I remember "back in the day"....

Salon.com Technology | When 300 baud was the bomb

Back in the day, there were boards. Bulletin Board Systems. BBS's. No Net, no Web, no cyberspace, nothing. Just boards, and their ugly stepchildren, D-Dials. All strung together with phone lines, hand-rolled software, and 8-bit computers. No backbone, no hubs, no routers, no DNS tables. Just one computer picking up the phone, calling another, and having a little chat.

Hey, I even had an Atari 800, though with only 48k of RAM. My friend always bragged on about his Apple //e, but he came to my machine to program (assorted flavors of Basic for the Atari) or play any kind of game...except "Rescue Rangers," which is still a kick, assuming we can find a working //e, of course. The author, BTW, has a blog at The Truth Laid Bear.

Indy, I'm so pleased you're not dead!

CNN.com - Indiana Jones to return for fourth film - May 31, 2002

HOLLYWOOD, California (Reuters) -- After more than a decade of silence, "Indiana Jones" will be cracking his famous bullwhip on the big screen once again.

Variety reports Frank Darabont, the writer/director of "The Majestic," has been offered the job of writing the fourth installment of the "Indiana Jones" franchise and a deal is expected to be signed imminently. Paramount insiders say the picture will be aimed at a July 2005 holiday weekend berth.

Now the question is, can Harrison Ford still tumble with the best of 'em? After all, it used to be the miles, not the years. Now it's both.

Color Me Confused

CNN.com - U.S.: Nuke war would kill millions

Up to 17 million people would be killed or injured in the first weeks of an all-out nuclear war between India and Pakistan, according to the Pentagon.

So what I'm confused about is this drive to assume that a conflict betweeen India and Pakistan must go nuclear. Where is all this fear coming from? Is this the media shivering in anticipation, or are they hearing something they're not reporting?

You just have to wonder....

TheKCRAChannel.com - Stripper Mom Poses For Playboy

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. -- The California stripper whose daughter was expelled from her Christian school because of her mother's job is back in the news.

Just days after giving up her job as a stripper, Christina Silvas has posed nude for Playboy's Web site.

Brilliant. Make an agreement, break an agreement. Make another deal, break another deal. Shine the light of publicity and abuse it. Wonderful lesson for the daughter.

Reality catches up....

Liberal Reality Check

As we gather around F.B.I. headquarters sharpening our machetes and watching the buzzards circle overhead, let's be frank: There's a whiff of hypocrisy in the air.

One reason aggressive agents were restrained as they tried to go after Zacarias Moussaoui is that liberals like myself -- and the news media caldron in which I toil and trouble -- have regularly excoriated law enforcement authorities for taking shortcuts and engaging in racial profiling. As long as we're pointing fingers, we should peer into the mirror.

The timidity of bureau headquarters is indefensible. But it reflected not just myopic careerism but also an environment (that we who care about civil liberties helped create) in which officials were afraid of being assailed as insensitive storm troopers.

So it's time for civil libertarians to examine themselves with the same rigor with which we are prone to examine others. The bottom line is that Mr. Moussaoui was thrown in jail -- thank God -- not because there was evidence he had committed a crime but because he was a young Arab man who behaved suspiciously and fit our stereotypes about terrorists....

Amen! Now, rather than just chase after everyone, searching little old ladies and nuns, maybe law enforcement should work the terrorist profile, and we all know what that is. No, it does not involve racism!

So, it's not just the U.S. justice system that is insane:

BBC News | UK | Head's widow asked to apologise to killer

The widow of head teacher Philip Lawrence has described her "extreme upset" at being asked to apologise to his teenage killer.

Frances Lawrence, 51, told how a probation officer rang her at home and said that Learco Chindamo had become upset after she criticised him for his lack of remorse.

Mrs Lawrence, a mother of four, said the officer claimed an apology would make Chindamo "feel happier" when he came before a panel which was deciding whether his life sentence should be cut.

I'm compelled to wonder why the probation officer is still employed. I don't know how the system works in the U.K., but here in the U.S. (or, at least in California) a probation officer is generally not an advocate for the convicted. Talk about a wack-o. (Link courtesy Moira Breen.)

From Protein Wisdom comes "Now here's how you handle an exam question..." You have to love creativity in action!

Speaking of profiling, I found an old link to Overlawyered.com archives -- Nov. 2001 pt. II, which leads with "Profiling perfectly OK after all," and goes on to list the various contradictory messages the Feds were (and still are) sending out about profiling. Fascinating set of links, too.

Then there's the ad for "Men in Black II," wherein Will Smith's new Mercedes motors up to the curb, a white man at the wheel. He clicks a button on his remote, and the "man" is sucked into the streering wheel. Tommy Lee Jones asks about the feature, something along the lines of "is that standard equipment?" Smith says it is, noting that it used to be a black man but it got pulled over too often.

Personally, I think George has it all wrong, and so do the three pilots quoted:

Armed (and Dangerous) Pilots (washingtonpost.com)

Prior to Sept. 11, if a passenger became unruly, the pilot might come back into the cabin to assert authority. No more. Says one of these three, "The flight attendants know they are on their own."

"You cannot fly an airplane and look over your shoulder, firing down the cabin," says one of these pilots. What you could do, he says, is look down the cabin by means of a closed-circuit television camera that would warn the flight deck of cabin disturbances requiring quick action to take the plane to the ground. Flight plans should show the nearest alternative airport at every stage of every flight.

Another potential problem with arming America's 120,000 commercial airline pilots is what one of the three pilots here calls, with no demurral from the other two, "cowboys or renegade pilots." Many commercial pilots began their flying careers as fighter pilots. Two of the three speaking here this day did. One of them says: There is some truth to the profile of fighter pilots as, well, live wires and risk-takers. Arming them might incite them to imprudent bravery. Armed pilots would be more inclined to go out into the cabin, whereas the primary goal should be getting the plane to the ground.

I think pilots should be armed, if for no other reason than it's another layer of defense. Lock the doors, yes. Install closed circuit TV so the flight crew knows what's going on with the passengers, yes. All fine, but I fail to see what's wrong with a last-ditch defense in the cockpit. This notion that pilots would have to "shoot over their shoulder while flying" is all wrong. Aren't there two pilots in the cockpit? That means one can fly while the other shoots if necessary.

As for "cowboy or renegade" pilots, those fighter jocks who now pilot commercial aircraft...I would think that those notions of being "live wires and risk-takers" would be suppressed merely by their being commercial pilots. They're not hot-dogging an F-15 through the sky, but a 767. It's not just them, it's 200+ civilians. That sense of responsibility should restrain them somewhat.

A good question is how El Al, Israel's airline, prevents hijackings. A USA Today article says that up to five armed guards ride on each flight, a far cry from a random, single "sky marshall" the US has. Israeli security opposes armed pilots, though, because they provide all these other levels of security, which is reasonable. We don't, however.

I don't expect El Al to publicly discuss all their security measures, but I do know that their security starts on the ground, where their passenger screeners do something strange and unique: They profile the passenger, not the luggage (link courtesy of Instapundit, thanks very much). Odd notion, one foreign to the United States, where we continue to focus on tools, rather than on the hand that wields the tool.

Give me liberty or give me...mocha?

Listening to Rush as he makes a point I've tried to make to others, namely that the current crisis invites a reduction in personal liberty that should be resisted.. Too many people say, "I'm not doing anything wrong, come search my [home/computer/car/body/etc.]." Rather cavalier attitude, especially given that granting such open access won't prevent another 9/11, ostensibly the reason for the proposed changes (or that horror known as The Patriot Act). And after the crisis subsides, after we either accept a certain level of terror or (preferably) squish the terrorists out of existence, will these surrendered liberties be returned? Bureaucratic history (and momentum) says, "No."

I'm not willing to surrender an iota of what I consider personal liberty, and I don't expect you to, either. No, you can't read my mail, scan my email, etc., just because doing so is part of some broad, general data sweep. If you can specific a suspect, or even a suspect profile, have at it, but that formulates that little thing called "probable cause," upon which virtually all law enforcement actions hinge. You can't develop PC, everything you do from that moment on is suspect and probably illegal (unconstitutional). Drives so many cops crazy, but it's so damn easy to develop and work up. All you have to do is learn how to articulate your observations and present your facts. And no, I'm not talking out my posterior. I did this as a small town cop for some nine years, volunteer reserve and full-time employment.

So work up the criminal profile and work the profile. Every person in the country doesn't fit the profile, and those that don't deserve to be left alone.

Personal Notes

Seems no one wants the BMW as trade-in, and I'm too lazy to try to sell it private party. Means I'll keep it, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I was just getting bit by the "need new motorcycle" bug, even though the Beemer is only two years old. Rode it into work today and was reminded why it is so cool. Sure, sure, all those cages (cars) all around me. Gads, those people looked trapped. I switched over to the CD player, lowered the windshield a bit, set the cruise control, and listened to Sheryl Crow "soak up the sun."

