你在哪裡?

Interestingly, while many people speak of the U.S. as founded as a Christian nation, did you know that many of the founding fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Ethan Allen were all Deists, and rejected Christianity? (If you're interested, here's an article about it.)

Happy Hannukah!

Third night! So far I got a dish, a fragrance dispenser, and a plastic flower. Five more days to go... of course, I already got myself a very nice watch and a RAZR phone, which is thin and feels good sliding into my pocket. So, Happy Hannukah to Me! I did have Chinese on Christmas Eve too, so the Jewish tradition lives on.

On another note, this girl has pushed me away a second time. Ugh. I think it's time to walk away.

Plus, when I went to Michigan, I saw a scale, and, omg, now I'm calorie counting. It is hell, even eating steamed vegetables and munching on baby carrots I'm having trouble keeping below 2000 calories a day, and am chronicly starving, which feels unhealthy. The hunger still gnaws. Any tips?

Update: It's 1:16 in the morning and I'm *starving*. And you know, I'm used to going hungry :(

Update: It's 4:39 in the morning, and breaking down and searching my fridge, I found something to eat with almost no calories (or any other nutritional value). Yes, you guessed it... swallow balls. They're actually not bad (though it may be the hunger talking). However, don't do an image search for them, or you'll get a lot of offensive pics alongside.

Update: Woke up still hungry, so I went to the kitchen and, with no veggies left, I stole some fava beans from my roommate and cooked them up. When I was full, I went to do my calorie calculation -- 512 per cup! Having cooked about 3 cups, I guess I can't eat anything else today... dammit!

Bodies

Another cold day, and a thesis defense. You'd think afterwards, she'd be happy, but then you wouldn't know Tsoching. Saw Syriana, which was not much like the commercial. It was very hard to understand, so many characters that are hard to keep straight, things going on without context, and though it kind of comes together by the end, it took me a lot of thought after the movie to understand how it does. It could have been done so much better by being a more traditional triller. After a short sleep in the old farmhouse that is her boyfriend's apartment -- kind of cool, really, brick house with a little latern by the door, small wooden staircase, the whole thing -- an early morning flight back to New York where, because of a transit strike, I took a cab home and am trapped in Elmhurst.

A couple weeks ago I saw Bodies the Exhibition, lots of dead people skinned and plastinated, it was fascinating. I thought it would be more macabre, but it didn't seem like that. It was almost hard to imagine these were real people, cut every which way, chopped in half down the middle, posed playing sports, a man's muscular system holding hands with his own skeletal system, blood vessles hanging in space down to the clouds of tiny red capillaries, fetuses in all stages of development, reproductive organs lain out, everything.

And today's the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the official first day of winter. Eat up your tangyuan 湯圜!

From the great white north

Flying in to Michigan afforded me expansive views of white landscape -- white houses, white streets, white trees, white bridges, a land lain waste by snow. New York is cold, I know, but here be much colder, trust me. Having to get up early for my flight, I was really tired during the day, especially listening to my friend practice her speech. You can imagine listening to a monotone of chemistry research on comparisons or phosphate-to-amide ratios in Raman spectra of osteogenesis imperfecta bone fragments as your eye sag, meandering away from attention and then suddenly back...

All that excitement was topped by a trip to the car dealership. Her boyfriend was buying a car, and we had to wait there forever as he does paperwork and credit blah blah. And finally, home, where these people go to bed at 9:30. It's not exactly Hawai`i.

That sounds bitter, and I'm totally not. I am happy to see my best friend in the world, and am happy that so much is going well for her. And tomorrow is the big day, her thesis defense, after which she will be all done with school forever.

Io Saturnalia!

Happy Saturnalia, one and all. This Roman forerunner of Christmas, complete with gifts, banquets, and decorated trees, celebrates the winter solstice (which will actually fall on the 21st), and the harvest-got Saturn, father of chief god Jupiter.

I know I haven't kept up to date. I'll catch up, you just wait...

Question of the Day

What's worse: drugs or Christianity?

Down(ish)

Today I feel that I don't believe in love. What am I looking for? Whatever you have, it doesn't last. It is all emotion, and emotion is all ephemeral. What makes love? I don't know. :(

Interesting fact: Polls show 80 percent of Iraqis want U.S. forces out of Iraq and 45 percent say it is justified to kill U.S. soldiers. (from Washington Post) So sad.

I see famous people

I went to see ASSSSCAT 3000 at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. One of the performers was Rachel Dratch, from SNL! (She looks a lot older in person...) The comedy improv show was hillarious! Better than I've ever seen it.

Tuesday I'm going to see the Daily Show with Jon Stuart!

On a different note, there's a guy who has been doing a lot of work on his own to get word out about my global warming report. He got me the interview on Bob Linden's show, and now he got Mary Max interested, wife of the famous artist Peter Max, and Mary is telling her mailing list to call a certain national radio show and ask them to have me on. Isn't that amazing?

L'chaim

Did you know that eating 1/3 less calories than normal (but still getting all your nutrition) extends lifespan by 30% -- actually slowing aging, so you stay physically healthy and mentally sharp longer? It sounds like side-show hokum, but it has been scientifically proven in all manner of different species and known for decades. They don't talk about it much just because they don't think anyone will actually stick to it -- but just think. Decades longer, that's an extra my entire life so far! Maybe my irresponsibly skipping meals is doing me good...?

I saw Pride and Prejudice. My favorite line: "You have plenty of time to get to know him after you're married."

Some interesting statistics on the Iraq war, from the McLaughlin Group: 2100 Americans killed; 50,000 American amputees, wounded, or mentally incapacitated; 115,000 Iraqi civillians killed. Yay, war!

