bad-ass pink cardigan

I have other thoughts to post, perhaps later. But just look at this for 40 seconds:

Molly rightly says, “I have never seen a more bad-ass pink cardigan.” Gods, I’d love to see this woman as our first lady.

joss whedon’s mom

Thing I learned today: Equality Now was founded in large part thanks to (by a student of) Joss Whedon’s mother. No wonder he’s such a brilliant feminist. I just ran across this video of Joss’s acceptance speech when EN gave him an award in 2006.

I love this eloquent, witty, heartbreakingly stunningly kind and passionate man.

FCC is coming to town.

From: “Josh Stearns, SavetheInternet.com”

The FCC is holding a public hearing in Boston about the future of the Internet. Make your voice heard: attend the hearing in Boston.

Josh Stearns
Campaign Coordinator
Free Press
www.freepress.net
www.savetheinternet.com

whose country?

Mine, apparently – at least, the last 17 years say so. And boy, are we in bad shape.

some more reproductive-choice musings (not mine)

Oh, oh, read this. Please. Nicole nails several issues in ways I haven’t even thought of.

political

Two anniversaries were celebrated in the past two days, that I did not write about. But I’ve been thinking and reading, and learned a whole lot from Ari Kelman’s post on The Edge of the American West about Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday was celebrated (well, sorta) on the 21st.

I say sorta because, though it’s a federal holiday, and people do hold special events, it just doesn’t penetrate the collective psyche like 4th of July or Labor Day or whatnot. That’s hardly a surprise, I suppose.

And speaking of civil liberties, yesterday was 35 years since the Roe v. Wade ruling, which deemed laws against abortion unconstitutional. I know exactly where I stand on the issue: I’d defend every woman’s right to make the difficult choice of whether to have a child, but people also have (at least in the U.S.) the right to speak out against it. Of course, even recent history hasn’t been at all civil: women are harrassed, persecuted, people are killed by anti-choicers. Regardless of whether one thinks abortion is murder most foul, killing in retaliation perpetuates the problem of murder in a very concrete way. I wonder if this topic will generate any productive nationwide conversation in my lifetime.

News of the strangeworld

What I like about this small collection of links is that none of them came from News of the Weird. This is all off my feed reader – you know, BBC, Wired, ScienceBlogs, personal blogs, that sort of thing. On to the articles of interest:

If your surgeon is a videogaming geek and has played around with a Wii, you may be in luck! Chances are, her skills have improved.

I love Norway: “A millionaire real-estate magnate and art dealer from Setesdal in southern Norway has been fined NOK 425,000 (USD 85,000) for drunk driving, and been further required to chop wood for 30 days.”

Hey, baby, want to see my spy gear?

And on a slightly more serious note, here’s a well-written article on the politics of legal and illegal drugs. Even if the author get just a tad too earnest, I am thankful for publications like SFGate, which run these stories from time to time to remind us that the war on drugs has nothing to do with science.

Again with the devices.

MIT student arrested for wearing art that lights up from a 9-volt battery.

Truly appalling is this, by Major Scott Pare of the Massachusetts State Police:

“Thankfully because she followed our instructions, she ended up in our cell instead of a morgue.”

Beg pardon? Because she followed your instructions she didn’t end up dead for wearing a shirt with lights on it? Thank you, officer. That’s awful kind of you.

[Edit: Oh, it’s worse than that apparently. Nick points to the AP release, which has Pare saying this:

Simpson was “extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used,” Pare said. “She’s lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue.”

Lucky! She should thank her lucky stars.]

Boston has learned nothing from the LED-art scare of a few months past – that one, by the way, ended anti-climactically, with the press forgetting all about it, and the two young men in question doing community service in return for having bogus charges against them dropped.

I hate scare-mongering. And I’m inexplicably terrified of what happens if my husband ever wears a particular present I gave him in the wrong place. (Going back to the Star Simpson incident, the argument that she should’ve known better, wearing something like this to an airport, holds no water. She should not be held responsible for the overreaction of others: first let’s talk about how much damage any device powered by nine volts is capable of making.)

Hat-tip to Dr. Memory.

Peter and Sean need your help. Yes, you.

On a mailing list someone wrote:

Our good friends are still in real and serious danger.

This hit home — again — when I read the AP news article sent around on the same list.

I hadn’t made any phone calls since I live in Providence, but the article – dated today – made me do it. So I just called the attorney general, the mayor and the governor. My main question to them was: the two were arrested (more or less) before Turner made their statement; Turner has since taken the blame and a settlement has been reached; Mayor Menino said pretty definitively that Turner/Interference was the culprit; Peter and Sean are contractors twice removed. So why are they still on the hook, but more importantly, why has there been no public statement as to their fate? Will their prosecution just quietly go on its merry way, regardless of the above? That doesn’t make sense to me.

