Miasma in the House of Bite Me
Grassroots journalism & current events, cyberculture, technology, privacy, with a little new criticism, feminism, postmodernism, radical pedagogy, & new media theory thrown in.
I'm hearing it's already in the works, cuz the new "free" press isn't reporting what the US govt wants it to. There also seems to be a "problem" with Shiite imams speaking too freely, not saying stuff the US likes...
Miasma
You report, we kill you. Turning the tanks on the reporters The Observer's Phillip Knightley writes that Iraq will go down as the war when journalists seemed to become a target. Predicted here, discussed "in progress" here. The BBC, Al-Jazeera, and the US Committee to Protect Journalists thought it prudent to find out from the Pentagon what steps they could take to protect their correspondents if war came to Iraq... All three organisations concluded that the Pentagon was determined to deter western correspondents from reporting any war from the 'enemy' side; would view such journalism in Iraq as activity of 'military significance', and might well bomb the area. [MetaFilter]
Your ass is the airlines' business. A UK defense-lab is developing "smart" airline seats that attempt to make guesses about your terroristic propensity (and your likelihood of a thrombosis) by monitoring your buttular activity while you're flying.
The seats will contain a thicket of pressure sensors that will relay signals to a central computer to assess the seat occupant's behaviour. Are they asleep? Motionless for too long? Jumpy? Qinetiq designer Chris Thorpe says the system could have a display that is only accessible to the cabin crew - perhaps in the galley - to warn if a passenger's behaviour is out of the ordinary.
If they have been asleep or sitting still too long, say, a "DVT Warning" might flash beneath the passenger's seat number, and a crew member could prompt the passenger to take a walk around the plane.
Blogstumping: presidential candidate Howard Dean's weblog. Democratic presidential candidate and former Vermont governor Howard Dean is campaigning by way of "the Howard Dean Blog" and a site called "Blog For America." He's also using Meetup forums to organize local supporters. This is the first example I've seen of blogs being used in a significant way in a presidential campaign. It's nice to see that the former governor has taken care to carry on one of the blogosphere's longstanding traditions -- blogging about the details of what you ate today. Here's the July 12 "blogforamerica.com" entry from the Manchester, New Hampshire campaign trail stop:
It has been a fun day already and the day is not even half over! This morning I drove down from Vermont to meet Gov. Dean. (The Gov. came down yesterday for his son's hockey tournament). The drive down was exciting. Tricia Enright, Bob Rogan, Tom McMahon and I drove down together. Joe Trippi met us in Manchester. (Since the Gov. is rarely in Vermont, we have to meet where he is!). We met the Gov. at lunch time and some very nice people let us join their office picnic lunch: barbeque, corn, baked beans, corn bread and the Gov's favorite strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.
As I write this, my colleagues have headed by to Vermont, leaving the Gov. and me to finish the day in NH. We have a meet the candidate reception and a health care forum before we are done for the day. Tomorrow we're off to Chicago and Wisconsin! (I want to apologize to my friends in South Carolina for not blogging about our trip. My office mates forgot to tell me how to get on the new blog! So, South Carolina, it was a great visit. Thank you!)
The Karma of Literature... BookCrossing.com