Jonesing for the truth
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Wednesday, October 15, 2003 |
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Three Americans Killed in Gaza Blast (AP). AP - A remote-controlled bomb tore apart an armored vehicle in a U.S. diplomatic convoy Wednesday, killing three American security guards and wounding a fourth in the first deadly attack on a U.S. target in the Palestinian territories.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
China's First Space Hero Returns to Earth (Reuters). Reuters - Looking slightly dazed at all the fuss,
China's first man in space returned to a hero's welcome on
Thursday, completing an historic odyssey four decades after the
Soviet Union and the United States pioneered manned
spaceflight.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
GOP Proposal May End Coastal Drilling Ban (AP). AP - House Republicans are drafting a proposal that would end the federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, while giving states greater say on whether they want energy development in their coastal waters, congressional sources say.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Most women have dog breath (Reuters). Reuters - More than half of Britons could have breath that smells worse that their pet's, according to a survey.
Washington Post: Editorial
No Message for Asia
Washington Post: Editorial
The Responsibility Gap
Washington Post: Editorial
One Nation Under Justices
Washington Post: Editorial
A King's Appeal
mamamusings
aoir presentation site. I’ve created a website for tomorrow’s presentation (part of my Tufte-inspired “renounce powerpoint” efforts). Once the paper is a little more polished (the ending is still pretty rough), I’ll post it on that site. And now to sleep. Wakeup call in six hours. Room service breakfast (it’s free!) in seven hours. Blog panels begin in eight hours. (And yes, I have a copy of the presentation running on my local web server. I’m making no assumptions about conference connectivity.)...
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Pap Smears Good for Three Years, Researchers Say (Reuters). Reuters - Most women under 65 may only need to
have a Pap smear once every three years instead of undergoing
the test for cervical cancer annually, a team of researchers
said on Wednesday.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Walt Disney Concert Hall Opens (AP). AP - Diane Disney Miller can't suppress a chuckle when she reads news reports that her late mother donated more than $50 million to build the new Walt Disney Concert Hall because she loved classical music.
MetaFilter
Maggots.
Maggot Art. "A fantastic new teaching tool for use in the elementary school setting. Children get hands-on experience with insects that most people find truly disgusting -- maggots -- while creating a beautiful piece of artwork to share with others."
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
12 Million Iraqis Believed Out of Work (AP). AP - They line up by the hundreds, in the morning heat, on the slim hope of a job. Others wait ÷ and wait ÷ in a downtown square for a chance at a day's backbreaking construction work, and $2. Across town, one jobless engineer serves tea for pennies from a sidewalk table. Luckier Iraqis are handed brooms to sweep Baghdad's dusty streets.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Dean Sets Democratic Fund-Raising Record (AP). AP - Record-breaking fund-raiser Howard Dean on Wednesday hinted at the potential to raise millions more for his Democratic presidential bid: Only 1 percent of his donors have given the maximum so far.
MetaFilter
Is it hot in here, or am I completely, totally batshit crazy?.
The 2000 presidential election was rigged - by God Himself. That's just one of the odd positions held by the man chosen to hunt down Saddam and Osama, General William Boykin, who comes right out and says to muslims, "my god is bigger than your god!" This should win us some friends...
MetaFilter
Awful Plastic Surgery. The can't-look-away / train wreck site o' the day:
Awful Plastic Surgery -- a chronicle of celebrity plastic surgery
MetaFilter
Karl Vick's.
