ENERGY CONSERVATION AND THE 21ST CENTURY: My TechCentralStation column is up.

AUSTIN BAY ON BALI:

Based on the public outrage in Indonesia, however, in Southeast Asia and internationally, JI’s latest murder binge is anything but a victory for jihadist terror. These reactions suggest that, since 2002, “something has changed” — and the change has not been in Al-Qaida’s strategic favor. . . .

But something larger seems to be at work. One indication is the overall tone of news coverage and public reaction — call it anger with a shrug. While terrorist apologist and British MP George Galloway may yet sally forth with “root causes” rhetoric and anti-American agitprop, at the moment, the latest Bali blast has not produced demands that the world “understand what the terrorists want.” Everyone knows the jihadists want to sow fear.

Fear, however, doesn’t seem to sell as easily as it did.

Nope.

HERE’S MORE on the Oklahoma suicide bomber, who appears to have attended the same mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui. This is particularly bad news for the American muslim community, but it’s probably good news for Mitt Romney.

UPDATE: Big roundup here. Lots of interesting connections.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Much more, from Gateway Pundit. Excerpt: “Joel attended the Islamic mosque near his apartment, possibly the same mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui attended. His Pakistani roommate has not been seen by neighbors since the incident. The very volatile explosive Joel used is the same chemical that Shoe Bomber Richard Reid tried to use before his arrest. It is very rarely seen in the US.”

MILBLOGGING.COM rounds up milblogs from around the world.

THE WASHINGTON POST looks at Katrina myths and the damage they did:

Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans, some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims.

All the journalistic self-congratulation over the Katrina coverage appears to have been misplaced.

UPDATE: Reader Alan Gray points to this passage from the WP article:

“The television stations were reporting that people were literally stepping over bodies and violence was out of control,” said Blanco press secretary Denise Bottcher, who was at the governor’s side. “But the National Guardsmen were saying that what we were seeing on CNN was contradictory to what they were seeing. It didn’t match up.”

Sound familiar? As Gray observes: “New Orleans today, Iraq tomorrow?”

Yeah. With all the resources they threw at this story, they blew it, big time. It does make you doubt their coverage from Iraq, and, well, everywhere else.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Matt Welch has much more on this:

We are now into Week Two of elite news organizations’ re-evaluation of the New Orleans horror stories they helped transmit to the world in the first seven days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. It was known already by September 6 that tales of evacuee ultra-violence in refugee centers like Baton Rouge and Houston were both false and strikingly similar to one another, but it took much longer to begin clearing the muck from the Big Easy.

Welch follows with a long interview with Major Ed Bush of the Louisiana National Guard. Read the whole thing, but here’s an excerpt:

Well, I worked hand-in-hand with, and got to know very well, Major David Baldwin, who was the commander of our special reaction team, [and]…certainly a principal player in keeping the security of the Dome. I mean his guys patrolled every inch of it, 24 hours a day. We constantly had moving patrols—outside, inside, through, on the field, in the bathrooms. And I said, “You know I’m hearing all this crap about bodies in the bathroom, and this and that. Are you finding any bodies?” And he said “No.”

He said, “You’ve got to help us; people are scared to death.”

They were scared to death because of what they were hearing on radio broadcasts and cable-news-fed rumors. If journalists were held to the same standards regarding product defects that automobile manufacturers are, well . . ..

POOR PIGLET.

TERRY HEATON looks at TV news in a postmodern world:

The extent to which the public – in the form of citizens media – can undercut the revenue bases of professional journalism will determine how well institutional media will withstand the onslaught. Since media revenue is audience-driven, however, this is one institution that’s headed for the tar pits, because – at core – the advertising industry doesn’t really care about things like tradition and history. Where that wealth gets redistributed in the economy is anybody’s guess, and that’s why the entry of Venture Capitalists into the citizens media game is so significant.

(Via Joe Trippi).

JAY ROSEN GIVES THE WASHINGTON POST a higher grade than the New York Times.

MORE UNUSED BUSES in New Orleans. Dr. Shackleford has questions.

RED-LIGHT CAMERAS may be causing accidents in D.C.:

The District’s red-light cameras have generated more than 500,000 violations and $32 million in fines over the past six years. City officials credit them with making busy roads safer.

