ЭХО - Пиздец, Пиздить, Спиздить, Пиздоватый

ЭХО - Пиздец, Пиздить, Спиздить, Пиздоватый

Интерактивный словарь эвфемизмов XPEH.ru

Интерактивный словарь эвфемизмов XPEH.ru

The Big Picture

The Big Picture: "A study (supposedly co-authored by Fed Chair Alan Greenspan) estimated that 'Americans withdrew $600 billion in equity from their homes in 2004, or 7% of their disposable income.' Greenie's study estimated 'consumers spend about 51% of the cash they extract.' Goldman's estimates were that consumers spend ~68% of the cash they extract through home-equity loans and refinancing (most of the rest is used to pay down credit-card debt or invest)."

The Big Picture

The Big Picture: "According to Moody's Economy.com, the real-estate industry is responsible for creating 1.1 million of the two million net jobs that the nation added in the five years that ended in October. Those jobs include positions for land surveyors, general contractors, loan officers and building-material retail workers."

The New Yorker: Fact

The New Yorker: Fact: "On January 27th, President Bush, in an interview with the Times, assured the world that “torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.” "

snopes.com: "We will be greeted as liberators!"

snopes.com: "We will be greeted as liberators!": "Rememeber these?

“I believe demolishing Hussein’s military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.” Defense Policy Board Member Ken Adelman, 2/13/03

“It is not knowable how long that conflict would last, it could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2/7/03

“My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” Cheney 3/16/03

“We know where (the weapons) are, they’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, north and south somewhat.” Rumsfeld, 3/30/03

“Major combat operations have ENDED.” President George W. Bush, 5/1/03

“We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, 3/27/03

“Iraq will not require sustained aid.” O.M.B. Director Mitch Daniels, 3/28/03

“A year from now, I’d be surprised if there’s not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.” Former Pentagon Advisor Richard Perle, 9/22/03"

Think Progress » Reality Check on Iraq

inner frenchman: Fellow Mormons

inner frenchman: Fellow Mormons

Skeptic's Annotated Bible / Quran (Koran) / Book of Mormon

Skeptic's Annotated Bible / Quran (Koran) / Book of Mormon

Top News Article | Reuters.com

Top News Article | Reuters.com: "By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is scheduled this week to witness its 1,000th execution since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, but even as it reaches this milestone opponents said capital punishment may be falling out of favor.

Some 997 people have been put to death since the Supreme Court ended a 10-year moratorium on capital punishment that ran from 1967-1977. With five people scheduled for execution in five different states this week, it seems almost certain that the landmark of 1,000 will be passed.

'This is a time for somber and sober reflection but the United States is slowly turning away from the death penalty,' said David Elliot of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

'Death sentences are down 50 percent since the late 1990s to around 150 a year. Executions are down 40 percent from the high of 98 in 1999,' he said"

THE DISH; Molto Pistachio - The Archive - The New York Times

THE DISH; Molto Pistachio - The Archive - The New York Times: "THE DISH; Molto Pistachio
By JILL SANTOPIETRO (NYT) 675 words
Published: November 6, 2005

THE DISH; Molto Pistachio
By JILL SANTOPIETRO (NYT) 675 words
Published: November 6, 2005

''Gelato'' is often misunderstood as the Italian word for ice cream. Gelato certainly is Italy's version of ice cream, but it has less cream, less butterfat to bind to air molecules and, therefore, less air than American ice cream. A small cup of gelato typically weighs the same as a cup of ice cream double its size.

In Italy, gelato varies as much from maker to maker as it does from region to region. Sicilians have long been renowned for lighter gelato made with milk and no eggs. In 16th-century Tuscany, Bernardo Buontalenti, the Medicis' architect, is said to have popularized gelato made with a sweetened milk-and-egg custard. And in northern Italy, where dairy products are more plentiful, gelato tends to be thicker and richer, with more egg yolks and cream.

Although communication and a wider availability of ingredients have melded these schools of gelato, today the distinction between artisanal and industrial gelato remains important. Antonio Lisciandro, the owner of Gelateria Carabé in Florence, explained: ''With modern industry you see perfect gelati. Not mine. My gelato is alive. Imperfection, strength and quality, these are the elements that matter -- that make healthy products.''

We took a classic gelato flavor, pistachio, and made it -- hopefully imperfectly -- in these three variations. One thing they all share is a drab shade of green, which is the correct color of authentic pistachio gelato.

Milk

Makes 1 quart

4 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup sugar

2 cups shelled, toasted, unsalted pistachios, finely ground.

1. In a small bowl, pour 3 tablespoons of the milk over the cornstarch and whisk until smooth.

2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring the remaining milk to just before the boil. Whisk in the salt, sugar and cornstarch mixture until the sugar has dissolved, about 8 minutes.

3. Transfer the pan to an ice bath. When cool, stir in the pistachios. Refrigerate overnight.

4. Strain, pressing on the nuts to release all the liquid. Churn in an ice cream maker until thick. Freeze or serve immediately.

