This is a most excellent and useful read. Not only does it cover quite a handy number of facts and arguments in relation to Iraq today, but it also contains the most excellent statement, "I'm not some Karl Rove inspired meathead. I'm a Canadian!"
For that reason alone, it's worth reading. It's a long read but it's a valuable one.
Friday, December 09, 2005
The Stein of Sir Eppo?
Hmmm, not so sure about that. Anyway, while searching online for an old friend, I stumbled across this interesting posting about Epstein, Eppstein and, allegedly, a knight named Eppo.
Knights called Eppo are cool, especially if they've retired to the sea.
If Eppo married Rosanne Barr and they had kids, would the kids be little Epstein-Barrs? Luckily for all of us, I think, didn't Tom Arnold turn Rosanne into a lesbian?
Knights called Eppo are cool, especially if they've retired to the sea.
If Eppo married Rosanne Barr and they had
Best house remix ever?
I think it's possible. Few tracks have me bopping my hairy l'il butt on down like Louie Vega's remix of Patti LaBelle's New Day. Ok, so it's not so l'il (my butt, not Louie) but it's uh, erm, oh I better not even go there.
This is one of those recordings that make you wanna stay wherever you are when you hear it and just keep playing it again, and again, and again, and again.
One of my all-time favourite "it's sunny, it's Friday and it's time to leave work" dance toonz. 'cept I can't leave teh office yet cuz I gotta lay down a CD so I can get the whole gym boppin too. I really must insist they install a Media Center PC with USB....
It's not half bad on a rainy Monday morning, neevah. Louie Vega and Masters at Work are surely doing the work of the good Lord herself.
Please excuse me while I hit the "Play" button for the umpteenth time...
Wow, what a happy slice of soul this is!
This is one of those recordings that make you wanna stay wherever you are when you hear it and just keep playing it again, and again, and again, and again.
One of my all-time favourite "it's sunny, it's Friday and it's time to leave work" dance toonz. 'cept I can't leave teh office yet cuz I gotta lay down a CD so I can get the whole gym boppin too. I really must insist they install a Media Center PC with USB....
It's not half bad on a rainy Monday morning, neevah. Louie Vega and Masters at Work are surely doing the work of the good Lord herself.
Please excuse me while I hit the "Play" button for the umpteenth time...
Wow, what a happy slice of soul this is!
Apparently, HE knows only one chord, in one key...
but, OH! what a chord and in what a key!
Kneel at the alter of Chic and thank Nile Rodgers and Bernard Evans, AKA God's own funksters, for some of the greatest songwriting, recording and production. EVAH.
"Say, old man, what brought on this bout of ancient nostalgia?", I hear you kiddeez cry.
Well, I was just enjoying Biquini Cavadão's recording of Chove Chuva, a mighty, mighty Brasilian classic, never mightier than in the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 rendition (AKA "The Single Most Coolerest Piece of Music Ever Recorded, Ever")
Kneel at the alter of Chic and thank Nile Rodgers and Bernard Evans, AKA God's own funksters, for some of the greatest songwriting, recording and production. EVAH.
"Say, old man, what brought on this bout of ancient nostalgia?", I hear you kiddeez cry.
Well, I was just enjoying Biquini Cavadão's recording of Chove Chuva, a mighty, mighty Brasilian classic, never mightier than in the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 rendition (AKA "The Single Most Coolerest Piece of Music Ever Recorded, Ever")
Aussies At Odds With Oz-Based US Weapons Testing
And can you blame them?
Controversial documentary to be screened in Bega
Blowin' In The Wind is the latest film from two-time Academy Award nominee, David Bradbury - arguably Australia's most contentious and provocative documentary filmmaker. It examines the secret treaty that allows the US military to train and test its weaponry on Australian soil. It looks at the impact of recycled uranium weapons and the far-reaching physical and moral effects on every Australian. The film's release is timely as the government currently moves to approve more uranium mines while arguing the contrary - that by going nuclear we are being both 'safe' and 'green'.
Blowin' In The Wind reveals that Iraqi babies are now being born with major birth defects. Bradbury wonders whether Australians living downwind from the military testing ranges will be next. He argues that we were lied to by the British over the Woomera and Maralinga atomic tests. Can we trust another equally powerful partner in our 'war on terror'? With a cash budget of just $12,000 Blowin' In The Wind raises pertinent questions which cannot be ignored by the Australian public. The film shocked, angered and surprised large audiences recently when shown at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals.
