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Saturday, August 16, 2003
posted by gbarto at 9:11 PM:
Saboteurs Blow Up Oil Pipeline in IraqAttack halts exports to Turkey, cutting off vital income for struggling economy
Pretty shrewd approach, I have to concede. Just desserts for a Turkey that was less than helpful? Aw, hell, no reason not to deplore the terrorism, so we will.
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posted by gbarto at 9:07 PM:
Experts 'Fairly Certain' Outage Began in OhioInvestigators have nearly pinpointed origin of worst blackout in U.S. history to three transmission lines in northern Buckeye State
I was talking to a guy on Friday morning and he said [I paraphrase]
Well, they say it might be around Cleveland so you can bet it is. Nothing good ever comes out of that city. And it wouldn't be the first time. They've done this a couple times before.He's from Cleveland, so I guess he'd know... He said it was exactly things like this that prompted him to leave.
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posted by gbarto at 1:00 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Lockerbie: Libya recognizes its responsabilities.
Le Figaro: America Victim of an Outdated Power Framework.
Libération: EDF Mobilizes to Keep Current Moving.
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Friday, August 15, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:53 AM:
Here's Natalie Solent on the difficulties of combining blogging and other, more pressing tasks.* * *
posted by gbarto at 4:51 AM:
Here come your French news headlines:Le Monde: European Economy Is At Its Worst. Seems the moderate U.S. rebound hasn't been enough to rescue what Le Monde terms "the Old Continent." Not sure it's been enough to rescue the US either.
Le Figaro: Government Mobilizes Against Murderous Summer. And it only took a week of headlines for them to realize there was a problem.
Libération: "Black-Out" In North America. The others did have mentions.
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posted by gbarto at 4:42 AM:
Cities Slowly Climb Back From BlackoutNot sure what can be said about this story just yet, for it doesn't seem we really know that much. There are speculations about where and why it started and there will be recriminations over how it happened and how long it takes to fix, but right now we're all in the dark as to some pretty fundamental questions about this thing.
One thing we're all sure of: our nation's power grid needs work. But...
Electric industry and government officials said the nation's power grid has needed major upgrades for years, but industry experts said there were three major obstacles in the way: the expense, environmental opposition and people who didn't want power facilities near their back yards.Hopefully, something of this magnitude will be enough to clear the cobwebs from the thinking of at least some of the greens and NIMBYs, though that's probably wishful thinking on my part.
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Thursday, August 14, 2003
posted by gbarto at 5:29 AM:
Dialing up AOL - a Time-Warner company - we found this in the headlines:Heat kills 3000 in France
Readers of the TurkeyBlog have been hearing about the heat over there for the past week and more. And yet, that "3000" might be a shock. That's because despite criticism, the government has kept mum on just how out of control things were and given the impression that the so oft proclaimed competence of Raffarin was attending to matter. We guess not. Today, on the radio station France Inter, the Health Minister finally acknowledged and put numbers on what was being whispered about behind the scenes. So there you have it. A full blown epidemic, a health care crisis of grave proportions. And now it's officially so.
Let's look at the French news headlines:
Le Monde: Dog Days: France in state of shock.
Le Figaro: Dog Days: More than 1000 dead.
Libération: 3000 Dead in Dog Days. And emergency medical workers are calling the government's response "too little, too late."
Ouest-France: Raffarin Launches the "White Plan" for heat epidemic.
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Wednesday, August 13, 2003
posted by gbarto at 4:03 AM:
Carolina Hernandez (Nonsensical Ramblings) had some ideas for an SNL movie earlier this month, but they're probably a little too refined for that bunch.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:39 AM:
Marcus has some good thoughts on recall and other implements of democracy.* * *
posted by gbarto at 3:26 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Kelly Affair: BBC against the Government.
Le Figaro: Ariel Sharon: "The Palestinians Refuse to Stick to Their Committments." Presumably the Israeli PM refers to the two suicide bombings in the last couple days.
Libé: Not without my ac... Libé turns its attention to that which we hold most dear and the problems it's causing.
Ouest-France: Three Weeks Early For Grape Harvest - due to the weird climate, of course.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2003
posted by gbarto at 12:28 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Liberia: End of Charles Taylor's reign and Worries Grow Over Number of Victims of Dog Days.
Le Figaro: Dog Days: The Government Defends Its Actions.
Libé: Dog Days: Government Grilled.
Ouest-France: Dog Days: Avoidable Deaths.
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Monday, August 11, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:57 AM:
Here's Common Sense and Wonder on gender differences.* * *
posted by gbarto at 1:52 AM:
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch: Civic leader suffered from bipolar disorder.The article details an intelligent community leader who made a big difference in a lot of lives. Who, incidentally, had bipolar disorder, which is what led him to commit suicide last September 11.