Milk and Eggs

Makes 1 quart

3 1/2 cups milk

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

7 egg yolks

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 cups shelled, toasted, unsalted pistachios, finely ground.

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring milk to just before the boil. Add the salt.

2. In a mixer, whip the egg yolks and sugar to fluffy, pale yellow ribbons. Whisk about 14 of the milk into the beaten yolks in a thin stream. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Over medium heat, stir the custard continuously in a figure-eight pattern until it coats the back of a spoon. The bubbles along the pan's edge will diminish when the custard is done.

3. Follow previous recipe from Step 3.

Cream, Milk and Eggs

Makes 1 quart

3 1/3 cups milk

1/3 cup cream

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

9 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups shelled, toasted, unsalted pistachios, finely ground.

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring milk and cream to just before the boil. Add the salt.

2. In a mixer, whip the egg yolks and sugar to fluffy, pale yellow ribbons. Whisk about 14 of the milk and cream into the beaten yolks in a thin stream. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Over medium heat, stir the custard continuously in a figure-eight pattern until it coats the back of a spoon. The bubbles along the pan's edge will diminish when the custard is done.

3. Follow first recipe from Step 3.

Online Conversion - Convert just about anything to anything else

Online Conversion - Convert just about anything to anything else

Butternut Squash Curry

The Arsenal - New York Times: "Butternut Squash Curry
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon turmeric
¾ teaspoon lightly crushed cumin
¼ teaspoon cayenne
3 cups baked, braised or mashed butternut squash
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 red chili
10 curry leaves
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)
Salt.

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cook over medium-low heat until softened. Stir in the turmeric, cumin and cayenne and cook for 1 minute. Fold in the squash and warm gently.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a small sauté pan. Add the mustard seeds, chili and curry leaves. When the seeds begin to pop, stir in the coconut off the heat. Fold into the squash, and season with salt. Serves 4."

The Judgment of Paris, This Time at Home - New York Times

The Judgment of Paris, This Time at Home - New York Times: "It wasn't nearly as much fun in Paris in 1976, the scene of the most famous tasting gotcha of all time. Back then, nine French judges, including some of the top names in the French wine and food establishment, were given 20 wines to taste blind, 10 white and 10 red. Of the whites, all made from the chardonnay grape, five were Burgundy and five California. The reds, all cabernet sauvignon or cabernet blends, were likewise divided between Bordeaux and California.

The rest, yes, is history. As has been retold countless times, most recently in George M. Taber's engrossing book 'Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine' (Scribner, 2005), the judges were thoroughly deluded by their conviction that only French wines were capable of rapturous effect. California's reputation for wine, as far as they were concerned, was somewhere south of Sicily.

'Ah, back to France,' one judge famously sighed after tasting a Napa Valley chardonnay, while another, sniffing a Bâtard-Montrachet, declared: 'That is definitely California. It has no nose.'

When all was done, the consensus favorite wines were a 1973 chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and a 1973 cabernet sauvignon from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, both in Napa Valley. Celebration among the Americans, consternation among the French, and for Mr. Taber, then a Time magazine reporter who was the only journalist to attend the tasting, a chance to record for posterity what might otherwise have been forgotten.

Whether, as Mr. Taber asserts, the '76 tasting revolutionized wine is highly debatable. The economic, cultural and technological forces that have shaped the globalization of the wine industry were inexorable, regardless of the results of this particular tasting.

But nobody can dispute that the 1976 tasting gave instant credibility to a nascent California wine industry at a moment when California was poised to take advantage of it. It also packed an important promotional punch for those California wineries that did well, like Stag's Leap and Montelena, and gave Mike Grgich, the winemaker at Montelena, the opportunity to form his own winery, Grgich Hills, in partnership with Austin Hills."

Recipe: Cheese Straws - New York Times

Recipe: Cheese Straws - New York Times

Salon.com | The long march of Dick Cheney

Salon.com | The long march of Dick Cheney

"Former Sen. Bob Graham has revealed, in a Nov. 20 article in the Washington Post, that the condensed version of the National Intelligence Estimate titled 'Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs' that was submitted to the Senate days before it voted on the Iraq war resolution 'represented an unqualified case that Hussein possessed [WMD], avoided a discussion of whether he had the will to use them and omitted the dissenting opinions contained in the classified version.' The condensed version also contained the falsehood that Saddam Hussein was seeking 'weapons-grade fissile material from abroad.'

The administration relied for key information in the NIE on an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball. According to a Nov. 20 report in the Los Angeles Times, it had learned from German intelligence beforehand that Curveball was completely untrustworthy and his claims fabricated. Yet Bush, Cheney and, most notably, Powell in his prewar performance before the United Nations, which he now calls the biggest 'blot' on his record and about which he insists he was 'deceived,' touted Curveball's disinformation.

In two speeches over the past week Cheney has called congressional critics 'dishonest,' 'shameless' and 'reprehensible.' He ridiculed their claim that they did not have the same intelligence as the administration. 'These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence materials. They are known to have a high opinion of their own analytical capabilities." Lambasting them for historical "revisionism," he repeatedly invoked Sept. 11. "We were not in Iraq on September 11th, 2001 -- and the terrorists hit us anyway," he said."

