May 31, 2006
UK: Property Exit Sensors, etc.
System is case of common sensors
Life can be dangerous and difficult for the 3,000 dementia sufferers across north Kent. But thanks to new sensory technology help is on its way.
Telecare, already in 400 homes across the county, is a system of sensors which can be placed around the home to pick up when a person with dementia could be in danger.
"If a person does have a problem with wandering from their home at night a property exit sensor can be placed next to the front door.
"If they leave and don't come back the sensor would alert a 24-hour call centre and the operator would either inform the emergency services, a relative or a carer."
Bed sensors, strips which can be placed under a mattress, can also alert the centre if someone has been out of bed for a certain amount of time.
It can also be set so lights come on if someone gets out of bed in the middle of the night.
"Darkness is one of the main reasons for falls."
The wireless system works by connecting to the telephone line and sending messages via a radio link to a 24-hour manned help centre in case something out of the ordinary occurs.
Call centre operators reassure system users via a reception box in their home or listen out for clues to the situation.
Carers living in the same house can be offered the support of a pillow sensor which vibrates to wake the sleeping person if their relative has got out of bed in the night.
Gas, flood and smoke sensors are also available.
press release by Louise Tweddell | This Is Local London
~It beats tying Grandpa to the bed.
Works: Gottfried Helnwein
for example...
more works: http://www.helnwein.com/werke/werke/home.html
Overheard at Starbucks
"The big secret in her family was that her brother molested her, while her mother busied herself making a career and all but ignored what was happening."
---"One of the secrets."
"She coulda been a biker-chick but she made herself into a soccer mom complete with Republican Party membership and pearls.
She hates her mother but would never say so...she made damn sure she was always there for her kids, for every little thing."
---"So why are her kids self-involved shits? If she's always been six xanax away from a breakdown, you would think one of them would have some heart; some questions or understanding about the human condition they're burning to share. Something other to talk about than vacations, clothes and restaurants."
"The kids take after the grandmother.
It's like a learning disorder, a problem with perception: where you and I would recognize a living breathing human being, they can only see the absence or presence of brand names.
...the wonder about Abu Ghraib is not how it happened but how limited it was."
---"They learn not to feel?"
"The crimes, the traumas of the past ...and not their own past mind you...are long gone, but the remedies fill their daily existence like....like..."
---"The cream filling in twinkies?"
"Sausage meat."
Arming Big Brother: The EU's Security Research Programme
>Long "alphabet-soup" article with:
Some of the projects funded under the ESRP (European Securities Research Programme) so far have a legitimate, civil objective -dealing with radio-nuclear fallout and protecting critical infrastructure, for example. The majority, however, deal with surveillance and the development of military technologies of political control that offer little guarantee as far as 'security' is concerned.
10 of the first 24 projects funded by the EU concern surveillance of one kind or another, most of them using technologies that are in no way limited to counter-terrorism. For example, PROBANT, led by French aerospace and defence contractor Satimo, concerns the 'visualisation and tracking of people inside buildings' including 'arrays of sensors, modulated scattering, pulsed signal techniques, advanced data processing, biometric measurements'.
Two projects involve surveillance from space. These can be seen in tandem with the development of the EU's Galileo satellite system (the EU's first major 'public-private partnership' in which the major financers are EADS, Finmeccanica, Thales and others), Galileo's planned uses include the monitoring of all road travel by satellite - the basis for the 'road pricing scheme' proposed in the UK.
Another EU funded project will see Dassault Aviation, Europe's leading exporter of combat aircraft, funded to coordinate what is basically an EU feasibility study on the use of UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for 'peacetime security' (and more specifically 'border surveillance'). Dassault in fact launched Europe's first 'stealth UAV' in 2000.
According to a report to the US Congress in 2005 the UAV accident rate is 100 times higher than that of manned aircraft. It will be interesting to see what the Dassault-consortium recommends.
Projects concerning 'biometric' identification systems are also being funded...
complete article: http://www.anti-imperialism.net/lai/texte.php?langue=3§ion=CMBA&id=24552
by Ben Hayes | Transnational Institute
May 30, 2006
Pentagon Pressing For New Pre-emptive Strike Weapon
Washington - The Pentagon is seeking congressional approval for development of a new weapon able to strike distant targets an hour after they are detected, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The International Herald Tribune said the weapon would be a non-nuclear version of the submarine-launched Trident-2 missile and be part of a president's arsenal when considering a pre-emptive attack.
...the program has run into resistance from lawmakers concerned it could increase the risk of an accidental nuclear war. Under the Pentagon plan, both non-nuclear and nuclear-tipped variants of the Trident-2 missile would be loaded on the same submarines.
The House Armed Services Committees have asked the Bush administration to develop a plan to minimize the risk.
story | TruthOut
~Oops?
DODs Domestic Violence Data Incomplete
In the wake of a number of high-profile incidents in which soldiers killed their spouses, the 2000 defense authorization act mandated the creation of a central database of domestic violence incidents, within an existing criminal reporting system. But the data in the system is incomplete, GAO found.
"Without complete information on reported incidents of domestic violence and the steps taken by commanders to address these incidents, DoD will not know the size and nature of the problems or be able to assess the effectiveness of its actions," the report stated.
story | GovExec
~Don't ask don't tell for married couples?
[photo google: military couple\ not govexec]
Sniggle.net: The Culture Jammer's Encyclopedia
Most of this site highlights deception, but it’s not because I have a thing for liars and cheats. I think there’s a brand of immunizing deception that helps us to expose and correct the lies we tell ourselves and the webs of falsehood that make up our societies. Harmless fibs can remind us that we’ve dropped our guard and let the Big Lies in.
Pranks and hoaxes and delusions and frauds remind us that we’re easily fooled and that we aren’t nearly as smart as we sometimes think we are. The trickster, by taking us down a notch, does us a valuable service. It’s when we start acting clever that we summon forth the worst of humanity’s evils.
... I think people are all too frequently blind to the ways in which our lives are so very messed up by our culture, and the extent to which we each help to maintain this blindness and this painful absurdity. Sniggling, whether or not it is performed with any such awareness, helps to poke holes in the veil we spend so much time helping each other to construct."
more about sniggle.net
the culture jammer's encyclopedia:
http://www.sniggle.net/index.php
Sexual Fascism in Progressive America
There is a class of people in America today, numbering two million or more, who have been utterly scapegoated, ostracized, demonized and shunned. There is no longer any defense available for these people. Almost no-one on the left or the right, civil libertarians or ordinary citizens, will defend their rights. They are regularly vilified with the most vicious and hate-filled language--language previously reserved for classes now protected: Jews, Blacks, homosexuals. They are fair game as targets of abuse and vandalism. They are subject to utter public scorn. About 600,000 of them have been rounded up and forced to register--many soon to be monitored for life with electronic bracelets and global positioning devices. Nearly 4000 have been locked up for life, not on criminal charges, but by civil commitment, and those numbers are growing by the day. The remainder are mostly in hiding, desperately afraid of sudden exposure and witch hunts by neighbors, fellow-workers and friends, whom they fear will suddenly see them as monsters beyond redemption.
from Growing Up Sexually
~What would America be without its criminal class, without its lists of "sexual predators"?
You can free the slaves from the slave-holders but you can't free the slaveholders?
[photo not with above]
Photography: Jerome Abramovitch
for example...
more photos: http://www.chapter9photography.com/
~Black and blue blue-bloods.
Sometimes I wish I could make more of an investment in or an exhibition of my or my loved ones' pain. I'm too easily distracted.
Samsung Still Bans Its Own Camera Phones From the Office
press release: http://techdirt.com/articles/20060526/0236259.shtml
~Bigger, brighter, faster, more.
College 2.0:
No Lectures, But Plenty Of Podcasts, Blogs And Text Messages
"We've seen tons of stories these days about professors recording their lectures and posting them online for download, but one professor in the UK is going even further. He's getting rid of in-person lectures completely. Instead, he's only recording the lessons for students to download as podcasts or video. Students can then ask questions via email or text message, and the professor will respond on his blog."
article/comments: http://techdirt.com/articles/20060526/1755212.shtml
War Propaganda Is Fun On Your Xbox 360
Historically, film has been a dominant medium for propaganda, as filmmakers working for and against governments have used it to express certain viewpoints. It appears, though, that propagandists are increasingly shifting towards videogames as the way to promote their message. In Iran, a new videogame is being developed...
