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/_/_/ |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html
2003-03-26
Scarab Minor
###XXXXX###### DEATH ###############################(##)##################
Saw this story in this ZNet commentary:
This week, the Israeli army demonstrated that these bulldozers are an
effective solution also for the problem of human shields, when one of
them crushed to death Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old student from
Olympia, Washington, who tried to delay the demolition of a house in
Gaza.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=3265
Irish Times ran the story on about page 10, and had pictures of the girl
before being run over, and afterwards, lying in the bulldozer tracks (they
ran over her and then reversed back apparently.
###!!!!!###### COGNITION ###########################(??)##################
Cognitive dimensions of politics:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15414
One of the fundamental findings of cognitive science is that people
think in terms of frames and metaphors – conceptual structures like
those we have been describing. The frames are in the synapses of our
brains – physically present in the form of neural circuitry. When the
facts don't fit the frames, the frames are kept and the facts ignored.
###!!!!_###### RESOLUTIONS #########################(##)##################
A list of UN Security Council resolutions vetoed by the US:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=3238
Main themes they appear to have objected to are:
Criticisms of Israel
Criticisms of Apartheid South Africa
Arms controls
Protection of poorer/developing nations' rights
Last one on the list of blocked resolutions:
2002 To renew the peace keeping mission in Bosnia.
Never registered with me. Noam Chomsky often makes the point that
resolutions vetoed by the US are effectively erased from history (or at
least from public consciousness of history).
###!!!!_###### FISH ################################(IB)##################
Bizarre story from The Observer:
An obscure Jewish sect in New York has been gripped in awe by what it
believes to be a mystical visitation by a 20lb carp that was heard
shouting in Hebrew, in what many Jews worldwide are hailing as a modern
miracle.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,915125,00.html
###!!!!_###### SNIPERS #############################(RW)##################
Interesting and short comment on how the NY Times removed references to the
police snipers present at the Feb 15th peace marches in New York.
http://www.thememoryhole.com/media/nyt-snipers.htm
###!!!!_###### INFOVORE ############################(##)##################
Very nice blog entry by Danny O'Brien:
http://www.oblomovka.com/entries/2003/03/06#1046985840
###!!!!_###### MEXICO ##############################(RW)##################
A critique from the International Herald Tribune of the recent tone of US
international relations. The following is from the article:
Last week The Economist quoted an American diplomat, who warned that if
Mexico didn't vote for a U.S. resolution it could "stir up feelings"
against Mexicans in the United States. He compared the situation to
that of Japanese-Americans who were interned after 1941, and wondered
whether Mexico "wants to stir the fires of jingoism during a war."
Incredible stuff, but easy to dismiss as long as the diplomat was
unidentified. Then came President Bush's interview Monday with Copley
News Service. He alluded to the possibility of reprisals if Mexico
didn't vote America's way, saying that "I don't expect there to be
significant retribution from the government" - emphasizing the word
"government." He then went on to suggest that there might, however, be
a reaction from other quarters, citing "an interesting phenomena taking
place here in America about the French … a backlash against the French,
not stirred up by anybody except the people."
And Bush then said that if Mexico or other countries oppose the United
States, "there will be a certain sense of discipline."
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0308-03.htm
###!!!__###### SIG #################################(##)##################
Cool sig from Rick Moen:
http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2003-March/001770.html
There are only 10 types of people in this world --
those who understand binary arithmetic and those who don't.
###!!!!!###### VONNEGUT ############################(??)##################
Kurt Vonnegut answers some questions about the drive to war:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15326
I thought the next point was quite interesting, as it had never quite
struck me how prominent Christian symbolism was in the German military:
And what remains the best-kept secret from the Second World War,
because it is so embarrassing, is that Hitler was a Christian, and that
his swastika was a Christian cross made of axes, an apt symbol of a
political party for Christians of the working class. And there were
simpler, unambiguous crosses on all Hitler's tanks and planes.
More Vonnegut, in an interview:
"What has allowed so many PPs (Psychopathic Personalities) to rise so
high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so
decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for
the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply
can't."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=38_0_4_0_C
###!!!__###### RUSHKOFF ############################(##)##################
http://www.rushkoff.com/2003_01_01_archive.php#90200694
Call it awful, but I realized that the judicial decision to give the
2000 election to Bush has left deeper scars on my psyche than watching
the WTC fall (from my apartment window). It made me wonder if the
'system' is broken, the game is rigged, and no one of conscience will
ever be allowed to actualize the Constitution ever again.
on electronic voting:
http://www.rushkoff.com/2003_02_01_archive.php#90295243
###!!!!_###### DERIVATIVE ##########################(RW)##################
Warren Buffet describes the dangers posed by derivatives. The practices
associated with these investment schemes endanger not only investors, but
entire financial markets. The article is middling-long, but well written
and interesting.
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,427751,00.html?
