speaking of seemingly promising ideas to throw money at, france won its bid to host the international fusion reactor
The ultimate goal of the project is to finally crack the problem of how to tap into the immense power of nuclear fusion. Fusion is the same process that goes on in the centre of the sun, and it holds the promise of almost inexhaustible, clean safe energy generation.the ambitious project remains a daunting task as the bbc details
In terms of the physics and huge amounts of energy involved, the [International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor] project would be akin to building a star on Earth.but promising as "One kilogram of fusion fuel would produce the same amount of energy as 10,000,000 kg of fossil fuel."
¶ - nitish @ 1:00 PM | 0 comments 
efforts to address the rather dire situation in africa by tony blair and even live 8 are commendable. however, the history of the results of aid efforts remains troubling. the amount of corruption boggles the mind.
The stolen fortune tallies almost exactly with the £220 billion of western aid given to Africa between 1960 and 1997. That amounted to six times the American help given to post-war Europe under the Marshall Plan. [italics added]the scale of corruption led to measures to better monitor aid and recover money already stolen.
¶ - nitish @ 3:20 PM | 0 comments
alotta talk about the current 18 week slump at the movie box office.
¶ - nitish @ 5:00 PM | 0 comments
amd filed an antitrust lawsuit against intel. the register provides an effective summary and analysis regarding the amd opteron. despite being demonstrably better than intel's server product,
"It did everything the business world demands of the smaller player by taking more risks and moving more nimbly than its giant rival.the amd opteron remains unable to break 10% market share in servers. amd alleges intel 'pressures' vendors (the RLX story in the reg's article depicts such behavior) and essentially uses cash to hold off amd.
More often than not, you'd expect AMD's moment of brilliant execution to produce lavish rewards."
"[AMD] knows this lawsuit will drag on for years, but perhaps AMD sensed, the time was right to put more than benchmark performance pressure on Intel. Maybe AMD wanted Intel to be looking over its shoulder for the next two years, making sure salesmen aren't too aggressive and that vendors aren't receiving too many perks."amd could be using the lawsuit as a tactic to make inroads.
¶ - nitish @ 2:35 PM | 0 comments
william hung cannot be stopped...
After butchering rock classics by The Eagles and Queen on his last record, Hung is back to torture us with more massacred covers.this album will include covers of billy ray cyrus' achy breaky heart, randy newman's i love la, and cubs 7th inning stretch fave take me out to the ballgame.
¶ - nitish @ 3:46 PM | 0 comments
several big rulings just before the supreme court adjourned.
¶ - nitish @ 12:21 PM | 0 comments
i've written before about the rather cavalier attitude ebay takes with regard to crime enabling. apparently, the profits that can be derived from such crime enabling outweighs the need to stop the crime.
Peter Carr, editor of specialist online title ChatMag.com, told us: "I've talked to Yahoo! about this before, there was a petition last year asking them to moderate their chat rooms but they've never done anything." Carr said Yahoo pulled the plug on customer-created chatrooms late on Friday night to avoid media attention.perhaps further motivation of this belated action came with a lawsuit filed against yahoo for distribution of pictures depicting a victim's sexual abuse.
¶ - nitish @ 2:57 PM | 0 comments
comments by karl rove caused a bit of an uproar, with Dems calling for apology or a resignation
"Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Rove said. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."strangely, most of the stories including the NYT and that AP article attribute comments to karl rove that he did not in fact make. they imply rove specifically mentioned "democrats" instead of "liberals" (and democrats rarely admit to being liberal, so what's the difference ;)
In the course of this exchange, he stated his view that Osama Bin Laden should be considered innocent until proven guilty. This was, he said, the American way. The intervention in Afghanistan, he maintained, had been at least to that extent unjustified.- the lone vote against the afghan resolution was cast by liberal barbara lee.
¶ - nitish @ 5:33 PM | 0 comments
apparently not all of them are fat and lazy...
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following up on the lack of new ideas in show biz, an update of the 'classic' battle of the network stars is in the works. bravo will air battle of the network reality stars august 17th.
¶ - nitish @ 12:36 PM | 0 comments
several weeks back, there a story of a dog saving an abandoned baby.
Three lions rescued a girl of 12 kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and protecting her until she was rescued by Ethiopian police.apparently the situation stuck a natural protective instinct
The men had held the girl for a week in the remote south-west, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said it was likely the girl had been saved because she was crying.
"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why [the lions] didn't eat her," he said.
¶ - nitish @ 3:37 PM | 0 comments
i've lamented before of hollywood's assault on icons from my childhood.
