Who Communicates Rudyard Kipling observed "six honest serving men of learning and intellect: what, where, who, when, how, and why."

Dogs, parrots, elephants, and even pigeons have been documented communicating what, where, who, and arguably, how. But they all lack the other two servants, when and why, which is the reason Dr. Fox stops short of recommending a dog’s interaction with its master as an intellectual dialogue. Dogs can be taught to tell who precisely how and where to throw what stick for them to catch. But no dog can communicate why she prefers that stick over another one. Beyond the when, of right now, no dog has ever asked a person to feed it tomorrow. Even the dogged quality of unconditional love, as exemplary an expression of loyalty as exists on Earth, can be explained as an instinctual allegiance to a pack leader transferred to a human master. The science of interspecies communication is in its infancy and saddled with more controversy than it probably deserves.

Brushfires in the Sky: "The electrons and protons that rain down on our atmosphere to produce colorful Northern Lights don't come directly from the solar wind. Instead, they follow a more circuitous route through the 'magnetotail.'

The magnetotail is an area of space behind the night side of Earth where the solar wind stretches the magnetic field into a long comet-like tail. Inside the magnetotail is the 'plasma sheet,' a region that's densely populated with ionized gas. Although it's more than 60,000 km away, what happens in the plasma sheet is crucial to auroral activity.

When an energetic burst of solar particles strikes the magnetosphere, it compresses the magnetic field and stretches the magnetotail more than normal. This causes neighboring magnetic field lines with opposite polarities to connect inside the plasma sheet. Intense electric fields created by this magnetic reconnection launch plasma toward the Earth's north and south magnetic poles where it strikes the atmosphere, triggering aurora in a circular line called the auroral oval."

Poker.net: "Probability Tables - What Are the Odds?

The Odds Of Being Dealt These Hands Using 5 Cards

Royal Flush -- 1 Chance In 649,739 Hands Dealt
Straight Flush -- 1 Chance In 72,192 Hands Dealt
Four of a Kind -- 1 Chance In 4,164 Hands Dealt
Full House -- 1 Chance In 693 Hands Dealt
Flush -- 1 Chance In 508 Hands Dealt
Straight -- 1 Chance In 254 Hands Dealt
Three of a Kind -- 1 Chance In 46 Hands Dealt
Two Pair -- 1 Chance In 20 Hands Dealt
One Pair -- 1 Chance In 4 Hands Dealt
No Pair -- 1 Chance In 2 Hands Dealt"

stargeek: "Search Engine Crawler Simulation -- This tool will allow you to see what search engine spiders see when they index your page."

Thomas Jefferson said: If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself, but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it.

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breath, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.

Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.

How Laser Shows Work: Laser shows are complex, expensive, fragile, high-tech systems filled with precision optical components. Here we will give a brief and basic explanation of how laser display systems produce the exciting effects we all love.

Lockergnome: "there is an easy way to check a Web page's real address. Type this in the address bar and click enter.

javascript:alert('The real URL of this site is: ' location.protocol '//' location.hostname '/');

The browser will show the real address of the Web site! "

What happened to Aldous Huxley?/a>: "Metaphysics is out of fashion."

James Madison, His Legacy: "The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."

The New Atlantis - A Journal of Technology and Society: "Out of Their Right Mind -- Conservatism is Crazy, but Psychiatry is Here to Help

For centuries, statesmen and philosophers have argued about just what modern political conservatism really is: aristocratic or meritocratic, orthodox or libertarian, reactionary or triumphalist. Finally, science has the answer: conservatism is madness."

The New Politics of Consumption: "Why Americans want so much more than they need."

CHANCE AND CHOICE: "Myth of Science. Myth is not used in a derogatory sense, but in its original meaning as a true belief system which gives meaning to life, and links with the great belief systems of the past. "

National Safety Council Statistics 2000: "What Are the Odds of Dying?"

