June 21, 2003
The Dead begin their summer tour.
The Grateful Dead, renamed and rejuvenated as The Dead, hit the road yet once again, starting at Bonnaroo in Tennessee. And Mickey Hart is keeping an online journal of it all. More info on the tour here.
Let the games begin ... we are ready in body and spirit for our excellent summer adventure.
Still no news about the west coast leg, but they keep adding shows and such, so I guess it's a work in progress.
The case for public patents in drugs and biological discoveries.
Writing in The Nation, Dennis Kucinich makes the case for protecting public patents, at least for pharmaceutical research and development.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that it wants an exclusive patent on the SARS virus to guarantee the discovery remains in the public domain. That's the right thing to do. In fact, any eventual vaccine or cure for SARS should also remain in the public domain so access to affordable treatment is possible in the event of a public health emergency. If the patent were held in private hands, it could prevent cooperative efforts among scientists across the globe and complicate efforts to make treatments or vaccines available to the public at large.
Despite, or maybe because of these facts, several laboratories have already filed US patent applications for SARS virus genes, and CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said that more than thirty biomedical companies have requested SARS viral samples for their efforts to develop a treatment, vaccine or test. The speed of the patent race is impressive, but this race for profits isn't good for public health.
What's the danger if private companies hold the patent? Research is stifled and products are overpriced. Our nation's experience with prescription drugs should teach us a lesson. We are the only country that grants monopoly rights in the form of patents without asking for anything in return, and as a result, American citizens pay twice as much for the exact same medications as their counterparts across the border. Now faced with global public-health threats like SARS, we must stop foolishly pandering to the pharmaceutical industry and demand balance.
I have to strongly disagree with his proposed solution though. I'm not willing to depend on the government to solve life-threatening problems. Centralizing it would allow a single individual to block or control research in a certain area.
I will soon be introducing legislation that would create a new network of government labs for the research, development and manufacture of pharmaceutical products and biologics. The labs would be responsible for developing new cures and bringing them to the American people in a timely and affordable manner, something that the pharmaceutical industry has glaringly failed to do. Under the leadership of the National Institutes of Health, these government labs would receive direction on public health priorities. Labs would both perform the R&D for new therapies and cures, and form cooperative agreements with educational, research and private institutions.
... Finally, this proposal will improve the quality of R&D by using an "open source" system that makes data and findings publicly available, instead of held secret as proprietary data. This will allow us to tap the collective genius of the world community of scientists. Open source is how the Linux computer operating system has become a competitive force against Microsoft's Windows. Anyone can download Linux without restriction, and many people catch bugs and submit improvements for the common goal of having the best system for operating our computers.
The idea of applying "open source" ideas to drug research is fascinating. But Linux was developed by private individuals, and if he's going to use that as an example, I have to point out that the government wasn't responsible at all. In fact, the government strongly backed Microsoft's monopoly, in effect fighting open source
If computers crash people don't die. Not the same with drugs.
Iowa allows you to look up all state employees' salaries.
Wandering around the Des Moines Register after getting a link there, and found they have a page where you can look up any state employees' salary. What an idea. Accountability in local government.
Also who's getting what medicaid payments, etc. We could use this on a national level. I suppose it wouldn't hurt in California either. There are some awfully high-paid state employees here.
I love wandering around local papers on the web. They even have a web extras page, full of the latest links. Check out the page about endangered birds, including recordings of bird songs you can listen to. And the one on farm subsidies.
Emerson: Self-reliance.
Halley has included Ralph Waldo Emerson's entire essay on Self-Reliance on her blog. It's a classic, tho pretty long for a blog entry. I'm glad to see her do this though, since I'm quite tempted to start including entire essays and such. God bless the public domain.
Dr. Howard Dean's electability.
Via Blog for America. David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register writes on Howard's Dean growing popularity in Iowa, and more important on his electability.
A Dean win? An upset of front-runners Richard Gephardt and John Kerry? It could happen. Early polling in Iowa shows Dean in third place and closing in on those leading rivals. No other candidate shows his kind of forward motion. Polls show Dean has come farther in Iowa than any of his rivals.
... Several ingredients are going into Dr. Dean's Iowa elixir:
He is presidential. He has passed a subtle but very real test caucus-goers apply to presidential candidates who show up here. It's a private gut check that has nothing to do with positions on issues and everything do to with stature, decisiveness, charisma and gravitas: Do I see this person as someone of presidential caliber? Historically, Americans like governors in the White House because they pass such tests of executive leadership. Of our last five presidents, four served as governor.
I especially have to agree with what he says about him being "presidential." That's my impression as well, corroborated by the statements he's making, which seem more focused on what would be best for America than the other candidates, and less on pursuing a particular agenda or ideology.
At least he's out there campaigning hard, and early. That's what it takes. But why do they call Gepardt and Kerry front-runners this early? Have they won any actual elections, or even any local quorums? No, it's just polls that basically, at this point, just reflect name recognition.
There aren't any actual facts that would lead one to think they're winning, just the desire of the national media to have someone from within the beltway win. Or maybe rather, the assumption that someone from within the beltway will win, even though four of the last five presidents had never held any federal office.
Blogging is good for your vocabulary.
I was looking through the referrer logs, and the phrases people used that brought them here, and it occurred to me that one way to drive traffic here is to use as many different words as possible. Finally, a chance to use all of those big words I know. The more different terms you use, the more likely you'll have one people are searching for.
And, moreover, you'll draw the folks who use the same words you do. So simply by typing the words whimsical and effervescent and delicious, I end up drawing the attention of people who are whimsical, effervescent and delicious. (Nobody who wasn't themselves rather whimsical would search for the word whimsical, right?) What an idea.
Ascot inspires sarcasm among Brits.
It's time for the traditional British nonsense of the races at Ascot, and other summertime nonsensicals of the so-called better classes, and Marina Hyde of the Guardian just wants to blow them all away. Such language, and from a lady too.
As the days reach their longest and the blossom scent its headiest, that perennial summer dilemma surfaces once more. If you could carry out a drive-by shooting and get away with it, would you take out Henman Hill or the drinks paddock at Royal Ascot?
People often say violence isn't the answer, but it only takes one look at the denizens of both these grassy corners of England to realise that here, unquestionably, it is. As Ascot draws to a close this evening, the paddock will resound with skirmishes among those just unable to accept that it's over. This is as baffling as the shock which greets the annual discovery by some hack that there are traces of cocaine in the racecourse lavatories. Frankly, given the urgent need for escapism from this Boschian hell, it's a shock there isn't a higher incidence of PCP coating the cisterns of the sponsored portaloos.
Maybe she doesn't understand that it's the absurdity of it all that is the whole point. It's not enough for the rich to simply waste the hard-earned wages of the poor. They have to do so in the most ridiculous and insane manner possible, just to make sure that everyone appreciates what arrogant wastrels they are. The twist of the knife as it stabs you in the wallet, if you will. The defining characteristic of the British nobility.
Something tells me it's a good thing that people can't blow each other away just for being silly. Now, if they believe in a silly god, that's an entirely different matter. Can't allow silliness in heaven, only here on earth.
Goodbye to China.
And John Gittings, recently returned from 25 years of covering China for the Guardian, reports that rapid changes there are about to shatter our crude cold war cliches.
A quarter of a century after Mao Zedong died (and since I began to report regularly from China) the country is still in a process of uneven transition where the reality is often not what it seems. Trying to understand this is made harder by the wooden propaganda in which the Communist party is always "great, glorious and correct". It is equally complicated by the crude stereotypes - often dating back to the cold war - that still mould many western perceptions of China.
... Many Chinese who are critical of their own government still find western coverage unbalanced. "I object strongly to the persecution of the Falun Gong and other human rights abuses," says a graduate from an MBA programme in the US, "but I simply did not recognise my country in the one-sided reporting there." Chinese officials tighten a vicious circle of misunderstanding further by blocking the kind of access that would give a more balanced picture. A foreign NGO working in Yunnan province on HIV-Aids tried for nearly a year without success to get permission for the Guardian to cover its project. "The irony is that the authorities there are doing really good work", said the project director.
I believe however that the speed of change in China is now so fast that within the next decade the stereotypes will be shattered - on both sides.
... I believe that younger forces in the party and outside will prevail and that China has a better chance of making a peaceful transition. The determined young journalists whom I got to know and the cheerful students my wife taught offer the best hope for the future.
Protesters confront police at Greek summit.
Helena Smith reports in the Guardian that thousands of people unhappy with the current direction of EU policies gathered together in order to attempt to communicate their feelings to the EU elite, who chose to use armed force to prevent themselves from hearing opinions contrary to their own.
"It's just a mile but one that divides our world, our views, from the very people who are changing the EU into a new imperialist superstate," said Erik Dokken, a Norwegian history student surveying the gap between anti-summit protesters and the EU leaders installed along the road.
"We're not going to change the mind of those men but it's important they know more and more people are resisting their policies."
...To combat the protesters, Greece has launched the biggest ever security operation. Heavily armed coastguard boats dotted the bay and on the beach, in front of sets of giant steel containers, stood hundreds of heavily armed police, with more hiding behind trees and bushes up on the road.
I can't believe the extent of the security they put up. Lots of military backing up the police too. That's almost the real story there, in fact. Not the people protesting, that's old news, but the extent to which the European elite has become afraid of them.
June 20, 2003
US may be in Iraq for ten years.
USA Today story, via Yahoo, via This Modern World.
Two top U.S. defense officials signaled Congress on Wednesday that U.S. forces might remain in Iraq for as long as a decade and that permanent facilities need to be built to house them there.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave no explicit estimates for the time U.S. forces would stay in Iraq, but they did not dispute members of Congress who said the deployment could last a decade or more. The comments were among the most explicit acknowledgements yet from the Bush administration that the U.S. presence in Iraq will be long, arduous, costly and a strain on the military.
