The Not-So-Quick and the Dead

Overheard in New York Guy #1: Yeah, so I was like, dead for two minutes. Guy #2: Fuck yeah, dude! You fuckin' died! [High five] What was it like? Guy #1: I dunno, dude, I was dead! --Brooklyn Industries, Williamsburg more

This Has Been Another Presentation of Alternate Histories

Man #1: Think about it, though -- all great men have a great woman supporting them, giving them confidence, encouraging them. No matter what happens, they know she will be there when they get home at night.
Man #2: Yeah. Imagine if Coretta Scott King had been a nag and laid it on him when he got home at night -- Dr. King, with all that shit he was dealing with, would've been like, 'Hell no, I'm movin' to Cali!'
Man #1: For reals!

--R train  ..more

Her Dreadlocks Were a Total Loss, Though

Overheard in New York
Chick #1:    Yeah, she threw up in her bed.
Chick #2:    And then she walked around throwing up all over the room.
Guy:           Well, maybe it's a blessing in disguise because it finally got her to wash her sheets.

--Houston & Broadway .. more

Why Camus Wrote The Plague

Overheard in New York
Chick #1: You can't, like, wear all black.
Chick #2: Well, not unless you're a beatnik.
Chick #1: What's that?
Chick #2: You know, the guys who wear berets and play the bongos?
Chick #1: Like the French?
Chick #2: [Nods.]
Chick #1: Who knew they had bongos in France?!

--Manhattan-bound 7 train

Overheard by: Smarter than these two - more

Overheard in New York | The Voice of the City

It's Like Learning the Truth about Santa All Over Again

Woman in wheelchair: These models are fantastic!
Man pushing her: These aren't models.
Woman in wheelchair: Oh, no!

--Bodies Exhibit, South St Seaport

Overheard by: Jablayblay         more

Microsoft's Brighter Vista

Soft Start for the System May Yield to Strength Ahead As Chip Glut Pares PC Costs
March 27, 2007; Page C12

Microsoft decided to name its new operating system after a view of distant prospects. The choice is apt. Although 20 million copies of Vista have been sold since the January launch, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has been forced to rein in analysts' early expectations for the operating system. The company's stock has taken a hit as a result, falling 9% since Vista's launch. But the system's disappointing start may have paved the way for a big jump in adoptions in the near future.  more

A Home For You in the Galilee at Kfar Hanassi

Enjoy the benefits of living in a friendly community

.... the dark side of victory and defeat...

"...... the dark side of victory and defeat, final proof, like the dead who are buried within hours, that war is indeed about the total failure of the human spirit" Robert Fisk The Great War for Civilization (p.968)

Taxi to the Dark Side

International Documentary Feature Competition 2007, 105 mins Interests: Documentary, Asian, War This documentary murder mystery examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at Bagram Air Base from injuries inflicted by U.S. soldiers. In an unflinching look at the Bush administration's policy on torture, the filmmaker behind Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room takes us from a village in Afghanistan to Guantanamo and straight to the White House. In English and Pashtu. Sat, Apr 28, 8:30pm - Clearview Chelsea West Theater 2 Sun, Apr 29, 9:45pm - AMC 34th Street Theater 13 Tue, May 1, 6:30pm - AMC 34th Street Theater 10 Wed, May 2, 3:00pm - AMC 34th Street Theater 10 Thu, May 3, 3:00pm - AMC Kips Bay Theater 15 2007 Tribeca Film Guide

Vista reviewed: Why the future could be more expensive than you expect

Microsoft's new system is streets ahead of XP, but is not without its problems, says James Daley Published: 31 March 2007 Bill Gates's Microsoft has become the company that people love to hate. And while much of the anger directed its way seems to be based purely on its size and ability to dominate the global software market, campaigners now have a new reason to be cross with the giant. The long-awaited launch of its Vista operating platform earlier this year is costing both home and business users time and, even worse, money. Few Vista users disagree that the platform is a cut above its predecessor, Windows XP. But while Vista is easier to use, looks better and is much more secure, the internet chat forums are awash with complaints about glitches in the system. Even Microsoft admits that some pieces of key hardware are still not compatible with the new software. So if you're thinking about upgrading your PC from XP Vista, is it worth the cost? more

