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Starbucks. It’s a corporate symbol that some people love to love, and others love to hate. So what is it: epitome of the evils of globalization or a righteous sign of progressive business practices? Kim Fellner investigates.

Okay, so it’s not exactly an “investigation,” but the author does cover some interesting and thought-provoking topics, disabusing us of certain notions (e.g., that Starbucks is a monolith, lacking diversity in its workforce) while reasserting others (e.g., that Starbucks doesn’t do so hot with unions).

Anyway, it’s an interesting article that’s worth a read if the topic’s one that resonates with you.

(ColorLines: “The Starbucks Paradox” by Kim Fellner [April 27, 2004] via AlterNet)

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count offers something it calls fatality metrics, which allows you to instantly create a graph that, say, shows how many coalition forces, by age, have died so far (19.1% of fatalities being 20 or 21). Or you could graph fatalities by state (California leads, but PA’s #4, right after England—which I didn’t know was a state but, you know) or make a chart showing cause of death during the week of Christmas (16 by hostile fire), etc.

(CNN also has a comprehensive list of coalition casualties, including their pictures, hometowns, and details of their deaths, etc.)

And then of course there’s Iraq Body Count, where you can get a civilian count, which is far more daunting.

Hope this helps, Mr. Wolfowitz.

NEWSFLASH: Scientists say blockbuster global warming movie is on shaky ground.

Well, okay—so you’re not exactly surprised, are you.

What they also say, however, is that an oft-mentioned report commissioned by the Department of Defense (mentioned in this post, cough) which gives similar heed to doomsday environmental scenarios may also be on shaky ground.

In fact, the DoD study (which draws in part on strong scientific theory) was written up by two people, neither of whom (apparently) has any background as a climate scientist. Imagine that.

(via New Scientist: “Scientists stirred to ridicule ice age claims” by Fred Pearce [April 15, 2004])

In what was a potentially fatal gaffe, some HIV-positive US military personnel were vaccinated against smallpox; had any of the vaccinees been anything more than HIV-positive (i.e., had they had full-blown AIDs), even the weakened smallpox virus present in the vaccine might’ve put a serious crimp in their, um, living.

(On a more positive note, the incident did spawn some constructive debate on what exactly should be policy regarding smallpox vaccinations and HIV-positive people who also happen to be at risk of contracting the basically extinct disease [i.e., we’re assuming military personnel here])

(via EurekaAlert: “HIV-positive U.S. military personnel accidentally vaccinated against smallpox” [April 15, 2004])

Some new pictures added to the trusty photo-gallery, mostly in the Oh Canada section (though there’s a new picture on the critters page, too—of spinoni at a dog show in Harrisburg). The windmilly pictures are of a wind-farm in Canada, and the coast/forest pictures are from various sites, mostly along the coast of Maine and Canada.

• News: “Duke University is eliminating 8 a.m. classes and trying to come up with other ways help its sleep-deprived students, who too often are struggling to survive on a mix of caffeine, adrenaline, and ambition.” Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah. News you can appreciate, if not actually benefit from.(via Boglo)
• Some low-impact living initiative fact sheets. Good stuff. (via MeFi)
• Not that we necessarily needed to have access to this, but it’s kinda fun to see (read, at least) bathroom graffiti from bathrooms around the country (or world, whatever). (via MeFi)
• The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has an interesting memo written by a U.S official in Iraq. You should, how do they say it, read the asparagus, it’s good for you.
• And another big cheese at McDonald’s bites the dust; like the last one, he (the person who brought the franchise to Japan) is killed by a heart attack.

Told Lavinia, look: the pictures are out, what d’you want us to do. Said Ell, we aren’t a young man anymore, we aren’t like we used to be. And things, other things aren’t the same either. It’s no longer like we can what wave a hand and have somebody here doing something’s for us anymore.

…and the answer, apropos of my earlier post today, is:

* Some restrictions may apply

…because you couldn’t decide whether or not you really wanted to read this book.

Yeah, right.

So, um, yeah, a great book, this Fight Club. Hands-down (well, almost—I’m not sure about Americana) this is the best first novel I’ve ever read, i.e., the best “this-is-so-and-so’s-first-novel” book, so-and-so in this case being Chuck Palahniuk. Brilliant, really. I’ve read Survivor, Lullaby, and Choke, and thought they were all swell but. This book’s kinda like the grandaddy of them, and so scores some points in originality. Which isn’t to say that the others aren’t original in their own way, but some of the conventions (sorry, can’t think of a better word) get re-used, whereas they’re fresh and crisp in FC. Why? I don’t know.

