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Monday, October 13, 2003 |
Fly Me to the Moon. Our bedraggled space programs needs a new goal: a permanent human presence on the moon. By By. [New York Times: Opinion]
Problem is, we've already dumped so
much money into the Shuttle and the Space Station, I imagine people's
appetite for spending on a moon base would be pretty short. It would
work if a bunch of countries could get together and do it, but that's
what was supposed to happen with the station, too. A moon base would be
very difficult and expensive, but really, really cool. Imagine a big
radio telescope on the far side of the moon. And a lot of the problems
solved by going living on the moon would apply to an even more
outlandish venture, trying to live on Mars. Still, the space station
and shuttle seem today like such tremendous wastes. I suppose a way to
salvage them would be to use the station as a place from which to go to
the moon.
9:24:08 PM Permalink
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The Mystery of Michelangelo's 'The Creation of Adam'
Via Goodshit comes a link to this piece on the BBC about the Sistine Chapel, and a recenlty discovered fact about the Creation of Adam portion.
Viewed purely as a singular work of art, this scene, unnamed by the
artist, is arguably one of his greatest masterpieces. Reproduced in
countless art books, posters, and postcards, it has become one of the
most well-known images in the world. And now, nearly 490 years after
Michelangelo painted it, an astonishing theory provides an entirely new
perception of the work, and perhaps an insight into the mind of its
creator.
In
the fresco traditionally called the 'Creation of Adam', but which might
be more aptly titled the 'Endowment of Adam', I believe that
Michelangelo encoded a special message.
- Frank Meshberger
An interpretation of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam Based on Neuroanatomy (JAMA 264:1837-1841, 1990)
Be sure to check out the Web Gallery of Art section on the entire fresco.
5:45:45 PM Permalink
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 . Ain't freedom great! US takes a page from Israel's how-to-occupy strategy book
US soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops by Patrick Cockburn
US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.
The stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad. Local women were yesterday busily bundling together the branches of the uprooted orange and lemon trees and carrying then back to their homes for firewood.
Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."
Other farmers said that US troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not informing on the resistance which is very active in this Sunni Muslim district.
"They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because 'you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us'." What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added. [more]
[Craig's BookNotes]
5:29:47 PM Permalink
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The Columbia Investigation
There's a good, but too short rundown of the space shuttle Columbia disaster and the investigation in the November Atlantic
magazine. As of right now, there's nothing about it on their web site
(which does, though, have an also terrific piece about the Bush
Administration's many failures),
but I highly recommend the article. There's a lot in here, but I wanted
more details all the way around. I suppose that many books are due on
the subject.
5:25:04 PM Permalink
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Did E-Vote Firm Patch Election?. Once voting machine software is certified for use in elections, no one is supposed to change the code. But a former Diebold contractor says that's exactly what happened in Georgia. By Kim Zetter. [Wired News]
5:19:38 PM Permalink
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The devils in people's arses. Roz Kaveney has penned a huge rant about Christianity and homosexuality, which goes via Japan, India, Greece and Rome before arriving here and now: If the Anglican church suppresses the idea of gay clergy, after an immense struggle, will a single starving child be saved? A single soldier disarmed? A single rich man persuaded to renounce obscene wealth?... [The Pagan Prattle Online]
5:18:48 PM Permalink
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Rush Limbaugh on Clinton's OxyContin abuse. St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan has penned a funny column on what Rush Limbaugh would have said if Bill Clinton admitted he was addicted to painkillers:
First, he says he's got back problems. So he's blaming it on that. Then he says he had surgery, but the surgery wasn't successful. So he's blaming it on the doctors. Then he says the pain medication was addictive. So he's blaming it on the pharmaceutical companies. Folks, he blames it on everybody but himself! But as long as he puts in that obligatory line about taking responsibility, that's what the liberal media are going to grab: Clinton takes full responsibility!
[Workbench]
5:16:13 PM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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