Recent Posts

Friday, July 31, 2009

Book Review: G.C. Waldrep

Poetry Collections by W. S. Merwin, G. C. Waldrep, Angie Estes and Eilean Ni Chuilleanain - Review - NYTimes.com
ARCHICEMBALO
Poems.
By G. C. Waldrep.
Tupelo, paper, $16.95.

Steven Burt

Waldrep’s title denotes an antique keyboard instrument with 24, or many more, keys per octave. Notoriously hard to play, such instruments made subtle and challenging music, with notes a conventional score could not include. Waldrep’s sometimes bewildering, often exciting prose poems make their own unconventional music, replete with slippages, repetitions, suggestions: “Every sound is tropical, every sound is perishable,” he writes. “My aunt sends one wrapped in butcher paper & string.” Most poems take quizzical titles from musical terms (“What Is a Threnody,” “What Is a Motet”), and most take rhetorical gifts from Gertrude Stein; yet Waldrep’s poems, far more than Stein’s, revel in the variety of their subjects. Some include clear scenes and characters, as when the poet helps a boy cross a cold road: “we walked slowly, because he was not yet done with being five.” The poet also leavens his intricate compositions with self-consciously playful asides: “Nothing is what it appears to be, I say. To which you reply, yes it is.” Waldrep (who studied the labor movement for his Ph.D. in American history) attends to the meaning of work, to the hardships of lives unlike his own: “Who Was Scheherazade” begins “My job was to pick rocks.” Yet his great triumphs combine such outward sympathies with self-conscious attention to inward oddities, to fleeting thoughts, to the vectors of energy in abstract words: “If I subtract sacrifice from appetite from what fierce attention do I then compromise a strict union, have I faltered, have I made an argument for grace.”
Powered by ScribeFire.

Prize Rooster


accidental mysteries: Poultry in Motion
19th century cabinet card of the prize rooster, standing very still for his official portrait.
Powered by ScribeFire.

Recession Fallout: Secret Sales

High-End Retailers Offering More Discounts, but Discreetly - NYTimes.com
Scott Stuart was at the Bloomingdale’s store in Manhattan when a salesman sidled up to him, said a private sale was under way and offered him a discount on the slacks he was inspecting.

That was last autumn, and in the months since, he has been inundated with similar discount offers. If a salesman does not make one, he has learned to ask.

“In another market, I would have found it very inappropriate” to ask for a discount, said Mr. Stuart, a bankruptcy lawyer who works in New York and Chicago. “In this market, I’m finding it incredibly appropriate.”

Mr. Stuart is among the many consumers in this economy to reap the benefits of secret sales — whispered discounts and discreet price negotiations between customers and sales staff in the aisles of upscale chains. A time-worn strategy typically reserved for a store’s best customers, it has become more democratized as the recession drags on and retailers struggle to turn browsers into buyers.
Powered by ScribeFire.

Emil Schildt, Photographer

Rudolph Kurz: Poet

Phantasmaphile: Rudolf Kurz
Rudolf Kurz "Poet"
Powered by ScribeFire.

Hummingbird Display


Hummingbird Display Case, detail; London Museum of Natural
Morbid Anatomy


A Bouquet of (Maybe) Tulips: Gates Makes Nice

Gates sends flowers to woman who called the police - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has sent a bouquet of flowers and a note to the woman whose 911 call led to his arrest earlier this month.

Wendy Murphy, lawyer and spokeswoman for Lucia Whalen, said today that Gates had sent her client a bouquet of flowers as an "expression of gratitude.'' Murphy said she believed it was a bouquet of tulips. The flowers came with a note from Gates, the contents of which Murphy would not disclose.

"[Whalen] said that she really appreciated it,'' Murphy said. "She's been getting a lot of apologies and people have been saying nice things."


Crocs on a Plane: Nobody's Reptile

A foot-long baby crocodile wriggled out of a passenger's hand luggage and caused panic on a flight departing from the United Arab Emirates, an official at Cairo airport said today.

A crew member on the EgyptAir flight from Abu Dhabi rounded up the wayward reptile and calmed passengers.

The airport security official says the animal was seized and given to the Cairo Zoo. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Transporting exotic animals in and out of the Egypt is illegal, and none of the passengers on Friday's flight claimed ownership of the baby crocodile.

link: Baby crocodile found in hand luggage on flight | World news | guardian.co.uk


"Tsunami of Red Ink"--Financial Disaster in Alabama

Shaila Dewan writes:

In every part of Jefferson County — Alabama’s most populous county and its main economic engine — government managers have been scrambling to prepare for Saturday, when two-thirds of county employees eligible for layoffs — up to 1,400 — will be lost in an effort to stave off financial ruin.

“Outside of the city of Detroit,” said Robert A. Kurrter, a managing director with Moody’s Investors Service, “it’s fair to say we haven’t seen any place in America with the severity of problems that they’re experiencing in Jefferson County.” Moody’s rates Jefferson County’s credit lower than any other municipality in the country.

In July, the county asked Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, to declare a state of emergency. Mr. Riley declined, delicately explaining that his authority extended to tornadoes but not to tsunamis of red ink.

link: Alabama County Faces Major Layoffs - NYTimes.com


Need Deferred: High-Speed Rail

Despite his support of the idea of high-speed rail, President Obama has put off dealing with the national transportation bill for another 18 months. That is a delayed opportunity to move forward on an important new national transportation plan to expand public transit in much the way the Federal-Aid Highway Act did for roads more than 50 years ago.

Until Mr. Obama and members of Congress can enact a comprehensive new transit agenda, both have an obligation to make a down payment on high-speed-rail corridors across the nation.

link: America’s Not-So-Fast Trains - Editorial - NYTimes.com

Remnants of a City's Defense

Joseph Berger writes:

Those who savor lobster in the seafood restaurants on City Island would be surprised to know that a small windswept island they can glimpse just across the water — Hart Island — once concealed missiles intended to stop a nuclear attack.

Hart Island has served many purposes, as a prison camp, a drug-rehabilitation center and, most famously, as the city’s potter’s field — the burial ground for the unclaimed and the penniless. But from 1955 to 1960, its northern end was one of the nation’s 200 Nike missile sites.

Twenty Ajax missiles, a type of Nike, were hidden there in underground concrete bunkers; the radar systems that guided them were two miles away on Davids Island, just off New Rochelle. Today the base is a relic, although its rusted and brush-covered concrete and steel can still be picked out by a trained eye.

