Blog site of C. Paul Carter

NOVATO, Calif.-- The young woman at the other end of the phone wept to Kelly Chessen that the world was against her. She had been in a minor car accident. A thief had stolen some things from her house. And now this: The family's computer, which contained her husband's business files, was dead.

Chessen, a crisis counselor who answered the hotline, soothingly assured the caller that such things happen to everyone, that it was no one's fault, that her luck would turn around. It wasn't until 20 minutes into the conversation that Chessen began to address the cause of the young woman's agony.

Chessen, who once was a manager for a suicide prevention hotline, now works in customer service for DriveSavers Data Recovery Inc. "This is a lot like my old job," she said. "Oftentimes the most helpful thing we can do is just to listen and to let people get whatever they are feeling off their chests."

Technology has become a bane of modern life. People juggle a mountain of electronic equipment to store their most important records and intimate secrets. But the complicated nature of their machines, with their manuals full with unintelligible acronyms, tangles of cords and invisible wireless signals, means a breakdown is almost inevitable. The loss of a computer, cell phone or other gadget can be so jolting that it is fueling the rise of what some psychologists call "computer rage."

The phenomenon is transforming the nature of technology service, an industry long infamous for being impersonal.

Business is booming for companies with names like Rent-a-Geek, Geeks on Call and Geek Squad that make house calls to fix computers. Television technicians, once near extinction, are again driving to homes to adjust complicated settings on high-definition sets and hook them up to multi-component home-entertainment systems. Some of the world's largest computer makers train their support personnel as much about customers' delicate psyches as they do about technical matters.

"There's this frustration that you are really dependent on these things that you don't understand and that you have no idea how to fix," said Kent L. Norman, a researcher at the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Automation Psychology and Decision Processes. "We place so much trust in computers that it gets a little scary."

No one is immune. No device is exempt. Online message boards are filled with rants about iPods -- sold by the millions on the idea that they are easy to use -- freezing up, and $50,000 luxury cars with windows that roll up and down on their own at random times.

The recounting of one's personal technological Armageddon is often desperate and emotional. A recent survey by Norman found that as many as one out of 10 users have hit, kicked or otherwise abused their equipment.

Barbara Gould said that in the past two years her family's computers have broken down six times and her cell phone twice. Then, while she was in the middle of watching the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy one night, her DVD player mysteriously began to freeze every few minutes.

"I was ready to throw everything out the window or burn them or do something violent," said Gould, 53, a contractor for Fannie Mae, who works on manuals and other technical documentation.

Instead, Gould, who lives in Herndon, ran a search on Google and found Erik Bursch, a computer-repair consultant who works in the Tysons Corner area.

Bursch said he has made several hundred house calls over the past few years and that he is often welcomed as a conquering hero. He said he has found more and more people willing to pay the $60 to $70 an hour he charges.

The peaceful, park-like setting of the DriveSavers compound in a San Francisco suburb belies the frenzy inside.

Chessen, 31, and the other 12 customer service representatives do triage. The challenge is to recognize which of the five stages of grief -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance -- a given customer is in, and respond accordingly.

One recent afternoon, a man whose small business had burned down was telling Chessen how his insurance company was still inspecting the place so he could not even go in to see the carpets or to fetch his computer -- on which he had a lot of important documents. "I was thinking, Why is he yelling at me?" Chessen said later.

In another part of the building, delivery people rush in and out with oddly shaped cartons containing precious cargo. The contents of the boxes, hard drives and other data storage devices, are carefully taken to a clean room where they are dissected by technicians in white jumpsuits and blue gloves and then "cloned." The copies are sent upstairs to data specialists who try to retrieve and reconstruct what people are looking for.

Sometimes the information is important only to the person it belongs to -- pictures of one's firstborn, musical compositions, résumés, old e-mail, business plans, love letters. For others, it is something more: scripts for 12 then-unaired episodes of "The Simpsons"; research data for a cancer scientist at a major East Coast university.

