8.04.2008 | Newsy grab bag

Professional life is full of joys and hardship, one of the latter being that I don't have as much time to keep up with the news as I used to. But I still snatch enough peeks that something catches my eye, so in case you missed it, here goes:

• Global warming has a new victim. There were penguins, island natives and seaside residents; now landlubbers have something to worry about: their kidneys. Increasing temperatures will mean people might be more susceptible to getting the painful little buggers – more than 2 million in America alone, but fortunately the cure's easy enough (assuming enough of it will be around given the droughts going on in certain parts of the world): drink more water.


• Chavez wants a hug. That evil little Latin American dictator that called Bush the devil (and has the power to shift time)? He's a softy. After a spat last year in which the King of Spain told the Venezuelan leader to "shut up," Chavez offered the guy a hug. And you know what? The guy took him up on it – sort of (The New York Times has the full story). Maybe international relations aren't so complicated after all.


• Going boldly where New Media has been before — a recent study shows that online ad campaigns are more effective when they can also be printed out, a new twist on Internet advertising for "old media" print publications that are making the jump online. Don't forget to make those ads printable, guys. Are you listening, Washington Post? (Not to mention — many Internet users will link to printable editions of articles to avoid all the clutter.)

There you go – just a taste. Hopefully more to follow.

8.28.2007 | In other news

• Holy seats for the holy set — The Vatican has launched its own low-fare airline to ferry pilgrims to holy sites throughout Europe — and possibly beyond. Operated by Italy's Air Mistral (Vatican City proper has no airport to call its own), the airline features seats engraved with the Vatican's seal and décor featuring spiritual slogans such as "I am searching for your face, Lord." Headline writers at various news agencies had fun with this story — the Tampa Bay Times chose "On a wing and a prayer," while Reuters decided to begin their story with the following gem:
  
  

  While some passengers only turn to prayer when jolted by turbulence, the Vatican made it standard on Monday by launching the world's first airline for Catholic pilgrims.

  
  There's more in the article. Don't read on if contrived puns make you grimace.
  
  
  
• Digging himself deeper — U.S. Senator Larry Craig is at it again, this time coming out swinging with a shocking defense:
  
  

  I am not gay, I never have been gay.

  
  As any media consultant could tell you, speaking from the negative is not the best way to get people on your side. This one ranks right up there with Nixon's "I am not a crook." And we believed him, didn't we?
  
  The story has been picked up abroad by the BBC, and Reuters, right there with the pithy details, had a particularly punchy headline to describe the situation. Didn't they outsource their headline writers to India?
  
  
  
• A second chance at failure — Seeking to allay the fears raised about "U.S. American" education since her questionable answer at the Teen Miss USA pageant last week, Miss Teen South Carolina appeared on the Today show to try to answer the question the right way, and she did mostly well. Her defense only raised more questions, though:
  
  

  Everybody makes a mistake. I'm human.

  
  Yes, everybody makes mistakes.
  

8.15.2007 | Rove’s departure

So Rove left the White House. What does it all mean? One analyst called it "the end of the Bush presidency," but that sounded like a bit much, so I looked to what I had hoped would be a more reliable source: Rove himself. His reason, according to the New York Times:

Mr. Rove cited a desire to 'start thinking about the next chapter in our family’s life.'

— which only served to bring me back to another NYT article from December 2006, in which executives at large companies say they are leaving to "spend more time with family," only to take jobs a few months later with just as many, if not more, responsibilities. Only time will tell what happens in Mr. Rove's case.

8.11.2007 | In case you missed it ...

Yugoslavia: History, like the car.

… and I know I did, which is unusual for me because I consider myself a follower of world affairs — Yugoslavia no longer exists.

Already worn down by the intense conflict of the 1990s, Yugoslavia had been hanging on to a thread as a federation of two of the country’s former remaining states — Serbia and Montenegro. In 2003, the name “Yugoslavia” was dropped altogether, leaving the country named after its two remaining constituents. Finally, in June 2006 (while I was on vacation, so that’s probably how I missed it), Montenegro declared its independence. Serbia followed suit, and the last union remaining from the former Yugoslavia disappeared off the map.

