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Another Dark Little Corner
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Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.
MY OTHER PLACES
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 Systema Naturae 2000 
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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought. Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death) [me, on a bad day] WRITER'S LINKS Absolute Write Paypal donation button: Absolute Write is one of the leading sites for information on writing and publishing, especially the scam versions thereof. It has a broad, deep online community with an enormous message base going back years. Now it needs help. See the details and discussion here Preditors and Editors Everything you wanted to know about literary agents On the getting of agents Writer Beware Miss Snark Writer's Net (and my Wish List) 
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2004-03-29
Two Years On No single thing abides; but all things flow. Because Chris died at Easter, there are two anniversaries each year. We don't know the exact day - the post mortem was just to determine that there were "no suspicious circumstances", and didn't give us a time, so that, like electrons & atoms, it's 'smeared out'. Perhaps that's one reason why I sometimes tend to get more upset at the Easter anniversary than just "sometime between March 28th and 30th". On Lucretius etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/l/l94o/index.html Of the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus A metrical translation by William Ellery Leonard eBooks@Adelaide 2004 www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/lucretius-natureot.txt On the Nature of Things By Lucretius Translated by William Ellery Leonard The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.mb.txt Another copy of the plain-text translation above, provided by The Internet Classics Archive. www.atheistfoundation.org.au/lucretius.htm www.humanistictexts.org/lucretius.htm More ... Frail Granules All www.aetheronline.com/mario/Heroes/Sagan/Sagan.htm Carl SaganReflections On A Mote Of Dust CARL SAGAN - FIRST SCEPTIC, THEN ASTRONOMER By Horst Sommer Why Sagan, despite his failings, will always be the greatest of my heroes www1.tpgi.com.au/users/tps-seti/sagan.html www.aetheronline.com/mario/Heroes/Sagan/mysagantribute.htm More ... Two Years On There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought. Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death) More ... 2004-03-27
This is my new blogchalk: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, English, photography, reading, natural history, land use, town planning, sustainability. :) More ... Pygmy Mammoths? Vampire Mammoths? www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004_03_21_archive.asp#108018110573207492 ... arrived in UK, met Steve Jones and signed lots of bookplates for him for his Dark Delicacies signing of the new edition of the Mammoth Book of Vampires (or possibly the Vampire Book of Mammoths) www.bookslut.com/blog/archives/ 2004_03.php#001760 Susan Shapiro Barash is interviewed ( www.nerve.com/screeningroom/books/ interview_shapirobarish/ ) at Nerve about her book The New Wife: The Evolving Role of the American Wife. As someone who never planned out her dream wedding at the age of ten, and who has trouble saying "Congratulations" instead of "I'm sorry" when friends announce engagements, I don't know what the fuck she's on about. The twenty-first-century wife is someone who finally has taken a look at the examples. There's her grandmother, who's probably still married to her grandfather. There's her mother, the baby boomer, who's disillusioned. There's her aunt who's forty and has a great job as a lawyer, but is dealing with fertility clinics. The new wife wants the self-confidence that her mother had in the workplace, the education that the '80s and '90s made a necessity, and the glamour and nourishment her grandmother had. She wants to get married younger, she wants to be available to her husband. She'll be well-educated, but doesn't feel this pull of right or wrong over missing one beat in the workplace. Her attitude is "I'll have children young, I'll go back to work and use my degree as I see fit." Women have never said that before. Why do I have the feeling this woman will show up on Oprah pretty damn soon? Posted by Jessa Crispin link www.bookslut.com/blog/archives/2004_03.php#001759 Gail Rebuck is going against the doomsayers of the publishing industry. As the world gets more chaotic, she proposes, people will crave less chaotic media. The qualities that brands and institutions want are trust, authenticity, emotion, respect, personalisation and empowerment. Presentations outlined the exponential increase in the media, with individuals having to contend with a bewildering amount of messages: hundreds of TV channels, millions of websites, 250 commercial radio stations, 8,000 magazines, third-generation mobile phones, text messaging. Every Saturday or Sunday broadsheet newspaper contains more information than the average person in the 17th century would have been exposed to in a lifetime. The result is the ever-increasing necessity to shout louder to get heard. The accent is on the sensational, the personal, the controversial, anything to stand out from the crowd. It means that seriousness, reflection, and balance are squeezed out. And one of the effects is a spiralling crisis in the relationship between media, politics and the people. The media is accused of distortion and cynicism, the government is accused of spin in its attempts to get over its message and the public ends up confused, disillusioned and often angry. This relationship is near breaking point. This is the world of inauthentic communication; communication that is losing trust. Both media and politicians need to step back and rethink the relationship. Yet people crave moments of authenticity. And so as I listened to those marketing presentations, as speaker after speaker outlined the attributes of successful products and campaigns, one word kept coming into my mind: books. What the marketeers believed to be desirable in every product were the very characteristics of the industry I had been part of all my life. The oldest of all the media, ironically, is