HatTip to Christine. Natalie Portman recently co-founded MakingOf which seeks to bring a behind-the-scenes look into the various creative processes in movie making. Christine Aylward is her Co-Founder and CEO. More from their site:
"MakingOf is a behind-the-scenes Web destination, founded by Natalie Portman and Christine Aylward, that provides an intimate, fresh look into the process of creating entertainment by the insiders themselves. Our mission is to champion the art and craft of entertainment creation. We started MakingOf because we realized that so much of what goes into entertainment creation is unavailable to the people who love and consume it the most. We wanted to give fans a way to experience that creation and learn from the insiders and thus MakingOf was born. When you visit MakingOf you will experience behind-the-scenes content, exclusive access to industry insiders, and an interactive, entertainment-focused community forum. It is your all-access pass to learn from and interact with actors, directors, producers, writers, and more. Film school for everyone! And film is just the start. Stay posted as we add additional features."
Here's a clip from the site, "Directing 201 with Shawn Levy, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN | ON-SET"
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
SOME PLAUSIBLE CYNICISM
An email from Clark Whelton [cwhelton@mindspring.com]
No need to speculate on the potential impact of the Climate Cap and Trade bill that was recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. There is no chance this bill will be passed by the U.S. Senate.
Today it was revealed that the Obama administration deliberately suppressed a skeptical report from the Environmental Protection Agency that questions the need for such action. The report was suppressed until the House passed its Climate bill, thus allowing Obama and the Democratic Party to appease their political supporters inside the global warming cult.
However, even Obama extremists are aware that allowing such a bill to become law would be a disaster for the U.S. economy. Therefore, the EPA report was released in the expectation it would help assure defeat for the bill in the Senate. Thus do the Democrats hope to have their Climate cake and eat it, too.
Cap and trade will lead to capital flight
By Ron Paul
In my last column, I joked that with public spending out of control and the piling on of the international bailout bill, economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress. It is getting harder to joke about such a thing however, as the non-partisan General Accounting Office (GAO) has estimated that the administration's health care plan would actually cost over a trillion dollars. This reality check may have given us a temporary reprieve on this particular disastrous policy, however an equally disastrous energy policy reared its ugly head on Capitol Hill last week.
The Cap and Trade Bill HR 2454 was voted on last Friday. Proponents claim this bill will help the environment, but what it really does is put another nail in the economy's coffin. The idea is to establish a national level of carbon dioxide emissions, and sell pollution permits to industry. HR 2454 also gives federal bureaucrats new power to regulate a wide variety of household appliances, such as light bulbs and refrigerators, and further distorts the market by providing more of your tax money to auto companies.
The administration has pointed to Spain as a shining example of this type of progressive energy policy. Spain has been massively diverting capital from the private sector into politically favored environmental projects for the better part of a decade, and many in Washington apparently like what they see. However, under no circumstances should anyone serious about economic recovery emulate an economy that is now approaching 20 percent unemployment, where every green job created, eliminated 2.2 real jobs and cost around $800,000 each!
The real inconvenient truth is that the cost of government regulations, taxes, fees, red tape and bureaucracy is a considerable expense that has to be considered when companies decide where to do business and how many people they can afford to hire. Increasing governmental burden directly causes capital flight and job losses, as Spain has learned. In this global economy its easy enough for businesses to relocate to countries that are more politically friendly to economic growth. If our government continues to kick the economy while its down, it will be a long time before it gets back up. In fact, jobs are much more likely to go overseas, compounding our problems.
And for what? Contrary to claims repeated over and over, there is no consensus in the scientific community that global warming is getting worse or that it is manmade. In fact over 30,000 scientists signed a petition recently directly disputing the claims on which this policy is based. Legitimate environmental claims should instead be directed towards the public sector. The government, especially the military, is the most serious polluter in the country, and is exempt from most EPA regulations. Meanwhile Washington bureaucrats have classified the very air we exhale as a pollutant and have gone unchallenged in this incredible assertion. The logical consequence is that there will come a time when we will have to buy a government permit just to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from our own lungs!
The events on Capitol Hill last week just demonstrate Washington's audacity in manufacturing problems just so they can expand government power to solve them.
SOURCE
Obama focuses on light bulbs
Definitely a big-picture man
President Obama said Monday that light bulbs will have to meet tougher efficiency standards in order to slash energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Obama's announcement came three days after the House of Representatives passed a sweeping climate bill that is the centerpiece of the president's plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions, reform the nation's energy markets and tackle global warming.
Backers say the bill that passed the House of Representatives late last week is designed to move the nation toward a clean energy economy, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain. Administration officials have been anxious to maintain the momentum on the issue as lawmakers return to their districts for a weeklong Fourth of July recess. "I know light bulbs may not seem sexy," Mr. Obama said, "but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses."
Mr. Obama told reporters that the tougher standards for fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs will help consumers save $4 billion a year on energy bills between 2012 and 2042. The standards will also conserve enough electricity to power every home in America for 10 months, reduce carbon emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars each year and eliminate the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants, he added.
Republicans accused Mr. Obama of focusing on small measures while ignoring more market-friendly alternatives. "Everyone wants more efficiency, but the president is simply dropping the ball when it comes to the big picture on energy," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. Mr. Steel said House Republicans have a offered a comprehensive "all of the above" plan for a cleaner, healthier environment, lower costs and less dependence on foreign oil.
Standing beside Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Mr. Obama said the White House will lead the way by identifying and replacing wasteful light bulbs.
A 2007 energy bill passed by Congress allowed the Energy Department to issue energy conservation standards for home appliances, as well as fluorescent and incandescent lamps. Mr. Obama asked Mr. Chu in February to speed up the rule-making process and the light bulb standards announced Monday which go into effect in 2012 are a key part of the larger effort.
Mr. Obama said that commercial and residential buildings must also be made more efficient because they consume 40 percent of the nation's energy and cause 40 percent of its carbon emissions. The president said implementing more-efficient heating and cooling systems, windows, smart sensors and controls will make buildings 80 percent more efficient. Adding solar panels on roofs and geothermal energy from underground could lead to "net zero" buildings that consume virtually no energy or create as much energy as they use. "Now, progress like this might seem farfetched. But the fact is we are not lacking for ideas and innovation; all we lack are the smart policies and the political will to help us put our ingenuity to work," he said.
To expedite the development, deployment and use of this energy-efficient technology, Mr. Obama released $346 million in funding from the economic stimulus bill he passed in February. "The nation that leads the world in creating a new clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That's our choice," he said.
SOURCE
AFRICA ALONE COULD FEED THE WORLD
DOOM-MONGERS have got it wrong - there is enough space in the world to produce the extra food needed to feed a growing population. And contrary to expectation, most of it can be grown in Africa, say two international reports published this week.
The first, projecting 10 years into the future from last year's food crisis, which saw the price of food soar, says that there is plenty of unused, fertile land available to grow more crops. "Some 1.6 billion hectares could be added to the current 1.4 billion hectares of crop land [in the world], and over half of the additionally available land is found in Africa and Latin America," concludes the report, compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
If further evidence were needed, it comes in a second report, launched jointly by the FAO and the World Bank. It concludes that 400 million hectares, straddling 25 African countries, are suitable for farming.
Models for producing new crop land already exist in Thailand, where land originally deemed agriculturally unpromising, due to irrigation problems and infertile soil, has been transformed into a cornucopia by smallholder farmers. As in Thailand, future success will come by using agriculture to lift Africa's smallholder farmers out of poverty, aided by strong government measures to guarantee their rights to land, say both reports.
SOURCE
NOTE: both reports are available online. See here and here
CHINESE OFFICIAL UNHAPPY WITH U.S. CLIMATE BILL
It doesn't weaken America enough
The United States set the bar too low and offered the world a poor example when it passed its climate change bill on Friday, according to a senior Chinese climate change official. Li Gao, a division director with the Climate Change Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the US did not live up to international expectations when it approved the document. Li said the bill's mid-term carbon emission target would probably be seized upon as the new standard by developed countries in the battle against global warming.
And the official told China Daily the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) - disappointing though it is - may still not clear the Senate this fall because it was only approved by 219 votes to 212 in the House of Representatives. ACESA compels large US companies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide - through a cap-and-trade system - by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.
Although the passing of the bill was a "positive step", Li said the mid-term target fell short of international expectations of what industrialized countries needed to do to effectively fight warming. "The emission target, if converted to a 1990 baseline, is only about 4 percent by 2020," Li said. "This is far away from what China and the Group of 77 developing countries have requested of (developed countries)."
Developing countries have called on industrialized economies to reduce greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent of 1990's level by 2020. "Instead of aiming high, some developed countries will follow suit and push for lower targets," Li said.
The US' mid-term target will also "expand discrepancies" among developed countries at climate change talks because the European Union has proposed a 20 percent reduction on 1990's level, added Yu Hongyuan, an associate professor with the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.
Li said he was also concerned about a clause in ACESA that calls for tariffs after 2020 on imports from countries without systems for pricing or limiting carbon dioxide emissions. He said mixing up climate change and trade will only "make the issue more complex" and "damage international cooperative efforts to combat global warming".
US President Barack Obama, who called the bill "an extraordinary first step", also backed away from the provision, saying the US had to be very careful about "sending protectionist signals out."
SOURCE
ROYAL SOCIETY: SCREW THE POOR & GIVE US THE CASH FOR GREEN RESEARCH
Consumers will need to pay more for energy if the UK is to have any chance of developing the technologies needed to tackle climate change, according to a group of leading scientists and engineers. In a Royal Society study to be published today, the experts said that the government must put research into alternatives to fossil fuel much higher among its priorities, and argued that current policy in the area was "half-hearted".
"We have adapted to an energy price which is unrealistically low if we're going to try and preserve the environment," John Shepherd, a climate scientist at Southampton University and co-author of the report said. "We have to allow the economy to adapt to higher energy prices through carbon prices and that will then make things like renewables and nuclear more economic, as carbon-based alternatives become more expensive."
Shepherd admitted higher energy costs would be a hard sell to the public, but said it was not unthinkable. Part of the revenue could be generated by a carbon tax that took the place of VAT, so that the cost of an item took into account the energy and carbon footprint of a product. This would allow people to make appropriate decisions on their spending, and also raise cash for research into alternatives. "Our research expenditure on non-fossil energy sources is 0.2% of what we spend on energy itself," said Shepherd. "Multiplying that by 10 would be a very sensible thing to do. We're spending less than 1% on probably the biggest problem we've faced in many decades."
He said that the priority should be to decarbonise the UK's electricity supply. Measures such as the government's recent support for electric cars, he said, would be of no use unless the electricity they used came from carbon-free sources.
Though the creation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was a good move, Shepherd said: "We've had a lot of good talk but we still have remarkably little in the way of action." He cited the recent DECC proposals on carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an example. The department plans to legislate that any new coal-fired power station must demonstrate CCS on a proportion of its output. Once the technology is proven, a judgment made by the EnvironmentAgency around 2020, power plants would have five years to scale up to full CCS.
Shepherd said the proposals were not bold enough. "Really, it needs to be 'no new coal unless you have 90% emissions reductions by 2020'. That is achievable and, if that were a clear signal, industry would get on and do it. It's taken a long time for that signal to come through and now that it has, it's a half-hearted message."
