informant38
-
...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica
Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.
Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors
-
30.6.02
29.6.02
Glass/Paper/Beans, by Leah Hager Cohen - CJR, Nov/Dec 1998 {Columbia Journalism Review}
still here 15:16
OJR article: Getting to Know You But when push comes to shove, online newspapers have largely been flying blind about who's coming to their own sites and why. Until now.
still here 14:22
28.6.02
photopoet p. goedicke
war times
enron wu
media transparency{from cursor}
medical poetry!
poetry from poets.org
tyranny of the normal
still here 15:02
Women look you in the eye when telling the truth, men when lying." So contends a Boston psychologist.
still here 13:35
Salon Down to Last $1.5 Million in Cash As of March 31, San Francisco-based Salon said it was down to its last $1.5 million in cash -- enough to keep its business running for three or four months, according to the company's annual report to shareholders.
still here 11:55
27.6.02
Yahoo! News - Washington Opposes Pledge Ruling "We acknowledge the separation of sectarianism and state, but affirm the belief that there is no separation between God and state," Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie said in the morning prayer.
{the forces of evil have been removed from the battlefield, the battle will continue until victory is ours. huh?
the trap is to respond with logic and reason. these men are fighting for their lives, like cornered rats. weak ineffective scurrying rodentlike men, who by manipulating the course of human events, have created a topsy-turvy world where cowardice is rewarded and virtue and righteousness are criminalized and punished. logic has nothing to do with it, not at the level of public discourse. these are people who could not survive in a world that was running right. ipso facto they have to keep things running wrong.
God loves you, Timmy, He's just real busy right now.}
still here 11:23
26.6.02
Stage Left Yediot Achronot reports on Shimon Peres' reaction to Bush's speech:
"Shimon Peres' face became more and more weary and angry, the longer Bush went on with his speech. "He is making a fatal mistake" remarked Peres. "Making the creation of a Palestinian state dependant upon a change in the Palestinian leadership is a fatal mistake" he repeated again and again. "Arafat has led the Palestinians for 35 years, kept their head above the water in the international arena. No, no, you can't just brush him aside with one speech."
Peres did not watch the speech to the very end. He got up, turned off the TV and left the room, saying before he left: "The abyss into which the region will plunge will be as deep as the expectations from this speech were high. There will be a bloodbath."
:: Judah Ariel 11:38 PM [ ] ::
{this is what is missing from the 'news' now. why? is there something here that wants us all to die?}
still here 23:22
The Pledge of Allegiance - A Short History Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...
{those are the words of the man who wrote the pledge of alleigance}
still here 22:59
Nerve.com - Everything but the Gerbil by Leif Ueland They found 182 cases. According to their research, the most popular object to emerge was a bottle, cleaning up with thirty-three entries (one with attached rope). Running a respectable second were vibrators, at twenty-three mentions, followed by the vibrator's cousin, the dildo, with fifteen. The last object to achieve double-digit status was the stick/broom handle, with a perfect ten. The remaining melange included virtually everything except a rodent (the gerbil story, according to the journals, is, in fact, myth): a frozen pig's tail, a kangaroo tumor, pool cue ball, snuff box, and a variety of fruits and vegetables, including a plantain (with condom). Perhaps Mark Twain said it best: "Man is the only animal who blushes. Or needs to."
still here 22:55
Independent News The US dollar yesterday moved to the brink of free fall � a nightmare scenario for the world economy � after reverberations from the WorldCom scandal triggered panic among investors.
still here 22:45
Inference Group: David MacKay: Image of the week Cauliflower | Cauliflower1 | Cauliflower2 | Cauliflower3 | Cauliflower4 |
still here 17:37
Inference Group: David MacKay: Homepage
David J.C. MacKay
Reader in Natural Philosophy, and Gatsby Senior Research Fellow
Department of Physics
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
{Dasher guy}
still here 17:00
Inference Group: Other websites here
Other organizations who have websites here are:
Cambridge Ultimate
Biological Computation Interdepartmental Research Group
Cambridge Quantum Network
Sally Clark campaign backup site - the main site is www.sallyclark.org.uk.
{this is the Dasher main page. Dasher is maybe important}
still here 16:51
Yahoo! News - Pledge Declared Unconstitutional But when the pledge is recited in a classroom, a student who objects is confronted with an "unacceptable choice between participating and protesting," the appeals court said.
still here 16:42
25.6.02
Redefining Progress Humanity's use of natural resources, or Ecological Footprint, has exceeded the regenerative capacity of the Earth since the 1980s. The finding is outlined in a paper to be published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
still here 23:49
History News Network -- As you are the President's top political adviser, let me draw to your attention the political wisdom of a man who served in the cabinet or sub-cabinet of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford, and then eighteen years as the U.S. senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He's not only an able politician but a student of government secrecy, most recently serving as chairman of a bipartisan Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. You might want to take a look at his recent book, entitled Secrecy. Senator Moynihan sums it up nicely: "secrecy is for losers."
Best wishes, and I hope that you will reconsider ignoring the mistakes of the Nixon presidency.
Sincerely,
John Dean
{integrity becomes glaringly clear against a background of corruption and pompous hypocrisy}
still here 23:35
the man who loved only numbers: the story of paul erdos and the search for mathematical truth by paul hoffman {wired numerically, toward the infinite, every day}
still here 20:32
EFF analysis of the 'USA' 'Patriot' 'Act' :
The government may now spy on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation. This application must be granted and the government is not obligated to report to the court or tell the person spied up what it has done.
Nationwide roving wiretaps. FBI and CIA can now go from phone to phone, computer to computer without demonstrating that each is even being used by a suspect or target of an order. The government may now serve a single wiretap, FISA wiretap or pen/trap order on any person or entity nationwide, regardless of whether that person or entity is named in the order. The government need not make any showing to a court that the particular information or communication to be acquired is relevant to a criminal investigation. In the pen/trap or FISA situations, they do not even have to report where they served the order or what information they received. The EFF believes that the opportunities for abuse of these broad new powers are immense. For pen/trap orders, ISPs or others who are not named in the do have authority under the law to request certification from the Attorney General's office that the order applies to them, but they do not have the authority to request such confirmation from a court.
ISPs hand over more user information. The law makes two changes to increase how much information the government may obtain about users from their ISPs or others who handle or store their online communications. First it allows ISPs to voluntarily hand over all "non-content" information to law enforcement with no need for any court order or subpoena. sec. 212. Second, it expands the records that the government may seek with a simple subpoena (no court review required) to include records of session times and durations, temporarily assigned network (I.P.) addresses; means and source of payments, including credit card or bank account numbers. secs. 210, 211.
still here 15:09
internet scout points to Popular Science points to the eye in the sky
freedom's blind side
still here 14:54
Weekly Review - Jun 25, 2002: Harper's Magazine The editor of Psychology Today magazine said that he wanted to find a woman who will agree to "learn to love him" and to write a book with him about intentionally falling in love. More than 300 women responded. A Spanish count crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a jet ski.
still here 08:54
O'Reilly Network: Blogspace Under the Microscope [May. 03, 2002] It's hard to avoid the sense that there's some biological force at work here.
still here 08:49
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Is Clear Channel selling hit singles? The source says that Clear Channel programmers told him they were strongly encouraged to play the Cherry single, even though "nobody thought this song was a hit."
{sad day for the kid you know. he's not a whore. just caught up in the machine}
still here 08:45
24.6.02
Untitled Document
The bird's-eye view of the Paengmagang River Valley makes the hike to the oldest Paekche fortress above Nak'waam Rock well worthwhile. Nak' waam Rock is the site of a tragic legend. Some 3,000 women of the Paekche court leapt to their deaths here to avoid dishonor at the hands of their enemies during the fall of the Paekche Kingdom. The image of the women plummeting down in their colorful dresses gave the place its name, "Rock of Falling Flowers."
