Rumsfeld and those prison pictures

Thanks to John Robb for pointing out Seymour Hersh’s piece in the New Yorker, which opens thus:

“The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the America intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror

According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.

Rumsfeld, during appearances last week before Congress to testify about Abu Ghraib, was precluded by law from explicitly mentioning highly secret matters in an unclassified session. But he conveyed the message that he was telling the public all that he knew about the story. He said, ‘Any suggestion that there is not a full, deep awareness of what has happened, and the damage it has done, I think, would be a misunderstanding.’ The senior C.I.A. official, asked about Rumsfeld’s testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, ‘Some people think you can bullshit anyone.'”

What Google plans next

From today’s Good Morning, Silicon valley:

“After Gmail, what’s next on Google’s agenda? Desktop search, apparently. Rumor has it the company will soon launch a search utility that will challenge Microsoft on its home turf, the desktop. Code-named Puffin, the tool — developed with the help of a former Microsoft product manager — will be offered as a free download. No doubt the folks up in Redmond, who were hoping to marginalize Google by building more search functionality into Longhorn, the long-delayed update of the Windows OS, will be none too happy to learn they’ve been marginalized themselves. Longhorn isn’t expected to arrive at market until 2006, which gives Google plenty of time to secure a firm foothold on the desktop, and give Microsoft something to chew on as it plots a way to turn Google into the next Netscape.”

Summer? Maybe

Summer always catches Cambridge unawares. One day it’s wet, overcast and cold. Then, when you least expect it, you find yourself living in one of the most achingly beautiful towns in the world. Trouble is that this transformation always coincides with examinations. It’s tough being a student sometimes.

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Cat scan

Meet the Ndiyo cat. Well, he pops in to see us from time to time.

Well, whaddya know? — CD sales are UP, despite file-sharing

Lovely piece by John Pazckowski in today’s edition of Good Morning, Silicon Valley.

“Few organizations are more dedicated to making sure the public cannot quite understand its sales data than The Recording Industry Association of America. So it’s welcome news whenever someone is able to make sense of that data and the rather … curious methods the RIAA uses to report it. Since the advent of peer-to-peer networks, the RIAA has consistently reported a decrease in CD sales, and just as consistently blamed that decline on file sharing. And it has always had the metrics to back that claim up. But it turns out that those metrics are a bit misleading. The RIAA reports a sale as a unit SHIPPED to record stores, not as a unit sold to consumers at those record stores. Now here’s where things get interesting: The RIAA forecast a 7 percent decline in recorded music sales for 2004, but data from market research outfit Soundscan, which measures point-of-purchase sales, shows a 10 percent increase in music sales when comparing the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2003. What does this mean? Sales of recorded music haven’t declined, shipments have. Retail outfits are moving increasingly toward a just-in-time sales model. Rather than order more music than they need and eat the overrun or pay to ship it back to the distributor, they now order only what they think they need. This doesn’t mean retailers are selling less music (a retailer can order 1000 CDs one month and sell 600 of them, 800 CDs the next and sell 700). But it does mean that the RIAA can claim a decline in sales — at least until a gust of fresh air blows the smokescreen away.”

Danny Gregory’s philosophy: a drawing a day keeps the blues at bay

“I don’t think that illustrated journaling is really about doing great drawings. You’re not out to make something that you could frame or give as an Xmas present. I’m not really into doing the sort of exercises on perspective and tone that you see in most drawing books, exercises that will move your skills to another level artistically. Not that you shouldn’t do them if they are fun or if you have some other goal in mind but I don’t think they are essential for the true purpose of illustrated journaling. That purpose? To celebrate your life. No matter how small or mundane or redundant, each drawing and little essay you write to commemorate an event or an object or a place makes it all the more special. Celebrate your hairbrush and it will make you appreciate the intricacy of the bristles, the miracle of your lost hair, the beauty of you. Sounds sappy but it’s in there. Draw your lunch and it will be a very different experience from bolting down another tuna on rye. If you take your time (and we’re just talking maybe 10-20 minutes here, folks) and really study that sandwich, the nooks and valleys, the crinoline of the lettuce, the textures of the tuna, you will do a drawing that recognized the particularity of that sandwich,. That’s the point: to record this particular moment, this sandwich, not something generic. If you approach it with that attitude, you will create something as unique. reaching that place is just a matter of concentration and attention. A brief meditation and you will have a souvenir to jog your memory back to that a moment forever more. Imagine if you can keep doing that, keep dropping these little gems in your day, recognizing the incredible gift you are given each morning upon awakening. You will be a millionaire.”

I love Danny’s Blog. There’s something beautiful on it most days.

Google Mail

Jack Schofield disliked it. David Pogue loves it.

We don’t do torture — do we?

This from today’s New York Times:

“WASHINGTON, May 12 — The Central Intelligence Agency has used coercive interrogation methods against a select group of high-level leaders and operatives of Al Qaeda that have produced growing concerns inside the agency about abuses, according to current and former counterterrorism officials.

At least one agency employee has been disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during questioning, they said.

In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as “water boarding,” in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.

These techniques were authorized by a set of secret rules for the interrogation of high-level Qaeda prisoners, none known to be housed in Iraq, that were endorsed by the Justice Department and the C.I.A. The rules were among the first adopted by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks for handling detainees and may have helped establish a new understanding throughout the government that officials would have greater freedom to deal harshly with detainees.

Defenders of the operation said the methods stopped short of torture, did not violate American anti-torture statutes, and were necessary to fight a war against a nebulous enemy whose strength and intentions could only be gleaned by extracting information from often uncooperative detainees. Interrogators were trying to find out whether there might be another attack planned against the United States.”

So if “water-boarding” isn’t torture, then what is, exactly? There may be a case for torturing these folks (it’s a philosophical dilemma that’s been set for countless generations of philosophy students), but there isn’t one for denying that you’re doing it.

Girl in a red sweater

The Pre-Raphaelites have a lot to answer for. Just imagine what they would have done with PhotoShop (or the GIMP).

Exotic Business

I had a meeting in the Judge Institute of Management — Cambridge’s Business School — today. Couldn’t help reflecting on how exotic and unbusinesslike its interior is. More like an Oriental bazaar. Lovely though.