Review: Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone (2002): “This crepuscular work offers the most realistic depiction of the infernal workings of a Nazi death camp ever seen in a fiction film. ” PopMatters

“Navy pilots are conducting mock strikes against airfields, towers and other military sites in Iraq, acquainting themselves with targets they may be called on to strike as the Bush administration prepares for a possible military campaign to topple Saddam Hussein.” NY Times

“…(M)ourning has moved from a private and family matter to an increasingly public concern, with the widely televised memorial service for Senator Paul Wellstone, a national day of mourning for the victims of Sept. 11 and avid debates about the appropriate World Trade Center memorial.” NY Times

Kuwait has cordoned off a large area of the country near the Iraqi border for the duration of joint US-Kuwait military exercises [otherwise known as “mobilization for war” — FmH].

The closed areas in the northern and western parts of the country make up about one third of its territory.” BBC

“Astronomers may have detected the oldest star in the Milky Way galaxy, which could date back to the beginning of the Universe more than 12 billion years ago.” Independent UK

Nothing. But He Was Right. “Eighty years before 20th-century cosmologists hammered out the math, Edgar Allan Poe came up with a rudimentary version of contemporary science’s best guess for explaining how the universe began.” NY Times

‘The saying itself is not new. Use it and you might draw a dismissive glance from members of the hip-speak elite, the select group that quits a phrase as soon as it lands on prime time. But the reach of ”It’s all good” is hard to deny. For the average American, it’s the goatee of the language game: so all over the place that it’s on the verge of becoming unfashionable.’ Boston Globe

“Disgruntled net veterans are considering a challenge to the power of the internet’s co-ordinating body.

The veterans are thought likely to put in a bid for the contract to run key parts of the net’s addressing system which is due for renewal in 2003.

The potential challenge emerged during the meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) currently being held in Shanghai. [Shanghai?? — FmH]

ICANN is coming under close scrutiny by the US Government and in the past year has faced criticism from some regional net workers for exceeding its powers.” BBC

the electric sheep screen-saver: “This software owes its name to Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It realizes the collective dream of sleeping computers from all over the internet. The Interpretation of Dreams contains an artistic, conceptual, and technical explanation. Below are example animations and software to download.

When the screen-saver is activated, the screen goes black and an animated ‘sheep’ appears. Behind the scenes, the screen-saver contacts an internet server and joins the parallel computation of new sheep.

Every fifteen minutes 24/7 a new sheep is produced and distributed to all clients for display. Each sheep is an animated fractal flame. The coordinates are chosen by the server with some simple heuristics.” The screensaver exists for Linux and MacOs X; there is no Windows version.

Cheney delivers new Iraq warning: “US Vice-President Dick Cheney has issued a new warning to Saddam Hussein, insisting that either he will give up his weapons of mass destruction or, as Mr Cheney put it, for the sake of peace, the US will disarm him.” BBC

Killer flu ‘on the way’: “Experts say governments across Europe need to plan for a virulent flu outbreak that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives.

Although the last two winters have brought only mild strains of flu to the UK, the viruses are constantly mutating and scientists say it is only a matter of time before a powerful strain emerges.” BBC

As citizens we demonstrate, write letters, and make known our discontent

and outrage at government policies. As writers we constantly interact

with different audiences in various contexts. We perform, read, teach,

get interviewed, and curate public programs. But as more and more people

are ready to commit acts of civil disobedience, we cannot continue

appearing in public and pretend nothing is happening.

POETRY IS NEWS, a forming coalition of poets, proposes to disrupt

business as usual, at least within the spheres we have some control

over. Some of us have been long active in various forms of political

work, some of us are inexperienced but eager to find ways to make our

voices heard. The mass public word has been corrupted past constructive

use for political change. As word workers, we are calling an initial

public meeting to find ways to exert our influence and expand our roles

in taking back the word and making it part of public change.

Whether we think of our mandate as a poll tax on poets or a bulletin

board for agitation, our public activities as poets must first break

down the boundaries we set for ourselves. Our goal is to create a body,

a presence, and a point of reference that, if not considered when

thinking of poetry, would simply cause embarrassment.

Is this a good idea? Are there concrete proposals that we can begin

implementing quickly, at readings, performances, in classrooms or public

spaces? Can we form working relationships with each other in order to

transmit different types of expertise, in dealing with the media, in

looking for resources, in organizing events? Let us know what you think.

        Ammiel Alcalay               Anne Waldman

        aaka@earthlink.net           a.waldman@mindspring.com

“Despite mounting anecdotal evidence, conventional scientists still

reject the notion that a person can remain conscious after being

clinically deceased. Now a pair of researchers want to prove them

wrong.” Wired

IMHO, it’s abit misleading to talk of this as consciouness after death. Near-death experiences (NDEs) should just force us to rethink when we define someone as dead.