Newsmap: Supercool visual representation of google news headlines. Check 'er out.

'Nightline' to read toll of Iraq war dead: "'Nightline' is calling Friday's program a simple tribute. Others call it anti-war propaganda. And one TV-station group is pre-empting it... Expanded by 10 minutes from its usual half-hour, 'Nightline' will include more than 500 killed in action in Iraq since March 19, 2003, as well as 200-plus non-combat deaths."

When the Greens come a-knockin'

From The Globe and Mail, via The Straight Goods :

The Green Party of Canada has 5% national support... but significant backing in British Columbia. The Greens have 13% of BC voter support and 7% in Atlantic Canada[.] "The NDP now has competition from the left," Ipsos-Reid pollster Darrell Bricker said. The NDP, at 18% in the polls, is hoping for a reversal of its political fortunes in an election expected in 2004....

Lordy, just what the doctor ordered. The right finally gets itself together, Tory and [expletive] factions eagerly burying the hatchet in the name of electoral success, and now what remains of the left is going to fragment off into oblivion.

I will rant about this later. For now, I'll just fume and write my IR Theory paper.

Das Kredit (or, the political economy of being a broke-ass student)

The only reason our (your, my -- Ontarian, Canadian, North American, Western, Northern, First-world) standard of living is so high is because our productivity has outpaced other jurisdictions for so long. But we're losing ground -- you just can't feel it yet. My generation and the next will take a beating to pay for your generation's modest tax breaks.

Since October of 2002 I have paid some $702.35 in interest and fees to the Royal Bank of Canada for my (relatively) low-interest line of credit. As it stands, it is costing me more than $60/mo to service my existing debt. How do I pay that amount? From my line of credit, of course, for I don't even earn enough at my part-time job to pay the rent, let alone food, tuition, textbooks, utilities and bank fees.

If my province's public student loan system wasn't so convoluted, none of that would have been siphoned away... yet. Don't get me wrong -- I don't expect a free ride; I recognize that benefits are accruing to me as a result of my education and that, as a result, I will enjoy higher earning power once I enter the workforce. But why can't I pay off my loans then, instead of now? The more I have to pay now, the more I have to work now, the less I am able to learn now... and so, it is beginning to seem, the less I will be able to earn later. But all the debt will still be there later, too.

Faced with what feels like a massive debt (I'm reminded of it every time I bank... OSAP students I know are less dogged by the harsh reality of their own looming debts, which they must only deal with once or twice each year), it's hard to stop oneself from spending on frivolous things. It feels hopeless... so why not buy a DVD to cheer yourself up? What's another $20?

Credit cards (don't even get me started on credit card interest -- I'd have included it above, but it's less easy for me to determine how much I've paid to those usurers) prevent me from feeling as poor as I really am, and so sometimes spend as though I'm not. And so it goes.

I'd add some fancy links and some graphics to spice things up but I'm too depressed right now. Maybe later... what's a good graphic for being so utterly disgusted with your financial predilictions? Wait, don't tell me -- I'd rather not know.

Oh McSweeney('s), will you ever learn?

When I drink pop outside the confines of my apartment, I drink Diet Coke (at home, it's Random Generic Store-Brand­™). My regular out-of-the-house pop vending machine -- the one out in front of the Centre Spot at Laurier, with the fancy-ass conveyor belt that so fancifully retrieves your selection -- has no Diet Coke. No regular Diet Coke, at least. It seems the fine folks at my local Coca Cola distributer think it's fair to force loyal Diet Coke drinkers to suck back Diet Coke with Lime (ooh joy!). They, we, I have no choice. There is no regular Diet Coke. But I digress...

From McSweeney's, via Kottke :

The beauty of Diet Coke with Lime is that it's a lot like Diet Coke with Lemon, minus the sensation of drinking Lysol. It doesn't, really, taste much like lime, but what does? I just can't wait for Pepsi to catch on.

I'm so lazy, lately. I've just lazily shuffled my way through the same old sites for the past couple of weeks, like some kind of lazy laze-bot, surfing (no, more like... oafishly loafing) the web's equivalent of ever-loving mashed potato comfort foodness. But not today -- no, no. This is probably the only 'new' (to me) site I've visited in weeks. The passage quoted above is user-contributed (from a collection of 'new food' reviews), and there are jillions of simmilarly chuckle-inducing nuggets to be found there.

And so I share it with you. Enjoy.