{Korean history. there are 'source flowers' also. two beautiful royal women who quarrelled and died.
and a buddhist monk from Korea who went from there to India and up the Ganges then into Central Asia and on to Iran and the edge of eastern Europe. then turned back and became a translator of buddhist holy texts, in China where he died aged 83. beginning this journey in 724. when he was 20 years old. these are all from reading Roger Tennant's history of Korea, which is moderately poetic if grammatically a little difficult}
still here 22:55
Investigation: Teacher Accused of Having Sex With Student On June 3, the teacher allegedly invited the student to her home, where they had sex in her bedroom, the student told investigators.
Among the items seized during a search of the woman's home last Friday was one used condom, a condom wrapper and the teacher's diary, which sheriff's deputies said included references to the student.
{one photgraph of each of them would change the whole tone here. this is a highschool kid taking a junior high class? and getting tutored for it? and buried in the middle of the story is he may have been blackmailing her? but this isn't about sex, anyhow. it's way definitely not about sex with children. it's about control. controlling who breeds with who and when. and take a look at the genetics of the people who want that control.}
still here 21:00
Sirin Ensemble The Sirin Ensemble (named after a bird of Paradise from Russian Christian legends) was formed in 1989 with the goal of resurrecting Russian orthodox music traditions that had been lost after the church reforms of XVII c.
{Valentina Georgievskaya singing "The Sinful Soul Laments and Moans". this is more than enough to redeem a day's worth of rambling through the loosely woven threads of the net.}
still here 20:48
BBC SPORT | ENGLAND� | Hoggard lifts England hopes
Sehwag took the attack to the tourists, stepping back often outside leg-stump to crash a half century from 72 balls, but playing and missing regularly.
When he audaciously reverse-swept Ashley Giles for four, England skipper Nasser Hussain opted to take the new ball with India 206 for six.
And Hoggard claimed his third wicket when the youngster edged another classical seamer's delivery behind.
still here 19:41
FBI Begins Visiting Libraries (washingtonpost.com) The FBI is visiting libraries nationwide and checking the reading records of people it suspects of having ties to terrorists or plotting an attack, library officials say.
The FBI effort, authorized by the antiterrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, is the first broad government check of library records since the 1970s when prosecutors reined in the practice for fear of abuses.
The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment Monday, except to note that such searches are now legal under the Patriot Act that President Bush signed last October.
Libraries across the nation were reluctant to discuss
still here 18:43
The Bolthole "Yes, people do collect everything. I collect automobile license plates."
{quotes ( " ) are them. brackets ( {} ) are {me}. }
still here 16:00
Riders on the Storm (1) "Commercials will give us more exposure," he says. I ask him, "so you're not for it because of the money?" He says "no," but his first question is always "how much?" when we get one of these offers, and he always says he's for it. He never suggests we play Robin Hood, either. If I learned anything from Jim, it's respect for what we created. I have to pass."
{I had this kind of visceral mistrustful thing with Manzarek. from the get. then he was touring with Michael McClure and it was like lameness was on my plate. then this. Densmore is honest and forthright. it's like Jeff Bridges in a way. there's a 'star' path that doesn't necessarily require your soul.}
still here 15:46
Show me a home where the buffalo roam - "Pillard has 50 tiny cows on his northern Iowa farm, all about 3 feet tall. He's hoping they'll catch on as pets, and so far inquiries have come in from as far as Europe, Mexico and Argentina."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/upallnight/links.shtml
Faux Queen Pageant
Great American Nude #69 (1965) wesselmann
http://www.world-sex-records.com/
http://www.memepool.com/Subject/Sex/
smells
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992424
http://members.tripod.com/~Mystery_Date/links.html
still here 01:09
A golden phonograph record was attached to each of the Voyager spacecraft that were launched almost 25 years ago "The organization of recording sessions and the arduous legwork involved in finding, contacting and convincing individual speakers was handled by Shirley Arden, Carl's executive assistant, Wendy Gradison, then Carl's editorial assistant, Dr. Steven Soter, and me.
still here 00:58
BBC News | AFRICA | Zimbabwe whites 'must stop farming' The majority of white farmers who are still in Zimbabwe are legally obliged to stop working their land from Monday, according to their union.
The Commercial Farmers' Union says that 2,900 farmers must surrender farms in line with recent changes to the law, which give the Zimbabwean Government sweeping powers to take land.
Any farmer who carries on working their land 45 days after receiving an acquisition notice could face two years in prison.
{Africa is getting darker}
The number of farmers affected represents about 60% of the total of white farmers who were in Zimbabwe at the time that land seizures began two years ago.
still here 00:17
23.6.02
Fresh From The Oven {what is this? I have no idea really. the moment in time that was our childhood's all. and slowly it became a cardboard box we played in, imagining the world, and it was the world, then.}
still here 22:46
global fever Co-researcher Richard Ostfeld, an animal ecologist at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York adds: "This isn't just a question of coral bleaching for a few marine ecologists, nor just a question of malaria for a few health officials - the number of similar increases in disease incidence is astonishing. We don't want to be alarmist, but we are alarmed."
still here 22:33
New Scientist
{they may have Hodgkins' lymphoma, but by God they don't have access to porn online. by God.}
still here 22:12
22.6.02
Rainforests and Species Extinction The Earth's species are dying out at an alarming rate, up to 1000 times faster than their natural rate of extinction.3 By carefully examining fossil records and ecosystem destruction, some scientists estimate that as many as 137 species disappear from the Earth each day, which adds up to an astounding 50,000 species disappearing every year.
still here 22:57
Amtrak May Begin Shutdown in Days (washingtonpost.com) Amtrak President David Gunn said yesterday that he will begin shutting down rail passenger service nationwide "in the middle of next week" and put Amtrak into bankruptcy unless the Bush administration approves a $200 million loan guarantee or Congress nears passage of a direct appropriation or loan guarantee.
still here 22:23
Mothers in Prison April Rivera, a four-year-old from Miami, is singing the theme song to Barney with her mother. "I love you. You love me," she chirps. "We're a happy family." Even a purple dinosaur, however, can tell this isn't quite true. April's mom Regla Sanchez, 26, is inmate No. 162850 at the Hernando Correctional Institution, 320 miles away in Brooksville, Fla., and April is looking at an image of her mother on a computer screen. This virtual family visit is part of a new pilot program, Reading Family Ties, run by the Florida Department of Corrections in an effort to help incarcerated mothers and their kids bond. But when her mom disappears from the screen, April's face crumples. "It's hard," says Isabel Strausser, the program's Miami coordinator. "A lot of times kids cry and beg me to let their mothers go."
still here 22:18
Living Nappy
{well without editorializing or refining or any other thing, I just went from a link to link bounce/surf at Megnut or whatever after somebody called Ernie the Attorney and and on and on and then came here and it was like coming through the front door after a hectic day at work. big ahhhh, the beginnings of deep relaxation, I can't explain it in a scientific fashion, I'm not black or otherwise overtly ethnic but within two paragraphs I felt more affinity than I got from a hundred different 'blogs'. there's an incredibly candy-assed prissy/precious inbred thing out there. a lot of frantic neurotic narcissistic whoknowswhattocallit.
but this is just here. it's real different from my daily life. but like I said I feel more kinship here than pretty much anywhere else I've been online, though I continue to admire bluishorange greatly, for her resolute intent, and her courage, and I read Sterling and tomorrow and robotwisdom and, at the time I wrote this entry, metafilter, daily.}
still here 19:15
Jerry Berman, CDT Executive Director Prior to founding the Center for Democracy and Technology, Mr. Berman was a Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 1978-1988, Mr Berman was Chief Legislative Counsel at the ACLU and founder and director of ACLU Projects on Privacy and Information Technology.
still here 18:12
Silicon Valley | 06/21/2002 | Wiretapping the Net and Other Issues ��dan gillmor "I can't reach the consumer if I'm a content owner," he says, without paying a bunch of money to third parties who are between him and the consumer. Raduchel's AOL-think is clear. We are not customers. We're just consumers, content to be fed what AOL Time Warner feeds us as we send back money.
