By Sheila
Lennon
Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Fair and balanced, too!
April 30, 2004, 6:05 p.m. -- (Last
week's weblog)
Free coffee grounds for gardeners, and how to use
them: Inside Starbucks
stores (CNN: Coffee
purveyor finds way to cut trash bill by handing out spent grounds as compost.), you'll find silver bags packed up with about five pounds
of used coffee grounds,
yours for the taking.
I called two stores -- Wayland Square in Providence and Garden City in Cranston
-- and they were both participating. (Here's a list of all the Rhode
Island stores, if you want to check the one nearest you.)
At the Cranston store, a helpful employee said there were three bags in the
bin at the moment, and asked if I'd like her to put them aside for me.
Here's how to use coffee grounds in your garden:
Coffee
and gardening: Ideas and reader suggestions from Sustainable Enterprise.
Give
your garden a jolt with coffee grounds by the author of Ann
Lovejoy's Organic Design School.
Coffee
Grounds and Composting at GardenWeb
Thanks to Bill Herron for the emailed tip.
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How
you can bid online for Google shares: From today's san Jose Mercury
News. (more Google items from earlier today are below)
Link
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Play
this page: Fingertips, a
fine music blog, has a nice feature on its "weekly
finds" page: A "Listen
to this page" button. All the week's picks stream
like radio on a listener-created
playlist page at Webjay.
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The Force That Drives the Flower: Today is poet and writer Annie
Dillard's 59th birthday, and
wood s lot offers up a
passel of links and fine excerpts. Here's one:
The world has signed a pact with the devil; it had to. It is a covenant
to which every thing, even every hydrogen atom, is bound. The terms are clear:
if you want to live, you have to die; you cannot have mountains and creeks
without space, and space is a beauty married to a blind man. The blind man
is Freedom, or Time, and he does not go anywhere without his great dog Death.
The world came into being with the signing of the contract. A scientist calls
it the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A poet says, "The force that through
the green fuse drives the flower/ Drives my green age." This is what
we know. The rest is gravy....(more)
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Bishop:
N.J. Gov. McGreevey cannot receive communion
CAMDEN, N.J. -- The incoming leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden
has decided that Gov. James E. McGreevey cannot receive communion.
The Most Rev. Joseph Galante said Thursday that he was taking the stance primarily
because the divorced governor, who is Catholic, remarried without receiving
a church annulment. He also cited McGreevey's support of abortion rights, stem-cell
research and other positions which contradict church views.
Galante, who was to be installed Friday during a Mass at St. Agnes Church
in Blackwood, said he felt duty bound to take a hard line stance on the issue.
He said the public becomes confused about church teachings when bishops fail
to challenge Catholic politicians on their voting records. ...
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1:50 p.m.
Families
of the 372nd tormented by stories of POW abuses in Iraq:
Soldier detailed problems in journal sent to father in Md. From the
Baltimore Sun (former Journal reporter Ariel Sabar leads the byline on
this story):
CUMBERLAND - For months, members of the 372nd Military Police Company harbored
a terrible secret.
The Army Reserve unit based near here - whose service in Iraq made many of
its members hometown heroes - had boasted six months ago of its credentials
for a new security assignment at a prison west of Baghdad.
"We are relying heavily on our soldiers with correctional [officer] experience," said
their newsletter, published in the local newspaper. "The regular Army
can't touch us with experience."
But months later, the prison detail was disgraced in news reports across the
world.
The Army said yesterday that 14 of the 17 soldiers implicated in an investigation
of abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison are from the 372nd. They
face either criminal or administrative charges....
Also: Cumberland
stands by 372nd; Lack of training, stress are blamed in abuse of Iraqis
There are more photos,
and video,
but this one photo above -- part scarecrow, part crucifixion -- is the one
that sticks. Like the photo of the fleeing
girl, her clothes burned off by napalm in Vietnam, it will be the icon for
the Iraq war.
Terror? Can the person perched on that
box, told he would die if aching muscles give way, be feeling anything else?
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Google:
Now That The Other Shoe Has Dropped: John Battelle's Searchblog was thorough and thoughtful yesterday on the IPO. Today's Second
Day Updates keeps on tracking.
Aaron Swartz's Google
weblog ("not affiliated with or endorsed by Google") is all over the IPO.
Google IPO central ("not
affiliated in any way with Google") is collecting stories.
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Patriot
Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act: WaPo.
The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit
three weeks ago challenging the FBI's methods of obtaining many business records,
but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until
now.
