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Also taken down: Bing travel and a number of other internet sites, for an updated list see kyle mulkas blog. cnet has the story here.

Sabbath eve. July 3, 2009

I’ve had several topics in mind—even went so far as to jot down a line or two in my notebook. Had I written this ahead of time it would have been about something else, but now I sit down with an open mind; another Sabbath eve approaches, and none of the shit I wanted to say seems to matter.

The heat was once again rough this week—the weatherman's numbers were slightly lower, but I can attest to what it felt like out in the sun—goddamned hot. Apparently so hot that a couple of elderly women in San Antonio died from heat stroke.

The USA in my childhood was the country putting Man on the Moon, and fighting alongside my schoolmates older brothers in Vietnam. Our cultural myopia, depending on imports from the UK and a ever-evolving domestic TV panorama (that in hindsight was just copies of succesful US shows), was shattered forever with the introduction of Sesame St and subsequently the Muppets:

Speaking of evolution, an intriguing side by side comparision of some drafts and the final Declaration of Independence of these United Statef of America.

Of course US movies, MASH, Beverly Hillbillies, Days of Our Lives and General Hospital created stereotypical Americans in many Australian eyes, and we could snigger along with Monty Python "Shut up, you American. You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you say, "let me tell you something" and "I just want to say this"... well, you're dead now, so shut up". Yet we and many others around the world became American on 12/9 waking up to the carnage that had happened during our night-time in Australia. However, many Canberrans were less than impressed when your last president ordained that a jet fighter would loop above the suburbs all night, whilst he slept!

TV shows, movies and stereotypes aside, it's been a real pleasure learning from the real Americans here at the Agonist: my world view and understanding has been greatly amplified. Thank y'all and have a great holiday weekend!

Jeff Rubin interviewed by Jim Puplava at Financial Sense. Audio at the link. From the web-page:

What do subprime mortgages, Atlantic salmon dinners, SUVs and globalization have in common?

They all depend on cheap oil. And in a world of dwindling oil supplies and steadily mounting demand around the world, there is no such thing as cheap oil. Oil might be less expensive in the middle of a recession, but it will never be cheap again.

Take away cheap oil, and the global economy is getting the shock of its life...

The Star reports from OTTAWA– They are professional journalists. They give voice to terrorists. They are vital to democracy. They suppress it. They are Al Jazeera English and they are hoping to come to a television near you.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission received public comments that varied from strongly in favour to outrageously against an application to allow the Qatar-based broadcaster to air in the country.

Thanks everyone who posted news while I was under the weather, it was greatly appreciated!! I'm off to Wisconsin and the U.P. for a week. YaY!! As always if you see something interesting or just want to discuss something, a news post or a diary is just a click away. Don't be shy. See you next week :)

Tina

Michael Day | Milan | July 2

The Independent -

A self-portrait by the Renaissance genius Michelangelo has been discovered in his final painting, the Crucifixion of Saint Peter in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel, it emerged last night.

Maurizio De Luca, the Vatican's head of paintings restoration, said the finding, possibly the only clear Michelangelo self-portrait in existence, was "extraordinary and moving", and was given extra poignancy by appearing in the artist's last painted work.

The figure identified as the artist is one of three horsemen in the picture. Michelangelo is depicted wearing a blue turban of lapis lazuli blue. (click pic to enlarge)

has been raising hell lately. Tuesday, he called out Dennis Kneale from CNBC for saying the recession is over.

And today, he accused Government Sachs of manipulating the stock market.

If Denninger is right, sooner or later people are going to figure this out and the second leg of the collapse will begin.

ps.

Denninger has gone beyond bitching. Tuesday, he issued this challenge. In its entirety. Somehow I don't think Karl will care:

News Limited chief executive John Hartigan in Canberra that the newspaper business had to adapt, but would survive.

Washington | July 1

AFP - A North Korean ship tracked by the US Navy and suspected of transporting weapons or military know-how in violation of UN sanctions has turned around, a Pentagon official said.