Controversial documentary to be screened in Bega
Blowin' In The Wind is the latest film from two-time Academy Award nominee, David Bradbury - arguably Australia's most contentious and provocative documentary filmmaker. It examines the secret treaty that allows the US military to train and test its weaponry on Australian soil. It looks at the impact of recycled uranium weapons and the far-reaching physical and moral effects on every Australian. The film's release is timely as the government currently moves to approve more uranium mines while arguing the contrary - that by going nuclear we are being both 'safe' and 'green'.
Blowin' In The Wind reveals that Iraqi babies are now being born with major birth defects. Bradbury wonders whether Australians living downwind from the military testing ranges will be next. He argues that we were lied to by the British over the Woomera and Maralinga atomic tests. Can we trust another equally powerful partner in our 'war on terror'? With a cash budget of just $12,000 Blowin' In The Wind raises pertinent questions which cannot be ignored by the Australian public. The film shocked, angered and surprised large audiences recently when shown at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals.
Stop the insanity!!!
Is nothing sacred?
Disney is re-launching Winnie the Pooh. Yet again, it appears the usual Hollywood rule applies: why maintain quality when you can really screw something up?
At first, I misread this article in The Independent and thought perhaps they were really gonna go for it, with Christopher Robin perhaps leading the National Front or something but, alas, the truth is more shocking still. They are offing the laughably effeminate character based on AA Milne's own son.
Dainty CR is replaced by a girl. Yes, a girl. Why? Wasn't he already enough of a girlie? Hollywood Rule number 2: if it ain't broke, break it.
Why not do it properly? Why not turn the Pooh stories into a "touching, heart-warming drama about a poor West-Coast Latino boy from the barrio who turns to his amigos for botherly support and low-riding good times"?
Kreestophah Row-Been: "Yo Pooh esse, kick anotha old-school rrrrolla' fo tha homies!"
I suppose this is a good time to tell you about two of my favourite books, The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet. They make excellent bedtime stories for your children. When you're done with those, you can read The Dancing Wu Li Masters which, unless your child is as precocious as I was (and arrogant as I am now), probably won't make such great bedtime reading. When you're done with that, try In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, which definitely ain't for six-year-olds. Even your faithful correspondent had to wait until he was about twelve to get into that one.
Ahhh... that's much better. Remember, only MY blogs could possibly take you from news about Disney raping Winnie the Pook to quantum mechanics in a single post.
Right, I have to go play with my space-time continuum. Toodle-pip!
Disney is re-launching Winnie the Pooh. Yet again, it appears the usual Hollywood rule applies: why maintain quality when you can really screw something up?
At first, I misread this article in The Independent and thought perhaps they were really gonna go for it, with Christopher Robin perhaps leading the National Front or something but, alas, the truth is more shocking still. They are offing the laughably effeminate character based on AA Milne's own son.
Dainty CR is replaced by a girl. Yes, a girl. Why? Wasn't he already enough of a girlie? Hollywood Rule number 2: if it ain't broke, break it.
Why not do it properly? Why not turn the Pooh stories into a "touching, heart-warming drama about a poor West-Coast Latino boy from the barrio who turns to his amigos for botherly support and low-riding good times"?
Kreestophah Row-Been: "Yo Pooh esse, kick anotha old-school rrrrolla' fo tha homies!"
I suppose this is a good time to tell you about two of my favourite books, The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet. They make excellent bedtime stories for your children. When you're done with those, you can read The Dancing Wu Li Masters which, unless your child is as precocious as I was (and arrogant as I am now), probably won't make such great bedtime reading. When you're done with that, try In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, which definitely ain't for six-year-olds. Even your faithful correspondent had to wait until he was about twelve to get into that one.
Ahhh... that's much better. Remember, only MY blogs could possibly take you from news about Disney raping Winnie the Pook to quantum mechanics in a single post.
Right, I have to go play with my space-time continuum. Toodle-pip!
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Pinter demands war crimes trial for Blair
Looks like Pinter is definitely planning to go out in style. The Guardian brings you coverage of his latest tyrade. You go girl!
