September 30, 2004
The City as Target
"For a child it is extraordinary to see to what degree a city can be obliterated in a single bombardment. For a kid, a city is like the Alps, it's eternal, like the mountains. One single bombardment and all is razed. These are the traumatizing events which shaped my thinking." – Paul Virilio
"Life is haunted and filled with the idea of protection". – Adolf Hitler
pre 9/11 conceptualizing/modeling: article by Ryan Bishop and Gregory Clancey via: underfire
Top Ten Reasons To get Out of Iraq
list
~You are aware that depending upon who's elected President, Americans are stuck with Iraq for a few more years at the very least and a few generations if the neo-cons get their way?
What does time do to this list?
There are people who believe the Bush administration wants to bankrupt the federal government. Chomsky's 'train wreck'. It's their way of making government 'smaller'. Compelled by unimaginable budget contraints Congress would be forced to wipe out all federally funded social entitlement programs leaving most Americans even more dependent upon the predations and whims of corporations and established churches. The vast majority of Americans would start paying the full price for services and programs that the federal government could no longer subsidize (e.g. medical research and care, education, the environment, telecommunications, highways, police and emergency services, etc.).
Would a society in which the federal government has no interest in the lives of it's citizens, except for military defense and the taking of taxes, be bad for business or organized religion? Who would lobby or campaign against it? Can a President Kerry do anything to stop this corporate coup? Would he want to?
Trust
Every fiber of my being tells me there is an entity
to whom/ to which you can pray, implore, and sacrifice.
(It's probably not her.)
Candidate Kerry
Candidate Kerry Sits in Diner!
~Hey I eat in diners...Not lately: since I got down-sized we can't afford to eat out all that much. But I HAVE sat in diners. Just like Kerry.
US Casualties...Cost of Iraq War
Human tragedies take toll on medics
The 50-year-old (Landstuhl Regional) medical centre (Germany) is where the U.S. military's sick and seriously wounded from Iraq are treated after being patched up on the battlefield.
Prior to the Iraq war, the hospital received no more than 10 injured U.S. soldiers a year from conflicts. Now, it usually handles between 30 and 55 a day from Iraq and Afghanistan alone.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March, 2003, almost 16,000 wounded, injured or sick soldiers from the conflict have been evacuated to Landstuhl.
story thanks, joerg
~Hey we get to vote for a guy who acknowledges that there's a problem in Iraq, and who might...no promises made, we can't really be sure.. do something as quickly as possible to put an end to this on-going carnage. As opposed to Little Lord Sunshine and his motley crew of chicken hawk/cold war warriors who act as if death and injury are a normal part of doing business. (In the past I've wasted my vote on less important stuff.)
British Software Relays Hostage Drama to the World
The harrowing pictures of Ken Bigley pleading for mercy, and of the execution of two American hostages, would not have been broadcast around the world last week without the services of a British internet company.
Tawhid wal Jihad, a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, achieved global notoriety using technology developed by JelSoft, a company based in Ascot, Berkshire.
The company sells a software package on the internet that enables customers to create a website onto which pictures, film and words can be remotely downloaded.
The fact that JelSoft’s web services could be used by terrorists without its knowledge highlights the problem of anonymity that the internet affords. Technology invented by the West is now being used against it.
article
~How is this different from any enemy using fire-arms or explosives bought from the 'good guys'? Or more particularly using a phone to set off bombs?
Digital Evidence & the New Criminal Procedure
by Orin S. Kerr
This essay shows how existing rules of criminal procedure are poorly equipped to regulate the collection of digital evidence. It predicts that new rules of criminal procedure will evolve to regulate digital evidence investigations, and offers preliminary thoughts on what those rules should look like and what institutions should generate them.
link
September 29, 2004
Health Canada Nixes "Low-Carb" Labeling
"There was - and still is - no reason from a nutrient point of view to be concerned with the amount of carbs that we eat," Carole Saindon, a spokeswoman for Health Canada, said in an interview.
story w/comments. thanks, joerg
~I don't understand how "low-carbs" became so popular. It sounds better than 'more fiber', 'high protein', 'exercise more', or 'smaller portions'?
Incredible marketing bullshit or this years mantra for the nutritionally challenged, either way it's boring to talk about one's problems with food. The innuendo of 'low carbs' makes our individual, isolating food obsessions simpler, easier to share with others also afflicted, and best of all multi-national corporations are happy to sell us thousands of 'low carb' foodstuffs (reminders, acclamations, totems) that show us they're on our side!
Numbers
30 days in Iraq:
2,368 attacks from Iraqi rebels
42 percent in or around Baghdad
39 hand granades
272 rocket propelled grenades
40 vehicle bombs
664 incidents of mortar and rocket fire
527 incidents of small arms fire
27 landmines
799 home made bombs
dozens of dead US soldiers
a more or less unknown number of dead Iraqis, most of them civilians
1 unrelenting US president
millions of Americans still considering to vote for that president
1 big mess
Candidate Kerry
Wisconsonians & Kerry Pledge Allegiance
~Sometimes one almost feels sorry for our candidates. (Doesn't this look like Kerry was photo-shopped into this scene?)
Target Wellstone
American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone
"...demonstrating that a crime...was committed requires showing how Wellstone's Senate career constituted a monument to humanitarianism that demanded to be toppled as sure as Saddam's statue in Firdos Square, Baghdad."
By Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer; Vox Pop, 199 pages, $14.00
book review
~I believe that John (John-John) Kennedy's crash was similarly engineered, (but that's my problem.)
Mushroom Clouds
On our way back home from a family drive on 8/29/04 my wife and I noticed a peculiar mushroom cloud just east of our home in Wellington, UT...
link
~Pretty. Wellington is a suburb of Salt Lake City.
Microwave Guns to be Used by US Troops on Iraqis
Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting.
The non-lethal weapons, which use high-powered electromagnetic beams, will be fitted to vehicles already in Iraq, which will allow the system to be introduced as early as next year.
Using technology similar to that found in a conventional microwave oven, the beam rapidly heats water molecules in the skin to cause intolerable pain and a burning sensation. The invisible beam penetrates the skin to a depth of less than a millimetre. As soon as the target moves out of the beam's path, the pain disappears.
Because there are no after-effects, the United States Department of Defence believes that the weapons will be particularly useful in urban conflict. The beam could be used to scatter large crowds in which insurgents operate at close quarters to both troops and civilians.
"The skin gets extremely hot, and people can't stand the pain, so they have to move - and move in the way we want them to," said Col Wade Hall of the Office of Force Transformation, a body formed in November 2001 to promote rapid improvement across all of the American armed services.
Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, where the systems were developed, took part in testing the weapon and was subjected to the microwave beam which has a range of one kilometre. "It just feels like your skin is on fire," he said. "[But] when you get out of the path of the beam, or shut off the beam, everything goes back to normal. There's no residual pain."
A heated battle on a crowded Baghdad street last week that left 16 Iraqis dead, highlighted once again the pressing need to reduce the number of civilian casualties, and at the same time prevent further damage to relations between American troops and the Iraqi population. American commanders later admitted using seven helicopter-launched rockets and 30 high-calibre machine gun rounds in last Sunday's incident.
The armoured vehicles will be named Sheriffs once they have been modified to carry the microwave weapons, known as the Active Denial System (ADS). Col Hall said that US army and US marine corps units should receive four to six ADS equipped Sheriffs by September 2005.
The project was initiated only three months ago but US military chiefs intend to rush the Sheriffs into the front line, believing that they can be of immediate assistance.
In another development, the Sheriffs will be fitted with Gunslinger, a rapid-fire gun currently under development that will detect enemy snipers and automatically fire back at them.
If the Sheriffs prove successful, their use will be expanded in combat zones. They will also be deployed for security at ports and air force bases, and could take part in border patrols.
via: the Telegraph 19/09/04
~Within ten years state and local police forces will be clamoring for these weapons. And a few years after that criminals will routinely be using them.