{ the word 'consumer' has a lot more in common with 'cow' than it does with 'citizen'.}
still here 18:08
Silicon Valley The abysmally bad decision by the Librarian of Congress in the Internet radio royalties case is, quite simply, the end of almost all Net radio. It's another victory for the greed-mongers who control popular music in America, and the hell with the rest of us.
To claim this is anything but a disaster for a medium that had promised to provide an alternative to the absolute garbage on today's commercial radio is to deny reality. Cutting in half a royalty rate that would put Internet radio stations out of business immediately only means they'll go out of business slightly less quickly.
So, another charade in Washington has turned in favor of entrenched interests. Sad times, folks. Sad times
still here 17:01
Colonial Schoolbooks (Belgian Congo). Anthology.
"9. The children often ask me: "Why are we not as intelligent as you Whites?"
10. The Whites are looking insistently for knowledge of things that are not even discovered. This the reason for which their intelligence does only increases, and that people give them a lot of honour. On the other hand those people of your regions, that were more intelligent than the other, were treated with jealousy by some other people, and some were killed either after have been obliged to drink poison or otherwise. A lot of people died at home because of fetishes, because the soothsayers often deceived your forebear. They ruined the best people, and protected those that were happy with their bad practices. This is one reason why intelligence doesn't increase in your countries. Another reason is the indolence. Some consider the latter as the most important reason."
still here 15:50
The New Yorker: Fact In 1979, when the Pope met the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, in Washington, the assembly's leader, Sister Theresa Kane, the president of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, asked the Pontiff that "half of humankind" be included "in all ministries of our Church." She was rebuffed with an observation that the Vatican has frequently invoked to explain its position on the issue of admitting women to the priesthood: women, the Pope said, were to remain humble, like Mary�and Mary was not a priest. Sister Theresa might have pointed out that Jesus was not a priest, either�nor, for that matter, were any of the Apostles�but, in accordance with the spirit that has prevailed
still here 15:22
21.6.02
Jordan Times (Opinion Section) THE COMMITMENT of Jordan and Egypt to peace cannot be overemphasised. They have made sacrifices for peace and they are pursuing with unwavering vigour efforts to ensure that peace prevails all over the Middle East. They know what it takes to bring about an end to conflict in the region. Yesterday, His Majesty King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spelled out, once again, what needs to be done to put peace-making efforts on the right track.
Any peace initiative, they said, must aim at the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state in implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
Attempts to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict outside this general framework will be an exercise in futility. It will lead to the wasting of precious time during which lives could be lost and feelings of hatred and bitterness heightened among the peoples of Palestine and Israel.
still here 22:27
Jordan Times (News Section) CAIRO (Agencies) � Arab information ministers met here Wednesday to discuss the launch of a $20 million pro-Palestinian media campaign, which also seeks to ban Arab TV interviews with Israeli officials.
still here 22:25
http://webvoice.blogspot.com/
http://www.muxway.org/
http://www.free-conversant.com/about/index
http://www.oreillynet.com/~rael/lang/perl/blosxom/
still here 20:44
BlogComp: Blog Tool Feature Comparison Table There are so many weblog/blog tools available these days, it's difficult to know which one to choose. Hopefully this table will help you choose the tool that's right for you, by listing the features offered by each.
still here 20:43
BlogComp: Blog Tool Feature Comparison Table There are so many weblog/blog tools available these days, it's difficult to know which one to choose. Hopefully this table will help you choose the tool that's right for you, by listing the features offered by each.
still here 20:36
b2 > temporary test blog (powered by b2's dev.version) What is b2 ?
A classy news/weblog tool (aka logware).
How does it work ?
You type something and hit "blog this" and in the next second it's on your page(s). You can write extended entries, or even pages that span multiple pages. You can also use BloggerAPI clients to post to your b2 weblog.
still here 20:34
raelity bytes Blosxom [pronounced "blossom" or "blogsome"] is a lightweight yet feature-packed Weblog application designed from the ground up with simplicity, usability, and interoperability in mind.
still here 20:26
Flashlight Museum page six There are so many neat flashlights out there to find. These are just a few to get you started.
still here 20:23
Plustech Walking technology 2000 Concept Forest Machine PhaseII
{I saw something like this one time hitchiking down from Oregon. somewhere in northern california this hollywood guy John Boorman I think gave me a ride and got me way molto stoned and then we came around a bend and there was a landslide off to the side and there was a six-legged backhoe sort of thing spidering around on it. one of those moments where it's hard to fight the idea that everything that happens is a coded message of some kind intended only for you}
still here 20:09
The Food Revolution Grass-fed beef does not just come to you straight from God's Green Earth. It also comes to you via the slaughterhouse.
The lives of grass-fed livestock are more humane and natural than the lives of animals confined in factory farms and feedlots, but their deaths are often just as terrifying and cruel. If they are taken to a conventional slaughterhouse, they are just as likely as a feedlot animal to be skinned while alive and fully conscious, and just as apt to be butchered and have their feet cut off while they are still breathing - distressing realities that tragically occur every hour in meat-packing plants nationwide.
still here 19:34
Chris Floyd: Southern Cross, The US Takes Aim at Brazil So when Lula began soaring in the polls, the White House went to work, through its proxy armies on Wall Street. Major firms (and Bush donors) like Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch took time out from their various Enron entanglements and criminal investigations to sniffily downgrade Brazil's investment rating--citing Lula's potential victory as the reason. The move--derided as a mistake by the Financial Times and others--sent the Brazilian stock market tumbling, destroying millions of dollars in local investments.
This economic terrorism by the Bush Regime is just the opening salvo in a dirty war that will doubtless continue until the October election. The Regime may have fumbled its first attempt at a foreign coup--the ham-handed farce in Venezuela--but Brazilians should take little comfort in that. As we saw in November 2000, when these boys set their minds to it, they know how to gut a democracy.
still here 19:21
20.6.02
Nontoxic pest control for home, school and business{marlys points and off I go running}
still here 21:11
Sky and Telescope - A Close Asteroid Fly-By Hurtling out of the �blind spot� between the Sun and crescent Moon , asteroid 2002 MN skimmed about 120,000 kilometers above the Earth�s surface during the early hours of Friday, June 14th. Nobody saw it until three days later, despite the fact that it penetrated to within 30 percent of the Earth-Moon distance.
still here 20:39
Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Powers Of 10: Interactive Java Tutorial View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree
still here 20:34
19.6.02
The New York Observer publicly disclosed his reversal, Mr. Foster said, "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar."
It�s a line that should win him more admirers than any so-called discovery, and it�s a line more scholars should take to heart.
still here 14:16
18.6.02
Weird, strange, bizarre, people & places to see in the US The Insectarium is the brainchild of Steve Kanya, head bugmeister and former cop, who turned to stamping out bugs instead of crime. Always fascinated with insects, he started displaying his �catch of the day� in the window of his exterminating business. The display attracted so much attention that he moved to a three story building so he could have his pest execution business on the ground floor and put the museum on the upper two floors. Today half a dozen school groups visit every day, and it takes a staff of ten just to manage the bugs and lead tours.
still here 22:37
Mr Turner is moved to tears at one point in the interview by the "depressing" combination of conflicts like that in the Middle East and the state of the environment, which he says demands massive global attention - "or, you know ... it's goodbye".
{there's nothing there really overt that conveys what seems to be scorn, but I think it's safe to say there is scorn there, somewhere. in the minds of many of the so-called 'men' who write these things, who read them, who think about them. and in that context Turner's acting as cathartic scapegoat, which I don't think he intends. and I don't think he deserves. the junior varsity figures are getting more angst-crippled everyday. and it won't get better, not for them. they're trying to hold the fireman model for themselves, but it's as jive as the smug complacency they had before, when it hadn't yet become obvious that everything is, at best, about to change completely. I've been saying for some time now that at the frontlines of all this, among the meteorologist rebels, the well-traveled generalists, the synthesizing geniuses, many were coming back from the front grim and silent, speechless with the pain of what they were seeing. while the bloated swine messengers kept up their diversionary blather. well now it's not so easy for the pigs. and men like Turner are beginning to take on the real burdens of these times, the impossible-to-buy-off vision, the unprecedented moments that lie before us now, when only honesty will serve.}
still here 15:13
Speaking at Stanford Business School on March 11, 2002, BP chief executive John Browne announced that his company had met its self-imposed target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- nearly eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost to the company.
