May 28, 2004, 6:05 p.m. -- (Last
week's weblog)
Weekend reading: Pattern Recognition. If you're looking for
a good book to read this weekend, try Pattern
Recognition by
William Gibson -- the best novel I've read in years. It feels really new.
The main character, Cayce Pollard, is paid big bucks to look at company
logos and say simply yes or no. She has an unerring sense of cool, and an
allergy
to
trademarks, the Michelin Man especially.
When bits of video start appearing on the Net -- "the footage" -- we all
get sucked into the search for its origin.
Despite its forward feel, the book isn't hard to find. I picked up a copy
at Stop & Shop for my brother, who's deep in
and loving it.
Otherwise, if you're reading this in Southern New England, there's lots
more to do: Check out Summer
Guide,
Club Calendar,
Restaurants / Menus,
Movies, Theater and the Calendars. Tomorrow
there'll be a Memorial
Day package and Michael Janusonis's summer movie guide.
And if you find a particularly fine meal along the way this weekend, take
some notes. We'll be looking for readers'/eaters' choices next
week.
Have a great long weekend. Plant! Back Tuesday.
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Rent this forehead: Joe
Lavin (I
discovered today I'm listed on the Drudge
Retort,
and Joe is just above me) reports on an advertising phenomenon
Gibson's book glances on:
It has finally happened. Advertising has come to the human body. An advertising
agency in London is actually paying university students 88 pounds a week
to wear temporary tattoos of corporate logos on their foreheads. That works
out to about seven dollars an hour for every hour they're in public, and
amazingly many students are eager to join up....
The tattoos will last about a week, as long as students don't touch them
(i.e. no washing). Students are paid to be "out and about" for
at least three hours a day so that the logo can be seen. And no hiding
in the library either with your logo buried in a book. Students must provide
photographic evidence showing them in shopping areas and pubs with the
tattoo
visible.
This is so utterly ridiculous that it raises countless questions. If all
your friends are losers, do you get less money? What happens if you show
up at a party wearing the same logo as someone else? Will it really enhance
a brand to have a logo worn by college students who can't wash their foreheads
for a week? And what other body parts will we be able to rent out in the
future? Any guesses on what a thigh might go for?
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Christian group calls for exodus: Christianexodus.com wants 50,000 Christians to move to
South Carolina. WorldNetDaily is covering it:
Christians look to form 'new nation' within U.S.
Same-sex marriage called last straw prompting plan for 1 state to secede
Christian secession talk sparks flood of reaction
Hundreds of Americans, national news media contact activists looking to form
'new nation'
Some reaction from WorldNet readers:
# "Talk about giving the 'left' a weapon from our weakness! These Christians
are asking the state that started the Civil War to leave the U.S., and start
a new country? With ideas like this, we won't need a devil." (Peter
Ward)
# "How about the entire U.S. homosexual and lesbian population moves
to Utah and then turn Utah into an independent 'Gay Republic'? How about
the entire U.S. black population moves to Michigan and then turn Michigan
into an independent 'Black Republic'? How about the entire U.S. atheist
population moves to California and then turn California into an independent
'Atheist
Republic'?
"Those 'Christian secessionists' are just not thinking properly.
Their heads are just as muddled as the rest of the citizens. They should
be arrested
for high treason against the USA. ... An independent 'Christian state'
where the vast majority of the 'Christian' population is prayerless and
continues
to be addicted to TV entertainment is far from being the solution. (James
Chai)
# "If I am not mistaken, this country was founded for religious reasons
and look what we have become. The Mormons tried forming their own nation,
in Utah and it led to war. The anti-religious folks would never tolerate
another religious colony anywhere in the U.S. We are free in name only." (Name
withheld)
# "While I don't think a state leaving the union is a good idea, I
think a strong effort might help those in government realize how serious
the situation is. Another strategy might be to get all conservative churches
and Christians very organized to change federal and state governments. The
federal government cannot enforce a law under massive civil and state disobedience.
Remember Prohibition?" (John)
Related: Remember the Free
State Project?
The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people
to move to New Hampshire. We are looking for neighborly, productive, tolerant
folks from all walks of life, of all ages, creeds, and colors who agree to
the political philosophy expressed in our Statement of Intent, that government
exists at most to protect people's rights, and should neither provide for
people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.
They claim 5,777 members as of today.
That's two states down, 48 more to go. Will we end up with a muslim state,
a vegetarian state, a smokers' state, a tax-free state (build your own road!)?
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Postmodern cat furniture: Scratching Swirl
Ye Old Phart found this one.
Cats can scratch their claws on the exterior or interior of the swirl, as
both sides are covered with natural colored sisal. Cats can use the top of
the swirl as a lookout post to observe their design savvy territory and to
keep an eye on your comings and goings. The middle and the bottom level of
the swirl, with their concave shape, make comfortable napping spots and can
be used as a place to store cat toys
Size
Dimensions: W 29" x D 17" x H 29"
Weight: 26 lbs
Material
Sisal, aluminum trim and aluminum legs.
Availability
Backordered: available beginning in early July
Scratching Swirl $375.00
The Meow Dish is pretty swell, too. Only $25. For a cat dish.
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Krispy
Kreme to make low-carb doughnuts: AP.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts said Wednesday it
will respond to financial losses from popular low-carb diets with new items
including sugar-free doughnuts and iced drinks.
Chief executive Scott Livengood said at a shareholder meeting the company
is assuming that diets leaving little room for deep-fried treats will remain
popular for a long time.
"We're not going to take anything for granted," he said.
The meeting came a day after the company's first quarterly loss since
going public in 2000. Besides the $24.4 million loss for the first quarter,
the company's stock has fallen by about a third in the past month.
Livengood said the company's doughnut shops and grocery displays will
start selling a sugar-free doughnut, a chocolate-flavored glazed doughnut
and mini rings that are 40 percent smaller. Supermarkets will start selling
bags of Krispy Kreme coffee to brew at home and doughnut shops will also
add crushed-ice drinks in raspberry, latte and double chocolate.
What's odd about this is that KK had reported earlier that they'd do this,
but didn't mention it again until this meeting Wednesday.
We're skeptical. Morningnewsbeat.com reported
back in January, (The
Search For A Healthy Doughnut)
The Wall Street Journal this morning reports on how "the low-fat
doughnut is the Holy Grail of the food industry."
Despite ample research and investment by companies that include Dunkin'
Donuts, Krispy Kreme and Entemanns, the WSJ reports, manufacturers have
not been able to concoct a doughnut that is below the federal low-fat threshold
of three grams per serving.