The lawsuit was filed April 6 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, but the
case was kept under seal to avoid violating secrecy rules contained in the
USA Patriot Act, the ACLU said. The group was allowed to release a redacted
version of the lawsuit after weeks of negotiations with the government.
"It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public
in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed
in court," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, said in a
statement. "President Bush can talk about extending the life of the
Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our
challenge
to it."
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the case. ...
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More on Nightline: From Romenesko:
Sinclair
to air "a full debate" about a show viewers won't see (NYT)
Sinclair
tries for Koppel interview after rejecting his show (WaPo)
McCain says Sinclair's "Nightline" boycott
is "unpatriotic":
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Crystal Benton
Friday, April 30, 2004
202/224-2182
McCain Letter to Sinclair Broadcast on Preemption of Nightline
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) issued the following
letter today to Mr. David Smith, President and CEO of Sinclair Broadcast
Group, in response to the preemption of this evening's Nightline program:
I write to strongly protest your decision to instruct Sinclair's ABC affiliates
to preempt this evening's Nightline program. I find deeply offensive Sinclair's
objection to Nightline's intention to broadcast the names and photographs
of Americans who gave their lives in service to our country in Iraq.
I supported the President's decision to go to war in Iraq, and remain a
strong supporter of that decision. But every American has a responsibility
to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices
it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest
of us; lest we ever forget or grow insensitive to how grave a decision it
is for our government to order Americans into combat. It is a solemn responsibility
of elected officials to accept responsibility for our decision and its consequences,
and, with those who disseminate the news, to ensure that Americans are fully
informed of those consequences.
There is no valid reason for Sinclair to shirk its responsibility in what
I assume is a very misguided attempt to prevent your viewers from completely
appreciating the extraordinary sacrifices made on their behalf by Americans
serving in Iraq. War is an awful, but sometimes necessary business. Your
decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war's terrible
costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public,
and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short,
sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly
deserves.
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April 29, 2004, 7:20 p.m. -- (Last
week's weblog)
This item stays on top because of the survey; new items are below.
Sinclair's
ABC stations won't air Nightline war-dead show: "designed to
undermine
the efforts of the U.S. in Iraq"
Survey: What do you think?
Vote | Results
Romenesko
reports: Sinclair
Broadcast Group says its ABC stations won't air
Friday's "Nightline's" because "we find it to be contrary to
the public interest." It adds: "Despite the denials by a spokeswoman
for the show the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed
to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." ABC News responds: "The
'Nightline' broadcast is an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor
those who have laid down their lives for this country."
Here are the primary sources:
STATEMENT OF THE SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP
The ABC Television network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30th
edition of “Nightline” will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading
aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite
the denials by a spokeswoman for the show the action appears to be motivated
by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States
in Iraq.
While the Sinclair Broadcast Group honors the memory of the brave members
of the military who have sacrificed their lives in the service of our country,
we do not believe such political statements should be disguised as news content.
As a result, we have decided to preempt the broadcast of “Nightline” this
Friday on each of our stations which air ABC programming.
We understand that our decision in this matter may be questioned by some.
Before you judge our decision, however, we would ask that you first question
Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of the 523 troops killed in
combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private citizens
killed in terrorists attacks since and including the events of September 11,
2001. In his answer, you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled
for this Friday.
ABC NEWS STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO SINCLAIR
We respectfully disagree with Sinclair's decision to pre-empt "Nightline's" tribute
to America's fallen soldiers which will air this Friday, April 30. The Nightline
broadcast is an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who
have laid down their lives for this country. ABC News is dedicated to thoughtful
and balanced coverage and reports on the events shaping our world with neither
fear nor favor -- as our audience expects, deserves, and rightly demands. Contrary
to the statement issued by Sinclair, which takes issue with our level of coverage
of the effects of terrorism on our citizens, ABC News and all of our broadcasts,
including "Nightline," have reported hundreds of stories on 9-11.
Indeed, on the first anniversary of 9-11, ABC News broadcast the names of
the victims of that horrific attack.
In sum, we are particularly proud of the journalism and award winning coverage
ABC News has produced since September 11, 2001. ABC News will continue to report
on all facets of the war in Iraq and the War on Terrorism in a manner consistent
with the standards which ABC News has set for decades.
Sinclair's eight ABC stations are:
WEAR, Pensacola, Fla.
WTXL, Tallahassee, Fla.
WGGB, Springfield, Mass.
