New works in the public domain since 1987.
“Seven huge owls, each weighing more than eight kilograms, have been found in the Muus Desert of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. The gigantic owls, 80 centimeters tall and with a wing span reaching one meter, are capable of taking adult hares, their main prey. Although no biologists have made a formal study of the owls, they could be described as the ‘King of the Owls.’”
Thanks to Dr. Menlo for the heads up!
Now is a good time for you to (re)read 1984.
Quoted in full (w/o permission) from Australian news source news.com.au comes this unpleasant story…
The US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday. The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians. The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without charge for 18 months. General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber.
The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical by the US, which has been attacked worldwide for breaching the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war since it established the camp at a naval base to hold alleged terrorists from Afghanistan. But it has horrified human rights groups and lawyers representing detainees. They see it as the clearest indication America has no intention of falling in line with internationally recognised justice. The US has already said detainees would be tried by tribunals, without juries or appeals to a higher court. Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers. British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: “The US is kicking and screaming against any pressure to conform with British or any other kind of international justice.” American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civil rights group protests against the military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay, said: “It is not surprising the authorities are building a death row because they have said they plan to try capital cases before these tribunals. This camp was created to execute people. The administration has no interest in long-term prison sentences for people it regards as hard-core terrorists.”
Britain admitted it had been kept in the dark about the plans. A Downing St spokesman said: “The US Government is well aware of the British Government’s position on the death penalty.”
Recently I had a chance to meet with members of the Portland State Aerospace Society. From their Web page…
“Our vision statement – or long term goal – is to ‘put nanosatellites into orbit.’ That’s an absurdly hard undertaking when you consider the technical, logistical and financial problems involved. So although we may never get there, having this goal allows us to ask the question, ‘what’s the first step in the process?’ We decided that the first step towards orbiting nanosatellites is to develop an inexpensive, highly modular and actively guided sounding rocket. Sounding rockets are small to medium-sized rockets that are “suborbital” – meaning they can reach extreme altitudes, but then fall down back to the Earth (i.e., they don’t go into orbit). Sounding rockets are useful for scientific research in such fields as astronomy, earth science, materials science, and of course, in engineering. Our rockets fall into the class of ‘amateur rocketry’ – smaller than commercial rockets, larger than model rockets. We certainly have not build the biggest or highest altitude amateur rocket, but we do hope that we’re building one of the most sophisticated.”
… and they don’t take funding from military sources. And they only use open source software. And they operate out of Portland.
Neither satisfying nor delicious is the news that filmmaker Tim Burton is in talks with Warner Bros. to direct a new movie adaptation of the Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The thirst for knowledge about these pop pioneers is huge, but until now, the printed word has eluded Devo. Authors Jade Dellinger and David Giffels have interviewed band members and their associates, ransacked their archives to provide more than 100 illustrations, memorabilia, and rare photographs documenting Devo’s entire career, and re-evaluated their complete works to provide an exhaustive survey of the Devo phenomenon…
You need more advertisements for three-wheel automobiles.
The Portland Area Robotics Society (PARTS) and the student chapter of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) at Portland State University will host PDXBOT.03, the groups’ fourth annual robotics exposition and tournament, on Sunday, May 25th, 2003 in the Smith Center Ballroom on the PSU campus. Admission for the public and registration for competitors is free. Competitions at this year’s event include robotic sumo in micro-, mini- and Japan classes, beginner and advanced line following, a robot talent show, and a new out-and-back walking robot course. In addition to robotic competitions, the exposition will include technology demonstrations, robotic displays, and sales of robotic kits, components and supplies by vendors.
Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Joe Lieberman (D-Conn), a candidate in the 2004 Presidential campaign running on the anti-wrestling platform, has asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge why DoHS resources why department resources were used to track down Texas legislators who left the state to sabotage a questionable new definition of Texas voting precincts.
Does one laugh or cry?
Are there contradictions within the Quran? Some say yes.
Just because you are an antheist communist country doesn’t mean you can’t sell magic rocks when you need the cash.
I could steal each of the great links at Protozoo, but instead go there yourself and check out the great Flash artistry.
Regular readers may recall my interest in viewing the Cremaster film series. After many months of fruitless searching, I have learned that all five films will be released on video and DVD August 19th. In the mean time, enjoy the official Web page of Cremaster.
Question: since 1965, every Russian spacecraft has included one of these. What is it? The answer may surprise you.
For the entire year of 2003 (January 1st to December 31st) this site will feature one mp3 file (every day) to download. Listeners of the incredibly strange and outsider realm take note, for this is the majority of material that will be made available. Obscure (and for the most part out-of-print) recordings will be the primary focus. Will the goal be met? Will all 365 days be fulfilled? That is the goal and I’ll look both ways before crossing the street from now on.
Whether you are looking for the exact name of a falsehood (add hominy, something, what was it?) or an example from the real world, the Fallacy Files is a handy resource.
Newly added to Dr. Menlo‘s fine site is Kurt Nimmo’s Another Day in the Empire. Here’s a sample…
Tell me we have not reached the height of absurdity and draconian theater. Here’s Bush dressed up as a co-pilot on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. This is significant for two reasons: 1) from May 1, 1972 to April 30, 1973 Dubya was AWOL for the Texas National Guard where he trained as a pilot, and b) it is ironic this charade was held on a naval vessel named after a president who suspended habeas corpus during a time of war and held “expansive interpretation of presidential powers [that] made him the most imperial president in American history, thereby setting a dangerous precedent for predisposed successors,” as Marshall DeRosa and historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. write. Bush is the crème de la crème of those successors.
Sometimes I read articles and essays that say ‘born again’ President George W. Bush isn’t a good Christian because of this, that or the other thing he has done. I read that Christianity is a beautiful and good religion that bad people misuse. But let’s consult the Bible, shall we, and see whether or not President Bush is a good Christian. What is the proper reply when a Christian encounters someone who advocates another religion?
Deuteronomy 13:6-11: If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.
But wait, some say, that’s in the Old Testament – Jesus came and changed things, somehow, kinda, right? Well, let’s check the Bible again. What did Jesus say about what we today call the Old Testament?
Matthew 5:18-19: “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.”
Luke 16:17: “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
So… in my book President George W. Bush is an exemplary Christian. It’s just those madmen like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who distort the true message of the Bible to their own twisted ends.