(Ed Halter's) ... book From Sun Tzu To Xbox: War And Video Games delves deeply into the historical and ongoing ties between the military and the video game industry
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060530/086234.shtml
Protest?
A New Kind of Art Form Leads to a New Kind of Protest (PC)
The Dead-in-Iraq Project
Joseph DeLappe can often be found logging into an online session of America's Army for hours at a time, but this Associate Professor from San Francisco isn't running around shooting terrorists. Instead, Prof. DeLappe spends the entire session typing. He may stop occasionally when his character is killed and he has to wait for a respawn, or he'll stop to take a screenshot of a reply sent to him from another player, but otherwise, he's just typing.
Prof. DeLappe expects to be typing for some time. This is because he's typing in the name of every single American soldier killed in Iraq since the war started, which according to the Department of Defense is currently 2,456.
...why not use an online deathmatch as a pedestal for speaking out against a war?
complete article/ links:
http://www.gamespy.com/pc/americas-army/709854p1.html
Lappe's Home Page w/ 'memorable' screen shots
from "playing" America's Army | Metafilter
thanks Consumptive
Overheard at Starbucks
"Have you ever walked into a room filled with people and realized that most everyone there had slept with each other one-time or another?"
---"You're talking about that new club down the street?"
"Have known each other in ways that have nothing to do with this particular gathering?"
---"Prayer meeting?"
"That these people have sexually enjoyed or tolerated each other in combinations and permutations that you never before imagined them capable?"
---"Family reunion?"
May 29, 2006
Fun in the Great Outdoors
2X
I don't live here. I had to travel for hours at high speeds to see this. Here with the highways and cars and all that far behind me, I can pay attention to the things that don't require speed. The sand is soft, luxuriant. The plants are witnesses. The lake this time, a impossibly huge murmuring being. I can imagine myself in there. Effortlessly a part of the scattering mist, growing light, soothing swells.
From its rhythm...
Guidelines for Public Video Surveillance:
A Guide to Protecting Communities and Preserving Civil Liberties
http://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID=176
~Compare & contrast this report's recommendations with the reality of video surveillance we all experience. JFC.
[photo google: video surveillance\ not with above links]
Illegal Incidents Report
A 25 Year History of Illegal Activities by Eco and Animal Extremists
Incidents against biomedical research
Incidents against food production
Incidents against fur production
Incidents against entertainment (circuses, horse racing, rodeos, zoos)
Incidents against property developers, auto dealers and other “eco” enemies
Incidents against miscellaneous targets
"There is, within this country’s animal right movement (ARM), a radical anti-research element that is working to abolish animal research by perpetrating crimes against biomedical research institutions and other organizations that are associated with them. These illegal activities range from misdemeanor vandalism to felony arson, and include destruction of research equipment and data, theft of lab animals, bombings, stalking, and the systematic harassment of researchers, their children and elderly relatives, neighbors, bankers, investors, customers, suppliers and anyone else with whom they do business."
http://www.heartland.org/pdf/19121.pdf | Foundation for Biomedical Research
~I love germs, frankenfoods, fur for rich people, animal cruelty in labs, food production, sport and entertainment and suburban sprawl in all its forms. Doesn't everyone?
If the crazy Arab terrorists continue to leave Homeland America alone, the animal rights movement and other "eco" groups will by default become the targets of choice for federally funded anti-terrorism law enforcement? (I can't picture coke or smack dealers heading for the hills. There's too much old money in the drug trade?)
[photo not with above links]
Sticking with Your Vote: Cognitive Dissonance and Voting
In traditional models, votes are an expression of preferences and beliefs. Psychological theories of cognitive dissonance suggest, however, that behavior may shape preferences. In this view, the very act of voting may influence political attitudes. A vote for a candidate may lead to more favorable interpretations of his actions in the future...
abstract | Docuticker
May 28, 2006
Water Safety Sensors: Safety Turtle, Virtual Lifeline
Safety Turtle...uses a water sensor that's worn on a child's wrist. If the child falls into a pool, the device sends a one-way radio signal to a receiver typically placed inside a home that triggers a loud alarm.
The Virtual Lifeline...is a small sensor worn by boaters that can be attached to a swimsuit or life vest. If they fall into the water, it sends a signal to the ignition, immediately shutting it off and stopping the propeller.
press release | TMCNet
MidiSense - A DIY MIDI Sensor Interface
"...described as "a simple, yet extensible sensor interface system for artists, musicians and others interested in experimenting with sensors."
The MIDIsense boards provide a simple way to integrate various common sensors with existing software such as Max/MSP, Ableton Live, etc. or directly to a synthesizer/sequencer with a MIDI in jack. Interface boards are available as kits."
press release | Podcasting News
example projects: http://www.ladyada.net/make/midisense/projects.html
Gonzales Pressures ISPs on Data Retention
In a private meeting with industry representatives, (U.S. Attorney General Alberto) Gonzales, (FBI Director Robert) Mueller and other senior members of the Justice Department said Internet service providers should retain subscriber information and network data for two years...
During Friday's meeting, Justice Department officials passed around pixellated (that is, slightly obscured) photographs of child pornography to emphasize the lurid nature of the crimes police are trying to prevent, according to one source.
Privacy advocates have been alarmed by the idea of legally mandated data retention, saying that, while child exploitation may be the justification today, those records would be available in all kinds of criminal and civil suits--including terrorism, tax evasion, drug, and even divorce cases.
It was not immediately clear what Gonzales and Mueller meant by suggesting that network data be retained. One possibility is requiring Internet providers to record the Internet addresses their customers are temporarily assigned. A more extensive mandate would require companies to keep track of e-mail messages sent, Web pages visited and perhaps even instant-messaging correspondents.
story by Declan McCullagh
The Man Who Saved the World Finally Recognized
Stanislav Petrov was a Soviet army officer monitoring the satellite system for signs of a U.S. attack, the year was 1983, and his instructions, if he detected missiles targeting the Soviet Union, were to push the button and launch a counter-offensive.
He didn’t. Minutes later, no missiles came; months later, the frightening data across his monitor was determined to have been a system glitch. Today, the Association of World Citizens is calling him “the forgotten hero of our time,” a title befitting the man whose responsibility had been to start World War III.
Half an hour past midnight on September 26, 1983, he saw the first apparent launch on his computer monitor in a glass-walled room on the top floor of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) command and control post.
“I was supposed to supervise the combat crew. When the first launch happened, everyone was stupefied. After the first launch, I started giving orders, because in the room below, where there were five switchboards, and all the operators jumped out of their seats to see what my reaction was. I can only imagine what went on at the other posts.”
The warning system was by now showing five missile launches in the U.S., headed toward the Soviet Union. The “START” command Petrov was expected to give would have started an irreversible chain reaction in a system geared to launch a counter-strike without human interference.
The main computer wouldn’t ask me [what to do] — it was made so that it wouldn’t even ask. It was specially constructed in such a way that no one could affect the system’s operations.” All that was up to Petrov was analyzing the available information and either saying the alarm was false or giving the computer the go-ahead, as per the directive he himself wrote.
complete story | Moscow Times
~Sometimes it takes courage to survive.
Photos Indicate Civilians Slain Execution-Style
Photographs taken by a Marine intelligence team have convinced investigators that a Marine unit killed as many as 24 unarmed Iraqis, some of them "execution-style," in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha after a roadside bomb killed an American in November...
The pictures are said to show wounds to the upper bodies of the victims, who included several women and six children. Some were shot in the head and some in the back, congressional and defense officials said.
One government official said the pictures showed that infantry Marines from Camp Pendleton "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership..."
story By Tony Perry and Julian E. Barnes | Los Angeles Times from TruthOut
~Which begs the question, like Abu Ghraib, would there be an investigation if there were no photographs?
The magic of photography.
May 27, 2006
Document
large: http://www.metadata.se/images/klart-trad.gif
~Not to be confused with 'person'.
