bobandtamar

2006-11-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

Just a note to remember that Marseille did not burn in the November 2005 French riots.

Long Integrated, Marseille Is Spared

Southern Port Was Largely Quiet as Riots Raged in Other French Cities

By Daniel Williams

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 16, 2005; Page A12

STOLEN CAMERA

2006-10-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

STOLEN CAMERA
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I just had a $1000 camera 'pilfered' from my baggage while traveling with American Airlines (AA). I arrived in Tucson AZ on Saturday October 7 (2006), flying from Paris (CDG) with a layover in Chicago O'Hare. On arriving at my destination and opening my bag, I immediately noticed my bag was not packed the way I had packed it. My $1000 camera, a $60 camera bag, and a $100 pair of prescription sunglasses were STOLEN.

Phoning the Tucson baggage services was useless, AA does nothing for 'pilfered items' and only handles lost baggage cases. If my bag had gone missing they would reimburse me $2800 with seemingly little hassle. I phoned the AA toll free number and got the same response, ‘NOT RESPONSIBLE’. My problem is, my bag arrived after being 'pilfered' and what was left in the bag is of basically no value.

I am in the process of understanding the maze of paperwork and how to file a complaint with AA, the TSA, and I am filing a police report in the city of Tucson. This is a THEFT, a CRIMINAL act.

The AA phone representatives have tried to explain that checked baggage ‘goes through a lot of hands’ and they cannot be responsible for items ‘pilfered’ (e.g. STOLEN). Aside from my current sorrow and headache, I want to make one other point.

If a baggage handler is able to pilfer/steal a large camera with a bag and is able to remove it undetected from the secure baggage handling area, how long before the same handler puts something INTO a bag? How long before the baggage handler, who is presumably STEALING for monetary gain, will accept a BRIBE and put something into a bag. Something like a bomb?

So the net time you are being frisked at the security checkpoints. Don’t feel safe, think about what is going on underneath you in the ‘authorized personnel only’ areas. Is someone ‘pilfering’ your bag, or maybe jeopardizing the safety of every person on board by exploiting an unacceptable internal baggage security system? If you work for an airline and/or have friends that fly on planes, are they safe? Does this flawed system make you happy?

Does the following questions you are repeatedly asked really mean you and your fellow passengers and crew are safe? “Has anyone unknown to you given you something that you are bringing aboard the aircraft? and Has your luggage been in your possession at all times since you packed it?”

MEANINGLESS questions.

Happy flying,

Robert (no camera) Cudmore

Graffiti and Urban Renewal in Marseille

2006-09-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

DATED POM

Originally uploaded by cudmore.

This POM paste-up mural covers two vacant store front windows at an intersection in Marseille were work is still going on to finish the new Marseille Tramway. A daily walk through the streets will tell you, the tramway has not made much progress since something like October of 2003.

POM pasteups appear on mostly vacant storefronts, usually depicting the original theme of the sign from the vacant store, say a bakery. I like this one because POM is representing the constant non-moving construction site, as permanent as an ancient sign saying this place is a bakery.

But this is getting all to academic. Good work POM. Keep beautifying the city of Marseille.

The Night Librarian

2006-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Summer in Tucson is, brutal. It was 103 today; average, maybe a little below. For better or worse, I get to spend the majority of my days in a windowless overly air conditioned room, working as a temporary hire. I am temporarily employed. Under employed, which is not nearly as debasing as being under paid. It is no fault of the organization which employs me, nor the organization where I show up for forty hours a week. The condition I find myself in is both humiliating and frustating. My dissertation has barely progressed this summer, as the better parts of my energy are being used to make $12 / hour, so I can afford to stay in Tucson (to be near my committee) and finish said document. But hope, finally, has found its way into my perview. My options, while limited, have trebled in the past week. And for that, I am thankful.

So, summer's brutish nature manifests itself in multiple ways. My apartment, while fantastic in many ways, is no respite from the heat. My escape from the sweat inducing confines of my flat is limited (by no choice, rather, by the impoverished conditions I find myself in)to: the Job Site, the Gym, (which, is not much cooler than outside, and intensified by the rationale of physicality), the library, (wherein lies a tiny, two seated windowless enclosed cubicle, empty save emergency coffee coffers and writings necessary for completion of aforementioned paper) and the Car, which is straining under the circumstance of summer.

Poverty (or the middle class graduate student equivalent, which involves working to pay rent, and maybe utilities if one is flush with funds) constrains ones options. There are no dimly lit cafes or restaurants, blissfully chilled cinematic entertainments, no misted ramadas shielding frozen margaritas and their sippers.

But the greatest constraint is locale. Tucson, while rife with majestic natural features, and odd ball attractions, slumbers in such inhumane heat. OUtdoor activity is verbotten. Concerts worth the price of admission dwindle. Which is moot, given that the price would have to be gratis (along with the drinks) to be feasible. Daytime is oppressing, and night only slightly less so. It is a place of near emptiness.

One of the few redeeming qualities is that, as bad as it may be here, at least it's not the state capitol.

Vienna, Hotel Atlas

2006-07-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

hotel 1
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I was in Vienna (July, 2006) for the bi-annual European Neuroscience conference (FENS). Aside form taking mostly mundane touristic shots and staying in a 'gay friendly' pension with a 'sports sauna' in the basement, I found myself the last two nights in a new hotel with some photos of that hotel. Here they are.

Vienna, MUMOK Museum

2006-07-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

lumière d'abstraction 3
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Vienna, July 2006. Photo abstractions taken at the MUMOK exhibit Why Photos Now. It is difficult to get permission to take photos of anything in a Vienna museum less than 200 years old. You just have to convince them you won't make money on the photos and you don't want to take straight on shots to reproduce the works verbatim.

Thus, here are some abstraction of mostly the building and not the art. Bids for each photo start at $1 USD, I will also sell the lot to those interested.

Garbage Greve, Marseille

2006-06-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

parking meater heap
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Marseille, June 2006. The warm and not yet too hot month of June in Marseille found itself a wonderful 2 week garbage strike(greve), mostly only affecting the urban center. I found it neccessary to take some shots of the heaps. Don't be impressed by the number of shots, this was taken by just walking through the neighborhood in 10-15 minutes. They were everywhere. The strike came to an end, not because of an agreement between the unions (syndicates) and the city, but when the smell started to get stomach turning.

Mont Blanc, The Alps

2006-05-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

small car . wear the white gloves
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Mont Blanc, May 2006. Matt bought a bike from a german guy so he and I set out in a rental car to fetch it. We drove (Matt did the driving) from Marseille all the way up to Geneva to fetch the bike. Matt seemed very pleased with his eBay find, the man selling the bike seemed sad as his wife gave him support, it seems it was a big dream of his (the bike) but he just didn't fit on it (good for Matt as he does fit on it).

What I got out of this was to take a trip in general, hang out with Matt, and to visit the epicenter of the Alps, Mont Blanc and the village of Chamonix. Taking the gondola (telegraph) up to the top was nothing but breath-taking.

Here is the set.

LETS IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT

2006-05-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

LETS IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT FOR LYING

That is the first line in a new song on a new album from Neil Young. It is very refreshing to finally have a mainstream artist in America SAY SOMETHING about the actions of the United States government. I do have to mention, Mr. Young is actually Canadian. It is a small step put forth by Mr. Young but a neccessary step to officially disagree with the insanity imposed by the current administration. This new album by Mr. Young is a collection of classic protest songs, every one on the album is a comment on the Bush administration.

In addition, it is free to listen to the album online. You can view the blog at living with war and listen to the full album for free at www.hyfntrak.com.

In addition, Mr. Young's wife Pegi Young co-founded The Bridge School for young people with disabilities as a foundation for children with severe speech and physical impairments. The couple have a 20 something son with cerebral palsy.

Here is an interview from 1995 when Mr. Young was 50 years old.

The couple will receive honorary doctor of humane letters degrees from SFSU at the May 27 Commencement ceremony.

My joy goes out to these three people. Thank you for your work and effort. Do not stop your good work. You will not be silenced.

