2007 Waves to Wine

Darn - i need to get some sleep, quick.

Hopefully some pics when we're done.

...pics. and a vid w/ some more links.

Get Out of Your Fucking Car; The Tanya Rider Search

Out here in Cali it's pretty easy to get around without a car - relative to most other places I've lived. There are bicycle lanes, the weather is perfect, etc.

So when I stumbled on this story (video) of a woman who had been missing for seven or eight days, after leaving work, on the overnight shift, having to drive a nine-mile stretch of road that is woodsy and curvy and in a couple of spots not-overly-populated - I kinda thought to myself, 'wow - why didn't someone look there earlier?'.

Well, of course, someone did, but they probably didn't do it on foot, or maybe even bicycle. Well, why not?

My guess would be because Americans don't do stuff out of their cars. Being outside of one's car on a road is just not comprehensible to most Americans.

The take-away? If you decide to look for someone who probably fell asleep at the wheel and crashed their car into dense brush, how about getting the fuck out of your car? Walk it. Bike it. Skateboard it. Whatever - just don't drive it. You won't find what you're looking for.

Eight days. Unreal.

...and today we have these things called the internets and Google Maps and Google Earth. The first thing I did when I saw this article was to plot her likely path home on Google Maps. If I was actually interested in finding her I would have plotted it in Google Earth, saved the route out to a .kzm file, and then distributed it using Google Earth's built-in distribution system, as well as the blogosphere, etc. Me and a couple of friends could have searched 10 miles of roadway in a few hours. I could do it myself - possibly jogging occasionally, carefully combing the landscape, in a day, two tops. With Google Earth it is _very_ easy to spot the five or six locations along the entire route from the store to downtown Maple Valley (no idea where she and hubby actually lived) where a sleepy person might have lost control of the car and ran off the road - they're all on that Route 169. If you subscribe to Google Earth you can actually get all sorts of crazy details. The article mentions that she went off the road below Southeast 196th Street - that's one of the obvious hotspots on the Google Earth Map - though, I would have guessed just north of that location. When looking for a possible off-road situation, you'd know that people tend to wake up too late, overcorrect, and then actually go off their _own_ side of the road - so you'd search each hot spot area well, on both sides of the road. Import this .kzm file and use Google Earth to actually fly her route towards her home. Welcome to the internets, detective. No phone records necessary. No search warrants necessary. No 8-day suffering period necessary. No outrageous hospital expenses necessary. No emotional pain and distress for family and friends necessary. No multi-man, multi-day, multi-expensive search party necessary.

...confirmed:

Tom Rider said he also drove the route where his wife was found but didn't see any sign of a crash. He also offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to her safe return.

Argentina hosts gay 'World Cup' of soccer

Argentina hosts gay 'World Cup' of soccer:

Hundreds of amateur athletes from around the world kicked off the gay 'World Cup' on Monday in soccer-crazed Argentina.

Waving a rainbow flag symbolic of the gay community, the cheering players began play at a park in Buenos Aires — which in 2002 became the first Latin American city to approve same-sex civil unions.

"There's the polemic that gay people are supposed to be effeminate and not play sports," said Matt Borkowski, a 36-year-old playing with a Philadelphia squad. "But we're here to embrace sports and show you can be gay and be sporty at the same time."

About 500 athletes, representing 28 city squads such as the San Francisco Spikes, New York Ramblers, London Leftovers and Sydney Rangers, are taking part in the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association World Soccer Championships, which run through Saturday.

Stanford vs. Rumsfeld, Rice, Hoover Institute

Hoover is at it again, trying to bring in another war criminal. The overwhelming response thus far seems to be negative. I put together a little sumpin sumpin - trying out my design skillz:

Stanford vs. USF Mens Soccer; 09/16/07

I only watched the first half, but here's the report:

Conor Chinn is a monster. Scored the first goal (and only I saw) for SF by running through and over at least four Stanford defenders, including the Stanford sweeper who made a lame attempt to clear - Chinn finished coolly. He should transfer to England immediately - they'll love him, and he'll do well.

Stanford should have known he was coming to town - he just downed #11 Cal with a two-goal performance (coaching error).

#7 SF outside right back for SF - solid. strong shot from set play. pwning his man.

#15 SF outside left half - super-quick. attacks with pace. dangerous.

#3 SF sweeper solid. fast. good on the ball. cool enough.

Stanford _completely_ dominating possession - Chinn is great, but SF won't go anywhere without a midfield.

