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root.cellar: ... it's turtles all the way down

root.cellar Home     root.cellar Archive

daily Sunday, May 06, 2007

ö

thanks for all the fish

So sad that it should come to this, We tried to warn you

If the Vogons make no mistake, root.cellar on the web will be gone in 3 Earth days. We aren't even packing any tuberz, taterz, rootabagerz or otherwize. Down here in the cellar, you see, under the hidden trap door, there's always been a tunnel to the ocean, and there are plenty of fish in the galaxy...
open quote So long and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you all but oh dear?

You may not share our intellect
Which might explain your disrespect
For all the natural wonders that
grow around you

So long, so long and thanks
for all the fish

The world's about to be destroyed
There's no point getting all annoyed
Lie back and let the planet dissolve

Despite those nets of tuna fleets
We thought that most of you were sweet
Especially tiny tots and your
pregnant women

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long and thanks
for all the fish


So long and thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you all but oh dear?


Despite those nets of tuna fleets
We thought that most of you were sweet
Especially tiny tots and your
pregnant women

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long and thanks
for all the fish close quote



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daily Sunday, February 25, 2007

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cogito ergo yamroot.cellar: 2,974 previous posts, may never reach 3000

In case anyone is wondering what's happened to root.cellar, with only four posts in February, and nothing since the 14th... well, I'm wondering too. It's not that I've lost interest in the things I care about, or that I'm just not keeping up. I guess it has most to do with the fact that almost all my visitors arrive by way of web image searches, and that the average visit length is only 33 seconds.

So here you go. Will I ever reach 3000 posts? Who knows?

2007/02

2007/012006/122006/112006/102006/092006/082006/072006/062006/052006/042006/032006/022006/012005/122005/112005/102005/092005/082005/072005/062005/052005/042005/032005/022005/012004/122004/112004/102004/092004/082004/072004/062004/052004/042004/032004/022004/012003/122003/112003/102003/092003/082003/072003/062003/052003/04

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daily Wednesday, February 14, 2007

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tehran kids platgroundTehran Peacetrain?
open quote These are the images from Tehran, Iran that you do not see everyday. close quote


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daily Monday, February 12, 2007

ö

natalie maines"ashamed the President is from Texas" rules Grammy awards

I've posted about the Dixie Chicks [Wikipedia] here before [Archives], and I know the Hollywood scene is very Blue, but nothing prepared me for them winning Song, Album and Record of the year - or for their dynamite live performance last night at the Grammys. I don't watch a lot of Grammys, in fact I only watched because I knew they'd be performing, but I don't remember the last time the audience was out of their seats cheering. SCREW the death threat!
open quote And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Sayin' that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I'm not ready to make nice
I'm not ready to back down close quote

Live at the Grammys (WMV or QT) but a bit grainy, at Crooks and Liars

YouTube's version of the original music video and Lyrics at LyricSpy

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daily Wednesday, February 07, 2007

ö

AIPAC logo
USS EnterpriseThose who are about to die DON'T salute you!

YouTube - AIPAC Policy Conference 2007

Nor do those who have already died or been maimed. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, before it's too damned late.

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daily Saturday, February 03, 2007

ö

Zippy's Queeg-like Dubya impressionZippy's Queeg-like Dubya impression

I must admit to needing a memory jog on Captain Queeg, so over to Wikipedia, where it all comes back, even the missing strawberries. There, I noticed this, with no link, In his column for January 8, 2006, New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman discusses the "president's Queeg-like inability to own up to mistakes." The Krugman piece is now only available to paying NYT readers, but I found a good deal of it over here.

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daily Monday, January 29, 2007

ö

trepanned skullInfo you need like a hole in the head

A Mother of a Lode:
open quote Wikipedia:Unusual articles

This page is for Wikipedians to list articles that seem a bit unusual. These articles are valuable contributions to the encyclopedia, but are somewhat odd, whimsical, or something you wouldn't expect to find in Encyclopædia Britannica. We should take special care to meet the highest standards of an encyclopedia with these articles lest they make Wikipedia appear idiosyncratic. close quote


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daily Monday, January 22, 2007

ö

impeach bush church signShould Bush be impeached? Online Poll, YES = 87%

open quote Live Vote: Should Bush be impeached? - Politics - MSNBC.com

Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 391630 responses

Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
87%

No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
4.5%

No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
6.4%

I don't know.
1.9% close quote

If you only see results, with no way to vote, turn on cookies and refresh the page.

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daily Tuesday, January 16, 2007

ö

fox news on 24 terror episodeFOX's 24 preps us for concentration camps [INFOWARS]

open quote New 24 Season Showcases Mass Terror, Concentration Camps Propaganda Keeps Being Pushed by FOX

The new season of 24... is to prepare the American people for the idea of concentration camps, detention centers and the rounding up of people in times of crisis.

The opener depicts an America besieged by mass terrorist attacks and public paranoia, with 11 cities, including New York, Atlanta, San Antonio and L.A., having been attacked in the space of a few weeks.

A Fox news broadcast pumps out on street corners and at bus stops from TV screens as the terrified public are urged to report anyone they consider suspicious.

[...]

At a time when legislation such as The Military Commissions Act is setting the precedent for the detention of American citizens, 24 serves as the perfect dose of fear-mongering propaganda to get the people to accept such attacks upon the fabric of freedom and to "just get used to it".

Thus when real attacks are carried out some will not be alarmed to see detention camps being used because they have already witnessed the scenario played out before their very eyes.

[...]

... the Alternet website put together an alarming report that collated all the latest information on plans to initiate internment of political subversives and Muslims after the next major terror attack in the U.S.. more close quote

This INFOWARS page has a bunch of 24 episode clips from YouTube. Good night and good luck.

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daily Sunday, January 14, 2007

ö

iran on world map"how smart Americans actually are" - No Wonder

open quote Chaser boy Julian Morrow [Wikipedia], discovers how smart Americans actually are. And, uh, in case anyone is confused - that's not the Australian prime minister. close quote

And, uh, in case anyone thinks Idiocracy is too far-fetched.

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daily Saturday, January 13, 2007

ö

bush and cheneySurge and Mirrors - Bush's Last Stand

open quote Paul Craig Roberts: Surge and Mirrors: What Bush Really Said

Bush's "surge" speech is a hoax, but members of Congress and media commentators are discussing the surge as if it were real.

I invite the reader to examine the speech. The "surge" content consists of nonsensical propagandistic statements. The real content of the speech is toward the end where Bush mentions Iran and Syria. more close quote

open quote Bush's Last Stand - by Justin Raimondo

We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

The last sentence ought to give us pause, because it underscores the real danger of remaining in Iraq one day longer, never mind four to six months or a year. Bush clearly sees the struggle in regional terms, and seeks to expand the conflict beyond Iraq's borders. That has always been the point of our intervention in Iraq: to establish a launching pad for the "liberation" of the Middle East.

Why else are U.S. soldiers storming the Iranian consulate in Irbil, and taking six consular personnel hostage - clearly an act of war? close quote



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daily Friday, January 12, 2007

ö

alien mantisThe aliens are in our brains [MetaFilter]

open quote DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, is a powerful hallucinogenic that can be found in living matter, including the human pineal gland. Small quantities of DMT are released during REM sleep. In 1990, Dr. Rick Strassman received FDA approval for a clinical study, the results of which can be read in Strassman's book "DMT: The Spirit Molecule". Users commonly reported being transported to "another dimension" and had contact with "insect-like alien beings". The late Terence McKenna was particularly interested in the drug, and coined the term "Machine Elves" in reference to these contacts. If reading isn't your thing, listen to comedian Joe Rogan's energized thoughts on the matter. (embedded video). close quote

As usual with Metafilter posts and comments, a great linkfest. I enjoyed the Joe Rogan video, very trippy. But this thumbnailed image is from a great set of 'real' insect macrophotography here. I've met this one's mother, the Nicotine Mantis Monster. She still has her hooks in me.

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ö

23 skidoo stamp RAW Eris fnordNATIONAL YEAR OF MOURNING for Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson passed away yesterday. He was the author to the seminal Illuminatus! series as well as many other reality tunnel subversions. From the RAW blog:
open quote Robert Anton Wilson Defies Medical Experts and leaves his body @4:50 AM on binary date 01/11.

All Hail Eris! more close quote

23 skidoo!! Wikipedia's page on the American director of the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal (CSICON).

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daily Wednesday, January 10, 2007

ö

DUHI blog to provide results in image searches, DUH! what else?

Here's the list of root.cellar's last 20 "referrals", where the visitors are coming from. This isn't anomalous but typical. If I went through the last 100, 500, or 1000, it would be the same. This may be a testament to giving proper ALT tags to images, but after 2,962 posts since April 26th, 2003, perhaps you can see why, a third of the way through a month, this is only the fourth post instead of the old-time 20-25 in 10 days. I've known this for a couple of years, so maybe it's a testament to my stubbornness, or just plain DUH!

This blog averages 333 "page views" a day. I started the Sitemeter count on August 6, 2003 and have had 268,754 page views since, but the average visit length is only 33 seconds. There's a lesson here somewhere.

root.cellar
Recent Visitors by Referrals
Detail Referring URL
  1 
http://images.google.co.uk
  2 
http://images.google.co.uk
  3 
unknown
  4 
http://images.google.fr
  5 
http://images.google.com
  6 
http://images.google.co.uk
  7 
http://images.google.com
  8 
http://images.google.co.uk
  9 
http://images.google.com/
 10 
http://images.search.yahoo.com
 11 
http://images.google.com.br
 12 
http://images.search.yahoo.com.
 13 
http://images.search.yahoo.com
 14 
unknown
 15 
http://images.google.tt
 16 
unknown
 17 
http://images.google.co.uk
 18 
http://images.google.com
 19 
http://images.search.yahoo.com
 20 
http://images.search.yahoo.com


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ö

bush vampire wants more bloodBush: more blood next, the battle's just begun

The link is to a video mashup of Dubya singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday" [Google Video] before a wildly applauding and dancing Congress. Keep this in mind if you feel a need to watch him tonight announcing his need for more maimings and death in Iraq.
open quote U2 | Sunday Bloody Sunday lyrics

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trenches dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

Sunday, bloody Sunday close quote


Thanks to the Cranky one for yanking my crank on this video. Here's the Wikipedia page about the original U2 song. Check the full-size image.

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daily Sunday, January 07, 2007

ö

dedroidificationDedroidification

Thanks to a Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing post: Web Consciousness Video Collection, I followed the dots to Dedroidification's Streaming Videos linkfest, which is an awesome collection not just for "consciousness" but also for several other subjects. Drilling up from the vids page, I found something to quote at this Reality Tunnel page:
open quote The concept of reality tunnels fits in nicely with the scientific concept of confirmation bias by which we tend to notice and assign significance to observations that confirm our prior beliefs, while filtering out or rationalizing away observations that do not fit with what we believe. This helps to explain why reality tunnels are usually transparent to their inhabitants.

[...]

Through various techniques one can break down old reality tunnels and impose new reality tunnels by removing old filters and replacing them with new ones, new perspectives on reality - at will. This is achieved through various processess of deprogramming... more close quote

Too bad the site's all in quite small Comic Sans (oh well). I had to font-size-up a couple of clicks before snapping the dead droid with caption.

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ö

cindy sheehanConfronting the Empire - The time for talk is over [ANTIWAR.com]

open quote Enough already with the policy analyses, the measured rhetoric, the hat-in-hand appeals to the Czar. It's time to confront - and bring down - the War Party.

[...]

Washington is the problem, and the solution is to make that city ungovernable, and a thoroughly unpleasant place for our ruling elite to be. If they won't listen to the voice of the hinterland, and suffer from delusions of invincibility, then they need to be reminded of their own vulnerability. By descending on Washington, and literally camping out, the millions who detest this war could make the city unlivable, or, at least, make it impossible for the mandarins of power to any longer discount us humble plebeians.

[...]

We must act, just as Cindy Sheehan and her brave cohorts did recently when they interrupted the Democratic self-love-fest and refocused attention on the most important issue of them all: the war. And, no, hearings conducted by John Murtha don't fit the bill: if they won't cut off the funding for the war, then it's time they were cut off from their pleasant lives and illusions of impregnable insularity.

