Let's hear it for the Singing Dictionary!

**This site features parodies of popular songs using karaoke-style backing music with vocals provided by audio pronunciation samples from online dictionaries. This is from their press release:

SPRINGFIELD, MASS., August 2001 — Listen up! Dictionaraoke is creating a real sonic boom this month. The award-winning website has sparked an international sensation by bringing together the word power of the dictionary with the fun of karaoke. And now the contents of this crazy "Singing Dictionary" are available for free MP3 download at a computer near you.

The project was conceived of by a diverse group of experimental musicians communicating through the Internet. Inspired by the recent addition of spoken word audio clips to the Merriam-Webster and Microsoft Encarta online dictionaries demonstrating the correct pronunciation of each word, these artists have used the samples to create artificial vocals that "sing" karaoke. James Brown's "I Feel Good" (reworked by Jim Allenspach) was the first song to be rendered in the dictionaraoke style, and many more tracks were soon to follow. Covering a wide range of hits from yesterday and today, the site now has over 30 different songs available for download. Many different styles are represented, featuring everything from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys. New songs are continually being added. In addition, the site offers features like the Song Of The Week, links to related topics, and all the information you need to start creating your own Dictionaraoke.

Bye-bye Blogger. Hello Bloogle.

**The best search engine, Google, just bought the best blog host, Blogger. What's to come of it? David Weinberger is nervous.

. . . here are two tempting ways Google could violate the trust they've earned: They could start charging for all Blogger accounts, and they could weight searches towards Blogger blogs.
. . . .
Weighting searches would clearly violate the principle that has built Google's presence: rankings that try to reflect the Web's own preferences. Charging for all Blogger accounts would violate the implicit bond that has made Google not only known and used but loved, for it would make the Web a worse place overall. Google's record so far has been great: Whatever the business reasons for rescuing Deja, the purchase also preserved the UseNet archives, making the Net a better place. And, of course, the superiority of Google's searching ability has made the Web a far better place than it was before.

Many companies get stupid when they get big. So far, Google has bucked the trend. Let's hope it doesn't give in to the temptation to get stupid now.

Read Complete entry

Soy about that!

** More and more research is indicating that soy is not the "miracle food" that the big agricultural companies would like you to think it is.

The Dangers of Soy Formulas

Since the late 1950's, it has been known that soy formulas contain anti-thyroid agents. Infants on soy formula are particularly vulnerable to developing autoimmune thyroid disease when exposed to high exposure of isoflavones over time. ( Breast and soy-formula feedings in early infancy and the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disease in children. Fort P; Moses N; Fasano M; Goldberg T; Department of Pediatrics, North Shore University Hospital-Cornell University Medical College, Manhasset, New York 11030. J Am Coll Nutr, 1990 Apr, 9:2, 164-7) This study found that the frequency of feedings with soy-based milk formulas in early life was noticeably higher in children with autoimmune thyroid disease, and thyroid problems were almost triple in those soy formula-fed children compared to their siblings and healthy unrelated children. Dr. Fitzpatrick even believes that long-term feeding with soy formulas inhibits TPO to such an extent that long-term elevated TSH levels can also raise the risk of thyroid cancer.

Not much is being done in the U.S. to make parents aware of the thyroid-related dangers of soy formulas, or to alert the public that heavy soy consumption may be a danger to thyroid function. Other countries, however, are far ahead of the U.S. In July of 1996, the British Department of Health issued a warning that the phytoestrogens found in soy-based infant formulas could adversely affect infant health. The warning was clear, indicating that soy formula should only be given to babies on the advice of a health professional. They advised that babies who cannot be breastfed or who have allergies to other formulas be given alternatives to soy-based formulas.

Why more information is not available about these concerns is probably a function of the tremendous strength of the large agricultural companies that dominate America's soy market. One thing is clear, however. At the same time that health experts, and nearly every radio and television health program in the nation touts soy as the miracle health food of the new millenium, the United States pediatric and medical community needs to get more on top of this issue, and begin to counsel their patients regarding the serious impact use of soy products can have on thyroid function.

How Much Soy is Safe?

According to the Soy Online Service, for infants, any soy is too much. For adults, just 30 mg of soy isoflavones per day is the amount found to have a negative impact on thyroid function. This amount of soy isoflavones is found in just 5-8 ounces of soy milk, or 1.5 ounces of miso. For more information on how much soy is too much, see the Soy Online Service guidance page.

The USDA has launched a website that is promoting the health benefits of use of soy and soy foods. The USDA site lists the isoflavone content of a total of 128 foods, including foods such as vegetarian hot dogs soybeans, chickpeas and tofu. This can help you in deciding how much soy to include in your diet.

