charging the canvas

Saturday, August 31, 2002

Conservative groups that oppose needle replacement programs basically kill people by spreading HIV/AIDS that would otherwise be severely limited -- as New Mexico has found out

And this program was initiated by the Dept of Health, not notorious drug progressive Governor Gary Johnson.
As Laurie Garrett recounts in her masterful tome, "Betrayal of Trust," public health has been losing ground ever since its glory days at the turn of the last century, when zealous sanitarians could order diseased people into quarantine. Privatization of health care, erosion of federal funding, morality, politics and even civil liberties, as in the case of Typhoid Mary, can be at odds with public health goals.

But New Mexico, at or near the bottom of just about all of those health and well-being indicator lists, appears to be a leader in the public health arena, especially on issues related to drugs. New Mexico is one of two states that funds needle exchange (Hawaii is the other). Last year, New Mexico was the first state to distribute Narcan, an antidote to overdoses which state health officials say is responsible for nine "saves" so far. Since 2001, pharmacists can legally sell syringes to drug users without fear of prosecution. Health officials are currently negotiating to get methadone treatment into jails.

"The other states see us as treading new ground," says Don Torres, a 16-year veteran of the department who heads the Hepatitis, HIV and AIDS programs. Some credit for these changes is due to our fearless leader, Gary Johnson (Puff Daddy to his dueling partner, former drug czar Barry McCaffrey), though the political story is more complicated than that. The sheer number of injection drug users and their obvious impact on the state is probably another factor. (The Office of Epidemiology estimates the numbers at 14,000, but Torres believes the real number is at least double that).

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

Been reading Willeford lately, as you might have noticed. Here's a nice remembrance by someone who knew him back in the 70s, from The Atlantic
I remember him roaring with laughter while telling my parents about the opening scene of his novel-in-progress, which would become Miami Blues. In it Freddy Frenger, a haiku-writing psychopath, brutally breaks the finger of a Hare Krishna in the Miami airport. Frenger goes on his merry way, and the Krishna collapses in shock -- and dies. "His humor was often gruesome," Betsy admitted recently in the dark, air-conditioned living room of the South Miami home they had shared. She did not speak without admiration; sick humor, often displayed on gaudy T-shirts, was one of the many passions they had in common. "Miami was the perfect place for Charles to live. And it was getting more and more interesting. When I see a headline like 'DEAD BODIES IN CAR CAUSE RUBBERNECKING DELAY,' I really miss him."
His simple bone-dry saturnine (he was a Capricorn, natch) prose is what I turn to lately when I'm too tired for complex sentences. Along with James Sallis' Lew Griffin books.

9:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

I don't know about you, but this Lance Bass thing pretty much kills what magic the idea of space travel had left for me

I won't even go into why. If you're younger than me and didn't grow up with the missions of the 60s, none of this makes sense anyway.

12:15 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, August 30, 2002

Haven't checked this out completely yet, but 2 somewhat renegade UK historians claim that a Welsh prince was buried in Tennessee -- in the 6th century [MeFi thread]

The MeFi poster said that shrub The Elder hired them to do the family's genealogy.

10:06 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Rambling but engaging piece on Brando today [MeFi thread]
Finally he ambles in, and before I have a chance to greet him or even ask about his project, he rolls into a rant about the media, provoked by a copy of the Los Angeles Times I am carrying. As he attacks a steaming plate of moussaka, he says, pointing to my paper, that he boycotts television and newspapers because "I don't want that shit floating around in my neurons. And besides, look around you. It's a beautiful day out. That crap will ruin it."

[...]

Brando's eccentricities are prominently displayed on the uncut tapes. "I want to sing the actor's national anthem: 'Me, me, me, me, me, me [thirty "me's," in fact], you,' " he suddenly says on day two. Another time, he asks a very beautiful female student, a competitive runner and model despite having lost her legs, to come to the front of the class and tell her story of healing and accomplishment. The surreal high point of her story comes when she says she realized that she could run faster if she fashioned her prosthetic limbs after those of a cheetah. Perhaps it wouldn't seem so weird if Brando weren't sitting behind her on his throne looking totally poker-faced, like the facilitator at an AA meeting. (The scene is weirder still since the testimonial seems so random and unrelated.) After she tells her story and is returning to her chair, Brando chimes in, "And she looks pretty good going away." The room erupts with laughter.

9:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

CSM piece on smart fabrics

This is a fascinating field. If any visitor knows of a site that has updates on the latest apps, please list it in the comments. Thanks.

8:16 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ride-sharers derided as "revenue-robbers" by Ford exec
satire alert

1:22 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Rainwater that doesn't make it into the ground because of development has worsened the drought [u]

The article Undernews quoted I couldn't find, so the above article is a substitute relating only to NJ -- which has one of the worst sprawl problems anyway, I assure you (I lived there for 31 years).

The original Reuters article says that Atlanta loses enough water to serve the needs of 3.6 million people a year.

1:08 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Michael Jackson wants to play Edgar Allan Poe [u]

Well, he is kind of spooky. . .

12:59 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Suggestion that Sharon may provoke "false-flag" terror attack on the US to incite Iraq War [GuluFuture]

This is Lyndon Larouche's site, which I'm wary of, but it has some insightful articles. Judge for yourself. This might be disinformation.

I sure wouldn't put this past Sharon, especially if his political position is threatened, as it appears it might be.

12:39 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

This is a couple weeks old but -- here's a short piece on resistance to West Nile spraying, which is more toxic than the mosquitoes

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

Mid East expert Phyllis Bennis wasn't allowed to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on war with Iraq -- so here's her written testimony
Such an attack would violate international law and the UN Charter, and isolate us from our friends and allies around the world. An invasion would prevent the future return of UN arms inspectors, and cost billions of dollars urgently needed at home. And at the end of the day, an invasion will not insure stability, let alone democracy, in Iraq or the rest of the volatile Middle East region, and will put American civilians at greater risk of hatred and perhaps terrorist attacks than they are today.
OK, that'll do it for Iraq posts for awhile.

12:16 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Navy tries to block anti-sonar faxes

This week the NRDC sent out an alert to their mailing list to fax the US Navy about the harmful effects of low frequency sonar. Apparently, the Navy then unplugged their fax machine and stonewalled when the NRDC called them.

Next day the NRDC emails the list and suggests calling the Navy to find out the deal.

Surprise surprise -- the NRDC gets a call from the Navy giving them 3 active fax numbers after having to set up a hotline to answer the calls they got.

Some good news for once. Though I don't know how much it'll affect the use of the sonar, at least they know people are pissed off.

10:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tom Tomorrow's "Optimist's Guide to War with Iraq"

10:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Music links added

Put some useful music-related links at the right (scroll down). There's still the old ones listed on the old blogger site. And the DJ Martian site that's the Culture Link at the right top.

9:50 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Recovery in 2007-10: Kondratieff Winter [og]
We're in the period when debt is cleansed from the economy, so, as I say, that the economy can be renewed with little debt in the system. The winter period starts, following the peak in stock prices at the end of autumn. We always know we're getting into that Autumn period -- when we're going to have the greatest Bull Market in stocks in our lifetime and probably the greatest Bull Market in bonds and also the greatest Bull Market in real estate -- because four events anticipate these great autumn Bull Markets. Those four events occurred between 1980 and 1982. They were the peak in commodity prices, the peak in interest rates, the recession and the Bear Market in stocks. I think people can remember the '81-'82 Bear Market. They can probably remember the peak in prices in 1980 and the peak in interest rates in 1981. Those same four events occurred between 1920 and 1921 and similarly they occurred in 1864 and again in 1816. When those four events come together, and it only happens once per cycle, we know that we're going to go into this great big Bull Market, the biggest of our lifetime. And when that Bull Market peaks, we know that now it's the end and we're going into Winter. Normally that peak in the Bull Market in stocks is signaled by a crash as it was in 1929. We had the peak in September then in 1929 and the crash in late October. This time we really haven't had a crash because a crash is caused by panic, an emotional panic, and we haven't seen that yet. Although, I think we're very close to seeing that now.

12:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, August 29, 2002

Canadian health care barely beats Turkey's, despite the highest per capita spending among public health care countries

Not enough doctors and hi-tech equipment are the main reasons, though top-ranking countries like France and Sweden have more home care, private/semi-private hospitals for those who can afford them and user fees for the affluent.

Seems like it's more a rigid adherence to an antequated system than any failure of the public model. Proximity to the US is also a factor, as doctor's wages must compete with American levels.

On the other hand: in the US we spend 40% more overall than Canada even, 40 million are uninsured and medical expenses are the second leading cause of bankruptcies.

11:57 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

2 new transmissions will deep6 the stick shift, or so it claims here

One of them -- the Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) -- is what's used in the Honda hybrids.

Both types are more efficient than manual or automatic transmissions.

6:37 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Confounding critics' (and many others') expectations post-9/11, scenes of torture and sadism on TV have doubled in the past year.

Partly it's the news, but fictional dramas are doing better than holding their own.

Of course, sex still bothers people. . .

11:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

TubeSpeak
I hope linguistic experts around the country are aware that American television is rapidly pushing forward in the development and promulgation of a unique dialect that is both compelling and confusing.

I call this new variety of verbal interaction TubeSpeak. It's most prevalent on the recent wave of dating shows that have generated high ratings with younger audiences. TubeSpeak is what happens when people string together long sentences filled with emotions but mostly devoid of content.

9:29 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Cheap broadband and no legal restrictions make Argentina a haven for neo-Nazi websites

9:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Good D-Bury today

8:58 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

James Bamford: shrub/Ashcroft worse than Kafka

7:40 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Hackers insert pro-piracy slant on RIAA Web site
Wednesday's incident was more than a simple defacement. Articles were replaced with properly formatted, grammatically correct satirical messages, and many of the links connected visitors with other material.

The introduction page of the RIAA's Web site was changed to declare: "RIAA against music sharing? Not anymore!"

The fake copy went on to say that the RIAA's attempts to block file sharing are "yielding only limited results and in some cases may in fact be harming sales and the artists' revenue stream." It also apologized for "the heavy-handed manner" in which the Chinese file-trading site Listen4ever.com was shut down (HR 8/19).

Every track from "Reanimation," the new Linkin Park remix album that's in the national top 10, was available in downloadable MP3 form as a "token of its goodwill" at the bottom of the page.

Visitors could also click on a working link to KaZaA Lite, home of a popular file-swapping software program, "if what you want isn't on the list."

The main page of the RIAA site also was replaced. Under current issues, the first subject was changed to read, "Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry," and the link connected to an article on CNet.com about a statistical study with that conclusion.
heh.

7:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Anti-terror air marshals "quitting in droves"
At least 250 federal air marshals have left the top-secret program, and documents obtained by USA TODAY suggest officials are struggling to handle what two managers call a flood of resignations.

Sources within the program say marshals are quitting at a rate of about a dozen a week. And some days, scores of marshals are calling in sick to get a break from flight schedules they say are making them ill, sources say. One memo, dated Aug. 16 and sent to managers by the program's operations control center, says some marshals could face "flights for 10 consecutive days."

[...]

"We were promised the Garden of Eden. We were given hell," one current marshal said. "If they don't make major changes fast, they're going to have no one left but the bottom of the barrel."

The Transportation Department statement said none of the marshals' complaints, "individually or collectively, constitute a crisis."
Reminds me of a post I did months ago about radiation exposure and air travel, which I can't find right now, of course. But that's less to the point anyway, I guess.

Wait, here's one of the many articles on this.

7:11 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ahem [a]
'The idea that al-Qaeda is getting political or military support from Iraq is ludicrous. I can see no way.'

Alex Standish, editor of the UK journal Jane's Intelligence Digest - required reading for war-watchers and war-makers everywhere - thinks US intelligence officials are making 'a big mistake' on Iraq.

