~ The two faces of Rumsfeld [+] [it's called "creating an industry". like the mafia, the u.s. military industrial complex creates needs, justifies spending, profits from it, and kills people along the way. sell the arms to a "friend", profit from that, declare them an enemy, up the defense spending, kill your old pal/new enemy, then contract a rebuilding process, then profit from that. age old scheme. keep the weapons illegal, profit from them yourself, then use bigger guns to mow them down, sell weapons to people who hate the first group who you sold the arms to, profit from that, then make them your new enemy, kill them off, rebuild, profit, etc. with drugs, it's the same thing. keep things illegal, declare "war" on it, sell them to your political opposition, then imprison them because they break the laws you made up. wait for new generation to get addicted, repeat.]

2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea - a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts to build nuclear weapons.

~ MPAA's Stealth Attack on Your Living Room [+]

Recently, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been pressing states to enact new legislation aimed at criminalizing the possession of what they call "unlawful communication and access devices." These measures represent an unprecedented attack on the rights of technologists, hobbyists, tinkerers and the public at large. In essence, these proposals would allow "communication service providers" to restrict what you can connect to your Internet connection or cable or satellite television lines.

[...]

Under existing law, those who have legitimately purchased communication services (e.g., cable TV, satellite, or broadband Internet services) are free to connect whatever they like to the wires they pay for, so long as they do not violate any otherwise applicable law. So, for example, you are free to connect a new TV, PC, VCR or TiVo to a cable television connection that you pay for. Similarly, you are free to connect a Wi-Fi wireless access point to your DSL line in order to share your broadband connection among several computers in your house. This freedom has encouraged technology vendors to compete and innovate in response to the demands of consumers.

The proposed super-DMCA statutes reverse this traditional rule. Under these statutes, you would not be entitled to connect anything to your cable, satellite, or DSL line without the express permission of your service provider. The model MPAA bill accomplishes this by making it a crime to possess a device to "receive … transmit, [or] re-transmit" any communication service without the "express authorization" of the communication service provider. The various pending state bills include similar language.

This provision would make you a criminal for simply connecting a TV, PC, TiVo or VCR (all of which can "receive" communication services) to the cable TV line in your living room without your cable company's permission. It could also make you a criminal for connecting a Wi-Fi wireless gateway (which can "retransmit" Internet traffic) to your DSL or cable modem line without the permission of your ISP. The shift proposed by these bills is radical: all technology that is not expressly permitted becomes forbidden. This would give communication service providers unprecedented control over the home entertainment and the technology marketplace. For example, your broadband ISP could force you to use only certain brands of computers, or force you to pay extra if you wanted to connect more than one computer to your DSL line. Cable and satellite TV services could forbid you from using a TiVo, or could charge you extra to connect a VCR to your TV.

~ To the International Criminal Court: [+]

With heavy hearts, with faith-based convictions, and with shock at recent events, we, citizens of the United States of America, respectfully request that consideration be given to indicting our own President (sic), George W. Bush, as a war criminal, for unleashing a basically unprovoked war upon a populace that has already suffered immeasurably from over a decade of economic sanctions. We do not make this request lightly, or unmindful of possible consequences, but out of deep, though varied, spiritual faiths, we believe it is time for people and organizational entities of conscience to take the strongest possible stand against easy resort to imposing the horrors of modern warfare upon innocent people.

~ The smallest seahorse known to science has been identified by marine biologists. [+]

The creature, to be known as Hippocampus denise, is typically just 16 millimetres long - smaller than most fingernails. Some were found to be just 13 mm long.

~ FCC commissioners get media ownership rules plan [+](via MT97) - [republican controlled FCC = republican controlled media. who's in charge? a relative of Colin Powell, of course...]

~ THE MEANING OF COINCIDENCE An interview with the writer W. G. Sebald, by Joe Cuomo [+]

[...]

But I never liked doing things systematically. Not even my Ph.D. research was done systematically. It was done in a random, haphazard fashion. The more I got on, the more I felt that, really, one can find something only in that way—in the same way in which, say, a dog runs through a field. If you look at a dog following the advice of his nose, he traverses a patch of land in a completely unplottable manner. And he invariably finds what he is looking for. I think that, as I've always had dogs, I've learned from them how to do this. So you then have a small amount of material and you accumulate things, and it grows, and one thing takes you to another, and you make something out of these haphazardly assembled materials. And, as they have been assembled in this random fashion, you have to strain your imagination in order to create a connection between the two things. If you look for things that are like the things that you have looked for before, then, obviously, they'll connect up. But they'll only connect up in an obvious sort of way, which actually isn't, in terms of writing something new, very productive. You have to take heterogeneous materials in order to get your mind to do something that it hasn't done before. That's how I thought about it. Then, of course, curiosity gets the better of you.

~ Punky Reggae Party MP3x3 [+]

This three-part documentary series chronicles the unlikely yet fruitful relationship between punk rock and reggae.

In late 1976 Rastaman Don Letts was asked to DJ at the Roxy club in Covent Garden between live sets from punk bands such as The Clash and Generation X. As there were few punk records available his playist also featured tracks from his own dub and reggae collection.

The Clash went onto cover reggae songs and turn their audience onto the music, punk and reggae bands appeared on the same bills and this crucial Jamaican music found a new audience all over the country.

Hear the story brought to life by recollections and anecdotes from key players such as Paul Simonon and Mick Jones of The Clash, Don Letts, Viv Albertine of The Slits, reggae artists Mikey Dread and Brinsley Forde and presenter Tom Robinson who witnessed this unique musical exchange first-hand.

~ Euro Takes a Breath Near Four-Year Highs [+]

"There are fairly good indications that the capital inflows into the United States have slowed dramatically," he said.

~ "The Christian god can be easily pictured as virtually the same as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of the people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites." - Thomas J.efferson

~ Joe Strummer interview MP3 - from a bootleg 12" picture disc released 1984

excerpt:

Q: has your honesty hurt your sanity?

JS: of course it has. in a world that builds on illusion. advertising is illusion... [...] in america, they're gone... i tell you they're gone... you go to california.. i'm talking really simple basic things.. you touch a piece of wood.... wrong! this wood is not wood. this wood looks like wood. [...] people smile at you... wrong! they've been told by the management to smile at you. so really, you're not seeing anything that's real... not the objects, the buildings, the signs, everything is fake. [...] and what they get we will get later... if the world is moving towards that then i'm not interested... i like to come back here cause here in london we have reality, we have people shoving you out the way... that gesture, it's clear. this guy's in a bad mood and he's shoving me out the way... that is real communication... in california, they'll sue you. they'll sue you or smile at you while he's thinking of shoving you out the way...

~ Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq - Task Force Unable To Find Any Weapons [+] [no weapons? really? but Dubya seemed so sure... wait a minute, it's gotta be in Syria then... yeah, that's it. or Iran... or North Korea... instead of using them against invading forces, Saddam just shipped them over to another country... yeah, that's it...]

The 75th Exploitation Task Force, as the group is formally known, has been described from the start as the principal component of the U.S. plan to discover and display forbidden Iraqi weapons. The group's departure, expected next month, marks a milestone in frustration for a major declared objective of the war.

[...]

Leaders of Task Force 75's diverse staff -- biologists, chemists, arms treaty enforcers, nuclear operators, computer and document experts, and special forces troops -- arrived with high hopes of early success. They said they expected to find what Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described at the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 -- hundreds of tons of biological and chemical agents, missiles and rockets to deliver the agents, and evidence of an ongoing program to build a nuclear bomb.