FAS Project on Government Secrecy: "Through research, advocacy, and public education,
the FAS Project on Government Secrecy works to challenge excessive government secrecy and to promote public oversight. "

Social Design Notes: Design Activism

Metafilter | Community Weblog

BEN FRY: "There is a space of highly complex systems for which we lack deep understanding because few techniques exist for visualization of data whose structure and content are undergoing continous change. My research focuses on developing approaches to such data, in particular, the human genome. "

Forum: Stop the plutocracy: "'Thus it is manifest that the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and that those states are likely to be well administered in which the middle class is larger and stronger -- if possible than both other classes.' -- Aristotle, Politics, Book IV

From time to time the relationship between the power of money, and this country's more noble progressive ideals get seriously out of balance. A classic example was at the turn of the last century. Branded the Gilded Age, it was an historical moment of obscene acquisition. Wealth ruled the nation, and thrived on influence, the manipulation of raw political power, and a total disregard for the democracy that had made this country strong. Similar periods occurred during the 1920s, and as recently as the 1980s and 1990s. Everything was for sale -- including the politicians who had been elected to guard the welfare of those who could not afford to protect themselves from the predatory appetites of the wealthiest members of American society. Serious evidence suggests that we are in the midst of another such period in American history."

23 Apples of Eris :: Revealed Nonsense: "'The good news is that mankind finally found certain, irrevocable proof for the non-existance of God. The bad news is that it was presented to us by a choir of angels.'"

BBC NEWS: "Food scientists at the UK's University of Leeds have developed a formula for making the perfect piece of toast. The equation - which details butter and toast temperature - took three months and cost £10,000 to develop."

Benedict@Large: "'The United States is not nearly so concerned that its acts be kept secret from its intended victims as it is that the American people not know of them.' -- U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark"

The Death of Horatio Alger: "The other day I found myself reading a leftist rag that made outrageous claims about America. It said that we are becoming a society in which the poor tend to stay poor, no matter how hard they work; in which sons are much more likely to inherit the socioeconomic status of their father than they were a generation ago. The name of the leftist rag? Business Week, which published an article titled 'Waking Up From the American Dream.' The article summarizes recent research showing that social mobility in the United States (which was never as high as legend had it) has declined considerably over the past few decades. If you put that research together with other research that shows a drastic increase in income and wealth inequality, you reach an uncomfortable conclusion: America looks more and more like a class-ridden society. And guess what? Our political leaders are doing everything they can to fortify class inequality, while denouncing anyone who complains--or even points out what is happening--as a practitioner of 'class warfare.' "

Bill Moyers State Budget Shortfall Map --
Budget figures for 2003 come from the recent survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures, published in November 2002. They reflect the revenue and expenditure situation through the early months of FY 2003 — which included budget reductions already made to meet shortfalls. This survey showed that half the states are facing gaps in their fiscal year (FY) 2003 budgets. Two-thirds of states reported that revenues are failing to meet projected levels. More than half the states report that expenditures are exceeding budgeted levels.

Eschaton: "The Bush Tax has raised your local taxes and is forwarding a debt onto the next generation. Find out how much at BushTax.com"

"An old soul...: "The loss of liberty in general would soon follow the supression (sic) of the liberty of the press; for it is an essential branch of liberty, so perhaps it is preservative of the whole. John Peter Zenger (1697-1746)"

BuzzFlash: "UC Berkeley Sociologist Arlie Hochschild answers the question, 'Why are 50% of Blue Collar White Males Planning to Vote for Bush in 2004?"

The Underdogs while not an abandonware site per se (since our aim is to pay tribute to all underdogs, both new and old), supports the abandonware idea. We believe that providing games that have been abandoned by their publishers, while technically illegal, is a valuable service to the gaming community because these games are in danger of disappearing into obscurity, and their copyright holders no longer derive any revenues from them. For more information on our stance on abandonware, please read this section of our FAQ. One of the larger goals behind Home of the Underdogs is to make it a friendly and dynamic community of classic game collectors, oldies lovers, game designers, and anyone else interested in the history of PC computer games.

