:: groupthink ::

:: Thursday, April 10, 2003 ::

Two recommendations here, for a couple of very creative people and their recent work:

Philip Greenspun, a writer, teacher and afficionado of photography, and also the creator of what I believe to be the best community website in the world. He has just begun writing a weblog.

Chritopher Alexander, architectural thinker and teacher extraordinaire. His four-volume opus, "The Nature of Order", is due to be published next month. His book, "A Pattern Language", remains a classic.
:: Sukumar 10:09 AM [+] ::
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Yak, I'm in finally.

Montana living has isolated me from the news for the past week... no TV, slow internet connection, NPR station splits time with the God station and NPR usually decides to air programs discussing "concepts of framing in architecture" as opposed to Iraq war news.

Anyway, the "smoking gun" has been on my mind today, as Reuters reported some possible Sarin found in an Iraqi military complex. No other media sites have picked it up yet, probably because it is unconfirmed at this point. I was surprised CNN hadn't headlined it, as they seem to be underscoring Chomsky's idea of an indoctrinated press.

I'm remembering what Undies told me at the aforementioned March Madness gathering, "they'll find banned weapons during the war, whether or not they actually EXIST, they will find them". Good point. But finding them at a military complex? Isn't that odd? Wouldn't such a place been subject to inspection... granted they could have been moved there after the war started, but why would that happen, unless they were going to be used (which they haven't been, or else the press really blew that one)? Sort of feeds my suspicions that the inspections were nothing more than a sham and a pretense for the Washington hawks to go in blazing with a token stamp of approval from the international community. Granted the world is pretty much against it, but they can claim that the UN resolution gave them some justification. That we even have that is probably testiment to Powell's efforts, although he's pretty much been converted to hawk too.


:: r 11:38 AM [+] ::
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servers are swamped
amazing what a little internet can do... the online newshour had a piece tonight on the testimony in front of the supreme court regarding the legality of affirmative action at the university of michigan... along with audio clips the television piece had interviews with experts and a great web component to help you get up to speed on the story. etc. they have also posted the entire audio streams of the supreme court testimonies (a rarity) off their website. as of 615 pst the servers have been jammed by too much traffic.
:: h 6:18 PM [+] ::
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a piece in the pbs programs NOW with bill moyers this wk- highlighted something i witnessed a couple of wks ago in portland oregon. while there to watch march madness basketball games i noticed one of my friends - a high school english teacher had joined us in a friday afternoon. when asked why he wasn't in school teaching, he told me that the district was so strapped on cash, that they had decided to cut back 6 days. teachers and students stay at home during those days in an effort to cut costs. the piece on NOW focused on how hard portland was hit- when it came to a decrease in revenues as a result of a souring economy coupled with an increase in costs from the war on terrorism. though a streaming version of the guns and butter story is unavailable to vuew online - there is an interesting sidebar the show has put up pointing to each state and what their deficits are.
:: h 5:45 PM [+] ::
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