Free Masonry: it was laid in so that the White House would be situated at the fifth and bottom point of the star: the``Goathead'' of the pentegram. The two upper points of the star, and the point inbetween them, are located at Dupont, Scott and Logan circles, respectively. Each of these circles has six major streets entering into them, yielding the numerical symbol 666 of Satan. Other important Masonic architectural ciphers include the Washington Mall, designed to resemble a Masonic temple, and the obelisk known as the Washington monument, which pays tribute to the Egyptian god Ra. The cornerstones of every key Federal building, including the White House and the Capitol building, were set according to Masonic ritual. #
map via: bifurcated rivets
more info/images: freemasonry watch
~The architects of this first freeman's nation permit the uninitiated masses to travel their streets, to do business in their sacred buildings unaware of the secret design. Could the brotherhood be providing other secret designs for us? Perhaps institutional as well as architectural?
Exxon's Secret Sponsorship of Climate Skeptics
item w/links to Exxon Secrets.org via: "Spin of the Day"
~~Who knew?
It's not too hard to get your vote lost
"In the 2000 presidential election, 1.9 million Americans cast ballots that no one counted. 'Spoiled votes' is the technical term. The pile of ballots left to rot has a distinctly dark hue: About 1 million of them -- half of the rejected ballots -- were cast by African Americans although black voters make up only 12 percent of the electorate." - story
June 22, 2004
Military Judge Declares Abu Ghraib Prison a Crime Scene
story
~~Until General Sanchez, Rummy and the Schrub hisself are issued subpoenas and sworn-in, don't expect to hear testimony from the people responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib Prison. (Meanwhile enjoy the show?)
Guantanamo: Did Torture Get Good Intelligence?
In interviews, dozens of high-level military, intelligence and law-enforcement officials in the United States, Europe and the Middle East said that contrary to the repeated assertions of senior administration officials, none of the detainees at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay ranked as leaders or senior operatives of Al Qaeda. They said only a relative handful - some put the number at about a dozen, others more than two dozen - were sworn Qaeda members or other militants able to elucidate the organization's inner workings.
"The expectations, I think, may have been too high at the outset," he said. "There are those who expected a flow of intelligence that would help us break the most sophisticated terror organization in a matter of months. But that hasn't happened."
story
~The military prison at Guantanamo Bay is evil and stupid? That makes it a fitting monument to Bush's "War on Terror".
The ID Card Project
"The goal [of ID Card Project] is to create a visual arts project including ID card photographs of the users who post on this fotolog. The purpose of my research as a visual artist is to create a portrait of this online photography community in the internet and transform this input into a work of art."
Link via Book ofHours.
Iraq's new prime minister is truly an interesting guy
"BLITZER: All right. Let's talk a little about another fascinating aspect in the article. Iyad Allawi, the new prime minister of this interim government, about to take charge in Iraq. Allawi, you write, was involved with a Mukhabarat hit team that sought out and killed Baath Party dissenters throughout Europe.
"You're talking about the days when he was an ally of Saddam Hussein.
"HERSH: Yes. He was one of Saddam's closest allies, I'd say from '68 to the middle '70s. He was a big supporter of Saddam.
"Saddam was, you know, killing his the way through the Baath Party to get control. The vice president then -- all during the '70s he was seizing control, but he finally got it officially in '79.
"And for five or six or seven years, Allawi was his guy, one of his people in Europe. And what they would do is they would basically, the only other word for it is murder the opposition anywhere in Europe. And he was certainly involved with those people. He was a thug. I've talked to people who have read his internal CIA file. On the other hand, he also became later a very big asset.
"BLITZER: Well, they tried to kill him. They axed him almost to death. He spent a year in a hospital because Saddam Hussein tried to kill him?
"HERSH: His people did, yes. The head of the Mukhabarat did in '76 -- '78 is when he got axed. I think before that they had gone after him. Something happened in between '75, '76 in which they turned against him.
"BLITZER: What happened?
"HERSH: I can give you 10 different theories. Nobody really knows."
scroll down to see it here
Images of Executed American Paul Johnson
link
~Three photos; no video of the killing; (a link to video of Mr. Johnson as hostage, however). It looks like the killers here solved the blood 'issue' (no pun intended) that made the Nick Berg video suspect.
Canine Sense of Smell Could Help Diagnose Disease
Much of the research in this area is based on the theory that disease causes subtle chemical changes in the body or alterations in metabolism, which in turn releases a different smell, or chemical marker.
Part of what makes a dog's sense of smell so sophisticated is its ability to smell multiple layers of chemicals, says (Dr. Larry Myers, associate professor at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in Auburn, Ala.). " Dogs don't detect a single chemical but a combination of them. "If (they were identifying) just a single chemical, medicine might have picked up on it. The dog may be doing something a little better," says Myers.
...researchers say if dogs do turn out to possess an ability to accurately detect disease, they could make a significant contribution to public health.
“It’s going to be very useful for large-scale screening of populations,” says Myers. “And it’s certainly going to be effective in third-world countries that don’t have the resources to do sophisticated (laboratory) tests.”
story
~A dogs' sense of smell would be comparable to humans' ability to discern shades of color? Gray values?
June 21, 2004
2 Men Charged With Taking Pictures of Girls at Festival
Each is charged with stalking and observation without consent.
An officer said (that one of the men) denied the accusations, but said he had no problem with showing the pictures he was taking.
Officers said they saw "several photographs of young women some of which were of the same nature of the complaint."
Police said (that the one who denied the accusation) stated he "knew it was wrong" and he signed a consent to search the camera.
Officers said they identified two of the teenage girls, and they located them at the festival. They said the girls, who were 15, said they did not know their pictures were being taken and did not give permission.
Officers said (the other man) said he "did it because he thought it was fun." He said he downloaded the photos to his computer.
The two men were taken to jail, and they eventually made bond.
story
~'Observation without consent' only refers to an activity perfomed by an individual? Not, for example, to the police taking photos at a demonstration? Or surveillance of shopper's in a store?
Books Made into Movies
(Here are) some good books that have been made into acceptable films (or some good movies made from acceptable books). Lousy books made into lousy films we don't do here.
link
~~I wonder how many 12-Step inspired admissions and inventories have been made into passable movies?
Pentagon Seeks US Spy Powers
The Department of Defense is asking for an exemption from the Privacy Act, which outlaws secret databases on Americans. Civil-rights activists are asking why the military wants to get into the domestic spying business. by Ryan Singel.
story
~~This is a way for the Pentagon to bypass not only federal law-enforcement agencies but also local police. (A flanking manuever.) Leading to greater militarization of organized crime and a presence in local politics without precedents. Does this signal the beginning of a turf war between American federal/state/local law enforcement agencies & the military? Stay tuned. By the way, the American people and their freedoms/vices are the 'turf'.
June 20, 2004
Photo-Realization
~~When I find myself looking at a picture of President Clinton I'll more often than not imagine I can see the sleaze in the man, the failure of character that made him a womanizing liar. (It's like picking at a scab.)
Last week I saw George Bush on tv and and for the first time I imagined I saw the part of him that would use torture... that inhumanity fired with conviction which finds nothing wrong with ordering the torture of human beings. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at him like I had before.
Sweeping Stun Guns to Target Crowds
The weapons are designed to address the perceived shortcomings of the Taser, the electric-shock gun already used by 4000 police departments in the US and undergoing trials with some police forces in the UK.
ELECTRO-MUSCULAR DISRUPTION (EMD)
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~We owe the various institutions both public & private who finance, develop, purchase and use these weapons nothing less than total respect and silent obedience. They know what they're doing. Municipalities across America have learned that their police are less inclined to shoot people who are soiling themselves during electro-convulsive shock. The taser saves lives (and lawsuits.) There's nothing quite like the instantaneous loss of bodily functions by tasered suspects to put cops at ease. It follows that a bigger taser would save more lives.
Is This a Man Who Wanted to Blow-up a Mall?
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~This story is an example of the homefront successes of Bush's "War on Terrorism". Is it safe?
Boot Display Canceled Because of Controversy
An exhibit of 800 combat boots -- to call attention to the loss of life in Iraq -- was canceled... the day it was to be displayed.
The boots were to line both sides of Rt. 36 through Port Washington (Ohio) from noon to 6 on Wednesday, (June 9, 2004)...
+Each pair of boots represents a U.S. soldier who has died in Iraq and each pair is labeled with a soldier’s name, rank, age and hometown. Names and pictures of 24 Ohio soldiers who have died are included in the display.
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See also the American Quakers' Eyes Wide Open site with link to information on this exhibition.
~War? What war?