Month: April 2003

A bit of excitement today

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 3, 2003

I was working at my computer when I noticed a black cloud in the direction of the apartment complex office. I could hear the sirens of a lot of fire vehicles. So I grabbed my camera and headed in the direction of the smoke.

The fire was not in the office but the Dobb’s auto place, in the strip mall at the corner of Laclede’s Landing and Watson, about 2 blocks from my home. The tires in the back had caught fire, which was burning hot enough to endanger the surrounding area. They closed off Laclede just by my apartment.

There were onlookers in the strip mall lot and people across the street, but I noticed a bunch of journalists in the lot near the auto store. So I joined them. What the hey, I have an online publication – sort of.

Three helicopters monitored the fire, and all the networks were represented, though I noticed Fox News was too late. Several print publication folks, too. Engine companies from at least three communities were present: Brentwood, Kirkland, and St. Louis. I counted at least 4 ladder trucks, 3 aid cars, and several other assorted fire and police. Three firepeople were overcome by the heat and fumes at one point, and came outside, sat on the cement for a bit. No problem though, just a hot day and burning tires – bad combination. Hack, hack. I know.

Right now the fire’s under control but the TV cable’s out and there’s a thick nasty cloud of smoke over everything. It’s enough to choke you. Choke me. Zoe is very unhappy about all the noise and fuss.

Here’s some pics.

P.S. Air quality sucks wormy green apples at the moment. Hack, hack. But, it was a lot of fun playing journalist. I could get used to this.

Photography

Quiet day in the neighborhood

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 3, 2003

Just a quiet day in the neighborhood. More in a bit.

People Political

When you pray, move your feet

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 3, 2003

Steve Himmer responded to criticism about peace marches, in particular the individual actions of self-expression:

The individual voice in an election doesn’t individually matter. Done. In a march or a rally, on the other hand, that voice can matter–and it can matter without having either the individual voice or the collective subsumed. As 10,000 people march in a street, there is necessarily a unified message–we’re all marching for the same overarching goal, stating our opposition to war, in the current case. At the same time, each of us holds an individualized sign, or wears a uniquely sloganed t-shirt, or a mask, or performs a piece of personally important street theater. While the collective voice of the march can’t be ignored, neither can each individual voice welling up into the collective.

In response, Jonathon wrote of the circumstances in which he would participate in a march:

Recently my friend Natsuko asked me what it would take for me to attend an anti-war march.

‘Everyone would have to agree to wear only plain black clothes,’ I told her. ‘There would be no chanting, no placards, no street theater, no drumming, no red-painted faces. Nothing but hundreds of thousands of black-clad people marching silently through the city.’

Steve responded in comments:

Interesting–the other day, while marching, I wondered at what point what other kinds of mass events were possible, and one of the ideas I considered was a silent river of people flowing don’t the street with signs or chants, without looking left or right. I, too, think it would an incredible piece of street theater, and definitely one worth trying.

March 7, 1965 600 people began a walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama unified behind one goal: voting rights for blacks. These were simple, peaceful people of all ages from all professions and background, with the men primarily dressed in black or gray suits, the women in dresses, white or black, maybe a bit of color with orange or pink or green mixed in. Six blocks later, they were set upon by police who gassed and beat the peaceful crowd as they walked silently through the street.

There was no screaming at the police, and no thrown rocks, sitting in the street or other acts of civil disobedience. The weapon the marchers carried was more frightening to the authorities of that time – a message of equality.

However, neither the message nor the marchers would be stopped. Led by Martin Luther King Jr, they marched again two days later, but this time as a means to convince the federal courts to give them explicit permission to march from Selma to Montgomery. The judge granted this permission, and on March 22, 2500 marchers started a walk in Selma, Alabama that would end with 25,000 marchers, five days later in Montgomery, Alabama.

The photographs and television coverage of the brutality of the police, played against the quiet dignity of the marchers and the simplicity of their unified message, more than any other event, led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

One of the photographers of the march quoted the old African/Quakers proverb to describe it: When you pray, move your feet. To this I add: decide what’s important, and act accordingly.

Critters

New squid on the block

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 3, 2003

Knowing my obsession with the giant squid, Jonathon sent me a link to a relatively fresh story from the BBC about an intact speciman of giant squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni found in Antartica waters. This in itself is exciting because so little is known about this species of squid outside of what’s recovered from the stomach of its chieftest enemy – the sperm whale.

