September 05, 2006

take it easy

It is not always easy to explain our views.

It is not easy to explain, to a kid for example, that geckos are fun and friendly animals.
It is not easy to explain to an adult that not all that makes sense is necessarily to be pursued and fight for.
It is not easy to explain why the primary and most likely result in not a distant future of the so-called war-on-terror is America drifting to isolationism rather than further gaining in global confidence.

And the most difficult thing for me to explain to others is how I approach the use of white on a web page successfully, that is:

1) embrace CSS circumventing the risk to fall into an obvious and unwanted blog-esque look
2) deliver a minimalist image without turning into provocation
3) give the user hints and hooks without the support of background color panels

I recently redesigned Coruscus, our Agency, following the above conditions and possibly goals. I was not expecting a lot of attention but indeed attention was. I did not explain the following minds what was not needed and because it was not I would like to thank them publicly for the kindness and support:

Carol Guevin of netdiver for including coruscus.com in the Portfolios section, the people behind DailySlurp and DesignMeltdown for showcasing the site, WebCreme for including our site in their beautiful gallery, Thomas Marban of tom.ma for including Coruscus as part of his screen-blog, CSS Smooth Operator for carrying our logo on their home page, Nick Dunn of css-galleries for the work on his CSS aggregator which includes our site.

To all these fantastic people (and the other people, designers and not, that have been supportive of this redesign) Thank You.

Posted by lck at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2006

goople

A pinch of salt in the news enchilada may pass undetected: Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, joined Apple’s Board of Directors today, August 29th.
Speculation is green for this occurrence but I remember last time Steve Jobs joined a Board of Directors that was not Apple’s, Pixar was sold to Disney the day next. Not to say Apple will be sold out to the Juggernaut of search engines but possibly something else of the most interesting kind: integration.

1 Two of the coolest brand in IT are partnering on betting that Microsoft Vista is going to be a major embarrassment to Redmond’s agonizing monopoly but see the Zune initiative as a threat in the long run (AAPL needs GOOG).

2 Apple is from now on going full-frontal against the former Gates company (Bill’s out gardening with Melinda) and the miserable states of affair that is called the disbanded Microsoft Software Division (GOOG needs AAPL).

3 Google is going to switch to Apple hardware for most of its numerous factories (AAPL needs GOOG).

4 Google is going to buy on the dozen or so multimedia-oriented and Apple branded software pieces that are iLife and iWork (GOOG needs AAPL).

5 Google is going to embrace the iTunes Store for audio and video replacing the miserable Video store have now (they both need this).

6 finally The Googlians are going to fix .Mac and integrate it with their services once and for all (AAPL needs GOOG).

But the whole package of semi-obvious predictions looks possibly too predictable. Apple is set for exploding sales next year with both audio, video and PC products, what they are going to need is sit side-by-side on the couch with the only other company that is an established nightmare to MS and MS’s lack of understanding of web-as-a-service. WAAS has so far been a thorn on the side in Apple’s crown of jewels with only two, masterfully executed and very successful exception: the iTunes Music Store and the Apple Store.

Some very sweet goo is dripping in Cupertino with new iPods, faster Mac minis and now the right infrastructure to jump 2.0.

A small notch on the paper, one with consequences. Expect a lot of them.

Posted by lck at 02:14 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

Interesting Times

Was it not for the insane-wet-wave-hot of the week past, on the way to (aspiring at) getting a taste of Siberia, I should call these interesting times. Perhaps interesting in an unusual way. We have a few answers and a reminder: I have to teach kiddo the proper spelling for big-bang; her big-boom is flatteringly French sounding and unfit to an educated 6-years old. Make note.

Dark Matter Exists. The great accomplishment documented on Chandra Chronicles here (also check Sean's post on cosmicvariance) and the mandatory press release here. As you can read, a fine understanding of the nature of Dark Matter is too much rush but the old hypothesis is no more: we know now what to look for, where and what it looks like. The object that put an end to secular uncertainty is 1E 0657-56, known as Bullet Cluster, a supercluster consisting of two colliding clusters of galaxies and the most energetic cosmic event known beside the big boom. The discovery takes us back firm on our feet and under comfortable old-school experimentalism. The baby inside can breathe relieved.

On the other camp the very people who should give us a draft of the bigger picture, calling String Theorists, are pic-nicking with new languages (again?) and again: enumerating: torsors (a sophisticated new branch of tensors), granular Homotopy (a trendy variant of old K Theory), Lie-3 algebra and topological dualities, one of which contributed by Richard Superman J. Szabo. Some of this stuff smells promising, what it does not is showing the ability to connect any of the many loose mono-poles that String Theory has become. We grant ST the time it takes and the patience but the field is sore in full stagflation. The brilliant connections a decade old are long gone and the road ahead murky. Hope the first few observations at LHC, operational starting in 2007, may shake the tree, for better or worse. The recent discoveries in astrophysics all put growing pressure on ST for a bit of convergence.

Topologically interesting is Russian Grigory Perelman, a 40-year old from St. Petersburg won the Fields Medal, often described as the math equivalent of the Nobel prize, and he declined to accept it. Perelman is famous for a break-thru (papers of 2003) in the study of shapes and for proving the one-century old Poincare conjecture. The Poincare conjecture essentially says that in 3D space you can not transform a doughnut shape into a sphere without ripping it. The original papers by Perelman are a bit obscure. Two attempts have been made to clarify the original demonstration, both successfully, the most synthetic by Huai-Dong Cao and Xi-Ping Zhu. The proof presents some prosaic aspects, especially at the intro stage but still is a complete step-by-step proof of a geometrization conjecture. The paper is 328 pages. (linked here courtesy of the insane amount of space MT gives us for 9$ a month) Such extensive undertaking not only depicts a brilliant (and eccentric) mind but also lays down a final verdict on accessibility of science and its model of choice: if the full proof to a conjecture on a fundamental property of space requires something of a soap opera (a space opera, specifically) the connection to social function is lost, dramatically and forever. As each chapter in this brilliant (if tedious) epos sucks from sub-modules underneath of at least comparable complexity the scenario is a world away from General Relativity where some of the big nodes are transmissible and social-able. Here, and possibly in most of future science, accessibility is lost and an army of Brian Greene bots is nowhere to be found.

On Pitchford’s Review a recent post puts out the complain that we lack a handful of those minds that in recent past were able to filter and put art in critical perspective to a big audience. Widening the scene the complaint applies to music, literature and most other forms of expression. Turns out the lack of discriminating capability is related to the heavy role technology plays on these fields and how it affects us. Deeper in the hole we find:

1 We do not like to admit that technology affects the way we perceive reality. We are more lax in admitting the role drugs play, do not like to concede that ubiquitous low-fi (ipods, youTube, google and content at-a-glance) is changing the way we structure our experience.

2 On judging, filtering and disseminating to audience it is critical that we are aware of technology and its role but what do we know about technology? How many phone numbers do we recall without the help of our Blackberry, how many movie plots without the help of imdb.com?

3 And last, what is an audience? Defined by the ritual TV spread on the couch now that setting up your youTube account and buying tracks on iTunes is easier than operating and set up your dolby surround TV center?

My kiddo does that, I’m surely not messing with her VCR.

Science, a human construct after all, is no different. Sorry, you need at least being able to read a few differential equation and have a clue of topological transformation in a Riemann-ish space. We’re so sorry.

It’s easy to make a lemon float. Cut out a square section, remove content and seal it back with silicon. The surprising part is that now people think Sicilian lemons float because they have a bigger oxygen core. How disappointing is that.

Posted by lck at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2006

war by proxy

It's hot out, wet and windless.

I missed Valentino Rossi's victorious race and I'm happy he made it with half a wrist and starting from a remote behind everybody. This brings the tournament back to fun with the "Doctor" catching up to the hotspot and on his way to (maybe?) another World Cup. At the other end F1 is behind my back. I can't say for the life of me why or when I grew so unaffected by car racing. Schumacher and his low-charged stamina load, the equally cold and polite Renault crew or the smokey Mercedes, them altogether or is it the weather.

While impressing/freaking the kid with Chris Angel on YouTube I learned that Coruscus Design, which site I released yesterday in its new single-pager CSS incarnation has been picked up by Netdiver and has now his own spot in Netdiver's Portfolios section. It is a pleasure and honor to be picked up in such high consideration by one of the most focused person in contemporary Design. We were taken in with equal consideration in recent past on PixArtisan, an Online Art Gallery, but having our firm's website linked permanently is there for a double toss. Very rewarding of much sweating, listening, talking, emailing and eps-ing. Equally rewarding to know that there is somebody that everyday, with little return, takes care to listen, advise, promote if you just email and politely ask and has the patience to email back with properly wise feedback. Thank you Carol.

Now, as you know if you were heading to the white beaches of Tel Aviv this summer, your reservation may be in danger and a refund possibly on the way. Why? Why, kids know better, is often the appropriate question. Remember things happen for a reason, war, peace and even the rain and life is not the crazy chaotic gothic novel you were dreaming about at 16. Those who ask Israel for moderation have not idea what this is about. Do we? Jump to the always excellent Belmont Club [July 15 post, Israel's Strategy, has 469 comments] for a refresh but after that please read this and after that sit down and take a deep breath.

The ultimate threat, though, isn't Hezbollah or Hamas but Iran. And as Iran draws closer to nuclear capability--which the Israeli intelligence community believes could happen this year--an Israeli-Iranian showdown becomes increasingly likely. According to a very senior military source with whom I've spoken, Israel is still hoping that an international effort will stop a nuclear Iran; if that fails, then Israel is hoping for an American attack. But if the Bush administration is too weakened to take on Iran, then, as a last resort, Israel will have to act unilaterally. And, added the source, Israel has the operational capability to do so.

For Israelis, that is the worst scenario of all. Except, of course, the scenario of nuclear weapons in the hands of the patron state of Hezbollah and Hamas.

After which, and we're almost there, conclusion: The US have all good interest to cover a potential escalation, once again, and let it go as far as it gets, Syria and then Iran, but since they are partially behind this operation may the case be they will run in support, openly, without license from the over-confused and inter-competitive EU block. This confrontation was planned, clearly months in advance and it fired just days before strict cooperation (followed by mutual agreements) between Iran and China was officially inked. The financial consequences may soon be visible with massive dis-investment on the part of China of US debt which could trigger a second bubble burst of US stocks, a clash some fear inevitable.

This scenario, which gets more and more legible by the hour, reminds me how blind the Europeans must be when they publicly request Iran to mediate between Israel and Hezbollah, ahem... Iran.

I received a link to a romantic post from an Egyptian blogger that you can read here. The smell of human is of course welcome, Sandmonkey digs the "med" part.

Posted by lck at 01:11 AM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2006

going 6

I was between Thievery Corporation and very very old and to me quasi unrecognizable Red Crayola when I stumbled into the equally old King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973). This is a very much unknown by KC Mark II, followed by the equally unknown Starless... and the solid and M.O.R. deadline album Red (1974). It makes me wonder why Fripp started with the metrics in this album for his solo carrier, debuting Exposure of 1979, only mitigated by two looping Revox, inheritance of the brief and flashy adventure with Eno, No Pussyfooting and Evening Star.

I spent hours at the beach with the almost 6 years old Melissa and W. We were observing the minutiae of the place and collecting short over-lived sticks, easy to pull together and tie up with a used up nylon string or net. Mine was calibrated on my fist like a baton relay, her was built in a similar fashion with a bright orange plastic rope. I remember that at one point in the discussion, when I was not grasping her point although trying to she served me with a never-mind. Calling a raw phrase a turning point is a clear exaggeration or not. She's growing old and getting tired of detailing the whole picture to the grands. Grabbing hands and nevermind.

After getting over with a big assignment from our client in Abu Dhabi, a packaging work for which we produced more concepts than for any other work ever, I believe it is time for some clean-up. Here come the Beatles, a good reading of past languages a bit before pushing the corners of the next framework. Coruscus is going CSS and is near, white, menu-less, portfolio-centric with samples of a size that scares, I'll be on that thru the next update for PixArtisan. Speaking of which, stats inform PixArtisan has received on average above 1000 unique visitors a day for 10 days in a row now. These are very interesting news considering Angela Rohner wanted to include the site in her gallery of the best designs and that we are simultaneously on netdiver.net, defrost.com and the excellent webcreme.

to google was finally included into the standard body of the Oxford Dictionary today, a verb. For how long have we been using that very verbiage, three years? Google it!, more than anything a "no-excuses" call to coworkers and friends who still don't get it. When I use to decline their questions with this now-famous short for "the-tool's-out-there-just-use-it".

Back to the kid, turning 6 on the 7th of July, what is she getting? Lots of very girl-ish stuff of course, mitigating her wandering ego is an assignment, an arch with arrows to check her homicidal tendencies, but two things I point out: phones and cameras. We're giving her a phone, no bells and whistles, I said phone. She's already our bilingual secretary, she can have her own phone. Most important she's getting a digital camera, a 3MP simple automatic white-balance not-too-many-presets digicam with a 15 MB memory that she can hook up to her Mac. She uses Photoshop, at her age it is important to understand where the input comes from and that it's all digital on the source. Kids need push, not over-protection, before somebody spells the word they have to print their photos. Technologies that make sense, are convenient, flexible and do not rip your time from you need to be embraced and experienced in full. What would you do with your photo prints when half your friends are in the US and the other half spread all over EU? Photo-blogging is in not because it's trendy but because it makes sense.

Now for something that does not make sense. So dark the con of man... you're missing The Da Vinci Code, not the book, the pelicula. Stay away, crap head to toe, do you want me to swear on the keyboard? No link for you!

Posted by lck at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2006

Now you gotta do her

They're both good at pointing, arent't they?



This is where she is asking for consolation (119 minutes passed).




BZ to all of you guys, err... well done!!! (ah Angela baby blue eyes, I can't stand those watery eyes, 120 minutes passed)


Great shot on of our golie!

More sex inside...

Posted by lck at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

Cowboys moving to L.A.

After homo-sex on colt 45 (known to miss its 5th shot by 5 degrees from zero-in, what could be more allusive than a western when it comes to the gun?) cowboys are moving to the San Fernando Valley (L.A.) for some straight time with the girl. The trailer for Down in the Valley is available here. Don't need to point how close this is to O.C., with an obvious avalanche of Oscar nominees. An hilarious movie, I do take my laughings seriously but then is the gay market saturated already?

Say Uncle is a comedy dangerously playing on the edge with the child molester's role to which missing Straysand would positively add. The outraged community screams if anything. Trailer here. Good sign or last season's revival already?

The King (by ThinkFilm, Official selection to Cannes 2005, Un Certain Regard) is an interesting pot hold together by huge performer William Hurt as the father-pastor of just-relesed-seaman Gael Garcia Bernard. The father, literally, wants nothing to do with you. Consequences are enticing. And Hurt's mumblings are a joy to go thru.

The War Tapes is being sold as very touching, very real. Following the likes of Black Hawk Down TWT is one of the most boring war document I have seen in years with a kamikaze booming every 10 minutes and the regular backlash on GWB. What new this says about Iraq or even the daily life of troops there is mystery.

Glory, Glamour and Controvery is the salt in Once in a Lifetime, the story of the NYC Cosmos, the first US soccer team. A look back into the greedy 70's and the polished face of Henry Kissinger all over the silver screen, Pele' and Giorgio Chinaglia. An enjoyable documentary detailing the US public on the surroundings of a new type of stardom, one alien and destined to implosion.

Directed by Patrick Stettner The Night Listener is a psychological thriller based on the bestselling novel by Armistead Maupin. Revolves around a celebrated writer and popular late-night radio show host, Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), who develops an intense phone relationship with a young listener named Pete (Rory Culkin) and his adopted mother (Toni Collette). The downward spiral is driven by questions on a boy's identity and is all to enjoy in its frightening geometrical precision and progression. Another excellent performance by aging-well Robin Williams. Trailer here.

New England's smalltown's mysteries The Wicker Man is the jam Nick Cage is sticking with this time and it is not a pleasant. After the excellent Man of War Cage had so many options back in business and he nodded the worst. This is a pity of a movie, hi-res scary trailer here.

To leave on a black note The Descent is a copycat for girls only of Alien One. Being marketed as the best horror-thriller since Alien the pot is plain but generously gore, claustrophobic, with a good script and sound-effects from better-than-average hardcore porn. Bring a girlfriend.

Posted by lck at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2006

porn-sellsell-porn

Going thru banging my head on the CSS'ed Coruscus out presumably July and kid's anniversary and thru Sonic Youth's A Thousand Leaves, right before they got their equip stolen at CBGB's NYC 2004, just learned the planet has got a quick satellite upgrade by 2 units, not one, and wikiCalc was released in beta form today.

My Sony-Ericsson "bigboy" ear appendix got crushed (finally) in 4 distinct pieces, with keys still lighting blue up to the faraway LC display via the Bluetooth survivor. I have been looking for a replacement for this bulk for a year. I did not want to get too deep with another Sony nor with the heavy and thick Razor V3x, so I gently declined for the original V3, black, 199 on the pocket. We already ripe on a 8MP Nikon camera that holds the job outstandingly and a variety of iPods. Moto has made the Razor a family, why not ridding of the camera a mystery. It lies blackly on the bamboo tap now sucking electrons out of mother cable, claiming 90 grams barely with the prominent logo god knows why Moto wanted boobs in their logo. But I like boobs... and nipples... actually what happened to nipples in the USA? Support and extend the_nipple_project

Linzie Hunter asked me to add pics of my desktop to her new blog-adventure but I'm such a mess right now I dare not to unravel in public. A slimming device, 76 pounds exactly and a wheel lies in the entry waiting for me to unfold manual and learn. That's what I'll send her and excuses.

Salad, sweet Taleggio and beer over Geogaddi, Boards of Canada, work for the evening short just before a shot of Johnny Rotten. Descript-o-logy, which I apparently excel at, keeps me away from eye contact as an archeologist, observation prevents contact, encrypts reality in a convenient scheme, deconstruction is lovable down to signature and sign, single rip and gesture and game.

This website advertises apparel with hardcore porn video. It's a serious job, good photo and good art direction but then again maybe we're growing old and lack the balls to go unabashed the way they do. These days ipods, DRM and certain types of free thinking are taboos, alcohol and sex are collateral.

Ripley once told me we are expendable.
But then again, maybe she was wrong.
Except, she never was.

Posted by lck at 02:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2006

Poetry takes time, we know that.

Poetry takes time, we know that.
Music (pop, puff) takes sometimes even more time.

On July 20th, 2005 I posted (under Creative Commons) the following post as part of Dead Engine. The plan was to have UnderWave, a local band, use the lyric for a song of theirs. I'm happy to report they finally did it and the track is now in the wild.

It is here

I like their blend of early Smith with moderately polished Velvet Underground. Can't complain about the English as that's possibly the best you can get around here - Amen.

Poetry takes time, we know that.
But sometimes poetry knocks down early. So it is for Sara Carothers, which first and only piece is here. I read and read this piece and how can I believe this is coming from a 17 years old? Would you? So I asked her. And she sent me 6 unpublished pieces. Sara is on PixArtisan. In a few more days.

In 10 or so years nothing called literature has surprised me more than these 6 little poems of her.

Poetry takes time. Sometimes doesn't.

Posted by lck at 01:40 AM | Comments (1)

May 30, 2006

Annoying

This post took a total 30 second to build including screenshot and resize. It is known that average scanning of a website is around 6 seconds. Take a chance to learn why you should not do a website the way they did.
End.

Not, actually. To make things a lot worse The Indipendent, a respected and often stimulating source for debate, reports in the Online Edition that... " First major study of online pornography reveals 1 in 4 adults, including 1.4m women, downloaded images last year".
Here. And I wonder is that news?
End. Hopefully.

Posted by lck at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

Hel-Looks

HEL LOOKS is selected street fashion from Helsinki, Finland. The pictures are taken in the streets and clubs of Helsinki from July 2005 onwards.
HEL LOOKS is a hobby project of Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen. The project is a tribute to Fruits and Street magazines, the pioneers of street fashion photography. And is very addictive.

At least as addictive as this absurdity. Karoli Kiralyfalvi (Budapest?) is not exactly bad and at least a very productive. But 411 500x500 px images weight from 70 to 150K each on the same page? The trend is being pushed somehow to limits and if that is we may want to ask Dell, Logitech and HP to use BIGGER wheels on their mices.

Posted by lck at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2006

Barbarians

Between a sunny day and then more and family screaming "more of Lost" on the deserted beach not yet stuffed with sweating passengers heading to another holiday season...
Between reality, well packaged into comfortable, acceptable and economical "units" and the equally assuring, impossible and unacceptable Lacan game of hide and seek, so accurate and afar from our psychological needs to buy balance, compromise and acceptance...
In between String Theory and No Theory is a glimpse of History. The ability to read back language and carve sense out of our childish time of panic, reading back fractures, lines and reversals. Legible and usable.

I have been eyeing for two days now the pamphlet an Italian writer started on one of our newspapers, daily. I have never been foggy about Alessandro Baricco's writings. No mystery. In this pamphlet, a most welcome to a major newspaper going to sell it as "enough-entertainment" by the pound and under the umbrella in the coming months, Alessandro is looking to define, or at least inquiry about, what he calls "new barbarians". Alessandro, 48, is himself a writer and runs courses on creative writing in Turin, Italy. He has noticed, his words, as of recent (but according to his own observations as far as 5-years back) his scholars changing. He perceives the change tangible and important up hill to call it a "mutation". As a metric he identifies (in the second shot of this promenade made very clear) Beethoven ninth's Symphony as the "citadel" that, supposedly, defines our culture, times, shares and incontrovertible achievement, Byron and all the way down to Madonna. He also points out, handing some comfort over, that Beethoven's piece #9 was perceived at his time (written 1822-1824) as a disgrace, a barbaric acceleration, away from consolidated rules and values. The noise of today the "C" of tomorrow.

First question is: how many times did we experience this AFTER Beethoven?
An honest answer should have been: every day (with no exciting bangs)

Second question is: why is Alessandro (and legions after him) so enamored with Apocalyptic clashes?
An honest answer should have been: because historical facts and processes are easy to read once latent anthropomorphism is expressed as a fact, not methodology.

Is this in the end about our kids, our cold-blooded un-romantic unemotional tax-hater small branches scattered in-to the world without a (desirable?) sense of tragedy, direction, time, space and, most important, don't like Beethoven? Don't know who he was? Could they care if Madonna sits side by side with the iconic said Uber-Composer on the same shelf?

The questions above are naive, the answers are even more obvious. From an editorial point of view we may have appreciated more a long, articulated article than this long, foggy, vague and non-descriptive event horizon. But, fear not, the trend is real (Ludwig Van is LOL) .

The new barbarians own a free Gmail or Hotmail account, are part of an Internet community of some sort, have a blog they often update, experience some sort of virtual sex, have replaced art with graphic design, browse while at work, are on a short term job contract, maybe/sometimes a disqualifying position. They drive an SUV or a Mercedes-made city-car, have no particular concern for pollution, global warming and related geopolitics. The new barbarians do not buy CDs, catch individual songs on iTunes or grab them on the illegal underground, express acceptance/rejection to a website in average 6 seconds and have their first sex experience on the floor or on a couch, often at a party with same sex counterparts. The new barbarians express stable sex preferences around 30, with a wide range of uncertainty, often persistent beyond that age. The new barbarians do not read or buy books, they write. Their inevitable blogs and journals are all along a marketing tool, a psychological backpack, a connecting lane to the only social side of their life, a tie to a closed (and sometimes suffocating) self-referential community.

The landscape is clear.

Should we support? Influence? Get influenced? Slam the door?

People like me, 42 of age, Alessandro, 48 (I could be wrong, sorry :-), we have been going thru a lot. We may have kids, I do. We have answers to the above four questions, respectively: Yes, Inevitable, Sure, Never. But, kids aside, if we have not learned already, at our age, that "open mind" has a broader, deeper and larger meaning, we have failed. If we can not listen, if we are to read the earthquake ahead as "fracture" only and not as an everyday necessity, we have failed.

In the end, dear Barbarians, fear not, you won't be alone. In good company you are. Indeed!

Posted by lck at 02:20 AM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2006

com·mu·ni·ty

com·mu·ni·ty (kə-myū'nĭ-tē)
n., pl. -ties.

A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.
The district or locality in which such a group lives.
A group of people having common interests: the scientific community; the international business community.
A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society: the gay community; the community of color.
Similarity or identity: a community of interests.
Sharing, participation, and fellowship.
Society as a whole; the public.
Ecology.
A group of plants and animals living and interacting with one another in a specific region under relatively similar environmental conditions.
The region occupied by a group of interacting organisms.

Flip page for more...

If you are unfamiliar with the buzzword Web 2.0 consider yourself lucky.
If you want to know more this is a good source
If you are a designer and want to grab loose hints from peers without hitting the wall this is a good start.

There is no much critical debate about the focus communities bear in this scenario, subsequent business models, etc and the word has clearly become a meme, pasted everywhere inadvertedly as a marketing tool.

The Wired game comes to mind, sometimes a mere juxtaposition of fresh terms as opposed to old, spent ones. Wikipedia's radical trust in "collective intelligence" opposed to Britannica's academics.

oReilly again:

If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought. And as a reflection of conscious thought and attention, the blogosphere has begun to have a powerful effect.

First, because search engines use link structure to help predict useful pages, bloggers, as the most prolific and timely linkers, have a disproportionate role in shaping search engine results. Second, because the blogging community is so highly self-referential, bloggers paying attention to other bloggers magnifies their visibility and power. The "echo chamber" that critics decry is also an amplifier. [...] If it were merely an amplifier, blogging would be uninteresting. But like Wikipedia, blogging harnesses collective intelligence as a kind of filter.

Implications are profound, interesting and also open to deep misunderstanding. In some cases we may be tempted to paraphrase the recent "Lord of War", excellent script and excellent Nick Cage's act there's a blogger out of every twelve people in the world... the question is how do we get the other eleven

As participation becomes mandatory as an undiscredited value and getting involved is not an option, where value is to be judged, pushed and emphasized, what tools of the trade can we count on but just plain-old mass appeal?

Please see this by Janice Fraser of adaptivepath and a slight rebuttal by jason Kottke here.

The path is thin, as blurred as ever. (see how USPTO indends to use a Wiki here)

But there is always a short novel of enlightenment.
It's venerable Theodore Sturgeon's Need (1960) • [Hugo Award 1961]

Disconnect from your preferred online com·mu·ni·ty and dig it

Posted by lck at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

May 06, 2006

Do the strand

Waiting for Lost S02E20 "Two for the Road" to hit the plate off iTunes mandatory it is to go back a few strands to Where-It-Began.

A plane crash between Sydney and L.A., realistically off the coast of Madagascar, fuselage splits in three (that's how B-757 are built), a good chunk of pax payload stranded all over across a not-so-small island, alien presence all over the place from the start to include polar bears at tropical latitude and miracle healing, transceiver only catches a glimpse of a re-played message, in French, coming from the island self. Although French at subtropical spells nuclear, as you may find in subsequent developments related, is initially relegated to Eiffel's tower postcards for tourists.

Lost is approaching edge of second season's closure with no answers but a War to chew on. The show is now running most of Europe, Italy included with terrible dubbing on top, soon to spread across non-EU-ized East Europe.

I find Claire sexier in her 8-months pregnancy than now, on the kid's seasonal temp vars. But the approaching finale means at least one of the main char's inevitable demise, be it Lock, Ana-Lucia, Charlie, you name. But at times of war casualties may spell plural. I only hope Kate makes up her mind and gear up with either John or Sawyer or any of the polar bears. Please settle down now it's time to stabilize it and we've had enough of the wandering round.

From the blackened smoking plane's giant carcass drowned ashore to our art gallery online. We are very happy with PixArtisan so far. Great feedback, polite inquires from known and unknowns and great contributions. I am motivated to carry this one on, much will come with the upcoming May 15th update, which could be (power)grrls only.

By the way, everything happens for a reason when you're 40. If you're not, nothing is true and no reason is better than no reason at all. That is why a remarkable Hollywoodian like Clooney got engaged in an issue that is (unfortunately) entirely political. "If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear then they will - all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us." Clooney on SaveDarfur.org.

Apple wins a major struggle with the majors for individual song's prince, .99 still and running some of the coolest switching ads ever, gaining on yet another inevitable delay to Windows Vista. Microsoft noted only is for the recent miserable Explorer 7 update.

Winner both hands is Vladimir (Putin) for being able to sell an air-defense rocket-based system to Iran and putting an Israeli's spy satellite into orbit using a Russian vector. If this is a mean to shrink the window to the next war or one to blackmail both, is hard to say.

Firefox is done open-sourcing its own advertising. It's over but take a look here. For now winners are: honorable and absolute.

Who's going to open-source advertising next? And...

Would it not be nice to have a European Portfolio Night? I am late re-porting this I realize, source the always excellent NetDiver. The idea is worthy. Xerox it. Anybody with a portable portfolio and decent shoes?

Posted by lck at 01:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2006

I (double dog) dare you

Life is sometimes like a fluff, a cloud, an invitation and an apology, to what you've done and focused on cheeringly for some time. It is good, always, to see your words spreading on by third-party choice to many more, clear or not, bloody or soul and it is just silly to say writing is disconnected from an ear, an audience.

After a year almost Bernard Dewley, Managing Editor of handtoothnail.com finalized finally the second issue of this online poetry mag. I may have different views than Bernard but it is after all a joy to see my most recent flash prose unleashed to the public on handtoothnail. I appreciate what Bernard is doing. Walking Distance and Red Vs. Tan for which I have a special affection, you can find them on handtoothnail.com, April 2006.

The other gift is an easter's Egg. PixArtisan is live, finally. Enjoy.

PixArtisan is being linked from scene360 and reviewed by netdiver

Posted by lck at 02:19 AM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

United we fall

It was the first time ever we follow Italian Political elections start to end on our macs, sack TV. And it was surprisingly good. Thanks to La Repubblica and the Corriere della Sera, both with an informative and agile web presence.

Despite the very close results, a first for Italy, Prodi won the Deputy Chamber with some 24,000 votes over Berlusconi, which gives the Left coalition 340 Deputies versus Berlusconi's 277. The other chamber, the Senate, was also won by Prodi, 158 to 156.

This is a very close margin. Unusually close. It is remarkably important that one coalition has got both chambers, our constitutional procedurals would otherwise nightmarishingly stall. And still this is not what both parties were expecting.

The election law is new, wanted and drafted by Berlusconi, a tailor-made return to the past and to him, paradoxically, suicidal. On the other camp much more was expected that did not happen. If these elections were a call for voters to make a definite choice they didn't.

It is quite predictable now that chunks of the House of Freedom (Berlusconi's coalition) will quietly migrate from one camp to the other. It's Italian genes to follow the power where-ever power goes.

Berlusconi is still the guts and soul to millions. He is only fading, inevitably, away.

Startling and disturbing is, in the news today, Bernardo Provenzano finally captured. Undiscussed boss of bosses, the Padrino from Corleone was missing for 43 years and in power for that long according to informants. Provenzano was captured today by police in... Corleone, the place where he was born. With typical, possibly the only good left to what these men represent, he elegantly and nonchalantly responded to the obvious brigadiere's question, simply: "Yes, I am".

He was captured today. I am sure this is just a coincidence.

In a previous post I was recalling The Economist and the paper's open call to Italians to screw Silvio and sack him from job. He was. But he does not fall alone. Two men fall today. United by circumstances together they fall.

The long-term task of dealing with the ruins he has left behind for us to cope with has begun. It is now up to Mr. Prodi and his very diverse coalition to grow stronger and learn to talk to the other half of this country. This is the daunting task the winners are up to.

Fair winds, Professor Prodi.

Posted by lck at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2006

sack him

When The Economist comes out with a cover such as the one above (bigger banner for the occasion) it could signal a few different things:

The Economist is a socialist publication controlled by what's left of the former Russian Politburo (the paper's logo makes this pretty obvious, can't you see?)
or
John Peet (The editor) hates Berlusconi for his much overflowing power and wealth
or
Berlusconi secretly controls the Economist and is coming with an issue that will inevitably inflame the internal debate here in Italy, as he knows well victimization further divides, further conquers (just in case, you never know)
or
None of the above and the Economist is right, plus Peet is so immensely bored and shattered by how much time he is forced to waste everyday on the everyday BS coming from said celebrity's mouth.

Which wins?
The last one wins.
Hands down.

It is difficult to explain how Italians got so flexible, so indifferent and tolerant to their Prime Minister and his Juan Peron-like obsession to be loved, appreciated, every day over every pipe and every channel, apt to almost anything coming from what is inherently a seductive and rules-hater businessman, not a politician by any rate. Impossible, probably, to explain how today still such man can be trusted after countless proofs of his inability to produce any coherent vision and sell that and implement that to a country running on empty.

Mr. Berlusconi requested today that UN observers have a good eye on the incoming elections. Usually the contenders do that call, not the incumbent. But UN observers for... Italy?

Yesterday, in his grungiest and surreal call ever, he called opponent voters "dick-heads", a good approximation in English of the Italian term "coglioni". All said during public debates, newspapers everywhere on the daunting task to translate the term "coglioni", Spanish and French an easy job, a near-nightmare to others. A term once forbidden from public shows, debates and general conversation then literally everywhere overnight. My daughter came to me and asked...

I don't ask politics to solve much, especially under current trade of events and developments that are played more at the global level that any local can cope with. But, yes, I had enough.

Sack him. Legally, decisively and for good.

Thank The Economist to be in agreement with me.

P.S.: It is good practice to always give your P.M. a second chance. A good editor would go and see what other newspapers have to say about. I did. I have been for several days. International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, Financial Times. Apparently, if I can still read English, nobody is crying at the prospects of Berlusconi's downfall. And if the business community is not in tears then the following is also true: You call voters dick-heads, you'll have a chance, Monday night, to call us something else. How about fucking bastards?

Posted by lck at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2006

Onother one bites... the dust

Posted by lck at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2006

Google Current

Google Current airs every half hour here and provides a look at what the world is searching for on Google. There's nothing like it on television. When Googlians exert criticism "a-la-Wired" CNN-stile with Conor Knighton and Kinga Philipps playing the game things get quite interesting. Highly recommended and highly addictive.

In the meanwhile origami paper was given to the MIT students. This is what happened.

Posted by lck at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2006

revival

enough is enough and this is a quickie, no Capitalization but, at least, some punctuation, 2 weeks?

it's night revival in casa Zib with Lavigne pumping really loud, that's revival all-ready, and a good load of Warsteiner and Cabernet Franc.

we're split.

how blissfully desperate Avril was. kids can still buy their soft apocalypse for .99 and she's not coming back. what then?

re-play. pouring down. sweet.

enough is enough, my template for PixArtisan is locked-down, I can't make a white whiter than this. which is enough. my whitest.

this online art gallery is going to kick with Adriana de Barros, Liz Wolfe and the lovely Christian Lindemann just to start. The girl at NetDiver that is suggestive to us all and which blessing is pricey has signed her agreement, so I'd be expecting for her portfolio material on the 17th, Green Beer Day.

but Avril, wow, how sweet she was.

[Chorus]
If you're trying to turn me, into someone else
It's easy to see, I'm not down with that
(I'm nobody's fool) I'm nobody's fool
If you're trying to turn me, into something else
I've seen it enough, and I'm over that
(I'm nobody's fool) I'm nobody's fool
If you wanna bring me down
Go ahead and try - go ahead and try

Posted by lck at 01:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

Iranium

Here we go again. This time we're all up with those tiny exotic radiant compounds Ma'm Curie was in love with. They used to make her counters go blip. They still do.

The people who want permission granted to enrich uranium, this time, are mostly the same people who sell you gas.

Whether or not Iran has the strength to pose a semi-embargo on its clients is uncertain. Whether or not the US has the power to set up a second attack on the same front, everything considered including broader support from the UN this time, is also uncertain.

Do you see China, who has been financing the US huge federal debt so far with massive acquisition of currency and bonds, backing up a second crusade?

Chances for a settlement are good. The US may want to postpone this mess on to the next, sometime in November 2008.

In the meantime this blog has been affected by a spike of traffic coming from wife's friends. My fault was to spin yarn for her using a tool she made herself, something called "a spindle". What it does is spinning raw fibers of yarn (silk, in this case) to make a hank. More on the whole shebang here.

I'm not starting a knitting carrier anytime soon. But if you wanted an interlude, an intercourse, that is what it was. A family trial. Somehow.

What is that for?
A spindle.
A spindle?
Ya know, to spin yarn.
And what are the coupled DVDs for?

She had built a bottom-whorl spindle. Using the kid's DVDs. At home. I first saw it on her blog when I was at the office. There was also a first comment from a friend of her which I thought was translating my nightmares already with more human words. Beautiful, now, how does that work?

Which DVDs did you use?
I used Finding Nemo.
You hate that movie so much?
No, they weren't working anymore.

Talk about naive Americans...

The kid pointed out that DVD 1 was scraped and dead but DVD 2 was fine, and added a pissed face on top of it like rancid tomato dripping hate and fury without saying a single word.

Then I recalled the commentaries' observation: how does "that thing" work?

The day next I was spinning yarn acrobatics, joining the roving, poking a hole in the hankies, playing with the torque and discussing the thickness of the resulting. Even better this one was silk. Spindling away like a sufi which is all you want to be in a rainy day.

Do you know a spinner uses gyroscopic principles?

The kid was given her ration of hankies, which she helped coloring but started being loud when she discovered how difficult was for her to "make a hole" with her tiny hands. It only got worse when she saw me spinning.

Are you envious?

We made some 22 yards of silk and then she swifted it up into a tidy hank, then soaked in cold water to set the twist. Now it's hanging on a hanger and damn it's nice.

The bed is covered with silkworm memories and my nails too. Raw silk is darn easily attached to the host like not even viruses. That is the bad part.

Now we're browsing the web looking for spinning machines and I know she has plans. What does not happen when you let the enemy infiltrate your dailies?

By the way, the spinning business, including converting a membrane into a closed string can be described by good mathematics with a high degree of precision. They do it everyday, over at Stanford

Today, surprisingly, we woke up in a sea of snow. It was snowing.

When I started web-designing some ten years ago white was an obvious choice for a neutral background. The first, second and third instances of our agency's website were all based on white. But in time you learn that white is not as neutral as it may seem.

For one you'll never see white on a consumer's grade monitor no matter how hard you try. Why?

Because your monitor's phosphors combined output tends to aging on the yellow.
Because your monitor likes dust.
Because you like to leave fingerprints on the screen and think that's sexy.
Because white point calibration is a variable of just too many things, including a cloudy day.
Because perception of "neutrality" depends on age, temper and usage.

And finally because blogs and CSS-based content systems use white as if it was for free.

It is not.

Now I'm coping with an online gallery. An (art) gallery's identity stems from its walls. Bare white walls.

So, next in line is, in the process of making this website, what am I going to do? Or, what am I doing?

Posted by lck at 06:41 PM | Comments (2)

March 01, 2006

Behind enemy lines

1 out of 12 people in the world have a weapon. The problem is how to arm the other 11.

After Fascism, Stalinism, Stat-a-lism and neo-Colonialism we just needed a new respectable enemy that does not just talks-the-talk. Aloha, Islamism.

Puff! Are we a democracy now?

And what shelves should I get and what shoes should I wear when my portable is lying on the two hard-disks-enclosures-combo on top of the ethernet modem which is on top of the hi-fi and did I tell you that boom-boxes were on a returning leg? Your iPod can finally feed the family on Apple-approved speaker-dome. Special events are just to introduce these tiny i-Fi evolutions. here

Tiny evolutions are what Tom Jenkins, a.k.a. Squarepusher, has been delivering for a while. Since "Hard Normal Daddy" and "Big Loada" he's been thru his own "White souls..." with "Music is rotted one note" and now "Ultravisitor". In a few years Tom may be delivering his "Bitches Brew Revisited". Please bring that on. And may Miles Davis understand what we don't.

Our prime minister went to see George. George did not say shit about our prime minister. National newspapers emphasizes Berlusconi has a close deal with the Bushes. Is that gas? Maybe methane.

