Dustin Wax has a blog called The Writer’s Technology Companion: The Tech-Savvy Guide for Non-Tech-Savvy Writers. A writer today can call upon many great tools and sources of information, and many of those are techy sorts of things. Wax is a good guide. Check it out.

Spencer Ackerman reports in the Washington Independent:

The ACLU is a FOIA-wielding national treasure:

The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained previously withheld documents from the Defense Department, including internal investigations into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody overseas. Uncensored documents released as a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit shed light on the deaths of detainees in Iraq and internal disagreement within the military over harsh interrogation practices used at Guantánamo Bay.

“These documents provide further evidence that the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational, but was widespread and systemic,” said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU. “They only underscore the need for an independent investigation into high-level responsibility for prisoner abuse.”

One of the documents released to the ACLU is a list of at least four prisoner deaths that were the subject of Navy Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) investigations. The NCIS document contains new information about the deaths of some of these prisoners, including details about Farhad Mohamed, who had contusions under his eyes and the bottom of his chin, a swollen nose, cuts and large bumps on his forehead when he died in Mosul in 2004. The document also includes details about Naem Sadoon Hatab, a 52-year-old Iraqi man who was strangled to death at the Whitehorse detainment facility in Nasiriyah in June 2003; the shooting death of Hemdan El Gashame in Nasiriyah in March 2003; and the death of Manadel Jamadi during an interrogation after his head was beaten with a stove at Abu Ghraib in November 2003.

They also got new information about Guantanamo:

Another document obtained by the ACLU provides further context to objections raised by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) about the use of harsh interrogation methods applied on Guantánamo prisoners. The memo prepared for CITF commander Brittain Mallow appears to have been drafted for September 2002, and identifies “unacceptable methods” involving “threats,” “discomfort,” and “sensory deprivation,” while also providing guidance to CITF agents on permissible interrogation methods for use on detainees. The memo suggests that CITF expressed disapproval of abusive methods used at Guantánamo as far back as September 2002. In December 2002, Mallow instructed his unit not to participate in “any questionable” interrogation techniques at the facility.

Look at that timeline: September 2002. That’s before U.S. Army officials asked the Office of the Secretary of Defense for guidance on increasing the brutality of Guantanamo interrogations. There is so much more that has yet to be revealed.

Mike Lillis has a pair of complementary stories in the Washington Independent that offer some good news. The first—which is excellent and deserves a full reading—describes how the Blue Dog (conservative) Democrats refuse to support Webb’s GI Bill unless funding can be found. The second article, posted later, tells how Pelosi and the Blue Dogs have reached agreement and the Bill can go forward:

Conservative Democrats and party leaders in the House will propose a millionaires tax to fund a popular proposal to expand education benefits to post-9/11 vets, The Associated Press reports today. The conservative “Blue Dog” members support the concept of a more generous GI Bill, but balked at the $51.8 billion cost, which Democratic leaders wanted to ignore by sticking the proposal to an emergency war spending bill. The Blue Dogs said they would withdraw their support for the GI Bill provision unless it was paid for — a conflict that’s delayed debate on the spending bill until Thursday, at the earliest.

Under the new plan, individuals earning over $500,000 and couples earning over $1 million a year would get slapped with a half-percent tax surcharge. The AP quotes Blue Dog Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark) with the following:

What we’re talking about is a one-half percent income tax surcharge on incomes above $1 million. So someone who earns $2 million a year would pay $5,000. … They’re not going to miss it.

Not that the proposal will get very far. Though the GI Bill enjoys significant bipartisan support in the Senate, there’s no indication that the tax-hike offset would keep enough Republicans on board to pass the upper chamber. On top of that, President George W. Bush has vowed to veto any tax increase that hits his desk.

But paying for the GI Bill will do is this: It will get the Blue Dogs on board, allowing the proposal to pass the House (which requires just a simple majority), and forcing GOP senators to make a tough election year choice: Do they vote for the tax hike or against the veterans benefit? We could know as early as next week.

Stephen Faris has a good article in the latest issue of the Atlantic Monthly: It begins:

During the tobacco wars of the 1990s, attorneys Steve Susman and Steve Berman stood on opposite sides of the courtroom. Berman represented 13 states in what was then seen as a quixotic attempt to recover smoking-related medical costs, and conceived the strategy that would break the tobacco industry’s back: an emphasis on charges of conspiracy to deceive the public about the dangers of cigarettes. Susman had turned down offers to represent Massachusetts and Texas against the cigarette makers; instead he defended Philip Morris—until 1998, when the industry settled for more than $200 billion, the biggest civil settlement ever. Now, a decade later, the two lawyers find themselves on the same side of the aisle, working on a case that seems just as improbable as the ones that brought down Big Tobacco ever did—and with implications that could be at least as far-reaching.

