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20040728
L'aurore
I sat down with two girls who felt ill one day, and one of them asked me to tell stories about the photos in my book, nmazca. The older girl, a 9-year-old, suggested that we make up stories about each picture. The tale that follows was her take on the image below, spoken more or less as I typed it, without any part having been written down. She channeled it from the spirits.
Kind of stunned (and very touched) by the mythic and romantic theme, I asked this girl how she came to tell such stories. She said that when she began to learn how to read (though initially not very quickly), she would make up stories about the pictures she saw. She continues to do this and sometimes writes down those tales, because she likes her stories better.
20040727
Obama
"He is only 42. But after a primary victory in Illinois of startling dimensions, and with his Republican opponent having suddenly dropped out, Barack Obama stands a good chance to win a seat from the Republicans, and to become the United States Senate's only African-American member.
"And that -- along with what Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, calls "a harmonic convergence" of Mr. Obama's broad appeal, the Democratic Party's campaign-year needs, and the fortune of timing -- has brought Mr. Obama to what he describes, with puzzling calm, as the biggest political moment of his life."
see obamablog, also
Dead 4-4-68
A Montgomery, Alabama, sheriff's deputy
who was cleaning a basement storage room
stumbled upon a box containing a trove
of artifacts from the Civil Rights era,
including black-and-white mug shots
of Rosa Parks and a young Martin Luther King Jr.
from spitting image
1. A term first coined by security technologist Bruce Schneier in his book 'Beyond Fear' to describe what generally passes for 'security' these days -- namely, presenting the appearance and reassuring illusion of security (or improved security) despite however ineffective such postures might seem to those who know what real security is all about. 2. A favored approach to security by the United States government, even after September 11.
20040726
"'Black Conservative to Rebut NAACP Leader's Remarks in C-SPAN Interview,' read the press release from Project 21, an organization of conservative African-Americans.
"I had read in Reuters that Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, had called groups like Project 21 'make-believe black organizations,' and a 'collection of black hustlers' who have adopted a conservative agenda in return for 'a few bucks a head.'
"So I tuned into C-SPAN with interest to hear what a leading voice in the black conservative movement had to say. But then a funny thing happened: the African-American spokesperson for Project 21 caught a flat on the way to the studio, and the group's director had to fill in. And he was white."
The problems of science need
to be solved scientifically
I was just looking at a section of last Tuesday's New York Times, and I started laughing at what this guy had to say. It was the jump from an article to which I hadn't paid attention... and now that I have read it, I'd debate whether it was worth it.
Calming Parents' Fears About Environmental Hazards
"Dr. Robert L. Brent has been studying environmental toxicology for nearly half a century." (Ah, and so right at the top, we're supposed to believe that because he's been doing this for a long time, he must be right)
"A distinguished professor at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, he specializes in the effects of environmental factors like radiation, drugs and chemicals on the developing embryo and child.
"But Dr. Brent, who is also the head of a birth defects research laboratory at the Alfred I. duPont (Yes, DuPont) Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., said he often found himself defending the safety of such environmental agents in the face of misinformation that ignites the fears of parents and causes confusion.
"Too often, Dr. Brent says, many millions of dollars are spent to clean up substances that actually present little or no risk to anyone's health.
"To clarify what is known and what is not about environmental hazards, Dr. Brent, whose research has been financed by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy (ahem), was a co-author of a printed symposium that appeared as a supplement to a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics."
Q. Claims of harm from environmental exposures attract a lot of media attention and arouse intense parental concern. How justified are they?
A. There's a lot of misinformation out there scaring parents. Just because you have trichloroethylene* in your well doesn't tell you what your exposure is and whether there's any risk. I wish there wasn't one chemical in the environment. But they're there, and we have to deal with them scientifically -- find out if they're at a dangerous level.
Q. You and your co-authors say our knowledge of toxic effects -- particularly for low-level exposures experienced by embryos and fetuses -- is very limited, which in itself can be a source of anxiety for parents. Can you offer any reassurances?
A. We know the threshold dose -- the level above which harm can be done -- for most of these substances (which substances?) from animal studies. We also know that their mechanisms of action are not the same in every species. We can use animal data to allay anxiety in certain instances. (This guy played up animal testing in every other paragraph) When the levels in humans are close to what we see causes harm in animals, then we're concerned. This is easy to do with drugs: if you take a drug I know what your exposure is. But I can't say the same for environmental chemicals.
"Environmental chemicals?"
Q. How can parents best protect their children from possible harm from environmental agents, short of raising them in a bubble?
A. Many women do limit the medications they take during pregnancy to only what is necessary. They should stay away from all herbal medications, which are not well controlled. A pregnant woman shouldn't put anything in her body that is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. :-0 As for environmental agents, city water is as safe if not safer than what most people drink. (Isn't it the case that most people drink city water? So what's he sayin'?) Wells can get contaminated. For city water supplied from a large reservoir, dilution is the best safety factor.