Dolly Scientist Seeks License to Clone Humans (Embryos)
The British scientist who created Dolly the sheep has applied for a licence to clone human embryos in the hope of finding a cure for motor neurone disease.
Prof Ian Wilmut has sent his request to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to enable him to clone cells from sufferers of the debilitating condition to discover how the disease develops.
If the licence is granted, it will be only the second time scientists in Britain have been given the go-ahead to clone human embryos for medical research.
The application is likely to anger pro-life campaigners and fuel the controversial debate on so-called therapeutic cloning.
story
~I don't think American scientists are allowed to do this kind of research, or is it that America's scientific community is so far advanced that the idea of requiring licences to work with human embryos is viewed as a joke? I forget.
More Victories in Bush's 'War on Terror'
U.S. citizen Yaser Esam Hamdi, 22, left, is shown with arms tied following his capture in Afghanistan in this Dec. 2, 2001 file photo. The Justice Department has reached agreement with Hamdi, held as an enemy combatant for more than two years, clearing the way ( i.e. stripping him of his American citizenship--ed.) for him to return to Saudi Arabia, officials said Wednesday Sept. 22, 2004. The agreement also means that despite his long incarceration, Yaser Esam Hamdi will not face any criminal charges in the United States. @
"After maintaining for three years that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan, was so grave a threat to the United States that merely permitting him to meet with his lawyer would fatally compromise national security, the Bush Administration (having been told by Justice Antonin Scalia that "the very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive") declined to defend its case against Hamdi in open court and announced that he will be stripped of his citizenship and released in Saudi Arabia. [Boston Globe, (Intrn. Herald Tribune), Washington Post, ZNet, Findlaw]
"Bush and co. proved that an American citizen can be stripped of his constitutional protections and dispatched according to the whims of the government. No civil liberties organization or human rights group made a bit of difference. Even the pompous braying of the Supreme Court fell on deaf ears and was breezily ignored. Hamdi was simply locked away in solitary confinement and released when they were through with him..." [ZNET]
Charges were also dropped against Ahmad al Halabi, a Syrian-American airman who was accused of spying at the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. [Reuters, alt.muslim]
via: Harpers' Weekly Review [9/28/04]
September 28, 2004
A Made-for-TV Apprehension?
"In Pakistan Dead Men Tell No Tales"
On Sunday (Sept, 26, '04), Pakistan announced that paramilitary police had killed Amjad Farooqi, a suspected top al-Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl two years ago, as well as for two assassination attempts against Musharraf last December
Asia Times Online contacts, however, are adamant that Farooqi was in fact arrested some months ago, and that the “incident” resulting in his death in the southern Pakistani city of Nawabshah was in fact stage-managed by Pakistani security forces.
story by Syed Saleem Shahzad . thanks, joerg
Candidate Kerry in 1969
PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) 94 crew in March 1969,
from left, Gene Thorson, David Alston, Thomas Belodeau, Del Sandusky, and John Kerry.
The Scandals Finally Break
What do we have to look forward to if George W. Bush is elected to a second term? One word: scandal...
article by Kevin Drum.
~I like how this writer isn't obviously partisan. It's as if scandals during a President's 2nd term are traditional, or fulfill a requirement of the office.
September 27, 2004
Carter fears Florida vote trouble
Well... Maybe the country will get another term like the first one: Lost overall vote count, Banana-republic style stolen election in Florida. Will that be good for democracy?
Candidate Kerry
~Following Jason's advice:
"Quit posting photos of Bush. Displaying the other side's totem only gives them power. Toss up a Kerry photo every day between now and the election and only those photos where the candidate is "engaged" (talking to or interacting with people around him) as opposed to "disengaged" (stumping from a podium)."
~The problem's there might not be enough photos at Google that fit Jasons's criteria. Candidates are constructed and news-services have established image sources. Giving space to Candidate Kerry AND Somebody Else is 'above and beyond' most paper's requirements.
Reuters Upset by Newspaper's Use of the Word "Terrorist"
The world’s oldest news agency, Reuters, says it will complain to CanWest Global’s newspaper chain about alterations made to some of its stories dealing with the Middle East. CanWest Publications newspapers have been altering words and phrases in wire copy stories dealing with the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In one Reuters story, the original copy reads: ”… the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.”
In the National Post version... it became: ”… the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel.”
story via: sOapboxgirls
Cat Stevens: "You Say Yusuf ; I Say Youssouf"
The Yusuf Islam incident earlier this week, in which the former Cat Stevens was denied entry into the U.S. when federal officials determined he was on the government's "no-fly" antiterror list, started with a simple spelling error. According to aviation sources with access to the list, there is no Yusuf Islam on the no-fly registry, though there is a "Youssouf Islam."
story via: LeShow
Joy of Spex
"Girls. Glasses. Amen"
This site is intended for ADULTS ONLY. You must be 18 years or older (21 in some areas). link
James' Day
on the train today a crazy and loud but really beautiful young woman tried to pick me up. she wants to learn english.
she wanted to practice english. she loves edward norton. he is sexy and has a sharp face and blue or green eyes and she wants marry with him. she believes buddha but thinks maybe the church has some free english classes or something. she wants to learn english but doesn't have any money, so maybe she will see what's up with the christians. or maybe catch an american, who would teach her. i didn't think to tell her the mormans are more than happy to help.
she said i was handsome, like edward norton. she said "james, you are sexy, like edward norton." and then she pretended we were riding the new york city subway together and that all around us were people from all around the world, different colors and nations and languages and we were all there traveling together for different places for different reasons and everything wasn't really the same all the time at all.
she said she was 24 and i said i was 33. she didn't understand at first, so then i repeated it in japanese - watashi wa san ju san sei des - which left her beautiful babbling mouth stuck for a moment in astonishment and then she asked if i had a girlfriend and i said no, i have a wife.
which if you know anything about edward norton, is so not edward norton.
she pointed out that i didn't have a ring. i explained they were too expensive. she then told me exactly where i could get some cool atom boy rings for fifty cents each - and then it was my stop. she said, "james, i like meet you. this is where you stop."
picture via google: text via e-mail from james
Buckyballs Toxic: Modifications Being Considered
Nano News
With federal funding for nanotechnology research now exceeding $1 billion a year, and industrial scale production of nanomaterials beginning — Japan-based Frontier Carbon Corp. plans to manufacture 1,500 tons of buckyballs this year — scientists are scrambling to determine the environmental impact.
Earlier this year Eva Oberdorster, an environmental toxicologist with Southern Methodist University, found that largemouth bass exposed to high doses of buckyballs had brain damage.
The Rice findings support Oberdorster's results...
The Rice team studied the effects of buckyballs and three modified forms on human skin and liver cells. At a level of 20 parts per billion, the plain buckyballs killed half the cells.
The modified forms were found to be 1,000 to 10 million times less toxic. The results will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters...
One concern, Oberdorster said, is that related work has shown that UV light, which comes from the sun, can break off the chemical modifications on buckyballs.
If the modified buckyballs were introduced into a natural environment, then, they might return to a toxic state.
press release
~Two questions immediately come to mind: Will the 1,500 tons of buckyballs now being manufactured be "modified"? If not, when will the industry feel compelled to do so?
[Ans: (from above): "The new research means that academic groups and companies developing nanomaterials will have to consider the toxicity of their new particles".]
