Rand: NGOs, Networks, and Future Social Evolution

The information revolution favors the rise of network forms of organization, so much so that a coming age of networks will transform how societies are structured and interact. ...In the years ahead, the [environmental] movement's strength (and sometimes its weakness) will continue to be asserted through social network-based wars against unresponsive, misbehaving, or misguided corporate and governmental actors. …Ageing contentions that “the government” or “the market” is the solution to environmental or other particular public policy issues will give way to new ideas that “the network” is the optimal solution. The rise of network form of organization and strategy will drive long-range social evolution in radical new directions.

David Ronfelt’s explorations of information and society are based on a framework of societal evolution involving tribes, institutions, markets and networks. Modes of conflict with participants networked (as opposed to hierarchically structured) are called netwars. Many of the recent domestic and international terrorism conflicts are being fought as netwars. The civil society approach to politics and diplomacy in the network age may hinge on noopolitik, a strategy of information. [from MetaFilter.com]

Huge table gives food for thought

A table and chair the size of a house have been captivating visitors to north London's Hampstead Heath.
The 30ft (9m) sculpture, The Writer, will be on Parliament Hill for four months before returning to Italy.
The tribute to the loneliness of writing is meant to inspire visitors to the heath, which has associations with writers Keats and Coleridge.

Wiki Reviews Guantanamo Docs

A group of volunteers has begun using collaborative wiki software to expedite the process of perusing thousands of pages of complex documents related to detainees held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The group, which has coalesced through the influential liberal blog, Daily Kos, has taken it upon itself to vet documents about Gitmo detainees the American Civil Liberties Union received as a result of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request. The organization has been slow to review the documents itself due to a lack of manpower.
Earlier this month, Susan Hu, a Daily Kos contributor, commenced the project, in which she and several co-organizers oversee volunteers who have agreed to review a manageable portion of the ACLU documents.
So far, at least 80 people have signed up, each taking responsibility for a specific set of documents and for publicly posting the results of their review. Together, volunteers hope they can make it through the more than 4,000 pages received by the ACLU and root out even the smallest signs of government misconduct which, without this project, they feel might otherwise go undiscovered.

Contra Costa supervisors to pay a $1 fine for using bureaucratic lingo

[U]nder a new policy unanimously adopted Tuesday, bureaucratic acronyms like EIR, LAFCO, ABAG and RFP will be verboten in the board chambers in Martinez, not just from the supervisors' podium but also in all written materials for board meetings.
"We throw them around all the time,'' said Supervisor John Gioia of Richmond, who proposed making Contra Costa the first county in California to adopt the anti-acronym stand. Politicians and bureaucrats there now must use phrases instead -- environmental impact report, the Local Agency Formation Commission, the Association of Bay Area Governments and Request for Proposals.

Traveling on the Abramoff Plan

At least 123 of Washington's top lobbyists occupy the same ethical gray area now threatening to bring down high-profile influence peddler Jack Abramoff, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Medill News Service.
Like Abramoff, these registered lobbyists sit on the governing boards of non-profit organizations called 501(c)(3)s, which get their name from the section of the tax code under which they are authorized. As board members, these lobbyists can help set policies for the groups and are privy to inside information about the non-profits — including their sponsorship of congressional travel.

US e-voting proponents say no to paper trails

A debate raged on Tuesday in the US Senate over whether electronic ballots should be backed by paper copies, as new evidence emerges supporting the performance of electronic voting machines.
Currently paper trails are mandatory in just 22 of the 50 US states, but a bill now being reviewed by the Senate would force the entire nation to adopt them.
The argument centres upon which voting technology is best at simultaneously preventing inaccuracies, fraud, technical glitches and confusion and making voting accessible to the disabled, all without incurring excessive expense.

$2.4 billion in $100 bills to Baghdad

It weighed 28 tons and took up as much room as 74 washing machines. It was $2.4 billion in $100 bills, and Baghdad needed it ASAP.
The initial request from U.S. officials in charge of Iraq required the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to decide whether it could open its vault on a Sunday, a day banks aren't usually open.
"Just when you think you've seen it all," read one e-mail from an exasperated Fed official.
"Pocket change," said another e-mail.
Then, when the shipment date changed, officials had to scramble to line up U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes to hold the money. They did, and the $2,401,600,000 was delivered to Baghdad on June 22, 2004.
It was the largest one-time cash transfer in the history of the New York Fed.

Propaganda's War on Human Rights

Source: Tiger Tail Communications

British public relations consultant Liz Harrop, who specializes in "public awareness activity for human rights campaigning organisations and humanitarian projects," has written a report that analyzes the relationship between war propaganda and human rights, focusing on the U.S. and British governments in relation to the Iraqi rabbit hole. "States wage war in the name of peace and democracy," she writes. "Yet war propaganda can violate human rights and undermine the democratic principles it seeks to champion. Despite this it is rarely acknowledged, by the media, governments, or even anti-war campaigners, that war propaganda is illegal under international human rights law. ... As a point of optimism, although war propaganda diminishes human rights, so respect for human rights can diminish the effects of war propaganda. Accurate and timely human rights investigations can dispel the propaganda and rumours which fan the flames of conflict."

The Junk Food Lobby Wins Again

On Tuesday, Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell vetoed what would have been the nation's strongest school-based nutrition law. With one stroke of the pen, she put to rest an extremely contentious three-year battle to rid Connecticut schools of soda and junk food.
Similar scenarios are being played out in state capitals all over the nation, where high-paid lobbyists of multi-national corporations such as Coca-Cola are swooping in to foil the efforts of local nutrition advocates, educators. With rising rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, state legislatures have become a major battleground over the sale of junk food in public schools.

Scoial Security Opened Files to FBI

The Social Security Administration has relaxed its privacy restrictions and searched thousands of its files at the request of the F.B.I. as part of terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, newly disclosed records and interviews show.
The privacy policy typically bans the sharing of such confidential information, which includes home addresses, medical information and other personal data. But senior officials at the Social Security agency agreed to an "ad hoc" policy that authorized the release of information to the bureau for investigations related to Sept. 11 because officials saw a "life-threatening" emergency, internal memorandums say.

Sibel Edmonds: Where Is Accountability?

Over four years ago, more than four months prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in April 2001, a long-term FBI informant/asset who had been providing the bureau with information since 1990 provided two FBI agents and a translator with specific information regarding a terrorist attack being planned by Osama bin Laden. This asset/informant was previously a high-level intelligence officer in Iran in charge of intelligence from Afghanistan. Through his contacts in Afghanistan he received information that: (1) Osama bin Laden was planning a major terrorist attack in the United States targeting four or five major cities; (2) the attack was going to involve airplanes; (3) some of the individuals in charge of carrying out this attack were already in place in the United States; and (4) the attack was going to be carried out soon, in a few months. The agents who received this information reported it to their superior, Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism Thomas Frields, at the FBI Washington field office, by filing "302" forms, and the translator, Mr. Behrooz Sarshar, translated and documented this information. No action was taken by Frields, and after 9/11 the agents and the translators were told to keep quiet regarding this issue.

Dear Kansas: Why stop at "Intelligent Design?" What about Spaghetti Monsters?