There were 21 missile sites in the region that protected New York City in the Cold War, but the only other one in the city was in Fort Tilden, on the Rockaway peninsula.

link: Hart Island Once Housed a Battery of Missiles to Defend New York City - NYTimes.com


Book Review: Essays on Polish Poetry

Jaroslaw Anders's Between Fire and Sleep, a collection of essays that first appeared in American periodicals, especially The New Republic, when Eastern Europe was digging out from under the wreckage of Communism, is the best book of its kind available in English and, quite likely, any other language.

continue reading at the link: Cures for the Common Cold War: Postwar Polish Poetry


Obama Reappoints Ousted Federal Judge

Today, President Obama nominated four individuals to serve as U.S. attorneys — most notably Daniel Bogden in Nevada. “These fine men and women have demonstrated the extensive knowledge of the law and deep commitment to public service Americans deserve from their United States Attorneys,” said Obama in a statement. Bogden has actually already served as a U.S. attorney, but he was ousted in the Bush administration’s political purge. Even Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) said that the case had been “completely mishandled” by then-attorney general Alberto Gonzales. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has been pushing the White House to bring back Bogden.

link: Think Progress » Fired U.S. attorney Daniel Bogden is re-nominated by Obama for his former position.


Ex Libris





but does it float

Mississippi Fred McDowell



Lee Friedlander & William Eggleston

link: adski_kafeteri: Lee Friedlander&William Eggleston (Mississippi Fred McDowell)

Witness of the Lens: Executed Communards, 1871


Communards executed during the Semaine Sanglante (Bloody Week), when the Paris Commune was suppressed, 1871. Approximately 20,000 were killed in this one week.

link: CONSTANT SIEGE - Communards executed during the Semaine Sanglante...

Look Out For That--Cow?

The image of cows as placid, gentle creatures is a city slicker’s fantasy, judging from an article published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports that about 20 people a year are killed by cows in the United States. In some cases, the cows actually attack humans—ramming them, knocking them down, goring them, trampling them and kicking them in the head—resulting in fatal injuries to the head and chest.

Mother cows, like other animals, can be fiercely protective of their young, and dairy bulls, the report notes, are “especially possessive of their herd and occasionally disrupt feeding, cleaning, and milking routines.”

link: Dangerous Cows - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com


Light-To-Matter Communication Network

TYWKIWDBI writes:

Lene Hau has already shaken scientists' beliefs about the nature of things... in 1998, Hau, for the first time in history, slowed light to 38 miles an hour, about the speed of rush-hour traffic...

Two years later, she brought light to a complete halt in a cloud of ultracold atoms... In the experiment, a light pulse was slowed to bicycle speed by beaming it into a cold cloud of atoms. The light made a "fingerprint" of itself in the atoms before the experimenters turned it off. Then Hau and her assistants guided that fingerprint into a second clump of cold atoms. And get this - the clumps were not touching and no light passed between them.

"The two atom clouds were separated and had never seen each other before," Hau notes. They were eight-thousandths of an inch apart, a relatively huge distance on the scale of atoms.

The experimenters then nudged the second cloud of atoms with a laser beam, and the atomic imprint was revived as a light pulse. The revived light had all the characteristics present when it entered the first cloud of atomic matter, the same shape and wavelength. The restored light exited the cloud slowly then quickly sped up to its normal 186,000 miles a second...

She is coolly confident that light-to-matter communication networks, codes, clocks, and guidance systems can be made part of daily life. If you doubt her, remember she is the person who stopped light, converted it to matter, carried it around, and transformed it back to light.

link: TYWKIWDBI: Light converted into matter - and back into light!


Physics of a Supernova


Snapshots from inside an exploding star

Physicists at the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago have used the IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer to model the extreme physics of a supernova explosion

link: Gallery - Snapshots from inside an exploding star - Image 1 - New Scientist

Metamaterials Allow Long-Range Steering of Light

Ed Hayward writes:

Using a composite metamaterial to deliver a complex set of instructions to a beam of light, Boston College physicists have created a device to guide electromagnetic waves around objects such as the corner of a building or the profile of the eastern seaboard.

As directed by the researchers' novel device, these beams continue to behave as if traveling in a straight line. In one computer simulation, Assistant Professor of Physics Willie J. Padilla and researcher Nathan Landy revealed the device could steer a beam of light along the boundary of the US, stretching from Michigan to Maine, down the seaboard, around Florida and into the Louisiana bayou, according to research published in the research journal Optics Express.

The researchers accomplished their feat by developing a much more precise set of instructions, which create a grid-like roadmap capable of twisting and turning a beam of light around objects or space. Their discovery is an extension of earlier metamaterial "cloaking" techniques, which have conjured up images of the Harry Potter character disappearing beneath his invisibility cloak.

link: The guiding of light: A new metamaterial device steers beams along complex pathways


GOP Health Plan "Health Insurance Industry Dream"

Jed Lewison writes:

Yesterday, with little fanfare, Republicans finally introduced legislation putting down on paper exactly what they think health care reform should look like.

The GOP's "Empower Patients First Act," sponsored by Republican House Study Committee Chairman Tom Price, is a $700 billion giveaway to the health insurance industry and its introduction creates a huge opening for the White House and congressional Democrats in the health reform debate. It has three main elements:

1. Health insurance deregulation. The bill would deregulate the insurance market, dismantling state-level consumer protections and allowing insurance giants to sell their plans nationwide without fear of oversight. (Edit, 9:41AM: The problem here is that the GOP plan creates an unregulated national market, unlike the Democratic proposal for a national insurance exchange, which would create a national market, but with consumer protections.)

2. Subsidizing private health insurance. The bill would give private health insurance subsidies to lower-income individuals and families. This sounds good at first, but subsidies in the absence of other reforms will simply increase the cost of health insurance for everybody else, leading to another inflationary spiral in health care.

3. No comprehensive plan to pay for plan. In order to fund subsidies, the bill calls for a 1% annual cut in Federal discretionary spending each year for the next decade, yielding about $120 billion. Although this would result in major across-the-board cuts in federal spending, it still leaves nearly $600 billion unfunded. Republicans say they can find "efficiencies" in the health care system to cover that $600 billion shortfall, including malpractice reform, but fail to offer specifics, suggesting the legislation would dramatically increase the deficit.

In sum, the Republican health bill would be a disaster for ordinary Americans, but it's the health insurance industry's dream. It slashes consumer-protection regulations, it increases health care costs by subsidizing private insurance while simultaneously deregulating it, and it would create another explosion of federal debt.

link: Google Reader (934)


Aerial Photos Discover Lost Roman City

Aerial photographs have revealed the streetplan of a lost Roman city called Altinum, which some scholars regard as a forerunner of Venice.