¶ - nitish @ 4:57 PM | 0 comments
the washington post carries a cautiously positive entry by kofi annan about progress in iraq. understandably, the contributions of the UN are spotlighted--there are no less than 11 instances of name-dropping variations of "united nations"/"UN". some UN actions include resolution 1546 which provides guidelines for the transition/transfer of power in iraq, along with continuing assistance through the constitutional process and beyond.
¶ - nitish @ 10:20 AM | 0 comments
the software supposed to keep computers and systems secure tend to be flawed themselves. an examination of security software reveals more flaws at an increasing rate.
"Security researchers...are increasingly less interested in poking holes in desktop operating systems.... A more fascinating and profitable area exists in finding vulnerabilities in the products meant to defend against the attacks themselves. It is time for the security vendors to stand up and make their own products more secure before they become preferred conduits for professionally designed malware."the recommendation to rectify the problem raises issues.
Yankee Group urges vendors to further protect customers by comprehensive testing before product release, and by reviewing the entire code base for potentially dangerous functions. [italics added]it's amazing the lax rules the software industry grants itself. can anyone imagine the auto or pharmaceutical industries getting away with this behavior?
¶ - nitish @ 4:41 PM | 0 comments
a london auction of paintings by a chimp brought in more than $25,000. surprisingly, these paintings were part of an auction including works by warhol and renoir--which didn't sell...
Congo [the chimpanzee], born in 1954, produced about 400 drawings and paintings between the ages of 2 and 4. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis.
His artwork provoked reactions ranging from scorn to skepticism among critics of the time, but painter Pablo Picasso is reported to have hung a Congo painting on his studio wall after receiving it as a gift.
¶ - nitish @ 4:21 PM | 0 comments
the anti-syrian alliance won a majority of the 128 seat national assembly of the multi-phased elections. while it is not as strong a majority as they had hoped, it is a welcome turn after the victories by hezbollah and pro-syrian factions in previous phases of elections.
¶ - nitish @ 10:07 AM | 0 comments
there have been plenty of the obligatory dad articles in times for father's day including a tv dad poll, a tv dad salary survey, etc.
Still, no matter how much Dad does in real life, I think he'll remain a doofus on television, and not just because he's a safe target and makes the female sitcom audience laugh. He makes men laugh, too - the men who watch him and the ones who create him.
¶ - nitish @ 10:47 AM | 0 comments
former gulag prisoner Pavel Litvinov relates [bugmenot login] a conversation discussing the amnesty international statement equating guantanamo bay with soviet gulags:
"Don't you think that there's an enormous difference?" I asked him.there was a time when AI didn't strive to 'attract attention', rather allowing "its fact-based, objective and balanced approach to the defense of human rights" to serve as "a source of hope for dissidents everywhere". however, Litvinonv maintains AI overreached with the "gulag of our time" rhetoric
"Sure," he said, "but after all, it attracts attention to the problem of Guantanamo detainees." [italics added]
There is ample reason for Amnesty to be critical of certain U.S. actions. But by using hyperbole and muddling the difference between repressive regimes and the imperfections of democracy, Amnesty's spokesmen put its authority at risk.
[snip]
The most effective way to criticize U.S. behavior is to frankly acknowledge that this country should be held to a higher standard based on its own Constitution, laws and traditions.
[snip]
Words are important. When Amnesty spokesmen use the word "gulag" to describe U.S. human rights violations, they allow the Bush administration to dismiss justified criticism and undermine Amnesty's credibility.
¶ - nitish @ 4:19 PM | 0 comments
while there are many school choice experiments around the country, florida's Opportunity Scholarship Program is the only statewide program. if a school receives a failing grade two years in a row, the school must undergo remedial changes while its students can receive a $4200 voucher towards an alternative.
"Public education is the greatest thing going and we'll fight with everything we have to protect it."however, the program has worked
The results have been stunning. Even with tougher state standards, nearly half of Florida's public schools now earn "A" grades, while a similar percentage scored "C's" when the program started. A 2003 study by Jay Greene found that gains were most concentrated among schools under threat of vouchers.if the program is deemed unconstitutional the ~750 students who now benefit from it will be condemned to return to the terrible schools.
Most remarkable has been minority student progress. While the percentage of white third-graders reading at or above grade level has increased to 78% from 70% in 2001, the percentage among Hispanic third-graders has climbed from 46% to 61%, and among blacks from 36% to 52%. Graduation rates for Hispanic students have increased from 52.8% before the program started to 64% today; and for black students from 48.7% to 57.3%. Minority schoolchildren are not making such academic strides anywhere else.
¶ - nitish @ 10:14 AM | 0 comments
usatoday examines the separate-and-unequal media coverage of missing persons cases.