Ever the industrious student of public policy, the Monsanto v. Schmeiser case (where Percy Schmeiser is fighting a lower court ruling that he must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Monsanto because his canola field was contaminated with a patented Roundup Ready seed variety - this may ring a bell for it's inclusion in recent smash-hit documentary The Corporation) has sent me out on the prowl for interesting reports on the seed industry, intellectual property rights, and so forth.

The holy grail? Stolen Seeds: the privatisation of Canada's agricultural biodiversity, by Devlin Kuyek (PDF from the Council of Canadians).

In certain online circles, Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture has been getting a lot of attention. To sum-up briefly, it's a book about the implications of certain more restrictive applications of intellectual property rights written by a self-described 'believer' in IPRs and presented in a culturally aware (i.e. "hip," as the kids these days might say) way that reminds me of Douglas Rushkoff's writings on youth culture. I think Stolen Seeds is an excellent companion to Free Culture; where the latter is geared towards 'cultural' intellectual property, Stolen Seeds carries a similar analysis of the social implications of those rights' intrusion on spheres previously public.

But then again, I'm a pretty big geek.

All the obsession that's fit to print

Now that I'm officially going to be The IT Guy for the campus newspaper, my interest in the nuts and bolts of print design and production has kicked up again. Thanks to kottke, I found this fabulous blog: newsdesigner.

Also, newseum will feed your pulp-and-paper addiction with daily pdf front pages from some 306 dailies worldwide. For example, here's the Globe and Mail (to be boring, local, and simulatenously on my monitor and my cafeteria table) and Algemeens Dagblad from Rotterdam, Holland.

Top 40ish hits from the Geobey hi-fi

'Cause he's pushing forty, too. In honour of the tragic de-collectivization of the mighty Kingston Communie, here's a beaut from Masters of the Universe: "... hosts will usually be the lead edge of party craziness and also the least likely to push the occasion too far. We have long understood this fact and have always shown ourselves to be outliers in this model. Collectively we almost always account for the worst behavior at the party, from property damage through intoxication, of all attendees. This in turn allows our guests to let loose and have a good time. It is a good concept and has worked remarkably well over the course of my time here."

Yes, I'm blogging like a madman today. Touch typing with fingers like fists of fury, my aim is to land a solid blow to the solar plexus of ... uh ... the inTarWeb. I think.

Can you say 'exceptionalism?' I knew you could!

"It might ... seem hypocritical for us to insist so strongly that other developing nations treat as wrong what we, for the first hundred years of our existence, treated as right. That excuse isn't terribly strong. Technically, our law did not ban the taking of foreign works."

- Lawrence Lessig (from Free Culture, via a random quote generator)

NB: This quote is waaaay out of context, I know.

Welcome to the quagmire, Uncle Sam

If there was any doubt remaining about the trajectory of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, I think the events of the past week has done a pretty thorough job of dispelling it. I didn't want to resort to the q-word, but I think it's warranted now that things have degenerated to full-on Catch-22 status. They shouldn't have gone in, but they did; having done so, they shouldn't leave before the (reconstruction, stabilization) job is done right -- but they will, it now seems.

From Associated Press, via Salon :

April 7, 2004 | FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. Marines in a fierce battle for this Sunni Muslim stronghold fired rockets that hit a mosque compound filled with worshippers Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to nearly all of the country...

Viewing this conundrum from the perspective of a politically moderate Iraqi only darkens the outlook. Under Saddam, there was little freedom to speak of, except perhaps from the religious extremists. Women were exceptionally free, in regional terms at least, healthcare was good prior to the sanctions, and though Saddam was a brutal autocrat it was not too difficult to steer clear of troubles if you could satisfy yourself with absolute exclusion from the political sphere.

Now that the Americans (and the Britons, and the Spaniards, and the Australians, and the Poles...) have destroyed Saddam's regime, the long-suppressed Islamic extremists are bubbling to the surface. You abhor the humiliation and illegitimacy of the occupation, but if the troops pulled out today, your country could well be a theocracy by tomorrow afternoon. And then what? Civil war? Many accounts indicate that the vast majority of Iraqis do not support the radical clerics responsible for the recent uprisings, but clearly a critical mass exists -- one of sufficient size to take hold of poorly thought-out structures like the Governing Council. This must be an incredibly scary time to be a moderate in Iraq... at least the extremists have a sense of momentum, of sense of hope, and a reasonable expectation of 'progress.'

