Where ‘caught in the crossfire’ can leave no room for doubt: ‘When I read the word “crossfire”, I reach for my pen. In the
Middle East, it almost always means that the Israelis have
killed an innocent person.’ Independent
CDRW Troubleshooting: a four-part series on troubleshooting — when your Windows system has been perturbed by the installation of a CDRW drive; when data isn’t written properly, etc.
Slate‘s “explainer”: What Are Hamas and Hezbollah?
The Israel Defense Forces responds to the killing of the Palestinian boy. “The IDF wishes to express its sorrow at the death of the child and any incident in which lives are lost, but emphasizes that the Palestinians make cynical use of children’s lives by sending them to throw stones under cover of Palestinian fire that endangers their lives.”
Britannica.com‘s navel-gazing. And the Chicago Tribune‘s take on it.
Find your local haunted house. Go.com
Annals of the Erosion of Privacy (cont’d.): ACLU Action Alert: Secret Evidence. “This week, the House may vote on a bill, which has
already passed the Senate, to drastically expand
government power to seize personal information
without judicial approval.
The bill, H.R. 3048, would allow law enforcement to
obtain any kind of document it wants, without first
getting a search warrant or a subpoena from a court.
These documents include any written or electronic
document possessed by an individual or, more
frighteningly, any document held by a third party (such
as bank records, credit card records, telephone
records, school records or an Internet Service
Provider’s customer records). The bill would gut the
Fourth Amendment requirement that private documents
should be searched only after a court issues a warrant
based upon probable cause.” If you agree with ACLU’s efforts to oppose this bill, two clicks will send a fax to your Congressional representative saying so.
The Presidential candidates responded in detail to queries from the New England Journal of Medicine about their positions on health policy issues: the uninsured, Medicare, patients’ rights, and quality of care.
Ritual Objects of Cosmology: “DISCLAIMER: Manipulation of the space-time continuum may have unexpected consequences. We are not responsible for the release of
quantum singularities, or any electromagnetic, gravitational, nuclear or temporal effects including orbital perturbations, annihilation of
matter, suspension of physical laws, time loops, or other consequences, intended or not, that may result from normal, excessive or improper
use of these devices.” Explore the fermion accelerator, the graviton detector, the quantum flask and other exotic devices.
Both Oppose E-Mail Tax Bill (Good, Because It Doesn’t Exist). Someone in the audience asked Hilary Clinton and Rick Lazio, at their Oct. 8 debate, about their positions on the pending legislation that would levy a tax on email messages. Now you know, I know, and the New York Times knows that that is an endlessly recycling internet myth for the endlessly gullible, but Clinton, Lazio and their moderator took the bait and ran with it (and we’re eating up the egg on their faces?)
Carnahan’s Death Reshapes Senate Battle. Immediately, the chances of the Democrats gaining control of the Senate have plummeted. And Lieberman’s maintaining his candidacy for his Connecticut Senate seat while running on the Presidential ticket doesn’t help. Washington Post
“They revolted against their leader, but not against themselves,” says Leon Wiseltier. Milosevic’s overthrow is nothing like the fall of the Communist regimes a decade ago. Kostunica is no Lech Walesa, but rather an “unembarrassed…nationalist who does not see or does not wish to see that the tribal sentiment of his people…has not been the solution but the problem.” The Serbian people were outraged at what Milosevic had done to them, not what he had done to Croatians, to Bosnians, to Kosovars. In other words, “what brought him down were the unhappy consequences for Serbia of his failure in his ugly adventures. And the notion that the opprobrium that was visited upon Milosevic’s Serbia was in any way deserved — that it was the right result of Belgrade’s criminal actions — seems not to have figured prominently in the thinking of the Serbian crowds.” Wiseltier thinks more could have been asked of the Serbian people. The New Republic
Bush Gets a Free Pass From Inquiring Minds. Good to see the news media picking up on Dubya’s prevarication on his military record as well as beginning to police their own unquestioning acceptance of Republican claims that Gore lies and exaggerates. New York Observer
I’ve seen more instances of the word schadenfreude in the last month than in the previous year. Are we taking more pleasure from others’ misfurtunes recently? Here’s the result of a Google Search.
Bold enterprise: “An antimatter-aided space drive might bring deep-space missions within our grasp. Engineers at NASA and
Pennsylvania State University say that by the end of the century, spacecraft could reach the edges of the Solar
System and beyond.
