Posts from — July 2007

Maru of WTF is it now? always has interesting artwork at her place, and the fractal Bouquet led back to this great collection and an interesting dustbin.

The author/artist, another penguin, makes it freely available, but a link is appropriate.

McClatchy has a nice background piece: How U.S. policy missteps led to a nasty downfall in Gaza

WASHINGTON — Officials in the Bush administration awoke on the morning of January 26, 2006 to catastrophic news.

Hamas, a violent Islamist movement whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, had won Palestinian parliamentary elections — elections that were deemed free and fair and a cornerstone to President Bush’s initiative to bring more democracy to the Muslim world.

For the next 17 months, White House and State Department officials would undertake an all-out campaign to reverse those results and oust Hamas from power.

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BBC puns its way to the article, Good vibes power tiny generator:

A tiny generator powered by natural vibrations could soon be helping keep heart pacemakers working.

Created by scientists at the University of Southampton, the generator has been developed to power devices where replacing batteries is very difficult.

In pacemakers, the generator would be powered by heartbeats and body movement. You can read more at the project’s site, Vibration Energy Scavenging [VIBES].

MSNBC notes that Affair with iPhone cools when handset breaks

Falling in lust with an expensive device like the iPhone sets owners up for a hard fall if it stops working. I know, because mine died after only four days into our relationship.

As a general rule heat kills electronics. No matter what the device is, if it is uncomfortably hot to the touch, it will fail. If you think it is too hot, deal with it immediately, because it isn’t going to get better. Equipment cooling degrades after extensive use, so if it’s hot when new, it will only get hotter. It should be warm in use, not hot.

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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It is being reported that BBC’s Gaza correspondent released.

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston has been freed by his captors in Gaza after his abduction nearly four months ago.

Television pictures showed Mr Johnston, 45, leaving a building and entering a white car, accompanied by armed men. He said he was tired but in good health.

Hamas said they would free Mr. Johnston, and they kept their promise after they took control of the Gaza, but, of course, you can’t negotiate with “terrorists.”

Even Richard Nixon knew when to resign: transcript and the video link.

I think we can safely assume that KO is unhappy with the Libby clemency decision.

In anticipation of opponents claiming that single payer will result in huge tax bills. Randy Neal at Facing South looks at the taxes in other countries that have single payer systems.

I have to say it’s a bit annoying when they have lower taxes and health care. That is not what we were told. You don’t think that the opponents of single payer systems and their minions were lying? Why, I do believe they were.

Before the darkness of several things descended last night I found a great Non Sequitur strip by Wiley via Oldwhitelady at It’s morning somewhere .

Go and view the REAL creation story by the Church of Danae.

Oh, for the troll who uses the name G. Bush, I really think the e-mail I could send to abuse at Verizon.net would be more effective than anything you might send to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. If you feel obligated, go for it, Vint Cerf appreciates humor. Oh, I’m not going to complain because I believe in free speech, even if it is impolite, but I don’t scare worth a damn.

Let’s admit it – on his last day in office the Shrubbery is going to sign pardons for everyone in White House, to prevent any action being taken against anyone for their criminal activities, but no before them.

The executive clemency rather than a pardon for Libby is to build a wall against investigations. If Libby had been pardoned he could have been hauled before Congress and required to testify about what really happened in the Plame case. Doing it this way, Libby can still refuse based on the Fifth Amendment, an option only available if you are Republican.

Libby can’t be pressured by Patrick Fitzgerald or Congress, because the “stick” of prison time is gone, he will lose some of his civil rights, and his law license, but those will be restored by the pardon he will get on Bush’s last day.

This whole thing has always been about protecting Karl and Dick. A pardon at this time would have weakened that protection, but clemency braces it. Libby just has to play the good soldier and he’s set for life. That’s the way things are done in crime families.

James Martin Capozzola was blogging for more than 5 years at The Rittenhouse Review and other venues, one of the Phillie bloggers. He was the definition of erudite.

He succumbed after a long illness complicated, as Susie Madrak notes, by a lack of health care and an accident.

His illness had silenced his blog for a while, but it was still a shock to learn of his death, following so closely on the death of Steve Gilliard.

Two powerful voices lost in so short a time.

The crew at Danger Room have a picture of Britain’s crack anti-terrorism response force in action at the Glasgow airport…well, okay, so they have a picture of the balding red-headed taxi driver in a jean jacket with a garden hose dousing the terrorist who dumped the fuel on the ground and lit himself up.

But, hey, if the cab driver and baggage handlers hadn’t jumped into action, I’m sure the UK’s crack anti-terrorism squad would have gone into action.

Update: Hipparchia at Over the Cliff, Onto the Rocks has more information comparing the administrative costs of the US and Canadian systems

Sue Sturgis at Facing South looks at Sicko South and reports on coverage in the southern states. I note that 24% of Texans and 20% of Floridians have no health insurance. Both states have large military presences and Florida is known for it’s Medicare-covered retirees, but they are the worst states in the South for insurance coverage.

Flying into a rage, which is difficult for a penguin, BadTux makes it quite obvious that he doesn’t like the current health care system or the the companies involved in health [or music]. Deservedly strong language for the greedy bastards [not that I have anything against non-greedy bastards] who think the world owes them a profit and jobs.

I’m going to add my bit by telling you something you probably don’t know.

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Juan Cole is part of a new group blog covering the Middle East: Informed Comment Global Affairs which will provide expanded coverage of the area by experts.

Update:

Some of the people who kept News Blog going have created a effort: Group News Blog.

Melissa and the crew are back in Shakesville after their short exile to their Blogger cabin during the fumigation.