Off the Radio
1984
down at headquarters, there’s a big database
with black and white photos of the side of your beautiful face
and your library record, and all your test scores
and an invitation to party like it’s 1984
baby, don’t look so nervous, they just want the facts
and it’s all written out in the usa patriot act
cause we don’t take no chances in a nation at war
so tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1984
oh, honey, what did i tell you about the house being bugged?
they can hear us making breakfast, they can hear us making love
but excuse me a minute- big brother’s at the door
and he’s ready to party like it’s 1984
you know you’re my one and only; you always have been
sure is gonna be lonely after i turn you in
so i’ll wait till tomorrow to file my report
and tonight we can party like it’s 1984
lyric by Anais Mitchell
Overheard at Starbucks
"If you're not preoccupied with anonymous sex, what good are you?"
September 26, 2004
Twisting Dr. Nukes Arm
If a nuclear weapon destroys the U.S. Capitol in coming years, it will probably be based in part on Pakistani technology. The biggest challenge to civilization in recent years came not from Osama or Saddam Hussein but from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. Dr. Khan definitely sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, and, officials believe, to several more nations as well.
But, amazingly, eight months after Dr. Khan publicly confessed, we still don't know who the rest of his customers were....
American intelligence experts haven't been able to interrogate Dr. Khan, and (Pakistan's President Pervez) Musharraf claims that the U.S. has not even asked to do so. "Let me put the record straight: nobody asked us to be allowed to question him," Mr. Musharraf said.
President Bush apparently did not ask for that direct access at his meeting on Wednesday with Mr. Musharraf, and it's clear that the administration is not pressing the issue. Why?
article
Centre for Appearance Research
Members of CAR offer expertise and interest in a variety of related areas including:
? the psychosocial impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment
? the psychosocial implications of cleft lip and/or palate
? the psychosocial needs of burn-injured patients
? the impact upon body image of diabetes and its treatment
? appearance-related concerns of adolescents
? developmental issues relating to appearance & disfigurement
? construction of the visual self
? consumption and clothing in relation to self and identity.
"Gaydar" to be Tested
[Sept. 23, 2004] ...20/20 is looking for both gay and straight men to take part in a test to see if "gaydar" — the ability to tell if a man is gay just by looking at him — really works.
link
Doctors Ready to Perform Face Transplant
"The people we're considering are people who have no other options," (said) Dr. John H. Barker, director of plastic surgery research at the University of Louisville...
Nichola Rumsey of the University of the West of England, an expert in psychosocial issues in medicine, said the ethical issues of the procedure have yet to be fully explored. She wrote one of 14 essays written in reaction to the article and published in the bioethics journal.
"Previous research and current understanding indicate that the psychological risks are more complex and extensive than the Louisville team suggest," she wrote. "I have no wish to minimize the distress experienced by many people with severe disfigurements, but to my mind, the current risk/benefit ratio ... is dubious at best."
story
Crying During Inflight Movies
~NPRs "This American Life" the weekend of Sept. 26-28, ran a story where a number of people admit to crying while watching trashy inflight movies. The narrator explains he's cried during "Sweet Home Alabama" four times. "My name is Brett and I cry at movies on airplanes. Not sometimes, always; and not some movies, all movies."
Google search came up with this interview of comedian Will Ferrill from last year:
Ever cry during a movie? "All the time. I'm especially vulnerable during in-flight movies." On a cross-country flight, Ferrell teared up during the remake of "The Parent Trap" when the parents reunited. "My wife is like: 'What are you doing?' I'm sitting there crying during a Disney movie."
The Era of Children
by Tang Zhigang @ via gmt+9
~Because it's good to be reminded that 'people are children too'.
Dictionary of Film & Digital Photography
"...the most comprehensive photographic glossary available on the Internet, with 1472 definitions and over 99795 words of text."
link via: PhotoNotes.org
September 25, 2004
Yellow Dress
@
the Spring/Summer 2005 Pasarela Cibeles Fashion show in Madrid.
Underfire
Under Fire is a year-long project that explores the organization and representation of contemporary armed conflict.
The project consists of a series of organized discussions that will occur online and in Rotterdam, throughout the year 2004. These discussions will involve participation from individuals working in politics, theory, criticism, the arts, and journalism from both the West and the Middle East.
link / archive
September 24, 2004
Hitler's speaking voice
What did Hitler sound like when he wasn't screaming but merely talking to people. Click on this link and watch the video. If you don't understand German: When they show that tape recorder playing and you hear a voice from an old recording that's Hitler. The new looking Hitler videos are from a new movie. I was quite surprised to hear that Hitler was speaking with a soft Austrian accent. It doesn't sound at all like what you would have imagined from the party rally rants.
Photo Caption Non Sequitur
BeeMine
~I found out almost too late that the beekeepers got most of the honey. Bzzt.
Growing Up Sexually: A World Atlas
Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volumes 1-2. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, Berlin
index
"It is the weak and confused who worship the pseudosimplicities of brutal directness". ~Marshall McLuhan (1911-80)
A History of Photography
from its beginnings till the 1920s
by Dr. Robert Leggat MA M.Ed Ph.D. FRPS FRSA
link
Transvestite Jimmy Olsen
link
Entire page devoted to transvestite appearances of Jimmy Olsen. thanks Jason@AtomGrid
Spot the difference!
Can you tell which one is from CNN and which one is from the BBC? And if yes, what does that teach you about journalism? (both screen shots from today, 23 Sep 2004, 11:45am EST)
September 23, 2004
Bush’s Air Guard Stint Started Well, then Faded Into Mystery
from The Air Force Times...
From most accounts, Bush appears to have received preferential treatment to get into the Air National Guard and avoid the draft after he graduated from Yale University in 1968. He was initially regarded as a good pilot, but his performance faded over his final two years in the Guard and he was suspended from flight status. He did not fly for the remaining 18 months he served in the Guard, though he was obligated to do so.
And for significant chunks of time, Bush did not report for duty at all. His superiors took no action, and he was honorably discharged in 1973, six months before he should have been.
story thanks, joerg
~It seems like enquiring minds everywhere but television and radio want to know what President Bush was doing during the Viet Nam War years.
Hello Halitosis
Siemens Mobile is developing the first mobile phone that will alert people when their breath stinks...
The phone will use a tiny chip measuring less than 1 mm to detect unpleasant odors, a representative of the German tech giant said. A research team in Munich is developing the device using new sensor technology. "It examines the air in the immediate vicinity for anything from bad breath and alcohol to atmospheric gas levels," the representative said. "Some people take smelling good rather seriously."
@
~Will they ever produce a phone that automatically hangs-up when someone says something inane or stupid? ...Bitte?
Messier Objects
Messier Object Index / catalog/explanation
~Space may be infinite, but there ain't that much variety. There's a 70 acre prairie remnant not far from my home that has over 400 varieties of plants.
Threats Emerge From Below
Enemy submarines could be an obstacle to U.S. military might.
“The uncontested undersea superiority experienced during recent conflicts is not likely to be repeated against determined and capable adversaries,” retired Vice Adm. Albert Konetzni Jr. of the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command wrote...
More than 300 foreign subs already are in operation, according to estimates by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. Some Pentagon officials claim there are more than 400, fielded by 42 nations as diverse as Italy, Singapore, Indonesia, Algeria, Colombia, Croatia and Vietnam.
Attack submarines fielded by Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Chile, among other nations, carry sea-skimming anti-ship cruise missiles as well as torpedoes.
Among the new technologies the Navy hopes will help: unmanned, or “drone,” underwater spy vehicles; continuous active sonar, which sends out a streaming “ping” that bounces back to a sensor; air-dropped acoustic sensors that can be “seeded” over a wide area to pick up sound signals; and low-frequency active sonar that seeks out submarines thousands of miles away and bounces the signal to a nearby killer sub or destroyer.
All this, however, has embroiled the Navy in an ongoing fight with environmentalists who have evidence the sonar harms whales and other marine mammals.
press release [Navy Times]/ Also here
~I wasn't aware that so many foreign submarines were in operation. I'm surprised that the US Navy considers any of the countries listed above as posing a credible threat to America. Croatia? Chile? I guess a US Admiral knows best how to spend tax-payers money. How best to keep us safe.