Gangs of America by Ted Nace - the rise of Corporate Power and the disabling of democracy Free Book

Friends of Liberty - George Soros: Imperial Wizard/Double Agent: "This is not a case of narcissistic personality disorder; this is how George Soros exercises the authority of United States hegemony in the world today. Soros foundations and financial machinations are partly responsible for the destruction of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. He has set his sights on China. He was part of the full court press that dismantled Yugoslavia. Calling himself a philanthropist, billionaire George Soros' role is to tighten the ideological stranglehold of globalization and the New World Order while promoting his own financial gain. Soros' commercial and 'philanthropic' operations are clandestine, contradictory and coactive. And as far as his economic activities are concerned, by his own admission, he is without conscience; a capitalist who functions with absolute amorality. Master-builder of the new bribe sector systematically bilking the world He thrusts himself upon world statesmen and they respond. "

:: Libertythink ::: "Encouraging Cognitive Liberty in an Age of Statist Propaganda""

meme-stream Plea§e §elect a data§phere.

Luke Brown

In Your Dreams: "The average person will spend 50,000 hours of his life dreaming -- more than two hours a night, every night. For an activity that consumes so much of our time, however, scientists still don't completely understand why we dream or what dreams mean."

Science News

ScienceDaily: "Science's Breakthrough Of The Year: Illumination Of The Dark, Expanding Universe

In 2003, new evidence cemented the bizarre idea that the universe is made mostly of mysterious 'dark matter,' being stretched apart by an unknown force called 'dark energy.' This set of discoveries claims top honors as the Breakthrough of the Year....

...doubts were dispelled in 2003 [with]the most detailed picture ever of the cosmic microwave background -- the light emitted by the universe during the first instant of its existence. By analyzing patterns in this light, researchers concluded that the universe is only 4 percent ordinary matter. Twenty-three percent is dark matter, which astrophysicists believe is made up of a currently unknown particle. The remainder, 73 percent, is dark energy.

... also nailed down other basic properties of the universe, including its age (13.7 billion years old), expansion rate and density.

Memetics: "How Mind Viruses Influence Our Choices and the Way We Think"

The word ‘meme’ was first popularly used by Richard Dawkins in his book, The Selfish Gene. The word ‘meme’ has come to mean a cultural accretion of knowledge, a package of several ideas that can be passed onto others. It’s usually more complex than a single idea, and can represent a fashion/music/lifestyle or a belief. It is the mental equivalent of a gene whereby a package of many attributes is passed on.

The science or study of memes in action has come to be called memetics.

psychedelic secrets of Santa Claus Although most people see Christmas as a Christian holiday, most of the symbols and icons we associate with Christmas celebrations are actually derived from the shamanistic traditions of the tribal peoples of pre-Christian Northern Europe.

About PNAC: "THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY -- Established in the spring of 1997, the Project for the New American Century is a non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to promote American global leadership. The Project is an initiative of the New Citizenship Project (501c3). In the early 1980s, PNAC Executive Director, Dr. Gary Schmitt was a member of the professional staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and, from 1982-1984, served as the committee's minority staff director. In 1984, he was appointed by President Reagan to the post of executive director of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. PNAC's Chairman William Kristol is editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, the Weekly Standard, and is the co-author, with Lawrence Kaplan, of the best-selling book The War Over Iraq. Before starting the Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during the Bush Administration and to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Reagan.

PNAC's Statement of Principle: "American foreign and defense policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks. But conservatives have not confidently advanced a strategic vision of America's role in the world. They have not set forth guiding principles for American foreign policy. They have allowed differences over tactics to obscure potential agreement on strategic objectives. And they have not fought for a defense budget that would maintain American security and advance American interests in the new century. We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership."

