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The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
Michael Moore has already forfeited his chance for another Academy Award despite good odds of winning again. His only wish is to have as many people as possible see the film before Tuesday.
Share this link with everyone you know who is "on the fence" or a die-hard Repug!!
"The figures provoked a furious response last night in Westminster. Clare Short, the former cabinet minister who resigned over the war, said: 'It is really horrifying. When will Tony Blair stop saying it is all beneficial for the Iraqi people since Saddam Hussein has gone? How many more lives are to be taken? It is no wonder, given this tragic death toll, that the resistance to the occupation is growing.
"We have all relied on Iraqi body counts from media reports. That is clearly an under-estimate and this shows that it was a very big under-estimate. It is truly dreadful. Tony Blair talks simplistically about it getting better in Iraq. These figures prove it is just an illusion.'
"MPs said the assault on Fallujah expected after the US presidential election next Tuesday would add to the growing death toll among civilians. The figures are certain to provoke fresh demands at the Commons next week for Mr Blair to avoid further civilian deaths.
"Alan Simpson, a member of Labour Against the War, said: "Iraq has not seen this scale of slaughter since its war with Iran. At some point, the slaughter of civilians in the name of peace has to become a crime of war. This is not a matter of indifference but criminality. These figures are horrific, but it is a scandal that the world remains silent'...
"The researchers are savagely critical of the US General Tommy Franks for his widely quoted remark that 'we don't do body counts'. They say that the Geneva Convention requires occupying forces to protect the civilian population, and add the fact that more than half of the deaths caused by them were women and children is 'cause for concern'. [My emphasis above.]
So, Steve Christian, the Mayor of Pitcairn Island, will be jailed for three years (no surprise). Christian, one of 47 descendants of the Bounty mutineers who make up the entire population of Pitcairn, will pay the price for child rape. His son, Randy Christian, will do seven years.
If you've been following the case, in which most of the adult males of the island were charged with child rape and sexual abuse, or even if you haven't, The Law Report has a fascinating program to listen to, made just a few days ago.
The Pitcairn case raises a great many fascinating issues. Not the least of these is the question of Pitcairn's status in a British Empire that it ostensibly left back on April 28, 1789 when Fletcher Christian and his followers mutinied against Captain Bligh (who later went on to be governor of my State of New South Wales, where he was mutinied against once more). As I understand it, the case will go all the way to Britain's Privy Council to settle the matter.
Another major issue arises from the fact that a few weeks ago when the lawyers and international media horde first descended on the island, the women of Pitcairn called a public meeting to say that the underage sex practices on the island were part of their traditional (Anglo-Polynesian) culture, and that they themselves did not consider it rape or child abuse.
I've had no emails for a full day. My ISP says there are about 140 on the server, but when I check by Webmail, it still says there are none. Ain't life on the Net fun?
New Florida vote scandal revealed By Greg Palast Reporting for BBC's Newsnight
10/26/04 "BBC" -- A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.
Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign's national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called "caging list".
It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.
An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: "The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day."
Ion Sancho, a Democrat, noted that Florida law allows political party operatives inside polling stations to stop voters from obtaining a ballot.
Mass challenges
They may then only vote "provisionally" after signing an affidavit attesting to their legal voting status.
Mass challenges have never occurred in Florida. Indeed, says Mr Sancho, not one challenge has been made to a voter "in the 16 years I've been supervisor of elections."
"Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process and cause chaos on election day; and discourage voters from voting."
Sancho calls it "intimidation." And it may be illegal.
In Washington, well-known civil rights attorney, Ralph Neas, noted that US federal law prohibits targeting challenges to voters, even if there is a basis for the challenge, if race is a factor in targeting the voters. The list of Jacksonville voters covers an area with a majority of black residents.
When asked by Newsnight for an explanation of the list, Republican spokespersons claim the list merely records returned mail from either fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify their addresses for purposes of mailing campaign literature.
Republican state campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher stated the list was not put together "in order to create" a challenge list, but refused to say it would not be used in that manner.