Brook

By Noam Mohr (who should be sleeping, or at least working)

Down in the woods behind my house, a brook
Burbles, crystal waters sliding across
Grey rocks, each stone the heart of the forest
Worn smooth, hard, flickering beneath the current.

I reach my hand into the crisp waters
To touch the slippery stones, and see my fingers
Rippling under the dancing rivulets,
Which lap up my arm, raising tiny hairs.

Penetrating the transparent flow,
I squeeze the icy stones between my fingers
And feel the endless sadness pierce my heart
As dark, bitter tears seethe, and drown the world.

Who is kept at Guantánamo Bay?

More scary stuff about our evil government from the New York Times:

The judge, Joyce Hens Green of the Federal District Court in Washington, asked [Justice Department official Brian Boyle] a series of hypothetical questions about who may be detained [in Guantánamo Bay] as an enemy combatant under the government's definition.

What about "a little old lady in Switzerland who writes checks to what she thinks is a charitable organization that helps orphans in Afghanistan but really is a front to finance Al Qaeda activities?" she asked.

And what about a resident of Dublin "who teaches English to the son of a person the C.I.A. knows to be a member of Al Qaeda?"

And "what about a Wall Street Journal reporter, working in Afghanistan, who knows the exact location of Osama bin Laden but does not reveal it to the United States government in order to protect her source?"

Mr. Boyle said the military had the power to detain all three people as enemy combatants.

Welcome Back

In a surprise move, Israel's Labor party elected Mr. Kotter as their new leader.* Ok, his actual name is Amir Peretz (also known as "Amir Who?"). He'll be running for president soon against Ariel Sharon. Now, I don't know how it works in Israel, but in America, there is no way such a goofy-looking guy could get elected. My gosh, I've never seen a mustache quite as bushy as that! He should be holding up a tall glass and saying, "Got Sasquatch?"* And who cuts his hair? It looks removeable, like those little lego people.* This guy looks like one of those optical illusion pictures where you turn it upside down and see a different face.* Peaceniks don't have a chance.

I'm reminded of that famous Irish* (I think) expression: "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone."

Buddhabrot

I have been spending much of today looking at another way to depict the Mandelbrot set, which looks amazingly like a picture of Hindu gods. Click on it to see the full size. Zoom in on different parts. It's so like real images, it's eerie. But it isn't art, it is a graph derived from a very simple mathematical equation. It has been dubbed "Buddhabrot."
The Mandelbrot set is probably the most famous fractal. Fractals are things that are infinitely complex, and are called "fractals" because they are not 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional but have a fractional dimension somewhere in between. I recommend taking a look at the Mandelbrot set, which is amazingly beautiful. Don't just look at the main image, click on "To the next image" below, and zoom in step by step until it's magnified 60 billion times, and gets no less beautiful. The set is infinitely complex, so you could keep zooming in forever and it never gets any less beautiful. (This one is my desktop background.) (To zoom in on a different part of the image with a very different look, try here, though it's a smaller image and the colors aren't as pretty.)

The math is so simple, let me explain it. It's all just this very easy equation: z²+c. The picture is just a graph of all the points c. The way they pick which color to give the point is they just start with z=0 and plug it in. Of course, 0²+c equals c. So then you plug in z=c. You get c²+c. So then you plug in that number for z. And you keep repeating this again and again. A lot of times the numbers just bounce around and don't go anywhere. If that happens, you make the point c black. But other times the number will just get bigger and bigger until it's obviously going to infinity. You can't keep doing it to infinity, but you can say if it gets bigger than, say 50,000, you're pretty sure it's going to inifity. Then you give the point c a color, depending how fast it gets there. If you do the equation 10 times and get to 50,000, you give the point c one color. If it takes you 20 times, you give it another color. If it takes you 30 times, you give it a third color. And so on. Voila! Just do it for every point on the graph. Anyone could do this. But it would take you forever unless you have a computer to do it for you.

The Buddhabrot is a little different. Every time you plug in your number and get another number, you go to your graph and color that point white. Then you plug that number in and get another number, find that number on the graph and color it white. So you can watch it bounce around. You keep doing that for a long time, with lots of different numbers for c, and you get this amazing image, based on the same equation.

I think the Mandelbrot set is itself a compelling argument against the case of "intelligent design". They say, look at how complicated the universe is, and how complicated living things are, it doesn't make sense to say it could happen based on mere natural laws, there must be some intelligent designer behind it. But this shows how infinite complexity and beauty can arise from even the simplest and most straightforward of equations -- infinite complexity. How much more can happen based on the far more intricate laws of physics! (As a corollary, this also shows how terrible common sense is at figuring out the universe. Common sense told us that the sun goes around the earth, that the earth must be flat or Australians would fall off, that things cannot be in two places at the same time -- you'd think we'd have caught on by now that common sense has a pretty miserable track record compared to the rigors of science!)

(By the way, if you're wondering how can numbers be graphed in a 2-dimensional picture--after all, it's a number line, not a number plane--that's because these are complex numbers. Remember, the square root of -1 is the imaginary number i? Combinations of real and imaginary numbers, like 2-3i, are called "complex" numbers. You probaby learned this in high school and forgot it.)

On a totally different note, you can watch a 4-dimensional cube rotate in the fourth dimension! (Of course, this is a projection into our 3D world, I can't really show you a 4D object. In fact, even the 3D objects have to be projected onto the 2D screen so that you can see it in this blog! Like any cube, all the sides have equal length -- some of them look smaller only because they're farther away in the fourth dimension, but as they rotate closer you will see them appear longer again.)

