__ _____ _ ___ __ \ \/ / | | / / | / / \ / /| | | /| / / |/ / / / ___ | |/ |/ / /| / /_/_/ |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html 2003-04-28 Be not sad. Be like the sun at midday.###!!!!!###### ARGENTINA ###########################(RW)##################Argentinian workers have been occupying factories rather than allow them to be closed down, and have continued production. Now, police are moving against such people: As the federal judge wrote in Brukman's eviction order, "Life and physical integrity have no supremacy over economic interests." This obscene and nauseating comment must be read in the context of how the workers came to be operating the Brukman factory to be fully appreciated in all its disgusting glory: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0424-03.htm Following presidential election on Sunday, it will be interesting to see how the new administration handles matters.###!!!__###### ADVICE ##############################(##)##################Thought this sounded like good advice, from Douglas Rushkoff's weblog: I spoke with Grant Morrison about all this the other day, and he says he's decided not to think about the war and all this mess, at all... ... I find the disconnection difficult, however, and am still striving to find a balance between informed concern and pointless obsession. The key to achieving this balance is spending one's concerned time engaged in activism of some kind, rather than powerless pining. In other words, either educate yourself, educate others, and do something, or not. And when you're in "not" mode, really go there and nourish yourself. http://www.rushkoff.com/2003_03_01_archive.php#90761148###!!!__###### VENEZUELA ###########################(##)##################Grassroots media in Venezuela: http://www.aporrea.org (in Spanish). Commentary here: http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article742.html http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article745.html And of course... MartÃn Sanchez: Yes, the page is completely built by scratch, by hand. We use free software with Linux servers, PHP language, and a MySQL database, that is a collaborative, gratis, and non-commercial effort by thousands of people. Also from Narco News is this piece regarding John Perry Barlow's opinions on life in Brazil compared to North America: http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article728.html###!!!__###### VENEZUELA II ########################(##)##################Reading down through some reader comments on Narco News (which are better informed and expressed than those found on many online fora) I came across a particularly interesting one highlighting a development I was not previously aware of: http://www.narconews.com/viewcomments.php?ForumID=1#000015 Steven Hunt comments that some Western-media South American reporting has begun to link Venezuela with terrorism. A quick search of GoogleNews does not show any particular trend in this direction, but it might be something worth keeping an eye open for.###!!!--###### GRUB ################################(IB)##################A distributed computing project called Grub, which harnesses individual users' spare computing power and internet bandwidth, began cataloguing millions of web pages: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993644 http://www.grub.org/ http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2003_04_21_index.html#200178308###!!---###### BURN ################################(##)##################On Debian Weekly News: http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2003/15/ This interesting story: Watch your machines people, because if you don't, bad things can happen. If you notice a burning smell, check your power supply for [1]loitering dragonfly brooches as Hugh Saunders [2]experienced. 1. http://h.arqz.com/broachfan.jpg 2. http://lists.debian.org/debian-curiosa-0303/msg00008.html###!!!!_###### TALKS ###############################(##)##################Doolin Technologies is presenting its first series of technology talks in Dublin. All are welcome to attend. Upcoming topics include: Linux Clustering: Heartbeat vs. Red Hat Cluster Manager" GTK+/GLADE, The Gooey Details SSH: We Shell Overcome! Meetings at 7:30pm on Thursdays, Meeting Room 7, Liberty Hall, Beresford Place, Dublin 1. Details of dates and topics here: http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2003-April/002037.html###!!!!!###### GUNS 'N' BUTTER #####################(##)##################Seymour Melman, professor emeritus in industrial engineering at Columbia University has written extensively on the effect of military exuberance on the civilian economy. Sample article, well worth reading: http://www.counterpunch.org/melman03152003.html His arguments are well presented, so I will make no attempt to summarise. Ralph Nader on same ground: http://www.counterpunch.org/nader01202003.html A review of his most recent book: http://www.geonewsletter.org/melmans.htm Equations http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=3501 Website has articles and extracts from his most recent book: http://www.aftercapitalism.com/ Reminds me a lot of Michael Albert's participatory economics.###!!!