Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:05:45 GMT

Un-golden pond.

In 2003, Trish and James Shamp fell in love with the view behind a house in a new Elk River development and bought the house. There were eagles swooping from the sky, frogs frolicking, deer drinking from the waters of what the Shamps and their neighbors thought was a pond. [startribune.com Top Stories]

This story has it all: possibly unscrupulous developers, duped home buyers, Bambi, eco-destruction. All because the city cleared a clogged drain that removed the ‘pond’ that had developed. At least it brought the neighbors together.

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:46:15 GMT

Hey doc, do I still need this catheter?. Millions of hospital patients could be spared the humiliation and infection risk that come with a urine-collecting catheter, a new study finds, if hospitals used a simple reminder system to prompt doctors to remove the devices after two days. The system could more than pay for itself by preventing infections. [EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases]

Yeah, the simple reminder system is for the nurses to WRITE a reminder on the patient’s records! Wow. What an advance that could prevent thousands of urinary infections. The old ways are sometimes best.

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:42:38 GMT

“Citizen’s Guide to Refusing New York Subway Searches” [Daypop Top 40]

Very useful to know. The site alos had a link to a report that people are walking up to the police and voluntarily offering to have their bags searched. Of course this could very well negate the current strategy. A bomber would not have to worry as much about a random search if they sent in someone first to occupy the officer;s attention by asking for a search. As the officer searches that bag, the bober walks right in.

The only thing to do then is to search everyone, something that is pretty difficult to do at the moment. So the seeming altruism of some people may actually hamper the efforts.

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:38:32 GMT

“Here’s why you can’t buy the News Journal at Wal-Mart “ [Daypop Top 40]

Interesting response of this megacorporation to a local newspaper.Ceasing to sell a newpaper because it does not like what a local columnists said is within its rights but does not seem like a very effective business decision. But then, power corrupts.

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 18:24:13 GMT

Harry Shearer: When Smart People Dumb Down.

Greta von Susteren, Dan Abrams, and Jeff Toobin. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re arguably not the dumbest people on cable news, but they’ll play dummies on TV. Check out the quotes in Howard Kurtz’s media column, in which all three bemoan the lack of pictures as the reason why they won’t be doing as much serious coverage of the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts as they’d really, really like to do.

From the little I’ve seen of it, the Natalee Holloway coverage doesn’t have all that many current pix either — where do you get current video of a missing person? No, it has endlessly repeated family snaps, just as boring (except for the youthful blondness) as the endlessly repeated “class photos” of the enrobed Supremes.

Toobin, whom I like, says: “It’s very difficult to illustrate the concept of separation of powers, or separation of church and state.” Anybody who, as I once did, worked as a secondary school social studies teacher has figured out ways to visualize exactly those concepts on the shoestring visual resources of the public schools. I bet somebody at CNN who runs the Harry (no relation) or Paintbox or whatever the latest visual-effects box they use for promos could figure out a neat way to visualize the separation of powers in less time than it takes to, as Greta brags about her Holloway coverage, teach us a lot we didn’t know about Aruban law.

[The Huffington Post | Raw Feed]

Just another indication of the current problems with the media and why they will soon be even more irrelevant. CNN no longer really matters in so many ways, and MSNBC is a joke. Fox maintains a close focus on its base but that is a base that generally favors stupidity over clarity. Either America will leave these losers behind or some other country will pass us by. In this rapidly changing world, idiots have little worth.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 18:13:57 GMT

Japan Vs. Tivo.

High court rules ad-skipping on Tivo boxes are illegal for Japanese citizens…

[News America Now]

I wonder how long it will be before this is true here.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:52:37 GMT

Biotech & Creativity. San Francisco Chronicle Jul 17 2005 12:39PM GMT [Moreover Technologies - moreover...]

Nice article that helps provide a human face to science. Wish it would really help matters but so few people actually read the paper thses days.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:45:52 GMT

Spreading democracy… covertly?. Why am I not surprised?

In the months before the Iraqi elections in January, President Bush approved a plan to provide covert support to certain Iraqi candidates and political parties, but rescinded the proposal because of Congressional opposition, current and former government officials said Saturday.

In a statement issued in response to questions about a report in the next issue of The New Yorker, Frederick Jones, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said that “in the final analysis, the president determined and the United States government adopted a policy that we would not try – and did not try – to influence the outcome of the Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office.”

The statement appeared to leave open the question of whether any covert help was provided to parties favored by Washington, an issue about which the White House declined to elaborate.

The article, by Seymour M. Hersh, reports that the administration proceeded with the covert plan over the Congressional objections. Several senior Bush administration officials disputed that, although they recalled renewed discussions within the administration last fall about how the United States might counter what was seen as extensive Iranian support to pro-Iranian Shiite parties.

Free and fair elections, my ass.

More below the fold. [Daily Kos]

Well, as I recall, the Iraqis voted for party slates, not for individual candidates. So, if the Administration wanted to provide covert help, giving it to parties would be the correct procedure. Funny how the Administration will not answer that question.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:31:23 GMT

“CSI: Disneyland” [Daypop Top 40]

Another reason I will not be visiting Disneyworld anytime soon (and I say that as someone who loved it so much I spent my honeymoon there, and took a 3 month old child on another visit) On my last visit, we spent big bucks staying on the concierge flor of one of the Disneyworld theme hotels. I’ve got better things to do with my money that spend it at such a place.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:27:00 GMT

Everything changed on 7/7

or did it?