They believe an antimatter drive could lead to a one-year round trip to Jupiter, a five-year trek to the
heliopause–the boundary separating the Solar System from interstellar space–and, in a 50-year trip, the Oort Cloud,
source of the comets.” New Scientist
The bombing of the USS Cole has reinforced Republican campaign rhetoric about a re-infusion for the US military, as if any added amount of manpower or military hardware could stop this kind of attack. But the incident is also the occasion to question the wisdom of US ‘engagement’ policy, says the Christian Science Monitor‘s Cameron Barr.
The idea, warmly embraced by President Clinton, is that a government
should cozy up to its potential adversaries in the hope of winning them
over.Indeed, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh hardly seems a likely friend
of the United States. He is Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s warmest
political supporter, his country has long been a home away from home
for a variety of militant groups, and his brand of politics is a good
distance short of fully democratic.
Isn’t isolationism always the refuge of some after a U.S. tragedy, or misadvanture, abroad?
Go ahead, lick your wounds. Beyond 2000
Culture, the non-issue: Has the anti-arts far-right lost the culture war against the “blasphemers and the pornographers”? Philadelphia Inquirer
Sit down and clap. It’s one of my pet peeves, and Stephen van Esch’s as well, that people give a wild standing ovation after any performance, no matter how mediocre. Why is this, and what is it doing to the arts? Spark
Former jazz piano cult figure Keith Jarrett is back from the frailty of a debilitating chronic illness. But does he have the chops to enchant jazz listeners anew, or will “sickly pallor” in his work become a “mark of heroism for the Jarrett cult”? New Statesman
NewsWatch blows the whistle on the Los Angeles Times’ struggle to start a drug scare.
A critical eye for detail. John Sutherland is an immensely popular literary critic — some thought that a contradiction in terms — who “examine(s), with forensic precision, neglected details and
apparent anomalies in classic novels and plays, and thus inject(s) new life into well-loved
literature. He has been instrumental in reviving the art of close reading at a time
when many literary academics use deconstruction and other arcane theory to place
themselves between readers and books, with the result that criticism becomes a
narcissistic end in itself, rather than a skill that deepens the pleasure of reading.”
Baby Girl Receives Arm From Twin who had died at birth. Reuters
Bizarre scenes from the “million Family March” in Washington, which involved only around several per cent of a million. Rev. Louis Farrakhan oversaw a Sun Myung Moon-like mass wedding ceremony. The Unification Church was a co-sponsor of the rally. He also didn’t come forth with any of the anti-Semitic or anti-white rhetoric for which he is renowned. And speaker after speaker urged attendees to get out and vote.
Why does an anti-depressant work for some people, but not others? One of the mysteries of psychopharmacology has been accounting for the two- to four-week latency of antidepressant response after a depressed patient starts taking the medication. A complicated cascade of neurochemical changes has to occur, resulting in altered brain functioning. Now a team of Toronto neurologists using positron emission tomography (PET scanning) have demonstrated a progressive sequence of changes in the brain function of patients in those weeks and the absence of those predictable changes in patients who will turn out to be nonresponders to the antidepressant studied, fluoxetine (Prozac). PET scanning visualizes levels of brain activity in various regions by imaging rate of glucose metabolism. The hippocampus, a “hot” region in current neuropsychiatric research on a variety of disorders, was one of the areas implicated.
The Fingerprint Mouse from Sejin America allows you to use a fingerprint to restrict access to a
computer system.’ Hey Neat!
Emerging Disease News: Ugandans Slap Quarantine on Ebola Virus Areas. A new outbreak over the last two weeks has killed 43, the WHO says. Ugandan authorities threaten those breaking the quarantine with death. The Ebola virus,
which first emerged in what was then Zaire in 1996, is a
hemorrhagic virus that causes patients to bleed to death
through every orifice — including the eyes and ears.There is no vaccine and no known cure. It is spread through
contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids and can kill
within 48 hours.One doctor said the symptoms were “like watching someone
dissolve before your eyes.”Medical staff in Gulu Monday were clearly overwhelmed, but
even with the best treatment in the world, Ebola is usually
fatal. Some 793 people have died out of 1,100 cases recognized
by the WHO since 1996. Reuters
Court Says No House Vote for D.C.. Democratic principles fall prey to the letter of the law. The District of Columbia representative in Congress can’t vote just because the Constitution says that membership of the House “shall be
apportioned among the several states.”
