Antonymious Musing

Nanotechnology as buzz poses a problem.

The rhetroical opposite of micro[scopic] would be macro[scopic]. Or maybe mega?

What is the opposite of nano[particle]? Somehow giga doesn't have resonance.

Reality Newpaper - Actually Madeup Unreality Newspaper

Maybe the Free Press buy out isn’t such a bad idea, when this is crowding the newspaper and website.
For those who can’t stomach the whole article, the hair do and makeup came from Birmingham, the clothes to dress up her parochial school uniform from Troy…There’s something about intervening in someone’s life, buying them a bunch of stuff they really wouldn’t afford, that goes beyond the normal reach of the press…
GEORGEA KOVANIS: Rachel, is that you?
Dearborn Heights teen expresses her evolving personality with the help of a Free Press makeover

Who Endured What

Asymmetry in conflict leads to asymmetry in coverage.

The headline about “enduring” an attack is correct. The attack on civilian non-combatants is terrorism, a variety of collective punishment and a violation of either international law or criminal law.  The suicide bombing was a terrorist attack.  The article suggests the attack was launched from Hebron, in the West Bank; not much linked to Gaza.

BrooklynDodger still argues that the Palestinians “endured” two attacks before the one on Israel.  The “arrest raid” has the aspect of an extra-judicial execution.  Annexing land is theft.

Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was simply in Israel’s tactical and strategic interest.  Tying tens of thousands of soldiers to protect a few thousand fanatics living in Gaza was a bad deal all round.  [BrooklynDodger wonders what those settlers did for a living?  Take in each others washing?]  Finally Sharon gave up trying to extract a concession for that, still leaving Israel better off.  But the American press is still arguing for a quid pro quo.  

Tensions rose in recent days between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel upset the Palestinians last week with plans to confiscate land around the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim, for construction of the massive separation barrier.

Israeli troops also killed five Palestinians in an arrest raid in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Israel said the five were all fugitive militants, but the Palestinians said two were unarmed teenagers. Their deaths prompted calls for revenge from the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades groups.

Khaled al-Batch, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, said he did not know who carried out Sunday's attack. "But it came as a natural reaction to the occupation crimes," he said. "It is our right to retaliate."


Aug 28, 9:09 AM EDT
Israel endures first attack since pullout
By AMY TEIBEL Associated Press Writer
BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the central bus station in this southern Israeli city during morning rush hour Sunday, critically wounding two security guards in the first attack since Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month.

Northwest Strike Fallen From the Media

The Northwest strike has fallen from view in the Times print and the Detroit Free Press website. Google news finds a few references in Washington State in the the last news cycle.

There's no data on how Northwest is functioning, and how it normally functions. There's no information on where the off-site maintenance is being done, by whom. Other than references to how much Northwest spent preparing for the strike there's no analysis of what that cost might have done to cash flow and the bankruptcy-concessions picture. What is the cash flow of out-of-town mechanics staying in hotels, protected by security guards and transported to the air port?

Even labor blogs are two days behind the news cycle. Most of that discussion is revolves on blaming the victims, and whether these are innocent victims or guilty victims.

BrooklynDodger will be flying Continental.

Information Suppression at the Justice Department

BrooklynDodger wonders whether this report was peer reviewed, like everything possibly supporting public health and safety.

Official in Racial Profiling Study Demoted
Justice Department Denies Political Pressure; Lawmaker Demands Investigation
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff WriterThursday, August 25, 2005; Page A07
The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee called for a congressional investigation yesterday into allegations that a Justice Department official is being demoted after attempting to publicize findings that police treated Hispanic and black drivers more aggressively than whites during traffic stops.
…
Conyers's demand came after a report in the New York Times focusing on Lawrence A. Greenfeld, who heads the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a small office staffed primarily with statisticians who conduct studies and issue reports on law enforcement issues.
Quoting unidentified officials and documents, the report said Greenfeld was ordered to delete references to racial disparities in a news release prepared to announce a study on the treatment of different ethnic groups during police traffic stops.
The survey of 80,000 people, which was eventually issued in April without a news release, found that minority drivers were three times as likely to have their vehicles searched during traffic stops as white drivers.
Greenfeld fought the order and was eventually called to the White House and urged to resign six months before he was eligible for full pension benefits, but Greenfeld invoked personnel rules to force an agreement to place him in a different job, the Times said. Greenfeld did not return a telephone message left yesterday.

Vioxx - Finally Merck Has Time for the Pain

The New York Times editorial mostly nailed the Vioxx verdict.  Some may remember hype because University of Rochester researchers figured out COX-1 and COX-2 pathways, got patents, and then didn’t cash in for the University when drug companies made a windfall.  Or did the Dodger get that wrong?

