Day: June 7, 2001

Controversy over high-intensity-discharge auto headlights USA Today

“Mr. Bush, you should heed the words of those you quote”.

Whoever writes speeches for President Bush either went to seminary or wanted to.

Bush’s major addresses are minor sermons filled with religious rhetoric…. Bush talked about “the weapons of the spirit” in a speech two Sundays ago. He was at the University of Notre Dame making a pitch for his faith-based initiative.

The President attributed the “weapons” phrase to Dorothy Day, who was a socialist, a pacifist, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. She died in 1980… It’s difficult to say what Day might have thought about being quoted by a man who made $14 million just for buying and selling a baseball team.

Day’s daughter and granddaughter didn’t care for it. In a May 23 letter to the Rutland (Vt.) Herald, Tamar and Martha Hennessy wrote:

“Dorothy’s life’s work was dedicated to picking up the pieces of human wreckage, the result of policies that continue to be perpetuated by the Bush administration.

It is shameful to have her efforts associated with an administration that gives priority to corporate profiteering over human needs…”

Memphis Commercial Appeal [via higgy’s page]

A source at MetaFilter reports that everyone was laid off from Automatic Media — which means R.I.P. Feed, Plastic and maybe Suck.

Procter & Gamble hoping to get more mileage out of olestra plant. Sales of the fat substitute have been disappointing, largely because of the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s consciousness-raising about its potential to cause gas, bloating, diarrhea and nausea as well as blocking the absorption of some nutrients. Now P&G is talking with federal regulators about using its manufacturing facility, currently operating at less than 50% of planned capacity, to make a similar substance that could be used to absorb oil spills and toxic chemicals for environmental cleanup. SF Chronicle

Chuck Taggart and I share the same unforgiving outrage about the theft of the American electoral process: ‘Read it. Be angry. And under no circumstances

listen to anyone who rolls his or eyes at you and tells you to

“just give up and move on”. ‘ Looka!

Where no Telescope Has Gone Before: “Radio telescopes, infrared and ultraviolet

detectors, x-ray and gamma-ray satellites — they’ve

revealed details of a cosmos teeming with exotic

objects like black holes and pulsars that don’t show

up through the eyepiece of an optical telescope.

Indeed, every part of the electromagnetic spectrum

has offered one surprise or another to astronomers.

Now, say astronomers, prepare to be surprised again. Just last month scientists at NASA’s

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) opened a new wavelength band for high-sensitivity

astronomy: ‘hard’ x-rays.” Read more to find out about ‘hard’ x-rays and why this is such a feat. Science@NASA

Amorphophallus titanum – Web Cam ‘Latest update:

“Big Bucky” began to bloom this

afternoon after reaching a

height of 8 feet, four inches.’ [thanks, Higgy and Ditty!] Here’s another amorphophallus website, with better visuals, thanks to Looka!

Space News: Humans on Europa: A Plan for Colonies on the Icy Moon of Jupiter. “Frigid and ice-covered, Europa is believed to harbor a giant liquid ocean beneath its

crusty arctic surface, a primordial sea whose tidal motions are driven by Jovian gravity and

warmed by intense radiation given off by the giant planet.

Yet despite the planet’s fearsome environment, members of the Artemis Society, a private venture

dedicated establishing a permanent, self-supporting community on the Moon, also have set their

sites on the creation of a human colony at Europa.” And: “NASA selected two proposals Wednesday for possible

fly-by missions to faraway Pluto, keeping alive the possibility it will launch a spacecraft to the

yet-unexplored planet.” And: Asteroid Belt Like Ours Spotted Around

Another Star. “Astronomers announced today what they say is

the first solid evidence for solid rocks orbiting another star, an asteroid belt that might be similar to

the one surrounding our own Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

If true, the research points to the possibility of potential Earth-like planets in the making, or planets

that have been destroyed, or possibly even a giant planet like Jupiter that, though unseen,

orchestrates the chaos of collisions that created the debris.” And: Recent X-ray data suggests massive black holes were fed by monstrous galactic collisions.

Julian’s RockList Site: “At the end of each year, critics & readers of music publications select their favorite albums and singles

of the year.

Lists from publications including: New Musical Express, Melody Maker, Select, Q, Mojo, Rolling Stone,

Spin, & Village Voice, various European publications and several independent fanzines from around the

globe plus the complete John Peel Festive 50’s are included on this site.

There are critic single and album lists from 1974 to 2000, pop poll results from 1952 to 2000, personal

lists from critics including Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau plus All Time Best Film Soundtrack and

Banned recordings.” [via MetaFilter]

Place yourself on the Political Compass. I’m a solid southwesterner, as if you couldn’t already tell.

FBI Shooter in Ruby Ridge Killing Can Be Tried. Amazing precedent by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals finds that Lon Horiuchi can be prosecuted on involuntary manslaughter charges brought by the state of Idaho after an errant shot killed Vicki Weaver during the Ruby Ridge standoff in August 1992. His “malice or excessive zeal” invalidates the immunity federal agents are usually given for violations of state law in the performance of their duties. “The appeals court decision marked a fresh bombshell in a case which has been taken up by

right-wing groups and anti-government activists as an example of how federal agencies allegedly

trample the rights of U.S. citizens.” The vehement dissenting opinion used the usual hackneyed verbiage about the “chilling effect” this would have on federal law enforcement. Reuters

Cluster Ballooning: “I’ve flown helium cluster balloons nine times over the past several years, making me the most active among the three or four people worldwide

who have ever flown cluster balloons (see History and Technical Notes). A summary of my flights follows, along with links to photographic

accounts of some of the individual flights.” He’s been as high as 21,400 ft., with bottled oxygen and Air Traffic Control clearance. His next flight over the Sierras this summer will be used in a video using ballooning to teach math and science concepts to schoolchildren.

An Amorphophallus titanum, the world’s largest flower at 8′, with a fragrance like rotting meat, is about to bloom at the Botany Dept. of the University of Wisconsin. The plant is native to Sumatra and there have been only 15 blooms in ‘captivity’ in the U.S. The link takes you to a live webcam watching and waiting. Write me, please, if you happen to log in and find that the blessed event has occurred. [via MetaFilter]

Romany gypsies are threatening to sue IBM over its alleged

involvement in the Holocaust. ‘In a case similar to that brought and then dropped by Washington

DC law firm Cohen, Milfield, Hausfeld and Toll earlier this year, the

action revolves around IBM’s Hollerith tabulating machinery.

This is believed to have been used by the Nazis to track and identify

their victims.

“The spontaneous, unceasing, self-willed delivery to IBM Germany of

IBM machines….is a conscious and deliberate act of participation in

an administrative organisation dedicated to…racial destruction,”

said (the) groups’ lawyer…’ The Register

At last they’ve found life after evolution: “Entrants for this year’s Aventis Prize,

the world’s most important science

book award, have departed from the

usual formula…” Telegraph UK

Carnegie Mellon University engineers are working on the next-generation pogo stick; and Pogo is working on a 240 g. full-color touchscreen device smaller than a 3″x5″ card with full PIM, MP3 player, GSM and GPRS integrated phone, SMS text messaging, email, and HTML and flash web browsing.

Medical eyes glaze over Web hypnosis: ‘Medical authorities have denounced as “highly inappropriate” and “grossly negligent” a

plan by celebrity hypnotist Martin St James to offer his services over the Internet…

From June 22, at a monthly cost of $US25, Internet users will be able to log on and

self-hypnotise themselves to stop smoking or relieve stress. Mr St James, who says he helped cure himself from cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome

with self-hypnosis, will also offer free services, including suicide counselling.’ [Not only inappropriate and negligent; what happens if the user’s computer crashes or they lose their ‘net connection before they bring themselves out of trance (grin)?]