KDNL, St. Louis, Mo.
WSYX, Columbus Ohio
WLOS, Asheville, N.C.
WXLV, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, N.C.
WCHS, Charleston, Huntington
W Va.
Scott Bradshaw, general manager of WLOS in Asheville, N.C., passed along (through
staffer Rhonda Keith) that the station will instead run an extended
one-hour
newscast in place of Nightline,
and does not expect it to include material about the show.
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GPS Drawing "is
about recording lines using one's journey as a mark-making medium. The GPS
receiver automatically records your journey like a geodesic
pencil." The gallery.
Link
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Real
Dialogue: The Tech interviews Jack Valenti: Keith J. Winstein, an
MIT engineering student and senior editor of The Tech, got 10 minutes with
the head of the Motion Picture Association of America. He
focused on the question of how two polarized factions can even debate copyright
issues.
Here's an example of the problem:
TT: So the question is, if I just want to watch a movie -- I rent it from
Blockbuster--is that bad?
JV: No, that’s not bad.
TT: Then why should it be illegal?
Rich Taylor, MPAA public affairs: It’s not. ... You could put it in
a DVD player, you could play it on any computer licensed for it.
JV: There’s lots of machines you can play it on.
TT: None under Linux. There’s no licensed player under Linux.
JV: But you’re trying to set your own standards.
TT: No, you said four years ago that people under Linux should use one of
these licensed players that would be available soon. They’re still not
available -- it’s been four years.
JV: Well why aren’t they available? I don’t know, because I don’t
make Linux machines.
Let me put it in my simple terms. If you take something that doesn’t
belong to you, that’s wrong. Number two, if you design your own machine,
you can’t fuss at people, because you’re one of just a few. How
many Linux users are there?
TT: About two million.
JV: Well, I can’t believe there’s not any -- there must be a reason
for... Let me find out about that. You bring up an interesting question --
I don’t know the answer to that... Well, you’re telling me a lot
of things I don’t know.
TT: Okay. Well, how can we have this dialogue?
JV: Well, we’re having it right now. I want to try to find out the point
you make on why are there no Linux licensed players. There must be a reason
-- there has to be a reason. I don’t know.
[Rich Taylor, a spokesman for the MPAA, later pointed to one company, Intervideo,
that has a license to sell GNU/Linux DVD software, although the company does
not actually sell a product that Linux users can purchase. Linux users who
want to watch DVDs should “perhaps buy a DVD player instead,” Taylor
said, or “write to Intervideo and others, encourage them that they’re
the market,” he said. Will Linux users ever be able to view DVDs on their
computers without breaking the law? “I’m sure that day is not far
away,” Taylor said.
A spokesman for Intervideo, Andy Marken, said the company’s product
is only for embedded systems and that Intervideo has no plans to release a
software player for end users.]
Winstein showed Valenti a six-line descrambler he wrote. I can't publish Valenti's
response.
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Albatross
Overload is a new Yeti Sports game. This one involves the
penguin, some albatrosses, the yeti and a kangaroo. You can flap the albatross's
wings, so all the "skill"
isn't
only
in the toss this time.
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Wedding
dress guy 's eBay pitch includes some fiction: It's a great story. But
Nicole Brodeur of the Seattle Times looked him up, and not all
the
details of his tale are exactly true.
Bonus: They do have a photo
of Larry Star, the hapless storyteller, whose face
is obscured on eBay, better to show the dress he's modeling, perhaps.
This has nothing to do with the dress, though, which finally sold for $3,850.
Link
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How
to buy Google stock
April 28, 2004, 7:10 p.m.
Duchess plans a wicked cool poison garden:
Provided that a duchess can see eye-to-eye with the Home Office on growing
cannabis, strychnine and cocaine, Britain is about to get the most venomous
and hallucinogenic garden it has ever seen.
Harking back to medieval times, but with a toxic arsenal that a witch or apothecary
could only dream of, the project includes shrubs and creepers so potentially
nasty that the designers have suggested growing some of them in cages.
Visitors will be kept at a distance from the flowerbeds, with marked boundaries
and supervisors enforcing a no-touching policy.
The dell at Alnwick
Castle in Northumberland will lie under a perpetual
miasma of "deliberately spooky" mist, enlivened by a copper snake
rearing from a grotto and hissing vapour, triggered by sensors as visitors
creep past.
"It should be quite an experience," said Caroline
Holmes, the
garden's poison plant consultant, who takes a gleeful relish in her subject.
