Gray Watson's Blog -- December 2005

Blogging is a useful way for me to record my thoughts and digital travels every so often. Hope you enjoy my digital stream of consciousness.

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December 21, 2005

In another unfortunate statement by Pat Robertson, he has said that the town of Dover, PA voted god out of their city. He also seemed to imply that disasters would now befall the town and that god would forsake them. Dover had just ousted the Republican school board members in protest over their added Intelligent Design language to the curriculum. The town members didn't vote god out of their town, Pat, just out of their science classrooms. Comments like these by a fundamentalist "leader" such as Robertson show the true metal of some of the zealots. Their unswerving view of their own "rightness" overshadows everything -- including civility and the same compassion that they and their god supposedly represent.
"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."
"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.
United States District Judge James Robertson has resigned from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in an apparent protest to the administration's use of the NSA to bypass the court and illegally spy on Americans. Is it my imagination but is the pressure ratcheting up on the administration? I've no doubt that they will spin their way out of it.
Judge Robertson has not commented on his resignation. But The Post quoted unnamed colleagues as saying he was concerned that information gained under the secret program could then be used to press the so-called FISA court to obtain warrants for further monitoring, subverting the congressionally defined process. It quoted one colleague, speaking anonymously, as saying some judges feared that the FISA body had become a "Potemkin court."

December 19, 2005

So I'm hearing good things about the new King Kong movie. The reviews look pretty good which is especially significant given how pre-loaded reviewers come to a remake such as this. I was noticing the other day that Naomi Watts seems to be an excellent casting choice given her similarities to Fay Wray. See my side by side image of the two of them. Peter Jackson reportedly made a number of homages to the original movie including references to Wray as being unavailable for the movie-in-a-movie. He also was in talks with her to appear in the movie when she died in August 2004. I'm looking forward to going to see it!
Wikipedia is raising money again to help sponsor one of the best sites on the Net. I go there almost daily and link to it from my blog frequently. Great reference site. It has been challenged in the press recently regarding inaccurate information but independent tests show it to be as accurate as printed encyclopedias -- albeit not as well edited. I love the random article link which takes you to one of their 870,000 articles. I just clicked and learned about funiculars which are inclined railways. They've got pictures of the Pittsburgh inclines. Cool!
Looks like the Department of Homeland Security monitors inter-library loans. A senior at the University of Massachusetts was visited by agents because he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called The Little Red Book.
The student told Professor Pontbriand and Dr. Williams that the Homeland Security agents told him the book was on a "watch list." They brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said.
Dr. Williams said in his research, he regularly contacts people in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Muslim hot spots, and suspects that some of his calls are monitored. "My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," he said.
Dr. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk.

December 16, 2005

The story broke this morning from the New York Times that President Bush authorized the NSA to spy on Americans. This is against the NSA charter and sounds like it is against the law. Bush has come out and not denied the reports but said he acted within the law. This may be why the Patriot Act was denied today. Here's the NY Times story that broke it open.
The New York Times says the National Security Agency was allowed to spy on hundreds of people without warrants. The NSA is normally barred from eavesdropping within the US.

Republican Senator John McCain called for an explanation, while Senator Arlen Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said he would investigate. "There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," said Mr Specter, also a Republican, adding that Senate hearings would be held early next year as "a very, very high priority".

