Very fine and revealing photos. John Francis Peters' comments are as
moving as his photographs. Between the two, you have a deeper
understanding of the country, its' people and their spirit. This is in
the very best tradition of LIFE photojournalism. The son of John
Francis Peters, one of my favorite Artists, he has his father's eye.
http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/38672/haiti-shortly-before-the-quake
The iPhone's application capabilities continue to astound us. We've
seen on-the-fly multitrack recording already in our a cappella review
of Sonoma's 4Track app, but this one takes it to a whole new level.
Voice band is a multitrack recording app that lets you build up the
sound of a full band, including guitars, bass, drums, sax, synths and
vocals, using only your voice as an input. The demo video shows just
how simple this process is, and how astoundingly good the results are.
Amazing stuff.
seen on-the-fly multitrack recording already in our a cappella review
of Sonoma's 4Track app, but this one takes it to a whole new level.
Voice band is a multitrack recording app that lets you build up the
sound of a full band, including guitars, bass, drums, sax, synths and
vocals, using only your voice as an input. The demo video shows just
how simple this process is, and how astoundingly good the results are.
Amazing stuff.
The Right Testicle of Hell:
History of a Haitian Holocaust Blackwater before drinking water by Greg Palast for The Huffington Post
Sunday 17 January 2010 1. Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost
immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On
Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States
promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed
to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few
days," Mr. Obama? 2. There's no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. 200,000 Haitians
have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF "austerity" plans. 3. A friend of mine called. Do I know a journalist who could get
medicine to her father? And she added, trying to hold her voice
together, "My sister, she's under the rubble. Is anyone going who can
help, anyone?" Should I tell her, "Obama will have Marines there in 'a
few days'"? 4. China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China,
Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US
bases in Puerto Rico: right there. 5. Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I don't know how this
government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it
has." We know Gates doesn't know. 6. From my own work in the field, I know that FEMA has access to
ready-to-go potable water, generators, mobile medical equipment and
more for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. It's all still there.
Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who served as the task force commander
for emergency response after Hurricane Katrina, told the Christian
Science Monitor, "I thought we had learned that from Katrina, take
food and water and start evacuating people." Maybe we learned but,
apparently, Gates and the Defense Department missed school that day. 7. Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're
good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after
three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any
emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19
helicopters. 8. But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully
equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field,
deployed immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment,
three tons of water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water
purifying capability. They're from Iceland. 9. Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was
no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush
and allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his
lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water. 10. Previous US presidents have acted far more swiftly in getting
troops on the ground on that island. Haiti is the right half of the
island of Hispaniola. It's treated like the right testicle of Hell.
The Dominican Republic the left. In 1965, when Dominicans demanded the
return of Juan Bosch, their elected President, deposed by a junta,
Lyndon Johnson reacted to this crisis rapidly, landing 45,000 US
Marines on the beaches to prevent the return of the elected president. 11. How did Haiti end up so economically weakened, with
infrastructure, from hospitals to water systems, busted or
non-existent - there are two fire stations in the entire nation - and
infrastructure so frail that the nation was simply waiting for
"nature" to finish it off?
Don't blame Mother Nature for all this death and destruction. That
dishonor goes to Papa Doc and Baby Doc, the Duvalier dictatorship,
which looted the nation for 28 years. Papa and his Baby put an
estimated 80% of world aid into their own pockets - with the
complicity of the US government happy to have the Duvaliers and their
voodoo militia, Tonton Macoutes, as allies in the Cold War. (The war
was easily won: the Duvaliers' death squads murdered as many as 60,000
opponents of the regime.) 12. What Papa and Baby didn't run off with, the IMF finished off
through its "austerity" plans. An austerity plan is a form of voodoo
orchestrated by economists zomby-fied by an irrational belief that
cutting government services will somehow help a nation prosper. 13. In 1991, five years after the murderous Baby fled, Haitians
elected a priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who resisted the IMF's
austerity diktats. Within months, the military, to the applause of
Papa George HW Bush, deposed him. History repeats itself, first as
tragedy, then as farce. The farce was George W. Bush. In 2004, after
the priest Aristide was re-elected President, he was kidnapped and
removed again, to the applause of Baby Bush. 14. Haiti was once a wealthy nation, the wealthiest in the hemisphere,
worth more, wrote Voltaire in the 18th century, than that rocky, cold
colony known as New England. Haiti's wealth was in black gold: slaves.