But a Washington Post analysis of crash statistics shows that the number of accidents has gone up at intersections with the cameras. The increase is the same or worse than at traffic signals without the devices.

Three outside traffic specialists independently reviewed the data and said they were surprised by the results. Their conclusion: The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions.

They’re certainly not helping, except at the revenue desk:

AAA and other critics have accused the city of installing cameras in high-volume locations where they could generate thousands of tickets, regardless of how many accidents happened there.

Indeed.

UPDATE: Prof. Bainbridge writes: “This finding is consistent with other studies about which I’ve blogged in the past. In my book, these instruments of the devil are just a tax on drivers.”

CATBLOGGING TO THE MAX: At The Carnival of the Cats.

BETTER ALL THE TIME: The Speculist rounds up good news of all sorts. Well, it’s mostly the techy-sort, but it’s important and mostly under-covered.

MICROSOFT opens up.

BUSH ON AVIAN FLU: I didn’t see the press conference today, but a reader noted a question, and here it is in the transcript:

Q Mr. President, you’ve been thinking a lot about pandemic flu and the risks in the United States if that should occur. I was wondering, Secretary Leavitt has said that first responders in the states and local governments are not prepared for something like that. To what extent are you concerned about that after Katrina and Rita? And is that one of the reasons you’re interested in the idea of using defense assets to respond to something as broad and long-lasting as a flu might be?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Thank you for the question. I am concerned about avian flu. I am concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world. I am — I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean. I tried to get a better handle on what the decision-making process would be by reading Mr. Barry’s book on the influenza outbreak in 1918. I would recommend it.

The policy decisions for a President in dealing with an avian flu outbreak are difficult. One example: If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country, and how do you then enforce a quarantine? When — it’s one thing to shut down airplanes; it’s another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine? One option is the use of a military that’s able to plan and move.

And so that’s why I put it on the table. I think it’s an important debate for Congress to have. I noticed the other day, evidently, some governors didn’t like it. I understand that. I was the commander-in-chief of the National Guard, and proudly so, and, frankly, I didn’t want the President telling me how to be the commander-in-chief of the Texas Guard. But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the President to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe, or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak.

Secondly — wait a minute, this is an important subject. Secondly, during my meetings at the United Nations, not only did I speak about it publicly, I spoke about it privately to as many leaders as I could find, about the need for there to be awareness, one, of the issue; and, two, reporting, rapid reporting to WHO, so that we can deal with a potential pandemic. The reporting needs to be not only on the birds that have fallen ill, but also on tracing the capacity of the virus to go from bird to person, to person. That’s when it gets dangerous, when it goes bird-person-person. And we need to know on a real-time basis as quickly as possible, the facts, so that the scientific community, the world scientific community can analyze the facts and begin to deal with it.

Obviously, the best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins. As you know, there’s been a lot of reporting of different flocks that have fallen ill with the H5N1 virus. And we’ve also got some cases of the virus being transmitted to person, and we’re watching very carefully.

Thirdly, the development of a vaccine — I’ve spent time with Tony Fauci on the subject. Obviously, it would be helpful if we had a breakthrough in the capacity to develop a vaccine that would enable us to feel comfortable here at home that not only would first responders be able to be vaccinated, but as many Americans as possible, and people around the world. But, unfortunately, there is a — we’re just not that far down the manufacturing process. And there’s a spray, as you know, that can maybe help arrest the spread of the disease, which is in relatively limited supply.

So one of the issues is how do we encourage the manufacturing capacity of the country, and maybe the world, to be prepared to deal with the outbreak of a pandemic. In other words, can we surge enough production to be able to help deal with the issue?

I take this issue very seriously, and I appreciate you bringing it to our attention. The people of the country ought to rest assured that we’re doing everything we can: We’re watching it, we’re careful, we’re in communications with the world. I’m not predicting an outbreak; I’m just suggesting to you that we better be thinking about it. And we are. And we’re more than thinking about it; we’re trying to put plans in place, and one of the plans — back to where your original question came — was, if we need to take some significant action, how best to do so. And I think the President ought to have all options on the table to understand what the consequences are, but — all assets on the table — not options — assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant.

Nice that someone’s paying attention. It does suggest, though, that the Bush Administration is thinking of increasing the military role in disaster response.

