The beginning of the end
16.6.05
15.6.05
Darth Vader Replica Helmet - $900 at Target.com
If this were $39.95, it would be in the "unlikely to be fulfilled" section of my wishlist. But you know what... nevermind. This one has "flawless form, unlike any previous Vader helmets, which were hand-sculpted." and I'm pretty sure I'd rather have the flawed form, even if only on the "unlikely to be fulfilled" section of my wishlist.
- via Gizmodo.
If this were $39.95, it would be in the "unlikely to be fulfilled" section of my wishlist. But you know what... nevermind. This one has "flawless form, unlike any previous Vader helmets, which were hand-sculpted." and I'm pretty sure I'd rather have the flawed form, even if only on the "unlikely to be fulfilled" section of my wishlist.
- via Gizmodo.
9.6.05
Truman's middle initial
Truman did not have a middle name, but only a middle initial. It was a common practice in southern states, including Missouri, to use initials rather than names. Truman said the initial was a compromise between the names of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp(e) Truman and Solomon Young. He once joked that the S was a name, not an initial, and it should not have a period, but official documents and his presidential library all use a period. Furthermore, the Harry S. Truman Library has numerous examples of the signature written at various times throughout Truman's lifetime where his own use of a period after the 'S' is very obvious."
- from the article on Harry S. Truman at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Truman did not have a middle name, but only a middle initial. It was a common practice in southern states, including Missouri, to use initials rather than names. Truman said the initial was a compromise between the names of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp(e) Truman and Solomon Young. He once joked that the S was a name, not an initial, and it should not have a period, but official documents and his presidential library all use a period. Furthermore, the Harry S. Truman Library has numerous examples of the signature written at various times throughout Truman's lifetime where his own use of a period after the 'S' is very obvious."
- from the article on Harry S. Truman at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
8.6.05
A Tale of Two Missing Persons
Natalee Holloway
age: 18
vanished: May 30, 2005
last seen: leaving a nightclub in Aruba with three men
home: Mountain Brook
reward: $75,000 total
investigated by: FBI, Aruban Police, family, thousands of volunteers.
support: private donations, free hotel in Aruba, McWane Corp. private jet, donated airfare, massive prayer lists
media: nonstop national media coverage
Nancy Lewis
age: 47
vanished: May 18, 2005
last seen: leaving for work at 3:45 AM
home: southwest Birmingham
reward: $2000 (now $12,000)
investigated by: Birmingham police, friends and family.
support: friends, co-workers and family
media: four or five local newspaper articles, sparse radio PSA's
Update: The Birmingham Post-Herald has picked up on the comparison.
Natalee Holloway
age: 18
vanished: May 30, 2005
last seen: leaving a nightclub in Aruba with three men
home: Mountain Brook
reward: $75,000 total
investigated by: FBI, Aruban Police, family, thousands of volunteers.
support: private donations, free hotel in Aruba, McWane Corp. private jet, donated airfare, massive prayer lists
media: nonstop national media coverage
Nancy Lewis
age: 47
vanished: May 18, 2005
last seen: leaving for work at 3:45 AM
home: southwest Birmingham
reward: $2000 (now $12,000)
investigated by: Birmingham police, friends and family.
support: friends, co-workers and family
media: four or five local newspaper articles, sparse radio PSA's
Update: The Birmingham Post-Herald has picked up on the comparison.
2.6.05
A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
Human Events Online, a "National Conservative Weekly" since 1944, discommends the following books as the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries:
1. Karl Marx and Freidrich Engel's The Communist Manifesto (1848): "envisions history as a class struggle between oppressed workers and oppressive owners."
2. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925-26): "Hitler explained his racist, anti-Semitic vision for Germany"
3. Mao Zedong's Quotations from Chairman Mao (1966): " 'It is the task of the people of the whole world to put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism...' wrote Mao."
4. Alfred Kinsey's The Kinsey Reports (1948): "designed to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy."
5. John Dewey's Democracy and Education (1916): "encourage the teaching of thinking skills...helped nurture the Clinton generation."
6. Karl Marx's Das Kapital (1867-94): "He could not have predicted 21st Century America: a free, affluent society based on capitalism and representative government."
7. Betty Frieden's The Feminine Mystique (1963): "disparaged traditional stay-at-home motherhood...a role that degraded women and denied them true fulfillment in life."
8. Auguste Compte's The Course of Positive Philosophy (1830-42): "theoriz[ed] that the human mind had developed beyond 'theology'...through 'metaphysics'. to 'positivism', in which man alone, through scientific observation, could determine the way things ought to be.
9. Freidrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil (1886): "argued that men are driven by an amoral 'Will to Power'...The Nazi's loved Nietzsche."
10. John Maynard Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936): "When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity. FDR adopted the idea as U.S. policy."
Honorable Mentions: Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb; Vladimir Lenin's What Is to be Done' Theodor Adorno's Authoritarian Personality; John Stuart Mill's On Liberty; B. F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity; Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence; Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life; Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species; Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization; Sydney & Beatrice Webb's Soviet Communism: A New Civilization; Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa; Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed; Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex, Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks; Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth; Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis; Charles Reich's The Greening of America; The Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth, and Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man.
