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2003-04-21 - 3:39 p.m. Mrs. Henry is sleep deprived American news othe day for Monday April 21st 2003http://www.agonist.org/archives/001625.html Washington Post reports that former DoubleClick officer Nuala O'Connor Kelly is being appointed "Department of Homeland Security's first privacy czar". DoubleClick is the company responsible for deliver a sizeable percentage of the banner ads and pop-ups in your web browser. Kelly ran the department responsible for "privacy compliance" after an FTC investigation of DoubleClick for "improperly storing and sharing private user data". .. http://bittershack.blogspot.com/ Colbert: "If Saddam is dead, it greatly reduces his ability to control Iraq." John Stewart: "He'd have no power at all. He'd be dead." Colbert: "Really John? Remember, when this man appears in public, no one is sure it's actually him. And yet he has held an iron grip on power since 1979. 24 years of brutal dictatorship, all while only maybe existing." Stewart: "So wait a minute, You don't think Saddam Hussein ever existed?" Colbert: "I'm sure he existed at one time. I've seen the pictures of him shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld. All I'm saying is, right now, fear keeps people in line. If people think he exists, he exists, even if he doesn't really exist. The point is, we haven't really killed Saddam Hussein until we kill the idea of Saddam Hussein. So what we need to do is to develop bombs that kill ideas." . http://www.unknownnews.net/a0418.html#llo418 Isn't the reality that the majority of Americans are quite happy with the way things are? And if so, considering that I am a "Gandhian" opposed to the initiation of force to achieve political or economic objectives, the best thing I can do is to carve out a "bubble universe" for myself inside Occupied America. . http://www.vnunet.com/News/1134567 A Swedish philosopher at Yale University believes there is a one-in-four chance that we are living inside a computer - like the one in movie smash The Matrix. Dr Nick Bostrom... said that civilisation will one day simulate consciousness - if it hasn't already - and then go on to simulate universes for artificial consciousness to inhabit. "If the last possibility is true, then it could already have happened and we are almost certainly living in a simulation," Dr Bostrom said. He estimated the probability at "about 20-25 per cent". Bostrom believes that, since we are ignorant of the purpose of our world, there is no point trying to impress our "creator". He said: "The least misleading advice would be to get on with your business as you would have done before." .. http://www.incunabula.org/blog/archive/2002_09_15_index.html#81631845 If you might be living in a simulation then all else equal you should care less about others, live more for today, make your world look more likely to become rich, expect to and try more to participate in pivotal events, be more entertaining and praiseworthy, and keep the famous people around you happier and more interested in you. . http://lowgradepanic.bloghorn.com/ Madam Cleo Sosotris says "serious nuff the Neptune vibe in the chart all the way through end of May".. minimum. And no matter what sort of insulating warm fuzzy logic I wind around my latent superstitions they're still picking up the creeeepy unreality of damn near every moment. . http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2003_04_13_digbysblog_archive.html#92616540 Does anyone believe that this invasion of Iraq has somehow made us seem invulnerable to anybody but a bunch of stupid Americans who missed the point of Star Wars? ...We could theoretically scare all the tinhorn dictators in the world into cowering like a bunch battered Democratic Senators before our mighty sword, but it is an extremely strange reading of psychology that says you can frighten suicide bombers. . http://www.abrightcolddayinapril.com/index.php I think I now have a large enough data set to confirm the the Universal Law of Exam Hedging: "That the one topic the student has not studied - in the misguided belief that it could not possibly be on the test - will be on the test." Though I studied very hard, I didn't learn much about International Law. . informative posters from the henry the hand foundation http://www.henrythehand.com/webp/Dress.htm Henry the Hands Hand Washing Instruction Poster: Copy and post above all sinks (restrooms, classrooms, nurses office, kitchen). Do You Have Any Idea What Germs Could Be on Your Hands? Poster: Copy and post on door to each classroom. What Temperatures Do Germs Like? Poster: Copy and post on door to each classroom. Henry the Hands 4 Principles of Hand Awareness: Copy and post on door to each classroom, school office and nurses office. Please make check payable to:Henry the Hand Foundation, 11714 US Route 42, Cincinnati, OH 45241. .. http://www.corante.com/pipeline/ I had to fight off the temptation again the other day to put a silicon atom in one of my molecules. Admittedly, that's not an urge that strikes every chemist in the drug industry, but it strikes me every so often... Now, sulfur, there's an atom no one objects to - well, except the smell - and I've got a couple of sulfur ideas that would make any enzyme in the world sit up and take notice. .. http://www.liquidlist.com/ OCTOBER 11, 2000: GOV. BUSH: I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not. . http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6289665%255E1702,00.html US forces today tried to hamper the media from covering a third day of anti-American protests by Iraqis... Some 200-300 