The images reveal the remains of city walls, the street network, dwellings, theatres and other structures.

They also show a complex network of rivers and canals, revealing how the people mastered the marshy environment in what is now the lagoon of Venice.

Details of the research have been published in the journal Science.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Maps reveal Venice 'forerunner'


Sucked In: The Vacuum Cleaner Museum



Atlas Obscura writes:

Tucked away in a not-so-dusty corner of Stark's Vacuum Cleaner Sales & Service in downtown Portland is a collection that would make any prop master, house wife, or history buff slobber with excitement. Stark's is home to a small but very comprehensive Vacuum Cleaner Museum. The walls of their rear showroom are lined with over 300 different models of vacuums, from their oldest, a two person hand pumped wood and steel number, to "futuristic" dustbusters from the 1960's and even a few upright wands that look like they were meant to smoke out bees, not suck up dirt.

link: The Vacuum Cleaner Museum | Atlas Obscura

Dept. of "There's a Myth for Everything": The Toothworm


Mudwerks writes:

The first and most enduring explanation for what causes tooth decay was the tooth worm, first noted by the Sumerians around 5000 BC. The hypothesis was that tooth decay was the result of a tooth worm boring into and decimating the teeth. This is logical, as the holes created by cavities are somewhat similar to those bored by worms into wood.

The ivory sculptures above depict the havoc wrought by these wicked worms.

The idea of the tooth worm has been found in the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers and poets, as well as those of the ancient Indian, Japanense, Egyptian, and Chinese cultures. It endured as late as the 1300s, when French surgeon Guy de Chauliac promoted it as the cause of tooth decay.

link: How To Disappear Completely.

Aluminum Alchemy


Jesus Diaz writes:

Scientists at the FLASH free-electron, high intensity laser facility in Hamburg, Germany, have created a completely new state of matter, transforming aluminum into something "that nobody has seen before," an exotic material which is transparent to ultraviolet radiation.

According to Professor Justin Wark—from the Oxford University's Department of Physics—the discovery is "almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light!" They achieved this alchemical miracle by knocking down a "core electron from every aluminium atom," but without disrupting the metal structure with the laser bombing.

link: Scientist Turn Aluminum Into Strange, Completely New Matter State - Flash - Gizmodo

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Restoration of Rivera Murals Underway in Mexico

Anyone with even a passing interest in Latin American art and culture will be familiar with Diego Rivera, the Mexican painter and muralist. Rivera, who is credited with being one of the founders of the Mexican muralist art movement, was also an active communist and husband of the equally famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in Mexico City, Chapingo and Cuernavaca here in Mexico, as well as in San Francisco, Detroit and New York City. Mexico City's Palacio Nacional, or National Palace, is home to some of the paintings that Rivera did under government commission, and those works are currently the focus of a restoration project by the government.

Diligent specialists are touching up missing color with watercolor paints, and using a weak alcohol solution to wash away dust and grime that the murals have collected. The restoration is expected to be completed in September.

link: Mexico's Diego Rivera murals get restoration treatment | La Plaza | Los Angeles Times


Israel's White Phosphorus Munitions


Israel has admitted to using white phosphorus during its war on the Gaza Strip earlier this year, but says it did so in accordance with international law.

The admission came in a 163-page document published by the Israeli foreign ministry on Thursday ahead of a UN report next week.

The Israeli army "used munitions containing white phosphorus" in Gaza, the document said, but it denied violating international law, saying it had not fired such weapons inside populated areas.

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Jerusalem, said the Israeli army had initially denied using white phosphorus, a chemical agent that causes severe burns.

"During the war, when we first started seeing the white phosphorous, the Israeli army said that everything it was using was in compliance with international law; it would not tell us whether or not it was using it," she said.

link: Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel admits white phosphorus use

O Arizona: What's Our Most Abundant Natural Resource Besides Human Stupidity? Sunlight!

First Solar Inc. posted record net income and revenue again in the second quarter, despite what officials describe as a tightening market because of the lack of credit.

Credit markets loosened in the second quarter slightly, helping push First Solar net income to $181 million, or $2.11 per share. That’s well ahead of the $69.6 million it garnered in the same quarter of 2008.

Revenue hit $525 million for the quarter, almost doubling the $267 million it earned in the second quarter of 2008.

Credit markets started to unfreeze in the second quarter, but it was still difficult getting money into projects First Solar has ongoing throughout the world, said Mike Ahearn, the company’s chairman and CEO.

“If we compare where we sit today, where we are now, to where we were last quarter, it’s more favorable, but we’re looking at driving a lot more demand in the second half of the year,” he said.

link: First Solar sees record income, revenue despite tight markets - Phoenix Business Journal:


Deterrence Policy: Rachel Bone


Paintings by Rachel Bone.

link: Rachel Bone - BOOOOOOOM! - CREATE * INSPIRE * COMMUNITY * ART * DESIGN * MUSIC * FILM * PHOTO * PROJECTS

Guillotine from Ikea


rebel:art » Blog Archive » Sokkomb: Die Ikea-Guillotine

Moldova: Last Communist Govt. in Europe Falls

Europe’s only Communist government was toppled from power this week by a collection of pro-Western forces, after a bitter parliamentary election that both sides portrayed as crucial in determining the country’s future.

Officials from the winning four-party coalition hailed their victory in the July 29 contest. Together, they seized 53 of the legislature’s 101 seats, or some 50 percent of the vote.

Moldova matters little in U.S. foreign policy, but plays a role that outstrips its diminutive size — just over 4 million citizens — in European politics. It is viewed as a potential source of instability on Europe’s periphery and is wedged between two major players, Ukraine and Romania. Its breakaway region of Trans-Dniester — a “frozen conflict” in official parlance — is also a potential source of black market goods and narcotics, since it possesses no officially recognized borders.

Some commentators compared this election to other popular uprisings, the so-called “color revolutions,” in which questions about election returns eventually dislodged entrenched political elites.

link: Moldova remains calm, for now | GlobalPost


Won't be Comets that Kill Us--At Least Not Simulated Ones

Crashing comets probably won't cause the end of life as we know it, a study said Thursday.

Astronomers at the University of Washington used computer simulation to model the evolution of comet clouds in the solar system over the past 1.2 billion years.

The simulation allowed them to peer into the Oort Cloud, a remnant of the nebula from which our solar system was formed.

"For the past 25 years, the inner Oort Cloud has been considered a mysterious, unobserved region of the solar system capable of providing bursts of bodies that occasionally wipe out life on Earth," said study author Nathan Kaib.