25 April (PM)

2006-04-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

25 April (PM)
Originally uploaded by toothpastery.

toothpastery has been taking a photo of his AM and PM toothbrush with toothpaste for over 150 days now. View them as a slideshow, this is as good as it gets.

why always the barriers

2006-04-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

why always the barriers
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I think urban life would be greatly improved if all the cities of the world kept better tabs on those stupid metal dividers.

Who makes them anyway?

Halliburton or Microsoft or Exxon Mobile or the Bin Laden family?

Love in NYC

2006-04-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Love in NYC
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Here is a shot taken (aside from the cab) of a LOVE tag found around 12th St in NYC. This has to be the same tagger. I was so happy to see LOVE spreading outside of Marseille.

The marseillelove tag is growing in size on flickr with currently 34 photos.

Keep up the LOVE.

Arles ampitheatre by night

2006-04-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

PICT0245-01
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

I went around Arles at night trying to get those classic architecture classic shots and feel I came up a bit short. Time to really get a tripod. Having said that, I have left up to 3 behind at different apartment moves due to lack of space.

assertions of descriptive beliefs

2006-04-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

Working on this dissertation has turned into a knotty internal discourse, punctuated by meaningful procrastination devices (alright, sudoko is probably not an efficient use of time). Currently working on a definition of metaphor, for effective "operationalism" has become a sort of rabbit hole. Which, shouldn't be too shocking. but it is. WHat a drag. And to think that I would have rather been working on this, than my tossle with the flu last week. And the weather is soo beautiful! Rather be outside. Thinking about what sort of speech act metaphors are gives me a headache. Tore through a big bottle of ibuprophen in no time flat. Well, wanted to post after so much silence on this end. Getting ready for big crazy new york trip. metaphors still lurk. oy.

Love in Marseille

2006-03-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Love in Marseille France

The end of socialism

2006-03-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Having been in France for 10 months now it has come into my head and come up in conversation many many times that socialism in France is coming to an end.

Sure this is good if your in charge of a company or profit from a company, but is it good for average people with nothing to gain from privatization? Sure, things may run more efficiently once privatized. Don't get me wrong, I have alot of first hand experience with the dinosaur when socialism goes bad both at work and in trying to get a visa. But will society benefit?

Here are two examples...

(1) Last month there were large protests (Herald Tribune) against a new law that allows companies to fire any employee under 26 years old in the first 2 years with no documented reason. The government says it is to promote small businesses which tend to fail in the first two years, it allows them to move quickly if an employee is bad. This is in stark contrast to, say, the French laws about an individuals rights in matters of housing where if you don't pay your rent it can take years to evict you.

(2) The Marseille public transportation strike lasted for something like 40 days (see my post here) and in the end the workers got nothing except a court order that their strike was illegal. Very similar to the situation in NYC. Except, the Marseille transit workers are protesting for something tangible, the privatisation of the new tramway. Every-day on the street I see armies of private company workers working on the highly criticised tramway that will, critics say, simply be in parallel with existing bus and metro lines (forces buses off the same streets) with the added twist that it is private.

The end of socialism? I guess/think it is inevitable? Do you?

This post was inspired by a post by Gordon Watts

To understand but not to speak

2006-02-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to understand or at least beginning to understand more spoken French while not being able to speak really anything. Here is a good example of how I hear spoken French and its translation into English in my head. This is from an Aamazon.com review, can you determine the context?

Require a few small hours for a good catch in hands of all these functions utiles?, but, really a good apparatus, reliable, for old and enthusiastic a follower of the traditional réflex; function average average Car; to launch out directly in the meanders of its very good and real capacities. To have at the head that it is not the flying one of a formula 1, in spite of its many and terrifying apparent functions, a bad manipulation does not mean right in the wall, one has time to be found there, therefore not panic and appreciate!.... The corrections of exposures to -1 +1 are well refined and the anti-vibration ideal one if it is Mémé (or George Uncle) which takes the photograph.

Something to do with photography I guess?

White house proposes to sell public lands

2006-02-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

This one just struck me on a deep level, I guess I am a tree-huger. The white house has proposed to sell of public lands to pay for schools and roads in rural areas hit with economic hard-ship when logging companies were forced out due to government regulations and sometimes, I am sure, left on their own.

"Basically, they're selling the foundation to pay for the mortgage," said Eric Antebi, spokesman for the Sierra Club. "These lands really belong to future generations and shouldn't be sold to the highest bidder. There's no reason why the world's biggest economic power needs to sell parkland to make ends meet."

But then is it really all that bad?

"The lands we identified today are isolated and expensive to manage," said Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture in a Friday news conference in Washington, D.C. "In some places, they are part of Forest Service ownership more as an accident of history."

So the amount of the land is not much, only 0.16% of the total 190 million acres, and the stuff they are selling, if you trust Mark Rey, is not that valued. But the same math done with the money they want to get from the selloff compared to the money going to finance the military? The money they want to generate is 800 million, the amount for the military (this year) is 440 billion (thats 440,000 billion). So the USDA Forest Service is looking to make 0.18% of the budget for the military? Why is the United States in this situation and acting this way? The United States is the global superpower and needs to sell off 0.16% of its public lands to generate (in a few years) 0.18% of its expense for war (in one year). The leaders of the United States should remember they only have the luxury of having actual public land to sell is because of the foresight of previous leaders. And I agree Eric Antebi, these lands "really belong to future generations".

Seattle Times
USDA Forest Services

Olympique de Marseille

2006-02-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

Today is Sunday, Marseille is dead with everything closed, of course, right, this is Europe and not strip mall America. We do have differences in culture. But wait, I have found one of few shops open and it is a consumer free-for-all. Shop name is Bricorama, sort of like or well exactly like a Home-Depot. Full to the brim with items for your yard, living room, kitchen, bath, and roof. From do it yourself to full on furniture and expensive lamps. Full to the brim with people to, everyone in a consumer frenzy, calling their spouse on the cell trying to describe the options available on the latest in shower fixings. Well, not really your normal scene on a sunday in a Mediterranean city but things are changing.

To the point of my post, on returning home I went to stop at a regular sandwich stand and to my amazement there were 50 people in line? Oh, that is what all the blue scarfs I should have noted are telling me. There is a soccer match (or I should say football as they do kick the ball, they don't hold it in their hands). Olympique de Marseille vs Toulouse.

Now to the point of my post, next comes the sounds of police sirens, lots of them. Up the wide Avenue du Prado comes 2 police cars and 2 motorcycles followed by 2 decked out tour buses full with the team from Toulouse, followed up with two more police cars to boot. Sirens and lights on full tilt, they were really going at a good clip. I don't know, I guess it made me happy in some way, a 6 unit police escort for a football team.

Jardin Valmer, Marseille

2006-02-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

P1010056
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

Today I found a park right in downtown Marseille overlooking the Mediterranean. This is a shot of the entrance to the port with the white cliffed islands, some with old forts.

It is a park typical of Marseille, some trash around, broken benches, half of them facing a bush, really dense undergrowth that has not been tended to in months, perfect for someone to be hiding in (but that never happens). And then this, a pristine view of the Mediterranean that some people would pay millions for? I also found the bus to get me straight from my apartment to the park, score two for the Enlish speaking guy in Marseille.

Full moon January camping in the calanques.

2006-02-12T09:13:00.000-08:00

One weekend in January a group of 5 of us set out for a nighttime walk and some camping with the full moon and clear skies, there was no need for flashlights. The weather afforded us just a few layers and camping with just an average bag and no tent was no problem. Our destination was a secret cave one of the guys knew about, well the cave was already occupied so we found a spot right on the water, protected by an old stone wall originally used to protect the city of Marseille from Napoleon.

Checking out the morning view

Our site from back up the cliffs

The peninsula we camped on put us in front of the Cosquer cave. An underwater cavern that has wall paintings of ice-age animals dating back to at least 20 000 BC.

