Simon Woodside is my hero this week.
He’s been very patiently educating my stupid ass all week long about how to make my video’s smaller, look better, and play well in all browsers.
Now, in all fairness Kevin Marks has been trying to help me do this for weeks (months?), but for some reason the instructions just weren’t clicking in my brain. Sorry Kevin!
The first result of Simon’s tutoring to come to fruition this week is a revamped version of the old Daily Show clip of Henry Kissinger heading up the “Independent” 911 investigation committee. (Yes he was subsequently taken off that committee.)
Update: lots of folks wanted a direct link to the movie file — so there it is!
The Daily Show rendition of the event is priceless. (I re-edited it a bit.)
This all came up recently when Henry Kissinger appeared on the Daily Show this last Monday night (October 20, 2003).
So please let me know – lisarein@finetuning.com — how these new movies play in your browser and if you like them better. This one’s just a file generated from the quicktime I generated earlier, so the quality issues can’t be addressed. But, once I figure out what Simon is trying to teach me, I believe I will be delivering all of my movies in this manner. (Unless you write me to tell me it sucks and to stick with the imovie-defaulted “email” movies I’ve been using.)
Thanks again Simon!!!
lisa
Evidence Surfacing On the Suicide Murder Of David Kelly
The evidence is starting to pour in to suggest that David Kelly (the microbiologist that became the center of the controversy surrounding Britain’s bogus WMD evidence that the Shrub Administration used as justification for the war on Iraq) did not commit suicide at all.
MEDIUM RARE
By Jim Rarey for From The Wilderness.
(This first part lays out the case from the evidence presented in the Hutton inquiry why the death of Dr. David Kelly was not by suicide. Part two will show the reasons, in this writer’s opinion, Dr. Kelly was killed.)…
While the Hutton inquiry appears set to declare Kelly’s death a suicide and the national media are already treating it as a given, there are numerous red flags raised in the testimony and evidence at the inquiry itself.
Kelly’s body was likely moved from where he died to the site where two search volunteers with a search dog found it. The body was propped up against a tree according to the testimony of both volunteers. The volunteers reported the find to police headquarters, Thames Valley Police (TVP) and then left the scene. On their way back to their car, they met three “police” officers, one of them named Detective Constable Graham Peter Coe.
Coe and his men were alone at the site for 25-30 minutes before the first police actually assigned to search the area arrived (Police Constables Sawyer and Franklin) and took charge of the scene from Coe. They found the body flat on its back a short distance from the tree, as did all subsequent witnesses.
A logical explanation is that Dr. Kelly died at a different site and the body was transported to the place it was found. This is buttressed by the medical findings of livor mortis (post mortem lividity), which indicates that Kelly died on his back, or at least was moved to that position shortly after his death. Propping the body against the tree was a mistake that had to be rectified.
The search dog and its handler must have interrupted whoever was assigned to go back and move the body to its back before it was done. After the volunteers left the scene the body was moved to its back while DC Coe was at the scene.
Five witnesses said in their testimony that two men accompanied Coe. Yet, in his testimony, Coe maintained there was only one other beside himself. He was not questioned about the discrepancy.
Researchers, including this writer, assume the presence of the “third man” could not be satisfactorily explained and so was being denied.
Additionally, Coe’s explanation of why he was in the area is unsubstantiated. To the contrary, when PC Franklin was asked if Coe was part of the search team he responded, “No. He was at the scene. I had no idea what he was doing there or why he was there. He was just at the scene when PC Sawyer and I arrived.”
Franklin was responsible for coordinating the search with the chief investigating officer and then turning it over to Sawyer to assemble the search team and take them to the assigned area. They were just starting to leave the station (about 9am on the 18th) to be the first search team on the ground (excepting the volunteers with the search dog) when they got word the body had been found.
A second red flag is the nature of the wounds on Kelly’s wrist. Dr. Nicholas Hunt, who performed the autopsy, testified there were several superficial “scratches” or cuts on the wrist and one deep wound that severed the ulnar artery but not the radial artery.
The fact that the ulnar artery was severed, but not the radial artery, strongly suggests that the knife wound was inflicted drawing the blade from the inside of the wrist (the little finger side closest to the body) to the outside where the radial artery is located much closer to the surface of the skin than is the ulnar artery. For those familiar with first aid, the radial artery is the one used to determine the pulse rate.