The work is not cheap -- the bill is usually $500 to $2,000 -- but for many the information is priceless. In addition to paying the company's fees, some customers have sent wine and roses to show their gratitude.

David K. Schoenkin, executive director and asset management consultant at Oppenheimer & Co., recently lost his computer, Palm Pilot and cell phone when he dropped his shoulder bag in a Manhattan street and an 18-wheeler ran over it. He said the crunch of the truck going over his equipment was "horrible, deafening" as he thought about losing his journals from five years of travel to Kenya, Morocco, Chile and Laos and digital pictures of the paintings he created and sold years ago when he was an art student.

"You have to understand how devastating this was. Every single piece of electronic detail in my life was lost," he said.

Not everyone is so fortunate. Ed Sit, the no-nonsense 49-year-old who is the clean-room manager, has the difficult job of giving people bad news. Some customers politely thank him for trying, Sit said. Others want to cast blame. They think that if they talk to his boss or if they pay more money they can get a different result. Sit said he thinks to himself: "I'm sorry -- but if your relative is dead in a hospital, even millions and millions of dollars are just not going to bring him back."

Amway's GOPyramid Scheme

Check out this story about the former Amway insider's (Eric Schebeler) exposé, entitled Merchants of Deception: An Insider's Look at the Worldwide, Systematic Conspiracy of Lies That is Amway / Quixtar and their Motivational organization.

"How the multi-billion dollar worldwide corporation recruits ordinary folks into the 'system,' and uses well-connected politicians and pastors to become Masters of Deception."

I am in the midst of plowing through the book, which you can download for free of charge at the author's website here.

If there's a Will, There's a Way

I read the following story in a local Asian weekly last night, and it reminded me to get my will updated. Was happy to find a link to this on the 'net...

In what could be termed as the strangest will ever made in Mizoram, a man in Kawkulh village has willed his last remains to wild animals after his death.

New World Laldingliana, 46, made his will with the district council court's first class magistrate Lalbiakzama in Mizoram last Friday. The will of Laldingliana, who recently received the Pawngpui Award, a prestigious wildlife award given by the state's Environment and Forest Department says, "I, New World Laldingliana, have decided to give my body to wild animals when my life on earth is over to show that I had given my life for them (the animals)."

An ordinary farmer in Kawkulh village, Laldingliana has become well known for his contributions towards the protection of wildlife, which was confirmed by the award he received from the state's Environment and Forest Department in 2003.

Laldingliana has established a sanctuary in Kawkulh and planted large varieties of fruit bearing trees to feed birds and animals.

"One of my greatest wishes is to throw a feast for the wild animals in Phawngpui forest with my own body. As such, I have made my will without any coercion or motivation from anyone," the will further reads.

Laldingliana, who believes in the sanctity of life, says that it's God call to him to work for the protection of wildlife. "But his ability is very less", he adds.

The magistrate also said that the will is unique and was the first of its kind that he has ever come across.

Bush, God, and the Media

American presidents beginning with George Washington have included religious language in their public addresses. Claims of the United States as a divinely chosen nation and requests for God to bless U.S. decisions and actions have been commonplace. Scholars have labeled such discourse "civil religion," in which political leaders emphasize religious symbols and transcendent principles to engender a sense of unity and shared national identity.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the president and his administration have converged a religious fundamentalist worldview with a political agenda -- a distinctly partisan one, wrapped in the mantle of national interest but crafted by and for only those who share their outlook. It is a modern form of political fundamentalism, that is, the adaptation of a self-proclaimed conservative religious (Christian) rectitude, that uses strategic language choices and communication approaches designed for a mass-media culture to shape and implement political policy.

Motivated by this ideology, the Bush administration has sought to control the national discourse by engendering a climate of nationalism in which large parts of the public views supporting the president as a patriotic duty, and where Congress and the United Nations are compelled to rubber-stamp administration policies.

