2004-2006

Ligers’ are pretty much my favorite animals…<br><br><p></p>

SWEEEET!Another thing Napolean Dynamite was right about.

Ligers do exist

People keep sending me cat based humor.


Cat’s can’t laugh. Is that why people think they’re funny?


First up: this cat hates Dick Cheney.

Next: a cat based screen saver.

Techno Bush<br>

FAIR(Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting)’s newsmagazine has a cover story entitled The Emperor’s New Hump, or “The New York Times killed a story that could have changed the election?because it could have changed the election”.

It says, in part:

That the story hadn?t gotten more serious treatment in the mainstream press was largely thanks to a well-organized media effort by the Bush White House and the Bush/Cheney campaign to label those who attempted to investigate the bulge as “conspiracy buffs” (Washington Post, 10/9/04).
In an era of pinched budgets and an equally pinched notion of the role of the Fourth Estate, the fact that the Kerry camp was offering no comment on the matter?perhaps for fear of earning a “conspiracy buff” label for the candidate himself?may also have made reporters skittish. Jeffrey Klein, a founding editor of Mother Jones magazine, told Mother Jones (online edition, 10/30/04) he had called a number of contacts at leading news organizations across the country, and was told that unless the Kerry campaign raised the issue, they couldn?t pursue it.




To me, this passes the conspiracy nut job test, cause as I’ve said before, real conspiracies are just a few powerful people trying to cheat in the most banal, and usually ham-fisted, way. It’s not elaborate or especially complicated, AND it was pretty obvious. And it was done for the stupidest of reasons, because Rove or whoever thought “the rules don’t apply to us.”




in other news, Hackers edit php websites with rude pictures of Bush, unfortunately aimed at the entirely wrong target.



The hackers replaced the phpbb.com front page with a picture of U.S. President George Bush’s head pasted onto the body of a monkey and a message in Portuguese advocating that people use their lives to make others happy and to appreciate flowers. The hackers, calling themselves the Simiens Crew, are apparently from Brazil and were protesting against Bush.


I assume they thought all americans, especially open-source programers just lurv Bush.

That said, I can get behind their maifesto, plus it’s got monkeys!

Today on Pathetic: what Scotland tourism doesn’t want you to see.<br><br>

This came over the digital transom today:


‘TARTAN WEEK
Mar. 28 – Apr. 11


VisitScotland will host this free public event in Vanderbilt Hall making
Grand Central the center of a city-wide celebration of everything Scottish.
unrelated anti-bush imageVisitors will be welcomed into the Scottish Village where they can
experience all the wonderful aspects of modern and traditional Scottish
life.’



In that spirit, enjoy the following ‘wonderful aspects of modern Scottish life”: idiot Tories, thieving royals, and resplendent neds. It’s done with love, like pulling off a bandage very quickly…


Scotsman Tuesday February 8, 03:00 AM

Senior Tory says Scotland ‘not a very attractive place’


A SENIOR London-based Tory yesterday provoked outrage after claiming Scotland was failing to attract new immigrants because it was “not a very attractive place” for people to come to.


Cue the outrage and climb-downs.






Advanced use of twee gibberish in a good cause.

Scotsman, Tuesday February 8, 03:00 AM


MPs allege ‘fiddling’ in Charles’s accounts

‘ THE Prince of Wales was last night facing unprecedented calls to open up his finances to parliament after MPs suggested the accounts of his multi-million-pound estates were being “fiddled”.

A string of Labour MPs yesterday savaged Prince Charles’s financial managers as they appeared before the Commons public accounts committee to answer questions about the Duchy of Cornwall, the source of the prince’s private wealth.

One MP accused the prince of being out of touch with his prospective subjects, accusing the heir to the throne of pocketing a lottery-win-sized salary every year from his holdings.

The prince received £12 million from the estate last year. The prince’s stipend has risen 300 per cent since 1990 according to Alan Williams, Labour MP for Swansea West. “To the public that would look like winning the lottery every year,” Mr Williams said.