Boris Johnson MP: Bush and Al-Jazeera

Boris Johnson MP: Bush and Al-Jazeera: "It must be said that subsequent events have not made life easy for those of us who were so optimistic as to support the war in Iraq. There were those who believed the Government's rubbish about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then the WMD made their historic no-show.

Some of us were so innocent as to suppose that the Pentagon had a well-thought-out plan for the removal of the dictator and the introduction of peace. Then we had the insurgency, in which tens of thousands have died.

Some of us thought it was about ensuring that chemical weapons could never again be used on Iraqi soil. Then we heard about the white phosphorus deployed by the Pentagon. Some people believed that the American liberation would mean the end of torture in Iraqi jails. Then we had Abu Ghraib.

Some of us thought it was all about the dissemination of the institutions of a civil society - above all a free press, in which journalists could work without fear of being murdered. Then we heard about the Bush plan to blow up al-Jazeera.

Some of us feel that we have an abusive relationship with this war. Every time we get our hopes up, we get punched by some piece of bad news. We yearn to be told that we're wrong, that things are going to get better, that the glass is half full. That's why I would love to think that Dubya was just having one of his little frat-house wisecracks, when he talked of destroying the Qatar-based satellite TV station. Maybe he was only horsing around. Maybe it was a flippant one-liner, of the kind that he delivers before making one of his dramatic exits into the broom-closet. Perhaps it was a kind of Henry II moment: you know, who will rid me of this turbulent TV station? Maybe he had a burst of spacy Reagan-esque surrealism, like the time the old boy forgot that the mikes were switched on, and startled a press conference with the announcement that he was going to start bombing Russia in five minutes. Maybe Bush thought he was Kenny Everett. Perhaps he was playing Basil Brush. Boom boom.

Who knows? But if his remarks were just an innocent piece of cretinism, then why in the name of holy thunder has the British state decreed that anyone printing those remarks will be sent to prison?

We all hope and pray that the American President was engaging in nothing more than neo-con Tourette-style babble about blowing things up. We are quite prepared to believe that the Daily Mirror is wrong. We are ready to accept that the two British civil servants who have leaked the account are either malicious or mistaken. But if there is one thing that would seem to confirm the essential accuracy of the story, it is that the Attorney General has announced that he will prosecute anyone printing the exact facts.

What are we supposed to think? The meeting between Bush and Blair took place on April 16, 2004, at the height of the US assault on Fallujah, and there is circumstantial evidence for believing that Bush may indeed have said what he is alleged to have said.

We know that the administration was infuriated with the al-Jazeera coverage of the battle, and the way the station focused on the deaths of hundreds of people, including civilians, rather than the necessity of ridding the town of dangerous terrorists. We remember how Cheney and Rumsfeld both launched vehement attacks on the station, and accused it of aiding the rebels. We are told by the New York Times that there were shouty-crackers arguments within the administration, with some officials yelling that the channel should be shut down, and others saying that it would be better to work with the journalists in the hope of producing better coverage.

And yet however wrong you may think al-Jazeera is in its slant and its views, you must accept that what it is providing is recognisably journalism. It is not always helpful to the American cause in Iraq, but then nor is the BBC; and would anybody in London or Washington suggest sending a Tomahawk into White City? Well, they might, but only as a joke. Exhausted Western leaders, living in the nightmare of a media-dominated democracy, are allowed to make jokes about blowing up journalists. I seem to remember that when I was sent to Belgrade to cover the Nato attacks, Tony Blair told the then proprietor of The Daily Telegraph that he would "tell Nato to step up the bombing!" Ho ho ho.

But if there is an ounce of truth in the notion that George Bush seriously proposed the destruction of al-Jazeera, and was only dissuaded by the Prime Minister, then we need to know, and we need to know urgently. We need to know what we have been fighting for, and there is only one way to find out.

The Attorney General's ban is ridiculous, untenable, and redolent of guilt. I do not like people to break the Official Secrets Act, and, as it happens, I would not object to the continued prosecution of those who are alleged to have broken it. But we now have allegations of such severity, against the US President and his motives, that we need to clear them up.

If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public need to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for, and in an important respect we become as sick and as bad as our enemies."

Turns of Phrase: Extraordinary rendition

Turns of Phrase: Extraordinary rendition: "EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

This legal term has gained much attention in the press in the past couple of years because of reports that the CIA has been capturing terrorism suspects in one country and delivering them with no court hearing or extradition process to a second, in which torture is practised, in order to get confessions or useful intelligence. The term dates to the end of the 1980s at the latest, but is in the news at the moment because of accusations that the CIA is being actively aided by the British government, and because of a court case last month in New York in which a Canadian citizen challenged his removal to Syria in this way.

The core of the term is rendition, an old but little-known legal principle. It comes from an obsolete French term that derives from rendre, to give back or render. Most people know rendition as a posh word for the performance of an actor or musician, but in the time of the first Queen Elizabeth—about 1600—it referred to the surrender of a garrison (the occupants rendered, or gave themselves up, to the victors). In US law rendition refers to the transfer of individuals by what is called extra-judicial process (kidnapping, in plain speech) from a foreign country to the USA to answer criminal charges. The defendant is said to have been rendered up to justice.