The goal is a national mood of spiritual superiority under the guise of a just sovereignty. The ultimate irony is that in combating the Islamic extremists responsible for the World Trade Center attacks the administration has crafted, pursued and engendered its own brand of political fundamentalism, one that, while clearly tailored to a modern democracy, nonetheless functions ideologically in a manner similar to the version offered by the terrorists. I'm well aware that merely by pointing out this fact I become another target for the media machine behind the Bush Administration.

All of this has a facade of merely politics as usual. It is not. Unfortunately, as too often occurs with matters of religion, the mainstream news media have missed the story almost entirely, and thus so has much of the U.S. public...

Paul Martin Mash-Up Challenge

I caught this "cut-up" of Martin's "appeal to the nation" speech on the DOSE site.

Computer Security Hysteria

I LOOK AT computer security hysteria as a box with four corners. Pardon me while I crank out yet another cheesy diagram:

In one corner you'll find the media. These folks harbor a fetish for juicy computer virus stories -- and they'll give free ink to any clown who talks a great story. Believe it or not, you can actually read about a narcissistic hacker in Indonesia who declared war against the United States, or a narcissistic hacker group in Russia that declared war against the United States, or a bunch of unorganized wannabees in China who waged war against the United States...

In another corner you'll find hackers & virus writers. These dweebs delusionally think they can declare war against the United States, and a willing media feeds their collective narcissistic personality disorder. Hackers & virus writers provide the backdrop of evil for our next two corners...

In a third corner you'll find computer security vendors dominated by the antivirus companies. These firms crave the media's free ink for marketing reasons. They want reporters to portray them as the cops of the Internet who fight the rampant crime out there. They also like to portray themselves as private investigators.

In the fourth corner you'll find the government. Certain agencies and high-ranking individuals exploit their credentials to legitimize the heinous threats posed by hackers & virus writers. Reporters bestow an air of authenticity to their stories whenever they cite government agencies or individuals. Government agencies can use their media exposure to increase their budgets, while high-ranking individuals can use it to beef up their résumés.

Okay, so now you know what I mean when I talk about "the four corners of hysteria." Let's digress with an anecdote...

The Evil Overlord List

This list (or a variation thereof) has been floating around the Internet for nearly 10 years. Once upon a time, I would periodically send friends a "bizarre links" email, and this was a part of one of the early one of these.

The following is the preamble for this particular list from the list's compiler, Peter Anspatch:

The Gallery of Unfortunate Cards

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."

Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.

Gone are the days of waiting for wars to break out and then drawing up ad hoc plans to pick up the pieces. In close cooperation with the National Intelligence Council, Pascual's office keeps "high risk" countries on a "watch list" and assembles rapid-response teams ready to engage in prewar planning and to "mobilize and deploy quickly" after a conflict has gone down. The teams are made up of private companies, nongovernmental organizations and members of think tanks--some, Pascual told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October, will have "pre-completed" contracts to rebuild countries that are not yet broken. Doing this paperwork in advance could "cut off three to six months in your response time."

The plans Pascual's teams have been drawing up in his little-known office in the State Department are about changing "the very social fabric of a nation," he told CSIS. The office's mandate is not to rebuild any old states, you see, but to create "democratic and market-oriented" ones. So, for instance (and he was just pulling this example out of his hat, no doubt), his fast-acting reconstructors might help sell off "state-owned enterprises that created a nonviable economy." Sometimes rebuilding, he explained, means "tearing apart the old."

Few ideologues can resist the allure of a blank slate--that was colonialism's seductive promise: "discovering" wide-open new lands where utopia seemed possible. But colonialism is dead, or so we are told; there are no new places to discover, no terra nullius (there never was), no more blank pages on which, as Mao once said, "the newest and most beautiful words can be written." There is, however, plenty of destruction--countries smashed to rubble, whether by so-called Acts of God or by Acts of Bush (on orders from God). And where there is destruction there is reconstruction, a chance to grab hold of "the terrible barrenness," as a UN official recently described the devastation in Aceh, and fill it with the most perfect, beautiful plans...

