Links

Things I run across that I find to be interesting, but might not have the time or inclination to craft a fuller post around it. Generally, short little “go here, look at this, isn’t it neat?” posts.

Priceless historic treasures looted

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This hurt to read:

The world’s first written words may have been lost forever. After surviving for more than 5,000 years, distinctive clay tablets that are recognised as the root of all mankind’s written communication have either been destroyed or stolen in yesterday’s looting of the Iraqi national museum.

In addition to the tablets containing cuneiform writing – which utilises symbols chipped into the clay using wedge-shaped tools – thieves also took some of the world’s earliest examples of mathematics. These include calculations that have directly led to the modern system of timekeeping using hours, minutes and seconds based on the number six.

Questions regarding Saddam's statue

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Some questions regarding the widely publicised images of Saddam’s statue getting toppled. This is more information that resides in that netherland of suspicion, rumor, and possible conspiracy theories, so keep that in mind.

From this Agonist post, we go to Kynn Bartlett’s comments on the apparent lack of people involved in the toppling of the statue, and then a comment to Kynn’s post by ‘Citizen Able’ leads us to this DC Indymedia post with another look at the picture in question, along with some other (less credible, IMHO) implications.

As I said, this is definitely veering further into possible paranoid conspiracy theory territory. The thing is, those are just so much fun! Just remember not to disengage your brain.

Bush and religion

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Looks like I’m not the only one concerned about the rapidly disappearing divide between church and state under Bush’s regime. According to Reuters, a fair amount of Europe is finding this to be cause for concern:

German President Johannes Rau, a Protestant preacher’s son who makes no secret of his own faith, reacted sharply this week on n-tv television to press reports that Bush believed defeating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was part of a divine plan.

“George Bush has got a completely one-sided message. I don’t think a people gets a sign from God to liberate another people,” he said. “Nowhere does the Bible call for crusades.”

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, a vocal critic of the war, said before hostilities broke out last month that he saw Christian fundamentalism gaining influence in Washington and added: “That is, of course, a dangerous point of departure.”

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, asked about a U.S. weekly’s cover story on Bush and God, told Le Point magazine: “In no way can God be called on for a vote of confidence.”

(via Chronicle Corvidae)

80 days (Where were you, part 2)

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Time Magazine has a special issue out now where to celebrate their 80th anniversary, they pick eighty days that changed the world — their choice for the 80 most important days of the past 80 years. Very, very cool, and I think it’ll be worth picking up a copy of the magazine, in addition to pouring through the web version.

Going through the dates they chose reminded me a lot of my ‘Where were you?’ post from a little over a year ago. I might tie the two together at some point. Or maybe not. Who knows?

(via MeFi)

Stay out of Photoshop

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An L.A. Times photographer has just been fired after it was discovered that the photo he submitted and ended up getting placed on the front page had been digitally manipulated. The retraction in the L.A. Times is unusually good, too, including both of the original images, and the final altered image that was printed.

(via MeFi)

The truth? We can't handle the truth!

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Okay, forget about worrying whether or not the media is biased — we’ll have a hard enough time trying to figure out if they’re actually telling the truth or not that we won’t have to worry about bias.

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the \$425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

I can kind of understand the court not wanting to get in the middle of this by actually declaring it illegal for a news broadcast to knowingly transmit false information — the accountability should be a responsibility of the news organization, otherwise what accountability do they have? What disgusts me is that Fox’s lawyers “argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.” Just disgusting.

Bearing that in mind, though, I now have absolutely no desire to pay any attention to any news report coming from Fox Television. Pretty hard to trust an organization that would do this.