But the simulation found the Earth has likely only sustained two or three significant hits from comets in the past 500 million years.

link: Comets probably won't cause the end of life as we know it: study - Yahoo! Asia News


Go to Montessori, Grow Up, Calm Down, and Don't Get Arrested

Jehmu Green writes:

The Director of Athena Montessori Academy is a close friend, and when needed I have been thrilled to serve as a substitute teacher for her adorable students. Throughout the day toddlers learn that yelling, screaming, and making threats are not socially acceptable ways of dealing with conflict. Problem solving, conflict resolution, and critical thinking are at the core of Montessori teachings. On the surface it may seem simplistic, but it actually takes courage to initiate conflict resolution and see it through.

Cambridge Police Officer Jim Crowley, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, activists, bloggers, and commentators could all learn from the problem solving lessons designed for three year-olds. It cannot be denied that the world would be a better place if adults learned to communicate more intentionally, instead of reacting out of emotion.

link: Jehmu Greene: Everything Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley Needed to Know, I Learned at a Montessori School


National Geographic Photos


National Geography Photos | Demonicious!

Street Dance


I have nothing to say for myself.

link: I have nothing to say for myself.

It's Alive! The Headless Woman


ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG: Coney Island New York - Headless Woman!

Police Overreaction? You Be The Judge

Arthur Delaney writes:

Pepin Tuma, 33, was walking with two friends along Washington's hip U Street corridor around midnight Saturday, complaining about how Gates had been rousted from his home for not showing a proper amount of deference to a cop. "We'd been talking about it all day," said Tuma. "It seems like police have a tendency to act overly aggressively when they're being pushed around," Tuma recalled saying.

Then the group noticed five or six police cruisers surrounding two cars in an apparent traffic stop on the other side of the street. It seemed to Tuma that was more cops than necessary.

"That's why I hate the police," Tuma said. He told the Huffington Post that in a loud sing-song voice, he then chanted, "I hate the police, I hate the police."

One officer reacted strongly to Tuma's song. "Hey! Hey! Who do you think you're talking to?" Tuma recalled the officer shouting as he strode across an intersection to where Tuma was standing. "Who do you think you are to think you can talk to a police officer like that?" the police officer said, according to Luke Platzer, 30, one of Tuma's companions.

Tuma said he responded, "It is not illegal to say I hate the police. It's not illegal to express my opinion walking down the street."

According to Tuma and Platzer, the officer pushed Tuma against an electric utility box, continuing to ask who he thought he was and to say he couldn't talk to police like that.

"I didn't curse," Tuma said. "I asked, am I being arrested? Why am I a being arrested?"

Within minutes, the officer had cuffed Tuma. The charge: disorderly conduct -- just like Gates, who was arrested after police responded to a report of a possible break-in at his home and Gates protested their ensuing behavior.

link: Disorderly Conduct: Conversation About Gates Arrest Precedes Arrest


Hmm . . . Could Rove Be Lying? Naaaaah. . . .

According to documents and e-mails reviewed by The Washington Post, Karl Rove played a more integral role than previously known in the firing of U.S. Attorneys that lead up to the U.S. Attorneys scandal.

“The e-mails emerged as Rove finished his second day of closed-door-testimony Thursday about the firings to the House Judiciary Committee,” the paper reported. “For years, Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers had rejected efforts by lawmakers to obtain their testimony and their correspondence about the issue, citing executive privilege. The House of Representatives sued, igniting a court fight that was resolved this year after discussions among lawyers for former president George W. Bush and President Obama.”

link: Raw Story » Emails reveal Rove misleading about role in attorney firings


Court Orders Mohammed Jawad, "Held Illegally," Freed from Guantanamo

A US judge has ordered the release of a person detained at the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after declaring that he is being held illegally.

Judge Ellen Huvelle on Thursday granted a "writ of habeas corpus" concerning Mohammed Jawad, whose lawyers say he was 12 years old when arrested in Afghanistan in 2002.

She gave the US government until August 24 to complete a report to congress about any national security risks that Jawad may present, as well as to finalise diplomatic arrangements for his release.

Ian Gershengorn, the US deputy assistant attorney general, told the judge that the US will negotiate with the government in Kabul with a view to sending Jawad to his home country.

link: Al Jazeera English - Americas - US orders Guantanamo inmate freed


Build Your Own Ghost



Hollow Man | Vision02

Pieter Hugo: Nollywood



Nollywood by Pieter Hugo.

Pieter Hugo was born in 1976 and grew up in Cape Town. He underwent a two-year residency in 2002-3 at Fabrica in Treviso, Italy.

In the Nollywood series, Hugo explores the multilayered reality of the Nigerian film industry. Photographs from the series were included on the exhibition Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention at Michael Stevenson in May 2008.

Hugo has subsequently returned to Nigeria to extend and deepen this body of work, and the series will be published in book form by Prestel in October 2009. Nollywood is the third largest film industry in the world, releasing between 500 and 1 000 movies each year. It produces movies on its own terms, telling stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: it is a rare instance of self-representation on such a scale in Africa.

The continent has a rich tradition of story-telling that has been expressed abundantly through oral and written fiction, but has never been conveyed through the popular media before. Stars are local actors; plots confront the public with familiar situations of romance, comedy, witchcraft, bribery, prostitution. The narrative is overdramatic, deprived of happy endings, tragic. The aesthetic is loud, violent, excessive; nothing is said, everything is shouted.

link: \\\: Pieter Hugo

BibliOdyssey: Palm Illustrations



"The author of over 150 botanical titles, including the great flora of Brazil, Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius also wrote the still-definitive three-volume treatise on the palm family, one of the first plant monographs. He developed his life-long fascination with palms during an expedition through Brazil [map] from 1817 to 1820, and he worked nearly 30 years to prepare this grand summation, including palms found only as fossils." [source]

link: BibliOdyssey

Dunce Prisoner?


adski_kafeteri: TOM THUMB n/d

Cuomo: Bank Revenues and Bonuses Don't Balance

Several financial giants that received federal bailout money in the last year paid out bonuses to employees in 2008 that greatly exceeded the amount of profit generated by the banks, according to a study on executive compensation released by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday.

Despite claims by bank executives that bonuses are tied to the company's performance, the report states that "there is no clear rhyme or reason to how the banks compensate or reward their employees."