A spokesperson for DECC argued that its proposed regulatory measures were "the most environmentally ambitious in the world, and would see any new coal power stations capturing at least 20-25% of their carbon emissions from day one".
Ed Miliband, energy and climate change secretary, said that a white paper due next month will lay out how Britain will source its energy for the coming decades. "This white paper will be the first time we've set out our vision of an energy mix in the context of carbon budgets and climate change targets. We have identified ways to tackle the challenges – we will need a mix of renewables, clean fossil fuels and nuclear and we're already making world-leading progress in those areas. It's a transition plan, a once in a generation statement of how the UK will make the historic and permanent move to a low-carbon economy with emissions cut by at least 80% in the middle of the century."
The Royal Society report will argue that energy policy has been too fragmented and short-term in its outlook, with a tendency to hunt for silver-bullet solutions to climate change. "That really isn't the case. What we need is a portfolio of solutions, horses for courses," said Shepherd.
SOURCE
IS PAUL KRUGMAN INCITING VIOLENCE?
As people continue to resist draconian greenhouse gas control schemes that would virtually re-order society around energy rationing and technocratic authoritarianism, proponents of such an eco-revolution are ratcheting up the rhetoric of hate.
People such as James Hansen and Al Gore have long been at the forefront of slandering those who oppose them. As my colleague and I wrote in “Scenes from the Climate Inquisition”:
At the time, we thought that this jihad against skepticism had peaked. But a column by Paul Krugman in the New York Times today shows that we were being overly optimistic. Not content with calling critics of the abominable Waxman-Markey energy and climate plan skeptics (or even just “deniers,” the previously favored slander of the eco-topians), Krugman suggests that the very act of questioning whether or not climate change science may still have a few bugs in it, or questioning draconian greenhouse gas control schemes such as Waxman-Markey, is outright treason.
Regarding the “debate” over Waxman-Markey, Krugman says: "And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason—treason against the planet."
Yes, you read that correctly. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Laureate, writing in America’s paper of record, just accused nearly half of the House of Representatives, including both Republicans and Democrats, as guilty of treason against the very planet—along, presumably with the many thousands of scientists, policy analysts, economists, and environmentalists who have raised objections to the Waxman-Markey energy bill.
Al Gore launched the drive to remake society into an eco-theocracy in his 1992 book Earth in the Balance. Gore stated the goal of these radical environmentalists quite plainly, saying that nothing less than a “wrenching transformation” of society would be necessary to prevent what he foresees as an eco-apocalypse brought on by our high-energy, technological lifestyle.
Eco-terrorists already engage in regular acts of arson, sabotage, and vandalism in the service of their radical eco-topian agenda. With his inflammatory rhetoric, Krugman gives such extremists still greater license to engage in the kind of personal violence that groups opposing animal research do in terrorizing university researchers, and that anti-abortion groups do in attacking physicians.
It is clear that those who hope to re-make America in the name of preventing climate change are growing frustrated with the public’s aversion to economic suicide. As they see their radical agenda slipping away, the Gore-ian revolutionaries are reaching for the torches and pitchforks. Krugman’s declaration that skepticism about climate science or policy constitutes treason is nothing less than an incitement to violence, and when the extremists of the environmental movement engage in ever greater acts of violence, responsibility for the damage will rest with people such as Paul Krugman.
SOURCE
***************************************
For more postings from me, see DISSECTING LEFTISM, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.
*****************************************
An email from Clark Whelton [cwhelton@mindspring.com]
No need to speculate on the potential impact of the Climate Cap and Trade bill that was recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. There is no chance this bill will be passed by the U.S. Senate.
Today it was revealed that the Obama administration deliberately suppressed a skeptical report from the Environmental Protection Agency that questions the need for such action. The report was suppressed until the House passed its Climate bill, thus allowing Obama and the Democratic Party to appease their political supporters inside the global warming cult.
However, even Obama extremists are aware that allowing such a bill to become law would be a disaster for the U.S. economy. Therefore, the EPA report was released in the expectation it would help assure defeat for the bill in the Senate. Thus do the Democrats hope to have their Climate cake and eat it, too.
Cap and trade will lead to capital flight
By Ron Paul
In my last column, I joked that with public spending out of control and the piling on of the international bailout bill, economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress. It is getting harder to joke about such a thing however, as the non-partisan General Accounting Office (GAO) has estimated that the administration's health care plan would actually cost over a trillion dollars. This reality check may have given us a temporary reprieve on this particular disastrous policy, however an equally disastrous energy policy reared its ugly head on Capitol Hill last week.
The Cap and Trade Bill HR 2454 was voted on last Friday. Proponents claim this bill will help the environment, but what it really does is put another nail in the economy's coffin. The idea is to establish a national level of carbon dioxide emissions, and sell pollution permits to industry. HR 2454 also gives federal bureaucrats new power to regulate a wide variety of household appliances, such as light bulbs and refrigerators, and further distorts the market by providing more of your tax money to auto companies.
The administration has pointed to Spain as a shining example of this type of progressive energy policy. Spain has been massively diverting capital from the private sector into politically favored environmental projects for the better part of a decade, and many in Washington apparently like what they see. However, under no circumstances should anyone serious about economic recovery emulate an economy that is now approaching 20 percent unemployment, where every green job created, eliminated 2.2 real jobs and cost around $800,000 each!
The real inconvenient truth is that the cost of government regulations, taxes, fees, red tape and bureaucracy is a considerable expense that has to be considered when companies decide where to do business and how many people they can afford to hire. Increasing governmental burden directly causes capital flight and job losses, as Spain has learned. In this global economy its easy enough for businesses to relocate to countries that are more politically friendly to economic growth. If our government continues to kick the economy while its down, it will be a long time before it gets back up. In fact, jobs are much more likely to go overseas, compounding our problems.
And for what? Contrary to claims repeated over and over, there is no consensus in the scientific community that global warming is getting worse or that it is manmade. In fact over 30,000 scientists signed a petition recently directly disputing the claims on which this policy is based. Legitimate environmental claims should instead be directed towards the public sector. The government, especially the military, is the most serious polluter in the country, and is exempt from most EPA regulations. Meanwhile Washington bureaucrats have classified the very air we exhale as a pollutant and have gone unchallenged in this incredible assertion. The logical consequence is that there will come a time when we will have to buy a government permit just to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from our own lungs!
The events on Capitol Hill last week just demonstrate Washington's audacity in manufacturing problems just so they can expand government power to solve them.
SOURCE
Obama focuses on light bulbs
Definitely a big-picture man
President Obama said Monday that light bulbs will have to meet tougher efficiency standards in order to slash energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Obama's announcement came three days after the House of Representatives passed a sweeping climate bill that is the centerpiece of the president's plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions, reform the nation's energy markets and tackle global warming.
Backers say the bill that passed the House of Representatives late last week is designed to move the nation toward a clean energy economy, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain. Administration officials have been anxious to maintain the momentum on the issue as lawmakers return to their districts for a weeklong Fourth of July recess. "I know light bulbs may not seem sexy," Mr. Obama said, "but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses."
Mr. Obama told reporters that the tougher standards for fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs will help consumers save $4 billion a year on energy bills between 2012 and 2042. The standards will also conserve enough electricity to power every home in America for 10 months, reduce carbon emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars each year and eliminate the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants, he added.
Republicans accused Mr. Obama of focusing on small measures while ignoring more market-friendly alternatives. "Everyone wants more efficiency, but the president is simply dropping the ball when it comes to the big picture on energy," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. Mr. Steel said House Republicans have a offered a comprehensive "all of the above" plan for a cleaner, healthier environment, lower costs and less dependence on foreign oil.
Standing beside Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Mr. Obama said the White House will lead the way by identifying and replacing wasteful light bulbs.
A 2007 energy bill passed by Congress allowed the Energy Department to issue energy conservation standards for home appliances, as well as fluorescent and incandescent lamps. Mr. Obama asked Mr. Chu in February to speed up the rule-making process and the light bulb standards announced Monday which go into effect in 2012 are a key part of the larger effort.
Mr. Obama said that commercial and residential buildings must also be made more efficient because they consume 40 percent of the nation's energy and cause 40 percent of its carbon emissions. The president said implementing more-efficient heating and cooling systems, windows, smart sensors and controls will make buildings 80 percent more efficient. Adding solar panels on roofs and geothermal energy from underground could lead to "net zero" buildings that consume virtually no energy or create as much energy as they use. "Now, progress like this might seem farfetched. But the fact is we are not lacking for ideas and innovation; all we lack are the smart policies and the political will to help us put our ingenuity to work," he said.
To expedite the development, deployment and use of this energy-efficient technology, Mr. Obama released $346 million in funding from the economic stimulus bill he passed in February. "The nation that leads the world in creating a new clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That's our choice," he said.
SOURCE
AFRICA ALONE COULD FEED THE WORLD
DOOM-MONGERS have got it wrong - there is enough space in the world to produce the extra food needed to feed a growing population. And contrary to expectation, most of it can be grown in Africa, say two international reports published this week.
The first, projecting 10 years into the future from last year's food crisis, which saw the price of food soar, says that there is plenty of unused, fertile land available to grow more crops. "Some 1.6 billion hectares could be added to the current 1.4 billion hectares of crop land [in the world], and over half of the additionally available land is found in Africa and Latin America," concludes the report, compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
If further evidence were needed, it comes in a second report, launched jointly by the FAO and the World Bank. It concludes that 400 million hectares, straddling 25 African countries, are suitable for farming.
Models for producing new crop land already exist in Thailand, where land originally deemed agriculturally unpromising, due to irrigation problems and infertile soil, has been transformed into a cornucopia by smallholder farmers. As in Thailand, future success will come by using agriculture to lift Africa's smallholder farmers out of poverty, aided by strong government measures to guarantee their rights to land, say both reports.
SOURCE
NOTE: both reports are available online. See here and here
CHINESE OFFICIAL UNHAPPY WITH U.S. CLIMATE BILL
It doesn't weaken America enough
The United States set the bar too low and offered the world a poor example when it passed its climate change bill on Friday, according to a senior Chinese climate change official. Li Gao, a division director with the Climate Change Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the US did not live up to international expectations when it approved the document. Li said the bill's mid-term carbon emission target would probably be seized upon as the new standard by developed countries in the battle against global warming.
And the official told China Daily the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) - disappointing though it is - may still not clear the Senate this fall because it was only approved by 219 votes to 212 in the House of Representatives. ACESA compels large US companies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide - through a cap-and-trade system - by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.
Although the passing of the bill was a "positive step", Li said the mid-term target fell short of international expectations of what industrialized countries needed to do to effectively fight warming. "The emission target, if converted to a 1990 baseline, is only about 4 percent by 2020," Li said. "This is far away from what China and the Group of 77 developing countries have requested of (developed countries)."
Developing countries have called on industrialized economies to reduce greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent of 1990's level by 2020. "Instead of aiming high, some developed countries will follow suit and push for lower targets," Li said.
The US' mid-term target will also "expand discrepancies" among developed countries at climate change talks because the European Union has proposed a 20 percent reduction on 1990's level, added Yu Hongyuan, an associate professor with the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.
