August 31, 2006
True Crime: Diabetic Man In Coma After Arrest
Jerome Clement was having a diabetic seizure, family and friends told NBC5's Amy Jacobson, but East Chicago police said they thought the 39-year-old Clement was drunk and belligerent, so they arrested him. Clement, who has been diabetic since he was 11 years old, had a heart attack while he was being arrested, and was on life support.
Clement's family said they would take Clement off of life support this weekend...
Last Friday, Clement was in his car when someone called the police claiming a man was passed out and needed help. Jacobson reported that when police said they arrived, they allegedly smelled alcohol and claimed Clement was kicking them and resisting arrest.
...East Chicago Police Chief Angelo Machuca Jr. in a statement said "As police officers, we are confronted with many scenarios in which difficult decisions must be made within seconds. I will stand by the decisions made by the officers who responded to this call."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14610211/
~Looks like the cops were having particular difficulty with Mr. Clement's face.
HH at Unknown News reminds us:
"This would be tragic, if such a mistake had never happened before. But this kind of thing happens startlingly often, and the Police Chief's response is startlingly ordinary: He stands behind his officers. End of story."
Folktale: The Woman and the Pear Tree
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type1423.html#novellino | Folktexts
Mark Rothko
American, 1903 - 1970
Untitled (woman under tree), verso, 1937/1938
oil on hardboard, 31.7 x 41.9 cm (12 1/2 x 16 1/2 in.)
[illus from Nat. Gallery of Art\ not Folktexts]
Herman's Meadow. A Museum
...herman and Susanne are sitting together in the forest near Eschenau in the autumn, between them is a large board with a sheet of paper attached to it. As the leaves fall from the trees they glue them on to the paper, exactly where they have landed. herman comments: `we observe cverything that falls. nature has her own order and beneath this order we have now slipped this board and are fixating what happens here. one calls this coincidence, but what is coincidence? thc word coincidence is merely a crutch, which i use because i cannot identify all of the factors which determine that a leaf, as this one now, will fall on exactly this place on our board. (now we are waiting for the next leaf.) one could ask here, why we don't do more than to glue on these leaves and whether this is a task for an artist? But what could i add? any line i might add here, any change i might make, could limit the sense of that which is happening here and which we are trying to catch.'
article by Michael Fehr 1992
~There's this way blue-domers have of moving around,-looking at and appreciating, certain plants, animals, and places that must drive anyone with them who's less inspired absolutely bonkers. Our museums and cathedrals don't have walls.
Not a Cornfield
The corn is gone from downtown Los Angeles. The harvest was the last event in a nine month project known as Not A Cornfield, which involved planting 32 acres of corn in a former railyard brownfield near Chinatown known generally over the years, for some reason, as the Cornfields. "Not A Cornfield" was conceived by the artist Lauren Bon, as an artwork, or, more accurately, as a nexus for a network of converging activities, events, lectures, screenings, and artforms.
+
The Lower 48 states of the USA is 1.9 billion acres in size. Of that, about...20% is cropland (450 million acres). On this, corn is America's largest crop, covering 81.6 million acres, about one quarter of all crops, an amount that adds up to about 4% of the land cover of the Lower 48. This is about the same amount of land that is urbanized/suburbanized. This is also almost half of the world's production of corn.
+
...the largest direct consumption of corn by humans in the USA is by ingesting corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is found in numerous processed food products in the United States, where, unlike in other countries...it is a less expensive sweetener than other sugars, like cane and beet. The vast majority of corn syrup is not eaten, but drunk in the form of soda pop,
complete article "The Landscape of Corn:"
http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/lotl/v29/f.html
| from The Lay of the Land
August 30, 2006
Robert Smithson Quote
"Apart from the ideal gardens of the past, and their modern counterparts - national and large urban parks, there are the more infernal regions - slag heaps, strip mines, and polluted rivers."---Robert Smithson
[Mica Spread by Robert Smithson from http://www.robertsmithson.com/photoworks/]
~Apart from the ideal paintings and artifacts of the past in museums and their modern counterparts - artworks sold in galleries and reproductions of art sold everywhere, there are more mundane images - snapshots, vacation photos and utilitarian images.
Nuclear Sublime
as in..100 Suns and the Nuclear Sublime by Michael Light
015 Sugar, 1.2 Kilotons, Nevada, 1951, 2003, archival inkjet print, 20 x 16 inches @
RH: How have viewers responded to 100 SUNS?
ML: Quite a few people have told me they became sick, physically nauseated, after looking at about 20 images. Almost 50% have told me, with guilt on their faces, that they are shocked that they find the images beautiful. Maybe this combination of beauty and horror adds up to the nausea? I think it's part of navigating the precipices. Power is seductive and as long as nuclear weapons exist there is the possibility they will be used again.
interview: http://lightresearch.net/interviews/100suns1.html
more 100 SUNS (and LA) photos by Michael Light:
http://www.hosfeltgallery.com/HTML/artists/Big_MichaelLight/
Notes, Acknowledgments, Biblio
from a suggestion by Diederik
Documentary: Murderball
Plot Outline: A film about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max-style wheelchairs - overcoming unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece
IMDb's: Murderball (2005)
thanks Diederik
related: Quad Rugby Central
[photo from QRC\ not IMDb]
Art: Waves Exhibition
A Show With Electromagnetism
Electromagnetic waves surround us, in fact they constantly pass through us. They propel the technologies that keep our lives in motion, so it is natural that new media artists would be drawn to them as a subject. An exhibition currently on view in Riga, Latvia, 'looks at electromagnetic waves as the principle material--the medium--of media art.' The WAVES show includes forty projects by over seventy artists from eighteen countries, many of which are much more utopian than those seen in recent medium-specific exhibits. WAVES organizers at the new media organization, RIXC, have worked to formulate a roster that 'interrogates the conventions of media art exhibitions' and educates viewers about the ubiquity and plurality of contexts in which these signals flow. The ultimate message is that taking control of the waves might actually allow for alternate realities via alternate power structures and communication systems. Considering how invisible these waves tend to be, there! are some remarkably large-scale works in the show, which the curators summarize as sometimes 'based on screens and audio-visualisations of waves,' but also 'rely[ing] on physical objects... obscure or forgotten communication technologies... and the antenna as an art object.' Point your own antenna at RIXC's website to learn more about several dozen innovative art projects. - Regan McGill
| Rhizome
The 8th International New Media Art festival
ART + COMMUNICATION 2006: WAVES
August 24 - 26, 2006 in Riga, Latvia
Iranian Jews
http://questionthemark.org/2006/08/25/iranian-jews.aspx
via Unknown News
~Who knew?
Mass Murder in the Skies: Was the Plot Feasible?
>TATP
Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who've employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace, like the seven angels of God's wrath pouring out their bowls full of pestilence and pain.
The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't.
Now we have news of the recent, supposedly real-world, terrorist plot to destroy commercial airplanes by smuggling onboard the benign precursors to a deadly explosive, and mixing up a batch of liquid death in the lavatories. So, The Register has got to ask, were these guys for real...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/
via Unknown News
>A Google News search from Aug 9, 2006 to today (Aug 30) with the words "mass murder planes" shows 2,050 results.
~Nevermind?
Advert: Introducing Washlet
"Everything in life evolves. Including the concept of clean. What is clean? What's the most effective way of cleaning ourselves? Introducing the Washlet. Innovative. Luxurious.
The bathroom accessory that turns your bathroom into an oasis of serenity and comfort. The Washlet uses water. Nature's most gentle and essential element. Purifying. Relaxing. Quite simply, the epitome of clean. The evolution of clean.
more: http://www.washlet.com/default.asp
watch: http://www.washlet.com/quicktime1.html
~Washlet's "streamlined wand" frightens me yet I'm intrigued by the promise of an "unprecedented level of pleasure".
.jpg)
2x
August 29, 2006
Brain Scan of Nuns Finds No Single 'God Spot' in the Brain
In other words, mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems normally implicated in a variety of functions (self-consciousness, emotion, body representation). The study published in the current issue of Neuroscience Letters...
