May 17, 2003
No comments here yet.
I don't have any comment facility here yet, mostly since Blogger doesn't have them. After a bit I'll move to Moveable Type or some other program that has all of the bells and whistles. In the meantime, if you want to comment on something, please go to the Galileo Community site, where there are discussion forums for your enjoyment. No one's been there yet, but that just means you could be the first. I think it's probably better to put comments there anyway, since discussions attached to each post usually get lost in the shuffle of time.
If you have nothing to do, you can do it here.
The dullest blog in the world. There's absolutely nothing there, but that doesn't stop hundreds of people from commenting on it. Here's a sample entry.
Earlier on I heard something that I wanted to remember. I found a pen and wrote it down on a piece of paper. If I need to be reminded of the information at any point I will find the piece of paper and read it.
116 comments on this so far. I wonder how many comments I'd get if I simply wrote: "Get a life!" It's part of the wiblog.com community of "wibsites" located somewhere in the UK, most of which seem to be equally silly.
Journalists among worst looters in Iraq.
Counterpunch article. Walter Sommerfeld, a Professor of Oriental Philology, and one of the first German scientists to visit Iraq since the war, describes the looting and its aftereffects. Sadly he reports that journalists were among the worst looters.
Stolen antiquities were particularly sought-after by journalists, so that armed gangs specialized in robbing them along the 500-kilometre long highway from Baghdad to the Jordanian border. One of those robbed reported that after he was robbed of his car, the first thing the bandits wanted to know was: "Where are the antiquities?" In one journalist's car, twelve boxes of antiquities were turned up.
He also reports on the devastating effects on the universities.
The 15 universities of Iraq have been totally looted and burned. Only the University of Baghdad in Djadaria remained untouched. There, Americans had made their headquarters. Of the infrastructure of the Mustansanja University, along with that of Bologna the oldest in the world, nothing has been left -- even fixed installations were dismantled -- including the electrical wall-sockets, and the campus burned down. On the campus of the Arts Faculty of the University of Baghdad in Wazinja almost everything has been destroyed, also its Department of Archaeology, which as extension of the Iraqi Museum delineates the sources of the more than 5'000 year-old period of high culture. The fires have caused several buildings to collapse. Of the Library of the Germanistic Section, which contained over 15'000 volumes, only solidified slagheaps of ash remain.
This is horrible of course, and academics throughout the world will decry such waste. But it seems to me that the folks at the universities who have been hiding their head in the sand for the last few decades bear as much responsibility for these wars as anyone. Virtually every one running things was trained there. That's where they learned their values and practices. Here's a an article I stumbled on a few days ago, discussing the roots of fascism, wherein a German professor of the 1930s and 40s describes how it happened there.
Sharing your site with RSS.
Jason Cook offers up a quick guide to using RSS to publish your site.
Have you ever noticed those inviting orange buttons on some Web pages, or spotted the odd link pitching an "RSS feed"? If you've ever clicked one out of curiosity, and then scratched your head at the unformatted gobbledygook in your web browser, you've seen an RSS file.
What is it really for, anyway? Two things: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an easy way for sites to share headlines and stories so that other sites can integrate them into their pages. Additionally, some savvy surfers use special RSS aggregators Ð kind of like mini-browsers Ð to speedily flip through the latest news and links from dozens of sites.
In other words, Web builders use RSS to dish out and bring in fresh news and content on their websites, just like the big portals. And Web surfers can use RSS applications to collect custom-tailored selections of their favorite websites to be read at their leisure.
I don't have RSS working on this blog yet. And frankly, don't have much interest in it. I suppose I will soon, just so any prospective clients can see I know how to do it, but for some reason it doesn't excite me. Mostly it just seems to me to be the same stories linked over and over, or the same group of people linking to themselves. But maybe I'm missing something. It IS interesting technology, that's for sure. But I suspect most of these people just like the technology for technology's sake, not because it is particularly useful.
Looking for something to read?
Guardian article. Readers in the UK have selected their all-time favorite 100 books. It's an interesting list. I've read most of them, but there are still quite a few to go. One of these days I'm going to have to read the Harry Potter books, all of which made the list. A sci-fi author named Terry Pratchett I've never heard of matched Dickens with five books. Guess I'll have to check him out as well.
For more on books, see the Guardian Unlimited Book section.
