EPA Listens To Lobbyists, Boots Expert

And then another set of decisions. Am I just one of the few that sees all this as one step forward, one step back, and we're all just doing the cha-cha?

clipped from www.ewg.org A toxicologist was removed from a panel researching a flame retardant. Critics cry double standard. Published February 29, 2008 Under pressure from the chemical industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed an outspoken scientist who chaired a federal panel responsible for helping the agency determine the dangers of a flame retardant widely used in electronic equipment. Toxicologist Deborah Rice was appointed chair of an EPA scientific panel reviewing the chemical a year ago. Federal records show she was removed from the panel in August after the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for chemical manufacturers, complained to a top-ranking EPA official that she was biased. The chemical, a brominated compound known as deca, is used in high volumes worldwide, largely in the plastic housings of television sets. EPA officials were not available for comment Thursday. unprecedented for the EPA to remove an expert for expressing concerns about the potential dangers

U.S. Moving Toward Ban on New Coal-Fired Power Plants

So now that we're opposed to coal - regardless of the technological evolution - what will happen to all the fly-ash? Fly-ash (as my previous post reviewed) is beginning to be used more and more in civic project instead of ending in landfills. Fly-ash makes for lighter, stronger, and more porous (benefiting drainage) pavement - whether sidewalk or street.

It feels like for every uprising and retaliation we have toward a polluting industry, we [humanity] shoot ourselves in the foot by our failures to act early enough but then by acting too late and dealing with a more modern concern with decade-old spectacles.

clipped from www.earthpolicy.org In a report compiled in early 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy listed 151 coal-fired power plants in the planning stages and talked about a resurgence in coal-fired electricity. But during 2007, 59 proposed U.S. coal-fired power plants were either refused licenses by state governments or quietly abandoned. In addition to the 59 plants that were dropped, close to 50 more coal plants are being contested in the courts, and the remaining plants will likely be challenged as they reach the permitting stage. What began as a few local ripples of resistance to coal-fired power is quickly evolving into a national tidal wave of grassroots opposition from environmental, health, farm, and community organizations and a fast-growing number of state governments. The public at large is turning against coal. In a September 2007 national poll by the Opinion Research Corporation about which electricity source people would prefer, only 3 percent chose coal.

clipped from www.earthpolicy.org Since the budgets of international food aid agencies are set well in advance, a rise in food prices shrinks food assistance. The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which is now supplying emergency food aid to 37 countries, is cutting shipments as prices soar. The WFP reports that 18,000 children are dying each day from hunger and related illnesses. As grain prices climb, a politics of food scarcity is emerging as exporting countries restrict exports to limit the rise in domestic food prices. Rising food prices are translating into social unrest. The crop fuels program that currently satisfies scarcely 3 percent of U.S. gasoline needs is simply not worth the human suffering and political chaos it is causing. If the entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into ethanol, it would satisfy scarcely 18 percent of our automotive fuel needs. The irony is that U.S. taxpayers, by subsidizing the conversion of grain into ethanol, are in effect financing a rise in their own food prices.

[U.S.] Government adjusts prior complex wordy and generally unintelligible jargon down in and to [the] simple things previously seen, made and known to be unnecessarily complicated for the sake of addressing each minutia.

Does this mean that new styled writers will be employed? Because to write that way takes a certain skill. I can't even do it right. It's way over the top and completely ridiculous. I can't even pull off a straight pan even if money and beneficial odds pointing my way were on the line. (I'd slap myself and straighten my ass out for sure though.)

But seriously, I can't write like that. I thought the government prided itself on the jargon. Lawyers jerk off to sentences like that. There's a reason why it is that way. So that the secret code between two wink-winks of lawyers will be sustained.

Oct 1, 2007:
Referred to the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives.

clipped from www.govtrack.us

S. 2291: Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2007

A bill to enhance citizen access to Government information and services by establishing plain language as the standard style of Government documents issued to the public, and for other purposes.

Nov 6, 2007:
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S13985-13986)

clipped from www.govtrack.us

Congress is poised to pass good legislation to outlaw government gobbledygook.

will require government agencies to write many future documents in plain language: language that is clear, concise, and easy to understand

underway since the 1970’s

clipped from www.govtrack.us H.R. 3548: Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2007 To enhance citizen access to Government information and services by establishing plain language as the standard style for Government documents issued to the public, and for other purposes.