UPDATE: The Hotline Blog notes: “The government’s response to the threat of the flu is arguably more important than the hullaballoo over a Supreme Court nominee. Let’s see how — and where — the press plays these comments.”

And a commenter there adds: “Exercise for the press: What plans do the federal, state, and major municipal governments have in place to deal with an H5N1 pandemic? If a H-to-H transmissible pneumo- and neurotropic virus with 50% mortality arrives in Los Angeles tomorrow, precisely what will be done? This isn’t a warplan, it’s a public health crisis whose disposition we need to understand *before* it takes place.”

Yes. And if we don’t use it for avian flu, odds are we’ll use it for something else.

GRAND ROUNDS is up!

RICHARD POSNER’S must-read blogs.

BLOG DOGS GOVERNOR: I’ve been saying for a while that local-blogging has a big future, and here’s an example.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE — IS THERE A REPUBLICAN DEATH WISH? Andy Roth reports:

Clearly the folks at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) are paying no attention to blogger demands that the party structure help bring about fiscal restraint in Congress.

They are running a TV ad AGAINST an anti-pork, fiscally conservative Republican challenger to an incumbent who voted against the Bush tax cuts and had the second lowest score among Republican senators in the most recent National Taxpayers Union rating of Congress (PDF). The NRSC is in full attack mode against a candidate who has made pork a key issue.

What is the message here?

I guess Ed Morrissey’s “Not One Dime” to the NRSC campaign hasn’t taken hold, yet. And it’s certainly support for Neal Boortz’s position:

I’m sorry, but the Republicans richly deserve to lose control over the House and the Senate in 2006. There is no excuse whatsoever for their profligate spending, and no excuse for Tom Delay’s absurd claim that there is no fat in the federal budget. Every American should be disgusted at this spending spectacle.

Quite a few Republicans seem to be disappointed.

ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT FOR THE UNITED NATIONS:

As Tunisia prepares to host the controversial World Summit for the Information Society in November, Tunisian opposition activist Neila Charchour Hachicha informs Global Voices that the online freedom of speech protest site launched by Tunisians on Monday, www.yezzi.org has already been blocked by the Tunisian authorities.

Sigh.

RAY KURZWEIL’S NEW BOOK got a quite positive review in the New York Times.

Interestingly, Janet Maslin’s review is, if anything, less techno-skeptical than mine.

UPDATE: Phil Bowermaster has thoughts on Maslin’s techno-optimism. I think her review significantly underplays the cautionary tone of Kurzweil’s book, but perhaps I’m just sensitized to those concerns.

ALPHECCA’S weekly roundup of media gun coverage is up, and it’s been an especially bountiful week.

THE NEW EDITOR, referencing my first reaction on Miers, says that it is “underwhelmed” with the blogosphere’s response to the nomination. It’s hard to see why. Things were quite different when Roberts was nominated, and the blogosphere hasn’t changed significantly in those few weeks. The difference in the reaction has to do with the nominee.

Bush raised the bar with Roberts, and then, having set the stage brilliantly for a McConnell, gave us a non-McConnell. Miers might turn out to be a great Justice, of course, but at the moment there’s absolutely no reason to expect that. Hope, maybe, but not expect. This isn’t the blogosphere’s fault, but the Administration’s.

UPDATE: Bill Stuntz thinks that Bush is channeling Truman.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Robert Musil is comparing Miers to Byron White and Robert Jackson. I find these comparisons less than fully convincing.

MORE: A somewhat more persuasive defense from Thomas Lifson. But the Bush Administration should have seen this reception coming. Perhaps it did, and for whatever reason didn’t care.

STILL MORE: A response to Lifson, from Paul Mirengoff.

I DIDN’T SEE BUSH’S PRESS CONFERENCE, but Jeff Goldstein did.

THE INSTA-WIFE is really into Amazon’s short film competition, to the point that she’s now wishing that she’d entered something. She’s thinking of doing a film on men and higher education next.

REMEMBER IRAQ? Bill Roggio is paying attention to what’s going on even if others aren’t, and his latest is a must-read. And note the media criticism from Capt. Jeffrey Pool.

UPDATE: More background here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More media criticism from the troops. We’re hearing a lot of that, and with good reason.