Cool stuff

Spherical treehouses, via Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Kind of tempting, we've got some trees that might actually hold the weight. Ms. Newsrack reminds me of Monkey Town in the Babar stories.

Beethoven symphonies, downloadable in MP3 format courtesy of the BBC, via Holger Frey

Dry quicksand, via Boing Boing. Guess that Lawrence of Arabia scene might have really happened... yeesh. There's an NY Times bit about it too.

KYOUR "open source" radio, via Joerg Kantel

Told You So: Daniel Radosh knew it was Mark Felt all along, and he can prove it. See All Radosh's Successful Predictions! You Will Be Amazed!

Via Peter Praschl:



Hey, if retro communist era motifs are good enough for CSX, they're good enough for me.

Loosely translated comment from the original site: "Suggested demonstration slogan: Cocktails, palm trees, sunny skies - socialism realized!" (The actual words were "..that's how socialism must be!"; I just wanted something that rhymed, suggestions welcome.) Note to self: use "Rumbruellparole" in everyday German conversation whenever feasible. Bit of a problem here in the DC metro area, but we'll see.

=====
EDIT, 6/14: Daniel Radosh, not Ron. Same error corrected here. Sorry, everyone! posted by Thomas Nephew at 2:45:00 PM -- |  

 
Mladic hunt heats up, more Srebrenica victims discovered
A senior U.S. official believes Ratko Mladic, the Serbian general responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and other war crimes, may be seeing his last days of freedom. The Voice of America reported today:

Undersecretary of State Nicolas Burns, just back from talks in the Balkans, told reporters it is only a matter of time before the former Bosnian-Serb military chief is captured. [...]

"I can't go into all the efforts that are being made,” said Mr. Burns. “But, I can say what I've said, and that is that we believe there is a seriousness of purpose on the part of the government in Belgrade. We believe they are intent on getting this done, and their track record over the last three months gives us confidence that they have made a strategic decision that the indicted war criminals on their soil should be turned over to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague."

The recent broadcast of a video of the torture and execution of six Bosnians from Srebrenica by a Serbian police unit may have created the political room needed for Serbian authorities to turn him over to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Indeed, Grujica Spasovic, the editor-in-chief of one reputable Serbian news outlet (Danas) suggests Mladic's whereabouts are already known. From a "swissinfo" report today by Beti Bilandzic:

"We know which town he's in, and how long he has been under the control of certain security bodies," Spasovic told Reuters Television. [...]

Danas said rumors that Mladic was ready to surrender were wrong. But the government had made up its mind to arrest him as soon as it could do so without casualties. [...]

A Bosnian newspaper [Dnevni Avaz] said a NATO investigation showed 24 men, some working for the Bosnian Serb army, had helped harbour Mladic. Some picked up the army pay he got until two years ago.

The Serbian government denies it knows Mladic's whereabouts. The Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" reports that Serbia/Montenegran Defense Minster Prvoslav Davinic also disputes separate claims that Serbian (as opposed to Bosnian Serb) army personnel protected Mladic. The "Standard" report adds:

However, it is awkward for the army that the deaths of two soldiers on guard duty at an underground bunker complex under the Belgrade Guard barracks [Kaserne der Garde] are still unsolved. They are thought to have seen Mladic and paid for that with their lives.

Meanwhile, another "secondary" mass grave of Srebrenica victims -- reburied in the aftermath of the massacre in an attempted coverup -- has been exhumed. The South African "Independent Online" reports:

The remains of what are believed to be 134 Muslim victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst atrocity of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, were exhumed from a mass grave in the north-east of the country, a forensic expert said on Thursday.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:50:00 PM -- |  

 
"MARC Marshals" poster gifted prank?
This striking poster in the Maryland commuter rail system has been getting a lot of attention. The full message:

MARC Marshals
Report any unusual activities or packages to the nearest conductor.
Watch, Ride, and Report

The somewhat ominous message and a style reminiscent of Soviet propaganda have put many people off.