'They are trying to convince us of something that is highly unlikely', he says. 'If they really believe that Saddam is feeding and sustaining bin Laden's men, then they can't possibly understand the fundamental difference between Iraq and al-Qaeda.'

[...]

...there is also much confusion and, I'm afraid, ignorance within US intelligence circles about parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. There is an invincible ignorance about what al-Qaeda is and how it functions, and a complete misunderstanding of the internal politics of the Islamic world.'

For Standish, the claims of an Iraqi/al-Qaeda link are further evidence that US policy 'is in danger of lumping all anti-Western Muslim movements together, and viewing the Islamic world too simplistically. The Bush administration sees "good Muslims", like Jordan and Oman, and it sees "bad Muslims", the Syrians, the Iranians and, top of the list, the Iraqis. This black-and-white approach means they miss lots of nuances and end up misunderstanding a region that they are keen to influence.'

America and other Western nations' misreading of al-Qaeda has even helped to fuel support for al-Qaeda across the Islamic world, claims Standish. 'The failure of the Western coalition to bring bin Laden to book has fuelled the myth of his invincibility.
But you can't believe those pink liberal wussies at . . . um . . . the world's premier . . . whoa, look over there, what a great sunset. . .

6:50 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Greek controversy about Alexander face 4X the size of MT Rushmore

A Greek-American foundation (natch) wants to carve the likeness and build a theme park around it to boost tourism in the depressed north of the country. The Balkan situation has hexed the area commercially.

The less aesthetically-challenged and more environmentally astute segment of the population is less enthused. . .

6:37 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Better Living Through Chemistry file: Arsenic in decks, playsets and picnic tables persists for years

1:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Deal to allow Canadian and American troops to cross each other's borders imminent

Gak. Don't do it Canada.

12:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

A short kind-of-perfunctory article on the end of the wildly popular EV1 electric car
The EV1, which GM introduced in 1997, is indeed being withdrawn. GM did not sell the car, but leased about 1,200 of them to a select group of enthusiasts around the country for $571 per month. California stepped in and offered to subsidize $200 of that, and sweetened the deal by making both tolls and parking free for an EV1 anywhere in the state. Plus, you can drive an EV1 solo in the diamond lane. By all accounts, the people who have them love them; since the hydrogen-car article ran I've heard from several.

GM executives, though, say there isn't a big enough market for a car that can only go 120 miles before needing a four-hour charge. The EVistas mutter darkly of a Detroit/Big Oil conspiracy to kill the car. Look at Toyota, they say, which this year began offering a $42,000 plug in RAV-4 SUV.

But Toyota may have no more faith than GM that it will earn a direct profit from plug-ins. All automakers are required under California law to make two percent of their cars zero-emission vehicles, and Toyota's RAV-4 EV qualifies. GM's response to the law has been to file suit against it.
This move will look so stupid in 5 years. Admittedly the car has limitations, but the PR alone would benefit GM. Another dinosaur move.

Looks like the hybird Honda Insight is the keeper (though Toyota has a couple hybrid models too).

11:46 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The persistent stigma around couples having children, and the increasing number of couples (and singles) who are choosing not to
People who get together and don't procreate are often met with responses from "Who's going to take care of you in your old age?" to the other end of the reasoning chain, "How can you be so selfish?" Women get the worst of it, fed scary statistics -- which usually don't wash under scrutiny -- that after 35, they're more likely to meet a terrorist than Mr. Right or, more recently, in Sylvia Ann Hewlett's book Creating a Life, that if they are successful, they will always be unfulfilled unless they spend part of their twenties landing a man and squeezing out some offspring.

More women and couples in countries across the planet are tuning out this noise and letting the world know they're not having kids. They're not changing their minds. Get used to it.

[...]