Introduced

Sep 17, 2007

Introduced

Nov 1, 2007

AT&T and the Asterisk Culture* gone awry

Why don't we pay attention to the asterisk? Sometimes I see the asterisk and I don't see the footnote. I ask the sales person. They put on a dumbfounded face. I point to the asterisk. It's almost as if they are seeing it for the first time. I'm not sure if they are putting on a show or never really paid enough attention to the very thing they are trying to sell me. It's a wide range of gray area flanked by two extremes: pure evil and pure idiocy. Somewhere in the middle is moral laziness.

*Moral laziness is not just a character flaw that the salesperson has, but also that I have. Who wants to read the paragraph long legalese in small type that relates to whatever magic word followed by an asterisk that initially caught my attention that captivated me to walk into the store.

clipped from prairieweather.typepad.com BS:  ATT in the latter part of the last decade actually did market research to figure out how to design an envelope and a notice that consumers would discard!  They actually sent out samples to people.  They did a study.  They found that certain phrases or bolding certain words would convince people that they didn’t have to read the notice that was sent, so they’d throw it in the trash.  The act of throwing it in the trash was essentially legal consent to letting ATT remove consumers’ rights to sue them!  So it was a very momentous event for the consumer to discard your right to file a lawsuit against ATT.  TG:  So in order to retain the right to file a lawsuit, you had to actually read it, sign it, and return it.  BS:  You had to read it and object to it – and, of course, understand it!  But at the very top of the notice it said, “You do not have to do anything.”  Of course, everyone loves to hear that, so they threw the note out. TG:  So that particular contract was voided by a court.

LAIBACH / OPUS DEI / LIFE IS LIFE

Soap Suds Sellout to Conspiring Agents

Not that it ever mattered to me personally. Not that I'm the demographic for shampoo or conditioner commercials. I have very short hair and feel that - other than the ingredients in a bottle and some sort of fragrance issue - I am uninfluenced by the quantity or quality of suds or lather as I vigorously scratch through my scalp, letting foam build until I rinse.

So when I see a commercial of a woman seemingly naked mid-shower having some sort of erotic orgasmic gyration, I wonder: who does this appeal to?

It must appeal on some level to some percent of the population for the amount of money invested, not only in producing the commercial but also its airtime costs. The amount of thumbs-up (or a solemn nod or an excited grin) that a group of people in charge of a company's advertising campaign give prior to airing or producing any commercial seems to me to be the QA of the system.

So when I learn that 'sudsing agents' are added as a separate ingredient to detergents in order to make people feel better about their cleaning ritual, it makes me think. Not that I'm influenced or care. (As far as I'm concerned, there is little to save humanity other than just humanity itself...but anyway...)

Do we really need the perception? Really? Do women? Is this similar to bleaching flour or sugar because of a long-standing association (or tradition) being made (white = pure)? Is that all this boils down to?

I find it disturbing, intriguing and strange - all at the same time - so I'm a bit confused as well.

I'm trying to follow the flow. The only reason we have these additional sudsing agents added to detergent unnecessarily except for some traditional aesthetic that's propagated on our culture.

That means that someone, somewhere, at some point, decided that:

god said:

In the beginning...And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be suds; and there was suds.
And God saw the suds, that it was good: and God divided the clean from the dirty.

Well, not quite like that. But the standard seems to be just that. Unquestioned resolution that more suds mean a better clean.

(For all those that say: who didn't know that? Well! I didn't! So why is the hygiene industry booming, trusted, believed, unhindered by a mass consumer epiphany and forthcoming retaliation?)

But this is not my point. All this suds business: someone must've either determined this perceptual take based on a personal subjective qualifier or researched people's perception of the quantity of suds relation to the quality of cleanliness. (And what a great and wonderful sociological thesis project that must've been.) But still...

...after the research...after the tests...and after the creation of the sudsiest sudsing agent ever known, we still need the ability for the thumbs up people to say: yes, we should add this to our concoction prior to distribution in order to convince our consumers (based on the thesis study) that they'll experience a deeper level of clean then our competitors, solely because our competitors don't add (or have) the greatest sudsing agent on earth.