The official declined to provide details, including where the Kang Nam 1 ship -- reportedly originally bound for Myanmar -- could now be headed, but news reports out of South Korea suggested the ship may be returning home two weeks after it set sail June 17.

PA - An ice cream advert which showed a priest and a nun in a "seductive pose" has been banned after readers complained that it was offensive, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has said.

Antonio Federici said the promotional material, which appeared in two magazines, was intended to portray the "forbidden Italian temptations" that its Gelato Italiano ice cream represented.

But the ASA announced that the complaints had been upheld and banned the advert from future use.

The company said its advert was intended as a "light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek portrayal".

But 10 people complained to the ASA that the suggestion of a kiss between a priest and a nun was offensive. They said it was demeaning to people who followed a "religious vocation".

"The ad played on the theme of giving into temptation but stopped short of showing the nun and priest kissing," the ASA said. "The ad stated 'kiss temptation' and the two were portrayed in a seductive pose, as if they were about to kiss passionately.

Disclosure: I'm proud to be working with the The Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of GM & Chrysler.

Today GM's final bankruptcy hearing will determine whether or not they accept liability for harm caused to consumers by defective GM cars built before the "re-launch of GM".

All indications point to no. In response to pressure from consumers, "New GM" has agreed to cover future liabilities from cars built before the bankruptcy ("Old GM"). But they are still walking away from pending liabilities for accidents that have already happened, leaving thousands of victims without recourse.

From the Car Gurus blog:

As part of GM's bankruptcy filing, it's possible it will no longer be liable for injuries or deaths caused by vehicles built by the "old GM." Our friends at Autoblog reported that GM may be reconsidering, but Chrysler set a precedent earlier this month when they emerged from bankruptcy free from such liabilities.

So if you're driving around in an `06 Cherokee or a `94 Lumina, and it suddenly bursts into flames, the folks at Chrysler can just let out a sigh of relief knowing the third-degree burns their vehicle gave you are not their responsibility. Awesome, huh?

News like this doesn't exactly instill the kind of trust GM and Chrysler so desperately need. Why are we supposed to believe that the "new" GM will be run any differently than the old, considering most of the top execs are still in place? At least Chrysler has the advantage of an all-new CEO and top management team.

Multiple state Attorneys General are opposing these provisions in the GM deal:

Attorneys general from Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and Vermont filed an objection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York Friday.

Rep. Andre Carson is pushing a bill to force GM, Chrysler to cover future and current liability claims:

Four years after a traffic accident nearly killed him, Jeremy Warriner was just days away from his court date. Jeremy was set to argue that a faulty brake fluid container on his 2005 Jeep Wrangler broke and sparked a fire after the vehicle's impact--a fire that left Jeremy with severe burns and forced doctors to amputate both of his legs.

When Chrysler filed bankruptcy in April, Jeremy's mediation date was cancelled and his case has now been grouped with a number of other pending claims--likely never to see any payout due to the agreement struck in the bankruptcy court earlier this month. The court has absolved "New Chrysler," which emerged from bankruptcy, from any liability for future claims related to vehicles made before the creation of the new company.

To help Jeremy and thousands of future crash victims have their day in court, Congressman André Carson has filed the "Jeremy Warriner Consumer Protection Act," a bill that would require the newly-restructured GM and Chrysler to carry liability insurance and force the carmakers to cover claims made against them for any defective products produced by their predecessor company.

Regardless of what happens at the hearing today, the victims and consumer rights advocates won't be going away. There will be rallies this week protesting Chrysler in San Francisco, more on that as I have details.

Now it's Rick Astleys turn, rickroll morbid style. An apparently fake report posted on cnni with attribution to Liz Sidoti of AP(who more likely to report an accurate story) got legs and from Malaysia soon set the twittersphere a tweeting.

From the infamous 2007 rickroll to the clever and brilliantly executed antispore website of 2008, Rick has been up there high in the netz most popular takedowns. But fake death reports now seem the latest game.