It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got

Ah, so true.

Meanwhile, yesterday's mail brought me the news that I am returning to school, specifically to the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. Egads, more student loan debt, greater knowledge. Heck, when I graduate (and am admitted before the bar, ahem ahem) will be I Bob Hovorka, Esquire? Raiders of electronic privacy beware, I shall be thine scourge!

"Bomb Saddam?" by Joshua Micah Marshall

The neocons have been clashing with the establishment since the 1970s. Back then, the consensus view among foreign policy elites was that the Cold War was an indefinite or perhaps even a permanent fact of world politics, to be managed with diplomacy and nuclear deterrence. The neocons argued for deliberately tipping the balance of power in America's direction. Ronald Reagan championed their ideas, and brought a number of neocons into his administration, including Perle and Wolfowitz. Reagan's huge defense buildup and harsh, even provocative, rhetoric contributed significantly to running the Soviet military-industrial complex into the ground.The president went for the Hail Mary pass--whatever the dangers--and it worked.

During the Gulf War, the hawks urged President George H.W. Bush to ignore the limits of his U.N. mandate, roll the tanks into Baghdad, and bring down Saddam Hussein's regime. Bush sided with the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell (the embodiment of the establishment, who had advised Bush against liberating Kuwait), and left Saddam in power. The neocons have been saying I told you so ever since.

I still prefer hitting Saudi Arabia first, if we're going to start anywhere. After all, it's where the hijackers actually came from, continues to support terrorist organizations throughout the Mideast, and is perhaps only second to the Taliban when it comes to oppression and repression of its own people, let alone visiting infidels.

Amazing reading. Some day, 9/11, and the WTC towers in particular, may be regarded in the same way we regard the Titanic. Please, let's not let James Cameron make the movie....

Fighting to Live as the Towers Died

This isn't news news, but I just wanted to record it for personal posterity....

Weary, Bush mocks reporter -- The Washington Times

PARIS -- President Bush yesterday derisively challenged press claims of widespread anti-Americanism in Europe and ridiculed an American TV correspondent for suggesting as much -- in English and French -- to him and French President Jacques Chirac.

"So you go to a protest and I drive through the streets of Berlin, seeing hundreds of people lining the road, waving," Mr. Bush muttered to NBC News White House correspondent David Gregory during a joint press conference with Mr. Chirac.

"I don't view hostility here," Mr. Bush said in the ornate Palais de l'Elysee. "I view the fact that we've got a lot of friends here."

He added: "And the fact that protesters show up -- that's good. I mean, I'm in a democracy."

Mr. Bush was responding to Mr. Gregory's question about anti-American demonstrations in Germany, Russia and France during the president's visits to these nations since Wednesday.

"I wonder why it is you think there are such strong sentiments in Europe against you and against this administration?" the reporter said. "Why, particularly, there's a view that you and your administration are trying to impose America's will on the rest of the world, particularly when it comes to the Middle East and where the war on terrorism goes next?"

Turning to Mr. Chirac, he added in French: "And, Mr. President, would you maybe comment on that?"

"Very good," Mr. Bush said sardonically. "The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental."

"I can go on," Mr. Gregory offered.

"I'm impressed -- que bueno," said Mr. Bush, using the Spanish phrase for "how wonderful." He deadpanned: "Now I'm literate in two languages."

Roars of laughter filled both the press conference room and a press filing center elsewhere in the city, where many members of the White House press corps were watching the exchange on live television.

Turning serious, the president spoke of the strong bond between most Europeans and Americans.

"Look, the only thing I know to do is speak my mind, to talk about my values, to talk about our mutual love for freedom and the willingness to defend freedom," he said. "And, David, I think a lot of people on the continent of Europe appreciate that.

"There's a heck of a lot more that unites us than divides us. We share the same values; we trade $2 trillion a year," he added. "I feel very comfortable coming to Europe; I feel very comfortable coming to France. I've got a lot of friends here."

"Sir, if I could just follow," the reporter began.

"Thank you," Mr. Bush shot back dismissively.

I know the traditional press model in the US is adversarial in nature, but I can't help but notice the editorializing in this news report, as well as in Gregory's questions. Bush "mutters" and replies "sardonically." He's described as "weary," etc.

And look at Gregory's question, questioning not just Bush's plans, but presenting the attitude and opinion that Europe opposes all Bush stands for and proposes.

Lovely retort from Bush, though. "Que bueno!"

Regarding "racial profiling," see UNITED STATES V. ARVIZU

Considering the totality of the circumstances and giving due weight to the factual inferences drawn by Stoddard and the District Court Judge, Stoddard had reasonable suspicion to believe that respondent was engaged in illegal activity. Because the “balance between the public interest and the individual’s right to personal security,” United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, tilts in favor of a standard less than probable cause in brief investigatory stops of persons or vehicles, the Fourth Amendment is satisfied if the officer’s action is supported by reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal activity “may be afoot,” United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7. In making reasonable-suspicion determinations, reviewing courts must look at the “totality of the circumstances” of each case to see whether the detaining officer has a “particularized and objective basis” for suspecting legal wrongdoing. See, e.g., United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417—418. This process allows officers to draw on their own experiences and specialized training to make inferences from and deductions about the cumulative information available. Id., at 418.

This was a unanimous decision by the US Supreme Court, reversing a decision by the 9th Circuit Court. The particulars are:

Respondent was stopped by Border Patrol Agent Stoddard while driving on an unpaved road in a remote area of southeastern Arizona. A search of his vehicle revealed more than 100 pounds of marijuana, and he was charged with possession with intent to distribute. The Federal District Court denied respondent’s motion to suppress, citing a number of facts that gave Stoddard reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle. The Ninth Circuit reversed.

Stoddard saw a set of factors that let him to believe he had probable cause not only to stop the vehicle, but to search it. Arizona courts upheld the probable cause. The 9th Circuit determined that since each of the individual factors had an "innocent" explanation, there was no probable cause. The Supreme Court held that the stop and search were legal and Constitutional because the measure of the legitimacy of the stop is the totality, not the merit of any single factor.

Part of this stemmed from United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, where the Supreme Court (in the 70's) upheld a traffic stop made in part, and among other reasons, because the driver was Hispanic! Egads, "racial profiling." But no, because it's a portion of the profile, not the sum and total (as I've said before).

In other words, the very profiling that assorted Arab groups (as well as assorted "civil rights" groups) groan, moan, whine, bitch, sue, complain, etc., about are legal and constitutional and have been repeatedly upheld. Obviously some whiners need an education, and law enforcement officials need to get to work.

Ann Coulter asks: Yahoo! News - WHAT DO DEMOCRATS KNOW NOW?

In a girly-girl, eye-poking attack, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., has demanded an investigation into "what the White House knew about the events leading up to 9/11, when they knew it and, most importantly, what was done about it." The more urgent question is: What do the Democrats know (BEGIN ITALS)now(END ITALS)?

Memo to Democrats: Muslim men are plotting another terrorist attack on America right now! That's what you know. What are you doing about it? Directing airport security to keep searching white paraplegics at the airport?

Cuts right to the matter, don't you think?

Klez: Hi Mom, We're No. 1

"Klez managed to triple its annoyance factor by using -- yes, using -- the AV industry," [Rod] Fewster [of NOD32] said. "AV companies have been exploiting those auto-replies as free advertising for years. Virus spreaders aren't stupid. They see what's going on around them and they work the system. Sometimes I think the antiviral industry is its own worst enemy."

Clever people, these virus makers.

Salon.com Books | Truth and reconciliation

Incest accusations of the recovered-memory craze tore families apart. Now one of its leaders wants to let bygones be bygones.

Fascinating tale of what is potentially "junk science."

Salon.com Technology | Can we sue our own fat asses off?

Lawyers and activists, flush from the tobacco victories, think they have found one [a "painless" way to reduce obesity]: Sue the companies who sell us the junk we overeat. They talk about recovering the costs of obesity-associated diseases. But the real hope is that by going after the companies, they can force changes in price and marketing that will, in turn, force us to stop eating so much junk food. Corporations, after all, are much easier to regulate than the fractious individuals targeted by most public health campaigns.

Oh good grief! Are people responsible for anything today?

From today's OpinionJournal Best of the Web, a tale of two IQ challenged mentalities:

Red Cross attacks exile of Palestinians, by Robert Fisk

As twelve of the 13 Palestinian gunmen exiled by Israel left Cyprus for European Union countries yesterday, the International Committee of the Red Cross stated that their "transfer" outside the occupied Palestinian West Bank was illegal under humanitarian law.

Vincent Lusser, a spokes-man for the Middle East department of the ICRC in Geneva, cited Article 49 of Annexe 4 of the Geneva Conventions, telling The Independent: "Transfers outside occupied territory are illegal and that covers the 13 men."

