cbsnews.com — Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.
The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee honored President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” less than a year after his election.
President Obama meeting with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia in New York in September.
Ammon Shea
[On Language - Defending Against Language Pedants - NYTimes.com]
Thanks for the fun: ambivalence - So I say outpedant the pedants, and allow yourself...
...but I am not so naive as to believe in campaign promises. Barack Obama is a professional politician. The fact that politicians cannot and will not keep campaign promises does not surprise me. The fact that our government is not run by just one person does not surprise me.
Conversely I am surprised when other vocal proponents and detractors would lay the entire responsibility of their unfulfilled expectations squarely on the shoulders of one man.I voted for Barack Obama. I wanted to see change.I wanted to see an intelligent, articulate person occupy the office of President of the United States of America. I wanted a person who would be presidential. I wanted a person that I could be proud of. I even considered the fact that Barack Obama is a person of color to be an added bonus. I have not been disappointed.The room is completely empty. No furniture, no carpet or rug. No pictures, no fixtures, no curtains at the window. Only a diminutive man sitting, his walking staff at his side, framed by beams of sunlight.
"Master?" I asked quietly. "Do not call me that. I am not a Master""How then should I address you?""I am" he said never opening his eyes.I sat opposite him in the space at what I felt was a respectful distance. I sat quietly. I tried to find myself, center myself. In a single fluid motion the man rose. With measured pace he approached and placed his walking staff behind me. I flinched."Sit up. With your back straight."I stretched until I could feel his staff between my shoulder blades and at the back of my head. "Better. Now tell me why you have come."I sat motionless. I let my mind race desperately through all of my pre-arranged scenarios. I searched all of my pre-recorded explanations, all of my practicedCongress needs more time to consider health care reform for 300 million people but we should act as soon as possible to put 30-40 thousand more young women and men in harms way in Afghanistan??
Serious Conversations? Not on Twitter
Steven Hodson acknowledges 'the emperor is naked' ... Tweets at 11:00
...I began feeling frustrated because of the limitations Twitter has. It wasn’t just the 140 character limits but also the irritation of trying to keep track of Ed’s replies / counterpoints as they mixed in with all the other noise.Saying very eloquently what I have felt from the very beginning... too little content, too much noise.
. . .
That is the thing about Twitter though – it might be great for short micro-burst announcements or off the cuff exchange of comments but when it comes to maintaining a serious conversation it sucks.
 | September 14, 2009 |
Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in “The Basketball Diaries,” died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.
September 11, 2009
Shutterbug Friday #3:
John G. Moebes and the Rest of the Story
John G. Moebes was a photojournalist employed by the News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina. He is perhaps best known for images he captured during the nascent hours of civil disobedience in the Civil Rights movement. When not documenting lunch-counter sit-ins, however, he photographed the balance of Greensboro citizens in more prosaic settings and circumstances. Here is a sampling of that work:
 Frank Zappa, Philly Joe Jones, Earl Freeman, Louis Moholo, John Dyani, Grachan Moncur III and Archie Shepp. |
I want every uninsured man and woman who comes down with swine flu to go sit in the waiting rooms of their elected representatives.
That’s it. Just sit there – coughing. Throwing your used Kleenex in their trash receptacles. If they want us to suffer, they should have to look at at the logical consequences of their inaction. Tell them you’re going to keep coming back until they manage to pass something that’s actually going to help people instead of lining the pockets of the insurance companies.
If the weather gets cold, set up a tent in the parking lot, put a sign on it that says “Waiting Room: Waiting for Affordable Health Care” and call your local media.
So, this buddhist monk walked up to this hot dog vendor and said, “Make me one with everything.”
Plato, by the way, wanted to banish all poets from his proposed Utopia
because they were liars. The truth was that Plato knew philosophers
couldn't compete successfully with poets.
-- Kilgore Trout (Philip J. Farmer) "Venus on the Half Shell"
Blogs used to be like reading books. Twitter is like endless reruns of Billy Mays commercials.
In the land of the night
The ship of the sun
Is drawn by
The grateful dead.
Geeks among you might jump to the conclusion that I am talking about Linux and a document management system. HA!
I was sitting in the side yard contemplating if the sprinkles were going to be enough to drive me back inside when they came. Apparently they were drawn by the red hat that I was wearing. I sat stock still. The first one circled and then hovered so close to my left ear that I could feel the wind from it wings. The second, not to be outdone, jockeyed for a dominant air space position. I sat stock still. Fast moving blurs in my peripheral vision and the trill drum beats of their wings let me know they are dancing mid-air over my head. Just as suddenly they were gone leaving only silence in their stead. Okay, just one geek aside... the red hat or more properly baseball cap was a swag gift from the Novell folks who came to speak at out techno-group a couple of years ago. It was my reward for asking leading Linux questions so they could amplify and sing their product's praises. Ah but the hummers don't really care about all that, they just like to posture and dance.EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour"
The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour".
