The Breaking Time

The Rundown: DIY edition

A Libyan volunteer attaches a rocket launcher to a pickup truck May, 2011. From this gallery of DIY weapons of the Libyan Revolution.

Welcome back to the Rundown, this blog's occasional, handy roundup of things that are interesting, totally in keeping with our theme and that I don't have more time to write about at the moment.

• Syria's DIY Revolt Interesting Foreign Policy piece on how Syria's rebels are patching together new weapons (or finding new ways to use old ones) to even the playing field against the Assad regime's forces. A reminder of how an inventive opposition can put up a fight against forces that are larger and better equipped.

• The Age of Weartronics While this piece focuses mostly on the efforts of tech companies, this field is particularly rich for improvisation. Expect people to start jailbreaking the hell out of this stuff once it reaches a wider market, and some of the basics are already here. Of course, the authorities' reaction to such tinkering can range from understanding to, well...

• Young Pirates evicted from festival for giving out free waffles The Swedish Young Pirates made free waffles at a local festival, only to get thrown out for the threat this posed to the merchants selling waffles at the festival.

Wow, this in no way perfectly makes their point about existing business using laws just to preserve their turf.

• Of Course I Can! As an example of how attitudes have changed over the years, take a look at these posters from the two World Wars and New Deal era, when governments were actively encouraging their populations to can their own food and buy less.

Of course, not everything can be done DIY...

• Pertussis outbreaks may be worst in 50 years and modern medicine is one of those things. While there are a variety of causes behind outbreaks like this, the wider spread of anti-vaccination crap is certainly a factor. It's a handy reminder that on some things, conventional wisdom (vaccinate your kids) is actually wise, and that centralized structures with the massive resources to respond to health issues have their place. Like everything, DIY has its limits.

Poems for Saturday: Two Furies

I had a lot of good candidates for yesterday's poem, and lacked the time to choose amongst them. Today I settled on these two of the many "Fury" poems of the legendary Anne Sexton. Their imagery, power and connections to some of the bleaker parts of our own day are inescapable. Worth a read.

The Fury of Earth

The day of fire is coming, the thrush,

will fly ablaze like a little sky rocket,

the beetle will sink like a giant bulldozer,

and at the breaking of the morning the houses

will turn into oil and will in their tides

of fire be a becoming and an ending, a red fan.

What then, man in your easy chair,

of the anointment of the sick,

of the New Jerusalem?

You will have to polish up the stars

with Bab-o and find a new God

as the earth empties out

into the gnarled hands of the old redeemer.  

The Fury of Jewels and Coal

Many a miner has gone

into the deep pit

to receive the dust of a kiss,

an ore-cell.

He has gone with his lamp

full of mole eyes

deep deep and has brought forth

Jesus at Gethsemane.

Body of moss, body of glass,

body of peat, how sharp

you lie, emerald as heavy

as a golf course, ruby as dark

as an afterbirth,

diamond as white as sun

on the sea, coal, dark mother,

brood mother, let the sea birds

bring you into our lives

as from a distant island,

heavy as death.  

Toxic Privi-lege

Svanberg, center, with other BP executives. The only things missing are ermine, wigs and canes. Photo by Associated Press

"I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are really companies that don’t care, but that is not the case in BP, we care about the small people.”

-BP Chair Carl-Henric Svanberg, yesterday

Yes, he actually said that, securing himself the Marie Antoinette Award for revealing wealthy cluelessness. Meanwhile, a mole within BP tells Mother Jones that the contractors aren't actually doing that much of a cleanup, but they've got prostitutes. Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas, then actually apologized to BP because the Oval Office demanded they set up a fund to recompensate people for damage they caused. 

Combined with the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce promising to make the government pay for cleaning up a disaster caused by a corporation, a clear picture begins to form. It's worth reviewing an old word, often thrown around but little understood:

priv·i·lege

Pronunciation: \ˈpriv-lij, ˈpri-və-\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin privilegium law for or against a private person, from privus private + leg-, lex law

Date: 12th century

: a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor ; especially : such a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office

The true meaning of privilege isn't in the oft-heard "oh god, you say that because you're so privileged" B.S you often hear in sophomore-grade political discussions. "Privilege" is literally "private law," when a separate set of rules develops for a group simply because they're that group.