A problem for the"

Weird Words: Syzygy

Weird Words: Syzygy:

A conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun.

If you look up at the sky and see the full moon, you’re witnessing an example of syzygy. From our point of view the sun is then on the opposite side of the sky to the moon, and so is said to be in opposition to it. The three are also in syzygy at new moon, this time with the moon and the sun next to each other in the sky—a state called conjunction.

The word appeared in English in the seventeenth century, and at first could apply only to conjunctions. It comes via late Latin from the Greek suzugia, which derives from suzugos, yoked or paired. It was not until a century later that its meaning was extended to cover opposition, in defiance of its etymology. The word also has a couple of rarer meanings in mathematics and poetry. Lovers of wordplay may know it as the shortest word in the language containing three ys."

This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis - New York Times

This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis - New York Times: " Now, Dr. Posner and others said, new research on hypnosis and suggestion is providing a new view into the cogs and wheels of normal brain function.

One area that it may have illuminated is the processing of sensory data. Information from the eyes, ears and body is carried to primary sensory regions in the brain. From there, it is carried to so-called higher regions where interpretation occurs.

For example, photons bouncing off a flower first reach the eye, where they are turned into a pattern that is sent to the primary visual cortex. There, the rough shape of the flower is recognized. The pattern is next sent to a higher - in terms of function - region, where color is recognized, and then to a higher region, where the flower's identity is encoded along with other knowledge about the particular bloom.

The same processing stream, from lower to higher regions, exists for sounds, touch and other sensory information. Researchers call this direction of flow feedforward. As raw sensory data is carried to a part of the brain that creates a comprehensible, conscious impression, the data is moving from bottom to top.

Bundles of nerve cells dedicated to each sense carry sensory information. The surprise is the amount of traffic the other way, from top to bottom, called feedback. There are 10 times as many nerve fibers carrying information down as there are carrying it up.

These extensive feedback circuits mean that consciousness, what people see, hear, feel and believe, is based on what neuroscientists call "top down processing." What you see is not always what you get, because what you see depends on a framework built by experience that stands ready to interpret the raw information - as a flower or a hammer or a face. "

Recipe: Gong Bao Jiding - New York Times

Recipe: Gong Bao Jiding

Published: November 23, 2005

Adapted from Wang Xingyun
Time: 15 minutes

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into ½-inch dice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon arrowroot
1 egg white
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon plus 1½ teaspoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon chili paste with garlic
2 thin slices fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons sweet flour, also known as glutinous rice flour
3 tablespoons garlic chives or other chives, cut into 2-inch segments.

1. Place chicken in medium bowl. Dust with 1 teaspoon arrowroot and toss to coat. Add egg white, soy sauce and salt. Mix well and set aside.

2. In small bowl, mix together sugar, vinegar, remaining 1 tablespoon arrowroot and 1 cup water. Set aside.

3. Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add 1 tablespoon oil and swirl to coat the pan. When oil is thoroughly heated, add chicken and stir-fry until seared, about 2 minutes. Transfer chicken to paper towels to drain.

4. Wipe wok and return to medium-high heat. Add remaining 1½ teaspoons oil, chili paste, ginger, garlic and sweet flour. Stir for 30 seconds. Add chicken, vinegar mixture and garlic chives. Stir-fry until chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 2 more minutes. Serve hot.

Growth of Islam in Russia Brings Soviet Response - New York Times

Growth of Islam in Russia Brings Soviet Response - New York Times: " Here in the northern Caucasus, and across all of Russia, Islamic faith is on the rise. So is Islamic militancy, and fear of such militancy, leading to tensions like those felt in Europe, where a flow of immigrants from the Muslim world is straining relations with liberal, secular societies.

And so the government has recreated the Soviet-era system of control over religion with the Muslim Spiritual Department, which oversees the appointment of Islamic leaders.

But the Muslims of Russia are not immigrants and outsiders; they are typically the indigenous people of their regions. "These are Russian citizens, and they have no other motherland," President Vladimir V. Putin said in August, when he met with King Abdullah of Jordan.

In Russia, the struggle over Islam's place is not seen as a question of whether to integrate Muslims into society, but whether the country itself can remain whole. The separatist conflict in Chechnya, more than a decade old, has taken on an Islamic hue. And it is spilling beyond Chechnya's borders in the Caucasus, where Islam has become a rallying force against corruption, brutality and poverty.

On the morning of Oct. 13, scores of men took up arms in Nalchik, the capital of the neighboring republic, Kabardino-Balkariya. They were mostly driven, relatives said, by harassment against men with beards and women with head scarves, and by the closing of six mosques in the city. In two days at least 138 people were killed. In Dagestan and Ingushetia, militants have been blamed for unending bombings and killings.