New realities? ‘The “standard model” of the way the universe works is just
about complete. Time to start looking for a new one.’ With an incredibly lucid summary of the aforementioned “standard model”. The Economist
The New Science of Character Assassination. Even more impressive domestic counter-terrorism from Phil Agre’s Red Rock Eater mailing list. Required reading, no matter whether you like Gore for President or not, to prepare yourself for the relentless, contemptible Republican distortions about his record only likely to heat up the last days of the campaign further. This is a point-by-point examination and rebuttal of claims by Dubya’s handlers and the largely reprehensible way they are covered in the media, with appropriate links.
Skilled Terrorists, Financing Believed Behind Ship Blast
. “This wasn’t just two guys with a dream,” said a U.S. counter-terrorism expert
who asked not to be identified. “This was carefully planned. You need people with
explosives expertise, with logistics expertise, who know how to put together a cell,
know how to do surveillance. . . . This isn’t the work of a bunch of amateurs.”
The United States has spent more than $1.5 billion to upgrade security at
U.S. diplomatic facilities overseas since the August 1998 terrorist bombings of
American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 220 people.
The apparent attack on a 4-year-old warship, sheathed with half-inch armor and
bristling with the latest high-tech weaponry and radar, suggests a deliberate attempt
to humiliate those efforts.
…And apparently very easy to do. Los Angeles Times
Review of Laurie Garrett’s Betrayal of Trust: the collapse of global public health. Garrett’s last massive tome, The Coming Plague, was all you ever need to read (at over 700 pages) about the rather scary picture of emerging infectious diseases, and began the process of examining whether global public health capabilities were up to the threat. Here’s another 700+ pages that apparently completes the job. “For those who shop early for the holidays, Betrayal of Trust should be on your list. Laurie Garrett, a health reporter for Newsday and contributor to The Washington Post, has written a well-crafted and meticulously documented treatise on global public health. Before you roll your eyes, let me reassure you: This book reads like a Robert Ludlum thriller. Garrett and her critical eye travel from Minneapolis to Kikwit (the Congo), from Sura (India) to Kiev. Nothing escapes her: Plague, pollution and prostitution are all examined in turn.” The Washington Post
Love: a qualitatively, not just quantitatively, different neurological activity than liking.
“Neurologists have found that, when you see your beloved, parts of
your brain ‘light up’. The heart has nothing to do with it,
suggesting St Valentine’s Day cards should be emblazoned, not
with images of the heart, but of the medial insula.
A study by Professors Semir Zeki and Andreas Bartels of
University College, London, to be published in the journal
NeuroReport next month, confirms that being in love is
physically different from merely liking someone.
Physical effects of this brain activity may account for the
traditional sensations associated with love, including euphoria,
butterflies in the stomach, love sickness and love addiction.” Guardian
Love: a qualitatively, not just quantitatively, different neurological activity than liking.
“Neurologists have found that, when you see your beloved, parts of
your brain ‘light up’. The heart has nothing to do with it,
suggesting St Valentine’s Day cards should be emblazoned, not
with images of the heart, but of the medial insula.
A study by Professors Semir Zeki and Andreas Bartels of
University College, London, to be published in the journal
NeuroReport next month, confirms that being in love is
physically different from merely liking someone.
Physical effects of this brain activity may account for the
traditional sensations associated with love, including euphoria,
butterflies in the stomach, love sickness and love addiction.” Guardian
Love: a qualitatively, not just quantitatively, different neurological activity than liking.
“Neurologists have found that, when you see your beloved, parts of
your brain ‘light up’. The heart has nothing to do with it,
suggesting St Valentine’s Day cards should be emblazoned, not
with images of the heart, but of the medial insula.
A study by Professors Semir Zeki and Andreas Bartels of
University College, London, to be published in the journal
NeuroReport next month, confirms that being in love is
physically different from merely liking someone.
Physical effects of this brain activity may account for the
traditional sensations associated with love, including euphoria,
butterflies in the stomach, love sickness and love addiction.” Guardian
Love: a qualitatively, not just quantitatively, different neurological activity than liking.
“Neurologists have found that, when you see your beloved, parts of
your brain ‘light up’. The heart has nothing to do with it,
suggesting St Valentine’s Day cards should be emblazoned, not
with images of the heart, but of the medial insula.
