Saturday, April 26, 2003
Blogger's Support question: missing archives hasn't solved the problem yet. I followed what they said but got a message that it failed. Several times.
Dear Blogger.com,
Why are there three archives links here, and no bloody archives? Where have my archives gone?
Pip
Spooks on board at Google
"A 'Help Wanted' ad found on the web:
Deployment Engineer (with security clearance)"
Great Echelon image too. I've covered Echelon in the Almanac a few times earlier on, but been distracted by the war, and will have to do some more. If you need to know more about this ginormous global spynet... google it LOL
Google as Big Brother
" It's not that we believe Google is evil. What we believe is that Google, Inc. is at a fork in the road, and they have some big decisions to make. This Google Watch site is trying to articulate, publicize, and even dramatize the situation at Google, and encourage more scrutiny of their operations ...
"With 150 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved"
I have a google toolbar that I adore, and I've recommended it in this blog. Thank you Vee Beep for alerting me to this page ... I'm not ditching my google bar yet, but I'm going to keep monitoring google, as well as other privacy/Ashcroftian/US gov't issues where google might be a player.
Big free portal for online TV and Radio, from WILSON'S ALMANAC
Pip's Picks isn't about promoting things on my own site, but I'm still excited by my radio and TV portal a year or so after I added it to the Scriptorium. As there aren't many places that I've seen with such functionality, I want to recommend it.
I often work late into the night and, living in the country, the local radio can be awful. I love to tune into some good listening, which for me is often Australia's ABC News Radio, as it features news, current affairs and documentaries not only from oz, but also UK, USA, Germany, Holland and maybe others. This station is easily accessible from the Scriptorium's Radio/TV portal, along with hundreds of others.
Friday, April 25, 2003
F*cked Weblog
"Weblogs aren't forever."
Where blogs go to die. It's reality. (To comply with Blogger.com's terms I had to bowdlerise this link.)
George W Bush's Resume, by Kelley Kramer
"I started wondering ... what would a George W. Bush resume look like exactly? Listed below is what I came up with."
Who Owns You? - Media Ownership Basics
"There are plenty of sources for news ... yet most folks (in America at least) accept the information given to them from giant corporations. Namely, MSNBCGE, AOL-TimeWarner-CNN, ABCDisney, ViacomCBS, and FOX. ... You, yes YOU, have the freedom to choose."
>Sigh< I keep finding people who don't know where the news comes from (and the current affairs and programming in general). It kinda scares me that many people do not question what media programming is all about. Guess people who know have just gotta keep spreading info. This site helps.
For execution of Donahue, General Electric supplied the current, by Ralph Nader
"In the past few months, the corporate "suits" even told Donahue that he had to have more conservative or right-wing guests than liberals on the same hour show. Still, Donahue persevered. His ratings were slowly increasing, despite the regular lacerations that the top brass inflicted on a show that was supposed to be the liberal counterpart of the right-wing, bellicose Fox fare stitched together by Rupert Murdoch's media empire."
New Scientist: Genetically enhanced humans to come, say DNA pioneers
"At a meeting in London to mark the anniversary, Watson said the future of genetics holds the promise of a much greater understanding of human nature. He argued that, for example, understanding the effect of genetic variation on behaviour will lead to the fusion of biology and psychology."
Economist.com | The art of DNA
"Fifty years after its discovery, the double helix is twisting itself ever deeper into popular culture
“'WE WISH to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.).' So began the modest introduction to what turned out to be one of the most momentous papers in the history of biology. It was published exactly 50 years ago, on April 25th 1953, in Nature.
"The first artist to use it was Salvador Dali, who included DNA spirals in his surreal, phantasmagoric paintings of the 1950s. But he was ahead of his time."
President Bush's Neoconservatives Were Spawned in NYC
"...Originally, a neoconservative was an anti-communist liberal who rejected the 1960’s counterculture. After the Cold War ended, neoconservatism came to be associated with an aggressive foreign policy."
This thorough article by Joe Hagan is a hagiography of the neo-cons. I'm glad to see Rupert Murdoch accorded his place among the econo-rat patriarchs. Australia's worst export ever.
Thursday, April 24, 2003
The Journalist's Toolbox: Global Journalism
A useful page of links courtesy of the American Press Institute.