Anyway, there’s no money to be made in aspirin, and not much in motrin, advil and alleve being sold over the counter.  So the deal with Vioxx and its sisters is that it’s expensive, and prescription, the latter meaning free or nearly free for patients with prescription drug coverage.  Plus the doc gets to write a script [service at no cost and little time] and even get free samples to give out.

As a patient, you have to buy into the high priced spread being a better pain killer.  Which, it wasn’t.

Marketing something more expensive and no more effective [except for a few] was the crime to be prevented before the vascular effects emerged.


EDITORIAL
Punishment for Merck
Published: August 23, 2005
Merck deserves some sympathy, but not a lot, for the staggering loss it suffered last week in a case involving its painkiller Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market because it raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes in a small percentage of patients. A Texas jury hit Merck with a symbolically staggering $253.5 million judgment (it will be reduced to $26.1 million under a Texas law capping punitive damages) even though the evidence that Vioxx actually caused the victim's death was extremely thin. The verdict may reflect the fact that Merck was facing an extremely capable lawyer, while its own lawyers committed blunders that alienated the jury. But before heaping too much sympathy on the beleaguered drugmaker, it is important to note that Merck brought a lot of this problem on itself - by failing to react quickly to evidence that Vioxx can be harmful in some patients and by promoting the drug beyond any rational use.
Vioxx is in a class of painkillers known as cox-2 inhibitors. These drugs are, in general, no more effective than many older nonprescription drugs at relieving pain. Their presumed advantage is that they reduce the risk of the gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers that afflict a minority of patients who take the older painkillers. Unfortunately, aggressive marketing propelled them to wide use by people at little risk of gastrointestinal side effects

Envy

The Detroit News cyber poll isn't scientific. Still, 2/3 of voters sympathize with takebacks by corporations. There's problems with getting the majority who don't have something - like a defined benefit pension - to join a fight to keep yours.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Give back or give up?

Detroit, the cradle of the labor movement, is ground zero in a battle for the soul -- and survival -- of organized labor. Unions are losing pay, losing members, and even losing the sympathy of supporters like Roth to the corporations that employ them. Are the concessions being asked of the unions out of line?

Yes
38.26%

No
61.74%

More on ID and Creationism

The Cambrian explosion figures large in the ID arguments; ID’ers argue that the appearance of multiple multi-celled animals of many types all at once undermines or even disproves the frame of gradual evolution. Stephen J. Gould also wrote a whole book about it. Gould’s point – attacked in the linked review by Richard Dawkins [“The view that he is attacking - that evolution marches inexorably towards a pinnacle such as man - has not been believed for 50 years.”] - is that many body plans radiated quickly [millions of years, but quick in the full record of geological time] once an evolutionary step [unrecorded in the limited fossil record] was achieved. Gould’s interest is that present conditions – the RWMOT situation – is one of many outcomes, not inevitable, and therefore subject to social change.

Which brings the Dodger to the theo-illogical piece of ID. Cosmology now posits the “Big Bang” which motioned the universe we live in, including the laws by which nature rules us. The big bang hasn’t been attacked by the ID crowd; arguably the laws of nature could have been set by the creator at the instant of the Bang, and that could be the intelligent design. These laws are understood now as a bunch of equations, and not so many equations at that. Consistent with that frame, at some point the earth formed, chemistry worked, a replicating system arose, that replicating system is life itself which evolved into BrooklynDodger blogging this.

Some ID’ers posit something like a second, biological, Big Bang. That’s the creation of the first replicator. The problem with the first replicator is that it requires a time when the laws of nature were bypassed by the Deity. Problem is, you only get one chance to have a singularity.

More risible is the idea of multiple interventions by the Deity. One day, the Deity decided to make the rat. On another, the AIDS virus.

ID in the Times

NATIONAL   | August 21, 2005 Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive By JODI WILGOREN The Discovery Institute is the ideological and strategic backbone behind the eruption of skirmishes over science in school districts and state capitals across the country.

NYTimes
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BrooklynDodger can’t quite figure out what the Intelligent Design folks want taught. The Dodger’s best paraphrase is “Evolution by natural selection doesn’t explain the biology of the world around us.”  By subtraction, the laws of nature don’t really exist, because another force, by subtraction a Deity, can override them at whim.

BrooklynDodger returns to implications of ID vs. sociobiology for political impact.  Both imply that the current order – Rich White Men on Top – arises from operation of the universe.  Sociobiology allows for tinkering, at our peril, but lets the Ruling Class off the hook for willful subjugation.  ID would suggest tinkering willfully undermines what the Deity wanted.

Progressive evolutionary biology, personified by Steve Gould and others, frames the present world as one of many feasible outcomes.  People can change the world for the better.

NLRB Rules Profanity Is OK

This is an attempt to use the new blogger for word.