Radical measures are called for. The time for talk is over: you can't reason with these people, and I've given up trying. The time for action is now. more close quote


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daily Wednesday, January 03, 2007

ö

bush and cheneyFAX Pelosi and the rest to IMPEACH Bush/Cheney today!

open quote Send 500,000 impeachment letters to Pelosi by her first day as speaker Jan. 3

... now we have someone to focus this demand on who can and possibly will act (in spite of her protests to the contrary): Nancy Pelosi.

She should have a half million signatures waiting for her her first day as Speaker of the House.

I think she and the many of the Democrats want to do this, but to overcome the reluctance of the DC etablishment and big money interests who are afraid their ox will be gored along with Bush & Cheney, she needs constant overwhelming evidence of public DEMAND not just support for impeachment.

Fax or snail mail the letter below or your own variation to:

FAX: 202-225-8259

Nancy Pelosi
2371 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

emails are nice, but letters and faxes make a physical pile that form a powerful visual, and that should be Pelosi opening her door and being buried by letters. close quote


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daily Sunday, December 31, 2006

ö

dylan, robbie, van releasedShall We All Be Released? [Youtube vid]

From possibly the greatest live song in rock history -Dylan, Joni, Van, Neil, Robbie, Richard, Ron W, Ringo, Rick, Ronnie H, Doctor John, the Diamond unit, and of course Garth, as filmed by Scorcese. Be sure to watch to the end... As Robbie says...
open quote no question about it...

it's a god damn impossible way of life... close quote

There's a little button on YouTube to watch the video in its original format... mostly better...

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daily Saturday, December 30, 2006

ö

saddam in nooseThey're selling postcards of the hanging

Who would be that "Good Samaritan"? And who's running the factory now? Josh Marshall cuts through the crap, and This Just In, from 1965:
open quote Bob Dylan: Desolation Row - 1965

They're selling postcards of the hanging

They're painting the passports brown

[...]

And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing

He's getting ready for the show

[...]

Now at midnight all the agents

And the superhuman crew

Come out and round up everyone

That knows more than they do

Then they bring them to the factory

Where the heart-attack machine

Is strapped across their shoulders

And then the kerosene... close quote

Sound familiar?

P.S. David Caputo's got a great link-filled piece on this too: So the Grand Poobah of all-that-was-evil has finally been executed...

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daily Sunday, December 24, 2006

ö

DON'T ATTACK IRANDon't attack Iran, don't sell out to Bush's "surge" on Iraq

open quote Dave Lindorff, co-author of The Case for Impeachment, has a blog, This Can't Be Happening! The last couple of entries are very interesting:

Are Bush & Cheney Planning Early Attack on Iran?

Sell-Out Democrats Have Walked into a Bush Trap on Iraq

... The end result of this betrayal of the electorate, which has made it clear it wants an end to the Iraq War, will be a collapse of the Democrats in 2008, with the party losing both houses of Congress and probably the White House too. It will be a richly deserved collapse.

While the hour is late, there is yet a slim chance for the public to rescue the Democrats from this course of political suicide and the nation from disaster. If masses of committed people from all walks of life take to the streets on January 27, when United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and Impeach for Change are planning a major demonstration against war and against the crimes of the Bush administration, maybe enough Democrats in Congress will realize the intensity of public opposition to further pointless mayhem and slaughter in the Middle East, and will realize the only option is to pull the plug on the president’s imperialist megalomania--and to initiate impeachment hearings against the president.

I realize counting on Democrats to do the right thing, even in their own self-interest, is a thin reed on which to rest hopes for a return to national sanity, but we need to grasp it. close quote

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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daily Thursday, December 21, 2006

ö

Windows XP "Details View" pet peevesmac os list view tree name sorted

Windows XP's "Details View" is so powerful that I bet there's a built-in fix for my pet peeves with it, or at least a simple GUI add-on (nothing bloated, please) or file manager that will help. I wouldn't bother with this gripe-post unless I hoped for a useful suggestion. I'm on this XP computer many hours a day and I'd love a solution.

What you see on the right is first a snap of the old Mac OS9's Finder "List View". I know OS X has something similar. Notice two SIMPLE things: first, the 'disclosure triangles', and second, the way 'sort by Name' actually puts files and folders adjacent to each other.

xp details view

Next is a snap of XP's "Details View". In both cases I've snapped ONLY the leftmost area of the window. Now, XP does have its own equivalent of the Finder's disclosure triangles, click the 'plus box' to see more inside and the 'minus box' for none. OK, cool enough so far. And if the snap was wider, you'd see that by clicking ACROBAT7 a window panel to the right of this panel would show the files - NOT just folders - inside that folder. Nice, so what's wrong with that?

Well, on the Mac OS, as you can see, I could keep the whole window very narrow and still see - and manipulate - individual files. In fact I could have say seven of these narrow folder windows arrayed across my screen. That may seem odd to Windows folks, but I used to do that a lot - well, maybe just four - when I was on a Mac. That becomes awkward in Windows XP because the files aren't disclosed in a narrow window.

The other thing is, let's say there's a file named 'acclimate' in that downloads folder. Do we see it in this alphabetical name detail view in XP? No, because XP, unlike Mac, seems to insist on grouping folders together and files together (even that is inconsistent!). This comes into play for me all the time. Example, I save a web page out of Firefox as a 'Web Page - Complete'. The html file is down somewhere in the files but the supporting folder is up in the folders. This would not be so on Mac. Example two, I have a temporary text file, 'ACROBAT7 folder - move to partition E.txt'. I want that not to be hidden inside the acrobat folder, but at the same tree level, where I'll see it adjacent to the folder. Possible? Yah, if I make a New Folder to contain both...

Some might say use a traditional two-pane file manager like Total Commander (great, I use it), but that's just it, I sometimes want more than two panes AND I want name view to list files adjacent to folders, which I can't seem to get TC to do. OK, I guess I can go looking, but please, if there's something built-in in XP I'm missing here, or if you know a file manager that solves these peeves, let me know in Comments.

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daily Wednesday, December 20, 2006

ö

flag-covered casketsU.S. Iraq G.I. true toll - 26,000 killed, seriously wounded, or deserted?

open quote ... This means that of the 158,000 U.S. military shipped to Iraq, 26,000 deserted, were killed or seriously wounded. The DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate over 12,000 dead, over 25,000 seriously wounded and a large number of suicides, forced hospitalization for ongoing drug usage and sales, murder of Iraqi civilians and fellow soldiers, rapes, courts martial and so on...

... only soldiers actually killed on the ground in Iraq are reported. The dying and critically wounded are listed as en route to military hospitals outside of the country and not reported on the daily postings. Anyone who dies just as the transport takes off from the Baghdad airport is not listed and neither are those who die in the US military hospitals. more close quote


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daily Saturday, December 16, 2006

ö

crab nebula by hubbleHubble: Most detailed image of the Crab Nebula

open quote This new Hubble image - One among the largest ever produced with the Earth-orbiting observatory - shows the most detailed view so far of the entire Crab Nebula ever made. The Crab is arguably the single most interesting object, as well as one of the most studied, in all of astronomy. The image is the largest image ever taken with Hubble's WFPC2 workhorse camera.

The Crab Nebula is one of the most intricately structured and highly dynamical objects ever observed. The new Hubble image of the Crab was assembled from 24 individual exposures taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and is the highest resolution image of the entire Crab Nebula ever made. close quote

Wikipedia on this remnant of a supernova, with a pulsar at its center.

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daily Thursday, December 14, 2006

ö

blinders on 9/11Liberal/Progressive blinders on the questions of 9/11 [911Truth.org]

Email today from the blogger at Totally Fixed and Rigged, pointing to his own posts over the last few days about recent articles in liberal/progressive media dismissing the "conspiracy nuts" of the 9/11 Truth movement, and about how when he cross-posted over at Daily Kos and Smirking Chimp he was censored. Very interesting reading, I recommend it. Meanwhile he recommends reading THIS article, one of the smartest things I've ever read on 9/11:
open quote Wednesday, December 6 2006
Into the Ring with Counterpunch on 9/11: How Alexander Cockburn, Otherwise So Bright, Blanks Out on 9/11 Evidence

[...]

Rather than arguing in the abstract for the delegitimizing power of the 9/11 evidence, let me give a concrete example of it. Robert Bowman, a retired USAF Lt. Colonel who holds a Ph.D. in physics, was director of Advanced Space Program Development for the USAF in the Ford and Carter administrations. Here's a part of what he had to say as a speaker at the DC Emergency Truth Convergence organized by the 9/11 Truth Movement in Washington, DC in July, 2005:

... This cabal of neoconservatives from PNAC who planned this war - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Jeb Bush - even before W. became president, they told us why they had to do it. They said we need to occupy Iraq permanently in order to dominate Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the southern Russian republics around the Caspian Sea. We need to control the entire Middle East and all its oil.

[...]

[T]hey knew the American people wouldn't stand for it, and they said so in their documents - and they said, unless there's that new Pearl Harbor. Well, 9/11 did supply that - and we've been lied to not only about the war, but about 9/11 itself. They ignored the warnings: more than that, we have mounting evidence that - at least - they made it impossible for those planes to be intercepted. If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot - I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they've changed them to - if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. My sisters and brothers, that is treason!
[Ed. Note: Video of this stirring speech, and many others, is available online at http://www.truthemergency.us ] close quote


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daily Monday, December 11, 2006

ö

harryhausen gulliver squirrelAll Ray Harryhausen's Feature Creatures - video [YouTube]

open quote  The four and a half minute compliation of every Ray Harryhausen animated creature in feature films, presented in chronological order.

Read the complete creature list at http://www.harryhausen.com  close quote

Over there (click a critter name for a wee QT of it with more info), I learned the giant squirrel is from The 3 Worlds of Gulliver [IMDB]. You can see Mrs. Gulliver trying to hide out behind the mushroom. Not nearly as bad as Night of the Lepus.

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ö

request deniedFour-year-old suspended for hugging teacher's aid, joins gang

open quote Bellmead, TX - Damarcus Blackwell's four-year-old son was lining-up to get on the bus after school last month, when he was accused of rubbing his face in the chest of a female employee.

The principal of La Vega Primary School sent a letter to the Blackwells that said the pre-kindergartener demonstrated "inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment."

[...]

... the thing that makes Blackwell most upset is they told him "your request for an apology by the aide and removal of all paperwork regarding this incident is denied." more close quote

I can easily imagine that this actually was a sexual contact by the child. But it's the adults' reactions that get me, and remind me of something I just read earlier this morning:
open quote Then And Now

Scenario - Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.

1953 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2006 - Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself and their Dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist. more close quote

Not that I agree with whippings or think kids aren't abused...

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daily Thursday, December 07, 2006

ö

Robert GatesFilibuster Al Qaeda Founder Robert Gates

open quote By Webster Griffin Tarpley
12-6-6

The nomination of Robert Gates to be Secretary of Defense must be rejected. Gates is deeply implicated in three decades of crimes by the intelligence community. There is no reason to think he intends to begin the necessary rapid departure of US forces from Iraq. His nomination by Bush can only be read as a deliberate provocation directed against the new Democratic Congress. Will the Democrats fight back, or will they capitulate? The American people are watching the Democratic Senators carefully, and they are appalled by the self-congratulatory and clubby narcissism of the Senate at a time when US forces are facing encirclement and decimation in Iraq and Afghanistan. . Senators must not only vote against Gates; they must stop the confirmation process with a filibuster. A look at Gates' sordid record shows why.

Robert Gates was an integral part of the gun-running, drug-running, and death squad murders lumped under the heading of the Iran-Contra scandal.

[...]

Most damning of all is the fact that Gates was one of the founders of al Qaeda, the CIA's Arab Legion which was assembled to attack the Soviets in Afghanistan. more close quote

Wikipedia on Gates.

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daily Wednesday, December 06, 2006

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Snap Previews of links

This morning I was over at Web Pages That Suck's Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015. By Vince Flanders' lights, root.cellar sucks in many ways! For instance... 2. A man from Mars can't figure out what your web site is about in less than four seconds. Hahahahaaaa! How about a regular old earthling?

One thing he talks a lot about is letting visitors really Know where a link out is going. He doesn't mention it, but he implemented this cool, free javascript which brings up a Snap Preview of the site linked when the visitor rolls over the link. It doesn't slow down initial page load, so I decided to try it.

It's gifting season, so in a shameless bit of self-promotion I snapped what happens when you roll over my turtles all the way down Cafe Press store

snap preview of turtles all the way down

Some links don't work with this, for instance my affiliate links, like Orbitz travel, that start with "click.linksynergy.com", but hey! Roll your mouse over the links in my blogroll (scroll down, lower right) to see this script in action.