There's some hope, at least that SOME Americans still use their noggin, as Members of Congress press Bush to stop under-counting the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the members point out, not to include many of the injured in casualty lists results in an innacurate and misleading perception of reality. Oh, wait, Messrs Bush and Cheney, isn't that the definition of psychosis?
Anyway, it's obvious to anybody with a basic grasp of these things that modern warfare, military kit, communications, science and medicine mean that the ratio of killed to injured in Afghanistan and Iraq is going to be very different to that of say, Vietnam, par example. On top of that, Iraq may well turn out to result in more deaths of Americans than even did Vietnam.
Basically, many, many more horrendously injured (inside and out) soldiers, non-combat servicemen and women and members of the various "support" arms will survive their injuries than would be the case had these military operations taken place thirty years ago. This is a veritable K1 of pain and it will lean heavily on American society and psyche for a long time to come. The long-term ramifications have yet to be considered, let alone understood, by all but a few of us cynics/realists.
This is before you even consider all the "enemy" casualties and all the innocents and non-combatants who are suffering.
Maybe you have noticed the effect of the Vietnam "experience" on American (un)consiousness? Factor in depleted uraniuam and, my friend, you have set the scene for a truly awful reality to settle upon the human race over the next many decades.
Mark my words.
There's some hope, at least that SOME Americans still use their noggin, as Members of Congress press Bush to stop under-counting the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the members point out, not to include many of the injured in casualty lists results in an innacurate and misleading perception of reality. Oh, wait, Messrs Bush and Cheney, isn't that the definition of psychosis?
Anyway, it's obvious to anybody with a basic grasp of these things that modern warfare, military kit, communications, science and medicine mean that the ratio of killed to injured in Afghanistan and Iraq is going to be very different to that of say, Vietnam, par example. On top of that, Iraq may well turn out to result in more deaths of Americans than even did Vietnam.
Basically, many, many more horrendously injured (inside and out) soldiers, non-combat servicemen and women and members of the various "support" arms will survive their injuries than would be the case had these military operations taken place thirty years ago. This is a veritable K1 of pain and it will lean heavily on American society and psyche for a long time to come. The long-term ramifications have yet to be considered, let alone understood, by all but a few of us cynics/realists.
This is before you even consider all the "enemy" casualties and all the innocents and non-combatants who are suffering.
Maybe you have noticed the effect of the Vietnam "experience" on American (un)consiousness? Factor in depleted uraniuam and, my friend, you have set the scene for a truly awful reality to settle upon the human race over the next many decades.
Mark my words.
Indian internet user base grows 54% in 2005
At least in India, the "digital divide" appears to be narrowing. That's 38.5 million down, only 1,450 million to go. Narrowly narrowing?
A man appeared before St. Peter
A man appeared before St. Peter at the pearly gates, "Have you ever done anything of particular merit?" St. Peter asked.
"Well, I can think of one thing," the man offered. "Once, on a trip to the Black hills of South Dakota , I came upon a gang of high-testosterone bikers who were threatening a young woman. I directed them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen.
So, I approached the largest and most heavily tattooed biker and smacked him on the head, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring and threw it on the ground."
"Then I yelled, 'Now back off biker boy or you'll answer to me!"
St. Peter was impressed, "When did this happen?"
"Just a couple of minutes ago."
"Well, I can think of one thing," the man offered. "Once, on a trip to the Black hills of South Dakota , I came upon a gang of high-testosterone bikers who were threatening a young woman. I directed them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen.
So, I approached the largest and most heavily tattooed biker and smacked him on the head, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring and threw it on the ground."
"Then I yelled, 'Now back off biker boy or you'll answer to me!"
St. Peter was impressed, "When did this happen?"
"Just a couple of minutes ago."
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
1984, and Bush's Unusual Dictionary
Argentina's La Nacion carries an excellent Spanish-language editorial on the eery (or perfectly normal, depending on wear you carry your head, and your tin hat) parallels between today's America and Orwell's 1984.
A machine-translation of the article is available here. It's surprisingly readable. Go Google!
Anyway, this reminds me of another excellent piece on the eery (or perfectly normal, depending on wear you carry your head, and your tin hat) parallels between today's president GW Bush and past Mexican leaders.