NLRB Rules Profanity Provoked by Boss's Illegal Threat to Fire Him A hotel maintenance engineer who cursed at his boss for ordering him to tell a union representative that he was a supervisor and thus ineligible for union representation did not lose the protection of federal labor law, the National Labor Relations Board rules 3-0 (Stanford New York LLC, d/b/a Stanford Hotel, 344 N.L.R.B. No. 69, 4/29/05 [released 5/4/05]). Chairman Battista and Members Liebman and Schaumber emphasize that they "do not condone insubordination." However, they find that Joong Hyun Park "was engaged in protected concerted activity in expressing his desire to be included in the collective bargaining unit, and he did not lose the protection of the [National Labor Relations] Act because of his intemperate response while protesting [the general manager's] unlawful conduct." The board agrees with an ALJ's recommended decision and orders Stanford New York LLC, which operates the Stanford Hotel in New York City, to reinstate Park and reimburse him for lost pay and benefits. AA-1, Text E-1

Newspaper Claims It's Hetero Illicit Thoughts

What's up with the church? BrooklynDodger wonders. The article implies these young priests are cruising chicks at the conclave, and being chastely requited. But who's to say it's only females cruisees. And, if the point is recruiting to the religious community, why not promote some of the female religious to positions of visability?

Dashing young priests turn heads at Youth Day
By Alexandra Hudson
COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - Young priests in sharp suits and sunglasses are turning heads and winning hearts at the Catholic World Youth Day festival in Cologne.
They are the type of men Pope Benedict hopes will secure the future of the Church and inspire youngsters to choose a religious life, which may be why he has insisted on addressing seminarians personally during his four-day visit to Germany.
…
The more dashing young priests at World Youth Day seem to have an entourage of adoring teenage girls. …

New strategies for tapping this interest to boost new recruits have turned one young American priest into a pin-up.
Father Jonathan Meyer, wearing sunglasses and a sleek black cassock and clutching a crucifix, replicates Keanu Reeves' pose in the film "The Matrix" for a recruitment poster.
…
"I know I am hanging in a few girls' bedrooms too, but that's fine -- we need their prayers for more priests," he said.
CHASTITY A TURN-OFF
…
Although some young people say they admire priests' service to their parishes, chastity is a key stumbling block for many.
Asked if they had considered the priesthood, a group of Bavarian boys snigger and say no. Asked why not, one mutters "no sex."

Lucky Strike

BrooklynDodger is superstitious. Don't fly with scab mechanics. Not so the gneral public.


If there is a Northwest mechanics strike, would that affect your decision to fly the airline?
Choice
Votes
Percentage of 2072 Votes

Yes. I would not travel on Northwest.
1236
60%
No. I already have travel plans to fly the airline.
368
18%
No. I would fly with the airline anyway.
468
23%

Intelligent Design Pop Quiz

This is a dormant post on creationism and intelligent design, started at the time of the Kansas hearings. Below, courtesy of a net service, are the Bring it On Questions from the ID folks. Actually, few of us with advanced degrees in science, much less the master’s degree folks teaching high school biology, could answer these questions without some prior study. Actually, few could “prove” the earth revolves around the sun in a court of law.

Some of these questions are fair criticisms of shoddy textbook writing [the moths], or problematic ideas [vertebrate embryos]. The real problem with ID is that there’s no there there.

A Gallup poll last year showed that only 28 percent of Americans accept the theory of evolution, while 48 percent adhere to creationism - the belief that an intelligent being is responsible for the creation of the earth and its inhabitants.

WHAT SOME STUDENTS ARE ASKING THEIR BIOLOGY TEACHERS

Critics of evolution are supplying students with prepared questions on such topics as:
 The origins of life. Why do textbooks claim that the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment shows how life's building blocks may have formed on Earth - when conditions on the early Earth were probably nothing like those used in the experiment, and the origin of life remains a mystery?
 Darwin's tree of life. Why don't textbooks discuss the "Cambrian explosion," in which all major animal groups appear together in the fossil record fully formed instead of branching from a common ancestor - thus contradicting the evolutionary tree of life?
 Vertebrate embryos. Why do textbooks use drawings of similarities in vertebrate embryos as evidence for common ancestry - even though biologists have known for over a century that vertebrate embryos are not most similar in their early stages, and the drawings are faked?
 The archaeopteryx. Why do textbooks portray this fossil as the missing link between dinosaurs and modern birds - even though modern birds are probably not descended from it, and its supposed ancestors do not appear until millions of years after it?
 Peppered moths. Why do textbooks use pictures of peppered moths camouflaged on tree trunks as evidence for natural selection - when biologists have known since the 1980s that the moths don't normally rest on tree trunks, and all the pictures have been staged?
 Darwin's finches. Why do textbooks claim that beak changes in Galapagos finches during a severe drought can explain the origin of species by natural selection - even though the changes were reversed after the drought ended, and no net evolution occurred?
 Mutant fruit flies. Why do textbooks use fruit flies with an extra pair of wings as evidence that DNA mutations can supply raw materials for evolution - even though the extra wings have no muscles and these disabled mutants cannot survive outside the laboratory?
 Human origins. Why are artists' drawings of apelike humans used to justify materialistic claims that we are just animals and our existence is a mere accident - when fossil experts cannot even agree on who our supposed ancestors were or what they looked like?
 Evolution as a fact. Why are students told that Darwin's theory of evolution is a scientific fact - even though many of its claims are based on misrepresentations of the facts?

