Friday, December 16, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of fishermen in the Sea of Japan. Nomura’s jellyfish, as it is known in English, is the biggest creature of its kind off Japan and for reasons that remain mysterious its numbers have surged in the past few months.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Slugbot: So has the world been crying out for a robotic snail? "One can easily argue that snail locomotion is slow, slimy and inefficient," admit the researchers in their paper. But they also point out that because gastropods have only one foot, it is much easier to build mechanical analogues of snails than of two-footed people or four-footed animals.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
The Other ID: An interview with Don Wise, the creator of "incompetent design"
No self-respecting engineering student would make the kinds of dumb mistakes that are built into us. All of our pelvises slope forward for convenient knuckle-dragging, like all the other great apes. And the only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution's way of modifying something or else it's just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student. Look at the teeth in your mouth. Basically, most of us have too many teeth for the size of our mouth. Well, is this evolution flattening a mammalian muzzle and jamming it into a face or is it a design that couldn't count accurately above 20?
No self-respecting engineering student would make the kinds of dumb mistakes that are built into us. All of our pelvises slope forward for convenient knuckle-dragging, like all the other great apes. And the only reason you stand erect is because of this incredible sharp bend at the base of your spine, which is either evolution's way of modifying something or else it's just a design that would flunk a first-year engineering student. Look at the teeth in your mouth. Basically, most of us have too many teeth for the size of our mouth. Well, is this evolution flattening a mammalian muzzle and jamming it into a face or is it a design that couldn't count accurately above 20?
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Google Print hacked to expose entire book contents.
Update: Google appears to have blocked this and implemented a 20% max content hard-lock on book content.
Update: Google appears to have blocked this and implemented a 20% max content hard-lock on book content.
Tell your representatives that there is no reason to condone torture and secret Gulags. These tactics subvert and undermine justice and due process, and are morally demeaning and unacceptable in any circumstance.
Tell Congress to support a motion to stop the Bush Administration's complicity with torture and political kidnapping.
Tell Congress to support a motion to stop the Bush Administration's complicity with torture and political kidnapping.
Listen to Ricky Gervais's mp3blog from the Guardian. Hysterical... Worth it for the Monkey News alone.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
ReTag subverts logos by altering medium, placement, and application, but without changing the logos themselves. Interesting.
ReTag wants to help. When your logo has reached full market saturation, a team of ReTag representatives will come to your place of business and recycle the logo for you by re-affixing it to your own property. Think of it as a race around the world, which you have won. Your logo has penetrated every consumer base, been blazened across every conceivable surface, and now the only place left for it to go is home. Once your logo has been "retro-actively distributed," you need no longer worry about its being attached to anything else. It is officially universally recognized and you have done your job.
ReTag wants to help. When your logo has reached full market saturation, a team of ReTag representatives will come to your place of business and recycle the logo for you by re-affixing it to your own property. Think of it as a race around the world, which you have won. Your logo has penetrated every consumer base, been blazened across every conceivable surface, and now the only place left for it to go is home. Once your logo has been "retro-actively distributed," you need no longer worry about its being attached to anything else. It is officially universally recognized and you have done your job.
Baby Love situates human and its baby clones in a perpetual spin of fairground teacup ride. Tea and sympathy, love and ME-motion. Love songs, uploaded by the public and transmitted via 802.11 wireless network by the public are coded as ME-data in the cloned locker babies. Revolt against mirrored self, the clone babies reprocess the networked ME-data during the joy teacup ride. By taking a teacup ride with the babies, the ME-data are retrieved, played back, shuffled, and jumbled. A gentle ride turned fast spin, the data jams and jammed, we are left to sort out the ME with the babies in the storming teacups. The crash would eventually happen. Upon the carsh when the teacups bump into each other, the clone babies exchange ME data and broadcast the remix on the web.
Finland's Virtual Air Guitar Project uses wired gloves to provide the sound to your guitarless vapor-shredding. Features videos, natch.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
[We will Rock You in Da Club] If you liked the Grey Album, you'll like the Q-Unit - a mashup of Queen's Greatest Hits and 50-Cent, available in its entirety here.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Google Click-to-Call: Free calls on Google
We're testing a new product that gives you a free and fast way to speak directly to the advertiser you found on a Google search results page – over the phone.
Here's how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click 'Connect For Free,' Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party.
