I'd like to wish everyone out there a happy new year . Thanks to everyone who emails me with the tons of links, news, and alerts; and the authors of the great daily sites, a few of whom I link to on the left and are definitely worth reading regularly. Be safe, kind, honest, and keep giving 'em hell until things change.
2004 is gonna be better... I can feel it.
--Joe
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
World's most mysterious book may be a hoax (via /.)
The Voynich manuscript is often described as the world's most mysterious book. It is hand-written in a unique alphabet, about 250 pages long, and contains pictures of unrecognizable flowers, naked nymphs and astrological symbols.
The Voynich manuscript is often described as the world's most mysterious book. It is hand-written in a unique alphabet, about 250 pages long, and contains pictures of unrecognizable flowers, naked nymphs and astrological symbols.
Apparently scandal-ridden, millionaire-warmonger Richard Perle has a backward, isolationist, conservative-rant book out about how to "win" the "war" on terror (ostensibly in some bizarre parallel universe).
No doubt that Bush is drooling all over this piece of shit (once the big words are cleared up for him) in order to maintain his position as the most dangerous dictator in the world.
No doubt that Bush is drooling all over this piece of shit (once the big words are cleared up for him) in order to maintain his position as the most dangerous dictator in the world.
[Mad Cow, Insane USDA: Greed-driven politics are at war with health and the environment]
The Department of Agriculture, working with their cronies in the beef industry have been guilty of criminal negligence for years. Having known exactly what causes mad cow, absolutely nothing was done in practice or policy to prevent this preventable disease, proving once again that profit wins over health and even human life every single time where "conservative" corporate interests are concerned. (excellent Mother Jones article on the Republican administration's efforts to deceive us once again in the name of self interest and profit preservation) Even today, cows eating disease-inviting cannibal diets, no robust tracking/monitoring systems are in place, and the industry is trying to shrug off the disease as something that might be foreign (hinting that the cow may have come from over the border in Canada) and doesn't warrant any additional oversight (Villiage Voice article on how beef lobbyists fought and are still fighting health inspections).
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber saw Mad Cow coming from a long way off and wrote of the dangers in 1997 in their book "Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?". In this article, they discuss the initial reaction to their book, and what has happened since.
Of course, he [Republican lobbyist Richard Burman] had an easier time attacking us before the emergence of mad cow disease in America. I was saddened but not surprised when mad cow disease was finally discovered in the United States. When the first North
American cow with the disease was found last May in Canada, I told interviewers that if the disease was in Canada, it would also be found in the United States and Mexico, since all three NAFTA nations are one big free trade zone and all three countries feed their cattle slaughterhouse waste in the form of blood, fat and rendered meat and bone meal. In fact, in North America calves are literally weaned on milk formula containing "raw spray dried cattle blood plasma," even though scientists have known for many years that blood can transmit mad cow type diseases.
...
We should ship Ann Veneman and her smartest advisors to Britain where they can copy the successful feed and testing regulations that have solved the mad cow problem in Europe. Veneman and her advisors should institute a complete and total ban on feeding any slaughterhouse waste to livestock. You may think this is already the case because that's what industry and government said they did back in the summer of 1997. But beside the cattle blood being legally fed back to cattle, billions of pounds of rendered fat, blood meal, meat and bone meal from pigs and poultry are rendered and fed to cattle, and cattle are rendered and fed to other food species, a perfect environment for spreading and amplifying mad cow disease and even for creating new strains of the disease.
(Stauber and Rampton's book is available online for free at: www.prwatch.org/books/mcusa.pdf)
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Blur cuts the first interplanetary song, a 9-note piece that should have, but hasn't yet, been transmitted back to Earth.
Through a link on metafilter I found this fantastic page of hundreds of Airline logos, past and present.
Bush and the press: How the master pretender sanitizes the pool.
The Bush press conference to me was like a mini-Alamo for American journalism, a final announcement that the press no longer performs anything akin to a real function. Particularly revolting was the spectacle of the cream of the national press corps submitting politely to the indignity of obviously pre-approved questions, with Bush not even bothering to conceal that the affair was scripted.
Abandoning the time-honored pretense of spontaneity, Bush chose the order of questioners not by scanning the room and picking out raised hands, but by looking down and reading from a predetermined list. Reporters, nonetheless, raised their hands in between questions–as though hoping to suddenly catch the president’s attention.
In other words, not only were reporters going out of their way to make sure their softballs were pre-approved, but they even went so far as to act on Bush’s behalf, raising their hands and jockeying in their seats in order to better give the appearance of a spontaneous news conference.
The Bush press conference to me was like a mini-Alamo for American journalism, a final announcement that the press no longer performs anything akin to a real function. Particularly revolting was the spectacle of the cream of the national press corps submitting politely to the indignity of obviously pre-approved questions, with Bush not even bothering to conceal that the affair was scripted.