The phrasing was different, but this is the gist. I was pleasantly surprised by their taking my comments seriously and courteously, even though I am not part of their voter base. So make your calls, y’all, regardless of where you live, and ask that the charges against Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens be publicly dropped.

Attorney General Martha Coakley: (617) 727-2200
Mayor Thomas Menino: (617) 635-4500
Governor Deval Patrick: (617) 725-4005

Charges dropped!

4 February: the below is wrong. The charges haven’t officially been dropped. MSNBC, screw you for the misinformation. Everyone else, I’m sorry for spreading it further.

Here, watch this. Turner’s apologized to citizenry; they’re in negotiations as to $1M that they’re purportedly wishing to pay out (nice of them to cover costs and a little more), and the charges against Sean and Peter have been dropped. “Now,” the news anchor said (I’m paraphrasing), “all that’s left is for Boston to apologize to its citizenry for overreacting.”

I especially love the way the anchor talks about Philadelphia, where 56 of these things have been delighting audiences for “two weeks.” Ever so slight hint at “I can’t believe this is even a news story.”

Yay!!

Update on Sean and Peter.

They’re released on bail. The judge reportedly (I didn’t get there until the arraignment was just over) seemed to think the whole thing is ridiculous. There’s a whole bunch of media coverage, so I’ll let y’all google, but I can’t resist one link. Best. press conference. EVER.

(I mean, really, this wasn’t about the young men not taking things seriously. It’s about the pushy bunch of media assholes who don’t seem to be able to accept “we can’t talk about this case” for an answer.)

We wait until March 7th to know what happens next. I hope someone Turner-related steps up in their defense, but am not exactly holding my breath.

Device update: I was wrong.

They’re not AA batteries, they’re D batteries. And there’s a photosensitivity sensor, too. And it might not be possible to actually see through the circuit boards.

This information brought to you by eBay.

Artists arrested in Boston for LED “bomb” scare.

Did you hear about the Boston “bomb” scare?

Here’s a CNN article that tells about it. BBC has reported on it, too. Lots of coverage.

They were art pieces advertising Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They were put up by a member of the Glitch Crew video art collective, who was contracted to do so by Turner Broadcasting. Some people thought they were bombs; bomb squads went berserk.

A good friend of mine, also a member of Glitch, was helping Peter put them up. He’s in jail too, with a $100,000 bail on his head. Arraignment is tomorrow morning, and I hope they’ll just be let go.

They got arrested after Turner owned up. As far as I know, Turner is letting them spend the night in jail. Which, as far as I’m concerned, may be easier but is… a bit assinine on the part of one of the richest media companies in the U.S.

I’ll post again after I know what happens at the arraignment. Meanwhile, here’s a link to a Grand Text Auto post that mentions other instances in which artists have gotten in trouble because we’re now scared of EVERYTHING.

Edited to add: no, wait. I’m taking issue with some stuff in the CNN article. (I’m sure other news sources are no better, by the way, just picking up on their wording.)

Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist from Arlington, Massachusetts, was facing charges of placing a hoax device in a way that results in panic, as well as one count of disorderly conduct, said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. The charge is a felony, she said.

According to his Web site, Berdovsky is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and a founding member of a video artists group called Glitch who goes by the nickname “Zebbler” and sings in a band called “Superfiction.”

Authorities believe Berdovsky was “in the employ of other individuals” as part of the marketing campaign, Coakley said. “How exactly this was executed, we are still investigating.” Berdovsky is scheduled for arraignment at 9 a.m. Thursday in Charlestown District Court.

“In the employ of other individuals”? YES, YOU DIPSHITS, HE WAS IN THE EMPLOY OF TURNER. And also, stop calling them “suspicious packages.” They’re not packages. They’re CIRCUIT BOARDS WITH LIGHTS AND THREE AA BATTERIES IN THEM. If you hold them up, you can see through the holes in them. Nothing was ever hidden from view in them. So stop fucking scaremongering now that you know what they are.

Gah. News media.

Edited again: Oh, good. Now CNN has updated the article to include “Sean Stevens, 28″ in the two-name list of the people arrested. Now I don’t feel quite as weird about talking about Sean by name.

Also, ha! NOBODY IS SAFE. CNN again: “Turner Broadcasting said the devices had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston; New York; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.”

Global warming and other calamities.

Back from California, with a cold given to me by brother and nephew, who brought it with them from New York.

