Dr. Strangelovey

A few years back I worked with a Mr. Richter of Staten Island, NY who left "contract archaeology" for Naval Intelligence. What seemed like a short time later, in the first months of the Dubya redux, he was crash landing on Hainan Island in China after colliding with a Chinese jet interceptor. Shortly after that the Bush admin cancelled the "life boat" project for the International Space Station, and called for a return to the Moon, please supply comments, it requested. The destruction of the Columbia orbiter, under Captain Husband (one of the crew was one of the number of Israeli pilots who flew in a close formation of jets, to look like an airliner on radar over interceding countries, in the bombing of the French built nuclear power plant in Irag many years ago) over Texas must have been hard to bear. Many years ago the citizenry of the US wrested the space shuttles away from the US Air Force (to be launched from Vandenberg, CA secretly) to create a peaceful use of space, threatened once again by US military designs, and always newsworthy, perhaps as an "us vs. them" the largest day care center in the world vs. the public sector (just kidding).

Yesterday a child came out to wonder...

I once used photogrammetric cameras and software for close-range measurements. In the glass plate the film was held up to (a tricky piece of mechanics) are many small "crosses" called "reseau" marks, that are documented to microns, so to determine in the developed film, stretch or distortion, as a result of temperature or other parameters. They are also documented with one lens too to take into account any aberrations. Well these crosses reminded me of them a little. The close-range photogrammetry was introduced to me by Canadians who where trying to figure out how to respond to a US "drubbing" for not getting the forensic info on a military air crash in Gander, Newfoundland before a blizzard covered up the perhaps crime scene. The Rollei camera people were developing it. However Avianca crashed in the woods while they were teaching me it and I to this day sometimes feel guilty. However they say that was caused entirely by language misinterpretations. Maybe the Supreme Court with Roberts could force more cases to be heard about the victims of disasters (Flight 007 the USSR shot, the Iranian jetliner we shot, Flight 800 (?), the events of 9/11, etc.) and force close-range photogrammetry on the law, as it is being adopted in England for car-crashes and other work. The idea was that one could have flown over the crash site in a helicopter before the blizzard and had extremely accurate measurements to work from, and perhaps compare them after the thaw. Posted to BAGnewsNotes

ah...my 'puter's been down a couple of weeks...

Mohawk greetings: English: Hello. Mohawk: sa-la-da-tee. English: Goodbye. Mohawk: oh na gee wa hii (so I've been told) Interesting books I wish I had had as a youngster: By Michael Kronenwetter "UNITED THEY HATE White Supremacist Groups in America" 1992 "Free Press vs. Fair Trials: Television and Other Media in the Courtroom" "The Threat From Within: Unethical Politics and Politicians" "Journalism Ethics" "The Military Power of the President" "Northern Ireland" "Taking a Stand Against Human Rights Abuses" Walker & Co.'s (NY, NY) "Books for Young Readers" More books I've looked at or read recently: "BRONX ECOLOGY Blueprint for a new environmentalism," Allen Hershkowitz, Foreward and orginal Designs by Maya Lin 2002 Island Press. Terrorism stopped the construction of the newspaper recycling plant in the South Bronx? Hm... or was it... "Understanding Albert Camus" David R. Ellison 1990. "Everything You Know" by Zoe Heller, 1999. "Portrait of An Artist As An Old Man" Joseph Heller, 2000. The author of "Catch 22". "Oh, the Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness" Al Franken, Ph.D. (Hon.). "Tom Brokaw: A Long Way From Home Growing Up In the American Heartland" 2002 by guess? "Mutiny on the Globe the Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock" 2002 Thomas Farel Heffeman. "The Bronx in the Frontier Era: From the Beginning to 1696" Lloyd Utan 1993 The Bronx Historical Society. "El Nino in History: Storming Through the Ages" Cesar N. Caviedes. Univ. Press of Florida 2001. "AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE" Jimi Hendrix "Samarai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan" Giles Milton, 2002 (author of "Nathaniel Nutmeg" Farrar Strauss & Giroux "At Sea in the City of New York" a wonderful sailboat trip around NYC after 9/11. Can't recall the author. Great seaside history chat. "Gengi" (in two volumes, I took out the 2nd they closed the Van Nest branch for renovations, returned it to City Island, the Van Nest is in renovation again until Sept. or is it Dec.?) the oldest novel in the world its said written in Japan around 1000 AD or so. Amazingly detailed, in contrast to what I had assumed it was. "Blast From the Past" and "Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned" by Kinky Friedman (no I'm not related to Myers of Keswick!) that Jewish cowboy running for Governor of Texas (though I heard on the telly (don't get kojacked) Lance Armstrong might make a run too) about NYC. Like a modern Ohio Penitentiary (O. Henry) stories about NYC. "Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses" I drop into these from time to time to see what condition my condition is in. Whew! Cara Lucia James Joyce's daughter said to have been ridiculed in "Finnegan's Wake" for mental illness. (p. 34 "We can't do without them"). "Times Eye" by Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke. What a strange story...but for history buffs a fun way to have the past inform the present! In closing I would like to remind the readers today of the Hermione-LaFayette Society. "Hermione" (1780) was the ship the Marquis left in that year "set out to join the American rebels fighting for their independence" in "The Sea" photographs by Philip Plisser and preface by Yanov Queffelec. I had the experience of piecing together a "blue china" set of dishes from the vicinity of the South Street Seaport from an archaeology dig commemorating LaFayette's return to America. Both his and George Washington's bust are on display at the National Trust on the Hudson River, recently expanded when Rev. Sun Yun Moon donated some adjoining property. The neighbors have visitors from France I think.

