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Seize the day with more than 150 articles at Wilson's articles department





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	:: Pip		8:42 AM

Weather magic charm

Remember on St Vincent's Day
If that the sun his beams display,
Be sure to mark his transient beam
Which through the window sheds a gleam;
For 'tis a token bright and clear,
Of prosperous weather all the year.

	:: N		3:19 AM

Fireworks in Washington, despair around the world

Robin Cook, in The Guardian:

"Inauguration does not do justice to the exuberant celebrations of this week. Coronation would come closer. Washington ended yesterday with nine official balls. The night before George Bush gave a new spin to the phrase moveable feast by fitting in three separate banquets. He then expended as much ordnance in peppering the sky over the Capitol with fireworks as would get his occupation forces in Iraq through a whole 24 hours.

"The contrasts between this uninhibited triumphalism and the real world are as wide as the American continent...

"Not that Iraq was unusual in being left out of the script. There were no specifics about anything else, either. Instead, we were invited to drift along with a stream of generalities, untroubled by hard problems or real-world solutions. Freedom and liberty are universal values. The founding fathers of the US constitution, admirable though they may have been, do not hold patent rights over those concepts. They are embedded in the roots of the separate tradition of European social democracy and we must not let George Bush appropriate them to provide an ideological cover for his new imperialism.

"Nor should we accept the implicit assumption of Bush's muscular foreign policy that freedom can be delivered from 38,000ft through the bomb doors. One of the rare passages of the speech when Bush appeared animated by his own text, rather than engaged in formal recitation, was when he saluted the declaration of independence and the sounding of the liberty bell. But those were celebrations of freedom from foreign dominance -- not to put too fine a point on it, independence from the British. He needs to grasp that other nations are just as attached to freedom from foreign intervention, including domination by America.

"The president and his speechwriters have yet to confront the tension between their rhetoric about freedom, which is universally popular, and their practice of projecting US firepower, which is resented in equal measure. That explains why, on the very day when the president set forward his mission to bring liberty to the world, a poll revealed that a large majority of its inhabitants believe that he will actually make it more dangerous. The first indication of whether they are right to worry will be whether the Bush administration mediate their differences with Iran through the state department or through the US air force."

r.cook@guardian.co.uk

Full text

	:: N		2:47 AM

Athens chief fumes at US 'lewdness' claims

I did a Victor Meldrew on this one: "I don't BELIEVE it!". (One Foot in the Grave fans will identify.) And I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed by Angelopoulos.

"Athens (Reuters) - A clutch of complaints by U.S. viewers that the Athens Olympics opening ceremony featured lewd nudity has incensed the Games chief, who warned American regulators to back off from policing ancient Greek culture...

"Complaints focused on a parade of actors portraying naked statues. Among them were the Satyr and the nude Kouros male statues, both emblems of ancient Greece's golden age ...

"'As Americans surely are aware, there is great hostility in the world today to cultural domination in which a single value system created elsewhere diminishes and degrades local cultures', she [Gianna Angelopoulos] said in her commentary.

"'In this context, it is astonishingly unwise for an agency of the U.S. government to engage in an investigation that could label a presentation of the Greek origins of civilisation as unfit for television viewing'."

Full text

	:: N		2:07 AM

I smell wrong!

I always knew I had been unfairly attacked on the Isle of Skye by the midges. Nobody else in the party had to deal with the horrors that I had on my scalp and arms. Skye is beautiful but facing the midges takes a brave soul. Now I know why I was singled out by the vampires. The report below only mentions mosquitoes, but the scientist bloke I saw on the news definitely said "and other biting flies, such as midges". Of course there are major health implications in this news too, since mosquitoes spread malaria which causes approx 2 million deaths per year.

"LONDON — British researchers have found chemicals produced by the human body that repel mosquitoes, which could lead to a natural, odorless bug spray.

"Scientists have long known that some people are more tempting targets for mosquitoes than others ...

"The researchers found certain chemicals were more common in people who were less attractive to the mosquitoes. When they sprayed those chemicals on people who normally did attract mosquitoes, the insects were no longer interested."

Full text

	:: N		1:13 AM

Human Rights, Not Hollow Words

From Amnesty International: "An appeal to President George W. Bush on the occasion of his re-inauguration"

"Mr President,

"In your inaugural address four years ago, you promised to be a leader who would 'speak for greater justice'. Since then, a much repeated promise of your administration has been that the USA will adhere to fundamental principles of human dignity and the rule of law, including in the context of the 'war on terror' ...

