robot-alert!

This is one of the more lucid accounts I've read about the "transfer of sovereignty" to Iraq. There isn't anything in it about robots, but it does put all the rhetoric about "let freedom reign!" into perspective. It's written by Haifa Zananga, an Iraqi novelist and former political prisoner.

In 1930 a new treaty was signed which aimed to satisfy Iraqi aspirations for the coming 25 years, but the British retained their power, through military bases, advisers and control of oil. The monarchy proved an oppressive regime under which many opposition leaders were executed and thousands more were imprisoned. Elections were managed, corruption was widespread, bombing and military force was used against popular uprisings, chemical weapons were used against the Kurds. Popular uprisings followed in 1930, 1941 1948, 1952 and 1956. Between 1921 and 1958 Iraq had an astonishing 38 cabinets, some of them only lasting 12 days. The mainstay of a corrupt and docile regime was the presence of British forces on the ground. Is this what present-day Iraq has to look forward to?

Three major events have shaped our national identity. The 1920 revolution, the 1958 coup regarded by most Iraqis as a revolution that finally achieved real Iraqi independence - and the Palestinian cause. At the heart of the three lay the struggle to end occupation. Occupation has always been perceived as a process by which to rob us of our identity and dignity. The British, in the past, failed to understand the depth of the feeling among Iraqis both against occupation and towards the Palestinian issue. Now, in their partnership with the US, they are repeating the same mistakes.

As in the past, Iraqis are denied their natural right to resist the occupier and its imposed form of government. The "extremists" of our history are now called "terrorists".

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I like video games, but I have a hard time dealing with modern games which all seem to take several hours just to learn, let alone play. Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem.

Next year Pac-Man, which is turning 25, will once more hit the small screen in a brand new pill-munching adventure. Lin Leng, associate product marketing manager for Namco's upcoming Pac-Man, says the sudden popularity of classic video games can be traced to their simplicity.

"The games today are hyper-realistic, photo-realistic and take a long time to complete, an average of 20 hours of gameplay," he said. "But with Pac-Man you just jump in and play and you get a quick fix. It also brings back childhood memories for some of us."

"Pac-Man is still as compelling today as it was 30 or 40 years ago," said Genna Goldberg, spokeswoman for Jakks Pacific, a company that sells a classic Atari joystick loaded with 10 games from the original 1970s Atari home console. "These retro games are very easy to play: You don't need a high skill set, you don't need secret codes, you can just pick it up and play."

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I finally got a chance to settle down and read Casino Royale, the first James Bond book, last night. It's surprising how well some of the films captured the spirit of the books, if this one is anything to go by. However, there's a disturbing side to the original 007 that isn't in the more escapist films, in particular Bond's out-of-control misogyny. (The last words in Casino Royale are 'The bitch is dead.') That said, this book at least is a blueprint for modern escapist cinema. Everything is described in minute detail, the luxurious meals, the casinos, the beautiful women and exotic locations, Bond's Bentley, etc. Clearly, the idea is to project yourself into this world made up of beautiful and expensive objects. And it works. The only problem was I ended up reading it rather late & feel kind of tired today.

One thing I did appreciate about Casino Royale. This book was published in the 50s. It probably has about as much substance as the typical Tom Clancy thriller or whatever. By substance I mean, when you finish a book and you look back on it, substance is whatever made the book worth reading. Typically, even the best thriller writers around today - the only one I like is probably Ian Rankin - feel compelled by something about the book industry to produce tomes of 600-800 pages. But these still are just genre thrillers. You get to the end and you think, why did I have to plough through all that extraneous padding? Ian Rankin's first couple of books were shorter, then he moved on to book-bloat just like everybody else. You could argue that JK Rowling's books are showing bloat - No. 4 was long, but it needed to be long, while No 5 just felt like it was long because if they started editing out the pointless padding, they'd soon realise the whole book was pointless padding.

In older thrillers, say Bond or Agatha Christie, they didn't seem to feel the need for all the bloody padding. Casino Royale is a perfect example at 200 pages, exacty the right length for the amount of substance it has (not very much).

I blame it on the airplane age... people want the book to be longer nowadays, cos if it runs out too quickly they'll either have to buy another book or sit there for the rest of the flight feeling bored.