Karl Vick's "Live from Iraq" net chat today tackled many questions regarding Iraq, including how the press covers it. Vick: But the violence we write about goes to the central issue in Iraq today, at least according to Iraqis, and that is security. Without a feeling of safety, nothing much can happen in the way of progress here. Torn from today's headlines:
A new school doesn't count for much if parents are afraid their kids are going to die in it.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Kobe Bryant Defense Says It Has Evidence (AP). AP - Kobe Bryant's accuser showed up for her rape exam wearing panties containing another man's sperm, a startling discovery that defense lawyers called "compelling evidence" the NBA star is innocent.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Fla. Doctors Remove Woman's Feeding Tube (AP). AP - The feeding tube keeping a severely brain-damaged woman alive was removed Wednesday, all but ending an epic, 10-year legal battle between her husband and her parents.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Microsoft Fixes Five 'Critical' Security Holes (Reuters). Reuters - Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced
five new "critical" flaws in its software and provided patches
to stop hackers accessing computers through a malicious program
similar to the devastating Blaster worm.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Medicare Premiums to Jump 13.5 Percent (AP). AP - Medicare premiums will rise next year by 13.5 percent to $66.60 a month for about 40 million Americans in the program, the third-largest increase in its history, the government said Wednesday.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Ozzy Osbourne, Treated for Tremor, Scraps Tour (Reuters). Reuters - Heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne said
on Tuesday that he was being treated for a nervous tremor he
blamed for almost destroying his life and had scrapped a
planned European tour in order to recover.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
TV's Pat O'Brien Eyeing South Dakota Governorship (Reuters). Reuters - In Hollywood, the latest trend in
real estate may not be seaside mansions but quaint little state
houses.
mamamusings
freedom to blog. I’m sitting on the couch of my 21st floor suite in Toronto’s Cambridge Suites hotel. I chose this hotel because the “Cityscape” suites had free broadband access—and happily, everything works as advertised. The ethernet cable is a little short, but that’s easily remedied tomorrow. (In retrospect, I should have brough my Airport with me…) I’ll spend the next few hours (a) enjoying the peace and quiet, and (b) putting the finishing touches on my paper—which I’ll post tomorrow, after I present. The blog panels are at 8:30 and 10 tomorrow morning (I’m in the second, happily, but will attend the...
MetaFilter
This has nothing to do with Karl Rove: get lost..
Old purple frog danced with dinosaurs: "In a commentary accompanying the study, astrobiologist Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University called the discovery 'a once-in-a-century find.'"
Morons Dot Org
Morons in the News: Lockheed-Martin declares new ship name "too gay" for military. Lockheed-Martin removed the nickname "Sea Blade" from its "Littoral Combat Ship" because the word "blade" is too gay.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
10 Dead, 34 Hurt in Staten I. Ferry Crash (AP). AP - A Staten Island ferry slammed into a pier as it was docking Wednesday, killing at least 10 people, tearing off victims' limbs and sending passengers leaping into the water, officials said. At least 34 people were injured.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Cubs Fan Who Caught Foul Ball Apologizes (AP). AP - The fan who played a key role in the Chicago Cubs' collapse in Game 6 of the NL championship series apologized Wednesday, saying he was brokenhearted.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
New York Ferry Crash Kills 10, Injures Dozens (Reuters). Reuters - A New York ferry slammed into a pier
while docking in high winds on Wednesday, killing at least 10
people and injuring dozens more as passengers' limbs were
severed and others leaped into the choppy water to escape being
crushed in the wreckage.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Tanning Salons Linked to Cancer Risk (AP). AP - Regularly baking to a golden tan under sun lamps can increase the risk of malignant melanoma, a sometimes fatal skin cancer, and the younger a woman starts the greater the risk, a study says.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
The "Back to the Future" Prophecies (E! Online). E! Online - Nervous Chicago Cubs fans need not sweat about Wednesday
night's decisive playoff game. The Back
to the Future franchise has foretold your victory.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Microsoft Urges Users to Update 5 New Security Holes (Reuters). Reuters - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) on Wednesday
announced five new "critical" flaws in its software and
provided patches to fix them in order to prevent hackers from
gaining access to personal computers by deploying a malicious
program similar to the devastating Blaster worm.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
China's First Astronaut Lands on Earth (AP). AP - China's first astronaut returned safely to Earth on Thursday when his craft touched down on time and as planned after 21 hours in orbit. Beijing's mission control declared the country's landmark debut flight "a success."
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
Medicare Premiums to Jump 13.5 Percent (AP). AP - Medicare premiums will rise next year by 13.5 percent to $66.60 a month for about 40 million Americans in the program, the third-largest increase in its history, the government said Wednesday.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
AOL Objects to Online University Slogan (AP). AP - When an Internet-based college tried to trademark the slogan "America's Online University," AOL objected.
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
$87 Billion Reasons. Even though I'm against the war in Iraq and think the President and his team lied to us to get us there, I think maybe the right thing to do is at least support the $87 billion. About $67 billion...
Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid
Failure To Protect?. Iraq War Swells Al Qaeda's Ranks, Report Says War in Iraq (news - web sites) has swollen the ranks of al Qaeda and galvanized the Islamic militant group's will, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said on Wednesday in its...
Edgewise
A special prosecutor was good enough for Nixon.
This whole question of reviving the independent council law used so effectively to torture Bill Clinton (when an ultrapartisan prosecutor was installed, unlike what Reagan and Bush were faced with for Iran-Contra - Lawrence Walsh only seemed partisan in the end after the stonewalling and before the pardons), and the attendant hypocrisy, misses the point.
Hillary Clinton doesn't need to call for the reinstatement of the law. We had a perfectly good underlying solution with the special prosecutor procedure. It worked with Nixon. It should be more than adequate for this Bush, even - or especially - with a squeaky-clean nonpartisan prosecutor-appointee managing the investigation.
Putting the focus back on the journalists is a clever ruse, similar to broadening the issue to leaks in general, but it skims over the felonious revelation of classified information by someone authorized to know it.
Call him or her the Missing Link. If Ashcroft identifies that person and the two callers (assuming the Missing Link isn't one of the callers), those like myself who called for a special prosecutor will have to admit that the appearance of a conflict of interest did not hinder the investigation. That remains to be seen. Scandals of the past have taught us, though, that any effort to manage an investigation, as well as the news coverage, of a story you don't control eventually looks worse than simply calling in a referee.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
John Lennon Musical to Open on New York's Broadway (Reuters). Reuters - Imagine a Broadway musical based on
songs by John Lennon -- Yoko Ono has and on Wednesday producers
announced she had given the go-ahead for a show using her late
husband's work.
Yahoo! News - Most Emailed
"Sopranos" Whacked Pack Is Back (E! Online). E! Online - Some not-so-wise guys are getting a second chance on a very
special episode of HBO's Mafia drama The
Sopranos.
California Insider
Westly: voters want reform. Controller Steve Westly, a first-term Democrat thinking about running for governor in 2006, reached out today to Gov.-elect Schwarzenegger on several fronts. Westly, after having some fun offering a mock screenplay for the new governor (ãThe Road to Reformä) along...
Edgewise
In the desert, trees are life.
I find the whole idea of U.S. troops imposing collective punishment by uprooting longstanding orchards to be sickening on so many levels that I've had a hard time coming up with what I want to say about it. Here's Patrick Neilsen Hayden, borrowed, quoted, and nested:
I've been trying all day to get my mind around this.
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."
Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district.
"They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because 'you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us'." [...]
The children of one woman who owned some fruit trees lay down in front of a bulldozer but were dragged away, according to eyewitnesses who did not want to give their names. They said that one American soldier broke down and cried during the operation. When a reporter from the newspaper Iraq Today attempted to take a photograph of the bulldozers at work a soldier grabbed his camera and tried to smash it. The same paper quotes Lt Col Springman, a US commander in the region, as saying: "We asked the farmers several times to stop the attacks, or to tell us who was responsible, but the farmers didn't tell us."
"I came and called them by their long names, but they did not quiver, they did not hear or answer. They lay dead."
Iraqi blogger Riverbend discusses the preciousness of palm trees and citrus orchards to desert farmers, and the intense feeling for trees that results.
Juan Cole points out that if we are indeed destroying agriculture in order to punish whole populations for not informing, then we are in direct violation of the Geneva Convention, which specifically prohibits this sort of "collective punishment." (Commenter "ott", in the thread following this post at Whiskey Bar, provides the specific Convention passages that apply.)
Teresa, who knows something about growing up in a desert, nailed it in conversation this afternoon. "If I were a child, and remote, powerful strangers came and cut down my trees...I would never again believe that they were the good guys."
Me, I can't stop thinking about Ken MacLeod's point about "giant lizards from another star." [Electrolite]
I said nearly a year ago that we must seem like aliens from outerspace with our advanced tech (think "death rays") and total control of the skies.