Stygius says he thinks it's a joke, but a good one, pointing out incongruous details like the tie blowing in the wind, and the fact that there are no "MARC Marshals" -- MARC uses the Maryland Transit Administration Police. On the other hand, a commenter suggests that the poster is essentially deputizing all of us as "MARC Marshals." I've seen an anonymous commenter claim at one site that he/she saw at a Metro stop (Rockville) in the DC area; I haven't seen it anywhere yet, but even if I had, that might just mean a particularly clever, multiple poster prank.

Why a prank? Long story short: the site where people are finding this picture, "http://www.mdrails.com", isn't an official Maryland railways (MARC, etcetera) web site.* Instead, it appears to belong to some railroad photography enthusiasts. The home page shows one of the photographers ("the mysterious KC ... fine art printer of long standing") hiding behind a camera in a train compartment with the above poster in the background. A final detail seems to fit the "prank" story as well: the home page photo image file name is kim_sneaky-574x402.jpg.**

My guess is that the combination of that official-sounding URL, the high quality poster, and the miracle of the Internets has made for a nicely executed "action" by a gifted artist and provocateur. I'd love to see one of those posters in a train. I'm not sure I'd like to see a whole transit system plastered with them, and I'm guessing I won't -- there's no hint of a campaign in the MARC/Maryland Transit Administration press releases or home page.


=====
* Non US citizens may not know that this is plausible because the postal abbreviation for Maryland is "MD."
** EDIT, 6/10: The photo is no longer on the home page, but is still on the site at the linked location.

UPDATE, 6/10: Well, maybe it's not just a prank. Reader R.M. sends this image of a slipcase he says he got from MARC with his monthly commuter ticket. I called the 800 number and got "Maryland Tip Line"; that turns out to be a hotline run by the Maryland State Police.

As R.M. suggests, this may have been the inspiration for the poster. (It's also possible, of course, that R.M. is one of the pranksters or photoshopped this image himself.) Did anyone else get a ticket slipcase like this from MARC?

UPDATE, later on 6/10: Not a prank. "glassfrequency" posts an e-mail from MTA saying the poster was distributed by the Jacksonville, FL based CSX Corporation, explaining that "MARC contracts with CSX for its commuter rail service on the Brunswick & Camden Lines." Additional digging by "glassfrequency" suggests that the ad was developed by Robin Shepherd Group, also of Jacksonville, FL.

FINAL UPDATE, I THINK, 6/13: I got the same e-mail from MARC that "glassfrequency" did, saying that the poster was CSX's. There's an additional sentence: "Please note that the term "MARC Marshals" is a phrase used on the poster named by CSX and is not an official MARC program." Given that slipcase, there might be a silent "any more" at the end of that sentence. posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:50:00 PM -- |  

 
Makin' an honest living
Another day, another $120,000,000,000 for the addictive cancer-stick pushing industry:

As he concluded closing arguments in the six-year-old lawsuit, Justice Department lawyer Stephen D. Brody shocked tobacco company representatives and anti-tobacco activists by announcing that the government will not seek the $130 billion that a government expert had testified was necessary to fund smoking-cessation programs. Instead, Brody said, the Justice Department will ask tobacco companies to pay $10 billion over five years to help millions of Americans quit smoking.

("Tobacco Escapes Huge Penalty," Carol Leonnig, Washington Post) Even paid professional apologists for the addictive cancer-stick pushing industry were taken aback:

"We were very surprised," said Dan Webb, lawyer for Altria Group's Philip Morris USA and the coordinating attorney in the case. "They've gone down from $130 billion to $10 billion with absolutely no explanation. It's clear the government hasn't thought through what it's doing."