We don't always know what's in bottled water. Perrier had benzene in its water a couple of years ago (Yes, and so did Cincinnati's water supply when I was in junior high school). And you've got to be sensible about foods you eat. I don't know what's in food made in a restaurant. I do know what's in food my wife makes. You're better off eating at home, especially if you're raising children. (OK, OK, I actually agree with that. It's just the Father Knows Best/Chemicals are Our Friends tone in this...)
Q. Can you give any examples of false claims from animal studies of potential toxins?
* A. Most agents that cause birth defects have not been discovered through animal studies, which are helpful primarily to corroborate risks. There was a claim that trichloroethylene produces cardiac malformations in the fetus, but scores of studies say it doesn't. There was another claim that Retin-A, used to treat acne and wrinkles, caused birth defects. But you don't get enough into the body when it's put on skin to affect the embryo...
Alright, that's enough. The irony was the text ad on the page that linked to this article:
Click here for great deals
on Salvia divinorum
from IamShaman
"Dr. Brent, smoke these leaves and call me in the morning."
Child soldiering
"Today's warfare... especially the exploitation, abuse and use of children, is nothing short of a process of self-destruction," according to Olara Otunnu. "This isn't a small matter. This goes to the very heart of whether or not... there is the promise of a future for these societies."
Also:
There are several hundred young girls aged between nine and 15 who can openly be bought for sex in the downtown area of Lome, Togo, called Devissime. The name means 'child market' in the local Mina language.
Many of these girls have been separated from their families. Others have simply been abandoned. Most are illiterate. Being alone in the world all of them are highly vulnerable to exploitation by pimps and brothel keepers such as 'Mama.'
"I never knew my parents," explained Adjo, "I was abandoned and I've always had to manage on my own."
Sometimes the girls sell themselves for as little as 200 CFA (40 cents). Only the better looking ones such as Adjo, can persuade their Togolese male clients to pay as much as 1500 CFA (US$3).
Adjo said her own punters were a mixed bunch. She said they varied from high school pupils and apprentice mechanics to wealthy members of Togo's ruling elite, who had children of their own back at home. These older men tend to be infatuated with the youngest girls, she added.
There are no reliable statistics about the sexual abuse of children in Togo, but there is a general perception among social workers and child protection volunteers that the phenomenon has increased alarmingly in recent years.
20040725
Pimp my kid.
(Reporting from) The back of the bus
But first, let's go to Wal-Mart in Cleveland:
What was it, April? Sure, that's when it'd stopped snowing (more or less). I'd gone to the Mega-Lo-Mart at Severance Town Center in order to buy a couple of feeders and some seed for the birds that visited Dr. Drugs' backyard.
That store was the site of a very interesting cultural confluence, situated as it was between large enclaves of African-Americans, Eastern Europeans and Orthodox Jews (with a liberal addition of Asians and Latinos). Didn't get to see all that much ethnic heterogeneity in Wallingford.
Anyhow, I had been shifting back and forth, talking to myself about how I was not going to pay $6.99 for a plastic tube with two pieces of metal on the end, when a little boy bumped into a display of lawn torches in the main aisle. Two fell over and clattered on the floor. His mother, who was black, turned around, smacked him in the head, snapped "Look what you did, stupid!" and then picked up the torches as the boy cried.
A week or two later, at the other end of Lee Road:
I was traipsing through the aisles at Nature's Bin, almost certainly with a bag of granola and two or three Almond Ginger Wha Guru Chews in hand.
A 30ish white woman and her son walked by, and the boy's hand knocked two or three chocolates onto the floor. He was going to walk on by, but his mother said, "Wait, we have to pick these up. Help me." He stood there for a minute, perhaps wondering if he was about to be in trouble. Then he bent down to help.
So. Am I saying that [less affluent] black parents are violent and temperamental? That [co-op shopping] white parents are patient and mindful? To make generalities is not my objective. I've worked with mostly black (and all poor) kids who live in Section 8 housing on a flood plain in Columbus OH *, and mostly white kids who live with hellafied advantages on top of the Hill in Seattle. Constructive and cutting parenting methods go both ways. Fortunately, tools for modification are available.
Of course, I do have a particular concern with the way that some black kids behave, and the choices + treatment that influences that behavior. What was on my mind at Mega-Lo was something I'd just read, and considered quite relevant:
"[Chuck D]: We still have that slave mentality. We are a HATE TO LOVE Generation. This is post-slavery. This is a post-slavery mentality."
So let's go to mid-May, back in Seattle:
I was on the 5 or 358, headed back to Wallingford after running around during the night. I was off in my head, or maybe nose-down in something, when I heard a man's voice rise up in hostility behind me. I thought he was talking to the kids who I'd seen get on at the same stop, and I bristled. Then I listened to what he was saying.
"Don't speak to your kids like that. 'Shut up and get over here! Fix your face and you better keep it that way. You make me sick, goin' on like that...' That just breaks a child's spirit. It's a holdover from slavery. People are still raising their children in a way to satisfy white people, to satisfy the slave master.
