May 30, 2007
Starting the day with a smile
From Yahoo News
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The idea of executing child rapists, even when there in no loss of life, is making headway in the United States.The Louisiana Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentence for a pedophile, and the governor of Texas is soon to sign into law legislation to that effect.
In 1995, Louisiana was the first state to adopt legislation authorizing the death penalty for child rapists.
(For some reason, the Yahoo article identifies one man as a 42 year old Patrick Kennedy. And then links to the biography and voting record of a certain 40 year old Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island Democrat Representative. That's just plain wrong.)
The links have been yanked.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:45 AM
May 28, 2007
Memorial day.
The fourth stanza of 'For the Fallen' is also known as The Ode.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 12:00 AM
April 13, 2007
'Nuff said
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:46 PM
January 23, 2007
Free speech, flights and idiots.
Allen Jasson, 55, an Australian, was stopped from boarding a Qantas flight from Melbourne to London.
Airline staff argued the T-shirt, which bears an image of the US president with the slogan 'World's number 1 terrorist', was a security risk or an item likely to upset passengers.
The airline earlier had prevented him from flying to Melbourne for Christmas with relatives on December 2 until he removed the shirt.
Domestic carrier Virgin Blue took the same action when Mr Jasson tried to catch a connecting flight to Adelaide...
But the Adelaide-born former Melbourne resident said he was seeking legal advice to challenge the airline's policy and recover costs.
"To be fair to Qantas, they have said I can take another flight if I don't wear the t-shirt but I am not prepared to go without the t-shirt," he said.
"I might forfeit the ($2,500) fare but I have made up my mind that I would rather stand up for the principle of free speech."
Source
So, we have someone making a bold stand for free speech in Australia, a notoriously totalitarian country. In an international airport.
I have several issues with this:
But the most droll aspect is:
He's not an American. He's not in America. The Australian Constitution does not contain provisions for the freedom of speech - even though Australia is a signatory to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which does include the right to freedom of speech.
So why doesn't Australia have it? Because for treaties and conventions to be accepted as law, they must pass a special act of Parliament. Article 19 of the UDHR has never been ratified in such a way, though there have been several attempts. There has been a series of very interesting discussions about how such a bill would actually limit rights in Australia rather than provide protections.
And even if he were in America, the first amendment is rather specific about Governments. Not private entities.
Even if it were in America, Qantas is a private corporation and as such is not subject to such laws.
Certainly, the man has every right to wear the shirt. And Qantas (or the Captain of the flight) has the right to deny service to anyone who seems likely to cause a disturbance which might interfere with a safe flight.
Personally, I would have handed him to security for a cavity search.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:38 AM
December 14, 2006
The February Dragon came early this year.
When eight years old, I learnt the phrase 'Ash Wednesday'. I did not realise it was the name for the first day of Lent; it had a far more ominous meaning for me.
There had little rain for two years, and the land was in the grasp of one of the largest droughts recorded in Australia. On February 16, 1983, a Wednesday, and, coincidentally enough, the first day of Lent, the February Dragon was born in a pair of shorting power lines, sparking a blaze that ripped through tinder dry forests and fields. And they could not be controlled nor stopped until they burnt their way to the coast, two weeks later. The state was blanketed in smoke and the sun glowed a malicious red at dawn and dusk through the haze.
Where I lived, ash fell all around. The smoke haze restricted vision and the night sky was lit from the north east by the infernal light of the torrid conflagration.
I remember my father, christian, standing out in the rains that came towards the end, praising Jove. I always imagined that he'd exhausted all the other rain gods in the weeks before.
A total of half a million acres were burnt out. In many areas, regrowth was slow and even ten years later; the blackened trunks of surving trees were a scarred reminder of the fire. The animals suffered terribly, both wild and livestock.
In 2002, the current drought began, again the worst on record. Four years later, it has been declared a “1000-year drought event”.
Two weeks ago, the dragon returned. Jove has turned a deaf ear.
In some areas, the flames are stretching 50 yards into the sky.
The government department that tracks such things currently lists an area of 1.36 million acres - larger than Delaware – as ‘Going’, largely in national parks thus far.
A ‘Going’ fire is one completely uncontrolled and spreading.
Small towns are coming together, as they do, with pubs putting on free food, soft drinks and beer for the firefighters. The Country Fire Authority always bears the brunt of these fires. It consists of 400 full time fire fighters and 700 or so assorted command and control staff and administrators. And 58,000 volunteers. Thank you.
And because there is always a certain element of society that should have been smothered at birth but weren’t, police down there are hunting a several arsonists for lighting deadly blazes.
Here's hoping theres some bush justice before the police catch them.
And it looks like I'm not alone in that thought. Mr Dosser was killed
Mr Dosser, 48, died on Thursday night trying to help his friend, Liz McCarthy, save her property at Old Joe's Creek Rd from the Cooper's Creek fire.Best friend Colin Walsh said Mr Dosser was always helping others.
"He was one of the best blokes I've met in my life," he said.
"He knew it (the fire) was getting close to his friends. He was going to stay with them until it was over."
Mr Walsh said words could not describe his feelings for those who had lit the fire.
"You could not put it in print," he said. "I'd like those people in a round yard surrounded by Don's mates."
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:39 PM
November 22, 2006
Inherent contradiction
Is it just me, or is there a selective lack of critical thinking amongst journalists now days?
From the BBC story titled "Israel to probe cluster bomb use"
The pressure groups Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both criticised Israel for firing cluster bombs into southern Lebanon during the 34-day conflict.In its latest report, Amnesty asserts that civilians on both sides bore the brunt of the fighting.
As well as highlighting the issue of cluster bombs, Amnesty found that Hezbollah hid Katyusha rockets among civilians and often fired them into Israel from the cover of civilian villages.
But researchers found no evidence that Hezbollah actually used civilians as human shields during the fighting.
The final senteces both abut and butt.
Using civialians as cover is not using civilians as human shields? I applaud the BBC's total mastery of cognitave dissonance.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:44 AM
November 03, 2006
Times bombshell story
The New York Times carries as their front page article today "U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer".
Which by and large, and quite rightly attacks the Bush administration for publishing these particular Iraqi documents on the internet.