Oh, I don't know about that. posted by Thomas Nephew at 10:00:00 AM -- |  

 
Dim Dems damn Dean
Note to all Democrats, particularly those named John Edwards: Howard Dean is not just some convenient person to triangulate yourself against if you want my vote. Howard Dean, in comments delivered to the Take back America conference, said:

...you know, the idea that you have to wait on line for eight hours to cast your ballot in Florida -- there's something the matter with that. You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever, and get home and then have a -- still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that, because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives. But for ordinary working people, who have to work eight hours a day, they have kids, they got to get home to those kids, the idea of making them stand for eight hours to cast their ballot for democracy is wrong. We ought to make voting easier to do. ... (emphases added)

This poor choice of words -- Dean meant Republican leadership -- got edited down (by CBS, for instance) to the more explosive "Dean has said Republicans never made an honest living in their lives..." And certain Democrats immediately jumped on the chance to profile themselves. Their most prominent member, Joe Biden (D-MBNA), is beneath mention. But disappointingly, John Edwards joined in as well:

Responding to Dean's initial remark, Edwards said Dean "is not the spokesman for the party."
Dean is "a voice. I don't agree with it," Edwards, a former senator and the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2004, said Saturday at a party fundraising dinner in Nashville, Tenn.

Just as with Amnesty International director Irene Khan's "gulag" point, you can either choose to berate the literal inaccuracy of one element of what Dean said -- of course lots of ordinary Republicans make an honest living, too -- or you can choose to acknowledge the more important truths in what he said. Of course there's aggregate vote suppression going on, of course the hyper-rich aren't affected, and of course they're who Republican policies are designed to benefit. As eRobin ("factesque") wrote in an open letter to Edwards:

You had a chance to stand up for him as the party leader while, perhaps, smoothing the edges of the truth he spoke - and he did speak the truth: There is a cold, cruel and very effective reason that the longest lines to vote happened in the poorest neighborhoods, where people are the most short of time. But you didn't stand up for Gov. Dean or for those people.

I understand the value of diplomacy. I don't understand shooting a leader in the back when he has the courage to stick his head out of the foxhole and draw fire, while the rest of the army is too polite (or, more accurately, too frightened) to move forward the discussion about corporate abuses, class and poverty that we must have in the country.

Via tunesmith ("politology") I see that Edwards is at least rowing back from his Nashville statements on his web site:

Howard and I have been saying the same thing about this for years. Hear that? The same thing. For years. Have I ever put it some way that Howard wouldn't agree with? Probably. And he put it in a way, once, just the other day, that I can’t agree with, since I come from a place where hard-working people, who are better served by the agenda and passion of the Democrats, somehow still vote Republican.

Well, maybe. The argument is still whether Dean deserves a "Sistah Souljah" moment from John "Remember me?" Edwards. Edwards deserves a lot of credit for running a good campaign and articulating important issues. I respect and welcome his support for labor issues and opposition to the bankruptcy bill.

But I don't appreciate his instinct to distance himself from Dean at the first second-hand hint of trouble. Howard Dean played team ball for Kerry and Edwards during the campaign. Even allowing for his post-Nashville statement, I'm not confident Edwards understands he'd better return the favor.

Dean got fighting back hard exactly right before Edwards did. He's probably getting a lot else right while John Edwards (D-Let's Face It: Nowhere) or Joe Biden (D-MBNA) engage in transparent "I don't agree with everything he said" positioning. If prominent Democrats can't think of something respectful to say in a pinch about one of their number-- while the Rove machine picks off Democratic war heroes and piles up lifetime judgeships for wingnuts -- they should strongly consider saying nothing at all.

Meanwhile, the New Republic inches ever closer to losing my subscription over a similar bit of tut-tutting about Dean's "DeLay in jail" comments (to say nothing of Peretz's routine upchucks). Dean:

I think Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence down there courtesy of the Texas taxpayers

Frankly, I don't see the problem: surely we're all entitled and even correct to feel DeLay ought to go back to Houston where he can serve a jail sentence. As far as the Hammer is concerned, I'm in the "if you don't have anything bad to say about DeLay, don't say anything at all" school of political thought. DeLay is a danger to the republic and the sooner we see the back of him the better, whether it's in prison stripes, pest control duds, or even a two-bit lobbyist's wrinkled, grubby, sweat-stained suit -- I'm a generous man. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:40:00 AM -- |  

