Right now in Japan, The Shinmoedake Volcanois spectacularly erupting. Here, Lightning dances in Shinmoedake's volcanic plume, the eruption having already led Japanese authorities to call on those living nearby to evacuate. Seen from Kirishima city, the light shows last only for a few moments, but the ash and rocks fall relentlessly between the prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima. One of Kirishima's many calderas, Shinmoedake is 4,662 feet tall.
I just found this 2 day old photo of where I lived for 25 years, East Fifth St. between Ave. A & B in New York....I recently actually gave up the lease to an apartment down where the firetrucks are, at the end of the block (looking east towards Ave. B). There was, thankfully, no fire, it was a gas leak scare.
This one goes out to Little Hosni...The backing band was the TCB Band, which accompanied Elvis Presley from 1969 until his death in 1977: Glen D. Hardin on piano, James Burton on lead guitar, Jerry Scheff on bass, and Ronnie Tutt on drums. Male background vocalists, some of whom also joined in on guitar, were Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, and Steven Soles. The female background vocalists were k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt. Lyrics: Just running scared, each place we go.So afraid that he might show.Yeah, running scared, what would I doIf he came back, and wanted you?Just running scared, feeling low.Running scared. You loved him so.Just running scared, afraid to lose.If he came back, which one would you choose?Then, all at once, he was standing there.So sure of himself, his head in the air.My heart was breaking. Which one would it be?You turned around and walked away with me.
Yesterday was the 25th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. An event eulogized and analyzed into oblivion. I remember watching it live on TV in NYC. I was at work at my job as a graphic designer, etc...It was a slow day, I was in the office alone, answering phones and had the TV on.
It took a few minutes to sink in. Then it was replayed over and over again. In later weeks, as the investigation as to what had actually occurred transpired, I became aware of the physicist,Richard Feynman, who was the man who had years before blown the whistle on the fatal silicone O Ring gaskets that were the final culprits in the disaster. Feynman's warning had been brushed off by NASA. His ability to simply explain concepts and demonstrate his ideas in the testimony were evidence of one of the greatest inquisitive scientific minds of the 20th Century:
In fact the Tuvans regard him as a hero, he is responsible for the interest in their very singular unique culture. Though, in his lifetime, he was never actually allowed by the Soviets to visit Tuva shortly after his death in 1988, he was belatedly granted permission.
Today, Tuvan culture survives and thrives, thanks to the spotlight projected upon it by this unique man, Richard Feynman. Tuva has a musical tradition based on a technique called "throat singing". They are a distinct culture that evolved on horseback, much of their lineage dates to the time of Ghengis Khan. Throat singing technique involves a form of circular breathing, the ability to inhale and exhale at the same time and create sounds vibrations with the vocal chords that create overtones. When, as in the tradition of Tuvan music, multiple singers create these over tones, they create a third, ghost part, so to speak. You hear another sound which is the result of soundwaves refracting and interacting with each other. Here is a performance of the Tuvan Group, Huun Huur Tu, at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2006. A part of the legacy of one of the finest most agile minds of the 20th century, Richard Feynman!
About 2 years ago, I published a piece calledAtlas Wankedwhich pretty much summed up my adolescent fascination with Ayn Rand, and subsequent intellectual evolution by which I was forced to realize that my fascination with Rand was based on an immature selfish adolescent view of my role as a responsible human being.
Today,I read this piece which explainedmore about the fantasy Ayn lived in and the adolescent fictional reality that she created which is still being used to used to justify the economic anarchy of free market unregulated capitalistic greed.......
By the way, Rand Paul, another Tea Bagging Hero, has taken great lengths to explain that he wasn't named after Ayn, his real name is Randall...
Notedspeed freak, serial-killer fangirl, andTea Party heroAyn Rand was also a kleptoparasite, sneakily gobbling up taxpayer funds under an assumed name to pay for her medical treatments after she got lung cancer.
An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).
As Pryor said, "Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."
But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so.
This is the video which was the final straw, which triggered the crazed despotic, naked dictatorial fist of Hosni Mubarak's security apparati to crush the throat of the Egyptian Internet. As I write, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians are in the streets of all major Egyptian Cities. The latest reports which I have gotten from The Egyptian Association For Change are reporting fragmentation grenade attacks by the military against the protestors. An ever mounting number of deaths are being documented. I momentarily reeled in utter disbelief when I red in the NY Times this morning that: US vice-president Joe Biden told PBS NewsHour that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (who as presided over a 29 year reign characterized by blatantly stolen elections, suspension of civil liberties, torture and arbitrary detention) isn't a dictator and questioned the legitimacy of protesters' demands. The USA provides $1.3 billion/year in military aid to the Mubarak regime.