Source: Discovery Institute

Free Wi-Fi

BrooklynDodger was in the minority. Those who don't want to provide free access can password protect, or whatever. The Dodger leaves the Dodger's open.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Should it be illegal to access a neighbor's Wi-Fi connection without permission?

Yes

76%
80169 votes
No

24%
24637 votes
Total: 104806 votes

Witchcraft on the ball field

[French mascotte, sorcerer's charm, mascot, from Provençal mascoto, sorcery, fetish, from masco, witch, ultimately from Medieval Latin masca, mask, specter, witch.]


Word History: ... Mascot came into English as a borrowing of the French word mascotte, meaning "mascot, charm." The English word is first recorded in 1881 shortly after the French word, itself first recorded in 1867, was popularized by the opera La Mascotte, performed in December 1880. The French word in turn came from the Provençal word mascoto, "piece of witchcraft, charm, amulet," a feminine diminutive of masco, "witch." This word can probably be traced back to Medieval Latin masca, "witch, specter."

Who Reads This Stuff - Test Scoring as a Retirement Job

The proliferation of testing, and writing tests at that, lead BrooklynDodger to wonder who reads and grades. For the various state based tests, instead of using their own teachers, they seem to use contractors. This Post from the Washington Post reveals that the Educational Testing Service also contracts out this chore. Apparently, the high tech end of grading electronic forms is a core business, but reading is too labor intensive.

But, contractors need someone to do the work, so who would you sign up but temporary workers. And who could that be but teachers? In this case a retired teacher.

Dan Verner, who has taken on five times the average workload for scorers, follows rules that tell him to overlook small grammatical or spelling mistakes in SAT essays.

(By Margaret Thomas -- The Washington Post)

... so when he saw a newspaper story about the need for experienced educators to grade the new SAT essay question, he thought he might apply.

He learned that the essays were transmitted to official readers via the Internet, so could do the work on the computer in his den. He had always liked sitting and reading by himself.

... the 3,790 graders are more like Verner, a 57-year-old music lover who said he enjoys judging often unpredictable student essays just as much as he liked teaching for 32 years. He often reads the SAT entries wearing shorts, a T-shirt labeled "Wonderbread" and no shoes while Nacho the family cat slumbers in a chair beside him.

...Having never applied for work since 1971, he thought he was just having an introductory telephone chat with a woman from Pearson Educational Measurement, the Iowa City-based company that won the contract to score the essay question. But when, after 15 minutes of pleasant conversation, he asked when he would get his job interview, she said, "You just had it."

...
Training consisted of 17 hours of reading sample essays, doing 10 at a time and then being assessed on his scoring. He consulted with trainers when he strayed too far from the judgment of the College Board, which administers the SAT, of what should merit a 6 (clear and effective) or a 1 (murky and disorganized).
...Early news reports suggested that SAT readers might take less than a minute to judge each essay. But Verner and Pearson officials said the actual time per essay is closer to 2 1/2 minutes. Eventually, Verner said, "I got my mind right. It was like being in a zone."
... At 1 p.m. on the Tuesday after each Saturday SAT, a 10-day essay scoring period opens during which certified readers can log on to the Pearson Web site at any time except 1 to 8 a.m. and start scoring.

...Scorers are paid $17 an hour, with time and a half if they work more than 40 hours a week. ...More than 1.4 million SAT essays have been scored since the test debuted in March, each being read by two graders. ...Verner said he, too, is a critic of high-stakes tests, particularly the Standards of Learning tests in Virginia, but he said he thinks the SAT writing test is a fair and useful measure. ...

Scorers call this "the plethora effect" because many students believe "plethora" is a College Board word and "use it inordinately and often inappropriately in their essays," Verner said.

What to call the War?

Those who posted to the poll had some more negative names which didn't make the multiple choice.

Detroit News CyberSurvey results

War title

In Shelby Township, a disagreement over how to officially refer to the war in Iraq has stalled plans to inscribe the name of Army Pvt. Mark Barbret on a veterans’ memorial. What name do you prefer?

