More solar flares spotted. Astronomers observed three strong flares on the Sun during a 24-hour period on Sunday... [spacetoday.net]

More than one of my friends has noticed that their cell phone's service has gone to hell this last week. I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

One space scientist told SPACE.com that the recent spate of strong solar storms is "one of the most dramatic periods of solar activity we have seen in modern time."

6:38:02 PM    

Terror - the fastest growing economy. Comment: The war against groups such as al-Qaida stems from a clash of economic systems, argues Loretta Napoleoni. [Guardian Unlimited]

Much like the Taliban springing from U.S. support of the Mujahideen during the Afghan/Soviet war, it appears that the Pandora's Box of Globalization may have loosed more than cheap consumer goods into the world.

Motivated by the desire for independence from their sponsors and by the rising costs of running armed organisations, terror groups widened their economic horizon. So in the 1990s, when the deregulation of international markets knocked down financial and economic barriers, they were ripe for the last transition: the globalisation of terrorism. Taking advantages of economic liberalisation, terror groups became transnational entities, raising money and carrying out violent cross-border attacks.

The irony is that the new economy of terror is a product of globalisation, particularly of the globalisation that emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Globalisation allowed non-state entities to promote a variety of liberal causes, social changes and economic advancement but has also facilitated the networking of terrorist movements such as al-Qaida and the growing sophistication of the "terror economy".

Globalization may be a novel product of the 1990's, but the clash of economies is hardly new; in fact, as Napoleoni argues, we may just be seeing "Crusades II: The Caliphate Strikes Back".

A millennium ago a new class of European bankers, traders and merchants forged a strategic alliance with the church to break the economic hegemony of Islam. Religion was the ideological umbrella under which the third party - the hungry masses of western Europe - was brought into the alliance. Now, in a sort of reversal of the Crusades, the embryo of the Islamic bourgeoisie has teamed up with the radical clerics. Under the umbrella of Wahhabism - an extreme, seventh century interpretation of Islam - the oppressed Muslim masses are encouraged to take up arms against the corrupted, Muslim, oligarchic rulers and their backers, the west. Religion once again is the ideological blanket under which different social groups are able to gather together.

Everything old is new again.

6:00:31 PM     leave/read comments []

Our pal Onager smacks Thomas Friedman up alongside the head:

My jaw sure dropped at Thomas Friedman's non sequitur. He's written enough on the subject to know better, so I guess I have to put it down to the usual "whoring for Bu$h Points."

Terrorists, he wrote in 1998 after terrorists attacked two US embassies in Africa, "have no specific ideological program or demands.

Huh? Off the top of my head, some of the major terrorism hotspots of the last half-century...

Israel (anti-Brit)
Palestine and environs (anti-Israeli)
Malaya
Congo/Rwanda/Burundi/Angola etc.
Vietnam I (the French)
Algeria
Northern Ireland
Vietnam II (the Americans)

I bet you can spot one or two "ideological programs or demands." I bet your Schnauzer could, too. Which makes me, you and your Schnauzer A LOT SMARTER THAN THOMAS FUCKING FRIEDMAN.

My dog has spoken. He didn't even need a second try.

5:38:42 PM     leave/read comments []

New Napster Off to a Solid Start. Napster 2.0 has a sleek design and makes exploring new music a pleasure. The most nagging problem? The confusing licensing issues. A review by Katie Dean. [Wired News]

Not everything is quite working yet, tho':

The oddest moment of my Napster experience was when I clicked into The Lunchbox Indie Rock radio station and the audio played "Skating" from Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas, though the album cover listed was the Posies' "Dream All Day" track. It was a nice piece of early Christmas cheer, but not what was supposed to be playing.

I searched on the Posies and clicked on "Dream All Day," and the same thing happened: It played Vince Guaraldi's "Skating." Odd, and likely an inconvenience for those Posies fans.

Pity the poor Posies fan. Or the Napster user.

5:31:13 PM     leave/read comments []

The conversation with Afghan villagers is neighborly, but the subtext is gently radical: I am woman - now, let's rebuild your country.

"You would hope that seeing women from America doing these jobs would have an effect," says Paine, commander of the US Army's civil-affairs unit at Kandahar air base. "Afghans are not used to seeing females in the military. When we first arrived, we used to ask the village leaders, 'Do you have a problem working with women?' And they said, 'We understand that's your culture and we will work with you.' And for our part, we try to work with them in their culture."