It was Browne who, five years earlier at Stanford, had sent shock waves through the energy industry by announcing that his company had decided that the risks of climate change justified precautionary action. The following year, Browne set another first in the energy industry by pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from his firm's operations by 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2010, nearly twice the average cut called for by the Kyoto Protocol.
still here 14:36
To live in Alaska when the average temperature has risen about seven degrees over the last 30 years means learning to cope with a landscape that can sink, catch fire or break apart in the turn of a season.
still here 14:34
17.6.02
jiko shoukai
�@In 1993, I got a job in Hiroshima University. Now, I am an assistant professor in Division of Culture and the Humanities, which is a part of Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences.
�@Though my wife is a Chinese and from Beijing, she does not like Beijing Opera which I love so much. And she hates the accordion tunes, too. Once, she burst into tears when I played my accordions in front of her. She says that she does not like the accordion because its sound makes her feel a sentimental longing for her childhood.
�@ After all, I was forbidden to play accordion nor sing Beijing opera songs within 1 kilometer around her.
�@Should I have been diligent enough in my own cooking then ?
still here 22:05
WeFeel�̃W���P�ʐ^ {so what is this? innocence kind of. not naive. not glamorous. not anything commercially gold. but something here I was receptive to when I found it.}
still here 21:11
Selections from "EZO MOMONGA" photobook
Their nest disappears unexpectedly,
because a trunk is snaped off under the weight of snow.
Still it keeps on snowing.
Winter season in HOKKAIDO is long.
As the hardness of nature, they live hard with their little bodies.
I want to yell with a loud voice
{beautiful wonderful inimitably Japanese FLYING SQUIRREL site, and yes they DO look exactly like Rocky. I mean it they do.}
still here 20:00
the Catholic Church is impossible to describe simply as an organization, as a spiritual discipline, as anything. it is too big, too complex. even the most rigorous definition brings an excess of structure, of complexity.
this is a church whose leaders claim direct descent from Jesus Christ himself. whose leaders have claimed over the years to bring the word of God himself to earthly presence. it is one of the richest organisations in the world. the Vatican stores art treasures that are worth fantastic amounts of money. it has real estate holdings that are vast and economically important.
and it has a membership of millions. many of them willing to continue to contribute small amounts of money regularly through its parishes and dioceses, with no stipulation on its use. though many of the people contributing are themselves poor and the amounts negligible by themselves. William Randolph Hearst made a vast fortune in just the same manner. a small amount of money from many many people, collected regularly.
my father was molested by a catholic priest when he was very young. he never told me about it, his brother did, after my father had died, and now his brother has died, and there isn't anyone I know that I could go to for more information about what happened.
according to my uncle my father told my grandfather about the molestation, my grandfather went to the monsignor of the parish, and in the quiet uproar that followed, my grandfather found it expedient to move the family to a different parish, in another part of the city of, I believe, Rochester, New York.
so, essentially, a priest molests a boy, the boy's father complains, the church leans over and breathes hard, and the boy's family is intimidated and uprooted, blown away.
the levels of cynicism and bitter helplessness that this makes inevitable are not hard for me to understand, now. though when I was 14 and in a preparatory seminary they would have been.
and I think now how strange it must have been for him, to see me there, in a cassock, in a boarding school run by priests. but how much sickness he carried, how much he bore and how much he denied, is impossible for me to know.
I was never overtly molested in a sexual way by any of the priests and Christian Brothers I had contact with through 9 years of 'parochial' schooling. but there were many incidents of violence, much of it the result of sexual attraction and repression, and more than a few when I was alone with some black-robed man, and the air was thick with something I didn't recognize then for what it was.
still, I'm not writing this to accuse, or even complain. what I want to explore is the idea that it's perfectly acceptable in most people's minds for this institution, or any other for that matter, to teach children religious 'truths', no matter how far-fetched, no matter how obviously absurd, no matter how destructively misleading, as long as those truths are not sexually permissive. I'm writing this to say that misleading children about spiritual things is a form of molestation at least as, and often more, violating and damaging than many forms of sexual abuse.
I think most people are themselves so blinded by sexual taboo that they can't see that. it's a form of hypocrisy that is itself one of the cloaks behind which a horrendous amount of sexual molestation has taken place, quietly, for hundreds of years, in the dark corners of catholic churches.
it wasn't until the valiant insistence on political franchise by the so-called gay and lesbian community that it became possible to speak of these things. before that there was no place to make accusations like this. so they didn't get made, not publicly anyway.
these hypocritical taboos are still in effect, though not as invulnerably as before. now we have an outcry and a public shame, and, in the context in which they appear, an appropriate outcry, and a deserved shame.
but why is it all right for these same priests to teach children that masturbation is a sin that will cause them to be thrown into hell for all eternity, unless they 'confess' and are absolved, and do 'penance'? why are they allowed to do this to millions of children? and that's still a sexual subject. there are a multitude of other strange and illogical teachings the Catholic Church is free to inflict on any child that comes under its influence. and not only the Catholic Church. the Mormon Church. The Jehovah's Witnesses. the remarkably named Christian Science, and on and on. the sickness isn't just sexual. and it isn't confined to the Catholic Church, or even to religious organisations for that matter. but it is most visible there.
the rebuttal begins with the concept of religious freedom, but I'm not convinced. obviously a religion that teaches that pedophilia is a way to pass on the experience of divine grace wouldn't be allowed to practice, that being one of the offered causes for the firestorm of Waco, as I recall. and a religion that teaches that human sacrifice is a way to make it rain wouldn't be allowed to practice, in America at least. but these other 'debatable' teachings are permitted, I think, because the process of denying sanction to erroneous teaching would lead uncomfortably close to the very doors of the people to whom the power to grant and deny sanction has been given.
so we live in a time of unbelievably rapid accumulation of scientific knowledge, when the progress of technology approaches the magical, and we are trained to look down on 'savages' who believe in 'tree spirits' and 'ghosts'. we are united in condemning those who use their positions of trust to violate and damage the innocents placed in their charge, as these crimes are made clear to us.
but I think time will show, if we have that time, that there were many other forms of violation, and subtler forms of damage, taking place right before us, with the same invisible protections, our hypocrisy and fear, as so recently protected the pedophile priest.
still here 19:32
Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense{ I got a piece on the whole Catholico debacle working also}
still here 15:16
Secret FBI files reveal covert activities at UC / Bureau's campus operations involved Reagan, CIA According to the documents, Hoover became outraged over an essay question on UC's 1959 English aptitude test for high school applicants that asked: "What are the dangers to a democracy of a national police organization, like the FBI, which operates secretly and is unresponsive to public criticism?"
In response, Hoover ordered his aides to launch a covert public relations campaign to embarrass the university and pressure it to retract what he called a "viciously misleading" question.
The director also ordered his agents to search bureau files for derogatory information on UC's 6,000 faculty members and top administrators.
The resulting 60-page report said 72 faculty members, students and employees were listed in the bureau's "Security Index," a secret nationwide list of people whom the FBI considered potentially dangerous to national security who would be detained without warrant during a crisis
still here 12:54
16.6.02
[PRISTINE KONJAC]
It works gentle,
it's effective way
for weight management.
still here 17:51
15.6.02
Sputnik Community Gateway {some more important stuff that I don't understand at all}
still here 21:18
We need a new coastline anyway Beside those freedoms, the loss of a few thousands of miles of coastline (much of it boring and underutilized) is not important. Coastlines are renewable resources. Wherever the edge of the water is, voila: new coastline!
still here 16:15
New Scientist "The wild rhetoric about enslaving the poor and bankrupting the economy to do climate policy is fallacious, even if one accepts the conventional economic models," Schneider told New Scientist. He says the economic arguments need to be put in context, and called on climate scientists to take a tougher stand against the doom-mongers who say action would be too costly.
