charging the canvas

Saturday, August 17, 2002

The foiled hit on muckraking journo Sabina Slonkova in the Czech Republic points up how crony capitalism has replaced crony communism. But in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine attacks on journalists are growing more common and are often ignored.

11:12 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Status Watch: You must have a butler. Even Madonna wants one.

This greatly relieves me, since I'm constitutionally averse to hierarchies. So there's money in the bank.

In case you're as out of touch as I am, or think I'm kidding:
More capable than the maid, more attentive than the secretary, and much grander than a 'personal assistant' -- who, really, can do without a butler?

"You would be rather surprised by the number of people -- Americans in particular -- who like someone to answer their phone and say, "Hello, this is Spencer the butler speaking," says Ivor Spencer, the doyen of the butler school circuit, who opened his London institution 21 years ago. "In the US today" he confides, "the only real status symbol is a butler."

With the growing demand for such status -- not to mention the extra help with laundry and car washing -- no fewer than 39 butler-training schools have opened their doors in England in the past two decades, offering four- to eight-week courses. Almost all require some initial familiarity with the white-gloved service sector, and all cost around $1,500 a week. The various schools boast that, once trained, butlers should expect to find a position with a starting salary of at least $55,000 -- a far cry from the meager �50 a year remuneration for butlers in Victorian England.
Rah-ther. . .

6:48 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Leni Riefenstahl debuts her first film in 50 years -- as she turns 100

Her films for the Nazi state were too effective -- her best work -- for her creative innovations and technical genius to ever overshadow the political implications.

Now Jodie Foster wants to do a biopic. Understandable, because in the 30s actors didn't pick up cameras, never mind women.

She took up scuba diving at 75 partially because of chronic back pain, and her new film documents the underwater world.

6:08 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Get out of my mind! [drudge]

NASA wants to build a system that uses electronic sensors to scan brain and heart patterns to screen for terrorists at airports.

These people really put Orwell to shame.

1:33 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, August 16, 2002

Spooky-ass military news site, though apparently anti-war [schismatrix]

Looks like a good source for info anyway.

8:24 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Where is that damn comet anyway?
Comets may be composed of the mysterious "dark matter" that makes up 90% of the universe "because they are disappearing and nobody knows where," says Robert Foot of the University of Melbourne in Australia. "If I'm right, there is an invisible mirror universe occupying the same space as our universe, complete with mirror galaxies, mirror stars and perhaps even mirror life."

Every time a comet passes close to the Sun, some of its surface ice boils off into space. They should be able to survive many orbits around the Sun before being totally melted away, but "the puzzle is they don't," says Foot. "Most vanish for ever after passing close to Sun for the first time." He thinks comets might be made of a new type of matter called "mirror matter," which gives out no light. They contain only a small amount of ordinary matter, and that this ordinary matter evaporates after passing by the Sun, leaving an invisible core of mirror matter.

8:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

spyonit is offline till late fall(?)

I used this to keep track of sites that change on a less than daily basis, though it didn't always keep track. Now they're down til "late fall" for an upgrade, so I'm trying out Watch It. Anyone know of any others (that are free, natch)?

7:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Official outrage over leaks may be psyops
MEANWHILE, some foreign affairs analysts say all the current talk about operational details is grossly irresponsible, because it could compromise American troops.

"I find it terrifying," said Kenneth M. Pollack, an expert on Iraq at the Council on Foreign Relations. "I am very uncomfortable with the level of public debate over the military strategy." This discussion, he said, should be on whether to attack, not how.

But others see a more deliberate hand in the stream of analysis by war- planners.

"A lot of it is intentional," said Michael D. McCurry, who was a press secretary in the Clinton administration. "They're talking about it to generate debate." When the president makes a decision that could cost lives and treasure, Mr. McCurry said, "nobody will be able to say it's out of the clear blue sky."