Transcript of Tim Robbins Speech to the National Press Club, April 15, 03
"You have, whether you like it or not, an awesome responsibility and an awesome power: the fate of discourse, the health of this republic is in your hands, whether you write on the left or the right. This is your time, and the destiny you have chosen."
Keith Windschuttle Vs Pat Grimshaw on Australian Aboriginal massacres
"In his recent book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Keith Windschuttle charges academic historians with a series of wilful misrepresentations intended to portray Australia as a society marked by atrocities against Aborigines."
Keith Windschuttle is obviously a rabid rabble rouser, given the rabid rabble he has roused in my native land. Windschuttle is a well-known Australian left-wing academic and author who for years, on his own admission, adopted and taught the 'black armband' view of Australian history. Then, smelling a rat, he decided to do some research of his own and not just accept willy-nilly the assertions and allegations of Prof. Henry Reynolds and others who assert that many Aboriginal people were massacred by colonists.
A coolly rational Windschuttle (author of The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering Our Past) is regaled, not debated, by an embarrassingly strident Prof. Pat Grimshaw, who rarely answers her antagonist with evidence. Reynolds would have made a better opponent in these MP3 audios, and the debate is far too short, but it's one not to be missed by anyone who has heard the theories Windschuttle has rendered questionable, if not obsolete. I trust Keith has now learned one trusim of the Australian Old Left: they eat their own young.
Help Raise Awareness: Add Refusenik Watch, autoupdate banner to your site, oznik-news
A banner showing Israeli soldiers refusing to serve the Occupation. I've placed one on Pip Wilson 1:44 PM
Naked against the war in Barcelona
Old news, nice nudes.
Ulli's Roy Orbison in Cling-film site
"Hello, and welcome to my homepage. My name is Ulrich Haarbürste and I like to write stories about Roy Orbison being wrapped up in cling-film."
Official - Operation Iraqi Freedom Cards
"Our Leader assures the Iraqi people that the sacrifice will be worth it." Great, funny cards.
Memes.org :: Memes are Mind Viruses
Byzant Biography - Encyclopedia of Quotations
Esoteric quotes.
the News Insider
An excellent news source in a superbly designed website. I've just added their news ticker to the many others at Daily Planet News Page 3.
Case for war built on fake reports, claims Blix
"The chief United Nations weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has questioned the intelligence used by the United States and Britain to justify attacking Iraq for concealing weapons of mass destruction."
US Has Plans to Bomb N Korea Nuke Plant
"CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb a North Korea nuclear plant if it reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods, according to an Australian newspaper report on Tuesday that was quickly downplayed by Australian officials."
www.hopecaravan.com [HOME]
A very inspiring band of Australians who travel out to the desert to help free asylum seekers being held in this country's concentration camps. I subbed to their newsletter and look forward to getting it.
For the People on the Streets, This is not Liberation but a New Colonial Oppression
"The looters make money from their rampages but the arsonists have to be paid. The passengers in those buses are clearly being directed to their targets. If Saddam had pre-paid them, they wouldn't start the fires. The moment he disappeared, they would have pocketed the money and forgotten the whole project.
"So who are they, this army of arsonists? I recognized one the other day, a middle-aged, unshaven man in a red T-shirt, and the second time he saw me he pointed a Kalashnikov at me. What was he frightened of? Who was he working for? In whose interest is it to destroy the entire physical infrastructure of the state, with its cultural heritage? Why didn't the Americans stop this?
"As I said, something is going terribly wrong in Baghdad and something is going on which demands that serious questions be asked of the United States government. Why, for example, did Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, claim last week that there was no widespread looting or destruction in Baghdad? His statement was a lie. But why did he make it?"
Robert Fisk writes from Baghdad and poses some of the most chilling questions yet asked on the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.
The Unthinkable Is Becoming Normal - John Pilger - 20 April 2003
"We must not forget that a British defence secretary has announced, for the first time, that his government is prepared to launch an attack with nuclear weapons. He echoes Bush, of course. An ascendant mafia now rules the United States, and the Prime Minister is in thrall to it. Together, they empty noble words – liberation, freedom and democracy – of their true meaning. The unspoken truth is that behind the bloody conquest of Iraq is the conquest of us all: of our minds, our humanity and our self-respect at the very least. If we say and do nothing, victory over us is assured."
I don't always like my countryman Pilger but he does himself proud in this article.
ABCNEWS.com : U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba
"Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.
The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro."
More on Operation Northwoods (as posted earlier).