I've been thinking about redemption of late. As in, is there any for this despicable race of creatures we belong to?

I choose to believe so. Of course there is. There has to be. And then I look at a fossil and wonder:

Reckon there's dinosaurs in heaven?

A front page link on yahoo to the grey lady, drove over 9 million page views, but the NYT advertising links are not driven by real time activity, so the NYT missed out on some considerable $. Wanna know more.

June 27, 2009

AHMADINEJAD WON INDEED AND THE REAL SOURCE OF INTERFERENCE IN IRAN’S ELECTION IS LIKELY THE UNITED STATES

John Chuckman

A recent article called “Ahmadinejad Won, Get Over It” by Flynt and Hillary Leverett is not the only source with serious credentials offering reasonable, non-sensational explanations for events around Iran’s presidential election.

Kaveh Afrasiabi, a scholar who once taught at Tehran University and is the author of several books, says many of the same things.

Close analysis of the election results gives absolutely no objective basis for making charges of a rigged election. Mousavi’s expected win – expected, that is, by the Western press and by Mousavi himself - never had any basis in fact.

comfy couch | June 27

Well actually there is but I feel like dirt and just don't have the energy or interest to post any. So if you see something interesting or breaking please post it. :)

Sabbath eve, June 26, 2009

Today marks the 16 year anniversary of my marriage to Leah. I feel fortunate to have such an intelligent and loyal woman for a partner and a soul mate. I’m also really cognizant of the fact that many others can't, for whatever reason, make such a statement.

As I write I’m listening to Charlie Robison’s brand new release, Beautiful Day. Charlie is recently divorced from Emily Robison of Dixie Chicks fame and the album is colored by his experience. Despite the sad nature of some of the songs, it’s an extremely good CD.

I love that whole phenomena. Or, more properly, pseudo-phenomena. It tells us so much about ourselves. It illustrates what we are up against in trying to craft a rational human society, and it does so without trespassing onto an area of actual importance with a constituency. So it can - I hope - be discussed without rancor.

Famous people die like regular people die: as individuals, and less often in groups, in a random distribution. As anyone who has tried to buy life insurance knows, the odds of dying are based on your health (hence, the physical exam for life insurance), your family history, and your age. But as to the timing of each person's death - for most of our lives we don't know when Atropos will snip our thread.

continue reading after the jump

"Look What You Made Me Do"

Caesar, Hitler, Nixon - War, Racism, Hatred - Alcohol, Mysogyny, Conformity

Seamless trinities...
One needn't ever drink a drop of alcohol to serve in it's churches...
Just as one needn't ever hit women to perpetuate ever worse to them...
Or as one needn't necessarily exit conventional reality to reject the convention.

Seamless subjects. Addiction: money, ego, power, sex, drugs, food, adrenalin, violence, drugs, fear, hatred, guns, vanity, games, the very creative imperative itself -addiction alone makes an endless daisy chain of seamlessly related subjects. They continue on through Blame and Guilt, and Control. Subjects of enthrallment, helpless captivity. It's a necessary convenience to limit the moment's topic. In such isolation, the seamlessness of the chain is not a foregone understanding though, not at all, quite the opposite. It is not a given understanding that to talk of one is to talk of 'them' all... As it should be; that isn't necessarily true, or false.

with Warren Buffet. Zhao Danyang, the hedge fund manager who paid more than $2.11 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett, said he owed his firm’s 600 percent return over the past six years to lessons he learned from the Oracle of Omaha. He had lunch with the Buffet yesterday.

What will this years harsher economic climate see the bidding reach?

It's been another hard fortnight, personal and global tragedies, so let's have a good news thread!

The quote heading this blog post is one of many quotes that travellers on London's underground will be hearing instead of the monotone "This train is full. Next station is King's Cross St. Pancras" automated announcements of the past.

Fans of the UK internationally popular motoring show Top Gear, have been delighted to learn that Michael Schumacher is the STIG! USA beats Spain in confederations cup, meanwhile Pakistan is celebrating a cricketing win.