"The plants will be fascinating. Henbane (pictured at right), for instance,
has the most evil-looking flowers, and mandrake grows in a distinctly sinister
fashion."
Due to open in August, the Poison Garden is the latest part of Alnwick
Gardens,
a £42m extravaganza on the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland.
Although originally scoffed at by many conventional gardening experts, the
terraced cascades, labyrinth and £3.3m treehouse village, which is
currently being built, have become a big attraction.
What a wonderfully gothic idea -- it smacks of Rapunzel's bad witch and a
host of dark forests.
There's a short list of "bad" plants, too. "Poisonous" may not be accurate
description of all these posies. Among the plants: catnip. We know why that
might need a cage.
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Behind Ted Koppel's litany: Friday night (Ch. 6, 11:35 p.m. in Providence), Nightline's Ted
Koppel will read the names and show photos of the 500 American servicemen and
women
who
have
died
in the
Iraq
war.
Al Tompkins at Poynter
Institute interviewed Nightline's executive producer
about the genesis of the show -- and Tompkins also publishes the names of
the dead. Here's a sample:
Q: What production techniques will you use, knowing that any use of music,
slow dissolves, and the tone of Ted's voice will all be key to how people interpret
this work? Will the program be pre-produced or live?
Sievers: The program has to be pre-produced, there is no way to read more
than 500 names live and match the pictures, we don't want to make any mistakes.
There will be no music. We will be showing two pictures at one time on the
screen, and they will change one at a time. I don't know how people will interpret
this, I don't know if people will watch the whole broadcast or just a few seconds.
But I hope they take some time to reflect on the price that these men and women
have paid in our names.
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Size 12 wedding gown with a history: She left, and left him with her
wedding gown. He's selling it on eBay. Modeling it, too.
This mornning, the bidding was up to a preposterous $125,000, so now only
pre-approved buyers may bid, and it's up to $6,350.
It's a great story but... it's just a used dress, guys.
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Deuce
coupes rising: Must
be spring. The classic-car "cruise nights" are starting. Thursday, the classic
cars will meet at the Regional High
School, Route 106, in South Easton, Mass., from 6-9 p.m..
Sunday, all makes, cars and trucks from 1979 and olderare welcome to hang
at St. Angelo Buick-Pontiac-GMC, Route 44, East Providence, from 8:30 a.m.
till
3
p.m.
What's a deuce coupe, anyway? It's a 1932 Ford coupe, according to Ken
Blake,
whose site has the story and a big
pic.
Link
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Creativity self
assessment test: As these online personality tests go, this
one's pretty interesting. 40 questions, 10 minutes. (Of course I'm creative!)
Link
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The World Economic Forum, hosting the European Economic Summit in
Warsaw, has a blog.
Link
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2:10 p.m
Father
who believes son is in 'coffin photo' thanks paper for running
it. At Editor & Publisher:
I read with great interest your article regarding the woman who was fired
for taking the pictures of the flag-draped coffins on 4/7/04. My son, SSG Michael
W. Mitchell, was killed on 4/4/04 in the first day of the Shiite uprising in
Sadr City. He was one of eight soldiers killed that day in that attack. I am
quite positive that he was inside one of those coffins
in the picture.
I am happy that you ran the story and showed the picture. I would like everyone
to know the devastation that this event has brought upon Mike's family and
friends. In fact, Mike's grandpa at 86 says that this is the worst thing that
has happened in his entire life -- that says a lot right there!!!
Hiding the death and destruction of this war does not make it easier on anyone
except those who want to keep the truth away from the people. I know that the
current government policy has the bodies being flown in under the cloak of
darkness. I also know that photographers are barred from the area so that pictures
such as the one you ran in your newspaper cannot be shown to the people. Pictures
such as these alter peoples' perception and awareness and they have to admit
the reality of the situation that young men and women are being killed.
I do believe our government learned this lesson from the war in Vietnam and
that was one of the influential factors in bringing about its end.
Things are getting worse in Iraq and if there is anything that I can do so
that other parents can be spared the pain that is happening in my life, I will
do it.
In fact, I would be willing to furnish you a picture of my son in his casket
if you would like to run it in your paper....
Go read the rest of the story. It's worth it.
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Hallucinate
with me: This is disturbing. It's a QuickTime movie of a man making
sounds. Close your eyes and he's saying "BA...BA...BA..." Open your eyes and
look at him and you'll hear "DA..DA...DA..." How is this possible?