I wish I could've been there for that board meeting.

clipped from www.quickandsimple.com Less suds equals better cleaning. “There’s a common misconception that suds do the cleaning,” says Lucinda Ottusch, senior home economist for the Whirlpool Institute of Fabric Science. But excess suds actually inhibit proper cleaning because they hold the soil in the water and redeposit it on clothes, rather than help it rinse away. Don’t use more than soap manufacturers recommend, and if you have a lightly soiled load, use less. clipped from www.planetnatural.com Q: Do cleaning products that produce more suds do a better job? A: Sudsing has nothing to do with cleaning power. Mainstream marketing gurus have made believers out of the suds phenomenon -- that more suds means better performance. That just isn't true. We, at Restore, add far less sudsing agents to our Dish Detergent because it doesn't improve the product, it costs more money to make, and it irritates and dries our customers' hands. Yes, we know, suds are a powerful reassurance, but just try our products, they really work, without so much suds. Tuesday, January 8, 2008 H. Res. 888: Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and... So what about all the atheists and agnostics? Don't get me wrong. I believe in god - as the unmoved mover (anything more is up for debate). However, do we really need to affirm spiritual and religious history? Do most Americans believe there is a difference? What about separation of C&S? Will this be just another day-off for most Americans? Sounds to me like a possible off-day! clipped from www.govtrack.us Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as "American Religious History Week" for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith. Bill Status Sponsor: Rep. James Forbes [R-VA] Bill Text: Full Text Status: Introduced Dec 18, 2007 Scheduled for Debate - Voted on in House - This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never make it out of committee. Keep in mind that sometimes the text of one bill is incorporated into another bill, and in those cases the original bill, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned. [Last Updated: Dec 18, 2007] Last Action: Dec 18, 2007: Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Show All Related Votes H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 No remarks. Just setting up the blog for a long-winded argument. By argument I mean: less of "an exchange of diverging or opposite views, typically a heated or angry" and more of "a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong" (definition source: New Oxford American Dictionary) clipped from www.govtrack.us Bill Status Sponsor: Rep. Jane Harman [D-CA]hide cosponsors Cosponsors [as of 2007-12-10] Rep. Christopher Carney [D-PA] Del. Donna Christensen [D-VI] Rep. Yvette Clarke [D-NY] Rep. Charles Dent [R-PA] Rep. Norman Dicks [D-WA] Rep. Al Green [D-TX] Rep. James Langevin [D-RI] Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA] Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY] Rep. Daniel Lungren [R-CA] Rep. Ed Perlmutter [D-CO] Rep. Ted Poe [R-TX] Rep. Dave Reichert [R-WA] Rep. Bennie Thompson [D-MS] Cosponsorship information sometimes is out of date. Why? Cost: < $1 per American over the 2008-2012 period? The cost is estimated from a Congressional Budget Office report, by dividing the estimated cost of implementing the legislation by the U.S. population. It is of course just a gross estimate. Bill Text: Summaries (CRS) Full Text Status: Introduced Apr 19, 2007 Scheduled for Debate Aug 1, 2007 Passed House [details] Oct 23, 2007 Voted on in Senate - Signed by President - [Last Updated: Dec 9, 2007] Freedom of Speech and H.R. 1955 pt. 1 Friday, January 4, 2008 I am part of the problem It seems that there is little escape. So many think the end is near. So many others think the nearing end is an illusion. Even others suspect government involvement in every sense, duping its people into models of perceived limited choice, bordering on fascism, though unseen, under the guise of Democracy - though we are a Republic at best (and best learn the distinctions). Others never grow suspicious, tossing the kooks into a categorical asylum that they somehow exclude themselves from. There are those that believe that government is actually fear mongering. And others that think too many are paranoid. It’s a this and them kind of world and I am most definitely part of the problem. I help the process through my illustrations. I aid to spread fear and panic and distortion and revulsion. (Even though I’ve only made seven prior posts to ring in the New Year.) Below are my top-five selections from the full article: 23 Tools To Brainwash and Influence People Through Media 5. Framing is everything. Decide what you want people to believe and make sure that any choices you give them are within a framework which assures you of your result. This is called the Illusion of Choice. “Do you want to sweep the floor before or after dinner?” Repeat this formula for economic systems, politicians, news stories, competing product brands and entertainment. 10. Never encourage responsibility, or so much as suggest that humans could be involved in co-creating their future and the realities in which they reside. 