I am writing you with much concern after I read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design to be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design..
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith. [via BoingBoing.net]

Senate allows U.S. to sue OPEC for oil price-fixing

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to allow the U.S. government to sue the OPEC oil cartel on antitrust grounds in an outcry against crude oil prices that are fast approaching the $60 a barrel mark.
The measure, added to wide-sweeping energy legislation by a voice vote, would give authority to the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission to sue the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Bush Pushes for More Nuclear Plants in US

Bush is promoting nuclear power as a way to take the pressure off fossil fuels — oil, natural gas and coal.
"It's time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again," said Bush, who noted that while the U.S. gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, France meets 78 percent of its electricity needs with nuclear power.

Bush spurned secret 2002 N. Korea overture

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il attempted to engage President Bush directly on the nuclear weapons issue three years ago but the administration spurned the overture, two American experts on Asia said on Wednesday.
Writing in the Washington Post, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg and former journalist Don Oberdorfer expressed concern that Kim's November 2002 initiative was never pursued and urged Bush to respond positively to his current overture, made last week.
When Bush took office in 2001, U.S. officials estimated Pyongyang had fuel for one or two nuclear weapons. Now, that estimate is up to at least half a dozen and, the authors said, "many believe their claim to have fabricated the weapons themselves."

POV: The Education of Shelby Knox

A self-described "good Southern Baptist girl," 15-year-old Shelby Knox of Lubbock, Texas has pledged abstinence until marriage. But she becomes an unlikely advocate for comprehensive sex ed when she finds that Lubbock, where high schools teach abstinence as the only safe sex, has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs in the state. | Read the synopsis »

Streaming 80's Music

I was in the mood for some 80's music and found this. Just what I was looking for. In the past couple hours, they played Talking Heads "And She Was," Siouxie & The Banshees "Dear Prudence," XTC "Science Friction," Squeeze "Tempted," the Smiths "Let Me Get What I Want" and Negativland "Announcement." -- McLir

U-2 Spy Plane Crashes in Asia

The pilot of a U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane has died in a crash while returning to a base in southwest Asia, the military said Wednesday.
The cause of Tuesday night's crash was under investigation, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The pilot was flying a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, it added.
The military did not immediately release the location or circumstances of the crash. Officials also withheld the name of the pilot pending notification of relatives.

More Delays of Armor for Troops

Two top Marine Corps officers acknowledged Tuesday that they waited two months to issue a contract for armor kits to protect the undersides of Humvees after promising to do so earlier this year.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. William L. Nyland, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and Brig. Gen. William D. Catto, the chief of Marine Corps Systems Command, attributed the delay to a "lack of leadership." They assured the committee that all Humvees and military trucks that the Marines used in Iraq would be adequately protected by December.

Jack Kilby Dies at 81

Jack Kilby , inventor of the monolithic integrated circuit (microchip) at Texas Instruments in 1958, died Monday. His vision lives on through the Kilby International Awards and Kilby Laureates "who symbolize the power of the individual creative mind to change the world, forever." [from MetaFilter.com]

New Synaptic Junction Weekly is Now Posted

Solar Sail Will be Visible

2056: The Onion's 300th Anniversary Issue

Zimbabwe begins destroying vegetable gardens

Zimbabwe police have extended a demolition campaign targeting the homes and livelihoods of the urban poor to the vegetable gardens they rely on for food, saying the crops planted on vacant lots are damaging the environment.
President Robert Mugabe was quoted Tuesday as saying concern about the campaign was misplaced and agreeing to allow in a UN observer.
The crackdown on urban farming - at a time of food shortages in Zimbabwe - is the latest escalation in the government's monthlong Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, which has seen police torch the shacks of poor city dwellers, arrest street vendors and demolish their kiosks.

Florida Democratic Party faces IRS lien; $900,000 shortage

Broke and without enough money in the bank to pay its bills after the end of the month, the Florida Democratic Party has now been slapped with a lien by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to pay payroll and Social Security taxes in 2003.
The state party's budget and finance committee voted Tuesday to ask for a new audit to account for more than $900,000 it believes somehow disappeared from the books during the 2003-2004 calendar years when the party was led by Scott Maddox, who is now seeking its nomination for governor.

Bush to Baptists: More Public Support of Churches, More Opposition to Stem Cells

President Bush on Tuesday told the Southern Baptist Convention a compassionate society would rely more on religious groups to provide social services and oppose expanded embryonic stem cell research.
Bush renewed his call for Congress to pass a law that would allow religious groups with federal contracts to consider questions of faith when making employment decisions. With such legislation long stalled, the president has bypassed Congress and made more money available to such groups through executive orders and regulations.
"Congress needs to pass charitable choice legislation to forever guarantee equal treatment for our faith-based organizations when they compete for federal funds," Bush told the Baptists meeting in Nashville, Tenn., via satellite.
Quoting the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," Bush said, "Thy compassions, they fail not."

Common virus kills cancer, study finds

A common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The virus, called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80 percent of the population.
"Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2, which infects the majority of the population but has no known ill effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells," said Craig Meyers, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania.
"We believe that AAV-2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV-2 has great potential to be developed as an anti-cancer agent," Meyers said in a statement.

Republican lawmaker retracts controversial comment

Bush Rejects Detainee Abuse Commission

The White House on Tuesday rejected the proposed creation of an independent commission to investigate abuses of detainees held at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Pentagon has launched 10 major investigations into allegations of abuse, and that system was working well.
"People are being held to account," he said. "And we think that's the way to go about this."
McClellan said the Defense Department would continue to investigate any new allegations. And he noted that the Pentagon has appointed outsiders to some of its investigations.

ACLU Says Bush Is Restricting Science

The American Civil Liberties Union charged Tuesday that the Bush administration is placing science under siege by overzealously tightening restrictions on information, individuals and technology in the name of homeland security.
The administration "has sought to impose growing restrictions on the free flow of scientific information, unreasonable barriers on the use of scientific materials and increased monitoring of and restrictions on foreign university students," the ACLU said.

Lions rescued kidnapped girl, say police

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 560km west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.

Contract that spawned Guantanamo prisons awarded to Halliburton during Cheney's tenure as CEO

The contract, which allocated funds for “emergency construction capabilities” at “worldwide locations,” authorized the Defense Department to award Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root any number of specific naval construction deals abroad.
Pegged at an “estimated maximum” of $75 million in 2000, the deal mushroomed to $136 million by 2004. Some $58 million was dedicated to detention centers at Guantanamo Bay alone, with another $30 million in a second contract.
Specific contracts for the Guantanamo facilities were not inked until February of 2002. Cheney served as chief executive of the company from 1995 until July 2000, leaving shortly thereafter to join the Bush campaign.

55 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena

Dems Called Anti-Christian for Proposal to Curb Religious Harassment at Air Force Academy

Business on the floor of the House was halted for 45 minutes yesterday after Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.) accused Democrats of "denigrating and demonizing Christians," prompting a furious protest from across the aisle.
The House was debating a Democratic amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill that would have required the Air Force Academy to develop a plan for preventing "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing."
Hostettler, speaking against the amendment, asserted that "the long war on Christianity in America continues today on the floor of the House of Representatives" and "continues unabated with aid and comfort to those who would eradicate any vestige of our Christian heritage being supplied by the usual suspects, the Democrats."