Iraqis gathered outside the Palestine Hotel to express their rage... For the first time, visibly angered US military officials sought to distance the media from the protest, moving reporters and cameras about 30 metres from the barbed-wired entrance to the hotel. "We want you to pull back to the back of the hotel because they (the Iraqis) are only performing because the media are here," said a marine colonel who wore the name tag Zarcone but would not give his first name or title. .. http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/565jgibg.asp. The Bush haters will grow more vociferous as their numbers shrink. Even progress in Iraq will not dampen their anger, because as many people have noted, hatred of Bush and his corporate cronies is all that is left of their leftism. And this hatred is tribal, not ideological. And so they will still have their rallies, their alternative weeklies, and their Gore Vidal polemics. ..BUT THERE IS ANOTHER, larger group of people whose worldviews will be permanently altered by the war in Iraq. Members of this group were not firm opponents of the war. Indeed, they were mild supporters, or they were ambivalent. They were members of the vast, nervous American majority... These people do not have foreign policy categories deeply entrenched in their brains... How will the fall of Saddam affect their voting patterns, their approach to the next global crisis? One way to think about this is to conduct a thought experiment. Invent a representative 20-year-old, Joey Tabula-Rasa, and try to imagine how he would have perceived the events of the past month. Joey doesn't know much about history; he was born in 1983 and was only 6 when the Berlin Wall fell. He really has no firm idea of what labels like liberal and conservative mean. But now he is in college, and he's been glued to the cable coverage of the war... Certain facts and characters have entered his consciousness... He sees that his country is an incredibly effective colossus that can drop bombs onto pinpoints, destroy enemies that aren't even aware they are under attack... He sees a federal government that can perform its primary task--protecting the American people--magnificently. ..The American system of government, moreover, is clearly the best system. In Joey's eyes, the United Nations is a fractious debating society. The European Union is split. The French are insufferable, the Germans both hostile and pacifist. The Arab ruling class is treacherous. Billions of people around the world seem to hate us, and while Joey is aware that there are some reasons to be suspicious of the United States, he resents the way so many people are over the top. ..When Joey thinks of youthful idealism, he doesn't think of college students protesting in the streets, he thinks of young soldiers risking their lives to liberate a people... Joey naturally feels that while those soldiers are liberating a country and talking about duty and honor, all he is doing is preparing for business school. That doesn't mean he necessarily wants to enlist, but he is aware that there is something lacking in his pampered private life. ..Joey is aware that there are a lot of people, especially in the Arab world, who are just batshit crazy. There is no reasoning with these people. They understand only force, and they must be crushed. Joey sees that some regimes around the world are sadistic and evil. They torture and mutilate their own people. They ignore the basic rules of warfare and civilization. Conflict with these people is inevitable. ..He sees the broad majority of people who support the war, who, it seems to him, deserve to be called the progressives. These people talk optimistically of spreading democracy and creating a new Middle East... [And Joey sees] the marchers. These people are always in the streets... Joey is not sure what these people are for. They don't seem to have any alternative to globalization. They don't seem to know how to deal with the Taliban or Saddam. They just march against. Joey figures it must be part of their personality... Marching for peace is something people in those worlds do, just as Mormons devote a few years of their lives to missionary work, or Jews keep kosher. It does not occur to Joey to enter the subculture of the protesters. ..Joey likes to think of himself as fundamentally independent. .. http://www.us-government-torture.com/kit.html ..With a weakened brain synapse system resulting from steady wearing away of the brains chemistry by implant/directed energy the implant or directed energy frequencies can override the brains pathways and dominate many of the various brains centers of regulation thereby causing the brain to surrender itself to manipulation and destruction.... .. http://www.toughpigs.com/myweeksesame2003.htm Hey, remember when Sesame Street was brought to you by letters and numbers? Well, you can kiss those days goodbye. The new season of Sesame Street begins today, and here's how it starts: "Sesame Street is brought to you by the following..." And then what we get is 45 seconds of straight-up commercials. "America Online is proud to support Sesame Street!" -- which would be a nice thing to know, but then they go on -- "No two kids are alike, but what they all share is endless curiosity. AOL helps kids find new things to be curious about, every day. America Online: Never stop learning." Now that, my curious kids, is not a sponsorship announcement. That is an ad on public TV. It's followed by another 15-second ad all about how Quaker Oatmeal helps kids learn, which is followed by another 15-second ad explaining how Spaghetti-Os help kids learn.