But it’s great. The word frenetic comes to mind. The pacing in this book is absolutely ridiculously genius. You pick up the book and start reading, and right away it’s:

“Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. For a long time though, Tyler and I were best friends. People are always asking, did I know about Tyler Durden.” (page 1 [or whatever; the first page of the story, I don’t think it’s page one—okay, so it’s page 11])

Anyway, FC the Movie is remarkably faithful to the book, which, if you happened to like the movie, is a good thing. If not, keep in mind that the book does a better job than the movie at most things, visual representation not being one of them. But if you haven’t? Read this book. You’ll thank me or you won’t.

“Goodbye Sunshine” is a Guardian article that keeps turning up in the oddest places. It was picked up by Slashdot sometime close to the original publication. MeFi seems to latch on to it from time to time (I can’t find the other time, but I know it’s there), too. And it’s even found itself a home in the ‘external sources’ section of a Wikipedia article on global dimming.

(So what’s the article say? Oh, nothing much—just that the amount of the sun’s (that’s the bright thing in the sky that you’re not supposed to look at) energy reaching earth has declined approximately 3% every 10 years, for a 10% total decrease in solar energy over the past 30 years.)

In fairness, it’s a very good and important article, and you should probably read it. So here I am, linking to it. Oh well. So much for forgoing the bandwagon.

(via Guardian: “Goodbye Sunshine” by David Adam [December 18, 2003] and other linked sources)

Taking a giant leap forward from the quote-unquote ‘traditional’ quicktime virtual-reality offerings—boxes that were like at most two inches wide, these tiny spaces that offered a vague sense of control in that you could pan around 360°—Fullscreen QTVR has some imagery that is quite frankly amazing. Everything from the top of Mt. Everest to the streets of Paris to sarcophagal tombs to, e.g., the $1-million-whatever Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. Which, if you’re in to that sort of thing, are pretty interesting. Some of them even offer sound.

(via CSM: “QTVR takes a giant leap forward” by Jim Reagan [April 21, 2004])

Finally.

Hale said the 57-pound calf is friendly, likes to drink milk from its mother and enjoys lapping up water by using both tongues.

(via Local6/AP: “Three-Eyed, Double-Mouthed Calf In Good Health” [April 21, 2004])

Brad Templeton–who works for the EFF, an electronic privacy group, and who also has close personal ties with Google management–has a very thorough look at some of the privacy issues surrounding the G-mail service currently being tested by Google. One of the tidbits of information I found most interesting is a privacy rule that already exists, a “180 day rule” for e-mail archived on 3rd party servers:

In the hoped-for event that your webmail archives are protected by the ECPA [Electronic Communications Privacy Act] as what it calls an ECS, they lose some of that protection after 180 days. This is not news, but a product like GMail, which encourages long-term archving of e-mail with the web mail provider brings the question to the forefront. After 180 days your e-mail archives can now be fetched without a warrant, through a special ECPA court order or a subpoena. (In most cases, but not all, you will get notice of such seizures.)

Food for thought.

(via Blogdex Link Diffusion)

The thing about holidays is, they’re utterly insidious. Evil? Maybe. I certainly wouldn’t be so quick to rule out the idea. Holidays instill a sense of complacency, a lukewarm, mind-numbing sense that everything’s gonna be okay. Not only official holidays (e.g., Christmas) but also the flimsier holidays, the ones who get their names on some calendars but not others and which allow for some degree of ritual. The ‘holiday’ of note today being, yes, earth day. (Or is it Earth Day?)

I’m all for the earth (go earth! go! go!) but I’m not so sure this whole Earth Day schtick is exactly a positive development.

Continue Reading »

Let’s see, you’ve got your SUV, and then you’ve got your BUV…

The BUV, or “basic utility vehicle,” is low-tech, inexpensive… and rugged enough to handle run-down roads in developing countries.