Sad, because elsewhere in Europe unions are growing stronger under the European Union — or at least they’re supposed to be. An anthropology professor I had for a couple of courses at VCU described the situation as paradoxical and hopeless — an attempt to achieve international integration while disintegration is happening within the member nations’ own countries (see Kosovo, Basque country, Muslim immigration, etc.). The only successful unification in Europe, it seems, was that of East and West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even the wounds from that haven’t completely healed yet.

So, as Europe loses another of its federations (the last being Czechoslovakia, gone in 1994), and even Scotland may be on the verge of withdrawing from the United Kingdom, I can’t help but wonder how many more times the list of countries in this world will continue to grow in the decades ahead (East Timor comes to mind). And instead of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, we now have the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia (but not Serbia and Montenegro). Did I miss one? If so, that’s just one more reason I miss the old federations.

So, here’s a riddle for you: If even Europe can’t hold its countries together, what makes us think we can keep the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites together in Iraq?

2.27.2006 | Wal-Mart needs our help!

Apparently the world's largest retailer, a company with somewhere on the order of $10 billion in profits a year, can't afford to pay for health care for its employees! States already pick up the slack for Wal-Mart's low wages and benefits by providing affordable housing and Medicaid benefits, but Wal-Mart's CEO is asking governors to do more. If Wal-Mart can't afford to pay for its employees' health care, who can afford health care anymore?

2.17.2006 | Checks and balances, baby

White House Ordered to Release Spy Papers

WASHINGTON - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to release documents about its warrantless surveillance program or spell out what it is withholding, a setback to efforts to keep the program under wraps.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_go_co/eavesdropping

Accountability's a bitch, ain't it? Maybe there is hope after all.

12.14.2005 | In the News

Bush finally takes responsibility for Iraq invasion, but not without insisting it was the right decision. Elsewhere in the Bush administration, the EPA wants to reduce industry's "regulatory burden" by relaxing pollution reporting rules, making it harder to keep track of exactly what toxic chemicals we're drinking in our water or breathing in the air. And last but not least, more than 100 religious protesters were arrested outside a Congressional office building, but not for the cause you might think.

12.13.2005 | No Christmas for Tookie

I don't usually have sympathy for gang co-founders, but Mr. Williams has dedicated his life to anti-gang activism, writing a number of books denouncing his former ways. Critics complain that he never apologized for the crimes he was convicted of, but I ask how it is possible to apologize for a crime you say you never committed. Some have said that admitting to the crime would have saved his life, but I wonder what that says about our justice system. Does a person deserve to die for maintaining his innocence?

I think Williams' attempts to make amends through his anti-gang activism were enough to grant the mercy of clemency – and even then only life without parole. Williams, now an old man, could have lived the rest of his days in confinement and continued his activism against gang violence.

I think our society has moved too far from a corrections and punishment mentaility toward a revenge mentality when it comes to the death penalty. In the Bible, Jesus saved the life of the adulterer, saying "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Granted, more of us have struggled with sexual sin than committing the high crime of murder, but I think Jesus' mercy and forgiveness are aspects sorely missing from our justice system today.

This is not to say that we should let criminals out on the streets. Crimes, like sins, have their consequences, and people have to live with them. But the key word is live: death provides an escape for some people while prematurely cutting off a chance of reform for others. In this case, I think we lost a powerful voice against gang violence. And all this after the 1,000th execution in the United States since the death penalty was resumed in 1977, while questions are surrounding the exoneration of many death row inmates after review of DNA evidence. A message to think about this Christmas, what is supposed to be a time of peace and reconciliation.

12.07.2005 | Air marshal shooting: bait and switch?

When the U.S. was first pressing for air marshals on international flights in 2003, the issue was painted as one needed to prevent the hijacking of airplanes, which would be an in-flight proposition. Why, then, did this latest shooting happen not in the plane, but in the gate leading to the airport? My understanding of the air marshal program was that it was supposed to prevent a plane in the air from being used in 9/11-style hijackings, or maybe even keep it from blowing up. But killing a person in an airport gate? This isn't what we signed up for. According to this BBC News article, 'Sky marhsals should be the last option', the last resort to protect people in the air. The article also mentions how Israel's air marshals use secret buttons to signal the pilot to dive and throw anyone standing off balance – certainly not a shoot-to-kill policy. We need to reconsider what we're using our air marshals for, and if people's rights aren't being violated in the process.

