Gail Porter, Girl Photographer

thursday reads

The death toll from China's earthquake could soar to 50,000 people, state television said today.


Junta tightens grip as Burma starves


Keith Olbermann's Countdown Special Comment to President Bush: “Shut the hell up.”


John McCain in denial


Zimbabwe gets new $500m banknote


Damn those crazy rasberry ants.


Overnight storms in Central Austin

wednesday reads

A massive rescue operation yesterday struggled with heavy rain and aftershocks in the search for tens of thousands of people who remained missing following the devastating earthquake which struck central China on Monday.


The death toll from the serial bomb blasts in Jaipur rose to more than 80 people today, as police imposed a day-long curfew across the heritage city.


A fresh cyclone could be developing off the coast of Burma, the UN said today, as relief workers struggled to get aid to the 1.9 million people left homeless by cyclone Nargis.


This is just so fucking wrong:

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The Army should grant conscientious objector status to Pfc. Michael Barnes, a Fort Richardson-based paratrooper who had his request for that designation denied last year, U.S. Magistrate John D. Roberts concluded Tuesday.

Brandon Friedman: Bush Finally Speaks to the Ultimate Wartime Sacrifice

BAGnewsNotes: I'm Sure Smirky's Golf Game Wasn't That Hard To Cut Loose

tuesday reads

Beijing - Troops walked Tuesday to towns and villages near the epicentre of a devastating earthquake that killed about 12,000 people and cut off tens of thousands in south-western China, while at least 10,000 people were buried in one city.


Juan Cole: As if Iraq was not enough to worry about, some important political developments in Lebanon, and even in the Yemen have raised the temperature of the Middle East . . .


emptywheel: ...charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani have been dropped, suggesting that charges were dropped because he was tortured.

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Empire:

After 58 years, the United States Navy will reactivate the Fourth Fleet, which will be in charge of patrolling Latin American waters. (via GNN)

As ice melts, NorthCom eyes Arctic patrols

More than 7,000 sailors will leave home next week when the Raygun Carrier Strike Group deploys from San Diego for a scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf regions.

If Guam doesn’t get money soon from the federal government to help prepare for the massive military buildup coming to the island in the next few years, it could affect not only the island’s permanent residents but also the quality of life for the service members and families who will move there, the island’s governor told lawmakers.

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Playing the building is a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building, is converted into a giant musical instrument. Devices are attached to the building structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices do not produce sound themselves, but they cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.



From Zaius Nation (click picture)

golden age science sleuth

monday reads

Glenn Greenwald - How the military analyst program controlled news coverage: in the Pentagon's own words.


Survivors of the tropical cyclone that swept across Myanmar nine days ago gathered in camps to wait for emergency supplies, as international aid began reaching the worst-affected areas.

A powerful earthquake hits Western China and tornadoes killed at least 21 people and injured hundreds as they ripped through the central and southeastern United States over the weekend, destroying homes, overturning cars and downing trees and power lines.


Christy Hardin Smith: The Betrayal Of American Values


Craft Brewers Reformulate Beer to Cope With Hop Shortage


Yesterday, May 11, was when the Real ID Act, signed into law three years ago to the day, was due to kick in.


Unless more funding and effort are put into saving the nation’s infrastructure, it will continue to crumble, say experts. An estimated $1.5 trillion over the next five years could be needed to avoid large-scale disaster.


Read an excerpt from Rick Perlstien's Nixonland.

malu

friday reads

Glenn Greenwald: CNN, the Pentagon's "military analyst program" and Gitmo


Hizbollah fighters impose control on Beirut


Teh Homeless Are Causing Global Warming


Republicans vote against Mother's Day


Colossal Squid Guts


A Tiny Revolution: More On Purported Bush Sr. Assassination Plot


The Colbert Report: Oil Profiteering

friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus



"Stay" - Bears



"I Think We're Alone Now" - Tommy James and the Shondells



"Burn" - Rainer Maria


"With a Girl Like You" (live) - Beulah [Troggs cover]


"Hot Child in the City" - Nick Gilder


"Four Color Love Story" - Metasciences


"Roppongi-Dori" - Tigarah


"Super Cool Wagon" - Sons of Freedom


"Sooner" - Asobi Seksu


"Snake Eyed" - Holly Golightly

Bonus tracks:


"Caution" - The Chameleons


"When the Angels Sing" - Social Distortion

listen

thursday reads

Burma today finally let in the first major international aid airlift for survivors of the cyclone that may have killed more than 100,000 people.


Clashes between Ethiopian troops and Islamist insurgents have killed more than a dozen people in southern and central regions of Somalia, residents said.


FBI agents investigating government watchdog Scott Bloch have subpoenaed any records that would reveal whether concerns about the 2004 elections prompted him to clear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of ethics violations.

Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness


The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.


Helen Thomas: A Picture Worth A Thousand Words


A monster sinkhole the size of several football fields continues to grow and is causing serious concern in the Liberty County [Texas] town of Daisetta.


Leonard Pitts, Jr.: The Land of the Almost Free to Speak Up



Sean Bell Protest
Originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein