stray bullets (Mumbai edition)

some notes on Mumbai:

Mumbai attacks - city fears five terrorists are 'missing' At least five terrorist gunmen have evaded capture in Mumbai and could make a secondary strike on India's financial capital, it was feared this morning.

Mumbai terrorist: I was ordered to kill 'until the last breath' The sole Mumbai gunman captured alive has told police he was trained in Pakistan and ordered to “kill until the last breath”, according to a leaked account of his interrogation.

Google Earth used by terrorists in India attacks Investigations by the Mumbai police, including the interrogation of one nabbed terrorist, suggest that the terrorists were highly trained and used technologies such as satellite phones, and global positioning systems (GPS), according to police. (Blackberries, too)

Zenpundit: Recommended Reading (for all the "in-depth" you could want)

Global Guerrillas: URBAN TAKEDOWN: MUMBAI (via)
JOURNAL: More on Tactical Innovation

stray bullets

If you tried to follow the link from the Mark Cuban item yesterday and got nothing, here is why.

Players You Don't Hear About The war here is described as "complicated," which is another way of saying that there are several different factions fighting, sometimes as allies and sometimes against each other. The major players are... (via)

Why So Serious? The modern classical-music performance, as audiences have come to know it and sometimes to love it, adheres to a fairly rigid format.... Most people are aware that this clockwork routine—reassuringly dependable or drearily predictable, depending on whom you ask—is of recent origin, and that before 1900 concerts assumed a quite different form. I've read about bloody sword-fights in the aisles and composers and musicians pulling crazy musical stunts to get the attention of the audience. (via)

Alan Moore on 'Watchmen' movie: 'I will be spitting venom all over it' "I find film in its modern form to be quite bullying," Moore told me during an hour-long phone call from his home in England. "It spoon-feeds us, which has the effect of watering down our collective cultural imagination. It is as if we are freshly hatched birds looking up with our mouths open waiting for Hollywood to feed us more regurgitated worms. (via)

All eyes on Hanna...

Now that Gustav has done his worst and New Orleans is in the clear, our attention is drawn to a lady named Hanna.

Although the storm has tracked a bit to the east, putting Savannah on the western edge of the projected path, we are still watchful. Hurricanes are unpredictable and can do crazy things at any moment.

Georgia has been very fortunate as far as hurricanes and tropical storms go. If you look at the map, you'll see that the Georgia coast is the westernmost piece of coastline along the Eastern Seaboard. Big storms tend to miss our little nestle and barrel right on up and slam the Carolinas.

Some say that we're blessed, some say that Gullah and Geechee Voodoo keeps the storms away. We'll gladly take all the help we can get, but regardless, candles, water, food, batteries and a new radio are in order for tomorrow's shopping list. I'm on relatively high ground, I have an upper floor in my apartment and my first floor is almost six feet up, so I'm not too worried about flooding. It would have to be an extreme event for me to take water. I am worried about a large, slouching tree in my yard. Lots of loose lumber up there and it's leaning right over me.

image from the National Hurricane Center

Gustav note

Have a look at the Crown Weather Services website for just about every possible link, map, chart, graph, notice or advisory on Hurricane Gustav. It's worth checking out just for how comprehensive it is. You can ignore the open .txt prompt, unless you're a total storm geek.

Gustav could very well be the Big One, making Katrina look like a warm-up. All indications are that the eye will pass to the west of New Orleans, which does not bode well for the city. The eastern side of a hurricane always delivers the worst of the wind and rain. We may very well lose one of the urban gems of our world. For real, this time.

Update: The page is loading slow. It must be getting hit hard. You'll have to wait a bit to get the maps.

Thanks, Crow!

Isaac Hayes, R.I.P.

Isaac Hayes, Deep-Voiced Soul Icon, Is Dead at 65



Farewell and thanks for all the great music.

Sick Day

image

I'm a bit under the weather, so just this one post today. I'll be back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, it's lots of bed rest and Monty Python for me, the archives and my splendid blogroll for you, if you need some.

But before I leave you, a few notes and some videos.

