[scifinoir2] Fw: Obama facing uprising over new, NO space exploration NASA strategy!

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net

Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:20 PM
Subject: Obama facing uprising over new, NO space exploration NASA strategy!


http://asia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100311/tbs-obama-space-7318940.html?printer=1


WHAT SPACE RACE?! PREZ OBAMA FACING NEW UPRISING OVER HIS NEW NASA
STRATEGY! / BY CANCELLING AMERICA's RETURN TO SPACE and TO THE MOON, HAS
PREZ OBAMA CEDED THE LEADERSHIP IN SPACE TO RUSSIA and RED CHINA?! -
By Steve Holland, Reuters, Thursday, March 11, 2010

SPACE EXPLORATION FLASH BANG:

- Lawmakers, space veterans rankled

- Job losses feared in Florida, Alabama, Texas

- Obama expected to defend shift at space conference

WASHINGTON, March 11 - U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to tamp
down an uprising in politically vital Florida against a new strategy for
NASA that has rankled space veterans and lawmakers and sparked fears of
job losses.

Obama's decision to kill NASA's Constellation program to launch
astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon has prompted
soul-searching on whether the United States is prepared to cede a
pre-eminent space role to Russia and China.

"As with all great human achievements, our commitment to space must be
renewed and encouraged or we will surely be surpassed by other nations
who are presently challenging our leadership in space," Democratic and
Republican members of the U.S. Congress from Florida wrote to Obama last
week.

Obama's move for a greater private sector role in space launches -- as
he seeks to keep ballooning federal deficits in check -- has generated
fears of job losses among thousands of NASA employees who provide an
important economic base in Florida, a state usually crucial in
presidential elections.

Employees at major space complexes in Alabama and Texas are also
worried. It is making for a potentially explosive environment when Obama
travels to the Cape Canaveral area on April 15 to host a space
conference with top officials and leaders in the field.

"What reception will they get? Not good," said Keith Cowing, editor of
nasawatch.com, a Web site that closely monitors the U.S. space agency.
"It's a gutsy move. It's Daniel in the Lion's Den."
Obama, in his Feb. 1 budget proposal, planned to increase NASA's overall
funding to $19 billion in 2011 with an emphasis on science and less
spent on space exploration.

He would CANCEL the Constellation program's Orion spacecraft and Ares
rockets, after $9 billion and five years of tests. Constellation is
aimed at returning astronauts to the moon in the 2020s to clear the way
for a Mars mission.

Instead, Obama would spend $6 billion a year for five years to support
commercial spacecraft development and pursue new technologies to explore
the solar system in what the White House called "a more effective and
affordable way."

The LARGER ISSUE

Various members of the far-flung U.S. space community have been troubled
by the change, such as former NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who
struggled to get more funding for Constellation from the previous
administration of President George W. Bush and believes Obama should
stick with it.

"There's a larger issue here," Griffin said. "Does the United States
want to have a real space program? Do we actually think we can have a
robust, exciting, world-leading space program by hiring private
enterprise to furnish it?"

But John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at
George Washington University, said he believed it was time for the
private sector to get more involved in space.

"There's no reason to think that the technical talent in the private
sector, combined with a significant degree of NASA engagement, cannot
come up with a good solution," he said.

The debate to some extent has riven the space community. Buzz Aldrin,
the second man on the moon, supports the change in direction while
Harrison Schmitt, one of the last on the lunar surface, opposes it.
NASA already has contracts with Space Exploration Technologies and
Orbital Sciences Corp  to deliver cargo to the International
Space Station. SpaceX and other firms are developing spaceships that can
carry passengers to orbit and back.

The shuttle system still has four (4) more flights to get crews and
hardware to the International Space Station before the craft are
retired. After that, NASA will be without a heavy-lift capability for a
period of time.

This means Americans would have to pay to ride on Russian rockets to get
into orbit, a stark turn of events after the pivotal battle the United
States and the Soviet Union fought to outdo each other in the space
race.

To maintain a lift capability, Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson
wants the administration to add one shuttle flight and develop the Ares
rockets that are part of the Constellation program.

Ultimately, Nelson believes Obama needs to give the United States a goal
for its space program and hopes it will be a mission to Mars.
(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
--

[scifinoir2] Today is "Pi Day"

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
OH, I JUST LOVE THIS!
CHEERS!
AMY
  Subject: [scifinoir2] Today is "Pi Day"





  That's a new one on me. Check out the Google symbol for today:

  http://www.inquisitr.com/66491/pi-day-2010/


  The internet

  has a habit of inspiring new, geeky holidays, like Square Root Day, National 
High Five Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day and a favorite among mathletes 
everywhere, Pi Day.

  Pi Day falls on March 14th because of the first digits of Pi- 3.14. Another 
geeky boon is that the holiday also happens to be the birthday of one of 
science’s biggest rockstars, Albert Einstein. Many cities and institutions of 
geekery, like the Maryland Science Center, hold celebrations to party down on 
the mathiest day of the year. The OC Register points out that not only is the 
Discovery Science Center hosting a shindig, but some local restaurants are 
dishing out free pie in honor of Pi Day. San Francisco’s Exploratorium has been 
Pi partying for over two decades.

  The truly geeky, of course, are waiting for Pi Day 2015 for some nerdy reason 
explained in detail on their Facebook page. If you live in a town full of 
stupids, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little bit of fun with Pi Day. The 
Joy of Pi has a wealth of Pi-related links for you to browse. You can also 
visit the official Pi Day website for ideas.






  

[scifinoir2] MLK: A Call to Conscience

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net

Subject: [PDA Accountability & Justice] MLK: A Call to Conscience




I just saw Tavis Smiley's special tonight on MLK: A Call to Conscience. 
It was a great program, and I hope you'll watch it, too! It is especially 
relevant today, with wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the same time 
the gap between rich and poor is growing. Those wars have gone on longer than 
WW II, and the money and lives we're spending in those wars is being diverted 
from our real needs here at home, with high unemployment (unless you want to 
fight in a war half way around the world), and growing poverty among people who 
are losing their jobs, their homes, and their health.
  Episode 2 - "MLK: A Call to Conscience" . Tavis Smiley Reports . Tavis Smiley 
| PBS
  www.pbs.org
  The second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports examines Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 
stand against the Vietnam War and the influence of his legacy today. Tavis 
speaks with scholars and friends of King, including Cornel West, Vincent 
Harding and Susannah Heschel.

The scholars and friends are well chosen.
I've long felt that MLK Jr. spoke with a prophetic voice, and his "Beyond 
Vietnam"  speech is as relevant today as when he gave it more than 40 years 
ago. Again, highly recommended.
 

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PDA 
Accountability and Justice" group.

To post to this group, send email to pda-accountabil...@googlegroups.com 
 
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:
pda-accountability+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com 
 
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/pda-accountability?hl=en






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02:32:00

Re: [scifinoir2] Dororo

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
 I just adored this film.  Saw it at the NYAFF a couple of years ago.
Cheers!
Amy

Subject: [scifinoir2] Dororo


> http://www.nipponcinema.com/trailers/dororo/
>
> I just saw the movie "Dororo" based on the manga comics of the same name. 
> The movie is an epic, odd and moving mishmash of Frankenstein, Pinocchio, 
> Edward Scissorhands, the Karate Kid, and the story of Moses, if all those 
> stories had taken place in feudal Japan during the age of Samurais.
>
> At the heart of "Dororo" is an incredibly silly and wondrously 
> irresistible premise: the warlord Kagemitsu Daigo has made a pact with 
> demons - in exchange for giving him the wherewithal to rule the world, he 
> will allow the demons to take 48 body parts from his unborn son (the 
> demons need the human body parts so they can deceive men and wreck 
> mayhem).
>
> Daigo knows his deal has been sealed when his son is born without arms, 
> legs, mouth, nose, eyes, ears, liver, heart and forty other undisclosed 
> body parts.  Daigo wants to kill his newborn son who, sans heart and other 
> vital organs, still lives and breathes (or a facimile thereof since he 
> doesn't have a mouth or lungs).  Daigo's wife intervenes, places the baby 
> in a woven basket and sets it adrift on the river.
>
> The baby is found by Jukai, an alchemist-healer who proceeds to turn our 
> hero into a real boy via miraculous prosthetic limbs and organs.  The 
> death, dumb, blind kid (who will wield a mean set of demon-slaying 
> swords/hands) is also given a clockwork heart that allows him to see and 
> hear (How does he see? With his heart!).
>
> When Jukai dies, Hyakkimaru sets out in the world to kill demons and 
> retrieve his body parts.  Every time he discovers and dispatches a demon 
> his prosthetic parts are replaced by his real parts.
>
> Hyakkimaru is joined on his quest by the feral girl-thief, Dororo, who is 
> masquerading as a boy. Dororo's father is killed by Daigo's dark army and 
> she has vowed to stay a boy until she has avenged her dead parents.
>
> Satoshi Tsumabuki as Hyakkimaru and Ko Shibasaki as Dororo, an alleged 
> couple in real life, are fetching and compelling as the stars of this 
> movie.  Filmed in New Zealand by director Akihiko Shiota (with the 
> beautifully acrobatic sword fights choreographed by Hong Kong master 
> Siu-Tung Ching), "Dororo" rises above its hokey and unconvincing demons, a 
> mishmash of bad special effects and worse CGI, to wring actual emotion out 
> its outlandish premise.  Improbably, it make you care and long for parts 
> two and three, the promised sequels.
>
> ~rave!
>
>
>
> 
>
> Post your SciFiNoir Profile at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo!
>  
> Groups Links
>
>
>






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02:31:00

[scifinoir2] World Science: Newfound species dubbed 'T. rex' of leeches

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Cool science stuff.

- Original Message - 
From: World Science 
To: emailn...@world-science.net 
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 11:46 PM
Subject: World Science: Newfound species dubbed 'T. rex' of leeches


* You may still have to avoid T. rex:
A leech that turned up in a girl's nose has been
dubbed the "T. rex" of its kind by scientists. They
say its ancestors might have tormented the old T.
rex in a like fashion.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100414_rex


* New evidence cited that rocky, watery planets 
are common:
Vaporized remnants of rocky, and possibly watery,
bodies hang around many dead stars, astronomers say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100413_planets


* Possible new human ancestor revealed:
Two partial skeletons unearthed in South Africa are
from a previously unknown species, according to
scientists.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100408_australo


* Life on Titan? Stand far back and hold your 
nose!
If life has evolved on Saturn's frigid moon, Titan,
it would be strange, smelly -- and potentially
explosive, new research suggests.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100412_titan


* "Artificial leaves" could help power machines 
of future:
Researchers are presenting a design strategy that
they say could harness Mother Nature's ability to
produce energy from sunlight and water.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100326_leaf


* Another species of extinct humans ID'd?
A previously unknown lineage of humans has been
identified based on genes extracted from a bit of bone, 
scientists say, though it is not believed to be a direct
ancestor of modern people.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100325_hominin


ADDITIONAL NEWS
* Family tree research can open "Pandora's 
Box":
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100409_familytree
* Brain cells shout in unison to get message 
through:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100401_neurons
* Eye-operated video game developed for the 
disabled:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100326_planning
* Power prompts less accurate time predictions, 
research finds:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100326_planning







World Science homepage
Don't forget to visit our homepage for Science In
Images; links to top science news from other publi-
cations; and other recent World Science stories!

http://www.world-science.net


World Science archives
To new readers especially: you need not miss our ex-
citing past stories, though they won't appear in future
newsletters. See archives for any year by typing that 
year after the homepage address: for example, 

http://www.world-science.net/2007 


Invite friends to join World Science!
Click here to open an invitation email you can send 
friends and colleagues so they can join you in sub-
scribing to World Science at no charge. Feel free to 
change the email text (although you might want to 
leave the subscription instructions unchanged.)


More information 
This is the World Science newsletter. To cancel your 
subscription, please reply to this email address with
"cancel" in the subject line. To subscribe, write to 
this email address with "subscribe" in the subject 
line. To change the address where you receive the 
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Any World Science article may be reproduced on 
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the original article is optional.








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02:31:00

[scifinoir2] Scientists create organic 'molecular computer'

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
WOW!





Scientists create organic 'molecular computer'
By Dario Borghino

17:37 May 10, 2010

 
Researchers have succeeded in building a molecular computer that can mimic the 
inner working mechanisms of the human brain

Synthesis-to-Clinic - www.quotientbioresearch.com
Joining the dots for C-14 enabled early phase development

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Submit Researchers from Japan and the Michigan Technological University have 
succeeded in building a molecular computer that, more than any previous project 
of its kind, can replicate the inner mechanisms of the human brain, repairing 
itself and mimicking the massive parallelism that allows our brains to process 
information like no silicon-based computer can.

A relatively new technology, molecular electronics is an interdisciplinary 
pursuit that may very well prove the long-term solution to validate Moore's law 
well into the next century. A molecular computer is made of organic molecules 
instead of silicon. Chips built this way are not only potentially much smaller 
but also, because of the way they can be networked, able to do things that no 
other traditional computer, regardless of its speed, can do.

"Modern computers are quite fast, capable of executing trillions of 
instructions a second, but they can't match the intelligent performance of our 
brain," Michigan Tech physicist Ranjit Pati commented. "Our neurons only fire 
about a thousand times per second. But I can see you, recognize you, talk with 
you, and hear someone walking by in the hallway almost instantaneously, a 
Herculean task for even the fastest computer."

The key lays in the massive parallelism and versatility of the human brain, as 
the electrical impulses that travel through it follow vast, dynamic neural 
paths that operate collectively, constantly communicating with each other. In 
digital computers, by contrast, information processing is done sequentially, 
with recent advancements such as multicore processors and GPU processing 
altering the picture only slightly.

The researchers built a molecular computer by placing DDQ — a hexagonal 
molecule made of nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine and carbon that self-assembles in 
two layers — on a gold substrate. Crucially, this molecule has the ability to 
easily switch among four conducting states (compared to the only two used by a 
standard computer), which simplifies the read/write mechanisms and speeds up 
the data crunching.

"The neat part is, approximately 300 molecules talk with each other at a time 
during information processing. We have mimicked how neurons behave in the 
brain," said Pati. But perhaps the most stunning similarity of the team's 
computer with the human brain comes from the self-organizing ability of the 
molecular layer, and is the ability to physically heal itself, just like brain 
cells are able to regenerate to some extent.

Because of these unique characteristics the team's processor can, despite its 
relative simplicity, solve problems for which algorithms are unknown. The 
researchers already demonstrated this capability by simulating two natural 
phenomena in the molecular layer — heat diffusion and the evolution of cancer 
cells. As their complexity grows, molecular computers may soon be able to solve 
the same problems that our brains face every day.

The team's work is detailed in the paper Massively Parallel Computing on an 
Organic Molecule Layer, published in the online version of the journal Nature 
Physics. The research is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Via Michigan Tech.

Re: [scifinoir2] Robo-Geisha

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
There is a screening here in NYC Tues. May 18th at Japan Society and it's sold 
out.  I already have my ticket and can't wait!   I just love this kind of 
wackiness!
Cheers!
Amy

Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Robo-Geisha




I'd attend just to see that.


On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 2:48 AM, Mr. Worf  wrote:


  They are showing the movie RoboGeisha at the Seattle International film 
festival! 





  Here is some info on the film fest and the trailer:
  http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=38514&FID=166







-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: First cell made with artificial genes reported

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Interesting science stuff.


From: World Science 
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 12:06 AM
To: emailn...@world-science.net 
Subject: World Science: First cell made with artificial genes reported


* Scientists report first cell made with artificial 
genes:
Their "synthetic genome" is a near-copy of a natural
one, but researchers say their method can be used to
better understand the workings of life.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100520_synthetic


* Mysterious ball lightning may be brain illusion:
A new theory addresses a mysterious phenomenon in
which lightning apparently forms into a ball and
starts floating around.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100519_ball-lightning


* Mom's hugs in youth may help keep doctor 
away later:
Warmth and caring from a person's mother seems to
reduce the formation of proteins that promote
inflammation, researchers say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100518_warmth


* Can a mother's voice spur coma recovery?:
A clinical trial is investigating whether repeated
stimulation with familiar voices can help repair a
coma victim's brain.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100510_coma.htm


ADDITIONAL NEWS
* Garden birds found to shun organic:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100518_organic
* "Mozart effect" disputed:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100509_mozart
* Calcium early in life may help prevent 
obesity later:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100514_calcium
* Why is breast milk best? It's in the genes, 
scientists say:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100513_milk 





World Science homepage
Don't forget to visit our homepage for Science In
Images; links to top science news from other publi-
cations; and other recent World Science stories!

http://www.world-science.net


World Science archives
To new readers especially: you need not miss our ex-
citing past stories, though they won't appear in future
newsletters. See archives for any year by typing that 
year after the homepage address: for example, 

http://www.world-science.net/2007 


Invite friends to join World Science!
Click here to open an invitation email you can send 
friends and colleagues so they can join you in sub-
scribing to World Science at no charge. Feel free to 
change the email text (although you might want to 
leave the subscription instructions unchanged.)


More information 
This is the World Science newsletter. To cancel your 
subscription, please reply to this email address with
"cancel" in the subject line. To subscribe, write to 
this email address with "subscribe" in the subject 
line. To change the address where you receive the 
newsletter, simply subscribe the new address and 
cancel the old one.
Any World Science article may be reproduced on 
another website, on condition that it is reproduced 
along with a link to the World Science homepage, 
http://www.world-science.net. Linking to the page of 
the original article is optional.

[scifinoir2] Strange Discovery on Titan Leads to Speculation of Alien Life

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
FASCINATING!

Strange Discovery on Titan Leads to Speculation of Alien Life

> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/titan-life-methane-speculation-100607.html
>
> Strange Discovery on Titan Leads to Speculation of Alien Life
>
> By Charles Q. Choi
> SPACE.com Contributor
>
> posted: 07 June 2010
>
>
> New findings have roused a great deal of hoopla over the possibility of
> life on Saturn's moon Titan, which some news reports have further hyped up
> as hints of extraterrestrials.
>
> However, scientists also caution that aliens might have nothing to do with
> these findings.
>
> All this excitement is rooted in analyses of chemical data returned by
> NASA's Cassini spacecraft. One study suggested that hydrogen was flowing
> down through Titan's atmosphere and disappearing at the surface.
> Astrobiologist Chris McKay at NASA Ames Research Center speculated this
> could be a tantalizing hint that hydrogen is getting consumed by life.
>
> "It's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan
> [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asphalt-lake-life-on-titan-100505.html],
> similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth," McKay said.
>
> Another study investigating hydrocarbons on Titan's surface found a lack
> of acetylene, a compound that could be consumed as food by life that
> relies on liquid methane instead of liquid water to live.
>
> "If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life
> [http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/070806_GM_life_universe.html], it
> would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life
> independent from water-based life on Earth," McKay said.
>
> However, NASA scientists caution that aliens might not be involved at all.
>
> "Scientific conservatism suggests that a biological explanation should be
> the last choice after all non-biological explanations are addressed," said
> Mark Allen, principal investigator with the NASA Astrobiology Institute
> Titan team. "We have a lot of work to do to rule out possible
> non-biological explanations. It is more likely that a chemical process,
> without biology, can explain these results."
>
> "Both results are still preliminary," McKay told SPACE.com.
>
> To date, methane-based life forms
> [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090625-am-titan-chemistry.html] are
> only speculative, with McKay proposing a set of conditions necessary for
> these kinds of organisms on Titan in 2005. Scientists have not yet
> detected this form of life anywhere, although there are liquid-water-based
> microbes on Earth that thrive on methane or produce it as a waste product.
>
> On Titan, where temperatures are around minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit
> (minus 179 degrees Celsius), any organisms would have to use a substance
> that is liquid as its medium for living processes. Water itself cannot do,
> because it is frozen solid on Titan's surface. The list of liquid
> candidates is very short -- liquid methane and related molecules such as
> ethane. Previous studies have found Titan to have lakes of liquid methane
> [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091221-titan-flash-lake.html].
>
> Missing hydrogen?
>
> The dearth of hydrogen Cassini detected is consistent with conditions that
> could produce methane-based life, but do not conclusively prove its
> existence, cautioned researcher Darrell Strobel, a Cassini
> interdisciplinary scientist based at Johns Hopkins University in
> Baltimore, Md., who authored the paper on hydrogen appearing online in the
> journal Icarus.
>
> Strobel looked at densities of hydrogen in different parts of the
> atmosphere and the surface. Previous models from scientists had predicted
> that hydrogen molecules, a byproduct of ultraviolet sunlight breaking
> apart acetylene and methane molecules in the upper atmosphere, should be
> distributed fairly evenly throughout the atmospheric layers.
>
> Strobel's computer simulations suggest a hydrogen flow down to the surface
> at a rate of about 10,000 trillion trillion molecules per second.
>
> "It's as if you have a hose and you're squirting hydrogen onto the ground,
> but it's disappearing," Strobel said. "I didn't expect this result,
> because molecular hydrogen is extremely chemically inert in the
> atmosphere, very light and buoyant. It should 'float' to the top of the
> atmosphere and escape."
>
> Strobel said it is not likely that hydrogen is being stored in a cave or
> underground space on Titan. An unknown mineral could be acting as a
> catalyst on Titan's surface to help convert hydrogen molecules and
> acetylene back to methane.
>
> Although Allen commended Strobel, he noted "a more sophisticated model
> might be needed to look into what the flow of hydrogen is."
>
> Consumed acetylene?
>
> Scientists had expected the sun's interactions with chemicals in the
> atmosphere to produce acetylene that falls down to coat the Titan surface.
> But Cassini mapped hydrocarbons on Titan's surface, it detected no
> acetylene on the surface, finding

Re: [scifinoir2] Template for Life on Mars Found

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Wow stuff.





  Template for Life on Mars Found
  A shallow spring in Canada holds a type of bacteria that could thrive on 
Mars.   
  By Irene Klotz 
  Wed Jun 9, 2010 01:00 PM ET 
  2 Comments | Leave a Comment 
Print 
Email 
  a.. Facebook 
  b.. Twitter 
  c.. Digg 
  d.. Yahoo! Buzz
THE GIST 
  a.. Methane-eating bacteria have been found in an environment similar to 
conditions on Mars. 
  b.. The discovery may also explain Mars' mysterious plumes of methane. 
  c.. Life in extreme environments on Earth can serve as guideposts to 
determine where life may exist elsewhere. 
 
enlarge
The team found two types of bacteria living in Lost Hammer that feed off the 
methane and likely breathe sulfate. Click to enlarge this image. 
Thomas Niederberger


RELATED CONTENT 
 

Will the real ET be little green men or little green bacteria? 
  a.. Are We Infecting Mars With Our Germs? 
  b.. Mars to NASA: Forget Water, Follow the Methane
RELATED TOPICS 
  a.. Arctic Regions 
  b.. Bacteria 
  c.. Environment 
  d.. Geology 
  e.. Mars
A new species of bacteria that feeds off methane and breathes something other 
than oxygen has been found living in a salty Arctic spring. The discovery hints 
at an ecosystem that could have -- or may still -- exist on Mars.

The bacteria were found in Lost Hammer, a shallow spring located on Canada's 
Axel Heiberg Island. The spring, which is about 25 percent salt, never freezes 
despite sub-zero temperatures most of the year.

"The first time we went there we noticed there were bubbles coming off the 
spring," McGill University microbiologist Lyle Whyte told Discovery News.

Analysis showed the gas was 50 percent methane -- an unusually high 
concentration -- and was not being produced by living organisms, such as 
methanogenic bacteria. Rather, the gas resulted from geology -- the 
interactions of water and rock.

"That was a surprise," Whyte said.

There was more to come: The team found two types of bacteria living in Lost 
Hammer that feed off the methane and likely breathe sulfate, since there is no 
usable oxygen in the water.

The discovery adds a new twist to the debate about possible life on Mars, a 
cold, dry world that in many ways resembles the Canadian Arctic. Pockets of 
methane have been found on Mars, with no clear explanation to their origins.

The new research shows that even if Mars' methane is determined to come from 
non-biologic sources, it could actually be food for a whole different type of 
bacteria. The methane-eating microbes are common on Earth, but the discovery in 
the Canadian Arctic is believed to be the first time they've been found in a 
non-marine environment.

"We've added another group of bacteria that could exist on Mars," Whyte said. 
"If we were to find life of any kind on Mars, that would be a hell of a 
discovery. The consensus is that we evolved from microbes in the first place, 
so to find life is really a significant finding."

"Right now, we're looking for the plumbing that allows life to exist," added 
Dale Anderson, a Mars scientist with the SETI Institute. "What we're trying to 
do here on Earth is learn how life goes about its business -- from the 
temperate regions to the more extreme environments that we find in polar 
springs or hot vents -- and understand how microorganisms use those 
environments and cope with the challenges."

"We may not find the same thing on Mars. We may find that it has a completely 
independent genesis of life... or we could find out it's the same because Mars 
and Earth have been 'swapping spit' for the last 4 billion years or so," 
Anderson said.

In addition to adding a new bacterial species to the list of possible Mars life 
forms, the Lost Hammer research also shows a geologic mechanism which could 
explain the mysterious methane plumes on Mars.

The research is being published in the International Society for Microbial 
Ecology Journal.

http://news.discovery.com/space/arctic-bacteria-mars-methane.html

Re: [scifinoir2] Rare photo of slave children found in NC attic

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Keith, couldn't have said it better myself - Amen.
Amy


From: Keith Johnson 
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 10:19 PM
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [scifinoir2] Rare photo of slave children found in NC attic





Wow, this is something else. So haunting: what were those kids thinking about? 
What kid of lives would they go on to lead? Did they ever truly taste whatever 
passed for freedom in those times (cause post-slavery sure as hell ain't the 
same as being "free"). Did they ever learn to read and write, own a home, start 
a business? Were they in the end happy? And what would they have said if 
someone had gone up to them and said, "one day the President of these United 
States will be a Negro--but it'll take another 150 years"? Would they gasp with 
wonder and joy, or be sad at the fact they wouldn't live to see it--assuming 
they could even dream of such a thing?

Truly an experience staring into those eyes and wondering...





[Yahoo News]
Rare photo of slave children found in NC attic 
 AP – An undated rare photo provided by Keya Morgan, found in a North Carolina 
attic, depicts two slave children, … 
  a.. By NICOLE NORFLEET, Associated Press Writer Nicole Norfleet, Associated 
Press Writer – 46 mins ago
RALEIGH, N.C. – A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic 
shows a young black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, 
perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy.

Art historians believe it's an extremely rare Civil War-era photograph of 
children who were either slaves at the time or recently emancipated.

The photo, which may have been taken in the early 1860s, was a testament to a 
dark part of American history, said Will Stapp, a photographic historian and 
founding curator of the National Portrait Gallery's photographs department at 
the Smithsonian Institution.

"It's a very difficult and poignant piece of American history," he said. "What 
you are looking at when you look at this photo are two boys who were victims of 
that history."

In April, the photo was found at a moving sale in Charlotte, accompanied by a 
document detailing the sale of John for $1,150, not a small sum in 1854.

New York collector Keya Morgan said he paid $30,000 for the photo album 
including the photo of the young boys and several family pictures and $20,000 
for the sale document. Morgan said the deceased owner of the home where the 
photo was found was thought to be a descendant of John.

A portrait of slave children is rare, Morgan said.

"I buy stuff all the time, but this shocked me," he said.

What makes the picture an even more compelling find is that several art experts 
said it was created by the photography studio of Mathew Brady, a famous 
19th-century photographer known for his portraits of historical figures such as 
President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Stapp said the photo was probably not taken by Brady himself but by Timothy 
O'Sullivan, one of Brady's apprentices. O'Sullivan took a multitude of photos 
depicting the carnage of the Civil War.

In 1862, O'Sullivan famously photographed a group of some of the first slaves 
liberated after Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Such photos were circulated in the North by abolitionists to garner support for 
the Union during the Civil War, said Harold Holzer, an author of several books 
about Lincoln. Holzer works as an administrator at the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art.

Most of the photos depicted adult slaves who had been beaten or whipped, he 
said.

The photo of the two boys is more subtle, Holzer said, which may be why it 
wasn't widely circulated and remained unpublished for so long.

"To me, it's such a moving and astonishing picture," he said.

Ron Soodalter, an author and member of the board of directors at the Abraham 
Lincoln Institute in Washington, D.C., said the photo depicts the reality of 
slavery.

"I think this picture shows that the institution of slavery didn't pick or 
choose," said Soodalter, who has written several books on historic and modern 
slavery. "This was a generic horror. It victimized the old, the young."

For now, Morgan said, he is keeping the photo in his personal collection, but 
he said he has had an inquiry to sell the photo to the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art. He said he is considering participating in the creation of a video 
documentary about John. 

"This kid was abused and mistreated and people forgot about him," Morgan said. 
"He doesn't even exist in history. And to know that there were a million 
children who were like him. I've never seen another photo like that that speaks 
so much for children."

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Sense of direction may be innate

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net


From: World Science 
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 2:14 PM
To: emailn...@world-science.net 
Subject: World Science: Sense of direction may be innate


* Sense of direction may be innate:
New research suggests the brain comes hard-wired
with working navigational cells.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100616_direction


* Ocean covered a third of Mars, study concludes:
An ancient ocean was probably part of an Earth-like
water cycle that included rain, scientists say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100612_mars


* Study points to why stress may affect women 
more:
Studying rat brains, researchers found that females
are more sensitive than males to low levels of a
stress hormone.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100616_stress


* "Trust hormone" may drive aggression 
between groups:
The compound oxytocin's well known role in social
relationships may also extend to promoting group
defense, a study suggests.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100615_oxytocin


* Neighborhood violence may impair kids' 
thinking:
Local violence may impair a child's ability to
think, even if he or she didn't see the violence
directly, a study finds.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100614_violence






World Science homepage
Don't forget to visit our homepage for Science In
Images; links to top science news from other publi-
cations; and other recent World Science stories!

http://www.world-science.net


World Science archives
To new readers especially: you need not miss our ex-
citing past stories, though they won't appear in future
newsletters. See archives for any year by typing that 
year after the homepage address: for example, 

http://www.world-science.net/2007 


Invite friends to join World Science!
Click here to open an invitation email you can send 
friends and colleagues so they can join you in sub-
scribing to World Science at no charge. Feel free to 
change the email text (although you might want to 
leave the subscription instructions unchanged.)


More information 
This is the World Science newsletter. To cancel your 
subscription, please reply to this email address with
"cancel" in the subject line. To subscribe, write to 
this email address with "subscribe" in the subject 
line. To change the address where you receive the 
newsletter, simply subscribe the new address and 
cancel the old one.
Any World Science article may be reproduced on 
another website, on condition that it is reproduced 
along with a link to the World Science homepage, 
http://www.world-science.net. Linking to the page of 
the original article is optional.

Re: [scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Sense of direction may be innate

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Not everyone is going to have any ability to the same degree.  We all fall 
somewhere on the Bell Curve.



Then mine must be off slightly, Amy. When it comes to driving, I can nail 
almost anywhere within reason, but don't ask me *how* to get there. I'll 
invariably point you in exactly the wrong direction.


On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Amy Harlib  wrote:




  ahar...@earthlink.net


  From: World Science 
  Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 2:14 PM
  To: emailn...@world-science.net 
  Subject: World Science: Sense of direction may be innate


  * Sense of direction may be innate:
  New research suggests the brain comes hard-wired
  with working navigational cells.

  http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100616_direction


  * Ocean covered a third of Mars, study concludes:
  An ancient ocean was probably part of an Earth-like
  water cycle that included rain, scientists say.

  http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100612_mars


  * Study points to why stress may affect women 
  more:
  Studying rat brains, researchers found that females
  are more sensitive than males to low levels of a
  stress hormone.

  http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100616_stress


  * "Trust hormone" may drive aggression 
  between groups:
  The compound oxytocin's well known role in social
  relationships may also extend to promoting group
  defense, a study suggests.

  http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100615_oxytocin


  * Neighborhood violence may impair kids' 
  thinking:
  Local violence may impair a child's ability to
  think, even if he or she didn't see the violence
  directly, a study finds.

  http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100614_violence



  


  World Science homepage
  Don't forget to visit our homepage for Science In
  Images; links to top science news from other publi-
  cations; and other recent World Science stories!

  http://www.world-science.net


  World Science archives
  To new readers especially: you need not miss our ex-
  citing past stories, though they won't appear in future
  newsletters. See archives for any year by typing that 
  year after the homepage address: for example, 

  http://www.world-science.net/2007 


  Invite friends to join World Science!
  Click here to open an invitation email you can send 
  friends and colleagues so they can join you in sub-
  scribing to World Science at no charge. Feel free to 
  change the email text (although you might want to 
  leave the subscription instructions unchanged.)


  More information 
  This is the World Science newsletter. To cancel your 
  subscription, please reply to this email address with
  "cancel" in the subject line. To subscribe, write to 
  this email address with "subscribe" in the subject 
  line. To change the address where you receive the 
  newsletter, simply subscribe the new address and 
  cancel the old one.
  Any World Science article may be reproduced on 
  another website, on condition that it is reproduced 
  along with a link to the World Science homepage, 
  http://www.world-science.net. Linking to the page of 
  the original article is optional.





-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik

Re: [scifinoir2] Why the hatred for Jaden Smith?

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I'm really looking forward to seeing this film.  I liked the trailers and I 
love Jackie Chan.  I hate the title.  The story has nothing to do with Karate 
which is a Japanese thing.
It is about kung-fu and China!  This film's title insults billions of Chinese 
people all over the world that Hollywood is so greedy to sell tickets by 
exploiting the Karate Kid franchise that they think folks are too stupid to 
tell the difference between Karate and Kung-fu?
All those slanty-eyed Asians are all alike, eh?  Typical Hollywood willful 
ignorance.  They could have correctly and accurately called this film Kung-Fu 
Kid and with Jackie Chan's name on it, sold just as many tickets I bet!

I'll still go for Jackie Chan, if nothing else.

Amy





It's not Jaden.  It's his parents. The world hates his parents  but worship 
money  too much to say it to their faces.  


Generation X and early Y are under-achievers.  We coin phrases like 
"underwhelm". Will and Jada  do what they  say they're gonna do. Collectively,  
we don't like that. And so yeah, they're gonna be hatred towards BOTH kids. 
Wait till Willow's album drops.



What has amazed me is the amount  of BLACK hatred towards Jaden. We keep hating 
on young  people who are doing  good work, and we wonder why  the majority of 
young people wanna stay under-achievers. 






On Jun 21, 2010, at 10:26 AM, ravenadal wrote:



  http://movie-critics.ew.com/2010/06/18/why-the-hatred-for-jaden-smith/

  What is Jaden Smith's crime? Last weekend, the up-and-coming young actor, who 
will turn 12 this July 8, starred in a remake of The Karate Kid that audiences 
flocked to beyond expectation and, from all available evidence, loved. Given 
that Smith is front and center in more or less every frame of the 2 hour and 20 
minute movie (and given that his performance, as a kid who hides his sadness 
behind a mask of surliness, is — to this critic, at least — a magnetic and 
affecting piece of acting), I hope we can all agree that Jaden Smith's presence 
on screen had a little something to do with the movie's success. Yet Smith's 
rise has been greeted, in far too many quarters (including a number of comment 
boards on ew.com, like the one on my review), with bitter, gnashing resentment. 
This 11-year-old really has the haters foaming.

