remembering rebecca: 09.02

.: 2002 --> september

september

:: David Steven, editor of the Daily Summit writes to ask, 'How am I doing?' Frankly, I'm impressed. Daily coverage of Summit events, behind-the-scenes glimpses of the workings of the media and Summit itself, and interviews with primatologist Jane Goodall, Pakitani Environment Minister Shahida Jamil, British Council UK Director of Science Lloyd Anderson, and even Summit driver Tladi John Ndlovu. Go have a look.[ 09/03/02 ]

:: Skeptical Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg (predictably) believes the environmentalists have it wrong and that the US should use the World Summit to lead the world in putting development over sustainability. It's an interesting piece, but Lomberg's argument is built on a false dichotomy: that sustainability and development are mutually exclusive. [NY Times: rebeccaspocket, password: pocket]

And even Lomberg admits the US isn't making decisions based on a higher vision for the world:

Many Europeans chastised the the Bush administration for not caring enough about sustainability, especially in its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol. They are probably correct that the United States decision was made on the basis of economic self-interest rather than out of some principled belief in world development. But in Johannesburg the administration can recast its decision as an attempt to focus on the most important and fundamental issues on the global agenda: clean drinking water, better sanitation and health care and the fight against poverty.

To be honest, I'd love to be engaged in a policy discussion along the lines Lomberg proposes. If the US government had rejected the Kyoto in favor of the program outlined in the article, I might not agree that we were doing the very best thing, but it would be clear that the United States was attempting to be a responsible world citizen.
[ 09/03/02 ]

:: Happy September! This year the equinox will be marked by a harvest moon.
[ 09/03/02 ]

:: It would appear that Google is blocked from within China. (thanks, jim!)
[ 09/03/02 ]

:: Davezilla notes an odd story about an escaped emu being mistaken for shirtless man and offers an infographic to prevent the rest of us from suffering from the same, distressing, confusion.
[ 09/03/02 ]

:: It might seem that only starry-eyed idealists would be interested in purchasing a home in a community that was organized around creating shared common spaces, but thanks to its location, diverse pricing, and many inherent advantages, conservation community East Lake Common is attracting buyers without marketing. (via mefi)

In this pedestrian-oriented community, there is a natural progression from the public to private spaces for residents. 'As the streets move further into the community there is little reason for anyone but homeowners to be in neighborhood,' explains Preston. 'Visitors to the community are visible to the residents. That is real security and real privacy.'

[ 09/09/02 ]

:: The Lilly Suicides makes the frightening claim that Prozac can induce anxiety, agitation, and suicide--and that pharmaceutical manufacturers have hidden this information from the time the drug was introduced to the public. I asked weblogger and psychiatrist Eliot Gelwan what he thought of the article. His response is informed, lucid, and very thorough. Read them both.
[ 09/09/02 ]

:: Another reason to love the Web: Notes from the Road.

Notes from the Road is about subjective travel; the kind of real world of random things and real people.

I am an untrained writer. Notes from the Road stories are sketched on the road, with only one or two edits afterwords. I am also an untrained traveler - everything that seems to come naturally to people in Outside Magazine ads is always a learning process for me. Camping is uncomfortable, hotels are overpriced, and there is nothing glamorous about travel.

[ 09/09/02 ]

:: Blogarithm is a free service that will notify you by email when your favorite weblogs have updated.

And Greg and Jessamyn have released Oddbook, a php app to help you keep track of your books.
[ 09/09/02 ]

:: Recent reviews of the Weblog Handbook: Jessamyn, Medley, Chicklit, and Startup Garden.
[ 09/09/02 ]

:: If you are in the Washington, DC area, tune into WAMU Tuesday (tomorrow, September 10) at 1:06pm to hear me on Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi. It's a call-in show, so please call to ask your question or to make a comment and plug your site (DC bloggers, I'm looking at you).
[ 09/09/02 ]

:: As we remember, let us not become that which we abhor.
[ 09/11/02 ]

:: 08/02: A World Out of Touch With Itself: Where the Violence Comes From by Rabbi Michael Lerner

The central struggle going on in the world today is this one: between hope and fear, love or paranoia, generosity or trying to shore up one's own portion.... Our only hope is to revert to a consciousness of generosity and love. That's not to go to a lalla-land where there are no forces like those who destroyed the World Trade Center. But it is to refuse to allow that to become the shaping paradigm of the 21st century.