First of all, I was shamelessly pleased to discover that Uncertain Times was kindly and thoughtfully introduced by the esteemed Jahsonic. His weblog and Art and Popular Culture Wiki are required reading and reference.

some news:
Sad to say, an American Tourist Is Killed in Beijing
Babies born 8/8/08 at 8:08; 8 pounds, 8 ounces (thx)
Update: Fake-CNN spam mutates as attacks continue

some nugs:
Literary Voyeurism (enough to choke on)
Roald Dahl's “Taste” - Read by John Lithgow for Selected Shorts series on public radio. (don't miss it) (via)
Roadside Architecture is back on the road. (prev)
Darren Aronofsky updated his blog.

some video:

The Chambers Brothers - People Get Ready (via)




From The Last Waltz, The Band performs It Makes No Difference. I forgot how good they were. (via)




August 9th is Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore. Enjoy an excellent live version of Inca Roads.

And finally, Procrastination. (not the one that made the rounds a few months back)



See you tomorrow!

George Carlin: Life is Worth Losing

George Carlin: Life is Worth Losing

If you haven't seen this, watch it. It's the single most important piece of social and human commentary that I've heard since Bill Hicks was doing his thing.

It's also astonishingly relevant to the moment.

Need I say NSFW?



GeorgeCarlin.com

George Carlin 1937-2008

images via GeorgeCarlin.com

Breaking News: George Carlin dies at age 71

Whoa! This really caught me by surprise. It seemed like he was still going strong.

NYTimes Alert (via email):

George Carlin, the Comedian, Is Dead at 71

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television," died in Los Angeles on Sunday according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

More as I find it.

Update via Reuters:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, died at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (2 a.m. British time) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television. A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of his "Filthy Words" routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sad. He just made the news last week for being awarded the Mark Twain Prize for lifetime acheivement in comedy.

He will be sorely missed here at Uncertain Times.

When I was a kid, the first 'dirty comedy' you usually listened to was Cheech & Chong. Then, after you'd absorbed, mastered and memorized that, some kid's older brother turned you on to George Carlin. For a lot of us kids of that time, we were attracted to Carlin because he swore. Bottom line.

You have to remember, back in the early '70s there were only five (limited) forms of media: print, i.e. books, magazines and newspapers (cutting edge ascension from MAD to National Lampoon plus Playboy and Kurt Vonnegut), TV (four whole channels of it), radio (mostly AM), movies (that took three years to make it to TV, so if you missed it at the theater, it was a long wait) and records. On next to none of these, except for a handful of records and a few movies, could you hear a real live F-bomb. And the people usually dropping them were Cheech & Chong and George Carlin. In this overly F'ed up and out world, the novelty is long lost and rendered down to a dusty film, but in those days saying "fuck" or even "shit" on some form of mass media was really out there.

The difference with Carlin was, while you were reveling in all the curse-wordage, at some point he started to make you think. Then you started to realize that there was a point to all of this besides exploring forbidden verbiage. We didn't know much about the supreme court battle but we knew all about the "7 dirty words." In the process we learned a thing or two about hypocrisy, lies and taboo. That was the whole cloth from which George Carlin crafted his wares.

Back in 1980, I saw George bomb on Saturday Night Live and felt sad and thought that he might be washed up. Over the years, he continually surprised me. However, he never was so relevant and funny as he was over the last 10 years. A great example is the video I posted titled "Life is Worth Losing." It's almost surreal in its import to the time and the current moment. Take the time to watch it, or bookmark it for later, and be amazed.

Earthquake-damaged cars hit China's streets

Telegraph.co.uk:

On the principle that anything that can be salvaged from the rubble is better than nothing, residents of the earthquake zone have taken to trying to restart cars and vans apparently damaged beyond repair.

Hey, life goes on.

via Nothing To Do With Arbroath

Police kill man in standoff over FEMA trailer

Police kill man in standoff over FEMA trailer

Man, I knew that guy. We weren't good friends, but I worked with him for a while.

It's always a bit of a shock to see a name you know in a story like this.

Kinda sad, too. When I knew him, he was a little crazy in a normal within-the-boundaries sort of way, but I never imagined this.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me. One time I saw a roommate's face on the front page of the Times-Picayune, wanted by the FBI under a different name. Talk about a shocker.

There are others. One that happened in high school borders on the paranormal, but I'll save that for another time.

via The Consant Seige

Car plows into bike race in Mexico, 1 dead

A car collides into cyclists participating in a race in Mexico's northern border city of Matamoros, Sunday, June 1, 2008. At least one person was killed and 14 injured when a driver slammed into a bicycle race. (AP Photo/Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez)

Car plows into bike race in Mexico, 1 dead
via Nothing To Do With Arbroath

Amateur footage of the immediate aftermath of China earthquake

Seconds after the quake struck

The last 30 seconds are the craziest.