Fifteen cloistered Carmelite nuns ranging from 23 to 64-years-old were subjected to an fMRI brain scan while asked to relive a mystical experience rather than actually try to achieve one. "I was obliged to do it this way seeing as the nuns are unable to call upon God at will," said Beauregard. This method was justified seeing as previous studies with actors asked to enter a particular emotional state activated the same brain regions as people actually living those emotions.
...in the late 1990s..(s)ome researchers went as far as suggesting the possibility of a specific brain region designed for communication with God.
[This study demonstrated that a dozen different regions of the brain are activated during a mystical experience.]
press release | Science Blog
Book: The Rite of Sodomy
> more info http://www.riteofsodomy.com/reviews/CFN_Interview.htm
excerpt: http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/060721
~Ouch. Could there be a homosexual mafia controlling the American Catholic Church? With its billions of dollars in real estate holdings and other financial assets?? And all along I thought gays everywhere were being discriminated against. I guess for gays also money and power decide who gets screwed and who does the screwing.
Caveat: I'm assuming, perhaps stupidly, that the writer's homophobia hasn't corrupted the facts or the parts of the book that don't equate homosexuality with perversion. Is it possible to be inspired by fear and hate and tell a partially true story?
Today I need to think so, to imagine what it might mean for a powerful institution like the Catholic Church to function in today's society with those secrets. ...as a homosexual cult. If true, given the Church's political involvement in issues like abortion, birth control, "the family" and gay rights and its place as the moral compass for its 'flock' of millions of souls... it's absolutely diabolical, unbelievably tragic and laugh out loud funny.
Is it possible to be blinded by fear and hate of the other and ignore the effects on society, the 'agendas', of organized heterosexuals and their sex economies of sexual favors, coercion, cronyism and secrets?
I sometimes imagine the Bush Administration is a BDSM cult. That the president, vice-president (and their wives) and the highest ranking appointed officials controlling America today are all adept at achieving sexual pleasure through pain....but I don't like to think about it too much.
NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT.
[photo from google\ not above]
related: "Remembering" Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
Google News Search: "details known only"
About 842 new stories selected by Google from Aug 14, 2006 to today use all of the words: "details known only" with at least one of the words: JonBenet | ramsey
~True crime.
Lyric: God Bless the Child
Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own
Yes, the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own
Money, you've got lots of friends
Crowding round the door
When you're gone, spending ends
They don't come no more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don't take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own
He just worry 'bout nothin'
Cause he's got his own
When Government Shrugs: Lessons of Katrina
By Adolph L. Reed Jr.
http://progressive.org/mag_reed0906
August 28, 2006
Lyric: UNQUIET GRAVE
The wind doth blow tonight, my love
A few small drops of rain
I never had but one true love
In cold clay she is lain
I'll do as much for my true love
As any young man may
I'll sit and mourn upon her grave
A twelvemonth and a day
The twelvemonth and a day being up
A voice spoke from the deep
Who is it sits and weeps upon my grave
And will not let me sleep
'Tis I, 'tis I, thy own true love
That weeps upon thy grave
Until I have one kiss from your cold lips
No comfort will I have
My lips are cold as clay, my love
My breath is earthy strong
And had you one kiss from my cold lips
You time would not be long
Down in yonder garden gay
Love, where we used to walk
The sweetest flower that ever I saw
Is withered to a stalk
The stalk is withered dry, my love
So will our hearts decay
So hold yourself content, my love
Till death calls you away
Child Ballad #78
~"The sweetest flower that ever I saw is withered to a stalk."--this line also makes sense (more so?) if the dead lover is a man and the mourner is a woman.
"Terror is Glamour"
"Terror is glamour -- not only, but also. I am firmly convinced that there's something like a fascination with death among suicide bombers. Many are influenced by the misdirected image of a kind of magic that is inherent in these insane acts. The suicide bomber's imagination leads him to believe in a brilliant act of heroism, when in fact he is simply blowing himself up pointlessly and taking other peoples lives. There's one thing you mustn't forget here: the victims terrorized by radical Muslims are mostly other Muslims."
SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH SALMAN RUSHDIE
~Ok Mr. Rushdie in this interview is promoting his latest book, in which coincidentally his fictional protagonist joins fictional jihadists, but do we in the West really need a "terror is glamour" meme perhaps infecting our growing medically uninsured, mimimum-wage earning disaffected masses?
Can we avoid it? That train's already left the station? The unprecidented incarcerations from the War on Drugs followed by the bankrupting war in Iraq and new government powers over it's citizens make American homeland grown acts of terrorism all but a certainty?)
Mr. Rushdie also has nice things to say about fundamentalists, the 'spiritual', and how "a conscious, fearless way of life" (sic) not war will triumph over terrorism.
Professor Helps Invent Lightning Sensor
By measuring electricity in the atmosphere, the device provides advance warning that lightning may be imminent, said William Beasley, a University of Oklahoma professor of meteorology, who helped invent the Campbell Scientific CS-110 Electric Field Meter.
[CS110 Electric Field Meter @]
The NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida has relied on electric field detection for decades.
"They use a network of electric field meters," the professor said. "If the electric field is greater than 1,000 volts per meter anywhere on the place, you can't fuel a car, you can't launch a rocket, you can't do anything because there's a charge overhead and it could lead to lightning.
~Doesn't say how much of a warning one might get or how accurate this $3,500 device is. But with lightning any kind of warning is better than no warning at all.
I've been noticing more metal boxes on poles than ever before. I don't feel a kinship with what they might be doing. The eyes in the skies (sic) got nothing for me.
True Crime: The Girl & the Beast
Last week Natascha Kampusch, an Austrian teenager, escaped from a cellar where she had been held captive for over eight years. Called the "ugliest crime" the country has ever seen, the police now face tough questions.
When ten-year-old Natascha Kampusch didn't return home from school on March 2, 1998, the police launched the biggest investigation in the country's post-war history. There was a massive search for her throughout Austria, as well as neighboring Hungary and the Czech Republic. The case was aired on television and at one point even Kampusch's mother was suspected of being involved in the disappearance.
But what really happened to the young girl borders on the unthinkable...Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop called it the "ugliest crime in Austrian history."
The country is once again as shocked by the case as it was eight years ago. The press is constantly interviewing Kampusch's weeping parents, while newspapers print computer-generated images of the girl, images meant to convey what she would look like today.
+
Natascha's new life began in the Deutsch-Wagram police station outside Vienna. Now an 18-year-old woman... she was interviewed by an attractive young police officer named Sabine Freudenberger
...Freudenberger...said that the kidnapper became a "father figure" to Natascha. He paid attention to her hygiene and gave her schoolbooks.
Natascha was essentially buried alive in a house at Heine Strasse 60. Although the Austrian tabloids have dubbed it a "house of horror," that isn't the way it looks...It was the house of Wolfgang Priklopil, 44, who converted it into his personal prison camp, a realm completely under his control.
The girl was forced to live in a room that measured five square meters.
Christa Stefan, 61, who lives across the street. On two occasions she even saw Natascha at his side, but thought nothing of it. "He waved from his car, and she just sat there, looking quite normal. It just surprised me to see him with such a young girlfriend."
Jantschek (who lives behind the house where Kampusch was kept captive)...says he was Priklopil's "closest acquaintance" in the neighborhood...also claims to have seen Natascha Kampusch several times, sometimes even helping out in the garden. Once, he says, he was standing in the garage watching Priklopil work on his car when the girl came in to bring him some tools. "He said he had borrowed her from his business partner."
+
Priklopil had briefly been a possible suspect in Natascha's abduction eight years earlier, when someone in his neighborhood placed an anonymous call to the police to report his white delivery van.
At the time of the kidnapping, they (Erich Zwettler of the Bundeskriminalamt, Austria's federal office of criminal investigation, Nikolaus Koch, head of the special task force set up to find Natascha)
said, the authorities inspected 700 white delivery vans, and Priklopil not only seemed credible but also had no criminal record.