In general, I support the military. There is a long military tradition in my family dating to the Civil War in this country. I had five uncles in the Pacific war and my father was a marine in the period between Korea and Viet Nam (fortunately). I like the civilian control we have over the military and I think that in some ways the military can be a progressive force in society, when adequately managed.
Having said all that, I also think it's possible for our military to be put to wrong uses, and I'm hoping there's a good explanation for the incidents referred to above, because if not - I think we're treading on dangerous ground, legally, ethically, and in terms of geopolitical strategy.
Edgewise
Dreier to challenge Boxer?.
Sacbee blogger Dan Weintraub reports:
The Washington Times speculates that Rep. David Dreier, political-friend-in-chief to the new gov, might challenge Barbara Boxer for the U.S. Senate next year.... [California Insider]
Everyone's trying to read the tea leaves now with Schwarzenegger and just the other day someone was telling me that Dreier could have big ambitions.
Edgewise
Kos handicaps the Dems.
Daily Kos: State of the Democratic Race gives a reasonably good overview of Democratic candidate primary strategies and tactics at this sateg in the race.
kuro5hin.org
Internet Dreams of Electric Sheep. A cyber-denizen usually has a few favourite webcomics that they will defend against all others, even though they're all pretty similar. Strips like Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly, Sinfest, and Penny Arcade established the basic newspaper-style formula that most webcomics now follow, attracting legions of fans. However, some people want a little more. They may enjoy comics offline, and pine for the complex storylines, deep themes, and controversial issues exemplified by graphic novels such as Sandman, Preacher, or The Dark Knight Returns. After they finish Nowhere Girl, these people might like Electric Sheep Comix.
Tomalak's Realm
Crypto-Gram:
Accidents and Security Incidents. Things go wrong because there is a malicious and intelligent adversary trying to force things to go wrong, at the very worst time, with the very worst results. The differences between attacks and accidents are intent, intelligence, and control.
Tomalak's Realm
hypergene.net:
We Media. Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. Historically, journalists have been charged with informing the democracy. But their future will depend not on only how well they inform but how well they encourage and enable conversations with citizens. That is the challenge.
Tomalak's Realm
Fast Company:
Tech Support. Scott Kirsner. As a corporate strategy, that might make sense. But as Nokia, Motorola, and other cell-phone makers pursue that path, their products drift further and further from what consumers really want.
STANDING ROOM ONLY
GO TEAM
I saw you on TV today. It was weird. Not Bad Weird, just weird. You were a million miles away and I live in another dimension now. It almost defies imagination. Out of billions of people, our lives merged for awhile before separating and now I live in LA with my dog Polly and you are in Paris issuing fashion edicts for television, for America, for me. I suppose I could have been Jealous but I chose Pride because in the end being proud of you is much more fun. Jealousy is a momentary pleasure, ebbing and flowing with my mood, the circumstances, and can be forgotten or disappear. Pride ignites and I can always return to the warm fire for comfort and pleasure. I look at you talking with authority on the screen, you whoâve become Someone, and feel like Someone Too. I was there when you honed your skill and added what I could. Now, in a galaxy far, far away, I see a shiny glint of me in the Pride Mirror.
You looked great. You are the epitome of that Conneticut-Turned-Urban NYC/Reed Thin/SuperCool Chick like you were when we worked in Paris. I listened to you thinking I danced with her at Les Bains Douches. You wore a short skirt and swung your straight blond hair like a Go-Go girl. I got drunk with her at a rooftop party one July Fourth. We stopped on the long walk up and smoked a J on a landing. We were in a Body Shaping Class together. I was only there because my boyfriend was the teacher and you told me your friends had crushes on him. Our shared connection was Secret NYC Code for ãYou rock.ä It kept me going to his class despite being the only man and worst at the exercises. Lust, love and Love.
Things are different now. Ten years ago, our age difference seemed like No Big Deal but now you are Mid-Thirties and I am Early Forties and a chasm emerged because I have changed so much. I donât have any connection to Our World Then but you obviously do. Say hello for me. Youâre still on the Diamond but I have ended up wandering far against the fence in tall grass. Polly ambles beside me and we stop to look at gopher holes, her ears perking before she asks what I think. We hear the bat crack far away and I look up as if I remember that sound.
I hope it was you hitting a Home Run.