Hell hath no fury like a Deadhead scorned
So here is our resolution. You want to change the rules as you go along, so will we. We don’t care anymore; We’ve lost all respect for this organization. Between the utter disgust of your decisions with Jerry’s guitars, and now taking away our access to the music we care about most, we refuse to support any aspect of GDM until we see change. No more CD’s, no more tickets, no more merchandise. We ask all deadheads to join us in this protest.
GDM, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Have you forgotten all you have taught us?
If you plant ice
Your gonna harvest wind
So here is our resolution. You want to change the rules as you go along, so will we. We don’t care anymore; We’ve lost all respect for this organization. Between the utter disgust of your decisions with Jerry’s guitars, and now taking away our access to the music we care about most, we refuse to support any aspect of GDM until we see change. No more CD’s, no more tickets, no more merchandise. We ask all deadheads to join us in this protest.
GDM, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Have you forgotten all you have taught us?
If you plant ice
Your gonna harvest wind
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
[The Man Who Sold the War] For Bush Administration-hired "perception managers" like John Rendon, war is a business opportunity that must be courted, planned, and ushered in after careful orchestration of evidence - whether or not its real. (Rolling Stone)
Indeed, Rendon is already thinking ahead. Last year, he attended a conference on information operations in London, where he offered an assessment on the Pentagon's efforts to manipulate the media. According to those present, Rendon applauded the practice of embedding journalists with American forces. "He said the embedded idea was great," says an Air Force colonel who attended the talk. "It worked as they had found in the test. It was the war version of reality television, and for the most part they did not lose control of the story." But Rendon also cautioned that individual news organizations were often able to "take control of the story," shaping the news before the Pentagon asserted its spin on the day's events.
"We lost control of the context," Rendon warned. "That has to be fixed for the next war."
Indeed, Rendon is already thinking ahead. Last year, he attended a conference on information operations in London, where he offered an assessment on the Pentagon's efforts to manipulate the media. According to those present, Rendon applauded the practice of embedding journalists with American forces. "He said the embedded idea was great," says an Air Force colonel who attended the talk. "It worked as they had found in the test. It was the war version of reality television, and for the most part they did not lose control of the story." But Rendon also cautioned that individual news organizations were often able to "take control of the story," shaping the news before the Pentagon asserted its spin on the day's events.
"We lost control of the context," Rendon warned. "That has to be fixed for the next war."
Monday, November 21, 2005
The Soda Museum. They even take a stab at the original Coke and Pepsi recipes.
I, Caleb D. Bradham, do solumnly swear that the foregoing is a true, complete and correct formula for making or manufacturing "Pepsi Cola" as heretofore made and manufactured and sold by the Pepsi Cola Co., and is the formula for said Pepsi Cola as originated by me and same is now in the property of said Pepsi Cola Co., Bankrupt.
I, Caleb D. Bradham, do solumnly swear that the foregoing is a true, complete and correct formula for making or manufacturing "Pepsi Cola" as heretofore made and manufactured and sold by the Pepsi Cola Co., and is the formula for said Pepsi Cola as originated by me and same is now in the property of said Pepsi Cola Co., Bankrupt.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
This isn't the Real America by 39th president Jimmy Carter, about the insanely violent and corrupt Bush Administration. (login req'd)
Bugmenot login here.
Excerpt below...
IN RECENT YEARS, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican. These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.
Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from the restraints of international organizations and have disavowed long-standing global agreements — including agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of justice.Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of "preemptive war," an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes. Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top U.S. leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world.These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of "You are either with us or against us!" has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.Another disturbing realization is that, unlike during other times of national crisis, the burden of conflict is now concentrated exclusively on the few heroic men and women sent back repeatedly to fight in the quagmire of Iraq. The rest of our nation has not been asked to make any sacrifice, and every effort has been made to conceal or minimize public awareness of casualties. Instead of cherishing our role as the great champion of human rights, we now find civil liberties and personal privacy grossly violated under some extreme provisions of the Patriot Act. Of even greater concern is that the U.S. has repudiated the Geneva accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" on people in U.S. custody. Instead of reducing America's reliance on nuclear weapons and their further proliferation, we have insisted on our right (and that of others) to retain our arsenals, expand them, and therefore abrogate or derogate almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during the last 50 years. We have now become a prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation. America also has abandoned the prohibition of "first use" of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear nations, and is contemplating the previously condemned deployment of weapons in space.Protection of the environment has fallen by the wayside because of government subservience to political pressure from the oil industry and other powerful lobbying groups. The last five years have brought continued lowering of pollution standards at home and almost universal condemnation of our nation's global environmental policies.Our government has abandoned fiscal responsibility by unprecedented favors to the rich, while neglecting America's working families. Members of Congress have increased their own pay by $30,000 per year since freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour (the lowest among industrialized nations).I am extremely concerned by a fundamentalist shift in many houses of worship and in government, as church and state have become increasingly intertwined in ways previously thought unimaginable.As the world's only superpower, America should be seen as the unswerving champion of peace, freedom and human rights.