A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers.
Its main objectives include the "automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence".
quotable quote 
On a whim I unearthed my old typewriter, an Underwood 225. Just a tank of a machine. No frills. Hardly any features. This model doesn't even do Tabs. When I brought it out my son (15) asked what it was. I opened the case and his eyes got big. I chuckled, "This is something you haven't seen before." The concept of a manually, totally unplugged, typing device was completely foreign to him. "How does the carriage move?" he asked tentatively pressing the space bar.
So I set up a couple of milk crates in the shed and rolled in the first blank piece of paper. The monumental in-the-moment sense of facing the blank page came flooding over me. As I found the home row and tried to type the date at the top of my letter I was stumbled. How much of this country's or this world's business/history/correspondence was beaten out on this type of mechanical monster. How great was the hand strength of all those secretaries who forged the written word long before the advent of electricity - and even beyond. The letter I produced for Rosemary, away at college, was filled with faint letters, missed spacing and overstrikes. Yet it is a letter by my own hand in real time. I found myself wonderfully centered. I have to construct each sentence and place it correctly the first time. I have to be cognizant of each keystroke as I have no cursor to move at my leisure and Cut&Paste my mistakes. I do not have a spell-checker to correct my atrocious speling (*smirk*). I do not have a grammar checker to alert me to run-on sentences or improper pronoun usage or even the dreaded double-space between words. If you have an old manual monster quietly collecting dust somewhere I heartily recommend you drag it out and give it a try.
The Platypus
I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude.
- Ogden Nash
via The Fat Finch
Flying frog
This red-footed tree frog—discovered in 2007 in the Indian state of Assam—is among the 353 new species found in the Eastern Himalaya between 1998 and 2008, according to a report released in August by the conservation group WWF.
Dubbed the “flying frog,” this unusual amphibian uses its webbed feet as an aid while gliding through the air. (via nationalgeographic)LINK: all creatures [great and small]
1001 rules for my unborn son - Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
all creatures [great and small]
There has to be some logical explanation. Warming lunch?
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Lawmaker: Broadband Funds Exclude Appalachia -- Broadband Funding -- InformationWeekLawmaker: Broadband Funds Exclude Appalachia
Communities isolated by mountains, but geographically near populated areas don't qualify for federal stimulus funding.By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
September 11, 2009 02:42 PM
Rural areas are slated to receive a lopsided amount of federal stimulus grants for broadband, but mountainous regions -- likewise short on broadband access -- are in danger of having grants withheld, according to a congressman conducting hearings on the issue this week.Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, noted that in mountainous areas of his West Virginia home state, grant funding can be withheld because communities are near cities, even though they are cut off from easy broadband access by mountains. Boucher is conducting a hearing Friday on oversight of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act involving broadband access.
"For communities with small populations that are isolated by mountains, the cost of building broadband can be great," Boucher said in a statement prepared for Friday's hearing, "And with populations as few as 100 homes, that cost can't be recovered through the revenues to be realized from the broadband service."
all creatures [great and small] - crowth: SA pigeon ‘faster than broadband’ | BBC...
SA pigeon ‘faster than broadband’ | BBC NEWS
Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery - but in South Africa it seems the web is still no faster than a humble pigeon.
A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest web firm, Telkom.
Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.
Global Voices Online » Malaysia: McDonald’s vs McCurry
Malaysia’s Federal Court has ruled that McDonald’s trademark name was not violated by McCurry, a local Indian restaurant which is popular in Kuala Lumpur.
McCurry, which opened in 1999, was sued by McDonald's in 2001. According to the owners of McCurry, the “Mc” prefix in the restaurant’s name stands for Malaysian Chicken Curry.
. . .
In a David-and-Goliath match-up in the world of fast food in Malaysia, McDonald loses a court battle against McCurry -- a small Indian curry shop in Malaysia. The court battle lasted for eight years. McDonald's claimed that the prefix "Mc" in McCurry trampled on its trademark. The country's Federal Court on Tuesday ruled that it didn't. Photo: McCurry restaurant owners A.M.S.P Suppiah and his wife Kanageswary Suppiah.
Inside Enterprise IT - Inside Enterprise IT - DELL COMMUNITY
Watering My SMB Roots
09 September , 07:05 AM
It’s hard to believe that I’ve now been at Dell for almost 10 years. Where did the time go? I think back to my first year at Dell as a fledging server marketing manager, studying RAID groups, redundant-hot-swap whatever every night when I went home, so I wouldn’t get roasted by the hard-core technical sales reps (TSRs). Let’s be clear … they roasted me anyway, but at least it was on my terms. Anyone that knows me knows I thrive on sarcasm and strong personalities. Those guys shaped me into the storage person I am today.