Max Edelbacher, 61, headed the investigation until 2002... He too insists that his conscience is clear, that there were so many leads to follow back then. Besides, says Edelbacher, Natascha's friend who told the police about the delivery van at the time of the kidnapping was someone whose teachers said liked to tell stories and make things up, and that she wasn't believable. A tough case, he insists, a hard one to solve.
[Interior Minister Prokop of the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP)-- under fire for her alleged role in a corruption scandal -- had said that the kidnapper could have become nervous because the police had recently begun investigating the case again. To widespread derision, she claimed this demonstrated that the police had helped break the case.]
story w/ photos | Spiegel
~The 'personal prison camp' metaphor is noteworthy. Here in the USA journalists writing about a similar kidnapping would rely more on descriptions from popular horror movies and metaphors for slavery and bondage never prison camps?
The politicians taking credit for this young woman's release and Mr. Edelbacher excuses for ignoring a witness (an eyewitness??) are sickeningly typical. ...True-to-form and priceless.
Rock&Roll: Boys Night Out ~ Trainwreck
>advertisment
Track Listing:
01. Introducing
02. Dreaming
03. Waking
04. Sentencing
05. Medicating
06. Purging
07. Relapsing
08. Recovering
09. Composing
10. Disintegrating
11. Healing
12. Dying
CD released on July 26th, 2006 by Ferret Records.
+
As a child, you read storybooks with happy endings. Theses books are perfectly wrapped in plastic, bounded and printed on high gloss paper—ready to be consumed. The story usually ends with, "and they lived happily ever after..." When you're young, you start to render these falsified conceptions of life and that everything is going to be okay. As you grow older, you realize these stories have only created misconceptions and everything that was once perfect has deteriorated, just like the materials that have kept the book together.
complete advert | Truth.Explosion Magazine
~I don't know if the band's name is Trainwreck or Boys Night Out but I felt the song titles and the ad copy noteworthy.
August 27, 2006
SiloWorld
Explore our Country's Earliest InterContinental Ballistic Missiles and their Basing Modes. Take a journey back in time to the beginnings of our Missile Heritage. Learn what it took to Control and Maintain one of the Deadliest Weapons known to Man. Experience everyday life as a United States Air Force Missileer.
for example
[Titan II @]
Non-Nuclear ICBMs May Target Terrorists
The Pentagon is considering a plan to replace nuclear warheads on some intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) with conventional weapons for pre-emptive strikes against terrorists, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.
+
We don't know how the world is going to evolve but we do know that there are terrorist networks in the world and they are already using missiles. We just saw what Hizbollah did, firing some 4,000 missiles into Israel," Rumsfeld said.
press release | The Age
~It would be much easier and cheaper to fight terrorists and punish those who shield them with ICBMs than with soldiers on the ground like in Afghanistan and Iraq.
[photo via google: dr. strangelove\ not above]
The World Did Not End on Aug 22
On both his August 9 and August 22 broadcasts, (CNN Headline News') Glenn Beck cited an August 8 op-ed by Princeton University professor Bernard Lewis, posted to The Wall Street Journal's website. Lewis wrote that August 22 "is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq" and claimed that, as a result, it "might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world." Lewis also asserted that "[i]t is far from certain that [Iranian President] Mr. [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind."
blog entry/ links | Media Matters
from Harry Shearer's LeShow
~I can understand cable-tv milking this story, they have hours of air time to fill, but the Wall Street Journal printing it? How much does the Journal charge for a eighth of a page ad?
[Defiant: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's response to the UN Security Council's resolution has been deemed as "falling short" of international demands. Photo: Reuters by way of @ | The Age]
more:
...after the mistranslation (of Ahmadinejad's speech last October)
was thrown against the wall and stuck, the corporate media ran with it and ever since we have been told Ahmadinejad wants to kill all the Jews and as many American infidels as possible...
According to Lewis, the only sane response is to take out the Iranians before they nuke up, because "mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning. At the end of time, there will be general destruction anyway. What will matter will be the final destination of the dead—hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement." Lewis does not advocate shock and awing Iran outright, but rather beats around the bush, urging "immediate precautions."
Bernard Lewis’ Hidden Imam Campfire Story by Kurt Nimmo
Book: Japanamerica
How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.
by Roland Kelts
Description
Anime, or Japanese animation, is Asia's equivalent of the Harry Potter phenomenon in the rest of the world. While Hollywood struggles to fill seats, Japanese anime releases are increasingly outpacing American movies in sheer numbers and, more importantly, in the devotion they inspire in their fans. But just as Harry Potter is both "universal" and very English, anime is also deeply Japanese, making its popularity in the rest of the world surprising. Japanamerica is the first book that directly addresses our experience with anime and the Japanese pop phenomenon, covering everything from Hayao Miyazaki's epics, the burgeoning world of hentai, or violent pornographic anime, and Puffy Amiyumi, whose exploits are broadcast daily on the Cartoon Network to literary novelist Haruki Murakami, and more. With expert insight regarding both nations, this book highlights the shared conflicts as American and Japanese pop cultures dramatically intersect.
Contents
Foreword
May the G-Force Be with You
Atom Boys
The Business of Anime
Toy Story
Japan's IP Problem
Strange Transformations
Cosplay and Otakudom: The Draw of DIY
Future Shocks
thanks Diederik
Hydrogen Peroxide Sensor Could AId Security
When mixed with a material that contains even trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the powdery sensors turn bright yellow or red and light up. "You don't need anything to read the selective reaction other than your eye," said the chemist, Christopher Chang, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry. "You could also use a hand-held black-light lamp to detect the fluorescence."
...the sensors could be manufactured in a variety of forms, including paper strips similar to the ones used to measure pH levels, the chemist said. Authorities testing for illicit substances could then simply dip the strip into the suspect liquid or gel and look for a color change.
press release | UC Berkeley
~I've been told that I phosfloresce under certain conditions.
Norman Solomon Interviews Jonathan Tasini
Jonathan Tasini isn’t expecting a miracle. The candidate who would take on political giant Hillary Clinton for her adamant pro-war stance is not expecting to repeat what Lamont pulled off in Connecticut; he admits he just doesn’t have the money. And yet he is proud his poll numbers were recently as high as 13% and climbing...
"...the establishment Democratic Party supports incumbents, generally speaking. You saw that in the Connecticut race and you saw that here. No matter where the issues are people don’t—you know Democrats who are in office don’t want primaries, even if they happen to agree 100% with the challenger, because their attitude is, well, the shoe might be on the other foot someday. So the notion that there would be a debate about the future of the Democratic Party—in other words, primaries—is not something they encourage.
+
Guernica: Is there a prototype that Hillary Clinton is part of, setting aside her personality, history, alleged charisma, is she kind of a cookie cutter with finger to the wind? Is she an archetype of an opportunist, frankly—she sees a war going on and won’t challenge it for strategic political reasons?
Jonathan Tasini: I take that as an article of faith. She and her husband took triangulation and positioning to an art form. A lot of voters who don’t even know me, that’s their immediate reaction. That it’s just opportunism, there’s no real principles behind where she stands and that she will sell out anybody for any particular position.
+
“Look, if Hillary Clinton was part of a bill, legislation that was passed, that gave every American a million dollars in their pockets she would be touting that vote from here till next Sunday.” In the same way, she has to be held responsible for her vote to send people to war. You can’t have just the positive things you pretend you do and then say, “Well, no I don’t have anything to do with the deaths of people in other countries.”
complete interview | Guernica via TruthOut
August 26, 2006
FIRST UPSIDE DOWN TREE
The man as the tree is a being where confused forces come to be held upright.---Gaston Bachelard
Robert Smithson Alfred, NY 1969 @
>from Robert Smithson's 1970 essay “Incidents of Mirror Travel in the Yucatan":
"On this site the third upside-down tree was planted. The first is in Alfred, New York State, the second is in Captiva Island, Florida; lines drawn on a map will connect them. Are they totems of rootlessness that relate to one another? Is this a mode of travel that does not in the least try to establish a coherent coming and going between the here and the there? Perhaps they are dislocated "North and South poles" marking peripheral places, polar regions of the mind fixed in mundane matter—poles that have slipped from the geographical moorings of the world's axis. Central points that evade being central. Are they dead roots that haplessly hang off inverted trunks in a vast "no man's land" that drifts toward vacancy? In the riddling zone, nothing is for sure." @
~Here's a more recognizable upside down tree. Thanks to National Geographic Magazine and gov't tax benefits for industries catering to tourists.