Li said he was also concerned about a clause in ACESA that calls for tariffs after 2020 on imports from countries without systems for pricing or limiting carbon dioxide emissions. He said mixing up climate change and trade will only "make the issue more complex" and "damage international cooperative efforts to combat global warming".
US President Barack Obama, who called the bill "an extraordinary first step", also backed away from the provision, saying the US had to be very careful about "sending protectionist signals out."
SOURCE
ROYAL SOCIETY: SCREW THE POOR & GIVE US THE CASH FOR GREEN RESEARCH
Consumers will need to pay more for energy if the UK is to have any chance of developing the technologies needed to tackle climate change, according to a group of leading scientists and engineers. In a Royal Society study to be published today, the experts said that the government must put research into alternatives to fossil fuel much higher among its priorities, and argued that current policy in the area was "half-hearted".
"We have adapted to an energy price which is unrealistically low if we're going to try and preserve the environment," John Shepherd, a climate scientist at Southampton University and co-author of the report said. "We have to allow the economy to adapt to higher energy prices through carbon prices and that will then make things like renewables and nuclear more economic, as carbon-based alternatives become more expensive."
Shepherd admitted higher energy costs would be a hard sell to the public, but said it was not unthinkable. Part of the revenue could be generated by a carbon tax that took the place of VAT, so that the cost of an item took into account the energy and carbon footprint of a product. This would allow people to make appropriate decisions on their spending, and also raise cash for research into alternatives. "Our research expenditure on non-fossil energy sources is 0.2% of what we spend on energy itself," said Shepherd. "Multiplying that by 10 would be a very sensible thing to do. We're spending less than 1% on probably the biggest problem we've faced in many decades."
He said that the priority should be to decarbonise the UK's electricity supply. Measures such as the government's recent support for electric cars, he said, would be of no use unless the electricity they used came from carbon-free sources.
Though the creation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was a good move, Shepherd said: "We've had a lot of good talk but we still have remarkably little in the way of action." He cited the recent DECC proposals on carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an example. The department plans to legislate that any new coal-fired power station must demonstrate CCS on a proportion of its output. Once the technology is proven, a judgment made by the EnvironmentAgency around 2020, power plants would have five years to scale up to full CCS.
Shepherd said the proposals were not bold enough. "Really, it needs to be 'no new coal unless you have 90% emissions reductions by 2020'. That is achievable and, if that were a clear signal, industry would get on and do it. It's taken a long time for that signal to come through and now that it has, it's a half-hearted message."
A spokesperson for DECC argued that its proposed regulatory measures were "the most environmentally ambitious in the world, and would see any new coal power stations capturing at least 20-25% of their carbon emissions from day one".
Ed Miliband, energy and climate change secretary, said that a white paper due next month will lay out how Britain will source its energy for the coming decades. "This white paper will be the first time we've set out our vision of an energy mix in the context of carbon budgets and climate change targets. We have identified ways to tackle the challenges – we will need a mix of renewables, clean fossil fuels and nuclear and we're already making world-leading progress in those areas. It's a transition plan, a once in a generation statement of how the UK will make the historic and permanent move to a low-carbon economy with emissions cut by at least 80% in the middle of the century."
The Royal Society report will argue that energy policy has been too fragmented and short-term in its outlook, with a tendency to hunt for silver-bullet solutions to climate change. "That really isn't the case. What we need is a portfolio of solutions, horses for courses," said Shepherd.
SOURCE
IS PAUL KRUGMAN INCITING VIOLENCE?
As people continue to resist draconian greenhouse gas control schemes that would virtually re-order society around energy rationing and technocratic authoritarianism, proponents of such an eco-revolution are ratcheting up the rhetoric of hate.
People such as James Hansen and Al Gore have long been at the forefront of slandering those who oppose them. As my colleague and I wrote in “Scenes from the Climate Inquisition”:
Anyone who does not sign up 100 percent behind the catastrophic scenario is deemed a “climate change denier.” Distinguished climatologist Ellen Goodman spelled out the implication in her widely syndicated newspaper column last week: “Let’s just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers.” One environmental writer suggested last fall that there should someday be Nuremberg Trials—or at the very least a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission—for climate skeptics who have blocked the planet’s salvation.
Former Vice President Al Gore has proposed that the media stop covering climate skeptics, and Britain’s environment minister said that, just as the media should give no platform to terrorists, so they should exclude climate change skeptics from the airwaves and the news pages. Heidi Cullen, star of the Weather Channel, made headlines with a recent call for weather-broadcasters with impure climate opinions to be “decertified” by the American Meteorological Society.
At the time, we thought that this jihad against skepticism had peaked. But a column by Paul Krugman in the New York Times today shows that we were being overly optimistic. Not content with calling critics of the abominable Waxman-Markey energy and climate plan skeptics (or even just “deniers,” the previously favored slander of the eco-topians), Krugman suggests that the very act of questioning whether or not climate change science may still have a few bugs in it, or questioning draconian greenhouse gas control schemes such as Waxman-Markey, is outright treason.
Regarding the “debate” over Waxman-Markey, Krugman says: "And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason—treason against the planet."
Yes, you read that correctly. Paul Krugman, a Nobel Laureate, writing in America’s paper of record, just accused nearly half of the House of Representatives, including both Republicans and Democrats, as guilty of treason against the very planet—along, presumably with the many thousands of scientists, policy analysts, economists, and environmentalists who have raised objections to the Waxman-Markey energy bill.
Al Gore launched the drive to remake society into an eco-theocracy in his 1992 book Earth in the Balance. Gore stated the goal of these radical environmentalists quite plainly, saying that nothing less than a “wrenching transformation” of society would be necessary to prevent what he foresees as an eco-apocalypse brought on by our high-energy, technological lifestyle.
Eco-terrorists already engage in regular acts of arson, sabotage, and vandalism in the service of their radical eco-topian agenda. With his inflammatory rhetoric, Krugman gives such extremists still greater license to engage in the kind of personal violence that groups opposing animal research do in terrorizing university researchers, and that anti-abortion groups do in attacking physicians.
It is clear that those who hope to re-make America in the name of preventing climate change are growing frustrated with the public’s aversion to economic suicide. As they see their radical agenda slipping away, the Gore-ian revolutionaries are reaching for the torches and pitchforks. Krugman’s declaration that skepticism about climate science or policy constitutes treason is nothing less than an incitement to violence, and when the extremists of the environmental movement engage in ever greater acts of violence, responsibility for the damage will rest with people such as Paul Krugman.
SOURCE
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For more postings from me, see DISSECTING LEFTISM, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.
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TEDTalk: Katherine Fulton's "You are the Future of Philanthropy"
"In this uplifting talk, Katherine Fulton sketches the new future of philanthropy -- one where collaboration and innovation allow regular people to do big things, even when money is scarce. Giving five practical examples of crowd-driven philanthropy, she calls for a new generation of citizen leaders."
President of Monitor Institute, Katherine Fulton is also a strategist, author, teacher and speaker working for social change.
President of Monitor Institute, Katherine Fulton is also a strategist, author, teacher and speaker working for social change.
Chicago Streetscene: The Phantom of the Opera Tower
The 45-story Steuben Club Building, 188 West Randolph, 1929, Vitzhum & Burns, whose work also includes One North LaSalle, St. Peters on Madison, and Painters District Council 14 on Adams.
using jealousy to push a company to make an offer
A reader writes:
Three weeks ago, I interviewed for a job with a major media company. This was/is a dream job . I was interviewed by HR, and after the interview I was taken to a second interview on the same day with my potential supervisor. I believed both interviews went well and was even given an homework assignment to test my skills and qualifications.When I got home later that day, I sent the HR person a thank you note but not my potential supervisor. Was this a mistake?
Four days later, I turned in my assignment to my potential supervisor but I did not receive a confirmation email from him stating that the assignment was received. I wrote a follow-up email asking for confirmation two days later. My letter was a formal, succinct letter, nothing unusual. I felt it I should be formal with my potential supervisor because we are not peers, so addressing him by his first name was a no-no.
Within minutes of my email, I received this note from him: "Received. You will hear from us shortly." No salutations, no closing, just those words.
This email was received about two weeks ago. Since then I have spoken to my references and was told by all of them that no one contacted them about me. These are references from individuals whom I trust to tell me the truth, individuals who are forthright and are great communicators.
A few days ago, I accepted a non-paying position at a company owned by a friend. The position is similar to the one I interviewed for. Although I accepted this job, I am still interested and enthusiastic about working with the media company. I want to show them that I am in demand as well as a valuable candidate. Also: As the job duties with the other company amounts to something that is part-time and unpaid, in the short term, I am hoping that by informing them of my new circumstances, they will give me an answer about the job I interviewed for. Is this crazy?
In informing them of my new situation, I do not want to communicate to them that I am impatient or desperate ( I really am) so what do I do? Should I forget this experience and move on or should I forge ahead and gamble? If I gamble, how do I inform them that I am doing the same thing somewhere else but am still interested in working them? I do not want to communicate that I am unreliable or unfaithful. Please advise.
1. I wouldn't say that only sending a thank-you note to the HR rep and not the hiring manager was a mistake per se, but it would be better to send it to both of them. Of the two, if you were only going to send one, I'd send it to the hiring manager, as he has more influence at this stage over whether you're hired. But that's unlikely to make or break you so you really shouldn't worry too much about it -- although it's not too late to send a follow-up note now.
2. His note confirming receipt of your exercise was a bit brusque, but I wouldn't read anything into that, other than that he's busy.
3. Now as for your major question, whether to tell them that you've accepted a non-paying position: No. For several reasons:
a. First, unless you're very specific that it's short-term and the employer is okay with you leaving at any time, they'll assume you're now committed elsewhere. I would be very hesitant to hire a candidate who just accepted a different position, as her willingness to screw over that employer would be a huge negative. You can explain the situation of course, but then they're just going to wonder why you're telling them at all.
b. The fact that it's non-paying may potentially devalue you in their eyes. I'm not saying it should, but it could. I don't see enough benefit to justify that risk.
c. You're really just looking for ways to push them into action, right? This won't do it. There are only two ways to push a prospective employer into action, and neither of them are guaranteed:
- You can mention that you have another offer and a deadline for answering it. (This is not something you should lie about, since they may just tell you they can't meet your deadline and so you should take it -- and then you're out of the running with them. So you should only do this if it's true.)
- You can contact the hiring manager, reiterate your strong interest, and ask for a timeline. This may or may not get them moving, but it's really all you can do.
(Wow, check out this outline format I used above. The numbers, the letters, the dashes...)
Meanwhile, continue your job search. Hopefully you'll hear from this company with good news, but you can't plan around that. You've got to keep searching until you have an offer in hand. Good luck!
Three weeks ago, I interviewed for a job with a major media company. This was/is a dream job . I was interviewed by HR, and after the interview I was taken to a second interview on the same day with my potential supervisor. I believed both interviews went well and was even given an homework assignment to test my skills and qualifications.When I got home later that day, I sent the HR person a thank you note but not my potential supervisor. Was this a mistake?
Four days later, I turned in my assignment to my potential supervisor but I did not receive a confirmation email from him stating that the assignment was received. I wrote a follow-up email asking for confirmation two days later. My letter was a formal, succinct letter, nothing unusual. I felt it I should be formal with my potential supervisor because we are not peers, so addressing him by his first name was a no-no.