~I wonder if drones and sonar can be used to identify ships as well as submarines. There's no mention here. Certainly air-dropped acoustic sensors can serve double duty? You would think intercepting smugglers and terrorists would be a big selling point; not just providing escort for air-craft carriers. I don't understand.
Countries Where al Qaeda Has Operated
Funny, the map - courtesy of the US government - shows that Al Qaeda hasn't operated in Iraq. That's not what the president and especially the vice president have been saying.
PS: Note that Spain (remember the train bombs?) is also blank.
September 22, 2004
Cat Stevens: Terrorist
At least according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center:
A plane bound for Washington from London was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after passenger Yusuf Islam -- formerly known as pop singer Cat Stevens -- showed up on a U.S. watch list, federal officials said.
story thanks, joerg
~Here's some of Mr. Islam's aka "Cat Stevens" writing, which undoubtedly contributed to his being denied permission to enter this country:
Moonshadow
Oh, I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
Leapin and hoppin' on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
And if I ever lose my hands, lose my plough, lose my land,
Oh if I ever lose my hands, Oh if.... I won't have to work no more.
And if I ever lose my eyes, if my colours all run dry,
Yes if I ever lose my eyes, Oh if.... I won't have to cry no more.
And if I ever lose my legs, I won't moan, and I won't beg,
Yes if I ever lose my legs, Oh if.... I won't have to walk no more.
And if I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth, north and south,
Yes if I ever lose my mouth, Oh if.... I won't have to talk...
Did it take long to find me? I asked the faithful light.
Did it take long to find me? And are you gonna stay the night?
via: Cat Stevens.com/ bio>
~~Whew! That was close. Still kudos to Homeland Security: it's another notch in the win column in the war against terrorism.
We can all rest a little easier today.
Iraq Terrorists Behead American Hostage
link
~Is it too soon to wonder when killings like this will end? Will they end in my life-time? In your kids'? Does President Bush know? I'm sure he has many ideas he'll share with American voters in the up-coming weeks on how best to stop them, but does he know for certain when they'll stop? I thought so.
The Book of The Damned By Charles Fort
October's Spitting Book-Klub Selection
"From the writings of this acidulous compiler of the outré and unexpected, one can only achieve that very necessary widening of the mental boundaries that has become almost vital to stability in this highly unstable age. It is an education in re-education for the intellectually curious, for the person determined to keep out of the rut of complacency and simple-minded acceptance, for the reader who delights in the thrill of finding out in detail what a real whacky wonderful universe we inhabit.
Certainly the flotilla of flying saucers seen int he past two (five!)decades had their home port in the pages of Fort. Certainly a great part of the science-fiction thinking that dominates both the literature of deliberate fantasy and the indeliberate fantasy of the Atom Age journalism and politics must owe a good deal, consciously and unconsciously, to Fort's relentless plowing through pages of newspapers to bolster up his theme that the only sure attitude for a sane mind is to doubt that which is accepted and to accept only that which is subject to doubt.
If this baffled you, it should also serve to intrigue you into reading for yourself The Book of the Damned, the work of the one of the truly original minds of this century..."
more of the preface to the Ace Edition by Donald A. Wollheim
The Book of the Damned hypertext edition Edited and Annotated by Mr. X
Newsmap
Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap's objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.
Newsmap does not pretend to replace the googlenews aggregator. It's objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media..
link
~I don't see any relationships between data and unseen patterns. The 'treemap' for the US looks simply like the headlines from the various sections of a big-city newspaper jammed onto one page.
The size of the boxes are based on the number of times the stories have been repeated in various US newspapers?
It's a fast way to learn what main-stream media's fixated on but do people really need to know Fox's CNN's or the NY Times top-stories? (I can't fall asleep until I see that days Times' headline on the inside of my closed eyelids?) Aren't people aware if the story's big enough... earthquake, assassination, hurricane, terrorist attack, Britney's wedding, etc. (or trivial enough) a thousand news-outlets will run it almost simultaneously? Newsmap's an aggregation of "Top Forty News Stories" and like those radio stations that play all the hits, all the time, there's a small 'play-list' with few surprises and lots of pap. News should inform as well as report, it shouldn't be viewed as a popularity contest.
"One measures a circle beginning anywhere."~ Charles Fort @
"Pursue that trivia."~ Me
The Woman in the Mushroom Hat
just what is up with fashion? haute cuture?
because i am still just looking at a beautiful woman,
and better yet she has some kind of attitude,
but then she is dressed up like a mushroom when, really now,
she'd be better off in a bikini or with nothing.
at what point does the fashion model/art object usurp the porn star as the lowliest of the lustfully lowly?
of course i go around all the time objectifying things,
especially women. the more beautiful the better.
but if they are going to play that game to,
i often get confused about what is going on.
how does a mushroom hat get any of us anywhere?
i get that i am wrong.
and that they are wrong for thinking i have something to offer.
but the mushroom. what? what?
really. what?
photo via yahoo/ text via e-mail from james
September 21, 2004
I'm Your Man (Lyric)
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner
Take my hand
Or if you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver
Climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I'm your man
Ah, the moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby
And I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty
Like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart
And I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please, please
I'm your man
And if you've got to sleep
A moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while
Across the sand
I'm your man
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
~Leonard Cohen
MILITARY SERVICE Portrait of George Bush in 1972
He abandoned his once-prized status as a National Guard pilot by failing to appear for a required physical. He sought temporary reassignment from the Texas Air National Guard to an Alabama unit but for six months did not show up for training. He signed on as an official in the losing campaign of a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, and even there he left few impressions other than as an amiable bachelor with a good tennis game and a famous father.
story [register/sign-in: unknowm/unknown] thanks joerg
~He lived a life worthy of the inhabitants of the City on the Hill. I didn't know the National Guard was such a country club. I bet there's Guard members in Iraq today screaming "it's not supposed to be like this!" It's not their Daddy's National Guard anymore. (They can thank Rumsfeld.)
I wonder where the facts of this story were four years ago? Right around the time somebody convinced George Bush he could be president? You think part of Soros' billions is helping pry these revelations from grubby hands who had no incentive to give the Gore Campaign a heads-up?
~While thinking about these 'lost years' of President Bush's for some reason the Burl Ives character in the movie "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" came to me. When I was a kid I saw the movie on tv and was totally confused. I had no idea what the characters were talking about. (I'm still not sure.) Burl Ives played 'Big Daddy', and was always going on and on about 'mendacity this and mendacity that'. I didn't know what the word meant. I remember thinking that maybe mendacity was a good thing, the way he went on about it, like being full of 'mens' (sic), which had something to do with intelligence(?). There were no 'Big Daddy's' in my life, (there never were) and I felt sorry for the character.
Anyway in my day-dream version of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", twenty-something George Bush is 'Brick' the Paul Newman character, (although in the Bush family, Jeb's accomplishments are more like Brick's); America is his wife, begging for love, for proof of his committment to their wedding vows; Dan Rather is 'Big Daddy' with his trademark western colloquilisms and 'mendacity' means exactly what its always meant: the quality or state of being mendacious. Mendacious: 1. given to deception or falsehood 2. lying.
"There's nothing more powerful than the odor of mendacity." ---Big Daddy
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is how I imagine Bush's life might've been 30 years ago. Today he's Big Daddy and he's got Karl Rove, Pentagon toadies and howling packs of neo-cons convincing him his place in history as America's Churchill is insured.
~For more mendacity emanating from President Bush's military career check out the links below on Sptting Image here and here.
Motherly Love
Mother-children love and adult-sexual love tend to be differentiated by the absence/presence of passion and desire. In the course of my research on lesbian parent families, the artificiality of this distinction has become transparent.
