Thanks for the Memories
January 30, 2004Thanks for the memories – a flash movie of Saddam’s involvement with the CIA. A good history of Iraq I recommend is Tariq Ali’s book Bush in Babylon. It gives a detailed review of the history of Iraqi populist struggles against imposed regimes, situating the current conflict and the insurgent movement as yet another chapter…
Vegan Boots
January 29, 2004Being vegan, when I finally retired a pair of 8 year old Doc Martens, I was on the lookout for an alternative to leather. Materials science has progressed to the point that we no longer need to use animals for our clothing needs. Neither do we need petrochemicals for plastics; Henry Ford built a plastic…
Plants that detect landmines
January 29, 2004Wired has an article on a fascinating approach to landmine detection. The plant is genetically modified to react to nitrogen dioxide emitted into the soil by immediate vicinity landmines, thereby indicating their location. Hopefully such an approach lives up to it’s promise. This would not seem to address unexploded cluster bombs, which unlike landmines, are…
Hunt for Bin Laden to restart
January 29, 2004The Chicago Sun Herald has a story on plans for the U.S. military, mainly special forces, to pursue Bin Laden into Pakistan. The main fear is the assassination of Musharef, with the two attempts blamed on Al Qaida. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that he’s been left alone for two years…
Outsourcing, Monopolisation, Stagnation
January 27, 2004U.S. technology pundits, analysts and political commentators have understandably lamented the outsourcing issue, that is, the rapid transfer of technology jobs to countries such as China and India. As Robert Cringley noted, the technology industry was the last U.S. industry left that had trade surpluses. If this industry does truly transfer it’s main centre of…
My, there are many bugs in the system…
January 23, 2004Clearly bugs are the toys d’annee for the Bush administration. First it (using the National Security Agency) partakes in bugging the offices and homes of diplomats of six undecided countries on the U.N security council as it was trying to push through it’s illegal invasion of Iraq. When Katherine Gun blew the whistle on this,…
Bush-house demonstrates impressive consistency of opinion
January 23, 2004After Iran announced they would be putting several Al Qaeda suspects on trial, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: “We want to see action, and the action we want to see is that they turn over those al Qaeda members in their custody to their country of origin.”
Mad cow disease infecting humans in the U.S.A more than recognised?
January 23, 2004A very well researched, referenced and written article by an M.D., Michael Greger, on the argument that sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease could be the result of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) transfer similar to variant CJD, which is known to be caused by BSE infection. Sporadic CJD is much more wide-spread than the variant form, with many…
Even the U.S. military thinks Guantanamo Bay detainees trials are unfair
January 23, 2004Major Michael Mori, the U.S. military counsel for the Australian alleged Taliban David Hicks has stated that his trial is unfair: “Using the commission process just creates an unfair system that threatens to convict the innocent and provides the guilty a justifiable complaint as to their convictions”.