I was part of the Small and Medium Business (SMB) group of Dell back in those days. I loved the emotion involved in that job … entrepreneurs growing their businesses, people in love with their job (not necessarily in love with IT) -- I could relate. After living in that universe for almost three years, it became my foundation. Our performance plans call it Customer Advocacy (or something like that), but it ingrained a passion in me that still surfaces regularly today.
Maybe that’s why I’m all over our new PowerVault NX300 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) platform. It gives me a chance to get back on my SMB soap box and show how we’re addressing their business problems with technology - ...
I started out just reading the text of this posting in GoogleReader (No picture!) Sounded like a real person, a real committed person, really engaging. I was beginning to get excited about the positive story being related. I really started to relate. Then I clicked on the embedded link. BUMMER, "We're sorry." ...
Dell has sadly let me down. On the Internet fail links spell disaster. Particularly fail links that introduce a new product. Here is the message that I come away with... fail link = fail product. I know it is unfair but it is very difficult to un-experience a first experience.
We're sorry!
Myanmar: UFO or flying Buddha?
By Michael Cohen
The reader, from Myanmar, who sent us the link to this video (below) told us that:
'This footage is taken by a unknown teenage girl in Myanmar (Burma).Posted on youtube by Nyi Nyi. There are kids voice in the footage saying flying 'Ya Han Dah' It is believed to be a flying Buddhist monk.Said to have been taken on the First day of the Myanmar New Year 2009. This is definitely not CGI cause i have studied it many times and i am a graphic artist myself. This is definitely not visual effects.It is a monk wearing a so called yellow robe but really deep-red in color. In my country many sighting such as this has happened in the past and thousands have witnessed these events but this is a first time on tape that i have seen so far. In Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist monks are able to achieve flight through achieving a certain state of enlightenment.
Those monks who has become enlightened are not known as being enlightened until they die. On burning their corpse, instead of pile of ashes, balls of ashes are left and then it was known that this monk was enlightened and has pass to a higher realm or Nirvana. Some monks don't rot and their fingernails kept growing even after they die. This is not something u would find on casual BBC or CNN news as this world is immersed by Christianity and Islams. Buddhism is not a religion its a practice of good. So whoever reading this should rethink what is what. Sorry.. I got a little carried away.
“Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.”
- Alan Perlis
By George Baker
I AM A LEADER
When faced with any decision, I will do the right thing and refuse to do nothing.
I AM A LEADER
I have no desire to manage a work force.
My desire is to lead a team.
I will not get behind and push and coerce my team.
I will get out in front and pull and inspire my team.
I AM A LEADER
I am a product of my decisions, not a victim of my conditions.
It is my choice to make things happen and to never make excuses.
I refuse to merely be reactive to my circumstances.
I resolve that proactive planning will determine my destiny.
I AM A LEADER
I will practice self-discipline and self-control before asking others to do so.
I will never be satisfied with the status quo.
I will not complacently do what is expected.
I will eagerly exceed expectations.
I AM A LEADER I will communicate more vision than supervision. I will stimulate and communicate a futuristic vision. I will not futilely fight the changing tide. I will excitedly ride the wave of the future.
I AM A LEADER
My values will not vacillate depending on who I am with.
My integrity will remain immutable, no matter what the circumstances.
I will not blame, belittle, besmirch, or begrudge another person.
I will try to excite, exhort, encourage, and empower others.
I AM A LEADER
I will not have to be coddled, cajoled, coerced, or kowtowed into doing my job.
I will have the caring, character, courage, and commitment to perform my duties to the utmost.
I am committed to being a life-long learner.
The day I stop learning, is the day I stop breathing.
I AM A LEADER
I refuse to spend my time fighting the fires of the urgent.
I resolve to proactively plan my time to focus on the critical.
I refuse to waste my time in the present worrying about the future.
I realize that the best way to predict the future is to create it.
I AM A LEADER
(Thank you George Baker and Ronni Bennett)
A recent report brought to the surface the difference between media and society...
Groundviews first highlighted the case of J.S. Tissainayagam last year, noting that,
Salient points of Tissa’s case point to a larger and more chilling deterioration of media freedom in Sri Lanka under the Rajapakse administration. Tissa’s case in particular reveals a particularly twisted logic, and through it, confirms fears that the regime in the South now completely mirrors the intolerance of media freedom and free expression the LTTE is known and reviled for.
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a 4BSD?
My friends all got sources, so why can't I see?
Come all you moby hackers, come sing it out with me:
To hell with the lawyers from AT&T!
Nobel Committee Release
Barack Obama: Interactive Timeline
Hat tip to 
