No shoot fire-stick in space-canoe!

Conditions: Sunny and warm., Yes, really.


Bush Appointees at USDA screwing with the system

Firedoglake.com

Last week the USDA unveiled their new “standards” for 39 food materials. Amazingly enough, all 39 proposed “standards” simply declare chemicals or chemically grown foodsstuffs can now be hidden in foods labelled “organic”. The comment period ended Tuesday, May 22.

You know, recently the head of China's food and drug agency was sentenced to death because he accepted bribes from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for allowi9ng dangerous drugs into the market. These drugs caused untold amounts of sickness and even death amongst the unsuspecting people. While an extreme, perhaps the USDA should keep this in mind when they're messing around with something as fundamental as food standards


The Museum of Creation

The problem with most museums is that they all agree on fundamental things. Where did we come from? What did the first humans look like? Could dinosaurs ride bicycles? Wouldn't it be great to visit a museum that put forward new answers to these age-old questions? Well there is! Let's all go to the Creation Museum!

Creation Museum Sneak Peek

Yes, where we can see the Noah's Ark Construction Site, witness the Adam Naming the Animals exhibit, and even take in the Six Days of Creation Theater. Huzzah!



Now, I know what you're thinking, but these guys even address the differences in the various exhibits! You don't see that in normal museums. To whit:



See? Everyone gets along nicely.



Cluster Bombs in Iraq

This is how stupid we really are: we keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. A Cluster Bomb, as most people know, is the weapon that keeps on killing. A collection of deadly bomblets that scatter over a wide area. Not all explode on impact, so you're left with a bunch of explosives lying around, ready to detonate should they be nudged by wildlife, or picked up by someone. Now the laws of armed conflict (like America cares about those) state that you can't use weapons like this in an area that you know is populated by civilians. And when combat operations are over, it's the responsibility of the occupying force to remove these weapons where they have fallen, so to minimize any further danger to civilians. Now historically the U.S has been bad at this, and there's a long long tradition of people in other countries continuing to get blown up by old munitions from old wars.

Well guess what? It's happening again in Iraq.

Asked about CBU usage by the Air Force in Iraq in 2006, Ali al-Fadhily, an independent Iraqi journalist, commented: "The use of cluster bombs is a sure thing, but it was very difficult to prove because there were no international experts to document it." In the past, however, international experts have actually had a chance to examine some locations where a fraction of the bomblets that coalition forces used have landed.

On a 2004 research trip to Iraq, for instance, Titus Peachey visited numerous sites which had experienced such strikes. At a farm in northern Iraq, he was shown not only impact craters from exploded bomblets on a farmer's property but also unexploded bomblets, by a team from the Mines Advisory Group, a humanitarian organization devoted to landmine and bomb clearance. While "the de-miners expressed frustration that the farmer had planted his field before it had been cleared," Peachey explained that this was a common, if dangerous, practice in such situations. The U.S. used similar ordnance in Laos during the Vietnam War, he pointed out, noting:

"The villagers of Laos waited more than 20 years for clearance work to get started in their fields and villages. During that time they had no choice but to till soil that was filled with bombs. Otherwise they could not eat. In Iraq, the several visits that we made confirmed this very same dynamic. People could not afford to wait until clearance teams made their farms safe for cultivation. They had to take great risks in order to survive."

Evidence of these risks can be found in U.S. military documents. Case in point: a June 2005 internal memorandum from the U.S. Army's 42d Infantry Division which describes how a 15-year old Iraqi boy, working as a shepherd, "was leading the sheep through north Tikrit, near an ammo storage site, when he picked up a UXO [unexploded ordnance] from a cluster bomb. The UXO detonated and he was killed." Asked to pay $3,000 in compensation for the boy's life, the Army granted that his death was "a horrible loss for the claimant," his mother, but concluded that there was "insufficient evidence to indicate that US. Forces caused the death."

See article for more, including debate over the extent of the air war in Iraq, an aspect that has been kept secret from the American public




Dissent spreads through U.S. military ranks

If America defines itself so completely by it's armed services, and how could anyone in the Middle East not think that is the case these days, then that definition is starting to crack around the edges. From workers.org:

Growing anger over the U.S. war in Iraq and growing understanding that the occupation is a complete failure are spreading through all ranks of the U.S. military. This dissidence shows itself in different ways among the rank-and-file troops and among the lifers and officers. But from an increase of angry letters to anti-war publications like GI Special to an increase of courts-martial, the signs of resistance are growing.

Various soldiers have either tried to go AWOL, or have been prosecuted for trying to do what they think is the right thing, but the biggest fish thus far is apparently Admiral William Fallon, chief of CENTCOM.

Some of the top officers, who normally have no trouble ordering strategic bombing strikes that will cause hundreds of thousands of casualties, and who certainly have no moral compunctions about starting a war, are beginning to balk at following Bush administration leadership. An Inter Press Service story released May 19 reports that Admiral William Fallon, chief of CENTCOM and a Bush appointee himself, expressed “strong opposition in February to an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three and vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking.”