Now, the disappearance of Alabama high school student Natalee Holloway, 18, in Aruba is getting lots of airtime on the cable news networks and morning news shows. Those networks, which drive such stories, are being asked a tough question: Do they care only about missing white women?unfortunately, Tamika Huston went missing while black, which apparently doesn't warrant the same attention among news media.
Holloway, like "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks, murder victims Laci Peterson and Lori Hacking, kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart and several other girls and women whose stories got significant airtime in recent years, is white.
Tamika Huston is black.
¶ - nitish @ 12:23 PM | 0 comments
the state of physical activity among kids is so bad that some schools are considering 'exertainment', which is essentially interactive video games like those ridiculous dance games at arcades
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just in time for father's day, Harris Interactive releases results of a poll on TV dads. it pretty extensive, breaking down results by generation.
¶ - nitish @ 11:25 AM | 0 comments
recently stumbling arnold is taking his next measures to the people through a special election. the budget measures appear to be more controversial, but i'm more intrigued with the initiative to institute non-partisan legislative districts.
¶ - nitish @ 3:49 PM | 0 comments
being as cynical as possible, 'i see plans within plans' of this just passed
Seven presidents petitioned Congress to end lynchings. Nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in the first half of the 20th century. The House passed three anti-lynching measures between 1920 and 1940, but the Senate passed none.aside from an overdue apology, i think this is to stake out territory against the mr smith goes to washington-filibuster clips democrats periodically roll out.
Senators filibustered anti-lynching measures for a total of six weeks, said the main Republican sponsor of the resolution, Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia. "It's not easy for people to apologize, but I think it does show the character of the Senate today," he said.
¶ - nitish @ 10:23 AM | 0 comments
the washington post a coupla articles to discredit
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i have a love-hate thing with opinion polls: i'm fascinated by them, but then often question their methodology. for example, during the last election cycle, i regularly visited real clear politics which aggregates polls. on the other hand, the judicial filibuster issue demonstrated specific phrasing can generate pro and con results.
Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said.of course while AP focuses on the 'downtrodden' sunnis, most of the american media reported negative american public opinion.
¶ - nitish @ 10:34 AM | 0 comments
the results of Gallup's annual survey of 'public confidence in major institutions' reflect a general distrust of major institutions:
¶ - nitish @ 2:28 PM | 0 comments
media glory hound eliot spitzer suffered a public loss. there is a reason most of his prior actions have been settlements.... while his tactics may grab headlines, they may not stand up within the courtroom where the rule of law can trump sound bites.
Mr. Spitzer's public declarations had made the case [against Theodore C. Sihpol] seem a sure thing.... But Mr. Sihpol's attorneys argued that nowhere in the pertinent law, the Investment Company Act, is there any mention of "late trading" or "4 pm".... No wonder Mr. Sihpol's defense team was confident enough of its case that it didn't call a single witness....up till now, spitzer's actions have created quite a racket
Mr. Spitzer's real mistake here, paradoxically, may have been taking on the little guy. Corporations are all too willing to settle with prosecutors, because their reputational risk from going to trial is greater than paying a fine and giving Mr. Spitzer his "victory."
Well, if integrity and real change are what Mr. Spitzer is campaigning for, we invite our readers to regard the chart below listing but a sampling of his contributors. It shows that Mr. Spitzer has been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from those he regulates in the financial industry and from lawyers with an interest in actions taken by his office.one last jab to spitzer from wsj's opinion journal:
Congratulations to Mr. Sihpol and his jury for reminding Eliot Spitzer that to be convicted of a crime in America you should first have to break the law.
¶ - nitish @ 2:37 PM | 0 comments
as much coverage there is of iraq, i've seen little 'first-hand' accounts in the MSM.
The reconstruction of Iraq's security forces is the prerequisite for an American withdrawal from Iraq. But as the Bush administration extols the continuing progress of the new Iraqi army, the project in Baiji, a desolate oil town at a strategic crossroads in northern Iraq, demonstrates the immense challenges of building an army from scratch in the middle of a bloody insurgency.meanwhile the blogging brothers at iraq the model provide compelling first-hand accounts of life in iraq. the citizen-journalists relate some of the positive progress derived from operation lightning thus far including arrests/captures, discoveries of weapons
Generally speaking, Baghdad looks quieter these days and I hope that operation lightning would extend to storm all terror nests after Baghdad is well cleaned as was planned previously.
I recall that the most pessimistic researches estimated the number of militants by 200,000 and that there are other 5 million supporters and sympathizers...but anyhow when we look at the other side we find 22 million people standing against terrorism and working to build a democracy.
Do you know who's going to be the victor?
