Dr Truculent's Hibrow Moviesalon

I'm the critic who tells it like it is about movies, unafraid of challenging the Hollywood fatcats who hawk their wares to the undiscriminating American sheeple. You can count on me to really stick it to Tinsel Town for its vast crimes against art. And please don't hate me for having better taste in movies than you, it's my job. [for example...]
LADDER 49 [2004]
Starring: John Travolta, Joaquin Phoenix
Firehouse hijinks ignite while marblemouthed Travolta plays den mother to a ragtag but lovable fraternity of thorax-jutting rubes. When dancing phlogiston surrounds one of their own, horseplay gives way to brotherhood and another ladder is requisitioned. Homoeroticism be damned, Oscar is aflame and burning down the house!
[thanks to Rod for channeling this]

Servers in UK Containing Indymedia Websites Seized by Government

Acting under a court order, Texas-based web hosting company Rackspace Managed Hosting handed over two UK-based servers containing Indymedia websites to government agents yesterday morning. Indymedia is a collective of online journalists who maintain a network of independent news websites. The order was apparently issued by a US District Court and served by the FBI, on behalf of a foreign government. Rackspace has refused to comment on what information had been requested or why the servers were confiscated, citing the court order.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is currently assisting Indymedia investigate possible responses to the seizure of its information. More than 20 Indymedia-related websites, along with Indymedia's online radio, were hosted on the servers, which were dedicated machines provided by Rackspace. [from EFF.org]
see http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

Begging to Praise the War

Jim Lacey, a correspondent who has written for Time Magazine and the National Review, says he "had an agenda that correlated exactly with the military's" but still couldn't get the military to answer his journalistic queries, even though he was desperately trying to write pro-war puff pieces. "If given the right access, I told them, I probably could get the cover of a major newsweekly several times over the course of a couple of months. In addition, I had several national opinion magazines lined up that would publish all I could send them. I also was in conversations with producers of a network TV news magazine, and they were interested in doing a piece along the same positive lines." But even so, "I still found virtually my every attempt to get information from public affairs officers (PAOs) to be akin to getting water from a stone. Many times I sat looking at the phone in disbelief at some answer or non-answer a PAO had given me. ... Sometimes, I had to sit back and count off the reasons I should not just start writing mean little articles about the military." He has some advice, though, for ways the military can improve things. For starters, "assign a captain/lieutenant to each of the major media organizations. I like to use the term 'reverse embed.'" Also, "The military would also do well to look into funding various media operations," even though it might "give the appearance of a state-controlled media." [from PRWatch.org]

Cable TV's Secret Channels of Influence

If cable TV subscribers paid for just the channels they watch ("a la carte"), instead of paying a flat fee for channel packages, it would "jeopardize an economic model that has helped the industry maintain huge profits." The Center for Public Integrity reports on "a highly sophisticated lobbying campaign" by the cable industry to build anti-a la carte "astroturf." Some of the "seemingly disinterested third parties" opposing a la carte have received large donations and other benefits from cable companies. Time Warner lobbyist Leslie Harris worked "closely with Oxygen Media" to "organize over 30 prominent women's organizations"; civil rights groups and lawmakers have also taken anti-a la carte positions. [from PRWatch.org]

TV station reports that Bush has been elected President

"AP is now saying the article was a "test article" (WTF?) that was "inadvertently" picked up by WBAY. Now, I've been a freelance writer/journalist for quite awhile, as have you, but I've never heard of writing "test articles" in advance, other than advance obituaries for celebrities. Have you? Furthermore, I Googled '"test article" journalism' and came up with nada."

Osama bin Laden auditions actors to play himself in "Capturing Osama"

Note to CIA, FBI, various secret intelligence agencies (foreign and domestic) and the Bush administration: The producers of this satiric video have had no actual contact with Osama bin Laden or any of the actors portrayed in the video.

Spyware Law Coming Soon

The House has passed its long awaited spyware legislation, still called SPYACT Act. This new version is much better than previous ones, with much improved definitions and more specific offenses. It contains required language in click-through installation contracts and bans tricks such as a 'no' button which installs.

