meta-roj

blues

code talker

off to the final frontier

inspired by my own post on iraqi civilian deaths, i thought i’d scratch a little deeper and see what i could find.

two years in iraq (march 2003-march 2005)
iraqi civilian deaths: 24,865 (source)
coalition deaths: 1712 (source)

kill ratio: 14.52 (24,865/1712)

four and a half years in israel (september 2000-april 2005)
palestinian deaths: 3596 (source)
israeli deaths: 953 (source)

kill ratio: 3.77 (3596/953)

i realize this isn’t entirely fair – since there’s lots of room for interpretation in the concept of “civilian” and i’m quite confident that the definition is never going to be the same twice, but… i thought a moment of reflection on the “us vs. them” (and “them vs. us”) was worth a few words.

ow available from the folks over at iraqbodycount.net, a report [pdf] documenting 24,865 civilians killed in iraq in the first two years after invasion.

i’m sure the friends (let’s say 10 each) and family (let’s say 4 each) of each of these dead civilians (let’s call that 348,110 friends and family) are very happy with the united states at the moment.

speak truth. all wars are crimes.

sustained @ 155mph (250km/h), gusts @ 190mph (305km/h), a big fat eye and as near as i can tell, coming right at ya…

(imagery from digital typhoon)

how long will it take to aerosolize and pump into casinos?

Pathological Gambling Caused by Drugs Used to Treat Parkinson Disease [archives of neurology, 2005.07.11

All 11 patients with PD [Parkinson’s Disease] and pathological gambling were taking therapeutic doses of a dopamine agonist; 3 of these patients were not treated with levodopa. In 7 patients, pathological gambling developed within 3 months of starting to take or escalating the dose of the agonist; in the other 4 with a longer latency, gambling resolved after the agonist use was discontinued. Pramipexole dihydrochloride was the agonist in 9 of 11 cases in our series and 10 of 17 in the literature (68% in total).

then again, pramipexole dihydrochloride is a white powder, so maybe it’s not worth the effort to aerosolize… nah. we’re talking about gambling. it’s worth the chance…

healthcare is a problem in this country, but i haven’t had the time or inclination to dig into it much… so i bounce thoughts off the surface every once in a while, and today i have a number to hang a thought on.

Health Spending In The United States And The Rest Of The Industrialized World [health affairs, july/august 2005]

U.S. citizens spent $5,267 per capita for health care in 2002—53 percent more than any other country.

so, with a 40-hour week and a 50-week year, there’s 2000 hours in a working american’s life (for now i’m going to ignore non-working americans even though they count as “capita”). $5267/2000 = $2.63 per hour for health care (if you put in the rest of the “capita” it’s higher, of course).

this isn’t going to be quite fair, but with the federal minimum wage at $5.15 per hour, oddly enough, that $2.63 works out to just a shade over half (51.1%) of the minimum-wage. the reality is probably much simpler – real minimum-wage workers don’t get health care.

this is an interesting statement…

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman Statement on the Partisan Attack on Karl Rove [us newswire, 2005.07.12]

Following is a statement by Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman on the partisan attack on Karl Rove:

“It’s disappointing that once again, so many Democrat leaders are taking their political cues from the far-left, Moveon wing of the party. The bottom line is Karl Rove was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise and the Democrats are engaging in blatant partisan political attacks.”

so the rules have changed. do i get credit for discoraging a president from engaging in a false “war on terror” [in iraq] based on a false premise?

incalculable damages…

Coca-Cola Threatens Top Indian Photographer with Lawsuit [india resource, 2005.07.12]

The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Atlanta based Coca-Cola company, has threatened Mr. Sharad Haksar, one of India’s celebrated photographers, with a lawsuit.

the work is a commentary on something i’ve been thinking about, off and on, for a while. lack of water.

it sounds like coke has some real trouble out there in the big wide world.

visit the artist (look for coke and nike)