Click on images to get more...

the saddest blog

2006-02-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

This is the saddest blog. I guess life has taken prority over blogging. We went to Italy. That was effing fantastic. see our photos on flickr. Vacation is long over, and the daily grind grinds us.

boring boredom

2005-11-06T22:49:00.000-08:00

I want to contribute to the blog, honestly. But my life is either the ecstatic comfort of Bob's presence or the tedium of dissertating. Well, for what it's worth, I have a revised draft of my proposal, in all it's mediocre glory. It's scant. It needs work. But it's much better than my last draft. That's verging on not being obscenely boring (merely pornographically boring).

Priya and I went to the mall last night. The only time I go to the mall is when I bring carless Priya. It was, as always, an orgy of consumption, a carnival of coercion, and a temple to needless purchasing. And, yes, I did buy a skirt. At the evil and dreaded gap. I made my plastic sacrifice at the altar of third world child labor exploitation. Almost trance like, Priya made bought mindlessly, like a whirling dervish, lured in by the meaningless coupons of the frequent shopper. The benefit of shopping often is to shop more often. Regardless, I love Priya, and hold no gripe with her. It is a culture whose indoctrination requires accumulating debt and strangely scented bath products (which could be used to mask the odors that bodies who eat toxic mall food are cycled into buying). But to bitch about the mall is to pee into the wind; you ruin your pants and you get that ichy taste in your mouth (lousy metaphor, I know; I'm an expert).

I'm glad that Bob (now in the third person, my pet) so enjoyed his trip to Tucson (and side trip to Sedona). It was, now that I have an "x" cued up in the paste function, exquisite, and also, wonderful. and great. Superlative! Your presence in France is necessary, but you have left so much negative space; the silence at the end of a record, an impression left in a pillow, the dissipating warmth of your body as you get out of bed.

On a brief aside, I'd like to note that the blog is now a year old. Mazel Tov!

It is midnight here. There are no riots, only helicopters with search lights and low flying bomber jets. The occasional car screeching to a halt, either by brake power or the occasion of another object. The buses, which Bob is so fond of, will run tomorrow, having gone to sleep at least 3 hours ago. The interior of the apartment is once again a tumult of piles. And the cat is surly.

France in turmoil

2005-11-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

The riots in the suburbs of France are still raging and have been going for 8 days. The bus-strike in Marseille continues for its 32nd day and today it was announced they will continue the strike through the weekend (and probably into next week).

RTM : le préavis de grève jugé illégal

There is the bus I normally take, #97 to Hopital Nord...

Tonight there are indications that the riots have spread to places outside of the Paris suburbs including Salon-de-Provence, just northwest of Marseille.

Fire-bombings as rioting spreads beyond Paris

I am suprised they have not spread yet to the housing projects surrounding Hopital Nord? We will have to wait and see what tonight brings.

[edit] No, I am no longer suprised, in the end the violence did NOT spread to the suburbs around Marseille. I was on the bus every night and also no actual reports of violence (except one). Reason? Marseille is not the rest of France, it does not like to follow the lead from Paris, it shys away from mimicry, and has its own agenda (with this comes its own set of problems). Second, the North African immigrants feel they are free to go into the center of Marseille where there is a very active immigrant neighborhood. It takes up almost 1/2 of the downtown. Third, you simply can't beat the view. From the projects you have a view of the old world cityscape of Marseille with the Mediterannean and white stone islands in full view. Finally and more officially, it could be the presence of lots of drug money in Marseille.

So there ... no violence in Marseille.

October 2005 Vacation

2005-11-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

Back in Marseille now after a very incredible vacation to see Tamar in Tucson and on the way home stopping off in Amsterdam. This post is a placeholder for photos I will upload soon.

When will someone say something?

2005-10-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

From 1974-1976, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheyney and Paul Wolfowitz were part of what was called Team B (ref). Their task was to make the Soviet Union into a fearful enemy that wanted us all dead. They built up a story (based on no facts) that the Soviet Union had weapons we could not detect. The CIA's comment on this is 'Team B is moving into a fantasy world'.

This is a mirror image of what was happening when we are told there is a global conspiracy of terror. It is a lie. Do not buy into it. Yes there are terrorists but, no, there is no global network organized against 'us' withsecret weapons we cannot see.

Now today, some 30 years later the leaders are refering to the past lie to give support for the new lie? When will someone in a position of power say something about this? What of all those senators and house speakers who sat through the hearing in 1975 listening to Rumsfeld contsruct a case based on nothing? I can accept that at the time they might have been scared but now with 30 years of hindsight and the fact that the events from 1975 are textbook history. Why doesn't anybody at least take Rumsfeld aside and tell him to cut it out?

Bush Likens War on Terror to Cold War, LA Times.

If you have not seen the Powers Of Nighmares, please do. You can download it for free here. Just read the first paragraph of the transcript below, I cannot have empathy for Rumsfeld, my conclusion is that he is (1) mentally deranged (2) an evil man (3) thinks he can shape the world into what he wants?

The following is taken from an unoficial transcript of the BBC special, The Power of Nightmares:

"The Soviet Union has been busy," Defense Secretary Rumsfeld explained to America in 1976. "They've been busy in terms of their level of effort; they've been busy in terms of the actual weapons they 've been producing; they've been busy in terms of expanding production rates; they've been busy in terms of expanding their institutional capability to produce additional weapons at additional rates; they've been busy in terms of expanding their capability to increasingly improve the sophistication of those weapons. Year after year after year, they've been demonstrating that they have steadiness of purpose. They're purposeful about what they're doing."

The CIA strongly disagreed, calling Rumsfeld's position a "complete fiction" and pointing out that the Soviet Union was disintegrating from within, could barely afford to feed their own people, and would collapse within a decade or two if simply left alone. But Rumsfeld and Cheney wanted Americans to believe there was something nefarious going on, something we should be very afraid of. To this end, they convinced President Ford to appoint a commission including their old friend Paul Wolfowitz to prove that the Soviets were up to no good.

According to Curtis' BBC documentary, Wolfowitz's group, known as "Team B," came to the conclusion that the Soviets had developed several terrifying new weapons of mass destruction, featuring a nuclear-armed submarine fleet that used a sonar system that didn't depend on sound and was, thus, undetectable with our current technology. The BBC's documentarians asked Dr. Anne Cahn of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during that time, her thoughts on Rumsfeld's, Cheney's, and Wolfowitz's 1976 story of the secret Soviet WMDs. Here's a clip from a transcript of that BBC documentary:

"Dr ANNE CAHN, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1977-80: They couldn't say that the Soviets had acoustic means of picking up American submarines, because they couldn't find it. So they said, well maybe they have a non-acoustic means of making our submarine fleet vulnerable. But there was no evidence that they had a non-acoustic system. They're saying, 'we can't find evidence that they're doing it the way that everyone thinks they're doing it, so they must be doing it a different way. We don't know what that different way is, but they must be doing it.'

"INTERVIEWER (off-camera): Even though there was no evidence.

"CAHN: Even though there was no evidence.

"INTERVIEWER: So they're saying there, that the fact that the weapon doesn't exist.

"CAHN: Doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. It just means that we haven't found it."

The moderator of the BBC documentary then notes:

"What Team B accused the CIA of missing was a hidden and sinister reality in the Soviet Union. Not only were there many secret weapons the CIA hadn't found, but they were wrong about many of those they could observe, such as the Soviet air defenses. The CIA were convinced that these were in a state of collapse, reflecting the growing economic chaos in the Soviet Union. Team B said that this was actually a cunning deception by the Soviet régime. The air-defense system worked perfectly. But the only evidence they produced to prove this was the official Soviet training manual, which proudly asserted that their air-defense system was fully integrated and functioned flawlessly. The CIA accused Team B of moving into a fantasy world."

Nonetheless, as Melvin Goodman, head of the CIA's Office of Soviet Affairs, 1976-87, noted in the BBC documentary,

"Rumsfeld won that very intense, intense political battle that was waged in Washington in 1975 and 1976. Now, as part of that battle, Rumsfeld and others, people such as Paul Wolfowitz, wanted to get into the CIA. And their mission was to create a much more severe view of the Soviet Union, Soviet intentions, Soviet views about fighting and winning a nuclear war."

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

2005-10-04T18:52:00.000-07:00

I LOVE THIS STORY

Mark Townsend in Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
Observer

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.

