Saturday Links – Early

Posted on August 26, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Guess where this was shot? Read on to find out.

Since I may not have time Saturday to post them, here is my list of most interesting links of the week, a day early.

Another Service Decline: From Citizen to Patient: Benedict Carey in the NYT explains how dehumanization and loss of identity is hurting relationships in medical facilities and therefore reducing the quality of care. “The point is that when they talk about quality of health care, patients mean something entirely different than experts do,” said Dr. Drew Altman. In an institution like a hospital, “the territories of the self are violated,” [Dr. Erving Goffman] wrote. “The boundary that the individual places between his being and the environment is invaded and the embodiments of the self profaned.” This is the second in a series of NYT articles on challenges in the health care system.

An Exemplary Animal Rights Site: Humanefood.ca has been compiled by a coalition of organizations concerned with farm animal welfare. They’re using carefully-placed, non-sensational TV spots to draw people to the website (you can view them on the site). The site itself isn’t begging for money or stirring outrage. It’s communicating useful, objective facts and telling you (in the You Can Help section) precisely what you can do to help — and not just by writing letters to politicians and the media, but by changing your purchasing decisions and working with local grocery stores, restaurants and farms.

The LifeStraw: Gizmag describes a new invention with no moving parts and using no electricity that could save tens of millions of lives per year, the lives of people who now die from preventable water-borne diseases that are caused by overcrowding and lack of sufficient money and infrastructure to treat water properly.

Reintroducing Wilderness in the US: National Geographic describes a controversial ‘rewilding’ plan to create “ecological history parks” where the descendants of ice age creatures would be introduced into the plains states where human populations are declining. Good idea or bad? Thanks to Lavonne at BornFamous for the link.

Natural Clothing for the UK: By Nature offers organic, environment-friendly clothing, gifts, housewares, cosmetics and foods for caring British and European consumers.

Google Desktop 2 and Google Talk: If anyone doesn’t know already, Google Desktop 2 offers a side bar with news and other handy stuff (not yet very useful to me, though it’s open source so additional content may change that) and a Search Bar that shows results as you type each letter, and allows you to open those results without even using your browser to display them. Google Talk offers a stripped-down competitor for Skype, and for IM, and proposes that competitors match their IM tools to Google’s to eliminate all the separate and incompatible IM products out there.

Utah Cops Go Nuts: Attendees at a recent outdoor concert in Utah, which had all the necessary permits, were assaulted by land and air by a small army of power-crazed and brutal police authorities. The cops injured dozens, terrorized the concert-goers and caused thousands of dollars in damage, in addition to violating just about every law imaginable. Screen capture from one attendee’s video is shown above. Must be a red state.

TV Sports Without Announcers: As a consequence of the brutal CBC lockout, the management of the CBC has been trying out sports event coverage without commentators, describing it as “the stadium experience at home”. I used to get this experience on the ‘feed’ channels on the old Big Ugly Dish satellites, and it was wonderful. CBC viewers apparently agree. Now if we could only get this for gymnastics, diving and figure skating, and rid the world of the scourge of ‘colour commentators’ entirely.

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7 Responses to Saturday Links – Early

Randall says:

August 26, 2005 at 14:58

Dave, Google Talk is not really advocating that competitors match their IM tools to theirs. Instead they are placing a loud vote for standards-based messaging (Jabber, XMPP). As an aside, Jabber has an entire ecosystem of OS agnostic servers and software built already and does not require Google. Google merely adds (assumably) a large bank of stable, professionally managed messaging servers.Google’s strategy, over time will expose Microsoft (Yahoo, Skype, and AOL) for the monopolists (or attempted monopolists) that they are, having unsuccessfully attempted to lock us in to their proprietary protocols. Hats off to Google for this. The roach motels no longer seem so inviting. (Now if only they would release some client software that doesn’t require prayer at the Church of Microsoft.)
Susan Hales says:

August 26, 2005 at 19:14

Dave, here’s a good link for more information on the Utah incident – and thanks for that story – I’ve been mad before but not like this – these are my kid’s friends – Oddly, last night I was reading a section of the Glory and the Dream, particularly the section about the 64-68 years, looking for what happened on the day Allen Ginssberg wrote Crossing Nation, June 19, 1968 — http://plagiarist.com/poetry/3739/ — in which he described events not unlike what we are seeing today…here’s an excerpt…Jerry Rubin arrested! Beaten, jailed, coccyx broken–Leary out of action–“a public menace… persons of tender years…immature judgement…pyschiatric examination…”i.e. Shut up or Else Loonybin or SlamLeroi on bum gun rap, $7,000 lawyer fees, years’ negotiations–SPOCK GUILTY headlined temporary, Joan Baez’ paramour husband Dave Harris to GaolDylan silent on politics, & safe– having a baby, a man–Cleaver shot at, jail’d, maddened, parole revoked,Vietnam War flesh-heap grows higher, blood splashing down the mountains of bodies on to Cholon’s sidewalks–Blond boys in airplane seats fed technicolor Murderers advance w/ Death-chords Earplugs in, steak on plastic served–Eyes up to the Image–What do I have to lose if America falls? my body? my neck? my personality? June 19, 1968
Zephyr says:

August 26, 2005 at 20:25

And, just for the record’s sake, here’s another excellent article detailing the incident in Utah.http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Dance_party_broken_up_by_police_in_Utah%2C_USA
Richard says:

August 27, 2005 at 05:21

What Randall said, except for Skype. Skype is a proprietary system that was purely a business play, that is, to lock you into their protocol, meaning you can’t legitimately use someone else’s software to access their servers. Google, it’s being strongly hinted, is going to use SIP, which means that you will be able to use any company’s software to access their system, as long as you have a Gmail account. That’s the one way they can deny you access, which is fine. People are saying that they’re using open standards to get people to use Gmail. In other words it’s a technology decision–using existing, open standards–and not a business decision. At least not a purely business decision in the case of Skype: Google can deny you access based on what server you have an account with; they just won’t deny you access based on what software you use.
Joe Deely says:

August 28, 2005 at 23:13

Although the LifeStraw is certainly a good.new invention.. it will definitely nothelp save tens of millions of lives every year!The estimates for deaths from “water issues are between 2-5 million people per year… look at World Health Organization data or for a great recap of water isses visit Pacific Institure.For example – http://www.pacinst.org/press_center/the_worlds_water_2004-2005/Gleick-CHAPTER01.pdf
Yves Grassioulet says:

August 29, 2005 at 08:26

Utah Cops Go Nuts – Nice strike, most cops hate ravers, for they often represent freedom in action! Drum’n bass get mad those who cannot freely think, those who are afraid of outdoor techno raves. Why is it so? Like in France, ravers are considered like outlaws. In a sum, here is how the Utah-like police cops think: Ravers = Freedom & music lovers = Drug users = Drug dealers = OutlawsShall we then logically say that the Utah cops are working against freedom and culture? I’d bet one X!
Dave Pollard says:

August 29, 2005 at 17:22

Randall/Richard/Joe: Thanks for the clarifications. Susan: “We have all been here before”. But can we learn?Zephyr: Thanks for the link. Amazing how the media ‘spin’ the facts to save the face of the authorities and justify such atrocities.Yves: I think that goes without saying. And the media are no better.