A machine-translation of the article is available here. It's surprisingly readable. Go Google!
Anyway, this reminds me of another excellent piece on the eery (or perfectly normal, depending on wear you carry your head, and your tin hat) parallels between today's president GW Bush and past Mexican leaders.
Is the world run by Moonies?
An interesting posting about the Bushes et al and the Moonies.
Apparently the good Reverend Moon is "certifiably insane". Not only that, but four of Bush's cabinet are Moonies. Or were, depending on when this was written
I can't wait to see the movie.
Apparently the good Reverend Moon is "certifiably insane". Not only that, but four of Bush's cabinet are Moonies. Or were, depending on when this was written
I can't wait to see the movie.
Keep up with the, erm, 'Global War on Terror'
or the totally-selfless rescuing of the Iraqi people or the installation of democracy or however it's being packaged these days...
Thenausea.com has a bunch of relevent media, organised by month.
A variety of other raw video footage is available here.
In War Crimes, USA, an interview with Jeremy Brecher, Jill Cutler and Brendan Smith, Mother Jones asks, "Could administration officials be called to account?"
Information Clearing House provides streaming video of a Dutch television documentary about the 9/11 attacks. They also carry Mike Whitney's perspective on a nuclear Iran and Bill Henderson's take on Iraq, oil and the US economy.
I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's there...
Thenausea.com has a bunch of relevent media, organised by month.
A variety of other raw video footage is available here.
In War Crimes, USA, an interview with Jeremy Brecher, Jill Cutler and Brendan Smith, Mother Jones asks, "Could administration officials be called to account?"
Information Clearing House provides streaming video of a Dutch television documentary about the 9/11 attacks. They also carry Mike Whitney's perspective on a nuclear Iran and Bill Henderson's take on Iraq, oil and the US economy.
I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it's there...
Stupid, lazy journalists.
Yeah, I know that's a relatively redundant trio but some people today are still worthy of the terms "journalist" and "writer".
And then there are people who get paid to write stuff like, "The tech giant's new line is aimed at helping Web-based businesses handle millions of tasks quickly." I don't expect humans to be perfect but please - "helping Web-based businesses handle millions of tasks quickly.."?
It's not even buried down in all the other crap, they stuck it right up front, like they're proud of it or something. Then again, maybe I'm just suffering yet again from my usual inability to get all excited and lose the head off my Starbucks cappuccino over technology that to me seems pretty, well, rudimentary whilst everybody else jumps up and down.
But the ability to handle many tasks quickly? Wow. How awfully space-age....
The whole article is a bit surreal. The real shame, however, is that the vice-president of IBM UNIX server division isn't named Freud. This passage would have been a beauty (it still could be):
"Rivals are quick to ladle big helpings of fear, uncertainty, and doubt onto the new machines. Karl Freund, vice-president of IBM's UNIX server division, derides the Niagara processor as "Viagra chips. But Viagra might have more staying power." Freund argues that Niagara lacks enough on-chip cache memory to handle anything but the simplest jobs -- most of which are already handled well enough by cheap Linux-based Intel machines."
And then there are people who get paid to write stuff like, "The tech giant's new line is aimed at helping Web-based businesses handle millions of tasks quickly." I don't expect humans to be perfect but please - "helping Web-based businesses handle millions of tasks quickly.."?
It's not even buried down in all the other crap, they stuck it right up front, like they're proud of it or something. Then again, maybe I'm just suffering yet again from my usual inability to get all excited and lose the head off my Starbucks cappuccino over technology that to me seems pretty, well, rudimentary whilst everybody else jumps up and down.
But the ability to handle many tasks quickly? Wow. How awfully space-age....
The whole article is a bit surreal. The real shame, however, is that the vice-president of IBM UNIX server division isn't named Freud. This passage would have been a beauty (it still could be):
"Rivals are quick to ladle big helpings of fear, uncertainty, and doubt onto the new machines. Karl Freund, vice-president of IBM's UNIX server division, derides the Niagara processor as "Viagra chips. But Viagra might have more staying power." Freund argues that Niagara lacks enough on-chip cache memory to handle anything but the simplest jobs -- most of which are already handled well enough by cheap Linux-based Intel machines."
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