...more recent posts
-28C in the Bay of Fundi. Pictures from the Coast Guard ship Sir william Alexander.
LiTraCon: light transmitting concrete. Check this picture.
Regarding the prisoner abuse in Iraq, it is funny that it’s being spun as a mirror image of the ongoing insurgency: “just a few bad apples”, but even army-adorationist Ralph Peters understands that it’s disastrous. Wasn’t it just last week Dave posted that foreign policy review mentioning the symbolic blindness of using a hated prison for essentially the same purpose it had under Saddam? “Meet the new boss: same as the old boss.”
Still, while I’d like to see the Geneva Convention as humane and progressive, there’s a sense in which it’s just a way of legitimating war. One of the great American myths I heard as a child was about how the clever colonial revolutionaries defeated the effete British who were so stupid that they just marched up in well-ordered lines presenting our crafty (guerrilla) sharpshooters with easy targets. In fact, the Brits were practicing “civilized” and “honorable” war as it had been developed in Europe over centuries, ameliorating the martial chaos of the Dark Ages, and they thought that the colonists weren’t playing fair or going by the “rules of war.” (In keeping with the May Day theme, it may be noted that to the Europeans it was evident that the colonials had lost touch with the cultural values of their motherland, having been made wild by living in a wild country.) But what’s with the notion of “we’re going to kill you, but we’ll be polite about it”? When push comes to shove (comes to shoot) this stuff always goes out the window, and there’s a certain level of hypocrisy in pretending otherwise. Being nice about killing is not to be decried, but it’s just a small step on an old road; what we need is a quantum leap. War crimes is a redundancy.
bugmenot.com - registration bypass collective
lately i get so bombarded with pop ups while i'm online. it's annoying to the point that i'm not using the web as much as i normally would. it seems like its gotten way out of control in the last month or so. is anyone else noticing this?
mickey hart does a yahoo tv ad. did anyone else catch that?
developing brooklyn
From the “now we’ve got them where we want them” department.
Just wait ‘til September…
article in the guardian about blog fiction.
This is silly, but since I used to be a voracious Risk player when I was a kid I thought it was funny: AN OPEN LETTER TO WILLIAM KRISTOL, RICHARD PERLE, AND PRESIDENT BUSH'S OTHER NEOCONSERVATIVE PUPPETMASTERS.
from the CNN Crawl:
"Poets die younger than writers and playwrites. reason is unclear."
I swear I'm not making this up.
This guy,
http://events.thing.net/Boeskov_text.html
is having an exhibition at THE THING
He's infiltrating a chinese weapons fair with an imaginary gun!
Opening Talk: April 23 2004, 6 –7 pm
Opening Reception: April 23 2004, 7-10 pm
601 West 26th Street, Floor 4 New York, NY 10001
t: (212) 937-0444
http://bbs.thing.net
events@thing.net
Yesterday afternoon in Central Park I was crossing the North Meadow with birding friend Tom Fiore when we saw a police helicopter coming down very low. We were approaching the Reservoir, and Tom wondered, half jokingly, whether someone might have fallen in. Sure enough, today’s Post has the story of two young women from Canada who decided to take an unauthorized swim. The new fence was installed over the winter. It’s modeled after the original design, which was replaced years ago by a high cyclone fence. The new/old barrier offers much better views of the skyline, not to mention the birds on the water. I sometimes find the “improvements” in the Park to be dubious, but this one is much appreciated. One hopes they won’t add razor wire after this, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some “no swimming under penalty of law” signs go up.
Speaking of the Reservoir, it was the site of an exciting birding moment on Sunday, when I discovered a Tundra Swan, a great rarity for the Park. You can read my report by scrolling down on this page. The birding was terrific over the weekend, but on Monday more birds seemed to have moved on than had come in. I’d have done better to take the day off; three days in a row is enough to fry me, and it’s not even May yet, when migration reaches its height. Regardless, these have been beautiful days. The warm weather has got the flowers blooming and the leaf buds bursting. It really looks like Spring. Those who complain of a too-swift transition from winter to summer would be well advised to get out there now.
i havent tried it yet but this might be a good tool for the memory holer in you.
raging slab back in the sadle at don hills 4/30/04
MoveOn:
"Celebrity bake sale with Al Franken, Moby, Janeane Garofalo, Sonic Youth, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, the cast of "Embedded," actress Illeana Douglas, and many other special guests. Eli, Laura, and Noah from the MoveOn team will be there as well.
Teany
90 Rivington St. (Just west of Ludlow.)
Saturday, April 17th, from 12pm to 3pm"
certainly in the running for best headline of the month:
"Bush Makes Three Mistakes While Trying to Cite One" (Boston Globe via Reuters)
Bowie did a mash-up of "Rebel Rebel" and his new song "Never Grow Old" for an Audi commerical. Now in a further promotion they are letting you get in on the action: Bowie and Audi will give away a new Audi to the best mash-up of any two Bowie songs (via boing-boing)
Dying to start "burning" and "ripping" CDs but not sure how to do it? Relax, you'll find "how to" information on making your own CDs and a lot more. You'll also get music news and features, such as Comcast Rhapsody.
Check out Comcast Rhapsody
We've added more videos to The Fan from CNBC, Fox Sports, Food Network, HGTV, Fine Living, and Do It Yourself (DIY). That's in addition to the latest and greatest from E!, G4, Tech TV and the Associated Press.
Comcast--Broadband for Grandma and Grandpa!
(from an actual email, except for the last line)
I didn't watch Bush tonight, but have been reading blogger's accounts. Apparently he got a softball question about whether he could ever admit a mistake and I guess he said he could (haven't seen a transcript yet). I don't believe it--it's something in his nature that won't let him, like that time he froze because he couldn't correctly say the words of the adage that ends with "Shame on me." And here's Calpundit on his performance tonight (someone must have asked him the same question again, a trickier way):
9:25 — "What's the biggest mistake you made after 9/11?" Bush just froze. He couldn't answer for literally 30 seconds. "I can't come up with something under the pressure of the press conference."Wow. That would be almost sad if he wasn't so dangerous.
This Would Sure Give Me Confidence
Bush said he had spoken twice in the past few days with Gen. John Abizaid, the overall commanded [sic] of the Iraq war, and that Abizaid "knows full well when he speaks to me, if he needs additional manpower, he can ask for it."(AP article, via Salon)
Spontaneous combustion happens all the time, it's just not widely reported.
Holy shit, Bush really is a uniter. Who'd a thunk?
The cross-community demonstration of support for Fallujah had been organized by Baghdad clerics both Sunni and Shiite amid reports that the death toll in the town had reached 105 since late Tuesday.To put it very mildly, I've had a dim view of this whole affair since before the beginning. But even my tin foil capped head never imagined anything bring together the Shia and Sunnis. Way to go Georgie! Mission accomplished!