3 giant pandas missing after China earthquake

see electra-cute's amazing collection of panda photos

MSNBC:

Three giant pandas are missing from the world's most famous panda reserve after China's devastating earthquake and five staff members were killed, an official told state media Sunday.
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China Earthquake Links

Panoramic photograph made from multiple shots from the middle of Beichuan after the earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Photograph: Dan Chung/Guardian


Deadly aftershock jolts Sichuan as mourning begins

1,000 hurt and three killed on eve of nationwide silence to start three days of recognition of disaster victims.
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China begins mourning as toll mounts

China on Monday began three days of national mourning as the death toll from last week's devastating earthquake mounted and rescue workers continued to search for survivors among the rubble.
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Survival of quake victims depends on many factors

A nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a Turkish hospital destroyed by an earthquake in 1992. A newborn was rescued after more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City's 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers are pulling out victims days after they were buried by a powerful earthquake.
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China allows bloggers to spread quake news

Almost nonstop, the uncensored opinions of Chinese citizens are popping up online, sent by text and instant message across a country shaken by its worst earthquake in three decades.
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China bloggers cook up quake conspiracies

Broadband connections across the country are pulsing with rumours of "earthquake omens" involving toads or butterflies - all allegedly ignored by the authorities. Some even talk of a vast pre-Olympic conspiracy.
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In Rubble, Couple Clung to Each Other, and to Life

At the moment of greatest despair, Wang Zhijun tried to kill himself by twisting his neck against the debris.

Breathing had become harder as day turned to night. The chunks of brick and concrete that had buried him and his wife were pressing tighter by the hour, crushing them. Their bodies had gone numb.
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NPR audio:

Chinese Still in Danger from Flooding, Landslides

Following Monday's devastating earthquake, the Chinese government says it expects the final number of dead to surpass 50,000. On Sunday an aftershock rattled buildings and sent people into the street and a nearby dam is in danger of collapsing. Officials released water from dams and reservoirs to reduce danger of flooding and landslides.
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Chinese Volunteers Set New Precedent

Chinese citizens from across the country have been organizing food convoys, setting up blood drives and raising money for the victims of the earthquake that hit last Monday. While this sort of reaction may not be unusual in the West, China has little tradition of civil society.
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Small Miracles Rise from Earthquake's Rubble

NPR's Melissa Block was in Chengdu, China when the earthquake hit last Monday. She and her All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel were there, preparing for a week-long series of reports from Chengdu they had been planning for months. That coverage will begin tomorrow on All Things Considered, their stories, obviously, radically transformed. Now, Block offers this Reporter's Notebook.
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“The earthquake can ruin our homes, but it can’t ruin our future!”

Earthquake Hit Students Find Light in the Dark

And let us not forget Burma

Burma neighbors in cyclone talks

Foreign ministers meeting in Singapore hope Burma's military junta - which has so far blocked most of the foreign aid - might accept the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) help.
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Glimmer of hope for Burma's dying children as UK minister signals breakthrough on aid

A senior British minister said a breakthrough was within reach yesterday in the standoff between the international community and the Burmese regime over allowing foreign aid for cyclone survivors into the country.
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Diplomats Tour Myanmar (audio)

U.S. Charge D'Affair Shari Villarosa was part of a group of diplomats given a tour Saturday of the cyclone-struck areas of Myanmar by the country's military government. Villarosa tells Liane Hansen she is concerned that there are hundreds of thousands of people who haven't received assistance. She hopes officials there will open up and welcome international assistance.
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China Earthquake Photos 6

Two residents walk on a damaged bridge at the quake-hit area in Beichuan county, southwest China's Sichuan province, China, Saturday, May 17, 2008. Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicenter Saturday, fearful of floods from a river blocked by landslides. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)













Earthquake survivors carrying their belonging, evacuate to higher ground from the center of earthquake-hit Beichuan County, southwestern of Sichuan province, China, Saturday, May 17, 2008. Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicenter Saturday, fearful of floods from a river blocked by landslides. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)













A rescuer walks past a giant rock which has flattened a car next to partially damaged buildings in Beichuan county, southwest China's Sichuan province, Saturday, May 17, 2008. Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicenter Saturday, fearful of floods from a river blocked by landslides. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China Earthquake Photos 6

China Earthquake Photos 5

China Earthquake Photos 5

China Earthquake Photos 4

China Earthquake Photos 4