The Online Beat: "'I want the American people to see where media takes politics in this country,' the Ohio congressman [Kucinich] said. 'We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls and then talking about money. When you do that you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people.' "

Civic Arts Review ECONOMY AS RELIGION: THE DYNAMICS OF CONSUMER CULTURE by Dell deChant

While there are a number of good ways to go about investigating the religious character of postmodern consumerist culture, the work of Jacques Ellul and Eric Voegelin supply especially reliable theoretical instruments for such an inquiry. They do not minimize or marginalize the religious dimension of what typically is presented as secular culture. Rather than relegating religion to its classical forms and explicating it in the context of its eclipse or its problematic status in postmodern culture, they recognize what Tillich calls the “religious dynamic” in the seemingly secular process of acquisition-consumption-disposal.

The Civic Arts Review is published by the Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs at Ohio Wesleyan University in association with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.

Another interesting article at Civic Arts studies the term New World Order coined by former President George Bush. George W. has faithfully carried on his father’s program, claiming in a recent statement that there is "a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise." And he makes it clear that it is a prescription that all nations must follow.

Are we still familiar with George Orwell's comments on the relationship between Politics and Language, with John Wesley Young's work “Totalitarian Language - Orwell's Newspeak and its Nazi and Communist Antecedents” (University of Virginia Press, 1991), and with the dehumanising language used by the Nazis to describe the Jews, and by Communists such as Lenin, Vishinsky and Zdhanov to describe Kulaks and other class-enemies, as a prelude to their extermination and as a part of the process of making that extermination politically acceptable.

Darby Report Tonight’s printed program also includes a very detailed background document on Hernando de Soto. Mr de Soto’s latest book, The Mystery of Capital (Why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else), which last week reached No. 6 on the U.S. best selling non-fiction list, contains lessons for Australia where we see many unintended consequences of the destruction of property rights through either Native Title legislation or other “stakeholder activism” undermining the property rights of the productive sector. The intention of such redistributions may have been well-meaning but the outcome is the severe diminishing of the level of investment, so in the end we are all losers. Since publishing The Mystery of Capital, Hernando has increased the number of world Heads of State that he now advises. This now totals 25. Mr de Soto doesn’t deal with Vice Presidents or bureaucrats; he deals directly with Presidents and Prime Ministers. He has just flown in from Sweden and after this evening’s talk will be flying direct to Beijing.

Body and Soul: The Doctrine of American Infallibility: "... excluding women from the priesthood reinforces misogyny. Wills is at his best, I think, in explaining this effect:

The long working of poisonous notions -- of women's inferiority and impurity -- has conditioned our heritage in ways hard to trace and difficult to extrude. That is why the ban on women priests matters. It is not so much that women are clamoring to become priests (especially as the priesthood currently exists), but the perpetuation of this ban keeps alive the whole ideological substructure on which it is based. It is the last bastion where the great Christian lie about women has entrenched itself.

That's it exactly. The Church's ban doesn't just hurt the small number of women who want to become priests, or even just Catholic women. It demeans all women, it is a sin committed against all women, because it helps to keep alive a notion that there is something not quite right, not quite worthy, about women.

... reading Garry Wills Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit, about how the Catholic Church's need to maintain not only that it is right, but that it has always been right, forces it to cling to positions that have little or no theological justification, but which hurt many people. "

You Will Anyway: "Another world is not only possible, she's on her way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing. -- Arundhati Roy "

A Rational Animal: "'We believed . . . that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and that he could be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will.' -- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Judge William Johnson, Monticello, June 12, 1823"

:: Out2Lunch :: Into the Lake of Fire ::: "Atlantic City by the cold grey sea | I hear a voice crying, 'Daddy,' I always think it's for me, | But it's only the silence in the buttermilk hills that call. | Every new messenger brings evil report | 'Bout armies on the march and time that is short | And famines and earthquakes and hatred written upon walls.