In Victorian San Francisco a bankrupt and homeless former millionaire decided that he was the leader of the free world. He declared himself Emperor Norton, Emperor of the US and Protector of Mexico, acquired a military uniform from a junk shop and disported himself aristocratically through the avenues of the city. He printed banknotes which he used to pay his bills. Eventually he became such a local celebrity that the city granted him a small stipend to buy new uniforms etc.

Nowadays the Reverend Moon, head of the Moonie cult, is much the same type of character. The difference is that he owns United Press International and the Washington Times and is buddies with John Ashcroft and George Bush Sr.

The US Senate was used for a bizarre ritual in which the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the head of the Unification church, was "crowned" and declared himself the messiah in the presence of more than a dozen Republican and Democratic members of Congress, it was reported yesterday.

"Emperors, kings and presidents ... have declared to all heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's saviour, messiah, returning Lord and true parent," the 85-year-old Korean "Moonie" cult leader told several hundred guests at the meeting in one of the Senate's office buildings on March 23, according to the Washington Post.

He also claimed endorsement from Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, who had all been reformed and reborn through his church's teachings - an idiosyncratic version of Christianity which rejects the use of the cross as a symbol and denounces homosexuals as "dirty dung-eating dogs".

An account of the ceremony was first published by a Washington investigative journalist, John Gorenfeld.

According to a transcript of the event, Mr Moon declared: "I am God's ambassador, sent to Earth with his full authority. I am sent to accomplish his command to save the world's six billion people, restoring them to Heaven with the original goodness in which they were created."

The glittering event in the Senate's Dirksen building reflected Mr Moon's extraordinary influence in US politics. He owns the conservative newspaper the Washington Times and the US news agency United Press International.

His fiercely conservative attitudes towards homosexuality and pre-marital sex have won him the endorsement of leading Republicans, including the president's father, George Bush, and John Ashcroft, the attorney general, who participated in one of Mr Moon's "prayer luncheons" days before the president's inauguration in January 2001.

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This is fantastic. A £30 ticket for a Cyprus night cruise gets you an evening of extreme debauchery. I have to say I'm not totally clear on why this is so shocking... is there anything illegal about having an orgy in international waters? Note the '100% Brummie' T-shirt reference.

An urgent inquiry was launched in Cyprus last night after an undercover police operation exposed a group of up to 100 tourists, including Britons, taking part in what was described a mass orgy aboard a cruise ship off the island.

The scenes, shown on local TV and described as "debauched", were broadcast after being caught on camera in the police sting. Arrests are expected in the coming days. "These scenes are not just graphic, they go beyond every conceivable limit," the island's deputy chief of police, Sotiris Haralambous, said. "We are talking about 50, 100 people involved in acts of total debauchery. It's hard to even describe."

The still pictures, leaked to the privately owned Mega TV channel and broadcast in suitably edited form, show the ferrygoers during the night cruise in international waters off the island. Some revellers are seen nude and taking part in various sex acts; others appear clothed, gawping from around the deck. One man is wearing a T-shirt clearly emblazoned with the words "100% Brummie".

"To say these pictures are shocking is to put it mildly," said an employee at the TV station. "They're outrageous, very wild. Whether dressed or not, it very clear that everyone in them is, how shall I put it, in the mood."

The ferry, which could take up to 200 passengers, is believed to have started out from the resort of Ayia Napa.

"They're all quite young, under 30, and from the look of it tourists from Britain and Scandinavia," Mr Haralambous said. The unnamed vessel, which is believed to be owned by a foreigner, was skippered by a Greek Cypriot operating on a licence from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation.

The captain was being questioned last night about the trip, which was billed as a £30 night cruise with meal.

Because the scenes took place in international waters, beyond Cypriot jurisdiction, authorities will have to request arrest warrants from Interpol. "The owner obviously knew a thing or two about the law because, as far as we know, these acts did not happen in Cyprus' territorial waters," the police officer added.

But the Greek Cypriot government said yesterday it would not be deterred, particularly as drugs appear to have been consumed on the boat. The scenes had blighted "the good image of Cyprus" and provoked "great shock," the island's minister of tourism and commerce, Giorgos Lalikas, told Mega's primetime news.

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There's something wack about this. Radio 1 doesn't play Cliff for the very good reason that he stinks. On the other hand he's the best selling artist ever, go figure.