Some of the myriad personal reasons spurring non-breeders have seen print, as in the current issue of Utne Reader, and been ranted on websites like heartless-bitch.com and hissyfit.com ("112 Reasons to Lead a Barren, Childless Existence That Ends in Your Death"). The Internet has apparently brought the greatest supply of reassurance and sense of community to people who have watched friends have children with no desire to follow the lead.

[...]

...given the awesome responsibility of creating a human from scratch and raising it to be happy and healthy, it's a wonder anyone would try to impose their concept of family on another couple. No matter what an author or your cousin or the woman in the next cubicle might say, there is something worse than not having kids: Having them and not wanting them.

Here's the link for No Kidding, the child-free organization mentioned in the article. Some other relevant links:

Child-Free Zone

childfree.net

11:28 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Careful with that Prozac, Eli: Pfizer & Eli Lilly et al have dodged the SSRI side-effect bullet up til now, but formerly secret internal documents show the danger of "the emergence of intense, obsessive, and violent suicidal thoughts" in patients taking SSRIs is higher than they said it was
As the Forsyth case and others would go on to show, Lilly's internal records revealed considerable awareness within the company. A letter sent to it from the British Committee on Safety of Medicines in 1984 reads: "During the treatment with [Prozac] 16 suicide attempts were made, two of these with success. As patients with a risk of suicide were excluded from the studies, it is probable that this high proportion can be attributed to an action of the preparation." Similar concern was expressed by German authorities in 1985, where Prozac is sold as "Fluctin," and with required warnings of possible akathisia and suicide. A Lilly document dated from March of that year even quantifies the problem, suggesting a rate of suicide for Prozac 5.6 times higher than for the antidepressants that were popular before the rise of the SSRIs -- the tricyclics. "The benefits vs. risks considerations for fluoxetine [Prozac] currently does not fall clearly in favor of the benefits," the document concludes. By 1986, clinical-trial studies comparing Prozac with other antidepressants showed a rate of 12.5 suicides per 1,000 users compared to only 3.8 per 1,000 on older, non-SSRI antidepressants, and 2.5 per 1,000 on placebos.

"Akathisia" is: "1. A condition of motor restlessness in which there is a feeling of muscular quivering, an urge to move about constantly and an inability to sit still, a common extrapyramidal side effect of neuroleptic drugs.

2. An inability to sit down because of intense anxiety at the thought of doing so. [The Online Medical Dictionary]

That's what they call the "adverse side effect" that seems to have driven William Forsythe to stab his wife 15 times with a steak knife and then tie it to a chair and impale himself.

So be careful out there. I know people feel these drugs help them hold on in desperate times, but it's curious that the "next wave" of psychiatric drugs "act in essentially the same way as the drugs that the SSRIs originally replaced [tricyclics]". . .

9:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Nice graphs on Aimee Mann's new album
Likewise Aimee offers quite an array of interesting things for public study: a 16-year career, for instance, in which she has countered repeated music-industry subterfuge with some of the most revered songwriting in American pop music. Stirring through her nine albums (three with '80s outfit 'Til Tuesday, five solo) is a sympathetic realism on subjects of love and life, pain and loss, and getting by. She stuck around through rough times, and she has emerged victorious.

Enter "Lost in Space" (coming Aug. 27 on her own SuperEgo imprint), a natural successor to "Bachelor No. 2" (2000) and its detailed concern and guitar-crunch, if only a bit darker. It's an accomplished record -- razor-sharp ruminations on life in apparent failure floating in the depths of hopeless space. But bear in mind, it's a study of darkness and not a retelling of it.

"It really is that kind of lonely, totally out-of-touch, totally unable-to- communicate-with-anybody kind of album," she says. "Whereas some of the other records were records you would listen to after breaking up with somebody, this is more the record you would listen to after your three-day coke binge in a Holiday Inn."

It's that good.

8:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Long piece on teaching kids "media literacy" -- a queer term I think, for becoming aware of a spell

But then, how many people who aren't Bill Hicks fans consider advertising black magic these days?

A step in the right direction in the age of ubiquitous branding, though.

7:40 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

shipment of arms by Israeli -- to Iran -- impounded in Germany [drudge]

Now isn't that curious. . .

12:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

According to this dour review, the new Stones bio by Hammer of the Gods scribe Stephen Davis exhaustively (key word there) chronicles their meteoric rise and seemingly perpetual decline
Band bios are a dime a dozen, but Davis' are peculiarly readable. This one comes just in time, since the Stones are about to go on tour once again. If you read it, you can make your own decision, but surely Old Gods Almost Dead proves that any money spent on seeing them live would be essentially thrown away. Incidentally, the title of the book comes from a Robert Graves poem titled "Outlaws," which ends with the words "Proud gods, humbled, sunk so low / living with ghosts and ghouls, and ghosts of ghosts and last year's snow / and dead toadstools." Few prologues have ever been so apropos.

9:24 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Federal budget shrinks 60% in five months
Economists appeared to be at a loss to explain it. [Congressional Budget Office Director] Crippen merely called it "astounding."

The report diverges significantly from the White House's forecast released last month.

[...]

...independent budget forecasters say CBO's forecast is probably optimistic. It does not include a prescription drug benefit for seniors, which would likely cost at least $300 billion over 10 years. It makes no room for a military strike on Iraq, nor does it include large increases in military and homeland defense spending that are expected to be twice as expensive as the supplemental spending CBO does include.
Ho ho, what a surprise.

It's OK though, the war will fix everything. . .

8:28 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Former Union Carbide CEO charged with murder in India for Bhopal gas leak that killed thousands

Even today babies are born ill because of this.

Union Carbide paid out $470mil in '89 but claimed the cause was sabotage by a "disgruntled employee."

8:18 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Cringely on Microsuck's insidious Palladium scam [schismatrix, which links to a number of articles on this]
This week, Microsoft announced Palladium through an exclusive story in Newsweek written by Steven Levy, who ought to have known better. Palladium is the code name for a Microsoft project to make all Internet communication safer by essentially pasting a digital certificate on every application, message, byte, and machine on the Net, then encrypting the data EVEN INSIDE YOUR COMPUTER PROCESSOR. Palladium compatible hardware (presumably chipsets and motherboards) will come from both AMD and Intel, and the software will, of course, come from Microsoft. That software is what I had dubbed TCP/MS.

The point of all this is simple. It may actually make the Internet somewhat safer. But the real purpose of this stuff, I fear, is to take technology owned by nobody (TCP/IP) and replace it with technology owned by Redmond. That's taking the Internet and turning it into MSN. Oh, and we'll all have to buy new computers.

This is diabolical. If Microsoft is successful, Palladium will give Bill Gates a piece of every transaction of any type while at the same time marginalizing the work of any competitor who doesn't choose to be Palladium-compliant. So much for Linux and Open Source, but it goes even further than that. So much for Apple and the Macintosh. It's a militarized network architecture only Dick Cheney could love.

6:26 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Perhaps some new partnership of corporations and communities is necessary for managing water supplies in developing countries -- but the recent record of multi-nationals swooping in sometimes with government funds and raising prices with little concern for their customers isn't working.

And the fact that governments can't afford to upgrade and maintain water systems -- or may be letting the water infrastructure deteriorate on purpose (Argentina) -- does not make the case for further exploitation by the private sector. In the current system, a single-minded focus on profits has no place in the management of one of a country's most precious resources.

This is a great example of how a new definition of the relations between business, government and citizens needs to be found, which controls abuse and corruption and never puts profits before people's well-being.

10:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

shrub invokes executive privilege on Clinton administration's last days -- and other requests for info, like Marcus Garvey's release from prison in 1927 after being convicted for stock fraud

Maybe shrub is setting up a dramatic reappraisal of the powers of the Presidency in the near future, with his enigmatic -- and seemingly irrational and self-destructive -- Imperial Reflexes.

Marcus Garvey?

And why is he protecting his "nemesis" Clinton so fiercely?

12:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, August 26, 2002

amazon has free shipping on orders over $25 til Xmas or so

This is going to be a deep cut shopping season, don't you think?

