wood s lot pointed to this review of Moorcock’s newly-reissued tetralogy that I tried to read several months ago, hailed as a seminal fount of postmodern and cyberpunk sensibility. I was excited, not being a fan of Moorcock’s sword-and-sorcery fantasies but finding the sprawling intricate Mother London a delectable and rewarding read some years ago. Disappointingly, I found the Cornelius novels horribly written and uninteresting to the point of unreadability. This reviewer essentially agrees: “Jerry Cornelius, the protagonist of the quartet of novels that comprise this collection (and others besides), is a perfectly uninteresting antihero, a virtual cipher of a character, and his adventures are prolonged studies in existential action: He is an inconsequential character (despite what he might believe), enacting inconsequential quests, invariably returning his world to a stability that he himself removed it from.” Significant, perhaps, but completely unenjoyable. PopMatters

Stop Bush before he makes Nixon look good.

“At least our 37th president specialized in committing outright political crimes, which by their very clandestine nature were necessarily limited in scope. George W., on the other hand, traffics in legal political vice, which, given the rightward turn in this country since the late 1970s, can be practiced on a widespread scale openly and even boastfully. And legal or not, “vice” is the only way to describe the wholesale political indecency pushed by this White House. Behind virtually every move–whether on the budget, an economic stimulus package, the environment, defense spending, you name it–lies the fundamental motive of padding the pockets of its own socioeconomic class. To hell with others and to hell with the future. There either ain’t no tomorrow, or if it does come, at least those at the top won’t be burdened by today’s consequences.

A jaw-dropping $4 trillion of your money in the form of federal budget surpluses has gone up in smoke, or rather, 41 percent of it into the pockets of W.’s friends.” History News Network

I always liked Chumbawumba, but now even more — “anarchist band sell song to General Motors for $70,000 – but give the money to activists’ campaign against the firm.” Observer UK

“program listings for hundreds of public radio stations around the world. Follow the audio links to hear your favorite programs and discover new ones.” [via Rebecca’s Pocket]

Weblogger and online friend Rebecca Blood’s book, she says, is almost done. It’s due in June and can be preordered.

Using the web as a journalism tool; these powerful resources are useful for non-journalist info junkies as well. Poynter.org

Monkey Moves Computer Cursor by Thoughts Alone

It may seem like science fiction, but scientists say they have developed a technology that enables a monkey to move a cursor on a computer screen simply by thinking about it.

The breakthrough could someday help totally paralyzed, ”locked-in” patients “operate external devices such as a robot arm, or a computer to surf the Internet,” explained researcher Daniella Meeker of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Reuters Health

Race is a fault of science — ‘Race, and the role of science in its identification, focused a passionate debate among researchers of differing political hue before a free, public gathering at the Science Museum in London in remembrance of the Holocaust…’ BioMedNet [requires free registration]

Rumsfeld: Prepare for Surprise Attacks

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday the United States must prepare now for potential surprise attacks “vastly more deadly” than the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings.

Oh, here’s the real ticket:

In a speech laying out the Bush administration’s justification for proposing a $48 billion increase in the 2003 defense budget [emphasis added -FmH], Rumsfeld said the nation is vulnerable to new forms of terrorism ranging from cyberattacks to attacks on U.S. military bases abroad to ballistic missile attacks on American cities. Washington Post

ID card for air passengers

Trusted-traveler cards would authorize passengers to bypass extensive security screening at airport checkpoints. The Israeli government instituted a trusted-traveler program five years ago in an effort to speed up long lines at airport security checkpoints.

The electronic card would have an encoded biometric description of the owner to ensure that the person using it is the same person identified on the card. Biometrics refers to computerized systems that identify a unique part of each person’s anatomy, such as fingerprints, facial structure or irises. Washington Times

Strikes me as akin to — but of course vastly more insidious than — the ‘trusted shopper’ cards they try to push on me at the supermarket, the chain bookstore (ugh!) and chain pharmacy (is there any other kind anymore??) at which I shop when for a moment I lose the sense that usually steers me toward my local independent merchants. They entice you with promised discounts when the real agenda, of course, is building an extensive profile of your shopping behavior. I always refuse the sales representative’s offer and try to engage them in a dialogue about why I’m refusing. They must be trained specifically in how to deal with this frontal assault — uniformly, no matter what store, they stiffen, become stony, stop making eye contact and offer no response, neither critically nor understandingly.

Israelis consider building ‘Berlin Wall’ in Jerusalem

The police minister, Uzi Landau, who met yesterday with Mr Sharon to discuss ways of boosting security after two devastating Palestinian attacks in the city centre of Jewish West Jerusalem, said that “stone walls and barriers” are to be constructed to keep Palestinians from the West Bank out of outlying Jewish areas of the city.