Bugmenot login here.
Excerpt below...
IN RECENT YEARS, I have become increasingly concerned by a host of radical government policies that now threaten many basic principles espoused by all previous administrations, Democratic and Republican. These include the rudimentary American commitment to peace, economic and social justice, civil liberties, our environment and human rights.
Also endangered are our historic commitments to providing citizens with truthful information, treating dissenting voices and beliefs with respect, state and local autonomy and fiscal responsibility.At the same time, our political leaders have declared independence from the restraints of international organizations and have disavowed long-standing global agreements — including agreements on nuclear arms, control of biological weapons and the international system of justice.Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of "preemptive war," an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes. Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top U.S. leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world.These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of "You are either with us or against us!" has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.Another disturbing realization is that, unlike during other times of national crisis, the burden of conflict is now concentrated exclusively on the few heroic men and women sent back repeatedly to fight in the quagmire of Iraq. The rest of our nation has not been asked to make any sacrifice, and every effort has been made to conceal or minimize public awareness of casualties. Instead of cherishing our role as the great champion of human rights, we now find civil liberties and personal privacy grossly violated under some extreme provisions of the Patriot Act. Of even greater concern is that the U.S. has repudiated the Geneva accords and espoused the use of torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and secretly through proxy regimes elsewhere with the so-called extraordinary rendition program. It is embarrassing to see the president and vice president insisting that the CIA should be free to perpetrate "cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment" on people in U.S. custody. Instead of reducing America's reliance on nuclear weapons and their further proliferation, we have insisted on our right (and that of others) to retain our arsenals, expand them, and therefore abrogate or derogate almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during the last 50 years. We have now become a prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation. America also has abandoned the prohibition of "first use" of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear nations, and is contemplating the previously condemned deployment of weapons in space.Protection of the environment has fallen by the wayside because of government subservience to political pressure from the oil industry and other powerful lobbying groups. The last five years have brought continued lowering of pollution standards at home and almost universal condemnation of our nation's global environmental policies.Our government has abandoned fiscal responsibility by unprecedented favors to the rich, while neglecting America's working families. Members of Congress have increased their own pay by $30,000 per year since freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 per hour (the lowest among industrialized nations).I am extremely concerned by a fundamentalist shift in many houses of worship and in government, as church and state have become increasingly intertwined in ways previously thought unimaginable.As the world's only superpower, America should be seen as the unswerving champion of peace, freedom and human rights.
The U.S. Patent and trademark office issued a patent for a warp drive space vehicle (pdf)
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Odd collage of cattle brands from one of the barbed wire museums. Another good site and article on branding.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Friday, November 11, 2005
In another petulant, vitriolic rant from the neo-Con vomitorium Fox News, the hate-consumed Bill O'Reilly openly wished for acts of terrorism on American soil. Frustrated with democratic process in a recent San Francisco referendum vote, O'Reilly used our commonly owned, and licensed-in-good-faith airwaves to invite al Qaeda to destroy heavily visited city landmarks.
"Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O'Reilly went on. "And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
"Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O'Reilly went on. "And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
So intense is the fundamentalist hatred of Science, that Pat Robertson is making apocolyptic threats against Dover, PA, who recently booted the board who sponsored intelligent design in classrooms.
"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.
Because, you know, God hates evidence, reason, analysis, and structured method.
"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.
Because, you know, God hates evidence, reason, analysis, and structured method.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Tugging Asteroids out of of a collision-course (Nature)
So Lu and his fellow astronaut Stanley Love propose a spacecraft that simply hovers over the surface of the asteroid, using gravity as a towline. In this week's Nature1, they calculate that a 20-tonne craft could safely deflect a typical 200-metre-wide asteroid in about a year, assuming there is 20 years of warning to launch and get into position.