Within minutes of my email, I received this note from him: "Received. You will hear from us shortly." No salutations, no closing, just those words.
This email was received about two weeks ago. Since then I have spoken to my references and was told by all of them that no one contacted them about me. These are references from individuals whom I trust to tell me the truth, individuals who are forthright and are great communicators.
A few days ago, I accepted a non-paying position at a company owned by a friend. The position is similar to the one I interviewed for. Although I accepted this job, I am still interested and enthusiastic about working with the media company. I want to show them that I am in demand as well as a valuable candidate. Also: As the job duties with the other company amounts to something that is part-time and unpaid, in the short term, I am hoping that by informing them of my new circumstances, they will give me an answer about the job I interviewed for. Is this crazy?
In informing them of my new situation, I do not want to communicate to them that I am impatient or desperate ( I really am) so what do I do? Should I forget this experience and move on or should I forge ahead and gamble? If I gamble, how do I inform them that I am doing the same thing somewhere else but am still interested in working them? I do not want to communicate that I am unreliable or unfaithful. Please advise.
1. I wouldn't say that only sending a thank-you note to the HR rep and not the hiring manager was a mistake per se, but it would be better to send it to both of them. Of the two, if you were only going to send one, I'd send it to the hiring manager, as he has more influence at this stage over whether you're hired. But that's unlikely to make or break you so you really shouldn't worry too much about it -- although it's not too late to send a follow-up note now.
2. His note confirming receipt of your exercise was a bit brusque, but I wouldn't read anything into that, other than that he's busy.
3. Now as for your major question, whether to tell them that you've accepted a non-paying position: No. For several reasons:
a. First, unless you're very specific that it's short-term and the employer is okay with you leaving at any time, they'll assume you're now committed elsewhere. I would be very hesitant to hire a candidate who just accepted a different position, as her willingness to screw over that employer would be a huge negative. You can explain the situation of course, but then they're just going to wonder why you're telling them at all.
b. The fact that it's non-paying may potentially devalue you in their eyes. I'm not saying it should, but it could. I don't see enough benefit to justify that risk.
c. You're really just looking for ways to push them into action, right? This won't do it. There are only two ways to push a prospective employer into action, and neither of them are guaranteed:
- You can mention that you have another offer and a deadline for answering it. (This is not something you should lie about, since they may just tell you they can't meet your deadline and so you should take it -- and then you're out of the running with them. So you should only do this if it's true.)
- You can contact the hiring manager, reiterate your strong interest, and ask for a timeline. This may or may not get them moving, but it's really all you can do.
(Wow, check out this outline format I used above. The numbers, the letters, the dashes...)
Meanwhile, continue your job search. Hopefully you'll hear from this company with good news, but you can't plan around that. You've got to keep searching until you have an offer in hand. Good luck!
Bonga Kandandu
Side A
Sambila
Um Kandandu Amigo
Kamusekele
Malalanza
Saudades Terras Enclave
Side B
Mambia
Midjeris Di Pano Preto
Nguzo
Iokangue
Here's something different for me. It's from Angola (by way of a semi-mysterious package from Switzerland I received a while back). Softer, fado-oriented jams. Portuguese.
I will be playing Awesome Tapes from Africa as guest of my good friends MI AMI in San Francisco on Thursday, stop by if you're in town.
7/2/09
Knockout SF
9:45 / $5
AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA from NYC DJ SET!
MI AMI live
DOUBLE DAGGER live (Baltimore - Thrill Jockey)
PSYCHIC REALITY live
BEAST OF THOUGHT live
Chelsea Fairless
Chelsea is a former intern to Amanda Brooks and Cecilia Dean. Now, she's working on a second edition to her magazine Chelsea.
spiritual knocking...Thoreau's Journal: 01-Jul-1852
It is more agreeable walking this cloudy day, with a few harmless sun-showers, than it would be in a glaring sunny day. It is pleasant to behold so much of the landscape in the shadow of the clouds, especially to look off from the top of Conantum, under shady walnut boughs, to larger shade in valleys,—all Nine-Acre Corner in the cool shade of a cloud. Roses are in their prime now, growing amid
and the bonobos arrive!
first they are loaded onto canoes for their journey from basankusu to the release site
up the lopori river (i call it the coca cola river coz the waters are so dark)
unloaded off the boats
and carried to their new home!
Just found a slice of a scene for Gossip Girl, Season Three.
To keep this beauty related...the lippie is quite fetching.
There are many reasons why I can not wait for fall. I am looking forward to bonfires, chilly nights, the black collection from MAC and new episodes from Gossip Girl.
Credit: Youtube via lacelebs
Some really cute videos
My favourite video :) Kisses!
Tee hee... I don't know why she did this with her hands.
Another big sneeze
Vintage Print
This lady looks chic in her vintage dress and over sized aviators. She told me that she often wears vintage but likes to mix in designer items as well.
What If?: Dealing with End-Stage Cancer and Religious Coping
What if you had end-stage cancer and you were nearing the end of your life?
What if you had been using religion to cope with your cancer and its consequences?
What if both of the above “what ifs” applied to YOU and there was intensive life-prolonging care and treatment such as mechanical ventilation and resuscitation available in the last week of your life? Would you desire and accept that treatment?
The study by Phelps, Maciejewski and others in the March 18, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has led to a very interesting statistically significant conclusion: “Positive religious coping in patients with advanced cancer is associated with receipt of intensive life-prolonging medical care near death” and this relationship was still statistically significant after “adjusting for other coping styles, terminal illness acknowledgment, support of spiritual needs, preference for heroics, and advance care planning (do-not-resuscitate order, living will, and health care proxy/durable power of attorney)”
Read the free complete abstract of the article at the link above and then return and give us your opinion of this research finding and how it might apply to you if you were that “what if”. If this study is valid, how would you explain how using religion in dealing with the consequences of cancer would make it more likely that a patient would want mechanical ventilation, if needed for life-support, during the last week of life? Would it be related to religion and miracles? Or what? ..Maurice.
What if you had been using religion to cope with your cancer and its consequences?
What if both of the above “what ifs” applied to YOU and there was intensive life-prolonging care and treatment such as mechanical ventilation and resuscitation available in the last week of your life? Would you desire and accept that treatment?
The study by Phelps, Maciejewski and others in the March 18, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has led to a very interesting statistically significant conclusion: “Positive religious coping in patients with advanced cancer is associated with receipt of intensive life-prolonging medical care near death” and this relationship was still statistically significant after “adjusting for other coping styles, terminal illness acknowledgment, support of spiritual needs, preference for heroics, and advance care planning (do-not-resuscitate order, living will, and health care proxy/durable power of attorney)”
Read the free complete abstract of the article at the link above and then return and give us your opinion of this research finding and how it might apply to you if you were that “what if”. If this study is valid, how would you explain how using religion in dealing with the consequences of cancer would make it more likely that a patient would want mechanical ventilation, if needed for life-support, during the last week of life? Would it be related to religion and miracles? Or what? ..Maurice.
All the President's Men
Carl Bernstein dropped by the Oval today and met with Big Guy, Rahm and me. It was a big thrill for all of us who remember his antics with Bob Woodward in that buddy movie from back in the '70s. But Bernstein has aged quite a bit and looks nothing like Dustin Hoffman did in the movie.
Bernstein regaled us with stories about going to high school in Silver Spring with Ben Stein and Goldie Hawn, and about how he and Woodward were just guessing on about half the stuff they printed in the Washington Post, and got lucky that they were right.
All of which is to say that we have no idea why Bernstein stopped by. Big Guy said he didn't invite him. Rahm and Gibbsy say they didn't either; they assumed Big Guy had. Which just goes to show that in this Administration, the left hand doesn't even know what the lefter hand is doing.
Bernstein regaled us with stories about going to high school in Silver Spring with Ben Stein and Goldie Hawn, and about how he and Woodward were just guessing on about half the stuff they printed in the Washington Post, and got lucky that they were right.
All of which is to say that we have no idea why Bernstein stopped by. Big Guy said he didn't invite him. Rahm and Gibbsy say they didn't either; they assumed Big Guy had. Which just goes to show that in this Administration, the left hand doesn't even know what the lefter hand is doing.
Carnival of Space #109 is here.
Carnival of Space #109 is now up at Twisted Physics. There's the tragedy of Fred Hoyle, looking for bacl Holes, documenting Apollo 11, really big telescopes, salt (or maybe not) at Saturn and lots, lots, more. Spin on over and have a look.
let's play a game!
Let's a play a game of "Spot the New Feature"! Here's a screenshot, submitted by our own Helio, that shows a new feature in Plasma that will debut in KDE 4.4:
Can you spot it? If so, leave your answer in the comments! Once someone has guessed it correctly, I'll blog again about this new feature, and other things coming in 4.4, in greater detail.
(Oh, and if you hang out in #plasma on irc or are a member of the Plasma team, please don't give the answer away. :)
This feature is also a neat example of how we work together in Plasma, building on top of what each other does, filling in the blanks when someone else gets stuck and riffing on each other's ideas. This particular feature was built on top of some work done in 4.2 by Jason Stubbs; the feature itself was started by Sebastian Kugler and finished by Marco Martin using some hints from a similar feature I fixed up for 4.3 in the system monitor widget, which in turn was written primarily by Petri Damsten.
(... and yes, I know, 4.3 isn't even out yet and we're already teasing you with new things ;)
Can you spot it? If so, leave your answer in the comments! Once someone has guessed it correctly, I'll blog again about this new feature, and other things coming in 4.4, in greater detail.
(Oh, and if you hang out in #plasma on irc or are a member of the Plasma team, please don't give the answer away. :)
This feature is also a neat example of how we work together in Plasma, building on top of what each other does, filling in the blanks when someone else gets stuck and riffing on each other's ideas. This particular feature was built on top of some work done in 4.2 by Jason Stubbs; the feature itself was started by Sebastian Kugler and finished by Marco Martin using some hints from a similar feature I fixed up for 4.3 in the system monitor widget, which in turn was written primarily by Petri Damsten.
(... and yes, I know, 4.3 isn't even out yet and we're already teasing you with new things ;)
CLUB BERLIN mit: Peaches (live), CSS (DJ Set), Whitey, Frankmusik, Jack Tennis a.m.m.
Omg, Berlin is going crazy. This week (Fashion Week) is so full of high class parties and bookings that you have to choose only a few, otherwise it will drive you totaly insane. Boys Noize, Peaches, Ladyhawk, Tiefschwarz, The Glimmers, DJ Hell, Shir Khan, Jazzanova...just to name a few. I play at the Club Berlin Party with Peaches (live with Sweet Machine), Shir Khan at the Levis Show with Boys Noize. Ah Yeah!!!!
Love and Chemistry
Like a hair floating in the rich broth of Dr Sybil Vane's satisfying post, S. Tsing Loh's article put me right off my feed. Could have been the chemicals, I guess. The chemicals in me, I mean, not the chemicals in Loh's article.
I've been taking on a lot of chemicals lately, lowering pails of compounds and distillates. The procedure is to take on chemicals for a few days. Then discharge chemicals for a few days.
Then, follows a period of reflection where I spend a few days reviewing my sins and thinking about naked women.