The 1st of March is set aside especially for pigs. It was started by Texas art teacher Ellen Stanley in 1972 to honour and give thanks to our most intelligent domesticated creature. On this day, remember the good things pigs have brought to us; remember that pigs are sociable, intelligent mammals. They are much like us in many ways, they have noticable personality traits and soaring emotions. You might want to visit a farm sometime in March for a day out (with the kids) and pay your respects to these marvelous animals.

here

There's one thing I like about George Bush. His plane. AF-One, a heavily modified 747-400 is the most beautiful flying machine on earth and you won't find it on Google with its current look. To kill a very widespread misconception, the 747 we associate to the US president is not always the AF-One. Any aircraft that carries the US president bears the call-sign Air Force One. It could be a DC-9 or a little Augusta A109 helicopter. Helos and planes, lots of which draw the line for Lord of War. In the end, Lord of War, the movie, isn't for everyone. In a sense this film is kind of like "Blow" because it's about a man who feels his life isn't complete without selling something that is bad. He has everything he could ever want but still needs to sell the firearms. It's a powerful story which I feel really puts things in perspective as far as Americans look at things. Nicolas Cage's performance is incredible as he seems to not care at all for the people's lives he puts at stake every day and when it comes to his own life he still seems unemotional and doesn't seem to worry. I think this is one of the best film's of year. If you have an open mind about things and enjoy movies that will make you think check out "Lord of War" because it's well worth the price.

In the meantime A. Baricco, one of our Italian novelist-fantastique, is praying for objective criticism, alas "read me before you bash me". Can you read it to me? You want me to buy your story, please read it to me... tell me your story... (no-link-for-you)

I understand you are going to ask for new designs, talents, snapshots of things to come. That has been lagging on Timeline lately. A new project is in progress that will get its wings on pixartisan.com in April. So, be patient, I'm working hard on that.

Posted by lck at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

Chicken Licking Good

Rain falls on everyone, the same old rain...

The sun will shine again, one day, and tropical storms will be a thing of the past. Just not yet. And all familiar and fair unless it's Carnival time and kiddo has got herself a princess's suit along with all garments and jewels that fit the trade, schematics of what the princess, prince, queen and king are supposed to look like and Wizard of Oz on, on her G4, with new spanking 160GB of additional storage space. It shines at her place with the firstborn's privileges and the casual nap, deep in the car, back from the store.

Life is grim if your name is Callahar.

Hello, my name is Kallahar (well, it's an alias, but Kallahar really is a family name of an 1800's Irish family Ancestry of William Kallahar, born 1830). I recently tried to create a user on Yahoo with my name. Unfortunately, Yahoo said it was unavailable...

Kafka reborn under the american flag and on the Kodak filtering. More rejoicing can be found in the full PDF with Mrs. Kallahar's narrative here.

Why Allah? Why now? And why an eyebrow when corporations keep shaping the body legal and ethics as they have been for a century, around the economics and an avalanche of lawyers? Or praise American ingenuity vs. opportunity, hailing to First Amendment again and again over our thousand-islands-mushroom-guacamole with taleggio on the toothbrush.

We know where we are going, we just don't know where we are.

Busy as he is in the daily command-post-like blog reporting, Juan Cole gives his best from a comfy spot at MetroTimes. It is an excellent, long interview that expands the topic to American psychology, motivations and trade strategies.

The debate is big about subcontracting handling of major American ports operations to a UEI (United Emirates) contractor. The anger in the face of the possibility that Arabs may acquire control of such operations is visible all over the blogosphere. It turns odd to me that no debate exists over the fact, not just a possibility, that 15% of McDonald's is currently owned by Pakistanis. Hush, your cheeseburger may be listening...

As you can imagine, with no big support from quantum mechanics, shares don't mind what religion you like.

Do you really want to know who owns the remaining 85% of McDonald's? I know you won't. The jucy part is unrelated to Terrorism. Joshua M. Marshall explains it well here.

The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries...

The failure to require the company to keep business records on US soil sounds like a pretty open invitation to flout US law as near as I can tell. Forget terrorism. This is the sort of innovative business arrangement I would think a number of Bush-affiliated American companies might want to get in on. Perhaps Halliburton could be domiciled in Houston, pay its taxes in Bermuda, do its business in Iraq and keep its business records in Jordan.

Does that sound better?

Originally on Samizdata a collection of amazing aerial photos of Mexico City, here. Bizarre.

Macs are good at sharing resources with minimum effort on the user. We are sharing our ADSL via Firewire on several macs. The good is Firewire is extremely fast and the whole family can go online simultaneously from several computers. She is playing a DVD but does not really know where the physical disc is actually and I am sucking in data from one of the two storage units that I am not physically connected to and the kid is streaming Disney off of the shared Internet comm. I guess you can do the same on a PC but then again you probably have to be a Microsoft Certified Engineer with lots of days off and a double pack of painkillers. 3 macs just in the bedroom and the kid knows what works on mine must work on her.

Go explain kids to Microsoft.

Fear not, we have an update the finest. here. Yes, Yahoo Mail reverses ban on 'allah' in usernames. As everybody but some know, gods are celebrities. Left out of the grapevine? No way.

Posted by lck at 11:29 PM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2006

Swan, swan, hummingbird

It finally made it. It made it and I mean here. 21 swans out of a flock of 18 (which is, there's going to be more) found dead by the so-far-deadly H5N1, a.k.a. bird flu, within the range of this province. The event, predictable and in fact predicted, with Sicily main route for these birds to and from Russia on an average path that goes thru Southern Italy (Calabria and Puglia, 3 swans reported dead today), Albania and Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Romania and Bulgaria and, finally, indeed, Russia.

Reasons to be concerned? Cool it there maybe. Several different formulas are being final-tested for a working vaccine, including an Italian and an Israeli, the latter, apparently, very effective. The more the virus is learning from us the more we learning from him. Meanwhile avoid that swan-brushing...

I found Repubblica's special, also outlined by Zib, to be x-specially ineffective and confusing as it tries to merge a forum with structured ambientation. A better source for non-Italian readers may be this.

Did you know that the H5N1 flu virus has been circulating continuously in poultry in south-eastern China for a decade?

A massive genetic analysis shows the virus has mainly been spread by poultry, but also that wild birds carried it from southeast China to Turkey. Yi Guan and colleagues at Shantou University, plus scientists in Xiamen and Hong Kong, say the only way to stop the virus is to control it in southeast China. The Chinese authorities have denied the country is the epicenter of the virus and opposed independent flu research.

One overshadowed aspect so far is the impact bird flu is having in Africa, as detailed in a report from Nigeria, where birds are being toasted by the tens of thousands, indiscriminately. In a strange twist the Nigerian government now claims H5N1 did not reach the country via migratory birds, but through smuggled "pets and birds". Which is???

Small poultry farmers in Nigeria close to where the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus was detected said on Thursday birds were dying in large numbers and they did not know why.

The west African state is the first country on the continent to report the virus that is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia and has killed at least 88 people since late 2003.

The unexplained poultry deaths raise the possibility that the virus has already spread from four big commercial farms to small farms and even households in Africa's most populous country, posing a greater threat to human health.

[...] The Agriculture Ministry said 45,000 chickens had died at Sambawa Farms in Kaduna state, and confirmed cases of H5N1 had also been found at two farms in the neighboring Kano state and at one farm in Plateau state, which also borders Kaduna.

We still lack a single case of human-2-human transmission that we can demonstrate beyond doubt. Viruses, in their struggle for new flesh, can be very patient. Unless they can not figure it out.

Detailing the first significant outbreak (of a disease believed to be deadly) in the country with a constellation of mp3 audio and video galleries that most times break depending on your PC platform and plug-in type is a very unprofessional approach. Italian press is using flash video and WMV and intermixed. Let's hope next time they will get the story in a more old-fashioned way than this.

I can still count on North Korea for the best in denial arts. NK may deny Earth orbits around the Sun along with a sleuth of fancier things, like Microsoft's own anti-virus product (still in beta but being distributed as if it was not) tagging Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus as a virus and prompting you to delete it. Which is crazy enough to an already busy IT staff. But the best is that it is indeed possible (practically) to travel at near-speed-of-light, no headaches. Available here and quickly getting into mainstream. And for once NK would be with the wise guys.

Beam me up.

Posted by lck at 12:41 AM | Comments (2)

February 04, 2006

A fish for a fish

The day is a feast-full of the weirdest, from a flower-shaped rock spotted on Mars soil, a volcanic formation possibly, to the astronaut's suit filled up with dirty socks and let go to float out and around the ISS space station. By gravity's courtesy the suit won't go far and by way of temperature the batteries will freeze after an hour or so. The so-called "experiment" was videotaped by ISS personnel and available on the web. The narration all but clarifies what the experiment was for.

Do we need to remind our muslim friends and neighborhood that religion is a form of expression? As a form of expression in all its genres, its visuals and not, religion can any other day collide with others, who possibly express their ways differently. Unless we crave to grant religion a special status and protect it legally from collision, which we have been bordering for a while with political-correctness, a common ground has to be found. Burning flags, taking down embassies and threatening journalists does not make anybody better. Common ground to life is that it ends and if you we not cope with the simple idea that religious beliefs are a form of psychological self-shelling ourselves from the unknown and unbearable we need to find a good psychiatrist. This is true not just for muslims, which I am far away from targeting here, it is true for anybody. How great would it be if we all give up and focus on "here and now" versus the "there and after", a place we all know biologically impossible. Don't ask yourself if you are tolerant of others but do ask yourself what you want to do before you die.

The baby wanted a goldfish today. Initially she thought to give it to the turtles and enjoy the slaughtering as she discovered that turtles are predators. The wife was nodding on the same murky design. I hated both and especially their convergence. So there we go and buy a little anonymous goldfish that the kid could carry at home. While carrying it she changed her mind, now she wanted to keep it. Wife hated to push for a second fish to satisfy her need for a grand show. Now we're all starring at little Pierre going circles in a glass bowl soon to be forgotten as fishes don't do anything exciting besides circling around. I guess we all miss the original gruesome intentions now.

Posted by lck at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2006

The Slide

February is looming and the slide to Summer is on the run. Clues are available as to what we're up to. Let me first hand out the template for Calendaring Feb 06 (PSD file) here. "Save Target" in Safari as it now supports layered PSD display.
And my Feb 06 contribution here (In the Gallery by Feb 1st):

1024 x 768
1140x900
1152x768
1280x854
1440x900
1600x1200

STU tell me if you want me to take care of the Illustration you sent.

Back to the slide(s).

Slide One: ArsTechnica is running a Jobs vs. Gates discussion. Is Jobs the greedy capitalist (bad?) and Gates along with wife Melanie the charity champion (good)? Look at the numbers that are available to public, the Gates family surely gives a lot in charity while Jobs is nowhere listed. According to the article, the Gates Foundation has a US$29 billion endowment in fighting racism, poverty, inequality or war. Jobs started a charitable foundation in the 1980s but gave up once he "discovered how time-consuming such business can be." Thanks, Steve, for being honest. And thanks for being a "greedy capitalist". The least we can say is that greedy ones like Jobs who strive to make better products, find elegant solutions and have the balls to drive them to the market and influence many for the better while making a profit are the good ones. On the other side no ballistic amount of charity is going to save Gates from the catastrophic mess his products, practices and commercial behaviors are and have been for the past two decades. Bill, use your money better, to cherish the crowd from Times Mag pages with Bono is as little as nothing. Here we know who is doing a good job and who is not.

Slide Two: Push for Elections and market the idea as synonym to Democracy, make it happen and find yourself trapped in an unmarketable mess. The victory of Hamas over Fatah in recent elections for Palestinian government will drive nuts many. Consolation may be something as a civil war within Palestinian borders is already in progress and may distill a better approach on the long run. But as far as things prospect outside of the borders in the short, that's a long standoff. Juan Cole describes Bush's faults in his Salon piece here. And also look for Gilbert Achcar's guest editorial of January 27, 2006 at Cole's place. Let's try now to put pressure for negotiations based on good faith (and who is to convince Israel to do so?) and ask for no machine guns on the table. Can Europeans speak loud on this? The "other" approach, detailed here on TCS Daily is not going anywhere. In deep and focused discussion on Belmont Club here

Slide three: Soaps. The big guns are all set for some color of tragedy. "The O.C.", finally a chance to cut Marissa out of the landscape, now that the little sister is running the show. The one-that-does-not-shake, Ryan, now the wisest man in town, progressively replacing Sandy, whose role has become minimalist, which is sad. So much for the Rumble Fish. "Lost" is midway to the fall with the community half set for all-out-war with the land owners and the other half entangled into a spreading turn for private matters, sexual intercourses and drug rehab without the facilities. Both Saeed and Sawyer are on the rise, is this army to be Iraqi based? What to say about "Desperate Housewives"? At this point we are running circles around daily routines, despite the killings, mean gay children's revolts and Internet porn. The show is begging for a big dip into something that we can not forecast successfully.

Slide four: The loudest political campaign in the world, Italy, is set to spark in a few days. If I was not living here I would rather laugh about. A bloodshed will be, with no particular side detailing a coherent strategy for a country which economy is clearly on a landslide to irrelevance. The "left" conglomerate, apparently with better ties to the EU burgs, will do all it can to lose. Berlusconi, obliterating its allies, will spend whatever it takes and go as far as he can get. Let's only hope it's April soon. What about a standoff reminiscent of Germany a month ago? Is that ugly enough?

Slide five: Google is likely to shape the market's mood next week, when it comes through with its fourth-quarter results. The online search giant has blown Wall Street targets away through its first five quarters as a public company, thanks to a potent combination of improving fundamentals and an insistence on keeping mum when it comes to providing guidance to the investing community. But let's be realistic. After being humbled for five straight quarters, analysts are getting aggressive with their optimism by raising their projections and profit targets almost monthly. In fact, over the past three months, Wall Street consensus estimates for Google's 2006 profitability have grown from $8.36 to $8.76 per share. That means Google will miss, and when it does, it won't be pretty. Away from the coin count and on the flip side, recent snafus suggest not just estimates are being missed. A nasty one was recently found with Gmail forwarding from an x.y account to the corresponding xy account without user's knowledge. Another one was the now famous Google video store, the store with a price policy wholly onto the distributors. I bet anybody to buy anything on a store set up with such business logic. Cherry on the cake is Google China a.k.a. how an engineer's based company deals with censorship. Check this post on LGF to find out how Google Search works from China. It is pretty striking. Here. Amen. It is true when Google screws it, it does it big time.

Slide six:A large set of email messages, the Enron corpus, was made public during the legal investigation concerning the Enron corporation. This dataset, along with a thorough explanation of its origin, is available here. The raw Enron corpus contains 619,446 messages belonging to 158 users. Academic researchers quickly realized the e-mails were a unique and open data trove that could be exploited by researchers interested in social networks and information analysis and retrieval. The Enron Email Analysis Project at Berkley is here and includes search interfaces, specifically developed search algorithms, categorization styles and subset annotations, an email visualization and clustering tool and a database representation built by Andrew Fiore. Dig it.

Off to iTunes.

Posted by lck at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Ipod Killers Where Are They?

This op-ed (copyright Smart House Magazine) dares to draw a line. The topic is one of the hottest in the industry today: the future of the iPod. According to Chris Seybold and David Richards the outcome is very clear. At least for this year :)

Ipod Killers Where Are They?
Chris Seybold & David Richards - Sunday, 22 January 2006
© Copyright 2002 - 2005 Smart House Magazine. All rights reserved.

If there is one thing that Bill Gates and Companies like Creative or Samsung or any one hundreds of organisations who are trying to emulate Apple's iPod success can not do and that is win market share up against Apple.

Chris Seybold of Apple Matters a web site that tracks the Apple market daily writes. There are a million iPod killers floating around. Some feature more capapcity, some feature more gizmos, and some feature lower price points. None of the iPod killers are actually doing any iPod killing because they're too busy trying to be more iPodish than the iPod.

Even with the consistent lack of success the iPod wannabees have had, there are still plenty of companies willing to make iPod knockoffs. Some of the manufacturers labor under the delusion that the next iteration of their player will dethrone Apple. The more rational mp3 player producers are intent on scooping up the lion's share of the crumbs left by the market dominating iPod. For all the bluster and imitation the competition has consistently failed to dent the iTunes/iPod stranglehold, few expect that to change. Why has every attempt failed so miserably? Because if you are truly desirous to do to the iPod what Windows did to the command line there's only one company who can pull it off. Their name is Microsoft and it is only a matter of time until they make a serious effort. At least, that is Steve Jobs' take on the situation as evidenced by the following quote:

The problem is, the PC model doesn't work in the consumer electronics industry, where you've got all these companies and some does one thing and another does another thing. It just doesn't work. What's going to happen is that Microsoft is going to have to get into the hardware business of making MP3 players. This year. X-player, or whatever.

Mr. Jobs' logic is transparent. He reasons that since iTunes and the iPod use the vertical integration model that Microsoft could use the same tactic to finally relegate the iPod to the technical trash bin. In theory, the system would work as follows: Microsoft would bundle a music playing program with every PC that, of course, pointed to an iTunes like music store. The model would be completed when people buy a Microsoft produced digital audio player. Consumers, being the lazy slugs they are, would take the path of least resistance. Inevitably, iPod marginalization would ensue.

The normal objection at this point is to state, with a certain naiveté, that the iPod is much too well designed to be toppled by any music player that Microsoft could produce. That notion gives people a little too much credit for desiring slick interfaces and elegant design. Likely, any audio player designed by Microsoft wouldn't match the iPod's streamlined looks but would remain desirable. Microsoft, after all, already designs some of the best mice and keyboards and has shown certain hardware engineering skills with both editions of the XBox.

At this point, it is time for a little hand wringing. If the only thiing that is required for Microsoft to decimate the iPod is a Microsoft branded mp3 player then the future is bleak. That assessment is a little too dark. Steve may have made the path to iPod irrelevancy seem straight enough but, if Microsoft takes the gamble, they will surely find the trail full of blind turns, deadly snakes and crumbling footholds.

The logistics, of course, won't be problematic for Microsoft. They have scads of cash for development and other associated manufacturing costs. Rather, the issue would be with those who already manufacture digital audio players and license Microsoft's DRM. Suddenly, these manufacturers would find themselves competing directly with Bill Gates and his well-paid minions.

With this realization, we now see Steve's comment not as a roadmap but as bait. Were Microsoft to jump headlong into the digital audio player market there would be strong incentive to Apple to begin licensing FairPlay. Manufacturers would be forced to choose between two mainstream options: A) go with Microsoft or B) Go with Apple. In the past, the no-brainer has been to go with Microsoft. This time the obvious choice is different.

The folks who stick with Microsoft get to fight over, roughly, twenty percent of the market. The folks that go with Apple would be aligning themselves with what has become the industry standard. The players that license FairPlay would have access to the iTunes store, backwards compatibility with the songs consumers have already purchased, and a chance to compete on a perfectly level playing field with the iPod. It doesn't take a Stanford MBA to deduce that the potential rewards of opting to use FairPlay far outstrip the rewards of going with PlaysForSure.

When the vast majority of manufacturers stop supporting PlaysForSure and start supporting FairPlay, as would likely happen, then the battle is over. Microsoft will be relegated to side player in the digital content delivery market. Their DRM, the most coveted part of the deal for Microsoft, will have been shunted to a distant, irrelevant second tier player.

Why doesn't Apple go ahead and slam the lid shut on Microsoft right now in an effort to retain ownership of the growing market they already dominate? Currently, and likely until Microsoft makes a push with their own player, there isn't a reason to share the wealth with anyone. It is feasible that Google, or some unidentified third party, could begin challenging the iPod/iTunes dominance through some heretofore unthought-of bit of innovation but the end result, Apple licensing FairPlay, would remain the same.

Of course, there is a wildcard. What if Microsoft could convert FairPlay tracks so that they would run on players besides the iPod? Would that be enough to drive people away from the iPod? That functionality has been hinted at and, undoubtably, Microsoft believes that is the key to dethroning Apple. In reality, it is simply a tacit admission that competing directly with the iTunes Music Store is too much to ask of even Microsoft. If the plan goes through, the end result will be another round of supposed iPod killers showing up and being quickly forgotten.

Nothing lasts forever, certainly some day the iPod/iTunes duo will be challenged and soundly defeated. That day isn't today and unfortunately, if you're Microsoft, it isn't even this year.

© Copyright 2002 - 2005 Smart House Magazine. All rights reserved.

Posted by lck at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

January 09, 2006

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail

Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

Read more on cnet here, by Declan McCullagh.

A good definition for "annoy" can be found on Answers.com here. Quite a wide range ah?

Just a ridiculous prohibition?

Let's move to deeply interesting (and highly controversial) matters with Leonard Susskind, one of the fathers (and prime discoverer) of String Theory, panning over his recent book. The video, on Edge.org is here and I highly recommend watching it as it depicts clearly at least the following:
1) how wildly open-minded one can be at 70
2) how bad David Gross and Edward Witten must feel about their whole carrier in lieu of the recent developments in String Theory (badly looking like a re-run of Einstein's God playing dice debating)
3) if we believe and embrace arms into Susskind territory we are (necessarily?) waving goodbye to mathematical physics as searching for certainty. Un-less, here comes Susskind hardcore view, the Theory predicts ONLY local landscapes with their own local laws BUT predicts ALL of them (10 power 500 or so).

Quantum Mechanics (re-born)?

Posted by lck at 06:51 PM | Comments (1)

January 08, 2006

Bound for Glory

Bound for Glory: America in Color is the first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images. These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country's great mobilization for World War II.

The photographs in Bound for Glory, many by famed photographers such as John Vachon, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, and Marion Post Wolcott, document not only the subjects in the pictures, but also the dawn of a new era -- the Kodachrome era. These colorful images mark a historic divide in visual presentation between the monochrome world of the pre-modern age and the brilliant hues of the present.

The Photographs of the FSA/OWI

Approximately one dozen photographers were employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), and its successor agency, the Office of War Information (OWI), from 1935 through 1944. The original goal of the government project was to record through documentary photographs the ravages of the Depression on America's rural population and were intended to spur Congress and the American public to support government relief efforts. Over the years, with an improved economy, increased industrialization, and the onset of World War II, the photographs increasingly focused on an America that was productive, beautiful, and determined. The photographs originally intended to have a narrow focus developed into a noteworthy broader national record.

In additions to their documentary and historic value, the color images in the FSA/OWI Collection provide a remarkable opportunity to study the early use of color film as it was employed by a dedicated group of professional photographers -- who generally took black-and-white images. It is revealing to compare monochrome and color images taken on the same shoot, or to identify particular landscapes or subjects that caught the photographer's eye in such a way that he or she chose to use the medium of color to best represent their essence.

EXHIBITION CATALOG

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939–43. New York: H.N. Abrams in association with the Library of Congress, 2004.

The complete collection of FSA/OWI photographs -- 171,000 black-and-white images and 1,602 color images -- are available on the Library of Congress website.

Posted by lck at 02:38 AM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2006

MacWorld, here we go again

The first and early run of renderings for Caledaring 2oo6 runs very much in the family, while other friends are working on it. The Gallery is available here and a permanent link to it is now available on the main menu. Zib gave a boot to the photo illustration chapter as limited to yarn with her close-up, at which is very good, followed by Elizabeth Morrison, with a sample of lower contrast with good weaving and a rich bordeaux. Peter, a design student based in London sent his contribution, a raw sandy drawing that I appreciate for its simplicity and impact. A template for February will be made available around the 10th as well as my first sample for that month. The gallery is not optimized for Explorer. I've had it up to here with the pesky uber-abortion and Richmond-made.

In a few days Apple will kick off Macworld at Moscone, San Francisco. Everybody expect about everything but few are clear. Apple has been selling 100,000 iPods (figures are for the nano only) every day throughout December.

The Shuffle will come redesigned, lighter and possibly in colors, the offering of TV material will increase sharply with ESPN and more Disney available via iTunes, the Mac mini will be retargeted to the living room on Intel cypher processors and several software packages will receive updates, notably Final Cut, iLife (a spreadsheet anybody?) and Front Row.
All expect Intel-based iBooks, it may be early for that. And several things nobody is talking about, or else. The Motorola ROKR was a fiasco, doubt about it? Apple put its iTunes client on the phone, Motorola put its own mp3 client and the poor thingie is the only phone on the market with two players. Embarrassing. Jobs may come with radical clicks on the matter, why not a phone inside the iPod? Would you not love to flip your nano and find a thin phone pad on the back of your player? Without cheapo cameras to bother? iTunes, the flagship and core of the shift to consumers electronics should get a makeover. The app is growing bloated, and it shows. Better do it now. Demoing of an early build of Leopard is possible but with Microsoft copy-catting left and right, demo may as well be skipped until Vista gets to the point when even cosmetic changes can only make the matter worse. Jobs has to play smart this year. Here Apple either falls or puts a big hold on the market that was once Sony's. Intel-based Powerbooks now? No. An apple-cooked 3D app to complement the fast-fast quad-G5, with help from Pixar? Possible. The marketing hype is high enough, with room for some last-minute buzz, which is typical Apple. Hold your breath.

And finally, the parrot everybody would love in the house, here. He yawns and gets down too.

Posted by lck at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2006

Sleep© kicks off 2oo6

Frozen, a piece from The Bamboo Book kicks off the 2006 premiere issue of Sleep©, an alternative magazine in London, UK. All the best to the mag. I'll be standing and waiting for my copy. That's a good year!

Posted by lck at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)

The Back of Beyond

Belmont Club has so far the best commentary on the current gas war between Ukraine and Russia. The post is followed by a massive discussion, spanning several topics from the emerging role of Iran to China's supply plans. For more on Gazprom here, via Jeff Kouba's "Peace Like A River" or Martha Olcott's paper study for Rice University here (PDF).

Posted by lck at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

Raindrops, 2006

Was it a good time? Did you miss anything? All you could to make happy? Of course not, and yes.

For my crew and agency, it was a good time. 2 major assignments delivered to overseas clients and a third one in progress. A host of side-projects, smaller, with more freedom and for which inventions and turns were in the game. Cashed in, grown up, harvested well and, hopefully, seeds and occasions for new growth that will materialize in the future.

W., partner in life, gone from amateur fabric design to partnering with distributors on yarn designs and projects. That's the growing-fastest. And a sweet dealing daily, complications considered, I'm in love with a beautiful mind.

M., now 5, speaking both lingoes, with her astounding on-the-fly switching that impresses and scares and now learning French and getting confident with the parent's tools: Photoshop, Painter, her G4, as well as drawing and sketching in the real world, reminding us that she is a baby, still.

Timeline, once private place, grown from few afics to few hundreds of curious minds enticed to buy and come back, enjoying the widescreen and colorful plethora of emerging talents from around the world.

To all of you a big high-6 and the same enthusiasm for life.

Now for a few more bullets:

8 The Kenyon Review
Solid website design, conservative, balanced color matrix.
The mission of The Kenyon Review is to identify exceptionally talented emerging writers, especially from diverse communities, and publish their work (fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, reviews, etc.) alongside the many distinguished, established writers featured in its pages.

7 Andrew Kreps Gallery, NYC
Clean, almost bare site and an impressive array of non-compromise visual artists.

6 Stereohype
Pop tarts.
Stereohype.com is an online boutique offering limited editions and rare products. The stereohype range is focusing on fresh, innovative and inspirational works and expands regularly. Products include exclusively commissioned artworks for stereohype. London-based stereohype.com was launched in October 2004.

5 Inksurge, updated
Brewed in Manila, Philippines since 2002, a bigdaddy to anybody in the field.

4 Tronic Studio, updated (broadband required)
NYC directing, design and animation studio founded 2001 by Columbia Architecture graduates Jesse Seppi and Vivian Rosenthal.

3 The Stubbins Associates
Very strong and edgy website and copy.
The Stubbins Associates is a full-service architecture, planning and interior design firm with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

2 Violet Blue
Podnography
The internet is an amazing thing, nowhere else in the world can you find this much porn.
Former SRL member, Fleshbot assistant editor and podcaster extraordinaire Violet Blue. (for mature adults only) Her blog has earned an immediate attention and is listed off 2005's top ten sexiest geeks (Wired).

1 The Book of Tags
Sharp and clean website for this DROPDROP project.
The Book of Tags is a DROPDROP project, published by KITCHEN 93 and made possible by the collaboration of over 300 worldwide graffiti writers. The project attempts to analyze and also give voice to one of the most demonized yet pure means of expression within the graffiti world, the Tag.

0 If you have not noticed yet, our grand 06's postcard (go top and banner-click or)

-1 In 1973 when Brian Eno had more and better stuff to care of than producing Bono Vox, he came out with this

We hit the floor, off to drink some, thirst is timeless, see ya next year. No, before that drive to one of the boss's favorite, this girl that always cracks me up. The making of a loser. Crack.

Posted by lck at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2005

Highway Robbery

thread will be updated continuously thru the night, long as it goes

Given the socioeconomic significance of this time of year, not to mention the psycho-pathology embedded, it is worthy to dig into the Bible, at least once. A good source is Slate.com. Jesus and the Gospel, What Really Happened is a good start. The idiosyncratic habits of the American consumers, with special regards to the Christmas dinner is another, ergo, What Beast is This?. Third in my list is The Meaning of Life, who does not want to dig that? Alast, The Maccabees and the Hellenists or Hanukkah as Jewish civil war.

While Slate does a good job at offering interesting views on a matter that is after all relevant to believers as to non(s), my shopping spree sports a short list of essentials that has no much to do with the deep thinking.

If anything you want me to buy just convince me and I shall.

List below, gifts included unless undisclosable. All acquired via 2 separate runs, one in the morning, another between 1400 and 1600 (when traffic rating is low). At evening last-minute shoppers are packed in their cars in a horrible smoky mess. You want to stay away from this war of nerves.

Here we go, by brand and/or country of origin:

6 avocados, Israel
2 plates, mushrooms, large, local produce
2 boxes of falafel, Lebanon
sev, refried beans and tortillas, imported, Texas, USA
sev, Ice Cream, which must include, for the joy of many, Amen, chocolate
2 green tea and 2 "turkish" tea boxes, Aze Baba, Istambul, Turkey {a real kick-ass}
1 "fedora" hat, dark blue, size 57, by Fred W. Taylor, made in Italy (gift to myself)
3 2 x lit. carton boxes of juice, Pfanner, Austria
2 bottles of Domaine Capendu, 2003, France (N/A in Italy, thanks Mario, my wine pusher)
2 bottles of Chateau Tarreyrots, 2001, France (same + thanks as above)
2 bars of Lindt Chocolate, Swiss
1 kg Cous Cous, unbranded
1 kg long grain Basmati rice, India
1 "box turtle", our second barnyard animal (gift to Rosie), referred to as "Romeo". If these guys end up in a friendly couple, they will be reffered to as "Rolls Royce" (they were spotted taking the sunbath together today [they have a lamp just for that])
1 fluffy cat, white, black, gray and pink by LR-kids, Italy (gift to Melissa who wanted a REAL one)
1 box Walkers, shortbread, Scotland, UK
2006 Calendar, Fairfax Photos, Sydney NSW (gift from Fairfax, a just-in-time)
6 skeins of wool, 127 Print (for Wendy's scarf project), Italy
8 skeins of Grinordette, Shetland (for Wendy, TBD), Italy
6 skeins of Brilla, three yellow and three purple (for a striped top project that I pushed on the spot), Italy
1 can giant pickles, Poland (startling new entry in my list)
Warsteiner, Germany (enough to support 6 people for 2 days)
6 bottles of Corona, Mexico
6 bottles of Fisher, Germany
1 "Patrick", balloon, the Spongebob's Cartoon Series (gift to Melissa)
4 corn-on-the-cob, USA
Rambol, soft herb cheese, France
Taleggio, soft cheese, Italy
2 Pinot-Chardonnay, Italy
1 Malesan, bordeaux, 2002, France
2 Sanderman, port, Portugal
1 Sheridan's, Portugal
2 kg tuna, sliced, bloody and local
Feta, Greece (heavily used in our salads)
sev, swordfish, thin-sliced, local (I will be basically make "sushi" with these. I'll explain Sicilian sushi on another occasion.)

Glaring omission (could not be found): Cointreau
Down this year: vodka

Not in the list, accessories or prime necessities. Absent is meat, this year, we have stock sausage and steaks for the carnivore friends, absent is pasta, which we rarely eat.

colors of this week: bore brown and crimson red

suggested local policy amendments (active thru the week):
#1: mandatory 1 hour aft. nap (kids may skip this)
#2: give up the car and walk
#3: do not ALLOW guests to turn TV on during lunch/dinner

what made us so happy: advance deposit from xxxxxx.xx

2345: fireworks - what are we watching: Constantine, 2005... taking from Dante's Comedy... The Spear of Destiny has been missing... Kiddo gives it for sure that Santa is not bringing ME anything, not because I've been bad but because Santa only makes toys. Brr... but I know 2 beer mugs and a shirt are on the way. (kiddo will get a Musical Box, glass-made, and truckloads of beads)

2355: First bottle of Capendu to hit the deck. Is almost impossible to rate this wine. The entry smell is balanced, distinct, the body amazing. A rose' that is almost peachy.

It's midnight. If anybody wants to go to the mass I am available to escort, my iPod is fully charged. None of the crew seems to be interested (a church is 2 blocks South).

0010: Osama Bin Laden's niece is a cute black headed 26 old that has never met the Uncle. She experiments with pop, guitar, pic of guitar between skinny legs and another, spreading in bed on a pose worth a "fatwa". The cherry ice cream fits the soft-porn niece's pics. Not looking bad.

0015: I love Tilda Swinton. Here they get as close as 2 inches, lips by lips. She is Gabriel, the Archangel, unfortunately, the only sex they have is when she spits it out about his lung cancer, You're fucked. Is baby Jesus born yet?

0025: I have to remember not to wear my hat with my black leather jacket. If I do people are really gonna expect me to be hiding a cow or horse under the back pocket.

0035: Kiddo crashes with a smile, faithful that she's getting her gifts soon. We have to be careful about timing here. To assure her I called Santa right before closing time and he told me he'll be around and loaded by 0300. First bottle of port hits the deck.

0045: Constantine is in Capitol Hell, reading into the future. Even the cat is scared when he comes back to life smoking. And hungry. The weed must have been of the best quality.

0100: We know now that Heaven and Hell are real, the newfound revelation clears out the scene. Rachel Weisz is kind of stiff in this movie, despite the twins complication in the plot. Part 1 over and break granted to all the present. Gifts are (secretly) being laid out under the tree.

0115: They have bibles in Hell! And those who can read it get killed the most bizarre ways. Jews don't have the bible (actually they positively lack the Gospels). Hence: no scary demons movies. And no porn tax. Moses talks to God and he gets scared, in the Gospels Jesus talks to the Devil (who wishes to negotiate). You can see, a different scale of gore. Quiet town, on beer and newfound (d)ope.

0125: Conservation of energy is possibly the most important, and certainly the most practically useful of several conservation laws in physics. To actually get born you have to die first. Something's missing in the books. Red Bull time. The burritos are coming back in "spirit" form. We're all laughing and is nobody's fault.

0130: Brass knuckles are for hard-boiled. With crosses on them they kick asses. It's time to die. Corintians, 17. Is there a witness protection program for deamons?

0135: Where did she go? Constantine can not jump like Neo thru buildings. Too bad. We need to use the chair. To use the chair (back in Hell, boy) you need cold feet, Moonshine, gin and well, balls. Now it's getting cheesy. Bullets are being made out of holy brass crosses. Is it gonna work? Need more beer to believe what I see.

0140: After the machine gun scene with the demolishable zombies, the very maternal Gabriel the Archangel, and out of her mind, is back reclaiming the baby on a primitive scapel. But she's to be floating with the dead, despite her beautiful rolled-up tongue English. I dunno if it is God or the Devil himself, maybe both. He's dressed in white like a dove. The girl gave birth to something and Daddy wants it back. The Devil has feelings for his kids.

0150: The man in white has been going thru too many sleepless night, as it seems. After an intermission with cashews and a cold enough Corona everything boils down, lungs are replaced, cancer removed, extension granted. Isn't that what everybody wants anyway? An extension?

0200: Reeves has been going thru a lot of stuff: tragedy in the family, girlfriend killed in a traffic accident, we almost are relieved that he still is alive. It must be visible, right on his face, so sad (and woody) when it's to kill an angel. And he DOES NOT kill her. Choose a higher power if you have to be slave to one.

0220: Baby Jesus is born. Heaven(s) and Hell are happy. The wheel resets, fowarding for Spring. We're going to quietly rest down to wake up again tomorrow. A lifetime-long embarrasment has vanished by a ritual worth an hour. We can party until New Year's now. For the day, the lights die down. And my Corona is still half full. I'll do the dishes in the morning, for breakfast.

Posted by lck at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2005

Post-Millennium-Rebellions

J. G. Ballard has been writing the same novel ad nauseam. The curious about Ballard's writings is that structural repetition doesn't matter. The detective story will have readers guessing the solution long before the narrator, whose assumptions are painfully inept. Even the temporal structure of the novel revisits familiar territory; and the clunkiness of much of the prose should come as no surprise to anyone who has read any of the author's recent novels. But nobody reads Ballard for structural innovation or stylish prose. They read him for the ideas and the ideas are the most interesting.

Millennium People tells the story of a middle-class revolt. Action takes place in Chelsea Marina, whose residents - middle-market professionals being slowly priced out of the London housing market - are sick of paying exorbitant maintenance charges and excessive parking fees; sick, moreover, of being relied upon to be tolerant and liberal, of being forced to enjoy the right kinds of activities, eat the right foods and wear the right clothes.

Ballard has identified the stress points of modern British society - from parking charges and property development to random acts of violence such as the Hungerford killings - and recombined them in startling ways. The novel deals with terrorism, but for Ballard terrorist aims are often merely justifications for unleashing the liberating power of violence. These acts of violence serve as protests against a future Ballard has long warned us about - one in which nothing happens - and a defence against an all-embracing mediocrity.

Ballard has charted the future with such accuracy that almost any contemporary feature of our landscape, psychic or physical, can be described as Ballardian. Weirdly enough, his work has never fed back successfully into more modern media than print but Ballard is still among the most powerful.

Dig for more in one Ballard's extended interviews for Spike here.

A hat is about a scalp. With high winds and freezing temps and mud rendering down to pottery by oxidation and heat, I am on the lookout for a solid, black, confortable hat. I'm on a fedora type, down to where size matters and going to unleash cash as soon as I get the right fit. I'm a frequent shaver learning from memory, a fun combination and a nice gift forward. And a fit under the tree precisely in its round cardboard box. Get a hat, plan in advance or try every one you see. And if you don't, have your boyfriend do so. Now, is that a gangster hat? Oh, so?

Typographica is a journal of typography featuring news, observations, and open commentary on fonts and typographic design.

KONG is restaurant designed by Philippe Starck. Worth a visit. Starck is also involved in the Virgin Galactic Spaceport

Remixed Vinyls is customised 12" vinyls by designers. By Wear It With Pride

Christian Lindemann is a fine Illustrator and Graphic Designer from Hannover with an interesting Portfolio.

Could we ignore mentioning D&G's extending reach all the way to mobile phones? Yes, we could. But when it comes to gold a polite warning is mandatory.

The Italian design duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have added a distinctive liquid gold finish, a personalised background with screensaver, a tailored sound for power up and down, an exclusive polyphonic ring tone and a video clip illustrating 20 years of Dolce & Gabbana brand history. The limited edition RAZR V3i also includes rich functionality with a 1.23 mega pixel digital camera, optional expandable memory in the classic RAZR form.

If you really need to swallow a bitter drop of ultimate evil you know what to buy. Golden colored curly hairs are, of course, mandatory.

The limited edition RAZR V3i marks the end to glitter. Don't say we did not give you good advance notice.

A History of Violence hits like a slap on the face: a near-perfect film that manages to be confounding, hilarious, shocking, infuriating, and enormously moving – usually all at the same time. Yes, it’s audacious. It’s manipulative and gory and chilly and at times seems so wildly uneven that you wonder if any two people on set had been given the same shooting script. But God bless him, David Cronenberg has accomplished his masterwork by squeezing all of his unique observations about the human condition into a non-Cronenbergian film. And with his trademark creepiness curbed, he has turned in one of the most jaw-droppingly humane gorefests ever made.

