There may be light or sporadic blogging the next day or two. I’ll be in transit.

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The level of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is likely to grow more than expected as soil bacteria, in response to rising temperatures, break down more organic material and produce more CO2, according to results by an international research team.

Rumors that George Bush has declared bacteria to be ‘enemy combatants’ and is launching unprovoked attacks on soil worldwide are as yet unconfirmed.

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If you have a WordPress blog, check out Lorelle on WordPress.

There’s a multitude of informative how-to posts about WordPress, blogging in general, with useful tips and advice galore. Her blog is a real gem.

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I asked my friend Randy Greif about his new film, The Three Trials. I saw the screening last Friday, and built the website for him. Check it out, there’s photos, music clips, two trailers, and more. The movie is hallucinogenic, abstract, kinky, darkly humorous, with segments that are almost experimental music videos.

Avant/experimental music fans will know Randy from his Swinging Axe music label. He’s been recording since the 80’s, this is his first film.

1) What’s the movie about? What genre?

Oh boy–you start with the tough questions first. And in the case of this film, I’m not being sarcastic. It is three intertwined and overlapping stories of a woman in search of devotion to an idea or faith. It is also the fantasies of a psychotic housewife. The story-line, on the surface plays out as an absurd, but very dark, comedy, slipping around in locations and eras, and involves masochistic priests, shadowy religious figures dwelling in industrial basements, a yeti-like creature who evolves into a plastic surgeon, a woman who has never left “the castle”, and a group of body manipulators who perform a bloody ritual with meat hooks. I think I’ve probably answered the “genre” question by now…

2) What are you trying to do with the film?

I’m trying to create a film that is as much about sensory experience as it is narrative. It’s continuously digressing into non-verbal, almost music video scenes, and abstract imagery. I wanted to push the envelope a little and take the absurd sexual content further than the usual quick cut-away we see in films, especially American films. My background really comes from music, which plays a big part. So many friends and acquaintances from the world of experimental or avant-garde music allowed me to use tracks of theirs in the film.

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From MediaGeek

When it comes to the future of our media, network neutrality will be the most important issue to be debated and decided upon by Congress this year. At stake is who will control what information, data, images and sound you can receive over your broadband connection, and whether or not the big telcos like AT&T and Verizon can filter out some types of content or charge you signficantly more for the privilege.

On Feb. 7 the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on network neutrality, and on this edition we listen to some selected testimony. We also hear from Stanford Law Prof. Larry Lessig and Jeff Chester from the Center for Digital Democracy. They tell us more about what’s at stake in this debate and how we can agitate for the public interest.

Here’s the link to their informative podcast.

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Our cable modem went down today for a few hours. We use RoadRunner, and outages are infrequent and rarely longer than that. Still, it made me realize how dependent we are on it. My business is blogs, websites, and database programming, and I’m online constantly. Sue just became self-employed and will also have a home office soon.

A backup way to get on the Net would be nice. The Verizon online-everywhere sounds good, but you must use their network card only. I’m not even sure if you can wi-fi from Starbucks with using them. Plus it is considerably slower than cable. So, we’re thinking of getting DSL at home too as a backup. Anyone doing this?

So, in those few hours I was tragically offline, I went to the ANSWER office to help with the 5,000 piece mailing we’re doing to build for the March 18 antiwar march and rally. Brought my laptop, and hey, if someone in the building is silly enough to leave their wireless net with a default name of “linksys” and no security, well then anyone can hop onto it for a few minutes, right?

On the way home I stopped at Panera Bread in Studio City. They are a nationwide chain with free wi-fi. Good food, strong coffee, free wi-fi, what else do you need?

Well, Boingo maybe. I have an account with them. $22 a month for wi-fi at thousands of locations like Barnes and Noble, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and many others.

Plus, JWire has a super useful Free Wireless directory of hotspots worldwide.

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A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans’ Constitutional rights.

Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he has concerns about a “special access” electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrentless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is forbidden from discussing the program with Congress.

Tice said he believes it violates the Constitution’s protection against unlawful search and seizures but has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees - members or their staff - because they lack high enough clearance.

Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office is not cleared to hear the information, he said.

Then, hust who IS cleared to know about it? Who is NSA monitoring and why? Given that Congress funds the money for NSA so they can spy on the populace, it is insane they are not allowed to know anything about the project.

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