Then the cycle begins again.
There's a posset made from craisins and spent uranium fuel rods that is particulary ghastly.
There's another of ball bearings marinated in a sauce of potato squeezings and evaporated rocket fuel drained from Titan missles dismantled under the terms of the Salt II agreement, pureed and filtered through an old Robin Hood flour sack, boiled in a pot of radioactive algae, then forced through my kidney by a bicycle pump run by the power-take-off of a 1949 Model M Farmall tractor.
Tasty but it leaves a glick in the mouth. Jackets the tongue in fur. Or hair.
There are some other compotes brewed from the table of elements but they're all named for various Greek gods of sodomy and hair so we'll skip over them for now.
Hair is the hostage of these shocking cocktails. I buzzed mine off to spare all the shock of it falling out in hanks before the long bar of alchemy. A homlier sight you cannot imagine.
Naturally, this is a source of hilarity for my so-called friends and family. Poco claims he can see a likeness of some cartoon figure on the top of my pate. I would whip that child if I had the strength to chase him down. And get aholt of him. And whip him.
So, you will understand that I am sensitive on the topic of chemicals. And hair. Especially hair.
Side Note: I'm told the hair grows back differently after the chemical sluicing. Thicker. Different colors, even. My hair is (was) a salt and pepper hue. Mostly pepper.
OK, OK. Mostly salt. I've requested that it be restored in a chestnut or russet tint. Lots of waves. I'll let you know how that works out.
Which brings me back to Sandra Tsing Loh's article. And the chemicals of love.
She lists a taxonomy of types of attraction and their associated chemicals. You've read the article. I won't go over it here. I would only ask; what chemicals are being fed to the lads in the Loh circle? Cause they are not doing the trick. All the married men of her acquaintance have stopped making love to their wives. Or anybody, so far as can be known. I'd call that bad chemistry.
She concludes that domestication is the enemy of copulation and offers certain proposals, none of which I disagree with, for improving contemporary household arrangements. I especially endorse her tribal proposal for child-rearing; turning the kid over to a household of related women-folk. That's the scheme we've hit on here and it works pretty well, not only for the little kid but for me, too.
Suddenly, I feel a deep fatigue. And all this talk of chemicals is making my stomach lurch.
If you don't mind, I'm going to post what I have so far and take a nap. I know I should wait to post till I have this piece completed but, you know, life is uncertain.
I'll holler.
I've been taking on a lot of chemicals lately, lowering pails of compounds and distillates. The procedure is to take on chemicals for a few days. Then discharge chemicals for a few days.
Then, follows a period of reflection where I spend a few days reviewing my sins and thinking about naked women.
Then the cycle begins again.
There's a posset made from craisins and spent uranium fuel rods that is particulary ghastly.
There's another of ball bearings marinated in a sauce of potato squeezings and evaporated rocket fuel drained from Titan missles dismantled under the terms of the Salt II agreement, pureed and filtered through an old Robin Hood flour sack, boiled in a pot of radioactive algae, then forced through my kidney by a bicycle pump run by the power-take-off of a 1949 Model M Farmall tractor.
Tasty but it leaves a glick in the mouth. Jackets the tongue in fur. Or hair.
There are some other compotes brewed from the table of elements but they're all named for various Greek gods of sodomy and hair so we'll skip over them for now.
Hair is the hostage of these shocking cocktails. I buzzed mine off to spare all the shock of it falling out in hanks before the long bar of alchemy. A homlier sight you cannot imagine.
Naturally, this is a source of hilarity for my so-called friends and family. Poco claims he can see a likeness of some cartoon figure on the top of my pate. I would whip that child if I had the strength to chase him down. And get aholt of him. And whip him.
So, you will understand that I am sensitive on the topic of chemicals. And hair. Especially hair.
Side Note: I'm told the hair grows back differently after the chemical sluicing. Thicker. Different colors, even. My hair is (was) a salt and pepper hue. Mostly pepper.
OK, OK. Mostly salt. I've requested that it be restored in a chestnut or russet tint. Lots of waves. I'll let you know how that works out.
Which brings me back to Sandra Tsing Loh's article. And the chemicals of love.
She lists a taxonomy of types of attraction and their associated chemicals. You've read the article. I won't go over it here. I would only ask; what chemicals are being fed to the lads in the Loh circle? Cause they are not doing the trick. All the married men of her acquaintance have stopped making love to their wives. Or anybody, so far as can be known. I'd call that bad chemistry.
She concludes that domestication is the enemy of copulation and offers certain proposals, none of which I disagree with, for improving contemporary household arrangements. I especially endorse her tribal proposal for child-rearing; turning the kid over to a household of related women-folk. That's the scheme we've hit on here and it works pretty well, not only for the little kid but for me, too.
Suddenly, I feel a deep fatigue. And all this talk of chemicals is making my stomach lurch.
If you don't mind, I'm going to post what I have so far and take a nap. I know I should wait to post till I have this piece completed but, you know, life is uncertain.
I'll holler.
NEVER TOO LO-FI
Mattias Alkberg
Références musicales : The Bear Quartet, MABD, The Moldy Peaches
Mattias Alkberg - Jag är en antenn (mp3)
Références musicales : The Bear Quartet, MABD, The Moldy Peaches
Mattias Alkberg - Jag är en antenn (mp3)
Not a lot of posts those last days since nothing much excited me within the Swedish music scene lately. I guess Swedish winters are more interesting than summers, musically speaking. The darkness, I suppose.
Today, a part of the Bear Quartet once again : its singer, Mattias Alkberg, who answered my questions with Jari about the soon to be released BQ record in my latest post. This time, he is all alone. NO BQ members. No MABD. Just Matti, his guitar and a out of time sound.
Behind this first solo record, a nice story : Matti was supposed to release a 7'' this summer but he released a whole record instead, called Neverna, planned to be released in September. Consequently, he gave away this 7'' for free download. The music? Three great tunes. Lo-fi. Very lo-fi. Never too lo-fi.
Pour mes compatriotes français
Pas beaucoup de billets ces derniers temps puisque pas grand chose ne m'a réellement excité dans la scène musicale suédoise. J'imagine que les hivers suédois sont plus intéressant que les étés, musicalement parlant. L'obscurité, sans doute.
Aujourd'hui, encore un des membres du Bear Quartet : le chanteur, Mattias Alkberg, qui répondait à mes questions, avec Jari, lors de mon dernier billet. Cette fois, il est tout seul. Sans ses acolytes du BQ. Sans ses potes de MABD. Juste Matti, sa guitare et un son hors du temps.
Derrière ce premier disque solo, une histoire sympatoche : Matti était censé pondre un vinyle pour cet été, mais il a réalisé un disque entier à la place, qui s'appelle Neverna et dont la date de sortie est prévue pour septembre. Du coup, il nous offre ce vinyle en téléchargement gratuit. La musique ? Trois morceaux très abordables. Lo-fi. Très lo-fi. Jamais trop lo-fi.
Today, a part of the Bear Quartet once again : its singer, Mattias Alkberg, who answered my questions with Jari about the soon to be released BQ record in my latest post. This time, he is all alone. NO BQ members. No MABD. Just Matti, his guitar and a out of time sound.
Behind this first solo record, a nice story : Matti was supposed to release a 7'' this summer but he released a whole record instead, called Neverna, planned to be released in September. Consequently, he gave away this 7'' for free download. The music? Three great tunes. Lo-fi. Very lo-fi. Never too lo-fi.
Pour mes compatriotes français
Pas beaucoup de billets ces derniers temps puisque pas grand chose ne m'a réellement excité dans la scène musicale suédoise. J'imagine que les hivers suédois sont plus intéressant que les étés, musicalement parlant. L'obscurité, sans doute.
Aujourd'hui, encore un des membres du Bear Quartet : le chanteur, Mattias Alkberg, qui répondait à mes questions, avec Jari, lors de mon dernier billet. Cette fois, il est tout seul. Sans ses acolytes du BQ. Sans ses potes de MABD. Juste Matti, sa guitare et un son hors du temps.
Derrière ce premier disque solo, une histoire sympatoche : Matti était censé pondre un vinyle pour cet été, mais il a réalisé un disque entier à la place, qui s'appelle Neverna et dont la date de sortie est prévue pour septembre. Du coup, il nous offre ce vinyle en téléchargement gratuit. La musique ? Trois morceaux très abordables. Lo-fi. Très lo-fi. Jamais trop lo-fi.
Information Literate plans
Chatlogs edited and mounted: 1 (good); New Google calendars created: 1 (good); New wiki page created: 1 (good); Emails sent to important IL person: 1 (good); Anxieties about amount of work storing up for self: many (bad)
Have put online the transcript of the discussion on 10th June, which discussed the idea of a US Information Literacy month (see http://www.infolit.org/news/campaign.html) and the possibility of an Information Literacy Week in SL. The chatlog of our meeting is here: http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=437
Was a smallish meeting (boosted by a few observers to start with) but there were good ideas and people thought that an information Literacy Week in SL was feasible and worth pursuing. You can read more in the chatlog.
Have created a page on the Infolit iSchool wiki here http://infolitischool.pbworks.com/Information-Literacy-Week-in-Second-Life-2009 (please tell me if you have problems viewing it!).
Set up a calendar on Google here, which obviously doesn't have much on it at present, though there is a meeting on 9 July at noon SL time to update people - plus obviously the week istelf is already on the calendar.
Sent an email to the Vice Presidents of the National Forum on Information Literacy (which is behind the Info Literacy month initiative) and it looks like they will be supportive. Yay.
So, only oodles and oodles of work to be done to plan it .... am already getting distracted by planning the freebies, to start with, an Information Literacy calendar (using the IntelliCalendar factory ... this, of course, involved buying the factory. Will explain its working when have published the calendar).Infinite Fluff
1. I was just in the cafe downstairs getting breakfast. Usually I get a sandwich and take it to go, and eat it at my desk upstairs. But I decided to get an omelette, and since I idiosyncratically hate eating off plastic when the food in question requires a fork, I answered "for here" when the guy asked me "for here or to go?" Several minutes later, I noticed that he was prepping the to-go plate, probably because I always get my food "to go" and so he heard "to go" even though that's not what I said. Not wanting to embarrass the guy or express displeasure as it was a reasonable mistake, I said "actually, I'd like to get it "for here"--can I?" as if I'd changed my mind, though I'd wanted it that way all along. The guy said sure. The woman next to me, turned to me, smiled, and said in a conspiratorial tone: "You're a woman, you can change your mind." I looked at her quizzically, gave a fake half-hearted chuckle, and turned back toward the guy preparing my food. Not content with my brush-off, she repeated herself. "You know, you're a woman! You can change your mind!"
"Uh. Men can't?"
"Nope, only women!" (Laughs loudly)
What in the flying fuck, people? What on earth was this supposed to mean? Was I supposed to laugh at this mutual dig at our gender--oh, those women, so indecisive! Was it supposed to be some kind of shared joke pointing the finger at the invisible men who get irritated with indecisive women?
The cafe never fails to entertain.