Viggo Mortenson plays Tom Stall, small-town man whose perfect, loving family upper-middle-class existence are nothing short of the American dream. Kids and wife (Maria Bello) genuinely love him, he works hard at his business (he owns a diner) and seems to be respected in the community. Tom gives off a quiet integrity that most men could practice for years and still never perfect: balanced, intelligent, and tempered. But when two “bad men” wheel into town (after murdering several people – including a young girl – in the opening scene) and attempt to rob Tom’s diner, everything changes in a matter of seconds. One moment these two thugs have taken Tom and his fellow citizens hostage, and the next both lie dead on the floor by Tom’s quick and alarming agility with a firearm and a pot of hot coffee. Tom becomes a hero, but the cycle of violence that has been set into motion by his act will spin in ever-widening circles, threatening to rip Tom, his family, and his community to shreds. Things begin to deteriorate days after the incident, following two tracks – one Tom’s, and one involving his son, Jack. While Tom is visited at his diner by a group of men who claim to know him as Joey Cusack from Philadelphia – supposedly some sort of cold-blooded contract killer – his sensitive son’s continued problems with an aggressive bully have been complicated by Jack’s father’s heroism. Although Tom’s quick response may have solved the problem in the diner, his aggression is creating more questions than answers for those around him. Is violence an acceptable answer, after all? If so, where is the line between self-defense and sadism? And how is it that one violent man can be a monster, when another is a savior? As the threat of compounded violence continues to rise (within the Stall household and without), these questions become percussive. Is it too far? Is violent action ever to be celebrated? If not, is the heroism that accompanies it hollow?

“A History of Violence” is able to present this discussion within the context of a generic system where such things are never questioned. Wrapped into the familiar form of a violent crime thriller, Cronenberg’s calm observations are doubly effective. “Violence” addresses the issues from within the system. He could have made a cold, calculated drama about violence that examined the subject from an academic vantage point – but he would have ignored the inescapable primal pull that violence has – the fascination that draws our eyes out the window at a traffic accident. In Cronenberg’s tale, violence is an inescapable fact but it’s a force that can and must be controlled.

Cronenberg's former obsession of “body terror” has been shifted in favor of the more potent topics of culpability, regret, and community responsibility. The question of how to stop a cycle of violence is a tough one and it is both refreshing and immensely rewarding to see Cronenberg take on the subject on all cylinders, dispensing with much of the fetishistic imagery and kooky theatrics of his more avante-garde work. Beyond this, Cronenberg’s touch is very plainly visible in everything from the static framing to the eerie calm and awkward silences. His sense of humor is as pitch-dark as ever, bringing unexpected levity to otherwise harrowing scenes and twisting expectations into pretzels.

Few films dare you to pretend that you’re not learning something while you’re enjoying the suspense, the gunplay and the blood. In the case of “History”, it’s a lesson worth learning.

Posted by lck at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2005

Wet Wet Wet

& yes I was at the base on a nigh-shift, you can never stay off too long from that job and the river right outta base was looking scary and gloomy from the start, on the night track thru the gate. Dark waters in the dark that you can't yet see and shift's in, water's on the rise and all's fine. Channel's crafts are coming in from downrange. Oman and Saudi, contingency missions on their way back and crews ready for pick up, TACC is happy. Then, allofasudden hell breaks loose, levees give up, water starts flooding in, in the tons, mud, debris and, I'll learn about it later from Italian Police, people.

How good it is to work on the UPPER floors? Good. How bad to be UNDER-STAFFED? Bad. Really.

In a matter of minutes the Air Terminal is clogged by a torrential amount of water, mud and what not. Pax, Check Point Personnel and us, Air Terminal Control, swarming thru the complex looking to unplug everything, PCs, X-Ray scanners, dispensers and wall units and, shit, the Xmas tree. Strap all cables above shit level. And down. Coffee machine is gone. Which is, no main supply of caffeine, who knows for how long. Security scared by projected lack of cigarettes, food and cars. Fuel is down, no gas to anybody. Radios mostly down. American residents are being picked up out of their wrecks via boats by EOD, moved onto higher grounds. Runways are flooded, Primary and Secondary. When I call the US ATC Central, they can't believe we are getting ready to shutdown the base. You guys are flooded? Yes, badly. I'm taking personnel upstairs, Pax, airline representatives, passers by and passengers. Notify your crews they can party all night and get wasted, they are not going anywhere. Direct all aircrafts to overfly my station, we are not taking any mission until this mess is sorted out. Amen and have a dry day. It's 2 a.m.

Hours to go and what to do.

The freaking river swarming like a giant snake by our very own feet in the complex. And raining again. Dets call for fuel: T1 until further notice. That includes lightning, where do you want to go? Call my boss, partying in Naples somewhere. Shutting down, people frightened here and wet, air traffic closed, water coming in like in a jap movie from the 70's. Boss suggests try to get out. Get out how? Have 3 drivers and 7 buses. Buses: 5 stranded, 2 may be recoverable, all underwater. Maybe float. Drivers: no way to know what it looks like out of the gate. They don't want to risk, hell if I ask them. Police says stay where you are, the other river (the Simeto river) is going to break loose anytime (it did on Dec 14th, at 1700L). After this last call, general shutdown: power, phone lines, communications, the works. Calling all hands on cell phones and direct them to stay home and not to come to the area. Then we lost contact with tower. It's 4 a.m.

Boss is flying down to find out all roads are being held off by police a few clicks away from base. Water still coming. How much water is in a river, I ask. Won't hit us a story high but frightening as it keeps rushing in. My ramp has become a lake, spotted here and there by parked aircrafts.

Captain comes on something like a Humvee with two LCDRs. We're gonna try to leave, I'm sure you understand. ODO reports 2 feet of mud on the runways. Days to clean up is the estimate.

Rent two buses from Catania to base and after two hours they only make it to the closest gas station. Police holding everybody including an endless line of trucks. I have 30 people to evacuate. Drivers, stay there, one way or the other we'll come meet you. Don't you move. It's 7 a.m.

Then I get report of one of my drivers leaving the area, alone, on a Fiat Cinquecento. Does this not give me shivers? He made it, making the case for the other two to look silly. And it works. They recover two vans, a Mercedes and a Ford, 18 seats each, out of the new-formed sea, working the cables half submerged in the mess and out on the streets cutting the mud like butter. Say goodbye, jump into the vans, cross the gate and over something that looks like Mississippi, meet the boss at the intersection where all vehicles are being held, including several workers injured in the flood, and jump on the big bus back home. For a while we are going thru flatlands of plain water and mud. It's 10 a.m. and I think I've never seen anything quite like this.

And off for a few days, on a fairly dry and mud-free environment. Grace, when you'll see what your Air Terminal looks like now, just take a deep breath. Nature has issues, you know?

After all, so much for the excitement, we did good. Jose', Larry, call up the cleaners and shell out some extra money to them. Marco, how much for your little Cinquecento?

Posted by lck at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

Did you miss class today?

Did you miss class today? And if not today, have you ever missed class?

Click-banner or read the article here and you'll find out you may not have excuses anymore. If this sounds crazy be advised that the two Universities involved in experimenting with podcasting lectures are Berkley and Stanford.

Experimenting makes it all vague, a cloud of consolation you'd like to hang on for a while but the contents are available now.

Berkley webcast directory is here
Stanford on iTunes homepage is here

While Stanford offers audio lectures, via iTunes, almost all of Berkley's materials also include video.

If Mohammed Can’t Come To The Mountain...

Posted by lck at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2005

If America left Iraq

Nir Rosen has been on the ground in Iraq a lot, speaks Arabic, and reports accurately on the mindset of Iraqis. Juan Cole points to his article on The Atlantic Monthly of December 2005, where Nir makes a case for Cutting & Running. Juan seems to imagine a post-war scenario that is to be close to catastrophic. Nir, very much disillusioned about what is going to happen, pictures a mild scenario, in some ways, surprising.

The Atlantic Monthly December 2005

Copyright © 2005 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; December 2005; If America Left Iraq; Volume 296, No. 5; 42

The Agenda, Hypotheticals

If America Left Iraq

The case for cutting and running
by Nir Rosen

.....

At some point—whether sooner or later—U.S. troops will leave Iraq. I have spent much of the occupation reporting from Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, Fallujah, and elsewhere in the country, and I can tell you that a growing majority of Iraqis would like it to be sooner. As the occupation wears on, more and more Iraqis chafe at its failure to provide stability or even electricity, and they have grown to hate the explosions, gunfire, and constant war, and also the daily annoyances: having to wait hours in traffic because the Americans have closed off half the city; having to sit in that traffic behind a U.S. military vehicle pointing its weapons at them; having to endure constant searches and arrests. Before the January 30 elections this year the Association of Muslim Scholars—Iraq's most important Sunni Arab body, and one closely tied to the indigenous majority of the insurgency—called for a commitment to a timely U.S. withdrawal as a condition for its participation in the vote. (In exchange the association promised to rein in the resistance.) It's not just Sunnis who have demanded a withdrawal: the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is immensely popular among the young and the poor, has made a similar demand. So has the mainstream leader of the Shiites' Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who made his first call for U.S. withdrawal as early as April 23, 2003.

If the people the U.S. military is ostensibly protecting want it to go, why do the soldiers stay? The most common answer is that it would be irresponsible for the United States to depart before some measure of peace has been assured. The American presence, this argument goes, is the only thing keeping Iraq from an all-out civil war that could take millions of lives and would profoundly destabilize the region. But is that really the case? Let's consider the key questions surrounding the prospect of an imminent American withdrawal.

Would the withdrawal of U.S. troops ignite a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites?

No. That civil war is already under way—in large part because of the American presence. The longer the United States stays, the more it fuels Sunni hostility toward Shiite "collaborators." Were America not in Iraq, Sunni leaders could negotiate and participate without fear that they themselves would be branded traitors and collaborators by their constituents. Sunni leaders have said this in official public statements; leaders of the resistance have told me the same thing in private. The Iraqi government, which is currently dominated by Shiites, would lose its quisling stigma. Iraq's security forces, also primarily Shiite, would no longer be working on behalf of foreign infidels against fellow Iraqis, but would be able to function independently and recruit Sunnis to a truly national force. The mere announcement of an intended U.S. withdrawal would allow Sunnis to come to the table and participate in defining the new Iraq.

But if American troops aren't in Baghdad, what's to stop the Sunnis from launching an assault and seizing control of the city?

Sunni forces could not mount such an assault. The preponderance of power now lies with the majority Shiites and the Kurds, and the Sunnis know this. Sunni fighters wield only small arms and explosives, not Saddam's tanks and helicopters, and are very weak compared with the cohesive, better armed, and numerically superior Shiite and Kurdish militias. Most important, Iraqi nationalism—not intramural rivalry—is the chief motivator for both Shiites and Sunnis. Most insurgency groups view themselves as waging a muqawama—a resistance—rather than a jihad. This is evident in their names and in their propaganda. For instance, the units commanded by the Association of Muslim Scholars are named after the 1920 revolt against the British. Others have names such as Iraqi Islamic Army and Flame of Iraq. They display the Iraqi flag rather than a flag of jihad. Insurgent attacks are meant primarily to punish those who have collaborated with the Americans and to deter future collaboration.

Wouldn't a U.S. withdrawal embolden the insurgency?

No. If the occupation were to end, so, too, would the insurgency. After all, what the resistance movement has been resisting is the occupation. Who would the insurgents fight if the enemy left? When I asked Sunni Arab fighters and the clerics who support them why they were fighting, they all gave me the same one-word answer: intiqaam—revenge. Revenge for the destruction of their homes, for the shame they felt when Americans forced them to the ground and stepped on them, for the killing of their friends and relatives by U.S. soldiers either in combat or during raids.

But what about the foreign jihadi element of the resistance? Wouldn't it be empowered by a U.S. withdrawal?

The foreign jihadi element—commanded by the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—is numerically insignificant; the bulk of the resistance has no connection to al-Qaeda or its offshoots. (Zarqawi and his followers have benefited greatly from U.S. propaganda blaming him for all attacks in Iraq, because he is now seen by Arabs around the world as more powerful than he is; we have been his best recruiting tool.) It is true that the Sunni resistance welcomed the foreign fighters (and to some extent still do), because they were far more willing to die than indigenous Iraqis were. But what Zarqawi wants fundamentally conflicts with what Iraqi Sunnis want: Zarqawi seeks re-establishment of the Muslim caliphate and a Manichean confrontation with infidels around the world, to last until Judgment Day; the mainstream Iraqi resistance just wants the Americans out. If U.S. forces were to leave, the foreigners in Zarqawi's movement would find little support—and perhaps significant animosity—among Iraqi Sunnis, who want wealth and power, not jihad until death. They have already lost much of their support: many Iraqis have begun turning on them. In the heavily Shia Sadr City foreign jihadis had burning tires placed around their necks. The foreigners have not managed to establish themselves decisively in any large cities. Even at the height of their power in Fallujah they could control only one neighborhood, the Julan, and they were hated by the city's resistance council. Today foreign fighters hide in small villages and are used opportunistically by the nationalist resistance.

When the Americans depart and Sunnis join the Iraqi government, some of the foreign jihadis in Iraq may try to continue the struggle—but they will have committed enemies in both Baghdad and the Shiite south, and the entire Sunni triangle will be against them. They will have nowhere to hide. Nor can they merely take their battle to the West. The jihadis need a failed state like Iraq in which to operate. When they leave Iraq, they will be hounded by Arab and Western security agencies.

What about the Kurds? Won't they secede if the United States leaves?

Yes, but that's going to happen anyway. All Iraqi Kurds want an independent Kurdistan. They do not feel Iraqi. They've effectively had more than a decade of autonomy, thanks to the UN-imposed no-fly zone; they want nothing to do with the chaos that is Iraq. Kurdish independence is inevitable—and positive. (Few peoples on earth deserve a state more than the Kurds.) For the moment the Kurdish government in the north is officially participating in the federalist plan—but the Kurds are preparing for secession. They have their own troops, the peshmerga, thought to contain 50,000 to 100,000 fighters. They essentially control the oil city of Kirkuk. They also happen to be the most America-loving people I have ever met; their leaders openly seek to become, like Israel, a proxy for American interests. If what the United States wants is long-term bases in the region, the Kurds are its partners.

Would Turkey invade in response to a Kurdish secession?

For the moment Turkey is more concerned with EU membership than with Iraq's Kurds—who in any event have expressed no ambitions to expand into Turkey. Iraq's Kurds speak a dialect different from Turkey's, and, in fact, have a history of animosity toward Turkish Kurds. Besides, Turkey, as a member of NATO, would be reluctant to attack in defiance of the United States. Turkey would be satisfied with guarantees that it would have continued access to Kurdish oil and trade and that Iraqi Kurds would not incite rebellion in Turkey.

Would Iran effectively take over Iraq?

No. Iraqis are fiercely nationalist—even the country's Shiites resent Iranian meddling. (It is true that some Iraqi Shiites view Iran as an ally, because many of their leaders found safe haven there when exiled by Saddam—but thousands of other Iraqi Shiites experienced years of misery as prisoners of war in Iran.) Even in southeastern towns near the border I encountered only hostility toward Iran.

What about the goal of creating a secular democracy in Iraq that respects the rights of women and non-Muslims?

Give it up. It's not going to happen. Apart from the Kurds, who revel in their secularism, Iraqis overwhelmingly seek a Muslim state. Although Iraq may have been officially secular during the 1970s and 1980s, Saddam encouraged Islamism during the 1990s, and the difficulties of the past decades have strengthened the resurgence of Islam. In the absence of any other social institutions, the mosques and the clergy assumed the dominant role in Iraq following the invasion. Even Baathist resistance leaders told me they have returned to Islam to atone for their sins under Saddam. Most Shiites, too, follow one cleric or another. Ayatollah al-Sistani—supposedly a moderate—wants Islam to be the source of law. The invasion of Iraq has led to a theocracy, which can only grow more hostile to America as long as U.S. soldiers are present. Does Iraqi history offer any lessons?

The British occupation of Iraq, in the first half of the twentieth century, may be instructive. The British faced several uprisings and coups. The Iraqi government, then as now, was unable to suppress the rebels on its own and relied on the occupying military. In 1958, when the government the British helped install finally fell, those who had collaborated with them could find no popular support; some, including the former prime minister Nuri Said, were murdered and mutilated. Said had once been a respected figure, but he became tainted by his collaboration with the British. That year, when revolutionary officers overthrew the government, Said disguised himself as a woman and tried to escape. He was discovered, shot in the head, and buried. The next day a mob dug up his corpse and dragged it through the street—an act that would be repeated so often in Iraq that it earned its own word: sahil. With the British-sponsored government gone, both Sunni and Shiite Arabs embraced the Iraqi identity. The Kurds still resent the British perfidy that made them part of Iraq.

What can the United States do to repair Iraq?

There is no panacea. Iraq is a destroyed and fissiparous country. Iranians and Saudis I've spoken to worry that it might be impossible to keep Iraq from disintegrating. But they agree that the best hope of avoiding this scenario is if the United States leaves; perhaps then Iraqi nationalism will keep at least the Arabs united. The sooner America withdraws and allows Iraqis to assume control of their own country, the better the chances that Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari won't face sahil. It may be decades before Iraq recovers from the current maelstrom. By then its borders may be different, its vaunted secularism a distant relic. But a continued U.S. occupation can only get in the way.

Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New America Foundation, spent sixteen months reporting from Iraq after the American invasion. His book In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq will be published in February.

Copyright © 2005 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; December 2005; If America Left Iraq; Volume 296, No. 5; 42

Posted by lck at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2005

John, I'm only dancing...

Holidays are comings. Yee-hey! What did you say? What did she say? Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, New Year. Some families definitely have Chrismukkah. Wasp with Jew: Chrismukkah. Kwanza is consolidating a good sized market (both imaginary and real) growing on colored customers. Bro! Black Friday, the big post-Thanksgiving all-off-the-shelves frenzy in the US for years now spreading to become worldwide re-currence.

December's statistical patterns exhibit the highest number of suicides worldwide, every year. As family members get closer in meetings confrontations arise, memories of good and bad, deadlines for which to bleed, pressure the domestic deadlines and depression kicking in; above all a loud call to be happy and smiley and understanding. This is the time half kids want to gather and suck out their slice of alcohol and sex, the other half just wants to disappear.

It don't matter under which flag, Jesus or a new plasma TV, you get your booze and self-distraction, one way or the other, let's talk to the kids who hate festivities so much I can hear them striving at finding a comprehensive theory by which to justify their (angst). Easy is to hit the religious frame, easier is to hit the suffocating grip of capitalism unfolding at its peak.

How well are you willing to fit into the "routines" involved in the festivities while at the same time holding your good post at the very core of the same? How willing are you to get loose and make a bit of a mess of your parents and their expectations, relatives and season's rules? You're not good at making a mess? Sure you are!

Don't like Christmas trees? Get a nativity set up. Want to include naked figurines taking a bath by baby Jesus in the moonlight? He was well into pornography, your seat in heaven won't be vacated by couple nymphs glaring at kids innocent eyes. Have a plant you love? Strategically place those shiny glass balls disco and garlands on it. You'll love it. Remember that you parents/relatives have no clue border-lining the lousy routine of setting up a Christmas tree that looks like, well, a Christmas tree. It is mostly up to you. Show them (don't convince them) the boundaries are always broader. Surprise is juice. Nephews use to get video games for Christmas? Get them a bunch of roses. Spend more but shock them. Don't like the food you normally get on the table on these occasion or are you just a lazy? Order pizza. Good French cheese is the side dish. Fill in the voids with Absolut or Cawarra and dispense yogurt to the kids if you please so. Just divorced and down about the future? Set up auctions on eBay with his/her engagement's jewelry. He/she may just buy all of them back at twice the price. Capitalism, Wow. Oops, no jewelry? Well, then you have reasons to feel better and look elsewhere.

Don't get disconnected, mad or depressed. Get loose, stick to where you are. Can do way more damage (and bring way more love and fun) from where you are than from a deserted beach in some remote station with a 3 Celsius degree morning breeze and teeth going like a sawing machine. To act stupid, tactically, is the ultimate privilege and performance act and we deserve it, inheritance and valuable. When the ceiling is low, don't just dig a hole. This time, in the narrow between ceiling and the floor, spread your arms, be what you are, bring the virus in.

Back to the Baileys and Happy Whatever.

Posted by lck at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2005

Aperture

Apple has cojones.

David Girard uses this bold and straight, if mexican sounding statement in his review of the now-shipping Aperture from Apple. Review is available on Ars Technica.

Aperture is a pro-level RAW support photo cataloging app, not to be confused with Photoshop. It offers advanced RAW workflow, professional project management, compare and select tools, nondestructive image processing, and printing and publishing. Bold are pocket and system requirements (499$ and a dual G5).

The review is a piece of art and I highly recommend it. What is shown is the detailed process, on the part of not a professional photographer but a professional retoucher, of picking and pushing a complex software tool, underline what and where the snafus are and drawing conclusions that are clear and useful to potential customers. Unfortunately the circumspection used in the review does not save Apple.
Good job David.

Enjoy the reading.

Posted by lck at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2005

R.I.P. Macromedia

In short, Macromedia ends today.

Adobe and Macromedia expect to have all of the regulatory clearances necessary to complete Adobe's purchase of Macromedia by today. The acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe began last spring, and will transfer Macromedia's product line to Adobe. The transaction will be all stock, and Macromedia share holders will receive 1.38 shares of Adobe common stock for each share of Macromedia stock they own.

Macromedia's product line includes Freehand, Dreamweaver, Flash, and several other products that web and graphic designers use daily. The future of these products is uncertain, especially since products like Freehand, which competes with Adobe Illustrator, has received little support from Macromedia in recent years.

Dreamweaver, Macromedia's web development tool, competes with Adobe GoLive in the web design market. Both applications have strong supporters, and Adobe is not yet commenting on its plans for the future of either product.

Obtaining Flash, a web standard for delivering multi-media content to web browsers, is a big feather in Adobe's cap. The company now will control the file format, and the tools to develop for it, something Macromedia historically blocked Adobe from doing.

Adobe will hold a financial analyst meeting on December 15 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the combined company's outlook for fiscal 2006. It will present its strategy for moving forward in New York City on January 31, 2006.

Posted by lck at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

The O.C.

[Recently we’ve got hooked on American TV shows. Starting last year it was Sex & the City. Of late we caught up with Desperate Housewives and Lost. And our latest arrival is the O.C., which I’ll be talking about here]

The O.C., on Fox, how nice to write while watching. We’re on Season 1 Episode 24. Yes, big DVDs with Season 1 and 2 on them from grandma. Unpacking... and onto the blue ray...

Newport Beach, the place where all the hot stuff happens, must be really small. There is no apparent way to hide your wrongdoings (and sins) as somebody is going to be watching you. Marissa’s mom, Julie, (Marissa is the heroin in the O.C.) dates the way-younger Luke while divorcing hubby in progress. Marissa and Ryan (the James-Dean-Ramble-Fish from Chino) and Ryan’s legal brother, Seth, plus Summer, Seth’s girlfriend, go to the movies. Marissa gets out in tears, movie’s depressing or she is, I vote that she is, and out there who do they meet? Mum and young heart-throbber Luke. More tears.

The same above bunch but this time Marissa is dating Luke (don’t laugh, this is a soap after all) heads to Tijuana. Luke is going downrange as well on his own. Ryan is upset as he usually is but the group holds together in the name of fun and heads to one of a gazillion bars in town (and Tijuana is not a small town). Marissa (and 3 witnesses) steps upstairs to the dance floor and who does she see? Luke with another girl, smooching each other all over. Tears (and break-up on-the-spot). Surprise, Tijuana is after all a small place too!

At this point it looks like Luke is being kicked out of the plot, which is a shame, may the Gods of Orange County have him under good shelter.

The O.C. is a well written nightmare, cool at times and where parents for once don’t exhibit a brain the size of a turtle's (unless sex is on the menu). Mostly everybody are borderline alcoholic, use drugs, drive SUVs and are either millionaires or on the verge of bankruptcy. But the leading couple, while the grinding engine throughout the whole plot, geez, what do we make of these guys?

Marissa is a master of “clueless”. To find anything remotely close to Melinda Clarke’s acting in the O.C. (Marissa Cooper) I’ll have to send you back to Shelley Duvall (the Wendy Torrance in “The Shining”). In Shining was raw terror, here is pure clumsiness. I agree, the producers probably agree too, that this mish-mash of clueless eye-hand-shoulder moves is the fascinating part of Marissa’s character. Slipping like an eel away from language not knowing why. The result is (and I have yet to go over Season 2) tiring. Very very so. (sorry girl, but you're cute)

Ryan is very different from Marissa. In a way, opposite. Grown up in Chino, no money, no college, sideline criminal and violent, adopetd by millionaires and with moral vectors to spare due to rebounding guilt. Now, one of the goods of the series is these kids are not being instructed every 10 minutes on what they are supposed to do and act like. But here comes Ryan with an advice, a statement, a moral line for each. Self-righteous 101, that is Ryan. The result is tiring. Very very so. (sorry man, you should get loose a bit) And, are you ever going to have sex with Marissa anyway? We are very concerned about that. I heard this is going to drag you guys all the way to Season 3. I’ll quit here if that is true.

I know many of you are or have been on this already and possibly the long-term developments of these observations are clear. I remind those who have never been on a soap ever that to be stoopid is your right, an hour a day, as is filing your nails by the pool (if you have one:)

For more on the O.C. visit fox.com

SPOILER for the not in the advanced: At end of Season 1 everybody is in tears. Ryan is leaving with Theresa, heading to Chino, to deliver her baby. (See, he has sex, just not with the one we expect). Don't you people cry, this is an easy fix. Theresa will lose the baby. Sorta. After three months and with Marissa and Ryan back together (why keep Theresa once she loses your child, duh!) we expected the leading couple to proceed further in their relationship, correct? Well, not quite. Marissa is ready to bounce off again. And this time it is not straight vodka or painkillers or another casual boyfriend. What is it? The stepfather? The hunchback? Midgets? Or a girlfriend?

A girlfriend?

More tears:-)

Posted by lck at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2005

Turn On. Tune In. Take Over.

From the November 21st, 2005 issue of New York Metro Magazine, by Adam Sternbergh, an entry on what is becoming a moving target: television. This little op-ed is compact, informed and brilliant in detailing where we are and we're we're going with this very specific and pervasive business model. Not much could I add that is not here already. I'm sure many will find themselves in it. Read on.

Television
Turn On. Tune In. Take Over.
Viewers, light your torches! The television revolution is at the gates.

By Adam Sternbergh

Copyright © 2005 , New York Metro, Llc. All rights reserved.

Before we discuss how everything we know about television has changed forever, let’s start with three recent, apparently unrelated, and essentially mundane anecdotes:

(1) Last month, Apple unveiled yet another new iPod, this one capable of playing video. At the time, it seemed underwhelming—little more than another Bravo, Steve Jobs! moment and a chance to watch U2 videos on a screen three inches high. As an ancillary benefit, however, Apple started selling commercial-free episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives on its iTunes Website, along with select music videos, for $1.99 each. Three weeks later, iTunes had sold its 1 millionth such video.

(2) This summer, Universal did something kind of weird: It released Serenity, a sci-fi movie based on a poorly rated TV show, Firefly, that had been canceled after eleven episodes. Making movies of hit TV shows has a self-explanatory logic, but there aren’t too many movies based on TV flops. But I saw Serenity and liked it a lot, so I went out and bought the entire run of the Firefly TV series on DVD, watched it, and liked it a lot as well.

(3) Last week, Fox announced that, owing to scheduling conflicts, it planned to put its new series Prison Break—which spends the whole season following one man’s compelling, if slightly absurd, effort to break himself and his brother out of prison—on hiatus until late May. The show’s fan base howled all over the Internet, and for good reason: Prison Break is premised on a puzzle that takes all season to solve, with each episode a mini-cliff-hanger. One fan-generated suggestion to Fox was, why not move the show to a less-competitive time slot, such as Friday, where die-hard fans can still find it? I’ve been recording the show on my DVR (TiVoing it, you might say, except the folks at TiVo don’t like you to use that word unless you own, you know, a TiVo) and enjoying each episode at my leisure. So naturally, my first reaction to this debate was, Wait a minute. Prison Break airs on Monday nights?!

What do we know about TV? Here’s the basic model: Networks air particular shows at particular times on particular nights; say, Commander in Chief on ABC, every Tuesday at nine. These shows are available to viewers for free, subsidized by intrusive blocks of ads—a leftover from the days when TV was magically plucked from the air by your rooftop antennae, like radio with pictures. A TV show’s ratings determines both its sustainability (on the network schedule) and its profitability (in terms of how much its advertisers can be charged). These ratings are calculated by following the habits of a small number of representative viewers, tracked by the Nielsen company, whose preferences are then extrapolated for the entire audience. The prime economic directive of TV, therefore, has always been, TV doesn’t sell shows to viewers: It sells viewers to advertisers.

It’s an interesting business model, one that came about by accident, and one that is now entirely obsolete. If you have a DVR—and in New York city, 20 percent of Time Warner’s digital customers do—you can watch shows whenever you like; the shows are, in effect, untethered from their time slots. (Exhibit A: the recently redesigned TV Guide, retooled around the assumption that no one uses a TV Guide anymore.) So she watches Prison Break on Monday at nine, he watches it Monday at midnight, and I watch it Wednesday morning at eight, before work, over a bowl of oatmeal.

But what if she, he, and I aren’t enough viewers to keep a show alive on the network? No problem: We’ll just buy the DVD. Fox’s critically praised 24 was nearly canceled after a disappointing first season in 2002—its low ratings owing, in part, to the difficulty for the audience of jumping into the high-concept show midstream. So, Fox released the first season on DVD just before the second one premiered (the first time anyone had released a DVD of a show that early on), and it sold so well that it renewed Fox’s commitment to the show, which went on to become a hit. Fox’s Family Guy actually was canceled, then the DVD came out and sold about 2 million copies, and Fox did something no network had done before: It revived the canceled show. Of course, networks are quick to point out that DVD sales still pale next to ad revenue (which, in turn, pale next to syndication, TV’s pot of gold at the end of the rainbow), but the precedent’s been established: People are paying directly for shows. And the popularity of DVDs, both culturally and as a source of found money for studios, is not only rescuing faltering shows but altering the content of new ones: It’s one reason we’re seeing so many new “arc” shows that follow a single storyline over a whole season, à la Lost, Prison Break, or the recently ordered NBC show Kidnapped, about a single abduction.

As long as shows were reliant on ads for their revenue, the total number of viewers mattered. Now, not so much. In fact, whereas broadly popular shows prospered under the old model, niche shows with hard-core fan bases prosper under the new one. Shows like 24 and Firefly sell a lot of DVDs. Shows like Yes, Dear and Two and Half Men do not. Studios (which make the shows) and networks (which buy and air them) are still fond of traditional, mass-appeal programs such as Two and a Half Men because of their high ad rates and lucrative afterlife in syndication. But both of those markets seem in jeopardy. Once you’ve got an overflow of your favorite shows stored up on your DVR (and your iPod and your DVD shelf), why watch reruns of Home Improvement on TBS?

Okay, so maybe you don’t have to watch a show at a particular time anymore. And maybe a show doesn’t need a huge audience to be financially viable. It’s still TV, right? It’s still half-hour- and hour-long shows that came through a box in your living room? Sure—for now. That’s assuming you don’t download the latest episode through the BitTorrent Website or buy it from iTunes to watch on the subway to work. For years, networks have trembled at the idea of selling individual episodes because it fundamentally undermines the way TV works—or used to work. But after the success of ABC’s bold toe-in-the-pool partnership with iTunes, NBC and CBS last week announced plans to sell their own shows through video-on-demand services for 99 cents an episode. And suddenly it’s not so hard to envision a future (by which I mean two years, not twenty) in which you buy most of your TV shows the way you do, say, magazines—subscribing to some, picking and choosing others. At which point there’s no more need to stick to the half-hour/hour-long model on TV than there is for magazines to publish each issue at precisely 100 or 200 pages.

Before we venture further, this might be a good time to point out that, when it comes to technology, I’m not an early adopter. I fit more comfortably in the category known as “late majority” (iPod, yes; BlackBerry, no). So the fact that I can now DVR my way to my own private TV schedule and download ad-free episodes to my computer (a machine I barely understand) says something about the future of TV. Specifically, that pretty soon I, and he, and she, and you, won’t need one. Sure, there will be a big screen on your wall and sometimes you will watch shows on that. There will be a little screen in your pocket and sometimes you will watch shows on that. And there may be a medium-size screen you carry in a handbag, and sometimes you will watch shows on that. (And maybe, someday, there will be a holo-chip in your head, beaming shows right into your brain.) Connected to them all will be a small box into which you download, and store, the shows you’ve decided to buy.

TV came to us like a kind of visual cookie dough, dull but pleasant. We could take it or leave it, but we’ve had very little control over the recipe.

Of course, tech evangelists love to trumpet brave new futures—Buy all your dog food at pets.com! Purchase clothes worn by your favorite stars while you watch them on TV!—assuming that, just because we’re able to do something, we will. (This argument is proved fallacious by that unused ab exerciser you once bought because “you can use it while watching TV.”) Each new technology takes a while to find its use, as we, the actual users, pick it up, consider it, and figure out what it’s really good for. The Internet has proved great for uniting geographically disparate people with common interests (eBay collectors, MacGyver fanatics, balloon fetishists) and not so good as, say, an Alpo clearinghouse.

We’re living in just such a murky moment—stepping into the future, even as we try to find our footing. And while this has led to all sorts of tedious arguments about how TV producers will make their money—a question of interest primarily to TV producers—the matter of how it affects you and me is one of more pressing relevance. This is especially true given that, in the old model, the viewer was little more than the last stop in an assembly line: the “end user,” in the jargon of the suits. TV came to us like a kind of visual cookie dough, dull but pleasing, and extruded into our living rooms. We could take it or leave it, but we’ve had very little control over the recipe.

In the new model, the audience is right there in the kitchen. The Internet already provides gathering places for fans to praise or rant about their favorite shows—sites far more influential than, say, the letter-writing campaign to save Cagney & Lacey, because they happen in real time, interactively, often with TV producers responding or lurking all the while. (Why not, given that the sites are, in essence, the world’s largest focus groups?)

All of which leads to an enticing possibility: Let’s say that Joss Whedon, creator of Firefly, wanted to bring the series back to air. (Though “back to air” is a TV phrase now as anachronistically quaint as “switching the dial.”) Let’s say he found a million Firefly fans online—and, trust me, they’re not hiding—who were willing to pay, say, $39.99 each for a sixteen-episode season of Firefly. (Not an unreasonable price, given how many people pay about that amount for full seasons on DVD.) Suddenly, Joss Whedon’s got roughly $40 million to play with—and he doesn’t need a network. Or a time slot. Or advertisers. He can beam the damn shows right to your computer if he wants to. There’s even a mini-precedent for this: The online phenomenon of “ransom games,” in which a board-game developer sets a price (usually something minuscule, like $1,000), then, once he’s received that amount in pledges from strangers, creates the game and releases it for free.

But the idea of TV funded by the audience conjures another, less sunny scenario. After all, there’s already an entertainment-delivery system that funds itself through mini-contributions from millions of viewers: It’s called the movies, which aren’t exactly undergoing an artistic golden age. Furthermore, wherever democracy blooms, mob violence is only one step behind: How happy will Joss Whedon be when the $39.99-paying legions, assembled at wesavedfirefly.com, demand that a killed character be resurrected or that an irritating plotline be written out of the show?

Either way, TV’s days as a benign dictatorship—a little bread, a lot of circuses—are over, and the revolution is nigh. TV studios may still milk the old sources of revenue, but the fundamental economic law has been abolished—TV is selling shows to viewers—which, in TV terms, is like saying that the law of gravity is null and void. Everything’s up in the air. Including you, O Viewer, finally freed from your easy chair, ready to march into the streets and maybe—just maybe—drag your TV along with you.

Find this article here

Copyright © 2005 , New York Metro, Llc. All rights reserved.

Posted by lck at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2005

3

Where are we / What the hell / Is going on / The dust has only just began to form / (Hide & Seek)

See updated mp3 playlist on the player to the (lower) right.

If Imogen Heap with her crop circles positions herself in the middle between loving extremities like Anastasia and Avril Lavigne a comparative mapping of respective lyrics within a three-columns view could work to speak for how narrow in reality the offer is. Not wanting to work a strategy that could prevents mass suicide in Tokio, car crashes here and “splodeys” in Baghdad and London, not shooting far-away.

The receptive and sensible girl distances herself from the all-out-ego Romanian as well as the post-post-grunge "gimme-anyone" nymph. Is Imo smarter or just better equipped? Honestly? Avoiding the iconic status is consequence. To competition icon is the name of the game, therefore, possible is she's looking to detour early. (note: obviously kids learn by "iconic", a ravenous army of fans is salivating on the web reminding the elders that resistance is futile)

It's so beautiful up here now / Oh I think I might just stay / All alone and by myself / So free and far away / (Airplane)

I'm torturing my nano which is quite an impressive mini-machine. Since the daughter got a permanent hold on the 20Gigs iPod it has been my dream to find a replacement to the bulky Sony 1010 for my mp3 business. The nano definitively is a better choice. I'm wearing the monolith on the lanyard.

Planning on having snails with my kid, she'd love the break. One of her private perversions that must be satisfied in public. Do you chew or suck? Wait, trying to find the words for that.

So ya gonna chase me now boy / Yeah ya gonna corner me now boy / You think ya gonna threaten me now boy / Somehow I dont think so / (Getting Scared)

It's good time to go roaming around for airports and subterraneans, now, ice creams and lose a suitcase and the roots in it with no concerns for, in the exact following order, identity, design and usability.

In my experience I've found few women who like female voices. How is this related to sexual attraction/repulsion is unclear. Anybody has more data on this?

Sampling Imogen Heap (Hide and Seek), Anastasia (Sick and Tired) and Avril Lavigne (I'm with you). You are advised that what we're trying to sneak into here is a metalanguage that is part of a commercial offer (to young consumers in the mainstream) in a very straight, direct way. Here we go:

IMO: circles --- ANA: truth --- AVR: nothing
IMO: sinking --- ANA: torn --- AVR: standing
IMO: around --- ANA: place --- AVR: footsteps
IMO: eyes --- ANA: heart --- AVR: hand
IMO: streets --- ANA: world --- AVR: bridge
IMO: hide --- ANA: sick --- AVR: rain
IMO: years --- ANA: floating --- AVR: life
IMO: pleasure --- ANA: love --- AVR: somebody
IMO: heavy --- ANA: tired --- AVR: lost

The next bullet in our work schedule is now to associate a color to each of the singers. A set of the 3 primaries in the RGB space is banner to this post. You de(i)cide

Posted by lck at 05:17 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2005

Growth

Do you believe growth can be indiscriminate and never stop?

As companies that have been on dominant positions within specific markets can say, growth is not forever. Grow undisturbed if your product is the only viable and visible offer. Competition in the steamer and your salespeople will cry for strategy, support, change, more advertisement, planning. Smart vendors and companies know this without help from an Agency. Eye firm on the market, good products to play, room to reposition, re-invent, integrate with new brands and sometimes create brands that dig into own target space but have better long-term potential. Good companies are about their past, future, what their image is to their clients and what specific needs this image fulfills. Selling a product in a competitive market is a never-ending play, a discover, reshaping and get better. Like organisms, these companies believe that getting down is suicidal, giving up the very reason they are in game, deadly.

Many firms, after a long period of market dominance and a sudden dip in sales, may call in wondering what they are doing wrong and what they can do to perform better. These companies have plenty of cash and sometimes believe markets are "theirs". More superstition can be found and it does not matter what you'll tell and do for these companies, little chances are that they will change. They'll follow advice, schemes, policy and strategy and if they're diligent will do so until the next bump in the road.