Re: [scifinoir2] Re: Why the hatred for Jaden Smith?

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Thanks for that info!  I'm still insulted that Hollywood thinks Americans are 
too stupid to get the difference between Karate and Kung-Fu!
Amy




+1 Informative. 



~ "Where love and magic meet" ~
http://www.adriannebrennan.com
Experience the magic of the Dark Moon series: 
http://www.adriannebrennan.com/books.html#darkmoon
Dare to take The Oath in this erotic fantasy series: 
http://www.adriannebrennan.com/books.html#the_oath
The future of psychic sex - Dawn of the Seraphs (m/m): 
http://www.adriannebrennan.com/dawnoftheseraphs.html



On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Kelwyn  wrote:

  In this instance the filmmakers have crossed their "t"s and dotted their 
"i"s.  The film is known as "The Kung Fu Kid" internationally and "Best Kid" in 
Japan.

  ~rave!

  --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "Amy Harlib"  wrote:
  >
  >
  > ahar...@...

  > I'm really looking forward to seeing this film.  I liked the trailers and I 
love Jackie Chan.  I hate the title.  The story has nothing to do with Karate 
which is a Japanese thing.
  > It is about kung-fu and China!  This film's title insults billions of 
Chinese people all over the world that Hollywood is so greedy to sell tickets 
by exploiting the Karate Kid franchise that they think folks are too stupid to 
tell the difference between Karate and Kung-fu?
  > All those slanty-eyed Asians are all alike, eh?  Typical Hollywood willful 
ignorance.  They could have correctly and accurately called this film Kung-Fu 
Kid and with Jackie Chan's name on it, sold just as many tickets I bet!
  >
  > I'll still go for Jackie Chan, if nothing else.
  >
  > Amy
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  > It's not Jaden.  It's his parents. The world hates his parents  but worship 
money  too much to say it to their faces.
  >
  >
  > Generation X and early Y are under-achievers.  We coin phrases like 
"underwhelm". Will and Jada  do what they  say they're gonna do. Collectively,  
we don't like that. And so yeah, they're gonna be hatred towards BOTH kids. 
Wait till Willow's album drops.
  >
  >
  >
  > What has amazed me is the amount  of BLACK hatred towards Jaden. We keep 
hating on young  people who are doing  good work, and we wonder why  the 
majority of young people wanna stay under-achievers.
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  >
  > On Jun 21, 2010, at 10:26 AM, ravenadal wrote:
  >
  >
  >
  >   http://movie-critics.ew.com/2010/06/18/why-the-hatred-for-jaden-smith/
  >
  >   What is Jaden Smith's crime? Last weekend, the up-and-coming young actor, 
who will turn 12 this July 8, starred in a remake of The Karate Kid that 
audiences flocked to beyond expectation and, from all available evidence, 
loved. Given that Smith is front and center in more or less every frame of the 
2 hour and 20 minute movie (and given that his performance, as a kid who hides 
his sadness behind a mask of surliness, is — to this critic, at least — a 
magnetic and affecting piece of acting), I hope we can all agree that Jaden 
Smith's presence on screen had a little something to do with the movie's 
success. Yet Smith's rise has been greeted, in far too many quarters (including 
a number of comment boards on ew.com, like the one on my review), with bitter, 
gnashing resentment. This 11-year-old really has the haters foaming.
  >




  

  Post your SciFiNoir Profile at

  
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo!
 Groups Links

 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/

[scifinoir2] 7th-Graders Discover Mysterious Cave on Mars

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
How cool is that!

> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/students-discover-mars-cave-100621.html
>
> 7th-Graders Discover Mysterious Cave on Mars
>
> By Clara Moskowitz
> Senior Writer
>
> posted: 21 June 2010
>
>
> A group of seventh-graders in California has discovered a mysterious cave
> on Mars as part of a research project to study images taken by a NASA
> spacecraft orbiting the red planet.
>
> The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell's 7th-grade science class at
> Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a
> Martian skylight - a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars
> [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091026-mm-mars-caves.html].
>
> The intrepid students were participating in the Mars Student Imaging
> Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. The
> program allows students to frame a research question and then commission a
> Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question.
>
> The newfound hole on Mars
> [http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=students-discover-mars-cave-100621-02.jpg&cap=California+7th+graders+discovered+this+Martian+pit+feature+at+the+center+of+the+superimposed+red+square+in+this+image+while+participat
> ing+in+a+program+that+enables+students+to+use+the+camera+on+NASA%27s+Mars+Odyssey+orbiter.+The+feature%2C+on+the+slope+of+an+equatorial+volcano+named+Pavonis+Mons%2C+appears+to+be+a+skylight+in+an+underground+lava+tube.+%3Ca+href%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.s
> pace.com%2Fscienceastronomy%2Fstudents-discover-mars-cave-100621.html%3EFull+Story%3C%2Fa%3E.+Credit%3A+NASA%2FJPL-Caltech%2FASU]
> resembled features seen on other parts of Mars in a 2007 study by Glen
> Cushing, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist.
>
> Cushing suggested that these anomalous pit craters
> [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070605_mars_hole.html ] are like
> skylights - places where a small part of the roof of a cave or a lava tube
> had collapsed, opening the area below the surface to the sky.
>
> The caves are thought to result from volcanic activity on the red planet.
> At some point lava channels likely carved out caverns in the rock, and
> then left behind tunnel, or "lava tubes," when the eruptions were over.
> They would have been covered when a solid ceiling of cooled material
> settled on top, and then sections of the ceiling likely collapsed at some
> point to form the skylight entrances.
>
> Scientists aren't sure what type of materials or deposits could be stored
> inside.
>
> "This pit is certainly new to us," Cushing told the students. "And it is
> only the second one known to be associated with Pavonis Mons."
>
> He estimated the pit to be approximately 620 by 520 feet (190 by 160
> meters) wide and 380 feet (115 meters) deep at least.
>
> The young researchers had initially set out to hunt for lava tubes, a
> common volcanic feature on Earth and Mars.
>
> "The students developed a research project focused on finding the most
> common locations of lava tubes on Mars," Mitchell said. "Do they occur
> most often near the summit of a volcano, on its flanks, or the plains
> surrounding it?"
>
> The class commissioned a main photo and a backup image of Mars' Pavonis
> Monsvolcano
> [http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_daily_020507.html],
> targeted on a region that hadn't been imaged up close.
>
> The pictures were taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter
> [http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090312-odyssey-reboot.html ] using
> its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument. Both images
> showed lava tubes, as the students had hoped.
>
> But the backup photo provided another surprise: a small, round black spot.
> It was a hole on Mars leading into the buried cave, researchers said.
>
> The students have submitted their site to be further imaged by the High
> Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars
> Reconnaissance Orbiter, which could reveal enough detail to see inside the
> hole in the ground.
>
> "The Mars Student Imaging Program is certainly one of the greatest
> educational programs ever developed," Mitchell said.  "It gives the
> students a good understanding of the way research is conducted and how
> that research can be important for the scientific community. This has been
> a wonderful experience."
>
 

Re: [scifinoir2] Movie Review - RoboGeisha

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net

I saw this film at a special screening at Japan Society and I loved it.  I also 
love Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police.
If you love wacky extreme action fantasy - you'll love Robo Geisha!

Cheers!
Amy

  Movie Review: RoboGeisha

  Finally released in England on DVD, RoboGeisha takes a sci-fi / dark comedy 
look at martial art films. What would be the least likely person to be a 
dangerous killer in Japan? Answer, the lowly and submissive geisha.

   The film is about a young woman name Yoshie that is quiet and often bullied 
by her attractive older sister Kikue. While her older sister works as a geisha, 
Yoshie finds herself cleaning the geisha house and ignored. Yoshie is often 
bullied by Kikue and we meet her character with low self-esteem.

   After a fight with Kikue, for ruining her performance for a handsome young 
ceo, Yoshie is spotted tearing a phonebook in half with her bare hands and is 
drafted into an evil secret assassin group by the ceo. His organization is a 
right wing extremist group that plans to use geisha assassins to “correct” what 
they see as the source of problems in Japan. (Mostly Yakuza members and corrupt 
politicians.)  The company has big plans for Japan and the CEO and his father 
are ruthless about it. 

  After intense training, Yoshie quickly becomes the most skilled out of the 
large team of assassins. She enjoys the recognition that she is finally 
receiving and gains confidence. Soon Kikue becomes the teams discipline 
enforcer by killing anyone that gets out of line. For their excellent work, the 
two women are given robotic additions to their bodies including hidden swords 
and machine guns. (I will not tell you where.) 

  The action in the film is similar to Machine Girl. The people that created 
Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police also created this film, so if you have 
watched either film you know what to expect. The special effects are pretty 
interesting to see and some look as if they are in 3d! There is also a 
different type of camera shake that they use in the film that is not as bad as 
American made films. 

  Overall, there is a certain level of silliness that shows up in the action 
scenes that pokes fun at the tradition of geishas in this film. They also poke 
fun at sexuality, which seems to appear in many action films as well as anime 
that come from Japan. It may be a running joke in Japan, but it definitely 
shows in this film. The director Noboru Iguchi does pull you into his strange 
alternate universe and makes you want to see more of it.

  Pros: Some of the effects are very cool and new, Very quirky and funny film. 
The fight scenes are exciting and contain a high level of silliness that 
offsets the splatterific gore. 

  Cons: There are some slow spots that take away a bit from the pacing of the 
overall film but it creates a subplot. Some effects do not look like they were 
fully rendered. 

  Japanese with English subtitles. Unavailable in the US unless you have a 
friend that has it.

  Rated PG13

  3.5 stars out of 5




-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik

Re: [scifinoir2] Man builds War Machine suit

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
WOW!   'Nuff said!
Amy


From: Mr. Worf 
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 8:16 AM
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [scifinoir2] Man builds War Machine suit






Mr.Worf wants to share this great news called Iron Man War Machine in Real Life 
on DesignersCouch. Please check it here: 

http://designerscouch.org/show_news/1113/iron-man-war-machine-in-real-life.html


Best Regards,
DesignersCouch.
www.designerscouch.org 



-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/

Re: [scifinoir2] The World Ebon today: Vogue Africa

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I love it - Vogue Africa?  Of course!
Amy
--
From: "Kelwyn" 
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 11:10 AM
To: 
Subject: [scifinoir2] The World Ebon today: Vogue Africa

> http://fashionbombdaily.com/2010/04/21/fashion-fun-photographer-mario-epanya-imagines-6-covers-for-a-fictional-vogue-africa/
>
> Paris based makeup artist and photographer Mario Epanya conceived of 
> several breathtaking covers for what apparently would represent a future 
> Vogue Africa. As you may be aware, there is currently no actual edition of 
> African Vogue. Yes, there's a Vogue Nippon, Vogue India, and even a Vogue 
> Australia-but no Vogue for an entire continent rich in culture, diversity, 
> and, of course, lots of fashion.
>
> I think an African Vogue would be positively refreshing and potentially 
> quite well received. I've heard South African fashion week is bubbling 
> over with talent-why not have a Vogue Africa?
>
> http://www.theworldebon.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
> 
>
> Post your SciFiNoir Profile at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo!
>  
> Groups Links
>
>
>
> 

[scifinoir2] Ranger walking robot sets new world record at 1.34mph

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Way cool!

Ranger walking robot sets new world record at 1.34mph





Ranger walking robot sets new world record at 1.34mph
By Darren Quick

00:26 July 26, 2010

 5 Pictures

 
Cornell Ranger gets a walking buddy in Fatemeh Hasaneini, a daughter of one of 
the students who worked on the robot

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It might not have been setting a cracking pace, but a Cornell University robot 
named Ranger set an unofficial world record on July 6 when it walked 14.3 miles 
in about 11 hours on a single charge. The untethered, four-legged bipedal robot 
was steered around the 1/8-mile indoor track in Cornell’s Barton Hall by a 
human operator using a standard toy remote control some 108.5 times. On its 
record setting journey Ranger made 65,185 steps, beating the former record for 
an untethered legged robot of 12.8 miles set by Boston Dynamics’ BigDog.

Standing still, Ranger looks a bit like a tall sawhorse and its gait suggests a 
human on crutches, alternately swinging forward two outside legs and then two 
inside ones. There are no knees, but its feet can flip up out of the way, while 
it swings its legs so that the robot can finish its step. The robot also 
features two blue foam “eyes” that are purely for fall protection, as are the 
black foam “ears.”

One of the goals of the attempt was to show off the machine’s energy 
efficiency. Unlike other walking robots that use motors to control every 
movement, its creators say the Ranger appears more relaxed and in a way 
emulates human walking, using gravity and momentum to help swing its legs 
forward. It is powered by a 24.9V Lithium-ion battery and weighs a total of 
18.6 lbs.


Because the robot walked in lanes two and three, the distance per lap is a bit 
more than an eighth of a mile; its path was measured at 212.3 meters per lap, 
giving it a total walk distance of (212.3 m)(108.5) = 23,034 m = 23.0 
kilometers = 14.3 miles. Over the course of its journey the robot’s average 
speed was 1.34 mph (2.15km/h) with 13.9-inches average distance per step and an 
average time per step of 59 seconds. Ranger's long walk started Monday at 2:08 
p.m. and ended at 12:48 a.m. Tuesday July 6, 2010 when its batteries went dead, 
for a total walk time of 10 hours, 40 minutes, 48 seconds.

This is not the first time Ranger has held the record. In April 2008 it strode 
about 5.6 miles around the Barton Hall to set the record, before Boston 
Dynamics’ quadruped robot claimed the title by traveling 12.8 miles without 
stopping or refueling.

Also, two days before setting out on his record setting walk Ranger had walked 
13 miles on one charge. So, not counting running out of juice, Ranger walked 
more than 27 miles without failure.

Ranger was built by a group of engineering students led by Andy Ruina, Cornell 
professor of theoretical and applied mechanics, who says the new record not 
only advances robotics, but helps undergraduate students learn about the 
mechanics of walking. The information could be applied to rehabilitation, 
prostheses for humans and improving athletic performance, she says.

Gallery Images 
  a..  
  b..  
  c..  
  d..  


-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/

Re: [scifinoir2] Russia Elects First Black Politician

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Thanks for that!  Glad to know this.
Amy





Russia Elects First Black Politician
Posted by admin on July 26, 2010 0 Comment 
For the first time in their history, Russia has elected a black man to hold 
political office. Jean Gregoire Sagbo was elected as a councilman in 
Novozavidovo. Sagbo, who was born in Africa, has lived in Novozavidovo for 21 
years and raised his family there. Russia has a history of extreme racial 
violence, making this election a significant milestone.

Sagbo made many key promises for the impoverished town, saying he wants to curb 
drug addiction, put heating in homes, and clean up pollution. Vyacheslav 
Arakelov, the mayor of Novozavidovo, says that Sagbo is Russian inside and that 
he cares deeply for his hometown. Sagbo will be one of ten councilmen for the 
city.

Sagbo came to Russia in 1982 to study economics when the country was still 
under Soviet rule. His wife is from Novozavidovo originally, and they raised 
their two children there. Sagbo works as a real estate negotiator, and his 
council position will be unpaid. After initially having no desire to pursue 
politics, he was persuaded to run by residents of the town. While Russia has a 
checkered racial history, Sagbo says he hasn’t felt any racism. Once a 
prosperous town, Novozavidovo suffered after the fall of Communism. Sagbo hopes 
to do his part to rebuild the town. 



-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/

Re: [scifinoir2] Native American Paper Sculptures

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
Wow!
Amy


  On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Mr. Worf  wrote:

  




  











  




Native American Paper Sculptures



 

These are absolutely Beautiful!!!


 

 
 

Sculptures of Native American scenes made out of paper 

by Allen and Patty Eckman



These stunningly detailed sculptures may only be made from paper - 
but they are being snapped up by art fans for tens of thousands of pounds. The 
intricate creations depict Native American scenes and took up to 11 months to 
make using a specially formulated paper


 



 
Husband and wife team Allen and Patty Eckman put paper pulp into 
clay moulds and pressurise it to remove the water


 



 
The hard, lightweight pieces are then removed and the couple 
painstakingly add detailed finishings with a wide range of tools



 

They have been making the creations since 1987 at their home 
studio, in South Dakota , America , and have racked up a whopping £3 million 
selling the works of art



 

The pieces depict traditional scenes from Native American history 
of Cherokees hunting and dancing



 

The most expensive piece is called Prairie Edge Powwow which sold 
for £47,000



 

Allen said: "We create Indians partly because my great, great 
grandmother was a Cherokee and my family on both sides admire the native 
Americans...



 

...I work on the men and animals and Patty does the women and 
children" explains Allen



 

"I enjoy most doing the detail. The paper really lends itself to 
unlimited detail. I'm really interested in the Indians' material, physical and 
spiritual culture and that whole period of our nation's history I find 
fascinating. From the western expansion, through the Civil War and beyond is of 
great interest to me."



 

Allen explained their technique: "It should not be confused with 
papier mache. The two mediums are completely different. I call what we do 'cast 
paper sculpture'"



 

..."Some of them we create are lifesize and some we scale down to 
1/6 lifesize"



 

"These sculptures are posed as standing nude figures and limited 
detailed animals with no ears, tails or hair"



 

"We transform them by sculpting on top of them - creating detail 
with soft and hard paper we make in various thicknesses and textures.



 

"We have really enjoyed the development of our fine art techniques 
over the years and have created a process that is worth sharing. There are many 
artists and sculptors who we believe will enjoy this medium as much as we have."


   
   






-- 










http://MisfitsCafe. com/Diane


-- 

If your world doesn't allow you to dream, move to one where you can.
Billy Idol 









-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/




  -- 
  "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik






-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/

Re: [scifinoir2] Movie Review – Ip Man

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I've seen both parts of Ip Man and they are wonderful martial arts films of the 
classic 'old school' style you thought they didn't make anymore.  

Thank goodness this style of kung-fu film does still exist!  Another just as 
good homage to this genre is Gallants.

Cheers!
Amy




Please do.


On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 7:29 AM, Mr. Worf  wrote:


  I'm checking out part 2 tomorrow. I will let you know how it is. 



  On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 3:32 AM, Martin Baxter  wrote:



Had to google it, Mr Worf, because it sounded familiar. I have seen this 
one, and share your enthusiasm for it, as well as recommending it to one and 
all. 



On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 5:16 AM, Mr. Worf  wrote:



  Movie Review – Ip Man

  The movie Ip Man (It sounds funny but they go by last name first in 
China) was a surprisingly well-made little martial art film. Partially based on 
Man Yip the Wing Chun master from Hong Kong, it follows his beginning from his 
life in a small town called Fo Shen in the mid 1930s. Fo Shen is famous for its 
“Southern” style Kung Fu and has several schools located in the heart of the 
city. 

  Ip (Played by Donny Yen) is well known in the town for being the absolute 
best martial artist in the region, but he does not teach and has no students. 
Despite his lack of a school, he is heavily involved in the Kung Fu social 
scene and is often challenged by teachers attempting to make a name for 
themselves. This is totally against his wife’s wishes. So despite Ip’s daily 
training, and his prime skill his wife would much rather have him go into 
business with Ip’s brother a subdued businessman.  Soon, a baddie from the 
north appears with several men. He asks for the location of the Kung Fu schools 
and challenges every teacher on the block.  It is not long before he hears 
about Ip and sets out to finds him.

  There is much more to the movie that I will not give away, but I must say 
that this film is on par with the old styled kick/punch Kung Fu movies that 
were made over the years. Very little wire work and great action! I highly 
recommend it!

  There is a part 2 to this film that I will also be reviewing as well.

  Directed by: Wilson Yip

  Pros: Great believable Kung Fu action. It reminded me of so many Kung Fu 
films that I have watched over the years on a Saturday night. The historical 
subplot took me by surprise. 

  Cons:  It is a little slow in the middle of the film, but it is 
understandable because the film switches modes.

  In Cantonese, Chinese, and Japanese with English subtitles


  4 out of 5 stars



  -- 
  Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
  Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/





-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik







  -- 
  Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
  Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/




-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik

[scifinoir2] [FYI] Don't be fooled: the Google-Verizon plan would kill Net Neutrality

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
www.freepress.org is a good place to go to fight this too.
--
From: "brent wodehouse" 
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 11:57 PM
To: 
Subject: [scifinoir2] [FYI] Don't be fooled: the Google-Verizon plan would 
kill Net Neutrality

> http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/106645-dont-be-fooled-the-google-verizon-plan-would-kil/
>
> [
> http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/106645-dont-be-fooled-the-google-verizon-plan-would-kil/
> ]Don't be fooled: the Google-Verizon plan would kill Net Neutrality
>
> Evil
>
> By [ http://thephoenix.com/Boston/Authors/EDITORIAL/ ]EDITORIAL  |  August
> 11, 201
>
>
> Want evidence that Google is just another avaricious, monopoly-minded
> corporate behemoth? Consider this: Google has retreated from its long-held
> support for net neutrality and teamed with Verizon to suggest that new
> laws allow Internet providers to favor some Web services over others.
> Google and Verizon also want Congress to exempt mobile devices from net
> neutrality and to limit the Federal Communications Commission's regulation
> of the Internet.
>
> Google and Verizon have proposed this in a very simple and undeniably
> clever way, which - unless thoughtfully considered - appears to be
> eminently reasonable.
>
> Under this plan, the Internet as it now exists and is currently understood
> would remain net neutral. All content would be treated as equal.
>
> The Internet as it develops in the future, however, would be different.
> Tiered service would be allowed.
>
> In other words, the giant corporate providers who effectively govern
> access and regulate traffic would be able to give preferential treatment
> to certain content or content providers.
>
> This is, in and of itself, a nasty piece of snake-oil salesmanship,
> especially given the speed and unpredictability with which the digital
> world evolves. But when mobile access is stirred into the brew, it becomes
> positively toxic. All trends favor more and more mobile access. Morgan
> Stanley predicts that within five years, the mobile Web will outstrip the
> desktop Internet.
>
> Given the extent to which the Internet governs economic development and
> the extent to which it is the medium for free speech, it is clear that the
> Google-Verizon plan is bad news. So much for Google's motto, "Don't be
> evil."
>
> To understand this pledge, it must be considered in context. The pithy
> slogan appears as the first three words in Google's corporate code of
> conduct governing relations with investors. Yet no corporation can
> survive, let alone thrive, without turning a profit. So it stands to
> reason that Googlers (yes, that's how the company refers to its employees)
> may have a less restricted view of how to interpret the motto than, say,
> the world's non-Googlers.
>
> If net neutrality were a simple code of conduct, then the FCC last year
> defined it as follows: providers cannot favor their own content; they need
> to explain when and why variable Internet speeds are imposed on consumers;
> and they can not limit access to lawful content.
>
> As neat and clean as these principles seem, their implementation could
> prove to be difficult to impossible, thanks to the Court of Appeals for
> the DC Circuit, which in April ratified rules adopted by the Bush
> administration that were intended to derail Internet regulation.
>
> The court's decision undoubtedly contributed to the break-up last week of
> the closed-door discussions the FCC was holding with big Internet
> corporate players. Whether those talks should have been conducted in
> secret is now a moot point. But the parallels with former first lady
> Hillary Clinton's private health-care deliberations and Vice-President
> Dick Cheney's closed energy sessions are certainly troubling.
>
> Power, of course, abhors a vacuum. So while Google's joint proposal with
> Verizon was a vicious slap in the face to advocates of net neutrality -
> especially in view of the company's previous admirable support of the
> concept - under the circumstances it should come as no surprise. Consider
> the predatory vigor Google displayed when it cornered the digital market
> on books whose copyright has expired. Vito Corleone would have admired its
> ruthless elegance. However, Robert Darnton, the historian who heads
> Harvard's vast system of libraries, has been eloquent in pointing out the
> intellectual hazards of this development.
>
> It would be foolish to expect Congress to unplug the Google-Verizon view
> of the future. Massachusetts congressman Edward Markey has been foiled in
> his attempts to do so. But the FCC does have the power to short-circuit
> it. The FCC must reach back to precedent established since 1910 and
> declare Internet providers "common carriers" subject to federal
> regulation. This is not some cute form of legerdemain. It is legal
> hardball that would no doubt provoke a hotly contested lawsuit.
>
> If the FCC will not stand up

Re: [scifinoir2] 'Avatar' Re-Release Includes Alien Sex Scene

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I would love to see Avatar again and the added scene is a bonus enticement, 
absolutely!
Cheers!
Amy

From: Martin Baxter 
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 3:08 PM
To: SciFiNoir2 
Subject: [scifinoir2] 'Avatar' Re-Release Includes Alien Sex Scene




Is this trip really necessary? And would any of you take it?

=


 
 
'Avatar' Re-Release Includes Alien Sex Scene 

James Cameron restores an intimate scene between Jake and Naytiri 
for the epic's end of the summer re-release 

By William Yelles
TheWrap.com

When "Avatar" returns to theaters in 3-D and 3-D IMAX for a limited 
engagement Aug. 27, among the eight minutes of new bonus footage is a scene 
that has had fanboys buzzing for months. 

"It's been restored, every last frame of it. Seriously," director 
James Cameron tells MTV News. However, "I would say, just so that we correctly 
manage people's expectations, it does not change our rating at all. I would 
call it more of an alien foreplay scene. It's not like they're ripping their 
clothes off and going at it." 

Naytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake's (Sam Worthington) lovemaking is 
described as "the ultimate intimacy" in the screenplay. "They come together 
into a kiss and sink down on the bed of moss, and ripples of light spread out 
around them." 

Cameron is also said to be considering shooting the two sequels to 
"Avatar" back-to-back since the movies would involve so much motion capture and 
special effects work. He also claims to be working on a novelization of the 
first film.
   
 


-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik

Re: [scifinoir2] The incomparable Abbey Lincoln has passed away

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I loved her!  What a loss!
Amy
--
From: "Kelwyn" 
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 10:15 AM
To: 
Subject: [scifinoir2] The incomparable Abbey Lincoln has passed away

> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129203432
>
> Abbey Lincoln, the legendary jazz singer who believed in singing as a 
> political act, died Saturday at the age of 80 in Manhattan. An actress, 
> artist and composer, Lincoln's music ranged from avant-garde civil rights 
> era recordings to the equally powerful but more introspective recordings 
> of her later years.
>
> (If you haven't seen her tough and tender performance opposite Ivan Dixon 
> in "Nothing But A Man," wake up and sleep on it no more. ~rave!)
>
>
>
> 
>
> Post your SciFiNoir Profile at
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo!
>  
> Groups Links
>
>
>
> 

Re: [scifinoir2] Movie - K-20

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I saw this at the 2009 NYAFF and it's wonderful!  Don't miss it!
Cheers!
Amy

From: Mr. Worf 
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 6:33 AM
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [scifinoir2] Movie - K-20





This movie is kind of a cross between Zorro, Batman, and Desperado set in an 
alternate universe where WW2 never happened. 
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnJnoo6SCY&feature=player_embedded
K-20 : The Legend of The Mask (2008)
Trailer
4 comments 
Posted by tarc on Aug 7, 2010 in Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama



Its 1949 and World War II never happened. Nikola Tesla has just won a Nobel 
Prize rather than dying in obscurity and the Japanese Empire is an undying 
aristocracy where the rich sip tea out of bone china, while the poor die in the 
gutters. K-20, the Fiend with Twenty Faces, steals from the rich and gives to 
himself. But now, on the eve of the marriage between society princess, Yoko 
Hashiba, and chief of police, Kogoro Akechi, the fiend frames simple circus 
acrobat Hekichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) for his crimes and the poor sap is 
arrested and sentenced to death. But he escapes at thelast minute and assumes 
the guise of K-20 in order to clear his good name.

Also Known As:“K-20: Kaijin nijû mensô den”

Director: Shimako Sato
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Subtitle: English
Year: 2008
Genre: Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama

-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/

Re: [scifinoir2] Movie - K-20

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
I've seen Returner and yes, it is a very excellent SF action film.
Amy

From: Martin Baxter 
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 6:13 AM
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Movie - K-20




I loved Returner so much that, ten minutes after seeing it for the first time 
on PPV, I owned it.


On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 2:27 AM, Mr. Worf  wrote:


  The Returner is on my list as well. I think my list is close to 900 movies 
now... 



  On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Martin Baxter  
wrote:



Right off the bat, I want to know how he survived that initial jump without 
snapping both his ankles...

And toss in the fact that the lead, Takeshi Kanashiro, was also the star of 
one truly underrated flick "Returner", and I'm there! 



On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 6:33 AM, Mr. Worf  wrote:



  This movie is kind of a cross between Zorro, Batman, and Desperado set in 
an alternate universe where WW2 never happened. 
  Trailer: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHnJnoo6SCY&feature=player_embedded
  K-20 : The Legend of The Mask (2008)
  Trailer
  4 comments 
  Posted by tarc on Aug 7, 2010 in Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama



  Its 1949 and World War II never happened. Nikola Tesla has just won a 
Nobel Prize rather than dying in obscurity and the Japanese Empire is an 
undying aristocracy where the rich sip tea out of bone china, while the poor 
die in the gutters. K-20, the Fiend with Twenty Faces, steals from the rich and 
gives to himself. But now, on the eve of the marriage between society princess, 
Yoko Hashiba, and chief of police, Kogoro Akechi, the fiend frames simple 
circus acrobat Hekichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) for his crimes and the poor sap 
is arrested and sentenced to death. But he escapes at thelast minute and 
assumes the guise of K-20 in order to clear his good name.

  Also Known As:“K-20: Kaijin nijû mensô den”

  Director: Shimako Sato
  Country: Japan
  Language: Japanese
  Subtitle: English
  Year: 2008
  Genre: Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama


  -- 
  Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
  Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/






-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik







  -- 
  Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
  Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/




-- 
"If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell 
wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik

Re: [scifinoir2] Director Satoshi Kon passes away

[Amy Harlib]

ahar...@earthlink.net
SHOCKING loss - way too young!
He will be missed!
Amy

From: Mr. Worf 
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:31 AM
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [scifinoir2] Director Satoshi Kon passes away





24/08/2010:
Director Satoshi Kon passes away
Perfect Blue and Paprika director dies, aged 46 




This is breaking news just coming in as I type this, emanating from the Twitter 
account of GAINAX's Yasuhiro Takeda and later confirmed by Madhouse's Masao 
Maruyama via theOtakon committee, but the renowned and much-admired anime 
director Satoshi Kon passed away from pancreatic cancer yesterday at the age of 
46.

During his life, Kon was responsible for a numer of high-profile animated 
efforts featuring his distinctive themes and styles, not least the movies 
Perfect Blue and Paprika, as well as theParanoia Agent television series.

I'm sure it goes without saying that Satoshi Kon's influence will be immensely 
missed by anime fans around the world, and our thoughts go out to his friends 
and family with this tragic news.


Discuss in the UKA Forum

-- 
Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! 
Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/

[scifinoir2] Ice geysers 'discovered on Mars'

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wow!  Way cool science stuff!   This would be great in a Mars SF story.

BBC World Service  8/20/06

  Ice geysers 'discovered on Mars'  
 
An artist's impression shows the geysers erupting through ice 
  Geysers spewing sand and dust hundreds of feet into the air have been 
discovered on Mars, scientists say. 
  Images from a camera orbiting Mars have shown the 100mph jets of carbon 
dioxide erupt through ice at the planet's south pole, Arizona State University 
says. 

  The orbiting camera, called the Thermal Emission Imaging System (Themis), 
is on the Mars Odyssey probe. 

  The geyser debris leaves dark spots, fan-like markings and spider-shaped 
features on the ice cap. 

  The scientists said geysers erupted when sunlight warming the ice turned 
frozen carbon dioxide underground into high-pressure gas. 

  "If you were there, you'd be standing on a slab of carbon dioxide ice," 
said the university's Dr Phil Christensen. 

  "All around you, roaring jets of CO2 gas are throwing sand and dust a 
couple of hundred feet into the air." 

  Dr Christensen said the process was "unlike anything that occurs on 
Earth". 

  His team discovered the jets through examining more than 200 Themis 
visible and infrared images. The findings were published in the latest edition 
of the journal Nature.
 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
Yahoo! Groups Links

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<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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[scifinoir2] Fw: Colourful Stories: Fantastic Fiction by African Descended Authors Article by Nisi Shawl published in Vector

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Passing this on - a MUST read!
Cheers!
Amy


> Hi all,
>
> Thought you might be interested in this article by Nisi Shawl which my 
> co-editor and I recently published in Vector, the critical journal of the 
> British Science Fiction Association (BSFA). The article is called 
> "Colourful Stories: Fantastic Fiction by African Descended Authors" and an 
> online version can be found here:
> http://www.vector-magazine.co.uk/article.asp?articleID=17
>
> Thanks very much to Nisi for agreeing to write for us. We are always 
> interested in hearing new proposals or submissions for features, so if 
> anyone on this list has ideas for non-fiction articles on any topic 
> relating to speculative fiction, my co-editor and I would love to hear 
> from you. We have an upcoming issue dedicated to the theme of Cities, so 
> would be particularly interested in critical writing relating to sf and 
> fantasy cities, but we're open to all sorts of other ideas too. Email us 
> at [EMAIL PROTECTED] The BSFA is an amateur organisation, so 
> unfortunately we are unable to pay our contributors.
>
> Thanks,
> Geneva



 
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Re: [scifinoir2] Black hero has race changed in 911 movie]

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Couldn't agree more that changing from black to white is a very bad thing.
Amy


> It's these subtle ways the larger society Blacks of bits of self-esteem 
> that they have all around them. It's why I still support Black-focused 
> media. I get sick of people asking me the age-old question, "Why do y'all 
> have to have Ebony and Essence, Miss Black America, or HBCU's? White 
> people don't have organizations that have 'White' in the title".  Stuff 
> like this continually points out the word "white" doesn't have to be added 
> because it's just assumed. It be like me saying, "The Sun is pretty bright 
> today". You gonna turn around and ask me which sun I'm talking about? 
> Sirius? Betelguese? Proxima Centauri?? No, you know I mean "Sol" and when 
> most whites hear "hero", "love interest", "genius", "leader", etc., they 
> just slap a white face on it.
>
>
> That being said, why do you think the movie's a bad idea overall? I think 
> it's a good idea to remember the tragedy through a well-done film. I don't 
> think it's too soon--frankly, it'll never be long enough for some. I know 
> the documentaries are good, but dramas can focus on things in different 
> ways.  It's like movies dealing with race riots or police brutality 
> against Blacks: hard as they are to watch, I want to experience them.
>
> -- Original message -- 
> From: Daryle Lockhart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Two things about this film: One, and probably most importantly, it
> simply did not need to be made. It's in bad taste, and there's no way
> to put it out without pissing SOMEBODY off. There are documentaries
> already. That's enough. It was just five years ago. Anyone who
> doesn't remember what happens should be GLAD.
>
> Secondly, this "error" should not surprise ANYone. How many ways do
> we need to be told that Hollywood does not see us as human beings? If
> we're not Will Smith, or some hypersexual or socially obsolete
> caricature, we serve no purpose in Hollywood. THIS is why we need to
> be telling our own stories, and, I hate to say it, folks, but we
> need to be telling them outside of the Hollywood system. This is a
> system that couldn't keep Star Trek going after Gene died, does
> Transformer movies without Soundwave, and KEEPS giving Mickey Roarke
> work. WE are the LAST if its concerns. Hollywood applauds our
> weaknesses and tells us that "nobody wants to go see" our
> strengths. Unless, of course, our strength is us taking our shirt off.
>
> This WTC movie is a bad idea and should serve as a lesson to "how far
> we've come".
>
> On Aug 20, 2006, at 9:13 AM, Keith Johnson wrote:
>
> I respect Mr. Thomas' graciousness, but this is a big deal. I find it
> hard
> to believe this was a simple mistake. When researching roles, don't the
> producers look up peoples' records, verify their address, name, and
> other
> statistics? Don't they talk to friends and associates? Don't they try
> to get
> pictures of them? How do you cast a role based on a living person and
> not in
> in shape form or fashion realize he's Black?
> I think this does need to be talked about loudly. Doing so doesn't
> diminish
> from the heroism around 9-11, but not doing so simply creates more
> victims
> of another type of terrorist act: that of white America to continually
> diminish Blacks in this country.
>
> _
>
> From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)
> Sent: Thursday, 17 August, 2006 23:58
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com; GIRLFRIEND;
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Black hero has race changed in 911 movie]
>
>  Original Message 
> Subject: [AFAMHED] Black hero has race changed in 911 movie
> Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:16:34 -0400
> From: Boyce Watkins - Syracuse Finance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  RR.COM>
> Reply-To: Boyce Watkins - Syracuse Finance <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>  RR.COM>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]  MUOHIO.EDU
>
> 'WTC' casting error draws flak from African-Americans
>
> Wednesday, August 16, 2006
> By L.A. Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
> http://www.post- 
> gazette.com/pg/06228/713723-254.stm
> A hero of another color in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" has some
> people again balking at the whitewashing of a black character in a
> Hollywood film.
>   gazette.com/image
> s4/20060815ap_wtchero_450.jpg>
> gazette.com/popup.asp?img=http://www.post-gazette.com/
> images4/20060815ap_wtc
> hero_450.jpg>
>
> Bebeto Matthews/The Associated Press
> *Jason Thomas of Columbus, Ohio, helped rescue Port Authority police
> officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno on 9/11. In Oliver Stone's
> movie, "World Trade Center," a white actor was cast to portray

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Massive crash proves 'dark matter' exists, astronomers say

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cool science stuff!