Scores of fruitless missions broke that confidence, many task force members said in interviews.

[...]

"Why are we doing any planned targets?" Army Chief Warrant Officer Richard L. Gonzales, leader of Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, said in disgust to a colleague during last Sunday's nightly report of weapons sites and survey results. "Answer me that. We know they're empty."

[...]

"Is it evidence of weapons of mass destruction?" asked Deal. "No. It's probably evidence of paranoia."

~ US quietly eases rules for faith-based groups [+] [the b.s. (belief system) continues]

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has quietly altered regulations for the nation's leading job training program to allow faith-based organizations to use ''sacred literature,'' such as Bibles, in their federally funded programs. Civil liberties activists say the new rules blur the line between religion and government.

The change, made by the US Labor Department last month, could allow faith-based groups to use religious books as historical texts or as inspirational stories for job seekers, as long as organizations do not proselytize or conduct prayer sessions.

Looking Through the One-Way Mirror
Richard Thieme

[...]

Religious and patriotic symbols shed the meanings they once had and become peas in a shell game. The hands of perception managers move faster than the eye.

The war in Iraq clarified the nature of the American presence in the Middle East and the world as it was intended to do. The war itself was theater intended to communicate a larger truth that can then be used as leverage. The images fed to us 24/7 by competitive networks told little of the real story. Depth was once again sacrificed to images that were skin-deep, clarifying the totality of the victory, not only of American arms, but of that wrap-around mirror feeding our narcissistic self with reinforcing images.

[...]

Once we sanction a way to remove people from the criminal justice system, the system no longer exists. Once we send people to countries to be interrogated by harsh methods because we don’t do that sort of thing, we become people who do that sort of thing.

Asked what he thought the world learned from the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel said, the world learned that you can get away with it.

People with power do what they can. Because they can. Period.

A great many-tentacled hydra-headed monster is crawling through the desert. We try to make out its form through the blinding sand but can’t. All we see are arms whipping in the dust and a sky obscured by buckle and warp.

Don’t be concerned. Just change channels. Anyway, the war has become boring. The economy needs our support. Shop, buy tickets, invest in corporations that profit from war and its aftermath. Take trips to Disneyland in airplanes with tired pilots tripling their hours in the air. Listen to news punctuated with applause, sitcoms interrupted by laugh tracks, watch political theater threaded through with encouragement and reassurance.

Enjoy the circus in the funhouse mirror, the images of flags waving, images of POWS (ours) greeting emotional families. Cry when they cry, laugh when they laugh. Celebrate images of warriors, victorious. Wince at an image of an armless Iraqi boy, now a poster child not of brutality but of our compassion as we send medical care as we send Bechtel to rebuild everything we have smashed. Laugh, wince, celebrate, cry. The mirror spins around us, images blurring. Calliope pipes play shrill notes. Clear the rubble, bury the dead, dump truth down the memory hole, and let’s get on with whatever is next.

~ film _23_ (1998) [+]

The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB.

~ Anita Roddick's Kind of Revolution [+]

She taught me something that Wittgenstein, the philosopher, reiterated time and time again: words create your world. For example, in my company (BodyShop) – when I ran it – I asked, "How do you measure joy in the workplace?" Well, nobody in their bloody right mind in the business world would want to attempt that because it was not a financial measurement. But it made possibilities so exciting when you brought those words into play.

[...]

How do you re-enchant politics? That's another extraordinary word. So I was finding words that were just lost on the radar screen, like awe and wonderment and kindness.

[...]

The executive committee decided to distance themselves from me because they've gotten more and more worried as I get more and more radical. So they post this statement on their website that says they support George Bush and the war on terrorism. I said to them, "Who the f__ was talking about terrorism." I'm more of an American-phile than you are because I care so much about the loss of some of the things that are so great about this country. Of course, there was a backlash against what they did. So they got all confused.

[...]

I know I'm pathologically optimistic, but I do believe we are living in remarkable times. Every country around the world there's an insurgence against much of what we've been taught. What we're seeing now is an amazing rebirth of grassroots community, including community economic initiatives. There is a plethora of these social experiments. And I think this is what to me is the most exciting.

[...]

But in the United States, there is a sense of losing ground among progressives in this post-9/11 era.

I can only say, the United States isn't the world. Look at the burgeoning grassroots cooperative movement of women in India or Africa. There are these extraordinary actions wherever you go. This is the biggest explosion of social solidarity in – not our times – but in our entire history. And it's made more powerful by the spirit of transformation. It's not just an action or response. It's a transformation where we're producing new forms of economic cooperation, for a start. And this cooperation is allowing people to work outside the relationship of dependency. They don't have to be dependent on America or the West.

~ Iraq Civilian Body Count [+] 4771 - [let's see, about 4700 innocent victims in Iraq, and a few thousand in Afghanistan as well. sounds like it adds up to more than 3,000 innocent victims of 9/11. do we have Bin Laden? what about Saddam? what about these WMD's? it's all a farce, and always has been.]

~ MS to eradicate GPL, hence Linux [+]

If MS can't wipe out Linux, at least they can throw their marketing might and obscene quantities of cash into the project of castrating and controlling it by rendering the commons hostile to Linux users who still have their balls. They can in a sense create a huge market for open/closed hybrids, just as I imagined above: a system that comes with a GPL which I dare not exercise, and with considerable costs of both purchase and ownership. Even Dell might get into the castrated Linux act when they see what sort of stranglehold the Palladium scheme will enable them to place on it.

But here's the diabolical bit. Linux distributors are going to lose big time if they remain faithful to the GPL. Palladium will either break the GPL, or if not, break Linux.

[...]

As the obstacles to Windows migration fall away, inherent virtues like better security and privacy (your Linux box does not automatically connect to servers at Microsoft whenever you search your hard disk, for example), freedom to configure, redemption from the MS update crack-addiction, and low cost of ownership will strike more chords with the computing public.

This terrifies MS as much as the enterprise Lintel phenomenon. And it's not just cost rationale at play here. There's a revelation in store for users once they have something to compare their Windows eXPerience against. As home users come to use and understand Linux, they'll automatically begin to perceive what a parasite Microsoft really is.

The answer to this will be more parasitism: Palladium is a means of infesting the commons with hostile digital fauna. As these new services and applications become more plentiful, the need for the Linux desktop to deal with them according to Redmond spec will increase as well.

[...]

It's the very fact that this appears insoluble to me that helps me realize that MS has put tremendous, careful thought into it. To make the commons Linux-hostile, MS is taking dramatic steps to make it GPL-hostile. Very clever and admirably diabolical.

~ Dixie Chicks were receiving death threats [+]

"We're dealing with bigger issues than record sales," Emily Robison, whose property has been vandalized, said. "I'm concerned about my safety. I'm concerned about the safety of my family." Robison also admitted that, because of death threats, the Chicks will be forced to use metal detectors at its concerts this year; the band's tour kicks off next week in South Carolina.

Added her sister, Martie Maguire, who likened the most severe backlash to book burnings, "I think it's rational and totally acceptable for people to write a letter. We know that some of our fans were shocked and upset, and we are compassionate to that. My problem is when does it cross the line? When is trashing Emily's property OK? When is writing a threatening letter OK?"

