Kuro5hin has compiled a list of 50 anomalies surrounding the execution of Nick Berg, many of which seem to suggest the videotaped killing was fake, or at least not what it appears to be at face value. I won't go into whether I think these discrepancies are valid or not, because many of the items seem to be vague or unproveable; in any case, I really don't want to watch the footage again. I'll let the reader decide, and see how this all shakes out.

---

  Galois has a superb post countering Yahoo! News op-ed columnist Maggie Gallagher's recent comments stating that same-sex marriage is "the triumph of the most radical ideas of the sexual revolution: that gender doesn't matter, children are secondary, [and] expressing your authentic sexual self is more important than, well, practically anything else." From Galois:

"I want to note how surprised I was that somebody would consider gay marriage a triumph of the sexual revolution. When I think sexual revolution I think sex outside of marriage, casual sex with multiple partners, in short sex without responsibility. Gay marriage seems to me to be the opposite of that. It is about getting married, being monogamous, and putting sex within a larger framework of obligations and responsibility. I'm amazed that someone would call people seeking to marry sexual revolutionaries."

The post then powerfully debunks Gallagher's other "points" as well, with this central clear note:

"I do not see gay marriage as a triumph for the ideas of the sexual revolution, or even for the ideas Gallagher associates with the sexual revolution. Rather I see it as a triumph for the ideas of the American Revolution: that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Bravo. And to the couples making history today in Massachusetts, felicitations - and let freedom ring!

---

  At 5' 3", I generally don't worry about fitting into showers or having my legs dangling off hotel beds - but for that segment of the population classifed as "tall" (women over 5' 9" and men over 6' 2"), ordinary tasks like flying on a plane, renting a car or getting a hotel room can be a longstanding problem. Six-foot-nine publisher Everard Strong decided to do something about it - he founded a magazine called TALL. From CNN:

"[TALL] is something that's been on my mind for four or five years. I've been involved in magazine publishing for eight or nine years. I love the industry and was always wondering and hoping some publication would come to serve the tall community," he said. "So I decided to combine my interests," Strong said. "There are a lot of products and services. We're not short on any material in the immediate future." [Ha, ha, ha. - Ed.]

Nor does there appear to be a shortage of potential readers. [What's with the "short" puns, CNN? - Ed.] Average U.S. heights have been gradually creeping up for decades, a trend seen in many parts of the world. There are now 8.8 million men over 6-feet 2-inches and 5.5 million women over 5-feet 9-inches in the United States.

The May issue features 6' 5" cover man Ron Perlman, the star of The Name of the Rose, TV's Beauty and the Beast, and most recently, Hellboy. According to the TALL media kit [PDF file], of the magazine's typical reader:

He’s one of the over 12.3 million* American men 6’2” or taller. He is college educated, single, with income above $48,000. His average shoe size is 12.5. He is looking for longer beds, taller bicycles, cars that he can fit in, tools that fit his hands, office chairs, solutions to his back aches, and quality clothing.

She’s one of the 7.5 million* American women who are 5’9” or taller. She is college educated, single, with income above $40,000. She wants clothes that fit her and are in style. She likes to shop by catalog. She wants to be made to feel good.

Did you notice that both the tall men and women are listed as being "single"? Maybe height isn't the automatic path to marital bliss, but tall people earning more money just because they're tall? A widely-circulated article came out about two years ago that showed (other factors considered) tall people earned considerably more throughout their lifetimes than short or average-height people, but there was an interesting twist. From Slate:

So, what's the deal? Why do the tall tower over the short in more than just physical stature? Does height breed respect, so that tall people get showered with riches? Or does height breed self-esteem, so that tall people are more likely to assert themselves? In other words, do tall people succeed because of how others see them, or do tall people succeed because of how they see themselves? That sounds like the kind of question you could argue for years and never settle, but three clever economists have gone ahead and settled it. Their names are Nicola Persico, Andy Postlewaite (formerly a professor here at Northwestern University) and Dan Silverman of the University of Pennsylvania, and they've uncovered a key bit of evidence: Tall men who were short in high school earn like short men, while short men who were tall in high school earn like tall men.

"Short men who were tall in high school"? Did they shrink? I know that some men (like some women) lose height with age because of spinal changes or osteoporosis, but I wonder if the authors are also referring to men whose height was considered "tall" back when they were in high school, but which is now considered "average" in light of the past few generations' "height inflation." The March 2004 full text of the paper, "The Effect of Adolescent Experience on Labor Market Outcomes: The Case of Height" is linked here as a PDF file.

---

  Most blogs posting about the Nick Berg execution video have gotten their share of hits from people searching for the grisly footage, and farkleberries is no exception. Frankly, it's a startling number: a look through my stats showed that over three-fourths of the hits since Wednesday afternoon have come through some permutation of the search terms "Nick+Berg+execution+beheading+live+video." These visitors don't stay long, because I don't actually have the Nick Berg execution video for their perusal. C'est la vie.

A Daily Kos May 11th posting (mysteriously fallen off the radar) included a link to a website offering the full online video of Nick Berg's execution and had a similar effect – the author mentions that the average number of hits at Daily Kos skyrocketed from 6,000 a day to 15,000. One person (of dozens) commenting on that post stated something to the effect of - and this is not an exact quote, because I can't find the page today - "I won't dignify this kind of pornography [the execution video] that's out there for the pleasure of the sickos in our society."

Before clicking the fated link, I thought for a long while. I will not post the address of the link here - because, sadly, the site it was hosted on is – literally - pornographic. It's one of those hardcore fetish sites, and it disturbs me that whoever owns this site felt compelled to include Nick Berg's excruciating last moments along with video of "extreme kink," which while abhorrent to many, is still for the most part made by willing partcipants, and intended to provide pleasure in its own way. Alongside the scatological videos the abovementioned site offers, the Berg footage is an anomaly - or an acid test. Anyone who actually finds pleasure in seeing real footage of a manacled man having his head cut off with a knife isn't a mere S&M fan - they're a psychopath, in my book.