The low-fat doughnut, Len Heflich of the American Bakers Association tells
the WSJ, is "not possible."
Well, a tiny one probably is.
One thing I don't see discussed: If you don't eat sugar, anything with sugar
in it tastes sweet: White bread and Skippy peanut butter are very sweet.
Low-carb products need to be made less sweet to have taste appeal for the
hard-core low-carber.
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Weinsteins Buy 'Fahrenheit 9/11' from Disney: That settles that.
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12:40 p.m.
Sports
and the war on (some) drugs: Siliconvalley.com columnist Dan
Gillmor nails it:
In this
remarkable story, the Mercury News shows how laboratories helped
turn athletes into record-beaters. It's more fuel on the fire in a movement
to keep athletes from using performance-enhancing drugs of any kind.
The whole scandal reeks of hypocrisy, at every level. Sports is big money,
and people will do just about anything to get some of it.
The public doesn't really care about athletes who do outrageous things
to build their bodies; if the public really cared then the average lineman
in pro football wouldn't weigh more than 300 pounds. We want our entertainment.
We will get it.
The sports establishment -- the franchise owners and the leaders of national
and international associations -- are worse. They're hungry for power and
television fees, and not much else.
The war on (some) drugs has always been the most hypocritical of all.
I use a performance-enhancing drug every morning. It's called caffeine,
and it's in my coffee. Uh, oh, call the morality police, right? Too much
caffeine, like too much steroids, could do severe harm. Yet somehow I'm
able to moderate my intake.
I'm in the middle of a fascinating short book just published by the Independent
Institute, a right-to-libertarian think tank. It's called "Drug
War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition" -- and it's an
indictment of the war itself. I'll tell you more about the book in a
follow-up posting soon, but the bottom line is that the negative costs
of the drug war are undoubtedly higher than we'd pay if we did the smart
thing and legalized drugs, treating over-users for health problems, not
as criminals.
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(Fla.)
Secretary of state tries to calm voters: Miami Herald, (reg.req.)
Amid controversy over touch-screen voting machines and a purge of felons
from the voting rolls, Secretary of State Glenda Hood sought on Thursday
to reassure anxious voters that 2004 won't be a rehash of the 2000 presidential
debacle....
...But Hood acknowledged her office is investigating a voting machine glitch
in Miami-Dade County, which she said was not properly reported to the state.
A spokesman for Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Constance Kaplan noted it
was the county that detected the problem and said that Kaplan had sought
to balance the need to report potential problems against unnecessarily alarming
the public....
...The issue arose after a citizens' group, the Miami-Dade Election Reform
Coalition, filed a public records request and received county memos criticizing
the computerized audit.
Hood, grilled by league members with serious reservations about the county's
voting equipment, repeatedly sought to distance her office from election
operations.
''I have absolutely no authority over the running of elections in this state,''
said Hood, a former Orlando mayor who was appointed to the job by Gov. Jeb
Bush. She said the department's responsibilities include certifying voting
equipment, ensuring that supervisors follow state law and verifying election
results.
The new machines have come under scrutiny for the lack of a paper trail,
but Hood defended the touch-screen machines and likened some of the criticism
-- that the machines could be tampered with -- to conspiracy theories.
''The touch-screen machines are not computers,'' she said. ``You'd have
to go machine by machine, all over the state.''
That last sentence in bold is truly frightening from an elected official
in charge of voting.
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E-Vote Printers' High-Stakes Test: Wired reports,
Some outside election officials are hoping the new e-voting system that
Nevada will be using this year -- a touch-screen machine that produces a
voter-verified paper trail -- will cause the state many problems. If it does,
it will prove their point that adding a paper trail to touch-screen machines
is a bad idea.
"That's what we're hearing, that a lot of election officials hope we
fail because they don't want to be bothered with paper ballots," said
Steve George, spokesman for Nevada's secretary of state.
Several states, responding to public outcry for a physical record of votes,
have mandated or announced legislative plans to demand that e-voting systems
print a paper record so voters can verify that the machine registered their
vote accurately before the record drops into a ballot box. The states include
California, Illinois, Missouri, Nevada, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
But many county election officials oppose the idea, saying printers will
create more problems for poll workers if they break down or run out of paper,
and they will cause longer poll lines if voters take more time to check their
ballots. The officials also don't relish the election recounts and lawsuits
that could arise if paper records don't match final digital vote tallies.
Nevada will be the first to implement a paper-trail system this year.
The state plans to use modified touch-screen machines manufactured by Sequoia
Voting Systems in seven counties during its September primary and November
presidential election. That is, if the printers attached to the machines
pass certification. The device malfunctioned during federal testing last
week and stopped printing after eight hours, said Alan Glover, the clerk-recorder
for Carson City County. But state officials weren't worried. ...
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Can
a free paper be stolen? Cal Poly ponders paper theft amid election
POMONA (Calif.) - Can a free newspaper be stolen?
Editor-in-Chief Luis Gomez is facing that question at the Poly Post, Cal
Poly Pomona's student newspaper. In the run-up to student government elections,
2,500 copies of the paper were seized from campus distribution bins, according
to several sources.
"A front page story about one of the candidates in the election probably
caused it to be stolen," Gomez said.
The papers, which staffers value at about 44 cents each, took hours of effort
to produce. And $580 worth of advertising was sold for the issue.
But the fact that the paper is distributed free at bins throughout campus
at first caused campus police to wonder whether or not anything could be
done about the theft.
"The theory is that you can't steal something that's free," said
Sean Scully, the paper's faculty adviser. "Nevertheless, we plan to
pursue this with the campus police, the student elections commission and
judicial affairs at the college."
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May 27, 2004, 6:40 p.m.
Game
Theories: On-line fantasy games have booming economies and citizens
who love their political systems. Are these virtual worlds the best place
to study the real
one?
Very interesting, long story in the June issue of The
Walrus ("a Canadian general-interest
magazine with an international outlook") about Edward Castronova, an obscure
economist who, unhappy with his life, played an awful lot of EverQuest.
And the lightbulb
went on...
More than 450,000 players worldwide log into EverQuest's "virtual
world." They each pick a medieval character to play, such as a warrior
or a blacksmith or a "healer," then band together in errant quests
to slay magical beasts; their avatars appear as tiny, inch-tall characters
striding across a Tolkienesque land. Soon, Castronova was playing EverQuest
several hours a night.
