Spitting Image

Congresspedia

...the "citizen's encyclopedia on Congress" that anyone—including you—can edit. Congresspedia is a not-for-profit, collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy (http://www.prwatch.org) and the Sunlight Foundation (http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/) and is overseen by an editor to help ensure fairness and accuracy. Congresspedia is part of SourceWatch, a wiki-based website documenting the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia

>related:
Congress in 30 Seconds: When you think about your congressperson, what comes to mind?

...a... contest challenging citizens to depict the daily life of their elected officials.

Sunlight is asking citizens to use audio and video links (several are provided, but participants are free to upload their own), add their own text, and create 30-second videos which they believe represent a day in the life of their congressperson. The participant who submits the best entry will be handsomely rewarded with a $5,000 cash prize! The idea is that after seeing what their constituents think they do all day, members of Congress will be tripping over themselves to publish their actual schedules!

more info: http://www.prwatch.org/node/5182

[illus. from @/ not Congesspedia]

Lyric: This Old Man

This old man, he played one,
He played knick knack on my thumb,
With a Knick knack, paddy whack,
Give the dog a bone;

This old man came rolling home.
This old man, he played two,
He played knick knack on my shoe,
With a Knick knack, paddy whack,
Give the dog a bone;
This old man came rolling home.

This old man, he played three,
He played knick knack on my knee,
With a Knick knack, paddy whack,
Give the dog a bone;
This old man came rolling home.

etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Old_Man

from '03 here's (scroll) a discussion thread

~Why doesn't everyone see this as a possible air to child abuse, is there something wrong with me? In this '06 forum: http://www.barbelith.com/topic/25471 members identify it as a slur against the Irish!

I can also imagine this song 's origins as a street/busker performance. With the knickknack being clackers an older man plays while the younger perfomer sings. (So I'm not hopeless.)

THE SACRED LABYRINTH ~

"Let the beauty you love be what you do.There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth." ---Rumi

Labyrinths have been around for over 4000 years and are found in just about every major religious tradition in the world... Like Stonehenge and the pyramids, they are magical geometric forms that define sacred space.

+

When you walk a labyrinth, you meander back and forth, turning 180 degrees each time you enter a different circuit. As you shift your direction you also shift your awareness from right brain to left brain. This is one of the reasons the labyrinth can induce receptive states of consciousness. It can also help to balance the chakras.
Each person's walk is a personal experience. How one walks and what one receives differs with each walk. Some people use the walk for clearing the mind and centering. Others enter with a question or concern. The time in the center can be used for receiving, reflecting, meditating, or praying, as well as discovering our own sacred inner space.

complete article and links: http://www.angelfire.com/tn/SacredLabyrinth/

~If I had the presence of mind to be receptive to 'magical geometric forms' while walking...I wouldn't need labyrinths? The world would be a labyrinth.

Germans Spying on British Trash

>information about the contents of the bins are tranmitted to a central database which then keeps records on the waste disposal habits of each individual address.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/germans_spying.html

~I put it to you, who else but (mostly) Germans would spy on British waste bins?

Steganographic Squid

Seems that some squid can hide messages in their skin:

In the animal world, squid are masters of disguise. Pigmented skin cells enable them to camouflage themselves—almost instantaneously—from predators. Squid also produce polarized skin patterns by regulating the iridescence of their skin, possibly creating a “hidden communication channel” visible only to animals that are sensitive to polarized light.
[...]

Mäthger and Hanlon’s findings present the first anatomical evidence for a “hidden communication channel” that can remain masked by typical camouflage patterns.

blog entry/links/comments: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/steganographic.html>

Fun with Photoshop Filters

X2

Democrats Who Love Torture and Don't Like Habeas Corpus

Carper (DE), Johnson (SD), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT) [of course!!!], Menendez (NJ), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Salazar (CO), Stabenow (MI)

plus, of course, each and every Republican, incl. "maverick" John McCain

Thanks Conscientious

[photo from American Memory\ not Conscientious]

Sexed Robots (2005)

Sexed Female

The sexed robots are autonomous wheeled platforms fitted with nylon genital organs, respectively male and female. They are programmed to explore their environment, occasionally entering a "in heat" mode, where they will try and locate a partner in the same state. If a partner is located, the robots will attempt to mate.

Dimensions:50cm width x 50cm depth x 65cm height Weight: 30 kg

http://www.zprod.org/zLab/sexedRobots.html

Sexed Robots' Quicktime movie http://www.zprod.org/zLab/sBotsMovie.htm

"The robots emit various sounds during the mating cycle."

~If I had a choice I'ld prefer my sexed robot to be covered in crome.

No mention or film of what happens when one sexed robot "in heat" locates another that's not. Maybe it sulks?

Phermones and phermone sensors or chemicals (alcohol, poppers) and chemical sensors are not yet involved in the robots' mating.

The History & Future of Sex

>from 1999

"...the field of sexology knows a lot more about the phenomenology of sex than it does about social science. We know more about what individual people say they do and how they feel than about the role sexuality plays in the pageant of world events. While this is legitimate knowledge, it means that sexology has a limited perspective. History, economics, law, technology, religion, and other large-scale social forces dramatically shape people's sexual consciousness and behavior--which is what we sexologists purport to study. And so examining the past and looking toward the future are essential for sexological sophistication.

+

One of the things we sexologists should be asking, is, which features of modern life are shaping the future of sexuality this very moment? What is it that we need to pay attention to in order to understand sexuality in the coming decade--or century? Examples might include:

Amazon.com & e-commerce; the mainstreaming of s/m; the disappearance of downtowns; life expectancy beyond age 100; tampons; artificial fertility technologies; female clergy; unsupervised free time for kids; virtual sex; low-fat diets; public jack-off clubs; talk radio; John Gray's Mars/Venus paradigm; Internet blocking software; chlamydia; the rise in cohabiting; female athletics; new pain medications; young adults moving back home; expanding definitions of date rape; the normalization of female masturbation; e-mail instead of written love letters; the end of the Cold War; the coming stock market crash; bisexual chic; people entering college in their 20s & 30s; increasing interracial dating & marriage; Internet penetration of daily life; RU486; the ubiquity of pornography; the decreasing stigma of extramarital sex; the increase in religiosity; the disappearing availability of abortion; female police & emergency personnel; repetitive stress injuries; cybersex; increasing acceptance of psychotherapy; pharmaceuticals that facilitate desire, arousal, & orgasm; expanding definitions of "child molestation"; tattoos and piercings; whites becoming a minority; managed health care & HMOs; abstinence education; bans on student-faculty dating; steroids

How are these things shaping our sexual future? And what else is currently shaping our sexual future in ways we don't realize?"

article by Marty Klein, Ph.D www.SexEd.org

~We're all experts about our own sexology? Amateurs? Personal sexology researchers certainly.

[photo not from above]

When Crime Fighting Tools Go Bad:

Problems with the Face-Composite System

Thousands of police departments use face composite software to help create a picture of crime suspects.
+
A team led by Gary Wells reasoned that if crime witnesses spend 20 minutes recreating a face they saw for perhaps only a few seconds at the crime scene, the face they create might supplant the real thing in memory. While a few studies have tested this notion previously, they were typically done on too small of a scale to have conclusive results. In an effort to find a more definitive answer, Wells' team created two studies with over 300 participants.

blog entry | Scienceblogs.com

Iran Strike Speculations

Lots of news and speculation on possible steps to mobilization by US forces to position for a strike on Iran.
They couldn't be that stupid, could they?

Old Speculation Updated.

So... in my humble and uninformed opinion, if the US were to launch a air strike on Iran, supported by Navy aircraft and possibly a Marine expeditionary force, some things would have to move into place first.

+

..keep an eye on is the Navy "underway" page - if more ships sortie, that means carrier escort groups are moving into place. They'd need another 30-40 ships.
I see a hospital ship (USS Mercy) is already heading thataway.

PPS: Expeditionary Strike Group 5 has left for the Persian Gulf.
They have a anti-mine unit with them, and two amphibious assault ship with a Marine Expeditionary Force unit.
It will be interesting to see if the Iwo Jima group, currently in that area, leaves, or if they both stay in the region.

article by Steinn Sigurðsson (scroll, scroll)

~For the future make note of the links Mr. Sigurosson used.