11. Encourage group-sanctioned individuality only. By making ‘individuality” the new conformity you are generating a powerful illusion of free choice. 13. Keep information bytes infinitesimally small. Promote Attention Deficit Disorder. Several decades of television have already set this in motion. 19. Demonize self-knowledge technology of all kinds. Throw around words like “cult” and “brainwashing.” Marginalize anyone involved in such pursuits. Each of the twenty-three items help perpetuate the problem even though it alleges to merely point at it in order to educate. NOW! My paranoia goes unfortunately further, full circle, all the way around, never allowing validity to settle too long before I grow suspicious and think that validity itself is part of the manipulation (or illusion or feeding or swaying or convincing or...) and I reject even the initial freedom that I felt. Primarily because I cannot account for how I could discern between the manipulation that the evil powers that be perform and those that keep pointing their fingers at the evil powers that be. I am not saying that evil does not exist. (I am not about to open that can of worms.) But I do not know how the finger-pointers think that they themselves are not evil. Isn’t there an equal possibility? Isn’t the whole thing a toss-up? Isn’t the system up for grabs at every point, at every angle, at every interpretation, and reality is then rooted in the fan base that an interpretation has. I’m not preaching mass-subjectivity. I’m not ignoring the facts. I just don’t understand how so many don’t think that their own “conversion” to a particular ideology might have been solely the result of retaliating against a previous ideology that, with age, became disappointing. Because a pathless path is still a path. And that idea got me to sit by the roadside for many years, watching people pass me by, holding up signs of freedom, goals, aspirations, et cetera, while I could not comprehend how they did not see the whole arbitrariness of picking one path over another. They swarm to it with confidence (and possible unaware blindness). I could not resolve how anyone can pick anything with such self-assurance until converted to another reassuring set of principles or guidelines. I do not know that hat-trick. With that in mind, I am now choosing to become part of the problem and with that realization, part of the solution. I got up from the roadside and am sticking out my big-ass thumb waiting for a group of deluded idealists to pull-on-over asking me “Where you headed?” and I’ll just shrug and tell them “Where ever you are heading.” And then talk them out of that direction as soon as I get seated and comfortable and buying the first tank of gas as payment. So, as part of my goal, perpetuating the madness, reassuring the deluded, and running the gauntlet with the rest, working the solution not the problem - or so I hope and pray and continue to have faith until disillusioned by a will greater than my own. Caffeine, nicotine and the usual 18hr shift I used to drive taxi. Not the NYC Yellow’s. But the Long Island Service Taxis. I moonlit because I couldn’t stand the traffic during the day and the night lent itself to stranger happenings that I could experience. (Such as the seventeen year old who propositioned me or the lactating prostitute, but those are other stories and off the main topic.) The longest I ever drove was nineteen and a half hours (pretty much straight). The brain turns to mush. And I’m operating on sheer experience. I used to deprive myself of sleep during my college years; times of setting the cruise-control while asking my passenger to “hey, hold the wheel, I’m gonna close my eyes for a few” remain [in great numbers] in my history. I remember driving off the road only once, luckily without a passenger in the car. I woke up to my car shaking as the highway shoulder transitioned to grass. I swerved in time to avoid plunging front-end first onto the paved road of the underpass. After then, I decided never to deprive myself of sleep in that way ever again. But a decade later, I found myself doing rushed kamikaze runs to JFK and LGA to the early rising sun because of low attendance during a particular morning shift. I was working since one in the afternoon the previous day and was the only driver to be suckered into an overnight shift with the promise of an airport drop off at four in the morning. Little did I know that I would be coerced into doing four more runs. You can’t refuse a run. You could; but then the dispatcher would remember that one time that you screwed him. Dispatchers have amazing memories; especially for drivers that refuse fares. So here’s the point! I’m amazed that the NYC TLC has not mandated a clock of some kind that readily displays how many hours a particular cabbie has been in that particular cab. Would you get into a car if you knew the driver was going on nineteen hours straight? I know drivers that go for twenty-four and have even heard of legendary stories of thirty-plus. I drove across the country, approximately 2800 miles, in fifty hours, with a few hours’ rest in Oklahoma on the side of the road amongst the truckers. But I