"Back then, the slave had to be rough with the child, to be strict about how the child behaved and portrayed themself, because they knew that if the child acted a certain way, they'd be dead. But now, that's been passed down from slavery and black folks still behave this way because they're concerned about being the right way to white people's expectations. They're still trying to make the slave master happy.
"Treating a child like that made them obedient and fearful, and so they'd make good workers for the slave master. Now it just holds them back. These kids have all the same talent, all the same potential of these other kids. But when they hear that mess -- 'Shut up, grown folks is talkin' now.' -- that breaks their spirit, it wrecks their esteem.
"And so while these white children learn how to make use of their talent and express themselves, all these black kids have learned is how to socially adapt so that they don't get hit. They learn how to adapt and respond to power, and then they use that power on others. That's why you've got all these people saying these black kids are a lower class, they're ignorant, don't want to learn anything and don't pay attention, they're manipulative -- because so many of 'em were brought up to respond to that kind of treatment. They grow up seein' someone wield power on them, and they grow up and want to wield power over someone else.**
"I know there's a line, there's a limit for how they can act, but don't break your child's spirit."
And finally, from a church sign:
"Children have more need of models than critics."
* No Child Left Undenied
** Regard America as the powerful parent and Iraqis as the collective child. How many times have I read statements like "We/They need someone to be violent." or "Violence is all we/they understand."? Violence doesn't work.
"Ghana is now offering Blacks in America the opportunity to redevelop Africa in exchange for acres and acres of land."
You know I'm going to follow up on this.
20040724
Sustain this.
"It is deliciously consumerist to upscale simplicity, but there are far less expensive ways to live more sustainably. Start by serving one vegetarian dinner a week, turning off the lights in empty rooms, and finding a local co-op where you will be able to buy organic and bulk foods for much less than in your local supermarket."
...and while you're at it...
"Want to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil? Hang out your laundry."
found in rebecca's pocket
When I move, you move.
20040723
"After launching two wars, President Bush said on Tuesday he wanted to be a 'peace president' and took swipes at his Democratic rivals for being lawyers and weak on defense."
Starbirth, Subtle hues, Saturn's rings
We must stand tall against the threat
of this nuclear aggressor, yes?
Perhaps not. There are some holes of quantification and real-world relevance in this story. And with most things associated with the "negative" effects of nature, I wonder what roles diet, pollution and increased indoor living play? If people eat less phytochemically active food, breathe or are otherwise exposed to contaminants, and spend more time typing blog entries and playing Zelda, what does this mean for susceptibility to the Sun?
Tengo un pregunta
I just read a gracious compliment from a Canadian reader of this blog (in one of my favorite destinations, Vancouver BC). The fact that she mentioned being a reader for some time made me wonder, "Well, who else is reading this, and how often?"
Poring over the referrer logs is one thing. To know how people (who don't know me) found this page, and what they gain from it, is something else.
So please reply.
As a quick-thinking senatorial aide switched on the Senate's public-address system and cued up the infamous "Seven Minutes of Funk" break, Mr. Leahy and Mr. Cheney went head-to-head in what can only be described as a "take no prisoners" freestyle rap battle.
Most of the rhymes kicked therein cannot be quoted in a family publication, but observers gave Mr. Cheney credit for his deceptively laid-back flow. Mr. Leahy was applauded for managing to rhyme the phrases "unethical for certain," "crude oil spurtin'," and "like Halliburton."
20040721
Think on this.
"I trace the current outbreak of droidlike conformity to the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when groupthink became the official substitute for patriotism, and we began to run out of surfaces for affixing American flags. Bill Maher lost his job for pointing out that, whatever else they were, the 9/11 terrorists weren't cowards, prompting Ari Fleischer to warn (though he has since backed down) that Americans 'need to watch what they say.' Never mind that Sun Tzu says, somewhere in his oeuvre, that while it's soothing to underestimate the enemy, it's often fatal, too...
"Societies throughout history have recognized the hazards of groupthink and made arrangements to guard against it. The shaman, the wise woman and similar figures all represent institutionalized outlets for alternative points of view. In the European carnival tradition, a 'king of fools' was permitted to mock the authorities, at least for a day or two. In some cultures, people resorted to vision quests or hallucinogens -- anything to get out of the box. Because, while the capacity for groupthink is an endearing part of our legacy as social animals, it's also a common precondition for self-destruction."
Barbara Ehrenreich, "All Together Now"
so speaketh the the magpie
20040719
Créppisage
"Protected by their unshakeable faith in the amulets they wear, they stand fearless on the wooden protrusions to apply the loam [to the mosque at Djenne, Mali].
linked from metafilter
Urban spelunking
"There are still supposedly ways in for those keen to choke on coal dust, nearly fall to their death on white ant-ridden floorboards, or indeed implale themselves on one of the numerous fences."
20040718
Space, the infinite frontier
Dark energy tied to human origins
(why they assume life has to be human, I don't know)
Dark Matter and Dark Energy: One and the Same?