In attempting to describe 'mother love' mothers said repeatedly they loved their children 'to bits', wanting to 'eat them up', feeling 'utterly passionate' towards them. This challenges the traditional sexual-sexless boundaries between parents and children. The intensity of 'maternal love' often means that mother-child intimacy becomes a site of delicate negotiations between desire and love. The legal-moral boundaries that are invoked prohibit intergenerational desire, upholding the incest taboos that dominate Western culture. However the construction of these boundaries neither stop adult-child 'border skirmishes' nor quash children's 'natural' exploration of their sexuality.
I explore how bodies and bodily boundaries are used to manage sexuality and desire in families. I consider how mothers negotiate their way through the contradictions of mother-children love, incorporating the passion and desire of this love. I suggest mothers' acknowledgment of their passion does not mean that 'maternal love' is potentially sexual/incestuous, but instead questions its conceptual framing. I suggest that future research on mother-children love might usefully look outside the traditional discourses used to describe and delineate love, towards ones that incorporate non-sexual desire.
'I Could Eat My Baby to Bits'; passion and desire in lesbian
mother-children love
Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography
Volume 11, Number 3/2004
JAQUI GABB
link to GUS' topica entry
~Here's an observation that points out an unfathomable gap between basic human experiences and the law, religion and traditional ideas about motherhood. Of course one can argue, 'those sorts of feelings' would be common to lesbians, real women could never be passionate towards their children. (One could think that especially if one never spent time with a mother and her infant child.) I don't think Oprah, women's magazines or popular culture will be embracing this view of mother-love anytime soon and hinting that father's might share a modicum of similar feelings is terra incognita even for gender geographers.
I'm fascinated how something so fundamental might be misconstrued. Especially after Masters & Johnson.
mother&child [fun with photoshop]
US Engages Africa in Terror Fight
The US is rolling out a nine-country, $125 million military training program.
We're "looking at Africa as a place of growth for the Marine Corps and the Department of Defense," says Major Baker, (Paul Baker, the Chad mission commander)... There's growing evidence of terrorist activities on the continent. And there's a need to protect Africa's rapidly expanding oil industry. So the US military is paying attention.
From eight bullets to 122,000
The American presence is having a big impact around the region. Before the Marines arrived in Chad, the Chadians had nearly no real military experience. During their basic training each one shot just eight bullets - it's all the government could afford. Chad ranks 167th out of 177 nations on the 2004 United Nations Human Development Index. Per capita income is 73 cents a day...
story/ archived(?)
~It strikes me that the neo-cons since 9/11 have been busy attempting to expand America's 'cold war' economic system (militarization at the cost of social programs and public infrastructure) to the rest of the world under the guise of the 'war on terrorism'. (Well duh.) Welcome to their New World Order, Outlanders and Evil Empires. The world is a much scarier place and not just because of crazy Arabs.
September 20, 2004
photographer Eddie Adams died today.
nyt obituarary
speaking about war photography
eddie: then and now - a short video
Window on the Wall
wallcam / photo gallery via: Aish HaTorah
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH (Oy Gevalt) this wall
Hum-animals
The Furry Art of Bernard Doove
index
(scroll down for more)
["Important Note: Some images are of an adult nature.
I will provide after the filename, a basic rating recommendation of each picture.
[G] General audience, [M] Mature, [A] Adults only: minors should not view."]
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
"In this article I wish to make a simple claim: 20th century advertising is the most powerful and sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we know it. As it achieves this it will be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of non-western peoples and will prevent the peoples of the world from achieving true happiness. Simply stated, our survival as a species is dependent upon minimizing the threat from advertising and the commercial culture that has spawned it...
article ©Sut Jhally\ Sut Jhally.com
The ugly face of East German politics
Far right (for German standards - in Germany, you're considered to be far right if you oppose abortion and support the death penalty) politician Holger Apfel after winning 10 percent of the vote in Saxonia.
US Plans Year-End Drive to Take Iraqi 'Rebel' Areas
American commanders in Iraq say they are preparing operations to open up rebel-held areas, especially Falluja, the restive city west of Baghdad...
The ("senior") American commander suggested that operations in Falluja could begin as early as November or December, the deadline the Americans have given themselves for restoring Iraqi government control across the country.
"We need to make a decision on when the cancer of Falluja is going to be cut out," the American commander said. "We would like to end December at local control across the country."
"Falluja will be tough," he said.
article
~Fallujah is the 'restive' Iraqi city: Does that make Baghdad 'balky'? Samarra 'stubborn'? Ramadi 'recalcitrant'? Karbala 'mullish'? Najaf 'wayward'? Sadr 'intransigent'? [Iraq Cities Become 'No-Go Zones']
For arm-chair commanders one must ask if America's elections are putting impossible time contraints on military operations in Iraq?
You get the feeling on the first Wednesday in November, while Americans celebrate a new president, cities in Iraq will get the holy-hell bombed out of them like they haven't seen since Poppa Bush did the Kuwaiti royals a big favor?
Does the unnamed commander above seriously think our military can create the necessary numbers of Iraqi military and police units by December? Or does he believe American post-election air-assaults (i.e. bombing) will soon convince insurgents to support Iraq's elections with America's hand-picked candidates? Stay-tuned for another act in the tragic farce of Bushite/neo-con nation-building.
September 19, 2004
Love Site
The Castle of Love\Phone
url
"The idea for this site came from my personal experience with love on the internet. There was a meeting with a young woman in cyberspace. She writes beautiful poems and stories full of emotion and surrealism. We exchange e-mail and discover we share the same feelings and thoughts. There is an incredible harmony between us, like among twins. Inspired by this love, and by her prose, I have created digital pictures and Flash movies.
I would like to show my feelings, my dreams, my CASTLE OF LOVE.
Love is the most important and festive part of our lives in cyberspace too.
You are invited to our discussion forum of Love. Share with us your own opinion, ideas, thoughts, poems, experiences, stories, graphic, pictures on the subject. Please feel free to write, just come on in and say hello..."
love site \ gallery by Gyoergy Pongracz, 2000
Professor Creates Unique Disease Sensor
"The idea of doing a very rapid blood test to know what kind of stroke or heart attack you have and being able to do that in less than 10 minutes is very exciting," he said. "We can conceive of having these installed on ambulances. By the time the patient gets to the hospital, they (doctors) already know what kind of course of treatment they could use."
(Karl Booksh, associate professor at ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and co-director of Arizona Applied Nanosensors at ASU) has several patents on his technique for determining changes in protein levels. The technique is called surface plasmon resonance, or SPR, which uses light to detect very small changes in those levels.
Because SPR by itself has no capability to determine which proteins change, Booksh is partnering with Randy Nelson, president of Tempe-based Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc. and a former ASU professor.
Intrinsic Bioprobes uses a technology called mass spectrometry to detect and identify proteins.
"Once we determine which proteins and antibodies to look for, we can put that on our sensor and make a clinical test to identify it," Booksh said.
Nelson said there's an easy way to explain the difference between mass spectrometry and surface plasmon resonance.
"SPR is like a pervert," Nelson said. "It looks at proteins interacting with each other. And mass spectrometry comes around and breaks them up, I guess."
press release
~Next step: implanting these sensors into at-risk patients and connecting them via a sensor network to medical services that specialize in 'medical-sensor alarms'. Or connecting the sensors to diagnostic jewelry or clothing that changes colors, lights-up, or plays ring-tones, (dials the hospital's phone number) as specific proteins reach danger levels?
People will start clubs, co-ops, condoes, churches based on the 'killer proteins' these sensors use for diagnosis?
Cyborgasms (2004-Redact)
Hi,
I came across Spitting Image today. Yep, I'm a sad git who was "googling" himself today to see how famous I actually am in Poland. Apparently, fairly so.
