August 2007 Archives
Cool. Google Earth got to be good for something….(joke)
Hidden Google Earth flight simulator?:
sent in this link that turns Google Earth in to a flight simulator, I just tried it and it works! I’m going to see what no-fly zones it will let me buzz over… -
To enter the flight simulator mode, press Ctrl + Alt + A (Command/Open Apple Key + Option + A on the Mac). Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator. To leave flight simulator mode, click Exit Flight Simulator in the top right corner or press Ctrl + Alt + A (Command/Open Apple Key+ Option + A on the Mac).
The following keystrokes control navigation and other aspects of the flight simulator. You can also control the aircraft with a mouse or joystick. To disable or enable mouse controls, left click (single click on a Mac). Once mouse controls are active, the pointer shape changes to a cross on your screen.
complete list here. Probably can’t fly over Cheney’s house for one.
Still have not beaten MT 4.0 into submission: today noticed that the CAPTCHA plugin re-activated itself (via voodoo), so comments were stymied again.
The individual archive (so-called permalink) setting was flummoxed again, and instead of linking to an individual blog entry, erroneously led to a non-existent weekly archive, which if you click leads to an error message. How the fuck did that happen? Who knows. I'm not sure why this is even a setting, nor how to fix it. I made an attempt, but rebuilding the entire blog (over 4,000 entries, plus daily and weekly archives) takes about 5 hours from start to finish, an irritatingly long interval. Yesterday I finally noticed the individual archive mapping used dashes
(such as http://www.b12partners.net/mt/archives/2007/08/previous-fundraising-inquiry.html)
instead of underscore
(http://www.b12partners.net/mt/archives/2007/08/previous_fundraising_inquiry.html)
so all of my google/yahoo/icerocket linkage was broken (or actually, leading to pages that were using an old template and not being updated). Such a minor tweak, yet to fix took several hours of watching this window:
Bleh. Not to mention, a few times since last Friday, my web-host disabled my cgi-bin script because it 'used too many resources'. Yeah, no doubt. If SixApart had gotten their act together before releasing MT 4.0 out of beta, perhaps the cgi-script wouldn't be over-taxed!
Oh, since I'm kvetching, I also noticed a typo on the default “Main index” template, a “;” used instead of a “>”
Too bad, I'm getting all sorts of web traffic from Sphere (originating at the WSJ mostly, but also CNN, and elsewhere) about the Hsu matter (or really should be http://www.b12partners.net/mt/archives/2007/08/remember_the_90s.html). Damn underscores!
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update still working on this. Utter crap.
(email me if you have a solution, I might just take a nap, have a beer, and start over tomorrow.)
Technorati Tags: kvetch, Movable_Type, MT, Web_design
really resembles a person (at the bottom right) circling an orb, at least to me.
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used my photo of a Sappho poem on a van
We tried to say the same thing - we need more maps, but less eloquently than Miss Teen South Carolina.
Tim Howland wrote:
I think that everyone has missed something important here; she’s actually been pioneering a new art form- a combination of Hindi Ghazal poetry and blank verse. Look at the transcription:
I personally believe that us americans
are unable to do so because osama.
People out there
in our nation
don’t have that,
And I believe that our education
like such as south africa and
such as the Iraq.
everywhere “such as”.
And I believe our education
should help the US
should help the south africa
and the iraq
and the asian countries
so we can build up
our future.
The themes are clear; she’s worried about the way we are reacting to the war on terror, the way Osama Bin Laden still is free, and the way that we are being “educated”. The irony is simply dripping from the last stanza. She was able to deliver this call to revolution absolutely deadpan, cunningly pulling the wool over America’s eyes- and people here have the temerity to mock her intellectual accomplishments? She is the latter-day heir to Rosa Luxemborg- only, without the boathook.
as a Chicago subway map, here
(all via boingboing)
Too bad we aren’t living in a country where citizens were able to be at ease with their sexuality.
(cartoon via Tom Toles)
Speaking of Iraq war profiteering, David Sirota writes:
David Sirota: Dude, Where's Our $24 Billion?:
But here's the worst part of all. When Law-and-Order Democrats in Congress proposed to establish a Harry Truman-style bipartisan commission to investigate war profiteering, they were voted down by Republicans. When these same Law-and-Order Democrats proposed legislation to increase penalties and jail sentences for those convicted of war profiteering crimes, Republicans not only voted it down, but Vice President Dick Cheney himself appeared on the floor of the Senate to curse off bill sponsor Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT). Cheney may originally be from out here in the West, but he still draws deferred salary from and still owns stock options in Halliburton - so his tirade wasn't a shock: He had his company to protect.
Technorati Tags: corruption, Iraq
Speaking of the 90's and corruption, I found this gem from the Times:
David Rosenbaum, July, 1997:
Senate Inquiry Offers More Inconclusive Hints on Huang - New York Times:
Winding up a three-day examination of the activities of John Huang, Senate investigators offered new circumstantial evidence today that he might have solicited money for the Democratic Party and conducted business with his former employer, the Lippo Group, while working at the Commerce Department.
The investigating committee also heard testimony that Mr. Huang, a central figure in the fund-raising inquiry, had regularly left his Commerce Department office and gone across Pennsylvania Avenue to use a spare office in the suite of an Arkansas-based investment company.
Senator Fred Thompson, the Tennessee Republican who is chairman of the panel, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said the evidence collected about Mr. Huang indicated ''a common scheme or plan to raise illegal campaign funds.''
But today's evidence was far from conclusive, and the Republicans running the investigation were accused by the White House and Democratic senators of weaving a fabric of conspiracy out of innocuous threads.
...
But looking irritated, Senator Thompson rejected the Democrats' complaints out of hand. He declared:''You've seen the very skillful drawing of some more inferences that there's nothing unusual about Mr. Huang having this office, that Mr. Huang is not guilty of espionage, Mr. Huang is not guilty of compromising national security.
''Those are inferences. That's what makes public hearings, and those are things that people are free to draw. If a person wants to draw those inferences from the body of information that we've even heard so far, a person is free to draw those inferences. On the other hand, a person, in light of all the testimony that we've heard, is free to draw other inferences.'
...
Similar situations occurred in August 1994 and in October and November 1995 and involved Kenneth Wynn, former president of Lippo Land Ltd., a Lippo Group affiliate in Indonesia.On the first occasion, Mr. Wynn and his wife, Sihwarini, each contributed $5,000, and John Huang was listed as the solicitor. On the second occasion, someone named K. Wynn donated $12,000, and Jane Huang was listed as the solicitor.
Mr. and Mrs. Huang were also listed as solicitors of donations from Arief and Soraya Wiriadinata during the time Mr. Huang held his Government position. Soraya Wiriadinata's father, Hashim Ning, is a wealthy Indonesian partner of the Riady family, the principal owners of the Lippo Group, the international financial conglomerate for which Mr. Huang worked before he joined the Commerce Department.
Technorati Tags: corruption, elections
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"rare example of the Phrygian Half Cadence in popular music". Dylan really likes the White Stripes too, based on his XM radio show patter.
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And I’m talking t myself at night because I can’t forget / Back and forth through my mind behind a cigarette
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" since when did mere gay seduction become automatically illegal, just because of intent alone"
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I've always liked CAKE and could never articulate why. This Tom Tomorrow interview explains a lot.
Received an email from the CTA this evening. I guess all the tobacco money has dried up, and the Illinois state budget shortfall is real. Of course, by sending this email to everyone who has a CTA card (and an email), I assume the CTA administration is hoping to generate some outraged phone calls and letters to Springfield. Good luck on that: I received not a single response to my complaints about the recent anti-wine legislation. Not even a form letter or form email.
Due to insufficient state funding, the Chicago Transit Authority Board recently approved a contingency plan which includes changes to CTA service and fares. Without additional funding, this contingency plan will take effect on September 16, 2007. Customers who pay with cash or Transit Cards and use the CTA weekdays will pay higher fares at rail stations and on buses (depending on the time of day they ride). Fares will also increase for customers who use Chicago Card® and Chicago Card Plus®. Visit www.transitchicago.com to learn more about CTA's 2007 fare changes.
The press release is actually here, and says, in part:
The Chicago Transit Board today approved a budget-balancing plan that will reduce bus service by 8% and raise fares on September 16 if a state funding package for transit is not approved. The plan is a modified version of a contingency plan proposed in May. Chicago Transit Authority President Ron Huberman said that positive budget results from internal belt tightening measures, labor savings through arbitration, and increased fare revenue due to higher ridership will enable the agency to offer a modified plan that incorporates feedback from a series of public hearings and impacts fewer CTA customers.The CTA’s contingency plan combines labor savings and administrative cuts and efficiencies with a fare increase (Contingency Plan Fare Structure) (PDF), an 8% reduction in bus service (Proposed Service Reductions) (PDF), and the transfer of capital funds that had been intended for renovating buses and rail cars. These measures will bridge the gap in CTA’s 2007 budget that was created because the agency, under a directive from the Regional Transportation Authority, developed a 2007 budget that anticipated $110 million in additional state funding. As of today, the General Assembly has not approved a transit funding package, so the CTA must move ahead with its contingency plan. The CTA is required by law to have a balanced budget.
“We regret that we have to move ahead with these plans. CTA has done everything it has been asked to do to get our finances in order, including reaching a significant labor agreement where our employees have agreed to fix long-term problems with the pension and health-care system. We have taken multiple steps to reduce costs to avoid impacting our riders. But transit has a structural funding problem and management efficiencies alone won’t solve it. Without adequate funding from Springfield, we will be forced to reduce service and raise fares,” said Huberman.
“Today is a day that we hoped would never come,” said Board Chairman Carole Brown. “Although I remain optimistic that state lawmakers will provide increased transit funding, I am disappointed that we are forced today to put our employees and customers through the uncertainty of planning for service cuts and fare increases. And - here's the worst part - if Springfield doesn't act, we will be back at the end of September preparing another deeper round of cuts for 2008.”
More here, if you are interested.
This guy seems to have some seriously malformed ideas about casual drug use.
My girlfriend tried cocaine at a party! She was drunk! Oh my God! | Salon Life:
I have a crippling emotional distrust of people who do drugs or abuse alcohol. I'm sure many people judge others who do drugs, but I feel that when I hear someone has done drugs, even if it was in college, that I view them in a completely different light -- I now think of them as stupid, selfish or insecure. I feel like I have less judgment for people who smoked marijuana, but I still feel like I look down on them.
I'm a graduate student and I have never done drugs and I only drink socially. I have no desire to take drugs because a) I don't like losing control of my body and b) I don't think it adds anything to a person's character. ... I've never seen anyone do cocaine or known anyone who did cocaine (at least, publicly). I've had trouble sleeping since then and can't really get it out of my mind. If she had done cocaine in college it would still be problematic, but last year? That's far too late for youthful indiscretion. The fact that she would so lightly fall to peer pressure while drunk makes me worry about what else she'd do while drunk. I consider cocaine to be on the pretty extreme end of the drug spectrum, with pot on the other. So, it also makes me worry that there are other stories with other drugs just waiting to come out. And this all adds up to make me doubt her and feel anxious and weird around her, probably because the fact that she did cocaine and has no remorse about it troubles me.However, I fully realize that I am really uptight about this subject in general and that I judge people too harshly because of it. I don't know how the normal person would see this behavior. I really don't want to judge her or other people and I don't want to lose sleep over this. Is my thinking really far out of line or should I keep worrying?
Uptight Judgmental Grad Student
I don't usually like folks who are regular cocaine users either, but I think I'd like this guy even less. Something seriously is wrong with him, the US anti-drug propaganda has warped his judgement, perhaps permanently. If he only knew how many people he talks to on a daily basis have used drugs, he might start sobbing in the corner.
Cary Tennis gives fairly good advice to the UJGS, including this (which I totally agree with)
That's OK. We all have pet peeves. Me, I have serious concern about the trustworthiness of people who commit wanton melisma. I don't think jail time is called for in all cases. I think community service would usually suffice. But still, I have a problem with it. I especially have a problem with improvised melisma in standards, and in “The Star Spangled Banner.” I don't think I could really date anybody who would do that. It just seems like such a monumental lapse of judgment. But that's just me. I generally keep quiet about it.Because these are things that we really, really, really hate, they are kind of private.
More faded now, I should retake this shot
Arlbor, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Remnant of a street sign on the Halsted Grand and Milwaukee intersection, Chicago
GeoTagged
Wasn't so long ago that Bill Clinton was constantly smeared in various news outlets and right-wing propaganda outfits. The phrase, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is a punch-line these days, but it did exist. I don't know if Norman Hsu did anything wrong, but how long before you hear the words, Hillary Clinton and illegal donations in a sentence uttered by a political pundit? (if you bother to listen to such things - I tend to tune out the chattering classes whenever possible, life's too brief).
Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Brody Mullins of the WSJ write:
Leading Clinton Donor Stays Below Radar:
Norman Hsu is one of the leading political fund-raisers in the country this year. In fact, many fund-raisers say he is one of a small handful of people capable of raising more than $1 million -- a major feat considering the maximum donation allowed by an individual for 2008 races is $4,600 per candidate.
....
Until three years ago, Mr. Hsu never made a campaign contribution to a presidential candidate, according to federal election records. Now, though, several people involved in raising money for White House candidates say Mr. Hsu is a major player.Many "HillRaisers" -- people who rustle up at least $100,000 for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign -- are dwarfed beside Mr. Hsu (pronounced "Shu"). Several people involved in Democratic presidential fund-raising say Mr. Hsu, an apparel executive, has raised well over $1 million for the New York senator's presidential campaign, making him one of the top 20 Democratic fund-raisers in the country. The Clinton campaign doesn't disclose such details and declined to comment for this story.
and Brody Mullins wrote an article full of innuendo yesterday:
DALY CITY, Calif. -- One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport.Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show.
That total ranks the house with residences in Greenwich, Conn., and Manhattan's Upper East Side among the top addresses to donate to the Democratic presidential front-runner over the past two years.
...
It isn't obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. Records show they own a gift shop and live in a 1,280-square-foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw, the 64-year-old head of the household, is a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service who earns about $49,000 a year, according to a union representative. Alice Paw, also 64, is a homemaker. The couple's grown children have jobs ranging from account manager at a software company to "attendance liaison" at a local public high school. One is listed on campaign records as an executive at a mutual fund.The Paws' political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events.
Technorati Tags: 2008_election, Clinton, elections, money
climb aboard.....
Cirque Shanghai 2, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
went to the Cirque Shanghai the other night. Lighting conditions poor, but some photos still came out.
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"First and foremost, they get young girls hooked on their birth control pills, which don’t work" - uhhh, wrong.
For some reason, the phrase “Fast and Bulbous” has been stuck in my head all evening, and I've been chanting it in my best Don Van Vliet accent.
found this mashup version on the Tube
lyrics if you can't decipher 'em:
Dialogue:
Don Van Vliet: (laughter)
taped DVV: “Fast and bulbous”
The Mascara Snake: “Fast and bulbous” DVV: “That's er . . . ” (more laughter)
Frank Zappa: “Okay, do it again, then you've won.”
DVV: “I love it, it's one of those words.”
MS: “Fast and bulbous”
DVV: “That's right, The Mascara Snake, fast and bulbous.”
MS: “Bulbous also tapered”
DVV: “Yeah, but yer gotta wait until I say, 'Also, a tin teardrop' ”
MS: (laughing) “Huh. . . christ”
FZ: “Again, beginning”
MS: “Fast and bulbous”
DVV: “That's right, The Mascara Snake, fast and bulbous. Also a tin teardrop.”
MS: “Bulbous also tapered”
DVV: “That's right”
from
“Trout Mask Replica” (Captain Beefheart)
Released on 33.3, haven't finished it yet (actually read most, but then misplaced it):
“Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica (33 1/3)” (Kevin Courrier)
Technorati Tags: music_history, rock_snob, YouTube
stumbled on this somehow apt entry I wrote on on old blog, which I reproduce for your amusement:
“Sticky Fingers” (The Rolling Stones)
Memory is a strangely beautiful thing. When one catches a whiff of an odor which evokes an intensely personal memory, unspooling like Proust's famous 'novelette' (sic), one is transported to a particular node in the space-time continuum.
Listening to a favorite song is different. For instance, last night I listened on iPod to Can't You Hear me Knocking, from the Stones album Sticky Fingers. I've probably heard that song more times than the Canadian National Anthem, the U.S. National Anthem and the Simpson's Theme song all put together. However, it isn't associated with any one event, or mood, or even time of my life. I played the vinyl version (album sleeve came complete with working zipper from Mr. Warhol, I believe) when I was a child in rural Ontario; when I was a snot-nosed teen in Texas; when Honoria and I met every Saturday morning to work on what eventually became the drawings for Chios (she did the drawings, I just was a model/collaborator/editor); when I was an interminable college student, drinking wine with my drinking buddy Trey; etc.