Ancient riddle of the Great Pyramid's construction is turned inside out

By Steve Connor, Science Editor Published: 30 March 2007
It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the only one of them to remain standing today.
Yet the story of how the Great Pyramid of Giza was actually built has remained a mystery for more than four millennia - until, perhaps, now.
A French architect believes he has finally solved one of the most puzzling construction problems in history by working out how the ancient Egyptians built such a massive structure without the benefit of iron tools, pulleys or wheels. more

WTO rules against US on online gambling

By Daniel Pimlott in New York Published: March 30 2007 17:12
The US could be forced once again to rewrite laws on online gambling after a World Trade Organisation ruling that it had failed to comply with an earlier decision.
In a case brought by the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, a WTO arbitration panel said on Friday that the US was defying a WTO ruling made in 2005.  more

Camp Delta inmate 'who helped MI5' to be freed

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor Published: 30 March 2007
A British resident held for nearly five years at Guantanamo Bay is to be set free after a breakthrough in negotiations between the US and Britain.more

Russia and US accused of abusing men freed from Guantanamo Bay

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 29 March 2007

The Kremlin and the United States have been accused of flouting international law in a report which tells the little-known story of seven Russian men freed from Guantanamo Bay. more

Sarkozy's policies blamed for riot at Eurostar terminal

By John Lichfield in Paris
Published: 29 March 2007

A running fight between police and youths at a Paris railway station amid distraught commuters and tourists turned into a pitched political battle yesterday, casting a shadow over the forthcoming presidential elections. more

US keen to avoid 'escalation of tensions' with Iran following capture of British sailors

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 29 March 2007

Despite its latest large scale naval exercises in the Gulf and the dispute over Teheran's nuclear programme, the US claims it is doing its utmost not to add to the new tensions between the West and Iran following last Friday's capture of 15 British sailors and marines by Iranian forces.

"There is no escalation of tensions on our part," Dana Perino, the White House spokeswoman, told reporters yesterday, after announcing that President Bush had discussed the crisis with Iran in a video conference call with Tony Blair - a discussion, she insisted, scheduled well before the incident. more

Mugabe faces the music in Tanzania as police launch mass arrest of opponents

By Daniel Howden in Harare
Published: 29 March 2007

Robert Mugabe was fighting for his political life last night as he launched mass arrests of opposition leaders at home and flew to Tanzania for a showdown with regional leaders. more

'Lung-burning' gives hope for asthma patients

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 29 March 2007

Scientists have developed the first non-drug therapy for asthma in the biggest advance in treatment of the condition for a decade.

Researchers who treated patients with moderate to severe asthma by inserting a probe into their lungs and "burning" the muscle tissue found it cut their asthma attacks by a half.

No drug treatment developed in the past 10 years has achieved an equivalent improvement. The scientists described the results as "very encouraging" and said the treatment offered a "new option" for patients whose condition was poorly controlled by drugs.

More than five million patients in Britain suffer from asthma and around 70,000 are admitted to hospital each year with life-threatening attacks. If proved in further studies, the new treatment, called bronchial thermoplasty, could help reduce the 1,000 deaths from asthma a year. more

Technology Counts - FREE - Full Access

Dear Educator:

Come take a look! Our 10^th edition of Technology Counts is now online.  During the edweek.org Spring Break Open House, you can access the entire report for FREE.  See how far educational technology has come in the past decade and explore where experts see it going in the future.  While you’re at it, check out some of our past reports and our most recent edition of Quality Counts.

