What’s the lack of blackout-induced crime tell us about America? Reason

Phil Ringnalda pointed to this “unique Internet webcast, originating from a 12 x 12 cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska. We play music by independent artists, and we broadcast 24 hours/day, 365 days/year. Unlike most other webcasts, Whole Wheat Radio is interactive.

This site is designed for both listeners and independent recording artists who would like to get some additional exposure. Feel free to explore the links on the left, and you’ll find out more than you really want to know about Whole Wheat Radio.”

“Today, Google introduced a new advanced search feature that enables users to search not only for a particular keyword, but also for its synonyms. This is accomplished by placing a ~ character directly in front of the keyword in the search box.

For example, to search for browser help as well as browser guides and tutorials users can search for browser ~help. The ~ character was chosen because it’s shorthand for approximate and a good way for users to express their wish to expand searches to include synonyms. ” Google Weblog I haven’t played with this yet, but I think it is going to turn out to be very useful. I very often have to construct searches with the or operator ‘|’ to handle synonyms.

Wired had this piece just before 8-14-03. Imagine what would have happened if the whole world had been on one grid already.

Declan McCullagh: An interview with Sherman Austin:

“Sherman Austin is looking forward to a year in federal

prison with the kind of equanimity that most people reserve for a trip

to the doctor’s office.

The 20-year-old anarchist was charged with distributing information

about Molotov cocktails and “Drano bombs” on his Web site,

Raisethefist.com. Under a 1997 federal law championed by Sen. Dianne

Feinstein, D-Calif., it is illegal to publish such instructions with

the intent that readers commit “a federal crime of violence.

…Austin appears to be the first person so far convicted under the controversial law, which some First Amendment scholars say may violate the right to freedom of expression. Earlier this year, Austin pleaded guilty, and last week a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to one year in prison.” CNET

“Programmes aiming to change young offenders and those that support victims need to be re-thought because they are often the same people, according to new research sponsored by the Economic & Social Research Council. This latest in a series of reports tracking 4,300 young people who started secondary school in Edinburgh in August 1998, shows that victimisation and offending are closely linked.” EurekAlert!

and how to find them on the web: “Did you know? The Web has an abundance of freely available consciousness articles. Scientific articles on anaesthesia, visual attention, and blindsight, just to mention a few. All this is available through many different websites and services. Some websites offer documents uploaded by the authors themselves, other sites are regular science journals that offer free articles older than 1-2 years. Here is a brief tour guide through some of the best places.” Science and Cnosciousness Review

“Common sense tells us that we become unconscious the moment we fall asleep at night, and come back to full consciousness again in the morning. That idea was challenged when REM sleep was discovered some 5 decades ago. The EEG traces that signal waking consciousness are fast, irregular and low in voltage. Brain activity in REM sleep looks exactly like that…

People waking from the least conscious state (Slow-Wave Sleep) still report experiences of “mentation” — fragments of verbal thoughts. The most radical interpretation is that we are never fully unconscious, even when in deep sleep without dreams. This seems totally against common sense…

During the most unconscious state of sleep, the brain may be like a great city at night. Most of it may look dark, but there could be local spots of meaningful activity going on even then…” Science And Consciousness Review

“A recent study of dream patterns in the duck-billed platypus, the odd-looking Australian marsupial, reveals an interesting surprise… Platypus may be bringing a message from the earliest years of mammalian evolution.” Science And Consciousness Review

The unique intersection between mind, matter, science and mysticism

Research on the brain actions of psychedelic drugs has potential implications for theories of consciousness and the brain correlates of mystical experiences. People who claim to have had a mystical experience under the influence of a psychedelic give reports that are often similar to the accounts of non-drug using religious mystics from the major religious traditions (Pahnke & Richards, 1966). Themes such as the unity of all sentient beings, oneness with God and the universe, and the illusory nature of human existence have been reported by figures as diverse as Buddha, the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, and psychologist turned sixties LSD guru Timothy Leary. The psychedelic experience thus represents a unique intersection between mind, matter, science and mysticism that still defies explanation. — Michael Lyvers, Bond University (Australia), Science And Consciousness Review

“What is the relationship between brain activity and transcendental experiences?”