A study by Professors Semir Zeki and Andreas Bartels of
University College, London, to be published in the journal
NeuroReport next month, confirms that being in love is
physically different from merely liking someone.
Physical effects of this brain activity may account for the
traditional sensations associated with love, including euphoria,
butterflies in the stomach, love sickness and love addiction.” Guardian
Ringing disapproval. Thinkers like James Katz, communications professor at Rutgers, and David Karp, a Boston College sociologist, think they’ve figured out what’s so annoying about cell phone use in public. The phrase Katz uses is that it’s “like cutting up the park,” which I think is probably a reference to the seminal ecological article, Garrett Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons” (1968). The concept is somewhat analogous to Hardin’s, indeed. The idea is that the cell phone user is privatizing public space and indicating a disregard for others whose rights have been appropriated. It strikes me that this explains what, to a lesser extent (yes, around 50% less, because it’s just listening and not speaking) is similarly annoying about public walkman use.
Scientists control the content of dreams. However, the significance of the findings reported in this article are not really along the lines of “lucid dreaming” or anything like that. The exciting thing was the demonstration that patients with damage to the brain region called the hippocampus, who as a result have no short-term memory, nevertheless dreamed of their day’s experience. Arguably, this is one of the most direct confirmations of the role of the unconscious in shaping the content of dreams, which has recently come under fire.
Lennon Killer Had Hit List of Stars. Mark David Chapman continues to be a seriously disturbed and confused man, it seems, reading this report of his recent parole board hearing. New York Post
Do Horror Films Filter the Horrors of History? There could be no more concrete confirmation of the idea that horror films echo the fears of the day than the fact that Tom Savini, master of visceral gore as makeup artist for such films as Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th, served in Vietnam photographing corpses for the U.S. Army.
Israeli Left’s Ideals Take a Beating Amid Violence
“There is a deep crisis of conscience for the left in this country, for those of us
who were brought up believing that peace was possible, that we should pay the
price and that Arafat was our partner. The most severe
damage caused by recent events has been to the solidarity, commitment and belief
of the Israeli left in the peace process.” Los Angeles Times It’s been more painful to follow recent Middle East events than much else in the world; maybe naively, I thought at times that peace was within reach, and then to watch it fall so utterly apart, and the killings start again. However, some feel, at least in retrospect, that Israel never bargained in good faith. Read one Jewish leftist intellectual, Michael Lerner’s, anguished, apologetic appraisal of Israel’s failure in the peace process.
ATTRITION Web Page Hack Mirror. “For reference and posterity sake. And we are tired of having to visit
thirty two sites to reference these. Having them in one location is nice.” Regularly updated, this lists and archives hacks of various websites by guerrilla culture-jammers.
No more neanderthals. “I am now convinced that Neanderthals are alive and well in our
society. While we may have grown beyond our primitive huts
and scavenging ways, many Neanderthal characteristics are
with us today. Look around you; I’m sure that you could point
out a few of our primitive ancestors right now.
Now, I don’t mean the jerk who cuts you off or the moron who
pays for three bucks worth of gas with a credit card. I’m talking
about the people whose cognitive functions have not moved
beyond those of their ancestors.” It’s an interesting hook to what turns out to be a pretty prosaic essay, but I like the way it’s characterized. I’m sure you have your own examples of the survival of the neanderthal…
Terrorism: terror or tease? “People need to decide if
it’s worth maintaining an artificial state of anxiety and being
watched by the government to be protected from something
that may not exist at all.” Spark
The internet: the new source for real hip-hop.
So
here’s a recipe for success in pushing product, check this out,
you’ve got to plaster your album cover with corny computer
graphics of fat cars, dollar signs, diamonds and other material
objects, and, oh yeah, don’t forget the two busty women
(un)dressed in bathing suits and high-heels. And here’s some
advice for all you ambitious emcees: when y’all write, don’t put
any thought into your lyrics, just write about what everyone
else is writing about, be it sex, money, designer clothes,
whatever. Just make sure it sounds like either Jay Z or one of
The Hot Boys –guaranteed instant success.Hip-hop, excuse me, hip-pop is all about sameness. You’ve got
to follow whatever’s hot to experience any kind of success,
well, economic success anyway. Spark
Double or quit “A lone researcher says he can cut an electron in two. If
he’s right, quantum physics is dead.” New Scientist
Miracle Update: Window Clean, Virgin Gone New York Daily News
Two Florida teenagers discover they have the same name, birth date, Social Security number, and the coincidences don’t end there.