That, better than traditional capitalism, explains what's actually going on here. In theory, CEOs get paid a lot of money because they're managing a complex organization and making a profit. In reality, CEO salaries have ballooned and, famously, lost all attachment to the success or failure of a company. Management can run a company into the ground and still expect massive salaries and bonuses, defended by their fellows, simply because they're of the same group. 

Whenever regulation is suggested, it is an offense against free market principles. These are conveniently abandoned when one of their own messes up, and it is up to the government treasury to bail them out for the mistake. Bloody murder will be screamed, of course, at the mere thought of actual legal penalties for actions that greatly harm the lives and business of others. The "small people" (called peasants back in the day) should simply be happy to get anything from their betters. These attitudes, increasingly infectious in corporate culture, explains the odd defenses of BP.

This particular sort of privileged group has plenty of precedent in history; it is called an aristocracy. In one form or another, this is what it leaves in its wake:

From The Guardian via Grinding

The Rundown: blood and lithium

Tomorrow's gasoline?

* U.S. Discovers massive mineral wealth in Afghanistan Roughly $1 trillion worth: 

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

There's my favorite Chinese curse, which goes "May you live in interesting times. May you attract the notice of those in high places. May you find what you are looking for." All three seem to apply in this case. Yet again a case of massive natural wealth found in a brutally fractious country. So far, much of the reaction I've heard has resembled "Oh. Shit."

Of course, the United States and many other industrial powerhouses once had massive resource reserves, but those have largely been used up and all the cheap stuff now lies underground of harsh political and geographical terrain.

Many of the devices powering the information revolution depend on lithium batteries. It will be interesting to see if technologists end up supporting bloodshed to keep that cheap, just as previous generations did to preserve cheap oil.

Of course, this cycle can't continue forever. We've got to find better ways of recycling old technology and using less resources in the new stuff.

Conor Friedersdorf argues the United States should run away from the Afghan resources, "sending someone else across the minefield in our stead. The United Nations? The World Bank? The China Mineral Corporation? Whoever it is, better that they suffer the consequences of this find than that we do."

* Chamber President wants government to pay for BP cleanup Speaking of the dangers of risky resource extraction, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to push for the government to bail BP out.

It's a particularly shocking display of privilege, unjustifiable under free market ideals or any other. The translation on his statement is easy: "Shut up peasant, and pay your betters."

* Culinary diplomacy with the Axis of Evil Cafe The Conflict Kitchen, started by a group of Pittsburgh artists, features food from places the U.S. is on bad terms with. The project is intended "to help people see these countries as everyday, human places that are defined by more than just their policies and government." 

The article has a particularly interesting account of a meal (and the ensuing conversation) via satellite between a group in Tehran and Pittsburgh. 

* New Soft City One of the latest augmented reality proposal. We'll see how it pans out. I'm waiting for the inevitable black market/social uses of this technology to start arising and honestly I find them more fascinating than seeing in flashier ways if the buses are running on time. 

* And Still They Cry Out On the anniversary of the Green Uprising, rebel calls still ring from Tehran rooftops. 

* Prince Poppycock at America's Got Talent. Let's change things for a sec for the less serious. This is just absolutely divine.

The Rundown: Avatars in the late, late night

Photo by Robbie Cooper

It's past one in the morning and my sleep schedule is shot all to hell, both from a nasty head cold and the medicines I'm using to fight it. And I've seen so many interesting things, readers, that it's high time I shared some of them with you. Thank insomnia.

* Behind the Avatars A fascinating photo series from Robbie Cooper that puts people's images side by side with the virtual avatar they've created. In a more fractured cultural landscape, we increasingly individualize our identities, with countless cultures and fantasias to draw from. To top it all off, there's now virtual worlds to roam around in where we can create new visual identities with a few clicks.