http://www.toughpigs.com/journalscavenger03c.htm I may be wrong about this, but as far as I know, Grover's Mom never actually appeared on Sesame Street. If she did, it can't have been very often. Grover mentions his mom sometimes, but I can't remember ever actually seeing her, and I've never seen a performer credited with playing her And yet -- and this is the thing that fuels my minor enthusiasm -- she is all over the storybooks. Here, thanks to Scott's painstaking research, is the best information we can piece together on the natural history of Grover's Mom. The evidence points to a dominant Grover's Mom with short brown curly hair But other varieties have also been documented: The blonde Mom... The blue haired Mom... And the incredibly old Mom... Supporting this diverse ecosystem of Moms, there are also a number of Uncles. We were amazed to find evidence of Grover's Mom even in a Cookie Monster book. "Me Cookie!" is the story of Cookie Monster's infancy, but Cookie Monster's parents don't appear in the book. Grover's Mom does. She's everywhere! She's everywhere! What could explain this Momnipresence? Did ancient astronauts seed the Earth with a race of Grover's Moms? [and so on.] .. http://www.nevertrustamonkey.com/01.php Democrats criticized Bush for appearing with Boeing employees just days after he opposed extending unemployment insurance for workers in aviation industries... "It is amazing that after fighting against aid for Boeing workers, the president is showing up at their doorstep to praise them," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
http://www.asmincorp.com/thenleave/thenleave_001.htm Do you live in America? Are you angry with the country's decision to wage war in Iraq? Do you support the U.N. position along with France that America should use inspections instead of force? Do you hate our current administration...especially Bush? Do you try to voice your opinion in chat rooms and on message boards to no avail? ...[Welcome to] ThenLeave.com. A web site where these anti-American idiots can come and register to be a recipient of a free, one-way ticket out of the country. They have to sign an agreement that they will actually use the ticket and leave for at least one year. .. http://pla.blogspot.com/ The [Los Angeles]Times references a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine... The study found that "Blood lead concentrations, even those below 10 ΅g per deciliter, are inversely associated with children's IQ scores at three and five years of age, and associated declines in IQ are greater at these concentrations than at higher concentrations. These findings suggest that more U.S. children may be adversely affected by environmental lead than previously estimated." According to the study, even low level exposure to lead causes children to lose about 7.4 IQ points. One in ten, or about 6 million children, are suffering the adverse effects of lead poisoning on their intelligence... A difference of 7.4 IQ points is a lot, especially when you start getting to the lower end of the IQ scale (say, an IQ of 83 compared to an IQ of 90)... The Time story notes that elimination of the lead paint, though costing $32 billion, would save $60 billion in special education and other costs. . http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_hall_040903_war.html "I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it." - Voltaire Are you getting enough of the excitement? Is your ring side seat watching the glorious liberation close enough for you? And how about the body count? WOW! It cant get any better then this . . . Or can it? .. http://www.flakmag.com/features/hateus/ The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, overseer of the in/famous Doomsday Clock, is now selling "Seven Minutes to Midnight" tees, for $18 a pop. The shirts celebrate the clock's most recent movement, ahead two minutes to its closest point to "zero hour" since the end of the Cold War. .. http://www.carolwrightgifts.com/index.cfm?page=detail&product=10297307&category= Patriotic T-Shirts: Display your patriotic spirit with these great short-sleeve t-shirts that feature star-spangled illustrations... [including] Cats, An American Tradition; Gardening, An American Tradition; Shopping, An American Tradition; Golf, An American Tradition; and Baseball, An American Tradition... Please also look for other patriotic t-shirts featuring illustrations of an American Eagle, Bass, Heart, Police Car, Fire Truck, Flag or Classic Car. Price $6.99, Additionals $5.99 .. http://www.underreported.com/index.php According to an Apr. 21, 2003 Guardian UK article (emphasis added): 'The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organisation to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless the WHO scraps guidelines on healthy eating, due to be published on Wednesday... In a letter to Gro Harlem Brundtland, the WHO's director general, the US Sugar Association says it will "exercise every avenue available to expose the dubious nature" of the WHO's report on diet and nutrition, including challenging its $406m funding from the US. The industry is furious at the guidelines, which say that sugar should account for no more than 10% of a healthy diet. It claims that... other evidence indicates that a quarter of our food and drink intake can safely consist of sugar.' . http://www.politicalaims.com/archive/2003_04_13_archive.html#%0D%0A92750760 I may be the only one who finds this funny, but the State of the Union page on the White House Web site features a large heading that reads "DENIAL AND DECEPTION." I know that's supposed to refer to Iraq, but...