Pass the Politics, Please: Science Blogs Peppered with Commentary

Editorial freedom at blogging network scienceblogs.com allows for pure science and cultural criticism, making for some happy bloggers.

Scienceblogs.com was launched last January by Seed Media Group, publishers of SEED magazine. Seed recruited 15 of the best known independent science bloggers, offered to compensate them based on traffic, and set them loose to blog about whatever they wanted.

press release By Stephen Bryan Posted: 2006-04-13

http://scienceblogs.com/ (scroll down for various channels)

TV Psychics

Craig & Jane Hamilton-Parker were the first to successfully demonstrate psychic and mediumistic gifts on mainstream UK TV. They work with integrity and were the mediums trusted to do Associated American Television's Princess Diana seances which were seen by 30 million viewers world-wide.

http://www.psychictv.co.uk/

~With videos and information about psychic phone consultations!

The only psychics I've ever seen were my pets, but they tend to be unreliable.

US CONGRESS CAMPAIGNS WITH TERROR DETAINEES

Tortured Justice

[...aggressive efforts by the administration to be allowed to hold detainees for years (and even maybe decades) without judicial review has provoked only dutiful resistance from most congressional Democrats and a so-what shrug from the press and the public.]

Current Pentagon regulations describe an enemy combatant as anyone who "engages in acts" against the United States. The new legislation would broaden that to also include anyone who "has purposely and materially supported hostilities" against America. And to add a further note of confusion, elsewhere in the bill an enemy combatant is defined in circular fashion as anyone so designated by a new Defense Department entity, the Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Defending this accordion-like definition on the Senate floor, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham -- one of the three Senate Republicans who negotiated with the White House -- said, "I am firmly in the camp that when it comes to determining who an enemy of the United States is -- who has taken up arms and presents a threat to the nation -- that is not something that judges have been trained to do, nor should they be doing. That is something our military should do."

Many of the provisions of the legislation are so new or so murkily drafted that legal experts and human-rights advocates have not reached a consensus about their implications. There is considerable debate, for example, about whether the bill's treatment of the Geneva Conventions would permit the CIA to continue such notorious interrogation techniques as waterboarding. There also remains some question whether it might be permissible under the bill to declare an American citizen an "enemy combatant," thereby stripping him of any access to the courts. Graham and other Republican senators stoutly denied this possibility during Wednesday's debate.

story | Spiegel thanks Conscientious

~The Republicans in a matter of hours can have their "church groups" tie up for days the phones and emails of any legislator, of any media outlet in America. Within two weeks radio-newspaper-tv ads, letters to the editor and editorials to further enlighten the lawmaker and his/her constituents of the error of her/his ways have been known to appear. The Republicans are very organized with many anointed volunteers and generous funds to help party members exercise these specific rights. On the other hand, their grass-roots' reactions to US military policies do not seem to be as circumspect nor possess the same immediacy, or require a similar democratic spirit. Go figure.
(I wonder what percent of US military officers are registered Democrats?)

>conspiratorially related: US Soldiers' Overseas Votes Ripe for Fraud

[photo not with above]

Video/Lyrics: Crazy--Gnarls Barkley

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyyVlUfy19c

Lyrics

I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so **PLEASANT** about that face
Even your emotions had an echo in so much space

And when you're out there,without care
Yeah I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much

Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
possibly

And I hope that you are havin' the time of your life
But think twice, that's my only advice

Come on now who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you
think you are, ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you're in control

well,
I think you're Crazy
I think you're Crazy
I think you're Crazy
Just like me

My heroes had the heart to live their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinkin' I wanna be like them.

Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
And there's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done

But maybe I'm Crazy
Maybe you're Crazy
Maybe we're Crazy
Probably!
Probably!

@

@

A Conversation with Chris Jordan

"Talking to Americans about consumerism is like talking to someone with an alcohol problem. Our culture is in deep denial about what we are doing to our planet, to the people of other nations and the people of the future. And maybe the biggest tragedy of all is that we are in denial about how our consumer lifestyle is sapping our own spirits. It is incredibly sad to see it on such a huge scale, and growing ever broader under our current leadership. Today we are working more hours than any other society in the world. On average, Americans work three months longer per year than Europeans, who themselves work more than the people in most other countries. We are slowly killing ourselves, and we all feel it."

+

JC: Another aspect of investigating consumerism by means of fine-art photography is that, in a sense, you are transforming scenes of waste into photos that possess a strange beauty. When looking at your work, at times I thought "This looks very cool", but then the caption informed me that I was looking at, say, piles of discarded cell phones, and there's really nothing cool about that. In a sense, as a fine-art photographer, your job is a bit schizophrenic since on the one hand, you're trying to document what our consumerist culture is leading to, on the other hand, you want compelling photos. How do you deal with this?

CJ: This issue comes up a lot in connection with my work. I think there are several levels to it. First, beauty is a powerfully effective tool for drawing viewers into uncomfortable territory. If I took ugly photographs, no one would want to look at them. My hope is to seduce the viewer with the intricate details and colors, and maybe the beauty of that will hold their attention while the deeper message seeps in. Many photographers have used beauty in this way, and it can be tremendously effective. It is a way past the defenses, like slipping a note under the castle door.

The strange combination of beauty and horror for me also serves as a potent metaphor for our consumerism.

complete conversation, more photos:
http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/archives/002303.html

A Sensor for Next-Generation Weather Satellites

>space weather

...an instrument for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) third-generation weather satellites under the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) Program.

...the Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor, or EHIS, for the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), which will monitor potentially dangerous energetic atomic nuclei and electrons as they hurtle through space near Earth.

... the UNH-(U. of New Hampshire) built instrument will measure particles with the highest energy ranges – particles that can pose great risk to satellites, astronauts, and transpolar aircraft crews. Large increases in the energetic particle flux often precede the arrival of magnetic storms generated by solar activity, and these storms can damage ground-based electronics and power systems.

While some 80 percent of the instrumentation aboard the GOES-R satellites will be dedicated to tracking Earth-based weather, the space environment suite...will point upward towards space to monitor one of the components of "space weather" ...

The first launch of the GOES-R series satellite is scheduled for 2012.

press release

~Could this sensor also be used monitor "potenially dangerous atomic nuclei and electrons" from other nations' satellites or from earth if such energy producing devices did exist or perhaps were to be tested? (I'm riffing, sorry.)

Art: The Department of Network Performance

Network Performance - Arts 404.JO
Times: Ongoing, Always, 24-7
Professor: C. Peppermint
Dept. of Network Performance
Fall 2006 - current

Course Outline
This is not MySpace. This is Arts 404.JO, simultaneously a networked
course and performance intended to assist students in the conceptualization, development, and implementation of online instances of networked performance-art practices.

Course Requirements and Objectives
(1) Arts 404.JO is an information-arts course titled "Network Performance Art - Arts 404.JO" Arts 404.JO is intended for:

Artists, Hackers, Cultural Purveyors, Imaginative Housewives, Creative Construction Workers, Creative Workers, Creative Chocolatiers, Urban Homesteaders and Back to the Land Types, Special Teachers, Special Education Teachers Who are Fighting Corporate / State Mandates, Cosmopolitan Farmers, Innovative People and Animals, Eco-minded Global Citizens, Cultural Readers, Whole Food Eaters, Savvy Art Critics, Curators, and Art Historians Who Aren't Afraid to Ride In The Back of Pick-up Trucks, Cyborg Mycologists, AIs Masquerading As Musicians, Information DJs, Print-makers, Painters and Ceramicists Who Set Information Free, etc.

For more info:
http://myspace.com/deptofnetworkperformance

@

http://restlessculture.net/

Call For Proposals: The Joy of the Gizmo

Leonardo Music Journal Call for Proposals
LMJ 17: My Favorite Things: The Joy of the Gizmo

If, as Marshall McLuhan so famously suggested, the medium is the message, then the gizmo must be the one-liner. From baroque violinists to laptoppers, sound artists have long fetishized the tools of their trade, the mere naming of which can provoke an instant reaction: Shout "LA-2A," "TR-808," "JTM45" or "Tube Screamer" in a room full of musicians, and you will notice the eyes brighten, the breath shorten and the anecdotes pour forth. But only to a point: Many a "secret weapon" is held close to the chest.