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.Emphasis added
Well, you know, anywhere else except the UK's Ministry of Defence, which released a step by step guide in 2002 and helpfully added in how to smuggle it into the country.
Regardless, definitely something you don't want on the internet and a fair criticism. Heads should roll for it. No argument there.
However, the closing paragraphs didn't fit so well.
The Web site, “Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal,” was a constantly expanding portrait of prewar Iraq. Its many thousands of documents included everything from a collection of religious and nationalistic poetry to instructions for the repair of parachutes to handwritten notes from Mr. Hussein’s intelligence service. It became a popular quarry for a legion of bloggers, translators and amateur historians.
Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.Emphasis added
Whether they were a year away in the 1990s and the shell games with the UN inspectors slowed them up, or they were a year away in 2002 is not made clear, nor is it of particular relevance.
I think I can reconcile all of this:
There were no weapons of mass destruction being developed in Iraq. There was no reason to go to war. If we hadn't, Iraq now would have been a counterbalance to Iran, but without the nuclear deterrent they weren't not developing. But there was a war, Saddam was deposed and the Bush administration subsequently published all the papers it found there that hadn't been torched.
Some of these papers contain information that should never have been released.
Someone might do something bad like build a nuclear bomb with them.
Obviously not Iraq, because they weren't developing any WMD, just like they kept telling the UN instpectors. But someone, someone we wouldn't trust in the same way we would Saddam, just might.
The world was a far safer place when Iraq (and not the inept US government) had these documents securely contained in its research facilities.
Why is the room spinning?
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:47 AM
October 06, 2006
Oliver Stone. Counterterrorism expert. Idiot.
If there had been a better sense of preparation, if we had a leadership that was more mature," he said. "We did not fight back in the same way that the British fought the IRA or the Spanish government fought the Basques here. Terrorism is a manageable action. It can be lived with," said Stone.(source)
Ollie, is, of course, entitled to his opinion, however inaccurate that may be. I'm going to skip over commentary on "manageable action that can be lived with" comment (because Cox and Forkum and Law Dog Files have done that well enough). I'm even going to refrain from comment on other statements in the story and just look at one sentence:
"We did not fight back in the same way that the British fought the IRA or the Spanish government fought the Basques here"
I cannot imagine what candy-floss solutions Stone is dreaming that the UK and Spain pursued. In reality, they were very definitely not only 'living with it' and cleaning up after the last explosion, though they certainly took steps to reduce opportunities. Look around London and you'll not see a public trash can, for excellent reason.
For the sake of historical accuracy, lets peek at what was containted in the UK's "Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act" of 1974 and the implementation:
Authorities could arrest suspected terrorists without a warrant and detain them for up to a week without filing charges against them.Suspected terrorists could be deported from England to Northern Ireland. "Hooding," in which detainees would be isolated and forced to wear hoods over their heads. Food deprivation. Sleep deprivation. Noise bombardment. Forced standing at attention. All of these were condemned by the European Commission of Human Rights in 1976. None of the practices were stopped by the condemnation.
And, of course, the UK used their troops on the IRA. It all sounds rather familiar and rather like all those terrible, inhumane stories from Guantanomo involving tummy slapping and Chilli Peppers.
Spain, on the other hand, took it all much, much further with "Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación", financed by the Spanish Interior Ministry. These were government sponsorted death squads, employing simple tactics such as kidnapping, rape, torture (you can find mentions on Amnesty International's site - but if the Guantanamo treatments upset you, probably shouldn't) and murder.
In an obtuse fashion, Stone may be half right: We're not treating terrorists in the same fashion Spain did.
I don't think he'd be happy if we were.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 12:22 PM
July 28, 2006
The United Nations and Kofi.
It’s not a secret that I do not like the UN. I think it’s a bloated, bureaucratic, innefective and farcical organization.
Wednesday, I had the pleasure of reading the transcript of Kofi being asked an uncomfortable question:
QUESTION: Thank you very much. James Rosen with Fox News representing the U.S. media. . . Secretary General Annan, I would also like you to address your statement of last night in which you effectively accused the Israelis of deliberately killing four U.N. personnel. Do you believe a statement like that enhances your role as an honest broker of peace?SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: . . . let me say that I hope you read my statement and read it very carefully, because when you quote pieces in a press conference it has to be accurate. The statement said "apparently deliberate target." You dropped the word "apparent." I think it’s important in this.
What Kofi said originally was:
“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN Observer post in southern Lebanon,”
Which does indeed contain the weasel word 'apparently', though could be construed as inflamatory in nature. Kofi uses his standard 'playing the man, not the ball' defense he used so well on Oil-For-Food corruption questions, and sidesteps whether such words enhance his standing as a broker of peace by attacking the reporter’s credibility.
The UN press releases of the 24th through 27th paint a slightly different picture, with Hezbollah firing on and killing peacekeepers in addition to using their positions as cover to launch rockets from. The Peacekeepers were aware of it but there wasn't a damn thing they could do but keep their heads down. The U.N. knew Hezbollah was fortifying positions dangerously close to UN outposts months ago.
There has, of course, been no condemnation of Hezbollah by Kofi on any of this.
Apparently, and I must stress the word apparently, Kofi Anan is a spineless, hypocritical sack of shit.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:37 AM
July 12, 2006
Hot rocks
Worried that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started 'ironing' the girls' bosoms with a heated stone. . .A new survey has revealed it is shockingly widespread in Cameroon, where one in four teen-agers are subjected to the traumatic process by relatives
This is a practice whose side effects include abcesses, infections and breast cancer.
Happily the survey has prompted a nationwide campaign to eradicate the practice.
I have one additional suggestion: How about hot-rock ironing the genitalia of the rapists instead?
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 02:20 PM
July 06, 2006
The shame of it all! Free Hicks!
Catching up on Australian news, I noticed there is a lot of bleating about how maltreated David Hicks has been. Dave, for those who don't know, has been in Guantanamo Bay for four and a half years. Poor Dave.