"Of course, a government should not be assessed on its words alone, but also on its actions. For things may not be as officially described. As you yourself pointed out in your 26 June 2003 statement on torture, 'notorious human rights abusers ... have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors'.

"Your administration has as a matter of policy for more than three years denied international human rights monitors, including Amnesty International, access to detainees held by the USA in the 'war on terror', in addition to routinely denying detainees access to the courts, legal counsel and relatives. In addition, US personnel have staged deceptions in order to subvert basic human rights protections and the rule of law ...

"For Australian detainee Mamdouh Habib, the threat of transfer to Egypt became a reality. According to a motion filed in US federal court in November 2004, he was secretly transferred from Pakistan to Egypt with US agents involved and knowing that he would face torture. He spent six months in Egyptian custody where he was allegedly subjected to electric shocks, water torture, physical assaults, suspension from hooks, threats with dogs, and cruel prison conditions. He was subsequently transferred to Guantánamo in May 2002 and held without charge or trial there for more than two and a half years. A released detainee has alleged to Amnesty International that Mamdouh Habib was subjected to a regime of sleep deprivation in Guantánamo that left him with 'blood coming from both his nose and ears'."

[See Pip's remarks below about presumption of innocence. And all emphasis in above text is mine. - N]

Read the full text of the Amnesty letter [a blistering indictment of US policies + recommendations for change].

	:: Pip		8:57 PM

Love spells: Feast day of St Agnes of Rome
(Christmas rose, Helleborus niger flor albo, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint)

gnes was a girl who was martyred for her Christian faith in about 304 (traditionally January 21 of that year). She was martyred in Rome and was buried in the cemetery on the Via Nomentana, where a church was built in her honour, circa 350.

Love prognostications
John Keats in his poem Eve of St Agnes refers to certain love prognostications, but these are not for the eve (January 20), rather for tonight, the night of St Agnes. English antiquary John Aubrey wrote in Miscellanies of 1696 that on the night of St Agnes you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another. While saying a paternoster ('Our Father'), stick one of these pins in your sleeve, and you will dream of the person you will marry.

But kids, don’t try this at home if you’re already married ...

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.

	:: Pip		8:01 AM

Habib's return delayed by US demand for shackles

What happened to the presumption of innocence in American law? Australian citizen Habib, unlucky enough to have been captured by the US, released without charge after more than 3 years in Gitmo hell, is still being treated like an animal by the Bush government:

"The repatriation of Mamdouh Habib from Guantanamo Bay to Australia is being delayed because of demands from the US that he be shackled on his flight home, and that his aircraft not fly through US airspace."

Source: SMH

	:: Pip		5:20 PM

Permaculture: Post-tsunami rehabilitation

"As the emergency response phase continues post-tsunami, it bears considering how coastal communities can reduce vulnerability for the future.
Ideas and strategies that have proven merit in coastal rehabilitation and protection need to be introduced early into any rehabilitation planning. Such initiatives are ideally seeded in the emergency response phase of disaster relief, otherwise the understandable impulse by both survivors and aid deliverers may be to replicate what previously existed before considering new appropriate patterns. The integrated approach also delivers the incalculable benefit of enabling an early sense of ownership by survivors in the rehabilitation process. "

Source: Permaculture Australia

	:: Pip		2:35 PM

Black Thursday

"The Idea Is Simple.
Just Like The President.

This January 20th:
- Call in sick to work
- Don't buy anything
...and write to your newspaper, your
senator and your representative 
to tell them why."

They're holding the president's ball!

	:: Pip		9:21 AM

Guestbook spammers

I have a guestbook (come and say g'day) and Tell J-9 has a guestbook. Tell J-9 is a webpage set up specifically to inform people like you and me about a relatively unknown, deadly form of breast cancer that is often misdiagnosed because it doesn't present with lumps.

So when guestbook spammers like sexybabes leave messages in books like Tell J-9's, my blood boils. Both books have had three in the past fortnight. Of course, the sites doing the spamming don't have any way of contacting them, as they're only there to show ads.

Imagine how you would feel if you were a woman wondering if she had terminal Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) and you clicked a link to a site showing naked women? One of the spammers was a blog which I tracked down as a member of Blogarama and was able to inform the administrators, but sometimes it feels like it's a losing battle against slimy spammers. How do these bastards sleep?

	:: Pip		8:22 AM

Tsunami toll "over 226,000"


"BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - The global death toll from the Asian tsunami has shot above 226,000 after Indonesia's Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of tens of thousands of people previously listed as missing."
Source: Yahoo! News

	:: Pip		9:36 PM

Food stamps instead of dole?