OTHER RESOURCES:
Do Soy Foods Negatively Affect Your Thyroid? / Downsides of Soy / Thyroid Disease Information Source - Articles/FAQs
Note: More information on soy and its negative impact on health can be found at the Soy Online Service, and in particular, its page on phytoestrogenic effects of soy, and impact on the thyroid.

At last! Someone starting to make sense out the Iraq situation

**Blogs are a nice way to practice another language. In this case, Engrish. Go Natsuko!

What a cute! Natsuko has a weblog! Hooday! My name is the Natsuko Murakami! As for me there is from Japan. I who investigate computer programming have lived in Ottawa, Canada. My English still it is not complete and therefore I practiced and began this webpage. The Blogging is large! Enjoy my place!

We five minutes found evidence exactly before!!!

In order to make the Americans for the war for Iraq, he is Mr. Powell the UN is some small-numbered thing which it should place in the mind when you lecture.

The Powell is sent in order to carry the water. As for him it is large: the conscience which gives the impression of the person then he takes that order. That is that role. In play of stage, he ends with respect to the thing where every good human everyone does the thing in other things.

Him: "Being to be before several months, if the Powell is in the team, the people must be correct!" You think!

Certainty, there is a supermarket on the sun. RIGHT!

Evidence of the Iraqi person whom the inspector of the weapon at that time moves, has hidden "the illegal material." Having found, as for the Hans Blix? You insist, it's denied!

He? Not finding the decisive evidence that Mr. Saddam kept accompanying the scientist of the Iraqi weapon to the interview person of escaping from the country, you call the Blix. The Iraqi representative being the scientist of the weapon shaking it denies the Blix. The inspection team of that weapon in addition as for him it denies permeating due to the representative of the Iraqi. The Bush of that state of onion message insisted both request.

After the public has known, if, making the opinion for the Iraqi war has died being the large quantity to be hard, if Whitehouse has died has known the large box which stacked the load, now, him, interest another item, it was soon grasped to the tidbit best the large box which stacked the load dying. The myth of the necessity which stacked the load of the large box which is supported between war of this " terrorism. "

Iraq vs. Monty Python

**A letter to the London Observer from Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame.

Sunday January 26, 2003
I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for bombing Iraq: he's running out of patience. And so am I! For some time now I've been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't been able to discover what. I've been round to his place a few times to see what he's up to, but he's got everything well hidden.

That's how devious he is. As for Mr Patel, don't ask me how I know, I just know - from very good sources - that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have leafleted the street telling them that if we don't act first, he'll pick us off one by one.

Some of my neighbours say, if I've got proof, why don't I go to the police? But that's simply ridiculous. The police will say that they need evidence of a crime with which to charge my neighbours. They'll come up with endless red tape and quibbling about the rights and wrongs of a pre-emptive strike and all the while Mr Johnson will be finalising his plans to do terrible things to me, while Mr Patel will be secretly murdering people. Since I'm the only one in the street with a decent range of automatic firearms, I reckon it's up to me to keep the peace. But until recently that's been a little difficult.

Now, however, George W. Bush has made it clear that all I need to do is run out of patience, and then I can wade in and do whatever I want! And let's face it, Mr Bush's carefully thought-out policy towards Iraq is the only way to bring about international peace and security.

The one certain way to stop Muslim fundamentalist suicide bombers targeting the US or the UK is to bomb a few Muslim countries that have never threatened us. That's why I want to blow up Mr Johnson's garage and kill his wife and children. Strike first! That'll teach him a lesson. Then he'll leave us in peace and stop peering at me in that totally unacceptable way.

Mr Bush makes it clear that all he needs to know before bombing Iraq is that Saddam is a really nasty man and that he has weapons of mass destruction - even if no one can find them. I'm certain I've just as much justification for killing Mr Johnson's wife and children as Mr Bush has for bombing Iraq. Mr Bush's long-term aim is to make the world a safer place by eliminating 'rogue states' and 'terrorism'. It's such a clever long-term aim because how can you ever know when you've achieved it?

How will Mr Bush know when he's wiped out all terrorists? When every single terrorist is dead? But then a terrorist is only a terrorist once he's committed an act of terror. What about would-be terrorists?

These are the ones you really want to eliminate, since most of the known terrorists, being suicide bombers, have already eliminated themselves. Perhaps Mr Bush needs to wipe out everyone who could possibly be a future terrorist? Maybe he can't be sure he's achieved his objective until every Muslim fundamentalist is dead? But then some moderate Muslims might convert to fundamentalism. Maybe the only really safe thing to do would be for Mr Bush to eliminate all Muslims?