didn’t have a passenger and my only responsibility was my own life. But for the times that I had passengers in the car, those were interesting moments. It’s hard to hide exhaustion: red eyes are a dead give away. So it’s either exhaustion or the passengers figure I’m stoned. Either way, it’s no good. It’s the deadness that’s the problem. Closing the eyes briefly doesn’t work. I snap them open spastically drawing more attention to myself than need be at seven o’clock on a Monday morning. “Are you just starting or ending your shift?” the passengers ask. “Ending.” I say while sipping my lukewarm coffee. “How long you been driving for?” they ask. “I’ve been with the company for two years.” I reply. I know what they are asking. But is it my fault they are not being specific. “That’s not what I meant,” they correct themselves, “How long have you been driving on your shift?” “Oh!” I gape wide open as if a great lightning bolt of self-relization hits me. I have to fake it. I can’t tell them nineteen hours. They’ll ask me to pull over immediately. They’ll complain. And who needs that? “Coming up on fourteen hours.” I lie, sipping my coffee again. The rising sun starts to shine onto my eyes. The perfect excuse to put on my sunglasses. “So much?” the woman asks. It’s usually a woman that expresses that concern. I’m not being sexist. Just relaying the percentages. “Well, you’re my last fare.” I reassure them. This is where a good tip may come into play. “Well, I hope they let you go home after,” they try and reassure me. “I hope so too.” I sip my coffee and gulp it down to avoid further conversation. The dispatcher comes on the horn and asks me how much longer until I drop off at the airport. I tell him. And he relays a barrage of information regarding an airport pickup as soon as I drop-off. “Check check.” I acknowledge and click off the short-band-radio. My passengers now take mercy. This is where a better tip may come into play. I drop off the passengers and find a place to park and nap. I know that sooner than later the squawk of the CB will break my peace. I’ll need to wipe my eyes, shake my head, slap my face, pickup my arriving passengers and get them to their destination without getting them killed. clipped from well.blogs.nytimes.com For Sleepy Drivers, Coffee vs. Napping Sleepy drivers who don’t want to stop their journey have two choices: pull over and take a short nap or load up with caffeine to stay awake. So what’s the better option? French researchers decided to find out, testing the driving performance of two dozen sleep-deprived motorists. Participants first drove a two-mile course on the highway between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., to measure their driving skill on a normal amount of sleep. the effect of coffee and napping varied by age For middle-aged drivers, aged 40 to 50, coffee was a far better choice. But among younger drivers, a nap was almost as effective as caffeine. The authors noted that the effects of caffeine on driving performance weren’t altered by age, but that the younger drivers slept longer and more deeply than middle-aged drivers during the half-hour nap, and appeared to experience more restorative benefits of sleep. the better choice is to get off the road entirely and get a full night’s sleep Thursday, January 3, 2008 Fahrenheit 451 Firemen Becoming A Reality If The Future is Now and The present is The Past, is The Past History?! clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com WASHINGTON - Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as American icons and infringing on people’s privacy. Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel don’t need warrants to access hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, putting them in a position to spot behavior that could indicate terrorist activity or planning. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Americans have given up some of their privacy rights in an effort to prevent future strikes. The American Civil Liberties Union says using firefighters to gather intelligence is another step in that direction. for example, they are told to be alert for a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States “It’s the evolution of the fire service,” said Bob Khan, the fire chief in Phoenix Advocates of the fire service’s intelligence role say privacy will not be violated FAHRENHEIT 451 This movie is a personal favorite of mine. Though hardcore movie enthusiasts have snubbed me for liking so much what is considered "Truffaut's worst work". Nevertheless, I always enjoyed Ray Bradbury books during my formative years. Aside from the massive plot-hole (more like a chasm) of how a fireman - or anyone - is at all literate in Bradbury's vision of the future, the story has always intrigued me Taglines for: Aflame with the excitement and emotions of tomorrow! What if you had no right to read? Plot summary for: From the Ray Bradbury novel, Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature that paper will burst into flame. Oskar Werner plays a fireman who does not put out fires, but who searches out books and burns them. Books make people unhappy. In a parody of social correctness, all discordant strains are removed. The