Anyway, in reply to your 28 July 2004 entry about my cybersex dissertation* - I don't think that webcams have really taken off as a cybersex aid. Online dating sites, and community sites such as Craigslist (craiglist.org) [e.g. San Francisco] or Gumtree (gumtree.com), [e.g. Toronto] have changed the way a lot of people go about locating, and often times even seducing, a sexual partner. Not only are people meeting up online to get off there, they're taking these sexual adventures offline.
I personally don't have any moral qualms about this type of behaviour - it's the same as going to a pick up bar, as millions of people do every weekend, except that the bar is cyberspace. So what. What's the difference. Well, from the articles that are frequently written about the dangers of online chat rooms, including "internet kidnap victims", you'd think the internet was somehow leaping out of people's computers and into their real world. Which it is, but not in the way that tabloid journalists seem to think.
Wireless internet access is rapidly becoming more widely available, at least in the US and Europe. How will this or won't this affect the ways we use the internet? Location is going to be the big buzzword of the internet in the coming months and years, but not location with regards to "access anywhere", but in the way that people will be actually using the internet.
Early internet users, as I've described elsewhere, were hobbiests and technologists interested in that actual technology itself, or in what unique tasks the internet allowed it's users to do. One of the exciting things they really latched on to, and so did us Social Scientists, is that the internet allows us to communicate more effectively through the barriers of distance and time. That was then, and this is now.
Over 50% of the UK population now has regular internet access, another 25% or so have sporadic access (net cafe's, friends house, etc). It's probably actually more than that if you count WAP enabled mobiles but not many people actually use those for more than checking their horoscope. Now that internet penetration has reached this level, within many social communities, everyone has access.
These people tend to use the internet to communicate with people they already know rather than reaching out across the world to unknown strangers who also happen to collect SuperMan Underoos from the 1970's. Don't believe me? When you use google, do you search the web or "search only in the UK"? Look at your email outbox (this is important because if you look in your inbox you'll end up buying viagra from a spam merchant who just knew you'd need extra help getting it up whilst having cybersex).
Who do you email the most? I bet it's family, friends, and that wierd bloke who sits behind you at work, get's paid half as much as you, and seems to know EVERYTHING. It's like your mobile phone bill or, for that matter, just about any network - there are more local, than long distance, road journeys (and more deaths within 2 miles of home, I think do purely to the numbers, a bit like that old American Civil War fact that more Americans died in the Civil War than any other war - because both sides were American). When you think about it, all communications technologies are global, but used primarily to make local connections.
Online dating websites take this one step further, offering users opportunities to meet potential partners who live locally to them, and meet them face to face if they want to progress to that level. I tried internet dating for a while about two years ago. I didn't use my knowledge of cybersex to seduce anyone, but I did have a number of dates, some disappointing, some quite interesting in various ways, and one leading to a year long relationship. That's not bad, nor is the fact that I sold £1000 worth of stuff on ebay recently. So much for the internet jumping into our lives being an entirely negative thing, as the Sun and Mail remind us on almost a daily basis. Not that I read either.
So are web cams replacing text in the practical pursuit of an orgasm online? I don't think they are, but what they do is allow people to see each other (as do digital snapshops, a necessity for online daters) before meeting them face to face. A webcam is a bit more difficult to fool than a still camera or, rather, a still image can easily be substituted for that of another person or altered, whilst a web cam image can not. Well, not without somehow substituting a pre-recorded web video (Real, Windows Media, whatever...) for the camera's stream.
Text is still very much alive as an online sex toy, a quick look at the Casual Encounters sections of the previously mentioned Craigslist or Gumtree is living proof that text still works, but perhaps in different ways than back in 1996. And who hasn't heard a friend joke about their thumb hurting from text sex? Remember what David Beckham got caught doing last summer?
On the train soon after 3 (formerly Hutchinson 3G) launched their 3G mobile network, offering streaming video calls, broadband(ish) web access to porn and other male oriented offerings, as well as promises for mobile phone operated positioning systems and streamed TV broadcasts, the man sitting next to me said on his phone, "Yes, I have the love phone." I can only speculate that the man and his partner were using the streaming video call function of the handset to engage in sex. No, it's not another example of people continuing to have text sex, but it demonstrates how "cybersex" is continuing to evolve alongside technology, the changing demographics of internet users, and social norms.
Cheers for the good read - I enjoyed your site.
Robin.
*link to "Cyborgasms:Cybersex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat Rooms"; MA Dissertation by Robin B. Hamman, Department of Sociology; University of Essex, Colchester, UK; 30 September, 1996 \ Cybersoc: Robin Hamman's Home Page
September 18, 2004
Steve Mann's Web Page
~This is cool stuff. Why aren't more people involved with cyborg-type body-modification instead of decorative piercings and tattoos? Among the masses the glitchy nuances of machine-enhanced perception can't compete with the sharp pain, followed by dull-throb of suppurating flesh-wounds? "Gimme those old time sensations, they're good enough for me"?
"My Fund Manager Left the Country With My Life-Savings and All I Got Is This Lousy DVD"
Feds Hold Winnetka Hedge Fund Manager After 'Apology'
WINNETKA Ill. - Winnetka businessman Charles Harris, now in federal custody suspected of stealing as much as $25 million from wealthy investors, recorded an apology and sent the DVD recording to his clients (in July) before turning himself in (Sept. 9).
"I have moved trading capital offshore -- I've moved myself offshore," Harris said in the recording. "I've left my family behind ... My little boys don't understand why daddy's not home right now."
Harris sent the DVD to investors in July. In it, he is at times emotional and apologetic, as he pleads with them to allow him to continue to invest their money.
"I need about 12 months, and I can fix all of this," Harris said. "You can say, 'The kid made a mistake, and we have a choice. We can help him, let him work it out, or we can sic the dogs on him.'"
Authorities say Harris used the money to buy a $2.2 million house in Winnetka, as well as a yacht and luxury cars. In fact, he reportedly made the video over the summer, while sailing in the Caribbean on a 62-foot yacht.
link to stills from DVD/ link to complete story w/link to video.
~When I read about criminals embellishing their crimes for no apparant reason, (perhaps this isn't the best example) I like to guess what substances they were abusing at the time. People with an unrealistic belief in their own abilities, who over-calculate and imagine a fantastic future, tend to be coke-heads.
September 17, 2004
US Government Manual
Day of the Dead, Dios de los Muertos / Galeria Otra Nez, 1995. Exhibition announcement; ill.; 18 x 13 cm. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art, 1965-1996. Archives of American Art.
~from browsing: Archivos Virtuales: Papers of Latino and Latin-American Artists / via: Guides Online Archives of American Art/ from the: main menu page/ arrived at after clicking on the (only) link at the very bottom of the "askus form" which appeared after clicking on the link found scrolling down this page which opened after clicking on 'text' next to "Smithsonian Institution" found browsing the 2004-05 edition above.
~Better yet try the Smithsonian's Archives Images Gallery
"'He is a human being, not a psychopath. It is true that he was charming. He had his soft spots,' said screenplay writer Bernd Eichinger. 'This is what makes the whole thing so dangerous, because there's an animal in all of us - that's the message of the movie,' he added." (story)
AtomGrid Is Baaaack (Again)
link
~Jason, Mr. Atomgrid, has a unique take on the vagaries of cyber-culture...'often imitated, never duplicated'.
Kerry & Kennedy
Kerry is said to have idolized John F Kennedy, with whom he and his family socialized.
Kerry, who often alluded to having the same initials as President Kennedy, is pictured on the left sailing with President Kennedy.
more photos/'history' of Kerry's Anti-VietNam-War activities.
via: vietnam veterans against john kerry
~Funny, after glancing at this page I'm beginning to respect the guy. He's a mensch here.