The Eskimo village of Kivalina sits on the tip of an eight-mile barrier reef on the west coast of Alaska. Fierce storms are ripping apart the shores. Residents report sinkholes in nearby riverbanks. Despite emergency erosion-control efforts, the crumbling coast threatens the village’s school and electric plant. In 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded that Kivalina would be uninhabitable in as little as 10 years, and that relocating its approximately 400 residents would cost at least $95 million. Global climate change, the Corps report said, had shortened the season during which the sea was frozen, leaving the community more vulnerable to winter storms.

As scientific evidence accumulates on the destructive impact of carbon-dioxide emissions, a handful of lawyers are beginning to bring suits against the major contributors to climate change. Their arguments, so far, have not been well received; the courts have been understandably reluctant to hold a specific group of defendants responsible for a problem for which everyone on Earth bears some responsibility. Lawsuits in California, Mississippi, and New York have been dismissed by judges who say a ruling would require them to balance the perils of greenhouse gases against the benefits of fossil fuels—something best handled by legislatures.

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And does the GOP care? (The answer to the second question is definitely “No”.) ThinkProgress:

After years of delay, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne finally declared the polar bear a “threatened species,” under the Endangered Species Act, due to global warming. Yet at the same time, Kempthorne also decreed that drilling in the Arctic can still continue:

This rule, effective immediately, will ensure the protection of the bear while allowing us to continue to develop our natural resources in the arctic region in an environmentally sound way.

Kempthorne’s decision calls into question the legality of a Feb. 6 sale of oil and gas drilling right in polar bear habitat, when the ESA decision was being illegally delayed. Go to the Wonk Room for in-depth analysis.

And they even sneeze when they’re babies:

Sometimes we read good news and the day gets a bit brighter—for example, this article by Tom Zucco in the St. Petersburg Times:

How’s this for bad timing? Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s law librarian received a publication she did not order and was subsequently billed for it. She told McCollum, who launched an investigation. Tuesday, McCollum said he reached an agreement with Thompson Publishing Group Inc., a Tampa business that markets and sells books and other publications to government agencies, law firms and businesses. Under the agreement, Thompson must set aside $1.2-million for refunds to customers who were billed for materials they did not request. Thompson also has to reimburse the state $450,000 for the cost of its investigation. According to McCollum, in 2006 Thompson began enrolling many of its customers who purchased books and other publications in an “Automatic Update Program.” Under the program, Thompson periodically sent publications to customers without receiving a prior order.

Kevin Yamamoto has written an interesting article reporting on his experience in banning laptops in a law-school classroom. Bottom line: banning laptops is beneficial and, of course, a student doesn’t have to wait for the professor but can voluntarily abstain from laptop use during the class. The full article is available at the link. Here’s the abstract:

Over the last several years law school classrooms have seen an explosion of student laptop use. Law professors have allowed this by default, generally under the pretense that laptops make note-taking easier. However, many professors complain that students use their laptops to play games, watch movies, or if they have an Internet connection, to do web surfing and e-mailing during class. This paper presents my experience in banning laptops from my classroom in the Fall of 2006, the first time it was done at my institution. The article covers the reasons for and against allowing laptops in the classroom, my reasoning and procedure for banning them, perceived differences in the classroom experience and relevant student comments from my course evaluations, which were overwhelmingly positive to the laptop ban. Also covered are the cognitive psychological reasons in support of banning laptops. Studies show that lower grades were correlated with increased student web browsing during class (Grace-Martin & Gay, 2001; Hembrooke & Gay, 2003), and the amount of time which students used their laptops for tasks other than taking lecture notes (Fried, 2007). MRI studies of the brain indicate that the brain stores information differently when distracted, which occurs when students attempt to multi-task in class (Foerde, Knowlton, & Poldrack, 2006). The science of note-taking is also covered, which indicates verbatim typing may interfere with learning (e.g., Kiewra, 1991). The paper concludes by urging law school professors to review why laptops are allowed in their classrooms and, unless they feel that laptops increase student learning, to ban or heavily restrict their classroom use.