The funeral was… a funeral. It was sad. We cried.

I feel like my grandmother left so long ago, it’s difficult to find the words for talking about her death as something recent. Far more real for me was my mother’s pain, and my uncle’s. From this perspective, the family time was a very good thing indeed.

Now we’re back, and I would be diving right into the work if not for the cold that waylaid me in the morning and early afternoon. And I have a doctor’s appointment in an hour (unrelated)! Guess today’s a sick day.

Last week Ethan and I and other family had a long and at times heated conversation about politics, environment and other controversial topics. My mom and I have one of those more or less every time we see each other, and given that we’re on the opposite sides of the political spectrum from each other, you can imagine how they tend to go. One thing, though – we’re learning to not let the disagreements cloud our interactions for days. I guess that’s a good thing.

I’m all for providing information, but hate it when someone force-feeds it to me. So, WHEREAS I desire to share information on contentious topics with my mother, AND I love her, AND I don’t want to force all of it upon her, LET THEREFORE be established a new purpose for this weblog, BEING to more thoroughly document my perception of the world.

Let’s see if this lasts for more than a day, mm? I was always terrible at letter-writing, and diary-writing, and blogging. I’m hurtling headlong into the (hopefully?) final stages of my dissertation. But the world keeps going, and I need an outlet – and a tangible link to the outside of my head.

The evening after our big debate, I found the following interesting bits on the web.

Personal Responsibility

Wired reports that people can cause earthquakes! The 5.6 one that took place in 1989 in Australia was caused, National Geographic says, by 200 years of coal mining. And, HA ha, the extensive damage done by the earthquake cost more than all the coal they got out of that mine, put together. The damage and undoubted deaths aren’t funny, but in a perverse sense, the whole thing is. Remember, gang: what we do with our environment affects everyone.

Global warming isn’t new. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again. With or without us. Except that this time around, it’s us making it happen.

Fear not, though, some of us are acting to make things better. Jyllands-Posten reports that Danes will have access to bioethanol by 2010. Denmark is generally pretty cool, as Brad DeLong documents in “The Scandinavian Model.”

So what can you do? Well, for one thing you can offset the emissions you generate through travel by buying energy credits. Their calculator is flawed, but the money goes to developing renewable-energy projects.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the option of paying a little more to get your energy from renewable sources only. Here’s one place to start (in the US, at least).

You can even join Al Gore’s information troops.

Giving The Man The Finger

Wired:

All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it.

They do warn that tampering with these chips is illegal, and let me emphasize that I’m linking to someone else’s article here. Don’t shoot the messenger, Mr. Man!

Just Cool

Pleo the Robo-Dinosaur!

Off to the doctor’s. Y’all take care now, y’hear?

A-what-a-lypto?

Not that I was ever inclined to go see Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto in the first place, but this Wired blog entry debunks some myths Gibson is trying to perpetuate in this movie with Cold Hard Facts… or history, it’s one of the two. In any case, a reasonably short and very satisfying read.

ETA: ok, I’m reading the many, many comments on that blog entry bashing the author and the review. Somehow, I’m still feeling that sense of satisfaction at Gibson-bashing. He’s been on my $hit-list for a while now. So judge for yourself whether it’s an accurate review, is what I’m saying. :)

Debunking marijuana misinformation

If you know me at all, you know that the senseless, expensive, misguided “war on drugs” is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine. Today I saw streetdrugs.org for the first time, and decided to look at what they say about marijuana.

Why pot? Well, because it is (as streetdrugs say) “the most widely used illegal substance in the world today,” and because it’s a Schedule I drug (rated as dangerous as heroin, and more dangerous than cocaine). Also, because marijuana prohibition has a long political history having to do with disliking immigrants. No, really: go read this FAQ (and its various disclaimers) on Erowid.

Before we go any further, here’s another useful link to an article titled “The top 10 pot studies government wished it had never funded.” Now, to the streetdrugs article about marijuana.

Marijuana is made from the plant cannabis sativa…

Actually, sativa is only one of three species of the cannabis genus that qualify as sources of “marijuana”: sativa, indica and ruderalis.

The plant, cannabis sativa, contains chemicals called “cannabinoids.” THC (delta-9-tetrhydrocannabinol) is the cannabinoid believed to be responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis.

THC can be found in all parts of the cannabis plant, including hemp. This is why hemp is regulated carefully–some hemp products such as clothing, rope, yarn, lotion and soap are legal products because they do not cause THC to enter the human body.