Garden Gnome Liberation Front

Wikipedia has a brief blurb about the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. This is a political movement dedicated to liberating gnomes from the gardens in which they are imprisoned. Members of the liberation front remove gnomes from gardens and either take them out to the woods to set them loose, or smash them to set their spirit free (personally I think taking them out to the woods sounds like the more humane option). I wonder if they've ever considered taking them to the underwater gnome garden. Anyway, this is an international movement. The American group calls itself Free The Gnomes. The Italian group calls itself MALAG, or the Independent Movement for the Liberation of the Garden Gnomes.

Brooklyn Cake Master's Supremely Funky Creations

Two years ago, a party planner working for the hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige ordered a birthday cake for her from a Brooklyn baker who had long ago retired his given name - Raven Patrick De'Sean Dennis III - for the shorter if equally titular designation Cake Man Raven.

In celebration of Ms. Blige's 33rd birthday, Mr. Dennis constructed a cake that paid tribute not to any single one of her achievements or affinities, but, ostensibly, to all of them. Four feet wide and 26 inches tall, the cake featured edible approximations of a CD, a musical note, a Dolce & Gabbana shopping bag, a Christian Dior purse, a MAC cosmetics compact, a dove and a near-life-size baby, meant to symbolize Ms. Blige's spiritual rebirth.

Whether by happenstance or design, Cake Man Raven has become the city's most visually strident opponent of the restrained preciousness that has overtaken the baking world. Few would confuse the results of his labor with anything found in Real Simple. Instead, Mr. Dennis's cakes and Mr. Dennis himself - or Cake, as he identifies himself over the phone - have a sense of the epic about them. For the Rev. Al Sharpton, he once made a model of the Bible turned to Timothy 2:15 ("Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved"); for Cab Calloway's 80th birthday, a songbook with a grand piano resting on top; for Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Borough President, a replica of its Borough Hall, twice. When the rapper Jam Master J died in 2002, he made a cake in the shape of a large Adidas sneaker with a gold chain and two turntables on it.

Google Maps

In February, Google introduced Google Maps, a faster and better-looking alternative to MapQuest and other online mapping sites. Last month it added a touch that made Google Maps different from any competitor: high-resolution aerial photos of the area covered by the maps, which visitors can zoom in on for a closer bird's-eye view. (These photos came from Keyhole, a company Google bought last year.) Go to www.maps.google.com, enter a ZIP code, Postal code or address, and then click the "satellite" button to switch from map to photo. In either view you can get driving instructions from one point to another, as with other map sites. But when the route is traced in the photos, the turns and waypoints are much more vivid.

But don't try this until you have an hour or two to spare. It is difficult to resist the temptation to zoom down to your own house, then your childhood elementary school, then Honolulu, then Disneyland. Not all places are shown in super-high-resolution: in general, the greater the population density, the sharper the image. If you click on the screen, you can pan from place to place, as if flying. A waste of time, perhaps -- but fascinating!

The real importance of Google's map and satellite program, however, is not its impressive exterior but the novel technology, known as Ajax, that lies beneath.

"Buy a Gun Day", 2005

At first I thought BAG Day was a joke -- until I realized that these American folks are dead serious about celebrating their 2nd Amendment rights.

Keeping a happy, but bleary eye on the blogosphere celebrations, is Aaron at Aaron's C.C. (formerly Aaron the Liberal Slayer) -- who is tallying this years blogs against the "them-thar-Liberal anti-gun" crowd.

Here it is, the Sunday before Buy A Gun Day, April 15. For the third year, we’re turning the liberal holiday of forcible asset seizure into one of our own. It’s a little solace.

I’ve decided to plan the week as follows for linkers to link, cite and trackback.

Some background… I’ll fess up that I am a relative newbie to the world of guns, having grown up a public school educated son of a Jewish Ivy League professor within such close proximity to New York City that the New York Times was both canon and at the in-city price. Please forgive my mistakes as those of a late coming enthusiast. I got on the fence about the Second Amendment during the Bernie Goetz trial (if you don’t remember riding the NYC subways in the 1970’s, STFU because you don’t know how bad it was). I became a complete convert during the Los Angeles riots, when the goblins outnumbered law enforcement and storefronts within a quarter mile of my home were burned to the ground. Two years ago, I joined the NRA.

