Animal Control

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San Antonio is becoming more aggressive about animal control, bidding to become a "no-kill community" by 2012, providing for forced spaying and neutering. What particularly caught my attention was the provision for cats: "community-wide trapping, neutering and returning of feral cats." A coincidence, or are my Old Journal fantasies not really mere fantasies?

Whatever. I just wonder how they hope to capture the cats. Our animal catchers don't seem that fast and nimble or concerned. It sounds like a good idea, though, especially if they actually do return the cats, but I suspect some of the finer points are likely to get lost in the execution.


(Source: Laura E. Jesse for The San Antonio Express-News)

xXx

Animal Control

♠
San Antonio is becoming more aggressive about animal control, bidding to become a "no-kill community" by 2012, providing for forced spaying and neutering. What particularly caught my attention was the provision for cats: "community-wide trapping, neutering and returning of feral cats." A coincidence, or are my Old Journal fantasies not really mere fantasies?

Whatever. I just wonder how they hope to capture the cats. Our animal catchers don't seem that fast and nimble or concerned. It sounds like a good idea, though, especially if they actually do return the cats, but I suspect some of the finer points are likely to get lost in the execution.


(Source: Laura E. Jesse for The San Antonio Express-News)

xXx

Meanwhile in Russia...

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MOSCOW, Dec. 10 — A day after President Vladimir V. Putin endorsed a loyal protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Mr. Medvedev went before the nation today and declared that he in turn would name Mr. Putin as his prime minister.

-- Clifford J. Levy

Well, at least life is going according to plan in Russia.

No word yet from Putin about LiveJournal, heh. Though, my entries containing criticism of the leader have somehow gotten lost on my journal. Just kidding, I hope.

xXx

Meanwhile in Russia...

♠
MOSCOW, Dec. 10 — A day after President Vladimir V. Putin endorsed a loyal protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Mr. Medvedev went before the nation today and declared that he in turn would name Mr. Putin as his prime minister.

-- Clifford J. Levy

Well, at least life is going according to plan in Russia.

No word yet from Putin about LiveJournal, heh. Though, my entries containing criticism of the leader have somehow gotten lost on my journal. Just kidding, I hope.

xXx

The Shifting Tenor of the 2008 Elections

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In discussing the shifting fortunes of our presidential candidates, David Brooks raises the arguably critical factor of whether the electorate is in a war mentality or not. If so, then voters are willing to vote for someone they distrust in favor of a perception of their toughness and effectiveness, such as a Hillary or a Giuliani. If they are not in a wartime mentality, then candidates who exude the softer values and feel-goodism may be favored, such as an Obama or a Huckabee.

The international scene is looking relatively calm now, but is this not just the eye of the hurricane?

xXx

The Shifting Tenor of the 2008 Elections

♠
In discussing the shifting fortunes of our presidential candidates, David Brooks raises the arguably critical factor of whether the electorate is in a war mentality or not. If so, then voters are willing to vote for someone they distrust in favor of a perception of their toughness and effectiveness, such as a Hillary or a Giuliani. If they are not in a wartime mentality, then candidates who exude the softer values and feel-goodism may be favored, such as an Obama or a Huckabee.

The international scene is looking relatively calm now, but is this not just the eye of the hurricane?

xXx

(no subject)

Virus starts like a cold but can turn into a killer

(no subject)

Virus starts like a cold but can turn into a killer

Torture and Ambivalence

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A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that "probably saved lives," but that he now regards the tactic as torture.

Zayn Abidin Muhammed Hussein abu Zubaida, the first high-ranking al-Qaeda member captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, broke in less than a minute after he was subjected to the technique and began providing interrogators with information that led to the disruption of several planned attacks, said John Kiriakou, who served as a CIA interrogator in Pakistan.

. . .

Kiriakou said he now has mixed feelings about the use of waterboarding. He said that he thinks the technique provided a crucial break to the CIA and probably helped prevent attacks, but that he is now convinced that waterboarding is torture, and "Americans are better than that."