The decision to watch, or not to watch reminded me of Morpheus' proffering of the "blue pill" and the "red pill" to Neo in The Matrix – you make a choice, and your awareness of reality will change from that point onward. "What will it be? Blue? Or Red?" An awareness one gains with time is that sights can not be un-seen, sounds never un-heard; the luxury of casual forgetfulness doesn't apply when seeing the world’s first globally-distributed snuff film. Clicking the link would be a pill I couldn't un-swallow.

I wouldn’t call myself a sicko, and probably neither would most people seeking to watch the video. Although this is the worst kind of 'must-see TV,' human nature and curiosity compels us to watch it. Biblical scripture says doubting Thomas had to touch Christ's bleeding side to see if the spear wound was real. In the end, I decided to click.

The video is no work of art. Jumping and lurching wildly like a leering fanatic at times, the camera's video stream froze fortuitously as it zoomed in on Nick's face, just as his throat was about to be cut. The worst part was Nick's screaming.

I didn't click again to restart the video stream.

For several hours afterward, I felt a lingering sense of sadness I couldn't quite place my finger on. Later, it dawned on me that I had just witnessed one of those ugly history-making moments that define an era. Some nations did actually air every bloody moment of Nick Berg's slaughter on their news programming, but this event marks the first time that easy access to high-speed Internet transmission of digitized video has allowed this type of content to transcend borders and spread across the globe like a virus in a matter of hours.

Revolution often comes unbidden and bloody, and almost always from outside official channels.

It also occurred to me that on September 11th, 2001, millions had watched a snuff film over and over again on television screens…we just didn't think of it as such at the time. What else can we call footage of thousands of human beings crushed to death in thundering twin cascades of concrete and steel? I suppose if the death is filmed by an uninvolved party, it’s "news footage" – however, if the party that records the event is involved in its execution, it's "snuff."

Clearly, I'm not looking forward to the next step in this "revolutionary" brinksmanship. Answering outrage with outrage, and atrocity with atrocity isn't a path, it's a trap - because a spiral only goes 'round and round, and further down. This horror will be likely be 2004's standout event, but unfortunately the year is still young.

I've written more on the media implications of this incident at Mutinous Winds.

---

  This fellow, Tim Mendelsohn, sounds like he'd have a blast at the University of Chicago. He's an Oxford student with an interesting viewpoint on the rarefied world of world-class academic socializing:

University is meant to be the best time of one's life. If this truly is as good as it will ever get, it's time to eviscerate those arteries, kiddies. Foetid, synapse-devouring drinks line tables, decanted into plastic cups by the entz reps, glowing all the while like Chernobyl overspill. Ever wonder why you seem to espy so many misshapen and ghoulish human things lurking and gibbering in gloomy corners of the room? Years of exposure to this Oxford home brew and not enough sunlight are the problem. Yes, it's the scientists coming out to play.

---

  A great post from Positive Liberty, a blog by: "Jason Kuznicki...a history grad student in a same-sex marriage. He blogs on culture, religion, and politics from a classical liberal perspective. Interests include pluralism, gay issues, history, food, and the war on drugs. Short fiction breaks the monotony--or perhaps increases it.", "A Dystopian Definiton" [via Alas, A Blog].

Caveat: do read the whole post before you make up your mind about it. Update: Jason's getting plenty of traffic from this one, and good for him - PL is a very good read, and I hope he gets more widely linked.

---

  The University of Chicago may be known for some spectacular academic achievements, like the first atomic reaction, armloads of Nobel Prizes and more gargoyles than any other American campus (well, at least it seems like there are). However, all this brainpower comes with a price: a few folks around here are pretty much certifiable. Brilliant - but nuts. Case in point? The legendary annual Scavenger Hunt:

Last Sunday, an awed crowd of students and cameramen from NBC5 [NOTE: Not Plattsburgh, NY's NBC5. Chicago's NBC5.] in Ida Noyes watched in anticipation as Phil Caruso, a first-year in the College and Rickert House resident, completed item #8 on the Scav Hunt list for the Max Palevsky team.

Caruso took out from a package his umbilical cord, which his mother had sent to him, stuffed it into a Twinkie, and without hesitation ate it.

"Nobody ever had to persuade him; it was all volunteer," said Alan Mardingly, a second-year in the College and Co-Captain of the Max Palevsky team (Phoenix, Bitch). "My hat is off to him." [Scav Hunt team] Phoenix, Bitch gained 96 points with Caruso's stunt.

I suppose it's telling that Caruso's mom actually saved his umbilical cord for the past two decades, and having done so, willingly sent it to him...to eat. I can picture the conversation:

Caruso: "Hi, mom. Remember that umbilical cord of mine you were saving?"
Mama Caruso (misty-eyed from recollection): "Of course, honey...I was in labor for 2 whole days with you, and I wanted to remember that moment for all eternity. It's even got that cute little clamp still on it."
Caruso: "Would you mind sending me the cord here at college?"
Mama Caruso: "Well...okay, honey. But why?"
Caruso: "I need to eat it for the annual Scavenger Hunt."
Mama Caruso: "Oh, all right...but it may be a little stale after these past 18 years. Might need some seasoning."

Whatta mom! Crescat Scientia, Vita Excolatur indeed. As SillyLibra would say..."and now, off to lunch."

---

  I have to say I like the changes Blogger™ has made with the unveiling of their new interface and templates - it's a little more MT-ish in appearance and function, although not quite as manipulable (is that a word? Manipulatable? Save a syllable when you can.). The new built-in templates are quite attractive, as are the newly-added "Recent Posts" and commenting functions...hmm...remember I had posted a code for Blogger Recent Posts a few months back? Feh.

---

  Can't get enough farkleberries (ha, ha)? Read more at Mutinous Winds, discussing a recent RAND Corporation report that shows the US administration's post-9/11 shutdown of over 600 databases and websites was a useless measure of censorship, and on RadioActive! - where I talk about some of the controversy surrounding mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for nuclear reactors in the light of Japan's announcement of their proposed launch of the country's third MOX-burning power plant.