The Iraq War
46.74%

Operation Iraqi Freedom
39.81%

The War on Terror
6.79%

The Global War on Terrorism
6.66%

Trail of Tears 2

While the NCAA is correctly trying to end Native American exploitation in naming university mascots, some thought ought to be given about the naming of weapons.

For some reason, aerospace companies have been naming helicopters after Native American tribes. There's the Apache above and the Blackhawk below.

Reporters Who Cover Health Issues Should Know Something

And, maybe the ER doc as well. GI symptoms are not prominent in flu, especially in results. This is probably viral gastroenteritis, or else that disease they get on cruise ships.

Since we worry about bird flu, SARS, legionnaire's, it would be good if ER folks could do the differential on an outbreak. And, reporters knew what to say.

PS: they don't recommend hamburgers and french fries as a cure
>>>>>>>>>
Cause of mass illness a mystery
17 people made sick from food or flu-like contagion
August 5, 2005

BY GINA DAMRON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

It's unclear whether food poisoning or a flu-like illness caused a group of children, teens and coaches at a wrestling camp in Southfield to get sick earlier this week, according to the Oakland County Health Department.

About 17 people -- ages 9 to their early 20s -- from Ken Chertow's Gold Medal Training Camp held at the Ramada Inn on 9 Mile near Northwestern Highway, were taken to Providence Hospital in Southfield Wednesday.

They complained of dehydration, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pains, said Dr. Steve McGraw, associate chairman of emergency medicine at Providence.

By Thursday, all had been treated and released, he said.
"There were a few that were more ill than others," McGraw said. "Everyone was moderately sick."
Food was taken from the hotel to be tested, said George Miller, health officer for Oakland County. The hotel has been cleared to continue serving meals, Miller said.
...
But, Jerome Lasinski said the hospital told him his 14-year-old son, Michael, had food poisoning.
Michael said he started to feel sick Wednesday morning after eating spaghetti with meat sauce the night before. After he was taken to Providence, he called his parents.
...
Michael went back to the Ramada, where he ate a hamburger and two plates of french fries
prepared at the hotel.
McGraw said the symptoms of food poisoning and illnesses like the flu are often similar and are usually treated the same.
"Everyone always blames the food," he said.
...
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Stomach Flu (Viral Gastroenteritis)

Stomach flu is a viral infection that affects the stomach and small intestine. It is also called viral gastroenteritis. The illness is usually brief, lasting 1 to 3 days.
How does it occur?
Many different viruses can cause gastroenteritis, including rotaviruses, adenoviruses, and the Norwalk virus. Gastroenteritis is caused by swallowing one of these viruses. The body fluids of infected people contain the virus, sometimes even before their symptoms begin. The virus can be spread by direct contact with an infected person (for example, kissing or shaking hands) or by sharing food, drink, or eating utensils.
The virus enters the stomach and intestine and inflames the lining of these organs. As a result, the stomach and intestine are temporarily unable to perform their usual functions. The virus can also cause food to move more rapidly through your gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Some bacteria, parasites, medicines, or other medical conditions can cause infections that have symptoms similar to those of stomach flu. If your symptoms are unusually severe or last longer than a few days, your health care provider can determine if the diarrhea is caused by a virus or by something else.
What are the symptoms?
When you have stomach flu, you may have one or more of the following symptoms:
nausea
vomiting
stomach cramps
diarrhea
mild fever
fatigue
chills
loss of appetite
muscle aches.
The illness may develop over a period of hours, or it may suddenly start with stomach cramps, vomiting, or diarrhea.

Trail of Tears in Sports

Sometimes an ethnic group or philosophical belief is so minoritized that the majority doesn't even notice the insult. For example, atheists have no right to be free of pervasive American deism.

So with Native Americans. BrooklynDodger has been told the sports blogs are sizzling with complains about the NCAA cracking down on racist portrayals, or maybe just ripping off of Native Americans as college "mascots."

For most red-blooded sports fans, the inconvenience of college athletics is the academic environment of the college in the first place. Grades are such an inconvenience for fielding a winning team. Worse, the place is full of professors and other holders of graduate degrees; the university administration is constantly bending over to the demands of these people. Even in places like Florida and Oklahoma.

Billions of dollars of public money are sunk in these universities, and controlled by this noisy minority that disrespects the values of the American people. Like these people not only hold the minority belief in evolution by natural selection, but seek to prevent the teaching of creationism or intelligent design in the schools.

Almost as elitist is the idea that Native American exploitation is OK. As noted below, some Seminole tribal leaders have supported Florida State in retaining their imagery.

The Trail of Tears refers most specifically to the removal of Cherokee people from Georgia to Oklahoma, then known as the Indian Territory. Many other tribes in the southeastern United States also were subject to ethnic cleansing by white European immigrant populations.