This upside down tree can be found in small apartments. I picture Japanese people who celebrate Christmas, Mickey Mouse and such.
>more from "Incidents of Mirror Travel..." by Robert Smithson:
"When the conscious artist perceives "nature" everywhere he starts detecting falsity in the apparent thickets, in the appearance of the real, and in the end he is skeptical about all notions of existence, objects, reality, etc. Art works out of the inexplicable."
~Ok so maybe above I'm confusing the indescribable or inarticulate with the inexplicable.
Blog: Masculinities in Media
T.V. Movies. Magazines. Music. Newspapers. They show us the world - And sell us what it means to be a "real man". The messages are limiting, at best, if we don't respond to them - So here are our rants, raves, analyses, formal press releases and informal office conversations --- our chance to respond!
http://www.mencanstoprape.blogspot.com/
My Strength Is Not for Hurting
Posters
for example
others:
http://www.mencanstoprape.org/info-url2698/info-url_list.htm?section=Strength%20Mediaworks%20Posters
| Strength Mediaworks
~Apropos of I-don't-know-what: I never played organized sports and the first jobs I had weren't exactly tests of physical stamina; more like exercises in showing-up and tedium.
It wasn't until I was regularly sharing a bed with a woman that I began to realize I was physically strong.
It's no exaggeration to say for the first 20 years of my life there were very few opportunities to show or prove to anyone what a fine physical specimen I was. It wasn't essential...it didn't make a difference either way....it never came up.
(I learned early on to be quiet and not to steal or break things.)
Very strange. I could have been a bag a meat on a motorized cart, except for her.
Book: Manipulating Masculinity
War and Gender in Modern British and American Literature
by Kathy Janette Phillips
Description
In this study, Kathy Janette Phillips uses literature from World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and the Iraq wars to argue that labelling broadly human traits 'feminine' helps societies manipulate men to war. Phillips also shows that damning pleasure fuels wars by encouraging the displacement of sexuality into violence.
Contents
Introduction
Background: Sexuality and War
World War I: No Half-Men at the Front
World War II: No Lace on His Drawers
The Vietnam War: Out from Under Momma's Apron
Conclusion
Epilogue: The Wars against Iraq: Red Alert on Girly Boys
Works Cited
thanks Diederik
[photo not from above]
Activist's Remark Starts FBI Probe
Jim Bensman thought his suggestion during a public hearing (on July 25 in Alton, Ill.) was harmless enough: Instead of building a channel so migratory fish could go around a dam on the Mississippi River, just get rid of the dam.
Within days, the FBI had Bensman on the phone, asking whether he was any threat.
"To think I'm a terrorist is utterly ridiculous," Bensman, 46, said from his home in Alton, just north of St. Louis. "How could any reasonable person think a terrorist is going to come to a public meeting held by the Army Corps, let them know who they are and announce their terror plot? It just doesn't make sense to me."
(Army Corp spokesman Alan) Dooley isn't offering apologies, casting the agency's deferral to the FBI as a judgment call.
"I don't want to dispute anything with Jim at this point," Dooley said. "We're not going to debate whether this is oversensitivity or undersensitivity."
~The Army Corp of Engineers certainly has reasons to be oversensitive. What their poorly constructed levees did to the city of New Orleans was a monumental crime. Nobody in the Corps lost their jobs or was demoted because it but Army Corp projects all over America must be getting re-inspected and scrutinized by proactive local residents like never before.
August 25, 2006
Calisphere Digital Library
..containing more than 150,000 digitized primary source materials about California...include photographs, newspapers, diaries, advertising, etc. ...explorable in a huge number of ways
Calisphere: http://www. alisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu
for example here's the image result(s) for 'psychedelic poster':
@~A search for 'surfing' shows 20 results: 7 images, 12 texts and 1 website.
For California's contribution to American politics Richard Nixon, there's 133 results: 18 images, 115 texts and no link to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library website.
While for the other favorite son Ronald Reagan there's 155 results: 24 images, 131 texts, no websites.
A search for Hollywood shows 605 results: 391 images, 211 texts, 3 websites.
There are no search results for hollywood gay.
No photos of funny cars, 90210, livermore laboratories, a hippy or hippies, esalen, manson family, oj simpson, menendez.
Recent images are protected by copywrite?
Aniconic California.
Ask Metafilter
Ask MetaFilter is a discussion area for sharing knowledge among members of MetaFilter. There is also a filtered view of this page showing just questions with "best" marked answers and another page of fantastic questions and answers suggested by members.
Army Reg on Conscientious Objection
Criteria for likely approval or rejection of a conscientious objection claim are described. Claims that are insincere or "based on objection to a certain war" will "not be favorably considered."
The Regulation accepts the reality of conscientious objection with due respect.
"Care must be exercised not to deny the existence of beliefs simply because those beliefs are incompatible with one's own," it states.
blog entry w/links to pdf | Secrecy News
[photo defense link\ not with above links]
Blackwater Shot Down in Federal Court
>even though Blackwater was supporting the occupation with its forces, the company is NOT immune from damages or lawsuits
[photo from @]
In a major blow to one of the most infamous war profiteers operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans, a federal appeals court has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the mercenary firm Blackwater USA can proceed in North Carolina's state courts. The suit was brought by the families of the four Blackwater contractors ambushed and killed in Falluja, Iraq on March 31, 2004. Blackwater had tried to have the same case dismissed or moved to federal court.
story By Jermey Scahill | The Nation via TruthOut
~Remember this? The families of the four dead Blackwater employees (and the people of Fallujah) do.
>related Spitting Image search results for blackwater
Who Said This and About Whom?
"'The overall impression is that the XXX government is not the kind of
government that provides clear and effective management of war,' said YYY. 'The same message is one that is being communicated about the senior command of the XXX military. It was very clear that the government began this war rapidly, without proper preparation, without proper training of the reserves.'"
No, it's not about Iraq, it's some US guy criticizing Israel!"*
http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Funk.htm
*Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
thanks Joerg
Biotech Firm, Government Hid Rice Contamination From Public
The genetically engineered (GE) rice is known as Liberty Link (LL) 601...is illegal for marketing to humans because it has not undergone environmental and health impact reviews by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Currently, the government relies on self-reporting from food companies to determine genetically engineered (GE) contamination, rather than a federal testing system. The USDA dismissed concerns that companies may not always "self-report" or even be aware of their mistakes, which would lead to further undetected contamination of unapproved GE food.
It appears a separate company first detected the contamination in January of this year and that Bayer may have known about the contamination since May. But the government was not notified until July 31. It took another 18 days for the USDA to tell the public.
At a press conference, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns would not divulge how the contamination had happened, or how far it had spread.
When pressed about the health implications of the contaminated rice, (Jim) Rogers (a USDA spokesperson) noted that foods from pesticide- and herbicide-resistant crops are already on the market. In fact, according to the USDA, 70 percent of processed foods on grocery store shelves contain genetically engineered ingredients.
By Megan Tady | The NewStandard via TruthOut
~Are you frightened? Not me. Free-Market forces will ultimately decide if this Liberty rice is fit for human consumption. Why get governments involved?