5:04:09 PM    

Inuit battle to shut US air base. Hunters in Greenland go to court in a bid to force the removal of a top-secret base from their ancestral land. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]

Just when you thought the Bush Administration's hare-brained schemes couldn't possibly alienate anymore of our friends and allies, along comes SDI Vs. The Inuit.

Inuit hunters are to ask Denmark's Supreme Court on Monday to close down one of America's most secretive and strategically important military bases.

The Inuit claim they were illegally evicted from traditional grounds in northern Greenland and they are demanding the right of return.

The US would like to use Thule air base as a site for the controversial Star Wars National Missile Defence System.

Oh for Smilla's sake! Didn't we get over that nonsense? Obviously not.

4:29:12 PM     leave/read comments []

African Anglicans Vent Anger at Gay Bishop. Africa's Anglican leaders expressed fury today at the consecration over the weekend of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. By Marc Lacey. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Yes, all over Africa, and most notably Kenya, the home of female circumcision, Anglican leaders are having homophobic hissy fits.

"The devil has clearly entered our church," said an angry Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, who has announced that his church will have nothing to do with the Episcopal Church U.S.A. that sanctioned Canon V. Gene Robinson's appointment.

Archbishop Nzimbi then turned to his Hoary Master and had a laugh with the Prince of Darkness, with whom he has been living with at the church for months. "Warm up that clit knife, Luci," he didn't actually say, but c'mon you know he was thinking it, "soon as I'm done here smacking down the homos, lets cut us some girls!"

4:14:51 PM     leave/read comments []

Class, Get in Touch With Your Inner Zappa. Paul Green, the creator of a real life school of rock in Philadelphia, insists that his story is the original and not some well-timed remix. By Lola Ogunnaike. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

Vengeance is MINE, sayeth the Prog-Dude!

But all is not well, as a certain movie has not paid mad props to the Zappa fiends in Philly.

Dude," said one reveler with a pink buzz cut. "They're just like the kids from the `School of Rock.' "

Actually, Mr. Green argues, it's the other way around. Yes, like Jack Black's character, Dewey Finn, in the hit film, Mr. Green abandoned playing in amateur bands to teach youngsters how to rock 'n' roll, schooling them on the finer points of genres like prog rock, extolling the virtues of Pink Floyd. But he insists that his story is the original and not some well-timed remix.

"My first thought was to sue the pants off of them because they are doing damage to my business," Mr. Green said a few days before the Williamsburg gig. He wore a snug "School of Rock" T-shirt and jeans in desperate need of patches. "People are going to think I'm riding off of their coattails, which is totally not the case."

More power to 'em, though what the f*@k is up with this?

3:04:15 PM     leave/read comments []

Late at Night, That's NBC Crowing. Ten years into the deeply personal competition for supremacy in late-night television, David Letterman appears to have lost. By Bill Carter. [New York Times: Business]

This just in: crap is wildly popular!

I can hear the sucking sound coming all the way from Satan's bedchamber, along with that chipmunk-like Leno laugh......

2:44:18 PM     leave/read comments []

Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting. As doubts about electronic voting systems grow in the United States, the Australians take the lead in offering a system that doesn't freak anyone out. Their solution is to make the whole thing open source. By Kim Zetter. [Wired News]

To paraphrase George W. Bush- "There is no word in Australian for 'Diebold'."

Quinn also believes that voting systems must use open-source software.

"The keystone of democracy is information," he said. "You have a big problem when people don't have enough information to make up their minds or, even worse, they have misleading information and make up their minds in a way that would be contrary to what they would decide if they had the full story.

"Any transparency you can add to that process is going to enhance the democracy and, conversely, any information you remove from that process is going to undermine your democracy."

Hey bucko, maybe in some crazy antipodal wonderland, but here in Asscroft's Amerika, the keystone of Democracy is unquestioning allegiance to Our Supreme Leader and the careful control of dangerous things like information:

In the name of national security. CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh explains why the government's quietly wiping previously posted information off of federal Web sites. [CNET News.com - Front Door]

We don't want to confuse the American Consumer Voter with things like facts, especially if those facts might make Consumers Citizens question the performance or decisions of their government.

About a week ago, the U.S. Army surreptitiously pulled the plug on one of its more popular Web sites, call.army.mil, after The Washington Post wrote about a report that had been posted on it.

The Post's October 25 article said "the U.S. military intelligence gathering operation in Iraq is being undercut by a series of problems in using technology, training intelligence specialists and managing them in the field," citing the report prepared by the Center for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The report, which the Post had the foresight to mirror on its own Web site, talked about the "poor quality" of mission planning and "marginally effective" training for certain reserve troops.

