Thursday, September 26, 2002

In pictures: Escape from Bouake [BBC World] Those are some of the 160 schoolkids the French have managed to evacuate out of chaos-ridden Bouake. Of course, now that the white people are safe, we'll be leaving and letting the natives rot - that's just how things go, right?
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Alan Greenspan Gets a Royal Honor. WBZ Sep 26 2002 2:22PM ET [Moreover - Boston news] Eek! An Ayn Randista has been knighted! I know, I know - Greenspan has gotten where he is now DESPITE being a Randista, but still, it's spooky. Kind of like if Scientologists ever got control of a couple Cabinet seats...now THAT would be freaky.
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Back-Seat Lovin' Takes A Back Seat, As Teens Stay Home For Sex. Plastic::Etcetera::Sex: A recent study shows that 56% of teens surveyed in 2000 had sex for the first time at their own homes, or the homes of their partners. So, no need to valet that car seat. [Plastic: Most Recent] Ohboy - I'm so not going there.
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Congress 'close to agreement on Iraq'. President Bush says the US Congress is close to passing a resolution on military action against Iraq¸ despite a major political row. [BBC News | WORLD] ...not that he has any actual evidence to suggest that Congress actually IS close to passing his resolution. All he says is that the White House and Congress will "speak with one voice". This is just as empty and bullshit as when his handlers attack Democrats for disagreeing in public - he's trying to make things the way he wants by just saying that's how they are, like a 4 year old would.

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Russians 'beat off Chechen rebels'. Russian forces lose a helicopter and at least 17 die as heavy fighting erupts with Chechen rebels in the republic of Ingushetia. [BBC News | WORLD] While I know it's actually an autonomous republic inside Russia, hearing about things like "the republic of Ingushetia" makes me think of The Mouse That Roared - there are so many small "republics" and "autonomous regions", etc in Russia with names that sound made up - Tanu Tuuva being the most famous, thanks to Richard Feynman...

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Looks like I'm trickling memes down and not up today. At some point I need to think and write about linking to higher-profile sites. On the one hand, what's the point? Does anyone ever need to point to Mefi, Dave Mark, RCB, etc.? On the other hand, it seems weird to avoid linking to popular sites and you can still assume that you may have readers who don't read all the most popular blogs and news sites, or you can take a completist attitude toward the material, trying to make your own archive as useful as possible. As with most such things, I probably wiggle through the middle between extremes. I feel less compelled to link to a popular site unless the source material is a strong fit for the purpose of this blog. Then when I do I want to give via credit. Lastly, it's a two-way web and there's something to be said to sending traffic to anyone (and showing up in their referrer logs), regardless of whether it's just more "rain on the ocean" (quotation courtesy of new father Scot Hacker—congratulations, Scot!—from a slightly different context). These same issues apply to blogrolling, only moreso. [Radio Free Blogistan] I know that I have at least a couple readers who don't read the Big Boy Blogs (hi Rachel!), but even if everyone who read my blog DID read them, they might have missed the story - I know that I miss a lot of things that later get picked up by other blogs. Additionally, I'm also viewing this blog as partially a k-log - if I'm attempting to gather information and links that interest me, I should put everything that interests me, not just the obscure stuff. I'm not claiming to be some kind of genius who'll provide new and amazing material every day...I'm just a guy, writing and reading. My primary audience is myself, so anything that I want to see, I put here. I'm babbling again - lousy day at work and my buying addiction is bugging me again. Argh - this is almost as bad as smoking. Ok, it's not nearly as bad, but it's still annoying.

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I just bought shoes - sneakers, more specifically. I haven't bought sneakers in years - I've been wearing sandals and those weird combination hiking boots/sneakers, but I just ordered $65 sneakers online. Hope I'm right about my shoe size - I'm pretty sure I'm a 9, but hey, it'll suck if I'm wrong. =)
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I'm out the door to work, but I just checked my referral logs and found a truly bizarre google query: "naked pictures of Madelyne gorman toogood" No, seriously.
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Kennedy sounds election battle cry. Charles Kennedy uses his party conference speech to claim the next general election will be fought between Labour and his Liberal Democrats. [BBC News | Front Page] I'm so jealous of the British sometimes - not only do you all have a third major, nationwide party, but they're growing. What's more, they're supporters of porportional voting - which America desperately needs.

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posted by FilmMaker at September 26 12:37 AM. Iraq trains terrorists? Conclusive evidence from our leaders? Why do I suddenly feel like I am living in Oceania? [MetaFilter] I don't know about 1984, but I hear that an Iraqi burned down the Reichstag! Another one blew up the Maine! Let's get 'em! ...and before someone gets on me for making a Nazi reference, all I'm saying is that the Bush Junta has no credibility on Iraq, either with me or the global community. They're going to keep coming up with this convenient information that supports their goal of going to war with Iraq, without ever providing hard evidence for their accusations. The Bush Junta does not have a history of telling the truth to the American people or the world - why would they start now?

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Could U.S. Aggression Toward Iraq Mean Regime Change - In Britain?. Plastic::Politics::International: Saddam's survived Bush I; could he outlast Tony Blair? [Plastic: Most Recent] There'd be a certain irony to a Labour PM's support for a Republican US President possibly leading to his ouster...if this would lead to a Conservative government coming to power in the UK, I'd almost think Bush's handlers had that as a deliberate aim. But no, if Blair gets the boot, it'll be a party thing - he'd get replaced by another Labour MP...

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New Scientist: Venus' Atmosphere Implies Life [Slashdot] Is it really right to say that "Venus' Atmosphre Implies Life"? Having read earlier coverage of this, I got the feeling that what we now know implies the POSSIBLITY of life, akin to Europa, the moon of Jupiter with a frozen shell covering what's believed to possibily be an ocean of water underneath. I know that even Slashdot needs to keep their headlines short and catchy, but this is questionable.

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Intel Demos 4.7-GHz Pentium [Slashdot] Now, I'm not that old, but I have been using computers for 20 years or so now. The first non-terminal we had in our house (Dad had a dumb-terminal and a printer-terminal for work before this) was a 10MHz 286 with 640k RAM and a 40Mb hard drive...now Intel's got a 4.7 GHz Pentium. Wow.
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Spinning on Iraq [Washington Post: Editorial] Now *THIS* is an editorial worth reading. Bravo, editors of the Washington Post - you nailed the issues on the head.
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