bart's journal

from wikipedia: Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an annual holiday in fourteen states of the United States. Celebrated on June 19, it commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas.

I just saw this story on one of my favorite daily reads, "Axis of Evel Knieval" The site is a sort of This day in sordid history chronicle. Yesterday, May 31st's entry, was about George Washington ordering the genocide of the Native American tribes that sided with British in the American Revolutionary War.

This is the picture from the deleted post about Israeli soldiers using a 13 year old kid as a human shield. Click on the story to see the picture.

Recently I've been researching ways to reduce my ecological footprint. My obsession began as I read Jim Merkel's excellent book Radical Simplicity. If you have never heard the term Ecological Footprint, wikipedia defines it as,

The people at pvcfree.org have a funny animation on PVC plastics.

Here's a great story at the New York Times on the madness of allowing patents on genes.

From the story:

For example, Canavan disease is an inherited disorder that affects children starting at 3 months; they cannot crawl or walk, they suffer seizures and eventually become paralyzed and die by adolescence. Formerly there was no test to tell parents if they were at risk. Families enduring the heartbreak of caring for these children engaged a researcher to identify the gene and produce a test. Canavan families around the world donated tissue and money to help this cause.

The first web page is about a heartbreaking film that recreates a study on race performed in the 50s. In the study a group of black children are shown two dolls, one white and one black, and asked various questions: which doll was prettier, which doll was "bad", which doll was "good", which doll they liked better. In the study from the 50s and in the new film which was made by a high school student from New York City the children overwhelmingly prefer the white doll. The film toured last year as part of the Media That Matters tour. Click here to watch A Girl Like Me

The second article is about a study done here in the US that says "Skin Tone Affects Earnings".

from the story:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asserts that Cheney's options -- worth $241,498 a year ago -- are now valued at more than $8 million. The former CEO of the oil and gas services juggernaut, Cheney has pledged to give proceeds to charity.

TrueMajority.org, a national nonprofit committed to ending the war in Iraq,
and thousands of Americans across the country, are taking a preemptive
stand against President Bush's troop expansion plans by holding a Day of

Treehugger has an article on a special cage in the Thames that captures 40 tons of trash or the equivalent of 800,000 plastic bottles per year.