2. I'm so in love with this video and I want you all to see it.
3. Last night I cleaned out my purse-messenger-bag-thingy in preparation for my trip today. It's this ritual I go through every time I travel--somehow, carrying around tons of random crap every single day for months while I'm at home in Chicago is just fine, but I have to pare down to the bare essentials the minute I leave the city. And lately, I've been obsessively writing lists. List of jobs, lists of things to do, lists of purchases I've made, lists of my favorite blogs, lists of items in my pantry (a post I never put up). And so I did a bag inventory, and it's a fascinating picture of the general discombobulation that my mostly professional exterior hides. I like looking over each item, examining it, sorting everything into three piles (essential--keep in bag; trash--throw away; important--put somewhere that's not in my bag), having memories. Even from the last two months. And so, without further ado, I bring you the most boring thing that has ever been published on this blog: these are the belongings I've been carrying every day, on my person, for the last several months since the last time I did this. Think of it as a companion piece to Sybil's meditation on place and home--this is a meditation on things.
1 black wallet
1 Canon A550 digital camera
1 Sony Digital Voice Recorder 1
1 bottle allergy eye drops--generic 2
1 bottle generic ibuprofen--200 mg tablets
21 individual 200 mg ibuprofen pills, scattered in bottom of bag 3
4 tampax pearl regular tampons
3 generic walgreens-brand tampons
$2.87 in change
$1 in bills
1 sharpie; 1 yellow highlighter 4
1 lighter (purple)
1 doctor's referral to dermatologist 5
1 3-way Radioshack adapter
2 traffic citations, dated 4/11/09 (illegal u-turn; failure to produce insurance)6
1 parking ticket, dated 5/11/09 (expired plates) 7
1 notice from gas company 8
4 nametags bearing my name 9
1 business card from court reporter from deposition, 6/25/09
1 business card from veronica, "bra fit specialist"
1 yellow legal pad with 14 pages of notes from deposition, 6/25/09
5 plastic thermometer covers 10
1 Minneapolis bus schedule #540
1 bus ticket, Minneapolis to Chicago, 6/21/09
1 file folder with 2 federal complaints and 3 motions for class certification 11
1 petition for a refund signed by 47 bus passengers 12
3 earrings (2 which match each other)
1 cherry chapstick
1 deconstructed red pen in 6 pieces
1 Tide stain remover pen (purchased 2007)
1 pair headphones
1 Washington Mutual checkbook with 10 checks and an empty ledger 13
2 dead batteries
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Venkatesh 14
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon 15
1 6x9 spiral notebook in which I am writing this list
1 mini 3x4 notebook containing: various addresses in Dearborn, MI, to-do list dated 4/14/09, notes from Rogers Park town hall meeting.
1 Which I have used only once since I bought it, but keep carrying in hopes that I will.
2 The first eyedrops I have ever taken, purchased when I broke down after 5 days of cat-and-makeup induced puffy eyes. They work.
3 Spilled on approx. 5/10/09
4 Highlighter stuck in there to use highlighting those briefs that come later. Dunno what the Sharpie's for.
5 When will they stop insisting on biopsy-ing my fucking moles? I don't have cancer, yo.
6 Total fines: $135. Dignity loss: infinite.
7 Shit, I need to pay this. They got me while my car was in the O'Hare parking lot while I was on vacation.
9 From various functions and conferences and receptions I am required to attend.
10 Came with the basal metabolic thermometer I purchased to attempt to track my ovulation. Did you know that BBT is remarkably consistently? Nearly every single morning at 6:00 am, my temperature is exactly 97.18 degrees. It's freakishly uncanny.
11 Can you see what's missing? Yup, that's what I'm supposed to have been writing for the last 3 weeks or so. I keep planning on doing research on the train or at night when I can think. It keeps not happening.
12 The bus must have been over 90 degrees. The air conditioning wasn't working. It was a warm day. There was no ventilation, you couldn't open the windows. It was one of the more hellish experiences of my life. I am not pleased with you, MegaBus. Not pleased at all. That shit was dangerous.
13 Does anyone write enough personal checks to even need to keep track of them anymore?
14 Book's a few years old, but goddamn is it good. It sounds like some very heavy sociological tome, but it's just a big book full of stories about the way people make a living, get by, forge alliances, and deal with the total abdication of responsibility by the government in a poor south side Chicago neighborhood.
15 Been carrying this in my bag for a month, just started reading a couple days ago. Not only do I have a massive crush on Hemon, but holy crap this is the perfect plane read book for someone who generally hates plane-reading books. Gripping, intelligent, artfully written without being too Eggers-y. Prediction: finished by 8 pm tonight.
"Uh. Men can't?"
"Nope, only women!" (Laughs loudly)
What in the flying fuck, people? What on earth was this supposed to mean? Was I supposed to laugh at this mutual dig at our gender--oh, those women, so indecisive! Was it supposed to be some kind of shared joke pointing the finger at the invisible men who get irritated with indecisive women?
The cafe never fails to entertain.
2. I'm so in love with this video and I want you all to see it.
3. Last night I cleaned out my purse-messenger-bag-thingy in preparation for my trip today. It's this ritual I go through every time I travel--somehow, carrying around tons of random crap every single day for months while I'm at home in Chicago is just fine, but I have to pare down to the bare essentials the minute I leave the city. And lately, I've been obsessively writing lists. List of jobs, lists of things to do, lists of purchases I've made, lists of my favorite blogs, lists of items in my pantry (a post I never put up). And so I did a bag inventory, and it's a fascinating picture of the general discombobulation that my mostly professional exterior hides. I like looking over each item, examining it, sorting everything into three piles (essential--keep in bag; trash--throw away; important--put somewhere that's not in my bag), having memories. Even from the last two months. And so, without further ado, I bring you the most boring thing that has ever been published on this blog: these are the belongings I've been carrying every day, on my person, for the last several months since the last time I did this. Think of it as a companion piece to Sybil's meditation on place and home--this is a meditation on things.
1 black wallet
1 Canon A550 digital camera
1 Sony Digital Voice Recorder 1
1 bottle allergy eye drops--generic 2
1 bottle generic ibuprofen--200 mg tablets
21 individual 200 mg ibuprofen pills, scattered in bottom of bag 3
4 tampax pearl regular tampons
3 generic walgreens-brand tampons
$2.87 in change
$1 in bills
1 sharpie; 1 yellow highlighter 4
1 lighter (purple)
1 doctor's referral to dermatologist 5
1 3-way Radioshack adapter
2 traffic citations, dated 4/11/09 (illegal u-turn; failure to produce insurance)6
1 parking ticket, dated 5/11/09 (expired plates) 7
1 notice from gas company 8
4 nametags bearing my name 9
1 business card from court reporter from deposition, 6/25/09
1 business card from veronica, "bra fit specialist"
1 yellow legal pad with 14 pages of notes from deposition, 6/25/09
5 plastic thermometer covers 10
1 Minneapolis bus schedule #540
1 bus ticket, Minneapolis to Chicago, 6/21/09
1 file folder with 2 federal complaints and 3 motions for class certification 11
1 petition for a refund signed by 47 bus passengers 12
3 earrings (2 which match each other)
1 cherry chapstick
1 deconstructed red pen in 6 pieces
1 Tide stain remover pen (purchased 2007)
1 pair headphones
1 Washington Mutual checkbook with 10 checks and an empty ledger 13
2 dead batteries
Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Venkatesh 14
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon 15
1 6x9 spiral notebook in which I am writing this list
1 mini 3x4 notebook containing: various addresses in Dearborn, MI, to-do list dated 4/14/09, notes from Rogers Park town hall meeting.
1 Which I have used only once since I bought it, but keep carrying in hopes that I will.
2 The first eyedrops I have ever taken, purchased when I broke down after 5 days of cat-and-makeup induced puffy eyes. They work.
3 Spilled on approx. 5/10/09
4 Highlighter stuck in there to use highlighting those briefs that come later. Dunno what the Sharpie's for.
5 When will they stop insisting on biopsy-ing my fucking moles? I don't have cancer, yo.
6 Total fines: $135. Dignity loss: infinite.
7 Shit, I need to pay this. They got me while my car was in the O'Hare parking lot while I was on vacation.
9 From various functions and conferences and receptions I am required to attend.
10 Came with the basal metabolic thermometer I purchased to attempt to track my ovulation. Did you know that BBT is remarkably consistently? Nearly every single morning at 6:00 am, my temperature is exactly 97.18 degrees. It's freakishly uncanny.
11 Can you see what's missing? Yup, that's what I'm supposed to have been writing for the last 3 weeks or so. I keep planning on doing research on the train or at night when I can think. It keeps not happening.
12 The bus must have been over 90 degrees. The air conditioning wasn't working. It was a warm day. There was no ventilation, you couldn't open the windows. It was one of the more hellish experiences of my life. I am not pleased with you, MegaBus. Not pleased at all. That shit was dangerous.
13 Does anyone write enough personal checks to even need to keep track of them anymore?
14 Book's a few years old, but goddamn is it good. It sounds like some very heavy sociological tome, but it's just a big book full of stories about the way people make a living, get by, forge alliances, and deal with the total abdication of responsibility by the government in a poor south side Chicago neighborhood.
15 Been carrying this in my bag for a month, just started reading a couple days ago. Not only do I have a massive crush on Hemon, but holy crap this is the perfect plane read book for someone who generally hates plane-reading books. Gripping, intelligent, artfully written without being too Eggers-y. Prediction: finished by 8 pm tonight.
It's Still Justice Kennedy's Court
As of the end of the 2008 term, it appears that Justice Kennedy has been in the majority in a higher percentage of 5-4 decisions than any other Justice appointed since 1953. With little doubt, he retains his super median status.
More on the Detention Front
Cross posted at Opinio Juris
Various developments on the resolution-of-Gitmo front to discuss. First a quick note on a recent signing statement. Then on to rumors of a contemplated executive order on detention issues.
The war spending bill I mentioned in a previous post barring the president from bringing any current Gitmo detainees to the United States was signed into law by the President on June 26. In my last post, I’d given the administration credit for not having made an Article II argument (about the constitutional power of the president) against Congress’ enormously misguided provision requiring the President to report to Congress in the midst of his negotiations with foreign governments over resettling some Gitmo detainees. Congress, despite having given its overwhelming and bipartisan support to the notion of closing Gitmo last year, is well on its way to making it impossible for the President to ever relieve the United States of the Gitmo-anvil around its neck. That said, looks as though I spoke too soon about the administration’s avoidance of any Article II claims of authority. In a signing statement issued on June 26, the President writes:
I have tended to find the practice of signing statements less concerning than others. Presidents have always issued them. The courts – exercising independent authority to interpret the law for themselves – have always ignored them or not, at their discretion. That is, more or less, how it should be in a government of coequal branches. Moreover, in this case, if there is anything that actually is constitutionally committed to the executive, it is the authority to negotiate agreements with other states without interference from the House of Representatives at a minimum. U.S. Const. art. II, sec. 2 (“[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties…”). Nonetheless, as my Opinio Juris colleague notes rather more critically, it is a development that bears watching. Which brings me to the more important item.
“Three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations” have floated the notion of issuing an “executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely.” The must-read Washington Post piece is here. What are we to make of this? While it’s always risky to comment on a policy still in development – one the administration as best I can tell genuinely hasn’t settled on yet – I think there are a few preliminary points of note. First, the news that the administration is moving away from the notion of introducing legislation to create a new “preventive” detention system (and/or a national security court to go with it) is welcome indeed. I have elsewhere set forth why I think such legislation is a bad idea (see, e.g., here or here). As a method of resolving the particularly ugly problem of Gitmo, it at best trades off one set of legal challenges (in particular the due process problem of finding broad detention authority contained in a statute, the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, that does not mention the word detention and can draw on only the vaguest guidance from international law to cabin its scope) against another (depending on its contours – due process, ex post facto, and/or equal protection problems of its own). As a long-term approach to counterterrorism more broadly, it risks exacerbating the adverse strategic security consequences the United States has already suffered from pursuing overbroad (and easily abused) detention and interrogation programs that lack settled legitimacy under law. More simply, broad power to reach out anywhere in the world and detain anyone we want will win the hearts and minds of no one.
If nothing else, the White House has evidently (and I think rightly) concluded that the prospects of getting any legislation, much less any good legislation, out of Congress on the Gitmo question during this health care season and before the January closing deadline is not going to happen. But with Congress having now eliminated the prospect of bringing any Gitmo detainees to the United States at least for FY09 (with similar legislation likely for FY10, so we can yet hope Congress reconsiders), that January deadline just got a lot harder to meet. So now what?
For Gitmo, it’s worth trying to picture how an executive order would especially help. Of the five categories of detainees there the President has named: (1) Congress seems for the moment to be tolerating allowing detainees to be brought to the United States for criminal trial; (2) The President has already made some administrative changes in the military commission rules, but for the rest – alas – he needs Congress to amend the Military Commissions Act of 2006; (3)-(4) Detainee transfers to other countries (for release or continued detention) can proceed apace (or as apace as it gets when we’ve spent the last 8 years alienating most of our international allies) as long as Congress stays out of the way. One doesn’t need an order for any of this to move forward.
It may not be immediately apparent why it would help for category (5) either – the group of Gitmo detainees the administration says should not be charged or released because, for example, they served as leaders of Taliban forces in Afghanistan. For this group, the administration has already, mostly successfully, advanced a construction of the AUMF in federal habeas court that would extend to authorize the continued military detention of “members” of Al Qaeda (where membership may be determined in part by conduct). It’s possible that an executive order could help insulate that construction against continuing due process challenge by clarifying or reinforcing the definition of who may be detained under the AUMF, or (better) by expressing the administration’s view that the rather broad authority they’re now claiming in court under the AUMF was intended to be of limited duration (long enough to deal with the “legacy” detainees, but not extending indefinitely into the future). But it’s also possible courts would find such a post hoc “interpretation” of little – or perverse – significance at this stage. What the administration really needs to be able to continue to detain category 5 detainees is a place to put them. Gitmo itself is no longer an option. And neither – at least until Congress relents – is the United States. Which brings us back to Afghanistan.
The military continues to detain some hundreds of people at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Given the ongoing armed conflict there, and even a narrower reading of the AUMF, the Administration has a strong case it has ongoing authority to detain at least some set of individuals there. The more pressing legal problem at Bagram is about process. By all accounts, the amount of review accorded the average Bagram detainee is less than that available under the now-discredited CSRT process once used at Gitmo. The Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene, extending constitutional habeas rights to the Gitmo detainees, left open the question whether habeas extended to U.S. detainees held elsewhere. The Administration has already lost once on that question in district court. I’d put even odds on whether the Supreme Court would extend habeas rights to Bagram, depending largely on the facts of the particular case, and what Justice Kennedy has for breakfast that day. More, though, the Court’s willingness to extend habeas to Bagram will depend in part on how much process the detainees there have already had. Some far more serious administrative process than that already in place could only help the Administration’s position. And especially if there’s now some contemplation of sending some of the Gitmo detainees to Afghanistan – which is, after all, where most of them were seized in the first place and where, if not for the policy brainstorm that created Guantanamo Bay, many of them could likely still be held in some capacity today – an executive order could be a positive step forward.
As I’ve already gone on rather too long for blog tastes, I’ll promise to reach the question of detention in and detainees from the rest of the world another day.
Various developments on the resolution-of-Gitmo front to discuss. First a quick note on a recent signing statement. Then on to rumors of a contemplated executive order on detention issues.
The war spending bill I mentioned in a previous post barring the president from bringing any current Gitmo detainees to the United States was signed into law by the President on June 26. In my last post, I’d given the administration credit for not having made an Article II argument (about the constitutional power of the president) against Congress’ enormously misguided provision requiring the President to report to Congress in the midst of his negotiations with foreign governments over resettling some Gitmo detainees. Congress, despite having given its overwhelming and bipartisan support to the notion of closing Gitmo last year, is well on its way to making it impossible for the President to ever relieve the United States of the Gitmo-anvil around its neck. That said, looks as though I spoke too soon about the administration’s avoidance of any Article II claims of authority. In a signing statement issued on June 26, the President writes:
“[P]rovisions of this bill within sections 1110 to 1112 of title XI, and
sections 1403 and 1404 of title XIV, would interfere with my constitutional
authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take
certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international
organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the
Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions. I will not treat these
provisions as limiting my ability to engage in foreign diplomacy or
negotiations.”
I have tended to find the practice of signing statements less concerning than others. Presidents have always issued them. The courts – exercising independent authority to interpret the law for themselves – have always ignored them or not, at their discretion. That is, more or less, how it should be in a government of coequal branches. Moreover, in this case, if there is anything that actually is constitutionally committed to the executive, it is the authority to negotiate agreements with other states without interference from the House of Representatives at a minimum. U.S. Const. art. II, sec. 2 (“[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties…”). Nonetheless, as my Opinio Juris colleague notes rather more critically, it is a development that bears watching. Which brings me to the more important item.
“Three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations” have floated the notion of issuing an “executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely.” The must-read Washington Post piece is here. What are we to make of this? While it’s always risky to comment on a policy still in development – one the administration as best I can tell genuinely hasn’t settled on yet – I think there are a few preliminary points of note. First, the news that the administration is moving away from the notion of introducing legislation to create a new “preventive” detention system (and/or a national security court to go with it) is welcome indeed. I have elsewhere set forth why I think such legislation is a bad idea (see, e.g., here or here). As a method of resolving the particularly ugly problem of Gitmo, it at best trades off one set of legal challenges (in particular the due process problem of finding broad detention authority contained in a statute, the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, that does not mention the word detention and can draw on only the vaguest guidance from international law to cabin its scope) against another (depending on its contours – due process, ex post facto, and/or equal protection problems of its own). As a long-term approach to counterterrorism more broadly, it risks exacerbating the adverse strategic security consequences the United States has already suffered from pursuing overbroad (and easily abused) detention and interrogation programs that lack settled legitimacy under law. More simply, broad power to reach out anywhere in the world and detain anyone we want will win the hearts and minds of no one.
If nothing else, the White House has evidently (and I think rightly) concluded that the prospects of getting any legislation, much less any good legislation, out of Congress on the Gitmo question during this health care season and before the January closing deadline is not going to happen. But with Congress having now eliminated the prospect of bringing any Gitmo detainees to the United States at least for FY09 (with similar legislation likely for FY10, so we can yet hope Congress reconsiders), that January deadline just got a lot harder to meet. So now what?
For Gitmo, it’s worth trying to picture how an executive order would especially help. Of the five categories of detainees there the President has named: (1) Congress seems for the moment to be tolerating allowing detainees to be brought to the United States for criminal trial; (2) The President has already made some administrative changes in the military commission rules, but for the rest – alas – he needs Congress to amend the Military Commissions Act of 2006; (3)-(4) Detainee transfers to other countries (for release or continued detention) can proceed apace (or as apace as it gets when we’ve spent the last 8 years alienating most of our international allies) as long as Congress stays out of the way. One doesn’t need an order for any of this to move forward.
It may not be immediately apparent why it would help for category (5) either – the group of Gitmo detainees the administration says should not be charged or released because, for example, they served as leaders of Taliban forces in Afghanistan. For this group, the administration has already, mostly successfully, advanced a construction of the AUMF in federal habeas court that would extend to authorize the continued military detention of “members” of Al Qaeda (where membership may be determined in part by conduct). It’s possible that an executive order could help insulate that construction against continuing due process challenge by clarifying or reinforcing the definition of who may be detained under the AUMF, or (better) by expressing the administration’s view that the rather broad authority they’re now claiming in court under the AUMF was intended to be of limited duration (long enough to deal with the “legacy” detainees, but not extending indefinitely into the future). But it’s also possible courts would find such a post hoc “interpretation” of little – or perverse – significance at this stage. What the administration really needs to be able to continue to detain category 5 detainees is a place to put them. Gitmo itself is no longer an option. And neither – at least until Congress relents – is the United States. Which brings us back to Afghanistan.
The military continues to detain some hundreds of people at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Given the ongoing armed conflict there, and even a narrower reading of the AUMF, the Administration has a strong case it has ongoing authority to detain at least some set of individuals there. The more pressing legal problem at Bagram is about process. By all accounts, the amount of review accorded the average Bagram detainee is less than that available under the now-discredited CSRT process once used at Gitmo. The Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene, extending constitutional habeas rights to the Gitmo detainees, left open the question whether habeas extended to U.S. detainees held elsewhere. The Administration has already lost once on that question in district court. I’d put even odds on whether the Supreme Court would extend habeas rights to Bagram, depending largely on the facts of the particular case, and what Justice Kennedy has for breakfast that day. More, though, the Court’s willingness to extend habeas to Bagram will depend in part on how much process the detainees there have already had. Some far more serious administrative process than that already in place could only help the Administration’s position. And especially if there’s now some contemplation of sending some of the Gitmo detainees to Afghanistan – which is, after all, where most of them were seized in the first place and where, if not for the policy brainstorm that created Guantanamo Bay, many of them could likely still be held in some capacity today – an executive order could be a positive step forward.
As I’ve already gone on rather too long for blog tastes, I’ll promise to reach the question of detention in and detainees from the rest of the world another day.
Beyond Media 2009 ::: Urban Visions
The final contents of the URBAN VISIONS exhibition can be seen online. The exhibition aims at testifying the ability some cities had in seeing their transformations in perspective, in looking "beyond". The observed cities are Helsinki, Milan, Medellín, Zaragoza, Belgrade, Turin, New Orleans, Paris, Bologna and Mumbai, as part of a wider survey which considered, for example, the problematic case of Beijing. The exhibition will be open to the public for the whole duration of the BEYOND MEDIA festival at July 9-17 at 5 pm with an introduction by the curator, Michele Bonino.
Today's archidose #329
Afterparty, this year's P.S.1 Young Architects Program by MOS, 2009. The installation opened Sunday and runs until September 28. Also on display at the museum is YAP 10th Anniversary Review, "a visual chronicle of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and The Museum of Modern Art's Young Architects Program, one of the most acclaimed architectural arenas for emerging talent of the last decade."
Previously.
To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:
:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose
American Indian Art
Off topic, maybe, a little bit...
Occasionally, people write to me, asking where (online) they can get Native art. A few days ago, I learned about a website called Native Art Network. Through Native Art Network, you can be confident that the art you buy is made by a Native artist.