Polar Bears and Caribou Guarding Telescope

Scientists wanting a glimpse of data on the universe’s earliest stars and galaxies from a telescope first had to deal with caribou and polar bears at the landing site in the Canadian Arctic.
“The secret of our universe’s beginnings was being protected by caribou and polar bears,” said John Kageorge, communications manager for engineering firm Amec.
“As it turns out, the scientists needed to go back with a rifle to protect themselves.”
The telescope, named BLAST for Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Submillimetre Telescope, was launched by a giant balloon in northern Sweden on June 11 and floated about 40 km in the upper atmosphere for four days before being dropped by parachute back to earth.

Iraqi Lawmakers Call for Foreign Troops to Withdraw

Iraqi lawmakers from across the political spectrum called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from their country in a letter released to the media June 19.
The move comes as U.S. President George W. Bush is under increasing domestic pressure to set a timetable for the pullout of American forces in the face of an increasing death toll at the hands of insurgents.
Eighty-two Shiite, Kurdish, Sunni Arab, Christian and communist deputies made the call in a letter sent by Falah Hassan Shanshal of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the largest group in parliament, to speaker Hajem al-Hassani.
Some of those who signed urged that a detailed timetable be established for the withdrawal.

Maine: Bill would force mentally ill to take their meds

The mental health community is divided over a proposed new law that would require some people with mental illness to take prescribed psychiatric medications or face involuntary admission to a state hospital.
The initiative, known as "community commitment," had all-but-unanimous bipartisan support in both the House and Senate during the recently adjourned legislative session, but has been held over for reconsideration because it would draw about $600,000 over the next two years from the state's bare-bones General Fund.

Your ISP as Net watchdog

The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers' online activities.
Data retention rules could permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity months after Internet providers ordinarily would have deleted the logs--that is, if logs were ever kept in the first place. No U.S. law currently mandates that such logs be kept.
In theory, at least, data retention could permit successful criminal and terrorism prosecutions that otherwise would have failed because of insufficient evidence. But privacy worries and questions about the practicality of assembling massive databases of customer behavior have caused a similar proposal to stall in Europe and could engender stiff opposition domestically.

More than 1,200 who had anthrax vaccine now sick

More than 1,200 military personnel who received the anthrax vaccine before going to Iraq have developed serious illnesses, according to an Army report released last month, though local military officials contend the shots still are safe and necessary.
Since 1991 and the first Gulf War, the Defense Department has required service members to be immunized against such childhood diseases as Typhoid and Hepatitis A as well as against biological agents such as anthrax, when deploying to Korea or the Middle East.
But with Army officials reporting 1,200 illnesses and several thousand more queries about potential side effects, the Defense Department has started allowing troops deploying overseas to opt out of receiving the anthrax vaccine without penalty, according to the Army and Air Force.

Israel May Use Sound Weapon on Settlers

Israel is considering using an unusual new weapon against Jewish settlers who resist this summer's Gaza Strip evacuation - a device that emits penetrating bursts of sound that leaves targets reeling with dizziness and nausea.
Security forces could employ the weapon to overcome resistance without resorting to force, their paramount aim. But experts warn that the effects of prolonged exposure are unknown.
The army employed the new device, which it dubbed "The Scream," at a recent violent demonstration by Palestinians and Jewish sympathizers against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Parkinsons Drug Alleged to Cause Compulsive Behavior

At least 230 North Americans, including two unnamed Michiganders, have contacted lawyers in California and Ontario about joining class actions that allege Mirapex caused them to gamble, have sex, shop and eat compulsively.
"Gambling, shopping, sexual and eating, those are the biggest four, but there's a slew of other ones," said Daniel Kodam, a California lawyer, about the compulsive behaviors reported. He represents plaintiffs in a U.S. lawsuit against the drug companies Pfizer Inc. in New York and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Ingelheim, Germany. "People have become compulsive about knitting and painting their homes. We have people who have painted their homes 10 or 15 times over in the course of two months. ... And these are people with no history of this type of behavior."

Feds skipped key mad cow disease test in 2004 case

Cattle Still Being Fed Slaughterhouse Waste

American cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease, gaps in the US defense against the disease that the Bush administration promised almost 18 months ago to close.
"Once the cameras were turned off, and the media coverage dissipated, then it's been business as usual: no real reform, just keep feeding slaughterhouse waste," said John Stauber, an activist and co-author of Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?
"The entire US policy is designed to protect the livestock industry's access to slaughterhouse waste as cheap feed," he said.
The government is now investigating another possible case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, in the US.

GOP Committee Targets International Red Cross

Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby against U.S. interests.
The Senate Republican Policy Committee, which advances the views of the GOP Senate majority, said in a report that the international humanitarian organization had "lost its way" and veered from the impartiality on which its reputation was based. The Republican policy group titled its report: "Are American Interests Being Disserved by the International Committee of the Red Cross?"
The congressional criticism follows reports by the Swiss-based group that have faulted U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A spokeswoman at its Geneva headquarters said the organization was reviewing the report and would not comment, in accordance with its policy of keeping its dealings with governments confidential.

FBI Chief Won't Mandate Terror Expertise

FBI Director Robert Mueller says he doesn't believe his counterterrorism supervisors need to have a background in Arabic, the Middle East or international issues.
''Let me tell you that we want to develop that within the bureau, but making that an absolute requirement -- if you do not have it you would be precluded from advancing in counterterrorism -- no,'' Mueller testified recently in an employment lawsuit.
Mueller described his own expertise in Middle Eastern terrorism as having been ''relatively limited'' when he took over the FBI a week before the Sept. 11 attacks.

House OKs $45B Emergency Funding for Wars

The House of Representatives voted Monday to advance the Pentagon another $45 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as it passed a $409-billion defense spending bill.
The House approved the emergency "bridge fund," which would bring costs of the U.S. military operations to more than $300 billion.

Singers Off-Key on Debt-Relief

Source: The Guardian (UK), June 21, 2005

The British journalist George Monbiot warns the dangers of the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland are not that the public protests will be dangerous, "but that they will be far too polite. Let me be more precise. The danger is that we will follow the agenda set by Bono and Bob Geldof." While Monbiot acknowledges the pair are "genuinely committed to the cause of poverty reduction" and have raised money and awareness in support of it, Monbiot points to the singers' response to the G7 finance ministers' debt-relief package for the world's poorest countries. "Anyone with a grasp of development politics who had read and understood the ministers' statement could see that the conditions it contains - enforced liberalisation and privatisation - are as onerous as the debts it relieves. But Bob Geldof praised it as 'a victory for the millions of people in the campaigns around the world' and Bono pronounced it 'a little piece of history'. Like many of those who have been trying to highlight the harm done by such conditions - especially the African campaigners I know - I feel betrayed by these statements. Bono and Geldof have made our job more difficult," Monbiot writes.