The first thing that strikes the lay student of military commissions is the enormous power vested in the US deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz, who is the commissions' 'appointing authority'. The judges - seven in a capital case - are appointed by Wolfowitz. Any judge can be substituted up to the moment of verdict, by Wolfowitz."

Caribbean Wind: "And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free,
Bringing everything that's near to me nearer to the fire. "

Passing Thoughts: "HOW TO BE A WIZARD

A wizard knows the laws of creation, and how to work with them.
A wizard allows synchronicity to manifest.
A wizard follows three basic principles. "

abuddhas memes: "The amazing thing is that when I am fully aware, I am fully amazed. This is not a condition that is in general encouraged. "

abuddhas memes: "'Let's put the question another way: is it really possible for time to end - the whole idea of time as the past - chronologically, so that there is no tomorrow at all? There is the feeling, the actual reality, psychologically, of having no tomorrow. I think that is the healthiest way of living.' J. Krishnamurti"

Bush Family Values Photo Album: "For more than a half century, members of the Bush family have been setting policy and making decisions for all Americans. Let's look at the family that has had such an impact on the lives of human beings worldwide"

You Are Here in Reality: "Top Ten 9-11 Conspiracy Theories"

AlterNet: Murdoch's Mega-Media Merger In a devastating blow for media diversity, the FCC, on a contentious 3 to 2 vote, approved a "$6.6 billion media mega merger" between DirecTV satellite television service and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The merger will add DirecTV's 11 million subscriber to Murdoch's U.S. empire which already includes local television stations reaching more than 44 percent of the country, a major national broadcast network, numerous cable and satellite channels, the most widely used electronic program guide, newspapers, magazines, a publishing house and movie studios. The unprecedented size and scope of Murdoch's holding will, according to FCC Commission Jonathan A. Adelstein, put News Corp. "in a position to raise programming prices for consumers, harm competition in video programming and distribution markets nationwide, and decrease the diversity of media ownership." The FCC-approved deal allows News Corp. to effectively shut out local programming – especially in rural markets. Although News Corp. initially pledged to provide local television stations to satellite subscribers, they later revealed that they intended to do so by incorporating conventional antennas into its devices and "hope the customer can receive a signal."

BedLounge® and Leg Lounger™ Enjoy comfort and adjustable support. Sit in bed in complete comfort with these lounge support pillows, designed by a back specialist. The Flex-Arm BedLounge® fits behind you. Its headrest, backrest and lumbar pillow adjust to any angle; the flexing armrests recline and swing aside. Made of high-grade foam, lofty fiber, feather and down pillows and a lightweight frame. The Leg Lounger™ supports legs with almost zero stress. Adjusts as you sit, it rotates and inflates to an infinite number of positions. Each includes a washable 100% cotton cover. BedLounge®: 22”W x 21”H x16”D. Leg Lounger™: 23”L x 9”W x 13”H. $130...

Days:

Days: it's a blog thing [DECEMBER14.NET]: "On a lighter note: with so many sites switching to table-free, HTML/CSS compliant layouts, Eric is concerned that the single pixel transparent GIF is an endangered species, and should be saved:
This treasured resource of Web designers everywhere is in danger of vanishing. Action must be taken quickly if the spacer is to be saved from neglect. My proposal is not to abandon efforts to construct compliant sites but to incorporate a transparent one pixel spacer gif somewhere within the site. This is easy, painless and hey, nobody will notice. Best of all the spacer gif will have a home if not a use. Additionally, studies have shown that servers LOVE serving up spacer gifs. It gives them something 'solid' to serve up instead of simply markup. Designers of the world unite. That man Siegel has a lot to answer for."

abuddhas memes: "How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destinies is a remarkable essay by Nicholas Tesla that demonstrates his polymathic spirituality.

'Thus, everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside. There is no gap between, no break of continuity, no special and distinguishing vital agent. The same law governs all matter, all the universe is alive.'"