brainrow

Thrilling Wonder has some spectacular photos from a Russian commercial pilot called “Letchik Lekha.”

Via Lockergnome, we learn that there’s a British version of Apple’s PC/Mac TV ads. They’re similar to the U.S. ads, but different.

Dick Cheney’s old company, Halliburton, is on the move:

U.S. oil services firm Halliburton Co. is moving its headquarters and chief executive to Dubai in a move that immediately sparked criticism from some U.S. politicians.

Texas-based Halliburton, which was led by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000, did not specify what, if any, tax implications the move might entail. It plans to list on a Middle East [stock market] once it moves to Dubai — a booming commercial center in the Gulf. The company said it was making the moves to position itself better to gain contracts in the oil-rich Middle East.

“This is an insult to the U.S. soldiers and taxpayers who paid the tab for their no-bid contracts and endured their overcharges for all these years,” said judiciary committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.

Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, might hold a hearing on the implications, an aide to Waxman said.

Halliburton has drawn scrutiny from auditors, congressional Democrats and the Justice Department for the quality and pricing of its KBR Inc. (KBR.N) unit’s work for the U.S. army in Iraq.

They take the big-ticket no-bid contracts; they repeatedly fail U.S. soldiers and taxpayers in Iraq; they take the money and run. They have no respect for or loyalty to the United States or the American people.

That Cheney sure is a bad influence.

Crooks and Liars has more on Fox’s bold and independent “news” coverage.

Hey, can they help it if the only way to really get to the bottom of tough news stories is to repeat and repeat and repeat Republican talking points?

Via Editor & Publisher, some good news about the New York Times online:

The New York Times is opening up access permanently to TimesSelect to all students and faculty who have .edu e-mail addresses beginning on March 13.

“It’s part of our journalistic mission to get people talking on campuses,” says Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager at NYTimes.com. “We wanted to open that up so that college students and professors can have a dialogue.” …

Schiller says the company has “no regrets” putting 22 columnists at the Times and its sister newspaper The International Herald Tribune, archives and other material behind a pay wall.

…

Those students who are current subscribers will receive pro-rated funds for their paid subscriptions. Schiller explains that students and faculty will have to register for the service but that it’s self-regulatory.

Bloggers lost a great resource when the Times made its columnists and some other materials available online only to paying customers. At least now students and faculty can read folks like Thomas Friedman, David Brooks, Nicholas Kristof, Bob Herbert, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Paul Krugman. They’re pretty smart sometimes.

Via Framing Science, a Gallup poll about the effect of global warming on the strength of hurricanes:

[M]ost Americans believe it will be a decade or more before the manifestations of global warming begin to wreak havoc.

The only outcome that close to half of Americans believe is likely to happen sooner concerns hurricanes becoming more powerful. Forty-nine percent say this is either already happening or will happen within 10 years.

However, there are major differences by political persuasion. A solid majority of Democrats say they are very or somewhat worried about all seven items measured. At least half of independents worry about six of the seven items. Meanwhile, no more than 49% of Republicans are worried about any of them. … [T]he average level of worry among Republicans is only 34%, compared with 59% among independents and 75% with Democrats.

What worries me about this poll is that, responding to a question that calls for considerable expertise, backed up with lots of factual data, only 1% of those polled offered no opinion.

Corpus Callosum reports that the Union of Concerned Scientists has designed a cleaner car:

Automotive engineers at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today unveiled a minivan design that shows automakers can build affordable vehicles with existing technology that would meet or exceed global warming pollution standards for cars and trucks adopted by California and 10 other states. Automakers are currently fighting these standards in court.

The minivan, dubbed the UCS Vanguard, features off-the-shelf engine, transmission and fueling systems and other technologies that would save consumers money, maintain vehicle safety and performance, and cut global warming pollution by more than 40 percent. All of the technologies in the Vanguard are in vehicles on the road today, but automakers have yet to combine them all in one single package.

Joseph at Corpus Callosum says:

[I]t is simply a proof-of-concept. Or more accurately, a disproof-of-concept: it disproves the notion that it is impossible to design a car that meets tougher standards.

That, of course, just makes the auto companies mad.

In the absence of federal policies to curb global warming emissions from vehicles, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington have adopted the California clean car standard. Several other states, including Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas, are considering or about to adopt the standard. Combined, these states represent nearly half the U.S population.

In response, auto industry trade groups have filed lawsuits in California, Rhode Island and Vermont to block implementation.

“The automakers are sticking to their traditional ‘can’t do’ philosophy,” said David Friedman, clean vehicles research director at UCS. “Years ago they cried the sky was falling when they were required to install seat belts and airbags. Now, instead of building cleaner vehicles like the Vanguard, they’re fighting global warming pollution laws in the courts. To get the job done, they should bench their lawyers and call in the engineers.”