Stay away from these books. They will injure your fragile mind. They are all available (for now, anyway) from the bookseller of your choice.
Human Events Online, a "National Conservative Weekly" since 1944, discommends the following books as the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries:
1. Karl Marx and Freidrich Engel's The Communist Manifesto (1848): "envisions history as a class struggle between oppressed workers and oppressive owners."
2. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925-26): "Hitler explained his racist, anti-Semitic vision for Germany"
3. Mao Zedong's Quotations from Chairman Mao (1966): " 'It is the task of the people of the whole world to put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism...' wrote Mao."
4. Alfred Kinsey's The Kinsey Reports (1948): "designed to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy."
5. John Dewey's Democracy and Education (1916): "encourage the teaching of thinking skills...helped nurture the Clinton generation."
6. Karl Marx's Das Kapital (1867-94): "He could not have predicted 21st Century America: a free, affluent society based on capitalism and representative government."
7. Betty Frieden's The Feminine Mystique (1963): "disparaged traditional stay-at-home motherhood...a role that degraded women and denied them true fulfillment in life."
8. Auguste Compte's The Course of Positive Philosophy (1830-42): "theoriz[ed] that the human mind had developed beyond 'theology'...through 'metaphysics'. to 'positivism', in which man alone, through scientific observation, could determine the way things ought to be.
9. Freidrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil (1886): "argued that men are driven by an amoral 'Will to Power'...The Nazi's loved Nietzsche."
10. John Maynard Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936): "When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity. FDR adopted the idea as U.S. policy."
Honorable Mentions: Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb; Vladimir Lenin's What Is to be Done' Theodor Adorno's Authoritarian Personality; John Stuart Mill's On Liberty; B. F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity; Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence; Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life; Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species; Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization; Sydney & Beatrice Webb's Soviet Communism: A New Civilization; Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa; Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed; Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex, Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks; Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth; Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis; Charles Reich's The Greening of America; The Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth, and Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man.
Stay away from these books. They will injure your fragile mind. They are all available (for now, anyway) from the bookseller of your choice.
26.5.05
Transparency in Government
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - attributed to Joseph Goebbels (I can't find the original source)
"If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)" - President George W. Bush, May 24, 2005 (Athena Performing Arts Center, Rochester, NY) link to transcript at the White House website.
(also reminds me of: "This is how liberty dies; to thunderous applause." - Padmé Amidala in "Revenge of the Sith")
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - attributed to Joseph Goebbels (I can't find the original source)
"If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)" - President George W. Bush, May 24, 2005 (Athena Performing Arts Center, Rochester, NY) link to transcript at the White House website.
(also reminds me of: "This is how liberty dies; to thunderous applause." - Padmé Amidala in "Revenge of the Sith")
21.5.05
The Stupid Rich
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar, dated November 8, 1954
(H.L. Hunt's son Ray (by then mistress Ruth Ray), is president of Dallas-based Hunt Oil, and a long-time political and financial supporter of the Bush family. He is also a member of the EDS and Halliburton Corp. boards and the boards of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the National Petroleum Council, two industry groups that advise the White House on foreign and energy policies. In October 2001 he was appointed by President Bush to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.)
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar, dated November 8, 1954
(H.L. Hunt's son Ray (by then mistress Ruth Ray), is president of Dallas-based Hunt Oil, and a long-time political and financial supporter of the Bush family. He is also a member of the EDS and Halliburton Corp. boards and the boards of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the National Petroleum Council, two industry groups that advise the White House on foreign and energy policies. In October 2001 he was appointed by President Bush to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.)
16.5.05
U.S. to Iraqi farmers: Throw away those old indiginous seeds! Buy genetically engineered seeds* from Monsanto™!
* (by "buy seeds" we mean "license the use of seeds for one harvest", after which you will need to buy new seeds under the terms of your EULA. Terms subject to change without notice.)
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This is now history. The CPA has made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law. Iraqis may continue to use and save from their traditional seed stocks or what’s left of them after the years of war and drought, but that is the not the agenda for reconstruction embedded in the ruling. The purpose of the law is to facilitate the establishment of a new seed market in Iraq, where transnational corporations can sell their seeds – genetically modified or not, which farmers would have to purchase afresh every single cropping season. While historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds. Inserted into Iraq's previous patent law is a whole new chapter on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) that provides for the "protection of new varieties of plants." PVP is an intellectual property right (IPR) or a kind of patent for plant varieties which gives an exclusive monopoly right on planting material to a plant breeder who claims to have discovered or developed a new variety. So the "protection" in PVP has nothing to do with conservation, but refers to safeguarding of the commercial interests of private breeders (usually large corporations) claiming to have created the new plants.