Small Town Library Takes On The Feds

At the center of the issue, a book titled "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America."
The FBI confiscated the original book after a patron reported than some one hand wrote a bin Laden quote in the margin that read: "Let history be witness I am a criminal."
The FBI demanded to know the names and addresses of everyone who ever checked out the book.
"Libraries are a haven where people should be able to seek whatever information they want to pursue without any threat of government intervention," said Director of Whatcom County Library System, Joan Airoldi.
Because of privacy policies, the library does not give out circulation records without a court order. When the FBI got a grand jury subpoena, the library filed a motion to quash it -- citing the rights of all people who use the library.

Iraq Survey Group is done: No WMD's

Iraq had no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons before last year's US-led invasion, the chief US weapons inspector has concluded.
Iraq Survey Group head Charles Duelfer said Iraq's nuclear capability had decayed not grown since the 1991 war.

Was reporter sanctioned?

Wall Street Journal reporter's email describes hell of Iraq

Wednesday, two of the paper's staff members — both of whom asked not to be identified — said they had been told that Fassihi would not be allowed to write about Iraq for the paper until after the election, presumably because unauthorized publication of her private correspondence somehow called into question the fairness of her journalism.In point of fact, no one has questioned the content of Fassihi's reporting nor alleged that it has been in any way biased.

Bush's Major Policy Address as seen on CNN and MSNBC

THE PRESIDENT: ...My opponent and I have a very different view on how to grow our economy. Let me start with taxes. I have a record of reducing them; he has a record of raising them.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: He voted in the United States Senate to increase taxes 98 times.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: That's a lot. (Laughter.) He voted for higher taxes on Social Security benefits.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: In 1997, he voted for the formula that helped cause the increase in Medicare premiums.
AUDIENCE: Booo!....

Slate responded You Call That a Major Policy Address?

1+1=2 vies with e=mc2 in poll of best equations

Physics World magazine asked readers to vote for their favourite formulae, theorems and equations according to their elegance, explanatory power and importance to the development of their discipline.
Joint winners were the work of James Clerk Maxwell and Leonhard Euler. Maxwell devised equations on electromagnetism that united electricity and magnetism, phenomena previously thought unrelated. Euler's equation was called the "most profound mathematical statement ever written" by one reader, and contains the nine basic components of mathematics in a simple formula.

Fact Check

In last night's debate, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "They know that if you go, for example, to factcheck.com ... you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton."
The link bumps to http://www.georgesoros.com/ which is entitled, "Why We Must Not Re-Elect President Bush."
Soros' site also says,"We do not own the FactCheck.com domain name and are not responsible for it redirecting to GeorgeSoros.com. We are as surprised as anyone by this turn of events. We believe that Vice President Cheney intended to direct viewers to FactCheck.org."
Presently, the factcheck.org link to Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts is down (likely from too much traffic).

House defeats bill to reintroduce draft GOP hopes to quash rumors of its return

Persistent election-year rumors that President Bush has a secret plan to reinstate the draft if he is re-elected led Republican House leaders Tuesday to force a vote that overwhelmingly rejected a bill to reinstate conscription.
The result, a 402-2 vote against the draft, was a foregone conclusion because Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry say they oppose reinstating the military draft, and almost no one in Congress supports the idea.

Dear Mike, Iraq sucks

Civilian contractors are fleecing taxpayers; US troops don't have proper equipment; and supposedly liberated Iraqis hate them. After the release of Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore received a flood of letters and emails from disillusioned and angry American soldiers serving in Iraq. Here, in an exclusive extract from his new book, we print a selection

CIA Assessment Shows No Clear Link Between Zarqawi, Hussein, Al Qaeda

A reassessment by the Central Intelligence Agency has cast doubt on a central piece of evidence used by the Bush administration before the invasion of Iraq to draw links between Saddam Hussein's government and Al Qaeda's terrorist network, government officials said Tuesday.

Forty percent of medical students believe sex with patients can be okay

Researchers, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, said the issue of inappropriate relationships had been inadequately tackled by traditional medical education.
The team, from the University of Glasgow, noted, "Sexual relationships between doctors and their patients can have devastating consequences for the patients and can harm doctors' abilities to make objective medical judgments."

Shopping Cart Fitted with Jet Engine (with pics)

Its metal glows red hot at temperatures up to 600°C, so he has to sit with his back to a heat shield.
The microlight instructor, 35, built the gas and liquid fuel pulse jet from instructions off the internet.
He pulled the trolley from a river and splashed £50 on scrap wheels, brakes and a steering device.