‘Oz’ author sought Indian genocide. L. Frank Baum wrote, a decade before the publication of ‘The Wizard…’:
The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies, inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession,
lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With this fall the nobility of the redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of
whining curs.
“The whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier
settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.
“Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable
wretches that they are. We cannot honestly regret their extermination. Lawrence (KS) Journal-World
Postcard delivered after 93 years. “A postcard delivered in the US 93 years after it was
originally sent contains only a one-word message –
“Hello”.
US Mail staff handed over the card at Joliet, Illinois,
after tracking down the relatives of its now deceased
addressee.” Ananova And whle we’re at it: Bottle-message washes up in NZ after 44 years.
Fear of Flying: Team of Aircraft Wiring Experts Finds Frequent Flaws in Jetliners; and : F.A.A. Is Ignoring Questions of
Defective Bolts, Audit Finds New York Times
Former advertisers speak… The rush is on to distance themselves from the controversial Dr. Laura show.
“…the largest mass poisoning of a population in
history… The scale of the environmental disaster is greater than any seen before; it is beyond the
accidents in Bhopal, India, in 1984, and Chernobyl, Ukraine,
in 1986.” Independent [via Robot Wisdom]
There in the tomb the dark grows blacker,
But wind
comes up from the shore:
They shake when the
winds roar,
Old bones upon the mountain shake.
Irish Times [via Robot Wisdom]
Longevity is linked to IQ. “A study of 300 individuals spanning almost 70 years suggests that
intelligence, rather than social background, may determine
whether people enjoy good health and a long life.
People who sat an IQ test at the age of 11 in 1932 were ranked
in exactly the same order when they took the exam again at the
age of 77, showing that intelligence is stable throughout life. But
researchers also found that those with high IQs tended to live
longer because they made the right health decisions during their
lives.” Telegraph
Hazards of a healthy choice. Drinking low-fat rather than whole milk may more likely infect you with food-poisoning bugs. Small dairies use pasteurizing machines designed before the popularity of reduced-fat milk and, once modified to skim off the fat, often performing inadequate pasteurization, according to new research. New Scientist
Emerging Disese News: Global disease traced to tropical logging. “Logging and the accessibility it
offers to remote forests and to
wider hunting opportunities may
play a central role in the emergence
of new diseases that imperil human
health, according to a new study by
researchers from Johns Hopkins
University School of Public Health. ” Environmental News Network /i>
Review of Louis Breger’s new life of Freud. “Outside the psychoanalytic community, there is widespread indifference to
Freud among psychiatrists and therapists in general. His dream theories
have unravelled, his views on women have decayed, his Oedipus theory is
seen as fantasy, his long-drawn-out psychotherapy has had its day. What
can be salvaged and recycled? Can a satisfactory new Freud arise from the
ashes of the old?” Spectator
Hitting the Wall.
“Nobody likes to think that they have gone past their peak. It’s a very unpleasant feeling…None of my fragile childhood dreams, my parents’ ambitious encouragement, my education
at all the best schools, prepared me for this
early seniority, this stiffening at 35.” Feed
ACLU organizes opposition to Congressional restrictions on prescribing of RU-486. “…(A)nti-choice extremists in Congress…have introduced legislation that would impose
severe and unwarranted restrictions on the use of this
drug. Sponsored by Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen.
Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), S. 3157/H.R. 5385 would
impose a variety of limitations on mifepristone,
including restricting the physicians who can prescribe
the drug to the limited number who are trained to
perform surgical abortions. These restrictions would
severely limit access to mifepristone and place it out
of reach for many American women.” With just two clicks, you can send a message to your legislators, adding your voice to those who believe that Congress should not substitute its partisan views for those of the medical experts of the FDA (if you agree…).
The Free Nader Vote: “Why is voting for Nader without risk possible? Because of the Electoral
College, it makes no difference if Gore or Bush win a particular state by one
vote or by a million. The president is not elected by the popular vote, but by a
majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes. These electoral votes are cast by
state, and it’s winner-take-all within each state. Thus, a Nader vote has no
chance of “spoiling” the outcome for Al Gore unless it potentially changes the
outcome within each state. And for 90 percent of the states (including the
biggest ones), that’s not going to happen.” AlterNet
Alarm as cult announces plan to clone humans. “US scientists said yesterday that little could be done to stop a
UFO-worshipping cult from pursuing a plan to clone a human
being, after the group said it had both the money and the
medical knowledge to carry out the act.