According to this unnamed source, Fallon said that he was not alone, and that, “There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box.” This statement, publicized a week after Vice President Dick Cheney threatened war with Iran from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Gulf off the coast of that country, and about the same time that Iraq war architect Paul Wolfowitz was forced to resign from heading the World Bank, has the ring of truth even if there is no easy way of checking it.

How mad is it that now it's the military guys who are trying to say "now hold on, maybe more war isn't the right idea"?



Cindy Sheehan quits

Cindy Sheehan, mother of a dead American soldier, and probably the first real visible resistance against the Iraq war, even living in a tent outside George Bush's mansion for a few years, has quit her post as ...well, the tireless campaigning against the war in Iraq. Why? Because the Democrats who goto many photo ops with her in her campaign against Bush, who made promises about how they'd get out of the country only if they won the election, haven't lived up to their side of the deal. Sayeth Cindy:

There is absolutely no sane or defensible reason for you to hand Bloody King George more money to condemn more of our brave, tired, and damaged soldiers and the people of Iraq to more death and carnage. You think giving him more money is politically expedient, but it is a moral abomination and every second the occupation of Iraq endures, you all have more blood on your hands.

Ms. Pelosi, Speaker of the House, said after George signed the new weak as a newborn baby funding authorization bill: "Now, I think the president's policy will begin to unravel." Begin to unravel? How many more of our children will have to be killed and how much more of Iraq will have to be demolished before you all think enough unraveling has occurred? How many more crimes will BushCo be allowed to commit while their poll numbers are crumbling before you all gain the political "courage" to hold them accountable. If Iraq hasn't unraveled in Ms. Pelosi's mind, what will it take? With almost 700,000 Iraqis dead and four million refugees (which the US refuses to admit) how could it get worse? Well, it is getting worse and it can get much worse thanks to your complicity.

It's tough to see reality (again) crashing down on the head of someone, like so many anvils, but there's probably some good in this. Cindy (and us) now better understand how politics really work, and that the whole thing isn't worth a damn.



Swimming Tiger

You know those stories about cute puppies licking a burgler to death, or a faithful tortoise alerting Little Timmy to the fact that his bed sheet is on fire? Yeah. Meet Odin, the swimming tiger.




Awwwwww.



Movie 100 count down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpfzIDegtVc

How much free time do you have? How many movies do you own? Want to see the epitome of free time, and a lot of movies? Well some sunny person, whom I hate, has made a clip film from various movies of characters saying numbers. This is what the internet was invented for, people!



Google maps street view

Remember the good old days, when you'd actually have to go somewhere in order to look around? Forget it, Google is now putting together a plan to allow people to walk the streets of cities while safely sitting in front of your computer.

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html

Why ever travel again? And think of the environmental savings.



Microsoft Surface

Wanna see how you'll be ordering your drinks in a bar 5 years from now? Those geniuses at Microsoft have built a table that is a touch-sensitive computer, that can also interact with every device you own. I suspect if you put an iron on it it'll be all like, 'Okay, what kind of water do you want to order for your model XY5521 iron, sir?'

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/18928656
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/



Battleships!

We all remember battleships! Brilliant game. Play it here.
http://www.spikedlemon.com/games/Battleships



Film Review: Pirates of the Carribean 3

The biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn't know who it's supposed to be about. Is it about Witty Jack who (still) wants his ship back, or any ship, as long as he gets to sail off in it? Is it about Will, who's trying to save his father from the Flying Dutchman, and woo Elizabeth? Or is it about Elizabeth, who wants Will, but also wants to ...defeat the English navy, and bring back freedom for the Pirates? Uh, yeah. Anyway, the first film didn't have this problem, it was Jack's tale and everyone else was along for the ride. That's why it was pretty good. But the rot has well and truly set in now.

I suspect the general idea was to show the partnership between these three characters throughout the film, reflected through various double crosses and action beats, but it's so long, and so choppy, and so unfocused that it becomes a big loud mush of moments, rather than any kind of focused story. There's a moment at the end (involving a sword and a heart) that perfectly sums up these three, a moment where each of them makes the same decision at the same time, a decision that greatly affects each of them in different ways, is a sacrifice for each, and confirms the bond they have, but it happens so quickly if you blink you'll miss it. It's thrown away. That's how these pirates roll.

Speaking of which, the obvious undertone of this flick is about the fight for freedom against the tyranny of empire. It's an important point, but how badly is it undermined when it's coming from Suddenly Pirate King Kiera Knightley? No part of that makes sense. It's another good summary for At World's End. A film that's too fast to make a point, and too lightweight to leave an impression. Yet still goes for three hours. Two pieces of eight out of five.

Super Summer Blockbuster Action Movie Deathcount Score: 0/2

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