Nothing particularly specific from any of these times burbled to the top when I listened last night, yet all were somehow present, woven in the weave.
This is not to gloss over the dimensions of a particular moment being linked to a specific tune; obviously that happens (for me, hearing Richard Thompson's Small Town Romance LP still reminds me of moping, post-breakup, with glass of Bushmills, on my porch on 35th St. in Austin for days and days and endless days. I even broke my rule of never playing the same album twice in row: by many multiples). However, this is not, for me at least, the norm. More frequently, songs have multiple anchor points in the slipstream, especially songs that are part of my pantheon.
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addendum, 8/2007
I can listen to a song I love thousands of times, but films are different. I was so enthralled with Ikuru recently, I purchased a copy. Will I watch it again this year? Next year? How many times? I also bought some Max Roach albums, I'll probably listen to them a dozen times each before the years first snowfall.
My point in all this meandering fluff? Thanks for all the fish.
I have been pretty diligent at adding new books to my LibraryThing catalog (old stuff, not so much, there's only so much time in a day), especially since my library feeds into my sidebar (on the main, index page), and since I have a :cueCat scanner that performs the data input for me. However, I have not been so diligent about adding tags. Just lazy I guess, as I do try to tag my Flickr photos (helped by Adriaan Tijsseling's freeware 1001 program which remembers previously used tags).
The geniuses at LibraryThing have added a new feature:
Tag Mirror: See your books the way others do:
A major publisher recently asked us to show them a tag cloud of their books. It took a mental flip, but only a few lines of code to adapt this for individual use.The result is Tag Mirror, available from your and everyone's profile... If you're signed in, here's yours. (Please note: It takes serious processing power to analyze 22 million tags. Everyone is going to hit it at once, so be patient.)
Tag Mirror “holds a mirror” up to your books and to you. Instead of showing what you think about your books—what a regular tag cloud shows—it shows you what others think of them, in effect using LibraryThing's twenty-two million tags to organize and surface interesting topics from within your own collection.** As with other tag clouds, size equals importance. When you click on a tag, you get a relevancy-ranked list of books tagged that way.
I can't decide if it's just the sort of cherry-on-top feature that makes LibraryThing unique or if it's something genuinely new and interesting. I think it might be the latter. As Altay put it, it's the sort of idea that seems obvious in retrospect
...
Finally, Tag Mirror gives everyone a tag cloud, even those who don't bother to tag anything. It seems almost unfair.
Technorati Tags: ajax, books, screen_shot, Technology
Ooops, I forgot to add the snippet of html code Brad Choate's CAPTCHA plugin required at the bottom of each entry, while leaving the actual plug-in active. In other words, creating an endless loop where no comments could be accepted. Doh!
All fixed now, sorry if you were trying to tell me how great/shitty our new design is and you were stymied.
I think, at least.
email me directly if you have problems
(swanksalot - at - gmail.com)
Technorati Tags: blog, idiot, Web_design
Speaking of Alberto “Fredo” Gonzales, Gregg Palast interviewed one of the improperly-fired federal prosecutors who were probably at least partially responsible for Fredo cutting and running to spend time putting food on his family.
Palast:
American Nightmare: Gonzales “wrong and illegal and unethical”:
Last month, David Iglesias and I were looking out at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island where his dad had entered the US from Panama decades ago. It was a hard moment for the military lawyer who, immediately after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fired Iglesias as US Attorney for New Mexico, returned to active military duty as a Naval Reserve JAG.
Captain Iglesias, cool and circumspect, added something I didn’t expect:“They misjudged my character, I mean they really thought I was just going to roll over and give them what they wanted and when I didn’t, that I’d go away quietly but I just couldn’t do that. You know US Attorneys and the Justice Department have a history of not taking into consideration partisan politics. That should not be a factor. And what they tried to do is just wrong and illegal and unethical.”
When a federal prosecutor says something is illegal, it’s not just small talk. And the illegality wasn’t small. It’s called, “obstruction of justice,” and it’s a felony crime.
Specifically, Attorney General Gonzales, Iglesias told me, wanted him to bring what the prosecutor called “bogus voter fraud” cases. In effect, US Attorney Iglesias was under pressure from the boss to charge citizens with crimes they didn’t commit. Saddam did that. Stalin did that. But Iglesias would NOT do that - even at the behest of the Attorney General. Today, Captain Iglesias, reached by phone, told me, “I’m not going to file any bogus prosecutions.”
But it wasn’t just Gonzales whose acts were “unethical, wrong and illegal.”
It was Gonzales’ boss.
Technorati Tags: Bush, incompetence
Apparently, my copy of the vinyl record compilation of The Chills early singles, called
currently gathering dust in Austex, is worth $70. I always liked their ethereal pop music, a shame so much of it is out of print.
“Heavenly Pop Hits: The Best of the Chills” (The Chills)
Joshua Klein writes:
The Chills: Heavenly Pop Hits: The Best of the Chills: Pitchfork Record Review:
For a while there, nearly the entire Flying Nun stable made it all look so easy. Album after album of perfect antipodean indie-pop, the product of fertile imaginations and far too much free time in a country that hadn't really shown up on the Western radar since tiny New Zealand lost more fighter pilots per capita during World War II than any other nation in the British Commonwealth. For a minute even the major labels were interested, snatching up acts like the Bats, Straightjacket Fits, the Verlaines, and the Chills before realizing that signing them was a lot easier than selling them.
The Chills' Martin Phillipps was among the most idiosyncratic of the batch, capable of both rousing rock and breathtaking beauty. Maybe he understood that best of all, which explains why the 1990 album Submarine Bells led with the facetiously titled “Heavenly Pop Hit”, which was certainly two of those things. As for being a hit, well, it never stood a chance. “It's a heavenly pop hit, if anyone wants it,” Phillipps sang almost offhandedly, over music so wonderful it's no wonder no radio station dared touch it: it would have made nearly everything else sound bad by comparison.
Still, as the closest thing Phillipps ever came to a hit, “Heavenly Pop Hit” was, of course, the track pegged to start this 1995 best-of, released on Flying Nun as a stopgap while Phillipps was between international record labels. But there was plenty more where that song came from-- Phillipps was full of them-- and Heavenly Pop Hits: The Best of the Chills rounds up many of them for those who may not have any of the band's previous albums or collections, and who may be dismayed at the difficulty of procuring said out of print or domestically unreleased albums in the States (as of this writing, the impeccable early singles comp Kaleidoscope World was going for nearly $70 on Amazon).
...As for the inevitable missing stuff, where's “Effloresce and Deliquesce” and the gorgeous title track from Submarine Bells? Or “Background Affair”, from Soft Bomb? Or, hell, where's that disc's “Song for Randy Newman, etc.”, which name-checks Brian Wilson, Syd Barrett, Scott Walker, and Nick Drake as Phillipps documents the trials of the cult artist who dares tilt at windmills. “People take so much then leave you lean,” Phillipps sings, wistfully, at once in awe of his idols and all too aware that he will likely share the same critics-darling fate. “Patrons will not feed you longer than they need to/ Your all-consuming passion will leave you craving love.”
Technorati Tags: music, New_Zealand, review, rock_snob
I wonder if Larry Craig was one of the hypocrites begging to be exposed, as promised by Larry Flynt? Strange too how many closeted Republicans there are, closeted Republicans who vote against gay rights as a matter of pride.
Men's room arrest reopens questions about Sen. Larry Craig | Eyepiece | Idaho Statesman :
The most serious finding by the [Idaho ] Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig “cruised” him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable.
Craig, 62, was elected to Congress in 1980. Should he win re-election in 2008 and complete his term, he would be the longest-serving Idahoan ever in Congress. His record includes a series of votes against gay rights and his support of a 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution that bars gay marriage and civil unions.
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Update: predictably, Glenn Greenwald adds some astute thoughts re: the hypocrisy angle, skewering the right-wingers with their own words. In October 2006, before the election, the frothing-mouth class were outraged at the allegations. However, in August, 2007, a complete reversal of opinion (now that the election is over, and the Governor of Idaho is a Republican). Such as - that little turd, Johah Goldberg.
Greenwald:
And Jonah Golberg -- who last October penned one of the most pious condemnations of Rogers, calling the Craig story “wicked” and insisting that such tactics will “haunt [liberals] in unexpected ways in years to come” (notwithstanding the glaringly contradictory fact that Goldberg's entire public existence was foisted on our country by his and his mom's sleazy joint feeding off of the Clinton sex scandal) today pops up to make sure that everyone knows that he is repulsed by Craig's behavior: “I don't know what Larry Craig's been doing in men's rooms. And it sure sounds like I don't wanna know either.”
Much more in this vein, if you have a strong enough stomach, here.
and TPM has the arresting officers statement. What a crappy job. I wonder what sort of officer gets put on this detail? Did he piss his supervisor off?
Technorati Tags: civil_liberties, civil_rights, hypocrisy, LGBT, repression, Republicans
“Rough Guide to North African Cafe” (Various Artists)
This album sounds awesome, but then I'm partial to the music of the desert, especially gnawa.
Carol Cooper writes:
village voice > In-Flight African Reveries :
The happiest five hours I ever spent in mid-air was aboard an Air France jet plugged into their on-board global jukebox. A menu of multiple simulcasts featured three channels entirely dedicated to regional styles of African dance music, including a dizzying array of North African electronica. The new Rough Guide to North African Café reprises that joy with 14 tracks by a multinational selection of artists demonstrating the hybrid vigor and sophistication of Islamic psalmody. Whether performing Moroccan gnawa, Algerian rai, Arab-inflected dancehall, or Latino-inflected shaabi, these guys are creating eclectic beats you can hear booming in hookah bars from Dubai to Loisida. Indeed, the jazzy improvisations riding the digitized rhythms of Smadj's “Hat” suit such cosmopolitan dives just as well as Tarik's Franco-Moroccan cover of Edith Piaf's “La Foule.”
Tad Hendrickson adds:
Any Frenchman worth his pedigree should be quick to point out that it was the French who invented cafe music, a style of late-19th- and early-20th-century pop that originally blended light opera, local folk, chanson, and even silent film scores. Its main purpose was to help fill out silences in conversations or meals with charming little songs. The music quickly migrated (along with other facets of French culture) to the other side of the Mediterranean where French colonies in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia picked up the habit. Now decades later, the cafe concept is updated and localized, often by young musicians who blend the modern and traditional, African and European, to create the same effect as the original cafe style. The tracks range from the playful Cheb Balowski to the hypnotic El Tanbura to oud master Jean Pierre Smadj to the rocking Les Boukakes. It's music from a place where the aroma of strong sweet coffee mingles with tobacco.
Depressingly telling - I wonder who the agency was that valued profit over truth?
Advertising Age - Madison Ave. Warms to Climate Change:
Not too long ago, a premier ad agency wouldn't touch a campaign warning about the effects of global warming, fearing backlash from the automakers and oil companies that keep Madison Avenue's lights on. But now one of the most hotly contended pitches out there is for the Alliance for Climate Protection, the organization formed last year by Al Gore.
So Gore's group is smart to solicit advertising pitches for a climate change organization- money talks louder than most else.
Four elite agencies -- Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the Martin Agency and Y&R -- are squaring off for the business and are expected to present to the former vice president himself early next month, according to executives familiar with the review. The budget for the “historic, three-to-five-year, multimedia global campaign,” as the request for proposals puts it, is contingent on how much money the alliance raises. Media spending will likely be more than $100 million a year.That elite shops aren't scared off from crafting environmental messaging that could be tacitly critical of big business's sometimes unsustainable ways is yet another sign of the mainstreaming of green thinking within the corporate world at large. And within the ad community it points to newfound willingness to embrace hot-button social causes. The alliance account, some are saying, could even lend some luster to the winner's roster, given many major marketers' recent embrace of sustainability throughout their value chains, from product development to manufacturing to marketing communications.
Many agencies do high-profile and often award-winning work for causes such as smoking cessation, drug-use prevention and disaster relief, but they typically steer clear of more divisive issues and political campaigns, making executives who want to work on them do so outside the auspices of the agency.
Until very recently at least, global warming would have been seen as such an issue. Long accepted by the scientific community, research suggesting human activity is raising the earth's temperature with dire environmental consequences has been disputed by many in the business community, especially automakers and other sectors with big industrial outputs.
But corporate America has begun an about-face in the wake of a groundswell of popular interest, having seen what developing an environmentally friendly product such as the Prius has done for Toyota's reputation and its bottom line. July's Live Earth concert, whose proceeds are going to the alliance, was loaded down with corporate sponsors, among them Microsoft, whose MSN division had web rights to the show.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Al_Gore, climate_change, environment, Green
Eric Alterman speculates as to the timing of Alberto Gonzales' departure:
Eric Alterman: Why did Bush do it?:
Bush called Gonzales “Fredo.” Just how stupid do you have to be to be called “Fredo” in this administration? Gonzales has always empowered Bush's worst instincts - from his jocular, 15 minute decisions about whether Texans should be put to death as governor, to his willingness to try to force an out-of-it John Ashcroft to sign papers overturning crucial constitutional guarantees from his hospital bed.
... Now ask yourself this: why did Bush do it? Why did he stick by a guy who was obviously both incompetent as well as a political liability? What was in it for Bush? The timing of Gonzales belated departure, coming as it does not long after Karl Rove's, leads one to speculate that either he felt compelled long enough to protect Rove so long as Rove was the president's man - that he really was the kind of guy who's happily park his posterior on a crate of ice for Bush for as long as it took. Or perhaps it was because Gonzales did not have confidence in the administration's ability to protect him from the consequences of his own failures and deceptions with Rove's fingers off the controls.Clearly the administration was unprepared for this as nothing at all is in place to plan for a replacement.
and Gonzales' final press conference was slightly surreal, as the good Dr. notes:
And finally, look at Fredo's final words: “Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days.” Go out on an insult to your old man. Classy bunch, these guys.
Technorati Tags: attorneys, Bush, incompetence
The lowest of the low instead of the best and the brightest. Seems appropriate. Allegations of Cheney's involvement as well are extremely unsurprising.
James Glanz and Eric Schmitt write:
Iraq Weapons Are a Focus of Criminal Investigations - New York Times:
BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 — Several federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other matériel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here.
The inquiry has already led to several indictments of Americans, with more expected, the officials said. One of the investigations involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005, American officials said Monday....
The enormous expenditures of American and Iraqi money on the Iraq reconstruction program, at least $40 billion over all, have been criticized for reasons that go well beyond the corruption cases that have been uncovered so far. Weak oversight, poor planning and seemingly endless security problems have contributed to many of the program’s failures.The investigation into contracts for matériel to Iraqi soldiers and police officers is part of an even larger series of criminal cases. As of Aug. 23, there were a total of 73 criminal investigations related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, Col. Dan Baggio, an Army spokesman said Monday. Twenty civilians and military personnel have been charged in federal court as a result of the inquiries, he said. The inquiries involve contracts valued at more than $5 billion, and Colonel Baggio said the charges so far involve more than $15 million in bribes.
Just last week, an Army major, his wife and his sister were indicted on charges that they accepted up to $9.6 million in bribes for Defense Department contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.
Technorati Tags: corruption, Iraq
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interesting reading.
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"I came to NYC with the band I managed, Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns, a Tex-Mex punk band from Austin. Part of the band's shtick was tossing autographed tortillas into the crowd. ". I remember Joe King Carrasco - I used to have a record of his.
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I'd like somebody to actually type this up in list format so I can blog about it....
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Taxpayer funded stadiums are one of the biggest boondoggles in contemporary America. Never worth it, when so much other infrastructure is underfunded.
so fast you can't even see her.
Cirque Shanghai 3 - Twirl, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
went to the Cirque Shanghai the other night. This lady was twirling on a suspended rope.
Isn't misleading Congress an impeachable offense? Just wondering.
From the Sunday NYT we read, and laughed:
The Spy Chief Speaks - New York Times:
After Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Bush ordered the National Security Agency to intercept communications between people in the United States and people abroad without a warrant. That is a violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA.Now we know the law was broken thousands of times. In 100 or so cases, the unlawfully intercepted calls led agents to believe that the person in the United States was a bad actor (Mr. McConnell implied, sort of, that they were terrorists), and the government’s lawyers obtained a warrant. We are still looking for that loophole in the Fourth Amendment.
Mr. McConnell told The El Paso Times that it was necessary to rush through major changes to FISA before Congress went on vacation because warrants require pesky paperwork — 200 hours’ worth each.
Really? The government applied for 2,181 FISA warrants in 2006, which the blog Threat Level translated to 436,200 hours. Figuring a 40-hour workweek with two weeks off, that’s more than 218 top-secret-cleared officials doing nothing all year but writing out FISA applications.