Déjà vu

After a similar shooting in London earlier this year, U.S. air marshals have opened fire on a bombing suspect at the Miami airport. Not only was the man they shot not on the plane, but he obeyed their order to leave the plane.

I don't want to jump to conclusions – the media was rife with speculation that if a Marshal had opened fire there "must have been a grave threat." I don't want to say that there wasn't. But this latest incident raises the question of whether a shoot-to-kill policy is the best to follow in protecting people from terrorist attacks

Why isn't it possible, for example, for non-lethal rubber bullets or tasers to be used? In fact I had assumed up until this point that marshals were armed with tasers. It's disturbing to me that these people can fire live rounds on an airplane.

While it can be argued that these measures are necessary for our safety, I wonder how much further we will be willing to tolerate the loss of innocent life at the hands of policies like these. In the London case the man was posthumously exonerated and found to be an innocent victim of misunderstanding – it was also later revealed that he didn't jump a subway turnstile as police had claimed. All signs seem to point that a similar misunderstanding may have taken place here.

I was especially disturbed by the appearance of a Florida Congressman on CNN (presumably a Republican) who said he didn't "really care" about the fact that the shooting victim might have been a victim of bipolar disorder. He called the death "unfortunate" and cited the billions of passengers who have flown with air marshals who hadn't been shot. As if that were some sort of comfort.

Record lows

I wonder... does this recent spate of record cold weather have anything to do with the 30 percent drop in the Gulf stream current reported last week? May be coincidence, maybe not.

12.06.2005 | Global warming: U.S. snubs Canada, senators ask, mayors act

As global warming talks continue in Canada and the first Pacific islanders move to escape the effects of global warming, the United States has taken a specifically stubborn approach to the talks: no compromise. It's a wonder we're even there at all, considering we refuse to recognize the 1998 Kyoto agreement that led to the world's first measures to reduce carbon emissions. Canada tried to make a compromise and have talks with the U.S., China and India under a 1992 agreement, but no dice. We remain the world's number one source of carbon dioxide, providing a full 25 percent of the world's total emissions.

Meanwhile, a group of 24 U.S. Senators has asked Bush to participate in the discussions in a constructive way, arctic and tropical indigenous peoples are uniting in the fight against climate change, and 192 U.S. cities, along with a few states, are moving ahead with their own measures. It seems the only people being left behind in all of this is the Bush administration and their stubborn insistence that we do nothing to solve the problem.

Bush's complaint about Kyoto was a good point: exempting India, China and other developing nations from any final agreement on global warming is not an option. But Bush doesn't understand the patience and time needed to work out diplomatic agreements (hence our virtual silence at the global warming talks, and our overly single-minded attempts to bring in more allies in the Iraq invasion). Rather than put pressure on China, India and others to join the agreement and cut emissions, Bush has used the exemptions, along with his continued (and possibly feigned) doubt that global warming exists, to excuse the U.S. from any action entirely. It's like a child throwing up his hands when he doesn't get his way. I wish it weren't possible to make a comparison like that to our own president, but I don't know how else to describe it.

12.02.2005 | Global warming 'worst-case scenario' realized

This NASA photo shows the minimum extent of the arctic ice cap in September 2005. The yellow line shows the cap's normal size.

As Tropical Storm Epsilon, the season's record 26th named storm, reached hurricane strength today (a hurricane in December?), another effect of global warming is being realized further to the North. Meet Canada's arctic waters, which are steadily being melted by rising arctic temperatures that are rising twice as fast as the average in the rest of the world. Together with the New Scientist report that the Gulf Stream current is slowing due to melting glacial waters, it's clear that the effects of global warming are upon us.

Arctic temperatures are expected to rise significantly by the end of the century, according to experts, which will melt even more glaciers.

"What we are seeing in the Arctic, and what we are seeing further south with the hurricanes, are the most pessimistic models of global warming," said Louis Fortier, an oceanographer who has just returned from an expedition to the region on the Canadian research vessel Amundsen.

Lasserre predicted that within 30 years it would probably be possible for ships not normally equipped for the Arctic to tackle the Northwest passage.

About 20-30 ships currently take it each summer now.

