One Stop Thought Shop

The season of blood is approaching once again late this spring. Seals, young seals, baby seals, will be killed for their fur and their penises.

There’s a market for seal fur in Scandinavia, Russia and the Far East for clothing, boots, and garment trim.

Their penises are an aphrodisiac in China.

The lucky die quickly after being clubbed or shot. The wounded are skinned alive or escape to die beneath the ice.

A few years ago, Member of the Parliament of Canada John Efford declared to his cronies when he was the fisheries minister of Newfoundland,

“I would like to see the 6 million seals, or whatever number is out there, killed and sold, or destroyed and burned. I do not care what happens to them. The more they kill the better I will love it.” [AFC News]

A few years ago nearly half of Canada’s population had no idea there was a seal hunt. Today, most of the world is condemning the practice. And most local fisherman who have wielded the clubs and aimed the rifles also want out.

The Humane Society of the United States reports that more than 95 percent of the seals killed are under 3 months old. Veterinarians reported that in 42 percent of cases seals did not show sufficient cranial injury to guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning—in other words, they were skinned alive.

Perhaps more than six million have been killed in the last several years. As of October 2007, the Canadian government has banned journalists and observers from viewing the hunt, a garish and piddling $3million industry. Veterinarians who traveled to Newfoundland for the European Commission were also denied access.

[full article here]
[background faq here]
[Stop the Seal Hunt here]

The easiest way to find out if we’re going in the wrong direction is to discover it’s supported by Bush or Cheney.

The Ecological Society of America, the nation’s professional organization of 10,000 ecological scientists are warning that the current mode of biofuels production will degrade the nation’s natural resources and will keep biofuels from becoming a viable energy option.

The Administration’s ethanol policies are crony capitalism at best. The ESA has developed a set of principles that better ideas.

Agnet
Biofuels sustainability: Nation’s ecological scientists weigh in on biofuels
10.jan.08
from a pres release
WASHINGTON, DC — The Ecological Society of America, the nation’s professional organization of 10,000 ecological scientists, today released a position statement that offers the ecological principles necessary for biofuels to help decrease dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global climate change. The Society warns that the current mode of biofuels production will degrade the nation’s natural resources and will keep biofuels from becoming a viable energy option.
“Current grain-based ethanol production systems damage soil and water resources in the U.S. and are only profitable in the context of tax breaks and tariffs,” says ESA. “Future systems based on a combination of cellulosic materials and grain could be equally degrading to the environment, with potentially little carbon savings, unless steps are taken now that incorporate principles of ecological sustainability.”
Three ecological principles are necessary:
1) SYSTEMS THINKING: Looking at the complete picture of how much energy is produced versus how much is consumed by extracting and transporting the crops used for biofuels. A systems approach seeks to avoid or minimize undesirable production side effects such as soil erosion and contamination of groundwater. Consistent monitoring is critical to ensure that biofuel production is sustainable.
2) CONSERVATION OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: Maximizing crop yield without regard to negative side effects is easy. On the other hand, growing crops and retaining the other services provided by the land is far more challenging, but very much worth the effort. For example, lower yields from an unfertilized native prairie may be acceptable in light of the other benefits, such as minimized flooding, fewer pests, groundwater recharge, and improved water quality because no fertilizer is needed.
3) SCALE ALIGNMENT: How agriculture is managed matters at the individual farm, regional, and global level. Policies must provide incentives for managing land in a sustainable way. They should also encourage the development of biofuels from various sources.
“The current focus on ethanol from corn illustrates the risks of exploiting a single source of biomass for biofuel production,” says ESA.
Continuously-grown corn leads to heavy use of fertilizers, early return of land in conservation programs to production, and the conversion of marginal lands to high-intensity cropping. All of these bring with them well-known environmental problems associated with intensive farming: persistent pest insects and weeds, pollution of groundwater, greater irrigation demands, less wildlife diversity, and the release of more carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. Ironically, one of the touted benefits of biofuels is to help alleviate global climate change, a benefit that is considerably diluted under a high-intensity agriculture scenario.
The Ecological Society of America will contribute more to this timely issue in a few months when it convenes a conference devoted to the ecological dimensions of biofuels.
Like other organizations, ESA is also concerned about the hardship on the nation’s poor communities as higher crop prices drive up the cost of food.
It has been said that biofuels have achieved cult-like status and in the rush it is only too easy to overlook the big picture of environmental implications. Iowa alone has planted more than a third of its land surface with corn and, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the federal government has some 20 laws and incentives to boost ethanol use.
A biofuels infrastructure that incorporates systems thinking, conserves ecosystem services, and encompasses multiple scales can best serve U.S. citizens, the economy, and the environment.
–Note to Reporters– Registration for the ESA Biofuels conference is waived for reporters with recognized press credentials. Interested press should contact Nadine Lymn (Nadine@esa.org) to register for “Ecological Dimensions of Biofuels.”
The Ecological Society of America is the country’s primary professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the world. Since its founding in 1915, ESA has pursued the promotion of the responsible application of ecological principles to the solution of environmental problems through ESA reports, journals, research, and expert testimony to Congress. For more information about the Society and its activities, visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org.

