As Simon says, this guy is cool. [via Experiment] Explore further around his site; don’t fail to view his personal history of corruption, for example.

Also via Simon, look at this Biblical genealogy.

Anti-War Activists Rally in Washington:

‘One graphic sign showed Bush’s face at the end of two bright red bombs with the caption: “Drop Bush, not bombs.” Another demonstrator’s sign said: “Regime change begins at home.” Bush administration policy holds that a “regime change” must come about in Iraq, by force if necessary.

Saturday’s march around the White House coincides with anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco, Rome, Berlin, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Mexico City. Organizers say they expected the combined participation of hundreds of thousands of people.’ Washington Post

Paul Krugman (now apparently thoroughly relishing repeatedly his place in the crosshairs of the Rabid Right): “Despite his public image as a plain-spoken man, President Bush is in fact as slippery and evasive as any politician in memory“. NY Times

Say Hello to Sanjeep, Er, Sam: a hilarious piece on American corporations’ attempts to Americanize their Indian technical support personnel as they migrate their tech support to the Indian subcontinent. Wired

No Claimants Yet for Reward, But Some Fear Messy Battle Washington Post

“Believers call Dr. Harvey Karp a miracle-worker who can trigger almost opium-like serenity in a crying baby within seconds.

Detractors say the pediatrician uses nothing more than an old bag of tricks that have no basis in scientific fact.

Like him or not, Karp’s new book and video, The Happiest Baby on the Block, have become the talk of pediatric circles, landing him on national television and at medical meetings, including a patient education conference next month co-sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians.” Nando Times

This BBC piece summarizes an extraordinary case report, presented at the recent American Neurological Association annual meeting, of a 40-year-old married schoolteacher with no previous history of sex offenses who was on the point of incarceration after the abrupt onset of escalating sexual aberrations when his complaints of headaches led to the discovery of an egg-sized tumor in his right orbitofrontal cortex. The excision of the tumor extinguished the behavior; the recurrence of the behaviors was shown to correlate with the recurrence of the tumor, and after its re-excision his behaviors again disappeared.

The association of a brain tumor in the prefrontal cortex with such a behavioral disturbance should not be surprising. As neuropsychologically astute FmH readers know, “this is the part of the brain responsible for judgement, impulse control and social behaviour…” The question for me is whether the authors should be forgiven for so limiting the scope of the conclusions they allow themselves to draw:

Russell Swerdlow and Jeffrey Burns of the University of Virginia who treated the patient said it suggested that doctors should consider brain tumours as the reason why some people became sex offenders.

But they warned that this only applied to people who suddenly become obsessed with sex and who have no previous history.

“If someone argues that every paedophile needs a MRI, the difference in this case was that the patient had a normal history before he acquired the problem,” Dr Burns said.

Typical neurologists, they will consider brain influences on behavior only in cases of gross pathological changes (which, I agree, would be the only alterations detectable on MRI scan). The real challenge this case presents is to where we will draw the line about responsibility for antisocial actions, given that there are so many other processes, more subtle than a brain tumor, that can impair orbitofrontal (not to mention other brain) functions. Indeed, as a behavioral neurologist comments close to the end of the article, even in this case the effect of the tumor may have been indirect, via altering hormonal function, rather than structural and direct.

Joy Press: Eggers on His Face:

“Let’s try an experiment. Pretend you know nothing about Dave Eggers. You’ve never read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, never set eyes on McSweeney’s archly antiquated typeface. You’ve perused neither the Web sites mocking him nor the puff pieces lionizing him. Dave Eggers is just a fledgling novelist who has produced a self-published debut called You Shall Know Our Velocity.

In an ideal world, this is how a critic should approach You Shall Know: separate the book from the miasma of hype and cult of personality that surrounds its author, and consider the work as an entity in itself. The novel doesn’t have a sleeve or a first page, only a rough-hewn cover that serves as the story’s first page. “Everything within takes place after Jack died and before my mom and I drowned in a burning ferry in the cool tannin-tinted Guaviare River”: Not a classic first line, but not a complete stinker. By the bottom of the cover, though, he’s dropping clunkers about “wind coming low and searching off the jagged half-frozen lake.” If my mind were a critical blank slate, I might have stopped reading right there. But OK, I do know something about Eggers, and so the benefit of the doubt kicks in: Maybe this is a pastiche of an overwritten novel that will unfurl into majestic cleverness.” [more] Village Voice

Chemical Sensitivity Tied to Anxiety, Depression

Anxiety and depression may be important features of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), a controversial diagnosis given to some people with apparent allergic reactions to a range of everyday exposures.

A small study of MCS patients found that they were more likely to suffer depression than either healthy individuals or people with asthma. And both asthmatics and those with MCS showed greater-than-average “anxiety sensitivity,” an exaggerated response to anxious feelings that is characteristic of panic disorder.

People diagnosed with MCS typically report a range of symptoms, from headaches and joint and muscle pain to fatigue, memory loss and depression. The medical community is divided over whether MCS actually exists, but some believe that low-level exposures to everyday chemicals like those in cosmetics, soaps and detergent trigger physical reactions in MCS patients.

Some researchers have also proposed that the psychological disorders that often accompany MCS are a reaction to the syndrome, and not the underlying cause, according to the authors of the new study. Reuters Health

While some organic basis to some MCS may exist, most of the cases I have seen seem to be of people using a physical metaphor for emotional distress. Investigation of physiological parameters, immune function, etc., in MCS show no consistent findings. This may be because it is non-physiological or because the study group is heterogeneous. A study finding consistent psychological alterations in MCS sufferers is more supportive of psychological causation of the syndrome, although the authors are hesitant to draw that conclusion [being more cautious than I am about being seen as opinionated… — FmH].