Just hold your left arm out with the palm up and see how difficult it would be to slash across the wrist avoiding the radial artery while severing the ulnar artery. However, a second person situated to the left of Kelly who held or picked up the arm and slashed across the wrist would start on the inside of the wrist severing the ulnar artery first.
A reasonably competent medical examiner or forensic pathologist would certainly be able to determine in which direction the knife was drawn across the wrist. That question was never asked nor the answer volunteered. In fact, a complete autopsy report would state in which direction the wounds were inflicted. The coroner’s inquest was never completed as it was preempted by the Hutton inquiry and the autopsy report will not be made public. Neither will the toxicology report.
The EFF Asks: Who Controls Your Computer?
The EFF released the following advisory a while ago. The concerns still stand.
Check it out.
EFF Reports on Trusted Computing
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Thursday published a landmark report on trusted computing, a technology designed to improve security through hardware changes to the personal computer.
The report, entitled “Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk,” maintains that computer owners themselves, rather than the companies that provide software and data for use on the computer, should retain control over the security measures installed on their computers. Any other approach, says the report’s author Seth Schoen, carries the risk of anti-competitive behavior by which software providers may enforce “security measures” that prevent interoperability when using a competitor’s software.
“Helping computer owners defend their computers against attacks is progress in computer security, but treating computer owners themselves as the bad guys is not,” said Schoen. “Security architectures must be designed to put the computer owner’s interests first, not to lock the owner into the plans of others.”
Links:
For the full press release
EFF report: “Trusted Computing: Promise and Risk”
EFF companion commentary: “Meditations on Trusted Computing”
CNET story about the EFF report
Excerpt From Al Franken’s New Book – Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
This book is awesome! I’m only about half way through it right now. It does a great job of nailing the right on their incessant distortion of the truth — and backs it all up with footnoted facts!
You should just but it now!
Anyway, this was emailed to me sometime ago. Not sure where it came from, but I know it’s been circulated pretty heavily through numerous channels at this point. I know that Salon has it in it’s quagmire of a website somewhere, but they won’t even let you read the front page anymore without suffering through an lengthy ad, so I didn’t have time to try to find the link.
“Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”
An excerpt from Al Franken’s new book.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
By Al Franken
Aug. 27, 2003 | God chose me to write this book.
God began our conversation by clearing something up. Some of George W. Bush’s friends say that Bush believes God called him to be president during these times of trial. But God told me that He/She/It had actually chosen Al Gore by making sure that Gore won the popular vote and, God thought, the Electoral College. “THAT WORKED FOR EVERYONE ELSE,” God said.
“What about Tilden?” I asked, referring to the 1876 debacle.
“QUIET!” God snapped. God was angry.
God said that after 9/11, George W. Bush squandered a unique moment of national unity. That instead of rallying the country around a program of mutual purpose and sacrifice, Bush cynically used the tragedy to solidify his political power and pursue an agenda that panders to his base and serves the interests of his corporate backers.
God told me that Bush squandered a $4.6 trillion surplus and is plunging us into deficits as far as God can see. And that Bush squandered another surplus. The surplus of goodwill from the rest of the world that he had inherited from Bill Clinton.
And this was pissing God off.
Amazon’s New “Search Inside The Book Feature” Sounds Pretty Cool
So I’ve been immediately sidetracked by the announcement of Amazon’s Search Inside The Book Feature. I’d reprint the announcement, but it’s a stupid image file so you’ll have to go look for yourself. It does look neat though.
One Of Those “Slinging Hash” Kinda Mornings
I just have to catch up on my article blogging today or I’m going to drive myself crazy. The other night, during a conversation with a friend, I kept referring to articles I thought I had blogged that I, in fact, had not blogged yet — although I’ve had them all prepped and ready to go for, in some cases, weeks on end.
So bear with me if some of this morning’s posts are kind of rough — I have to clean house for my own sanity at this point. (Yes, I do realize that’s already a lost cause 🙂
A Secondhand Account Of Michael Moore’s SFSU Presentation
A fellow student of mine went to Michael Moore‘s presentation here at San Francisco State Monday night, and she filled me in a bit on some of the events that took place.