Listening In
>What the NSA & the Bush Administration 'built'.
"A few weeks ago USA Today reported that the agency was collecting information on millions of private domestic calls. A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier’s network core—the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored. “What the companies are doing is worse than turning over records,” the consultant said. “They’re providing total access to all the data.”
The N.S.A. also programmed computers to map the connections between telephone numbers in the United States and suspect numbers abroad, sometimes focussing on a geographic area, rather than on a specific person—for example, a region of Pakistan. Such calls often triggered a process, known as “chaining,” in which subsequent calls to and from the American number were monitored and linked.
A government consultant told me that tens of thousands of Americans had had their calls monitored in one way or the other. “In the old days, you needed probable cause to listen in,” the consultant explained. “But you could not listen in to generate probable cause."
article by Seymour Hersh | New Yorker
thanks Conscientious
~Busy busy. With technology like this the FBI, (local police!) won't need to go to meetings or even photograph members of groups who's programs or policies they find objectionable. Simply get a couple of the active members phone numbers or e-mail addresses and watch the metadata?
>related NSA killed system that sifted phone data legally
by Siobhan Gorman | Baltimore Sun
Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden sits on a couch on Capitol Hill, May 12, 2006. The Senate on Friday confirmed Hayden as CIA director in a vote that gave a broad bipartisan endorsement to the architect of President Bush's domestic spying program. REUTERS/Jim Young @
~Isn't it magic when a photograph seemingly captures everything you need to know about a person?
Sexual Harassment Rife in UKs Armed Forces
story | Guardian by way of TruthOut
~It's odd considering the control the military has over a soldier's life. They can tell you where to go, when to eat, sleep and poop but they can't stop their men from harassing their women?
Modern woman soldier in the British Army (By permission of the Ministry of Defence)
[photo/caption from War, Women & Survival--Sometimes It Takes Courage to Survive\ not The Guardian]
~Images of women in the military are not interchangable with images of men in the military.
Do you think "sometimes it takes courage to survive" would work in a military recruitment ad for men or today's women?
May 26, 2006
Stereotypically 'Black-Looking' Criminals More Likely to Get Death Sentence
Male murderers with stereotypically ''black-looking'' features are more than twice as likely to get the death sentence than lighter-skinned African American defendants found guilty of killing a white person, Stanford researchers have found. The relationship between physical appearance and the death sentence disappears, however, when both murderers and their victims are black.
'Race clearly matters in criminal justice in ways in which people may or may not be consciously aware,'' said Jennifer Eberhardt, associate professor of psychology. ''When black defendants are accused of killing whites, perhaps jurors use the degree to which these defendants appear stereotypically black as a proxy for criminality, and then punish accordingly.''
''Employing the same analyses as we did for the cases with white victims, we found that the perceived stereotypicality of black defendants convicted of murdering black victims did not predict death sentencing,'' the authors write.
...defendants who were perceived to be more stereotypically black were more likely to be sentenced to death only when their victims were white,'' the study says.
According to Eberhardt, the lower rates of death penalty convictions may be attributed to the fact that jurors regard black-on-white crime as interracial conflict compared to black-on-black crime, which could be viewed as interpersonal.
[illus: Eugenics Archive\ not with press release]
Andrew Bacevich:
Drifting Down the Path to Perdition
"I certainly supported the Afghanistan War. I emphatically believed that we had no choice but to take down the Taliban regime in order to demonstrate clearly the consequences of any nation tolerating, housing, supporting terrorists who attack us. But the Iraq War just struck me as so unnecessary, unjustifiable, and reckless that... I don't know how to articulate its impact except that it put me unalterably in the camp of those who had come to see American power as the problem, not the solution. And it brought me close to despair that the response of the internal opposition and of the American people generally proved to be so tepid, so ineffective. It led me to conclude that we are in deep, deep trouble.
An important manifestation of that trouble is this shortsighted infatuation with military power... Again, it revolves around this question of energy and oil. There's such an unwillingness to confront the dilemmas we face as a people that I find deeply troubling. I know we're a democracy. We have elections. But it's become a procedural democracy. Our politics are not really meaningful. In a meaningful politics, you and I could argue about important differences, and out of that argument might come not resolution or reconciliation, but at least an awareness of the consequences of going your way as opposed to mine. We don't even have that argument. That's what's so dismaying.
...there is something to be said for competence even in implementing a bad policy. Right now, we have incompetents implementing a bad policy, but the essence of the problem is the policy - not just the Iraq War but this paradigm of a Global War on Terror, this notion of unconstraining American power. That's what we have to rethink."
interview By Tom Engelhardt | by way of TruthOut
~Our unwillingness or inability to confront the issues of energy consumption would be almost comic if our leaders could restrain themsleves from sending our military all over the world."
[photo not with above]
May 25, 2006
Big Brother's History
Although it never came to pass, the list of Americans to be rounded up under the Internal Security Act in the event of a national emergency numbered 26,000 persons in 1954.The inquiries carried out under the loyalty program were FBI-controlled. By 1960 it had opened approximately 432,000 files on groups or individual Americans, under guidelines that permitted investigation based on suspicion of "anarchistic or revolutionary beliefs" even if membership in any group had "not been proven" and in the absence of evidence of any current "activity of a subversive nature."
In 1952 the U.S. Post Office began to record mail sent from the U.S. to Russia, a project taken over by the CIA counterintelligence staff in 1955 and called HT/Lingual. Aimed at identifying Russian spies, in the 1960s Lingual was diverted to spying on Vietnam war protesters. The mail program ended in 1973 when the post office stopped cooperating, but in its last year alone the CIA handled 4.3 million pieces of mail, photographed the envelopes of about 33,000, and opened and copied 8,700 letters-some 60 percent of them on the basis of FBI watch lists.
Military intelligence agencies opened over 100,000 files on Americans from 1965 to 1971. The IRS compiled 11,000 "intelligence" files between 1969 and 1973 and opened tax investigations for political reasons. The CIA had another 10,000 files on Americans, and a computerized index of 300,000. Its Projects Chaos, Merrimack and Resistance were all aimed at American antiwar activists.
Like these older cases, today's government surveillance issue features apparatus created for national security reaching beyond original purposes. Besides the NSA issue there is the Pentagon's "Talon" program, intended for base security, that has collected data on antiwar individuals and groups, and then failed to purge the information from its files. The FBI has monitored mosques, supposedly to watch for nuclear material. The Justice Department has engaged in runaway prosecutions of trumped-up terrorism charges in Detroit and other places. Local police forces-and the FBI, again-have infiltrated meetings, taken pictures of protests, and asked employers about individuals expressing political views protected by the First Amendment. They gained resources to execute these programs from federal grants intended to counter terrorism.
complete article by John Prados | via Truthout
~The realization that someone as isolated as me can be on a watch list is mind-boggling.
I wonder how many different lists there are? Is there a list of people authorized to put others on lists? Is there a list of people who, by their service to selected agencies or officials, can never be put on a suspect list?
Is surveillance more passive these days then it was in the past?
How many different agencies have the means and personnel to put people under surveillance? To stop and question? To harass individuals; their friends and family? To kill?
What are the various protocols? How do you get off a list?
Are there bonuses or rewards handed out when individuals are added to certain lists?
Are cops and security consultants getting rich because of Bush's War on Terror?
Who's going to tell them the party has to stop?
[photo not with article]
iPod Data Sensor for Shoes
Information, including pace, speed, time, distance traveled and calories burned appear on the iPod screen, and a computerized voice that plays over music can also tell runners how they're doing.
...requires users to have a special Nike+ shoe and an iPod nano.
>related on Spitting Image:
Sensing the Future in a Wireless World
(You Call it Pollution) We Call it Life
re: "alleged global warming"
"The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government. We believe that individuals are best helped not by government intervention, but by making their own choices in a free marketplace."
Competitive Enteprise Institute: http://www.cei.org/
~"Advancing Liberty from the Economy to Ecology" with TV Ads.
from Priapo
Poem: 1. About the Dead Man and Camouflage
from: The Book of the Dead Man
Live as if you were already dead. -Zen admonition
When the dead man wears his camouflage suit, he hides in plain sight.