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daily Monday, December 04, 2006

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will code html for foodThe People Party vs. The Money Party

open quote The Blog | David Sirota: The People Party vs. The Money Party: Here Are the Players | The Huffington Post

The fact that our nation's politics is divided not between Democrats and Republicans but between the People Party and the Money Party is obvious to anyone who looks at the political system honestly (which is to say, not most journalists or Washington political hacks). Calls for "bipartisanship" and faux "centrism" that has nothing to do with the actual center of American public opinion are most often moves to prevent the political debate from analyzing the People vs. Money divide that actually fuels our politics. We already have plenty of "bipartisanship" - Republicans and a faction of Democrats who regularly join hands to screw over the vast majority of Americans.

Many people ask me who? Who are the leading members of both sides of the actual divide? The answer is that there is no official list because no one is forced to formally declare their allegiance to the People Party or the Money Party. But it is fairly obvious which lawmakers in the new majority have specifically defined themselves on economic justice issues. Though this is by no means a comprehensive list, here are the ones to watch in the coming Congress: more close quote


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daily Sunday, December 03, 2006

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newt computesOlbermann - good luck Newt vs. Free Speech [video]

Truthout has a nicely-formatted ad-free transcript:
open quote We Fight for Liberty by Having More Liberty and Not Less
By Keith Olbermann
MSNBC Countdown

Thursday 30 November 2006

And finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment about free speech, failed speakers, and the delusion of grandeur.

"This is a serious long term war," the man at the podium cried, "and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country."

Some, in the audience, must have thought they were hearing an arsonist give the keynote address at a convention of firefighters.

This was the annual Loeb First Amendment Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire - a public cherishing of Freedom of Speech - in the state with the two-fisted motto "Live Free Or Die."

And the arsonist at the microphone, the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, was insisting that we must attach an "on-off button" to Free Speech. more close quote


Meanwhile, media-wise, the November 2006 cable ratings are in, and the Keith Olbermann juggernaut continues.

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daily Saturday, December 02, 2006

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gort klaatuPROBED? yeah, that must be it... [YouTube]

UPDATED - broken link fixed.
open quote ... a different kind of ufo has recently come to light the last decade or so, these not being your typical circular, disc or domed shaped ufos.

These ones are cylindrical and seem to be content hovering in the daylight or in the sky for hours or days at a time. Witnesses report they seem to be monitoring whatver they are around, highly unusual, are we looking at alien or human technology here? close quote

Moai! Good Night Irene.

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daily Wednesday, November 29, 2006

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the nazi n-wordThe OTHER N-bomb - VERBOTEN [Slate]

open quote The N-Word
Unmentionable lessons of the midterm aftermath.

Warning: This article contains the word Nazi.

... polite discussion of that question does not contain any derivative of the words fascism, propaganda, or dictatorship. God forbid Nazi or Hitler. The extent to which it is verboten to bring up Nazi Germany has now become a jape. "Can't pols just have little Post-its on their microphones reminding them not to compare anything to the Nazis?" Maureen Dowd wrote in the Times recently, after yet another off-message senator was taken to the woodshed. The ban applies equally to the arena of intellectual debate, such that even the wild and woolly Internet has a Godwin's Law to describe the cred-killing effect of dropping the N-bomb. So, even though it is a truism that we learn by analogy, even though the Bush administration unapologetically practices the reality-eschewing art of propaganda - with procured "journalists," its own "news" pipeline at Fox, leader-centric ("war president") stagecraft, the classic Big Lie MO of, say, draft avoiders smearing war heroes as unpatriotic - we are not permitted to draw any comparisons to the über-propagandists of the previous century. That prohibition is reiterated in the coy caution with which I introduce the topic here.

The taboo is itself a precept of the propaganda state. more  close quote


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daily Monday, November 27, 2006

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lowell wood - doctor evilCan Dr. Evil Save The World? [Rolling Stone]

open quote Forget about a future filled with wind farms and hydrogen cars. The Pentagon's top weaponeer says he has a radical solution that would stop global warming now -- no matter how much oil we burn

... Wood's proposal was not technologically complex. It's based on the idea, well-proven by atmospheric scientists, that volcano eruptions alter the climate for months by loading the skies with tiny particles that act as mini-reflectors, shading out sunlight and cooling the Earth. Why not apply the same principles to saving the Arctic? Getting the particles into the stratosphere wouldn't be a problem -- you could generate them easily enough by burning sulfur, then dumping the particles out of high-flying 747s, spraying them into the sky with long hoses or even shooting them up there with naval artillery. They'd be invisible to the naked eye, Wood argued, and harmless to the environment. Depending on the number of particles you injected, you could not only stabilize Greenland's polar ice -- you could actually grow it. Results would be quick: If you started spraying particles into the stratosphere tomorrow, you'd see changes in the ice within a few months. And if it worked over the Arctic, it would be simple enough to expand the program to encompass the rest of the planet. In effect, you could create a global thermostat, one that people could dial up or down to suit their needs (or the needs of polar bears).

Reaction to Wood's proposal was fast and furious. more close quote


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impeach bush AND cheneyArticles of Impeachment against Bush AND Cheney [Daily Kos]

open quote by Eternal Hope

If we are to impeach, we must impeach both Bush and Cheney. It will not do any good for us to impeach Bush and have Cheney take the Oval Office and pick someone just as radical as he is. It will also not do any good for us to impeach just Cheney and allow Bush to groom John "I'm not knowledgeable" McCain for the 2008 election. Therefore, we must simultaneously impeach both of them so that the 3rd person in succession, Nancy Pelosi, would become the next President of the United States.

What remains to be done is for us to work out articles of impeachment against the President. Others may surface after the Democrats begin their job of investigating and getting to the bottom of the matter. If the Bush administration obstructs or lies to the Congressional Committee chairs, those could in and of themselves be grounds for impeachment and removal of Bush and Cheney.

In the meantime, here are the following 14 possible articles of impeachment against the President and Vice President. more close quote

Image thumbnailed from David Dees. What struck me here was how limited in scope these "articles" are. Maybe these were chosen because they're easy to prove that specific laws were broken, where the broader issues of crimes against humanity are less proven and/or codified. Still, it's enough, Eternal Hope...

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daily Wednesday, November 22, 2006

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THE ROAD TO ELEUSISNeo-Eleusinian Mysteries: The History & Future of LSD

open quote Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing: Eleusinian & Neo-Eleusinian Mysteries: The History & Future of LSD - Bruce Eisner Video

I've been working with my video library recently and uploaded almost 2 hours of a talk I gave at the 2001 International Conference on Altered States in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the talk, I develop for the first time the idea for the potential use of LSD in which its use is combined with a variety of other psychological techniques and technologies which I call the Neo-Eleusinian Mysteries. close quote

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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screwed by Bush: "how 'bout you be Bush and I'll be the country"

screwed by Bush

[YouTube NSFW]

This would be funny if it weren't true...

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megapixel mythmegapixel myth tested on public - save your money

open quote Pogue's Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog

... On the show, we did a test. We blew up a photograph to 16 x 24 inches at a professional photo lab. One print had 13-megapixel resolution; one had 8; the third had 5. Same exact photo, down-rezzed twice, all three printed at the same poster size. I wanted to hang them all on a wall in Times Square and challenge passersby to see if they could tell the difference.

[...]

Anyway, we ran the test for about 45 minutes. Dozens of people stopped to take the test; a little crowd gathered. About 95 percent of the volunteers gave up, announcing that there was no possible way to tell the difference, even when mashing their faces right up against the prints. A handful of them attempted guesses - but were wrong. Only one person correctly ranked the prints in megapixel order, although (a) she was a photography professor, and (b) I believe she just got lucky.

I'm telling you, there was NO DIFFERENCE. more, lots of comments close quote

I still use and love my old 2003 2 megapixel Canon Powershot A60. If you don't pre-AF by pressing the shot button halfway, slowish shutter lag is its only problem, shared with many cameras. But, I bet at 16 x 24 anyone could tell it's not 5 or more...

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daily Saturday, November 18, 2006

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curly howardMichael Moore's 12 promises to Disheartened Conservatives

open quote Michael Moore's pledge - Los Angeles Times

... let me make 12 promises as to how we will treat you, the minority, in the coming years.

Thus, here is "A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives":

4) When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home too. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on some amateur Power Point presentation cooked up by men who have never been to war.

5) When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you too will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that afflict you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family too.

6) When we clean up our air and water, you too will be able to breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water. When we put an end to global warming, you will no longer have to think about buying oceanfront property in Yuma. moore close quote

"Oh, a wise guy, eh?"

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daily Friday, November 17, 2006

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hypnotized by consumptionWorkers of the World? "That's All, Folks" [YouTube]

I don't know why this brilliant toon mashup is titled with "illustrated by Disney" since there's a lot of WB and others in it too:
open quote Communist Manifesto illustrated by Disney

Displaying a broad range of Golden Age Hollywood animation, Manifestoon is a homage to the latent subversiveness of cartoons. Though U.S. cartoons are usually thought of as conveyors of capitalist ideologies of consumerism and individualism, Drew observes: "Somehow as an avid childhood fan of cartoons, these ideas were secondary to a more important lesson - that of the 'trickster' nature of many characters as they mocked, outwitted and defeated their more powerful adversaries. In the classic cartoon, brute strength and heavy artillery are no match for wit and humor, and justice always prevails. For me, it was natural to link my own childhood concept of subversion with an established, more articulate version [Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto]. Mickey running over the globe has new meaning in today's mediascape, in which Disney controls one of the largest concentrations of media ownership in the world." close quote


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despairoutrage fatigue

It's Friday and I haven't posted since Monday, maybe a new low. I'm not sure I can agree with Bob Reich on strategy, he may be right about McCain, but this outrage fatigue sure rings a bell, especially now that even Conyers has joined Dean, Pelosi et al in ruling out impeachment:
open quote American Prospect Online - What the Dems Should Do Now - Robert Reich

Some Democrats want to expose the malfeasance and nonfeasance of the Bush Administration -- find out who really knew what and when with regard to weapons of mass destruction, Abu Graahb (sic), Katrina, payoffs to Abramoff, and all the other rot. That's understandable, but it would be far better if Democrats used their new-found power to lay out a new agenda for America.

There's no point digging up more dirt. Bush isn't running again. John McCain, the Republican's most likely choice to replace him, has distanced himself so far from the administration that no amount of dirt will soil him. Besides, the public and the media are already suffering from outrage fatigue. And the Democrats wouldn't be credible, anyway. It will be easy for Republicans to dismiss their efforts as more of the same old partisan bickering. The fact is, the public is sick of mud-slinging.

Instead of dwelling on what's gone wrong, Democrats should focus on what to do right. For example: more close quote


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daily Monday, November 13, 2006

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"V" Meets The Secret Service at the White House

open quote On Monday, November 6, 2006, "V" visited security check points at the White House, the main Treasury, IRS and Justice Department Buildings and the Capitol. "V's" purpose was to deliver the People’s Petitions for Redress of Grievances relating to the Government’s violations of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution, and to inform key Government officials that at least 100 more "Vs" would be at their doorstep on November 14th expecting a response to the Petitions.

At the White House about a dozen Secret Service agents appeared on foot, bicycles and car to meet "V." While virtuously assuring the security of the state, they were curious about the image of "V" and asked many questions. Most, when asked if they had seen the movie "V for Vendetta" [Wikipedia], smiled their approval.

When an agent asked if "V" would remove his mask for identification purposes, "V" explained that would defeat the very purpose of the mask, which was to give expression to the fact that the nation was becoming a police state, that too many people were becoming afraid to be identified as dissenters or protestors, and that this was not in the long term interest of a free people. The agents accepted the veracity of "V's" message and refrained from veering "V" from his vanguard visit as the vox populi. more, with video close quote


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daily Sunday, November 12, 2006

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kill em all, let god sort em outMajor corps want to kill Air America, Jews, atheists and other unsavory types

open quote Air America on Ad Blacklist?

... The directive then advises ABC Radio Network affiliates to take note of a list of other sponsors who do not want their programming to run during Air America programming.

