graham's blog

Google Chrome OS

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:15:43 -0800

It works but slowly.

Definitely alpha level of development.

18,000 miles to Washington

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:17:23 -0800

Mike Shepard |Washington Post Staff Writer |November 20
Wapo - Paulo Roberto Vieira stumbled into the Brazilian consulate on L Street NW bedraggled, nearly broke and at the end of his rope.

Dressed in a battered black leather jacket and scuffed black jeans, he told consular officials an almost unbelievable story -- that he had just ridden his motorcycle from his home town in southern Brazil to Washington, a monumental, 18,000-mile quest for official recognition of his life's proudest work, a vehicle accessory he says he invented.

Vieira's arrival that day in late October ended an odyssey that wound through 11 countries , a startling demonstration of Washington's enduring power as a magnet for ordinary people who believe the answer to their prayers can be found in the capital of the free world.

Standing next to his Honda CG-150 Titan motorcycle on L Street several days later, Vieira, gaunt and visibly weary, recounted in his native Portuguese the improbable tale of his four-month journey. How he rode alone for more than 1,900 miles on mostly unpaved roads through the Brazilian Amazon, narrowly avoiding becoming lunch for one of the rain forest's most feared carnivores. How a delay in obtaining a U.S. visa forced him to traverse Mexico three times before finally crossing into Texas. How he hoped for sweet justice in the U.S. capital, perhaps even from the president himself.

"I decided to come here because Washington is where things get done," he said. "Barack Obama is already solving so many other problems, how much more trouble would it be for him to solve mine?"

cont @ Wapo

UK universal childrens day sees Atheist campaign on billboards

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:51:22 -0800

- Hey Preacher, Leave those kids alone.
This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards.

"Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a 'Marxist child' or an 'Anarchist child' or a 'Post-modernist child'. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. Guardian

Stop a moment and enjoy some spectacular photography

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:07:12 -0800

Extraordinary microscope images

Covering Mexico's cartel wars puts journalists in the line of fire

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:17:45 -0800

CNN - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 26 journalists have been killed since 2005 in Mexico -- most of them while covering the crime or corruption beats. By comparison, 10 journalists were killed in the same time period while covering the war in Afghanistan.

"Catastrophic Bush Fire Warning"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:54:58 -0800

For the second day in a row, the new bushfire warning system has been implemented down under.

The map shows all areas affected by the top three warning levels for Nov 20th - the first time I can recall seeing nearly 50% of Australia under immediate threat of bushfire, with almost 60% of the Aussie population living in that area. Night time temperature in Canberra today, Nov 19 is ~22C - the normal maximum November daytime temp. We are experiencing Jan/Feb daytime temps. It's going to be a long summer, and record high temps are likely to continue.

more - The heatwave is expected to extend to the weekend and early into next week, with afternoon showers providing little relief.

"suicide is painless"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:52:47 -0800

A familiar anthem to many. And an anthem that has permeated the armed forces possibly.
_______________________________________________________
ABC.net.au - The Pentagon has responded to the massacre at an army base in Texas by deciding to screen all United States defence services for staff who are unstable and potentially violent.

News of the urgent review broke as the Pentagon revealed that soldier suicides this year would set another record.

Last week, 13 people were killed at Fort Hood in Texas when an army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire.

Now the military has to satisfy itself that there are not other potentially dangerous service members who could repeat the gruesome massacre at Fort Hood somewhere else.

And more broadly, the Pentagon is examining how all the military services keep a watch on potential problems in their ranks.

The Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey, had announced his own internal investigation.

There were reports it would start with the Walter Reed military hospital, where alleged Fort Hood gunman army Major Nidal Hassan spent six years.

It would investigate how the military missed signs of Major Hassan's instability and potential violence.

But that investigation now looks as though it will include all defence services.

The massacre was to have been the subject of the Senate Homeland Security committee hearing on Thursday but the White House has refused to provide any government officials as witnesses.