August 24, 2006
Radio Frequency Interference and Its Use as a Weapon
"If RF emitters are used to purposely disrupt electronics, they then become a weapon. They are more powerful and therefore cause more damage than ordinary RF emitters. In this paper, I will discuss this type of weapon further, how it might be used, and why an attacker would consider this technology as a weapon. This discussion will be limited to the security threats of everyday private sector systems, and will not delve into the realm of its use for the purpose of war.”
http://www.infosecwriters.com/text_resources/pdf/Frequency_HGantt.pdf
by Helen Gantt | Infosec Writers
via DocuTicker
[RFI van photo from Google not Infosec]
Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure
The Standards of Conduct Office of the Department of Defense General Counsel’s Office has assembled the following selection of cases of ethical failure for use as a training tool. Our goal is to provide DoD personnel with real examples of Federal employees who have intentionally or unwittingly violated the standards of conduct. Some cases are humorous, some sad, and all are real. Some will anger you as a Federal employee and some will anger you as an American taxpayer.
http://www.dod.mil/dodgc/defense_ethics/dod_oge/Encyclopedia_of_Ethical_Failures_2006_Full_Version.doc via DocuTicker
~'Ethical failure' is an excellent euphemism for all sorts of crime.
New Planetary Definition a "Linguistic Catastrophe"
"Pluto is a dwarf planet, but we are now faced with the absurdity that a dwarf planet is not a planet,'' (Owen) Gingerich (chairman of the International Astronomical Union) retorted. ''Is a human dwarf not a human?''
blog entry | Language Log
~And you thought you were the only one who was confused!?
[illus. not with above]
Van Gogh From the Sweatshop
Southern China is the world's leading center for mass-produced works of art. One village (Dafen) of artists exports about five million paintings every year -- most of them copies of famous masterpieces. The fastest workers can paint up to 30 paintings a day.
[photo (one of 11) with article]
story | Spiegel
via Conscientious
MicroSpectrometer Payload on an Aerosonde UAV
The payload flown...was a MicroSpectrometer and a Windows XP computer...
Aerosonde Team with UAV
....tested the capability of Aerosonde for collecting ocean spectra at high resolution. Orbiting Satellites collect similar data at a much lower resolution for a few seconds each day.
The benefits of the Aerosonde UAV as opposed to manned aircraft are that the Aerosonde can be prepared to fly much more quickly than a manned aircraft when the required clear sunny day is available, and operates at a lower cost.
press release \ Shephard Group
~On this page a calorimetric microspectrometer (CalSpec) is being promoted as "a device that emulates a dog’s nose...that could be part of a walking cane to detect the presence of an explosive."
I don't know if microspectrometers on UAVs could be used to detect the presence of explosives. I don't even know if microspectrometers are miniaturized spectrometers (to fit on canes and UAVS); or spectrometers that inspect micro samples of materials or spectrometers that have been adapted to analyse only certain kinds of compounds.
UAV to be used against Chhattisgarh Maoists
>India
"The advantage of the UAV is that it not only maps the terrain but also pick up radio transmissions..."
Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List
Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.
story (login) | NYTimes
(Wait a few days and newspapers that don't require registration will run this story?)
thanks Conscientious
There is no god but god, and the bible is his only word.
[illus. & caption not from above link]
>related: What We Believe (gif)
August 23, 2006
Overheard at Starbucks
"Remember the guy who claims organized crime agents of the government are paying people to assault him, his family, pets and possessions with pesticides?"
---"The 'pesticide poppers' nut-job?"
"He told me he had non-lethal chemicals used on him more than twenty years ago. On city buses and trains, in museums, theaters, galleries and parks, he first noticed emanating from odd couples of male teenage ghetto-kids with social-worker-looking men or women, the most stupefying and disorientating grape, orange and lemon smells."
---"Fanta?"
"Nowadays the stuff is odorless but the effects are more or less the same depending on how much they get on you."
---"Progress?"
"He said until recently he could count on women using poppers that were somewhat different, less burning and less toxic. 'Allergens' is his name for them."
---"The poppers or the women?"
"The poppers. ...These days he said there's little difference between what men and women use... except women in their child-bearing years still only use the allergy causing agents."
---"What an elaborate delusion."
"I think he wanted me to understand that in the twenty years he's been a 'target', his word, the individuals with these chemical weapons have gotten more mainstream and more autonomous: from shepherded juvenile deliquents on parole; to drug addicts, hookers and loners; to soccer moms, working-stiff dads and their college-bound teens. He believes Homeland Security funds have made the job more lucrative, more upscale."
---"What a sad case. I'm surprised the authorities haven't hauled him away, or put him out of his misery."
"He sure isn't fun to hang around with for any length of time."
Blog: Subtopia
A Field Guide to Military Urbanism http://subtopia.blogspot.com/
The X-Ray Effect
"Odds are if you surf in the celebrity circles you've come across images that some pervert, like myself, has "X-Rayed." Some are good, some are really bad. Personally i consider it artistic, and it can be quite fun... but it's still perverted.
Your Personal "X-Ray" Tutorial: (procedure was written for Photoshop users) etc:
http://celebrityinc.blogspot.com/2006/04/x-ray-effect.html
| Celebrity Inc.
[more photos etc. Phun Forum]
bywayof Aberrant News
~I get cranky if too many days go by in which I don't see bare naked ladies and images of celebrities are designed for abuse, but the above project looks like it's not worth the effort.
More interesting conceptually/psychologically than for the images it might produce?
A Photoshop process as an aid to masturbation?
I can see this effect getting kids expelled from school and referenced in sexual harassment lawsuits.
I never appreciated erotic comic books.
With Extreme Prejudice
"One of the most interesting things I did as Jack Straw's press secretary was to arrange the meeting between some of his Muslim constituents and Condoleezza Rice. That day in Blackburn last March came to mind when I saw the extraordinary suggestion that Straw might have been removed from the Foreign Office because the US administration thought he was too influenced by Muslim opinion in the town.
I say "extraordinary" not because I think it's inaccurate but because it takes extreme mental gymnastics to conceive how anyone could believe it to be a bad thing to listen to and understand Muslim points of view."
complete article by John Williams | Guardian
(John Williams was press secretary at the Foreign Office from 2000 to 2006)
thanks Conscientious
~This is very unusual: we don't do this here. It must be a British affectation. American public servants seldom feel it necessary to 'set the record straight' in newspaper articles unless there's a hefty book contract with a team of lawyers and editors involved. Perhaps America's non-disclosure contracts are more binding than the UKs?
I enjoy reading stories written by people from the top of the dung heap. It's a rare treat, a heady view.
George Galloway Savages SKY NEWS!
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"
"A man not known for sitting on the fence. He passionately opposed the invasion of Iraq and now he feels that Hizbollah is justified in attacking Israel. The "Respected" M.P. for Bethnal Green..."
transcript: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-08170682657.htm | Palestine Chronicle
9 minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249JaIaubVw w/ over 1,000 comments
thanks Priapo
>Spitting Image Search for george galloway
~Savage.
August 22, 2006
Amnesty's "Youth-Oriented Branding Efforts"
Youth – Activism – Engagement – Participation: good practices and essential strategies for impact
This publication is designed to complement the International Youth Strategy through the presentation and analysis of good and interesting practices both within and outside of the AI movement. In this book, we learn of AI initiatives such as AIUK’s new youth-oriented branding efforts and AI Netherlands’ SMS messaging projects, as well as more than 50 external case-studies covering activities such as video conferences, educational curricula, websites, youth forums, advisory councils, protests, fundraising programmes, and collaboration. Put simply, we feature ‘what works’ when it comes to youth engagement, activism and participation – and attempt to say why they succeed.”
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGACT760032006
via DocuTicker
~Of interest to any group looking for 'essential strategies' promoting youth engagement and participation?
[illus.google\ not Amnesty]
(I've seen too many old cowboy movies to not associate 'branding' with what happens on the range to cattle. I'm such a child.)
Advertising to Youth: What Youth Want and What Advertisers Need to Know
"Youth, particularly tweens, agree that they often pay close attention to advertisements to make sure they buy the right products (36% of tweens ages 8-12 and 22% of teens ages 13-18). The influence of advertising is similar to the influence of friends on young people’s purchase decisions, with 36 percent of tweens and 23 percent of teens saying that they often look to see what their friends use and buy when making purchase decisions.”
press release | Harris Interactive
via Docuticker
Save yourself.