Shaun Carney of The Age (our version of the the Grey Lady, with a similar leftwards bent) writes that it was simply:
... Hicks' bad luck to hail from a country whose elected political leadership not only does not give a stuff about him or his legal rights, but appears to actively want his life to be broken as some sort of example or sacrifice. Or something.If Hicks had been, say, a Saudi Arabian or a British citizen when he was captured, he would not be in Guantanamo Bay now. He would be back in his homeland.
Oh, and the by the way, they always added, Hicks is a terrible person who did terrible things. Totally guilty, you understand, even if he hasn't been charged with anything.
Compelling writing indeed. The article also mentions that Hicks is simply an "Adelaide bogan", who might only have "hung out" with al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan. As one might do any lazy weekend?
Reading from the charge sheets against him, it appears that he has actually been charged:
In early 2000, he joined a terrorist organisation known as Lashkar e Tayyiba (LET), or "Army of the Righteous".On or about January 2001, Hicks, with funding and a letter of introduction provided by LET, travelled to Afghanistan to attend al-Qaida terrorist training camps . . .
While Hicks was training at al Farouq, Osama bin Laden visited the camp on several occasions. During one visit, Hicks questioned bin Laden regarding the lack of English al-Qaida training material; accepting bin Laden's advice, Hicks began to translate the training camp materials ...
(T)he military commander of al-Qaida summoned and interviewed Hicks about his background and the travel habits of Australians ...
On or about June 2001, Hicks (was) taught how to fight in an urban environment ... and assassination techniques ...
On or about August 2001 ... Hicks and others conducted surveillance of various targets in Kabul, including the US and British embassies, and submitted reports ...
On or about early September 2001, Hicks travelled to Pakistan to visit a friend. After watching television footage of the September 11 attacks ... Hicks returned to Afghanistan to rejoin his al- Qaida associates ...
On or about October 2001, after coalition bombing operations commenced, Hicks joined an armed group outside the (Kandahar) airport, where they guarded a Taliban tank.
After guarding the tank for approximately one week, Hicks, still armed with the AK-47 rifle, ammunition and grenades, travelled with an LET acquaintance to Konduz, Afghanistan, arriving around November 9, 2001. There, he joined others ... who were engaged in combat against coalition forces.
And so on and so forth.
Back to Carney:
He could have evaded capture by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in late 2001 by staying out of that country. Instead, having taken off earlier, he went back in to get his meagre belongings.
Which kind of overlaps the 'engaged in combat against coalition forces' part of the charges. Meagre belongings including an AK-47 rifle, ammunition and grenades, perhaps.
(Bob says: Just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time holding the wrong thing and pointing it at the wrong people, that's all)
I hope its a long, long stay for him in Guantanamo.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:09 AM
June 27, 2006
Integrity is not a conditional word.
It seems transgressions have finally caught up with Ward Churchill. A tenured professor at the University of Boulder, CO, made the news last year for calling those killed in the 9/11 attacks 'technocrats' and 'Little Eichmanns'. If you haven't read it, this is a paragraph from the essay, and a link to read it in context.
As to those in the World Trade Center . . . Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to "ignorance" – a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" – counts as less than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what they were involved in – and in many cases excelling at – it was because of their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it.source
Arrogant, visceral, repulsive ranting. All protected by free speech, of course, which University of Colorado defended. I do always enjoy it when people confuse 'free speech' with 'impunity from repercussions'.
Allegations of academic fraud were investigated by the University. The investigating committee unanimously found that Churchill had engaged in "serious research misconduct,", a pretty way of saying falsifying information, fabricating information, plagiarism and several other academic misconducts.
Yesterday, Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano released his recomendation:
After conducting the due diligence I felt was necessary, I have come to a decision regarding the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct pertaining to Professor Ward Churchill. Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
I understand he is knee deep in the appeals process, but it seems the University has gone out of its way to dot the Is and cross the Ts.
His defenders paint him as a scapegoat, unfairly targeted. When tap dancing on thin ice, a veneer of academic credibility on dubious foundation, the halogen flood light of controversy is not what you want to focus on yourself.
There is justice in these roosting chickens.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:08 AM
June 02, 2006
Greenpeace
In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]
From a Greenpeace anti-nuclear power press release.
The Greenpeace spokesman who issued the memo, Steve Smith, told the Web site that a colleague was making a joke in a draft that was then mistakenly released.
I believe the part about 'mistakenly released'. I don't believe the part about a joke. The final release version warned of meltdowns and plane crashes.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 04:19 PM
May 31, 2006
In the kingdom of the ballless, the one balled man is king. (Redux)
Following on from the report last year that the French authorities had found banned substances in an old sample from Lance Armstrong
Dutch investigators cleared Lance Armstrong of doping in the 1999 Tour de France on Wednesday, and blamed anti-doping authorities for misconduct in dealing with the American cyclist.A 132-page report recommended convening a tribunal to discuss possible legal and ethical violations by the World Anti-Doping Agency and to consider "appropriate sanctions to remedy the violations."
The French sports daily L'Equipe reported in August that six of Armstrong's urine samples from 1999, when he won the first of his record seven-straight Tour titles, came back positive for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO when they were retested in 2004.
Vrijman said Wednesday his report "exonerates Lance Armstrong completely with respect to alleged use of doping in the 1999 Tour de France."
The ethical and legal violations result from being unable to retest the sample as it had been destroyed/contaminated/the dog ate my homework.
Here's to a twenty first sequential French defeat in the Tour.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 05:03 PM
Arsenic, Old Lace and Automobiles.
Mortimer Brewster: Now look, darling, how did he die? Abby Brewster: Oh, Mortimer, don't be so inquisitive. The gentleman died because he drank some wine with poison in it. Mortimer Brewster: Well, how did the poison get in the wine? Martha Brewster: Well, we put in wine because it's less noticeable. When it's in tea it has a distinct odor.Arsenic and Old Lace
From the Boston Globe
Undercover detectives watched the blind man climb into the suspect's car and start writing on document after document. They worried that he was signing his life away.As 74-year-old Josif Gabor would later tell it, he was walking to the bank when a woman he had met briefly before offered to drive him and translate some banking documents into his native Hungarian.
The nice septuagenarians, however had several small vices. One was for lawsuits, having filed almost 40 lawsuits between them over the last two decades, usually demanding money for alleged wrongs.
