Lefty Blogs
williampfaff ++ ++
Russian News ++
seaton-newslinks. USA expat in Europe ++
bilegrip Asu spleen ++
us-rockstroh a rant, not a blog ++
aboutmyplanet eco ++
sfgate ++
crookedtimber ++
onthecommons ++
sjlendman ++
....
abutamam freeiraq ++
airamericaradio +
amygdalagf +
angryarab ++
annezook +
antiwar ++
norwegianity
terrorism-news
blogspot
ourtomorrow
politickybitch
welcome-to-pottersville
aviraqi
billmon ++ whiskeyB
consortiumnews ++
dahrjamailiraq
dailywarnews ++
drforbush +
english +
fallujahinpictures
freespeechradio
halcyondays ++
healingiraq
hereticalideas ++
icasualties
maru
om
boxspinning boxes

jamaicaobserver newspaper
jameswolcott +
lefarkins +
liberalgirlnextdoor ++
lonehighlander Libya, not lefty
mahablog +++ solid
maruthecrankpot +
indymedia melbourne
messopotamian +7Apr06
monkey ++
motherjones ++
fisk
nocapital +
norightturn +NZ
peakoil ++
pilger +
politicalhumor +
raedinthemiddle
rafahtoday Feb05?
rense w= wacko conspiracies
rigorousintuition x
hegemon ++
ruckus ++
rudepundit ++
satiricalpolitical +
scaramoucheblog ++
secretsinbaghdad ++15Ap06
Energring
aliveinbaghdad ++
riverbendblog ++
sideshow +++
signs-of-the-times +++
slashdot ++techy
talkleft ++
thinkprogress ++
thismodernworld +++
uncapitalist ++
velorution ++ bicycles
org ++Brazil peasants
warandpiece +
warfare.ru +russia military
greenpeace
allhatnocattle
alternet ++
americanpolitics
antiwar
gbruno ++YT
axisoflogic ++
blackcommentator
bobharris +
bradblog +
buckfush +funnies
buggery +
buzzflash ++
changeforamerica
countercurrents
counterpunch +++
crisispapers
crooksandliars ++?
csmonitor
dahrjamailiraqhref="http://www.dailykos.com/
davidcorn
democracynow
democracyuprising
dissidentvoice
earthfirstjournal
earthstation5
empirenotes
foodfirst
fpif
fromthewilderness
geocities
granta
grist ??
gristmagazine
guerrillanews
gulf
hizbollah
huffingtonpost ++
informationclearinghouse
infoshop +
inthesetimes x
iranmania x
ivaw
jihadunspun
juancole ++
kuro5hin ++ notlefty
kurtnimmo ++
lrb ++ Iraqi?
mahablog
lewrockwell ++
marklynas climate change
mnftiu get your war on comics
motherjones
nilemedia
nybooks
occupationwatch
oriononline
palestine
prisonplanet
rall ++ Ted Rall cartonist
ratical
redpepper
rense
robert
rollingstone
scoop
selvesandothers ++
smirkingchimp
snappingturtle
socialistworker
spiked
tblog
theiraqiroulette
theleftcoaster +
thepoorman +
tnr ++ magazine
tompaine ++ mag
traprockpeace ++
truthout +
boondocks ++
crowning3
. . . helix
Base
rain radar
Weather
worldtribunal +
worldwatch ++ $ required
zaman + Turkish news
youcantmakeitup + ?
youngfox ????????????
bareknucklepolitics videos?
popdrain videos??
discovery videos??
cs videos??
aegisIraq video??
mariyaguchi video??
iwilltryit video..
baghdadtreasure
ahram cairo newspaper
felbers
thepartyline
jfaughnan 28/04/2006 10:25AM
shrillblog +
thinkprogress +
marchforjustice + pictures
messopotamian + Iraqi not so radical, but scared (also see IraqTheModel which was a USA front, but is now also scared)
scaramoucheblog +
counterpunch
.............
blogads liberal blogs by CPM $ per view
malakandsky ++ stolid?
republicoft + black gay parent??
dailykos ++
rawstory ++
democraticunderground ++
atrios ++
workingforchange +
leftinthewest +
dembloggers +
talkingpointsmemo +
firedoglake ++
vastleft ++
pamspaulding +
americablog +
washingtonmonthly ++
mydd +
politics1 +
bartcop ++
politicalwire +
sisterstalk black lesbian?
culturekitchen ++
alternet
wonkette +++
billstclair +
freefreedomtoldhere ++ pipe bomb