the one most in tune with the times. www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1176710,00.html Something in the dihydrogen monoxide Health-obsessed California's latest environmental scare exposed dangerously high levels of gullibility, reports Dan Glaister Wednesday March 24, 2004 The city councillors of Aliso Viejo in Orange County, California, are well-meaning, socially responsible people. And when they came across the huge threat posed to their constituents by dihydrogen monoxide they did what any elected official should do: they took steps to protect their community. A motion due to go before the city legislature proposed banning the potentially deadly substance from within the city boundaries ... More ... Most of these links are via "Making Light" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden pandasthumb.org/ "The Panda's Thumb" is many things... First, it is an example of jury-rigged evolutionary adaptation made famous by the late Stephen Jay Gould in an essay of the same name. Second, it is the legendary virtual bar serving the community of the legendary virtual University of Ediacara ( http://www.ediacara.org/ ) somewhere in the Ediacaran hills of southern Australia, growing out of the lore of the Usenet talk.origins newsgroup. And now it is a weblog giving another voice for the defenders of the integrity of science, the patrons of "The Panda's Thumb". darwin.ediacara.org/cri.html Richard Harter's Evolution Quiz - from the University of Ediacara site www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=478 Post-Furman Botched Executions (from the Death Penalty Information Centre) Not nice reading. www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/03/26/index.html Wonderful, spooky image of Mars www.molokosynthemesc.com/risks.exe?cmd=main Body Modifiers Alert! Risks. This section of BME is designed to allow practioners, clients, and enthusiasts to exchange information about risks, complications, and their treatment in a non-judgemental forum with the purpose of fostering a self-regulating safe and responsible body modification community. Please be aware that this section is always growing and should not be treated as a complete archive www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/PATTfuzzyfeet.html fuzzyfeet These slippers are made by knitting a pair of gigantic [and I mean GIGANTIC!] socks at a very loose gauge, then slowly felting them either in the washing machine or by hand to a custom fit. If you've never knitted socks before, these slippers are ideal. They knit up quickly with worsted weight yarn and large needles and the felting process is very forgiving of errors. In the end, it's nearly impossible to tell they were knitted at all sights.seindal.dk/sight/768_Engraving_by_Tempesta.html Old Views of Rome More ... 2004-03-23
billmon.org/archives/001251.html#comments March 22, 2004 Fighting Words Sadly No! has already posted a rush transcript of the 60 Minutes interview with Richard Clarke, if anyone's interested in savoring some of those great lines. ( www.sadlyno.com/archives/60min_StahlClarke_transcript.html ) The bit about Bush drawing big Xs over the known Al Qaeda leaders (like a kid winnowing his baseball card collection down to size) is choice, but my personal favorite is still this: STAHL: Don't you think he handled himself and hit all the right notes after 9/11, showed strength, got us through it, you don't give him credit for that? CLARKE: He gave a really good speech right after 9/11. When it comes to deadpan humor, this guy's definitely got some chops The Sadly No! entry referring to this interview and linking to the transcript is: www.sadlyno.com/archives/000432.html Battle Station Crawford! If you didn't see tonight's (Mar 21/04) 60 minutes segment with BushCo's former counter-terrorism advisor, Richard Clarke, read the transcript: it's devastating. Clarke served Reagan, Bush I, and through both Clinton terms as the Terrorism Czar ... in the meantime here are a few noteworthy chunks to mull over: ... Posted by Peanut at March 22, 2004 09:24 AM More ... I wonder if this was inspired by our Beloved & Respected Government's practice of charging discharged detainees for board, or if both were inspired by a similar example elsewhere, or it's just the kind of mentality some have? After all, it was a tradition in the English debtor's prisons & so forth. www.sundayherald.com/40592 We locked you up in jail for 25 years and you were innocent all along? That’ll be £80,000 please Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims ‘food and lodgings’ There are many loggings of this aroudn the blogs, many with headings like "You have GOT to be joking!" One comment from www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005733.html Beyond belief Bill for the bullet. Christ. Blunkett makes a very interesting case study for the statist whose mind is so warped that it leads him to come to ideas a six-year-old could recognize as horrible. There's some sick moral inversion that goes on in the brain of someone like that where the people exist as grist for the government mill rather than the government being a construct of the people. Any psychology students feel like writing their thesis on Blunkett? I think the world could benefit. Posted by Andy Danger at March 16, 2004 05:36 AM Here is a bit of a follow up about the appeal against the disallowance of this. Will have to follow to find out what decision comes down eventually. www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,7369,1170170,00.html Ruling appeal over B&B bill Eric Allison, prisons correspondent Tuesday March 16, 2004 The Guardian The Home Office is to appeal today against a court ruling that victims of notorious miscarriages of justice should not have to pay the bed-and-breakfast bill for their time in jail ... Michael Hickey staged two prison rooftop protests against his conviction. One, during a severe winter, lasted 87 days. His brother Vincent spent 44 days on hunger strike. Vincent Hickey said yesterday: "I should have gone on hunger strike for longer than 44 days: then the bill would have been less." On a more cheerful note: York Atmospheric Chemistry Group Curry Website www.york.ac.uk/res/atmoschem/Curry.html The only website* where York's Curry House's are expertly reviewed by trained scientists** and published in a respected scientific journal***. * As far as I am aware **All reviewers are trained to at least degree level in Chemistry *** New Scientist, 20 March 2004, page 88 [I refuse to make jokes about the effect on the atmosphere of the results of curry-munching, etc.] Bob Zangas' Journey In Iraq militarypages.com/cfiles/siteone.asp?p=38&id=23 He was killed in a roadside attack after this entry. More ... 2004-03-22