* Stupendous crash proves "dark matter" exists,
astronomers claim:
The most forceful known collision in the universe
has torn apart normal and dark matter, researchers
say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060821_darkmatter.htm


* "Artificial muscles" to liven TV color:
Scientists are exploring a technology that they hope
will produce more lifelike colors.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060817_tvcolor.htm


* A gene that makes us human?:
A newfound gene might help explain why our brains
are so big, according to researchers.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060816_braingene.htm


* Bringing back the extinct:
Mouse experiments are reviving the idea that some
extinct species can be resurrected.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060814_extinct.htm


* Now downloadable: "music" of the stars:
The ancient Greeks believed the stars participate in
a sort of celestial symphony. They had it wrong --
but not totally.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060809_spheres.htm




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Re: [scifinoir2] [Fwd: BIN LADEN HAS CRUSH ON WHITNEY HOUSTON]

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Actually Kola Boof has a rather cool website and she is a darned good writer 
and poet and she's gorgeous!
Cheers!
Amy
http://www.kolaboof.com/feast.htm


Hey Stranger!

I Posted it because it sounded like Scifi. didn't it?

Tracey

L Freeman wrote:
> Honestly, I could have lived my entire life happily without knowing about 
> that
>
> Martin Pratt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:  Now I can stop 
> reading period, because I've seen it all.
>
> "Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)" 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: BIN LADEN HAS CRUSH ON WHITNEY 
> HOUSTON: Terrorist's former sex slave
>
> says he also wanted to get rid of Bobby Brown.
> (August 22, 2006)
>
> *President Bush may have just found the perfect bait to draw
> Osama Bin Laden out of hiding…that is, if the bait wasn't in hiding
> herself.
>
> A Sudanese poet who claims she was once a sex slave for Bin
> Laden states in her new book that the terrorist was completely
> obsessed with Whitney Houston, and once even contemplated killing her
> husband, Bobby Brown.
>
> "He told me Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd
> ever seen," writes Kola Boof, 37, in her autobiography, "Diary of a
> Lost Girl," which is excerpted in the September issue of Harper's
> magazine. "He said that he had a paramount desire for her and although
> he claimed music was evil, he spoke of someday spending vast amounts
> of money to go to America and try to arrange a meeting."
>
> Boof said Bin Laden even thought of bringing the superstar to Sudan.
>
> "He said he wanted to give [her] a mansion that he owned in a
> suburb of Khartoum. He explained to me that to possess Whitney, he
> would be willing to break his color rule and make her one of his
> wives," Boof writes in the book. "[He would say] how beautiful she is,
> what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just
> brainwashed by American culture and by her husband - Bobby Brown, whom
> Osama talked about having killed, as if it were normal to have womens'
> husbands killed."
>
> "In his briefcase, I would come across photographs of the Star
> [magazine], as well as copies of Playboy. It would soon come to the
> point where I was sick of hearing Whitney Houston's name," Boof
> writes.
>
> Despite his devotion to Houston, Bin Laden completely dismisses
> women of African descent, according to Boof. She quotes him as telling
> her, "African women are only good for a man's lower pleasures. What
> need do you have for a womb?"
>
> Stating further issues with her braided hair, she said he
> stated that "only monkeys" did that.
>
> "Excuse me while I whip this out."
> Cleavon Little , "Blazing Saddles"
>
> -
> Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -
> Stay in the know. Pulse on the new Yahoo.com.  Check it out.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>




Yahoo! Groups Links








 
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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 32 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]



>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 32...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race.
> 
>
> Table of Contents
>
> 1. Bit of History...Kyoto Protocol
> 2. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 3. Intuit's Vibe...Tetraktys VII...By Jan Haag
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. News You Use...An Inconvenient Truth
> 6. DISHing It Up Hot!...On the "R" Word...By Dot
> 7. Politics Y2K6...Deficit Deceit
> 8. Mailbox
> 
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Kyoto Protocol
>
>
>
> World leaders at the 1st Earth Summit held in Stockholm, Sweden (1972)
> decided to gather every decade to discuss the planet's health.  Their 1982
> gathering in Nairobi, Kenya failed so miserably that it is not officially
> recognized as an Earth Summit.
>
>
>
> In 1988, the UN created the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
> World scientists focused on climate change to ascertain whether the world
> was warming or cooling.  The Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere
> (1988) called the effect of climate change "second only to global nuclear
> war" and called on nations to cut 1988 greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 
> 2005.
> The IPCC issued its first report in 1990.  It pointed to human activity as 
> a
> factor in the planet's warming, but needed more time and better technology
> to study it.
>
>
>
> The Second Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil led to the UN
> Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); it called on the world to
> stabilize greenhouse gas emissions.  The US signed and ratified the
> convention. US president George H.W. Bush negotiated an agreement to allow
> developing nations to increase emissions.
>
>
>
> The 1995  Conference of Parties held in Berlin, Germany reviewed the
> adequacy of the Rio Convention's goals for stabilizing greenhouse gas
> emissions in light of the second IPCC report, which stated "the balance of
> evidence" pointed to a "discernable human influence on the global climate
> system."  This situation endangers humanity.
>
>
>
> On July 25, 1997, the US Senate unanimously passed the Byrd-Hagel 
> Resolution
> forbidding the nation to sign any protocol that "would result in serious
> harm to the economy of the United States."  In December 1997, the 
> Conference
> of Parties meeting in Kyoto, Japan decided the goals for greenhouse gas
> emissions set out at the Rio Convention were too weak to protect the 
> planet.
> Kyoto called for a 5% reduction in 1990 greenhouse gas emissions over the
> period 2008-2012.
>
>
>
> Countries were assigned different emission reduction targets to meet this
> global goal.  On November 12, 1998, Vice President Al Gore  signed Kyoto,
> promising to reduce  US greenhouse gas emissions by 7%.   President Bill
> Clinton did not submit the protocol to the Senate for  ratification.
>
>
>
> On July 29 2001 at COP VII held in Bonn, Germany, the world, except for 
> the
> US and Australia, agreed to the rules for implementing Kyoto.  George W.
> Bush made it clear Kyoto would not be submitted to the Senate for
> ratification.
>
>
>
> On November 18, 2004, Russia ratified the protocol and satisfied the
> requirement for it to go into effect, i.e., ratified by the countries that
> collectively produced at least 55% of global 1990 greenhouse gas 
> emissions.
> Kyoto went into effect ninety days later on  February 16, 2005.
>
>
>
> The US has come under criticism for its handling of the Kyoto Protocol and
> climate change.  Under Bush, the US has downplayed climate change research
> already accepted by government scientists.  Instead, its climate change
> position  relied on watered down reports influenced by business lobbyists.
> According to State Department papers, "in June 2005, the administration
> thanked Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping
> to determine climate change policy."  (Sources: www.greenpeace.ca,
> www.pewclimate.org, and www.straightdope.com)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Comments from the Bat Cave
>
>
>
> With the start of school mere days away, I tried to get the Dark
> Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro to say something witty, insightful or just
> plain nutty about it.  He occupied his customary post - sitting on the 
> edge
> of the bed with a joystick, when I approached.  From his rapidly changing
> expression, I could tell he viewed conversation as an intrusion.   Before
> any request could be posed, he confirmed my suspicion by saying, "This is
> not a good time grandma."
>
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Tetraktys VII
> By Jan Haag
>
>
>
> Empire never died.
> Continuity, tradition, heritage,
> things are as they
> ever were throughout history.
> History, itself may mean,
> "things as they are now."
> For today, the rich get richer
> and the poor get poorer.
> To those who have is given,
> to those who have not,
> all is taken away.
>
>
>

[scifinoir2] Fw: Too big for HBO: see Spike Lee's film and help others do the same

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Terrific idea!


Everyone should have the opportunity to see this film.
Not just those with HBO. 




Click below to host or attend a screening: 




   
 
Last week, we emailed you to let you know about the premiere of Spike Lee's 
Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." 

Almost immediately, we received a huge (and unexpected) response from many of 
our members - many thanked us and told us about their plans to watch the film. 
But most told us they want to see the film but don't have HBO. 

So, we came up with a plan: home viewings where ColorOfChange.org members who 
have HBO can share the film with those who don't. And we've partnered with 
MoveOn.org to make it happen. Click the link below to host or attend a viewing 
party near you. 

http://www.colorofchange.org/spike/?id=1448-115373

Are you an HBO subscriber? 

Those of you who've seen the film can attest to its power and importance. 
Hosting a viewing would be a great gift to those in your neighborhood who don't 
have HBO. By serving as a host, you provide a huge service and help us build 
and support the ColorOfChange.org community. It takes only a few minutes to 
sign up: you specify the number of people you want to invite, the day and time 
you want to have the screening, and a few other details. (HBO is replaying the 
film through September. You can pick a time from the schedule, record it to 
show later, or play it "on-demand"). 

http://www.colorofchange.org/spike/?id=1448-115373

Don't have HBO? 

Many of us (including the ColorofChange.org staff) don't have HBO. But that 
shouldn't stand in the way of seeing this important film. Attending a viewing 
party is a great way to meet other ColorOfChange.org members and to get a 
chance to see this amazing film. Click on the link below to check for viewing 
parties nearest you. Don't worry if no parties have been created--you may have 
beaten the hosts to the punch. Just check back in a few days after more 
viewings have been scheduled. 

http://www.colorofchange.org/spike/?id=1448-115373

"When the Levees Broke" is an important film that everyone should see. Spike 
Lee tells the story of Katrina and its aftermath through the eyes of those who 
survived it, most of whom are still trying to put their lives back 
together--not through the tinted lense of the media or government talking 
heads. Plenty of ground is covered, but one point becomes extremely clear: the 
real catastrophe of Katrina was not created by Mother Nature; it was created by 
people--through neglect, politics and incompetence. It didn't just start right 
after Katrina; it was years and years in the making. And it continues today, 
largely because we allow it. 

Together we can create change, but a critical first step is bearing witness to 
what has taken place, on our watch, and in our name. Only then can we fully 
appreciate what's at stake, the consequences of our inaction, and realize the 
hope that's created when we do act. Lee's film give us an opportunity. We hope 
you will join us in sharing in the experience. 

http://www.colorofchange.org/spike/?id=1448-115373

Thank You and Peace, 

-- James, Van, Clarissa, Gabriel, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team 
   August 28th, 2006 







Subscription Management:
This is a message from ColorOfChange.org. To remove yourself from our list, 
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[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Of cannibals, planets and jilted dogs

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fascinating science stuff.


* Bird attacks a force in human
evolution?:
Prehistoric raptors may have routinely
targeted our ancestors for meals, scientists
say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060829_raptors.htm


* A trip to cannibal country:
A journalist ventures into one of the last places on
Earth where humans eat each other, and like it.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060828_cannibal.htm


* Pluto no longer a planet:
A newly adopted definition of "planet" shuts out a
longtime member of the planetary club.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060824_planet.htm


* Researchers create permanently "happy" mice:
A breed of permanently "cheerful" mice is providing
hope for depression treatment, scientists report.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060824_happymice.htm


* New stem cell technique would avoid killing
embryos:
Scientists say they've managed to grow human
embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060823_embryo.htm


* Jilted dogs feel intense jealousy, study finds:
New research challenges long-held scientific beliefs
about animal emotions.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060822_jealousdog.htm


* Ants' Olympic jumps caught on tape:
New high-speed videoclips show how certain ants
manage to jump 40 times their own length.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060821_antjump.htm




ANNOUNCEMENTS:

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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 33 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 33...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...
> 
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Pre-Requiem...By John M. Swails
> 2. Hood Notes...Ghetto Tax
> 3. Bit of History...St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955)
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. The Value of a Life...By John Burl Smith
> 6. News You Use...Modern Philanthropy
> 7. Mailbox
> 
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Pre-Requiem
> By John M Swails
>
>
>
> There's a slow sort of dying going on
> like when a dog stops drinking available water
> or doing any of the many things
> he or she aught to do to maintain;
> almost as if the brain has decided to dismiss life,
> and suicide is unconsciously entertained
> like a shortcut to a quick reward.
>
>
>
> No.. not as blunt or obvious
> but the end result remains the same.
> Too many brothers, fathers, sisters and mothers,
> have given up the right to think in exchange
> for the comfort of a financial plantation,
> submitting to the gospel of the media's dogma
> and offering up their rights…three by two by one
> till none think for themselves
> and the fences' boundaries slowly close in.
>
>
>
> But they… no, we, are numb to this
> blinded by artificial success;
> we fail to recognize our dependency.
> And with voices successfully squelched,
> we are led to the slaughter –
> incarcerated son…raped and devalued daughter.
> Fathers first to be removed
> with the art of deception, depression and greed,
> leaving mothers to depend on others for their needs,
> and government offerings hide secret agendas
> but having invited the viper in
> her guard is easily subdued and removed,
> leaving her offspring as easy prey for their venom.
>
>
>
> This poison begins in main stream education,
> removing any indication
> that Black culture's contributions towards society exist.
> Inventions reassigned or just as easily dismissed,
> removing pride of ancestry to be replaced by low self-esteem
> and bleak prospects for any piece of the "American Dream,"
> seeds killed before plants ever get a chance to form.
> Dreams shattered almost before they're ever born.
> And with no past to stand on, what does one's future hold?
> And with no one to guide them, when will the truth be told?
>
>
>
> There's a slow sort of dying going on
> like when a dog stops drinking available water
> or doing any of the many things
> he or she ought to do to maintain,
> almost as if the brain has decided to dismiss life,
> but the saddest part of all is the antidote of truth
> has been in our mouth all the time.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hood Notes
> Ghetto Tax
>
>
>
> We always knew it!  Now, the Brookings Institution study, Poverty,
> Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families, has
> verified that the urban poor pay more for everything from financial
> services to fuel.
>
>
>
> The study found the urban poor pay more for their mortgages, car loans,
> basic financial services, groceries and insurance.  It pointed to "real
> differences in the cost of doing business in poor areas, predatory
> financial practices and consumer ignorance" to explain some disparities.
> Whatever the cause, the higher cost is a tax, which raises the cost of
> living and lowers the quality of life for already poor families.
>
>
>
> The Brookings Institution called on government, philanthropic
> organizations, and business leaders to pursue market and regulatory
> initiatives to help lower income families get ahead by bringing down the
> inflated prices they pay for basic necessities.  For more about the ghetto
> tax, methods used in this study and antidotal information, see
> http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060718_povop.htm
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> St. Katharine Drexel (1858- 1955)
>
>
>
> The basis for true altruism is an empathic feeling or desire to give to or
> service others without any consideration of receiving anything in return.
>
>
>
> The second daughter of well known Philadelphia banker and philanthropist
> Francis Anthony Drexel (1826-1893) and first wife, Hannah Jane Langstroth,
> Katharine Mary Drexel was born November 26, 1858.  One month later her
> mother passed away.  Along with elder sister Elizabeth, Katherine was sent
> to live with an uncle, Anthony J. Drexel (founder of the Philadelphia
> Institute of Technology, later renamed Drexel University).  A few years
> later he married Emma Bouvier (the great-grand aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier
> Kennedy Onassis) and brought the girls back to live with him.  A younger
> sister, Louise, was born in 1863; thus completing the circle of love for
> the sisters.
>
>
>
> The family moved to a ninety-acre farm in Torresdale, outside
> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  when Katharine was twelve.  The impressive
> mansion and estate named for Archangel St. Michael  played an important
> role in her life.  Chi

Re: [scifinoir2] Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Steve Irwin was a great champion of conservation and for wildlife.  I loved 
his work and his personality.  His death is a great loss to the 
environmental movement.
HE WILL BE MISSED!
Amy (His memoir was excellent)


> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_en_tv/obit_irwin_20
> CAIRNS, Australia - Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian
> television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile
> Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great
> Barrier Reef. He was 44.
>
> Irwin was at Batt Reef, off the remote coast of northeastern Queensland
> state, shooting a segment for a series called "Ocean's Deadliest" when
> he swam too close to one of the animals, which have a poisonous bard on
> their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said.
>
> "He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into
> his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on
> board Irwin's boat at the time.
>
> Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the
> nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to
> nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced
> Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.
>
> Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword
> "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter." First broadcast
> in Australia in 1992, the program was picked up by the Discovery
> network, catapulting Irwin to international celebrity.
>
> He rode his image into a feature film, 2002's "The Crocodile Hunters:
> Collision Course" and developed the wildlife park that his parents
> opened, Australia Zoo, into a major tourist attraction.
>
> "The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist
> and one of the proudest dads on the planet," Stainton told reporters in
> Cairns. "He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy
> and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, 'Crocs Rule!'"
>
> Prime Minister John Howard, who hand-picked Irwin to attend a gala
> barbecue to honor
> President Bush when he visited in 2003, said he was "shocked and
> distressed at Steve Irwin's sudden, untimely and freakish death."
>
> "It's a huge loss to Australia," Howard told reporters. "He was a
> wonderful character. He was a passionate environmentalist. He brought
> joy and entertainment and excitement to millions of people."
>
> Irwin, who made a trademark of hovering dangerously close to untethered
> crocodiles and leaping on their backs, spoke in rapid-fire bursts with a
> thick Australian accent and was almost never seen without his uniform of
> khaki shorts and shirt and heavy boots.
>
> His ebullience was infectious and Australian officials sought him out
> for photo opportunities and to promote Australia internationally.
>
> Irwin's public image was dented, however, in 2004 when he caused an
> uproar by holding his infant son in one arm while feeding large
> crocodiles inside a zoo pen. Irwin claimed at the time there was no
> danger to the child, and authorities declined to charge Irwin with
> violating safety regulations.
>
> Later that year, he was accused of getting too close to penguins, a seal
> and humpback whales in Antarctica while making a documentary. Irwin
> denied any wrongdoing, and an Australian Environment Department
> investigation recommended no action be taken against him.
>
> Stingrays have a serrated, toxin-loaded barb, or spine, on the top of
> their tail. The barb, which can be up to 10 inches long, flexes if a ray
> is frightened. Stings usually occur to people when they step on or swim
> too close to a ray and can be excruciatingly painful but are rarely
> fatal, said University of Queensland marine neuroscientist Shaun Collin.
>
> Collin said he suspected Irwin died because the barb pierced under his
> ribcage and directly into his heart.
>
> "It was extraordinarily bad luck. It's not easy to get spined by a
> stingray and to be killed by one is very rare," Collin said.
>
> News of Irwin's death spread quickly, and tributes flowed from all
> quarters of society.
>
> At Australia Zoo at Beerwah, south Queensland, floral tributes were
> dropped at the entrance, where a huge fake crocodile gapes. Drivers
> honked their horns as they passed.
>
> "Steve, from all God's creatures, thank you. Rest in peace," was written
> on a card with a bouquet of native flowers.
>
> "We're all very shocked. I don't know what the zoo will do without him.
> He's done so much for us, the environment and it's a big loss," said
> Paula Kelly, a local resident and volunteer at the zoo, after dropping
> off a wreath at the gate.
>
> Stainton said Irwin's American-born wife Terri, from Eugene, Ore., had
> been informed of his death, and had told their daughter Bindi Sue, 8,
> and son Bob, who will turn 3 in December.
>
> The couple met when she went on vacation in Australia in 1991 and
> visited Irwi

[scifinoir2] Fw: Death of the Crocodile Hunter

[Amy Harlib]

Subject:  For Those Who'd Like To Leave Condolences for Steve Irwin's Family


> Go here:
> 
> http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/crochunter/steve/statement.html
> 
Vibes and hugs,
Amy

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[scifinoir2] Fw: It's Time to Vote: Choose Your Science Idol!

[Amy Harlib]

It's Voting Time: Choose Your Science Idol!
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
FUN!  AND FOR A GREAT CAUSE!



 
 
  It's Time to Vote: Choose Your Science Idol!



  Our summer of independent science is coming to a close, but 
there's one important step left-it's time to cast your vote for your favorite 
scientific integrity cartoon!

   
  Your Chance to Win:
  Vote now for a chance to win a 2007 Defending 
Science calendar featuring all 12 finalist cartoons!
 
   
   

  Earlier this year, we offered thousands of UCS supporters and 
other Americans the chance to enter Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity 
Editorial Cartoon Contest. Then, throughout the summer, artists from all over 
the country took the challenge and submitted hundreds of entries. Next, our 
four celebrity judges helped narrow those entries down to our 12 finalists. Now 
it's up to you to choose the winner-Vote now!   

  At the end of September, the cartoonist with the most votes 
will win an all-expenses paid trip to have lunch with the celebrity judge of 
his or her choice, plus: 

a.. $500 
b.. A signed copy of Dude: The Big Book of Zonker by Gary 
Trudeau 
c.. Winning entry printed in Catalyst and featured on the 
UCS website 
d.. Winning entry promoted on Cartoonbank.com 
e.. Winning entry printed on cover of 2007 Defending 
Science calendar 
f.. Fifty copies of the 2007 Defending Science calendar, 
including one signed by all celebrity judges 

  But the prizes aren't just limited to the 
cartoonists-everyone who votes will be entered in a drawing to win one of 50 
copies of the 2007 Defending Science calendar featuring the work of our top 12 
finalists! Click here to give your friends the opportunity to win.

  Voting will close on Saturday, September 30, 2006, at 11:59 
p.m. EST and we'll announce our grand prize winner the following week. You can 
only vote once, so choose carefully-Vote Today!

  Sincerely,



  Michael Halpern
  National Field Organizer
  UCS Scientific Integrity Program


--



  Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
  Tell-a-friend!

  If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up 
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emails, click to unsubscribe. 
 



   
   
 
 
 

 
 

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[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Livable worlds abound, simulations find

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Really cool science stuff!
---
Special Issue: PLANETS

* Livable worlds abound, simulations find:
Computer studies indicate Earth-like planets, warm
and wet enough for life, should be plentiful.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060906_planets.htm


* Lost planet, or vastest system?:
A planet thought to drift alone may instead help
form the widest known planetary system, scientists
say.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060901_loneplanet.htm


* Protest over new planet definition:
More than 300 scientists have signed a petition
protesting a redefinition of "planet."

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060905_planet-protest.htm
---
More news:

* Invisible 9/11 victims: the unborn
Stress over the 2001 attacks apparently triggered
hundreds of miscarriages if not more, studies have
found.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060901_911.htm


* Gene fights cancer by aging us, studies find:
Biologists say they've found a gene that protects
against cancer by suppressing cell division --
making us age faster.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060906_cancer-life.htm


* Most dinosaurs still unaccounted for, study
finds:
Researchers say 71 percent of dinosaur types have
yet to be discovered.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060905_dinosaur.htm


* NASA awards contract for moon craft:
Lockheed Martin Corp. won a contract to build a
manned spaceship.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060831_orion.htm


***

Readers sound off on dark matter, planet definitions,
human-animal mixtures and more at the World 
Science blog!

This forum for reader letters and comments is at
http://world-science-blog.blogspot.com.
Check it out.

Do you have friends who would like to join World
Science? If so, just send us their email addresses 
(after making sure they actually want to sign up)
and we will add them to the list. Send the addresses
to this email address.

This is the World Science newsletter. To cancel your 
subscription, please reply to this email address 
with "cancel" in the subject line. To subscribe, 
write to this email address with "subscribe" in the 
subject line. To change the address where you 
receive the newsletter, please write to this email 
address and request the change.

***

Shop the World Science Store!


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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 34 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 34...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... > 
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Childhood...By Margaret Abigail Walker
> 2. Bit of History...World Conference Against Racism (WCAR)
> 3. Three Fifths Compromised Again...By John Burl Smith
> 4. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 5. Politics Y2K6...John Edwards' Two Americas
> 6. News You Use...Must See TV:  Lee's Levees
> 7. Disgruntled
> 8. Hood Notes...Katrina:  A Year Later
> 9. Mailbox
> 
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Childhood
> By Margaret Abigail Walker
>
>
>
> When I was a child, I knew red miners
> dressed raggedly and wearing carbide lamps.
> I saw them come down red hills to their camps
> dyed with red dust from old Ishkooda mines.
> Night after night I met them on the roads,
> or on the streets in town I caught their glance;
> the swing of dinner buckets in their hands,
> and grumbling undermining all th
> with famine, terror, flood, and plague near by;
> where sentiment and hatred still held sway
> and only bitter land was washed away.
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> World Conference Against Racism (WCAR)
>
>
>
> Since its creation (1945), nondiscrimination on the grounds of race has
> been a United Nations' guiding principle.  In 1948, it held the Convention
> on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide following WWII
> atrocities and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
>
>
>
> South African apartheid and the black civil rights struggle in the United
> States spurred the UN's adoption of the UN Declaration on the Elimination
> of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1963). The UN held the
> International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
> Discrimination in 1965.   In 1969, members of the United Nations (UN),
> including the United States of America (USA), passed the Declaration on
> the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.  The signatories
> pledged to end racial discrimination and make restitution to its victims.
>
>
>
> The UN designated three decades for action to combat racism. During the
> first (1973-1982), the UN held its first World Conference Against Racism,
> Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) in Geneva
> in 1978. Programs for the first decade concerned worldwide education and
> measures the UN should take to eliminate racism. In its second decade
> (1983-1992), the UN held WCAR2 (1983), which focused on recourse
> procedures for the victims of racial discrimination. In addition to a
> public information campaign, the UN drafted model legislation to guide its
> members in the enactment of national legislation against racial
> discrimination.
>
>
>
> For the third decade (1994-2003), the UN pledged to tackle the roots of
> racism.   Faced with growing international concern for the increasing
> incidents of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
> intolerance, the UN passed a resolution in 1997 calling for its third
> conference against racism.  At the end of 2000, the USA submitted its
> Initial Report to document its progress on ending racial discrimination.
> Acknowledging historic human rights abuses against natives, slaves and
> their descendants, the document cited access to US courts to justify not
> paying reparations.
>
>
>
> WCAR3 was held in Durban, South Africa August 31 - September 7, 2001. It
> identified seven goals:  (1) Review progress in the fight against racism.
> (2) Consider ways to ensure better application of existing standards. (3)
> Increase the level of global racism awareness. (4) Formulate concrete
> recommendations on ways to increase the effectiveness of UN programs to
> combat racism. (5) Review political, historical, economic, social,
> cultural and other factors leading to racism. (6) Formulate concrete
> recommendations to further action-oriented national, regional and
> international measures aimed at combating all forms of racism. (7) Draw up
> concrete recommendations to ensure that the UN has the necessary resources
> for its activities to combat racism.  (Source:  www.un.org/WCAR)
>
>
>
>
> Three Fifths Compromised Again
> By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> Closing out the millennium, the United Nations World Conference Against
> Racism (WCAR) gave slave descendants hope that member nations would
> establish mechanisms to deal with the two hundred plus years of forced
> bondage and ongoing racial discrimination.  Claiming to be the world's
> greatest democracy, but actually the country with the most gruesome slave
> history, the United States (US) opposed the proposed confab in 1965 and
> tried to derail it so as not to face its legacy of racism.
>
>
>
> Adopted by the UN in 1969, the US Senate did not ratify the International
> Convention on the El

[scifinoir2] Fw: Anniversaries

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If only a LOT more folks felt this way, the world would be a lot better place.
Vibes and hugs,
Amy 


 
   


  Today marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade 
Center. And there will be memorials, rallies and speeches that will remember 
that tragic day. Some will be centered around the 2,996 dead in the attacks. 
Others will remember the almost 2,700 US troops who have been killed in Iraq. 
Still others will focus on the over 3,000 dead as a result of US actions in 
Afghanistan, or the reported over 100,000 civilian dead in Iraq. 

  It will be a tragic anniversary of a tragic day. 

  But September 11 is another anniversary, too. 100 years ago today, the 
first nonviolent action was begun by Mahatma Ghandi in South Africa. In 
response to a racist anti-Asian law, Ghandi declared that he would go to jail, 
or even die, before obeying the law. With Ghandi's action, a new approach to 
changing the world was born. 

  On this day in 1906, non-violence was born. 

  On this day in 2001, the act of a group of violent extremists plunged the 
US, and the world, into a round of violence that has not yet ended.

  2020 Vision has long worked for peace. From opposing the spread of 
nuclear weapons to opposition to the Iraq war, we have worked to make the world 
a safer place. Now, with our continuing work to end the Iraq occupation and our 
focus on stopping the next oil war by working for energy independence, that 
work is as vital as it's ever been. 

  We thank you for all of the work you've done. And we know that the work 
is not over yet. As Congress rushes to finish its legislative calendar this 
month, there will be too little serious discussion of peace, too much politics 
played with war. 

  Today, as we remember the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade 
Center, we hope we can also remember the other September 11. One hundred years 
ago, a great leader taught the world that peace could be a driver of change, 
not just a goal. He taught that peace is an action, rather than merely the 
absence of war. 

  As we mourn the dead around the world in the aftermath of September 11, 
2001, let us not forget the lesson of September 11, 1906. 

  Thanks for all you do,

  Ron Zucker 

  Contribute: http://tinyurl.com/dt5fp
  Change your membership info: http://www.2020vision.org/login.jsp
  Sign Up For Alerts! http://www.2020vision.org/signUp.jsp
  Unsubscribe: http://www.2020vision.org/unsubscribe.jsp 



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[scifinoir2] Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wow stuff!
 
 
 



September 15, 2006
Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere 
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
A stone slab bearing 3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars has 
been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and archaeologists say it is an 
example of the oldest script ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere.

The Mexican discoverers and their colleagues from the United States reported 
yesterday that the order and pattern of carved symbols appeared to be that of a 
true writing system and that it had characteristics strikingly similar to 
imagery of the Olmec civilization, considered the earliest in the Americas.

Finding a heretofore unknown writing system is rare. One of the last major ones 
to come to light, scholars say, was the Indus Valley script, recognized from 
excavations in 1924.

Now, scholars are tantalized by a message in stone in a script unlike any other 
and a text they cannot read. They are excited by the prospect of finding more 
of this writing, and eventually deciphering it, to crack open a window on one 
of the most enigmatic ancient civilizations. 

The inscription on the Mexican stone, with 28 distinct signs, some of which are 
repeated, for a total of 62, has been tentatively dated from at least 900 B.C., 
possibly earlier. That is 400 or more years before writing was known to have 
existed in Mesoamerica, the region from central Mexico through much of Central 
America, and by extension, anywhere in the hemisphere.

Previously, no script had been associated unambiguously with the Olmec culture, 
which flourished along the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz and Tabasco well before 
the Zapotec and Maya people rose to prominence elsewhere in the region. Until 
now, the Olmec were known mainly for the colossal stone heads they sculptured 
and displayed at monumental buildings in their ruling cities.

The stone was discovered by María del Carmen Rodríguez of the National 
Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico and Ponciano Ortíz of Veracruz 
University. The archaeologists, a married couple, are the lead authors of the 
report of the discovery, which is being published today in the journal Science.

The signs incised on the 26-pound stone, the researchers said in the report, 
"link the Olmec to literacy, document an unsuspected writing system and reveal 
a new complexity to this civilization."

Noting that the text "conforms to all expectations of writing," the researchers 
wrote that the sequences of signs reflected "patterns of language, with the 
probable presence of syntax and language-dependent word orders."

Several paired sequences of signs, scholars said, have even prompted 
speculation that the text contained poetic couplets.

Experts who have examined the Olmec symbols said they would need many more 
examples before they could hope to read what is written on the stone. They said 
it appeared that the symbols in the inscription were unrelated to later 
Mesoamerican scripts, suggesting that this Olmec writing might have been 
practiced for only a few generations and never spread to surrounding cultures. 

Stephen D. Houston of Brown University, a co-author of the report and an 
authority on ancient writings, acknowledged that the apparent singularity of 
the script was a puzzle and would probably be emphasized by some scholars who 
question the influence of the Olmec on the course of later Mesoamerican 
cultures. 

But Dr. Houston said the discovery "could be the beginning of a new era of 
focus on the Olmec civilization."

Other participants in the research include Michael D. Coe of Yale; Richard A. 
Diehl of the University of Alabama; Karl A. Taube of the University of 
California, Riverside; and Alfredo Delgado Calderón, also of the National 
Institute of Anthropology and History.

Mesoamerican researchers not involved in the discovery agreed that the signs 
appeared to represent a true script and that their appearance could be expected 
to inspire more intensive exploration of the Olmec past. The civilization 
emerged about 1200 B.C. and virtually disappeared around 400 B.C.

In an accompanying article in Science, Mary Pohl, an anthropologist at Florida 
State University who has excavated Olmec ruins, was quoted as saying, "This is 
an exciting discovery of great significance."

A few other researchers were skeptical of the inscription's date because the 
stone was uncovered in a gravel quarry where it and other artifacts were 
jumbled and possibly out of their original context.