The White House has also taken control of the congressional briefings on the massacre, with committee chairs all told briefings would be handled by the president's national Security Council due to the sensitive and high-profile nature of the case.

Mental illness, suicide
That case has also thrown a light on mental illness within the US military.

Today General Peter Chiarelli - the army vice chief of staff - released figures showing for the fifth year in a row suicides in the US army would set a new record.

"As of 16th November, the army has reported 140 active duty suicides, which is equivalent to our total in 2008 with a month and a half remaining in the year," he said.

Those statistics do not reveal the whole picture because they do not include figures on people after they have left the military.

A congressional research service report last year found that the real incidence of suicide among veterans simply is not known.

But based on figures from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Veterans Affairs estimated that 18 veterans a day - or 6,500 a year - take their lives.

General Chiarelli says the cause of the rising suicide rate among active service members is unknown.

About one-third of the suicides are among soldiers who have not been deployed to a combat zone.

"Over the past eight months, every suicide has been briefed to me," General Chiarelli said.

"And although we have made changes to army policy based on many of the lessons learned, we still haven't found any statistically significant causal linkage that would allow us to effectively predict human behaviour.

"The reality is, there is no simple answer. Each suicide case is as unique as the individuals themselves."

Preventing suicides
At the beginning of last month, the US army began what it called a comprehensive soldier fitness program.

In an era where US troops take multiple tours of duty with minimal breaks at home, Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum said there needed to be a greater emphasis on mental wellbeing.

"We have spent a lot of time historically on training physical fitness and technical excellence in the army, but not psychological fitness," she said.

"And all three are really essential in this era of persistent conflict."

Basic training now includes anti-stress programs as part of a broader effort to help soldiers deal with the after-effects of combat and prevent suicides.

A cultural question

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:47:40 -0800

I have been reading The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor written over half a century ago, and have been continually struck by Flannery's use of the word nigger in a matter of fact way with no apparent underlying hint of racial bigotry.

I grew up in Australia in the late '60's and '70's and was educated to understand that nigger was a racist term used by 'rednecks'.

Can any agonistas comment on my perception that nigger was a common term in the USA, and became increasingly understood as dis-respectful only in the past fifty years?

Tale of two Prejeans: Sex and death

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:58:44 -0800

The confused lifestyle of Carrie considered by Rebecca Hagelin, in the Washington Times who ponders the posting of explicit material on line

Young women, in particular, think that the sexier their sites, the better. Why on earth are they eager to post X-rated images? Three reasons: 1) They are simply copying the explicit media they see all around them, 2) They have no sense of personal modesty or decency, 3) They mistakenly view their sites and communications as personal diaries, of sorts.

The UK currently has a fascination with the US death penalty, perhaps due to Sr Helen Prejeans visit.
The Guardian has run a number of articles talking up the possibility of Texas going the UK way.

'Unfriend' is word of the year

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:41:06 -0800

abc.net.au - The New Oxford American Dictionary has named "unfriend" - as in deleting someone as a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook - its word of the year. Oxford University Press USA, in a blog post, said "unfriend," a verb, had bested netbook, sexting, paywall, birther and death panel for the honour.

"Unfriend has real lex-appeal," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's US dictionary program. "It has both currency and potential longevity. "In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for word of the year."

Hobbes in Hebrew

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:54:38 -0800

NYT - The first complete Hebrew-language edition of Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan” was published in Israel last month, and instantly became one of the 10 best-selling books in the country.
Five scholars ponder it's ongoing significance.

Bamboo

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:41:05 -0800

ChinaDaily - Growing up as a farmer's son, Lin Zuojun used to play hide-and-seek with his friends in the bamboo forest of Fujian province. Little did he know back then that he would one day make millions of yuan by selling those most common plants of the region.

Harvesting more than 1.6 million bamboo trees and 25,000 tons of bamboo shoots every year, his company, Asian Bamboo, is China's biggest bamboo producer today.

