If you take pictures, stay close to home… or go digital.. [This Kodak advisory starts out focusing on motion picture film. but there’s no reason not to worry about still camera film as well. -FmH] “Security precautions at US airports have been significantly tightened following the tragic events of September 11th. Among precautions that travelers can expect will be the increased use of new, high-intensity x-ray scanners for checked baggage and hand-carried baggage. Passengers should be aware that these high-intensity x-ray machines will fog and ruin all unprocessed film of any speed, whether exposed or not. Kodak recommends that air travelers do not carry unexposed or unprocessed motion picture film. If it is unavoidable that film is carried, passengers should contact the airport in advance to request hand-inspection, allow additional check-in time for such procedures, and follow the advice given below.”

The Sixth Sense: “In Educating Intuition, Robin M. Hogarth tackles a fascinating topic that has until now garnered little scientific attention. This ambitious book aims not only to define and explore the strengths and limitations of humans’ “sixth sense” but also to discover how it can be improved. A professor of business, Hogarth turns primarily to research in his areas of expertise—psychology and cognitive science—for inspiration.

In an extensive literature review, Hogarth finds intuition’s footprints in many conceptual dichotomies familiar to psychologists. Intuition is aligned with—among other things—automatic, tacit and unconscious processing; implicit memory; and procedural knowledge.” American Scientist

Ellen Willis: Bringing the Holy War Home: ‘…(R)eligious and cultural reactionaries have mobilized to attack secular modernity in liberal democracies from Israel to the post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe to the United States. Indeed, the culture war has been a centerpiece of American politics for thirty years or more, shaping our debates and our policies on everything from abortion, censorship and crime to race, education and social welfare. Nor, at this moment, does the government know whether foreign or domestic terrorists are responsible for the anthrax offensive. Yet we shrink from seeing the relationship between our own cultural conflicts and the logic of jihad. We are especially eager to absolve religion of any responsibility for the violence committed in its name: For that ubiquitous current cliché, “This has nothing to do with Islam,” read “Antiabortion terrorism has nothing to do with Christianity.” ‘ The Nation

Ian Walker on LoTR: Good film, shame about the book:

“…Joyce, Woolf and Fitzgerald… may be subtle, complex, difficult or entertaining, but the one thing that typifies the great works of modern literature is their power to rethink and re-present the world. They are all acts of engagement, where Tolkien’s is an act of retreat.

Retreating into your own made-up world is also a characteristic of adolescents and hippies – the two groups to whom The Lord of the Rings means most. Which is fine – as long as the book is recognised for what it is, an escapist adventure story. So it can be recommended as a good read, as long as you advise potential readers to skip the poetry and skim read any sections where the characters start banging on about their traditions.

But the greatest novel of the twentieth century? Only if you regard The Day of the Jackal as high literature and The 39 Steps as a brilliant insight into the human condition.” spiked!

A creaky theory: “One of the most popular theories doing the rounds about the West’s war in Afghanistan is that it’s a war for oil… The war on terrorism is not about what is going on in Afghanistan – whether it be the Taliban, al-Qaeda or any potential oil interests for the West. It is a war with no clear strategic aims, carried out primarily for domestic and political purposes and to galvanise audiences at home and abroad. In this sense, the oil-critical opponents have completely missed the point. The war in Afghanistan is not a sinister plot to control everything, but a response to a sense in the nervous West that everything is out of control.” spiked!

Robert Kuttner: Let’s Have Real Shared Sacrifice —

‘President Bush continues to enjoy popularity as commander-in-chief. But his critics are right to challenge his economic priorities. The theme of this strange war is turning out to be unequal sacrifice and wasted opportunity. If we are not careful, a longer-term theme could be a protracted recession.’

And Robert Reich: Back to Normal?

‘While the rest of us are trying to put our lives back to some semblance of the way they were before September 11th, that’s not true for the inhabitants of our nation’s capital. They’re not taking up where they left off. For better or worse, they’re leaving all that behind.

‘

The American Prospect

Chris Mooney: Outrage of Aquarius The Boston Phoenix and AlterNet.org fall hard for astrology. The American Prospect

Test-Tube Quantum Computer Makes History: ‘Scientists at IBM’s Almaden Research Center have performed the world’s most complicated quantum-computer calculation to date. They caused a billion-billion custom-designed molecules in a test tube to become a seven-qubit quantum computer that solved a simple version of the mathematical problem at the heart of many of today’s data-security cryptographic systems.’

Rob Richie of the Center for Voting and Democracy:

Why a Loser Gets to Run the Country — The Case for Instant Runoff Voting. tompaine.com

I’m a little late in blinking to this, but Dec. 24th was World Sousveillance Day, the second annual ‘shooting spree’ , photographing those who keep us under surveillance.

How will I know whom I should shoot?

Taking pictures of the surveillance cameras, or even just wearing a disguise, will cause models to appear very quickly for you to photograph. When you point your camera at their cameras, the officials watching their television monitors will very quickly dispatch the models for you to shoot. This is a universal phenomenon that happens in nearly any large organization where video surveillance is used. Models often carry two–way radios and wear navy blue uniforms with special badges. Most will be eager to pose close to your camera, especially the hand models. They will reach out to you. They want to get close to you. They will crave the glamour of your camera. They will reach out and touch you, or place their hands over your camera lens so you can get a closup picture of their photogenic fingerprints.

Lessons of shoe-bomb incident — ‘Groups like Al Qaeda may now be using operatives who don’t fit the police profiles.’

Experts say that the tall, lanky passenger on Flight 63 with plastic explosives in his hightops likely did not act alone. The explosives were too sophisticated for a drifter to obtain; more likely, he was a tester for a larger terrorist organization, they say.

“It’s a classic evolution of criminal organizations: When you clamp down on one kind of drug carrier or operative, they reach out to others,” says Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the US Department of Transportation.

Christian Science Monitor

Al Qaeda planning next phase: ‘From a Pakistan safehouse, the Taliban’s top intelligence chief claims bin Laden is alive and well.’

“I am personally requested by Mullah Omar and Sheikh Osama to go to Urozgan and take the command of new guerrilla war preparations, which will start as soon as possible, and you will hear the news in papers and on BBC,” he adds. “We withdrew from major cities and provinces because the ruthless bombing of Americans had killed a lot of civilians as well as our holy warriors. We took that tactical step for our safety, and we will start our guerrilla campaign against our enemies as soon as we regroup.”

Christian Science Monitor

Norman Solomon author of The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: The P.U.-Litzer Prizes for 2001: “…established a decade ago to give recognition to the stinkiest media performances of the year.

As each winter arrives, I confer with Jeff Cohen of the media watch group FAIR to sift through the large volume of entries. This year, the competition was especially fierce. We regret that only a few journalists can win a P.U.-litzer.” Media Beat at FAIR Also: Danny Schechter’s readers at the Media Channel note their 2001 media hits and misses.

Justice Dept. going all sensitive on us Tom the Dancing Bug @ salon [thanks, David]

Right-Wing Biological Dread:

The Subhumans are coming! The Subhumans are coming!

‘Mary Shelley, move over. Conservative intellectuals William Kristol, Francis Fukuyama, and J. Bottum are spinning far darker visions than the author of Frankenstein in their frantic campaign to stop medical progress by derailing biotechnological research. In a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Kristol and co-author Eric Cohen were horrified that “in trying to make human beings live indefinitely, our scientists have begun mixing our genes with those of cows, pigs, and jellyfish.”

(…) These conservative intellectuals have confused being human with merely having human DNA. They are treating human DNA as though it were sacred. But DNA is merely the chemical on which the digital code for how to make proteins is inscribed. Inserting a human gene in a pig or a petunia is not an act of sacrilege. Human DNA in a pig or petunia will make a protein, not a human being. Human beings really are more than the recipe it takes to make them.’ Reason

Legal commentary on the Mumia Abu-Jamal decision — death sentence overturned but

‘otherwise a major victory for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office because (Judge) Yohn rejected 28 of the 29 claims in Abu-Jamal’s habeas corpus petition, including claims that the prosecutor improperly used his peremptory strikes to keep blacks off the jury, and that the trial judge violated his rights by repeatedly removing him from the courtroom due to his angry outbursts.

Significantly, Yohn also refused to consider Abu-Jamal’s most recent claim — that he has “newly discovered” evidence that Faulkner was murdered by Arnold Beverly, a Mafia hit man.’ law.com

Also: Europeans Hail Abu-jamal Decision Guardian UK

War watch: Indian and Pakistani troops shelled each other in disputed Kashmir overnight, and the Indian army ordered the evacuation of dozens of border villages, raising fears of war. AP Sources tell CNN that Pakistan, saying it was only responding to India’s movements, mobilized its entire army — even calling up some recent retirees — and put it on high alert Wednesday. India has moved short-range ballistic missiles to the Pakistani border. New York Times India’s armed forces are pressing the government for permission to strike militant training camps in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. Telegraph UK Temptations on both sides to strike while the other is at a disadvantage increase risk of fullscale war. Media reports from India are indicating movement of China’s troops along Sino-Indian border just after Pakistani Pres. Musharraf returns from a state visit to China. PNS It remains unclear whether either nation actually has the capability to deliver nuclear weapons to the enemy. WorldNet

South Asia crisis hits US war on terrorism. Christian Science Monitor

“Year-End Google Zeitgeist: Search patterns, trends, and surprises.”

America the Unready — ‘Preparations against another terrorist attack range from the patchy to the poor.’ The Economist