Cuomo's investigation "suggests a disconnect between compensation and bank performance that resulted in a 'heads I win, tails you lose' bonus system."

link: Study: Bank Bonuses Far Exceeded Profits - CBS News


Best of All Possible Worlds? Top Ten Evolutionary Screw-Ups


Wired prioritizes:

1 Sea mammal blowhole. Any animal that spends appreciable time in the ocean should be able to extract oxygen from water via gills. Enlarging the lungs and moving a nostril to the back of the head is a poor work-around.

2 Hyena clitoris. When engorged, this "pseudopenis," which doubles as the birth canal, becomes so hard it can crush babies to death during exit.

3 Kangaroo teat. In order to nurse, the just-born joey, a frail and squishy jellybean, must clamber up Mom's torso and into her pouch for a nipple.

4 Giraffe birth canal. Mama giraffes stand up while giving birth, so baby's entry into the world is a 5-foot drop. Wheeee! Crack.

5 Goliath bird-eating spider exoskeleton. This giant spider can climb trees to hunt very mobile prey. Yet it has a shell so fragile it practically explodes when it falls? Well, at least it can produce silk to make a sail. Oh, wait — it can't!

6 Shark-fetus teeth. A few shark species have live births (instead of laying eggs). The Jaws juniors grow teeth in the womb. The first sibling or two to mature sometimes eat their siblings in utero. Mmm ... siblings.

7 Human stomach. People can digest a lot — except for cellulose, the primary component of plant matter. Why don't we have commensal bacteria in our guts to do it? They're busy helping termites.

8 Slug genitalia. Some hermaphroditic species breed by wrapping their sex organs around each other. If one of said members gets stuck, the slug simply chews it off. What. The. Hell?

9 Quadrupeds. Let's say you're a four-footed animal. Now let's say you get a wound on your back, or an itch, or a bug wandering up there. Tough luck, kid. You probably can't do much about it. Hope there's a low branch around.

10 Narwhal tusk. The unicorn-like protuberance on a male narwhal's head is actually a tooth that erupts through the front of the jaw and keeps on growing, up to 9 feet. Narwhal: "Doc, I have a toothache." Dentist: "Indeed."

link: 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs

Where's Genghis? And Who's Buried in His Tomb?


Eight hundred years after the death of Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history, scientists are searching to locate his lost tomb using advanced visualization technologies. The iconic ruler was buried with great secrecy in 1227 in an unmarked grave in Mongolia.

Genghis Khan demanded to be buried without markings, according to the customs of his tribe. After his death, his body was returned to Mongolia to his birthplace in Khentii Aimag, where many assume he is buried somewhere close to the Onon River and the Burkhan Khaldun mountain range. According to legend, the funeral escort executed anyone crossing their path to conceal his burial place, and that a river was diverted over his grave to make it impossible to find (the same manner of burial as the Sumerian King Gilgamesh and Atilla the Hun).

Yu-Min Lin Lin and several colleagues — including Professor Maurizio Seracini, the man behind the search for Leonardo da Vinci's lost "Battle of Anghiari" painting — are hoping to use advanced visualization and analytical technologies available at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology to pinpoint Khan's tomb and conduct a non-invasive archaeological analysis of the area where he is believed to be buried.

link: Caltech to Zero in on Lost Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Space Elevator Competition


In final proof that sports channels don't know what the hell they're doing, for the last five years NASA and The Spaceward Foundation have been running "The Space Elevator Games" - a competition to build a robot and cable to literally CLIMB INTO SPACE - and TV still shows skateboarding instead. The future is happening, and nobody's watching.

Similar to the X Prize and the Google Lunar Prize, the Space Elevator games are based on offering a big chunk of money to access the incredible inventive potential available outside of established agencies. The games attract university teams of student researchers, the next generation of the field, with a total prize purse of four million dollars. Which is more than you'll get at the average track meet.

link: The Space Elevator Games -Next Big ESPN Series?

The Singularity: After 2020, Your Computer Can Cheat on Your Taxes For You

AI is becoming the stuff of future scifi greats: A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Real AI effects are closer than you might think, with entirely automated systems producing new scientific results and even holding patents on minor inventions. The key factor in singularity scenarios is the positive-feedback loop of self-improvement: once something is even slightly smarter than humanity, it can start to improve itself or design new intelligences faster than we can leading to an intelligence explosion designed by something that isn't us.

Artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence after 2020, predicted Vernor Vinge, a world-renowned pioneer in AI, who has warned about the risks and opportunities that an electronic super-intelligence would offer to mankind.

link: NexGen AI -A Threat to Human Civilization?


Dekalb County GA: Checkin' on The Prez

Two DeKalb County police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after an investigation revealed they ran a background check on President Barack Obama

link: Officers Run Background Check On Obama; Placed On Leave - News Story - WSB Atlanta


Iran: Violence at Neda's Grave; Mousavi Prevented from Leading Prayers

Iranian riot police beat mourners who staged a defiant gathering at a cemetery on Thursday to commemorate protesters killed in post-election violence last month, witnesses said.

Police used sticks, batons and belts on some of the hundreds of people who turned up at the cemetery south of Tehran where the protesters are buried and also forced opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to leave, witnesses said.

The graveyard became a flashpoint as crowds gathered to mark the 40th day since the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman who came to symbolise the protest movement against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Witnesses said about 150 police and some members of the Islamic Basij militia were in and around Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, with a number surrounding the graveyard where Neda is buried.

Witnesses said Mousavi managed to get out of his car and walk up to Neda's grave.

"Mousavi was however not allowed to recite the Koran verses said on such occasions and he was immediately surrounded by anti-riot police who led him to his car," a witness said as people chanted "Ya Hossein! Mir Hossein!".

link: The Raw Story | Iran police 'beat mourners' at cemetery memorial


Chimps Innately Musical -- And Conservative in their Tastes To Boot

Chimpanzees are biologically programmed to appreciate pleasant music.

The discovery comes from experiments showing that an infant chimpanzee prefers to listen to consonant music over dissonant music.

That suggests the apes are born with an innate appreciation of pleasant sounds, say scientists in the journal Primates.

Until now, this was thought to be a universal human trait, but the new finding suggests it evolved in the ancestors of humans and modern apes.

link: BBC - Earth News - Chimps born to appreciate music


Organmeister Gets His: Procul Harum Suit Concluded

Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher has won his long battle to be recognised as co-writer of the band's hit Whiter Shade of Pale.

link: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Victory for Whiter Shade organist


Cameroon Program to Aid Street Children

Under a project launched in 2007 the government has helped 119 street children reunite with their families, with 62 of the children returning to school, according to Luc André Bayomock with the Ministry of Social Affairs.