The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.

Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.

The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.

Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.

Another Transportation Strike in France

2005-10-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today there was another transportation strike in France. Read about it here. I am waiting for the strikers to step up to the plate and block the highways. Stop all traffic, that would be a good one. Forget us poor folks who rely on the bus, they would let us through in my scenario as the drivers are workers (that makes no sense).

Tomorrow I have to sign in on a sheet as to why I was out of work today. It will be passed on to the government which pays me my salery. Not sure what excuse I am going to give. I am tempted to say I was on strike. But really, the buses just weren't running. Effective strike?

Well anyway ... I walked around a bit, worked from home, did some dishes and wrote this blog.

Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS)

2005-10-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

I love how they do their indexing for the conference, check it out here.

I can't paste it into the blog, formatting get screwed up, so go check it out...

2005-10-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

There was a partial solar eclipse today over many parts of Europe and some experienced total. Thanks for telling me google.news, I guess I will have to actually read the local papers. I would have loved to sit outside with some of those light blocking glasses and just watched it happen. Luckily people in my new office settlement gave me the heads up. Pictures will follow in a day.

Bus strike tomorrow. General workers strike for more pay and more benefits. It will begin with the buses, might spread to the subways and trains, maybe then to the boats. Most probably just a bus strike? It is ironic as I want to go into work to write a grant to try and get more time on the job?

It is a bit humiliating as I have to call the boss in the morning to catch a ride to work because the buses are on strike. But I only need to go to work to write a grant to ask for more money from the French government. Maybe I should go on stike?

Maybe I will strike?

Bush science is dangerous slope

2005-10-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

An article with the above title appeared on August 18, 2005 in Indian Country Today. Full text can be found here.

The article is very well done, browsing through their editorial report section is a good read.

Here is the first paragraph and some excerpts:

The level of distortion of science is becoming quite high. The game of pushing a Christian agenda through public institutions is both terribly disingenuous and yet front and center. President Bush is seemingly sincere that his religious conversion and perspective is the right one. His born-again experience is public knowledge, as is his policy of breaking the barriers to religious influence in governmental programs. In Bush, the evangelical political movement got just the partner it wanted in the Oval Office.

... No one can doubt that evolutionary science is complicated and at times difficult to absorb, given its calculus of biological changes and developments played out over vast stretches of time...

In the context of creation stories, again, there are many from this hemisphere that are quite compelling. Just the wonderful narrative that names North America the great Turtle Island, from the eastern woodlands, proposes that the first human being was actually a pregnant female who fell from the Skyworld. The teachings of that story in the context of humans and the natural world are worth considering in these ecologically treacherous times.

Indian Country Today Columnist John Mohawk this year published a succinctly edited book, ''Iroquois Creation Story: Myth of the Earthgrasper,'' which inspires with its clarity from ancient America. In fact, the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) creation story is the living basis of the ceremonial cycles in the longhouses of several reservations, source of origin and the truth of existence for traditional Haudenosaunee. Yet, no one here is suggesting that it be taught as ''science'' in the public schools.

Correlating a nations religiousness with indicators of social morality

2005-10-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

An article has appeared in The Journal of Religion and Society, the title of the article is:

Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies

The full text can be found here here

I am not going to comment on the validity of the data, the anlysis or the interpretation except to say that I don't buy it, the US looks like an outlier and is less moral on the measures used for other reasons.

But, I do want to say that if this came out the other way, if 'the US had more moral fabric and more religion' what do you think the right wing religious politicians would do? They would freaking run with it and push the ideas down our throats until we didn't know where the original data or ideas came from (and how they are to not really be taken as fact) and collectively the nation would stand behind the greater truth that the US is again superior to all ... and we have our religious background to thank.

Well the study doesn't come out that way. The paper reports that the US is the most religious and also the most devoid of moral fabric. Again, this is the conclusion of the authors.

Now the political other side, the non religious others do nothing with it. Maybe they should use right wing tactics like those used with the false ideas 1) Saddam Hussein HAS weapons of mass destruction or 2) there IS an organized global terror network that wants to kill us all or 3) back in the 80 (spearheaded by Rumsfeld) the idea that there IS this looming evil entity in the USSR and they all wanted us dead as well.

Maybe the left should mimic these tactics with this report? Push it down our throats until we all think it is true. Then we can successfully scrap religion mixing with politics because it would be the moral thing to do and would promote moral family values.

Here are some of the graphs:

Note: Figures were taken without permission.

Marseille is burning

2005-10-02T06:13:00.000-07:00

Now that the wildfires are burning in California, I have a strange sensation that I missed out because when I was there (only for six months) I didn't see any. Well at least I got some action in Marseille

[Link]

And my first mosaic, kinda crappy job.

The horns are sounding for a second night

2005-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

[Image link here]

It is not often that Marseille France makes it into the international news aside from the constant chatter about the local soccer team, Olympique de Marseille [google: marseille]. Yesterday was an exception as striking sailors hijacked a ferry, bound for Corsica, blasting the horns all the way out to sea at 2 AM.

By the next morning French military commandos regained control of the ship, just outside of Corsica, by dropping in by helicopter.

Read a story here in the LA Times: French Commandos Regain Control of Hijacked Ferry

So again tonight in Marseille, this time at 9:30 PM, you can hear the horns blasting every thirty seconds or so. I do not know what is happening down at the ferry port right now. Maybe another ferry has been hijacked?

Workers are striking because of the governments bid to privatize the ferry industry and in the process cut jobs. The ferries go from Marseille to Corsica, Tunisia, Algeria and other North African destinations. To politize the strike even more, the sailors' union have aligned themselves with the Corsican nationalistic movement. A movement that has waged a long and often violent seperatists struggle against France.

I've often walked down to the point of land on the Mediterranean in downtown Marseille where the ships pass through a narrow channel. It is fun to go there in the evening as the overnight voyages begin, you see people staying land-bound emotionally wave to their sea going friends and families going sea bound (also waving).

reference: The Bill of RIghts (US)

2005-09-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution;

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people

reference: the ten commandments

2005-09-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

ONE: Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
TWO: Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.
THREE: Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
FOUR: Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
FIVE: Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee;
SIX: Thou shalt not kill.
SEVEN: Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
EIGHT: Neither shalt thou steal.
NINE: Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
TEN: Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbor's.

Let them eat cake

2005-09-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

As if the divide between rich and poor in this country wasn't evident enough, Former First Lady Barbara Bush made the following comment on NPR's Marketplace on Monday:

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

Yes Barabara, in a city where people have remained in New Orleans for generations (in part due to abject poverty, but also because of a strong sense of community), homes and families ripped apart, losing what wordly possessions, not to mention the loss of dignity from being utterly forgotten for nearly a week by the government that was supposed to protect them, coupled with having to live in uncertain conditions formerly known as the Astrodome, and, oh yeah, upwards of ten thousand people assumed dead, this really IS working out well for "them".

That heartless bitch is as clueless as her dimwitted son, our President. George Junior, our commander in chief, has declared that September 16th will be a day of prayer and mourning (emphasis, by Bush, on PRAYER). I'm not one to pray, but by whatever thing you call god, George, I am going to pray. I am going to pray that your reign of ignorance and coersion will come to an abrupt end, and that you are held accountable for the blood (of all those brown people here and abroad that don't register on your radar) on your hands. I will pray that you will bear the mark of Cain for killing your brothers, and you roam the earth shunned and abandoned when your veneer of power is wiped away. That you hurt every moment of everyday for the sins you have committed against humanity.

Houston Astrodome

2005-09-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

Photos of the situation in and around New Orleans are finally starting to come into flickr. Mostly from the Houston Astrodome (do a multiple tag search for houston astrodome).

Here are some flickr users who are posting:
slightclutter (beautiful shots)
euphoriadev
balzen

And in the normal sillyness of the good old USA, people have been asked NOT to take photos of people in the astrodome. Or so says gecampbell. I have complete respect for peoples privacy who have been forced into this. But a policy of no photos? What if someone wants their photo taken?

Looting versus finding, racism in the media?