Religious people are scary

"In my opinion," says Rabbi Moshe Botschko, head of the Heichal Eliyahu hesder yeshiva, "a creature born through genetic duplication is not considered human - It is clear beyond all doubt that the life form created in some scientific institution will be an animal that walks on two feet, no more." According to Botschko, a highly respected rabbi in the French-speaking community, the reason for this is that the Creator only gives man a soul at the moment when sperm meets ovum. But the cloning process involves no sperm. The implications of Botschko's conclusion are far-reaching: "Anyone who kills a creature of this type will not be indicted, because he has not killed a man," he says.

Is a human child born from the womb of a surrogate cow, a man, or a cow? Rabbi J. David Bleich writes, "A creature resembles a man and is born from a beast. If it is born to a kosher beast, the Gemara asks if it is permissible to slaughter the offspring." He notes, "This question indicates that the Gemara does not consider such a creature to be human." Bleich himself says, "If a fetus is cloned from a human and implanted in the womb of a monkey, despite the fact that the newborn has a human genotype and phenotype, it is doubtful that it would be considered halakhically human."

Id

I don’t feel too good. I have been so irresponsible, and felt it every step of the day. Playing piano, unpacking my room, reading the news, even eating cereal, the whole time the little angel on my shoulder has been saying “no, no” but my id is in control. Down with the id. Right now, isn’t this self-exposition an example of id? Shouldn’t I be focusing on my work? I can hear the little devil looking for excuses. Fair enough, the path is clear...

Now I am sitting in the lobby of the Mariott in Times Square. It is among my favorite places to hang and chill. The ceiling is some fifty floors above, and futuristic elevators glide up the cylindrical tube to the rotating restaurant at the top. The water drips down the glass next to me in beautiful sheaths. The bar is lit up is iridescent colors. If I look behind me, I can see the lights of Times Square through the bay window. Wouldn’t it be great to design a place like this, and then see it happen? They’re playing Kelly Clarkson’s one famous song. I can’t focus on my work. Even though it’s long overdue, and it’s so important -- an article in USA Today! -- I just can’t... think... I just want to sleep, or something. I’m hopeless. The little devil on my shoulder is winning...

Sweetie Pie Dumplings

Yum! I'm at Dumpling Man again, a little dumpling place in the East Village where you can watch the old chinese ladies making dumplings in front of you, eating their new "seasonal" dumplings with pumpkin and goosberries and covered with cinnimon. So good! I'm here working, of course...

Much better than being at my new apartment, where I am less and less happy. Last night was cold so I closed the windows, and with the windows closed I could smell the cigarette stench left from the previous tenant. Gross. Can I really live with this? I need to research odor-fighting options. Yesterday I had to take a cold shower because there was no hot water (though my roommates say I must be doing it wrong, so maybe there's hope). And don't get me started on the kitchen...

But with yummy dumplings, everything falls into place :)

TORTURE ALERT

Guantánamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts

This article describes a detanee who committed suicide in in the bathroom when his lawyer visited, clearly timed so that someone in the outside would know. Fortunately, he was found and revived. He has been in solitary confinement for two years with nothing but a koran and legal papers. His lawyer recounts, "In March, he looked at me in the eye and said, 'How can I keep myself from going crazy?'" The detainee says he was abused in many ways, and threatened with being sent to countries where he will be tortured.

Two dozen Guantánamo Bay detainees are currently being force-fed in response to a lengthy hunger strike, and the detainees' lawyers estimate there are dozens more who have not eaten since August. The U.N. complains that they have been refused access.

Remember, no one in Guantánamo Bay has ever been charged with any crime. For years they were granted no rights at all, including no accss to lawyers or to hearings, not even the chance to prove their innocence, until the Supreme Court said that was illegal. Now the U.S. is trying to ship them to other countries where they can continue to be imprisoned without any rights.

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

This article is about the CIA's network of secret prisons to which people are sent with absolutely no rights, no oversight, no one--including U.S. government officials--is allowed to check on the treatment of detainees, who are allowed no contact with anyone besides their interrogators, and where torture is allowed. It's not just al-Qaeda leaders, let me quote: The original standard for consigning suspects to the invisible universe was lowered or ignored, [CIA personnel] said. "They've got many, many more who don't reach any threshold," one intelligence official said.

Prisoner Accounts Suggest Detention At Secret Facilities

This article is about three people apparently held in CIA secret facilities. Although they were only questioned about their involvement with blacklisted charities, and 15 months later released, this shows that these secret detentions are not only for high-level terrorists. Their families were told they were dead, and they were kept essentially in solitary confinement the entire stay. This is out of control.

Happy Halloween

I'm moving!

Yes, this will be my fifth home in 2½ years in Manhattan, and my 17th since graduating high school. It will not be the last. But I am leaving the poodles and museums of the Upper East Side back the Queens for the very multicultural community of Elmhurst. Keep up: my new address, as of this weekend, will be

88-35 Elmhurst Ave. Apt. 1L
Elmhurst, NY, 11373

Finding a place was not fun, but the hell has just begun! Finding help and moving truck, packing all my stuff. What luck. Oh what fun it will be as I abandon the City.

So-so

TORTURE UPDATE: Legislation to require the U.S. to obey the rules against inhumane treatment of detainees, that is being pushed by Senator McCain and which President Bush has threatened to veto, has passed the Senate, and reportedly Cheney has been trying to negotiate an exemption for the CIA, explicitly permitting them to torture people, which apparently they're doing now. The CIA refuses to allow the Red Cross to check on its prisoners, or even to acknowledge that the prisoners exist, and has refused to cooperate with any investigations of prisoner abuse as has been going on in the army. This president truly makes me ashamed to be an American.

On a lighter note, am I the only one who thinks that whoever does their marketing has put together terrible trailers for movies like The Weather Man and Prime?

For fun, the English expression "so-so" sounds funny in lots of languages, with its babytalk-like repetition. My favorites are Romanian and Chinese.

