One Canuck's Radio WeblogA 'news items' 'clipping service' for myself and anyone else who's interested |
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30/1/2006; 6:45:23 |
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"This terrible panic that has seized Toronto is leaving the popular impression that the SARS outbreak is growing and it's spreading in the community ? nothing could be further from the truth," Schabas, chief of staff at York Central Hospital in nearby Richmond Hill, said in an interview today.' They took part in a conference call today with Health Canada officials and counterparts at the WHO. At the end, they barely attempted to contain their contempt for the way the organization made its decision or the facts upon which it was grounded. "It was disappointing that they didn't provide to us rational arguments as to why we should have a travel ban in this country," said Dr. Donald Low, one of Canada's leading infectious disease experts and a vocal critic of the decision. "And when we argued about the theoretical reasons, they weren't able to stand by them. . . . None of the arguments that they have hold water." [...] There hasn't been a new case found in the community - in other words, outside of health-care workers and the workers' close contacts - in 19 days. That's almost two incubation periods. The WHO appeared to be unaware of that fact, Low noted.' I live and work in downtown Toronto. Since the SARS outbreak I've seen exactly one person wearing a mask. This was a kid on a field trip with his class in an auditorium with 3 thousand other kids from around the city. Nobody who lives here is freaking out about it. It's astounding then, to turn on the tv and see tourists at the airport wearing masks cutting their vacations to Toronto short. Hello? The panic is worse than the reality of the situation. .< 11:10:29 PM  >CBC News:Authors gather for Frye festival 'More than 40 authors from around the world have flocked to Moncton to discuss literature and celebrate the legacy of one of the foremost literary critics of the 20th century.' .< 11:06:26 PM >CBC News: Health Canada protests WHO travel advisory 'Health Canada has demanded that the World Health Organization immediately take back its advisory against travelling to Toronto, officials said on Thursday.' .< 2:19:47 PM >The Decline of Sex Science and the Decline of Society The New York Times reports that scientists who study sexual diseases have been advised by federal officials to avoid certain dangerous words in their grant applications: The scientists, who spoke on condition they not be identified, say they have been advised they can avoid unfavorable attention by keeping certain "key words" out of their applications for grants from the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those words include "sex workers," "men who sleep with men," "anal sex" and "needle exchange," the scientists said. Just an isolated incident? Hard to believe without named sources? Viewing this incident in its cultural history makes it very easy to believe, and very discomforting. We are frequently told that, as a society, we know everything there is to know about sex. In reality, this knowledge is sparse and deliberately suppressed. Acting upon it is key to solving our most pressing problems. [Kuro5hin.org] .< 2:18:35 PM >The Guardian: EMI to sell music... The Guardian: EMI to sell music downloads. Under the deal, consumers will be able to make permanent copies of songs and transfer them to recordable CDs, portable music players and their hard drives. Consumers can also purchase singles online once they hit the radio airwaves. [Tomalak's Realm] .< 2:12:41 PM >Apple Update: AppleWorks 6.2.7, AirPort 3.0.4 Apple finally posts the AppleWorks 6.2.7 updater for Mac OS X, while two versions of AirPort 3.0.4 include better base station firmware. [MacInTouch] .< 2:12:24 PM >BW Online | April 23, 2003 | Steve, Steer Clear of Universal Music 'Besides, in my opinion, Apple is on the verge of a break-out quarter, with or without a music division in its future. A much-anticipated new line of chips should breathe new life into Apple desktop sales later this summer. And when graphic design and publishing program Quark finally comes out with an OS X version in the next few months, the pent-up demand for new Apple products in the creative sector could produce a surge in revenues. So looking to the music business for growth seems like an odd strategic move to me.' Good article. I agree with the main points. I don't think Apple's going to go there. They just wanted to give the tree a vigourous shake and point out that they were going to be a player in the music industry. .< 2:03:27 PM >Other News: Henry Norr Fired The San Francisco Chronicle fired Henry Norr after his participation in an antiwar protest, but he's fighting back. [MacInTouch] Unbelievable. Home of the free? .< 2:02:06 PM >MacNN | News: Audio application crashes noted by Apple 'Apple says that "an audio application may unexpectedly quit when you disconnect or turn off a USB- or FireWire-based audio device.' Save your work before disconnecting. .< 1:59:16 PM >Use a Mail.app rule to stop Far East spam In the last few months, I've been receiving a heap of spam from China. Luckily, I've found a way to identify mail in Mail.app with that character set so that it can be marked as junk. To do this:Select Mail -> Preferences -... [macosxhints] Probably of no use in fighting SARS . . . .< 1:55:11 PM >USATODAY.com - Apple readies music service 'Though Apple declined to comment before the announcement, those who have used the new service say it's as easy as buying a book on Amazon.com. Recommendations based on listeners' preferences are plentiful; the system seamlessly interplays with Apple's free iTunes jukebox software and with the iPod.' I can't wait to see what they've come up with. .< 1:44:40 PM >MediaGuardian.co.uk | Press&publishing | Deep Throat unmasked after 31 years 'Bill Gaines, Professor of journalism at the University of Illinois, who led the four-year study by a team of 60 student researchers, claimed Mr Fielding fits all the characteristics of the mystery figure who exposed President Richard Nixon's dirty tricks campaign against his political opponents.' No confirmation yet. This was a huge story when I was growing up. .< 1:42:36 PM >Pennsylvania Student Shoots Principal and Kills Self A heavily armed 14-year-old boy shot his school principal inside a crowded junior high cafeteria then killed himself, authorities said. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Learning the lessons of war. Solve your problems with violence . . it's the US American way. .