Bush & Kerry's WWII Records Examined
view cartoon [Salon]
thanks, Jason/Atomgrid
Another Endorsement For John F. Kerry
General Vo Nguyen Giap (paraphrased): "I thought I was going to lose the war after the disastrous failure of the Tet Offensive so Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War was a godsend. Thanks, John, I couldn't have done it without you."
source for paraphrase via: google-image search
~Remember Homelanders, if your grandpas, daddies, sons, husbands, (in Iraq: mommies, daughters and wives?), neighbors, co-workers, etc. in uniform killed women and babies, you and the rest of America are forever indebted to those acts of fearful (or disciplined) frenzy. They did it all for us! Woe to anyone who ever breaks the honor-code and questions that secret blood-bond.
Clowns Without Borders
'Red nose against the wall'
The barrier Israel is building in the West Bank runs through the town of Abu Dis, close to Jerusalem. Mikio Tsunekawa, Javier Rey, Javier Arisa and Juan Toro staged a colourful show along a section of the barrier, and drew big crowds.
"This is how we described our show in Abu Dis - putting the red noses of the clowns against the concrete of the wall," said Mikio Tsunekawa.
more (7) pictures/captions / Clowns Without Border Home
~Here's a question: why don't we routinely hear of entertainers visiting areas like Palestine? Palestine is unique in that Israel must first give approval, which might explain why American performers aren't clamoring for the opportunity, but there are refugee camps, displaced people and communities of 'guest workers' all over the world.
September 16, 2004
Why Bush Left Texas
"Growing evidence suggests that George W. Bush abruptly left his Texas Air National Guard unit in 1972 for substantive reasons pertaining to his inability to continue piloting a fighter jet.
A months-long investigation, which includes examination of hundreds of government-released documents, interviews with former Guard members and officials, military experts and Bush associates, points toward the conclusion that Bush's personal behavior was causing alarm among his superior officers and would ultimately lead to his fleeing the state to avoid a physical exam he might have had difficulty passing.
If it is demonstrated that profound behavioral problems marred Bush's wartime performance and even cut short his service, it could seriously challenge Bush's essential appeal as a military steward and guardian of societal values. It could also explain the incomplete, contradictory and shifting explanations provided by the Bush camp for the President's striking invisibility from the military during the final two years of his six-year military obligation. And it would explain the savagery and rapidity of the attack on the CBS documents.
It is notable that in 1972, the military was in the process of introducing widespread drug testing as part of the annual physical exams that pilots would undergo."
article by Russell Baker via: xymphora
~Hasn't the past four years of his 'leadership' been an object lesson for all of us witnessing the chaos that achieving sobriety through a conversion experience is no substitute for working through underlying conflicts? Poor little rich-man's son.
MIT Prof Predicts Half-Trillion RFID Tags by 2010
[~However] (Kevin Ashton, vice president of ThingMagic Inc. and cofounder of the MIT Auto-ID Center) said, new embedded controllers like the Intel IXP network processor family are significant computers in their own right. But distributed RF sensor networks will rely on very low-end nodes in order to hold unit prices at a few cents per node.
Planners foresaw the intelligent networked home with appliances assigned their own IP address. IP nodes in the embedded world would represent a tough security dilemma in their own right, Ashton said, but the new version of tinier RF nodes is even tougher.
If a distributed sensor network collects information about consumers and notifies a central distribution source, Ashton said, methods of authentication, repudiation and privacy protection will have to be developed to account for the distributed-intelligence architecture of the mesh.
item \ RFID Journal
Monkey Jail
PATIALA, INDIA -- The thief threatened children with bricks and ripped the buttons off shirts. He stole tomatoes from one home and snatched bread from another. Down the street, he briefly fled with a differential equations book and beat a calculator with his fist.
He was one bad monkey. And last week he was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, inmate No. 13 at the country's only known monkey jail, where very bad monkeys are sent to live out their remaining years.
This jail is Punjab state's answer to the monkey menace in India, where killing monkeys is forbidden.
This place angers people such as Maneka Gandhi, an animal-rights activist who is also the daughter-in-law of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
She said monkeys can be rehabilitated, taught in sanctuaries to live in groups and eventually released into the forest.
"You can't treat them in the same way as humans, as bad and good," she said. "You can't just jail them."
story
The Reality of Running Away from Stuff
"We've all seen movie characters escape from a lot of stuff: some of it almost believable, some of it downright silly. Other times, we see characters unable to run away from things like the walking dead or a giant snake. Hollywood used to be a little better about realism because there were real people who were running away from real dangers - like the good old days where they used real bullets and arrows during filming. The frightened look on James Cagney's face as he's plastered against a wall in one of his gangster movies was not simply born of great acting but was the result of a healthy dose of fear. Now, thanks to cheap computer graphics and better special effects, you no longer have to risk actors or their loyal stunt doubles in situations with real pyrotechnics..."
link to explanation and "a chart showing maximum speeds for some of the more common Hollywood hazards measured against the fastest speeds that an Olympic level human can deliver (all in meters/second)". via: st*rnosedmole
Consumptive Is Back
"...the whole website is posted up on one access page, everything is given equal time and consideration. not quite sure what will happen. less links, more stuff: that's the plan anyway."
link
September 15, 2004
The Lartique Hoax
"...he was the photographic equivalent of Piltdown Man: a hoax foisted upon a credulous public. Szarkowski presented Lartigue as childlike and intuitive; Moore describes him as "probing, observant, sophisticated, and mocking … out to prove his insider knowledge—to show that he knew what was in fashion, that he noticed how people scrutinized each other, that he understood the humor of personal vanity." Which one is right, and why does it matter? Neither is quite accurate; both are exaggerating; and it matters because the answer reveals some unexpected truths about the nature of photography.
In most arts the label "amateur" would be dismissive at best, but in photography, which was born not knowing whether it was art, science, or commerce, amateurism suggests both lightheartedness and purity of intent, and it's this aestheticism which is at stake in Szarkowski's insistence that Lartigue was an amateur.
article thanks, Jason/Atomgrid
~One might wonder with the improvements in 'point and shoot' cameras why hasn't the very idea of professional photography gone the way of the buffalo?
In America where 'hype' is king, 'amateur' will always be a perjorative term. Our institutions may be less than enthusiastic in their support of labor unions but when it comes to the certification and marketing of objects de arte and the intellectual products of academia institutional 'pedigree' is everything.
(This morning I saw a commercial for a sports-show featuring professional Boogie Boarders.)
Al Qaeda Women's Magazine Article
"Women Must Participate in Jihad"
The new online magazine Al-Khansaa is published by Al Qa'ida's Arabian Peninsula Women's Information Bureau. The first issue features articles calling on women to participate in Jihad, along with an article criticizing women in Saudi television. The following are excerpts from the articles:
Editorial: 'Our Goal Is Paradise'
An editorial in the magazine stated: "… We love Allah and His Messenger. We march in a single path, the path of Jihad for the sake of Allah, and our goal is Shahada [martyrdom] for the sake of Allah, and our goal is [to gain] the pleasure of Allah and His Paradise.
"We will stand covered by our veils and wrapped in our robes, weapons in hand, our children in our laps, with the Koran and the Sunna of the Prophet of Allah directing and guiding us. The blood of our husbands and the body parts of our children are the sacrifice by means of which we draw closer to Allah, so that through us, Allah will cause the Shahada for His sake to succeed.
more exhortation followed by proscription
~How desperate must a woman's life be so that this makes sense, sounds at all reasonable?
This must be written for the men: traditional, centuries-old jerk-off writing about obedient, zombie women. For men in cash-poor societies, dependent generation after generation upon cliques of other men not that much better off. Never having the means to afford regular meals for themselves, let alone the price of a whore or a wife. The Militant-Muslim equivalent of Hustler magazine photos. Their version of 'girls with guns'?
Perhaps it's for people who still believe in 'holy insanity'? The decibel level of one's voice and the craziest language as the best measures of conviction and certainty?