A former French sports journalist, who calls himself Rael, and
his followers claim to be on the verge of cloning an embryo from
cells grafted from a 10-month-old girl who died as a result of a
medical mistake.
The girl’s parents, whom the group have not named, are
reportedly paying $500,000 (£357,000) for the procedure. It is
not clear whether the Raelians have begun their attempted
cloning.” Guardian
Three IT Pioneers Share Nobel. The physics prize credits the developers of semiconductors and the integrated circuit. Wired
From the Malcolm Gladwell archives: The Art of Failure: “Why some people choke and others panic”. The distinction is interesting and important.
From 1999 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders; MSF): “The Bracelet of Life looks like nothing more than a colorful strip of paper, but it’s
actually a real tool used by Doctors Without Borders volunteers around the globe to
test whether a child is suffering from malnutrition. Believe it or not, more children
in the world die from hunger every day than from any other illness! Learn more about the Bracelet of Life campaign and world hunger; see how other kids are using the Bracelet
of Life to raise awareness about malnutrition and hunger; or get your own bracelet.”
Living among the headlines. “I cringed at the photo of the Palestinian man protecting his
son from Israeli bullets. Then I realized he used to work for
me.” By Helen Schary Motro. Salon
Most galaxies have a single nucleus, but the fascinating object in today’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) appears to have four. In fact, astronomers have concluded that the nucleus of the galaxy is not at all visible in this extraordinary photo of the Einstein Cross gravitational lens. The central cloverleaf is light emitted from a quasar directly behind the galaxy in our line of sight. The gravitational field of the foreground galaxy bends the light from the quasar into four distinct images.
“Britain and the United
States are developing a fungus that attacks
opium poppies, but the project aimed at
withering the heroin trade could end up
producing a dangerous biological weapon,
the BBC reported today.” ABC News
Dig-dug, think-thunk. Alot’s at stake in studying the past tense, as this review by a Yale linguist of Steven Pinker’s Words and Rules: the ingredients of language asserts. London Review of Books
Twenty of the last twenty years’ greatest scientific blunders. Few surprises here, but it’s inspiring to see them all together on the same page. Discovery
Bioethics comes of age. Arthur Caplan, prominent University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, was named along with several Penn doctors and hospitals in a lawsuit brought by the family of an 18 year-old who died last year during treatment for his inborm metabolic disorder. The suit charges that Caplan’s advice to enroll only consenting adults in the research protocol — the gene therapy researchers had originally designed a study to treat infants — led to the recruitment of their son, and eventually to his death. Some say that while Caplan’s advice satisfies the letter of ethical standards of informed consent, it defies the common sense that would inhere in treating critically ill infants instead of adults who have their illness under control and who might end up worse off than if they hadn’t undergone the intervention. A twist: bioethicists like Caplan are joining the boards of biotechnology firms which fund the research into their controversial potential products; the university researchers are often stockholders in the firms backing their research. Salon
A labor of love: a collection of references to the Parable of the Monkeys (you know, the one about how they’d eventually type all of Shakespeare’s works if they had enough time banging away at random) through the decades, since its first appearance in 1913.
Don’t give cash to street beggars, the English public is urged in a major pre-Christmas government advertising campaign. Guardian
From Sam Smith’s Undernews, Ralph Nader’s version of what happened at UMass. I can’t believe this outrageous violation isn’t being flogged with more concern and outrage in the media.
[From a letter written by Ralph Nader to the Commission on Presidential Debates]
RALPH NADER: On Tuesday night October 3, 2000, I attempted to view the first presidential debate
hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) at the University of Massachusetts. Though I
have been excluded from participating in the debates by the arbitrary and unfair standards set by your
private, bi-partisan company, I was given a transferable ticket by a university student to observe the
debates in a separate auditorium reserved apart from the corporate-sponsored audience in attendance for
the two-party show. I planned to view the debates so that I could appear as a guest to comment on the
debates later that evening on a live broadcast by Fox News Channel from a trailer occupied by them, at
the debate site, with the full permission of the CPD.