The list [PDF], totaling 90 advertisers, includes some of largest and most well-known corporations advertising in the U.S.: Wal-Mart, GE, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Bank of America, Fed-Ex, Visa, Allstate, McDonald's, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Johnson & Johnson. The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Navy are also listed as advertisers who don't want their commercials to air on Air America. close quote

And, in a related development:
open quote Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Video game where Jews and Atheists must be killed or converted due for Christmas

A video game about a Christian militia slaughtering Jewish and atheist New Yorkers who won't be converted in the name of a particular brand of Christianity will be on the shelves of more than 10,000 American retailers in time for the Christmas season, including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, GameStop, EB Games, CompUSA, Amazon.com, Costco and numerous others.

[...]

In Left Behind: Eternal Forces, kids will assume the role of a member of a "Christian" gang wandering the streets of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, killing or converting as many Jews, Atheists, and other unsavory types in the employ of the Anti-Christ as possible to get to the next level. If the heathen won't convert, the character can kill them. The company is offering a free demonstration model to churches. close quote

Merry X-MAS...

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howard beale is mad as hellmad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!! [YouTube]

From the 1976 movie, Network [IMDB], newsman Howard Beale's rant as written by Paddy Chayefshy. If you haven't seen the movie, at least see this. If you have, check it out again and pass it around:
open quote  We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

[...]

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!" close quote

Oh btw, this is the rant that eventually took me to the video: The 'Election' Results - Sucker-Punched Again

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Giant Native American Medicine Hat Head [Google Map]

giant earth head medicne hat

Medicine Hat?
open quote A land formation in Alberta, Canada, that looks like a native American wearing an iPod was recently discovered in satellite images on Google Earth near Medicine Hat.

The origins of Canadian city names are always interesting, but the origin of the name of Medicine Hat is the stuff of legend.

Approximately 150 km east north-east of Lethbridge, the name of the site of the present city was noted as Medicine Hat by W. Johnson, a member of the North West Mounted Police, in 1882. There are many possible explanations for the name, which is a translation of saamis, Blackfoot Indian for "the head-dress of a medicine man." close quote

Zoom out one and scroll around, for other evocative formations. Here's a page with more info, interviews, and suggested names.

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daily Saturday, November 11, 2006

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colbert slamming donkey pinataColbert destroys his Emergency Donkey Piñata

Colbert mourns the repuglican loss. The link is to a QT mov, but here's the WMV link if you prefer.

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rumsfeld rolls a doobieLast laughs: Olbermann montage of comics doing election week

The segment with Rumsfeld rolling a doobie in a press conference wasn't really funny, though. It's an insult to Mary Jane! Still, an astonishing bit of video magic. Enjoy your retirement, Rummy, the dead and wounded won't be loving theirs.

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daily Thursday, November 09, 2006

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ed bradley diesOMG - Ed Bradley goes at 65?!

I'm a little surprised by my reaction, but I'm just about choked up.
open quote NEW YORK - Ed Bradley, the award-winning television journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News and created a distinctive, powerful body of work during his 26 years on "60 Minutes," died Thursday. He was 65. Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai hospital, CBS News announced.

[...]

"Ed could get people to say the damndest thing because he put them at ease," said former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw said Thursday. "It was like talking not to a reporter, but talking to an interested counselor of some kind. ... He had this wonderful way of stroking his beard and saying, 'Well, what do you mean by that?'" more close quote


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my accent test result - wicked pissah!What American accent do you have?

I bot into this quiz and got cot as having a Boston accent, even though I think I (mostly) don't. Doesn't everyone tok this way? There was nothing wicked obvious like chowda, bahn, smaht, cah, or CELLA. In fact I'm a bit puzzled about how accurate this was, having grown up a meah 11 miles noth of Fenway:
open quote 3. We're going to start with two ordinary words, "cot" and "caught." Do you think those words sound the same or different?

8. Moving on, what do you think about "Mary," "merry," and "marry"?

RESULT: You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine. close quote


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topaz internment campLike Cornered Rats, GOP Losers More Dangerous Than Ever

For Ted Rall, the glass is still worse than half empty. I hope he's wrong:
open quote Like Cornered Rats, GOP Losers More Dangerous Than Ever

Concentration Camps

In January 2006 HomeSec awarded a $385 million contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton Co., to build "temporary detention and processing capabilities"--internment camps--"in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

The question, asks Progressive magazine editor Ruth Conniff, "is what is the government planning to do with mass roundups of people?" After all, Bush and other Republican leaders have spent five years calling Democrats and others who disagree with them traitors and terrorists. Following so much hateful rhetoric, you can't blame liberals for wondering whether they too are about to be declared "enemy combatants." They're not paranoid; they're just paying attention.

[...]

As ugly secrets surface, Bushists will turn desperate. more  close quote

Image of the WWII-era Topaz Internment Camp. Nimmo also has more on the JWDAA. So does Toward Freedom. Wikipedia has more on Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Private Miltary Company. Root? Usurpers!

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daily Wednesday, November 08, 2006

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lap dog liebermanLap Dog Lieberman spoils the party [firedoglake]

open quote ... Meanwhile, I guarantee you Lieberman was rooting for Webb, or for any configuration of final race results that will make him a critical swing vote for control of the Senate. Whether the Republicans need him as a crossover for control or just as an extra vote to make 51, he will leverage his position in a bidding war between the Dems and the White House. Bet on it.

Joe promised during his campaign his seniority would be there for him, and I'm sure it will be, no matter who offers it to him. It's hustler time in Connecticut. Joe will milk a bidding war for time and attention and the best personal deal he can get, because for Joe, it's all about Joe.

I guarantee you one of the first congratulatory calls he got was from Rove tonight, and that Cheney called him, too. close quote

Lieberman thumbnailed from firedoglake. Meanwhile...

dancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing bananadancing banana

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daily Tuesday, November 07, 2006

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hacking democracyHacking Democracy - Full Film Online

open quote Throw away your TV - Hacking Democracy - Full Film

The Much Hyped HBO Documentary "Hacking Democracy" [link] is now online. So hyped in fact that Diebold doesn't want you see it [link].

This cautionary documentary exposes the vulnerability of computers - which count approximately 80% of America's votes in county, state and federal elections - suggesting that if our votes aren't safe, then our democracy isn't safe either. close quote

Check out Black Box Voting too. It may or may not be too late for this election, but 2008 is still very open to cleaning up.

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crooks and liars logoELECTION DAY: falsehood is a feature, not a bug

Danger, Will Robinson:
open quote Crooks and Liars » An ideology of lying

... lying has become not only a perfectly acceptable tactic, but one that is central to their movement. Lying is not something they do sometimes It is who they are. Lying is a central and consciously adopted part of their ideology.

[...]

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."

The authoritarian Bush movement is so Wise (in the case of neoconservatives) and so Good (in the case of the religious fundamentalists who are their loyal comrades) that everything, including the most blatant lies, is not only justifiable, but necessary. Reality can and must be fundamentally distorted for our own good. As Mona put it - and as the two posts linked above illustrate - "for neoconservatives [which has subsumed the so-called "conservative" movement itself], falsehood is a feature, not a bug." more close quote


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daily Friday, November 03, 2006

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YANKOVIC!.COMWeird Al is just too White and Nerdy [GoogleVid]

COMIC RELIEF DEPARTMENT: "Weird Al" Yankovic's White and Nerdy music video from his new album "Straight Outta Lynwood". The snap isn't from the video, it's Al's Home Page. Anyway... here's some of the lyrics:
open quote I've been browsin', inspectin'
X-Men comics, you know I collect 'em
The pens in my pocket, I must protect 'em
My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored
Shoppin' online for deals on some writable media
I edit Wikipedia
I memorized "Holy Grail" really well
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL
I got a business doin' web sites
When my friends need some code, who do they call?
I do HTML for 'em all
Even made a home page for my dog
Yo, I got myself a fanny pack
They were havin' a sale down at The Gap
Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap
Pop pop, hope no one sees me... gettin' freaky
I'm nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream
I was in A/V Club and Glee Club and even the chess team
Only question I ever thought was hard
Was, do I like Kirk or do I like Picard? Spend every weekend at the Renaissance Faire
Got my name on my underwear  close quote


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this blog is anti torture35,000 in Secret Bush Prisons?

open quote I'm at the Center for American Progress, listening to Sid Blumenthal and Glenn Greenwald talk about the Imperial Presidency, and one thing is important enough for me to want to live blog. Sid says that Wilkerson, Powell's old chief of staff, believes that the correct number of victims in secret Bush prisons is 35,000, only 5% of which "may" have to do with terrorism. More than twice what I thought, and hardly any to do with the "war on terror."

Wake up America, it's getting closer. close quote


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ted haggardhypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to the one heavenly lord

open quote Enough With the 'One God' Stuff

In the world today, one ancient religious ideology, monotheism, stands out as especially dangerous, repressive and loony.

[...]

But monotheism posits one omnipotent, lonely sucker all by himself -- "the sky god" as Gore Vidal once called him. The first five books of the Hebrews' Bible reveal, not surprisingly, that the sky god is often angry, jealous, vengeful, and even murderous -- regularly toying with, manipulating and punishing the puny beings he creates to worship and amuse him. Not surprisingly, he's a self-absorbed ascetic who invents for his "children" bizarre, impossible-to-comply-with rules governing a multitude of tiny details of daily life. Sometimes he goes berserk about minor infractions; frequently he ignores major violations of his own rules. He's the original bad father, threatening awful punishments, with no wife, lover, siblings, friends, co-workers, neighbors or relatives to reign him in.

Early Christians and then Muslims added to monotheism the great creative innovation of the promise of eternal life.

[...]

Inevitably, some prominent believers turn out to have long been hypocrites, liars and secret sinners -- adulterers, gamblers, drug users, homosexuals. But hypocrisy poses no threat to the monotheists who say the hidden sins demonstrate the awful power of the evils they battle. The self-righteous condemn the sins, of course, but they actually approve of the lies, insisting that "hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue -- to the one heavenly lord. more  close quote

And, on a related note, Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, has given up his post while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex. He also happens to be a friend and advisor to Dubya. I posted about Pastor Ted's New Life Church, Colorado Springs (USAFA) and young officers who believe in a coming apocalypse being appointed to the military academies by zealous congressmen last November.

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daily Thursday, November 02, 2006

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bush killed conservatismThe American Conservative: GOP Must Go

What goes around comes around...
open quote ... It should surprise few readers that we think a vote that is seen - in America and the world at large - as a decisive "No" vote on the Bush presidency is the best outcome. We need not dwell on George W. Bush's failed effort to jam a poorly disguised amnesty for illegal aliens through Congress or the assaults on the Constitution carried out under the pretext of fighting terrorism or his administration's endorsement of torture. Faced on Sept. 11, 2001 with a great challenge, President Bush made little effort to understand who had attacked us and why - thus ignoring the prerequisite for crafting an effective response. He seemingly did not want to find out, and he had staffed his national-security team with people who either did not want to know or were committed to a prefabricated answer.

As a consequence, he rushed America into a war against Iraq, a war we are now losing and cannot win, one that has done far more to strengthen Islamist terrorists than anything they could possibly have done for themselves.

[...]

On Nov. 7, the world will be watching as we go to the polls, seeking to ascertain whether the American people have the wisdom to try to correct a disastrous course. more close quote


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gore calls for MoveOnAl Gore makes calls: Move ON!

This just in from Al and the good folks at MoveOn:
open quote In every election I've ever been part of, the last four days have been decisive. What you do this weekend could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

MoveOn has put together an outstanding program - bringing together tens of thousands of volunteers with cutting edge technology to get Democrats who might not otherwise vote to the polls. You can join the effort from anywhere - all you need is a phone and a computer.

This morning, I joined the team and made some calls. It was easy. I'm writing to personally ask you to join the team too. Can you make some calls this weekend? Sign up to join a group of callers in your area right here:

http://www.moveon.org

I know it's easy to feel like your calls will be drops in a political ocean. I'm here to tell you that they're not. I know a thing or two about close races where a few hundred "drops" make all the difference. And the margins in many of these races are even closer. You could personally turn out the voter who tips the balance.

Why should you pick up the phone?

Do it because the ice is melting in the Arctic, in Greenland and all over the world, and unless we take on the climate crisis soon, we could cross a point of no return.

Do it because the war in Iraq is a disaster, and our brave men and women who are fighting and dying there need an honorable and speedy path home.

Do it because in the wealthiest nation in the world, there are millions of kids who can't go the doctor when they get sick because they don't have health care.

Do it because President Bush and this Congress have chipped away at our fundamental rights - rights guaranteed every citizen - that make our country a beacon of freedom. Do it because our government shouldn't be able to wire-tap innocent citizens without a warrant.