Mr. McConnell said telephone companies turned over call data to the National Security Agency without a court order, which may be illegal. He revealed this while praising Congress for giving the telecoms immunity from lawsuits or criminal sanctions if they continue doing that. Now, he said, Congress should absolve the companies retroactively. That would be a nice twofer: protect a deep-pockets industry that may have broken the law, and cut off judicial scrutiny of Mr. Bush’s decision to ignore FISA in the first place.
Other parts of Mr. McConnell’s interview were bewildering, like his claim that debating wiretapping in Congress will cause American deaths. It was odd that he spoke at all about matters the intelligence community still considers classified. But there was a secret Mr. McConnell was determined to keep. He was asked why the White House bitterly fought reasonable Congressional proposals to give spies a bit more needed flexibility to use modern technology. Mr. McConnell said there was “untenable” language in the bills and lawmakers refused to fix it. The White House then stampeded Congress into passing a bill it wanted, one that shredded FISA.
What was the language? Sorry, that’s classified.
So glad the Dem-controlled Congress rolled over for the President so readily. McConnell sounds like a real tool.
ps, not yet entirely happy with our new blog layout, and some of CSS still needs tweaking, but at least it doesn't look like this!
Technorati Tags: civil_liberties, civil_rights, Democrats, idiots, FISA, surveillance
What my blog looked like after I upgraded to MT 4.0
Went to the Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest.
a vintage Bob Dylan guitar from his pre-electric days
Seems a bit gimmicky to me, and eerily familiar to multiple Philip K Dick plot points - creating fake industrial age artifacts for profit. Does spending an extra $12,000 on a beat-up guitar make it sound any better? No, not in the slightest. I could understand emulating custom electronics (changing the pickups, frets or whatever) to get a sound that a favorite guitarist might make, but mirroring Jimmy Page's beat up guitar scars seems like a waste of money.
The Easy Way To Hard Rock: 'Distressed' Guitars - WSJ.com:
CORONA, Calif. -- At the Fender guitar factory here recently, Mike Eldred carefully laid the freshly painted body of a baby blue Stratocaster on a workbench. He then proceeded to scar the new instrument's delicate lacquer surface using a menacing leather strap adorned with belt buckles, nuts and other hardware.
Normally, even one of the resulting scratches or dings on a brand-new instrument would make a guitar enthusiast cringe. But in the hands of Mr. Eldred, they are the first steps in the process of creating a “relic” guitar -- a brand new instrument that has been deliberately aged to simulate decades' worth of rock-and-roll wear and tear.
... “I always use the pre-faded blue jean analogy,” says Tom Murphy, whose Guitar Preservation Inc. does antiquing work for Fender's main competitor, the Gibson Guitar Corp. “We know what that's all about: Why wait? Just buy 'em like that.”Some relics are so painstakingly aged that the end result is scratch-for-scratch copies of legendary guitars owned by real rock stars. This even appeals to the rock stars themselves, who have put in decades of sweat equity to create the real thing. As their prized vintage instruments have become increasingly valuable and fragile, some have begun using replicas of their famous guitars, especially on long tours.
Mr. Murphy, a former professional musician who in the early '80s played guitar in Marie Osmond's touring band, has built replicas now played by Led Zeppelin's legendary guitarist Jimmy Page and Aerosmith's Joe Perry, among others.
In a few instances, guitar makers have sold limited runs of replicas, with every nick, scratch and stain duplicated on new instruments made to look and feel like those made famous by Eric Clapton, Mr. Page and the Clash's Joe Strummer. Fender is producing copies of Police guitarist Andy Summers's 1961 Telecaster -- which he bought used in 1972 for $200 -- which are authentic right down to the broken bridge and quirky custom electronics. The 250 replicas are being offered at $15,000 each; dealers have already sold most of them, sight unseen, according to Fender and dealers.
Ridiculous.
a now-vintage fake Gibson, circa 1971. I think my uncle Phil has it now
Technorati Tags: Fender, guitar, music, people_with_more_money_than_sense
I thought they already were called Idea City. I took this photo last spring, and Idea City is already on the front of the building. Seems like a lame topic for a press release...
Big Changes for GSD&M - WSJ.com:
Advertising agency GSD&M is set to announce as early as today management changes for senior executives and a new name for itself: GSD&M Idea City.
The Austin, Texas, shop, created in 1971 and now a unit of Omnicom Group, has been run by its four founders and was known for its work with clients including Southwest Airlines, Brinker International's Chili's and AT&T. But the ad shop stumbled last year when it lost longtime client Wal-Mart Stores.
...“We knew that in some moment in time that we wanted to pass forward an opportunity for the people who worked with us to build something special,” Mr. Spence says. “GSD&M is who we are, our values and our purpose, but Idea City is what we do.”
The agency's founders will take on new titles. Mr. Spence, who has been president, will become chairman and chief executive officer. Executive Vice President and Executive Media Director Judy Trabulsi will become chairwoman of the agency's leadership council. Steve Gurasich, currently CEO, will become vice chairman, overseeing innovation. And Tim McClure, executive producer of Mythos Studios, will serve as a member of the board and continue as president of Mythos Group, a film-production unit of GSD&M. The founders will also focus on bringing new business to the agency.
Agency veteran and current Chief Operating Officer Duff Stewart will be promoted to president and will head the 16-member leadership council, which will take over day-to-day operations at the shop. The agency will also launch an external search for a “chief idea officer.”
Technorati Tags: advertising, Austin
Worth paying attention to:
Patent System's Revamp Hits Wall - WSJ.com:
Patent overhaul appeared to be on a fast track earlier this summer. But plans for a quick vote got derailed last month after the AFL-CIO entered the debate, warning that innovation -- and union-backed manufacturing jobs -- might be at risk if the changes were adopted. The union has considerable clout in the Democratic Congress and expressed concerns with provisions that would expose patents to expanded challenges and might limit damages for infringement.
“At a time when the Chinese government is constantly being challenged to live up to its intellectual-property obligations, we do not want to take actions that may weaken ours,” the AFL-CIO's legislative director, William Samuel, said in the pointed missive that was circulated on Capitol Hill.
The sweeping patent initiative -- backed by a business coalition dominated by technology companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- would indeed shift the balance of power of the U.S. patent system. It would make it a bit harder for holders to protect patents. Advocates of the legislation contend the current system encourages patent litigation and costly judgments against infringers -- and stifles innovation. They say the proposals are designed to bring patent rules in line with the rapidly changing U.S. economy, where inventions often reflect hundreds of potentially patentable ideas.
I'd say more, but should probably refrain as we are in the process of investigating a possible patent for a joint venture. Not sure if anything will come of it, but...
As we mentioned previously, my favorite film company, The Criterion Collection (originally a joint venture between Janus Films and the Voyager Company), is launching a new, lower-cost, less polished line of DVDs. I like their motivations, too many classic films are still not available on DVD (or on such crappy prints that watching makes film snobs and other aesthetes cry).
Peter Becker writes:
Mission Accomplished (gulp):
...There's something perilous about writing mission statements. Jon mentioned the famous one from Kane in an earlier blog. That one comes up in conversation a lot. It's hard to walk the line between idealism and practicality, but that is exactly what we are trying to do with this new line. We're nine years into the DVD market, and there are still hundreds of important films that can only be seen in old VHS versions or, if you're lucky enough to live in a town with a good repertory theater, a new print might come around once every ten years or so.
We want those films to be more readily available, and that's why we're creating Eclipse. Each month we'll present a short series, usually three to five films, focusing on a particular director or theme. There will be no supplements and the master materials will be the best we can find, but they won't be full Criterion restorations. Retail pricing for each set will average under $15 per disc, and we are examining the logistics of making the sets available at an even more favorable rate on a subscriber or club basis. The goal here is to make these films available, to make sure that Criterion's own work style doesn't contribute to the continuing unavailability of these films.
Technorati Tags: Criterion_Collection, film_history, film_snob
My cousin and her husband are on a envy-inducing, multiple month tour of the Asian subcontinent. They've apparently landed in Japan, and plan to keep a photoblog. Well, eventually.
We've landed in Asia and have a few stories to tell you already. We've started a blog that covers the last few days of our adventures and we'll continue to update as we go along. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to download the software from flickr to this computer (everyone in Japan has internet on their phones so there aren't really any internet cafes here) so we don't have our pics up yet. Hopefully, we'll get them up soon.
There are already several posts, check it out.
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that piece of pizza looks like nothing I've ever made. And where is the wine or beer? Can't have a party without 'em
So often in various help forums, when I ask about this or that, I've been advised to 'validate' my web page first. Actually, nearly anyone who asks a question about blog templates is advised to run their page through the W3C validator. I think this is bogus advice. Not that valid HTML is unimportant, but in the world of real life blogs, hardly anyone's page actually validates, so what's the point? Seems like wasted effort, and what is called a “non-responsive” answer.
I ran a few frequently read websites (including some commercial media sites that supposedly would even have web designers on staff) through the validation service, and apparently, nearly every page worth visiting fails. Bleh. The next time someone answers my question with a condescending, “well, your page doesn't validate, perhaps you should fix that first, as opposed to the one thing you are asking about.”, I'll have some data for a snarky response already at hand.
Result: Failed validation, 274 Errors
Address: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html?partner=rssnyt
Result: Failed validation, 105 Errors
Address: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/?rss
Result: Failed validation, 144 Errors
Address: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Result: Failed validation, 205 Errors
Address: http://www.boingboing.net/
Result: Failed validation, 340 Errors
Address: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Result: Failed validation, 114 Errors
Address: http://www.bynkii.com/
Result: Failed validation, 114 Errors
Address: http://daringfireball.net/
Result: Failed validation, 21 Errors
Address: http://mediamatters.org/
Result: Failed validation, 32 Errors
Address: http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Result: Failed validation, 2 Errors
Address: http://swanksalot.tumblr.com/
Even MovableType's corporate blog fails.
Result: Failed validation, 22 Errors
Address: http://www.movabletype.com/blog/
my brand new, unmodified 'test' blog for MT 4.0 fails already, and I only have three entries!
Result: Failed validation, 15 Errors
Address: http://www.b12partners.net/zine/
The only page that validated in my brief rundown was Fark.com - and Fark.com has one or two line posts. Simple to keep simple, in other words.
I just want to know why my individual entry pages don't have two columns - something that probably has no relation to the number of errors W3C tells me I have.
1973 summer-Seth, the early years, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
My dad sent me this scan of a photo my aunt Honoria took- I was 4, and already had the camera 'bug'.
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"Two years after his death, Jon Ronson was invited to the Kubrick estate and let loose among the fabled archive"
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my job for this weekend
If things look freaky on this page, it is because I broke the cardinal rule of technology upgrades by starting work at the end of the day.
I did something odd with my MT 4.0 upgrade, or multiple things, and now don't have the mental stamina to fix them. Doh! You'd think by now SixApart would have this down to a smoothly functioning science, but you'd be wrong.
I personally have no urge to gamble, especially on-line casinos, however, why the US bans certain kinds of gambling but depends upon other kinds (lotteries, for instance) to fill holes in state's budgets is something that baffles me. Why not allow people to do what they want? The ironic part of this whole story is that the US has long bullied other nations into joining the W.T.O., and now the W.T.O. is ruling against the US.
The kicker: Antigua is asking for permission to violate intellectual property laws and freely distribute American movies, music and so on, since the US will probably not pay the $34,000,000,000 fine levied by the W.T.O's court.
Gambling Dispute With a Tiny Country Puts U.S. in a Bind:
A trade dispute filed by Antigua and Barbuda, a Caribbean nation with dozens of online casinos, challenges Washington’s effort to prohibit online gambling.
The dispute stretches back to 2003, when Mr. Mendel first persuaded officials in Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny nation in the Caribbean with a population of around 70,000, to instigate a trade complaint against the United States, claiming its ban against Americans gambling over the Internet violated Antigua and Barbuda’s rights as a member of the W.T.O.Antigua is best known to Americans for its pristine beaches and tourist attractions like historic English Harbor. But the dozens of online casinos based there are vital to the island’s economy, serving as its second-largest employer.
More than a few people in Washington initially dismissed as absurd the idea that the trade organization could claim jurisdiction over something as basic as a country’s own policies toward gambling. Various states and the federal government, after all, have been deeply engaged for decades in where and when to allow the operation of casinos, Indian gambling halls, racetracks, lotteries and the like.
But a W.T.O. panel ruled against the United States in 2004, and its appellate body upheld that decision one year later. In March, the organization upheld that ruling for a second time and declared Washington out of compliance with its rules.
That has placed the United States in a quandary, said John H. Jackson, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center who specializes in international trade law.
Complying with the W.T.O. ruling, Professor Jackson said, would require Congress and the Bush administration either to reverse course and permit Americans to place bets online legally with offshore casinos or, equally unlikely, impose an across-the-board ban on all forms of Internet gambling — including the online purchase of lottery tickets, participation in Web-based pro sports fantasy leagues and off-track wagering on horse racing.
and:
But not complying with the decision presents big problems of its own for Washington. That’s because Mr. Mendel, who is claiming $3.4 billion in damages on behalf of Antigua, has asked the trade organization to grant a rare form of compensation if the American government refuses to accept the ruling: permission for Antiguans to violate intellectual property laws by allowing them to distribute copies of American music, movie and software products, among others.
to my other point:
Yet another reason the fraternity of trade lawyers and experts are so closely watching the case, Mr. Van Den Hende said, is “that the U.S. is not behaving as one would expect.”“One day they’re out there saying how scandalous it is that China doesn’t respect W.T.O. decisions,” he said. “But then the next day there’s a dispute that doesn’t go their way and their attitude is: The decision is completely wrong, these judges don’t know what they’re doing, why should we comply?”
Technorati Tags: civil_liberties, copyright, WTO
John Nichols has a few thoughts worth noting re: the travesty of 2007 farm bill we've talked about before.
Farm Bill Showdown:
The 2007 farm bill, as approved by the House on the eve of the August recess, is as shambolic a piece of legislation as will ever be OK'd by a chamber that frequently endorses the incomprehensible and the indefensible.
... On the negative side, the House bill proposes to open gaping loopholes that would allow environmentally destructive factory farms to qualify for funding intended to help family farmers conserve the land; maintains corrupt practices that stifle competition in the livestock industry; and fails to endorse basic health-and-safety moves like banning the practice of blasting spoiled beef with carbon monoxide to make it appear wholesome.Hovering above all the good bits and nasty pieces of the measure is that it would do little to change our corrupt system of paying subsidies to some of the wealthiest nonfarmers in the world. Nor does the House address the fact that the bulk of the money intended to maintain diverse and competitive family farms would go to a handful of Southern states that overproduce crops like rice and cotton.
The fact that debate about farm and food policy plays out on the margins of the national discourse, thanks to media that treat rural America as a punch line, makes it too easy for politicians and interest groups to distort the discussion. For instance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can get away with her absurd claim that the House bill is “reform” that “takes America's farm policy in a new direction.” Not true. The Speaker chose the status quo over innovative proposals by author Michael Pollan, chef Alice Waters and savvy policy groups like Food and Water Watch and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy to stop pouring federal dollars into the coffers of agribusiness, establish a real safety net for working farmers, protect the environment and encourage the production of healthy foods. But just as Pelosi is wrong to dub herself a reformer, so too are the editorial writers and Washington think-tank gurus who grumble about the rejection of their favored “reform.” The plan so beloved by those so distant from rural America--a scheme by Representatives Ron Kind and Jeff Flake to establish the farming equivalent of the “individual retirement accounts” promoted by those who would destroy Social Security--failed because farm and consumer groups saw through its false promise of “market solutions.”Rejecting real reform as well as false promises, Pelosi backed a “Christmas tree” measure, which offered something for everyone--from agribusiness to Congressional Black Caucus members seeking long-overdue justice for minority farmers to consumer groups that want country-of-origin labeling on meat--then played on the fears of urban House members who know less about countercyclical payments than about crop circles
Technorati Tags: agriculture, corn, corruption, Democrats, deregulation, farm
Where do I sign up for a civil suit? Bastards. I know the Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing on our behalf, they need your support.
Role of Telecom Firms in Wiretaps Is Confirmed:
The Bush administration has confirmed for the first time that American telecommunications companies played a crucial role in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after asserting for more than a year that any role played by them was a “state secret.”
The acknowledgment was in an unusual interview that Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, gave last week to The El Paso Times in which he disclosed details on classified intelligence issues that the administration has long insisted would harm national security if discussed publicly.Mr. McConnell made the remarks apparently in an effort to bolster support for the broadened wiretapping authority that Congress approved this month, even as Democrats are threatening to rework the legislation because they say it gives the executive branch too much power. It is vital, he said, for Congress to give retroactive legal immunity to the companies that assisted in the program to help prevent them from facing bankruptcy because of lawsuits over it.
“Under the president’s program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us, because if you’re going to get access, you’ve got to have a partner,” Mr. McConnell said in the interview, a transcript of which was posted by The El Paso Times on Wednesday.