En route to the event, ticket in hand, and members of the press present and recording everything at my
side, I was met by a security consultant, Mr. John Vezeris, who was flanked by three uniformed state
troopers. The security consultant, while declining to present any credentials, told me that he was
“instructed by the Commission” to advise me that “it’s already been decided that, whether or not you
have a ticket, you are not invited.” One of the police officers told me that I would face arrest if I continued
to remain on the premises. The security consultant repeatedly refused to divulge who from the CPD
ordered this action and subsequent attempts by my campaign to establish who ordered this coercive
expulsion with the aid of police officers have not resulted in any names.
I was stopped a second time by the same police when I attempted to visit the news trailer for a broadcast
I was formally invited to do by Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes and which had been arranged from
the premises. According to today’s media reports, Mr. Kirk claims I was excluded as a “point man for the
protests,” when I took no part in those protests and when demonstrations by pro-Gore supporters did not
result in similar exclusionary treatment for Vice-President Gore. As the Green Party candidate for the
office of President, I am not used to being barred by police officers from attending public events for which
I hold a ticket. Nor am I accustomed to being physically prevented from attending approved on-site
newscasts and reaching national audiences from venues where I am invited to appear. Indeed, the
Commission’s decision to deploy public officers at a public university to bar me from viewing the
presidential debates and participating at a subsequent onsite newscast because of my political
viewpoints and affiliation with the Green Party violates both Massachusetts State and federal civil rights
laws.
Science Proves It: Restraining Your Emotions Is Not Very Smart. “Keeping a stiff upper lip during stressful situations can take an unexpected toll: It appears to interfere with the ability to think clearly during the event and to recall the details afterward.” Washington Post
Phil Agre, in Red Rock Eater Digest, takes another stab at describing the lunacy of the Presidential campaign and, in particular, Dubya’s one-trick pony approach: ‘The US presidential election campaign has descended into lunacy.
George W. Bush lacks the mental capacity to explain his own policies,
which is just as well, given that he is on the losing side of just
about every major issue. Instead, he, his staff, and most of the
media are engaged in a campaign of character assassination. That’s
the only word for it. They’ve decided that their strategy is “Al
Gore’s tendency to exaggerate”, and they are mass-producing factoids
that fit the pattern, accompanied by frequent, pointed suggestions
that Gore is mentally ill. The trouble is, the vast majority of
these factoids are false, exaggerated, or trivial. They are bunk.’
Appended to the essay is a forwarded message from Vinton Cerf who, if anyone, can comment definitively on what credit, if any, Vice President Gore should take for the development of the Internet.
I am taking the liberty of sending to you both a brief summary of
Al Gore’s Internet involvement, prepared by Bob Kahn and me. As you
know, there have been a seemingly unending series of jokes chiding
the vice president for his assertion that he “took the initiative in
creating the Internet”.Bob and I believe that the vice president deserves significant credit
for his early recognition of the importance of what has become the
Internet.
And while we’re at it, you might want to look at First Monday, a peer-reviewed monthly journal on internet issues. The current issue, to which this link points, has another article on the Al-Gore-and-the-internet issue by Richard Wiggins, as well as a number of other interesting examinations of the sociology of the cyberspace world.
Some of the least-understood and least-well-treated phenomena in psychiatry and neurology are the varieties of dissociative phenomena. Autoscopic or doppelganger experiences, in which a person believes he has seen himself, are among the most bizarre. Here’s a description of one case and a discussion of a possible explanation. Tell me if this interests you lay readers…Psychiatric Times
Conservation by Cloning: Cow Carries Endangered Ox Species, Study Reports. Scientists expect the cow will be able to carry the implanted embryo of the endangered Asian gaur to term in late November. The embryo was grown from skin cells of a deceased gaur fused to an extracted cow egg. The procedure is a prelude to growing clones of frankly extinct species; the team plans to clone a species of Spanish mountain goat that became extinct nine months ago. They temper their self-congratulation with the caveat that biotechnological maneuvers are no substitute for protecting species in their natural habitats in the first place.
Quietly, Booksellers Are Putting an End to the Discount Era: “…the discount era in the bookstore business has
virtually come to an end. With none of the fanfare
surrounding new markdowns, the dominant bookstore chains,
Barnes & Noble and Borders, have quietly raised their prices.