Followers of a Chechen terrorist leader, Shamil Basayev, have claimed responsibility for the deadliest attacks, including the one in Nalchik, and before that a similar raid in Ingushetia and the school siege in Beslan in September 2004. In Beslan, 331 people were killed, 186 of them children.

All have been part of Mr. Basayev's declared goal to establish an Islamic caliphate, uniting the northern Caucasus in secession from Russia.

That goal has little popular support in the region's other predominantly Muslim republics, but discontent is spreading as the government cracks down. Not all involved in the attacks are hardened fighters of Chechnya's wars. More and more oppose the hard-line stands that the Kremlin takes against anyone who challenges its central authority."

...

The number of Muslims is estimated at 14 million to 23 million, 10 percent to 16 percent of Russia's population. They are spread across the country but congregate in several Muslim-majority republics.

Thousands of mosques have been rebuilt and reopened, as have madrasas, including one here in Cherkessk, where 66 young men and women learn the fundamentals of their faith. Among their teachers are four Egyptians. "We could pray on Red Square and no one would care," the imam of Cherkessk's mosque, Kazim Katchiyev, said after evening prayers recently.

Dick Cheney, Devourer of Worlds.

The China Opening Of 2005: Don't Ask

The China Opening Of 2005: Don't Ask: "For the president, it was a rare moment of fun on an otherwise dreary overseas trip. In five years in the presidency, Bush has proved a decidedly unadventurous traveler, an impression undispelled by the weeklong journey through Asia that wraps up Monday. As he barnstormed through Japan, South Korea and China, with a final stop in Mongolia still to come, Bush visited no museums, tried no restaurants, bought no souvenirs and made no effort to meet ordinary local people.

'I live in a bubble,' Bush once said, explaining his anti-tourist tendencies by citing the enormous security and logistical considerations involved in arranging any sightseeing. 'That's just life.'

The Bush spirit trickles down to many of his top advisers, who hardly go out of their way to sample the local offerings either. A number of the most senior White House officials on the trip, perhaps seeking the comforts of their Texas homes, chose to skip the kimchi in South Korea to go to dinner at Outback Steakhouse -- twice. (Admittedly, a few unadventurous journalists joined them.)

She has had little luck enticing her husband into joining her over the years. The first time the Bushes traveled to China together in their current capacity, she had to tell him to slow down as he tried to race through a tour of the Great Wall. She once persuaded him to go to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, only to see him burn through the place in 30 minutes. He dispensed with the Kremlin cathedrals in Moscow in seven minutes. He flatly declined an Australian invitation to attend the Rugby World Cup while down under.

Republicans Refuse to Honor Springsteen - Yahoo! News

Republicans Refuse to Honor Springsteen - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON -
Bruce Springsteen famously was 'born in the USA,' but he's getting scorned in the U.S. Senate.
ADVERTISEMENT

An effort by New Jersey's two Democratic senators to honor the veteran rocker was shot down Friday by Republicans who are apparently still miffed a year after the Boss lent his voice to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate
John Kerry.

The chamber's GOP leaders refused to bring up for consideration a resolution, introduced by Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine, that honored Springsteen's long career and the 1975 release of his iconic album, 'Born to Run.'

No reason was given, said Lautenberg spokesman Alex Formuzis. 'Resolutions like this pass all the time in the U.S. Senate, usually by unanimous consent,' he said."

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball' - Los Angeles Times

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball' - Los Angeles Times: "BERLIN — The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq.

Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.
According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball's information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball's accounts in his prewar presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said.

Curveball's German handlers for the last six years said his information was often vague, mostly secondhand and impossible to confirm.

"This was not substantial evidence," said a senior German intelligence official. "We made clear we could not verify the things he said."

Russian City's Sacred and Secular Visions - New York Times

Russian City's Sacred and Secular Visions - New York Times: "BALTIMORE, Nov. 11 - St. Andrew the Fool was, at first, nonplussed. Keeping vigil one night in a church where the robes of the Mother of God were preserved, he saw the Virgin unfurl her veil over the congregation. He turned to a companion. 'Do you see what I see?' His friend was young; the hour was late. Maybe he saw; maybe he didn't. But to Andrew, all was now clear. The wardrobe was in use; the Virgin was in residence"

Andrew had his vision in Constantinople in the 9th or 10th century. Six hundred years later, when an artist in northern Russia painted an image of it, the vision happened again, in the picture. That's the way icons work. They aren't just records of the past; they're live events in a constant present, déjà vu in reverse.

In such wonder-working objects - "art" on the static Western model isn't really the word for them - martyrs bleed warm blood; the Virgin weeps salt tears. Communication is intimate and interactive. You look at icons, and they look at you. You talk to them, and they answer. In such transactions, belief runs deep and emotions run high. The gulf between heaven and earth dissolves.

"Sacred Arts and City Life: The Glory of Medieval Novgorod," which opens on Saturday at the Walters Art Museum here, negotiates precisely that divide. Cogent, propulsive, quite unlike the Guggenheim's Russian extravaganza, the show illuminates two overlapping realms: the secular life of a once-grand commercial city; and the religious life of the same city, which was itself in some sense a giant icon, a sacred space.