Now, I’m trying to make up for lost time by getting out the word and encouraging not-yet-owners to at least become better informed and owners to make an effort to recruit those who may be standing on the fence or to move from the opposition to the ranks of the uncertain.

That the blogosphere enables me to coordinate the third Buy A Gun Day while I live in the shadow of the Hollywood sign only makes the results of my effort sweeter.

The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791, my wife’s birthday. I find that auspicious.

Is Cheap Broadband Un-American?

Full Article Available in the Current Edition of "In These Times"

We have Big Media to thank for saving Americans from themselves. Just as the notion of affordable broadband for all was beginning to take hold in towns and cities across the country, the patriots at Verizon, Qwest, Comcast, Bell South and SBC Communications have created legislation that will stop the “red menace” of community internet before it invades our homes.

And to think that Americans might want to receive high-speed access at costs below the monopoly rates set by these few Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Today, monthly broadband packages offered by the national carriers hover above $50, barring access to millions of Americans who can’t afford the sticker price. Cities and towns across the country have taken up the task of building a cheaper alternative -- often choosing easy-to-build wireless mesh networks -- to bridge the gap that has kept many on the darker side of the digital divide.

Telecommunications giants have mobilized a well-funded army of coin-operated think tanks, pliant legislators and lazy journalists to protect their Internet fiefdoms from these municipal internet initiatives, painting them as an affront to American innovation and free enterprise.

Their weapon of choice is industry-crafted legislation that restricts local governments from offering public service Internet access at reasonable rates. Laws are already on the books in a dozen states. This year alone, 10 states are considering similar bills to block public broadband or to strengthen existing restrictions. Spinning broadband as theirs alone to provide, ISPs have chalked up some early victories—including a draconian law now on the books in Pennsylvania, which strips local governments of the right to choose their own homegrown broadband solutions without the prior approval of a monopoly phone company. In late 2004, Verizon dictated the law word-for-word to local legislators, who then quietly slipped it into the middle of a 72-page bill that appeared to call for improved communications infrastructure for all Pennsylvanians.

It will have the opposite effect...

Read the rest here.

Don't be fooled by the spin on Iraq

Saddam Hussein's effigy was pulled down again in Baghdad's Firdos Square at the weekend. But unlike the made-for-TV event when US troops first entered the Iraqi capital, the toppling of Saddam on the occupation's second anniversary was different.

Instead of being done by US marines with a few dozen Iraqi bystanders, 300,000 Iraqis were on hand. They threw down effigies of Bush and Blair as well as the old dictator, at a rally that did not celebrate liberation but called for the immediate departure of foreign troops.

For most Iraqis, with the exception of the Kurds, Washington's "liberation" never was. Wounded national pride was greater than relief at Saddam's departure. Iraqis were soon angered by the failure to get power and water supplies repaired, the brutality of US army tactics, and the disappearance of their country's precious oil revenues into inadequately supervised accounts, or handed to foreigners under contracts that produced no benefits for Iraqis...

Klaatu is Getting Back Together

TORONTO - The members of Klaatu, the mystery musicians who were once rumoured to be the Beatles, are getting back together.

The Canadian trio – made up of Terry Draper, Dee Long, and John Woloschuck – is reuniting for a weekend gathering in May called Klaatu Kon: World Contact Day 2005.

Fans who participate will be able to see Klaatu perform an acoustic set, their first live performance as a band since they toured for the first – and last – time in the early 1980s.

The band had success in the 1970s with such songs as Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Craft), which was later covered by the Carpenters.

But the biggest boost to the group's career was a rumour circulating in 1977 that Klaatu was actually the reconstituted Beatles.

Although the band denied starting the rumour, they helped to fuel it by keeping themselves hidden from public view.