English: so-so
French: komSI-komSA (comme ci comme ça)
Italian: koZI-koZI (cosí cosí)
Spanish: aSI-aSI (así así)
Portugese: asing-asing (assim assim)
Romanian: aSHAshyasha (aşa şi aşa)
Serbian: tahko-tahko (tako tako)
Greek: etsi-ketsi (έτσι και έτσι)
Icelandic: shvona-shvona (svona svona)
Turkish: shoyleh-boyleh (şöyle böyle)
Azerbaijani: eLAbela (елә белə)
Hebrew: kacha-kacha (ככה ככה)
Yiddish: aZOY-aZOY (אזוי אזוי)
Hindi: teek-tahk (ठीक-ठाक)
Chinese: mama-HUHU (馬馬虎虎)

Clif Notes

You may remember (if not sympathize with) my Luna Bar saga, that delectable food of the gods (delicious and nutritious!), which was ruined by their new low-sugar formula, forcing me to nourrish myself on the inferior but passable (and manlier) Clif Bar. It's worth mentioning that there are some new Luna Bar flavors, still low-sugar but much better tasting: Iced Oatmeal Raisin, Cookies ‘n Cream Delight, and Peanut Butter Cookie.

But my real discovery today is Builder's Bars! I bought them because they have 20g of protein each, but they are GREAT! Best of the lot. My new hero! With bars like these, who needs "exercise"?

Go Vegan Radio

I was interviewed on Go Vegan Radio with Bob Linden regarding my global warming report, which can be listened to on their website.

Jeepers!

This bird flu is scary stuff!

Incidentally, it comes from chickens, a direct result of animal agriculture (i.e., you eating meat).

[Update: look what I wrote on this subject for PETA.]

Racism? Sexism? Or what?

If you're wondering why I haven't posted lately, it's because I haven't been getting comments on my posts. (Except for Shirley, but I could just email her.) Without that positive reinforcement, it hardly seems worthwhile... so, if you want to enjoy more noamic wisdom and entertainment, please provide the requisite pats on the back and scratches behind the ears.

Anyway, something just occured to me.


I was watching a commercial, and the black woman was very light-skinned, while her hustband was very dark-skinned, and it suddenly occured to me that every black family sit-com I've ever seen the husband was darker than the wife. Why is that? What does that mean? What's going on? That's not how things are in real life...?!

Please explain!

Good enough

This weekend I called up a friend from a cafe and she suggested going to a movie. So we hung up and I was getting ready to go meet her, when my phone rang again:

Her: Actually, maybe I don’t want to go. What are you wearing?
Me: What?
Her: I don’t want to be with people who aren’t wearing fashionable clothes.
Me: Are you saying that if my clothes aren’t fashionable enough, you don’t want to see a movie?
Her: Yes. I hate it when people don’t wear fashionable clothes.
Me: Er, I’m wearing jeans and a black button-up shirt. Is that good enough?
Her: Which shirt?
Me: It’s a long-sleeved shirt made of soft material.
Her: The one you bought in Columbia?
Me: You know it?
Her: Yes. I guess that’s ok. You can come.
Me: I do have my computer with me.
Her: In that computer bag? No. It looks dorky.
Me: So you don’t want to go?
Her: Not with that bag.
Me: I can leave it in your apartment.
Her: And then come all the way back afterwards to pick it up?
Me: Yes.
Her: Ok.

You've got to be illin' to be in this posse.

Shana Tova

Went home to my family for nearly a week for Rosh Hashana. Played catch with the kids, gave presents to many, and went for a hike in the mountains. Took a few pictures, though it was dark so they didn't come out great, but here they are:

Aborting black babies

William Bennett has been condemned for saying, on his radio show, that "if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett quickly added that such an idea would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do." But, he said, "your crime rate would go down."

What is the problem with this? He said it would be morally reprehensible. Is the disagreement a factual one, about demographics? Someone explain to me.

Wolfram Tones

Stephen Wolfram, you may know, is a genius who published his first scientific paper at 15, got his Ph.D. at 20, is the youngest recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, created Mathematica, and so on. He's really into the idea that extreme complexity can arise from very simple rules. He has used computer programs based on this to generate music for ringtones, that you can hear at http://tones.wolfram.com/generate/. Every time you click you get a completely original composition. It's not always good, but sometimes it is, and amazing considering it's just computer generated. Personally I think "piano" is best.

You can see really pretty fractals that are 3D slices of a Julia set using quaternions. I know fractals are so 1990, but they're still cool.

Why is the sky blue?

If you took physics, you may have learned that the difference between different colors is that they are different wavelengths of light. The white light of the sun is a mixture of all the colors, and they get separated in a rainbow or prism from the longest wavelengths (red) to the shortest (violet). The molecules in the sky scatter short wavelengths most strongly, making the sky look blue.

That's the standard answer -- but wait, you've seen rainbows. Violet light is even shorter than blue light. Why isn't the sky purple? For the same reason that when you mix red and yellow you get orange. Those molecules do scatter mostly violet, but also a lot of blue, and some green, and a little yellow, and so on, and the colors mix to look like sky-blue.

But wait -- why does mixing colors get you a new color? How come when we mix blue and red we get purple? If blue and red are different wavelengths, and you mix them together, how can you get a totally third purple wavelength? Well you don't. When you mix blue and red, you DON'T get pure purple light, you get a mixture of blue and red light. But our eyes can't detect every wavelength, we only have three kinds of color-detecting cells in there. Purple light doesn't get it's own, but purple light partly stimulates the red-detecting cells, and partly stimulates the blue-detecting cells, and when this happens, our brain sees purple. But that's why, when we see a mixture or red and blue, the same cells are stimulated and we see the same purple color even though it really isn't the same, there's no actual purple light there.