The discovery team said that ceramic shards, clay figurines and other broken 
artifacts accompanying the stone appeared to be from a phase of Olmec culture 
ending about 900 B.C. They conceded, though, that the disarray at the site made 
it impossible to determine if the stone was in a place relating to the 
governing elite or a religious ceremony.

Dr. Diehl, a specialis

[scifinoir2] Re:EARTHSEED [GodIsChange] Article

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Terrific essay about Octavia Butler's Parable novels!

Sisters Nineties Magazine is going to publish this essay in its Summer 
Edition 


Earthseed: A New Path to God? 
by Chris Hayden 


All that you touch 
You change 
All that you change 
Changes you 
The only lasting Truth 
Is change 
God 
Is change 

This poem introduces Earthseed: The Books of the Living, a fictional work 
quoted throughout the late (1947-2006) Octavia Estelle Butler's science fiction 
novels The Parable of the Sower (1994) and the Parable of the Talents (1998). 
These books are set in a post apocalyptic near future America where an 
authoritarian fundamentalist Christian government has come to power. Lauren Oya 
Olamina, a Black woman who suffers from a fictional hyper empathy syndrome (it 
causes the sufferer to believe that she feels the pain and pleasure of other 
people), is the creator of a movement she names Earthseed, a basic tenet of 
which is that the ultimate destiny of humanity is to "take root among the 
stars." 
Lauren's father is a Baptist minister and teacher who tries to uphold 
traditional religious beliefs and practices, but Lauren rejects his approach. 
She ponders the nature and existence of God. She begins analyzing 
everything—herself, life around her, and history. She concludes that "God would 
have to be a power that could not be defied by anybody or anything. Change. 
Everything changes in some way." (Parable of the Sower, page 200). 
Lauren jots down her meditations, often in verse form, in notebooks that 
she ultimately gathers into the book she titles Earthseed: Books of the Living. 
Lauren insists that Earthseed is not a religion and explains that her writings 
are not the product of divine revelation or visions; they come from logical 
analysis. She "finds" the name for her movement "weeding the back garden and 
thinking about the way plants seed themselves." (Parable of the Sower, page 
71). Thus by observation and logical analysis she discovers that God exists and 
that God is not an omnipotent anthropomorphic supernatural being but is that 
natural process we call Change. 
__ 
Copyright © 2006 by Chris Hayden 



continued next page 

"Earthseed: A New Path to God?" continued 

Humans are not manipulated by but can manipulate God—indeed Lauren 
constantly exhorts her followers to "shape God" through the exercise of 
logical, action-based, rational planning. 
Is Earthseed a mere plot device, or is it a new belief system--a new path 
to God? 
Lauren is a teenager when she creates Earthseed. In an interview Ms. Butler 
gave to Amazon.com she stated that she created "something that I could have 
believed in and joined when I was 18." 
Butler was no theologian. She was a science fiction writer. In the cold, 
super rational atmosphere of that genre God is almost always absent or unmasked 
as a fraud or delusion. 
Despite the predictions, explicit and implicit, of science fiction (and the 
proclamations, more than a century ago, of Nietzsche's Superman) God has not 
eparted from human affairs; in fact, lately it seems God has returned to the 
world with a vengeance. 
Many readers of the Parables series marvel at how accurately Butler's books 
have predicted current events: the rise of religious fundamentalism; its 
injection into politics, the public discourse and international affairs; and 
the subsequent effect this has had on the discussion and conduct of such issues 
as the teaching of evolution, the cloning debate and reproductive 
freedom—matters which might seem outside the purview of religious thought—its 
role in the clash of civilizations. 
Science fiction writers have often addressed important social issues: 
overpopulation (Stand on Zanzibar), colonialism (War of the Worlds) 
overabundance created by technology (The Midas Plague) totalitarianism (1984, 
Fahrenheit 451) and war (Slaughterhouse Five). 
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, held by many to be the first work of modern 
science fiction, warned that science unchecked, in that case creating Life in a 
laboratory—in effect playing God—might lead to disastrous consequences. 
Could Butler, out of concern for the fate of humanity, have created 
Earthseed as a rational alternative to the fear and superstition that is the 
basis of fundamentalist religious belief? 
"Fixing the world is not what Earthseed is about," Lauren says. But then 
she adds, "This world would be a better place if people lived according to 
Earthseed. But this world would be better if people lived according to the 
teachings of almost any religion." (Parable of the Sower, page 254) 

In the conversation Butler had with Amazon.com the interviewer calls 
Earthseed a religion and Butler does not correct her. Some articles which 
discuss Earthseed also refer to it as a religion. 
There is now a real sect based on 

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: 'Lucy's baby'--pre-human fossil dazzles scientists

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wow science stuff.  Possibly inspirational.


* "Lucy's baby": pre-human fossil dazzles
scientists
Human-like below the waist, ape-like above, an
ancient child is stirring up the study of our
origins.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060920_baby-afarensis.htm


* Planet "lighter than cork" baffles astronomers:
An unknown mechanism may heat some planets
internally, puffing them up, researchers speculate.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060914_light-planet.htm


* Ancient writing system said to be found:
Archaeologists report the oldest writing system
known in the New World.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060914_writing.htm


* Woman gets "bionic arm":
A new device is meant to let amputees move
artificial arms just by thinking.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060914_bionic.htm


* Neanderthals hung on tough, study finds:
Neanderthals didn't give up on existence easily,
scientists report.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060913_neanderthal.htm


* Arctic meltdown?:
Arctic sea ice is hitting record lows, probably due
to global warming, NASA researchers say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060914_arctic.htm


* Voices in your head might be good:
Psychologists have launched a study to learn why
some people consider voices in their heads helpful.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060914_voices.htm


***

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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 36 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 36...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Heroes...By C A Webb
> 2. Kudos!  Kudos!  "Rocky" Rocks the House
> 3. Bit of History...Alcee Lamar Hastings
> 4. Politics Y2K6...Hastings Haunts GOP
> 5. Retrospective on Heroism...By John Burl Smith
> 6. Disgruntled
> 7. Hood Notes ...End Electoral College?
> 8. Mailbox
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Heroes
> By C A Webb
>
>
>
> A tribute to all the fearless warriors in our lives.
> Heroes don't die.
> They rest. After giving us their very best,
> we keep them alive by striving to remember
> the work they did and follow their example.
> Such is the case with Rosa Parks.
> When she fell asleep in death on October 24, 2005,
> it caused all of us to realize
> how so much of what she started remains undone.
> As influential as she was,
> I didn't know much about her.
> But as her life was reflected upon the tv,
> it became plain to see
> how big a hero this humble warrior was.
> Yes, I said a warrior.   She was a leader
> who knew how to say enough is enough
> when things weren't turning out the way they should.
> Mrs. Parks, in her quiet, soft spoken way,
> was not going to be one who turned away
> when she saw others were being mistreated.
> And on that day—back in December 1, 1955—
> a simple test brought alive a moment when she said
> that no matter what her color,
> she had a right to her dignity.
> On that day the little lady started a big war
> that wasn't going away
> and is still enlisting soldiers today.
> By sitting down she stood up for herself
> and bared her weapons of live and non-violence,
> showing she was never giving up.
> And now she sleeps,
> yet we have been given our marching orders
> to keep the work she started going.
> So we must report for duty.   I find it hard to believe
> that we say we respect such heroes
> when in the U.S. every nine seconds
> a woman like her is battered each day.
> Yes, the world is failing the test of humanity,
> so you see why it's so important
> to respect those like Mrs. Parks.
> Age is a gift that many abuse,
> refusing to understand the privilege
> of becoming a mature woman or man.
> Those around us that have been blessed to grow old
> should be told how much they mean to us,
> without feeling they have become a burden or tiresome load.
> I think about my grandmother, Quattie Webb,
> and how even I've failed to always show her consideration
> —no matter how much I tell her I love her.
> Yes, regardless how busy or important we think we are,
> it's never too late
> to start doing what we know to be the right thing.
> And as we proclaim ‘Let freedom ring'
> may we believe that when all of us show mutual respect.
> There is no way that we can expect anything less,
> Because we will all be heroes.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Kudos!  Kudos!
> "Rocky" Rocks the House
>
>
>
> In late August, 2006, George W. Bush came to Salt Lake City, Utah.
> Protected by "free speech" zones from the sight of protestors, Bush
> delivered his terror speech before the American Legion National
> Convention.  Despite Bush's anti-free speech zoning, thousands of
> protestors gathered.
>
>
>
> Perhaps, the most memorable speech that day was given by Salt Lake City
> Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson.  Beginning by making the statement, "A
> patriot is a person who loves his or her country," Mayor Rocky Anderson
> unleashed a storm of criticisms of the Bush administration from its "abuse
> of power" to the "mission of lies" that led the country to war in Iraq.
> Mayor "Rocky" rocked the house by speaking truth to corrupt power!  Kudos
> Rocky!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Alcee Lamar Hastings
>
>
>
> Born September 5, 1936 in Altamonte Springs, Florida, where he attended
> Florida's public schools, Alcee Lamar Hastings graduated from Fisk
> University (1958). He earned his law degree from Florida A&M University in
> Tallahassee, Florida.
>
>
>
> In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Hastings to a federal judgeship.
> Hastings became the first black to sit on the federal bench in the state
> of Florida.  He served for a decade.  In 1989, Hastings was impeached by
> the U.S. House of Representatives for corruption and perjury.  The
> Democratic-controlled Senate convicted him of accepting a bribe in 1981 in
> exchange for a lenient sentence and perjury. Hastings became only the
> sixth judge to be impeached and removed from office by the US Senate in
> the 200 year history of the Constitution.
>
>
>
> After his removal from office, Hastings ran for Congress to represent
> Florida’s 23rd District, which includes parts of Broward, home of the
> Election 2000 hanging chad, Palm Beach, Hendry, Martin and St. Lucie
> Counties.  Elected in 1992, Has

Re: [scifinoir2] Cat Lovers Lining Up for No-Sneeze Kitties

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thanks for sharing this!
Cheers!
Amy


October 6, 2006
Cat Lovers Lining Up for No-Sneeze Kitties
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

A small California biotech company says it is ready to deliver the Holy
Grail of the $35 billion pet industry: a hypoallergenic cat.

At the start of next year, the first kittens — which the company calls
“lifestyle pets” — will go home to eager owners who have been carefully
screened and have been on a waiting list for more than two years.

Since it announced the project in October 2004, the company, Allerca, of
San Diego, says it has received inquiries from people in 85 countries
seeking to buy a cat bred so that its glands do not produce the protein
responsible for most human cat allergies.

Cats ordered now will take 12 to 15 months for delivery in the United
States, 15 to 18 months in Europe. Cost: $4,000. And owners must pass
Allerca’s finicky screening tests.

Prospective buyers are interviewed for motivation and warmth, approved
as if they were adopting a child. Will they punish if kitty has an
accident on the floor or scratches the furniture? Their families and
their homes — from carpets to curtains — must also be evaluated for
allergies and allergens.

“You’re not just buying a cat; it’s a medical device that replaces shots
and pills,” said Megan Young, chief executive of Allerca. “At the same
time, this is a living animal, so the well-being of our product comes
before our customers. This is not some high-priced handbag that you put
back on the shelf if it doesn’t match.”

In the United States and Europe, cats are the most common household pet
— there are an estimated 30 million in this country alone — and cat
allergies are one of most common human allergies. That combination has
made many homes cauldrons of sneezing, itchy conflicts in which a fiancé
is allergic to his beloved’s favorite pet, or a mother-in-law cannot
come for a festive meal because of Fluffy’s presence.

With cat owners sometimes paying thousands of dollars each year for
allergy shots, antihistamines and air filters to damp down allergies,
$4,000 for a sneeze-free existence may be an acceptable price tag. More
research is needed, but preliminary independent studies suggest Allerca
cats do not provoke allergies.

“As strange as it may sound, for us the price would have been worth it —
it would have saved us money, and saved us pain from all the medical and
also emotional problems,” said Christopher Cullen of New York. His
girlfriend’s worsening allergies resulted this week in their putting up
for adoption their beloved cat, Cimbi, who had achieved “mild Internet
notoriety,” Mr. Cullen said, as the star of her own Web site, harlemfur.com.

Mr. Cullen and his girlfriend, Cheryl Burley, have fought a losing
two-year battle to engineer a tolerable co-existence with Cimbi, because
Ms. Burley, a devoted cat lover, has had cat allergies since childhood.
On the Web site, you can watch Mr. Cullen, who works for the New York
Senate Democratic Conference, giving Cimbi a bath to reduce her allergen
load; he takes Cimbi on a leash to Morningside Park for a day, to give
his girlfriend’s allergies a break.

The couple never put down carpets. They installed HEPA filters and
vacuumed incessantly. But Ms. Burley’s symptoms worsened in recent
months and that fragile equilibrium fell apart two weeks ago when the
couple took in a second cat, Marley. Ms. Burley could not work, could
not breathe and had a seizure. They took Marley to an animal shelter.

“Our whole life has gone downhill,” Ms. Burley said. “I missed four days
of work. I’m back on inhalers, eyedrops and creams. This hypoallergenic
cat would be a perfect solution for me. I’m determined to have a kitty.”

Dr. Sheldon Spector, a professor of clinical medicine at the University
of California, Los Angeles, recently studied the cats and said the
concept seemed to work.

Ten volunteers with severe cat allergies were exposed to a variety of
cats but showed no reaction to the Allerca cats, though all had symptoms
with normal animals. “This is not a definitive study, but it is an
interesting and intriguing concept that could really help people,” Dr.
Spector said.

For the moment, he said he would not recommend buying the cats because
“$4,000 seems like a lot of money” and there was still the chance that
some people might react to some degree to less common cat proteins.

Most human cat allergies are caused by Fel d 1, a molecule that has been
sequenced and its gene mapped in the last decade. At first, Allerca
scientists sought a method to delete or disable the gene.

But in testing to see whether the gene had been effectively silenced,
they made a fortuitous discovery: A very small number of cats carry a
mutant gene that produces a modified protein, far less likely to induce
allergies.

At that point, the research shifted course. Allerca screened thousands
of cats to identify a population with the modified gene and then set
those cats to breeding. Because th

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Physicists seek to put one thing in two places

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Interesting science stuff.


* Burglars found to be as skilled as pilots:
Burglars are so good at robbing houses, they should
be regarded as experts in their field, two
psychologists say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060927_burglars.htm


* Scientists attack mysteries of Mona Lisa:
For centuries she has given us mysterious looks. Now
researchers claim to have cracked some mysteries of
the painting itself.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060926_monalisa.htm


* Physicists seek to put one thing in two places:
Researchers say they've made an object move just by
watching it, which is inspiring them to a still
bolder project.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060923_quantum.htm


* Earth hottest in 5,000 years, study suggests:
A further slight increase will produce dangerous sea
level rises and species exterminations, scientists
warn.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060925_warming.htm


* Chemistry defeats the "Godzilla of odors":
Chemicals known as isonitriles have a stench so
vile, its victims claim to suffer mental scars for a
while.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060925_odors.htm


***

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Do your friends or colleagues a favor. Just click here  
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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 39 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]



>
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 39...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...requiem for America: Wake Up American World Citizens!
> By Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)
> 2. News You Use...Devil in the Details
> 3. Bit of History...Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. Politics Y2K6...Shadow of the Liberator...By Richard Gott
> 6. Venue for an Artist...The Devil's Recipe (Excerpts from UN Speech)...
>By Hugo Chavez7.Disgruntled
> 7. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Requiem for America: Wake Up American World Citizens!
> By Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)
>
>
>
> Many will not be able to read this
> and most simply won't.
> The civil war has been exported (again.)
> The red and blue are battling with Iraq
> and other foreign turfs.
> Don't kid yourselves,
> the two Americas are at least a dozen–
> Republican, Democrat, neither, other,
> Hispanic, Latino, White, Mexican American,
> African American, Arab American,
> American Indian, Asian American,
> Fill In The Blank Americans…
> It's all done with sleight of hand and demographics,
> b/c the minorities combined
> will soon be (if they aren't already) the majority!
> Yet, many are numb and number,
> numbered and branded like animals,
> many have grown complacent…
> many quietly do the work.
> The war on drugs is
> more about pharmaceuticals than healing,
> the educational system more about
> a pacifier in the mouth than pacifists,
> the homicide numbers another (un)civil war.
> This tripping of tongue is a mixed metaphor
> not a metered foot from my mouth,
> and metaphors mixed are my placebo
> for media-sad-news-world.
> By the way, your Indians are not your Indians,
> they were here so long before you...
> so long before that cameo appearance
> on the cold hard street of fame called Hollywood.
> Shut your loud obnoxious voice and take a rest.
> Quiem!
> Quies!
> Quiet!
> America… hear whispering in the pines
> many tongues talking from one mouth...
> many quietly do the work.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> News You Use
> Devil in the Details
>
>
>
> After calling George W. Bush a devil, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez
> offered the congregation at Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem and
> other needy US citizens 100 million gallons of subsidized oil.  The offer
> received  warm applause and created warm feelings toward Chavez,
> especially among those struggling to pay energy bills.
>
>
>
> This was not the first time Chavez has offered to spread the wealth
> generated by his country's most valued resource and the current high price
> of oil.  While Hugo's oil gifts have been warmly received by poor people
> in the US and other countries, the US federal government has been less
> than receptive.  Each blames the other for the situation.  Tensions
> between the two countries have grown since the failed US-supported coup
> and the US' ongoing support of anti-Chavez groups inside and outside of
> Venezuela.
>
>
>
> As Greg Palast points out, it is not the oil. Venezuela is the fourth
> largest exporter of oil to the US (June 2006), which imported more than a
> million barrels a day from that country, or less than one-tenth of US oil
> imports.  The US could replace this amount of oil from alternative
> sources.  It cannot, however, replace the petrodollars that fail to find
> their way into US Treasury Bills and other US dollar-denominated assets.
> According to Palast and others, this is the cash -- the petrodollars--that
> funds multiple wars on credit when the nation is so deeply in debt.
>
>
>
> It is the petro-dollars, where they are stored and how they are used, that
> are the devil in the details, we must examine when looking at US-Venezuela
> relations.  For more on  US-Venezuela relations, read Greg Palast's
> interview with Hugo Chavez at www.gregpalast.com.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías
>
>
>
> Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was born July 28, 1954 in the town of Sabaneta,
> Barinas, Venezuela.  He is the second son of schoolteachers, Elena Frías
> de and Hugo de los Reyes Chávez.  The Chávez family was not wealthy; they
> sold bananas and sowed corn to make ends meet.  Hugo and his older brother
> lived with their paternal grandmother, Rosa Inés Chávez, so they could
> complete their education. Very active, Hugo painted, sang, wrote and
> played baseball.
>
>
>
> Chávez enrolled at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences at age
> seventeen, earning a degree in engineering (1975).  He pursued graduate
> studies at Caracas' Simón Bolívar University, but left without a degree.
> Inspired by the 19th-century Pan-American philosophies of Simon Bolívar,
> Chávez and fellow activists developed a left-nationalist doctrine called
> "Bolivarianism."  Influenced by the teachings of various socialist and
> c

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 38 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 38...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... 09-22-06
> 
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Ballad of Birmingham ...By Dudley Randall (1914-2000)
> 2. News You Use...Online Slave Trade Database
> 3. Bit of History...Civil Rights Division of USDOJ
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. Politics Y2K6...George's Basal Appeal
> 6. Venue for an Artist...Why Republicans Rip the Voting Rights Act...
>By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
> 7.Disgruntled
> 8. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Ballad of Birmingham
> By Dudley Randall (1914-2000)
>
>
>
> "Mother dear, may I go downtown
> instead of out to play,
> and march the streets of Birmingham
> in a Freedom March today?"
>
>
>
> "No, baby, no, you may not go,
> for the dogs are fierce and wild,
> and clubs and hoses, guns and jails
> ain't good for a little child."
>
>
>
> "But, mother, I won't be alone.
> Other children will go with me,
> and march the streets of Birmingham
> to make our country free."
>
>
>
> "No, baby, no, you may not go,
> for I fear those guns will fire.
> But you may go to church instead
> and sing in the children's choir."
>
>
>
> She has combed and brushed her nightdark hair,
> and bathed rose petal sweet,
> and drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
> and white shoes on her feet.
>
>
>
> The mother smiled to know her child
> was in the sacred place,
> but that smile was the last smile
> to come upon her face.
>
>
>
> For when she heard the explosion,
> her eyes grew wet and wild.
> She raced through the streets of Birmingham
> calling for her child.
>
>
>
> She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
> then lifted out a shoe.
> "O, here's the shoe my baby wore,
> but, baby, where are you?"
>
>
>
> [On the Bombing of a Church in Birmingham, AL 1963]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> News You Use
> Online Slave Trade Database
>
>
>
> Black genealogists are certain to find Emory University's Trans-Atlantic
> Slave Trade project exciting.  Emory University received $324,000 from the
> National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and $25,000 from Harvard
> University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American
> Research to revise and expand "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade," a CD-ROM
> database of transatlantic slave ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866.
> It has become an invaluable source of information for researchers, but it
> is expensive.  Emory's project will expand the 1999 CD and make it
> available online free.
>
>
>
> David Eltis, the Robert W. Woodruff professor of history at Emory and
> project director, claims the updated database will allow researchers to
> trace the path of people from Africa to the Americas.  Because the slave
> trade was a business, Eltis said, "We have very good records. In fact, the
> records are better than the records of Europeans.  People from Africa were
> property and people from Europe were not."  The project is scheduled to be
> completed in 2008, the 200th anniversary of the implementation of Article
> 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution; it banned the importation of slaves
> into the United States after 1808.
>
>
>
> Expect to hear more as we approach the project's completion date.  For
> more about the project, see
> http://news.emory.edu/Releases/SlaveVoyagesData1150901442.html.  To
> subscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for automatic updates of the latest news on the
> Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, contact Elaine Justice at 404-727-0643 or
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Civil Rights Division of USDOJ
>
>
>
> The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), established in 1870, is
> "charged with enforcing federal laws, providing legal counsel in federal
> cases and construing the laws under which other federal executive
> departments act.   Headed by the US Attorney General, the chief US law
> officer and cabinet member, the USDOJ is composed of six divisions
> (Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Criminal, Environment and Natural
> Resources, and Tax).
>
>
>
> In August 1957, Congress, after debating for sixty-three days, enacted the
> first civil rights law since Reconstruction to provide protection for
> blacks in exercising their right as US citizens to vote.   The Civil
> Rights Act of 1957 empowered the federal government to remove some of the
> obstacles that state and local officials placed in the path of black
> registration and voting.  It authorized the creation of a civil rights
> office at the Department of Justice.  On December 9, 1957, Attorney
> General Herbert Brownell issued the order establishing the Civil Rights
> Division.  Headed by an Assistant Attorney General, the division enforces
> federal statutes that prohibit "discrimination on the basis of race, sex,
> disability, religion and national o

[scifinoir2] The Universe on a String

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Really fascinating.

 
 




October 20, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Universe on a String 
By BRIAN GREENE
SEVENTY-FIVE years ago this month, The New York Times reported that Albert 
Einstein had completed his unified field theory - a theory that promised to 
stitch all of nature's forces into a single, tightly woven mathematical 
tapestry. But as had happened before and would happen again, closer scrutiny 
revealed flaws that sent Einstein back to the drawing board. Nevertheless, 
Einstein's belief that he'd one day complete the unified theory rarely 
faltered. Even on his deathbed he scribbled equations in the desperate but 
fading hope that the theory would finally materialize. It didn't. 

In the decades since, the urgency of finding a unified theory has only 
increased. Scientists have realized that without such a theory, critical 
questions can't be addressed, such as how the universe began or what lies at 
the heart of a black hole. These unresolved issues have inspired much progress, 
with the most recent advances coming from an approach called string theory. 
Lately, however, string theory has come in for considerable criticism. And so, 
this is an auspicious moment to reflect on the state of the art. 

First, some context. For nearly 300 years, science has been on a path of 
consolidation. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton discovered laws of motion that 
apply equally to a planet moving through space and to an apple falling 
earthward, revealing that the physics of the heavens and the earth are one. Two 
hundred years later, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell showed that 
electric currents produce magnetic fields, and moving magnets can produce 
electric currents, establishing that these two forces are as united as Midas' 
touch and gold. And in the 20th century, Einstein's work proved that space, 
time and gravity are so entwined that you can't speak sensibly about one 
without the others. 

This striking pattern of convergence, linking concepts once thought unrelated, 
inspired Einstein to dream of the next and possibly final move: merging gravity 
and electromagnetism into a single, overarching theory of nature's forces. 

In hindsight, there was almost no way he could have succeeded. He was barely 
aware that there were two other forces he was neglecting - the strong and weak 
forces acting within atomic nuclei. Furthermore, he willfully ignored quantum 
mechanics, the new theory of the microworld that was receiving voluminous 
experimental support, but whose probabilistic framework struck him as deeply 
misguided. Einstein stayed the course, but by his final years he had drifted to 
the fringe of a subject he had once dominated. 

After Einstein's death, the torch of unification passed to other hands. In the 
1960's, the Nobel Prize-winning works of Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and 
Steven Weinbergwon 1979 revealed that at high energies, the electromagnetic and 
weak nuclear forces seamlessly combine, much as heating a cold vat of chicken 
soup causes the floating layer of fat to combine with the liquid below, 
yielding a homogeneous broth. Subsequent work argued that at even higher 
energies the strong nuclear force would also meld into the soup, a proposed 
consolidation that has yet to be confirmed experimentally, but which has 
convinced many physicists that there is no fundamental obstacle to unifying 
three of nature's four forces. 

For decades, however, the force of gravity stubbornly resisted joining the 
fold. The problem was the very one that so troubled Einstein: the disjunction 
between his own general relativity, most relevant for extremely massive objects 
like stars and galaxies, and quantum mechanics, the framework invoked by 
physics to deal with exceptionally small objects like molecules and atoms and 
their constituents. 

Time and again, attempts to merge the two theories resulted in ill-defined 
mathematics, much like what happens on a calculator if you try to divide one by 
zero. The display will flash an error message, reprimanding you for misusing 
mathematics. The combined equations of general relativity and quantum mechanics 
yield similar problems. While the conflict rears its head only in environments 
that are both extremely massive and exceptionally tiny - black holes and the 
Big Bang being two primary examples - it tells of a fissure in the very 
foundations of physics. 

Such was the case until the mid-1980's, when a new approach, string theory, 
burst onto the stage. Difficult and complex calculations by the physicists John 
Schwarz and Michael Green, who had been toiling for years in scientific 
obscurity, gave compelling evidence that this new approach not only unified 
gravity and quantum mechanics, as well as nature's other forces, but did so 
while sweeping aside previous mathematical problems. As word of the 
breakthrough spread, many physicists 

[scifinoir2] Re: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Pumpkin Pi is the best!
  Cheers!
  Amy



  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!






  Hi Everyone, 


  To Celebrate Halloween, I thought I would put together a newsletter chalk 
full of fun stuff. Everyone knows how much I love Halloween. Because I won't be 
getting any trick-or-treaters this year (most kids don't want to climb up two 
flights of stairs, even for candy) I thought I would treat you all with 
something fun. 


  Table of Contents 

  * SOME INTERESTING FACTS
  * ABOUT HALLOWEEN
  * HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
  * OBSERVENCE OF HALLOWEEN
  * A REALLY BIG SHOW (Is Halloween more popular than Christmas?)
  * THE LORD OF DARKNESS
  * THE PUMPKINS ROOTS
  * THE FIRST JACK-O-LANTERN
  * DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
  * THE LEGEND OF BLOODY MARY
  * A FRIGHTENING TALE (Realties Real)
  * A HALLOWEN HORROR QUIZ!

  Enjoy this Halloween Treat from me to you! And may your Halloween be scary 
and full of candy! 


  Cheers,
  Jamieson




  Some Interesting Facts 



  Day and Date of Halloween:
  2002: Thursday, October 31 
  2003: Friday, October 31
  2004: Sunday, October 31 
  2005: Monday, October 31
  2006: Tuesday, October 31
  2007: Wednesday, October 31


  How To Determine the Date of Halloween
  Halloween is celebrated every October 31st. 

  Other Names and Common Misspellings for Halloween:
  All Hallows Eve
  Samhain
  All Hallowtide
  The Feast of the Dead 
  Misspellings:
  Haloween
  Holloween
  Holoween 



  About Halloween:


  Halloween is one of the more strange holidays celebrated in the United States.

  Although American parents discourage talking to strangers and worship of the 
occult, parents allow their children to visit stranger's homes and accept candy 
and even allow children to dress up as ghosts and ghouls. The holiday and the 
way of celebrating has changed over the years because of the merging of 
cultures and celebrations. 





  History of Halloween: 

a.. The Celts believed that souls of the dead visited the earth every 
October 31. 
b.. All Hallows Eve was the evening before All Saints Day which is 
celebrated on November 1. 
c.. In Mexico, they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead 
starting the evening of October 31. 
d.. Halloween also marks the end of harvest season. The end of October 
marks the time that pastures and fields dry up. The animals were brought in 
from the pasture to be butchered and the remaining vegetables left in fields 
and gardens were left to rot. This part of the season often brought about 
reminisce of loved ones that were lost. 
e.. In 1800's people started to have parties. Part of the celebrations 
included costumes, fortune telling and games such as bobbing for apples. 
f.. At the turn of the century, cities were overcrowded and Halloween 
marked the time to let off steam by playing practical jokes such as turning 
over out houses. By the 1930's things had gotten out of hand and serious damage 
was being done on Halloween. There was a movement to have children go door to 
door and ask for candy as an alternative to vandalism. 


  Traditional Observance of Halloween: 

a.. Home owners display decorations on their house such as Jack O'lanterns 
(a carved, the lit pumpkin), scare crows, fake cemeteries, spider webs and 
other decorations. Some even play spooky music that can be heard in their 
yards. 
b.. Trick or Treating
In the evening children dress up in costumes, and they go door to door in 
their neighborhoods. When the homeowner opens the door, they say "Trick or 
Treat". The home owner gives the children candy. 
c.. Costume Parties
People attend costume parties and dress to disguise their appearance. Often 
there are prizes for the best costume. 
d.. Some people do mischievous things on Halloween such as spraying other 
people with shaving cream, throwing eggs, or TPing (covering with toilet paper) 
houses and trees. Damaging another's person property or assault is illegal in 
the United States. 


   A Really Big Show 
  Halloween is second only to Christmas in spending. Consumers will spend over 
$2.5 Billion during Halloween. That's a whole lot of candy, costumes, 
decorations, and party goods. 

   


  Samhain the Lord of Darkness 
  The Druid religion of Celtic tribes worshipped Samhain, the Lord of Darkness. 
The Druid New Year began on November 1st, as the hours of nighttime were 
growing significantly over the hours of sunlight. Hence, Lord Samhain reigned 
over the long winter months as the influence of the Sun god receded. 

   


  Pumpkin's Roots 
  Pumpkins have inhabited the planet for thousands of years. They originated in 
Central America. They were used then (and now) as a food crop. Over the course 
of centuries, pumpkins spread their vines across all of North and South 
America. When Europeans arrived in the New World, they found pumpkins plentiful 
and used in cooking by Native Americans. They took seeds back to Europe where 
they quickly became p

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 41 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 41...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Dreams...By Yohannes Sharriff
> 2. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 3. Bit of History...Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. Heritage of a Totally Lawless Nation...By John Burl Smith
> 6. Hood Notes...Angilio Freeland
> 7. Phantom Scribbler...Sadr's Surprise
> 8. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Dreams
> By Yohannes Sharriff
>
>
>
> What do you do
> when you realize there is no spoon
> or straight line separating dreams
> from these waking hours?
> They say, if you believe in your dreams
> they'll come true.
> So why does it seem
> we give so little credence to the things seen
> when our eyes are closed?
> They say you can be anything,
> if you reach for the stars,
> Making it seem so far away
> when our atoms are the same as the stars.
> So, why don't we reach for who we truly are?
> Some claim they dare not believe
> in what they can not see.
> Yet, they believe in every breath they breathe
> and the air goes unseen.
> I mean, why do so many
> find themselves saying it was just a dream?
> Why do so many bright ideas
> fade in a shoe box in the closet
> gathering dust amongst the keepsakes of youth?
> They say, you must be patient
> yet the patient spend their days creating proof
> that their dreams are real.
> And maybe it's not so much
> a constant contradiction as it is the fact
> we exist beyond three dimensions.
> The jaguar whispers and I awake from the dream
> Within a dream the jaguar whispers,
> "Everything is not what it seems."
> Wading thru reality, am I still dreaming?
> Is this an awakening,
> because most seems to be sleeping?
> Neither past nor future…
> Somewhere in between, I'm living a waking dream.
> Maybe it is the way
> the ancestors dreamed me into existence.
> On top of Mt Arabia watching the sunset
> Breathe and believe it's infinite
> The Goddess has returned to conceive the present.
> Birthing a new sun,
> she's here to transform the limited into infinite.
> Remember, this is a dream
> the meaning maybe cryptic
> perhaps metaphysic .
> Then again, it may not even make sense.
> Acid trip lucid,
> the jaguar whispers,
> "Some seem to know how to fight
> without ever having thrown a punch."
> My response was, "To fight reflects the war inside.
> So, I win the war by not fighting
> By exercising my mind, moving wise
> and knowing God got the outcome.
> Give my life to protect what I love
> Because you never know the day or the time
> But, if you are still fighting when opposition arrives,
> live or die, you probably already lost.
> No matter the war, both sides pay the cost.
> Pray and know God is listening.
> And don't be afraid to listen to the God within.
> The jaguar whispers…
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Comments from the Bat Cave
>
>
>
> The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro returned to his middle school in
> mid-August.  Already the public school system has begun its endless regime
> of testing, which is part of the Bush Administration's No Child Left
> Behind program.  Asked about the early testing, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro
> groused, "They don't teach!  We just test!"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
>
>
>
> Born February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln was
> named after his grandfather, who was scalped in a 1786 Indian raid.  His
> parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, were farmers.  From an early age,
> Lincoln was exposed to anti-slavery sentiment.  His parents belonged to a
> breakaway Baptist church that did not support slavery.  Lincoln never
> joined any church.  As a youth, he ridiculed religion, but mastered the
> Bible.
>
>
>
> Lincoln's early education consisted of little formal schooling.
> Self-taught, he read every book he could borrow.  In 1837,  Lincoln was
> admitted to the bar.  He served as a captain in a company of the Illinois
> militia during the Black Hawk War, but he never saw combat.  His political
> career began with an unsuccessful bid for the Illinois General Assembly in
> 1832.  Two years later, Lincoln (a Whig) won an Assembly seat and served
> four successive terms
>
>
>
> Elected to the US House of Representatives (1946), Lincoln spoke out
> against the Mexican-American War, which he attributed to President Polk's
> desire for "military glory — that attractive rainbow, that rises in
> showers of blood."  Lincoln decided not to seek reelection following angry
> demonstrations by Democrats in his district.
>
>
>
> Lincoln returned to politics in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
> (1854), which sparked debates over slavery.  On October 16, 1854, at one
> of his famous debates with Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, 

[scifinoir2] Fw: The votes are in! We announce the freakiest fish

[Amy Harlib]

The votes are in! We announce the freakiest fish
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cool!