Wolfowitz told the House Armed Services Committee that the Bush administration will eventually come to Congress to seek more money for the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I imagine I'll have much more to say about this over the next ten years. Stay posted. :) God Bless America.
US troops admit shooting Iraqi civilians.
There is an extraordinary interview by Bob Graham with some American soldiers in Iraq, in the London Evening Standard, which is here, via Common Dreams. It's very sad and frightening. A must read.
The men have been traumatized by their experiences. Cpl Richardson-said: "At night time you think about all the people you killed. It just never gets off your head, none of this stuff does. There's no chance to forget it, we're still here, we've been here so long. Most people leave after combat but we haven't."
Sgt Meadows said men under his command had been seeking help for severe depression: "They've already seen psychiatrists and the chain of command has got letters back saying 'these men need to be taken out of this situation'. But nothing's happened." Cpl Richardson added: "Some soldiers don't even f****** sleep at night. They sit up all f****** night long doing s*** to keep themselves busy - to keep their minds off this f****** stuff. It's the only way they can handle it. It's not so far from being crazy but it's their way of coping. There's one guy trying to build a little pool out the back, pointless stuff but it keeps him busy."
Sgt Meadows said: "For me, it's like snap-shot photos. Like pictures of maggots on tongues, babies with their heads on the ground, men with their heads halfway off and their eyes wide open and mouths wide open. I see it every day, every single day. The smells and the torsos burning, the entire route up to Baghdad, from 20 March to 7 April, nothing but burned bodies."
Specialist Bryan Barnhart, 21, joined in: "I also got the images like snapshots in my head. There are bodies that we saw when we went back to secure a place we'd taken. The bodies were still there and they'd been baking in the sun. Their bodies were bloated three times the size."
Sgt Quinones explained: "There are psychiatrists who are trying to sort out their problems but they say it's because of long combat environment. They know we need to be taken away from that environment." But the group's tour of duty has been extended and the men have been forced to remain as peacekeepers. Cpl Richardson said: "Now we're in this peacekeeping, we're always firing off a warning shot at people that don't wanna listen to you. You make up the rules as you go along.
"Like, in Fallujah we get rocks thrown at us by kids. You wanna turn round and shoot one of the little f*****s but you know you can't do that. Their parents know if they came out and threw rocks we'd shoot them. So that's why they send the kids out." Sgt Meadows said: "Can you imagine being a soldier and being told 'you're fighting a war, then when you finish you can go home'.
Boy, they're already exhausted and it's only been a couple of months. I don't think they'll be going home soon. The standard tour of duty in Vietnam was at least a year, maybe two, I'm not sure. And of course in WWII it was four years or more. And the US military is apparently automatically extending all enlistments, they can't afford to lose anybody.
Guide to journalism in the.
Guide to journalism in the blogosphere</b
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<a href="http://jdlasica.com/blog/" target="_top">Via JD Lasica's New Media Musings</a>. <a href="http://www.ojr.org/ojr/uploads/1056011147.htm" target="_top">Mark Glaser's Guide to the Blogosphere</a>. An interesting guide and map to the most prominent journalist bloggers. Note that, as he claims, this is the most "influential", certainly not the best. (Although some of the best are here, such as JD himself.)
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I'd have to disagree with some of the placements here. (I'm sure everyone will find something to argue with on it.) For instance, Dave Winer certainly belongs on the right side, or at least right of center. I mean, he's a Fellow at Harvard Law School, which is the very epicenter of the conservative, right-wing America, and has been since Harvard was founded during the 17th century as a center for the study of white male Christian supremacy and the training of missionaries to promote same. Like many, he enjoys mouthing liberal platitudes, but when it comes down to it, he'll support the money people, no matter how serious their crimes. You can bet on it. But I guess that's the problem with trying to categorize and define things that can't be categorized and defined. (Sorry, no link to Dave. He's got too many as it is. It's www.scripting.com, if you care.)
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Speaking of which, I have to challenge Google's fundamental notion that the number of links to and from a site is the best measure of its value. When you were in high school, were the most popular kids the brightest?
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000255.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 02:11 PM
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<b>Kudos to Microsoft for suing spammers.</b>
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You may have heard that Microsoft has just filed some serious lawsuits against some of the largest spam companies. Good for them. Even if they don't win, and I think they might since they're filing under Washington state's rather tough anti-spam laws, it should have a bit of a chilling effect
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It's time people dealt with this problem. The costs of it are just enormous. God knows how much time is being wasted, how many computer resources tied up and so on. I mean, what's the cost of a productivity loss of 15-30 minutes a day for everybody in the world?
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So good for Bill et al. They get trashed a lot, but occasionally they're good for something. (I've never been a major MS basher, even though I'm a longtime Mac user. They've long been the best Mac developer around, and have been so since day one.)
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000254.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 11:23 AM
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<b>My first image.</b>
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Well, I uploaded the first image to this blog, the picture of the paint store in Venice. Couldn't resist. Have avoided that so far since I want to keep the pages as small as possible, and make sure they load well. This picture is 148KB, making it almost as large as the rest of the page combined. Not sure I like that, but sure do like the spot of color there. I wonder if iPhoto knows how to reduce image sizes. It certainly doesn't have to be that large. I know how to do that using PhotoShop and ImageReady, but unfortunately don't have those on this eMac of mine.
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000253.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 11:12 AM
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<b>Painters will love this.</b>
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Via <a href="http://booklab.bookways.com/" target="_top">BookLab II</a>, the other side of <a href="http://booknotes.weblogs.com/" target="_top">Craig Burton's Booknotes</a>, is this <a href="http://webexhibits.org/pigments/" target="_top">superb site</a> full of information about different paint pigments.
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Pigments are the basis of all paints, and have been used for millennia. They are ground colored material. Early pigments were simply as ground earth or clay, and were made into paint with spit or fat. Modern pigments are often sophisticated masterpieces of chemical engineering.
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This exhibit includes most important pigments used through the early 20th century.
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artimages/pigment_store_venice_italy.jpg" border="0" hspace="20" vspace="0">
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Paint store in Venice, Italy.
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Lots of useful information there. <a href="http://booklab.bookways.com/" target="_top">BookLab</a> sure does have some gorgeous illustrations on it. If you love the craft of books and bookbinding, check it out.
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000252.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 11:05 AM
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<b>'Washington was warned'.</b>
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The <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/" target="_top">Guardian</a> has an interesting <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,981120,00.html" target="_top">page of thoughts from around the world</a> on the future of the US occupation of Iraq . It wouldn't seem that there are many optimistic people out there. Thomas Friedman of the NY Times is calling for a doubling of US troops, at least, apparently not realizing that even the US doesn't have a big enough army to run the entire world.
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Can't remember where I saw the story, I'll have to look, but I read that the US military has already come to the conclusion that at least a ten year occupation of Iraq will be necessary. They've begun plans to build permanent homes for the American forces. So basically, we're there forever. I wonder who's going to be paying for all of it. If they're looking for American citizens to do it, I, for one, don't have my share.
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000251.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 10:52 AM
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<b>Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian.</b>
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If the Christian Right, oops I mean Wrong, is getting to you to, you may want to visit the irrepressible <a href="http://www.bettybowers.com/" target="_top">Betty Bowers</a>. Smiles guaranteed.
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000250.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 10:42 AM
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<b>The Disease.</b>
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<a href="http://www.liberalartsmafia.com/comments/comment122.html" target="_top">Liberal Arts Media</a> explains why he stopped blogging, claims he just can't take it any more. Via <a href="http://booknotes.weblogs.com/" target="_top">Booknotes</a>.
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And let©–s face it, the DISEASE is everywhere ú it©–s on National Plutocratic Radio fer gawds sake, it©–s in the local mullet wrapper they dare to call a newspaper, it©–s on the radio, it©–s on TV, and it©–s in the news. It©–s everywhere on the news.
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We have the worst President ever in the history of the United States of America. He©–s a war criminal, for crying out loud. He is also responsible for the most idealistic, hypocritical, empty-headed, and incompetent administration in the history of this great country. He plans a war but never plans an occupation. He has to bribe Ethiopia and Eritrea to join the ©¯Coalition of the Willing©— ú so he can claim he has international support. Now his administration is pushing Japan to remilitarize so he can have Japanese peace-keepers in Iraq, because, gosh, you know those American voters won©–t stand to have a couple of hundred thousand American troops stationed in Iraq. And he©–s deployed two thirds of the entire military oversees in Iraq and Afghanistan and now he©–s threatening Iran. And wait a f****** minute, he wants Japan to have a standing army!
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The DISEASE is everywhere. It is worse than SARS, scarier than monkeypox (which hit Ohio, not France, by the [bleep] way), and more pertinent to the substance of America than Laci Paterson or is it Peterson©–s bloody awful death will ever be.
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So I©–m sorry to my friends who came to rely on me. I may eventually get back to posting news. But right now my RAGE is beyond def con five. Right now I©–m in a life and death struggle with the DISEASE.
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Boy, Bush is really, really starting to get to people. Good. Rage is what we need, along with the realization that this needs to be confronted and dealt with once and for all. Unfortunately, turning it off and walking away is not an option. Too many people, mostly children, are dying. Walking away is what the apathetic, unpatriotic voting minority does, and look at the horrific consequences of that. Time for people to face reality. I guess he's rather young, this guy. Has to learn to turn the fury into vision and see the big picture, and the long term.
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For more reality, also via Booknotes, via <a href="http://www.workingforchange.com/" target="_top">Working for Change</a>, is Molly Ivins' latest, <a href="http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15181" target="_top">The Great Iraqi Gold Rush</a>.