The Logic of Diversity

"A new book, The Wisdom of Crowds [..:] by The New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki, has recently popularized the idea that groups can, in some ways, be smarter than their members, which is superficially similar to Page's results. While Surowiecki gives many examples of what one might call collective cognition, where groups out-perform isolated individuals, he really has only one explanation for this phenomenon, based on one of his examples: jelly beans [...] averaging together many independent, unbiased guesses gives a result that is probably closer to the truth than any one guess. While true — it's the central limit theorem of statistics — it's far from being the only way in which diversity can be beneficial in problem solving." [from MetaFilter.com]

KnowMore.org Wiki

A Wiki repository of corporate information. Still in its infancy, it aims to applaud eco-friendly companies and document the failings of others. Funded almost entirely by hip-hopper Sage Francis of Non-Prophets and Anticon fame, it is no surprise Clear Channel is currently featured on the front page. Hopefully the Wiki format will keep it somewhat balanced as it grows. [from MetaFilter.com]

Sartre at 100

Today would have been philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's 100th birthday. Despite renewed interest in him in France, there is some question as to what the legacy of this man is - whether as author, philosopher, playwright, or communist. He was noted for radical views on freedom both in the philosophical and political senses, less so for his recipes. What does he mean today? [from MetaFilter.com]

Geldof hails Bush's commitment to Africa

Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof claimed yesterday that George Bush had done more for Africa than any other US president.
Geldof said he had recently defended Bush on the issue in France. "They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American president for Africa," he told Time magazine. "But it's empirically so."

Painting May Hold Clue to Lost da Vinci Work

"Cerca, trova" — seek and you shall find — says a tantalizing five-century-old message painted on a fresco in the council hall of Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.
Researchers now believe these cryptic words could be a clue to the location of a long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting and are pressing local authorities to allow them to search for the masterpiece of Renaissance art.
Maurizio Seracini, an Italian art researcher, first noticed the message during a survey of the hall 30 years ago, but his team lacked the technology then to see what lay behind Giorgio Vasari's 16th-century fresco, "Battle of Marciano in the Chiana Valley."
However, radar and X-ray scans conducted between 2002 and 2003 have detected a cavity behind the section of wall the message was painted on, which Seracini believes may conceal Leonardo's unfinished mural painting, the "Battle of Anghiari."
Considered one of Leonardo's greatest works, the mural is known today through the Tuscan master's preparatory studies and copies made by other artists.
"At the time, this was considered the masterpiece of masterpieces," Seracini told the Associated Press. Recovering it "would be like discovering a new Mona Lisa or a new Last Supper."

Bush Defends Secret Detentions

President Bush on Monday defended the U.S. treatment of detainees and said the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks should stay in secret custody because he could provide valuable information to help protect Americans and Europeans.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, regarded by U.S. officials as the brains behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, has been held at an undisclosed location since he was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
..."And at some point in time he will be dealt with, but right now we think it's best that he be kept in custody," Bush said. "We want to learn as much as we can in this new kind of war about the intention, and about the methods, about how these people operate."

Terror war still short on linguists

The effort to produce more speakers of Arabic and other languages of the Islamic world is needed because many Americans fluent in these languages have difficulty getting security clearances if they have relatives in the region. Producing a "homegrown" speaker of Arabic, with its different alphabet and many dialects, can take 10 years, says professor John Walbridge of the University of Indiana, "if you apply yourself." (Related story: Muslim world isn't big with U.S. students)
No government agency coordinates this effort, and there are no readily available statistics on how many students get federal money intended to produce more speakers of Arabic, Urdu and other strategic languages and more experts on the Islamic world.

U.S. spending on Iraq may soon surpass Korean War budget

Lawmakers in the United States were scheduled to vote on Monday to approve $45 billion US in additional funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, making the recent Middle East foray more expensive than the entire Korean War.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress has approved $350 billion, mostly for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The amount, which includes $82 billion approved last month, is equal to the total amount in today's dollars spent on the Korean conflict from 1950-53.
More than 54,000 U.S. troops were killed and 103,000 wounded in that conflict when the U.S.-led United Nations force pushed back a North Korean invasion into South Korea.
Monday's bill before the House of Representatives would give the Pentagon a total of $364 billion, about a three per cent increase, for its operations for the 2006 budget year that begins Oct. 1.

Intelligent Design: Phase III of the Wedge Strategy

In 1997, someone leaked a public relations strategy for the promotion of the Intelligent Design metaphysical argument.
From Wikipedia:
The strategy outlines a public relations campaign meant to sway the opinion of the public, popular media, funding agencies, and the scientific community in order that they should effect an "overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies". The Wedge document discusses at length the means of achieving these goals, which are scientific research, writing, publishing, conferences, seminars, speaking appearances, debates, media appearances and other public square activities.
There are three "wedge projects" referred in the strategy as three phases:

• Phase I: Scientific Research, Writing & Publicity,
• Phase II: Publicity & Opinion-making, and
• Phase III: Cultural Confrontation & Renewal.

Each of these phases is designed to reach a governing goal of the Wedge Strategy

• To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.
• To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God.

Now that we are in Phase III, it's worth going back to the original document and see how successful it has been so far.

Circumventing the Senate, White House May Make Bolton a Recess Appointment

President George W. Bush may give John Bolton a temporary appointment as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations if Senate Democrats continue to stall a vote on his nomination, Republican Senator Jon Kyl said today.
``It's really critical we get John Bolton confirmed,'' Kyl of Arizona, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, said in an interview. ``If we can't get him confirmed, my guess is he'll be appointed with a recess appointment.'' That would put Bolton in the position until the Congress adjourns late next year.
Bush, at a news conference today with the leaders of the European Union, refused to say whether he's considering a recess appointment. ``I think Mr. Bolton should get an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor,'' Bush said in response to a question.

Documents Related to and Confirming the Downing Street Memo

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Memo
PDF scanned document
Plain text transcription
March 25, 2002 memo from Jack Straw (UK Foreign Secretary) to Tony Blair in preparation for Blair’s visit to Bush’s Crawford ranch, covering Iraq-al Qaida linkage, legality of invasion, weapons inspectors and post-war considerations.

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British Foreign Office Political Director Peter Ricketts Letter
PDF scanned document
Plain text transcription
March 22, 2002 memo from Peter Ricketts (Political Director, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to Jack Straw (UK Foreign Secretary) providing Ricketts’ advice for the Prime Minister on issues of the threat posed by Iraq, connections to al Qaida, post-war considerations and working with the UN.

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British Ambassador Christopher Meyer Letter
PDF scanned document
Plain text transcription
March 18, 2002 memo from Christopher Meyer (UK ambassador to the US) to David Manning (UK Foreign Policy Advisor) recounting Meyer’s meeting with Paul Wolfowitz (US Deputy Secretary of Defense).

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Chief Foreign Policy Advisor David Manning Memo
PDF scanned document
Plain text transcription
March 14, 2002 memo from David Manning (UK Foreign Policy Advisor) to Tony Blair recounting Manning’s meetings with his US counterpart Condoleeza Rice (National Security Advisor), and advising Blair for his upcoming visit to Bush’s Crawford ranch.

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Iraq Options
PDF scanned document
March 8, 2002 memo from Overseas and Defence Secretariat Cabinet Office outlining military options for implementing regime change.

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Iraq: Legal Background
PDF scanned document
Plain text transcription
March 8, 2002 memo from UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (office of Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary) to Tony Blair advising him on the legality of the use of force against Iraq.