10:43 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Israeli army under fire for looting [a]

9:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Looks like Asian Bastard is back in earnest

Yea! And there was laughter and joy in the Heartland/Homeland/Chrissendum. . .

9:45 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

States try to cut costs and encourage use of generic drugs; BigPharma sues

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

Overdevelopment is making Tokyo hotter than Singapore

9:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

As I've been reading Dupont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain, I'm not the least bit surprised to see Delaware cops compiling lists of would-be criminals

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

The Comtesse De Spair and her website

Sign up for the Morbid Fact Du Jour today!

12:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Top German neo-Nazi in the 60s was MI6 agent

12:43 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Lose money like the Big Boys

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

With the advent of Bookscan, bestseller lists will really list bestsellers -- not what a few highbrow book stores in Manhattan are selling

Which doesn't mean "culturati snapshot" lists don't have their place. But I for one would like to know what people are reading in America. Not just what they (or whoever) think they should be reading. . .

12:39 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Long slow overdue death of DARE

12:30 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wayne Madsen on the US Senate going the way of the Roman Senate

Meaning the Roman Army took over, in case you didn't know.
The 108th Congress, lacking the consciousness of Cynthia McKinney and the skepticism of Bob Barr, will be a far more dangerous place. I have had the pleasure of working and knowing both of them over the years - fighting battles, in the case of McKinney, against U.S. human rights offenses in Africa and elsewhere and in the case of Barr, against rampant U.S. government surveillance of the private lives and activities of American citizens. The next Congress will be full of complacent African-American parlor servants like Majette and Davis, dangerous extreme rightists like former cockroach exterminator DeLay and former sportscaster J. D. Hayworth of Arizona, pitiful morons like Florida's former Secretary of State and chief election rigger Katherine Harris, Republican moles and sleepers like Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, and Democratic spineless amoebas like Richard Gephardt and Tom Daschle. They will stand ready to back Bush's military campaigns into Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Colombia, or wherever Bush's economic interests are at stake. The country stands on the brink of disaster. But we cannot count on the future Congress to save us. Lacking a spine or any guts, it will surely help to bury us.

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

One in three Americans want radical healthcare reform

12:14 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Astrological timeline of the New BushWar -- ending with massive protests in '04 and, perhaps, the End of Empire?
Powerful events begin either in very late December 2002 or January 2003 that unleash a new and very turbulent phase for the administration. It is possible that this will be the beginning of the Iraqi War. In any event, in early 2003, the administration will be caught in a swirl of forceful and dramatic circumstances.

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

Eco-cemetaries
The bodies at Ramsey Creek Preserve are laid to rest beneath clusters of dogwood and oak and across meadows of wildflowers. Nature trails mosey through the trees. Graves are marked, if at all, with geologically correct stones so flat they disappear among the grasses.

Memorial Ecosystems Inc., Campbell's company, forbids embalming fluids, vaults or grave liners - they slow natural decomposition and pollute the earth, he says. Instead, bodies are buried in shrouds or in caskets made of cardboard or nonendangered wood. The watchword is biodegradable.

A cemetery brochure opens with a gentle reminder from the Book of Genesis about ashes and dust. If that doesn't move customers, there are secular quotations from the likes of Wendell Berry, Walt Whitman and Shakespeare. Five percent of the cemetery's gross receipts goes to a nonprofit foundation that fights water pollution.
Oh dear. Well, it's a step in the right direction in some ways, but cremation and spreading the ashes wherever works fine for me.

12:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thirsy, hungry stressed out bees -- Attack!

12:00 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, August 25, 2002

Truly biblical grasshopper plague in FLA which, frankly, deserves it
Central Florida has been invaded by giant 4-inch grasshoppers that are immune to pesticides and taste too bad to be eaten by predators. The Eastern lubber is yellow with red and black markings. It's too fat to fly, but it can jump high and long. It has five eyes, viselike jaws and ever-moving mouth parts, and if you bother one, it will spread its wings and hiss at you. If you touch it, it ejects a stinky, irritating foam all over you.