{a continuing project of recognizing valor when it shows up}
still here 15:39
Richard Bennett's Omphalos
his top 10 reasons for not being a libertarian:
America isn't France: we don't do runoffs.
{specious even if valid}
You can't privatize everything: nuclear power, in particular, needs to be run by government or not at all.
{valid}
The Free Market doesn't give a damn about the environment.
{severely valid}
The social safety net is a moral imperative, so we have to make it work as well as we can.
{warmly valid}
Most often, the truths of politics lie in the middle and not at the extremes.
{irelevant even if valid. most of the time so what. missing the one exceptional but crucial time could render all the other accurate truths moot}
The only force big enough to control big business is big government.
{pretty much yeah valid, if 'the people' can be lumped in with b.g.}
Freedom has to be balanced against justice, or the strong will exploit the weak.
{the conscienceless strong}
Some truths are self-evident: two-parent families are the best means for raising children that will ever be devised.
{this is why I put this up. I think he's only contrasting 'alternative' lifestyle 'families' with the nuke ones. but obviously the old tribal way of a small close-knit genetically linked and still diverse mutually dependent group of say 15-30 individuals plus kids is the best. it's just so far from most people's experience now, except in that Disney/Tom Sawyer 'commune' way. I'm talking about the weight of tradition and living close to the ground. these arguments are like the 'debates' on smoking from 40 years ago. a mark of submission to even participate.}
Harry Browne is a libertarian.
{have to check on him....space of time.... and did. so? he's not that dumb on first perusal. there's a real glut of megalo-egghead chumleys on the blognet. (fimoculous, this guy) I think it's that temptation of finally, finally, real people can see and recognize your massive weight and lightning wit. but it wears off pretty quick or should. as with any art humility is vital even in the heat of Promethean creation and there's this consistent chattering presumption on way too many blogs/sites. so, Harry Browne's ok. so far. to me. kind of.}
Libertarians are juvenile.
{juveniles with large vocabularies and a rudimentary grasp of the servicability of logic based on false premises}
still here 14:36
Jordan Times: Friday-Saturday, June 14-15, 2002 {there's a guy from Mexico name Luis, that could be or maybe is a friend of this guy. contemporaries, and in a way, in a freakish sort of halfway house way, me too. just kids who grew up and worked with the world as they found it and changed the world they found and took on too much of what was not their making, and worked through the handicaps and snares and still ended up here at the edge of the abyss of the future's angry realizing. we didn't start the fire, indeed.}
still here 13:20
Amaya Home Page {my shame to be unable to confidently even open the package this benign tool comes in}
still here 13:13
14.6.02
Salon.com Technology | Getting a lock on broadband What is certain is that by deregulating broadband, the FCC is taking a tremendous risk that could have unforeseen consequences. A risk few people even know they are taking, fewer still understand, and only four get to vote on.
The scenario is not new. In 1981, Congress quietly eased restrictions on savings and loan houses, allowing them to invest their federally insured deposits however they pleased, even in, say, junk bonds. In the mid-1990s, the SEC softened rules that had prevented accounting firms from consulting for their auditing clients. Aside from a few stray government watchdogs, a handful of Beltway bureaucrats, and a clutch of corporate lawyers, those obscure but radical experiments in deregulation went unnoticed -- until it was too late.
still here 22:03
Salon.com Technology | Getting a lock on broadband the battle for broadband could amount to democracy's last stand. "This is a war for the heart of the Internet," Chester said. "Will a few telecoms be allowed to seize control of it, or will it be preserved as a democratic resource? It's David versus Goliath."
The cable companies and Baby Bells disagree....
{And I am shocked! Shocked!}
still here 21:52
tom toles is fucking brilliant more than half the time which is got to be some kind of record
still here 21:50
Salon.com Technology | Getting a lock on broadband "If you have competition between platforms, consumers will be better off," says Randolph May, a communications policy expert with the Progress and Freedom Foundation. "The problem is that [regulation] impedes investment and new entrants to the market."
still here 21:13
UnNamed.pageMark Twain was of the opinion that the best way to cheer up yourself is to try to cheer up somebody else.
still here 19:26
Starhawk: The Boy Who Kissed the Soldier "You are amazing," I tell Hanin. "I am completely exhausted: you're six months pregnant, it1s your house that has just been trashed, and you1re able to stand there cooking for all of us." Hanin shrugs. "For us, this is normal," she says. And this is where I would like to end this story, celebrating the resilience of these women, full of faith in their power to renew their lives again and again. But the story doesn't end here.
still here 15:37
Poetry Daily: Today's Poem ...that puff of lit gas the stars heard...
excerpt from 'Triolet'
Robert Morgan
Blink
Volume 1, Number 6
May-June 2002
still here 15:07
13.6.02
I was visisting my mom. she gets books from the bookmobile, sometimes good ones, other times...She had this book called, 'Crocodile Hunter' I've become suspicious of anything with a package like the AOL/Microsoft/CNN candy-info. and it seemed like that, too bright and accessible. but reading is a necessity in the hours before sleep so... I read the whole thing. Went back over parts I skimmed at first. went back through the pictures twice. Steve and Terri Irwin and their daughter and their friends and their co-workers.
They have a tortoise named Harriet. Harriet is documented. The record is established. Harriet was taken from the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin, naturalist on the HMS Beagle, in 1835. Harriet is older than me by a long shot.
Steve and Terri Irwin live for the conservation and protection of wildlife, which is so vague now as a term but it means tears and blood and sweat and a couple of times in the book Steve says he's willing to die for this, which is much more than a crocodile or two. Something at the heart of life here, that's what he's willing to die for, what his parents lived for, what they taught him to live for, what his wife was doing when they met.
OK. So I have this thing where my praise impugns its object. Like Kaczinsky and the environmental movement in the states. Kind of. In a way. So the whole way over here and even most of the time I was out walking today, I'm debating to say this for fear it brings a curse with it. But you know sometimes you just dive in eh? Splash. Well here I am. I love these guys. And I would die for them as humans worth protecting. If I was brought before some extraterrestrial throne or judgement seat I would point to them as why even if I myself wasn't worth anything, as to why humanity had something worth keeping, worth redeeming, worth fighting for.
Not because they're nice to snakes and crocodiles, though that has a lot to do with it, but because of why they are. It's the love they feel that makes them lovable. It's life they love, real life. And with real love. And for me that makes a kind of focal point for all the rest of this. Start there. Spread out from that center. Keep going. It's big. And it's happening. Now.
still here 18:53
12.6.02
After 11 years, jury vindicates Earth First pair / FBI, Oakland officers must pay $4.4 million for civil rights abuses In one of the biggest civil rights verdicts of its kind, a federal jury said FBI agents and Oakland police officers must pay $4.4 million in damages to Bari's estate and fellow Earth First organizer Darryl Cherney. The two forest activists were injured in a 1990 car bombing in Oakland and investigated as eco-terrorists. Bari died of cancer in 1997.
still here 11:13
11.6.02
Astronomy Picture of the Day : Part of the Sun disappeared behind the Moon earlier this week. Previously, the waning Moon was best visible from all places on Earth during the early morning hours because it trailed the Sun. As the Moon orbited the Earth, however, it caught up to the Sun and passed it on the sky. Now the waxing Moon leads the Sun and is therefore best visible just after sunset. Each month, as viewed from the Earth, the Moon laps the Sun and the cycle repeats.
{I still have trouble getting my mind around what the moon does. in relation to the earth in relation to the sun I mean}
still here 23:55
In These Times * Nightmares of Reason And current National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice served on Chevron�s board of directors for nearly 10 years before being scooped up by the Bush administration. Chevron (now Chevron Texaco) is the largest shareholder in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the group that completed an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Russia, and is planning more pipelines in the region
still here 23:36
Nudes Without Dignity {borderline. some whimsy, and check the dude in th block of ice. should be called nudes without sex}
still here 23:26
TAP: Vol 13, Iss. 10. The Politics of Dog. John Feffer. If the French ate dog meat as readily as they eat horse meat, Korea would not be the target of so much hostility.
still here 23:09
Untitled Document Under the Skliffasovsky clinic the Diggers encountered people dressed in monk's robes, carrying torches around a strange-looking altar made of stone. They were performing some sort of service and singing. When they saw the Diggers, they hurriedly disappeared.
still here 22:20
Colombia has sent over 10,000 soldiers to the SOA, more than any other country. Colombia has the worst human rights record to date in the Western Hemisphere.