~ Black Holes

If a dying star is too large, gravity overcomes everything. Above a certain critical mass, spacetime becomes bent, escape velocity exceeds the speed of light, and the star simply shuts itself off from the rest of the universe. It becomes a "black hole," one of several hundred million that already punctuate our galaxy, sucking up loose gas and dust like vacuum cleaners whos bags never need changing.

These "tunnels to nowhere" have an inevitably sinister aspect, threatening those who get too close with nonexistence, but it is important to understand that they are inevitable, perhaps even necessary. The same fine-tuning that makes our universe "just right" for life also encourages the production of black holes. John Gribbin, noting that the universe is "so efficient at the job of making stars and turning them into black holes that it could almost have been designed for the job," was the first to suggest that the whole thing might be a black hole itself.

Viewed in this light, if one can talk that way about something that swallows light, black holes graduate from one-way tickets to oblivion to being seeds of new universes. The result of one of an older generation of black holes going about its natural business of reproducing itself. Which suggests that our universe, in its turn, may have been born in just this way, out of a black hole somewhere else. And if the analogy with sexual reproduction is the right one for this process, it is possible that each time a new universe is born it alters the rules slightly, mutating in the way that life does, setting up the possibility of competition between a whole generation of related universes, which opens up the way for natural selection to work amongst them, favoring those most likely to survive and to reproduce again."

- _Dark Nature_ by Lyall Watson

~ Liberation, one month on: Chaos on the streets, cholera in the city and killings in broad daylight [+]

[...]

Yesterday an American soldier was shot dead in broad daylight by an Iraqi who approached him with a pistol. US forces exchange fire with armed Iraqis almost daily across the country.

[...]

But it is the rapidly deteriorating public health system – as summer temperatures take hold – that is most worrying. After a month of occupation it remains in a state of collapse. Drinking water, from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contaminated with sewage, has caused outbreaks of cholera and thyphoid among children in Basra. And the World Health Organisation warned yesterday that unless the security situation improves and medical staff can work in safety, the cholera outbreak could become an epidemic.

[...]

His wife, Suha, was more garrulous: "I'm not going to allow my children to mix with the children of these people. I am not sending them to school with them. It's not safe. In a month Iraq has gone back centuries. The Americans came and promised every one paradise, but where is it? This is hell."

Such concerns about the wild and lawless nature of the city are widespread. They have combined with a general frustration over the lack of jobs, electricity, clean water, and health care to create a groundswell of resentment against the country's new masters, counter-balanced only by the dislike of the old.

~ London Mayor Ken Livingstone has launched an astonishing attack on US President (sic) George W Bush, calling him "corrupt". [+]


[...]

The mayor said: "I think George Bush is the most corrupt American president since Harding in the Twenties.

"He is not the legitimate president."

He later added: "This really is a completely unsupportable government and I look forward to it being overthrown as much as I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown."

~ US: 'Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction' - [+]

The Bush administration has admitted that Saddam Hussein probably had no weapons of mass destruction.

[...]

Bush claimed: 'Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We will find them.'

[...]

This represents a clearly dramatic shift in the definition of the Bush doctrine's central tenet -- the pre-emptive strike. Previously, according to Washington, a pre-emptive war could be waged against a hostile country with WMDs in order to protect American security.

Now, however, according to the US official, pre-emptive action is justified against a nation which simply has the ability to develop unconventional weapons.

~ Shuttle Biking Kit - [+] - RIDE YOUR BIKE ON THE WATER WITH THE INFLATABLE BICYCLE BOAT IN A BACKPACK

George W. Bush Resume

Past work experience:

a.. Ran for congress and lost.

b.. Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.

c.. Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

d.. Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs.

e.. With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.

Accomplishments:
- Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America.
- Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history.

f.. Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.

Accomplishments as president--

a.. Attacked and took over two countries.

b.. Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.

c.. Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.

d.. Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.

e.. Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.

f.. First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

g.. First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.

h.. First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.

i.. After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.

j.. Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.

k.. In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.

l.. Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.

m.. Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.

n.. Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.

o.. Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.

p.. Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.

q.. Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

r.. Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.

s.. Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.

t.. Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15
million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.

u.. Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.

v.. My presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.

w.. Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).

x.. First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.

y.. Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.

z.. First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.

aa.. Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.

ab.. Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.

ac.. First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.

ad.. First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.

ae.. Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.

af.. Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.

ag.. Withdrew from the World Court of Law.

ah.. Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.

ai.. First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).

aj.. All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.

ak.. My biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).

al.. Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.

am.. First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.

an.. First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)

ao.. First US president to establish a secret shadow government.

ap.. Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).

aq.. With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.

ar.. First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.

as.. First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.

at.. Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

au.. Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.

av.. Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.

aw.. Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.

ax.. In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.

ay.. Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.

az.. In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.

ba.. Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

Records and References

a.. At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available)

b.. AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war.

c.. Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.

d.. All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.

e.. All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.

f.. All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.

g.. Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review.

h.. For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)

~ The Age is reporting that radio stations are finding that they are unable to play copy-protected CDs on the air. So what are they doing about it? Simple, the CDs go into the wastebasket rather than get much-needed air play. [+]

~ U.S. says Canada cares too much about liberties [+]

~ Independents' day [+]

What record industry slump? Independent labels say business has never been better.

[...]

You won't hear many of these labels' artists on pop radio - and ironically, that's one of the secrets to their success. By avoiding the major expenses associated with getting a tune on the air - which can cost upwards of $400,000 or $500,000 per song - independent labels are able to turn a profit far more quickly, and share more of those profits with their artists.

[...]

Other artists, such as Aimee Mann and Michelle Shocked, are going even further - forming their own labels so they don't have to answer to anybody.

~ NJ MUSICIAN ARRESTED ON ACCOUNT OF SHIRT April 7, 2003 [+]

Ridgewood, NJ - A man was charged with trespassing in a mall after he refused to take off a T-shirt that said "CURB YOUR GOD". Mall security approached Paul Minotto, 42, on Monday night after he was spotted wearing the T-shirt at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey. Minotto said he was asked to remove the shirt or leave the mall. He refused. The guards returned with a police officer who repeated the ultimatum. Minotto refused.

"I said, `All right then, arrest me if you have to,'" Minotto said. "So that's what they did. They put the handcuffs on and took me away. The shirt is nothing more than advertising for the primeTime sublime Community Orchestra.''

~ Move with the TV times [+]

The music industry might be struggling to adapt to the file-swapping, internet age, but it is already clear which creative business (sic) is likely to be hit next. The television industry, long used to maintaining careful control over who gets to see what and when, is already losing control of its schedules, and its precious content, to the file-swappers.

[...]

Thanks to broadband and hard drive video recorders, it has become a lot easier for people to store TV shows on their computers. And thanks to file-sharing programs such as KaZaA, BitTorrent, Limewire, XNap and Neo, it has become a lot easier to then share them with others. Now, within 24 hours of a show being broadcast in the US, people on the other side of the world can see it, too. Dedicated fans of shows such as 24, Friends, Buffy, The Sopranos and many other hit series are using this software. Still more file-swappers use private FTP connections (direct connections between computers) AOL Instant Message or IRC (internet relay chat) chatrooms to swap files. There's more than one way of delivering the content as long as you're hooked up to the internet. After that, it depends on the sort of computer you have.

[...]

If you have something that plays AVI files, Video CDs and Super Video CDs - and most Intel and AMD-powered PCs machines can, especially with software from such sites as www.divx.com - then once you download whatever you want to see, you're fine.

[...]

How long does it take to download a show? That all depends on your connection, and where you are getting the file from. A 23-minute episode of Friends (that's how long it is without ads, which are never part of the download) can be downloaded in less than an hour.

[...]