But then the slaves rebelled - and have been paying for it ever since.
From 1825 to 1947, France forced Haiti to pay an annual fee to
reimburse the profits lost by French slaveholders caused by their
slaves' successful uprising. Rather than enslave individual Haitians,
France thought it more efficient to simply enslave the entire nation. 15. Secretary Gates tells us, "There are just some certain facts of
life that affect how quickly you can do some of these things." The
Navy's hospital boat will be there in, oh, a week or so. Heckuva job,
Brownie! 16. Note just received from my friend. Her sister was found, dead; and
her other sister had to bury her. Her father needs his anti-seizure
medicines. That's a fact of life too, Mr. President. ***
Through our journalism network, we are trying to get my friend's
medicines to her father. If any reader does have someone getting into
or near Port-au-Prince, please contact Haiti@GregPalast.com
immediately.
Urgently recommended reading - The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, the history of the
successful slave uprising in Hispaniola by the brilliant CLR James.
History of a Haitian Holocaust Blackwater before drinking water by Greg Palast for The Huffington Post
Sunday 17 January 2010 1. Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost
immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On
Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States
promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed
to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few
days," Mr. Obama? 2. There's no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. 200,000 Haitians
have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF "austerity" plans. 3. A friend of mine called. Do I know a journalist who could get
medicine to her father? And she added, trying to hold her voice
together, "My sister, she's under the rubble. Is anyone going who can
help, anyone?" Should I tell her, "Obama will have Marines there in 'a
few days'"? 4. China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China,
Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US
bases in Puerto Rico: right there. 5. Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I don't know how this
government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it
has." We know Gates doesn't know. 6. From my own work in the field, I know that FEMA has access to
ready-to-go potable water, generators, mobile medical equipment and
more for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. It's all still there.
Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who served as the task force commander
for emergency response after Hurricane Katrina, told the Christian
Science Monitor, "I thought we had learned that from Katrina, take
food and water and start evacuating people." Maybe we learned but,
apparently, Gates and the Defense Department missed school that day. 7. Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're
good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after
three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any
emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19
helicopters. 8. But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully
equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field,
deployed immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment,
three tons of water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water
purifying capability. They're from Iceland. 9. Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was
no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush
and allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his
lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water. 10. Previous US presidents have acted far more swiftly in getting
troops on the ground on that island. Haiti is the right half of the
island of Hispaniola. It's treated like the right testicle of Hell.
The Dominican Republic the left. In 1965, when Dominicans demanded the
return of Juan Bosch, their elected President, deposed by a junta,
Lyndon Johnson reacted to this crisis rapidly, landing 45,000 US
Marines on the beaches to prevent the return of the elected president. 11. How did Haiti end up so economically weakened, with
infrastructure, from hospitals to water systems, busted or
non-existent - there are two fire stations in the entire nation - and
infrastructure so frail that the nation was simply waiting for
"nature" to finish it off?
Don't blame Mother Nature for all this death and destruction. That
dishonor goes to Papa Doc and Baby Doc, the Duvalier dictatorship,
which looted the nation for 28 years. Papa and his Baby put an
estimated 80% of world aid into their own pockets - with the
complicity of the US government happy to have the Duvaliers and their
voodoo militia, Tonton Macoutes, as allies in the Cold War. (The war
was easily won: the Duvaliers' death squads murdered as many as 60,000
opponents of the regime.) 12. What Papa and Baby didn't run off with, the IMF finished off
through its "austerity" plans. An austerity plan is a form of voodoo
orchestrated by economists zomby-fied by an irrational belief that
cutting government services will somehow help a nation prosper. 13. In 1991, five years after the murderous Baby fled, Haitians
elected a priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who resisted the IMF's
austerity diktats. Within months, the military, to the applause of
Papa George HW Bush, deposed him. History repeats itself, first as
tragedy, then as farce. The farce was George W. Bush. In 2004, after
the priest Aristide was re-elected President, he was kidnapped and
removed again, to the applause of Baby Bush. 14. Haiti was once a wealthy nation, the wealthiest in the hemisphere,
worth more, wrote Voltaire in the 18th century, than that rocky, cold
colony known as New England. Haiti's wealth was in black gold: slaves.
