Saturday 20 October 2018

whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for congress and ultimately the american people

Tonight forty-five years ago, the Saturday Night Massacre occurred in the Nixon White House when US Attorney General Elliot Richardson refused the direct order to dismiss special prosecutor Archibald Cox, charged with investigating the Watergate scandal. Richardson resigned rather than interfere in the proceedings of the probe which advanced the deputy to the top lawyer position, William Ruckelshaus, who also refused to concede to the president’s wishes and was fired. Turning to the person in the fourth highest post in the Justice Department, Solicitor General Robert Bork, Nixon with some reluctance had his command obeyed. This display accrued for the first time a majority (though still very polarised) in favour of impeachment and Nixon two weeks later announced his intention to resign in lieu of being fired the following August

Thursday 11 October 2018

biosemiotics

Messy Nessy Chic lures us down a strange rabbit hole with a topic of discussion that I can vaguely recall regarding the perception of plant life with a documentary adaption (six years hence) of the 1973 The Secret Life of Plants (see previously) by authors Christopher Bird—whose previous works include the authoritative tome on the art of dowsing—and former war-time intelligence officer, journalist Peter Tompkins.
Profiling the careers of nineteenth and twentieth century botanists in a sympathetic manner, the book presented a battery of experiments based on pioneering polygraph tests developed by a Central Intelligence Agency interrogation specialist. Those results which have thus far resisted replication is generally discounted by the fact that plants do not have brains or nervous systems and instead invoke supramaterial, supernatural accounts of plant telepathy and calls to condemn the ideas presented as pseudo-science. What do you think? The notional sense, communication, symbiosis and memory are however found to pan out in the biochemistry and signalling of plants amongst themselves as well as the support network communities establish, so while attributing or recognising sentience might be problematic plants are surely not worth our disdain and abuse and ought to be appreciated for what they provide. Just as appreciation for thought and feelings in animals faced set-backs over hyperbolic claims, we are probably underestimating the complex lives of our vegetative friends in ways we cannot begin to imagine—especially considering the soundtrack by Stevie Wonder.

Friday 13 July 2018

tc-800b

On this day in 1973 during senatorial investigation the White House deputy chief of staff revealed the existence of a secret taping and tapping system installed in the Oval Office and Camp David and on chief telephone lines. Richard Nixon’s predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had installed a similar system in the White House during his administration to preserve historical moments, which Nixon had initially removed.
Two years into his presidency, however, Nixon conceded that there was no alternative other than an audio record to preserve conversations and decisions and had the elaborate, voice-activated system installed covertly, known only to a select few aides and the secret service. After the revelation, citing executive privilege Nixon refused to turn over the tapes to the senate committee, knowing that they contained incriminating proof that the president conspired to obstruct justice by directing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation halt their investigation into the Watergate break-in. Nixon’s compromise offer was to release summaries to the office of the special prosecutor, which was rejected and precipitated the so-called “Saturday Night Massacre” when Nixon tried to dismiss the prosecution and intermediaries resigned rather than do so. The audio recording system was removed a few days after its existence became public knowledge on 18 July but a legacy of over thirty-five hundred hours of record, most of which has not been reviewed or transcribed, remain.