Politics as Usual, and Then Some - New York Times

Politics as Usual, and Then Some - New York Times

"Come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth."

Politics as Usual, and Then Some - New York Times

Politics as Usual, and Then Some - New York Times: "Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin, a former economist in the Bush White House who became director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office nearly three years ago, announced that he planned to leave government at the end of the year. In his tenure, Mr. Holtz-Eakin reported that the Republican tax cuts and spending plans would do little or nothing to stimulate economic growth. He found that the tax cuts were skewed heavily in favor of the wealthiest Americans. His office raised doubts about proposals to partly privatize Social Security, concluded that abolishing the estate tax would reduce charitable donations and calculated that allowing same-sex marriages would slightly increase federal revenues.

In short, Mr. Holtz-Eakin adhered strictly to Budget Office's tradition of sticking to data. As committed as he was personally to conservative economics and Republican politics, he was a constant thorn in the side of the White House and the Republican leaders in Congress."

Voices Inside the Head of President Bush Are Caucasian, Press Secretary Reassures Base | CorrenteWire

Voices Inside the Head of President Bush Are Caucasian, Press Secretary Reassures Base | CorrenteWire: "Voices Inside the Head of President Bush Are Caucasian, Press Secretary Reassures Base
Submitted by MJS on Fri, 2005-11-18 20:57.


Artist’s rendition of one of the voices echoing endlessly in the folds of George Bush’s brain.

+++

(Jivester News, Lmtd.) Scott McClellan told White House reporters today that the voices President George W. Bush hears in his head are “…most assuredly Caucasian in nature. We are very certain about that. Good, strong conservative Caucasian voices.” Helen Thomas, who just plain refuses to die, asked McClellan if the voices in the President’s head were involved in any of the Plamegate leaks that have plagued the White House, and then asked a follow-up question about whether any of the voices would be pardoned if they had indeed participated in the leak case.

McClellan, looking visibly pointless, interrupted Thomas, causing a mild backlash in the press room:

Thomas: …and if they had participated…

McClellan: You’re a very old person who wants our troops to die.

Thomas: (inaudible)

McClellan: And to question the whiteness of the voices…

(general uproar)

" Thomas: (inaudible)

McClellan: And to question the whiteness of the voices…

(general uproar)

McClellan: is tantamount to killing Christian babies by smashing their heads with hardback copies of the Koran.

(stunned silence, then “fuck you, asshole” and “eat me” from the assembled reporters)

McClellan: And I’d appreciate it if you guys wouldn’t go digging around in the White House basement. Those bodies, the bodies that are there, were probably put there by Clinton and his predator bride (sic) even, and I do mean even, if they look pretty fresh.

Dr. Lawerence D. Tabernacle of the Southern Christian Effigy Commission on Race Baiting said, “It’s a tempest in a brain stem, if you ask me. The President is very comfortable with people of color, but not in his head, which is already rather busy with an assortment of characters, voices and sound effects.” When asked what he was talking about, especially the part about the “sound effects” Dr. Tabernacle made a “yummy” sound and began licking his fingers. Seriously, he just started licking his fingers, as if that was some sort of an answer. Talk about losing cred, eh Dr.?

Recordings of the voices that are in Bush’s head will be made available to donors who contribute “mightily” to the Keep Bush From Completely Losing It In a Way That His Fundie Supporters Might Actually Notice Fund. Interested donors are asked to go see Ken Mehlman and make a kissy face. He’ll understand. He might not get it right away, not at first, but he will eventually understand. He always has.

+++

For a G.M. Family, the American Dream Vanishes - New York Times

For a G.M. Family, the American Dream Vanishes - New York Times: "'Frankly in our business, the progress in improving productivity has been dramatic,' Mr. Wagoner said. 'Over a 10-year period, we have gone from a ballpark of 40-plus hours a vehicle in assembly to 20-plus hours a vehicle.'

Benefits are another matter. G.M. pays about $1,500 per car assembled in the United States for health care, more than it spends on steel."

Jesus' General

Jesus' General

Grand Old Spenders

Grand Old Spenders: "Washington subsidizes the cost of water to encourage farmers to produce surpluses that trigger a gusher of government spending to support prices. It is almost comforting that $2 billion is spent each year paying farmers not to produce. Farm subsidies, most of which go to agribusinesses and affluent farmers, are just part of the $60 billion in corporate welfare that dwarfs the $29 billion budget of the Department of Homeland Security."

Grand Old Spenders

Grand Old Spenders: "Conservatives have won seven of 10 presidential elections, yet government waxes, with per-household federal spending more than $22,000 per year, the highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II. Federal spending -- including a 100 percent increase in education spending since 2001 -- has grown twice as fast under President Bush as under President Bill Clinton, 65 percent of it unrelated to national security."

Down for the Count - New York Times

Down for the Count - New York Times: "The New York Times
November 8, 2005
Down for the Count
By CARL ZIMMER

In a laboratory at Indiana State University, a dozen green iguanas sprawl tranquilly in terrariums. They while away the hours basking under their heat lamps, and at night they close both eyes - or sometimes just one. They lead comfortable lives pretty much indistinguishable from any ordinary pet iguana, except for one notable exception: the bundles of brain-wave recording wires that trail from their heads.