Then he noticed something curious: EverQuest had its own economy, a bustling
trade in virtual goods. Players generate goods as they play, often by killing
creatures for their treasure and trading it. The longer they play, the
more powerful they get — but everyone starts the game at Level 1, barely
strong enough to kill rats or bunnies and harvest their fur. Castronova would
sell his fur to other characters who'd pay him with "platinum pieces," the
artificial currency inside the game. It was a tough slog, so he was always
stunned by the opulence of the richest players. EverQuest had been launched
in 1999, and some veteran players now owned entire castles filled with
treasures from their quests.
Things got even more interesting when Castronova learned about the "player
auctions." EverQuest players would sometimes tire of the game, and
decide to sell off their characters orvirtual possessions at an on-line
auction
site such as eBay. When Castronova checked the auction sites, he saw that
a Belt of the Great Turtle or a Robe of Primordial Waters might fetch forty
dollars; powerful characters would go for several hundred or more. And
sometimes people would sell off 500,000-fold bags of platinum pieces for
as much as
$1,000.
As Castronova stared at the auction listings, he recognized with a shock
what he was looking at. It was a form of currency trading. Each item had
a value in virtual "platinum pieces"; when it was sold on eBay,
someone was paying cold hard American cash for it. That meant the platinum
piece was worth something in real currency. EverQuest's economy actually
had real-world value.
He began calculating frantically. He gathered data on 616 auctions, observing
how much each item sold for in U.S. dollars. When he averaged the results,
he was stunned to discover that the EverQuest platinum piece was worth
about one cent U.S. — higher than the Japanese yen or the Italian lira. With
that information, he could figure out how fast the EverQuest economy was
growing. Since players were killing monsters or skinning bunnies every day,
they were, in effect, creating wealth. Crunching more numbers, Castronova
found that the average player was generating 319 platinum pieces each hour
he or she was in the game — the equivalent of $3.42 (U.S.) per hour. "That's
higher than the minimum wage in most countries," he marvelled.
Then he performed one final analysis: The Gross National Product of EverQuest,
measured by how much wealth all the players together created in a single
year inside the game. It turned out to be $2,266 U.S. per capita. By World
Bank rankings, that made EverQuest richer than India, Bulgaria, or China,
and nearly as wealthy as Russia.
It was the seventy-seventh richest country in the world. And it didn't even
exist.
Castronova sat back in his chair in his cramped home office, and the weird
enormity of his findings dawned on him. Many economists define their
careers by studying a country. He had discovered one....
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Record
web radio stations, legally? From Mavromatic (a
technoblog),
With all the legal issues about sharing, ripping and burning music… now
a company called Applian Technologies has created a product called, “Replay
Music”. It’s a software program that allows you to capture
music from pretty much any Web radio station
From the program's Legal
FAQ:
Is Replay Music really legal?
Replay Music is 100% legal to use -- it falls in the same category as
CD ripping programs like iTunes™ and MusicMatch™, or using
a VCR, cassette tape recorder, or TiVo™ Digital Video Recorder.
Will the RIAA sue me for using Replay Music?
The RIAA will not come after you as long as you record for your own personal
use. File sharing services like Kazaa, Morpheus and the original Napster
service put their users at risk, since redistributing copyrighted content
or acquiring copyrighted content that you wouldn't otherwise have access
to is illegal.
The distinction between personal use and wide distribution has common sense
on its side.
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Hoax
Photo Gallery: The
Museum of Hoaxes has some really nice photos going back to the invention
of modern photography. They're all a result of some
form of manipulation, but that doesn't mean they're
not interesting. For instance,
For decades following the Civil War, the portrait of Lincoln shown on the
left graced the walls of public buildings and classrooms. But Lincoln never
posed for this portrait. Instead a photograph of Lincoln's head had been
superimposed onto a portrait of the Southern leader John Calhoun. This was
done because
there were hardly
any appropriate 'heroic-style' portraits of Lincoln made during his life.
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How
to: make a homemade wi-fi antenna: From TechTastic,
...e
wanted to test this out for ourselves. The whole concept came from this
website here: Freeantennas.com
The idea is to boost the output from your wireless access point. The design
is based on a Deep Dish Cylindrical Parabolic.
This is what you'll need: some construction paper, scissors, a glue stick,
aluminum foil and the antenna template. You can get the template HERE.
...
...And finally you have your antenna! Wow that thing is sure butt ugly,
but it didn't cost me more that 10 cents to make.
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Outsourcing at home?: Over at Displaced
Techies, Gina Minks points
to a Boston-area job listing open only
to foreign workers (H-1B visa holders), and, in the next
post, quotes the law that says firms
may not do that:
"4. May I express a preference for H-1B candidates?
No. While you are certainly free to sponsor candidates for positions with
your company, including H-1B visa holders, you may not express a preference
for H-1B candidates or other individuals requiring sponsorship or employment
visas. Employment opportunities should be made available equally to all
individuals who are authorized to work in the United States. To do otherwise,
may violate
federal anti-discrimination law.
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Books get interactive makeover: BBC.
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2:26 p.m
AdAge: Consumers largely
unmoved by presidential campaign ads: 92% say ads
have not altered their voting preferences
More than half the consumers queried in a new Advertising Age poll conducted
by Lightspeed International Research said the blitz of presidential campaign
ads had not influenced them and in total, 92% said the ads had not swayed
them to change their prospective votes.
Moreover, nearly one in four respondents found President George Bush's ads
to date are not at all persuasive; 29% found Sen. John Kerry's ads not at
all persuasive.
8 battleground states
The online poll, conducted among 1,653 respondents nationally who have
seen ads for both candidates, also breaks out eight battleground states.
In
those states, which are carrying the bulk of the presidential hopefuls'
advertising, both candidates' ads are viewed as even less persuasive
(only 17% found Mr. Bush's "very persuasive" vs. 8% for Mr.
Kerry). It is possible that Mr. Kerry's poorer showing results from his
campaign
having been launched later than Mr. Bush's.
While the national results are fully projectable with sampling error of
plus or minus 5.2%, state breakouts are indicative but aren't a fully balanced
sample. ...
Lightspeed's
site says it operates "online consumer panels," and presumably
stocks these panels with balanced sample of the population, avoiding the
piling on of partisans that make most online polls unscientific.
For what it's worth, at our house we often mute ads and chat during them.
A Bush ad came on the other night, I muted it, and noticed out of the cornor
of my eye a succession of photos of Kerry. I wasn't reading the text at all,
just
kept
seeing photos of Kerry. Had I not caught the first frame of Bush, I would
have thought I was watching a Kerry ad. All the negativity was in the words.
You can watch them all at these sites: Bush
ads • Kerry
ads. Factcheck.org points out deviations from the truth in the ads.