The dead man, in plain sight, disrupts the scene but cannot be seen.
His chocolate-chip-cookie shirt mimics the leaves in a breeze.
His frog-skin dress, his bumpy earth nature, leave us lost and alone, his mottled apparel sends us in circles.
His displacements distract and disabuse us, he is a slick beguiler.
Everything the dead man does is a slight disruption of normality.
He is the optical trickster, the optimum space-saver, the one to watch for.
He is of a stripe that flusters convention, he is the one to watch out for.
That we thought him gone only proves his wily knowledge.
The dead man has lain unseen among the relics of embalmed time.
He was always here, always there, right in front of us, timely.
For it was not in the dead man’s future to be preserved.
It was his fate to blend in, to appear in the form of, to become...
Now he lives unseen among the lilies, the pines, the sweet corn.
It was the dead man’s native desire to appear not to be.
-by Marvin Bell; Opening Remarks | The Thinking Eye
Dazzle Camouflage
On Max Wertheimer and Pablo Picasso: Gestalt Theory, Cubism and Camouflage
That art and camouflage are related was anticipated in the 1890s by Abbott H. Thayer, an American painter with a lifelong interest in natural history. It was Thayer who discovered countershading, a variant of natural camouflage in which the upper surfaces of an animal's body are colored darker, the undersides lighter. Many animals are countershaded (rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, certain birds, and so on), particularly those that are active during daylight and respond to intrusion by remaining motionless.
Countershading, Thayer noticed, is the inverse of shading, by which artists create the appearance of solidity or three-dimensional volume on a flat surface by coloring shapes darker on the underside and progressively lighter toward the top. When a countershaded animal is observed in the wild, its white undersides counteract the effects of the overhead sun. It is colored darkest on those parts of the body that are most exposed to sunlight, and lightest on those that are mostly in shade. As a result, it appears flat and insubstantial, making it less visible as a solid, three-dimensional "thing."
-from the essay: http://web.mac.com/gesamtkunstwerk/iWeb/The_Poetry_of_Sight/GestaltAndCamouflage.html
by Roy R. Behrens | The Thinking Eye
May 24, 2006
Dragon
underside
url for both photos:
http://www.capohedz.com/typebrighter/uploaded_images/dragon-717577.jpg
from Aberrant News
~For inexplicable comments see here. Thanks. D.
Revealing a 40-Year-Old Horror
The Pulitzer-winning reporters who exposed the U.S. Tiger Force's atrocities in Vietnam discuss why the case was whitewashed -- and its scary parallels to Iraq.
article By Bill Frogameni | Salon
thanks Conscientious
~For all the freedom we American's enjoy it's incredible that there are institutions and officials we cannot question.
I wonder if there's a list of forbidden subjects posted in every newsroom?
Last name only..."Lee".
[photo from Tiger Force '67 \ not above]
~Young men with weapons scrounging around in places they would never in their whole lives imagine they could be. Defending America. (An earlier fucked-over generation.)
According to these photos there is or was a "Tiger Force" in Iraq.
Photobook Guide
"PhotobookGuide.com aims to show the history of photography reflected through the photo book."
http://www.photobookguide.com/
from Conscientious
Tattoo Blog
via Aberrant News
~I wasn't aware tattoos were so mainstream. Too many celebrities have them. They don't look bad anymore. They look like the jewelry you find in shopping malls.
For today's teenagers tattoos are a rite of passage, like oral sex?
Lifestyles: A College That's Strictly Different
Secretive Pensacola Christian controls student life with tough regulations and unwritten rules>
Sabrina Poirier, a student at Pensacola who withdrew in 1997, was disciplined for what is known on the campus as "optical intercourse" — staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex. This is also referred to as "making eye babies." While the rule does not appear in written form, most students interviewed for this article were familiar with the concept.
As she tells it, Ms. Poirier was not gazing lovingly at her boyfriend; he had something in his eye. But officials didn't buy her explanation, and she and her boyfriend were both "socialed," she says.
There are three levels of official punishment at Pensacola (four, if you count expulsion). Students can be "socialed," "campused," or "shadowed." Students who are socialed are not allowed to talk to members of the opposite sex for two weeks. Those who are campused may not leave the college grounds for two weeks or speak to other campused students.
Being shadowed is the worst of the three. Shadowed students are assigned to a "floor leader" for several days. A floor leader is a student who is paid by the college and has the power to issue demerits. Shadowed students must attend the floor leader's classes and sleep in the floor leader's room. During this time, the shadowed student is not allowed to talk to anyone but the floor leader. Shadowing is usually a prelude to expulsion.
Ms. Poirier was later told she would be shadowed after being spotted riding in a car in mixed company. She tried to explain that it was an innocent outing, but to no avail. When told she would be shadowed, Ms. Poirier decided to withdraw. "I said 'screw it' and I left," she says.
complete article
by way of Aberrant News
>WIKi's PCC article
Childhood Reflections of Adult Male Incarcerated Child Sexual Abusers
A dissertation by Linda H. Garrett
"...This qualitative study explored the childhood reflections of 8 incarcerated child sexual abusers in a southern Appalachian prison. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted at the prison with the 8 male participants. After multiple readings of the transcripts, analysis was completed and the stories emerged."
http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0301106-171002/unrestricted/GarrettL040706f.pdf
by way of Growing Up Sexually
Lyric: Virgin Sturgeon
Caviar comes from virgin sturgeon;
Virgin sturgeon's a very fine fish.
Virgin sturgeon needs no urgin';
That's why caviar is my dish.
I fed caviar to my girl-friend;
She was a virgin tried and true.
Now my girl-friend needs no urgin',
There isn't anything she won't do.
more lyric: http://www.immortalia.com/html/categorized-by-song/with-music/v/caviar-comes-from-virgin-sturgeo.htm
[large photo(url)\ photo with lyric]
>Immortalia's mp3's
Book: Virgin The Untouched History
"...a broadly inclusive cultural history, and includes medical and legal history as well as political, philosophical, economic, and many other elements as it discusses the hundreds of ways that virginity has been entwined with the lives and times of men and women throughout history."
http://www.hanneblank.com/main/virginbook.htm
author's website: http://www.hanneblank.com/
by way of Growing Up Sexually
May 23, 2006
Nuclear Reservation (Hanford) Tours Planned
(May 21):
Public tours of Hanford that will include a look inside B Reactor have been scheduled for June 21-23.
Tours of the nuclear reservation are infrequent, and these are the first scheduled in 2006 for the public.
Because of the tours' popularity, signups will be done on the Internet and will not begin until 8 a.m. Wednesday. Seats on the tour buses will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis with no advance waiting list.
The last tours offered in fall 2005 filled up through Internet registrations 35 minutes after registration opened.
An effort is under way to save B Reactor as a museum.
For more information or to register Wednesday for the tours, go to www.hanford.gov and click on "information" on the lefthand side. Then click on "site tours" on the lefthand side, then "public road tour." Or go to www.hanford.gov/information/sitetours/?tour=saturday.
press release | TriCity Herald
Sniffing Out Manure
MANITOWOC (WI)— Tooley and his friends can rest a little easier knowing they have something watching for manure spills in Manitowoc County waterways all day, every day.
Last fall, (Russ) Tooley and...(CARES, a local conservation group that lobbies for more stringent rules and enforcement on county farms to prevent manure spills)...built a water-quality sensing device they call a manure sniffer. They hope it will allow them to keep track of manure spills into Point Creek that might otherwise could go unnoticed.
He lives about 1 1/2 miles from Maple Leaf Dairy, one of two dairy farms referred earlier this year to the Wisconsin Department of Justice for alleged manure spills into county creeks.
The manure sniffer contains a sensor placed inside a piece of PVC pipe, which hangs from a crane made from PVC piping that is driven into the ground alongside Point Creek. The sensor is connected to a computer and a cell phone, which are powered by a motorcycle battery.
The sensor collects data every 15 minutes, with information on water temperature, conductivity and dissolved oxygen levels at Point Creek stored in a computer.
Tooley does not claim a sniffer reading proves manure is in the water. It will, however, indicate that something in the water has changed and bears investigating.