There are companies that have such strong dominant position it seems impossible they will, one day, vanish. Microsoft is such a company and its demise will keep observers busy for at least two more decades. Dell will vanish much faster due to its extremely simple core business management (look at what Lenovo is doing to the same core). The key here is that Lenovo does it better and (incredibly) for less.

Some call Microsoft a mafia. It has to be if it is true that Microsoft has introduced zero innovation in the last 10 years. If you can survive without ideas for that long time you must have some deep roots. Rotten but deep. Whoever may want to restart Microsoft will have to restart from scratch, without Gates. Conceivable? Probably not.

Apple is not making mistakes and full steam ahead to becoming the next monopoly. How awful a monopoly it will be is hard to imagine today. In the meantime every single product they release is a joy to use, consider, analyze. Take Front Row, released with the latest iMacs. Re-evaluating experiencing media seriously is not everyday business. Experience DVDs with your family and friends from the couch, hence a software layer that sits on top of the Mac OS X Finder that allows you to operate the computer screen as you were a big fat old TV's ON SCREEN DISPLAY, remote included. And unsurprisingly Apple's remote has just 6 buttons (Apple understands only your kids can operate Sony's and Pioneer's and Microsoft's 42-keys remotes). Nobody before had the balls to launch media files on a computer, leave the desk and go sit on the couch with us, the customers, and wonder out loud with us "how the hell am I suppose to manage the show now that I am not at the console?". Geniuses, or quite honestly, "designers". Apple, Front Row. Taking the risk nobody even thought was worth taking.

Apple can do it because is small and can take risks nobody else feel they should. Customers say growth. Insane growth.

If Sony had the iPod mini would they kill it after 12 months to replace it with the "nano", a candy-bar sized player that only comes in white and black so thin you may want to swallow it? Of course Sony could not. For the same reason Sony can not make an iPod killer. They believe they have to include a phone! The iPod, a very focused product that does one thing only extremely well, in a wise and clever way, we agree that is what the iPod is all about. You want to stick a phone, maybe even a 1 Mpixels camera in it? Maybe speakers?

Creative has so far lost huge amount of money in advertising for their mp3 players and the only choice they have now is retreat or die. They thought "cool" can be beaten by raw advertising power. They did not have a product. Creative's ZEN website, their fore-runner MP3 player is so obsessed with making every page look like an album cover they forget to say basic things. Customer is asking if he can plug "this thing" in a computer or how is he supposed to manage his music. No, no, he is asking if we can make a website for people that all they know is how to press the PLAY button. Can you do it? Customers say, no growth.

Napster is close to give up their iTunes-like but subscription-only service as they are losing millions. Why? Their service gives you close to unlimited downloads as long as you pay a fee every month. Stop paying and you lose everything, thousands of files if you are an mp3 hungry customer. Do they have a product? No, hence no growth. Napster's website is designed for doom. One thing: they require visitors to click a tab to start searching for a tune. The search tab is very prominent, second from left, top nav. But their focus and the whole deal is on downloading a software client iTunes-style. So why you offer to search via the website when the whole (or)deal is about downloading a software client? Just follow the logic of the website and search for "Madonna", you'll get this: "We are still working on getting music by madonna. We get new artists and music everyday. Check back soon". Customers say, no growth.

Selling music is not about making money. Apple makes few cents a song, not even enough to keep the software infrastructure going. Music money goes to copyright owners and RIAA. Money comes from the players and players come from a tight, well-designed retail experience that integrates in full a host of otherwise conflicting interests. Customers put 99 cents on just the track they wish to get, fast and securely and legally, good quality that can be (legally) played on a limited number of devices. They don't feel constrained in the process and RIAA gets the rest. What Apple gets is in the hardware which is marketed under a cult brand because music is a religious experience. Customers complain about iPods getting scratched as if they were supposed not to, everything gets scratched, come on, it's an MP3 player. No, no, don't say it like that, customers say, my iPod, not an mp3 player, it holds MY MUSIC, it is my music, I love it. Do you understand? And they look at you with watery eyes, grabbing their tiny white devices, enjoying their isolation, in empathy and "one" with their "communion wafer". Apple made.

Get it? Just if you were wondering why iPods are white. iBelieve, do you?

Intel is betting, first time ever, the PC is over and shifting focus on cool, low-power processors that are going into portables and other lightweight, cheap and widespread appliances. Losers, for now AMD is topping Intel in retail sales. Sony is buying into IBM's Cell for their incoming PS3, Microsoft is buying into IBM for the XBox 360 and even Nintendo is going IBM with Revolution. These processors are fast, fast and hot. Is Intel wrong for the first time or just waiting for Apple to really start kicking the market with OS-X powered supercool and well thought media appliances (this time Intel-based)?

Growth is not forever and is not for-ever granted. Companies that can change, people that can change and switch to the customer's chair frequently and listen are taking the burden, honestly and naturally, and court growth in a very much alike fashion as growing fruit trees, passion and strategy and talent.

Those that are not of this bunch can be helped but rarely change. What can not change, as you can tell, has only one way to go.

Posted by lck at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

Rambla

Little bro sending, the Editor kindly put it in the wild. (It's a night out, ya know)
Simmetry, how did you guys pick up that name?
However, I'm waiting for muzak to add to this post, bro, spin the reel.

A Night Show

Sunday, October 13th, at Ramblas, a small pub in downtown Catania, the band "Simmetry" had its first show in public. The five boys of the band were very excited for playing live, because the last time they played together was in May and they have been only rehearsing since that time.
It was a good show, there were lots of people and many of them sang and danced. The sound was good, the musicians gave their best and played many covers, like, for example, "Because the night" by Patti Smith, or "Crazy little thing called love" and "We will rock you" by Queen and a malinchonic, acoustic version of "The one I love" by REM and a funny "The lion sleeps tonight" that people liked so much because of its freshness and semplicity, and also because the singer invited them to sing a choir before the song started and then they sang all together, with the singer. He also put the microphone at my mouth, and I felt a little bit embarassed, because I was concentrated on playing my guitar and I didn't expect it at all.
Almost all of the songs were covers, and from many famous artists, but I hope I can hear some original music next time, and I'd like to hear something from Ascending Geometries also, the Architect would be very happy.
Friday, November 4th, Symmetry is playing again at Ramblas, adding some new songs, one that I remember is "Il tempo di morire" by Lucio Battisti, (some people were asking for some more italian music). I guess it will be a more electric version than the original.

Symmetry is:
Andrea Mannino- vocals
Angelo Costantino - guitar and backing vocals
Roberto Morales - bass guitar and backing vocals
Salvo Dantone - drums and backing vocals
Sergio Caragliano - guitar

Posted by lck at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2005

Pump up the volume

We're on a migration route. We're not destination but in-transit station. Migrating birds get down from Russia over to the coast of Africa and take a break around here for food and rest. They love such places as the Lentini's Biviere (a small lake) and Vendicari (a pond system and protected oasis). This morning while a bit out of town I got into a sudden eclipse of a few minutes when what looked like tens of thousands of these birds were moving southward like a giant cloud in slow waving. And no dead bodies. Let's hope the Hungarian antidote makes here soon.

Memory Serves: In Gozo, an Island in the pelagos of Malta, in Victoria, they have a Bus Terminal Station surrounded by trees. The reason why the locals will laugh at the tourists standing by in waiting is the trees are heavily infested with pigeons. And the "dropping", say that in English please, is abundant, a light rain. What they've done so far is to put patches of metal net on some areas so that the "dropping" gets really fine. For those stubborn on American-English, dropping is bird poo.

Do you remember Spike Lee? When he was not on valium and gave us "Do The Right Thing"? Like everything else, boomboxes are back. They're discreet for now, kinda shy, white, wisely sized and take a CD or an MP3 plate but they're back. From Bang & Olufsen and Beverly Hills to Sharp and Panasonic and the golden Ghetto blasters years, set for a loud returning. If a bird comes diving over you do not hesitate to pump up the volume with the latest Madonna. Chances are this may be more effective than prayers. I use my pretty big speaker on the Sony phone to broadcast for personal use but you may look at your flea market for some huge clunky piece of decor to wow visitors.

Precisely when the term boombox was coined is not known. Dep. stores such as Sears and K-Mart began used it in their marketing as early as 1983. Merriam-Webster pins it at 1981, and defines the boom box as "a large portable radio and often tape player with two attached speakers". Here a retrospective is provided.

My Night Clerk is lost in a frenzy New Year's turnover and trying hard for a comeback before dawn.

Posted by lck at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

Publish a podcast

While I feel lazy presently with digging around for new designs and designers to put on the spotlight (but promise is I will soon), there are other things I'd like to share.

We have, officially now, a podcaster in the house. She did it and talks of course about knitting (about our turtle too) and the cast is located YouKnowWhere.

This makes me wonder about what makes a good podcast, about tools, style, scripting and skeletoning with a few good advices in the mix. One striking exception, I won't talk about podcasting on a PC. We're not at war but that is firm, you the user do not have to fiddle with soundcard's drivers or having to crack that very expensive sound-edit program just to produce a decent MP3. I assume you are not a geek and you're on a Mac, that is it.

Let's also dig a bit forward and say you have Tiger on your Mac or get a copy. My advice? Get a copy. It's cheap for a whole Operating System and you'll love it.

Recording: Open Quicktime and start a New Audio recording. Make sure no striking or loud noises are going to interrupt your speech, landscape noises on the other side are legit. Important: almost all variants of Macs have microphones embedded so don't start looking for a mike, it's more than likely straight under your nose. Don't be shy, make sure the Input Level is decent (try a couple times record and playback while fiddling with your System Preferences:Sound:Input). It is preferable that your script (you should have one) has a skeleton and is good that you put your skel in writing for reference. It is ok to have an accent, to use an accent if you do not have one and to pause. To slow down and accelerate is a feature that you can put to good use if you know what you are going to say in advance. A refrain at the beginning of your cast and at the end is very recommended, I suggest a short intro and a longer closure. You may easily break copyright by doing this but sure enough you won't get into big trouble right away. It is not ok to fall asleep, shout or read too fast. A good podcast should stay between 10 minutes and 20 minutes. Less or more is either literature or comedy. One thing that my half noticed and nobody else yet, a Powerbook is almost silent compared to G5s which are heavily equipped with fans of all sorts, if you have an iMac and a Powerbook record on the 'book.

If you do not have Quicktime you may use the free WireTap (google it) or any other free utility that lets you record audio. WireTap Pro produces straight MP3 and is a mere 9$ shareware app from Ambrosia.

The output file will be of type MOV, actually a sound-only Quicktime movie format. If you have other audio to intermix to your recording you'll use a bit of cut and paste in Quicktime (you can copy and paste different formats) or iMovie. Save everything as an AIFF (do not be intimidated by the file size) or as a Quicktime Movie (MOV).

Now open iTunes and make sure that your input encoder (Preferences:Advanced:Importing) is set to MP3, or you'll risk to encode everything in AAC or MP4 and cry the day away. Only an iPod, iTunes and few other devices can read AAC and there's still a few out there that don't have an iPod. Drop your file into iTunes, select it and choose Convert Selection to MP3. Note that from the same Preference pane you can tweak the quality of the MP3 file which will affect its size. You are looking for a max of 10 Megs for your output MP3 file. If purpose is to stream your file for the web look for 4 Megs or less.

You're ready now to distribute, hand over for iPodding, on a CD, email, drop it into your FTP and link to it from a web page or stream it using a flash streamer (google it).

Don't forget rule #1: podcast only if you have something to say. There are so many other ways to say nothing that do not require a podcast. But don't forget rule #2: do it only if you believe there is an audience or that you can create one for your cast. If you just don't believe that somebody will buy your 5 minutes starring at a progress bar, why bother? And have an eye open on rule #3: often, less is more.

If you are going to try based on this skinny guide let me know what you get. Next time you're doing video, which requires more make-up :)

To browse for other podcasts and check quality, style, techniques and to compare what you've done with others go not too far. Open iTunes and browse Apple's Podcast Directory.

Wave.

Posted by lck at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2005

Rampant

We have been busy. Busy we are. Since we were told we're going to die by the nastiest and most untenable bird flu. We've got into overdrive. Birds. Take them out and the sky will fall. Leftover stars, Venus and black holes waiting for better mathematics. So before we stop breathing we redesigned Coruscus. For those not in the know, the site will change ever so slightly in the coming weeks (unless body temperature gets really high) based on feedback, guilt and girlfriends. But if you dare, it's there.

So behave!

Shiseido is a respectable brand. I deal a lot with the letter "S" in my design work for some devilish reason and good time is spent for inspiration on their unique mark. Their official website, au contraire, is a nightmare. Massive, with a wide range of techniques and styles, all intermixed, of languages and strategies. And an army of sleepy webmasters, cracks are under the eye. Exquisite corpse rotting in a lousy state of confusion.

I have Nate Williams site open (www.n8w.com, cool?). Nate does not have an army of stalkers and takes care of the business himself. His site sports a terrific search that is tag-based. Dig his place if you have time. Remember that he's a precursor and a prolific one; tons of materials to browse at his place and each piece a unique blow after an obstinate layer of over-consistency. In the past the elements in his portfolio were tiny. Now he has added a very satisfactory "enlarge feature". Good job.

David Ostrowski, the founder of weareporn.com has a decent horizontally oriented portfolio where each piece is surmonted by the following: "scroll to the right or enter site". This goes on for a while all the way to the right edge. Funny. David sells paintings. If you have ever bought anything from him cry your tears and use a dump.

Another website that adds nostalgia to deception is maldesign. Portfolio a size that fits mobile phones. Pretty fast and pretty meaningless. What about a redesign?

And redesign is for lounge72. Finally! Colorful, shaded, usable and, for now, crowded just enough. Forums are integrated and the overall backend work is admirable, with a working event calendar (not to forget their classic PDF calendar). But do they really need to rename their home page "root"? That is a disturbing geeky trend. On a similar venue and style and bigger-bigger advertising you may dig newwebpick.

In conclusion, before the birds bring Apocalypse closer to real and our test chicken falls dead on the floor, I must confess that the above lot is nada when I think that I have seen just way too many rampant creatures: lions, mean cats of all sorts and colors (black) used in websites and marketing materials and shirts (and never a little rampant pig). Too many blood-dripping hearts (red) and crown of thorns and screaming kids with a punch ball face and in tears. I guess it's time that someone clears that up. Or the birds will.

Posted by lck at 05:33 AM | Comments (0)

October 08, 2005

Of turtles and flu

While Toyota and Bar-Honda reshuffle cards and prospects of what was once a Ferrari secluded domain our flag-airline, Alitalia, is going on strike again. Check with your travel Agency to see if and when this very exclusive Italian-only feature will be in effect. If you are a returner you may have good knowledge of how to better exploit quality time at airports with those huge white whale-like carcasses parked in sight waiting for a crew and a destination.

In other news Northern Pakistan is pretty much devastated by what seems to be just a piece in a gigantic seismic puzzle involving the whole eastern backbone from the Alps down to Sumatra. Only consolation could be that one of the many thousands of victims may happen to be public enemy number 1, Osama Bin Laden, good at avoidance but at least can't predict earthquakes.

How you feel about AF a.k.a. H5n1 which is for now only affecting birds (latest is Romania, found in ducks), pushing for extensive killing and in some cases extermination? Scared? If AF, or avion flu, can travel from chickens to ducks to pigeons (but reported also in cats, rats and pigs) I would not be surprised to see it going epidemic within humans in a year. But despite special interest panic spread aplenty by manufacturers we'll be more than likely prepared for that. We were not prepared to find that the main point-of-entry for African immigrants in Italy, the island of Lampedusa, was a little Abu Ghraib (thanks to one of the few newspapers not owned by Berlusconi yet), but we certainly were prepared for Boy George arrested on cocaine (as in 1984), for kids flying off a bridge on a BMW (as in 1984, just different car brand), for black leather shoes returning in fashion (as in 1984, now made in Vietnam) and the freezing of our retirement reform bill due to insurers not happy with the retirees having too much control on what to do with their money (never seen before?).

And if CIA and the counterterrorism enchilada have been proven to be a waste of money in several instances now are getting into Sunday's comics full steam. NY subway attack warning for Sunday? Because, you know, subways get very crowded on Sundays. Or you did not know that?

On a private scale we finally agreed with the kid to get her an animal. Not the horse she wanted, not the cat but a tiny turtle which is now floating off her pool trying to grab the edge of a bedrock. The life of a small turtle (Ornate Redears are the most common type and come from Brazil) can be pretty nightmarish. Have you ever seen a young turtle 3 weeks old, very short legs and a big head trying to turn when she's facing one of the corners in her pool? She'll slap right with the right forearm (thus going left) and left with the left forearm (thus going right). The result is the turtle will keep honking her nose for awhile against the glass without moving left or right at all. Pathetic yet amusing. We should be getting a round bowl for...well, Rosie.

Checking our meteo-man via Dashboard, which has been fair so far, and solemnly declaring the Powerbook's keyboard the best keyboard ever made (by humans).

Rumor has it Zib will start pod-casting within the next few days. We're all in trouble now (at least she doesn't have a squeaky voice).

Posted by lck at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

A good nose job

It may have looked hair-raising on tv, but the pilots who successfully landed their damaged Airbus jet Tuesday at KLAX Los Angeles International Airport did exactly what they were trained to do.
The JetBlue A320 carrying 146 people made a safe emergency landing after pilots discovered the front landing gear was stuck with the wheels turned sideways and aborted the flight to KJFK New York.

Although there were reports that the JetBlue plane was dumping fuel during the more than three hours it circled the airport before landing, the pilots were simply burning off fuel. There is no fuel-dump system on the A320.

The pilot holds the nose gear off the ground until the plane's speed is reduced to about 65 or 70 knots, or about 50 knots below the landing speed. Then the pilot gently brings the nose wheel to the runway and hits the brakes and deploys the engine thrust reversers to slow the plane as quickly as possible.

Good job.

Posted by lck at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2005

The Commi Pub round the corner

The Nevsky bar described by a passing New Yorker sounds like this:

By day Via Crociferi is the hallowed center of Catanian spiritual power. By night it's... um... a big party. On the staircase leading from Via Crociferi towards the center there is a bar called Nevsky. It features a diverse crowd but they work to attract the socialist youth element, and they succeed. The bar itself is too small to accomodate and the staircase has become an extension of it and the other bars on the street. Positives: never seen anything quite like it, hundreds of people, lots of drinking. Negatives: the drug scene is here also. The staircase itself also gets pretty filthy by four o'clock. Those looking for a quiet romantic passeggiata should look elsewhere.

Back to local, I won't work it for the movie guide but I can get close. Foremost, I live just a block away from it and I normally walk to the place from top to almost midway stairway level, which is where the Nevsky is located. I would remember to go down slowly and cold enough to be able to screen the geography, which is always slightly different. It is true the stairs are a natural extension of the pub, a very small pub, and the outer can hold close to 250 scattered bodies.

A place like the Nevsky can essentially be described as a behavioral orgy.

The bar/place/service is irrelevantly standard if not for the Che-Che covered walls, no Red Bull (they serve a natural substitute energetic based on sugarcane) and filo-cuban menu, flags, outer walls and a few quirks in the drinking range. They have no pretty dancing bartender girls, only solid tanned and a bit aged socialist faces. Since the stairs act as a bowl for standing consumers and a few of the quirks are pretty constraining a stew of micro-competitors, some fake, flourished all around. These "other-places" serve Red Bull, shit beer (the draft at the Nevsky is excellent while bottled is limited) and more exotica (chill-out and the revival vodka-bacardi range).

The lower part of the stairs, bordering to a small hotel, holds for local mature regular couples or groups who may exploit the round tables & chairs and munch snacks, salads and have cocktails.

The top side borders to the renowned chock full of churches Via Crociferi, a Baroque nightmare, and holds locals, younger, loose or inarticulate groups, only apparently lacking a rigid hierarchy, that may look and act like punk gangs but have nothing in common with what you remember using the "punk" tag for. Here you'll find pot available, skunk and sometimes hash. Angels and cocaine-sniffers must be hiding well within the mess.

The mid-section is the largest, it holds drinkers from about everywhere and the draft-lovers, hard beer drinkers and expert survivalists. Survivalists are drinkers that are into the routine so much and well that you may spot them having Moretti for breakfast, then Heineken up to late afternoon and several naps and double-espresso strategically placed in between to stay alive until the evening.

Only the category living atop of the stairs can be seen really blitzed here, the rest enjoys a stoic machismo that is rule in socialist mythology.

Aggressive gay groups can be found laying on the side self celebrating their best screening abilities. These guys can scan deeply, select, make fun of obsolete trends, emerging ones or simply laugh at the tacky stuff passing by. Gays successfully encroach on neighbor's land if istigated. Lesbian couples, on the other side, exhibit a very traditional attire here, both formally and behaviorally these girls span/exhibit low interest in social intercourse outside the couple's range and can mostly be found at corners and edges. The mid and, god knows why, heterosexual bunch, inhabits the in-betweens. Here I've found simply tourist types, English collages and stranded hooligans (Manchester United especially), mid-milky and very uncertain boy groups and returners. Returners are those you have not met in forever and happen to meet again. This is the noisiest.

Sum'd up, best is the draft, vodka cocktails, which you can custom-order from the young-bold bartender my wife loves and some more exclusive touches I won't anticipate. Wine is present but, again, irrelevant. The local Nero sucks eggs. All in all the place is extremely enjoyable, lacking a few middle of the road, offering some cuban surprises, forcing sociality between foreigners like no other place and, by the way, music is never louder than the crowd.

Posted by lck at 12:07 AM | Comments (6)

September 17, 2005

Money down the Wormhole

There are several awful ways to waste taxpayers' money. One of the most creative I ever stumbled upon is a $25,000 report, titled "Teleportation Physics Study". The US military has a long history of funding research into topics that seem straight out of science fiction, even occultism. These range from "psychic" spying to "antimatter"-propelled aircraft and rockets to strange new types of superbombs. Read it on and laugh or cry, I can't say. (Respect to Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom who pointed this tragic one out first)

I don't mind people who, because of their (super)position in the administration, take huge piles of cash for a retour onto friends, clients and supporters. That's politics and, as such, inevitable. To the silly types who praise Star Trek class mythologies, I'm glad the series was killed off finally for good and your DVDs won't survive 3 more years of (de)lusional stress.

Monday, August 29, 2005
by Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
© 2005 San Francisco Chronicle

Frustrated that terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden is still on the loose nearly four years after the Sept. 11 attacks, a few military types and their scientific advisers are pondering a "what if" solution straight out of TV's "Star Trek."

Wouldn't it be neat, they ask, if we could nab bin Laden via teleportation? In "Star Trek," the characters traveled between spaceship and planet by having their bodies dematerialized, then "beamed" to another locale -- hence, the characters' familiar request to the ship's engineer: "Beam me up, Scotty."

That's teleportation.

Although many physicists think such ideas are claptrap, it would be ideal if the United States could teleport U.S. soldiers into "a cave, tap bin Laden on the shoulder, and say: 'Hey, let's go,' " said Ranney Adams, spokesperson for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base in the Southern California desert. "But we're not there (yet)."

Not for want of trying, though. Last year, the Air Force spent $25,000 on a report, titled "Teleportation Physics Study," to examine possible ways to teleport humans and objects through space.

The military has a long history of funding research into topics that seem straight out of science fiction, even occultism. These range from "psychic" spying to "antimatter"-propelled aircraft and rockets to strange new types of superbombs.

Military-watchers have long argued over whether such studies are wastes of taxpayers' money or necessary to identify future super-weapons, weapons that a foe might develop if we don't.

In recent years, many physicists have become excited about a phenomenon called "quantum teleportation," which works only with infinitesimally tiny particles. It might lead to new ways of transmitting cryptographically secure messages, some speculate, but not human beings for a long time to come, if ever.

"Experts in the field can foresee using teleportation in the area of data encryption but not (at least not in the near future) for the purpose of 'beaming' macroscopic (e.g., human-size) objects across" space, said Phil Schewe, a physicist, chief science writer at the American Institute of Physics and author of a forthcoming book, "Bottled Lightning," on the history of the American electrical grid.

Schewe thinks the government is sometimes justified in funding "offbeat research," but he is wary of the Air Force teleportation study, prepared by physicist Eric W. Davis.

If the Air Force really thinks such study could lead to actual teleportation devices, "then I would say that something is wrong with the way the Air Force allocates its research money, at least on this topic," Schewe said.

Pierre Chao, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said such seemingly bizarre research might be the necessary price that the United States must pay in order to guard its future security.

"The devil's bargain that you're going to take if you're going to exist in that cutting-edge (scientific) world and use taxpayer dollars is that you're going to be investigating some pretty goofy things," Chaos said. "I'm not advocating that 'psychic teleportation' is anything real, but I am willing to accept a certain amount of 'slop' in the system to ensure that I am investigating other areas of real value and interest."

Davis, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Arizona, has worked on NASA robotic missions. His 79-page Air Force study seriously explored a series of possibilities, ranging from "Star Trek"-style travel to transportation via so-called wormholes in the fabric of space to psychic travel through solid walls.

Now at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas, Davis reached both pessimistic and optimistic conclusions in his study. On one hand, he concluded that "Star Trek"-style teleportation faces enormous obstacles, partly because it would require the development of extraordinarily high-speed computers and would consume mind-boggling amounts of energy. Also, it would encounter all kinds of physics headaches generated by the principles of quantum physics.

For example, the computing-encoding of the entire contents of a human body would require 10 to the 28th (the number one followed by 28 zeroes) kilobytes of computer storage capacity. It would take 100 quintillion of the world's best commercially available hard drives "to store the encoded information of just one human being."

Also, "it will take more than 2,400 times the present age of the universe (about 13 billion years) to access this amount of data" from the computers, Davis writes. And "to heat up and dematerialize one human being would require . .. the energy equivalent of 330 one-megaton thermonuclear bombs."

Such teleportation also raises troubling moral issues: Would teleportation successfully reconstitute not only a person's body but their "consciousness (personality, memories, hopes, dreams, etc.) and soul or spirit?" Davis's study asks. "This question is beyond the scope of this study to address."

However, Davis expressed great enthusiasm for research allegedly conducted by Chinese scientists who, he says, have conducted "psychic" experiments in which humans used mental powers to teleport matter through solid walls. He claims their research shows "gifted children were able to cause the apparent teleportation of small objects (radio micro-transmitters, photosensitive paper, mechanical watches, horseflies, other insects, etc.)."

If the Chinese experiments are valid and could be repeated by American scientists, Davis told The Chronicle in a phone interview Thursday, then, in principle, the military might some day develop a way to teleport soldiers and weapons. In principle, it could teleport "into a cave in Afghanistan and kill bin Laden instantly, or bring him back to justice."

Davis' study was released by the Air Force Research Lab in August 2004 and, at the time, received only scattered press coverage. A Chronicle reporter decided to revisit the study -- and the larger political questions it raises -- after an employee of a U.S. Navy research lab confidentially sent a copy of Davis' entire report to The Chronicle.

In a phone interview last week, Adams, the Air Force official, said that at present, the agency is "not pursuing" teleportation as a potential military tool. "This was a study of overall physics phenomena or capabilities that might be deemed by many (as) futuristic ... . If you don't turn over the rocks, you don't know what's underneath. We didn't find anything (in the study) which was deemed pursuable (for a possible military tool).

"But if we don't explore these things," Adams continued, "we don't know when we might have a possibility of a near-term breakthrough, or something that we might be able to address for future needs that would help us (militarily) ... . That's our story, and we're sticking to it," he concluded.

In interviews, some experts on military funding policy suggested that maybe the Air Force doesn't take teleportation seriously, but wants any enemies to think that it does so they'll waste fortunes studying it.

"The strategy is to get China to waste money on things that we know are not feasible, while discouraging them from working on things that we believe to be quite promising," said John Pike, a veteran defense policy analyst in the Washington, D.C., area. He cites the military's bankrolling of research on an allegedly novel source of energy called hafnium isomers: "The U.S. continues to fund work in this field, despite the fact that it contravenes known laws of physics."

Victor J. Stenger, a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii, said: "I didn't realize that President Bush's faith- based initiatives have reached so far as Air Force research projects ... . None of the three forms of teleportation of large objects discussed in this (Davis) report are anywhere near being practical in the foreseeable future and (are) probably ultimately impractical, as a trained physicist can see by just plugging in a few numbers."

As for the Chinese psychic research, Stenger said the articles on the "Chinese experiments ... . have not been translated into English and so (have) not yet (been) subjected to critical reviews by the scientific community at large."

Likewise, Michio Kaku, a noted physicist and author at City University of New York, said "the only way to use (teleportation) as a secret weapon is to allow our enemies to bankrupt themselves thinking they can produce a teleportation machine."

"The Air Force is to be applauded for investigating technologies that may have value for national security," Kaku added. "But wormholes, negative energies, warped space-time, etc., require futuristic technologies centuries to millions of years ahead of ours. The only thing going down the wormhole is taxpayers' money."

Posted by lck at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2005

What the !@#% is Microsoft doing with Vista?

Some ten years ago, when I was ten years younger and not as wise as I pretend and enjoy being today, playing anti-Microsoft was not just a mandatory game nor a convenient empowering psycho-bubble but a religion and dealing with the enemy was very much forbidden, as many can remember. Now God's dead, Bill has got shares and hooks into Mother-ship (stupid if he was not), Stevo publicly claims Office to be an essential piece in any decent mac's office software library and we still hate Windows.
Why?
Were we just right when we were wrong?
Let's look at what the next Windows is going to look like and let's look at it with the eyes of a very broad-minded apple user (but let's get a glance at just few details, ok?).
Read on here and don't be surprised if you find yourself in good company... in the end you were just right when you were wrong, kids :-!

Posted by lck at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2005

Google hates George W. Bush

Are not the people at Cosmic Variance the wildest bunch? This may have been rectified by now or the clowns at Google are purpurtely doing it but... with Krzysztof's own words: "Ok. Now listen closely: Go to Google. Type the word “failure” into the search window. Initiate the search and see what comes up. Do it soon, as I don’t know how long this will last."

That is correct: today, searching in Google for the word "failure" returns the official biography of George W. Bush (as hosted at the White House website) as the top finding. Ah, the cruel geeks!

The same geeks (at Cosmic Variance) also brief us on Pragmatic Quincuncial Cartography, a mapping system developed by a philosopher, funding problems related to the recent New Orleans disaster and an updated wine list (with prices) from the 2005 SLAC Summer Institute.

Physicians are invaluable.

Posted by lck at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

Times speaks Nano

Steve must have been wondering for ages what the little pocket on the right side of every pair of Levis 501 was for. I guess he does not smoke or he would know that is the size of a Zippo lighter. So, what you, non-smoker nerd-geek-almost can put in there? The article on Times Mag. gives you the answer. I point out Times because the article is very very well written. Drool at will.

Stevie's Little Wonder
Honey, he shrunk the iPod. How Jobs and his team of Apple innovators created this season's must-have gadget. By LEV GROSSMAN/SAN FRANCISCO. Copyright © 2005 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Kanye West is doing his level best to rock the house, but it's not an easy house to rock. He's onstage at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, it's 11 in the morning, and his audience is largely white and overwhelmingly nerdy. West rips through All Falls Down and Gold Digger, but he barely gets a head bob out of those people. When he raps, "If you aint no punk, holla 'We want prenup!,'" not a single, solitary soul hollas back.

Direct link for more here

Posted by lck at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2005

In the Navy

In Louisiana they are expecting to be swamped with refugees from the damage wrought by hurricane Katrina. The doctors there are turning their own homes into emergency centers. Steve know folks there, and he is gathering supplies and hauling them from his base in Lafayette to Mandeville. Mandeville is on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and is right across the lake from the city of New Orleans. If you can help, you can donate through paypal, all you need is Steve's e-mail address, which is expresley@cox-internet.com

Steve put up pundeteria, a blog that along with LGF is pushing efforts for donations and dispatching information.

Language is shaping around the disaster in a way familiar. Steve is reporting a quote by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on a local radio station that news outlets are suppressing as obviously can not be reported in its entireity. Here it comes:

mp3 here

Posted by lck at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2005

World Domination Enterprise Inc.

American Indians knew very well where not to establish a camp. The damps along the Mississippi Delta (facing straight most of the frequent Caribbean hurricanes) were such a place. They were just wise people. Humans and Nature are mutually exclusive elements now, not even part of the same group of equations. The flip side is we cope with disasters, we love the shivers from facing the enemy and the risk of being annihilated by its blind force.
Goodbye New Orleans, it was emotional.

We know that Baton Rouge was shattered. Amanda, if not an email, send up a smoke signal. We have a date, within a couple of years, at the Three Sisters. Don't forget!

In six pages, this article entirely explains the weather, geological and hydrological issues involved. It was published in 2001.

by Donna Howell: Katrina's Proving To Be A Tough Test For Technology
Mon Aug 29, 7:00 PM ET

Water, wind and wires make a bad mix.

Hurricane Katrina tangled with technology as it blew into Louisiana Monday. The storm spurred power, phone and Internet outages that could linger. On the plus side, technology, from radar to cell phones, provided a lifeline to people trying to escape the storm.

"The value of technology was in the warning time and the specificity. But when the hurricane hit, everything broke down," said George Friedman, chairman of Stratfor, which provides intelligence and analysis to corporate and government clients. "At this point (3:30 p.m. EDT), I would say we're pre-industrial. Cars aren't moving in and out. Boats can't go. You can sometimes get a cell phone connection -- usually not."

The next steps for checking on infrastructure -- assessing oil platform and ground damage, and deaths -- will be by aircraft and on foot, Friedman says. He points out that satellites, so useful for modern communications, can't see through the cloud cover.

As Katrina approached, evacuees relied on technology to coordinate travel. Some turned Web sites into emergency message boards. Blogger Mark Kraft, in Santa Clara, Calif., kept in touch with many members of the LiveJournal online community that stayed in New Orleans.

"One (member) I was trying to persuade to evacuate basically couldn't," he said. That person "actually got invited by another LiveJournaler to go to a secure apartment on the fourth floor of a building. They rode out the storm there."

LiveJournal has thousands of members from the New Orleans area, Kraft says. One posted updates from a data center in a tall building in town. Evacuees on the move also scrambled to communicate.

"A lot have been doing what's called a phone post," Kraft said. "You call a phone number, and it sort of acts like a voice-mail box. It records the conversation and posts it straight to your journal."

Communications infrastructure providers stood by Monday to start recovery efforts as soon as it became feasible. Cingular Wireless, for instance, had more than 500 emergency generators waiting to be dispatched, mostly at "rapid response" staging areas in Mobile, Ala., and Lafayette, La.

"New Orleans and Baton Rouge in Louisiana; Mobile, Ala.; and Biloxi, Miss. -- those seem to be the worst-hit areas," said Cingular spokesman Mark Siegel. "Once conditions are safe, we'll begin to dispatch recovery teams."

The SANS Institute, an Internet security training outfit, reported no major Internet disruption from the storm as of mid-Monday.

"So far, all the outages we see are local for that area," said Chief Research Officer Johannes Ullrich for SANS, which stands for systems administration, audit, network, security. "The only thing regional is that Internet2 (a next-generation network for universities) lost a link from Atlanta to Houston. And universities can route around it."

The problem was on a 10-gigabit link and related to an outage at a Qwest Communications (NYSE:Q - News) facility in New Orleans, said Doug Pearson, senior manager of a network operations center at Indiana University.

SunGard Availability Services, a provider of technology and office space in emergencies, said nine clients officially declared storm-related disasters and started up remote business continuity operations; 104 clients went on alert.

"Financial institutions are declaring, as are companies in the medical industry," said Bob DiLossi, manager of the company's crisis management center in Philadelphia. "State agencies have not declared, but are on alert."

Copyright © 2005 Investor's Business Daily
Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted by lck at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2005

Sticky Fingers

For numerous reasons major newspapers, local (Italians, where I live) and not, fail regularly to make sense of their reports. Reasons are many, deeply nested in the media business and perfectly logical to their business model(s). At the other end it is unfair to say that media just ignore content. Content gets dressed up, on a daily basis, from simple photo-illustration materials up to more serious unsigned op-eds, in order to make sense within their representation, which is, their business model(s). Blogs (and content within) are booming by filling the vacua, the leftover wild space that can not be represented without considerable expenses on the part of the media factories. What I am going to do today is pick up some random content that you can find on g-world and reword it in a way that, hopefully, will make more sense. The fact that George Bush is mentioned in many of these snippets is just ironic or he really had a bad day.

The Rolling Stones self-censored their own anti-Bush song, afraid it may be boycotted on media broadcasts in the US, on the eve of their Tour, following the issue of a new album. The Stones still can't cope with the US and with marketing of a song after 40 years in the field. It is easy to predict another floppy. From a crew that could sell us "no hope - no fear" we were expecting more.

Editor of Tell me a Secret, an Iraqi blog run by Khalis Jarrar (brother to Raed) was abducted by the new Iraqi mukhabarat as suspected for the London bombing! (They could have found a better excuse that was both intimidating and believable). Khalis has been blogging for 3 years, is not a radical by any stretch of imagination, writes in English and is very well known in the West for criticizing the USA invasion by illustrating plain Iraqi's everyday's life on a similar vein as what Riverbend (an Iraqi girl) does on Baghdad Burning. Civil rights in Iraq closing down? Invade China and free Chinese because they are boycotting Google? Unfortunately hammering down these few non-oriented voices may be part of a larger strategy that fits into America's exit strategy as well as into the not so far out Iran-shaped-Iraq.

Public orientation in the US is leaning strongly against the president on War in Iraq to a degree never seen before, enough to embarrass the Dems who had started playing conservative after the past Presidential Elections. The planners "on the dark side" have fine knowledge of American public orientation as the latest attacks are all targeting American troops (3 attacks in Ramadi, all car bombs, and that is just today). Iraqi can not be stabilized without serious, extensive and down-to-earth diplomatic effort. I emphasize down-to-earth: there is just not enough money, troops and patience to invade/liberate several neighboring countries simultaneously, including Oil-King Saudi. (... a decent and responsible plan for US withdrawal can be found here by good Juan Cole.

The price of finalizing a draft Iraqi constitution in the last tense few hours before yesterday's deadline was the exclusion of the Sunnis. After a week of complaints the Sunnis angrily said they "reject the draft constitution that was submitted because we did not have an accord on it" as one negotiator put it. But Sunni rejection of a central Kurdish and Shia political demand - federalism - proved too great an obstacle for negotiators determined to submit a document on time. (The Kurdish and Shia dominated assembly, wary of a missing a deadline that might have meant the dissolution of the body, decided at the last minute to approve a three-day extension to iron out what a wire service paraphrased the Shia assembly speaker as calling "final wording.") In a speech to a Utah audience, President Bush said yesterday "All of Iraq's main ethic and religious groups are working together on this vital project." By contrast, one Sunni member of the drafting commission warned the proposed Kurdish-Shia constitution "has elements that will lead to the break-up of Iraq and civil war."... Even worse, the draft of Iraqi constitution states Islam (Shari’a or Islamic law) the main source of legislation. Is that enough on the face of Mrs. Rice? Looking for some good negotiator here that knows the power of wording a constitution as well as carrying enough pounding power to reword it. It's not about giving gay rights, it's about giving women the right to live.

Chinese Petrochina buys out petroKazakhstan, via a friendly IPO to begin October 2005. Petrochina will control about 15% of Kazakhstan resources (which contributes to 3% of world resources), including oil and natural gas. The area is the world's most promising source for future, untapped, oil reserves. This is an important success for China after Cnooc failed to acquire American company Unolocal due to the American Congress vetoing the acquisition. China is in talks with Kazakhstan authorities to build a 3000 Km pipeline and has been participating to joint military exercises with Russia. Kazakhstan (and Turkmenistan) repeatedly invited the USA to close down bases, used in support of Enduring Freedom, and a final term of 3 months was issued to USA Secretary of Defense, Rumsfield. What's missing here is, besides getting the word Kazakhstan correct, a clear understanding of what is happening in this area. Media have been reporting in bits and pieces, but have failed to give a clear picture. The ball is back to the White House and the game isn't over yet.