2005-09-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

The urban legend website or I should say database at Snopes is always one of my most favorite and respected sites. They have a short list of new stories coming out of Hurricane Katrina and it is sure to grow in the coming weeks.

An interesting post that debunks a claim that the media is racist because it uses the word 'looting' when the subject is black and 'finding' when the subject is white. I have no doubts that there is all sorts of racism in the media but this is a good example where the claim was a rumor that was spreading and just wasn't factual. You gotta keep your facts straight before hitting the forward button to hundreds of people.

Others of interest are: a prank name 'Ablohmie' appeared first on the list of a CNN site to aid finding people, false gas supply rumors, false food stamp rumors, and true (but only for one day) gas prices at over $6 per gallon.

random notes while addicted to katrina web browsing

2005-09-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

Some random notes while addicted to browsing the web for information about hurricane Katrina. This is too long and disorganized, it reflects the chaos of the week.

1) The media is so good with juicy and sometimes questionably biased titles.

Death and despair in New Orleans
Shots fired at blackhawk helicopters
50-60 thousand people rush to be evacuated
New Orleans a shambles
Growing Despair
Fear and looting in New Orleans
Fats Domino is missing
Fats Domino found
Charity hospital haults evacuation after they come under fire.

2)

Progress in Biloxi. Harvey and his two dogs rode out the storm on his rusted out boat and ended up 1/2 mile inland on top of a destroyed house.

3) The military BEGAN deployment on Thursday Sept 1, why not on Sunday August 28th when we knew it was really bad? Who is in charge here? I have to guess that president Bush once again simply did not listen to the experts who have his ear. Why was food and water not air dropped earlier? Right away, for example? Has Psy-Ops ever been deployed domestically?

Who was in charge of the federal disaster relief operation prior to 9/11? It is now the department of homeland security. Such a horrible name for a humanitarian arm of the government.

4) Why didn't the people at the Astrodome and the Convention center just walk away? Ok if you have small children or are old then stay put, otherwise just walk away.

5) Idea, stop looting stupid things like sneakers and hit the abandoned casinos. That said, I am impressed with this response. In line with the proper type of response to a situation of this magnitude is the response of the casinos in trying to aid their employees. Never thought I would say a casino did good. Within 48 hours of the storm hitting, the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino did the following things:

-Established a call center in Las Vegas to communicate with Beau Rivage employees and customers to answer their questions with the latest available information;

-Made arrangements to waive restrictions on medical and prescription drug coverage so employees and their family members can access needed services wherever they are;

-Begun working with employees individually to provide coordination to help them locate immediate medical services.

Follow the link, they did a lot more like make sure their employees got paid.

6) Govenor of LA asks for no less than 40,000 troops. Is she kidding. That is what the generals asked for to go to Iraq. Do you think Bush is going to listen to this request? No way.

The mayor of New Orleans is pissed, listen to this radio interview (scroll down and look on the left) or read the transcript. He really says 'I am pissed' and basically says that if God is watching that Bush is going to pay for not helping these people. I love it when one person condemns another person to hell.

How many troops did the military initially request for Iraq? How many troops did Bush initially send to Iraq?

7) Is this true? The city turned off gas, electricity, and water to residential homes forcing people out of their homes and into the superdome and convention center. Where they were not provided with anyhting for 5 days. Where is the logic here?

8) Michael Moore has an open letter to President Bush, here

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

9) There is such a difference to the reaction time of the government on Sept 11, 2001 and this week in response to Katrina. Both are bad but one involved 3000 dead, the other involved an entire city being evacuated and abandoned?

10) In the mindset and logic of the Bush administrations rhetoric, I say: Mr President, why was the support and aid of those left homeless in New Orleans so slow in coming? This created a desperate situation which led to more tragedy and chaos. My question is, doesn't this show America to be a weak country as it can't even care for its own people? Doesn't this make the terrorist think they can attack us because we are so weak?

I've been waiting for this to happen #2

2005-08-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Every year a few hurricanes wander their way up from the Caribbean to mostly devastate coastlines in the Caribbean, Cuba, and the eastern coast of the United States. Nothing dictates that they can't head to the west of Florida and hit the city of New Orleans head on (maybe there are forces at work which make them tend to go east of Florida?).

A head on impact in New Orleans is especially violent and dangerous because most of the city is below sea level and this coupled with the storm surge of the approaching hurricane will potentially put downtown New Orleans 30 feet deep in ocean water. According to wikipedia, 9 out of 10 deaths associated with a hurricane are due to the storm surge.

The Mayor of New Orlean just announced an evacuation of the entire city. We will have to see how this develops?

I've been waiting for this to happen #1

2005-08-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for a Marseille craigslist and today it is here, Craigslist Marseille. Of course there aren't actually any posts within it but at least it is up. Gotta come up with my first 'rants and raves' or 'missed conections' for Marseille.

I've lost my way

2005-08-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

This is a link to a fairly interesting website that has various manifestations of information display:
http://infosthetics.com

I found it via this very distracting website:
http://www.sachsreport.com

Summertime, and the living is easy...

Fuck Michael Moore

2005-07-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

I know Michael Moore (MM) has done some good with his Farenheit 911 documentary by raising awareness around the globe about the confusing mess following the terrorist attacks in NYC on September 11, 2001 ... but come on. The guy, MM, is like a village idiot and has not constructed a picture of anything we already didn't know about if we ourselves are not the village idiot. MM has contributed to the dumming down of the world.

ok...

In comes Adam Curtis and his BBC sponsored three part series 'The Power of Nightmares'. This is one of the best documentaries I have seen. He provides a clear thesis about political ideals for both an Islamic Jihad and a US led neo-conservative platform and is able to draw parallels of similarity between the two. Documenting their development from the late 1940's until present.

Baby it's cold outside

The Phantom Victory

The Shadows In The Cave

Why has the word 'propaganda' not been used to describe the Bush doctrine on the global terrorist network? People are posting photos to the internet saying 'I am not afraid' in response to the recent London bombings. Why isn't anyone posting 'I don't believe your propaganda, I am not afraid'?

Pirating files for the good of knowing

2005-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

I pirated a copy of The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri) and was blown away by the movie itself. But more blown away by the parallels the French led war in Algeria has with the US led war in Iraq. Oh, I hope we can all work it out together. This repeat in history is bothersome. There is so much to say. Is the current violence in Iraq a revolution? The main difference seems to be that the US did not colonize Iraq? Does this make it better or worse? Can you compare? I hope that in Iraq there is a general commander like the main character in the movie which states it as clearly as the character, how he is a military man and is doing his job saying, 'at this point you have to question, should France be in Algeria?' Should the US be in Iraq? Vey powerful stuff.

Salam Pax

2005-07-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

Salam Pax (not his real name, alias standing for peace) is now all over the internet and media but bravely started blogging as an Iraqi (and still is an Iraqi) before, during and 'after' the war. A crippled version of his original blog is here. He now has a gig at the Guardian UK and has been on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

He did his blogging without telling anyone for fear of his life. The person he worked for as an interpreter didn't know of the blog.

downloading with bittorrent, Azureus, and torrentspy

2005-07-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

The downloading client for the bittorrent network is Azureus and one website of many to find downloads is torrentspy.com.

I guess there is another client from bittorrent itself but I haven't used it.

First post from Marseille

2005-07-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Spent the day with many web based discoveries, media, current politics, Iraqi blogs, US military Flickr photos. Will post each as its own entry. I just have to say I feel very odd having just made the following comment on a Flickr photo before reading the previous comment.

The photo:

My comment:

'I hear Pepsi is all there is in Iraq. I guess they didn't like the ties Coke had with Isreal, who would have guessed? It was in the news today that Coke is now making plans to take over the Iraqi market.'

Previous comment:

'Love you my dear husband LCpl Neighbarger. Come home safe to me. We love you all, take care of yourselves and eachother!'

The flickr page

A Cast of Thousands

2005-04-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

Bob is somewhere over the north Atlantic right now, ands cannot be reached for comment.

It would be selfish of me to be sad (I am, a little), but this is the begining of (yet another) amazing adventure, and I am so excited for him. I can only pretend to know what it is that you're feeling right now; moving to Tucson was a breeze compared to this. Interprative dance is the only way to fully explore the complexity of the situation.