Though the gentleman, Al Kerth, was intelligent, he was a little lacking in smarts: He tried to do and be everything for everybody without working to get his own needs met for coping with this awful illness, and the world is one Al Kerth poorer for it. It is hard to say, however, whether he would appreciate what that meant. While bipolar disorder is chemical in nature, it often goes with psychological symptoms beyond flips from generalized mania to debilitating depression. It is not clear to what extent this - or any mental illness - mixes the chemical with problematic thinking patterns or whether the illness causes the patterns, creates circumstances where they're formed or whether the patterns conversely cause brain-change over time as the brain attempts to assimilate what its psychology is telling it. Or whether any of that language even applies. In fact, there's only one thing that's really clear: 10-15% of those diagnosed with bipolar will die by their own hand, usually within two years of the first event, though some (like Kerth) may last years before the illness overcomes them.
I know both too much and too little about this - My fiancée has bipolar or something related (depending on which DSM you're reading) and I'll be damned if I can figure it out, for each time it makes sense, new wrinkles emerge. It's even more fun for those who have the illness than those helping them cope - they don't get the luxury of being able to distinguish what they're feeling from reality and need good listeners to help them sort things out in a way that lets them work their way back on their own schedule. Unfortunately, most people - myself included - are not so good at being patient listeners. Some want to fix the problems, others to show they aren't there, others to pretend there is no problem (my fiancée's parents hold that her illness is just a game for psyciatrists to make money).
With even the pros stumped as to some of the ins and outs, it's very hard to make the right decision every time in helping sufferers of any mental illness. But patience and compassion help. So if given the chance to help someone you know with one of these illnesses, I'd offer the warning that a lot is involved but the encouragement that there's a lot of good to be done if you can help someone suffering from bipolar disorder or depression come to know they're not alone in the world, that people are there for them. Surely St. Louis would be an even better place had more people known that Al Kerth needed someone to be there for him so he could be there for them in the future. Let's do our best to try to understand enough to keep as many Al Kerths as possible from slipping through the cracks in the future.
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posted by gbarto at 1:13 AM:
What's with South American security? A quick visit to Cicero must leave one wondering. Here Cicero notes the theft of forty (!) animals from a zoo in Venezuela. Worse, here Marcus has fifty prisoners tunneling out of a maximum security prison in Brazil.But security has not been a total failure everywhere. Says Marcus, when an Air France pilot at JFK joked about having a bomb, security grabbed him and his plane. The flight was cancelled; the pilot remains in jail. Now if they could just get the guys who do have bombs and don't happen to say so!
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posted by gbarto at 1:06 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Government Called To Account Over Dog Days. Nearly 50 dead from heat-related illness in the Paris area (Ile de France) alone over the last four days and the government is just starting to implement its policies for public health and heat waves.
Le Figaro: Guerillero Bové Wants to Harrass Neoliberals - the Guerillero being the McDonald's massacrer we mention a few posts down.
Libération: With José, Positions Closed. A clunky translation. The thing that's closed is a guichet, which refers to everything from the ticket window at the train station to the spot where you finally get to send your letter at the post office. Guichet fermé should mean "Please go to next window" except that in France there frequently isn't a next window to go to. In any case, the fuss is, again, over the WTO and the desire of José Bové and the anti-globos to smash it.
Ouest-France: Dog Days Persist, Putting Us to the Test.
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Sunday, August 10, 2003
posted by gbarto at 10:09 AM:
Here in the South Bay, there has been an attempt to get a new classical music workshop/festival going. It's called Music @ Menlo, and it's got quite a program, offering both its students and concert attendees a chance to see the sweep of classical from the divine Bach to the not so ethereal Schoenberg with greats from Beethoven to Debussy in between. If I had the means of the mysterious Dr Weevil, I would have somehow gotten tickets for the whole series. But for people of the TurkeyBlog's means, they have a couple shows featuring some amazingly talented young kids ($6.00 a head) who introduce then play shorter chamber works. The introductions remind one of the typical school program: younger kids recite carefully, older players sound more like they have a shot at doing musicology. But they all have a shot at music. The ten-year olds here are not the ten-year olds you see at your typical local piano rehearsal; they've won state-wide competitions, have performed around the state - even the country - and when it's showtime, they're ready.There's one more student recital (next Saturday afternoon) along with talks by full-fledged musicologists and performances by full symphonies comprised of the country's up and comers. Those in the South Bay should check it out. Info is available at musicatmenlo.org.
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posted by gbarto at 9:52 AM:
A very late French news update for a Sunday morning:Here's Le Monde: Success of "Larzac 2003," José Bové Stars. José Bové is the farmer-activist whose acts of greatness include the destruction of a McDonald's with tractors and pitchforks. Fresh out of prison, he found time to show up for an anti-globo rally that has a fair amount of Europe all abuzz.
And food for thought, The Webmaster of a Neonazi Site, SOS-Racaille, Has Been Detained By French and Russian Police. He's implicated in, among other things, the attempted assassination of Jacques Chirac on Bastille Day two years back. Not clear, how much the web site was involved in the crimes as opposed to revealing who was behind them. While we think those involved in presidential assassinations, etc. ought presumably be tracked down, we do believe that governments should not interfere with websites so long as their speech stops short of incitement (Hell, even there, they should be careful, since for a lot of websites what might otherwise qualify as incitement would accomplish as much as me reading a news item and telling the dog, "They oughtta string up so and so." In such cases, best not to give a spotlight to what is best left to fade away irrelevant.).
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