A team of scientists at Indiana State would like to know what happens in the brains of the iguanas when the lights go out. Do they sleep as we do? Do they shut the whole brain down, for example, or can they keep one half awake?

These scientists in Terre Haute hope the iguanas will also help shed some light on an even more fundamental question: why sleep even exists.

'Sleep has attracted a tremendous amount of attention in science, but we really don't know what sleep is,' said Steven Lima, a biologist at Indiana State.

Dr. Lima belongs to a small but growing group of scientists who are pushing sleep research deep into the animal kingdom. They suspect that most animal species need to sleep, suggesting that human slumber has an evolutionary history reaching back over half a billion years.

Today animals sleep iToday animals sleep in many different ways: brown bats for 20 hours a day, for example, and giraffes for less than 2. To understand why people sleep the way they do, scientists need an explanation powerful enough to encompass the millions of other species that sleep as well.

"One of the reasons we don't understand sleep is that we haven't taken this evolutionary perspective on it," Dr. Lima said.

Sleep was once considered unique to vertebrates, but in recent years scientists have found that invertebrates likes honeybees and crayfish sleep, as well. The most extensive work has been carried out on fruit flies. "They rest for 10 hours a night, and if you keep them awake longer, they need to sleep more," said Dr. Giulio Tononi, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin.

The parallels between fruit flies and humans extend even to their neurons. The two species produce, during part of the night, low-frequency electrical activity known as slow-wave sleep. "The flies surprised us with how close they were in many ways," Dr. Tononi said.

Discovering sleep in vertebrates and invertebrates alike has led scientists to conclude that it emerged very early in animal evolution - perhaps 600 million years ago. "What we're doing in sleeping is a very old evolutionary phenomenon," Dr. Lima said.

Scientists have offered a number of ideas about the primordial function of sleep. Dr. Tononi believes that it originally evolved as a way to allow neurons to recover from a hard day of learning. "When you're awake you learn all the time, whether you know it or not," he said.

Learning strengthens some connections between neurons, known as synapses, and even forms new synapses. These synapses demand a lot of extra energy, though. "That means that at the end of the day, you have a brain that costs you more energy," Dr. Tononi said. "That's where sleep would kick in."

He argues that slow waves weaken synapses through the night. "If everything gets weaker, you still keep your memories, but overall the strength goes down," he said. "The next morning you gain in terms of energy and performance."

Dr. Tononi and his University of Wisconsin colleague, Dr. Chiara Cirelli, present this hypothesis in a paper to be published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews. Dr. Tononi believes it can be tested in the future, as scientists document sleep in other animal species. "It would be a very basic thing that would apply to any brain that can change," he said.

It has been almost 600 million years since human ancestors diverged from those of flies. As those ancestors evolved, their sleep evolved as well. Human sleep, for example, features not only slow-wave sleep, but bouts of sleep when the eyes make rapid movements and when we dream. Rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, as it is known, generally comes later in the night, after periods of intense slow-wave sleep.

Other mammals also experience a mix of REM and non-REM sleep, as do birds. Sleep researchers would like to know whether this pattern existed in the common ancestors of birds and mammals, reptilian animals that lived 310 million years ago. It is also possible that birds and mammals independently evolved this sleep pattern, just as birds and bats independently evolved wings.

Answering that question may help scientists understand why REM sleep exists. Scientists have long debated its function, suggesting that it may play important roles in memory or learning. In the Oct. 27 issue of Nature, Jerome Siegel, a sleep expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, argues that REM does not play a vital physiological role like slow-wave sleep. He points out that brain injuries and even medications like antidepressants can drastically reduce REM without any apparent ill effect.

"People who don't have REM sleep are remarkably normal," Dr. Siegel said. "There's no evidence for any intellectual or emotional problems."

So why do mammals and birds have REM sleep at all? "The best answer I can come up with is that it's there to prepare you for waking," Dr. Siegel said. "When the important work of sleep is done, REM sleep just makes you as alert as you can be while you're asleep."

One advantage to being alert but immobile is that you may be better able to escape a predator. Dr. Lima and his colleagues argue in the October issue of Animal Behavior that sleep may have been profoundly shaped during evolution by the constant threat of predators. From this perspective, it is strange that animals would spend hours each day in such a vulnerable state. "It's so stinking dangerous to be shut down like that," Dr. Lima said.

It is possible to imagine an alternative way to let the brain recover: only put small parts of the brain to sleep at a time. But Dr. Lima and his colleagues present a mathematical model suggesting that shutting down the whole brain at once may actually be safer.

"You may be better off just shutting down and sleeping all at once, and do it quickly," Dr. Lima said. "Even though you're fairly vulnerable while you're asleep, your overall vulnerability in a 24-hour period may be lower."

Birds appear to be able to defend against predators with a variation on this strategy. When they feel safe, they sleep with their entire brains shut down, as humans do. But when they sense threats, they keep half their brains awake.