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jmhm/ 'The United States would have a hard time accepting an Islamic theocracy in Iraq, even if its leaders are popularly elected, two senators said yesterday. Appearing on separate Sunday news shows, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said that whether such a government arises depends, in part, on U.S. officials' commitment to working with Iraqi leaders who view tolerance and freedom as essential to a democracy.' No word yet how they feel about theocracy in America. . http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/news/news_1n20house.html Six members of Congress live in a $1.1 million Capitol Hill town house that is subsidized by a religious organization known as the Fellowship, tax records show... It is maintained by the group, also known as the Foundation, which aims to bring together world leaders and elected officials through religion. The Fellowship hosts receptions, luncheons and prayer meetings on the first two floors of the house, which is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a church. The six lawmakers Reps. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.; Bart Stupak, D-Mich.; Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Mike Doyle, D-Pa.; and Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. live in private rooms upstairs. Rent is $600 a month, DeMint said. ..Tenants dine together once a week to discuss religion in their daily lives... Few in the Fellowship will talk about its mission. It organizes the annual National Prayer Breakfast attended by the president, members of Congress and dignitaries from around the world. The group leaves its name off the program, even though it spent $924,373 to host the event in 2001, bringing in $606,292 in proceeds, according to the most recent available IRS records, and it pays travel expenses for foreign officials to attend. Other than Doyle and DeMint, current and former lawmakers who have lived in the house refused to comment. .. http://boingboing.net/ Check out this post-game analysis of the Los Angeles Dead Mall competition, which solicited bids for the redesign of derelict shopping malls: "The first floor is a "big box cathedral" that caters to "gathering types" with convenient one-stop shopping at stores like Kmart and Costco. The second floor is geared towards wandering and browsing in a kasbah-style environment. In order to replicate a city, the design also leaves room for social interaction by cultivating the idea of a mall as a meeting place for groups that might be looking for a refuge. The mall would also be a mini city that never sleeps, with towers of restaurants, nightclubs and casinos serving the "raving culture." "Part of the mall would be a new emergent public realm where people could meet to talk about culture," said Kahn. "They have an instant city. There is the skating culture and hip hop culture here, and there is no place for these subcultures. This place would make room for that." . http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000F1EDD-B48A-1E90-8EA5809EC5880000 Is there a copy of you reading this article? ...The life of this person has been identical to yours in every respect. But perhaps he or she now decides to put down this article without finishing it, while you read on. The idea of such an alter ego seems strange and implausible, but it looks as if we will just have to live with it, because it is supported by astronomical observations. The simplest and most popular cosmological model today predicts that you have a twin in a galaxy about 10 to the 1028 meters from here. This distance is so large that it is beyond astronomical, but that does not make your doppelgδnger any less real. ..You will probably never see your other selves. The farthest you can observe is the distance that light has been able to travel during the 14 billion years since the big bang expansion began. The most distant visible objects are now about 4 X 1026 meters away--a distance that defines our observable universe, also called our Hubble volume, our horizon volume or simply our universe. Likewise, the universes of your other selves are spheres of the same size centered on their planets. They are the most straightforward example of parallel universes. Each universe is merely a small part of a larger "multiverse." By this very definition of "universe," one might expect the notion of a multiverse to be forever in the domain of metaphysics. Yet the borderline between physics and metaphysics is defined by whether a theory is experimentally testable, not by whether it is weird. ..The simplest and arguably most elegant theory involves parallel universes by default. To deny the existence of those universes, one needs to complicate the theory by adding experimentally unsupported processes and ad hoc postulates: finite space, wave function collapse and ontological asymmetry. .. http://www.improb.com/projects/hair/hair-club-top.html The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) is a club for scientists who have, or believe they have, luxuriant flowing hair. HOW TO JOIN THE CLUB: To propose yourself or another luxuriantly, flowingly haired scientist for membership in the club, please send info to: LUXURIANT HAIR SCIENCE c/o marca@chem2.harvard.edu. Please include a URL that points to an evidentiary photograph in which the luxuriant, flowing hair (LFH) is clearly evident.