......
almuajaha defunct
whynot defunct
winstonsmith defunct
samadams dormant
mquinn02 defunct
iraqblogcount ++14Apr06 suspended
iraqicomments most recent: jan2005
iraqidoctor most recent: Aug2005
georgemustgo + moved?
vialls ++Dormant (joe is dead)
warblogging Defunct
hammeroftruth quiescant?
mediastorm quiescant? +
bushwhackedusa defunct
hamasonline defunct
4Jul06

19 December 2008

Leonard Cohen, Wilderlands,RPVs

Leonard Cohen, Wilderlands
There is a move to try to get Leonard Cohen to appear on Kim Hill's RNZ saturday morning interview show
LC is doing one show in Wgtn, Scalpers want $750, maybe a 2nd show will pursuade him to talk to Kim.
The one question that I want answered is
Did Leonard stay in the White House at Wilderlands?
Wilderlands was a commune, sort of, on the East coast of Coromandel in the early 70s
The White house was an exquisite 5 sided one room house built over the inlet, amidst the pines. Endless tidal changes created silvery patterns.
The lovely Lauri lived there with her child.
Other houses in Wilderlands were the usual rough hewn A frames with polythene windows, But the White House was built by a Canadian master carpenter (H?) who convinced me that Rimu patterns were the most wonderful wood in the world.
The land was owned by Dan Hanson, who lacked legs, but grew the most brilliant Tamerillos, fertilised by cray heads from the local fishery.
I recall one time lifting Dan on my back down from his tractor, walking across some thistles, feeling no pain - LSD is a most excellent analgesic, amongst its virtues.
Dan's wife, Edith, made an ascerbic comment about what a martyr I was, she had a wry view of the multi-national dropouts on her land.
The naked counter-culture folk who lived there eschewed fish, and anti-biotics, and left me as the token rationalist to spray the corn with CopperOxyChloride. People there had arrived from the Khatmandu trail. Simplicity wasnt merely a rejection of Western dross, it was an attempt to recapture the dense lives witnessed on Asian trails.
I tasted wild Honey there, something you cant buy, a dark mystery.
My mini-van carted commercial honey and dreaming spirits on the Auckland run.
Anyway, the story was that Leonard Cohen had stayed in the White House. I would love to know


RPVs
Odd Article in NYT December 16, 2008
MOSCOW — Russia is considering the purchase of an unspecified number of remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft from Israel
, This is odd because NYT claims that Russia 'admits' they cant build UAV... this seems hardly credible, since Australia built a UAV years ago that flew the Atlantic.
Russia uniquely has supersonic cruise missiles, and robot returned moon rocks.
Also, Its very difficult to detect 'backdoor' code in computer chips. Isreal?[ZE] might turn these RPVs off by radio.

Obviously Russia wants to get some ZE RPVs to see how better to shoot them down. ZE must be aware of this, and will presumably sell them last years models with dumbed down avionics.

Air war is divided into Upper and Lower airspace.
Upper airspace: "air Superiorty Fighters" like the Su-30M which can break the sound barrier in a vertical climb. 38 Tons mtw
These monsters need in-flight refueling, AWACs, and several hours of advanced avionics technicians tweaking for every hour of flight.
Countries like Lebanon and Venezuela who are buying Mig29s are really wasting their money. Their planes will be blasted immediately if confronted with real players. India might have the indigenous avionics to make their SU30MKI effective. Otherwise its USA, ZE, and some EU fliers (Empire) and Russia. One presumes that PRC also has some decent avionics.

Lower airspace: Unmanned RPVs are effective camera platforms. Image quality often leads to wedding parties being obliterated.
Odd rumours That ZE RPVs 'failed' over Lebanon... Maybe Hezbollah used some old TOWs in a ground-air role. Odd that ZE's Ground attack /support helicopters were pulled back in Lebanon, after one troop carrier was downed. Maybe Lower airspace is not dominated by Empire/CPE.
Rumour has it that ZE in 1973 sent fleets of RPVs over Egypt to turn on their Radars.
ZE's recent attack on Syria seemed to show that Russian Ground-air missiles dont work against "air Superiority fighters". Hard to believe that Syria wouldnt try.

aaa
ZE RPV shot down, the Azeri's claim it, but ZE says it has video showing it was a Russian Mig29 that did it.
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New Species


aaa
pencil urchin
aaa

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discoveries from the Santo 2006 expedition


islandofdoubt
Carbon Tax makes more sense that Cap&Trade?