There were about 4,000 people in the gym and at least another 1,000 outside that couldn’t get in. Michael was late starting the show inside because he took some time to talk to the folks outside first.
Michael put on a little quiz show routine where he invited a Canadian (supposedly with a low GPA) and several Americans (supposedly with high GPAs) down from the audience to participate. He asked the Canadian questions about the United States (who’s the President and some basic geography questions, etc.) and then some geography questions about other parts of the world like Iraq and Afghanistan. The Canadian got everything right. He then asked the high gpa American students about Canada and the same geography questions about Iraq and Afghanistan — none of which they could answer correctly.
He went on to cite a few studies of Americans from 18-24 years of age where the subjects didn’t seem to know where many other countries in the world were physically located. He made the point that if we were going to be at war with countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, we should probably know where they are on the map.
At one point, he asked the audience to get together and decide who they’d like him to call up on the telephone while he was there. The audience wanted him to call the President of SFSU, but nobody knew his phone number. So their next choice was mayoral candidate Gavin Newsome. Luckily Mayoral candidate Matt Gonzales was in the audience, and he had Newsome’s personal cell phone number handy.
The audience didn’t like Newsome, and Michael asked them why. The audience filled Michael in on the “Care Not Cash” situation, which takes General Assistance payments away in exchange for “services,” many of which have yet to be completely specified (although the payments would cease immediately).
(A Judge has already thrown this legislation out, by the way, on the grounds that it’s illegal to take this money away from people, even if the voters voted it in.)
Michael then called up Newsome and said something along the lines of “I’ve heard about this ‘Care Not Cash’ thing and it seems like you don’t really care at all.” He mentioned the Getty family and said something like “we all know that you’re a Republican in Democrat clothing…I’m in front of an audience of thousands of people right now (he then held up the phone so audience could make noise)…hear that? That’s a whole lot of votes that are not going to be voting for you, Gavin.”
Then he switched his tone of voice to a cheerful one and said “Ok thanks! Have a nice day!”
On the Agenda…
Okay, theoretically I should be offline doing homework today, before I teach in the afternoon, but by day’s end I reckon I’ll finally get to uploading the rest of those Foo clips and last night’s Daily Show with….(drumroll please) Henry Kissinger!
I was just telling a friend of mine last night how it was the Daily Show’s clip of Henry Kissinger fronting the 911 investigation that started it all. (Meaning what made me want to start my Daily Show archive.
I think it’s absolutely in-credible that Kissinger was on the Daily Show last night.
He’s got a book out he’s promoting, and I guess he figured if the Daily Show was good enough for Madeline Albright‘s book tour, it was good enough for him!
The Daily Show is really growing up 🙂 (and I can remember when it was just a young tike…)
Michael Moore Goodies From Kevin Norton
Kevin Norton donated a truckload of Michael Moore movie clips to my Michael Moore archive.
I haven’t even had a chance to look at these yet, but I thought I’d let you know they were up there.
He’s also included a ton of
MP3 clips too! These are named very nicely and include: 1996_radiofreela, 60minutes, after the oscars, bill maher, boulder-CO, an interview in belfast, ralph nader rally, university of toronto, and webzine.
Enjoy!
Second Movie From Foo Camp: “GPS Tron”
This movie documents several Foo Folks demonstrating and observing Dan Egnor‘s GPS Tron game. This is a game that uses wireless technology and GPS devices to play a meat space two-player running game on a field of grass. I played it. It was totally cool. (The kind of thing I could have easily played all morning if I didn’t have important videoing to do 🙂
Part 1 explains the interface and shows some players in action (one player is the game’s creator, Dan Egnor, the other is Anselm Hook).
In Part 2, Brandon Wiley and Anselm Hook give us some first hand accounts of how the game is played.
Also included in the “All” movie is a partial interview with Dan Egnor about how he built the game, its current bugs, and how he plans on addressing them.
This is from October 12, 2003.
GPS Tron – All (Small – 13 MB)
GPS Tron – Part 1 of 2 (Small – 5 MB)
GPS Tron – Part 2 of 2 (Small – 4 MB)