Nah. Lawyers take orders. The engineers mostly seem to have a chip on their shoulders. Something about “reality,” whatever that is.

Via Atrios, let’s examine just how fair and balanced Fox News really is.

Ann Coulter got all the attention at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

Ann Coulter used an anti-gay slur to describe John Edwards (the line drew applause) and asked: “Did Al Gore actually swallow Michael Moore?” When a questioner asked Coulter why she praises marriage but broke off so many engagements, she responded by calling the questioner ugly.

Classy lady. But you know, she’s not the only right-wing superstar:

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Tex.) said of Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq: “She’s an idiot.”

Class, class, class.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) got the crowd cheering early in the day. “I have been called — my kids are all aware of this — dumb, crazy man, science abuser, Holocaust denier, villain of the month, hate-filled, warmonger, Neanderthal, Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun,” he announced. “And I can just tell you that I wear some of those titles proudly.”

Which ones, huh? C’mon, tell us — which ones?

Talk about class warfare — the Democrats just don’t play in the same league as these class acts.

What a coincidence — exactly 2000 days — not quite five and a half years — after George W. Bush promised to get him, “dead or alive,” Osama bin Laden observed his 50th birthday.

I think that’s enough birthdays for this guy, don’t you?

Update: via Hetty Litjens, CNN reports Bush success — bin Laden is, in fact, “dead or alive.”

Because he is a psychiatrist, the author of Corpus Callosum has an interesting perspective on recent abuses of investigative powers:

Never take legal advice from someone who is not your lawyer. The only thing worse than taking legal advice from someone who is not your lawyer, is to take legal advice from somebody else’s lawyer.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I am going to tell you what I find particularly galling about the FBI “National Security Letter” scandal. Yeah, it shows that we can’t trust our own law enforcement agencies. But we knew that already. …

The National Security Letters allow the Executive Branch to circumvent oversight From the Judicial Branch. That is what most of the fuss is about. But there is more to it than that.

You see, the NSLs also deprive the recipient of the right to representation. As I understand it, if you get an NSL that demands information, you are not allowed to tell anyone about it. That means you cannot seek legal advice about the NSL, specifically, you cannot ask an expert if it is a legal order, in order to determine whether you really do need to comply. There is no recourse, no due process, no option. Either you comply in silence, or you put yourself in legal jeopardy.

When I first heard about them, I thought about what I would do if I ever got a NSL demanding that I turn over protected health information. Protected health information, by the way, is a special class of information defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

The law provides stiff penalties, including prison terms, for some violations of patient privacy.

So this is not a trivial matter. The law does permit disclosure for “activities related to national defense and security,” but due to the nature of the NSL, the health care provider is not in a position to make an independent judgment about the relevance or legitimacy of the demand for information. …

Why do I find this issue to be troubling? It has to do with some of my own experiences. It has happened a couple of times that I have gotten subpoenas requesting protected health information regarding persons involved in nasty divorces. The opposing attorney sends the subpoena, hoping to find something damaging.

Now, a lot of health care professionals, upon receiving an official-looking subpoena, will just go along with it, and send the records. But I have learned that it is not always necessary or proper to do so. So now when I get one of those subpoenas, I first copy it and send it to my patient’s attorney. Let them fight it out. Usually the subpoena just goes away. These experiences show that official-looking documents are not always valid. They may carry threats, but the threats may be empty. It makes it hard to have confidence in the system.

Something that occurs to me: how do you know that a National Security Letter is the real thing?

I get emails purporting to be from banks or credit card companies asking me to log in to verify my login info. Those email messages are fraudulent, with links to sites created specifically to steal my login info. It’s called “phishing.” Now there is phone phishing, called “vishing”.

Isn’t the National Security Letter a perfect set-up for fraud? You can’t tell anyone, you can’t ask for advice, and you can’t say no.

It’s time — it’s past time — for the debate on this unrestrained government power.

Want to upset our whole political system?

In recent years, so very much has been built based on the notion that we should all just stop thinking and shut up.

Yeah, it’s time to tear all that crap down.

Bob Geiger is keeping track of the number of days since George W. Bush promised to get Osama bin Laden “Dead or Alive.”

It’s been 2000 days.

Do you suppose he even remembers?

From Deep Sea News: Global warming may be a terrible thing, but you can’t say the pictures aren’t cool.

The image at the linked site is big — 1600 by 1200 pixels — but you’ll have to download it to see it at full size. The photo credit is: Craig R. McClain, Iceberg in Weddell Sea taken from the deck of R/V Polarstern.

Thrilling Wonder has photos of wild weather:

Humbling stuff.