"If it calls us on a cell phone, we can come out and look," he said. "If it smells like manure and there are dead fish around, then we'll call the DNR and they can make a determination."
The manure sniffer costs $5,000 and you won't find it on store shelves....
C-CARES members said they want to build a simpler version of the manure sniffer that would cost under $1,000. A $100 model that would store only water conductivity data is also being considered.
The whole idea is that wells got contaminated and that's a concern," (Donna) Hammond (of CARES) said. "If you can see it coming rather than waiting for someone to get ill, then you won't say, 'Oh, this is where it came from.' We were trying to be proactive rather than reactive."
story | Manitowoc Herald Times
>related: ~Comments about cheap sensors in the last paragraph at this post on Spitting Image.
Fun...Outdoors
2x
near Tampico, Illinois
It's been a few years since this feed silo was used. I didn't see any cattle in the area. Did the seeds of these plants travel through a cow? Or was it the wind and the absence of hooves (economics!) that made this bloom possible? Life is opportunistic and relentless. My death will be a tragedy.
US Critics Target Laser Weapons
Lasers Used on Drivers Who Won't Stop* @
"This is really the first time the visually overwhelming laser devices have actually been used," (Lieutenant Colonel Richard Smith, the deputy director of the Joint Non- Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon) said. "This was based on needs of war fighters and commanders in the field. They have several incidents a day where a vehicle is coming at a group of soldiers.
"These dazzlers can reach out a couple hundred meters and give solders added security."
...about eight times a day around Iraq, American soldiers still shoot in an attempt to stop vehicles that come too close to them, US military statistics show. Although such confrontations are down from double that rate, commanders still worry about wounding or killing noncombatants.
The military has not released figures of the number of Iraqis killed and wounded in the confrontations..
story | The Standard
B.E. Meyers, the company that makes a laser used by U.S. troops in Iraq, said this photo shows the green beam from 330 yards away.
[photo&caption *MSNBC]
by way of Harpers Review
~It can't happen here.
Angry Annie at Unknown News says:
"I reckon it's better than just peppering them with machine gun fire. Like I reckon it's better to starve to death than to be boiled to death.
As with everything else, it sort of sidesteps the real questions. Why are American soldiers in Iraq, killing or blinding Iraqis? What the f*** does that war and occupation have to do with defending America?"
100 Dead in Afghanistan Air Strike
Monday May 22, 2006
Almost 100 people have been killed in a US-led air strike in southern Afghanistan, the governor of Kandahar province and military officials said today.
A statement released by US-led forces said 20 Taliban fighters had been killed in the attack on the village of Azizi, and that there were "an unconfirmed 60 additional Taliban casualties.
"It's common that the enemy fights in close to civilians as a means to protect its own forces," (US military spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said
~Resistence is futile. When will the terrorists learn women and children cannot deter us from our goals? The glorious victory of the United Coalition Forces is inevitable.
[photo google: victory is ours\ not with the above link]
Israel Probes China Drone Sale
22 May 2006: 17.10 CET) – The Israeli police and Defense Ministry are conducting an investigation into an Israeli company suspected of attempting to send military reconnaissance drones to China, according to Israeli media reports.
The company, Amit, builds unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at its plant in Kadima, central Israel. The drones can also be used as a weapons platform
Investigators believe that the drone and other UAVs were to be shipped to China without Israeli defense ministry documentation in a multi-million dollar deal.
press release | ISN Security Watch
~Assuming the drones were delivered, how long will it take China to produce and fly Chinese UAVs that resemble the Israeli ones? (When's the Beijing Olympics?)
May 22, 2006
State Secrets Privilege Shuts Courthouse Doors
The state secrets privilege has been invoked by the Bush Administration with greater frequency than ever before in American history in a wide range of lawsuits that the government says would threaten national security if allowed to proceed.
blog entry | Secrecy News
The State Secrets Privilege: Selected Case Files
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/statesec/index.html
One Out of 136 Americans in Jail
~At least America's no Welfare State.
Detainees from our ongoing War on Drugs?
Book: Marching Plague: Germ Warfare and Global Public Health
>from the blurb
Marching Plague examines the scientific evidence and the rhetoric surrounding biological warfare, particularly the development of anthrax and other bio-weapons, and makes a strong case against the likelihood of such weapons ever being used in a terrorist situation...
Why, then, the public urgency around biowarfare and why the channeling of enormous resources into research and development of tools to counter an imaginary threat? This is the real focus of Marching Plague: the deconstruction of an exceedingly complex political economy of fear, primarily supporting biowartech development and the militarization of the public sphere. The book addresses the following questions:
• Why is bioterrorism a failed military strategy?
• Why is it all but useless to terrorists?
• How have preparedness efforts been detrimental to public health policy?
• What institutions benefit from the cultivation of biofear?
• Why does the diplomatic community fail to confront this problem?
The book concludes with a brief examination of the actual crisis in global public health, arguing for the redirection of health research away from the military, and promoting a number of strategies for civilian-based preparedness and education.
http://eyebeam.org/engage/events_unique.php?id=96
in the UK http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/biotech/caeplague.html
from Rhizome
~The demilitarization of public health research? ("You can say I'm a dreamer...")
What's more baffling in our post--9/11 terrorism-alert universe: that Al Qaeda has yet to attempt a germ-warfare attack anywhere in the world or that no gov'ts are blaming terrorists for the BSE, West Nile Virus, bird flu, etc. disease outbreaks?
[illus. google search: marching plague @\ not with above links]
~Before doing this google search I totally spaced on the biblical associations of the word 'plague'. My bad.
And yes there is or was a rock&roll band called Marching Plague
There are a number of diseases that are also verbs? e.g. "I am plagued by her indifference."
Clap?
Coast Guard Solicits Hollywood to Help Sketch Terrorism Situations
Trying to avoid a failure of imagination in its uncharted new role, the agency has even called in screenwriters from Hollywood to help sketch terrorism situations.
"The biggest change is that the Coast Guard has gone from being an organization that ran when the bell went off to being a cop on the beat at all times,"
blog entry w/ comments*| Schneier on Security
*for example: "I'm sure I've said this before, but the whole situation reminds me of the movie "Brazil". When something blows up or catastrophically breaks, it's easy to blame it on terrorists. That prevents people from wondering if it's the constant state of disrepair and lack of focus on maintenance that might be a more likely cause..."
Movie Plot Threat Contest: Status Report
On the first of last month, I announced my (possibly First) Movie-Plot Threat Contest.
"Entrants are invited to submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios they can come up with.
"Your goal: cause terror. Make the American people notice. Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy. Change the political landscape, or the culture. The more grandiose the goal, the better.
"Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9/11: 20 to 30 unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy skills, equipment, etc."
As of the end of the month, the blog post has 782 comments. I expected a lot of submissions, but the response has blown me away.
Looking over the different terrorist plots, they seem to fall into several broad categories...
complete article:
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0605.html#1 by Bruce Schneier
Contest:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/announcing_movi.html
Flypaper theory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flypaper_theory_%28strategy%29
Google Image Searches: arrives & arriving
for example:
The Empress Arrives @
more google 'arrives' images [about 127,000]
~While looking through Yahoo News-Photos at the cleavage and backsides of celebrities arriving at the Cannes Film Festival, I was reminded there are not many photos of me or my friends and family 'arriving' anywhere. google search arriving (about 141,000) .
My mother may have a few photos of me outside the church before my christening.
Flight Delay Information
- Air Traffic Control System Command Center
View by region, airport, or search by airport name. A text-only version is available. A database of past advisories is also online. A wireless version of real-time flight delay info from the FAA is also available at this URL.
http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp
by way of ResourceShelf
May 21, 2006
Lynching Resolution Rejected in Waco
AP) - WACO, Texas-A resolution denouncing lynchings in the 1800s and early 1900s was rejected Tuesday by county commissioners.
McLennan County commissioners decided against adopting a community group's measure apologizing for the lynchings by a 4-to-1 vote..
~Yeeehaw! How the West was won!
Me thinks they doth protest too much. I'm guessing a couple of the commissioners' grandpappies or grandmaws helped string up a few neer-do-wells and uppity negras.