The allegations coincided with a setback for the Bush administration, as the Senate rejected extensions to spying provisions in the Patriot Act.
A bipartisan group of US Senators threatened a filibuster and seem to have successfully blocked reauthorization of several parts of the Patriot Act. Good for them. The charge was led by by Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin), the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act the first time around, and Larry Craig (R-Idaho).
But the Republican majority failed to get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to prevent a threatened filibuster, a technique used to delay debate and stop the bill's passage to law.
During the debate, senior Democrat Patrick Leahy called out: "It is time to have some checks and balances in this country. We are more American for doing that."
Interesting page dealing with a composting toilet. The whole site is pretty interesting talking about a solar home and various other projects. They are using the Clivus Multrum toilet.
Routine maintenance of the toilet is required about every 1 to 2 weeks. This involves opening the upper chamber and raking the accumulated pile flat. A rake is kept inside the chamber for this purpose. After raking the pile flat, about one 5 pound coffee can full of wood shavings or sawdust is added on the top. The chamber is set up to allow misting of water on the top of the compost, which we do about once a week for a few minutes. The fixture in the bathroom is very easy to keep clean. The top parts are white fiberglass which easily wipe clean, and the inside consists of a black plastic tube, 14 inches in diameter, which does not usually get dirty, and if it does, can easily be cleaned with a standard toilet brush and some water.
Increasingly, there are factions inside Israel who are troubled by Bush administration policies regarding the Middle East.
At the same time, while Washington appears relatively content with Europe and Russia taking the lead in diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to curb its nuclear programme well short of any weapons capacity, Israel is growing concerned that Washington's threats to push for international sanctions or even attack suspected nuclear targets in Iran are becoming less and less credible.
The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose new party is expected to emerge as the strongest in elections next year, is also increasingly worried about Washington's pro-democracy drive for the region. In its view, the U.S. campaign risks empowering Islamist groups that are ideologically even more hostile to Israel than the authoritarian regimes they are challenging.
More details on the US use of rendition to transport Muslim prisoners through Europe to secret detention camps. Very unfortunate.
New reports indicate that the former coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD, after its German name) and the Green party was informed of the illegal U.S. flights using German territory.
Official documents both in Berlin and in Washington also show that the German government was informed about the illegal detention of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese origin, by U.S. secret services.
Here's another couple with their solar home. They also have an electric truck. Very cool.
We have estimated that averaged over the year, our solar panels will produce AC electricity about equal to the amount that we use. We expect to run deficits in winter months and surpluses in the spring, summer, and fall. We are set up for "net metering" with First Energy, our electricity supplier, so that our meter runs backward when the panels are producing excess power. With clear skies and even with light overcast, we typically generate excess power during the day but, of course, draw power from the grid during the evening , night, and early morning.
So it is obvious that we have reached or passed the tipping point for LED bulbs. They are now common enough that wide adoption, cheap prices, and a huge selection of related products are not available. Why should we care? Because they use immensely less power and give off minuscule heat compared to standard incandescents. I am starting to see them everywhere in every product. LED flashlights (more) are now super cheap and the bulbs themselves are close to US$0.05 at volume. I am seeing more and more auto kits and research into more LED technology.

December 15, 2005

The Bush Whitehouse has done an about face and now supports Senator John McCain's law banning torture. I wonder about the reversal. Cheney and other officials were running around trying to sell torture and were worried about accountability. I mean how dare they try to make our civilian intelligence operatives and military personnel accountable to international morality. So why the change? Has Bush put his foot down or have they just figured that they'll keep doing it anyway? Maybe they just have agreed to keep taking prisoners to countries which do torture. Thank goodness for that loophole.
The law's supporters argued that it would repair some of the damage done to America's international standing by detainee abuse scandals in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The White House said it would make US interrogators and guards much more vulnerable to lawsuits filed by aggrieved detainees. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which are controlled by the Republicans, disagreed.