(We've got a man holding the highest office in the land who insists every chance he gets that conviction is certainty. And certainty apparently is his term for reality. But he doesn't scream it, or ever mention blood, body parts or getting closer to Allah.)
Pentagon Revives Memory Project
It's been seven months since the Pentagon pulled the plug on LifeLog, its controversial project to archive almost everything about a person. But now, the Defense Department seems ready to revive large portions of the program under a new name.
Using a series of sensors embedded in a GI's gear, the Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology, or ASSIST, project aims to collect what a soldier sees, says and does in a combat zone -- and then to weave those events into digital memories, so commanders can have a better sense of how the fight unfolded.
That's similar to what planners at Darpa, the Pentagon's research arm, had in mind for LifeLog, its ambitious electronic diary effort. However, ASSIST's aspirations are more modest, its battlefield focus is clearer, and its privacy concerns are more manageable, military analysts and computer scientists say. All of that combines to give the project a better chance of taking off...
article
~I wonder if ASSIST will someday be applied, for example, to nursing, food preparation, plumbing?
Nearing Real-Time Sensor to Shooter Capability
An operator logged on to observe a particular image will be alerted automatically when some change in the image has occurred: the image will be flashed up on the screen and the mismatch in target appearence pinpointed for attention.
(Gerry) Perryman - a former USAF general (one of Raytheon's top officials in the field) with a philosophical bent towards the power of systems integration - says the importance of the step forward is hard to comprehend for outside observers unfamilar with the painstaking minutiae of operations planning.
'But it's a huge one because it's the only way to harness the information to the power of instantaneous reaction.
'Look at the Saddam case: we nearly got him when he was moving around - the B1 bomber came in - but not quite. That made the Air Force - and others - think about the problem, about how you can do this.
'We have the power of persistent surveillance from our Predators and Global Hawks - and the other services will have it too from their UAV assets. What this allows is to match that persistence with an immediacy of action.'
press release
~"War of the Robots" is inevitable.
Architect Designs Building for Homeless
CHICAGO - Renowned architect Helmut ...Jahn's stainless steel and glass "single room occupancy" building is expected to be built next year on a vacant lot near the Cabrini-Green housing project, which is gradually being torn down.
The silver, Twinkie-shaped structure will consist of 100 units, and includes public areas where residents can meet and socialize. But more importantly, homeless advocates say, it will draw attention to the "supportive housing movement," which promotes SRO buildings as a way to ease the homeless problem.
press release/ Lakefront Supportive Housing link/ Chicago Architecture Foundation
~Huh? Is there something wrong with promoting 'affordable housing'? Must public housing be created only for the homeless?
Hey, they could've asked me. I've got three designs for SRO's I did as part of a class assignment in a folder here somewhere. Now if Helmut Jahn is designing and BUILDING the structure...I can't do that.
Latest Internet Peril: Cyber-Bullies
The U.S. leads other technologically advanced nations in the reported incidences of cyber bullying, the latest trend to threaten youngsters who use the Internet. The effects on the victim are devastating, according to cyberspace attorney Parry Aftab (who serves as Wired Safety's executive director)
Examples of this practice are harassing people through IMs, posting nude pics of classmates and sending death threats to people.
article
Protestor Dressed as Batman Scales Buckingham Palace
LONDON -- A protester dressed in a Batman costume scaled the front wall of Buckingham Palace on Monday and perched for more than five hours on a ledge near the balcony where the royal family appears on ceremonial occasions.
Jason Hatch, 33, from Gloucester, is a member of the Fathers 4 Justice group, which is campaigning for greater custody rights for divorced or separated fathers and has staged a number of prominent stunts to promote their cause.
10 photos/ story
~So did the Batman costume afford Mr. Hatch some degree of immunity? Is that the best way for protestors to extend the tolerance of the police?
For a father asking for more time with his kids, the choice of a Batman costume (let alone trespassing onto Buckingham Palace) is confusing. However, I can't think of an costume that would fit his cause. Perhaps someone from the Bible? Moses? Abraham? Anyone with a long white beard?
Madrid Paper Publishes Images from Bombing
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- For the first time since the Madrid train bombings, six images from a security video have been published
link to stills/ CNNs story
~Movie special-effects have ruined real-life video.
Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing
None of bin Laden's reasons for waging war on the U.S., writes Anonymous (Michael Scheuer, a senior terrorism analyst for the CIA) "have anything to do with our freedom, liberty, and democracy (as President George Bush claims), but everything to do with U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world," notably unlimited support for Israel's repression of the Palestinians and the destruction of Iraq.
"For cheap, easily accessible oil, Washington and the West have supported Muslim tyrannies (Osama) bin Laden and other Islamists seek to destroy," Scheuer writes. "The war has the potential to last beyond our children's lifetimes and be fought mostly on U.S. soil."
A Coup for bin Laden
Bin Laden, argues Scheuer, is widely viewed by much of the Muslim world, infuriated by American actions in the Mideast, as neither a terrorist or madman but as a skilled warrior, the sole Muslim leader standing up to predatory western powers.
Ironically U.S. and British military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq "are completing the radicalization of the Islamic world," a prime bin Laden goal.
Bush's misbegotten invasion of Iraq was "icing on bin Laden's cake."
The threat today facing America "is the defensive jihad (holy struggle), an Islamic military reaction triggered by an attack by non-Muslims on the Islamic faith, on Muslims, on Muslim territory." Muslims are increasingly fighting back.
article
~Aren't there people on the right saying much the same, but without any sense of regret?
September 14, 2004
Hearts and Minds
Iraqis gather near a destroyed Iraqi Red Crescent ambulance following a US air strike in the restive city of Fallujah.(AFP/Fares Dlimi)
At least 15 people were killed and 20 wounded in a US air and ground assault on alleged Al-Qaeda operatives in the flashpoint city of Fallujah in the early hours September 13(AFP/File/Fares Dlimi)
An Iraqi boy celebrates on top of the wreckage of a US Chinook helicopter that crashed yesterday (Sep. 8) in the village of Al-Buaisa, southwest of the militant stronghold of Fallujah.(AFP/Fares Dlimi
~Our 'restive' federal tax-dollars at work.
September 13, 2004
President Bush's Military Records
~Assuming the 60 Minutes documents are forgeries, questions concerning Mr. Bush's military service still remain unanswered:
"Bush "chose not take a flight physical"! Air Force pilots do not have the individual "choice" to take or not take flight physicals. Flight physicals are "mandatory". Air National Guard pilots are under "standing orders" to complete their flight physicals. They are informed by written directive as to "when, where and what time" they are to report to take their flight physical. Where is the copy of that written directive which informed Bush of the date, time and place for the flight physical that he "chose" not to take? In order for Bush to have been able to "legally" (under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice) not comply with the aforementioned directive for him to take his flight physical he would have had to have received written approval from higher Air National Guard authority authorizing his being exempt from taking the previously directed flight physical. Where is the written approval from higher Air National Guard authority exempting Bush from taking the flight physical he "chose" not to take?"
link w/comments
~Perhaps as compelling as finding or explaining the above lost documents and others not 'fabricated' by CBS, would be to learn why National Guard Pilot Bush chose NOT to take the required physical exam back then (or ever). I heard that it cost the Air Force a million 1970's dollars to train pilots and like the man wrote above, to lose one because of an apparent whim, while pilots were dying in training accidents and being shot-down in the 'real' Air Force, was not glossed over, or kept 'in squadron'. This 'lapse of duty' by Pilot Bush is something that a number of superior officers would've needed to look over, file directives and write memos about. It's hardly the norm. Refusing a required physical might've gotten lesser men bounced from the National Guard, drafted into the regular army and shipped within weeks to Viet Nam.
There are no records of Mr. Bush being hospitalized (privately of otherwise) at the time. What could've prevented him from taking the physical?
One can only won