“This looks very much like jiggery-pokery. It looks like you’ve been doing a bit of fiddling” – Gerry Steinberg, Labour MP for Durham.’



Two comments.
Jiggery-pokery? I thought the royals weren’t discussing that sexual harrassment charge.

And Royals not earning their money? That’s what royals DO. They’re aristocrats. They don’t work and they live off the peasants. C’mon fella, we’ve had fifteen-hundred years to figure that out.






Finally, of more value to society than Tories and Royals: the illustrous Ned.

The Glasgow Survival Guide features a
gallery of neds. My favorite? See bottom of gallery four, Weapon of choice: applecorers.

But since there won’t be any display ned at Tartan Week, create your own
Virtual Ned! (or ‘spide’, as they’re known in Belfast. Gotta love that accent.)

<img border=”3″ align=”left” src=”http://www.tomathon.com/blosxom/jarvis.jpg”>

“Sex without class consciousness cannot give satisfaction, even if it is repeated until infinity.”

— Aldo Brandirali (Secretary of the Italian Marxist-Leninist Party), in a manual of the party’s official sex guidelines, 1973.



I’d like to put this to the test.

<br>——–


For your enjoyment, the This Is Broken blog, in which people send in examples of all sorts of design, interfaces, and products, that just don’t work. Should put this to the left, for future study.
—–

And speaking of skiving off work, the French conservative government is trying to do away with the 35-hour workweek. Of course since the 35 hour law came into effect, the French have become the most productive workers (by hour) not just in europe, but the world. The French economy, with cronic %10+ unemployment has created over 300,000 new jobs since the switch. There’s also much evidence that people are just plain happier. Plus, the 35 hour law says you’re free to work a 39 hour week if you choose. And who gets anything done between four and five on friday anyway. I’m the last one in my office, and I’m writing this!

And before you lay into the French bashing, remember, the only reason we have a 40 hour work week is cause Unions litterally fought (and more than a few strikers died) to force it down the bosses throats. They made the same arguments for why we had to work 60, and the 50, hours a week. And I don’t see the rich people clocking in at my job.

Stopping the War.<br>

After tens of thousands dead in Iraq, a kid in New York was just arrested for trying (and failing) to burn down two unoccupied army recruiting stations. Which is the bigger crime?

I may question his methods, which just seemed designed to get him put in prison while doing the least possible damage to the war effort, but It’s time people who oppose this war take it seriously.

March 19th will see a day of action against the war by the War Resisters League among others. And you don’t even have to get arrested, which is nice.

On a lighter note:<br>

Stupid GTA Tricks.

Today, Bob Marley would have been sixty.<img align=”right” border=”3″ src=”/blosxom/marley.jpg”><br>

I don’t have to explain who he was, or why that’s miserable.

Instead, listen to my personal favorite Marley recording: Burning and Looting. When you’re really kicking against the pricks, it just sums up life.

[That song was used in the opening riot scene of the 1995 movie Hate, a film so good, it can make anyone think the French are cool.]


Some think that Marley was murdered by the CIA. A couple of stories are transcribed
here and
here. I normally dismiss all conspiracy theories, but the CIA were trying to bump off just about everybody during the Cold War. Hell, the Russians are still poisoning Ukrainian political leaders.

As a rule, the more clumsy and uncomplicated the conspiracy, the more likely its true.


I think we all might want the CIA to be responsible for the decline of social awareness in Reggae, but if you believe it, you’re certifiable (or you’re Lee Perry).

And on a largely unrealted topic, we bring you: The History of Walking and Feet. And I think I have too much time on my hands.

Activists Urge Free Open-Source Software

By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Activists at a leftist gathering where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate bogeyman urged developing nations Saturday to leap into the information age with free open-source software.


John Barlow, a lyricist for the [horrifically crap band] Grateful Dead, told a gathering inside a packed warehouse that poor nations can’t solve their problems unless they stop paying expensive software licensing fees.


Open source software includes programs that are not controlled by a single company. The software can be developed by anyone, with few restrictions. The best known such software is the Linux operating system, which can be downloaded free from the Internet.


“Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger,” said Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a cyberspace civil liberties group.


The session was one of several at the World Social Forum, which has drawn tens of thousands of people to an annual protest against the World Economic Forum, a gathering of world leaders now underway in Davos, Switzerland.


The activists in Brazil are generally united in their oppositon to what many call unbridled capitalism and the policies of the Bush administration. They are also promoting hundreds of causes, ranging from opposition to genetically modified crops to free distribution of land to poor farmers.


Barlow said Brazil is trying to wean itself from Microsoft with a campaign to persuade Brazilians to shift from costly Windows products to applications that run on the Linux operating system.


Microsoft contends open-source software can be more expensive than Windows programs when service costs are factored in.


How much people spend on Microsoft products is unclear because the company often provides discounts when it senses it may lose business. However, competition from open-source software has prompted Microsoft to offer those discounts.


Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration says the open-source policy makes sense for a developing country where a mere 10 percent of the 182 million people have computers at home, and where the debt-laden government is the nation’s biggest computer buyer.


China, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea also are pursuing open-source alternatives. In a partial response to the open-source threat and to piracy, Microsoft last year launched stripped-down, cheap versions of Windows in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Similar products are on the way for India and Russia.


Joining Barlow on Saturday were Brazilian pop superstar Gilberto Gil [really not crap at all], who is Brazil’s minister of culture, and Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University law professor and chairman of Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization devoted to sharing creative material online.


All the social forum’s 800 computers are running on open-source software, but the loosely organized event ran into an embarrassing glitch Saturday when two big screens betrayed the fact that the computer was running on Windows, with the operating system’s toolbar visible at the bottom of the screens.


Lessig noticed and the computer was quickly disconnected and replaced with a laptop running on open-source software.

<img border=”3″ align=”left” src=”http://www.tomathon.com/blosxom/tweed.jpg”>Nike, everyone’s favorite corporate megolith, is producing <a href=”http://www.leverburgh.co.uk/tweedtrainers.htm”>harris tweed</a> sneakers.



I have to admit, I lust for them, and so (apparently) do others. New Balance has quickly followed suit.


Scotland’s Sunday Herald (also know as the Sunday Hun) notes the following:
‘Sunday Herald fashion editor Eva Arrighi said the tweed sneakers are squarely toeing the line between being a haute couture inspired choice and “pure dead brilliant, by the way” ned fashion disaster.
“But tweed trainers could play into the hands of the Burberry cap brigade. No doubt they’ll be banned in a pub in Aberdeen soon enough.”‘


Let’s see, if my choice is between rich fashion snobs and neds, pick me up a 2 liter of cider and I’ll meet you round the bus shelter!


Finally The Jaggy Thistle site points out how we should be grateful to nike for saving Harris Tweed.


N.B.: Despite my political objections, you’ll see me wearing a pair. I’m just that shallow.

I had a lovely weekend of vomiting.

Turns out Nathan had this last weekend. We assumed it was bad sushi (which is always a fair assumption with Nathan), and he spent a day puking every hour on the hour. After hanging out this weekend, it hit me too. I came into work, someone mentioned that this was going around with people she knows. Now I hear Hillary Clinton collapsed today while giving a speech. Her dignosis: stomach virus. Her handlers are rushing to the CVS for ginger ale and mouth wash as I write this, I’m sure.

Another Reason I’d Rather Be in Bilbao<br>



A couple walks past ‘Quantum Field- X3’, an art installation by Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata, in Bilbao, northern Spain, January 27, 2005. The work, which is displayed outside the Guggenheim museum, consists of two giant cubes made up of holographic panels that reflect and refract visible light frequencies.REUTERS/Vincent West

As a side note, people in the Basque country (Euskal Herria) think of their ‘nation’ as Basque, while they live in “the Spanish State”. So saying Bilbao (or Bilbo) is in Spain, is like saying Belfast is in England. Even the people who want to continue with Spanish government would say they live in the Basque region(‘nation’) of Spain (the governmental entity).