SF keeper is solid - grabs all loose balls at their zenith.

Stanford strikers completely ineffective - slow, unskilled - probably senior holdovers.

#14 Stanford - terrible.

#10 Stanford - nonexistent.

Stanford holds the ball way too long - no fluidity or imagination.

Stanford strikers tired with 20 min left in first half.

Stanford refusal to dish early is killing every attack.

Stanford continues low-percentage passes to dead space - will _not_ make the easy pass - this is obviously an ego problem. Maybe another loss will fix that. Probably not. (coaching error)

...Stanford loses in overtime, 2-1.

Michael Vick - fascist?

Another good Zirin article:

Such a writer is Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. On Thursday she wrote, "If an animal didn't perform well enough, if it wasn't champion enough, if it was in Vick's judgment flawed, he strangled it, drowned it, electrocuted it or beat it to death on the ground. Vick and his pals deliberately enslaved and tormented weaker creatures, and killed those they considered inferior. The dogs had faces and voices that would have eloquently expressed their agony, and Vick hurt them anyway, repeatedly. The crimes may have been committed against canines, but at issue is basic humanity. Commit those crimes against people, and the words we'd use for it are fascism, and genocide. Don't kid yourself: The people who are so angry at Vick are angry for all the right reasons."

If it had run in the Onion, I wouldn't have blinked. But this is the Washington Post, an esteemed paper of record. And this is Sally Jenkins. First, the contention, repeated everywhere as if fact, that Vick "strangled, drowned, electrocuted or beat dogs to death" was in the indictment, not the guilty plea. In other words, it remains an unproven accusation. If anything, Vick pleaded guilty because all of his friends pled deals when it became clear that the federal government wanted – as they always do – to land the big celebrity catch. The same justice department that says of Barry Bonds, "He's our Al Capone" wanted Vick. That's the headline. That's what keeps their budgets fat.

BarCamp / BarCampBlock / Palo Alto / 2007

Just checked out BarCamp / BarCampBlock. It's just down the street (literally) from my crib.

Was a good scene. Lots of people where I went - the main hub - at SocialText. There are four or five other satellite-type locations/offices on the surrounding blocks.

Talked with a Yahoo - dominated the foos table - then split.

Didn't hurt that it was another picture perfect day in sunny Palo Alto, CA.

Oh - and the Yahoo had a damn Polaroid. Very cool. Pic came out good, too. He scans them later and uploads them to Flickr. Pretty dope. I need a digital Polaroid. Wonder if they make 'em?

US terror interrogation went too far, experts say

You don't say?

Miami - Jose Padilla had no history of mental illness when President Bush ordered him detained in 2002 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative. But he does now.

Well, it's yet another beautiful day in sunny Palo Alto, California, and I'm about to go out and enjoy it. And I'll be thinking about how to stop a lawless government from psychologically torturing (at least) innocent U.S. citizens until they become batshit crazy. And I'll be feeling guilty about not having done enough to stop it.

This is fucked up.

StreetFilms: S.F. Giants Valet Bike Parking

Pretty cool.

Bark Blog: Time to Bunny-Up

Bark Blog: Time to Bunny-Up:

They are currently the third most euthanized pet in this country. If bunnies had the same organized outreach as cats and dogs, this wouldn’t happen. So let’s join forces. Best Friends Animal Society is circulating a petition in protest. Brambley Hedge Rabbit Rescue has suspended rabbit adoptions with PetSmart and initiated a boycott. The Rabbit House Society is more circumspect, calling on the chain to change course and inviting supporters to politely express their displeasure.

This is important for a few reasons, but one I'd like to emphasize is that organizations are working together. Here, a dog magazine/blog is jumping in to help publicize a non-dog issue. Granted, it's not a big stretch since it's all animal rights, but this is the type of thing we need to be doing at all activist organizations - organizations with different stated goals need to be in better communication - by supporting each other directly and indirectly, they can become bigger power centers, forcing corporations and the government to respond.

...added links.

Once

That was a great #*##*#*#*# movie.

Grand. Brilliant. All the rest.

As per usual, I highly recommend not watching the previews.

...not watching the previews/trailers allows you to sit through the movie and wonder, "What the heck does 'Once' mean, anyways?". Spoiler tagline: How often do you find the right person?

Tillman murdered?

Thought I posted about this recently, but I couldn't find it. Damn blogger. Found an old post, but its source article, here, is disappeared. That's not completely abnormal for little newspaper sites, but still - it's a pretty important story - or, at least, speculation.

