Progressive Review, NAT HENTOFF - - the omnibus USA Patriot Act -
The law states: "No person shall disclose to any other person ... that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought or obtained" these records. This means that the press and, therefore, the public cannot find out how often and where these searches have taken pace -- and what books, as well as readers, are under suspicion.

UNDERNEWS: Progressive Review TZAPORAH RYTER -- I am an American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in Ramallah.
* * *
In the daytime, we heard them shooting people in the streets, and could hear them screaming and screaming. No ambulance was allowed through. Then their screams stopped and there was just silence . . . Large groups of people have been found in rooms, shot dead, there are blood marks where they have lined people up on their knees and shot them, with their ID cards laying on top of them. They are taking people from their homes, blindfolding them, removing their clothes, taking them away or lining them up and shooting them against the wall. People are making phone calls and saying that these soldiers and militia have come in and are shooting people and then the line cuts off.

Afghanistan: Earthquake Survivors, Aid Agencies Accuse Military Commanders Of Looting One of the survivors, Husain Sediqi, lost three of his children in the disaster and is now living with his wife and three surviving children in a tent donated by the UNHCR refugee organization beside the rubble that was once their home.
Sediqi says commanders from the Northern Alliance forces -- which helped oust the Taliban and occupied the Nahrin area after the militia's defeat -- took large amounts of supplies from the aid agencies with promises to deliver them to survivors. But instead, he says, the commanders have either distributed the supplies to their own supporters or simply sold them for profit.
Similar complaints were voiced by many of the survivors in Nahrin, who are still sifting through the rubble of their homes to salvage anything of value. The heat during the day intensifies the stench of dead animals still buried beneath the rubble. At night, the tents provide little protection from near-freezing temperatures.

Gillmor - Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand 1. Do you care if a few giant companies control virtually all entertainment and information?
2. Do you care if they decide what kinds of technological innovations will reach the marketplace?
3. Would you be concerned if they used their power to compile detailed dossiers on everything you read, listen to, view and buy?
4. Would you find it acceptable if they could decide whether what you write and say could be seen and heard by others?
Those are no longer theoretical questions. They are the direction in which America is hurtling.
Media conglomerates are in a merger frenzy. Telecommunications monopolies are creating a cozy cartel, dividing up access to the online world. The entertainment industry is pushing for Draconian controls on the use and dissemination of digital information.

Ecology: All change 28 March 2002
Nature
Ecology: All change
In this week's Review Article, Walther et al. sift through the masses of data on ecological responses to climate change, and conclude that although we are still at an early stage in the projected trends of global warming, a coherent pattern of change can be seen across diverse ecosytems and in many plant and animal species. The fact that such large-scale responses have been caused by relatively low rates of average change prompts the authors to warn that continued warming may have profound ecological and socioeconomic consequences.

Hokey Spokes - Bicycle Safety Lights with LED spoke lights for your bike
{first time in a long time that I can really say I wish I was a lot younger. and living in an urban environment. and having a bicycle. and some money. these things are angelically cool.}

Philip Greenspun Copyright Notice
"I have encountered quite a few people who want to get rich quick off Internet. As they see it, all the work that we have been doing for 25 years to share with each other is rightfully theirs to sell. Having invested nothing in terms of time or money, they'd like to get rich off Internet and its creators without ever giving anything back."
said Philip Greenspun calmly.

JON CARROLL -- Something Happened A Long Time Ago {jon carroll redeems regular people; consistently, humbly, and with an open heart.}

The American Experience | Race for the Superbomb | Nuclear Blast Mapper no, don't race. stop racing. now. stop. no. don't.

Poetry Daily: Today's Poem .
But long before
dawn, I would be there as before, at the edge
of what could not be sailed or sounded, watching
moonlight move over the body of that
black depthlessness � and I would be lost
as if I were in some distant place.

Astronomy Picture of the Day Mr. Watson's shadow

Modest Needs

so the sky can find us
money scams and emails and porn come-ons
internet quizzes stacking up like geese on a pond
in Minnesota
cold compared to here
but warm compared to then
last winter
next spring
the days and nights become one thing in memory
a long trail of steps taken
and paths not

you there
me here
or vice versa
no difference from any other time
all the difference in the world
I hear you sometimes at night
in an odd moment now and then
your voice so unlike your face
or vice versa

I went to the palmist and she said
I should take better care of my hands
the gypsy in the storefront in Boston in 1968
screamed in anger when I wouldn't go in
to hear my fortune
afraid I guess some instinct pulling and
pushing
I was like a cork in that same pond
left over from some kid's fishing attempt
splashing a little while his dad drinks cheap beer
the radio from the open door of the truck
those sandwiches she makes and sends you off in the clear dawn
reeds dry brown at the edge of the water no swans
no perfect thick bridge of ancient Japanese rightness
mostly the sky and the way up high clouds
warmer than it was for sure
I made it home from Boston
with a spotlight drilled into my back
the sound of the helicopter blades coming back down through the decades
coming down into the moment
faceless cops spilling out ready and alert
dobermans trembling
because they're good boys good boys
and they don't know any better
don't have to
don't need to

what difference does it make how anyone is? or how
they say they are?
what difference is any of it?
the task we found before us as the sleep was washed away
the warm washcloth in her hand
love and duty
love and freedom
a simple thing just walk behind
get in the truck
fall in and out of sleep to the news and jingles
love and the sound of the bacon in the pan
love so all around it goes unnoticed
though we know things we can't say
and later will remember that knowing
way out at the edge of the day
like the woods on the far shore
distant
but just as present just as real
as the stars behind the blue
heaven above

IDF armored carriers moving throughout Bethlehem/Deheishe : Palestine Indymediaat the ibda'a computer center we are experiencing massive fighting going on outside. we can hear clearly a tank rolling by the building and there is massive tank fire, mortar fire and gun clashes. it appears that the IDF have entered dehaishe via the ibda'a entrance. we are all on the floor as the very loud shots occur outside

United Press International: Scientists eye activity at Oregon volcano Ground near the long-dormant Three Sisters volcano in the central region of Oregon's Cascade Mountains has risen approximately 4 inches (100 millimeters) in a 6 by 12 mile (10 by 20 km) parcel since 1998, meaning that magma, underground lava, has flowed into the area, according to a team of researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Nando Times: Six foreign activists injured in West Bank clashes As the crowd approached Israeli tanks, a soldier fired a burst from a machine gun toward the ground, witnesses said.
A British woman was hit in the abdomen by a bullet, while five others were injured by shrapnel. None of the wounds were serious, a hospital official said.

Astronomy Picture of the Day
{what there is about scientific minds that is so endearingly present}

Marijuana�s impact on intelligence (more than 5 joints per week, n=15) IQ scores decreased by 4.1 points on average, while gains in IQ scores were seen among light users (mean 5.8 points), former users (mean 3.5 points), and nonusers (mean 2.6).
{as Jorn Barger points out - greatest IQ gains were in...dude!...light users}

Marijuana�s impact on intelligence

Our Brewing Philosophy We drink all kinds of beer, and we are thankful for the dedication of the people who make them. When we leg off the saddle after a 100 km ride over a mountain pass in Minami Aizu in mid-August, the first thing we want to do is wash the bugs off our tonsils and numb the tiredness in our legs. Then we are thankful for the vending machine and the pop-top can.

{happoshu Japan search}