Melting in the Arctic is getting so bad that, according to this same article, the U.S. and Canada may be about to enter into a territorial dispute. Canada wants, and has claimed since 1986, jurisdiction over its northern waters to be able to enforce shipping regulations like environmental protections and safety training. The U.S., on the other hand, argues that any waters between two oceans are international waters.

Ironically, the melting of ice in the arctic will make it easer to access oil reserves in the Arctic Ocean, so we'll be able to burn even more oil to raise global temepratures even further to be able to melt more ice and find... more oil. There's also one reserve in the Arctic that is split by the Yukon-Alaska border between the U.S. and Canada, setting up the scene for yet another territorial dispute. Canada had better get its hands on a decent military, and fast.

Update (12/5/05): Arctic feels the heat from climate change – Reuters article on roughly the same subject, with a Canadian biologist pointing out a sharper than expected decrease in the extent and thickness of the Arctic ice cap.

11.30.2005 | The end of Blackberry?

It just doesn't seem fair. While NTP certainly deserves damages for Blackberry's alleged infringement, it just doesn't seem fair that millions of customers will have to suffer as the result of enforcement of patent law. Many other cases have been settled out of court. Even in this case, where a punishment must be rendered, why not levy Blackberry with a fine or force it to pay royalties to the patent holder?

11.29.2005 | Tropical Storm Epsilon

Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta... Epsilon. We are now up to the 26th named storm on record this season, still the busiest ever since the naming conventions had to switch to Greek letters for the pure reason we ran out of names. That, and it's 70 degrees outside right now a couple of days before December. If this isn't global warming I'd like to know what is.

8.21.2005 | More global warming evidence

Climate warning as Siberia melts
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725124.500

Global warming brings earlier spring thaw to Great Lakes
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7876

Senators Attest to Alaska Climate Change
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050818/ap_on_go_co/climate_change_alaska

Dramatic collapse of Antarctic ice shelf linked to global warming
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050803/sc_afp/climateantarctica

Melting of Siberian peat bog could speed global warming: report
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050811/sc_afp/russiaenvironmentclimatebritain

Study links hurricanes' intensity since 1970s to global warming
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-globalwarming31,0,3379605.story?track=mostemailedlink

In U.S., Climate Change May Hit Southeast Hardest
http://rl.channel.aol.com/natgeo?id=20050816155309990001

Update (9/30/05)

More strong Katrina-like hurricanes reported
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050915/us_nm/katrina_hurricanes_dc

Warming causes record Arctic ice melt: U.S. report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050928/wl_canada_nm/canada_environment_arctic_col_1

1.01.2005 | Sea change at the party of morals

While the world's attention is rightly focused on the Asian tsunami disaster and the world celebrates a muted new year, House Republicans want to push through a sea change of their own when it comes to Congressional ethics. According to this Washington Post report, Republicans want to:

• Make it harder for lawmakers to discipline a colleague for bringing discredit on the House even if their behavior was not covered by a specific regulation;
  

• Make it easier for relatives of lawmakers to accept foreign and domestic trips from groups interested in legislation before the House; and
  

• Allow either party to stop the House ethics committee from investigating a complaint against a member.

This is the continuing saga of Republican majority control, which has been abused in recent weeks to protect House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, whose campaign staffers have been indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating violations of campaign finance laws. In November after the election, Republicans voted to change their own rules to allow DeLay to keep his position in the party if he is ever indicted himself.

Three times the House ethics panel had publicly admonished Mr. DeLay for ethics violations, including an outright bribe on the House floor, but the only person facing any heat is the chairman of that panel, who may be replaced by Republican leadership.

This approach to rewarding failure is certainly nothing new to the Republican Party. But of one thing we can be sure: When it comes to protecting their own, the party of morals is certainly not the party of good government. Whether it comes to House ethics violations, Senate filibusters, or amending for Arnold, changing the rules for the convenience of the moment can only lead to trouble down the road.

Update: Republicans have backed off some of the more controversial changes, but that didn't stop them from continuing to stifle bipartisan ethics reform for political gain. And the House ethics chair is still likely to be replaced.

9.27.2004 | When Headlines Clash

Next President Will Pick Scores of Judges
Study: Bush Judges Most Conservative on Rights

If this isn't reason enough to vote in this election, I don't know what is.