Quelle Shite<p>

Front national. «L’occupation allemande n’a pas été particulièrement
inhumaine»: la provocation du leader du FN est moins un dérapage que
l’affirmation de son extrémisme>

*Le Pen, la nostalgie de la collaboration>


Par Renaud DELY-Liberation

vendredi 14 janvier 2005



**


**


en parler ou pas ? Comme à chaque fois que Le Pen déverse propos
racistes ou négationnistes, la question ressurgit. Tout en dénonçant ses
déclarations, des responsables politiques mettent en garde contre le
supposé /«piège» /tendu par un homme avide de médias. La mécanique a
redémarré avec ses nouvelles élucubrations publiées par /Rivarol/.
L’occupation allemande /«n’a pas été particulièrement inhumaine»/ malgré
quelques/ «bavures inévitables dans un pays de 550 000 km2»/, a prétendu
Le Pen. Avant de faire écho aux thèses révisionnistes sur le drame
d’Oradour-sur-Glane (lire ci-dessous) pour prétendre qu’/«il y aurait
beaucoup à dire»/ sur la cause du massacre, le 10 juin 1944, de 642
personnes par la division SS /Das Reich/ dans ce village de
Haute-Vienne. /«On voit bien la manoeuvre de monsieur Le Pen : revenir
dans le débat médiatique au moment où il avait disparu»/, jugeait hier,
parmi d’autres, Philippe de Villiers.


Pourtant, le caractère confidentiel de /Rivarol/ fait douter de la thèse
du /«coup médiatique»/. La publication des propos remonte d’ailleurs au
7 janvier. Et son invitation, hier matin, sur RTL, était antérieure.
L’hypothèse d’une mise en scène contredit une autre interprétation,
celle du /«dérapage»/ incontrôlé. En fait, ni coup de pub ni acte
manqué, cette relecture de la Seconde Guerre mondiale n’est que
l’expression des convictions de Le Pen qui collent au projet originel du
FN. /Rivarol/, journal créé en 1951 par d’anciens pétainistes, était le
canal adéquat pour les ressasser.


Le Pen touche là au /«noyau dur de l’idéologie d’extrême droite»/, selon
l’expression du politologue Jean-Yves Camus. Sur fond de culture
contre-révolutionnaire, le FN est un parti de revanchards, composé des
vaincus de l’histoire (collaboration, Indochine, Algérie, etc.). Depuis
ses origines en 1972, il poursuit le même dessein : lever les tabous
liés à la Shoah et laver les crimes de l’occupant nazi pour mieux
réhabiliter le régime de Vichy, seule période du XXe siècle où l’extrême
droite a accédé au pouvoir. Le pedigree des fondateurs du FN explique
cette vocation : derrière Le Pen, le premier vice-président du FN,
François Brigneau, était un ancien du Rassemblement national populaire
de Déat et de la Milice de Darnand ; Victor Barthélemy, ex-bras droit de
Doriot à la tête du Parti populaire français, fut secrétaire
administratif du FN ; Pierre Bousquet, ex-trésorier du FN, avait
combattu sous l’uniforme allemand sur le front de l’Est dans la division
Charlemagne, aux côtés d’André Dufraisse, ex-membre du bureau politique
du FN. Quelques itinéraires parmi d’autres auxquels Le Pen n’a cessé de
rendre hommage. /«Tes copains continuent ton combat»,/ lançait-il en
mars 1994 aux obsèques de Dufraisse. En mars 1998, il saluait, pour le
vingtième anniversaire de sa disparition, son /«bon camarade»/ François
Duprat, ex-dirigeant FN et négationniste notoire. Une /«plume de
talent»/, s’était alors ému Le Pen. A 76 ans, avant de rejoindre les
fantômes de l’histoire qui composent les strates de l’extrême droite, il
poursuit encore et toujours le même combat.


Liberation

© Libération

An “After Action” report from the DC J20.


New York Counter Inaugural Cluster Report from Inauguration Protests
.