Administration Chooses Anti-Feminist Group to Train Iraqi Women

Among the founders were Lynne Cheney, the spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao; Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of the right-wing “National Review” and a former senior vice president at the Heritage Foundation; and Midge Decter, the former co-chair with Donald Rumsfeld of the Committee for the Free World and one of the founders of neo-conservatism along with her spouse, former “Commentary” editor, Norman Podhoretz.
...It has strongly opposed the UN Convention for the Elimination Against Women (CEDAW) in part on the grounds that it would permit mandate governments to enforce laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. “This is ‘comparable worth,’ a system of government wage setting that Americans have rightly rejected as inefficient and antithetical to free market principles,” the IWF has argued. It has also objected to CEDAW’s requirements that governments guarantee “maternity leave with pay" and child care facilities as well as its suggestions for minimum quotas to ensure that women are represented at all levels in governments.

Fear and the Undecided Voter

President Bush implied that Senator John Kerry's "mixed message" on Iraq would only encourage the enemy. Mr. Kerry warned that Mr. Bush's "certainty" could needlessly extend a bloody occupation.
Each side hopes that fear of a future shaped by the opposing candidate will help win over undecided voters.
Yet psychologists who study the effect of emotion on voting behavior say that undecided voters are the least likely to respond to fear as a persuasion tactic.
In fact, new research suggests that it is the politically informed partisan voter who is most susceptible to persuasion by fear and anxiety. Voters who are truly undecided, many political scientists argue, are not so much torn between the candidates as tuned out, and they do not feel strongly enough about issues to be swayed by threatening messages.

Moore Offers Tostitos to Slackers to Vote, Republicans Sue

''We want everyone to participate in this year's election, but not because they were bribed or coerced by the likes of Michael Moore,'' said Greg McNeilly, executive director of the state Republican Party.
...During each program, habitual nonvoters are invited on stage to pledge to vote. First-time student voters are offered gag prizes such as clean underwear. The GOP said Moore also offered students a clean dorm room, a year's supply of Tostitos and a package of Ramen noodles.

U.S. Envoy Accused Of Rigging Afghan Elections

Most serious of all, opposition candidates are claiming the US is pressuring them to drop out of the race or seek deals. They contend that such interference could damage the credibility of what is being hailed as the first truly democratic election in Afghanistan's troubled history.

Armored Truck Crashes, Dispensing Money and Local Folklore

An armored truck crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike on Monday night, spilling bills and coins onto the road and sending police scrambling to prevent passers-by from scooping up any loot."If I live to 100, I'll never see this again," said Turnpike spokesman Joe Orlando.

Lather, Rinse, please don't repeat

Hundreds of fish were killed by shampoo that washed into a creek from a L'Oreal plant, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said.
The fish died after rain on Saturday flushed the shampoo from the plant's gutters and downspouts into a storm sewer that empties into nearby Beaver Meadow Creek in the Cleveland suburb.
A chemical reaction in a plant mixing vat on Sept. 25 had caused the shampoo to burst through a pipe and onto the roof.

Moonies Receiving Federal Funds as Marriage Experts

According to cult leader Reverend Moon, democracy must crumble in the face of "Godism," with him in charge. Having endorsed Godism as central to any sensible curriculum, and Moon as central to any married person's sex life, one Josephine Hauer is now receiving federal funds to train marriage experts. It's part of a $1.5 billion marriage program that excludes gay-friendly organizations, but has funded this admirer of Soviet character education. The government argues that most Americans already share the values of the Healthy Marriage Initiative. (from MetaFilter)

Team America World Police

From the creators of South Park. Opens October 15th.