It's not unknown for a lot of people to set up their machines to download (or DL, to use the online slang) some episodes of a show - say Buffy and Angel - before they go to bed. In the morning, the files have arrived, and then they set up other downloads before they head off to work, with all the shows there for them to watch when they want.

[...]

But those networks are certainly unhappy about what is going on. A spokesperson for News Corporation - owners of Fox Television and distributors for Angel, Buffy and 24 - is blunt: "This illegal cross-border file trafficking aptly illustrates what it is the studios seek to prevent.

[...]

But are the networks at fault for failing to release shows worldwide? Or why don't they set up an online distribution model? According to Valenti, that may happen one day, but not now. "There is no business model on this Earth that can compete with free. If someone puts a show online for nothing, others will go to it. That's a fact, regardless of what the networks do with it.

[...]

~ RIAA attacking our culture, the American Mind [+]

"My great grandfather was born in 1870," he writes:.

"He learned to build crystal radio sets to listen to the earliest radio broadcasts in the 1920's. He would invite the whole town of about 500 over to listen to them.

"My grandfather was born in 1899. He purchased one of the earliest tape recorders to make copies of radio broadcasts for his friends in the late 1950s.

"My dad was born in 1924. He had a collection of 78's that he passed around for many years until he died last year.

"And now I am using the Internet to assemble an MP3 collection of all the tunes on all those LPs, cassette tapes and CD's that I've been buying since 1959.

"I'll be damned in hell before I accept the notion that I and my ancestors who love to listen to the audio arts are in any sense guilty of anything that is illegal, wrong, evil, immoral or improper."

Can you imagine the value of that heritage? Then multiply it. The RIAA is attacking the American mind, and controlling its finest cultural exports oversees.

Imagine the loss if your library agreed only to keep a couple of hundred books which were then only obtainable through a fee. Or if it burned down?

Well, when the RIAA has finished with its good work here, it will be free to do the same thing, only more aggressively, abroad.

Hilary's Rosen involvement in rewriting Iraqi's more liberal copyright law [confirmed] will pave the way for her members to control the distribution of Iraqi culture. Before too long, the new malls of Iraq will have hypermarkets bulging with what small parts of homegrown culture the record labels sees fit to offer, plus a few claypit McJob boybands groomed for success, with just perhaps a token Sunni or Kurdish artiste thrown in to demonstrate diversity, only, "I think there's one in the backroom but I have to go and get it", is the reply you'll hear when you go and ask for it in the Baghdad hypermarket, when you ask for the latter."Er, owing to market forces we can't bring you the music you were listening to yesterday."

(Remarkably, India and France have remained in control of their visuals, despite similar pressures. Almost everyone else is losing their audio, however).

In parts of the world where sharing music isn't as frowned upon as here, the people generally look pretty happy, I'd say. And so you might conclude that file sharing music encourages happiness. In these parts of the world people party more, or party harder, or both, and the free flow of their culture is demanded.

Why is this 'irrational', Bomber Sherman?

The RIAA's assault on our cultural identity - this includes refusing to open the catalogs, as well as bombing or financially crippling computer-using music lovers - is so deep that it's only a surprise that someone hasn't bombed them back at ... (We'd give you the address here, but the RIAA's website has just gone down again, and so it appears that Phase I has been resumed.)



~ Former Star Trek actor William Shatner's version of Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds has been voted the worst Beatles cover of all time. [+]

~ Halliburton's Role in Iraq Is Expanded [+] (via MT97) [remember, it was never about oil... uh-huh.]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oil giant Halliburton, once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, will now be involved in operation and distribution of oil products in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, indicating a more direct role in Iraq's energy business than originally believed.

New orders given to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root a few days ago included the operation of oil facilities and the distribution of products, said a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Scott Saunders.

[...]

In a letter sent on Tuesday to the Army Corps of Engineers, Waxman said originally the contract had been described as one to extinguish oil well fires and do related repairs, but Halliburton now appeared to have a more lucrative and direct role in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry.

"It now appears however, that the contract with Halliburton -- a company with close ties to the (Bush) administration -- can now include 'operation' of Iraqi oil fields and 'distribution' of Iraqi oil," wrote Waxman to Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

[...]

Cheney was formerly chief executive for five years of Houston-based Halliburton, the world's second-largest oilfield service company.

The United States -- which fought a war in Iraq to rid the country of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, none of which have so far been found -- has always said that Iraq's oil industry belongs to that country's people and not to America.

~ Librarians, Revolt! - PATERSON, N.J. — Librarians across the country are rising up against the USA Patriot Act, shredding records and making other attempts to thwart the legal framework in the war on terror. [+]

Someone is stealing your life
by Michael Ventura

(Excerpted from LA Weekly 26-Jan-90)

Most American adults wake around 6 ot 7 in the morning. Get to work at 8 or 9. Knock off around 5. Home again, 6-ish. Fifty weeks a year. For about 45 years.

Most are glad to have the work, but don't really choose it. They may dream, they may study and even train for work they intensely want; but sooner or later, for most, that doesn't pan out. Then they take what they can and make do. Most have families to support, so they need their jobs more than their jobs admit to needing them. They're employees. And, as employees, most have no say whatsoever about much of anything on the job. The purpose or service, the short and long-term goals of the company, are considered quite literally "none of their business" - though these issues drastically influence every aspect of their lives. No matter that they've given years to the day-to-day survival of the business; employees (even when they're called "managers") mostly take orders. Or else. It seems an odd way to structure a free society: Most people have little or no authority over what they do five days a week for 45 years. Doesn't sound much like "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Sounds like a nation of drones.

It used to be that one's compensation for being an American drone was the freedom to live in one's own house, in one's own quirky way, in a clean and safe community in which your children had the chance to be happier, richer drones than you. But working stiffs can't afford houses now, fewer communities are clean, none are safe, and your kid's prospects are worse. (This condition may be because for five days a week, for 45 years, you had no say - while other people have been making decisions that haven't been good for you.) I'm not sure whose happiness we've been pursuing lately, but one thing is clear: It's not the happiness of those who've done our society's work.

On the other hand - or so they say - you're free, and if you don't like your job you can pursue happiness by starting a business of your very own, by becoming an "independent" entrepreneur. But you're only as independent as your credit rating. And to compete in the business community, you'll find yourself having to treat others - your employees - as much like slaves as you can get away with. Pay them as little as they'll tolerate and give them no say in anything, because that's what's most efficient and profitable. Money is the absolute standard. Freedom, and the dignity and well-being of one's fellow creatures, simply don't figure in the basic formula.

This may seem a fairly harsh way to state the rules America now lives by. But if I sound radical, it's not from doing a lot of reading in some cozy university, then dashing off to dispense opinion as a prima donna of the alternative press. I learned about drones by droning. From ages 18 to 29 (minus a few distracted months at college when I was 24) I worked the sort of jobs that I expected to have all my life: typesetter for two years, tape transcriber for three, proofreader (a grossly incompetent one) for a few weeks, messenger for a few months, and secretary (yes, secretary) for a year and a half. Then I stopped working steadily and the jobs got funkier: hospital orderly, vacuum-cleaner salesman, Jack-in-the-Box counterperson, waiter, nail hammerer, cement mixer, toilet scrubber, driver.