If you look really closely at your TV screen or computer monitor, you'll see that it's made of little pixels of red, blue, and green. How do these show all the colors if they only have three colors of pixels? Well, since our eyes interpret all colors with just three kinds of color-detecting cells, our monitors don't have to make all wavelengths of light. We can make our eyes see any color with different combinations of these three, stimulating those three color-detecting cells in any way we want to.

Dogs' eyes only have two kinds of color-detecting cells. That means whatever colors they see must be very different from us. And a mixture of blue and red, to them, will not look the same as straight purple light. So when they watch TV, it must look crazy off-color.

(Note: I've slightly oversimplified. For example, our eyes see colors like brown that are not in the rainbow; they exist only as combinations of colors, and don't have their own wavelength.)

P.S....
Myth: In elementary school we learn the primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. This is false, and that's why mixing these three never gives you black, just a mushy brown. The primary colors (for pigments) are red, blue, and green. (For light, they're cyan, magenta, and yellow.)
Myth: ROYGBIV. Even though there are millions of colors in the spectrum, Newton chose to list seven, for superstitious reasons. That's why he stuck that ridiculous "indigo" in there, which is just silly.
Myth: Color-blind people don't really see in black and white. Due to defects in some color-detecting cells, they see color differently that we do, and some different colors look the same to them.

TORTURE ALERT

3 in 82nd Airborne Say Beating Iraqi Prisoners Was Routine

Three former members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division say soldiers in their battalion in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners in 2003 and 2004 to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves...

In one incident... an off-duty cook broke a detainee's leg with a metal baseball bat. Detainees were also stacked, fully clothed, in human pyramids and forced to hold five-gallon water jugs with arms outstretched or do jumping jacks until they passed out, the report says. "We would give them blows to the head, chest, legs and stomach, and pull them down, kick dirt on them," one sergeant told Human Rights Watch researchers during one of four interviews in July and August. "This happened every day." ...

"As long as no [persons under control] came up dead, it happened." He added, "We kept it to broken arms and legs." ...

Captain Fishback, who has served combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, gave... his long account only after his efforts to report the abuses to his superiors were rebuffed or ignored over 17 months... "Despite my efforts, I have been unable to get clear, consistent answers from my leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of detainees. I am certain that this confusion contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment." ...

Interrogators pressed guards to beat up prisoners... "He would always say to us, 'You didn't see anything, right?' " the sergeant said. "And we would always say, 'No, sergeant.' "

One of the sergeants... had seen a soldier break open a chemical light stick and beat the detainees with it. "That made them glow in the dark, which was real funny, but it burned their eyes, and their skin was irritated real bad," he said.

Earthbeat

I am scheduled as a guest on the WPFW radio show Earthbeat (89.3 FM Washington) on Tuesday, September 27, from 10:30 to 11 AM, to talk about my report. Isn't that cool?

You can listen online (click the "Listen Online" button).

Little Manhattan

I just saw the commercial for Little Manhattan. It reminded me of my ideal of what love is supposed to me... something pure and magical... why does it all get so corrupted as an adult? Or is it just for me?

(I saw the movie Broken Flowers. Really liked it. But didn't get what it was really about, it obviously wasn't really about his looking for his son. Ideas welcome.)

Gadzooks!

Did you know that "Jeepers Creepers!" comes from "Jesus Christ", for people not wanting to be sacriligious? So is "Jiminy Cricket!" which predates Disney. "Crikey!" and "cripes!" are from "christ", "gosh" and "golly" are from "God", and "gadzooks" is from "god's hooks", that is, nails on the cross. Even "drat" comes from "God rot".

Did you know that 40% of people believe in horoscopes? Scientists have let astrologers ask personal information from people and guess their sign, and they do no better than random guessing. Why do people believe this stuff? We now know what planets and stars are, and we understand the forces of nature and how they affect each other, so we understand that the planets and stars have no effect on our personalities or futures -- so why do people still think they do? And it's not harmless, people make life decisions based on this stuff -- President Reagan made national decisions based on it!

Interestingly, the reason people born in a certain part of the year are considered a Gemini or Capricorn or whatever is because when they were born, the sun rose through that constellation. Or, well, that was the case when they made up astrology, but since then the earth's position has changed, and now those dates are all different, but astrologers haven't changed the horoscopes at all. It's off by an entire sign -- if you go by the sun, all Capricorns are Aquariuses and so on.

Talk amongst yourselves

I'm giving some talks based on my report. Is that cool or what?

I'm totally stressing out though. I have to come up with a talk pretty darn quick...

Hog hell

A taste of the horror that is my job, some details from a pig farm in South Dakota. I wanted to cry. It was all caught on videotape, but authorities do nothing about it...

Gratuitous abuse of pigs was common. Workers would extinguish cigarettes or their bodies, beat them with rakes and shovels, kick them, stick poles in their stomach ruptures, strangle them, throw them into manure pits to drown, slit their throats to watch them bleed to death, and stick electric prods in their eyes, ears, mouth, vaginas, and anuses. These abuses were condoned by management.

Workers killed pigs typically by smashing their heads repeatedly against the concrete floors of metal rails, or by standing on their neck. Larger pigs were often beaten to death with hammers, rebar rods, and angle irons. Others had a water hose placed in their mouths until they burst. Animals thrown in the dead pile often remained alive for days.

Sick or injured animals were dragged out of their pens into the aisles, and left there for weeks until they died of hunger or thirst, in many cases resorting in desperation to eating feces. Others were left in pens where, unable to reach food, they starved to death or, when trapped under brooders, were literally cooked alive. Conditions were so bad that, every day, larger pigs would eat weaker ones alive. Hernias and stomach ruptures, some the size of volley balls, were common, and generally received no treatment.