Japanese Media

Japan has the world's second-largest economy and a flourishing democracy, thanks in part to the post-war help of the United States. But one thing this democracy lacks, according to a new book, is a responsible press. In fact, it's worse than that. Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe offered a detailed account in: "A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West." They describe a two-tiered system. First, there are Japan's newspapers, read by everyone, but dull as dishwater, offering little but government-approved press releases. And then there are the weeklies, called the Shukanshi, also widely-read, with screaming headlines reproduced in subways and on billboards. The Shukanshi offer shocking exposes -- some true, some false -- along with naked pictures and outrageous smears. The newspapers provide no nourishment, while the Shukanshi feed the nation on a rich diet of lies about its own citizens, its own government and even its own history. (from On The Media)

Inside the Afghan Elections

BROOKE GLADSTONE: We have been told by the Bush administration that about 10 million people have registered to vote. Skeptics say there aren't that many people in the country. So-- can we even reliably know what the population of that nation is?
PAMELA CONSTABLE: No, we don't. There has not been a census in a very long time. There is no reliable estimate of the population. It was estimated that there would be approximately 10 million people of voting age in the country, and as you said, all of those - and more - appear to have registered. [LAUGHTER] I'd be careful, though, not to necessarily call it fraud, in the classic sense of the word. In many cases people did not understand what the registration was for. Many people, especially women, who are illiterate and don't know anything about politics in many cases, thought they were getting a food ration card. Therefore, if they had a chance to sign up twice, they would do it.

Monty Python turns 35

Monty Python or The Pythons were the creators and stars of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the television comedy series first aired on October 5, 1969. As a television series it consisted of 45 episodes over 4 series; however, the phenomenon that is Monty Python was much more than the television series alone, spawning a stage tour, four films, several computer games and books, as well as launching the individual Pythons (as they are often called) to stardom in their own right.
http://www.pythonline.com/

WIPO Announces Plans to Support Public Domain, Open Source

The United Nation's (UN's) World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has adopted a "development agenda" that acknowledges the need for balance in worldwide policy on trademark, copyright, and patents. Geneva Declaration

Greenland ice-melt 'speeding up'

In 2001 NASA scientists published a major study based on observations by satellite and aircraft.
It concluded that the margins of the Greenland ice-sheet were dropping in height at a rate of roughly one metre a year.
Now, amid some of the most hostile conditions anywhere on the planet, Carl Boggild and his team have recorded falls as dramatic as 10 metres a year - in places the ice is dropping at a rate of one metre a month.

William Shatner's New Album

Produced by Ben Folds.

The Klingon Hamlet

The curtain is up, the play has begun... and the work of the Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project is now available to a wider audience, courtesy of Pocket Books. This trade paperback is an updated version of our earlier publication, a limited hardbound edition of 1,000 numbered copies, plus 26 numbered deluxe copies. Only a handful of those remain, but the new trade paperback can be found in major bookstores and also right here at the KLI's own merchant page.

ACLU Sues Secret Service

“This is a simple case,” said ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Chris Hansen, who is the lead counsel in the case. “Two Americans went to see their president and to express their disagreement with his policies respectfully and peacefully. They were arrested at the direction of federal officials. That is precisely what the First Amendment was adopted to prevent.”
...Although the couple stood peacefully on the public grounds with the rest of the audience, two men believed to be working for the Secret Service or White House approached the Ranks and demanded that they remove or cover their t-shirts. When the couple refused, the officials instructed city police to arrest Jeff and Nicole, causing them to be removed from the Capitol grounds in handcuffs, jailed for one to two hours and charged with trespassing.

Scientific American names 50 Best Science & Technology Sites

The Web is no longer just a tool for finding the occasional fact or trivium--it's a necessity, an integral part of our daily lives, and the sheer amount of information available can be overwhelming. But somehow, once again, we have winnowed the best sites from the rest. We think you'll agree that the 50 science and technology sites listed here are indeed worthy of high praise.

China warns of 'ecological catastrophe' from Tibet's melting glaciers

An "ecological catastrophe" is developing in Tibet because of global warming, and most glaciers in the region could have melted away by 2100 if no efficient measures are taken, state media said Tuesday.
The stark message is the result of surveys performed by a group of 20 scientists from China and the United States over a 40-month period, the China Daily reported.

Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons Program was touted publicly, then came official gag order

During the Cold War, the Air Force funded numerous scientific studies of the basic physics of antimatter. With the knowledge gained, some Air Force insiders are beginning to think seriously about potential military uses -- for example, antimatter bombs small enough to hold in one's hand, and antimatter engines for 24/7 surveillance aircraft.
More cataclysmic possible uses include a new generation of super weapons -- either pure antimatter bombs or antimatter-triggered nuclear weapons; the former wouldn't emit radioactive fallout. Another possibility is antimatter- powered "electromagnetic pulse" weapons that could fry an enemy's electric power grid and communications networks, leaving him literally in the dark and unable to operate his society and armed forces.