Much better to make the shaping paradigm the story of the police and firemen who risked (and in many cases lost) their lives in order to save other human beings who they didn't even know. Let the paradigm be the generosity and kindness of people when they are given a social sanction to be caring instead of self-protective. We cannot let war, hatred and fear become the power in this new century that it was in the last century.

[ 09/11/02 ]

:: 10/01: You Did What You Could by my niece

And then she went back to the front to draw in the frightened people on the ground, and then the fire fighters in their red suits.

--and then it clicked. The people falling. Not one but two, holding hands.... I think the whole card is about the helpers.

[ 09/11/02 ]

:: 10/01: Naming Normal by Rebecca Blood

I hope we are at such a crux. That, once past the anger and sadness and fear, as a people we begin to look outside our borders to discover who we share the planet with, and to ask ourselves how we can help. That, informed about both our government's decisions and the world those decisions will affect, we hold our policymakers to the highest standard, so that we can look at the United States' actions -- all of them -- with the same pride with which we regard our own individual efforts.

[ 09/11/02 ]

:: This summer retired Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper was drafted to play the megalomaniacal leader of an important middle eastern country in US war games. The strategy he devised was so unorthodox, he clobbered US forces, and then quit in disgust when the military forced him to play so the US would win.

'Nothing was learned from this,' he says. 'A culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future.' The exercise, he says, was rigged almost from the outset.

I agree. A culture--whether that be the military, a movement, or a nation--that is not willing to ask itself hard questions and to face honest answers will, ultimately, not survive.

Also, can we re-recruit this guy? We need leaders who will are willing to do what will work, rather than what is expected from them. (via doc)
[ 09/13/02 ]

:: You've probably already seen Jimmy Carter's op-ed piece (which is masterfully diplomatic, characterizing hawkish members of the administration as frustrated bullies, and casting Bush in the role of the wise, thoughtful leader)...

Formerly admired almost universally as the preeminent champion of human rights, our country has become the foremost target of respected international organizations concerned about these basic principles of democratic life. [...]

Belligerent and divisive voices now seem to be dominant in Washington, but they do not yet reflect final decisions of the president, Congress or the courts. It is crucial that the historical and well-founded American commitments prevail: to peace, justice, human rights, the environment and international cooperation.

...but did you see Rafe Coburn's ruminations on the possibilities available to us in dealing with Iraq?

...the thing is, as events develop, we can always go to war. War is always an option. The question is, does war makes sense right now?

[ 09/13/02 ]

:: Penis News: Feeling underendowed? Perhaps it's time for a pair of bulge-enhancing wonderpants.

Grandmother Cathy Cook, from St Katherine’s Dock, East London, said: 'I don’t know where to look. I am shocked that good old Marks & Sparks have come up with this. I’m not too sure if I could get my two sons to wear them.'

Perhaps a case of these for key members of the Bush administration could forestall a rash decision about Iraq. (via the always excellent MISCmedia)
[ 09/13/02 ]

:: Sewing tips for macho guys (scroll down).

If you’re married and your wife can sew, ask her to teach you. This is almost as good as bringing her a red rose (but bring one, anyhow). If you’re single and want to meet women, hey, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out you just might meet them at a sewing class at your local community college. Or ask a woman to tutor you—combine that approach with a red rose, and, well...

[ 09/13/02 ]

:: There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy. The fetish map. (it's a large image, so it may take a while to load. also, though there are no pictures, it's probably not work-safe)
[ 09/13/02 ]

:: We may have recently acquired a new moon. This would make (I did not know this) number three.
[ 09/13/02 ]

:: Join us Tuesday September 17 at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for a panel entitled Weblogs: Challenging Mass Media and Society. The event starts at 6:30 pm and is free and open to the public. I will be appearing with Meg Hourihan, Scott Rosenberg, Dan Gillmor, and J.D. Lasica.
[ 09/16/02 ]

:: Hey! Amazon has added 'look inside' to my page! I think they could have chosen a meatier piece of the book, but I suppose they just wanted people to get an idea of what a weblog is. If you want to read more than the first few pages of the book, take a look at the section on Weblog Ethics.
[ 09/16/02 ]

:: Have you heard of compact/impact? Falling somewhere between an aesthetic and a lifestyle, it is based on a combination of smallness with high technology, appealing to city-dwelling, cutting-edge hipsters who see technology as a way of life rather than a means to an end. [NY Times: rebeccaspocket, password: pocket] (warning: pop-up)

The party was held at TKNY, a store and lounge that acts as a clubhouse for a circle of young expatriates, most from Tokyo, working in design and computer technology. From this cross-pollination has come a fledgling style known as 'compact/impact' which emphasizes small, efficient furnishings and design with a whimsical edge. [...]