Review: The Illusion of Conscious Will by Daniel M. Wegner (MIT Press, 2002):

“A book with this title is likely to cause a reaction even before you read it. Some will immediately dismiss it as more of the obviously wrong idea that, despite appearances, iron laws rule our behaviour, while others will welcome it as a much-needed thump on our grandiose convictions of free-will. Those who actually read the book may very well be surprised to find out that Daniel Wegner is not so much concerned with taking sides on the subject of free-will vs. determinism, but rather in providing a psychological theory of how the experience of conscious will arises in us and how reliable it is in tracking down the causes of our behaviour. To be sure, the book is of direct relevance to all those interested in the more traditional puzzles about the nature of free will but warning should be made that what you’ll find here is mostly on the theme of mental causation.

…His view is that “the experience of consciously willing an action is not a direct indication that the conscious thought has caused the action”, and the book does a good job of supporting that claim with empirical studies showing how our experience of consciously willing (or not) an action often bears little relation to the actual causes of the action. While at times we will claim authorship for actions we could not possibly have caused, others we will dismiss authorship for actions that clearly have been cause by us. Particularly instructive in this respect are Wegner’s analyses of automatisms (i.e., actions we would deny having consciously willed) such as ‘table turning’, ‘pendulum divining’ and ‘automatic writing’, and action projection. Equally interesting is his exploration of the ‘ideal agent’, someone who always knows his actions prior to their occurrence. The use of the term ‘illusion’ to characterize the experience of conscious will is, thus, justified by the fact that first-person impressions of agency are not by themselves guarantee that the subject is indeed the cause of a particular action.”

A Conversation With Master Fictioneer Harry Mathews

Harry Mathews and Joseph McElroy met last week to talk—about the writing of fiction, strange maps of New York, and other topics—and celebrate the release of Mathews’s The Human Country: New and Collected Stories (Dalkey Archive). Mathews, the author of five novels and several volumes of poetry and nonfiction, is the sole American member of the Oulipo, the legendary Paris-based “workshop for potential literature,” whose members have included Italo Calvino and Georges Perec. On October 15 he was decorated with the title of Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters. McElroy’s eighth novel, Actress in the House, is forthcoming from Overlook next year. Village Voice

I wanted to quote some particularly pithy piece of Matthews’ wisdom as a ‘hook’ to this interview, but I wound up wanting to quote every paragraph. I can’t wait for the bookstore to open…

The public plans and secret dreams of the men who sold the moon: ‘ “It is necessary for humankind to move off-planet, and in the near future, if we are not to stagnate,” TransOrbital executive Paul Blase says. And if the moon isn’t turned into a commercial space, “then we are limiting ourselves to an observational presence only. . . . This will be only signing a suicide pact.” ‘ Village Voice

Two New Inflammatory Films Get the Catholic Church Hot and Bothered Village Voice

“Many veterans advocates believe a certain anthrax vaccine to be a major cause of Gulf War sickness. The company manufacturing it has launched a massive lobbying campaign to persuade the Bush administration to stockpile the controversial drug so it can be administered to civilians.” Wired

“Paul Kingsnorth seeks out the Yes Men – the ultimate ‘cyber- hoaxers’, whose spoof WTO website has led to them giving lectures to committed neo-liberals subverting and ridiculing their beliefs by taking free trade logic to its most absurd extreme.” The Ecologist

Band Can’t Sell Own Music on EBay Wired

Universe is ‘doomed to collapse’

Forget the idea that we live in a youthful universe.

If two American professors are correct, the cosmos is middle-aged.

And it has not got an old age to look forward to.

Despite what recent observations suggest, Professor Andrei Linde from Stanford University and his wife Professor Renata Kallosh say the universe will stop expanding and collapse in the relatively near future.

New insights into the mysterious “dark energy” that appears to be pushing the universe apart suggest it may eventually lose its power. BBC

.

‘Rights depend on money. This has to end…’: “You may not have heard of him yet, but peasant farmer Evo Morales is one of Bolivia’s most influential figures. With popular support established for his party MAS, he is a force to be reckoned with in congress and may well be his country’s next president. The US has other ideas, however…

A tireless campaigner for the rights of Bolivia’s indigenous peoples, Evo Morales is at the forefront of the cocaleros movement in the jungle region of Chapare. The movement has pitted peasant farmers against US-sponsored attempts to eradicate the production of coca leaves. (The latter are used – but by no means exclusively – to make cocaine.) Morales has been involved in struggles over land and resources since he moved to Chapare as a teenager. ” The Ecologist

Sweet Smell of Excess:

It has been said that humanity has three main needs – security, stimulus and identity. What effect on these are we having as we manipulate our most instinctive and discerning sense? We live in an age of insecurity, where we do not trust our neighbour and are unable to smell whether they are friend or foe. We are obsessed by the need for short-term stimulus, drenching ourselves in cheap and toxic perfumes and soaking our anaemic food in artificial smells. And as we scrub away our own natural odours, preferring to smell of Poison or Escape, might we not be losing our sense of identity too? The Ecologist

Why it is hard to keep a straight face: “If you meet someone who looks angry or happy, it is often hard to remain expressionless yourself – and now scientists believe they know why.

Researchers in Sweden believe your unconscious mind exerts direct control of your facial muscles.

However much you struggle to keep a blank face, your brain may be letting you down.” BBC

All Things Considered hosts set Boston Globe

US Should Hurray and Liberate Iraq or Russia Will Do it First Pravda

Blogs Tell All: “Conspiracy theories have long been an Internet staple. But a dearth of evidence about the sniper — and the phenomenal explosion of blogs — have brought online speculation to a screeching crescendo.” Wired

“Shortly after Chief Charles Moose of the Montgomery County police had his lunchtime press conference yesterday, in the wake of another shooting, the reviews rolled in on MSNBC.” Boston Globe

Key Internet servers hit by attack

Nine of the 13 computer servers that manage global Internet traffic were crippled by a powerful electronic attack this week, officials said.

