The seven soldiers read the papers and mail
But the news, it doesn't change.
Swinging about through creepers,
Parachutes caught on steeples
Heroes are born, but heroes die.
Just a few days, a little practice and some holiday pay,
We're all sure you'll make the grade.
Mother of God, if you care,
We're on a train to nowhere
Please put a cross upon our eyes.
Take me - I'm nearly ready, you can take me
To the raincoat in the sky.
Take me - my little pastry mother take me
There's a pie shop in the sky.
Mother Whale Eyeless Brian Eno
best viewed not with IE, though I'm not sure why.
formerly "fifteen foot italian shoe" and "keoha pint."
But she doesn't know where Leni is. She turns a full circle before she realizes that she's already
lost her driver and guide. And she panics just a little, starts to move through the crowd for the
sidewalk, but it's like fighting an ocean wave whose undertow keeps growing. She's moving against
the flow of the crowd, smacking into a fireman, a mummy, a vaguely biblical character with a braying
sheep lodged up on his shoulders, bent around the neck. She turns and tries to move for the opposite
sidewalk, jumps out of the way as one of those huge, old-fashioned unicycles comes rolling too fast
in her direction, the pedaler honking a red rubber sqeeze horn over and over.
How could Leni leave her like this? She searches for a familiar face but she's pummeled with a
nonstop rush of rubber masks and veil-hidden eyes. It's like a cargo truck full of stage makeup exploded
moments before she arrived here. People are rouged or pancaked into caricatures, into mutants, into distant
relations of what's recognizably human.
"It's a convergence of all the major issues involved in the digital age that are coming to bear," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a public-interest law firm that specializes in intellectual-property issues.
A coalition of movie studios and TV networks, which includes Viacom Inc., the NBC television network, Walt Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc., has asked a federal court in California to order ReplayTV's parent company, SonicBlue Inc., to stop selling the device. They contend that the machine makes it so easy to acquire and repackage TV series, movies and other content that it effectively violates copyright law.
Because ReplayTV stores programs digitally, users can jump past a commercial in much the same way a computer user can jump from one part of a document to another with the click of a mouse. The device also allows users to send a program over the Internet as if it were e-mail.
To prove that copyright laws are being violated, the entertainment industry is seeking proof of what users of the device are watching. Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Eick in Los Angeles ordered SonicBlue to hand over records detailing what shows users watch, when they watch them and even whether they skip commercials. The users would not be identified.
Real kicker's at the end:
Although entertainment conglomerates are fighting SonicBlue now, they concede that it is inevitable that consumers will gain greater control over how and when they view programming.
Disney, like several other entertainment companies, is an investor in ReplayTV.
It may take a while before we (Israelis) start to digest what we did in Jenin. I don't have the words yet to speak about my shame, my horrible pain for the Palestinian people. Therefore I speak about what we did to ourselves. A dear friend of mine was murdered three days ago in a trip in Sinai -- a painter and computer expert, in the draft resistance circle. By informal reports, his murderer was an Egyptian who sought revenge for the murder of the Palestinians. He could not distinguish between my friend and the nice reserve fellows from Jenin that we saw and heard so much about the last few days. In fact, they do look similar, and many of these guys are also in the computer business. Itai Angel, the young journalist who interviewed reservists on channel 2 TV news last Friday night, has possibly managed to convince many in our little bubble that such nice guys, by their very nature, cannot possibly commit a massacre. Therefore, there was no massacre -- there was a fierce battle and we are OK. But outside our bubble, nobody watches Itai Angel. They watch the ruins of Jenin. We are turning the whole Muslim world against us. [link via Mid-East Realities]
A new book accuses the FBI of "gross misconduct and gross incompetence" during the Cold War.
New York's Pathways to Housing program for the mentally ill has an 85% success rate -- and "doesn't require medication, abstinence from drugs or alcohol, or use of social services -- a leniency that flies in the face of conventional demands that the homeless demonstrate 'housing readiness' through sobriety, psychiatric visits, even cooking skills before they're provided with a place to live."
Friday, May 03, 2002
If you use new prescription drugs you're a guinea pig.
Half the withdrawn drugs were banned within two years of approval. Over all, half the adverse reactions were detected within seven years. The F.D.A. depends on voluntary reporting, largely by doctors, to detect adverse drug reactions. The system is widely thought to pick up about 10 percent of those reactions.