But then the slaves rebelled - and have been paying for it ever since.
From 1825 to 1947, France forced Haiti to pay an annual fee to
reimburse the profits lost by French slaveholders caused by their
slaves' successful uprising. Rather than enslave individual Haitians,
France thought it more efficient to simply enslave the entire nation. 15. Secretary Gates tells us, "There are just some certain facts of
life that affect how quickly you can do some of these things." The
Navy's hospital boat will be there in, oh, a week or so. Heckuva job,
Brownie! 16. Note just received from my friend. Her sister was found, dead; and
her other sister had to bury her. Her father needs his anti-seizure
medicines. That's a fact of life too, Mr. President. ***
Through our journalism network, we are trying to get my friend's
medicines to her father. If any reader does have someone getting into
or near Port-au-Prince, please contact Haiti@GregPalast.com
immediately.
Urgently recommended reading - The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, the history of the
successful slave uprising in Hispaniola by the brilliant CLR James.
Do you spend your Sundays donning your favorite football jersey while
glued to the television? Does it ever feel like you spend more time
seeing beer-bellied fans in the stands and endless replays than actual
live football action? Well, you’re not hallucinating because a new
Wall Street Journal study reveals that, during the 174 minutes of a
typical NFL broadcast, only 11 minutes shows live action.
The WSJ research team (not a bad gig) found that the other 163 minutes
of game time is made up of 75 minutes of commercials, 67 minutes of
players standing around, 17 minutes of replays, 11 minutes of coaches
shots and only 3 seconds of scantily-clad cheerleaders.
Why do football players always look so sweaty then? Is it the tight pants?
Extra, Extra--Read All About ACORN BY KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL
On Christmas Eve, buried on page A24 of my edition of the New York
Times, was this story: "The controversial community organizing group
Acorn has not broken any laws in the last five years, according to a
Congressional Research Service report released Tuesday evening."
Indeed, the CRS report--requested in September by House Judiciary
Committee Chairman John Conyers and House Financial Services Committee
Chairman Barney Frank--finds no instances in which ACORN "violated the
terms of federal funding in the last five years," and no instances of
individuals allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN
"attempting to vote at the polls."
The US Department of Justice, The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind announced Wednesday that use of Amazon.com's Kindle e-book reader device in the classroom
discriminates against students with vision problems.
Absurd! Students should not watch films, read books that are not
available in Braille. work with textbooks or use their iPhone. Blind
people don't need pity nor do they need to interfere with a sighted
person's life just because they think it's unfair that they can't do
things the same way. I had a doctor in Allentown PA who was blind from 4 years old, but he found a way to get a medical education and degree from John Hopkins. He didn't need a Kindle but he didn't think that you should not use one because he couldn't.
Organ Damage In Rats From Monsanto GMO Corn
A study published in December 2009 in the International Journal of
Biological Sciences found that three varieties of Monsanto
genetically-modified corn caused damage to the liver, kidneys, and
other organs of rats. Quoting from the study's 'Conclusions' section:
'Our analysis highlights that there was a clear negative impact on the
function of the kidneys and liver in rats consuming GM maize varieties for just 90 days. Given the very high prevalence of corn in processed foods, this could be a real ticking time bomb. And with food manufacturers not being
required by law to declare GMO content, I think I'll do my best to
avoid corn altogether. Pass the puffed rice.
Link: http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm
During several months of 2009, Moscow police looked at fake pictures
displayed on their monitors instead of what was supposed to be video
from the city surveillance cams. The subcontractor providing the cams
was paid on the basis of 'the number of working cams,' so he delivered
pre-cooked pictures.
The camera company CEO has been arrested."