world is a lonely one of separate people in which Werner begins to read the books before burning them. Written by John Vogel Wednesday, January 2, 2008 Fahrenheit 451 The opening scene in the movie Fahrenheit 451, directed by François Truffaut, based on the book of the same name shows shots of various television antennas while a narrating voice-over drones dully as the soundtrack. To think of a day when antennas are no longer the defining social aesthetic displaying economical prestige, as it morphs through the decades, portraying the upper crust in its inception, and dwindling down by numbers to a staggeringly low percentage of economically challenged proletarians or anti-mass-television snobbery (or those seeking nostalgia for some inexplicable reason other than for nostalgia's sake - like having a rotary phone ring on a cellular phone). Now there will be little to differentiate us. Worse than Orwell's 1984 as no part of society will not under watch. clipped from www.broadcastingcable.com FCC's New DTV Rules Allow for Some TV Disruption The Federal Communications Commission released its final rules for the Feb. 17, 2009, switch to digital-TV transmission Monday, saying that it balanced the flexibility necessary for a complex and challenging undertaking, while requiring broadcasters "to maintain the best possible television service to the public and meet viewers’ over-the-air reception expectations after the transition date." Democratic FCC commissioner Michael Copps -- who has been critical of the way the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration are handling the transition -- said the rules were one year overdue and that essentially pulling the plug for all stations at once was a "throw of the dice ... It is unfathomable to me that we are planning to turn off every analog signal in the country on a single day without running at least one test market first," saying that is now under discussion. DNA Fatalism: Controlling a child's destiny I've always had a hard time with the phrase "Controlling One's Own Destiny", but with new DNA classifications that are emerging to aide parents with their often misclassified children; misclassified mainly because refined appraisal of the genetic code was not available. So now, removing nurture from nature, incriminating our newest generation to subclasses based on their chromosomes, we are entering a new age that allows people to get together based on a similarity in their genetic code. How long before social-networking sites do that? Sorry, we're already there! Would this even be a good match? Don't social interactions work off pheromones? Aren't women attracted to certain men because of the 'scent' - which is related to our immunity system (and perhaps DNA) - in order to pick a mate most opposite of her own immunity system (and related DNA) to propagate the species with a resulting organism whose chances for survival are increased because of the 'fusion' of the complementary DNA configurations. (Don't even get me started on Perfumes, otherwise known as a great plot conspiracy by the fragrance industry to destroy the accurate perception of reality by covering an otherwise 'offending' odor [to some] with a more 'pleasant' odor [to others] thereby undermining humans natural instinct to select mates based on scent.) But I digress... Are we, as a civilization, going to continue classifying each and every category, temporarily assigning labels, that eventually 'stick', regardless of science's inherent 'incompleteness'? Anyway, on to a braver new world: I hope that no one ever discovers the cool gene, else we'd get into a Star Bellied Sneetches contest like never before, with corporate sponsored DNA-modification companies looting the bread of humanity. Abstract from: The DNA Age By AMY HARMON Published: December 28, 2007 With technology that can now scan each of an individual’s 46 chromosomes for minute aberrations, doctors are providing thousands of children lumped together as “autistic” or “developmentally delayed” with distinct genetic diagnoses. The symptoms, they are finding, can be traced to one of dozens of deletions or duplications of DNA that were previously hard or impossible to detect. Some mutations are so rare that they are known only by their chromosomal address many parents are searching out strangers struck by the same genetic lightning bolt Jennie Dopp, a mother in Utah, was scouring the Internet for families with “7q11.23,” the diagnosis that explained her son’s odd behavior and halting speech. “I want someone to say ‘I know what you mean,’” Ms. Dopp told her husband, “and really mean it.” For each of them, a genetic mutation became the foundation for a new form of kinship. Tuesday, January 1, 2008 Google Zeitgeist 2007 Statistics should help me get a bearing on where I slip into the scale. On the high? On the low? But then, then inescapable destructive force of cynical suspicious paranoid thought penetrates and I think that Google is just inciting us to note these categories. How humanity's Top-10 search list for 'Who is...' so perfectly encompasses both God and Satan; Satan squeezes and slips into spot ten. (What I find more interesting is that the dictionary wants to change 'satan' with a