November 2007 archive

Iglesia ………………………..Episode 11

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(Last Saturday’s Episode ………..you can read all the past episodes by clicking on the tag!)

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The first thing she saw was clouds. Clouds against a sky of a deeper and darker blue than she had ever seen before.

But there was something funny about the clouds. And come to think of it, there was something funny about waking up and seeing clouds. And come to think about it even more there was something funny about waking up at all since she didn’t remember going to sleep. The last thing she remembered….well, she couldn’t remember the last thing she remembered. So she concentrated on figuring out why the clouds looked funny and why the sky was such a deep dark blue…and so oddly shaped. She thought she had it figured out for a second, it was right on the tip of her consciousness, something about the edges of the clouds being made up of little squares. But instead of figuring it out, she faded back out…

APA Critics Plumb New Gitmo Revelations

Also posted at Invictus

Once again, the indefatigable Stephen Soldz has jumped out on the Guantanamo SOP story, providing readers with important analysis on exactly what is in that document, and how it links to what we already know about U.S. torture policies. He also discusses the document in the light of the struggle he and other psychologists have waged in the American Psychological Association against the latter’s collaborationist policy of staffing the interrogation rooms and prisons of Bush’s anti-democratic and bloody “war on terror”.

This is from his latest article, “Leaked Guantanamo Document Confirms Routine Use of Isolation as Psychological Torture”, posted yesterday at ZNet.

The Guantanamo SOP now provides official documentation that, at the time of the Rumsfeld memo and despite its warnings regarding the techniques’ potential illegality and physical and psychological dangers, isolation was routinely used by the Defense Department at Guantanamo on all new detainees. The Rumsfeld memo complements the SOP in that it documents the central role of “medical and psychological review,” and, thus, medical and psychological personnel in the administration of this technique….

Poet with a Wiki!

So I’m using that new intertubes feature, “stumble” and I come upon a poet on YouTube.  His name is Taylor Mali.  From his wiki:

Taylor Mali (born 28 March 1965) is an American slam poet and voiceover artist. He has been on seven National Poetry Slam teams; six appeared on the finals stage and four won the competition. Mali is the author of What Learning Leaves and has recorded four CDs: The Difference Between Left and Wrong (1995), Poems from the Like Free Zone (2000), Conviction (2003), and Icarus Airlines (2007). He appeared in Taylor Mali & Friends Live at the Bowery Poetry Club and the documentaries “SlamNation” and “Slam Planet”, as well as “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry”. He won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 U. S. Comedy Arts Festival for his one-man show “Teacher! Teacher!” and the Golde Earphone award for narrating The Great Fire.

His mother was the children’s book author Jane L. Mali, a recipient of the American Book Award.

He worked at a prestigious Upper East Side all boys school, Browning School

He has performed with Billy Collins and Allen Ginsberg, and is the former president of Poetry Slam Incorporated.

Mali attended the Collegiate School for Boys in New York and holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from Bowdoin College in Maine and Kansas State University. Additionally, he studied drama with the Royal Shakespeare Academy at Oxford. He taught in the classroom for nine years, and in 2000 he set out to create 1,000 new teachers through “poetry, persuasion, perseverance, or passion.” As of November 12, 2007, there are 176.

Never been a big fan of Poetry Slam — until now.  This is a great performance.  Check it out:

Nice.

Aidan Delgado Sighting!

Yes the Great Orange Satan.

The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: An Interview With Conscientious Objector Aidan Delgado by intrepidliberal

I known he’s a big favorite around here, thought you might like to know.

You Want An Issues Campaign? Then Condemn Personal Attacks

Meteor Blades comments in response to my post on Edwards:

In my view, Armando will probably disagree, the shifting about of the poll numbers has nothing to do with THE ISSUES that we all want the focus to be on, it has to do with the personalities, exactly what we DON’T WANT. One sentence pounced on by one chorus of boos turns around the megamedia narrative – even when the candidate’s narrative has not budged. Senator Clinton “stumbled” and was losing it before the last debate was the narrative, coupled with the “the boys ganged up on her.” After Las Vegas – the 13th debate in this interminable pre-game action – she’s on top again. Why? Because she’s changed on the issues? And Edwards is now the blackheart? Why? Because he changed on the issues?

Like everyone who has dealt with him, my respect and affection for MB knows no bounds. But you gotta be kidding me. Unless questioning someone’s honesty and integrity is now not a personal attack, how can anyone seriously say Edwards is not engaged in GOP style character attacks on Clinton? Parsing, corrupt, corporate Dems, etc. This is what Edwards has treated us to now for a month. Frankly, it is simply ridiculous to deny the obvious.

And it should ALSO be obvious that it is not Clinton who is avoiding a debate on the issues at this point – it is Edwards.

If issues were at the heart of the attacks on Hillary Clinton, how can you explain attacking her for NOT buying into the GOP frame on Social Security? Are the blogs REALLY supporting the Edwards and Obama nonsense on this? Are they REALLY focused on the issue here? Hell no, they are not. They are focused on Hillary Hate.

If drivers licenses for undocumented aliens was an issue that people cared about, would they have joined the MSM/GOP style attacks on Clinton’s answer? Would Edwards’ base flip flop on the issue have been given a free pass? If straight talk was the standard, would everyone have given a pass to Obama’s awful answer? To Edwards’ utter double talk on the issue? Hell no.