The Hall of Bernadette

2005-04-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

yes.

mitch_hedberg_rip

2005-04-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

mitch_hedberg_rip
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

that dream...

2005-03-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Having learned to disavow dreams as "SIGNS", I was still struck by a dream I had last night.

I think I'm supposed to ponder this word, and what it means. But, when I had the dream, as well as when I woke up, I still wasn't sure of the definition.

I thought I'd share, not as a directive to you, but as a heads up. As it was in the context of "how to have satisfying relationships", and I guess, what I'm supposed to work on or something.

remorse: (n) Moral anguish arising from repentance for past misdeeds; bitter regret.

Otherwise, it was a happy, notch below running through open fields dream.

If you can think of anything for me to ponder on this front (Regrets, as Sinatra said, I have a few), in addition to my own tally, sock it to me.

It's time.

live-und-direkt

2005-02-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

Another good music listening website is live-und-direkt. The Boston peeps have something to do with this as they are mixed into the photo section.

And ... Just got pointed to this online music site imnotok.

The bronze door and the popes eventual passing...

2005-02-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

VATICAN CITY -- The inner workings of the Vatican are cloaked in mystery, and among its more arcane traditions is the Bronze Door - a storied portal that for centuries has informed the faithful of the death of a pope.
--Read More

seven deadly sins

2005-02-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

Pride
Envy
Lust
Anger
Sloth
Gluttony
Greed

matlab error of the day

2005-02-16T13:52:00.000-08:00

Non-finite endpoints or increment for colon operator in index.

Answer: Code Names

2005-02-14T22:25:00.001-08:00

"Polo Step" is secret Pentagon code for classified material that is more sensitive than "Top Secret." When veteran military-affairs journalist William Arkin first publicly mentioned "Polo Step" in a 2002 column in the Los Angeles Times, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was apparently furious and ordered an investigation into the leak. Over 1,000 officials, military personnel, and contractors were ultimately interviewed, and the investigation even had its own code name, "Seven Seekers." Such is the zealousness, Arkin writes in his book Code Names, with which secrecy is protected in the 9/11 world. Arkin, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst and long-time military commentator for NBC News, has come out with a fascinating retort to Washington's secrecy obsession. His 608-page tome is an encyclopedia of 3,000 U.S. national-security code names, some revealed for the first time, that tell a tantalizing hidden story about the American war on terrorism and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the code names in the book, listed in an alphabetic section that makes up the majority of the book, are "West Wing," a sensitive program to deploy 5,000 troops to Jordan to support the war in Iraq; a U.S. Air Force cyber-attack capability called "Project Suter," which is managed by a secretive unit called "Big Safari"; a CIA remote-viewing project called "Grill Flame"; and "Thirsty Saber," an ultra-secret project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a sensor "that would replicate human reasoning."

Arkin has a specific goal. He believes the post-9/11 drive for secrecy has imperiled American security and democracy. Information is often classified, he writes, not because of the danger of passing information to those who would harm the United States, but in order to close down public debate about controversial activities. The intelligence failures that allowed 9/11 to occur, Arkin writes, show that safety is better achieved when the national-security establishment is subjected to oversight and scrutiny. His book caused a small sensation even before it came out and is essential reading for understanding the mechanics of the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus. --Alex Roslin

Which book to read?

2005-02-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

House of Bush, House of Saud, Craig Unger
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
The Bush administration is in the dock for allegedly ignoring the threat of Islamic radicalism before Sept. 11 and then retaliating in the wrong place, Iraq. That is the complaint of Richard A. Clarke, who resigned in disgust as coordinator of counter-terrorism for the administration in February 2003, and of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

Craig Unger repeats the charge and suggests an explanation. He says that President George W. Bush's circle and the ruling family of Saudi Arabia are way too close. Business deals with Saudis and friendship with the formidable Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, blinded Bush father and son to the deadly threat of Islamic radicalism in Saudi Arabia. Iraq is at best a "dangerous and costly diversion," he says, and at worst a trap. "Never before," Unger concludes, "has an American president been so closely tied to a foreign power that harbors and supports our country's mortal enemies."

Allowing for investigative hyperbole, that's quite an indictment of the Bushes and such political and business associates as former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Vice President Cheney. The U.S.-Saudi alliance has survived against the odds since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ibn Saud. In return for American protection from Israel and Arab radicals, the Sauds pursued an expansionary oil policy and opened their markets to U.S. business. But with one ally espousing missionary Islam and the other democracy, the relationship had to be discreet. Deep divisions over Israel were swept under the carpet. Desert Shield in 1991 and the attacks of Sept. 11 a decade later applied intolerable stresses: A Western army invaded the sanctuary of Islam, and 15 of the airline hijackers were Saudis. Discreet alliance has given way to mutual suspicion, of which Unger's book is an American symptom.

Unger tells a story well and has a flair for describing the affinities (horses, aviation) between rich Saudis and rich Americans. As he portrays it, the Saudis were drawn to Texas as another oil-rich province. Khalid bin Mahfouz, the leading Saudi banker later implicated in the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), helped finance the Houston skyscraper built for James Baker's family bank in 1982. A Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, George W. Bush's less than stellar oil company.

Saudis, led by Prince Bandar, donated millions of dollars to Bush family charities. Mahfouzes and bin Ladens bought into the Carlyle Group, the private equity firm that counted George Bush Sr. and James Baker as paid-up advisers in the 1990s. For Unger, all this is evidence at the least of a "strategy the Saudis had of investing in U.S. companies that were connected to powerful politicians." Unger claims that Saudi interests have paid not less than $1.477 billion to persons and entities in the Bush circle. Yet the largest portion, $819 million, involved contract payments to Vinnell Corp. of Fairfax, Va., which has been training the Saudi National Guard on behalf of the U.S. military since the early 1970s and was owned by Carlyle only for a period in the 1990s. Halliburton companies received contracts to develop oil fields and built process plants in Saudi Arabia long before Dick Cheney was the corporation's chief executive.

Unger's best pages tell how, in the days of panic and recrimination after Sept. 11, Prince Bandar managed to spirit prominent members of the Saud and bin Laden families out of the United States on chartered aircraft. Beginning on Sept. 13, when private aviation was still restricted, some 140 Saudis, including about two dozen of the bin Ladens, were flown to Europe. "Didn't it make sense," asks Unger rhetorically, "to at least interview Osama bin Laden 's relatives?"
Yet Unger's charge that Prince Ahmed bin Salman, who was evacuated from the racehorse sales at Lexington, Ky., was a bin Laden agent in the Saudi royal family is based on double hearsay. By invading Iraq, George W. Bush may have done a great service to Islamic radicalism, but the Sauds opposed the invasion as folly and are not to blame. In reality, the Sauds misread bin Ladenism as comprehensively as the United States. Because bin Laden appealed to the same fierce sectarian impulses that brought the Al Saud themselves to power, senior princes and high-ranking commoners thought they could exploit him for the Arab cause. When that failed, they tried to wish the Islamic radicals out of existence or buy them off.

