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Global warming -- the upside: the entrepreneurs poised to make millions from new ports and shipping lanes in the formerly ice-bound Arctic circle. A fascinating New York Times article on the international land-grab following the news (reported here, discussed here, whitewashed here, et. al.) that the polar ice caps and Siberian permafrost are melting. Goodbye Gulf Stream, hello Club Med Santa-style -- first SUV to the North Pole wins!
comment posted at 2:27 PM on Oct-10-05
comment posted at 9:47 PM on Oct-10-05

SOS or Safegaurd Organic Standards is what the Organic Consumers Association is calling their effort to protect the USDA's National Organic Program's organic food standards adopted in 2002. A rider attached to the 2006 agriculture appropriations bill and sponsored by the Organic Trade Association contains changes to the standards that in their view will make "technical corrections" to the national organic standards. This became necessary in their view after a 73-year-old organic blueberry farmer from Maine named Arthur Harvey won a court appeal against the USDA, arguing that federal regulations guiding organic food standards were less stringent than the original legislation had intended. This issue is splitting the organic standards lobbying community. Or perhaps this has been in the works for sometime as large corporate food producers have moved to take advantage of the rapid growth of the organics market. (more inside)
comment posted at 8:17 AM on Oct-10-05
comment posted at 8:18 AM on Oct-10-05

Is the Blair government creating another dodgy dossier? Following Tony Blair's recent outburst accusing the Iranian government of supporting attacks on British troops, a team are being dispatched to Iraq on a hunting expedition, in the hope of proving him right. Meanwhile, a prominent neo-con who served as the Iraq desk officer for the Office of Special Plans is telling the British that only the threat of force will tame Tehran. Sound familiar?!
comment posted at 8:20 AM on Oct-10-05

UNICEF bombs the Smurfs. UNICEF recently launched a campaign to teach schoolchildren about the horrors of war. Among the efforts are a mini-cartoon, where, yes, the Smurfs are bombed (Warning: Video file, strong images, Smurfs don't kick in for 40 seconds, most of which are dedicated to limbless children. NSFW or small children). I couldn't understand the language the movie is in (Dutch?), but the Smurfs say it all.
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Oct-9-05

My cell was 8 ft by 6 ft, the same size as the detainees’ cages at Guantanamo. It was my turn to be humiliated every time I was taken to have a shower. Naked, I had to run my hands through my hair to show that I was not concealing a weapon in it. Then mouth open, tongue up, down, nothing inside. Right arm up, nothing in my armpit. Left arm up. Lift the right testicle, nothing hidden. Lift the left. Turn around, bend over, spread your buttocks, knowing a camera was displaying my naked image as male and female guards watched. It didn’t matter that I was an army captain, a graduate of West Point, the elite US military academy. It didn’t matter that my religious beliefs prohibited me from being fully naked in front of strangers. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been charged with a crime. It didn’t matter that my wife and daughter had no idea where I was. And it certainly didn’t matter that I was a loyal American citizen and, above all, innocent... I knew why I had been arrested: it was because I am a Muslim.

James Yee: An American in chains It's OK to demonize the 'Other' if the Other is a Muslim.
comment posted at 10:10 AM on Oct-9-05

White House Tapes has audio files and transcripts of presidental conversations between 1940 and 1973, including FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
comment posted at 1:11 PM on Oct-8-05

Dobson vs. the miniature Dachshund : the musical ( subtitle : "The Will To Whip" ) OK, it's not really a musical. But it should be : in a slice 'o life piece of high camp from "Focus on the Family" head and author of numerous books on parenting, including "Dare to Discipline" and "The New Dare To Discipline", Dr. James Dobson recounts an epic battle, belt in hand, to dislodge his 12 lb Dachshund from atop a fuzzy toilet seat cover. Dobson also advocates the disciplinary beating of chidren, but not those younger than 15 months. The Dachshund has sinced passed away, ending "a fifteen-year-love affair between man and dog".
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comment posted at 2:33 PM on Oct-10-05

Wrestling with Diane Arbus "She set up no lights, just pulled out her Rolleiflex, which was half as big as she was, checked the aperture and the exposure, and tested the flash. Then she asked me to lie on the bed, flat on my back on the shabby counterpane. I did as I was told. Clutching the camera she climbed on to the bed and straddled me, moving up until she was kneeling with a knee on both sides of my chest. She held the Rolleiflex at waist height with the lens right in my face. She bent her head to look through the viewfinder on top of the camera, and waited".
comment posted at 9:59 AM on Oct-8-05