Could be good news in the Malaysian elections, just completed. 2004 does seem to be a year of elections. www.emedia.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/ Features/20040321083701/Article/indexb_html www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/76384/1/.html www.cnsnews.com/ ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeign Bureaus%5Carchive%5C200403%5CFOR20040322b.html Malaysia's 'Gentler' Leader Gets Strong Mandate, Trounces Islamists By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief March 22, 2004 Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - A resounding victory for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Malaysian elections has dealt a significant blow to the country's radical Islamic party. By drawing a line under the Mahathir Mohamad era, it also clears the way for a less prickly relationship between Kuala Lumpur and Washington [and Australia]. The results constituted a clear response by Malaysia's Muslim Malay majority to Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) vision of an Islamic state under shari'a law. PAS had also sparked controversy during the short campaign by claiming that its supporters would go to heaven while other voters would go to hell. PAS has controlled Kelantan state since 1990, and in elections in 1999 seized control of another state, Terengganu, where its attempts to introduce shari'a punishments such as stoning and amputation ran into federal roadblocks. It went into the election saying it planned to add another one or two of Malaysia's 13 states to the list of PAS-ruled regions. Instead, PAS has lost Terengganu, and looks set also to be defeated in Kelantan, too. Adding to the routing, PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang, who was also chief minister of Terengganu, also lost his seat in the federal parliament ... Looking for the letter, headlined 'No Teetering Here' by a Mr Herman in reply to Orson Scott Card's article in Rhinotimes, it is apparently not archived. Some of the current letters do have good points. This is an extract of one (which will also probably be gone quite soon): Rushing to poor choices ( www.rhinotimes.com/greensboro/letters.html 18/3/2004) ... If I should sacrifice what I love, meaning my school, and that sacrifice is for the common good, then I might consider a more cooperative demeanor. But this plan is not devised to serve students. It is our job to look out for our own children first, but it is our civic duty to use our hearts and our brains to advance the common good. This plan helps me with neither standard ... Terri Rooks _________ "All Left Boots" story - can't find an online reference I believe this was told about Napoleon's invasion of Russia. One reason to disbelieve this particular version is that at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, boots were made 'straight', i.e., there weren't left & right versions (a painful thought). The story was obviously told in a time when these were much more common. _________ James Madison, open letters "To the People of the State of New York", published in the 'Federalist' during 1787/88. Wednesday, February 6, 1788: "It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens. If a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure." ( memory.loc.gov/const/fed/fed_10.html ) John Stuart Mill's essay 'On Liberty' "That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise." ( www.serendipity.li/jsmill/jsmill.htm ) In short, the idea that the will of the majority should not be permitted to override the rights of the minority is not in itself anti-democratic More ... www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/21/1079823240725.html Moore looks to Big Apple for city of villages plan By Anne Davies, Urban Affairs Editor March 22, 2004 ... Ms Moore has unveiled her planning policy, which aims to nurture the 34 village "places" from Millers Point in the north to Rosebery in the south. "The greatest cities in the world, such as New York, London and Paris are amalgams of discrete communities, such as Greenwich Village in New York, or the arrondissements of Paris," she said. These inner-city villages have their own character and creative cultures. People identify with places, she said. Under Ms Moore's policy, the community would be consulted on how to develop the unique character of each village, and those that have lost their identity would be salvaged. Pedestrian and bike paths would be designed to link the villages, while their centres would be based around community owned buildings such as town halls. She has also promised to establish an economic development unit to promote a return of small business. It would also undertake long-term planning for the commercial needs of the city, but demands for more commercial floor space would need to be sympathetic to the historical characteristics of each village. She has also promised a review of public open space to determine whether the inner-city has enough to deal with its growing population. More ... Election is scheduled for 27th March, 2004. Getting close now. www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/21/1079823240725.html Moore looks to Big Apple for city of villages plan By Anne Davies, Urban Affairs Editor March 22, 2004 ... Ms Moore has unveiled her planning policy, which aims to nurture the 34 village "places" from Millers Point in the north to Rosebery in the south. "The greatest cities in the world, such as New York, London and Paris are amalgams of discrete communities, such as Greenwich Village in New York, or the arrondissements of Paris," she said. These inner-city villages have their own character and creative cultures. People identify with places, she said. Under Ms Moore's policy, the community would be consulted on how to develop the unique character of each village, and those that have lost their identity would be salvaged. Pedestrian and bike paths would be designed to link the villages, while their centres would be based around community owned buildings such as town halls. She has also promised to establish an economic development unit to promote a return of small business. It would also undertake long-term planning for the commercial needs of the city, but demands for more commercial floor space would need to be sympathetic to the historical characteristics of each village. She has also promised a review of public open space to determine whether the inner-city has enough to deal with its growing population. More ... Further comments are below, but here is something I wrote a while back giving an example of how a "booming economy" and "growth" isn't the mythical "rising tide that lifts all boats", apart from probably being unsustainable, followed by the Twisted Logic of current uses of "aspiration" and "envy". Arguments on The Fallacy of AveragesA Child’s Guide to the Wonder of Statistics