Rather, she did acknowledge that the party's poll workers will be instructed to challenge voters, "Where it's stated in the law."
There was no explanation as to why such clerical matters would be sent to top officials of the Bush campaign in Florida and Washington.
Private detective
In Jacksonville, to determine if Republicans were using the lists or other means of intimidating voters, we filmed a private detective filming every "early voter" - the majority of whom are black - from behind a vehicle with blacked-out windows. The private detective claimed not to know who was paying for his all-day services.
On the scene, Democratic Congresswoman Corinne Brown said the surveillance operation was part of a campaign of intimidation tactics used by the Republican Party to intimate and scare off African American voters, almost all of whom are registered Democrats.
Greg Palast's film was broadcast by Newsnight on Tuesday, 26 October, 2004.
"London (Reuters) - Deaths of Iraqis have soared to 100,000 above normal since the Iraq war mainly due [to] violence and many of the victims have been women and children, public health experts from the United States said Thursday.
"'Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq', researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland said in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal.
"'Violence accounted for most of the excess death and air strikes from (U.S.-led) coalition forces accounted for the most violent deaths', the report added.
"The new figures, based on surveys done by the researchers in Iraq, are much higher than earlier estimates based on think tank and media sources which put the Iraqi civilian death toll at up to 16,053 and military fatalities as high as 6,370.
"By comparison 848 U.S. military were killed in combat or attacks and another 258 died in accidents or incidents not related to fighting, according to the Pentagon.
"'The risk of death from violence in the period after the invasion was 58 times higher than in the period before the war', Les Roberts and his colleagues said in the report which compared Iraqi deaths during 14.6 months before the invasion and the 17.8 months after it.
"He added that violent deaths were widespread and were mainly attributed to coalition forces.
"'Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children', Roberts added." [my emphasis]
"Four Britons who were held at Guantanamo Bay for more than two-and-a-half years sued the American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials for $40m (£22m) yesterday -- accusing them of organising, authorising and overseeing alleged torture and inhumane treatment at the US prison.
"Lawyers for the four, the so-called Tipton Three and a fourth Briton from Manchester, filed the civil suit in Washington DC yesterday morning, demanding $10m each in compensation for physical and mental abuse from which the men are still recovering. All four men, Rhuhel Ahmed, 22, Asif Iqbal, 22, Safiq Rasul, 27, and the Mancunian Jamal al-Harith, 37, were released from Guantanamo Bay earlier this year having never been charged with any offence." [my emphasis]
UK: Secret services to be given access to ID card database
"The intelligence services will be given unprecedented access to the government database underpinning the controversial identity card scheme, the Home Office said yesterday, prompting accusations of Big Brother-style surveillance of people's everyday lives.
"The plan emerged as David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, announced 'refinements' to his ID card proposals, saying that the central register containing the cards' information would provide a 'full audit trail' of when and where they were used. This could include every time holders use public services -- including hospitals, benefits offices or colleges -- buy an expensive item or make large withdrawals from banks.
"The Home Office insisted that only the security services, such as MI5 and MI6, and not police or government officials, would be allowed to access the data.
"But a spokesman for Liberty, the civil liberties organisation, said: 'It's very easy to say today that only intelligence services could access this information. But they can't say that would be the case in five years' time. Once the information is in the system, it's open to misuse'." [my emphasis]
"Scientists have discovered a new and tiny species of human that lived in Indonesia at the same time our own ancestors were colonising the world.
"The three-foot (one-metre) tall species -- dubbed 'the Hobbit' -- lived on Flores island until at least 12,000 years ago.
"The fact that little people feature in the legends of modern Flores islanders suggests we might have to take tales of Leprechauns and Yeti more seriously."
"Australia's spy chief has directly linked the Iraq war to the rising ranks of global terrorists and says it could have inspired new followers of Osama bin Laden in Australia.
"The ASIO director-general, Dennis Richardson, also said in a speech last night that al-Qaeda had cased an airport in Australia before the September 11 attacks in the United States.
"Mr Richardson said 'it is possible some new followers in Australia have been motivated primarily by Iraq', putting him at odds with the Federal Government's line on whether the war inflames terrorism.
"'We cannot exclude the possibility of Iraq being a motivator for some people here in Australia who may want to do harm,' he said." Source: Sydney Morning Herald
"The honey bee is helping scientists discover how alcohol affects the brain. The study is part of long-term research into whether alcohol increases aggressive behaviour in humans.
"Scientists at Ohio State University fed honey bees different amounts of alcohol and watched how long they spent walking, flying, grooming or just lying on their backs.
"Julie Mustard, the entomologist leading the research, said that, at the molecular level, bees' brains worked in the same way as humans'. Those given the highest amounts of alcohol spent the most time lying on their backs."
The old "stuff 'em in a truck" routine "More than 80 people are said to have died as a result of Monday's clashes in southern Thailand, many apparently crushed to death after being arrested.
"Previous reports said only six people were killed, and 20 were injured.
"Violence erupted after at least 1,500 protesters gathered outside a police station in Narathiwat province following the arrest of six Muslim men.
"Thai officials said 78 of the dead apparently died of suffocation after being loaded into army trucks." Source: BBC
The people of Nauru celebrate Angam Day to commemorate the birth of the 1,500th Nauruan at the end of the epidemic in 1920s. The Nauruan word angam means: ‘jubilation’, ‘celebration’, ‘to have triumphed over all hardships’, ‘to have reached a set goal’ or ‘coming home’.
Nauruans experienced a dramatic drop in population in 1920 due to the influenza epidemic. The total number of Nauruans decreased dramatically, reaching a level of only 1,068 people. This appalling ‘demographic drop’ caused fear for the continuing survival of community ... [More]
Nauru, pawn in Australia’s game An oval-shaped South Pacific island lying near the equator 4,000 km from Sydney, Australia, Nauru is the smallest republic in the world – and an ecological basket case. It lies 42km (26 miles) south of the equator, and its nearest neighbour is Ocean Island (Banaba, part of Kiribati), 305km (190 miles) to the east. Until recently, Nauru was the richest nation per capita on earth. That was before the bird-droppings phosphate ran out ...
In 2001 ... the Australian government of ultra-conservative Prime Minister John Howard, in order to keep tinted refugees/asylum seekers from white Australian shores, began shipping desperate boat people to Nauru. The Nauru government, strapped for cash following the collapse of its economy, accepted refugees for money. In Nauru, people fleeing persecution in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq found themselves locked up in this tropical isle. Hot and isolated, the inhospitable 21 sq km island has been called a “living hell” for the refugees ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.
I think if a doctor diagnosed me with some rare tropical virus I would have something exciting worth dropping into a conversation, something to explain the strange yellow spots, the ringing in the ears and the disgusting bulging eyes.
How disappointing it would be to find out some time later that the diagnosis was wrong and that I was, in fact, presenting with symptoms of having underpants a size too small.
So it is with Esmeralda's 'virus'. It's no virus at all, dammit. (Not that her underpants are the wrong size or anything. I make sure of that, as part of normal computer maintenance.)
Baz le Tuff (pictured working at my desk), whose reputation for his digital acuity is only exceeded by that for his immense collection of girls' bicycle seats, having spent most of yesterday and two hours this morning applying his physician's skills to Esmeralda, had one of his famous Copernican-scale insights. "It isn't a virus and we've been pissing up the wrong tree," he told me with that steely look of certainty he once had many years ago when he predicted that the Fonz would do something weird soon, "like maybe jump a fish, or a whale, or some aquatic creature like that". He had that look in '69 when he told me that Meatloaf would "be bigger than Elvis". It's uncanny.
Hackers come home, we love you It was instability in MS Outlook Express, not a worm. So it's not "Death to hackers" after all, but "Death to William Gates".
The symptoms were that all incoming emails were getting sent by my computer an attachment that said in the subject "This address is no more. My new address is ..." So it looked like the work of a trojan or worm, or some bug at least.
What is was, was MSOE applying an old Message Rule incorrectly. Friends of mine will know that I've had Message Rules problems in the past. For example, I might have a Rule that says all emails coming in from Jack must have a red subject header, and they occasionally come in black or blue. I've also found that new rules I was trying to apply, would not apply at all.
In May when I changed my email addies, I made a rule to send as an attachment an email that gave my correspondents my new address. Over the past few days, MSOE has been sending it to every correspondent, not just to those using my pre-May addresses. This explains why seven different scanners including McAfee, Norton, Avast, Kerpovsky (or Kalashnikov or Kaminsky or whatever it's called), Panda and Housecall were unable to clean the 'virus' that never was. MSOE somehow applied an old rule to the wrong incomings. This it did all by itself, as I haven't been near the Rules setting for some weeks, maybe months.
By removing the rule, and in fact removing all the rules, just to start with a clean slate, the bug is fixed. And I hope to get my work schedule back to its default setting, viz, Frantic.
Thanx, Monsieur le Tuff. I wouldn't be where I am today without you. Not that I hold you to blame. And thank you to readers of the ezines who have been patient. At least, I think you have. I haven't checked my In Tray yet so I hope I haven't spoken too soon.
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington Post endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president in its Sunday edition, saying the Democratic candidate had wisdom and open-mindedness that made him a stronger candidate to lead the United States than President Bush.
"Ten days before the election, the Massachusetts Democrat now leads Bush 66 to 57 in newspaper endorsements, according to the trade publication Editor and Publisher.
"Papers endorsing Kerry, including the New York Times, have a combined circulation of 10.6 million readers, compared to a combined circulation of 6.6 million for papers endorsing Bush, Editor and Publisher said." Source
Don't mean to spoil your Sunday lunch, or dinner, but we may be seeing these in the shops next year. Smoking is already banned in Ireland in all places of work, including pubs and restaurants, and the Brits are thinking of following suit.
View of packs of cigarettes, unveiled by European Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne, at a news conference in Brussels October 22, 2004. Byrne unveiled new violent images for cigarette packs to warn consumers of the health risk of smoking. REUTERS Source
"The EU head office wants EU governments to require cigarette makers to display the photos on their products, hoping the images will have more force than written warnings now on packs of cigarettes, including 'smoking kills' or 'smoking can lead to a slow and painful death.'
"EU member states now use 14 written health warnings, which must cover at least a third of the packaging. So far, Ireland and Belgium have indicated they will require cigarette makers to use the photos, which should appear on packs next year." Source Slideshow
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"The figures provoked a furious response last night in Westminster. Clare Short, the former cabinet minister who resigned over the war, said: 'It is really horrifying. When will Tony Blair stop saying it is all beneficial for the Iraqi people since Saddam Hussein has gone? How many more lives are to be taken? It is no wonder, given this tragic death toll, that the resistance to the occupation is growing.
So, 
"London (Reuters) - Deaths of Iraqis have soared to 100,000 above normal since the Iraq war mainly due [to] violence and many of the victims have been women and children, public health experts from the United States said Thursday.
"Four Britons who were held at Guantanamo Bay for more than two-and-a-half years sued the American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Pentagon officials for $40m (£22m) yesterday -- accusing them of organising, authorising and overseeing alleged torture and inhumane treatment at the US prison.
"Scientists have discovered a new and tiny species of human that lived in Indonesia at the same time our own ancestors were colonising the world. 
"The honey bee is helping scientists discover how alcohol affects the brain. The study is part of long-term research into whether alcohol increases aggressive behaviour in humans.
The old "stuff 'em in a truck" routine
Angam Day, Nauru 
I think if a doctor diagnosed me with some rare tropical virus I would have something exciting worth dropping into a conversation, something to explain the strange yellow spots, the ringing in the ears and the disgusting bulging eyes. 
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington Post endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president in its Sunday edition, saying the Democratic candidate had wisdom and open-mindedness that made him a stronger candidate to lead the United States than President Bush.