But most Internet users didn’t notice because the attack only lasted an hour. Its origin was not known, and the FBI and White House were investigating.

One official described Monday’s attack as the most sophisticated and large-scale assault against these crucial computers in the history of the Internet. CNN

Poet a Contender to Run Federal Arts Agency:

(Dana) Gioia (pronounced JOY-a), 51, has published three books of poetry: Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991) and Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award in May. He is well known as someone who has revived rhyme and meter, though he also writes in free verse.

He was widely recognized for his essay “Can Poetry Matter?,”

which appeared in The Atlantic in 1991. In the essay, Mr. Gioia argued that a clubby academic subculture that had grown up around poetry was preventing it from being widely available to the mainstream. The essay prompted considerable debate and was included in Mr. Gioia’s 1992 collection of essays, Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture, which was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of its Best Books of 1992 and became a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. NY Times

From “Can Poetry Matter?”

:

The situation has become a paradox, a Zen riddle of cultural sociology. Over the past half century, as American poetry’s specialist audience has steadily expanded, its general readership has declined. Moreover, the engines that have driven poetry’s institutional success—the explosion of academic writing programs, the proliferation of subsidized magazines and presses, the emergence of a creative-writing career track, and the migration of American literary culture to the university—have unwittingly contributed to its disappearance from public view.

Words
Dana Gioia

The world does not need words. It articulates itself

in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path

are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.

The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being.

The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken.

And one word transforms it into something less or other–

illicit, chaste, perfunctory, conjugal, covert.

Even calling it a kiss betrays the fluster of hands

glancing the skin or gripping a shoulder, the slow

arching of neck or knee, the silent touching of tongues.

Yet the stones remain less real to those who cannot

name them, or read the mute syllables graven in silica.

To see a red stone is less than seeing it as jasper–

metamorphic quartz, cousin to the flint the Kiowa

carved as arrowheads. To name is to know and remember.

The sunlight needs no praise piercing the rainclouds,

painting the rocks and leaves with light, then dissolving

each lucent droplet back into the clouds that engendered it.

The daylight needs no praise, and so we praise it always–

greater than ourselves and all the airy words we summon.

‘an alternative to the abstinence-only drug abuse prevention strategies currently dominating public discourse. Acknowledging that experimentation with consciousness is nearly universal, we believe that the creation of socially-sanctioned contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana may be a powerful approach to reducing drug abuse. In other words, education about appropriate drug use may be more effective in reducing drug abuse than the pursuit of an undesirable and entirely unobtainable “Drug-Free” world.’ MAPS

“MAPS is a membership-based non-profit research and educational organization with about 1800 members. We assist scientists to design, fund, obtain approval for and report on studies into the healing and spiritual potentials of MDMA, psychedelic drugs and marijuana.”

Lester Grinspoon MD:

Most of marijuana’s powers of enhancement are not as immediately available as its capacity to lift mood or improve appetite and the taste of food. Some learning may be required, and one way to learn is through other people’s experience. Some colleagues and I hope to promote this kind of learning by assembling an anthology of accounts of cannabis enhancement experiences. It is our hope that these stories will ultimately provide the basis for a book. Toward that end, we seek to identify contributors who are willing to share their knowledge of the uses of cannabis.

Accounts judged to be useful will be posted on this website as they are received. If and when the collection is of a quality and quantity which would justify publication as an anthology, a book proposal will be written.

Lester Grinspoon MD: A Cannabis Odyssey:

Every age has its peculiar folly and if Charles Mackay, the author of the mid 19th century classic, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds were alive today he would surely see “cannabinophobia” as a popular delusion along with the “tulipmania” and “witch hunts” of earlier ages. I believe that we are now at the cusp of this particular popular delusion which to date has been responsible for the arrest of over twelve million US citizens. I also believe that future historians will look at this epoch and recognize it as another instance of the “madness of crowds.” Journal of Cognitive Liberties

John Perry Barlow: Liberty and LSD:

Over the last 25 years, I’ve watched a lot of Dead Heads, Buddhists, and other freethinkers do acid. I’ve taken it myself. I still do occasionally, in a ritual sort of way. On the basis of their experience and my own, I know that the public terror of LSD is based more on media propagated superstition than familiarity with its effects on the real world.

I know this, and, like most others who know it, I have kept quiet about it. Journal of Cognitive Liberties

As mentioned recently somewhere on MetaFilter, this utility is the most heavy-duty solution to problems with pop-up web browser ads and spam mail I’ve ever found.

Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Abnormal Psychology, Second Edition:

• Is the DSM-IV a useful classification system?
  
• Is there gender bias in the DSM-IV?
  
• Is multiple personality disorder a valid diagnosis?
  
• Does ADHD exist?
  
• Is MDMA (Ecstasy) a dangerous drug?
  
• Does post-abortion syndrome exist?
  
• Are repressed memories valid?
  
• Is Prozac safe and effective?
  
• Has too much emphasis been placed on empirically supported therapies?
  
• Is Ritalin overprescribed?
  
• Should psychosurgery be used to treat certain psychological conditions?
  
• Does media violence promote violent behavior in young people?
  
• Is pornography harmful?
  
• Is divorce always psychologically detrimental to children?
  
• Do evolutionary factors explain rape?
  
• Has the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill worked?
  
• Should mental health professionals serve as gatekeepers for physician-assisted suicide?
  
• Is sexual orientation conversion therapy ethical?
  
• Is the abuse excuse overused?
  
• Is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) ethical?
  

“Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, talks about his new kids book, Summerland, and the freedom he fears is vanishing from children’s lives.” Salon

Republicans plan to control Congress

“White House officials and Republicans on Capitol Hill are so optimistic about winning control of both chambers of Congress in next month’s elections that they have begun mapping how they would use their new power…”

Former sixties radical launches ‘National Campaign to Take Back Our Campuses’: ‘You can’t say “he’s baaaack”… because he hasn’t gone away. He’s a (virtual) bomb thrower who pays little attention to casualties or collateral damage. His campaigns, as numerous as they are notorious, are long on launch and short on staying power. If his latest effort was a CD, it might be called the “Greatest Hits” album as he returns time and time again to one of his favorite targets — campus “radicals.” ‘ WorkingforChange

“Twice now in the past decade, the overwhelming military and economic dominance of the US has given it the chance to lead the rest of the world by example and consensus. It could have adopted (and to a very limited degree under Clinton did adopt) a strategy in which this dominance would be softened and legitimised by economic and ecological generosity and responsibility, by geopolitical restraint, and by ‘a decent respect to the opinion of mankind‘, as the US Declaration of Independence has it. The first occasion was the collapse of the Soviet superpower enemy and of Communism as an ideology. The second was the threat displayed by al-Qaida. Both chances have been lost – the first in part, the second it seems conclusively. What we see now is the tragedy of a great country, with noble impulses, successful institutions, magnificent historical achievements and immense energies, which has become a menace to itself and to mankind.”

Anatol Lieven, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, is the author of Chechnya and Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry. London Review of Books [via Miguel]

Abstract: “This article reports an

From the Introduction:

“Men have been writing for over five thousand years and have piled up a vast mass of imaginative literature. Some of it is just writing that happens to have lasted physically. There are, however, a small number of books that are something more. They are the basic documents in the history of the imagination; they overflow all definitions of classicism and, at the same time, share the most simply defined characteristics. It is usually said that they deal with the archetypes of human experience, with characters at once concrete and universal, and with events and relationships that are invariant in the lives of all men.”

…libertarianism? ‘Apparently someone’s curse worked: we live in interesting times, and among other consequences, for no good reason we have a surplus of libertarians. With this article I hope to help keep the demand low, or at least to explain to libertarian correspondents why they don’t impress me with comments like “You sure love letting people steal your money!” ‘ The Mutaverse [via Walker; thanks!]

Rumble of a Coming Ice Age: “A remarkable change in the waters of the North Atlantic has thrown what one leading oceanographer is calling a “curve ball” into thinking that the planet will gradually warm due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Instead, there is a real possibility that global warming may soon trigger the sudden onset of an ice age that could last hundreds of years.” National Post [via Red Rock Eaters]

Place, Morality, and Art in Human Worlds

by Ciarán Benson:

”Wherever you are you are right now having the experience of being somewhere: here. Sometime: now. Someone: you” (Kolak, 1999). Being located somewhere and its bearing on the sense of self identity is the main theme of Benson’s Cultural Psychology of Self. He suggests that self is a locative system with both evolutionary and cultural antecedents. He relies on the idea that body’s very structure shapes our conceptual systems in important ways and that one of these influences in the creation of centredness constitutive of self as being a primary means for navigating human worlds. The understanding of the identity of self as a woven narrative is a central claim of cultural psychology of selfhood.

“Our bodies are designed for people who used to walk 20 miles each day looking for food and water”, says Professor Randolph Nesse.

People become ill because their bodies are unable to cope with the pressures of modern Western life, according to a leading scientist.

Professor Randolph Nesse believes that conditions like heart disease, obesity and drug abuse can all be explained by the fact that the human body was not designed for the 21st Century.

He suggests many serious illnesses occur because the human body has failed to evolve and is still designed for a much simpler existence.

Dr Nesse, who is professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, is one of the leading proponents of evolutionary or Darwinian medicine.

Mind-control trials were the secret inspiration: “Anthony Burgess was inspired to write his most famous novel A Clockwork Orange by his real-life involvement in CIA-run mind-control experiments, a new biography claims.

The revelations, published next month, come as the controversial film version gets its first mainstream British television screening.” Independent UK

Redheads may be more resistant to anesthesia, study finds: “A new study suggests people with naturally red hair need about 20 percent more anesthesia than patients with other hair colors.” The Nando Times

A Word for Brainy People: “…(M)ost scientists believe that a neuron stuck in a boring brain will also die. So keeping your cranial neuron colony frisky but relaxed seems to be the key to successful living and aging.” Wired

Fred Kaplan: “They’re better than ever, but they still won’t topple Saddam.” Slate

Interactive mouse-pointer dance

United Nations Security Council Resolutions Currently Being Violated by Countries Other than Iraq; there are an extimated 91 being violated by countries other than Iraq. Test yourself: what country or countries do you expect to be at the top of the list? “This raises serious questions regarding the Bush administration’s insistence that it is motivated by a duty to preserve the credibility of the United Nations, particularly since the vast majority of the governments violating UN Security Council resolutions are close allies of the United States.” Foreign Policy in Focus

“It’s the hottest newest game in Hollywood and top mathematicians are playing it too. The new world record holder is a professor from Columbia University, and there is speculation that Gwyneth Paltrow might be on the verge of becoming a major player who could steal the champion’s crown. Welcome to the exclusive world of the Erdos-Bacon number game.”

Celebrity Stock Exchange: “Celebdaq is the new online share trading game, where you can buy and sell shares in the hottest celebrities.

Watch the papers for your chosen celebs: the more press they get, the more they pay out.” BBC

“Zombie brains could soon become a powerful tool for drug developers. A biotech company has developed a way to keep slices of living brain tissue alive for weeks, allowing researchers to study the effect of chemicals on entire neural networks, not just individual cells.” EurekAlert!