I thought the only lonely man was on the Moon...

Looking for water I thought they crashed Roddy's into the Moon, but we fooled them! He's also in orbit! My Dawnwood "junior high" yearbook was named "Orbit" as perhaps many more around the USA. May the force and sub-space anomalies be with the "Orbiter" this coming Tuesday. After all, the commander is from around one of Mark Twain's old haunts, Elmira, NY (also a terrible prison for Confederates in the US Civil War). May the Commander (she) and the crew have good luck, we still need an Outpost on the Moon. 11:44 AM ScifiDaily

King Tut's tush

Civility and law. A woman sued (for an undisclosed amount) for being branded by a hot "manhole" owned by Con-Edison in NYC, apparently on the buttock and arm. I was reading Charles Reich's "Sorcerer of Bolinas Reef" (that is until I heard my bag would be searched, so now I'm on the subway with a mini-computer bag. Living near to the Muslim Center of the Bronx, its on Rhinelander, off White Plains, a former CWA, Communication Workers of America "union hall", I expected a gazillion cops...none. Once upon a time there were many halls in Manhattan, one Germania Hall, torn down last week along with 295 Bowery, Kate Millet's home of 38 years, was where Kate Mullaney, sitting next to Susan B. Anthony, she on our "old" $1 coin, was the first woman elected to union management, she had organized the collar workers in Troy, NY. Cleaned collars allowed "white collar" workers to wear the same shirt again) the former Yale professor and author of "The Greening of America" who was once Justice Hugo Black's law clerk, and I wonder if Bush's tush is branded by the "Skull and Bones" fraternity there as reported wouldn't it be better to have a Sinfonian in the White House, like George B. Cortelyou was, under McKinley and Roosevelt, the once former CEO of ConEdison after his government service? - BAGnewsNotes

Mr. Roberts

There's a demonstration at Union Square in NYC over the nomination the TV news reported today. I have a friend who grew up with, knew his wife from the Bronx, NY. The nominee lost his brother-in-law a short while ago when his LandRover and he plunged off the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River. The bridge needs to be replaced, my friend's company looking at it, part of TYCO. I read this nominee worked on both sides of the "aisle" as they say. Once at the grand opening of NY State's law school in Buffalo, NY, I have to wonder who what when where why and how will this go? The opening was late and the new campus unequipped for its initial opening which I was citizen arrested at for a foul up, a "criminal tampering" a felony. Does your state permit citizen arrests that way? - BAGnewsNotes

On the cover of the Rolling Stone

A wonderful film, "Beat The Devil" screenplay by Truman Capote, directed by John Huston with Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollabridgida (a politician in Italy) was about looking for uranium ("yellow cake") in Africa, under the guise of selling vacuum cleaners there, its the only DVD I own. It is an interesting film, I can't recall who originally wrote the story. "Time" was once admittedly "Presbyterian" in focus and they supported Angela Davis' innocence so I think they want to cover this issue as today they were announcing they're the ones Rove told it to! When they started with "cake" story I had to stop and wonder if they were using an "African Queen" scenario, even stealing the "Beat The Devil" plot. Actually, they were had six ways to Sunday by a bogus letter that will leave serious "black mark" on the intelligence community for years to come. Of course then whatever "W" (another interesting film by Hitchcock with Twiggy and the guy from "Battlestar Galactica" she the battered wife) says might be construed as "intelligence". Left at "BAGnewsNotes"

BAGnewsNotes: More On London : Is Outright Terror A Fact Of Life?