Rabid Beatles fans searched Klaatu and Beatles album covers for hints that the two groups were linked. They pointed to evidence like the fact that, on the cover of Ringo Starr's Goodbye Vienna, the drummer's head is pasted on the alien Klaatu from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Driven by the speculation, the band's debut album, 3:47 EST, rose to No. 32 on the Billboard chart.

Among the other guests at the event will be Steve Smith, the journalist who was the original source of the 1977 rumour. While working at a newspaper in Rhode Island, Smith wrote an article setting forth the theory that the Beatles had reunited in secret and were recording as Klaatu.

The group's members eventually revealed their true identities, and Klaatu broke up after five albums.

Klaatu Kon, which takes place May 6 to 8 in Toronto, will also mark the release of Sun Set: 1973-1981, a CD collection that includes rare material from the band.

People are coming from as far away as Denmark, Germany and Switzerland to take part. One of the other planned activities is a "magical bus tour of Toronto."

"The response to this has been wonderful," said organizer Sharon Vernon. "Our staff is really looking forward to putting on a show that these long-time fans will remember for years to come."

Guitar Synthesizer or Acoustic Versatility?

It's that time of year, when all mediocre guitarists get a hankering for a new axe. Well, no; That's probably just me. I've been itching to play more electric, and miss my old Guild SD-300 (owned 1980-1998). Happily, there are lots of cool electric guitars to consider, and I'm thinking that I may even want to revisit the world of guitar synthesizers, and particularly the Roland GR-33 (pictured right). There are lots of high end electrics with 13-pin Roland synth outs (Godin, Parker, Brian Moore - to name a few), and it's even possible to retrofit any guitar with a 13 pin midi-out kit. The fantasy? That the artist I will be touring with says "gee, I wish we have had a Hammond B-3 with a pair of Leslies on that song...", and I say "hey! I can do that sound on my great new guitar synth!".

All that said, I have been considering a new acoustic guitar as well -- something more versatile that those I already own, and one that is playable every Sunday for worship. I don't need anything particularly high end -- however, decent electronics, low/fast action, and a cutaway are a must. On the short list for consideration are the Taylor 314 CE (Taylor, the Lay's potato chip of guitars -- you can't have just one), a Larrivée OM-5EV, and another guitar I keep coming back to -- the Tacoma EM14-C.

In truth, any of my existing guitars equipped with electronics do quite well in most situations. I'm either "emotionally" due for a change, or trying to mask something that I cannot change! While my vote is for the latter -- I'm sincere in thinking that my playing will improve with a new "love" in my life.

Save the Cod, Eat a Seal

It's that time of year, when most good Newfoundlanders get a hankering for a feed of fresh seal. The years I spent in St. John's while my Grandfather was alive would include at least one obligatory trip to the harbourfront to buy some flipper or seal backs off the boats coming in from the ice. This part of the ordeal was absolutely disgusting, as a bayman with a lit smoke hanging out the corner of his gob would don rubber gloves and dig deep into a bloody bucket, barrel or fish box, and pull out seal meat in butchered chunks of 5 lbs or more. This dripping mess would go into a couple of plastic bags, money would exchange hands, and the stinky prize would be followed out to the trunk of the car by a swarm of flies.

Baked or roasted seal meat is very dark and rich, with a slight fishy aroma. This is not high on my list of things to eat -- but it is definitely a taste of home. I enjoyed a least one meal of seal a year -- usually a part of a fundraising dinner (although my Grandfather would often send me home with a "cooked dinner" plate of seal roast -- sometime after our excursion to the harbour apron).

I'm all for the seal cull, and believe strongly that the seal populations in the Northwest Atlantic need to be carefully managed as part of a strategy to allow every opportunity for the cod stock to return from the brink of extinction. While the disappearance of cod off the coast of Newfoundland can mostly be attributed to climatic change and over fishing (read: Canadian Federal Government mismanagement of the resource), an unchecked seal population has much to do with the inability for the fish to make much of a comeback. It has long been proven that 100% of the seal can be utilized, and a sustained hunt could support many disenfranchised fishers -- removing them from the revolving door of social assistance.