'Business leaders' call for "certainty" while talking up the virtue of "flexibility" for those who do the actual work. Strangely, their versions of both make it easier for them & harder for anyone else trying to, say, bring up a family, have a secure home life, take care of elderly parents or support their local community. 'Business leaders' explain that, personally, "the money isn't that important" --- yet very few put their earnings above a certain amount towards charity, or back into their company to reward wage-slaves -- but also that "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys", but, further that somehow neither of these apparently apply to human beings below a particular level. Such creatures must rely on the 'trickle down' (disgusting image, see early chapters of Frank Herbert's "Dune" for a literal example) to improve their life, unless they too join in the ruthless exploitation of the world or fellow humans. The Australian idea used to be that everyone is entitled to have a reasonable, good education, everyone, having benefited from all the previous generations, contributes to the education of the current crop of children and will benefit from that in the future. The same with medical treatment -- if Kerry Packer pays his taxes he is as entitled to use the general ambulance service if he has a sudden heart attack as anyone else is. He doesn't have to pay for a private one to be there just for him just in case. And we all benefit because there's a well-supported service. Again, the same applies to a good public transport system instead of continual cutbacks, with tax support for private cars & roadbuilding. This is what Australians would "aspire" to; a better society for everyone. The present ideology puts general public good at the very bottom -- along with the world (or 'environment' that supports life) ... If you rip the guts out of general public services - transport, health, education, social support for those in difficulty - grind down those who are trying to work in them, treat the passengers, patients, pupils, people who use them without respect, as 'no count trash', naturally those who are able to will probably move away. And those who can't? It's axiomatic if you treat people like garbage, they won't love you or treat you well either. Getting respect means giving respect. (Respect: not "Let them hate me so long as they fear me".) So you end up in a vicious circle of increasing 'public squalor', driving more away. When you criticise this or similar, it is labelled: "The Politics of Envy". TWISTED LOGIC: ENVY? When you say a policy or set of behaviours is greedy, selfish, short-sighted & very destructive, this is called 'envy'. But 'envy' means you want what the other person has. What you are doing is 'aspiring' to a _better_way_ of doing things, perhaps benefiting yourself too, but society & the world most importantly. You don't want lots of expensive cars, but a better public transport system. ASPIRATION? If you want to imitate the people doing destructive, selfish & short-sighted things, this is called 'aspiring'. Surely _this_ is 'envy'. You may 'aspire' for yourself & your family (like the Suharto family did) without caring what the consequences are for anyone or anything else - the well-known phrase is "bugger you Jack, I'm alright". More ... 2004-03-21
Yonmei has added to her piece Dissecting Orson Scott Card ( www.livejournal.com/users/yonmei/236010.html ), now (Pt 5) www.livejournal.com/users/yonmei/235072.html. She refers to his piece as a lying piece of bigotry (he titled it Civilization) I mentioned the other four parts earlier, on March 8, 2004 Biggest little bottle in the world! (via Making Light) www.kleinbottle.com/meter_tall_klein_bottle.html You can also order Klein beanies & related products, such as a Chinese Spouting Bowl (aka Chinese Singing Bowl, Chinese Fish Basin, a Spouting Dragon Bowl, Bronze Dancing Water Basin, Singing Fountain Bowl, Oriental Bronze Spouting Bowl), as well as exploring this and related subjects at: www.kleinbottle.com/index.htm. Their motto is "Acme Klein Bottles - where yesterday's future is here today!" www.infobeat.com/index.cfm?action=article&id=229864 IBM to Help Defense Manage RFID Program Wednesday, March 17 United States, Mar 17, 2004 (Newsbytes via COMTEX) -- IBM Corp's Business Consulting Services has won an $8.4 million, three-year contract from the Defense Department to help develop a Radio Frequency Identification Device policy for 43,000 defense suppliers, the company said. Defense Department suppliers are required to include passive RFID tags on products at the pallet and case level by 2005. The department expects RFID technology to improve data quality, supply management, asset visibility and materiel maintenance. The Iraq on the Record database www.house.gov/reform/min/features/iraq_on_the_record/ The Special Investigations Division compiled a database of statements about Iraq made by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, and National Security Advisor Rice. All of the statements in the database were drawn from speeches, press conferences and briefings, interviews, written statements, and testimony by the five officials. The Iraq on the Record report (PDF), prepared at the request of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, is a comprehensive examination of the statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq Putting things in context & perspective, we can