Tony Blackburn has been suspended from the Classic Gold digital radio station for the heinous crime of repeatedly playing Cliff Richard records.

The former Radio 1 DJ was suspended from his weekday breakfast show on Classic Gold Digital this morning after ignoring warnings from station bosses not to play so much of former Shadows front man.

According to emails seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk, Blackburn was called into a meeting on Monday with the UBC head of programmes, Paul Baker, and warned not to play songs by Richard as it was against station policy.

However, the next day he played another Cliff track, Summer Holiday, sparking a heated exchange of emails from Mr Baker and the managing director, John Baish.

"We shouldn't be playing Cliff Richard," Mr Baker wrote in an email sent on Tuesday.

"As I said on Monday, we might carry out research on him, but for now we have a policy decision that he doesn't match our brand values, he's not on the playlist, and you must stop playing him."

"Requests is [sic] not an excuse," he added.

An unrepentant Blackburn read out the email at around 8.20am this morning then tore it up live on air, threw it in the bin and played two Cliff Richard tracks back to back, thought to be We Don't Talk Any More and Living Doll.

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I got this off BoingBoing. A high school percussion ensenble plays Radiohead's Paranoid Android. It's actually realy good!! Makes a change from "Texas, Our Texas" anyway.link

This short animation highlights many potential problems that a robotic future could introduce. Will Smith has chosen to explore similar themes in his forthcoming drama I, Robot.

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Anna thinks watching Big Brother is like watching snakes in the zoo. However i think it's worse when they actually do something. Apparently yesterday the mix of alcohol, nothing to do and being cooped up in a small space with no escape, led to a near riot. This is starting to seem a little sadistic.

Big Brother's mix of alcohol, calculated manipulation and a confined living space was a combustible combination waiting to explode, according to an experienced reality TV psychologist who has worked for the BBC.

Cynthia McVey, a chartered psychologist who worked as a consultant on BBC1's Castaway, spoke last night as police continued their investigation into a near-riot at the Big Brother house. Shocked viewers watched as furniture was overturned and one contestant threatened to kill another housemate before Channel 4 bosses pulled the plug on live footage of the show.

"One classic thing you can do to stop this sort of behaviour is not give them any alcohol," said Ms McVey. "This year they are in a reduced living space and there is no escape from each other. If you put animals in a confined space then you will get aggressive behaviour. The housemates have been manipulated beautifully and it has almost been too successful. [Channel 4 and producer Endemol] have been hoist by their own petard."

Last night Channel 4 and Endemol instilled some calm in the house withdrawing alcohol and serving the housemates a 'treat' of the England v Switzerland game. All, but Emma - one of the bedsit returnees - were in the house.

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I hope this isn't too repetitive...

For such measures of deterring democracy to succeed, the indoctrination system must perform its tasks properly, investing the leader with majesty and authority and manufacturing the illusions necessary to keep the public in thrall -- or at least, otherwise occupied. In the modern era, one way to approach the task is to rhapsodize (or wail) over the astonishing popularity of the august figure selected to preside from afar. From the early days of the Reagan period it was repeatedly demonstrated that the tales of Reagan's unprecedented popularity, endlessly retailed by the media, were fraudulent. His popularity scarcely deviated from the norm, ranging from about 1/3 to 2/3, never reaching the levels of Kennedy or Eisenhower and largely predictable, as is standard, from perceptions of the direction of the economy. George Bush was one of the most unpopular candidates ever to assume the presidency, to judge by polls during the campaign; after three weeks in office his personal approval rating was 76 percent, well above the highest rating that Reagan ever achieved. Eighteen months after taking office, Bush's personal popularity remained above the highest point that Reagan achieved. Reagan's quick disappearance once his job was done should surprise no one who attended to the role he was assigned.

Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, 1991.
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Sounds like Harry Potter crossed with Star Trek, especially because it uses something called 'retro-reflectum'. Actually that sounds like Harry Potter too, it's a spell obviously... 'Retro Reflectum!'

Professor Tachi's cloak works by projecting an image onto itself of what is behind the wearer.A computer generates the image that is projected, so the viewer effectively sees "through" the cloak.

The key development of the cloak, however, was the development of a new material called retro-reflectum. "This material allows you to see a three-dimensional image," Professor Tachi said.