Now a multi-faceted pearl in several sauces, related to a new drug, experiments being conducted on lab monkeys:

1 NEWKERALA.COM It may be good news for millions of call centre employees who work in night shifts and always complain about lack of sleep taking a toll on their mental and physical health. In a breakthrough study researchers have found a new drug which can temporarily improve performance and reverse the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain.
2 REUTERS A drug dubbed CX717, made by Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Irvine, California, reverses the biological and behavioral effects of sleep deprivation, according to results of animal studies.
3 FORBES Shift-workers, hospital staff clocking long hours, and other sleep-challenged Americans may someday have a means of restoring full alertness even if sleep-deprived.
4 BBC A drug could reverse the effects of sleep deprivation in the brain, a US study of monkeys has suggested.

This article shows that the race to discovering new drugs (normally said to be good candidates to fight Alzheimer's disease) is far from over.
Note how Forbes emphasizes the wording "sleep-challenged Americans" (#3).
If by checking how this is reported on #4, BBC, you see little disturbing colored rainbows, maybe this drug can help you.
Weird how Newkerala (#1) puts call-centre workers at the forefront of the sleep-deprived army. Not so weird when you consider this online newspaper is based in India.
For good enough reasons nobody goes as far as hinting to what the natural market to such drugs is (albeit probably illegal). Boys say Disco.

Don't forget to check Blogger's BlogSpot Objectionable Flag, active today. Please, pick up something censorable.

Posted by lck at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

The "Community" is watching

Your feature may be "Objectionable", beware before you join Blogger.
This is how Blogger (owned by Google Inc.) describes the new "feature": "The Flag button allows the blogging community to easily note questionable content, which in turn helps us take action when needed. So we're relying on you, the users, to be our eyes on the web, and to let us know of potential issues that are important to you." [...] "We generally do not review the content posted through our service but our responsibility extends beyond Blogger users to casual readers of Blog*Spot. The Flag button is a means by which readers of Blog*Spot can help inform us about potentially questionable content, so we can prevent others from encountering such material by setting particular blogs as unlisted. This means the blog won't be promoted on Blogger.com but will still be available on the web — we prefer to keep in mind that one person's vulgarity is another's poetry. Or something like that."

Paid service has advantages, old enough tune.

In the meantime is unclear what Schumacher is still doing at Ferrari besides filling contractual obligations. Michael has never been popular here but give him a car to drive. Rumors are he's in talks with Merc. And is naive to believe Valentino Rossi will save Ferrari, he was born on two wheels, don't forget.
Talking of heroes (and heroines), around this time a century ago Greta Garbo was born. Time to go rent Ninotchka again.

Posted by lck at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2005

Room with a few

Dock 5 is a building in Victoria Harbour in Melbourne. A spectacular structure, towering over Victoria's most enviable location. It is not cheap to rent an apartment on Dock 5, it's the waterfront, but most interesting is the website design.

The website predictably bets on empowering individuality and exclusiveness. And the whole of the swiss cheese put on work is rather silly.

Starting with a derivative static lysergic entry screen, soft-porn soundtrack in the style of old Robert Linstrom, to follow is a collection of clip-arts that include a toy-boat, a measuring tape, a knot (to illustrate "Connection"), a lure (Time-out), jewelry (Choice), a mirror (Personal Style), the silhouette of a naked girl drinking coffe or tea (Floor plans), shots of design furniture (An exclusive design chair and a silver fosset), wine bottles (for basement cellaring) and a tin star (Quality).

The algebra of marketing pitch may just be obsolete, too literal or in frantic search of a consistent exit strategy but rare is to see one as deranged as this one.

The designer of this oddity is, good for him, unknown.

Posted by lck at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

A Universe just right

The argument from the "Just Right" Universe seems to catch on among some "design" creationists. The faults of this argument are apparent. The "anthropic principle" states that the universe must be in such a state that it at least in some of its history can allow life to develop. It follows, some theoriets argued, from some remarkable coincidences in the makeup of the universe, without which life as we know it could not develop.

It is a fundamental principle of science that a theory that describes a phenomenon must be falsifiable, that is, there must be (theoretical) observations that would disprove the theory if it is wrong. More generally, it is a principle that a theory that explains everything explains nothing. That means, that if there are no theoretical observations that cannot be accounted for by the theory, then it has no predictive power and is effectively useless.

A theory that should try to prove that this universe is created by an intelligent Designer, must follow such rules. It must be possible to postulate a universe not created by a Designer, and then explain how this universe differs from the universe we have. It would then follow, if the arguments were sound, that ours was a universe created by an Intelligent Designer.

But the problem is, that by definition such a universe would be one without life, since it could not possibly sustain life. The argument is thus demonstrated to be pitifully circular, since the conclusion (that life is designed) is already smuggled into the hidden premises of the argument.

Thus, in any theoretical universe, even one that was the result of only natural processes, the inhabitants could think up the Design Argument and apply it. And they could just as well be wrong. Thus, the argument fails even the most basic test by not having any predictive power.

Hugh Ross is a strenuous supporter of the Anthropic Principle and its validity. It is interesting to see how flaws develop in his argument by design. The following is Chapter 14 from his book.

A "Just Right" Universe, by Hugh Ross, Chapter 14

No other generation has witnessed so many discoveries about the universe. No other generation has seen the measuring of the cosmos. For previous generations the universe remained a profound mystery. But we are alive to see several of its mysteries solved.

Not only can we measure certain aspects of the universe, but in these measurements we are discovering some of the characteristics of the One who fashioned it all. Astronomy has provided us with new tools to probe the Creator’s personality.

Building Blocks Problem

Before the measuring of the cosmos, non-theists assumed the availability of the appropriate building blocks for life. They posited that, with enough time, the right natural processes, and enough building blocks, even systems as complex as organisms could be assembled without the help of a Supreme Being. In chapters 3, 7, 8, and 9, we have seen there is not sufficient time. In this chapter we’ll consider just how amazing it is that the universe provides the right building blocks and the right natural processes for life.

To put this situation in perspective, imagine the possibility of a Boeing 747 aircraft being completely assembled as a result of a tornado striking a junkyard. Now imagine how much more unlikely that possibility would be if bauxite (aluminum ore) is substituted for the junk parts. Finally, imagine the possibility if instead of bauxite, river silt is substituted. So, too, as one examines the building blocks necessary for life to come into existence, the possibility of that happening without someone or something designing them stretches the imagination beyond the breaking point. Four major building blocks must be designed "just right" for life.

1. Getting the Right Molecules

For life to be possible, more than forty different elements must be able to bond together to form molecules. Molecular bonding depends on two factors, the strength of the force of electromagnetism and the ratio of the mass of the electron to the mass of the proton.

If the electromagnetic force were significantly larger, atoms would hang on to electrons so tightly no sharing of electrons with other atoms would be possible. But if the electromagnetic force were significantly weaker, atoms would not hang on to electrons at all, and again, the sharing of electrons among atoms, which makes molecules possible, would not take place. If more than just a few kinds of molecules are to exist, the electromagnetic force must be more delicately balanced yet.

The size and stability of electron orbits about the nuclei of atoms depends on the ratio of the electron mass to the proton mass. Unless this ratio is delicately balanced, the chemical bonding essential for life chemistry could never take place.

2. Getting the Right Atoms

Life molecules cannot be built unless sufficient quantities of the elements essential for life are available. This means atoms of various sizes must be able to form. For that to happen, a delicate balance must exist for each of the constants of physics governing the strong and weak nuclear forces, and gravity, also for the nuclear ground state energies (quantum energy levels important for the forming of elements from protons and neutrons) for several key elements.

In the case of the strong nuclear force—the force governing the degree to which protons and neutrons stick together in atomic nuclei—the balance is easy to see. If this force were too weak, protons and neutrons would not stick together. In that case, only one element would exist in the universe, hydrogen, because the hydrogen atom has only one proton and no neutrons in its nucleus. On the other hand, if the strong nuclear force were of slightly greater strength than what we observe in the cosmos, protons and neutrons would have such an affinity for one another that not one would remain alone. They would all find themselves attached to many other protons and neutrons. In such a universe there would be no hydrogen, only heavy elements. Life chemistry is impossible without hydrogen; it is also impossible if hydrogen is the only element.

How delicate is the balance for the strong nuclear force? If it were just 2% weaker or 0.3% stronger than it actually is, life would be impossible at any time and any place within the universe.1

Are we just considering life as we know it? No, we’re talking about any conceivable kind of life chemistry throughout the cosmos. This delicate condition must be met universally.

In the case of the weak nuclear force—the force that governs, among other things, the rates of radioactive decay—if it were much stronger than what we observe the matter in the universe would quickly be converted into heavy elements. But if it were much weaker, the matter in the universe would remain in the form of just the lightest elements. Either way, the elements essential for life chemistry (such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus) either would not exist at all or would exist in amounts far too small for all the life-essential chemicals to be built. Further, unless the weak nuclear force were delicately balanced, those life-essential elements that are produced only in the cores of supergiant stars would never escape the boundaries of those cores (supernova explosions would become impossible).2

The strength of the force of gravity determines how hot the nuclear furnaces in the cores of stars will burn. If the gravitational force were any stronger, stars would be so hot they would burn up relatively quickly, too quickly and too erratically for life. Additionally, a planet capable of sustaining life must be supported by a star that is both stable and long burning. However, if the gravitational force were any weaker, stars never would become hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion. In such a universe no elements heavier than hydrogen and helium would be produced.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Fred Hoyle discovered that an incredible fine tuning of the nuclear ground state energies for helium, beryllium, carbon, and oxygen was necessary for any kind of life to exist. The ground state energies for these elements cannot be higher or lower with respect to each other by more than 4% without yielding a universe with insufficient oxygen or carbon for life.3 Hoyle, who has written extensively against theism4 and Christianity in particular,5 nevertheless concluded on the basis of this quadruple fine tuning that "a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology."6

3. Getting the Right Nucleons

One must monkey with the physics of the universe to get enough of the right elements for life, and further to get those elements to join together to form life molecules. One must also fine-tune the universe to get enough nucleons (protons and neutrons) to form the elements.

In the first moments after creation, the universe contained about ten billion and one nucleons for every ten billion anti-nucleons. The ten billion anti-nucleons annihilated the ten billion nucleons, generating an enormous amount of energy. All the galaxies and stars that make up the universe today were formed from the leftover nucleons. If the initial excess of nucleons over anti-nucleons were any smaller, there would not be enough matter for galaxies, stars, and heavy elements to form. If the excess were any greater, galaxies would form, but they would so efficiently condense and trap radiation that none of them would fragment to form stars and planets.

The neutron is 0.138% more massive than a proton. Because of this extra mass, neutrons require slightly more energy to make than protons. So as the universe cooled from the hot big bang creation event, it produced more protons than neutrons—in fact, about seven times as many.

If the neutron were just another 0.1% more massive, so few neutrons would remain from the cooling off of the big bang that there would not be enough of them to make the nuclei of all the heavy elements essential for life. The extra mass of the neutron relative to the proton also determines the rate at which neutrons decay into protons and protons build into neutrons (one neutron = one proton + one electron + one neutrino). If the neutron were 0.1% less massive, so many protons would be built up to make neutrons that all the stars in the universe would have rapidly collapsed into either neutron stars or black holes.7 Thus for life to be possible in the universe, the neutron mass must be fine tuned to better than 0.1%.

Another decay process involving protons must also be fine-tuned for life to exist. Protons are believed to decay into mesons (a type of fundamental particle). I say "believed to" because the decay rate is so slow experimenters have yet to record a single decay event (average decay time for a single proton exceeds 4 x 1032 years). Nevertheless, theoreticians are convinced that protons must decay into mesons, and at a rate fairly close to the current experimental limits. If protons decay any slower into mesons, the universe of today would not have enough nucleons to make the necessary galaxies, stars, and planets.8 This is because the factors that determine this decay rate also determine the ratio of nucleons to antinucleons at the time of the creation event. Thus, if the decay rate were slower, the number of nucleons would have been too closely balanced by the number of antinucleons, which after annihilation would have left too few nucleons.

If, however, the decay rate of protons into mesons were faster, in addition to the problem of a too large ratio of nucleons to antinucleons, there would also be an additional problem from the standpoint of maintaining life. Because a tremendous amount of energy is released in this particular decay process, the rate of decay would destroy or harm life. Thus the decay rate cannot be any greater than it is.

4. Getting the Right Electrons

Not only must the universe be fine-tuned to get enough nucleons, but also a precise number of electrons must exist. Unless the number of electrons is equivalent to the number of protons to an accuracy of one part in 1037, or better, electromagnetic forces in the universe would have so overcome gravitational forces that galaxies, stars, and planets never would have formed.

One part in 1037 is such an incredibly sensitive balance that it is hard to visualize. The following analogy might help: Cover the entire North American continent in dimes all the way up to the moon, a height of about 239,000 miles. (In comparison, the money to pay for the U.S. federal government debt would cover one square mile less than two feet deep with dimes.) Next, pile dimes from here to the moon on a billion other continents the same size as North America. Paint one dime red and mix it into the billion piles of dimes. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one dime. The odds that he will pick the red dime are one in 1037. And this is only one of the parameters that is so delicately balanced to allow life to form.

At whatever level we examine the building blocks of life—electrons, nucleons, atoms, or molecules—the physics of the universe must be very meticulously fine-tuned. The universe must be exactingly constructed to create the necessary electrons. It must be exquisitely crafted to produce the protons and neutrons required. It must be carefully fabricated to obtain the needed atoms. Unless it is skillfully fashioned, the atoms will not be able to assemble into complex enough molecules. Such precise balancing of all these factors is truly beyond our ability to comprehend. Yet with the measuring of the universe, even more astounding facts become apparent.

Cosmos’ Expansion

The first parameter of the universe to be measured was the universe’s expansion rate. In comparing this rate to the physics of galaxy and star formation, astrophysicists found something amazing. If the universe expanded too rapidly, matter would disperse so efficiently that none of it would clump enough to form galaxies. If no galaxies form, no stars will form. If no stars form, no planets will form. If no planets form, there’s no place for life. On the other hand, if the universe expanded too slowly, matter would clump so effectively that all of it, the whole universe in fact, would collapse into a super-dense lump before any solar-type stars could form.

What’s even more amazing is how delicately balanced that expansion rate must be for life to exist. It cannot differ by more than one part in 1055 from the actual rate.

An analogy that still does not come close to describing the precarious nature of this balance would be a million pencils all simultaneously positioned upright on their points on a smooth glass surface with no external supports.

The inflationary big bang model for the universe offers a physical explanation for why the universe is poised so delicately in its expansion rate. As the four fundamental forces of physics (the forces of gravity, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and electromagnetic) separated from one another during the first split second after the creation event, it is possible to have a brief period of hyper-inflation (lasting only 10-34 seconds) that virtually guarantees the universe later on will expand at a rate that permits life to exist. Of course, what that does is trade one exquisite balance (the expansion rate of the cosmos) for another (the values of a set of several constants of physics).

In addition to requiring exquisite fine-tuning of the forces and constants of physics, the existence of life demands still more. It demands that the fundamental particles, the energy, and the space-time dimensions of the universe enable the principles of quantum tunneling and special relativity to operate exactly as they do. Quantum tunneling must function no more or less efficiently than what we observe for hemoglobin to transport the right amount of oxygen to the cells of all vertebrate and most invertebrate species.9 Likewise, relativistic corrections, not too great and not too small, are essential in order for copper and vanadium to fulfill their critical roles in the functioning of the nervous system and bone development of all the higher animals.10

Measuring the Universe’s Age

The second parameter of the universe to be measured was its age. For many decades astronomers and others have wondered why, given God exists, He would wait so many billions of years to make life. Why did He not do it right away? The answer is that, given the laws and constants of physics God chose to create, it takes about ten to twelve billion years just to fuse enough heavy elements in the nuclear furnaces of several generations of giant stars to make life chemistry possible.

Life could not happen any earlier in the universe than it did on Earth. Nor could it happen much later. As the universe ages, stars like the sun—located in the right part of the galaxy for life (see chapter 15) and in a stable nuclear burning phase—become increasingly rare. If the universe were just a few billion years older, such stars would no longer exist.

A third parameter that I already discussed to some extent is entropy, or energy degradation. In chapter 3, I explained the evidence for the universe possessing an extreme amount of specific entropy. This high level of entropy is essential for life. Without it, systems as small as stars and planets would never form. But as extremely high as the entropy of the universe is, it could not be much higher. If it were higher, systems as large as galaxies would never form. Stars and planets cannot form without galaxies.

Star Masses

A fourth parameter, another very sensitive one, is the ratio of the electromagnetic force constant to the gravitational force constant. If the electromagnetic force relative to gravity were increased by just one part in 1040, only small stars would form. And, if it were decreased by just one part in 1040, only large stars would form. But for life to be possible in the universe, both large and small stars must exist. The large stars must exist because only in their thermonuclear furnaces are most of the life-essential elements produced. The small stars like the sun must exist because only small stars burn long enough and stably enough to sustain a planet with life.11

Considering again the piles of dimes, one part in 1040 is equivalent to a blindfolded person rummaging through a trillion piles of dimes the size of North America that reach to the moon and picking out, on the first try, the one red dime.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, several other characteristics of the universe were measured successfully. Each of these, too, indicated a careful fine-tuning for the support of life. Currently, researchers have uncovered twenty-six characteristics that must take on narrowly defined values for life of any kind to possibly exist. A list of these characteristics and the reasons they must be so narrowly defined is given in table 14.1.

The list of finely tuned characteristics for the universe continues to grow. Parameters 24, 25, and 26, for example, were added just in the last several months.13 The more accurately and extensively astronomers measure the universe, the more finely tuned they discover it to be. Also, as we have seen for many of the already measured characteristics, the degree of fine-tuning is utterly amazing— far beyond what human endeavors can accomplish.

For example, arguably the best machine ever built by man is a brand new gravity wave detector engineered by California Institute of Technology physicists to make measurements accurate to one part in 1023. By comparison, three different characteristics of the universe must be fine-tuned to better than one part in 1037 for life of any kind to exist (for comment on why life must be carbon-based, see section entitled "Another Kind of Life" on pages 133–134). My point is that the Entity who brought the universe into existence must be a personal Being, for only a person can design with anywhere near this degree of precision. Consider, too, that this personal Entity must be at least a hundred trillion times more "capable" than are we human beings with all our resources.

Table 14.1: Evidence for the Fine-Tuning of the Universe12

More than two dozen parameters for the universe must have values falling within narrowly defined ranges for life of any kind to exist.

1. strong nuclear force constant
If larger: no hydrogen; nuclei essential for life would be unstable
If smaller: no elements other than hydrogen

2. Weak nuclear force constant
If larger: too much hydrogen converted to helium in big bang, hence too much heavy element material made by star burning; no expulsion of heavy elements from stars
If smaller: too little helium produced from big bang, hence too little heavy element material made by star burning; no expulsion of heavy elements from stars

3. Gravitational force constant
If larger: stars would be too hot and would burn up too quickly and too unevenly
If smaller: stars would remain so cool that nuclear fusion would never ignite, hence no heavy element production

4. Electromagnetic force constant
If larger: insufficient chemical bonding; elements more massive than boron would be too unstable for fission
If smaller: insufficient chemical bonding

5. Ratio of electromagnetic force constant to gravitational force constant
If larger: no stars less than 1.4 solar masses hence short stellar life spans and uneven stellar luminosities
If smaller: no stars more than 0.8 solar masses, hence no heavy element production

6. Ratio of electron to proton mass
If larger: insufficient chemical bonding
If smaller: insufficient chemical bonding

7. Ratio of numbers of protons to electrons
If larger: electromagnetism would dominate gravity, preventing galaxy, star, and planet formation
If smaller: electromagnetism would dominate gravity, preventing galaxy, star, and planet formation

8. Expansion rate of the universe
If larger: no galaxy formation
If smaller: universe would collapse prior to star formation

9. Entropy level of the universe
If smaller: no proto-galaxy formation
If larger: no star condensation within the proto-galaxies

10. Mass density of the universe
If larger: too much deuterium from big bang hence stars burn too rapidly
If smaller: insufficient helium from big bang, hence too few heavy elements forming

11. Velocity of light
If faster: stars would be too luminous
If slower: stars would not be luminous enough

12. Age of the universe
If older: no solar-type stars in a stable burning phase in the right part of the galaxy
If younger: solar-type stars in a stable burning phase would not yet have formed

13. Initial uniformity of radiation
If smoother: stars, star clusters, and galaxies would not have formed
If coarser: universe by now would be mostly black holes and empty space

14. Fine structure constant (a number used to describe the fine structure splitting of spectral lines)
If larger: DNA would be unable to function; no stars more than 0.7 solar masses
If smaller: DNA would be unable to function; no stars less than 1.8 solar masses

15. average distance between galaxies
if larger: insufficient gas would be infused into our galaxy to sustain star formation over an adequate time span
if smaller: the sun’s orbit would be too radically disturbed

16. average distance between stars
if larger: heavy element density too thin for rocky planets to form
if smaller: planetary orbits would become destabilized

17. decay rate of the proton
if greater: life would be exterminated by the release of radiation
if smaller: insufficient matter in the universe for life

18. 12Carbon (12C) to 16Oxygen (16O) energy level ratio
if larger: insufficient oxygen
if smaller: insufficient carbon

19. ground state energy level for 4Helium (4He)
if larger: insufficient carbon and oxygen
if smaller: insufficient carbon and oxygen

20. decay rate of 8Beryllium (8Be)
if slower: heavy element fusion would generate catastrophic explosions in all the stars
if faster: no element production beyond beryllium and, hence, no life chemistry possible

21. mass excess of the neutron over the proton
if greater: neutron decay would leave too few neutrons to form the heavy elements essential for life
if smaller: proton decay would cause all stars to collapse rapidly into neutron stars or black holes

22. initial excess of nucleons over anti-nucleons
if greater: too much radiation for planets to form
if smaller: not enough matter for galaxies or stars to form

23. polarity of the water molecule
if greater: heat of fusion and vaporization would be too great for life to exist
if smaller: heat of fusion and vaporization would be too small for life’s existence; liquid water would become too inferior a solvent for life chemistry to proceed; ice would not float, leading to a runaway freeze-up

24. supernovae eruptions
if too close: radiation would exterminate life on the planet
if too far: not enough heavy element ashes for the formation of rocky planets
if too frequent: life on the planet would be exterminated
if too infrequent: not enough heavy element ashes for the formation of rocky planets
if too late: life on the planet would be exterminated by radiation
if too soon: not enough heavy element ashes for the formation of rocky planets

25. white dwarf binaries
if too few: insufficient fluorine produced for life chemistry to proceed
if too many: disruption of planetary orbits from stellar density; life on the planet would be exterminated
if too soon: not enough heavy elements made for efficient fluorine production
if too late: fluorine made too late for incorporation in proto-planet

26. ratio of exotic to ordinary matter
if smaller: galaxies would not form
if larger: universe would collapse before solar type stars could form

God and the Astronomers

The discovery of this degree of design in the universe is having a profound theological impact on astronomers. As we noted already, Hoyle concludes that "a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology,"14 and Davies has moved from promoting atheism15 to conceding that "the laws [of physics]... seem themselves to be the product of exceedingly ingenious design."16 He further testifies:

[There] is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all… It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe.... The impression of design is overwhelming.17

Astronomer George Greenstein, in his book The Symbiotic Universe, expressed these thoughts:

As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency—or, rather, Agency—must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?18

Tony Rothman, a theoretical physicist, in a popular-level article on the anthropic principle (the idea that the universe possesses narrowly defined characteristics that permit the possibility of a habitat for humans) concluded his essay with these words:

The medieval theologian who gazed at the night sky through the eyes of Aristotle and saw angels moving the spheres in harmony has become the modern cosmologist who gazes at the same sky through the eyes of Einstein and sees the hand of God not in angels but in the constants of nature.... When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it’s very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it.19

In a review article on the anthropic principle published in the journal Nature, cosmologists Bernard Carr and Martin Rees state in their summary: "Nature does exhibit remarkable coincidences and these do warrant some explanation."20 Carr in a more recent article on the anthropic principle continues:

One would have to conclude either that the features of the universe invoked in support of the Anthropic Principle are only coincidences or that the universe was indeed tailor-made for life. I will leave it to the theologians to ascertain the identity of the tailor!21

Physicist Freeman Dyson concluded his treatment of the anthropic principle with, "The problem here is to try to formulate some statement of the ultimate purpose of the universe. In other words, the problem is to read the mind of God."22 Vera Kistiakowsky, MIT physicist and past president of the Association of Women in Science, commented, "The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine."23 Arno Penzias, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics for the discovery of the cosmic background radiation, remarked:

Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say "supernatural") plan.24

Years before communism’s fall, Alexander Polyakov, a theoretician and fellow at Moscow’s Landau Institute, declared:

We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it. So there is a chance that the best of all possible mathematics will be created out of physicists’ attempts to describe nature.25

China’s famed astrophysicist Fang Li Zhi and his co-author, physicist Li Shu Xian, recently wrote, "A question that has always been considered a topic of metaphysics or theology the creation of the universe has now become an area of active research in physics."26

In the 1992 film about Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Hawking’s colleague, distinguished mathematician Roger Penrose, commented, "I would say the universe has a purpose. It’s not there just somehow by chance."27 Hawking and Penrose’s colleague George Ellis made the following statement in a paper delivered at the Second Venice Conference on Cosmology and Philosophy:

Amazing fine-tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word "miraculous" without taking a stand as to the ontological status of that word.28

Cosmologist Edward Harrison makes this deduction:

Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God—the design argument of Paley—updated and refurbished. The fine-tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one.... Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the teleological or design argument.29

Allan Sandage, winner of the Crafoord prize in astronomy (equivalent to the Nobel prize), remarked, "I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing."30 Robert Griffiths, who won the Heinemann prize in mathematical physics, observed, "If we need an atheist for a debate, I go to the philosophy department. The physics department isn’t much use."31 Perhaps astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-proclaimed agnostic,32 best described what has happened to his colleagues as they have measured the cosmos:

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.33

In all my conversations with those who do research on the characteristics of the universe, and in all my readings of articles or books on the subject, not one person denies the conclusion that somehow the cosmos has been crafted to make it a fit habitat for life. Astronomers by nature tend to be independent and iconoclastic. If an opportunity for disagreement exists, they will seize it. But on the issue of the fine-tuning or careful crafting of the cosmos, the evidence is so compelling that I have yet to hear of any dissent.

The Creator’s Personality

Does the fine-tuning imply purposeful design? So many parameters must be fine tuned and the degree of fine tuning is so high, no other conclusion seems possible.

As Harrison pointed out, the evidence permits only two options: divine design or blind chance. Blind chance, as we saw in chapter 12, is ruled out since conclusions based on chance must be derived from known, not hypothetical, sample sizes. The known sample size for the universe(s) is one and always will be only one since the space-time manifold for the universe is closed (meaning we humans cannot, even in principle, ever discover anything about others possibly existing).

Much more is going on, however, than mere talk by astronomers about the design of the cosmos for life support. Words such as somebody fine tuned nature, superintellect, monkeyed, overwhelming design, miraculous, hand of God, ultimate purpose, God’s mind, exquisite order, very delicate balance, exceedingly ingenious, supernatural Agency, supernatural plan, tailor-made, Supreme Being, and providentially crafted obviously apply to a Person. Beyond just establishing that the Creator is a Person, the findings about design provide some evidence of what that Person is like.

One characteristic that stands out dramatically is His interest in and care for living things, particularly the human race. We see this care in the vastness and quality of the resources devoted to life support.

For example, the mass density of the universe, as huge as it is, focuses on the needs of humans. How? The mass density determines how efficiently nuclear fusion operates in the cosmos. The mass density we measure translates into about a hundred-billion-trillion stars for the presently observable universe. As table 14.1 indicates (page 118), if the mass density is too great, too much deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen with one proton and one neutron in the nucleus) is made in the first few minutes of the universe’s existence. This extra deuterium will cause the stars to burn much too quickly and erratically for any of them to support a planet with life. On the other hand, if the mass density is too small, so little deuterium and helium are made in the first few minutes that the heavier elements necessary for life will never form in stars. What this means is that the approximately hundred-billion-trillion stars we observe in the universe—no more and no less—are needed for life to be possible in the universe. God invested heavily in living creatures. He constructed all these stars and carefully crafted them throughout the age of the universe so that at this brief moment in the history of the cosmos humans could exist and have a pleasant place to live.

Non-Theistic Responses

When it comes to the finely tuned characteristics of the universe, non-theists find themselves in a difficult spot. The evidence is too weighty and concrete to brush aside. The evidence is inanimate; so appeals to Darwinist hypotheses cannot be made. Appeals to near infinite time are thwarted by the proofs for time’s creation only a few billion years ago. The following three arguments seem to cover the range of non-theistic replies to the evidence for cosmic design:

Argument 1: We would not be here to observe the universe unless the extremely unlikely did take place.

The evidence for design is merely coincidental. Our existence simply testifies that the extremely unlikely did, indeed, take place by chance. In other words, we would not be here to report on the characteristics of the universe unless chance produced these highly unlikely properties.

Rebuttal: This argument is fundamentally an appeal to infinite chances, which already has been answered (see chapter 12). Another response has been developed by philosopher Richard Swinburne34 and summarized by another philosopher, William Lane Craig:

Suppose a hundred sharpshooters are sent to execute a prisoner by firing squad, and the prisoner survives. The prisoner should not be surprised that he does not observe that he is dead. After all, if he were dead, he could not observe his death. Nonetheless, he should be surprised that he observes that he is alive.35

To extend Craig and Swinburne’s argument, the prisoner could conclude, since he is alive, that all the sharpshooters missed by some extremely unlikely chance. He may wish to attribute his survival to an incredible bit of good luck, but he would be far more rational to conclude that the guns were loaded with blanks or that the sharpshooters all deliberately missed. Someone must have purposed he should live. Likewise, the rational conclusion to draw from the incredible fine tuning of the universe is that Someone purposed we should live.

Argument 2: The design of the universe is mere anthropomorphism.

American astrophysicist Joseph Silk in his latest effort to communicate the physics of big bang cosmology to lay people mocks the conclusion that the universe has been fine-tuned for the support of life. He compares the "silliness" of the design idea with the folly of a flea’s assumption that the dog on which it feeds has been designed precisely for its benefit. The flea’s error, he suggests, becomes all too apparent once the dog is outfitted with a flea collar.36

Silk’s argument ignores some key issues. While the flea may be a little self-centered in assuming that the dog was designed exclusively for it, there’s no reason to deny that the dog was designed for a purpose, or for several purposes. (The myth that life is strictly the product of accidental natural processes is addressed in chapter 16.) The flea collar may argue more strongly for design (e.g., population control) than for lack of it. More importantly, while we can imagine a wide range of hosts suitable for the support of the flea, each of them requires elements of design to facilitate the flea’s survival. Though suitable hosts for the flea are relatively abundant, suitable universes for life are not. Astrophysicists have been unable to invent hypothetical universes significantly different from ours that could support human beings or for that matter any conceivable kind of physical, intelligent life.

Argument 3: Design arguments are outside the realm of science and, therefore, must be ignored.

The publications of the National Center for Science Education, among other anti-creationist groups, repeatedly assert that science is "empirically based and necessarily materialist; miracles cannot be allowed," and that "any theory with a supernatural foundation is not scientific."37 Since the design arguments imply supernatural intervention, they can be justifiably ignored because they "cannot be considered scientific."38

Rebuttal: To affirm that science and theology are mutually exclusive may be convenient for materialists unwilling to defend their philosophy, but it is untenable. Science is rarely religiously neutral. Similarly, religious faith is rarely scientifically neutral. Both science and theology frequently address cause and effect and processes of development in the natural realm. Both science and theology deal with the origin of the universe, the solar system, life, and humankind.

When it comes to causes, developmental processes, and origins, two possibilities always exist: natural or supernatural. To dogmatically insist that supernatural answers must never be considered is equivalent to demanding that all human beings follow only one religion, the religion of atheistic materialism. I find it ironic that in the name of religious freedom certain science education proponents insist on ridding our teaching and research institutions of any faith that dares to compete with their own.

Argument 4: Order can come out of chaos.

The idea that under strictly natural conditions order can and will arise out of chaos was first proposed by David Hume nearly two hundred years ago. Recently it has been revived by chemist and Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine in his book Order Out of Chaos,39 and popularized by the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park. Hume made the claim without any evidential support. Prigogine pointed to several chemical reactions in which order appears to arise from chaotic systems. Jurassic Park actually addresses a different subject, namely chaos theory and fuzzy logic.

The principle behind chaos theory and fuzzy logic is that in trying to predict the outcome or future state of exceptionally complex systems, the investigator is better off settling for approximate answers or conclusions at each step in the solution of a problem rather than exact answers or conclusions. The presumption of a natural self-ordering principle in chaotic systems arises from the fact that the more complex a system, the greater the opportunity for departures from thermodynamic equilibrium in small portions of the system (and the greater the difficulty in determining what the thermodynamic equilibrium states actually are). According to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy increases in all systems, but entropy can decrease (i.e., order can increase) in part of a system, providing an extra increase of entropy (i.e., disorder) occurs in a different part of the system. Because human investigators may be prone to underestimate the complexity of some systems, they occasionally are surprised by how far from thermodynamic equilibrium a small portion of a system can stray. However, the thermodynamic laws predict that these departures are temporary, and the greater the departure, the more rapidly the departures are corrected.

Without departures from thermodynamic equilibrium, raindrops and snowflakes, for example, would not form. But, raindrop and snowflake formation comes close to the self-ordering limits of natural process. Though snowflake patterns exhibit a high degree of order, their information content or level of design remains quite low. The distinction is roughly like the difference between the New Testament and a book containing the sentence "God is good" repeated 90,000 times. The latter shows considerable order but not much information. The former contains both a high degree or order and a high degree of information (or design). Prigogine’s examples exhibit increases in order but without significant increases in information content. Natural processes cannot explain the exceptionally high level of design and information content in living organisms or in the structure of the universe that makes life possible.

Argument 5: As we continue to evolve, we will become the Creator-Designer.

In their book The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, astrophysicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler review many new evidences for the design of the universe.40 They go on to discuss versions of the anthropic principle like WAP (weak anthropic principle: conscious beings can only exist in an environment with characteristics that allow for their habitation), SAP (strong anthropic principle: nature must take on those characteristics to admit somewhere, sometime the existence of conscious beings), and more radical versions, including PAP (participatory anthropic principle: conscious observers are necessary to bring the universe into existence, and the universe is necessary to bring observers into existence). But what they favor is FAP (final anthropic principle).

With FAP, the life that exists (past, present, and future) will continue to evolve with the inanimate resources of the universe until it all reaches a state that Barrow and Tipler call the "Omega Point."41 This Omega Point, they say, is an Entity that has the properties of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, with the capacity to create in the past.42 In other words, the Creator-God does not exist yet, but we (all life and all inanimate structures in the universe) are gradually evolving into God. When God is thus finally constructed, His power will be such that He can create the entire universe with all of its characteristics of design billions of years ago.

In his latest book, The Physics of Immortality,43 Tipler proposes that evolution toward the Omega Point will occur through advancing computer technology. By extrapolating computer capability doubling time (currently, about eighteen months) some millions of years into the future, Tipler predicts that a future generation of human beings will be able not only to alter the entire universe and all the laws of physics but also to create a God who does not yet exist. Furthermore, we will be able to resurrect every human being who has ever lived by recovering the memories that once resided in each person’s brain.

Rebuttal: It is hard to treat these FAP and Omega Point hypotheses seriously. In the New York Review of Books, noted critic Martin Gardner offered this evaluation of Barrow and Tipler’s work:

What should we make of this quartet of WAP, SAP, PAP, and FAP? In my not so humble opinion I think the last principle is best called CRAP, the Completely Ridiculous Anthropic Principle.44

In The Physics of Immortality Tipler grossly overestimates the role of human memory and the future capability of computers. Just as computers cannot function with memory banks only, so, too, the human mind and human consciousness do not operate by memory alone. While remarkable advances in computer technology are taking place now, the laws of physics impose predictable finite limits on future computer hardware. As Roger Penrose has documented rigorously in The Emperor’s New Mind and Shadows of the Mind, these limits do not even permit the duplication of human consciousness let alone the fantastic capabilities Tipler suggests.45

But Tipler apparently wants to alter much more than just the universe and the laws of physics. He believes, for example, that future computers will be able to expose people to game theory principles so effectively that all destructive thoughts and actions will be purged and villainy no longer occur, even for the likes of Adolf Hitler and Mata Hari.46 In Tipler’s religion, the redemptive work of a Savior becomes unnecessary. Consider, however, that if Tipler’s proposal were true, the better people comprehend game theory, the less propensity they would exhibit to commit evil. Unfortunately for Tipler, no such correlation is in evidence.

Tipler not only banishes hell but also redesigns heaven. Tipler’s "heaven" brings relational (more accurately, sexual) bliss to every man and woman. He produces an equation to "prove" that this computer generated cosmic utopia will bring a woman to every man and a man to every woman capable of delivering 100,000 times the impact and satisfaction of the most fulfilling partner each can imagine in life as we know it.47 The popular appeal of such a notion documents the spiritual bankruptcy of our times. Evidently, many people have never tasted any greater delight than what sexual experience can bring.

In an article for the Skeptical Inquirer, Gardner again brandished his satiric knifes:

I leave it to the reader to decide whether they should opt for OPT (Omega Point Theology) as a new scientific religion superior to Scientology—one destined to elevate Tipler to the rank of a prophet greater than L. Ron Hubbard—or opt for the view that OPT is a wild fantasy generated by too much reading of science fiction.48

In their persistent rejection of an eternal, transcendent Creator, some cosmologists (and others) are resorting to increasingly irrational options. There is a certain logic to it, however. If for personal or moral reasons the God of the Bible is unacceptable, then given all the evidence for transcendence and design, the alternatives are limited to flights of fancy.

Through time, as we unlock more of the secrets of the vast cosmos, men and women will be even more awed about how exquisitely designed the universe is. But where will that awe be aimed—at the created thing, or at the Creator? That is each person’s choice.