The 2000 census reports 2.4 million Native Americans, of whom about 28,000 are Seminole. BrooklynDodger gave up at figuring out home many of the Seminole are in Florida. A brief account of Seminole history is below, taken from a PBS posting:

The First Seminole War lasted from 1817 to 1818. The Seminoles were aided by fugitive slaves who had found protection among them and had been living with them for years. The presence of the fugitives enraged white planters and fueled their desire to defeat the Seminoles.

...

In 1830, just a year after taking office, Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave.

...

For the next 28 years, the United States government struggled to force relocation of the southeastern nations. A small group of Seminoles was coerced into signing a removal treaty in 1833, but the majority of the tribe declared the treaty illegitimate and refused to leave. The resulting struggle was the Second Seminole War, which lasted from 1835 to 1842. As in the first war, fugitive slaves fought beside the Seminoles who had taken them in. Thousands of lives were lost in the war, which cost the Jackson administration approximately 40 to 60 million dollars -- ten times the amount it had allotted for Indian removal. In the end, most of the Seminoles moved to the new territory. The few who remained had to defend themselves in the Third Seminole War (1855-58), when the U.S. military attempted to drive them out. Finally, the United States paid the remaining Seminoles to move west.

BrooklynDodger wonders whether the "Seminole Tribe of Florida" derives any benefit from the use of their name by Florida State? Royalties from sale of tee-shirts? Tickets to games for tribal leaders? Set aside admissions?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Another interesting note is that several of the institutions being forced to divest appear to be historically black colleges.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
NCAA Takes Hard Line On Mascots
It Wants to End Use Of Indian Images

By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday,

August 6, 2005; Page E01

The NCAA will prohibit college athletic teams that use Native American images deemed "hostile or abusive" from hosting postseason events or displaying the symbols during championship competition.

The policy, announced yesterday, will affect at least 18 schools the NCAA said use derogatory references, including the Florida State Seminoles and the Illinois Fighting Illini, two schools whose programs consistently have competed in NCAA championship events.

The list of schools affected by the NCAA's decision Friday about Native American Indian mascots and nicknames:

Alcorn State University (Braves)
Central Michigan University (Chippewas)
Catawba College (Indians)
Florida State University (Seminoles)
Midwestern State University (Indians)
University of Utah (Utes)
Indiana University-Pennsylvania (Indians)
Carthage College (Redmen)
Bradley University (Braves)
Arkansas State University (Indians)
Chowan College (Braves)
University of Illinois (Illini)
University of Louisiana-Monroe (Indians)
McMurry University (Indians)
Mississippi College (Choctaws)
Newberry College (Indians)
University of North Dakota (Fighting Sioux)
Southeastern Oklahoma State University (Savages)
...

Florida State President T.K. Wetherell said in a statement that the university is "stunned at the complete lack of appreciation for cultural diversity shown by the" NCAA and that he intends to pursue "all legal avenues to ensure that this unacceptable decision is overturned."

...
The issue remains particularly controversial regarding Florida State, because the Seminole Tribe of Florida has expressed support for Florida State's use of its nickname and related symbols.

"That the NCAA would now label our close bond with the Seminole Tribe of Florida as culturally 'hostile and abusive' is both outrageous and insulting," Wetherell said. " . . . It is unconscionable that the Seminole Tribe of Florida has been ignored.
...
As NCAA officials point out, however, not all tribes support Florida State's use of its nickname and mascot, the horseback riding Chief Osceola. In fact, the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma has expressed opposition to the school's use of symbols.

"It came to our attention that there are other Seminole tribes . . . that are not supportive," said Charlotte Westerhaus, the NCAA's vice president for diversity and inclusion. "So it is a very complex issue."

...
In November 2004, the NCAA requested that 33 schools submit a self-study to examine the use of Native American images on their campuses. Brand said yesterday that not every use of a Native American nickname proved to be derogatory and subject to postseason removal.

Peaceful in Basra - British Supported Fundamentalist Death Squads

Now we hear why there is little insurgency in the south of Iraq. British forces are in league with fundamentalist death squads to impose an Iranian style regime. When an American - should be protected by the Empire - complains, he pays the price.

Apparently, even being on the international news isn't enough to deter the killers. After all, American soldiers can target reporters, why not them.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Iraq
August 03, 2005

Basra blogger is abducted and murdered

By Jenny Booth, Times Online

Steven Vincent

A freelance American journalist who wrote about alleged corruption and lawlessness in the Iraqi city of Basra has been abducted at gunpoint and shot dead.
Steven Vincent's body was recovered at the side of a road south of Basra late last night, several hours after he and his female translator were kidnapped as they left a currency exchange shop, within sight of a British military checkpoint.