 
 

  Happy Halloween! After hundreds of nominations and thousands of votes, 
WaveMakers have decided that the blobfish is the freakiest fish around. 

   

  >> Send this FREE freaky fish eCard to your friends and family 

  This fish could be Ziggy's underwater cousin! The blobfish is made up 
almost entirely of a jelly substance and is too lazy to hunt prey. Instead, it 
sits patiently and waits for something edible to pass by 

  Thanks to all the WaveMakers that participated in our freaky fish 
contest! Have a fun and safe Halloween. 

  For the oceans,
  Maureen Bonner
Manager, E-Activism & Marketing  


  P.S. David in Spring, Texas took the freaky fish contest to another 
level. He let his imagination run wild and created his own freaky fish through 
the power of Photoshop! Check out David's creation: the dogfish (Squalus 
acanthias canis).   
   
   
   
Freaky Fish Honorable Mention

 

>> Send a fangtooth eCard 

 

>> Send a Monkfish eCard  
  
Attention eBay Addicts

The next time you're buying a new handbag or selling your baseball 
collection on ebay, consider working some charitable giving into the mix. 
Missionfish is an online service that allows sellers to donate a portion or all 
of their proceeds to go to the organization of their choice - like Oceana! Look 
for the symbol when you make your purchases, and sign up for Missionfish on 
items you sell. 

Check it out  Vote! November 7

No matter what your political affiliation, make sure you head to 
the polls on November 7. Our oceans are on the brink of irreversible collapse 
because of overfishing and pollution. The government that we elect has the 
power to create laws to protect the oceans, and the whales, dolphin, turtles 
and other marine life that depend on them for survival. Please remember to 
consider the environment when you cast your vote this November. 

Find a voting station near you  
 
  Sign Up | Unsubscribe | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
 



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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 44 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 44...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... 11-03-06
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1.News You Use...Hosea Still Feeds the Hungry
> 2. Intuit's Vibe...The Election...By Jessica
> 3. Bit of History...Theodore M. Berry (1905-2000)
> 4. Hood Notes...Dumped on Skid Row
> 5. Dishing It Up Hot!...Kick the Liars Out!...By Dot
> 6. Politics Y2K6...Making Black History
> 7. Disgruntled
> 8. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> News You Use
> Hosea Still Feeds the Hungry
>
>
>
> To rescue, restore and re-stabilize people in crisis by providing for
> their physical, emotional and spiritual needs preventing the cycle of
> poverty through fostering empowering enabling self-sufficiency and
> building a caring community of humanity worldwide. (Mission Statement)
>
>
>
> That is the mission statement of Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, a
> program begun in 1971 by civil rights leader, organizer for Dr. Martin
> Luther King, Jr., the late Rev. Hosea Williams.  According to Rev.
> Williams, who died in 2000, watching a hungry man ravenously devour a fish
> sandwich that he bought the man in lieu of giving him money, broke his
> heart.  In this land of plenty, Rev. Williams knew there was much that
> could be done to ease aching bellies.  A man of action, he went to work on
> the endless task of feeding the hungry.
>
>
>
> Rev. Williams' family has expanded Hosea Feed the Hungry.  It provides
> year-round services, including  rent, utility and housing deposit
> assistance, distribution of clothing, furniture and toiletries, Job Skills
> Training, and international relief.
>
>
>
> The Hosea Feed the Hungry Holiday Dinners (Thanksgiving, Christmas, MLK
> Day and Easter Sunday) are major events in metro Atlanta.  They feature
> entertainment, an array of personal care services for the homeless,
> medical assistance, home deliveries to the sick and elderly, church
> services, counseling, job referrals and so much more.  These events are
> special occasions for everyone, the hungry and homeless, volunteers and
> the lonely.  This Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of volunteers are needed to
> serve an anticipated crowd of more than 15,000 hungry and homeless people
> at Turner Stadium.
>
>
>
> Help is always needed to feed the hungry.  Become a volunteer, email
> Dancia at [EMAIL PROTECTED]  Make a donation and/or attend a
> fundraiser.  For more information, visit http://hoseafeedthehungry.com or
> call (404) 755-3353 ext 309 for Yolanda Stewart.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> The Election
> By Jessica
>
>
>
> They say not to believe anything you hear
> and only half of what you see
> but how long can we ride the rods?
>
>
>
> They try to alter our thoughts and notions
> and it doesn't take much effort
> because our shells have been eroded.
>
>
>
> Perhaps the adaptation process went awry
> and we are not progressing, but regressing
> with each passing moment.
>
>
>
> For there are more problems
> than time in which to solve them
> and Murphy's always in the vicinity
> but don't abandon the aspirations.
>
>
>
> Rome wasn't built in a day
> but could be destroyed in a second
> which shouldn't worry you, but does.
>
>
>
> We've developed insane beliefs,
> lost all respect, and found no comfort.
>
>
>
> We should stop the cursory glances;
> for once, take a good, long look
> and maybe we will understand.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Theodore M. Berry (1905-2000)
>
>
>
> Born in poverty on November 5, 1905 in Maysville, Kentucky, a small town
> on the banks of the Ohio River, Theodore M. Berry, the son of a white
> farmer he only met once and deaf black woman, mastered the art of oral
> communication.  He became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.
>
>
>
> Berry communicated with his mother through sign language, and she could
> read lips.  Berry grew up carefully enunciating his words in communicating
> with his mother; he mastered diction in the process.  The skill served him
> well throughout his life.
>
>
>
> A poor boy, Berry sold newspapers, shined shoes, shoveled coal, delivered
> laundry, shelved books in local libraries, and worked as a desk clerk at
> Cincinnati's "Black" YMCA, where he roomed in high school.  Writing under
> the pseudonym Thomas Playfair, Berry won an essay contest for "The Chaos
> Beyond" during his senior year.  Submitted under his name, Berry's
> original essay, "Lincoln and the Constitution," was  rejected by an
> all-white panel.
>
>
>
> For winning, the senior-class valedictorian of Woodward High (1924) was
> forbidden to walk in the commencement procession with a white female
> classmate.  Berry, the school's first black valedictorian, walked alone.
>
>
>
> Berry worked in steel mills in Newport, Kentucky to pay tuition at  the
> Uni

Re: [scifinoir2] FW: Republican Leader who raised 7 million for Bush caught in scandal

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Couldn't agree with Keith's comments more.
It is the Good Book itself that says: "Judge not, lest ye be judged" and of 
course, there's always the Golden Rule!
Passionately Progressive/Color me Green, Amy


(applause)

Keith Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
What an ironically funny understatement ends this report: "Members of 
Haggard's 14,000-member megachurch were stunned." No chit!!

I assume the timing of the release of this was intended by the accuser, but 
he should have a care, for it may backfire. Hopefully it'll make the 
ultra-conservative right so disgusted with their leaders they'll stay home 
next week. (Abstaining from voting is all one can hope for from 
ultra-conservatives. They sure as hell won't switch to more liberal 
candidates!) But I hope that it doesn't rile up the religious right who'll 
view it from the gays-trying-to-take-over mindset, and flock to the polls to 
protect themselves. Think about it: you're a Bible-thumping Christian who 
hates homosexuality and homosexuals, finding out They have even infiltrated 
and corrupted your church. Or maybe your preacher's just evil too. You see 
enemies lurking everywhere, like roaches in the walls of your house. So you 
may feel it's a war with the enemy steadily advancing, and you take steps to 
stave off the attack. And that means, that if you can't trust your leaders, 
you can at least back a law to
 limit what gays can do. Indeed, the thought of backing a hard-and-fast law 
not subject to human foibles and hypocrisy may just bring 'em out on 
election day. We'll see come Tuesday. And we're still not sure what if 
anything the preacher did wrong...

Part of me is glad--well, not glad--but somber in the acknowledgement of the 
necessity of all the scandals recently. Mind you, I say this as a Christian. 
But, the key messages of Jesus were to love and respect all people, even if 
you hate what they do, and to not judge others. All I've seen in the years 
since the Contract (on) America has been self-righteous Pharises stridently 
screaming about immorality from every street corner and TV station. They've 
used God and Jesus to label others, to silence disagreement as sin, 
questions as tools of the devil, and open-mindedness as evidence of 
consorting with sinners. In short, they've violated the basic principles 
that Christianity and Judaism at their best are *supposed* to stand for. 
I've watched so-called Christians with disgust as they've attacked kids' tV 
shows, actors, and other politicians. As theyââ,¬â"¢ve co-opted and 
corrupted God to label as sinful everything from universal healthcare to 
environmental consciousness.
 They've lumped whole groups together, using one person's failings or 
controversial beliefs to condemn whole segments of the population.

Frankly, given what Christians (many, not all!) have allowed to emerge as 
the public faces of the faith, i can see no compelling reason why anyone 
would convert. Explain to me how one could get a perfectly happy, 
respectful, loving Hindu to give up her faith to follow Ralph Reed and 
George Bush? How you gonna take an African brother who still pays homage to 
his ancestors and spirits of Nautre, and has a happy-if-poor life, to give 
that up so he can be told all the time what a sinner he is by people who can 
barely tolerate his skin color? Ask an humble Buddhist to abandon his 
heritage for Christians while he watches supposedly religious politicians 
use stunningly dirty tricks to defame their opponents? Explain to a Muslim 
that heââ,¬â"¢s wrong as he watches his village destroyed by a Christian 
nation that he knows used lies and half-truths to justify invading his 
country?

The key elements of a Christian--or any good person, religious or not--are 
humility and respect. I've seen none of this from the Moral Majority. The 
most important lesson humans can learn is that none of us--no single one--is 
intrinsically better or worse than anyone else. That, to quote the Bible, 
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Know that, and you 
learn to stop yelling and start listening, to stop judging and start 
accepting, stop converting and start guiding, stop attacking and start 
loving. So while I may not be glad, I do acknowledge the necessity of the 
pendulum's swing back, as the revelation that even those who deem themselves 
"God's Chosen" are as full of sin and hypocrisy as the rest of us sinners. 
Maybe they'll realize that judging people is wrong, and especially, judging 
a whole grou p for the mistakes of a few is neither right--nor sound policy.

Now--please God!--now, can we stop all the labelling and judging and 
name-calling, and get back to the business of pulling together as "One 
nation, indivisible"?

[Story excerpt]

- A leading evangelist and outspoken opponent of gay marriage has given up 
his post as president of the National Association of Evangelicals while a 
church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for se

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 42 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]



>
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 42...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...The Quadroon Girl ...Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
> (1807-1882)
> 2. Disgruntled
> 3. Bit of History...James Marion Sims (1813-1883)
> 4. Venue for an Artist...Pharmaceutical Tests... By Tonyaa Weathersbee
> 5. News You Use...Poets 4 Political Prisoners
> 6. Hood Notes...Economic Reality
> 7. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> The Quadroon Girl
> Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
>
>
>
> The Slaver in the broad lagoon
> Lay moored with idle sail;
> He waited for the rising moon,
> And for the evening gale.
>
>
>
> Under the shore his boat was tied,
> And all her listless crew
> Watched the gray alligator slide
> Into the still bayou.
>
>
>
> Odors of orange-flowers, and spice,
> Reached them from time to time,
> Like airs that breathe from Paradise
> Upon a world of crime.
>
>
>
> The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
> Smoked thoughtfully and slow;
> The Slaver's thumb was on the latch,
> He seemed in haste to go.
>
>
>
> He said, "My ship at anchor rides
> In yonder broad lagoon;
> I only wait the evening tides,
> And the rising of the moon.
>
>
>
> Before them, with her face upraised,
> In timid attitude,
> Like one half curious, half amazed,
> A Quadroon maiden stood.
>
>
>
> Her eyes were large, and full of light,
> Her arms and neck were bare;
> No garment she wore save a kirtle bright,
> And her own long, raven hair.
>
>
>
> And on her lips there played a smile
> As holy, meek, and faint,
> As lights in some cathedral aisle
> The features of a saint.
>
>
>
> "The soil is barren,--the farm is old";
> The thoughtful planter said;
> Then looked upon the Slaver's gold,
> And then upon the maid.
>
>
>
> His heart within him was at strife
> With such accursed gains:
> For he knew whose passions gave her life,
> Whose blood ran in her veins.
>
>
>
> But the voice of nature was too weak;
> He took the glittering gold!
> Then pale as death grew the maiden's cheek,
> Her hands as icy cold.
>
>
>
> The Slaver led her from the door,
> He led her by the hand,
> To be his slave and paramour
> In a strange and distant land!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Disgruntled feels:  At long last, the truth emerges.  There is no
> compassionate conservative and that faith-based propaganda is a devious
> ploy to get evangelicals to the polls to vote for Republicans.  Classic
> Karl Rove psychological manipulation, it is the kind of fraud lobbyist
> Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed used on Native Americans that wanted to get
> and keep casinos.  The neo-conservative junta, which runs the Bush
> administration, sees religion as a sedative for the masses, liberally used
> to lull sheep asleep while it acquires and maintains power.  Of course,
> clever neo-cons  call those so easily manipulated unflattering names, such
> as goofy and nuts, as David Kuo claims in his new book, "Tempting Faith:
> An Inside Story of Political Seduction."  It is a case of the faithless
> fooling the faithful.
>
>
>
> Disgruntled says: Contrary to urban legend, the 13th Amendment to the US
> Constitution did not abolish slavery.  The word ‘slavery' appears for the
> first time in this amendment.  The 13th and subsequent amendments neither
> specifically repealed the 3/5 Compromise (Article 1, Section 2) nor
> abolished its racist institutions, which include the Electoral College.
> The legal foundation of US slavery remains intact.  The 13th Amendment
> merely identifies the circumstance under which US citizens may be held in
> bondage (imprisoned) for committing a crime.  It says nothing about the
> political and economic slavery codified in Article 1 Section 2.
>
>
>
> Disgruntled wants to know:  Inside the Beltway, the air is blue with much
> ado about former US Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) and his inappropriate contact
> with underage male pages.  The fallout has GOP gays acrimonious.  Will
> there be another bombshell like a prominent member of government leaving
> the closet and pointing fingers at those still hiding?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> James Marion Sims (1813-1883)
>
>
>
> "I knew nothing about medicine, but I had sense enough to see that doctors
> were killing their patients; that medicine was not an exact science; that
> it was wholly empirical, and that it would be better to trust entirely to
> Nature than to the hazardous skills of the doctors."  -- James Marion Sims
>
>
>
> Born on January 25, 1813 in Lancaster County South Carolina, James Marion
> Sims attended Columbia College, present-day University of South Carolina,
> where he received a BA (1832).   In November 1933, Sims left Charleston
> Medical College and attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia; he
> gradua

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Strange, underworld microbes raise hopes for alien life

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cool science stuff!


 * Underworld microbes raise hopes for alien life:
Bacteria found deep in a gold mine rely on energy
from radioactive uranium to live, scientists say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061019_bacteria.htm


* Pot against Alzheimer's?:
Research suggests the widely maligned drug may
protect against a devastating brain illness.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061018_marijuana.htm


* Paper challenges bedrock law of nature:
The conservation of energy law states, in essence,
that there's no free lunch. But is there?

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060929_energycons.htm


* Facial expressions may be inherited: study
The blind make similar facial expressions as their
relatives, researchers have found.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061016_expressions.htm


* Yes, we have no blue bananas:
Color perception depends partly on expectations, a
study suggests.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061015_banana.htm


* The science of dough:
The squishy bread ingredient has become an object of
engineering studies.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061014_dough.htm


***

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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 43

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 43...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1.Intuit's Vibe...Don't Let Our Hair Divide Us...By Carolyn Hopkins
> 2. Hood Notes...Black Beauty
> 3. Bit of History...Black Panthers (1966-1981)
> 4. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 5. Disgruntled
> 6. News You Use...Dying to Look Good
> 7. Venue for an Artist...Cosmetics, Capitalism and African Women 
> (Excerpt)...
>By Kathy Muhammad
> 8. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> Don't Let Our Hair Divide Us
> By Carolyn Hopkins
>
>
>
> We as black women should not let our hair
> be the dividing element
> that destroys our development.
>
>
>
> Our hair is a unique blend
> of the diverse experience
> we have experienced in America.
>
>
>
> It is an expression
> of our horrific history that at times,
> the white system has used to destroy Sister Unity.
>
>
>
> Yes, our hair defines us,
> but it should not deny us
> the right to wear it any way we want.
>
>
>
> After all,
> when we look into the magazines of America,
> we see what has been believed to be beautiful,
> and then wonder if we are okay?
>
>
>
> Yes, we may say we are okay,
> but when we search within and find
> that dilemma that makes us wonder
> if we should blend the nappy with the straight
> in order to relate
> to a world that has denied our beauty
> from the very beginning, then our hair
> still is a difficult and complex issue.
>
>
>
> Deep down we wonder if our men
> like it straight and blowing in the wind,
> and then after feeling its awesome texture,
> we fall in love with that glorious natural.
> Yet, when we stand against the world,
> the eyes of society don't often see
> our natural halo as beauty.
>
>
>
> And then we rush back to the straight
> hoping that this will dictate
> that we must compete in a competitive world;
> but blackness is a state of mind--
> the color or length or texture of our hair
> really cannot be defined;
> the decision is ours--
> we might plague it for hours.
> For in the end, what should really matter
> is the genuine love we have for our God-given hair.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hood Notes
> Black Beauty
>
>
>
> Black Americans spend nearly half a billion dollars a year to alter the
> texture of their hair. Black magazines, including Ebony, Essence and Jet,
> are filled with full page ads for relaxers and dyes, featuring high yellow
> women with shiny, long straight hair, which has become part of the
> contemporary standard of black beauty.  This chemically acquired look is
> the opposite of black pride and natural hair styles worn during the black
> power movement.
>
>
>
> According to MarketResearch.com, ethnic spending on hair, beauty and
> cosmetics  by Asians, African Americans and Hispanics is set to top $8.4
> Billion in 2006.  The current market for ethnic hair, beauty and cosmetic
> products in the U.S. is expected to grow by nearly $1.9 billion, a 19%
> gain over 2001.  This figure is conservative because it is only a portion
> of what ethnic consumers actually spend on hair relaxers, nail and lip
> care, make-up, and other HBC products. General-market HBC purchases ring
> up at about 3.5 times more than ethnic-specific, with this year's
> general-market purchases expected to total over $6.5 billion.
>
>
>
> For more, visit www.PackagedFacts.com, a division of MarketResearch.com.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Black Panthers (1966-1981)
>
>
>
> On October 15, 1966, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and others founded the Black
> Panther Party (BPP) in Oakland, California.  Originally known as the Black
> Panther Party for Self-Defense, its ten point program called for freedom
> to determine the destiny of oppressed communities, full employment for the
> people, an end to the capitalist exploitation of black communities, decent
> housing and education that teaches black history and the role of blacks in
> contemporary society, free health care, and an end to police brutality and
> murder and wars of aggression.
>
>
>
> The organization was founded to further the black American civil rights
> movement and to fill what these young black people perceived as a
> leadership void.  It adopted the black panther as its organizational
> symbol and came to be internationally recognized by the Afro and raised
> fist.  The group epitomized the black power movement, which stressed
> racial dignity, pride and self-reliance.
>
>
>
> Instituting a variety of community programs, the BPP worked  to alleviate
> poverty and illness in black communities.  Because Panthers perceived law
> enforcement as a linchpin of black oppression, it established patrols in
> black communities to monitor police activities and protect the residence
> from police brutality.  Combining elements of socia

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Monkeys using perfume? Study investigates

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Really neat science stuff.


* Monkeys using perfume? Study investigates:
Some wild spider monkeys dab on a chewed-leaf paste
that may act as a sort of cologne, researchers say.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061116_perfume-monkeys.htm


* "Dark energy" an age-old phenomenon, study finds:
A weird force pushing our universe outward has
existed since near the beginning, astrophysicists
report

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061116_dark-energy.htm


* Neanderthal DNA partially sequenced:
Scientists have preliminarily mapped out when the
stocky human cousins diverged from our species.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061115_neanderthal.htm


* Red wine ingredient found to boost endurance:
A substance earlier linked to long life in animals,
also "re-programs" muscle to double endurance, a
mouse study indicates.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061116_resveratrol.htm


* Exotic new particles reported found:
Scientists have reported discovering two new
subatomic particles, rare but important relatives of
the common­place proton and neutron.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061116_sigma-sub-b.htm


* Science in Images:
Astronomers map a " cosmic pinball machine," the 
burst star Cassiopeia A.

http://www.world-science.net


***

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[scifinoir2] African Comics, Far Beyond the Funny Pages

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Really cool article!

 



November 24, 2006
Art Review | 'Africa Comics'
African Comics, Far Beyond the Funny Pages 
By HOLLAND COTTER
"It's intense," said the security guard as I was leaving "Africa Comics" at the 
Studio Museum in Harlem after an hour or more of up-close looking and reading. 
She was right. That's exactly the word for the stealth-potency of this modest, 
first-time United States survey of original designs by 35 African artists who 
specialize in comic art. 

Their work is intense the way urban Africa is intense: intensely zany, 
intensely warm, intensely harsh, intensely political. True, you could say the 
same of New York or New Delhi, or any major cosmopolis being shaped by 
globalism these days. Yet every place has very specific intensities. Africa 
does, and they are distilled in the art here.

I guess there are people who still can't fit the idea of "art" and "comics" 
into the same frame. But why? If handmade, graphically inventive, conceptually 
imaginative images - which describes practically everything in this show - 
aren't art, what is? The same images are topical, and are meant to be seen in 
reproduction; does that alter their status as art? Goya, Daumier and José 
Guadalupe Posada would of course say no.

In any event, Pop Art and all that followed it long ago wiped out the notion 
that comics are one-liner sight gags good only for the "funny pages." "Masters 
of American Comics," the ambitious historical survey split between the Jewish 
Museum in Manhattan and the Newark Museum, is truly a masterpiece show. "Africa 
Comics" edges into that territory, as does some of the work in a tiny show 
ending Dec. 17 called "Political Cartoons From Nigeria" at Southfirst, a 
contemporary gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Not that entertainment is missing from the Studio Museum selection. Just the 
opposite: some of the material is just plain fun. We are on familiar Marvel 
Comics ground with the adventures of the charismatic Princess Wella, a kind of 
superwoman with a ceremonial staff and braids, created by Laércio George 
Mabota, a young artist from Mozambique. 

And even a non-African can see why the schlumpy but wily character named 
Goorgoolou - in a series by Alphonse Mendy, who goes by the name T. T. Fons - 
has become a national hero, or antihero, in Senegal. With Ralph Kramden-esque 
panache, he lampoons social pretensions and embodies the plight of an everyman 
in a baffling postmodern world. Such is the character's fame that a television 
show and magazine have been built around him, and he was a star of the recent 
international Dakar biennial, Dak'Art, where comic art, for the first time, 
took center stage.

Yet far more often than not, humor is a sugar-coating for disquiet. For 
example, a piece by the South African artist Anton Kannemeyer, who goes by the 
name Joe Dog, uses a charming children's book style - the source is "Tintin au 
Congo" from the classic Belgian series, its racial stereotypes deliberately 
left intact - to depict a black-on-white racial attack that turns out to be a 
paranoiac neocolonialist dream. 

Mr. Kannemeyer is a founder, with the artist Conrad Botes, of the graphic 
magazine Bitterkomix, which has tackled some of the most pressing political 
issues in a still volatile South Africa. And in general African politics and 
popular culture are inseparable. Most of the comics in the Southfirst show are 
direct attacks on past and present governmental corruption in Nigeria, and 
nearly all of them are by Ghariokwu Lemi, an artist famous for having painted 
26 album covers for the Afrobeat idol and political rebel Fela Kuti.

In some comic art, political content takes an upbeat, utopian tack. More than 
one piece at the Studio Museum evokes scenes of ethnic violence in order to 
propose an alternative vision of peace and solidarity, exhorting a new 
generation of Africans to learn from the mistakes of their parents. 

More often the tone is skeptical, even sardonic, as in the case of a sly, 
graphically jazzy account by Didier Viode, an artist from Benin now living in 
France, of the bureaucratic roadblocks encountered by Africans applying for 
immigration papers. Or in a depiction by the Ivorian artist Maxime Aka Gnoan 
Kacou, known as Mendozza y Caramba, of a noctural mugging as an elegant shadow 
play in black and gold against a solid blue ground. 

Visually neither style is intrinsically "serious." You can't know at a glance 
what you're getting into. By contrast, right from its opening image - of a 
screaming woman carrying a bloodied child, done in full-blown social-realist 
style - there is no mistaking the didactic content of a story of female genital 
mutilation by the Senegalese artist Cisse Samba Ndar. 

Scene by scene it is a nightmare narrative with no clear resolution, though in 
other cases resolutions bring horror of their own. One c

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: Pot may be good and bad, researchers propose

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cool science stuff.


* Pot may be good and bad, researchers propose:
The truth about marijuana might be more complex than
either its opponents or its champions suggest, some
scientists argue.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061125_marijuana.htm


* We're more genetically diverse than thought: study
Research has found that at least one in 10 human
genes vary in the number of copies of certain DNA
sequences.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061123_variation.htm


* A step toward quantum computers:
Physicists say they've taken a step toward making
computers that work at blinding speeds thanks to the
weird realities of quantum physics.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061120_quantum-computer.htm


* One cell makes almost any heart tissue, study
finds:
New research could be a stride forward for therapy
to rebuild hearts, but its use of embryonic cells
may stir controversy.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061121_cardiac-stem.htm


* Molecules may "anchor" memories in brain:
Our brains nail down memories by using special
proteins as anchors, a study suggests.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061121_memories.htm


* Extreme black hole pushes spin "limit":
A black hole's blindingly fast rotation could help
explain some strange phenomena, physicists say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061121_black-hole-spin.htm


***

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[scifinoir2] Re: Hollywood Eats Sci-Fi's Brains

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Worth a serious ponder.


> http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,72192-0.html
>
> Hollywood Eats Sci-Fi's Brains
>
> By Jason Silverman
>
> Nov, 29, 2006
>
>
> It took six years for Darren Aronofsky to get his mystic science-fiction
> film The Fountain to the big screen, and just five days for it to tank at
> the box office.
>
> Made for an estimated $35 million, The Fountain earned a paltry $5 million
> over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Those numbers mark a huge
> disappointment for Warner Bros. and Aronofsky, and another grievous wound
> for serious-minded sci-fi.
>
> Hollywood has all but stopped producing challenging sci-fi films like The
> Fountain. Instead, Tinseltown funnels more and more resources into
> mega-budget, formula-driven and generally mediocre superhero and fantasy
> films.
>
> In an era of dwindling sci-fi cinema, 2006 has been an especially dire
> year. Subtract the superhero and video game adaptations, and what's left?
> The Fountain, Universal Studios' upcoming Children of Men and independents
> like The Science of Sleep and A Scanner Darkly - films that some purists
> wouldn't call sci-fi at all.
>
> Why has Hollywood stopped making serious sci-fi? According to Gordon
> Paddison, New Line Cinema's executive vice president of new media and
> marketing, it is all about risk and money. Paddison described Hollywood
> financing as formula-driven: Films with the potential to travel well
> across borders score the highest points.
>
> "Sci-fi is hard to fund - it's never a slam-dunk," said Paddison, who
> helped launch campaigns for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He also said
> the system is geared toward films with huge effects.
>
> "Regrettably, there's a barrier to entry," he said. "You have to put a
> certain level of budget into these films. You have to swing for the
> fences, otherwise you just aren't in the game at all."
>
> If sci-fi has always been hit-or-miss with studios, investors these days
> seem less willing to gamble. Who knows if The Terminator, for example,
> could have gotten the green light in this environment? It was made in 1984
> for $6 million - the kind of midrange budget that rarely exists any more -
> and starred a little-known weight lifter with an unpronounceable name.
>
> Star Wars, a monumental struggle for George Lucas to produce, would likely
> be a non-starter these days. Blade Runner? Perhaps too dark to get
> financing. And 2001: A Space Odyssey? With its cast of unknowns, enigmatic
> ending and (in inflation-adjusted figures) more than $50 million budget,
> it just wouldn't compute with today's backers.
>
> By neglecting true sci-fi, Hollywood may be missing a bet. Nearly 25 years
> after Blade Runner and eight after The Matrix, the film industry is filled
> with talented geeks - filmmakers, writers and special-effects whizzes -
> who grew up on Hollywood sci-fi and fantasy and who understand the power
> of new digital tools to re-imagine the universe.
>
> The material's out there. Technology's encroachment into the human sphere
> - a constant theme of sci-fi - is on everybody's minds. There are plenty
> of subjects: nanotech, genetic engineering, space elevators, the expanding
> knowledge of the universe, digital invasions of privacy, our imperiled
> environment. The Fountain explores, among other more esoteric stuff,
> mortality in an age of high-tech medicine.
>
> As for the audiences? If they'll flock to the theaters for Al Gore's
> PowerPoint lecture, you'd hope they'd show up for good, smart,
> science-based fiction.
>
> Still, even as science becomes more intricately woven into our daily
> lives, Hollywood steers sci-fi from the real toward the abstract, from
> fact toward fantasy.
>
> "I think that after 9/11 people seek more escapist fare," said James
> O'Ehley, creator of the Sci-Fi Movie Page. "(And) in this irrational era
> it is easier for cinema audiences to accept more superstitious or
> nonscientific things such as, let's say, a boy flying on a broomstick."
>
> Boy wizards, hobbits and guys in tights do sometimes make for great
> profits and, more occasionally, satisfying viewing. But a diet consisting
> of too many of these sweets may be giving the movie industry a bellyache.
>
> The two biggest genre films of the year, Superman Returns and X-Men: The
> Last Stand, together cost about a half billion to bring to American
> theaters. It's not clear how profitable they will be, even though each
> pulled in more than $200 million at the U.S. box office.
>
> The emphasis on bigger films also means fewer films, leaving sci-fi fans
> with dwindling options. They can tune into Battlestar Galactica, try and
> catch the indie and foreign titles for the week or two they play in
> theaters (anyone out there see Renaissance? Or Night Watch?), rent The
> Matrix again or do their best to enjoy the blockbuster of the week.
>
> Paddison suggests that sci-fi cinema is merely dormant, not dead. Studios
> are in the process of figuring o

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 48 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 48...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race.
> 
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
> 1. Bit of History...John Alexander Sommerville (1882-1972)
> 2. Hood Notes...Grandma Died, Police Lied
> 3. Warred Upon While Black...By John Burl Smith
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 6. Venue for an Artist...Police Brutality...By Ank Justice SteadySpear
> 7. Intuit's Vibe...I Wish Thanksgiving Were For All of Us...By Jeralyn
> Merritt
> 8. Mailbox
> **
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> John Alexander Sommerville (1882-1972)
>
>
>
> Born in Jamaica on December 1, 1882, John Alexander Sommerville immigrated
> to the United States in search of a new life.  He initially settled in San
> Francisco, California, where he came face-to-face with the racist
> realities of US life.  Sommerville moved to Los Angeles.  For two years,
> he worked in a bowling alley and saved enough money to attend the USC
> School of Dentistry.
>
>
>
> Sommerville's white classmates threatened to boycott classes, if he was
> not removed.  Apparently, the white students opposed his presence and
> objected to him being treated as their equal.  Like Rosa Parks, who
> refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, he refused to
> be removed.
>
>
>
> Five years after arriving in the US, Sommerville became the first black
> person to graduate from the USC School of Dentistry.  He graduated first
> in his class with the highest score recorded at the time.  Sommerville
> opened his dentist office at 4th and Broadway in the heart of LA's black
> business district.  He became the first black member of the Los Angeles
> Chamber of Commerce.
>
>
>
> In 1912, Sommerville married Vada Watson, the first black female, second
> black person to graduate from the USC School of Dentistry.  She also
> became the first black female certified to practice dentistry in the state
> of California. The Sommerville's worked tirelessly to achieve the good
> life for themselves under difficult circumstances, as discrimination was
> prevalent during this period in US history.  While the couple prospered,
> many blacks in the City of Los Angeles were less fortunate.  They founded
> the LA Chapter of the NAACP.
>
>
>
> Socioeconomic and political restrictions placed on blacks became more
> pervasive with an influx of people from other states, especially whites
> and blacks from the south.  Jim Crow laws placed public hotels off limits
> to blacks.  To satisfy the growing black demand for housing, Sommerville
> built La Vada, a 26-unit apartment building.   He later built Hotel
> Sommerville.
>
>
>
> Like so many businessmen, Sommerville suffered a financial setback during
> the 1929 stock market crash.  Although forced to sell his hotel,
> Sommerville did recover from his financial woes.  Active in politics, he
> became the first black delegate to the California Democratic National
> Convention (1936).  The first black appointed to the Los Angeles Police
> Commission (1949), Sommerville was declared an Officer of the Order of the
> British Empire for his contributions to Anglo-American relations (1954).
>
>
>
> Vada Sommerville died in 1972.  Months later, John Sommerville died at the
> age of 91. (Source: www.aaregistry.com)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hood Notes
> Grandma Died, Police Lied
>
>
>
>
> On November 21, 2006, undercover narcotics officers, armed with a
> ‘no-knock' warrant signed by Fulton County Magistrate Kimberly Warden,
> burst into the home of 88-year old Kathryn Johnston.  Early reporting
> indicated the elderly woman fired on the officers.  During the melee, she
> reportedly wounded three, none seriously.  Johnston, shot twice in the
> chest, was pronounced dead at the scene.
>
>
>
> According to a police informant, investigators involved in the botched
> raid asked him to lie and go along with the story they fabricated after
> the shooting incident.  The informant has been placed in protective
> custody.
>
>
>
> Atlanta Police Chief Richard J. Pennington has promised a thorough
> investigation.  He has asked the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, the
> Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Fulton County district attorney's
> office to assist in uncovering the truth.  Until the investigation is
> concluded, the narcotics team has been placed on administrative leave with
> pay.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Warred Upon While Black
> By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> Revealing his lack of diplomatic and foreign policy savoir-faire following
> "shock and awe," George W. Bush designated Iraq "The central front in the
> war on terror."   Searching for neocon's Holy Grail, "A New American
> Century," Bush's domestic policies, opposing affirmative action, Title IX,
> pubic education, Social Security and Medicare, became the scrimm

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: NASA announces lunar base plan

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fascinating science stuff.


* NASA announces lunar base plan:
The space agency has announced plans to build a
permanent lunar base by 2024.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061204_lunar-base.htm


* City birds sing their own tune:
Members of a bird species that have adapted to city
life sing a shorter, sharper, faster song than their
forest kin, a study has found.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061204_city-bird.htm


* Hard, brutal lives for Neanderthals:
Neanderthal remains from Spain speak of malnutrition
and possible cannibalism, researchers report.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061204_neanderthal.htm


* Gene "archaeology" sheds light on male pregnancy:
A gene might help explain why males get pregnant
among members of the seahorse family, according to
biologists.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061203_male-pregnancy.htm


* Oldest known ritual: python worship, archaeologist says:
Snake-worship in Stone-Age Africa might have been
the first human ritual, if new findings are correct.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061130_python.htm


***

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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 46 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race LITTLE KNOWN NATIVE AFRICAN VEGETABLE FOOD SOURCES!