Note to AdAge: What did these people consume? If they didn't eat it, call
them "likely voters" please. And if they're not at least "likely voters,"
why do we care what they think? "Nonvoters unmoved by campaign ads" is a
nonstory.
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Television's
afterlife: In
the world of fan fiction, great TV and movie characters never die. They
just get new scripts. Really nice story from the
Toronto Star.
Clark Kent is a junkie.
Xena and Gabrielle are living happily together with their three children.
Sometimes Hercules drops by for dinner.
Mulder is still looking for the truth. Out there....
...When a show dies it's comforting to know that, just a click away, in
the world of Internet fan fiction, many of the compelling characters continue
to have long lives, great adventures and, at times, wild monkey sex of the
kind not allowed on television....
...Fan fiction, a.k.a. "fanfic," is the practice of writing stories
based on characters and storylines created by someone else. Fan "ficcers" use
movies, books, comics, cartoons, video games, sometimes the "real" lives
of celebrities and, most of all, television shows as inspiration for their
own tales.
Some writers set their stories during the run of the show — sometimes
filling in the blanks, sometimes taking a certain episode in a completely
different direction; others will start off where the show stopped in a "further-adventures-of" mode.
Other modes of fan expression include creating music videos and visual
art....
Fascinating stuff. There's a sidebar:
A
taste of fan fiction: This is the beginning of "Perfect World," a
Buffy The Vampire Slayer story by Cousinjean, a.k.a. Jean Cousins, imagining
a different season
seven:
I'd love to write a different finale to X-Files. These folks already have.
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Map24.com: If
you're taking to the road for the long weekend, check out Map24, a 3-D alternative
to the clunky online street maps. You can zoom in, slide over a few streets,
see icons for food and gas in the neighborhood. Great potential.
(I blogged this a couple of weeks ago, when it won the Bloggy Award for
Technical Achievement, but the link was a bit off. It's fixed now, so try
again.)
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OldVersion.com: "Because
newer is not always better." Here you can get old versions of many programs
-- before they acquired spyware, perhaps, or started
charging. In the forums you can discuss the programs. There's also a good list
of popup blockers.
Don't expect to get an old version and have it handle the latest encodings,
though!
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Wi-Fi
yak farmers liberated by Net: Some headlines just grab you.
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May 26, 2004, 6:42 p.m.
Tom Clancy wrestles with Iraq war: New book co-written with war critic Gen.
Anthony Zinni
(AP) -- A brand name author with many admirers in the military criticized
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, citing it as proof that "good men make
mistakes."
That same writer said he almost "came to blows" with a leading
war supporter, former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle.
The author is Tom Clancy.
The hawkish master of such million-selling thrillers as "Patriot Games" and "The
Hunt for Red October" now finds himself adding to the criticism of
the Iraq war, and not only through his own comments.
His latest book, "Battle Ready," is a collaboration with another
war critic, retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni. "Battle Ready" looks
at Zinni's long military career, dating back to the Vietnam War, and includes
harsh remarks by Zinni about the current conflict....
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Phish: Phinished.
Neiman Watchdog: Questions
the press should as. A new site from the Neiman Foundation for Journalism
at Harvard University.
It will be interesting to see if reporters in the trenches actually ask
these questions.
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Area 51 hackers dig up trouble:
To the Area 51 buffs who journey to the Nevada desert in the hopes of catching
a glimpse of unexplained lights in the sky or to bask in the mythic allure
of the region, 58-year-old Chuck Clark is almost as much a part of the local
color as the Black Mailbox.
A resident of tiny Rachel, Nevada - 100 miles north of Las Vegas along
the Extraterrestrial Highway - the amateur astronomer and author has spent
years
keeping an eye on the spot the government calls the "operating location
near Groom Lake, Nevada." He's said to be a frequent presence at the
Little A'Le'Inn, where you can purchase post cards and tee shirts, enjoy
an "Alien Burger," and walk out with a copy of Clark's "Area
51 & S-4 Handbook" to guide you on your journey into the desert.
But this self-appointed military watchdog is harder to find these days:
messages left for him at the Inn go unreturned, and his media appearances
have dried up like Groom Lake itself. "I think he's really not as motivated
to talk to the media anymore as he used to be," says friend and fellow
base-watcher Joerg Arnu. The reason: it turns out the truth really was
out there, and the government didn't appreciate Clark digging it up....
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Congress
tries to 'can spam' - again: From The Christian Science Monitor,
WASHINGTON – Ever wonder why, despite a new federal antispam law,
you're still getting e-mail from African widows eager to download $25
million into
your bank account - for a small fee?
So is Congress. That's why lawmakers are revisiting the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act,
only five months after it took effect.
There are signs that the new law is not stemming the flood of unwanted e-mail
- and may even have increased it by preempting stricter state laws. ...
...Consumer groups want Congress to also provide a blanket "no spam" opt
out, similar to the National Do Not Call List for telemarketing - one of
the most popular FTC moves ever. The CAN-SPAM Act allows but does not mandate
such a list. FTC Chairman Timothy Muris says it would be unenforceable.
Industry advocates say such a move will not deter abusive spammers, who
aren't respecting opt-out now.
The FTC plans to report back to Congress on the viability of such a universal
opt-out by June 16.
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2:28 p.m
Car
for one: How the Toyota PM concept car works: At How
Stuff Works,
Room
For One
The Toyota PM doesn't resemble the traditional definition of a car. It lacks
side doors and accommodates just a single passenger. This single-passenger
cockpit design more resembles a flightless helicopter on wheels than a car.
Rather than stepping into a side door, passengers enter through a front hatch,
which raises and lowers using hydraulic-lift bars. This front hatch also
doubles as the vehicle's windshield....
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Wartime
Wireless Worries Pentagon: BoingBoing's
Xeni Jardin takes to the pages of Wired to follow up on the report that Rumsfeld
would ban camera phones and digital cameras among soldiers in Iraq and, eventually,
worldwide:
The rapid proliferation of digital cameras, phonecams and wireless gadgets
among soldiers and military contractors is giving senior military officials
concern, in the wake of images that showed abuse in an Iraqi prison and
snapshots that showed rows of coffins of American soldiers.
The Defense Department said it hasn't banned the devices and doesn't plan
to -- as the Business Times of London and two wire services have reported.
But the Pentagon is telling commanders in the field to strictly monitor
the use of consumer wireless technology through Directive
8100.2 -- Use
of Commercial Wireless Devices, Services and Technologies in the Department
of Defense Global Information Grid -- issued last month....