Like the best photography, Cooper's series speaks volumes. In lesser hands this could've ended up with simple exploitative gawking ("Wow, look at who chose to have a hot chick as their avatar hur hur"), instead it's surprisingly poignant and doubly interesting for how many avatars do resemble their offline bodies.

* Children by the Millions Wait for Alex Chilton Speaking of brilliant poignance, Joshua Ellis' superb essay from Coilhouse 04 has now made its way to the online edition. It starts with a personal story and makes its way to the mutated state of our current cultures.

Ellis' time predated (and was radically different from) mine, but like all the best stories it resonates no matter where you are. This is a piece still has me thinking about its points large and small, long after I first read it. Only the best essays do that.

* Keats in Space Molly Young's interesting call for a re-fusion of poetry and science, harkening back to the days when Milton's poetry graced astronomy books. I don't think Art and Science can merge as comfortably as some might believe, but this is an excellent reminder that both mentalities can learn from — and need — each other greatly.

* The State of the Internet Operating System Tim O'Reilly (poetically, at some points) breaks down exactly how the fuck the internet does what it does and how quickly that's changing. For those of us to whom the nuts and bolts of technology don't come that naturally, this is an excellent primer on how infrastructure matters — and why we should pay attention to what form tomorrow's may take.

* Stealing Krakatoa If anything that better sums up, in the most batshit supervillain way "Well fuck, the future's here" than Indonesian black marketeers hauling away the most famous volcano on the planet, I can't think of it.

* Lawmakers announce bipartisan transparency caucus Interesting, and while I'll have to see where it goes, worth applauding. I hope this marks the point where some of the Gov 2.0 ideas begin transitioning into the larger political realm. The air can get a little rarefied up there.

Just in case you're wondering, here's all the bastards on Twitter.

* Iceland bans stripping, adult entertainment, declared female-friendly haven Ah, Neo-Puritanism ain't dead yet. A disturbing story on a number of levels, not least because the reaction of some media is to take the idea that women need to be sheltered from witnessing or participating in certain acts as empowering, instead of disturbing paternalism Bullshit, of course, and Salon's writers justly call them on it.

* Captain Planet is not as cool as a jetski Just think about it for awhile. He's really not.

Poems for Friday: Plastic Bag

Fuck knows I love me some good Werner Herzog jokes. But occasionally he steps out of the darkness and reminds us of exactly why he casts such a long artistic shadow in the first place.

So it was that I came to the end of this week and realized that the above brilliant short film by Rahmin Bahrani, and narrated by Mr. Herzog, was the most stunningly tender piece of poetry I've encountered in some time. So enjoy, and remember: it's a wide world out there.

(Via, with many thanks, Coilhouse)

Why does a salad cost more than a Big Mac?

Just in case you were wondering. From here.

Remember: politics matters. Especially when you aren't paying attention to it.

Of toxic water and imminent threats

Activists pepper health study author Sandy Mort with questions at last Thursday's meeting. Photo by Jonathan Welch for Mountain Xpress

My article on the clash between activists and bureaucrats over the "imminent threat" of contamination at the former CTS of Asheville plant is in this week's Mountain Xpress:

It was a tense moment in the T.C. Roberson High School theater on the evening of Jan. 21. Sandy Mort of the state Department of Health and Human Services, the author of a recent study on the health effects of contamination near the former CTS of Asheville site (see sidebar), had just told the audience that a bus stop near the site posed no hazard. For the better part of three hours, the HHS staffer had heard a litany of neighboring residents' tales of personal pain, criticisms of the study and calls to clean up the source of the trichloroethylene contamination.

"Do you have a heart? Do you hear what these people are saying?" one woman shouted.

Holding the microphone close to her mouth, Mort gave a slight sigh and said, "We work with the information we have; that's reality."

---

Residents repeatedly questioned the study's finding that although there were 64 cases in the study area of types of cancer that could be related to TCE exposure, there was no elevated cancer rate. Mort acknowledged that the study's methods do have limitations but added that her agency would continue to update its studies.

