link/"Turf Wars" in New Yorker: why we love lawns

Good essay on the history of our ridiculous infatuation with green squares of foreign grass.

New Yorker

One of the most popular herbicides was — and continues to be — 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or 2,4-D, as it is commonly known, a major ingredient in Agent Orange. Regrettably, 2,4-D killed not only dandelions but also plants that were beneficial to lawns, like nitrogen-fixing clover. To cover up this loss, any plant that the chemical eradicated was redefined as an enemy. "Once considered the ultimate in fine turf, a clover lawn is looked upon today by most authorities as not much better than a weed patch" is how one guidebook explained the change.

[..]

The answer to this chemically induced problem was to apply more chemicals. As Paul Robbins reports in "Lawn People" (2007), the first pesticide popularly spread on lawns was lead arsenate, which tended to leave behind both lead and arsenic contamination. Next in line were DDT and chlordane. Once they were shown to be toxic, pesticides like diazinon and chlorpyrifos — both of which affect the nervous system — took their place. Diazinon and chlorpyrifos, too, were eventually revealed to be hazardous. (Diazinon came under scrutiny after birds started dropping dead around a recently sprayed golf course.) The insecticide carbaryl, which is marketed under the trade name Sevin, is still broadly applied to lawns. A likely human carcinogen, it has been shown to cause developmental damage in lab animals, and is toxic to — among many other organisms — tadpoles, salamanders, and honeybees. In "American Green" (2006), Ted Steinberg, a professor of history at Case Western Reserve University, compares the lawn to "a nationwide chemical experiment with homeowners as the guinea pigs."

link/Survival time of (unpatched) machines on the 'Net

The Internet Storm Center publishes these cool graphs of the average time an unpatched machine will last on the Internet before being taken over by malware (not even with someone surfing).

Windows machines last just over 100 minutes; "Unix" machines (not sure the OSes they cover) last from 400 to 900. The point being that this is typically much longer than downloading/installing updates will take.

More and more like "Curious Yellow", an essay written several years ago.

link/Italian police sentenced over 2001 G8 protests

During the G8 summit in 2001, police were accused of posing as "Black Block" anarchists (among others) and inciting violence. There was also widespread illegitimate arrests of protestors, beatings, alleged torture and inhumane treatment. Police also killed at least one 23-year-old protestor at point-blank range (self-defense was claimed and no charges laid).

It is not expected that any of the guilty officers will actually serve any of their sentences as the statute of limitations will almost certainly expire before the appeals are done.

link/Iran sucks at photoshop

Speaking of free/open photo tools, Iran apparently sucks at using them, releasing allegedly digitally altered images of their recent missile tests.

link/GNU/Linux open photo tools

An Apple fan-boy tries to find a replacement for Aperture under GNU/Linux (Ubuntu) and, to his surprise, succeeds. ...and it's all open source/free software and runs on Windows if you're still stuck there.

The executive summary is that he likes The Gimp (like photoshop and also runs on Windows) for general photo-manipulation tasks, Raw Therapee (runs on Windows, too) for raw photo processing and Nautilus (GNOME's default file-browser/shell) for managing things.

link/Electro-shock Plane Tickets

The Department of Homeland Security is apparently interested in deploying "electronic ID bracelets" for plane travellers to take the place of boarding passes.

One difference: these one are Tazers and can electro-shock the wearer into submission for several minutes. Maybe even forever.

This and many other terrifying "less lethal" products can be reviewed at the [Canadian] manufacturer's Web site.

link/Nelson Mandela not Terrorist

Nelson Mandela, 90, and other members of the African National Congress were officially taken off the US government's "terrorist list". He may now legally travel to the US.

link/Spanking: Jail.

The Senate is preparing to pass through a bill (which would still need House approval to become law) which would make it a crime to spank your child.

link/Wilderness Lake to Tailings Pond: Rubber-stamp

Federal Bureaucrats are allowed to redefine lakes and rivers as "tailing containment facilities" (aka toxic waste dumps for mining debris) and are doing just that to a bunch of lakes and rivers across the country. Awesome.

CBC

CBC News visited two examples of Schedule Two lakes. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the Vale Inco company wants to use a prime destination for fishermen known as Sandy Pond to hold tailings from a nickel processing plant.

In northern B.C., Imperial Metals [after winning an appeal that the government had acted illegally by not holding a public environmental review] plans to enclose a remote watershed valley to hold tailings from a gold and copper mine. The valley lies in what the native Tahltan people call the "Sacred Headwaters" of three major salmon rivers. It also serves as spawning grounds for the rainbow trout of Kluela Lake, which is [immediately] downstream from the dump site.

link/Spontaneous Universes?

Apparently more observation and data-processing of the microwave background radiation reveals evidence for time existing before the big bang and spontaneous formation of universes from "parent" universes...

link/FBI using terrorism laws to "infiltrate" protest groups

As predicted, so-called "terrorism" laws are really being used to fuck the tender bottoms of protestors.

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant -- someone to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort's primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division's website, is to "investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines."

Of course, protesting is terrorism as defined by the FBI:

FBI

Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as ``...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.'' (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)

Note especially the or property -- claiming that there can be "violence" against property is ridiculous, of course -- so if two kids are holding a "stop the bombing" sign and push over a police barricade, they're terrorists. Scribble a "fuck off Starbucks" on the perennial favourite coffee-chain and you're a terrorist (not a simple graffiti writer).

More information about the FBI doing this in other states from democracynow. Also, a report of being arrested by FBI for "wearing a mask".

But hell, this is even more terror-fying, a list of people to arrest if (when?) martial law is declared...