Hey, stupids! Yeah, you, the writer and the foole being quoted: The 13 chose exile because they didn't want to be arrested. The Israelis wanted to -- still want to -- arrest them on a variety of terrorist-related charges. Duh, they chose to go rather than go to jail.

Argh, the minds of some people. And if this doesn't establish -- again -- the double-standard the Red Cross operates under in the Middle East....

The Mysterious Riddle of Chandra Levy

On May 1st, a date numerologically and occultly significant in the Illuminati's witchcraft and satanic calendar, she was disposed of during a ritual at D.C.'s mysteriously gothic Rock Creek Park, a large, forested area which is shaped like a goat's head -- the hideous head of Baphomet, the Masonic goat-god, representative of the coming antichrist.

At last, the truth, apparently on the web for at least a year. He, the author's name is Texe Marrs, must be right, otherwise how would he know where the body would be found? Quickly, alert the Stonecutters!

Lies and Truth, by Orson Scott Card

The other night I heard an Arab spokesman on Fox News tell a real whopper. "Don't talk to us about anti-semitism. You Christians had a thousand years of pogroms against the Jews, and we Arabs have never had a pogrom."

For those who don't know the word, a pogrom is a sort of large-scale lynching. A mob would be whipped into a frenzy against the Jews and then would storm into the Jewish quarter of the town and slaughter, rape, and pillage until they ran out of victims or became exhausted.

At least the Spanish Inquisition used legal process to kill Jews. In northern and eastern Europe the bloody work was done by volunteers. But it is not true that there were no Muslim pogroms against Jews.

In April 1920, five Jews died and 211 were wounded in a pogrom committed by Arabs in Jerusalem. Ninety Jews died in a pogrom the following year, and in 1929, 133 Jews were killed in Palestine by Arabs.

And the pogroms worked. The British government (which ruled the "protectorate" of Palestine in those days) was so horrified by this terrorism that it clamped down on Jewish immigration and made it much harder for Jews to enter Canaan legally.

In other words, terrorism directed against Jews in Canaan effected a change in the public policy of a Western government in favor of the terrorists and against the Jews.

Kind of makes Arafat's strategy look sensible, doesn't it? History is with him. Indeed, history is repeating itself.

A movie of Orson Scott Card's ENDER'S GAME is on the way....

Warner Bros. has hired Wolfgang Peterson to translate Orson Scott Card’s much loved science fiction series of ENDER’S GAME books to the big screen.

Please, dear God, let Card have changed the screenplay from that bit he had posted on his web site. It doesn't seem to be there anymore, but Card had the opening scenes from his screen adaptation posted for a while (I have a copy, but I don't have any permission to post it, sorry). If you've read the book, you know the end. Card's original screenplay gave away that ending right at the beginning. Argh! Please let it be changed.

Original STAR WARS versions will never see DVD

In an interview carried in the latest STAR WARS INSIDER magazine, George Lucas reiterated he will never allow the original, non-SPECIAL EDITIONS of the STAR WARS movies to be released on DVD.

Bummer. So when do the DVD's come out?

WHERE SOLVING CRIMES TAKES TOP PRIORITY / San Diego police outshine San Francisco's with fewer officers per capita and more ground to cover

On average, San Diego police solved 64 percent of that city's violent crime - murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults - between 1996 and 2000, analysis shows. San Francisco police solved 28 percent.

Unlike San Francisco police, San Diego police make solving such crimes the top priority. ...

... A Chronicle review of both departments found profound differences in their investigative practices.

San Diego has detailed investigative standards for each type of violent crime, frequently reviews the performance of its detectives and selects investigators based on demonstrated ability.

San Francisco has few written investigative standards, virtually no formal performance reviews and assigns inspectors to the various violent crime units based on how long their names have been on a list - not ability.

Ah, one of the many benefits of a strong union. You see, the seniority system at SFPD is a result of union demands. This is from Part 3 of a three-part series. The seniority system is discussed in Part 2.

Immigrants fear new proposal that would allow local police to enforce federal immigration laws

Daniel Rosas Romero waits among the knots of men who line the sidewalks of a bustling street, hoping each day for painting, moving, gardening or construction jobs.

The day laborers - many of whom slipped into the United States undocumented - have established an uneasy relationship with local police, who don't ask whether they are in the country legally.

Romero fears that delicate balance could tip under a new proposal being considered by the Justice Department, which would allow local and state police to enforce immigration laws.

Oh no, we can't have this, police enforcing The Law. Whatever will become of...us?

Ye gods, is this what we've come to? We don't want the law enforced? Why is this even a question? And look who campaigns against it! Shock of shock, the very people who would end up being arrested. This is tantamount to having a "gang lobby" campaigning against anti-gang legislation.

(And, yes, I understand that the immigration issue is very complex, that most illegals are law-abiding while residing within the US, etc. However, the key word used in describing them is "illegal," and please let's not use that PC nonsense that they're merely "undocumented.")

Open-Source Fight Flares at Pentagon
Microsoft Lobbies Hard Against Free Software

Microsoft Corp. is aggressively lobbying the Pentagon to squelch its growing use of freely distributed computer software and switch to proprietary systems such as those sold by the software giant, according to officials familiar with the campaign.

In what one military source called a "barrage" of contacts with officials at the Defense Information Systems Agency and the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the past few months, the company said "open source" software threatens security and its intellectual property.

But the effort may have backfired. A May 10 report prepared for the Defense Department concluded that open source often results in more secure, less expensive applications and that, if anything, its use should be expanded.

MS, of course, completely denies that they're doing any such thing. Sure. Just like they've made full disclosures pursuant to every subpoena received from the Justice Department.

Lalala, empires fall....

Weldon: Clinton Official Ignored Program

... "It goes back to the very heart of the political leadership, goes back over the previous administration as well," said John Martin, a former FBI counterterrorist specialist and retired chief of internal security at the Justice Department, who added that even after the World Trade Center terrorist bombing in 1993, some top officials wanted the FBI to focus on abortion-clinic violence, street crime and the like.

"We were not preparing for this kind of attack," he said.

[Rep. Curt] Weldon [R-Pa.] said that even if the intelligence community was absorbed with other issues, it missed at least one public and maddeningly obvious clue that until now had gone unnoticed.

"In August of 2000, an Al Qaeda member had been interviewed by an Italian newspaper, and (it was) reported that Al Qaeda was training kamikaze pilots. The intelligence community and enforcement agencies don't read open-source information," he said.

Now here's an example of what some people knew and when they knew it.

Health experts question water rule

Everyone from women's magazines to Colon Health Network and the Georgia Rural Water Journal extols the virtues of drinking at least eight, eight-ounce glasses of water a day. Bottled-water makers heavily market their products based on this theory -- so commonly held that nutritionists refer to it simply as "eight-by-eight." The industry's trade group even has a "hydration calculator" on its Web site (www.bottledwater.org/public/hydratio.htm) for people to determine whether they need even more than that.

But a growing number of health experts say the advice may not hold water.

The article spins it toward anti-business, that the entire "drink water" is a campaign put on by bottled-water makers. Of course, the deeper question is who are the researchers who created the entire "eight-by-eight" routine, and are they legit or who bought them? Excuse me, while I have another bottle of water....

NASA's Need for Speed: Advanced Propulsion Comes Of Age

NASA is known worldwide for routinely putting people into Earth orbit. The agency is also revered as the only organization that has flung humans at escape velocity speeds to the Moon. However, NASA could also be known as an agency that's going nowhere fast.

Even NASA's new chief, Sean O'Keefe, is keen about the need for speed. The agency is stuck in slow gear, he gripes, scooting about in spacecraft today at velocities not much greater than when John Glenn first sped into Earth orbit over 40 years ago.

To help put some "momentum" into NASA, the agency is pushing forward on a nuclear propulsion and power initiative. Welcome news in contrast to the past. Over the years, NASA's advanced propulsion agenda has done little but advance in age.

Like so many bureaucracies, NASA is stuck in its little rut. This agency when from exploding Redstone rockets to the virtually flawless Saturn V in less than ten years. Now...?

What NASA is looking into....

NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program

In 1996, NASA established the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project to seek the ultimate breakthroughs in space transportation: (1) propulsion that requires no propellant mass, (2) propulsion that attains the maximum transit speeds physically possible, and (3) breakthrough methods of energy production to power such devices. Topics of interest include experiments and theories regarding the coupling of gravity and electromagnetism, the quantum vacuum, hyperfast travel, and superluminal quantum effects. Because the propulsion goals are presumably far from fruition, a special emphasis is to identify affordable, near-term, and credible research that could make measurable progress toward these propulsion goals.

Scotty, warp one!

Hollywood couldn't write stuff this funny:

Convicted rapist sues hospital

Edward Brewer, in prison for raping Providence patient, calls nursing staff negligent and asks for $2 million.

I can only surmise that he feels if the hospital had provided better security, he wouldn't have been able to commit the rape and thus would not be in prison. Hmm.