AT&T and several other major carriers are being sued over their reported role in the program, which permitted eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of Americans suspected of terrorism ties. The administration has sought to shut down the lawsuits by invoking the state-secrets privilege, refusing even to confirm whether the companies helped conduct the wiretaps.
Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is heading up the lawsuit against AT&T, said her group might ask the appeals court to consider Mr. McConnell’s comments in deciding whether the state-secrets argument should be thrown out.
“They’ve really undermined their own case,” Ms. Cohn said.
and this McConnell character is just an idiot:
Mr. McConnell, who took over as the country’s top intelligence official in February, warned that the public discussion generated by the Congressional debate over the wiretapping bill threatened national security because it would alert terrorists to American surveillance methods.“Now part of this is a classified world,” he said in the interview. “The fact we’re doing it this way means that some Americans are going to die.”.
Asked whether he was saying the news media coverage and the public debate in Congress meant that “some Americans are going to die,” he replied: “That’s what I mean. Because we have made it so public.”
Mr. McConnell, though, put new information on the public record in the interview, on Aug. 14 while in Texas for a border conference.
If we don't break the law, ponies will die!
Technorati Tags: activism, civil_liberties, EFF, surveillance, Telecom
We didn't get an iPhone even though we strongly considered it. One of the main arguments against signing up is that we've always had horrible experiences with SBC, Cingular and AT&T. Not to mention how quickly AT&T turned over all of their customers data to the Bush Big Brother initiative, and Ma Bell's censorship propensities. So, was not surprised to read about AT&T's stupid billing system a few weeks ago (the NYT is usually a few weeks behind in stories like these)
AT&T’s Overstuffed iPhone Bills Annoy Customers - New York Times:
The reason for the outsize bills is that AT&T itemizes not just every phone call, but every detail about every text message and Internet data transfer. Unless instructed otherwise, AT&T sent out detailed bills.
“It’s nonsense,” said Mike Brophy, 34, who owns a software company near Seattle and posted an item about his 64-page bill on his blog. “Ninety-five percent of the bill is just page after page of 1K data transfers, all with a charge of zero.”
Mr. Brophy also did not appreciate the amount of paper. “My bill was probably half a pound,” he said. “Just think of the fuel. It’s a real waste, not to mention information overload.”
Ms. Ezarik, who noted that AT&T spent $7.10 in postage to send her bill,
Where D and I had our first date (different restaurant at the time)
Speaking of BP (yet again), seems like facts about BP's faux green-ness keep bubbling to the surface, in this case, when residents of Munster, Indiana complained. You'd think a corporation with such massive quarterly profit margins would be able to maintain their own infrastructure, but I guess their advertising budget has consumed all the extra cash. Or something.
cbs2chicago.com - BP Cleans Up Oily Mess In Munster, Ind.:
BP officials say the source of the oil pipeline leak that got into storm sewers and caused a strong odor in a Munster neighborhood Monday night was a seeping, inactive pipe.
Officials have yet to determine whether there are any more leaks in two idle pipelines in the area
... Residents along Somerset Drive near St. James Place called the Munster Fire Department around 7 p.m. Monday to report a fuel odor that turned out to be an oil pipeline leak.“My wife called it in. I kept smelling whiffs of it. It started getting real strong around 6 p.m. I'm wondering if the area's contaminated. My neighbor says he smelled it two years ago,” said James Aerts, who lives a few houses from where the leak was detected. “It was in my garage, on my front porch, everywhere.”
Workers determined the smell came from storm sewers, and dug manholes to backtrack the leak from the point in the sewer system where the oil was detected to the pipeline.
The leak was traced to a pipe at St. James Place just off the Somerset intersection. From the storm sewer system, the oil flowed into a retention pond behind Somerset residences.
...
Resident Gene Kelly said he smelled fuel inside his house, located right by the leak. He said he would have liked BP to inform him what was going on rather than having to read it in the newspaper. “I'm concerned about the safety of the house, the smell lingering,” he told BP officials, when they came by.IDEM spokesman Steve Polston said IDEM will oversee the cleanup and inspect whether environmental standards are being met. He couldn't say whether BP would face any penalties.
BP says not to worry, industrial contamination is good for you. Plus, having to comply with environmental regulations has killed more people than Hilter (sic).
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might be useful info, if I ever get around to desiring to watch films on my videopod
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criticism of an Evolution criticism leads to lawsuit. Screwballs.
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Pivar is a crackpot "This is a book suitable only for use at clown colleges, and even there, I suspect the clowns would tell us that it is impractical, nonsensical, and has no utility in their craft."
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"seems no expense was spared getting it published, which is in contrast to the content, and is unusual for such flagrant crackpottery"
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requested permission to use a photograph of mine in the presentation. I wish I could see the finished project.....
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keeping my eye on this
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"reate dynamic rollover images using just CSS"
BP gets caught, as so many corporations do, doing one thing while claiming to do the exact opposite. In this case, being a green company. BP is no green company, and anyone who believes BP ever considered actually doing anything other than stuffing their corporate coffers is deluded, or paid off by BP.
BP Touts Greenness, Then Asks to Dump Ammonia:
“We'd like to have them live up to their advertising.”That remark came from Sudhu Johnston, chief environmental officer for the city of Chicago, in response to oil giant BP applying for -- and receiving -- a permit from the state of Indiana to dump more toxic discharges from its Whiting, Ind., refinery into Lake Michigan.
The move, which allows BP to dump 54% more ammonia and 35% more suspended solids into the lake, enraged officials in the Windy City and raised the specter of consumer boycotts of BP, which has its U.S. base in Chicago.
But mainly the matter drew attention to the cardinal sin of touting an environmentally conscious image in marketing—the central focus of BP's advertising for the past several years—and failing to live up to the message.
and of course, the solution BP came up with is to spend more money planting lies and obfuscations disguised as advertising into the nation's data pipes. You'll probably see several soon.
To mitigate the backlash, BP started advertising in regional newspapers several weeks ago to clear up misconceptions about the issue, a spokesman said.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, BP, Green, Lake_Michigan, pollution
True confession, I couldn't stand to read more than a page or two of Michael Ignatieff's 2519 words of bloviating, published recently in the New York Times Magazine. Spiky Mikey's argument, best I can tell, is that those of us who opposed the Iraq War travesty from the beginning were blinded by our suspicion of Bush's regime, and we didn't help matters by insisting upon voicing our opinions in demonstrations (which were ignored by the corporate media for the most part). Or something.
Predictably, Ignatieff was slaughtered in the blogosphere, such as, somewhat randomly found, here, or here. Or take a look here for more.
Katha Pollitt gets in a few licks of her own:
Who's Sorry Now?:
In the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, there was no more effective intellectual spokesperson for war than then-Harvard professor Michael Ignatieff.
...
Four years, four months and seventeen days after bombs began falling on Baghdad, Ignatieff, who left Harvard to become deputy leader of Canada's Liberal Party, has finally joined the long parade of prowar commentators who've publicly acknowledged their mistake. On August 5 The New York Times Magazine carried his long, woolly, pompous pseudo-confession “Getting Iraq Wrong: What the War Has Taught Me About Political Judgment.” Wandering among references to Isaiah Berlin, Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Beckett, Burke and Kant, Ignatieff distinguishes between the experimental, enthusiastic mindset natural to academics (himself then) and the “good judgment” and “prudence” required of political leaders (himself now). He thought politics was about all that high-minded stuff he taught at Harvard and let himself get carried away by his sympathy for Iraqi exiles. In other words, Michael Ignatieff supported the war because he was just too smart and too good for this fallen world.Never mind that most academics opposed the war, especially if they actually knew something about the Middle East and were foreign policy “realists,” like Ignatieff's peers Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer. Once, just once, I'd like to see a repentant war proponent acknowledge in a straightforward, non-weaselly way that Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Scott Ritter, Code Pink and, yes, The Nation--to say nothing of the millions around the world who demonstrated so ardently against the war--got it right. But no: “Many of those who correctly anticipated catastrophe did so not by exercising judgment but by indulging in ideology,” Ignatieff writes. “They opposed the invasion because they believed the President was only after the oil or because they believed America is always and in every situation wrong.”
Excuse me while I set myself on fire. I remember the run-up to the invasion very well, and “It's all about oil” and “America is always wrong” were hardly the major arguments on the table. Since Ignatieff must know this--surely he listened to Mark Danner and Robert Scheer when he teamed with Hitchens to debate them at UCLA--his calumny is not only self-serving, it's disingenuous.
Let's review. You wouldn't know it from Ignatieff's piece, but Bush's stated reason for war was not the liberation of the Iraqi people; it was that Saddam Hussein promoted terrorism, colluded with Al Qaeda, possessed WMDs and presented an immediate threat to the United States. Long before the war there was quite a bit of evidence that none of this was true. Were Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei ideologues who hated America? Remember the yellowcake, the aluminum tubes, the Niger documents the International Atomic Energy Agency determined were forgeries? It was possible to say, and many did, that Saddam was a murderous tyrant but that unilateral pre-emptive war against a country that presented no threat was a dangerous upending of settled international law.
More here
Technorati Tags: Iraq
My favorite source of smut and eggs is going to revamp their restaurant.
Twisted Spoke, which closed its Wrigleyville outpost (3365 N. Clark St.) on July 28th, will redo the original location (501 N. Ogden Ave.; 312-666-1500) as well. “As best we can describe it, we are going to flip the space,” says Cliff Einhorn, a partner. “Where the bar is now we are going to put the front room, and vice versa. We need to rebuild the bar itself because of the huge whiskey and bourbon collection. Besides, the place is getting sort of tired-looking.” The menu will be revamped, says Einhorn, but the makeover shouldn’t affect business: “I don’t think we can renovate our customers.”-Chicago Magazine
I actually mostly drink beer there, and am partial to their grilled portobello sandwich, eaten on the roof deck.
Technorati Tags: Chicago, restaurant, West_Loop
Speaking of spineless Democrats, Alexander Cockburn writes (subscribers only)
How the Democrats Blew It in Only 8 Months:
Led by Democrats since the start of this year, Congress now has a “confidence” rating of 14 percent, the lowest since Gallup started asking the question in 1973 and five points lower than Republicans scored last year.
The voters put the Democrats in to end the war, and it's escalating. The Democrats voted the money for the surge and the money for the next $459.6 billion military budget. Their latest achievement was to provide enough votes in support of Bush to legalize warrantless wiretapping for “foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.” Enough Democrats joined Republicans to make this a 227-183 victory for Bush. The Democrats control the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have stopped the bill in its tracks if she'd wanted to. But she didn't. The Democrats' game is to go along with the White House agenda while stirring up dust storms to blind the base to their failure to bring the troops home or restore constitutional government.
... The one Democrat acting on principle in the Gonzales affair has been Senator Russ Feingold. He at least tried to dig into the visit of chief White House counsel Gonzales, as he then was, to the bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft, to get him to sign off on the illegal wiretaps. And how did the Democrat-controlled Congress deal with Feingold's efforts to nail Gonzales for his efforts to undermine the Constitution and for his prevarications under oath? It promptly legalized the eavesdropping.Just as the Democrats work tirelessly to demonstrate to the voters that it makes zero difference which party controls Congress, the political establishment forces all candidates for the presidential nomination to sever any compromising ties to sanity and common sense.
Right now they're hosing down Barack Obama because he said in the YouTube debate in South Carolina that he would be prepared to meet with Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chávez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Fidel Castro to hash over problems face to face. The pundits whacked him for demonstrating “inexperience.” Experienced leaders order the CIA to murder such men.
Then Obama drew even fiercer fire by saying he would take nukes off the table in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance,” Obama told the AP on August 2, adding, after a pause, “involving civilians.” Then he quickly said, “Let me scratch that. There's been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That's not on the table.”
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A war people hate, Gitmo, Bush's police-state executive orders of July 17--the Democrats have signed the White House dance card on all of them. And guess what? Just as their poll numbers are going down, Bush's are going up, by five points in Gallup from early July. People are beginning to think the surge is working, courtesy of the New York Times. So are we better or worse off since the Democrats won back Congress?
Technorati Tags: Congress, Democrats, weasel_Democrats
For your depressing news of the day:
Things Fall Apart:
Everywhere one looks, the results of decades of public neglect and underinvestment are clear: not only collapsing bridges and exploding steam pipes but traffic-choked streets, clogged ports, corroded drinking-water systems and power brownouts. From 1950 to 1970 the government spent more than 3 percent of GDP on infrastructure. After 1980, that figure dropped by more than a third.Two years ago, following the catastrophic collapse of the levees in New Orleans, which cost more than 1,000 lives, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issued a report cataloguing the myriad deficiencies in our nation's infrastructure. That report was followed by a number of other worrying findings. The Transportation Department, for example, estimated that freight bottlenecks were costing the economy $200 billion a year. The Environmental Protection Agency warned of antiquated drinking-water and waste-water systems that would require more than $541 billion a year to rebuild over the next twenty years. And the Federal Highway Administration has calculated that some $141 billion will be needed every year for the next twenty years to repair deficient roads and bridges. All told, the ASCE estimated, the government would need to spend $1.6 trillion over the next five years to repair infrastructure. And that estimate did not address our lagging deployment of high-speed broadband or the major expenditures needed to reduce carbon emissions to stave off climate change.
Those reports, and the tragedy of the New Orleans levee collapse, should have been a wake-up call for our leaders, but little has been done. The Bush Administration has been more interested in protecting its tax cuts for the rich and siphoning off money for its endless occupation of Iraq. And the Democratic Party, scrambling to impress Wall Street with its fiscal conservatism, seems to have forgotten its proud heritage as the party of the New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Indeed, one of the first acts of the new Democratic Congress was to pass a “pay as you go” budget procedure, a roadblock to new public spending, whether on healthcare or infrastructure.
Technorati Tags: Congress, Democrats, deregulation, Republicans
Was sent a funny spam request from Amazon. My bank, huh? Interesting. Wonder who 'my bank' might be, seems like Amazon should know.
To 'confirm' my identy, I am supposed to click a link that resolves to:
http://www.amazon.com.270481.000cpom5.com/exec-obidos/signin.php?exec/obidos/flex-sign-in/ref=gw_hp_si/103-3177084-7567864?opt=a&page=recs/sign-in-secure.html&response=tg/recs/recs-post-login-dispatch/-/recs/pd_rw_gw_ur/ref=192930_1/3-3&ref=aa&emaddr=[one of my addresses].
The relevant part:
270481.000cpom5.comwhich leads to pasta only knows, but somewhere creepy no doubt.
Sort of saw this coming. We brokered an advertising campaign with these stores and a television show a few years ago, and Virgin had 17 stores. Now Virgin only has 11, and they probably aren't doing all that well either. I wouldn't be surprised to see a fire-sale happen by next year: the locations of the Virgin Stores are in high-traffic urban areas, probably worth a lot (like Times Square, Rodeo Drive, etc.)
Related to Acquire Virgin Megastores - WSJ.com:
Real-estate-development firm Related Cos. said it will buy the 11 Virgin Megastore music stores in North America from Virgin Entertainment Group. Terms weren't disclosed. “With most of our global retail operations now franchised, Virgin Group will continue to focus on being a global leader in transportation and renewable energy, with interests in financial services, communications and media, health and leisure,” said founder and Chairman Richard Branson.
Technorati Tags: advertising, real_estate
Well, I suppose I'd add a Prius to my list of cars-if-I-had-unlimited-cash, especially after Woz (and Al Gore JR) demonstrates the Prius is no wimpy car. The Hummer, on the other hand, sounds like an overpriced piece of trash. Horrible gas mileage, and horrible handling as well.
San Jose Mercury News - Can Prius top 100 mph; Ask Wozniak:
You probably remember when the son of the former vice president was caught going 105 mph in Southern California last month. Well, a mention of that in a recent Roadshow column led a buddy of Wozniak's to check in, claiming that the co-founder of Apple Computer was ticketed for going 105 mph on Interstate 5 earlier this year.Whoa. Mr. Roadshow knows a good story when it plops into his lap. If true.
“Not true,” Wozniak replied: “104 mph.”
OK, squash that image of the Prius being wimpy, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had quipped this year. First, 105 mph, and then 104!
“I pleaded guilty, with an explanation,” Wozniak said in one of several e-mails exchanged the past few days. “I said that I was really scientific, and in the last year had been in Athens, Moscow, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich (twice), Zurich, Canada (three times), Columbia, Singapore, Japan, London, etc., and had gotten used to kilometer speeds.”The judge smiled. But he didn't buy it. The fine was about $700.
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The Prius, Wozniak said, handled great at 104. And that wasn't the first time he reached the speed that sends shudders down my I-like-60-mph spine. The first time came one Thanksgiving when he decided to drive down to a Bob's Big Boy in Burbank.“Highway 5 was empty that night and I made good time and was surprised to discover that the Prius was very stable, even with major gusting winds,”
Wozniak said. “Being used to a Hummer I expected the opposite.”