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My, my, my, the great Iraqi Gold Rush is on, and who should be there at the front of the line, right along with Halliburton and Bechtel, but our old friends at WorldCom, perpetrator of the largest accounting fraud in American history.
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WorldCom, shortly to become MCI, has been given a contract worth $45 million in the short term to build a wireless phone network in Iraq. I learned via The Associated Press that Washington Technology, a trade newspaper that follows computing-related sales to the U.S. government, "found WorldCom jumped to eighth among all federal technology contractors in 2002, with $772 million in government sales." And that is only counting the deals in which WorldCom is the primary contractor. It is actually getting much more as a subcontractor.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission recently reached a settlement with WorldCom, fining the company $500 million for its $11 billion defrauding of investors. The company did not have to admit any guilt. "The $500 million is in a sense laundered by the taxpayers," Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, told AP.
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WorldCom got the Iraq contract without competitive bidding, to the anger of rival companies AT&T, Sprint, etc., which actually have experience in building wireless networks, according to the AP. A WorldCom spokesman "<b>also stressed the company's deep, overall relationship with the U.S. military and government</b>."
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Yes, all very true. But again, we already know they're corrupt and violent. Endlessly repeating this is not going to accomplish anything. What are you going to do about it?
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Oh, and if you didn't already know, WorldCom is trying to hide its past by changing its name to MCI. That won't work. Or will it?
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[BEGIN RANT. If I'm going to link to them, common decency forces me to warn of certain biases of the folks at Working for Change, as with most of what used to be called the "progressive" community, in particular the anti-Semitic bias of some of the people who write for them. They may mean well, but like the corporate media they always criticize, they also have no hesitation in just lying or making up facts when it suits their purposes.
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They do so regularly when it comes to Israel, in particular perpetuating this delusion that Israel is a puppet of the US. It doesn't take much intelligence to realize how absurd it is to suggest that Jews would make an alliance with fanatical Christians who believe that God wants them to eliminate all non-Christians from the world, or that they could ever share the same goals. It simply doesn't make any sense, and no reputable publication would publish such a theory. As I keep saying, and will continue to say, the US and the UK are the largest suppliers of arms to the Arab nations, it's their oil money that funds Islamic terrorism and suicide bombers, and their banks and financial institutions that allow them to function. The Christian Conservatives, the neo-cons, hate Jews and are Israel's enemies, and Jews should never forget that.
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So please take what the leftist media say with quite a few grains of salt, same as the rightists. People who distort one kind of information will distort others. There's more than one kind of disease infecting this planet. And if the Democrats want to have any hope of getting Bush out of the White House, they have to confront this reality, and assure people that they will not take the side of terrorists. The Palestinians danced in the streets on 9/11, the American people haven't forgotten that, and won't vote for people who advocate giving the Palestinians a state that will allow them to have control of an airport that can ship suicide bombers all over the world. No matter how much they hate the Republicans. END RANT.
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(Rant inspired by this <a href="http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15158&CFID=8009644&CFTOKEN=7598530" target="_top">article</a> there, which to me is just blatant Jew-hating.)]
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000249.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 10:30 AM
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<b>Account of first wave of the D-Day landing.</b>
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Stumbling around the <a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/" target="_top">Observer Magazine</a>, I found this <a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,967916,00.html" target="_top">excellent account</a> of how it felt to be part of the very first wave at Normandy, the so-called "Suicide Wave", in which very few survived. Tells the story of some Brits and some Americans from Virginia.
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On 6 June 1944, the elite troops of Company A, 116th Infantry, stormed the sands of Omaha Beach as part of the first wave of the D-Day landings. Within minutes, most were dead, including 19 men from one small town in rural Virginia. In this extract from his gripping book, Alex Kershaw details the lives and deaths of these young men, and tells here for the first time how the bravery of a British naval officer helped save many of the Bedford Boys...
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Quite a story. Can't imagine heading into virtually certain death like that.
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<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000248.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 10:13 AM
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<b>Danny Goodman is still on it.</b>
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Via <a href="http://blogs.it/0100198/" target="_top">Marc Canter's blog</a>. <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/13/1413236" target="_top">Slashdot reviews</a> the newly released second edition of Danny Goodman's "Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference</a>. Glad to hear that's out. The first edition has been my bible for many years. Just as his Hypertalk and Applescript books were before that. If you want to learn modern HTML or Javascript he's the man to see. His own site is at <a href="http://www.dannyg.com/" target="_top">dannyg.com</a>. Lots of help there.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000247.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 10:08 AM
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<br><br>
<b>The legacy of Harry Potter.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=669512003" target="_top">third installment</a> in the <a href="http://www.news.scotsman.com/" target="_top">Scotsman's</a> three part series on the amazing J.K. Rowling. I will have to read these one of these days. Just want to wait until I have some quiet time by a fire somewhere, and can appreciate them.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000246.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 09:04 AM
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<br><br>
<b>British blogs.</b>
<br><br>
The Guardian has a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/special/0,10627,744914,00.html" target="_top">special blogging section</a> now. Among other things there is a fascinating list of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/special/0,10627,752813,00.html" target="_top">UK weblogs</a>. Here are a few that sound rather interesting.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
<a href="http://glitterqueer.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Diary of a Glitter-Splashed Britney-Loving Lesbo</a>
<br>
Linkless navel-gazing by a '22-year-old butcheyfemme queer with rubbish on her mind and sparkles everywhere else'. Strangely readable.
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<a href="http://www.donkeyontheedge.com/" target="_top">Donkey on the Edge</a>
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Whimsical personal/tech blog by London-based designer Dug Falby.
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<a href="http://www.entelechy.ws/" target="_top">Entelechy</a>
<br>
Journal/weblog by Radhika Nair, an Indian living in the UK. Intelligent and direct.
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<a href="http://www.imperialdoughnut.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Imperial Doughnut</a>
<br>
'A ring-shaped cake made of rich, light dough that is fried in deep fat and manufactured for consumption by minions of the evil Galactic Empire.' Nice weblog too.
</div>
<br>
Many more listed, not just from the UK either.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000245.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 08:55 AM
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<br><br>
<b>Dutch abortion ship sails to Poland.</b>
<br><br>
Andrew Osborn of the Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,981693,00.html" target="_top">reports</a> on the floating abortion clinic that is heading to Poland, where it is due to raise quite a fuss. Poland, home of Pope John Paul II, is solidly Catholic and does not allow abortion except for the certain, very limited cases.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
A large Dutch-registered yacht will slip into the northern Polish port of Wladyslawowo tomorrow with a shipping container-cum-mobile abortion clinic lashed to its deck.
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The crew will not be amateur sailors but doctors, nurses and trauma counsellors who will seek to circumvent restrictive Polish abortion law and offer free abortion pills, contraception and advice to interested Polish women.
<br><br>
... The Amsterdam-based group says that Dutch law applies on a Dutch boat provided it is in international waters and nobody has so far challenged them. The group therefore plans to pick up "patients" in Wladyslawowo, which is near Gdansk, and then sail out into the Baltic Sea and drop anchor 12 miles off the coast where Dutch law will take effect.
</div>
<br>
The group behind this is called "Women on Waves", which is the brainchild of a Dutch doctor, Rebecca Gomperts.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The idea for a "seagoing women's health clinic" came to her when she was working as a doctor on the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace boat sunk by the French secret service during an anti-nuclear protest in 1985, and she has no regrets.
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"Making abortion illegal does not reduce the number of abortions," she argues. "It only means that it is done illegally, unsafely and at a very high price, financially as well as physically."
<br><br>
"As long as the issue of unwanted pregnancies and abortions is surrounded by taboos, silence and shame, laws will not change and neither will the problems of women with unwanted pregnancies," she says. "As a result of backstreet abortions a woman dies unnecessarily every five minutes."
</div>
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000244.html">permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 20, 2003 at 08:42 AM
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<div style="padding:5px;background:#ccc"><b>June 19, 2003</b></div>
<br><br>
<b>User has moved.</b>
<br><br>
Clicked on a link in one of the Bush history pages and got this message:
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<div class="blogquote">
User Has Moved. This user (seeker1) is no longer associated with the University of Florida, with the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, or with this server. Please do not ask us where the web pages are, or where the author is. We do not know.
<br><br>
Thank you for understanding.
</div>
<br>
Please do not ever ask me about this blog entry. I do not know.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000243.html">permalink, posted by mike on Thursday, June 19, 2003 at 10:40 PM
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<br><br>
<b>History of the Bush family.</b>
<br><br>
I was looking for somewhere to link the 'George Bush' in the quotations area above, and ended up making it google <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=History+of+the+Bush+family" target="_top">History of the Bush family</a>. And then ended up at the <a href="http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm" target="_top">George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography</a>, written around 1990 about the first King George, which is a fascinating read.
<br><br>
Some of the history is a bit sloppy, and some of the accusations go a bit too far, but most of it is very well documented. A real eye opener. The book goes all the way back to Sam Bush, father of Prescott, father of George H. This is quite a family the Bush family. They show up at the center of virtually every sleazy operation during the twentieth century.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000242.html">permalink, posted by mike on Thursday, June 19, 2003 at 08:25 PM
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<br><br>
<b>A snippet from my world history.</b>
<br><br>
Was playing with the <a href="http://www.galileohistory.com/" target="_top">world history</a>, which I haven't done since I started blogging, and stumbled onto <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/history/history_020601/history_page_85.htm" target="_top">a selection by Averroes</a>, one of last great philosophers of Moorish Spain. He was exiled from Spain in 1195 and died soon after. These two quotes caught my fancy.
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<div class="blogquote">
Among the most dangerous of these fictions concerning a future life are those which counsel virtue as a means of arriving at happiness. In that case virtue is no longer worth anything, since one only abstains from voluptuousness in the hope of being doubly repaid in the future. The brave will only seek death to evade a worse evil. The good will only respect the belongings of others in order to acquire twice as much.