20040717
Aggravation
Past accomplishments (from May 2003 entries)
I was talking art and eating cheese fries with my friend Monika yesterday, when I looked up and saw El Presidente stride up to a podium aboard an aircraft carrier. "Oh, what's this?" I said.
There was no sound, which was of little relevance. We watched him briefly and then went back to other topics. Later, another of Monika's friends showed up for her cheese-fry and protoplasm art reception. While they talked, I glanced back at the little TV screen. Something was going to reveal itself, I thought, if I just kept watching...
And then I noticed what I thought was the vessel number above and behind Bush's left shoulder: 77. Only the numerals were backwards. Later, I found that the Abraham Lincoln is CV-72, so what I saw might have been vents or flanges. But they were well-defined, purposefully paired, and they appeared to be printed on the bridge's wall.
So when I saw my numerologoically adept friend Michele at another art function, I mentioned the backwards 77 seen behind Bush throughout the broadcast. Her immediate read was that it was an indicator of working through the negative vibration of Master Number 77. So consider the opposites of:
NUMBER 7: Philosopher, sage, wisdom seeker, reserved, inventor, stoic, contemplative, aloof, deep-thinker.
NUMBER 11: Inspired, intuitive, inventive, spiritual, teacher, idealistic, romantic, artistic, energetic, enthusiasm.
Because of the backward orientation, Michele thought to reduce the number to 5(7+7=14=5). The qualities associated with this vibration include: adventure, change, freedom, exploration, variety, sensuality, unattached, curious, experienced, knowledge seeker, knowledge teacher, traveler, imagination. Michele commented briefly on the inverted qualities of this vibration. I can't recall it all now, but I felt compelled to pass along something from the "unintended but important messages" department.
Understand that it's not just about him, but consider it an indication of the discourse and direction that is being encouraged and accepted by many in this country.
Do what you can to represent and resonate with a different vibration.
And then:
I was at an interdimensional art show near downtown last night, and I took a photograph of a painting by Martina Hoffman. Over the dub and trance weaving through the space, I thought I heard someone ask "Why?" -- a question directed at me.
I backed up a bit and indeed there was a man behind me who wanted to know what it was about the painting that moved me to take a picture. I tentatively and then openly explained (as best I could) what I got from the image. He commented that a certain element (I'm not sure which) symbolized the spacetime continuum and the means by which a consciousness can come into awareness of its past lives/personas... and that the placement of the two orbs over the shoulders corresponded with the Kabalistic nodes for Understanding (the right) and Wisdom (the left)... although I wonder if the pairing of Severity and Mercy (rt/lt) might be more in line with the image.
Anyhow... in that context, consider Bush's "victory" speech with a backward 77 over his left shoulder... Discuss.
July 16, fission, and the moon
I never knew, until 15 minutes ago, that the first atomic bomb test and the first lunar landing (the first to be documented in official history, at least) both took place on this date.
Aha! That's because they didn't. the 16th was Apollo 11's launch date.
"We train our soldiers to kill for us. Afterward, they're on their own."
I read the intro to a news story that highlighted the role that values have begun to play in the federal election. I didn't read the piece because the values that candidates speak of are often just emotional triggers or handy keywords for applause.
What truly matters is the prominence of denial and destruction (and divisiveness, but that doesn't relate to the story that follows). These seem to be the federal government's preferred vehicles of policy and progress. I think that contemplation of the consequences of such activity -- for ourselves, for our relations, and all that we claim to cherish and cling to in this world -- will continue to move people, regardless of political ideology, to see that institutions, "leaders" and agents that invest in and act through denial and destruction only denigrate and undermine the common values, needs and concerns of all the world.
We can and must assert ourselves, and require those who act in our name, to be human. And to value humanity. --D to the T
Carl Cranston joined the Army in 1997, when he was still a junior at Sebring McKinley High School, not far from Canton, Ohio. He and his girlfriend, Debbie Stiles, had just had a baby, and they thought the Army offered the easiest path to job security. The country was enjoying what President Clinton liked to call "the longest peacetime expansion in history," and Carl's duties as an infantryman, they thought, would largely be a matter of his getting into shape, shooting awesome weapons, and learning skills like rappelling and land navigation...
The attacks of September 11 changed everything. The Cranstons were moved to Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia, so that Carl could join the 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade, a mechanized unit known as the Sledgehammer Brigade. He and his men were assigned to accompany Bradley fighting vehicles -- the fast, heavily armed personnel carriers that became the backbone of the attack on Iraq. Seven soldiers, or dismounts, would squeeze into the Bradley's stifling rear compartment, and Carl, by now a sergeant, was their team leader.
The Sledgehammers were among the first units to cross into Iraq after the war started, in March, 2003, and Carl was involved in eleven firefights, seven of them "major," by his reckoning. They fought from the Kuwait border to central Baghdad, and finally rotated back to Fort Benning last July...
I met Carl and Debbie in February, at a Red Lobster restaurant in Columbus. He's a big man of 24 years, with a high-fade military buzz cut and a well-padded face that relaxes into a wide smile. She is small and blond, with a sharp chin and a quick, alert look honed by rimless glasses. Carl tends to be guileless and cheerful, Debbie more clipped and wary.
Carl still marvels at the lethality of the Sledgehammers. Iraqi soldiers, believing they were concealed by darkness or smoke, would expose themselves to the Bradley-s thermal sights and the devastating rapid fire of its 25mm cannon. Carl and his squad would tumble out the back of the Bradley and attack Iraqi soldiers who had survived. "We killed a lot of people," he said as we ate.
Later, Carl and his men had to establish roadblocks, which was notoriously dangerous duty. "We started out being nice," Carl said. "We had little talking cards to help us communicate. We'd put up signs in Arabic saying 'Stop.' We'd say, 'Ishta, ishta,' which means 'Go away.'" But people would approach with white flags in their hands and then whip out AK-47s or rocket-propelled grenades. So Carl's group adopted a play-it-safe policy: if a driver ignored the signs and the warnings and came within 30 metres of a roadblock, the Americans opened fire.
"That's why nobody in our whole company got killed," he said. Debbie stopped eating and stared into her food. "You're not supposed to fire warning shots, but we did," Carl said. "And still some people wouldn't stop." He went on, "A couple of times -- more than a couple -- it was women and children in the car. I don't know why they didn't stop." Carl's squad didn't tow away the cars containing dead people. "You can't go near it," he said. "It might be full of explosives. You just leave it." He and his men would remain at their posts alongside the carnage. "Nothing else you can do," he said.
Debbie watched the waitress clear our plates, then she leaned forward to tell about a night in July, after Carl's return, when they went with some friends to the Afterhours Enlisted Club at Fort Benning. Carl had a few drinks, Debbie said, and started railing at the disk jockey, shouting, "I want to hear music about people blowing people's brains out, cutting people's throats!" Debbie continued, "I said, 'Carl. Shut up.' He said, 'No, I want to hear music about shit I've seen!'"
Carl listened to Debbie's story with a loving smile, as though she were telling about him losing his car keys. "I don't remember that," he said, laughing. Debbie said, "That was the first time I heard him say stuff about seeing people's brains blown out. Other times, he just has flashbacks -- like, he sits still and stares." Carl laughed again. "Really, though, I'm fine," he said. Beside him in the booth, Debbie shook her head without taking her eyes from mine and exaggeratedly mouthed, "Not fine. Not fine..."
"When he was coming home, the Army gave us little cards that said things like 'Watch for psychotic episodes' and 'Is he drinking too much?'" she said. "A lot of wives said it was a joke. They had a lady come from the psych ward, who said -- and I'm serious -- 'Don't call us unless your husband is waking you up in the middle of the night with a knife at your throat.' Or, 'Don't call us unless he actually chokes you, unless you pass out. He'll have flashbacks. It's normal.'"
20040715
High Street, that is.
Twelve years on from the right's declaration of a "cultural war" for America's soul, the country remains profoundly split on questions of sexuality and censorship - and for better or for worse, the gay marriage issue is polarising opinion at Michael's Goody Boy Drive-In diner.
The diner stands in the state capital, Columbus, which Bill Clinton's former spokesman, George Stephanopoulos, referred to last weekend as "ground zero" for the entire presidential campaign.
"In the new post-Barcelona politeness era, the [15th Int'l AIDS] conference chair, Joep Lange, and Helene Gayle from the Gates Foundation -- who will chair the next one in Canada in two years time -- asked the activists to get it out of their system quickly and let Randall Tobias have a hearing. So they went quiet, but as Tobias stood at the podium they persisted in holding up placards bearing just two little words: 'He's lying.' Tobias gave the impression of a man on the verge of apoplexy, walked back to his seat and refused to budge until Lange and Gayle had persuaded the demonstrators to stop. He then gave his speech to a modicum of heckling and made a swift exit.
"Oh, and the content? Lots of admirable stuff about working together, fighting Aids not each other, and giving money to local groups in the worst-hit countries who know what they need to do to fight the disease. But he also defended abstinence, the focus on faith-based groups, and 'high quality drugs,' and he called the Global Fund a young -- ergo immature and not to be trusted with too much cash -- organisation. He did promise, however, to buy generics if the US regulators approved them and they were the cheapest available. At a conference where all the UN organisations have been loudly and clearly stating that abstinence doesn't work for women without the power to say no, he is yet to win any new friends...
"Tobias [had] a slight image problem. He was chief executive of the huge US drug company Eli Lilly before his retirement. Lilly actually makes Prozac, not anti-retrovirals, but you can imagine how a former pharmaceutical fat cat goes down at a conference where the Indian generic companies that ripped-off the big name companies to produce cheap, lifesaving Aids drugs are heroes and saints."
20040713
Breakfast and Freak Power with Hunter
"Motoring up the 82 Highway things get strange. And then stranger. Feeling like Willard heading up the river to throw down with Colonel Kurtz we first pass a car on fire and then a motorcycle accident so bad they shut down the road until the survivors can be airlifted to a hospital. Pulling past Woody Creek's nearest big city Aspen, we run into several military vehicles involved in a major fender bender. 'Ye gods,' Parry mutters, 'They've called in the military. Thompson's announcement must be major.'"
Police forces in Britain and the US have ordered tests of [a] new system that delivers a blast of radio waves powerful enough to knock out vital engine electronics, making the targeted vehicle stall and slowly come to a stop.
When the radio waves hit the targeted car, they induce surges of electricity in its electronics, upsetting the fuel injection and engine firing signals. "It works on most cars built in the past 10 years, because their engines are controlled by computer chips," said Dr Giri. "If we can disrupt the computer, we can stop the car." A prototype is due to be ready by next summer.
Time enough to save my pennies...
Amend this.
If Congress decides that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are only to be enjoyed by those who meet a certain profile or criteria, then the philosophical foundation of this country, and the rights and freedoms of its citizens, must not mean much to Congress.
Slogans like "United we stand" and such will ring pretty hollow -- or more hollow then usual -- if discrimination like a marriage amendment is codified.
Six Degrees from Columbine
I received a message about this site a few minutes ago. Reflexively, I thought it was spam. But I checked it out and am glad to say that it is a very nice way to see like-minded people networking.
This is the link from nmazca.blog to Tom Mauser's petition for renewal of the assault weapons ban.
20040712
"An al-Mahdi Army fighter I know named Muhanned, a young man I met two months ago in a Sadr City safe house, had told me how he was fighting the Americans in the area around the Hekma mosque, the central meeting place for the Mahdi Army leaders. Muhanned is the leader of a cell of young men in his neighborhood who move around, mostly at night, waiting for U.S. patrols and then ambushing them. Muhanned's technique is to attack and then disappear into the alleyways. When I learned about Butler's routes through Sadr City, it was clear that there was a connection -- Muhanned and his cell were attacking Butler's company. Butler patrols the area around the mosque, as he has done for months, and Muhanned lives inside Alpha Company's area of operations, planning and executing ambushes. The two men are joined by the invisible current of the war but they do not know each other. In coming to know both men I cannot shake the feeling that the conflict in Sadr City is nothing more than an unnecessary machine for mass-producing grief."
"I looked over again at Florica who was still knitting mechanically, staring into space with dull eyes."
"'Once, I asked her how she felt, being raped by all those men, and she told me that at first it was so cruel she was sure she had gone to hell, and then after a few days it just didn't matter any more, because she had ceased to matter.'
"And the most frightening thing is that to many people in Moldova, Florica really does not matter. Or at least they cannot afford for her to matter."
"In the 16th century started the African slave trade in the lands of what nowadays is México.
"The slave trade in Nueva España, (the name the Spanish gave to México when they first arrived) continued until the end of the XVII century and it came to an end due to the increasing "mestiza" (labor force that existed in the most important Spanish colony in America which made the African slave trade unprofitable.
"Today, the deep cultural and economical impact that slave Africans had in México, is neither acknowledged nor accepted in the official history of México.
"For this reason, we want to use this site to contribute to the generation and sharing of information regarding this historical fact, as a homage to all those who were taken away from their home by the force, who were subject of any kind of abuse by the conquerers, and gave their work, their culture, their blood and at the end their lives, to build what today is México."
"The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks are a bit of a sore subject with me. I'd been over at the Locks earlier in the quarter, back at the beginning of April, taking photos of the picturesque landscape surrounding this prominent [Seattle] landmark.
"Within a half an hour of my returning home, I found myself confronted by two uniformed Seattle police officers, both of whom had their hands casually resting on their sidearms. (This is definitely not something you want to see at the door of your home.) I was sincerely surprised and alarmed to learn they were looking for me!"
This story made me ill and edgy... certainly because the same thing could happen to me tomorrow... or perhaps Thursday, when I go on a field trip with the children to the Locks.
And now at the end of the week: We didn't make the trip to the Locks; went to Bainbridge Isl. instead. However, you can take a gander at this critical infrastructure site (and salmon run) at Cryptome.
20040711
And while I'm reminiscing...
The first garden I planted (in 2000), fully bloomed in 2001.
Huh... I had no idea.
My portfolio, brought to you by Google.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I now have no need to write a biography. This page says so much.
Auuhh...
20040709
I (heart) synchronicity
I am beginning to develop a picture book, in a sci-fi ancient legend stylee.
Last week, I knocked around the titles "Carina's Ocarina" and "Karina's Kora." Even though I only have ethereal graspings on content and plot, the main character will be a young woman with a (magical) musical instrument.
Soon afterward, I picked up a reserved book from the Central Library. This was Gassire's Lute*, an adapted translation of a griot epic by Alta Jablow. I'd placed a hold on this book a week earlier, solely because it was one of many in the SPL collection that had illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon. I've pored over and become reacquainted with their work lately.
Anyhow, it turns out that Gassire's Lute has its origin in the oral tradition of the clans that lived in the Senegambia region between the Atlantic and the Niger River. "My people," quite literally.
And the lute referred to in the title? It's an enchanted kora.
So, half an hour ago I was scribbling numerological sums of the latest title variations, and I wanted to get one to equal Master Power 11. The easiest way was to add another A to Karina. Kaarina was the first notion, so I just dialed it up in Google to get ethnic references. This comes from the first matches:
"Kaarina Helakisa (1946-1998) Prolific Finnish writer, best known for her children's books. With her poetic approach to the world of childhood, and use of legends and religious subjects, Helakisa brought in the 1960s a new voice in children's literature, which refreshed the more or less tradition-bound genre. In her work, feminist themes become prominent, especially in the 1980s."
So someone's gonna have to jump into the foreign language section this weekend...
* The text for Gassire's Lute
20040707
Break for astrophysics
Massive Black Hole Stumps Researchers
["Look at the size of that thing."]
Speed of light may have changed recently
["recently" being about 2 billion yrs ago]
What I found more intriguing was the speedometer (radar gun?) that was used to determine this: a "natural nuclear reactor" in Gabon: "The impression has been given that to design and construct a nuclear reactor is a feat unique to physical science and engineering creativity. It is chastening to find that, in the Proterozoic, an unassertive community of modest bacteria built a set of nuclear reactors that ran for millions of years."
[Perhaps this is where the CIA thought Iraq was trying to find its fissionable material]
"As the substance of culture seems to shrivel and offer less balm to troubled lives, we are led to look more deeply at our barren times. And to the place of culture itself in all this.
"An anguished Ted Sloan asks, 'What is the problem with modernity? Why do modern societies have such a hard time producing adults capable of intimacy, work, enjoyment, and ethical living? Why is it that signs of damaged life are so prevalent?' According to David Morris, 'Chronic pain and depression, often linked and occasionally even regarded as a single disorder, constitute an immense crisis at the center of postmodern life.' We have cyberspace and virtual reality, instant computerized communication in the global village; and yet have we ever felt so impoverished and isolated...?
"We seem to have experienced a fall into representation, whose depths and consequences are only now being fully plumbed. In a fundamental sort of falsification, symbols at first mediated reality and then replaced it. At present we live within symbols to a greater degree than we do within our bodily selves or directly with each other.
"The more involved this internal representational system is, the more distanced we are from the reality around us. Other connections, other cognitive perspectives are inhibited, to say the least, as symbolic communication and its myriad representational devices have accomplished an alienation from and betrayal of reality."
[Immediately after I pasted those last two 'graphs, a popup for SexyAdultPersonals manifested on the screen]
"James Shreeve, at the end of his Neanderthal Enigma (l995), provides a beautiful illustration of an alternative to symbolic being. Meditating upon what an earlier, non-symbolic consciousness might have been like, he calls forth important distinctions and possibilities:
'...where the modern's gods might inhabit the land, the buffalo, or the blade of grass, the Neanderthal's spirit was the animal or the grass blade, the thing and its soul perceived as a single vital force, with no need to distinguish them with separate names. Similarly, the absence of artistic expression does not preclude the apprehension of what is artful about the world. Neanderthals did not paint their caves with the images of animals. But perhaps they had no need to distill life into representations, because its essences were already revealed to their senses. The sight of a running herd was enough to inspire a surging sense of beauty. They had no drums or bone flutes, but they could listen to the booming rhythms of the wind, the earth, and each other's heartbeats, and be transported.'"
"Running on Emptiness," which I think I found on del.icio.us
Current readin'
Plants of the Gods: their sacred, healing and hallucinogenic powers
How Nature Works
Magnificent Mars
Mansa Musa, The Lion of Mali
Gassire's Lute, a West African epic
Northern Lullaby
Wind Child
Pish Posh, said Hieronymus Bosch
(all of these illus. By Leo and Diane Dillon)
Power and Terror: post 9-11 talks and interviews (Chomsky)
Modern Jihad: tracing the dollars behind the terror networks (Napoleoni)
Children of the matrix : how an interdimensional race has controlled the world for thousands of years -- and still does (Icke)
Enough war.
"There was nothing especially unusual about the death of Patrick McCaffrey - nothing about the attack on 22 June that killed him and a colleague to make the incident stand out from the hundreds of others in which young men from across the US have died amid the chaos in Iraq over the past 16 months.
"Except, that is, that Patrick's mother, Nadia, is adamant her son's death shall not have been worthless. Her insistence that people be made aware of the situation in Iraq and the continuing stream of Iraqi and American casualties, this week placed her on a fast-track collision path with an administration that would rather the public only saw certain images from President George Bush's so-called war on terror.
"When her son's body was flown to Sacramento international airport, she allowed - but did not invite, she insists - the media to attend. 'I'm just hurt that my son's life is gone and they should stop what they're doing,' she told the reporters, banned by Mr Bush from covering the return of military coffins to US Air Force bases. She said she planned to set up a group for the mothers of dead soldiers opposed to the war. And in recent days, when it came time to remember Patrick publicly, Mrs McCaffrey again wanted to share with people stories about her wonderful son.
"She wanted to tell everyone about his infectious smile and his humour, his kindness to strangers and his devotion to his family. 'My goal is to pass on Patrick's message, why and how he died,' she told her hometown paper, the Tracy Press. 'Try to talk about this and stop it. Enough war.'"
The Independent, by way of truthout
20040706
Why pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth?
"Rituals of national loyalty flourish in [the United States]. They become more visible in times of crisis, but they're a constant part of our culture. What do our demonstrations of allegiance reveal about American democracy?"
20040705
Noctilucent cloudscape
"This was not the first time I had seen this type of [noctilucent cloud], but I had never seen it as bright as this before! For 50 minutes I watched it grow and grow ever brighter. The best way I can describe what I saw is to compare its shape and brightness to a telescopic view I recently had of the Lagoon nebula from a very dark sky site within the Sinai Desert, in Egypt. It was fabulous."
See Noctilucent cloudscape, part two
Performance artist Laurie Anderson thought the phone call was a prank.
How would you like to be NASA's artist-in-residence?
The pixie-haired classically trained violinist has approached her assignment like a journalist [Hmph. Perhaps the writer gives journalists too much credit.], visiting the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and NASA Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in California.
The experience has been "overwhelming and wonderful at once," Anderson said recently in a telephone interview from her loft in New York.
The idea of an avant-garde electronic fiddler hanging out with rocket geeks at NASA's research centers may seem like an odd collaboration. At the Ames center in Silicon Valley, Anderson stood inside a virtual airport control tower to view scenes of Mars terrain, taking photos and recording notes in a small red notebook. The researchers' reaction to their visitor was mixed, according to a NASA newsletter. One confessed to being a huge fan; another doubted the partnership of art and science.
"What's she going to do, write a poem?" the researcher asked.
20040703
Don't tread on me.
Added the text "Will you stand for this?" to another version
small -- larger -- printable
by Miriam Lindstrom, Univ. of Calif. Press, 1970
The art of painting, as adults practice it, is complex -- not simply the production of sensations. Their processes as well as critical aesthetic judgment are of an order different and far removed from what is possible to children. The beginnings of art for the very young are first of all the learning of muscular control in acquiring a new physical skill and then joyful discovery and wonder in what this skill makes possible to them. Next comes the use of this means to achieve a purpose utterly satisfying to the mind and heart when, as narrator and audience of one, a child can take out of him or herself -- and place in the external world to be seen and directed -- the inner drama that is, for him or her, the meaning of the situation experienced, imagined or remembered.
Little children do not distinguish as we do between an inner fantasy and a outer reality. For them, experience of both kinds has the same quality of an actual event. Because everything "is" and nothing merely "seems," a little child does not know when he is pretending or fibbing except as she or he becomes acquainted with these concepts of his elders, and even then it is not easy to learn to make the distinction in thought and
action.
Through visual statement, mysteries reach some resolution, reality takes a tangible form, fantasy becomes stated and thereby less confusing, and a small person gains some measure of mastery over the vague but powerful forces that he or she feels govern life. To the extent that magic, animism and supernaturalism are one's explanations for causes and effects, some method of exorcism is essential until more rational interpretations supply a more comfortable logic by which to live.
Adults, who seldom give themselves so completely to any experience as little children do, could not stand the emotional wear and tear of living as they do, so intensely, so passionately, so without perspective or philosophy to sustain them beyond moments regarded not as transistory but as all of life.
Little children's art provides this means of dealing with phenomena whose complexity needs to be reduced and to be coped with. It provides them, from within themselves, an early sense of human dignity that can eventually grow to great beauty and strength.
20040702
"If this is confirmed, in seven days we will have doubled the number of planets known in nine years."
The Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered as many as 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy. The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets.
I find it interesting that this structure is (or is it?) the one that was part of this survey. I think that the same segment of space is featured in Perseid Dream.
20040701
And while it is only 1 July...
...I've wanted to transmit this poem
for more than a month.
It's Fall
The boy rolls
a filthy tennis ball
downhill to a dog
with three legs.
The dog spits out
a small cough
and will not move.
In time leaves
will cover the ball
and maybe the dog
and the boy will wonder
What did it mean? and
Was it beautiful?
Scot Brannon
Vision, proximity and presence
The Fish and the Stars
I get off the bus at the corner of darkness and 73rd
where the heart of the water beats.
A fish brushes the reeds
and shakes the stars reflected on the lake.
Then the true stars tremble up above
in the high oceans of the night.
Luis Bolaños
He Imagines...
Looking out his window
He imagines he's in space.
Trees become planets.
Headlights...
Stars.
She stares blankly out her window.
Bored.
Trees are trees.
Cars are cars.
She is impatient.
The bus stops.
They disembark.
Him, onto the moon during a meteor shower.
Her, onto pavement...
And into the rain.
Kathryn Christensen
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"Don't tread on me, either."
HST 1937-2005
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