December 14, 2005

Virgin Galactic has just announced its plans to build a US$200 million spaceport in New Mexico. It will be located in southern part of the state near the White Sands Missile Range and will make use of the climate, free airspace, low population density, and high altitude of the area. Here's the BBC story about it. Here's another article from the BBC about the problems Virgin and Scaled Composites have had with US export regulations.
Virgin Galactic also revealed that up to 38,000 people from 126 countries have paid a deposit for a seat on one of its manned commercial flights, including a core group of 100 "founders" who have paid the initial $200,000 cost of a flight upfront. Virgin Galactic is planning to begin flights in late 2008 or early 2009.
New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans said construction of the spaceport, to be built largely underground in the south of the state near the White Sands Missile Range, could begin in early 2007, depending on approval from environmental and aviation authorities.
We were looking at hardware clock boards at work today which provide standalone highly accurate clocks for computers. After 30 minutes of web surfing, I was only able to find the Beagle Software ClockCard which utilizes the Dallas Semiconductor DS17x87 real-time clock chip and advertises 12 seconds max drift per month. There are many applications where time is of vital importance and ours deals with retention policy enforcement. You want to make sure that a document can be removed or altered only after it's retention period has expired. New legislation requires many financial firms to keep documents for years in their original state. Even if you stopped them from changing a document through the application, allowing a bribed operator to make a change to a file is unacceptable.
The Library of Congress is starting a world digital library with a US$3 million donation from Google. They will be working with other libraries from around the world to store digital works.
He noted, for example, that the Library of Congress is in discussions with the national library of Egypt to include a collection of great Islamic scientific works from the 10th through the 16th centuries in the World Digital Library. We are trying to do a documentary record of other great cultures of the world. How much we will be able to do will depend on how many additional partners we attract, he said.
Over the past decade, the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress has digitized more than 10 million items to create a documentary record of Americana. These include manuscripts, maps, audiovisual recordings, cartoons, caricatures, posters, documentary photographs, music and, to a lesser extent, historic books. The World Digital Library would draw on a similar variety of multimedia objects.
Well written article arguing that white phosphorus is a chemical weapon. If this is true then the US has deployed weapons with chemical components in Iraq when the entire reason for attacking Iraq in the first place was to look for such abuses. At the very least this is a public relations mess for the Pentagon. At the worst, and according to the article it is likely that this is a war crime.
But there is hard evidence that white phosphorus was deployed as a weapon against combatants in Falluja. As this column revealed last Tuesday, US infantry officers confessed that they had used it to flush out insurgents. On Tuesday afternoon, a Pentagon spokesman admitted to the BBC that white phosphorus "was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants." He went on to claim that "It is not a chemical weapon. They are not outlawed or illegal." This denial was accepted by almost all the mainstream media. UN conventions, the Times asserted, "ban its use on civilian but not military targets." But the word "civilian" does not occur in the Chemical Weapons Convention. The use of the toxic properties of a chemical as a weapon is illegal, whoever the target is.
The Pentagon argues that white phosphorus burns people, rather than poisoning them, and is therefore covered only by the protocol on incendiary weapons, which the US has not signed. But white phosphorus is both incendiary and toxic. The gas it produces attacks the mucous membranes, the eyes and the lungs. As Peter Kaiser of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told the BBC last week, "If ... the toxic properties of white phosphorus, the caustic properties, are specifically intended to be used as a weapon, that of course is prohibited, because ... any chemicals used against humans or animals that cause harm or death through the toxic properties of the chemical are considered chemical weapons."
Not a huge surprise but there is speculation that Israel is getting ready to destroy Iranian uranium enrichment facilities. Actually I don't blame them for wanted nuclear weapons. I think it is stupid with Bush and Sharon in office with the always itchy trigger fingers but I would want one too if I was they. The US just took over their next door neighbor and if someone did that in my neighborhood I'd want a big gun.
Gholamreza Aghazadeah, head of the Atomic Organisation of Iran, warned yesterday that his country would produce nuclear fuel. "There is no doubt that we have to carry out uranium enrichment", he said.
He promised it would not be done during forthcoming talks with European negotiators. But although Iran insists it wants only nuclear energy, Israeli intelligence has concluded it is deceiving the world and has no intention of giving up what it believes is its right to develop nuclear weapons.
Story about another banner Bush appointment named Melvin Sembler who was ambassador to Italy in Bush's first term. His qualifications? The guy ran a highly questionable juvenile rehab business before it was dismantled by institutional abuse claims. Oh, and he doesn't speak Italian.
As the Washington Monthly has reported, the scandal that claimed Scooter Libby's job last month may have sprung from secret Rome meetings between neocons, an Iran-Contra figure and an Italian intelligence boss who later pushed phony WMD documents -- all behind Sembler's back.