“A century after their first sighting by Europeans, central Africa’s mountain gorillas are slowly increasing. Despite fears that they faced imminent extinction, the gorillas’ numbers have risen by nearly 9% in 13 years. Conservationists say a vital way to protect them is by attracting more tourists. They believe the gorillas can help to rebuild the economies of the war-shattered countries where they live.” BBC

Christopher Hitchens reviews Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

by Matthew Scully:

There is a certain culture of humor in the speechwriting division of the Bush Administration—a culture that involves a mild form of hazing. For example, David Frum, the Canadian Jewish neo-conservative who helped to originate the phrase “axis of evil,” was tasked with writing the welcoming address for the first White House Ramadan dinner. And last Thanksgiving, when the jokey annual ritual of the presidential turkey pardon came rolling around with the same mirthless inevitability as Groundhog Day, the job of penning the words of executive clemency on the eve of mass turkey slaughter was given to Matthew Scully, the only principled vegetarian on the team. Scully is a Roman Catholic, a former editor at National Review, and, I should add, a friendly Washington acquaintance of mine. He left his job in the executive mansion to forward this passionate piece of advocacy. Who can speak for the dumb? A man who has had to answer this question on behalf of the President himself is now stepping forward on behalf of the truly voiceless. The Atlantic

Whatever happened to Ian Bruce-Douglas? That is the question one usually hears in regards to legendary founder, singer and songwriter of that fabled and ill-fated band Ultimate Spinach. The creative force behind that magical late 60’s ‘Bosstown Sound’ group seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth nearly 30 years ago, leaving after its 2nd album ‘Behold And See’ had been recorded. A third album was recorded without him.

The Spinach sound was a kaleidoscopic amalgam of Baroque keyboards, modal jazz, French Impressionism, and hypnotic psychedelic improvisation. The lyrics were intelligent, penetrating and caustic observations of Hippie culture and the head games that people play. Their debut album sold over 100,000 copies within the first 2 weeks of its release and became a certified top-40 album without the benefit of a single, something unheard of at the time. It remained on the charts for 20+ weeks.

It will surprise fans to learn that, yes, Ian Bruce-Douglas is still alive and making music and that he has been doing so all along. In fact, all 3 Ultimate Spinach albums have just been reissued by original producer Alan Lorber on Big Beat records and Bruce-Douglas is in the process of recording 3 new albums of his own.

The Classics According to Kenneth Rexroth:

“Rexroth (1905-1982) was a poet and essayist, an influence on the spread of Beat poetry (though not a Beat himself), and a student of languages. His translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry make many beautiful poems accessible to those of us who only know English.

In a series of short essays, he reviewed the classics of world literature from his perspective, which valued art for its involvement with living human beings. In 1985 and 1989, New Directions published 101 of these essays in two paperback volumes, titled Classics Revisited (NDP621, ISBN 0-8112-0988-1) and More Classics Revisited (NDP668, ISBN 0-8112-1083-9). …

In my opinion, publishers of the works that Rexroth recommends should subsidize these two books, and give them away free. And put them on the Web.

…Rexroth’s essays are fascinating, and the reading list is as rewarding as it is challenging. (And you will be appalled at how hard it is to find many of these works in public libraries.) The essays concerning the individual works or authors are the main attraction in these two books, but the introduction to Classics Revisited is also interesting, describing what makes the classics classic. I have provided the entire copyrighted Introduction; please don’t sue me; I mean well.

I have (also provided) a combined list in (approximate) chronological order (the years are not in the original reviews).”

From the Introduction:

“Men have been writing for over five thousand years and have piled up a vast mass of imaginative literature. Some of it is just writing that happens to have lasted physically. There are, however, a small number of books that are something more. They are the basic documents in the history of the imagination; they overflow all definitions of classicism and, at the same time, share the most simply defined characteristics. It is usually said that they deal with the archetypes of human experience, with characters at once concrete and universal, and with events and relationships that are invariant in the lives of all men.”

The Beat Goes On… — a list of (at the time of my posting) 87 P2P clients with mini-blurbs.

Newseum: Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs with the photographers’ editorial comments and biographical information.

Quackwatch calls itself a “guide to health fraud,

quackery, and intelligent decisions.” Operated by Stephen Barrett, M.D

purportal.com: “That story that your brother-in-law just sent to you and forty other people sounds true… Put it to the test here. Take a couple key words from the message, paste or type them into one of the boxes below, and press the Enter key…”

“…tells you what BHOs appear on your system, and lets you diagnose and resolve conflicts by temporarily disabling them. BHOs are a special type of add-in for Internet Explorer 4 or higher. Their unusually tight integration with Explorer allows them to be used in a myriad of ways, but also can lead to problems. Poorly written BHOs can cause Explorer to crash. Also, BHOs can conflict with each other, causing problems with Explorer. These problems can be very difficult to diagnose and fix because there’s no way for you to know that a BHO has been installed. Windows doesn’t provide a way to see the BHOs on your system, and some BHOs (for example, adware) operate invisibly and don’t have a user interface. BHO Cop can solve these problems. You can save different configurations for use at different times. Some BHOs perform a self-check each time Windows starts and, if disabled, will re-enable themselves automatically. BHO Cop is smart enough to handle this situation, restoring your most recent configuration each time you start Windows. If a BHO is not installed correctly, BHO will alert you of the problem and allow you to clear the nonfunctioning registry entries from your system.” PCMag

Artists for Peace, Justice & Civil Liberties The Arts Paper

A judge granted the motion by the King brothers’ attorney for a new trial because the prosecution had bizarrely argued two contradictory theories of the crime almost simultaneously — trying another man, Ricky Chavis, for the same crime and presenting a different argument. The brothers had at first confessed to the murder but later recanted and implicated Chavis, who was acquitted at his, separate, trial. The verdict in that case was kept sealed until after the conviction of the two boys, who were tried as adults and face sentences of 20-years-to-life. The forewoman of the jury in the brothers’ trial said they were convicted on the assumption that Chavis had actually done the deed but that they were involved in some capacity; jurors were stunned at Chavis’ acquittal. A further unusual twist in this case is that the judge, while granting the motion for a new trial, asks the defense and prosecution to work out a solution by mediation first if possible.