"Maybe that's inconsistent, but that's how I feel," he said. "It was an ugly little episode that was perhaps necessary at that time. But we've moved beyond that."

-- Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen for The Washington Post

++++++++++++

May 17, 2009

The Zubaida story has now been debunked, as it is reported that he broke during normal interrogation, and when waterboarding was subsequently applied, nothing more came from him.

Torture and Ambivalence

♠
A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that "probably saved lives," but that he now regards the tactic as torture.

Zayn Abidin Muhammed Hussein abu Zubaida, the first high-ranking al-Qaeda member captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, broke in less than a minute after he was subjected to the technique and began providing interrogators with information that led to the disruption of several planned attacks, said John Kiriakou, who served as a CIA interrogator in Pakistan.

. . .

Kiriakou said he now has mixed feelings about the use of waterboarding. He said that he thinks the technique provided a crucial break to the CIA and probably helped prevent attacks, but that he is now convinced that waterboarding is torture, and "Americans are better than that."

"Maybe that's inconsistent, but that's how I feel," he said. "It was an ugly little episode that was perhaps necessary at that time. But we've moved beyond that."

-- Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen for The Washington Post

++++++++++++

May 17, 2009

The Zubaida story has now been debunked, as it is reported that he broke during normal interrogation, and when waterboarding was subsequently applied, nothing more came from him.

(no subject)

Animal pictures from across the globe

(no subject)

Animal pictures from across the globe

Black Power

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Richard Cohen captures the big campaign event in Iowa with Oprah coming out big for Obama, marking it as a grand moment of punctuated equilibrium in the evolution of race relations in America.

( Cohen )

xXx

Black Power

♠
Richard Cohen captures the big campaign event in Iowa with Oprah coming out big for Obama, marking it as a grand moment of punctuated equilibrium in the evolution of race relations in America.

( Cohen )

xXx

(no subject)

The Goracle speaks

(no subject)

The Goracle speaks

The Increasing Pace of Human Evolution

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An article in Scientific American relates research that concludes culture has sped up human evolution in the last ten thousand years, "a host of changes to everything from digestion to bones has been taking place", attributed to the increasing complexity of society and the increase in the population.

A striking note is also raised with respect to Africans, for whom it is reported that the rate of evolutionary change has been slower, due to the fact that the population has not had to undergo the more dramatic adaptations that those who migrated to Europe and Asia had to undergo in their new climates:

Not all populations show the same evolutionary speed. For example, Africans show a slightly lower mutation rate. "Africans haven't had to adapt to a fundamentally new climate," because modern humanity evolved where they live, Cochran says. "Europeans and East Asians, living in environments very different from those of their African ancestors and early adopters of agriculture, were more maladapted, less fitted to their environments."

One cannot help drawing an association to the recent debate on race and IQ. However, if there is a connection, the overall thrust of these findings is positive, in that our differences are more about culture rather than something innate, and hence malleable and progressive.

xXx

The Increasing Pace of Human Evolution

♠
An article in Scientific American relates research that concludes culture has sped up human evolution in the last ten thousand years, "a host of changes to everything from digestion to bones has been taking place", attributed to the increasing complexity of society and the increase in the population.

A striking note is also raised with respect to Africans, for whom it is reported that the rate of evolutionary change has been slower, due to the fact that the population has not had to undergo the more dramatic adaptations that those who migrated to Europe and Asia had to undergo in their new climates:

Not all populations show the same evolutionary speed. For example, Africans show a slightly lower mutation rate. "Africans haven't had to adapt to a fundamentally new climate," because modern humanity evolved where they live, Cochran says. "Europeans and East Asians, living in environments very different from those of their African ancestors and early adopters of agriculture, were more maladapted, less fitted to their environments."

One cannot help drawing an association to the recent debate on race and IQ. However, if there is a connection, the overall thrust of these findings is positive, in that our differences are more about culture rather than something innate, and hence malleable and progressive.

xXx

(no subject)

"w00t" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2007

(no subject)

"w00t" is Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2007