links for 2007-07-01
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Monthly Archives: June 2007
SU: The War On Science
Vidipedia – The web’s first video encyclopedia – War on Science
Link to a BBC show called Horizon for an episode called “The War on Science” that covers the Dover School Board’s creationism/intelligent design court case.
Mythbusters Needed: Al Qaeda in Iraq (not so much)
McClatchy: Bush Wrong to Blame Iraq Woes Mainly on Al-Qaeda
NEW YORK For the past week, E&P has noted the Bush administration’s rising use of blaming much of the insurgency in Iraq on al-Qaeda operatives. Some news outlets have gone all along with this, others not. We pointed out that McClatchy Newspapers seemed to be questioning this trend.”We cannot attribute all the violence in Iraq to al Qaida,” retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq before becoming an opponent of Bush’s strategy there, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. “Al Qaida is certainly a component, but there’s larger components.”
Today McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay, in a report from Washington, threw more cold water on this. His article opened as follows.
Facing eroding support for his Iraq policy, even among Republicans, President Bush on Thursday called al Qaida “the main enemy” in Iraq, an assertion rejected by his administration’s senior intelligence analysts.
The reference, in a major speech at the Naval War College that referred to al Qaida at least 27 times, seemed calculated to use lingering outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster support for the current buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, despite evidence that sending more troops hasn’t reduced the violence or sped Iraqi government action on key issues.
It amazes me how this simple-minded ploy – repeating something over and over again in order to make it easier to believe – works so well. The Big Lie is still a powerful tool, and so is the Little Myth, as long as it’s repeated endlessly.
Paul Krugman mentioned in passing while discussing Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take over the Wall Street Journal:
60 percent of Americans believed at least one of the following: clear evidence had been found of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda; W.M.D. had been found in Iraq; world public opinion favored the U.S. going to war with Iraq.
The prevalence of these misperceptions, however, depended crucially on where people got their news. Only 23 percent of those who got their information mainly from PBS or NPR believed any of these untrue things, but the number was 80 percent among those relying primarily on Fox News.
Actually, I’m kind of surprised about that 23 percent of NPR listeners, as an old-timer myself.
But anyway, Mythbusting Al Qaeda in Iraq is simple enough; keep repeating the truth to those who might listen. Kind of like repeating “there is no spoon” to yourself endlessly. It’s mostly illusion, smoke and mirrors. Sure, there is an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq, but not to the extent Bush and Company so obviously want us to think — and they for damn sure want to justify the Iraq war any way they can, because they’re incapable of admitting they were wrong.
The entire Krugman article can be read (with some difficulty) here, but it’s easier read in a newsreader due to the background and font colors.
[tags]Iraq, Al Qaeda, myth, Big Lie, Paul Krugman, there is no spoon[/tags]
Boing Boing: Symphony for old IBM mainframe
Boing Boing: Symphony for old IBM mainframe
In 1964, an Icelandic IBM 1401 mainframe engineer figured out how to get the machine to emit beautiful, bassy notes, and composed a symphony for it. Now his son is touring the symphony with interpretive dance thrown in.
I’m blogging this for my husband David, who says he’s heard the symphony but may not have heard about the dance video that goes with it. He’s pretty deeply involved with the IBM midrange community, so the backstory may be familiar to him.
The dance video is a disappointment; the image above makes it look like it might be interesting but in reality it consists of a woman in a dark room with dark clothing rolling around on the floor, writhing, jerking spasmodically, and occasionally yipping like a chihuahua giving birth. The symphony is sonorous and interesting, but the dance performance didn’t hold my interest and I kept looking at other stuff with the music playing in the background.
[tags]IBM, dance, geek[/tags]
links for 2007-06-30
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Only in Utah… cranky old ladies dispense birth control advise to Hispanic ladies on the bus and then complain that “they’re taking over.”
BBC NEWS | UK | Two car bombs found in West End
BBC NEWS | UK | Two car bombs found in West End
Police have confirmed they are now investigating the discovery of two car bombs in the West End of London.Police said the second device had been found in a Mercedes hours after the car was given a parking ticket in Cockspur Street and towed to Park Lane.
Another Mercedes, with a bomb made up of 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, had been found outside a nightclub in Haymarket at 0130 BST.
Both bombs were similar, potentially viable and clearly linked, police said.
This gave me the cold chills this morning. I know Haymarket faily well – it was “my London neighborhood” on my first trip to Britain with Mom 20 years ago or so. We were just a couple of streets over, at the Thistle Trafalgar Square, and we often went up and down Haymarket to get somewhere. Ended up spending time in a pub there one night and got the “tourist lowdown” on the history of the Haymarket area.
London is a wonderful, surprisingly intimate city, and although today’s news is unsettling, I know that London I know and love is not afraid.
Maybe I’ll Give This A Whirl
Amazon.com : Amazon Gift Central
It looks tailor-made for the terminally disorganized such as myself.
Letters from Lambeth
The Episcopal Cafe blogged recently about a letter that Ruth Gledhill received from Lambeth Palace hinting that Bishop Gene Robinson may be invited to the big decennial Lambeth Conference next year after all, perhaps in “some other status” than as Bishop of New Hamphire.
The weird thing is that I saw the very same, or nearly identical letter with my own eyes last night at a team meeting at Holy Moly, because one of our Senior Wardens received it in response to a letter that he wrote as a member of Integrity. He had I had chuckled over the phrase “Archbishop Rowan noted carefully,” because of course the ABC is a very careful fellow, communication-wise. The text below appears to be identical – so Ruth Gledhill’s scoop is really not that scoopy.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has asked me to thank you for your letter of 22 May 2007 regarding his invitation to bishops of the Anglican Communion to next year’s Lambeth Conference. The Archbishop is taking a period of study leave this summer and he has therefore asked me to respond to your letter on his behalf.
Prior to his departure, Archbishop Rowan noted carefully the level of disappointment expressed by correspondents, following his decision not to extend an invitation to Bishop Gene Robinson to attend the Lambeth Conference along with the other bishops. He stressed in his letter to the bishops that he did not take this decision lightly, but that he regarded it as appropriate in the light of the recommendations set out in the Windsor Report.
The only thing I’d add is… the stationery is very impressive, with big unfriendly letters saying “LAMBETH PALACE” next to the ABC’s coat of arms.
[tags]Episcopal, Anglican, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth, Bishop V. Gene Robinson[/tags]
Creepy Motivational Messages
WOLFGANG SPEGG – MUSICMUSICMUSIC INC MU5.FNM: TWST
That’s business-to-business product number two. Business-to-business product number three is a competitive product to the Muzak(r) products where we stream music into industrial locations, restaurants, office buildings, etc., but in a totally randomised fashion, so that they do not have to listen to the same program day after day, hour after hour because the Muzak(r) product is mainly delivered on CD and they play the same 90 minutes of music over and over again for two weeks.
We deliver a never- ending randomised stream and the ability for them to insert their own messaging, whether that’s a promotional message,amotivational message for factory, informational message for railroad station or airport.
The little restaurant/cafeteria downstairs at work was recently sold and is under new management… the new owner seems like an affable guy who’s eager to please and attract some customers back who had given up on the place from before. I think he’s recently changed the programmed music subscription to something that’s like what’s described above (in all it’s RIAA-compliant smarminess).
Apparently he’s going to some rather creepy lengths; I was in the dining area watching headlines on CNN and not really listening to the canned music they play constantly. Suddenly there was a burst of “announcement” fanfare and a male voice said confidently,
 “How may customers have you served? How many sandwiches have you made? Staying on task with your hourly goals is the road to a job well done!”
Later, there was another fanfare, and the announcer said something about “Are you looking for more recognition? your annual review is coming up, schedule it with your manager soon!”
It was beyond creepy. But I left feeling compelled to get back to work making more sandwiches and scheduling my annual review, so there must be something in it.
[tags]Muzak, mind control, creepy, motivational, sandwiches[/tags]