One was life insurance fraud, both having being indicted Tuesday on 10 counts for amounts totalling two million dollars. The policies were taken out on two homeless men that were struck and killed by cars in 1999 and 2005.
Once inside, Gabor thought the woman was just trying to be helpful when she asked: Could she buy him some life insurance?The woman, 72-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt, is now accused with a friend in a scheme to befriend vulnerable men, insure their lives for millions of dollars, and then cash in after they die in mysterious back alley hit-and-runs.
In an interview translated by his neighbor, Gabor said he has been afraid to leave his apartment since last Friday, when Rutterschmidt and 75-year-old Helen Golay were arrested and a police detective came to his door.
"She told me I was the next victim," said Gabor, a retired chiropractor who moved to the United States in 1980.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 01:56 PM
May 30, 2006
No, Signor da Vinci. Nessun elefanti, nessun cavalieri.
SKETCHES hidden beneath one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous works have been revealed to the public for the first time after scientists discovered the provocative images under a thick layer of paint.
New findings by Maurizio Seracini (who even pops up in that Dan Brown novel, the only real person) using multispecrum imaging reveal that the underdrawing of the 'Adoration of the Magi', whilst mostly reproduced in the overpainting, omited certain aspects. Like the knights fighting, the corpses, workers rebuilding a temple and an elephant.
The imaging of the original design revealed that were deliberately obscured and the monochromatic paining was carried out by an anonymous, minor artist some twenty years after Leonardo had abandoned the preparatory work.
Da Vinci was commissioned to do the Renaissance work by a monks in Scopeto, in 1481, and historians agree the monks were probably shocked when they saw the work.
I suppose a battle raging just over the Madonna's head is a little unusual.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 01:20 PM
May 22, 2006
Forget snakes on a plane...
A WOMAN who arrived in London on a flight from Africa yesterday is reported to have died from the deadly and contagious ebola virus.Panic has spread among cabin crew and hospital staff after the death of the 38-year-old Briton.
The unnamed woman is understood to work at an embassy in the African kingdom of Lesotho.
Aparently the syptoms matched that of haemorragic fever (which are similar to malaria and typhoid), they're waiting on a post mortem to identify the fever. The cabin crew have been told to monitor their health.
Richard Preston's "Hot Zone" as a fairly good, primer (take it with a grain of salt, it is rather sensationalized) on the history of Ebola (Sudan, Zaire and particularily the Reston strain) and Marburg, and he had the prescience to mention that "we are only an airplane ride away from the outbreak of a pandemic.". Both "Level 4: Virus hunters of the CDC" by Joe McCormick and Susan Fisher-Hoch, and "Virus Hunter" by C. J. Peters are far better, though a little drier, having been written two CDC workers with extensive experience and a leading epidemiologist respectively.
And, if you've no idea what these filoviruses can do to people, here's a snip from Preston's book (only about 10% of victims 'crash and bleed' liker this):
Ebola ravages every organ system of the human body except for the muscles and bones. It is the perfect virus because it uses every part of the body to replicate. It thickens the blood until it clogs veins causing parts of the body to die due to lack of blood. The skin begins to rash and liquefy. Sometimes the skin will split open and bleed from the slightest touch. Ebola turns every opening in the body into faucets of blood. The lining of a victim's throat begins to sloth[sic] off. The body begins to vomit up black bile. It is black as a result of being filled with the remains of dead cells. The brain also deteriorates causing the infected person to go insane.
The best way to describe the effects of Ebola on a person is to take the victim’s insides, liquefy them a blender, and spill its contents across a floor. Of course, its saturated with the virus.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 01:23 PM
May 19, 2006
The Muffin Man
The Muffin Man is seated at the table in the laboratory of the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen... He turns to us and speaks:"SOME PEOPLE LIKE CUPCAKES BETTER. I FOR ONE CARE LESS FOR THEM!"
Arrogantly twisting the sterile canvas snoot of a fully charged icing
anointment utensil he poots forths a quarter-ounce green rosette
near the summit of a dense but radiant muffin of his own design.
Later he says:"SOME PEOPLE... SOME PEOPLE LIKE CUPCAKES EXCLUSIVELY, WHILE MYSELF, I SAY THERE IS NAUGHT NOR OUGHT THERE BE NOTHING SO EXALTED ON THE FACE OF GOD'S GREY EARTH AS THAT PRINCE OF FOODS... THE MUFFIN!"
Muffin Man, Frank Zappa
Hot on the heels of last weeks laxitive cookies for the teacher, the muffin man strikes:
Muffins that made 18 staff members at a Dallas-area high school ill contained the active ingredient found in marijuana, Dallas County health department officials said Thursday.Meanwhile, the FBI released frames from a surveillance video showing a young man delivering the muffins to Lake Highlands High School on Tuesday. The FBI said the man is considered a "person of interest" in the case.
The muffins were left in a teachers lounge and eaten by school employees, who later complained of nausea and feeling lightheaded.
Have you seen the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man?
Update:
The FBI have now released a photo.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 03:48 PM
May 16, 2006
Abracadabra1. Or just use pesticides.
I say, then, that such was the energy of the contagion of the said pestilence, that it was not merely propagated from man to man but, what is much more startling, it was frequently observed, that things which had belonged to one sick or dead of the disease, if touched by some other living creature, not of the human species, were the occasion, not merely of sickening, but of an almost instantaneous death.The Decameron, Boccaccio, c.1348
Having read some histories and accounts of the black death, the bubonic plague that reduced Europe's population by (an estimated) one-third in the 14th century, I'm always curious to read more when I see it in the news. In Utah this time.
Utah Campground Closed Because of Plague
A campground at Natural Bridges National Monument has been closed because of bubonic plague detected among field mice and chipmunks.Plague also has been found this spring in rodent populations at Mesa Verde National Park and Colorado National Monument.
...
"We come down on the conservative side when it comes to closing campgrounds," said Joe Winkelmaier of the U.S. Public Health Service. "We just like to be sure when it comes to plague."
Which certainly gets my vote for understatement of the week. Good to know they take Pestis bubonica seriously.
It did bring to mind a story from last year, where three lab mice, infected with the plague were stolen and one from a few weeks back, where a woman in Los Angeles was hospitalized with it.
Reading up on the CDC site reveals that the plague has a happy home in the wilds, with 10-15 human casts per year 'Most ... occur in two regions: 1) northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado; and 2) California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada.'
1. Abracadabra was an incantation intended to cure fevers and inflammations, and employed in the 16th Century to ward off the plague. It didn't work.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:56 AM
April 27, 2006
France to beat Google at the search game. No, really. Stop laughing.
From the Guardian.
The French president, Jacques Chirac, yesterday unveiled what he hopes will be his great legacy to France's struggle against the global dominance of the US: a series of technological projects including a European search engine to rival Google.
Chirac will commit two billion dollars to the project. This is, of course, another nationalistic drive to save France from becoming 'that socialist place with good museums'.
So far this year, Google has spent $247 million in R&D, on top of last year's $600 million. Capital expenditure was $1.2 billion over the last 16 months. They are predicted to spend $1.1b on R&D this year.
Somehow, I can't see any government project catching up to such an energetic company. And even if they do, the goal posts will have well and truly moved on.
Je suis désolé, Monsieur Chirac. You do have the nicest art museum, if thats any consolation.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:52 AM
April 18, 2006
A Call for Tolerance (Within Limits)
Scott Burgess, posessing a far prettier wit than my own, runs The Daily Ablution ("Washing brains since 2003"), which exposes arrogant idiocy in the English press with a dry humour. Today , it is once more the turn of Martin Jacques.
For Mr. Jacques, the "new type of intolerance" manifest in this "western hubris" (not his own, but that brought about by globalisation) is "more comprehensive and totalitarian" than that of previous European colonialism. Those who - like, perhaps, students of the Spanish experience in the New World - might balk at such a statement are assured that it is indeed the case. The evidence? European colonialists didn't foster democracy in the lands they conquered, but the neocolonialists do.And so, in the strange world inhabited by Mr. Jacques, more democracy equates to more totalitarianism (and freedom, presumably, to slavery).
Always entertaining. I also find the archive pages there the perfect foil to productivity...
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 03:54 PM
April 17, 2006
U.N. outdoes itself
The United Nations has, by considerable dint of effort, outstripped its previous best effort at self-parody1, paddling rapidly towards the waters of farce.
Under threat of United Nations Security Council sanctions for its own nuclear program, Iran has been elected to a vice-chair position on the U.N. Disarmament Commission, whose mission includes deliberations on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
Anyone have suggestions for a more productive use of Turtle Bay?
1. In 2003, just before Saddam was deposed, due the “purely automatic rotation by alphabetical order,” the chair and co-chair of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament were Iraq and Iran. Prior to that it was Libya chairing the Human Rights Commission.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 04:33 PM
From the country that gave us Sherlock Holmes...
A startling result of research from Scotland, where last year, a research project proved knives were most likely to be used in stabbing homicides, comes this gem of research knowledge:
Goth Youths Prone to Suicide Attempts and Self-Mutilation
Not that I'm entirely surprised with that result, but there are some little problems, which the researchers are honest enough to point out:
"But since our study found that more reported self-harm before, rather than after, becoming a Goth, this suggests that young people with a tendency to self-harm are attracted to the Goth subculture."
So its not actually Goths, then.
The report details statistics for such sub-cultural identifications as "Goth, Punk, Heavy Metal, Mosher, Nu-metal, Skater, Grunge, Retro, Indie, Rave, Club, Garage, Hip-Hop, Pop and Other". Skinhead, Breakers, Mods and Hippies were excluded on the basis that there were ten or less people that identified with the genra and no one likes them anyway. (Coke even declared open season on hippies by proxy, with their new Mountain Dew clone, Vault)
"However, the study was based on small numbers and replication is needed to confirm our results."
It was, in fact "A School and community based study of young people living in the Central Clydeside Conurbation, Scotland", based on 1258 young people. They found 15 goths in total. Admittedly, it has been a few years since I last delved into degrees of confidence, chi-squares and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, but most statistical significance tests rely on a decent sized random sample, so a sample from one age group in a single location would not seem ideal.
There's also the everpresent jab at role playing games (inserted by MedPage reporters, and not in the research paper):
There is a Goth subculture in the U.S., reportedly inspired by fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragon(sic).
Further evidence of such demonic perversions inherent in Dungeons and Dragons is provided here.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:43 AM
April 12, 2006
On the other side of the pond, the teachers are revolting.
From the Independent(emphasis added in certain quotes). I'm rather old fashioned about education. I think there is a lot to be said for rote learning and standards, though I do like aspects of the Montessori system.
Teachers' leaders called for the abolition of all national curriculum tests up to the age of 16 - claiming they had turned a generation of schoolchildren off lessons.
I suspect the key to academic excellence is not the abolition of methods to identify those who are not keeping pace - so long as those tests are used to determine who requires additional study.
Instead of traditional subject headings such as history and geography, the union wants a range of skills taught - such as creativity, communications and citizenship. These, it says, would "not be amenable to mainly paper tests" which the union says are counter-productive... Teachers' leaders said pupils did not need a knowledge-based curriculum - but should be learning skills for their futures.
Nowlege out of skool! It never helped no won! Eva!
I find the idea of a generation with no knowledge of history quite appalling, as does this gentleman.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment at the University of Buckingham, described the union's report as "disturbing nonsense".
Thank you, Professor.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:09 AM
April 10, 2006
Sorry, Ben, you can't hang the President for that.
Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher had Mr Affleck (widely known for his political perspicacity) trying very hard to be the smartest man on the panel. This met with as much success as Gigli.
Bill Sammon, Washington Examiner: "A lot of critics are conflating the two and are saying that because Bush disclosed this piece of information, they're implying that Bush leaked the name."
Ben Affleck: "He probably also leaked the name. There's just no proof of that."
Sammon: "Even the prosecutor, even Fitzgerald is saying Bush didn't leak the name. So let's be clear, Bush didn't leak Valerie Plame's name -- not that we know of."
Affleck: "Because if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!"
Bill Maher: "That is treason."
Affleck: "You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that. Don't you think we should find out who leaked that name?"
Newsbusters carries the story and video.
If you don't want to subject yourself to that, I invite you to talk to the Autorantic Moonbat about Bush. Its not entirely dissimilar in content or coherency.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:57 AM
April 03, 2006
Yale and it's Taliban
Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi (ex-Taliban ambassador-at-large) has been attending classes at Yale University (rather old news). This has attracted a fairly steady stream of (not unfounded) criticism, which sadly seems to have bypassed how he managed to obtain a student visa to begin with. Today, Zachariah Victor, a member of Yale’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (PhD Music) offers his considered and rational opinon:
“The outsiders are largely right-wing commentators. They don’t have reason, science or history on their side, so they try to degrade intellectuals and universities. Rational argument cannot support them, so they turn to ‘morality’ and religion. They have little expertise, so they deprecate expert opinion and appeal to populist sentiment. They cannot comprehend the breadth of our constitution, so they try to subject the rights of the few to the superstitions of the many.”
Secure in his own vast cognitive power, Victor solely delivers polished ad-hominem attacks, supported by a mass of condescending arrogance to those considers his intellectual inferiors. And I dare say that would include all who do not kowtow to his expertise.
Victor, however, may be right. I certainly can't think of any reason or history of the Taliban that may make their spokesperson undesirable.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 12:27 PM
March 29, 2006
UN leaps into inaction
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed on a statement Wednesday demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, setting the stage for the first action by the powerful body over fears that Tehran wants a nuclear weapon.
Nobody expects a U.N. Resolution! Our chief weapon is resolutions... resolutions and debates... Our two weapons are resolutions and debates... and ruthless inefficiency.... Our three weapons are ...
Sadly enough, the whole sketch fits the UN rather well.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 03:41 PM
March 27, 2006
We are a sports mad country...
The late George Orwell said serious sport was "like war without the killing". In Australia its rather more like peace without the negotiations. In Melbourne, if we don't understand the sport, we'll watch anyway - and quite likely love it.
So, with these happy thought, I checked the final medal tallies.
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Australia | 84 | 69 | 68 | 221 |
| England | 36 | 40 | 34 | 110 |
| Canada | 26 | 29 | 31 | 86 |
| India | 22 | 17 | 11 | 50 |
Which is not a bad haul for a country with a smaller population than Ghana.
Actually, if the Australian swimmers were to secede, they would have come fourth in the gold medal rankings (24).
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:28 AM
March 23, 2006
What we got here is a willingness to miscommunicate.
You probably heard about the Christian Peacemaker Team that was kidnapped in Iraq. Its a four month old hostage situation, where the American member was summarily executed and dumped on a Baghdad street.
Happily, the surviving CPT are all safe'n'sound now. Being curious about what they'd say, I checked their website for info.
The CPT press release says this:
Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been safely released in Baghdad. Christian Peacemaker Teams rejoices with their families and friends at the expectation of their return to their loved ones and community.
Relase by their munificent kidnappers? No. Rescued by US and British Special Forces. No mention of rescue in their release, however (though they do blame the multinational occupiers as the root cause of their kidnapping).
I bet they weren't shouting "Occupiers out!" as they were ungagged and unbound.
And because Star Wars has a line for every occasion:
HAN: (sarcastically) Maybe you'd like it back in your cell, Your Highness.
Update: From CNN's report:
U.S. and British forces acting on a tip from a detainee today rescued three Christian peace activists without firing a shot, a U.S. military spokesman said.
A tip from a detainee, you say? How ironic.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:03 AM
March 20, 2006
Busy day on the news front.
As I read this article, I could not help think Karl Rove has been fired and replaced by Basil Fawlty.
WASHINGTON - President Bush marked the anniversary of the Iraq war Sunday by touting the efforts to build democracy there and avoiding any mention of the daily violence that rages three years after he ordered an invasion. The president didn't utter the word "war."
Basil: "Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it. So it's all forgotten now and let's hear no more about it. So that's two egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels, a Herman Goering and four Colditz salads....no, wait a minute...I got confused because everyone keeps mentioning the war."
German: "Will you stop mentioning the war?"
Basil: "You started it."
German: " We did not start it."
Basil: "Yes you did, you invaded Poland..."
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 12:22 PM
Its not often the Crusades hit the news
I have always enjoyed the history of the middle ages (especially the period from 1000 to 1400, which includes the Crusades), and so when this article popped up, it piqued my interest.
Vatican change of heart over 'barbaric' Crusades.
THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity ... At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian lands and the Muslim devastation of the Holy Places”. “The debate has been reopened,” La Stampa said. Professor De Mattei noted that the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Muslim forces in 1009 had helped to provoke the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century, called by Pope Urban II. He was backed by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, who said that those who sought forgiveness for the Crusades “do not know their history”.
There is nothing official from Papa B. there, but I have a feeling this might get some play in the media - and the treatment will not be favourable.
Very timely. I was looking for any excuse to reread Runciman.
Just as an aside, I'm noticing that newspapers appear to increasingly be simple collaters of news feeds, all printing the same article. Looking for different takes on this (or even more detail on the conference) at this time yeilds nothing but carbon copies of this article. Yes, I'm slow. I should have noticed years ago.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:40 AM
March 14, 2006
Political Blogging.
At last, some good news for bloggers who don't want to run afoul of the FEC.
CNet news carries the following:
Bloggers would be largely immunized from hundreds of pages of confusing federal regulations dealing with election laws, according to a bill approved by a House of Representatives panel on Thursday. Democrats had blocked an earlier effort last November to enact the legislation, which would amend federal campaign finance laws to give Internet publishers many of the same freedoms that newspapers and magazines currently enjoy. "We don't expect bloggers to check with a federal agency before they go online," said House Administration Committee Chairman Vernon Ehlers, a Michigan Republican, referring to the Federal Election Commission. "They shouldn't have to read FEC advisory opinions (or have) to worry about running afoul of federal election laws."
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:30 AM
March 06, 2006
I find this entirely amusing.
It may make me a bad person, but only by someone elses moral standards.
Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast by Melvin Kassam • Sunday March 05, 2006 at 08:50 AMThe Rachel Corrie Memorial Committee of Victoria Invites you to a pancake breakfast at Denny's Restaurant Sunday March 12 , 2006 10 am.
The Public is invited to a memorial pancake breakfast at Denny's Restaurant on Douglas Street near Finlayson, 10 am, Sunday March 12, 2006 to celebrate the life and untimely death of Rachel Corrie, Peace Activist with the International Solidarity Movement.
There will be a reading of selections from Ms. Corrie's letters and diary, followed by a ceremony at Topaz Park, where a stone cairn will be erected in her honour.
Attendees are encouraged to wear their keffiahs, and to dress in black.
No weapons, drugs, or alcohol please.
(Rachel Corrie was a member of this organization until her death when she tried to obstruct an Israel Defense Force Caterpiller D9 bulldozer. Accounds vary, the IDF says rubble fell on her from a collapsing house. The ISM say it ran her over twice.)
I wonder that they have to instruct attendees not to bring weapons, alcohol or drugs to a breakfast.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:43 AM
January 27, 2006
Google in China
Yesterday Google agreed to 'modify' its search results in China. The article tells us that
By creating a unique address for China, Google hopes to make its search engine more widely available and easier to use in the world's most populous country.
Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.
Just to try it out, I did an image search on 'Tiananmen' with google.com and google.cn - and discovered no small differences between Google-regular and Google-Ministry-of-Truth.
http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen
Where else should I go?
‘Room 101,’ Google said.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:17 AM
October 25, 2005
Rest in peace
Fifty years ago, a lady refused to give her bus seat up for a man. This simple act sent her to jail and sparked a bus boycott that is considered the start of the modern civil rights movement.
Rest in peace, Mrs Parks.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:40 AM
October 20, 2005
People for the EuThenasia of Animals?
PETA workers face 25 felony counts in North Carolina. ... Additionally, the two [PETA] employees were charged with three felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. The charges allege that they euthanized three cats from an Ahoskie veterinarian after promising to find the animals new homes... PETA employees ... were served with warrants on 22 felony charges of animal cruelty and the three felony charges of obtaining property by false pretense in court on Friday. Police began investigating this summer after carcasses of cats and dogs in plastic bags were found in a supermarket garbage bin ... every Wednesday for four consecutive weeks. At least 80 animals were found.
Ethical indeed. I'm willing to bet the dead animals were photographed by PeTA to highlight the evil things that people do to animals, because the ends justifies the means, just as it did in last year's "Your mommy kills animals" 'comic' (depecing Suzie Homemaker repeatedly stabbing a cowering bunny with a kitchen knife).
But I'm a cynic at heart.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:00 AM
October 13, 2005
Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Schroeder.
Giving a parting kick to the US, a 'tearful looking' departing Chanceller Schroeder addressed a 'rapt' audience of union members,
He quickly composed himself, hitting his stride in a passionate defense of a strong German state and lashing out at "Anglo-Saxon" economic policies favoured in Britain and the United States, which he said had "no chance" in Europe.
Indeed, there was Lisbon Strategy (2000), a ten year plan to make the EU the world's powerhouse economy. Part of the future strong Germany Gerhard was going to create involved increased investment in education, R&D, producing world leadership in medical drugs and biotech. A plan, indeed.
All that was lacking was execution. An EU Commission's survey shows that 400,000 European science and technology graduates have immigrated to the US, whilst companies GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis both have moved their research to the US.
But arguments over economic models aren't all that much fun. Skipping ahead to the bit where he sticks his little knife into the US:
"I do not want to name any catastrophes where you can see what happens if organised state action is absent. I could name countries, but the position I still hold forbids it, but everyone knows I mean America," he said to loud applause.
The position forbids it, but he'll do it anyway. Because that's just the kind of guy he is.
We all know the response to Katrina wasn't as quick as it should have been, and there's been finger pointing a plenty, and doubtless more to come and heads will (and should) roll.
I wonder, though, if that reminded his staunch ally Jacques of the heatwave two years back that killed 13,000 of his denizens and took the government a full week to declare an emergency.
The more caring european model at work. Or not.
Auf Wiedersehen Herr Schroeder. Danke 'n scheiss, scheißkerl.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 01:09 PM
October 11, 2005
That's smurferific!
Smurficide, as reported in the UK by the Telegraph.
Gargamel finally found out where the village was and launched a good old fashioned airstrike, replete with BLU-82 'mushroom cutters'.
The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.
It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom-shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky. Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.
Unsurprisingly, it makes small children who see it cry. It was toned down from the original concept, in which smurfs are variously dismembered and decapitated by the blasts (which would be one way of settling the question of whether they're blue all the way through). Fifteen year olds will just think its cool.
The object, is, of course to make people think. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the use of warplanes and aerial bombing in the popular imagination is pretty closely tied to the US.
I'm thinking Papa Smurf knew. Or he needed a bigger defense budget. And that is was the US, they'd go after Barney the Dinosaur because that's where the oil comes from. That the Belgians may cry over cartoons of dead blue things, but weren't too cut up about Rwanda circa 1994, or massacres in any other ex-colony.
And also "Charlie don't smurf."
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:41 AM
September 09, 2005
Flight 93 marker design chosen (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot)
Pittsburgh Post GazetteIt will serve as a living tribute. With each wind, each breeze, a set of chimes housed in a 93-foot tower will create a different song in memory of the 40 people who sacrificed their lives trying to save the lives of others.
So far, so good.
Four years after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a reclaimed strip mine near Shanksville, Somerset County, on Sept. 11, 2001, the design that will serve as the national memorial was unveiled here yesterday in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hall of Flags ... Forty separate groves of red and sugar maples will be planted behind the crescent
Crescent? Wait a moment.
"Crescent of Embrace", it's titled. Maybe I'm missing something and just do not understand the artistic significance. Or perhaps I'm assigning significance when there is none.
Its not that I mind the symbol itself. However, this is a memorial to a flight downed by the 9/11 terrorists. Is it really an appropriate shape?
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:41 AM
September 07, 2005
So, how about number eight?
I thought you might.
After being (repeatedly) attacked by a certain French magazine on drug allegations, the slings and arrows of the French may have coaxed someone out of retirement.