Some features you shouldn’t miss in this year’s Technology Counts:

• Are America’s schools making optimal use of the new digital tools they have received? Get up to speed.
• Check out the timeline of key educational technology trends over the past decade.
• See if your state made the grade in our Detailed State Reports.
• Read A Digital Decade to see where educational technology has been and where it's going.

You have a little over 2 weeks left to see the report – the doors will close on April 15. 

Best regards,
Virginia B. Edwards
Editor and Publisher

Look Out, Al!

Look Out, Al!

TV: Prajwala tonight on NewsHour on PBS

Subject: Prajwala tonight on NewsHour
Hi....
Tonight, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will broadcast a report on Prajwala, an outstanding anti-trafficking organization based in Hyderabad. I first learned of the founder, Sunitha Krishnan, from SAJA, so THANKS. She is impressive beyond belief, ............ Fred (de Sam Lazaro) More on Prajwala.

TONIGHT: NYC panel with top reporters/editors

From The Deadline Club The NYC Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists On March 28, the New York chapter of SPJ is hosting a reporting panel. Reporters and editors from the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, Forbes and the Associated Press will be recounting their biggest exclusives and how they got them. The panel is free and open to all. Guests just need to rsvp. Wednesday, March 28 Getting The Story: How To Break News Ahead Of The Competition How do New York’s top journalists get those headline-grabbing stories? Find out at the Deadline Club’s March 28 reporting panel, where the best in the business will recount their biggest scoops and exclusives. A Q&A session with the audience will follow. Panelists:

• Brian Toolan—National Editor, Associated Press
• Murray Weiss—Reporter and Criminal Justice Editor, New York Post
• Vikas Bajaj—Business Reporter, The New York Times
• Paul Davies—White Collar Crime/ Legal Affairs Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
• Elizabeth MacDonald—Senior Editor, Forbes Magazine

Moderator: Frank Ucciardo—Correspondent, CBS News When: Wednesday, March 28, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Where: Associated Press headquarters, 450 West 33rd St., between 9th Ave. and 10th Ave. Please check in with the security desk in the ground floor lobby. To attend, please RSVP.

"Taxi To The Dark Side" Accepted to the Tribeca Film Festival!

"Taxi to the Dark Side", a new film from Alex Gibney, will have its World Premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. For more information, please visit Tribeca Film Festival 2007.

"Taxi to the Dark Side" is a documentary murder mystery that traces the homicide of an Afghan taxi driver at the Bagram Air Force Base from Afghanistan to Guantanamo right up to the corridors of power in Washington. This disturbing and often brutal film is the most incisive examination to date of the entire arc of the Bush Administration's policy on torture.

The film is written, directed and narrated by Alex Gibney; executive produced by Donald G. Glascoff, Jr., Robert Johnson, Sid Blumenthal; produced by Eva Orner, Susannah Shipman and Gibney; shot by Maryse Alberti and Greg Andracke; and edited by Sloane Klevin.  http://jigsawprods.com/

:: the daily grind ::

Compadre John Miller serves up the freshest, most aromatic, richest, boldest tasting, Daily Grind, from the world over. In his own words,  all the unfit news, the New York Times deems, unfit to print.

Don't - Wednesday, March 21, 2007

dontaskiversary

With 'affordable housing' buildings for sale, tenants worry | csmonitor.com

The US blocked the sale of Brooklyn's Starrett City complex until the buyers can prove it will stay affordable.

By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

 

NEW YORK

With dozens of 20-story apartment towers looming behind her, Lashonda Carmichael looks out over a frozen inlet to the bay and the world beyond Brooklyn.

"This is where I come for peace of mind," she says as she balances her 2-year-old son on her hip.

Since she was a child, Ms. Carmichael has roamed these shores on the edge of this massive, affordable housing complex where she grew up. Most New Yorkers know it as Starrett City. Global economic forces now threaten to disrupt her calm and that of the almost 14,000 other tenants, almost 90 percent of whom pay rents below market rates.