 
How bad a mess can we afford to leave behind
James Howard Kunstler on the Caspian pipeline:

The main problem is the idea that the American economy, and the easy-motoring lifestyle that holds it hostage, will now depend on a 42-inch wide oil pipe running through nations fraught with Muslim-Christian conflict on top of post-Soviet gangster politics. The good news is that the $4 billion pipe is buried underground so it will not be vulnerable to the small arms so abundant in that part of the world: shoulder-launched missiles, rocket propelled grenades, or .50 caliber bullets. The bad news is that it is only a few feet underground and can still be blown up by five pounds of Semtech strapped to a donkey.

Juan Cole on an even better reason than world opinion to shut down Gitmo:

Terrorists are dirty criminals who should be tried, and if found guilty, put away for life. Terrorists are criminals. They are not non-human, and any attempt to create a category of human beings to whom the protections of the law do not apply is an attempt to undermine the Republic. It is a return of the Bill of Attainder, a feature of absolute monarchy that the Founding Fathers stood against. It is something to which even Rehnquist is opposed. [...]

Guantanamo Prison should be closed because it was conceived as the beginning of the end of the American Republic.

Ron Nordland, departing NEWSWEEK Baghdad bureau chief, on Iraq:

I'm not one of those who think America should pull out immediately. There's no real choice but to stay, probably for many years to come. The question isn't "When will America pull out?"; it's "How bad a mess can we afford to leave behind?" All I can say is this: last one out, please turn on the lights.

Washington Post: Poll Finds Dimmer View of Iraq War:

"It appears that Americans are coming to the realization that the war in Iraq is not being won and may well prove unwinnable," said retired Army Col. Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor at Boston University. "That conclusion bleeds over into a conviction that it may not have been necessary in the first place."

posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:00:00 PM -- |  

 
New dawn for oldest profession

During the chaos in the monkey cage, Chen saw something out of the corner of his eye that he would later try to play down but in his heart of hearts he knew to be true. What he witnessed was probably the first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind. (Further proof that the monkeys truly understood money: the monkey who was paid for sex immediately traded the token in for a grape.)

...from "Monkey Business," by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt (the authors of "Freakonomics") in the New York Times, via Savage Minds ("Notes and Queries in Anthropology"), where co-blogger Kerim adds:

I have long believed that humans place too much stake on language in evaluating the cognitive abilities of our fellow creatures, and I hope that experiments like these serve to broaden our understanding of the multiple intelligences required for linguistic communication.

The story reminds me of my "Kinsley's conjecture" and "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" posts, with Kerim's statement serving as one response to Dennett's assertion. Of course it took the specific prompts and environment of the laboratory to make it happen, but it makes me wonder whether monkeys do anything like this in the wild. You can imagine the research leading to some prototype "uplift" experiments -- so to speak.

At any rate, go to the Times story for the facts and to the Savage Minds link for better informed speculation, and generally for a very interesting blog indeed. I discovered it via a typically fascinating Timothy Burke reflection on a different Savage Minds post (one that Burke ultimately disagrees with) about military consumption and generation of anthropological research.

The monkey research is done by Yale economist Keith Chen, who figured that capuchin monkeys -- each one a "bottomless stomach of want" in his words -- might be interesting subjects for modeling a number of economic theories and/or irrational human behaviors. He may be on to something. For example, it turns out that capuchins much prefer gambling for a small potential gain than for an equally small potential loss, a.k.a. "loss aversion." The conclusion rings true:

The data generated by the capuchin monkeys, Chen says, ''make them statistically indistinguishable from most stock-market investors.''

posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:20:00 PM -- |  

 
California-sick
-- adj., neologism: state of remembering just how beautiful California is and wishing you were back there again.