Nor has the racing team actually looked for a replacement leader, holding the team leader position open, just in case.
Update
Direct from ThePaceline.com (registration required)
"While I'm absolutely enjoying my time as a retired athlete with Sheryl and the kids, the recent smear campaign out of France has awoken my competitive side. I'm not willing to put a percentage on the chances but I will no longer rule it out..." - Lance Armstrong
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 10:34 AM
September 02, 2005
And you thought the roaches were bad.
Aaron Balick got a bit of a nasty shock when he heard some rustling under papers in the corner of his living room.
"Thinking it was a mouse, I went to investigate the sound," the 32-year-old psychotherapist said yesterday. "The sound was coming from under some papers, which I lifted expecting to see the mouse scamper away."
If he's the twitchy type about things that scurry, its a very good thing he can treat himself. And you know it wasn't a mouse. It as a venomous giant South American centipede (Scolopendra gigantea), measuring in at a considerable 23cm (a little over 9 inches long).
Stuart Hine, an entomologist, said it was likely the centipede hitched a ride aboard a freighter, likely with a shipment of fruit.
And I sit and wonder where she laid her sixty or so eggs and when they hatch.
(Clicking the "Continue" link below will get you a picture of one)
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:58 AM
August 25, 2005
The French (again).
Seldom do I find myself on the side of animal liberation. Today is, however, such an occasion. Brigitte Bardot (who is, admittedly, french) has called on her government to outlaw using certain things as shark bait.
Like live puppies and kittens.
I'm not going to go into all the gruesome details. You can click here if you want them. Be warned, it involves baby animals, sharks, fishing lines and hooks.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 01:35 PM
After reading "Databases for Dummies"...
Arthur Kirk was arrested on felony weapons charges. No big story there, really. Except that he had a felony on his record already, but still managed to hold an administrative position with the Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District. Which is disturbing.
The school district contracted with Kirk as an AmeriCorps volunteer in 2001, unaware he had a lengthy felony criminal history under the name Arthur Kirkeby. He served more than five years in prison after being convicted in 1981 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving an 8-year-old boy in Macomb County.
But surely the school did background checks? Yes, they did. School officials entered Kirk's name, driver's license number, Social Security number and date of birth into Michigan State Police's Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT).
Which is a rather cool idea. But...
An Ingham County Probate Court official confirmed Kirkeby legally changed his name to Kirk there in 1985 ... [and] the system keys off a person's name, and no criminal history existed for Arthur Kirk, only for Arthur Kirkeby
And date of birth and SSN and drivers licence don't count toward search results.
The system has since been updated now they know people can change their names. I hope they know social security numbers can change too.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 12:19 PM
August 24, 2005
In the kingdom of the ballless, the one balled man is king.
PARIS - Faced with yet another report that he cheated his way to a Tour de France victory, Lance Armstrong responded Tuesday the same way he has since the doping whispers began during the first of his seven straight wins: "I never took performance enhancing drugs."
"Oh fuck off, you lying, whiney little toad munchers" would have been less polite, but more apt.
In a four-page article headlined "The Armstrong Lie," the French sports daily L'Equipe printed copies of documents suggesting six urine samples he provided during his first championship in 1999 tested positive for the red blood cell-booster erythropoietin, or EPO.For once, I agree with the title. I think it is lies about Armstrong. They're testing for EPO now, from a six year old sample. It's been frozen. But... EPO, either in its natural state or the synthesized version, is not stable in urine - even when frozen and stored at -20' celsius (-4'f).
And retesting? No, sorry. They can't do that either. The sample has been destroyed/contaminated/the dog ate my homework.
Its more or less an extension of the stuff they've been printing for the last seven years. I had thought they'd stopped when he retired (which they welcomed with "Never to such an extent, probably, has the departure of a champion been welcomed with such widespread relief"), but I suppose you can't underestimate the bitterness that not actaully winning their own race for the last twenty years produced.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:55 AM
August 23, 2005
Must be a hell of a show.
CANTON, Ohio -- There are 490 female students at Timken High School, and 65 are pregnant, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository.The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.
The last two, I can buy. But videogames, TV and movies? How does that work?
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 04:38 PM
August 17, 2005
Art? Of course. Look at the red wall daubings.
It has to be said that I don't like modern art. At all. Generally, if it's cubism or beyond, it is almost guaranteed to be an exibit I'll stroll past without pause. I am a self confessed heathen when it comes to such things. Colours and blurred or shapless forms fail to move me. But this is... Just, hell, no.
This latest project, a functional suitcase bomb, will be included in a large art exhibition that will open under the auspices of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council a few days before Sept. 11 He said the strength of the bomb would be equivalent to “about four pounds of TNT. It doesn’t sound like much," he allowed, “but it’s enough to kill everyone in the gallery."
Bad taste? Not at all, dear chap, it's all meant to be a bold, transgressive work in this age of terrorism. A work to confound your emotions, expand your mind. It's art, you are not sophisticated enough to comprehend the lofty implications and moral exhorations this work exudes.
Mr. Hackett’s bomb is designed to be triggered from “anywhere else in the world—you call a cell phone.” He said that he had already purchased the cell-phone trigger. Only he knows the number—but, of course, he has no plans to explode it. "It won’t go off,” said Seth Cameron, creative director of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Did Mr. Cameron feel safe with the bomb’s construction? “Given Chris’ illustrious past, at first, no. Basically, I’m just making him swear up and down that he’s not going to …. ” He trailed off. “It’s one thing for him to blow himself up, but when it comes to other people … I’m just crossing my fingers.”
Illustrious past? The one with an arrest for illegal posession of two AK-47s, a 9mmk pistol, pump action shotgun and a sten gun, on which he is on bail for. And he promised not to make it go boom. Cross your fingers and pray he takes those uppers for the duration.
I'm looking forward to the bomb squad taking out the exhibit with a few charges.
Or perhaps an advance entry to the Darwin Awards?
And the cynic in me screams "Publicity stunt."
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:58 PM
August 02, 2005
Discovering repairs
There's something wrong with the shuttle, this time insulation protruding frome the belly of the shuttle.
NASA says the protruding ma