Would be nice if you’d mentioned that the cannabinoids are also produced endogenously in our brains. Not only that: in order to react to any chemical, we have to have a receptor for it, and we certainly do have cannabinoid receptors. Studies of whether we can take advantage of having these receptors by tickling them with THC seem to have promise in many areas of medicine, including treatments of Tourette Syndrome and cancer.

Streetdrugs quoting the DEA:

There are no FDA-approved medications that are smoked. For one thing, smoking is generally a poor way to deliver medicine. It is difficult to administer safe, regulated dosages of medicines in smoked form. Secondly, the harmful chemicals and carcinogens that are byproducts of smoking create entirely new health problems. There are four times the level of tar in a marijuana cigarette, for example, than in a tobacco cigarette.

True enough, about tar. Problems, though: (a) I have never heard of anyone smoking the equivalent of 20+ joints a day, whereas the pack-a-day cigarette habit is quite common; and (b) why doesn’t anyone ever talk about vaporizers in the “mainstream”? THC evaporates at a lower temperature than is needed for combustion – voila, no (or few) bad volatiles.

Streetdrugs quoting NIDA:

Smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cancer more than smoking tobacco. Marijuana smoke contains 50% to 70% more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke. It also produces high levels of an enzyme that converts certain hydrocarbons into their carcinogenic form–levels that may accelerate the canges that ultimately produce malignant cells.

See the link to Ten Studies above. To their credit, Streetdrugs go on to add:

In May 2006, a study was published by UCLA that disputes the claims that marijuana causes lung cancer. To read the press release, click here.

Moving along:

Marijuana is usually smoked in the form of loosely rolled cigarettes called “joints,” hollowed out commercial cigars called “blunts,” smoked in pipes or bongs. Joints and blunts are sometimes laced with a number of adulterants including PCP, cocaine and embalming fluid (a chemical traditionally used to preserve dead bodies)–resulting in a wide range of effects…

You know, you could just say formaldehyde. But whatever. I’ve no idea whether street-purchased marijuana is laced with anything, but somehow I seriously doubt that all those hippies (not to mention the many peoples who used pot way before we were born, we’re talking Biblical times here) would do such a thing. You want to combat drug selling on the streets, fine, but don’t be blaming cannabis for human hubris.

SHORT TERM EFFECTS of marijuana use include impaired short-term memory, impaired concentration, attention, and judgment; impaired coordination and balance, increased heart rate, blood shot or red eyes, dry mouth and increased appetite (the “munchies”).

Fair enough, these are some widely known effects (not all of them necessarily bad, by the way) of ingesting marijuana. But consider this: it’s a plant. It can be bred. Forget human intervention; natural means it mutates. Don’t you think it’s possible that some strains of pot have different effects, like increased concentration? Erowid (link above) lists its classifications as “Intoxicant; Stimulant; Psychedelic; Depressant.” That’s a hell of a range.

LONG TERM EFFECTS of marijuana use include addiction (psychological), paranoia, persistent anxiety, impaired learning skills and memory difficulties.

Kudos – seriously – for not claiming that there’s physical addiction associated with marijuana. As for the rest, particularly learning and memory, see the Tourette’s-treatment link above.

MEDICAL COMPLICATIONS associated with marijuana use include an increased risk of chronic cough, bronchitis, and emphysema; increased risk of cancer of the head, neck, and lungs; a decrease in testosterone levels and lower sperm counts for men and an increase in testosterone levels for women and increased risk of infertility.

Nice, returning to the cancer-risk bogeyman and painting it as a definitive complication even though they themselves linked to the UCLA study. The rest of these aren’t substantiated by Streetdrugs.

More information claimed to be from NIDA:

Within a few minutes after inhaling marijuana smoke, an individual’s heart begins beating more rapidly, the bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes expand, making the eyes look red. The heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even double. This effect can be greater if other drugs are taken with marijuana.

OK, let’s see. Bronchial passages enlarged… it’s a bronchodilator! I wonder if we can treat asthma with it? Also, I’m assuming the blood-vessel expansion isn’t limited to the eyes (why would it be), and together with an increased heart rate that means better blood flow. Then again, blood vessel dilation is also a “known cause” of headaches (NYTimes article, not freely available so not linking). But is headache listed as one of the effects of smoking pot? No.

Studies show that approximately 6 to 11 percent of fatal accident victims test positive for THC. In many of these cases, alcohol is detected as well. In a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a moderate dose of marijuana alone was shown to impair driving performance; however, the effects of even a low dose of marijuana combined with alcohol were markedly greater than for either drug alone.