---

  From the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, and now the reported Al-Qaeda revenge execution of an American contractor, I'm speechless. All I can say is...WAFM.

Today's Guardian UK [via Daily Kos] reports a video has been released on a militant Islamic website that appears to show the beheading execution of an American. These are the chilling last words of a doomed man:

"My name is Nick Berg, my father's name is Michael, my mother's name is Susan...I have a brother and sister, David and Sarah. I live in...Philadelphia."

After reading a statement, the [captors] were seen pulling the man to his side and putting a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" - "God is great." They then held the head out before the camera.

[A captor speaks] "So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins...slaughtered in this way."

Is it real, or is it computer doctored? I doubt it's the latter. And the circle goes 'round and 'round...and it's painfully obvious we're not the civilized world we often like to think we are.

* What A F__king Mess. I think I may be saying that a few more times before this is all over.

---

  Wow. Someone actually came to farkleberries by performing a search for "University of Maryland Cicada Cookbook" on Yahoo™. Cool.

---

  Will dentures become obsolete? The BBC reports (via SlashDot) that UK scientists are discovering a way to grow replacement teeth using human stem cells:

Scientists at King's College London have been awarded £500,000 to help them develop human teeth from stem cells.

The company Odontis, set up by the college, hopes to develop its research for tests on humans within two years after successful research on mice. Stem cells, the so-called master cells, would be programmed to develop into teeth and then transplanted into the patient's jaw where the gap is. It is thought it would then take two months for the tooth to fully develop. [...] The cost [of the procedure] should not be more than the price of synthetic implants of between £1,500 - £2,000.

If you read some of the SlashDot-posted comments, you'll get a feeling for the mixed emotions surrounding this type of technology, since current stem-cell research focuses mainly on fetal stem cells. I have the feeling that people opposed to abortion and fetal stem cell research aren't likely to cotton the idea of adults employing fetal cells to regrow teeth they should have taken better care of in the first place...but that's a different discussion altogether. I'll save it for another time.

Anyhow, I have this funny feeling that the procedure would eventually cost a lot more here in the U.S. - the BBC article doesn't mention whether the quoted cost would be per tooth, or for a full set of replacements.

---

  You just never know what gems you'll find by browsing Blogger's "recently updated" links. Today, I found this one: Gay Mormon Dad's author David cogently and compassionately publishes his thoughts on life, law, faith and fatherhood from what must surely be a difficult place to stand; a position between integrity to one's paths of love and faith that forces many people to choose between one or the other. GMD follows the media closely, and his thoughts on topics ranging from Log Cabin Republicans to same-sex marriage and parenting are first-person eye-openers.

---

  Last night's edition of ABC Nightline, banned from several Sinclair Broadcasting Group stations, I thought was in the end as neutral a memorial recitation of the war dead as anchor Ted Koppel promised. As advertised, the entirely score-free half hour show consisted of Koppel reading over 700 names over a static backdrop, with two alternating photos showing the deceased (mainly pictures in uniform, some in mufti, some had no photos - an image of flag-draped caskets was substituted) with the serviceperson's rank and age superimposed below.

Was it political? Perhaps. But if it was, the political intent was overshadowed by the unspoken realization that each man or woman killed in the line of duty left behind a hole in many others' lives: they left behind spouses, lovers, children, siblings, relatives, friends and neighbors. The value judgement of war each viewer takes away is personal and conscience-driven - is the war too expensive, or is it worth the cost? That's not an answer any television program - or corporate position statement - can provide.

If nothing else, the Nightline photos reminded us that the cost of war is not a blank check, not a credit tab, but rather a bill payable immediately in liquid human currency. As parents teach their children the value of a dollar and wise spending, we need to know the value of a human soldier's life, and not spend it in vain.

---

  The 17-Year Cicadas - locusts - are set to burst out of the ground by the millions in many US states, which will no doubt convince some folks that the Apocalypse is nigh. However, as NPR reports, the cicadas are not only loud and frightening...they're also pretty darn tasty:

Soft-Shelled Cicadas

1 cup Worcestershire sauce
60 freshly emerged 17-year cicadas
4 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
Salt and pepper to season the flour
1 cup corn oil or slightly salted butter

Directions:

Marinate cicadas alive in a sealed container in Worcestershire sauce for several hours. (Note: You can skip this step and go directly to the egg step instead.) Dip them in the beaten egg, roll them in the seasoned flour and then gently sauté until they are golden brown.

Mmm. Maybe I'll try the El Chirper Tacos. Want a wealth of bug dishes? Check out the University of Maryland's "Cicada-licious Cookbook" [PDF file].

And to think I Dreamt of Bugwiches only a few short months ago.

---

  My friend Daphne just tipped me to the new streaming Los Angeles radio station INDIE 103.1 - high quality audio, very cool music here (WMP needed). Their bag is new and classic alternative rock - right up my alley! My first click on, Morrissey was on deck, followed by Modest Mouse, Toots and No Doubt and the Cure. When you access the stream, a pop-up player shaped like a vintage Fender amp appears, displaying dynamic artist and title info. Then - oh, boy - The Clash's long lost "Hitsville UK", and The Killers' "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine"!!

I may just get excited about radio again!

---

  Ted Koppel spoke this morning with departing National Public Radio host Bob Edwards, regarding critics' allegations that tonight's controversial edition of ABC Nightline - consisting of readings of more than 700 names as photographs and captions with the ages and hometowns of the dead appear on the screen - is a politically motivated anti-war ratings stunt.

Maryland based Sinclair Broadcasting is pre-empting the show on a number of TV stations, stating that it "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq."

[read full post on Mutinous Winds]

---

  A great idea, seen on A Burst of Light:

To commemorate the end of National Poetry Month, blog about your favorite poem and provide at least one link to other poems and/or a bio of the poet.

Okay, here goes! One of my all-time fave bards is Rod McKuen, because of the way he captured that enigmatic cinematic Gauloises-on-Stanyan-Street rumpled-sheets-on-a-rainy-day vibe...yeah. He also wrote the lyrics to "Seasons in the Sun" (made into that iconic cheeseball 70's anthem by Terry Jacks), which always made me cry as a kid.

The Storm / Fourteen
How can we be sure of anything
the tide changes.
The wind that made the grain wave gently yesterday
blows down the trees tomorrow.
And the sea sends sailors crashing on the rocks,
as easily as it guides them safely home.
I love the sea
but it doesn't make me less afraid of it.
I love you
but I'm not always sure of what you are
and how you feel.

I'd like to crawl behind your eyes
and see me the way you do
or climb through your mouth
and sit on every word that comes up through your throat.

Maybe I could be sure then
maybe I could know.
As it is I hide beneath your frowns
or worry when you laugh too loud.
Always sure a storm is rising.

-- Rod McKuen, Listen to the Warm (© 1967 Random House)

I like this poem because in its few lines it crystallizes the existential aloneness and unpredictability of human life, even in the intimate context of love. A very telling piece.

As for link to some other poetry - I can recommend some bloggers-cum-poets I really enjoy: Makura No Soshi - A Woman Who Loves Insects, Dragonflypurity at My Complex Simplicity, and Erika at Snazzykat.

And finally, from Digresso, the Writing Instructor's poem generator [via feministe],

concrete rhetoric

black adverb entombs social construction
it was troped and silently metonymized
waxing radioactive and still
the only burning rhetoric was the eye-
grey remembrance of themes past when wolf howls
concrete epistemology silently toward black identity
now, concrete chickens by the red wheelbarrow

---

  UPDATE: Although I have not ordered from them personally, Replacements Ltd. offers a search service for Boscoware® Signature pieces, including mugs: http://www.replacements.com/webquote/SIGBOSCR.htm
. Might be worth looking into?

About 6 or 7 years ago, I received a "thank you" holiday gift from a Canadian ad agency sales rep I'd worked with closely during my days as a television commercial producer. Morrie was a friendly, outgoing 50-something guy (who could sell ice to the Eskimos) I shared many a laugh with during drives to Montreal-area businesses to "pitch" ad ideas. He helped smooth the way during some crazy outdoor 3AM commercial shoots for a well-known strip club on Ste. Catherine Street back in 1998-99; you should have heard the "concept" meetings - I'll have to tell you about them some time.

Anyhoo, his parting holiday gift was a set of four BoscoWare™ coffee mugs that I have used almost every day since...they're the perfect mug. Solid, durable, with a hand-pleasing shape and ridges on the sides that help keep the mug squarely in the hands of a pre-caffeine sleepyhead. They came in a set of yellow, green, blue and plum-colored mugs with matching saucer/lids. The mark on the bottom reads "Made in Thailand" and "Boscoware - Quality Like Mom Had".

The were purchased in Canada, and I have not seen these mugs for sale anywhere in the States. I'm terrified of breaking them, and it's a miracle I haven't yet. Would any of my Canadian friends (hint, hint) know where I could buy some more of these? Morrie, if you're reading this, I hope you're well - and thanks for the mugs.

---

 

If you were searching for the Ghost Town "motorcycle ride through Chernobyl" site after Elena's Angelfire.com location 'melted down' (ouch), we're happy to report she's back online - this time with her own domain, http://www.kiddofspeed.com/.

[More on Chernobyl]

---

  If you haven't explored the range of international brands owned by the Coca Cola™ company, you're in for a surprise. How about a beverage sold in India called Thums [sic] Up?



That's all fine and well, if you're into "strong, fizzy taste and...confident, mature and uniquely masculine attitude" that "separate[s] the men from the boys." I'll refrain from the gratuitous "with a crowbar" reference; then again, maybe I won't.

However, the "manly food product" that's got women up in arms is the British Nestlé™ Yorkie® bar, unashamedly labeled with a slashthrough-red-circle-with-a-female-symbol and the caption "It's Not For Girls!™". Chocolate for Men? From the British site, The F-Word:

Women and men even eat chocolate differently in the world of advertising - men snap off chunks on the side of their mouth and chew and swallow purposefully, and of course, they scowl as they're doing it. Women suck and nibble slowly, eyes closed, perhaps raising a well-manicured fingertip to the corner of their mouth to daintily catch a few stray crumbles - think Cadbury's Flake for the classic freudian way to eat chocolate.

Personally, I'm not the least but offended by the campaign...it seemed good for a chuckle.

I bought a couple of the imported bars at the World Market in Evanston, IL before seeing "Kill Bill, Vol. 2," and shared them with both my better half and a male friend. Happily, I can say none of us suffered any ill effects from consuming the Yorkie™ bars, although I must admit they're a tad too sweet for my taste. I'm just not certain why some men would need to..ahem...prop up their manliness with a big hunk of chocolate - or a sugary soda. Certainly, most men wouldn't be caught dead eating something like a Pria™ Bar in public - but why not man-market a big thick chewy stick of beef jerky, or something?
{ahem} I think I just answered my own question.

---

  Rednova reports that giant golf-ball shaped Navy surveillance blimps may soon roam American skies to protect against terror attacks. [via "Sugar, Mr. Poon?"]

From FOX News' report on the new surveillance blimp program: "What is increasingly happening is people are coming under routine surveillance without good cause," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's no longer fanciful to talk about a '1984'-like society."

An intelligence policy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, Steven Aftergood, said, "People are going to behave differently even in their own back yards if they know that someone may be watching."

Sometime last year, I read on a blog (the title escapes me) someone had suspected a Navy blimp circling over San Diego was secretly spying on the town - I remember because that blogger's post was linked on a site that essentially called him a crackpot.

Hmmm. Maybe it's a good idea sometimes to listen to the crackpots. [image of 'Rover' from Retroweb.com]

---

  Watch out, all ye who blog of other than kittens, puppies, babies and other "soft" subjects: your blog soon may be the target of U.S. Intelligence tracking. [via feministe]

And, going to the doctor just got a bit harder in Michigan, following the passage of bill House Bill (HB) 5006 - The Conscientious Objector Policy Act, which states a medical professional has the right to refuse service for moral, ethical or religious reasons.

The legislation was reportedly passed with the urging of some Catholic groups wishing to provide an "out" to faith-based health care programs for services such as birth control or abortion, but the real world consequences of this bill are even more frightening:

"...a doctor, paramedic, or emergency room physician could refuse to treat me because I'm (well, almost) Jewish; or if I were Black, homosexual, pregnant outside of marriage, a drug addict, an alcoholic, or any other reason if they have "moral or religious objections". To say this is scary is an understatement." [via Greengrl]

---

  The Chicago Maroon has a great op-ed piece by Whet Moser on the controversial FOX "reality" show, The Swan. I've posted on this blog before about Extreme Makeover, but the Maroon's Moser analyzes how The Swan takes this brand of Exploitive Crap™ to the next level:

The Swan is a crazed blend of fetish porn, marrying physical and emotional anguish to fantasies of control. One of my friends once pointed out that the whole undercurrent to the Coors Twins, Hef’s twins, the Doublemint girls, and other such male dreams is a devaluation of the individual, literalizing the objectification of sex through the implication of cloning. The generic ideal aimed for by the show’s hired guns gives the participants a mechanized look, botched only by the genetics that God punished them with. Though they’d obviously lack for business, the surgeons act as if they’d be happier if everyone looked a bit more alike, or if they could have just designed the damn contestants in the first place. Cross that with the show’s literal progression from pain to pleasure and you have The Swan, an S&M version of the American obsession with self-improvement, and further evidence of the fear and loathing at the heart of the American dream.

More about "reality TV" Crap™, this time from ABC: on farkleberriesUSA, details from Nate.

---

  The BBC reports at least 100 suspected Islamic militants are dead in southern Thailand following a series of dawn attacks on security outposts near the Malaysian border. Louis of LDMA'S Life in the Wor Zone is a blogger reporting from the midst of today's violence in Songkhla, Thailand:

"Shit hit the air conditioning today, as a village on the Southern tip of Songkhla was involved in the voilence that erupted in the the 'usual suspect' states of Pattani, Yala, and Naratiwat. Up to 30 people were killed in Pattani when police launched RPGs and teargas into a Mosque where youths were hiding after launching attacks on military bases and police stations with guns and machetes.

According to my mate down in Pattani (sensibly hiding in a Hatyai shopping center), most of the youths involved were local kids as ol' Toxin Shinawatra suggested, but according to locals, Jemaah Islamiah has been offering these kids money and drugs to kick up trouble. The more Toxin buries its head in the sand about this the worse it is going to become." [...]

"This is worrying because for the first time my province has been hit, though the trouble happened in an area right on the edge of Pattani and not in the Buddhist centred part I live in."

Here's keeping our fingers crossed that Louis and the rest of the folks over there are safe for the duration: hope for peace.

UPDATE: Louis reports that his part of Songkhla Town - being a primarily Buddhist area, not close to police outposts or "cop shops" - is fortunately relatively safe for now, but a friend in Pattani is in the area where 30 people are reported killed. More news at LDMA's Life in the Wor Zone.

---

  Doing something as a hobby - and doing it for a living - are two entirely different things. I've been an avid "experimental" cook for years [see "My God, It's Full of Squirrels!"], but after many exhortations by friends and family to the effect of, "when are you going to open that restaurant?" I've decided that my culinary aspirations should remain an avocation of passion rather than a profession.

Mainly, I don't have the energy to stand over a hot grill for hours on end, coordinating sous-chefs and company (what - you'd think I'd settle for less than Head Chef? Just kidding. I'd rather enjoy the results of slaving over a hot stove myself, thank you). More importantly, unless it's a smash-hit, I rarely like to cook the same thing two or three times without tweaking the recipe - something you just can't do when you're a Chef. Like a scientist, once in a lifetime you invent the light bulb; but most of the time you just get a stinky burnt crucible.

Unless you're a Wolfgang Puck, you can't experiment with the paying audience's taste buds. You can't cook a succulent Herb-Roasted Brace of Cornish Hens a l'Orange one evening - and gummy moon-white NERF football-sized "Pierogies" the next (that ended up being thrown to the crows and raccoons behind our apartment in the dead of night). My better half claims to be able to count the number of times I've bombed in the kitchen on the fingers of one hand, but I think she's being overly, overly generous. ;)

Consistency and professionalism are a virtue in the pro cooking world, which is one of the reasons I really enjoyed this inside peek behind the egg grill from Sloped Sideways:

One of the easiest ways to spot a good cook, other than whether or not they can keep up during a rush is how clean the side they are on is. We have a few cooks that are able to keep up with almost any rush, but when they are done cooking it's a good hour project to get their side clean. There are a few of us though that are able to leave a side nearly spotless even after the busiest Sunday.

Now that's discipline! Few things are better on a Sunday morning than a perfect omelet with a side of crisp has browns. With a cup of good coffee.

Now that's cooking.

---

  Yet another amazing technological innovation: the bioMérieux FoodExpert-ID, a microchip that can detect the presence or absence of 33 animal species' DNA sequences in food, from AffyMetrix™ [via BoingBoing]. From the AffyMetrix™ site:

The presence of unwanted or unknown animal species in food, can have a range of effects from benign to deathly serious and is of great concern for public health, economic, religious and legal reasons. Manufacturers and consumers alike have been unable to examine the composition of food at a molecular level. However, for the first time, the bioMérieux FoodExpert-ID Array is being used to detect DNA sequences specific to an animal, allowing species composition to be determined, safeguarding the purity and authenticity of food products.

Keeping kosher? Check your dish for pork, shellfish, rabbit or other treyf meats. Hindi? No beef with that. Allergic to seafood? Check your chowder. Vegan? You'll be guaranteed nothing with a face is on your plate. On the other side of the coin, you'll know whether that $15 foie gras tidbit is the real deal, or just chopped liver.

Never again will you have to ask, "what was in that Chop Suey?"

---

  From the Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle comes this disturbing report of a Turkish immigrant residing in nearby Scottsville, charged with the "honor killing" of his wife and attempted murder of his two daughters on April 15th. When Ismail Peltek was taken to hospital complaining of stomach pain, he was asked a series of questions by police:

”Do you know where you are?” he was asked by Investigator David Vaughn, according to court documents.
”Strong Hospital. I love America. I am not a terrorist,” Peltek responded.
”We know that,” Vaughn said.
”OK,” Peltek replied. “Nobody listen.”

After painkillers took effect...Peltek allegedly gave details of the attacks, which he said occurred while his family was asleep. ”Did you kill your wife today?” Vaughn asked.

”Yes. Yes,” Peltek allegedly replied. “I knifed her and I knifed myself. They took my honor.”

His 39-year-old wife died after being stabbed repeatedly and bludgeoned on the head with a hammer. His daughters suffered fractured skulls from hammer blows. Peltek, 41, said he attacked his 4-year-old daughter because she had been “sullied” by a gynecological exam.

”If you had the opportunity to kill the family again, would you?” he was asked by Rochester police Officer Emre Arican, who was brought in to help investigators because he speaks Turkish.

”My female family, yes. My male family, no,” Peltek allegedly replied.

Police investigators are not ruling out the possibility that Peltek may be suffering from mental illness, which would have bearing on the case. [first heard of on feministe]

---

  They say there are no coincidences in life.

Today - on the precise anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster - I received my first completely trashed Amazon.com shipment (which I returned tout suite). I ordered VHS tapes of two ABC Nightline special reports on the incident: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (aired April 28th, 1986, when the West first heard of the reactor accident) and Chernobyl Plant - The Aftermath (aired April 22, 1987). Since I didn't pay Chernobyl much mind in 1986, I thought the archival program footage would be fascinating (seeing a young Ted Koppel is always good for a chuckle).

I'm sure it will be when the replacements arrive. The shipment I received today appeared to have been either run over by a car or stepped on by Ruben Studdard: the box was accordioned into a hourglass shape, and I knew it was bad news when I shook it like a Christmas present. Rattle, rattle, ching. The tapes inside were literally smashed into black plastic shards. Sigh. Neeeeext! We'll see if Amazon holds to their reportedly strong returns policy.

And, the news breaks that the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station in my old neck of the woods "lost" two pieces of highly radioactive spent-fuel rod:

From USA Today:
The operators of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant reported the missing pieces Wednesday, saying they were not where they were supposed to be in the large pool used to store fuel rods. One of the missing pieces is about the size of a pencil. The other is about as thick but is 17 inches long.

The spent fuel rods are highly radioactive and would be fatal to anyone who came in contact with them without being properly shielded, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said. Spent nuclear fuel could be used by terrorists to construct so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly radiation with conventional explosives.

"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," Sheehan said. The pieces could also have been sent years ago to a testing laboratory or a low-level nuclear waste disposal facility. The pieces were part of a fuel rod that was removed in 1979 from the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is currently shut down for refueling and maintenance.

Burlington, VT's WPTZ-TV today reports that the missing pieces are, well, still missing. I don't live near Burlington these days, but that doesn't make me feel much better. It's like hearing that your downstairs neighbor's pet Black Mamba turned up missing.

So, my research into Chernobyl (which includes scouring the Web and government sites, and the University of Chicago and Harold Washington Libraries) has been slightly delayed. However, for the curious, I have a selection of choice hand-picked links that will provide multi-national insights into the incident, and its continuing aftermath.

• The German nuclear-safety agency GRS [Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit, mbH] has a well-illustrated, informative 179-page free online technical report called "The Accident and the Safety of RBMK Reactors" [large PDF file, 5Mb]


• If you enjoy government reports and "blue books," visit the World Nuclear Association's Chernobyl page, which includes links to UNSCEAR [United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, which published several comprehensive reports on the Chernobyl disaster - many which are available here as free PDF downloads.


• Watch This: Chernobyl.co.uk, a UK site which features a link to the BBC's recent 30-minute program [streaming RealPlayer video] on Chernobyl, featuring a look at the history of nuclear power in the former Soviet Union as well as a look inside Ukraine's Exclusion Zone towns. Highly recommended: this program illustrates that the deteriorating reactor site is still an issue of pressing concern through Europe, while it has been all but overshadowed here in the U.S.


• Watch This: though the bulk of Chernobyl news coverage occurred before the age of streaming video, the post-date digitized BBC retrospective of the Chernobyl disaster [RealPlayer required] is a wistfully immediate - if lo-res - look back at those fateful days in April.


• Ukrainian biker gal (and young scientist) Elena is the Kidd [sic] of Speed: her wildly popular site, Ghost Town, features dozens of startling photos and rueful, blustering commentary from her motorcycle tour through the post-apocalyptic Exclusion Zone in Pripyat': part National Geographic expedition, part Jackass-meets-Evel Knievel. Strange thing is, I'd probably do it too, given the opportunity and a lead X-ray apron - but I'd prefer an enclosed vehicle, like a Bradley.


• Got Euskadi? The Basque Website of Pripyat.


• Have Paris, Rome, and the Caribbean lost their appeal? Been there, done that? How about a guided group tour through Chernobyl? I don't know if it's a legitimate enterprise, but you can apparently book a tour through the Exclusion Zone via Ukrainian Web Chyornobyl' Tour. You get complimentary disposable outerwear and shoes, and a souvenir computerized dosimeter printout that certifies how much radiation you absorbed during your visit.


• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Pioneer Robot pages, with photos and diagrams of the Red Zone Robotics radiation-hardened explorer robot that will be used to excavate and explore the hot ruin inside the Sarcophagus.


• A recent Kazinform press release from March, 2004, warning that trouble at the Chernobyl Sarcophagus could be imminent.


• From a nation that is also highly dependent on nuclear energy, but has thankfully suffered neither a Chernobyl nor a Three Mile Island type incident - the Canadian Nuclear Association's report on Chernobyl.


• USGS satellite photos showing changes in the Chernobyl region from 1986 to 1992


• An August, 1986 EPA Bulletin on short-term American response to the Chernobyl disaster.


• A high-resolution satellite image of the Chernobyl region from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, suitable for desktop backgrounds.


• Some of the best photos of the site I have seen are on the INSP's [International Nuclear Safety Program] Digital Library Website, where you can view over 800 color and black-and-white images, including the one at the top of this post.

---

  Via BoingBoing, a piece on a trendy Hannibal Lecter-esque English cookbook called The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, "devoted to the preparation of offcuts, snouts, rectii, marrow, and bladders of all description."

Apparently, mystery meats have become something of a forbidden fruit in the U.K. in wake of Mad Cow disease, giving offal-eating all the thrill of munching fugu.

*ahem* Sorry to break it you, folks; but if you've ever eaten hot dogs, bologna, Spam™ or potted meat food products [famously described by the character Karl Childers in Sling Blade as "full o' ground-up peckers n' whatnot"] you're already an "adventurous eater."

---

  J C Decaux doesn't just make those spiffy Eurostyle bus shelters that recently appeared around Chicago. They also make child-eating monster toilets.

---

  From the Illegal, Immoral and/or Fattening files (well, illegal, at least), HackCanada.com offers up fascinating "don't try this at home" hacks and phreaks for the North of the Border geek, though Yanks might learn a thing or two here as well.

The disclaimer reads: The information on this site is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to encourage or teach you to break the law (that's what TV is for). The owner(s) of this website will not be held liable for anything you choose to do with the information contained on this site. If you want to learn how to make bombs and drugs and guns and shit like that, well, you won't find it here, just go to Chapters or your local library, they will hook you up very well indeed.

For those who haven't spent much time up North, Chapters™ is the Canadian homogenized book-dealer equivalent of Borders™, but ever so slightly more progressive. The way Tim Horton's™ is like Dunkin' Donuts™, only better (speaking of fattening).

{Homer} Mmmmm. Timbits™. {/Homer}

HackCanada isn't just for phone and wi-fi phreaks - they have some really enlightening sections on wetware hacking, Palm™ hacks, and some mordant essays on the decay of personal freedoms - including the right to wear your hoodie the way you damn well please in a 7-11. Check it out.

---

  With apologies to the original:

"Wind power is fleeting,
Hydro is damp,
Solar cell heating
Doesn't give enough amps,
Nuclear links
To a toxic waste dump,
Coal burning stinks,
You might as well pump."

---

  Today I made my first guest-posting on Mutinous Winds, a new group blog "about public speech and how it's limited and shaped by market forces and the institutions of democracy." The blog was recently founded by Paul Goyette of Locussolus, who also runs the Chicago Blogmap.

Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm’d
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds
And ’twixt the green sea and the azur’d vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt;

[The Tempest, Act V, Scene I]

The subject of my first MW post: how the Seattle Times recently broke the Bush administration's ban on media coverage of caskets and burials of the returning Iraq war dead. The MW roster seems to be a highly intellectual group - I'll be a bit out of my league for while, I think - but I'm excited about the chance to take part in an outside weblog project like this. It should be an interesting and educational "meeting of the minds"!

---

  Sugar, Mr. Poon? has an interesting post about the odd phenomenon of curiously youthful-looking Bicentennial Quarters ("BQ's"):

I see them a lot. More than I see 1975 or 1977 quarters, even accounting for some availability bias or what not. As such, I'm going to assume that either or both of the following is true:

1. The U.S. Mint continues to produce BQs.
2. The U.S. Mint takes BQs out of circulation less frequently than they do quarters of surrounding years.

Seems reasonable, no? Here's the thing I just noticed, though: every time I see a BQ, it's in great condition. I just don't recall seeing a tarnished or otherwise beaten-up BQ.

My theory? I'm not sure how the mint decommissions BQ's (or P's, N's, D's and POQ's for that matter)...my suspicion is that while the Plain Old Quarters of adjacent years (the 1975's and 1977's) have been changing hands for almost three decades (and are removed from circulation as they reach increasingly poor condition), sentimental souls like myself have been hoarding BQ's in coffee cans for years at a time.

Occasionally we open the coffee cans, notice the pristine piles of BQ's, and decide sentimentality for the Spirit of '76 isn't quite what it used to be. These "sleeper" BQ's are then returned to circulation from their artificially-preserved state, looking barely older than the day they were born. Hence, a greater quantity of shinier BQ's in the currency pool than one would expect.

That's my...(cough, cough)...two bits.

---

  A swath of tornadoes hit Utica, Illinois last night (about 90 miles outside of Chicago), causing heavy damage and killing several people. AZCentral has details about the killer spring storm.

In Indiana, officials were surprised by the storms, said Alden Taylor, a spokesman for the State Emergency Management Agency. "It was warm, but those are what are called popcorn storms [a.k.a. an "air mass thunderstorm"] that will suddenly appear. It's very difficult to predict them," Taylor said.

Strange how weather patterns like this travel - last night in Chicago, it was raining, but barely even breezy...I suppose that's the nature of a "popcorn storm."

---

  Okay, okay, really bad pun. But this is very cool: Western Washington University Associate Professor of History Kathleen Kennedy has published a journal article [PDF file, some adult content] in Women's History Review entitled "Results of a Misspent Youth: Joan Jett's Performance of Female Masculinity":

The article maps Joan Jett’s performances from her days with the Runaways in the mid-1970s through her successful solo career in the 1980s to her recent affiliations with the riot grrrls in the 1990s. Unlike some critics, who, while acknowledging Jett’s influence on generations of female rock performers, dismiss Jett as an inferior copy of male rock musicians, the author argues that Jett’s various performances of female masculinity challenged conventional understandings of masculinity and femininity. The article explores how Jett’s interest in punk enabled her to carve a space for herself in a male-dominated genre. It is further contended that as more spaces opened for women in the early 1990s, Jett’s performances took a more aggressive stance on traditionally feminist issues and enabled her to use her sexuality as an offensive weapon.