contemplate the earliest extant example of writing in Latin by a woman in an exhibition of the Vindolanda writing tablets - Tabulae Vindolandenses - ( vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk:8080/4DACTION/ WebRequestQuery?searchTerm=291&searchType=number&searchField=TVII&thisListPosition=1&thisPageNum=0 ) (Tablet 291, a letter to Sulpicia Lepidina from Claudia Severa, wife of Aelius Brocchus, sending Lepidina a warm invitation to visit her for her (Severa's) birthday and appending greetings to Cerialis from herself and greetings from her husband. From the Exhibition home page online ( vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/exhibition/index.shtml ) "The Vindolanda writing tablets, written in ink on post-card sized sheets of wood, have been excavated at the fort of Vindolanda, immediately south of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. Dating to the the late first and early second centuries AD, the formative period of Roman Britain’s northern frontier, they were written by and for soldiers, merchants, women and slaves. Through their contents, life in one community on the edge of the Roman world can be reconstructed in detail." More ... 2004-03-20
From 'Making Light' Holy Trinity, Batman! According to AP: Thursday, March 18, 2004, Statesboro, Georgia — A couple who got into a dispute over a theological point after watching "The Passion of the Christ" were arrested after the argument turned violent. I'll say. They were well on their way to re-inventing the Arian Heresy. Next on Crossfire: The Filioque Clause! Davidson, 34, and her husband, Sean Davidson, 33, were charged with simple battery on March 11 after the two called police on each other. They were released on $1,000 bail. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. They're hardly the first people to wander into that tar pit. The night before the final balloting at the Council of Nicea, Saint Nicholas of Myra punched out Arius in a bar fight arising from a very similar argument. So just remember, kids: when you hear someone talking about "traditional Christianity," this is what they mean. More ... 2004-03-19
Change a few names to the appropriate Australian commentators, & this is something I've thought on occasion philosoraptor.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_philosoraptor_archive.html#107965082182424618 Anyway, I guess I've also been thinking a lot about how much time we all waste in the blogosphere... I mean, do we really need to discuss the latest wingnut quackery ... More ... 2004-03-17
Richard Glover had a discussion with Dr Coral Bell on the local ABC (702 Sydney - formerly 2BL) Cold War Casualties - a long sad story A very interesting discussion with Dr Bell. The world didn't suffer a M.A.D.-style nuclear war, thank goodness. But surely you should count in: firstly, some proportion of the Korean & Vietnam war deaths (incl some in French part), since those wars were lengthened & intensified by Cold War involvment. We tend to remember the US & Australian dead, but there were millions of North & South Vietnamese, plus 'collateral damage' in nearby countries. Then some of the Cambodian Holocaust ('Killing Fields') victims, since the country was laid open to Pol Pot's victory by being sideswiped during the Vietnam engagment. One could also put some of the USSR/CCCP dead from the late 1940's onward, as the excuse was usually that they were supporting The Enemy. Even excluding Stalin's Terror from earlier, this would be quite a few. Add in all the thousands and thousands of both The Disappeared in 'left-wing' and 'right-wing' dictatorships around the world, whether Europe, Latin America, Africa or other places (some quite close to us), and those starved & worked to death in camps, I think(?) mostly in 'left-wing' countries (apart from USSR/CCCP). These regimes were propped up by one or the other side, many were simply the usual 'strongman' dictators that infest human history, but they used the rhetoric of one side or the other to get support. There would also be a huge number of poorly-known deaths from the "brushfire wars", Angola etc. - the almost-invisible sort of things still going in Africa & beyond, like the Contra terrorist/freedom fighters supported by Reagan's administration. Again, one side would appeal to the USSR or China as fighting the oppressive government and the other would then appeal to the US to oppose the left-wing guerillas (or vice-versa), even tho' examination could show neither side was anything much more than fighting for power in the dirtiest of ways. Yet again, like terrorism & reaction against it today, the cannon-fodder troops could be recruited by ideology or religion as well as force, whether or not this coincided with the leaders' true beliefs. In all this, I am not even touching on the other 'collateral damage'; those who died not directly through fighting or state terror, but through disease or injury or starvation caused by sanctions against their country, or the dedication of funds in their country to arms & supporting oppression or kleptocracies in the name of ideology rather than improving the lot of their population, or the destruction of infrastructure in either battles or guerilla wars. Alas, these casualties seem to be continuing quite unabated, as the heralded "Peace Dividend" is sucked back into armaments, rather than advancement, and 'other people" are again painted black or white like chess pieces to be shuffled around the board instead of fellow humans to be dealt with on their merits. And the world beyond humans? Just a battlefield & mine for resources, instead of a living & beautiful home. I miss Barbara Tuchman's incisive analysis, shown in work like her "March of Folly" - a book I'd highly recommend for today's world. More ... Limerick Competition, James O'Loghlin's ABC 702 Sydney (2BL) evening program. The subject was "Something you have that you don't want", with the 'bonus' word "cake". Three houses, two cars and a hole - One in my body and one in my soul - Organising a wake, Not a wedding cake, These were neither my hopes nor my goal. Several other people poetized about unwanted weight, one went all postmodernly self-referential and used the subject of the subject. There were some lovely ones, and as usual a couple that didn't fit the 'limerick' form. Someday I'll get my fancy radio-tape-CD unit to have good radio reception so I can tape these. Also, as often, I don't think my absolute favourite won. Oh well. Could do it this week because I'd been home sick (possibly overdid at the gym on Monday, nasty diaphram seizure). Spent most of the day out on the floor, on top of a couple of cushions and a sheepfleece car seat cover rescued from last council cleanup in good condition. Have another one from a couple of weeks back where I left work early for a medical appointment, so again could spend mental energy & time composing. Must find it & put it up here. The bonus word was 'kitchen'. Trying to remember the exact subject, something about place?, but I wrote about finding a cockroach making a noise in the kitchen. If I really go back, I have a whole "Saga in Limerick Form" about my trip through Victoria with the wildflower folk. More ... 2004-03-14
