Artificial viral life that reproduces (more). Yeah, that could go very, very very, bad if we're not insanely careful. Emphasis on insane all around. Admittedly Phi-X (the virus they built) is pretty safe and well understood, but given that it eats bacteria I figure we should be careful. Incidentally they say that building human-like creatures from scratch will take about five years.
“I for one welcome our new mutant overlords.”
I haven't written about this in some time now… An interesting point of morbid “trivia” about the war in Iraq: so far (in basically half a year), more US troops have died in this phase of the Iraq war than died in the first three years of the Vietnam War (more) — and that doesn't include the significant numbers of troops from other nations who've been killed as well. Nor does it include the significant numbers of people coming home without arms and legs (more) — one of the “benefits” of the excellent bullet-proof vests that many soldiers are issued is that it leaves hospitals full of people with strong unharmed torsos with their extremities shot to bits. And keep those bodies coming! Bring on the draft! (more)
Guerrilla forces in the area are operating on significantly superior intelligence than US troops (more), making the losses faced by the “crumbling coalition” grow to the extent where Italy, Japan, and other allies are pulling out or on the edge of totally reversing their support (more). But don't worry — while those other countries promise to put value on the lives of their citizens, and don't feel like killing them in a pointless corporate war, Rumsfeld promises there'll be no reduction in US corpses — “There is no decision to pull out early, indeed quite the contrary!” (more).
After all, extranational corporations are making a fortune from tricking the US population into paying for all this bloodshed with their taxes (more) — with the US government on their payroll, why should it stop? This is a losing war though, at least if we're to believe Bremer (more) or the CIA, who put the insurgent force at over 50,000 and growing (more) — remember, a guerrilla force can often successfully fight an invading army hundreds of times larger. The big companies don't care if America crumbles — they know that money is like energy — you can't destroy it, you can just move it from place to place… And you can bet Halliburton is perfectly happy to sell its wares in Euros.
How's it going to end? I've already mentioned folks like Senator Lott calling for a border to border nuclear levelling of Iraq — is that what it will take?
PS. In other news, conservative groups finally got the National Parks Service to stop playing a video that implies that Lincoln would have supported civil rights or opposed to things like anti-semitism (more) — after all, who could believe that a gay man like Lincoln (more) would support gay rights?
The big image update is in place — over 3,200 images today. Thanks to everyone whose pictures are in that set, and thank you to Stormchaser for being on the cover, showing off his wild bicep piercings… I'm pretty sure he's got some kind of Wolverine-like “mutant healing factor” — very amazing mods that I wouldn't recommend to the average person though because of the level of danger involved.
Tomorrow I'll finally be adding that overlay tool I've mentioned a few time before (the one that automatically tags your images for you — great for all the pros that upload portfolios onto IAM and BME), as well as adding another 3,000 slots or so to the user databases (we've totally run out of room).
Other than that I wanted to briefly recommend the following article. I don't know if the base URL is going to change, so I've going to excerpt it:
After his wife was exposed as a CIA agent, embattled former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson "leaked" an explosive document to the US media. The report by Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner (Ret) identifies 50 "stories of strategic influence" that were allegedly manufactured by the White House to "market" the war on Iraq.The-Edge has obtained a copy of the 56-page Gardiner Report. We hope that the publication of this overview of Gardiner's findings will help to break through the "Paper Curtain" and prompt extensive media coverage, public debate and a congressional investigation.
America's Ministry of Propaganda:
- A Strategy of Lies: How the White House Fed the Public a Steady Diet of Falsehoods
- Transforming Language to Market the Big Lie
- Targeting Critics, Spreading Lies, and PSYOPS
- Black Programs and the Future of Propaganda
Anyway, highly recommended stuff… and now to cook me some supper!
It's hailing here… Seriously intense hail at that!
Quick newsflash: Looking to have something tranlated into Tolkein's Elvish? Click the text below to visit MisterV's page where he can help you with various forms of Sindarin, Quenya, and Noldor.
Back from Amsterdam — but I won't be online fully until tomorrow when I have gargantuan amounts of work to get caught up on. The APP convention was GREAT and I really strongly urge everyone to try and make it to the Vegas convention in May (I think that's when it is). Met a lot of old friends ago, some new friends both from IAM and off — I've got a lot to write on all that both as a friend-report and an article on the APP, but let me get some sleep first!
Oh, and yes, we went to the sex clubs (a lot milder than the average BME BBQ!) and had a nice time smoking at the coffee shops too, although I have to admit it's totally scary the first time because you're sure you're gonna be arrested!