It's the same in my street. Mr Johnson and Mr Patel are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of other people in the street who I don't like and who - quite frankly - look at me in odd ways. No one will be really safe until I've wiped them all out. My wife says I might be going too far but I tell her I'm simply using the same logic as the President of the United States. That shuts her up.

Like Mr Bush, I've run out of patience, and if that's a good enough reason for the President, it's good enough for me. I'm going to give the whole street two weeks - no, 10 days - to come out in the open and hand over all aliens and interplanetary hijackers, galactic outlaws and interstellar terrorist masterminds, and if they don't hand them over nicely and say `Thank you', I'm going to bomb the entire street to kingdom come.

These Navy "seals" to spot anything fishy in the Persian Gulf

**Real seals are being drafted for special ops work in the event of a war in the Persian Gulf. Via Salon News:

Brought to the Persian Gulf to swim alongside naval vessels and key facilities in this kingdom, Zachary and the other whiskered sea mammals will guard against attack, providing early warning of enemy saboteurs.

``If there is somebody down there who shouldn't be there, the sea lions will find them,'' said Lt. J.G. Josh Frey, a spokesman for the Navy's 5th Fleet.

The need for the stealthy sea lion was highlighted after the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole. The bombing, blamed on al-Qaida, occurred when a seemingly harmless dinghy eased up to the destroyer and blew a hole in its hull, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.

A sea lion patrol, had it been there, might not have been able to detect the Cole attackers because they were above the surface, but the bombing demonstrated the vulnerability of navy ships to small-scale assault.

The U.S. military has used intelligent sea creatures for three decades, including dolphins that patrolled Persian Gulf waters during the late 1980s. But it is the first time sea lions are being used in an operation.

Full article: Sea lions deployed to Persian Gulf with U.S. Navy

Byrd: Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences

**Senator Robert Byrd gave a speech on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday, February 12, 2003. The text of this speech was carried in some form on about 700 Web sites. Here's the first half of it:

To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.

Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.

We stand passively mute in the United States Senate, paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers is there much substantive discussion of the prudence or imprudence of engaging in this particular war.

And this is no small conflagration we contemplate. This is no simple attempt to defang a villain. No. This coming battle, if it materializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possibly a turning point in the recent history of the world.

This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some other nation's -- hit list. High level Administration figures recently refused to take nuclear weapons off of the table when discussing a possible attack against Iraq. What could be more destabilizing and unwise than this type of uncertainty, particularly in a world where globalism has tied the vital economic and security interests of many nations so closely together? There are huge cracks emerging in our time-honored alliances, and U.S. inten-tions are suddenly subject to damaging worldwide speculation. Anti-Americanism based on mistrust, misinformation, suspicion, and alarming rhetoric from U.S. leaders is fracturing the once solid alliance against global terrorism which existed after September 11.

Full text of speech

What if Saddam cries Uncle?

** Columnist Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune posits Saddam's last chance -- and why he'll likely take it.

President Bush has put a gun to Saddam Hussein's head, and no one doubts that in the near future, he will be happy to pull the trigger. So there is only one other choice left to the Iraqi dictator: capitulation.

No one seems to regard that as a possibility. But judging from his past, it would not be a total surprise to see Hussein choose humiliation and survival over death and glory.
. . .
If Bush is hoping to force Hussein into submission, he's handled this showdown perfectly. But he has to be prepared to take yes for an answer.

Full text of article: In the drive toward war, a last exit

Tom Petty is pissed.

** There's a great interview in Rolling Stone where rocker Tom Petty takes on radio, the record companies, TV and even music artists themselves and demands a firmer moral grounding.

Tom Petty's determined, sometimes defiant attitude has collided with the music business throughout the years. ... That same spirit is alive and well on Petty's latest album, The Last DJ, which takes a hard look at the lack of moral grounding in the music business. The title track has kicked up considerable controversy, with some radio stations seeing the song as a slap in the face and banning it. But Petty is not just biting the hand that feeds him. Music is only the beginning of what's pissing him off these days. "The Last DJ is a story about morals more than the music business," he says. "It's really about vanishing personal freedoms."

Toward an informed and balanced approach to war with Iraq

** The Christian Science Monitor summarizes "without fear or favor" the major pros and cons about the invasion of Iraq."
War against Iraq: questions and answers

More detail on the oil grab scenario

** Via the Christian Science Monitor: Oil plays starring role in plans for post-Hussein Iraq

One thing is certain: Even if oil is not America's prime motive in confronting Iraq (as some Bush critics allege), the resource figures centrally in US plans.