The government's ongoing programme to bring children off the streets requires significant time and resources including skilled social services workers and food and shelter for children during the process, Bayomock said. The Social Affairs Ministry is seeking partnerships with humanitarian agencies and with other ministries to boost these resources, he told IRIN.

link: allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Bringing Street Children Back Home (Page 1 of 1)


Homophobia in Burundi

An April 2009 law that criminalizes homosexual conduct threatens to exacerbate the deplorable treatment of gays and lesbians in Burundi, Human Rights Watch said in a multimedia project published today.

The project, "Forbidden: Institutionalizing Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians in Burundi," consists of printed and online narratives, photos, and voice-recorded testimonies of Burundian gays and lesbians that bring to life the daily struggles faced by the small lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Burundi. Members of the community talk about how they have been fired from their jobs, beaten by parents and neighbourhood youth, and evicted from their homes.

link: allAfrica.com: Burundi: Gays And Lesbians Face Increasing Persecution (Page 1 of 1)


5000 Palestinian Kites Break World Record in the Gaza Strip

Thousands of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have broken a world record on the number of kites flown simultaneously in the same place, UN officials have said.

More than 5,000 children gathered for the event on a beach near the northern city of Beit Lahiya as part of the Summer Games programme, a UN initiative organised to restore hope and normality to the war-torn territory.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza, said the aim was to get about 5,000 kites up in the air to break a previous Guinness world record.

link: Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Gaza kids 'hit kite-flying record'


In Memoriam Sam Phillips, Who Died on This Day in 2003

2003. Sam Phillips, founder of SUN Records died in Memphis, TN, USA. Age: 80 Sam Phillips - Wikipedia

link: Google Reader (607)


Ray Carver Unbound?

James Campbell writes:

For many years, Gallagher, in partnership with William L. Stull and Maureen P. Carroll, the editors of Collected Stories, has been campaigning to get the un-Lished version of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, which they have called Beginners (the original name of the title story), into print. In Gallagher’s view, Beginners represents the authentic Carver, the writer she knew and encouraged in the composition of his next book of stories, Cathedral (1983), which displays more abundant narrative talents than Carver’s readership had come to expect.

continue reading the extensive essay at the link: Raymond Carver reviewed by James Campbell TLS


Book Review: Thousands of Broadways

Jessa Crispin writes:

Americans love the myth of the small town, while the reality is a little harder to come by. Small town culture is actually in decline, which maybe explains the renewed nostalgia. We are an increasingly urban species. Timothy Clack states in Ancestral Roots that by 2020, 60 percent of the Earth's population will live in cities. We crowd together in our big city centers while the small towns face dwindling populations and increasingly destitute main streets. Kids who grow up in small towns, myself included, talk of "getting out" and "escaping." Those left burdened with running the family farm or trapped by poverty or bad luck are looked upon with pity. When couples decide they'd like a slower way of life these days, they don't move to the small towns — they move to a suburb, many of which try to recreate the small town ideal. Unsuccessfully. The lawns might look the same, but while small towns often painfully feel like they're sealed off from the outside world, suburbs exist in relation to the city. You meet your needs — food, work, entertainment — in the city and retreat to your suburban hideaway. This is why you hear people who live in the Chicago suburbs referring not to "Chicago" or "the city" but to "downtown."

link: The Smart Set: Town Crier - July 22, 2009


Follow the -- errr -- Dancing Sheep?

How To Disappear Completely.


New Species: The Barefaced Bulbul

Despite the ever-spreading imprint of humanity on this small planet, scientists keep discovering new species, even among relatively conspicuous classes of vertebrates like mammals and birds. The latest example is the barefaced bulbul, a songbird with a nearly bald head found in a remote region of Laos by biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and University of Melbourne

link: Meet the Barefaced Bulbul - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com


Television is Your Own Personal Flat-Faced Tunable Buddy

Fionnuala Butler and Cynthia Pickett write:

Stomach growling, but have no time for a meal? A snack will do. Drowsy and unable to concentrate? A short nap can be reviving when a good night’s rest is unavailable. But what should you do when you are alone and feeling lonely?

New psychological research suggests that loneliness can be alleviated by simply turning on your favorite TV show. In the same way that a snack can satiate hunger in lieu of a meal, it seems that watching favorite TV shows can provide the experience of belonging without a true interpersonal interaction.

link: Imaginary Friends: Scientific American


Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Casino Techniques Enter Law Enforcement: Prioritizing Arrests by Spinning the Wheel of Justice in Picayune

Police in Picayune, Miss., have turned to a unique method of determining how to arrest individuals on outstanding warrants: They have created a Wheel of Fortune-type spinning wheel, to which they attach the names of persons wanted on arrest warrants.
Whoever the wheel lands on gets arrested, reports the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun-Herald.
According to the paper, the police force made its first "Wheel of Justice" arrest Tuesday, taking into custody Dewayne Allen Bester, Jr., who was wanted for selling crack cocaine near a schoolyard.

Paco: New Scourge of Brazilian Shantytowns

BUENOS AIRES — The homecoming did not go as Pablo Eche had dreamed.

After 15 months in a rehabilitation clinic battling his addiction to paco, a highly addictive drug that has laid waste to thousands of lives in this country, Mr. Eche returned to Ciudad Oculta, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of this city. . . .

For more than five years Mr. Eche has been a slave to paco, a smokable drug made from bits of cocaine residue mixed with industrial solvents and kerosene or rat poison. Labeled “the scourge of the poor” by politicians, the drug has become the greatest social challenge facing shantytowns like Oculta.

link: Buenos Aires Journal - Lost in an Abyss of Drugs, and Entangled by Poverty - NYTimes.com


O Arizona: Sheriff Joe Reaps the Whirlwind, but No Stimulus Money

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday his office applied for federal stimulus money to hire 25 deputies, but did not receive any of the $100 million passed out Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The sheriff’s office, facing a $17 million deficit, also was left out of $5.5 million in federal stimulus money given to Arizona law enforcement agencies Wednesday to fight drug traffickers along the Mexican border.

The $100 million outlay announced Tuesday went to 1,000 police departments nationwide and will be used to hire 4,700 officers.

link: Arpaio effort to hire 25 with stimulus funds nixed - Phoenix Business Journal:


Phillip Toledano, Photographer: The Passion of the Game

Accidental Mysteries writes:

PHILLIP TOLEDANO STARTED SHOOTING PICTURES AT THE AGE OF 11, when he convinced his parents to buy him a camera. Creative kid and wonderful parents! I first became aware of Mr. Toledano’s wonderful photographs through the book PHONESEX, published by Twin Palms Press. There, he convinced actual phone sex operators to allow themselves to be photographed, peering inside the private world of those who satisfy others through anonymous conversation.