REFERENCES:

1. Richard Swinburne, "Argument from the Fine-Tuning of the Universe," Physical Cosmology and Philosophy, ed. John Leslie (New York: Macmillan, 1991), page 160; Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, 2nd ed. rev. (Orange, CA: Promise, 1991), page 122.
2. Ross, pages 122-123.
3. Fred Hoyle, Galaxies, Nuclei, and Quasars (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), pages 147-150; Fred Hoyle, "The Universe: Past and Present Reflection," Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics 20 (1982), page 16; Ross, pages 126-127.
4. Fred Hoyle, The Nature of the Universe, 2nd ed. rev. (Oxford, U.K.: Basil Blackwell, 1952), page 109; Fred Hoyle, Astronomy and Cosmology: A Modern Course (San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman, 1975), pages 684-685; Hoyle, "The Universe: Past and Present Reflection," page 3; Hoyle, Astronomy and Cosmology, page 522.
5. Hoyle, The Nature of the Universe, page 111.
6. Hoyle, "The Universe: Past and Present Reflection," page 16.
7. John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), page 400.
8. James S. Trefil, The Moment of Creation (New York: Collier Books, Macmillan, 1983), pages 127-134.
9. George F.R. Ellis, "The Anthropic Principle: Laws and Environments," in The Anthropic Principle, F. Bertola and U. Curi, ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), page 30; D. Allan Bromley, "Physics: Atomic and Molecular Physics," Science 209 (1980), page 116.
10. George F.R. Ellis, page 30; H.R. Marston, S.H. Allen, and S.L. Swaby, "Iron Metabolism in Copper-Deficient Rats," British Journal of Nutrition 25 (1971), pages 15-30; K.W.J. Wahle and N.T. Davies, "Effect of Dietary Copper Deficiency in the Rat on Fatty Acid Compostion of Adipose Tissue and Desaturase Activity of Liver Microsomes," British Journal of Nutrition 34 (1975), pages 105-112; Walter Mertz, "The Newer Essential Trace Elements, Chromium, Tin, Vanadium, Nickel, and Silicon," Proceedings of the Nutrition society, 33 (1974), pages 307-313.
11. John P. Cox and R. Thomas Giuli, Principles of Stellar Structure, Volume II: Applications to Stars (New York: Gordon and Breach, 1968), pages 944-1028.
12. Ross, pages 120-128; Barrow and Tipler, pages 123-457; Bernard J. Carr and Martin J. Rees, "The Anthropic Principle and the Structure of the Physical World," Nature 278 (1979), pages 605-612; John M. Templeton, "God Reveals Himself in the Astronomical and in the Infinitesimal," Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation (December 1984), pages 194-200; Jim W. Neidhardt, "The Anthropic Principle: A Religious Response," Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation (December 1984), pages 201-207; Brandon Carter, "Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology," Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium No. 63: Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data, ed. M. S. Longair (Boston, MA: Reidel Publishing, 1974), pages 291-298; John D. Barrow, "The Lore of Large Numbers: Some Historical Background to the Anthropic Principle," Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 22 (1981), pages 404-420; Alan Lightman, "To the Dizzy Edge," Science 82 (October 1982), pages 24-25; Thomas O’Toole, "Will the Universe Die by Fire or Ice?" Science 81 (April 1981), pages 71-72; Hoyle, Galaxies, Nuclei, and Quasars, pages 147-150; Bernard J. Carr, "On the Origin, Evolution, and Purpose of the Physical Universe," Physical Cosmology and Philosophy, ed. John Leslie (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pages 134-153; Swinburne, pages 154-173; R. E. Davies and R. H. Koch, "All the Observed Universe Has Contributed to Life," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, series B, 334 (1991), pages 391-403; George F.R. Ellis, pages 27-32; Hubert Reeves, "Growth of Complexity in an Expanding Universe," in The Anthropic Principle, ed. F. Bertola and U. Curi (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pages 67-84.
13. Davies and Koch, pages 391-403. See also chapters 3 and 4.
14. Hoyle, "The Universe," page 16.
15. Paul Davies, God and the New Physics (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), pages viii, 3-42, 142-143.
16. Paul Davies, Superforce (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), page 243.
17. Paul Davies, The Cosmic Blueprint (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), page 203; Paul Davies, "The Anthropic Principle," Science Digest 191, no. 10 (October 1983), page 24.
18. George Greenstein, The Symbiotic Universe (New York: William Morrow, 1988), page 27.
19. Tony Rothman, "A ‘What You See Is What You Beget’ Theory," Discover (May 1987), page 99.
20. Carr and Rees, page 612.
21. Carr, page 153 (emphasis in the original).
22. Freeman Dyson, Infinitein All Directions (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), page 298.
23. Henry Margenau and Roy Abraham Varghese, ed., Cosmos, Bios, and Theos (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1992), page 52.
24. Margenau and Varghese, ed., page 83.
25. Stuart Gannes, Fortune, 13 October 1986, page 57.
26. Fang Li Zhi and Li Shu Xian, Creation of the Universe, trans. T. Kiang (Singapore: World Scientific, 1989), page 173.
27. Roger Penrose, in the movie A Brief History of Time (Burbank, CA: Paramount Pictures Incorporated, 1992).
28. George F.R.Ellis, page 30.
29. Edward Harrison, Masks of the Universe (New York: Collier Books, Macmillan, 1985), pages 252, 263.
30. John Noble Wilford, "Sizing Up the Cosmos: An Astronomer’s Quest," New York Times, 12 March 1991, page B9.
31. Tim Stafford, "Cease-fire in the Laboratory," Christianity Today, 3 April 1987, page 18.
32. Robert Jastrow, "The Secret of the Stars," New York Times Magazine, 25 June 1978, page 7.
33. Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978), page 116.
34. Swinburne, page 165.
35. William Lane Craig, "Barrow and Tipler on the Anthropic Principle Versus Divine Design," British Journal of Philosophy and Science 38 (1988), page 392.
36. Joseph Silk, Cosmic Enigma (1993), pages 8-9.
37. NCSE staff, Education and Creationism Don’t Mix (Berkeley, CA: National Center for Science Education, 1985), page 3; Eugenie C. Scott, "Of Pandas and People," National Center for Science Education Reports (January-February 1990), page 18; Paul Bartelt, "Patterson and Gish at Morningside College," The Committees of Correspondence, Iowa Committee of Correspondence Newsletter, vol. 4, no. 4 (October 1989), page 1.
38. Education and Creationism Don’t Mix, page 3; Eugenie C. Scott and Henry P. Cole, "The Elusive Scientific Basis of Creation Science," The Quarterly Review of Biology (March 1985), page 297.
39. Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers, Order Out Of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue With Nature (New York: Bantam Books, 1984).
40. Barrow and Tipler.
41. Barrow and Tipler, page 676-677.
42. Barrow and Tipler, pages 676-677, 682; Martin Gardner, "Notes of a Fringe-Watcher: Tipler’s Omega Point Theory," Skeptical Inquirer 15, no. 2 (1991), pages 128-132.
43. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God, and the Resurrection of the Dead (New York: Doubleday, 1994).
44. Martin Gardner, "WAP, SAP, PAP, and FAP," The New York Review of Books, vol. 23, no. 8, 8 May 1986, pages 22-25.
45. Roger Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pages 3-145, 374-451; Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pages 7-208.
46. Frank J. Tipler, pages 253-255.
47. Frank J. Tipler, pages 256-257.
48. Gardner, "Notes of a Fringe-Watcher," page 132.

Posted by lck at 03:25 AM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

Clem Snide, private asshole

If you were freaking out about Google Maps which is military-limited as it only goes so far, try A9 Maps.

Amazon's Seach Utility A9 is offering street-level shots of major American cities for your perusal.

We did anticipate an eye on A9 as a potential major player and fast-growing service with good shoulders. Amazon is playing hard boiled in the quest for best and most refined map utility down to high-quality door-mapping, right down your keyhole. Find your face on Chestnut Street, were you the delivery boy? Still advocating privacy?

Be sure to read A9's Privacy Policy Statement before signing on, because A9 will be storing and using your personal information, both to customize your search results and for commercial purposes.

Take Manhattan first... advertising next.

Samples of street-level side pics offered:
1) Between Broadway and 7th Avenue
2) Between Broadway and the 46th
3) Between Broadway and the 48th

Posted by lck at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2005

61 rooms, 21 artist, 1,000 ideas

HotelFox, Copenhagen, a designer's hotel.

For the launch of the new Volkswagen Fox 21 international artists from the fields of graphic design, urban art and illustration turned Hotel Fox in central Copenhagen, into the world’s most exciting and creative lifestyle hotel.

Posted by lck at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)

Gaza, Yo-Yo's & Crashes on Lobster's Day

Charles Johnson of Little Green Football provides Gaza Watch, a photoblog (servers occasionally overloaded) featuring raw, unedited photos from residents of the Gaza Strip, as Israel prepares to carry out its disengagement plan. Take these pictures at face value.
We hope the disengagement will not kill anybody. Is easy to say it was approved and planned (with striking contrast within the Israeli government), a different story altogether is to get these people out of their very own houses, rid of their memories, abandon jobs and fields they cultivate. This ain't gonna be easy.

While mostly everything is shutdown on Lobster's Day (a.k.a. Ferragosto, today) we are still carrying out some design work for clients that are not on vacation on the other side of the world. In the meantime more domestic-type duties are being taken care of. Our child woke up today from dreaming about a yo-yo that she absolutely needs, a life impending catastrophe. Name anything harder to buy on a day when toy stores (plus everything else) are closed. Put that together with much needed, but fairly easier to find eggs (we need to make brownies) and off we go, me and the kid. We actually managed to scavenger down to a korean stand that had little toys on sale, not a yo-yo, and kid was diligent enough to adopt this little battery-powered cute puppy, named Huatai, instead of the chinese willbilly stretcher. Life's easy when kids decide to learn from what they see.

The stand was lying by a pool of smaller tables, each with 4 old men playing cards. The total number of players must have been close to 80.

The recent disaster involving a B-737 out of Larnaca, Cyprus, impacting a mountain right by Athens, Greece. What to say? I can tell about a conversation I had several years ago with a B-737 pilot, one out of the 50 of this type the US Navy bought in order to replace their aging fleet of DC-9. I do not mean this to prove anything, especially if it will be demonstated that the aircraft was hijacked by terrorists. Asof now bodies have been found that were solid-frozen even after impact.

The US Navy received these 50 B-737, re-named them C-40 taking over the commercial name from Boeing, and sent them around to several bases, one to the NAS base here in Sicily. I was full-time working at tower at that time and was receiving this craft crew for brief and flight plan submission. We were pretty excited to receive our first C-40 and were full of questions for the crew. I can tell they were not excited at all. They said the craft was crazy to balance and limited to fly below 2000 feet. Below 2000 feet? Is that reasonable? No, it is not and the rationale behind this limitation was that several sections of the fuselage freeze at high altitude. They said that they were going to report to their command and release the aircraft back. The crew refused to fly it on active missions and our first C-40 had to be brought back to the US with report of major safety hazards. The US Navy reconditioned all 50 aircrafts at their expenses. Boeing refused to do it as they could not reproduce conditions. The whole pressurization system was replaced (not by Boeing). Now these aircrafts are flying, one is for official US State Secretary Support but apparently it was an expensive experiment for the US Navy and definitely not a good deal.

How many airliners have done what the US Navy had to do (with some major injection of money) in order to make these aircrafts safe? And here I stay as beyond these simple notes I know I may make your life a lot scarier that what it already is.

Recommended movie for Lobster's Day: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear.

Posted by lck at 11:39 AM | Comments (2)

August 14, 2005

A blueprint for America

The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, by John Sperling

Retro vs. Metro is a website that illustrates the book by the same name by John Sperling. The book analyzes reasons and facts behind the current geopolitical divide in the USA, what the author calls Retro and Metro America. The book is informative and full of color maps, charts, and graphs, and historical photography and means to act as a blueprint for the reform of the Democratic party.

The whole concept, while widely accepted, is very polarizing and the overall tone goes beyond what I believe being the truth and right with regards to facts like the present conflict in Iraq et al. But the site and the choice of the pictures used in the banner (a flash slideshow) is stunningly appropriate to the theme to a degree rarely seen before. A must see, be you on the right or the left of the unfortunate, possibly real, barricade (mouseover the banner to proceed).

The book is offered for online reading, free of charge, in its entirety.

Posted by lck at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2005

Challenging silence

If these walls could talk, they would whisper

Scientists wishing to explore sound must first find complete silence, in a noise pollution-free anechoic chamber. Oli Usher investigates.

Oli Usher, Thursday August 11, 2005, Guardian

Silence holds a paradoxical place in science and in human consciousness. In science, the quietest conditions that modern technology allow are invariably used to research sound. And our own search for "peace and quiet" never extends as far as wanting no noise at all. Real silence is strange and disturbing, not relaxing. Most people cannot sleep without at least some background sound.

The closest humankind can get to complete silence is the inside of a heavily soundproofed anechoic chamber, a handful of which exist in universities and labs across Britain. These are used for a range of interesting research - but they also have a profound effect on the people who go into them.

My search for one leads me to University College London, whose anechoic ("without echo") room is in an anonymous, windowless building. In one of the busiest parts of campus, and next to the low hum of an electricity substation, it is hard to believe the unassuming walls can block out all sounds. Dave Cushing, a technician in the phonetics and linguistics department, which owns the facility, shows me the stacks of equipment used in the chamber, and the extensive precautions taken to keep sound pollution inside to a minimum.

Stepping into the chamber is a strange experience, "like being in a field in the middle of the night" according to John Fithyan who runs Southampton University's facility. The silence is profound and the room looks unusual too, with jagged sound-cancelling spikes covering the walls and ceiling that take on a menacing look in the dim light. A 70s-style padded armchair sits incongruously in this other-worldly environment. As I sit on the chair, I try to speak. My voice sounds quiet and dead, and yet I am conscious of the sound of my breathing. As I hold my breath and try to experience the silence without the sound of my breath, I begin to hear a whistling noise in my ears. The experience is disconcerting.

Unpleasant or not, complete silence is incredibly difficult to achieve. Insulate a room, build it within thick brick walls, and vibrations will still get in. Mount the whole thing on springs, and the vibrations will stop - but the echoes won't. Anechoic chambers eliminate this problem by covering walls, ceiling and floor with wedges of fibreglass which stick out 18in into the room. These absorb virtually all the sound, meaning that measurements of sound levels typically weigh in far below zero decibels, the threshold of human hearing. The Bell Labs chamber, the first ever built, featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the "quietest place on earth" after its construction in 1940.

Once you have a silent room, you don't want to ruin it. So the chamber at UCL has specially designed silent air conditioning, and the walls contain coils to cancel out the hum of the substation. The chamber is lit with light bulbs instead of noisy fluorescent tubes. And users must walk on a platform, raised above the soundproofed floor. Even the steel door is covered with a foot and a half of fibreglass.

While most anechoic chambers are used for acoustic research, UCL's is used in phonetics - the scientific study of the human voice. Researchers make precise recordings of voices, using both microphones and laryngographs. This latter device, developed by one of the academics who used this chamber, measures the opening and closing of the voice box while the subject speaks. Linguists at UCL use the recordings to identify the root causes of speech abnormalities in children.

Another device in the crowded control room is a spectrum analyser. "The spectrum analyser looks at the different frequencies in a voice," Cushing says. Using high-quality digital recordings, researchers employ the analyser to examine the minute details of speech, furthering our understanding of human expression. Other research in the department has investigated the hearing of people who have had ear surgery.

Elsewhere, scientists and engineers mainly use anechoic rooms for routine acoustic research, such as testing equipment and modelling sound propagation. But one complex technology developed in the chamber features finds a practical application in the nation's living rooms. "Head-related transfer functions" (HRTFs) underpin the surround sound effects in many computer games. Audio systems using this technology create their 3D sound effects using only a pair of normal stereo speakers. The illusion is created using a detailed acoustic model of the human head, developed in an anechoic chamber, to subtly tweak the sound so as to mimic the realism of five-speaker systems.

The silence of the anechoic room has inspired musicians, too. The American composer John Cage visited Harvard University's facility in the late 1940s. Though he was in a room with no background sound and no echo, Cage discovered that total silence is not actually possible: he claims he heard two sounds, "one high, my nervous system in operation, one low, my blood in circulation". After this experience, he was inspired to write his "silent" piece, 4'33", in which the "music" is made by the ambient sounds of the concert hall alone.

Some people, standing in an anechoic chamber, have lost their balance. Professor Linda Luxon, an audiologist at the Institute of Child Health, questions why this might be. "I can't give you any rational explanation of why people would lose their balance in an anechoic chamber," she says. But she does agree that people find orientation easier if they have full use of all five senses.

As I step out of the anechoic chamber and back into the control room, my sensory deprivation ends. Before going into the chamber, I had thought the control room was quiet, but I now hear the fans of the computer systems, the echoes of students chatting outside. The shock of hearing all this is as great as was the shock of hearing nothing.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

Posted by lck at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2005

Under the influence

Rather predictable for August here is the lack of news on mostly all TV media (the 3 public channels a.k.a. RAI, the 3 Berlusconi's Mediasets and the locals). Apparently there's no reason for this Italian Summer's blank, in fact, more than likely things keep happening at a pretty normal pace everywhere else. Just not in Italy. We're stuck and suspended in the void.
This is of course not an Italian exclusive, the same happens in China during New Year's, just to mention one.

Businesses are mostly closed down, millions are at the beach including politicians (always hot chat, and just that, here), why bother? Let people relax, right? Here come the inevitable fillers. What do they look like? Let's line them up:

Sardinia, Mike Tyson trying to rape yet another chick and not making it but sends her straight to the E.R. He'll get a speed ticket tomorrow and what not the day next. In the news he's mercilessly referred to as "an animal".

A couple, disappearing in early July in northern Italy and still at large, including their cases and wallets. This is the object of major investigations. Why so much obsession about the single occurrence stays unclear. Normally they find them in Costarica, owners of a pizza place and quite successful, from 2 to 5 years from the disappearing act.

Judges/prosecutors questioned for the illegal release to press of phone call tracing investigation materials dealing with several massive banking transactions and insiders trading. The whole, very detailed package, released to defense and, procedurally, perfectly legal and public. The contenders, politicians and prosecutors/judges never declare anything orally to the press, instead they write each other "letters".

King-Kong, the movie, is being remade for the 7th or 8th time. Trailer available.

Museums: big news, they'll stay open this year, under an implacable sun, discounts and even free admission on certain dates. This announcement is made EVERY year.

The case of an ATR (a passenger aircraft) sunken between Bari and Palermo 2 weeks ago with several people reported killed on impact. The only thing we do not know is the color of the pilot's socks. We know everything else about JP4 and JP5 grade fuels, water residues in said fuel (never found), state of the flaps (after impact, duh!), the EP program that did not work (not yet demonstrated) and the brand of antibiotics prescribed to the survivors. We still do not know what happened or why. So-called super-experts from some fancy location are on their way to site.

Soccer teams taking foreign players (non-EU) under contracts. This is perfectly legal, what is wrong is that in a year from now most of them will be found that never obtained a standard permit-to-stay, papers every immigrant is required to request and obtain. Teams will get fines.

Brazilian president (whatever they have at the moment, either sponsored or not by the U.S.) making public confession of widespread corruption, involving trafficking of narcotics and parallel secret accounting throughout the whole governmental body.

And finally, updated price of the cost of renting a beach umbrella in Rimini, a pearl we just can't live without.

A recurrent one is also George Bush finally speaking his mind (a temperature-induced event like pollination) about whatever country he does not have money to invade next, with Mrs. Rice patiently standing right behind him in support in concrete-face-mode.

What we are ignoring right now is a bunch of interesting ones, that we'll hear about in September:

The oil price going thru the roof and breaking the very dramatic psychological quote of 2 USD a gallon in the USA, (averaging 1.3 Euros per liter here, not a joke and certain to affect the whole economy)

Inflation on the rise for the first time in 4 months in Italy (see oil price) despite an increase of the forecasted GNP (but by a mere 0.7 percent in over 12 months :-)

70.000 people stuck in Heathrow due to the cancellation of some 550 flights (British Airways employee protesting against changes in the policy for catering)

Dell Inc., the world's largest maker of personal computers, registering the biggest decline in four years after second-quarter sales rose at the slowest pace since 2002

Radical preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed (deported by Saudi Arabia) barred from Britain, reaching the iconic state to millions of raving young muslims...

A variant of a very virulent chicken pox disease identified in Kazakhstan that can infect humans and, guess what, spreading fast there as it did in Vietnam weeks ago.

What can we do? August is for vacations and we know it, we can recap all of this when we come back, can't we :-? Just, oh why can't Italy have a boring, boring, boring equivalent of PBS? That is just what we need, second in priority after a good, honest, necessary enema.

UPDATE: This is creeping towards the twilight zone:
Version 1: around 8 in the morning -- On a highway near Cassino, car hit by a rock launched by a group of kids down from a bridge, driver killed, car smashed.
Version 2: around 10 in the morning -- Car hit by a MASSIVE rock, 41 kilos, rest same as above. We are approaching a size that would require a forklift, as you can see. (these bridges are even fenced by a 2 meters high metal meshboard!)
Version 3: around 11, after the police have screened area and dynamics -- A MASSIVE rock, 41 kilos in weight, rest as above, smashes on the floor and an incoming car hits it. 4 occupants in serious/critical conditions. The development is the engine of the car got detached due to the collision and flew backwards to hit ANOTHER CAR, some hundreads meters behind and smashed (the engine) the second car frontally, killing the driver.

Words used in the article (la Repubblica, today, in italian): sasso, masso, pietrone.

This needs a frame. If you remember the Warren Commission on JFK assassination and the trascript describing the trajectory of the famous 3rd (magik) bullet, here we are dangerously close to divine intervention.

Posted by lck at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2005

This newspaper is mine (3)

Family business

Based on “Affari di Famiglia” by G. Turani, la Repubblica Aug 9th

The final assault to RCS-Corriere della Sera may have just started.

The plan is progressing thru several stages. An IPO is to be launched first and activities partitioned and sold. Publishing activities may be transferred to Flammarion (France) and advertising go to other entities. Partitioning seems to be necessary to finance back the IPO, which is going to be very expensive. Interestingly it won't be Mr. Ricucci to launch the IPO. Most likely it will be an International group, headed by Mr. Livolsi, a member of the Fininvest board and personal friend of Mr. Berlusconi.

Livolsi is known to be personal finance manager to Berlusconi as well as to the Italian premier's wife, Veronica. He owns his own merchant bank and is the one who convinced Berlusconi to incorporate his media business years ago. It seems rather naive that Livolsi could have started this endeavor on his own, aware as he surely is of the very relevant political aspects of the takeover.

Rumors are that Ricucci, unable to stand his current position in the RCS affaire and lacking the necessary backing from the Popolare di Lodi and Mr. Fiorani (Fiorani out of business and in the prosecutor's crosshairs) may have tried Livolsi for help and coverage.

Livolsi plans to launch the IPO, break-up the property and, most importantly, find a strong, foreign ally to bring into the quest. The IPO can only succeed if the internal controlling Syndicate, that manages roughly 60%, breaks down, and a 12-15% flips out of the pact. This is not guaranteed to happen.

Insiders confirm the International group in question is Spanish Vocento, owner of Abc (a national newspaper) and some local publications. Vocento estimated total revenues are of 700 millions (euros) but RCS revenues are three times that (a little help from friendly banks needed).

Vocento is known to be very close to former Spanish premier Mr. Aznar, a friend of Berlusconi and participates with Mediaset in Telecinco (Spanish media). The Spanish company is interested in acquiring control of El Mundo (controlled by RCS) and may be interested in just this transaction.

Nobody can tell today in which direction the plan is going to unravel but it is clear that may a fraction of the present scenario be confirmed, Berlusconi is going to deal with (a few more) political problems.

Posted by lck at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2005

Crude gone wild and sugarcane futures

While Italian businesses slowly approach a two-weeks screeching halt and afternoons here draw the siesta (and bankers have cut down on phone calls), things keep rolling in the rest of the world. Crude Oil raises to an easily predictable 70$ a barrel by early October, Google gets fierce, real competition from Amazon and press attacks by Yahoo and "bad art" gets dignified status with its own museum, just slightly cheaper than MOMA.
And the forecast for the impending two weeks is not summery at all (it's raining in Rimini, showering in Turin, Milan and if you're in for skiing dig higher and it's snow). At the other end the Shuttle Discovery's flight plan is driving everybody nuts (it just safely landed at KEDW, Edwards AFB, CA).
In the meantime keep your Google shares for a few months more and cash in wisely then buy ethanol futures. The paintings can wait.

Crude Oil Rises to Record $64.27 a Barrel

Crude futures climbed past the $64-a-barrel mark Tuesday, as the market continued to monitor events in Saudi Arabia after Britain and Australia warned of an increased threat of terror attacks there, a day after the U.S. closed its embassy and two consulates in the country, the world's top oil producer. Mid-afternoon in Singapore, benchmark light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached an intraday high of $64.27 a barrel in Asian electronic trading before slipping to $64.20. That's up 26 cents from Monday's close of $63.94 a barrel in New York.

Gasoline rose marginally to $1.8580 a gallon while heating oil was up a cent at $1.8000 a gallon. In London, September Brent crude futures on the International Petroleum Exchange clocked a record high of $62.96 a barrel in electronic trading, up 26 cents from Monday. The run-up in prices in the last few days has been driven more by speculation and political concerns than by market fundamentals, analaysts said.

Have an eye on A9

The full version of Amazon.com's search utility, A9, offers an attractive mix of features, and Amazon has fixed some of the flaws found in the beta version. Tied to your Amazon.com account, the updated A9 service includes related search results from Google Images, the Internet Movie Database, GuruNet.com, and books at Amazon (and more).

You still have to sign on with your Amazon account to access all the features available. A9 keeps a history of your queries on its servers, thus allowing you to retrieve it from any computer. When searching and retrieving results, you now have the option to activate panes for books, images, movies, reference, history, bookmarks, and the diary. You can set preferences for font size, color, language, and filters. The help files are extensive and include A9's privacy statement. Be sure to read it before signing on, because A9 will be storing and using your personal information, both to customize your search results and for their commercial purposes.

A9 is an attractive and easy-to-use special-search utility that might be useful to Amazon customers. Like Ujiko, another special-search utility, it provides tools to customize your history and preferences and help organize your favorite sites. Unlike Ujiko, you will have to give up a measure of your privacy to use this service.

MOBA

The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) is a community-based, private institution dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms and in all its glory.

MOBA was founded in the fall of 1993 and presented its first show in March 1994. The response was overwhelming. Since then, MOBA's collection and ambitions have grown exponentially. Until early 1995, MOBA was housed in the basement of a private home in Boston. This meager exhibition space limited the museum to being a regional cultural resource for the New England area.

As the only museum dedicated to bringing the worst of art to the widest of audiences the crew feels morally compelled to explore new, more creative ways of bringing this priceless collection of quality bad art to a global audience. MOBA now exhibit online, publishes an email newsletter called The MOBA News, has a virtual gallery available on CD-ROM, and is currently looking for a publisher for the second printing of the popular Museum of Bad Art Book.

Posted by lck at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2005

A draft for Final Terror

The Belmont Club reports new snippets on Stalin's plans for a second Great Terror:

Stalin was planning his own version of the Holocaust to rid the U.S.S.R. of its Jewish citizens. ... Newly discovered documents show that in February 1953, Stalin authorised the construction of four large prison camps in Kazakhstan, Siberia and the Arctic north. Officially they were for all classes of dangerous criminals, but it is far more likely that Stalin was preparing for a second Great Terror - aimed at the millions of Soviet citizens of Jewish descent. ...

A search led to a book review of Brent and Naumov's Stalin's Last Crime, largely about Uncle Joe's abortive project to launch a new wave of repression so huge it would put his efforts of the 1930s into the shade.

Though the Great Terror of the late 1930s is widely viewed as the height of Stalin's purges, the number of arrests actually peaked in the early 1950s, and Stalin was planning hundreds of thousands more on the eve of his death in 1953. These arrests were spurred by the "doctors' plot," a supposed conspiracy among Jewish doctors to kill members of the government and destroy the U.S.S.R. at the behest of the Americans. Brent, the editorial director of Yale University Press, and Naumov, executive secretary of Russia's Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons, trace how Stalin himself put together ... (a plan) ... to accomplish several goals: to purge his Ministry of Security and upper ranks of government; to defuse the potential threat posed by Soviet Jews, many of whom had ties to the U.S. and the new state of Israel; and to provide fuel for an armed conflict with the U.S.

This was pretty heavy stuff, but then Stalin had the dubious distinction of killing many more people than Adolph Hitler, so anything was possible. As I didn't have the book, I scoured its book reviews until I found the location of the four giant planned death-camps where Stalin intended to succeed where Hitler had failed -- Kazakhstan, Komi, and Irkutsk. The final Final Solution. The attraction of exploring Communist archaeology is based in part on the fascination for the grotesque. It is what morbid minds study in the absence of real alien monster artifacts. It is a tableau of the inconceivable, made all the more startling because it was real. Stalin even attempted to master time by mandating a five-day week (after he had tried a six-day week) reasoning there was no earthly reason why it should run to seven. The Economist explains Stalin's point of view.

Most people greet the weekend with gratitude. But some economists view it with puzzlement. Why, they wonder, does the bulk of the population rest on the same two days each week? Why does everyone's week end at “the” weekend? From an economic point of view, it would surely be more efficient to stagger days of rest throughout the week. That way, expensive pieces of equipment would not lie idle for two days in seven, and infrastructure would be less congested the other five.

One person impressed by this logic was Josef Stalin, who rationalised the Soviet calendar in 1929. Workers were given every fifth day off, but their shifts were staggered, so that factories could run without interruption. The staggered week appealed rather less to the people who worked it, however. According to Witold Rybcynski's 1991 book about leisure, “Waiting for the Weekend”, Stalin's four days on, one day off, was unpopular, even though it was less onerous than the six-day week that preceded it. Families and friends rarely had the same day off; administrative staff rarely worked at the same time. After less than three years, the staggered working week was abandoned.

There's a boutique tourist market for traveling the "Road of Bones" a road to a mooted gold mine ordered by Stalin which conveniently killed those who built it from starvation. (An enterprising fellow called Milford posted photos he took on motorcycle journey along the route, where it is said, building each meter cost one prisoner's life. ) Here was a place, as the Telegraph puts it, where:

Armed only with pickaxes and wheelbarrows, prisoners, among them the founder of the Soviet space programme, generals and intellectuals side by side with common criminals, hacked and hewed at permafrost in the hunt for gold.

The landscape of Communism from East Germany to Cambodia, from North Korea to Cuba deserves to preserved as a monument to the greatest act of hypnotism in history. Piers Brendon, writing in the Dark Valley, described the pilgrimage of Western intellectuals to this palace of horrors, intent upon discovering paradise. And discover it they did.

Before setting off for Moscow in 1932 to experience "the veritable future of mankind", Malcolm Muggeridge made a bonfire of bourgeois trappings, including his dinner jacket. Arthur Koestler endorsed the slogan at the frontier -- "Change trains for the twenty first century". ... Muggeridge ... soon perceived the truth and mocked the gullibility of other visitors. Lord Marley denied that official lies could have been told about the Five Year Plan -- "Think how ashamed the Soviet Government would be if it were discovered that their statistics had been falsified" -- and believed that the authorities permitted food queues in Moscow because they "provided a means for inducing the workers to take a rest". Edouard Herriot was convinced that the milk shortage was due to the large amount allocated to nursing mothers. George Bernard Shaw expressed his confidence that the Soviet Union was free from hunger by declaring that he had thrown his supplies of Western tinned food out of the train window ..." (from the chapter Stalin's Revolution)

But the El Dorado wasn't there; and the really big historical question is why it took the best minds of the West more than 50 years and countless lives to discover that elementary fact. This monumental self-hypnosis calls into question our collective ability to know; and when politicians and media talking heads speak with perfect assurance about "religions of peace" or alternatively, about a "death cult" with bloody borders, how certain are we that our epistemology is any better than that of the 20th century intellectuals?

posted by wretchard at 4:55 AM

Posted by lck at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)

A new vocabulary for trade

A little, polite war of words between Thomas L. Friedman, Pulitzer Prize and author of "The World is Flat", and Jagdish Bhagwati, Economist and senior fellow at the CFR. Which take and what strategy towards globalization? Everything forever changed (Friedman's view or vision) or is the passing phase a delicate work of balancing, "re-phasing" of powers and languages? (Bhagwati)

An excerpt of Friedman's work is available here, Jagdish Bhagwati's article right below (banner link opens to the Council of Foreign Relations website). Friedman's book is not yet available in Europe.

A NEW VOCABULARY FOR TRADE by Jagdish N. Bhagwati
© The Wall Street Journal, August 04, 2005

Metaphors matter. They define how one sees reality, as when the phenomenon of skilled emigration turns into the problem of "brain drain," evoking the image of a leaky faucet that few can regard with equanimity.

The phenomenon of globalization has prompted competing metaphors. The prolific Thomas Friedman talks everywhere, and writes in his latest best seller, of globalization being marked by a "flat world." Writing almost a decade earlier in the New Republic, I advanced an alternative -- and less demotic -- metaphor, that globalization was characterized by "kaleidoscopic comparative advantage." Let me explain why the two metaphors diverge dramatically and carry startlingly different policy implications -- and why Mr. Friedman gets it wrong.

'Geography Is History'

One cannot but be aware that countries face intensified competition in the world economy -- a phenomenon that forced itself on our attention long before China and India began to loom large in fevered imaginations. Interest rates are less far apart than earlier: A continual opening and global integration of financial markets has occurred. Multinationals now consider many alternative locations for final assembly and to manufacture components, so their know-how becomes available, in effect, to several likely locations. Access to knowledge is more diffused than ever before: Student enrollments in foreign countries have grown, better educational institutions have opened in some developing countries, and the need for skilled professionals has led to shifts in immigration policies to draw them in to countries that have excess demand for their skills. Producers in distant places can now access markets thanks to the Internet, to the point where many talk melodramatically of the "death of distance," and I say, with tongue partly in cheek, that "geography is history."

Yet it is wrong to infer from this that the world has gone "flat," and that there is no comparative advantage left. The notion of a flat world is as wrong metaphorically now as it was when Copernicus showed it to be literally wrong. To be more precise than his metaphor, Mr. Friedman has on his mind not the world but a large fraction of it -- India and China. He believes that the gradient which the citizens of these countries had to climb to get to our shores and out-compete us has now disappeared, giving way to a level playing field that we ignore at our peril.

But he takes too literally his friends in Bangalore. They flex their muscles on IT the way Popeye does on spinach, and tell him that some Indians can now do anything that the Americans can do. But it is a leap to translate this into the proposition that several Indians will now do everything that the Americans do. Then again, we have Intel Chairman Craig Barrett talking about 300 million Indians and Chinese professionals who will hurtle down the flat road. And Clyde Prestowitz, in his latest book, carries the argument to its logical conclusion with the American nightmare that there will be three billion Indians and Chinese capitalists soon down that road.

In truth, the flat road is not flat at all. Take the supply of educated manpower in India. Of the numbers in the age cohort for college education, only about 6% make it to college. Of these, only two-thirds graduate, and just a small fraction can read English. Of these, a further fraction can speak it; and of these, a smaller fraction still can speak it in a way which you and I can understand. The truth of the matter, therefore, is that even for the call-answer and back-office services, the numbers who will compete are only a very small fraction of the numbers being thrown about. India's huge size and the dazzle of the few Institutes of Technology are totally misleading. The road is not flat; the gradient becomes steep as wages rise for those who can manage while others cannot qualify.

Again, just think back on why China has not managed to break into IT the way it has on a range of manufactures, while India has. Surely, that has to do with the fact that India is democratic and hence IT can flourish. By contrast, the CP (the Communist Party) is not compatible with the PC: Authoritarian regimes are fearful of IT -- a gigantic pothole in the road!

Such fears of a flat road were rampant when many thought that Japan would be a fearsome Godzilla, trampling over our activities all around. But then it turned out that the Japanese were real klutzes in the financial sector. They still are. And remember that while the Chinese and Indians have lower wages, we have better infrastructure, stronger venture capital markets, an ability to attract talent from around the world, and a culture of inventiveness. Comparative advantage persists; the road is simply not flat.

The flat road metaphor is, therefore, both inapt and mistakenly alarming. The real problem in the increasingly globalized economy is rather that most producers in traded activities -- an expanding set because services have become steadily more tradeable -- face intensified competition. A specific producer here will find rival suppliers stealing up on him from somewhere, whether Portugal, Brazil or Malaysia, indeed from sources which may not include India and China. In consequence, almost no producer is truly relaxed. I was at a Parents' Day at my daughter's camp in 1991 in Vermont and talked to a father producing chips in Silicon Valley. He lamented, as did Bill Clinton soon after, that competition from Japan and South Korea was fierce (and wicked). So I turned to another dad listening in on us and asked him what he did. "I grow mushrooms," he said. "Ah, you must be happier," I remarked. He replied, tearing at his hair: "Oh no, Taiwan is killing me!"

* * *

Gone are Adam Smith's days, when no one in Haifa lost sleep because Edinburgh could grow oranges in greenhouses: The cost differences would be substantial. Comparative advantage was "thick," shielded by big buffers. This is no longer so: not predictably from India and China, but almost certainly from somewhere. Hence I use the metaphor: "kaleidoscopic comparative advantage." Today, you have it; but in our state of knife-edge equilibrium, you may lose it tomorrow and regain it the day after. Boeing might win today, Airbus tomorrow, and then Boeing may be back in play again. It is as if the design of trade patterns that you see now gives way to another, as if a kaleidoscope had turned.

In this situation of flux and change, we see the Friedman metaphor turned on its head. Faced with fierce competition, firms and unions often seek to iron out whatever differences they can so that the cost conditions for foreign rivals are brought closer to what they are for oneself. Producer interests, including labor, lobby to narrow (if not equalize) as far as politically possible the cost advantages that accrue to rivals from differences in all sorts of domestic policies and institutions. They try, through political agitation, to shield themselves.

Hence the massive demand for "fair trade," a seductive phrase that has become a principal ally of protectionism. So you see demands for enhanced labor and environmental standards in trade treaties, not as altruism but as a way to reduce the competitiveness of rivals. This game cannot be played in the multilateral trade negotiations because countries like India and Brazil see through it. But it can be played when smaller fry are involved in bilateral Free Trade Agreements: A hegemonic power like the U.S., captured in turn by fearful lobbies seeking to flatten the world, can get the minnows to do almost anything that it wants.

The real answer cannot be to seek to flatten the world, as this flies in the face of commonsense and good economic sense as well. Except for a few universal principles, diversity of labor and environmental standards is legitimate. Forcing convergence with our standards is simply an act of high-handedness by a "selfish hegemon" pretending to be an "altruistic hegemon."

But even if plans to flatten the world thus were to succeed, they cannot but leave out the vast numbers of bumps and gradients that cannot be steamrolled: The world cannot be flattened, frankly. And so the proper response to flux is to manage it. What does this imply? Evidently, we must strengthen the Adjustment Assistance Programs, which we have done from 1962 when they were introduced at the time of the Kennedy Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations. They must be rapidly enlarged, especially to include service workers.

A Facelift for Clint Eastwood?

But that is not enough. We also need to ensure that when a radiologist in Boston loses his work to one in Bombay, he is able to retrain for the new skilled medical jobs that arise daily as new problems arrive: e.g. the obesity epidemic and the associated diabetes outbreak. In fact, new medical employment will multiply in cosmetic surgery with an aging population as nose jobs, silicon transplants and chin tucks capture the female half and spread to the male half as well. (I have a bet that even Clint Eastwood's wrinkles will be erased some day by a facelift!) The radiologist may be able to find for himself the training to get new jobs closest to his skills; but it is clear that more aged radiologists will need more assistance, and that professional societies such as the American Medical Association could assist in this task by defining optimal transition paths from the old to the new jobs.

Yet it is not enough to say that we must educate our people to stay ahead of the curve. Yes, that is important: But it is also necessary to look at the content of the education. In a world of kaleidoscopic flux, an American aeronautical engineer at Boeing may well find that the industry has suddenly lost to Airbus, and that he must move into automobile engineering, where the Honda and Toyota transplants may be expanding. It is important that his training provide a larger share of general engineering skills and less of specialized ones. And thus, instead of succumbing to the panic of the "flat world" metaphor, we need to embrace the kaleidoscopic metaphor of flux, and redefine our institutional and policy responses to make the best use of the opportunities today in the globalized world.

Mr. Bhagwati, University Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia, and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the author of "In Defense of Globalization" (Oxford, 2004).

© The Wall Street Journal

Posted by lck at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

Play the Wired game

The team at Sunday Magazine has put together the definitive list on what it reckons is worth wearing, listening to, looking at, watching on the big (or small) screen, staying in for, going out for, and a few people (some famous, some not-so-famous) that you need to know about right now.

Play the Wired Game again, amen :-)

So, be prepared for your temperature to rise. Here, in no particular order, is the top 100 ...

1. Abbie Cornish She's been dubbed by many as the next Nicole Kidman, but we think Abbie Cornish is on course to be quite famous in her own right, thank you very much. After winning an AFI award for her performance in last year's Somersault, people have begun to take notice of the 23-year-old from New South Wales' Hunter Valley. With a role in Candy opposite Heath Ledger under her belt, Cornish is currently auditioning in Los Angeles, but remains cooly ambivalent about chasing the Hollywood dream. "Is there much evidence that it increases happiness?" she asks. "For the sheer pleasure in being able to have choice over the films you make, then yes."

2. Espadrilles The espadrille wedge is back with a vengeance. Forecast for street- and beachwear this summer and next, espadrilles will give you height and your wardrobe glamour, so leg it to your favourite shoe shop, as most retailers are already carrying them. And the best bit? They won't break the bank, either.

3. Sudoku Remember a time before Sudoku mania gripped the nation? Invented 200 years ago, the mind-bending logic puzzle lay dormant until it was dusted off by a Japanese magazine and set free to sweep the world. In the UK, doctors have even coined a new expression for addicts: "Compulsive Sudoku Syndrome". Don't say you haven't been warned ...

4. Absollut at Hotham Daring design and a love for the outrageously indulgent has apparently led to Absollut - the most expensive alpine accommodation ever constructed in Australia. The four apartments - including two penthouses - feature finishes that wouldn't be out of place in a five-star hotel: marble kitchens, large spa baths, sumptuous couches and even cable TV. There's just one problem. With so much luxury, why would you ever want to set foot on the snow?

5. The Australian Chamber Orchestra Not every chamber orchestra gets a standing ovation upon playing New York's Carnegie Hall, but the ACO is no ordinary group of musos. Under the artistic directorship of Richard Tognetti, the photogenic ensemble has taken Australian musicianship to the world, with stunning results. "You'd have to scour the universe hard to find another band like the ACO," declared London's The Times in 2003. Luminous - a recent collaboration with photographer Bill Henson and singer Paul Capsis - was a roaring success, taking the classical music concert in an entirely new direction. Next on the agenda is a national tour with British pianist Steven Osborne, featuring works by Mozart and Britten.

6. The make-under Tired of stainless-steel and polished wood bars with no personality, the groovers are heading back to the boozer. Yep, smelly carpets, tattered bar stools and pool tables are all the rage. In Melbourne, head to the Union in Fitzroy or St Kilda's Greyhound Hotel. Sydneysiders should try the Hotel Hollywood in Surry Hills and the Gaslight Inn in Darlinghurst.

7. Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton Lesser men might feel threatened by being married to one of the biggest actresses in the world, but not Andrew Upton. The Australian writer/director is happy to play second-fiddle to wife Cate Blanchett, safe in the knowledge that he isn't exactly challenged in the talent department either. Sydney luvvies were in raptures when Blanchett starred in Upton's reworking of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler last year and she constantly credits Upton as the artistic brains of their partnership. "He is such an interesting thinker who challenges me intellectually and musically," gushed Cate.

8. Nutriceuticals While huge capsules packed full of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals may be difficult to swallow, oral supplements are currently the hottest trend in beauty circles. Containing extracts of grape seed, pine bark and green tea - which fight free radicals - fatty acids, as well as minerals, like zinc, sulphur and selenium, to assist skin, hair and nail health, these potent pills are said to help reduce the signs of ageing and boost the look of your skin. Check out Ultraceuticals, Phytologic Anthogenol and Maxidene Age Defense.

9. Gary Ablett Jr His dad, Gary Sr, is considered one of the greatest AFL players ever, so it was always going to be a tough task when young Gazza pulled on a Geelong jumper. Now, with his freakish skills and ability to stay on his feet, he is one of the most exciting players in the league. In fact, the excitement of the crowd (and commentators) is palpable whenever he goes near the ball. Post-footy he's hinted at a career in acting. Two words, Gary: Warwick Capper.

10. Podcasting Why put up with loud-mouth DJs, aggravating ads and cookie-cutter radio programming when you can listen to what you want, when you wantfor free? Suddenly podcasts (internet radio programs you can download for later listening) are the hottest thing in cyberspace. What began as a spin-off from the weblog craze has spawned a global phenomenon. No wonder the big radio networks are sweating. Want to tune in? Visit www.ipodder.org to download the software you'll need then trawl the various sites, such as www.podcastbunker.com, to find an alternative Kyle and Jackie O.

11. Tsubi When three guys decided to trash jeans and design some T-shirts back in 2000, they might never have thought that four short years later they would make their debut on BRW's Young Rich List, their empire estimated to be worth $12 million. But that's just what's happened to Dan Single, George Gorrow and Gareth Moody, whose label Tsubi has fans both on the street and in the spotlight. In the past 12 months, they've opened signature stores in Sydney's Bondi and Paddington and in New York, closed proceedings at MAFW and launched a jewellery and sunglasses line. Now they're working on a book commemorating the art, people and fashion that make up Tsubi that will be launched in Sydney, NYC, London and Japan. Which begs the question: when do they get time to sleep?

12. Rosella Namok Namok is a leading light in the Lockhart River Art Gang, a group of young Aboriginal painters from the Cape York area of Far North Queensland, which also includes Fiona Omeenyo and Samantha Hobson. At just 26, her work is held in major collections and her shows are sell-outs. Her bold, richly coloured paintings incorporate both abstract and figurative elements in their depiction of community life and traditional stories.

13. Hothead Russell Crowe Need we say more?

14. Rising Sun Pictures While the world swoons over the sixth Harry Potter book, Australian special-effects company Rising Sun Pictures is quietly concentrating on the fourth outing of the bespectacled wizard. They beat off international competition to animate key scenes - including bringing the flaming goblet of fire to life - in the movie of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The company is weaving its own brand of muggle magic in time for the film's release on December 1.

15. Neon Influential music rag Kerrang! described the Melbourne three-piece's sounds as "sweet as sunshine but with a gleaming rock core". They weren't wrong. Noisy, yet hugely infectious melodies that get in your head after one listen, this is one band that's good to turn up loud. They've already got a strong UK following and with some big-name fans taking notice (notably former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and Redd Kross's Steve McDonald), we know Neon's name will be up in lights at a venue near you soon.

16. Li'Tya When Sting or Stella McCartney need some TLC, they opt for spa treatments and massage techniques from Melbourne-based company Li'Tya. Based on traditional Aboriginal philosophy, rituals and organic ingredients, founder of the little-known company, Gayle Heron, consulted with elders of the Ya'idt-midtung tribe on the NSW/Victorian border to develop products and therapies, like Lillypilly Creme Cleanser and body mud treatment Mala Mayi. Now, the treatments and products are available from here to LA and the UK.

17. Chloe Dallimore Since inhabiting the role of Ulla, the saucy Swedish receptionist in The Producers, the blonde bombshell has all but stolen the show. Far from being an overnight sensation, Dallimore is a classically trained ballet dancer who moved to the UK at age 17 on a prestigious scholarship. After completing her studies, she returned to Australia and starred in a slew of musicals, but her standout performance in Mel Brooks' smash comedy musical, has been nothing short of career-making.

18. Hot dogs sunday magazine doesn't approve of trends when it comes to man's best friend, but the new hybrid breeds (spoodles and labradoodles, for example) are the hot dogs du jour. Speaking of hybrids, we hear the Shih tzu-poodle cross is also tres popular, but we're not going to even try and abbreviate that!

19. Organic Cola When is junk food not junk food? When it's organic, of course. This is no fizzy soft drink. Instead of getting its taste from sugar, Whole Earth Foods' Organic Cola uses Mexican agave cactus syrup and apple juice for a sweet buzz. And there's less caffeine than in your average glass of cola.

20. Ricky Ponting's bat Twenty-five years after Dennis Lillee strode to the wicket, aluminium bat in hand, Ricky Ponting will suit up against the Poms during the Ashes series with a bat that features a woven graphite backing. Some call it cheating, others call it progress. Whenever he uses it, though, be prepared for action. Against Pakistan in Sydney earlier this year, he slugged his way to 207, and at the tsunami charity match in Melbourne, he smashed 115. If you've got it, flaunt it.

21. Bay of Fires Tasmania's Bay of Fires Lodge offers the ultimate in relaxation - if you're prepared to walk for two days with an overnight camp stop en route to get there. Set deep on a hilltop in Mount William National Park, the eco-lodge is the only building on 20km of outstanding coastal wilderness. It also means solar heating, composting toilets and grey-water treatment systems, but, as all are done without sacrificing comfort, you may begin to wonder why all resorts don't do the same.

22. Napoleon Perdis The self-styled make-up artist's range, Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics, was launched earlier this year in American department store chain, Saks Fifth Avenue. Meanwhile, closer to home, he's busy expanding his training academies and enjoying a brisk trade with 490 counters operating in Australia and 16 in New Zealand.

23. Toyota Prius With petrol prices nudging $2 in some parts, who wouldn't want a car that promises to slash your fuel bill by 50 per cent? Prius' big selling point is its hybrid engine - an electric motor that powers the car independently at low speeds, teamed with a smaller-than-average petrol motor that kicks in when extra grunt is needed. The result is a family-size hatchback that sips around five litres of standard unleaded petrol for every 100km, about half that of your average car and, best of all, it's a friend to the environment.

24. The Wiggles Jerry Seinfeld's a fan and Robert De Niro's au fait with the hot potato. Fourteen years after forming at uni (and thanks to millions of album and DVD sales and countless shows across the globe later), they've been named our richest entertainers. (In 2004, they racked up $45 million in gross income.) Now, there are even international Wiggles (check out the Spanish Wiggles doing the Hot Potato). Who said skivvys were daggy?

25. Glamping Camping you either love it or hate it. For some, the thought of sleeping on a leaking blow-up mattress is too much. Thank the lord, then, for the rise of glamping (that is, glamorous camping). Across Australia, operations such as Jervis Bay's swish Paperbark Camp and Uluru's Longitude 131 are ensuring that camping also means hot showers, proper beds and the kind of luxury you'd usually associate with a top hotel. So you get all the adventure without the backache.

26. Tarnation It reads like a fairytale. Texan Jonathan Caouette crafts 19 years' worth of home movies into a 90-minute film on his iMovie editing package. The resulting doco costs him the princely sum of $US217.32, and has since been lauded at Cannes and Sundance. And they say film-making is expensive ...

27. Dinosaur Designs Two decades strong, Dinosaur Designs' creative directors Louise Olsen, Stephen Ormandy and Lianne Rossler are living beyond their technicoloured dreams with a thriving designer homeware and jewellery company, outgrowing their humble market beginnings. Dinosaur Designs is now one of Australia's leading exports in design with stores in Melbourne, Sydney and New York.

28. Lizard Island Could Voyages Lizard Island be Australia's swishest resort? Yep, you can't really argue with this kind of luxury on the Great Barrier Reef's most northerly island. We're saving our pennies for the divine Pavilion - with its 270-degree panorama of Anchor Bay, Osprey Island and Sunset Beach.

29. Jesse Spencer From super-nerd Ramsay Street resident Billy Kennedy to hot young doc on one of the best TV shows of the moment, the 26-year-old has hit the big time. After an impressive turn in Swimming Upstream, he went to Hollywood and scored a part in the forgettable Uptown Girls. Now he's really attracting attention as the gorgeous, wealthy Dr Robert Chase on House.

30. ShoqBox MP3s are fine if you want to shove your headphones on, but to share your tunes with friends you'll need the Philips ShoqBox ($249). It's easy to carry and the built-in speakers are powerful enough to get the party started. You can download four hours of MP3 tracks and there's also the option of listening to FM radio.

31. Lover Get ready to hear a lot more about this Sydney fashion label (sired by Susien Chong and Nic Briand) whose clash of good fabrics and hand-printed textile designs has the likes of Kate Hudson and Kate Bosworth in a lather.

32. Erotic confessionals The hot literary genre - in more ways than one - is the boudoir autobiography. And our own Mary Moody is the queen of the sensual confessional. Her book, Last Tango in Toulouse, is a national best-seller and has more recently been followed by The Long Hot Summer (Pan Macmillan, $30).

33. Lleyton Hewitt and Bec Cartwright If you'd told us at last year's Wimbledon that by the time the next tournament rolled around, Lleyton Hewitt would be just about to tie the knot with his pregnant fiancee Bec Cartwright, we'd probably have laughed very loudly. But here we are and ain't love grand?

34. Bill Henson Henson's epic photographs divide viewers. Some call him a pornographer for the elite; others regard him as a contemporary Caravaggio. Henson's work is now highly collectible, here and overseas - recent limited-edition prints cost $14,000, while his enormous single-state collages can fetch up to $250,000.

35. sass & bide You gotta love anything that causes the New York fash-pack to sit up. Sass & bide's Heidi Middleton and Sarah-Jane Clarke did just that when the pregnant pair took a bow at the end of their show at February's New York Fashion Week. Funky mothers, indeed.

36. Dotti When celebs come to town, there's only one make-up artist they trust - Dotti. Famed for her artistic flair, the make-up artist currently sports pink hair. "I'm crazy about colour," she says, "and vintage clothes."

37. Toasted sambos Whether you're using the Breville or a jaffle iron over a camp fire, there is nothing as winter-warming as an old-school toasted sandwich. Stuff it with cheese and let it ooze.

38. Ricky Swallow The Victorian-born, London-based artist representing Australia at this year's Venice Biennale has created everything from iMacs in the shape of human skulls to creepy dioramas on old turntables. Descibed as "poignant, personal and potent", Swallow's sculptures of, among other things, dead marine life, snakes nestled inside a bike helmet and a skeleton gazing towards the heavens are eerie and enigmatic, yet strangely familiar.

39. Brad Ngata Arguably one of the country's hottest hairdressers, 41-year-old Ngata is this year's recipient of Australia's highest accolade in hairdressing, the 20th Hair Expo Australian Hairdresser of the Year. Ngata's impressive portfolio includes styling for fashion labels Tsubi, sass & bide, Akira Isogawa and Collette Dinnigan. For funky or avant-garde styling, his salon, Brad Ngata Hair Direction, in Sydney's Surry Hills, is the hot spot for locks.

40. Watching the Ashes on SBS The pundits reckon the 2005 series promises to be the closest in years, with a rejuvenated English team giving us a bit of stick for the first time in more than a decade. OK, we're all for a contest ... as long as we win.

41. Todd Squad When your precious musical cargo needs protecting, you need designer and music video director Todd Sheldrick's Todd Squad iPod holder. The screen-printed neoprene sleeves feature images of mix tapes, among other things, and are certainly funkier than the logo'd designer models you can buy at the moment. At $39.95, from Koskela in Sydney, they're cheaper, too.

42. Olives As well as having the perfect climate for grapes, many of the wine regions of Australia are also prime growing grounds for another gourmet product - olives. As a result, we're seeing beautiful varieties on sale at delis, mainly from South Australia and Victoria. Check out some of the varieties at www.australianoliveshop.com or, even better, when you're on your next winery tour, keep an eye out for local olives on sale.

43. Jet A few years ago, the Melbourne lads were playing small, inner-city pubs. Fast-forward to 2005 and they're rocking alongside the likes of U2 and Coldplay as part of the international Live 8 bonanza. Now, after selling more than 2.5 million copies of their debut album, Get Born, they've bunkered down in their home town to record the follow-up. We can't wait.

44. Nick Cave We all know he can write a decent tune - in fact, he's one of our great songwriters. But what about film scripts? Yes, it seems the velvet-jacketed one is a dab hand at that, too. The boy from Wangaratta wrote the screenplay for this October's sweeping epic The Proposition, and the word from those who've had a sneaky peak is that it's pretty darn good.

45. Mini-maintenance It's seems smaller is better in the beauty world - be it manicures, pedicures or facials. General manager of cosmetics at David Jones, Neale Joseph, says we're even booking in three at a time to have our nails done with friends. "We're seeing huge growth in fast treatments," he says. You can stop by the Estee Lauder counter for a quickie brow shape, or have a mini-facial at some of the other big name counters.

46. Patricia Piccinini Helmets for mutated heads, biomorphic creatures suckling their young and mice with human ears - welcome to the creepy, yet fascinating world of sculptor Piccinini. Part predictive nightmare, part ingenious display of visual art's frontiers, her work elaborates the future of homo sapiens in the face of modern advances. Piccinini found a worldwide audience at the 2003 Venice Biennale and now exhibits around the world.

47. Coloured denim Sassy summer jeans work well under'60s mini-dresses for girls or matched with logo T-shirts for guys. Test run some for fun.

48. Chris Langlois This is one artist who loves to be beside the seaside. Born and raised on NSW's Central Coast, Langlois has built his artistic reputation on large-scale paintings of seascapes. Like the vistas they depict, his painterly canvases can look remarkably different depending on the light; land, sea and sky combine to hypnotic, almost abstract, effect. Painting from photographs, Langlois describes his work as being "of anywhere and nowhere and everything and nothing". But in spite of their subject matter, his seascapes and landscapes are utterly distinctive.

49. Social consciousness Forget ladies who lunch, these days anybody who's anybody is taking up a cause and proudly wearing their hearts on their very fashionable sleeves. From innovative labels such as Edun, launched by Bono's wife, Ali Hewson, and designer Rogan, creating fashion with a message to staying out all night to help the homeless and campaigning for the environment, the "hopesters" are proving it's cool to care.

50. The Waeco TCT-45 It's almost unAustralian not to own an Esky (or portable cooler if you've bought another brand), now the good folk at Waeco have gone one step further by designing one that's not only innovative but has an appealing curvy design. The thermoelectric (that means no ice, silly) TCT-45 has a handy cooling and heating function, which basically means you can keep your meat pie warm and your stubbies cold at the same time. It's $148 from Big W.

51. Catch & Kiss For fashion stylist Tiana Wallace and artist/accessory designer Zoe Fernack, what started out as a hobby has become a thriving business called Catch & Kiss. The label's new line of jewellery is a treat with Perspex necklaces in the shape of cowboys and bow-ties.

52. Toni Collette Her iconic performance as Muriel Heslop endeared her to millions of cinema-goers, and since then, she's made a career out of taking on roles that most Hollywood actresses would give a wide berth. In between, she found time to marry drummer Dave Galafassi in 2003 and attend political protests. Not bad for a girl who quit NIDA after two years because she found it "destructive". Next up is a role alongside Cameron Diaz in In Her Shoes ...

53. The Henry Jones Art Hotel Located on Hobart's waterfront is Australia's first and only dedicated art hotel. Designed by award-winning architects Morris-Nunn & Associates, it showcases more than 250 Tasmanian artworks. Since opening in November last year, the 50-room hotel has rapidly been gaining fans both here and overseas.

54. Van Sowerwine See why this visual artist's animated short film Clara won her a special mention at Cannes when it screens at Melbourne's International Film Festival (July 20-August 7). Not bad for the first-time writer and director whose quirky stop-motion film tells the tale of a girl whose life changes forever as she wanders around Melbourne. "Clara is a very personal story for me," explains the Melbourne-born, Brisbane-based animator.

55. Baz Luhrmann & Catherine Martin Opting to keep their private life just that, you won't see many pictures of this film director and his Oscar-winning designer wife's new son, William Alexander. Instead, the talented twosome are quietly raising two children in their beachside Bronte apartment where Baz is taking some time out from three possible film projects. Some people are too cool.

56. Sonny Bill Williams The 19-year-old Bulldog is the shot in the arm rugby league needed. The handsome 102kg powerhouse looks as comfortable stomping down the line as posing bare-chested in a Pepsi ad. As Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy stated: "He is unique. I've never seen anyone like him."

57. Bang Gang For Tsubi designer and cover boy Dan Single (Dangerous Dan), fashion and music are inextricably linked, so along with his brother, Benni (DJ Damage), and a bunch of mates - Adrian Thomas, Jamie Wirth, Gus Gruzman and Mikey Nolan - The Bang Gang DJs have become one of Australia's hottest DJ collectives. And like the Tsubi label, the style has all the right grooves.

58. Colour The hot eye-shadow shades for the season are blue, purple and green, going by the big cosmetic houses. And for lips and cheeks, it's pretty pinks and peaches.

59. Miranda Kerr This 21-year-old Queenslander recently secured a lucrative Maybelline contract in New York - unarguably a passport to model stardom. Since moving to the Big Apple in mid-2004, Kerr has already modelled for the likes of US Elle and Vogue Italia, and scored an Italian Glamour cover. Not that she's turning her back on Oz - the brunette beauty was the catwalk star of this year's MAFW and the recent Lancome Colour Design Awards.

60. Missy Higgins At just 21, Miss Higgins has already conquered her homeland by selling more than 350,000 copies of her beautiful debut, The Sound Of White. An inspiration to girls who'd rather grab an acoustic guitar than don a short skirt, this year she became the youngest winner of APRA's Song of the Year (and the first multiple nominee) with her jaunty tune, Scar. A relentless live overseas campaign (and a hot New York Interview photo shoot) has clued the rest of the world onto what Aussie music fans have known for ages - that this is one girl doing it for herself and doing it in style.

61. Scooters Act out your Jean Paul Belmondo or Audrey Hepburn fantasies. We're in the grip of a scooter boom, so you can snap up a 50cc model for less than $2000. But if style counts, it has to be Italian manufacturer Vespa's just released LX. It's their 139th model, and comes in three different engine sizes and six colours, including Dragon red, which will set the streets ablaze.

62. Tim Cahill So determined was this young man from Sydney to pursue his soccer dream that, like Harry Kewell before him, Cahill packed his bags at 16 and headed for the UK, where he was snapped up by Millwall FC. He ended his tenure at The Den in fine style by scoring a match-winning goal in the 2004 FA Cup semifinal, before squaring off against the mighty Man U in the final. Cahill headed north to Everton last year, where in his first season he's scored 11 goals.

63. Sophie Luck She might be a youngster, but this cutie is being beamed into homes in Germany, France, South Africa, Belgium and New Zealand, as well as at home. She plays spunky chick-on-a-stick Fly Watson in the teenage surf drama Blue Water High (ABC TV, Wednesdays, 5.25pm). This isn't Luck's big break by any means - she's already been in Water Rats and played Tamara in Home and Away for five months. Hard to believe she's only 15 years old.

64. Natural beauty products Australian cosmetics manufacturers are among the best in the world when it comes to natural products. Brands such as Jurlique, Aesop, Al'chemy and A'kin by The Purist Company, Botanics of Australia, Shizen, Perfect Potions, Lalisse, Viva La Soap and Fresh Faced are all making divine botanic potions imbued with essential oils for a natural beauty fix.

65. Boost Juice With 153 outlets and another one opening almost every week, Boost Juice is one successful business. Now, it's expanding into New Zealand, and has just signed total hottie Tom Williams as its face. If you haven't yet given any of the Boost juices a go, start with their bestselling Wild Berry Skinny Juice.

66. Nash Edgerton Little brother Joel may be more famous, but Nash is jockeying for his share of the limelight. As a stuntman, he's appearing in Stunt City, a frenetic 60-second ad for Rexona, which has become a sensation in Europe. As a producer, his film The Magician, a mockumentary about a Melbourne hitman, was a hit at this year's Sydney Film Festival. Oh, and there's Lucky, the short film that he directed, and runner-up at this year's Tropfest.

67. Winery jaunts They're a chance to restock the cellar and enjoy a relaxed time eating and drinking, but don't forget some of the smaller winery districts when you're planning a weekend away. In NSW, Mudgee, four hours' drive from Sydney, is a gorgeous country town with 35 cellar doors to explore. For more info, visit www.mudgeewine.com.au. In the Alpine High Country of Victoria, the Ovens Valley, which includes the towns of Bright and Myrtleford, is a popular destination for gourmands.

68. Bangalow Pork In the hinterland of Byron Bay, Joe Byrne and Jim Berting are leading a revolution. Since 1999, they've coordinated a select group of producers putting the taste back into our chops. Rarer breeds of pigs are being raised for Bangalow Sweet Pork so that the fat content and flavour is increased. But don't worry: it's unsaturated fat - the stuff that doesn't clog your arteries. Top chefs, including Matt Moran of Aria, love the stuff, as do their customers. For stockists and info, visit www.sweetpork.com.au.

69. Adam Scott He's considered the most exciting golfer to come out of these waters since the Great White Shark - with good reason. In 2002, on his first visit to Augusta, he tied for ninth place - only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have recorded a higher finish at a younger age. Now ranked seventh in the world, he's since won a plethora of titles - and he's just turned 25. It doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eye.

70. Canon IXUS 700 Cameras just keep getting smaller and funkier. Check out the latest digital from Canon, the palm-size IXUS 700, which comes with in-built photo-processing software so you can manipulate images without a computer, including changing skin tones and adjusting colour saturation, with just a click. The stylish unit also boasts 7.1 megapixel resolution, a 3X optical zoom lens and a 2-inch LCD viewing screen, all for $800.

71. Ray Lawrence The critically acclaimed Lantana was one of the few Aussie films of this decade to do well overseas, so when director Ray Lawrence came to cast his follow-up, Jindabyne (based on a short story by Raymond Carver), he had no trouble attracting a top-notch international cast to film in the Snowy Mountains. Expect it next year.

72. Elke Kramer She's well-known for her graphic and design work, as well as a striking Art Deco motif tattooed across her chest. The design, says Kramer, mixes perversion with beauty, which is also the key to her illustrations - she's worked with the likes of Tsubi and sass & bide - as well as her jewellery range.

73. Lisa Gasteen With a voice as strong and pure as a beautifully cut diamond, Brisbane-born Gasteen has overcome setbacks to emerge as one of the world's top dramatic sopranos. Specialising in the "endurance" repertoire of Wagner, Verdi and Strauss, she's knocked'em dead at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and, most recently, the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden.

74. Sugar Mamma Lamp If this funky lamp is anything to go by, Lana Alsamir is a designer to keep your eyes on. This creation, modelled on '50s jelly moulds, was launched at the design festival Sydney Esquisse earlier this year. It's one of Alsamir's first pieces to go into production. Sugar Mamma, $188.

75. Skincare for boys If he's not kitted out with the latest skincare, where has he been? The latest in beauty is skincare for men: think Clinique, Clarins, Lancome, Biotherm, Jean Paul Gaultier, Shiseido and Nivea. In fact, most of the leading women's brands now offer fabulous ranges for the boys. And it's not all about shaving balms and foams - there's tinted moisturisers, lip balms and brow gels on offer, too.

76. Josh Goot At this year's Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, a slick pick of male models wearing Josh Goot strolled through hip photographic house Studio 24 to the urban sounds of underground hip-hop, and a fashion moment was born. Adding that extra something to a range is always difficult, but 24-year-old Goot mixed classic tailoring with high-noting streetwear and the result was fresh and desirable. Picking up loads of stockists in a very short amount of time, Goot is the designer of the moment.

77. Roboraptors Move over Robosapien, the hot toy on the shelves right now is the biomorphic robot's trusty companion, the Roboraptor, a life-like dinosaur that can hear, see, run, hunt and display 50 different moods. It sniffs the air for prey and will even bite a child who pulls his tail. It's easy to see why it was named 2005 Toy of the Year.

78. Chelsea Georgeson Surfing champ Lisa Andersen was so impressed by this 21-year-old's moves, she insisted the local reps sign her. Georgeson's win in Hawaii confirmed her star status and, in May, she took out the Billabong Pro Tahiti in Teahupoo.

79. PSP You can carry the new and totally cool PlayStation Portable (PSP) - due out September 1 - in your back pocket. And while it may be small, you can play a full range of games, plus download films from your computer, making it the perfect presentation tool for creatives, animators and the like. And the screen - all 11cm - has better resolution than some TVs, all for just $400.

80. Richie Benaud What would summer be without his dulcet tones? Heading up the Nine Network's cricket commentary team since 1977, Benaud's unflappable presence has long had the rest of us mere mortals enthralled with talk of googlies and flippers. Last year, talk of the former Aussie skipper's retirement was enough to send Australians into a tailspin. Thankfully, the silver-haired legend signed on for another three years, proving he's not declaring just yet.

81. Andrew Bogut This 20-year-old became the first Australian to be number-one pick on the NBA draft when the Milwaukee Bucks snapped up all 213cm of him. He's the seventh Aussie to be drafted, but the first expected to make an impact in his rookie season. And he's already counting the big, um, bucks, expecting to earn more than $18 million in his three-year deal with the Bucks, while his agent predicts he'll earn more than $130 million over his career - and that's before endorsements. Not bad for a gangly teenager from Melbourne.

82. The Blues If you ain't down with John Lee Hooker, get his back catalogue. Many young Aussie musos (such as Mia Dyson and Vasco Era) are doing just that and putting their own spin on an old fave. And with the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival getting bigger each year, it's a genre reborn.

83. Julienne van Loon Julienne van Loon's first novel, Road Story (Allen & Unwin, $21.95), was the winner of last year's The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under 35. This award launched the careers of some of Australia's literary giants, so it's only a matter of time before this Perth-based university lecturer follows their illustrious path.

84. The Turning Tim Winton's latest book (Pan Macmillan, $46), published in October last year, is believed to be our all-time bestselling collection of Australian short stories. It won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction at the 2005 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and has been nominated for the 2005 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. If you haven't read it, you really should.

85. Matt Passmore His new drama Last Man Standing might not have set the ratings on fire, but as flirt Cameron, Passmore certainly lights up the small screen. If you think you've seen the 30-year-old Brissie boy before, you probably have, in The Cooks and as a Play School regular.

86. Brett Dean With a burgeoning global profile and long list of commissions, this violist, who performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for 15 years, is the Nick Cave of contemporary classical. When this self-taught composerpremiered his Viola Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, it was hailed "a display of sheer professionalism".

87. Old-fashioned desserts Forget fancy afters, this winter we're going for an old favourite. Fruit crumbles - so easy to make, so yummy to eat - are back on everyone's menus, including swish restaurants'. Two, four, six, eight ...

88. Minibreaks Some people say a change is as good as a holiday, but we don't agree, which is why we're keen on the minibreak. Grab some friends and book yourself into a beach house that's a maximum of 90 minutes' drive away. Bundeena is a good option for Sydneysiders, while Melburnians could head to the Mornington Peninsula.

89. Chris Lilley As Mr G and Extreme Darren, Lilley was the only humorous thing about The Big Bite and now he's got his own show, We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year (ABC TV, starting July 27). This mockumentary sees Lilley playing five characters - from a spoilt 16-year-old schoolgirl to a Chinese university student - who've all been nominated for the prestigious award.

90. Wolfmother Punters at this year's Big Day Out would have been forgiven for thinking they'd time-travelled back to the'70s. When Sydney's Wolf boys took to the stage, the ghosts of Ozzy Osbourne past came hurtling full throttle as some sort of Sabbath flashback. And didn't the kids love it? Comparisons aside, Wolfmother's classic rock, huge riffs and soaring vocals have enough record execs excited that they've been shipped off to LA to record their debut album. All hail the return of the power trio.

91. Boys in white They're cool on girls, and now icy strides are making their mark on men. It might be hard for the average Aussie bloke to fathom, but, if it's cool on the street, there's a trend in the offing. White jeans and pants have been all over the European catwalks, teamed with a pair of urban trainers, so, boys, modernise the look (with an eye on the past) and brighten up to white.

92. Publisher Textiles This Sydney-based textile design company started out four years ago when Mark and Rhynie Cawood set up a small workshop to print fabrics for their embryonic clothing range. Then they were asked to design the wallpaper for hip club Ruby Rabbit, and the company has grown from there. All their fabrics and wallpapers are handmade and completely unique.

93. Negroni If you're still drinking Cosmopolitans, you're in a cocktail rut. Try, instead, this traditional tipple, the Negroni. Usually it's made by shaking gin, Campari and sweet vermouth and then straining into a martini glass, but some establishments are giving it a new twist. At Longrain in Sydney, the serve it over ice, as do Melbourne's Cookie bar, while some bars substitute the vermouth for Italian aperitifs like Cynar (made from artichokes) for a "new wave" twist.

94. Posh salt If you thought salt was the most basic pantry item, you'll be surprised by a browse at your local provedore. Saxa is way too simple for chefs and at-home foodies, so Simon Johnson now carries anywhere between 40 and 50 varieties. What makes them different? You'll have try them out.

95. Hilltop Hoods Sick of being bombarded with American hip-hop that holds little relevance to what's going on in the mean streets of Adelaide, the Hoods turned the genre on its head. In doing that, they created a scene that's our very own. With lyrics that are more likely to talk about the vestiges of beer as opposed to smacking your b**** up, and high-energy, must-see live shows (they were the talk of last year's Splendour in the Grass), the Hoods prove that white boys can rap.

96. CSIRO diet We've seen them all: Atkins, South Beach, low GI and more detoxes than you can care to imagine. But if you're serious about losing weight and staying healthy, check out the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet (the book is available from all good book stores for $29.95). It's high-protein, low-fat, scientifically tested and nutritionally balanced, so it becomes more of way of living than an exercise in deprivation.

97. Slip-on sneakers Burn your laces and lose your Velcro. The word on sporty footwear is the slip-on. So head to Chinatown for a thrifty pair of kung-fu slippers, splurge with YSL's new designer chic range (from $400 from Cosmopolitan Shoes) or opt for super-cool Vans' unisex version (from $89.95 from HYPE DC). It makes perfect sense for the urban traveller.

98. Andrew Humphreys Hollywood in the'30s is a far cry from late-'90s Aussie rock'n'roll, but 35-year-old Andrew Humphrey's novel, Wonderful (Allen & Unwin, $21.95) - the second from the former Rolling Stone editor - focuses on Siggy the Wonder Chimp and his drunken trainer. It's a buddy story with a difference, and it attracted the attention of the judges at this year's Sydney Writers' Festival, where Humphreys was named one of five Best Young Australian Novelists, for the second time.

99. Bruny Island Cheese Co Like many foods that have become mass-produced, supermarket cheese is to the proper stuff what a Sunflowers print is to a Van Gogh original. Thank god for people like Nick Haddow and Leonie Struthers who moved to a tiny island off Tassie and started Bruny Island Cheese Company. Their methods are traditional, and the results, divine. Try the Oen, a washed-rind cheese that is washed in pinot noir then wrapped in vine leaves, available from Simon Johnson stores.

100. Vegas table Settle petal. This glorious coffee table, called Vegas, is by photographer Dieu Tan who has turned his hand to furniture design for his company Everythink (www.everythink.com.au). It's made from birch ply and can be laminated in almost any colour your heart - or living room - desires. It retails for $1550 and you can order one from Chee Soon & Fitzgerald.

Posted by lck at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2005

Weeds

'Weeds,' Showtime's new series about a drug-dealing mom, is already hot - and sure to ignite controversy

BY NOEL HOLSTON, STAFF WRITER, August 7, 2005, Newsday.com

Nancy Botwin's husband dropped dead jogging. He left her with two boys to raise and more debt than she had any idea they had, including the mortgage on a big, white-stucco house in a cookie-cutter California development like the one E.T. was staying in when he phoned home.

What's a desperate housewife to do? Sell the SUV? Find a less pricey neighborhood? See if Wal-Mart needs a greeter? All of the above?

No, Botwin - as played by Mary-Louise Parker - turns to drugs. Not as a user but as a dealer. And thus we have "Weeds," the buzz show of the summer in more ways than one.

"Weeds" begins with a sneak preview Sunday night at 11 on Showtime. Thereafter, each episode will be shown Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 p.m.

Created by Jenji Kohan, whose writing credits range from "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" to "Sex and the City," "Weeds" is the latest embodiment of the hottest trend in cable entertainment and, increasingly, in broadcast TV as well: moral ambiguity.

Pushing the envelope

In TV series about such nontraditional "heroes" as an alcoholic, philandering firefighter (FX's "Rescue Me"), a ruthless federal agent (Fox's "24"), drug-addicted surgeons (FX's "Nip/Tuck") and mobsters who rub out rivals but can't get respect from their own spoiled kids (HBO's "The Sopranos"), a grumpy disposition, a la "Lou Grant," is not enough. The protagonists have serious flaws, criminal behaviors even, that can make it difficult for viewers to know where to invest their sympathy. Showtime actually has a series coming in the fall that will put viewers in the thick of a group of Islamic jihadists hiding and plotting in Los Angeles.

At least until "Sleeper Cell" is ready, "Weeds" is likely to be the new lightning rod attracting the ire of viewers who think television is pushing the envelope too far. And that's somewhat ironic, considering the focal character of "Weeds," unlike Tony Soprano or rampaging Det. Vic Mackey of "The Shield," couldn't kill a mouse. She just sells marijuana to her suburban neighbors, among them a city councilman.

"I think what strikes a chord is, this is a mother," Kohan said in a recent telephone interview. "She has children and she's doing something illegal. We have a history of the father doing what he needs to do to support his family. Mommy is not supposed to take these kinds of risks. She's supposed to be at home nurturing. But I guess you weigh your options and do what you think is gonna work."

Kohan said FX's high-voltage cop show, "The Shield," was a "huge inspiration" to her. "No one was black and white," she said. "Your main characters were deeply, deeply flawed, which I loved. It's so rarely allowed on [broadcast] network. You have to have your good guy and your bad guy, and the bad guy has to have a comeuppance. I watched 'The Shield,' and these people are so complicated and so human, and they did such wonderful things and they did such horrendous things. It was all about the gray areas.

Moral quandaries

"It was also about the notion of creating your own moral code when you're operating outside the confines of society's moral codes," she continued.

She believes "Weeds" presents similar moral quandaries, though Botwin's motivations may appear shallow.

"She's trying to maintain the trappings of what a happy family and happy lifestyle looks like and taking big risks for it," Kohan said. "But we're living in the most material time ever. Things tend to take on a lot greater importance these days. Can't be happy without your stuff."

Certainly not in Agrestic, a perfectly manicured community where the houses don't so much seem constructed as cloned. In the series' opening credits sequence, set to Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes" (the folk classic about all those houses "made of ticky-tacky"), mornings in Agrestic are a ballet of identical SUVs and joggers in the same shorts and caps. Gossip is the cottage industry. Mothers of Nancy's kids' classmates tsk-tsk about the mess her husband left her in and speculate on whether her designer purse is original or a knockoff.

Skewed morality

Nancy's illegal livelihood notwithstanding, she appears to be a good person whose head seems to be screwed on pretty straight. No one would call her a permissive parent. She's doing her best, for instance, to forestall her 15-year-old son, Silas (Hunter Parrish), from becoming sexually active.

Parker ("Angels in America," "The West Wing") is a marvelous actress who combines an adorable "That Girl" quality with a hint of wildness. You believe her earnestness when she gets up at the PTA meeting to campaign for the removal of sugary soft drinks from the school, but you also believe she'd drive into a vastly poorer neighborhood to buy pot from Heylia James (Tonye Patano), a black wholesaler whose kitchenette is a dope depot.

The family-business scenes in Heylia's kitchen are some of the show's best, crackling with tension between black and white, between lower-middle class and upper-middle, between experience and naivete, and between people who have no illusions about what they're doing and someone whose idea of "street" is Wisteria Lane.

Parker said she took the role because she liked the world Kohan created. "It was unapologetically dark, and the morality of it was skewed from the beginning, so you can't necessarily make judgments on the characters," she said. "To me, it was just all these - these really standard archetypes that, over the course of the show, they kind of dismantle themselves. Suddenly, the person isn't who you thought she was in the beginning. And that's really interesting to me, because a lot of times on TV, the person is the same at the end of the show as they are at the beginning. It doesn't really ask you anything, you know what I mean?"

Light, dark, shades of gray

What Parker was saying, or trying to say, is explained more clearly by the first couple of episodes. Sunday's opener is fairly lighthearted. Nancy has poignant moments with her young son, Shane (Alexander Gould), who's having difficulty accepting his dad's premature death, and there's a fierce exchange when she catches one of her high-school customers reselling marijuana to a younger kid. But generally speaking, the episode is a lark, poking fun at the hypocrisy of upright suburbanites who have plenty of secret vices, getting high being just one of them.

But the second episode, though still humorous, suggests that Kohan isn't going to make things any easier for Nancy than for the audience. Her "heroine" finds herself needing more product to sell to meet unexpected bills. Her supplier doesn't extend credit. Heylia James expects collateral. First it's Nancy's car, then her wedding ring.

The initial season will have 10 episodes. Without giving the plot away, Kohan said "Weeds" watchers can expect Nancy to change. "She gets bigger," Kohan said. "She gets deeper. And it complicates her life. She begins to wonder why she's gotten into this in the first place."

Posted by lck at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

Steve Plotnicki does the cooking

Steve Plotnicki, of Opinionated About Dining, does more fine dining than just about anyone. He's recently put up a photographic tour through what he considers to be the finest dishes being served on the planet today.

Two Galleries available: Great Dishes of Europe and Great Dishes of the U.S.

Posted by lck at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2005

Here I come to save the day...

When everybody was expecting about everything to come from Apple in the fall, including 1-inch thick G5 portables, Intel-based appliances and video stores, they come, out of the blue, with something totally unexpected and a bit more radical than what you may stick your brain at: they re-invented the mouse. You heard it right, they just did, today.

Go check the Apple site. I wonder how many will grab one in the next 24 hours.

Posted by lck at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

Easy Hotel

Opening in London the first EasyHotel, a low-cost hotel by EasyGroup, owner of low-cost airliner EasyJet. In South Kensington, EasyHotel offers rooms for 20 pounds a night (29 euros). Minimum personnel available, no bar, no restaurant and really really tiny rooms. A second EasyHotel is to open in Swiss in September.

If you have never stayed in Tokio before you may want to check the FAQs before even considering it. EasyFAQs, here they are:

Can I smoke in the hotel? No, this is a NO SMOKING hotel. Smoking is not permitted anywhere.
Are pets or animals allowed in the hotel? No pets (other than assistance dogs) are allowed in the hotel. We welcome assistance dogs, but please let us know at the time of booking.
Are there electrical sockets in the rooms? Yes, there are two standard british 240V electrical sockets.
Can children stay unaccompanied? No, children under the age of 18 may not be left unaccompanied.
Is there a laundrette or facilities for washing clothes? No
Is there a telephone available in the room / hotel? No
Can I store my bicycle within the hotel? No
Can I buy alchohol at the hotel? No
Is there a mini-bar in the room? No
Is there a gym in the hotel? No
Is there a swimming pool in the hotel? No
What items are prohibited? The use of electrical appliances such as toasters, kettles and mini cookers are expressly forbidden in the hotel.
Is there a wardrobe in the room? No wardrobe or allocated storage area in rooms. There is a storeroom for bulky items of luggage.
Can I hang my clothes up in the room? There are two coat hooks in each room.
Do I need to bring my own soap, shampoo, etc? Soap is provided – anything else you will need to bring.
Are there electric razor sockets in the rooms? No
How big are the beds? All beds are standard doubles 4’ 6 (120cm) wide by 6’ (180cm) long.
Do the rooms contain hair dryers? No
Are safety deposit boxes available? No
Are, extra beds, cots, or cribs available? No
Are adjoining rooms available? No
Is there a lift inside the building? No
How many floors? Ground Floor, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor, 3rd Floor and 4th Floor.

You get the picture!

Posted by lck at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2005

A rave gone wild

Today, eighty people, 45 of which policemen, left injured during an anti-riot op to end a rave party in Mlynec, Czech Rep, apparently taking place on a private property.

Gallery: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14

© La Repubblica, July 1st, 2005.

Posted by lck at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)

July 30, 2005

Shamil Basayev on Channel 4

Excellent siberianlight.net reports Shamil Basayev's interview with Channel 4 news in February 2005. The following from siberianlight:

I've just sat through the Channel 4 broadcast, which showed edited excerpts from an hour-long interview.  My first impressions are that, despite rumours of ill health, he looks in relatively good shape, although as he was seated this is hard to tell for sure.  His mental health though, I'm not so sure.  What, really, can you make of a man who talks impassively of the deaths of hundreds of children while sitting cradling a grenade launcher and wearing a shirt prominently displaying the logo "anti-terror"?

The Russian embassy in Washington has made a sharp statement about ABC News company’s broadcasting an interview with Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev. “The fact that the television company ABC News has decided to ignore the arguments of the Russian embassy against the broadcasting of the interview with international terrorist Shamil Basayev causes indignation,” the embassy said in its statement to ABC.

Banner click for a transcript of a badly translated interview (it seems to me) on kavkazcenter.com or here.

Posted by lck at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2005

With a little help...

Italian central bank chief faces calls to resign

From Richard Owen in Rome, Times Online, July 29, 2005

The Italian banking sector was in disarray yesterday as Antonio Fazio, governor of the central bank, faced mounting calls for his resignation.

Senior members of the Italian Government were meeting last night to discuss the scandal surrounding Signor Fazio, who has been accused of attempting to block the Dutch takeover of an Italian bank in favour of a local rival’s bid instead.

Consob, Italy’s market regulator, announced that it had suspended Banca Popolare Italiana’s (BPI) bid for Banca Antonveneta because of a “serious lack of transparency”.

In a further twist, ABN Amro, of the Netherlands, which has a minority holding in Banca Antonveneta, took de facto control of the bank after an extraordinary general meeting of Antonveneta’s shareholders elected a 15- member board composed of ABN Amro candidates.

Behind the conflict is the wider issue of Italian protectionism in the run-up to the general election expected next spring. The Italian Left has joined ABN Amro in accusing Signor Fazio of attempting to keep Antonveneta in Italian hands at all costs instead of judging the Dutch bid in terms of its value to the ailing Italian economy.

The row flared up this week when the Italian press published extracts from wiretapped phone conversations between Signor Fazio and Gianpiero Fiorani, chief executive of BPI.

In the wiretaps, authorised by Italian prosecutors investigating market rigging, Signor Fazio asked Signor Fiorani on July 5 to visit him at Bank of Italy headquarters, adding: “The only thing, enter as usual from the back”, to which Signor Fiorani replied: “OK, otherwise there will be problems.” On July 12, Signor Fazio was recorded making a further call to Signor Fiorani to say that he had approved BPI’s offer for Antonveneta.

BPI insisted that it had acted properly at all times.

Posted by lck at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2005

220 kg of explosive (and a truck and a driver)

The double-size banner above refers to a truck-bomb that exploded today in Mashtal, in the Eastern suburbia of Baghdad. The detonation, according to US sources caused some 40 casualties and 25 injured among the Iraqi police. The same source evaluates the amount of explosive to be around 220 Kg.

The sad face of the young US Marine at the right end of the field (several more dozens US troops roaming around) does not do enough justice for the feelings of desperation and helplessness in this picture but gets close.

There are several questions we should ask ourselves, who sent this young Marine to Baghdad, questions we should be confident with, but, there is one today, arising, by facing the present and daily disaster.

Do we have a Plan B?

Posted by lck at 01:05 AM | Comments (4)

July 18, 2005

Ajax: a new approach

Jesse Garrett is back on Adaptive Path with an excellent essay on new approaches in Web Applications Development.
A must read. Banner-Click 2 article.

Posted by lck at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2005

The pink slip goes to...

In 2003, Karl Rove, White House deputy chief of staff, talked to Matthew Cooper, a Time magazine reporter about Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA officer and wife of Joseph Wilson, former U.S. Ambassador to Gabon. Apparently Rowe did not identify Plame by name. Cooper, on July of 2003, wrote a story in which he used Plame's name.

The story has been developing since then in the press, several courts and at every White House Press Gaggle and appears to be juicy enough for it alone to make Ken Follet and John Grisham busy for a while.

The whole affair, while stemming from a simple chain of events, implies the very serious matter of the leak of an undercover CIA officer to the press and has so many implications and potentials that only a few people have been able to cover the whole saga decently, but, regardless of where they stand, far from the truth.

Since the latest Grisham is a puff and you may want to skip it altogether and Follet may not be your style (is not mine) I suggest you to dip seriously into the Plame odyssey yourself. You need a few links (provided below), pen, paper and at least a Summary of these characters, which, with the help of the Seattle Times, I provide below.
May you find anything interesting or (god forbid) solve the case, let me know.
You may get a few thousands officers, lawyers and bloggers kissing your ass for the rest of your life and somebody may very well get the deserved "pink slip".

Who's who in case of the CIA leak

The main personalities in the CIA leak dispute:

Joseph Wilson: Former U.S. Ambassador to Gabon. Wilson was asked in 2002 by the CIA to check reports Iraq was trying to acquire uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger. He reported that the allegation was untrue, but President Bush repeated the allegation in his State of the Union speech in January 2003. That July, Wilson wrote "What I Didn't Find in Africa," which appeared in the New York Times.

Valerie Plame: Undercover CIA officer and wife of Wilson.

Robert Novak: Washington Post columnist. A week after Wilson's New York Times piece, Novak wrote in his column that part of the reason Wilson had been given the Niger mission was that his wife recommended him to her bosses at the CIA. It is a crime to reveal the name of an active CIA operative, but it is not known if Novak knew Plame was undercover. Critics of Bush say the White House leaked Plame's name in revenge for her husband's report.

President Bush: Promised in 2003 to fire anyone in his administration found to have been a leaker in the Plame case.

Patrick Fitzgerald: Special prosecutor.

Karl Rove: White House deputy chief of staff, senior political adviser to President Bush. Rove spoke with at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA before she was identified as a covert agent in a newspaper column two years ago, but Rove's lawyer said last week that his client did not identify her by name.

Matthew Cooper: Time magazine reporter. Newsweek reported this week that in 2003 Rove talked to Cooper about Plame but did not identify her by name. Cooper later wrote a story in which he used Plame's name. Cooper had a short conversation with Rove on July 11, 2003, three days before Novak exposed Plame in his column.

Cooper wrote one article raising questions about government officials trying to discredit Wilson behind the scenes. Cooper had indicated he would go to jail rather than expose a confidential source, but he agreed earlier this month to cooperate with the grand jury after getting clearance from his source to testify. (Rove's lawyer said Cooper had been clear to testify all along because Rove had signed a waiver about 18 months ago. The waiver was "reaffirmed" July 6, the day of a hearing to decide whether Cooper and a New York Times reporter would go to jail.)

Judith Miller: New York Times reporter. She was jailed for contempt of court for not cooperating with a federal investigation into who revealed Plame's identity. Miller did some reporting but never wrote a story and refused to identify her source.

Scott McClellan: White House spokesman. In 2003, he dismissed as "ridiculous" allegations that Rove was involved in leaking classified material, but McClellan has recently refused to discuss the case.

Compiled from reports by The Associated Press, The Washington Post and the British Broadcasting Corp.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

Sites covering the story in detail (in doubt search for "Plame"

Talking Points Memo (left-wing)

Little Green Footballs (right-wing)

FindLaw's (strictly technical)

Posted by lck at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2005

Olla Olla Ole'

I had to dig a bit for this ... shame on you Google, this did not make the Top Stories today.

Considering it comes just days after the tri-nitro-moka-device that made a "working-dog" confetti, that is Campingaz-based, apparently inspired by visionaries who watch too many Bunuel's movies without much care and that, finally, "it just works", the bill fits precisely and well into the Do It Yourself paragraph in the Book of Sublime, Senseless and Nostalgic Anarchism.

These devices don't look unfamiliar.

"Did you meet a moka walking down the alleys, today?",
"Sir, is that pot over there yours?"
"wait, you might just be right".

They are not even and certainly not yet consumer's icons, a trend that may eventually develop, see the Unabomber here in Italy, into exploding microwaves, vacuums and in other developments... do you have Parking Meters there? Watch Out!

What about the unforgettable, just taken out of today's El Pais: "La olla a presión estaba situada en el suelo, ante la entrada del concesionario de coches"? Unforgettably surreal, isn't it?

Estalla un artefacto en un concesionario de coches italiano en Barcelona

El ataque podría estar relacionado con la explosión el pasado martes de una cafetera bomba en el Instituto Italiano de Cultura atribuida a grupos anarquistas

EFE  -  El Prat de Llobregat

ELPAIS.es  -  España - 15-07-2005 - 09:57
 

Una olla a presión, con tres cartuchos de camping gas y una mecha pirotécnica, ha estallado hoy en la puerta de un concesionario de coches italiano de El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona) sin causar heridos, han informado fuentes de la Jefatura Superior de Policía de Cataluña. El suceso podría estar relacionado con la explosión de otro artefacto esta misma semana frente al Instituto Italiano de Cultura de Barcelona, cuya autoría fue atribuida a grupos anarquistas italianos.

El suceso se registró sobre las 04.30 horas de la pasada madrugada en el número 11 de la calle Setembre de El Prat de Llobregat. La olla a presión estaba situada en el suelo, ante la entrada del concesionario de coches, según las citadas fuentes. La explosión ha afectado a la puerta de cristal del establecimiento así como a un vehículo estacionado cerca del mismo y al balcón del piso superior.

Los investigadores tratan ahora de establecer la autoría de este suceso, que podría estar relacionado con la explosión de una cafetera bomba que tuvo lugar el pasado martes a las puertas del Instituto Italiano de Cultura de Barcelona, en la que resultó herido un policía y murió un perro adiestrado para la detección de explosivos. La delegación del Gobierno en Cataluña atribuyó el ataque a grupos anarquistas italianos que protestan así por la detención de varios activistas en Italia.

La policía también estudia la posibilidad de que estos dos explosivos tengan que ver con la documentación en italiano para fabricar artefactos caseros así como temporizadores y otros artilugios encontrada la pasada semana en el interior de una maleta en el barrio barcelonés de Vallvidrera.

Posted by lck at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2005

Try whispering

Picking up a really old tune... The Least We Can Do Is Wave To H Other. The least that I can do now is to offer something for download. Click the banner for a JPEG or the individual links below for EPS, full PDF or JPEG. Next time, if you must, my friend, just whisper in my ear. Not as entertaining as detonating C4 but, by far, human, human, you hear me? We need that human smell again, big boy, not bombs.

EPS
Hi-Res PDF
Web Safe JPEG

Posted by lck at 04:03 PM | Comments (1)

July 07, 2005

Medium girl

Medium Girl. That's how she is going to call herself from today on and for a while... Melissa turned "5".
She believes the very moment she "turned 5" was when she shut the number-5-shaped candle. Before that she was just 4. Luckily she was so busy swapping clothes every some 20 minutes that only minimal time was left to her for makin' noise.

She's a planner, with a long anticipated carefully crafted list of things to do today and things for us to buy. Hot items this year were clothes-of-a-kind. We strived, apparently successfully, to match her expectations on items such as "a French pret-a-porter", "a Spanish skirt with the black fringe", etc... Local remainder's stands work miracles. Medium-sized girls wear medium-sized heeled shoes, we have got these for her too and initial reports sound positive, she is extremely comfortable on high heels, the Italian side of her, we argue. If you want to verify what a 5-years-old fashion designer (or fashion victim) sounds when she's 5 I'll set you an appointment.

Today's menu included fish, this year tuna steak. Wendy mastered this not-easy-to-cook piece with a vengeance, honoring American flexibility and cooking abilities once they turn civilized. Tuna is the basis for sushi and it surprises me that We-The-Locals prefer to ignore one of the many non-obvious uses of the most celebrated local fishing resources (at least historically). I warn you that freezing a bunch of tuna steaks (without separating them first) for longer that 8 hours leads to results on the catastrophic range. Be very mild with freezing fish stakes in general or you'll end up working a razor or scalpel just to separate the bloody mess. Hot water dips and/or microwave defrost won't save you from shame.

On her first birthday, sometime before September 11, when Americans were more happy and sociable, we had some 60 people in the house altogether drinking out of a strategically placed beer keg. And rapidly onto the second keg. I miss my cousin Simona and her beautifully peaceful eyes. She was not here today but we are still a wild bunch and the kid embraced another cousin's faith, Serena, a dancer in the Classic domain. She adores her (and desperately cries when she has to leave).

An appetizer of the size of the London attack was not expected and quite shocking and Wendy's email has been tickling every five minutes with American friends recalling the past Apocalypse in NYC. But International Terrorism is a patient beast as you can see from today's slaughtering and attacks at this location have been promised by OBL in person and forecasted by every and all analysts that I can recall (Peter Bergen, Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, CNN's terrorism analyst and author of Holy War, Inc. has been warning us for ages on this). Video and audio messages the West receives every other day from OBL and derivatives are not just generic threats, they all turn out to be circumstantiated promises.

I watched the first Tony Blair's address today several times and while I do not want to forget the innocent victims of this heinous, coordinated attack, I want to point at his master-level abilities as a speaker. Beyond today's circumstances and his true or not-so-true abilities as a politician the Blair's speech of today was a masterpiece.

UP: the English press for not showing body parts.
DOWN: Gianfranco Fini, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs for declaring "Gli obiettivi potenziali sono mille e c'e' un numero enorme di terroristi che possono essere arruolati" (potential targets are in the thousands and there's a huge number of terrorists that can be enrolled...) thus enabling the idea that attacks are inevitable and furthermore failing to do his job.
UP UP: Elizabeth Morrison (with a devious ally here at home) for using me as a model in the most recent issue of Knitty Magazine

Posted by lck at 09:24 PM | Comments (1)

July 02, 2005

Admit One

While being music-wise mostly irrelevant as no new developments are to suddenly bloom out of nowhere, Live 8 is big as a promotion tool to few specialized firms and interest groups. When promotion gets tied to charitable and indeed good causes like the suppression of the foreign outstanding debt of African countries towards the G8 Group and the IMF, things start getting weird if not downright murky. Geldolf may have not been a better type when in Boomtown Rats or maybe yes, he was...

Some dudes sit on the very interesting position of promoting themselves by NOT BEING THERE. This is not new but interesting. What to make of Damon Albarn and "I don't want to take part in an event that is so exclusive. Is this the most effective way to help Africa?" He also says the lack of major black artists was "the greatest oversight" and undermined the whole project. Major discoveries.

And EBay U.K. banning the sale of tickets to the London Live 8 following pressure from Geldof and an online campaign to sabotage the auctions? "Tickets for the concert were a hot item on eBay until activists wrecked auctions and Geldof blasted ticket sales as profiteering from misery...Tickets were allocated Monday via an SMS lottery. More than 2 million text messages were entered, at a cost of 1.5 pounds ($2.70) each, to join the lottery for 133,000 tickets..." Geldolf said "What eBay is doing is profiteering on the backs of the impoverished, the people who are selling these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalising on people's misery. Initially, eBay had defended the sales and promised to donate listing fees from the ticket auctions to charity."

Hello? Was it not a concert? And is the foundation behind Live8, a group of banks, not going to profit from each and any transaction related to the grossing of the initiative? Can you even skip to charge for interest?

On another: Photographs of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and musician Bob Geldof, as well as model Claudia Schiffer and dozens of celebrities, show them all wearing wristbands. In England and Scotland, church towers and steeples are having white bands painted on them carrying the campaign slogan. It appears as if the whole world is being urged to protest low wages, globalization, world trade, debt repayment and any form of national defense. The United Nations, their bankers and brokers, together with Kofi Annan, the Strong family and the masses of the uninformed, were happy until we learned where, and at what cost, the wristbands, ordered by the million, were made: China.

It is disappointing to see Geldolf lending his name to a bit of poseur politics chiefly aimed at certain Western leaders who are blameless for Africa's current woes and severely constrained in their ability to do anything to alleviate them.

The issue in Africa in every one of its crises - from economic liberty to Aids - is government. Until the do-gooders get serious about that, their efforts will remain a silly distraction.

Please somebody tell me what Brad Pitt and Lara Croft are doing there!

Fortunato Caragliano, CT, IT, 2005, July 2nd, 2005

Posted by lck at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2005

Marry (whatever) you want

The devilish pic of today's hero may spell great trouble to Europe (as seen from Rome). Spain is country #4 to allow marriage between 2 citizen of ANY sex with flatly, equal rights, after the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada. A similar law will pass the congress here in Italy in the future, we bet on it... well, maybe Turkey will get there long before us, don't you think?

MADRID, June 30 - The Spanish Parliament gave final approval today to a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making Spain only the second nation to eliminate all legal distinctions between same-sex and heterosexual unions, according to supporters of the bill.

Jasper Juinen/Associated Press/NYT

By RENWICK McLEAN

Published: June 30, 2005

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, left, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, right, and members of Spain's Parliament applauded after a vote to legalize same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage supporters react in Spain's parliament after a vote to legalize same-sex marriage.

The measure, passed by a vote of 187 to 147, establishes that couples will have the same rights, including the freedom to marry and to adopt children, regardless of gender.

"Today, Spanish society is responding to a group of people who have been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, their dignity offended, their identity denied and their freedom restricted," Prime Minister José Luis Rodíguez Zapatero told Parliament.

Spain is the fourth country to legalize gay marriage, after Canada, Holland and Belgium.

But only Canada's law, which was extended nationwide by Parliament this week, contains language as liberal as Spain's, according to gay marriage advocates.

The Spanish measure simply adds one sentence to existing law: "Marriage will have the same requirements and results when the two people entering into the contract are of the same sex or of different sexes."

The laws in Holland and Belgium, by contrast, create a separate category of rights for same-sex couples that fall short of full equality on issues like adoption, these advocates say.

"Spain is talking about total equality," said Kursad Kahramanoglu, the secretary general of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. "The only other place in the world where this has actually happened is Canada."

The Canadian House of Commons voted Tuesday on its measure to change the traditional definition of marriage, and once the Senate formally approves it, gay marriage will be legal throughout the land.

Today's vote in Spain had been widely expected, since the bill had already been approved convincingly in a preliminary vote in April.

The bill then went to the Senate, where it was rejected in a non-binding vote, before going back to the lower house for today's final approval.

Although it had no practical effect, the Senate vote indicated the sharp opposition to the bill that has emerged in Spanish society, particularly among religious conservatives.

Some two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people marched through downtown Madrid in protest against the bill, saying it was an assault on the institution of marriage.

The mayor of Valladolid, Francisco Javier León de la Riva, has said that he will not carry out the new law, and Catholic leaders have called on government officials to become conscientious objectors and to refuse to participate in any events involving the marriage of homosexual couples.

Shortly after the preliminary vote in April, the archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Ricard María Carlés Gordó, , compared government workers opposing the law but agreeing to carry it out to the Nazis at Auschwitz, who "believed that they had to obey the laws of the Nazi government before their own conscience."

Despite the intensity of the opposition, polls show that most Spaniards, between 55 and 65 percent, support gay marriage. Even many of those who oppose the bill passed today say they agree with allowing same-sex couples to marry but feel they should not be able to adopt children.

The law will go into effect immediately after it is published in Parliament's official bulletin, which is expected to occur within a couple of days.

Posted by lck at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)

Fantasia, Jul 7-25 Montreal

Since its inception in 1996, FanTasia has been an event hell-bent on showcasing the most exciting, innovative and individualistic examples of contemporary international genre cinema, with an emphasis on unveiling films very rarely seen in North America...

FanTasia has become a hugely popular Montreal summer tradition for roughly 70 000 festival-goers to spend three weeks being amazed by sensational celluloid from Japan, Spain, South Korea, Italy, Hong Kong, Germany, Thailand, Denmark, France, Russia, India, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Australia, Holland, Scotland, Belgium, Sweden, Great Britain, the US and of course, Quebec and Canada.

This is a proud group of fanatics, proud of getting the works in front of an enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience.

We'll do everything possible to bring these films to the attention of potential distributors and the international media.

Posted by lck at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)

Color ipods available, podcasting

On Tuesday, Apple consolidated its full-size iPod product lines into a single line by dropping the 20GB, monochrome-screen, 4th-generation iPod ($299) and the 30GB, color-screen iPod photo ($349), and replacing them with a single 20GB iPod with color screen for $299.

The 60GB iPod photo model remains, but the word “photo” has been dropped from its name and its price has been lowered from $449 to $399. What we’re left with are two color-screen, photo-supporting iPod models—iPod photos in all but name—at effectively lower prices.

These changes complete a gradual transition away from separate photo and non-photo models—and the use of the “photo” designation—that began in February when Apple dropped the 40GB standard iPod and added a $349 30GB photo model to take its place. The transition continued as Apple removed the phrase “iPod photo” from many Knowledge Base articles and other documentation (using the phrase “iPod with color display” instead) and de-emphasized the word “photo” on the iPod photo packaging.

Meanwhile, a new version of iTunes, 4.9, was aimed at helping users more easily find and subscribe to podcasts. New episodes could be automatically downloaded to a user's Mac or PC and "auto-synched" to an iPod.

"Podcasting is the next generation of radio, and users can now subscribe to over 3000 free podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod," Jobs said.

A podcast directory in iTunes 4.9 had some 3000 free audio programs. Examples included the BBC, Newsweek and local US shows.

Posted by lck at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2005

Protest the protest

Mary, I'm pregnant!

Posted by lck at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)

Protesta Contra...

PROTESTA CONTRA LOS MATRIMONIOS HOMOSEXUALES
El Foro de la Familia cifra en un millón y medio los asistentes a la marcha de Madrid

Efe

Madrid. -- Pasadas las siete de esta tarde ha culminado en la Puerta del Sol de Madrid la manifestación organizada por el Foro Español de la Familia en contra de la ley que autorizará el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo, y que ha discurrido desde Cibeles, Puerta de Alcalá y calles aledañas, bajo el lema 'La familia, sí importa'.

Tras la llegada a una abarrotada Puerta del Sol y cuando la cola de la manifestación todavía se hallaba entre Cibeles y Puerta de Alcála, ha llegado el turno de intervenciones de los diferentes convocantes, que ha incluido a la locutora de la Cadena COPE Cristina López Schlichting, con la lectura de un manifiesto con cinco reivindicaciones dirigidas al Gobierno en favor de la familia.

En primer lugar, se pide la retirada del proyecto de ley de matrimonio homosexual y una regulación de la adopción que garantice el derecho del niño a tener padre y madre. En segundo lugar se reclama una política integral de protección de familia. También se reclama respeto y apoyo a libertad de padres para decidir sobre la educación de sus hijos, un ordenamiento que garantice el respeto a la vida humana en su integridad, y en último lugar una valoración positiva del hecho religioso en libertad.

Todas las peticiones han sido respondidas por el público con una salva de aplausos, pero la ovación más grande la ha arrancado López Schlichting cuando ha proclamado la presencia de "millón y medio de personas en las calles", lo que ha sido respondido a coro por el gentío con gritos de 'luego direis que somos cinco o seis'.

Pareja de recién casados

Ha llamado la atención la subida al estrado de una pareja de novios recién casados en la cercana Iglesia de San José, ubicada en la calle Alcalá, que han sido jaleados por el público con el grito 'la familia sí importa'.

Representantes de todas las organizaciones convocantes también han subido al estrado para coincidir en su repulsa hacia los proyectos del Gobierno y para reivindicar el derecho al concepto tradicional de familia. Música y animación han cerrado la marcha pasadas las ocho de la tarde, que se desarrolló sin incidentes, salvo alguna asistencia sanitaria.

Criticas a Rajoy

IU ha considerado un "ejemplo de intolerancia" la manifestación porque "protesta contra los derechos de otras personas" y ha añadido que es "una incoherencia" que el PP la apoye "con todos sus medios" y su líder, Mariano Rajoy, "no se haya atrevido" a asistir.

Así lo ha manifestado el portavoz adjunto de IU José Francisco Mendi, para quien "se habrán encontrado muy a gusto los dirigentes del PP manifestándose bajo palio porque algunos habrán emulado gratos recuerdos del pasado para ellos".

En su opinión, la manifestación de Madrid ha sido una "procesión de los sectores más conservadores de la derecha y de la jerarquía católica que ni siquiera representan a la mayoría de los cristianos de este país" y ha estado dominada por "los birretes, el incienso, las sotanas y la derecha más rancia de este país".
Al inicio de la marca, una portavoz del Foro ha dicho que se trata de una manifestación "masiva", "sin precedentes", "la mayor fiesta por la familia de la historia".

Posted by lck at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2005

Women with more education...

Tue, 24 May 2005 16:08:55 EDT
CBC News

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Women with more education get better sleep, but the reasons remain elusive, a new study conducted in Taiwan shows.

* FROM June 24, 2004: Facts about insomnia

The study also found the opposite in men: the higher a man's education, the less good sleep he gets.

The findings, based on a 2001 study of 40,000 Taiwanese aged 15 and older, were published on Tuesday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Overall, the study found that women are up to twice as likely to be insomniacs as men. Sleeplessness was also found more common among people who were oder, divorced or separated, had less education, poor health and earned less.

The study suggested long working hours were to blame for insomnia in men: Those with higher positions, usually men in Taiwan, had correspondingly greater education, and were required to work more hours.

* FROM NOV. 7, 1998: The mystery of sleep

Divorced or separated women appeared to have the highest levels of insomnia. Researchers suggested the stress associated with single parenthood, loss of income, or the stigma of a marriage breakdown could be possible factors.

Other factors that could cause greater insomnia in women were menstrual cycles including menopause, night-day body temperature fluctuations, depression and anxiety, the researchers wrote.

More studies needed

But even after accounting for these factors, the researchers still found that they could not fully explain why women get less sleep.

"The sex discrepancy in insomnia narrowed slightly after taking social role factors into consideration but was not explained by socioeconomic status," the authors wrote. "The persistent sex gap in insomnia warrants further investigation."

The researchers cited other studies that have shown that women get less good sleep than men in most cultures around the world. But they said this could not be totally explained by child rearing and other domestic responsibilities.

Children impact sleep

Students, non-smokers and regular exercisers tended to have better sleep quality, while the jobless who were actively seeking work had the highest level of sleep disturbances, the authors wrote.

The more children in a household caused higher levels of insomnia; but this factor affected women's and men's sleep equally, the study found.

The insomnia was assessed using criteria developed by the World Health Organization, and scored on a scale of 1 to 5.

Posted by lck at 01:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2005

Cultures Clash at Merging Airlines

One airline has painted some of its planes purple and turquoise, the colors of the Major League Baseball team it sponsors, or cardinal red, in honor of the pro football team it backs.

By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005; E01

One airline has painted some of its planes purple and turquoise, the colors of the Major League Baseball team it sponsors, or cardinal red, in honor of the pro football team it backs.

The other shuns any hint of glitz, with a fleet in subdued blue, white and gray.

One airline has its headquarters in an Arizona suburb known for its perpetual-sunshine-and-flip-flops lifestyle.

The other is based in a Washington suburb that is a center for government contractors and the home of a military cemetery.

But last week, younger, edgier America West of Tempe, Ariz., announced that it would merge with older, more conservative US Airways of Arlington in a $1.5 billion deal that would create one of the nation's largest low-cost airlines.

Employees and Wall Street analysts asked: Would this marriage of two cultures -- East and West, button-down and entrepreneurial -- really work?

Airline veterans say it will have to because neither US Airways Group Inc., which posted a $611 million loss last year, nor America West Holdings Corp., which was $89 million in the hole, has much of a choice.

"We may have some cultural differences," said John A. Taylor, a veteran US Airways pilot. "But we both want to survive. So we are looking forward to taking the best of both airlines and learning from each other."

One thing the two airlines share is a history of financial trouble deep enough to send them to bankruptcy court.

US Airways, the nation's seventh-largest airline, is fighting to emerge from its second Chapter 11 reorganization in three years. America West, the eighth-largest, operated under Chapter 11 protection from 1991 to 1994. Both carriers have tried to withstand the withering effects of soaring fuel prices, profit-draining airfare wars and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Under the merger deal, the combined airline would be called US Airways, but the company would have its headquarters in Tempe, a city of 160,000 that is a 10-minute drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The new US Airways would be headed by W. Douglas Parker, 43, America West's chief executive. US Airways chief executive Bruce R. Lakefield, 61, would be No. 2.

US Airways has more to gain from the merger, experts said, starting with some lessons it could learn from America West on customer service.

"When I think of America West I think of a low-cost airline that has a relatively good reputation. I would fly on them," said Betsy R. Snyder, a credit analyst for bond-rating agency Standard & Poor's who follows the airline industry.

And when she thinks of US Airways?

"Not my first choice to fly, just because of what you hear about their service," she said. "Their inferior service."

In the federal government's most recent airline performance statistics, for flights in March, America West ranked third among 19 U.S. carriers in on-time arrivals. US Airways was 17th.

America West apparently also could teach its new partner how to keep track of luggage. In terms of complaints about mishandled baggage, it posted the fifth-best record in March. US Airways, which has had labor problems and staffing shortages, was 18th.

America West has used employee incentives to improve customer service. For example, many employees received $50 bonuses this month because the airline exceeded its on-time goal in April.

US Airways traces its roots to a company called All American Aviation, which in 1939 began offering the first airmail service to small towns in western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. The company changed its name to All American Airways in 1949 and to Allegheny Airlines in 1953, which in 1979 changed its name to US Air, which in 1997 became US Airways, acquiring several regional airlines along the way.

America West's history is a lot shorter. It was launched in 1983 with 280 employees, three Boeing 737s and a can-do spirit.

Originally modeled after no-frills Southwest Airlines, America West adopted a more-frills strategy, offering amenities such as newspapers, assigned seating and, later, first-class sections for passengers willing to pay more.

"From the start, we were a very employee-friendly place," said Michael Roach, the airline's co-founder and first president. America West maintained a 24-hour day-care center for its flight attendants' children. Its employees shunned labor unions.

By 1990 the airline had reported annual revenue of more than $1 billion and its fleet had more than 100 planes, serving 62 cities.

But the employees' optimism faded as their company grew too big too fast, spending money on unprofitable long-haul routes, including one to Nagoya, Japan, and plunging into bankruptcy court in the early 1990s.

"That touchy-feely culture only goes so far," said Roach, who left the company in 1984 but has followed it closely as a San Francisco-based airline industry consultant.

Roach said many employees turned against the man chosen to lead America West out of Chapter 11, William A. Franke.

"Bill Franke was -- is -- very much a numbers-MBA kind of guy," Roach said. "And the employees grew to loathe him. This is not a dump on Bill Franke. He had a very difficult situation, and he saved them."

America West emerged from Chapter 11 in August 1994 after a partnership, which included Continental Airlines, invested $214.9 million in the company.

A month later, America West announced that its flight attendants had voted to be represented by the Association of Flight Attendants. The pilots, mechanics and others employee groups also turned to unions.

By the late 1990s, the employees often were at odds with management. And passengers noticed a deterioration in service.

"They had a lot of operational problems," S&P's Synder said. "I remember flying them in the summer of 2000. You'd get to the airport and you'd look at the monitor and you'd see the flight was delayed by two hours. It was frustrating, especially late at night."

Franke retired, and Parker replaced him on Aug. 22, 2001.

A month later, after the terrorist attacks, America West trimmed its flight schedule by 20 percent and cut 2,000 employees from its payroll.

The airline may not have survived the post-9/11 slowdown in air travel, Parker has said, without a $429 million loan guarantee from the federal government.

Parker set out to restore the airline's image of being friendly to customers -- and employees.

"Doug Parker and his team are extremely competent managers," said Aaron J. Gellman, a professor and transportation expert at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

In today's fiercely competitive airline industry, both America West and US Airways are struggling to convince passengers that their fares rival those of discount competitors like Southwest with full-service amenities.

America West declared itself a low-cost carrier in 2002. US Airways has been acting like one for several years.

A chart on America West's Web site lists perks it offers that no-frill rivals don't -- first-class sections, airport clubs and frequent flyer awards to more than 300 destinations.

Among its marketing innovations, America West offers a "bill me later" ticketing option that gives travelers up to 90 days, interest-free, to pay for a ticket. It also sells gift cards at supermarkets that can be used to pay for tickets.

The biggest challenge of a America West-US Airways merger may be combining the staffs of the two airlines. For example, they must decide which pilots get the choicest routes on the largest planes. US Airways has nearly 30,000 employees, America West has 14,000.

"The problem is that US Airways employees who have survived are by and large senior employees, and they probably have significantly higher seniority than America West's," Roach said. "So their position will probably be: 'We want to merge the seniority lists based on date of hire.' The US Airways pilots will be wanting to fly the A330s and all that good stuff.

"And the America West pilots will say: ... 'You wouldn't have any job at all without us, so we'll fly the A330s.' "

Taylor, a US Airways pilot for 22 years, said he's optimistic that pilots from the two airlines will agree because they are represented by the same union and because they have all been through pay cuts and furloughs.

"Through all that pain what we have seen happen is sort of an attitude adjustment," he said. "Our expectations have been changed."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Posted by lck at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

60 seconds and 8 seconds

Was I joking about it? Check it out on 60seconds again, Scott just uploaded it.

Transcript:

BEGIN

What would we do without our toys?
Mummy has hers, I have mine.
I pick up frequencies on the body somewhere, if the boss doesn't press the ear piece hard, I keep the bugs from spoiling the picnic.
Pigs for breakfast, slaughtering Enron, scattered branes.

She sleeps a lot, she not sleeping, something, another buy-out, another tax cut.
The turn for the worse is negotiable, at the blackjack table, deep into condominium wars.

And what would we do without our toys?
Without the hotels,
our Cat-Bs,
the little black meters,
our cold oil crack cans?

Buy off Saddam for a credit card bill, tennis lessons and shopping auctioning.

The kids are calm and happy in the dying sun in the backyard.

We can protect you from terror, we can protect you from pains, we can not protect you from secondary relatives.

Onion rings, popcorns, selenium arsenate humming quiet on a scrap of paper, never too far but out of sight.

It has been done before.
I squinted,
I smiled.

What would we do without our toys?
Our midnight toll boot run,
our firemen,
our television,
our pasta salad,
our little woes,
our skyscrapers,
our neighbors.

END

In the meantime, Wendy, our Narrator for the occasion, reports a twist in Jehova's Witnesses Strategy To Close & Casual Encounters. Apparently they started hiding, creeping around the corner. Next I'll hear is they are now able to "morph".

Posted by lck at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2005

gworld today

NEW YORK -- No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists now think that "safe sun" -- 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen -- is healthy and can protect against some cancers.

In so doing, researchers are challenging one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun.

In the past three months, four studies have found that vitamin D, known as the sunshine vitamin, helps prevent lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

But many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and fortified milk alone. Supplements are problematic, and sunscreen blocks the production of vitamin D, which the skin makes from ultraviolet rays.

Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine and nutrition, laid out his case for more vitamin D in a keynote lecture at a recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer.

"I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D," Giovannucci told the cancer scientists. "The data are really quite remarkable."

The talk so impressed the American Cancer Society's chief epidemiologist, Dr. Michael Thun, that the society is reviewing its sun-protection guidelines. "There is now intriguing evidence that vitamin D may have a role in the prevention as well as treatment of certain cancers," Thun said.

Even some dermatologists may be coming around. "I find the evidence to be mounting and increasingly compelling," said Dr. Allan Halpern, dermatology chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who advises several cancer groups.

The dilemma, he said, is a lack of consensus on how much vitamin D is needed or the best way to get it.

No source is ideal. Even if sunshine were to be recommended, the amount needed would depend on the season, time of day, where a person lives, skin color and other factors. Thun and others worry that folks might overdo it.

"People tend to go overboard with even a hint of encouragement to get more sun exposure," Thun said, adding that he would prefer people get more of the nutrient from food or pills.

But this is difficult. Vitamin D occurs naturally in salmon, tuna and other oily fish and is routinely added to milk. However, diet accounts for very little of the vitamin D circulating in blood, Giovannucci said.

Supplements contain the nutrient, but most use an old form -- D-2 -- that is far less potent than the more desirable D-3. Multivitamins typically contain only small amounts of D-2 and include vitamin A, which offsets many of D's benefits.

As a result, pills might not raise vitamin D levels much at all.

Government advisers can't even agree on an RDA, or recommended daily allowance, for vitamin D. Instead, they say "adequate intake" is 200 international units a day up to age 50, 400 IUs for ages 50 to 70 and 600 IUs for people older than 70.

Many scientists think adults need 1,000 IUs a day. Giovannucci's research suggests 1,500 IUs might be needed to significantly curb cancer.

During short winter days, the sun's rays come in at too oblique an angle to spur the skin to make vitamin D. That is why nutrition experts think vitamin D-3 supplements may be especially helpful during winter and for dark-skinned people all the time.

But too much of the pill variety can cause a dangerous buildup of calcium in the body. The government says 2,000 IUs is the upper daily limit for anyone older than a year.

On the other hand, D from sunshine has no such limit. It's almost impossible to overdose when getting it this way. However, it is possible to get skin cancer.

Posted by lck at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2005

Welcome

Don't read or forgot how to do it? This space is not for you. There's several "casts" out there you can login in.

Read and like to check out what others write about and how? Have a seat and get comfortable.

This space is personal, what I do, how I organize things around me and why and why I do write. You won't find new posts around every day of the week but you will definitely find me posting about anything, from poetry to (fun and somewhat serious) string theory, from international economical issues to recent design trends.

Bloggers tend to accept anything and do so while simultaneously staying a very opinionated bunch. Better be a a nazi, 'nuff said, kids, stay tuned. MT power!

Posted by lck at 08:14 PM