Asked if he would characterize Mubarak as a dictator Biden responded: "Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he's been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with - with Israel. ... I would not refer to him as a dictator..."
Biden urged non-violence from both protesters and the government and said: "We're encouraging the protesters to - as they assemble, do it peacefully. And we're encouraging the government to act responsibly and - and to try to engage in a discussion as to what the legitimate claims being made are, if they are, and try to work them out." He also said: "I think that what we should continue to do is to encourage reasonable... accommodation and discussion to try to resolve peacefully and amicably the concerns and claims made by those who have taken to the street. And those that are legitimate should be responded to because the economic well-being and the stability of Egypt rests upon that middle class buying into the future of Egypt."
But hours later, as I read about the ongoing investigation and world wide arrests of young hackers who are supporters and members of Anonymous, this new item seemed all the more ominous:
Keep in mind that Mubarak flipped the "kill switch" in Egypt to shut down dissent. Politicians will abuse the power that they have and not just in countries like Egypt. We all remember the Bush years, right? Joe Lieberman has a plan that won't even allow the courts to get involved in case of abuse. What is the problem with people like Lieberman who hate freedom?cnet:
A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year.
Internet companies should not be alarmed by the legislation, first introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate aide said last week. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
I stand shaking my head, reeling the second time today in utter disbelief, in a state of turmoil as I find myself actually agreeing with Rand Paul, the braying Jackass newly elected Republican Teabagging syncophant from Kentucky, who I am absolutely sure will live because if only because the gods protect the idiots, but will be made to suffer because of hisopinion stated on Wolf Blitzers program on CNN, Jan. 26th that he wanted to end all foreign aid to Israel....as I titled this post, Cut Off The Head And The Body Will Die.....
This is Algerian Rai Rocker, Rachid Taha's version of Rock The Kasbah by the Clash. I saw a killer version of this with Rachid and Robert Plant, which I tried to find...but this is pretty great!
Last week, we watched the fast forward Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, which took most of the world by surprise. Part of the reason it took everyone one by surprise was because we weren't paying attention. Tunisia has been one of the most repressive and corrupt Northern African countries, but in Europe, it was seen as part of Frances sphere on influence and special interest. In fact, it is one of the biggest tourist destinations for middle class Europeans. As with most commercial tourist industries, what went on beyond the gates of the hotels and the guarded beaches made little impression on the rest of the world. It was eye opening to see how unprepared and totally out of synch the French response to the upheaval in one of its client states actually was. As events unfolded, it became clear that this was a "new phenomena". A secular, non fundamentalist revolution fueled the labor unions and the young. The engine seemed to be internet social networking. Perhaps a warning shot had been sent, and ignored when the Group, Anonymous, who have been so important in the defense of Wikileaks through cyber sabotage was able to effectively shut down the Tunisian Government Web as well as Zimbabwe's earlier in the week. Another extremely important part of the whole was the behind the scenes involvement of American diplomacy. As France's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michelle Alliot-Marie scrambled to absorb the reality and declare that France was ready to send their Armed Police, The CRS to maintain order, the American State Department was in contact with the Tunisian Military, negotiating their complicity with the Revolution. The French were so complexly intertwined with the Tunisian Corruption that they could not begin to react in any sort of positive manner,. There only concern was to preserve the the status quo of the Ben-Ali Government and what they perceived as their own financial connections. As events unfolded, it became a huge embarrassment to the Sarkozy Government in regards to both their response and their apparent ignorance of the source of the rebellion and the reality. But why has the Tunisian Revolution gotten as far as it has? What lessons can we learn that must be applied to the present unrest in Egypt?How can this be to America'a advantage, because in reality, the success of the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia is advantageous to American interests, in fact to every nation concerned with the so called War On Terror. The success of the Jasmine Revolution is one of the most potent weapons in the "War On Terror". That is why it is in our best interests to encourage and abet the educated middle class, youth and intellectual secular uprising now occurring in Egypt. This is not class struggle in any traditional attempt to couch it in classic "Class Struggle" type of rhetoric. This is a new game, the inevitable evolution of class struggle. This is the emergence of the educated majority over throwing centuries of oppression and corruption. It is more comparable to the Revolution that united and created Our United States.Learn more about yesterdays massacre by the police in Suez and the suppression of social media here. To stand in the way of the Egyptian people and kowtow to the perceived interests of the Israeli Conservatives would be maintaining the status quo, the conditions which have created the ferment which has given Radical Islam such a firm grip in much of the world. Even more to the point, it can be easily argued that the policies of Nixon and Kissinger and the historical American support of the Shah of Iran, the American supported coup that destroyed the progressive Socialist government under Mohammed Mosaddeq directly were responsible for the success of the present Iranian Conservative Shiite Regime. This is the crossroad we are now standing in. Do we follow the path of folly? Folly in the historical sense is to pursue a policy which has failed, led to even greater failures and problems and situations that were never imagined. Folly as in The Trojan War, the Renaissance Catholic Church and the Reformation , The British loss of their American Colonies or The Vietnam War. These are all examples of policies based on lack of imagination, refusal to accept reality or just laziness of vision, all of which led to utter disaster. The Obama government has shown their ability to be imaginative and flexible in quite a few situations regarding diplomacy and foreign policy. Their involvement in the Jasmine Revolution demonstrated a prescience that demonstrated they are aware of the forces behind this great social struggle in Mediterrenean Africa. Do we acquiesce to the will of Conservative Israel and contribute to the propaganda that can only be used against us by the Radical Islamists? Or will we do something completely different and support the rise of an educated Moslem secular world? Today, Mohamed ElBaradei the former head of of the IAEA returned to Egypt to be a part of the Revolution, as reported in the NYTimes, this morning: “It was the young people who took the initiative and set the date and decided to go, Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency, said Wednesday with some surprise during a telephone interview from his office in Vienna, shortly before rushing home to Cairo to join the revolt.
Dr. ElBaradei, aNobel prizewinner, has been the public face of an effort to reinvigorate and unite Egypt’s fractious and ineffective opposition since he plunged into his home country’s politics nearly a year ago, and he said the youth movement had accomplished that on its own. “Young people are impatient,” he said. “Frankly, I didn’t think the people were ready.”
Egypt may brutally crush the present rebellion, but it doesn't matter, one day soon, the Mubarak family will be loading semis with as much loot as they can take out of Egypt as fast as they can as their empire crashes in their wake...But who will pick up the pieces?
Ben Gleck tries to make a point of some sort using the tried and true techniques of Conservative Humor, which only goes to illustrate why Dennis Miller is collecting unemployment now...laugh, Damn You, LAUGH! HAHHHH! HAH! HA! HAHHHHHH! oh gawd what is that pain in my chest? CALL 911!
The rain beats down on a small Irish town. The streets are deserted. Times are tough. Everyone is in debt and living on credit. A rich German arrives at the local hotel, asks to view its rooms, and puts on the desk a €100 note. The owner gives him a bunch of keys and he goes off for an inspection.
As soon as he has gone upstairs, the hotelier grabs the note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher hurries down the street to pay what he owes to his feed merchant. The merchant heads for the pub and uses the note to pay his bar bill. The publican slips the note to the local hooker who's been offering her services on credit. She rushes to the hotel to pay what she owes for room hire. As she puts the €100 note on the counter, the German appears, says the rooms are unsuitable, picks up his €100 note and leaves town.
No one did any work. No one earned anything. Everyone is out of debt. Everyone is feeling better. And that is how a bail-out works.
I have always been intensely interested in geology and plate tectonics. For many reasons, I have always been fascinated with theGreat Rift Valley of Africa, which begins in the Red Sea and manifests itself in the Afar Depression, where the Northern Nubian Plate is pulling away from the Southern Somalian Plate. The Rift, course is the agent which produced the Great Lakes of Africa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi are the big ones, but there are many more, including a few Lakes with very unusual chemical concentrations, such as Natron, Magadi and Makati, which are hot spring fed lakes with high Soda content. The waters of these are noxious to many animals which are not specifically adapted to them. One of the few organisms which have found an successful niche here seem to be a few species of flamingoes, who feed upon the few krill like organisms which flourish in the caustic waters. The tiny shrimplike organisms are very pink and give the flamingoes of the region their intense coloration. There are eruptions from the volcanoes in these areas which periodically spew caustic hot gas and are deadly to the wild life and humans who are aught in the path. The Great Rift is a region of intense seismic and volcanic activity. When I was a student and read about them, it was always noted that this was where you could actually see the process of plate tectonics in action. In the last few years, the processes which were projected to take place in millions of years have rapidly sped up. The volcanic activity has gone from events which would be measured in centuries to almost daily changes.You can read an article and view a very interesting photo gallery in an article in Der Spiegle from last week which documents this rapid acceleration of the African continent splitting process.
