Wednesday, November 13, 2002 :::
a night's read featuring bombs/babes and badboy laws
james beatty of the atlantic makes his case against first strike through parallels with the cuban missle crisis, points to how the operations will be far from a cakewalk and has motivations in oil.
a couple of pieces related to women's issues crossed the radar... a piece from the utne regarding a review of book/methodology of a charm school that teaches "pushy" women in the workplace to be more feminine. perhaps another backlash against feminism piece was from the executive editor of the national review who wrote a incisive background criticism of the woman who is taking on Augusta (golf club which is restrcited to men).
finally a somewhat frightening piece in the christian science monitor on the hidden gems of the patriot act and the upcoming homeland security bill. your email- is everyone's business.
::: posted by h at 1:29 AM
Monday, November 11, 2002 :::
pictures worth a thousand words?
its spreading across the net fairly slowly... i saw these pictures two days ago on the local news, but not much has been made of the treatment of prisoners in a C-130 transport somewhere over afghanistan. seems a soldier took it as a souvenir, and the pictures have mysteriously been emailed to news outlets. who said the switch to digital cameras isn't worth it. there was a piece in the globe and mail, one in the ny post another in the washington post, saying about the same thing.
::: posted by h at 6:23 PM
Friday, November 08, 2002 :::
research in motion (not the pda)
after watching ER last night for the first time in a while, i pieced together that Don Cheadle's character had Parkinsons- an interesting storyline to inject i suppose, considering the character is supposed to be a surgical resident. anyway... he went on a rant about new genetic research being done etc., and this morning i surfed around and found some interesting stuff... first - a piece that explained in simple terms the neurological characteristics of parkinsons, and how scientists at cornell just got fda approval to being injecting genes directly into the brains of patients. (long needles ya think?)
then an odd story in the bbc from earlier in the week that that the drug Ecstacy could aid Parkinson's patients??. ironically enough a link from this very story is to another piece from the bbc a couple of weeks ago, which said Ecstacy may TRIGGER Parkinson's??
kinda makes ya wonder about the whole nature of media and -the study of the week- mentality. but i digress.
::: posted by h at 10:58 AM
Tuesday, November 05, 2002 :::
a PITT that just gets deeper.
interesting piece in the economist about the pressures on harvey pitt - chairman of the Securities and Exchange commission to resign.
a while back on this blog- you might have followed links to a page that petitions for Pitt's resignation... heres another reason why.
in a nutshell Pitt- almost finished up appointing a chair to the new accounting oversight board- ( the board is one part of the steps America is taking to clean up the financial world through - Senator Paul Sarbanes' Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 - also- for your convenience a summary from Senator Sarbanes upon passage in the Senate.) but i digress.
a guy by the name of William Webster is who Pitt agreed on. 78 year old Webster has been former head of both the FBI and CIA. it was a 3-2 vote, Pitt casting the deciding vote along with 2 other republicans- opposing 2 other dems on the board- but that ain't the story. turns out that mr. Webster had chaired - even led the audit committee of a company named U.S. Technologies during a time when investors were suing it for u guessed it- fraud. is this the right individual to be running the accounting oversight board? mr. Webster even says, he'll step down if this would give the board a bad name.
so then came the question- did PITT- the nation's numero uno macheesemo mouse of the SEC- he who lays down the law (and enforces it) on the financial world- know of mr. Webster's previous role. mr. Webster says- yeah- 'i told him before this process got all in a tizzy'. so now what? 4 separate inquiries- including one from Mr. Pitt himself into the way the nominations occurr. you need a program to keep up the action here folks. there was in fact another frontrunner for the job- a man by the name of John Biggs- a man who heads the largest pension fund in the country- TIAA-CREFF (a teacher's pension fund) and who had said out loud in the past that he wanted to shake things up in the accounting world. get this- one of the commissioners of the SEC - Harvey Goldschmidt actually came flat out in a speech and said how much this whole thing stinks.
heres WHY YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION - its simple. this is the process that partisan politics will get you. the Bush administration has been standing behind Harvey Pitt for quite some time now, and aren't saying or doing anything out loud to chastise Pitt for his poor judgment. the leadership of the financial regulatory world should be of concern for all citizens (and greencard holders) or holders of any single stock, mutual fund, etc. if these are the situational ethics being practiced by the top-dog- ie witholding key information from other commissioners on appointments, and even exercising such little discretion in his choices for appointment to such crucial roles, how can we expect the financial systems to reform?
tis all.
::: posted by h at 12:52 AM
Sunday, November 03, 2002 :::
interesting piece this moring in the merc about the california coastline.org... a wealthy ex-techie taking pictures of the ENTIRE california coastline. check out the story- and the organization- californiacoastline.org.
::: posted by h at 9:47 AM