As Best of the Web points out, however, this mental giant has a wonderful track record. The original rape charge was reduced via a plea bargin, down to sexual battery, and Brewer got five years. However....

Brewer appealed, and the 6th District Court of Appeals in Toledo sent the case back to Erie County Common Pleas Court on the grounds Brusnahan should not have advised his client to agree to the plea bargain.

According to the appeals court, because the victim had died of causes unrelated to the alleged sexual assault, Brusnahan should have realized how weak the case against Brewer was, a theory with which Brusnahan disagreed. Brewer was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was convicted in his second trial...

So, apparently Brusnahan (Brewer's original attorney) understood the rape case very well, more so than either Brewer or the appeals court. Oops!

Best of the Web pointed out this beauty:

Stanley Kurtz on Anti-Americanism & Education & Title VI on National Review Online

You may know all of these notorious figures, but do you know that your tax dollars have been subsidizing courses that train American elementary and high-school teachers about the Middle East by assigning them Arundhati Roy, Robert Fisk, Tariq Ali, and Edward Said? This particular set of teacher-training resources was called, "The September 11 Crisis and Teaching Our Children: Resources for Teachers on Islam and the Middle East," and was sponsored by the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. And don't think this federally subsidized program balanced the leftist authors with readings from Bernard Lewis or Samuel P. Huntington. No, in the belief that public knowledge of the Middle East will strengthen our security, the American government has been pouring millions of dollars into the pockets of the most anti-American scholars in the academy, vast chunks of which end up force-feeding America's children a steady diet of Arundhati Roy and Edward Said. Worse, since Sept. 11, the government subsidy for Edward Said and his legion of followers has been massively increased -- and may grow larger still next year.

A little history, a little reason why trying to stop cloning is somewhat akin to stopping the rain by wagging your finger at the clouds and saying, "No!"

Technology Review - Cloning Can't Be Stopped

Controversy has surrounded the advent of every reproductive technology from artificial insemination to in vitro fertilization. Still, human cloning, like its forerunners, will happen.

Yes, Harry likes The Film:

Ain't It Cool News - View Article

I love that there is a new STAR WARS movie playing minutes from my house that literally makes me lose my shit with happiness. I love that in my chatrooms I can argue back and forth and cheer the merits and see elation from so many that they loved this chapter. And sure there are those out there that were disappointed or hated this film, but ya know what. It must suck to be you, because I saw STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES and I can’t wait to see it again.

This is more depressing than I thought it would be (though not at all surprising):

Remains in Park Identified As Chandra Levy's (washingtonpost.com)

The skeletal remains found this morning in Rock Creek Park have been identified as those of missing intern Chandra Levy, D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey announced this evening.

Maybe Hollings should read this:

Piracy: The Star Wars Solution

While file trading has thrived, so too has Hollywood. Studios grossed $8.4 billion last year, an increase of almost 10 percent over 2000.

The movie industry has even adopted new home technologies, promoting the DVD, which comes with alternative endings, interviews and background information. Just as movies now provide a larger-than-life experience, rentals give viewers more than they can get in a theater.

In stark contrast, the music industry cast its lots behind copy-protected CDs, which limit how and where people can listen to their music.

...and have a copy protection scheme that cannot resist the power of a magic marker!

Get your bids in early. Kirk's chair is up for auction!

Trekkies Bid on the Holy Grail

"James T. Kirk was the only guy who could get the girl, save the ship and save the galaxy, all in one hour," said Ed Queen, a Star Trek fan and memorabilia collector....

Good grief! These people need to seek a life:

Detroit News: Critics say 'Clones' has racial stereotypes

George Lucas, sometimes accused of reinforcing racial stereotypes with his movies, has done it again, according to critics.

My favorite whine is about Temuera Morrison, the actor who plays Jango. The "critics" keep saying he's soooo Latino, yet he's actually from New Zealand and is of Maori descent. Which is how he looked to me, especially his son. Never thought for a moment he was Latino, and actually thought it was cute that this tribe from a Pacific island would be bred into the most badass army the galaxy has ever seen. Revenge at last...or maybe it's been too long since I've seen "Utu" (excellent film; need to find out if it's on DVD).

Oh, nostalgia!

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | "Hardware Wars": The movie, the legend, the household appliances

An obscure Bay Area filmmaker launched an empire in 1977. No, not that one. Fluke Starbucker, Oggie Ben Doggie, Ham Salad and Princess Anne-Droid are back in a "special edition" of the original Lucas spoof.

Hey, my past comes to life! I shot the animation and optical masks. Insane and nutty animation. I didn't get a personal credit; it was my dad's company, after all. I can't remember if we're in the credits at all, but if we are you'll see Stop-Frame, Inc. in there. (My dad was theBob Hovorka; I'm the pale imitation known as Jr.)

Obviously, we're off to the stores in search of this DVD. I might have to hunt down the unauthorized Special Edition, too. Sing it with me! (To the tune of "Okie From Miskogee", or however the hell it's spelled.)

"I'm proud to be an Obi Wan Kenobi...."

Amazing what opportunities will pop up when the going gets rough:

Stripper, school make a deal / Mom won't dance until child's school year ends

Christina Silvas, who worked as a stripper in Sacramento, has given up nude dancing for at least the next three weeks so her daughter can graduate from kindergarten at the Capital Christian Center.

Main story is here, wherein:

Silvas said she agreed to quit her job after receiving numerous job offers that came in after her plight went public.

Silvas said she has been offered jobs at a law firm, an insurance agency and a sales job at a radio station and that she likely has other offers that she has been unable to look into.

She also said that the strip club is very interested in getting her back to work due to high demand.

"They said that if nothing works out over the next three weeks they want to throw me a big welcome back party," she [professional name: Samantha] said.

Good to know you can always go home....

Since I work for the state, maybe I'm shooting myself in the foot. Nonetheless....

SacBee.com -- State hires despite freeze

"My reaction is that, like many things the governor does, it seems to be all about public relations and nothing about substance," said Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine. " ... Freeze means you stop. This is clearly not stopping. Call it a slowdown."

Luv the Guv!

Yahoo! News - U.S. Won't Allow Guns in Cockpits

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government said Tuesday that pilots will not be allowed to have guns in the cockpits of commercial airplanes.

I want to see if I understand this. Commercial airline pilots deal with dozens (hundreds) of issues on a near-constant basis, especially during take-off and landing. They are trained not to panic, to think in a ordering, logical manner, to react in specific ways to prevent disaster. They are exceptionally motivated, trained, and skilled. A fraction of the general population could handle but a fraction of the workload they accept each and every working day.

But, by golly, they're too stupid to carry a gun at work.

If you grabbed a commercial pilot and a police officer at random, chances are you'd be happier with giving the pilot a gun. Sad, but true.

But, heck Disney's Senator has the word:

Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., who chairs the Commerce Committee, said guns would not be needed as long as pilots kept cockpit doors locked while in flight.

"You can put the rule in right now and cut out all the argument about pistols and stun guns," Hollings said.

Didn't help on 9/11, did it? Arming pilots is all about options, giving the flight crew another option in dealing with a potential take-over. Same with allowing the flight attendants to carry stun-guns. Heck, yes, let 'em! The more options the better.

The argument seems to revolve around philosophies, namely proactive (aggressive) versus reactive (passive). Locking the door is passive/reactive. You put your faith in all the other security systems (and all those in place prior to 9/11 failed, remember). Arming the pilot and their flight crews (to one extent or another) is proactive and allows a proactive response to an incident. They can actually do something. I'm not sure why so many are opposed to that?

Except, of course, that they just don't like guns.

Now it's "child abuse"? So first, a little background on the convicted (as well as a reminder of the case):

Information Please: Mary Kay Letourneau

36–year-old Tacoma, Wash., schoolteacher, was ordered to serve her suspended 71/2 year child-rape sentence after being found with the 14-year-old student with whom she had a baby last year. In October, LeTourneau gave birth to a second baby fathered by the same boy. No new charges were brought against her.

Remember now? The plea was that theirs was a loving relationship, that he was a mature young boy. Heck, there was even the claim that he (the at the time 12-year-old) was a sexual predator, the aggressor, the one who started it all. She (breathless sigh) was a confused innocent. At her own website (yes, Mary Kay has an "official" website) she has a list of 27 Points which she closes with:

These are the questions that I pray will bring good people together to force a complete circle of logic and light, so that there isn't anymore in this (or other people's) life situations, a question of "If... then, Why?" but instead a peaceful and just acknowledgement of "If... then, Therefore."

She doesn't claim to be a victim, insisting rather that she and the boy had a mature and loving relationship, one that The State had no right to interfere with. So in today's news....

Jurors Clear Police, School District in Teacher-Sex Case

The verdict followed a nine-week trial in which former student Vili Fualaau's lawyer claimed the relationship was "torture, not true love," and left Fualaau suicidal and unemployable, with two young daughters he's ill-equipped to care for.