Our Ignorance, Their Want - Maureen Farrell on BuzzFlash.com
"U.S. forces have already prevented a Save the Children plane, carrying medical supplies and emergency food, from landing in northern Iraq, delaying help to doctors who have heroically fought to save lives under deplorable conditions. 'The lack of cooperation from the U.S. military is a breach of the Geneva Conventions and its protocols but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives,' Emergency Program Manager Rob MacGillivray said."
BILLBOARD
Dixie Chicks Number One on Top Country Albums, second week in a row. Americans sending their President a message, maybe?
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
How Neocons Conquered Washington – and Launched a War
"It is not clear that George W fully understands the grand strategy that Wolfowitz and other aides are unfolding. He seems genuinely to believe that there was an imminent threat to the U.S. from Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction," something the leading neocons say in public but are far too intelligent to believe themselves."
Michael Lind's article shares with the Guardian's excellent Mesopotamia. Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates by that passionate and adept writer, Arundhati Roy, equal best of the hundreds of articles that I've read about the war on terrorism and Iraq. Lind, whose background gives him some authority to speak, briefly maps out the Zionist connections around the US admin – connections many refer to but few delineate, until now. If Lind were a sultry Indian beauty, his article might just edge out Arundhati Roy' as standalone Number One, but it's nil contendere.
Donald Foster Uses Computer Tests to Search for Shakespeare's Hidden Hand
Today being the traditional date of Shakespeare's birth, I found this interesting and well-written account of Donald Foster's claim that he discovered a lost poem by the Bard. It was also illuminating in terms of the 'WS' to whom the Sonnets are dedicated, as I'd always accepted Oscar Wilde's famous interpretation, or similar.
Report shows global warming link to Australia's worst drought
"SYDNEY: A new scientific report by WWF Australia and leading meteorologists has shown that human-induced global warming was a key factor in the severity of the 2002 drought. The report compares the 2002 drought with the four other major droughts since 1950 and has found higher temperatures caused a marked increase in evaporation rates from soil, watercourses and vegetation."
Giant Colon Replica Educates Arkansans
"The "Colossal Colon" is designed for children and adults to crawl through, and allows visitors to see different stages of the disease, from polyps to full-blown cancer. "
Children held at Camp Xray, US admits. 22/4/2003. ABC News Online
"The US military has revealed it is holding juveniles at its high-security prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, known as Camp Xray."
Salon.com | Why the antiwar movement was right
Arianna Huffington writes, "the speedy fall of Baghdad proves the antiwar movement was dead right".
Warblogging.com: Another Backbench Revolt?
"The Guardian reported Saturday that 'Tony Blair is facing the threat of a fresh rebellion from Labour backbenchers who are growing increasingly alarmed that the failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq will confirm that the war was illegal.'
"The British MPs are suggesting that all those promises by Bush, Blair and Powell that they knew that Iraq possessed WMD were lies."
Email stripper free download
There's a lot of similar products, but this is the best I've seen to get rid of all the >>>>> and other crap from emails when you forward them (especially if it's to me).
William Shakespeare - Wikipedia
Almanac readers have probably noticed that I use Wikipedia quite a lot. This article on birthday boy (April 23, 1564) Bill the Bard shows why. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia being written by volunteers all over cyberspace, and is to be commended, and recommended. Definitely worth bookmarking, and if you can figure out their code, which is sort of a blog, it's worth contributing articles to this very idealistic project.
The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld - Recent works by the secretary of defense
Oh, the things one misses, not having a TV. I've never even 'seen' this man speak, though I've heard him on radio. So, a sensitive bard lies just a heartbeat and a ham fist from the Presidency! But then, the whole cabal lies, as we have seen over and over.
Noosphere Blues
I like this blog.
Guardian Unlimited | Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
"Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad."
Pretend you're surprised.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
BBC Unit 731: Japan's biological force
"It was October 1940. Wu was a boy of 11, when his nine-year-old brother fell sick from a mysterious disease, an epidemic that was raging through his village."
Salon.com Technology | Building the underground computer railroad
Sept 23, 2002: "Anti-globalization activists in Oakland, Calif., are recycling old machines, loading them with free software and shipping them off to Ecuador."
Melbourne Indymedia - features archive
Police Raid Camp With Machine Guns
"Around 10:45am ten police entered the baxter2003 protest camp armed with semi-automatic weapons ..."
Just another day as Western countries get increasingly led by the nose by neo-fascist wannabes. Australia's government keeps asylum seekers confined worse than you or I would keep an animal, rather like the US with Guantanamo.
The Other Holocaust : Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, Unit 100, Unit 516
"This Biological Warfare is definitely the worst case of systematic biological massacre against Humanity committed by a country in our Human History."
Unit 731: History and New Evidence
Links.
Japanese Army's Unit 731 for germ warfare
"Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 killed thousands of Chinese and Russians held prisoner in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, in experiments to develop chemical and biological weapons.
"In the autumn of 1945, MacArthur acceded to granting immunity to members of Unit 731 in exchange for data of research on biological warfare. 'The value to the U.S. of Japanese BW data is of such importance to national security as to far outweigh the value accruing from war crimes' prosecution.'"
I'm learning about something new to me, the horrendous and extensive role of Unit 731 in WWII biological warfare. Why it's not a household word like Gestapo or Auschwitz is beyond me. I'll post a few more links here.
Earth Day Network - April 22 ~ Events
"Earth Day, which occurs annually on April 22, involves tens of thousands of events, from rallies and teach-outs to concerts and earth fairs. Earth Day events happen everywhere: in casbahs, capitals, villages, schools and temples. Together, we send a message that our planet is precious, perishable, and belongs to all of us."
AirView - Aerial Photography System
Very cool site for aerial photos of my state, New South Wales.
The Story of The famous and original Black Stump
The Australian expression "beyond (or, the other side of) the black stump", means way out in the boondocks, in the outback. There are various explanations as to the expression's origin, and this page appears to shed some light on the mystery, though one would prefer some substantiation. There are no citations given at all in this article.
YellowTimes.org - Murmurs of Shiite Revolution in Iraq
"In Baghdad, 20,000 Iraqis took to the central square and faced off against U.S. Marines patrolling the area.
"'USA, don't stay - GO!' and other signs calling on U.S. forces to withdraw were visible as Iraqis chanted against U.S. plans for Iraq."
Monday, April 21, 2003
School of the Seasons Store
"May Day Packet: Over 40 pages of ideas for celebrating May Day and its related holidays (Beltane, Walpurgisnacht, Floralia), compiled in one reference you can use every year. Includes expanded versions of holiday customs and ideas for celebrating from the correspondence course and calendar listings, instructions for creating a Maypole and dancing around it, recipes for May wine and traditional May foods, several pages on the language of the flowers and the plants of May Day (hawthorn, woodruff and lilies of the valley) and ideas for May Day gifts."
YellowTimes.org - ''Saddam's fall: a warning to the Third World''
"(YellowTimes.org) -- When the towering statue of Saddam Hussein that was standing in the middle of Baghdad was toppled by his own people -- aided and abetted by American Marines -- and telecast live to thousands of people the world over, it was clear that the (onetime U.S.-sponsored) Iraqi regime had come to an end and that Saddam's days of ruling the roost were finally over."
April 2003 Holidays - School of the Seasons
April 22 Earth Day
"A fairly new holiday which was first celebrated in 1970 as a way of calling attention to the perils of the environment. It is appropriate that this holiday which reminds us to care for Mother Earth, falls during a month dotted with festivals to the goddess as garden guardian ..."
WorkingForChange-The errand and the fools
"Why the Bush cabal's newfound mission to'liberate' Iraq, Syria, and the world is doomed to failure"
Beatings and Restraints at Australia's Guantanamo
"On 6th April 8 detainees were taken to the Management unit and placed in solitary. They were told that they were considered to be likely to escape so they were being removed and locked up until after Easter-a pre-emptive strike as it were."
The world should know about Australia's concentration camps for asylum seekers.
Phoebe Gloeckner, artist, writer, cartoonist
She's new to me. I like what I've seen so far.
Amnesty Says Iraq Oil Better Protected Than People
"LONDON (Reuters) - Human rights group Amnesty International accused U.S.-led forces on Tuesday of being better prepared for the defense of Iraq's oil wells than of its people and infrastructure."
Cheney's premature obit
"APRIL 16--While all news organizations prepare obituaries in advance of the deaths of famous individuals, the folks at CNN inadvertently gave the Internet-surfing public a chance to preview how the network's web site would note the demise of Vice President Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, and a few other prominent figures."
