Thursday, August 15, 2002

Heh - I got my first google hit today, and it was for something strange: http://www.google.ca/search?q=%2B%22historical%20israel%22%20%2Bmap (see the second page - about midway down) Someone searching for a map of historical Israel got my blog. Wow, search engines are funny. =)
10:47:27 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

The true level of support for Bush's war. Most people would consider Brent Sowcroft to be something of a hawk. He was after all national security adviser to President Bush and Ford. He wrote an Op-Ed in the The Wall Street Journal today giving good reasons to reject Bush's war. Also joining the opposition to the war is Massoud Barzani who is the most influential leader of the Kurdish resistance. This on top of the piece by Gerald Kaufman in the Spectator. Despite the lies from the administration, foreign support for Bush's opinion poll war is negligible. [Bush Impeachment Countdown] Barzani's the big one here - Bush's whole operation is based on the assumption that the anti-Saddam forces in/around Iraq can serve as Northern Alliance II - the raw numbers for us to throw at the government forces without getting our hands dirty. The problem is that the majority of potential fighters for this conflagration are Kurds - and if the dominant Kurdish leader speaks out against rising up at Master Bush's beck and call, not many rank and file Kurds will jump up to be shot down. If there is a war, the US will lose. Badly. I don't think we have the fortitude as a nation to withstand another Vietnam, and that's what we'd be commiting to by invading Iraq.

9:50:23 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Massachusetts voters get to vote to eliminate income tax [FARK] Wait a minute - what the hell? The Libertarians actually got this on the ballot? Oh god no...they did. Carla Howell, who finished neck and neck with Jack Robinson in the 2000 Massachusetts Senatorial race - 'cos Jack got disowned by the Republicans after they got stuck with him as their nominee...oh, and they were running against Ted Kennedy - is baaaack. She's running for governor. And she actually got a ballot question on repealing the state income tax on the ballot for this fall. 37% in a Boston Globe poll said they'd vote to repeal. Eek. That's 9 billion out of a budget of 23. If this somehow passes, I'm giving up for good and leaving the country. If Massachusetts, bastion of liberalism and faith that government can do good, falls to this nuttiness, I'm going to Europe, where taxes aren't viewed as worse than guns...

9:41:43 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I have so much hate for computers right now. More accurately, I have hate for Java and makefiles and Windows. I've spent the last 8 hours whacking my head against some truly obnoxious problems in the project I'm trying to move to ClearCase and they just WON'T GO AWAY. I am going to snap one of these days, I swear. On a brighter note...ok, I can't actually come up with a brighter note right now. I'm in a crappy mood. Time to go do something NOT computer-related...

3:33:26 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

The language gene, finally? Maybe not.. According to an article at Nature Science Update, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have compared the gene FOXP2, which has been tied to specific speech and language impairments in humans who are missing a copy, to its counterpart in several primate species and mice. On the basis of the comparison, the researchers have proposes that the specifically human version of the gene developed 120,000 to 200,000 years ago, potentially putting an upper limit on a most salient difference between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom: the use of spoken language. More articles at the BBC, Washington Post, Discovery Online, AP, and Reuters. [kuro5hin.org] Well, shit. If that's really the case, wow. The difference between human and chimp wouldn't be an opposable thumb and less places to shave, but a mutation that gave us something the rest of them didn't. Wow.

9:53:14 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Went to Shoreline in Mountain View last night, with Steve Wozniak (Apple founder), his friends, and Robert Scoble and his son Patrick. Saw two acts -- David Bowie and Busta Rhymes. I wanted to see Bowie, but he was really dowdy and uninteresting. Only a couple of real rockers. Busta was fan-tas-tic. Young and innovative, energetic, great dance music. [Scripting News] I saw the same tour - Busta didn't show for our stop, but we got extra Bowie instead. I wouldn't really say he was dowdy - but I can see that changing drastically, depending on his set that night.

9:28:56 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

your muppet of the day: The Endangered Species Chorus Line Two reasons I picked this: the name, and the fact that there's a walrus poking its head in from the upper right. Strangely position walruses - that's how to start the day off right. as always, image taken from www.kermitage.com
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