Yep, he owns Hummers and hybrids. No, green-only, Birkenstock-loving guy.
Technorati Tags: automotive, Prius
No possibility of conflict of interest here. Ahem.
I think government officials should be barred from employment in the sector they regulate for ten years, or even forever. The so-called revolving door has been standard for years, and it stinks like crony capitalism by a different name to me.
F.A.A. Chief to Lead Industry Group:
Marion C. Blakey, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, will become the new head of the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group.
Technorati Tags: airline, Bush_donor, corruption
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would it really be so hard to make track listings for these nine songs. Even just the month they were recorded or something. Apparently, nobody has played this album in iTunes before - no Gracenote.
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"great place to sample and purchase international music, Calabash offers one free MP3 download per week. All you have to do is register with the site."
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Interesting. I wonder..... "Mountain View, California, doesn't like reciprocal links or blogrolls. I tried to verify this with Google, but they are as secretive as they are nosy. When I am dead, they can provide Saint John's Medical Centre my DNA map and
If I had unlimited money and/or time, what car would I want to fetishize?
Eyes on the Road - WSJ.com:
This past weekend, around a million people converged on the stretch of Woodward Avenue between Pontiac, Mich. and Ferndale, Mich. for the annual “Woodward Dream Cruise,” a celebration of the Motor City's glory days made that much more emotional by the present day tribulations of Detroit's Not So Big Three. Meanwhile, in Monterey, Calif., a smaller and generally wealthier crowd of car aficionados assembled for the annual Pebble Beach Automotive Weekend, a festival that celebrates the automobile as collectible fine art.
These events represent two distinct branches of American car culture, separated at one level by the number of digits in the personal net worth of the average attendee. Among the Dream Cruise's signature cars this year was the 1957 Chevy Bel Air, celebrating its 50th Anniversary. At Pebble Beach, the featured makes were Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg and Aston Martin. Among the cars expected to generate particular excitement at Pebble, according to AutoWeek magazine's Larry Edsall, was an unrestored 1950 Ferrari 166MM Touring Barchetta found languishing under some rugs in the Arizona desert – the automotive equivalent of finding a Picasso in Granny's attic.So 25 years from now, what will classic car fanatics be parading down Woodward Avenue or bidding on at Pebble Beach? What cars will emerge from beneath oily rags to delight some middle-aged buff in 2032? Will we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1982 Chrysler LeBaron?
It's not an easy question. There have been some fairly severe automotive design droughts during the past 25 years or so. Will someone who discovers a 1982 Chevrolet Citation under a drop cloth in the old barn experience any form of excitement – unless that person happens to need something to run in a demolition derby?
Well, it won't be a 1973 Chevy Nova (like the one I toured the Eastern Seaboard in with my uncle Phil), nor a Ford Fairmont, nor any box car of the 80s and 90s. In fact, there aren't many modern cars I would get too juiced over owning (other than the obvious answer of a super expensive sports cars, and even these, I suspect, would be more flash than substance, and not driven often). Maybe a Citroen if they brought back those funky retractable wheels?
Technorati Tags: automotive, Detroit
If I couldn't grill vegetables and fish, why, I wouldn't know what to do on my porch (seeing as my porch is only big enough for a grill and one chair). Seriously, summertime means grilled food (including an occasional marinated chicken or steak) - did I really need another food warning to destroy my enjoyment of slightly charred zukes or asparigi?
Cutting Cancer Risk When Grilling:
To grill or not to grill? That's the question many consumers are asking amid reports that one of America's most popular cooking methods is linked with a higher risk for cancer.While it's true that grilled and charred meats can be risky, you don't have to shut down your grill. Simple cooking and preparation strategies and even the side dishes you serve can dramatically lower and even eliminate the risks associated with grilling.
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Grilling creates two risky types of chemical reactions. The first occurs when fat drips on the coals, forming carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The best way to prevent this is to avoid flaming or charring food. If it happens, scrape off the black stuff.A bigger concern may be the chemical reaction that happens inside meats, chicken and fish grilled at high temperatures and for long periods. Compounds in these foods react at high temperatures to create heterocyclic amines, or HCAs. In laboratory studies, HCAs trigger breast, colon and prostate tumors in rats and mice. About 30 epidemiological studies have shown a link between high consumption of grilled or well-done foods and cancer, says James Felton, senior biomedical scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.
There are some options that may reduce the amount of harmful byproducts, namely:
Microwave foods for about a minute before grilling. Precooking means the food cooks faster on the grill and isn't exposed to high temperatures as long. More important, the amino acids and creatine come out in the microwave, so no chemical reaction takes place once the food is on the grill. A well-done hamburger microwaved for a minute first has about one-tenth the HCAs of a burger cooked entirely on the grill, says Dr. Felton.Eat lots of veggies with your grilled foods. Grilled veggies give you the great grilled flavor but don't produce the cancer-causing chemicals triggered in meat grilling. (You still need to scrape off the black stuff.) And studies show that eating cruciferous vegetables like broccoli as a side dish to grilled meats changes the way the body metabolizes the chemicals created in grilling.
Use marinades. Marinating foods sets up a barrier against heat that lowers the creation of HCAs. Use a marinade with less oil, so less fat drips into the coals.
Flip your food often. This lowers the temperature, lessening the chance of the risky chemical reaction triggered by high temperatures.
Cook red meat medium or rare. The biggest health risk comes when meat is cooked well done.
Finally, it's important to note that the risk comes mostly from cooking at high temperatures, whether its from your oven, frying pan or backyard grill. When cooking indoors, Dr. Felton suggests cooking meats at 350 degrees or lower or using a slow cooker.
Maybe I'm just hungry.
Technorati Tags: Food & Drink, health, science
Received a package of CDs from the friendly and knowledgeable folks at Aquarius Records, including:
[ aquarius records new arrivals list #268 10th August 2007 ] : [which is really New Arrivals #272, but who's counting]
You might remember a couple months ago we freaked out over a gritty and gorgeous release out of Mali from Pekos and Yoro Diallo. It was the first release on the new Drag City imprint Yaala Yaala, a label specializing in raw music and field recordings from West Africa. After reveling in their first release for a while we thought it was time to move on to their second outing which we're happy to report is just as mystifying, compelling and pleasing as the first. Bougouni is a small city in Mali and it's there and in nearby Bamako where these sounds were recorded, during hot days and balmy nights. The music was recorded everywhere from house parties, at checker games, under the shade of mango trees, etc. Like the best of the Nonesuch Explorer series and the eccentric tendencies of the beloved Sublime Frequencies label, Yaalaa Yaala has managed to capture the sounds of other cultures in a way much more agreeable to our sensibilities and respectful to the music and musicians themselves then the often manipulated, polished and Western-washed versions that ends up at cafes, on slick compilations and in “world music” sections of most record stores. Often when we've traveled to faraway places we wish that instead of a camera we had a really good tape recorder with us as it's often the raw and unadorned sounds of a place and people that truly captures the spirit of that location more then any photograph ever could.
Thankfully, the sounds on Bougouni Yaalali resulted from just that sort of foresight, someone who did think ahead and managed to record all of these amazing sounds during various travels through Mali, allowing us to really get close to understanding the spirit of a place that most of us have never been to (though would kill to visit!!). With simple yet compelling percussion (some of it wonderfully distorted!) and a slew of various instruments, the extremely minimal liner notes allow us to play the guessing game of trying to identify the sources of particular sounds (is that a thumb piano we hear on lots of these tracks?). And even though we can't understand the lyrics the hypnotic and powerful delivery ring true with a passion and emotional conviction that transcends language. Yaala Yaala is two for two so far, we can't wait to hear more!
Haven't had a free second to listen yet, but am sure I'll groove with it once I do. No titles nor artist information though, which is a bit annoying.
Visiting Mali is on high on my list of 'things to do before the stress of modern life kills me or the planet'.
I got a bunch of other stuff to, more notes as I think about it. Or not, can never tell if time will permit.
What blackmail threat is the White House holding over Pelosi's head? Misleading Congress is an impeachable offense!
Pelosi's Stand Blocking Impeachment in the House is Killing the Democratic Party - The Smirking Chimp:
It's just the Constitution that's suffering because of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's nutty and unprincipled “impeachment-off-the-table” position blocking any effort to impeach President Bush or Vice President Cheney for their many crimes and abuses of power.Her position on impeachment is killing the Democratic Party too, by driving away not just progressive members of the party, but independents who voted for Democrats last November expecting some action in defense of the Constitution.
I see this anger welling up among progressives and independents everywhere I travel, as people say they've simply had it with the Democrats. The support of the party for a bill continuing funding for the war through September was terrible. The Democrats' rush to pass a bill granting Bush the authority to spy without a warrant on Americans, and to expand the power to spy domestically well beyond phones and internet to even include break-ins was a last straw.
Technorati Tags: Bush, Congress, Impeachment
Insane with work - till 11pm last night, woke at 5:30 this morning to dive back in. Am frazzled, dazzled and bedraggled. At least this is only for a week or so - I pity med school interns and corporate lawyers who do this on a sustained basis.
Wish I was here knocking back martinis instead.....
Rainbo Club neon, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Neon is....
An (alleged) hangout of Nelson Algren
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Environmentalists have killed more people than hilter in the 20th centuries so I dont trust you whining em effers ONE freaking bit - Oh, really? Who is this Hilter guy - does he work for BP?
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"Swearingen signed the petition and added "I was an FBI agent in Los Angeles when Leonard Peltier was convicted"
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ruminations upon Willie Nelson, song-writer genius
“Silent Spring” (Rachel Carson)
I didn't think I'd even have to comment on how ridiculous the claim is, but perhaps I do. Because, you know, environmentalists frequently kick down people's doors in the middle of the night, and take wrong-thinking Americans to concentration camps where the brutal, yoga-trained environmentalists force-feed their captives a steady diet of organic cantaloupe, filtered water, and tofu until death mercifully arrives. We don't hear about it on the evening news because the environmentalists control the corporate media.
Or something like that. Maybe this Hilter guy (located in a small boarding house in Minehead, Somerset) hasn't killed anyone because he's biding his time, planning his strategy.
Rachel Carson's birthday bashing | Salon News:
Novelist Michael Crichton has a front seat on the bandwagon. He took on DDT and climate change in his footnote-studded 2004 novel, “State of Fear.” “Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler,” his protagonist alleges. “And the environmental movement pushed hard for it.”
The Coburn/Crichton talking points have infected the mainstream press. In his New York Times Science column this month, John Tierney thrashed Carson's warnings about insecticides and argued that her voice still “drowns out real science.” Over at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Bill Steigerwald blamed “environmentalists spooked by Rachel Carson” for banning a “miracle weapon” that is “like Kryptonite to the mosquitoes.”
...
“Groups are latching onto the emotional impact of the malaria story, which is truly a human tragedy, to discredit environmentalists,” says John M. Balbus, chief health scientist with Environmental Defense. “Are there places where DDT may have been beneficial? Probably, yes.” But is the 1970s DDT ban “the cause for rampant malaria and millions of deaths? Absolutely not.”Historians and scientists have shown that despite some benefits of DDT, few African countries made the pesticide a part of their malaria control efforts over the past quarter century. Many factors led to the decreased use of DDT -- factors that had nothing to do with Carson. In fact, the decline in DDT use coincided with a drop in malaria rates.
Socrates Litsios, a historian and former scientist for the World Health Organization (the agency that has headed global malaria control efforts since the 1960s), says the assertion that “Silent Spring” and the DDT ban led to millions of deaths is “outrageous.” May Berenbaum, head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who has studied mosquitoes and malaria, says that “to blame environmentalists who oppose DDT for more deaths than Hitler is worse than irresponsible.”
The problem is that the mosquitos build up resistance to DDT - evolution and all that. Tom Coburn doesn't believe in evolution so that isn't a problem for him, and his followers.
Mosquitoes can evolve resistance to any insecticide. In India, DDT-resistant mosquitoes were reported as early as 1959. “Insects will develop resistance to insecticides,” says entomologist Berenbaum at the University of Illinois. “This is one sure thing you can count on.”Mosquitoes, Berenbaum says, can develop resistance in any number of ways -- biologically, biochemically, even behaviorally. In some regions, mosquitoes might develop resistance by becoming physically immune to the effects of DDT. In other populations, mosquitoes might evolve new behaviors, such as avoiding inside walls and resting on the unsprayed outer walls of homes after biting their victims.
Relying on insecticide alone to control malaria ignores big pieces of the puzzle, Berenbaum says. Mosquitoes may be the carrier, but it's the Plasmodium parasite that causes malaria. “It's not just the mosquito. There's a pathogen involved, and there are people involved. To reduce this extremely complicated situation to one bad guy is beyond simplistic,” she says.That oversimplified argument seems to suit Coburn, Crichton and their cohorts in the press.
Damn, that Mr. Hilter.
Technorati Tags: BP, environment, Monty_Python, pollution, YouTube
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yes, this amused me for over ten minutes. Must be my mental state....
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Skube is a hack. "alerted to an opinion column in the Los Angeles Times by Michael Skube, a journalism professor at Elon University."
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4-5 hours on one image? Yikes. still, looks cool
Don't commit a nuisance!
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“Find District/Official by Address”
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intriguing. I thought the post-excercise soreness was due to lactic acid, but apparently that theory is outdated
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“Image courtesy of swanksalot”
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“I’d rather have a beer with Bill Clinton.” If those were my two choices, hell yea. I'd probably get in trouble for spitting in Bush's beer.
I don't know for absolutely sure, but there are rumors a large building is about to be built at the corner of Jefferson and Randolph, blocking my view of the east. More details as I find them.
Here are a few snapshots taken over the years of this intersection in different seasons. I have many more, but won't bore you with them all.
Time to go home
Evening rush hour begins as the sun sets. Evening light is magic!
October Snow Shower
snow shower, West Loop.
Even though I was born in Canada, I lived long enough in Texas that snow still brings out my inner child: I want to go outside and play in the flakes, and expect school to have been cancelled.
Hammered Foil
late afternoon, West Loop looking east.
Snowy Streets, West Loop
Randolph and Jefferson, corner of.
Streams of Whiskey (trucks)
Everyone should have at least one slow-motion shot of traffic in their (flickr) stream, right?
(title in homage to Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, et al)
Snow Globs
more snow porn from this morning's snow shower
Blue and lazy afternoon
Traffic Lights Turn Blue tonight
Randolph and Jefferson
Blue Bus is Long
From a recent snowstorm: accordion-style CTA bus loses traction and blocks Randolph for at least 30 minutes (if you look closely, you can see the tire tracks in the empty parking lot where people circled the bus)
Embrace the Gloom
Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. - Sun Tzu
Traffic Lights Turn green tonight
Randolph and Jefferson, sort of black and white
click to embiggen
Technorati Tags: Chicago, Photos, real_estate, urban, West_Loop
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sample of 2008 Presidential candidates views on drugs, including Al Gore for some reason. Is he running?
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Holland is not the only place to exile ourselves to if Giuliani, or worse, wins in 2008
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google vs. yahoo: who indexes more?
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“I don’t know, Ralph [Nader], there aren’t too many Republicans with a finger roll on their resume. ”
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“especially since this is a country where we love holding people accountable unless they've done innocuous stuff like destroyed countries, killed innocents, broken laws, lied, and shredded the Constitution).”
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in the Wonkette photos, sure looks it. Christian values my ass. Not that Jenna and Not-Jenna ever displayed many Christian values prior....
This view might vanish
Disappearing Dream of Yesteryear, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
long exposure of Green Line el on Lake Street
In case you haven't already seen this a few times....
In this interview from April 15th, 1994, Dick Cheney reveals the reasons why invading Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein wouldn't be a great idea. He also stipulates that “not very many” American soldiers' lives were worth losing to take out Saddam during the Gulf War.
Technorati Tags: Cheney, incompetence, Iraq, liars, YouTube
A new local brewery launches. Have to look for this soon. Might not be this weekend, as I have work to catch up on, but soon.
***HALF ACRE BEER COMPANY***:(h/t Chuck Sudo)
Based in Chicago, Half Acre Beer Company uses a grass roots approach to bring original beers to the community. We develop all of our recipes at home in Chicago, then work with friends in Black River Falls, WI to brew our beer (like making dinner at a friend's house). We can't afford our own brewery as of yet, but brewing with friends allows us to minimize our physical footprint while maximizing the output of another great brew house close to home. Our beer is only distributed in Chicago, at the same bars, restaurants and stores we enjoy. We're building our company one beer at a time and will grow with the support of our community.
I wish this was me right now. Instead I am impatiently waiting for our new furnace to be installed while working on two major projects, both already due.
iPod beach joy, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Hello iPod in the sand
Is this place
at your command
“Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas” (Elaine Pagels)
I couldn't remember exactly I had read the phrase, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Probably from this book.