<br><br>
Wine is forbidden because it excites wickedness and quarrels; but I am preserved from those excesses by wisdom: I take it only to sharpen my wits.
</div>
<br>
I really have to work on the history more. I have many more readings I collected years ago, I just haven't transferred them from the old Hypercard stacks to the web. I did write the scripts that would create an entire web site from a stack though, so I could do them all pretty quickly if I got down to it. There are hundreds of them, plus a few dozen complete books. One of these days.
<br><br>
If you go by the history, you'll see in the search area above the readings keywords for each selection. You should be able to click on any word and have it entered in the search box. Let me know if it works for you, it seems to come and go sometimes. Works on some pages and not on others, even though it's all the exact same code.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000241.html">permalink, posted by mike on Thursday, June 19, 2003 at 08:10 PM
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<div style="padding:5px;background:#ccc"><b>June 17, 2003</b></div>
<br><br>
<b>CIA takes over search for Iraqi WMDs.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/17/1055828331498.html#top" target="_top">Sydney Morning Herald reports</a> on the next stage in the search for Saddam's weapons.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The CIA has been put in charge of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, replacing the Pentagon, which has failed over the past two months to uncover any conclusive evidence that Saddam Hussein had an illegal arms program.
<br><br>
The CIA director, George Tenet, will now have direct responsibility for the 13,000 US soldiers and experts looking for the arms, according to Time magazine.
<br><br>
The claim that Saddam had illicit weapons was central to the Bush Administration's case to attack Iraq. Now President George Bush has tried to sweep aside criticism that the United States overstated the threat. He calls it the work of "revisionist historians".
</div>
<br>
Boy, this story just won't die.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000240.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 04:17 PM
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<br><br>
<b>Australia's US ties making it a pariah in Asia.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/17/1055828329634.html" target="_top">Sydney Morning Herald reports</a> on the increasing animosity towards Australia as a result of its support of America during the war in Iraq.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Australia risked being made a pariah of Asia and a target of terrorism through its "subservience" to the United States, a specialist in Asian affairs has warned.
<br><br>
The country has a worsening image problem in Asia and is highly likely to be a "scapegoat" for its role in Iraq, said Alison Broinowski, a visiting fellow of the faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University.
<br><br>
Her warning came in a speech at the Sydney Institute last night, just days after the arrest of three Thai Muslim men accused of being part of Jemaah Islamiah.
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"The war against Iraq has made Australia even more isolated and exposed to punishment as a scapegoat for the United States than it was at Bali," she said.
<br><br>
"If all kafir [infidels] are targets in the Indonesian terrorist jihad against the west, Australian kafir must be the most convenient Westerners. Australia is a closer, easier target for Muslim hostility than the United States, and less capable of retaliation."
</div>
<br>
It will be interesting if there are attacks on the UK and Australia. Divide-and-conquer has been a standard tool of Anglo-American imperialism for a long time, but it would seem two can play at that game.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000239.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 04:08 PM
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<br><br>
<b>Israel and the Palestinians.</b>
<br><br>
The Guardian has a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog/special/0,10627,533512,00.html" target="_top">Weblog Special</a> offering a wide variety of views on the conflict. Pretty nice job, all perspectives included.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000238.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 03:44 PM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Newt Gingrich steps up criticism of the State Department.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/17/international/17CND-GING.html" target="_top">NY Times reports</a> that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has called for a major overhaul of the State Department in order "to enable it to explain Washington's policies more effectively in a world of rising anti-American feelings." He has criticized it before, but now is calling for a "comprehensive reform", and an expansion of it by 40%.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
He said that American statecraft had become stodgy and "too narrow" for modern times, that better communications with the world were desperately needed but "literally beyond the capacity of the current system," and that the Foreign Service culture favored "politeness and accommodation" at times when a tougher approach was warranted.
<br><br>
The State Department should not have been caught off-guard by French opposition to the war, Mr. Gingrich said, reflecting a commonly heard conservative criticism. And he said the failure to win full Turkish support for the Iraq war was not "trivial."
<br><br>
The White House defended Mr. Powell following Mr. Gingrich's earlier comments, but Mr. Gingrich suggested today that the State Department was wrongly diluting President Bush's more muscular messages on American foreign policy.
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His article in <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/" target="_top">Foreign Policy magazine</a> calls for a new "global communication strategy" that would much more actively seek acceptance of American policies, and where that failed, at least clearly inform the world of American plans.
<br><br>
... Mr. Gingrich was not apologetic about wanting to spread American values robustly. If other countries failed to support "core values" important to the United States Ð free speech, free markets, free elections, equality of women, racial equality and other values Ð then "it is hard to imagine a world in which U.S. safety can be secured."
<br><br>
"I don't actually call for us to be liked," he said. But, he added, "there has to be an understanding of what we're doing."
</div>
<br>
Like most right wingers he's really looking to make the government, in this case the State Department, a tool of his own private agenda. His idea of "reform" is to make the government do conservative bidding. For instance, he's not calling for greater freedom of the press, but for pressuring the foreign press to represent the American viewpoint, whether they like it or not. The headline in the article in Foreign Policy itself makes it a bit clearer.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Why is anti-American sentiment rising unabated around the globe? Try the U.S. State Department, which has abdicated values and principle in favor of accommodation and passivity. Only a top-to-bottom reform and culture shock will transform the State Department into an effective communicator of President George W. Bush's foreign policy.
</div>
<br>
This clearly seems to be a veiled criticism of Secretary Powell, expressing conservative dissatisfaction that he is not as militaristic as most of the rest of the Republicans. But blaming the State Department for anti-American sentiment is rather foolish. It's clearly the President himself and the Defense Department that are the most responsible. Muzzling the only part of the administration that seems to make sense to the rest of the world certainly won't help things.
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The rest of the world, and the majority of the American people as well, are not against American policies because they don't understand them. But rather because they understand them all too well, and realize just how wrong and misguided and ineffective they really are.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000237.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 02:37 PM
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<br><br>
<b>Turning the tanks on reporters.</b>
<br><br>
In an article for the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,977701,00.html" target="_top">Observer</a>, Philip Knightley talks about the deaths of reporters in Iraq, and how dangerous it is now to be a journalist. Especially for those who write things the US military doesn't approve of.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The figures in Iraq tell a terrible story. Fifteen media people dead, with two missing, presumed dead. If you consider how short the campaign was, Iraq will be notorious as the most dangerous war for journalists ever.
<br><br>
This is bad enough. But - and here we tread on delicate ground - it is a fact that the largest single group of them appear to have been killed by the US military.
<br><br>
Brigadier General Vince Brooks, deputy director of operations, has told us the Americans do not target journalists. But some war correspondents do not believe him, and Spanish journalists have demonstrated outside the US embassy in Madrid shouting 'murderers'. I believe that the traditional relationship between the military and the media - one of restrained hostility - has broken down, and the US administration has decided its attitude to war correspondents is the same as that set out by President Bush when declaring war on terrorists: 'You're either with us or against us.'
</div>
<br>
A specific instance that is getting widely reported, outside the US of course, is what appears to be the deliberate attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, which killed a number of journalists. Spanish courts are reportedly seriously considering filing war crime charges against the American military personnel responsible. See this article, <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EF07Ak04.html" target="_top">Pressure grows over US killing of journalists</a>, in the <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/" target="_top">Asia Times</a>, a wonderful source for all kinds of information you don't read about in the Euro-American press.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Under the Geneva Convention, firing on media facilities is unequivocally illegal. In a court of law, be it international jurisprudence or otherwise, neither accident nor the perception of nearby threat stands as just cause or sufficient excuse for such action. Of course, American soldiers do not operate under these concerns. They are exempt from such battle-field limitations. But for the rest of the world, for which violations of UN resolutions and breaches of international law can have dire consequences, pursuing this case is important. If nothing else, honest disclosure of wrongdoing and proper procedure in accordance with law are owed to the family of the deceased. Washington would likely agree if the tank had been Iraqi, and the victims American journalists.
</div>
<br>
The American media seem to be ignoring this story, but the rest of the world doesn't seem to want to let it go.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000236.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 12:20 PM
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<br><br>
<b>Using globalization to achieve global democracy.</b>
<br><br>
Writing in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk" target="_top">Guardian</a>, George Monbiot suggests using the power of globalization itself to deal with the problems it creates. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,978837,00.html" target="_top">We can seize the day</a>, he suggests.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
We may, in other words, be approaching a revolutionary moment. Economic globalisation has made us stronger than ever before, just as the existing instruments of global control have become weaker than ever before. But the global justice movement, vast and determined as it is, is in no position to seize it. The reason is simple: we do not possess a political programme. Without a programme, we can only oppose. Without a programme, we permit our opponents to select the field of battle.
</div>
<br>
He's probably too idealistic and radical for most, but he's got a lot of good ideas here. What he suggests is all very workable.
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000235.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 11:53 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Massive security for Greek European summit.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2997854.stm" target="_top">BBC reports</a> on the unbelivable security measures being made by the Greek government to protect a summit of European leaders there.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
A massive security operation on land, air and sea has begun in Greece ahead of this week's European summit outside Thessaloniki.
<br><br>
More than 15,000 police and soldiers are being deployed to guard the Chalkidiki peninsula, where 30 European leaders will gather on Thursday in the exclusive resort of Porto Carras.
<br><br>
Greek police, fearing both terrorist attacks and violent street protests, have thrown up an unprecented security screen for the summit.
<br><br>
This is the biggest security operation that has ever been designed with the participation of all of the country's armed forces
<br><br>
Surface-to-air missiles and naval vessels are being deployed, along with 4,000 army, navy and air force personnel.