Frontal coherence, power and CNV patterns may objectively characterize cortical transformations underlying the progressive integration of transcendent experiences with daily activity. As science earlier quantified the physiological markers of waking, sleeping, and dreaming, so now research has begun to quantify the experience of states beyond ordinary waking. — Fred Travis, Maharishi University of Management

Science And Consciousness Review

…and its consequences: “Can it be the case that Descartes, totally alone in Germany in November of 1619, had a panic attack that we are still recovering from?” — Sean O’Nuallain, Science And Consciousness Review

“‘Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information’ (Steidl and PaceMcGill Gallery, 2003) is a boxed set containing a 96-page book and a DVD featuring 20 minutes of animation. In both mediums, Mr. Byrne, who is best known as a musician but who was trained as an artist, subjects PowerPoint’s characterless graphic templates to a radical metamorphosis.” NY Times

How Much Is Too Much?: “Having already given one kidney to a total stranger, Zell Kravinsky was sipping an orange-mango Snapple and, unprompted, making a case for giving away his other one.

‘What if someone needed it who could produce more good than me?'” NY Times

“The federal Medicare program is expected to decide this week whether to pay for an aggressive and expensive lung operation that could offer a lifeline to tens of thousands of elderly patients.

But health economists and medical experts say the treatment, however alluring, is part of an unsettling trend: new and ever pricier treatments for common medical conditions that are part and parcel of aging.” NY Times

“Despite early assurances from the Bush administration, new studies are finding alarming health problems and risks related to the cloud of debris that enveloped lower Manhattan.” Salon. And following is another Salon piece about a different kind of toxic fallout enveloping the nation’s airwaves.

Sidney Blumenthal: “Sure, Michael Savage lost his MSNBC show for going too far, but Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Coulter show bullying and humiliation are still a big business.” Salon An extraordinary observation of Blumenthal’s is this:

The rhetoric of abuse is not a sudden outburst, but has been well-designed for years. Republicans use these words and pursue these strategies consciously. In 1990, then Republican House Whip Newt Gingrich (later Speaker of the House) hired a pollster to devise a lexicon of demonization. In a memo that Gingrich circulated, “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,” Republicans were instructed that “words and phrases are powerful” and that the list that had been test-marketed should be “memorized.”

They were urged to apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party:

“decay … failure (fail) … collapse(ing) … deeper … crisis … urgent(cy) … destructive … destroy … sick … pathetic … lie … liberal … they/them … unionized bureaucracy … “compassion” is not enough … betray … consequences … limit(s) … shallow … traitors … sensationalists …

“endanger … coercion … hypocrisy … radical … threaten … devour … waste … corruption … incompetent … permissive attitudes … destructive … impose … self- serving … greed … ideological … insecure … anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs … pessimistic … excuses … intolerant …

“stagnation … welfare … corrupt … selfish … insensitive … status quo … mandate(s) … taxes … spend(ing) … shame … disgrace … punish (poor … ) … bizarre … cynicism … cheat … steal … abuse of power … machine … bosses … obsolete … criminal rights … red tape … patronage.”

The Gingrich memo is online here.

Declan McCullagh: An interview with Sherman Austin:

“Sherman Austin is looking forward to a year in federal

prison with the kind of equanimity that most people reserve for a trip

to the doctor’s office.

The 20-year-old anarchist was charged with distributing information

about Molotov cocktails and “Drano bombs” on his Web site,

Raisethefist.com. Under a 1997 federal law championed by Sen. Dianne

Feinstein, D-Calif., it is illegal to publish such instructions with

the intent that readers commit “a federal crime of violence.

…Austin appears to be the first person so far convicted under the controversial law, which some First Amendment scholars say may violate the right to freedom of expression. Earlier this year, Austin pleaded guilty, and last week a federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to one year in prison.” CNET