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Cabinet Office briefing paper: Conditions for military action
The Times of London, June 12, 2005
Plain text transcription
July 22, 2002 briefing paper, generated for participants for the secret meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, says that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office legal advice
The Times of London, June 19, 2005
Plain text transcription
This is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office legal advice appended as Annex A to the Cabinet Office briefing paper on Iraq of July 21, 2002. This advice was originally written in March 2002..

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Goldsmith Legal Opinion
The Guardian, April 28, 2005
PDF scanned document
March 7, 2003 formerly confidential paper detailing British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's advice on the legality of the Iraq war. The government had previously resisted all attempts to secure its release.

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Wilmshurst resignation letter (uncensored version)
BBC, March 24, 2005
March 18, 2003 minute from Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Deputy Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office, to Michael Wood (The Legal Adviser), copied to the Private Secretary, the Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, Alan Charlton (Director Personnel) and Andrew Patrick (Press Office). Wilmshurst resigned in March 2003 because she did not believe the war with Iraq was legal. Her letter was released by the Foreign Office to the BBC News website under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Press line" document regarding Wilmshurst resignation
Foreign and Commonwealth Office pdf link
March 18, 2003 press line document regarding Foreign Office deputy legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmshurst's resignation after 20 years’ service on the point of whether military action in Iraq without proper UN security council authorisation was lawful under international law.

Non-Signing Senators Respond to Anti-Lynching Apology

“I don’t feel I should apologize for the passage of or the failure to pass any legislation by the U.S. Senate. But I deplore and regret that lynchings occurred and that those committing them were not punished,” [Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)] said in a statement last week.
In an interview with his state’s largest paper, the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, he pointedly noted that the paper had not apologized for its 50 years of editorials in support of segregation.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who, like Cochran, would have voted “aye” if there had been a roll call vote on the matter, said that there were better ways to handle the issue, such as pushing forward-looking legislative issues rather than apologizing for previous inactions.
“The best way for the United States Senate to condemn lynching is to get to work on legislation that would offer African Americans and other Americans better access to good schools, quality health care and decent jobs,” he said in a statement inserted into the Congressional Record.
Rarely has a nonbinding Senate resolution with such broad bipartisan support turned into a touchstone for controversy after its passage by a voice vote. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and liberal activists have made it an issue by accusing Republicans of not supporting the measure aggressively enough.

Non-Signing Senators Respond to Anti-Lynching Apology

“I don’t feel I should apologize for the passage of or the failure to pass any legislation by the U.S. Senate. But I deplore and regret that lynchings occurred and that those committing them were not punished,” [Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)] said in a statement last week.
In an interview with his state’s largest paper, the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, he pointedly noted that the paper had not apologized for its 50 years of editorials in support of segregation.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who, like Cochran, would have voted “aye” if there had been a roll call vote on the matter, said that there were better ways to handle the issue, such as pushing forward-looking legislative issues rather than apologizing for previous inactions.
“The best way for the United States Senate to condemn lynching is to get to work on legislation that would offer African Americans and other Americans better access to good schools, quality health care and decent jobs,” he said in a statement inserted into the Congressional Record.
Rarely has a nonbinding Senate resolution with such broad bipartisan support turned into a touchstone for controversy after its passage by a voice vote. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and liberal activists have made it an issue by accusing Republicans of not supporting the measure aggressively enough.

Officers Urging Soldiers to Call Home for Supplies

Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod, 19, called home with news that his superiors were urging him and fellow Marines to buy special military equipment, including flak jackets with armor plating, to enhance the prospects of their survival. The message was that such purchases were to be made by Marines with their own money.
"He said they strongly suggested he get this equipment because when they get to Iraq they will wish they had," Tod said. Total estimated cost: $600.

Fake Documents Got Workers Into Nuke Plant

Sixteen foreign-born construction workers with phony immigration documents were able to enter a nuclear weapons plant in eastern Tennessee because of lax security controls, a federal report said Monday.
Controls at the Y-12 weapons plant have since been tightened and there was no evidence the workers had access to any sensitive documents, said the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons facilities for the Department of Energy.

CIA Loses Bid to Control International Agents

A key Pentagon ally in the U.S. Congress defeated a legislative attempt to guarantee the CIA control of all U.S. secret agents overseas, congressional aides said on Monday.
In the latest turf battle involving post-Sept. 11 reforms, the top Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee agreed to drop language from a proposed bill that would have put CIA Director Porter Goss in charge of human intelligence, aides said.

Some of what Happens in the Brain During Orgasm

New research indicates parts of the brain that govern fear and anxiety are switched off when a woman is having an orgasm but remain active if she is faking.
In the first study to map brain function during orgasm, scientists from the Netherlands also found that as a woman climaxes, an area of the brain governing emotional control is largely deactivated.
...For women, the scanner measured brain activity at rest, while they faked an orgasm, while their partners stimulated their clitoris and while they experienced orgasm.
Holstege said he had trouble getting reliable results from the study on men because the scanner needs activities lasting at least two minutes and the men's climaxes didn't last that long. However, the scans did show activation of reward centers in the brain for men, but not for women.
Holstege said his results on women were more clear.
...The most striking results were seen in the parts of the brain that shut down, or deactivated. Deactivation was visible in the amygdala, a part of the brain thought to be involved in the neurobiology of fear and anxiety.
[Images of rocket lift-off and Michael Jordan slam-dunking, yet to be confirmed - McLir]

Coke to Examine Overseas Labor Practices

The Coca-Cola Co. says it is willing to examine its labor and business practices in India and Colombia to keep $1.3 million worth of contracts with the University of Michigan.
The university decided Friday that it would renew contracts with the world's biggest beverage company only on a conditional basis until the company performs an independent audit and puts a corrective plan in place, said Frank Stafford, chairman of the school's Vendor Code of Conduct Dispute Review Board.
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has for years faced questions about its labor practices abroad, and college students have levied some of the most vocal complaints. The company has repeatedly denied allegations of environmental and human rights abuses, but officials said they would look into the matter.

Scientists Speak Up for MIT's Postol

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology should assert itself more vigorously on behalf of MIT professor Ted Postol in his continuing dispute with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) involving allegations of scientific fraud at an MIT laboratory, three senior scientists urged the university.
The dispute has become a case study in the incompatibility between classified research and ordinary academic standards and practices.
..."In our view, MDA's position that MIT has no need to know whether fraud is occurring in the research that it manages for the federal government is unacceptable and flies in the face of one of the fundamental rationales for having universities manage such research," they wrote.

DoD Defends Guantanamo with Info from Mohamed al Kahtani

More importantly, he [Mohamed al Kahtani] provided valuable intelligence information helping the U.S. to understand the recruitment of terrorist operatives, logistics, and other planning aspects of the 9/11 terrorist attack. He also provided information that:
* Clarified Jose Padilla’s and Richard Reid’s relationship with al-Qaida and their activities in Afghanistan
* Provided infiltration routes and methods used by al-Qaida to cross borders undetected
* Explained how Osama Bin Laden evaded capture by U.S. forces, as well as provided important information on his health
* Provided detailed information about 30 of Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguards who are also held at Guantanamo
Guantanamo houses enemy combatants ranging from terrorist trainers and recruiters to bomb makers, would-be suicide bombers and terrorist financiers. Guantanamo provides a strategic interrogation center where enemy combatants can be questioned and where the results of those interrogations has undoubtedly produced information that has saved the lives of U.S. and coalition forces in the field as well as thwarted threats posed to innocent citizens in this country and abroad.