However, the floor dropping aspect of this story is that Dr. O’Shea, well known New Zealand marine biologist estimates from the size of this specimen – an immature female – that this species is larger the Architeuthis Dux, or Giant Squid. In fact, according to Dr. O’Shea, the species of specimen he’s currently studying, which he is now tentatively calling Colossal Squid, is an order of magnitude bigger. Considering that the Giant Squid has been estimated to obtain a length of 60 feet at best (18 meters) – well, if Colossal lives up Dr. O’Shea’s estimates this creature could reach lengths of 25 meters. Or more.

Having problems with lengths? Consider that if each story of a building takes about 10 feet – 25 meters is about 80 feet, which is about the same height of a 8 story building. But don’t stop there, this building has a tearing beak and razor sharp hooks, as well as a reputation for being one of the most tenacious and aggressive hunters in the Ocean. As the specialists keep saying – we are squid crunchies to this creature. Shishkabob and shishkajane and shishkashelley and…

Dr. O’Shea told reporters:

“This squid is a really nasty aggressive sort of squid . . . a gelatinous blob with seriously evil arms on it. If you fall in the water, you’re history.”

If Dr. O’Shea’s findings are independently verified, this is an incredible find. For someone interested in giant squid as I am, well, this would be equivalent in the music world of discovering Elvis, alive and well, and living in a trailer park outside of Eureka, Missouri.

More later as I find other stories. Also at:

New Zealand Herald
Stuff
The Tonmo thread
Merco Press
Reuters
ABC News
Google News Search with several sources, most the same story
CNN Story

I actually used my Architeuthis Dux article as an example of a web resource for the PostCon RDF sample vocabulary in Practical RDF. Luckily, this news doesn’t impact on the RDF and technical accuracy in the book, it’s been delayed so much by the changing specification. As my editor once mentioned not long ago, so many things have impacted on finishing this book. What else?

I did have this evil twin moment when I thought of writing Simon an email:

Dear Simon

You remember when you said, what else could happen to the book? Well…

Government History

Peaceblog no more

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date April 2, 2003

I have removed the Peaceblog logo from the sidebar. I’m not sure at this point exactly what a peaceblog is. After three difficult days of thinking, I’m not sure what ‘peace’ is.

Before the invasion, ‘peace’ meant to me working to prevent my country from invading Iraq without good and decent cause and world support. By world, I mean UN support.

I never at any time considered Iraq an imminent threat. We are not justified attacking the country for this reason. We’re not justified attacking the country for 9/11. The only justification we could have for an armed conflict is to remove Saddam Hussein because of his oppression of the people of the country, but talk about Weapons of Mass Destruction is not concern about the Iraqi people. Too late the people of Iraq entered our regard.

Once we entered the country, once we dropped the bombs, we started something and to leave now will just result in a stalemate that will result in yet more death in a country that’s seen too much of it. The same type of death that resulted when we encouraged the Iraqi people to revolt 12 years ago and then didn’t stay around to help them. I bitterly regret that we started this war, but we can’t just leave now.

However, acknowledgment of finishing what we’ve started is not support. I do not support Bush and his administration. I do not support their short-sighted arrogance or their frightening long-term view for the Middle East.

The Sydney Morning Herald had a story today about disagreement within the Bush Administration about post-war strategy. It notes that the State Department (Colin Powell), as well as Britain’s Blair, believe in turning over the administration of Iraq to the UN after the war, though Powell has shown he won’t publicly refute the President’s and the Pentagon’s interest in maintaining US control.

I agree with turning the temporary administration of Iraq to UN control, as the country goes through what will be an extraordinarily difficult time. Replacing US control of Iraq with UN control is my push and my focus now, and that’s what I’m working for. The US presence will still be there, including our money and aid — we did start this after all — but under UN supervision as part of the UN forces.

And I do not agree with American corporate profiting from this war. Period.

The US staying in control of Iraq makes this a war of imperialism, regardless of how we want to wrap it. Not only will this inspire more terrorism, it will further destabilize the Middle Eastern region with fear of what the US will do next. I won’t soon forget the discussion about Syria and Iran last week. I won’t forget the implications of those words, and neither will Syria or Iran. Or, most likely, North Korea.

I also support direct Arab League involvement in the administration of Iraq. We have to start getting over our distrust of each other — Western world and the Arab world. Being the enemy without is not going to stop the spread of Muslim fanaticism or any form of fanaticism for that matter.

A most vivid image in my mind is that Iraqi driver the morning of the first bombing of Baghdad. The country was under war and the city had just been bombed, but the driver still signaled to turn, still stopped at a red light. Of all the images of destruction and violence and death from Iraq, this is the image that haunts me the most.

What the people of Iraq, and the Middle East, want is what we want — normalcy. Nobody wants war but the fanatical and the ambitious.

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Tags Iraq