For a nation that constantly evokes personal responsibility and family values as its credo, America has done a piss-poor job of living up to its the obligations it took upon itself after invading Iraq. I overheard an apt comparison yesterday: like the stereotypical teenage deadbeat father of a child born out of wedlock, they're constantly on the verge of selfishly bailing out. The almost sexual exhilaration of the 'race to Baghdad' in March of 2003 has given way to a faltering sense of responsibility to the premature, failing state it created... but this metaphor is getting lame. Sorry for the pretentiousness of the above, but again, this frustration had to find expression somehow.

Russia drops DVD prices to counter piracy: "On weekends... the largest pirated CD and DVD market in Europe... is packed with hundreds of Russian families shopping for bootlet software, computer games and music and movies. For educated city dwellers whose tastes outstrip their incomes - the average monthly wage is $200 - Gorbushka is a cultural motherlode." [Int'l Herald Tribune]

In a fit of uncrontrollable boredom, I discovered that I (or pages relating to the actual, verifiable me-ish me) am the king of google when "Greg Smith" and either "pragmatic", "radical", "NDP" or "Laurier" are queried. Given the ridiculous quantity of Smiths out there, I'm actually a little proud of this... I suppose it's more of an accomplishment than being the a-ok-number-one search result for "Tudor Costache" and "on a plate."

Wow, I really must seem obsessed with the guy lately. Blorg. I blame his imminent taking-over of the helm at good 'ole cL.

Anyway, I dare the most bored of you to find other hilarious words that, when combined with my name, actual return sites related to the real-deal me.

"Trust is a two-way street"

From justafan.org, via kottke.org :

...instead of embracing the Internet, and nurturing the work of genuine artists--not glossy novelty acts, or mere sex symbols--the music industry has sought out a scapegoat. It has responded with a string of lawsuits and recrimination--blaming the very fands that sustain them for the poor sales of their own increasingly mediocre products... it is our intention to support bands and music that embrace the future rather than shrink from it. Thus, in recognition of A Ghost is Born having leaked to the Interne in March 2004, donations are being collected for Doctors Without Borders, and organization selected by members of Wilco themselves.

These donations are a symbolic down payment or promissory note in advance of the album's release on June 22 and a show of thanks to the band for its continuing generosity and trust--on behalf of the fans of Wilco, and of real, original music everywhere. We do this as a measure of good faith: to show that there will always be an audience who will pay for good music; to remind record companies that their marketing efforts should target music lovers, not only teenagers; and to prove that reports of the death of the music-buying public, indeed, are greatly exaggerated.

They had me at "instead;" that is, until the passage that I've emphasised using italics. The smarm-factor settles down again, though, and I'm more or less with 'em.

A better solution would be a $5 PayPal to the band (to any band, every band) in return for a legit download of files carrying a reasonable digital rights management setup that allows me to listen on my desktop PC, my laptop PC, and the portable music device of my choosing... and if the band wants to skim a percentage for MSF, UNICEF, or ABCDEFG then that's cool, too.

[last time I checked, total donations were up to $4020, presumably USD]

The revolution will be photographed

So, I've begun sprinkling photos throughout my blog. Tudor may think I've stolen this idea from him. He's probably right. But there you go. Stylesheets can only take one so far, after all.

Buddhist art on campus @ Clemson U

From Maybe yes, maybe no, via bOING bOING :

The Jewel in the Lotus - Several days ago I wrote about the visiting Buddhist monks who came to construct a Tibetan Sand Mandala in the school library. They began on March 24, and worked from morning until evening pouring just a few grains of sand at a time. This Friday the design stood completed, and during the morning the wheel was ceremonially deconstructed. I took a good number of pictures, but it was truly a fine, intricate artwork to appreciate. I have to admit that, for once, I'm a little thankful to my school overlords for organizing the opportunity to see something like this.

Extremely cool post, as are the pictures. I still haven't gathered up enough gumption to talk to the two Buddhist monks current talking classes @ Laurier - I'm too afraid that the first thing that came out of my mouth would be "Dude, you're a monk... That's so cool!"

Then again, I did actually explain the Liberals' sponsorship scandal to the orange-robed one who frequents the Torque Print Room, where I work... In any case, it's now less than a month until I see the man himself, H.H. The Dalai Lama, at SkyDome in Toronto. I look forward to what I'm sure will be an utterly bizarre juxtaposition of exalted spirituality (what with him being a living god and all) and crass, everyday consumerism (Coke ads, concession stands run by McDonald's).