New York’s mayor Bloomberg says,

“The part of the bill that, uh, requires using more ethanol was an outrage,” Bloomberg said. “That is going to drive up the cost of food for everybody in this country and have world-wide implications on the food supply. The bottom line is you cannot keep growing corn for ethanol and have reasonably priced food in our country. Farmers are already walking away from planting wheat and soybeans and other things to go over and plant corn because they’ll be able to sell this corn to be used in ethanol plants.

There is no evidence whatsoever that the ethanol that is made is fuel efficient or anything else. It’s just, it’s a farm bill rather than an energy bill and I’m not even sure it’s good farm policy. Most of the farm things that we do don’t benefit most farmers. They just benefit ten percent of the more industrial-sized farms. And the small farmers who we really should be helping in this country, who needs a lot of help isn’t sharing in that. So it’s bad energy policy and probably bad agricultural policy.” [link]

Best, ‘I love you’ is our surprise, our gift, and merely reminds us and leads us.

Better,

But a whole lotta fun is Paul Ford’s 100 ways to say “I love you”

Here’s a new way to fight drug dealers.

It might be scary and it certainly will require sensible cooperation from prosecutors and the bench, especially from the robots and bounty hunters at the federal level.

According to this story from the BBC,

Sandra Bergen, 23, suffered a heart attack and spent 11 days in a coma after taking crystal methamphetamine.

She said in her court claim that the dealer “knew the drug was highly addictive” and that his dealing was not only “for the purpose of making money but was also for the purpose of intentionally inflicting physical and mental suffering” on her.

“I sued him for negligence… for selling me drugs and getting me hooked when I was vulnerable.”

It seems the Canadian court has granted her $50,000 in compensation, and she’s awaiting a date to determine damages.

Patrick Metzger at Green Daily noticed a new twist about the causes of the greenhouse effect:

A new report from Greenpeace says that agriculture is one of the biggest sources of the greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming.

The report from researchers at the University of Aberdeen estimates that between 17% and 32% of all human-generated greenhouse gases come from farming.

The largest part of the gases (about 32% of the farm total) comes from nitrous oxide produced by chemical fertilizers, with cow flatulence in second place at 27%.

One part of this Greenpeace report requires fact checking.
Flatulence is the burping of ruminant livestock. It’s methane created by fermentation bacteria in one of the animal’s stomach chambers. A cow burps 280 liters (75 gallons) per day, but the carbon in this gas is not new carbon.

The critical point that is being missed is where this carbon comes from.

Cars, ships, etc.:
This carbon comes from carbon that has been buried deep underground. It is unearthed, burned, and then released into the atmosphere. Therefore, any carbon released is added to carbon already present in the atmosphere = global warming.

