Art on the coast

Bush Melody 1996 by Irene Daly from the Regional Art Collection

Grafton Regional Gallery recently announced that its combined collections are now valued at an estimated $1 million plus.

Congratulations to Clarence Valley Council and gallery director, management and staff.

Juan's a jolly swagman and other signs of Internet stupidity

There's been a bit of talk out there this week about Nicholas Carr's The Atlantic online article Is Google making us stupid? This article is a good read.
Over four pages Nicholas worries that deep reading is now an effort after years of being able to get a quick information fix via the world wide web and points to concerns that the type of technology we are now using is changing the way we read and think. That surfing the net is turning us into information browsers rather than critical thinkers.

I don't believe that the human brain and individual neurological response to telecommunications technology has changed all that much over the last thirty years or so.
What is more likely to be affecting those expressing a disinclination to read lengthy books etc., is the effects of aging on brain and stamina.
We are all getting that much older! Quite a few of us will probably show evidence of dementia before our bodies give out.

The young are of course acting just as we all did - using what's at hand to try and carve a difference to mark independence and group indentity.

What the Internet and Google does demonstrate however is that we now like to share how gullible or stupid we all are with the whole wide world.
In days past urban myths travelled by word of mouth or turned up as page fillers in the side bars of newspapers such as The Mirror and The Daily Telegraph or magazines like Post.
Now they are found all over the Web dressed up as new and news. They flood our email inboxes at the slightest provocation.
What is worse, just as many people as before uncritically accept this so-called information as fact.
Myths which after all these years are no more sophisticated than that old chestnut about a spider in the beehive hairdo or the tale of seeing Kentucky Fried take delivery of something for their commercial kitchen that wasn't chicken.

So we currently have web pages or emails telling us that:
Britain is trying a modern version of sending convicts to the colonies and we need to beware
A previously convicted terrorist was one of those who flew a plane into the Twin Towers
The common word for human waste came from a cargo direction to ship high in transport
The word news is made up of the first letters of points of the compass
NASA's climate change data was affected by the Y2k bug
John Howard never had a father.

Neither the technology nor Google is making us stupid. We are what we are and what we are creates most of what is the Internet.
Therefore we are quite safe from Google's Machiavellian dream of a world run by Artificial Intelligence.com.
And, no the Waltzing Matilda swagman wasn't Spanish.

Telstra's Solomon 'Sol' Trujillo upset over Wikipedia biography

It appears that Telstra's Sol Trujillo was irked enough by editing of a Wikipedia biographical entry (to include opinion on conduct of the company and his own employment history) that he threatened defamation according to Chilling Effects.
Since the letter below was sent, the Wikipedia entry is back to bare basics.
However, Mr. Trujillo forgets that the Internet does not, so the allegedly objectionable entries can still be found.
The delicious irony in all this is that the editing Mr. Trujillo is objecting to was done using a 3G mobile phone.

March 7, 2008

Sender Information: [Individual] Sent by: [Private] Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP New York, NY, 10281, USA

Recipient Information:
General Counsel and Legal Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
San Francisco, CA, 94107, USA

Sent via: email, fax, and express mail
Re: Defamation of Solomon Trujillo

Dear Mr. Godwin:

We represent [individual] and are writing to demand that defamatory statements that appear on Wikipedia immediately and permanently be removed from the following URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Trujillo.

Specifically, an anonymous user (IP 119.11.111.17) (the "anonymous user") has since at least March 1, 2008 repeatedly inserted the following false and defamatory language in the referenced article:

[redacted]

This false and defamatory assertion has been repeatedly removed, but the anonymous user keeps replacing the false and defamatory language.

We demand that Wikipedia and Wikimedia permanently remove the above language from the article, including all of its history pages, and to permanently block the anonymous user from editing the page by 7 o'clock eastern time today. If Wikipedia and Wikimedia do not remove the improper language by that time, and take the steps necessary to block its being reinserted, Mr. [individual] intends to commence litigation against Wikipedia and Wikimedia on Monday, March 10, 2008.

Very truly yours,

[Signed]

US08: strange landscape for foreign visitors

Americans may view their presidential choices differently; but to a foreign visitor to US websites like myself, it really appears as if the choice between candidates is one of an old, white man who will bomb into the ground any sovereign nation he feels might stand in the way of American interests and a younger, black man who will publicly fall on his knees to pray before bombing into the ground any sovereign nation he feels might stand in the way of American interests.

The gloves are now coming off in this presidential race and it's not found at the campaign rallies, during media interviews or in general 'speechifying'.
No, the gloves are coming off on Capitol Hill as members of the House and Senate prepare to do battle for either the Republican or Democratic candidate.

It's the Democrats (currently dominating the Hill) who predictably have landed the first punches because of the close identification with George W. Bush displayed by Republican candidate, John McCain.

The Washington Post journalist and self-declared Democrat, Walter Pincus, wrote this piece last Sunday reporting that a Senate intelligence committee had supported the claims that Bush's inner Iraq Group had lied about the reasons the Coalition of the Willing went to war.
US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence link to report here.