Guilty of murdering girlfriend: “A jury Thursday found former hippie guru Ira Einhorn guilty of murdering his girlfriend 25 years ago and stuffing her mummified corpse in his closet.” Einhorn took the stand in his own defense, unusual for a murder defendant, and “claimed the CIA framed him for his girlfriend’s murder because he had knowledge of a mind-control weapon.” CNN I do quibble with the extent to which the press never fails to identify Einhorn as a former “counterculture leader” or “hippie guru.”

‘A bird the size of a small airplane was recently spotted flying over southwest Alaska, puzzling scientists, the Anchorage Daily News reported this week.

The newspaper quoted residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak as saying the creature, like something out of the movie Jurassic Park, had a wingspan of 14 feet — making it the size of a small airplane.’ Reuters/Yahoo! [via Walker]

Why the CIA Thinks Bush is Wrong: “The president says the US has to act now against Iraq. The trouble is, his own security services don’t agree.” Glasgow Sunday Herald

“Government’s secret Celldar project will allow surveillance of anyone, at any time and anywhere there is a phone signal…” Guardian UK

OldVersion.com: “Sometimes upgrading to a newer version can be a good thing. Other times, your computer may not be compatible with the new version, the new version is bloated, or all the good options are no longer available. If you are looking for an old version of any program, OldVersion.com should be your first stop. We are an archive of old versions of various programs. If you don’t see the program or a version of a program that you are looking for, tell us and we’ll try our best to add it.”

I’ve been walking around with a reservoir of frustration and rage for several days now because of things going on at work. At such times, others may want to breathe deeply in the thrall of some tranquil contemplative music but I’m drawn like a moth to flame to the rageful cathartic stuff. This bears some relationship to the hateful music featured in this site dedicated to insulting song lyrics; (“stuff … that just doesn’t belong on the radio is what we’re aiming for”), although I’m not talking about misogynist or racist material here. Dylan makes it onto that site for two separate songs; “Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright)” (listed under ‘D’ for Dylan) and “Idiot Wind” (under ‘B’ for Bob). Now I’m not a real Dylan aficionado, but “Idiot Wind” has always been the consummate contemptuous rage song for me, so I was interested to stumble upon these lyrics, claiming to be the “original version”. Compare the conventional lyrics (below; below the line). A reader who is a much deeper Bob-o-phile writes:

‘I wouldn’t say those are the “original” lyrics. Bob’s known for changing

the lyrics and/or arrangements of songs when he does them live.

But, those surely are the lyrics the way they appeared on the original

acetate of “Blood on the Tracks,” which was released to some radio

stations, but Dylan scrapped it and rerecorded nearly everything before

the official release.

You can hear those versions, which sometimes are superior (in my opinion)

to the official release on a widely available bootleg named “Blood on the

Outtakes.” ‘

On to the blood on the tracks; enjoy!

Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press

Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out quick, when they will I can only guess

They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy

She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me

I can’t help it if I’m lucky.

People see me all the time and they just can’t remember how to act

Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts

And even you yesterday, you had to ask me where it was at,

I couldn’t believe after all these years, you didn’t know me any better than that, Sweet lady

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth

Blowing down the back roads headin’ south

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth

You’re an idiot babe, It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I threw the I Ching yesterday, it said there might be some thunder at the well

Peace and quiet’s been avoiding me for so long, it seems like livin’ hell

There’s a lone soldier on the hill watching fallin’ raindrops pour

You’d never know it to look at him, but at the final shot he won the war

After losing every battle.

I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin’ about the way things sometimes are

Hoofbeats poundin’ in my head at breakneck speed and makin’ me see stars

You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies

One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzing around your eyes

Blood on your saddle.

Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb

Blowing through the curtains in your room

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth

You’re an idiot babe,

It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

It was gravity which pulled us in, and destiny which broke us apart

You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn’t enough to change my heart

Now everything’s a little upside down as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped

What’s good is bad, what’s bad is good, you’ll find out when you reach the top

You’re on the bottom

I noticed at the ceremony that you left all your bags behind

The driver came in after you left, he gave them all to me, and then he resigned

The priest wore black on the seventh day, waltzed around while the building burned

You didn’t trust me for a minute, babe, I’ve never known the spring to turn

So quickly into autumn.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your jaw

From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Mardi Gras

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth

You’re an idiot babe, It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

We pushed each other a little too far and one day it just jumped into a raging storm

A hound dog bayed behind your trees, as I was packin’ up my uniform

I figured I’d lost you anyway, why go on, what’s the use?

In order to get in a word with you, I’d had to come up with some excuse

And that just struck me kinda funny.

I’ve been double-crossed too much, at times I think I’ve almost lost my mind

Lady killers load dice on me, behind my back, while imitators steal me blind

You close your eyes and part your lips and slip your fingers from your glove

You can have the best there is, but it’s gonna cost you all your love

You won’t get it for money.

Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,

Blowing through the letters that we wrote

Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves

We’re idiots babe, It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

_______________________________________________

Someone’s got it in for me, they’re planting stories in the press

Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out but when they will I can only guess.

They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,

She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.

I can’t help it if I’m lucky.

People see me all the time and they just can’t remember how to act

Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.

Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,

I couldn’t believe after all these years, you didn’t know me better than that

Sweet lady.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,

Blowing down the backroads headin’ south.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

You’re an idiot, babe.