Cows, agriculture:
This carbon comes from the atmosphere. The plants take up the carbon dioxide. Livestock then eat the plants and release the carbon back into the atmosphere. Therefore, any carbon released by the cows was already in the atmospher to begin with (carbon neutral) = no global warming.

The problem isn’t the re-releasing of carbon that was already in the atmosphere (livestock, agriculture), but the unearthing of new carbon sources (gas and coal) and then adding these to the atmosphere.

Food for thought
Phillip Barker posted an interesting comment at a BBC story on the impact of livestock:

“Your findings and calculations cause me to wonder if human contributions to global warming gases are a wash considering the billions of wild bison, water buffalo, rhinos and elephants no longer producing these dangerous gases due to our eliminating them from the planet.”

Women who live close to air pollution from roads have smaller babies.

“We found that mothers that were exposed to generally higher levels of air pollution had generally smaller babies.”

But only a matter of millimeters.

Jules Dervaes and his family at Home Grown Revolution are readying to harvest 10,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables in 2008 from merely 1/10 acre.

Can 1/10 of an acre (about 4,300 sq ft; 400 sq meter) grow a cornucopia of 10,000 pounds without using synthetic fertilizers? We are talking about a piece of land equivalent to 65’x65′! Read more

They’re not kidding. In 2003, they surprised themselves with 6,000 lbs (3 tons) of fruits, vegetables and herbs on their Pasadena 1/10 acre. Now they’re challenging the world by attempting to harvest five tons from their city lot.

Jules says, “Our leaders, being politicians, are not leaders at all but are bound to be followers, who just won’t be there for us in a crisis. So, it’s up to me and you to make the choice of becoming responsible stewards of the earth.”

Increasing and diversifying how we use land might become important sooner than we think. The agriculturists at AllAboutFeed report that food prices will rise continuously for the foreseeable future. They report that much of the increase in prices is a result of world growth and “the only way to slow that significantly would be through war, pandemics or chronic health issues“.

Although alarm about shortages and high prices may not be prudent, a steady re-invigoration of local farming, and backyard farming, can be truly beneficial.

I’ve lived in an era where the portent of disaster, such as atomic annihilation, germ warfare and now hoards of angry jihadists will destroy us, or for that matter something as innocuous as the Y2K bug! I can’t listen anymore. But nuthin’ could be finer than ripe tomato on my china…. Let’s learn to enjoy using our land.

Reuters and many news services are reporting that nearly half of our professional diplomats are refusing to serve in Iraq saying they do not support the Bush administration’s policies. Well, duh.

There are 11,000 personnel listed as US Foreign Service in the State Department, the Agency for International Development, the Foreign Commercial Service, Foreign Agriculture Service, and the International Broadcasting Bureau.

And almost half of the US Foreign Service think Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is doing a “poor job”.

From the pirate community, where copyright battles are daily and increasingly costly, here’s part of the argument from TorrentFreak:

The same way light confuses scientists by existing as particles and waves at the same time, information increasingly seems to confuse us. Information is getting cheaper and more expensive at the same time, and it appears that many of us, especially those of us who own or control a great deal of it, no longer understand how to observe or use it.

We live in a world where it is legal for a company to patent pigs, or any other living thing except for a full birth human being, but copying a CD you bought onto your hard drive is considered an infringement of someone else’s rights. A place where an average law abiding citizen could owe more than $12 million dollars in fines if they were sued every time they accidentally violated copyright law in a single day. A society where it’s ok for each of us to be hit with 5,000 advertising messages every 24 hours, usually without our permission, but creating a piece of art and placing it in public yourself without permission can land you in prison. This isn’t just about the pros and cons of file sharing – this is about an entire species losing its sense of perspective, failing to understand the potential of one of its most precious (and yet most abundant) resources.

Many of us are confused about whether our ideas should count as information, or property.