It's explained: "Most adults (98%) think they are hearing 'DA' -
a so called 'fused response' - where the 'D' is a result
of an audio-visual illusion. In reality you are hearing the
sound 'BA',
while you are seing the lip movements 'GA'."
(He's mouthing GA and I'm hearing DA?)
And it has a name: "The 'McGurk effect' was first described
by Harry McGurk and John MacDonald in 'Hearing lips and seeing voices' " in
1976.
I feel tricked by my own brain.
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April 27, 2004, 6:25 p.m.
Journal/Mary Murphy |
| A photographer
from Japanese television videotapes protestors during IBM's annual meeting
outside the R.I. Convention Center in Providence today. At issue were
IBM's policy towards retirees and "outsourcing" -- moving jobs formerly
held by Americans to India and other countries |
|
Vote and comment: Are
you worried that your job might be outsourced?
|
Working class heroes? (Lyrics
by Lennon) About 60 people
protested IBM's policies about outsourcing and retiree benefits, and outsourcing
in general, outside the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence today
where an IBM stockholders meeting was taking place. The sponsors include the Alliance@IBM/CWA Local
1701, Jobs with Justice,
the Programmers
Guild and TORAW (The
Organization for the Rights of American Workers).
Projo.com's Jack Perry covered it: Protesters greet IBM shareholders at Providence
meeting
 |
Linda Guyer, president of the Alliance@IBM and a software project
manager for the company, addresses the crowd of protesters
|
PROVIDENCE -- Computer consultant Bob Dodge drove more than five hours from
his home in Pennsylvania this morning to walk in circles outside the Rhode
Island Convention Center in the hopes of saving his career.
Wearing a dark suit, carrying a briefcase and a sign that said, "Jobs
for Americans," Dodge was among some 60 people picketing outside IBM Corp.'s
annual meeting here today to protest company plans to move U.S. jobs "offshore" to
other countries.
Protesters applaud speakers this morning outside the Rhode Island Convention
Center, where the IBM annual stockholders' meeting was being held. They included
computer consultant Bob Dodge, in dark suit with yellow sign, who drove from
his home in Pennsylvania to take part.
Dodge doesn't work for IBM. But like a lot of people at the rally today, he
worries about a trend by American companies, including IBM, to move American
technology jobs to countries such as India, Brazil and China.
"A couple of years from now I won't have a job if this keeps up," said
Dodge, a 38-year-old father of two children, who is running for Congress
as an independent in the Allentown area of Pennsylvania.
Before the annual meeting, which started at 10 a.m., a group of about 30 IBM
employees, retirees and labor activists carried signs and handed out leaflets
protesting the computer giant's plans for offshoring and protesting cuts in
retiree health benefits. ...
Here's what the protesters' signs said:
Facts of Life
for IBM retirees
* No more COLAS
*Rising healtcare co-pays
*Shrinking pensions
|
Stop corporate greed
"All that harms labor is TREASON"
-- Abraham Lincoln
Export executive TRAITORS
not American jobs
|
Stop Outsourcing
Save America
***
Hire American
Keep IBM Jobs in the USA |
Outsourcing creates
* Jobless Americans
* State budget deficits
* Higher taxes
|
Offshoring jobs creates
* More out-of-work Americans
* Lower state tax benefits
* Large state budget deficits
|
Where do you want YOUR job
to go
today?
________
TechsUnite.org |
Outsourcing is
stealing billion$
from America
|
Offshore CEO
Sam Palmisano
not our jobs
A message from the ALLIANCE@IBM |
Keep American jobs in America |
After the protest, I met Gina Minks of Milford, Mass., whose Displaced
Techies blog covers outsourcing. When I heard someone behind me say, "Gina!," I
turned and introduced myself. Her T-shirt said she was blogging this.
When I asked her for a sound byte, she told me a story about a conference
she attended last weekend at MIT called, "Outsourcing: Addressing the
Social, Emotional, & Political Impact on Americans." When attendees
pressed a panel member about what kinds of jobs they could retrain for, he
said angrily, "I don't understand why Americans think that they are entitled
to a job just because they go to college."
Gina just emailed a link to her
blog item about the event, and her raw
photos.
(I love the lede photo)
The media presence was abundant. I tried to stay out of camera range yet eavesdrop
on those being interviewed. Already, these stories are up:
IBM
workers call for shareholders to 'Offshore the CEO' -- The Register (UK)
...sending jobs overseas remains one of the biggest concerns for IBM workers.