This is the chance to get that secret off your chest: LMJ 17 will address the significance of physical objects in music and sound art in a time of increasing emphasis on software and file exchange. We are soliciting papers (2,000--5,000 words) and briefer artist's statements (500-1,000 words) on the role of purchased or homemade instruments, effect boxes, pieces of studio gear, "bent" toys, self-built circuits, and so on, in your work as a composer, performer, artist, producer, recording engineer, etc. Wherever possible, please include photographs of your subjects (300 ppi TIFFs preferred).

Please submit a brief proposal by 23 October 2006 to Nicolas Collins at ncollins@artic.edu Final texts and all materials (text, image, sound file) must be received by 2 January 2007. Contact Nicolas Collins ncollins@artic.edu with any questions.

from Rhizome Digest http://rhizome.org/

>relatedhttp://www.nicolascollins.com/

~Love me love my gizmo.

[photo/ review: @]

~One can run all manner of somewhat amplified sounds through boxes like this. (connected together) And thanks to the knobs you can play with them. (i.e. the sounds) Cable adaptors are usually required. (most often 1/4" to RCA/; RCA to 1/4"). Guitars, other musical instruments and huge amps are not.

Alyson Book Store

http://www.alyson.com/

~"True stories of lesbian encounters with virgins". Travelrotica for gay men. Guides for lesbian survivors of child abuse and understanding sex addiction in gay men, etc.
Note no "true stories of gay men encountering 'virgins'", guides for gay survivors of child abuse or understanding sex addiction in lesbians...yet.

Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military

http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/

[illus. Zsa Zsa Gershick]

~America's military is a (two-way) fun-house mirror for us to gape into.

Or is it that the Pentagon's our royalty and the military the royal guard which makes it's policies often appear so foreign, so un-American?

Enlisting Science to Entice Shoppers to Spend More

[excerpt]

In looking into consumers’ minds, Dr. Joshua Freedman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at U.C.L.A., uses a brain scan known as functional magnetic resonance imaging that displays an increase in blood flow in the brain, a result of churning neurons that are demanding extra oxygen.

Dr. Freedman, along with his brother Thomas, a political adviser in the Clinton administration, and William Knapp, a political media strategist, used such scans in 2004 to analyze voters’ reactions to political commercials.

“Then we thought, Politics may not be quite ready for this,” Dr. Freedman recalled. “We said, ‘We should try this out in general marketing.’ ”

The three formed FKF Applied Research, a consulting firm that sticks people in magnetic resonance imaging machines and shows them television commercials. What the investigators have found is a third to a half of commercials do not generate any brain reaction at all.

“There was no engagement,” Dr. Freedman said.

Any advertisement that did not generate any reaction would be unlikely to compel someone to go buy something, he said.

In commercials that did spur brain activity, reactions appeared to be in conflict, Dr. Freedman said.

“Almost always, if you activated one part of the brain,” he said, “you activated many competing parts of the brain.”

For example, an appealing car commercial might activate not only the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, the parts of the brain that shout, “Wow, I want that car now!” but also the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with fear and anxiety, perhaps warning, “That would be a stupid impulsive thing to do.”

“That keeps me from going out and immediately buying the car,” Dr. Freedman said.

The scans could help advertisers dump commercials that do not work at all and fine-tune watchers’ reactions. Dr. Freedman said his company’s clients included advertising agencies and manufacturers of consumer products.

>other examples of retailers using "rigorous scientific techniques to improve their bottom line": story by Kenneth Chang | NY Times

Blog: The Superficial

http://www.thesuperficial.com/

~Celebrity stalking, gossip, palpable envy.

Man Rejects First Penis Transplant

Jean-Michel Dubernard, the French surgeon who performed the world's first face transplant on a woman who had been attacked by a dog this year, said psychological factors were a serious issue for many patients receiving certain "allografts", or organs from donors. "Psychological consequences of hand and face allografts show that it is not so easy to use and see permanently a dead person's hands, nor is it easy to look in a mirror to see a dead person's face,*" he wrote in the journal. "Clearly, in the Chinese case the failure at a very early stage was first psychological. It involved the recipient's wife and raised many questions."

Andrew George, a transplant expert at Imperial College, London, said: "Doing a penis transplant should be no more complex than anything else. But it takes time for nerve sensations to kick in and it's not clear whether the patient would ever be able to have sex with it."

story | The Guardian

~*For this man and his wife it was difficult to have in bed with them a (brain) dead man's dead penis?

FEMA to Make Iowa Town Disappear

As many as 27 homes, the old general store and the stone elementary school will be flattened. The historic bank and at least one home must still be cleared for destruction by the state historical society. The future of the church is uncertain.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a $1.6 million buyout in January 2005... Property owners in the two (also Garber, IA) towns were paid 110 percent of the pre-flood assessed value. Homeowners were also given a $10,000 relocation benefit, while renters received $5,000.

Some have criticized the government for taking too long to disperse payments, which in some cases forced residents to pay taxes on land and property considered(!) worthless.

Elkport and Garber also were flooded in 1999 when the Turkey and Volga rivers spilled over their banks, the first flood since 1949 when the dike was raised.
Inside the Elkport/Garber Fire Department headquarters, Bolsinger sifts through a collection of historic photographs he and others are organizing for a scrapbook. Dozens of photographs show Elkport covered in water in 1908 and 1916, then again in the winter of 1922 when ice jams diverted the rivers through city streets.
"There's a lot of history with this kind of stuff," (Roger) Bolsinger (Mayor of Elkport) said. "Most of the people just didn't want to go through it again."

Most of the people didn't have insurance. So there wasn't access to a lot of different resources for repairs and elevation projects," said Dennis Harper of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division.

Elkport will live on, residents said. The city is still incorporated and the three-member City Council will still meet monthly.

story | CNN

Blog: David Byrne Journal

http://journal.davidbyrne.com/

[illus. google search: inurl:journal.davidbyrne]

Documentary: Century of the Self

This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis (director)

wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

BBC4's episode guide

google video http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=The+Century+of+the+Self&hl=en

~"Essential." ---Diederik

>related: "The first programme outlined the career of Edward Bernays, Freud's American nephew. Bernays was a press officer for Woodrow Wilson at the peace conferences in Europe following World War I, his job being to present Wilson in the most favourable light possible in order to boost his popularity with the American public. By this time the word propaganda was already gaining a sinister implication in the West due to its association with communism, and Bernays coined the term Public Relations as a positive alternative. Back in America Bernays set to work for major corporations, with one of his most spectacular successes being to help break the taboo against women smoking. He paraded a group of attractive young ladies through New York smoking and bearing the slogan 'March for Freedom'. Anyone criticising the idea of women smoking would now appear to be against freedom, and the numbers of women taking up the habit shot through the roof.

more: BBC's Century of the Self Reviewed by Paul Shepherd

[photo not with above]

Blog: Anina.net

a model life

...on my job yesterday i got to wear 200,000 pounds of jewelry. The private guard kept commenting to me every time he saw me eat (2 muffins with jam and 2 small plates of pasta for lunch), "oh, eating AGAIN!" Finally i had to pull him asside and tell him politely that he was really being rude. I asked him if he preferred models to not eat and what exactly he was implying when he said that. In classic english fashion he said, "oh i was just so shocked to see someone in your profession eat!"

i almost killed him. But you just can not blame ignorance. I explained to him that by commenting every time like that to me actually made me very uncomfortable and not want to eat. I explained that if he was happy to see a model eat and was trying to encourage her to eat more, then it would be better to say, "the food is great isn't it?" rather than express himself in the way he was. I explained to him that a lot of clients and people make those kinds of comments ("oh a model that likes to eat") to me all the time. I explained that it put a lot of pressure on me-like they were saying i was some kind of freak cuz i was eating.

more from the In Style Girl entry

home: http://anina.typepad.com/anina/

~This reminds me of Studs Terkel's "Working", if it had ads for computer stuff.