I’ve blogged before about the various free language courses available through the Web, but it’s time to remind you of the excellent FSI resource, which continues to expand. And if you are learning a language (or just about anything else), don’t overlook the free flashcard programs. And there are many other free tools and resources for students.

Strange how that works:

The proposed Food and Drug Administration tobacco bill currently under consideration would ban artificial flavors like cinnamon and cherry from cigarettes, but strangely gives special protection to menthol. Public health advocates wonder why menthol has been exempted from the bill, especially when it masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners. A 2006 study also showed that menthol makes it harder for addicted smokers to quit. Menthol brands are also disproportionately popular among African Americans; seventy percent of blacks smoke menthols, compared to only 30 percent of whites. While African Americans smoke less than whites overall, they suffer higher rates of cancer and other tobacco-induced diseases. Despite all this, legislators believe that menthol cannot be eliminated as a cigarette flavoring under the bill because menthol is crucial to the $70 billion cigarette market. It is of particular importance to Philip Morris, which has been planning for, and driving FDA regulation of cigarettes since 1999. The watered-down terms resulted from legislators’ belief that the bill won’t pass without PM’s buy-in.

Source: New York Times, May 13, 2008

Apparently the industry veto power is quite strong—as strong as the president’s.

The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports has an Adult Fitness Test to gauge aerobic fitness, strength, and flexibility. Go to the Adult Fitness Test web site for how to take the tests, which measure health-related fitness.

Health-related fitness is linked to fitness components that may lower risks such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or low back pain. Health-related physical fitness includes the following components:

• Aerobic fitness - ability of the heart and lungs to deliver blood to muscles,
• Muscular strength and endurance - enough to do normal activities easily and protect the low back,
• Flexibility - ability to move your many joints through their proper range of motion, and
• Body composition - not too much body fat, especially around the waist.

The activities featured on this adult fitness test are provided as a way for you to get an estimate of your level of aerobic fitness, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and your body composition. The results on each test provide you with a measure from which you can track your progress in each area as you become more physically active.

And, of course, let your spouse rate you. This rating chart is from 1939—before I was born.

Interesting post on the Old Days, before drugs were illegal and therefore before gangs and cartels. It’s extremely good—read the whole thing.

from www.comedycentral.co posted with vodpod

In reading Glenn Greenwald’s column today, I found this gem:

In comments, MelancholyDane points to this passage from G.K. Chesterton’s Heretics:

It may be said with rough accuracy that there are three stages in the life of a strong people. First, it is a small power, and fights small powers. Then it is a great power, and fights great powers. Then it is a great power, and fights small powers, but pretends that they are great powers, in order to rekindle the ashes of its ancient emotion and vanity. After that, the next step is to become a small power itself.

This is in the context of the US making Iran a terrible, implacable foe, despite the fact that (as Greenwald points out) “it’s a country whose defense spending is less than 1% of our own, has never invaded another country, and could not possibly threaten us.”

Greenwald’s column is itself worth reading, as is his takedown of Joe Klein, who somehow still hangs on to his job.

As so many of the deniers said, the models used to predict global warming are not accurate. It turns out that they’re much too conservative, and it’s getting much worse much faster than predicted. Thanks to Bob, this article by David Adam in the Guardian makes it clear:

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to the latest figures, renewing fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control.

Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years.

The figures, published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on its website, also confirm that carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than expected. The annual mean growth rate for 2007 was 2.14ppm - the fourth year in the last six to see an annual rise greater than 2ppm. From 1970 to 2000, the concentration rose by about 1.5ppm each year, but since 2000 the annual rise has leapt to an average 2.1ppm.

Scientists say the shift could indicate that the Earth is losing its natural ability to soak up billions of tonnes of CO2 each year. Climate models assume that about half our future emissions will be reabsorbed by forests and oceans, but the new figures confirm this may be too optimistic. If more of our carbon pollution stays in the atmosphere, it means emissions will have to be cut by more than is currently projected to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.

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Although the ENIAC engineers became famous for building the machine, the women who programmed it so that it could work (solving ballistics trajectories) went unrecognized. Here’s a brief story about them, and an effort to preserve their history.

I don’t think I could ever master food carving, but the results are astonishing.

Another good walk, and furthering into Wuthering Heights. Took a very solid nap after the walk. I’m going for 5 walks this week, so this afternoon I’ll be out on the heath walking through Pacific Grove again.