Via ThinkProgress
we find
this LA Times story
:

On the way to passing a $31.8-billion Homeland Security spending bill Thursday, Senate Republican leaders beat back a series of attempts ÷ pressed by senators from states with large urban centers ÷ to increase money for mass transit protection by as much as $1.4 billion. ·






In the Senateâs spending bill, rail and transit safety measures were allotted $100 million,
a drop of $50 million from last year
.

What a difference a week makes.






Mike the Mad Biologist
is (not surprisingly) mad
. And well he should be. As he notes, a well planned attack on the New York subways could kill 500 people with one bomb. The tunnels aren’t adequately ventilated and may not have enough fire suppression, so a London-type attack would be much more deadly, since people couldn’t evacuate as easily.






We can all agree that anti-terrorism funding should reach every corner of the country, but the per capita risk is more highly concentrated in the largest cities, not least because that’s where the media are, and a terror attack that doesn’t make the news is less valuable to al Qaeda. So anti-terrorism money ought to be biased toward urban areas with obvious targets on a per capita basis. Right now, each state gets an equal pile of money from one account, and special funding for certain targets on top of that.






Is there any (non-pork) reason to oppose shifting the state funds to a per capita allocation? On top of that, is there any reason not to move the money saved on that into targeted funding for infrastructure and high-value targets?






I don’t think so either.

– Josh Rosenau [Thoughts from Kansas]

From what I understand, every state eceives the same amount of Homeland Security funds. So North Dakota gets as much as New York. Makes sense? Unless the money is really just being used for pork barrel projects instead of providing real security.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:13:36 GMT

Buttars: Evolution teachers in Utah “will be dealt with.”. Neandertals aren’t extinct yet, at least not if you listen to Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars. By matzke@ncseweb.org (Nick Matzke). [The Panda's Thumb]

Iwonder how long before biology instructors at BYU are dealt with also.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:37:48 GMT

Plankton levels have dropped precipitously. Mark Frauenfelder:
For reasons that mystify scientists, ocean temperatures are rising, which is killing off the plankton. As a result, animals higher on the food chain are facing mass starvation.

“Something big is going on out there,” said Julia Parrish, an associate professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at the University of Washington. “I’m left with no obvious smoking gun, but birds are a good signal because they feed high up on the food chain.”

This spring, scientists reported a record number of dead seabirds washed up on beaches along the Pacific Coast, from central California to British Columbia.

In Washington state, the highest numbers of dead seabirds – particularly Brandt’s cormorants and common murres – were found along the southern coast at Ocean Shores.

Bird surveyors in May typically find an average of one dead Brandt’s cormorant every 34 miles of beach. But this year, cormorant deaths averaged one every eight-tenths of a mile, according to data gathered by volunteers with the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team, which Parrish has directed since 2000.

“This is somewhere between five and 10 times the highest number of bird deaths we’ve seen before,” she said.

Link

Reader comment: Antoine Charvet says: “You should read this Wired article that describes this “Ecohacker” Michael Markels who proposes dumping iron filings into the world’s oceans to create plankton blooms and sequester CO2 as well as provide food for the world from the resulting fish that feed on this stuff!” [Boing Boing]

This is very scary. Disrution of the food chain could have pretty devastating effects. The salmosn runs ehere this year have been very small, most likely due to warmer water temperatures. Does not sound good.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:33:55 GMT

Why I have serious doubts about the ‘citizen reporters’.

I find it astonishing – not to say macabre – that virtually the first thing a lay person would do after escaping injury in an explosion in which dozens of other human beings are killed or maimed is to film or photograph the scene and then relay it to a broadcasting organisation. A thought provoking article by John Naughton for The Guardian.

See also a round up of breaking news articles and opinion pieces on the London bombings which have heralded a new era in journalism.

[Smart Mobs]

I’m sorry. I just do not see the problem. Pictures were taken well before any media arrived. Is he jealous or feeling threatened? The people sent the pictures to the media, many just wanting to get them the news. It is up to the editors to pick which ones to publish. As can already be done, people can display quite horrific pictures on the internet. There are tons of them dealing with Iraq bombings, for instance. Some of the London pictures were good enough to be used as the main intros to stories. We are much more likely to get a good idea of what happens with 100’s of people taking pictures rather than one.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:24:54 GMT

Harry Potter series prompts religious controversy. The pope has criticized them, churches have burned them.

But the books are still being read.

The Å´ßHarry PotterÅ´? series, which released its sixth volume Saturday, has inspired three blockbuster movies and millions of young readers around the world.

Educators call the books a gateway to reading.

Religious leaders call them a gateway to the occult.More, from The Brownsville Herald. [LISNews.com]

Nice to hear the Catholic Church still continues to view Harry Potter as a gateway to occult powers, just a mariuana is a gateway drug to more potent ones. Something to harm young souls. I guess Hamlet or Macbeth fall in the same category, what with their occult ghosts and witches.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:14:15 GMT

So, should the FCC let and the FAA allow cell phone usage during flights?.

Curious what you all think.

This article argues that the “cell phone use will interfere with the airplane communications” argument is bogus. Nonetheless, the article doesn’t address the “every asshole will be talking on their phone and yelling in the seat next to me about their latest family problem for 3 hours just like all the idiots on Amtrak” argument.”

Your take?

By noemail@noemail.org (John in DC). [AMERICAblog]

No. NO. No. Iam sure society will eventually figure out that this is very rude, forcing people to listen to your conversation for 3-4 hours is exceptionally rude.If not, I look forward to mino-jammer devices that prevent cell pone transmission. As we make this transition, I expect the social networks to get some of the rules down. And talking at every turn on a cell phone in crowded circumstances will not be one of the things done. Yoo apt to end in violence.