'We wanted a place that's inviting and inclusive,' Mr. Hannerz said. "It's the same way technology should be.'

(via aaronland)
[ 09/19/02 ]

:: The Victorian Web is a compendium of information about the Victorian Era; Victoriana is a mixture of Victorian suppliers and historical content. To wit: The Natural Waist and Large Sleeves: Women's Fashions 1825-1840.

The fashions of the transitory period 1825 to 1840 are often very vague in the mind's eye. That fifteen year period is perhaps the least studied era of Western women's clothing of the last three hundred years. Although largely overlooked, however, important styles came and went within that period and changes occurred which effected fashion for decades. [...]

Society as a whole was less restrictive in the early 1820s than it was to be for another one hundred years. Perhaps the natural reaction to those years of freedom was a pendulum swing in the opposite direction. By the mid 1820s the Ideal of Womanhood had begun. Women were told from all quarters that their job was to stay close to the home and shape the world only through their calm and morally pure influences on the men in their domestic circle. Men were to protect women from a world thought to have grown harsher with the advances of technology.

Part of the schooling of women to their new role came through the trends in fashion. British fashion historian C. Willett Cunnington wrote in the 1950s that the 1820s was when costume began to develop the expression of class distinctions and the age of the genteel had begun in grim earnest...From the beginning of this period for nearly a century, petticoats and prudery combined as a gigantic force.

[ 09/19/02 ]

:: The Economist: For whom the Liberty Bell tolls. Almost everywhere, governments have taken September 11th as an opportunity to restrict their citizens' freedom.

The sad truth is that September 11th has given despots everywhere a licence to brand all their critics terrorists and take action accordingly. The United States, which anyway needs the help of men like Mr Akaev to prosecute its war against al-Qaeda, is often disinclined to criticise, partly because some of the measures are directly modelled on American ones. Indeed, in a hideous piece of Grand Guignol inspired directly by Mr Bush's actions, President Charles Taylor of Liberia has declared three of his critics (the editor of a local newspaper and two others) to be 'illegal combatants'. [...]

Some values--good values--are to some degree always at odds with each other, which means that governments must try to balance them. Freedom and security are two such values, even if the trade-off between them is not as simple as politicians often try to claim: a loss of freedom does not necessarily bring a commensurate gain in security.

This is a terrific article, and it's impossible to find a pull quote that can convey its breadth. Read the whole thing.
[ 09/19/02 ]

:: Genehack has done a very thorough review of the Weblog Handbook.
[ 09/19/02 ]

:: As you have probably guessed, I oppose passage of Bush's Iraq resolution which would give the President approval to use 'all means' against Iraq at his discretion, on two points.

First, let the UN inspections proceed. If Saddam complies fully, weapons of mass destruction will be uncovered, and mission accomplished. If Saddam doesn't comply, the administration will have a case that more extreme measures are required. To call for a regime change if the UN isn't granted access for these inspections and then, when unconditional compliance is offered, to call for a regime change anyway, is dishonest and disingenuous. And unnecessary.

Second, our government is designed as it is in order to protect the American people from despots. Congress can declare war, not the President, and this is deliberate. If there is a compelling reason to attack Iraq, Bush can have Congressional approval in 24 hours or less. There is no reason for Congress to give up its power to debate and approve any such action. Indeed, it would be irresponsible for them to do so.

Please let your Congressional representatives know what you think about this.
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: It must be a rough day in the Oval Office when a cartoonist and Germany's justice minister independently draw parallels between your governance and that of the most reviled figure in modern history.
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: I guess I always thought I could reasonably expect the space between my legs to be private, at least until I decided it was up for public display.

Photographing or videotaping up a woman’s skirt in a public place doesn’t violate Washington’s voyeurism law, the state Supreme Court ruled today. The unanimous ruling — which found that the law only protects people in places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy — overturned the convictions of Sean Glas and Richard Sorrells.

(Thanks, Lizard!)
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: Developing a robot to scuttle into a pyramid? Why not?

Engineers from iRobot, benefitting from the experience of a German team that sent a robot as far as the door in 1993, spent the last six months designing their dlrs [ed note: $?] 250,000 Pyramid Rover.

But developing a robot for commercial sale? Now, that's hard.

'You go into robotics thinking you're going to change the world,' says Angle.... 'You're not going to change the world with a million-dollar robot.' In 1990 Angle, Greiner and Brooks founded iRobot hoping to build practical, affordable robots for everyday life.

...it turns out people have higher standards for appliances than they have for computers. Appliances have to be cheap, simple and reliable; nobody is going to buy a $2,000 vacuum cleaner that requires a Ph.D. in engineering and has to be rebooted twice a day.

[ 09/20/02 ]

:: Ancient World Web is back! And terrific as always.
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: Breast News: 'When it's time to get a mammogram, a woman should ask the doctor if she has dense breast tissue -- and if so, she should also consider a breast ultrasound test, a new study indicates.'
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: The world's oldest human slept through her 115th birthday: it happened during her usual 48 hour nap.
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: Desperate Times News: 'A US record company has issued reviewers with portable CD players that are glued shut to prevent two new albums from being pirated online before their official releases.' However, one of the reviewers just pried the back off the unit in order to play the disc in his stereo.
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: I am quite ashamed to say that I didn't even know this genre existed. I will be developing a proposal for a 'For Dummies' version immediately. (via the haunted weblog)
[ 09/20/02 ]

:: Taking a cue from my list of collective nouns for goths, Dissociated Press is soliciting collective nouns for geeks and conservatives, though the suggestions are creeping into related categories. Some of my favorites: A cache of geeks, a string of developers, a fraud of CEOs, and a zilla of bloggers. (You bet we are.)

My contribution? An angst of liberals.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: While you're visiting Davezilla, take a moment to read about Bill and Ted’s excellent cooking adventure.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: The first global warming refugees.

Weather dictates survival in the Arctic. Always it has been the fearsome cold that meant life or death. Now, native Alaskans are alarmed by a noticeable warming trend. Average temperatures in the Arctic have risen more than 2.2C since 1971. [...]

Mr Weyiouanna’s ancestors simply would have loaded their dogsleds and mushed inland. But in modern times, moving a town means Shishmaref’s 600 residents must vote. It will cost at least £70 million, the US Army Corps of Engineers says. [...]

In June, the Bush administration submitted a report to the United Nations acknowledging for the first time that climate change is real and unavoidable. The administration recommends adapting.

(via dangerousmeta)
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Good News I: Thanks to a global commitment to reducing the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, the ozone hole is closing.

'We are now at a point where the atmosphere can actually remove CFCs faster than they are being released into the atmosphere,' said Fraser, adding the actual decline in CFCs had not been measured when the U.N. report was compiled in 2000.

[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Good News II: In Africa, the desert is retreating. Scientists don't know exactly why, but they think it's a combination of wetter weather and better agricultural practices by local farmers.

A contributor to Indymedia South Africa rejects the notion that these changes happened over time and are just now being noticed. He asserts that these changes have happened quite rapidly and points out that local farmers, who moved north to plant crops just last fall, would notice any change in their local climate. If this is the case, then the new vegetation is at least partly the result of local farmers seizing the moment to reclaim the land. (Grain of salt alert: a look at bh's personal site, linked beneath his comments on Indymedia, indicates that he is watching the area to see if one of his prophecies comes true.) I'd like access to the satellite images of the area during the last 10 years to see whether this is, in fact, a sudden occurrence or the result of an ongoing trend.

Either way, both of these stories confirm that human actions can affect ecosystems for the worse and the better. It takes agility (something the Inupiats have, to a large extent, lost) and an intimate knowledge of your problems and your environment to respond constructively to suddenly changed conditions. If bh's analysis on indymedia is accurate, I suspect that these plantings were executed by individuals or small groups of locally organized residents, not engineered by governmental mandate--bureaucracies take so long to move.

Frequently it is a series of small, destructive actions that creates ecological problems, which often do not become apparent as a trend until significant damage has been done. It's encouraging to see that a pattern of individual actions designed to address these problems over the long or short term can culminate in a reverse trend of environmental restoration. Never doubt that your individual actions will make a difference. Whatever they are, they do. (first link via Nick Denton)

[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Somehow related, satellite photos have uncovered a river under the Sahara Desert which is said to carry 'enough water to supply 50,000 people.' (via eatonweb)
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Archaeologists in the Amazon basin are studying what may have been one of the largest cities in the world at the time by virtue of the fertile earth inhabitants created in the middle of what has been called a wet desert. (warning: pop-up!)

Like so many archeological discoveries, parts of this story have been known for years. The rich pockets of soil, known as terra preta do Indio (Indian dark earth) have been used by local farmers for many years because they can grow crops with virtually no fertilizer. And the fact that the hillsides were littered with ancient pottery shards was documented more than a century ago....

Petersen thinks those fertile plots are probably yesterday's garbage pits. Stir in a little charcoal, toss in the remains of fish harvested from the rivers, and over the years the dirt became better than gold.

[ 09/23/02 ]

:: My Amazon Gold Box is Dumb News: Iron Horse Cocktail Engine (available at a reduced price with the Iron Horse Ice Caboose.)
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Fisking Aunt Mary. If you can make sense of that title, you'll find this piece to be hilarious.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Grassroots Diplomacy: Backpack Nation

Backpack Nation is a work in progress, taking shape day by day. The basic idea is to transform American foreign policy by deputizing and deploying individual travelers as 'ambassadors' of the people of America. Each ambassador will be funded with $10,000 in personal expense money for an extended trip through some of the world's less-wealthy countries, and $10,000 more to give to whatever individual/family/organization/ village that he or she deems appropriate.

[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Assisted Diplomacy: For $47 a month, Score Brownie Points will select a monthly gift for the woman in your life (slightly not work safe). Its counterpart is Surprise Your Man which requests a profile of your man in order to make astute recommendations, and even allows you to track your progress as your man goes from 'Diet-Coke Break Man' to 'Lover' to 'Husband'.

I can't remember the name of the site that listed gift ideas submitted by readers, arranged by giftee's interests. (thanks, jim!)
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Breast Cancer Blog is a terrific resource for news about breast cancer issues.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Good Writing: Jay Cross has compiled a delightful page of advice on writing.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Good Thinking: The Gypsy Lore Society's external links caveat makes a pretty good primer in basic information evaluation.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Visual Journalism presents its rendition of President Bush's 9/11. If you're interested in infographics and visual storytelling, don't miss his book page.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Cinema, often regarded as theatre transplanted to a screen, is primarily a visual medium, as evidenced by the title of John Sayles book Thinking in Pictures. Mel Gibson is hoping to audiences will respond to purely filmic storytelling when he directs Passion, a film about Christ's last 12 hours--entirely in Latin and Aramaic.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Now this is a conspiracy theory.
[ 09/23/02 ]

:: Mark Wood's computer has gone bust. Even $5 or $10 will help him purchase a new (used) computer. Thanks to Ewan for starting the fund. You can find the donation button in the sidebar of either site.
[ 09/27/02 ]

:: When Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser writes an article called Bad Meat you just know it can't be good.

The Bush Administration and its Republican allies in Congress have allowed the meatpacking industry to gain control of the nation's food safety system, much as the airline industry was given responsibility for airport security in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks. The deregulation of food safety makes about as much sense as the deregulation of air safety. Anyone who eats meat these days should be deeply concerned about what our meatpacking companies now have the freedom to sell.

[ 09/27/02 ]

:: Glogerm!
[ 09/27/02 ]

:: William Gibson is credited with saying 'The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.' Do you want to see the future of internet access? Travel to Wales. (via haddock)
[ 09/27/02 ]

:: Awesome. (via more like this)
[ 09/27/02 ]

:: John Cusack's new movie Max is stirring up controversy even before its release.

'Max' traces the transformation of Hitler...from a scruffy war veteran and frustrated painter to a rising propagandist for German nationalism and anti-Semitism. We see the future leader of the Third Reich through the eyes of another scarred survivor of World War I, Max Rothman,... a prosperous Jewish dealer in avant-garde art who believes that only brutally honest art can restore sanity to the world.

Rothman is repelled by Hitler's political ideas, but enters into an odd friendship with the bitter young corporal, out of a kinship born of the First World War trenches and a desire to save his comrade through the healing power of art. We know it will end tragically, but 'Max' pulls along the viewer by asking the haunting question, "What if?" -- and by showing us that evil does not simply crawl from the shadows, but emerges through circumstances and choices.

Not a popular point of view at the moment, and all the more important for that. [ 09/27/02 ]

:: From 1918, Mrs. A Reeder's fairly insane method of knitting two socks at once; the Dorothy R. Cowen Method of Sock Knitting looks much more reasonable.
[ 09/26/02 ]