</div>
<br>
Amazing. How long do they think that they can continue to ignore massive demands for democracy and accountability? Do they really think that arms are going to stop five billion people from being heard?
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge on Thessaloniki before trying to reach Porto Carras, which is around 90 kilometres (55 miles) away.
<br><br>
"You can be certain of social disobedience," said anti-globalisation leader Petros Konstantinou. "We will have our voices heard, whether politicians like it or not."
</div>
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<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000234.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 10:02 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>The spectacular collapse of England's train system.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/" target="_top">Independent</a> has a <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/story.jsp?story=416260" target="_top">nice article</a> on the continuing and major problems with the train system in the UK, which is shaping up as the biggest failure of Blair's administration. Of course, the problems began with Thatcher's privatization of what was once a wonderful system, but after six years in office, the Labour party has to take responsibility.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
All the £33bn of taxpayers' money earmarked for rail in the Prescott plan has been allocated and there are no massive improvements in the system in prospect. Mr Prescott's hope of attracting £34bn of private- sector money is no longer mentioned by ministers.
<br><br>
Half of the passenger train operating companies are being bailed out by massive and unforeseen handouts from taxpayers, with nearly a quarter of them technically insolvent. Most observers agree that the train network is "privatised" in name only. Network Rail, the not-for-profit organisation that took over from the bankrupt Railtrack, has become a financial black hole.
</div>
<br>
It's an important story, relating to the increased amount of traffic in an affluent society, the conflict between automobiles and public transit, the role of privatization, and other related issues. Even to the very nature of government, since if it can't do something as basic as keep the trains running (and the hospitals and schools open), one has to wonder exactly what it does do. And it's not as if they've been ignoring the problem. On the contrary, there have been many changes made and tons of money thrown at it, but it continues to get worse. But trains are a basic part of a modern industrial nation and it's curious that they can't seem to fix it.
<br><br>
And it contrasts sharply with continental Europe, which, by all accounts, has a wonderful train system. The US, of course, hardly has a train system at all anymore, except for the high speed shuttle between New York and Washington, D.C., a luxury for lawyers, bankers and politicians, which the rest of the country is expected to subsidize, for reasons I've never figured out.
<br><br>
With privatization of other public utilities, especially water, being discussed so much, it's important to look at the problems that can happen when it goes wrong. (I'm not necessarily against privatization, just aware of the problems involved, and the fact that if something goes wrong, there's no one responsible.)
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000233.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 09:44 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Second installment in J.K. Rowling's story.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=666002003" target="_top">Scotsman</a> is running a three part series about the famed Harry Potter author. It's all rather amazing.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Rowling showed she shared the pluck of Harry Potter when she disagreed with Steven Spielberg, who took an interest in directing the film. The director of ET and Raiders of the Lost Ark wished to merge the plots of the first two books and cast Haley Joel Osment, the American child actor who starred in The Sixth Sense as Harry Potter. Rowling insisted each film tackle one book and that Harry had to be British. Spielberg walked away.
<br><br>
... There are now only four days to endure before the publication of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Rowling can gaze with considerable pride on what her work has achieved. In just six years more than 160 million Harry Potter books have been sold in more than 100 countries, both films have achieved box office records and a Harry Potter duvet set brought a little financial light to a despondent Marks & Spencer. Harry Potter licensing deals have been struck with the biggest companies in the world, with Coca-Cola bidding £65 million for the rights. Next week Rowling will become the first artist since Madonna to participate in a live-webcast at the Albert Hall, at which 4,000 children have the chance to ask her questions as Stephen Fry tries to contain them. Even Prince Charles has swooned in her presence, commenting: "I©–m staggered that someone can write so beautifully."
</div>
<br>
Her story also says an awful lot about the economics of the book publishing industry these days. All by herself, she has made more money than the entire Amazon.com corporation. Something to think about.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000232.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 09:27 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Scots 'Americanizing' their justice system.</b>
<br><br>
Interesting <a href="http://www.news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=666472003" target="_top">article in the Scotsman</a> about the increased use of American-style legal practices, zero tolerance and such, in Europe. Some favor the 'get tough' policy, while others think it's already discredited in the US and shouldn't be adopted there.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The continuing debate about the single currency and European Constitution brings out inevitable tensions over how close we are - and how close we should be - to our continental neighbours.
<br><br>
The European Convention on Human Rights (those dreaded initials ECHR, the "chancers©– charter", call it what you will) has undoubtedly had a major impact on our legal system. Its rights and wrongs will be debated again this week as prisoner Robert Napier challenges the Scottish Executive over slopping out in jails. The case is due to start in Edinburgh today.
<br><br>
However, it is the perceived Americanisation of our justice system that is exercising many other legal minds.
<br><br>
According to some hardened cynics, we are being dumbed-down by the US, by the "tough love" of drug courts and the march of restorative justice, seen by some as a decidedly soft option for offenders.
<br><br>
American-style "boot camps", the tagging of offenders, privately-owned prisons and a vast array of US punishments are welcomed by some, pilloried by others.
<br><br>
Nowhere in the UK is this perceived Americanisation of justice so evident as Scotland where the police talk candidly and passionately of dedicated zero-tolerance campaigns and specialised US-style courts, which continue to spring up across the country. Domestic violence courts are expected to be introduced, to follow specialised youth and drugs courts.
</div>
<br>
It isn't just the drug laws. Just lack week Tony Blair's administration announced a major government reshuffling that includes replacing the UK's traditional 'Law Lords' with a US-style supreme court. Some favor that, but some feel the life terms given to justices in the US are a major source of the corruption of its legal system.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000231.html">permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 09:18 AM
</div>
<br><br><br>
<div style="padding:5px;background:#ccc"><b>June 16, 2003</b></div>
<br><br>
<b>North Sea cod stocks about to collapse.</b>
<br><br>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2987682.stm" target="_top">BBC Science/Nature news</a> tells us that stocks are now so low that all fishing must stop if they are to survive and recover.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Brendan May, chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, said: "The current mess and appalling mismanagement of the world's largest renewable food source is a consequence of the European Union's repeated refusal to follow scientific advice.
<br><br>
"As scientists issue warnings that the North Sea faces a similar collapse to that in Newfoundland in the early 1990s, the EU is no nearer to preventing the same thing from happening in our own waters."
</div>
<br>
And yet a few fishermen are still demanding the right to continue to fish, as though a season or two of low pay compensates for the destruction of fish stocks that are essential to feeding the rest of the world.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000230.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 04:36 PM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Dean's Machine.</b>
<br><br>
Via <a href="http://www.commondreams.org" target="_top">Common Dreams</a>, originally published in the <a href="http://www.prospect.org/" target="_top">American Prospect</a> is <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0616-06.htm" target="_top">this story</a> by Garance Franke-Ruta on Governor Howard Dean's rapidly growing campaign, and in particular, its effective use of the net.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
To the extent that any presidential candidate will be able to tap into the power of the Internet, I will hazard a prediction: None will be able to mobilize the kind of support that Dean has generated (and will continue to generate over the coming six months). The Internet, as a technology, is perfectly suited to the people who make up the "Democratic wing" of the Democratic Party and its Green and independent sympathizers. While such businesses as Amazon.com and eBay may have made Americans more comfortable with online donations and helped Dean become the first presidential candidate ever to raise more than $1 million online, in the end it is the group MoveOn.org that more accurately gives a picture of the energy fueling Dean's online rise. Founded in 1998 via an e-mail sent to about 300 people by screen-saver millionaire Wes Boyd, the group today has 1.4 million people registered. Last fall and winter, it mobilized millions of people in thousands of anti-Iraq War protests throughout the world; it also sparked a massive online letter-writing campaign to Congress.
</div>
<br>
If you haven't checked out Howard Dean's <a href="http://dean2004.meetup.com/" target="_top">Meet-Up</a> yet, check it out. Even if you don't like Dean, it's an important advance in American politics, and will certainly be adapted by other candidates as well, sooner or later.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Through the Meetups, Dean is creating community, stimulating political discourse, building the rough outlines of a movement and expanding the public sphere -- all while creating a mechanism to position himself to compete in at least the first few primaries. It's great strategy. Even more importantly, it's great politics.
</div>
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000229.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 12:21 PM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Europe moves to support force against "rogue" nations.</b>
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au" target="_top">Sydney Morning Herald</a> reports on a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/16/1055615732924.html" target="_top">new decision by the EU</a> to support military force against "rogue" (that is, non-white) nations that have WMDs.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The European Union, in a significant shift towards United States thinking, says force might be necessary where diplomacy fails to address threats from weapons of mass destruction.
<br><br>
EU foreign ministers endorsed a strategy last night, Sydney time, to combat the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons that for the first time included a reference to possible military action against states or terrorist groups with such arms.
</div>
<br>
Whether this decision by the leaders is supported by the peoples of Europe is another matter. There's no mention on addressing the enormous arms sales by European and American countries throughout the world, probably the greatest single source of international instability. And certainly none of any efforts to get the US and EU to destroy it's own WMDs, of which there are too many to count.
<br><br>
They say "states .. with such arms", but there sure are a lot of exceptions, aren't there? My view is that they couldn't care less about the WMDs. They just want to maintain Euro-American (ie, white) power. Consider if you will <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0613-08.htm" target="_top">this article from Common Dreams</a> on "America's Shameful Legacy of Radioactive Weaponry."
