meta-roj

supervoice

in his own words [quicktime or realmedia].

the words of president george w. bush from the 2003 state of the union. change the state of the union.

everything is on the record. the people have the tools. perspectives will be available.

[via metafilter]

update: if you like that, you might also like this, which we did here a while ago.

Lab-made prions trigger mad cow symptoms [nature, july 26, 2004]

Researchers have created a synthetic protein that makes mice display symptoms similar to those of mad cow disease

this is important, of course, if for no other reason than the expansion of human knowledge. but we live in a time of fear and terror, so now the clock is ticking on the “mad human bioweapon,” right?

onset of symptoms in mice is one to two years, so we’ll be ok as long as the terrorists aren’t patient.

helix-helix

I.R.S. Says Americans’ Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years [ny times, july 29, 2004, registration]

The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent.

Adjusted for inflation, the income of all Americans fell 9.2 percent from 2000 to 2002, according to the new I.R.S. data.

but it was a recession! a double-dipper or something!

Before the recent drop, the last time reported incomes fell for even one year was in 1953.

update: no surprise, really (i should’ve looked)… barry has it too, with some depth.

it seems nobody’s really covering this story – just a little blip in the houston chronicle, the atlanta constitution-journal and the international herald tribune. i can’t link the constitution article (registration), and the herald tribune interface is horrid, so we’ll go with the chronicle:

Millions in U.S. property lost in Iraq, report says [houston chronicle, july 27, 2004]

Halliburton Co. has lost $18.6 million of government property in Iraq, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture, government auditors claim.

The auditors couldn’t account for 6,975 of 20,531 items on the ledgers of Halliburton’s KBR unit, according to a report by Stuart Bowen, auditor for the coalition provisional authority inspector general

of course, the company disagrees, and we all know that “government auditors” are the same guys that didn’t notice so many other business scandals recently, but the heat should be on haliburton enough by now that there’s something legit here.

the tribune article says that trucks given to haliburton were destroyed when they broke down (breaking down meaning anything from a flat tire on up). but i don’t know if that’s relevant. you see, i think “we blew up the truck” still counts as “accounting for the truck.” maybe i don’t understand, but that would be my impression. this is more like “well, we thought the truck was here, but maybe it’s being used to smuggle weapons of mass destruction across the border to syria.”

haliburton spins hard:

[halliburton spokesperson cathy] Gist said in an e-mailed statement. “The facts show that (KBR) has adequately managed the property for this mission by aggressively monitoring its property management functions above and beyond what is required for government approval of a property control system.”

oh. ok. since you put it that way, i feel better about my tax dollars now.

sir lawrence olivier, now dead 15 years, is being reanimated through digital magic to play the bad guy in an upcoming film.

Olivier resurrected for film role [bbc, july 28, 2004]

Jude Law, who stars in the film, said film-makers used Olivier because few other actors possessed his authority.

you will respect sir larry’s authority.

my neighborhood squirrels wave at me, but the bbc reports that they scream too.

Squirrels emit ‘silent scream’ [bbc, july 28, 2004]

The researchers believe the whispers might be “secret” alarm calls – that the squirrels’ predators cannot hear.

calling secret squirrel. come in secret squirrel.

the article also makes an important, if more general, observation:

Ultrasonic communication is probably far more prevalent in the animal world than we know because, simply, we cannot hear it.

so when i get my transhuman ear upgrades, i’m going to be driven mad by all the screaming animals. great.

the blob

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