So Lu and his fellow astronaut Stanley Love propose a spacecraft that simply hovers over the surface of the asteroid, using gravity as a towline. In this week's Nature1, they calculate that a 20-tonne craft could safely deflect a typical 200-metre-wide asteroid in about a year, assuming there is 20 years of warning to launch and get into position.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Sony is secretly installing a rootkit on customer's PCs as a hairbrained DRM measure, and they're getting away with it. If it was a 14 year old kid who wrote and propagated a rootkit, you can be sure that he would be branded as a black-hat criminal hacker and lawyers would be ruining his life right now, but the same standards don't apply to corporations in bed with the RIAA and MPAA.
A bobble-headed Sony exec interviewed by NPR:
"Most people don't know what a root kit is, so why should they care about it?" has to be the most idiotic statement I've heard this year outside of politics.
Some background on Sony's cynical attempt at user control is here.
A bobble-headed Sony exec interviewed by NPR:
"Most people don't know what a root kit is, so why should they care about it?" has to be the most idiotic statement I've heard this year outside of politics.
Some background on Sony's cynical attempt at user control is here.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Like any decent political-culture blog, the Daily Jive researches stories from any number of reputable media outlets - then we > . Lone Lantern has a huge collection of online video dedicated to such subjects as Illuminati, chip implants, NWOism, and that old stand-by, alien intervention in world affairs. Enjoy.
* I was contacted by Lone Lantern's site manager who objected to my characterization of his site. Commentary was removed. Site manager had this to say about his site's intention:
Those are propagandized stereotypes that defeat and discredit those of us who are truly working to bring truth to the fore.
I would like to ask that you change that statement in your blog and reflect that we are people who are seeding truth to a generation of people who have let mainstream media and cable television wash over them.
* I was contacted by Lone Lantern's site manager who objected to my characterization of his site. Commentary was removed. Site manager had this to say about his site's intention:
Those are propagandized stereotypes that defeat and discredit those of us who are truly working to bring truth to the fore.
I would like to ask that you change that statement in your blog and reflect that we are people who are seeding truth to a generation of people who have let mainstream media and cable television wash over them.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
House To Vote on Political Blogging Rules
Sounds like a neoCon scam to get money via sites like Gannon's.
Sounds like a neoCon scam to get money via sites like Gannon's.
This is insane. The MPAA and RIAA want to inflict proprietary, closed DRM hacks on EVERY analog I/O device commercially sold - within one year, and their lawyers are writing laws on our behalf to make it happen. This is a must-read. How did these clowns come to hijack copyright law?
Feel free to flick through this new Halloween document: it's a legislative draft proposed by the MPAA for a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, on the topic "Content Protection in the Digital Age: The Broadcast Flag, High-Definition Radio, and the Analog Hole," on November 3rd.
On Thursday, they'll be no doubt declaring this law's passing to be vital to the entertainment industry's survival, just as Jack Valenti told the same committee that the home video-recorder would kill the film industry.
Here's what the proposed law says, in a nutshell:
Every consumer analog video input device manufactured in the United States will be, within a year, forced to obey not one, but two new copy restriction technologies: a watermarking system called VEIL, and a rights system called CGMS-A (we've covered CGMS-A before; we'll talk a bit more about VEIL soon).
Feel free to flick through this new Halloween document: it's a legislative draft proposed by the MPAA for a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, on the topic "Content Protection in the Digital Age: The Broadcast Flag, High-Definition Radio, and the Analog Hole," on November 3rd.
On Thursday, they'll be no doubt declaring this law's passing to be vital to the entertainment industry's survival, just as Jack Valenti told the same committee that the home video-recorder would kill the film industry.
Here's what the proposed law says, in a nutshell:
Every consumer analog video input device manufactured in the United States will be, within a year, forced to obey not one, but two new copy restriction technologies: a watermarking system called VEIL, and a rights system called CGMS-A (we've covered CGMS-A before; we'll talk a bit more about VEIL soon).
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
One more Hallow33n link: A site dedicated to Eerie, Creepy, and Vampirella Magazines.
Found on the utterly fantastic Record Brother site, that's worth spending some time at.