<br><br>
Just one man's opinion, that of an American more concerned about American WMDs than anybody elses.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000228.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 12:05 PM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Update on corporate wars against unions.</b>
<br><br>
Jeanne d'Arc of <a href="http://bodyandsoul.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Body and Soul</a> has an interesting <a href="http://bodyandsoul.blogspot.com/2003_06_01_bodyandsoul_archive.html#95695415" target="_top">post</a> on the use of military means against unions by American corporations in different parts of the world. And the increasing number of international legal actions against them. She says the LA Times coverage of this issue is much better than that of the NY Times, which focuces mostly on the impact on their stock prices.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000227.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 11:56 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>The story of J.K. Rowling.</b>
<br><br>
As part of the hoopla surrounding the release of the new Harry Potter book, the <a href="http://www.news.scotsman.com/" target="_top">Scotsman</a> is running a <a href="http://www.news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=662772003" target="_top">three-part special series on her life</a>.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Throughout her teens Rowling honed her taste in reading material. It is unsurprising that she was greatly influenced by JRR Tolkein©–s The Lord of the Rings but she also loved Jane Austen, whose work Emma she has read over 20 times. Another seminal influence was Jessica Mitford, whom she adopted as a personal heroine, and whose biography, Hons and Rebels, became a significant text for Rowling.
<br><br>
But as with all teenagers, Rowling became more and more interested in pop music. It was the early 1980s and so she was inspired by The Smiths and Siouxsie Sioux, whose look she adopted early on and maintained for many years; when she began university she still sported startling back-combed hair and heavy black eyeliner.
<br><br>
... During this time she read Charles Dickens©– A Tale of Two Cities, a literary discovery that may have influenced her alleged intention to kill off Harry Potter at the end of book seven. The death of Charles Darnay, sacrificing his life for a friend, and his moving last words had a major impact on Rowling: "It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
<br><br>
... It was while Rowling drifted aimlessly through these years that the most important moment of her life occurred. In summer 1990, Rowling©–s boyfriend had moved to Manchester and she found herself returning to London by train after a weekend spent flat-hunting with him. Quite spontaneously during that trip an idea took shape: "All of a sudden the idea for Harry just appeared in my mind©–s eye. I can©–t tell you why or what triggered it. But I saw the idea of Harry and the wizard school very plainly. I suddenly had this basic idea of a boy who didn©–t know who he was, who didn©–t know he was a wizard until he got his invitation to wizard school. I have never been so excited by an idea."
</div>
<br>
All in all a fascinating story.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000226.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 10:21 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Devolution and regional government around the world.</b>
<br><br>
Devolution, for Americans who haven't yet heard of it, is the idea of returning powers to local regions, and giving them prime responsibility for managing their internal affairs. In the UK, it's the process by which Wales and Scotland have gotten their own parliaments as a step towards complete independence. The northern areas of Great Britain are also getting their own assemblies.
<br><br>
While most attention is on the ever-growing European Union, there is this countervailing trend also taking place. It's getting bigger and smaller at the same time. That may seem to be paradoxical, but actually it's two sides of the same coin.
<br><br>
The Guardian offers <a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,9061,978755,00.html" target="_top">a special survey</a> on devolution and regional government around the world.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
As John Prescott announces referendums on the creation of three new regional assemblies for England - with powers to be specified at a later date - for the north-east, the north-west and Yorkshire and Humber, here is how some of our European neighbours and transatlantic friends govern themselves.
<br><br>
... Canada
<br><br>
With a federal system created by a UK act of parliament in 1867, Canada may prove a particularly relevant example to Mr Prescott. Although central government can officially overrule the 10 provinces' laws, this has not happened in 50 years, and over the past 80 years the number of provinces, and their competencies, have grown. Provinces now raise their own taxes, control 41% of total public expenditure, and look after health, education, social security, prisons, law, justice, and the police.
<br><br>
... Germany
<br><br>
Probably the most devolved state in Europe. After reunification, West Germany's 11 Lander were joined by 5 from the former East Germany. Each has its own constitution, parliament and executive, members are elected by additional member system, and, perhaps most importantly, the national second chamber (Bundesrat), which has a power of veto over the Bundestag, consists entirely of Land ministers.
<br><br>
Landers have their own judicial systems, their own powers of primary legislation and tax raising powers, are responsible for education, culture, safety, law & order and ultimately control nearly 40% of public expenditure.
<br><br>
... Spain
<br><br>
One of the most devolved governmental systems in Europe, Spain's 17 elected and autonomous regions grew up following constitutional changes in the late 1970s after the death of Franco. Each of these "communidades autonomic" has its own president, executive, parliament and high court of justice, although some have more powers (eg tax systems, police) than the standard portfolio of education, health, urban planning, culture, agriculture and social services.
</div>
<br>
Also see their <a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/0,9054,442884,00.html" target="_top">special section on local government</a> in the UK. This <a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,9061,978232,00.html" target="_top">article on the new spirit in northern England</a> is also fascinating.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
"They don't know what the north-east is about down there," says lorry driver Kevin Walker, munching his sandwiches on a wall outside the cathedral. "We're just a place on the map. They make all the decisions down there and it's about time our own people up here made them." David Gillespie, a part-time tourist guide who lives near the cathedral, agrees. "I have lived up here for 26 years and there is a feeling of being out on a limb," he says. "Keeping the gospels down there is a disgrace. I find a lot of people now want their own north-east government."
<br><br>
But at Durham county council's headquarters a mile away, Ken Manton, the council leader, thinks people are still confused about the prospect of devolution. An extensive council survey revealed recently that while most wanted a referendum, they were unsure about how to vote. "There is a latent feeling of isolation from London," says Mr Manton. "I see London now as a state within a state and we need a counterbalancing force in the north-east."
</div>
<br>
While the US wants to believe superpowers and empires are the way to go, the rest of the world is moving toward more local democracy. But I think that in the US as well, for the first time in generations, power is beginning to flow from the federal government to the states. On a number of issues the states are taking the lead: health care, prosecution corporate crime, and more.
<br><br>
And governors are now becoming more powerful than senators. Consider that Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush the Second were all former governors who had never held a federal position. Their power came from the states.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000225.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 09:54 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Iranian weblogs.</b>
<br><br>
A weblog from an Iranian student, <a href="http://iraniangirl.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Notes of an Iranian girl</a>, reporting on the recent protests there.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Anyway, Tehran was somehow calm last night but some serious battles have started in other cities like Ahvaz & people of Azerbaijan have also some plans....& generally the support of Police has been great, actually they never do anything against people & all that violence is from Basijis & members of Allah's group, that have no special uniform but you can recognize them from the dirty appearance & their hateful bear & way of wearing...
<br><br>
I also heard that yesterday in one of Northern streets girls took off their veils & started chanting & policemen were even encouraging others to join them!
</div>
<br>
Which also leads to <a href="http://www.mashregh.com/blog/mashregh_blog/" target="_top">Mashregh.com</a>, a "Community Weblog for Persians". Curious that they're starting to call themselves Persians again.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The idea for a Community Weblog in English for Persians or people interested in Iran related affairs, came after seeing the Great "Don" Hoder's community weblog in Farsi called <a href="http://www.siahsepid.com/weblog/" target="_top">Sobhaneh</a> and also the <a href="http://www.siahsepid.com/weblog/" target="_top">Siah Sepid Community Weblog</a> , all of which I read avidly every day!
<br><br>
With Iran being back on the headlines, and the enormous amount of information being distributed daily on the Internet, I felt I could help by gathering and organizing some of this info by creating a community weblog in English , and inviting a select group of bloggers and writers to post their links and comments in one place.
</div>
<br>
Some in English, some in Persian. At least they're maintaining their sense of humor. ""You say totalitarianism, we say monarchy, let's call the whole thing off."
<br><br>
And enjoy this bit of fashion history.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
"The look is Audrey Hepburn on a day out, with a chic scarf wrapped under the chin and a pair of trendy shades. It's all the rage for young women in Iran and a headache for the conservative defenders of an Islamic dress code. "
</div>
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000224.html">permalink, posted by mike on Monday, June 16, 2003 at 09:19 AM
</div>
<br><br><br>
<div style="padding:5px;background:#ccc"><b>June 15, 2003</b></div>
<br><br>
<b>British reforming their supreme court.</b>
<br><br>
<a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,9061,978287,00.html" target="_top">Guardian article</a>. A reform of the British judiciary system that would replace the traditional system with one modeled on the American system is getting a lot of opposition by those who think the American system is too corrupt, particularly due to judges being given lifeterm terms.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
The government has rejected the US supreme court, in which judges are granted tenure until their death, as the constitutional model for Britain's new highest court.
<br><br>
Ministers said they regarded the US system as politically corrupt and are determined that the British version of the supreme court, which was announced during last Thursday's cabinet reshuffle, must maintain the independence of the judiciary from politics.
<br><br>
It is expected that the new supreme court members will be appointed by the proposed judicial appointments commission on which the government had - before the reshuffle - already promised to consult.
<br><br>
Ministers believe that if members of the supreme court are allowed to choose their retirement date, they can manoeuvre to ensure that their successor holds similar politics, so politicising the judiciary.
</div>
<br>
The controversy was begun by the announcement this week of the 1,400 year old position of Lord Chancellor. And by the suddenness of the announcement. But the English are always trapped by their own history. They want to change, but they don't want to change. A lot of this due to the fact that the "Lords" who have always been in charge, know their time has gone, but just can't quite let go of the power.
<br><br>
Another article tells of the <a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,9061,978303,00.html" target+"_top">opposition by senior civil servants</a>. And one of the <a href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/constitution/story/0,9061,978296,00.html" target="_top">Scottish reaction</a> to the elimination of the separate offices for Scotland and Wales.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000223.html">permalink, posted by mike on Sunday, June 15, 2003 at 07:44 PM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Bob Geldorf calls for global summit for Africa.</b>
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,977734,00.html" target="_top">Observer article</a>. The founder of BandAid has some practical and far-reaching suggestions to make, and calls for a Marshall Plan type strategy. Worth a read. He's been doing this for 20 years now, knows his stuff, understands exactly what the problems are and how they developed, doesn't mince words and makes an awful lot of sense.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Can you imagine the UK with 20 per cent Aids? ... Debt, Aids, Trade and old friend Famine still stalking the weak and ill. One must view these as the four pillars of chaos upon which Africa teeters. ... Sixty years ago, another continent lay in ruins. Ours. America, in what Churchill called 'the single greatest act of generosity in history', diverted 1 per cent of its GDP for four years into rebuilding Europe.
<br><br>
... Some point to Africa now, its leaders almost to a man hopeless. Would you vote for any of them? They are feckless, incompetent, often intellectually incapable, corrupt. Like our lot really. Berlusconi - under investigation but now miraculously immune. Chirac the same. Kohl - caught. All MEPs immune from prosecution. The difference is we're rich enough to afford our corruption. Down there it's the poor who get it in the neck.
<br><br>
Politicians point to glimmers of hope: Kenya, Ethiopia. Ethiopia's Meles Zenawai, despite reservations, is competent, well-meaning and, I think, honest, but these few only illustrate our low expectations.
<br><br>
Last week, I met Valerie Amos, Minister of Overseas Development. I suggested that, for Britain's chairmanship of the G8 in 2005, we begin now working towards a world-defining summit, looking afresh at North-South disparity. That we assemble agroup to discuss a way ahead to be published in advance of our G8, serving as intellectual underpinning for a new plan for Africa, and that the British G8 be mandated to attempt a continental rescue plan similar to General Marshall's.
<br><br>
I will be sniggered at by economists, political scientists and the like. Good ol' naive Bob. Except I've been doing this for 18 years and am probably no less expert at this stage of the game. What choices do we have? We are not prepared to accept these people dying. Nor are we prepared to accept them to our shores, threatening our social cohesion and services. They don't want to leave their homelands. They want a future for themselves and their children. If they can't get it at home, they, like I did, will move. Who wouldn't? How much better, as the US realised in 1946, to have a thriving continent trading and growing. Naive perhaps. Impossible, no.
</div>
<br>
He has harsh things to say about the EU bureacracy, to say the least. "At least the Evian G8 guaranteed food security for the impoverished and starving, but let's pray it is not discharged through the blundering office of our dear EU." But he's been saying very good things about George Bush lately, who he claims has been meeting his commitments, unlike the Eurocrats.
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000222.html">permalink, posted by mike on Sunday, June 15, 2003 at 10:37 AM
</div>
<br><br>
<b>Bill Clinton wants to be mayor of New York?.</b>
<br><br>
This is the first I've heard of it, but <a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,977820,00.html" target="_top">the Observer reports it is so</a>. I have to admit he's exactly the mayor NY deserves.
<br><br>
<div class="blogquote">
Worldly-wise cab drivers and shoppers in the Big Apple hardly dare to believe the rumours ... Slick Willie is blowing into town and he'll win with ease.
</div>
<br><br>
<div STYLE="color:#555555">
<img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/link_icon_small_bw.gif" border="0" alt="permanent link image"> <a href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/000221.html">permalink, posted by mike on Sunday, June 15, 2003 at 10:10 AM
</div>
<br><br>
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WEEKLY ARCHIVES
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<br><br>
<div class="paneltext">
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2007/01/week_2007_01_28.html">January 28, 2007</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2007/01/week_2007_01_21.html">January 21, 2007</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2007/01/week_2007_01_14.html">January 14, 2007</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/12/week_2006_12_10.html">December 10, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/12/week_2006_12_03.html">December 03, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/11/week_2006_11_26.html">November 26, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/11/week_2006_11_12.html">November 12, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/10/week_2006_10_22.html">October 22, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/08/week_2006_08_13.html">August 13, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/08/week_2006_08_06.html">August 06, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/07/week_2006_07_30.html">July 30, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/07/week_2006_07_02.html">July 02, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/04/week_2006_04_02.html">April 02, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2006/03/week_2006_03_26.html">March 26, 2006</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/05/week_2005_05_15.html">May 15, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/04/week_2005_04_10.html">April 10, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/03/week_2005_03_13.html">March 13, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/02/week_2005_02_20.html">February 20, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/02/week_2005_02_13.html">February 13, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/02/week_2005_02_06.html">February 06, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2005/01/week_2005_01_30.html">January 30, 2005</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/12/week_2004_12_19.html">December 19, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/12/week_2004_12_12.html">December 12, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/09/week_2004_09_26.html">September 26, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/08/week_2004_08_15.html">August 15, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/08/week_2004_08_08.html">August 08, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/08/week_2004_08_01.html">August 01, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/07/week_2004_07_25.html">July 25, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/05/week_2004_05_23.html">May 23, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/05/week_2004_05_16.html">May 16, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/05/week_2004_05_09.html">May 09, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/05/week_2004_05_02.html">May 02, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/04/week_2004_04_25.html">April 25, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/02/week_2004_02_01.html">February 01, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/01/week_2004_01_18.html">January 18, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/01/week_2004_01_11.html">January 11, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2004/01/week_2004_01_04.html">January 04, 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/12/week_2003_12_28.html">December 28, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/12/week_2003_12_14.html">December 14, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/09/week_2003_09_21.html">September 21, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/09/week_2003_09_14.html">September 14, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/09/week_2003_09_07.html">September 07, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/08/week_2003_08_31.html">August 31, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/08/week_2003_08_10.html">August 10, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/07/week_2003_07_27.html">July 27, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/07/week_2003_07_20.html">July 20, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/07/week_2003_07_06.html">July 06, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/week_2003_06_29.html">June 29, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/week_2003_06_22.html">June 22, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/week_2003_06_15.html">June 15, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/week_2003_06_08.html">June 08, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/06/week_2003_06_01.html">June 01, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/05/week_2003_05_25.html">May 25, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/05/week_2003_05_18.html">May 18, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2003/05/week_2003_05_11.html">May 11, 2003</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2002/10/week_2002_10_20.html">October 20, 2002</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2002/10/week_2002_10_13.html">October 13, 2002</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/2002/10/week_2002_10_06.html">October 06, 2002</a>
<br>
</div>
<br><a name="CATEGORIES"><img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/dot.gif" width="10" height="10" border="0" alt="spacer"></a>
<br><br>
<div class="paneltitle">
CATEGORIES
</div>
<br><br>
<div class="paneltext">
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/africa.html">Africa</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/american_culture.html">American culture</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/american_election_2004.html">American election 2004</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/american_history.html">American history</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/american_imperialism.html">American imperialism</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/art.html">Art</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/art_boom.html">Art boom</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/asia.html">Asia</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/blogging.html">Blogging</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/bob_dylan.html">Bob Dylan</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/british_culture.html">British culture</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/california.html">California</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/canada.html">Canada</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/children.html">Children</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/climate.html">Climate</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/community.html">Community</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/computing_and_the_web.html">Computing and the web</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/drugs.html">Drugs</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/economics_and_business.html">Economics and business</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/education.html">Education</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/environment.html">Environment</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/europe_and_the_euro.html">Europe and the Euro</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/film.html">Film</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/food_and_cooking.html">Food and cooking</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/future.html">Future</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/general.html">General</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/global_issues.html">Global issues</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/health_and_medicine.html">Health and medicine</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/history.html">History</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/iraq.html">Iraq</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/israelis_and_palestinians.html">Israelis and Palestinians</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/latin_america.html">Latin America</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/law.html">Law</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/links.html">Links</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/literature.html">Literature</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/media_and_journalism.html">Media and journalism</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/middle_east.html">Middle East</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/music.html">Music</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/oregon.html">Oregon</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/painting.html">Painting</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/people.html">People</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/personal.html">Personal</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/photos.html">Photos</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/politics.html">Politics</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/religion.html">Religion</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/russia_and_eurasia.html">Russia and Eurasia</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/science.html">Science</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/space.html">Space</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/terrorism.html">Terrorism</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/tourism_and_travel.html">Tourism and travel</a>
<br>
<a class="panelentry" href="http://www.galileolibrary.com/mikes/categories/womens_issues.html">Women's issues</a>
<br>
</div>
<br><a name="BLOGROLL"><img src="http://www.galileolibrary.com/artpicts/dot.gif" width="10" height="10" border="0" alt="spacer"></a>
<br>
<div class="paneltitle">
LINKS / BLOGROLL
</div>
<br><br>
<div class="paneltext">
<b>THE BLOGOSPHERE</b>
<br><br>
<b>Group blogs and centers</b>
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.ncf.ca/%7Eek867/wood_s_lot.html" target="_top">Wood s Lot</a>. Maybe the most consistently interesting weblog out there. Superb selections on all sorts of topics, especially art and literature. Tons of links too.
<br><br>
<a href="http://blogsisters.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Blog Sisters</a>, a group blog, with a-z links to individuals. More by the ladies at <a href="http://bonni.net/blogsbywomen/" target="_top">Blogs by Women</a>.
<br><br>
Good community blogs at <a href="http://www.boingboing.net" target="_top">Boing Boing</a>, <a href="http://www.metafilter.com" target="_top">Metafilter</a> and <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/" target="_top">Kuro5hin</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.wiblog.com" target="_top">The Wibsite, wiblog.com</a>. British bloggers.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.fairvue.com/" target="_top">Fairvue Central</a> hosts the Bloggies, awards for best weblogs in different categories from all over the world. See the nominees for <a href="http://2001.bloggies.com/" target="_top">2001</a>, <a href="http://2002.bloggies.com/" target="_top">2002</a>, <a href="http://2003.bloggies.com/" target="_top">2003</a>, <a href="http://2004.bloggies.com/" target="_top">2004</a>, <a href="http://2005.bloggies.com/" target="_top">2005</a>, <a href="http://2006.bloggies.com/" target="_top">2006</a> (in progress).