Sex in Video Games Conference 2006
June 8-9, 2006
San Francisco, CA
The conference is the first of its type and will be an annual event. This unique conference will focus on the design, development, and technology of sex in video games from a national as well as international perspective. In addition, this conference will also have a strong focus on business matchmaking and networking. During the conference's two day run, it will feature numerous lectures and keynotes, a machinima art show (erotic art and movies derived from video games) as well as panel discussions with leaders in video game and adult video game development.
Register now for early bird discounts!
http://www.sexinvideogames.com/
thanks Diederik
>wiki's article on Machinima
[illus from google: machinima\ not above]
~"I can't masturbate unless I'm watching a screen with somewhat Japanese female animation figures doing their thing. Video porn doesn't do it for me."
An Interview with John Dean
Dean was Nixon's White House counsel for three years and then testified against him. He is the author, most recently, of "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush." On March 31, Dean testified in favor of Senator Russ Feingold's censure bill.
"What made me aware of the fact that I was being taped was Nixon’s behavior late in the game when he literally goes to the corner of his hideaway office and starts whispering around the potted palm, “I was foolish to do this” or, “I made a mistake when I did that.”
Q: I’m very interested in the comparisons you make between Nixon and Bush.
Dean:"... I was stunned at the secrecy of this Administration. I knew that there’s no good that can come out of secrecy. So I began looking closely at Bush and finding the striking Nixonian features of this Presidency: It’s almost as if we’d left an old playbook in the basement, they found it, dusted it off, and said, “This stuff looks pretty good, we ought to give it a try.” As I dug in, and still had some pretty good sources within that Presidency, I found the principal mover and shaker of this Presidency is clearly Dick Cheney, who is not only reviving the Imperial Presidency but expanding it beyond Nixon’s wildest dreams.
...Nobody died as a result of the so-called abuses of power during Nixon’s Presidency. You might make the exception of, say, the secret bombing of Cambodia, but that never got into the Watergate litany per se. You look at Bush’s abuses, and Cheney’s—to me, it’s a Bush/ Cheney Presidency—and today, people are dying as a result of abuse of power. That’s much more serious.
Q: Dying in Iraq?
Dean: Dying in Iraq. God knows where they’re dying. In secret prisons. To me the fact that a Vice President can go to Capitol Hill and lobby for torture is just unbelievable. Just unbelievable! The fact that a small clique of attorneys in the Department of Justice can write how can we get around the Geneva Conventions so that we can torture during interrogations..."
Q: You made a comment that should be famous: When Bush said he was bypassing the FISA requirements, you remarked that it was “the first time a President has actually confessed to an impeachable offense.”
Dean:That’s exactly what he did. One of the provisions in Nixon’s bill of impeachment was his warrantless surveillance of media people, which is now covered directly by the FISA law. Warrantless wiretapping is an impeachable offense. It couldn’t be any clearer.
complete transcript: http://progressive.org/mag_wx052006
by way of TruthOut
[ad from google search: nixon bush not from above]
~Does anyone really think Bush won't serve out his term? That this Congress and Republican-appointed federal judges will wake-up tomorrow (or after November) and invoke the rule of law on this President?
More importantly, for America's post-Bush/Cheney future, do you sense that the Bushie agenda for an Imperial Presidentcy is being blocked? Has halted?
(Are you aware of how much money this administration is spending on it various wars and security schemes?)
Overheard at Starbucks
"That guy? He's killed terrorists? Him?!"
---"Well he was in Afghanistan. ....Or was it Iraq?"
May 20, 2006
Read my chest: ‘DO NOT RESUSCITATE’
DECORAH, Iowa - Mary Wohlford has made it perfectly clear what her final wishes are: It's written in ink — on her skin. Wohlford, 80, had the words "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on her chest in February.
Wohlford hopes she's made her wishes perfectly clear should she become incapacitated. She also has a living will hanging on the side of her refrigerator.
Dr. Mark Purtle (who works at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines) said Iowa law defines when caregivers are permitted to end life-sustaining measures. A tattoo isn't enough, he said.
Berkeley's "Naked Guy" Dies in Jail
Here he passes a mime couple (only in Berkeley!) looking at the Earth Day stuff on sale*
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The former college student known as the “Naked Guy,” who gained notoriety in the early 1990s for attending class in the buff, has died in jail, authorities said.
Andrew Martinez, 33, whose stripped-down strolls at the University of California, Berkeley, got him expelled and prompted the city to adopt a strict anti-nudity ordinance, was found unconscious Thursday in a Santa Clara County jail...
item | MSNBC
*more photos\info: http://www.phdtop.com/martinez/ray.html
Blog of Deaths obituary of Andrew Martinez
~It all means something. People paid money for these objects and chose to have them displayed.
It Was Fun While It Lasted
"Dude, it's time. Girls, you too. Time to pack up the whole in-your-face, raw, hyper-sexualized, porno, skater, white trash, open wounds, self-effacing, Jackass, loose ethics, 80's bar mitzvah disco, and party-till-you vomit movement, aesthetic and attitude. Go on, scram. Beat it. We don't want you hanging around anymore....
more: blog entry | Gazpachot from Conscientious
~I don't understand what this rant is about, but I'm guessing some of you do.
If my neighborhood zoning laws and the neighborhood watch dampen most non-institutional creative impulses. It's difficult to see yourself as part of a scene if you've no place to hang.
Cool... Daddy... Pow?
Witch Hunt for CIA 'Heretics' Leads to Latest Bush Debacle
The image of CIA headquarters as enemy territory is an obsession among American conservatives. It's part of their victimology. They feel themselves handicapped, and even oppressed by left/liberal mainstream America, which controls all institutions and officials under a kind of thought control. It may be true that the right controls the White House and both houses of Congress, but from the bowels of the bureaucracy they suspect bureaucratic resistance to the President and his agenda. For years, the CIA has been the most high-profile target of conservative suspicion, so they established their own spy unit in the Pentagon called "The Office of Special Plans." The intention was that information from Iraq would be evaluated there without being tainted by the rebellious CIA. The alarming reports that inflated Iraq into a Soviet-like threat originated there.
When the weapons of mass destruction could not be found the unimaginable happened: conservative politicians were propelled not by the emptiness of Saddam's weapons bunkers, but by the alleged contrary attitude of the spies...
article | Die Zeit trans. Watching America
~One could describe the Bushies "reform" of the CIA in less paranoid terms and see it as a further consolidation of "conservative" power. Power that will be there after Bush and Cheney are long gone.
Is it a debacle for Bush if Michael Hayden gets the job?
Who knew the CIA was a liberal spook farm? Only the radical right?
>maybe related: Secret Gov't Source Tells ABC News: "Get New Cellphones"
Border Radar: What $50 million buys
Arizona lawmakers estimate their appropriation would be enough to cover about two-thirds of Arizona's 350-mile-long border with Mexico.
• Sensor Technologies & Systems estimates $50 million would buy enough gear to cover about 200 linear miles.
• Honeywell would likely bid as part of a team since it doesn't sell radar-sensor units per se, so an estimate is hard to determine.
@ | AZ Central
~More government infrastructure from the party that swears it wants government off our backs and out of our lives. Who's paying for the people to house and operate this equipment? To respond when the radar sounds the alarm?
Why not have a special retro-tax for the industries that hire illegals?
May 19, 2006
Blog: Imaginary Socialite
Real of Fake: No More Drama!
Last night on Elizabeth Street, I wore a little tee that said “I Heart The Future” in Japanese.
Then this giant bag breezed by, and its owner said, “I got this bag in Japan!” and it was like total kismet.
Now my t-shirt is the real deal, and if you can guess where it came from, and what’s with its slogan, you get extra points - but not as many as if you can tell, real or fake?
[GALEN DREVER - AM I THE IMAGINARY SOCIALITE?] | May 19, 2006
http://imaginarysocialite.com/
In print: Imaginary Weapons
The military subculture that pursues the development of fabulous, physically impossible weapons concepts at taxpayer expense is the subject of a new book by defense reporter Sharon Weinberger called "Imaginary Weapons."