Found on the utterly fantastic Record Brother site, that's worth spending some time at.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
A 1979 Ford Escort is among the cheapest, ugliest cars ever made. One just sold for almost $700,000. No air conditioning.
The Gallery at the Museum of Talking Boards has plenty of pics of Ouija boards, from the 1860s to the present. If you want to play around with one, be careful... The guy's from theshadowlands.net have dire warnings. 
Friday, October 28, 2005
Astounding. Forbes magazine recommends that corporations profiled by blogs issue swift personal vendettas against the bloggers that criticize them. Becuase... you know... corporations are the real victims here, and without exception act in the interests of the public good and can always be expected to behave honestly and lawfully. If you've ever posted anything online, you have to read this to understand how the conservative mind views journalism and free speech.
Among the tactics that Forbes magazine recommend is filing harrassing, phony lawsuits against parties known to be un-liable (!!!!) to get at those with opinions that run contrary to the corporation's profit-minded goals:
"ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also: Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address." *
(* fair use)
The Daily Jive, meanwhile, is still awaiting its multimillion-dollar guaranteed, no-compete, no-bid contract.
Among the tactics that Forbes magazine recommend is filing harrassing, phony lawsuits against parties known to be un-liable (!!!!) to get at those with opinions that run contrary to the corporation's profit-minded goals:
"ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also: Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address." *
(* fair use)
The Daily Jive, meanwhile, is still awaiting its multimillion-dollar guaranteed, no-compete, no-bid contract.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The Cost of War at Walter Reed Hospital
Inside Walter Reed Army Hospital is the horrible reality of the Iraq War, a reality that few Americans see, and fewer want to see.
Inside Walter Reed Army Hospital is the horrible reality of the Iraq War, a reality that few Americans see, and fewer want to see.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Groovy Babes posing with old synthesizers, as a follow-up to last month's post on groovy-babe-less synth pics. Some are good, but the designer never heard of aspect ratio.
Folk Remedies, sorted alphabetical-wise by yer' ailment. These people are into ginger and vinegar in a big way.
American Science: Least Likely to Succeed
A majority of Americans don't believe in evolution, and believe that God either created humans in their present form or guided species development.
A majority of Americans don't believe in evolution, and believe that God either created humans in their present form or guided species development.
Friday, October 21, 2005
A look at the devices and homemade techniques used to create old-time radio sound effects.
The Rat-Monster Joke: I hear this is an oldie but a goodie. I had never seen it before, so it's new but good. Laugh along with me, rubes!
Thursday, October 20, 2005
‘Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy’
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.
In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I believe that Larry Carlson has created a new style of Flash. You won't see anything else even remotely like it.
The Treasure, the Strongbox, and the Crowbar (pt.1)
An outstanding interview with Middle East expert Juan Cole on how the Bush Administration manufactured reasons for the Iraqi war in order to crack the locked oil market. (from MotherJones, reprinted from the TomDispatch blog, where you can now read part 2 of the interview.)
JC: My guess with regard to Cheney is that his experience in the energy sector and with Halliburton as CEO must have been influential in his thinking. For the corporate energy sector in the United States, Iraq must have been maddening. It was under those United Nations sanctions. It's a country that, with significant investment, might be able to rival Saudi Arabia as a producer of petroleum. Saudi Arabia can produce around 11 million barrels a day, if it really tries. Iraq before the war was producing almost 3 million barrels a day and, if its fields were explored and opened and exploited, it might be up to the Saudi level in twenty years. This could bring a lot of petroleum on the market. There would be opportunities for making money from refining. There might even be an opportunity, if you had a free-market regime in Iraq, for Western petroleum companies to go back to owning oil fields -- something they haven't been able to do since the 1970s in the Middle East when most of these fields were nationalized. All that potential in Iraq was locked up.
An outstanding interview with Middle East expert Juan Cole on how the Bush Administration manufactured reasons for the Iraqi war in order to crack the locked oil market. (from MotherJones, reprinted from the TomDispatch blog, where you can now read part 2 of the interview.)