Do it because of Abu Ghraib. Do it to tell the world that America won't sanction torture - and we fire the politicians who do. That's the real no-brainer.

Do it because five years after September 11th, President Bush and the Republican Congress have made us all less safe.

But most of all, do it because the country we all love needs our help. Our democracy is in trouble. America needs you. And in these next four days, you can come to her aid.

This election represents our greatest opportunity in decades to tilt our nation toward a progressive future. Making some calls to infrequent voters only takes an hour or two. But if thousands of us do this together, we can make history.

Now's our time. Please join me. close quote


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daily Wednesday, November 01, 2006

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halliburton - sorry about your kidsTop Twenty Iraq Oversight Outrages

open quote Top Twenty Iraq Oversight Outrages Uncovered by the DPC

Republicans in Congress Refuse to Demand Accountability in Iraq;
Billions of Dollars Wasted, Our Mission Undermined

Over the last three years, Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC) hearings have uncovered massive waste, fraud, and abuse relating to government contractors operating in Iraq. This report presents twenty of the worst oversight outrages, as documented in testimony and evidence presented at DPC hearings: more close quote

Out of the top 17, FIFTEEN are by... can you guess?

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scott adams and dilbertDilbert creator ahead of his time on Electronic Voting Machines

open quote ... there's a 100% chance that the voting machines will get hacked and all future elections will be rigged. But that doesn't mean we'll get a worse government. It probably means that the choice of the next American president will be taken out of the hands of deep-pocket, autofellating, corporate shitbags and put it into the hands of some teenager in Finland. How is that not an improvement?

Statistically speaking, any hacker who is skilled enough to rig the elections will also be smart enough to select politicians that believe in . . . oh, let's say for example, science. Compare that to the current method... more close quote

Funny, Scott, but I think the scenario more likely involves corporate shitbags rigging the machines. At the moment, at least. Say, did you hear about this (to paraphrase): Scott Adams... a balding, bespectacled working stiff inexplicably lost his voice - except when speaking in rhyme or pinching his nose. He's now partially recovered from Spasmodic Dysphonia. He hasn't lost any knack for writing!

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jack-o-lantern incense holderJack-o-lantern incense holder

Pumpkins were down to the undesireables, this one sat way off-kilter to its stem, but the stem was unusually gnarly, so I thought what a great nose! When I was carving it I noticed a hole at the end of the stem and thought, hmm, good for a birthday cake candle. But that would never stay lit. Then, when lighting the inside candle with a stick of incense... voila!

Amused comments from many trick-or-treaters.

The flash was way too bright, took down brightness, upped contrast a bit, filled some background behind it, cropped. Not a very good photo at all, interesting mainly for the incense.

Much bigger versions on Flickr if you're interested.

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daily Tuesday, October 31, 2006

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good posture at computerPeriodically Look Up At the Ceiling

open quote How To Keep Good Posture When In Front Of A Computer

Today we are spending more time at computers, an activity through which people's bad posture can affect their overall health.

Posture ranks at the top of the list when talking about good health. It is as important as eating right, exercising, getting a good night's sleep and avoiding harmful substances. Unnatural alignment of the body can cause head, shoulder, neck and back pain, and compromise neurological, digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular functioning.

[...]

9. Periodically Look Up At the Ceiling to Give Your Posture Muscles a Break more close quote

Very good article, I actually moved my keyboard (still not great), mouse and monitor, and had never thought to look at the ceiling. One thing he got wrong (and admitted it) was the right height for your monitor. So I went looking for a better depiction, and found one on another excellent page at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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gas price graphRepugliGas - "keep more money in your wallet"

open quote Conspiracy Theories Abound as Oil Prices Fluctuate - washingtonpost.com

In mid-May with gasoline prices at $2.95 a gallon and rising, 15 percent of Americans listed high fuel prices as their top concern, outstripping terrorism. And much of the public seemed ready to vent its wrath on President Bush and the Republican-led Congress.

By early September, though, with the nationwide average at $2.73 a gallon and falling, only 5 percent of those polled said that the price of gas was the single most important issue, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Since then, the price of gasoline has fallen even further, now down about 70 cents a gallon from its peak in August -- with only a month before the elections.

Coincidence? more close quote

Meanwhile, Exxon's July to September quarterly profit was just $10.49 billion, 2nd-biggest in U.S. history. And Dubya's out there stumping for the election: "want to keep more money in your wallet? Vote Republican". What's wrong with this picture? The graph is snapped from GasBuddy.com.

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daily Monday, October 30, 2006


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hubble star birdThe Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

The link goes to a great video. This image is just something I liked on the way out to the deep field. It reminds me of another video of clever crows. I'd tell you more about this Hubble video except for this:
open quote DeepAstronomy.com

If you want to use my stuff, you can't. At least, not without contacting me first. close quote

I'm too lazy.

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daily Saturday, October 28, 2006

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dixie chicks ashamedThe Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn't Want You To See

open quote Think Progress - The Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn't Want You To See

NBC is refusing to air an ad for the new Dixie Chicks documentary, "Shut Up & Sing." Variety reports, "NBC's commercial clearance department said in writing that it 'cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.'"

ThinkProgress has obtained the ad NBC doesn't want you to see.

More on Shut Up and Sing, including when it comes to your city, HERE. close quote

More, with 376 Comments at the moment. Film critics are loving the Shut Up and Sing movie. And... Texas? How about Planet Earth?

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daily Tuesday, October 24, 2006

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what is yet to come will be even greaterOlbermann on GOP Fearmongering

open quote Crooks and Liars » Olbermann's Special Comment on GOP Fearmongering

Keith issued arguably his most powerful Special Comment yet tonight. This time he takes on the GOP's newest fearmongering ad which quotes Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri superimposed over pictures of explosions with the sound of a ticking bomb in the background. As if that wasn't enough, it's topped off with the cryptic message echoing LBJ's 1960 "Daisy" ad that ran just once: These are the stakes.
video and transcript  close quote

In case you can't read the text on the snapshot, it's "What is yet to come will be even greater".

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daily Monday, October 23, 2006

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desolation rowpainting the passports brown

So I was reading this thread at reddit:
open quote To which country should I immigrate? (reddit.com)

316 comments at the moment close quote

And of course Desolation Row came to mind.

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dub asleep at the wheelBush for Dummies: "We've Never Been Stay The Course"

open quote Think Progress » Bush: "We've Never Been Stay The Course"

During an interview today on ABC's This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years. George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker's plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is "between 'stay the course' and 'cut and run.'"

Bush responded, 'We've never been stay the course, George!' more, with thankfully short video close quote


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daily Sunday, October 22, 2006

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New politics of US by county - blues, reds and... greens?

new map of us counties by politics

It's strange how in many places state borders are definite boundaries for these polled preferences.

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daily Friday, October 20, 2006

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make Beelzebub soil his underpants

iggy pop guitar sidefill needs
open quote Iggy Pop's concert rider funniest in rock history?

OCTOBER 4-- As if you need another reason to love Iggy Pop, the veteran rocker (and his band The Stooges) have the single most entertaining concert rider TSG has ever obtained. The document--all 18 pages of which you'll find below--describes Iggy's requirements in terms of amplifiers, security, lighting, stage set up, and dressing rooms. But unlike most similar documents, Iggy's rider is written in a rollicking, stream-of-consciousness fashion that delivers multiple laughs per page. Apparently written by roadie Jos Grain, the Iggy rider is peppered with witty gems, tasteless asides, and typos. close quote


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Lords of the Logistic

lords of the logistic

This is a page of strictly photos taken somewhere in Asia. I just realized when I sent this link in email to a few folks, some of them are VEGETARIAN. Omnivore that I am, I still was revolted by a few. My bad.

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daily Thursday, October 19, 2006

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cannabisTHC to prevent/help Alzheimer's? Far Out! [CNN]

open quote CNN.com - Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer's - Oct 5, 2006

Good news for aging hippies: Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer's patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. more  close quote

I was going to say something here. Hmmm.

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mission accomplishedHow long can Olbermann still Habeus his Corpus?

Keith Olbermann on the signing of the Military Commissions Act:
open quote Crooks and Liars » Countdown Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus: "Your words are lies, Sir."

By: John Amato

Keith Olbermann has been calling it like it is. His "Special Comments" are indeed special because no other talking head outside of Cafferty is willing to step up to the plate and say what needs to be said on 24/7. "Your words are lies, Sir." They are lies, that imperil us all.' Sounds about right to me. full transcript and video close quote


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diebold for bush/cheney 2004Ask not at whom the chimp smirks - he smirks at you

As usual there are some great pieces over at The Smirking Chimp - News And Commentary from the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy:
open quote Reflections on the Eve of Another Rigged Election

The Bush administration can not allow the Democrats to take control of either house of Congress. And they are in a position to prevent it, regardless of the will of the American voters.

These are the two controlling facts that make all other conditions of the coming election trivial in comparison, or even irrelevant. The failure of the media and even the Democratic Party to acknowledge and deal with these facts in no way diminishes their significance. Quite the contrary.

George Bush Will Live in Infamy for What He Has Done to Iraq

161 dead. 83 dead. 53 dead. 16 tortured. 17 decapitated. Shiite doctors dumping the bodies of Sunni patients they have murdered. Burn marks. Executions. Torture chambers. Revenge killings. Family members shot in front of their wives and children.

These are all the headlines from Iraq in just the last couple of days.

If this isn't a civil war, what in the world is? Anywhere from 50,000-650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last three and half years. Let that sink in for a second. That's a gigantic number. The human toll in Iraq has been unspeakable. And none of it had to happen. This was a war of choice. And it has been one of the worst choices ever made by a world leader. close quote

Oh, and along those rigged election lines, remember Ohio's Ken Blackwell in 2004? Check this:
Daily Kos: ACTION ALERT: Blackwell purged Ohio Voter Rolls Oct 1st.- Vote Early.

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daily Wednesday, October 18, 2006

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madness zone of we feel fineWe Feel Fine (sure...)

This is an amazing JAVA applet that "harvests" and displays bloggers' feelings when their post includes either "I feel" or "I am feeling". Playing with the appropriately named "Madness" zone (snap right), I am feeling dizzy, and I wonder if this will be harvested. In Madness, double-click on a colored dot...
open quote We Feel Fine / mission

We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.

Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved. more Mission

We Feel Fine / Movements

Madness, the first movement, opens with a wildly swarming mass of around 1,500 particles, emanating from the center of the screen and then careening outwards, bouncing off walls and reacting to the behavior of the mouse. Each particle represents a single feeling, posted by a single individual. The color of each particle corresponds to the tone of the feeling inside – happy positive feelings are bright yellow, sad negative feelings are dark blue, angry feelings are bright red, calm feelings are pale green, and so on. The size of each particle represents the length of the sentence contained within. Circular particles are sentences. Rectangular particles contain pictures. more Movements close quote


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daily Tuesday, October 17, 2006

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flash earth menu and compassFlash Earth Maps - excellent!

Extremely cool mapping site! A semi-mash-up of Google Maps, MS Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, Ask Maps, OpenLayers (didn't work for me) and NASA Terra. Zoom in on somewhere you'd like to see using one mapping service, then select a different one. Fast! Very interesting differences. Then, for instant weirdness, mouse down and pull the Compass around.

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daily Monday, October 16, 2006

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Diebold truck with Bush/Cheney 2004 stickerDiebold Truck With Bush/Cheney 2004 Sticker

This is a composite thumbnail I made, if that isn't obvious. Click here for the full photo.

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ron kovic at anti-iraq demoRon Kovic: Breaking the Silence of the Night

Yes, that Ron Kovic, Born on the Fourth of July, brave as always:
open quote When will we end this silence? How much longer will we wait before we are ready to finally admit that the murderer lives in our own house, that this government that we entrusted long ago with the sacred task of protecting life and liberty now, by it's every reckless, unjust and immoral action threatens the lives and liberty of us all?