Abandoning the time-honored pretense of spontaneity, Bush chose the order of questioners not by scanning the room and picking out raised hands, but by looking down and reading from a predetermined list. Reporters, nonetheless, raised their hands in between questions–as though hoping to suddenly catch the president’s attention.
In other words, not only were reporters going out of their way to make sure their softballs were pre-approved, but they even went so far as to act on Bush’s behalf, raising their hands and jockeying in their seats in order to better give the appearance of a spontaneous news conference.
Monday, December 29, 2003
Terrorists, nerds targeted by FBI:
Beware of guys carrying Almanacs
The administration is getting really carried away with this fascism thing.
Beware of guys carrying Almanacs
The administration is getting really carried away with this fascism thing.
It seems everything about the Bush/Cheney regime is fake - even their "grassroots" campaigns, from phony letters of support that get mailed to newspaper editors (dubbed "Astroturfing") to bussing in out-of-town cheerers to local speeches.
Dutch Hacker Documentary available online:
Hippies from Hell are a group of hackers, techies, artists, writers and puzzlers. In the eighties they published hacker magazine Hacktic and in 1993 they started the first Dutch Internet-provider, xs4all, thus opening the Internet for the general public. Apart from this they throw wild parties and organize open-air hacker festivals, using the Internet as their social platform. On their mailing list they discuss almost every aspect of our technology infested society. The Dutch hackers, as the hippies were called initially, are a special group within the international hacker movement, which they helped create for a large part.
Hippies from Hell are a group of hackers, techies, artists, writers and puzzlers. In the eighties they published hacker magazine Hacktic and in 1993 they started the first Dutch Internet-provider, xs4all, thus opening the Internet for the general public. Apart from this they throw wild parties and organize open-air hacker festivals, using the Internet as their social platform. On their mailing list they discuss almost every aspect of our technology infested society. The Dutch hackers, as the hippies were called initially, are a special group within the international hacker movement, which they helped create for a large part.
With a guaranteed sweetheart contract promise that preceded the Iraq war, Halliburton is now finding that contracts were underestimated. Is this their new excuse for padding prices? (NYTimes)
Timeline graph here.
Timeline graph here.
In California, the introduction of a tiny, nonnative snail is wreaking havoc with recreational fishing
The tiny creature belies the notion that snails are slow, plodding animals. The New Zealand Mud Snail is built for nothing if not speed. They multiply rapidly, move from stream to stream with the help of fishermen or boaters and can reach 1 million in number and still occupy only one square meter of space. .
The tiny creature belies the notion that snails are slow, plodding animals. The New Zealand Mud Snail is built for nothing if not speed. They multiply rapidly, move from stream to stream with the help of fishermen or boaters and can reach 1 million in number and still occupy only one square meter of space. .
Bush signs parts of Patriot Act II into law — stealthily
More dangerous, backhanded policy typical of the illegitimate faux-president.
Opponents of the PATRIOT Act and its expansion claim that safeguards like judicial oversight and the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, are essential to prevent abuses of power. "There's a reason these protections were put into place," says Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates, and a historian of U.S. political repression. "It has been shown that if you give [these agencies] this power they will abuse it. For any investigative agency, once you tell them that they must make sure that they protect the country from subversives, it inevitably gets translated into a program to silence dissent."
More dangerous, backhanded policy typical of the illegitimate faux-president.
Opponents of the PATRIOT Act and its expansion claim that safeguards like judicial oversight and the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, are essential to prevent abuses of power. "There's a reason these protections were put into place," says Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates, and a historian of U.S. political repression. "It has been shown that if you give [these agencies] this power they will abuse it. For any investigative agency, once you tell them that they must make sure that they protect the country from subversives, it inevitably gets translated into a program to silence dissent."
Sunday, December 28, 2003
A Message from Pat Robertson and the "Vote No on Jesus" Campaign (McSweeneys)
Just six months after His re-rebirth, it has become startlingly clear that Jesus has lost touch with America. Far from being a prudent Savior, Jesus has proven to be no more than a foolhardy liberal. Aligning Himself with the far-left minority, Jesus has adopted the lofty and politically correct delusions that have come to define the liberal elite. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Jesus' irresponsible welfare proposals and pleas for universal healthcare.
Just six months after His re-rebirth, it has become startlingly clear that Jesus has lost touch with America. Far from being a prudent Savior, Jesus has proven to be no more than a foolhardy liberal. Aligning Himself with the far-left minority, Jesus has adopted the lofty and politically correct delusions that have come to define the liberal elite. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Jesus' irresponsible welfare proposals and pleas for universal healthcare.
John Currin [bbc] is getting congratulated almost everywhere for his show at the Whitney. Why's the Post slamming him?