He had been shot three times in the chest. Nouriya Itais, the translator, who was also his fiancee, was shot four times and seriously wounded, according to a nurse in a Basra hospital.

World Bank Disrespects Israel

From Haaretz. But maybe not fair. This is the World Bank, after all. This might be positive for Israel:

"The government corruption index compares the public's perception on whether government power is used to promote private interests." The Government of Isreal has been hijacked by Jewish fundamentalists to support Jewish Madrassas, among other institutions supporting Haradim. Italy, scoring worst, has the Catholic Church, but that's not what their bad opinions are about.

This is an internal poll of public perceptions, so a critical public downrates the country. Jews should get a handicap, being chronic critics.

The US kicked Israeli butt for law enforcement and political stability. Give my Jewish American butt a break! Political stability in US is that christian religious fundamentalists will dominate for the foreseeable future. As for law enforcement, long live the Patriot Act and racial profiling!

Finally, the free market. Don't get BrooklynDodger started.

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Israel ranks among most corrupt in West
By Ora Coren

Israel's regime is one of the most corrupt and least efficient in the Western world. In fact, the only developed country considered more corrupt and less efficient is Italy, according to data published by the World Bank....The Israeli index reached 80.8 percent, trailing developed countries like Holland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, France and Spain. The average ranking in the developed world was 89.7 percent.

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The government corruption index compares the public's perception on whether government power is used to promote private interests. Israel again scored 80.8 percent, compared to an average 91.4 percent average among developed nations. Only Italy scored lower, at 74.9 percent.The law enforcement index examines various bodies' confidence in the judicial system. Israel earned 74.4 percent, far behind Spain (85 percent), France (88.9 percent) and the average for developed countries (90.3 percent). Holland led the pack at 95.2 percent, followed by the U.S. and Germany, both at 92.3 percent.

The regulatory index looks into whether government policy impedes free market mechanisms and if banking regulation is effective. Israel scored lowest out of the developed nations on this parameter, at 71.9 percent compared to an average 90.6 percent.

Israel posted the lowest index in political stability, at 15 percent, compared to the U.S.'s 60.7 percent, Italy's 56.3 percent or Holland, at the top of the table with 88.3 percent.

Intelligent Design - Nothing W would know about

BrooklynDodger apologizes for not getting the link; this same interview was covered in the Times and the WaPo. Knight Ridder has maybe added additional bogosities, so it would be good to get the whole text, but too much trouble at this point.

The President endorsing teaching Intelligent Design is almost breath taking. There's a viable philosophical theory that the Deity made up the physical laws of the universe, setting the clockwork in motion sometime before the Big Bang. That would be pretty intelligent, and it's consistent with a kind of Deity emeritus, sitting back and watching things unfold.

But it's not the argument of the Design folks. They argue that the Deity came back into the Universe some billions of years later, actually to our world, and made some life forms. Maybe still makes them from time to time. The when is a little foggy, but it makes little theological sense to put the Deity at an earthly biological Big Bang 5 billion years ago, creating the RNA which became the replicator which made the first cells...But then, which fossil life forms did the Deity create? Is the Deity still tinkering? Will the Deity kill 3,000 people at the World Trade Center because New York City recognizes same sex domestic partners?

Ron Hutchinson [reporter below] ought to do some sourcing on his statement that "Scientists concede that evolution doesn't answer every question about the creation of life..." Which scientists and which questions?

Evolution can't answer the question of whether there was ever a moment when the physical laws operating now did not operate. And, magic did.

This is fundamentalism at its most irrational. And, our president.

Regarding abortion, BrooklynDodger hesitates to do anything that will undermine the marginal support for a woman's right to control her reproductive rights.
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Bush endorses teaching 'intelligent design'

By RON HUTCHESON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and "intelligent design" Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with the theory of evolution in the nation's schools.
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Bush declined to state his personal views on "intelligent design," the belief that life forms are so complex that their creation can't be explained by Darwinian evolutionary theory alone, but rather points to intentional creation, presumably divine.

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Scientists concede that evolution doesn't answer every question about the creation of life, but most consider intelligent design an attempt to inject religion into science courses. This is not reporting, this is crap]

Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over "creationism," a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution.

On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design "so people can understand what the debate is about."

The Kansas Board of Education is considering changes to encourage the teaching of intelligent design in Kansas schools, and Christian conservatives are pushing for similar changes in other school districts across the country.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. " You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both concluded that there's no scientific basis for intelligent design and oppose its inclusion in school science classes.