December 13, 2005

An internal report by the Department of Homeland Security knew FEMA contracting was a disaster.
In short, they found there was no way to know whether the people charged with buying millions of dollars worth of goods and services in normal times (and a whole lot more after a disaster) had a clue. To use the report's phrasing: "It was impossible to determine whether the acquisition personnel met training, education and experience requirements." Record-keeping was so slipshod that auditors were "unable to assess the qualifications of the workforce."
FEMA officials countered with the perennial complaint that there was too much work and too few resources to keep up with all that paperwork. Although auditors archly noted that they did not "independently" verify that assertion, some of the missing documentation did in fact materialize in the course of the review.
Here are some examples of war protests by British citizens. The story documents the cases of a woman convicted for reading in public the names of British soldiers killed, a man threatened with jail for withholding part of his tax payment in protest, and a medical officer, facing court-martial for refusing to serve.
In Chippenham, magistrates were told that Mr Barker was refusing to pay UK£1,142.58, which amounted to 10 per cent of the income tax he was due to pay for the second half of this year. Instead, he had put the money to one side, intending to give it to a charity supporting children in Iraq, and had sent a note to the Inland Revenue to explain.
Mr Barker, of Purton, Wiltshire, told the magistrates: "I estimated that 10 per cent goes on military expenditure and I came to the conclusion that by paying this I was violating my conscience because I felt it would have been used illegally to kill people in a sovereign state."
The US Air Force has released a new mission statement. Here it is in all of its glory. The war in cyberspace is interesting. I wonder how many soldiers are in the military's cyberspace corps?
The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online freedom proponent, bas been on fire recently with a number of important legal actions around the country. On the 8th they sued the state of North Carolina for illegal voting machine certification. Going to give some money to them now.
North Carolina law requires the Board of Elections to rigorously review all voting system code "prior to certification." Ignoring this requirement, the Board of Elections on December 1st certified voting systems offered by Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems, and Election Systems and Software without having first obtained let alone reviewed the system code.
"This is about the rule of law," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "The Board of Elections has simply ignored its mandatory obligations under North Carolina election law. This statute was enacted to require election officials to investigate the quality and security of voting systems before approval, and only approve those that are safe and secure. By certifying without a full review of all relevant code, the Board of Elections has now opened the door for North Carolina counties to purchase untested and potentially insecure voting equipment."

December 5, 2005

Fascinating site with numerous child labor photographs from around 1910. Many were taken by Lewis Hine the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). The committee estimated that there were over 2 million children employed in 1910 -- many in factories.
One of the spinners in Whitnel Cotton Mill. She was 51 inches high. Has been in the mill one year. Sometimes works at night. Runs 4 sides - 48 cents a day. When asked how old she was, she hesitated, then said, "I don't remember," then added confidentially, "I'm not old enough to work, but do just the same." Out of 50 employees, there were ten children about her size. Whitnel, N.C. Mid - The overseer said apologetically, "She just happened in." She was working steadily. The mills seem full of youngsters who "just happened in" or "are helping sister." Newberry, S.C. Right - Jo Bodeon, a back-roper in the mule room at Chace Cotton Mill. Burlington, Vt.