Keith E. Eiler, a research fellow in history at the Hoover Institution, said the discussion of the various attack strategies appears to be part of a propaganda campaign. "It has occurred to me that part of this may be a deception plan, an aspect of psychological warfare which we're playing," he said.
Could be. Though these guys are fanatical about secrecy, the record's clear on that. But the psyops reasoning is supported by the condescending Great-White-Father-Handling-the-Kids attitude they cultivate too.

7:27 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Video evidence of US germ warfare in Korean War claimed by Japanese researchers [last three posts via a]

7:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ashcroft moons Congress
The Justice Department has rebuffed House Judiciary Committee efforts to check up on its use of new antiterrorism powers in the latest confrontation between the Bush administration and Congress over information sought by the legislative branch.

Instead of answering committee questions, the Justice Department said in a letter that it would send replies to the House Intelligence Committee, which has not sought the information and does not plan to oversee the workings of the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

[...]

Mr. Conyers complained that the letter was "yet another shot in this administration's ongoing war against open and accountable government." He said Mr. Ashcroft was telling Congress that "his activities are not to be oversighted."

"'Congress, butt out,'" Mr. Conyers said.

A spokesman for Mr. Sensenbrenner said, "We are trying to get more answers."

Comptroller General David M. Walker, who leads the General Accounting Office, recently told The Hill, a weekly newspaper, that the administration was less forthcoming than any he could recall.

7:06 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

When Kissinger is against a war the White House is pushing for, you know you're in Wackyland
Leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq, saying the administration has neither adequately prepared for military action nor made the case that it is needed.

These senior Republicans include former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security adviser. All say they favor the eventual removal of Saddam Hussein, but some say they are concerned that Mr. Bush is proceeding in a way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in the Middle East, and harming long-term American interests. They add that the administration has not shown that Iraq poses an urgent threat to the United States.
The Dodo merely intoned "WooooooooOOOOOOO!"

6:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Lack of Stringent Standards for Stock-Option Pricing Makes Earnings' Manipulation Easy
Don't think the new movement by public companies to record expenses for the stock options they give employees will be a cure-all for manipulative accounting.

Companies have plenty of leeway when deciding the costs of stock options, and without any strict standards in place to determine the value, it's easy for businesses to tinker and minimize the impact on the bottom line.

"Stock options should be calculated uniformly and consistently, and right now that isn't happening," said Michael Goldstein, an associate professor of finance at Babson College outside Boston.

11:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

O'Neill trying to gather support for "multi-national" force in Colombia
Embattled US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's travels this week in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay were met with protests everywhere he went. Behind the scenes, one of the US pressures on these countries with struggling economies (the result of having followed neoliberal economic models imposed by the US, the UN, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) regards assistant secretary of state Otto Reich's plot to organize a "multi-national" army to enter Colombia's Civil War, but he needs at least a few Latin American countries to symbolically join in as a mask for direct US military intervention, and thus the presence of the US treasury secretary in these nations.

...we urge readers to view commercial press reports attributing the corresponding violence to rebel organizations skeptically. Remember that these rebel groups take public credit for their actions, and so far have not done so regarding the explosions that rocked the national palace this week. Be on the lookout for Otto Reich-style provocations aimed to justify deeper US military intervention in this country.[Narco News email Aug 9]

9:40 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Courting The Diné Vote: Redistricting has given the Navajo Nation big clout in Arizona's 1st District

Local example of gerrymandering weirdness: the Hopi nation -- whose reservation is entirely surrounded by the Navajo -- is in a different district, which stretches over a 150 miles away to Phoenix Metro, in some psychedelic, powermongering fashion. That was our district here in Yavapai County. Not sure now.

"Diné" is the name this tribe calls itself; "Navajo" is pejorative.

1:16 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Creepy update on irradiation of mail affecting Congressional staffers
Capitol officials are attributing a decline in the number of staffers complaining of mail-related illnesses primarily to lower levels of irradiation applied to mail during treatment.

[...]

"Manufacturers thought that if a little dose was good, a little more was better, but that really isn't true," she said. "We didn't lower the dose per se but restored the dose to the recommended levels."

