nonTROPPO.org

Onions make me cry !(left)http://nontroppo.org/blog/images/onion1.jpg! Some funny stories in a couple of the recent Onion articles, for example "this one.":http://www.theonion.com/onion3847/bill_of_rights.html on the new US Bill of Rights. Sometimes truth and fiction walk together in such a way as you have trouble distinguishing one from the other... See individual entry…

Kissinger we love you. Heres a "really nice article":http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/82dec/hersh.htm on the involvement of the US in chilean politics, and a rather well-known coup the year I was born (also the original September 11th...) See individual entry…

Truth & Lies "An article":http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1219-05.htm outlining the recent oft-recurrent idea of a new "ministry of truth". A nice exerpt: bq. "Let's do that simple old thing where we put the shoe on the other foot and see how it feels, substituting "China" for "United States" and using the exact plan outlined by the Times: "The Chinese government is considering a secret propaganda program that would include, for example, efforts to discredit and undermine evangelical Christian churches and religious schools that have become breeding grounds for militant anti-Chinese sentiment because of China's abortion policies and human-rights issues. It might even include setting up schools with secret Chinese financing to teach a more moderate Christianity, laced with sympathetic depictions of how the religion is practiced in China. The plan also includes secret Chinese payments to American journalists to write articles favorable to China, and paying citizens' groups to organize rallies in support of Chinese policies." No, not a good idea. This country already has a credibility problem around the world--why set up an official propaganda office to tell lies, when the truth works much better?" See individual entry…

Mirror Recursion A very nice "Recursive Mirror":http://www.mantasoft.co.uk/_stuff/Recursive.htm demonstration, made by editing and image and then simply zooming into it. Always wanted to enter into the infinite recursion of two opposing mirrors? Now you can... See individual entry…

Thought Science? A rather amazing, but i suppose inevitable extension of the "use of functional magnetic imaging":http://www.thoughtsciences.com/ (fMRI) - for the benefit of consumer analysis and marketing. They are going to use fMRI to analyse how consumers react to products/advertising. I don't quite know how they will structure their analysis - wow the anterior cingulate has lit up, this product idea is just great! - but the whole idea is somewhat disturbing. What lengths will marketers go to to push their products... See individual entry…

Asylum Seekers - moral relativism revisited The sangat camp has closed, and refugees are heading to England. The radio gives this wooly affirmation that these refugees are coming on 'economic' visas. The press does likewise. No one really tries to understand why 1200 Iraqi Kurds and Afghans were sat in a camp in France desperate for asylum. 'Refugee' often has this subliminal streotype - dependant, desperate, and, reading the trash-press like the Daily Mail/Telegraph, calculating to leech money from the government. These stereotypes are reinforced by the same papers that 'simply' assert that Saddam is 'evil' and that he must be tackled. The same papers that blindly supported the 'simple' war in Afghanistan against the 'evil' Taliban. If 'they' are really 'evil', by implication of theduality of such speak, it means that 'we' are somehow 'just', and therefore by taking the moral high-ground 'we' should at least be consistent. It is utterly repugnant therefore that 'we' can criticise and restrict the flow of asylum seekers while blatantly claiming a 'simple' moral superiority over thoses asylum seekers 'oppressors'. How can one strike at such 'criminals' while at the same time failing to support their 'victims'. The countries with such clear excesses of economic wealth (and easily spouted moralilty) have a clear self-imposed responsibility to provide support for all thoses who are 'victims'. More critically, they have an absolute duty when it was their misguided intervention in the first place that exaggerated the power of such oppressors (through for example, direct support of Saddam Hussain and the Taliban). See individual entry…

War Drums Nice to see that the brief lapse in the frenzy to attack Iraq has reignited (not that it ever went away, but media coverage did). Bush's and his officials (string-pullers?) have been frantically raising suspicion (even before the weapons inspectors could report their first findings). Rather transparently and unsuccessfully, they claimed Iraq firing on 'allied' planes was a 'material breach' (and thus reason to start the war). All of this antagonism has been met today by bellicose statements from Iraq - which one may have expected - Iraqi generals seem to respond like clockwork. Looking at the Daily Telegraph (right-wing + bad journalism) I saw a nice example of skewed english usage: bq. "United Nations inspectors have raided a sinister installation where Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons programme began." Both the US and the UK (and many other nations) have far more 'sinister' installations (because they actually work!). What makes his bombed out facility particularly 'sinister'? I find it sinister that the very nations that actively gave him those possibilities can make sweeping moral statements about evil without even remotely raising the awareness of their own culpability. "A link on the relationship of Rumsfeld and Hussain":http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-01.htm during the period (mid to late 80s) of active use by Iraq of its 'weapons of mass destruction' (supplied of course, by 'us'). See individual entry…