http://j-walk.com/blog/docs/wifispray.htm This revolutionary product is guaranteed to enhance the transfer of computer data through the air. You'll be amazed! Do you live in a polluted environment such as Los Angeles? If so, you've probably experienced the heartbreak of data transfer slow-down. WiFi Speed Spray can overcome the effects of pollution, increase fidelity, and provide you with the fastest wireless data transfer possible. Approved by the FCC, and 802.11b compliant! Compatible with Windows and most versions of Linux. It's a scientific fact. Radio waves become sluggish under a variety of common environmental conditions. Besides air pollution, radio wave slow down in noisy environments, at night, and in "high emission" areas such as computer rooms, offices that use fluorescent lighting, and even in the kitchen (those pesky microwave ovens are to blame!). .The patented formula in WiFi Speed Spray is the result of years of scientific research and testing. Simply spray the area around your computer. Usually five or six sprays is all it takes. As your computer sends data, each bit also carries hundreds of invisible WiFi Speed Spray "scrubbing" molecules. It works at the speed of light. and even penetrates lead walls (not even Superman can do that!). Within .0025 seconds, the entire path between you and the receiver is cleaned, scrubbed, polished, and sanitized. You'll notice the improvement immediately as your productivity soars! Order Now! WiFi Speed Spray is available for the low introductory price of only $19.95 for a 24 ounce bottle. Add $6.95 shipping and handling for each bottle ordered. Buy it by the case, and save 50’ per bottle! Not available in stores! .. http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,939751,00.html from "300 reasons why [Britons] love The Simpsons" #42 Bart's one trophy. Inscribed 'Everybody Gets A Trophy Day.' #233-272 Number of decimal points (40) to which Apu can recite pi. (Homer, naturally, greets the news with the phrase 'Mmmm... pie.'). . http://www.one38.org/ February 28 2003 Thanks, Mom, for your response to my email After I wrote to you I went incommunicado from the affinity group for about 10 hours which I spent with a family on the front line in Hi Salam - who fixed me dinner - and have cable TV I helped the son with his English homework a little, and we all watched Pet Semetery, which is a horrifying movie. I think they all thought it was pretty funny how much trouble I had watching it. Friday is the holiday, and when I woke up they were watching Gummy Bears dubbed into Arabic. So I ate breakfast with them and sat there for a while and just enjoyed being in this big puddle of blankets with this family watching what for me seemed like Saturday morning cartoons. I felt much better after this morning. I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances - which I also haven't seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will. Rachel [Corrie] .. http://www.unknownnews.net/a0418.html#tbr418 It has been raining for more years than we have specie ancestors. It will rain far longer than our kind will remain to swim in their individual wells on this communal globe of earth, water, and sky heated by fire from afar Has it brewed too long or too little? It doesnt matter. The vintage at hand is the vintage weve got. A glass of salty rain, swimming with more life than we can either see or imagine, each being an extension not only of the self-serving strings of DNA but also the omnivorous cycle of life some uncharitably call the food chain or samsara, but those great early party animals, the Hindus, called Maya or dancing mud. Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu. Creator, destroyer, preserver We homo sapiens are a chapter, not a book. . http://www.one38.org/1000/setup.html from Milagros By Melissa Mullen Several nights later, under cover of the darkness, a wooden cross was erected in our front yard in place of the candles and offerings. I was excited to see this new development in the morning and stood on Cynthia's shoulders to put my arms around the top beam and pull myself up. I sat on the upper beam and swung my legs back and forth, and then had Cynthia hand Bonnie up to me. Bonnie squealed in delight at being included and was only a little nervous about being so high off the ground. She stuck her thumb in her mouth, her other arm around the vertical beam at the top. It was then that Mother come outside in jeans and a sweatshirt, and screamed in horror. She ran to the cross and tried to pull me down by the legs, and screeched like something in a slasher movie as she came into contact with the cross. I smelt something like burning ham and saw that her forearm was smoking and the skin was bubbling. I jumped down immediately and twisted my ankle as I hit the ground, and Mother grabbed hold of Bonnie and threw her away from the cross at the same moment. Things began to move in slow motion for me as the structure suddenly erupted into flame. The sun disappeared behind an angry, slate-grey cloud and, gasping, I saw Mother silhouetted against the cross, hair streaming behind her. She held out her arms and I saw that blood poured from the wrists and spurted from her sandals. Her eyes were closed, mouth open as if in song. The heat from the flames was unbearable from where I lay sprawled on the grass, and I tried to push myself away but was frozen in place, mouth gaping at the awesome sight. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Mother fell to her knees and hugged herself, breathing hard. I felt the searing pain in my ankle and noted that the hair, barely grown on my legs and arms, had been singed off, and my flesh smarted. Bonnie and Cynthia sat together in a heap and cried. And on the cross was a silhouette burned into the wood of a lithe female form, with blood spots at the wrists and feet.
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