Induced by Southknoxbubba photo travelogue: Mojave Desert, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, Monterey, San Francisco, Napa Valley, Sonora/Yosemite, and probably more to come. I remember how weird it seemed at first to see every little detail of a mountain's topography: no trees, just grass and some bushes. Manzanita. Harbor seals. Kelp. The surf along Highway 1. Those distinctively cool, clear days in San Francisco, the distinctively mellow, warm evenings in Yolo County. Live oak trees in the Central Valley. Point Reyes; oysters! Bass Lake; we used to hike there a lot.

Anyhow. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:02:00 AM -- |  

 
German blogger series: EU Constitution referendum defeats
As is well known, French and Dutch voters voted "no" against the proposed European constitution over the last week. I thought I'd scan German blogs for reactions to this development. All quotes are translations, unless otherwise indicated.
Kai Pahl ("dogfood") -- Pahl characterizes the French result as "basically a protest vote against Chirac," and a protest vote against the rise of so-called "locust" or "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism in the EU. Pahl also sees the Iraq war as further aggravating this kind of protest voter, because it revealed "the divide between the 'old Europe' and the 'transatlanticists'":

The former want to position Europe as an independent power, the latter understand Europe as an economic alliance and seek partnership with the US in other areas. The Iraq war has made plain that there has been massive change in the center of gravity towards transatlanticism because of the addition of east European countries.

Turkey's application for admission played an important secondary role, Pahl thinks:
Joerg Kantel ("Schockwellenreiter") -- Adopts a "Junge Welt" headline as his own: "Non c'est non: Europe says thank you, France!" Kantel's quickie post lifts the theme of a second analysis (Bernard Schmid in telepolis), presumably to signal Kantel's take on the event:

The rejection of the EU constitution points to a growing social polarization; the choice is between an economically liberal or a social Europe.

In the German usage, "liberal" has a different meaning, at least lately, from the "FDR/social safety net/civil rights" meaings it's associated with in the U.S. It's beome the word used to mean +/- free-market, "creative destruction," sink or swim style economics.

Heiko Hebig -- writing in English, Hebig comments:

A European Constitution should have less than 1000 words, less than 100 articles and should be easy to learn and understand by school children. [...]

A European Constitution should establish a legal foundation for common principles and values. It should not establish red tape.

UPDATE, 6/7: In a second post, Hebig criticizes Schroeder and Chirac for trying to keep the ratification process alive, and writes, "I should start referring to the Draft EU Constitution as the "Terri Schiavo Constitution".

Andreas Schaefer ("dekaf") -- Schaefer (profiled here in 2003) sounded disappointed, asking:

How many of the potential voters have any idea what's at stake with the EU constitution constitution, or have even read it? And how many of the blowhards [Dummschwaetzern] in radio, television, and the weblogs, who think they have to comment about it?

His headline: "Why democracy doesn't work."

chief pedro ("Der Denkpass") -- this blogger regrets the French and Dutch votes, and thinks the "no" vote was driven not just by concerns about the constitution, but by concerns about the concept of a unified Europe itself --an issue pedro considers settled and out of bounds. Nevertheless, he (or she) acknowledges concerns about the proposed constitution:

It shouldn't be surprising that this constitution isn't able to generate much enthusiasm among the voters. A constitution that is supported by its citizens, must above all be understandable by these citizens. One of the fundamental prerequisites for that is a clear, terse statement, something which unfortunately eluded the European constitutional proposal. The American constitution may be a source of American patriotism for that reason, because every American can read and understand it without needing to take several weeks of vacation or needing a panel of experts to explain the most important concepts of international law.

Tobias Schwarz ("a fistful of euros") -- Schwarz, writing in English, puts his hopes in German foreign minister Joschka Fischer's 'glass half full' spin on the defeat in France. Fischer, speaking in Berlin :

The real positive and new experience in the French campaign was that it was a European campaign…. The French (referendum) campaign was the first time that I was really campaigning for Europe.