I missed this episode of Bill Moyers interviewing Elaine Pagels, unfortunately. While I am by no definition a religious man, I am insanely interested in the relationship between man, religion and history.
NOW with Bill Moyers. Transcript. Interview with Elaine Pagels. 5.16.03 | PBS:
The Gospel of Thomas is a quite amazing text. It consists of just… it starts with the words, “These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke. And Thomas wrote them down.” And all it is, are sayings of Jesus. But unlike the Gospels in the New Testament, like Matthew and Luke, this one has not public teaching, but secret sayings. It speaks about a Jesus who speaks about every one of us coming from God's primordial light. It speaks about all beings coming from God. The New Testament Gospel of John says Jesus is the light. Everything refers to Jesus. Jesus teaches you have to believe in Jesus, you have to follow Jesus. This Gospel is not about that.
...PAGELS: We don't know who wrote this Gospel, any more than we know who wrote any of the others, actually. They're all attributed to disciples. But we don't know.It's not unlikely — or, put it differently — it's likely that some of the sayings here are sayings that Jesus spoke. In fact, many of the sayings are the same as you'll find in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament. And some of them are quite different. They're not simple. They're kind of puzzles. They're koans. They're meant to be struggled with.
MOYERS: Koan — that's a Buddhist term, isn't it?
PAGELS: It's a Buddhist term. It means it's not a clear saying. But it's a puzzling saying. It's powerful. In these sayings, Jesus says things like, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Now, when I heard that saying, I thought, “I don't have to believe that. I just know that's true.” And that could be true on a psychological level. And I think it's also true on a spiritual level. That we need to find spiritual resources within ourselves. And according to this kind of source, the reason we can find it within ourselves, is that we come from that source.
MOYERS: Why isn't the official Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Thomas?
PAGELS: That would make a very interesting Bible. But I think that the people like the Archbishop, who called books like this illegitimate secret Gospels, thought that it was dangerous to say, “Well, you could go off and find God on your own. You don't need the beliefs that the Church establishes. You don't need the Bishop, you don't need to go to church. You don't need to be baptized.” I mean, to say that might make the church less important. And he was not an Archbishop to take that lightly.
MOYERS: So, this was about what year?
PAGELS: That was the year 367. It was after the church had become the religion of the Empire. It was the beginning of the establishment of Imperial Christianity.
The Black Iron Prison, as Philip K. Dick called it.
Technorati Tags: history, religion, repression
No wonder I've never considered running for president (well, besides the little rule about having to be born in the US). Per Corpus Callosum, we see that the candidates for president, especially the ones who are well funded and likely to win a primary or two are all really Republicans, and the Republicans are really fascists/authoritarians by another name.
So I wonder who is against the Drug War? Probably Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich only. I'll admit I actually haven't been paying attention to the platforms of specific candidates, other than in a vague way. Data like this is probably why - none of them are talking to me anyway. (Especially Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, based on this chart. John Edwards is the most left of the likely candidates, but something irks me about him too. )
Data from here.
My score? Took the test, and in no surprise to anyone who regularly glances at this page, I scored way, way to the left. Live and Let Live. Or as the Gnostic Christ said: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
The Political Compass - Test:
Economic Left/Right: -7.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.31
About The Political Compass™In the introduction, we explained the inadequacies of the traditional left-right line.
If we recognize that this is essentially an economic line it's fine, as far as it goes. We can show, for example, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot, with their commitment to a totally controlled economy, on the hard left. Socialists like Mahatma Gandhi and Robert Mugabe would occupy a less extreme leftist position. Margaret Thatcher would be well over to the right, but further right still would be someone like that ultimate free marketeer, General Pinochet.
That deals with economics, but the social dimension is also important in politics. That's the one that the mere left-right scale doesn't adequately address. So we've added one, ranging in positions from extreme authoritarian to extreme libertarian.
Technorati Tags: 2008_election, Barack_Obama, Clinton, Democrats, Drug_War_insanity, proto-fascism, John_Edwards, Rethuglicans
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used my photo
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“keeps repeating that word—claiming he likes ”the way it rolls off my tongue“—as he holds the frank up to his mouth; issues a guttural moan; and wraps his lips around the big, swinging dog”
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On this day in 1997, one of the world’s greatest singers, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died in the prime of his career. Indeed.
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Fake populism is the new rage Dennis Kucinich touted his proud union affiliation as a member of IATSE Local 600
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corporate censorship redux. AT&T sucks.
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No freakin' kidding. Darkness is oft bliss
Remember this somewhat odd advertisement from a few years ago? Somebody uploaded it to YouTube.
“The spot: An obese man is tending a barbecue grill. He's cooking some Ball Park Franks. He says he likes his hot dogs ”girthy.“ He keeps repeating that word—claiming he likes ”the way it rolls off my tongue“—as he holds the frank up to his mouth; issues a guttural moan; and wraps his lips around the big, swinging dog. In all, he says ”girthy“ a full seven times. ”
Especially when it gets put in a hot dog commercial. Repeated over and over, in a lascivious tone. Followed by satisfied grunting. We have to face it: Hot dogs—sometimes called “wieners”—are a little bit phallic. So, wouldn't you try to avoid using words that bring this to the fore?I've no doubt that many hot dog consumers also perform fellatio. And more power to them. But do they really wish to contemplate this act while noshing on a frank at a barbecue? Also, are they Ball Park's target demographic? In a corporate press release, spokesman “Frank” is described as a “straight-talking, All-American” guy who “believes in red meat, cold beer, [and] spectator sports …” I hate labels, but this sounds like your classic straight dude. Not so much a fellatiator.
Depends upon what sort of spectator sports we're talking about I suppose.
Bee Jays, it's what's for breakfast. Errr, something like that. Maybe afternoon delight?
Bonus:
Arrested Development's version of Afternoon Delight (as sung by an uncle and his niece, and an aunt and her nephew. Less creepy and more funny than it sounds.)
Technorati Tags: advertising, blowjob, sex, YouTube
“Guitar Hero 2 Bundle with Guitar” (Activision)
Contrary to some purists' claims, the popular video game is inspiring kids to rock out for real. - Salon:
I kept wishing for “Guitar Hero.”
The magic of the video game is that it lets a novice sound like a pro. On “Guitar Hero,” playing well is easy. Even if you suck and stick to Easy mode, you can ape a solo worthy of Jimmy Page. It “makes you feel like you're a guitar player without having to practice for years and years,” says Ted Lange, an associate producer and in-house guitar expert at Red Octane, the company that makes “Guitar Hero.”
The game's guitar has no strings; its fretboard features five colored buttons that you press with your left hand as you hit a plastic strumming bar with your right. You do this in time according to what's on the screen, winning points -- and playing a cool song -- for hitting the right notes at the right time, and losing points, and making bad music, when you mess up.
I'd probably do well on the 80's rock version too, unfortunately.
“Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's” (Activision)
could retake this with a better tripod setup, but oh well....
Shadow Juggler, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
I can only juggle two orbs at once though, still learning.
My power might be shut off today for extended periods, as a new furnace is installed. Turned out to have been a serious problem.
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William Plante, my new hero. As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed to Bush: “If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?”
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I've actually done this on my own for 10 years or so, without being quite so methodical. Just always put washed clothes on the left side of my closet, and periodically examine the shirts that are on the right - and discard those. In other words, avoid things that lean right.
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The Padilla trial has been a farce from the beginning. Those who insisted upon prosecuting it ought to be jailed themselves.
David Rakoff's book of essays is cracking me up.
I don't listen to NPR at all, so my first exposure to Rakoff's wit was on the Daily Show, riffing on a bit about Robert Knight of the Culture and Family Institute and Knight's claim that HIV wouldn't spread much via heterosexual sex because “the vagina can take a lot of punishment”. Jon Stewart can barely contain himself he laughs so hard.
Here's the crappy Viacom approved version of the YouTube clip, in two parts.
Not every essay is stellar, some are only good, but every piece so far has made me smile, or laugh out-loud. You probably could read the entire thing sitting in a bookstore coffee shop, if you were a cheapskate.
Technorati Tags: humor, Jon_Stewart, repression, Rethuglicans, sex
random trip through my vast Flickr archive
Dance, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
West Loop sign, for a dance studio, surprisingly. I don't know why exactly, but I like the type face. Boeing Headquarters in the background.
I knew it! Genetic predisposition to drink beer since I'm Irish (and various other sundry ethnic blends)!
Early Irish Brewing Studied | A Good Beer Blog: Bronze Age man was a bit of a boozer, according to a team of archaeologists who claim to have uncovered evidence of the world's largest prehistoric brewing industry.
After four years of research, which has seen them travel from Belgium to Bavaria to investigate ancient beer-making methods, the team has concluded that Ireland's love affair with alcohol predates the 1759 foundation of the Guinness brewery by many thousands of years. An archaeological consultancy based in Co Galway has demonstrated that enigmatic man-made Bronze Age features, which are common throughout Ireland, could well have been ancient microbreweries.
Some photos here, and more details about replicating the brew (a variant of weiss beer) here
We produced what is more properly termed a gruit ale (gruit is a term used to describe the herbal mix used to flavour ale). Through our experiments, we discovered that the process of brewing ale in a fulacht using hot rock technology is a simple process. To produce the ale took only a few hours, followed by a three-day wait to allow for fermentation. Three hundred litres of water was transformed into a very palatable 110 litres of ale with minimal work.
3:30 am - massive water leak in our house, specifically, in our coat closet (suit jackets, winter coats, some of which may be ruined, some just need drying). Turned out to be several leaks from a main air conditioning duct (looks poorly sealed). No solution yet (could be a blocked drain, or other causes), but since sleep was intermittent, our day's labors will be too.
As a bonus, D was bitten twice by the soon-to-infamous oak leaf gall mite, Pyemotes herfsi (or similar), over the weekend, leaving two large welts on her lower back, red, and itchy.
“We don't have positive identification on the type of mite that it is. We do know that it is a mite,” said Kitty Loewy, spokeswoman for the Cook County Department of Public Health.Scientists haven't been able to catch one yet—they are incredibly small—but the belief that mites have invaded Illinois is based on the telltale rash that develops after the bites.
Experts say the suspected mite probably is new to the area, joining a rogues' gallery of gnawing, invasive bugs that include the Asian tiger mosquito and the Asian ladybird beetle, all recent and probably permanent residents thanks to an increasingly interconnected world of shipping and transportation.
...
Still, investigators seemed to be narrowing in on an invasive variety of itch mite from Europe—the oak leaf gall mite, Pyemotes herfsi—a close relative of the straw itch mite. It feeds on midge larvae in oak trees, but happily falls onto unsuspecting people passing by when it runs out of food. It can blow in the wind and land far away. On people, it probes and chews and causes powerfully itchy reactions to a potent toxin in its saliva.
and if this is what it is like to be an entomologist, no thanks!
For the last three years, scientists in Kansas and Nebraska have studied its life cycle and behavior, said James A. Kalisch, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.It seems to emerge and thrive from late summer until early winter. The mite uses a powerful neurotoxin in its saliva to paralyze and kill soft-skinned critters as large as caterpillars. To humans, the bites aren't toxic, but they are devilishly itchy—something Kalisch discovered after dabbing some mites into the damp crook of his arm to see what would happen.
Within 24 hours, he said, it grew itchy, then slightly painful, as if bruised. He got a mild fever and a tinge of headache. The worst of it took four days to develop and more than a week to blow over.
Technorati Tags: narcipost
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formatting is extremely goofy, at least in Safari, still a useful list for future rants
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ha ha. If only we had a judiciary and Justice Department who believed in Rule of Law
If I had unlimited cash perhaps, or even if I was inebriated at this precise moment (lots and lots of impulse purchases have some sort of inebriation as a common element). Oh well, Netflix is good enough, and a more frugal decision.
Helvetica:
A limited-edition package in a custom box that includes the retail DVD, three letterpressed mini-posters, a color C-print of a still from the film (one of ten different stills) signed by director Gary Hustwit, two love/hate Helvetica buttons, and a letter of actual Helvetica metal type! We might even throw more cool stuff in there too. Limited edition of 1,000 copies. Release date November 6, pre-order now and receive early shipping (a week before release date). This limited box will not be available in stores.
I have plenty of clutter to fill up every available wall, desk and counter space in any case, no need in more. Just keep telling yourself that.....
I couldn't let the resignation of Karl Rove pass without at least some snark. I tried to ignore the momentous event, I really did, even though I read the original self-serving resignation column in the WSJ on Monday. But David Corn (of The Nation) has a nice memorial that the Tribune published for some reason.
Here's my favorite passage:
Cut-and-run Karl has had enough:
Cut-and-run Karl has had enough. Bush strategist leaving a mess to be cleaned up
By David Corn | the Washington editor for The Nation magazine
...
Certainly, a White House aide who has engaged in the sort of political and policy chicanery that Rove has ought to lose the right to collect a paycheck from U.S. taxpayers. Take your pick: the Iraq war; Hurricane Katrina; the U.S. attorney scandal; the Valerie Plame leak; inaction on global warming; injecting politics into federal agencies to a new degree; the stem-cell veto; tax cuts for the wealthy; politicizing the war on terror ...But leaving is too good for Rove. He was Bush's partner in the Iraq war, yet he (like other Bush aides, including, most recently, Dan Bartlett) are abandoning ship before the fight is done. Rove has argued that the Iraq war is essential for the survival of the United States (that is, for all of our families). So how can he walk away with the war not won?
In a June 2006 speech, Rove blasted Democrats for advocating “cutting and running” in Iraq. He said of the Democrats, “They may be with you for the first shots. But they're not going ... to be with you for the tough battles.” But isn't Rove now doing the same on a personal scale? He is departing the White House when the going in Iraq is as tough as it ever was.
In an earlier 2006 speech, Rove exclaimed, “America is at war ... To retreat before victory has been won would be a reckless act.” He was, of course, talking about a military retreat. But look at it this way: Rove helped Bush start a war, and now hundreds of thousands of American GIs (and millions of Iraqi civilians) have no choice but to live with the consequences of that decision. Why should Rove be allowed to bug out early? Wouldn't all the men and women enmeshed in the Iraq debacle like to spend more time with their families?
How nice for the Roves that he can walk away from the war.
When Bush campaigned for president in 2000, he and Rove dubbed their campaign plane Accountability One. The point: We're the responsible ones. But a fundamental principle of accountability is that you clean up the messes you create. Rove is not doing that. He will cash in. Maybe with speeches. Perhaps with a book or some private sector spot. Instead, he ought to volunteer for service with one of the few functioning provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq. Or perhaps he could conduct seminars on basic electoral skills for tribal leaders in southeastern Afghanistan. (Lesson No. 1: How To Demonize Your Enemy.) If overseas travel would place too much of a burden on his family, he could help clean up a neighborhood in New Orleans.
Technorati Tags: Rethuglicans, Rove, Rule_of_Law
Probably because Stewart and Colbert don't mind if their shows are available on YouTube. The rumor is that Daily Show and/or Colbert Show interns upload scenes from their show every night, and Viacom lawyers requests that YouTube remove the scenes the next morning.
YouTube Wants to Talk to Jon Stewart - WSJ.com:
Google Inc.'s YouTube unit has requested that comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert be deposed as part of a copyright dispute with Viacom Inc., according to court filings in the case. In a scheduling order, the video-sharing site lists Mr. Stewart, the host of Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and Stephen Colbert, host of the network's “The Colbert Report,” among 32 people it wants to interview before trial. Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chairman, also is named. Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube in March after discussions failed on licensing Viacom content for use on YouTube.
Technorati Tags: copyright, Google, Jon_Stewart, YouTube
I still think Heineken ought to give bloggers, such as myself, a sample DraughtKeg to use and write about. I've been following news of the BeerTender since 2004, salivating periodically, as required.
Mike Beirne writes:
Heineken Goes Back to the Future:
CHICAGO Heineken USA is positioning its patented five-liter Heineken DraughtKeg as the “futuristic beer delivery system” and the inspiration for a dance score in a new campaign.
Heineken's DraughtKeg features an integrated pressurized and disposable CO2 system with mini-tap components in a lightweight steel keg for home use.
...
A test is still being done in Rhode Island for the BeerTender, a chrome countertop appliance made by Krups that accommodates and chills the DraughtKeg.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, beer, Heineken
Random stroll through my flickr photo archive. This particular rickety commuter bridge is finally scheduled to be renovated, about 30 years too late.
I want to see the Bright Lights, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
must hurry to the train, must hurry to the train, must hurry to the train
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a so-called scraper website. At least they only took a paragraph of quoted material
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I think I've tried these before, but worth trying again now there is a demo version (again)
Recently, I took a chance and downloaded a few tracks of Orchestra Baobab from eMusic. Amazing, great stuff, I'm going to try to find more. Mike pointed me towards Thione Seck a while ago, Mr. Seck sings on the tracks eMusic has available.