BAGnewsNotes: More On London : Is Outright Terror A Fact Of Life?: "Maybe its a 'uniter' in a 'collective unconscious' as Carl G. Jung once pointed out, a past perhaps in our lower brain stem, that still suspends digestion to 'fight or flee'. President Tyler, who commanded Richmond, VA during our Civil War, his First Lady, Julia Gardiner (of Gardiner's Island, daughter of the New York Senator killed in the explosion of the 'Peacemaker' on the USS Princeton, (she below deck fortunately with widower Tyler) saluting Mount Vernon on the Potomac, leading to the first Capitol 'in-state' funeral of important persons, and there were others) was very important in persuading (said to be THE prettiest First Lady) Congressmen to create a State of Texas (vs. a country of Texians) according to her descendant who recently died leaving the oldest Manor left in America, without a 'legal' heir, where once Captain Kidd's treasure was dug up by the British in the 1880's. As once Texas's 'Governator', perhaps the President taps into our 'collective past' in some way connected to a 'collective unconscious'. They stopped the war to let her pass back to New York after former President Tyler died in Richmond, VA."

BAGnewsNotes: The Picture From London: Beyond The Mask

"In some ways, its good to know that health providers are using vinyl gloves (blue? green I've seen here) as all the latex gloves have been replaced. I know it sounds offhand, but many were having career limiting allergic reactions to the cornstarch and powder residue in the latex ones. Also, on a 'scary' show about fires and firefighting limitations, narrated by Denzel Washington, was shown how in one warehouse, stockpiled latex gloves self-combusted into an inferno. The boxes ignited from the inside out!"

Blogger: Post a Comment

So that's a Matador. One flies off with Christopher Lee in it I think in one of Roger Moore's Bond films. My girl friend had an orange and black one, designed by Olog Cassini or someone. The bucket seats were in the back, a bench up front.

BAGnewsNotes: Uncle (XXXSam) George

"This reminds me of a summer-time event in Wolfeboro, NH (where the Dole's have a place, and former Vice President Dan Quayle has been seen) years ago when George Bush Sr. was Vice President. President Ronald Reagan was going under the knife for his colon problem, which left Sr. Bush as President for awhile. He stopped on the second deck of the side-wheel ship the 'Mount Washington' to ask everyone dockside to join him in a moment of prayer, before they whisked him away in a limo for the flight to D.C., I assume. Bush 'W' has the same look on his face as Bush 'HW'. Wolfeboro, NH is known as 'America's Oldest Summer Resort' loyalist Governor John Wentworth had a summer place there, near where many today still vacation around Lake Winnepeasauki ('smile of the Great Spirit') and I was visiting on Tuftonboro Neck, where one of the first supreme court justices of Canada (the king's choice, not Peter Livius', who before the American Revolution, wanted to be a non-nepotist judge in New Hampshire, and may have been the writer 'Americus' in the British press over the charges he brought against Governor John Wentworth there). Peter Livius once owned Tuftonboro Neck (married to a contested land-claim family) and a house and mill on Mirror Lake. Interesting, a book about the controversy there (Wolfe was a famous British general who died invading then French Canada) and the results (Governor John Wentworth, unlike all other royal governors became a governor of Nova Scotia after the American Revolution) is Paul W. Wilderson's 'Governor John Wentworth & The American Revolution The English Connection' c)1994 University Press of New England: Hanover and London."

Blogger: Post a Comment

"George Myers said... Rauol Walsh and Errol Flynn, may have thought about the book a little differently. H.G. Wells dedicated it to the Tasmanians (large island off of southern Australia) who perished not having the immunological bases that European had to diseases we carry, as many native Americans didn't have (some were purposefully given diseased blankets). In that regard the film was dangerously close to some creative line of 'creationism' (or is it 'creatureism') which purports a 'purposeful' annihilation of the aliens, which could be mis-interpreted, as the sick humans (of those humans that survive) those carrying the most bugs? Eh, what's up doc? Beats waiting for M.P. Shiel's 'The Purple Cloud' (http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ea92.htm) or 'Farnham's Freehold' (Robert A. Heinlein)."