Clergy have been consistently targeted by SOA graduates throughout Latin America. While saying mass Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down in El Salvador in 1980 by assassins trained at the SOA. Bishop Juan Gerardi was bludgeoned to death by an SOA grad in 1998 two days after he released a comprehensive human rights report on the Guatemalan civil war. SOA graduates have been found responsible for the murders of thousands of civilians including four US churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980, and six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.
still here 19:55
The crisis came from my realization that, behind the compelling mystery of Catholicism, with its foundation in the message of "Caritas Christi" (words engraved on a stone wall at St. Patrick's), lay a cold and largely self-interested corporate institution
{Th. Keneally's seminary experience}
still here 14:16
People tell a considerable number of lies in everyday conversation. It was a very surprising result. We didn't expect lying to be such a common part of daily life," Feldman said.
still here 14:13
After issuing a trio of singles in 1956 � "Flight of the Saucer, Parts 1 and 2" (an excursion into outer space rapped over the 1946 Lyle Griffin track "Flight of the Vout Bug"), "The Gettysburg Address" and "James Dean's Message to Teenagers"
still here 13:56
Cheney's Mess Worth a Close Look Mr. Cheney bought himself a former Dresser subsidiary facing 292,000 claims for asbestos-caused health problems. He said at the time the merger was "one of the most exciting things I've ever been involved in," and predicted it would benefit Halliburton's customers, employees and shareholders. The first thing that happened was Halliburton eliminated 10,000 jobs. (It was amusing to hear Mr. Cheney on the campaign trail in 2000 claiming he had been out in the private sector "creating jobs.")
{he's not evil because he's a selfish shortsighted greedhead. not even because he's an extremely selfish, massively shortsighted, candy-assed greedhead. he's evil because he's all that and he's second-in-command of the most powerful nation the world's ever known. and because he's the hand inside the sockpuppet.}
still here 00:25
10.6.02
Inspired by the return to light of bluishorange I sent this off to the New Scientist/Greenpeace debate "'What is 'natural' ?".
��������
A twelve year old boy throws a rock into a pool in a stream, in an untouched wilderness. The rock startles fish and causes them to do things they wouldn't otherwise have done, and to not do things they would have. And so on, along the infinite chain of cause and effect that is the movement of the universe through time. Should he be responsible for all that changes, all that happens? How can he be? And what shape would that responsibility take?
But isn't there a way of being that seeks a union with the unknowable outcome of our actions? The undone task of making that clear shelters those who insist all things are 'natural', whether made by human hands or not. Semantically valid, but spiritually a false point. By 'natural' we've come to mean in line with, connected to, the unbroken stream of life, of living, that's brought us here. In the abstract this is a vague and unimportant distinction. In the immediate, concrete sense, it has become a matter of survival, not only ours as human beings, but the survival of the possibility, the potential for being, of the forms we evolve toward.
still here 23:08
Think Attack -- One time for ya' mind, one time for ya' mind. Since I put up these bat houses, I have seen the number of corn borers and corn earworms drop to near zero. I used to spend hours putting mineral oil on the corn silks to combat the earworms rather than use Sevin or Diazinon. To use these chemicals would risk poisoning my honeybees. The count has gone from 3 earwoms out of 5 ears down to one worm out of 120 ears in the past several years. The number of broken tassles from the borers has dropped from about 50% to zero. Without chemicals or mineral oil! These lil' guys are doing the job for me!
still here 23:04
New Scientist Meanwhile, green groups charged that, in the fight between trade and aid, the environment was being left out of the picture. "The US and its friends might as well come from Mars for all they care about the future of the planet," said Friends of the Earth's Daniel Mittler.
{didn't Oliver Sacks use that? an anthropologist on Mars or something?
wasn't there a thing in Sam Smith's Progressive Review about CEO's sharing a genetic disease that made them autistic in a social/moral sense? so there you go. they ARE from Mars. which explains a lot of things. or maybe the thing that hides inside them, that drives them, that tells them what to do, is from Mars or somewhere...}
still here 22:05
Singular "their" in Jane Austen and elsewhere: Anti-pedantry page
{everybody has a right to the language of their choosing, as to the language of their births, and to own and shape it in their own way}
still here 18:43
2 Tinkerers Say They've Found a Cheap Way to Broadband Without venture capital backing, in a garage just six blocks from the garage where Steven P. Jobs and Stephen Wozniak launched Apple Computer 26 years ago, Mr. Holt is making his clever and inexpensive radio repeater by modifying inexpensive Wi-Fi cards, the circuitry that sends and receives the signals.
Although he has partially broken with the Wi-Fi standard, he argues he is doing just what the unlicensed radio spectrum was originally set aside to encourage � innovative wireless network designs.
still here 18:22
Lycos News | Radioactive Waste Goes Under Tents The federal government spent $62 million on a building to store and treat low-level radioactive waste at a California nuclear weapons laboratory, then decided the structure wasn't secure enough.
So where is the waste kept now? Under tents.
still here 17:56
frontline: mafia power play: interviews: stephen warshaw What about the killings, and how close were they to the hockey scene?
Well, it was frightening, in about a six month period, a player was killed on our team, Alexander Osache, who was a San Jose Sharks pick. The team assistant coach, Vladimir Bouvich, was killed. And our team photographer Felix Oliviov, were all killed. Two of them gunned down Mafia-style, five bullets to the head in front of their wives. The player, we're still not sure how he died. He died in his room, in his apartment . . .
When did you learn this fact of life about doing business in Russia?
Well it was always there. I think any time you have a new capitalist structure, there's always the chance for criminal elements.
{so is there a responsibility unmet there? you break the 'communist' hold on the poor Russian people then sit on your pudgy little butts while the most vicious thugs in the world take over. and this article is only about the impact on 'business'. what these guys are doing to the disposable children coming out of the 'orphanages' and other starving institutions is the stuff of nightmares. real nightmares. being lived by real children while Mrs. and Mr. Cheney congratulate themselves and their fellow swineherds for the victory of capitalism over 'communism'. great job guys. see you in hell.}
still here 17:47
"The House that Jack built" and "Daedal Jack" The original nursery rime, and a 19th century jocular elaboration.
still here 17:30
Salon: Gibson on "Idoru" So somebody took that one step further and brought out an idoru who didn't exist at all -- there simply wasn't any girl there. They had the record, and they had the pictures of her, and she became really popular. Possibly because kids knew she didn't exist.
still here 15:06
Deep Vision: Science News Online, June 1, 2002 DeFanti recalls looking at himself in the tailor's three-mirror booth and wondering whether he could combine computers and a projection system into a high-tech imaging system that would recreate a three-dimensional likeness that would look right from any viewing angle.
still here 15:03
01-145 (Auditory Perception) �Caricatures that exaggerate essential facial features have been found to improve recognition,� said Laurie Heller, lead researcher. �Through the study of auditory caricatures, we are interested in discovering what is essential in a sound for its identification.