As of this writing, I haven't yet read the article, but it looks fascinating. It's not a "fan piece," but a serious piece of work documenting a groundbreaking musical performer's influence on sociological gender norms. Be sure to read the citations and footnotes at the end of the article - they're very enlightening. [I first saw the link to this article on Joan Jett's official website]

I remember reading in a few interviews that Joan is/was a big fan of the films Cabaret and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, both of which featured a number of gender-defying performances; if you read some of Kennedy's analyses of Joan's choice of music-video imagery, it's clear where these influences shaped Joan's art esthetics, but the extent she has reshaped them and made them uniquely her own is historically noteworthy.

---

  The lines between madness, magic, and technology continually blur further: first, the fun stuff - Wi-Fi Dowsing Rod lets you find wi-fi hotspots with this spiffy tool that looks like a water dowser's forked branch. That will definitely get you some strange looks about town. Come to think of it, cell phones are sort of nutty, too. Sometimes, I find it hard to remember what public spaces were like before cell phones came along - one could spend days wandering about, never hearing a disembodied "Godfather Theme" ringing on buses and trains, in classrooms, or outdoors.

Agent Maxwell Smart's shoe phone was ridiculously funny, simply because the idea of a hidden phone ringing (and answered) unexpectedly in public situations was rather absurd. It used to be when you saw someone cheerfully having a one-way conversation, you knew they were nuts insane, drunk, high, or all of the above.

All that's changed. In the early days of cell phones (the small handhelds, not the clunky brick-style phones), you'd have a sideways glance to assess the solo talker's clothing and general hygiene before making a snap judgement about their mental status, and if one of their hands were held close to their ear, you basically knew they were using a cell phone. Of course, they could have been holding an empty soup can or candy wrapper next to their ear, and I might not have known the difference.

Today, with tiny-in-your-ear handsfree units, the distinction is sometimes harder to make, especially during bulky-clothing season. I've been fooled into thinking I'm walking towards a nutjob mentally ill individual, when to my relief I spy a small wire with a microphone bulge in the center - like a miniature gorged python - leading down from their ear. Phew. They're okay. Considering some of the one-way conversations I've heard, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between crazies and businesspeople.

The most striking thing about many cell phone users is that they seem to be under the impression they're having a private conversation, and no one else in their surroundings can hear them. You often hear people discussing intimate financial, relationship, even sexual matters, on a cell phone in public places, deluded about their anonymity because outsiders only heard one side of the talk.

When you think about it, it's pretty strange that people would assume making a cell phone call is private - or that it entitles them to privacy. If you look over at someone having a loud, strange, very obvious public cell-phone conversation, you're likely to get that dirty "mine joan bizness" look, despite the fact that you can still hear every word they say if you make no eye contact. Rarely do the talkers seem to realize that they might be invading your private space with their jibberjabber.

However, lest you think only casual observers are studying the sociological aspects of cell phone use, Sociology of Switzerland has a page full of weblinks connecting to free online scholarly manuscripts dealing with cell phone use - for example, "The Family in the Networked Society: A Summary of Research on the American Family," by Christine Bachen, or Rich Ling's "It's 'in'. It doesn't matter if you need it or not, just you have it.' Fashion and domestication of the mobile telephone among teens in Norway." If I wrote a paper on the sociology of cell phone use, I'd probably name it "Nutjob or Cell Phone User? External Perceptions of Solo Conversations in Public Spaces."

[Wifi Dowsing Rod and Sociology of Switzerland links via Angermann2]

---

  Try this next time you blog: the Book Meme.

1) Grab the nearest book.
2) Open the book to page 23.
3) Find the fifth sentence.
4) Post the text of the sentence to your journal along with these instructions.

Here goes. Mind you, I'm sitting in a room surrounded by economics texts, so the content variety will be a bit limited...

Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the Chinese people are carrying out a vigorous rectification movement in order to bring about the rapid development of socialism in China on a firmer basis.

That, of course, from the Complete and Unexpurgated Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse Tung, (Bantam Books, 1967) [meme via Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time, who cites easy bake coven.]

---

  Although I was happy with the backBlog commenting service I'd used for a few months, I finally switched over to Haloscan because of its trackback capability. I'll keep my fingers crossed, since each time I've switched third-party services for Blogger™ there has been an slight adjustment period.

Since I'm new to this whole trackback thing, I thought I'd share that Haloscan has a tutorial on how to use their trackback feature located at http://www.haloscan.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2641, as well as links to more general trackback FAQ's . If you have any problems with this new commenting system, or the trackback, please drop a line to farkleberries feedback.

---

  Here's a classic case of "syntax means everything": the headline of this CNN.com article, "Dog Found Six Days After Avalanche Kills Owner," might lead one to believe it's the ultimate example of biting the hand that feeds you. However, the content of the piece reveals otherwise - the owner was killed by the avalanche, not by the dog.

This is a tricky one. If you re-word the sentence to read "Dog Found Six Days After Owner Was Killed by Avalanche," we still don't know whether the dog was found dead six days after the owner, if the owner was found dead, or both are dead. I suppose the least ambiguous, least-passive form of this sentence would be "Avalanche Kills Owner, Dog Found Six Days Later."

Then again, I don't write for CNN, and I suppose taking the time for perfect syntax on a found-dog story doesn't take precedence over tasks such as covering the 9/11 hearings or the war in Iraq. The cynical part of me just thinks CNN was being deliberately ambiguous, to get readers to click through in hopes of reading a grisly ungrateful-dog-kills-owner story: "you should have left me in that damned avalanche, wretched human!"

---