17 December 2008

Hedges, Gene Food,Movies

Hedges
In the 90s I did a short class on derivatives at the Sydney Futures Exchange. Oddly I cant recall why. I think a client paid for it. Cost was low because SFE was trying to build its credibility. Thats the thing about derivatives, they dont rely on any actual productive activity.
Chokes,Straddles, Puts, Calls, they are all 'gentlemans agreements'. One party agrees to buy in the future. No outside reality check.
Evidently, if some are not 'gentlemen' the whole apparatus evaporates. If some parties are corporate entities, they can abscond by the simple process of bankruptancy.

Secrecy of the corporation, as if it was a person, is the major weakness, and strength, of Capital.
Excess will eventually drive all into hidden trusts, while the fronts vanish.
Calls for Glastnost will be ignored. Gorbachoff tried that in his system.

The arrest of financier Bernard Madoff Thursday for operating a "Ponzi scheme" costing investors $50 billion made the TV network news. Curiously, a lawsuit the same day against Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for defrauding Citibank shareholders of more than $122 billion, also described as a "Ponzi scheme," got no airplay whatsoever.
As we shall see, Rubin, a Director of Citibank, profited from the shady practices that destroyed the financial system and sent the world's economies into a tailspin. Then, to repair the damage, he and his banker friends put the taxpayer on the hook for trillions.
Rubin didn't get the same publicity as Madoff because of his close connection to Barack Obama.
Robert Rubin's son Jamie was Obama's main Wall Street fundraiser and is now one of his principal advisers. More significant, Obama's economic team consists of Rubin's proteges

December 13, 2008 by Henry Makow Ph.D. savethemales\





Gene Food

I remain deeply suspicious about Gene Inserts in food Monsanto style (why on earth do they use antibiotics as tests for successful insertion, doesnt the phrase 'resistant bugs' have any resonance?)
Also slightly suspicious about Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
BUT
NATURE reports that B&M are paying ca $23M for 3 years of research into getting nutrition genes into Cassava, and C4 genes into rice.
These are hugely ambitious projects, we currently have almost zero ability to insert big functioning groups of genes into cells. Worth pursuing, it may take decades. Artificial chromosomes may be available rather suddenly, especially if Craig Venter's yacht doesnt sink.
I maintain a strong doubt about the intentions of Monsanto, their golden rice approach leads farmers to jump off water towers...
democracynow
nb Dr Shiva is not so sanguine about B&M
Dr. Shiva stressed that there are very clear lessons that Africa can learn from India's problematic Green Revolution experience. She challenged the new Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), stating that the Green Revolution, coupled with trade liberalization, would negatively impact both farmers and agro-biodiversity on the African continent. She claimed that this initiative, funded by the Rockefeller and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, "[I]s a strategy for dispossessing Africa of food sovereignty and bio-diversity."
Foodfirst has
"Ten Reasons Why the Rockefeller and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations' Alliance for Another Green Revolution Will Not Solve the Problems of Poverty and Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa."
foodfirst
so I may be too optimistic about B&M Gates



Movies

cahiersducinema
Damn, I've seen hardly any of cahiers top 100:

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) 48
- La Nuit du chasseur (Charles Laughton) 47
- La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir) 47
- L’Aurore (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Murnau) 46
- L’Atalante (Jean Vigo) 43
- M. le Maudit (Fritz Lang) 40
- Chantons sous la pluie (Stanley Donen et Gene Kelly) 39
- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock) 35
- Les Enfants du Paradis (Marcel Carné) 34
- La Prisonnière du désert (John Ford) 34
- Les Rapaces (Eric von Stroheim) 34
- Rio Bravo(Howard Hawks) 33
- To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch) 33
- Voyage à Tokyo (Yasujiro Ozu) 29
- Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard) 28



aaa
Off to the white house.
Whatever big money is behind Barry, It is usually a good thing to get Dems into USA power. As Chomsky says, chosing the lesser of 2 evils is not a bad act.
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