The Afar Triangle is beginning to resemble the ocean floor as lava spews from the rifts and the land on either side of the rifts daily moves farther and farther apart. Before our eyes, Africa is splitting into two separate land masses and soon, the ocean will cover the rift floor. What is notable is that the lava spewing from the volcanoes is balsaltic, which is the type of lava which is associated with ocean floor plate movement. Generally, continental lava is granitic or silica based. As a one time passionate breeder of the unique varieties ofRift Valley Lake Chiclids, I find this all intensely fascinating. When the supply of Rift Valley Chiclids was interrupted by the tribal massacres inUganda and Rwanda I found myself one of the main suppliers of three different species to pet stores in Lower Manhattan, but that is another story.
After seeing Herbie Hancock performing at the White House last week, it's worth remembering what a groundbreaking artist he truly is. Here he is in 1981 performing Rock It live. A new era of electronic pop experimentation and fusion coupled with real conceptual performance art, live on stage. The scratcher is Grandmaster DST and the original recording was produced by Bill Laswell.
After a lifetime of learning how the Government of the United States supposedly functioned, I actually didn't know that "the Supreme Court is 'the only judicial body in the country that is not governed by a set of judicial ethical rules. It appears that they could use one. Or at least some *cough* conservative *cough* justices could. I mean it's difficult to see how this could possibly be an inadvertentomission by Clarence Thomas. Seriously, did he forget Ginni was his wife?
Virginia Thomas earned over $680,000 from conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation over five years, a group says. But Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did not include it on financial disclosure forms.
We're talking five years in a row here and we can add the last reporting period when he also reported her income as none. Seems hard to believe she spent so much time organizing and leading the Tea Party group Liberty Central for free. By law, Thomas is supposed to disclose sources of spousal income, but I won't be holding my breath waiting for him to suffer some penalty for it. I suppose he'll be forced to amend his reports though and maybe we'll get to find out how much Liberty Central paid for a direct pipeline to SCOTUS. So there's that..and of course, being a Conservative Republican, he will always be judged by a different standard than the rest of us miserable mortals.
The Chateau of Exideuil in todays harsh winter light. Exideuil is about 25 kilometers north of us in The Dordogne. We were invited to have a lunch there at Le Fin Chapon Restaurant, which we had ours eyes on since it reopened last year. The Restaurant is situated in a square under the walls of the town side of the chateau. If you are ever in the neighborhood, I would highly recommend it. Excellent, friendly and inexpensive. The Village is situated on a hillside, rising up from the Auvezere River. It still is a very lively place with a magnificent yellow limestone Gothic church with a very unusual cloche. The Chateau is remarkable. It's not a fairy tale structure. The medieval donjon rises tall and efficiently business like over the valley on a rock promontory. At the base, on the left hand side, you might be able to see a cave in the cliff, which is connected to the defense of the ramparts. It was remodeled. so to speak, in the 16th century. Parts of the chateau are open to the public and many cultural events are held there throughout the year. Historically, the Chateau is noted as the only place Richard The Lion Hearted ever failed to take. He tried and failed three times. (if you click on the link, there are some great pictures at the bottom of the Wikipedia article)
Earlier this month, I wrote about the 93 year young best selling French Author, Philosopher, Humanist, Diplomat. Stephane Hessel. His pamphlet, Indignez-Vous (Cry Out!) is still the best selling book in France with sales bordering on 1 million copies now. It should be published in English shortly andhere is a link full of quotes from his little book in English. I wrote a little of Hessels background, born, a German Jew, in Berlin in 1917. His family moved to France and became a focal point of the literary and art world of the 20's and 30's. He became involved in the French Resistance during WW2 and was an aide to DeGaulle. He was captured twice, scheduled to be executed and escaped both times. He went on to be one of the authors of the Declaration Of Human Rights with Eleanor Roosevelt and has held the post as an "Ambassador of France" and worked as a diplomat for many years. His outspoken defense of the Palestinian Cause and the Human Rights of the Palestinian people has made him a lightning rod of protest by the pro Israeli lobby here in France. Hessel is a wonderful, lively intelligent and eloquent human. His life has been heroic, burt in spite of his accomplishments, he remains a truly humble man who has never abandoned his ideals. Last week he was scheduled to speak at the Ecole Normale-Superior, which is the premier philosophical school in France. At the last minute, the pro Israeli lobby working with President Sarkozy's Government, managed to pressure the cancellation of this very publicized and important event, using the excuse that his criticism of Israel was a form of persecution. Needless to say, Indignez-Vous very popularity is a huge embarrassment to the government. The book is extremely critical of the present government and the methods of the Presidents UMP Party which is seen as the real reason for the cancellation. Of course, the ensuing brouhaha only succeeded in boosting Hessel's book sales and popularity. he French political whistle blowing website, Mediapart has just published an in depth interview with Hessel andhere is a link for the English translationof the interview
In the fascinating interview, Hessel speaks of his childhood. He learned to play chess from Marcel Duchamp. His parents were the couple that provided the subject matter for Francois Truffauts great film, Jules and Jim, and that is just the beginning of his remarkable story.