So, TPM has some new facts.

And now Wonkette, of all blogs, is saying some stuff I hadn't heard before. They say, for instance, that the reason Tillman was going to meet with (one of my personal heroes) Chomsky was to find out exactly how he should come out against the war when he got back to the U.S. I knew about the planned meeting, but I just figured it was going to be a chit chat about whatever.

And I firmly believe, now, if I didn't already, that he was murdered by his own unit. I mean, shit - his unit burned his armor - wtf? There's only one good reason to burn shit - to remove your tracks.

The Pentagon covered it up.

All sorts of military personnel in the field covered it up - a retired General recently being reprimanded.

Military doctors doubted from the very beginning the story they were fed.

Three close-range bullet holes in the forehead after he was already wounded several times?

That was some Mafia/Gestapo/Nazi-style shit - an out and out execution.

I'm sure someone's going to ask Chomsky what he thinks of all this - someone always does. Chomsky will handle it with care, of course, but I suspect he won't give people what they're looking for - he won't do our thinking for us. He'll say something to the effect that 'anything is possible', but won't go towards 'plausible' and he'll refrain from saying too much about it at all, and then he'll reinforce his core message to all of us - get together and get active - build mass popular movements and force the government and corporations to repond to our demands.

Government spyware - really

This sums it up pretty well:

FBI agents trying to track the source of e-mailed bomb threats against a Washington high school last month sent the suspect a secret surveillance program designed to surreptitiously monitor him and report back to a government server, according to an FBI affidavit obtained by Wired News.

The court filing offers the first public glimpse into the bureau's long-suspected spyware capability, in which the FBI adopts techniques more common to online criminals.

Here's the good part, though:

Under a ruling this month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, such surveillance -- which does not capture the content of the communications -- can be conducted without a wiretap warrant, because internet users have no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in the data when using the internet.

Because you use the internet, you have 'no reasonable expectation' that the programs you are running on your computer should be known only to you - got it?

Criminals - all of them.

Iraq, Denial and Deception

Check out this page from the official White House site - it looks like a self-parody:

Cuba must suffer

That is the take-away from the latest on U.S. government treachery towards the Cuban people:

WASHINGTON — Eliminating U.S. trade and travel restrictions on Cuba could double U.S. agricultural exports to the island, according to a new government report that's sure to add fuel to the debate over U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

The study estimated that the restrictions cost the United States between $176 million and $350 million annually in lost agriculture exports to Cuba.

The economic strangulation of Cuba by the United States is for one reason and one reason alone - to set an example. If a country doesn't open itself up for exploitation by U.S.-based investors, it must suffer until it does so. Including and even if the trade strangulation against the targeted country harms American citizens, too.

Rethinking Camelot.

Sex abuse insurance

Kinda, um, evil:

According to GuideOne, a major insurer for Protestant churches, most of its clients choose $100,000 of coverage for sex abuse. That might cost a small church with one pastor as little as $100 a year. A much larger church that also runs, say, a day-care center, might pay $6,000 to have $1 million in coverage. Religious organizations buying a lot of coverage may need to prove that they're taking precautions to lower the risk of sex abuse. GuideOne, for instance, requires some churches to conduct criminal background checks on employees, to allow volunteers to work with kids only after they've completed six months of service with the church, and to make sure that no child is ever left alone with just one adult. The policy won't cover everything. Insurers may put a limit on how much they will pay in aggregate, or for each case. (Recently, three major Protestant insurers reported that they receive 260 reports of child abuse every year.)

If an organization needs sex abuse insurance, I think it's time to rethink whether that organization should exist at all.

Ewww factor

Why We Get Disgusted - TIME:

Andrea Morales and Gavan Fitzsimons can both remember when and where their current research interest began. It came during a talk at the University of Pennsylvania a few years ago: Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology, took a cockroach that had been sterilized, dipped it into a glass of orange juice, then asked if anyone was willing to take a sip.

Nobody was. But if an involuntary ewww just went through your mind, as it almost certainly did, the experiment is still working. Rozin specializes in the psychological study of disgust, and he was demonstrating the universal concept of touch transference. It's a fancy term for cooties. If something repulsive touches something benign, the latter, even if it's physically unchanged, becomes "infected."

These types of insights are important - especially for those of us to are trying to win others to our cause. It's kind of pathetic, but sometimes it seems like all activists need at least a minor in advertising and public relations to be able to effectively convey a message that folks are open to. The professional propagandists, after all, are trained in these arts of deception. Does learning these arts make us evil, too? Probably not - but practicing them against people? Yep - that would seem kind of evil.