In some cases, the adverse effects were known before the drugs were marketed, the authors of the report said. They suggested that some of the withdrawn drugs should not have been approved in the first placeIn some cases, the adverse effects were known before the drugs were marketed, the authors of the report said. They suggested that some of the withdrawn drugs should not have been approved in the first place.
In other cases, the adverse effects emerged only after the drugs had gone to market and were being used by large numbers of patients. To some extent, the problem cannot be avoided, because most drugs are tested in just a few thousand patients, which may not be enough to detect every adverse effect. [link via U]
O'Reilly's fans like to play the Be Like Bill Game: The more vicious, shaming and completely off the subject you are, the more points you get. If you try to advance the debate without sensationalism or name-calling, you lose.
The next day, KQRS morning-drive kingpin Tom Barnard decided to have a little fun with my name, repeatedly calling me "Kristin Titson" on the air. The last time I heard that one was in third grade; by the fourth, the boys were too mature. Barnard, if you're wondering, is 50.
So where can a shrill, condescending, dirty-haired, child-hating, fondue-loving moron with an easily deridable surname go from here? Jerry Springer might be a step up. At least I'd be given equal opportunity to throw a chair.
O'Reilly calls himself a newsman, but he's being too modest. In reality, he's America's favorite carnival barker, with guests who disagree with him as his sideshow.
The lights might be less bright here in the realm of the print media, we ink-stained wretches whose faces are more likely to shatter lenses than spike ratings. But I can get a lot more work done. And not worry that my job depends on being an aggressive voice for the collective hate of my audience. [U]
mmmm Miriam Hopkins i love youTCM is running Lubitsch's hard-to-find not-on-video classic Trouble in Paradisetonight whoops I mean tomorrow night (Saturda/Sunday) at 1:30AM PT, after their Woodyfest. Wilder fans: Lubitsch is one of his big influences. Essential.
Nice work, TCM. [with a nod to Lester for the Underworld trope meme]
Russian scientists claim to have found a 120 million year-old relief map of the Bashkir area. The article is translated roughly from Russian. Regardless of the age claim, the technology involved appears to be quite advanced. And they also say it may be just a fragment of a 340-meter-square world map.[og]
Human Rights Watch claims there was no massacre at Jenin, though 22 civilians were killed and war crimes were committed.
Starting in 1924, more than 7,000 people considered genetically inferior - most of them poor, uneducated, black or mentally retarded - were forcibly sterilised in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[...]
In all more than 60,000 people are thought to have been sterilised in the US in the name of eugenics.
Sixty-one-year-old Rose Brooks, herself a victim of Virginia's eugenics programme, helped unveil the memorial and declared the state governor's apology "pretty good".
She was sterilised at Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded in 1957 after having twin boys out of wedlock. The children were taken from her and adopted.
[...]
The apology coincides with the anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1927 decision upholding the sterilisation legislation. [ link]
Like the old Talking Heads song goes, "Don't Worry About the Government."
Imagine what people like Ashcroft would do if they could. And who's to stop them?
Who ultimately bears the burden for the billions of tax dollars corporations pay each year is difficult to determine. The subject has been debated by economists for decades. The tax bill might be paid by consumers through higher prices. Employees can have their salaries or benefits cut. Or shareholders may take the hit via reduced earnings and dividends.
Perhaps corporate taxes cost all these parties something.
The fading of corporate taxation helps stock prices. That largely benefits the upper-income Americans that own the bulk of corporate shares, and widens an already large income gap between rich and poor. It also means Washington must raise individual income taxes, including those on the less-than-rich.
Despite the boom of the late 1990s, with its low unemployment rates, the gaps between high-income and low- and middle- income families are historically wide, notes a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, two Washington think tanks. In all but five states, income inequality has increased over the 1980s and 1990s.
Former Suck columnist Heather Havrilesky's hilarious screed on Bridget Jones et al.
We meet our heroine at a low point in her man-seeking life -- not a Dostoevski low, mind you, but a "Darn it, my hair is being so weird today, and why can't Mr. Everything ride in on a white horse already?" low. Her media job is so hectic and nutty, her friends are so hectic and nutty and she's so adorably scattered and sweetly disheveled. She's our own private idle 'ho (as played by Meg Ryan): deliciously flawed, sneezing cutely and wrinkling her nose over cheese (she's lactose-intolerant, get it?), and she's come to make the world safe for uptight, mediocre yuppies like herself! She's spunky, not gloomy. After all, readers don't need to get more depressed than is necessary to set up the elation of finding true love in the final chapter. We don't ask, "Will she throw herself into the river?" but rather, "Is she really gonna have to eat that whole hot fudge brownie sundae all by herself?" Aw, look. She's got hot fudge on her cute little button nose! Poor peanut. [nd]
Speaking on ABC television's "Nightline" on Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected allegations that his government were trying to hide a massacre.