So, what are these photographs of? People in the throes of passion? Well, yes... sort of. Toledano photographed people in the middle of playing video games.

According to Toledano: “Everything should start with an idea. Whether it be a single image, or a series, I believe that a photograph should be like an unfinished sentence. There should be a space for questions.” I wish I had written this. It’s everything I believe about a photograph as well.

link: accidental mysteries: Focused on the Game


Brain On Ice

IT IS one of the biggest mysteries in human evolution. Why did we humans evolve such big brains, making us the unrivalled rulers of the world?

Some 2.5 million years ago, our ancestors' brains expanded from a mere 600 cubic centimetres to about a litre. Two new studies suggest it is no fluke that this brain boom coincided with the onset of an ice age. Cooler heads, it seems, allowed ancient human brains to let off steam and grow.

link: Did an ice age boost human brain size? - life - 29 July 2009 - New Scientist


Muffy--The Missing Years: Microchipped Dog Returned to Owners

A FLEA-bitten dog rescued from a squalid Melbourne backyard is to be reunited with her overjoyed Brisbane owner - nine years after she disappeared. And 17-year-old Chloe Rushby, who was only eight when her best mate disappeared, can't wait to have Muffy back in her arms. Chloe and her family screamed with joy when the RSPCA called to say Muffy was alive - much older, very scruffy and 2000km away in Melbourne, the Herald Sun reports.

link: Lost Brisbane dog found in Melbourne nine years later | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au


Interstellar Cheese Undamaged in Buckinghamshire

A block of cheese launched into the upper atmosphere on Tuesday has been found undamaged in Buckinghamshire.

The "interstellar cheddar" landed in Cressex - some 74 miles away - and was taken to High Wycombe police station on Wednesday night, the launch team said.

link: BBC NEWS | UK | England | Somerset | Earth landing for 'space cheese'


O Arizona: Sheriff Joe More Popular than Obama--Just Shoot Me Now (and Arpaio Probably Will)

Arizonans like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio more than President Barack Obama and are not keen on the federal stimulus or creating a government-run health system, according a Rasmussen Reports poll. The survey of 500 likely Arizona voters gave Obama a 46 percent approval rating compared to 57 percent for Arpaio.

link: Arizona poll: Arpaio more popular than Obama, stimulus not helping - Phoenix Business Journal:


Who Will Save the Darkness

Marco Evers writes:

In the era of 24/7 artificial light, real darkness is heard to find. But not only stargazers are affected--light pollution also threatens animals and even entire ecosystems. . . .

People living in Germany no longer react with awe when they happen to look up at the sky on a clear night. Nothing twinkles in the heavens anymore, and most Germans are only familiar with the majestic appearance of the Milky Way from trips abroad. One of the most prominent stars in the night sky at the moment is Aldebaran, a red giant which is the brightest celestial body in the constellation of Taurus. The Andromeda galaxy should also be visible without a telescope. But who notices anymore? City children, who are growing up under a hazy orange night sky, can barely name three celestial bodies anymore: the sun, the moon and possibly Venus, also known as the evening star. For thousands of years, the stars served mankind as a natural navigation system. They were also the inspiration for calendars, stories, legends, myths and religions. The changing night sky was always part of the landscape and at the same time part of culture. But then industrialized society pushed a button, and the firmament was switched off. The 24-hour day had arrived, and the night sky disintegrated like a coral reef destroyed by tourists.

link: The Death of Night: Astronomers and Environmentalists Fight to Save Dark Skies - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Russia Strengthening its Iran Connection

niacINsight writes:

Russia’s growing alliance with Iran will undoubtedly influence the nuclear debate. Russia is the only permanent Security Council member that openly rejected new sanctions on Iran starting in September 2008. “We think [more sanctions are] not timely, we think that more discussions are necessary with the Iranians and that there is still room for diplomacy here,” said Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin on September 26, 2008.

Russia quickly congratulated Ahmadinejad on his contested win of the Presidency in Iran this June, while the United States has delayed recognizing the election results. Russia is now strategically partnering with Iran, while the United States is debating whether to go ahead with diplomacy or to press for more sanctions. If the Russian trend continues, though, the United States will continue to find an unwilling partner in its pursuit of additional Security Council pressure on Iran in the months ahead.

link: Google Reader (143)


Parasite Museum Displays World's Longest Tapeworm (8.8 Meters)

Billing itself as the only establishment in the world entirely devoted to parasites, this quirky little museum has become a popular offbeat attraction - and even date spot - in the tony Meguro neighborhood of the Japanese capital.

link: Meguro Parasitological Museum | Atlas Obscura


Crisis in Criticism?

Mark Bauerlein writes:

As striving junior scholars and established seniors staged one reading after another, as advanced theories were applied and hot topics attached, the performances stacked up year by year —and seemed to matter less and less. Look at the sales figures for monographs. Back in 1995, the director of the Pennsylvania State University Press, Sanford G. Thatcher, asked who reads those books and revealed in The Chronicle, "Our sales figures for works of literary criticism suggest that the answer is, fewer people than ever before." Sixty-five percent of Penn State's recent offerings at that point sold fewer than 500 copies. A few years later, also in The Chronicle, Lindsay Waters, an executive editor at Harvard University Press, said his humanities monographs "usually sell between 275 and 600 copies." In 2002 the Modern Language Association issued a report on scholarly publishing that cited editors estimating purchases of as low as 200 to 300 units. Remember, too, that standing library orders account for around 250 copies. (That's my guess—also, a few librarians have told me that the odds that such books will never be checked out are pretty good.)

Why the disjuncture? Because performance ran its course, and now it's over. The audience got bored.

For decades the performative model obscured a situation that should have been recognized at the time: Vast areas of the humanities had reached a saturation point. Hundreds of literary works have undergone introduction, summation, and analysis many times over. Hamlet alone received 1,824 items of attention from 1950 to 1985, and then 2,406 from 1986 to 2008. What else was to be said? Defenders of the endeavor may claim that innovations in literary studies like ecocriticism and trauma theory have compelled reinterpretations of works, but while the advent of, say, queer theory opened the works to new insights, such developments don't come close to justifying the degree of productivity that followed. Also, the rapid succession of theories, the Next Big Thing, and the Next … evoked the weary impression that it was all a professional game, a means of finding something more to say.