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 46...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race 
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Bit of History...A Premature Harvest
> 2. Intuit's Vibe...The Passage...By Christopher Okigbo
> 3. Hood Notes...Hunger in the Land of Plenty...By John Burl Smith
> 4. News You Use...Overlooked Bounty: Africa's Lost Crops
> 5. Disgruntled
> 6. Fighting in Nigeria...By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> A Premature Harvest
>
>
>
> The fourth child of Chief Onyeamaluligolu Oda, (James Okigbo), a Catholic
> schoolmaster, and Anna Onugwalobi-Okigbo, Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was
> born in Ojoto on August 16, 1932.  Nigeria was still under British
> colonial rule at his birth.  Although his family was Catholic, he believed
> as his grandfather, Chief Eze Okigbo, who was an Ibo priest of Idoto,
> Goddess of the River.
>
>
>
> Educated at the Catholic school of Umulobia, Okigbo went on to the State
> College of Umuahia in 1945.  At the University of Ibadan, Okigbo met and
> befriended major writers, such as Wole Soyinka, Elechi Amadi, John Pepper
> Clark and Cole Omotso.
>
>
>
> Originally a medical student, Okigbo began studying Greek and Latin after
> becoming intrigued by the classics.  Serving as Editor-in-Chief of the
> University newsletter, he translated Greek and Latin authors.  Graduated
> in 1956, he taught at the University of Nigeria, where he was librarian.
>
>
>
> Okigbo met and married Judith Sefi Attah, the daughter of powerful monarch
> Attah of Igbira.   The couple's only daughter, Obiageli Ibrahimat Okigbo,
> was born in 1964.  A formidable intellect,  Okigbo began a career in
> business with the Nigerian Tobacco Company and the United African Company.
> He moved on to politics and became personal assistant to the Minister of
> Information in Lagos.
>
>
>
> Unhappy with these endeavors, Okigbo recalled, "There wasn't a stage when
> I decided I definitely wished to be a poet; I found I couldn't be anything
> else. And I think that the turning point came in December 1958.  It's just
> like somebody who receives a call in the middle of the night to religious
> service, in order to become a priest.  I didn't have any choice in the
> matter. I just had to obey."
>
>
>
> Beginning in the 1960s, Okigbo was like every other young African poet,
> looking for a platform to exchange views and express his various talents.
> A pianist, he teamed up with Soyinka and played jazz clubs.  They
> organized the Mbari Writers and Artists Club (1961), which had a decisive
> role in the birth of modern African literature.
>
>
>
> Independence came to Nigeria in 1963.  Like his country, Okigbo underwent
> an internal revolution. Path of Thunder was a turn towards a more
> political tone. Denouncing political oppression and neo-colonial
> exploitation, he emerged a radical spirit contemptuous of colonialism.
> Conflict broke out in May 1967 between Biafra and Nigeria.  Ibo, Okigbo
> enlisted in the breakaway state's military.  He was killed in September
> 1967 early in the war.
>
>
>
> Today, he is recognized as the most outstanding English-language
> post-colonial African poet and major modernist writer of the
> twentieth-century. A premature harvest, Okigbo was cut down in his prime.
> A sapling just beginning to bear fruit, he left only 72 pages of exacting
> and penetrating poetry in Path of Thunder and Labyrinths.  A prophetic and
> visionary personality, his poems tell readers "Not to be confined by
> cultural, political, artistic, creative and human limits."  His words are
> a challenge to break free of physical and psychological restraints.
>
>
>
> Obiageli, Okigbo's daughter, established The Christopher Okigbo Foundation
> (COF) in 2005.  COF is collaborating with Boston, Harvard, and
> Massachusetts Universities and Wellesley College to host the First
> International Conference on the Life and Works of Christopher Okigbo next
> September 20-24, 2007.  Hoping to garner more posthumous recognition,
> COF's newsletter points out, "The last two decades have witnessed a
> decline in reading, research and publications in scholarly journals
> generally in Nigeria and indeed other African countries where survival has
> become paramount." The COF will present recently discovered writings of
> Okigbo at the conference.  (Sources:  www.christopher-okigbo.org/ and
> [EMAIL PROTECTED])
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> The Passage
> By Christopher Okigbo
>
>
>
> BEFORE YOU, my mother Idoto,
> Naked I stand;
> Before your weary presence,
> A prodigal
> Leaning on an oilbean,
> Lost in your legend
> Under your power wait I
> On barefoot,
> Watchman for the watchword
> At heaven's gate;
> Out of the depth my cry:
> Give ear and hearken…
>
>
>
> DARK WATERS of th

Re: [scifinoir2] John Ridley Defines "Niggers" for Esquire Magazine

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Well said, Keith!
Amy

(Link to article is here: 
http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/061105_mfe_December_06_Essay_1.html
 
Feedback to Esquire is here: http://www.esquire.com/talk/ )

 This is the same John Ridley who's been accused by many of hating his own 
color. The guy who did the movie "Undercover Brother", which I actually 
loved. For years I'd heard that Ridley is a "sellout" who picks on his own 
people. Indeed, I deferred seeing "Undercover Brother" in theatres because 
I'd heard Ridley callously exposed our dirty laundry to white folks, and was 
making fun of Black people. Still liked the movie...

But where do I start with this crap rant? First, aside from the utter 
disrespect he shows for all Blacks by using "nigger" as brutally as any 
Klansman could, his article is poorly written! It's as if he rammed together 
two disparate articles, one a political piece dealing with Condi and Powell 
supposedly running the country for eleven days. Then, light years away from 
that, a diatribe about "niggers" trying to pull down successful Blacks they 
should be uplifting. Each argument is unfocused, mean-spirited, 
self-righteous, and unsupportable in its own right. But together, they form 
a mish-mash piece that I could barely follow--and y'all know I can write 
some long-butt sentences!   I wonder if Esquire would have even printed this 
poor piece of supposedly critical thought had Ridley not salted it with 
"nigger", giving it the appearance of a bold and brave statement, when in 
reality it's the ranting of someone whom I suspect has s ome self-hatred 
issues.

On the political side:  Condi and Powell didn't run sh**, for eleven days or 
eleven minutes! If they had--if Powell had, especially--maybe we wouldn't be 
in the quagmire that is Iraq.  At best they gave advice that Bush took, but 
big deal. When else has that happened? Powell went along with an invasion he 
didn't agree with, gave a speech that will damn him for eternity, and then 
was fired for still not being enough of a sycophant for Bush. Condie is 
nearly as much a right wing hawk as the white boys. And Ridley needs to do 
some reading: Condie is not just a loyal soldier, she's in *love* with Bush! 
Don't believe me? Then watch the recording of a press interview she gave 
where she clearly said "I was talking to my husband--I mean, President 
Bush", and tell me she's not. Watch the TV One interview with Armstrong 
Williams where she talks over and over about "what attracts me to the 
President". Since when does a professional say that she's *attracted* to her 
boss? Shouldn't that be "Wh
at I admire about the President"?Explain to me why this brilliant 
capable women has taken so many of her vacations with the Bush family like a 
wet nurse or nanny   . What, she doesn't have a life? Rice is a zombie, a 
parrot who says whatever Bush wants, who marches in lockstep to his 
chest-thumping beat.

 And as for Ridley trying to establish Condie's cred as a product of Civil 
Rights, she barely knew what was going on. In her own words, Rice said her 
parents made sure the world of the Civil Rights struggle didn't enter her 
neighborhood or life.  It's as if she was raised to be successful, and let 
"those people" fight that battle over there. Even the Birmingham bombing 
didn't intrude on her world as it did other Blacks.  Hardly a shining 
example of Black pride. Now, I ain't hatin' on her 'cause she didn't march 
with the Panthers. That's her right. But just because I don't think she's 
good for Black people in the main--or this country, for that matter--does 
that make me a nigger too?

And I’m someone who likes Powell, who’s been in arguments with people 
attacking me because I like Powell. But with him, too, gotta talk facts. He 
ultimately supported and aided a corrupt, intractable administration that 
has made our world worse than it was. I understand why he stayed as long as 
he did, even respect him in some ways. But ultimately his silence caused 
more harm than good. Am I a nigger for feeling that way? I'm a Black person 
who'd be deemed fairly successful by others. I bear no ill will toward 
anyone who makes it, ain't running around trying to act ghetto to maintain 
some cred. Yet to hear Ridley talk, just because I don't like Rice I'm a 
tool of the outdated liberals that is simply trying to pull down successful 
Black people I should be supporting. That doesn't fly.

So Rice and Powell had some influence over one event for a few days. How did 
that help Black people? Even if it did, the mess they helped make in Iraq 
would more than compensate for any good they did. And yes, Mr. Ridley, I 
*do* expect people of color to have more sense than to support unsupportable 
aggressive actions against sovereign nations. I’d expect geniuses like Rice, 
who ought to know the history of Western Anglo-Saxon aggression throughout 
the world as well as I, to be as uncomfortable as I am at another attempt to 
subj

Re: [scifinoir2] Historian Assails "Apocalypto"

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thanks for that!  I was an anthropology major in college specializing in 
pre-Colombian civilizations of Mesoamerica to expand on a lifelong passion 
for that subject.  So I was real jazzed at the thought of an epic film about 
pre-contact Mayans.  How cool is that !!?
Then the more I read about this film, the more upset and disappointed I get, 
especially after reading this undoubtedly thoroughly accurate assessment.
SOMEBODY PLEASE GET SOME TALENTED MAYANS TO MAKE A FILM ABOUT THEIR 
MARVELOUS HISTORY!

Sheesh!
Amy


One historian's take on "Apocalypto". Some will dismiss her as ungrateful or 
overly politically correct, but what she says has merit. Again, perhaps the 
bigger problem is one only one treatment of a particular subject gets done 
in a long time. It can't possibly please everyone, and will of course leave 
out some things and emphasize others, especially in a desire to make an 
exciting movie. The lesson here is that non-white non-European peoples 
simply need more films done about them so a balance can be reached in the 
totality of the work. And another lesson might be to read books instead of 
expecting Hollywood to educate you...
'Apocalypto' is an insult to Maya culture, one expert says
A history professor explains where Mel Gibson got it very, very wrong
By Chris Garcia
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILM WRITER
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
As we stagger out of a sneak peek of Mel Gibson's Maya historical thriller 
"Apocalypto," Julia Guernsey is visibly shaken. She's upset and not a little 
angry. She barely can contain her disgust, but she also can barely speak. 
I'm a little worried.
Guernsey is an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History 
at the University of Texas. Given her emphasis on pre-Columbian Mesoamerican 
art and culture, we invited Guernsey along to the preview last week so she 
could illuminate where Gibson got his history right and where he got it 
wrong.
The upshot: Boy, did he ever get it wrong.
Caution: The following interview with Guernsey contains spoilers.
Austin American-Statesman: You looked truly disturbed after the movie.
Julia Guernsey: My first reaction was to the extraordinary, gratuitous 
violence. And the ending with the arrival of the Spanish (conquistadors) 
underscored the film's message that this culture is doomed because of its 
own brutality. The implied message is that it's Christianity that saves 
these brutal savages. I think that's part of Gibson's agenda, sort of, "We 
got the Jews last time (in 'The Passion of the Christ'), now we'll get the 
Maya." And to highlight that point there's a lot of really offensive racial 
stereotyping. They're shown as these extremely barbaric people, when in 
fact, the Maya were a very sophisticated culture.
Yet he goes out of his way in the first third of the movie to depict how 
peaceful and human at least some of them are.
Yes, they're shown as wonderful, but ignorant. They're wonderful and they 
get along great and they've got this rip-roaring humor, but they don't know 
what's going on a day and a half's walk away, where this massive city, this 
metropolis, is being constructed. They haven't gotten wind of that because 
they are in their forest, the forest of their fathers, the forest of their 
sons. I can feel my heart beating faster talking about this.
You just hate this movie.
I hate it. I despise it. I think it's despicable. It's offensive to Maya 
people. It's offensive to those of us who try to teach cultural sensitivity 
and alternative world views that might not match our own 21st-century 
Western ones but are nonetheless valid.
What were you hoping for going into the movie?
I thought it would highlight some of the achievements of the Maya, but none 
of them is presented. They show some buildings but they don't talk about 
them. You get glimpses of some art, but it's overwhelmed by the non-stop 
violence.
What are inaccuracies you noticed?
For one thing, the characters walk through a tunnel-like space and it's 
covered in wall murals. I'm nitpicking and it would mean nothing to most 
people, but it's a reconstruction of some murals that were just discovered 
in the past few years. They're from the site of San Bartolo in the Maya 
region (of Guatemala). Some pieces of it are copied exactly from the mural, 
but part of it is this gory scene of an individual holding a severed human 
head with blood flowing out of it. That's not in the mural! That's just 
Gibson on his violence kick. Plus, the murals are Late Pre-Classic, dating 
to about 100 B.C., making it very problematic that these people were walking 
through murals dating from 100 B.C. and then we have the arrival of the 
Spanish, which was in the 16th century. That's like 1,700 years apart.
Couldn't they just be walking through an ancient area?
You could argue that, except that the film presents an inaccurate 
hodge-podge of architecture. Some of it looked like Tikal Classic Maya, 800 
A.D. Some looked Puuc, which is cl

Re: [scifinoir2] "the fountain"

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I saw this film also recently and I think I was beguiled by the dazzling 
imagery more than you were.  I do agree that the story did not live up to 
the visuals.  The score was beautiful.
cheers!
Amy


>I did go to see "The Fountain" this weekend.  I'd have to give it a
> very mixed review.  In fact, probably a marginable thumb's down.
>
> We get three intertwined stories of a man learning to accept the
> death of a loved one.  One of the stories is a fantasy written by the
> loved one in question who finds that she can't finish the story.  She
> begs her physician/scientist husband to finish the story after she
> dies.  The third story -- well--is it mystical?  Realistic?  I don't
> know.  I couldn't regard it as realistic, but except for the imagery,
> it wasn't very mystical either. The imagery is wonderful for this
> section--but it doesn't provide a window into the story the way the
> other two sections did.
>
> It also isn't really SF.  The classic definition of SF is a story
> that examines the effect of science on humanity.  Well, we have a guy
> who maybe (?) finds the Tree of Life but the effect that would have
> on society is never examined.  I can't say that the effect on him is
> even examined.
>
> It's a very beautiful movie.  But it tries to handle a lot of topics
> in only 2 hours.  "Truely, Madly, Deeply" handles a woman learning to
> accept the death of her lover better than this movie.  I think other
> movies handle the effects of the search for eternal life better than
> this movie. (Although, I love the way the husband finally ends the
> wife's novel.)  I'm glad that the writer/director was able to get the
> movie done.  I hope that he's more focused next time.
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

[scifinoir2] Flying Mammal Found From 125 Million Years Ago

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wow - this is ultra fascinating.

 
 




December 13, 2006
Flying Mammal Found From 125 Million Years Ago 
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Scientists have discovered an extinct animal the size of a small squirrel that 
lived in China at least 125 million years ago and soared among the trees. It is 
the earliest known example of gliding flight by mammals, and the scientists say 
it shows that mammals experimented with aerial life about the same time birds 
first took to the skies, perhaps even earlier.

>From an analysis of the fossil, the researchers concluded that this gliding 
>mammal was unrelated to the modern flying squirrel and unlike any other animal 
>in the Mesozoic, the period best known for dinosaurs living in the company of 
>small and unprepossessing mammals. They announced today that the species 
>qualified as a member of an entirely new order of mammals.

Richard L. Cifelli, a paleontologist at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History 
in Norman who reviewed the findings for publication, said this "wholly 
unexpected diversity of something adapted for gliding at this early time is 
absolutely astonishing."

Until a couple of years ago, Dr. Cifelli said, most scientists held the view 
that such early mammals were simple shrew-like creatures that cowered in the 
shadows of the dominant dinosaurs, and now "this adds a new dimension to our 
knowledge of early mammals."

Until now, the earliest identified gliding mammal was a 30-million-year-old 
extinct rodent. The first known modern bat, which is capable of powered flight, 
dates to 51 million years ago, but it is assumed that proto-bats were probably 
gliding much earlier.

Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird, lived about 145 million years ago, 
though scientists are not sure if it could flap its feathered wings in fully 
powered flight. But it lived about the time birds did take off in flight.

The mammal discovery, described in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, was 
made last year in Inner Mongolia, a region of northern China. Farmers found the 
delicate fossil, embedded in sandstone, and brought it to the attention of the 
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

On a visit there late last winter, Jin Meng, an associate curator of 
paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, examined 
the specimen. He saw the sharp and diverse teeth of an insectivore. He then 
detected striations in the fossil - clear traces, he said, of hair covering a 
stretch membrane from fore to hind limbs that was the airfoil to support and 
give lift for the animal to glide.

"This was just totally out of nowhere," Dr. Meng said in an interview at the 
museum this week, while pointing to the fossil's telling features.

In the journal report, Dr. Meng and colleagues wrote, "This discovery extends 
the earliest record of gliding flight for mammals at least 70 million years 
earlier in the geological history and demonstrates that mammals were diverse in 
their locomotor strategies and life styles."

The co-authors, who are researchers at the institute, are Yaoming Hu, Yuanqing 
Wang, Xiaolin Wang and Chuankui Li. . They have named the mammal 
Volaticotherium antiquius, meaning "ancient gliding beast."

A paleontologist not involved in the research, Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie 
Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, said the discovery contributed more 
evidence that "mammals started the invasion of diverse niches long before the 
extinction of dinosaurs," which occurred 65 million years ago.

Only last February, Dr. Luo reported finding fossils of a swimming, fish-eating 
beaverlike animal that lived in China 164 million years ago. The discovery was 
made at the Daohugou site, where the gliding mammal was uncovered.

"The semi-aquatic mammal Castorocauda and the new gliding mammal," Dr. Luo 
said, "literally stretch the boundary of paleontologists' imagination about 
what would be possible for the earliest mammals."

Dr. Meng's team said tests produced inconsistent dates for the new specimen, 
ranging from as recent as 125 million years ago to as ancient as 164 million. 
The older date may be more probable, other scientists said, and would put the 
aerial life of the mammal even earlier than known bird flight.

In their study of the fossil, Dr. Meng and his associates noted that the mammal 
was about half the length of the squirrels frolicking in Central Park, across 
from the museum. The animal had a long, stiff tail that served as a stabilizing 
rudder for gliding flight. The impressions of fur on the gliding membrane, or 
patagium, and other parts of its body preserve some of the most ancient 
examples of mammalian skin covering.

The paleontologists surmised that the gliding behavior enabled the small animal 
to travel from tree to tree in relative safety, above most of its predators, 
and hunt insects over a wi

[scifinoir2] The DISH Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 47...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race> 
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Bit of History...Aimé Fernand David Césaire
> 2. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 3. Weighing in On Iraq...By John Burl Smith
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. Venue for an Artist...(Excerpt) Notebook of a Return to the Native 
> Land...
>By Aimé Césaire
> 6. Intuit's Vibe...Wrong on all Counts...By Former US Rep. Paul Findley
> 7. Mailbox
> **
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Aimé Fernand David Césaire
>
>
>
> Born June 25, 1913 at Basse-Pointe, Martinique, Aimé Fernand David Césaire
> and his five siblings were raised by their mother, a dressmaker, and
> father, a local tax inspector.  While their father was well-educated and
> they shared the cultural sensibilities of the petit-bourgeois, the
> Césaires lived close to the edge of poverty.
>
>
>
> A brilliant student, at age eleven, Césaire was admitted to the Lycée
> Schoelcher in Fort-de-France.  He graduated in 1931, taking prizes in
> French, Latin, English and history.  Later that year, he traveled to Paris
> to attend the Lycée Louis-le Grand on an educational scholarship.
> As a student,  Césaire and his friends, Léopold Senghor of Sénégal and
> Léon Damas, created L'Etudiant Noir, a publication that brought together
> students of Africa and the West Indies.  In 1936, Césaire began work on
> his book-length poem Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a
> Return to My Native Land), a depiction of the ambiguities of black life in
> the New World.
>
>
>
> Césaire married  Suzanne Roussi (1937). The couple returned to Martinique
> in 1939.  Césaire became a teacher at the Lycée Schoelcher in
> Fort-de-France.  Frantz Fanon was among his students.
>
>
>
> During World War II, Césaire and Suzanne Roussi founded the literary
> review Tropiques (1941) with the help of other Martinican intellectuals,
> like René Ménil and Aristide Maugée, to challenge the cultural status quo
> of colonialism.  It featured articles on the ideas of Negritude and black
> American poetry.
>
>
>
> In Discourse on Colonialism (1950), Césaire showed how colonialism works
> to "de-civilize" the colonizer.  The instruments of colonial power rely on
> barbaric, brutal violence and intimidation, and the end result is the
> degradation of the colonizer.  For Césaire, "the colonizers' sense of
> superiority, sense of mission as the world's civilizers, depends on
> turning the ‘Other' into a barbarian. The Africans, the Indians, the
> Asians cannot possess civilization or a culture equal to the imperialists,
> or the latter have no purpose, no justification for the exploitation and
> domination of the rest of the world." Discourse on Colonialism is a
> stunning indictment of Western Civilization, the birthplace of fascism.
>
>
>
> His books of poetry include Aimé Césaire: The Collected Poetry (University
> of California Press, 1983); Putting in Fetters (1960); Lost Bodies (1950),
> with illustrations by Pablo Picasso; Decapitated Sun (1948); Miraculous
> Arms (1946); and Notebook of a Return to the Homeland (1939). He is also a
> playwright, and has written Moi, Laminaire (1982); The Tempest (1968),
> based on Shakespeare's play; A Season at Congo (1966); and The Tragedy of
> King Cristophe (1963).
>
>
>
> A recipient of the International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award, he served as
> Mayor of Fort-de-France as a member of the Communist Party, and later quit
> the party to establish his Martinique Independent Revolution Party. He
> also served as the deputy to the French National Assembly. Césaire retired
> from politics in 2001.  (Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org,
> www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Cesaire.html, www.cosmoetica.com/S5-AD1.htm
> and www.monthlyreview.org/discourse.htm)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Comments from the Bat Cave
>
>
>
> The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro has much to be thankful for this
> holiday season.  His most recent progress report was better than average;
> he has promised to do better.  With good grades, he enjoys television and
> video game privileges.  When asked for comments on this auspicious
> occasion, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro enthusiastically exclaimed, "I am
> thankful for everything, including ALL members of my family; I am a very
> lucky person!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Weighing in On Iraq
> By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> Democrat and Republican definition of the problem of Iraqi security is
> dominated by the "hawkish" notion that the United States' (US) presence in
> Iraq will somehow solve the problem.  When it comes to Iraqi security, the
> US is the problem.  Democrats and Republicans ignore the fact that the US
> invaded Iraq under false pretenses, using deception and outright lies.
> Now, they are repositioning with the fallback strateg

Re: [scifinoir2] OT: Kentucky Teacher Fired for Adult Film Role in Past

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Couldn't agree with you more!
Amy


> (applause)
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:  Speaking of judging teachers. 
> What does this teach our kids? That you can never recover from past 
> mistakes? That some sins are forgivable but not others? I bet if Miss 
> Dye's past had included a youthful shoplifting charge or getting drunk, 
> they'd have asked her to talk to the kiddies about her wild youth and how 
> she overcame it. If she'd been in a gang and beaten someone into a coma, 
> they'd have her preaching every Sunday about how family and church are the 
> all, not gangs. But because she made *one* mistake born of desperation and 
> possible mental illness, she's no longer fit to teach kids? So what if the 
> students whisper and giggle about her past? They'll do that anyway. If she 
> were some teacher with a great body, the boys would point and giggle. Do 
> they discriminate against teachers who may be the source of the kids' 
> dreams? It irks me that people want to bring God into the school in 
> matters of evolution and prayer, they want to
> use the Bible to teach kids that even thinking of
> sex is wrong. But they seem to forget those passages about forgiveness, 
> compassion, and becoming a new person. Miss Dye's a Christian, so 
> according to the Bible she's a completely different person in God's eyes. 
> Why is Man not letting her forget her past? And what message will this 
> send to all those young girls who've made mistakes such as sleeping with 
> boys before they were really ready, or getting pregnant out of wedlock? 
> Seems to me this punishment teaches kids it's better to hide what they've 
> done for fear of persecution.
>
> Children watch what we do and say all the time. They emulate us whether 
> they or we want them too. I fear action like this is teaching kids to be 
> judgemental, unforgiving, paranoid, embarrassed about sex, hypocritical, 
> falsely righteous, and ultimately fearful of being human.
>
> Teacher Out Of Job After X-Rated Video Surfaces
>
> http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4859482
> (PADUCAH, Ky.) -- A teacher in western Kentucky has been suspended and 
> will not have her contract renewed after administrators found out she 
> appeared in an adult movie more than a decade ago.
> Tericka Dye, a science teacher and volleyball coach at Reidland High 
> School in Paducah for the last two years, was suspended Wednesday and told 
> she would not return to the classroom in the fall.
> "Your presence in the classroom would cause a disruption to the 
> educational process," McCracken County Schools Superintendent Tim Heller 
> wrote in a letter to Dye. "I fear there would be less than a serious 
> approach to schooling by students who viewed the video or know about it."
> Dye said she suffers from bipolar disorder and agreed to appear in the 
> 1995 flick because she had no home or income and her disease wasn't being 
> treated. Dye said she spent one day in Los Angeles filming the movie and 
> did not use her real name.
> "I absolutely 100 percent regret doing that," Dye said. "I've always tried 
> to look ahead and not focus on it. But I wasn't diagnosed at the time."
> Dye later joined the Army and served in a military police unit at Fort 
> Lewis, Wash., before going to college and becoming a teacher.
> Some parents, such as Bonnie Chilcoat of Reidland, supported Dye. Chilcoat 
> took her daughter, Nicole Genel, out of school to attend an impromptu 
> rally Wednesday for the suspended teacher.
> "She's not the person she was 10 years ago," Chilcoat said. "We've all 
> done things that we regret, except hers is on tape."
> Mark Blankenship, a Murray attorney hired by the Kentucky Education 
> Association to represent Dye, said the superintendent's decision may be 
> challenged.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
>
> If any one of our restaurants were better than the rest, then customers 
> would flocck to that location, creating a mass imbalance that could create 
> a black hole, which would swallow the Earth. That's why we make every 
> McDonald's from Pomona to Poughkeepsie the same good place to eat, thereby 
> saving the Universe.-from McDonald's commercial ,28 January 1990
>
> "Is anybody hungry?" - W Zeddemore, "The Real Ghostbusters", 'The Cabinet 
> of Calamari'
>
> -
> Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

[scifinoir2] Fw: What Happens When Engineers Think Too Much About Christmas

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yuletide Cheer!


> What Happens When Engineers think too much about Christmas...
> 
> 1. No known species of reindeer can fly. But there are 300,000 species
> of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are
> insects and germs, this does not completely rule out flying reindeer,
> which only Santa has seen.
> 
> 2. There are 2 billion children (under 18) in the world. But since 
> Santa doesn't appear to handle Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish 
> children, that reduces the work load to 15% of the total - 378 
> million 
> or so. At an average rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 
> million
> homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
> 
> 3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with thanks to time zones 
> and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This 
> works
> out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian
> household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park,
> hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings,
> distribute the remaining gifts under the tree,  eat the snacks, get 
> back up the chimney, get back in the sleigh, and move on to the next 
> house.
> Assuming that each of these 91.8 million homes are distributed evenly
> (which we know to be false but for the sake of these calculations we
> will accept) we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total
> trip of 75 1/2 million miles, not counting bathroom stops. This means 
> that 
> Santa's sleigh is traveling at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the 
> speed of 
> sound. For comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses 
> space 
> probe moves at a poky 27.4 MPS; the average reindeer runs at 15 MPH.
> 
> 4. The sleighs payload adds another interesting element. Assuming that
> each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (2 pounds),
> the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons not counting Santa, who is
> inexorably described as very overweight. On land, confessional 
> reindeer can
> pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" 
> (see
> point one) could pull TEN TIMES the usual amount, we can not do the 
> job
> with 8 or even 9, we need 214,000 reindeer. This increases the weight,
> not even counting the sleigh, to 353,430 tons. Again for comparison 
> this is 4 times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth 2.
> 
> 5. Also, 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates 
> enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer in the same 
> manner as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead 
> pair of reindeer will absorb 14.2 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per 
> second. Each. In short, they will burst 
> into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the next pair of 
> reindeer, and 
> creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire team will be 
> vaporized within 4.26 thousands of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will 
> be 
> subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times the force of 
> gravity.  A 300 
> pound Santa would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 
> pounds 
> of force.
> 
> 6. Conclusion: There was a Santa, but he's dead now.
> 
> **
> 
> 
> "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
> 
> Mark Twain 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 

[scifinoir2] Legendary singer James Brown dies at 73

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Alas!  We have lost one of the truly greats!
HE WILL BE MISSED!
*sigh*
Amy


Legendary singer James Brown dies at 73

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago



  James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping 
vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco 
as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.

  Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on 
Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of 
Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

  Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at 
this point what he died of," he said.

  Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with 
Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and 
motivating him personally and professionally.

  "He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest 
working man in show business," Allman said. "I remember Mr. Brown as someone 
who always motivated me, got me reading the Bible."

  Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one 
of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one 
generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed 
dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as 
David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly 
and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's 
rhythms and vocal style.

  If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray 
Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk 
are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to 
lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.

  "James presented obviously the best grooves," rapper Chuck D of Public 
Enemy once told The Associated Press. "To this day, there has been no one 
near as funky. No one's coming even close."

  His hit singles include such classics as "Out of Sight," "(Get Up I Feel 
Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Out Loud - 
I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

  "I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, 
we were calling ourselves black," Brown said in a 2003 Associated Press 
interview. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music 
and a song can change society."

  He won a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys 
in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for 
"Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one 
of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, 
along with Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

  He triumphed despite an often unhappy personal life. Brown, who lived in 
Beech Island near the Georgia line, spent more than two years in a South 
Carolina prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police 
officer. After his release on in 1991, Brown said he wanted to "try to 
straighten out" rock music.

  From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" 
in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country 
tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working 
Man in Show Business."

  With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, 
Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince.

  In 1986, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And rap stars 
of recent years overwhelmingly have borrowed his lyrics with a digital 
technique called sampling.

  Brown's work has been replayed by the Fat Boys, Ice-T, Public Enemy and a 
host of other rappers. "The music out there is only as good as my last 
record," Brown joked in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

  "Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you 
know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is 
me," he told the AP in 2003.

  Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, he was abandoned as a 
4-year-old to the care of relatives and friends and grew up on the streets 
of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it. There he 
learned to wheel and deal.  "I wanted to be somebody," Brown said. 
By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform 
School near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars.  While there, he met 
Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown 
into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the 
Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.  In January 1956, King 
Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, 
Please, Pleas

Re: [scifinoir2] Saddam Hussein Executed

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I couldn't agree with this eloquent statement more!
Amy


> Saddam is dead.
>
> Aren't you happy now?
>
> He was executed, I hear,  just a few minutes ago (it's 10:33 EST when I 
> write this).He has executed by hanging, the process rushed in order to 
> avoid a killing on the upcoming holy time of Eid Al-Ahda (Iraqi law and 
> custom forbids killing a person on a day considered holy to him).  So the 
> order was given, the soldiers handed him over, the platform dropped, the 
> rope stretched taut, the neck broken, and the mad leader breathed his 
> last.
>
> Aren't you satisfied?
>
> Saddam was an evil man, responsible for untold numbers of deaths and 
> torturings. Men, women, children--all fell before him. He thought nothing 
> of gasing whole villages, torturing people for something as innocuous as 
> saying the wrong thing, and subjecting his people to untold terror. 
> Saddam's own mistress said he enjoyed watching videos of people being 
> executed--from his bed.  But now the sadist Saddam is dead.
>
> Don't you feel safer?
>
> My government said Saddam amassed weapons of  mass destruction. So, they 
> said, he had to be brought down, and this was done, with the former 
> dictator being flushed from a "spider hole" like a coward. That no weapons 
> of note were ever found was inconsequential, I was told, in light of one 
> of the most evil men this side of Hitler being captured.  And not just 
> Saddam: his evil, evil sons, who raped and murdered with impunity, and 
> tortured athletes for daring to lose an Olympic competition. With Saddam 
> gone, I was told, Iraq would become a sacred land of democracy and happy 
> people.  So he was handed over, and his own people executed him.
>
> Is Iraq free and happy now?
>
> That Saddam Hussein was one of the most evil leaders in recent memory 
> can't be argued. That he ruined his country and destroyed its hopes and 
> dreams to be a better place can't be disputed. That his very children 
> inherited his sickness is fact.  That the world is better without him in a 
> position of power, a no-brainer.
>
> So why am I not celebrating?
>
> Perhaps, because Saddam is dead, but I fear the fighting won't stop. 
> Perhaps because as evil as he was, Hussein was a bulwark against the 
> fanatics and terrorists who now run rampant in Iraq. Because, in an 
> over-zealous and incredibly ill-conceived push to get those non-existent 
> WMDs, my government destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure, leaving behind a 
> power vaccuum that may actually make the country even worse than it was 
> before.  Because over 3,000 American men and women have died, hundreds of 
> thousands of Iraqi's have died, hundreds of thousands more will probably 
> die, and the Middle East is more unstable than ever.  Because one man 
> died, but the toll in blood may far, far outweigh the value brought about 
> by that man's death.
>
> Because a nation that's supposed to value freedom and justice and 
> Christian values violated all of those by invading a sovereign nation on 
> trumped-up charges, putting a stain on the collective soul of all 
> Americans.
>
> Perhaps, because the Bible I read says that all killing is wrong, and that 
> rejoicing in a man's death--any man--not the act of a Christian.
>
> As I listened to the news today, waiting for the inevitable word that 
> Saddam was dead, my guts twisted in knots. I felt a sadness at listening 
> to people planning for a man's death--even this most evil of men. I hung 
> my head in grief at a world where we demonstrate that killing is wrong--by 
> killing.  I mourned for  people who will be denied the chance to face 
> Saddam in court, to get some kind of closure by accusing him to his face 
> of being the monster he was. I mourned for those who have been changed 
> into people who can dance and sing and kiss and rejoice at a man's 
> death--even this most evil of men.
>
> The Iraqi people in the main probably support this execution.  (Many, such 
> as the Khurds, are upset only that it happened too soon, that Saddam was 
> killed before he could face the thousands of other accusers wanting to 
> confront him in trials for other of his atrocities).   I hear there's been 
> singing and dancing in some parts of Iraq over his death.  I understand 
> that emotion. If ever anyone can understandably rejoice in a man's death, 
> it'd be the Iraqi's.  But their reactions are those of emotion, of grief 
> and anger and sadness. Of fear and helplessness, hopelessness and despair, 
> turned to rage and vengeance.
>
> I understand that rage, but it doesn't make it right.  I understand hatred 
> and vengeance, but it doesn't make it right. I understand wanting an eye 
> for an eye, but it doesn't make it right. If Saddam had been responsible 
> for killing my family, I can tell you I'd try to kill him myself. But it 
> doesn't make it right.
>
> Sadly and more importantly, his killing ultimately accomplishes nothing. 
> Saddam is dead, bu

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: 10 top stories of '06, and more

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO WORLD SCIENCE READERS!
WORLD SCIENCE'S 10 MOST POPULAR STORIES OF 2006: 
1. "Missing link" walking-fish fossils awe scientists
2. First cancer vaccine approved
3. Claim of reversed human evolution sparks skepticism, interest 
4. Dolphins may "name" themselves
5. One universe or many? A panel debates
6. Study: red wine substance extends life, counteracts bad diet
7. Skepticism greets claim of possible alien microbes
8. Oldest known ritual: python worship, archaeologist says
9. Drastic speedup in Arctic melting forecast
10. Human, chimp lineages interbred after splitting, study suggests

LATEST NEWS:

* Bush administration proposes listing polar bears as
threatened:
Environmentalists hailed the move as a possible
major shift in direction for U.S. policy on global warming.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061228_polar-bear.htm


* Even rats may dream in pictures, study finds:
Animals, like humans, appear to have sleep imagery,
researchers say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061219_rat-dreams.htm


* Surprises in comet dust:
Dust gathered from a comet and brought to Earth
tells a tale of a solar system that partially turned
itself inside out, according to scientists.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061214_stardust.htm


* Mammals might have flown before birds, scientists
claim:
An ancient squirrel-like, gliding beast differed
from all known orders of mammals, a study suggests.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/061213_antiquus.htm


* "Trust hormone" now tied to "mind reading" -- and
increasingly, autism:
An unusual hormone has a growing list of documented
powers, some of them surprising -- and intriguing to
scientists hunting autism treatments.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061206_oxytocin.htm


***

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [scifinoir2] Saddam Hussein Executed

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The mind boggles!  I like what you said about Mammy Condie - right on!
Amy


> Well, now the administration claims he went to sleep *on purpose* to send 
> a message: that the Iraqi's could handle their own biz and that the U.S. 
> wasn't running the show. Can you believe that chit?! If this is true, it's 
> one of the freakin' dumbest things I've ever heard.  America invaded Iraq, 
> America captured Saddam and killed his sons. Amerian soldiers have been 
> doing the lion's share of the security around Saddam and his associates. 
> American troops handed him over to be executed. American troops are still 
> running the country, and will be there for God knows how much longer 
> trying to stabilize it.
>
> And *now* you want to send some empty, meaningless message that shows 
> Iraq's in charge? Utter crap.
>
> Not to mention, it's the wrong message at the wrong time. The execution of 
> Saddam is a huge moment, rife with symbolism for both what does and 
> doesn't happen as a result of his death.  Don't you think a real leader 
> should stay up and be involved in the analysis of that moment? Can you 
> imagine Clinton, Carter, even Bush, Sr. going to bed and *not* getting 
> briefings and watching coverage of the moments leading up to the death of 
> the very man labelled Public Enemy Number One in Iraq?
>
> This is another stupifying miscalculation and lack of leadership and 
> insight from an administration that I honestly didn't think could get any 
> dumber.  Now I'm wondering if the official statement released was even 
> written by Bush. He was probably snoring and made Mammy Condie write the 
> release. (Like a good little slave, she is of course at Crawford with her 
> master/love interest).
>
> -- Original message -- 
> From: Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> That surprised me too, Keith. You'd think that he'd wait up to see the 
> event through on live streaming video, then e-mail it off to Daddy Bush, 
> with the notation, "I *got* him for you, Daddy!"
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: thanks, Amy. Even Bush--who was *asleep* 
> when Saddam was executed!--said his death wouldn't end the violence, 
> though it was "a milestone".
>
> Saddam's death was announced around 9:30 Central time, and Bush was 
> asleep? He went to bed without waiting up to hear about this, or to see 
> whether or not Iraq would explode in violence?
>
> That says it all...
>
> -- Original message -- 
> From: "Amy Harlib" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>>
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> I couldn't agree with this eloquent statement more!
>> Amy
>>
>>
>> > Saddam is dead.
>> >
>> > Aren't you happy now?
>> >
>> > He was executed, I hear, just a few minutes ago (it's 10:33 EST when I
>> > write this). He has executed by hanging, the process rushed in order to
>> > avoid a killing on the upcoming holy time of Eid Al-Ahda (Iraqi law and
>> > custom forbids killing a person on a day considered holy to him). So 
>> > the
>> > order was given, the soldiers handed him over, the platform dropped, 
>> > the
>> > rope stretched taut, the neck broken, and the mad leader breathed his
>> > last.
>> >
>> > Aren't you satisfied?
>> >
>> > Saddam was an evil man, responsible for untold numbers of deaths and
>> > torturings. Men, women, children--all fell before him. He thought 
>> > nothing
>> > of gasing whole villages, torturing people for something as innocuous 
>> > as
>> > saying the wrong thing, and subjecting his people to untold terror.
>> > Saddam's own mistress said he enjoyed watching videos of people being
>> > executed--from his bed. But now the sadist Saddam is dead.
>> >
>> > Don't you feel safer?
>> >
>> > My government said Saddam amassed weapons of mass destruction. So, they
>> > said, he had to be brought down, and this was done, with the former
>> > dictator being flushed from a "spider hole" like a coward. That no 
>> > weapons
>> > of note were ever found was inconsequential, I was told, in light of 
>> > one
>> > of the most evil men this side of Hitler being captured. And not just
>> > Saddam: his evil, evil sons, who raped and murdered with impunity, and
>> > tortured athletes for daring to lose an Olympic competition. With 
>> > Saddam
>> > gone, I was told, Iraq would become a sacred land of democracy an

[scifinoir2] Fw: Beliefnet : Cosmology

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Ooh!  This is so interesting!
Cheers!
Amy

URL to a fascinating article in MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16126932/site/newsweek/

I've found that questions can be a very effective way to get people to think, 
sometimes more effective than passing on facts.  The efforts of this cosmology 
think-tank at Arizona State University could be some great questions for us to 
ponder on.

The article is short
"Dec. 18, 2006 issue - The more the universe seems comprehensible," the 
physicist Steven Weinberg once wrote, "the more it seems pointless." It is said 
that many of his colleagues were dismayed, not by the assertion that the 
universe was pointless, but over the implication that it could even have a 
point. But then, retorts Paul Davies, the scientist and author of more than 20 
books on cosmology, what's the point of science itself? 

Davies, who has spent his career asking variations on this question, will now 
be in a position to look for answers as the head of a new cosmology think tank, 
provisionally named Beyond, at Arizona State University. The outfit, part of an 
ambitious effort by ASU president Michael Crow to stake out new intellectual 
territory for his young institution, will ask no easy questions, only deep ones 
like "Why are the laws of nature mathematical?"—something that's been gnawing 
at scientists for about 2,500 years. Davies says he wants to look into "the 
origin of the universe, life, consciousness and the emergence of humanity." Its 
first conference, later this month, will focus on what Davies calls "looking 
for life on Earth as we don't know it." Is our kind of DNA-based life the only 
kind there is? How could we tell? Where should we look for other examples? The 
idea that life might have evolved more than once is the central premise of the 
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and thus of special interest to 
Davies, who heads SETI's "post-detection" committee—the best committee to be 
on, he says, since it never meets. 
But it's also of special interest to him because he occupies an increasingly 
isolated position among top physicists, neither conventionally religious nor as 
ruthlessly skeptical as Weinberg. Davies has devoted his career to searching 
for the equation that will reveal what he calls "the mind of God," the 
metaphysical foundation for everything there is. "Scientists proceed on the 
assumption that there is a coherent scheme to the universe to be uncovered," he 
said last month at a conference on belief and reason at the Salk Institute that 
brought together many prominent atheists, including Richard Dawkins and Sam 
Harris. "That's also an act of faith." Davies then gave his own version of 
Weinberg's formula. "The more the universe seems pointless," he said, staring 
down his audience of hardened skeptics, "the more it is incomprehensible."

Here is a link to a news release from the ASU Foundation about the think tank

http://www.asufoundation.org/news/stories/113006-davies.asp

Here is a link to an article by Paul Davies titled What Happened Before The Big 
Bang?

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/62/story_6233_1.html




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [scifinoir2] OT: "Dreamgirls"- My Take

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Oh terrific review!  Can't wait to see this one!
Cheers!
Amy


Thanks. I saw that per screen stat as well, meaning "Dreamgirls" 
outperformed all other movies. Tyler Perry tapped into this same phenomenon. 
First, with his highly successful stage plays based on his Medea character. 
Though the vast majority of whites had never heard of Perry (or any of the 
other successful plays out there, for that matter, like "Mama I Want to 
Sing") he was pulling in an incredible amount of money per theatre, mostly 
based on word of mouth and advertising only on Black radio stations. Here in 
his home base of Atlanta, Perry's shows always sell out, and routinely pull 
in more money than big-ticket shows.  Perry took that same success to the 
big screen, spending about five million bucks--much of it his own money--for 
films that took in ten times that amount in the first weekend. DVD sales 
were of course through the roof.

I think that when Blacks put together something of quality, and show other 
Blacks that we care about what they think and want, it will be successful. 
Many of the romantic comedies in the last few years have done well at the 
box office, and exploded in DVD sales and rentals. As someone who loves the 
movie going experience, I'd hate to see the theatre diminish in importance, 
but I see your point. It costs so much to make and market a theatrical 
movie, and nowadays on-demand cable and the Internet make it possible for 
people to use alternate, independent distribution and production methods to 
reach their audience.
-- Original message -- 
From: "The Yokozuna of Soul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Great stuff, Keith.

I noticed this morning that Dreamgirls was the #3 movie last weekend, and
was only on on 852 screens. Night At the Museum and Pursuit of Happyness
were on 3800 and 2800 screens, respectively, and were the #1 and #2
movies. The rest of the list were on a minimum of 2 thousand screens. So a
movie like Dreamgirls can do really well without a lot of marketing (just
great press) and good placement.

I am interested to see how Dreamgirls does on DVD. If it does as well as
"Ray", then I think we've found our Black movie distribution method.
George Lucas may be right. THeaters might be for blockbusters and
franchises,and home video may be for film and interesting stories.

On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:31:18 -0500, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Saw this last week (for the wife, you know!) For my money, the best
> movie about Blacks in the music biz is still Robert Townsend's "The Five
> Heartbeats", but "Dreamgirls" is a fun flick. Very good, entertaining
> movie. Kinda light and fluffy like a marshmellow, but that's okay. The
> following is my review, published at the website "Playahata". Go to
> www.playahata.com, click on "Movie Reviews" at the top, and look for
> the movie in the alphabetized list. Be warned: the site itself can be
> kinda raw in language at times, but it's not too bad. (Hey, I'm sure
> Shakespeare had to drop some hip-hip reviews before he got his big break
> too!)
>
> You can also find my reviews of "Stranger than Fiction" and "Crank"
> (awful, awful movie!) at the site.
>
>
> Dreamgirls Category: Drama, Musical/Performing Arts and Adaptation
> Rating: PG-13 for language, some sexuality and drug content.
> Run Time: 2 hr 05 min.
>
> Starring: Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover,
> Jennifer Hudson
> Directed by Bill Condon
> Produced by Patricia Whitcher, Laurence Mark
> Written by: Bill Condon (screenplay), Tom Eyen (source)
> Distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG
> Release Date: December 25th, 2006
> Synopsis: Effie White, Deena Jones, and Lorrell Robinson - three friends
> from Chicago - are a promising singing trio called The Dreamettes.
> Accompanied by their songwriter C.C. White (Effie's brother), they
> travel to New York to compete in a talent show at the Apollo Theatre.
> Although the girls lose this first bid for fame, their talent attracts
> an ambitious manager by the name of Curtis Taylor, Jr., who uses
> unscrupulous tactics to move the girls from backup singers of superstar
> James "Thunder" Early to superstars of their own. Curtis reshapes the
> group to "crossover" from R & B to the lucrative pop music scene. Lead
> singer Effie gets replaced by the more attractive Deena and is
> eventually dropped from the trio. The group evolves into a more
> sophisticated group, The Dreams, with a lighter sound and chic look.
> They successfully attract a "whiter" audience and The Dreams rise to
> international stardom. The money, fame, and adulation, howev er, doesn't
> bring them happiness.
> TsarBernard (a.k.a. Keith Johnson) Says Overall: A
> Reviewing “Dreamgirls� is almost a waste of time. With a stellar cast
> and kickin’ soundtrack, it would succeed whether critics hated or loved
> it. People expect it to be good, period. And they’d be right. This is a
> fun, moving, toe-tapping, hand-clappi

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 50 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]



>
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 50...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... 
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit’s Vibe...On An Underground Railroad...By Kinny Landrum
> 2. Bit of History...Last Stop Canada
> 3. Sandusky Lost...By John Burl Smith
> 4. DISHing It Up Hot!...Ongoing Slavery!...By Dot
> 5. Disgruntled
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> On An Underground Railroad
> By Kinny Landrum
>
>
>
> In 1831 a slave named Tice
> Escaped to Ohio 'cross a river of ice
> His owner followed him all the way along
> But when they got to the bank, ol' Tice was gone
> He looked around for him far and wide
> But then he rowed on back to the Kentucky side
> He said, "That boy sure can swim
> I never seen hide or hair of him"
>
>
>
> But he musta gone off on an Underground Railroad
> Musta gone off on an Underground Railroad
> Musta gone off on an Underground Railroad
> Don't know where he's bound
> But he's going underground
>
>
>
> The spark of freedom was so strong
> It spread like a fire before too long
> Uncle Tom's Cabin fanned the flames
> But those who helped went by many names
> There was Harriet Tubman. They called her Moses
> 'Cause she led so many out of Egypt to roses
> And Levi Coffin they called President
> 'Cause his was the house where three lines went
> Henry Brown mailed himself in a box
> To Philly, he musta been crazy like a fox
> John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
> 'Cause there's so many that he tried to save
>
>
>
> They all musta gone off on an Underground Railroad
> Musta gone off on an Underground Railroad
> Musta gone off on an Underground Railroad
> Don't know where they're bound
> But they're going underground
>
>
>
> It wasn't no subway and it wasn't no train
> But still they used the same kinds of names
> Like conductors and passengers, stations and tracks
> And you knew it was safe
> when you saw a quilt out back
> With a smoking chimney on top
> This was a place where you could stop for the night
> Until the morning came
> And you had to get back on board the train
>
>
>
> Goin' on off on the Underground Railroad
> Goin' on off on the Underground Railroad
> Goin' on off on the Underground Railroad
> Don't know where you're bound
> But you're going underground
>
>
>
> In 1856 the Supreme Court said
> A slave is a slave until he's dead
> Dred Scott was chattel and not a man
> He wasn't a citizen of any land
> The Fugitive Slave Law gave 'em the right
> To pick up a man off the streets at night
> And ship him in chains back down South
> He had no defense, he couldn't open his mouth
> Anyone who helped could be thrown in jail
> And fined a grand without any bail
> No wonder so many felt the time was now
> They had to do something somehow
> They got together and put a movement in place
> To help their brothers in this human race
>
>
>
> All went off on an Underground Railroad
> All went off on an Underground Railroad
> All went off on an Underground Railroad
> Don't know where they're bound
> But they're going underground
> (Hear the music and lyrics to this song at
> http://www.ushistory.com/rrlyric.htm
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Last Stop Canada
>
>
>
> Kidnaped from Africa, slaves sought freedom since their arrival in North
> America (1619).   A slave owner and US President, George Washington
> complained that one of his runaways was helped by a "society of Quakers"
> (1786).   Before statehood, the Ohio territory became the destination for
> runaways.   They lived among friendly Native American tribes, like the
> Wyandots in Upper Sandusky.  Fearing Native Americans, whites did not
> pursue runaways on Indian land.
>
>
>
> Slaves saw the North, Ohio in particular, as the land of freedom.  After
> escaping bondage and arriving there, they found blacks lived in a state of
> semi-freedom.  A byproduct of slavery, northern racism was part and parcel
> of the USA's social fabric, shaping its concepts of "black" and "white."
>
>
>
> During Andrew Jackson's (1829-37) "Age of the Common Man," working class
> white men gained power through the right to vote.  Even European
> immigrants, who faced discrimination and hardship in their native
> countries, were a part of a privileged  "white" class in America.  No
> matter how poor or degraded they were, simply by virtue of being white,
> there was a class of people below them. Being white meant something--
> superiority.  Article I Section 2  of the US Constitution codified black
> slavery (1789) and the Dred Scott decision (1857) affirmed blacks were
> property.  This gave whites absolute power over blacks.  Through
> intimidation, changing laws and mob violence, whites increasingly denied
> blacks born in the USA rights routinely granted immigrants.
>
>
>
> Segregation was rampa

[scifinoir2] Whale song reveals sophisticated language skills

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yes, they're sentient - data confirms what I've intuited for decades!


Whale song reveals sophisticated language skills
 
  a.. 12:24 23 March 2006 
  b.. NewScientist.com news service 
  c.. Roxanne Khamsi 
Humpback whales use their own syntax – or grammar – in the complex songs they 
sing, say researchers who have developed a mathematical technique to probe the 
mysteries of whale song.
The team adds that whales are the only other animals beside humans to use 
hierarchical structure in language, in which phrases are embedded in larger, 
recurring themes. 

This concept echoes scientific suggestions from the 1970s, but the new computer 
analysis claims to confirm this and provides an objective measure of the songs’ 
structure and complexity.

Male humpback whales produce songs that last anywhere from about six to 30 
minutes. These vocalisations vary greatly across seasons, and during breeding 
periods they are thought to help attract female partners. Their eerie sound and 
patterns have captured the attention of marine biologists for decades.

Too subjective
Researchers describe human language as hierarchical because it consists of 
sentences which contain clauses, which in turn contain words. This hierarchy 
helps us to extract meaning from what we hear. But some researchers remained 
sceptical that whale songs could contain this degree of organisation when Roger 
Payne and Scott McVay first offered the idea in 1971 (Science, vol 173, p 587).

At the time, some argued that the observation was too subjective, explains 
Ryuji Suzuki, a study co-author at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a 
pre-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US.

He and colleagues developed a computer algorithm to analyse the complex 
patterns of moans, cries and chirps in 16 humpback whale songs. The software 
draws on mathematics such as probability, and considers the placement and 
repetitive nature of the smallest units of the animals’ songs.

Abstract objects
Suzuki says the analysis objectively demonstrates that the whale songs have a 
hierarchical syntax. To hear the team’s recording of humpback whales crooning 
off the Hawaiian coast, click here.

The algorithm can also assign a numerical value to a whale song to describe its 
degree of complexity. Shorter whale songs appear more complex than longer ones, 
according to the new study.

Suzuki stresses whale songs are still a far cry from our own means of 
expression. He says that the use of terms referring to distinct and sometimes 
abstract objects appears unique to human language. “We don’t have any evidence 
of such things in whale songs.” 

“We’re still very far from knowing the meaning of whale songs,” he admits.

Journal reference: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (DOI: 
10.1121/1.2161827)

Related Articles
  a.. Romantic rodents give secret serenades 
  b.. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8237 
  c.. 01 November 2005 
  d.. Male whales woo with lovesongs 
  e.. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2433 
  f.. 19 June 2002 
  g.. Rhythm of blues charts the ocean depths 
  h.. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg15821393.400 
  i.. 20 June 1998 
Weblinks
  a.. Howard Hughes Medical Institute 
  b.. http://www.hhmi.org/ 
  c.. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 
  d.. http://scitation.aip.org/jasa/ 
Close this window Return to article
Printed on Sun Jan 07 18:27:46 GMT 2007

 

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Re: [scifinoir2] 'Titanic' Director Joins Fox on $200 Million Sci-Fi Film

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I quite agree!  If this is a success the possibilities are truly thrilling!
Cheers!
Amy


> As much as I loathe Cameron, I may have to check this out, solely because 
> it's not a  rehash of anything.
>
> Brent Wodehouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/movies/08cnd-cameron.html
>
> 'Titanic' Director Joins Fox on $200 Million Film
>
> By SHARON WAXMAN
>
> Published: January 8, 2007
>
> LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8 - James Cameron, the director whose "Titanic" set a
> record for ticket sales around the world, will join 20th Century Fox in
> tackling a similarly ambitious and costly film, "Avatar," which will test
> new technologies on a scale unseen before in Hollywood, the studio and the
> filmmaker said today.
>
> The film, with a budget of close to $200 million, is an original science
> fiction story that will be shown in3D in conventional theaters. The story
> pits a human army against an alien army on a distant planet, using live
> actors and digital technology to make a large cast of virtual creatures
> who convey emotion as authentically as humans.
>
> Earlier movies like the "The Lord of the Rings" did so on a limited basis,
> while those like "The Polar Express" have used live actors to drive
> animated images with so-called "motion capture" technology. But none has
> gone as far as "Avatar" will do to create an entirely photorealistic
> world, complete with virtual characters on that scale, Mr. Cameron said in
> a telephone interview.
>
> "This film is a true hybrid - a full live-action shoot, with C.G.
> characters in C.G. and live environments," he said, referring
> computer-generated images. "Ideally at the end of the of day the audience
> has no idea which they're looking at."
>
> The making of "Titanic," Mr. Cameron's last full-blown Hollywood feature,
> was the stuff of movie legend. The film, released in 1997, went far over
> its planned cost to become the most expensive production that had then
> been made. But it went on to become a historic success, taking in a
> record-breaking $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office, and also winning
> 11 Oscars, including an award for best picture.
>
> Mr. Cameron said that he had taken care to avoid the problems he
> encountered on his last gargantuan production, and that he was already
> four months into shooting the nonprincipal scenes by the time Fox gave
> final approval to the project today.
>
> "I've looked long and hard at 'Titanic' and other effects-related things
> I've done where they've drifted budget-wise," he said. "This has been
> designed from the ground up to avoid those pitfalls. Will we have other
> pitfalls? Yes, probably."
>
> For its aliens, "Avatar" will rely on characters that will be designed in
> the computer, but played by human actors, with tiny cameras on headsets
> recording their performances to be inserted into a virtual world.
>
> Mr. Cameron has already devised revolutionary methods to shoot the film,
> which he has been quietly doing since the fall, and expects to create
> still more methods to bring to life the vision of a completely realistic
> alien world. He and computer experts have designed a camera that allows
> the director to observe the performance of the actors-as-aliens in the
> virtual environment in real time.
>
> Sam Worthington, a young Australian actor, has been named to play the
> lead, as a paralyzed former marine who undergoes an experiment to exist as
> an avatar, another version of himself. The avatar is not paralyzed, but is
> an alien - 10 feet tall and blue. Zoe Saldana, another relative unknown,
> has been chosen as the love interest.
>
> "We could do it with make-up, in a 'Star Trek' manner, we could put rubber
> on his face, but I wasn't interested in doing it that way," said Mr.
> Cameron. "With the new tools, we can create a humanoid character that is
> anything we imagine it to be - beautiful, elegant, graceful, powerful -
> evocative of us, but still with an emotional connection."
>
> The live-action shoot with actors will begin in April, with major effects
> being done by Weta, the filmmaker Peter Jackson's New Zealand-based
> effects company, which worked on his "Lord of the Rings." The film is
> scheduled for release in summer 2009.
>
> "This will launch an entire new way of seeing and exhibiting movies," said
> Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. "It's once again
> Jim is transforming the medium. Jim's not just a filmmaker; every one of
> his films have pushed the envelope, in its aesthetic and in technology.
> This is an astounding undertaking, and one only Jim could do justice to."
>
>
>
>
>
>
> If any one of our restaurants were better than the rest, then customers 
> would flocck to that location, creating a mass imbalance that could create 
> a black hole, which would swallow the Earth. That's why we make every 
> McDonald's from Pomona to Poughkeepsie the same good place to eat, thereby 
> saving the Universe.-fr

[scifinoir2] Fw: The Dish: dedicated to the dialogue on race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From before Christmas but still has very relevant points to make.


> Subject: The DISH Vol. 9 No 51
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 51...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... 12-22-06
> 
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> 1. Blood for Oil: The Ghost of Christmas Past...By John Burl Smith
> 2.Venue for an Artist...Happy Holidays – Perhaps Not...By Rodney D. Coates
> 3. Disgruntled
> 4. Bit of History...Muhammad Yunus
> 5. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 6. News You Use...Beware:  Mortgage Fraud
> 7. Hood Notes...Rich and Poor
> 8. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Blood for Oil: The Ghost of Christmas Past
> By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> This time of year carolers sing "Peace on earth and goodwill to all men!"
> Unfortunately, this year as the world celebrates the birth of the "Prince
> of Peace," war in Iraq dominates conversations.  A gift to the world in
> the name of the American people, George W. Bush promised it would bring
> lasting peace.  However, Iraq is a gift that keeps on killing.  Rather
> than a bearer of joy and good tidings for those who were good and ashes
> for those who were bad, Bush has only blood-filled stockings for all.
>
>
>
> Outraged over Iraq, during the mid-term elections, US voters soundly
> rejected Bush's "blood for oil" policy.  Given a mandate to pursue
> immediate withdrawal, Democrats have changed their tune and are coraling
> the neo-con's plans that call for an increase in US troops in Iraq.
> "Staying the course" in Iraq is a re-mix of Richard Nixon's choral "Peace
> with Honor," a hit that lengthened the Viet Nam War.  Bush and his
> congressional harmonizers are off the chart with "Support Our Troops and
> Win in Iraq!"  Such a recital is as unwanted by the world as uninvited
> vacationing relatives with kids dropping in for the holidays.
>
>
>
> Hidden away, like Toys in the Attic, is a gift left by the ghost of
> Christmas past. Unopened, even today, this box contains stories about the
> time when "blood for slaves" ruled the world.  Blessed by the Catholic
> Church, the slave trade was the life's blood of the "New World's" economy
> for hundred of years.  The Vatican made trillions of dollars underwriting
> the use of human lives as the basis of an economic system.  The buying and
> selling of human beings became God's work.
>
>
>
> European empires were built and destroyed fighting for control of the
> slave trade.  Based on kidnaping and forced bondage, had Dow-Jones existed
> then, dealing in human flesh would have topped the big board, much like
> oil today.  A time when young Europeans died for what kings said, war was
> also a means of population control of the poor relative to the rich.  The
> fly in the ointment, when it came to convincing poor people the king's
> word was worth dying for, once he decided to go to war, lying was the name
> of the game.  The king could never admit that their fighting and dying was
> to establish control over the slave trade.
>
>
>
> Private marauders  roamed Africa kidnaping and transporting human beings
> for profit.  This was called "the free enterprise system."  Mired in
> poverty after the Dark Ages, Europe had very little gold.  Dominated by
> the wealth of the Catholic Church, slaves became international currency.
> Consequently, European countries warred to control slavery, for the same
> reason the US is fighting to control Iraq's oil.  Those young Europeans in
> the 17th, 18th  and 19th  century that died in wars were ignorant and had
> no idea their deaths supported a "blood for slaves" policy. Historians
> romanticized this period by focusing on the personalities (kings) rather
> than on how Europe built its wealth using " blood for slaves."
>
>
>
> Invading Iraq, Bush initiated his "blood for oil" policy.  Already having
> cost tens of thousands of lives, it is a Christmas present that can't be
> returned after the holidays.  Emulating kings that desired the wealth
> trading slaves generated, Bush's lies about WMD, 9-11 and al-Qaeda  had
> nothing to do with war in Iraq.  Neatly wrapped in a media blitz that was
> opened before Christmas, Bush presented the world with the news that he is
> not going to withdraw from Iraq.  Congress tied the bow on his gift by
> refusing to consider cutting off funds for Iraq's killing fields.  So, the
> only option on the table is a continuation of Bush's bloody policy.
>
>
>
> This scenario underscores Bush's commitment to spilling blood until the US
> establishes control over Iraq's oil.  Killing young Americans and Iraqis
> of all ages is the cornerstone of Bush's empire building. Bush's road map
> for future gifts is the Project for a New American Century.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Venue for an Artist
> Happy Holidays – Perhaps Not
> By Rodney D. Coates
>
>
>
> I must adm

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 9 No 52 Dedicated to the dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


>
>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 9 No 52...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... 12-29-06
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
> 1. Say It Loud!...By John Burl Smith
> 2. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 3. Bit of History...Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879)
> 4. Venue for an Artist...No Not Another Bubble Test For Me!
>...By Ronald A. Mac Arthur
> 5. News You Use...Education Funding Gap
> 6. Hood Notes...None Left Unpunished
> 7. Disgruntled
> 8. DISHing It Up Hot!...On Discipline!...By Dot
> 9. Mailbox
> **
>
>
>
> Say It Loud!
> By John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> "Soul is all the hard knocks, all the punishment the black man has had...
> all the unfulfilled dreams that must come true."  James Brown
>
>
>
> A fact of life for blacks - once they die, they become everyone's hero.
> Living their lives, the world is oblivious to their plight and conspires
> to crush them, even before they are seeds.  Defying all odds, surmounting
> great obstacles and surviving the hell fires of poverty, their
> accomplishments are compared to those that faced fewer challenges with
> greater opportunities and resources.  Beginning so far back, blacks cannot
> see the starting line for those who are half way around the track before
> they reach the starting gate.  James Brown was one such person.
>
>
>
> Born in Barnwell, S.C. May 3, 1933, his life began in extreme poverty. His
> biographies do not mention a mother or father; some do say at 5 years old,
> he was sent to live with an aunt, who ran a brothel in Augusta, Georgia.
> On his own from the start, running errands, hustling, soliciting soldiers
> for his aunt's establishment, living on the streets, picking cotton and
> shining shoes, it is not surprising the hard-life brought James Brown
> afoul of the law, like most young black men in the United State (US).
>
>
>
> Becoming the greatest showman of modern times, if not ever, did not come
> easy.  Brown tried boxing, then baseball, before turning to music.
> Fortunately, as bad things sometimes turn out, it was in jail he found his
> true calling.  There, he met Bobby Byrd and joined the Gospel
> Starlighters.  James inspired them to change their style and become the
> Famous Flames.  And for me, the rest is history.
>
>
>
> Barely, a teenager, when James Brown's first hit Please, Please, Please
> took the black community by storm, do-wop was the thing.  It was a time of
> 45 records, "sock hops" in school and smooching at house parties on
> weekends. James enthralled us with Try Me, Bewildered and Lost Someone.
> For us back then, if heaven was a place, Brown was the transporter.
> Although we loved his music, he was still just an entertainer, that is,
> until the late 1960s.
>
>
>
> Fighting against discrimination and for equality and dignity, blacks had
> been searching for our identity since being kidnaped and brought to the US
> as slaves.   Black power lit a fire in our hearts, and James Brown "hit it
> on the one," and gave us an anthem, Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud.
> With those lyrics, he and black power became one in our hearts.  He lifted
> us up at a time and in ways black leaders at the time never had.  And, for
> a brief period between the late 1960s until the "Good Times "of the 1980s,
> black pride was in vogue.  Sporting huge Afros, we were so proud, even
> white folks wanted to be black.
>
>
>
> James Brown went on to make musical history on so many levels and in so
> many ways.  The Godfather of Soul, Soul Brother Number One, the Minister
> of The New New Super Heavy Funk, Mr. Dynamite and the Hardest-Working Man
> in Show Business. He had 119 singles that made the charts in the US and
> recorded more than 50 albums. Every record he made from 1960-77 reached
> the top 100. He won Grammys for Papa's Got A Brand New Bag (best R&B
> recording1965), Living In America (best R&B vocal performance, male 1987)
> and for lifetime achievement 1992.  He was inducted into the Rock and Roll
> Hall of Fame 1986.
>
>
>
> Everyone has a James Brown impact story, this is mine.  Say it Loud, I'm
> Black and I'm Proud!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Comments from the Bat Cave
>
>
>
> The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is filled with holiday good
> cheer.  Apparently, the gifts he received exceeded his expectations.  When
> queried for comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro enthusiastically exclaimed,
> "I'm a very, very, very lucky person!"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879)
>
>
>
> Born in 1798, Francis LeMoyne was the only child of Dr. John J. LeMoyne.
> In 1913, the family moved to their historic home in Washington County,
> Pennsylvania.  Francis followed his father into the practice of medicine.
> He attended Washington College, where he later served as a trustee.
>
>
>
> C

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 10 No 1 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 10 No 1...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race... 01-05-07
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe..."The Urge to Surge"...By Mumia Abu-Jamal
> 2. Bit of History...James A Baker, III
> 3. News You Use...Iraq Study Group
> 4. Who Does He Serve?...By John Burl Smith
> 5. Case in Point: Iraq Debt Relief
> 6. Disgruntled
> 7. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> "The Urge to Surge"
> By Mumia Abu-Jamal
>
>
>
> Within days the Bush regime is expected to announce its so-called "new
> strategy" in Iraq -- the most talked-about plan being a surge in U.S.
> forces in Iraq.
>
>
>
> By 'surge' is meant the significant increase in troop size in that
> beleaguered country, a plan meant to address the obvious failures in Iraq.
>
>
>
> In light of the rumored 'surge', one wonders, what does it take for the
> administration to listen to the voices of the People?
>
>
>
> In February and March, 2003, the U.S. and much of the world spoke, with
> millions marching in the streets of cities the globe over, against the
> scourge of war.
>
>
>
> The Bush regime ignored them. No -- "ignored" isn't right. President Bush
> belittled the protests as 'a focus group.' As journalism professor Robert
> Jensen notes in his book, *The Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to
> Claim Our Humanity* (San Francisco: City Lights Publ., 2004) Bush's
> response to the "single largest public political demonstration in
> history", was unbelievable:  When asked a few days later about the size of
> the protest, he said: 'First of all, you know, size of protest, it's like
> deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based on a focus group. The
> role of a leader is to decide policy based upon the security -- in this
> case, the security of the people.'
>
>
>
> "A focus group? Perhaps the leader of the free world was not aware that a
> focus group is a small number of people who are brought together (and
> typically paid) to evaluate a concept or product. Focus groups are
> primarily a tool of businesses, which use them to figure out how to sell
> things more effectively. Politicians also occasionally use them, for the
> same purpose. That's a bit different from a coordinated gathering of
> millions of people who took to the streets because they felt passionately
> about an issue of life and death. As is so often the case, Bush's comment
> demonstrated his ignorance and condescension, the narrowness of his
> intellect and his lack of respect for the people he allegedly serves."
> [pp. xi-xii]
>
>
>
> Decades ago, during the height of the Vietnam War, presidents and their
> military advisors extended the hostilities long after it was abundantly
> clear that the conflict could not be won.  President Lyndon B. Johnson
> escalated it, but could not bring himself to rein it in for fear that
> history would judge him one who 'lost' Vietnam.
>
>
>
> His successor, Richard M. Nixon further escalated the conflict, by
> ordering bombing of neighboring countries. Some historians now say that
> the escalation and continuation of the Vietnam War cost some 20,000
> Americans lives; the numbers of Vietnamese, and other southeast Asians are
> unknown to us.
>
>
>
> The point is, the war and its needless carnage was extended for years, at
> a horrific cost: to save U.S. face. It seems that this not-so-distant
> history is repeating itself.
>
>
>
> In a few weeks, we shall hear what "the Decider" has decided. You can bet
> that it will conflict with the will of most Americans. What kind of
> democracy is this?
>
>
>
> Demonstrations don't matter. Elections don't matter. Study groups don't
> matter.  No matter what most Americans think -- it doesn't matter.
> Nothing matters -- but what the decider decides.  There's a word for that
> -- and it sure ain't democracy!
>
>
>
> Americans have seemingly settled for a dictatorship of one -- in  fact, a
> dictatorship of disaster.  Like good little sheep, they plan to silently
> acquiesce as more of  their young people are slain on an altar slick with
> oil.
>
>
>
> This isn't patriotism. It's the very essence of subservience.  There's
> another word for it.  Madness.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> James A Baker, III
>
>
>
> James Addison Baker III was born April 28, 1930 in Houston, Texas to James
> Addison Baker Jr. and Ethel Bonner Means.  He attended Hill School, a
> private college-preparatory Academy in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and
> Princeton University. Graduating in 1952, he entered the US Marine Corps.
> A University of Texas School of Law graduate in 1957,  Baker joined the
> law firm of Andrews & Kurth, LLP.
>
>
>
> Although very prominent in politics, business and international affairs,
> little information is available on Baker's early years.