Weinberger introduces the hafnium bomb, a hypothetical weapon that would supposedly harness the energy released from a nuclear transition within a hafnium isomer. It is a purely speculative notion that has been largely discredited, but one that attracted nearly cultish attention -- and millions of dollars -- within the defense establishment.
It is akin in its eccentricity, and lack of reproducibility, to "zero point energy," "psychic teleportation"*, and other notions that Weinberger terms "fringe science."
Fringe science, she contends, "has reached new heights under the Bush Administration. We have fewer and fewer scientific experts in the government, and an increasing unwillingness by the government to turn to outside scientific advisers."
"The real danger in this story is not the existence of fringe science, but of fringe science in government, particularly when it receives substantial funding or guides decision-making."
"I see this problem getting worse, not better. If the government doesn't take steps to shore up its scientific expertise, I think we are facing a future filled with imaginary weapons."
blog entry w/links* | Secrecy News
CIA "Torture" Lawsuit Thrown Out
Khaled El-Masri with two of his children*
...a German citizen who says he was kidnapped and beaten by the CIA.
Khaled el-Masri aimed to sue former CIA chief George Tenet and other officials for their alleged role in the "extraordinary rendition" programme.
George Tenet
The judge did not rule on the truth of the allegations, but said letting the case proceed might endanger security.
Rights group the American Civil Liberties Union brought the case on behalf of Mr el-Masri - who was never charged with any terrorist offences.
Besides Mr Tenet, the case named 10 other CIA employees, as well as three other companies and their employees.
However, the district court judge in Virginia rejected the challenge, saying Mr el-Masri's "private interests must give way to the national interest in preserving state secrets".
story | BBC via Truthout
~To reiterate: in this case the "private interest" the judge has rule against in favor of "state secrets" is a human being's freedom from torture.
>related: *Rendition ACLU\ George Tenet Rotten.com
Bowing to the Police State
Is Congress aiding and abetting the creation of a police state?
James Bamford, one of the best observers of the inner workings of U.S. intelligence, warned recently that Congress has lost control of the intelligence community. “You can’t get any oversight or checks and balances,” he said. “Congress is protecting the White House, and the White House can do whatever it wants.”
article by Ray McGovern
[photo not with above]
Priorities for GEOINT Research at the NGA
>Priorties for Geospatial intelligence at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
...data from satellites, pilotless aircraft and ground sensors are integrated with maps and other intelligence data to provide location information on a potential target. This report defines 12 hard problems in geospatial science that NGA must resolve in order to evolve their capabilities to meet future needs. Many of the hard research problems are related to integration of data collected from an ever-growing variety of sensors and non-spatial data sources, and analysis of spatial data collected during a sequence of time (spatio-temporal data).
press release w/ link to pdf report | Docuticker
>see also on Spitting Image: Spy Agency Watching Americans from Space
self-portrait as soft target by julie heffernan @\
other JH paintings: google gallery]
May 18, 2006
Initiation
This file is the interim result of an open project which aims to list so-addressed initiation rites or rites de passage worldwide. Lists as offered below are not currently available as far as I know, although small listings have been offered in the literature.
The columns feature, from left to right, the indigenous name, the
ethnogeographic site, some features, and references/outlinks. This file collapses two lists: Encyclopaideia (male and both-sex initations/customs) and Puellarium (female rituals/customs) both freely available from http://www.boyhoodstudies.com.
This project is under construction as of mid-April 2006.This file will in due time be updated.
http://www.boyhoodstudies.com/INITIATIONmay2006.pdf
Hazing Blog\ Inside Hazing
http://www.hanknuwer.com/blog/
"Hazing is an extraordinary activity that, when it occurs often enough, becomes perversely ordinary as those who engage in it grow desensitized to its inhumanity." Nuwer's Wrongs of Passage, p. 31.
"Hazing is a process, based on a tradition that is used by groups to maintain a hierarchy (i.e., a pecking order) within the group. Regardless of consent, the rituals require individuals to engage in activities that are physically and psychologically stressful." Lipkin's What Is Hazing? @
[photo UKC Women's Hockey\ not from above]
May 17, 2006
Not Your Soldier Project
The Not Your Soldier Project gives youth the tools we need to stop the military invasion of our schools and our communities.
Question and Answer
All questioning is a forcible intrusion. When used as an instrument of power it is like a knife cutting into the flesh of the victim. The questioner knows what there is to find. but he wants actually to touch it and bring it to light.
Questions are intended to to be answered; those which are not answered are like arrows shot into the air.
Sometimes...the questioner...will put further questions. If these continue the person they are addressed to soon becomes annoyed: not only is he physically detained, but, with every answer, he is forced to reveal more of himself. What he reveals may be something quite superficial and unimportant but it is a stranger who got it from him, and it may also be connected with other things, which lie deeper in him and are far more important. Thus his annoyance soon turns to suspicion.
On the questioner the effect is an enhanced feeling of power. He enjoys this and consequently asks more and more questions; every answer he receives is an act of submission.
The final purpose of questioning is to dissect...
---from Crowds and Power: Elements of Power by Elias Canetti
[photo google]
Lyric: When You Walk in the Room
I can feel a new expression on my face
I can feel a glowing sensation taking place
I can hear the guitars playing lovely tunes
Every time that you walk in the room
I close my eyes for a second and pretend it's me you want
Meanwhile I try to act so nonchalant
I see a summer's night with a magic moon
Every time that you walk in the room
Maybe it's a dream come true
Walkin' right along side of you
Wish I could tell you how much I care
But I only have the nerve to stare
I can feel a something pounding in my brain
Just any time that someone speaks your name
Trumpets sound and I hear thunder boom
Every time that you walk in the room
Every time that you walk in the room
- written by Jackie DeShannon
- lyrics as recorded by The Searchers @
Eagle Web Cam
http://www.briloon.org/ed/eagle/
~A ball of feathers or a baby eagle on a pile of twigs somewhere in Maine. (It could be a puppet in someone's basement in Brooklyn.)
'American Idol' and Race Preference
>Not racist.. same-race preferences.
Using data from Nielsen Media Research ratings, (Jungmin Lee) a University of Arkansas labor economist studied the television show "American Idol" and found strong evidence of same-race preferences among viewers for show participants.
~In America; the land of the free, the home of the brave? (Entertainers can be so threatening.)
Study: Lesbians Like Men With Major Difference
Lesbians react to body odors like heterosexual men but with an important difference -- they are not sexually aroused, Swedish researchers say.
That differs from earlier studies by the Swedish team, which found gay men and heterosexual women react to male sweat in the same way.
"This observation could favor the view that male and female homosexuality are different," lead researcher Ivanka Savic told The New York Times.
~As a practicing heterosexual male I could of told them there were differences between male and female homosexuality. Hey, I can't help it: it's my activated hypothalamus, it's science.
[illus not from above]
Nano-Product Recalled in Germany
At least 77 people reported severe respiratory problems over a one-week period at the end of March -- including six who were hospitalized with pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs -- after using a "Magic Nano" bathroom cleansing product, according to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin.
item | Phys.org
~OK who had March 2006 Europe in the pool?
(As for the grand prize no word on any deaths.)
Frequent Tanners May be Addicted
The (Wake Forest University) North Carolina researchers said there are three signs of a tanning addition: people are unable to stop getting tans, they awake each day with tanning on their mind and they are irritated by people who say they have a problem.
item | Phy.org
~I remember when I thought there were drugs you need only try once to become addicted. I can remember learning there were also other drugs, easily avoided because they were illegal, that you would get addicted to over time. Smoking and alcohol appeared later on this timescale of understanding which things to avoid in order to live a healthy, happy, free life.
For a time I believed all Americans were getting healthier because of massive tax expenditures enforcing the laws that curtail the consumption of illegal drugs, tobacco and alcohol.
Now we have tan addicts.
They might be horrors to behold but at least they're not impaired while driving cars, operating machinery or babysitting the kids? That's progress.
Google Image Search: "laying a wreath"
>for example
The President and Laura Bush pause before the laying of the wreath at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28. (2001) WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SUSAN STERNER
some 5000 more photos from google
~At this time of year, when spring is in full bloom, images of leaders posed in contemplation at memorials for the dead are powerful reminders of their office, their duty.