Some companies will give you things instead of cash?

In Stroke, Negative Studies Less Likely to Get Published

Stroke studies where the results are positive or neutral are more likely to get published than studies with negative results, according to an analysis of 45 years worth of studies published in the September 26, 2006, issue of Neurology...

"Corporate profit incentives and academic concerns must be overridden by our ethical obligation to the people who participate in these studies, future patients and the scientific community. Rapid publication of negative studies may spare patients from exposure to useless or even harmful treatments, and from participation in futile studies." (said author David S. Liebeskind, MD, of UCLA Stroke Center)

press release

~"Hey we're doing science here!"

Decision-Making Impairment Appears Greater in Alcoholics with Coexisting Personality Disorders

...decision making is believed to involve multiple brain structures in the limbic region. "These brain regions are very important in the processing of emotions, motivational processes and the processing of rewards and punishments," he (Geert Dom, head of treatment at the Alexian Brothers Psychiatric Centre in Boechout, Belgium) said. "Earlier studies have indicated that individuals with lesions in these regions lose the ability to make advantageous decisions...

...identification of decision-making deficits in some patients may help to develop treatment interventions – both pharmacological and psychosocial – specifically designed to mediate the neurocognitive deficits underlying poor decision-making.

press release

~DUIB-PD.

B-PDs may be fun to watch on talk-shows but are killers on the highways?

The USA Mengele Act

article by Tristero

~Raise your voices unto the lord.

[photo/caption not with above]

Congress Considering Strip Searching Students

story | Drug Policy News

Fox to Produce "Christian" Films

Hollywood finds Christ as Foxfaith plans series of religious movies

FoxFaith, part of the home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch's movie studio, plans to produce as many as a dozen new films a year.

press release | Guardian via Unknown News

Researcher Develops Sensor to Detect E.coli

Dr. Raj Mutharasan (a professor of chemical engineering at Drexel University) is optimizing a sensor that...can provide a result within 10 minutes and can detect pathogens or bacteria, like E. coli, with a sensitivity of four cells per milliliter.
Mutharasan’s sensor can be placed into a palm-sized device that can be placed in the hands of food inspectors and growers, and is even cheap enough to one day enter the home.
The sensor uses E. coli antibodies to detect the bacteria in much the way that our bodies work. These antibodies are affixed to a narrow sliver of glass. Attached to the other end of the glass is a ceramic layer that generates voltage in response to applied mechanical stress.
A voltage is applied to the ceramic layer, making it expand and contract, causing the glass sliver to vibrate. The sensor detects changes in the glass sliver’s resonate frequency (the point where vibration is the greatest) and uses this to determine both the presence and concentration of E. coli bacteria.
Mutharasan is working with a company to commercialize the device and expects it to be in the hands of food safety experts soon.

press release | Newswise

~"With a sensitivity of four cells per milliliter", no one's eating spinach factory-sealed in plastic ever again?

HUMAN RADIATION STUDIES:

REMEMBERING THE EARLY YEARS

Oral History of Physiologist Nello Pace, Ph.D.

http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/histories/0476/0476toc.html

*

Dr. Nello Pace and Monkey; UC Berkeley 1966

discovered by looking up dr. nello pace found via these ansel adams photos* (arrow forward. science is strange): Ansel Adams Beneath the Surface

from Consumptive

Me and BillyBob

I was exhausted from a night of not sleeping to avoid my fear of flying. I awoke in the middle of a flight to San Francisco, druggish, in the middle of the in-flight feature film, Bandits. In the middle of a slow-motion kiss between Cate Blanchett and Billy Bob Thornton, I knew immediately and irreversibly that I should be kissing him instead of her. I was in love."

The Starlight Lounge /

"Misplaced Intimacy is a symptom of our heavily mediated culture. Via fantasy and extensive popular media, the general public imagines secret affairs with favourite celebrities. The crush is a familiar experience – In Me and Billy Bob, I have inserted myself into existing film clips as the recurring object of actor Billy Bob Thornton’s affection. We exchange looks of longing, pleasure, and pain, yet the desire remains unconsummated, looping infinitely. The cinematic devices of voice and gaze exaggerate the drama.

Me and Billy Bob.com
a video / a web site by Jillian Mcdonald

~I know this is so like five-years-ago but I'm presently without a short-term personal hero/savior or fantasy date and I thought I'ld enjoy it vicariously.

Lyric: It'll Be Me

Well, if you hear somebody knockin' on your door
If you see something crawlin' across the floor
Baby, it'll be me, and I'll be lookin' for you

If you see a head a-peepin' from a crawdad hole
If you see somebody climbin' up a telephone pole
Baby, it'll be me, and I'll be lookin' for you

Gonna look on the mountain and in the deep blue sea
Gonna search all the forests and look and look in every tree

Well, if you feel somethin' heavy on your fishing hook
If you see a funny face in your comic book
Baby, it'll be me, and I'll be lookin' for you

If you hear a thought a-callin' out in the night
If you see somebody hangin' from a lamppost bright
Baby, it'll be me, and I'll be lookin' for you

If you see somebody lookin' in all the cars
If you see a rocketship on its way to Mars
Baby, it'll be me, and I'll be lookin' for you

Gonna look in the city where the lights are blue
Gonna search the countryside, all the haystacks, too

If you see a new face on a totem pole
If you find a lump in your sugar bowl
Baby, it'll be me, and I'll be lookin' for you

http://www.lyricsdownload.com/lewis-jerry-lee-it-ll-be-me-lyrics.html

Triggers of Potential Exceptional Human Experiences

"Several writers have compiled lists of "triggers," or circumstances predisposing people to have exceptional human experiences.The following list is compiled with the use of a num­ber of sources that are cited in the list itself....Space does not permit listing all the bibliographic information for the references cited, but if anyone is interested in following up on some, please contact the EHE Network."

Abuse/ Activity shared with another/ Activity shared with group/ Aesthetic experience/ Agony/ Agoral gatherings/ Alcohol / Alienation- anomie/ Anesthesia / Animals / Archery/ Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)/ Auto and other types of racing/ Automatisms/ Baptism/ Bathing / Baths, extreme temperature/ sequence of hot and cold/ Bedside gathering around sickbed/ Bedtime, not asleep/preparation for/ Begging-fervent questioning for answer-help from higher power/Being alone in church, cathedral, mosque, temple/ Bible or other religious texts/ Biofeedback/ Breathing exercises/ Burnout/ Change in health considerations / Change in job-business/ Change in lifestyle/ Change of finances/ Change of home, physical location, geography/ Change of marriage, partner, family Chanting, drumming, and other rhythmic activities/ Charismatic personality, encounter with/ Childbirth/ Chorale singing / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/ Church, cathedral, mosque, temple, being inside a/ Church service/ Coma/ Conflict at personal crossroads (on the horns of a dilemma), inner/ Conscious dying / Conviction that one is dying/ Crafts/ Creative activities/ Crises in personal relationships/ Crying-pleading for help from another/ Dancing/ Danger, inviting / Danger, risk-taking/ Danger, sense of immediate/ Death of another/ Déjà vu/ Depression, despair/ Development of mediumship or channeling/ Disaster / Distress, financial-poverty/ Dowsing/ Dreaming / Driving a vehicle/ Empathy/ Encounter groups/ Endurance feats such as singlehanded sailing for many weeks/ Engaging in any repetitious boring chore/ Estranged from another/ Exceptional human performance/ Experiencing a series of meaningful coincidences promoting belief in the interconnectedness of everything/ Exploration, ideas/ Exploration, tools-methods/ Exploration, travel-places/ Extrasensory perception/ Fasting/ Fatigue/ Fear-concern for another-children/ Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS)/ Films, watching/ Flow activities/ Flying/ Frustration-futility, general feeling of/ Gardening / Guided imagery or music/ Guru-Spiritual teacher encounter/ Healing / Historical monument/ Holotropic breathwork-breathing/ Human interaction/ Hypnagogic or hypnapompic experiences/ Illness-Health/ Impasse/ Incubus experience/ Induction-revelation technique/ Insight of finally "seeing" the long-sought key to a problem/experience/ Intense sadness/ Intimate relationships/ Jewelry-making/ Life-threatening situation/ Liminal situation/ Listening to or observing highly integrated individuals/ Listening to sermon or other stirring speech/ Literature/ Loss/ Lucid dreams/ Mantram, reciting/ Martial arts/ Meditation and prayer/ Mid-life crisis/ Mirror writing/ Moments of quiet reflection/ Moon, phases of/ Mountain climbing/ Multiple sclerosis (MS)/ Multiple personality/ Music/ Near-fatal circumstances/ Observing animals/ Observing children/ Ocean cruising/ Out-of-body experiences/ Outward Bound events/ Performing-witnessing noble acts/ Personal need for "more" in life/ Physical activities/ Physical diagnosis/ Play/ Poetry/ Politics/ Prayer group/ Precognitive experiences/ Professional presentation, preparing-performing/ Prospect of death (e.g., deathbed experiences/ Psychedelic drugs/ Psychotic states/ Psychotherapy/ Reading about transcendent experiences and other EHEs, especially first-hand accounts/ Recovering from an ended relationship/ Rejection/ Relaxation after a period of exercise/ Relaxation technique/ Religious icon/ Religious-spiritual matters discussed/ Remarkable coincidence of events/ Retrocognitive experiences/ Riding in vehicle/ Risktaking/ Ritual cleansing/ Running/ Sacred places/ Scents/ Schizophrenia/ Science/ Self-hypnosis/ Sensitivity training/ Sensory enhancement/ Sensory isolation tank/ Sexual lovemaking/ Shamanism/ Sharing experience with another/ Silence/ Sleeping Slow-motional meditation/ Soaring/ Solitary ordeals/ Solitude/ Spiritual emergency/ Sport of any kind/ State celebrations, such as coronations, inaugurations, etc./ Stillness/ Surgery/ Surrender/ Survival-of-death type experiences/ Swordsmanship/ Television watching / Tending others / Trauma/ UFO encounter/ Vertigo/ Victims, sudden awareness of other abused (human, animal, environment)/ Visual art/ Watching performing arts/ Watching sports/ Wilderness/ Wind/ Work/ Workshop-retreat, psychic-spiritual development/ Workshop-retreat, self- development / Yoga