Dr. Lima and his colleagues have demonstrated this strategy in action with several bird species, including ducks. "All we did was put our ducks in a row, quite literally," said Niels Rattenborg, a colleague of Dr. Lima's, now at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany. "The ducks on the interior slept more with both eyes closed, and the ducks on the edge slept with one eye open. And they used the eye that was facing away from the other birds."

To give each side of the brain enough rest, the ducks at the ends of the row would stand up from time to time, turn around and sit down again. This allowed them to switch eyes and let the waking half of the brain go to sleep.

The Indiana State team is now studying iguanas to see if they sleep with half their brains, as well. Previous studies have shown that lizards keep one eye closed for long periods of time, but it has not been clear if they have also been half asleep. Monitoring iguana brains with electrodes may give the scientists an answer.

If reptiles and birds turn out to sleep this way, it may be evidence that it is an ancient strategy. It is even possible that the earliest mammals also slept with half a brain. "It's possible that early on in mammal evolution they may have lost it for some reason," Dr. Rattenborg speculated. "It may have conflicted with other functions."

On the other hand, some species of whales and seals sometimes swim with one eye closed while the corresponding hemisphere of the brain produces slow waves. Scientists are still debating whether they are actually asleep in this state. If they are, that suggests that the ancestors of marine mammals reinvented half-brain sleeping. It may have re-emerged as an adaptation to life in the ocean, an environment where predators can come out of nowhere.

While humans and other land mammals may not be able to shut down half the brain, they may be able to cope with predators by adjusting their sleep schedules. Some studies on rats suggest that predators cause the animals to cut back on slow-wave sleep. People often react to stress in the same way.

"Some of the changes we observe in people who are experiencing stress may be some of the same mechanisms in response to predators," Dr. Rattenborg said. "There are no lions sneaking up on them, but the daily stresses of our lives may activate this primordial response."

Dr. Tononi believes that studying animals may ultimately help doctors find more effective ways to treat such sleep disorders. "There are no good guidelines about what is satisfactory sleep, because there is no idea of what it does," he said. "Is seven hours of very light sleep O.K.? Or is deep sleep very important, or REM?"

He added: "It might really be that you can do with less sleep as long as it's doing its job. That's why it's crucial to know what its job is."

Top News Article | Reuters.com

Top News Article | Reuters.com: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Omar al-Faruq, one of al Qaeda's most senior global operatives, escaped from an American military prison in Afghanistan in July, a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, confirmed to Reuters that the Kuwaiti, who was captured in Indonesia in 2002 and turned over to the United States, was among four prisoners who escaped from heavily fortified Bagram Air Base prison in July. He remains at large.

The official did not explain why the United States did not state that Faruq was among the four who escaped until pressed by lawyers at a military trial in Texas this week. At the time of his capture in Indonesia in June 2002, Faruq was al Qaeda's most senior operative in Southeast Asia, according to intelligence officials.

'I think we can confirm that he escaped,' said the defense official.

Faruq's disappearance did not come to light until defense attorneys for a U.S. soldier on trial in Texas on charges of abusing detainees in Afghanistan demanded on Tuesday to know where the al Qaeda operative was so that he could testify at the trial."

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance: "We are here and it is now. Further than that, all knowledge is moonshine. H. L. Mencken"

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance: "I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. Thomas Carlyle"

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance: "TV news seems to confuse more than it clarifies,' the study [by the Center for studies in Communication of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst] summarizes. 'Even after controlling for all other variables, we discovered that the correlation between TV watching and knowledge was actually a negative one. Overall, the more TV people watched, the less they knew. The only fact that did not fit in with this pattern was the ability to identify the Patriot missle. this is a sad indictment of television's priorities.' They add, 'It is extremely distrubing that this public expertise in aspects of military technology is not matched by any clear understanding of the circumstances that lie behind their deployment. Village Voice (3/5/91)."

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance

On Wisdom, Knowledge, Ignorance: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Martin Luther King, Jr Strength to Love (1963)"

Daily Kos: Hersh: Who in the Hell is Bush?

Daily Kos: Hersh: Who in the Hell is Bush?: "On Plamegate, Hersh offers this view:

'You got reporters saying they're willing to go jail to defend the right of somebody to lie to them about something that leads to the deaths of thousands of people,' Hersh says. 'Do you understand the crazy value system? It's pretty bad.'

But for me, the money paragraph in the whole article is Hersh's final quote, where he lets loose on Bush and the Bush administration's record on rights, post-9/11:

'Who in the hell is (President George) Bush?' he demands. 'My parents came here to get away from stuff that he's recreating. Who is he to deconstruct 250 years of the constitution? If you were a Muslim in America after 9/11, you were presumed guilty of something. He prosecuted 2,000 Muslims -- and not one conviction for terrorism. They got a couple of guys on credit card fraud and a couple of guys on overstayed visas. Right now this government is going around and anywhere in the world we think there's a member of the `global war on terrorism' we can snatch him and take him somewhere where the sun don't shine on him.'"