The report was not classified. It was merely a sober analysis of the Army's problems in Iraq.

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. The Bush administration has been busily sweeping its "secrets" (not really secrets, but boy would they like 'em to be.) under the electronic rug since the start of its term.

This is not an isolated example. In the two years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has systematically reduced the amount of information available to the public, which in turn has made government officials less accountable to taxpayers. Attorney General John Ashcroft set the tone in an Oct. 12, 2001 memo that urged agencies to withhold information from requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Then, in January, Rumsfeld claimed that too much data was popping up on military Web sites. Citing al-Qaida, Rumsfeld warned that "one must conclude our enemies access DOD (Department of Defense) Web sites on a regular basis."

I wonder if Laura would sign the checks to Osama Bin Laden that the Administration should be sending him for being such an all-purpose boogeyman? (Whom, it should be noted, is still "at large.") The Bushies have so mastered Wagging The Dog that their entire administration has become one giant wag-

Welfare for the top 1% of wealthiest Americans? LOOK!!!! AN INSURGENT!!!!!

Remove the curbs to utterly destroying the environment- THE TERRORISTS ARE TRYING TO TAKE OUR OIL!!!! DRILL CHARLIE BROWN DRIL!!!!!!

Let the American people know exactly what our government is up to? NO WAY PAL! YOU MIGHT BE AL-QUEDA!!!!

Declan McCullagh sums it up at the end of his piece from C|Net:

In the last two years, though, the government has extended secrecy far beyond what recent predecessors have dared. There are legitimate reasons for secrecy but using the excuse of terrorist attacks to shield officials from embarrassment and critical scrutiny is unconscionable. The public deserves better.

Indeed, we do.

12:02:39 PM     leave/read comments []

This is the sort of thing that you just don't want to believe happens any more. I'd call it mindless, but it's a very mindful, calculated bit of base brutality; something so horrific, that only a seeming oxymoron can describe it.

Source: Boing Boing Blog; 11/3/03; 10:00:05 AM

Photo: river of blood. Bloggers ask "hoax?", Sea Shepherd responds..

In this photo shot near a Japanese fishing town, fishermen work on a boat full of just-killed dolphins, as a diver prepares to submerge into blood-filled water. Link.

UPDATE #1: Bloggers are debating whether or not this image may have been digitally manipulated to make the water appear redder. See MeFi. AP distributed the photo, but cited Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (an organization protesting dolphin killing in Japan) as the image's source.

UPDATE #2: I contacted Scott Sheckman, Communication Director for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, about the retouching allegations. He responds to BoingBoing readers here:

The color of the pictures are authentic and were not retouched in any way. The Sea Shepherd crew shot digital, film and video which was compared and authenticated by the Associated Press before they accepted the pictures. To support this statement, I refer you to this recent story by the Toronto Star which reports that AP verified the photos before distributing.

A video of the slaugher is available here. The color of the water is the result of at least 60 dolphins being bled to death in the shallow cove close to shore. The Japanese government allows the slaughter of approx. 20,000 dolphins a year in near-shore drives such as the one documented in Taiji.

One of the photographers explains that tools used to stun dolphins included sonar, and says of the images: "They really did represent very well what we'd seen with our own eyes that day.... that color is 100% accurate... It was just as horrifying as it looks. It truly is the same most unnatural colour I have ever seen. It was one of the most deep crimson reds I had ever seen... and to realize that it came from a living organic being was shocking." [Boing Boing Blog]

11:04:12 AM     leave/read comments []

I miss Sydney.

QTVR pano of "Matrix: Revolutions" Australia premiere.

QTVR enthusiast and photographer Peter Murphy says:

Hi Xeni, I shot a panorama for my blog at the premiere of Matrix Revolutions last night -- at Sydney Opera House. Keanu, Hugo Weaving, the producer ... were there. Security was tight -- only ticketed fans could watch the action.

Link
[Boing Boing Blog]

10:59:49 AM     leave/read comments []

It's always nice to fall asleep to rain on the roof and windows.

But a week's worth is a bit much.

Damn you, November!!

1:11:04 AM     leave/read comments []

Copyright law, Holocaust deniers, and Jewish groups all come together over a 1938 fluff piece on Hitler's house that was posted to a blog.

1:07:16 AM     leave/read comments []

Tokyo's loudmouthed governor, instead of offering the Chinese congralutions in putting a man into space (something Japan has never done), calls them 'ignorant.' [Nippon Goro Goro]

Oh thank goodness, I was beginning to think that only the U.S. has politicians this stupid and insensitive.

1:04:47 AM     leave/read comments []