article w/references by Rhea A. White, Suzanne V. Brown (2000)

>related on Spitting Image list of potential EHEs

more EHE info: http://www.ehe.org/display/map.cfm

[illus. not from EHE Network]

Dictionary of Custom License Plate Terms

http://www.baac.net/michael/plates/

~DA DV8; 2L4 NUTN; TA2 UDR; YQI Q46

Stanford Prison Experiment Video

Studying obedience and conformity: The Stanford Prison Experiment has been discussed many times before (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and has been made into a number of movies. Now you can watch the incredible review film made by the experimenter, with extensive documentary footage, post-experiment interviews and commentary: The Stanford Prison Experiment. [google video, 50 mins]

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/54771 w/links

Phil Zimbardo's website/slideshow/etc.: http://www.prisonexp.org/

wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

large (link)

large (link)

~So everything can be fun, until it's not?

Google Search: "oranges in their mouths"

Auto-erotic deaths linked to intrigues in British politics

| Flame (1997)

Art: Gerald Davis

"Themes of sexuality, longing and lost innocence run throughout Gerald Davis’s work. Salvaging from his own personal experiences, Davis’s paintings often capture the turbulence of youth, championing all its awkwardness, embarrassment and sentimentality. Executed with the chastity of cartoon illustration, Davis’s fairytale images are cringe-worthy disclosures of preteen puppy-love, weaving shame and humiliation into Freudian celebrations of identity and acceptance."

Hunter 2004
acrylic on canvas

"In Hunter, Davis’s portrait of a boyhood mate is at once tragic and comic. Recalling the twee innocence of Normal Rockwell, Davis’s hero is rendered repulsed, inept, and pathetic; his entire canvas radiates a whitened queasy pallor. The honesty of cartooning allows Davis to explore uncomfortable issues such as gender roles, sexuality, and social exclusion..."

Saatchi Gallery: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/gerald_davis.htm

article Saatchi Straddles Porn to Promote New Sensation

from Growing Up Sexually

Documentaries: Docs4You

BBC, PBS, History Channel, Discovery, Animal Planet, Nat. Geo, etc.

http://www.docs4you.qfhs.org/forum/

thanks: Diederik

America Legalizes Torture

This afternoon, (Sept.21) the White House announced that a tentative deal had been struck with the Senate GOP "rebels" -- McCain, Warner and Graham -- that will basically continue the status quo on prisoner detentions and "coercive" interrogations.

...sticking points were whether suspects would have access to classified evidence against them in "civilian status review commissions," and whether evidence gained through coercion -- including through the use of techniques long considered to be torture by human right groups --could be admitted. Graham said that there was a provision that would allow suspects access to classified evidence -- and what evidence won't be classified? -- if they are at risk of imprisonment or death, but an administration spokesman said they were interpreting that with a "high bar" and it wouldn't be automatic. Digby says a new JAG office will be formed to review classified evidence. I didn't see any mention about the use of evidence gained through "rough interrogation."

As I pointed out earlier this week, this is a compromise between two bad -- terribly bad and unnecessary -- bills. It was passed at gunpoint, with the administration threatening to discontinue coercive interrogations if they didn't get their way and nobody in the political class willing to call their bluff.

story by Joshus Holland | Alternet

from Conscientious

~Mixing metaphors here: this is a watershed moment for America. 'The die is cast'.

[AbuGhraib shit-bag/ not from above]

Poem: Sonnet 33

Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye*,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack* on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace*:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine;
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.
Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth;
Suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth.

@

~Contrary to the analysis on this site, the poem's about the death of Shakespeare's son.

14,000 Held in Secret US Prisons

In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

...on Sept. 6, the Pentagon issued a new interrogation manual banning forced nakedness, hooding, stress positions and other abusive techniques.
The same day, President Bush said the CIA's secret outposts in the prison network had been emptied*...

The U.S. government has contended it can hold detainees until the "war on terror" ends - as it determines.

article by Patrick Quinn | AP via TruthOut

~Nowhere in the article does Mr. Quinn say how he arrived at the number 14,000.

*Note: either Mr. Quinn misquoted or President misspoke because today:

Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday (Sept.21), intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.

[Congress will not -- as President Bush had demanded -- pass legislation that formally reinterprets U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions.]

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) (in a statement said) yesterday that "there's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved."

The Abuse Can Continue Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either. | WashPost

~Good men, a credit to their race and their communities, great Americans, our leaders

Does belief in Jesus Christ make it easier or more difficult to turn one's back on humanity? (Don't give me that 'render to Caesar' bullshit.)

In a historic address ("Freedom at War With Fear") to the nation and joint session of Congress Sept. 20, 2001, President Bush pledges to defend America's freedom against the fear of terrorism.

[photo & caption WhiteHouse.org]

~This will be President Bush's legacy: Torturer in Chief.

Cousteau: Irwin's Tactics 'Misleading'

"You don't touch nature, you just look at it."

item | SeattlePI from Aberrant News

~From what I understand Steve Irwin's "croc-wrestling" initally served a purpose: relocating out of harm's way crocodiles that got too close to humans. That he used the same hands-on approach with crocs and other species, not otherwise threatened or a threat, was exciting television but his undoing. I wonder if fan-mail or focus groups were used by the producers of his show when planning the stunts, or did they simply rely on Irwin's instincts and his cameraman's input?

related: Crocodile Tears: Notes on the Death of Steve Irwin
By Sally Eckhoff

The Great Fellatio Scare: Is Oral Sex Really the Latest Teen Craze?