David Akin | June 25

Canwest -
'Stem rust' could wipe out 80% of world's crop.

Scientists in Canada and around the world are racing to find a way to stop a destructive fungus that threatens to wipe out 80 per cent of the world's wheat crop, causing widespread famine and pushing the cost of such staples as bread and pasta through the roof.

Canadian officials say the airborne fungus, which is known as Ug99, has so far proved unstoppable, making its way out of eastern Africa and into the Middle East and Central Asia.

The fungus is now threatening areas that account for more than one-third of the world's wheat production, and scientists in North America say it's only a matter of time before the pest hits the breadbasket regions of North America, Russia and China.

Tom Doggett | WASHINGTON | June 24

Reuters - Green group asks U.S. to bar Canada oil sands
Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:53pm EDT

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An environmental group on Wednesday asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to deny permits for pipelines that would bring oil from Canada's oil sands to the United States.

ForestEthics said production from Canadian oil sands, also known as tar sands, generates up to five times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil. It said this conflicts with President Obama's pledge to tackle global warming.

Since the horrible death of Elvis Presley in 1977, one man has shouldered the burden of embodying America's psychic rot: Michael Jackson.

From Margo Jefferson's "On Michael Jackson:"

"But who is Michael Jackson's double? Is it the brown-skinned self we can no longer see except in the old photos and videos? Is he a good man or a predator? Child protector or pedophile? A damaged genius or a scheming celebrity trying to hold on to his fame at any cost? A child star afraid of aging or a psychotic freak/pervert/sociopath? What if the 'or' is an 'and'? What if he is all of these things?"

More from the NYT Review of Jefferson's book:

Take a sensitive, talented child and put him into the high-pressure, high-abuse situation Mr. Jackson was born into. Disaster was inevitable. The particular form it took? As we all know, Michael has found his own special way to be crazy in public.

The man literally melted in public.

I'm deleting the rest of the crap I wrote in the post in favor of this essay by Bob Lefsetz:

He missed his childhood and now he’s gonna miss his old age.

How fucked up is that?

Michael Jackson never had a chance. He had to succeed for his family, his parents’ dreams were dependent upon him.

And a boy with that much pressure delivers. He works truly hard, so he will be loved. That’s all Michael Jackson was looking for, love.
...

He was a faded child star. Then, suddenly, he released a dance floor epic. When disco was supposedly dead, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones concocted a synthesis of rock and beats that could not be denied. Few were paying attention when "Off The Wall" was released. But over the course of two years, word spread. This was an album that could be played endlessly, that made you feel exuberant, totally alive. We didn’t stop listening because we could never get enough.

...

There was another album with Q, but it was a step down. There’s nowhere to go from the top but down. But Michael Jackson couldn’t accept this. Everything had to be bigger and better. A musician’s career can last forever. But to have those legs, you’ve got to have perspective. Existing at the center of the hurricane, unable to step outside the maelstrom, means that you have no frame of reference.

Not that you can’t buy one. Or that hucksters and shysters don’t try to give you one. You trust everyone but know you can trust no one. You’re a party of one. What means so much to everybody else means almost nothing to you. You don’t want to give up your money and fame, but they don’t buy you peace of mind, they don’t buy you love, they don’t keep you warm at night.

It’s been a sad movie that’s been unspooling. We can delineate the low points. But let’s just say it started with plastic surgery and it ended with court cases. Michael Jackson just didn’t think he was good enough. And when he tried to explain, when he showed up in court in his pajamas, we didn’t want to listen, we didn’t want to give him a break, we just wanted to make fun of him, deride him.

Michael Jackson was an entertainer until the very end.

It’s just that his latest gigs were not inside theatres, but played out on "investigative" television shows and gossip Websites. Everybody was living off Michael Jackson. He gave good ratings. He rescued the hoi polloi from a life of drudgery.

Read the whole thing.

Some videos in the full entry.