Migrant workers sent home $80 billion last year.
Guardian article. Money sent home by migrant workers now greatly exceeds foreign aid programs.
There is a new and unexpected force behind the global movement of money. Restaurant workers, taxi drivers and au pairs are increasingly stepping in where bankers and bureaucrats refuse to tread.
World Bank figures show that last year, for the first time, more money flowed from relatively poor migrant workers in rich countries than the combined total of government aid, private bank lending and IMF/World Bank aid and assistance.
The total value of these remittances to developing countries reached $80 billion, double the aid provided by rich nations. Sending money home dwarves the $16bn of net government and bank lending.
Migrant workers sending money home is not new. What is new is the scale and importance to developing countries.Today hundreds of millions of poorly paid people are propping up the finances of developing countries.
'In 1995, remittances amounted to only one-third of debt flows. Last year they completely dwarfed them,' said Philip Suttle, author of the World Bank's Global Development Finance report.
May 16, 2003
Howard Dean announces his health plan.
Doctor Dean released his health care proposals. They make sense, as you may expect coming from a doctor, and would cover nearly all Americans at a reasonable cost.
Extending Medicaid to every child and young adult under 25, up to three times the poverty level. It will also require employer health plans to extend coverage to dependents up to age 25.
Expanding coverage to working families who earn up to 185% of the federal poverty level.
Allowing those with incomes above that level, as well as small businesses, to buy into a health plan similar to the plan for government employees, while providing tax credits to keep insurance affordable.
Limiting tax deductions and government contracts for large companies which do not extend health benefits to their employees.
Read the complete speech on his Dean for America web site. He even has an official blog, the Howard Dean 2004 Call To Action.
Texan Democrats survive Denny's.
"Runaway Texas Democrats returned to a heroes' welcome..." says the NY Times, emerging victorious in their attempts to keep the Republicans from stealing Texas, and apparently even successfully surviving the perils of Oklahoma.
``We've weathered a few things. We've weathered some troopers; we've weathered a tornado, and we weathered Denny's,'' said Democrat Jim Dunnum, who emerged as the group's ringleader. ``No matter what happens, democracy won in this event.''
The revolt killed a divisive congressional redistricting bill that would have created more Republican seats.
Yes, democracy wins. So did the art of political sarcasm, I think. I don't believe the Republicans' effrontery and arrogance here, even by Texan standards.
Eclipse was beautiful.
Saw the total lunar eclipse last night on a very clear Santa Barbara night. Never seen one so perfectly, quite a sight.
All about books.
Craig Jensen of Craig's Booknotes fame, has a new site BookLab II, all about the crafts of printing and bookbinding and associated arts. "Visions and innovations for the traditional book." Some beautiful illustrations of early books and manuscripts there. Tons of book links.
New Pages is another great book related site I like a lot, especially the weblog of book related news.
But both of these guys complain a lot about the state of the book publishing industry, about the perils facing small book stores and printers and poets. But I think the book industry is doing just great, and point to sites like these as examples of all the great stuff that's happening. I hope they don't mind. :)
May 15, 2003
Alas, a blog.
Cartoonist B. Deutsch, creator of Ampersand has a marvelous blog to go along with the great art. What I wouldn't give to be able to draw this well.
Lots of blogs at Blogcount.
Blogcount is a site that attempts to count and otherwise keep track of the size of the blogosphere. I'm not much interested in the count per se, but they also break them down by languages, so there are lots of links to blogs from all around the world.
Via and hosted by Phil Wolff's always interesting dijest.com community.
New version of Blogger.
A new version of Blogger is out, tho I gather it's still being tested and refined. It's called "Dano". More info here. Lots of new features and they fixed archiving. Great.
Total lunar eclipse tonight.
There will be a very nice eclipse tonight. It should be visible from throughout the US. Here's a page from Nasa full of information, including links to various web cams showing it, background info, plus charts of the eclipses from now to 2007.
The last total lunar eclipse visible from all of the United States occurred on Jan. 20, 2000. The last total lunar eclipse occurred on Jan. 09, 2001 and was visible from Europe, Africa and Asia. North Americans won't have another opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse until Nov. 8-9, 2003.
... Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch. You don't need any kind of protective filters. It isn't even necessary to use a telescope. You can watch the lunar eclipse with nothing more than your own two eyes. If you have a pair of binoculars, they will help magnify the view and will make the red coloration brighter and easier to see. A standard pair of 7x35 or 7x50 binoculars work fine.
Even if you read this after the date there should be pictures available. Also see space.com, always an interesting stop. And if you don't like lunar eclipses, there will be a solar eclipse on May 31. Not visible from the US, unfortunately. Visit the 2003 Annular Solar Eclipse Page for more info.
US predicts 'long fight' in Iraq.
LA Times article (registration req'd). Resistance in Iraq is strong and well-armed, and apparently having an effect.
BAGHDAD Ð From attacking American soldiers to sabotaging Iraq's power grid, well-armed remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime are waging a campaign that is stalling the United States' reconstruction efforts and undermining popular support for its presence in Iraq, senior U.S. civilian and military officials here say.
"There are still regime elements out there that are actively, aggressively seeking to impede, discredit or disrupt coalition operations," Army Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said Wednesday. "They destroy infrastructure repairs made by the coalition and the Iraqis."
So effective is the campaign that McKiernan signaled that it may prolong the U.S. military presence here. "They are committed to a long fight that will complicate the mission of the coalition," he said. "We will stay until a secure environment is achieved."
The focus of the resistance seems to be on the electricity grid. But part of the problem also seems to be unrealistic expectations of the US.
"We have always considered the United States a superpower capable of anything and we expected them to get the power back on right away," Aneeba Jabar, director of a local orphanage, said. "But it's been more than a month now, and still we're in darkness most of the night."
Sigh. No, America is not a "superpower" and it is definitely not "capable of anything." These constant reports that it is are doing a lot of damage. More and more I get the impression people around the world are just sitting around waiting for the US to fix everything. So many people refer to the US as the "engine of world growth", and still seem to making their economic plans based on the assumption that US "recovery" is imminent, and that it will solve all of their problems. Not going to happen. This is what is known as a "co-dependent" relationship. And it's no healthier between nations than it is between people.
EU makes polluters responsible for clean-up costs.
Guardian article. The EU set forth new rules requiring polluters to pay the full costs of any accidents, including the long term costs of restoring habitat and such. Naturally the corporations are up in arms, and claiming this will drive them out of business.
Corporate Britain struggled to contain its fury yesterday after MEPs voted in favour of tough legislation that will make firms wholly liable for any environmental damage they cause.
The government estimates that the new law - which could come into effect in the UK as early as 2005 - could cost British business an extra £1.8bn each year.
Brushing aside such concerns, the European parliament yesterday gave its blessing to the EU directive and by a narrow margin voted through a series of amendments that will make it even stricter.
"Corporate Britain struggled to contain its fury." What a strange way to phrase it. One of the largest and fastest growing industries in the UK is tourism. I really doubt that the executives in this industry are "furious" at attempts to protect their business. And of course, the bias here is obvious. This could just as easily be written, "British taxpayers breathed relief at knowing that as much as £1.8bn a year in clean-up costs they have been burdened with will now be borne by the businesses responsible."
You'd almost get the impression that the UK isn't also part of the EU, that this is being forced on them by an outside power, without any British input or say-so. But there are plenty of British who support this.
They also don't seem to understand the purpose of such laws. It's not to "punish" the companies, or even to fund any necessary clean-up. It's to make it clear that it will be cheaper in the long run to prevent such accidents from happening. As far as it costing anything at all, the opposite is more likely. As they themselves point out environmental clean-up costs routinely run in the billions. So preventing them SAVES money and HELPS the economy. Not the reverse.
May 14, 2003
Can't decide whether or not.
Can't decide whether or not to always use a heading for entries. Most of the time it looks better, but a lot of the time it's not really necessary. I want to be free to make quick notes and comments on little things. Let's see how this one looks without a heading.
French Minitel celebrates 20th birthday.
BBC article. Minitel is a "proto-internet" started by the French telephone company as a way of saving money on phone books. It has since become adapted for chats, bill payments and much more. Although changed by the web, it is still going strong.
Minitel has been making a living charging small amounts of money for small amounts of data - a telephone number found, an amorous message sent - since the 1980s, and now the rest of Europe is starting to follow suit.
Late last year, BT in the UK and Ireland launched Click&Buy, a system that allows users to pay for content in little chunks, rather than signing up for all-you-can-eat deals.
Firstgate, the German company that created Click&Buy, has been running a similar system in Germany since 2000, and has signed up about 1,000 firms to provide content piecemeal.
By shifting the cost of these tiny transactions - 50 cents for a newspaper article, 2 euros for a smutty picture - onto phone bills rather than the credit cards so many Europeans mistrust, Minitel may have the makings of a killer application.
That is exactly what ebooks need.
New York Times finally admits it has no idea where the dollar's heading.
An article on the rapidly declining dollar acknowledges that all of the previous predictions have been quite inadequate, with the Euro already exceeding levels it was not supposed to reach until the end of 2004.
How fow far will the dollar fall and the euro rise? A lot further than many forecasters thought just a few months ago, or even a few weeks ago.
The dollar's 8.7 percent plunge against the euro since March 21 has already made existing predictions for 12 months from now obsolete. Some forecasts see the possibility of the dollar's falling close to levels not seen since the mid-1990's, when the American currency dropped to record lows against European currencies like the German mark that at the time were strong.
Just a month ago, the average of the predictions gathered by Consensus Economics, a research firm in London, was that the euro would rise to a value of $1.0950 against the dollar by April 2004. But the euro moved above $1.10 before the end of April and was trading around $1.15 today. Even the highest euro forecast in that April survey Ð $1.23 Ð seems too low now.
"I'm not sure anything can stop the dollar fall for the foreseeable future," said David Gilmore, a partner at Foreign Exchange Analytics in Essex, Conn. "I just don't see foreign investors stepping up to allocate growing amounts to the United States, so the dollar has to give."
This is rather surprising. The corporate economists NEVER admit that they simply don't know what's going to happen. At least I can't recall them doing so.
But I think they're still way too optimistic. Nowhere in this article do they acknowledge any resentment towards American arrogance and warring, or the fact that the major reason people are now reluctant to invest in America is because of the complete failure of the attempts to clean up the still very corrupt financial industry. Basically they're still saying that everything is A-OK, the war is over, there will be some minor adjustments but nothing major, and soon America will be a superpower again.
I think there's a possibility that the Euro will be worth double the dollar by the end of the year, and maybe even three times it by the end of 2004. Probably not, but the conditions for this to happen certainly do exist. I've lost my faith in America, at least in corporate economics, and it seems to me that most of the people in the world also have.
I'll be writing more on this I hope. I'm really interested in the Euro, the EU, and the other changes taking place in our world.
"They went that-away".
Guardian article. In what is turning into an incredible comedy of errors, Tom Craddick, the Republican speaker of the Texan House of Representatives, has ordered state troopers to arrest any Democratic legislators it can find, and bring them by force back to Austin, the state capital.
All of the Democrats have disappeared in order to prevent the Republicans from ramming through a partisan redistricting bill, in that way keeping a quorum from being formed. But there is a law that allows them to be arrested in order to force a quorum. So most of them have left the state, where the Texan police have no jurisdiction. Most of them are apparently at a Holiday Inn in Arkansas. But no one's quite sure.
Suspecting that some of the disappearing Democrats could be in New Mexico, the Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, made an urgent request to authorities there to investigate whether arrest warrants issued in Texas could apply there.
But the neighbouring states do not traditionally regard each other with the greatest of esteem.
New Mexico's attorney-general, Patricia Madrid, wrote in her reply that she did not think the warrants could be executed. She said: "I have put out an all-points bulletin for law enforcement to be on the lookout for politicians in favour of health care for the needy and against tax cuts for the wealthy."
This is hysterical, especially coming from a state attorney-general. Who says lawyers don't have a sense of humor?
May 13, 2003
OK, I'm back.
Well it took a while, but I think I'm going to give this blogging thing another shot. Didn't hardly touch a computer all winter, and since then haven't been able to get myself going again. Reluctance to open myself up I guess.
But going to try again. Lots of things in the world I want to comment on. Should be fun. Have moved back to Santa Barbara, where I lived most of the seventies and eighties, and early nineties, and am now settled in a wonderful new house and able to focus a bit more.
Hard to know where to begin. There are so many things happening in the world these days. Maybe I'll start with a list of some topics I want to write on: devolution, deflation, the Euro, America, web design, the problem with ebooks, literary agency, the left, the right, and I guess, the so-called silent majority as well. Well that should be enough to start.
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CATEGORIES
LINKS / BLOGROLL
THE BLOGOSPHERE
Group blogs and centers
Wood s Lot. Maybe the most consistently interesting weblog out there. Superb selections on all sorts of topics, especially art and literature. Tons of links too.
Blog Sisters, a group blog, with a-z links to individuals. More by the ladies at Blogs by Women.
Good community blogs at Boing Boing, Metafilter and Kuro5hin.
The Wibsite, wiblog.com. British bloggers.
Fairvue Central hosts the Bloggies, awards for best weblogs in different categories from all over the world. See the nominees for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 (in progress).
Iraqi blogs
Today in Iraq.
A Family in Baghdad.
Baghdad Burning.
Healing Iraq.
Salam Pax.
G in Baghdad.
Ishtar talking.
The Mesopotamian.
Iraq at a glance.
Hammorabi.
Nabil's blog.
Baghdadee.
Fayrouz.
Iraq the model.
Iraq and Iraqis.
Road of a nation.
Ihath - Losing myself.
Sun of Iraq.
Back to Iraq.
Individual blogs
Robert Hunter's journal.
Follow Me Here.
Caterina.net.
Avram's journal.
Rebecca's Pocket.
Alas, a Blog.
Weblog Wannabe.
The Rittenhouse Review.
Margaret Cho Blog.
The Oregon Blog.
Angry Bear.
Brad DeLong.
Dohiyi Mir.
Eschaton.
Hullabaloo.
Nathan Newman.
Orcinus.
Steve Gilliard's News Blog.
Tapped.
Tbogg.
Blogging communities
Lists of bloggers in these areas.
Austin, Texas.
Beltway Bloggers, Washington, DC.
Boston, Massachusetts.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Chicago, Illinois.
Dallas Ft. Worth, Texas.
London, United Kingdom.
New York, New York.
San Diego, California.
Seattle, Washington.
St. Louis, Missouri.
Washington, DC.
GENERAL LINKS, NOT BLOGS
News, magazines, reference
The sites where I do my usual news browsing, and get most of my articles and links.
Common Dreams.
Refdesk, info on absolutely everything. A comprehensive newspaper page, listed by US states and countries, and an encyclopedia.
BBC News, BBCi Home, BBC Radio, categories, history topics.
The World News Network, wn.com, gathers news sites from all over the world, country by country.
Wikipedia, online encyclopedia.
The Asian Times.
The Scotsman.
The Moscow Times. Russian perspectives and news. The Russia Post is a World News site with links to other Russian sites.
The Black Commentator.
Aljazeera Net in English.
Outlook India.
GENERAL INTEREST
History, literature, philosophy and other subjects, mostly related to the works in the Galileo Library.
Online Clarity. An I Ching community. Newsletter, readings, etc.
Sacred Books of the East. A 19th century project of eastern literature.
Bartleby.com. Great books online.
Bibliomania. Free online literature and study guides. Lots of classics and reading resources.
THE ARTS
Vincent van Gogh Gallery. Complete paintings and writings, and a nice arts links page. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Bob Dylan, live performances.
Grateful Dead, GD Radio.
David Byrne, radio station.
New Pages. Book and reading related center, lots of alternative publishing links and weblog.
Reading Rat. Reading center with lots of links.
Avid reader web ring.
The Louvre. Other Parisian museums.
The Web Museum, index of artists. Extremely high quality images.
August Rodin web org.
Mark Harden's Artchive.
Emile Kren's Web Gallery of Art.
Artcyclopedia. A fine art search engine. Historical and current, with a nice museum list.
Plagiarist.com poetry archive. Classic and modern plus news, articles, forums, etc. View a random poem.
Rotten Tomatoes. Film center, with collected reviews, ratings and forums.
Aint It Cool News. Movie reviews and previews from a fan's perspective.
Roger Ebert's film reviews.
Scott McCloud. The latest in the world of cartoonists.
YouTube. Video center.
MILD EROTICA
Domai.com. Eolake Stobblehouse's extraordinary, and extremely tasteful, paean to pretty girls, updated daily. Nudity yes, sex definitely not. Nice general purpose links too.
Simple nudes. Lots of links.
Vintage nudes. Pin-ups and other classics.
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