The two 1980-81 albums collected here are as much proof as you need: the rhythms are Cuban rhumba gone native, dense and relaxed and utterly beguiling. They also give lead guitarist Barthelemy Atisso, an ace among aces, plenty of room to stretch out. If you want to figure out how to combine lissome and deadly on the guitar, listen hard and copy everything he does.
I've always had a fondness for swinging cuban jazz/rock, according to Chris Nickson of Allmusic, the Cuban sound was part of woof and weave of Senegal.
allmusic ((( Orchestra Baobab > Biography ))):
From inauspicious beginnings as the weekend house band at a Dakar club for government officials, Senegal's Orchestra Baobob, named for the club (which in turn took its name from the native baobob tree), went on to become one of the seminal bands of world music, with an influence that extended far beyond their national boundaries, throughout West Africa and into Europe. Put together by original leader and saxophonist Baro N'Diaye, the first version was a seven-piece group, three of them enticed away from Dakar's biggest band, the Star Band, who had a regular gig at Ibra Kasse's club. While they had a strong Cuban influence -- Cuban music had been a prevalent sound throughout West Africa since the '40s, imported by sailors and played on the radio -- Orchestra Baobob added African music, in large part from griot singer Laye M'Boup, who had a vast repertoire of Wolof material. It wasn't long before the new sound proved so popular that the group wasn't just entertaining on weekends, but every night of the week, being hailed on par with Guinea's legendary Bembeya Jazz for their fusion of sounds. Inevitably, personnel fluctuated and the new musicians brought their own influences, expanding the feel and range of the band with Maninke and Malinke songs, which became integrated into the whole. Perhaps the most important addition was singer Thione Seck, who took over the lead vocalist spot after the death of M'Boup in a 1974 car wreck (although several rumors concerning a jealous husband surrounded his death).
“Pirates Choice” (Orchestra Baobab)
For people who know their Senegalese music, Orchestra Baobab's Pirates Choice is the Holy Grail. By the time this music was recorded to four-track in 1982, the immensely popular band had been playing nightly for years at a Dakar club called Baobab. But legendary status in Senegal didn't help the musicians get wider attention--the album wasn't released in Europe until 1987, and it only now comes to the U.S. for the first time. Latin music was popular in Dakar, a port city, and the band mixed various strains of Latin music with different African music styles to create uniformly stunning results not all that different from Afro-Cuban music. The French vocals are lovely, and the powerful mix of African and Latin percussion is undeniable--but keep a particular ear out for guitarist Barthelemy Attisso, whose tasteful leads float over the top. The original six-track album is hard to pass up, but this reissue contains a second disk with six unreleased songs from the same session, making this a must-have.
Technorati Tags: Afrobeat, music, music_history
Photos of two of my favorite kinds of porn below the fold.
Oh, it's safe for work, don't worry.
Technorati Tags: Food, Food & Drink, porn, restaurant, sunset
Am I a font nerd for finding this article fascinating? I mean, like really fascinating? Wait, don't answer.
The Road to Clarity - New York Times:
The Federal Highway Administration granted Clearview interim approval in 2004, meaning that individual states are free to begin using it in all their road signs. More than 20 states have already adopted the typeface, replacing existing signs one by one as old ones wear out. Some places have been quicker to make the switch — much of Route I-80 in western Pennsylvania is marked by signs in Clearview, as are the roads around Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport — but it will very likely take decades for the rest of the country to finish the roadside makeover. It is a slow, almost imperceptible process. But eventually the entire country could be looking at Clearview.
The typeface is the brainchild of Don Meeker, an environmental graphic designer, and James Montalbano, a type designer. They set out to fix a problem with a highway font, and their solution — more than a decade in the making — may end up changing a lot more than just the view from the dashboard. Less than a generation ago, fonts were for the specialist, an esoteric pursuit, what Stanley Morison, the English typographer who helped create Times New Roman in the 1930s, called “a minor technicality of civilized life.” Now, as the idea of branding has claimed a central role in American life, so, too, has the importance and understanding of type. Fonts are image, and image is modern America....
Meeker initially assumed that the solution to the nation’s highway sign problem lay in the clean utilitarian typefaces of Europe. One afternoon in the late fall of 1992, Meeker was sitting in his Larchmont office with a small team of designers and engineers. He suggested that the group get away from the computer screens and out of the office to see what actually worked in the open air at long distances. They grabbed all the roadsigns Meeker had printed — nearly 40 metal panels set in a dozen different fonts of varying weights — and headed across the street to the Larchmont train station, where they rested the signs along a railing. They then hiked to the top of a nearby hill. When they stopped and turned, they were standing a couple hundred feet from the lineup below. There was the original Highway Gothic; British Transport, the road typeface used in the United Kingdom; Univers, found in the Paris Metro and on Apple computer keyboards; DIN 1451, used on road and train signage in Germany; and also Helvetica, the classic sans-serif seen in modified versions on roadways in a number of European countries. “There was something wrong with each one,” Meeker remembers. “Nothing gave us the legibility we were looking for.” The team immediately realized that it would have to draw something from scratch.
Well, I do find font discussion entertaining. Speaking of, am about halfway through Michael Bierut's book, and am enjoying it immensely. If you found the above article at all interesting, you'd probably like this book too, even though fonts are only one aspect of design covered by Mr. Bierut.
“Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design” (Michael Bierut)
I could eat salmon twice a week, or more, if I was more creative with my recipes. However, I've never seen (nor tasted) Yukon king, yet.
Spawn Fishing - New York Times:
Alaskans have long appreciated subtle distinctions between, say, a Kenai sockeye and a Yukon king, we in the lower 48 tend to call it all just “salmon.” Thanks to a growing effort to market salmon by region — in particular, by Whole Foods in the Northwest — this may soon change.
By far the most promising variety starting to trickle toward us is the fish pursued by Waska and his clan: the Yukon king. A salmon’s taste and texture is largely determined by its fat content, and in this quality the Yukon king is truly king. Salmon cease feeding when they enter fresh water, and the longer their migration, the greater their fat reserve has to be. Yukon kings typically have to travel up to 2,000 miles to reach spawning grounds, far longer than even the famous Copper River kings.
http://alaskaseafoodharvesters.com/ has some available.
Follow up on the recently debated farm bill. Corn subsidies, for instance, are killing us, slowly. The omnibus bill only comes up every seven years, so there's a lot of pressure to dole out the cash to the loudest lobbyists. U.S. taxpayers handed out over $131,000,000,000 since 2000. That's a lot of corn, ethanol, and houses in the Hamptons for ADM executives.
Unlikely allies take aim at federal farm subsidies -- chicagotribune.com:
The 742 pages of the 2007 farm bill address everything from land conservation and food stamps to school snacks and foreign aid.
But in Congress, the farm bill is really about just two things: politics and money.
And when the House passed the legislation recently, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said advocates of long-awaited changes -- like cutting the $26 billion that goes to direct payments for farmers -- were pushing too hard.
... The House bill passed last month despite withering criticism of the subsidies from analysts, activists and even from within government, including President Bush.Recent news reports have highlighted how wealthy landowners have received annual six-figure government checks. Recipients included Texas oil billionaire Lee Bass and former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen, who like many on the payment list are landowners, not working farmers.
Back in the 1930s, and even in the 1940s, farm subsidies made sense. I'm not sure they do anymore.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who co-authored an amendment to cut subsidies, said the payments have strayed wildly from their original purpose. “If you're going to go back to this populist idea that farm subsidies are here because we need them to keep small farmers from going under and provide some sort of safety net, then we ought to be making it into a safety net and helping those who really need it,” Flake said.The most far-reaching reform plan in the Senate comes from [Indiana Senator Richard] Lugar, who wants to kill direct and counter-cyclical payments and replace them with an insurance plan that he contends would protect 85 percent of all farmers from loss. Under the Lugar plan, farmers could also contribute to an IRA-type account to guard against losses.
[Illinois Senator Richard] Durbin also would replace the counter-cyclical payments. His plan calls for farmers to use private crop insurance on the state level, and he would calculate payments based on revenue and not just crop price.
Ha, too much money is at stake to make drastic change. Those that have gotten rich will continue, and our national health will continue to atrophy, and pundits will continue to wring their hands. Yadda yadda.
More on this wine restriction ridiculousness.
Wine Spectator | Articles | Illinois Wine Direct-Shipping Bill Passes to Cheers—and Jeers : Wine lovers in Illinois have bittersweet feelings after the passage of House Bill 429 through both chambers of the state legislature this week. The bill, which awaits the signature of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, will allow direct shipments to consumers from in- and out-of-state wineries alike—but will end direct-to-consumer shipments from out-of-state retailers to Illinois residents. Consumers have been permitted to order and receive wine shipments from out-of-state retailers since 1992.“The bottom line is that residents of the state will have less access to wine than they have had until now. This bill is blatantly anti-consumer and anti-constitutional,” said Tom Wark, executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association in Sacramento, Calif.
Previously, Illinois had so-called reciprocal shipping laws, meaning that consumers could receive wine shipments from other states’ wineries so long as those states accepted shipments from Illinois wineries. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that states must treat in- and out-of-state wineries equally, and while the ruling did not directly affect Illinois, the court's wording indicated that reciprocal laws could be discriminatory as well since they don't allow shipments from all states
...
Corbin Houchins, a Seattle-based attorney who has a national practice in alcoholic-beverage issues, believes the retailers’ association “may be able to make a case for unjust discrimination,” he explained. “The state will have to prove that this retail ban is justified.”
Even Illinois-based retailers were quick to criticize the new bill, despite the fact that they stand to benefit from decreased competition. “It amazes me that you can buy a gun or even a bride over the Internet, but you can’t buy a bottle of wine in many states,” said Brian Rosen, president and CEO of retailer Sam’s Wines & Spirits. Sam's clocks some $10 million of its $70 million in annual sales over the Internet, with much of that volume registered outside the state. “If retail shipments can be banned here, then maybe they’ll be banned tomorrow in California. We may wake up one day to find we can ship wine legally to Moline, Ill., and no place else.”
Sam’s is a member of the SWRA and is contributing to legal funds challenging shipping bans.
Emanuel “Manny” Berk, the owner and president of the Rare Wine Co. in Sonoma, Calif., counts Illinois among his four most important customer states. But it looks like he'll have to write it off altogether, as he has no plans to set up a retail storefront in Illinois. “That's not practical,” he said. If he were to do so, Rare Wine would then have to ship wines through wholesalers in Illinois, who would add their usual 20 to 25 percent margin, making Rare Wine's prices too high.
Gee, you think there was a payoff involved?
The bill had support from a wide range of special interests, including the California Wine Institute, which represents California wineries, as well as the Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois. Since 2000, according to campaign contribution reports, Illinois distributors of alcohol have donated $5.4 million to Illinois politicians. No other state in the country has recorded liquor-related donations surpassing that total in the same time.
Technorati Tags: Chicago, idiots, weasel_Democrats, wine
I have ordered wine from Wine.com before: what was the harm (other than slightly more expensive bottles than my local wine shop)? Now that I think of it, I've ordered a case or two from other wineries as well, without the universe collapsing. Why was this stupid bill even brought up? Shouldn't trade barriers between states be lowered, not increased? Apparently, Wisconsin is considering a similar bill: what is wrong with these people?
Gapers Block Presents: Drive-Thru, a Chicago food site:
HB429, a bill that prohibits Illinois residents from purchasing or receiving wine from out-of-state retailers, passed both houses yesterday. While it mostly affects high level collectors who purchase Bordeaux futures and very rare wines from stores in New York and California, casual wine lovers will feel the pain as well. Most California “wine of the month club” memberships will now be illegal. A thoughtful friend in another state can no longer go to their local wine store and send you a gift of Champagne for your birthday. Dean and Deluca may not include a bottle of wine in the gift baskets you order for an Illinois client. All of your wine purchases must now be made through an Illinois retailer.
Don't the Illinois legislators have anything better to do with their time? Isn't there a budget crisis??!! [rhetorical question, there is a threat of an Illinois government shut down]
Wait, didn't the Supreme Court ruling of a couple years ago preclude these barriers?
Wine lovers may buy directly from out-of-state vineyards, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, striking down laws banning a practice that has flourished because of the Internet and growing popularity of winery tours.The 5-4 decision overturns laws in New York and Michigan that make it a crime to buy wine directly from vineyards in another state. In all, 24 states have laws that bar interstate shipments.
Free The Grapes has a petition - I'm signing it on principle.
A wine war is pitting consumers - who want the option to purchase wines directly from wineries and retailers - against the wine wholesaler cartel, who are threatening consumers and winemakers with jail time if they bypass the middlemen.
and
Despite widespread support for legal, regulated direct-to-consumer wine shipments by the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal Trade Commission and state alcohol regulators, consumers in 17 states are still prohibited by state law from ordering and receiving wines directly from out-of-state wineries. Additionally, only a dozen states allow shipments to consumers from out-of-state retailers. We believe that consumers, not wine wholesaler middlemen, should determine which wines they can enjoy and how they purchase them, by Internet, telephone or newsletter. Model direct shipping legislation is working successfully in many states, providing additional tax revenues, preventing underage access, and satisfying consumer demand in a dynamic marketplace. Contact your state legislators today and urge them to oppose archaic, protectionist prohibitions on interstate wine shipments, and to support positive legislation that serves consumers, state governments and regulatory agencies. Simply type in your home zip code above and follow the simple instructions. Thank you for helping us Free the Grapes! Tell other friends to help Free the Grapes! by joining our email list!
Technorati Tags: idiots, Supreme Court, wine
Slowly, as if in some Philip K Dick-scripted passion play, our planet is filling up with permanent garbage, like plastic bags and other indestructible, deleterious material. Will we ever have the intestinal fortitude to alter our society's addiction to plastic bags? I wonder. Recycling bags is a joke, without incentives for consumers to change ingrained habits, plastic bags will continue to pile up until we (or our progeny) is waist-deep in the waste.
Plastic bags are killing us | Salon News:
The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. They're made from petroleum or natural gas with all the attendant environmental impacts of harvesting fossil fuels. One recent study found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin. Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they've been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It's equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil.
Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide -- about 2 percent in the U.S. -- and the rest, when discarded, can persist for centuries. They can spend eternity in landfills, but that's not always the case. “They're so aerodynamic that even when they're properly disposed of in a trash can they can still blow away and become litter,” says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. It's as litter that plastic bags have the most baleful effect. And we're not talking about your everyday eyesore.
Once aloft, stray bags cartwheel down city streets, alight in trees, billow from fences like flags, clog storm drains, wash into rivers and bays and even end up in the ocean, washed out to sea. Bits of plastic bags have been found in the nests of albatrosses in the remote Midway Islands. Floating bags can look all too much like tasty jellyfish to hungry marine critters. According to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic. The conservation group estimates that 50 percent of all marine litter is some form of plastic. There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. In the Northern Pacific Gyre, a great vortex of ocean currents, there's now a swirling mass of plastic trash about 1,000 miles off the coast of California, which spans an area that's twice the size of Texas, including fragments of plastic bags. There's six times as much plastic as biomass, including plankton and jellyfish, in the gyre. “It's an endless stream of incessant plastic particles everywhere you look,” says Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of education and research for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which studies plastics in the marine environment. “Fifty or 60 years ago, there was no plastic out there.”Following the lead of countries like Ireland, Bangladesh, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan, some U.S. cities are striking back against what they see as an expensive, wasteful and unnecessary mess. This year, San Francisco and Oakland outlawed the use of plastic bags in large grocery stores and pharmacies, permitting only paper bags with at least 40 percent recycled content or otherwise compostable bags.
(Read the entire article after watching some animated asses smile)
Technorati Tags: environment, Green, pollution
random visit to through my Flickr archive yielded this favorite of mine
Kudos to Sister Patricia Daley, for holding ExxonMobil's hand and forcing a discussion of climate change.
Resolved: Public Corporations Shall Take Us Seriously - New York Times:
Daly’s order, the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell, N.J., owns about 300 of the 5.5 billion Exxon Mobile shares outstanding, but she has used those few shares to keep the company talking about an issue that it would just as soon ignore. In a few weeks’ time, the company’s millions of shareholders would be able to vote on a resolution she wrote, which asked ExxonMobil to set a firm date for reporting on its progress to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from both its operations and its products. The board opposed the resolution, as it did each and every one of the 20 resolutions related to climate change submitted over the past 10 years but Henry [who is Henry? I'm guessing VP Investor Relations and Secretary, Henry H. Hubble, who has worked for Exxon since 1975, back when climate change science was something you didn't discuss at the dinner table.] wasn’t calling to debate the issue. That had already been done, ad nauseam, in countless meetings and phone calls between representatives of the company and its dissident shareholders, and it would be done again at the annual meeting on May 30. This was a courtesy call.“At one point he said, ‘Well, global warming can’t be going on because we just had an ice storm here in April,’ ” she related. “I mean, can we review that global warming means that the upper atmosphere is warming, which is creating really weird and severe climate incidents — like ice storms in Dallas in April?” She fell back in her chair, clutching her head in astonishment.