"We do not have anything to hide. The Israeli armed forces have got very high values," he said.
You're a real Paragon of Virtue, Ariel. Maybe the UN should be renamed eUNuch international.
One way to develop an appreciation for freedom of the press is to envision what its loss would mean. A new formulation of press restrictions issued by the government of the People's Republic of China is quite useful for this purpose.
The latest PRC "Regulation on Management of Publications" includes a daunting list of items whose publication is prohibited, naturally including those "which leak state secrets [or] endanger national security."
Also verboten are articles that "damage national honor and interests"; "publicize cults and superstitions"; "disrupt public order and undermine social stability"; "endanger social ethics or outstanding national cultural traditions," and much, much more.
"When exercising freedom of the right of publishing, citizens ... must not undermine the interests of the state...," the regulation instructs.
textz.com is supporting the demonstration "nie wieder copyright - fight corporate piracy", starting may 1st at 6pm at rosa-luxemburg-platz in berlin-mitte. at least 10,000 people are expected to join the rally that is going to be europe's biggest protest against "intellectual property" so far.
This in an email I got from textz today. Can't find a thing about it online though. Maybe lost in the muddle of MayDay protest in Berlin. Maybe no one knew about it or wanted to report it.
But just when W. seemed to have cast his lot firmly with Sharon, undercutting his own disgruntled secretary of state, he was reminded by Dad that there is nothing thicker than blood and oil.
100 people die a day from starvation in the Maslakh refugee camp in Afghanistan. But the media in the US and the UK pay scant attention, and still no one knows where bin Laden is, and the War in Afghanistan is either over or not. Meanwhile people we never see are suffering because of the war, and resentment against the US and its allies lays the groundwork for future terrorism.
Eventually that karmic chicken will come home to roost. Are we having fun yet?
More "We can't find anything and anything could happen" reassurances from the FBI.
Joan of Arc, the French Jefferson -- in the sense that she's a historical figure whose become the political symbol of whatever people want her to be. For Le Pen & co., she's a symbol of the "pure, religious and anti-immigration 'France of the old days'."
BYRAM [,NJ] --The witness reports, "My wife and I were watching the moon and stars above northwestern New Jersey on April 16, 2002, when we noticed a particularly bright star moving slightly in the sky." It was visible through some tree branches at first, so we changed position for a clearer view (thinking it might be the tree branches giving the appearance of movement). It maintained its pattern of movement; slightly vertical and slightly horizontal, and would periodically flash blue and red. We don't believe it could have been an airplane, since it was hovering in position; a plane would have visibly moved across the sky. I went into the house and got our video camera, and we taped the object for 10 minutes or so, zooming in as much as 32x. With the zoom on, we could see it growing in size and then shrinking suddenly, as if it were "pulsing." We taped our house and lights visible from the World Trade Zone for reference. After 10 to 15 minutes we went back inside. Fifteen minutes later I went back to look for the object and it was gone. I filed a police report around 10:00 PM, after checking the Internet to see if it might have been a planet or other conspicuous object.
I was buzzed near Byram 12 years ago, on the way home from seeing JFK no less.
*sigh* This is getting depressing. It's like someone put a hex on the world, last September being the Great Work.
Gossiping bacteria defy resistance.
British scientists have caught bacteria in the act of passing information to each other - even when separated by a plastic wall. The discovery could throw new light on the spread of antibiotic resistance in hospitals. [link]
The terror attacks on Sept. 11 and extreme turmoil in the Middle East point to one thing - World War III, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday during a visit to Tucson.
"We've been fighting a war for the past 18 months, which is the harbinger of World War III. The world is going to fight, whether they like it or not. I'm sure,'' Ra'anan Gissin, a senior adviser to Sharon, said in an interview Friday.link
When is this guy going to get the boot? Bush's response to 9/11 is definitely inspiration for all kinds of bad ideas (Sharon's tilt even further right, Le Pen, heavy manners all over), inside the US and out.