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: How altruism takes root in the brain

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Interesting science stuff!


* Activation of brain area found to predict
altruism:
A study might help reveal how the desire to help
others takes root in the brain.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070121_altruism.htm


* Black diamonds come from space, scientists claim:
Rare, dusky gems were once parts of massive
asteroids that struck Earth, scientists say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070121_diamonds.htm


* Study: Nobel Prize may add two years to life:
Fame alone, independently of wealth, seems to give a
life-extending boost, two economists report

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070118_nobel.htm


* Mother ducks cooperate on parenting:
For eider ducks, parenting is a negotiated joint
venture, researchers say.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070111_ducks.htm


* Earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe reported:
Modern humans who first arose in Africa moved into
Europe as early as about 45,000 years ago, a new
study indicates.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070111_humans.htm



***

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[scifinoir2] Fw: Message from Savethehubble.org

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
An interesting project, a worthy idea..


CONTINUE THE FIGHT FOR HUBBLE!

An Open Letter to Hubble Supporters
From: David Gaynes, Director, Saving Hubble www.savinghubble.com

Dear Hubble Fans,

The founder of Savethehubble.org, Michael Paolucci, has kindly given me the 
opportunity to speak to you and I will be brief. I am the director of a 
documentary work-in-progress entitled SAVING HUBBLE. The film is an innovative 
project that examines, in-depth, the decision to abandon Hubble in 2004. The 
concept is to study this decision in the context of contemporary American 
political policy and tell the story of mistaken priorities, both in the space 
program and in other arenas.

Much of the film has been shot already and a trailer is available for viewing 
online at our website: www.savinghubble.com.

My goal for SAVING HUBBLE is for the film to become a true grassroots movement. 
Like you, I am excited that Hubble has regained favor within NASA (through the 
recent rescheduling of Servicing Mission 4), but my film goes beyond the Hubble 
issue and challenges the space agency and our government to change course on a 
number of issues. The film will examine the cuts and delays that have affected 
many NASA science programs and examine larger issues like federal spending 
priorities, especially with regard to defense budgets and how they shape the 
overall funding pool. In short, are we a country that builds nukes or space 
telescopes? The decision is ours to make. SAVING HUBBLE is more than a film to 
me; it is a movement, and it is one I hope you will continue to be a part of as 
we begin to edit the footage and prepare for completion and distribution.

This email is an appeal for your support and by "support" I do not simply mean 
"money." There are many ways to get involved; by forwarding this email to 
like-minded friends and telling them to subscribe to our e-newsletter to buying 
an "I Roll With HUBBLE" T-shirt to donating a small amount to the film or even 
becoming an investor in the film at a higher level of financial involvement. 
Any degree of support empowers the film, empowers Hubble, and empowers you as 
an engaged citizen.

Thank you for your interest -- Hope to hear from you!

David Gaynes
Director, Saving Hubble
www.savinghubble.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 10 No 2 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Despite some malapropisms in this issue, their hearts are in exactly the 
right place!


>
> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 10 No 2...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...Greatest Love of All...By Michael Masser and Linda 
> Creed
> 2. Comments from the Bat Cave
> 3. Bit of History...Ernest J. Gaines
> 4. Disgruntled
> 5. Venue for an Artist...Democrat's Defacto Pardon Bush et al...By Karl
> Sanchez
> 6. News You Use...Cloned Food
> 7. Mailbox
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit’s Vibe
> Greatest Love of All
> By Michael Masser and Linda Creed
>
>
>
> I believe that children are our future
> Teach them well and let them lead the way
> Show them all the beauty they possess inside
> Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
> Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be
>
>
>
> Everybody searching for a hero
> People need someone to look up to
> I never found anyone to fulfill my needs
> A lonely place to be
> So I learned to depend on me
>
>
>
> I decided long ago
> Never to walk in anyone's shadows
> If I fail, if I succeed
> At least I will live as I believe
> No matter what they take from me
> They can't take away my dignity
>
>
>
> Chorus:
> Because the greatest love of all
> Is happening to me
> I found the greatest love of all
> Inside of me
>
>
>
> The greatest love of all
> Is easy to achieve
> Learning to love yourself
> It is the greatest love of all
>
>
>
> I believe the children are our future
> Teach them well and let them lead the way
> Show them all the beauty they possess inside
> Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
> Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be
>
>
>
> And I decided long ago
> Never to walk in anyone's shadows
> If I fail, if I succeed
> At least I will live as I believe
> No matter what they take from me
> They can't take away my dignity
>
>
>
> Chorus:
> Because the greatest love of all
> Is happening to me
> I found the greatest love of all
> Inside of me
> The greatest love of all
> Is easy to achieve
> Learning to love yourself
> It is the greatest love of all
>
>
>
> And if by chance, that special place
> That you've been dreaming of
> Leads you to a lonely place
> Find your strength in love
>
>
>
>
> Comments from the Bat Cave
>
>
>
> The Dark Knight-Batman, White Ninja/Zorro is a real work in progress.
> Neither bore nor boar, he happily expressed a desire to make this, the
> Chinese year of the pig, the best one ever. Given his unbridled enthusiasm
> for the year ahead, his grandma wondered aloud about his New Year's
> resolution and any forward-leaning plans he had made to make it happen.
> Confidently, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro exclaimed, "Do less work and play
> more!"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Ernest J. Gaines
>
>
>
> "There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be
> those who are controlled by the past."
>
>
>
> Born January 15, 1933, Ernest Gaines was among the fifth generation of his
> family born on the River Lake Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish near New
> Roads, Louisiana. Although born generations after the end of slavery,
> Gaines grew up impoverished in old slave quarters. The eldest of 12
> children, he was raised by his aunt Augustine.
>
>
>
> Gaines received his earliest education at the plantation church school.
> Black children attended school for five to six months of the year, then
> worked in the fields as needed the remainder of the year. Gaines studied
> three years at St. Augustine School, a Catholic school for blacks in New
> Roads. During this period, schooling for black children did not extend
> past the eighth grade.
>
>
>
> At age 15, Gaines joined his mother and stepfather, who had left Louisiana
> during World War II, in Vallejo, California, where he entered a library
> for the first time and fell in love with literature. Libraries had been
> reserved for whites only.
> Lonely for the people he left behind in Louisiana, Gaines began to write
> about them. His first novel was written at age 17. According to one
> account, he wrapped it in brown paper, tied it with string, and sent it to
> a New York publisher, who rejected it. Gaines burned the manuscript, but
> later rewrote it to become his first published novel, Catherine Carmier
> (1964). One of his most cherished relatives was his aunt Augustine, who
> was the inspiration for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971). He
> dedicated the book to his aunt, "who did not walk a day in her life but
> who taught me the importance of standing."
>
>
>
> In 1956, Gaines published his first short story, The Turtles, in a college
> magazine at San Francisco State University (SFSU). He earned a degree in
> literature from SFSU (1957). After spending two year

Re: [scifinoir2] OT: Georgia Bill would Lower Death Penalty Requirements

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Oh horrors!  I am so against the death penalty!
Amy


We were just discussing the two brothers here in Atlanta who pleaded guilty 
to killing a dog and other charges. I mentioned the frightening side-effect 
that a Republican state congressman wants to change the law so that an 11-1 
verdict is all that's needed to convict in a felony case.  Well, check the 
following. This comes up every couple of years here in Georgia, and chills 
me in more ways than i can count.

Death penalty could be easier to impose
Bill would allow execution if nine jurors agreed

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/30/07
A Gwinnett County jury in 2005 unanimously concluded that Wesley Harris 
kidnapped and murdered a 2-year-old girl and her mother, stuffed them in a 
trunk and set the car on fire. But only 10 of the 12 jurors voted to give 
Harris the death penalty, so his life was spared.
Some Georgia legislators are hoping to change state law so people like 
Harris could be condemned to death even
if only nine jurors agree on the sentence — doing away with the unanimous 
jury requirement in death penalty cases.
House Majority Whip Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) cites the Harris case in 
introducing House Bill 185.
The bill, which was filed Friday, would give judges the discretion to impose 
the death sentence on nonunanimous jury verdicts in which at least nine 
jurors voted for execution.
That means verdicts of 9-3, 10-2 and 11-1 could lead to a death sentence. HB 
185 does not change the requirement of a unanimous jury needed for 
conviction.
Prosecutors say the change will help them secure death penalty verdicts, 
which are increasingly difficult to get as questions mount over the 
imposition of capital punishment in the United States.
Defense lawyers say such a change would put Georgia in a category of only a
few states that allow elected judges to impose a death penalty without a 
unanimous verdict.
Fleming said prosecutors, including the district attorney in Augusta near 
his hometown, sought the bill.
He said that during jury selection some people will say they can impose the 
death penalty if necessary, but later refuse to do so on moral grounds.
"People morally opposed to the death penalty obviously aren't opposed to 
fibbing," Fleming said Monday.
Other key lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. 
Simons Island), have signed on to the bill.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter cheered HB 185. His office 
tried the Harris case.
"One juror said she could not vote to put another black man on death row and 
that was the end of that case," Porter said of the case.
In interviews following the Harris verdict, one juror backed up Porter's 
assertion that the holdout was based on race, although other jurors said 
they weren't sure why the black woman held out. The other holdout was Asian.
Harris was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Porter said he thinks in death penalty trials defense attorneys try to pick 
jurors based on race and gender who are less likely to impose capital 
punishment.
Veteran death penalty attorney Jack Martin dismissed such claims by 
prosecutors as "urban myth." Martin did not represent Harris.
Martin said there can be many reasons why jurors don't impose the death 
sentence: They might find something redeeming about the defendant; there 
might be a lingering question of guilt; there might be a mental illness that 
could help explain the crime.
"Before you impose the ultimate sentence, there needs to be a consensus of 
the community — not a majority," said Martin. Majority verdicts could allow 
minorities, particularly African-Americans, to be ignored during jury 
deliberations, he said."It would be venturing into uncharted waters under 
the U.S. and the Georgia Constitution," Martin said.
Stephen Bright, a senior lawyer at the Atlanta-based Southern Center for 
Human Rights and a nationally recognized expert on death penalty law, said 
the bill represents a "marked" departure from current law.
Juries in Alabama and Florida currently make only a recommendation on the 
death penalty, and the decision is ultimately up to the judge.
In those states, the jury recommendation does not have to be unanimous.
Bright said leaving the decision to elected judges in nonunanimous verdicts, 
as proposed in HB 185, is particularly troublesome.
In other states, he said, judges have been more likely to choose the death 
penalty if there's an election coming up.
"There are political considerations that are going to come into play that 
don't come into play when you have a largely anonymous jury ... and no one 
person is the lightning rod for the decision," Bright said.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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[scifinoir2] Fw: The DISH Vol. 10 No 3 Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


> Dot's Information Service Hotline
> "Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use"
> Visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org
> Vol. 10 No 3...Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race...
> 
>
>
>
> Table of Contents
>
>
>
> 1. Intuit's Vibe...All Shook Up...By Otis Blackwell
> 2.  Bit of History...Otis Blackwell (1932-2002)
> 3. After Say It Loud...By John Burl Smith
> 4. Venue for an Artist...Black LeadersYou're Fired!...By Min. Paul 
> Scott
> 5. DISHing It Up Hot!...On Institutionalized Racism...By Dot
> 6. Disgruntled
>
>
>
> **
>
>
>
> Intuit's Vibe
> All Shook Up
> By Otis Blackwell
>
>
>
> A well I bless my soul
> What's wrong with me?
> I'm itching like a man on a fuzzy tree
> My friends say I'm actin' wild as a bug
> I'm in love...I'm all shook up
> Mm mm oh, oh, yeah, yeah!
>
>
>
> My hands are shaky and my knees are weak
> I can't seem to stand on my own two feet
> Who do you thank when you have such luck?
> I'm in love...I'm all shook up
> Mm mm oh, oh, yeah, yeah!
>
>
>
> Please don't ask me what's on my mind
> I'm a little mixed up, but I'm feelin' fine
> When I'm near that girl that I love best
> My heart beats so it scares me to death!
>
>
>
> She touched my hand what a chill I got
> Her lips are like a volcano that's hot
> I'm proud to say she's my buttercup
> I'm in love...I'm all shook up
> Mm mm oh, oh, yeah, yeah!
>
>
>
> My tongue get tied when I try to speak
> My insides shake like a leaf on a tree
> There's only one cure for this body of mine
> That's to have the girl that I love so fine!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bit of History
> Otis Blackwell (1932-2002)
>
>
>
> Born February 16, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, Otis Blackwell learned to
> play the piano as a child. He worked as a penny-a-day floor sweeper at a
> Brooklyn theater and later as a clothes presser.  He dreamed of being a
> singer. As a teenager, he won a talent contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater.
> His victory led to a recording contract with Joe Davis' Jay-Dee label. In
> the 1940s, Blackwell performed in New York City jazz clubs, where he met
> another aspiring singer/songwriter, Doc Pomus, who encouraged and helped
> him early in his career.
>
>
>
> Blackwell's first recording, "Daddy Rollin' Stone" was released by Jay-Dee
> in 1953.  Popular in Jamaica, it was recorded by Derek Martin and The Who.
> During the 1950s, he recorded rock 'n' roll for RCA Records and Groove,
> but never enjoyed much success as a singer, even as many of the songs he
> wrote became hits. According to Blackwell, he "was thrown into" the role
> of songwriter when asked to write songs while recording for a small New
> York company.
>
>
>
> Blackwell's big break came on Christmas Eve (1955); he sold six songs for
> $150.  Elvis Presley picked up one demo that featured Blackwell on piano.
> The song, "Don't Be Cruel," became number one in 1956, as did Blackwell's
> "All Shook Up," which was inspired by a shaken bottle of Pepsi Cola. While
> Presley is listed as a co-writer on both songs, the King of Rock 'n' Roll
> played no role in their composition. Other Blackwell songs performed by
> Presley include "One Broken Heart For Sale" and "Return To Sender" (1962).
>
>
>
> Blackwell made demos of his songs before being recorded by others.  Some
> historians believe Presley adopted his vocal style and mannerisms.
> Moreover, Blackwell made demos of songs he did not write, but were later
> recorded by Presley. Presley, who died in 1977, never met Blackwell.
>
>
>
> A prolific songwriter, Blackwell wrote hundreds of songs that became hits
> for a long list of recording artists, including Little Willie John
> ("Fever,"1956),  Peggy Lee, Dee Clark ("Hey Little Girl" and "Just Keep It
> Up", 1959), Jimmy Jones ("Handy Man", 1960), Cliff Richard ("Nine Times
> Out Of Ten', 1960) and Jerry Lee Lewis ("Breathless" and "Great Balls Of
> Fire" 1958).  Blackwell, who also wrote songs under the pseudonym John
> Davenport, wrote more than 1,000 songs that were recorded by performers,
> including Ray Charles, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, Billy Joel, James
> Taylor, Otis Redding and Kris Kristofferson. He was inducted into the
> Nashville Songwriters Foundation Hall of Fame in 1986.  In 1992, Blackwell
> received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.  Songs
> written by Blackwell sold more than 185 million copies.  Blackwell died
> May 6, 2002 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Sources: www.tennessean.com and
> www.vh1.com)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> After Say It Loud
> by John Burl Smith
>
>
>
> Honoring James Brown, most assessed his impact as an entertainer on the
> modern world.  Hugely popular, we say his whole name, as though he is a
> universe we can only view telescopically or muse about in some altered
> state of conscious.  Unequivocally,  a tremendous motivator during the
> turbulent 1960s and ‘70s, James Brown's smash hit Say It Loud, I'm Bl

[scifinoir2] Reclaiming a Black Research Scientist's Forgotten Legacy

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
What wonderful project!   A must see!

 
 




February 6, 2007
Reclaiming a Black Research Scientist's Forgotten Legacy 
By FELICIA R. LEE
On the day that Percy L. Julian graduated at the top of his class at DePauw 
University, his great-grandmother bared her shoulders and, for the first time, 
showed him the deep scars that remained from a beating she had received as a 
slave during the last days of the Civil War. She then clutched his Phi Beta 
Kappa key in her hand and said, "This is worth all the scars." 

Every February, when the curtain lifts on Black History Month, the cast of 
highlighted lives is often familiar: a Martin Luther King Jr., a Katherine 
Dunham. But the documentary "Forgotten Genius," to be broadcast tonight as part 
of the "Nova" science series on PBS, dramatizes the story of Mr. Julian, a 
largely neglected black chemist who was nonetheless one of the most important 
scientists of the 20th century. He is played by the Tony Award-winning actor 
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and the moment with his great-grandmother is but one in 
a film full of the echoes of the country's painful racial history. 

The "Nova" filmmakers' effort to revive Mr. Julian's legacy is not only 
riveting, but also one of the most ambitious projects in the 34-year history of 
"Nova." His work included discoveries in the synthesis of cortisone, an 
anti-inflammatory used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and many other 
conditions. In 1999 the American Chemical Society recognized his synthesis of 
physostigmine, a glaucoma drug, as one of the top 25 achievements in the 
history of American chemistry. He was the first black chemist ever elected to 
the National Academy of Sciences. 

"It's been just wonderful," Paula S. Apsell, the senior executive producer for 
"Nova," said of making the two-hour film. "It's that delicious feeling you get 
when you know you're on to something away from the crowd." 

Because there was no full biography of Mr. Julian, Ms. Apsell said, about four 
years went into original research on his story: finding his unpublished 
autobiography, gathering speeches in which he talked about his life and work, 
conducting oral histories around the country with those who knew him. The 
project director was Stephen Lyons, an independent producer who was a co-writer 
and co-producer of the film with Llewellyn M. Smith (an associate producer for 
"Eyes on the Prize"). Mr. Smith is the director of "Forgotten Genius." 

Narrated by the actor Courtney B. Vance (Ron Carver on "Law & Order: Criminal 
Intent"), "Forgotten Genius" relies on a combination of interviews and dramatic 
re-enactments. Early on, viewers see the sheer odds against Mr. Julian, who was 
born in Montgomery, Ala., in 1899 and died in 1975. 

In one scene he is 12, walking in the Alabama woods, when he discovers a young 
lynching victim hanging from a tree. He reaches out and touches the body. The 
adult Julian comments, "He didn't look like a criminal; he just looked like a 
scared boy." 

Mr. Smith said, "I think in the film there's a view of him as a whole human 
being, and that's unusual for scientists." 

Mr. Julian's name came up around 1998, Ms. Apsell recalled, when "Nova" sought 
to inject some diversity into a series about the lives of scientists, profiles 
that had included Albert Einstein, Galileo and Isaac Newton.

The dramatic spine of "Forgotten Genius" has Mr. Julian telling his story in 
flashback before an audience, documenting a life in which accomplishment and 
oppression took turns. 

Harvard awarded him a master's degree but would not support him in getting his 
doctorate (he earned it at the University of Vienna); potential employers 
snubbed him. ("We didn't know you were a Negro," the DuPont Company told him 
after inviting him for an interview.) 

After doors slammed and opportunities vanished, Mr. Julian landed a job at 
Howard University, only to become enmeshed in a sex scandal that ended his 
employment there: He and his future wife were accused of having an affair while 
she was still married to one of his colleagues. 

He spent years teaching at DePauw, in Greencastle, Ind., where a building is 
now named in his honor, but was denied a faculty position. After almost two 
decades at the Glidden company, where his research made possible a 
fire-retardant foam widely used in World War II and the mass production of 
synthetic progesterone, the company told him to concentrate on things like 
nonsplattering shortening. 

By the time he became successful enough to move with his wife and two children 
into Oak Park, Ill., a mostly white Chicago suburb, their home was the target 
of a bomb and a fire.

"The good side was, as a kid I got to spend more time with my dad and stay up 
late, because we'd sit in the tree outside," recalls Percy Julian Jr., now a 
civil rights lawyer in Madison, Wis. "He'd sit there wi

Re: [scifinoir2] Astronaut Arrested for Assaulting Supposed Rival

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
It boggles the mind that folks who are supposed to be so smart then turn out 
ot do something so incredibly dumb!
Amy


> Sorry Keith.  I missed this.
>
> Tracey
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>
>> From the Shameless Gossip category. This is the wildest story I've
>> heard all month! This lady is a career military person, has become the
>> best-of-the-best as an astronaut, flew on the Space Shuttle--and is a
>> complete loon! Married with children, Nowak nonetheless drove *900
>> miles* to confront a lady who she thought was having an affair with a
>> male astronaut Nowak loved. And check it: Nowak wore *diapers* so she
>> didn't have to stop for restroom breaks! She says she "just wanted to
>> talk"? Uh-huh: you need a mallet, knife, rubber tubing, pepper spray,
>> and garbage bags to to have a conversation? And like something from a
>> bad movie or novel, she started crying before attacking Shipman.
>>
>> Years ago I saw a crappy TV movie called something like "Murder on
>> Space Station 12". It was a soap-opera type affair about an astronaut
>> who murders another in space. Man, if things had proceeded, that might
>> have happened. Can you imagine if Nowak had been in space with Mr.
>> Oefelein and decided he'd "betrayed" her? She might have jacked him up
>> with that robotic arm, or grabbed the controls on re-entry, screaming
>> "If I can't have you, nobody can!" Now what? NASA gonna have to screen
>> flight crews to make sure they don't have hidden personal issues?
>>
>> I guess even rocket scientists can lose their minds...
>>
>> **
>>
>> Astronaut Charged With Kidnap Attempt
>> ORLANDO, Fla. - An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to
>> confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a
>> space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged
>> with attempted kidnapping and other counts.
>> U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle
>> mission to the international space station, was also charged with
>> attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and
>> battery. She was denied bail and is scheduled to make a court
>> appearance Tuesday.
>> Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando
>> International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman.
>> Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr.
>> William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the
>> space station last December, police said.
>> Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a
>> working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according
>> to an arrest affidavit. Police officers recovered a love letter to
>> Oefelein in her car.
>> NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston said that, as of Monday,
>> Nowak's status with the astronaut corps remained unchanged.
>> "What will happen beyond that, I will not speculate," he said.
>> Hartsfield said he couldn't recall the last time an astronaut was
>> arrested and said there were no rules against fraternizing among
>> astronauts.
>> When she found out that Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston,
>> Nowak decided to confront her, according to the arrest affidavit.
>> Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn't
>> have to stop to urinate, authorities said.
>> Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.
>> Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, Nowak boarded an airport bus that
>> Shipman took to her car in an airport parking lot. Shipman told police
>> she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked
>> the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.
>> Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a
>> ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when
>> Nowak started crying. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's
>> car, the affidavit said.
>> Shipman drove to the parking lot booth, and the police were called.
>> During a check of the parking lot, an officer followed Nowak and
>> watched her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. They also
>> found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and
>> garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested,
>> authorities said.
>> Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel,
>> authorities uncovered a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun
>> cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. They
>> also found a letter "that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr.
>> Oefelein," an opened package for a buck knife, Shipman's home address
>> and hand written directions to the address, the arrest affidavit said.
>> Police said Nowak told them that she only wanted to scare Shipman into
>> talking to her about her relationship with Oefelein and didn't want to
>> harm her physically.
>> "If you were just going to talk to someone, I don't know that you

Re: [scifinoir2] Way OT: Anna Nicole Smith Dead at Age 39

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I agree - especially given the tragically short life of her son.
Her too-brief life is a sad exemplar of what damage misuse/addiction to 
drugs can cause.
I hope her baby daughter can escape the self-destructive pattern of the 
parent.
Amy



Not to speak ill of the dead, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is 
drug-related. Smith had such a huge problem with them, and her behaviour 
over the last few years was like someone either contstantly on downers, or 
who'd been permanently damaged by drugs. I only hope her newborn daughter 
has a better life...

Anna Nicole Smith Dies
By SUZETTE LABOY, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago
Anna Nicole Smith, the voluptuous former Playboy centerfold who married an 
octogenarian billionaire and waged a legal battle for his fortune all the 
way to the Supreme Court, died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel. She was 
39.
The blond bombshell — who recently became tabloid fodder all over again 
after the sudden, apparently drug-related death of her 20-year-old son — was 
stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was 
rushed to a hospital.
Edwina Johnson, chief investigator of the Broward County Medical Examiner's 
Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would 
be done on Friday.
A private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her 
sixth-floor room, said Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger. He said Smith's 
bodyguard administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation about an hour before 
she was declared dead.
Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being 
famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her 
exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her 
over-the-top revealing outfits.
The curvaceous Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at strip club before 
she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy 
magazine in 1992, captivating readers with her Marilyn Monroe looks. She 
became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993.
She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV 
commercials, billboards and magazine ads.
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, the head 
of oil-based Koch Industries, which is part of a family fortune worth at 
least $400 million. He died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with her 
former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over whether she had a right to his 
estate.
A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later 
overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that 
she deserved another day in court in her battle with her former stepson.
The stepson died June 20 at age 67. But the family said the court fight 
would continue.
More recently, Smith's ballooning figure and up-and-down weight became a 
subject of public fascination. But she lost a reported 69 pounds and became 
a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement.
She starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 
2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung 
out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her 
poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in 
"The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.
After news came of Smith's death, G. Eric Brunstad Jr., the lawyer who 
represented Marshall, said in a statement: "We're very shocked by the news 
and extend the deepest condolences to her family."
Smith's son, Daniel Smith, died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in 
the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.
An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he had 
methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died. Low levels of 
the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said. Last 
month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for 
March 27.
Meanwhile, the paternity of her now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter 
of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney 
Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry 
Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father.
Debra Opri, the attorney who filed his paternity suit, said Birkhead "is 
devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the 
DNA testing of the child. The child is our number one priority."
She was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six 
children of Donald Eugene and Virgie Hart Hogan. She married Bill Smith in 
1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.
"From my professional exposure to Anna Nicole, I can say she was always 
personable, down to earth and driven. All in all, a joy to have as a 
client," said Wayne Munroe, her Bahamian lawyer who has overseen the 
aftermath of her son's mysterious death in Nassau.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated

Re: [scifinoir2] Star Wars gangsta rap

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
OW!  That was a hoot!  But it cut off rather too abruptly.
ROTFL!
Amy
> 
> In a message dated 2/8/07 2:44:04 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> 
> 
>> WARNING! Contains explicit language like most gangsta rap:
>> 
>> http://www.glumbert.com/media/starwars
>> 
>> LoL!
>> 
>> George
>> 
> 
> Oboy.   Lucas, what have you sparked.   :D
> 
> -GTW
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 

[scifinoir2] Fw: World Science: 'Youth' pills, hawked online, win over top scientists

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Provocative sciance stuff!


* "Youth" pills, hawked online, win over top
scientists:
A company selling pills with "youth-prolonging"
molecules has snagged a leading biologist and a
Nobel laureate as customers.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/070206_resveratrol.htm


* Cosmic blasts re-evaluated:
They spit out as much energy in seconds as our Sun
does in 10 billion years, but no one knows quite
why.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070208_grb.htm


* Action video games sharpen vision, researchers
say:
A shoot-em-up game improved students' visual acuity
20 percent, according to scientists.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070208_video.htm


* For some species, an upside to inbreeding:
While not recommending it for humans, researchers
found inbreeding may make for better parents.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070205_inbreeding.htm


* Next-generation particle collider planned:
A proposed accelerator would recreate conditions in
the cosmos a trillionth of a second after its birth.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070208_collider.htm


* Report spurs backing for global body on warming:
Fear of runaway global warming pushed over 40
countries to support a bid for a body that could
single out, and perhaps police, polluting nations.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070202_warming.htm


* How drugs cause hallucinations:
Scientists say they have partly explained what
causes the mind-bending effects of substances such
as LSD.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070129_hallucinogen.htm


***

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Re: [scifinoir2] Re: White and Nerdy

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Oh yes!  Weird Al Yankovich!   His already huge rep for hilarious parody 
will only be enhanced by this one.  The Star Trek references were easy to 
spot but I only got 3 Star Wars references: the light saber, the action 
figures and the Xmas Special video bootleg.  What was the fourth?
Cheers!
Amy (I love You Tube!)



> Did you find all of the Star Wars references in this vid? There are at
> least 4 Star Wars references and 2 Star Trek references.
>
> Geo
>
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "g123curious" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
>>
>> This is too d--- funny:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw
>>
>> George
>> Captain
>> The USS Ronald E. McNair (Boston)
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

[scifinoir2] At Disney, a Comeback for Hand-Drawn Animation

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Oh, this is very good news indeed!
Cheers!
Amy

 
 




February 9, 2007
At Disney, a Comeback for Hand-Drawn Animation 
By REUTERS
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 8 (Reuters) - Hand-drawn animation, out of fashion in the 
computer age, experienced a rescue worthy of a fairy tale on Thursday, when 
Walt Disney animators announced they would bring the art form back to the big 
screen.

"We will be bringing back hand-drawn films," said Edwin Catmull, the president 
of Pixar and Disney Feature Animation. 

Animators refer to hand-drawn animation as "two dimensional," as opposed to 
computer-generated animation, referred to as 3D. Pixar, which created "Toy 
Story" and other computer animation hits, was acquired by the Walt Disney 
Company last year. 

Speculation has swirled since then over whether Mr. Catmull and John Lasseter, 
the chief creative officer, who took control of the ailing Disney animation 
facility, would reestablish the art form that made Disney the world's 
pre-eminenent animator. 

All of Disney's feature animation films in production at the time of the Pixar 
deal were computer-animated. 

"Now that's we're a year into it, people want to know how it's going," Mr. 
Catmull told analysts at a Disney conference monitored by Webcast. He said 
Disney would do both computer animation and hand-drawn animation. 

Mr. Lasseter spent several years as a Disney animator, but left over creative 
differences to form Pixar, where he was considered the main creative force. 

He revered Walt Disney, who with a group of legendary animators known as the 
Nine Old Men, made such hand-drawn classics as "Cinderella" and "Snow White and 
the Seven Dwarfs." When Disney bought Pixar to try to revive its flagging 
animation program, Mr. Catmull and Mr. Lasseter took charge of both studios, 
which are run separately.

At least 300 Disney animation staff members were laid off or reassigned in the 
months after the leadership change. 

Mr. Catmull and Mr. Lasseter gave the first descriptions on Thursday on how 
they reshaped story lines of Disney films already in production, canceled 
others and restructured how the Disney artists work. 

"Pixar is still Pixar - nobody left," Mr. Catmull said. "At Disney, you have 
these remarkable artists there. ...they were not kneaded together in the right 
way. At the heart of it there has to be a director and the director has to have 
a vision."

Mr. Catmull said there were no plans to merge the studios or to limit them to a 
certain type of animation. "We always believed that quality is the best 
business plan," he said. 



  a..  
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [scifinoir2] Tuskegee "Experiment" Not 1st Nor Last

[Amy Harlib]

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Harriet Washington was interviewed many times on various programs on WBAI - 
listener-sponsored, non-commercial radio and on democracynow,org.   She has 
written a very valuable and important book exposing just how evil racism can 
be.
Amy



*Brutal Case Studies *
/A new book documents a true ethics horror story./
By Allison Samuels
Newsweek


Feb. 12, 2007 issue - When Harriet Washington, a med-school graduate and
former fellow in ethics at Harvard Medical School, decided to research
medical crimes against African-Americans, she feared she'd turn up much
more than the Tuskegee experiment. She was right.



Washington's new book, "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical
Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present,"
reveals that the 40-year Tuskegee study—which allowed black men with
syphilis to die untreated so their cadavers could be used for
research—was neither the first nor the last time that unwitting black
subjects were exploited by medical researchers in the United States.
"Tuskegee is just the most well-known example," says Washington,
currently a visiting scholar at DePaul Law School.



"Medical Apartheid" starts with the chilling story of John (Fed) Brown,
an escaped slave in 1855 who recalled his owner, a doctor, causing
blisters on his arms and legs to see "how deep his black skin went." The
study, if that's the word for it, had no therapeutic value. It reflected
a distorted fascination with the outward appearance of African-Americans
at a time when racial differences were thought to be much more than skin
deep.



"One thing that surprised me," Washington told NEWSWEEK, "was the brutal
honesty of the doctors' notes. There was no hiding their racist views.
They made it clear how they felt about African-Americans and saw no
problem with what they were doing. They were proud to write it down."



But "Apartheid's" tales are not limited to the politically incorrect
past. The forced sterilization of black women (what civil-rights
activist Fannie Lou Hamer called her "Mississippi appendectomy") got its
start during slavery, but continued in less overt forms until recent
years. A 1991 experiment that implanted the now defunct birth-control
device Norplant into uninformed African-American teenagers in Baltimore
was applauded by some as a way to "reduce the underclass."



Tragic Legacy: A black prisoner wears skin patches during a drug
experiment at a prison in Pennsylvania in 1966

Courtesy Temple University Urban Archives
Tragic Legacy: A black prisoner wears skin patches during a drug
experiment at a prison in Pennsylvania in 1966



But perhaps the most egregious case Washington documents involved a
study conducted in New York from 1988 to 2001, in which a city agency
tested potentially dangerous AIDS drugs on African-American foster
children with HIV, often without permission of their parents. The
children were 6 months of age and younger. "Eighty percent of the
children in foster care in New York are black," says Washington, "and
many of them have parents who aren't available to them because of drugs
or whatever. They're perfect victims."



Washington also highlights the dual face of abuse, how many medical
advances resulted from unethical research. J. Marion Sims, a leading
19th-century physician, president of the American Medical Association
and one of the first doctors to emphasize women's health, developed many
of his gynecological treatments through experiments on nonconsenting
slave women who were denied the comfort of anesthesia.



Thanks to this brutal history, many African-Americans today are wary of
participating in potentially lifesaving medical studies. "That's really
the true cost of all of these abusive practices," says Washington.
"Because of past crimes against our health, we're too afraid to trust
those in authority." A recent study in The American Journal of Law &
Medicine estimated that only 1 percent of the nearly 20 million
Americans enrolled in biomedical studies are black.



Still, the author sees signs of progress. Many of the medical schools
that were guilty of experimenting on African-Americans in the past have
agreed to let her lecture to incoming medical classes. "My hope is this
opens a door to conversation," says Washington. "By bringing these
atrocities out in the public, some healing can occur and some of the
fears African-Americans feel will begin to dissolve."



Damien Donck for Newsweek


URL: _http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16960678/site/newsweek/_


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