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I don't really understand why there hasn't been more stuff in the press talking about what a monster Reagan was. I will continue to make a modest effort to fill the gap. Here are some things Reagan should be remembered for.

1. Cruelly slashing the social safety net. Reagan cuts in social spending exacerbated a policy of intentionally raising the unemployment rate. The result was a huge surge in poverty. With homelessness skyrocketing, Reagan defended his administration's record: "One problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice."

2. Taking the world to the brink of nuclear war. Reagan's supposed contribution to the downfall of the Soviet Union was a military spending contest that drove the USSR into economic collapse. Neglected in most present-day reminiscences is that this military spending spree nearly started a nuclear war. Development and deployment of a host of nuclear missiles, initiating Star Wars, acceleration of the arms race -- these led the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to move its Doomsday Clock in 1984 to three minutes to midnight.

3. A targeted tax cut for the rich. The 1981 tax cut was one of the largest in U.S. history and heavily targeted toward the rich, with major declines in tax rates for upper-income groups. The tax break helped widen income and wealth inequality gaps. As David Stockman admitted, one of its other intended effects was to starve the government of funds, so as to justify cuts in government spending (for the poor -- the cash crunch didn't restrain government spending on corporate welfare).

4. Firing striking air traffic controllers. Reagan's decision to fire 1,800 striking air traffic controller early in his term sent a message that employers could act against striking or organizing workers with virtual impunity.

5. Deregulating the Savings & Loan industry, paving the way for an industry meltdown and subsequent bailout that cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

6. Perpetrating a bloody war in Central America. The Reagan-directed wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua submerged Central America in a climate of terror and fear, took tens of thousands of lives, destroyed a democratic experiment in Nicaragua, and entrenched narrow elites who continue to repress the poor majorities in the region.

7. Embracing South Africa's apartheid regime (Said Reagan in 1981, "Can we abandon this country [South Africa] that has stood beside us in every war we've ever fought?" He followed up in 1985 with, "They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country.") and dictators worldwide, from Argentina to Korea, Chile to the Philippines.

8. Undermining health, safety and environmental regulation. Reagan decreed such rules must be subjected to regulatory impact analysis -- corporate-biased cost-benefit analyses, carried out by the Office of Management and Budget. The result: countless positive regulations discarded or revised based on pseudo-scientific conclusions that the cost to corporations would be greater than the public benefit.

9. Slashing the Environmental Protection Agency budget in half, and installing Anne Gorsuch Burford to oversee the dismantling of the agency and ensure weak enforcement of environmental rules.

10. Kick-starting the era of structural adjustment. It was under Reagan administration influence that the International Monetary Fund and World Bank began widely imposing the policy package known as structural adjustment -- featuring deregulation, privatization, emphasis on exports, cuts in social spending -- that has plunged country after country in the developing world into economic destitution. The IMF chief at the time was honest about what was to come, saying in 1981 that, for low-income countries, "adjustment is particularly costly in human terms."

11. Silence on the AIDS epidemic. Reagan didn't mention AIDS publicly until 1987, by which point AIDS had killed 19,000 in the United States. While the public health service advocated aggressive education on prevention, Reagan moralists like Secretary of Education Bill Bennett insisted on confining prevention messages to abstinence.

12. Enabling a corporate merger frenzy. The administration effectively re-wrote antitrust laws and oversaw what at the time was an unprecedented merger trend. "There is nothing written in the sky that says the world would not be a perfectly satisfactory place if there were only 100 companies, provided that each had 1 percent of every product and service market," said Reagan's antitrust enforcement chief William Baxter.

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My rebellious instincts balk at all these stories about how Reagan was admired and respected as a great guy and the most liked president since WWII etc. Here is the hard data.

Reagan's 52% average approval rating for his entire presidency was topped by Kennedy's 70% average, Eisenhower's 66%, Roosevelt's 68%, and even by Johnson (54%), who eschewed running for reelection because of the unpopularity of his Vietnam policy. In short, about half-- and sometimes more than half-- of the US public did not approve of Reagan's presidential performance. His approval index was not much better than the lowest modern presidential averages: Truman's and Ford's, each at 46%; Carter's at 47%; and 48% for Nixon.