...In a nutshell, the directive tells all soldiers, contractors and visitors
to Defense Department facilities that they can only carry wireless devices
that conform to the military's security standards. These specify that the
devices use strong authentication and encryption technologies whenever
possible. In addition, the devices cannot be used for storing or transmitting
classified information. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz signed
it in April after two years of internal debate.
McClellan said commanders in the field haven't been told to use the directive
to stamp out the use of the gadgets in Iraq. Instead, the directive is "general
guidance" passed "along to the theater commanders, and they decide
how to implement it in their own commands."
Link
to this item | Comment
Waffling
on what foods can be called 'organic' again: NYT:
Federal standards for what foods can be called organic might have seemed
like the final word on the issue when they went into effect two years ago.
But the Agriculture Department's interpretation of the laws governing the
National Organic Program has fed a fierce debate on what should be allowed
in such products.
Last month the department issued what it called clarifications of the
standards, allowing antibiotics in dairy cows, certain chemicals in pesticides
and livestock feed containing nonorganic fish meal.
The father of national organic standards, Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat
of Vermont, called the Agriculture Department's directives "unilateral
fiats which may violate the letter of the law," and he added, "They
certainly violate its spirit."
Mr. Leahy said he is circulating a letter among his colleagues asking
Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman to rescind the directives and to seek
public comment before making changes in the regulations.
Barbara Robinson, deputy administrator of Agricultural Marketing Services,
which is in charge of the National Organic Program, said the agency was
surprised by the opposition. The department is not creating new rules but
establishing the limits of existing regulations, she said, so it is not
required to seek public comment or to consult with the National Organic
Standards Board, an expert advisory group set up by law to establish standards.
The directives, she said, were in response to organic certifiers, who
sought clarification on behalf of their customers. Those customers include
Strauss Creamery in California and Country Hen in Massachusetts...
Link
to this item | Comment
Keith Olbermann's Countdown on
MSNBC (8 p.m. EDT) seems a lot like a big-time video blog. He's even blogging
stuff -- the genetic
manipulation that gives us a blue
rose,
for instance.
But he did it well:
...And our third story, a look at the scientists run amuck in pushing
the limits of genetic engineering and family planning, would not be complete
without
mention of the breakthrough responsible for nature‘s first blue
rose. It would look something like this. Biochemists researching drugs
at Vanderbilt
University discovered something startling. They put some genes from a
human liver into bacteria. The bacteria turned blue.
Then they put the genes from the human liver into roses. The roses turned
blue. Horticulturists for decades have tried to create a natural blue rose.
Now they all think they have one, all natural, just like Audrey in “Little
Shop of Horrors.” All it needs to survive is human livers. Feed me,
feed me. Thanks a lot, Mr. Science.
And he blogged something bizarre I hadn't seen:
Bird dropping hits singing Lauper
in mouth
Associated Press
May. 25, 2004 07:57 AM
BOSTON - Cyndi Lauper has gone above and beyond what should be expected
from a performer.
The Boston Herald reports Lauper was performing at a concert sponsored by
a radio station WXKS when a bird relieved itself over her head.
It's bad enough that it hit Lauper. It's even worse knowing Lauper had her
mouth open for a high note and the bird made a one-in-a-million shot.
Lauper delicately turned away from the crowd and wiped her tongue on her
shirt - and finished the set.
The segue music was the chorus of Lauper's megahit Time After Time:
If you're lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I'll be waiting
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Far too late, most writers understand you may have to live out what you
write.
Link
to this item | Comment
May 25, 2004, 6:25 p.m.
American Bandstand, the sequel: Way back in the early days of rock'n'roll,
way back even before the Beatles and the Stones, there was American Bandstand.
In
1957, host Dick
Clark took over Bob Horn's Bandstand -- a bunch of
Philadelphia high school kids dancing after school to records-- after Horn
was arrested for drunk driving. The show went national on ABC
as American Bandstand, every afternoon from
3 to
4:30. Lip-synching local performers
like
Frankie
Avalon,
Fabian and Bobby
Rydell showed up and every barely pubescent kid in America wanted to
be on the show. (Photos)
New records would be spun, and three regulars would rate it on a scale
from 35 to 98. When prodded to say something more about
the song, about all the kids could blurt was, "It's got a good beat
and it's good to dance to."
It was the enduring phrase to come out of the show.
I can't count how many
classic '50s songs I first heard after school on bandstand -- almost as many
as I first heard with my transistor radio under
my pillow, listening to New York radio. The
hits were obvious. We learned the dances along with the Bandstand kids:
The Twist from Chubby Checker, The Stroll from Fabian and The Chalypso from
Billy and Lillie’s La De Dah, all on Bandstand.
We teenyboppers wanted to be those kids.
But by 1963, the party was over. The Beatles happened, Dylan, folk rock,
the Rolling
Stones;
the
teen
idols were
left
behind. The
show
moved
to Saturday only, then to L.A in 1964.
Now the grandkids of junior-high rock pioneers like me can be on
the new version of Bandstand.
AP reports, 'American
Bandstand' Coming Back to TV.
"American Bandstand" is coming back with a new twist, courtesy
of the producer of "American Idol."
A revamped version, from original producer-host Dick Clark and "American
Idol" creator Simon Fuller, will turn the show's trademark dancing
into a regular competition....
...Clark will be a producer but won't return as on-air steward of the
new "Bandstand," which
is scheduled to debut in summer 2005, most likely on a network and definitely
in prime-time, Fuller said.
A search for a replacement host is under way and Fuller hinted at more
than one opening: Although the show will be largely Los Angeles-based it
will
break away to other cities, such as Miami, to sample the scenes there....
You can listen to
the original American Bandstand theme song, Bandstand Boogie, recorded
by Les Elgart.
I was surprised to learn there were lyrics.
(There's more about the song here.)
(In the interest of a complete story, but to my great regret, I have to
add that Barry Manilow later recorded this and added many more lyrics.)
Link
to this item | Comment
Another deja vu: Carl Bernstein (of Watergate's Woodward and Bernstein):
History
lesson: GOP must stop Bush.
Link
to this item | Comment
Winners
Collect Pulitzers in New York Ceremony: At Editor & Publisher,
The winners of the 88th annual Pulitzer Prizes, announced April 5, received
their awards Monday in a ceremony at Columbia University. Lee Bollinger,
president of the university, presented the prizes.
It was an emotional day for some of the winners. "I didn't really appreciate
the significance of it until about a half-hour ago," said Dan Neil
of the Los Angeles Times, who won for Criticism for his car column -- one
of
five awards for his paper.
Neil was one of several winners who spoke with E&P afterward.