JC: My guess with regard to Cheney is that his experience in the energy sector and with Halliburton as CEO must have been influential in his thinking. For the corporate energy sector in the United States, Iraq must have been maddening. It was under those United Nations sanctions. It's a country that, with significant investment, might be able to rival Saudi Arabia as a producer of petroleum. Saudi Arabia can produce around 11 million barrels a day, if it really tries. Iraq before the war was producing almost 3 million barrels a day and, if its fields were explored and opened and exploited, it might be up to the Saudi level in twenty years. This could bring a lot of petroleum on the market. There would be opportunities for making money from refining. There might even be an opportunity, if you had a free-market regime in Iraq, for Western petroleum companies to go back to owning oil fields -- something they haven't been able to do since the 1970s in the Middle East when most of these fields were nationalized. All that potential in Iraq was locked up.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
EFF reveals that Kinkos/Xerox puts secret tracking codes on color documents you copy at their stores.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Strange video Nothing special, but clever editing of some people jumping around. They took out all of the feet touching the ground, and left only the in-air parts. cool results.
Friday, October 14, 2005
It looks like Bush's fake, rehearsed talk with soldiers is (justifiably) getting good media coverage.
At what point doesit cease to be a democracy when even the paranoia of potential off-message comment mandates a play-acted production instead of an honest discussion about this idiotic war?
The president went on to read some dreck about how our foreign hostilities will 'never stop'.
Before the teleconference, Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense, went through a rehearsal of the scripted question-and-answer session, telling the troops that any non-scripted questions from the president should be handled by Kennedy.
At what point doesit cease to be a democracy when even the paranoia of potential off-message comment mandates a play-acted production instead of an honest discussion about this idiotic war?
The president went on to read some dreck about how our foreign hostilities will 'never stop'.
Before the teleconference, Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense, went through a rehearsal of the scripted question-and-answer session, telling the troops that any non-scripted questions from the president should be handled by Kennedy.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
More Rock, Paper, Scissors trashtalkin'
In RPS circles, rock is seen as aggressive. "When people get backed into a corner, they throw rock because they want to come out strong," Walker said. It's popular with the intoxicated - RPS has no banned substances - and the college-age male set.
Scissors is considered a more devious move, mechanical and cold.
Paper is passive-aggressive - seemingly flimsy but able to defeat the mighty rock. A lot of women - and journalists - seem to throw paper, the experts say.
In RPS circles, rock is seen as aggressive. "When people get backed into a corner, they throw rock because they want to come out strong," Walker said. It's popular with the intoxicated - RPS has no banned substances - and the college-age male set.
Scissors is considered a more devious move, mechanical and cold.
Paper is passive-aggressive - seemingly flimsy but able to defeat the mighty rock. A lot of women - and journalists - seem to throw paper, the experts say.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Theshadowlands.net, the web's largest and oldest ghost story repository just passed the 10,000 submission mark. The hosts run South Jersey Ghost Research, where they capture some spooky audio during investigations.
Another 50 free mp3s from amazon.com (or, you could always join the Army and get 3 free mp3s).
Concreteships.org: A sign by the edge of the road says that it is the remains of the S.S. Atlantus, one of twelve experimental ships built of concrete during the First World War, but "proven impractical because of weight."
Hearse cufflinks? No problem. Coffin Luggage? Check.
Pushin' Daisies: The Mortuary Novelty Shop
Pushin' Daisies: The Mortuary Novelty Shop
Saturday, October 08, 2005
The Bubble Project
A good anti-ad art project: A guy printed 15000 blank speech bubbles, and puts them on street ads. People fill them in, photograph them, and send it all back to the site where you can read them.
A good anti-ad art project: A guy printed 15000 blank speech bubbles, and puts them on street ads. People fill them in, photograph them, and send it all back to the site where you can read them.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The hurricane season is proving to be a windfall for GOP-connected companies such as Halliburton, which are being rewarded with lucrative contracts despite their shoddy performance in Iraq. In the vocabulary of crony capitalism, the word "shame" does not exist.
Excellent Mother Jones interview with Chris Mooney on how Republican politics undermines science
We have to ask ourselves whether we can really rely on the federal government to use science to protect us anymore. When science isn't being used properly to protect us on something like global warming or other environmental risks, those are just obvious risks to the public. And we have to wonder whether the people making decisions are incompetent, or whether they are going to twist the information around, or ignore it completely. And that goes to the very core of the government's function.
We have to ask ourselves whether we can really rely on the federal government to use science to protect us anymore. When science isn't being used properly to protect us on something like global warming or other environmental risks, those are just obvious risks to the public. And we have to wonder whether the people making decisions are incompetent, or whether they are going to twist the information around, or ignore it completely. And that goes to the very core of the government's function.