“Many of these cases”? How many? And what other substances are found in their bodies? And how many fatal accident victims have nicotine in their blood? What about alcohol (and only alcohol)? “6 to 11 percent” means little if you don’t compare it with other numbers. As for the NHTSA study: a moderate dose vs. a low dose combined with alcohol. What’s wrong with this comparison?

Cancer of the respiratory tract and lungs may also be promoted by marijuana smoke. A study comparing 173 cancer patients and 176 healthy individuals produced strong evidence that smoking marijuana increases the likelihood of developing cancer of the head or neck, and that the more marijuana smoked, the greater the increase. A statistical analysis of the data suggested that marijuana smoking doubled or tripled the risk of these cancers.

Here we go again! OK, I get it. You want me to think that pot smoking causes cancer. This isn’t presenting information, at this point, because (a) you’ve already mentioned cancer, and (b) what study? Where are the findings?

Necessary disclaimers: I Am Not An Expert. I am not contesting the possibility that marijuana smoking may have negative side effects. I am, however, railing against the ubiquitous misinformation about it out there, and severely displeased with how much money has been spent on holding up this straw man. How about closing the doors on the War on Drugz, and instead pouring all that money into real research? Maybe we’ll cure cancer in our lifetime.

Oh yeah, Scandinavia.

Meant to write a mini-news-update on Denmark and Norway, who’ve had a particularly productive news day today. Behold:

Denmark leads social justice rankings, says a German think tank. *wistful sigh* Color me transplant-wannabe, and that’s just the first link.

Over 7000 Swedes commute to Denmark daily for work, and a new EU directive may relieve the tax burden on Danish employers, who at the moment are technically supposed to pay a sizeable chunk of cash in taxes to the Swedish government in addition to what they already pay to the Danish one. I’m not sure how it is that Sweden wins, here; it’s likely to be a touch-and-go process. But if they do succeed in working something out to everyone’s benefit, great.

Denmark, the brand name. They’re putting forth a serious effort to promote their country, presumably to drum up tourism and improve the country’s image (as if it needs to be improved, much). Go go Denmark gadget; given funds availability, I’d go there again in a heartbeat. Then again, see transplant above.

Compare and contrast to Norway, whose chief profits are still coing from oil. From conversations with Jill a few years ago, Norway at least seems to be going about oil production more responsibly than most other countries that have access to this resource.

“High consumption lands Norway among world’s worst: Norway, which generally prides itself on maintaining high environmental standards, seems to actually be using way more than it should of the world’s natural resources.” Oh yeah, Norway? Well, the good ol’ USA is second in the worst-offenders list, compared to your paltry 11th! We sure showed you!

Oy.

Finally, the young Norwegian who cracked DVD protection a few years ago claims to have done the same with the dread iTunes/iPod combo. “Johansen claims he’s mastered the inner workings of the iPod and its FairPlay encryption technology, allowing him to remove many of the restrictions Apple places on its users. Today, songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes store can’t be played on non-iPod devices, and, if you’ve bought songs from other music stores, the chances are you won’t be able to play them on the iPod either since they use a form of copy protection that Apple doesn’t support. […] Johansen’s driving force is his belief that users have the right to listen to songs they have bought legally on any device they own. […] Unlocking the iPod-iTunes ecosystem is seen by many as a good thing for consumers, as it will most likely result in increased competition to the iTunes Store, possibly resulting in lower prices and a higher quality service.” No particular comment here, except that I’m pleased: the iTunes/iPod black box has gotten on my nerves more than once.

Federal gummint and marijuana studies!

Top 10 Pot Studies Government Wished It Had Never Funded.

That’s excellent. Now I can point people to one handy link when they start spouting bullshit about marijuana use, users, function as a Gateway Drug ™, etc. without actually knowing anything about its socio-political history.

hyperlinked society: a political note

Panelists roster:

Twenty-eight men.
Five women.

Of the latter, at least one is already not here. (Nancy Tellem of CBS was supposed to be on the first panel, and isn’t up there at the table. Maybe she came in late!)

I’m talking to you, people.

Just a plant.

Check out this children’s story, called “It’s Just a Plant.” I think it addresses marijuana prohibition pretty well, despite (as someone elsewhere pointed out) a bit of racial profiling that I’d rather not see there.

For the history of marijuana prohibition, here’s a good historical account. The rest of the FAQ is a pretty interesting read, too. Disclaimer at the top of the FAQ notwithstanding, I know that it has been translated into several languages, and I do not know of any document more detailed. If you do, by all means let me know; I’d love to read it.

Edit: Oh, heh. Read also what people are saying about the book, as well as the author’s response to a Congressional attack of “It’s Just a Plant.”