"I actually was tearing up after I received the award," said David
Leeson of The Dallas Morning News, a co-winner of the Pulitzer for Breaking
News Photography, who chronicled the Iraq war for the paper. "I suddenly
had a flashback of all the terrible things of war -- the poverty, the injustice,
the death. I felt a sense of sadness and relief. I felt the price we pay
for a certificate."
I met David Leeson in Gainesville last month (we were on separate panels
during U.Fla.'s Convergence Symposium) and he really is that substantial.
He opened his presentation of photos from Iraq with, "I hate war." He also
has a wonderful nature photography site called Field and Forest.
Link
to this item | Comment
Buzz: Springsteen
to counter GOP convention with free concert? This is over a week old,
but the New York Daily News offers,
The Boss vs. The Prez
Could Bruce Springsteen be plotting to rain on the Republicans' campaign
parade?
Democratic operatives are buzzing that the Boss has been talking about staging
a free concert somewhere on Sept. 2, when President Bush is due to address
the Republican National Convention.
Besides getting out the vote, Springsteen hopes to provide "counterprogramming
to the message the Republicans will be broadcasting," says a source.
A spokeswoman for Springsteen would only say, "There are no confirmed
Bruce shows for 2004."
Link
to this item | Comment
The
Cannes festival jury explains its choices: The Toronto Globe and Mail:
CANNES, FRANCE -- In the past, Cannes jurors were sworn not to reveal the
process or any internal disagreements in their decisions, not only until
the awards night, but ever.
For the first time, this year the jury met with the press late on Sunday
afternoon to discuss its picks in what appears to be part of an effort to
dispel Cannes's elitist mystique. The initiative was made by the festival
administration, and it promised to offer some insight into some of this year's
unexpected prizes, from Michael Moore's Palme d'or to a best-acting award
to a 12-year-old child, or the Grand Jury Prize to a violent Korean revenge
film. If nothing else, the glimpse into the jury process suggested how much
influence the jury president Quentin Tarantino had in setting the tone.
The nine jurors included Tarantino; Haitian-born, American author Edwidge
Danticat; actresses Emmanuelle Béart, Kathleen Turner and Tilda
Swinton; directors Tsui Hark and Jerry Schatzberg; Finnish critic Peter
von Bagh and
Belgian actor-screenwriter Benoît Poelvoorde....
Link
to this item | Comment
Mossad
goes on-line to recruit spies: Reuters reports. You can sign up here.
Link
to this item | Comment
Blog
Software Breakdown: A big chart and more at asymptomatic.
Link
to this item | Comment
Unitarians recognized by Texas: Last week, (according
to KRT via Religion
news blog), Texas Comptroller
Carole Keeton Strayhorn ruled that Red River Unitarian Universalist Church
in Denton isn't really a religious
organization - at least for tax purposes -- because it "does
not have one system of belief."
(Neither do Buddhists. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were
both Unitarians, offering a precedent.)
Yesterday, Strayhorn reversed her ruling. Off
the Kuff has the story,
comments, reaction and background..
More religion news:
China
lets Hong Kong display Buddha's finger: Buddha died about 483
B.C.
Progressive
Catholic diocese to ordain a woman: Religion News Service,
Clifton, VA (May 24, 2004) - James H. Burch, bishop of the Catholic Diocese
of One Spirit will ordain Penelope Ann Thoms to the Catholic priesthood
at 10:00 am on Sunday, June 13, 2004 at One Spirit Catholic Community,
13900
Stonefield Drive, Clifton, VA. All are welcome...
Chicago
cardinal wants communion denied to rainbow sash movement:
CHICAGO -- Cardinal Francis George is sending a controversial letter to
parishes across Chicago. The cardinal is saying that a small group of gay
Catholics should not be given communion on Sunday.
Boston
archdiocese to close 65 parishes: AP.
BOSTON — The Boston
Archdiocese will lose 65 of its 357 parishes, a massive
restructuring brought on partly by the clergy sex abuse scandal
that aggravated
already shrinking Mass attendance and weekly collections.
Link
to this item | Comment
1:15 p.m.
TV shows get "Napsterized" because TV is stuck in the
last century: Online
trading of TV episodes grows, reads the headline in USA Today,
LOS ANGELES — Missed the final episode of Frasier or Friends? Many
college kids aren't waiting for the reruns. They're downloading the shows
instead.
With millions of unauthorized media files being traded on the Internet,
it's impossible to put an exact number on how many TV episodes are out there.
But Jorge Gonzalez, who runs Zeropaid.com, a file-sharing guide, says
he's seen "a big increase in the last six months for new sites that
specialize in trading TV shows."
The Simpsons, Friends, The Sopranos and other shows are readily available
at both Kazaa, the world's most-used file-sharing program, and new sites
like eDonkey, TVTorrents.com and Bucktv.net.
What's interesting about this is why people do this. Zeropaid.com
blogs this story, and the comments (scroll down) point to the clunkiness of TV
in a digital age. (Why should you have to actually be in the front of the
set at a given time to watch a recorded show anyway?)
Here's a sample of the comments on the Zeropaid item (they're not all just
from people who don't own a TiVo, ReplayTV, Panasonic Showstopper or other
DVR.):
--A lot of peeps in europe are simply downloading the shows because they
may not be shown over here any time soon, if at all.
--exactly. I got all three seasons of 24 a year before they were shown
in Europe. i.e., the third season hasn't been shown at all yet. as long
as
you are connected to the net, you are up to date
--Why the heck can't I download a TV file on P2P? I could've just as easily
hit record on my VCR and I have a copy, or I can just dl the show I missed
on p2p. I don't see any distinction in this.
--yea I dl TV a lot more than movies, TV shows are shown once at "prime-time" which
actually isnt very prime for me becuase I dont have time to watch T.V.
then... its so much easier just to dl it.
--If it weren't for downloading TV shows, I would not know what is hapopening
on my favorite episodes, because I can't get the channels because I have
satelite and they won't give you the channels if the DUMB LOCAL tv stations
already carry them. I HATE THAT! Screw em! I will see my shows no matter
WHAT they say.
--the broadcasters have already aired the show, so, besides royalty fees,
who cares if someone downloads it? No one's going to waste their lives
trying to wait for a rerun
--the broadcasters have already aired the show, so, besides royalty fees,
who cares if someone downloads it? No one's going to waste their lives
trying to wait for a rerun
--What is their bloody problem... you cannot buy those television episodes
in a lot of cases, because no one is offering! Is it illegal to download
something you cannot buy (the answer of course, yes)? Like others have
said, most TV shows are just not shown here in Europe until years afterwards.