'To love where others hate': Peacemakers lauded

Via St. Paul Minnesota Pioneer Press | 02/03/2003 |

As the U.S. prepares for war, a group gathered Sunday afternoon at Hamline University to note a lesson of compassion and selflessness from last century's bloodiest war.

Sixty years ago today, the U.S. Army troopship Dorchester sank off the coast of Greenland after being torpedoed by a German U-boat, killing 672 men. In the tragedy, four chaplains of different faiths gave up their life preservers so that others might live, an act that emerged as one of World War II's enduring stories.

On Sunday, the Immortal Chaplains Foundation awarded its fifth-annual Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity for those who risked their lives to protect others of a different faith or ethnic origin.

In a showing of reconciliation, among those attending was the first officer of the U-boat that sank the Dorchester.

"We the sailors of U-223 regret the deep sorrow and pain caused by the torpedo. Wives lost their husbands and parents lost their sons,'' said Gerhard Buske. "I ask for forgiveness. We had to fight for our country, as your soldiers had to do.''

Buske, who spent two years in a Canadian prisoner of war camp, also said it was important to apply what happened in 1943 to today's world.

"We all should try to live in the sense of these immortal chaplains. We ought to learn to love where others hate,'' Buske said.

Complete article

It's the oil, stupid

** After Colin Powell's presentation to the UN last week, it would have been easy to conclude that it's worth sending troops, mostly US, into Iraq to rid the world of that bad, bad guy, Saddam, because he has lots of bad, bad stuff hidden away. But wait, what's new about that? The US gave Saddam all that bad, bad stuff in the first place. Now we want it back? What for?

Oil.

It's so obvious it's easy to overlook: Saddam controls Iraq's huge oil reserves and we want that oil for ourselves, without restriction. Many US companies stand to profit handsomely from a regime change in Iraq. That alone should make us cautious about wasting our youth in the streets of Baghdad.

That's what the organization Target Oil thinks. Here are a few highlights from an article on their Web site:

Weeks before a prospective invasion of Iraq, the oil-rich state has doubled its exports of oil to America, helping US refineries cope with a debilitating strike in Venezuela.

Saddam has offered lucrative contracts to companies from France, China, India and Indonesia as well as Russia.

It is only the oil majors based in Britain and America - now the leading military hawks - that don't have current access to Iraqi contracts.

A leaked oil analyst report from Deutsche Bank said ExxonMobil was in 'pole position in a changed-regime Iraq'.

Chevron used to employ the hawkish Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Adviser, as a member of its board. Five years ago the then Chevron chief executive Kenneth Derr, a colleague of Rice, said: 'Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas - reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to.'

Full article
See also:
Fueling war - Christian Science Monitor
December 05, 2002
With the cold war over, more global conflicts are being spurred by a scramble for natural resources rather than by geopolitics, and poor countries rich in mineral deposits are the new focal point.

Ten Reasons Why Many Gulf War Veterans Oppose Re-Invading Iraq

** By an anonymous Gulf war veteran
Article via Veterans for Common Sense

Take a wild ride from the infinite to the infinitesimal

Powers Of 10: Interactive Java Tutorial
View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

Also see Cosmic Zoom an 8-minute film made in 1968. This film probes the infinite magnitude of space, and its reverse, the ultimate minuteness of matter. Animation art and animation camera achieve this journey to the farthest conceivable point of the universe and then into the tiniest particle of existence--an atom of a living human cell--with a freshness and clarity that would seem impossible with other means of exposition. Film without words.

Missing the Meaning of Success

When Hamilton College celebrated its centennial, one of its most famous
alumni, Alexander Woolcott, was asked to give a major address. Horace Fenton
Jr., remembers that Wolcott opened his speech in this way: "I send my
greetings today to all my fellow alumni of Hamilton College, scattered all
over the world. Some of you are successes, and some of you are
failures--only God knows which are which!"

We don't always know success when we see it.

J. Ellsworth Kalas, If Experience Is Such A God Teacher Why Do I Keep
Repeating The Course, Nashville: Dimensions, 1994, p. 88.

McDonald's Coffee Case - What are the Facts?

Via Siegfried and Jensen law firm Web site

The now infamous case of a lawsuit against the McDonald's Corporation for serving dangerously hot coffee generated an extraordinary amount of public outcry. Every time I question potential jury members before a trial, I always hear the same thing. The potential jurors all say that the civil justice system is out of control and they refer to the McDonald's case. Then when I question them as to what they really know about the case, again, I always hear the same thing. All they know is that a jury awarded $2.7 million in damages to some little old lady who spilt coffee on herself while driving away from McDonald's drive through line. Unfortunately, just about none of this is what happened.
Here are the facts: