"Just one election left before the coup. Take appropriate action"

From BBC NEWS: Iranian woman 'gives birth to frog':

"While it is unclear how this could have happened, the paper [Etemaad] carries quotes from medical experts who say there are human characteristics to the animal."

Thomas Mowbray does a really nice job of putting his musical compositions on the web, using MIDI (for a bare-bones, low-bandwidth streaming version), WAV and MP3 (for a high-bandwidth, rendered version), and PDF (for the score).

From Are They Losing It?, by Maureen Dowd:

"By playing on the insecurities of an inexperienced leader, Mr. Cheney has managed to change W. from a sunny, open, bipartisan, uniter-not-a-divider, non-nation-builder into a crabby, secretive, partisan, divider-not-a-uniter, inept imperialist."

So why are they losing it? Here's why.

The Register: [U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team] recommends anything but [Internet Explorer]. Hmm, let's see... mysterious Russian website (now offline) posts malware targeting security holes in IIS 5 and IE... CERT responds by issuing the cyber-equivalent of a terrorist threat alert... Bill Gates responds by calling on Windows users to switch on auto-update. What a windfall for Mozilla, Opera and the Mac! Uh... you don't suppose.... nah! More likely, is that the MATRIX has decided it doesn't like the idea of states opting out, and was trying a little experiment in more efficiently collecting data on suspicious citizens.

WhatReallyHappened.com: QUESTIONS FOR MICHAEL MOORE

The "National Online Town Meeting" that MoveOn.org is organizing to discuss Fahrenheit 9/11 with Michael Moore takes place on Mon June 28 at 8pm EST. You can find a location near you at http://action.moveonpac.org/f911/.

St. Petersburg [FL] Times: [Tampa International Airport] now verifies flight of Saudis:

"The government has long denied that two days after the 9/11 attacks, the three were allowed to fly.

Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left. The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent [Manuel Perez] and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky. The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to TIA a few hours later on the same plane."

guardian.co.uk: With the Iraqi resistance, in Kerbala, Falluja, and Sadr City

voice4change.org: Call To Action: Register Voters at Fahrenheit 9/11:

"When voters walk out Fahrenheit 9/11 they will be ready to vote George Bush out of office. We recommend that you be waiting outside the theatre with voter registration cards. Hand them out, if someone wants 10 give them 10, people will be motivated to register their family and friends after this movie."

... especially if you (or friends or relatives) live in a "swing" state.

From TheHill.com: ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ ban? -- Ads for Moore’s movie could be stopped on July 30:

"The [Federal Election Commission] ruling may also affect promotion of a slew of other upcoming political documentaries and films, such as "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War," which opens in August, "The Corporation," about democratic institutions being subsumed by the corporate agenda, or "Silver City," a recently finished film by John Sayles that criticizes the Bush administration. Another film, "The Hunting of the President," which investigates whether Bill Clinton was the victim of a vast conspiracy, could be subject to regulations if it mentions Bush or members of Congress in its ads."

Chris Parry's review of Chris Hitchens' review of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"

NARAL Action: Tell your Senators to stop Bush's court-packing plan -- starting with anti-choice Claude Allen, Diane Sykes and Terence Boyle.

451°F: Hot Books! -- a "a national book discussion organization featuring political books". Just as long as I don't have to pick one and memorize it...

Take Action: Tell your Senators to Oppose the Federal (Anti-Gay) Marriage Amendment

Virtual Psychosis: VR Tool Re-Creates Hallucinations. When you can't tell when it's been turned off, then they know it's working.

From EditorandPublisher.com: 'NY Times' 9/11 Reporter Reviews Facts in Michael Moore Film:

[Phillip] Shenon’s verdict: “It seems safe to say that central assertions of fact in ‘Fahrenherit 9/11’ are supported by the public record….”

CNN: Military judge declares Abu Ghraib a crime scene; orders that it not be destroyed for the duration of the trial. Sorry, George -- can't bury the evidence quite yet.

NEWS.com.au: Bush to answer for Iraq abuse. I wonder if he'll bring Dick Cheney along to coach him through his court appearance.

Dear Attorney General John Ashcroft,

I've been reading in the papers that you are refusing to release to Congress the memos prepared by your department that discuss the legal context and implications of torture.

What's wrong, John? Feeling a bit ashamed, now that it's all coming to light? Worried about being hauled into the International Criminal Court and prosecuted for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity? Come to think of it, you should be.

Looking forward to your "perp walk",

Craig Burket

Sign the Declaration Calling for the Resignation or Removal of John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States. Sounds eerily familiar...

From "Why is Art not Reflecting World Events?" by Anna Somers Cocks:

"Where are the true successors to paintings such as David's Death of Marat, which played a real part in the French Revolution, or Gericault's Raft of the Medusa, with its desperate depiction of shipwrecked sailors and passengers, who, as everyone at the time knew, were reduced to cannibalism to survive?

The documentary recently shown in Paris about the killings under Pol Pot is an excellent example of what I mean, a work of art that has proved its usefulness and power in Cambodia, where there has been a long struggle to see justice done for the victims, against much deliberate amnesia on the part of the authorities.

Rithy Panh, the director, was himself in a labor camp, although only a child, during the period in the 70s when two million Cambodians were murdered. His film is called S-21, the death machine of the Khmer Rouge and it is about the torture center where 17,000 died and only seven were saved, among them the artist Vann Nath, who was useful because he could paint portraits of Pol Pot, and Chum Mey, who knew how to repair the typewriters on which the jailers wrote the reports about the prisoners. "

Dear Vice President Cheney,

Regarding CIA Director George Tenet's abrupt departure, the recent article "Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides" claims that:

"when the director challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President cut him off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your resignation and I want it now.'"

In other words, the President fired Tenet without asking you first. I can only imagine how steamed you must be about this, but more importantly, I'm wondering what you are planning to do about it. I mean, getting him alone must be relatively easy. Making it look like an accident -- that's trickier. Here is some advice: according to MSNBC, the President believes that Saddam's revolver (you know the one) is unloaded.

Common Cause Massachusetts: Take Action: Fight for Fair Districting for Fair Elections

66 (Unflattering) Things About Ronald Reagan, by David Corn

Banned in Kalamazoo

MIT Technology Review: "Hacking Harry Potter"

From Cosmic currency unveiled in Bulgaria:

'We are offering the galactos as a means of payment between planets. It will represent the Earth in financial relations in the Cosmos,' Kiril Kanev, chairman of the Bulgarian foundation on cosmic intelligence research, said on Sunday.

The coin, made up of chrome and nickel, weighs three grams with the inscription 'galactos' and the year of issue 2004. It will be identified by the letter G with two parallel lines like the US dollar.

Oh, yeah? And if I start cranking out counterfeits by the shuttle-craft-load, who's gonna come and stop me?

What is it?

From: "Craig Burket"
To: abennett@usgs.gov
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2004 2:03 PM
Subject: The Dome On Mars

I am fascinated and perplexed by an image within the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Image Collection that shows an apparently smooth, spherical object (http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/fullres/divided/m15012/m1501228a.jpg).

What is the scale and date of this photo? Where on Mars is this object located? Could it be related to the "Half-Dome Rock" visited by Sojourner in 1997?

Does NASA have any info/speculation about what the "Dome On Mars" (as it has already been christened; see Retort Magazine: "Our Solar System Is No Accident" by Ted Twietmeyer) really is or how it might have been formed?

If the Spirit or Opportunity rovers were sent over to check it out, would it start broadcasting a signal to Jupiter? :-)

Cheers,
Craig Burket

File this under "Militarization of Cyberspace".
From heraldtribune.com: Hired gun to take down sites could be a bad sign:

The Symbiot Security solution offers clients the opportunity to attack the known assailant or even launch pre-emptive strikes against possible offenders.

From oreillynet.com: Symbiot on the Rules of Engagement:

There is always the possibility of collateral damage.
[...]
When a zombied host or an infected computer has been clearly identified as the source of an attack, it is our responsibility to empower customers to defend themselves. An infected machine, one no longer under the control of its owner, is no longer an innocent bystander.

Are you now, or have you ever been infected by malware? Worried about whether your site or IP address appears in Symbiot.NET (Symbiot Security's "central repository of attacker profiles based on the cooperative surveillance and reconnaissance gathered by all network participants"), and what your current "risk score" might be? Just relax and wait for Q3 of 2004, when "Symbiot will open access to its Symbiot.NET database for ad-hoc queries and risk score retrievals." For free?

Combine this "e-taliation" technology with geolocation, and things could get very interesting:

From ECOMMERCE TAXATION AND THE LIMITATIONS OF GEOLOCATION TOOLS:

Geolocation products match IP addresses associated with online customers with outside sources of data to pinpoint the geographic location of the online customer at the point where the customer's computer signal enters the Internet.

On the other hand... does Symbiot consider spammers to be attackers deserving of "countermeasures"? What am I saying? -- Symbiot is a business enterprise: for the right price, anybody's a target! And once they've got my intended victim in their crosshairs, I wonder if, for a small extra fee, they'll let me pull the trigger myself?

The Persecution of Steve Kurtz (Counterpunch.org)

Artists and art professors refuse to testify before federal grand jury (BuffaloNews.com)

Twisted Tale of Art, Death, DNA (Wired News)

What You Can Do to defend Steve Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble.

Latest news coverage.

National Healthcare Action Day - Saturday June 19 - Find Local Events by city

Lulu, Salome, Kundry -- An Eternal Golden Braid

From New Scientist: Net traffic shows file-sharing undented:

"File-sharing traffic via Kazaa has dropped from 90 per cent of the total to just 20 per cent. Users in the US have shifted to alternative networks, in particular eDonkey."

From MIT Technology Review: US to Start Up Registered Traveler Program :

"A registered traveler becomes a new vulnerability point. Want to blow up an airplane? Kidnap the registered traveler's family and start sending back fingers until the father agrees to carry your explosive-containing briefcase through airport security. "

In Praise of Do-Gooders, BY JOHN MCCAIN, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Tuesday, June 1, 2004.

Which kind of Bohemian are you?

"We forget that there are at least two kinds. Mimi's friends in Puccini's opera are the first kind, young artists on their way up. They have the arrogance of young genius. They are poor and immoral. At the end of the story they are mostly very successful, and Mimi is dead. But while it all lasted, they had a good time -- love, wine, food, music. This kind of Bohemian is an under- or unemployed intellectual who gives up most of the necessities of the poor so he can enjoy some of the luxuries of the rich.

But there is another kind, by far more common, the upstart product of a lower-middle-class Puritan background who discovers himself unable to compete with the world of civilized men which he is trying to enter. This demoralizes him. He rebels. He reads erotic books. He tries pederasty, at least in his imagination. He neglects to shave and often to wash. Above all else he is frightened. This is the character who forms the pattern for most of the people in The Black Book. Dostoevsky called him the Underground Man. He is a debauched Puritan, an unwisely paroled shopkeeper."

Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name.

I'm really looking forward to the book that George Tenet is sure to write, now that he doesn't have to worry about his day job. Regardless of whether he jumped or was pushed, I'll bet it's gonna be a scorcher -- the guy must have the goods on both Bush and Clinton. That is, unless he has a tragic accident between now and November.

Sciencenews.org: Cardiovascular Showdown: Chocolate vs. Coffee. I nearly spilled my Extra Shot Venti Latte when I read this.

Become a member of Al Franken's Air America Radio. Find a station or listen over the web.

MoveOn.org: Sign the petition for Voter-Verified Paper Ballots:

"Every voter should be able to verify his or her vote on a paper ballot. Election officials must make sure electronic voting terminals produce Voter-Verified Paper Ballots, and they must provide backup paper ballots in case the terminals aren't working."

Dear President Bush, Senators, Representatives and election officials:

Just because George W. Bush and his handlers stole the election in 2000 doesn't mean you can do it in 2004. In case you're starting to toy with the idea of using unverifiable e-voting technology for your own advantage, here's my advice:
DON'T TRY IT. WE ARE WATCHING YOU.

Why We Fight

NARAL Action: Support family planning services for low-income women in Massachusetts

Pop quiz: using only the standard bases A, C, G, T, and sometimes U, how many more amino acids can you code for using quadruplet codons rather than "traditional" triplet codons? Extra credit: what happens if you add another base to the genetic alphabet?

Hemp -- it's what's for breakfast! 0.15ppm of THC in every serving! Put that in your bowl and eat it! Don't bogart that spoon, my friend! It's the buzz the whole family can enjoy! I bought some of this fine product ("Not genetically engineered!") at my local Shaw's supermarket -- it tastes great, and it makes the antics of the other drivers on my morning commute seem really hilarious. And did you ever notice that if you set your car radio on "scan", you get the most amazing transitions between sentences that start on one station and end on another?

Join with the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), Amnesty International USA, Oxfam America, the National Council of Churches (NCC), Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and Veterans for Common Sense in telling George W. Bush to start upholding international law. Sign the petition:

"We, the undersigned citizens of the United States, affirm the international cooperation, universal humanitarian principles, and human rights law that arose from the ashes of World War II, thanks to the unprecedented national sacrifice and service of a generation of Americans.

We call upon President George W. Bush to honor that legacy by rededicating our nation to the Geneva Conventions, the Charter of the United Nations, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a framework of law that protects the lives and dignity of civilians, prisoners of war, and wounded combatants - including the Iraqi people and our men and women serving today in Iraq."