What if young lobsters were cute? Or sculpins? Or baymen? (Latter two pictured below).

NEW YORK — Anna Nicole Smith has canceled a trip to Newfoundland to protest the killing of seals because of concerns about safety.

The model and reality TV star had been scheduled to join a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in the Canadian province. When the animal rights group learned that her security could not be guaranteed, they advised her to cancel.

"We felt it just wasn't safe to put her in that position," PETA spokesman Michael McGraw told The Associated Press Friday. "Working with activists who are protesting on the ice floe last week and again this week, they found that the seal hunters became physically violent and actually attacked many of the protesters on the ice."

"The sealing industry says that it is killing more seals because of an increase in demand for fur — all fur," says Smith. "Anyone who buys a mink or fox fur coat or a jacket trimmed in fur bears responsibility for creating an environment of demand for the furs of these baby seals."

The latest nugget of fake news from the world of journalism concerns a seal hunt that never took place. A Boston Globe writer, Barbara Stewart, described the slaughter of baby seals off the coast of Newfoundland in great detail. What she didn't know was that the hunt had been delayed, and so hadn't begun yet. Oops.

Cookie Monster Cuts Back on his Favourite Food

NEW YORK - Cookie Monster, the blue-furred Muppet known for his voracious appetite (seen with Hoots the Owl on the right), will be eating less of his favourite food in the coming season.

The change in Cookie Monster's diet is part of a new focus on television's Sesame Street, one that will stress healthy eating habits for children.

Cookie Monster is famous for scarfing down cookies by the plateful. He is so enamoured of cookies that he has been known to burst into song, chanting in his throaty voice, "'C' is for cookie, that's good enough for me."

Now that Sesame Street is in its 36th season, which kicked off this week, he will be singing a different tune – called Cookies Are a Sometimes Food.

The song will preach restraint, telling children that some foods can be eaten "anytime," while others – like cookies – should be eaten only "sometimes."

Each new episode of Sesame Street will also open with a health tip for kids about nutrition or exercise.

Guest stars, like singer Alicia Keys and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, will talk about the same topics.

New characters will be featured, including talking eggplants and carrots. The segment American Fruit Stand will parody American Bandstand.

The Madonna Syndrome in the Middle East

In recent days -- with Papists and Neo-Conservatives speculating on who should be given full credit for the demise of Communism in eastern Europe (in reality, while Reagan would have been delighted to take the honor, John Paul II made it very clear that communism was a rotten tree that he had but pushed) -- it occurs to me that the lurid side of Western Culture had (and has) a major impact for ideological change.

It was often said that Madonna videos and the mass appeal of western youth culture played a large role in eroding the moral legitimacy of the communist world. Wannabe hipsters living behind the iron or bamboo curtains (remember those?) just couldn't be sold on the Marxist theology of dialectical materialism: they wanted the real thing.

AdScam Silliness

Like most folks in the these here parts, I have been both curious and amazed by the effluent coming from the ever-leaking Gomery Inquiry.

As I would be in contempt of court for discussing this, please do not visit the link provided above.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I really enjoy "This American Life" on NPR and I am delighted that you can listen to archives over the web. I tend to keep going back to old favorites, again and again.

One episode that I heard not too long ago was entitled: "Not Far From The Tree". It is “Act 2” of the set of 3 stories under the topic: “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” - Stories about people teetering on the edge of this question: should they stay or go?

It is the story of a software writer at Apple Computer whose job contract ends, but he refuses to simply move on. Instead, he continues to show up at work every day, sneaking in the front door, hiding out in empty offices, and putting in long hours on a project the company has long since cancelled. There were no meetings, no office politics, no managers interfering with his work. Soon he had written a perfect piece of software. His final problem is figuring out how to secretly install it in Apple’s new computers without anyone noticing. He even does a presentation of the new Apple products to some computer technicians in Ireland… and then comes clean that he doesn’t even work for Apple.

There is a happy ending! His software ends up on hundreds of thousands of Apple Computers, and he actually g

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Repair Teams Try to Calm 'Computer Rage'