During the meeting, Guyer recounted the story of six fellow employees currently
training their Indian replacements.
"The CEO can get up on the podium and say, 'We live in a global world,'
but I wanted to convey that this policy is very stressful to US workers," she
said. "These are good, hi-tech jobs being sent overseas. If you have
a masters or doctorate in software, what do you retrain for? Plumbing?"
IBM
shareholders voice concerns -- News.com
Alliance@IBM secretary James Mangi also submitted a proposal to review executive
compensation to determine if the current executive pay structures "create
an undue incentive to make short-sighted decisions."
Also on the agenda at the meeting were proposals by shareholders to change
IBM's pension plan to allow employees to "choose the promised pension
and retirement medical insurance" offered before the company made changes
to the plan in 1999.
Other proposals called on IBM to adopt a "thorough set of human and labor
rights standards for China" and to regularly disclose its political
contributions.
In the company's proxy statement, IBM rejected the shareholder proposals.
Offshoring
foes protest at IBM annual meeting -- IDG News Service
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Sam Palmisano was able to launch the
event at the Rhode Island Convention Center on a positive note, telling the
approximately 350 attendees that the board of directors had approved a 12.5
percent dividend increase, to a regular quarterly cash dividend of US$0.18
per common share. But Palmisano was also compelled during the meeting to defend
the company's strategy on outsourcing, which has gained a high profile after
reports surfaced that executives discussed moving a large number of jobs out
of the U.S. to countries such as India.
Palmisano stressed the importance of IBM being a global company with very
strong businesses internationally, not just in the U.S., and said it needs
to "look at a global skill pool around the world." He pointed to
$25 million the company has set aside for the Human Capital Alliance, a skills
retraining program, although he acknowledged that the effort is just beginning.
However, it was apparent from the chairman's remarks extolling the benefits
of open markets and global free trade that IBM is not turning back from offshoring. "Most
people recognize that you can't lock down jobs, businesses and skills, and
you can't lock down nations," Palmisano said. And he warned that in managing
an enterprise such as IBM, there can be "no emotional attachment to
the things that don't represent your future."
That lack of emotional attachment, to employees in particular, rankles with
long-time IBMers who said they have seen a shift in the corporate culture.
AP also included a section on the protests in stories about the meeting's
business: IBM investors call for expensed options
...several retirees and current employees complained to Palmisano about
IBM's administration of pensions. The company is embroiled in a federal class-action
lawsuit over its 1990s shift to "cash-balance" pension funds, which
a judge has ruled discriminates against older workers.
Palmisano said the company expects to win that case on appeal, and said
IBM is "beyond the industry norm at taking care of retirees."
One shareholder proposal to prevent the company from including pension fund
gains in the profit figures that help determine executive compensation got
37.5 percent support, up from 18 percent last year.
A few people pressed Palmisano about the increasing high-tech industry practice
of moving skilled work to Asia. One employee suggested that IBM give affected
workers more than 30 days to find new jobs within the company.
Link
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Free ice cream today: Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's --
from noon to 8 p.m. Rock the Vote will also be registering voters at all
Rhode Island stores except Narragansett.
Tomorrow
night is Free
Scoop Night -- from 6 to 10 p.m. -- at Baskin Robbins
stores, when a 2.5-oz. scoop will be free. Find the
nearest store here.
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The Tree of Life is a collaborative web project, produced by biologists
from around the world. On more than 2600 World Wide Web pages, the Tree of
Life provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their
history, and characteristics.
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For
a Conservative, Life Is Sweet in Sugar Land, Tex.: An interesting
Washington Post story profiles a family and their life in Sugar Land:
Pollsters and political consultants have a more specific definition of Sugar
Land, as part of what they call Red America. The term is shorthand for the
roughly half of the U.S. population that tends toward conservative values,
the Republican Party, gun ownership, church as the preferred way to express
faith, and moral absolutes.
"You find communities like this all over the place," DeLay says
of Sugar Land. "This is what the future is about."
This town sounds to me like the
past, a past I wanted desperately to explore beyond, in the '60s:
...Brick homes, clean streets, good schools, plentiful churches -- "it's
the typical white-picket-fence, 2.1-children atmosphere," Wallace says
of Sugar Land. No litter, landscaped boulevards, approved-plant lists, recommended-rose
lists, strict zoning, a town square called "Town Square," logos
everywhere, and the ever-present smell of just-mown grass in a voting precinct
that went
Bush 72 percent, Gore 25 percent...