I’m very cautious when issues become popular. Our culture will rush to fashion. Politicians and marketers will tilt into the crowd. Mistakes will increase. For example, while building a low impact sustainable future is necessary and will greatly enrich us, premature corn ethanol policies may soon embarrass us.

And the trumpeting for a green future is too often rhetoric, crafted to raise attention rather than explore details. For example, even well-intentioned groups such as the Rainforest Action Network or the World Wildlife Fund persistently raise the alarm about deforestation saying we raze tropical forests, but one of the world’s leading experts on tropical deforestation at the University of Leeds reports that the decline of tropical forests cannot be backed up by hard evidence.

“Every few years we get a new estimate of the annual rate of tropical deforestation. They always seem to show that these marvelous forests have only a short time left. Unfortunately, everybody assumes that deforestation is happening and fails to look at the bigger picture – what is happening to forest area as a whole.”

“The errors and inconsistencies I have discovered in the area data raise too many questions to provide convincing support for the accepted picture of tropical forest decline over the last 40 years.”

Despite the large errors attached to present estimates, the lack of apparent decline in tropical moist forest area suggests that deforestation is being offset by natural reforestation at a higher rate than previously thought.

I support both the Rainforest Action Network and particularly the World Wildlife Fund. These are brave, prescient and witty folks that helped carve our awareness while pioneering difficult projects and inventing new economics. Frankly, I’m posting this to encourage fact checking. We’ll need it.

Update:
Ed Ring at EcoWorld is a number cruncher, rare and important. Here’s his current take on rainforests:

(1) The mainstream press is beginning to see – rather late in the game – that the subsidized market for biofuel has unleashed catastrophic rainforest destruction, and (2) Yet again it is apparent that the journalistic value of “fact checking” does not extend to quantitative data – and that value is needed now more than ever.

It’s clear there’s more argument than agreement, fewer facts than beliefs. It’s important to have government’s cooperation to deliver facts, to repudiate foolish laissez-faire experiments, and to end game theory population management. We need to invigorate mere leadership and the facts are part of that

A small mud snail from New Zealand is threatening US river fish.

It’s a threat across the country including smaller coastal rivers such as California’s San Lorenzo. The river travels only 30 miles from 2500 feet in coastal mountains before emptying into the Pacific Ocean at Monterey Bay [wiki]

Mud snails gobble up the same bacteria and algae that sustain flies and river insects, reducing the food available for native fish. If they overwhelm a watershed, mud snails can displace 95 percent of the bugs and invertebrates!

In New Zealand, the snails are preyed upon by 3 kinds of fish and 14 species of worms. But in California, there’s no predator capable of extracting them from their shells. The snails snap shut to pass through ducks and fish virtually unharmed.

The snail is here.
Only changing people can rescue some rivers. People can help the remaining fish survive. For example, there’s only a few thousand fish surviving in the San Lorenzo. The overall health of streams and rivers has become critical. There’s no question we must reduce Army Corp-style flood engineering, erosion from construction, power plants, public works and road repair, plus increase control of litter and toxics.

Humans slap shut too
South along the California coast is another of America’s most endangered smaller rivers flowing into Monterey Bay. The Pajaro River is a disaster as well. Old-fashioned industrialization is killing it.

Slow as snails, lazy institutions are failing to deal with the watershed’s problems.

While many farmers are learning to support biology and the environment, the Pajaro River has been slapped with erosion and concrete over decades and there’s a new tussle with the Army Corps’ plan to spend $200million merely to chop vegetation and raise levees rather than secure the river’s health.

Note:
Before the Golden Gate appeared as a geologic exit, all the waters of the San Francisco Bay and the San Joaquin Delta flowed over this area – through the Chittenden Gap and into the Pajaro River Watershed before reaching the Pacific at Monterey Bay.

None elected death.
All of us kill.
Next?