Feds Lied - TSA Collect Extensive Information on Air Travelers

A federal agency collected extensive personal information about airline passengers although Congress told it not to and it said it wouldn't, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
A Transportation Security Administration contractor used three data brokers to collect detailed information about U.S. citizens who flew on commercial airlines in June 2004 in order to test a terrorist screening program called Secure Flight, according to documents that will be published in the Federal Register this week.
The TSA had ordered the airlines to turn over data on those passengers, called passenger name records, in November.
The contractor, EagleForce Associates, then combined the passenger name records with commercial data from three contractors that included first, last and middle names, home address and phone number, birthdate, name suffix, second surname, spouse first name, gender, second address, third address, ZIP code and latitude and longitude of address.
...According to previous official notices, TSA had said it would not store commercial data about airline passengers.
The Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits the government from keeping a secret database.
"I'm just floored," said Tim Sparapani, a privacy lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. "This is like creating an FBI file, not just some simple check, and then they're storing the data."

British Official: WMD claims were 'totally implausible'

A key Foreign Office diplomat responsible for liaising with UN inspectors says today that claims the government made about Iraq's weapons programme were "totally implausible".
He tells the Guardian: "I'd read the intelligence on WMD for four and a half years, and there's no way that it could sustain the case that the government was presenting. All of my colleagues knew that, too".
Carne Ross, who was a member of the British mission to the UN in New York during the run-up to the invasion, resigned from the FO last year, after giving evidence to the Butler inquiry.

Psychological and Sociopolitical Factors Contributing to the Creation of the Iraqi Torturers: A Human Rights Issue

What kind of people are these torturers? Are they the bad apples of the American military, as the Bush administration has alleged, or is it the whole barrel that is bad, as Philip Zimbardo, former president of the American Psychological Association, declared? Back in 1975, one year after the fall of the military dictatorship in Greece, I received special permission to attend the trials of the Greek military police's torturers. I thought I was going to study sadistic personalities. But what I discovered was a carefully planned system of training. I discovered that these state torturers were probably not dispositionally marked individuals—sadists who thrived on torturing prisoners—but that they were “ordinary” people who, under particular socio-political circumstances, were systematically trained to become torturers by obeying an “authority of violence.” These torturers were made, not born, to torture. The Greek paradigm involved tough initiation processes, physical and psychological abuse, special rewards and punishments, and group bonding in which the pressure to conform is enormous. All these contributed directly to the acquisition of a new, special identity. These young men, who were doing their mandatory military service, were trained to believe, with absolute conviction, in the higher cause of their state-directed mission and to blame and dehumanize their potential victims. This allowed a high degree of disengagement from their past values and beliefs. Only by these means were they able to perform such atrocious acts, acts that were ordered by what I have called the “authority of violence.” These transformations from “ordinary” young men to fierce perpetrators are paralleled in other studies that I and my colleagues have carried out on Brazilian military and civil policemen and on elite special forces training in the US and elsewhere (Haritos-Fatouros 2003; Huggins, Haritos-Fatouros & Zimbardo 2002; Gibson & Haritos-Fatouros 1986).

Iraqis Found in Torture House Tell of Brutality of Insurgents

The men said they told the marines, from Company K, Third Marines, Second Division, that they had been tortured with shocks and flogged with a strip of rubber for more than two weeks, unseen behind the windows of black glass. One of them, Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, a former member of the new Iraqi Army, said he had been held and tortured there for 22 days. All the while, he said, his face was almost entirely taped over and his hands were cuffed.
In an interview with an embedded reporter just hours after he was freed, he said he had never seen the faces of his captors, who occasionally whispered at him, "We will kill you." He said they did not question him, and he did not know what they wanted. Nor did he ever expect to be released.

Soldier Responds to Recruitment Tactics

It is duplicitous for recruiters to court high school students, downplaying he realities of what they are pitching and instead trying to get in good with the faculty and administration. This isn't someone who is just offering you a job you might not have thought of before. This is a way of life that right now is as real as it gets.
You WILL become a warrior. Your job will be to help your nation fight and win its wars. You will personally kill the others designated as "the enemy", or you will enable your comrades to do the same by providing support to them. You will rain destruction on others on command in the hopes of accomplishing a greater goal. There is great camaraderie , adventure, excitement, and unique experiences. But unless you come to grips with the first part, you are lying to yourself and will hesitate at the moment of truth. And unlike other jobs after high school, hesitation can result in
your death.
Some people say that these kids are making choices and that we should respect them. But who will not concede that these recruiters are being less than truthful with potential recruits? And do these 16, 17 and 18 year olds being courted really understand what they're getting into?

British sources confirm that meaning of "fixed" -- as in "manipulated" or "cooked" -- is the same in Britain and America

In a British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) documentary from March, which quoted the Downing Street Memo more than a month before the Sunday Times published it, BBC reporter John Ware explained: "By 'fixed' the MI6 chief meant that the Americans were trawling for evidence to reinforce their claim that Saddam was a threat." The headline of a Sunday Times preview of the documentary -- "MI6 chief told PM: Americans 'fixed' case for war" -- also makes it clear how the British understand "fixed."
Similarly, Sunday Times reporter Michael Smith, who first disclosed the memo on May 1, ridiculed the notion that "fixed" has a different meaning in Britain in a Washington Post online chat:

SMITH: There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there.

Gay teen from Tennessee is forced into therapy camp for 6 more weeks

The gay teen in Tennessee who “came out” to his parents last month and was promptly sent to a “Love In Action International Inc.” refuge for reparative treatment has to stay at the fundamentalist Christian institution for a further six weeks, DetourMemphis is reporting.
The sixteen-years-old known as “Zach” was expected to leave the “refuge” today (June 20). He is believed to live in suburban Memphis.
Zach used the internet to record his feelings after he “outed” himself on his “blog". After having his mobile (cell) phone taken away and his access to the internet denied, very little has been heard of the teen. In one of his last “blogs” on June 3, he wrote: “I don’t know how long I’m going to be on, because if they wake up, I’m screwed. The program starts June 6.”
According to someone who claims to be a friend of Zach’s, the teen is staying another six weeks at the LIA refuge because his parents find it “necessary and effective.”

Zimbabwe President Sweeping Poor from Capital City Harare

More than 22,000 people have been arrested in the recent crackdown on Zimbabwe's shantytowns, a police spokesman has told state media.
He said some of those made homeless when their shacks were demolished in the capital, Harare, were being sent back to their rural homes.
Residents and riot police clashed overnight in the second city, Bulawayo.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Food Programme has discussed Zimbabwe's food needs with President Robert Mugabe.