According to well-informed people in Saudi Arabia, everything changed on May 12, 2003, when near-simultaneous attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh killed 34 people, including nine Americans. The militants had declared war on the House of Saud. Since that day, Prince Naif, the Saudi interior minister, has stopped denying the existence of an Islamic opposition. The Saudi security forces have been pursuing Islamic militants with a vigor that has impressed some American observers. If this is a change of Saudi heart, it doesn't square with Unger's argument, and he ignores it. --Reviewed by James Buchan

The Choice, Zbigniew Brzezinski
Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser and the author of The Grand Chessboard, has written a perceptive overview of the disorienting new strategic challenges America faces. Though couched in the sober, nuanced language of policymaking, the book amounts to a point-by-point rebuttal of the Bush doctrine. Brzezinski criticizes what he casts as the administration's rejection of a binding alliance system in favor of ad hoc coalitions, its advocacy of preemptive war, and its refusal to address terrorism's root causes. The underlying problem, says Brzezinski, is turmoil in the "Greater Balkans," the largely Muslim southern rim of central Eurasia. While not ruling out unilateral action by America, Brzezinski believes the ultimate solution to the region's problems involves the slow expansion of the trans-Atlantic zone of prosperity and cooperative institutions. Al-Qaeda's brand of Islamic fundamentalism is in decline, he says, but "Islamist populism," its more pragmatic relation, could cause localized instability. To promote a modernizing impulse in the Muslim world, Brzezinski recommends engagement with Iran, peacemaking in the Middle East and Kashmir, and a regional nuclear nonproliferation pact. In his survey of other security threats, Brzezinski says that as China's economy grows and Japan drifts toward remilitarization, America should help build an equivalent to NATO for the Pacific. Brzezinski warns that globalization's reputation as disruptive, undemocratic and unfair could provoke a virulent anti-American ideology. To avoid becoming a "garrison state," America must establish a "co-optive hegemony," leading a "global community of shared interests." This book makes an exemplary argument for the proposition that idealistic internationalism is "the common-sense dictate of hard-nosed realism." - From Publishers Weekly

Disarming Iraq, Hans Blix
Blix reluctantly came out of retirement in 2000 to lead the U.N. weapons inspections team in Iraq because he was the only man everyone could agree on for the job. Three years later, those clamoring for military intervention grumbled at his inability (or, as they saw it, refusal) to present evidence of weapons of mass destruction, but he reminds readers that his assignment was to assess and report on the available evidence. Although his instincts told him Saddam was probably "still engaged in prohibited activities and retained prohibited items," as he dryly puts it, hard evidence never materialized. This play-by-play account of the months of diplomacy and inspection efforts leading up to the war is almost always strictly professional in tone, and though it does take us behind closed doors for meetings with world leaders, nothing here will radically transform the historical record or the ongoing debate. Blix doesn't have any scores to settle; while noting that Condoleezza Rice was never bashful about expressing her opinion, for example, he notes that she never tried to exert undue influence over him. He even laughs off some of the sharpest barbs from the conservative press (though not the New York Post's unflattering comparison to Mister Magoo). When he does, near the end, shift emphasis from facts to opinions, he suggests the American-led drive to war was led at least in part by "a deficit of critical thinking," and that the much-ballyhooed WMD threat probably doesn't existâ€"but he doesn't lament Hussein's overthrow. His sober account probably won't sway hardline critics, but it offers insightful perspective on how the Iraq situation snowballed into a geopolitical crisis. - From Publishers Weekly

Hegemony of Survival, Noam Chomsky
In this highly readable, heavily footnoted critique of American foreign policy from the late 1950s to the present, Chomsky (whose 9-11 was a bestseller last year) argues that current U.S. policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are not a specific response to September 11, but simply the continuation of a consistent half-century of foreign policy-an "imperial grand strategy"-in which the United States has attempted to "maintain its hegemony through the threat or use of military force." Such an analysis is bound to be met with skepticism or antagonism in post-September 11 America, but Chomsky builds his arguments carefully, substantiates claims with appropriate documentation and answers expected counterclaims. Chomsky is also deeply critical of inconsistency in making the charge of "terrorism." Using the official U.S. legal code definition of terrorism, he argues that it is an exact description of U.S. foreign policy (especially regarding Cuba, Central America, Vietnam and much of the Middle East), although the term is rarely used in this way in the U.S. media, he notes, even when the World Court in 1986 condemned Washington for "unlawful use of force" ("international terrorism, in lay terms" Chomsky argues) in Nicaragua. Claiming that the U.S. is a rogue nation in its foreign policies and its "contempt for international law," Chomsky brings together many themes he has mined in the past, making this cogent and provocative book an important addition to an ongoing public discussion about U.S. policy.

Thirty Days (about Tony Blair), Peter Stothard
Tony Blair was America's closest ally in the war against Saddam Hussein. It was a powerful yet precarious position for the British Prime Minister, as he fought for his own future in backing George W. Bush and sending Britain's forces into Iraq. In this gripping day-by-day chronicle, Peter Stothard takes us behind the scenes as no one has before to reveal a unique portrait of a political leader under fire at the center of the world stage.
Over a period of four weeks in March and April of 2003, Tony Blair risked his status as the United Kingdom's most successful Labour Prime Minister for the chance of an unknowable place in history. Before Britain could help the United States, Blair faced a battle against his own voters, his own party, and his own allies in Europe. These were among the most tense and tumultuous weeks the world had seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In thirty days, Blair took on his opponents and won.

Through it all, Peter Stothard had unprecedented access to Blair, from Ten Downing Street and the House of Commons through the war summits in the Azores, Brussels, Belfast, and Camp David. No writer has ever been so close to a world head of state for so long at such a critical moment. Stothard brings us inside the corridors of power during this extraordinary time, offering a vivid, up-close view of an enormously popular leader facingthe challenge of his life. How Blair spent those thirty days, how he fought for his own future as well as his vision of the civilized world, how he changed, and why he survived are at the heart of this riveting inside account.

Price of Loyalty, Paul O'Neill
The George W. Bush White House, as described by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, is a world out of kilter. Policy decisions are determined not by careful weighing of an issue's complexities; rather, they're dictated by a cabal of ideologues and political advisors operating outside the view of top cabinet officials. The President is not a fully engaged administrator but an enigma who is, at best, guarded and poker-faced but at worst, uncurious, unintelligent, and a puppet of larger forces. O'Neill provided extensive documentation to journalist and author Suskind, including schedules with 7,630 entries and a set of 19,000 documents that featured memoranda to the President, thank-you notes, meeting minutes, and voluminous reports. The result, The Price of Loyalty, is a gripping look inside the meeting rooms, the in-boxes, and the minds of a famously guarded administration. Much of the book, as one might expect from the story of a Treasury Secretary, revolves around economics, but even those not normally enthused by tax code intricacies will be fascinated by the rapid-fire intellects of O'Neill and Fed chairman Alan Greenspan as they gather for regular power breakfasts. A good deal of the book is about the things that O'Neill never figures out. He knows there's something creepy going on with the administration's power structure, but he's never inside enough to know quite what it is. But while those sections are intriguing, other passages are simply revelatory: O'Neill asserts that Saddam Hussein was targeted for removal not in the 9/11 aftermath but soon after Bush took office. Paul O'Neill makes for an interesting protagonist. A vaunted economist from the days of Nixon and Ford, he returns to a Washington that's immeasurably more cutthroat. And while he appears almost naïvely academic initially, he emerges as someone determined to speak his mind even when it becomes apparent that such an approach spells his political doom. --John Moe

Why America Slept, Gerald Posner
As a detailed, carefully documented exposé of ignorance, complacency, shortsightedness and negligence, WHY AMERICA SLEPT is perhaps the most important of the recent books addressing various aspects of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

A similar case could be made for James Bovard's TERRORISM AND TYRANNY, which examines not causes but effects, specifically the government's response to 9/11, which has consisted largely of an unprecedented assault on the Bill of Rights, especially in the areas of privacy and due process. It is a vastly important book that every American ought to read.

Gerald Posner's concern, however, is with life-and-death issues, primarily the question of why the intelligence community failed to discover the al-Qaeda plot to hijack civilian airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Although Posner's approach is generally detached and restrained, he has conceded that he was "infuriated" by some of his discoveries and "disgusted" in particular by President Clinton's failure to neutralize the threat posed by the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. Posner provides details of opportunities to capture bin Laden, opportunities that he says Clinton either ignored or rejected. Moreover, he says, Clinton declined offers by both Sudan and Qatar to arrest bin Laden and deliver him to the United States. Perhaps for purposes of comic relief, Posner also quotes Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, as saying that as early as 1996 the administration was "trying to get bin Laden with everything we had."

In this carnival of boneheadedness and floundering incompetence, Posner recounts one outrage after another. Among the worst, in terms of consequences, was the unwillingness of the FBI and CIA to cooperate and share information. Each had information of vital importance to the other, but the rules of their long-standing rivalry prohibited mature behavior. An FBI agent who asked the CIA for information about Zacarias Moussaoui received an official reprimand for doing so. Moussaoui was one of those aviation students who wanted to learn how to steer large airliners but had no interest in learning how to take off or land. The FBI agent was Coleen Rowley, one of the very few figures in this bleak history who behaved intelligently and honorably.