lower-case 's' to upper-case but 'god' can be left with a lower-case 'g'. Not that I care either way - to me it's about the context. But in this case, when the context would possibly be the same, I note the inconsistency of treating god better/worse than satan.) And what an encouraging thought that 'love' was our #1 'What is...' Frankly, I love it, and what a better way to start 2008 with an understand that at the very least, though humanity's web savvy population may not always show love, it most certainly is very interested in the concept. clipped from www.google.com No matter how much changed throughout the course of the year, we found time to ponder a few age-old questions. The open-ended nature of many of these questions reminds us that sometimes it's about the search -- not the conclusion. All of these searches had the largest volume on Google.com in the U.S. Who, What, How Who is... who is god who is who who is lookup who is jesus who is it who is buckethead who is calling who is keppler who is this who is satan What is... what is love what is autism what is rss what is lupus what is sap what is bluetooth what is emo what is java what is hpv what is gout How to... how to kiss how to draw how to knit how to hack how to dance how to crochet how to meditate how to flirt how to levitate how to skateboard Zeitgeist Movie Happy New Year. Went to yoga this morning. At least a start is beginning. I helped a friend move yesterday. Lifting boxes gets me out of my head. I’m trying to do the whole breathing thing these days. But heavy activity gets me more in the moment than I usually am. (Maybe mother was right.) During one of my breaks: the time my friend would need to pack additional boxes to take down to the car; it was an off-the-cuff haphazard kinda move. I was thanking the decent medical insurance I had many years ago during the dot-com deillusion that afforded me the double-hernia operation. Allegedly it’s a 99% fix with only 1% of patients needing the same surgery again later in life. At least that’s how I remember being reassured. But what really worried me was my shoulder. Nearly nine months ago, during a Jiu-Jitsu class, without being adequately warmed up - my fault, I know - I ‘rolled’ on the mat with a classmate nevertheless. (How much damage could happen sparring while already on the ground?) We clenched. I tensed up. Got flipped. And I heard a ‘pop’. I got religious for that moment. But it was too little too late. With the damage done, I called it a day. Painfully got dressed and did my best driving to a friend’s house. (She had the ice-pack.) I kept rehearsing in my head, over and over again, what I could’ve done differently. And therein lies my problem. Which is why I prefer to endanger my right shoulder further just to get out of my head for any fleeting amount of time. It makes the day go by faster. But I was on break. “Check dis out,” my friend, during his many distracted and distracting moments, flopped on his bed, opened his laptop, and after a few keystrokes, excitedly flipped the laptop around showing me the screen. The url address in the top bar read: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ “What is it?” I asked. I was feeling resistant. I tend to do that if I’m taken off guard. “Nevah you mind what it is! Juz watch.” He had a way with words. His phone just then vibrated and he took the call. He was often saved by bells of all kind. So I hit play. And the movie starts. I must say: It’s interesting. I’m watching the movie. But because I am still, not lifting heavy boxes to my car, my mind wanders. I tried to refrain and give the whole movie a shot: two hours later. And here’s my ‘But’... And there can always be a ‘but’: Any conspiracy movie presents the conspiracy as an argument. Fine. But I never can understand why no one thinks the movie itself is part of the conspiracy, used as a marketing research tool to see how different types of people respond to different types of packaging of similar information - because there is a website that asks for an email address and first name: http://www.zeitgeistsociety.org/ The problem is that all the links for that site keep presenting the same exact page with the same email address and first name request. (For example: clicking on Privacy Policy will bring you to: http://www.zeitgeistsociety.org/privacy.html ) So that’s a little freaky. But the site doesn’t claim any type of association with the movie. But the only place to find that declaration of disassociation is http://www.zeitgeistsociety.org/movie/. It reads “(No affiliation with the Zeitgeist Movie makers.)” The problem here is that this is not the complete movie - it’s an hour-and-a-half out of a two-hour experience. So that’s interesting, especially if we’re talking conspiracies. Maybe the movie is legit but an agency that is looking to compile the email address and first names of those who have just watched the movie and want to find out what to do. This is what it reads. Here’s what you can do right now: Sign-up to receive instructions and be part of a sweeping rebel alliance forming to take on the world banks and end this conspiracy of global oppression. When you sign up, you’ll get a list of critical steps you can take to help