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September 28, 2008
they're back . . .
This summer, for the first time in about a century, there were no sunspots (regions of high magnetic activity on the Sun) for two months.
One finally appeared last week.
Seattle Times; 28 September, 2008; page A3
Posted by williamfrick at 9:38 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2008
judgement ?
KIW's staff finds this an important piece of video . . .
The Huffington Post; 26 September, 2008
Posted by williamfrick at 8:12 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2008
deja view . . .
According to Comedy Central's Mr. John Stewart,
"Those who do not study the past get an exciting opportunity to repeat it."Some of the more cynical among KIW's vast worldwide staff are smiling at Mr. Stewart's report (see below) - but others among us are feeling a bit queasy . . .
The DailyShow; 25 September, 2008
Posted by williamfrick at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2008
David Letterman misses John McCain . . .
24 September, 2008 - Ouch! Mr. David Letterman at his sharpest and most hilarious . . .
The entire staff is still chuckling :)
Posted by williamfrick at 7:52 PM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2008
Goa
Years ago one member of the vast worldwide staff here at KIW took a trip through India and wound up spending a few weeks in a intriguiging corner of that country called Goa.
Located on the central west coast, a few hundred miles south of Bombay, Goa's cruel history as a Portuguese colony separates its local culture from that of the rest of the subcontinent.
In the late 20th Century, Goa was the center of a swirling - and somewhat spiritual - hippie movement emphasing freedom, adventure, love . . .and eventually just drugs.
This small film documents the lives of some of the 1970s hippie characters. Among the saddest and most fascinating is Cleo Odzer.
Last Hippie Standing (2002). Written and directed by Marcus Robbin.
Posted by williamfrick at 5:21 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2008
Perry Mason
The entire staff of KIW have been fans of fictional attorney-at-law Mr. Perry Mason since the late 1960's when members of the vast worldwide staff used to beat the 3pm summer heat by heading indoors to watch a rerun every weekday.
Later, when members of KIW's legal department passed the bar examination and starting "practicing" law, we were impressed at the fine points of law and procedure accurately portrayed in the Perry Mason television show.
Recently, we have come to see the Perry Mason television show as brilliant made-for-television film noir, and as a truly-American anti-establishment myth that inspires us to think for ourselves and question authority.
The show, which began in 1957 and ran for nine years, consistently portrays the police and the government as wrong. Both entities jump to easy conclusions that, when subjected to rigorous examination, prove to be false. The lessons are that life is complicated, filled with grey areas, and that blind faith in the government is dangerous.
Check out this 1962 episode, which includes an appearance by young Robert Redford . . . 'The Case of the Treacherous Toupee'
We also loved (yet hated) this quote, for the truth that it speaks:
"That's the only place you see real justice done."72 year-old Hayden Jones, who, at the time he said this, was destitute and dying of cancer. He was commenting on why he was spending his last days watching legal dramas like Matlock and Perry Mason on television. (Jones was a Pennsylvania man who spent 21 years of his life in prison. He was framed by police in 1949 after refusing to pay them bribe, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His wife and three children were killed in an automobile accident on the way to visit him in prison. The state of Pennsylvania refused to compensate him for fear of establishing a precedent for paying those it has unjustly imprisoned.)
The Seattle Times; 5 May, 1996; p. A11
Viva Perry Mason! We need him now, more than ever.
Salon.com; 29 April, 2008; 'Legal appeal: Long before there was "Law and Order," a TV criminal defense attorney named Perry Mason brought high courtroom drama to the masses'
Posted by williamfrick at 9:35 PM | Comments (1)
a very nice story
Dr. Jay Rubenstein of the University of Tennessee is having a good year. He's getting published, getting rich, and has found a beautifully geeky girlfriend.
KIW's History Department is in deep envy.
Seattle Times; 21 September, 2008; p. A2; 'Monks made historian a genius'
pdf
Posted by williamfrick at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2008
historical perspective . . .
For the past few years something unpleasant has been brewing in the financial services industry.
That industry - banks, credit card and insurance companies, stock brokerages - is now twenty-one percent of the USA's gross national product - and is the largest sector of the USA's economy.