WHY AMERICA SLEPT is filled with evidentiary specifics that attest to the thoroughness of Posner's research, and one suspects that this former Wall Street lawyer might have been happier as a prosecutor. But having turned to investigative reporting --- he is now the author or co-author of ten books --- Posner apparently finds sufficient satisfaction in fulfilling the imperative of the people's right to know, and in this book, most decisively, the people's need to know.

He has pinpointed individual anomalies and systemic weaknesses that made America vulnerable to attack. This much and no more lies within the bounds of investigative reporting; readers have a shared responsibility to press for the necessary corrections to the problems he has identified.

--- Reviewed by Harold V. Cordry

Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke
From Publishers Weekly
From the first thrilling chapter, which takes readers into the White House center of operations on September 11, through his final negative assessment of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 war on terror, Clarke, the U.S.’s former terrorism czar, offers a complex and illuminating look into the successes and failures of the nation’s security apparatus. He offers charged (and, one must note, for himself triumphant) insider scenes, such as when he scared the devil out of Clinton’s Cabinet to motivate them to fight terrorism. The media has understandably focused on Clarke’s charge that Bush neglected terrorism before the attacks on New York and Washington; but Clarke also offers a longer perspective on the issue, going back to the first Gulf War (when he was an assistant secretary of state) and makes some stunning revelations. One of the latter is that the U.S. came close to war with Iran over that country’s role in the terrorist bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996. An important aspect of Clarke’s book is that it is only one man’s account—and an account moreover that casts its author as hero and others (FBI, CIA, the military) as screw-ups; as has been seen in recent congressional hearings, administration officials (notably, Condoleezza Rice) have challenged its veracity. But those inclined to believe Clarke will find that he makes a devastating case about the Bush administration’s failure from the beginning (when Clarke’s position was downgraded and he was taken off the top-level Principals Committee) to make terrorism as high a priority as Clinton’s did. In the face of the Bush team’s claim that they didn’t know about a threat to the homeland, readers will be haunted by two small words: after mobilizing to confront the Millennium terror threat, Clarke reached what seemed to him the obvious conclusion regarding al-Qaeda: "They’re here."

The Rise of the Vulcans, Mann and Mann
The New York Times
… lucid, shrewd and, after so many high-decibel screeds from both the right and left, blessedly level-headed. It is necessary reading for anyone interested in understanding the back story of how and why America came to deal with the rest of the world the way it is doing under the Bush administration. — Michiko Kakutani

The Washington Post
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again," Ronald Reagan liked to say, quoting Thomas Paine. But the efforts of the Vulcans to create a new world order today, Mann persuasively argues, are at heart not new at all. They are an effort to repeal the inhibitions and restrictions that have constrained American power in the last 30 years and to revive an earlier moment when the unapologetic and unbridled pursuit of global primacy was a widely accepted national goal. — Alan Brinkley

A day in my life

2005-02-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

aditl-29
Originally uploaded by cudmore.

PAssing by the flowers in the garden. Yes I am conscious I do notice the beauty.

2005-02-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Student dies from 'water intoxication' during hazing ritual to gain membership to a fraternity. The AP finally got something correct in the realm of biology:

'An autopsy showed death was triggered by hyponatremia, a condition in which excess water in the body causes sodium levels in the blood to drop. Water is then absorbed into the blood and fluid builds up in the brain.'

a fighting chance

2005-02-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

As I was dropping my less and less appealing car off at the mechanic this afternoon, I heard a news report on the Pope being rushed to the hospital due to complications from the flu. Holy crap. Could this be it? My long standing, only slightly amusing in-joke about the Pope may actually come to pass, and it may happen this week! I can't find any current odds on it ( I did find some for last year), and this latest turn of events would likely change things anyway.

Not that I want it to (or care if) happen, but let's say the Pope does die. Who then becomes the butt of this ongoing joke? Reagan's dead. Katherine Hepburn, also dead. According to abevigoda.com, Abe Vigoda is still alive. Maybe I'll swing that way. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Also, as an aside, looking for non-gender specific or male craft projects. Rather, what can I make for my guy friends that they might actually like? I doubt purses will score high.

the White House will be adorned by a downright moron

2005-01-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

-H.L. Mencken
Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920

Podcasting is here, things are gonna change

2005-01-29T20:03:00.000-08:00

Hard to get my head around the potentially massive impact but I have a gut instinct that Podcasting is gonna be huge. Basically Podcasting takes an audio streem, combines it with Really Simple Syndication, known to you acronym buffs as rss, and thus allowing you the user to create a stream of audio based on the providers you subscribe to. This could be say talk radio shows, dj mixes, live band sets, comedy routines, etc. etc. etc. It has been made easier than ever by, who would have guessed it, ex MTV V-Jay Adam Curry.

Now my prediction is that someone will expand it to enclose video and you can cancel your cable TV subscription.

Could our grandparents conceive of

2005-01-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

Could our grandparents conceived of the internet, the web, or what the web would synthesize. Another good music site, after betterpropaganda, is magnitune. The site is not the easiest to navigate, or I should say not that easy to find just the right music.

Magnatune Remixed is a set of guys who took some magnitune tracks and made a mix, hopefully more people will wade through the tens of thousands of tracks and make mixes.

On the digital photography front is flickr, an online photo-sharing service. You can browse pretty pictures for hours. Be sure to check out there groups where people file their photos into collective categories.

2004-12-28T22:01:00.000-08:00

La Bufadora, Baja, Black Friday

2004-12-28T22:00:00.000-08:00

Celery on a stroll

a new day

2004-11-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Now that the worst of my comps are over, and I've had a decent night's sleep, I'm feeling a bit more energetic; more cognitively present. Some video project ideas: 1. From a panning camera on a tripod, record Bob climbing a hill. one long shot. 2. spin on the chicago piece, but from a boat through the canals of Amsterdam (maybe next summer?). 3. did you ever see "Basquiat"? there's that scene of the video project where the guy jumps down the street, and they edit it together so he looks like he's floating along. I'd like to try something like that. And incorporate Priya sleepily singing english nursery songs. 4. a big fireworks event. but rather than record the fireworks, record how the colors reflect in people's faces. And of course, "did you spill the coffee?"

Name Mashing

2004-11-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

Mashing names seems to be the game these days. Mashing names are popular in the bio-tech industry with Genzyme, BioRad, and my favorite Metabolics (incedentally I would walk by all of these on my way from the 'T' to my apartment in east Cambridge. Metabolics went out of business or changed locations and the sign on the building started to fall off letter by letter). I once visited Metabolics and everyone working there seemed obsessed with the correct pronunciation of their company. I kept emphasizing 'meta' while I gather the 'correct' pronunciation was 'metabol' followed by 'ics' as in metabolism. This one was fucking silly, the mashing of words.

So I cringe at the naming of this blog, bobandtamar. I chose my name first as tamarandbob is hard to read I think because tamara is a common name but not the name of Tamar, obviously. Oh, am I already making this blog fucking boring?

I have been into the name mashing for quiet some time. In junior-high (age 16?) my artistic counterpart, Dean Ruggles, and I formed a collaboration we called 'RoCudDean'. We made 8mm stop frame animation movies. In hindsight, I am pretty damn proud of this creative venture into making something. Dean was the brains behind everything. He now works as an illustrator for a video-game company, I am not sure on this. I would like to get in touch with him and will call his parents to do so.

Here is Dean from one of our stop-frame films

And here is a page with a link to a compilation of our films (scroll to the bottom).

ok, bye bye

Day 1 of the bobandtamar blog

2004-11-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the next attempt at a successful blog. I am creating this with the hope that Tamar Sarnoff and I, Robert Cudmore, can build a blog together. This idea is probably like most other ideas, very uninteresting. The idea here is not so much to aid in communication between the two of us as we work on a long-distance relationship but to act as a staging area for collaborative synthesis.