Anyhoo, the mainstream media has convinced most folks that any pseudo-lefty idea was probably dreamt up by a 'dirty fucking hippy' - as Atrios like to refer to us/himself - and that, i'm certain, helps to keep people from taking our ideas seriously. If we say, "Hey guys, let's like, not murder people anymore" - the mainstream press will effectively relay the message that "the dirty fucking hippies said blah blah blah" - what we actually said is not important, because there is a 'ewwww' factor associated with any sane-sounding ideas.

Should we spend some/most/all of our time battling negative stereotypes, or do we just try to convince those few people who remain open-minded?

Got me.

Georgia executions recorded

Scary shit:

In 2001, radio producer Dave Isay released "The Execution Tapes," 19 recordings of electrocutions carried out by the state of Georgia since 1984. They remain the only recordings of executions in the United States. They were recorded internally by the Georgia Department of Corrections as a secret official record of the executions.

As usual, Democracy Now! is kickin ass. Every day they just have the greatest news and info.

...Jesus Fucking Christ. What kind of Nazi fuckin state is this? Monsters. Yuckin it up. "We appreciate it - just get us another one." IQ of the dude was 62. An IQ of 70 is the top bottom end of 'mentally handicapped' (meaning, this dude was mentally handicapped).

Georgia Capital Defenders.

Only took 20 minutes to kill the second dude. WTF?

Like Muse said in Take a Bow:

And burn, you will burn,
You will burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell.
You’ll burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell for your sins.

...it's fucking impossible for doctors of good conscience to participate in executions. They should be jailed, too. Two doctors. Same goes for you two - to hell.

...and what about the case of Genarlow Wilson? what the fuck is going on in Georgia?

...correction regarding IQ, above.

Babies dodging snipers?

Thanks Bush:

WASHINGTON — U.S. soldiers have killed or wounded 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints or near patrols and convoys during the past year, according to military statistics compiled in Iraq and obtained by McClatchy Newspapers.

The statistics are the first official accounting of civilian shootings since the war began, and while they seem small compared with the thousands who've died in Iraq's violence, they show the difficulty that the U.S. has in fulfilling its vow to protect civilians.

Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist

An interesting bit from the Psychology Today feed - Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature:

# Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist

An unfortunate consequence of the ever-growing number of women joining the labor force and working side by side with men is the increasing number of sexual harassment cases. Why must sexual harassment be a necessary consequence of the sexual integration of the workplace?

Psychologist Kingsley R. Browne identifies two types of sexual harassment cases: the quid pro quo ("You must sleep with me if you want to keep your job or be promoted") and the "hostile environment" (the workplace is deemed too sexualized for workers to feel safe and comfortable). While feminists and social scientists tend to explain sexual harassment in terms of "patriarchy" and other ideologies, Browne locates the ultimate cause of both types of sexual harassment in sex differences in mating strategies.

Studies demonstrate unequivocally that men are far more interested in short-term casual sex than women. In one now-classic study, 75 percent of undergraduate men approached by an attractive female stranger agreed to have sex with her; none of the women approached by an attractive male stranger did. Many men who would not date the stranger nonetheless agreed to have sex with her.

The quid pro quo types of harassment are manifestations of men's greater desire for short-term casual sex and their willingness to use any available means to achieve that goal. Feminists often claim that sexual harassment is "not about sex but about power;" Browne contends it is both—men using power to get sex. "To say that it is only about power makes no more sense than saying that bank robbery is only about guns, not about money."

Sexual harassment cases of the hostile-environment variety result from sex differences in what men and women perceive as "overly sexual" or "hostile" behavior. Many women legitimately complain that they have been subjected to abusive, intimidating, and degrading treatment by their male coworkers. Browne points out that long before women entered the labor force, men subjected each other to such abusive, intimidating, and degrading treatment.

Abuse, intimidation, and degradation are all part of men's repertoire of tactics employed in competitive situations. In other words, men are not treating women differently from men—the definition of discrimination, under which sexual harassment legally falls—but the opposite: Men harass women precisely because they are not discriminating between men and women.

Zowie. There is other interesting stuff in there.

I certainly agree that many feminists employ the 'not about sex but about power' argument all too often. Never made any sense to me. After some research, I quickly admitted that yes, power did seem to be part of the equation, but my rational side always told me that sex had to be part of the equation, too.