"The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted," the academy said in a 1999 assessment. "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science."
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He also offered an unequivocal defense of Palmeiro, a friend from their days together with the Texas Rangers in the early 1990s. Bush was the team's managing partner when Palmeiro played in Texas.
The Orioles slugger was suspended for 10 days after testing positive for steroid use, despite his insistence that he never intentionally used the prohibited substance. Bush has been an outspoken critic of steroid abuse.
"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said, referring to Palmeiro's denials under oath to a congressional committee on March 17. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

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He became most animated when pressed to say whether he personally would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Bush opposes abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother's life, but he acknowledges that most Americans don't share his views.

Stock Analysts Intimidated - Boy Did the Times Miss this One

It took the whole article for the Times to get to the bottom line.

Stock "analysts," employed by brokerage firms which sell stocks generally, and may have a financial stake in some of the those companies, are basically shills. Taking their advice is like taking the advice of the "Used Car Sales Journal." The parent makes money on people buying.

The analysts bow down to abuse and threats, not just because of the above conflict of interest, but because the inside scoop to them makes interesting articles like a locker room interview for a sports writer, or background slime from a White House insider.

Finally, at the end, we get the answer as a throw away line. Because pay for exectives is bound up in the stock price, their view is that the product of the company is not cars, or computers, but the stock. For them, anything which pumps the stock in the time they can dump it later, is the plus.

In someone's immortal words, about the auto industry, "A car is a dollars way of making another dollar."

Gretchen Morgenson
You'll Never Do Research in This Town Again

Published: July 31, 2005

...Last Tuesday, in a highly unusual move, Tad LaFountain, a veteran semiconductor stock analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, said he was dropping coverage of the Altera Corporation because its management had stopped talking to him and would not let him ask questions during conference calls. Mr. LaFountain's sin? Questioning whether the company's costly share buybacks used to offset piles of stock options were a good use of shareholders' cash.

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Why, when faced with analysts who do their jobs, do some executives lash out? Who could possibly want to follow in the footsteps of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive who spat an expletive at an analyst on a conference call six months before the company collapsed? Isn't it better to be the model of professionalism when trying to persuade an analyst that he or she is wrong?

It's possible that these guys are equal-opportunity bashers, treating the analysts who follow their companies the same way they deal with everyone else around them. But another reason for this oddly aggressive behavior may be that many executives, especially in Silicon Valley, are more concerned about managing their company's stock price than managing their company.

Whatever the reason, there really is no excusing this kind of thing. C'mon guys, get a life.

Parochial School Version of Man Bites Dog

Not to make light of a serious event, what's the age for statutory rape between a female aggressor and a male victim in NY? A brief internet check suggests 16 for the male, regardless of the age of the female. It's different old male v young female.

Sex Scandal Rocks Catholic High(Page 1 of 2)COLONIE, N.Y., August 2, 2005

Teacher-Student Sex Scandal

Beth Geisel walks past media as she turns herself in to police Monday (Photo: AP)

(CBS) A female teacher at a Catholic high school in Albany, N.Y., allegedly had sex with a male student and, reports Judy Sanders of CBS affiliate WRGB-TV in Albany on The Early Show, he's not the only one with whom she's said to have had relations.

Beth Geisel, a 42-year-old Christian Brothers Academy writing instructor, mother of four and wife of a bank president, said nothing as she surrendered to face charges of raping a 16-year-old male student last May. Police say she had sex with the boy once at her home in the Albany suburb of Colonie, as her children slept downstairs.

Supersize This - Take Out Chinese

BrooklynDodger only read about the movie where the dude ate 3 meals at McDonalds, and puffed up his liver like foie gras. Now he's doing movies on cable, like where he tries to subsist on minimum wage, along with his significant other, and they nearly starve. But there's more than one way to fatten the cat.

The Dodger was coming home from a movie, not much after 9:30 [review to follow in another post], and nothing was open but Hong Kong takeout. Well, McD's and Wendy's and Taco Bell were too. The argument for not hating the fast food people is that they provide lots of calories for little money.

So, for 6.95, the Dodger got a quart of Mu Shu Pork, and 4 pancakes. A pint's a pound the world around, so that's 2 lbs of cooked stuff, plus the calories of the starch, which in most contexts is 1/2 pint or 1/2 lb of cooked rice. Plus, even though there's lots of veg in a chinese dish, the Dodger has seen the cooking method, which soaks the veg in oil.

Based on the 2 lbs plus starch, the single dish is worth 4 meals, which is being borne out in the Dodger's test kitchens.

So, what if you ate the full $5 chinese lunch special [hot and sour soup, egg roll, hunan chicken and fried rice] and a single order of a dinner. They give you the tea, in which you would put suger. Breakfast, Dodger doesn't know [left overs from last night's dinner are not an option in this scheme] because Dim Sum would not exist in the fast food world. Maybe you get the sausage mcmuffin, hash browns and coffee at McD's.

You'd blow up like a ballon, one of those fois gras geese.