<br><br>
<hr><br>
<b>Iraqi blogs</b>
<br><br>
<a href="http://dailywarnews.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Today in Iraq</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/" title="A Family in Baghdad" target="_top">A Family in Baghdad</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com" title="Riverbend" target="_top">Baghdad Burning</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://healingiraq.blogspot.com" title="Healing Iraq" target="_top">Healing Iraq</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://dear_raed.blogspot.com" title="Salam Pax" target="_top">Salam Pax</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://geeinbaghdad.blogspot.com" title="Gaith" target="_top">G in Baghdad</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://ishtartalking.blogspot.com" title="Nawar" target="_top">Ishtar talking</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://messopotamian.blogspot.com" title="Alaa" target="_top">The Mesopotamian</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://iraqataglance.blogspot.com" title="AYS" target="_top">Iraq at a glance</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://hammorabi.blogspot.com" title="Sam" target="_top">Hammorabi</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://nabilsblog.blogspot.com" title="Nabil" target="_top">Nabil's blog</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://baghdadee.blogspot.com" target="_top">Baghdadee</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://fayrouz.blogspot.com" target="_top">Fayrouz</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com" title="Omar, Ali, & Mohammed" target="_top">Iraq the model</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://iraq-iraqis.blogspot.com" title="Firas" target="_top">Iraq and Iraqis</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://roadofanation.blogspot.com" title="Sarmad Faraj" target="_top">Road of a nation</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.ihath.com" title="Ihath" target="_top">Ihath - Losing myself</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://sunofiraq.blogspot.com" title="Alaa" target="_top">Sun of Iraq</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.back-to-iraq.com/" title="Back to Iraq" target="_top">Back to Iraq</a>.
<br><br>
<hr><br>
<b>Individual blogs</b>
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.dead.net/RobertHunterArchive/hunterarchive.html" target="_top">Robert Hunter's journal</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://world.std.com/~emg/blogger.html" target="_top">Follow Me Here</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.caterina.net" target="_top">Caterina.net</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/agrumer/" target="_top">Avram's journal</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.rebeccablood.net" target="_top">Rebecca's Pocket</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.amptoons.com/blog/" target="_top">Alas, a Blog</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.wannabegirl.org/" target="_top">Weblog Wannabe</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://rittenhouse.blogspot.com/" target="_top">The Rittenhouse Review</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://margaretcho.net/blog/" target="_top">Margaret Cho Blog</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://webfeet.blogspot.com/" target="_top">The Oregon Blog</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://angrybear.blogspot.com" target="_top">Angry Bear</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/" target="_top">Brad DeLong</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://dohiyimir.blogspot.com/" target="_top">Dohiyi Mir</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.atrios.blogspot.com" target="_top">Eschaton</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com" target="_top">Hullabaloo</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.nathannewman.org/log/" target="_top">Nathan Newman</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://dneiwert.blogspot.com" target="_top">Orcinus</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com" target="_top">Steve Gilliard's News Blog</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.prospect.org/current/tapped" target="_top">Tapped</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://tbogg.blogspot.com" target="_top">Tbogg</a>.
<br><br>
<hr><br>
<b>Blogging communities</b>
<br><br>
Lists of bloggers in these areas.
<br><br>
<a href="http://koax.org/austin/index.php" target="_top">Austin, Texas</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.beltwaybloggers.com/" target="_top">Beltway Bloggers, Washington, DC</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.bostonblogs.com/" target="_top">Boston, Massachusetts</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.cowtownbloggers.org/" target="_top">Calgary, Alberta, Canada</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://chicago.creativecanvas.com/" target="_top">Chicago, Illinois</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.dfwblogs.com/" target="_top">Dallas Ft. Worth, Texas</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.iamcal.com/misc/londonbloggers/" target="_top">London, United Kingdom</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://nycbloggers.com/" target="_top">New York, New York</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://websandiego.org/bloggers/" target="_top">San Diego, California</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://seablogs.hellbent.org/" target="_top">Seattle, Washington</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://stlbloggers.com/" target="_top">St. Louis, Missouri</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.reenhead.com/map/metroblogmap.html#" target="_top">Washington, DC</a>.
<br><br>
<hr size="4"><br>
<b>GENERAL LINKS, NOT BLOGS</b>
<br><br>
<b>News, magazines, reference</b>
<br><br>
The sites where I do my usual news browsing, and get most of my articles and links.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">Common Dreams</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.refdesk.com/" target="_top">Refdesk</a>, info on absolutely everything. A comprehensive <a href="http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html" target="_top">newspaper page</a>, listed by US states and countries, and an <a href="http://www.refdesk.com/myency.html" target="_top">encyclopedia</a>.
<br><br>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/" target="_top">BBC News</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/" target="_top">BBCi Home</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/" target="_top">BBC Radio</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/categories/" target="_top">categories</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/topics/" target="_top">history topics</a>.
<br><br>
The <a href="http://www.wn.com/" target="_top">World News Network, wn.com</a>, gathers news sites from all over the world, country by country.
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>, online encyclopedia.
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<hr><br>
<a href="http://www.atimes.com/" target="_top">The Asian Times</a>.
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<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/" target="_top">The Scotsman</a>.
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<a href="http://www.moscowtimes.ru/" target="_top">The Moscow Times</a>. Russian perspectives and news. The <a href="http://www.russianjournal.com/" target="_top">Russia Post</a> is a World News site with links to other Russian sites.
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<a href="http://www.blackcommentator.com/" target="_top">The Black Commentator</a>.
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<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage/" target="_top">Aljazeera Net in English</a>.
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<a href="http://www.outlookindia.com/" target="_top">Outlook India</a>.
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<hr size="4"><br>
<b>GENERAL INTEREST</b>
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History, literature, philosophy and other subjects, mostly related to the works in the Galileo Library.
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<a href="http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/" target="_top">Online Clarity</a>. An I Ching community. Newsletter, readings, etc.
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<a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/sbe/" target="_top">Sacred Books of the East</a>. A 19th century project of eastern literature.
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<a href="http://www.bartleby.com/" target="_top">Bartleby.com</a>. Great books online.
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<a href="http://www.bibliomania.com/" target="_top">Bibliomania</a>. Free online literature and study guides. Lots of classics and reading resources.
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<hr size="4"><br>
<b>THE ARTS</b>
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<a href="http://www.vggallery.com/" target="_top">Vincent van Gogh Gallery</a>. Complete paintings and writings, and a <a href="http://www.vggallery.com/misc/links.htm" target="_top">nice arts links page</a>. <a href="http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/" target="_top">Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam</a>.
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<a href="http://www.bobdylan.com/" target="_top">Bob Dylan</a>, <a href="http://bobdylan.com/performances/" target="_top">live performances</a>.
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<a href="http://www.dead.net/" target="_top">Grateful Dead</a>, <a href="http://www.gdradio.com/" target="_top">GD Radio</a>.
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<a href="http://www.davidbyrne.com/" target="_top">David Byrne</a>, <a href="http://www.davidbyrne.com/radio/" target="_top">radio station</a>.
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<a href="http://www.newpages.com/" target="_top">New Pages</a>. Book and reading related center, lots of alternative publishing links and <a href="http://www.newpages.com/weblog/" target="_top">weblog</a>.
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<a href="http://terrenceberres.com/read.html" target="_top">Reading Rat</a>. Reading center with lots of links.
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<a href="http://P.webring.com/hub?ring=avidreader" target="_top">Avid reader web ring</a>.
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<a href="http://www.paris.org/Musees/Louvre/" target="_top">The Louvre</a>. <a href="http://www.paris.org/Musees/" target="_top">Other Parisian museums</a>.
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<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/" target="_top">The Web Museum</a>, <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/auth/" target="_top">index of artists</a>. Extremely high quality images.
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<a href="http://www.rodin-web.org/" target="_top">August Rodin web org</a>.
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<a href="http://www.artchive.com/" target="_top">Mark Harden's Artchive</a>.
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<a href="http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/index.html" target="_top">Emile Kren's Web Gallery of Art</a>.
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<a href="http://www.artcyclopedia.com/" target="_top">Artcyclopedia</a>. A fine art search engine. Historical and current, with a <a href="http://www.artcyclopedia.com/general/museums.html" target="_top">nice museum list</a>.
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<a href="http://plagiarist.com/poetry/" target="_top">Plagiarist.com poetry archive</a>. Classic and modern plus news, articles, forums, etc. View a <a href="http://plagiarist.com/poetry/?action=random" target="_top">random poem</a>.
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<a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/" target="_top">Rotten Tomatoes</a>. Film center, with collected reviews, ratings and <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/" target="_top">forums</a>.
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<a href="http://aintitcool.com/" target="_top">Aint It Cool News</a>. Movie reviews and previews from a fan's perspective.
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<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/index/ebert.html" target="_top">Roger Ebert's film reviews</a>.
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<a href="http://scottmccloud.com/" target="_top">Scott McCloud</a>. The latest in the world of cartoonists.
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_top">YouTube</a>. Video center.
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<hr size="4"><br>
<b>MILD EROTICA</b>
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<a href="http://refer.ccbill.com/cgi-bin/clicks.cgi?CA=900004&PA=442893" target="_top">Domai.com</a>. Eolake Stobblehouse's extraordinary, and extremely tasteful, paean to pretty girls, updated daily. Nudity yes, sex definitely not. Nice <a href="http://www.domai.com/links/" target="_top">general purpose links too</a>.
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<a href="http://www.simplenudes.com" target="_top">Simple nudes</a>. Lots of links.
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<a href="http://www.vintage-nude.com/" target="_top">Vintage nudes</a>. Pin-ups and other classics.<br>
</div>
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