you stop feeding this potential global Empire and start reclaiming democracy. The main movie site asks for personal information only if the movie is to be screened in an area. Submit your interest and proposed location to us for review in the form below. The goal at this point is to match up your event with other's submissions from your City/Town in order to try and have one central venue, rather than many, in order to obtain the largest size audience in each event. But I’m a bit skeptical about the other website. How very confusing. Maybe no one else noticed. This is the sun. As far back as 10 thousand B.C.E., history is abundant with carvings [M] and writings reflecting people's respect and adoration for this object [S1]. And it is simple to understand why as every morning the sun would rise, bringing vision, warmth, and security, saving man from the cold, blind, predator-filled darkness of night. Without it, the cultures understood, the crops would not grow, and life on the planet would not survive. These realities made the sun the most adored object of all time.[M] Likewise, they were also very aware of the stars.[M] The tracking of the stars allowed them to recognize and anticipate events which occurred over long periods of time, such as eclipses and full moons.[M] They in turn catalogued celestial groups into what we know today as constellations. That’s the way the official movie starts. Thought it was pretty good. But once again. Why isn’t everything just part of a great conspiracy? There was a John Carpenter movie called ‘They Live’. This is one synopsis: Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep", "No Imagination", "Submit to Authority". Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued. Written by Melissa Portell. This is another: John Carpenter's slow and deliberate immersion of the daunting and worrying fable of the corrupt, deceiving and indifferent economic, social and political society, that has wrapped itself around its people and who in turn have blindly accepted their fate. Multicultural in more forms than anticipated, are the leading and upwardly mobile alien race who have gelled themselves into the Human psyche and exploited it to its full potential. This is the story of an everyman, a no one, a Nada [Roddy Piper] who stumbles upon their secret, via an underground movement, whose mission is to sabotage their plans and awaken the world to its sinister plans. With the help of a pair of sunglasses, that shows the world as it really is, not in colour, but a black and white parallel world that the sub-conscious has chosen to ignore. With subliminal messages as "OBEY", "CONFORM", "MARRY AND REPRODUCE", "CONSUME", "WATCH TELEVISION" and "SLEEP". It is through this thought control that the aliens have this world tied up and neatly packaged for its own manipulative uses, to further themselves at the expense of the meek, mild and the lowly sufferers of a job less and hungry world. This is the battle of self-awareness and one mans struggle with a reality check that has these alien beings staging war against the up-rising and rebellious armies from the gutters and streets. They Live You Sleep; where will your consciousness take you when the sleep is washed from your eyes. Welcome to the real world. Written by Cinema_Fan. Two different packaging of similar information. Maybe everything is marketing strategy. “Put it out there like this and see what happens” someone says. Another says, “put it out there like this two”. Who’s into the aliens? Who’s into the government conspiracies? Who doesn’t care? Who cares too much? Why don’t conspiracy theorists think that the Fascist state is already here, subdued controlled, leaking out just enough information to continue to keep us ‘entertained’. I believe it’s far subtler, flying low under the radar. Who’s radar? Anyone’s radar. And claims of detection are dismissed as ludicrous mostly because the rest of us have their radar set at a particular homogenized setting. Or at least that’s the claim. Or can be the claim. Or the justification. Or the reasons. The whole thing goes in a loop and this is when some say to me “get me off this merry-go-round” but most say, “what’r’ya craazy?” I think. Am I? Or am being fed, like everyone else, subtly? And I’m trying to open my eyes, but I keep thinking that there can always be more layers that need unwinding from around my head, uncovering my eyes, and even though I can see better, in a sense - more light is coming in - but my vision is still obstructed, with each and every spin and turn, more light comes, and I short after get used to it. But another spin around my head brings me more light. But the blindfold is still on me. And it feels like true vision gained through unobscured wide open eyes is so close, yet so far, that even if it ever became. If that last layer was removed and I was told “ta-da!” I’d still be suspicious. Still unresolved. Still wondering where have all the people gone. I wonder if I’d scream to be let back. “Cover me back up. Cover me back up.” I joke. But who can tell the difference? Maybe the difference lies in the choice. Do I watch this movie or not? (Zeitgeist, not They Live.) 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