It was during the years of office work that I caught on: I got two weeks' paid vacation per year. A year has 52 weeks. Even a comparatively unskilled, uneducated worker like me, who couldn't (still can't) do fractions or long division - even I had enough math to figure that two goes into 52 ... how many times? Twenty-six. Meaning it would take me 26 years on the job to accumulate one year for myself. And I could only have that in 26 pieces, so it wouldn't even feel like a year. In other words, no time was truly mine. My boss merely allowed me an illusion of freedom, a little space in which to catch my breath, in between the 50 weeks that I lived that he owned. My employer uses 26 years of my life for every year I get to keep. And what do I get in return for this enormous thing I am giving? What do I get in return for my life?

~ Anthropologist says Shakespeare might have smoked marijuana [+]

Several 17th-century clay pipes found at the site of William Shakespeare's home were used to smoke marijuana, a South African anthropologist says. Although he has no proof that the Bard was the guy who smoked the pipes, he surmises that some of Shakespeare's sonnets and plays also lend credence to the possibility that the writer smoked marijuana for inspiration.

~ Plants As Architecture [+]



~ "Our artists no longer try to put us in touch with god and the eternal, but with the infinity of our own archives." - James Flint on Brian Eno

~ Why Ecocide Is 'Good News' for the GOP [+]

In his book "The Carbon Wars," Greenpeace activist Jeremy Leggett tells how he stumbled upon this otherworldly agenda. During the Kyoto climate change negotiations, Leggett candidly asked Ford Motor Company executive John Schiller how opponents of the pact could believe there is no problem with "a world of a billion cars intent on burning all the oil and gas available on the planet?" The executive asserted first that scientists get it wrong when they say fossil fuels have been sequestered underground for eons. The Earth, he said, is just 10,000, not 4.5 billion years old, the age widely accepted by scientists.

Then Schiller confidently declared, "You know, the more I look, the more it is just as it says in the Bible." The Book of Daniel, he told Leggett, predicts that increased earthly devastation will mark the "End Time" and return of Christ. Paradoxically, Leggett notes, many fundamentalists see dying coral reefs, melting ice caps and other environmental destruction not as an urgent call to action, but as God's will. In the religious right worldview, the wreck of the Earth can be seen as Good News!

~ Earliest writing found in China [+] The I-Ching?

Signs carved into 8,600-year-old tortoise shells found in China may be the earliest written words, say archaeologists. The symbols were laid down in the late Stone Age, or Neolithic Age. They predate the earliest recorded writings from Mesopotamia - in what is now Iraq - by more than 2,000 years.



~ A mean-spirited America Today, I fear my own government more than I do terrorists [+]

[...]

Meanwhile, here in our great democracy, Americans go along with the program or remain silent, too afraid of the Muslim bogeymen thousands of miles away to recognize the Christian ones in our midst. Fearful that we will be verbally attacked, or shunned, or lose our livelihoods if we dare question the meanness that characterizes our government and, increasingly, defines our national character.

I do not feel safer now than I did six, or 12, or 24 months ago. In fact, I feel far more vulnerable and frightened than I ever have in my 50 years on the planet. It is the United States government I am afraid of. In less than two years the Bush administration has used the attacks of 9/11 to manipulate our fear of terrorism and desire for revenge into a blank check to blatantly pursue imperialist objectives internationally and to begin the rollback of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and most of the advances of the 20th century.

[...]

Three years ago, before the bloodless coup d’etat that made George W. Bush president, America was a far-from-perfect nation. Yet there was the possibility, almost gone now, that our country might evolve into a place that lived up to its loftiest democratic rhetoric. Today, I live in an America that makes my stomach hurt and fills me with terror. A nation run by greedy, frightened, violent bullies. It is time to take our country back before it is too late.

~ LAFCO - Los Angeles Filmmaker's Co-Operative [+]

A truly independent, non-hierarchical collective, The Los Angeles Filmmakers' Co-op is a radical experiment in nomadic and communal creativity. Our mission is to encourage pioneering in digital media by sharing our resources with the community around us.

Founded in 2000, LAFCO was initially based out of a fully equipped school bus. Loaded with digital video cameras, 3 editing stations, a portable library, a screening room, and room to sleep 5, the LAFCO bus has seen countless adventures in the United States and beyond, while helping artists and students produce dozens of short films.

Our new headquarters in Venice, California is intended for filmmakers, storytellers, artists, musicians, students, teachers, and anyone interested in the world of independent media to meet, plan projects, learn and share skills, organize workshops, and to screen their work.



~ Dance For Peace [+] - [one day before our exodus, we attended a nice sunset party on Venice Beach in the name of peace]

Dance 4 Peace is a collective of DJs, musicians, artists and activists that decided to come together in these times of strife to make a statement about celebrating life.

With the state of conflict that the world is facing at the present time, Dance 4 Peace displays an arena that brings people together to remember that life is a gift that we all have been given and it is our free choice on what we choose to do with it.

At Dance 4 Peace events, we showcase both live and electronic music as well as have key speakers and spoken word artists share their thoughts and viewpoints on important issues that exist on a global scale.

The events are held at Venice Beach at the Boardwalk at the end of Windward.

We welcome people of all cultures and backgrounds to come witness and dance with us, with the intention to liberate and inspire everyone to remember that life truly is sacred.

~ The New Inquisition Is On [+] - [notice how when it is convenient, ShrubCo dismisses his own responsibilities for his administration's failures of 9/11 as "conspiracy theory", yet is willing to justify conspiracies in the name of his own god]

Dubya: "Deliver us, oh god, from all oppressions, conspiracies and assaults from our enemies. We recommit ourselves to trust, serve and obey you, oh god, and for us who are christians, we pray this in jesus' holy name. Amen."

The event prompted protests from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, based in Washington. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, director of the group, said the Constitution gives Congress and the president no authority over religion. "They ought to stick to governmental concerns," said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

In recent years, the event has been co-opted by religious right groups trying to promote the fundamentalist christian political agenda, Lynn said. He adds: "I don't look to government officials to tell me when and how to pray and I don't think most other Americans do either."

Paul Krassner Interviews Robert Anton Wilson [+]

[...]

Q. You were brought up as a Catholic and became a Marxist when you were 16. What disillusioned you about each of those belief systems?

A. Their rigidity. All rigid Belief Systems (B.S.) censor and warp the processes of perception, thought and even empathy. They literally make people behave like badly-wired robots. Philip K. Dick noticed this too, and worried a lot about the possible robots among us. Some people think he was crazy, but I've never met anybody with rigid beliefs who seemed fully human to me. Phil got it right: a lot of them do act like robots. Especially in government offices and churches. Gort, Dubya marada nikto, dig?

[...]

Q. Why are you so skeptical about organized skepticism?

A. Like I keep saying, rigid Belief Systems frighten me and make me think of robots, or "humanoids"---some kinda creepy mechanism like that. Organized skepticism in the U.S. today contains no true skeptics in the philosophical sense. They seem like just another gang of dogmatic fanatics at war with all the other gangs of dogmatic fanatics, and, of course, with us model agnostics also. Look at the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. They never do any Scientific Investigation at all, at all. Why? My guess is that, like the Inquisitors who refused to look through Galileo's telescope, they have a deep fear that such research might upset their dogmas.

[...]

Q. How has the Internet changed your life?

A. It has felt like a neurological quantum jump. Not only does the word-processing software make my compulsive rewriting a lot easier than if I still had to cut my words on rocks or use a typewriter or retreat to similar barbarism, but the e-mail function provides most of my social life since I became "disabled." I do most of my research on the World Wide Web, get my answer in minutes and don't have to hunt laboriously through my library for hours. It has improved my life a thousand ways. I also have a notion that Internet will eventually replace government.