December 2, 2005

I was just reading a review of the Professional that I found online. I really don't understand people who pan movies that I love -- it's like they are from another planet. You don't have to like it, especially if you are not into action flicks, but being critical of the Professional of a movie like it on an intellectual basis is just not appropriate. There are certain movies which you can watch intellectually, there are other movies that you have to feel, and there are movies that get you from both sides. One problem with 95% of the movie reviewers out there is that it is hard for them to review the emotional movies -- review the movies without the intellectual overtones of director, writer, producer, and Hollywood crap.
Now emotional has got a sappy connotation but I'd argue that a violent war movie like Black Hawk Down is such a flick. You can discuss its political overtones or you can argue about it's diversion from the realities of the US' involvement in Somalia, but to me the movie is about the experiences of war. At some level you need to watch it and let it flow through you and change you. This is one of the reasons why I feel strongly that certain movies must be seen in front of a big screen. It should fill your vista -- it should take over your senses. You should not be able to escape. This said you need to be careful about movies if they have that power over you -- you should be changed by the right ones while the subversive ones are filtered.
Awesome site entitled Baby Bush Toys and says that they "offer an exciting range of products for the resoundingly average child". They include the "Lil Looming Disaster Pillow", "Terror Alert Xylophone", and the "Twisty Thing, That is Red". Unfortunately, it looks like the site is just a spoof otherwise I'd had bought the xylophone.
Disgusting article about David Brooks, CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB Industries and his war profiteering. His company makes body armor for soldiers and law enforcement but now the Marines and Army have had to recall 23,000 of the vests because they aren't effective. This guy recently held a batmizvah for his daughter that supposedly cost U$10m. He's now (or has been) under SEC audit for 12% loans he made to the company after getting US$12m in compensation during 1999-2001 when the company lost US$11m.
Grotesque as it may be, Brooks' blowout is merely one of the more visible symbols of rampant war profiteering in the post-9/11 era. Our study showed that defense contractor CEOs received raises on average of 200 percent between 2001 and 2004, compared to only 7 percent for average large company CEOs.
Compared to the pay of those on the frontlines of the war, the gap has grown even faster. The ratio between defense CEO pay and that of a military general has doubled during this period, from 12-to-1 to 23-to-1. The defense CEOs make 160 times the pay of an army private in combat.
Nice site of cell phone bans from countries around the world. What's unfortunate about it is that it a requirement for hands-free devices not a ban on phones in moving vehicles when research shows that it is the conversation which increases accident rates. I saw a women going through the busy Lowe's parking lot the other day with a cigarette in one hand and a cellphone in the other. Scary. The UK bans all cellphone conversations in a moving vehicle which we will get eventually but a lot of people are going to have to die between now and then for lawmakers to figure it out.
The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is partnering with the Volvo Ocean Race to use their advanced mid-ocean current and wind information. They've setup a site with a lot of custom information for the Volvo Ocean Race. Racers will be able to get information about meteorological forecasts to help them navigate the weather patterns during the race but it will also allow the boats to give feedback back to NOAA about specific local conditions.
"One of the keys to successfully navigating around the world is accurate selection of the fastest route," said Chris Bedford, official meteorologist for the Volvo Ocean Race. "By using global computer weather models and ocean current information, combined with the performance tables for each yacht, the fastest route can be calculated. The boats are provided meteorological and oceanographic data from a number of sources every six hours. NOAA data is a critical part of the data package and is vital for the route planning work of the race navigators who are constantly adjusting their plans based upon the incoming wind, wave and current information provided by AOML."
Provision of these data fields is part of a collaborative effort between NOAA and the Volvo Ocean Race to exchange information that provides NOAA access to a vast amount of oceanographic and meteorological information collected by all the participants during their around-the-world competition. This will enable scientists and racers to exchange valuable feedback on the observations of the complex weather and oceanographic conditions found throughout the world's oceans.
I've been really meaning to start playing with the the Inferno OS by Vita Nova. It is a compact operating system that can be run under Windoze, *BSD, Linsux, MacOSX and other systems or natively on certain hardware. I feel strongly that interpreted virtual systems are the wave of the future. Inferno sounds cool enough to be the right platform.

December 1, 2005

Good article debunking the anti-gay biblical references. It talks about how the King James bible made some subtle and not-so subtle changes to the original translation. To me the fact that Jesus doesn't mention homosexuality in the bible while condemning divorce and other crimes indicates that it is high on man's list of sin, not god's.
The whole Sodom and Gomorrah argument is bunk to anyone who truly bothers to read the story (in a correct translation). It is also very important to note that homosexuality was not even brought into the story of Sodom until after the first century A.D.! The whole thing about the male citizens trying to rape the male guests may be completely baseless. The Bible says they wanted to know the men. This phrase, in fact the whole story, did not even have a sexual connotation until after 1 A.D., far after the story was written! The word that was translated in the bible as to know actually was used far more often to indicate lying than sex. Something wrong there! Many scholars believe that actions condemned in this story were about abuse or even the intention of murder rather than homosexuality.

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