It is also one of the only three Chinese companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany - the third-largest stock exchange in the world.

"We just had a very successful capital increase where we sold all of our 1.275 million new shares to institutional investors in a very short period of time," Lin said in an interview with China Business Weekly. The proceeds of the new issue totaled 25.5 million euros.

This successful outcome is a reflection of the company's strong performance in the first six months of 2009. Revenues increased by 42 percent to 25.8 million euros. After taxes the profit was 13 million euros, an increase of 64 percent compared with the same period last year.

For the whole year, Lin expects the returns to reach 55 million euros and earnings 25 million euros.
cont @ link

Renouncing Islamism: To the brink and back again

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:35:36 -0800

Johann Hari writes:

Independent.co.uk - Ever since I started meeting jihadis, I have been struck by one thing – their Britishness. I am from the East End of London, and at some point in the past decade I became used to hearing a hoarse and angry whisper of jihadism on the streets where I live. Bearded young men stand outside the library calling for "The Rule of God" and "Death to Democracy".

In the mosques across the city, I hear a fringe of young men talk dreamily of flocking to Afghanistan to "resist". Yet this whisper never has an immigrant accent. It shares my pronunciations, my cultural references, and my national anthem. Beneath the beards and the burqas, there is an English voice.

{snip}

The Muslims who arrive here every day from Bangladesh, or India, or Somalia say they find the presence of British Islamists bizarre. They have come here to work and raise their children in stability and escape people like them. No: these Islamists are British-born. They make up 7 per cent of the British Muslim population, according to a Populous poll (with the other 93 percent of Muslims disagreeing). Ever since the 7/7 suicide bombings, carried out by young Englishmen against London, the British have been squinting at this minority of the minority and trying to figure out how we incubated a very English jihadism. continues @ link.

From the 'slick ashes of the European metrosexual'

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:55:44 -0800

WAPO"a cyclical return to old-fashioned cocktails and chandelier lighting and waistcoats -- that is nurturing a new brand of masculinity (rugged but elegant and old-world American)"

'Small beer' Blyton banned by BBC

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:16:52 -0800

BBC Children's author Enid Blyton was banned from the BBC for nearly 30 years because her work was considered "small beer", archive documents have revealed.

The best-selling writer unsuccessfully approached the corporation several times to get her material on the radio.

Executives considered the Famous Five and Noddy creator "second-rate" and lacking literary value, according to 18 newly released letters and memos.

She first pitched ideas in 1936 but did not appear on Woman's Hour until 1963.

A memo about a short story stated: "Not strong enough. It really is odd to think that this woman is a best-seller. It is all such very small beer."

Another simply said "reject".

Head of the BBC schools department Jean Sutcliffe said in an internal memo dated 1938: "My impression of her stories is that they might do for Children's Hour but certainly not for Schools Dept, they haven't much literary value.

"There is rather a lot of the Pinky-winky-Doodle-doodle Dum-dumm type of name - and lots of pixies - in the original tales."

She added that they were "competently written".

In August 1940, the BBC's radio show Children's Hour rejected her play The Monkey and the Barrel Organ, saying it was "stilted and long winded".

In 1950 programme head Derek McCulloch, known as Uncle Mac, confirmed the existence of the ban in a "strictly confidential and urgent" memo.

Ms Blyton was also clearly aware of it. In a memo to a BBC producer she wrote: "I and my stories are completely banned by the BBC as far as children are concerned - not one story has ever been broadcast, and, so it is said, not one ever will be."

In 1954, responding to a query from the Woman's Hour editor as to whether Blyton could be interviewed, Ms Sutcliffe said she was concerned that the BBC would become "just another victim of the amazing advertising campaign which has raised this competent and tenacious second-rater to such astronomical heights of success."

The corporation eventually decided her material was fit for broadcast and she appeared on Woman's Hour in 1963.

A new drama telling the life story of the author, starring Helena Bonham Carter, is to be broadcast on BBC Four at 2100 GMT on Monday.