Harold Sherwood Bachman has died. Mr. Bachman was the designer of Doggie Diner's grinning dachshund, festooned with a bow tie and chef's hat that went on to become a Bay Area icon.
comment posted at 4:46 PM on Oct-6-05

Downhill Battle Labs: One "poorly paid" coder vs. the powers that be. previously mentioned, nonprofit Downhill Battle, having spun off the Participatory Culture Foundation/DTV TV Project ( "DTV is a new, free and open-source platform for internet television and video." ) has many other open source projects underway. DownHill Battle Labs projects include "Local Ink": "Enter your zip code, write a letter, and send it to the op-ed pages of newspapers in your area, and/or your representatives in Congress.", "Battle Cart": "...shopping cart for small operations. The catalog and the cart sit on the same screen....With a PayPal account, you can start selling things on a website in just a few minutes." Blog Torrent ( see: Metafilter 37204) a P2P Legal Defense Fund, and a Local Wi-Fi filesharing package. And more.
comment posted at 8:31 AM on Oct-6-05
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"Mom, you're not going to like this." A mother of a U.S. soldier tells her son about the latest Iraq torture admissions, only to be told that his unit routinely beat and abused Iraqis. "...suppose you visit an Imam and you want him to call off IED attacks in his neighborhood. If you just go in and ask him politely, he'll tell you he'll try to help; but, he won't . . . But, if you go to that same guy and beat him up thoroughly, then ask him to knock off the attacks, he'll respect you and he'll try to help. . . ." The mother reports that her son was "under the impression that the conduct was in line with military policy."
comment posted at 8:00 AM on Oct-6-05
comment posted at 8:29 AM on Oct-6-05

Intelligent Design on trial! The ACLU of PA is blogging the current trial in Dover, PA between the parents of students and the local school board which wants to teach students Intelligent Design. Over at The Panda's Thumb, they're also keeping track of the goings on. The main ACLU website has statements from most of the plaintiff's experts in the case, including this long, well-supported pdf from philsopher Barbara Forrest, whose testimony is being used to dismantle the canard that ID is not Creationism. Over at the Legal Affairs Debate Club Beckwith and Laylock argued, last week, about whether teaching ID is legal. For background: this 2002 special report from Natural History Magazine on Intelligent Design Creationism.
comment posted at 8:22 AM on Oct-6-05

Oliver North's advance publicity for a US war on Iran : Over 25 years have passed since the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Now, accusations that the organization fosters a Theology of War, call attention to SBC head Bobby Welch's new campaign to "baptize a million people in one year and develop “warrior leaders”. This conflation of Christian faith with military terminology is - some feel - quite intentional. Will "Christian soldiers" once more go into battle with Bibles in hand ? And, is faith best advanced by the bayonette point of "discipleship" ?
comment posted at 9:38 PM on Oct-1-05
comment posted at 9:41 PM on Oct-1-05

Did anyone at Boeing really think this ad through? Boeing/Bell Helicopters recently put out a print advert showing US soldiers rappelling from an Osprey helicopter onto the roof of a mosque.

Predictably, Muslim groups are not too happy with the ad. It ran twice in the National Journal and Armed Forces Journal. coincidentally, the United States is also trying to repair its image in the Muslim world... with a campaign led by Karen Hughes.
comment posted at 8:29 PM on Oct-1-05
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Simputer : High tech meets extreme poverty
comment posted at 9:12 PM on Sep-29-05

It is a highly addictive drug, but governments everywhere encourage its use... though they are not so keen on no-name brands. Richard Dawkins details the dangers of the most insidious opiate.
comment posted at 8:56 PM on Sep-29-05

Ice Cap on the Verge...... This is a very disturbing development. Is it any wonder we are experiencing such horrific natural calamities. First Katrina, then Rita, and now it looks like we are kissing goodbye to the Polar Ice Cap??? Is there anyone left in this country, besides the president, that still thinks Global Warming needs further Study???
comment posted at 9:01 PM on Sep-29-05

The death of Roe v. Wade from a thousand cuts "Two weeks ago Paul Pressler, the architect of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, described how the Religious Right intended to deal with Roe v. Wade. After expressing his elation with the selection of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court he said, "Roe v. Wade won't be revoked, it will die the death of a thousand cuts and qualifications and regulations until it gradually disappears."
- Dr. Bruce Prescott, from the eyewall of America's religious wars (Executive Director of "Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists"), notes the culmination of long-laid plans.
comment posted at 8:53 PM on Sep-23-05
comment posted at 9:10 PM on Sep-23-05

"If we can get kids to hang a picture of a priest in their room, we've done something huge for vocations." The associate director of youth and young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis is using a Matrix-style poster to drum up enrollment in the priesthood...and exponentially increase bad Photoshop pranks, if I know the internets at all. Oh well. At least it's not as bad as using video games to recruit soldiers! (Hat tip to NSFW-SG!)
comment posted at 8:31 PM on Sep-22-05

Throughout his childhood, David Myers was told that his skin color was a disease called melanism. He was lucky, his mother said, because the skin discoloration was all over his body, instead of just splotches of brown like most people had. So despite his dark skin, Myers grew up in white, middle-class neighborhoods in Ohio and New York believing he was white.
comment posted at 8:18 PM on Sep-19-05

Consensus View
New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds "explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future." Now this idea has been put into practice with Consensus View, a site where you can enter your predictions on stocks, commodities, and currencies, and view the group consensus. (from wsj.com)
comment posted at 9:34 PM on Sep-18-05

Left Behind: Bush's Holy War on Nature. Chip Ward enumerates the bizarro-world logic and Orwellian language of current American environmental policy. Even as Katrina's aftermath is focusing attention on links between global warming and more severe hurricanes, and studies of arctic sea-ice suggest that we may be 'past the point of no return' of climate change, the Department of "Justice" seems intent on blaming the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups. This War on Terra may not end in our lifetimes (despite the number of lives it will end...)
comment posted at 9:48 PM on Sep-18-05
comment posted at 9:53 PM on Sep-18-05

It should be mentioned wherever possible, and it should not stop until the mainstream media and all politicians realize that we, the people, will not stand for gross negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, nor the utter lies, any longer.
"We" the people? Or just a couple of blowhard bloggers? Do you feel a storm brewing?
comment posted at 9:22 PM on Sep-9-05

The Davis-Bacon Act was passed in 1931 and requires all contractors for federally funded or assisted projects to pay their workers no less than the locally prevailing wage. The impetus for the act was a contractor from Alabama, hired to build a Veteran's hospital in Long Island, who brought a low-paid workforce with him rather than hiring more pricey locals. Organized labor is rather fond of this Act while others see it as racist and un-American. One provision allows the president to suspend the Act in times of national emergency, and now is one of those times.
comment posted at 8:48 PM on Sep-9-05

Know Thy Neighbor --playing hardball with those who sign a petition amending Massachusetts' Constitution to end same-sex marriage there. All who sign it will have their names and addresses posted on the site. It's the brainchild of Thomas Lang and Alexander Westerhoff, one of the first gay couples married in Massachusetts. A little more here, including this: ...altering the state Constitution is a big deal, and if the backers of this (or any) constitutional amendment can't find 66,000 Massachusetts residents who feel strongly enough about doing so that they're willing to make their support public, then maybe the measure shouldn't be on the ballot after all. ...
comment posted at 9:02 PM on Sep-9-05
comment posted at 9:45 PM on Sep-9-05

Norway is the world's third largest oil exporter and western Europe's largest gas producer. It has been saving oil revenues in a fund worth around $190 billion for future generations. Norway has an amazing welfare system. The Daily Show's book hit the nail on the head (pdf)(see 1967/93) Norwegians love hot dogs so much that a university professor wants to ban them. What an interesting country! They have a priest as their Prime Minister, but for how long? . Oslo, the country's capital, is the most expensive place to live... But minimum wage is far higher than in the US. They have had state accepted unions of same-sex couples since the early 90's. Norway isn't part of the EU.

Today Norway sits on approximately half of the remaining reserves of oil and gas in Europe.. And even though Norway's oil production has dropped, it still remains a huge supplier of oil to the US. But, no matter what, they will be okay.. Oh yeah.... the UN just said that it is the best place to live (pdf) in the world. (p.s The US went from 7th to 10th in the last year...wonder why?)
comment posted at 9:18 PM on Sep-9-05

On live TV, irate Miss. man tells Cheney to "self-copulate" Thus turns the karmic wheel ? Recall: over a year ago VP Cheney said ' "I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it," after he told Vermont Senator Patrick Leahey - on the floor of the US Senate - to "Go f_ck" himself. Today, during Cheney's tour of storm damaged Miss., a resident approached Cheney's press meeting and shouted: "Go f_ck yourself, Mr. Cheney!!  Go f_ck yourself!!!". The exhortation was aired on at least one national cable channel. Here is the video ( ALT ). The LA Times,CNN, and FOX are carrying the story.
comment posted at 3:46 PM on Sep-8-05
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