At what point does common sense step in and cry, "Whoa! Slow down! Hamlet can't give you anything more." The system has reached absurd proportions. Better to admit that books by M.H. Abrams, Hartman, and a few others covered Wordsworth's poems for most practical purposes several decades ago, or that Joseph N. Riddel (my adviser) unveiled the enigmatic lyrics of Wallace Stevens well enough in 1965. Hundreds of excellent books and articles on Henry James have seen print and amply render the meaning of his oeuvre. Further additions to the 6,000-plus items that have been published since 1950 are, to be blunt, in nearly every case unnecessary.

extensive essay at the link: Diminishing Returns in Humanities Research - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education


Dept. of Bizarre Paranoia: Sex Offenders at your Fingertips

Gizmodo writes:

Looking to get molested but don't know where to look to get the job done? The new Offender Locator iPhone app will show you exactly where to go when all you need is an inappropriate touch.

The app uses GPS to show you where all the registered sex offenders are near you at any given time. You can also use addresses from your contacts list if you want to check out where the perverts live near your friends and family. It's perfect for pranks! Just tell your friend there's a surprise party for them at one of the locations. They'll laugh and laugh!

link: Offender Locator Tracks Sex Offenders on Your iPhone - iPhone Apps - Gizmodo


If You're Driving In Oz, Smile at the Camera

NEW South Wales' nastiest speed trap has caught out 71,288 motorists and raised millions for a Government which loves revenue from fines.

Two cameras pointing each way on one pole at Cleveland St, in Sydney's Moore Park, netted more than $7 million from June 2008 to June this year.

It is the biggest revenue haul of any set of cameras at a time when revenue has dropped by more than $17 million across the state compared with the same time last year, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Angry motorists believe the haul was increased by officials dropping the speed limit on the stretch of road from 60km/h to 50km/h on the day the cameras were installed in 2007.

"The day the camera came on line I drove out the gate and the camera went off, I thought, 'I am only doing 60' and I looked up and there was a 50km/h sign. It was the first day I saw that sign," a worker at the Moore Park driving range said yesterday.

link: Two speed cameras net $7 million a year for NSW Government | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au


Sudan: Trouser Trial Set for Aug. 4

A Sudanese court has adjourned the case of a woman who was arrested and charged with dressing indecently after she was seen wearing trousers in a Khartoum cafe.

A judge on Wednesday deferred the case of Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, a noted columnist and a press officer at the United Nations Mission in Sudan, after she waived the immunity given to UN workers.

"The court gave Lubna the choice either to accept immunity from the UN or to waive that and go on with the trial," Nabil Adeeb, her lawyer, said.

But al-Hussein, who has made her trial a public campaign, inviting local and foreign journalists to attend, told the packed court: "I wish to resign from the UN, I wish this court case to continue."

Al-Hussein was arrested, along with 13 other women, in a raid on a Khartoum cafe in early July and charged with breaching Islamic law.

Public order cases in Sudan are usually dealt with quickly and 10 of the women were fined about $120 and given 10 lashes as punishment, but al-Hussein demanded a lawyer and delayed her trial.

Al-Hussein said that she decided to speak out because flogging is a practice many women endure in silence.

"Let the people see for themselves. It is not only my issue," she said.

"This is retribution to thousands of girls who are facing flogging for the last 20 years because of wearing trousers. They prefer to remain silent."

The case was adjourned until August 4.

link: Al Jazeera English - Africa - Sudan court adjourns 'trouser' case


Pakistan Liberates Child Soldiers

Pakistani security forces have said they rescued dozens of children forcibly recruited by the Taliban as child soldiers in North West Frontier Province.

Officials said the children were being trained to become suicide bombers and warned that hundreds more remained captive by the Taliban group.

"They have been brainwashed and trained as suicide bombers, but the nine who I met seemed willing to get back to normal life," Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, who heads a special support group tasked with handling the return of people displaced in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas, told Pakistani state-run television.

"It seems that there are some 300 to 400 such children who the Taliban had taken forcibly or who they were training," Ahmed said.

link: Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Pakistan 'rescues' child soldiers


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mohammed Ali Esquire Cover, 1968

Carl Fischer, ‘The Passion of Muhammad Ali’, Esquire cover 1968

link: CONSTANT SIEGE - Carl Fischer, ‘The Passion of Muhammad Ali’,...


Scott Adams, Dilbert's Creator, and his Struggle with Spasmodic Dysphonia

Brian Rafferty writes:

The rules changed all the time—sometimes day to day, sometimes hour to hour—and whenever he tried to recite them, people thought, "This guy is nuts."

The rules dictated when and where Scott Adams, the chief engineer of the Dilbert comic empire, was allowed to speak. He could neither control them nor predict exactly when they'd go into effect. All he knew was that he'd woken up one morning and found that his voice had turned against him, imposing a set of bizarre restrictions.

continue reading this lengthy, fascinating article at the link: Speechless: Dilbert Creator's Struggle to Regain His Voice

Controversy over Wikipedia's Posting of the 10 Standard Rorshach Images

The Rorschach test, a series of 10 inkblot plates created by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach for his book “Psychodiagnostik,” published in 1921, is clearly in the second category.

Yet in the last few months, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been engulfed in a furious debate involving psychologists who are angry that the 10 original Rorschach plates are reproduced online, along with common responses for each. For them, the Wikipedia page is the equivalent of posting an answer sheet to next year’s SAT.

link: Has Wikipedia Created a Rorschach Cheat Sheet? Analyze That - NYTimes.com

#10 of the standard Rorschach images


Where Are They Now: the Bar-Kays, 1972--"Son of Shaft"


Hat tip to Constant Seige

Check out the sax player's King Super 20 tenor: sweet axe.


Keroauc Estate in Question

There are new questions about the estate of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac after a Florida judge ruled that his mother's will was fraudulent.

Gabrielle Kerouac left all of her son's assets to his third wife, Stella Sampas Kerouac, when she died in 1973. Ever since, the Sampas family has had control of Jack Kerouac's manuscripts, letters and personal belongings.

Jack Kerouac's daughter, Jan, challenged the will in 1994, after seeing a copy and deciding the signature was fake. She died two years later, but Paul Blake Jr., the writer's nephew, continued the litigation.

In an order filed Friday in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court, Judge George W. Greer ruled the will was a forgery. The ruling does not make any decision on who allegedly forged the document.

"Clearly, Gabrielle Kerouac was physically unable to sign the document dated February 13, 1973 and, more importantly, that which appears on the will dated that date is not her signature," Greer wrote.

link: Fla. judge rules will on Kerouac's estate is fake