Climate control devices were not in working order. Pigs often suffered subzero temperatures in winter, and temperatures as high as 120 degrees in the summer. The floors of pens were not cleaned during the entire six months of confinement, leaving floors covered with feces and urine, piling up along the backs of pens and rolling into alleyways. In many cases, clogs and non-functioning flush boxes would fill pens in sewage so deep that some would drown.

Please... have a heart... they only do this to as many pigs as you pay them to...

I haven't the heart to show you the gory footage, so here are some happy piglets.

Animal Agriculture Worse for Global Warming than Cars, Power Plants

Read my just released report:

A New Global Warming Strategy: How Environmentalists are Overlooking Vegetarianism as the Most Effective Tool Against Climate Change in Our Lifetimes

Here's the press release.

Here's an ENS article on it.

Showed up in Sustainable Business.com News.

I am falsely accused of disagreeing with the world's scientists in The Huffington Post.

An article inspired by my report at Bella Ciao.

A global warming skeptic with no grip on science at all mentions my report in MichNews.com.

Some other nonsense from Reason.

Drink up!

Lately, when I get hungry, I drink something. I'm still hungry, but yum! There's been an explosion of new drinks, and some are so delish I thought it's my civic duty to share them with you.

I think Teany teas are only available in New York right now, but Teany energy tea and herbal calm blow Snapple out of the water. (I don't go for their fruitier stuff.) Do try... and if you ever come to the city, definitely visit Teany, Moby's teahouse on the Lower East Side. They have a great turkey club sandwich, and the best cheesecake (both vegan).

Tazo lemon ginger tea is yummy. Good ginger tea is the bomb! (Don't I sound Columbia.)

I'm not a big Snapple fan, but there's one exception: Lime green tea. Next time you go for a Snapple, make it this one, affectionately nicknamed "lakewater" for its color. Just had one, yum.

Chai tea is amazing stuff, and you can get good chai in lots of places, but at home nothing beats Westsoy Chai. It's not only uber-yummy, but it's ready to drink, no mixing with other stuff required. It gets three cheers from me!

It's not just about the tea. The first time I tried bloody mary mix (no added alcohol needed) I was amazed. Why would people drink mere tomato juice when they could have this taste bud explosion? I've since found that not all brands are good, and some even have anchovies in them (eww!), so I recommend Mr. & Mrs. T's Bold and Spicy. If you've never tried the stuff, you're missing out.

And Pom, while overpriced, is still good stuff. I don't go for the flavored ones, though.

I've had plenty of disappointments, so I'm here to save your from them. Feel free to add your reviews of these, or give other suggestions.

Rabbit says: Bok!

I had written here that the USDA has decided to classify rabbits as poultry, because poultry are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act. Actually, neither poultry nor rabbits are covered by this act anyway. However, the USDA has long chosen to exclude birds, rats, and mice -- 95% of the animals used in research -- from their definition of "animals" under the Animal Welfare Act, giving them no protection at all from mistreatment. So such perverse flouting of the law is the kind of thing they do.

Telecommuting

My first day telecommuting. Many obvious advantages. You can get out of bed at 9. You can work naked. (I didn't, but neither was I particularly presentable.) No rule against surfing for porn. (Again, a purely theoretical advantage.)

I discovered a disadvantage though. You know how, at the end of the day, you just want to go home? At the end of the day, I just wanted to get out of here! Perhaps this will keep me from wasting time on front of the TV evenings.

So, I went to Blue Note, a famous jazz club that is normally really expensive but today had no cover. (They had a music charge, and I'm not sure how this is different then a cover, but whatever.) The interior was disappointing, looking very much like a typical low-budget music joint. The guitarist was amazing. It was nice. I even had a $6 coke the size of a small rodent.

Wedding Crashers

This weekend I saw Wedding Crashers. It was entertaining. But I did find it disturbing that the film included a scene where a woman rapes a man, which is treated as funny. If it were a man raping a women, I think people would not react so light-heartedly.

TORTURE ALERT

(I will post news regarding America's policy of torture, because it makes me ashamed to be an American. It is so important for people to know that Abu Ghraib was not an isolated incident, but Bush policy. Note, too, that these are not terrorists, they have not even been charged with anything, some the military doesn't even know why they're there, many are undoubtedly innocent.)

ADMINISTRATION SUPPORTS TORTURE WITH IMMUNITY

7/28 - Senior military lawyers lodged vigorous and detailed dissents in early 2003 as an administration legal task force concluded that President Bush had authority as commander in chief to order harsh interrogations of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, newly disclosed documents show.

Despite the military lawyers' warnings, the task force concluded that military interrogators and their commanders would be immune from prosecution for torture under federal and international law because of the special character of the fight against terrorism.

(This is probably why Bush opposes the international war crimes tribunal -- because he wants a free hand to commit such crimes.)

ABU GHRAIB TECHNIQUES COME FROM GUANTANAMO

7/27 - The commander in charge of Guantanamo Bay prison visited Abu Ghraib in 2003 and recommended the use of military dogs during interrogations, the former warden in Iraq testified Wednesday at a hearing for two Army dog handlers accused of prisoner abuse.

"We understood that he was sent over by the secretary of defense," Maj. David Dinenna testified.

He said teams of trainers were also sent to Abu Ghraib "to take these interrogation techniques, other techniques they learned at Guantanamo Bay, and try to incorporate them in Iraq."

The former warden's testimony follows defense claims that using unmuzzled dogs to terrify Abu Ghraib inmates was sanctioned high up the chain of command and wasn't just a game played by two rogue soldiers, as the government claims.

WHITE HOUSE OPPOSES RESTRICTING TORTURE

7/23 - Vice President Dick Cheney is leading a White House lobbying effort to block legislation offered by Republican senators that would regulate the detention, treatment and trials of detainees held by the American military.