If issues do not resonate for Edwards, does that excuse personal attacks? Only if you are an Edwards fan or a Hillary Hater in my estimation. Just consider this:

While Clinton leads the pack on key issues such as health care, the war in Iraq and the economy, she stumbles on what seems to have solidified as her achilles heel in the race. But she placed fourth, behind Obama, Edwards and Richardson, when Democrats ranked the candidates they considered most honest and trustworthy. Obama topped that category with 27 percent, while Edwards followed with 18 percent; Richardson, 14; and Clinton, 13.

Excuse me Meteor Blades, if you want a campaign on the issues, then you best demand it from all the candidates, but especially from the Hillary challengers.  Excusing Edwards’ despicable campaign of personal attacks does NOTHING to promote issues. It is why he is easily my least favorite candidate in the race right now.  

PONY OPEN THREAD… so i’m a little late

have a picture from my trip to the South of France… i will write an essay about it soon… before i completely forget everything about it (it’s age, you know)

Profiles in Literature: Ambrose Bierce

Greetings, literature-loving Dharmiacs!  Last week we sailed to ancient Mesopotamia to search for everlasting life with the great king Gilgamesh, and along the way we learned about ancient Sumeria from the venerable Moonbat.  This week we’ll jump forward to 19th century America, where a journalist with a bitter sense of humor is reshaping the horrors of war into brutally incisive portraits of human nature.

Ambrose Bierce: soldier, journalist, war correspondent.  He fought in the most brutal Civil War battles and waged a one-man war against the entrenched interests of Big Railroad in California.  He moved in all levels of society both here and abroad, then disappeared during the Mexican revolution, possibly killed by Pancho Villa’s forces.  He was suspicious of politicians as of human nature in general, and since his death has become synonymous with acidic misanthropy.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the works of this distinctly American writer…

Who’s doing Nanowrimo?

I haven’t seen kredwyn, but I know she’s novelling this month.

Who here is writing a novel for this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge?

There are nifty widgets for you, lots of online sympathy and support and another ten days to join and write a 50,000 word or more opus. (Has to be in by November 30th at the stroke before midnight!)

Misery Creativity loves company.  Hope to see you there.

(Because I’m still staring at a blank screen and doing everything in my power not to go back to speed marathon writing.

And one last thought – there’s nothing in the rules that say a novel can’t be group written (at least I think there nothing in the rules that says that.  I guess I should actually read the rules….hmmmm, another plot point).

But I digress:  How about a group written novel on an open thread?  Everybody contribute via the comments and someone who registers at Nano could submit them for the word counts.  

What a blast to have a freely associated, mind-blowing creative, snarkalicious Docudharma group novel!

And just to inspire you, Nanowrimo’s motto is:  

No plot?  No problem!

Four at Four

Some news and the afternoon open thread.

  1. The Los Angeles Times reports U.N. steeply lowers its AIDS estimates. “The United Nations on Monday radically lowered years of estimates of the number of people worldwide infected by the AIDS virus, revealing that the growth of the AIDS pandemic is waning for the first time since HIV was discovered 26 years ago. The revised figures, which were the result of much more sophisticated sampling techniques, indicate that the number of new infections peaked in 1998 and the number of deaths peaked in 2005. The new analysis shows that the total number of people living with HIV has been gradually increasing, but at a slower rate than in the past.”

  2. According to the The New York Times, scientists Through genetics are tapping a tree’s potential as a source of energy. “Aiming to turn trees into new energy sources, scientists are using a controversial genetic engineering process to change the composition of the wood. A major goal is to reduce the amount of lignin, a chemical compound that interferes with efforts to turn the tree’s cellulose into biofuels like ethanol… Environmentalists say such work can be risky, because lignin provides trees with structural stiffness and resistance to pests. Even some scientists working on altering wood composition acknowledge that reducing lignin too much could lead to wobbly, vulnerable trees.”

  3. The Guardian reports Hispanic names make top 10 list in America. “Forget about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s the Garcia, Rodriguez and Martinez families that are the ones to watch. Data from the US census bureau suggests that some surnames of Hispanic origin have supplanted Anglo ones – such as Wilson – traditionally thought of as quintessential American names. In the 2000 census, Garcia was the eighth most common surname in the US, and Rodriguez came in at number nine, both ahead of Wilson, which at 10th was only just ahead of Martinez. It was probably the first time in US history that a non-Anglo name ranked among the top 10 most common surnames.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with a look at how dangerous America in the world and a bonus story about the founding of Rome.

Help! My plot is killing me

Many of you know that I’m trying to meet the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing a 50,000+ word novel by the end of November (in other words, by the end of next week).  While I started out fingers on fire, I am finding that it’s rough going now.

Inspiration, please (and I don’t mean to breathe in deeply.)

blogosphere games

Some of you may have heard of the latest rankings of the blogs done by persons at Carnegie Mellon.  Mostly it’s based on numbers of links to and from, and it seems their notion of ‘news’ and ‘information’ is somewhat different from the common meaning, or maybe not.

Carnegie Mellon algorithm identifies top 100 blogs for news

“The goal of our system when looking at blogs is to detect the big stories as early on and as close to the source as possible,” Guestrin said.

linken

der flippen

Progressive Voices/Manifesto Project Raw Data

Wherein I am forced to admit failure.

;-(

I tried to stretch my meager talents, but I am just not cut out to be a data guy, I guess. I have failed to come up with a decent way to present this, so I will just publish the list and hopefully someone more skilled than I will step up and do something with it.

Please!!!

Allow me to say in closing….

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