Especially interesting given Buffet's stellar performance in the last year,
where Berkshire Hathaway made record profits:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030308-061827-9122r
###!!!!_###### TRICKY ##############################(IB)##################
Coverage of Alleged Diplomatic Dirty Tricks? In the U.S., Mostly Online
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000828.shtml#000828
A report on the story can be found at The Observer:
http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905936,00.html
Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves
interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN
delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The
Observer. The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top
official at the National Security Agency.
Later, an arrest was made at GCHQ:
http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,910648,00.html
Also reported at The Register, who focussed on the origin and authenticity
of the email:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29658.html
Reference is made to uneasiness among spies/analysts regarding the
misrepresentation of their analysis and data.
###!!!__###### VOILA ###############################(##)##################
Amidst a discussion of the US military doctrine of "The Voila Moment" comes
this gem:
I'm skeptical. There was, after all, a Voila Moment during the last
gulf war, when many Iraqis living near the Kuwaiti border believed U.S.
promises that they would be supported if they rose up against Saddam
Hussein. It was followed shortly after by a Screw You Moment, when the
rebels watched U.S. forces abandon them to be massacred by Saddam
Hussein.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=41&ItemID=3152
###!!!!_###### PEOPLE ##############################(TP)##################
Washington post story on how the workers in Argentinian have cooperativised
businesses following bankruptcy:
When the bottom fell out of the Argentine economy in 2001, the owners
of the once flourishing manufacturer of sweets could no longer make a
go of it, finally shutting the plant and filing for bankruptcy.
That's when the employees on the factory floor -- 42 men and one woman
-- took a bold step. They refused to stop working, physically blocked
the company's creditors from seizing Ghelco's machinery and continued
to show up every weekday, baking, churning, whipping and selling the
stuff that made the company name a synonym for sinful indulgence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55754-2003Feb23.html
###!!!__###### FLAG ################################(RW)##################
Long article about Wal-Mart:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,423053,00.html?
Target had difficulty finding American flags on Sept. 12, 2001, because
guess who had begun buying every flag it could the previous day.
Hegemony, it would seem, doesn't get any more complete.
###!!___###### OKINAWA-PESHAWAR ####################(##)##################
Nakamura Tetsu, a Japanese physician, who has worked in Afghanistan and
Pakistan for twenty years as head of the Peshawar Medical Association
discusses parallels between Peshawar and Okinawa. Certainly interesting.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=49&ItemID=3194
###!!___###### POEM ################################(RW)##################
Even Before Your Elbow Knocked Over The Glass
http://www.versedaily.org/ebyekotg.shtml
good.
###_____###### JARGON ##############################(BB)##################
Military jargon:
http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/doddict/
###_____###### KIRBY ###############################(DH)##################
Kirby theme park
http://www.lordoflight.com/kirbyart/
###!!___###### FLY #################################(DH)##################
Hideous true story of man-eating flies:
One fly can lay up to 400 eggs in a wound. Within 24 hours these hatch
into larvae and begin burrowing into the meat. In two days, an open
sore in an eye, for example, will turn into a grapefruit-sized
festering wound of raw, pulpy flesh. The larvae eat their way toward
the victim's vital organs.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JQQESW0XQSEJ0CRBAEOCFEY?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=2267001
The report describes how these creatures have been controlled in Mexico.
###_____###### IE ##################################(##)##################
The Register reports on a site which helps to diagnose security problems in
your browser:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29621.html
###_____###### VOTE ################################(ND)##################
Another story to do with electronic voting:
Daniel Spillane's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in King County, Wash., alleges
several flaws in VoteHere's software, including unfinished code,
software that fails to properly record votes and an inability to
double-check results because of the lack of a paper trail.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030227/ap_on_re_us/whistleblower_lawsuit
###!____###### MURDER ##############################(ND)##################
Makes you think...
One of Russia's top nuclear security officials has been found dead in
Moscow in what investigators fear may have been a killing relating to
his work.
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/01/wbulq.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/03/01/ixworld.html
###!!___###### ARREST? #############################(RW)##################
Robert Fisk pokes around the story of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's arrest
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0303-05.htm
###!!___###### LOVELY ##############################(ND)##################
Lovely pics:
http://userpage.chemie.fu-berlin.de/~sack/MRI/images/
The animated gifs are what is worth looking at:
http://userpage.chemie.fu-berlin.de/~sack/MRI/images/ani_ts2.gif
New World Disorder also has some nice articles, like this one:
Room 55, the Hotel van Onna, Amsterdam
http://www.newworlddisorder.ca/issueone/articles/thehotelvanonna.html
###!!!__###### MAUL ################################(BB)##################
Stephen Downs, a lawyer who works as the director of the Albany Office of
the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, was arrested in a NY state mall
for refusing to remove a pro-peace t-shirt he was wearing. He had
purchased the t-shirt in the mall, and was in the food court with his son
when approached by security, and later arrested by police. He could face a
year in jail if convicted.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030304_651.html
###!!!__###### PENCIL ##############################(BB)##################
Incredible stuff:
http://www.infofreako.com/jad/pencil/16sukashi4-e.html
###_____###### END #################################(##)##################