The legislation, still being drafted, includes provisions to bar the military from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross; prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees; and use only interrogation techniques authorized in a new Army field manual.

Feminism

Speaking of Naomi Wolf, her coming to speak cleared up for me the confusion as to why so many women did not consider themselves feminists. To me, this had sounded like Jews supporting anti-Semitism. But I came to understand that a concerted effort by the opponents of feminism had succeeded in associating it with being unfeminine. For many women, being a feminist means being a man. Images of hair-legged unattractive lesbians come to their mind. To me--and I’d venture to guess, for most feminists--nothing could be farther from the truth. Feminism means treating women (and men, for that matter) as individuals, and not as stereotypes. If most women, of their own choice, prefer to stay barefoot and pregnant, that’s fine. But no one should be pressured into a certain role seen by society as woman-appropriate (or man-appropriate) purely based on their genitals.

The fact is that even this kind of feminism is on the wane. Women today seem to accept that they should play the woman’s role, and be submissive to their man, or be pursued rather than pursuer, or choose ponies over monsters. I don’t just mean that they really like these roles, but that they feel these are more “appropriate” for them because they are women. They see themselves, and other people, first as women, and only second as people. Any man or women who doesn’t act their role is very often suspected of homosexuality.

It is sad that we accept this kind of deep-seated prejudice. No one would dare suggest that a person was not acting race-appropriately, I hope. But with gender, we still live in a caste system. For all our progress, there is yet little room for people to be themselves, to pursue their individuality, to actualize their potential, outside the walls set up by gender roles. It remains a perfectly acceptable explanation to say that you should be this way because “you’re a man” or “you’re a woman.” I hope people will strive to make clear this discrimination is unacceptable, and that our attitudes should change.

The Treehouse

I am reading The Treehouse by Naomi Wolf, known as a leading feminist figure who inspired me when she spoke at Yale. (Incidentally, contrary to my expectations, Yale doesn't provide a better education than other schools, and many of the professors are bad; its excellence comes in having to compete with other talented students, and in draws like the many great speakers who come visit, like Naomi Wolf, the Dalai Lama, Oliver Stone, and so many others.) This book, unlike her previous books, is memoir rather than polemic, recounting the wisdom of her father, a poetry professor who cares little for facts, or numbers, or reality. For him, life is all in perception, in art.

I feel that I, like her, am a poet who has not written in years.

Her father reads this poem by Dylan Thomas:

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.

Poetry requires a quiet place, to stop and think, and feel, and be, that few have time for. Do you know anyone who has read a poetry book? Poetry is too hard for our short attention spans and many demands. But the poets labour to sing light of all the griefs in our arms. They create a universe in a grain of sand, and eternity in an hour.

I think we all should not forget to find our poetry, whatever it may be for us. We need to have that quiet place, that treehouse, where for a while, we can hear the inner voice of our most secret heart.

I like Sarah Silverman

I never find any of these famous actors attractive. While other guys drool over Nicole Kidman, Demi Moore, Angelina Jolie, and all the rest, I just look and think, "Whatever". But I finally found her. Though an unexpected choice, for whatever reason, I like Sarah Silverman.

Evanescing

Oh my gosh, was this a stressful week, having to decide my future between two so very very different choices. But, in the end, I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere, ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the road less travelled by...

Adieu, my choice position at a top five law school from which I could be set for life, but maybe miserable. I couldn't turn my back on the animals when they need me. Or on my need to live a life that matters.

It is so very late at night, and so I wax poetic as the swell passes behind me, and the quiet sets in. The million bits of advice from so very many peoplethat have swirled furiously about are now fading away, evanescing.

(Angie was right about me.)

Oopsie

My friend Tsoching, who keeps telling me stories about her bf's friends getting carted off to prison, robbing banks, and a lot of getting drunk and sleeping around, told me about being in one of these friend's (Colin), when another friend started playing with Colin's gun, which accidentally went off and shot the wall. This was in an apartment building. Some people are idiots. But they're all allowed to buy deadly weapons.

Last weekend I went to PETA headquarters. It was so nice, they've renovated. It's like Disneyland, so much exciting stuff going on. Very empowering. They've offered me a job. Should I take it? They had vegan pizza, with vegan cheese, it was really good. Why don't they have that in New York City?

Perdu

Yesterday I met with a friend I’d known a couple of years ago, living in DC, a lawyer who told me that I should become a patent lawyer. Since I’m about to do that, I dropped her a line, and since she just moved back to NYC, we got together. Her advice was, "Don’t become a lawyer for the money, because you don’t make much. I know people who have been lawyers for 10 years and still only make $200,000." Yeah, who could live on that?

Je me sens perdu.

Freedom sucks

The new design of the Freedom Tower sucks. Not only is it profoundly ordinary, but it won't be the tallest building in the world, unless you count the antenna, which is cheating. Taipei 101 (which is really pretty) will still win.


(Although the herculean Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emerites, under construction, would far outstrip any other building in height, more than 40% taller than Taipei 101.)

Mmmm... if only I could find 潤餅...

This weekend I went to the Billy Graham Crusade in Flushing to hand out leaflets, and I could not get those leaflets out of my hands fast enough. It was incredible, like hotcakes. On Friday I gave out a boxfull in 10 minutes, and on Saturday, 1600 in an hour. I got to tell people, "God bless you". Fun.

Then, being in Flushing, I bought a bunch of longan, which are fun to eat. I also found 米漿 (a thick sweet peanut rice drink) for the first time in America -- yum! And some 蔥油餅 (fried scallion pancakes) with 豆漿 (soymilk, but not like in the supermarket, this stuff is gooood). Taiwanese have great stuff.