I think every federal official, every general, should have a 'laying a wreath' photo prominently displayed on their desks.
Are the personality types that become leaders stimulated or sobered when contemplating mortality? They are such exceptional creatures. Who can know if death has the same hold on our leaders as it has on the millions of us. Does the power to wield death, the responsibility for causing the deaths of perhaps tens of thousands of others change everything?
What do they secretly say to themselves and to no one else, by way of explanation?
Since the beginning of time, at the darkest hour of their souls, do they all say in their multitude of languages more or less the same thing?
Maybe like us, it depends upon who's grave(s) they're standing on?
At google there are few photos like this of the dignitary kneeling in the act of laying the wreath. Wreaths are often supported by stands. Close-up photos of leaders in contemplation or prayer are also rare.
The laying of wreaths for the dead is a common practice in the West(?) yet only certain images from the ritual are for public consumption. Go figure.
Wreath laying photos at Whitehouse.gov.
Iowa State To Have The Most Realistic Virtual Reality Room in the World
Jared Knutzon, an Iowa State University graduate student in human computer interaction, demonstrates how Iowa State's C6 virtual reality room can control the military's unmanned aerial vehicles. Credit: Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications Center
~I'm not sure what makes this item newsworthy but the existence of 'virtual reality rooms' is intriguing. Do the Chinese have them? Do the Russians?
Are there bubble-boy or autistic children of billionaires who use them? Bored but paranoid oil sheiks? Children's hospital cancer wards?
The gothic undertones of this technology can't be ignored. Are there people at this very minute 'living' in, relying on, virtual reality rooms as controlled substitutes for real world environments they can no longer tolerate?
I myself have a 'meditation closet' and women-friends who have sewing rooms.
May 16, 2006
Secret Gov't Source Tells ABC News: "Get New Cellphones"
ABC News has a very disturbing report today, at least for reporters and anyone else who believe that whistleblowers serve an important role in safeguarding American democracy.
On its blog, The Blotter, ABC News reports that a senior government source has told its reporters that the reporters' phone calls with sources are being tracked by the U.S. government "to root out confidential sources."
ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.
Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.
One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.
Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials.
People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.
Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.
The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.
A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable clues for leak investigators.
Being a confidential source who disagrees with a presidential administration then decides to oppose it by becoming a whistleblower can take courage when discovery means loss of a job and possible legal consequences.
It's just that kind of courage that this revelation is likely to chill. That could be the administration's intent here, to make would-be confidential sources think twice before talking with reporters.
It's no small irony that the only reason we now know about this is because a ABC News' confidential source told them about it.
story
By Frank James The Chicago Tribune via TruthOut
~If the Bushies are going after tv network news-journalists does that mean they're finished with print journalists?
By the way, I'm not sure new cell phones would correct ABCs problem; would stop the Bushies from tracking their calls. Two tin cans connected by string would be more secure.
Is it sweeps week?
There's nothing more deserving of our respect then a government that encourages free and open inquiry from it's citizens.
It'll be a freakin miracle if in November the Democrats win the House and gain seats in the Senate. (And next year these same goons will be targeting academics and researchers?)
[illus not with above]
The Hanky Codes
http://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/cuffs/hanky.html
~So last century.
I can't hear or read the word 'hanky' without thinking of South Park's Mr. Hanky. I hate when that happens.
[photo not from CUFFS]
Lifestyles: Reducing the Risks for Meeting an Online Acquaintance
>BDSM
Making Acquaintances
In the information age, there are unlimited ways to meet people with similar interests. The most common are websites, chatrooms, and even old-fashioned personal ads. These venues are great for getting people in touch with others, but they also provide cover and anonymity to people who want to do harm. Unfortunately, because of the stigma and prejudice against people with a BDSM orientation in our society, it is somewhat difficult for people in the BDSM community to meet partners in safer, real-life social gatherings. Meeting partners is especially difficult in rural or very conservative areas.
As a result of the risks of meeting people online, and the vulnerability that BDSM itself brings to meeting a potential partner, the BDSM community has developed tools and safety procedures to help significantly reduce the hazards of meeting a new acquaintance in real life. However, these tools are just as valuable to people who are not affiliated with BDSM, and could even save your life. This paper describes the safety procedures in detail, and it is our hope that you will use them to protect yourself in any situation that you may need them.
Initial Real-Life Contact
After conversing with a person online or over the phone, you may want to take the next step and actually arrange a meeting. A first meeting should be set up in a very public place with many exits, and should preferably have security readily available. Mall food courts are usually very good for this purpose. You may also want to set up a safecall, which is discussed in detail in another section of this paper. When your potential partner arrives, converse with him or her about non-personal issues for a while until you feel comfortable that you are still interested in the person. Don't reveal anything that could be used to identify or trace you until your instincts have had a chance to evaluate how things are going. Be weary of a person who tries to push you into a conversation topic that you are uncomfortable with, or who seems not to be interested in you as a person.
If you are unsure about whether or not you like the person, or don't feel entirely safe, feel free to end the meeting at any time. (Be sure to exit as outlined below.) You can either call it quits there, or arrange another very public meeting to get to know the person better. This procedure is not rude, and the worst the person can do is say no.
When and if you decide that you like the person, and you are comfortable that he or she is probably safe to become more involved with, then you should exchange driver's licenses. Have something to write with handy, and write down every single piece of information on the license. Make sure that it is indeed a State-issued, photo ID. Video rental membership cards or work ID's are not acceptable. You should also ask for, and give, personal references to be called to check on each other's background. References should have phone numbers, not e-mail addresses, since it is not possible to evaluate a reference over e-mail. It should be stated that you have every right to walk away at any time you feel uncomfortable with the person.
Of course, not everyone knows these safety procedures. You should warn the person beforehand that you will ask for ID and references, so that he or she can have a fair chance to ask some friends to expect your call.
The exit from a public meeting is very important. You must not leave the meeting place with the person, and you also must not let him or her see you walk to your vehicle. Exit the mall or other area by different doors, and be sure you are not followed. It is vital that you not go anywhere with the person yet, because only you have his or her ID information.
After the Meeting
Once you are home, immediately call a friend with all the information you wrote down from the person's ID, as well as a physical description of him or her for your friend to write down. Be sure that the friend you choose is reliable and responsible, because your safety may depend on that choice.
Begin calling the personal references that the person gave as soon as possible. You are evaluating what the reference says about the person, as well as the reference himself or herself. After all the references have been checked and the person's information is in the hands of your friend, you may feel comfortable setting up a more private date with the person. Once you have chosen a time with him or her, be sure to specify an appropriate location. The only appropriate locations are the residence listed on your Driver's License, the residence listed on the other person's Driver's License, or a public place. Once the time and location are set, you are ready to arrange a safecall.
Safecalls
The safecall is the single most important tool you can use to increase your level of safety. A safecall is a call made to a friend at a prearranged time, with a prearranged code-word to mean that you are safe. In order for the safecall to be effective, your friend must know exactly where you are, and have all the personal information about the person you are meeting. Instruct your friend that if you don't call within ten minutes of the prearranged time with the proper code-word, he or she should send police to the address where you planned to be.
Since a safecall is only as effective as the accuracy of the information you give your friend, you must take steps to ensure its accuracy. First, go only to the place where you told your friend you would be, and drive yourself directly there. Don't arrange to meet your partner somewhere and drive to another location. Once at the location, don't leave until the date is over. When you arrive for the date, inform your partner that you must make a safecall at the time you arranged with your friend, but don't tell him or her whom you are calling or your code-word. If things go wrong and you are in danger, make the safecall, but don't use your code-word to your friend. With the code-word missing, your friend will know there is a problem. Finally, it is perfectly acceptable to set up several safecalls for the course of the date instead of just one.
Other Safety Advise
There are many other measures you may take to ensure your safety. Not all of them are right for everyone, but you have the right to choose what works best for you. One thing you may consider is bringing a friend along on your dates. This may be a bit awkward for some, but may work well for others. If you are a member of the BDSM community, you may want to avoid inescapable bondage during your first several dates with a new partner. In any case, always make your own personal limits cl