? F5: Winds 261 to 318 mph. Incredible damage. Strong frame houses leveled off foundations and swept away; automobile-sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters (109 yds); trees debarked; incredible phenomena will occur.
Maryland twister damage worse than expected. People are pulling together, but it's a disaster area.
But apparently the worst East Coast tornado hit Worcester MA in '53 and killed 94 people.
automobile-sized missiles. . .109 yards. And only 3 dead.
Silent protest by net broadcasters today, because of the proposed royalty fee that would put many out of business.
The role of the technology industry is to blaze new trails that create new opportunities for Hollywood. The role of Hollywood is to seek injunctive relief from those opportunities.
Interesting British Medical Journal article on what "disease" is.
To have your condition labelled as a disease may bring considerable benefit. Immediately you are likely to enjoy sympathy rather than blame. You may be exempted from many commitments, including work. Children learn very young that saying you have a headache will bring sympathy and a hug, whereas saying, "I can't be bothered to go to school" will bring anger and punishment. Having a disease may also entitle you to benefits such as sick pay, free prescriptions, insurance payments, and access to facilities denied to healthy people. You may also feel that you have an explanation for your suffering.
But the diagnosis of a disease may also create many problems. It may allow the authorities to lock you up or invade your body. You may be denied insurance, a mortgage, and employment. You are forever labelled. You are a victim. You are not just a person but an asthmatic, a schizophrenic, a leper, an epileptic. Some diseases carry an inescapable stigma, which may create many more problems than the condition itself. Worst of all, the diagnosis of a disease may lead you to regard yourself as forever flawed and incapable of "rising above" your problem. [via U]
But I love living in a Police State -- it's so comforting. 2 new laws erode civil liberties in Cali.
. . .[t]hat means the public, the press, and in some cases even the person accused of the crime, can't know why the police entered a home without permission.
Under previous laws, the records were public, unless a judge ordered them sealed for a specific reason. In federal courts, that remains the case. But now, search warrants in state courts are automatically closed to public view.
"I think this is absolutely unconstitutional," said Dawn Phillips, a First Amendment lawyer with the Michigan Press Association. "We objected to it at the time. This thing passed like greased lightning." [link via U]
The guy shrub sent to check out Jenin whitewashed My Lai 34 years ago.
Around six months later, a soldier in the 11th Light Infantry Brigade--known among the men as "the Butcher's Brigade"--wrote a letter telling of widespread killing and torturing of Vietnamese civilians by entire units of the US military (he did not specifically refer to My Lai). The letter was sent to the general in charge of 'Nam and trickled down the chain of command to Major Colin Powell, a deputy assistant chief of staff at the Americal Division, who was charged with investigating the matter and formulating a response.
After a desultory check--which consisted mainly of investigating the soldier who wrote the letter, rather than his allegations--Powell reported that everything was hunkey-dory. There may be some "isolated incidents" by individual bad seeds, but there were no widespread atrocities. He wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." The matter was closed.
To this day, we might not know about the carnage at My Lai if it hadn't been for another solider who later wisely sent a letter to his Congressman. (Twenty-five years later Powell gave an interview in which he not only failed to condemn the massacre but seemed to excuse it.) [link via U]
Our government intervention in the economy and in the private affairs of citizens, and the internal affairs of foreign countries, leads to uncertainty and many unintended consequences. Here are some of the consequences about which we should be concerned.
I predict U.S. taxpayers will pay to rebuild Palestine, both the West Bank and the Gaza, as well as Afghanistan. U.S. taxpayers paid to bomb these areas, so we will be expected to rebuild them.
Peace, of sorts, will come to the Middle East, but will be short-lived. There will be big promises of more U.S. money and weapons flowing to Israel and to Arab countries allied with the United States.
U.S. troops and others will be used to monitor the "peace."
In time, an oil boycott will be imposed, with oil prices soaring to historic highs.
Current Israeli-United States policies will solidify Arab Muslim nations in their efforts to avenge the humiliation of the Palestinians. That will include those Muslim nations that in the past have fought against each other. . .
Whooping cough is back, and affecting all age groups and countries. It's largely unreported in adults and is often fatal to infants. It's charactereized by "a cough that lasts more than three weeks. . . night coughing that disturbs sleep, vomiting, 30-second sweating attacks and complications such as hernias or rib fractures." No one knows why there's been a resurgence, but expiring vaccinations and newly resistant bacteria are suspected.
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
-- Jeannette Rankin
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