[...]

Q. I've had many occurrences of satirical prophecy, where something I invented turned out to become reality. Has that happened with you?

A. Well, in Illuminatus! (published 1975), terrorists attack the Pentagon and only succeed in blowing a hole in one of the five sides. Sound familiar? Also, in Schrodinger's Cat (published 1981), terrorists blow up Wall Street. I don't regard either of those "hits" as precognition or even "intuition," just common sense. It seemed obvious to me that the TSOG could not run amok around the planet, invading and bombing damned near everybody, without somebody firing back eventually.

[...]

Q. Since you believe that the universe is indifferent, why are you an optimist?

A. It may have genetic origins---some of us bounce up again no matter what we get hit with---but as far as I can rationalize it, nobody knows the future, so choosing between pessimism and optimism depends on temperament as much as probabilities. Psychologist John Barefoot has studied this extensively and concludes that optimists live about 20% longer than pessimists. When the outcome remains unknown, why should I make the bet that keeps me miserable and shortens my life? I prefer the gamble that keeps me high, happy, and creative, and also increases lifespan. It's like the advantage of pot over aspirin. Pot not only kills pain better, but the High boosts the immune system. High and happy moods prolong life, miserable and masochistic moods shorten it.

[...]

THE CONTRACTORS [+]
by Jane Mayer
Issue of 2003-05-05
Posted 2003-04-28

Back when Americans were still debating whether there was just cause for a preëmptive strike against Iraq, few arguments were scrutinized more closely than the Bush Administration’s contention that there were covert links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. At the C.I.A., analysts pored over aerial satellite photographs. At the Treasury Department, experts sifted through financial records. At the National Security Agency, Arab-speaking linguists eavesdropped on phone conversations. But, even after Secretary of State Colin Powell put his credibility on the line, in a damning, dot-connecting speech before the United Nations last February, questions persisted about the solidity of the alleged links between Saddam and Osama.

Now there is a new and demonstrable connection, but it is not the kind that the Bush Administration had in mind. In fact, it is more likely to fuel the speculations of conspiracy theorists than it is to put their fears to rest. It turns out that a money trail runs—albeit rather circuitously—from the lucrative business of rebuilding Iraq to the fortune behind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco. Bechtel is also the global construction and engineering company to which the U.S. government recently awarded the first major multimillion-dollar contract to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraq. In a closed competitive bidding process, the United States Agency for International Development chose Bechtel to rebuild the major elements of Iraq’s infrastructure, including its roads, railroads, airports, hospitals, and schools, and its water and electrical systems. In the first phase of the contract, the U.S. government will pay Bechtel nearly thirty-five million dollars, but experts say that the cost is likely to reach six hundred and eighty million during the next year and a half.

When the contract was awarded, two weeks ago, the Administration did not mention that the bin Laden family has an ongoing relationship with Bechtel. The bin Ladens have a ten-million-dollar stake in the Fremont Group, a San Francisco-based company formerly called Bechtel Investments, which was until 1986 a subsidiary of Bechtel. The Fremont Group’s Web site, which makes no mention of the bin Ladens, notes that “though now independent, Fremont enjoys a close relationship with Bechtel.” A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that Fremont’s “majority ownership is the Bechtel family.” And a list of the corporate board of directors shows substantial overlap. Five of Fremont’s eight directors are also directors of Bechtel. One Fremont director, Riley Bechtel, is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Bechtel Group, and is a member of the Bush Administration: he was appointed this year to serve on the President’s Export Council. In addition, George Shultz, the Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration, serves as a director both of Fremont and of the Bechtel Group, where he once was president and still is listed as senior counsellor.

Rick Kopf, the general counsel of the Fremont Group, which manages some eleven billion dollars in assets, confirms that the bin Laden family invested about ten million dollars in one of Fremont’s private funds before September 11, 2001. He noted that the bin Laden family has not enlarged its stake since then, but he declined to provide additional details about its association with the firm. He also chose not to discuss the origin or the nature of the relationship between the bin Laden and Bechtel families, both of which made fortunes in huge construction projects in the Arab world. The Fremont Group evidently does not go in for connecting the dots. As Kopf said, “Ownership is private and is not disclosed.”

Playing Card Deck Shows Way to U.S. Regime Change [+]

In the wake of the U.S.'s "pre-emptive" destruction of Iraq, her people, and her culture, the Trade Regulation Organization is issuing a "55 most wanted" playing-card deck similar to the one that the Pentagon issued two weeks ago in Iraq.

The TRO, estimating that the U.S. governing regime is no longer consistent with world peace or prosperity, hopes that the playing cards will show the way to regime change and, eventually, large-scale war crimes proceedings.

According to the TRO, the victims of the unprovoked U.S. war fall into three categories:

* People. In the 1991 Gulf War, up to 200,000 civilians and up to 150,000 soldiers were killed by ordinary bombs or their effects on infrastructure. In addition, poisoning from U.S. depleted uranium (DU) weapons - banned by the Geneva Convention - may have led to hundreds of thousands more Iraqi cancers and deaths; the 80,000 cases of "Gulf War syndrome" among U.S. veterans may also be due to DU exposure. In the 2003 Iraq War, the U.S. once again used massive amounts of DU in its weapons. Iraqi death counts are unknown or unpublicized.
* Culture. Because of a U.S. policy giving carte blanche to looters - only the Oil Ministry and Interior Ministry were protected - the Middle East's leading archaeological museum lost almost all of its unique ancient artifacts, and two libraries full of irreplaceable medieval manuscripts were destroyed.
* Long-term prospects. The U.S. is now considered the primary world criminal by the vast majority of the world's citizens. The implications for the U.S.'s long-term prospects are grim.

Many of those featured on the "55 most wanted" cards are in government, and removing these people from power would go a long way towards making the world a safer place.

Others include corporate CEOs; in those cases, the corporations themselves must be dissolved or otherwise rendered incapable of further harm.

"If one day the people on these cards are indeed brought to justice, 'just following orders' or 'supporting our troops' will be no excuse for the rest of us," said TRO spokeswoman Hedwig Ixtabal-Mono.

from Baard [+] (via gstrock)

Personal Server: Has Intel Built the Handheld Killer?

Intel is developing wireless, pocket-sized personal server that may replace laptops and PDAs altogether.

The "personal server," which is being developed at Intel Research by ubiquitous computing wizard Roy Want, is the size of a deck of cards, half the weight of an iPaq, and has no i/o, no screen, and no peripherals. The device never leaves its user's pocket or handbag.

The personal server mounts on any PC that can recognize wireless devices: "Any computer becomes your computer," said Want.

MP3 enthusiasts can sidle up to any computer that recognizes wireless devices, and exchange files using the host computer's keyboard, mouse and screen.

Other potential applications for the personal server include sensor data retrieval for science and biomedical purposes, and presentation and other mobile computing applications for business users.

The personal server runs as a Web server on Intel's 400MHz XScale processor, and connects to PCs and wireless "information beacons" via Bluetooth and wi-fi. The device also takes advantage of the motes radio technology developed at UC Berkeley.

The personal server also makes efficient use of power: it can stream video for 4 1/2 hours without running out of juice.

Want said in a recent interview that the uptake in wi-fi, the introduction of Bluetooth into mobile phones, and the miniaturization of storage media will contribute to the commercialization of his new product. At the moment, the personal server is a stand-alone device, but Want envisions it becoming a part of mobile phones, eventually.