www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/09/mcdonalds.salad.reut/ McDonald's salad fattier than burger Tuesday, March 9, 2004 Posted: 6:47 AM EST (1147 GMT) LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Global hamburger giant McDonald's latest line in healthy looking salads may contain more fat than its hamburgers, according to the company's Web site. www.fact-index.com/i/in/incitatus.html Incitatus Incitatus was the name of Caligula's favored horse. Some have indicated that the horse was attended to by eighteen servants, and was fed oats mixed with gold flake; according to Suetonius, Incitatus had a stable of marble, with an ivory manger, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones. Suetoniusz wrote also that Caligula supposedly wanted to make his horse a Consul. The horse would also "invite" dignitaries to dine with him, and had a house with full complement of servants to entertain such guests. One popular anecdote indicates that Caligula once brought Incitatus into the Roman senate and appointed the animal senator. www.chez.com/encrier/Sidefiles/caligulas_incitatus.htm Incitatus was the horse of Caligula Gaius Caesar. Caligula lived from AD 12 to 41, as the Roman emperor, son of Germanicus and successor to Tiberius (in AD 37). Through his unrational and cruel behaviour he became known as being mentally unstable. The Roman historian Suetonius, reported just a generation or two after Caligula's death that "besides a stall of marble, a manger of ivory, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones, he even gave this horse a house. . . . It is also said that he intended to make him Consul." By the time of the less cautious historian Dio Cassius, the rumour had become "fact": "He even promised to appoint [his horse] consul, a promise that he would certainly have carried out if he had lived longer." 1 An old drink quite popular among the young when I was young (probably out of fashion now) was Stone's Original Green Ginger Wine www.ciao.co.uk/Stones_Original_Green_Ginger_Wine__Review_5359230 which gets a glowing review, especially for medicinal purposes at that link. A sample: "Here I sit, wrapped up in a blanket, big mug of steaming honey and lemon in hand, box of tissues at my side and feeling completely miserable. Ah yes, it's cold season again. Forgive me if I splutter and sneeze on you. There's pictures of the bottle & some info at: www.winestate.com.au/magazine/review.asp?issueno=37&review=Fortified%20Wines australian-food.com/drinks/stones.html Or, for the German-speaking, at www.whisky-shopping.de/de/dept_265.html "Stone’s Original Green Ginger Wine has been made in Australia since the early 1960’s to the same recipe as it has been produced in England since 1740. Stone’s is believed to be one of the oldest registered wine or spirit brands in continuous production since its initial launch." Though if you're interested in checking it out, you'd have to track it down in your area. It does seem to be around in the USA, possibly from UK sources. More ... second person, singular (at blogspot) Interesting thoughts & writing. Spare but attractive format. sip. /micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html dragon-light.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_dragon-light_archive.html Saturday, March 13, 2004 Life vs. death. However; Life vs. physics. Trees grow tall against gravity. Cells and organisms alter to prevent disease and damage to themselves. Humans build, create against the flow of the earth. Physics craves neutrality. The waves eventually beat the shore into a straight line. Everything erodes. Atoms decay. Life defies physics. Sunday, March 07, 2004
Earth needs water to nourish itself. Earth needs air to nourish itself. Fire needs water to control itself. Fire needs earth to nourish itself. Fire needs air to nourish itself. Water needs earth to control itself. Water needs air to change itself. Water needs fire to change itself. Air needs water to define itself. Air needs earth to define itself. Air needs fire to define itself. www.arcataeye.com/police04/040216police.shtml Monday, February 2, 2004 12:26 p.m. So grand was his motorized steed The loud exhibition of speed Brought cops and tow truck And that sorta sucked When car keys he had to concede. 4:12 p.m. A society that worships cars so much that homes are made with a special room for them offers no similar quarter to musicians. They’re not even allowed to use the garage for long, and it doesn’t even matter that they might someday manufacture noise suitable for playback through a car stereo - hell, computers can do that these days. www.globalaging.org/elderrights/world/2004/japaninvention.htm Japan: Japan Seeks Robotic Help in Caring for the Aged By James Brooke, the New York Times March 5, 2004 (FOREIGN DESK | March 5, 2004, Friday Machida Journal; Japan Seeks Robotic Help in Caring for the Aged By JAMES BROOKE (NYT) 962 words Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 1 , Column 2 [This NYT page is archived, only abstract is free, so have given alternative link.]) MACHIDA, Japan- With an electronic whir, the machine released a dollop of "peach body shampoo," a kind of body wash. Then, as the cleansing bubbling action kicked in, Toshiko Shibahara, 89, settled back to enjoy the wash and soak cycle of her nursing home's new human washing machine. Stargate TV Series Fan Site deepspaceradartelemetry.blogspot.com/ More ... 2004-03-12