No to Glue Traps

Please spread the word about the popular but extraordinarily cruel glue trap:

Melbourne Herald Sun

People who use glue traps to kill mice and rats will be hit with fines of up to $1000 under a crackdown on animal cruelty [in the state of Victoria, Australia]...

A regulatory impact statement released this week has said the animals not only suffer extreme stress when stuck, but also prolonged deaths from dehydration, exposure, starvation, suffocation or attack by predators.

Animals also die from injuries or blood loss when they try to chew through their own limbs in an attempt to escape.

(You can read the whole article)

PETA and the Lessons of the Holocaust

My opinion piece was published today in the Jewish Journal. While that is exciting, I have to make two important caveats. [Update: They apologized, will publish a correction, and changed the title of the online version.]

First, THEY CHANGED MY TITLE! I want to totally disavow their inflammatory title. I was not saying that factory farms are like Shoah suffering, just that one has lessons that can be applied to the other.

Second, I was not writing on behalf of the JVNA, but expressing only my own opinion.

That said, you can go ahead and read it.

Decay

Dentist. Five cavities. $500. Dammit -- the downside of Luna Bars?

Keng-hui, my first serious girlfriend who no longer talks to me, is going back to Taiwan soon, a position at Academia Sinica. A few months ago I emailed her, to see if she wanted to get together before she's gone forever. She never answered. I do talk to her sister, with whom I stayed when I lived in Taiwan. She is visiting the U.S. for two months, so we were talking the other day. She said, she thinks Keng-hui wouldn't know what to say to me. What is that supposed to mean? Anyway, what can you do. Some people just don't care.

Preserve your memories. They're all that's left you.

Cows with Guns

This flash movie be funny.

Only, why do they call the cow "he"? Cows are girls.

諾安科技

看, 我有我自己的公司!

Elder and Zenith

This morning, when I should have been at work, I was watching Elder, one of these daytime talk shows. They had a couple, the man had cheated on this woman several times, and she was emotionally distraught, but still wanted to marry him, wanted to make him commit. Then they had another couple, the woman had cheated on her husband four times, but he was still trying to work it out with her. I was a little amazed. If your significant other cheats, repeatedly, then what's to work out? Leave him and find someone else. What's the problem? You may be in love, but you can fall in love again. These people seemed to have emotional problems, unable to do the obvious thing.

Then I start thinking, is this what's wrong with me, that I find it too easy to walk away from a relationship? Is this why so many marriages fail? Isn't love supposed to be all-encompassing, willing to take any abuse, holding steadfast to forever no matter what? I don't know, maybe I'm the one with problems.

Today I ordered dinner over the internet (using www.SeamlessWeb.com, the best way to order food) from a vegetarian place called Zenith that sounded vaguely familliar. As I was halfway into my spinach-wrapped-in-noodley-thing-with-sweet-and-sour-sauce, I suddenly recognized those little rolls. I had stumbled upon Zenith when visiting NYC with Keng-hui, a lifetime ago, and ordered this very dish. That was the first time I really explored the city, and fell in love with it. Such memories, that cafe in Soho, the park bench in TriBeCa... sigh...

Soho

Soho has art galleries. With art. Like this. Ooooh...

Pam and Me

Me and Pam were at the Puerto Rican Day Parade, leafleting en español. A lot of these guys had necklaces with HUGE crosses or gold Jesus heads the size of my palm. This has yet to catch on at my office.

Haha

The Daily show is so funny! But who bothers to watch it on that crazy channel at that crazy hour? Have no fear, the website has those hillarious segments ready for the watching whenever you want. Watch it!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday. Didn't get a single present. No one took me to dinner. Not a card in the mail. I did get one e-card (thanks so much, you're the greatest!). I also got shouted at by someone, upsetting me for much of the evening.

So, I went to see Star Wars, which was entertaining but much like the other installments, and for the last movie to be made it didn't even have an ending. And what's a birthday without cake? I went to Lalo's and had two different slices. Nothing to write home about, but it has symbolic value.

Bright College Years...

Check out pictures of my 10-year Yale reunion

Dumpling Man continued

1 day. *Sigh*

I'm famous! Take that, J. Lo!

My picture is in the Vigrinia Pilot: home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=86749&ran=151369&tref=po

("¡Qué Vergüenza!" is Spanish for "How shameful!")

Dumpling Man

Someone was feeling down. So I offered to come over and bring this person dumplings from Dumpling Man, a great dumpling place in the East Village where you can watch them making the dumplings. (I also got yummy Jewish pastries from a shop, and Israeli burekas and chocolate from an Israeli grocery, the East Village is my favorite!) When I got there, it was so hot, that I opened the door. This person wanted the door closed, so I closed it. But it must have not clicked closed, and the person started shouting at me. I repeatedly told this person to stop shouting at me, to no avail, so I left. I shouldn't have to take such abuse.

Now this person tells me that we shouldn't be friends. How long before this person changes their mind, would you like to bet?

The movie Crash was good, I recommend it: "You think you know who you are. You have no idea."

Luna bars fail me

I got a new bulk shipment of Luna bars... but they changed the formula! "Now lower in sugar", the label reads. "Now lower in good taste"! Damnit, they ruined the biggest part of my diet! That company had earned thousands of dollars from me. No more. I now must search for a new food source for my species.

$100

Costa Rica

I just spent a week in Costa Rica speeding down ziplines through the cloud forest, hiking over the lava fields of an active volcano, spelunking among bats and tarantulas, kayaking by howler monkeys, snorkeling and dolphin watching in the rainforest, and much more. You can see pictures here -- but please note that I look terrible in these pictures for lack of necessary hair care products and at times oppressive humidity, so don't judge me by the pics!:

Santa Elena

Monteverde Cloud Forest

La Fortuna Humid Forest, Venado Caves, Arenal Volcano

Manuel Antonio Rainforest, Carara Transitional Forest