BAGnewsNotes: Dressing Up The 4th

"I remember searching in graduate school in Anthropology at Stony Brook University for media studies. I had been involved in them at Buffalo University, in Gerald O'Grady's 'Media Center', (in-part w/ Federal funding off-campus, a community center) studying TV commercials, experimental film analysis, (literally how experiments are portrayed in film) and film-making and theory through the English Dept. with Paul Sharits, an experimental film-maker and artist who has a theater named after him at hallwalls.org in Buffalo, NY now. Anyway, I was surprised by the lack of studies about the effects of 'shots' on children, and this photo reminds me of one that showed a greater effect on children when the adult is filmed from below, an effect of towering over I suppose. I would hope further studies are or have been done. This photo makes the President's hand look larger than his head, which may be prophetic, but then my eyes have been through a lot of close-range photogrammetry."

Howard Dean over at BAGnewsNotes

When I was a small kid, my brother and I once posed in a roasting pan, me in front with an apple in my mouth. I heard they showed it on the TV's "Sandy Becker Show" while I was in St. Rita's School, in the poorest parish in NYC, around the corner from where Mother Teresa and Princess Diana once met. The TV "Dean deal" is weird, the S. Carolina Republicans have been having a Howard Dean sound-bite contest, and much of it seems caused by the "media is the message" rather than a message in the media. As a NYer, I find "Wired" has been prophetic, citing a new "aural" fixation arising out of new technology. As one who watched his cousin edit then produce news for NBC in NY then cover the 1976 conventions of both parties for CBS, his eulogy read in the UN Chapel by Edwin Newman, and having a CBS investigative reporter as a high school schoolmate (he also once at ABC and NBC in NY) I find the TV sound-bite problem seriously indicative of a pettiness that Republicans should do without, yet can't seem to get over their self-appointed charges of asking all of us to "get over it" in the same breath dragging any serious debate into "dead air" and chauvinism.

BAGnewsNotes: Shooting Rhinos

In the study of the evolution of the state, various terms have come to mean different things at different times in social sciences. The "client" is a well known one, a metaphor almost, for patron/client relations, which stretch from DaVinci to the "wedge" one needs to get in the door in Portugal (cunha). "An Army of One" which promises you can "Be All That You Can Be" also appears to assure a "client" one at a time. The least the Pent-a-gone and put "taxus taxus" shrubs around itself can do is offer more money for its troops who serve in foreign "surfin' safaris" (expeditionary forces as did General Schwartzkopf's father did in Iran, putting the first Shah in power) to pay them more for their risk. People should remember there was a movement to unionize US troops in Vietnam that had strong voices behind it. Anyway, that's what I see in the Rhino-Rorschach this ad seems to be, having been taken apart by "market-makers" myself one "?" at a time. (Of course, them rhino horns have been ground up for claims of aphrodisia too, and should be saved from hunting with guns as the ad on the surface implies).

BAGnewsNotes: Your Turn Again: De Scent of Politics

"I was watching the end of 'Romeo and Juliet' in the Greenhouse Lounge in the West Point Clarion in Newburgh, NY and thought that the bottle of 'COND!' looked a little like the one Romeo bought, with which he poisons himself, and Juliette blows her brains out with a .45 pistol (they're over 100 years old now?) perhaps the reference is to our 'love' between rival 'gangs' (precocious Little Lord Flaunteroy's 'Dimmycats and Republicrats' was it?) that needs to be watched, i.e., how come both Powell's (Colin from 'Banana Kelly' here in the Bronx where we're from, and so's the Capitol Dome) are gone this time? Hmmmm...wild rice and pheasants..." John Mayall received an O.B.E. last week. Interesting site, Scottish Internet Radio and a track from "John Mayall and The Blues" (here) Last week I heard an interesting "Jammin'" from the British recording session of Jimi Hendrix. Interesting because on the two tracks I heard, Stevie Wonder played drums on both of them! Wow... When I was on Grand Jury duty here in the Bronx (couple of hundred cases in four weeks, mostly cops posing as actors posing as drug addicts for less than $20 buys...whew...did they cross up one Mr. Shabazz outside the projects this foreperson once lived in) someone announced they had a recording of Jimi Hendrix playing with "Eric Burden and War" the night before he died, apparently from taking sleeping pills made in Germany that looked like the ones he used to take but four times as strong according to new forensics. One of the jurors was friends with the woman guitar player in Paul Schaeffer's band on David Letterman. Jose Feliciano appeared with War and was appearing live in the hotel in the film "Fargo" I seem to re "meme" ber. Light my fire.