>"the sexual jungle of worried adults' imaginations"

article by Cathy Young

from GrowingupSexually

Cognitive Science Humanities & the Arts

A Collection of Resources

"The Cognitive Science Initiative at UH (University of Houston) explores current research in central fields of cognitive science. We are also committed to encompassing related fields in arts and humanities, and to exploring the potentially revolutionary implications from cognitive science and its understanding of the mind for such key topics as creativity, language, meaning, narrative, and imagination."

http://www.hfac.uh.edu/cogsci/index.html compiled by Dr. Cynthia Freeland

>related: Wiki article on Cognitive Science

Wiki article on Neuroesthetics

Institute of Neuroesthetics http://www.neuroesthetics.org/index.html

"to instill among neurobiologists the virtues of using the products of art to study the organization of the brain"

[photo not from above]

Scholarly Societies Project

4113 Scholarly Societies, 3783 Websites

>by subject: http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/society/subjects_soc.html

http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/society/

~Get a degree or a somewhat bookish hobby and join a club! (Ahem) ...an association!

Are We Cool With Cruel and Degrading Treatment for US Troops?

The United States Congress is currently debating how we should treat our detainees. The question is what level of "interrogation" is acceptable. What they're really talking about is what level of torture is acceptable. But let's put aside that obvious fact for a second and take them at their word. Let's assume they are just talking about cruel and degrading treatment.

+

The only problem is that whatever we agree is acceptable interrogation tactics, we obviously have to accept can also be done to our troops when they are captured. It's one thing when we tell other countries to treat our soldiers by the Geneva Conventions when we are following them, it's another to say that when we are not.

complete article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/are-we-cool-with-cruel-an_b_29919.html

thanks Conscientious

~So Bush's hubris in ignoring the Geneva Conventions has every US soldier serving in his War on Terror thinking about the fate that awaits them if they're captured? ("Cyanide capsules" will soon be standard issue for every grunt?) Hearts and minds.

[not a US soldier/ not from above]

Doolee.com: Playwrights & Plays Database

>Moderne

Playwrights Listed: 17,213 Plays Listed: 58,550

Use the navigation bar to the left or the quick search alphabet above to begin searching for information on Plays, Playwrights, Literary Agents, Theatres or Publishers. To find out about how you can add information or get listed by doollee, click 'Contact Us' above.

>for example: Below are listed all the Plays on the doollee database that contain 0 male and 1 female parts. Click on a Play title for more information or click on a Playwrights name to view information on every Play that they have written that we currently list:

http://www.doollee.com/Characters/0m1f.htm

home: http://www.doollee.com/index.htm

~The arts require hours upon hours upon hours of obscure, often unnecessary or pointless, work?

Fun with...Filters

X2

sloppy mandala

David Lykken & the Polygraph Myth

David T. Lykken, a psychologist who did pioneering research and public education on the limits and abuses of polygraph testing, died last week at age 78.

With exceptional clarity he demonstrated that the polygraph is not a "lie detector" but simply a recorder of physiological responses to verbal stimuli. And, he explained, there is no set of physiological responses that corresponds uniquely to deception.

That does not mean the polygraph is worthless...

+

"I think it is now obvious that polygraph testing has failed to screen out from our intelligence agencies potential traitors and moles. On the contrary, it seems to have served as a shield for such people who, having passed the polygraph, become immune to commonsense suspicions."
Lykken produced a body of work that is prominently cited in every bibliography of polygraph-related research. And he addressed the interested public in a highly readable 1998 book called "A Tremor in the Blood"...

It is a sign of our times that the scientific critique of polygraph testing has gained almost no traction on government policy. To the contrary, the use of the polygraph to perform the sort of screening that Lykken termed a "menace in American life" is actually on the rise.

much more: blog entry | Secrecy News

[large (gif)]

related small photo of 1950's police lie detector

both illustrations from http://www.lisamcpherson.org/cos/ not Secrecy News

New Recruit Joins Terracotta Army

A German art student briefly fooled police by posing as one of China's terracotta warriors at the heritage site in the ancient capital, Xian.
Pablo Wendel, made up like an ancient warrior, jumped into a pit showcasing the 2,200-year-old pottery soldiers and stood motionless for several minutes.
The 26-year-old was eventually spotted by police and removed from the scene.

Police confiscated Mr Wendel's costume and sent him home*.

story | BBC

thanks Conscientious

~Is Mr. Wendel a pottery student; did he make his own costume?
I get the feeling a wager, or a woman, may be involved.
*"Sent him home" refers to where he's studying in China? Could China have him deported that quickly?
With a name like Pablo Wendel....

Update: I was wrong according to this link http://www.brouwer-edition.com/wendel_terracotta_links.php Mr. Wendel was making art. Other Pablo Wendel artworks http://www.brouwer-edition.com/works_wendel_installations.php.

It may be reckless and annoying when people intrude on sacred objects or behave inappropriately in secured arenas but if there's enough media around it can be appealing in a cheesy way.
Like when people jump into fountains, utilize public sculptures as other than art, scale sky-scrapers, or compete as urban adventurers.
Bravo Pablo! Bravo.

Ex-UK Intel Official Says Liquid Explosive Claims Fiction

[Why were the public delicately informed of an alleged conspiracy which the authorities knew, or should have known, could not have worked?" asked Lt. Col. Wylde. "This is not a new problem", he said, noting that 'shoe-bomber' Richard Reid had attempted to use this type of explosive on a plane in December 2001. "If this threat is real, what has been done to develop explosive test kits capable of detecting peroxide based explosives?"]

If there was a conspiracy, he added, "it did not involve manufacturing the explosives in the loo" as this simply "could not have worked". The process would be quickly and easily detected. The fumes of the chemicals in the toilet "would be smelt by anybody in the area." They would also inevitably "cause the alarms in the toilet and in the air change system in the aircraft to be triggered. The pilot has the ability to dump all the air from an aircraft as a fire-fighting measure. Leaving people to use oxygen masks. All this means the planned attack would be detected long before the queues outside the loo had grown to enormous lengths."

story | OpEdNews

>search Spitting Image with aug plot to find 7 related entries.

Enjoy the Video Game: Then Join the Army

...the use of a video game and incentives such as free iPods to recruit replacements is... proving a potent way to communicate military values directly to the messy bedrooms where teens hang out.

"America's Army" is "a sort of virtual test drive," says its creator, Col. Casey Wardynski. "What we are looking to communicate is the ethos of being a soldier ... leadership, teamwork, values, structure."

In a recent informal survey of recruits at Fort Benning, Ga., which was conducted by the Army's video-game development team, about 60 percent of recruits said they've played "America's Army" more than five times a week... Nationwide, the game counts some 7.5 million registered users, making it one of the Top 5 online PC games.

The Army announced earlier this month it expects to exceed its 80,000 recruiting quota this year after missing it in 2005 for the first time since 1999, and officials say a range of recruitment tweaks - including easing up on the tattoo policy and up to $40,000 signing bonuses - have played a role. But few other ideas have been as effective in galvanizing potential recruits as "America's Army."

"The idea was to create a game to get the word out about the Army, and we would make it fun because the Army is fun, and we'll get it right in their living rooms where they're already operating every day," says Col. Randy Zeegers, a military-protocol expert on "America's Army" development team.

The new version includes digitized commentary from "Real Heroes" - a group of veterans from the war on terror picked by the Army... (also) to become...action figures for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

Unlike many "shooter" games that require pistons for thumbs, "America's Army" is... more about building skills, players say. ... To make a hit, for example, a player has to not just aim but synchronize his shooting to his breathing - just like with a real rifle. The main idea is to develop skills that move the player from lowly grunt to decorated Green Beret.

Nearly 40 percent of recruits now score in the bottom half of the Army's own aptitude test, according to David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness. More high school dropouts are now recruited than five years ago. There are fewer "washouts," meaning the Army is holding on to more borderline soldiers, critics
say.

story Christian Science Monitor

Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life

"Imagining America offers a rich national network of public scholars. Our constituencies include faculty, higher education administrators, leaders and staff of public cultural institutions and non-profits, K-12 educators, mayors, graduate and undergraduate students."

Our Work http://www.ia.umich.edu/our-work.html

The Imagining Your State Toolkit http://www.ia.umich.edu/documents/IYS-toolkit.pdf

~Isn't 'public scholarship' an oxymoron?

Ad: EyeCheck™ Pupillometer

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An individual simply peers into the unit's viewing area. A light flashes, and the pupil reacts to that stimuli, causing constriction and then re-dilation of the pupil.

more info: http://www.mcjeyecheck.com/

from Omnibrain

Poem: Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

© Mary Oliver. Online Source

Photo-caption Non Sequitur

"For every person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption with existing technology would require four more planet Earths." ---E.O.Wilson

from http://www.lectures.org/wilson.html

~Bush and his gang are freakin' prophets! They're coming for our stuff: the billions of brown, black and yellow people of the world. If not tomorrow then soon, very soon. War without end is the only answer.

Update: A World of Niggers: Bush at the UN | Rude Pundit

Timeline of Wartime Detention Systems

The evolution of the U.S. wartime detention system:

article | AP via TruthOut (scroll down)

~Isn't 'wartime detentions system' a great euphemism for state-sanctioned torture?

>related" A Visit With a Man Wrongly Detained at Guantanamo

| Spiegel

[a recent, within the timeline, US wartime detainee\
photo not from the above]

Box Jokes

"These sexual box jokes, part of our erotic heritage, emanate from the United States sexual revolution. Hostility is often disguised as humor, a phenomenon embodied in these "gag gifts."
Although my taste is not shared by all, I find these box jokes compelling. There is something about the bad puns, the inane use of found plastic constructions, and, especially the fantasies of giving that they bring to mind. When I look at these box jokes, I wonder, salaciously, about the relationships that must exist between people such that giving such a thing would be an appropriate or even imaginable gift

for example:

"SPORTSMEN'S TROPHY: AN AWARD OF MERIT FOR A REAL ""SPORT"""

Inside is a certificate reading ""Sportsman's award. This is to certify that ____ has duly passed the rigid rigors of the Sportsman. This ""trophy"" is a symbol of his proven ability as a ""Real Sport."" Dated_____ ""Sports Commissioner _____"". Under the certificate is a yellow cardboard shield, with a hanging hole at top center, imprinted ""Sportsman's Award."" Mounted on the shield is a solid rubber pair of women's breasts, the nipples painted red."

"Trophy -- imprinted cardboard, rubber, and paint, 4.375"" x 5""

more box jokes http://www.alta-glamour.com/cgi-bin/glam/gallery.html?id=cIJytgms

Bush to Hold Talks on Ali G Creator After Diplomatic Row

>'No such thing as bad publicity'

US President George Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.
And now a movie of Borat's adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident.

+

(kazakhstan's) Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news conference: "We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with the ethics and civilized behaviour of Kazakhstan's people.
"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."
Baron Cohen responded to Ashykbayev in character by posting a video on the Official Borat website.
In the video, Borat said, "In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew.
"Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world.
"Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."
His blatant outpouring then prompted the Kazakh government to hire two public relations firms to counter the claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times.

press release | Daily Mail

IMBds Trailers for Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

from Conscientious

~I'd like to find out who's handling Mr.Cohen's publicity. I wonder how many other countries would be willing to go along with a marketing campaign like this? Will the world's diplomats take over from athletes, rock stars and models and begin endorsing products for a price? For example: for a fee President Bush could mention, in his next speech about his War on Terror, Tasers or Sears Auto Batteries.
I'm surprised that a mayor of an American city hasn't done this yet.

Ad: Slimming Photos with HP Digital Cameras

"They say cameras add ten pounds, but HP digital cameras can help reverse that effect. The slimming feature, available on select HP digital camera models, is a subtle effect that can instantly trim off pounds from the subjects in your photos!

With the slimming feature, anyone can appear more slender—instantly.
+The effect is subtle—subjects still look like themselves
+Can be adjusted for a more dramatic effect
+See a before and after version, then decide which to keep."

http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/digital_photography/tours/slimming/index_f.html

(requires flash)

from Consumptive

Photographer Wendy Ewald

For more than twenty-five years, Ms. Ewald has taught photography to children and young people around the world.

[from Wendy Ewald: PhotoGallery]

>biblio, interview, etc: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Ewald/
| Institute of International Studies; UC Berkeley

Vogue: State of Emergency

by Steve Meisel

for example:

*

more photos:
http://www.voguevanity.it/cont/010fas/photo/default.asp
(~I couldn't get this to work, luckly...)

*more scans: http://community.livejournal.com/foto_decadent/1403878.html

with comments.

~Faschion

Or this: "If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed."--Vaclav Havel @ | We Can Create a Better World

UNESCO: Cultural Tourism

>thematic roads, eco-tourism, ethical tourism, sustainable tourism.

To create a discerning type of tourism that takes account of other people’s cultures

http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=11408&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

~'Sustainable tourism': the tourist as a cash crop; tourism as agriculture, forestry.
Like a force of nature?
How do you maximize land use without destroying the land itself?

Blog: Akkam's Razor

http://www.akkamsrazor.com/

Unmanned Vehicles for U.S. Naval Forces:

Background and Issues for Congress

Unmanned vehicles (UVs) are viewed as a key component of U.S. defense transformation. Perhaps uniquely among the military departments, the Department of the Navy (DON), which includes the Navy and Marine Corps, may eventually acquire every major kind of UV, including unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), unmanned air combat vehicles (or UCAVs, which are UAVs armed with weapons), unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs).

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RS21294.pdf | Secrecy News

for example?

article more photos of UGVs | Global Security

Spain's Soldiers Land in Lebanon

Los soldados españoles llegan al Líbano

more photos: http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/1507/0/0/

~Spain's military couldn't afford a berth in Beirut's harbor?

There is no Beirut harbor: Israel destroyed it?

There's plenty of room in the harbor but the roads to where Spain's army's to be deployed are impassable?

They have amphibious vehicles and the seas were calm, and the men needed the practice and the photographers were ready so...?

Postcard moment?

A half-hearted show of not that much of a military presence.

"We're prepared, in uniform and see we took some extra trouble to arrive but it's really not that dangerous so don't worry?"

>Priapo who emailed this link suggests: "Maybe disembarking in a beach is a way to promote the army as a travel agency? I don't know :-)."

Oriana Fallaci dies

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--obit-fallaci0915sep15,0,3966876.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

"A death is never a reason for joy, but some deaths can provide you a slight relief.

Oriana Fallaci has always been a right wing journalist, but she always
showed the things as they were... until September 11th 2001. It seems that having covered several conflicts as a war correspondent isn't the same as being witness of an attack near your home.

Living near the WTC she felt the attack on the towers and the fear she suffered those days gave her strenght to write some of the most
detestable and incendiary articles against Islam (not against radicals
but against the whole religion) we've been able to read since the
Inquisition. Her writings have also provided war-mongers reasons to
support the nonsense of the invasion of Iraq.

I won't enjoy her death, but I will feel pleased to read no more articles that spread hate seeds. Her beloved Eurasia and America will
be safer without them."

Regards.

~ Priapo @

~It's noteworthy that Ms. Fallaci called the cancer that killed her "the Alien"? "Alien" has a different meaning for Europe's conservatives than it does for America's science fiction fans?

Web Tech Conf./ Work of Dr. Amanda Spink

4th International Conf. on Information Technologies: New Generations (April 2-4, 2007, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
www.itng.info)

"...the Web Tech track is being led by the legendary Dr. Amanda Spink. Her vitae contains enough interesting writing about web search to keep one busy for several weeks."

+ Dr. Spink is quoted in this AP article (via SEW Blog) on searcher behavior:

"What hasn’t changed much in seven years is how hard people are willing to work at searching. The answer: not very. Spink and [Bernard] Jansen found that people averaged about two words per query and two queries per search session. The searches are taking less than five minutes, and they’re only looking at the first page of results,” Spink said. “That’s why people are wanting to get their results on the first page of search engine results. We were surprised that people weren’t doing more complex searches, Spink said. If you put a couple of words into the web, you’re going to get hundreds of thousands of results. I think people aren’t trained very well to use the search engines."

article: http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,65503,00.html

link to more info. & links | Resource Shelf

Google's Speech Recognition Guru Speaks

Mike Cohen, head of the company’s efforts in (the) area (of speech recognition) and a co-founder of Nuance Communications, says that speech recognition will increasingly play a bigger role in all Web-based applications going forward. But for developers to be successful in this space, they will need to get in touch with their inner persons more than ever* if they hope to create applications that ordinary people will actually use.

links to podcast, other companies doing work in this area and more

*~Wha?