The 885 All Time Greatest Songs

865 GOOD ENOUGH by SARAH MCLACHLAN
866 IM LOOKING THROUGH YOU by BEATLES, THE
867 MELT by PHIL ROY
868 SAVE ME by AIMEE MANN
869 SEASON OF THE WITCH by MIKE BLLOMFIELD, AL KOOPER, STEPHEN STILLS
870 TROUBLE by COLDPLAY
871 WHAT IS AND WHAT SHOULD NEVER BE by LED ZEPPELIN
872 ANNIVERSARY SONG by COWBOY JUNKIES
873 BLACK DOG by LED ZEPPLIN
874 COME TOGETHER by BEATLES
875 THERE SHE GOES by THE LA'S
876 EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD by TEARS FOR FEARS
877 FIND THE RIVER by REM
878 HEJIRA by JONI MITCHELL
879 LEAST COMPLICATED by INDIGO GIRLS
880 MAGIC BUS by WHO
881 MYSTERY ACHIEVEMENT by PRETENDERS, THE
882 PEACEFUL EASY FEELING by EAGLES
883 SHES A RAINBOW by ROLLING STONES
884 TENTH AVE FREEZE OUT by BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
885 WINDFALL by SON VOLT

No Strong Link Between Saddam and bin Laden says Amazed Rumsfeld

"To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two," he said.
When asked about the putative link during a session at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, the defence secretary said: "I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the intelligence community over a period of a year in the most amazing way."

Blogger Founder says Goodbye

best of luck, ev. after over five years of sweat and tears, founder evan williams decides to hang up the reigns on his position at blogger. undoubtedly, he's done a lot for the blogging community and the internet in general.. we wish him well. (from MetaFilter)

Ev writes, "I would have never dreamed the blogging phenomenon and Blogger would reach the height it has. I mean, "blogs" was a category on Jeopardy the other night! Can you believe it? But now, I think I can safely say there's much more to come. These guys [at Google] have so many cool things in the works, I can't wait to be a Blogger user in the next few months. "

I am Learn

A weblog written by a computer program.

For example, on the subject of lesbian webloggers:
"Now I want to talk about lesbian webloggers!!!!!!! . My best friend Johnny says lesbian webloggers are something she love and he also think about my English knowledge lately. *laugh* And they are funky chicken with my my rambles too completely. I know this are very quirky turkey to you readers. "

'Do-not-call' list wins in high court

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday let stand a lower-court ruling that telemarketers' rights to free speech are not violated by the government's nationwide do-not-call list.
Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal by commercial telemarketers against the lower-court ruling, which upheld as constitutional the popular program in which consumers can put their names on a list if they do not want to be called by telemarketers.

U.S. Judge Orders Release of Lennon FBI Files

"The issue has become government secrecy and the absurdity that, today, when the FBI should have better things to do they are still trying to keep secret 34-year-old documents about the anti-war activities of a dead rock star," Wiener said.
Government lawyers are "reviewing the court's ruling and no determination has been made as to what our next step will be," U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said.
The 10 documents at issue were part of a file on Lennon gathered by the FBI during the early 1970s, when he participated in protests against the Vietnam War.

[For those files already released, see http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/lennon.htm --ed.]

USPO Ditches Home Photo Stamps

Last month, Stamps.com revised the program to prohibit photos of adults and teenagers after pranksters at the website The Smoking Gun claimed some success in getting pictures of notorious adults, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, past the company's censors.
Nevertheless, Stamps.com declared the test a success. The company said an estimated 100,000 sheets, or 2 million individual PhotoStamps, were ordered in the seven weeks of the market test.

Jon Stewart's Interview on "Fresh Air"

This is a very interesting interview with the host of "The Daily Show." Stewart seems to have more to say about journalism in America today than actual journalists. --ed.

Internet Grants to Schools Halted as the F.C.C. Tightens the Rules

Public libraries and schools around the nation have suddenly stopped receiving any new grants from a federal program that is wrestling with new rules on how it spends $2.25 billion each year to provide high-speed Internet and telephone service.
The moratorium at what is known as the E-Rate program began two months ago, with no notice, and may last for months, causing significant hardships at schools and libraries, say state officials and executives at the company that runs the program.