11:45 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

MI5 questionable blanket surveillance at least as bad as the FBI
Clandestine operations by the secret services over the last 50 years are to be exposed in a new BBC series that will include disturbing details of the lengths to which MI5 went to track Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson.

Confirming many conspiracy theories, the BBC2 documentary, True Spies, will show how government operatives infiltrated political groups, trade unions and media organisations.

[...]

"All the conspiracy theories about the security services tapping phones and so on that we all dismissed turned out to be true," said Mr Taylor, whose credits include a number of award-winning documentaries about Northern Ireland and most recently the Iranian embassy siege.

"They infiltrated everyone and everything, even Fleet Street and the BBC. The files they had were vast."

11:37 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

~~Bull~~ Full Market
To be sure, overcapacity is a feature of every recession. A slowdown in consumer spending and a decline in business investment suddenly leave too many companies with too many workers, underutilized plants and underperforming stores. In most cases, it is only after most of that excess is cut back, and supply and demand get back into some rough balance, that businesses begin hiring and investing again, laying the foundation for another period of economic expansion.

This time, however, that process is turning out to be longer and more drawn out than in the past, making for a slower and weaker recovery than forecasters, executives and policymakers had expected.

There are some economists, such as Alan Blinder of Princeton University, who believe the problem now is insufficient consumer and business spending -- "demand," as economists call it. But increasingly, economists are coming to realize that heavily indebted consumers aren't likely to significantly increase their spending.

11:31 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Meet the New PAC
Same as the Old PAC

11:27 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Congress moons Ashcroft back
Congressional leaders of both parties are challenging the Bush administration's resistance to oversight and warning that it could have legislative consequences.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, observed that Congress could allow last year's USA PATRIOT Act to expire without renewal if the Justice Department did not adequately respond to congressional inquiries.

He said that his message to Attorney General John Ashcroft was, "If you want to play 'I've got a secret,' good luck getting the Patriot Act extended."

11:24 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

With the MusicMobsters choking off webcasting with excessive fees, the new P2P phase of broadcasting is here:

Streamer

Peercast

Anyone tried these?

11:21 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Fascist hyper-privatization of content in the UK [bb]
As it stands, the UK implementation of the European Copyright Directive will hinder research into cryptography (in contravention of the express intent of the Directive itself), make criminal current common practices of the music industry, give software companies unwarranted control over the creation of software products interoperable with their own, and provides an inadequate and entirely impractical mechanism for beneficiaries of the Directive's exceptions to obtain access to copyrighted works protected by technological measures. In addition, it provides no clear mechanism for ensuring that copyrighted works protected by technological measures will eventually be released into the public domain.

11:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Kevin Phillips on equalizing wealth in America
As for the four or five big changes I would push if my President had a willing Congress like FDR's, here is a quick response: 1) full public funding of elections; 2) a simple constitutional amendment saying that a) donations to political campaigns are not free speech within the meaning of the Constitution and its amendments and b) that corporations are not persons (as now considered) within that same meaning; 3) a sweeping Financial Practices and Household Economic Protection Act; and 4) an Eisenhower/Happy Days Tax Fairness Act, by which we return to a tax-rate structure that differentiates between the upper middle class, the rich, and the really rich in a way that current rates do not.

11:04 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Saudi Arabia: The Sarajevo of the 21st Century?

The most interesting item here (though it seems a good intro to SA's instability) is the reference to large stores of gold apparently beneath Saudi Arabia. It's hard to believe shrub etc. don't know of this, and maybe this is why there are scenarios floating a regional land grab by the US (with the Brits as active or tacit partners).

I've never seen so much evidence of impending global and political economic meltdown in my lifetime.

10:58 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

I Am The Lizard King. I Can Do Anything.

Democracy in tatters, shrub titters.

It's OK -- it's his war but he won't pay for it.

Or will he?. . .

10:36 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

We're back up!

I'll cluster posts to catch up over the next day. . .

6:28 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

charging the canvas

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