So have the online stores Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com,
and Borders.com, just a year after their discounts of up to 50
percent on best-selling books escalated the price wars to a
new height.” Online book purchases are no bargain anymore given added shipping charges; so head back to your local independent bookseller! New York Times
Clinton Plans to Issue Rules Expanding Patients’ Rights. Again, the timing is crafty. ”
White House officials said they saw the new rules as a way
to get around an impasse in Congress on patients’ rights
legislation. Publication of the rules could also yield political
dividends for Vice President Al Gore, allowing him to boast
that the administration is moving to protect patients while
the Republican- controlled Congress fails to act.” New York Times
Inside the Death House: “And I said, `I don’t feel good.’
And tears, uncontrollable tears, was
coming out of my eyes and she says,
`What’s the matter?’ And I told her. I said, `I just thought
about that execution that I did two days ago, and everybody
else’s that I was involved in.’ And what it was, something
triggered within, and it just, everybody — all of these
executions all sprung forward.” A powerful NPR radio documentary, “Witness to the Execution,” to be broadcast this week considers the stresses accompanying the accelerated pace of executions in Texas. New York Times
Brain Pioneers — Two Americans, One Swede — Share Nobel Medicine Prize for elucidating the mechanisms of neurotransmission in the brain. One (Greengard) was my teacher in medical school. BBC
Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your
computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to
socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian
Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your
computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to
socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian
Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your
computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to
socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian
Privacy News: Tailgating the Motorist: Big Brother? Drivers’ locations and driving habits may soon be monitored in a variety of ways, including using your electronic toll “passport”, onboard navigation systems, cellphones and a “sniffer” that records what radio station you’re listening to. International Herald Tribune
Talk to the Palm. A $179 attachment is an MP3 player, a digital voice recorder and a backup device rolled into one. Out of deference to music industry copy protection rules, users will not be able to beam songs to other Palms via the infrared link. Wired
To IgNobel-ly Go… This years IgNobel Prizes are out, for just plain silly things in the name of science. Beyond 2000
Mir attacked by cosmic mushrooms
The Boston Globe is reporting Mir’s trouble with rampant fungus which is eating plastics and other “spare parts” aboard the aging space vehicle.
If nothing else, the criticism of John
Simon has kept alive a sense of history. No one writing
today has done more to uphold the aesthetic standards of the
Third Reich. As film critic for the National Review and
theater critic for New York magazine, Simon’s specialty is
making punching bags out of people whose looks he finds
repellent, especially those who don’t conform to traditional
modes of beauty. (Barbra Streisand has been a favorite
target over the years: Early in her career, he said she looked
like “a tremulous young borzoi.”) If a performer isn’t
Simon’s idea of pinup material, the merits of his or her work
are beside the point. It was one of his remarks that once
earned him a plate of hot goulash in the face courtesy of
actress Sylvia Miles. His prejudices often make him sloppy
with the facts. In his review of Raúl Ruiz’s film of Proust’s
“Time Regained,” he identified Ruiz as “like Proust, a
homosexual.” As Film Comment pointed out, that should
come as some shock to Mrs. Ruiz.
Charles Taylor tries to go off on critic John Simon the way Simon goes off on everybody else. The occasion was Simon’s comments to director Atom Egoyan, taking questions from the press after the New York Film Festival opening of his film of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, one of the first two movies in a project seeking to film all of Beckett’s plays. Salon
Split Personality. Thoughtful review of Girl, Interrupted — the book and the film — by esteemed psychiatrist Alan Stone. Access a list of his other psychologically-informed film reviews from this page. Boston Review
It was a tricky moment the night Lilith Lacroix tried to join the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on stage. Sydney Morning Herald
Exorcism goes to show how little we know. A Chicago priest reflects on the fact that his archdiocese now has a full-time exorcist. Chicago Sun-Times
“I hate this hand”. “The man who was given the world’s first hand transplant wants it removed by surgeons because he hates the sight of it. Clint Hallam, who two years ago underwent the operation carried out by a British surgeon, claims the hand no longer works and that he is being made ill by anti-rejection drugs. Mr. Hallam, 53, has gone to Lyon, where he received the hand, to convince the French member of the transplant team to amputate it. ‘I can no longer do anything with it. It just hangs uselessly by my side. It looks hideous because it is withered and I don’t see any point in keeping it any longer.’ ” The Independent
Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your
computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to
socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian
The American Library Association’s list of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books of 1990-1999