Explore Banned Books

...according to the American Library Association, 42 of 100 books recognized by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as the best novels of the 20th century have been challenged or banned.

...this year we're (Google Book Search is) joining libraries and bookstores across the country to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week – a nationwide initiative to help people learn about and explore banned books. You can start by browsing these 42 classics – books we (Google Book Search) couldn't be more pleased to highlight.

http://books.google.com/googlebooks/banned/

~And next year Google China will celebrate and highlight the individuals and organizations it has banned?

Blog: Your Daily Awesome

one blast of awesomeness a day

for example:

Gabriel Orozco

other awesomeness: http://www.yourdailyawesome.com/

Ad: Music Genome Project

>unique...rich...sophisticated taxonomy...musical identity of a song

"We believe every individual has unique musical tastes, and that music discovery tools need to have a rich understanding of music to account for this diversity. That's why Pandora's music discovery services are based on The Music Genome Project™, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans sixty years of music...

Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners.

more: http://www.pandora.com/corporate/mgp.shtml

~Pandora might be the right name for this 'music discovery service'?

Swiss Spell Out 'Bear' Necessities for Living with Nature

'A high-risk bear would be shot by specially trained gamekeepers after discussions between the cantons and the Environment Agency,' said (Reinhard) Schnidrig, (head of the hunting and game division at the Swiss Environment Agency)

A 'problematic' bear was not afraid of humans. The agency has trained experts to shoot these with plastic bullets to stun them and put them to sleep.

They would then be fitted with tracking devices. A series of scare tactics, such as dogs on long leads or loud noises would be used to teach the animals to fear humans once again.

If the tactics failed, and the bear proved a threat to the human population three times, then it would be judged 'high-risk.'

+

Bears, along with wolves and lynx, were hunted to extinction in the Alps in the 19th century. The last recorded bear killing in Switzerland was in 1904.

But last year a brown bear found its way into south east Switzerland for the first time in a century. It is thought to have crossed over from Italy. It killed a calf and over 20 sheep.

Last week a farmer reported seeing a brown bear in the canton of Grisons but the department's gamekeepers found no signs to back up his claims

The Swiss bear, 'JJ2,' was a brother of 'Bruno' or 'JJ1' which was shot dead in Bavaria last month causing some disquiet among animal lovers and conservation groups.

'After the experience in Bavaria we wanted to be ready with a plan for dealing with bears. We did not want to be caught out or our hand forced by the media,' added Schnidrig.

press release | Monsters and Critics

~Imagine bears roaming throughout Europe: like letting them loose in Disneyland?

Search: Who2

Find Famous People Fast

http://www.who2.com/index.html

~I used this to find out what scifi tv show had a character named Starbuck. But thinking that's not what I heard I searched Wiki and found another sf Starbuck.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Journal: Forum

Issue 2, Spring 2006 - Fear and Terror

The spring edition of Forum addresses the interrelated concepts of terror and fear and aims to explore the various ways in which these ideas are addressed within philosophy, art, music, literature and film. Within our contemporary society terror and fear have adopted a new relevancy and, as the arts are direct commentators on the prevalent attitudes of the era, Forum’s objective is to discover the way in which the arts have confronted terror and fear both within our time and in previous ages.

http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/issue2/index.html

re: Terrorism and Its Metaphors

"I want to map out the metaphors of terrorism to critique how they are used in United States political rhetoric. These metaphors and their usage parallel United States history, cold war ideologies, and globalization. Central to this investigation is an analysis of how the hegemonic order appropriates the media and uses such metaphors to manufacture consent for supporting a vaguely defined “war on terror” indefinitely. Metaphors have been called “the dreamwork of language,” by Donald Davidson who writes also that “the interpretation of dreams requires collaboration between a dreamer and a waker” (29). But terrorism is not a dream. It is not a metaphor.

more: http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/issue2/fabiano.html

by Mark Fabiano (Wright State University)

Reverse Link Search

>from Jan 2003

AlltheWeb Offers A Powerful Reverse Link Search

Running a link search (finding out who's linking to a specific page) is a useful service many web engines provide. It's a great way to find relationships between companies/organizations, discover new ideas, or additional sites. A problem with Google's reverse link search is that you're unable to use any additional terms in the query. For example, if you're trying to limit a search to identify pages only in the .edu domain that link to a specific page, the search will not work. However, extra terms and limits WILL work with AllTheWeb.

The syntax for running a reverse link search with ATW is link:

http://www.alltheweb.com/

~examples

Here's All the Web Reverse link search results for Candace's Aberrant News: link:http://thundersnake.com/news.htm

For James' Consumptive.org: link:http://consumptive.org/

The reverse link search results for Joerg Colberg's blog Conscientious: link:http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/

Boyhood Studies: link:http://www.boyhoodstudies.com/

Unknown News: link:http://www.unknownnews.net/

Overheard Starbuck

http://overheardstarbuck.blogspot.com/

Fun in the Great Outdoors

Menards Sunflowers

2x

~Do you think Menards or the owners of the shopping mall planted those sunflowers?

Me neither.

Where Do Gay Christans Meet?

At Gay Harmony of course blog entry | Cynical-C Blog

Why Social Software Is Good for Introverts

You don’t have to say much to be social these days. Thanks to LibraryThing (now with Groups!) and Flickr, my books and photographs have more of a social life than I do. I like things this way. It may seem counterintuitive to extroverts, but social software works for me because:

article | 12 Frogs

Best Ways to Say I Love You

"Have you ever felt at a loss for words or ways to describe your feelings for your partner? At some point in any relationship the need for a sentimental or unique way to say I love you comes up. With this in mind we asked Lovingyou.com members what their favorite way to say I love you was. Below is a few of our favorite ideas!

complete blog entry | Palace Chime

http://forum.fight.ro/files/thumbs/t_hummer.jpg

http://forum.fight.ro/

thanks Diederik

Google Search: "identity goods"

~I believe the term is best describe by way of this blog entry from Ryan Mahoney: Journal.

Have you already purchased your identity goods for the month? Don't wait until the last minute; you made fade away to nothing before then.

[illus not with above]

Where You Live Can Decide How Long You Live

Where you live, combined with race and income, plays a huge role in the nation's health disparities, differences so stark that a report issued Monday contends it's as if there are eight separate Americas instead of one.
...concluded Dr. Christopher Murray of the Harvard School of Public Health.

story with links to maps

~A paean to freedom! ...and Genetics! (Eugenics?)

America is still the world's #1 producer of wealth isn't it?
Why don't people in those unhealthy America's simply move?

It's not that many miles from those areas in South Dakota with the worst life expectancies to the counties in the Northerns Plains with the best. And they're connected by interstate highways!

Freedom isn't easy losers.

An Alternative Set of Interrogation Procedures

A necessary supplement to President George Bush's speech last week on the CIA's secret detention program is contained in John le Carré's new novel. Called The Mission Song, the novel includes an extended description of torture that takes up several pages of text.

President Bush spared the nation such excruciating details. He spoke vaguely and euphemistically of an "alternative set of [interrogation] procedures" - "tough" and "necessary" tactics that made uncooperative detainees talk.

+

Bush did not mention water-boarding in his speech, nor did he mention any other specific abusive practice. He explained that if he were to do so, it would help the terrorists learn how to resist questioning...

It is one thing to consider abuse in an abstract and euphemistic way, but another thing to defend its specific manifestations -- the brutality, the pain, and the damage to the human spirit. ...

But by leaving the details unsaid, Bush omitted a crucial part of the story. At least when law professor Alan Dershowitz defended torture, he had the honesty to describe exactly what he was proposing (a sterilized needle under the fingernails was his favored technique).

complete article: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/mariner/20060911.html

By JOANNE MARINER

Fatal Vision: The Strategy of Chaos and Ethnic Cleansing

> a "dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works."

article By Chris Floyd;

cited: Blood Borders: How a Better Middle East Would Look by Ralph Peters

t r u t h o u t | Perspective

~Reminds me of the old joke, "Why does a dog lick his balls?"

Porn Film Festival Berlin

Oct. 18-22 2006

http: