The Art of Turning a Sow’s Ear Into a Silk Purse. Remember the pre-Sept. 11th pattern of rape and pillage of the environment by Shrub administration policy decisions? Not surprisingly, the administration is still as anti-environment, but this New York Times piece suggests they’re more aware of the PR impact of their stance. Expect full steam ahead by the spin doctors. The essay also suggests that environmental concerns are too big for corporations to ignore. I doubt it, especially during a recession when such niceties are the first expenses trimmed. Unless there are financial incentives to minimize environmental impact, forget it.

Eclogues observed: ‘Hey, my hit count has gone up! Oh… okay, that’ll teach me to have the words “Aragorn” “Boromir” “Legolas” and the phrase “slash fiction” on the same page…’ Let’s see if quoting that comment does anything for FmH’s hits…

‘Alien’ message tests human decoders: ‘A message that will be broadcast into space later in 2002 has been released to scientists worldwide, to test that it can be decoded easily. The researchers who devised the message eventually hope to design a system that could automatically decode an alien reply.

Unlike previous interstellar broadcasts, the new message is designed to withstand significant interference and interruption during transmission.’ New Scientist

Hiding emotions ‘increases anger’ BBC

Religion, group affiliation at root of conflicts — an interview with Richard Dawkins. Daily Yomiuri

Creating Mental Illness by Allan V. Horwitz reviewed by Lynn E. O’Connor: “…a fascinating and scholarly critique of our classification of mental disorders. Horwitz begins by stating boldly that many so-called mental disorders according to our current symptom-based system of classification, are not really mental disorders at all, but normal responses to social stress, relationship problems, work or other problems in living, or social deviance that may be in some cases, culturally supported.” Although a sociologist, Horowitz is not a social constructionist insisting that there is no reality to mental illness except that conferred by social attitude. But his view appears similar to mine in exploring the effect of social labelling and stigmatization on distress and outcome.

Consuming Rituals of the Suburban Tribe “Focus groups have their problems. So marketers are mimicking anthropologists and studying consumers in their native habitat: the home.” NY Times Magazine

Cyrus R. Vance, a Confidant to Presidents, Is Dead at 84. An Ivy-League establishment diplomat with integrity; I won’t forget his resignation, a rare act of principle in the business of government, as secretary of state over his opposition to Carter’s proposed military rescue of the Iran hostages in 1980. NY Times

The Art of Turning a Sow’s Ear Into a Silk Purse. Remember the pre-Sept. 11th pattern of rape and pillage of the environment by Shrub administration policy decisions? Not surprisingly, the administration is still as anti-environment, but this New York Times piece suggests they’re more aware of the PR impact of their stance. Expect full steam ahead by the spin doctors. The essay also suggests that environmental concerns are too big for corporations to ignore. I doubt it, especially during a recession when such niceties are the first expenses trimmed. Unless there are financial incentives to minimize environmental impact, forget it.