The Nation

*Stop the Presses* /by/ Eric Alterman

Bush Goes AWOL [+]

[from the May 5, 2003 issue]

[...]

This is an eerie moment in American political history. George W. Bush was defeated in the popular vote by his more liberal opponent but rules from the most extreme wing of his party. He campaigned as a fiscal conservative but has pushed tax cuts that will create a deficit larger than any in US history. As a candidate, he articulated the need for a "humble" foreign policy but now conducts it with a degree of hubris that makes Lyndon Johnson look like the Dalai Lama. His hypocrisy, in other words, is so great as to be almost unfathomable, and yet he has somehow managed to convince the media to admire him for his "moral clarity."

Thanks to Bush & Co., America is hated the world over as never before. Deficits are exploding, unemployment remains high, the stock market is still in the tank and interest rates are poised to take off. The country is headed to hell in a handbasket from so many directions one can barely keep track. And yet the increasingly Foxified media tell a story only of heroism: of the US military, of the American people and of the President (sic) of the United States, who has so far managed to avoid service to either one.

The Experimental Party [+]

[since the U.S. is now a lost cause "democracy", we mind as well throw in the kitchen sink.]

Abe Golam Enters the 2004 Presidential Race

WASHINGTON, DC - Running as an independent under the Experimental Party, "the party of experimentation," Abe Golam, legendary info-shaman and digital avatar, joined the growing field of candidates running for the Presidency of the United States.

[...]

We will confront corporate control of mass media, so that a new century is spared new horrors of CNN - the issue Americans should care most about. We will appropriate with magisterial fearlessness, transforming CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News into magical images, and bring about the systematic reordering of the senses through the deconstruction of live, broadcast media.

[...]

In these post-apocalyptic times, which now supercede the post-modern in the post-9/11 21st century, we are redefining the role of the artist as a mediator and political player whose reflections, ideas, sensibilities, and abilities take significant action on the world stage. We see this as a way of moving toward a totally wired, out of control system of knowledge-potential slamming into your wanting-it body until it gives in.

~ It Takes Tech To Tango [+] - Way past Ikea lies a Swedish housing complex that is ecologically sound and wired for all sorts of remote-control fiddling with heat, power and security.

~ The Chickenhawk Database [+]

~ U.S. Sen. John Kerry (MA-D) said he was asked recently "what it's like to be running for the most powerful office in the land, and I said, 'I don't know. I'm not running for Secretary of State of Florida.'"

~ With pot and porn outstripping corn, America's black economy is flying high [+] - [as with anything, those that want to ban and illegalize anything have the most to profit from the black market - the CIA with cocaine & heroin trafficking, guns, etc. not to mention the prison-industrial complex, the profit motives of the police department for drug bust seizures, etc. in a similar vein, is it any surprise that the most ardent opposers of any kind of sex or sex acts are from the hierarchies in the catholic church (as one example), where sexual abuse is rampant?]

~ U.S. warns Canada against easing pot laws [+] VANCOUVER - A top White House drug policy official is threatening retaliation from the U.S. if Canada relaxes its laws against marijuana possession. [...] In fact, many countries, notably in Europe, have already decriminalized marijuana, but none of them share a border with the U.S., where the policy is zero tolerance for smoking pot.



~ Rocks In Your Gas Tank [+] - April 17, 2003: Imagine pulling up to a filling station, inserting the nozzle into the tank and the gas flowing into your tank is ... hydrogen. It's colorless, odorless and the byproduct of burning hydrogen is water vapor, quickly and safely absorbed by the environment. One pound of hydrogen supplies three times as much energy as a pound of gasoline. And it's the most plentiful element in the universe! No wonder scientists are trying to figure out how to make hydrogen work as a practical fuel.

Conquest But No Success - Charley Reese [+]

[...]

As for lifting the sanctions in order to let the oil flow to pay Bechtel (a multinational corporation that is embedded in the U.S. government), never let it be said that the Russians don't have a sense of humor. Only the United Nations Security Council, the same one President (sic) Bush treated with contempt, can lift the sanctions. For more than a decade, the United States has insisted on sanctions on the grounds that Iraq has banned weapons of mass destruction. Now, despite not having found any, Bush wants the sanctions lifted anyway.

Nyet, said the Russians, not until the U.N. arms inspectors certify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction will we agree to lift the sanctions. I don't see how they kept a straight face. They might relent after a little backroom bargaining. The French say they are willing to suspend, but not lift, the sanctions. It's got to make the Bush administration uncomfortable to have to bargain with the Security Council — the administration was so contemptuous of the U.N. arms inspectors.

Now, with the whole country laid open to them like a shucked oyster, the Bushies can't find so much as one drop of nerve gas or one vial of anthrax, both of which were supposed to exist in the tons, according to the Bush people.

[...]

via Circulars [+] - "freedom fries" - literally, if you guys don't get ShrubCo out - you can get these greasy potatoes in Santa Cruz

~ "The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery." —Thomas Paine

"It doesn't matter who casts the ballots. What matters is who counts the ballots." —attributed to Joseph Stalin



~ The Air Car - it's made by the French, so support them and go buy one. 110km/h, 300km on one tank of compressed air. cost? less than 1 cent per km, and it purifies the air at the same time. [+]

~ When I Get Spam, I Do Exactly As Instructed, Esp. When I Download Music - On Tuesday, the RIAA began sending thousands of instant messages to file traders using IM services on Kazaa and Grokster, warning them that trading copyrighted songs is illegal. [+] - [yes sir/madam, i will obediently comply with your spam for me to cease doing what i am doing because you say it is bad bad bad]

~ Announcement:

We have decided to launch Operation American Freedom.
It may take a brief period to assemble
and co-ordinate our peace forces but we are saying today:

America will again be free.
The peace loving people of America will once again
be permitted to live their own lives.
The people of America will be freed
from the regime that invades other countries in their name.

We will not stop
until freedom reigns
everywhere
on American soil.

This may take months
it may take years
but America will be freed.

~ Elephants That Paint [+]

~ Duct Tape Fashion [+]


~ Fetus Soap On A Rope - piss off those anti-choice christian terrorists and keep yourself clean at the same time [+]

~ 95b fm [+] - their bumper sticker reads "all other stations are shit". a quick scan on my car radio indicates that this is true. but it also kicks any LA station's butt musically. i miss KPFK, but when you can play metal driven drum & bass, then aggro hip hop (with cussing left in) transitioning into flowing techno dub, then some other genre bending cross referencing obscure track, (not just electronic) you can bet that i won't be bored with it. the dj's seem to get into detail on what the music is about... i guess it's a cross between college radio and semi-commercial stations like KCRW.

~ Boycott The USA [+] ~ boycott US goods in NZ [+]

No one individual has the power to change US foreign policy and attitudes. Even the UN has failed to curb the misuse of American power. But no country - no matter how powerful - can force people to buy their products

~ Spend For Peace [+]

--First, learn the U.S. brands and choose which to boycott, as many as possible

--Second—tell retailers, managers, customer service phones, head offices why you are not buying their products

--Tell the politicians, tell each other.