By Monday, former Democratic presidential nominee Dennis Kucinich (supposedly against the wishes of his party) laid before the House 35 articles alleging high crimes and misdemeanors by George W. Bush and seeking impeachment.

McCain now has to continue answering for an unpopular president and an unpopular war.
At least in this first week of the battle proper ,and in spite of Obama's 17-day "economic tour", it's not yet about the economy stupid.

Finally, the truth begins to emerge on why Howard's friend Bush went to war in Iraq

No matter how often in his old age John W. Howard huff and puffs on the matter of his record as an Australian Prime Minister, the public record is beginning to form in relation to his lickspittle relationship with George W. Bush.

Press Release of Intelligence Committee

Senate Intelligence Committee Unveils Final Phase II Reports on Prewar Iraq Intelligence

-- Two Bipartisan Reports Detail Administration Misstatements on Prewar Iraq Intelligence, and Inappropriate Intelligence Activities by Pentagon Policy Office --

Contact: Wendy Morigi (202) 224-6101
Thursday, June 5, 2008

Washington, DC -- The Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, and a bipartisan majority of the Committee (10-5), today unveiled the final two sections of its Phase II report on prewar intelligence. The first report details Administration prewar statements that, on numerous occasions, misrepresented the intelligence and the threat from Iraq. The second report details inappropriate, sensitive intelligence activities conducted by the DoD's Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department.

"Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence," Rockefeller said. "In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed."

"It is my belief that the Bush Administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by al Qa'ida as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. To accomplish this, top Administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and al Qa'ida as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. Sadly, the Bush Administration led the nation into war under false pretenses.

"There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.

"These reports represent the final chapter in our oversight of prewar intelligence. They complete the story of mistakes and failures – both by the Intelligence Community and the Administration – in the lead up to the war. Fundamentally, these reports are about transparency and holding our government accountable, and making sure these mistakes never happen again," Rockefeller added.

The Committee's report cites several conclusions in which the Administration's public statements were NOT supported by the intelligence. They include:

Ø Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa'ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.

Ø Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.

Ø Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.

Ø Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community's uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.

Ø The Secretary of Defense's statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.

Ø The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

Additionally, the Committee issued a report on the Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. The report found that the clandestine meetings between Pentagon officials and Iranians in Rome and Paris were inappropriate and mishandled from beginning to end. Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz failed to keep the Intelligence Community and the State Department appropriately informed about the meetings. The involvement of Manucher Ghobanifer and Michael Ledeen in the meetings was inappropriate. Potentially important information collected during the meetings was withheld from intelligence agencies by Pentagon officials. Finally, senior Defense Department officials cut short internal investigations of the meetings and failed to implement the recommendations of their own counterintelligence experts.

Today's reports are the culmination of efforts that began in March 2003, when, as Vice Chairman, Senator Rockefeller initially requested an investigation into the origin of the fraudulent Niger documents. In June 2003, he was joined by all Democrats on the Committee in pushing for a full investigation into prewar intelligence, which was eventually expanded by the Committee in February 2004 to include the five phase II tasks.

The Committee released its first report on July 9, 2004, which focused primarily on the Intelligence Community's prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism. Those findings helped lay the foundation for some of the intelligence reforms enacted into law in late 2004.

In September 2006, the Committee completed and publicly released two sections of Phase II: The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress; and Postwar Findings About Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments.

In May 2007, the Committee released the third section of Phase II: Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq.

Separately, in early 2007, the Pentagon Inspector General released its own report on the intelligence activities conducted by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and also concluded that those activities were inappropriate.

###

National Whale Day 14-15 June 2008

Australia celebrates National Whale Day on the 14th of June 2008.
Show your support this weekend for these magnificent creatures which inhabit Australian territorial waters.
Link to National Whale Day website here.

Some NSW land-based vantage points for sighting whales:

• Cape Byron state recreation Area near Byron Bay
  
• Broken Head Nature Reserve near Byron Bay
  
• Solitary Islands Marine Park north of Coffs Harbour
  
• Hat Head National Park near Kempsey
  
• Crowdy Head National Park near Taree
  
• Tomaree National Park near Nelson Bay
  
• Barrenjoey Headland in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park near Sydney
  
• North Head in Sydney Harbour National Park
  
• Cape Solander in Botany Bay National Park at Kurnell
  
• Jervis Bay National Park near Nowra
  
• Ben Boyd National Park near Eden

Clarence Valley will be celebrating National Whale Day on Sunday 15th June.

* At Pilot Hill, Yamba, where the mouth of the Clarence River meets the Pacific Ocean.
Starts at 11a.m. and includes whale watching and interpretive session with National Parks & Wildlife, community whale wall and family barbecue. Everyone is welcome.
Come and show support for the Valley's adopted humpback whale, Yuraygir.