By contrast, in the 1970s, manufacturing was the largest sector - by a 2 to 1 margin. Today manufacturing is just twelve percent of the gross national product.
In other words, the USA has become a country that no longer primarily produces merchandise or physical items - iron or food or automobiles. Instead, in the past 30 years the USA has become a nation that primarily produces pieces of paper that promise payment of interest.
McClatchy Newspapers is an unfailingly good source of reliable information. This article from McClatchy gives an historical perspective on how-and-why the regulation of the financial services industry began in the 1930s (essentially because unregulated greed led to the Great Depression).
The article details how the 1930s regulations have been gradually removed during the political era that began with Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s - and implies that their removal is the reason that the world markets face a crisis in the waning days of summer 2008.
'Wall Street crisis is culmination of 28 years of deregulation'; McClatchy Newspapers; 15 September, 2008
see also: 'The Destructive Rise of Big Finance' by Kevin Phillips; Huffington Post; 31 March 2008
Posted by williamfrick at 8:43 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2008
Carl Maxey
KIW's favourite creature is currently ensconced in a fancy hotel in Spokane Washington. We hope to free her soon.
Meanwhile we came across a story about a fellow named Mr. Carl Maxey, who was Spokane's first black attorney - but in 1950 was refused a room in Spokane's swanky Davenport Hotel.
A boxer, a scholarship athlete, and a litigator, Mr. Maxey was at the forefront of the hard-fought civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s. He was one of Washington States' brightest lights. He died by suicide in 1997.
Seattle Times, 14 September, 2008; NW Arts&Life p. 15; 'A local catalyst for civil rights'
Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life by Jim Kershner, University of Washington Press, 264 pages; 2008
Posted by williamfrick at 6:47 PM | Comments (0)
taxes
A good friend of KIW recently stated that he would never vote for Mr. Barack Obama because Mr. Obama will raise his taxes.
We understand that.
But according to the facts, Mr. Obama is actually proposing to cut taxes - and cut them more than Mr. John McCain proposes to.
Take a look. CNN has done the math . . .
CNN: 11 September, 2008
Posted by williamfrick at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2008
Saudi Arabian authorities threaten Rupert Murdock's life
A top government/religious leader in Saudi Arabia has decreed that the owners of television networks that cause the "deviance of thousands of people" should be killed.
After reviewing this recent Saudi fatwa, KIW's international law department states that - luckily for the brains behind the USA's Fox News Channel - causing the deviance of millions of people is no hanging offense in the USA.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer; 13 September, 2008; p A3; Decree sanctions death for immoral TV shows
Posted by williamfrick at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2008
it is kind of puzzling . . .
Actor Matt Damon wants to know if Vice Presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, really believes that dinosaurs roamed our earth just 4000 years ago.
Come to think of it . . . so do we.
Watch his 90 second interview here.
It's worth the time :)
Posted by williamfrick at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
Roxanna Brown
an arrest in Seattle leads to a three part series in the Los Angeles Times . . .
The intriguing life, surprising arrest and prison death of an art lover; Los Angeles Times; September 10, 2008
Her career revived, scholar turns tipster; Los Angeles Times; September 12, 2008
Once an aid in a federal probe, antiquities scholar becomes a key target; Los Angeles Times; September 13, 2008
Roxanna Brown: A life in photos
Posted by williamfrick at 10:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 7, 2008
Neil Young (cont.)
Rock star and cultural icon, Neil Young, had lots to say about lots of things during a recent episode with fellow cultural icon Charlie Rose.
Among Neil's most intriguing projects, is his passion for a "car that runs on air."
KIW's Science Department says: don't laugh . . if Neil doesn't do it, someone . . . someday . . . just may.
And, oh yeah . . . Neil can rock-n-roll, too . . . 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' - Madison Square Garden, 1993
Watch the interview . . . The Charlie Rose Show; 14 July, 2008
See also:
Gas guzzlers get new lives -- as tire-smoking hybrids; CNN.com/ technology; 20 November 2007
Singer focuses energy on electric car; CNN.com/technology; 3 June, 2008
Posted by williamfrick at 2:22 PM | Comments (0)