The USA Patriot Act makes it illegal for a library to tell its users if their browsing, surfing, etc. habits are being monitored. But it doesn’t, technically, make it illegal for you to tell them they are not being watched. (I would love to watch the sophistry on both sides if there is ever a test case of this one in the courts…) Here is a collection of signs to post, or to keep you posted. From celebrated Rutland VT librarian Jessamyn West, one of my heroes. The signs have been provided to libraries throughout her state. Perhaps you should take copies to your local librarian…

This would just be another curiosity, the grounds for some horror flick or the like, if they weren’t another canary-in-the-cage species, a harbinger of massive environmental change.

Owen’s [ also not found in nature ] reached its fifth anniversary the same week FmH did, but with a very different outcome. I will miss you. R.I.P.

“A new vaccine could prevent the majority of cases of cervical cancer, suggest the results of a major trial. The vaccine protects against the virus that causes cervical cancer, which kills almost a quarter of a million women worldwide each year.” (New Scientist)

Kaplan describes how — in what should be starting to sound like a familiar pattern in light of Bush’s recent Cabinet choices — Goss “auditioned for his current job by doing political hackwork for the president”, as a hired gun to discredit Kerry and to scoff at the Valerie Plame scandal. Although ensconced bureaucrats always raise the hue and cry whenever an outsider takes control of their agency, rarely is it such a political hack. Kaplan finds it more worrisome that the directorate of the CIA is “a political arm of the Oval Office” than even at Justice or State, because of the CIA’s importance in providing the administration with ‘disinterested analysis.’

But we already have abundant evidence that that is not what Bush and Cheney are interested in, and Goss’ role will be one of refining their ability to live in la-la land for the next four years.

The French Paradox: “Despite a diet stuffed with cream, butter, cheese and meat, just 10 per cent of French adults are obese, compared with our 22 per cent, and America’s colossal 33 per cent. The French live longer too, and have lower death rates from coronary heart disease – in spite of those artery-clogging feasts of cholesterol and saturated fat. This curious observation, dubbed ‘the French paradox’, has baffled scientists for more than a decade. And it leaves us diet-obsessed …smarting.” (Guardian.UK)

The FDA is far too cozy with the drug companies, critics assert, and I tend to agree. It is only going to get worse under an emboldened second Bush administration, since the Republican strategy for American prosperity goes no further than removing regulatory barriers to untrammelled corporate profitability.

The problem is not that Vioxx, or any other drug, has risks — physicians customarily balance risks and benefits in collaborating with their patients on prescribing decisions — but that the process withholds data about the risks from both practitioners and the public. The recent furor over childhood antidepressant use and suicide is the same. One solution would be to separate the FDA’s drug approval machinery from its post-approval drug safety monitoring role, but the fist-in-glove relationship with the industry would likely contaminate the latter’s functioning as well. A better way to address the problem would be to develop a trustworthy independent review board on drug safety issues, beyond the reach of industry gladhanding, sort of like the Underwriters’ Laboratory for household appliances.

“The tool that lets viewers control the TV will soon sport ‘billboards’ and track viewing habits.” (LA Times)

“Not a single major voice has been raised in the American media against the ongoing destruction of Fallujah. While much of the world recognizes something horrifying has occurred, the US press does not bat an eye over the systematic leveling of a city of 300,000 people.” (World Socialist Web Site via Cursor)

Also: “Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of U.S. military reprisal, a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that ”at least 800 civilians” have been killed in Fallujah so far.

His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees, he said.

…The official said that both Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent relief teams had asked the U.S. military in Fallujah to take in medical supplies to people trapped in the city, but their repeated requests had been turned down. ” (Inter Press Service News via Cursor)

“The UN has warned that Afghanistan could become a ‘narco-state’ after opium cultivation rose by two-thirds this year. A UN report released on Thursday urged the US and Nato forces to fight drugs as well as Taleban insurgents.” (BBC)