Questions surrounding the safety of irradiated mail have continually surfaced on the Hill since such mail began arriving on staffers' desks following the anthrax-tainted letters received last fall. In January and February, 131 staffers reported symptoms ranging from tingling fingers to bloody noses to the Office of Attending Physician.

[...]

The parched look of the mail and the strong odors that emanate from it have caused some to continue to question its safety.

One source close to the process said the physician's office and the Sergeant-at-Arms have always been "of one mind"that irradiation does not pose a health risk.

"The Office of Attending Physician and the Sergeant-at-Arms have a vested interest in saying everything is fine," the source said.

"A lot of the problems have been worked out and they are not really frying it as much," the source said, but added that the mail still has a "weird, chemical smell."

"I still don't like to open something that's been irradiated."

1:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Questions on Flight 93 and the possibility it was shot down or that a bomb exploded before impact [og]

12:41 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Interesting redaction of a National Security Council meeting on spying inside the US from '77 [og]
Secretary Kissinger: George Bush deserves a special commendation. The Justice Department's role today is a threat to national security. Why is it better for a foreign government to have its spies in the U.S. caught than free to operate since if they are prosecuted everything must be made public. Because of the Attorney General's [Edward Levi] rules, NSA reports where U.S. citizens conversations are involved are meaningless to the point of being absurd. You must know who the U.S. official is by name to get the intercept in the right context. We should make it a point for the record that the Attorney General's guidelines in this area be looked at again.

I find no degradation in the quality of the intelligence analysis. The opposite is true, however, in the covert action area. We are unable to do it anymore. [Four lines redacted]

Director Bush: Henry, you are right. We are both ineffective and scared in the covert action area.

Secretary Kissinger: Many things are not even proposed these days because we are afraid to even discuss them much less implement them.

[...]

Director Bush: My problem is more with the institution than with the Attorney General, although he is a problem also. Their view of the role of intelligence is different. The Attorney General's departure won't make the problem go away.

Secretary Kissinger: They believe they have the right to demand total fulfillment on things like [phrase redacted]. Classification no longer means anything or is accepted in law. First you must be able to prove that information is really vital to national security and that is frequently not very easy to do. In the end it means we will not be able to prosecute espionage cases.

Director Bush: On both this aspect and the leak problem I will send a recommendation.

President Ford: What language in the Executive Order creates problems?

Vice President Rockefeller: The NSA name use problem could be changed by us. Ed Williams got the Solicitor General to admit that he personally didn't agree to this procedure but had been ordered to impose it.

Secretary Rumsfeld: Bob Ellsworth has had a lot of experience in this area. Bob, how do you view the problem?

Secretary Ellsworth: When the guidelines were negotiated the Attorney General attitude was that he was the President's legal advisor and had to protect him against any charges of tampering with the rights of U.S. citizens. But now the climate is changing and we must pass on our recommendations to the new team.

Vice President Rockefeller: I think the President has a responsibility to act now. We already know the orientation of the new administration. Do you think Carter will do it? We should deal with the problem now.

Secretary Kissinger: Right!

Secretary Clements: In the Navy claims problem the Attorney General told me he was representing the American people and taxpayers. In effect arrogating the public prosecutor role to himself when he was supposed to be defending the U.S. Navy's interests.
Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense then, Robert Ellsworth and William Clements were Deputy SoDs. That's GHW Bush, CIA Director, of course.

Clearly, the spell is stronger now, and the AG is "on board" on the issue, wouldn't you say?

12:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Haven't seen anything else about this, but if true we need to boot this guy and anyone in the administration who thinks like him
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace.

Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants.

The proposed camp plan should trigger immediate congressional hearings and reconsideration of Ashcroft's fitness for this important office. Whereas Al Qaeda is a threat to the lives of our citizens, Ashcroft has become a clear and present threat to our liberties.

[...]