Australia: "A group of coalition MPs are reportedly preparing to push for the dole to be replaced by food stamps and utility credits at a Young Liberal and National Convention in Hobart on Sunday."
Source: The Age

I found it at What Rooly Happened, a fine Aussie blog, where Walter writes:

Here it is, gentle folk. After July 1 this year it'll be no holds barred in the tory sport of poor-bashing - it'll become L.A.W. Thanks, need I remind anyone, to the ALP and its perverted preferencing deals.

	:: Pip		9:02 PM

Ming the Comparatively Merciful

On this day in 1966 Australia's longest-serving prime minister, Sir Robert (‘Ming’) Menzies, resigned.

His nickname came both from the traditional pronunciation (‘Mingis’) of his Scottish surname and from a movie serials character, Ming the Merciless (pictured below). His other common nickname was ‘Pig Iron Bob’, because he arranged for the sale of Australian pig iron (smelted but fairly raw metal) to Japanese corporations, not long before WWII, something the left-wing unions never let him live down as Japan invaded Australia, with the loss of many lives.

No one on any side of politics would disagree that Menzies was a conservative through and through (even his demeanour appeared British-aristocratic), and the Liberal Party that he founded and headed for decades was and still is a misnamed conservative party. However, there was some true democratic liberalism in the Libs originally, long before the party’s swing to the extreme right under PM John Howard in the late-1990s.

Michael Pusey, a prominent progressive Sydney sociologist (and, I believe, the one who introduced the term ‘economic rationalism’ to Australian political discourse) is on record as having praised Pig Iron Bob for what were in their day progressive social policies. It might be that the groan you hear is not Little Johnny Howard delivering a heartless speech against the tinted people of Oz and the world, but Ming the Comparatively Merciful rolling in his grave.

Love Ming or hate him, all agree that his sharpness of mind and wit was remarkable. When an interjector once called from the floor of a meeting, “Menzies, what are ya gunna do about 'ousing?!”, Menzies immediately retorted dryly, “To begin with, I’ll put an aitch on it”. As a boy, I heard him launch an election campaign in the Hornsby (Sydney suburb) Town Hall. A woman from the audience heckled him: “Menzies, you’re a dirty little prawn!”

The corpulent patrician paused for half a moment then carefully replied, “Madam … I must object to that word … little”.

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.

	:: Pip		10:05 AM

Outposts of tyranny

Now that Condollleeezzzaa calls Iran an "outpost of tyranny", does that mean it's no longer on the axis?

I've always wondered why the Shrub named Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil". Why axis? The three countries have nothing to do with each other, unlike the Axis powers of WW II. Could his speechwriters be as historically challenged as he is?

Iran, although it has a horrible dictatorship, is an axis of nothing and an outpost of even less. And unlike the USA and half the countries of the world, it hasn't invaded another country in more than two centuries. Something Fearless Leader should ponder as he gears up for his own next invasion.

	:: Pip		9:38 AM

Blogger comes to our rescue!

Got the following email today and my faith in Blogger Support has been restored:

Hello,

We have increased the quota on your account so that you should no longer be running into the publishing limits on your blog. We apologize for the delay in getting this resolved and for any inconvenience that has been caused.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

	:: N		1:59 AM

Lawyers Cite Brain Damage as Execution Nears

"With California's first execution in three years scheduled for just after midnight on Wednesday, lawyers for the condemned killer are challenging the method and arguing that he is brain damaged ...

"In a separate legal battle, Mr. Beardslee's lawyers have asked the United States Supreme Court to declare his execution by lethal injection to be cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of his right to free speech. They argue one of the drugs he is to receive, a paralyzing agent, will make it impossible for him to cry out if in pain. Opponents of the death penalty, in a brief in Mr. Beardslee's case, say the drug also violates the First Amendment rights of witnesses to the execution by concealing any 'physical or verbal manifestations' of his pain."

Full text: New York Times

Amnesty: Take action against the death penalty

	:: N		1:12 AM

Bloodiest Year in Decade for News Media

"More news media staff were killed in 2004 than in any year at least since 1994, largely because of the extreme dangers involved in covering the Iraq conflict, according to records maintained by the International News Safety Institute.

"A total of 117 journalists and support staff such as drivers and translators were confirmed to have died gathering the news around the globe -- 42 of them in Iraq ... all but six of them Iraqis practising 'free' news gathering for the first time."

Source

	:: Pip		7:53 PM

Blogrrrrr

We are still having problems with Blogger, so activity is slow here, but please know that we're working on it. We can only go as fast as Blogger Support answers our emails, which is now weeks after we send them. But we'll try to post at least something each day until we're fixed. Thanks a lot.