The walls will be high: they are meant not only to deter Palestinians from crossing, but to make it harder for Palestinian fighters to snipe at Jewish areas or throw petrol bombs. The Scotsman

Reed Irvine: Someone has finally talked

Those who accept the government’s claim that the crash of TWA Flight 800 was caused by a fuel-tank explosion dismiss the evidence that the plane was shot down accidentally by missiles launched in a Navy exercise off the Long Island coast.

They say that such an accident could not have been covered up because a lot of Navy personnel would have known about it, and some of them would have talked. One of them has finally done so. He recently said in an interview that I recorded that he was on the deck of a Navy submarine very close to the crash site and saw TWA 800 shot down. NewsMax

“Sooner or later, Mr Bush, self-styled universal soldier of truth, will have to stop pretending that tragedy gave him a free hand to remake America and the world to fit his simplistic, narrow vision — or risk having voters and US allies end the pretence for him.” — Guardian UK

Bush speech could break international coalition: British press

The Financial Times said that although Bush’s keynote speech “pressed all the right buttons” at home, “there is a danger that his ringing rhetoric about defeating an `axis of evil’ will divide the alliance, rather than seal a common purpose.”

“North Korea and Iran do not belong in the same breath as Iraq. To lump them together is simplistic and will alienate new allies in Asia, Europe and the Middle East,” added the business daily.

Its assessment was shared by The Independent which said Bush’s “forthright views will play well at home. But many outside America are likely to find them distinctly disturbing”.

The broadsheet added: “America is already envied and disliked because of its domination. The danger is that Mr Bush’s speech, with its simple certainties and pronounced unilateralist flavour, will merely fuel that resentment further.”

The harshest criticism of Bush came from the left-of-centre Guardian, which said the US president’s address “unabashedly set out” to “exploit and manipulate the September 11 tragedy for political advantage.

“When Mr Bush speaks of ‘tens of thousands of dangerous killers schooled in the methods of murder … spread throughout the world like ticking bombs,’ he is not only being irresponsibly alarmist; he is also disingenuously justifying the whopping $US48 billion ($A95.16 billion) defence increase he always dreamed of,” it said. TheAge.com.au

Choking on the Enron Pretzel. a/k/a Clueless in Guantanamo: Wideranging rant from Al Martin takes on all the usual suspects — Enron (“what’s the difference between Enron and an offshore Republican slush fund?”), the pretzel-choking incident, the Cuba detainees, the ‘war’. This particularly caught my eye because I’ve been marvelling at the lack of commentary about the number of fatal equipment failures in Afghanistan:

Another US helicopter has crashed in Afghanistan, a CH-53E Super Stallion, the biggest single-rotor helicopter. Two servicemen were killed and five were wounded. It’s interesting to note our material losses in this Afghani campaign now equal the losses of the campaign in Iraq, which were actual combat losses. This latest loss is again being blamed on “mechanical failure due to faulty spares parts and poor maintenance.” It’s the same reason for all previous crashes of both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft in Afghanistan. It’s a pretty sad commentary on the preparedness of US armed forces.

The readiness status of our armed forces during the past ten years from Iraq to Afghanistan has declined enormously. Past GAO reports stated that in Iraq 53% of our fixed wing and helicopter fleets were serviceable. Now this figure has declined to 38%. Part of the problem is that the budgets for normal maintenance procedures have been cut in favor of buying a lot of high tech weaponry systems that don’t work. We rush new weapons systems into production — systems that we know have design flaws because contractors can’t meet their deadlines. They’re built with sub-standard materials because the budget for inspectors has been trimmed back. And there’s no more quality control over the materials being used to make these weapons systems. And there’s the problem with spare parts and mechanical problems, which are all ongoing. The commentator in the media calls these new weapons systems that don’t work — “political gravy weapons.”

The answer, by the way, of course is that there is no difference between Enron and an offshore Republican slush fund…

Asteroid impact hazards “greatly overstated”: ‘If A collision with an asteroid is going to finish us off, it will have to be a lot larger than anyone thought, according to a controversial new study of the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.’ New Scientist

General Accounting Office to Sue White House — ‘The General Accounting Office said today that it would sue the White House to try to force Vice President Dick Cheney to release documents detailing contacts between corporate executives and the administration’s energy task force.’ NY Times

“Telehypnosis, conducted via a videolink, is more effective than face-to-face therapy, a small UK study suggests.” New Scientist

Nuclear tourism: Fed up with the south of France? Tired of Tuscany? Mellowed out by Majorca? Never fear, there’s a travel agency that’s just waiting to give you the hottest holiday of your life.

New Men Travel, in Kiev, Ukraine, is launching tours of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that exploded and spewed radiation all over Europe in 1986. Radiation monitors and protective suits are provided.