The Downing Street Memo and the Court of Appeal in News Judgment

About the Downing Street Memo--which I think deserves sustained news attention, real Congressional hearings, questions and answers at White House briefings, continued blogging, serious examination by all Americans (including the President's supporters) and the interest of future historians, essentially for the reasons articulated here--I have one thought to contribute.
"News stories," Joshua Marshall once said, "have a 24 hour audition on the news stage, and if they don't catch fire in that 24 hours, there's no second chance." His observation appears in the Harvard Kennedy School case study on the fall of Trent Lott (published in March 2004, a pdf.)
But that's not the way the world works anymore. The 24-hour audition still happens, and the big winners are still big news. But now there is a Court of Appeal in the State of Supreme News Judgment, and everyone knows the initial verdict can be reversed. Reversal on appeal came last week for the Downing Street Memo (now memos, plural) about 45 days after the first story broke.
We should use the opportunity to understand how the court works. (Other cases include the fate of Trent Lott, and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.) For if the news judgment of journalists is not final anymore, this only reminds us that it was never good enough to be as final as once it was.

Ex-top general in Iraq in line for promotion

The U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is considering new top command assignments that would possibly include promoting Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the former American commander in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, U.S. military officials say.
Such a move, which has been urged by senior U.S. Army officers and civilian officials now that an Army inquiry has cleared Sanchez of wrongdoing, seems to reflect a growing confidence that the military has put the abuse scandal behind it. It is one of two changes being considered that would involve new posts for senior generals who had previously been ruled out for nominations to the commands because of the U.S. Senate's outrage over Abu Ghraib, the officials say.

Roy Lichtenstein's source material

Here's a gallery of pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's paintings beside the original source images he culled from comics. Link

Vintage Sexploitation Posters

via we-make-money-not-art.com

What's Their Real Problem With Gay Marriage? (It's the Gay Part)

[A]s I learned spending time among the cultural conservatives who are leading the anti-gay-marriage charge, they have their own reasons for doing so, which are based on their reading of the Bible, their views about both homosexuality and the institution of marriage and the political force behind the issue. In the words of Gary Bauer, president of American Values -- one of what is now a total of 61 organizations under the Arlington Group banner, with a combined membership of 60 million -- gay marriage is ''the new abortion.'' He meant that, as with abortion, conservatives see gay marriage as a culture-altering change being implemented by judicial fiat. But gay marriage is also the new abortion in that it is for groups like Bauer's a base-energizing and fund-raising issue of tremendous power.
...[F]or the anti-gay-marriage activists, homosexuality is something to be fought, not tolerated or respected. I found no one among the people on the ground who are leading the anti-gay-marriage cause who said in essence: ''I have nothing against homosexuality. I just don't believe gays should be allowed to marry.'' Rather, their passion comes from their conviction that homosexuality is a sin, is immoral, harms children and spreads disease. Not only that, but they see homosexuality itself as a kind of disease, one that afflicts not only individuals but also society at large and that shares one of the prominent features of a disease: it seeks to spread itself.

GOP Looks to Split Up 9th Circuit Court

The three-way split proposed last year and reintroduced this year in the House would lump together California, Hawaii, Guam and the Mariana Islands; Alaska, Oregon and Washington; and Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and Montana.
A split would not directly affect the jurisprudence of the 9th Circuit. But it might speed the day that Republican appointees become the majority in the new, smaller circuits. Also, any circuit (or circuits) created that excluded California could be more conservative.
Representatives of some other states are eager to distance themselves from California, whose issues are different, they said.

Google plans pay service to rival PayPal

Google Inc. this year plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Exact details of the search company's planned service are not known, the report said, but quoted people familiar with the matter as saying it could have similarities with PayPal, which allows consumers to pay for purchases on Web sites by funding electronic-payment accounts from their credit cards or checking accounts.

Do Not Use Your Debit Card to Pay at the Pump

If you use your debit card at a pump that does not require a PIN, the station regularly will block out an amount -- often $50 or $75 -- on your card.
That amount doesn't "un-block" as you drive away. Instead, the hold remains until that evening, and sometimes for up to several days, until the station does a "batch" transaction, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Each big oil company has a different policy:
* Shell places a $75 hold for gas purchases, and it can stay in place for as long as three business days.
* British Petroleum places a $75 hold on accounts when customers use debit or credit cards, but the hold is usually lifted after about two hours, said spokeswoman Sarah Howell. The same policy applies at its Amoco and Arco stations, Howell said.
* Chevron applies only a $1 hold to debit cards, to ensure that a card is active, says a spokeswoman.

Libraries Say Yes, Officials Do Quiz Them About Users

Law enforcement officials have made at least 200 formal and informal inquiries to libraries for information on reading material and other internal matters since October 2001, according to a new study that adds grist to the growing debate in Congress over the government's counterterrorism powers.
In some cases, agents used subpoenas or other formal demands to obtain information like lists of users checking out a book on Osama bin Laden. Other requests were informal - and were sometimes turned down by librarians who chafed at the notion of turning over such material, said the American Library Association, which commissioned the study.

Scott Ritter: The US war with Iran has already begun

Americans, and indeed much of the rest of the world, continue to be lulled into a false sense of complacency by the fact that overt conventional military operations have not yet commenced between the United States and Iran.
As such, many hold out the false hope that an extension of the current insanity in Iraq can be postponed or prevented in the case of Iran. But this is a fool's dream.
The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities.
The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence-gathering phase.
President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran.
The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.
It is bitter irony that the CIA is using a group still labelled as a terrorist organisation, a group trained in the art of explosive assassination by the same intelligence units of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, who are slaughtering American soldiers in Iraq today, to carry out remote bombings in Iran of the sort that the Bush administration condemns on a daily basis inside Iraq.

Bush Finds Resistance from Business Community

Business interests still enthusiastically support a number of items on Bush's wish list, including a new energy policy, expanded trade and legal reforms meant to curb costly lawsuits and court settlements.
But "there is a much tougher row to hoe to keep the business community specifically supportive and united on the tax bill, on Social Security and other parts of the agenda," said Jade West, top lobbyist for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.
Companies have been downright hostile to some of Bush's plans, including a proposal for strengthening the private pension system, which could be costly for companies that are required to pay higher premiums.
If the resistance continues, it could prove troublesome for Bush, who benefited from strong backing by business and industry in his first term.

On the Media: The Cinematic History of Zombies

[MP3] Try as civilized society might to kill them, zombies just won't die. On Friday, the flesh-eating resurrected will return once again to the silver screen, in the form of "Land of the Dead," the latest addition to director George Romero's zombie pantheon. In 2003, OTM's Arun Rath assembled this deconstruction of the zombie genre.

On the Media: Toxic Scenario

[MP3] A recent New York Times op-ed detailed this terrifying scenario: With the help of an overseas black-market lab and an online recipe, terrorists prepare a toxic solution of botulism toxin and deposit it in a dairy farm tank. The poisoned milk taints a processing plant, and results in hundreds of thousands of deaths. Terrifying… and far-fetched, according to other scientists. But because of the newspaper's no-rebuttals policy, the op-ed never stood corrected. Bob talks to open-government advocate Steve Aftergood about the media's complicity in fear-mongering.