Doug Powell
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/01/articles/culture-of-food-safety/may-the-force-be-with-you-leafy-greens-edition/index.html
The good microorganisms out-compete the bad, so no one will get ever get sick.
I’ve heard variations of that from a lot of organic growers over the past decade — yet there is no evidence that such claims are true.
But there is lots of evidence that people get sick from fresh produce — organic, conventional, or otherwise.
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=1052
It’s all about the bugs.
Ian Davidson of BioLogic Systems LLC writes in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning that there is, “a microbial force field around the plant that is naked to the human eye. By inoculating plants with these beneficial organisms, it is virtually impossible for pathogenic organisims to even touch the plant, because the beneficial aerobic organisms are in such dominance. These beneficial organisms can easily eliminate the pathogen, or simply outcompete it for food resources.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/06/CMQNU4QK8.DTL

One of my students heard the same thing back in 2000. I sent her on a day long workshop to learn how to be an organic inspector. Microbial food safety was never mentioned, until my student brought it up at the end of the day, and was told, no worries, the good bugs keep the bad bugs at bay.
Yet fresh produce remains the single biggest source of foodborne illness today.
Sure, soil microbiology is complex, but until our knowledge increases, I’ll side with the victims of foodborne illness. And there’s a lot of them,
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=1&c=1&sc=1&id=377

I don’t know the criteria Reuters would use to determine what’s newsworthy, but while I was reading this January 2008 story it seemed to me it should be national front page news:

How Supermarket Purchases Violate Your Privacy and Increase the Cost of Insurance

In May 2007, the Harvard Business Review published an extensive ‘analysis of analytics’ in the retail sector and how our shopping habits have become a new source of profits. [The Dark Side of Customer Analytics, sub required]

Supermarket and chainstore management have stumbled into new profit centers in the unregulated ‘agriculture of population’ – data mining of purchase history. For example, ten years’ worth of customer data from southern Michigan supermarkets revealed that customers purchasing unhealthy products had more medical claims. Analysts teamed up with sales to create a new health plan for customers with healthy diets, increasing the premiums or refusing coverage for customers with sloppy diets. The insurance firm is establishing your premium based on what you’ve been eating.

Health, life and auto insurance companies are buying retail data and recording purchases linked to your name. Trisha Torrey at Every Patient’s Advocate asks, “How will it affect you?”

“Well — suppose you purchase wine from the supermarket, then drink it at home that night. The next day you drive to work and someone broadsides your car. Later, in court, the defense brings up that fact that YOU purchased alcohol the day before the accident, so perhaps it was your fault?

“Or maybe you want to purchase life insurance. The insurance company pulls up your records, finds out you have an affinity for doughnuts (even though you really bought them to take to work every Friday, how do they know you weren’t the one who ate all of them?), you’ve got a problem with acid reflux, plus the fact that you have a large dog (because you buy so much dog food so often) AND they notice that you never buy condoms (will they make a leap to STDs too?) — bottom line — they’d be glad to sell you life insurance, but the price will be higher than it might have been if they weren’t concerned by those unhealthy purchases you make….”

There’s 10s of 1000s of posts and articles about copyright misuse, too many generated by synthetic memes manufactured by big media hydra, but here are guidelines from apophenia about how to refer to or use portions of copyrighted material fairly and legally.

• Parody and satire:
  Copyrighted material used in spoofing of popular mass media, celebrities or politicians (Baby Got Book)

• Negative or critical commentary:
  Copyrighted material used to communicate a negative message (Metallica Sucks)
• Positive commentary:
  Copyrighted material used to communicate a positive message (Steve Irwin Fan Tribute)
• Quoting to trigger discussion:
  Copyrighted material used to highlight an issue and prompt public awareness, discourse (Abstinence PSA on Feministing.com)
• Illustration or example:
  Copyrighted material used to support a new idea with pictures and sound (Evolution of Dance)
• Incidental use:
  Copyrighted material captured as part of capturing something else (Prisoners Dance to Thriller)
• Personal reportage/diaries:
  Copyrighted material incorporated into the chronicling of a personal experience (Me on stage with U2… AGAIN!!!)
• Archiving of vulnerable or revealing materials:
  Copyrighted material that might have a short life on mainstream media due to controversy (Stephen Colbert’s Speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner)
• Pastiche or collage:
  Several copyrighted materials incorporated together into a new creation, or in other cases, an imitation of sorts of copyrighted work (Apple Commercial)