See, he and his mother sued because of the tremendous mental damage this illegal sexual relationship caused. So much for maturity, which was the point of the prosecution, that Mary Kay, as the adult, should have understood the damage she was ultimately causing Vili, her victim.

And if you doubt that he's a victim, swap the genders. An adult Vili has sex with a 12-year-old Mary Kay. Gets her pregnant. Twice, the second time while on parole. Is there any state in the United States where he'd be doing less than life, or at least a whole lot more than seven years? Mary Kay's rambling "points" remind me of the same logic used by the North American Man/Boy Love Association. Which is to say it is the logic of a sexual predator.

Egads!

CD Crack: Magic Marker Indeed

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.

Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying "hi-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.

"I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?" one posting on alt.music.prince read. "Maybe they'll ban markers."

I'm sure that's already in the works. Are the manufacturers of "magic markers" now subject to prosecution under the terms of the DMCA?

Ah, my governor at work:

Governor tests the boundaries of fundraising zeal | csmonitor.com

No comment.

And the (box office) race is on....

‘Clones’ attacks weekend box office

"Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" grossed an estimated $86.2 million over the weekend, after bowing Thursday with $30.1 million, for $116.3 million in its first four days of release. The three-day weekend tally ranks at No. 3 among all-time new releases, behind "Spider-Man," which opened with $114.84 million two weeks ago, and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" with $90.29 million last November. But worldwide, the four-day gross for "Clones" soared out of orbit for a total of $183 million.

The family and I saw "Spider-Man" last weekend and thought it was great. Better still, it got better the more I thought of it. My only lament was for a better villain, someone with more motivation than...well, I never quite understood the motivation. Better if the Green Goblin had been pure evil, but ah well. And Tobey Maguire was too perfect, his final scene at the cemetary just waaaay cool.

And now, "Clones." I waited most of a month before seeing "Star Wars;" can't remember why, and that was an awful long wait for a science fiction fan. Saw "Empire Strikes Back" opening night and it was the most remarkable movie experience of my life. The audience was so enthusiasticaly loud the theatre trembled. Literally. And I'm talking about the old Northpoint in San Francisco, since out of business, but if you've ever been there you know the size of the screen, the VOLUME of the sound system. Awe inspiring. The audience easily drowned out the opening 20th Century Fox fanfare, but SHUT UP when the story actually began.

Now, "Clones." First, what's to hate. Not a lot, actually. At worse the film is business-like. It had a ton of information to convey within a short period of time, and lots of it was handled clumsily, massive expository dumps. However, anyone thinking the dialogue was stiff just to this SW episode doesn't remember Carrie Fisher, "Governor Tarkin, I thought I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."

What's to be annoyed about? More here. Hayden doesn't...act. His romance scenes are godawful for the most part, mediocre at their best. Blame him, blame the writing, blame the directing...whatever. The result is a "foul stench." Very bad, but not enough to hate, redeemed when Portman declares her own undying affection. That I believed because Hayden was going for the tragic youth approach, and--at least in movies--women are suckers for that approach.

Hayden is very good during the pissed off Dark Lord of the Sith-to-be moments. He seethes, he's angry, he's dangerous. The moment when he returns from, er, his "quest" and talks to Portman is chilling, the dark side clear, the good attempting to bring him under control. Nicely done.

The first two-thirds or so of the movie is all setup, and not just for this film but for Episode 3 as well. And 4, 5, and 6, for that matter. Jar-Jar finally makes sense, even the fact that he HAD to be stupid. Sure it's a cheap ploy, but at least now there's a reason. (I would have done things differently, but I don't have a spare couple of hundred million to make a movie with, ah well.) The last third of "Clones" is breathless with the sheer amount of Stuff Going On.

Low point: Anytime Anakin (Hayden) tries to be romantic.

High point: Oh, several, but then along comes Yoda....

I liked "Spider-Man" a lot, but I hold no hope for future installments. I want to see "Clones" again. And three years is now too long to wait for Episode 3, just like it was between "Empire" and "Return of the Jedi" (which was overwhelmingly disappointing after "Empire", BTW). And as with "Empire," I got frustrated that the film ended. Damnit, I want Episode 3 now, and maybe that's a measure of this film's success.

Update: What is with John Williams lately? We watched Ep 1 before going and I began noticing that there's music all the damn time, most of it annoying. Ep 2 was much the same, except that Lucas seems to be going to Spielberg/"Saving Private Ryan" route of limiting/eliminating the music during combat. Oh, eventually it came blasting in, but not at the beginning. Curious. But my big gripe is with Williams. Sure, sure, you can't always upstage yourself, but listen to the soundtrack to "Empire," especially that amazing crescendo at the end of the closing credits. Wow! Just takes my breath away. "Phantom" just sort of piddles to a conclusion, and so does "Clones." Especially disappointing given the tragic romantic stands of the film's love theme.

Call it morbid curiosity, I'm fascinated with subjects like this:

Technology Review - 10 Technology Disasters

What do a 17th-century Swedish warship, an opulent Chicago theater and a Kansas City hotel "skyway" have in common? All met catastrophic ends--and they have important lessons to teach today's innovators.

Don't people take American government classes any more?

ArabNews: No media interest in a basic matter of democracy

A basic principle of democracy is that every person’s vote should have equal weight. So we might expect some public discourse about the fact that the US Senate is fundamentally undemocratic. But it’s a complete non-issue among politicians and journalists alike.

One of the key roles of news media should be to raise important questions that powerful people in government don’t want to ask -- or answer. However, while thousands of reporters and pundits stay busy with all kinds of stories about politics, they keep detouring around a central tilt of the US legislature’s upper chamber.

It's been a few years, but I recall that the government was set up this way on purpose. The President represents the country, which is why that office is responsible for the conduct of our foreign affairs. The House represents the populace at large, "the common man" as it were. And the Senate...Senator represents their state. Simple. There's nothing "undemocratic" about it, especially given that we don't live in a democracy.

Funny to see the column published on a Saudi news web site, a country where, as OpinionJournal pointed out, all voters are equal, because no one can vote!

Daniel Henninger at OpinionJournal reflects on "[t]he hateful things people say when words aren't allowed to hurt":

Wonder Land: How Our Age Dumbed Down Even Invective

Not more than three university presidents in America would likely disagree with any of that. Yet their campuses are the sources of the crudest political language heard anywhere. Perhaps the adults are responsible for infantilizing speech.

Their speech codes, and how they were enforced, made it clear that opinions about certain "highly charged topics" were verboten. Whole classes of people--women, native Americans, people of color--were immunized against being the subject of critical speech. Whether faculty or student, one had to be fastidious about one's words, or risk termination, public condemnation or expulsion.

Simultaneously, at the very moment that some speech was shut down, another, related political movement announced that "the personal is political" and made words its instrument. In this world, words stretched to support any imaginable argument. This movement insisted that the most quotidian, private corners of life--child rearing, sex, simple conversations--were in fact fodder for hard political debate and codification into rules or law.

Is this why I never liked "The Lord of the Rings"?

Attack of the Clones meets the Lord of the Luddites.. by Chris Mooney. May 16, 2002.

And Tolkien wasn't using this manipulation-of-nature theme merely to advance a plot. A kind of twentieth century William Blake, Tolkien despised and distrusted technology in most, if not all, of its forms. He gave up driving and refused to own a television, or use a washing machine. In a letter, he expressed his disgust with the modern world as follows: "There is only one bright spot ... and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations ... But it won't do any good, if it is not universal." It's no defamation to say that Tolkien was a full-fledged Luddite. And given his foundational influence on sci-fi and fantasy, as Attack of the Clones hits theaters it may be only fitting to bestow upon him a more grandiose title: Lord of the Luddites.

All becomes clear....

Wired (again) on sinking oil tankers:

The New Supertanker Plague

The Erika was neither the first nor the last tanker to succumb unexpectedly to corrosion. Each year from 1995 to 2001, an average of 408 tankers broke apart at sea or barely escaped that fate, according to the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, known as Intertanko. The leading cause was collision, but nearly as many suffered "structural/technical failures" - often a euphemism in industry circles for excessive corrosion. ...

... In December 2000, the Castor, carrying 8.7 million gallons of unleaded gasoline across the Mediterranean, developed cracks in its deck and had to be drained of its cargo in a risky ship-to-ship maneuver.

Preliminary findings in the Castor case rocked the industry. According to the American Bureau of Shipping, the classification society that certified the vessel, the Castor had fallen prey to "hyper-accelerated corrosion" - swiftly dubbed "super-rust" in the trade press. The ABS downgraded its assessment to "excessive corrosion" in its final report, issued this past October. Nonetheless, that document noted that the vessel's steel had disintegrated at rates of up to 0.71 millimeter a year - more than seven times the "nominal" rate expected by the bureau. ...