Soldier Sues Over Guantanamo Beating

A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.
Spc. Sean D. Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.
The Pentagon initially said that Baker's hospitalization following the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP "internal reaction force" choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.
The drill took place in a prison isolation wing reserved for suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees who were disruptive or had attacked MPs.
Baker said he put on the jumpsuit and squeezed under a prison bunk after being told by a lieutenant that he would be portraying an unruly detainee. He said he was assured that MPs conducting the "extraction drill" knew it was a training exercise and that Baker was an American soldier.
As he was being choked and beaten, Baker said, he screamed a code word, "red," and shouted: "I'm a U.S. soldier! I'm a U.S. soldier!" He said the beating continued until the jumpsuit was yanked down during the struggle, revealing his military uniform.

Cosmos 1 Set to Test Solar Sail

If all is successful, the spacecraft will become the first to boost itself into a higher orbit using nothing more than the gentle pressure of sunlight bouncing off its sails. The feat could open the door to all sorts of new and far-reaching missions.

Taking a trip down memory-chip lane: Old computers find new value

Early computers are a part of our technological heritage, and also offer a unique perspective on how today's machines work. And within growing collections of original computers and home-made replicas, and the anecdote-filled web pages and blogs devoted to them, lies the equipment and expertise that will one day help unlock our past by reading countless computer files stored in outmoded formats.

Efforts to curb abortion proliferate at state level

Abortion opponents have been pushing incremental limitations ever since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973, and observers debate their effectiveness. Lately, however, more such bills are being signed, reflecting, in part, the nation's more conservative state legislatures, and perhaps also the opinion of many Americans, who want abortion to remain legal but would like some restrictions.

Atheists - God Love 'Em

"One must wonder, if one is not a Christian, why it is so important to atheists to destroy a faith that promotes 'love of neighbor' as a major tenet."

A good response to this line of thinking:
I am not a Christian, so I suppose I am qualified to answer your questions.
It is not important to me to destroy your faith. It is only important to me that I should be free to not follow your faith if I so choose. I note that in addition to "love of neighbor", your religion also promotes the idea that unbelievers deserve to be TORTURED FOREVER after they die. Among many other issues, that is why I treat your religion with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
If one must wonder that, then one does not pay much attention. Certainly, because so many atheists live in America, the religion they come most in contact with on a daily basis is Christianity. However, you'll find no shortage of atheists arguing against Islam: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/islam/index.shtml Jehovah's Witnesses: http://members.aol.com/beyondjw/bj.htm (run by an atheist) Christian Scientists: http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Talks/cs.html and all the rest. So, you are mistaken.
I, an atheist, do not insist that you believe as I do. I do not believe in God, and think you are probably mistaken for doing so, but you have the right to be wrong.

Search Tips for Hardcore Googlers

Bush: "We went to war because we were attacked"

This and other lies may be found in this week's presidential radio address.
Notice also that he renames the unpopular CAFTA to "the Central American Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement."

Bush closes, "We will settle for nothing less than victory."
Okay, what are the victory conditions?

Rumsfeld answered this question at the beginning of the war on terror:
"That's a good question, as to what constitutes victory," Rumsfeld replied. "Now, what is victory? I say that victory is persuading the American people and the rest of the world that this is not a quick matter that's going to be over in a month or a year or even five years. It is something that we need to do so that we can continue to live in a world with powerful weapons and with people who are willing to use those powerful weapons. And we can do that as a country. And that would be a victory, in my view."
Translation: "Victory" means convincing us that war in perpetuity is the norm.
-- McLir

Word Watch: Allegedly Innocent Suspects

The jury that acquitted Michael Jackson of child-molestation charges this month did not find him innocent.
A lot of alleged journalists need to be talked off allege.
And suspects don’t commit crimes. Criminals do.
These may not be the most serious misuses of language by journalists, but they are among the most common, and not that hard to get right. So let’s get it right:
Not guilty is precise legal language best left intact. It is accurate to paraphrase it as acquitted, but not as innocent. After the Jackson verdict, some jurors were quick to say they didn’t buy his attorneys’ portrayal of the defendant as childlike and guileless. They weren’t even sure he didn’t commit the crimes he was charged with, or others. They didn’t have to be. The judge painstakingly instructed them on the exact standard of proof prosecutors had to meet.

Professor sued over anti-aging comments

Over the years that S. Jay Olshansky has blasted the Chicago-based American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine as a peddler of baseless ideas about how to reverse the aging process, he says he always saw their dust-up as a scientific dispute like many others.
But in an unusual $120 million lawsuit now winding through Cook County Circuit Court, leaders of the anti-aging group contend the University of Illinois at Chicago professor and a colleague were aiming at much more--a "ruthless campaign" and conspiracy to discredit their work and destroy their careers.
The defamation case is an almost unheard-of attempt to punish academics for comments made in their professional capacity, said experts on libel law and academic freedom. Although UIC is not a defendant in the suit, officials there said they are so concerned about protecting scholarly speech that the school is picking up Olshansky's legal bills.

New US move to spoil climate accord

Extraordinary efforts by the White House to scupper Britain's attempts to tackle global warming have been revealed in leaked US government documents obtained by The Observer.
...The documents show that Washington officials:
· Removed all reference to the fact that climate change is a 'serious threat to human health and to ecosystems';
· Deleted any suggestion that global warming has already started;
· Expunged any suggestion that human activity was to blame for climate change.
Among the sentences removed was the following: 'Unless urgent action is taken, there will be a growing risk of adverse effects on economic development, human health and the natural environment, and of irreversible long-term changes to our climate and oceans.'
Another section erased by the White House adds: 'Our world is warming. Climate change is a serious threat that has the potential to affect every part of the globe. And we know that ... mankind's activities are contributing to this warming. This is an issue we must address urgently.'

U.S. Allies Shun Suspect Deportation

U.S. allies have begun to resist Washington's secretive role in spiriting away terror suspects: Italy is investigating the disappearance of one accused militant as a kidnapping, Sweden wrote rules to assert its authority over outside agents and Canada is holding hearings after one of its citizens was sent to Syria.
At least two of the cases bear the hallmarks of the
CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program — stepped up after Sept. 11 — in which the Bush administration has transferred dozens of suspects to third countries without court approval, subjecting them to possible torture.
In Italy, an Egyptian-born imam identified as Abu Omar had already drawn the attention of Italian anti-terrorism officials when he vanished off the streets of Milan two years ago, reportedly bundled into a van and flown back to Egypt from a joint U.S.-Italian air base.
"The prosecution is certain it was a kidnapping," prosecutor Armando Spataro told The Associated Press last week. He would not say who is suspected, citing judicial secrecy as the investigation is still under way.

Romanian priest unrepentant after literal crucifixion of nun

A Romanian Orthodox priest, facing charges for ordering the crucifixion of a young nun because she was "possessed by the devil," was unrepentant as he celebrated a funeral ceremony for his alleged victim.
"God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil," Father Daniel, 29, the superior of the Holy Trinity monastery in north-eastern Romania, told an AFP reporter before celebrating a short liturgy "for the soul of the deceased", in the presence of 13 nuns who showed no visible emotion.
He insisted that from the religious point of view the crucifixion of Maricica Irina Cornici, 23, was "entirely justified," but admitted he faced excommunication as well as prosecution, and was seeking a "good lawyer."
...Cornici was found dead on Wednesday, gagged and chained to a cross, after fellow nuns called an ambulance, according to police.