�When certain features are exaggerated � like in a caricature � it appears to enhance the sound so that it becomes more realistic to listeners. The Foley artists found this through trial and error. I�m interested in finding the scientific basis for it.�
still here 14:53
ASA 143rd Meeting Lay Language Papers -When Sound Effects Are Better Than The Real Thing Over 70% of the time (a statistically significant percentage), listeners preferred the synthesized event to either the real or Foley stimulus for the �walking in mud� stimuli. This was also found for the �walking in leaves� stimuli. No significant preference was determined for the �crushing eggshells� stimulus. Future tests will apply this technique to a broader range of sounds.
still here 14:43
From the Files of Mike Mailway
In 1474 in Switzerland's Basel, a black rooster laid an egg. You and I might've been baffled by it. But the people thereabouts then were infuriated. They put the rooster on trial and burned him at the stake. Wasn't enough. So they burned the egg, too.
still here 13:32
9.6.02
S.F. Gu-Zheng Music Society Youth Ensemble {beyond imagining how beautiful must be the grace these five bestow}
still here 20:19
Lute (Chad) Its use is reserved for the men, who play their lutes as a solo instrument at evening gatherings or to beguile the solitude of the traveler far from his village.
still here 20:02
International Music Archives The International Music Archives is an educational resource providing extensive information about the music of our planet. Each of the choices below represents a starting point for further exploration of music of that given country or region. Within each section you will find information about countries and regions and their musical styles, plus related sound samples and photographs.
still here 18:19
8.6.02
Calgary Police Services Between 1991 and 1995, 63 prostitutes were murdered in Canada. Most were female. Fifty of the prostitutes were thought to have been killed by their johns.
still here 22:13
ahh . well. so. ok. back to Mr Costello's chair. first let's look at the thing itself. music. a song. that's his chair. a song. he worked on wrote revised adjusted. crafted. recorded. recorded is the rub eh. that's where the product enters the world according to Sony. you can write songs all day. sing em all night. it becomes product when you get the 'copyright'.
ok. where'd all this start? well according to Eisner's minions it started with Genesis. God said let there be royalties. paid out according to contract law. and it doesn't matter who really wrote it. it's about the name at the bottom of the contract. names. but Eisner's not really correct is he? it started at the origin, at the birth of language. music was there like a midwife. and like a grandparent it's been there ever since. of course there's no legal standing for that statement, but this has nothing to do with the law, it's about right and wrong.
music was there at the beginning. if by music we mean rhythmic language and melody.
see? already we threaten to bog down in definitional vaguery. but on! ON!
music is and was easily recognizable, but difficult to accurately distinguish from speech itself. mm? why? because they're the same thing ultimately. only separable for 'legal' or scientific purposes.
so somewhere in there Costello's chair sits and waits. let's go find it.
but first let's look at some other furniture, ok?
how about this piece here? what is it, a davenport? a chesterfield? something to sit on, comfortable and so forth. made by let's see....William Trevor. Maybe Mr. Costello's heard of him? I would suggest that the qualities that redeem pop songs as more than candy flavored pap, more than advertising jingles gone bush, are the reflections they offer to the human condition. the emotions and sentiments and 'feelings' whether common or rare that we can recognize.
this is why people like stories and songs. love. love stories and songs. need them. this is why the bardic tradition echoes today after a thousand years of persecution by the institutions it most threatens.
which brings me to another branch in this copious argument. bards. scops. troubadors jongleurs folksingers. this is old old stuff. these are old old occupations. and can be distinguished a little from 'entertainers' though there's a commonality there too.
so there's these guys wandering around singing and telling tales and people feed them, people like to see them coming, like to have them stand between the fire and the darkness. so William Trevor's there, in that position but transformed greatly by the modern form. publishing books is not wandering minstrelsy. not exactly. but it's not not that either. and I'm contending it's a bloom from the same perennial. as is pop music, etc. but we have some big differences here don't we? primary is maybe that Mr. Trevor's works can be not only can be but are mostly, what? consumed? appreciated? had? let's use had. Mr. Trevor's work, the fruits of his labors can be and are, 'had', not just in commercial outlets like bookstores, and not just from the hands of friends as gifts, or 'shared' 'files', but ah, in the library. a lot of his readers are, and were, getting his books in the library.
perhaps Mr. Costello has been to a library recently? not too likely I think. unless it was to one of the big institutional ones for arcane research or something. no I mean to the local hard-pressed barely-functioning libraries. my take would be Costello's fame would make it awkward, and his wealth would make it unnecessary. want a book? buy a book.
I've been going in and out the doors of libraries for 50 years. with joyful expectation, gleeful anticipation, and often, on return, reluctant parting. rarely have I had the money to buy more than a few books a year, though over all I've read on average probably two or three a week. the library makes this possible.
so here's Mr. Costello's chair. Mr Trevor's rather. not for free exactly. the libraries buy a couple. at discount maybe, with taxpayer funding. and I suppose if a book is really popular AND they have the budget they buy more. but not anywhere near commensurate with the amount of readership, or 'consumption', that takes place. so where in there is Mr. Costello's finely crafted furniture? at point of purchase? or where the, pardon, fanny hits the wood?
I'm contending that Mr. Trevor's work is inextricably part of the library experience, which is itself inseparable from the long long lines of traditional linkage, joining, connection that is song, or storytelling, or whatever you want to call that thing that people do for each other which is so magical and necessary that there is not and never has been a people on the face of the earth that don't have these figures as an integral part of their society.
so.
now let's look at something else. closer really to Mr. Costello's brand of product. the epic poem. the sustained lyric. specifically I want to point to a recent work that only a very small minority of Mr. Costello's audience have heard of, let alone heard. W. S. Merwin's 'The Folding Cliffs'.
this is a book length 'poem' and it is presented in a form that I have the strongest suspicion is an homage to the traditional chants of the islands where its story takes place.
this is a work right out of the bardic tradition. the main branch from which Mr. Costello's chairs are hacked twigs. and I have read it twice. and I can read it again. tonight if I go to the library and get it. something I would like to do would be to read it to a group of blind people, in whose lives poetry of this stature must be so rare now.
would that be stealing? my conscience says no, unless I were to make money at it. and yes it's true that if I were to print out copies of that book, it would be in some ways analogous to making copies of Mr. Costello's CD's. and it would be stealing, at least from the publishing house, if not the poet. and there's the real heart of all this. as long as there is no bardic tradition, as long as poets are scorned in the marketplace, as long as storytellers must compete with mindless, overpoweringly loud seductive garbage, then we all must move cautiously, carefully, forward through this cunning maze of art and finance. because Merwin, and Trevor in his day, made their livings through the sale of their works, not from the gifts of an appreciative folk. though probably a lot of prizes and awards sustained them, too.
but it's because so much of how we live is upside down and backwards that these conditions pertain, and the stance of the businessmen, and their various 'stars' seems to be that everything's fine, until the evolution of artifacts cuts in to their enormous profits.
the place where this work touches my life is far from the commercial heart of the music business. or the publishing business. these businesses are real and present and in some sense necessary for the survival of the artists and craftsmen they represent to the world. but let's not get too confused by the money.
we are here. we can only move forward by starting from here. no magic transport takes us out of this relationship. honesty will help greatly. the world, as it is, is what we work with now. that world has rewarded Mr. Costello beyond all but the most Faustian dreams of the Rernaissance minstrels. and left Mr. Trevor and Mr. Merwin to eke their livings, not that they haven't been in their time rewarded, but the proportion is a little weighted toward the trivial, let's say. and this is what spurs me to write today. the imbalance. that consumer choice dictates not just the landscape of a particular endeavor, the music business, but the whole terrain of current song, which is defined purely AS business. it's gotten to where in most people's consideration a song is successful based on how much money it has generated.
but there are songs around now, still sung, that come from deep in our collective past, that ring true because they were true when first sung, and were carried forward because of that truth and the beauty it demanded from its singers.
it is the domestication of that process in its most crass sense that has produced the marketplace in which Mr. Costello's protestations are lodged.
or, in simpler terms, the very human and very necessary expression that those songs were streaming from has been forced into the concrete ditches of modern commerce. and so effectively that most people can't imagine things being otherwise.