…

Ideally, BUVs should have 95 per cent fewer parts than typical cars, weigh no more than 227 kilograms, and sell for less than $1,300 (U.S.). Fuel efficiency is a priority: They’re intended to run on gas or diesel at about 3.9 litres for every 100 kilometres travelled, using a 0-horsepower engine.*

Note: 227 kg = 500 lbs; 3.9 liters = 1 gal; 100 kilometers = 62 mi

(via Globe and Mail: “Cheap thrills” by Dawn Walton [April 17, 2004])

(1996) directed by Matthew Bright - starring Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Wolfgang Bodison, Dan Hedaya, Brooke Shields, and Amanda Plummer

Synopsis: Think ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ meets ‘Pulp Fiction’ meets ‘The Green Mile’ meets Law&Order. Reese plays the symbolic Little Red Riding Hood (her name is Vanessa, but she wears red—close enough, I guess), who flees home to make the journey to her Grandma’s place in Northern California. Along the way she meets Kiefer Sutherland, who plays youth counselor Bob Wolverton. (hint hint) Oh, right, and there’s news of an I-5 serial killer; troubles at home with Vanessa’s parents getting arrested; and eventual troubles in a juvenile correction facililty while Vanessa’s trial (for something that happens on the way to Grandma’s house—I wouldn’t want to give away too much) lumbers onward. There’s a fair amount of callous violence and blood, odd juxtapositions (this would be from the Little Red Riding Hood motif) and too-numerous-to-count obscenity-studded-obloquies.

Review: Given the persistently dark and dreary circumstances permeating throughout the duration of the film, it’s amazing how much comic energy ‘Freeway’ actually manages to muster. Some people might be offended, sure, but my guess is that those people aren’t the target audience for a movie that takes the story of Little Red Riding Hood and casts it in a perveted, callous world. Not as high-camp as you might expect, ‘Freeway’ nonetheless manages to skewer countless targets, from social institutions and norms to, well, just about everything. By the time the credits roll, you’re not entirely sure what the point was, even though there’s no question of the movie having made an impression; despite appearances, this is not a thoughtless comedic romp. Still, there are problems. Mostly that Freeway is never entirely sure what it wants to do, and, as a result, often tries to do eight or nine things at once, never bothering to devote its attention to any one thing. The only thing that keeps this movie from missing its mark completely is the overarching (isn’t that a great word? overarching!) story of LRRH, which at the very least gives a rough idea of direction to the movie as a whole. Without LRRH, you have the sense that this movie would probably get distracted and fall apart at the seams, veering off on some completely worthless tangent. As it is, plot and character development seem basically arbitrary and random, but at least stay entertaining and provocative, even when you’re not sure exactly what’s happening. Is Freeway a great movie? No. Is it original? Yes. Is it grotesquely, irreverently over-the-top funny? That probably depends on you. I thought it was, but I can see how someone else might not.

Rating: [•••½] out of [•••••]

Etc:: AllMovie info; IMDB info

Batman and Robin are apparently alive and well, fighting crime and doing good in the streets of… er… Whitley.

Michelle Kirby, from Whitley, was stranded in Whitley Wood Lane when her Peugeot 206 ran out of petrol on Easter Sunday.

But our Batman and Robin appeared out of nowhere to save the day and push her car to the nearest petrol station.

“They just appeared. I saw them running down the road in Batman and Robin outfits – I was laughing so much,” she said. “It was like a scene out of Only Fools and Horses and they stayed in character the whole time.

“They said, ‘I’m Batman, I’m Robin’ and I said, ‘No, you’re not’ and asked them if they were going to a fancy dress party but they said they were going back to Gotham City.”

…

“I also saw them on Sunday running down the streets of Whitley around lunchtime – out of Northumberland Avenue on to Whitley Wood Road.

“Then at the cup final they ordered the streakers off the pitch and then disappeared, jumped into a car and drove off.”

He could not confirm if this was the Batmobile and refused to give up the names.

(Reading Evening Post: “Holy Heroes!” [April 21, 2004] via xoverboard)

No, really!

Well, okay, not really.

According to Government data, 43,000 people have been killed by asbestos since 1973. That’s people whose death certificates acknowledge mesothelioma or asbestosis as the cause of death, i.e., definite asbestos deaths, not vague and nonfactual speculation. (Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by asbestos; asbestosis is a disease brought on by lung scarring.)

Taking into account a more complete assessment of mesothelioma/asbestosis deaths and also accounting for lung and gastrointestinal cancer, that number would probably be about 230,000.

230,000.

Not only that, but as reporting becomes more thorough, more complete (and as time treads onward), a surprising picture is emerging: more and more people are dying every year from asbestos.

The Environmental Working Group Action Fund has a devastatingly thorough (and easily navigable) web site, which covers the asbestos ‘epidemic’ in full, stunning detail: the facts, the industry reaction, current news coverage, and so forth.

It’s probably more information than you personally might need (and more than can easily be digested), but a valuable resource nonetheless, particularly for anyone who may be dealing with asbestos-related health problems in one way or another.

(via EWG Action Fund: “The Asbestos Epidemic In America”)