August 2007
George Bush -- and other Iraq War supporters --... →
Here are the facts: The killing fields were real. The genocide against their own people was committed by the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese — the Communist Vietnamese — were the people who went in and put a stop to it. The United States then supported the Khmer Rouge.
FDA Scrutiny Scant In India, China as Drugs Pour... →
Whatever the quality of the drugs being shipped... →
The antibiotic Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) flows out of the plant at the rate of 100 pounds of active ingredient per day. That, say the authors, “is equivalent to the total amount consumed in Sweden (population 9 million) over an average five-day period”! Concentrations of five other antibiotics were found at levels that are toxic to plants, blue-green algae and a range of bacteria. And...
Refusal to Admit
Professor’s response to my request to study Chaucer: I’m sorry to say that I won’t be able to grant your request for admission to my Chaucer class. Because this is a class that teaches students how to read and analyze Chaucer in critical and theoretical contexts, I don’t think it is what you are looking for. I do applaud your enthusiasm for the primary material, of...
Chaucer - Thoughts on the Critical and Theoretical...
E-mail from me to the Chaucer Professor who denied me enrollment in her class: I’ve continued to think about what it might mean to “read and analyze Chaucer in critical and theoretical contexts”. The New Chaucer Society, in their e-mail newsletter, announced that the Sixteenth International Congress of will be held July 18–22, 2008 at the campus of the University of Wales,...
"Infectious diseases are now spreading... →
Urban Ecological Subversion: The Art of Guerilla... →
Technically, guerilla gardening is a kind of graffiti or vandalism - just done with plants instead of spray cans. However, the kind of guerilla marketing addressed here, though illegal, rarely gets people into trouble.
Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities →
“Wastewater facilities are wonderful places to understand what humans consume and excrete,” said Jennifer Field, the lead researcher and a professor of environmental toxicology at Oregon State. Field said her study suggests that a key tool currently used by drug abuse researchers - self-reported drug questionnaires - underestimates drug use.
Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch →
My eldest daughter sent me this link. How cool is that when your children send you stuff they know you’ll like off the Internet?
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and...”
– Mark Twain
“I think what scares people most about new technologies — it’s...”
– William Gibson (again, but I can’t help it) in an interview on salon.com about his new novel Spook Country.
WatchAnimusic - Resonant Chamber
“If I’d gone into a publisher’s office in 1981 and pitched a novel...”
– William Gibson in an interview for Salon.com
“Fully imagined cultural futures were the luxury of another day, one in which...”
– A marketing mogul theorizes in William Gibson’s novel Pattern Recognition referring to the difficulty writing science fiction when reality overtakes the imagination.
The Opening Moves to Capture the North
It’s ironic that while no country is seriously making the sacrifices necessary to slow global warming, several are staking territory in the north polar region to get the jump on its resources and trade routes once the ice melts.
Vote for your favorite cover here: →
Kate Bush is rocketing ahead, in OMM's bid to find... →
WatchMeteor Strikes Earth Although the commentary is in Japanese, which might be a problem for those who don’t speak the language, the visuals carry the concept clearly and beautifully - or should I say horribly.
“In contrast to abstinence only programs, programs that promote the use of...”
– Dr. Stephen E. Hawes, University of Washington, British Medical Journal
Ah, Bergman. The great purveyor of tedious films →
Lots of comments were made in response to this post. Here’s mine: I first saw Bergman as a 14 year old kid playing hooky and sneaking into an art house - the Biograph. I had no idea what would be playing when The Virgin Spring exploded in my teen mind like nothing before or since. And his The Magic Flute introduced me to Mozart and opera. I’m sure that admitting to loving Bergman,...
What's Wrong With this Picture? →
“The FDA committee voted 22-1 to keep Avandia on the market and 20-3 that evidence shows the drug adds to the risks of heart attacks. The panel was seeking to resolve questions raised by a May 21 report in the New England Journal of Medicine that linked the medicine to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attacks. “