Mr. Costello is a fine poet, and contrary to what might seem critical disdain on my part, I admire him greatly, like his music a lot. I'm suggesting that, as a poet, he has a responsiblity to imagine, and to preserve, a way of unifying human hearts that is more than necessary. more than the means of our living, it is the meaning of our lives themselves.
that first, then the money.
still here 12:03
7.6.02
I'm uh probably uh gonna disappear for awhile. or maybe not. but I think so. not because I want to, tho I'm kind of looking forward to the lack of distraction when my local ISP shuts me out of the great campfire singalong this thing the net-so-called has been to me. there may be a scattered few blog posts but like I say I don't know. money's real real tight I'm pretty much begging off the neighbors for a 5 here and there. I've only got so many neighbors. and the net costs around 20 a month here. food is also scarce. but my heart is more open and full than it's been in years. and things get more interesting day by day. so, cheers and carry on.
still here 22:14
The Mammal Society: Mammal Fact Sheets Wildlife road casualties include an estimated 100,000 foxes each year in the UK, which is the equivalent to the total number of mortalities from shooting and fox hunting combined. It is suggested that 50,000 Badgers are killed on the roads annually, while the number of bird road casualties is estimated to be at least 10 million. For rare species, such as the barn owl, road casualties might have a significant impact on vulnerable populations.
{ok? 10 million birds. in the UK. the UK. where they have how many cars? and miles of road? Here? Pffft. 100,000 foxes in the UK. In one year. Here? OK? }
still here 21:17
Scams Away: The Boom Is Falling, by Al Martin Not only are the "Smart Republican Money Set" transferring their money out of the country into numbered offshore accounts, they are now beginning to expatriate themselves.
In the last six months, a record number of American citizens with a net worth of over $100 million have become expatriates
{if true it's weird. but this guy has an edge that pollutes his credibility. should be listened to anyway.}
still here 20:47
No White List: FAQ Q: Who will be affected?
A: Everyone. There will be a tremendous increase in the toxics load of the land, water, air and food supply from the indiscriminate herbicide and pesticide use favored in extermination campaigns. The release of genetically-engineered bio-control organisms has also been promoted. All national, state and county parks and open space will be targeted by the National Weed Strategy, as will lakes, streams, private lands, wildlife refuges and Indian Reservations - there are no exceptions. Wherever unapproved species exist, control and extermination will be mandatory.
still here 20:42
Ethel the Blog The California Exotic Pest Plant Council for years had a Monsanto employee on its board of directors, and has received major funding from them and other herbicide manufacturers.
Q: Who will be affected?
Q: Everyone. There will be a tremendous increase in the toxics load of the land, water, air and food supply from the indiscriminate herbicide and pesticide use favored in extermination campaigns. The release of genetically-engineered bio-control organisms has also been promoted. All national, state and county parks and open space will be targeted by the National Weed Strategy, as will lakes, streams, private lands, wildlife refuges and Indian Reservations - there are no exceptions. Wherever unapproved species exist, control and extermination will be mandatory.
still here 20:37
Poetry Daily: Today's Poem
Kindergarten Open House, Observing Art
This must be what hell is:
to be the man drawn by the child
not yet dextrous enough to keep
his insides within the lines.
One of his eyes floats like a pesky fly
above his head,
his smile starts below his nose but crosses
the border of his face, reaching into space.
He looks like he was drawn on the run,
blurred by wind, or suffers radiation
from a dropped bomb, his body scrambled.
The blue of his shirt is liquid leaking
to the left and right of him, at least obscuring
inner organs surely painfully dislodged.
You want to help but can't
since crayons don't erase.
You want to tell him he really doesn't want
his brains back inside his head,
he's more creative than his buddy pinned
on the wall next to him with perfectly spaced eyes,
nose with nostrils, lips even.
Maybe he's the perfect drawing of a man in love,
all his insides a gooey mess.
Maybe we can't see, off to the side, outside the frame,
the similarly blurred woman telling him
he's loved back.
Maybe the child who drew this is a genius.
This must be what heaven is:
to be stuck this way forever
before the picture starts to focus,
you want to whisper in his ear �
the one connected to his head.
��0��
Neil Carpathios
Mid-American Review
Volume XXII, Number 2
still here 20:24
Cornell News: Lonely hearts ads After two months of research, the graduate student in Cornell's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior concludes, "In densely populated and resource-demanding environments, birds and women may not be all that different."
still here 18:53
County Party Chief Sentenced to Death A county-level official was sentenced to death on Wednesday for his part in a tin mine flooding last July that killed 81 people in southwestern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Wan Ruizhong, former secretary of Nandan County's Communist Party Committee, was given death penalty after being convicted of taking bribes and abusing power by the Intermediate People's Courtof Nanning City, capital of Guangxi, at the first trial.
{woo. WOO. woo. woo. Watch them Ceo's do the shimmy on this. it also says they 'confiscated' his personal property and illegally gotten income. Woo. So check me if I missed it. Dude takes bribes. Tin mine goes unsafe. 81 little miner men die. No suit for damages by the families. No nono. The government just leans over, grabs the dude, turns him upside down, and snaps his scrawny neck. Woo. }
still here 18:11
Move to Protect World's Only Women's Language The language was usually written on silks, paper fans or embroidery items.
So far, more than 1,200 characters have been identified. Less than 700 characters are in common use.
Some experts hold that the language has a long history and may be one of the world's oldest, but no conclusions have been reached so far on when it originated.
Chinese experts have called for efforts to save the language. As the small number of women who use it die off, it draws closer to oblivion
still here 18:05
Web Log 2002� (W. H. Calvin) {science by scientist, with that steady resolute open-mindedness that elevates human endeavor, pulls us up, makes living noble. which is a little more than what's in the blog there but it's how it makes me feel at times, the big popstars of science all have done that for me at one time or another, Rachel Carson, Ted Williams, John Mcphee, Steven Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, E. O. Wilson, and on out to the edges with Annie Dillard and my favorite of all, Gretel Ehrlich. They make me hope. Feel. Love. Continue.}
still here 18:02
More than one neo-Nazi revolutionary group is based in some church. Client asks the why of this. All I know is no church has to disclose in any way how much money it gets or what it does with it.
Average woman takes 116 steps a minute with an average step length of 25 inches. She walks 2.7 mph. Average man takes 110 steps a minute with an average step length of 29 inches. He walks 3 mph.
still here 14:24
6.6.02
Amtrak Faces Shutdown In July, Says New Chief (washingtonpost.com) Amtrak's financial condition is so bad that the national passenger train system will have to shut down in July unless it gets a $200 million loan in the next three weeks, its new president said yesterday.
still here 21:49
May 2002 Poem of the Month
we see it as a testimony to motherhood
And you see it as a tit.
It's not the money it cost.
It's the message you send.
still here 21:41
Sunday Times - lifestyle - 03 October 1999 They decided to steal the body that afternoon.
Together with accomplice Michael Martin, Kaufman arrived at LA Airport in an old black hearse at 5pm. Waving a piece of paper in the air, he told the driver of the hearse carrying Parsons that the family wanted to take the body home in a private aircraft from a different airport. Despite the fact that the casually clothed Kaufman was drunk and stoned, and his hearse - used as a camper - had broken windows and no licence plate, the body was handed over. Kaufman and Martin sped off to Joshua Tree National Park, doused the body in petrol and set it alight.
still here 20:21
AlterNet -- Power to the Peer currently available on the grittier peer-to-peer networks, for the simple reason that peers can't publish. CStarOne will not only stop me from cutting into Island Records' profits by ripping all the tracks of the new Elvis Costello album and storing them in my "shared" file, it will also prevent me from circulating a rare live recording or the results of a friend's band's gig.
{Costello has these odd words to say about all this I'll see if I can find them}
still here 20:01
My latest idea for world peace I think maybe we need to airlift nectarines and cherries and plums and apricots and even plumcots if that's what it takes. We need to sacrifice our best tomatoes to world peace, and go without ourselves. When a person sees his first good tomato after a long cold winter -- well, that person is happy. That person is in a mood to compromise.
A little tomato, a little cucumber, maybe some olive oil -- come, let us reason together.
{jon carroll's undaunted humanistic optimism AND a nudge toward an andy goldsworthy movie}
still here 19:50
5.6.02
Sonicpress.com {blonde after blonde, hour after hour, time after time, day after day, blonde after blonde}
still here 23:01
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