I've watched the first, second and half of third season of Star Trek: Enterprise
before someone started broadcasting the first season (we'll forget for
a minute that it turned out into a very bad show). What to do if I didn't
have the internet and missed a few episodes? Wait a few more years for
re-runs or DVDs to appear. Sounds like someone is again missing opportunities.
It's the same with videoclips. That's probably illegal too, when is some
smart arse from the record company going to understand that people might
be interested in buying videoclips? Not the home-recorded ones with MTV
text, real DVD quality videoclips! Jeees, is it so hard to do business...
I think some CEO's still think they are in the 80's or something.... hellloooooo,
ever heard of the internet or is it just an abstract term your kids mentioned
once?
Networks whine about shrinking audiences while acting as though they're
broadcasting everything live in realtime. It's more like records than radio,
more like movies than sports.
Get a clue, networks. Let people watch shows when they want to. You're wasting
your money and your advertisers' money by only showing programs once to only
those who aren't working, sleeping, cooking, entertaining, doing laundry,
telling bedtime stories or setting out tomato plants when you choose to show
your program.
The age of "push" is ending fast. Let us "pull" what we want when we want
it.
Link
to this item | Comment
May 24, 2004, 5:56 p.m. -- (Last
week's weblog)
How
to unlock your phone: Popular Science's "How 2.0" feature says
it takes 15 minutes.
While number portability may have freed your cell digits, your phone is
still a ball and chain, locked into one carrier's service. These subsidy
locks keep you from walking away before the provider can recover that big
discount you got when you bought the phone.
But it doesn't have to be so. If you have a GSM phone, you can unlock
it and switch to any GSM network carrier (the big three are AT&T, Cingular
and T-Mobile). You can also take an unlocked phone overseas (most of
the world uses GSM) and use it on a local network to avoid paying for international
roaming, or even buy a European phone (they tend to be ahead of us in
cell
tech) and use it here. Have an old phone lying around? Unlock it and
keep it as a spare.
The key is the subscriber identity module, or SIM, card, which stores the
essential information--carrier, number, contacts--in all GSM phones....
Link
to this item | Comment
Will
Digital Radio Be Napsterized? J.D. Lasica just emailed that his
story is up at Mindjack on an underreported issue:
The Recording Industry Association of America has discovered that digital
radio broadcasts can be copied and redistributed over the Internet.
The horror.
And so the RIAA, the music business's trade and lobbying group, has asked
the Federal Communications Commission to step in and impose an "audio
broadcast flag" on certain forms of digital radio.
On April 15, the FCC bowed to the RIAA's request and initiated a notice
of inquiry, typically a step leading to formal rule-making. The public may
submit comments to the FCC between June 16 and July 16.
(When this is up, we'll give you the URL so you can make your thoughts known.)
What does this mean? If you want to record a broadcast program (not satellite
radio) on a digital
radio receiver, you may not be able to. A bit of software code "flags" the
hardware, and you may not be able to tape or time-shift Imus or NPR:
Cheryl Leanza, deputy director of Media Access Project, a public interest
law firm in Washington, D.C., says the recording industry is afraid of the
Napsterization of digital radio.
"In the analog world, you could tape songs off the radio, give the
recording to your friends, and pretty much do anything you want with it," she
says. "In the newer world, the technology sets the rules and determines
how long you can save a recording, how you can use it, and whether you
can share it with a friend.
"The problem is, the technology is so ham-handed that it gives all
controls to the content creator and no discretion to listeners, users
or subsequent creators. Fair use goes out the window, and we lose the purpose
of copyright, which is to spread ideas and promote discourse. If the
technology
and the new rules eliminate these kinds of legitimate uses, then you
will limit a fair amount of the creativity that we would otherwise get
as a society."
J.D. has more
about this on his blog: "While the Mindjack article adequately describes
the issues involved, there's more to the story. ..."
(I expect we'll be seeing "how to unlock your radio" stories if this comes
to pass.)
Link
to this item | Comment
So
the phone rings, and it's Cosby calling: Eugene
Kane at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes,
The message was pretty succinct: Bill Cosby wanted to talk to me.
According to his representative, Cosby read my column about his comments
at a Washington, D.C., ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown
vs. Board of Education case, and he wanted to respond.
Expect a call inside an hour, I was told.
Ordinarily, that kind of news would have me drunk with glee; Cosby has been
a personal hero for years. But in my column Thursday, I criticized him for
slamming low-income African-Americans and their children for everything from
their speech to their buying habits.
Based on a report in The Washington Post that Cosby mocked the language
of poor blacks and blamed them for dragging down the rest of society, I
chided Cosby for his harsh views and even called him a "curmudgeon."
So when the phone rang and it was none other than Cosby on the other end
of the line, frankly, I was pretty intimidated....
Link
to this item | Comment
East
Wind weathers test of time: ""
I'm pleased they made 30 years," ex-skeptic says." The Springfield, Mo.
News Leader revisits a commune that could.
Catching up with an
"egalitarian democratic community." East Wind's website places
it "on 1045 acres of land in the beautiful Ozark mountains of southern Missouri."
Even in 1974, it was an unusual idea.
Buy 160 acres in the backwoods of Ozark County. Start a democratic, egalitarian
society called East Wind Community. Eventually grow to 750 members.
"Don't put too much credence in that number," said Quinn Parks,
who, like all members, uses only his first name at East Wind. "The
people who lived here back in the day, let me tell you, they were dreamers."
They may have been dreamers, but this month, East Wind's 75 members celebrated
the 30th anniversary of their enduring — and thriving — community.
East Wind recently paid off a loan on an additional 883 acres, its business
ventures are worth more than $2.5 million, and it is building a new machine
shop and bathhouse.
Link
to this item | Comment
Would
you like your e-mail habits exposed to correspondents? Here's
the deal, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher at Ars Digita,
An upstart named DidTheyReadIt.com claims to offer you the ability to
track messages that you send to others. As the name implies, the service
promises
to let you know when someone has read an e-mail that you have sent, but
that's not all. It also purports to reveal "how long" the e-mail
was open on the client system, and where that person was when reading
it. Worst of
all, they claim that recipients won't have a clue. Wrong.
I'll break it down for you right now: this is a basic tactic spammers
have used for ages. For $50 a year, you send all of your e-mail messages
as normal,
but you tag .didtheyreadit.com to the end of every address. This forwards
your mail through their servers, and then on to the recipient. It involves
embedding a very small image into your e-mail, and then it relies on
the recipient's e-mail client to try and "load" that image, giving
you the time it was viewed, an IP with which you can try and geo-locate (horribly
inaccurate), and a refresh setting which will try to measure how long the
message was open for. The end result is that this will not work in any text
e-mail client, any e-mail client set to not display HTML email, and any client
(such as Outlook 2003) set to not display non-embedded images by default.