Facts about Google at the end of 2007 compiled by Jeff Jarvis:

• Google is the “fastest growing company in the history of the world.” – Times of London, 1/29/06

• Google controls 65.1% of all searches in the U.S. at the end of 2007 and 86% of all searches in the UK, according to measurement company Hitwise.

• Google was searched 4.4 billion times in the U.S. alone in October, 2007 (three times Yahoo), says Nielsen. Average searches per searcher: 40.7.

• Google’s sites had 112 million U.S. visitors in November, 2007, says Nielsen.

• Google’s traffic was up 22.4% in 2007 over 2006, according to Comscore.

• Google earned $15 billion revenue and $6.4 billion profit in 2007, a profit margin of 26.9%. Its revenue was up 57% in the last quarter of 2007 over 2006, says Yahoo Finance. As of late 2007, its stock was up 53% in a year. The company has a market capitalization of $207.6 billion.

• Google controls 79% of the pay-per-click ad market, according to RimmKaufman. It controls 40% of all online advertising, according to web site HipMojo.

• Google employed almost 16,000 people at the end of 2007, a 50% increase over the year before.

• Google became the No. 1 brand in the world in 2007, according to Millward Brown Brandz Top 100.

Boredom appears, said psychoanalyst Otto Fenichel in 1951, “when we must not do what we want to do, or must do what we do not want to do.’

In the 1930s, psychologist Joseph Barmack found that boredom is reduced with amphetamines, ephedrine, caffeine, and money.

Scientific American has an extensive report on boredom.

People who are often bored are at greater risk of developing anxiety, depression, and drug or alcohol addiction; displaying anger, aggressive behavior and lack of interpersonal skills; and performing poorly at work and at school…

Battling boredom means finding focus, living in the moment and having something to live for.

Sedge is not grass. Sedges have edges. The Greek named the genus ‘carex’ meaning ‘cut’. There’s 2,000 species. [pdf]

Like grass, sedge will both seed and clone with underground rhizomes, the longer used to craft baskets.

Clusters of sedge protect mammals and birds, especially in summer when less durable grasses fall.

Perhaps the most important task for today’s dog is to learn about the world while they are puppies.

It’s important near 16 weeks of age to socialize a puppy.

Future behavior problems can easily be prevented at the puppy stage if exposed to sounds, sights, smells, situations and the many, many creatures of society.

Pups are pleasant things.
I showed my pup many many things.
I showed him many things very pleasantly.
My dog knows what he learned as a pup.
He doesn’t seek or expect trouble.
His world remains pleasant.
That’s socialization.

Up the road a dozen chickens criss cross ditch to ditch. Their rooster keeps a pride of nearby feral cats away. Imagine that? My dog and I walk near. He turns to look at me. I put my hand in my pocket, slump my shoulders, to signal to him we will not annoy other creatures; nope, not, not now, just no. But with an impetuous hop-skip, he veers three or four feet in their direction to see them cluck cluck in deference and we walk by. I’m not worried. He will not chase. He will not threaten. He will not damage. There’s not malice.

He has no malice with the seagulls on the boardwalk nor the beach. There’s not malice with the kittens under the stoop. There’s not malice to the two farm dogs charging us. There’s not malice to the rampaging Chihuahua charging us. Not to the Great Dane that surprised us through the fog. There’s not malice to the small mare at the fence nor the three calves next door; not to the mole in the hole on the knoll.