Since the nation will never be entirely safe from terrorism, liberty has become a mere rhetorical justification for increased security.

Ashcroft is a catalyst for constitutional devolution, encouraging citizens to accept autocratic rule as their only way of avoiding massive terrorist attacks.

His greatest problem has been preserving a level of panic and fear that would induce a free people to surrender the rights so dearly won by their ancestors.

11:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

So many military families abandon pets when they move, authorities are "chipping" the animals to track them down

11:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

So many military families abandon pets when they move, authorities are "chipping" the animals to track them down

10:02 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Here's a gallery of pics of the German flooding which looks like something out of a frightening dream

9:58 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

NGOs are becoming increasingly important on issues like the environment and poverty, as governments are ruled by moneyed corporate interests with little or no concern beyond fast profit
Although the decade between the World Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and its successor in Johannesburg later this month is marked by the failure of governments to prevent the degradation of the environment or to rescue humanity from poverty and hunger, the last 10 years have seen an enormous upsurge in civic groups concerned about these critical global issues.
Yet with this growth there's the danger of being manipulated by the very interests they were formed to counter.
But the organizations are often criticized, too. Their role in nearly three-quarters of official aid projects arouses concern among some developing countries that rich countries are relying on the volunteers to wriggle out of intergovernment agreements. The international NGOs are sometimes criticized in poor countries as being a new way for the rich countries to perpetuate their influence. Critics in the developing countries say the organizations create dependencies, and distort economies by hiring the best local staff at salaries government and business cannot afford to pay.

Nor is the NGO movement immune from scandal, blame and sectarian taint. A report earlier this year said humanitarian workers from about 40 organizations had used their power and bribes of food to obtain sexual favors from minors among refugee communities in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The openness of societies has a direct effect on the health and effectiveness of these groups, of course, and the restrictions on civil rights in the US and elsewhere since 9/11 could easily be used to fabricate opposition and destabilization of this "civil society".

Still, their influence and very existence are heartening.

9:33 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Group of prominent Jews in UK renounce right to live in Israel, protesting "barbaric" policies against Palestinians

8:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Japanese rebel against ID system [u]
Ever since their computerized ID system switched on a few days ago, Japanese citizens have dropped out in droves from what many resent as a "big brother" monitoring of the people.

The dozens of protest groups that have popped up are planning a rally Monday at which demonstrators will show their outrage by ripping up the papers being sent out by the government to assign every citizen an 11-digit number.

"To start with, giving a number to people is a violation of our individual human rights," said Eiji Yoshimura, one of the protesters. "We have absolutely nothing to gain from this system."

Several local governments have refused to participate in the system, which began last Monday. Yokohama, a Tokyo suburb of 3.4 million people, is giving its residents a choice of hooking up or not.

8:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

LIHOP suit show cracks in 9/11 consensus
Stanley Hilton, a San Francisco attorney and former aide to Senator Bob Dole, filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3rd. The class-action suit names ten defendants, among whom are George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Norman Mineta.

Hilton's suit charges Bush and his administration with allowing the September 11th attacks to take place so as to reap political benefits from the catastrophe. Hilton alleges that Osama bin Laden is being used as a scapegoat by an administration that ignored pressing warnings of the attack and refused to round up suspected terrorists beforehand. Hilton alleges the ultimate motivation behind these acts was achieved when the Taliban were replaced by American military forces with a regime friendly to America and its oil interests in the region.

Hilton's plaintiffs in this case are the families of 14 victims of 9/11, numbering 400 people nationwide. These are the same families that rallied in Washington recently to advocate for an independent investigation into the attacks. The current 9/11 hearings are being conducted by Congress behind closed doors, a situation these families find unacceptable.

Mr. Hilton, by filing his lawsuit, has joined the ranks of an ever-increasing body of Americans who subscribe to what they call the LIHOP Theory. LIHOP stands for Let It Happen On Purpose. The LIHOP Theory puts forward the accusation that Bush and his people allowed the September 11th attacks to take place, despite the fact that they had been repeatedly warned of an impending strike.

8:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Comprehensive overview of digital video (DV) and the end of movies as we know them
There are issues that unite virtually everyone in the movie equation--studios, theater owners, filmmakers--in a state of equal, and grave, concern: system compatibility and security. Old-school film has a universal, cheaply maintained standard (35mm), but DV still lacks a single, industrywide standard. Not having a single means of defining the technical end of e-cinema could wreak havoc on U.S. and foreign theater chains and thus threatens the quick profitability that makes it so attractive.

Designing and agreeing on that standard won't be a simple matter--and not just because it involves several major tech and entertainment corporations battling it out. It involves setting universal standards for, among other things, minimum image quality (color, contrast, pixel count); international presentation quality; and system support for multiple transmission modes (satellite, cable). Most importantly, as far as the pirate-wary entertainment behemoths are concerned, it involves settling on a universal encryption code to stop hackers from freejacking primo digital fare.

Cohen--and other theater owners interviewed who didn't want to be quoted--locates another, more sinister aspect to digital delivery. "Right now we schedule our showtimes," he says. With digital systems, the content providers "have the ability to push a button on a computer that shuts you down. I love the flexibility of it, but again, who controls the gateway? If I pre-empt a movie for a David Bowie concert, the studio now knows it. It's creepy. It's like Fahrenheit 451, Big Brother."

[...]

"We would never bother to invest a penny in digital projection," says John Standiford, co-owner of Baltimore's Charles Theatre. He half-jokingly adds, "I'm not saying we'll be able to get away with not doing it. I'm hoping that [the movie studios and DV companies] are gonna foot the bill."

If the art houses that showcase their work can't or won't convert, that spells trouble for indie-film types who, ironically, should be celebrating the advent of DV. After all, digital video's lower shooting and postproduction costs should be a boon to emerging artists. But if the few remaining art houses stick with film, the savings will be mitigated by the need to transfer the finished product to pricey 35mm.

That doesn't portend much change in indiedom's marginal role in the movie ecosystem--as, in indie producer Andrew Fierberg's characterization, "bottom feeders" who provide a "farm team" from which mainstream Hollywood plucks new talent. The DV revolution "will not affect the independent film world for years," he says. "We're way too low-tech and unsophisticated--trust me. And nobody knows what the viewing audience in large numbers is going to do with this technology."

8:06 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Very funny version of Pooh lawsuit from Pooh's POV [bb]
As Pooh understands it, his value to Disney has a lot to do with something called Synergy. Pooh thinks about Synergy by imagining the Walt Disney Company as a forest. There's a tree for each Disney-owned movie studio, home video and cable operation, TV network, theme park, and retail store, and many of the trees are in bloom. There are trees full of Hundred Acre Wood Minute Maid Juice Boxes and Kellogg's-Disney Hunny B's cereal. There are trees laden with McDonald's Tigger Movie Happy Meals and Winnie-the-Pooh Band-Aids. Each tree makes a loud buzzing noise that says, "Buy me!" But when Synergy is really working, the trees join together to fill the forest with gentle sounds, which all seem to be whispering to Pooh and everyone else, "Don't go to Warner Bros. stores. Don't watch DreamWorks animation. Don't visit Universal Studios Hollywood or Knott's Berry Farm. Shop Disney."

7:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Estonian gubmint actually posts official signs marking wifi bubbles [bb]

7:53 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Celebrites sneak-shill pharmaceuticals during "human interest" segments [NYT username: aflakete password: europhilia]
In the last year or so, dozens of celebrities, from Ms. Bacall to Kathleen Turner to Rob Lowe, have been paid hefty fees to appear on television talk shows and morning news programs and to disclose intimate details of ailments that afflict them or people close to them. Often, they mention brand-name drugs without disclosing their financial ties to the medicine's maker.

And even when drug companies say they pay nothing, Hollywood producers have given their brand-name prescription drug products starring roles on prime-time television programs.