[ilus./caption not from above]
G.O.P. Corruption? Bring In the Conservatives.
"In the absence of a theory of corruption that pins the tail squarely on the elephant... Conservatives are infinitely better positioned to capitalize on public disillusionment with the political system, regardless of who does the disillusioning. Indeed, the chorus has already started chanting that the real culprit in the current Beltway scandals is the corrupting influence of government, not conservative operatives or their noble doctrine. The problem with G.O.P. miscreants is simply that they’ve been in D.C. so long they’ve "gone native," to use a favorite phrase of the right; they are “becoming cozy with Beltway mores,” in The Wall Street Journal’s telling. If you don’t like the corruption, you must do away with government."
complete article by Thomas Frank | Tennessee Guerilla Women
thanks Conscientious
[illus not with above]
Google News Search: restive
~Where on earth today are places noteworthily restive?
Where are the restive cities, towns, provinces, areas, populations?
Google News today has gathered more than 2,900 articles in which journalists use the adjective 'restive'.
>related Spitting Image Search results for restive
[photo google image search: 'restive' (url)]
Boyfriend Arm Pillow
Never curl up on the couch alone...
by way of ErosBlog
August 21, 2006
Google New Search: "hydrogen peroxide" plot
A google news search for "hydrogen peroxide" plot did not match any articles between Jul 9, 2006 and Aug 9, 2006.
The latest weapon in the terrorists' arsenal.
While a google news search today for "hydrogen peroxide" plot shows more than 850 published articles using those words.
~Aren't the news authorities awesome? They teach as they report.
11 of 23 Suspects in Britain Air Plot Charged
>hydrogen peroxide, electrical components, 'martyrdom videos'
...charged Monday with conspiracy to commit murder
press release | MSNBC
~Apropos of I don't know what (meme building?): An advanced google news search for "martyrdom videos" from Jul 9 to Aug 9 shows that one published (Canadian) news story used that exact phrase.
While a google news search from Aug 9 to Aug 22 for martyrdom videos shows that same phrase appearing in over 1,200 new stories.
Turner to Ax Smoking Scenes From Cartoons
LONDON - Turner Broadcasting is scouring more than 1,500 classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including old favorites Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, to edit out scenes that glamorize smoking.
The review was triggered by a complaint to British media regulator Ofcom by one viewer who took offence to two episodes of Tom and Jerry...
In the first, “Texas Tom”, the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the second, “Tennis Chumps”, Tom’s opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.
~Next to be edited shootings and beatings from westerns and cop dramas?
Overheard at Starbucks
"I hate the music and marketing of the Britney clones: the Jessicas, Ashlees, Hilarys...."
---"...the Rihannas...."
"...and the rest. But I'm fascinated by their desperation, that needful look in their eyes."
---"Hungry young pretty things...You think you have what they crave? ...You?"
"They remind me of the first time my parents took me to the rodeo. I was afraid for the animals; I was sure they were going to be hurt. I asked my mother why the calves, bulls, and broncos didn't stay in their stalls, or why didn't they walk around instead of running, jumping and bucking all over the place. They looked so frantic."
---"...Chanteuses of child abuse..."
With Child Sex Sites on the Run, Nearly Nude Photos Hit the Web
>'phrases like "hot" and "delicious."
She has thousands of fans from around the world, membership lists show, who pay as much as $30 a month to see images of her. According to the posted schedule, new photographs of her — many clearly intended to be erotic, all supposedly taken that week — are posted online every Friday for her growing legions of admirers.
The model’s online name is Sparkle. She is — at most — 9 years old.
Sparkle is one of hundreds of children being photographed by adults, part of what appears to be the latest trend in online child exploitation: Web sites for pedophiles offering explicit, sexualized images of children who are covered by bits of clothing — all in the questionable hope of allowing producers, distributors and customers to avoid child pornography charges.
>also On the Web, Pedophiles Extend Their Reach
by Kurt Eichenwald @ NYTimes
from Growing Up Sexually
Nazi Burger Anyone?
"Maybe it's not such a good idea to open a Burger King in a Nazi
building where after 60 years the eagle with the swastika still casts
such a dark shadow? But then what do I know about corporate
marketing?
PS: The building is part of the huge former Nazi Party rally ground in
Nuremberg."
>from Joerg
~Adolph kommen nach Hause Sie waren vergessen worden!
W
"In George W. Bush, we have a president for whom...
W.'s is the heroism of just functioning. Our leader has grown expert in his way. You can see him gradually become assured. This triumph over personal incoherence has given him the opportunity to ruin the economy, foreign relations, the environment, and cause the deaths of innocents. If you can manage to hold small things together, as W. has, then you can ruin the big things utterly.
The curiosity of W. is that he does seem by all accounts to lead, that is, to make functional decisions that are not dictated to him, not by any single other person. He has his advisers, whose questions to him, answered on a principle of simplicity, become his doctrines. But the source of right? It is somewhere outside W., in his God or in his conception of good and evil. By keeping it outside of him, never doubting, he sheds its terrible nimbus onto the White House and the departments, and we get an administration that has merged politics with belief and separated it from thought.
The basis for existence of the autonomous follower is his belief in automatic action with no agent. Himself most of all, but all persons on the side of right, are only instruments of an order which is supposed already to have been finished.
Perhaps Father made it, speaking psychologically. Perhaps God made it, theologically. Perhaps his advisers know who made it, and will tell him. Perhaps the market set it in motion, ideologically. Perhaps "democracy," which W. loves only in the guise of a vast instrumental mechanism, grinding across the globe, a teleology of the world-spirit –perhaps free markets and democracy made the order inevitable.
>2004 article by Mark Greif via:
http://archivosdegira.blogspot.com/2005/10/perfiles-w.html
August 20, 2006
TV Effective 'Painkiller' for Kids
the authors...conclude that the passive distraction of TV is a more effective analgesic than active distraction. Watching TV also seems to increase children's pain tolerance, they add.
MRI Scans in Premature Infants Can Predict Future Developmental Delays
...magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were able to determine abnormalities in the white matter and gray matter of the brains of very pre-term infants, those born at 30 weeks or less..
More than 2 percent of all live births are infants born before 32 weeks of gestation. Nationwide, the rate of premature births jumped 13 percent between 1992 and 2002...Among pre-term infants who survive, 5 percent to 15 percent have cerebral palsy, severe vision or hearing impairment or both, and 25 percent to 50 percent have cognitive, behavioral and social difficulties that require special educational resources.
The MRI scans show lesions on the infants' brains, as well as which region of the brain is affected and the severity of the risk for future developmental delays...
"We can use these results to determine which baby would benefit most from physical, occupational or speech therapy," (Terrie E. Inder, M.D...at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) said. "We can also help prepare the parents for future challenges with learning delays and developmental disabilities."
press release | EurekaAlert
[illus. not from above]
~I hardly ever read stories that make me want to cry.
Divas--The Site: Gallery
for example
others: http://www.divasthesite.com/gallery.htm
>related: What's New Pussycat?
Employers, Beware: "Techno Addicts" May be More Liability than Boon
Technology keeps workers connected 24/7. If that sounds like an employer’s dream come true, think again...
According to Gayle Porter... the fast and relentless pace of technology-enhanced work environments creates a source of stimulation that may become addictive. While addiction to work has been a widespread phenomenon for some time, the Rutgers-Camden scholar suggests that employers may face legal liability for these addictions.
“There are costs attached to excessive work due to technology,” says Porter
~I see lawyers!
Exam Nerves Affects Students' Immune Defence
For the first time on record, scientists were able to show that a group of cells that are central to the human immune system known as regulatory T cells appear to increase sharply in number in response to mental stress. A regulatory T cell is a kind of white blood cell that controls the activity of a number of other types of immune cell. This increase was observed in both groups of students.