And such a model (of campaigning for Europe) can work. This would mean that the next time the European Parliament is up for election, we have to raise issues not on a national level, but we have to form Europe-wide platforms created by European-wide parties. And we have to run with candidates representing not national programs, but European programs. I am not talking about a pie-in-the-sky European program with nice ideas that nobody is really interested in. But they have to have a substance. What about social justice in the European Union? What about the free market? What does it mean in France, in Germany, in Poland, in Lithuania, in Slovenia, in Portugal? And then (we have to) present candidates for the job for the president of the Commission and they must run for that position. Without that, I don’t believe we can really bridge the gap between the project of the elites and the reality of the people.

The dog that didn't bark
Mainly, though, I found no comment at all about either election at most of the German blogs I checked. You can see a partial list under "german blogs" in the sidebar. It's possible that something's been added at the ones I looked at since then, of course.

Blogging is a personal thing done in one's spare time, so I shouldn't make too much of the lack of comment by any one particular German blogger. Also, the German blogs I frequent are more "mixed purpose" sites than mine, longer on personal reflections and experiences, and shorter on reactions to news of the day.

Still, it seems fair to say there was little deep anguish about the events in France and Holland or the fate of the European Union in this particular online scribbling class. Instead, I'd describe a strong minority of reactions as quiet satisfaction at the "non" and "nee" votes, with reluctant nods of agreement from those supporting the European Union and its proposed constitution. Even among supporters, there seems to be increased skepticism about a constitution, or at least this constitution, for the European Union. Overall, there's a "wait and see" approach that doesn't signal deep support for the kind of far-flung "United States of Europe" the constitution seemed to envision.

If my little sample were taken to be representative of German bloggers, their opinions seem to run somewhat counter to German public opinion -- but with public opinion catching up. An 'Infratest Dimap' opinion poll in early May found that 59% of Germans would have voted for the European Constitution, given the chance -- a chance which another poll found 77% of Germans wished they'd been afforded (Deutsche Welle). Instead, the constitution was ratified by the German Bundestag and Bundesrat. Following the French and Dutch votes, a June 4 Ipsos poll found that the margin of support had narrowed to 44% for, 39% against (SPIEGEL).


=====
OTHER "German blogger series" posts: 2002: German bloggers: an occasional series; Gedanken zum Thema Pirna (East German anti-minority immigrant incident); 2003: Reactions to Rumsfeld "Old Europe" phrase; Expatriates: Schaefer, siebenviertel, Klein, Hanson, Praschl; 2004: Reactions to Abu Ghraib; 2005: Discussing German poverty at le sofa blog.

UPDATE, 6/7: "Allerschaerfstes Willkommen," Heiko Hebig and Schockwellenreiter readers! Please feel free to leave a comment!
EDITS, 6/7: "pregnant" to "terse" as per chief pedro's comment. In the same quote, "Darstellung" was edited to "statement" ("exegesis" might have worked, too), and "cause" to "be a source of ... for that reason" (deswegen). I will have a word with my editor for leaving translations in such sloppy condition. posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:20:00 PM -- |  

 
"Why are you trembling?"
The Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" reports that the Srebrenica execution video shown at the Milosevic trial on Wednesday was used for training purposes during the war in Bosnia, and could be borrowed from a video store by a "select" audience in the town of Sid for years after the war. There are 5 copies; the original is at the Hague where the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) hearings are taking place.

"Der Standard" also reports that chief ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte says she will be showing additional videos in the near future.

A June 3 "Der Standard" report describes the video and provides some translation of what was said:

Soldiers with Serbian flags and insignia on their berets pull six swollen faced men in shabby civilian clothes, hands tied behind their back, from a military truck. The faces of the Serbian soldiers are distinct. They pose for the camera. "Why are you trembling?" one screams at the prisoners. "That one just pissed his pants," says the other soldier. Two men lying face down in the grass are shot one after the other. The third stands completely paralyzed until he too gets a salvo in the back. "The battery is out," the cameraman curses, "but keep working."

I should say, however, that it's not yet clear from reports I've read whether the priest noted in the prior post was aware of the specific purpose of this particular Scorpion mission. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:19:00 AM -- |