Further information phone: (02) 6643.0200 Susan Lynch - Clarence Valley Council

Heard 'round the traps

An elderly man leaving a Grafton shopping centre to his mate:
"I've seen the future. I can't afford it."

A reminder to Pandora Archives on the folly of Internet censorship

Went to Pandora Archives yesterday to look up some information on a contentious blog and found this:

This resource has been restricted in Pandora
Access to this item is restricted for 70 Year(s) from the date of archiving. During this period it is only accessible to National Library staff for preservation purposes.

Which begs the question - haven't the archives heard of the Internet Wayback Machine which happily allows everyone who read Club Troppo's Missing Links yesterday to find out what Caz and The Hack had been up to (over 50 snapshots of homepages) even if they had never followed that contentious blog.

All the Australian Government's Pandora Archives has done with its 70 year restriction is hold government up to ridicule.

Well done, NSW North Coast

The 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours list contained the names of a few Northern Rivers folk who well deserved their recognition.

An Order of Australia Medal (OAM) to Jim Agnew of Yamba, who has been taking on government and bureaucracy for years in an endeavour to obtain decent health care for his town.

An Order of Australia (OA) to Elizabeth Davies of Minnie Waters and Braunstone, for her long service to nurse and midwifery education.

An Order of Australia (OA) to Laurie Marchant of Grafton, for services to the community spanning decades.

An Order of Australia Medal (OAM) to John Beasley of Lennox Head, for services to the lifesaving movement.

An Order of Australia Medal (OAM) to John Mace of Northern Rivers, for his work with bush fire brigades.

An Order of Australia Medal (OAM) to James Crethar of Goonellabah, for his work with youth in the Lismore area and beyond.

And to any other NSW North Coast quiet achievers I may have missed here - well done!

Yes we can! Barack Obama asks an Australian cat for campaign donations

It seems that politics and pets make strange bedfellows.
Regular readers will be aware that clarencegirl receives Obama for America campaign emails from time to time.
They would also be aware that Boy the Wonder Cat blogs in the North Coast Voices sidebar and lists his own email address there.
Image my shock on finding (when doing a periodic check of the cat's emails) that Boy was now on Senator Barack Obama's mailing list and was receiving multiple requests for political donations along the lines of this received on 8 June:
Boy --
Hillary Clinton announced her support for our campaign today.
Senator Clinton made history over the past 16 months -- not just because she has broken barriers, but because she has inspired millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to causes like universal health care that make a difference in the lives of hardworking Americans.
Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her.
Senator Clinton will be invaluable to our efforts to win in November, and I look forward to campaigning alongside her to bring this country the change it so desperately needs.
Hillary and her supporters are joining us at an urgent moment.
It's going to require a new level of commitment from every single one of us to build a national campaign in the general election.
And we're going win this election the right way -- by growing our grassroots network of ordinary people giving only what they can afford.
Will you help by making your first donation today?
If you give right now, a previous donor has agreed to match your gift, doubling its impact. Help us reach our goal of 20,000 new donors by making a matching donation today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/match
It's time for all of us to come together to take on John McCain in the general election. John McCain offers another four years of George Bush's policies, which our country simply cannot afford.
To win, we must continue building an unprecedented organization in all 50 states. And that will only happen if we all work together, side-by-side.
Thank you for joining this movement and supporting a new kind of politics.
Together we can do more than just win an election. Together we can change this country, and we can change the world.
And we are honored to have Hillary Clinton at our side as we do it.
Barack
Paid for by Obama for America
This email was sent to: catlives9@hotmail.com

Boy has now been unsubscribed from this mailing list, but I'm beginning to wonder about the good senator from Illinios......

Howard awarded Queen's Birthday AC but not everyone is impressed

John Winston Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia, has just been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Not the Order of the Garter or Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports with which he hoped to emulate his dead idol, Robert Gordon Menzies, but better than nothing ('Mrs Bucket' apparently sees the AC as a stepping stone to greater honours).

Of course not everyone was or is impressed.
Saturday's online mention of his AC honour only came up on Google News once and yesterday he might never have rated a mention if he had not shared billing with Australian supermodel Elle or "The Don" centenary wasn't coming up.

War crimes is still the phrase which more readily trips from the lip when Bush, Blair and Howard are mentioned.
At last count Google Search came up with 128,000 mentions of war crimes and Howard.
War crimes outrank honours anytime.

Here are some example article links.
Australia`s Howard accused of war crimes over Iraq: Report [Indonesia]
Bush, Blair, Howard wanted for war crimes [Estonia]
Australia group seeks ICC war crimes charges against ex-PM for Iraq deployment [USA]
Oz PC racism & ICC complaint over Australian & Coalition war crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan [Australia]John Howard a 'war criminal' [Australia]
Howard is war criminal, says former colleague [Australia]

Update:
By this morning Google News mention of Howard's honour had risen to four (after the original Saturday item was shifted or renamed). Perhaps his taxpayer-funded assistant did a quick ring around to wake the media to the momentous event they were otherwise ignoring.