To qualify for PVP, plant varieties must comply with the standards of the UPOV [3] Convention, which requires them be new, distinct, uniform and stable. Farmers' seeds cannot meet these criteria, making PVP-protected seeds the exclusive domain of corporations. The rights granted to plant breeders in this scheme include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the protected varieties. These rights extend to harvested material, including whole plants and parts of plants obtained from the use of a protected variety. This kind of PVP system is often the first step towards allowing the full-fledged patenting of life forms. Indeed, in this case the rest of the law does not rule out the patenting of plants or animals.
The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this variety without compensating the breeder. This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. [4] This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds.
Grain.org article via Google, via Robot Wisdom.
* (by "buy seeds" we mean "license the use of seeds for one harvest", after which you will need to buy new seeds under the terms of your EULA. Terms subject to change without notice.)
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This is now history. The CPA has made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law. Iraqis may continue to use and save from their traditional seed stocks or what’s left of them after the years of war and drought, but that is the not the agenda for reconstruction embedded in the ruling. The purpose of the law is to facilitate the establishment of a new seed market in Iraq, where transnational corporations can sell their seeds – genetically modified or not, which farmers would have to purchase afresh every single cropping season. While historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds. Inserted into Iraq's previous patent law is a whole new chapter on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) that provides for the "protection of new varieties of plants." PVP is an intellectual property right (IPR) or a kind of patent for plant varieties which gives an exclusive monopoly right on planting material to a plant breeder who claims to have discovered or developed a new variety. So the "protection" in PVP has nothing to do with conservation, but refers to safeguarding of the commercial interests of private breeders (usually large corporations) claiming to have created the new plants.
To qualify for PVP, plant varieties must comply with the standards of the UPOV [3] Convention, which requires them be new, distinct, uniform and stable. Farmers' seeds cannot meet these criteria, making PVP-protected seeds the exclusive domain of corporations. The rights granted to plant breeders in this scheme include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the protected varieties. These rights extend to harvested material, including whole plants and parts of plants obtained from the use of a protected variety. This kind of PVP system is often the first step towards allowing the full-fledged patenting of life forms. Indeed, in this case the rest of the law does not rule out the patenting of plants or animals.
The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this variety without compensating the breeder. This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. [4] This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds.
Grain.org article via Google, via Robot Wisdom.
8.5.05
Nippits™ in the bud
Nipple Concealment Strips. Padless. Latex-free. Physician-designed. Medically-approved. Non-irritating. Breathable. Patented:
We claim:
1. A method for reducing the profile of a protrusion from skin comprising the step of adhering a flexible material across said protrusion and an area of surrounding tissue, wherein said material is adhered directly to said protrusion and to the surrounding tissue.
2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said protrusion acted upon is a nipple and said area of surrounding tissue includes at least an areola.
3. A skin protrusion concealment device comprising a flexible base material having an outer-facing side and a skin-facing side, said skin-facing side having thereon an adhesive covering a sufficient surface area to adhere substantially continuously across a skin protrusion and an area of surrounding tissue.
4. A skin protrusion concealment device comprising a flexible base material having an outer-facing side and a skin facing side, said skin facing side having thereon an adhesive, said device having a configuration comprising three conjoined at least partially rounded shapes, wherein a first of said rounded shapes and a second of said rounded shapes represent terminating portions, and a third of said rounded shapes represents an intermediary portion interposed between said first and second portions, and wherein further a center point of said intermediary portion does not lie in a straight line between a center point of said first portion and a center point of said second portion.
5. A skin protrusion concealment device as in claim 5, wherein the adhesive on said skin facing side covers a surface area of said skin facing side sufficient to adhere to both a skin protrusion and an area of surrounding tissue.
- US Patent Application #20010049250
Nipple Concealment Strips. Padless. Latex-free. Physician-designed. Medically-approved. Non-irritating. Breathable. Patented:
We claim:
1. A method for reducing the profile of a protrusion from skin comprising the step of adhering a flexible material across said protrusion and an area of surrounding tissue, wherein said material is adhered directly to said protrusion and to the surrounding tissue.
2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said protrusion acted upon is a nipple and said area of surrounding tissue includes at least an areola.
3. A skin protrusion concealment device comprising a flexible base material having an outer-facing side and a skin-facing side, said skin-facing side having thereon an adhesive covering a sufficient surface area to adhere substantially continuously across a skin protrusion and an area of surrounding tissue.
4. A skin protrusion concealment device comprising a flexible base material having an outer-facing side and a skin facing side, said skin facing side having thereon an adhesive, said device having a configuration comprising three conjoined at least partially rounded shapes, wherein a first of said rounded shapes and a second of said rounded shapes represent terminating portions, and a third of said rounded shapes represents an intermediary portion interposed between said first and second portions, and wherein further a center point of said intermediary portion does not lie in a straight line between a center point of said first portion and a center point of said second portion.
5. A skin protrusion concealment device as in claim 5, wherein the adhesive on said skin facing side covers a surface area of said skin facing side sufficient to adhere to both a skin protrusion and an area of surrounding tissue.
- US Patent Application #20010049250
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)