I wonder if Henry is willfully ignorant, or just obtuse.
these days, corporations are increasingly judged not only by their quarterly earnings but also by their commitment to social and environmental values, and by governance standards like openness and accountability. By these standards, ExxonMobil is a mess. The company retains a reputation for environmental skullduggery that dates from the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. Its skeptical stance on global warming has earned it the disapprobation of everyone from the Royal Society, Britain’s premier scientific academy, to Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller. The company is known to be insular and hostile to the press (its representatives declined to be formally interviewed for this article), and its rumored and oft-denied participation in Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force did nothing to increase its popularity.As a result, ExxonMobil has the dubious distinction of outperforming the competition in both the size of its shareholder dividends and the intensity of its shareholder discontent. This year, the company faced 15 separate shareholder resolutions — many more than most companies in the nation — on topics that include executive compensation and shareholder rights as well as global warming. For Daly, who has spent 30 years persuading companies like Dow, General Electric, Nestlé, Ford, Pepsi and General Motors to do things they didn’t want to do, ExxonMobil is the great white whale of multinational corporations, unparalleled in size, power and elusiveness. “I’ve never worked with a company this long with so little progress,” she says.
Oh, Henry is David Henry. Somebody needs to edit this article.
It’s fair to ask, of course, if shareholder activists are promoting interest-group politics or economic goals when they ask companies to take action on global warming. While environmentalists have long framed the issue in terms like “the health of the planet” or “the future of our children,” activists like Daly now talk about “risk” and “long-term profitability.” Their argument goes like this: climate change poses an enormous risk to nearly every sector of the economy. It is therefore prudent to plan for both its environmental impacts and the inevitable regulatory constraints that are coming.Daly does have a vested interest in keeping ExxonMobil profitable — her own retirement depends on it. But her approach is undoubtedly a rhetorical strategy as much as a financial one; return on investment isn’t what keeps her on the phone with people like David Henry. “In any conversation with a company,” she admits, “it’s clear that I’m there because of a faith commitment.”
Technorati Tags: climate_change, global_warming, ExxonMobil, Science
Ted Rall on the strange phenomenon of those Democrats who seem to be more apt to side with the Republicans over their own constituents.
Ted Rall - Editorial and Political Cartoons, Comic Strips:
Technorati Tags: cartoon, comic, Democrats, Republicans
SBC is a big Bush donor, hmmmm, wonder if that has anything to do with the censorship?
Pearl Jam not first to be censored by AT&T :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Jim DeRogatis:
AT&T’s controversial edit of comments about President Bush from a Webcast of Pearl Jam’s performance at Lollapalooza last week was not the first time the telecommunications giant has silenced political statements by musicians.
An AT&T spokeswoman initially characterized the sudden audio edit that silenced Eddie Vedder’s lyrics “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush, find yourself another home” during Pearl Jam’s performance in Grant Park last Sunday as “an unfortunate mistake” and “an isolated incident.”
But yesterday, a reader e-mailed the Sun-Times saying AT&T’s Blue Room Webcast also had silenced comments during two performances at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee last June, cutting remarks by the John Butler Trio bemoaning the lack of federal response to Hurricane Katrina and comments about Bush and the war in Iraq by singer Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips.
“The sound did not cut out at any other time — only when someone was talking about George Bush or the government in a negative way,” the reader, who identified herself as Andrea K., wrote. Flaming Lips management said the band was unaware of the edit but was investigating, and the John Butler Trio could not be reached.But AT&T did confirm that other, unspecified political comments have been cut from its Webcasts.
From Pearl Jam's web site:
After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the “Blue Room” Live Lollapalooza Webcast.When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.
During the performance of “Daughter” the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's “Another Brick in the Wall” but were cut from the webcast:
- “George Bush, leave this world alone.” (the second time it was sung); and
- “George Bush find yourself another home.”
This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media.
AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media.
Aspects of censorship, consolidation, and preferential treatment of the internet are now being debated under the umbrella of “NetNeutrality.” Check out The Future of Music or Save the Internet for more information on this issue.
Most telecommunications companies oppose “net neutrality” and argue that the public can trust them not to censor..
Even the ex-head of AT&T, CEO Edward Whitacre, whose company sponsored our troubled webcast, stated just last March that fears his company and other big network providers would block traffic on their networks are overblown.
“Any provider that blocks access to content is inviting customers to find another provider.” (Marguerite Reardon, Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: March 21, 2006, 2:23 PM PST).
But what if there is only one provider from which to choose?
If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance -not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations - fans have little choice but to watch the censored version.
What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.
Video here, if you are interested:
More details here
Technorati Tags: censorship, Chicago, net_neutrality, Telecom, YouTube
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why do people still use internet exploder?
Something is going on here, but I'm not sure what. I'm inherently suspicious of the motives of the FTC in the best of circumstances.
FTC Issues Subpoenas to Food Marketers:
The Federal Trade Commission today said it has issued subpoenas to 44 food and beverage companies for a report it is preparing on marketing to kids.
Burger King, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Dole, Kellogg, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Wendy's, McDonald's, Kraft and Mars, among others, were called to disclose how much they spend to reach young people through paid media and to provide specific information about their marketing practices.
... In June, Kellogg made headlines, and brought into question the fate of ad icons like Tony the Tiger, by disclosing that by the end of 2008 it would no longer advertise cereals that don't meet self-imposed health standards to children under 12.Kellogg also said it would limit licensing agreements with outside partners. Other strategies include changing product Web sites to foster more parental involvement and a timer limiting kids to 15 minutes before encouraging them to log off.
In 2006, two children's advocacy groups—the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood—and two parents filed a lawsuit against Kellogg and Viacom. Of particular concern to the groups was advertising on cable networks like Nickelodeon and related magazines and licensed products. As a result of the changes, the suit was dropped.
Technorati Tags: FTC, health, advertising
Facts are dangerous items, part the 45654th.
Good thing we went to Alaska when we did, right?
Analysts See ‘Simply Incredible’ Shrinking of Floating Ice in the Arctic:
The area of floating ice in the Arctic has shrunk more this summer than in any other summer since satellite tracking began in 1979, and it has reached that record point a month before the annual ice pullback typically peaks, experts said yesterday.
The cause is probably a mix of natural fluctuations, like unusually sunny conditions in June and July, and long-term warming from heat-trapping greenhouse gases and sooty particles accumulating in the air
...
Dr. Serreze said that a high-pressure system parked over the Arctic appeared to have caused a “triple whammy” — keeping away clouds, causing winds to carry warm air north and pushing sea ice away from Siberia, exposing huge areas of open water.The progressive summertime opening of the Arctic has intensified a longstanding international tug of war over shipping routes and possible oil and gas deposits beneath the Arctic Ocean seabed.
By natural, does Andrew Revkin (who wrote this brief article) mean humanity had nothing to do with the hotter-than-normal summer? Or what?
Technorati Tags: climate_change, global_warming, Alaska
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excellent. Looking forward to playing/using this, later this week
Significant money is at stake.
Coffee then Wine, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
My evening is mapped out.
The joy of being a small business owner: I get to put on my lawyer hat, and pore over several hundred emails to settle a looming contract dispute, hopefully without involvement of licensed attorneys. At least I have air conditioning. And coffee. And wine!
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"The cocaine bit was rubbish. I said I chopped him up like cocaine, not with" LOL
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I wish I could go to this. If you are in the LA area, consider it!
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still no real evidence, and yet....
44 as of this morning. About 15 of these are new to Flickr Explore.
When I got nothin', I check Flickr scout, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
1. Any Porthole in a Storm, 2. Surgeon of Fades, 3. CTA streaker, 4. Gone Away, 5. Danger! Sound Horn, 6. No More Number 3, 7. Take Your Stand, 8. Circles and Squares,
9. After You've Gone, 10. Odds and Ends infrared, 11. Designated Bird Feeding Area, 12. Station hopping shuffle, 13. It's all in the Motion, 14. Winter, Oh Winter, 15. Drink Up, 16. Chicago at Night,
17. giraffe delivery, 18. Rookery, 19. Flavin yellowizer, 20. Flavin triangle, 21. Ladybug Cow (aka Cowccinella Novemnotata), climbing the wall of the Talbott, 22. Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, 23. Sale of Art to Minors, 24. Loneliness is an ATM,
25. Captains of Industry, 26. snow_streets, 27. Broadway Cleaners (sign only - business defunct), 28. Top of the World, 29. Tizzi, 30. Before the Rain blues, 31. ice satellites of love, 32. Stinky Panties,
33. propaganda, 34. curbs, 35. wired_rip_sampler, 36. Haymarket, 37. Fire Hydrant, 38. Flashless wonder, 39. Venetian Night fireworks, 40. Venetian4,
41. Venetian6, 42. Venetian3, 43. Venetian5, 44. Lake Street El to somewhere else
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine has a pretty active blog called No Comment: several quality posts a day usually. I've been meaning to link to No Comment before, but yesterday's post re: Newt Gingrich admitting the War on Terra is a hoax practically begs to receive a wider audience.
As the cliché goes: The War on on a Noun would be funny, if it wasn't so tragic.
“Gingrich: War on Terror is Phony” by Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine):It’s reassuring, isn’t it, to learn that at an insiders’ conference of young conservative activists, former House Speaker and G.O.P. presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich is spreading the word that the Bush Administration’s war on terror is a sham, and that the current struggle is all really just about oil
... Reading these remarks brought two scenes into my mind. The first was from a recent conference I attended in Italy with a group of European and American counterterrorism experts. A large team of U.S. Department of Justice officials, drawn from its uppermost echelons, was there, including three of the principal architects of the legal policies for the war on terror. In not-for-attribution comments, one openly acknowledged that the war on terror was cast in the first instance as a political ploy and that it was a conceptual failure. It was now essential for the Americans to move on to something else, he argued. None of the others challenged that view; indeed, two of them said that they agreed with it. So even inside of the Bush Administration, the war on terror has been written off as a scam that served its limited political purpose and is finished. However, this intellectual refuse continues to be the policy of the U.S. government: people suffer in prison and are tortured and abused because of it. That’s intellectual bankruptcy.
Read more here, and more entries here
Technorati Tags: Bush, Impeachment, incompetence, terrorism
“The Wire - The Complete Second Season” (Daniel Attias)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Street Gangs (But Didnt Know Whom to Ask) - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog:
Q: Do you think the HBO series The Wire gives an accurate portrayal of gang life? It is clear from the show (if it is as real as it seems) that traditional policing strategies are very ineffective.
A: I am a huge fan of The Wire. I actually watched Season Two with a group of high ranking gang leaders/drug dealers in Chicago, who desperately wished that the series producers would make a separate show about Chicago! Everyone in the room agreed that the writers did well to show the nuances in the underground economy.
Technorati Tags: Chicago, drugs, underground_economy
No doubt, after an undeserved long vacation (hey, I don't get one, why should my representative?), Congress will come back to Washington, and find they have work to do. Wait, let me get out my violin, and uncork a bottle of whine.
Hurdles Await Congress After Recess - WSJ.com:
Congress's Democratic majority made major strides toward implementing its domestic agenda before going home, but will face a large hurdle when lawmakers return at summer's end: President Bush.
Farm, lobbying reform, energy, education and child health insurance bills all advanced in a volatile 10-day march before the recess, establishing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a legislative player. “She was Jaws,” joked Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.) after watching the speaker move around the House floor rounding up votes for the energy bill, her “flagship” priority.
But in the rush to adjourn, Republican anger erupted over a miscalled, late-night House vote. And come September, Democrats dread the prospect of reconciling a dozen spending measures, most of which face veto threats from the president. “I'm waiting for August never to end,” sighed Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.).
The war's impact is twofold. Mr. Bush's fall in the polls because of the war appears to have fed his desire for a confrontation over spending to shore up his support on the right. “He's desperate for a fight,” said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic caucus.
At the same time, the emotions stirred by Iraq -- and antiwar pressures from the left -- lead Democrats to be more confrontational with the president even when they know they need to find compromises on domestic issues.
“It's a split screen,” admits Mr. Emanuel, who served in the Clinton White House.
With a new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, all these forces will come to bear quickly next month. Before adjourning early yesterday morning, the House approved a $459.6 billion Pentagon budget that will be a major bargaining chip as Democrats try to hold on to an estimated $22 billion that they have added to the president's spending requests for domestic agencies
Technorati Tags: Congress
As Brad DeLong always keeps saying: Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, Impeach them now!!
If you missed the PBS's Bill Moyers Journal impeachment special, I think you can watch it online still, here, transcript here, and some historical perspective of impeachment here.
John Nichols writes about his experience (and I'm quoting him in full, hope he doesn't mind):
Impeachable Offenses:
Recently PBS's Bill Moyers Journal devoted a full hour to the subject of impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney--the first such attention by a national network. The remarkable thing about the response was not its size or intensity. After visiting more than a dozen states to address the issue, I have come to understand the depth of the public's desire for accountability. But it was only after Moyers invited conservative legal scholar Bruce Fein and me to lay out not merely the specific grounds for impeachment but the historical rationale for applying the “heroic medicine”--the Founders' preferred cure for a constitutional crisis--that I fully understood the extent to which Americans recognize that this is about a lot more than the high crimes and misdemeanors of a regal President and his monarchical Vice President. The stakes are enormous: If Bush and Cheney are not held accountable, this Administration will hand off to its successors a toolbox of powers greater than any executive has ever held--more authority, concentrated in fewer hands, than the Founders could have conceived or would have allowed.
Among the thousands of responses after the program aired in mid-July, there was a steady theme: This is no longer a partisan issue. Inside the Beltway, the calculus these days rarely gets beyond the next election; but outside it there are tens of millions of Americans worried about the next generation--indeed, about the fate of the Republic. To be sure, there are Bush haters among their number, fierce partisans who--in an echo of the Republicans who a decade ago went after Bill Clinton--have adopted a “by any means necessary” approach to the goal of cutting short the Bush/Cheney tenure. But the national conversation in which we engaged after the Moyers program aired suggested that they are a minority of the 54 percent of Americans who tell pollsters it's time to open impeachment hearings on Cheney's misdeeds, and the only slightly smaller number who favor the process for Bush.
The Washington elites still try to dismiss the impeachment movement as an ill-considered reflexive reaction to a President Americans don't like and a Vice President they fear--or, worse yet, as some sort of partisan payback. But the plain truth is that most of those who responded to the Moyers discussion recognize that the point of impeachment is not the transitory crimes of small men but the long-term definition of great offices. Fein, an official in the Reagan Justice Department, and I come from different points on the ideological spectrum, but we agree that the Founders intended impeachment less as a punishment for officeholders than as a protection against the dangerous expansion of executive authority. If abuse of the system of checks and balances, lies about war, approval of illegal spying and torture, signing statements that improperly arrogate legislative powers to the executive branch, schemes to punish political foes and refusals to cooperate with Congressional inquiries are not judged as high crimes, the next President, no matter from which party, will assume the authority to exercise some or all of these illegitimate powers.
The burgeoning movement for impeachment is a rational response to a moment when polls tell us that roughly three-quarters of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. This Administration has not just let Americans down; it has frightened them. A great many understand, intuitively or explicitly, that we are experiencing a constitutional crisis and that impeachment proceedings are the proper tonic. Unfortunately, key Democrats continue to mistake the medicine for the disease. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still keeps impeachment “off the table”; she and her advisers fear that if they allow Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers to open impeachment hearings, it will rally the Republican base in defense of Bush and Cheney. History suggests she's wrong: Opposition parties that have pursued impeachment in a high-minded manner have, in every instance, maintained or improved their position in Congress and have usually won the presidency in the next election. Pelosi should step out of the way and let her colleagues restore the rule of law. More than a dozen have shown their desire to do so by co-sponsoring Representative Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment against Cheney.
Clearly, impeachment is not just around the corner; even Senator Russ Feingold's “relatively modest response” to the crisis--censure resolutions against Bush and Cheney--faces an uphill struggle. At this late stage, it will be difficult to turn the need for accountability into action on Capitol Hill. But even an impeachment effort that falls short lays down a historical marker; it tells Bush and Cheney and all those who succeed them that an executive branch that imagines itself superior to Congress and the rule of law will arouse popular fury.
George Bush, it is said, has begun to worry about his legacy. The rest of us should, too. No matter how unsuccessful we may think his tenure has been, it will leave a mark on the Republic. If that mark is of a presidency without limit or accountability, Bush and Cheney will have changed the country far more fundamentally than any of their predecessors.
Does Karl Rove have compromising photos of Nancy Pelosi? Or is she just so tone-deaf to us commoners that she thinks “taking impeachment off the table” is a good thing?
Technorati Tags: GWB, Impeachment
random journey through my Flickr archive, part 3421