The study (Karolinska Institutet) also showed that blood concentrations of a group of inflammation products called cytokines had changed and shifted against a pattern associated with allergic inflammation in the allergic students, but remained normal in the healthy students.
~Gosh golly Mr. Science, who knew?
Overheard at Starbucks
"She loves those moments in a relationship when they become 'we'."
"In every relationship, business or personal, he looks for the places 'ours' becomes yours and mine."
Ocean Noise Has Increased Considerably Since 1960s
..while searching for information about noise levels off Southern California, (John) Hildebrand (of Scripps Oceanography) obtained declassified documents that described a U.S. Navy sound surveillance system that used cabled hydrophones to measure ambient ocean noise in the 1960s* A detailed analysis of the recordings was reported in 1968.
Hildebrand's group sought to obtain similar readings in the same location using advanced listening devices called acoustic recording packages, or ARPs, developed in Hildebrand's laboratory. Hildebrand and members of his group regularly deploy ARPs at various locations around the world to obtain and analyze acoustic signals emitted by whales, dolphins and other marine animals.
The impact of the increased noise on marine animals is unknown," said Hildebrand.
The research was supported by the U.S. Navy and the Office of Naval Research.
press release | Yuba Net
~*Now we know how the 'songs of the whales' were first recorded?
Afghanistan to Reconstitute Religious Police
...the Amr Bilmaruf va Nahi az Mankar, or literally, "Do the good, don't do the bad." ... also known as the Department for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue.
story | SFChronicle
~Stakeholders in free market democracies like America understand there's no such thing as having too much money while people without money have religion? (It's your choice?!)
[photo not with above]
Preventing Heat Stroke / Sensor Monitors Temperature in Real Tim
Biological engineering students at the University of Arkansas have developed a wireless biosensor that can accurately record and monitor a football player's body temperature in real time while the player is active.
Biosensor embedded in football helmet
The complete system includes a thermocouple temperature sensor, a transmitter, two amplifiers and a base-station receiver connected to a laptop with user-interface software. As part of the project, Graham, Leach and McCarty... researched each component to find commercial products that were compatible with considered many types of sensors -- thermistors, infrared sensors and liquid crystal thermometry -- before settling on thermocouples...
Temperatures gathered by the prototype during the exercise phase were compared to oral, tympanic membrane and temporal artery readings immediately after the subject stopped running. The system recorded accurate temperature readings in real time while subjects were running. The researchers did not test the system in a helmet-impact environment.
press release | Yuba Net
Google Search: "our god is"
A google web search for the exact phrase "our god is" shows 788,000 results.
August 19, 2006
The Allegory of Holy Warfare
This chapter may be used as a defense in a court of law. It delineates precepts and statutes from the Sacred texts, and reasons from history why one must stand bold in their refusal to serve in the armed forces of any nation. It rehearses God's instructions to Moses (Exodus 19 and 20), and reminds us that when Moses descended with the Torah at Exodus 32:15, the tables were written on both sides. On one side was the literal, written law, commanding the people of Israel to subdue the land and destroy out of it every trace of heathen resistance (and therefore a literal justification for the commission of holy warfare...Deuteronomy 7, for instance). On the other side, however, was the hidden (allegorical) meanings of the Written Law. These meanings--the very essence of the Oral Tradition--were handed down along a line on the Sacred Tree of Life,...
This is why the spirit of Christ came into the world, to teach us, not only how to interpret the Law but how to behave in a time of war; which is why we, in order to inherit the world that God is creating, must in the end put on the garments of true pacifism and become the children of Perfect Peace. Wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. One must not be found on the battlefields of this earth in a day such as this, literally killing and being killed, or serving the sons of Darkness (the children of Cain) in any way...
Seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of Him IN PEACE, WITHOUT SPOT, AND BLAMELESS...(2 Peter 3:14).
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints... (Revelation 13:9,10).
Genesis 15:12-16; Deuteronomy 28:68; Revelation 15:1-4...(KJV).
Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, thou art like a young lion of the nations, THOU ART AS A WHALE IN THE SEAS, and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledest the waters (the nations) with thy Feet, and fouledst their rivers.
Thus saith the Lord God; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people, and they shall bring you up in my net.
THEN WILL I LEAVE THEE UPON THE LAND, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.
AND I WILL LAY THY FLESH UPON THE MOUNTAINS, AND FILL THE VALLEYS WITH THY HEIGHT.
>more chapter/verse & illustrations:
http://www.revelation2seven.org/WebPages/Chapter17.htm
Cloud Shape Classifier
Cloud Shifter for Busy Eyes
In today's fast-paced life, many people regret not having enough time to gaze up into the sky and ponder the beauty of the constantly-shifting shapes of the clouds that roam above. But despair no more! Thanks to Douglas Bagnall's intelligent Cloud Shape Classifier, you can now train a machine to do the neck-bending work for you, and enjoy a selection of your favorite type of clouds at your convenience. As Bagnall explains, 'Classifiers start off in a confused state and need to be taught to recognize good clouds.' Your Classifier will begin by showing you a random series of four clouds at a time, and as you click on your favorite from each group, you teach it what sorts of clouds you like. According to Bagnall, 'if you persist, it should be able to catch the drift of your taste.' The Cloud Shape Classifier is now installed at Enjoy Gallery, in Wellington, New Zealand, and is of course viewable online. - Helen Varley Jamieson | Rhizome
[illus. not from above]
Overheard at Starbucks
"I was sick at the break of day....'at the sick of day'."
August 18, 2006
Nascar Flag Ceremony
U.S. Navy Sailors from the Navy Operational Support Center Indianapolis and Navy Recruiting Command unfurl an American flag during opening ceremonies for NASCAR's Kroger 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. 5, 2006. The event is part of festivities in conjunction with Indianapolis Navy Week. Twenty-six such weeks are planned... | Defense Link
~Can a nation's flag lose its luster? (Depends on who's waving it?)
In Baghdad, the American Army Erects Walls Between Communities
The American and Iraqi armies began construction of a wall encircling Al-Dora, a southern Baghdad neighborhood, on Tuesday, August 15. Soldiers positioned prefabricated concrete barriers "to prevent terrorists from getting in," according to the American Army.
Acknowledging the failure of the "Forward Together" security plan launched in June, the American Army and Iraqi security forces unveiled a new strategy August 11 that consists of separating Baghdad neighborhoods according to sectarian criteria. "We shall concentrate ourselves on sectarian borders, go into those sectors, clean them out, install security forces, bring economic aid, and work with local leaders so people feel safe," explained the multinational force commandant, American General George Casey. The objective is "to clean up Baghdad before Ramadan," the end of September.
story | LaMonde via TruthOut
~Good fences make good neighbors.
When General Casey says "clean them out" he's not talking about picking up litter is he?
Why Doesn't America Believe in Evolution?
A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact.
article | New Scientist
thanks Conscientious
~Pay no attention to the monkey behind the curtain! @
Unquestioning belief in the Bible as interpreted by a few powerful religious organizations is simply one the costs of doing business in most American communities. 'Religious political correctness'.
Christ if I know why it must be that way.
Their religious pc may stem from the enforced premature end to slavery and lynchings.
For most of America's history a large politically dominant part of the country was a work camp, a slave nation, in effect a penal colony.
(Jamestown, Virginia was founded in what year? Brown vs.the Board of Education was when? Do the math.) In this vast colony a minority of Christians worked, bred, bought, sold and democratically controlled the daily lives of a majority of others; who born slaves had little protection from, or opportunity to escape the minority's rules.
Today the fundamentalist descendants of slave owners and controllers, the sons and daughters of Dixie, are no longer permitted by law to exercise their traditional superiority over a dependent and simultaneously threatening population of others. So they've invented others they can lord over. Evolutionists, gays, pro-choice women, immigrants and muslims help fill the holes left throughout their 'idyllic' society (their Southern fried psyches) by the civil rights movement (and from the corporate takeover of American politics).
The South is as poltically influencial today as it was when slavery was king (sic). The manner in which people all over America rally to defend selected passages of the Bible mimics in a ghostly way the South's xenophobic defense of the institution of slavery.