www.dailynewsonline.com/founder_carol_avedon/ 2004_03_09_archive_article.php#107880462025671554 This whole article (excerpted below) very much expresses my history and thinking. One other strong precept some should think about: "Do as you would be done by". It's the Christianity, Stupid. Tuesday, March 09, 2004 By Avedon Carol ... I was raised on the Gospels and that, to a large extent, this is where my values come from, even though I've left all the churchifying behind ... I was taught that certain things were right and certain things were wrong, and I've thought about those things a lot in my lifetime, and they still seem pretty solid to me, whether you believe in a Higher Being or not More ... 2004-03-11
smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/10/1078594434768.html Chilling end to global warming forecast By Richard Macey March 11, 2004 Global warming could disrupt the world's sea currents, sending Europe into a chill within 100 years and devastating tropical ocean life, a CSIRO scientist says. Richard Matear, a Hobart-based marine researcher, said the oxygen content of deep ocean water between Australia and Antarctica had fallen 3 per cent since 1968. If new research confirmed the decline was happening throughout the world's southern oceans, it would be a strong sign global warming was interfering with sea currents. According to NASA "the thawing of sea ice covering the Arctic could disturb or even halt large currents in the Atlantic Ocean. "Without the vast heat these currents deliver - comparable to the power generation of a million nuclear power plants - Europe's average temperature would likely drop 5 to 10 degrees." While North America would not be as severely hit, the space agency said "such a dip in temperature would be similar to global average temperatures toward the end of the last ice age roughly 20,000 years ago"... On May 18th, 2003 a post started out: I think calling it 'global warming' is a mistake, people in cooler climates just think, 'hey, that'd be nice'. It's increasing the energy put into the system: Sudden Climate Change? "When 'climate change' is referred to in the press, it normally means greenhouse warming, which, it is predicted, will cause flooding, severe windstorms, and killer heat waves. But warming could also lead, paradoxically, to abrupt and drastic cooling: home.earthlink.net/~brucensara/NonlinearChange.html The New Scientist Global Environment Report: All you ever wanted to know about climate change: www.newscientist.com/hottopics/climate/climatefaq.jsp Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Ocean & Climate Change Institute: Abrupt Climate Change Most of the studies and debates on potential climate change have focused on the ongoing buildup of industrial greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and a gradual increase in global temperatures. But recent and rapidly advancing evidence demonstrates that Earth’s climate repeatedly has shifted dramatically and in time spans as short as a decade. And abrupt climate change may be more likely in the future. www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/currenttopics/ct_abruptclimate.htm (This lists links to articles of interest, including a FAQ: Common Misconceptions about Abrupt Climate Change.) PNAS* Online Special Features PNAS is offering a series of free online special issues that highlight cutting edge research in the physical and social sciences, mathematics, and biology. The special issues feature a cluster of related Perspective articles and peer-reviewed research articles. Rapid Climate Change - February 15, 2000 www.pnas.org/misc/special.shtml#climate Editorial Steven M. Stanley The past climate change heats up PNAS 2000 97: 1319. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] Perspective articles Richard B. Alley Ice-core evidence of abrupt climate changes PNAS 2000 97: 1331-1334. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] Jonathan Overpeck and Robert Webb Nonglacial rapid climate events: Past and future PNAS 2000 97: 1335-1338. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] (and 6 more) Rapid climate change research in the same issue Dennis L. Hartmann, John M. Wallace, Varavut Limpasuvan, David W. J. Thompson, and James R. Holton Can ozone depletion and global warming interact to produce rapid climate change? PNAS 2000 97: 1412-1417. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] (and 5 more) * Proceedigs of the National Academy of Sciences (USAA) www.undoit.org/ (Petition/Action site) Labels: climate, links, science More ... 2004-03-08
Depressed & Fearful in Lent One does fear for the future when contemplating some developments, such as those mentioned in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald (copied from NY Times?). www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/03/05/1046826433138.htm Why the secular creed should heed those who keep the faith [A similar point was touched upon by Miranda Devine in her War-wary will not weary them (SMH 2/12/2003) - at www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/02/12/1044927661598.htm - who praised statesmen of great "moral purity" (the type that really frighten me).] Perhaps because I was brought up in a fairly liberal Anglican parish, I haven't reacted as violently against the ignorant & authoritarian treatment some of my friends, colleagues & acquaintances received from their family, school or other religious instructors, but tried to take the ethical underpinnings into my own moral structure -- also using my science education -- which is strongly based on respect both for ones' fellow humans and the supporting world infrastructure ("environment"). [see also Jacob Bronowski* & Carl Sagan]. Atheism can be as dogmatic & ignorant as any theism. Fundamentalism can apply to many beliefs, including political & economic ones. As with religion or "traditional family values", there may be good things indeed within them, but when they are used in an authoritarian way to promote bigotry, ignorance & oppression, it is up to every decent person to repudiate that part of them. Unfortunately when people react against something, they do tend to swing the pendulum too far, for instance, lesbian separatists, some of the French revolutionaries, &c. *Jacob Bronowski: Ascent of Man: Knowledge and Certainty "Science is a very human form of knowledge....Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error.... Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible" ... "One aim of the physical sciences has been to give an exact picture of the material world. One achievement of physics in the twentieth century has been to prove that aim is unattainable" ... (at Auschwitz) ... "When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods". Quotes from this are at www.ronrecord.com/Quotes/bronowski.html or skepdic.com/science.html www.eighty.btinternet.co.uk/page30.htm www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/bronowski.html Some Other Straws in the Wind (S.O.S.)dev.null.org/blog/archive.cgi/2002/02 11/2/2002 The World's Oldest Multinational Corporation: A Catholic high school in Pennsylvania has awarded students extra credit for picketing an abortion clinic. More than 50 students of a religion class earned extra credit for picketing outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. The clinic also offers counselling, cancer screenings and contraceptives. <snip> Ann "invade them, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity" Coulter is at it again. After advocating a new Crusade in the Middle East and war against France (for being too soft on terrorism), she has now addressed the American Conservative Union Foundation calling for the use of the death penalty to intimidate dissenters. "When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors." (There you have it, folks: the Taliban, one of the harshest Islamic Fundamentalist groups in the world, are "liberals", or their ideological kindred.) THINGS SOMEWHAT OR COMPLETELY DIFFERENT The Main Blog Page ( dev.null.org/blog) includes the news from Rich Hall (an American comedian visiting Melbourne for their Comedy Festival): "Some jokes are now acceptable in America that would never be permissibleand the information: "a study in Britain has found that having an arts degree reduces one's earnings; in other words, people with arts degrees (in subjects such as history and English) earn between 2% and 10% less than people with no university degrees. " :/ Should I be happy I'm a science graduate? :) More ... I was shocked & disappointed that someone, who I thought from his writings had some intelligent, compassionate, sensible attitudes -- despite circumstances that might militate against him developing them -- is able to write what Yonmei is calling a lying piece of bigotry (he titled it Civilization) in her 4-Part (so far) Dissecting Orson Scott Card. An excellent set of arguments. Another interesting aspect is that she is in the UK, so is able to separate herself from many of the US cultural assumptions, which can be as tricky to work out from the outside as they are sometimes to detect from within. More ... 2004-03-04
Got Good News from final superannuation place. Happily they did a transfer straight to a bank account. I would have definitely been freaked out by the size of the cheque & the possibility of losing or having it stolen. Still slightly stunned. It's not like "it's all over now", though it sorta does feel that way, but that BIG step towards the end is here. It feels like a lot of money, but it wouldn't buy more than a derelict wreck of a building on a very small block somewhere unfashionable in Sydney. It will let me pay off the mortgages on the two small rented-out places in a small village-growing-into-a-town on the rail line between Sydney and New South Wales' second-largest city, Newcastle, that he bought with his retrenchment payout. The other most important thing is to also pay back the friends (particularly one), to whom I literally owe $thousands, for bills paid and other monetary support during my illness and the worst of the struggles. Nearly two years now, getting closer to winding up &, maybe, moving on a bit. Not that he'll be forgotten, but I won't be so completely taken up with just sorting through his things, both actual & metaphorical. Thoughts and feelings just running round & round. Not making all that much sense. More ... 2004-03-01
From Making Light comments on "Chant Wars" Andrew Sigel ::: February 28, 2004, 09:01 PM I saw Sequentia and Dialogos present "Chant Wars" last weekend, by which time the program had acquired the far more staid title of "The Emperor's Cantors ? The Carolingian Globalization of Medieval Plainchant". Despite the image conjured up by the first title, Sequentia and Dialogos did not, alas, face each other across the church altar, one representing Rome and the other the Carolingian empire, and sing competing versions of a chant text. It was, nevertheless, a fascinating program, with chant interspersed with readings from surviving writings about the confrontation between Roman and regional chant practices ... In another cool recreation, Benjamin Bagby (director of Sequentia) has been commissioned by the Lincoln Center Festival to perform Beowulf in its entirety (six hours) in 2006. He currently does a performance version of the first quarter of that epic, and has a website that will give you an idea of what to expect... but unfortunately, I couldn't find any specific details on the 2006 performance. There's time yet. From "Seeing the Forest" www.progressive.org/april04/zinn0404.html ( via www.seetheforest.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_seetheforest_archive.html#107755454462392478) As for Jeremy Feldbusch, blinded in the war, his hometown of Blairsville, an old coal mining town of 3,600, held a parade for him, and the mayor honored him. I thought of the blinded, armless, legless soldier in Dalton Trumbo's novel Johnny Got His Gun, who, lying on his hospital cot, unable to speak or hear, remembers when his hometown gave him a send-off, with speeches about fighting for liberty and democracy. He finally learns how to communicate, by tapping Morse Code letters with his head, and asks the authorities to take him to schoolrooms everywhere, to show the children what war is like. But they do not respond. "In one terrible moment he saw the whole thing," Trumbo writes. "They wanted only to forget him." Sometimes people forget that it was us anti-war folks who had enough foresight to worry about these problems before the war took place. I really think W should spend a day per week visiting injured soldiers. It might make him a bit less likely to take us into ... war again More ... |
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