As people approach, in all ages and sizes and colors, in uniforms, with tools or boxes, or swinging their arms, or strolling with their children, or leading their pets, he wiggles and twists into a pretzel on four legs and hopes for their delight. Me too; well, not a wiggling pretzel so much.

I saw a toddler throw her hands in the air when Lucky and I turned onto the grass at the neighborhood park. In awe she fell to her diaper-padded bottom while her eyes froze on my dog like a deer in headlights. He instantly looked away from her gaze, swiftly turned his back to her, plunged flat, and froze to the grass. Not looking at her; not once over minutes, as if an old-style film strip, he undulated his neck and his spine and shuffled his paws under his tummy until, slowly by inches and inches, he was very lightly touching her. She rolled on him in utter glee. A soft day for her whole humanity.

Puppy classes teach puppies how to behave with puppies. A dog learns to be gentle, witty and patient.

Puppy socialization teaches about the worries and wonders of the world. A dog learns attitude.

To join with ours. [via threadless]

US$2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world wealth distribution in the year 2000. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world required US$61,000 in assets, and more than US$500,000 was needed to belong to the richest 1%.

the richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth. The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total.

link

From the UC Atlas of Global Inequality,
here’s the health care system of the USA in one simple graph:
[click pic for larger version]

From BoingBoing:

John Hockenberry, a former Dateline reporter-cum-fellow of the MIT Media Lab, has written a stunning, scathing indictment of network news for the Technology Review: mired in corporate bureaucracy, obsessed with the “emotional center” of stories to the exclusion of truth, gutless and irrelevant…

From John Hockenberry:

The most memorable reporting I’ve encountered on the conflict in Iraq was delivered in the form of confetti exploding out of a cardboard tube. I had just begun working at the MIT Media Lab in March 2006 when Alyssa Wright, a lab student, got me to participate in a project called “Cherry Blossoms.” I strapped on a backpack with a pair of vertical tubes sticking out of the top; they were connected to a detonation device linked to a Global Positioning System receiver. A microprocessor in the backpack contained a program that mapped the coördinates of the city of Baghdad onto those for the city of Cambridge; it also held a database of the locations of all the civilian deaths of 2005. If I went into a part of Cambridge that corresponded to a place in Iraq where civilians had died in a bombing, the detonator was triggered.

When the backpack exploded on a clear, crisp afternoon at the Media Lab, handfuls of confetti shot out of the cardboard tubes into the air, then fell slowly to earth. On each streamer of paper was written the name of an Iraqi civilian casualty. I had reported on the war (although not from Baghdad) since 2003 and was aware of persistent controversy over the numbers of Iraqi civilian dead as reported by the U.S. government and by other sources.

But it wasn’t until the moment of this fake explosion that the scale and horrible suddenness of the slaughter in Baghdad became vivid and tangible to me. Alyssa described her project as an upgrade to traditional journalism. “The upgrade is empathy,” she said, with the severe humility that comes when you suspect you are on to something but are still uncertain you aren’t being ridiculous in some way.

To lure us lovingly to fuller powers.

One day turns into another;
Orb upon orb spin out the years.
We sometimes reflect such poise.
Sometimes not.

It’s just so seldom said,
these stories of the heart.
What better moment than now, another year,
to challenge the coming murmurs of each new day?

Here’s to recognizing
amidst the blinding dark infinity
the sweet triumph
of every step we carve
from this froth of earth.

Here’s to some discovery amongst our paths.
Here’s to worthy dreams to lure us lovingly to fuller powers.

May we be of sharp wit,
with diligence of will,
until every fire succumb as ally
and every flood seek our buoyancy.

May we, as if a star,
use our hope to breathe,
our purpose unmoved,
quick in our calm heart.

May Peace commence our every journey.
May Joy touch deep.

Escapists, fools, broken hearts, cheats and liars drive near me.

[and, a worthy well written less optimistic accompaniment here]