A Gentleman's English Dictionary & Usage
"We can only assume that it is something to do with the deleterious effects of strong waters on young minds, but we have been told that some of the language used in our correspondence is opaque, arcane or even of less than diamantine clarity.
Though we find this hard to believe, we take it as an Englishman's bounden duty to tutor the unknowing in the ways of righteousness. We have, therefore, provided this Dictionary and Usage Guide for the English Gentleman or those aspiring to that happy state.
Once enlightened you may return to Two Chaps Talking."
>examples:
Inshallah
Translates roughly as... 'If Allah wills it'.
A marvellously useful term of complete fatalism and one which has no direct English equivalent.
The nearest thing would be '...but on the other hand I might get hit by a number 73 bus tomorrow' - uttered in tones of sodden dejection by a clinical depressive with a strong Solihull accent.
Also, in the current climate, a term almost guaranteed to increase web traffic if only from US government sniffers." @ June 02, 2003
Sapphism
Carpet munching.
Bean flicking.
Yodelling in the canyon.
Wearing sensible shoes.
A practise beloved of husky gym mistresses in stout tweeds and the inhabitants of the Isle of Lesbos.
Oh for Heaven's Sake! Do I have to draw you a picture?
Actually, I think I have some Polaroids somewhere. @ May 21, 2003
http://www.twochapstalking.com/dictionary/
--scroll (all the way) down the page for the Dictionary's index
(after waiting for the page to open)
thanks Diederik
License Plate Scanning: Balancing Privacy with Public Safety, Efficiency
...because of the necessity of having such devices for congestion
pricing, not to mention their use in automatic traffic enforcement (e.g. catching stoplight violations), it seems likely that in a decade there will be ubiquitous monitoring of license plates in most metropolitan areas.
http://www.politechbot.com/2006/08/17/license-plate-scanning/
| Politech
>Spitting Image Search results: "license plate"
>Spitting Image Search results rfid
~The way the term 'congestion pricing' is used above suggests that access to the cultural treasures of America's cities will soon cost more.
License plate scanning coupled with congestion pricing (of also non-driving individuals with government-issued RFID cards) are bound to be touted by the law and order lobby as major tools for crime prevention.
Followed soon by grid-works of RF 'fences' throughout the cities: digitally maintained gated-communities or ghettos, depending on property tax assessments.
In time for non-residents visiting some city neighborhoods may cost as much as any country club.
August 17, 2006
Elegant Universe or Big Bang?
"I spent much of my Sunday morning having to spank our French nanny's hiney, and in the process- the sound became a trance, and trance became sound, and the activity for me (in hindsight), was like that of the Mevlevi Sufi expressing the nature of the spinning Universe through their beautiful and elegant spinning dance. And I (in this narcotic moment), began to have visions... I started to realize my own (somewhat reluctant) attraction to (for example) Physics..."
more commentary with comments http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncle_angelo/118017337/
~From Uncle Angelo's joke here I can clearly see a vast masculine world of tacit agreements, handshakes, winks and nods and sniggers. From my discomfort I realize it's a world that didn't have a place for me. What an ignorant, impoverished, sheltered life I've led. What assholes play at controlling the universe.
Poster: Let Us Pray (Too)
>reworked poster from The Propaganda Remix Project
by Micah Wright via/comments: @
The Propaganda Remix Project: http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html
more (other?) reworked posters, etc.: Ali Rahimi Pulls the Switch
| Micah Wright/PRP & Uncle Angelo/Flickr
Spinning Old Threats Into New Fears
Investigators have known for a decade about terrorist plots to bring down passenger jets with liquid explosives. So why, all of a sudden, did Bush ban most liquids on flights?
story by Robert Scheer | Truthdig via TruthOut
>related: Letter From Airstrip One: Fear Over Facts
"The inherent schizophrenia of the "War on Terror" was everywhere in evidence. Britons were told they were facing the greatest threat to the life of the nation since World War II, requiring tireless vigilance, a "huge effort of will and courage" - but they should keep shopping, keep traveling, carry on with their normal lives (as their tanned and jaunty leader was doing). They were pipelined stories by an unquestioning media about the dazzling triumph of the super-efficient security services - the same services that had botched the Iraq WMD intelligence, shot dead a Brazilian carpenter they mistook for a terrorist last year and, just two months before, sent 250 heavily armed agents on a raid to seize two alleged "chemical bombers" (and shoot one of them) on the false word of a single informant. Britain has arrested more than 700 people on terrorism charges in the last five years; only 17 have been found guilty - and only three of these convictions were related to "Islamic terrorism," as CounterPunch and the Guardian report.
article by Chris Floyd | TruthOut
FCC Cracks Down on "Fake News"
Owners of 77 TV stations queried on paid video stories.
Washington - The Federal Communications Commission has mailed letters to the owners of 77 television stations inquiring about their use of video news releases, a type of programming critics refer to as "fake news."
Video news releases are packaged news stories that usually employ actors to portray reporters who are paid by commercial or government groups.
The probe was sparked by a study of newsroom use of material provided by public relations firms. The study, entitled "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed," was compiled by the Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit organization that monitors the public relations industry.
press release | AP via TruthOut
Overheard at Starbucks
"Remember when you wanted to impress the world?"
---"Nope."
"Don't you remember wanting to impress your parents?"
---"You mean MY mother?"
"Your teachers?"
---"Never. Well once maybe, in first grade."
"Your bosses"?
---"Huh?"
"Haven't you ever tried to impress your friends......girls?"
---"Ah."
"Isn't it amazing how everyone feels the need to make an impression on the people we care about: those whose impressions of us matter to us?"
---"Squeaky wheel?"
"Think about the times in our lives, in everyone's life; the opportunities we're given and the desire to excel...."
---"Isn't there a pill that does all that?"
".....to shine in the reflected light of our better selves..."
---"Rent a store-front and get some folding chairs: I think you've got religion."
"...to make our mark on the world and impress the people who count."
---"Don't forget sports."
"Don't get me started."
Comment on Music: Cultsock
As I t y p e this
I
am listening to
Arturo Sandoval's
My Funny Valentine.
I am reminded of Miles Davis's 'My Funny Valentine' in Tokyo 1964
that I tried to persuade my Mum to listen to
(it seemed to me she would like Rogers and Hart)
and she said
"I like jazz until it goes all funny"
& I wonder what she would make of me putting
that on the Web if she saw this. Would
she wonder
WHY?
it's formatted like this.
& I wonder too (just an affectation, I suppose).
&
then
I realize Arturo is still playing......
and I'm not listening. Or maybe I am. What exactly is this (in)activity we call
listening to music
?
more: http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/musintroie4.html
by Michael Jhon
Museum of the Origins of Man
"The website of the Museum of the Origins of Man has been founded...in order to introduce the art of the Paleolithic and the spiritual activities of the hominids, excepted the zoomorphic cave paintings of the upper Paleolithic.
The art of the Paleolithic... occupies a period of time that corresponds to 99,52% of life of the humanity; that is from 2,500,000 to 12,000 years ago, which means, that in 2,488,000 years has been formed and consolidated an immense artistic typology constituted by lithic sculptures, and a religion with varied typology..."
[illus. from above]
~An attempt to answer the question WHEN is art?
Bush is Crap, Says Prescott
Deputy PM criticises US handling of Middle East, condemning 'cowboy' President at private meeting.
story | Independent
thanks Conscientious
>When the Independent's link closes try The Guardian's
Bush is crap, Prescott tells Labour MPs
and for a 'fair and balanced' report there's CNN's:
Blair Deputy in Bush Insult Storm
~Poodles can bark. OK he was playing up to Labor's Muslims and the Tories and their newspapers are lobbying for their party.
Who among America's kaleidoscope of talking heads could you imagine (caught) saying something similar?
About any powerful person?
A brand name product?
Certain institutions and groups (re Mel Gibson) would be wrong.
Are there awards given for best use of expletives and/or profanity by politicians and celebriti