Uh huh. Because he was always so generous and helpful in the past. Former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ended his silence, telling Haitians he returned after 25 years in exile because he wanted to participate in the reconstruction of the earthquake-shattered country.
The 59-year-old ex-strongman, speaking in a faint voice in his first public comments since arriving in Haiti on Sunday, told Haitians and reporters that he was ready to face "persecution" and had timed his return to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
"When I made the decision to come back to Haiti to commemorate this sad anniversary with you, in our country, I was ready for any kind of persecution," Duvalier said Friday. "But I believe that the desire to participate by your side in this collaboration for the national reconstruction far outweighs any harassment I could face." (in other words, he has totally blown the funds, through his dissolute and spendthrift lifestyle, he absconded with when he left Haiti, 25 years ago, and thinks he can weasel his way back in to start the whole process up again....Big Mistake, Baby Doc!)
Sudan's Military Industry Corporationhas everything you need to stage your militaristic atrocity, from small arms to tanks, mortar rounds to army boots (boots presently out of stock). No prices given -- But, I'm sure they take Paypal....
I cannot believe I have my missing dog head poster again. I was given this over 20 years ago and it resurfaced in a collection of papers. You finding Ling-Ling's head....perhaps Rush Limbaugh might know something?
(Soundtrack: Mongoloid 1979 performed by Kent Ohio's finest, the inventors of the theory of Devolution, DEVO!) I believe the evolutionary debate has suddenly changed channels...humans are becoming redundant due to the defacto recognition of the evolutionary progress of the corporation as a specie. It has been about one year since the Supreme Court of the United States of America recognized the individual rights of corporationsas having the same rights as any other conscious sentient humanoid citizen of the the great American Republic. In fact, because of their massive corporate personages complete with their highly evolved legal appendages, corporations have more rights than we puny un evolved humans do. The highly evolved corporate being was able to evolve a strategy involving the compromising of the Supreme Court, as the case of Citizens United was evolving, while it was being decided. In a petition to be sent to the department this week,Common Causewill argue that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas should have recused themselves from the campaign finance decision because of their involvement with Koch Industries, a corporation run by two conservative activists who many say directly benefited from Citizens United.
“It appears both justices have participated in political strategy sessions, perhaps while the case was pending, with corporate leaders whose political aims were advanced by the decision,” the letter alleges, asquoted at Politico.The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today on a case between AT&T and the Federal Communications Commission,revisiting the legal concept of “corporate personhood” last strengthened under the court’s Citizens United ruling on corporate campaign spending. The case before the court focuses on whether AT&T, a corporation, can stop government agencies from releasing information obtained for law enforcement purposes by claiming such disclosures would violate the company’s “personal privacy.”
Perhaps we are really seeing a new definition of evolution unfold in fast forward real time. You are a mere human, compared to a highly evolved corporation,Your brain’s been cobbled together over millions of years of blind evolution and it shows. You’re clumsy, stupid, weak and motivated by the basest of urges. Your MO is both grotesquely selfish and unquestionably deferential to questionable authority. You’re not in control of your life. You wear your ignorance like a badge of honor and gleefully submit to oppression, malfeasance and kleptocracy. You will buy anything. You will believe anything. You believe that evolution is a matter of belief. you’re an impatient, semi-literate Philistine who’s either unable or unwilling to digest more than 140 characters at a time. You think Epic Beard Man is a national hero and that Bradley Manning might be Eli and Payton’s brother. You believe in American exceptionalism despite the contrary, compelling and overwhelming evidence. You tacitly partake in all manner of atrocity without batting a lash. You’re actively participating in our species’ extinction and you’re either in denial or you just don’t give a shit. You escape into every sort of mind-numbing distraction and ridiculous, convoluted fantasy, so you don’t have to face the bitter, terrifying fact that your life is utterly meaningless.
More evidence?
The careers of Rush Limbaugh, Oprah Winfrey, John Stossel and Justin Bieber; the success of The Secret, “Medium” and Atlas Shrugged; the election of Rand Paul; the existence of Kentucky, Texas and “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” As concurred by the Supreme Court of The United States, you are an insignificant evolutionary offshoot, a subspecie, like a neanderthal or some kind of media crazed australopithecus and as we all know, Corporations ROCK! and you don't.