That's because the complex is still on the auction block for a whopping $1.3 billion, despite Friday's decision by the federal government to block the sale. While the decision is a major blow to the proposed buyers, they insist they are committed to making the deal work...more

ITALY: AGA KHAN'S ISLAMIC TREASURES GO ON SHOW

Parma, 23 March (AKI) - The Italian city of Parma, better known for its fine foods and tradition of opera, is for two months hosting an exhibition of some of the finest Islamic art collection of the Aga Khan, the spiritual head of the Ismaili sect and international businessman. "Splendours of the Court" which opened Friday is being housed in the Palazzo della Pilotta and contains the basis of what will be displayed in a new museum to be built in Toronto, Canada in 2009. The show in Parma is part of a wider cultural programme "Arts and Music from the Islamic World" which runs through May... more

Complete Access to edweek.org

Dear Educator:

Our doors are wide open – come on in for FREE!

Until April 15, you can access all that edweek.org has to offer – all FREE!  Your access is totally UNLIMITED, so you can enjoy everything that premium subscribers see every day.

While you’re visiting edweek.org, you shouldn’t miss:

• The transcript of last week’s very popular chat on reaching gifted children with guests Karen Isaacson and Tamara Fisher, the co-authors of Intelligent Life in the Classroom—Smart Kids & Their Teachers.
• Is the No Child Left Behind Act working?
• Was it free speech or was it promoting illegal drug use? Supreme Court Weighs ‘Bong Hits’ Speech Case.
• Last year’s Technology Counts is still online, as are many other useful archives.  Read about how states and districts are beginning to build digital data systems that can drive decisions in the classroom and the boardroom.

If you like what you see on edweek.org, get even more out of this open house by adding a 4-week subscription to Education Week in print.  This trial offer of 4 weeks of online and print access is only available for a limited time at http://www.edweek.org/go/4weektrial.

Remember, our 10^th edition of Technology Counts is almost here! Be sure to check back this Thursday, March 29, to see how far educational technology has come in the past decade and explore where experts see it going in the future.  In the meantime, check out some of our past reports and our most recent edition of Quality Counts.

Join us at our open house today, www.edweek.org, and be sure to pass along this open house invitation to a colleague.

Best regards,

Virginia B. Edwards
Editor and Publisher

How the press keeps missing the facts about working mothers

COMMENTARY | March 19, 2007

E.J. Graff of Brandeis University's Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism says recurring media reports citing a trend among educated women to drop their careers rather than try to get to the top are inaccurate and the result of lazy reporting... more

How a superpower can end up losing to the little guys

COMMENTARY | March 23, 2007

A Harvard scholar explores the implications of his recent research on asymmetric conflicts, which shows that strong actors are losing to the weak more and more often over time, and gleans some important lessons about the United States and Iraq. (First of two parts.)... more

Contractors rarely face disciplinary action in Iraq

ASK THIS | March 15, 2007

Legal roadblocks and red tape have protected civilian contractors in abuse cases, even in Abu Ghraib. Administration critics say the contractors are sometimes encouraged by the military or the CIA to use harsh interrogation techniques, knowing they won’t be prosecuted... more

Not much regard for Bush in his Latin America tour

COMMENTARY | March 19, 2007

The overseas press: Latin American editorial writers didn’t much care for Bush on his tour there, and there often wasn't any love lost for Chavez, either... more

11 ways to report on Gitmo without upsetting the Pentagon

COMMENTARY | March 13, 2007

Torture expert Karen Greenberg describes how the standard media tour of Guantanamo is designed to deny the realities that are hidden just out of sight.... more

Victory Is Not an Option - washingtonpost.com

The Mission Can't Be Accomplished -- It's Time for a New Strategy

By William E. Odom
Sunday, February 11, 2007; B01

The new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq starkly delineates the gulf that separates President Bush's illusions from the realities of the war. Victory, as the president sees it, requires a stable liberal democracy in Iraq that is pro-American. The NIE describes a war that has no chance of producing that result. In this critical respect, the NIE, the consensus judgment of all the U.S. intelligence agencies, is a declaration of defeat... more

Retired General William Odom argues for immediate withdrawal

The Hugh Hewitt Show

2-15-07 at 8:16 PM

HH: Welcoming now to the Hugh Hewitt Show General William Odom. General, a real pleasure to make your acquaintance. Thanks for being on the program, thanks for your service.