Have we become so complacent, so cowardly and intimidated by this government that we have forgotten our own revolutionary birthright of rebellion and dissent? Have we become so paralyzed by the eleventh of September that we would give up our liberty and freedom for the promise of a security that does not exist by a government that now threatens our very lives? What will it take before we finally realize the true reality of this crisis? How many more terrorist attacks, senseless wars, flag draped caskets, grieving mothers, paraplegics, amputees, stressed out sons and daughters before we finally begin to break the silence of this shameful night? Let us open up our hearts and speak in a way we have never spoken before knowing that lives now depend on it, and the very survival of our nation is now at stake. Let not our silence in this crucial moment betray us from our destiny. more close quote


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wesley clarkWes Clark - Call To Arms [Daily Kos]

open quote Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Europe and retired Four Star General, Wes Clark, giving a call to arms about the dire state of our democracy. Please watch. Clark gives chilling first hand accounts of the Neo-Con strategy to take us to war with one billion Muslims. close quote

This ends up going to a YouTube video of Clark giving a speech recently stumping for Dems in Iowa. I'd link to it directly but the comment thread at Kos is also worth a link, so two for one. As much as I think Clark is overly simple on 9/11, I can't help but admire the man's acuity and directness. He is a bracing alternative to Washington corruption, and I'd vote for him for president in a heartbeat. Oddly, I couldn't get in through the front door of his own site, but here's a good way in -- Clark Flys Under National Media Radar For Dems In 06

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daily Saturday, October 14, 2006

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stalin on vote countingAMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM whole film posted

I posted about this film back in July, here's the AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM website for all the info, but it only has trailers. Now the whole long feature-length film has been released in four parts here. The quote back in July bears repeating:
open quote CBS News: Four Stars (Highest Rating).
The Scariest Damn Film You'll See This Year

It will leave you staggering out of the theatre, slack-jawed and trembling. Makes 'Fahrenheit 9/11' look like 'Bambi.' After watching this movie, your comfy, secure notions about America -- and about what it means to be an American -- will be forever shattered. Producer/director Aaron Russo and the folks at Cinema Libre Studio deserve to be heralded as heroes of a post-modern New American Revolution. This is shocking stuff. You'll be angry, you'll be disgusted, but you may actually break out in a cold sweat and feel a sickness deep in your gut; I would advise movie theatre managers to hand out vomit bags. You may end up needing one.
--- Todd David Schwartz, CBS close quote


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olbermann crossing of bill of rightsKeith O. on murder of habeus corpus [YouTube]

open quote COUNTDOWN has learned that habeas corpus actually predates the Constitution, meaning it's not just pre-September 11 thinking, it's also July 4th thinking. (SIC, he actually said 'pre-July 4th')

In this those days, no one could have imagined that enemy combatants might one day attack Americans on native soil (shot of redcoats shooting colonists). In fact, COUNTDOWN has obtained a partially redacted copy of a colonial "declaration", indicating that back then, depriving us of trial by jury was actually considered sufficient cause to start a war of independence based on the, then fashionable idea that "liberty" was an inalienable right.

But too today, thanks to modern post-9/11 thinking, those rights are now fully alienable - for your protection.

The reality is without habeas corpus, a lot of other rights lose their meaning. But if you look at the actual Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments of that pesky Constitution, you'll see just how many remain for your protection.

OK, No. 1 is gone. I mean, if you're detained without trial, you lose your freedom of religion and speech, press, assembly, all the rest of that. So, you don't need that any more.

And you know, you can't petition the government for anything. close quote

Then he works his way through the other nine. Here's the transcript, about halfway through.

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daily Friday, October 13, 2006

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chopped liver omphalosEvolution, Ice Cream, and The Goddess of Chopped Liver

Just the chapter synopses in Pickover's new book are inspiring:
open quote A Beginner's Guide to Immortality: Extraordinary People, Alien Brains, and Quantum Resurrection

Chapter 7 Evolution, Ice Cream, and The Goddess of Chopped Liver

In which we encounter Sylvia Weinberger, chopped-liver, God's laryngeal nerve, Reuben Mattus, "prochronic" events, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, the Reese Candy Company, livers in myth, foie gras, Liver-Eating Johnston, Silence of the Lambs, Attack of the Liver Eaters, "Merrye Syndrome," liver evolution, liver divination, intelligent design, creationism, molecules in space, the emergence of life and new species, monkeys typing the Bible, Robert Ardrey's killer ape, mosquitoes, flowers, polyploidy, beetle engineering, poodles and wolves, fecund enclaves of subterranean creatures, the Omphalosian view of reality, Philip Henry Gosse, John C. Whitcomb, Arkansas Act 590, abortion, escape ovulation, zygotes, hepatoscopy, Etruscans, haruspimancy, the liver and the "butterfly effect," divination, and Shakespeare. close quote


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galapagos marine iguanaSURVIVOR: Galápagos Islands, The Rapture will be next

One day I went looking for photos of iguanas at Google Images, thinking it might make a great wallpaper. Iggy, over at Ocean 444 Field Experiments In The Galápagos - Tamra Dickson was the best I found. Incredible! Then I decided I'd like the upper background in black instead of bright white, so I fiddled that.

It took a bit of work. The black fill bled into his "horns" where sunlight glinted, so I had to give some of them a more definite edge. Then, there remained a lot of stray gray jpg artefacts to fill in. It came out perfect very nice. Anyway, I resized it down from 2592x1944 and now I have it as my 1152 desktop. Thanks, Tamra. You can see and grab my version here, it's only 225k. But Caveat Emptor, I did have an alligator-infested nightmare two nights ago... maybe I'm seeing my desktop too much?

Then, this morning, this shows up in my bit bucket:
What would happen if humans disappeared from Earth today?
I have a feeling that if nuke-you-lar war broke out, or some apocalypse (The Rapture?) Iggy would be fine...

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daily Wednesday, October 11, 2006

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Electra RAT FINK bikeOil wars, gas prices, expanding waistlines - COMMUTER BICYCLES!

Here's an idea whose time has come is long past due:
open quote American bike makers eye commuter market with new models

A radical idea is sweeping the world of American bicycle manufacturing: building bikes that people will use for actual transportation.

After decades of pushing models designed for recreation, from full-suspension mountain bikes to ever-faster road bikes, industry heavyweights are now moving into commuters -- rugged specimens made for riding to work. Nearly every major manufacturer has a new or revised commuter model for 2007.

[...]

The commuter category is already starting to subdivide and blur. Some models, with names like Continental and Amsterdam, are influenced by European styles. "We really wanted to capture the feeling and essence and aesthetics of the classic Dutch bike," says Jeano Erforth, co-founder of Electra Bicycle Co. Like many Dutch versions, its $550 Amsterdam... more  close quote

I thought that Electra Amsterdam sounded interesting, so over to Electra, where I couldn't find that specific model, but they do have a lot of great looking commuter bikes. Not really including the Rat Fink, but I couldn't resist.

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word swords - samurai swordsWord Swords, by Don Horton

It's spuddy day here in the cellar. Old friend and writer/composer/visual artist Don Horton will be giving a reading this Sunday, October 15th, at the Smith College Library at 4PM. He's got a hilarious 6MB streaming mp3 recording of his Word Swords here. Believe me, this is just the tip of the iceberg:
open quote Word Swords from a Reading at Smith College, November 2002

"Wool pool or wool pool," she'd say.

"Snow plow or snow plow," I'd answer.

"Warm harm or warm harm," she'd counter.

"Come home or come home," I'd parry. close quote


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ö

Heart of Darkness from space

earth lights globe europe africa

Link sent to me by old buddy Jake, What A Beautiful Blue Planet! The page is full of great Earth-from-space views. I've always seen this Earth-lights view before as a flat 2D view. There are several of these globes there. Seems that Heart of Darkness (Wikipedia) is still with us.

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daily Monday, October 09, 2006

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stephen colbertQUIZ: who said what, either Stephen Colbert or Ann Coulter?

Over at New York magazine there's a seven-page new piece - Stephen Colbert Has America by the Ballots. On the fourth page there's a quiz:
open quote During one taping I attended, Colbert did a bit about eating disorders that ended with his addressing the camera and saying flatly, "Girls, if we can't see your ribs, you're ugly." The audience laughed. I laughed. The line was obviously, purposefully outrageous. But it was weird to think that this no-doubt self-identified progressive-liberal crowd was howling at a line that, if it had been delivered verbatim by Ann Coulter on Today, would have them sputtering with rage.

In fact, here's a list of statements by either Stephen Colbert or Ann Coulter. See if you can tell who said what (answers are at the end of the story):

1. "Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."

2. "There's nothing wrong with being gay. I have plenty of friends who are going to hell."

3. "I just think Rosa Parks was overrated. Last time I checked, she got famous for breaking the law."

4. "Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity, as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'Kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and answer to the name Muhammad.' "

5. "I believe that everyone has the right to their own religion, be you Hindu, Muslim, or Jewish. I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior."

6. "[North Korea] is a major threat. I just think it would be fun to nuke them and have it be a warning to the rest of the world."

7. "Isn't an agnostic just an atheist without balls?" answers close quote


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daily Sunday, October 08, 2006


daily Saturday, October 07, 2006

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flog (golf) in second lifeSecond Life is the new golf Flog
open quote Second Life is the New Golf

Golf has come to Second Life... close quote

I just downloaded Second Life for maybe the 4th time, still have yet to install it.

Quick Flash Intro

Profile on Aussie TV at YouTube

Your Second Life is Ready - Popular Science article

If you've hung around here in the cellar a while, you know I like to play Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf on my computer. Ironic, eh? Golf, in "real life" a game for the rich, the "well off" or at least those willing to sacrifice other expenses and time commitments. Not exactly for the usual tuber suspects. Oh well, it's diverting from being engaged with all the depressing "real life" junk.

Anyway, after playing Tiger quite a bit online against other live players from around the world, maybe I'm just afraid of how immersive Second Life could get.

So, I just wondered if there's any golf in Second Life. Whaddya know! They call it Flog. Uh-oh, maybe I really shouldn't install the game.

Now, Tiger Woods has a great interface for creating and customizing the look of your golfer, but it pales beside Second Life, where you don't even have to be human. Although, for golf, it might help to have at least two hands... =8^b

Second Life is also great if you're into 3-D modelling. For instance, Suzanne Vega gave a concert in Second Life, but needed a guitar modded up. Here's a video of the process.

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daily Friday, October 06, 2006

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it's the COMMA, stupidIraq a Comma? Maybe if the book is this... [Jon Stewart - YouTube]

If you missed it, Bush said to Wolf Blitzer, "I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma..." So at one point, Jon says, "Comma? Maybe if the book is this..."

Daily Show: What Exactly Is President Bush's Job? Bush: My Job is to do My Job.
open quote Jon has come to the conclusion that Bush's job approval rating is so dismal that the reason has to be that Americans just don't know exactly what his job is. So, using the Bush's own words, Jon digs into the Presidential vault and tries to answer this pressing question.

Jon also touches on the $20 million Iraq/Afghanistan War celebration appropriation and Bush's comma remark. close quote


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daily Wednesday, October 04, 2006

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mark foley, DEM on fox o'reillyFOX 'NEWS' LABELS FOLEY AS DEM DURING O'REILLY [Brad Blog]

open quote INCREDIBLE! FOX 'NEWS' LABELS FOLEY AS DEM DURING O'REILLY FACTOR!

Three Different Video Cutaways, 15 Seconds or More Each, Credit Disgraced REPUBLICAN Congressman as Being a Florida DEMOCRAT!

UPDATE: 'Erroneous' Caption Scrubbed from Late-night O'Reilly Rebroadcasts Without Explanation!

Just amazing. Fox's O'Reilly Factor just covered the Mark Foley (R-FL) issue in two different segments, one of them with a page who says he received communications from Foley, and another with Ann Coulter.

Never mind the content of either segment for now. Incredibly, during a total of three different cutaways to video footage of Foley, he was labelled at the bottom of the screen eachtime as "(D-FL)" !

Three different times. In two different segements. Each cutaway about 15 seconds or more. Showing Foley as a DEMOCRAT. Amazing. more close quote

Check out this funny take at Daily Kos on how it could happen.

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OCTOBER 5TH PROTESTPROTEST TOMORROW, OCT 5TH- The World Can't Wait!

open quote The World Can't Wait! Drive Out The Bush Regime

On October 5, people everywhere will walk out of school, take off work, and come to the downtowns & townsquares and set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to join us - making a powerful statement: "NO! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US! AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!"

Can a regime headed in a fascist direction be driven from power?
What You Can Do to Make October 5 a Success...
Download flyer to distribute and find more organizing materials, Oct. 5 checklist
What should the character of Oct. 5 protests be?

Momentum builds for Oct. 5 :
190 protests now planned - including many in the "red states"; 11 in Florida, 13 in North Carolina, 13 in Florida more close quote

There are a lot of great folks behind this, as you'll see on the site but even more so on the YouTube video.

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daily Tuesday, October 03, 2006

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naked denialCost of Iraq War could cost us $2 trillion

I for one, and I think most people, have a lot of trouble getting my head around even $331 BILLION plus (as of today), never mind $2 TRILLION dollars. Here's the ongoing counter and some info about the conservative dollar count from Cost of War.com:
open quote 
Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)



National Priorities Project Cost of Iraq War Notes and Sources

The numbers include military and non-military spending, such as reconstruction. Spending only includes incremental costs, additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers' regular pay is not included, but combat pay is included. Potential future costs, such as future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war, are not included. It is also not clear whether the current funding will cover all military wear and tear. It also does not account for the Iraq War being deficit-financed and that taxpayers will need to make additional interest payments on the national debt due to those deficits. more notes and sources close quote

You can also check state, city, county and congressional district taxpayer costs.

Then there's this:
open quote Bush's shameful folly in Iraq could cost us $2 trillion

According to an analysis by professor Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School at Harvard and professor Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University, if you use government assumptions about the size of troop strength over the coming years, the war will cost us $1 trillion in direct budgetary outlays. Then, they say, add another trillion dollars for the war's adverse impact on our economy, such things as the loss of economic services by the men and women disabled during the war, the increase in the price of oil and other macroeconomic factors.

Bilmes says that most people have trouble understanding the scale of $2 trillion. To grasp the number, she says, one should think of it like this: "One billion seconds equal 32 years; 1 trillion seconds equal 300 centuries." more close quote


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daily Sunday, October 01, 2006

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must be the BEST of timesphysics: the best of times or the worst of times? [new yorker]

open quote It is the best of times in physics. Physicists are on the verge of obtaining the long-sought Theory of Everything. In a few elegant equations, perhaps concise enough to be emblazoned on a T-shirt, this theory will reveal how the universe began and how it will end. The key insight is that the smallest constituents of the world are not particles, as had been supposed since ancient times, but "strings" - tiny strands of energy. By vibrating in different ways, these strings produce the essential phenomena of nature, the way violin strings produce musical notes. String theory isn't just powerful; it's also mathematically beautiful. All that remains to be done is to write down the actual equations. This is taking a little longer than expected...

[...]

It is the worst of times in physics. For more than a generation, physicists have been chasing a will-o'-the-wisp called string theory. The beginning of this chase marked the end of what had been three-quarters of a century of progress. Dozens of string-theory conferences have been held, hundreds of new Ph.D.s have been minted, and thousands of papers have been written. Yet, for all this activity, not a single new testable prediction has been made, not a single theoretical puzzle has been solved. close quote


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walking motor proteinThe Inner Life of a Cell

This is an amazing eight-minute Flash animation from BioVisions at Harvard. Since it's not narrated I had no idea what anything was, but things go by pretty fast, not much time for narration anyway.
open quote ... the animation illustrates unseen molecular mechanisms and the ones they trigger, specifically how white blood cells sense and respond to their surroundings and external stimuli.

Nuclei, proteins and lipids move with bug-like authority, slithering, gliding and twisting through 3D space. "All of those things that you see in the animation are going on in every one of your cells in your body all the time,"

[...]

I've been in the medical animation field for seven years now, so I'm a little jaded, but I still get surprised by things. For instance, in the animation there's a motor protein that's sort of walking along a line, carrying this round sphere of lipids. When I started working on that section I admit I was kind of surprised to see that it really does look like it's out for a stroll, like a character in a science fiction film or animation. But based on all the data, it's a completely accurate rendering. close quote


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daily Saturday, September 30, 2006

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map of blue versus red on torture voteGovTrack map of torture vote, in reverse

Maps in red and blue again, this time of H.R. 6166: Military Commissions Act of 2006 (Vote On Passage). Looks familiar eh, but just a bit off, so I emailed the site people this:
open quote I'm looking at GovTrack: H.R. 6166: Military Commissions Act of 2006 (Vote On Passage)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2006-491

It makes me wonder why the Ayes are in Blue and the Nays in Red, quite the opposite of the usual Red/Blue voting scheme all over the web the last few years. close quote

So I fixed it the way I think it should be represent.

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global hot spotsOne degree and we're done for [New Scientist]

open quote "Further global warming of 1°C defines a critical threshold. Beyond that we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know."

So says Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Hansen and colleagues have analysed global temperature records and found that surface temperatures have been increasing by an average of 0.2°C every decade for the past 30 years. Warming is greatest in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, particularly in the sub-Arctic boreal forests of Siberia and North America. Here the melting of ice and snow is exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight and increase warming, creating a positive feedback.

Earth is already as warm as at any time in the last 10,000 years, and is within 1°C of being its hottest for a million years, says Hansen's team. Another decade of business-as-usual carbon emissions will probably make it too late to prevent the ecosystems of the north from triggering runaway climate change, the study concludes (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p 14288). more close quote

As the saying goes, Cooking with Gas.

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cogito ergo yamIn Case I Disappear [t r u t h o u t]

open quote By William Rivers Pitt
Friday 29 September 2006

I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. "Be careful," people always tell me. "These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren't being followed." A running joke between my mother and me is that she has a "safe room" set up for me in her cabin in the woods, in the event I have to flee because of something I wrote or said.

I always laughed and shook my head whenever I heard this stuff. Extreme paranoia wrapped in the tinfoil of conspiracy, I thought. This is still America, and these Bush fools will soon pass into history, I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn't yet been red-lined, I thought.

Matters are different now. more close quote

I'm just glad I never, ever, post anything that could cause me to worry.

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daily Friday, September 29, 2006

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jumper cablesThe Onion takes on torture

open quote Senate Wins Fight To Lower Allowable Amperage Levels On Detainees' Testicles

WASHINGTON, DC - Led by a bipartisan group of senators critical of White House policy on suspected terrorists, the Senate passed a bill Thursday that prohibits interrogators from exceeding 100 amps per testicle when questioning detainees. more sickness close quote

This might be funny if it weren't so gut wrenching.

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human lemmings at cliffMy Country 'Tis NOT of Thee

Sometimes the New York Times gets it right. Rushing Off a Cliff:
open quote ... It was only after the Supreme Court issued the inevitable ruling striking down Mr. Bush's shadow penal system that he adopted his tone of urgency. It serves a cynical goal: Republican strategists think they can win this fall, not by passing a good law but by forcing Democrats to vote against a bad one so they could be made to look soft on terrorism.

[great summary of the detainee legislation]

If there was ever a moment for a filibuster, this was it.

We don't blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they'll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

They'll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy... close quote

BTW, here's the FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 491 in the House. The Senate passed it too. Here is their roll call.

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daily Thursday, September 28, 2006

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war criminals to gitmoHow About Sending These War Criminals to Guantanamo!

This story HAS to be fiction, doesn't it? No matter, as long as it feels so right, I have FAITH in it:
open quote There is an interesting story behind the photo on this sticker.

To get this photo, I went to the Crawford Ranch in Texas. I didn't know if Bush was at the ranch, but I figured the odds were about 50/50. I explained to the guard that I was the official Bush vacation photographer. He asked for my credentials and I showed him my driver's license and a backstage pass to a Dixie Chicks concert. I had bought the pass on eBay, but I didn't tell the guard that. Then he saw my camera and tripod on the seat and opened the gate. Maybe it was my cowboy hat that did the trick.

After that, everyone pretty much just assumed that I belonged in the compound. I parked near the shooting range which, I noticed, was roped off with police tape. This worried me a little.

But it turned out everything was OK. I found the guys in the pool hall. Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney were goofing off, trying to see who could balance the most balls on their faces. The key to the trick seemed to be holding one ball in your mouth while squinting to hold two more balls in your eye sockets. gets better close quote


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is this modelled after Song Hye-Kyo?Very impressive Realistic Female CG Image

Found the link (and comments) at Unbelievably Realistic CG Image! EVAR & all that (reddit.com). Is it modelled on Song Hye-kyo?? If this interests you, you're going to love where it's hosted - The Computer Graphics Society.

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diabetes in US, 1980-2002Pandemic Diabetes And Depleted Uranium

I HAVE Diabetes, with a sudden onset out of the blue around Feb 1, 1996. Even though I've guessed that I must have been (?) pre-diabetic anyway, and that it was triggered by a stressful event at the time, perhaps not, or at least this is a new angle to consider for me and countless others. I first saw this rant piece over here, but the more interesting page with EVIDENCE and more is over there:
open quote The global pandemic of diabetes which is increasing each year, began with the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The resulting global atmospheric pollution has resulted in a diabetes pandemic caused by hundreds of thousands of pounds of vaporized depleted uranium used in atomic and hydrogen bombs as "tamping", fission products from nuclear power plants, and the illegal use of depleted uranium radioactive poison gas weapons introduced to the battlefield by the US in 1991. Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and now Lebanon are now uninhabitable. Israel soon will be.

Depleted uranium is being used to carry out an illegal nuclear war against countries with mineral resources the British Economic Empire and US Economic Empire must control. The huge global increase in diabetes between 1996-97 is indicative of a global environmental event. more rant close quote

She's not the only one saying it, not by a long shot. Google diabetes "depleted uranium".

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daily Wednesday, September 27, 2006

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dylan - highway 61BEST Song of the last 40, no 41 years

I nominate Desolation Row from Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited album.
open quote Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood
With his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago
With his friend, a jealous monk
He looked so immaculately frightful
As he bummed a cigarette
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes
And reciting the alphabet
Now you would not think to look at him
But he was famous long ago close quote

You Must listen to the whole song again to know. Or not.

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NORAD LOGO negativeSenior Military, Intelligence, and Government Critics of 9/11 Commission Report

open quote Many well known and respected senior members of the U.S. intelligence services, military, and government have publicly expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report. Several even allege government complicity in the terrible acts of 9/11.

This web site is an effort to collect and summarize these public statements and make them easily accessible. It should be made clear that none of these individuals are associated with this website.

Listed below are highly critical statements about the 9/11 Commission Report and/or calls for a new 9/11 investigation publicly made by 53 of these individuals. Their collective voices give credibility to the claim that the 9/11 Commission Report is tragically flawed. These individuals cannot be simply dismissed as irresponsible believers in some 9/11 conspiracy theory. Their sincere concern, backed by their decades of service to their country, demonstrate that criticism of the Report is not irresponsible, illogical, nor disloyal, per se. In fact, it can be just the opposite. close quote


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daily Tuesday, September 26, 2006

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where i am47 miles of barbed wire away, not bad

Just in case you wonder, "where am I AT", you're in luck, if the kidnappers left you with your laptop, sort of... this thing found me here, about 47 miles of barbed wire away, not bad. THE MAN!

As The Presurfer says:
open quote Where Am I is a Google Map displaying where you are using your IP number. When you go to the site, it immediately recognizes where you are. If it doesn't, you have the opportunity to tell them where you are. close quote


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daily Monday, September 25, 2006

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muslims protesting benedict's speechNostradamus scholar John Hogue: POPE BENEDICT XVI IGNITES ISLAM

I subscribe to the mailing list of John Hogue - "Author of 9 books, 1,000,000 in print in 17 languages, 'Rogue' scholar, world authority on Nostradamus and the prophetic traditions of the world". Today's missive may or may not ever end up on his own site, probably not, so I've reproduced it in full here. It's a bracing antidote to the papal apologia at ANTIWAR.COM I recently linked to:
open quote THE PROPHECY OF SAINT MALACHY ASKS:
Will He be a Peace Maker Or an Apocalypse Maker?

Friends,
What a canonical kafuffle.

Pope Benedict XVI in his speech at the University of Regensburg, Germany, this September 2006, has opened very old medieval wounds lingering under the thin skin of Muslims across the Middle East. Moderate and immoderate followers of Islam still harbor (some say perpetuate) a will to sharp grievance against Western political or religious leaders that even remotely disrespect the faith of Islam. Part of the problem may be the tin ear Christians and this pontiff in particular turn towards a majority of Muslims who still want Christians to atone for the Christian Crusades. They see the Crusades as a kind of Islamic "Holocaust" inflicted upon Muslims in the Near East and North Africa in nine bloody invasions spanning two centuries of the high Middle Ages (1096-1291). Lest a pope forgets, Muslims are at pains to remind each succeeding, infallible Vicar of Christ that a pope hatched the idea of Crusades.