Britton Stein, the father of the family and main subject of the piece, is
a churchgoing, Drudge-reading, junk-food eating, Fox News watcher.
During the fourth round of beers at Hooter's, he and his friends get to the
core of Sugar Land:
"I feel it's safer out here. I feel it's more stable. More my kind of
people," Lannom says of the appeal of Sugar Land.
"Where the grass is green and the trees are trimmed," Stein says.
"You live in planned neighborhoods where your investment is fairly safe," May
says.
"The first time I put my trash out, I put it by the curb, and my neighbor
came out and said, 'We don't curb our trash here in Sugar Land.' " Lannom
says, laughing. "I had some cinch bugs in my front yard or something,
my neighbor says, 'Craig, I want to talk to you about your brown patch.' "
"It's so predictable here," Stein says.
"But that's not bad, though," Lannom says.
"No, that's not bad," Stein says.
This could be Thornton Wilder, writing in 1938. It could be Our Town.
I'm awfully glad it's not mine.
In conformity, they hope to find safety. To me, it sounds like condo hell,
living by the rules of the crankiest co-owner.
I want the wild sprouts, the signs
of life. I want copper-colored roses and unapproved plants. Spring's
dandelions turn my lawn to a field of yellow, with the purple tops of bugleweed
following
suit. After they're gone, we mow.
Russians live next door. The closest restaurants are Indian, a mom-and-pop
sushi joint owned by a Japanese man we call Ted, and an ice-cream
parlor.
On trash night in my neighborhood, on the curb you can see what everyone's
tossing out, and an informal recycling program
swings into action.
When my daughter became a teenager, she knotted sheets, stretched them out
our streetside second-floor window, and slid down them on her way to school,
ignoring the usual exits.
When I came out in late morning to go to work, they were still there, entertaining
passers-by.
I wonder what Sugar Land would think of that?
Related: This is one in a three-part series at the Post called America in
red and blue. Sunday the story was A
Nation Divided; today, A
Liberal Life
in the City by the Bay.
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MotherJones.com: The Revolution Will Not Be Blogged:
...bloggers are almost unfailingly contemptuous toward everyone except one
another. They are also nearly without exception men (this form of combat seems
too naked
for more than a very few women).
Mother Jones can't
find women bloggers? Try the Ms.
Magazine blogroll for a vetted list, or Blogsisters.
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April 26, 2004, 6:25 p.m.
If you missed Friday's late post on the newly leaked memo's from Diebold,
makers of electronic voting machines, please click that link above and go
there. This is important stuff.
Circus2Iraq
-- literally: Jo
Wilding is among a group of "Boomchucka
Circus" performers
who entertain children in Iraq. (You'll find their wishlist, fundraising
info and more at the link on the headline.):
We've taken a circus to Iraq.
What?
A small group of performers and activists are currently in Iraq performing
and running circus skills workshops for the kids.
Why?
During the war, one of the most powerful things was playfulness when the
bombs were falling - a birthday party, a football game, singing, blowing
bubbles. ...
...We're not aid workers and,
in any case, Iraq is a wealthy country which doesn't need charity. We think
the best thing we can do is bring a bit of colour, a bit of normality, a
bit of playfulness and make people smile.
The 29-year-old from Worcester, England, was taken hostage in Fallujah
after trying to delivering supplies to the hospital. This account of their
20-hour captivity -- The
second trip to Falluja and the courteous kidnappers -- is among the
articles on her own site, Wildfire:
At the corner of town is a fork, a paved road curving round in front of
the last of the houses, a track leading into the desert, the latter controlled
by the marines, who fire a warning shot when our driver gets out to negotiate
a way through; the former by as yet invisible Mujahedin. The crossfire
suddenly
surrounds the car. David, head down, shifts into the driver’s seat
and backs us out of there but the only place to go is into the line of
Mujahedin.
One of the fighters jumps into the passenger seat and directs us.
“We’re hostages, aren’t we?” Billie says.
No, it’s fine, I say, sure that they’re just directing us out
of harm’s way. The man in the passenger seat asks which country we’re
all from. Donna says she’s Australian. Billie says she’s British.
“Allahu akbar! Ahlan wa sahlan.” Translated, it’s more or
less, God is great. I’m pleased to meet you. The others don’t know
the words but the drift is clear enough: “I think he just said he’s
got the two most valuable hostages in the world,” Billie paraphrases.
Later, her skills came in handy in convincing her captors she was harmless:
They bring our bags in and I make a hanky disappear. The guard, a different
one now, is unimpressed. It’s black magic. It’s haram [sinful].