Residents, however, countered with tales of cancer and maladies that they believe are linked to the tainted ground water they unknowingly consumed for many years. Although the first EPA tests were conducted in 1991, the first wells weren't capped until 1999.

"We've had a lot of medical problems in our family," said Becky Robinson, whose home was among the first to be put on city water. "We have had no medical recommendations, no guidance, nothing. We had to get our own medical testing. My two grandchildren's immune systems came back compromised. Nothing has been done; nobody has contacted us. My daughter's had lots of medical problems. Her liver started failing, she had a total hysterectomy at 23, seizures, multiple knee operations for cysts. We drank the water for nine years; we fixed our children's bottles with this water. All of them have health problems."

Mort said she thought public-health professionals had been in touch, but Dot Rice, whose well was also capped in 1999, said she hadn't heard from any public doctors until last week.

"We've got staff that can talk to your physicians," said Dr. Doug Campbell, who heads the state agency's Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch.

"Great — what about my medical bills?" asked Robinson.

"Well, we cannot offer that," responded Campbell.

The Great Healthcare Freakout

Will everyone please calm the fuck down?

Yes, I mean you, Glenn Greenwald, and I very definitely mean you, Avedon Carol. I should probably throw Howard Dean, whose column today threw gasoline on an already simmering fire, into the pile too.

With the largest healthcare legislation in decades close to passage, a great swirling brawl has emerged and oddly, many bloggers and activists who have pushed for the legislation now want it dead because of the lack of a public option. 

538 has the only remotely reasonable debate so far between the "it's a start" faction and the "it's not good enough, kill it now" side. 

Personally, I'd like everyone to take a deep breath. Since discussion about this legislation started, the entire process has been plagued by hyperbole, first by right-wing rantings that health care legislation would usher in a communist dystopia and now by the crying of some progressives that this constitutes a grand betrayal. My, but the body politic does love its drama.

Everyone reading this blog has a brain, so I'm not going to tell you to love the American attempt at universal health care or hate it. That's up to you. What I will do, while you're taking that deep breath, is try to offer a few extremely important points that have been lost in the screaming.

Drug barons: we'll pay you to keep medicine expensive

Look all you want, it ain't getting any cheaper

Turns out that while vigorously defending a free market, drug companies are bribing their competitors not to bring out far cheaper, generic drugs:

Over the last few years, drug-makers have embraced a startlingly simple tactic for fending off competition from generic brands: paying them off. In a nutshell, the company that holds the patent on a profitable drug strikes a deal with the maker of the cheaper generic brand: you hold off on marketing your generic for several years, and in return, we'll give you a share of our profits on the drug.

The vehicle for these deals is patent litigation. When a generic drug is approved to come to market, the maker of the more expensive name-brand drug sues the generic for patent infringement. But instead of a conventional settlement, in which the generic pays the patent-holder to settle the claim that it infringed the patent, the payment goes the other way: the patent-holder pays the maker of the generic, in exchange for a pledge to delay bringing the generic to market. That suggests the patent-holder fears its patent wouldn't hold up in court, as many don't.

Horrific, of course, but hardly unexpected. It always amuses me when people expect companies engineered for profit — at all costs — to follow laws that would harm their windfalls. Like medieval barons genuflecting before the church, corporations will preach the free market gospel when it suits them and ignore it when it does not.

Black market drug factories are nothing new, but up until now they've been the domain of narcotics, rather than standard medicine. But if rising drug prices and corporate cartels continue, it's not hard to imagine some enterprising makers grinding away in basement factories, getting the newest shipment of antibiotics ready for the streets. It's equally easy to envision bribes paid to lower-level corporate workers to heist the formulas for new drugs, so local undergrounds can begin cranking them out. 

Ad-hoc operations like that have a nasty, ramshackle side, but I doubt the people who suddenly find needed medicine unattainable will care. The barons should remember: there is always another way.