It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning that might strike

I haven’t known peace and quiet for so long I can’t remember what it’s like.

There’s a lone soldier on the cross, smoke pourin’ out of a boxcar door,

You didn’t know it, you didn’t think it could be done, in the final end he won the wars

After losin’ every battle.

I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin’ ’bout the way things sometimes are

Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin’ me see stars.

You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies.

One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ around your eyes,

Blood on your saddle.

Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb,

Blowing through the curtains in your room.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

You’re an idiot, babe.

It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart

You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn’t enough to change my heart.

Now everything’s a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,

What’s good is bad, what’s bad is good, you’ll find out when you reach the top

You’re on the bottom.

I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind

I can’t remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes don’t look into mine.

The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building burned.

I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned slowly into autumn.

Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,

From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,

You’re an idiot, babe.

It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.

I can’t feel you anymore, I can’t even touch the books you’ve read

Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin’ I was somebody else instead.

Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy,

I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory

And all your ragin’ glory.

I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I’m finally free,

I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.

You’ll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above,

And I’ll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love,

And it makes me feel so sorry.

Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,

Blowing through the letters that we wrote.

Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,

We’re idiots, babe.

It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

“U.S. revelations that North Korea admitted to running a secretive nuclear weapons program alarmed Asian neighbors on Thursday, but many experts saw the confession as part of Pyongyang’s quest for dialogue with Washington.” Reuters

Mick Hume: “The campaign against Iraq is dogged by the

American establishment’s defeat in the Culture

Wars at home.” sp!ked

Paul Hoffman starts blogging. He wonders if he’s late to the party, but IMHO it’s in full swing, just gearing up, and you’re welcome. Break a leg, Paul!

The Sydney Morning Herald editorializes that the Bali bombings — which killed mostly Australian tourists — should lead to Australia’s reassessment of its links to the War-on-Terrorism®, especially as US war plans in Iraq may inflame Islamic radicalism. OTOH, columnist Tim Blair in a widely blinked op-ed piece fromThe Australian, wants to have us believe that killing terrorists wipes out terrorism. His imbecilic argument, which starts somewhere like this —

Heard anything from Italy’s Red Brigades lately? What about Germany’s Baader-Meinhof gang? Where has Japan’s Red Army been hiding? Whatever happened to the Weather Underground?

All of these terrorist organisations have more or less vanished. According to the anti-war lobby, which holds that a violent reaction to terrorism only breeds more terrorism, they should be thriving. Andreas Baader’s suicide in Stammheim Prison in 1977 should have inspired an army of followers.

— and goes downhill from there, is on the level of vituperative illogic we’ve come to expect from the American warbloggers. After the Balinese attack, the ignorant come out of the woodwork in Australia too…

Rumsfeld’s Style, Goals Strain Ties In Pentagon Washington Post

A Blogger Code of UnProfessional Ethics e.g.: “I pledge to keep the reading of my weblog purely optional.” Oh, you card, you! JOHO The Blog

Cracking Contraptions: “Wallace and Gromit are back in their first screen outing for six years. BBC News Online exclusively presents Soccamatic, one of 10 short films, revealing Wallace’s latest inventions. Soccamatic is free to watch or download from this site.”

‘President Bush continues to encounter war critics in the most unlikely places — the United States military, for example. Last summer, retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security advis0r to Bush’s father during the Gulf War, bluntly expressed his doubt about a unilateral war against Iraq. A few weeks later, a trio of four-star generals appeared before Congress to echo that concern.

One of them was Gen. Wesley Clark, a former NATO military commander… Now comes retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former head of Central Command for U.S. forces in the Middle East, who has worked recently as the State Department’s envoy to the region with a mission to encourage talks between Palestinians and Israelis… Hawks in the Bush administration may be making deadly miscalculations on Iraq, says (Gen. Zinni.)’ Salon

“The new antiwar movement is in danger of being hijacked by bizarre extremist groups — and most protesters don’t even know it.” Salon

“New Jersey’s poet laureate, facing a hailstorm of criticism for his fevered 9/11 poem, tells Salon that 4,000 Israelis really did stay home from the WTC that day.”

Review: ‘Perhaps there are those who will take delight in a lengthy, picaresque tale that combines historical verisimilitude with unicorns and satyrs and creatures called ponces who had “erect legs and no knee joints” and “phalluses, which hung from the chest.” More likely Baudolino will make you wonder how a storyteller as crafty as (Umberto) Eco ended up producing a novel so formulaic and cluttered as this one.’ NY Times

‘Having decided to become a monk, I quit my job, sold my house, left a life I had built for twelve years on the west coast, and flew east. I had never set foot inside the place where I had resolved to spend the next several years, and possibly the rest of my life. I only had the most general notion of what kind of lifestyle I could expect….’ [more] Rudolf’s Diner [via wood s lot]

Two Arrested After Raid On NJ Home Uncovers Stolen Remains, Temple: “In a disturbing case, a father and son were arrested in Newark, accused of robbing graves. The two men say they were taking bodies from cemeteries to conduct religious ceremonies.” ABC [thanks, Walker]

36 Tattoos: “As the start of hoops season nears, well over 50 percent of NBAers are sporting tattoos. David Shields deciphers what’s written on the body:”

According to one more arbiter of hip, Rolling Stone, Paul Booth is “the tattoo artist of choice for rock stars who love death, perversion, and torture.” His “black-and-gray tattoos of blasphemous violence echo the same nihilist madness of the metalheads he inks,” musicians from Slipknot, Mudvayne, Slayer, Pantera, and Soulfly. His East Village shop features cobwebs, rusty meat hooks, a mummified cat, medieval torture devices, a gynecologist’s black leather chair with silver stirrups, a human skull given to him by a Swedish gravedigger, and a note from a customer written in blood. His arms are covered in tattoos, his face is studded with silver loops, and he’s enormously fat. Some of his most popular tattoos are “weeping demons, decapitated Christ figures, transvestite nuns severing their own genitals, cascading waves of melting skulls, muscled werewolves raping bare-chested women.” His clients come to him “because they share his frustration and rage, his feelings of anger and alienation. He understands those emotions and brings them to the surface with his needle. His gift lies in transforming the dark side of his clients�their hurt, their torments�into flesh.” Evan Seinfeld, the bassist for Biohazard, said, “We’re all trying to release our negative energy, our frustration with the world. Through our art and our music, we’re getting it all out.” Shawn Crahan of Slipknot said, “I have a lot of dark ideas in my head. Paul develops those same emotions in very powerful pieces.” Booth said, “If I woke up one day and became happy, I probably wouldn’t tattoo anymore, because I wouldn’t see a need to do it. I would lose my art if I became happy.” Village Voice

Two Arrested After Raid On NJ Home Uncovers Stolen Remains, Temple: “In a disturbing case, a father and son were arrested in Newark, accused of robbing graves. The two men say they were taking bodies from cemeteries to conduct religious ceremonies.” ABC [thanks, Walker]

If I’m ever The next time I’m in a job-hunting situation I’ll use a version of this response to a rejection letter. Turbulent Velvet reveals he wrote it, finding

it is “from the original email that I sent to seven or eight close friends back when I was in grad school. I had no idea it had ever leaked out from this circle and become an anonymous meme that’s still filling up four pages of Googlesearch seven or eight years after the fact.”

“Media Democracy Day is a day of international action based on three themes:

• Education – understanding how the media shapes our world and our democracy
  
• Protest – against a media system based on commercialization and exclusiveness
  
• Change – calls for media reforms that respond to public interests, promote diversity, and ensure community representation and accountability
  

This citizens’ agenda has been abandoned by government and conveniently side-stepped by mainstream media. Media Democracy Day will bring this vision to life with a day of education, protest, and calls for change in the interest of the people.”

A nifty introduction to game theory from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Pretty obvious that the Bush dysadministration’s senior advisors don’t think this is a useful approach to the family feud with Iraq. Oops; it appears that a central assumption of game theory is that players act rationally.

– And thanks for asking, but you can’t have it. Jon Cohen in Slate

Columbia Company Spearheads Radio’s Conversion to Digital Signals:

A company can’t often promise to invent watershed technology in an industry that’s remained largely stagnant for 50 years – and then deliver on that.

But iBiquity Digital, a Columbia company working to transform the everyday radio-listening experience, is just a few dials away from its destination: digital radio.

IBiquity Technology May Set National Standard:

Radio, long the low-tech cousin in the media family of television, telephones and the Internet, may be about to break out of its rut with a handful of new technologies that promise better sound and more information without requiring more space on the limited radio band.

both: Washington Post

Richard Reeves: Is It Time to Invade… Germany?? Yahoo!

Canadian and U.S. scientists, who successfully reunited a lost orca whale with her family pod this summer, are wondering if they should launch a similar effort for a second killer whale.

The whale, known to scientists as L98, has been living alone off Vancouver Island’s west coast since last year, after becoming separated from a pod that normally summers in the waters of Washington state’s Puget Sound.

Canadian fisheries officials said Thursday that a panel of whale experts will decide if they should attempt to capture the young male next summer and relocate it closer to where its relatives normally are. Reuters/Yahoo!

And, while we’re on the topic of doing right by our animal cousins:

Zookeepers Suspended for Eating Animals Reuters/Yahoo!

Receiving an Apology Does a Body Good, Study Finds: “Most individuals who have been wronged would agree that they feel better after receiving an apology. Now researchers have found scientific proof to back up that claim.” Reuters Health

Actually, there is a more or less continuous stream of research supporting this claim.

” A man who wanted to change his name to God chose a new name when a judge turned down his request.

The former Charles Haffey’s new name is I Am who I Am.

The 55-year-old said he sought the name change as a way to gain release from feelings of anxiety and rage that have plagued him since he served in Vietnam.

“I was fatally wounded in the mind and the spirit,” he said. “I didn’t suffer any bodily injury. It’s just what I saw, what I did. I killed myself.”…

Last week, he bought a tombstone to be inscribed with his former name. He plans to plant it in the tall grass on his property.

(Who I Am) said it will read, ‘Charles Walter Haffey, born Sept. 23, 1948, and died Oct. 21, 1968, Republic of Vietnam.’ “

This needs more exposure:

President George Bush has been laid open to further allegations of hypocrisy in his condemnation of the aggressive business practices of the 1990s with publication of more details of his own dealings.

Harken Energy, the oil and gas company behind Mr Bush’s wealth, formed an entity, or partnership, with the investment arm of Harvard University in 1990 that enabled it to move poorly performing assets and debts off its books, says a report that draws comparisons with the failed energy firm Enron.

The move concealed the company’s financial woes and may have misled investors, an independent student and alumni group that monitors the university’s investments said in a report released on Wednesday.

The group, HarvardWatch, likened the venture to that Enron used to disguise debts before it collapsed. Minutes show that Mr Bush, a director at Harken from 1986 to 1993 and a $US100,000 a year consultant at the time, personally approved the deal. Sydney Morning Herald

US has occupation plan for Iraq. The White House unveiled the plan as soon as the Congressional resoltuion was passed. The plan, apparently based on the U.S. occupation of Japan after WWII, has Gen. Tommy Franks in the Douglas MacArthur role. The plan marginalizes Iraqi opposition parties to prevent a repetition of the infighting in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and, most galling, calls for war crimes trials for Iraqi officials. Sydney Morning Herald As far as I can tell, U.S. oil company executives will not have above-board posts in the occupation government as they do in the US government.