It’s an affront to Allah. Oops. I show him the secret of the trick
in the hope he’ll let me off. Instead I make a balloon giraffe for
his kids, who he’s taken away to the safety of Baghdad.
(BBC also wrote about this: Circus
tricks help Iraq hostages)
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In
taking Wilfork, Belichick follows pet premise: first stop the run: A
smart story from Charles Bricker at the Sun-Sentinel (Fla.) about the Nw
England Patriots' strategy
of taking defensive players in the weekend's NFL Draft. (It's vanished from
the SS site; the link is to the KRT wire version in San Jose, Calif.).
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The Condensed Bob Woodward - Slate reads Plan of Attack so you
don't have
to
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The Religious Policeman: "A
Saudi man's diary of life in the "Magic Kingdom",
where the Religious Police ensure that everything remains as it was in the
Middle Ages." Today,
he offers a FAQ about himself, parts of which sound eerily like a pre-war Salam
Pax (before he bacame an international celebrity):
5. Is it dangerous to do this?
The ruling elite would not look kindly upon my efforts. If found out, I would
certainly lose my job, as already happens to those who publish critical
letters in the press. I might also become a guest of Prince Nayif (the
Saudi Interior Minister), until I "got
my mind right". However I'm not a super-hero; if I suspect that a
net is closing, then I will cease blogging.
6. How do you avoid being intercepted?
All Saudi ISP's are connected to the outside world thru a bank of servers
in the KACST (King AbdulAziz City of Science and Technology), where no
doubt much listening goes on. However, like many Saudis, I illegally use
a satellite link for my connexion. This materializes who-knows-where in
the wider Internet. Maybe there is also some form of relay involved. Who
knows?
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How
two women, one photo stirred national debate:
The Seattle Times yesterday provides the background leading up to the release
of the dead soldiers' coffin photos.
Clarification: from thememoryhole.org,
which had received what it thought were 361 photos flag-draped coffins, hearses,
honor guards, etc., in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Among the 361 Dover casket
photos are a minority of images showing coffins
of the Columbia astronauts. [Read more.] I didn't realize this at the time
that I posted them, mainly because when the Air Force asked for clarification
during the process, I specifically told them that I wasn't requesting photos
of the Columbia astronauts, only military personnel killed overseas.
I added the links to that paragraph.
The introductory page for both is here.
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2004 WiFi Special Report: The Washington Post is all over this one. If you're
wondering what the hoopla's all about, check out Jeneane
Sessum's blog. She
was hunting for a laptop to replace a broken old clunker, and I recommended
the Acer TravelMates my daughter and I bought last year; they have built-in
wifi thanks to the Centrino chip. She bought it and then...
there's no possible way i'm stretched out on the couch with this laptop,
all wirelessly connected n s--t. holy hot. this is the life. you guys been
keepin
a big secret from me. Here's how you blog like you do all the time. I've
been tapping my fingers to the bone on these subpar machines, hooked into
a cable
and plugged into the wall, for years. When did technology get this good?
Sit in the backyard or on your porch, open your browser and you'll be asked
if you want to log onto the net, if there's an open connection in the area.
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Paint by Numbers: When
organizations my parents belonged to asked what sort of gift I wanted for the
annual Christmas parties, I aways said "Paint by numbers." I was
diligent about trying to stay within the lines, but my paintings always looked
blotchy and awful.
I wish a real artist had been available to show me how to apply thin layers
of paint, and to tell me to go outside the lines to feather the edges of the
colors.
The Smithsonian Museum of American History knows all about people like me,
and had an exhibit of this almost-art in 2001. From the site:
The hobby's ultimate display took place not in a department store or a trade
fair but in the Eisenhower White House, where presidential appointment secretary
Thomas Edwin Stephens mounted a gallery of paint-by-number and amateur paintings
by administration officials and acquaintances.
In 1954, Stephens distributed Picture Craft kits to cabinet secretaries and
Oval Office visitors. More than a few assumed that the president himself expected
that they paint them, and the puckish Stephens did little to dispel that impression.
He eventually installed the completed paintings in a West Wing corridor. The
Stephens Collection also included works by the administration's amateur painters,
who chose to bypass the preplanned canvas route.
The inset photo is Swiss Village, completed by J. Edgar Hoover and
loaned to the exhibit by the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library.
Related: Escher's Relativity in
LEGO®. More unconventional "art."
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