It was Pope Urban II in 1095 who conceived a plan that could kill two heresies with one siege tower stone. An infestation of unemployed knights crowded European Christendom in the 11th century. They had pacified the Maygars, the Vikings had converted, leaving a whole lot of fighting men without gainful "war-full" employ. Your local brigand committing mortal sins raping and pillaging good Christians was more often than not a chain mailed knight of "chivalry" on the dole. Pope Urban in his prayers conjured a "Deo"-bolical idea. Why not motivate these killers to girdle their willful violence for a divine cause? Why not let them loose on the people of Islam, and in so doing, kill a whole lot of infidels while taking back Jerusalem and the Holy Land for Christ?

Holy war, batman! Holy Templar tantrums! What a concept! more close quote


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daily Sunday, September 24, 2006

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jeff han light boxMulti-Touch Computer Interaction [Flash]

No, not cyber-dildonics, but this is great. Remember in MINORITY REPORT, how Tom Cruise manipulated a screen with data gloves? How about the whole two-hands, 10 fingers thing without gloves? Then think about multiple users working the same screen... I snapped this "photographer's light box application" because it may be the easiest to grok as a still. It looks like a light box, but it's a large computer display. He's moving the photos around with his fingers, also resizing, warping etc. This is a narrated demo Jeff gave at TED.

And from Jeff's NYU page, with a great musical Quicktime:
open quote Multi-Touch Interaction Research

While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops. close quote


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baggy overalls falling offParolee running from cops felled by baggy pants

I just saw this link and visited: Fireflies in the Cloud: The top 10 ugliest, most embarrassing fashion trends of the past 25 years. Number Two is "Baggy Pants/clothes that are falling off". There's actually an interesting (and related to this story) theory over there about where this originated. And all this time I thought the droopy drawers krewe were just copying my own involuntary sag. Anyway, that jogged my memory of something I heard on the radio the other day:
open quote Looking back, Johnny Camel might have wanted to invest in a belt.

The Salinas man was allegedly attempting to run from California Highway Patrol officers last week when his baggy pants fell down around his ankles, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Officers had stopped Camel, 37, at about 4:30 a.m. Friday at Work Street and John Street in Salinas for minor traffic violations when Camel suddenly jumped from his sedan and started to run, Officer Jeramie Bowen said. Officers yelled for Camel to stop, but he glanced over his shoulder and kept going.

But he made it only about 100 feet before his pants -- and then Camel himself -- dropped to the ground.

That made officers' work much easier: Camel was arrested without further incident. close quote


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thomas jefferson"it's unacceptable to think..." Keith Olbermann demands an apology from Dub [YouTube]

Keith, at least you're saying what needs to be heard. From the transcript:
open quote Bush owes us an apology

Bush: "If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic," Bush said. "It's just -- I simply can't accept that. It's unacceptable to think..."

[...]

Olbermann: If Mr. Powell's letter -- cautionary, concerned, predominantly supportive -- can induce from you such wrath and such intolerance, what would you say were this statement to be shouted to you by a reporter, or written to you by a colleague?

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.

Those incendiary thoughts came, of course, from a prior holder of your job, Mr. Bush.

They were the words of Thomas Jefferson.

He put them in the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Bush, what would you say to something that anti-thetical to the status quo just now?

Would you call it "unacceptable" for Jefferson to think such things, or to write them? more close quote



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daily Saturday, September 23, 2006

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laser induced plasma channelTesla coil to shoot US Demonstrators

open quote The Blog | RJ Eskow: Future Shock: Evidence of Plans to Torture US Demonstrators | The Huffington Post

Remember this story from last week? "The Air Force secretary says nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before they are used on the battlefield." It's worse than we heard ... much worse. These weapons, which cause "intolerable pain" and have been condemned by scientists as mass torture devices, may be coming soon to a demonstration near you. And there are stranger and more lethal weapons where these came from.

The Secretary, Michael Wynne, is a longtime exec at defense contractor General Dynamics - a fox now in charge of the henhouse. The weapon he was describing is "intended to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds," as described in this Australian newspaper account.

And guess which company is one of the world's leaders in military microwave technology? General Dynamics. So you can rest assured that Wynne's very knowledgeable about this technology's intended use here and abroad, both by the military and other agencies.

Microwave beam devices are just one of a number of new weapons under development that could be used against US crowds. This article in Defense Update magazine describes the variety of anti-personnel energy weapons being developed by the Department of Defense. These include the Laser Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) pictured above, which can "work like 'artificial lightning' to disable human targets" and "can be adjusted for non-lethal or lethal use." more punishment close quote

It took a microsecond to see this particlar thing, an "Ionotron", as a discharging Tesla coil, only laser-tripwired and laser-guided. Old Nikola is turning in his grave.

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daily Friday, September 22, 2006

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chavez at u.n.Hugo Chavez Interview, by Greg Palast

In case you missed it, at the UN General Assembly he just called Bush a "devil", said that Bush had showed up at the U.N. "talking as if he were the owner of the world, and that "the chamber still smelled of sulfur" after Bush's appearance. Who does this guy think he is?
open quote Hugo Chavez Interview | The Progressive

You'd think George Bush would get down on his knees and kiss Hugo Chavez's behind. Not only has Chavez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer: Chavez would drop the price of oil to $50 a barrel, "not too high, a fair price," he said - a third less than the $75 a barrel for oil recently posted on the spot market. That would bring down the price at the pump by about a buck, from $3 to $2 a gallon.

But our President has basically told Chavez to take his cheaper oil and stick it up his pipeline. Before I explain why Bush has done so, let me explain why Chavez has the power to pull it off - and the method in the seeming madness of his "take-my-oil-please!" deal.

Venezuela, Chavez told me, has more oil than Saudi Arabia. A nutty boast? Not by a long shot. In fact, his surprising claim comes from a most surprising source: the U.S. Department of Energy. In an internal report, the DOE estimates that Venezuela has five times the Saudis' reserves. more close quote


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baked alaskaCold Poached Salmon and Baked Alaska on Global Menu

open quote Greenland's Ice Melt Accelerating

BOULDER, Colorado, September 21, 2006 (ENS) - Greenland's ice sheet is melting faster than previously thought, according to research published Wednesday by U.S. scientists. The data shows the rate of loss accelerated from 2004 to 2006, with the massive ice sheet melting two and one-half times faster than the previous two-year period.

[...]

But unlike sea ice, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet has the potentially to dramatically affect sea levels.

Greenland harbors about 10 percent of the world's freshwater in its ice sheet, which is up to two miles thick in places. Scientists estimate that if the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, the world's oceans would rise more than 20 feet.

[...]

Scientists believe that large amounts of freshwater purged from Greenland's eastern coast could help to weaken the counterclockwise flow of the North Atlantic Current, lowering water and wind temperatures and potentially triggering abrupt cooling events in northern Europe. more close quote


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four horsemenEnd Timers bankrolling West Bank entrenchment

This in today from Peter Gersten: "Now I understand our government's denial of global warming. If plagues, famines, wars, devils, wild beasts, and rivers of blood are just around the corner - there is no reason to be concerned about a little warm weather if only the non-believers will be here to feel the heat." Much is familiar, but I didn't know this:
open quote The Doomsday Code

End Timers parade through the streets of Jerusalem and take large amounts of cash to illegal West Bank settlements to encourage the residents to entrench themselves more deeply on this Palestinian land. In Jerusalem itself, Jews are being bankrolled by Christian fundamentalists to reside in Arab houses. The End Timers think that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke ('was removed from the scene') because he wanted to give back some of the Palestinian land. more close quote


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daily Wednesday, September 20, 2006

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guiliani9/11 Truth: What Happened to WTC Building 7 [YouTube]

Interesting video. I hadn't heard before of Giuliani saying he aware the towers would be coming down before they did. Still, this focuses on Building 7, and covers a decent amount of territory. But it didn't mention the gold I'd thought I heard was stashed under 7, so a quick search took me to this, A King's Ransom in Precious Metals Seems to Have Disappeared. Then, drilling up from that page, I found this one:
open quote 9-11 Anomalies

Anomalies of the September 11th Attack, Its Run-Up, and Response

Accepting the official story of the 9/11/01 attack requires one to accept a long series of anomalies -- extremely improbable events, amazing coincidences, and contradictions. This page lists many such anomalies.

[...]

Building 7 contained a 23-million-dollar emergency command center, but instead of using it for its ostensible purpose, then-Mayor Giuliani evacuated his team to a makeshift command center as soon as the September 11th attack started. close quote

Can't you just feel it coming, the pugs run this 'hero' for prez in '08?

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urban dictionary slang term objectmore cooking at Urban Dictionary

open quote Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your definitions. Define your world. close quote

A place for words and expressions as funkay as it gets. If you visit September 20, 2006 you can find the slang term related to this image. Like an Easter Egg hunt, yo! If you think I picked it just for shock value, think again. I just thought, how could this be slang, and clicked. You've been warned. And as you'll see, it gets worse, much worse.

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spam quiche recipe google ad linkSpam Quiche Night at The Church of Google

Ever notice the Google ads that come up when you're in your Gmail Spam mailbox? If Google is the "closest mankind has ever come to experiencing an actual Deity", it's still got a ways to go for me:
open quote We at The Church Of Google believe a convincing argument can be made stating that the search engine Google is the closest mankind has ever come to experiencing an actual Deity. It is the ultimate bridge between people and information.

Googlists do not believe in the supernatural. We believe that virtually all "gods" before Google were purely based on invisible, fictional beings. We do not claim that Google is supernatural in any way. She, like all other gods before Her, is man made. No faith is required to believe in Her, for we consider the concept of belief without evidence (faith) to be of the utmost intellectual laziness. more close quote

I actually followed the link to see if I could composite a Spam Quiche photo with this snap, but alas, just text there. Ahhhh, here's one,

from The Guam Dineryum yum, a slice of spam quiche Zippy would love it!

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shuttle Atlantis mystery objectsspace jellyfish delay Shuttle Atlantis return [Space.com]

The first object is oddly translucent looking (it seems you can see the cloud pattern below right through it) and roundish (!?) for something that might have shaken loose from the craft. No wonder they're puzzled. It reminds me of these, except outside the pressure of an atmosphere - also of the object videotaped by STS-75 I posted about before. And the second object... let's just say I've seen a lot of plastic bags before:
open quote Mystery Objects Prompts Third Heat Shield Inspection for Atlantis Crew

CAPE CANAVERAL, - The six astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis will conduct an unprecedented third inspection of their orbiter's heat shield before landing this week to ensure its integrity after an unidentified object appeared to shake free of the spacecraft this morning, NASA's shuttle chief said late Tuesday.

[...]

NASA postponed the landing attempt earlier today after spotting the mystery object, which appeared to have shaken loose from the orbiter...

[...]

But a second object photographed by Atlantis' crew is thought to be a simple plastic bag that drifted away from the orbiter. more close quote


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daily Tuesday, September 19, 2006

papa bennyIn Defense of Pope Benedict: The Catholic Church is an enemy of the War Party [ANTIWAR.COM]

Until I just read this, I was hypnotized by the media spin on the Pope's insensitivity and naïveté. I have little fondness for any religion, especially one with a history of crusades, inquisitions, patriarchal elitism, stifling of science, etcetera, the whole sad array of transgressions.


I even posted about Pope Ratzo the Terminator's Nazi background back in May 2005. But now that I have more info on this particular pontification, both the media spin and the reaction of some in Islam is more than alarming, it's also a sad distortion.

open quote The German translation of this paragraph differs from the English one, as Wikipedia notes: "According to the German text, the pope's original comment was 'He addresses his interlocutor in an astoundingly harsh - to us surprisingly harsh - way.'" This is important, given the earsplitting brouhaha arising from this citation.

It doesn't matter to the pope's critics - not all of them Muslims, by any means - that this is a citation, and, taken in context, clearly doesn't reflect the pope's personal views. close quote

There's a lot more too. I encourage you to read it. Then there's the brief Life Rant: Apologize For Calling Me Violent Or I'll Kill You. Iran, here we come...

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daily Monday, September 18, 2006

nazi cctv-bullhorns-microwavezapperBig Brother, shouting now from streetposts, soon to zap

In England they've started putting bullhorns on their Big Brother CCTV cameras. Meanwhile the US Air Force wants to "test" high-power microwave devices on American crowds. Two and two make five.

open quote Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.

The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you'. more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The US Air Force is apparently itching to test some nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices on unruly US citizens in "crowd-control situations".

According to Airforce Secretary Michael Wynne it is important that the weapons be tried out on American citizens before being used on the battlefield. more close quote


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root.cellarUpdated: 5/6/2007; 7:16:41 AM.


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