~ DJ Name Generator

These days the world seems to be full of DJs with ingenious names! If you're thinking about becoming a DJ, but you're stuck for a name, then this should help! [+]

~ Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) [+]

~ EU: 'Mini-Summit' On Defense Probes Emancipation From U.S., NATO

Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg announced plans today to set up a European defense union. Meeting for a "mini-summit" in Brussels, the leaders of the four countries signed a declaration that appears to commit them to the creation of military structures and assets clearly separate from those of NATO. Summit participants also raised the more distant prospect of a fully fledged European Defense Union. [+](via MT97)

~ Woomera - [at the local indymedia film night (where it was a crowded gallery room with pillows and cushions for seats), we saw a short documentary about detention camps in Australia for asylum seekers. the film was captivating and inspiring, as mass protest eventually led up to a spontaneous prison break.]

Hundreds of kilometres from Australian cities, asylum seekers awaiting processing are locked into detention camps such as the one at Woomera, in South Australia, on the edge of the Simpson Desert. The former rocket launch site, Woomera has a population of 1800, and is 500km from Adelaide. Recently it was mooted as a site for a nuclear waste dump, through the proposal was turned down by the state government.

The detention centre at Woomera is run by Australasian Correctional Management Ltd, an offshoot of US-based Wackenhut Corrections Corporation. [+]

Inland Anti-Empire [+]

Marine Cpl. Jesus Angel Gonzalez, who was shot to death in Baghdad, opposed the war in Iraq but went because he obeyed orders as a good Marine, his family said Monday.

The 22-year-old Indio man had joined the Marines to be a peacekeeper, not an aggressor, said his stepfather, Leopoldo Trevino.

When Gonzalez entered the Marine Corps in April 1999, Bill Clinton was president and a stint in the military seemed to hold less promise of killing people and more promise of helping them by maintaining peace in war-torn countries like Bosnia, Trevino said.

When the war in Iraq started, "he got caught," said Trevino, who helped raise his stepson since he was 1 year old.

"He didn't like it over there," Gonzalez's wife, Yvonne Avalos, 18, said. "He wanted to come home."

~ Police State - April 7, 2003 - Oakland, CA [+]






~ Iraq Civilian Bodycount - Min=2054, Max=2514 [+]

~ 50 COMPANIES LISTED ACCORDING TO NET VALUE OF PRIME CONTRACT AWARDS AND CATEGORY OF PROCUREMENT - Department of Defense FISCAL YEAR 1998 [+]

Elephant unlatches gate to save South African antelopes [+]

Tue Apr 8, 8:36 AM ET

EMPANGENI, South Africa (AFP) - The matriarch of a herd of elephants in South Africa opened a gate with her trunk to free antelopes being held at a camp in the east of the country.

Lawrence Anthony told the SAPA news agency Tuesday that a private game capture company had rounded up the antelopes at their camp near Empangeni to relocate them for a breeding programme.

The team were settling in for the night when the herd of 11 elephants approached, he said.

"The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team watched warily, hinking the herd were after lucerne (alfalfa) being used to feed the antelope," he said.

The herd's matriarch, named Nana, approached the enclosure gates and began tampering with the metal latches holding the gates closed.

She carefully undid all the latches with her trunk, swung the gate open and stood back with her herd.

"At this stage the onlookers realised this was not a mission for free food, but actually a rescue," Anthony said.

The herd watched the antelope leave the camp before they walked off into the night.

Ecologist Brendon Whittington-Jones said: "Elephant are naturally inquisitive -- but this behaviour is certainly most unusual and cannot be explained in scientific terms".

From The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams:
Chapter Twenty-three

It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much --- the wheel, New York, wars and so on --- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man --- for precisely the same reasons.

Some bits about dolphins....

1. Brain average of 5 pounds (bottlenose) , 3 pounds for humans
2. Communications 4.5 faster than humans.
3. Self aware (painted target and mirror experiment)
3. Had larger brain for 15 million years, 100,00 years for humans
4. Vision system unusually fast.
5. More complex cortical folding with more layers than humans.
6. Brain demonstrates hemispheric specialization.
7. Better short-term memory than humans.
8. Highly intra and extra species altruistic.
9. Evidence of "group mind".

WHAT A WAR CAN BUY....compiled by Jeremy Ross [+]

The cost of a war in Iraq has been estimated by the Bush administration at:
$75,000,000,000.00. But what does this figure really mean? I've investigated what $75B could buy in 2003.

Here is a short list:

(1) Free health care for 50,000,000 people in the developed nations (based on current per-capita expenditures in Canada)

(2) Adequate basic health care for 5,122,950,820 people in developing nations. (based on estimates by Dr Lieve Fransen in 1997 and with 2% inflation incorporated)

(3) All undergraduate expenses (tuition and living) in America for:
- 2,709,831 private university students (4,104,416 tuition only)
- 5,840,667 4-year public university students (18,377,849 tuition only)
- 7,171,543 community college students (43,227,666 tuition only)
[source]

(4) 375,000,000 "Simputers" (cost-effective computers for developing nations)
[source]

(5) At least a 17% rise in income for each of the 1.2 billion people estimated to be living on less than one dollar a day.

(6) Habitat for Humanity homes for:
1,875,000 families in America
2,939,332 families in Hungary
3,018,959 families in Romania
29,469,548 families in the Democratic Republic of Congo
30,788,177 families in Sri Lanka
32,552,083 families in Papua New Guinea
35,714,286 families in Guatamala
41,829,336 families in India
[source]

(7) 112,570,356,500 cans of Budweiser beer

(8) 441,176,470,600 handgun bullets ($0.17/each)

(9) 75,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles

(10) 37 B-2 Sprit stealth bombers (plus change for 22 F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters and 10 Joe Millionaires)

(11) 46,875,000,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline (Ohio, March 2003, USA)

(12) 2,616,887,648 barrels of crude oil (March 24, 2003)

(13) Hiring 688,206 top-notch U.N. weapons inspectors for a year.
[source]

SOME OTHER CALCULATIONS FROM CLAMOR READERS: Drop us a line with your calculation and sources.

(14) The average grocery bill (year 2000 data) for 14,540,520 US families.

(15 ) 40,816,326,530 free school lunches under the national school lunch program
[source]

(16) 937,500,000 pairs of white doves [source], 625,104,184 dozen white roses [source] or 2142857142 pieces of dog shit, with shipping to Iraq [source]

(17) If everyone on earth were to have access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities by 2025, it would cost an additional $75 billion a year. [source]

(18) You could use that $75 Billion to pay Enron's top 200 execs' salary for 5 years! [source]

(19) 750,000,000 Tantric Sex classes yielding the unquantifiable SHOCK and AWE of multiple orgasm. [source]

(20) 3,759,398,496 fifths of wild turkey (washington state, march 2003) or 2,145,923,000 pairs of black carhartts (swain's mercantile, port townsend, washington).

Cannabis Timeline

1937 Following action by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and a campaign by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, a prohibitive tax is put on hemp in the USA, effectively destroying the industry. Anslinger testifies to congress that 'Marijuana' is the most violence causing drug known to Man. The objections by the American Medical Association (The AMA only realised that 'Marijuana' was in fact Cannabis 2 days before the start of hearing) and the National Oil Seed Institute are rejected.

1938 The February edition of US magazine Popular Mechanics (written before the Marijuana Transfer Tax was passed) declares 'Hemp - the New Billion Dollar Crop.'

1941 Cannabis dropped from the American Pharmacopoeia. Popular Mechanics Magazine reveal details of Henry Ford's plastic car made using Cannabis and fuelled from Cannabis. Henry Ford continued to illegally grow Cannabis for some years after the Federal ban, hoping to become independent of the petroleum industry.