__###### ICE AGE #############################(RW)##################Freeman Dyson reviews "The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change" by Vaclav Smil. Thought this passage was interesting: We know that there is a natural cycle that has been operating for the last eight hundred thousand years. The length of the cycle is a hundred thousand years. In each hundred-thousand-year period, there is an ice age that lasts about ninety thousand years and a warm interglacial period that lasts about ten thousand years. We are at present in a warm period that began twelve thousand years ago, so the onset of the next ice age is overdue. If human activities were not disturbing the climate, a new ice age might begin at any time within the next couple of thousand years, or might already have begun. We do not know how to answer the most important question: Does our burning of fossil fuels make the onset of the next ice age more likely or less likely? http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16270###!!___###### AGONY ###############################(##)##################Noted War Blogger Cops to Copying. Sean-Paul Kelley, of http://www.agonist.org was using material from a subscription mailout produced by commercial intelligence company Stratfor to bulk up his blog with top stories. Full story here: http://wired.com/news/print/0,1294,58346,00.html Nicely: "...Stratfor and Kelley have agreed that he can use no more than two Stratfor items per day, and always with attribution." (story courtesy P2PJ mailing list)###!----###### NINJA ###############################(##)##################http://www.realultimatepower.net/ Hi, this site is all about ninjas, REAL NINJAS. This site is awesome. My name is Robert and I can't stop thinking about ninjas. These guys are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. Facts: 1. Ninjas are mammals. 2. Ninjas fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.###!!!!-###### DATA ################################(EFF)#################Bruce Schneier explains how enormous law-enforcement databases like the National Crime Information Center should give innocent people reason to worry, particularly as current trends are Towards a relaxation in quality control. http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0304.html#7 Particularly good as it is nicely backed up with numbers.###!!!--###### CRAZY ###############################(EFF)#################Apparently, documents regarding civic responses to hazardous waste emergencies are now classified. The government is sending plainclothes agents into libraries, posing as patrons, and repossessing the hardcopies: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleprint/1439/-1/172/###!----###### WTF #################################(OB)##################Madonna spikes P2P networks with an mp3 of her saying "What the f*ck do you think you are doing?". http://www.advogato.org/person/highgeek/diary.html?start=54 Lots of links to the story elsewhere from that blog entry. also related from The Register, probably: Like a virgin - Madonna hacked for the very first time http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30356.html###!!---###### BOOKS ###############################(OB)##################Free development (not necessarily software!) books online: http://www.humaninfo.org/free.htm###!!!--###### LOOT ################################(##)##################http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,934357,00.html Critics said that Britain and the US appear not to have realised the scale of the crisis. The laissez-faire approach was underlined by Mr Hoon on Monday when he appeared to praise looters for "liberating" equipment from the regime. "I regard such behaviour as good practice, perhaps, but that is not to say that we should not guard against more widespread civil disturbances," he told MPs.###!----###### XXXX ################################(##)##################In The Register: Trojan defence clears man on child porn charges http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/30385.html###!!---###### MIRROR ##############################(##)##################ILUG mention of how to mirror a particular architecture and release of Debian. Download will still be huge of course :-) http://www.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/2003-April/002229.html###!!!!-###### VIEWS ###############################(##)##################Analysis of polls and public opinion. Couple of interesting comparisons made between Bush-Junior and his Father in aftermath of their respective wars. Junior looks the more vulnerable. Also interesting is that: "This is the first time since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that domestic economic problems have dominated the public's political agenda." http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7633 Also interesting are these observations: For example, in the poll cited above, just 51 percent say their taxes are too high -- a figure that is lower than at any time since the 1960s ... In addition, by a better than two-to-one margin (66 percent to 31 percent), the public says that having the government provide needed services is more important than cutting taxes. Even more impressively, 80 percent say that maintaining spending levels on domestic programs such as education, health and Social Security is more important to them than lowering their taxes (a priority favored by just 18 percent). What makes all of this commentary most interesting is that it draws on a range of opinion polls.###!!!--###### SPIN ################################(##)##################Generally good, regularly updated: http://www.prwatch.org/spin/###-----###### CEPR ################################(##)##################Columns by Dean Baker: http://www.cepr.net/columns/baker/###-----###### FIN #################################(##)##################