For the time being, the link to Native Art Network will be on my site, just below the Native Youth Lit widget that cycles through books I recommend. See my note above that widget? It says "Deb says... If you have a choice, buy from Oyate!" I encourage you to buy books from Oyate because money spent there supports Native people. Same with Native Art Network. Money spent there supports Native people. You can go there from this post, too, by clicking on the banner below:
Occasionally, people write to me, asking where (online) they can get Native art. A few days ago, I learned about a website called Native Art Network. Through Native Art Network, you can be confident that the art you buy is made by a Native artist.
For the time being, the link to Native Art Network will be on my site, just below the Native Youth Lit widget that cycles through books I recommend. See my note above that widget? It says "Deb says... If you have a choice, buy from Oyate!" I encourage you to buy books from Oyate because money spent there supports Native people. Same with Native Art Network. Money spent there supports Native people. You can go there from this post, too, by clicking on the banner below:
S&P/Case-Shiller: DC home prices up in April
Bad news: According to S&P/Case-Shiller, month-over-month Washington, DC metro area seasonally-adjusted home prices rose 0.08% in April. Non-seasonally-adjusted home prices rose 0.8%.
For the Composite-20 average, seasonally-adjusted home prices fell 0.09%. Prices continued to fall in the four heavily-battered states of California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona.
Inflation from March to April was 0.24%.
If Florida prices keep falling while DC prices start rising, I think I'm going to have to live where summer lasts all year long.
For the Composite-20 average, seasonally-adjusted home prices fell 0.09%. Prices continued to fall in the four heavily-battered states of California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona.
Inflation from March to April was 0.24%.
If Florida prices keep falling while DC prices start rising, I think I'm going to have to live where summer lasts all year long.
Asparagus Strawberry Salad with Halloumi
It's so very warm here. Well, for Sweden. And for me. Compared to the rest of the world, maybe 28-30°C isn't that much, but for me, it's just awful. I'm not very good with the heat, and I have to cool down any way I can. I grew up with a swimming pool, and oh how I miss it these days!
Asparagus are getting harder to find, but strawberries are everywhere. Make this brilliant salad while you can.
Asparagus Strawberry Salad with Halloumi
Serves 2
300 g strawberries, halved
200 g asparagus, in bite-sized pieces
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper
50 g arugula (rocket), coarsely chopped
1 handful alfalfa sprouts
250 g halloumi cheese, sliced
Boil the asparagus in salted water for 3-4 minutes. Drain and place in a bowl of ice water - this helps the asparagus retain its bite and color.
Place strawberries and asparagus in a bowl with lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add arugula and alfalfa sprouts, and divide on two plates.
Fry the halloumi in some hot oil, and place on top of the salad.
Recipe in Swedish:
Sparris och jordgubbssallad med halloumi
Quick Hits
Nigerians are a conquered people.-Sahara Reporters'They Came in the Name of Helping'A canny chameleon-Blaise CompaoréThe Longevity Project,Ghana.Black Economic Empowerment failed-Moeletsi MbekiCarnegie's gospel of wealth
More Thoughts on Re-Pitching Agents
I’ve always taught that if you have made significant changes to your book for one reason or another you should definitely consider re-pitching agents. I’m sure there are plenty who cringe when hearing me give that advice, but the truth is, what do you really have to lose? The one thing that always strikes me, however, when I read the comments to those types of posts is how pleased authors are, and that worries me just a little, tiny bit. What it makes me wonder is are you continuing to rework and re-pitch the same book over and over or have you moved on. I will tell you right now, if you don’t learn to move on, to write the next book and query the next book and write and query the next book after that you will never be published.
No agent and no publisher wants an author for only one book, and if you spend years reworking and re-pitching that same book you’re not making yourself a very marketable or publishable author.
So yes, while you can certainly re-pitch if you’ve done work, the key to success is forward momentum. Make sure you’re headed in the right direction.
Jessica
No agent and no publisher wants an author for only one book, and if you spend years reworking and re-pitching that same book you’re not making yourself a very marketable or publishable author.
So yes, while you can certainly re-pitch if you’ve done work, the key to success is forward momentum. Make sure you’re headed in the right direction.
Jessica
MARC BENNO:[2003] Hit the Bottom [Marno Recs.]Rusty Burns of Point Blank joins Benno on Thing or Two... Wait till you hear the guitar work on this one! Find out where blues players get it from with more material from the original Texas grammy award winning Songwriter Marc Benno.
Marc Benno brings to the stage not only his formidable vocal talents, which include a keen and perceptive realization of the lyric content of the piece being performed but also such a relaxed and mature style of singing and playing guitar that the listener immediately becomes captivated and enchanted with the easy professionalism with which he imbues his chosen material. Moreover, he's great to watch. You know he knows what he's doing. He has a wonderful sense of time...and humor, which he shares with his audiences, but not the ultra-hip, exclusive brand, of which the average person is outside. Benno's real...and for real. One can't help but enjoy a Marc Benno performance. He's been out of the public eye for much too long, but thankfully, he's interested in returning...we need him. This rare breed of a seasoned and confident, talented and sensitive performer is not in abundance these days. -- Steve LaVere (Music Historian/Robert Johnson Estate)
*** This is a CD-R recorded... not on official discography
Tracklisting
1.Rock 'n' Roll Angel
2.No Problem Child
3.Instant Love
4.Like a Yo-Yo
5.Shape Iz In
6.Fishin'
7.Good Love Good Song
8.Laverne
9.Take It Back To Texas
10.Hit the Bottom
..buy:http://cdbaby.com/cd/marcbenno3
..Home-Page: http://www.marcbenno.com/
..Link: http://6d4b9a14.linkbucks.com
..password: bluestown
=====================================
Noebook photos // Notesz képek
We asked my very best friend Dorka Taskovics to take some photos of our notebooks for Etsy, because the pictures are very important and we really need a professional photographer. She is professional and she took so nice pictures that I can't stop to watch them. :)
A legújabb fejlesztésként nemrégiben elkészült füzetekhez egy igazi fotós fotóst kértünk fel, Taskovics Dorkát, hogy készítsen nekünk az Etsy-re képeket, mert nagyon sokat számítanak a jó képek. Dorkának ez olyan jól sikerült, hogy én azóta folyamatosan ezeket a képeket nézegetem, teljesen oda vagyok értük. Köszönjük szépen Dorka!
A legújabb fejlesztésként nemrégiben elkészült füzetekhez egy igazi fotós fotóst kértünk fel, Taskovics Dorkát, hogy készítsen nekünk az Etsy-re képeket, mert nagyon sokat számítanak a jó képek. Dorkának ez olyan jól sikerült, hogy én azóta folyamatosan ezeket a képeket nézegetem, teljesen oda vagyok értük. Köszönjük szépen Dorka!
Leading Economic Index graph
The Conference Board Leading Economic Index attempts to forecast upcoming changes in the economy. Notice the slight uptick over the past two months.
Economist and blogger Rebecca Wilder notes more signs of recovery here and here.
Economist and blogger Rebecca Wilder notes more signs of recovery here and here.
CALEXICO: 2008 Carrried to Dust (Quarterstick Records QS108CD)
Reminiscent of both Feast of Wire and Garden Ruin, Calexico’s latest release is an atmospheric and evocative album that finds the band once again playing to its strengths. Entitled Carried to Dust, it’s a textured and layered album that reveals new melodies and instrumental tricks with each listen.By now anyone familiar with the band’s jazz/country/rock/folk/Latin mixture won’t mistake a Calexico song for that of any other band. Though the image of Calexico as a collection of wandering troubadours invoking the music and culture of both the American Southwest and Mexico is by now largely inaccurate, several of the songs fit neatly into the Calexico playbook. Opening track “Victor Jara’s Hands” invokes the Chilean poet/musician/activist who was killed in 1973 and features the usual mariachi horns that somehow work on a Calexico album, instead of sending the listener running for cover like he would at certain Mexican restaurants.
“Inspiración” similarly goes gonzo with horns; sung in Spanish, the song still manages to create a definite tone and feel even if the listener’s knowledge of the language is limited to Taco Bell commercials and those very un-PC Speedy Gonzalez cartoons. Instrumentals like “El Gatillo (Trigger Revisited)” and “Falling from Sleeves” nicely recall similar instrumental pieces from the band’s previous albums.
Other songs are more reserved and wouldn’t sound out of place on Garden Ruin. “Bend to the Road” is restrained and tense, with occasional jazz flourishes and near-whispered vocals, as it implies some sort of impending disaster. “Slowness” features Pieta Brown and is essentially a country duet that floats along with one of the album’s most memorable and stripped-down melodies. Closer “Contention City” moves at its own languid pace and trails off into an instrumental ending with steel guitar, piano, and that most popular of modern instruments, the glockenspiel.
With the album’s emphasis on sonic textures created by the large variety of instruments used and musical genres explored – like many Calexico albums, mood and tone are often the most immediately noticeable aspects – the vocals are somewhat subdued. Yet this isn’t to say that they’re incidental; instead, recurring themes and images surface in many of the songs. Perhaps most striking are the various references to some type of disastrous event, often hand-in-hand with an isolated person and with a focus on nature’s destructive power. “Man Made Lake” finds its narrator roaming among the wreckage “like…a ghost searching for its grave,” walking through “streets with no stir of life…and all the houses on the streets wholly submerged.” Other songs exist inside a destroyed landscape; in “The News About William,” the central character is left in a barren landscape after a “storm that washed the roads out.”
Though perhaps not a radical stylistic departure from the band’s previous albums, Carried to Dust is a richly layered album, with recurring themes and melodies that reveal themselves with each subsequent listening. Eric Dennis
Calexico: Joey Burns, Paul Niehaus, Martin Wenk, Jacob Valenzuela, Volker Zander.
Tracks:
1. Victor Jara's Hands
2. Two Silver Trees
3. News About William, The
4. Sarabande In Pencil Form
5. Writer's Minor Holiday
6. Man Made Lake
7. Inspiracion
8. House Of Valparaiso
9. Slowness
10. Bend To The Road
11. El Gatillo (Trigger Revisited)
12. Fractured Air (Tornado Watch)
13. Falling From Sleeves
14. Red Blooms
15. Contention City
2. Two Silver Trees
3. News About William, The
4. Sarabande In Pencil Form
5. Writer's Minor Holiday
6. Man Made Lake
7. Inspiracion
8. House Of Valparaiso
9. Slowness
10. Bend To The Road
11. El Gatillo (Trigger Revisited)
12. Fractured Air (Tornado Watch)
13. Falling From Sleeves
14. Red Blooms
15. Contention City
Details
.. Year: 2008
.. Label: Quarterstick Records QS108CD
.. Bitrate: 320kbps
.. Home-Page: http://www.casadecalexico.com/index.php
.. MySpace: www.myspace.com/casadecalexico
.. Last fm: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calexico
.. Wikipedia: www.last.fm/music/Calexico
.. Buy: http://casadecalexico.com/music#carriedtodust
.. Year: 2008
.. Label: Quarterstick Records QS108CD
.. Bitrate: 320kbps
.. Home-Page: http://www.casadecalexico.com/index.php
.. MySpace: www.myspace.com/casadecalexico
.. Last fm: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calexico
.. Wikipedia: www.last.fm/music/Calexico
.. Buy: http://casadecalexico.com/music#carriedtodust
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