WO: Thank you for the opportunity to be on your program.

HH: Now I read with great interest your piece in Sunday’s Washington Post on February 11^th, Victory Is Not An Option, and a piece very similar to it from 2005, General, and I’d like you to explain to the audience who haven’t had a chance to read it what you think America should do in Iraq right now.

WO: Well, we can’t do much of anything that’s useful for ourselves until we begin to withdraw. We are diplomatically and strategically paralyzed in Iraq. As we begin to move out, countries who are not very cooperative with us, or wish us evil, are going to be worried about the aftermath. We cannot stabilize the whole region by ourselves. We’re going to need really important allies, not just our allies that we’ve bought to come in there with us for the invasion. And we’re going to need them both on the borders of Iraq, and we’re going to need Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and others to help us. ...more

The Jerusalem Post - Report: 775,000 children live in poverty

The Statistics Are In And They Are Alarming..... more

Winged Migration

Can someone please send a copy of this to the Cheney family

Tuesday, March 20 at 8pm

Winged Migration

Jacques Perrin's Oscar-nominated documentary captures the beauty and wonder of bird migration around the world, literally offering a bird's-eye view of flight patterns through 40 countries and the seven continents.

This should be repeated on Ch 21!

Sent in by OMcIntyre

NY EVENT: "Office Tigers" outsourcing documentary

From: Thom Powers
India-based documentary comes to Stranger Than Fiction

@ IFC Center TUES, MAR 27 - 7:30 pm: OFFICE TIGERS Q&A with director Liz Mermin Order tickets The director of Beauty Academy of Kabul examines another comic situation of east meets west, this time at the high-end outsourcing firm in India. The company Office Tiger was profiled in a memorable New Yorker article and later gave Mermin full access.  Rarely do we get such a candid look inside a coporation. The American bosses bring a Dale Carnegie style management approach that plays out like a non-fiction version of "The Office." The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Mermin is currently shooting a new documentary in Bombay, going behind the scenes of a Bollywood film. She's taking a break from her schedule to make this New York appearance. WHERE: IFC CENTER 323 Sixth Ave @ 3rd St Subways: Take A, B, C, D, E, F or V to W. 4th St./Washington Square or the 1 to Christopher St./Sheridan Square. WHAT IS STRANGER THAN FICTION?: Thom Powers hosts this series of exclusive screenings for documentary film lovers. Each week, he presents a sneak preview, lost gem or special event, including discussions with filmmakers and special guests. Afterwards,the conversation continues in the IFC bar.