< 2:35:14 AM >Children held at Guantanamo Bay World: Detention of children at US detention camp condemned as repugnant and illegal by human rights groups. [Guardian Unlimited] 'The United States and Somalia are the only member states of the United Nations no to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the US is a signatory, and thus has "an obligation not to defeat the object and purpose of the treaty," Ms Wright said. "This is clearly totally at odds with the purpose of the treaty." The precise legal ramifications are unclear, since many experts argue that the US is already in breach of international law by holding any of the detainees indefinitely without trial or charge, regardless of their ages. [...] The three boys are not the only inmates under 16 to have been brought to Guantanamo Bay. Canadian officials have been seeking for months to gain access to Omar al-Khadr, a Canadian national who they say is being held at Camp Delta after being captured on July 27 during fighting in eastern Afghanistan. He was 15 at the time, they said.' Evil doers. .< 2:33:54 AM >Fate of Prisoners From Afghan War Remains Uncertain Some 664 prisoners remain in a legal, political and geographical limbo after fifteen months of confinement in Guantánamo Bay. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] The US . . . part-time defenders of The Geneva Convention. .< 2:31:23 AM >U.S. Warns Iraqis Against Claiming Authority in Void The American military moved to strip Baghdad's self-appointed administrator of his authority and threatened arrests. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] .< 2:26:05 AM >Take Note of NoteTaker (21-Apr-2003; 19.9K) [TidBITS] 'NoteTaker is an outliner, a writing tool, a categorizer, a snippet keeper, a presentation tool, a Web site maker. It can organize your thoughts, your files, your life. Its potential seems vast, and everyone will use it differently. Remember the feeling of wild surmise when you first mentally glimpsed the possibilities of HyperCard or Apple events? NoteTaker is like that.' .< 2:24:23 AM >The Perils of Empire Eighty-six years ago, another powerful invading army had just entered Baghdad. At the same time, other divisions driving north-eastwards from Egypt were occupying Palestine. Urged on by their own strategists and intellectuals, these forces would soon advance upon Damascus. They would exercise great influence upon Iran and the Persian Gulf states. Donning the mantle of liberators, they would encourage regime change in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They would send out messages of hope that "the entire Arab world may rise once more to greatness and renown" now that its oppressors were defeated. These were folks determined to make the entire Middle East secure and stable -- a blessing to the world, no doubt, but a particular blessing to their own hegemonic nation, and that nation was Great Britain. (link)
A fascinating historical perspective and an important read. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs].< 2:22:45 AM >This Occupation is Turning into a Disaster Every aspect of today's chaos and the danger of clashes between Iraqis and their occupiers highlight the need to get a UN presence into Iraq fast. The UN should expand the oil-for-food system to head off the poverty crisis. It should appoint a UN administrator to start brokering intra-Iraqi talks and forestall US efforts to create an Iraqi government of US placemen.
One of the Pentagon's many failed predictions was that someone, if not Saddam Hussein, would surrender to US forces in the face of overwhelming US military might. Had that happened as in Japan and Nazi Germany, it could have given Washington the right of continuity which its failure to get UN backing before the attack had denied it. Instead, the postwar occupation runs counter to international law as much as the war itself. The UN has a moral obligation to take over and, hard though it will be to get it past Washington's veto, the EU states and Russia should draft a security council resolution to authorize a strong UN role as soon as possible. (link)
My concerns about the war on Iraq were always focused on what would happen after the war was over. The initial signs are not good and tend to confirm what I thought would happen. Only time will tell if I was right. I pray that I was not and that things will go better than I feared. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs].< 2:17:15 AM >Bush, Blair, and the Big Lie No one, least of all this writer, who spent a harrowing time in Iraq under Saddam's brutal, sinister, megalo-despotism, mourns him. But in their lust to invade Iraq, the Bush administration and Tony Blair deeply discredited their own nations' moral standing, credibility, and democratic ideals by outrageously misleading their own people and whipping them into mass hysteria to justify an imperial war. (link)
In this article, Eric Margolis reviews all the lies that were told by the Bush Administration and the Blair government to justify war on Iraq. It ticks me off when I'm lied to. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]Good grief. How bad is it when the right wing rag The Toronto Sun is dissing 'the war party'? Amazing. .< 2:16:32 AM >Weapons, Lies, and the United States "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." - US President George W. Bush in his March 20 ultimatum telling Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq within 48 hours or face the consequences. Four weeks, three false alarms, and one nearly successful military campaign later, the US has found no conclusive evidence of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Was America right? Was Saddam Hussein breaking sanctions and harboring dangerous chemicals and nuclear warheads? Was he willing to sell these weapons to terrorist groups like Al Quada for the right price? Maybe. Was the Bush administration and US intelligence wrong about the whole thing, using the possible existence of illegal weapons as a curtain to shield the real reason for war - (oil, revenge, keeping the American public's worries and fear safely away from the shambles that America's economy, freedom, and environmental policy has become)? [Kuro5hin.org] Missing the point here. The war was unnecessary. The weapons inspections were working. .< 2:11:11 AM >sars site SARS in the news is a weblog with an RSS feed [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] Good use of technology. .< 12:38:09 AM >Here's a milestone. Microsoft saying ,... Here's a milestone. Microsoft saying, on the record, that it is building on a UserLand spec. That's a far cry from deprived air supply. Bravo and thank you. [Scripting News] They don't specifically mention Userland on that page but they do point to them via a link to the RSS 2.0 spec. .< 12:17:01 AM >The Onion | New Fox Reality Show To Determine Ruler Of Iraq "Fox did such huge numbers with its war coverage, we figured, 'Why not find a way to keep this good thing going?'" Berman said. "I'm confident that our loyal Fox News viewers will find that reconstruction can be just as thrilling as destruction." |
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