Even the notion that the American public likes Ronald Reagan the man (as opposed to some of his policies) has been grossly exaggerated. Overall, his "likeability" percentages have ranged in the low-to-mid seventies, reaching a high of 81% in November 1985, and a low of 50% in August 1983. No other modern president's likeability indexes have generally fluctuated in the mid-to-upper seventies for all of Reagan's modern predecessors.

...

At various points during his presidency he rated lower than the other presidents during comparable periods of their terms in office. For instance, during the first two years of Reagan's presidency, the public was giving President Reagan the lowest level of approval of all modern elected presidents. Reagan's average first year approval rating was 58%-- lower than Dwight Eisenhower's 69%, Jack Kennedy's 75%, Richard Nixon's 61% and Jimmy Carter's 62%.

Nor did the US public give Reagan higher marks in his second year than other post-World War II presidents. Reagan's approval rating at the end of his second year in office was 41%, with an average for that year of 44%. Compare these statistics to Eisenhower, who notched a 69% approval rating at the end of his second year and a 65% year's average; Kennedy's were 76% and 72% respectively; Nixon's 52% and 57%; and Carter's at 51% and 47%.

President Reagan's humdrum approval ratings continued throughout his first and second terms. Averaging 50% for his first term, Reagan fared slightly better than Ford at 47% and Carter at 47%, but with Gallup's 3% margin of error even these differences are not statistically significant. On the other band, Reagan's first term average was much lower than those of Presidents Kennedy (1961-63) who averaged a 70% approval rating, Eisenhower with a 69% average, and Nixon at 56%.

In May of the second year of his second term (1986), Reagan's 68% approval rating surpassed the mid-sixth year figures for two-term presidents. But after the Iran-Contra scnadal broke in the fall of 1986, Reagan's approval raing plummeted to 46%, leaving him wiht an unimpressive average for that year.

Reagan finished strong with a December 1988 Gallup poll recording a 63% approval rating. But given the 3% margin of error, this statistic is not appreciably different than the final ratings of Eisenhower (59%) or Kennedy (58%). Polls showed FDR with a 66% favorable tally at the time of his death.

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Here's one for you Marv.
When i call to interview people in the UK, I say, "Hi this is matthew broersma from (publication)." Then I pause because in the UK the normal thing is for them then to say, "Oh hello!"

But when I call people in the US, if I pause like that, there's this dead silence. What you're supposed to do is say "Hi this is matthew broersma from (pbulication) and I wanted to ask you about blah blah blah."

In other words, in the UK there is a polite exchange at the beginning. In the US you are expected to power straight into your spiel.

Is that worthy of your list?

Here's an article listing stuff that isn't remembered about WWII. Sometimes it's good to remember what reality is.

June 6, 2004 marks 60 years since the fabled Allied invasion known as "D-Day." Lost amid the self-congratulatory orgy is the minor detail that by the time of the D-Day invasion, the Soviets were engaging 80 percent of the German Army on the Eastern Front. Oops...

U.S. investment in Germany accelerated by more than 48% between 1929 and 1940, while declining sharply everywhere else in Europe. For many US companies, operations in Germany continued during the war (even if it meant the use of concentration-camp slave labor) with overt US government support. For example, American pilots were given instructions not to hit factories in Germany that were owned by US firms. As a result, German civilians began using the Ford plant in Cologne as an air raid shelter.

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This show sounds great. Hooray for ad-fuelled television.

The Last Ride," which appears tonight on USA, is a brazen commercial for Pontiac that is souped up to look sort of like a car-chase movie. The network has made no pretense about this, hyping its achievement as a "unprecedented integrated marketing opportunity." You can't skip the ads without missing the movie.

Sure enough, gleaming cars with fantastic handling are never far from view, or earshot, as roaring engines and singing brakes dominate the soundtrack. During a scene at a car show, no less, a woman in leather even recites the mantra of Pontiac's new sports car: "Zero to 60 in 5.3 seconds!"

Fortunately, this 84-minute commercial stars Dennis Hopper, looking sheepish but amused, and it is not dreadful. What's more, in so boldly juxtaposing its themes of brand loyalty and blood loyalty, the show turns the corporate cultivation of rebel spirit into a gleeful goof. What? Advertising during a television movie? By a car company claiming to be cool? Lighten up.

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