... Ever since the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989...shipbuilders have focused on constructing tankers that would be impervious to grounding and collision. The solution has been to wrap a second hull around the first; the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 mandates that, by 2015, all tankers operating in the US have double hulls. This innovation has prevented dozens of spills, but it has inadvertently propelled corrosion to unheard-of levels. ...

... Super-rust in aging single-hull vessels can be blamed on an industry in denial. In double hulls, accelerated corrosion is engineered right into the ships themselves. ...

A fascinating tale of technology side effects. In an effort to correct one problem (leaking and vulnerable oil tankers), "solved" by mandating double-hulls, a new problem (super-rust) has been created, leading to who knows what.

Wired talks to Steven Spielberg:

Wired 10.06: Spielberg in the Twilight Zone

Yet there's a counterargument. It goes something like this: A strange thing happened to Steven Spielberg on the way to Minority Report. He became science fiction's premier auteur.

He's my favorite (living) film director and he's making a movie based on a story by one of my favorite authors. This could be heaven, if only Tom Cruise wasn't around.

In the news:

Bush Was Told of Hijacking Dangers (washingtonpost.com)

Until now, the growing congressional scrutiny of possible warning signs before Sept. 11 has focused on the FBI's actions, including the bureau's handling of a memo written in July 2001 by an agent in Phoenix. A senior U.S. official who has reviewed the classified memo said yesterday that the FBI agent had made a "strong connection" between a group of Middle Eastern aviation students he was investigating and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The link was included in the five-page memorandum sent to FBI headquarters two months before the attacks.

The story goes on to note that none of the students the agent refers to were involved in the 9/11 hijackings.

Political sharks smell blood in the water, and I hear the cries of "bring me the head of George W. Bush!" I wonder....

I wonder how many know how much information US law enforcement agencies collect every day. Beyond that, how many realize that the exchange of information is often less than zero. INS may have one bit of info, but that doesn't mean the FBI knows about it, and vice versa. They talk about correcting this, but it somehow never happens. Everyone wants to guard their turf.

It doesn't take a great deal of imagination to see that those involved in carrying out the 9/11 attacks were planning something unprecedented. InstaPundit lists a few reasons why.) Knowing that, what could be done?

Issue a warning? Done. For several months leading up to 9/11 it was known that Bin Laden & Co. were planning some sort of Big Thing involving hijacking aircraft. So warnings were issued. Needless to say, big deal.

Put law enforcement on alert. And then...? I've heard on the radio cries that "airport security could have been increased." Toward what end? Special interest groups, focusing more on political correctness than valid law enforcement issues, have stifled the ability of police (at any level) to use profiling in the prevention of crimes. So you can list all the things to look out for when it comes to potential bad guys who want to swipe an airliner, but if one of those items is "male of Middle Eastern descent," you are prevented from doing a damn thing. Evidence of that? Witness all the cries of "racial profiling" over the increased security actions since 9/11. All of that shouting is coming after it's been demonstrated that the profiles are accurate! Performing these actions before 9/11 would have been politically impossible.

Besides, increasing airport security would have done nothing. The hijackers, until they took over their target aircraft, did not break any law. Oh, sure, they might have fit a profile for potential threat, but no one was allowed to act on those profiles (damn racists, you know).

Today, right now, what happens when security alerts are issued? People make a joke of them. California Governor Gray Davis gets an alert of an unconfirmed, unverified threat to California bridges, alerts the CHP, the California National Guard, the media, puts cops and soldiers on the bridges and...gets ridiculed (including by me, since I thought it was more than a little amusing that he thought all that show of force would stop someone from driving a truck bomb onto the Golden Gate Bridge and going "boom").

All in all, and until more information comes to light, it continues to look as though Bush & Co. knew something was in the works, something involving bin Laden & Friends and hijacking aicraft. Were steps taken? Oh, some were, but there are how many airports in this country? (Can't remember!) At any given moment in time there are some 4,000 aircraft in the air, some 500,000 people. Do you ground them all? And how do you know when to do so?

Last, all of this is currently coming about from reports from "reliable sources," which more and more appears to be leaks from Congress itself. Which means that some members of Congress knew as much as Bush is alleged to have known. What did they do? Damnit, if we're going to get to the bottom of all this, let's do so, and that means everyone.

Hot damn, some people say/write things well:

| KEN . LAYNE . DOT . CON |

The only thing I believe in is Liberty and basic human decency. I don't believe in Jeebus and I don't mind if you do. And I'm not gonna kill you if you want to worship Allah, Yahweh, Buddha or Boba Fett. But I will defend those who believe in Liberty. It's the only goddamned thing that matters. Whether it's East Timor or the Czech Republic or Mexico or Mars, I'll side with Liberty. I could give a fuck if that means Jewish.

You should really read the entire post to get the full flavor, but the entire push for Liberty makes it priceless.

I...I could be wrong, but I don't think Stephanie Zacharek likes this film:

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | In space, no one can hear you groan

The soul-deadening string of clichés that is "Attack of the Clones" must immediately be shot beyond Pluto where it can do no harm.

I already have my tickets for Sunday, so I'll have me own opinion then.

Justice today:

Boy, 13, faces 8 years for spitwad / Walnut Creek 7th-grader's missile injured another student's eye

After an investigation, the Contra Costa County district attorney filed identical charges against each of the Figueroa boys in December: battery causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and mayhem.

Last Tuesday, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Araceli Ramirez found Stephen guilty of misdemeanor battery. Jeffrey was found guilty of battery causing serious bodily injury and mayhem, both felonies.

Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, said the criminal prosecution "is another example of our society moving toward criminalizing kids. I don't know what purpose this serves."

Macallair said the incident "sounds more like a typical schoolyard prank that resulted in an incident in which someone got hurt" as opposed to an intentional act of violence.

Attorneys for the boys said today that they will appeal the convictions pending a June 6 sentencing hearing in Martinez.

"What we have is an unfortunate accident with injury to a child, but what one time had been horseplay has now been, by the D.A., elevated to felony status, just on the basis of the unfortunate outcome of an accidental act" said Pittsburg attorney Marek Reavis, who is representing the older child.

The closing quote from the boys' father is pretty spot on: "Things just went too far. Kids cannot be kids anymore."

Ah, the piety of freedom fighters:

'Greedy monsters' ruled church -- The Washington Times

BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- The Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity and later deported by Israel seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry.

They also guzzled beer, wine and Johnnie Walker scotch that they found in priests' quarters, undeterred by the Islamic ban on drinking alcohol.

The indulgence lasted for about two weeks into the 39-day siege, when the food and drink ran out, according to an account by four Greek Orthodox priests who were trapped inside for the entire ordeal that ended Friday.

Well, at least that explains why they were all so hungry. A former Palestinian I know says it is standard practise in that part of the world to have a good supply of food on hand at all times, because you never know when you'll need it.

Some hysterically accurate cartoons:

Right to DRIVE!

I remember the San Francisco Muni Metro. It was supposed to be the answer to all traffic congestion in downtown SF, all of Market Street from Van Ness to the Bay. Have you see the traffic on Market from Van Ness to the Bay?

So, what happened? Oh, a variety of things, but most of all -- it seems to me -- The City couldn't stick with the original plan. Thus, what was sold to the citizens isn't what they got. What was sold was an underground "metro" system that sat above the BART subway, and was built at the same time. (Both were built via the trench system. That is, they dug up Market Street and went to work, closing the street back up when they were done. It was, to put it mildly, a mess, but my Grandfather -- a civil engineer from Ohio -- BS'd his way into a tour and was happy.)

The design called for sidewalks along Market to be widened to allow improved pedestrian flow. Market was, at the time, six lanes wide, three in either direction, with the center two being shared as rail lines for the existing Muni railway. The plan was that the above ground Muni system, would vanish, at least from Van Ness on down.

(Actually, the K, M, and L lines would go underground on the other side o' the mountains, while the J and N lines would vanish as they approached Market. If you've got a map, the first three go under Twin Peaks and end up in the avenues, Sunset District, etc. The J runs on Church, and the N on Judah. Or at least did; I haven't kept completely up to date and there are new "lines" in operation.)

Anyway, from Van Ness on not only would the Muni railway be underground (the new Metro system), but there would be no surface buses either. Muni would cease to function on Market. Routes that formerly ran on Market would either cease to be, or be shifted one block over to Mission Street (which, at this point, runs parallel to Market). Passengers would be encouraged to transfer from surface buses to the Muni Metro at the Van Ness Station, a large complex just set up for the flow. Either that or further up at Castro Station (featured in "48 Hours," don't you know). Market, from Van Ness on down, would be for passenger cars or delivery trucks. Large cut outs in the brick sidewalks would allow for parking for delivery vehicles; there would be no parking on Market for civilian cars.

Sounded nice. The Metro was built with this in mind. The sidewalks were widened with this in mind. The city changed its mind.

Now Market is only four lanes wide, two in either direction. The sidewalks are huge, brick affairs. The two center lanes are still dominated by surface rail traffic, because while the Metro is now in full swing, The City decided it loved its aboveground rail service, to. Market is now a traffic nightmare that makes any previous tie-ups seem pale by comparison.

Ah, progress, thy name isn't San Francisco, "my City by the Bay...."

Arafat courage and the love of the Palestinian people for Arafat, muhaha!

Arafat cancels visit to Jenin amid fears for his own safety

Flying by helicopter provided by Jordan's King Abdullah (his own Russian-piloted fleet was destroyed by an Israeli rocket attack last year), Mr Arafat went to Bethlehem, then Jenin, visiting the town, but not the rubble fields of the camp.

He knew this meant abandoning a chance to step into the international limelight in a place where atrocities were committed by the Israeli army, and where the United Nations sought -- and failed -- to send a fact-finding committee to discover what went on. At least 54 people were killed in the camp during eight days of fighting, nearly half of them civilians.

Arafat aides said they were worried about heckling. The odds are that their concerns were more serious. Palestinian opposition has been fuelled by popular anger over his decision to allow 13 Palestinian militants from Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity to be exiled, and six to be imprisoned in the West Bank under British and US supervision. Both deals were seen by many Arabs as a sell-out.

Lovely. Nice shots by the writer (Phil Reeves). Arafat has to borrow a helicopter because the Israelis zapped his. And then there's that failed "fact-finding" mission, which was going to investigate the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees...oh, oops! Seems only 54 died, oh, yet UN "fact-finders" were declaring a massacre even before they had arrived in the area.

"...nearly half of them civilians." Lovely phrase. "Nearly" covers a lot of territority. There is also the persistent refusal to recognize that you can't tell a civilian from a soldier when so many "civilians" are hauling ammunition and ordnance around, such as the 10-year-olds who claim they were hustling bombs and such around.

Robert Fisk is frightened, oh my:

Why does John Malkovich want to kill me?

There was always, in the past, a limit to this hatred. Letters would be signed with the writer's address. Or if not, they would be so-ill-written as to be illegible. Not any more. In 26 years in the Middle East, I have never read so many vile and intimidating messages addressed to me. Many now demand my death. And last week, the Hollywood actor John Malkovich did just that, telling the Cambridge Union that he would like to shoot me.

I think he needs to lighten up a bit. After all, Malkovich was responding to the question of who he would like to fight to the death with. If Malkovich's answer is so appalling, the question is even more so. Of course the question was asked with tongue firmly pressed in cheek, so the answer should be remain in context.

Besides, what about all the Hollywood stars who wanted to murder conservatives during the Clinton dynasty? Oh, sorry, forgot; those are correct targets!

This is almost relentlessly depressing:

Gaza's Children Worship Martyrdom (washingtonpost.com)

"We don't have a single child in Gaza who knows what it's like to be a normal child," said Abdul-Rahman Bakr, director of Gaza City's psychiatric hospital.

The drawings in the community center's conference room show battle scenes complete with guns, jets, helicopters and many dead bodies.

"We wanted the children to express themselves through the drawings and this is what we got," said Fadl Abu Hein, a child psychologist. "Everyone can now see what's really worrying our children."

Life in the Gaza Strip leaves children with little chance not to think of violence.

Funerals and rallies with gunmen firing in the air are almost daily events. Walls are covered with graffiti glorifying 'martyrs' killed in attacks on Israelis. Their faces stare from tens of thousands of posters, and mosque preachers exhort worshippers to emulate them.

"The climate in Gaza gives the impression that being a martyr wins respect," said Abu Hein, who, together with other experts, says parents, Palestinian media and mosque preachers are not doing enough to shelter children.

"Parents are too preoccupied with watching the news on television to listen to their own children," said Abu Hein.

A narrow coastal strip wedged between Egypt and Israel, Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated areas. Its economy has been hit hard by the violence, with many thousands losing their sole income because travel restrictions prevent them from getting to jobs in Israel.

First there's all the preaching of violence at the children. They want to blame Israel, but it's clear that local leaders -- secular or otherwise -- bear most of the blame.

Second, there's irony in the sentence, "Parents are too preoccupied with watching the news on television to listen to their own children." Isn't this the standard complaint against parents in the United States? And no matter how horrific things may get, the new standard of poverty apparently includes a television...as well as the necessary electricity.

Third, for all the flaming rhetoric against Israel, these rebels don't go to Egypt for work. No, they travel -- or want to travel -- to the land of their blood enemy and get a job. After all, that's where the money is, and it often seems that's what this all boils down to. Israel is a successful economy surrounded by despotic regimes who, if they can't export oil, don't have much to brag about.

IMRA - Saturday, May 11, 2002 Official Palestinian statement terms Israel search of Church of Nativity for bombs "war crime"

This would be funny if the situation wasn't so serious. Unfortunately, the link to the official Palestinian press release is broken and leads to your typical "page not found" error. Maybe a thorough search of the WAFA website....

This week, Jerry Pournelle writes:

Three Years of the DMCA

You will find the Electronic Freedom Foundation report at http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.pdf. It's depressing. The Digital Millennium Communications Act has been expensive, and most of its effects have been unintended. It didn't accomplish what it said it was intended to do, and it has harmed commerce and the growth of the industry. So what else is new?

Bob Thompson says the purpose of the DMCA was to get us used to prior restraint censorship, and it has done that well: Look at the fear generated by the act.

And every month the movie studios and the music publishers come up with another mad scheme to make copy protection more obtrusive, with heavier criminal penalties for getting around even stupid copy protection, and no concern whatever for matters such as free speech, fair use, or for that matter, the protection of the rights of authors and artists. All the new bills in Congress seem aimed at extending the rights of corporations to Mickey Mouse and similar creations of authors already dead, and none at making the corporations renegotiate often brutally confiscatory contracts that leave the actual creators and their families with little to nothing.

The Constitution allows for the creation of monopolies as a means of encouraging creative activity. I don't see how anyone is given an incentive to do more creating by having a copyright extended long after the artist's death -- particularly when the artist is already dead, and the copyright is held by a corporation. But once again, corporate interests are represented by big law and lobby firms. The public doesn't have such assets.

All this, again, illustrates why I distrust government intervention in the marketplace. It is inevitably destructive to that marketplace, something not recognized by those who keep crying for more and more government regulation, especially that proposed by Disney's Senator. Even Adam Smith knew that, a long time ago.

Troop Believers (washingtonpost.com)

Helping to control this crowd, as a kind of ad hoc security garrison, are 250 or so members of the Fighting 501st, an unofficial worldwide costuming club whose sole membership requirements are this: You must be over 18, and you must own a suit of fully accurate Imperial storm trooper armor -- which can cost anywhere from $400 to $2,000, and is technically violative of Lucasfilm Ltd. copyright. (In this case, the Flanneled One -- a reverent nickname for filmmaker George Lucas -- has been tolerant.)

But the lady asked why.

Why storm troopers? Why the marching? Are these grown-ups with jobs and families? That's going to take some deeper explaining.

When people try to decipher "Star Wars" they wind up speaking gibberish that drifts from religion to Carl Jung to Akira Kurosawa to Boba Fett. Museum exhibits have been done, and they took up space. If you were born at the right time, it's a short distance to connect the dots between "Star Wars" and God....

For film, this is the Year of the Geek Film, a flurry of s.f.&f. (that's science fiction & fantasy) films that has no precendent (at least none that I can remember). The fest kicked off with "Spider-Man" -- which I saw this weekend, enjoyed tremendously, lamented the lack of a better-motivated villain, and believe Tobey Maquire deserves as Oscar nod if for no other reason than understated eloquence, and thank God for Sam Raimi who really understood the material -- anyway, kicked off by "Spider-Man", will segue into "Attack of the Clones," and will continue all the way through Christmast 2002, what with Star Trek X, Harry Potter 2, and "LOTR: The Two Towers." Wow, bliss at the big screen.

For Old Parts, NASA Boldly Goes . . . on eBay

NASA needs parts no one makes anymore.

So to keep the shuttles flying, the space agency has begun trolling the Internet -- including Yahoo and eBay -- to find replacement parts for electronic gear that would strike a home computer user as primative.

This is just depressing, coming from an agency that in its hey day went from Mercury to Apollo, Redstone to Saturn V, in a decade. There is currently nothing even on the drawning board to take the place of the shuttle. Worse, the only suggestion is little more than a shuttle update. No new capabilties, just a retread of the same claims that were made for the current shuttle. Ugh.

Glenn Reynolds noted this guest column from Alan Dershowitz, someone who normally makes my skin crawl. However, this column illustrates that even an enemy can teach you a thing or two:

Chomsky’s Immoral Divestiture Petition

Who is Noam Chomsky and why is he seeking to compel universities to divest from corporations that have ties to Israel? I have known Noam Chomsky for more than thirty years. I have debated him on numerous occasions, and I have written extensively about his zealous anti-Zionism and his flirtations with neo-Nazi revisionism and Holocaust denial. I was not surprised therefore to learn that he is the inspiration behind the foolish and immoral campaign for divestiture.

He then cites specific Chomsky encounters that illustrate Chomsky's true goals in demanding MIT (and other universities) divest themselves of any investments in Israel.

I live in a state of insanity, one that the rest of the world knows as California. I've lived here all my life, first in San Francisco (huzzah!) and now in the Sacramento Valley (ugh). How I came to this sorry state of affairs is mostly a mystery to me, ah well.

California has much to recommend it, but there is always this undercurrent of madness. And I don't understand it. Like Assembly Bill 60. It starts off so well, but just goes straight to hell really, really fast. I understand the part about getting people a drivers license in the event that, for whatever reason, they don't have a social security number. Often these are lawful immigrants, who for one reason or another don't have that SSN. If the bill stopped there, no big deal.

But, no, it keeps grinding on until you realize it's a bill to allow illegal immigrants to get a California state driver's license. This is couched in language such as, "[t]he bill would require the department to issue a driver's license or identification card having a duration of 3 years to an applicant who does not have a social security number or is in the process of obtaining lawful immigration status from the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service."

This, of course, is the source of my confusion. How are they here if they don't have a "lawful immigration status"? Well, they're merely undocumented, what used to be known in a straight-forward and simple way as "illegal." And if they're illegal, what legal right do they have to ask for a driver's license?

For crying out loud, this is madness (see, a state of insanity!). They slip into the country illegally and we're now supposed to grant them a license to drive. What, as a reward, as some sort of perverse attaboy?!? "Hey, good sneak. Nicely done. Here ya go, drive like the wind!"

Wouldn't this put DMV into a rather, er, delicate position? I mean, here's a state employee having someone walk up to them and proclaim, "I am in this country illegally. Celebrate my presense by granting me the boon of a legal license of driving!" Wouldn't that DMV employee have some obligation to tell INS, "Hey, found one!" and pass on the info, name, address, etc., all in a neat bundle. If they didn't, would that make them accomplices after the fact? It's a Federal crime, they know it, they're aiding and abetting, or some such. Help, where are the lawyers?

I do not understand the argument, and I'm usually very good at seeing both sides of an issue. Christ, I was trained to talk calmly and, uh, rationally to people who had a gun to their head and wanted to pull the trigger. Now that is an exercise in seeing both sides of an argument. "Well, sure, I can see how you might want to reconstitute most of your brains into a vaporous cloud, but...."

This argument I do not understand. Legal immigrants go through rings of fire, an obstacle course of bureaucratic indifference. So now a growing group slips in illegally and demands the same rewards. Hell, we even have a president wanting to grant millions of them immunity, instant citizenship. Poof, you are one! All those here legally now can feel a great big slap across their face. "Thank you for your efforts, you big, stupid law-abiding dope. We love you, you make it all possible."

I don't want to hear the line, "We are all descendants of immigrants." Ugh, stupid line and completely irrelevant. Or, more accurately, it proves that you can come here legally, work your way through the system, and get out into the great, wild, wooly, free enterprise system of the U.S. of A. Granting equal status to illegals, or any status other than deportation, makes a mockery of all the legals already here, or on their way.

Yet another article on blogging, this one by Scott Rosenberg, who wastes no time making this point:

This debate is stupidly reductive -- an inevitable byproduct of (I'll don my blogger-sympathizer hat here) the traditional media's insistent habit of framing all change in terms of a "who wins and who loses?" calculus. The rise of blogs does not equal the death of professional journalism. The media world is not a zero-sum game. Increasingly, in fact, the Internet is turning it into a symbiotic ecosystem -- in which the different parts feed off one another and the whole thing grows.

Ian Buruma, writing on the Guardian on-line:

Why bashing the US is chic...in America

... However, in the populist hurly-burly of American cultural and political life, the book-loving intellectual, or those who aspire to that, will feel a little marginalised, a little beside the point. This might afford enough reason for resentment. But this resentment can also become a self-regarding mark of superior status, of a kind of upper class, if you like. Money, as everyone knows, is vulgar. Dissent is smart. It lifts you above the vulgar masses who like Jerry Springer and vote for George Bush. Opinion, in a highly commercialised society, becomes a sign of class. It is chic to disapprove of America, not only of its rulers or those who elect them, but of the idea of America itself. What Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, and Tariq Ali have in common, then, is snobbery apart from anything else.

Maybe I'm a little confused, but today's New York Times website has a series of stories about the end of the siege at the Church of the Nativity. One link reads:

Church Undamaged After 38-Day Standoff

Click on the link, however, and you get a page titled:

Stench Fills Jesus' Birthplace After Siege

And a story that begins:

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - The overwhelming stench of urine was the first thing to hit visitors who entered the shrine in Bethlehem revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

The standoff between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army at the Church of the Nativity, which came to an end on Friday after nearly 40 days and nights of high drama, had left one of Christianity's holiest places in a shocking mess.

Garbage bags, lemon peels, gas canisters, petrol cans and electric hotplates were scattered throughout the church off Manger Square. A Reuters correspondent saw altars, the sacred focus of Christian worship, covered with food scraps.

"It's not a church any more, it's a place filled with beds and trash," said Sandy Shahin, a local teen-ager who rushed into the church minutes after the end of the siege Friday.

"The smell is too bad. The floor is too bad. I'm filled with fear," Shahin, a Roman Catholic, said between sobs.

Keep reading, and it gets "better":

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations share the fourth-century shrine, where areas of worship appeared to have escaped major damage in the standoff that included exchanges of gunfire between Israeli troops and the gunmen.

But the second floor of the Franciscan order's parish building in the complex looked like a war zone. Walls were pockmarked by bullet holes and scarred by smoke stains.

"I couldn't imagine something like this,'' said Manal Deik, a local banker, standing next to a bullet-riddled church wall which was also marked with graffiti scrawled in Arabic.

"We will repair it because the damage is not outside, it's inside and we can do something about that,'' said the 25-year-old Catholic.

Greek Orthodox priest Father Kariton, standing in the basilica near a pile of discarded gas masks, added: "The most important things are okay, but the museum is a little damaged.''

BICKERING

Soon after the militants left, priests from the often bickering denominations argued over whether to allow Israeli army bomb disposal experts in to make sure no explosives were left behind. The clergymen decided in favor of a sweep.

"We have found 40 explosive devices and five rifles hidden there and the IDF is dismantling them now,'' an army spokeswoman said.

All this is how the NY Times defines "undamaged." Amazing.

Continuing the movie theme, Jonathan V. Last asks, "Where have all the good bay guys gone?"

OpinionJournal - Taste: Pop Goes the Evil

... These movies all wear the cloak of fantasy, and they show us things that can exist only in the imagination, but they are rooted in basic moral precepts. Take away that foundation by sketching only an approximation of what evil should look like and you cut the heart out of the story. It's the difference between "X-Men" and "Spider-Man," between "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars."

Spot on! Movies need better bad guys ("good bad guys"). Half the enjoyment of "Die Hard" comes from watching Alan Rickman at work!

Tim Blair's Mr. Know-It-All column at FoxNews.com:

Mr. Know-It-All Answers Your Burning Questions

Dear Mr Know-It-All,

Should we call them suicide bombers or homicide bombers or what?

Yours,
Undecided in Utah

Dear Undecided,

We shouldn't dehumanize these people by describing them with broad terms. We should make every effort to refer to each individual by his or her actual name. So, instead of saying "a suicide bomber killed himself and nine Israelis," which is impersonal and vague, try this: "A murderous deluded Palestinian idiot named Mohammed al-Chouhani, who deserves to die 1,000 times over for his act of brutal cowardice, killed himself and nine innocent Israelis."

See? Much better.

Yes, much!

Interesting article:

Economist.com | Urbanisation

Most of these megacities are in developing countries that are struggling to cope with both the speed and the scale of human migration. Estimates of the future spread of urbanisation are based on the observation that in Europe, and in North and South America, the urban share of the total population has stabilised at 75-85%. If the rest of the world follows this path it is expected that in the next decade an extra 100m people will join the cities of Africa, and 340m the cities of Asia: the equivalent of a new Bangkok every two months. By 2030 nearly two-thirds of the world's population will be urban.

In the long run, that is good news. If countries now industrialising follow the pattern of those that have already done so, their city-dwellers will be both more prosperous and healthier. Man is a gregarious species, and the words “urbane” and “civilised” both derive from the advantages of living in large settlements.

Of course, popular myth ignores history, believing that we were better off in the forest, growing our own crops, etc. Bummer for myth.

These same forces seem at work against Norman Borlaug, an excellent article about whom may be found as Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity. The results of his work in high-yield farming have been phenomenal, and have directly resulted in putting the lie to many of the claims of Paul Ehrlich, who had written in "The Population Bomb" (1968) that India would never be able to feed itself.