It's not a very difficult question, eh?
¶ - nitish @ 11:55 AM | 0 comments
add senate democrat leader harry reid to my compromise proposal to get the vote on john bolton as UN ambassador.
¶ - nitish @ 10:12 AM | 0 comments
environmental group greenpeace obtained state department papers through the Freedom of Information Act, and subsequently shared them with the uk guardian. both cite the documents as evidence of "pressure" on administration policy with regards to the Kyoto protocol.
¶ - nitish @ 10:25 AM | 0 comments
in perhaps iraq's first entry into the reality tv genre, the popular "Terrorism in the Grip of Justice" show televises terrorism/insurgency suspects. since the show spotlights the government's efforts, it considers the show "a key tool in fighting the insurgency."
Viewers here say the show is "watched by everyone," even those who sympathize with the insurgents. Some observers say the airing of the "Grip of Justice" on the state-run, US-funded Al Iraqiya three months ago represented a major turning point in the government's battle for hearts and minds, capping the success of the Jan. 30 elections.iraqi police commander abul waleed, who partially concieved the show, says he "wanted to expose the falsehood of jihad." the show serves to counter the numerous propaganda videos including beheadings which find their way to arab media.
¶ - nitish @ 10:37 AM | 0 comments
global defense spending topped $1 trillion last year according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. usa today and reuters have articles with a bunch of interesting stats:
¶ - nitish @ 5:02 PM | 0 comments
the common wisdom during last year's campaign was kerry obviously outpointed bush in the smarts department. for example, a duke prof ariel dorfman lamented
Is John Kerry too intelligent to be president of the United States?meanwhile, Jayson Blair enabler Howell Raines chimes in
Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead.an analysis of relatively strong test scores including military iq/aptitude tests taken by bush and kerry didn't much deter the conventional wisdom. but now the transcripts that Raines was convinced would prove kerry smarter....
¶ - nitish @ 12:10 PM | 0 comments
critics blame the bush administration for the north korea nukes issue. Fred Kaplan over at slate seems to lay blame equally on bush and north korea's kim jong-il. fortunately, it appears talks may yet revive.
The spokesman welcomed Bush's polite reference to the North Korean leader as "Mr. Kim Jong Il" in remarks the president made Tuesday.i guess kim jong il subscribes the idea that 'if you can't say anything nice, i'll go nuclear'
"If Bush's remarks put an end to the scramble between the hawkish group and the moderate group in the U.S., which has thrown the Korean policy into a state of confusion, it would help create an atmosphere of the six-party talks," the spokesman was quoted saying by Pyongyang's official news service....
He said that Bush's use of "Mr." in referring to Kim would be viewed as a "very warm gesture" in the nuances of North Korean-U.S. relations.
¶ - nitish @ 12:44 PM | 0 comments
the washington post's dana milbank has some bad timing...
Asked about the comparison, Schulz said, "Clearly this is not an exact or a literal analogy."there certainly isn't much of an analogy as demonstrated by several online resources. here are some 'highlights' from those resources:
forced labor camps... 400 in Central and Eastern Europe... anti-civilization... imprisoned millions...
¶ - nitish @ 11:25 PM | 0 comments
at the outset of 2003, two international events loomed on the horizon: the treaty of nice (took effect feb01) and the war in iraq (began mar20).
¶ - nitish @ 2:50 PM | 0 comments
the UN weapons inspector pronounces the WMD (which everyone keeps telling me bush lied about) have gone missing. but don't ask what happened to them...
"In the report to the U.N. Security Council, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said he's reached no conclusions about who removed the items or where they went. He said it could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down or purchased."as usual, the UN is right on top of it...
¶ - nitish @ 10:33 AM | 0 comments
baltimore ravens running back jamal lewis was released from prison this morning. he served 4 months for facilitating a 2000 drug deal before his pro career began, with 2 months in a atlanta halfway house yet to serve. but i found most interesting...
"Lewis was released at 6:11 a.m. EDT, said Dave Fagan, a spokesman at the prison in Pensacola, Fla. It was a quiet scene with no media present." [italics added]locally, i would think this story is relatively larger than the martha stewart case, but it did not receive much media coverage. i have a feeling baltimore media outlets feared perhaps lesser media access if one of the team's marquee players received such scrutiny.
¶ - nitish @ 2:45 PM | 0 comments
a coupla stories paint a difficult political scenario for democrats.
¶ - nitish @ 11:05 AM | 0 comments
before the weeklong memorial day recess (gotta love that congressional schedule), the senate democrats successfully delayed the vote on UN ambassador nominee john bolton.
¶ - nitish @ 12:13 PM | 0 comments
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