Those clients for which it will work will not always be reliably geo-locatable,
and initial tests show their "open" times to be skewed.
The worst part about this is that the company pimps their service as
untrackable by end users. However, testing in the Imperial Labs clearly
showed that
anyone savvy enough would be well alerted to the tracking bug. I've long
hated read
receipts, delete receipts, and the like, but this latest move is an egregious
front against privacy. You can get the "gee willikers" take
at USA Today.
Link
to this item | Comment
Demand
Grows to Require Paper Trails for Electronic Votes: NYT. It ends
on an odd note:
Howard Cramer, vice president for sales at Sequoia Voting Systems, which
is providing Nevada with its touch screens and printers, said that the company
had no worries about the security and accuracy of its touch screens. He said
he saw putting printers in Nevada as a useful experiment because other jurisdictions
will require them, although he said he expected voters to become so comfortable
with touch screens that they would soon drop the fad for paper trails.
"Voter comfort" is hardly the reason for requiring machines that can be
manually recounted, if necessary.
"The fad for paper trails" will fade when open-source software that can
be examined by qualified election officials replaces secret proprietary code
and the fad of "trust us."
Link
to this item | Comment
1:04 p.m.
Rumsfeld
reportedly banning soldiers' camera phones in Iraq, worldwide:
ABC in Australia and other international sources are reporting this:
Should
digital cameras and camera phones be banned from military facilities?
Vote | Results
|
Mobile phones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in United States
Army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
The Business newspaper reported on Sunday.
Quoting a Pentagon source, the paper said the US Defence Department believes
that some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib
prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.
"Digital cameras, camcorders and mobile phones with cameras have been
prohibited in military compounds in Iraq," it said.
A "total ban throughout the US military" is in the works, it
added....
Ban the torture, not the evidence of it.
At Fox News, Greta
Van Susteren is upset about the ban:
Some media outlets are reporting -- but we have yet to confirm it -- that
Secretary Rumsfeld may be banning our troops from using cameras in Iraq.
I am a bit distressed since I was having the troops send me photos -- great
pics -- from Iraq that I have shown you at the end of the show. I am hoping
to get around this somehow, since I love showing the many good things our
troops are doing in Iraq. I have also received many e-mails from you saying
how much you like the pictures showing the good things. If the troops can't
use their digital cameras in Iraq, I can't get the pictures to show you on
our show. I assume the pictures taken in the Iraqi prison was the catalyst
for the decision, but it is now going to prevent me from getting you some
good news!
I expect soldiers' families will be up in arms about this, too.
BoingBoing quotes
a Chicago Tribune editorial column by Clarence
Page, "Weapons
of Mass Photography."
If I had my way, every enlisted man and woman in the military would be
issued a digital camera. As we've seen in the scandal about abused Iraqi
prisoners, the little gadgets help boost morale by providing snapshots that
can be e-mailed back home. They also can come in handy when you need to gather
evidence. I like those little cameras because certain power elites don't.
If you wonder what effect this ban might have, consider the bombed Iraqi
wedding. It was possible for the military to deny this was a wedding until
several hours of video
shot by the hired wedding photographer (who was killed in the bombing) showed
up. Here's the
story, and still
photos taken from the video
The Daily Farce has a
field day with this:
After the unfortunate attack on a wedding party in Iraq by the U.S., and
the surfacing of actual video footage showing the wedding, Donald Rumsfeld
announced this morning that camcorders, digital or not, are prohibited
from now on during any kind of celebration, including weddings, birthday
parties and anniversaries.
"We ask that the people of Iraq refrain from using camcorders of
any kind and/or regular cameras as well." Stated Donald Rumsfeld in
a televised press conference in Iraq, "The attack on that party was
legitimate. These were people that planned attacks on us. Sure they have
weddings too.
However, the surfacing of the videotapes showing the wedding party makes
it very hard for us to seem like the good guys. So from this point on,
all recording devices are prohibited."...
Link
to this item | Comment
Hot air: J.D.
Lasica quotes this
story, which, Steve
Yelvington adds, was
told my by Orrin Hatch "when he and Patrick Leahy spoke to newspaper
publishers and editors at the joint NAA/ASNE meeting a few weeks ago in
Washington."
A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost so she lowers her altitude
and spots a man in a boat below. She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can
you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but don't
know where I am."
The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air
balloon approximately 30 feet above ground at an elevation of 2346 feet
above sea level. You are 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100
degrees,
49.09 minutes west longitude."
She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Democrat."
"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you told me
is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information,
and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."
The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or
where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity
of hot
air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect
ME to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were
in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault.
Link
to this item | Comment
Trucks made to drive without cargo in dangerous areas of Iraq: Next time
somebody gets your ire up with tales of welfare mothers who don't have to
work while you do, remember this story:
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Empty flatbed trucks crisscrossed Iraq more than 100
times as their drivers and the soldiers who guarded them dodged bullets,
bricks and homemade bombs.
Twelve current and former truckers who regularly made the 300-mile re-supply
run from Camp Cedar in southern Iraq to Camp Anaconda near Baghdad told
Knight Ridder that they risked their lives driving empty trucks while their
employer,
a subsidiary of Halliburton Inc., billed the government for hauling what
they derisively called "sailboat fuel."
Defense Department records show that Kellogg Brown and Root, a Halliburton
subsidiary, has been paid $327 million for "theater transportation" of
war materiel and supplies for U.S. forces in Iraq and is earmarked to be
paid $230 million more. The convoys are a lifeline for U.S. troops in Iraq
hauling tires for Humvees, Army boots, filing cabinets, tools, engine parts
and even an unmanned Predator reconnaissance plane.
KBR's contract with the Defense Department allows the company to pass on
the cost of the transportation and add 1 percent to 3 percent for profit,
but neither KBR nor the U.S. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Ill.,
which oversees the contract, was able to provide cost estimates for the empty
trucks. Trucking experts estimate that each round trip costs taxpayers thousands
of dollars.
Seven of the 12 truckers who talked to Knight Ridder asked that they not
be identified by name. Six of the 12 were fired by KBR for allegedly running
Iraqi drivers off the road when they attempted to break into the convoy.
The drivers disputed that accusation.
In addition to interviewing the drivers, Knight Ridder reviewed KBR records
of the empty trips, dozens of photographs of empty flatbeds and a videotape
that showed 15 empty trucks in one convoy.
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