SAJA-NY: author William Dalrymple at Asia Society - Monday, March 26th

Terrific event, folks. When Dalrymple spoke on his last book tour, many of you attended his wonderful NYC talk at the Metropolitan Museum of Art... You will learn a lot from him (bio below) From: Aseem Chhabra Asia Society, South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) New York Chapter and the Indo American Arts Council (IAAC) present Meet the Author - William Dalrymple "The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty Delhi, 1857" Monday, March 26 at 6:30 pm Reception and Book signing follows. Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at 70th St New York City $7 Student w/ID, Seniors; $10 Members (including SAJA members); $15 Nonmembers To register ONLINE CLICK HERE To register by PHONE call (M-F 10am to 5pm): 212-517-ASIA To register by FAX (credit card orders only please): 212-517-8315 About the book: From the author of The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi and The White Mughals comes the compelling story, drawn from a treasure trove of Indian historical documents, of Bahadur Shah II the last Mughal emperor and the final days of his capital Delhi before its ignominious destruction by the British in 1857. Dalrymple will be interviewed by historian and author Maya Jasanoff (Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850). About the author William Dalrymple was born in Scotland and brought up on the shores of the Firth of Forth. He wrote the highly acclaimed bestseller In Xanadu when he was twenty-two. The book won the 1990 Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award and a Scottish Arts Council Spring Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. In 1989 Dalrymple moved to Delhi where he lived for six years researching his second book, City of Djinns, which won the 1994 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award and the Sunday Times Young British Writer of the Year Award. From the Holy Mountain, his acclaimed study of the demise of Christianity in its Middle Eastern homeland, was awarded the Scottish Arts Council Autumn Book Award for 1997; it was also shortlisted for the 1998 Thomas Cook Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. A collection of his writings about India, The Age of Kali, won the French Prix D'Astrolabe in 2005. White Mughals was published in 2003, the book won the Wolfson Prize for History 2003, the Scottish Book of the Year Prize, and was shortlisted for the PEN History Award, the Kiryama Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. William Dalrymple is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 2002 he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for his ‘outstanding contribution to travel literature’. He wrote and presented the television series Stones of the Raj and Indian Journeys, which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. His Radio 4 series on the history of British spirituality and mysticism, The Long Search, won the 2002 Sandford St Martin Prize for Religious Broadcasting and was described by the judges as 'thrilling in its brilliance... near perfect radio. In December 2005 his article on the madrasas of Pakistan was awarded the prize for Best Print Article of the Year at the 2005 FPA Media Awards. June 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of St Andrews “for his services to literature and international relations, to broadcasting and understanding”. In 2007, The Last Moghal won the prestigous Duff Cooper Prize for History and Biography. William is married to the artist Olivia Fraser, and they have three children. They now divide their time between London and Delhi.
Reviews from abroad:
[Dalrymple] builds an urban narrative [of Delhi] as evocative as Richard Cobb's depiction of Revolutionary Paris . . .
There is so much to admire in this book - the depth of historical research, the finely evocative writing, the extraordinary rapport with the cultural world of late Mughal India. It is also in many ways a remarkably humane and egalitarian history. . .
This is a splendid work of empathetic scholarship. As the 150th anniversary of the uprising dawns there will be many attempts to revisit these bloody, chaotic, cataclysmic events; but few reinterpretations of 1857 will be as bold, as insightful, or as challenging as this.- David Arnold, Times Literary Supplement
Brilliantly nuanced . . . Dalrymple has here written an account of the Indian mutiny such as we have never had before, of the events leading up to it and of its aftermath, seen through the prism of the last emperor's life. He has vividly described the street life of the Mughal capital in the days before the catastrophe happened, he has put his finger deftly on every crucial point in the story, which earlier historians have sometimes missed, and he has supplied some of the most informative footnotes I have ever read. On top of that, he has splendidly conveyed the sheer joy of researching a piece of history, something every true historian knows . . . I had thought that Dalrymple would never surpass his performance in writing From the Holy Mountain, but The Last Mughal has caused me to think again. - Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Guardian.
A riveting account . . . It is neither wholly a biography of Zafar, nor solely the story of the siege and capture of Delhi. Instead Mr. Dalrymple charts the course of the uprising and the siege, weaving into his story the unfolding tragedy of Zafar's last months. The animating spirit of the book is Delhi itself . . .
It is here that the originality of [Dalrymple's] new book lies. - The Economist

[The Last Mughal] shows the way history should be written: not as a catalogue of dry-as-dust kings, battles and treaties but to bring the past to the present, put life back in characters long dead and gone and make the reader feel he is living among them, sharing their joys, sorrows and apprehensions . . .
Dalrymple's book rouses deep emotions. It will bring tears to the eyes of every Dilliwala, among whom I count myself. - Khushwant Singh, Outlook India