Last winter, for example, an episode of "Law & Order" on NBC revolved around Gleevec, a cancer drug sold by Novartis. On "West Wing," also on NBC, President Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, suffers from multiple sclerosis and takes Betaseron, a drug made by Berlex Laboratories. Both companies say they did not pay for those prominent placements.

In the last few years, in their quest to wring more profit out of their drugs before the patents expire, pharmaceutical companies have poured billions of dollars into marketing their products ? fielding armies of sales representatives, entertaining doctors, nurses and pharmacists, and taking their pitches directly to consumers in glitzy television commercials and glossy magazine ads. Now, despite criticism that those tactics raise the price of drugs, some companies are also trying these more subtle sales pitches.

7:50 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Arthur Lee of the 60s group Love skitters around the spotlight
It's less than a year since Rhino reissued Forever Changes, Love's seminal third record with bonus tracks. The label also released the Love Story two-disc collection in 1995. Even though Lee has spent most of the last 30-plus years sporadically releasing records that don't hold a candle to Love's first three (Love, Da Capo, Forever Changes), his influence has only increased. The band has stoutly maintained an underground cult status, but fans and critics continue to laud Love, calling Forever Changes a contender for the best rock album of all time -- a classic in good company with the more well-known staples such as the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.

"Arthur will be the first to say he now wants to make 'Love' a household word," says Gene Kraut, Lee's manager. "But, then again, Arthur also remains a complicated man of mystique. I don't think he'll ever want to be so completely accessible. I also think he is acutely aware of how important his music has been to his fans, yet how few of them have actually seen him perform. And the more he goes on, the more he's enjoying it."

10:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Short wry piece on the Chinese shortage of women because of cultural chauvinism -- and where that leaves some bachelors looking for love

8:46 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Very smart women have always had some difficulty with motherhood, which is an assault on many things but primarily on one's ability to think and to be utterly independent of others."

Now that Susan's mom is in our care full time, I can get some idea of what this means, since caring for the elderly has many things in common with parenthood.

The quote is from a review of Rachel Cusk's new book A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother, which has just been published in the US. I liked The Country Life, her first book, but couldn't get into her second Saving Agnes.

7:06 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Are you there George?
"The real threat that we face now is the insidious global spread of poverty and environmental stress - and that is the real security threat that we need to address," said U.N. Undersecretary-General Nitin Desai, who will chair the Earth Summit in Johannesburg from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4. [link]

6:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Here's the Newsmax article that disappeared from their site on the "sending SWAT teams into journalists' homes" comment by CIA man James B. Bruce [fas]

11:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The first chapter of Maggie Estep's new book Hex, due in December
A passing lawyer type ogles her. A short white girl in red plastic pants bumps into me and shoots me a filthy look. The temperature in the West 4th station is approximately three hundred and fifty degrees.

"I would like you to follow him and tell me what it is he does when he's not with me," the blonde says so softly I almost don't hear her over the blare of the station speaker system.

"Why? What do you think he's doing?" I ask her.

"Having an affair."

"So leave him," I say impatiently.

"I love him."

"Oh please."

"What do you mean?" Her eyes get bigger still.

"If you're suspicious of the guy something's wrong."

"I'm suspicious of everything. There's a hex on all the women in my family."

"Excuse me?"

"Yes. A hex. Passed down from my Sicilian grandmother. She put one on my mother for having a child - me, with a man she didn't approve of. My mother died young. Now the bad luck has come to me."

"Ah," I say.

The woman looks about as Sicilian as iceberg lettuce. And equally as likely to believe in a hex.

"But that's of no importance," she says, "what matters is that you do this for me." She puts her hand on my forearm again.

"So call me." I say, watching relief wash over her face. I'm sure she's got a bag of problems far bigger than I or any one individual could ever dream of diffusing, but my life's been a bit pathetic ever since my boyfriend moved out two months ago. Maybe worrying about someone else's disenfranchised love life will help pull me from my own extended emotional torpor.

12:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, August 12, 2002

More on those mysterious Indian aerial attacks

It's either mass hysteria, 3 1/2" bugs, or alien fireballs. Wouldn't be surprised if it were some weapon being tested by, oh I don't know. . .

11:40 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Fireball" attacks people on roofs and terraces in India

9:13 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

European flooding getting worse

The Danube is reaching levels not seen since the 19th century. 1000 buildings in Salzburg are submerged. I don't remember flooding like this in these areas in my lifetime, that's for sure.

There's even snow in the Alps.

8:49 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Are shrub & co aiming to take on the Arab world, not just Iraq?

Somebody please tell me this isn't about oil and perpetual war. Shrub is doing averything he can to incite terrorism and worse among Arab countries if these ideas are in play.

8:44 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, August 11, 2002

Al Martin on those "refined" economic statistics, shrub's need for a Lie Coordination Bureau and why Prozac is looking better all the time
Unreliable government statistics point out the larger problem of Bushonian Government -- when you try to run government on the Big Lie Principle, you not only have to have offices in every government agency that generates the lies, you also have to have an oversight pan-government agency function (and this is what's most difficult) to coordinate the lies.

Considering the resources that the Bush Administration spends on lie generation and coordination as divided among all the different agencies and bureaus, it would be much cheaper to have one central bureau - a whole new government agency as large as the FBI. We could call it the LCB -- the Lie Coordination Bureau. That would be the sole function of this bureau and it would be cheaper for the Americans taxpayers to do it this way. And the lies would work better.

12:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

TV eats itself; innocence lost
Take The Rerun Show (NBC, 8-9 p.m.): An ensemble cast sprinkled with guest stars from defunct TV sitcoms parody the acting style and humor of the original shows. But sexual innuendo and mean-spirited subtexts suggest that the originals were really phony coverups for a highly dysfunctional society. So much for nostalgia -- these shows can't represent a longing for a "simpler" time if that time was really horrendously foul.

Parody has a definite function -- it undermines conventional thinking and knocks down false idols. But with lame parodies of "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Partridge Family," "The Facts of Life" and "Saved By the Bell," all "Rerun" does is further trivialize already inconsequential TV. Now, why go to so much trouble for so little? Because for many people, TV is culture. This is especially true of some TV executives.
We'll also have Tim Curry replacing Sebastian Cabot in Family Affair and Forrest Whittaker instead of Rod Serling hosting The Twilight Zone.

11:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Is the time really ripe for a warmed-over James Bond adventure, with a village idiot as the 007 clone?"

11:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

24 Hour Party People looks pretty good
"24 Hour Party People" chronicles the rise and fall of the Manchester, England, music scene, which launched the punk craze in the mid-'70s and then galloped through a wild series of follow-up trends including new wave, rave, and styles nobody managed to pin a label on.

It's not a perfect movie, but it's the smartest excursion into pop culture in recent memory. It also has the best star performance I've seen this year -- by English actor Steve Coogan, who plays Antony Wilson, real-life owner of Factory Records and the Hacienda, a legendary Manchester nightclub.

11:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Economists see a new peril for America's embattled economy -- the huge debts owed to investors in other nations.
True, the US remains the largest and most robust economy in the world. But to a degree, it is still subject to the money-flow dynamics that can devastate developing nations.

A major factor in the current financial crises in Argentina and Brazil is the debt owed to creditors in other nations. Argentina's external debt amounts to about $141 billion. Brazil owes more than $236 billion. . .

Yet those debts are small potatoes compared with those of the US. At year-end 2001, the gap between the assets abroad owned by Americans and foreign-owned assets in the US reached $2.31 trillion -- or about 10 times as big as Brazil's.

Put another way, the US debtor balance amounts to 22.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, up from 16 percent at the end of 2000.

To critics, the US has been living high on the hog, well beyond its means. Its hunger for foreign-made goods -- seen in record trade deficits -- can be sustained only as long as foreigners are happy to keep buying dollar-denominated assets.

A day of reckoning may be nearing, they say.

11:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Pentagon seeks "'continuous assisted performance' for up to seven days" from pilots

Translation: even speed isn't enough for combat readiness in this man's army now.
This would actually involve much more than the "linear, incremental and ... limited" approaches of stimulants like caffeine and amphetamines.

"Futurists say that if anything's going to happen in the way of leaps in technology, it'll be in the field of medicine," says retired Rear Adm. Stephen Baker, the Navy's former chief of operational testing and evaluation, who is now at the Center for Defense Information in Washington. "This 'better warrior through chemistry' field is being looked at very closely," says Admiral Baker, whose career includes more than 1,000 aircraft-carrier landings as a naval aviator. "It's part of the research going on that is very aggressive and wide open."

In a memo outlining technology objectives, the US Special Operations Command notes that the special-forces "operator" of the future can expect to rely on "ergogenic substances" (such as drugs used by some athletes) "to manage environmental and mentally induced stress and to enhance the strength and aerobic endurance of the operator."

The memo continues: "Other physiological enhancements might include ways to overcome sleep deprivation, ways to adjust the circadian rhythms to reduce jet lag, as well as ways to significantly reduce high altitude/under water acclimatization time by the use of blood doping or other methods."
The side effects of upper/downer dependency is bad enough -- as the bombing of Canadians in Afghanistan and the recent spousal killings at Fort Bragg are probably proof positive. . .

"All Nexus6 agents report to your Sector Commander. . ."

11:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Desperate women in Afghanistan immolate themselves

The rate has increased since the war, and this in spite of the belief that you'll go to hell for it.

11:06 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The mysterious (but "natural") black water phenomenon has returned to the Gulf Coast of Florida -- after being blamed for killing 60% of the coral on the north side of the Keys last year.

Apparently the best guess why it happens is a reaction between river (the Caloosahatchee) runoff and algae blooms. [drudge]

10:41 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Smog over south Asia altering climate, threatening health

They believe this is altering the winter monsoon, sharply cutting rainfall over north-western Asia and increasing it further east.

The models they used suggest the haze may reduce rain and snow over north-west India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and neighbouring parts of western central Asia by between 20% and 40%. . .

The report's authors say the reduction in solar energy reaching the Earth's surface also means less oceanic evaporation of the moisture which controls summer rainfall.

They estimate that the haze could be reducing India's winter rice harvest by up to 10%. And they fear "several hundreds of thousands" of premature deaths from haze-related respiratory diseases.

10:27 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Brit intelligence accused by BBC of hacking their reporters

Nah. They'd never do that!.

Pure as driven snow, that lot.

2:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

You've probably heard, but the planet is bulging in the middle since '98, reversing a trend since, oh , the last Ice Age

Deep ocean current changes are the best guess why right now.

2:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

John Stauber (co-writer of Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? & Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry) says intermingling of captive and wild deer is to blame for Chronic Wasting Disease -- which probably can infect humans, and is always fatal
The outbreak is causing near hysteria in rural Wisconsin. The state plans to kill as many as 50,000 deer in the southcentral part of the state, and deer hunters everywhere are left to wonder whether their venison is safe to eat. Research and anecdotal evidence suggests it is not. And that's scary news for the 14 million deer hunters around the country.

Both Mad Cow and Chronic Wasting Disease are kinds of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). These diseases aren't viral or bacterial, yet somehow they transform or "fold" proteins in brain cells called prions. When enough infected prions deposit themselves in the brain, microscopic ruptures form in the brain cells. Prior to death, behavioral changes become apparent.

As the disease progresses, infected cattle become very agitated, kicking violently with no provocation. They also have trouble eating and swallowing, and usually lose weight. Similarly, deer with Chronic Wasting Disease stop eating. Their resulting emaciated state gives the disease its name. They also shy away from fellow animals, begin to slobber uncontrollably, and walk in circles.

12:58 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

charging the canvas

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