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Iraqi Envoy Believes Saddam Is Dead
Salon.com Comics | This Modern World
"Because the Moon MAY someday break out of orbit ..."
Wandering Jew
On April 22, 1774 the 'Wandering Jew' appeared in Brussels. In the middle ages it was believed that there was a Jewish man still alive who had been alive at the time of Christ; the belief persisted as late as 1774 which is perhaps the last notice we have of 'the Wandering Jew'. The tale has obviously anti-Semitic origins. This Wikipedia page has more about this facinating, if disturbing, legend. Wikipedia has caught my attention recently and it's worth checking out.
Sunday, April 20, 2003
US accused of plans to loot Iraqi antiques
"The ACCP has caused deep unease among archaeologists since its creation in 2001. Among its main members are collectors and lawyers with chequered histories in collecting valuable artefacts, including alleged exhibitions of Nazi loot.
"They denied accusations of attempting to change Iraq's treatment of archaeological objects. Instead, they said at the January meeting they offered 'post-war technical and financial assistance', and 'conservation support'."
Good Friday and Police Violence at Baxter Protest
"After perhaps an hour or two the impressive line up of foot and mounted police told campers they had to go back to the first site and advanced, the mounted police beginning to trample tents and camping gear (possibly people) which were not removed. I was rudely shoved from behind by another line of police which I had not noticed moving. It was shocking to witness. Dust being stirred up, people disappearing from view in front of the horses. It just seemed so senseless and brutal."
The Memory Hole >Reasons Not to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr.
"On 21 September 2002, The Memory Hole posted an extract from an essay by George Bush Sr. and Brent Scowcroft, in which they explain why they didn't have the military push into Iraq and topple Saddam during Gulf War 1. Although there are differences between the Iraq situations in 1991 and 2002-3, Bush's key points apply to both.
But a funny thing happened. Fairly recently, Time pulled the essay off of their site. It used to be at this link, which now gives a 404 error. If you go to the table of contents for the issue in which the essay appeared (2 March 1998), "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" is conspicuously absent.
Because of this erasure, we're posting the entire essay below the portion we originally excerpted."
The Memory Hole > Doctored Photo from London Evening Standard
"On 9 April 2003, the London Evening Standard's front page contained a blurry image supposedly showing a throng of Iraqis in Baghdad celebrating the toppling of Saddam Hussein. What we are really looking at is an incredibly ham-fisted attempt at photo manipulation.
"The source of the image is footage from the BBC. The Standard's paperboys were obviously allowed to clone and blur the image in numerous ways to make it look like a gigantic crowd."
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I just dig Japanese sites. Maybe not cats a whole lot, but cats in hats, OK. Who else but the Nipponese?
www.pipwilson.com - Will the real Pip Wilson please sit down
Pip Wilson is a good bloke with a big heart. No, the other one. "Other Pip Wilson" lives in England, has a website, writes inspirational books and is involved with the YMCA. I know because someone told me recently they'd seen my book in the local youth centre ... only it wasn't mine at all.
Other Pip Wilson and I have corresponded a couple of times. His website has been upgraded and is looking great; he's even got a blog now (who's the copycat?). If you want, contact Other Pip (he has a Contact link) and tell him he's been pipblogged at http://pipspicks.blogspot.com/, and Other Pip Wilson says g'day mate. :)
Pippy
So there's at least one other mad Pip out there.
tickle robot
"This small robot walks on the human body to generate a pleasant, tickling sensation. It has two motors and rubber feet for a good grip on the skin. When it encounters a slope that is too steep, it will steer until a safe level is found, and it will continue its way."
I gotta get me one of these!!
Where are the banned weapons in Iraq? By DAN FREEDMAN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU
"WASHINGTON -- American forces in Iraq so far have come up empty in their search for weapons of mass destruction, leading some experts to question President Bush's primary justification for attacking Iraq."
Fueling a Culture Clash (washingtonpost.com)
"MANY MUSLIMS received the news that the White House had nominated scholar Daniel Pipes to, of all places, the U.S. Institute of Peace as sort of a cruel joke."
The Last Refuge (NYTimes.com abstract)
" ... self-styled [USA] patriots are trying to impose constraints on political speech never contemplated during World War II, accusing anyone who criticizes the president of undermining the war effort."
This seems bizarre to those of us who live in not-too-patriotic rest of the world, but apparently it's happening. Interesting reading, but a bit disturbing that the author feels it has to be written.
