mon 15 oct 01
photos of women in afghanistan. some pre-taliban.
bbc: iran's khatami denounces both the taliban *and* the u.s. what a pleasant surprise, hearing unequivocal morality from iran. and i happen to agree with him; make the united nations an authoritative entity in such crises.
if you haven't heard it, it perfectly suits the pageantry of mounted riders on well-trained steeds ...
okay, so it's a quick-and-dirty logo replacement. so shoot me. i like it. it'll get replaced soon enough. i've taken the american flag animated gif down to reduce load times, not out of lack of patriotism. it's funny that some assumed it was blanket support of 'war', whereas to me it was honoring those who have lost their lives for america. if i wanted to be on the offense, i'd give you a sound loop of the marine corps hymn ... though, with all the horseback riding these days, the strauss 'radetsky march' is more my style at present ...
dan bricklin's last paragraph struck home today. it reminded me that the free exchange of ideas without censorship is one of america's strongest virtues.
msnbc: young muslim students witness the september 11 attack ... on television. once again, you cannot use a western frame of reference. regional newspapers are the only means of information.
wilderness society: you might take out a moment and learn about protecting our roadless areas.
i've had the request to take down my 'biohazard' graphic from this site. certainly i don't intend it to threaten or offend, so i will change it soon. and no, 'vreeland' is not an arabic name. it's dutch, thank you very much. patience.
reuters: gas prices drop below $1 in some areas. sometimes, i wonder if i'm in the same country with the rest of you folks. we're still at $1.67 here for hi-octane.
ny times: relearning lost medical skills for a new era. cheaper to issue a broad-spectrum antibiotic than to actually identify what the patient has.
what a warped advertisement ... just got some spam in email, "protect yourself with the most powerful anti-anthrax agent available ... viagra!" there's a sucker born every minute ...
ananova: stores report an upward trend in the sales of afghan rugs.
lwn.net: python-url.
thank god for mothers.
btw, the 'mother' symbolism was a bit much. i have yet to ever, in my entire life, see a mother sit on the sidelines while her child is hit by a bully or in danger. the mother wades in every time, wielding palm and/or tongue as lashing device. the 'mother' archetype is not simply nurture, but defense also ... which many modern interpretations tend to ignore. next time you're near a playground, take a book and watch sometime.
global free press: liberals stuck in scold mode. *somebody* among us liberals had to say it. the left needs to come up with a single, coherent platform based on reality, not on utopian thinking or guilt-trip-ridden navel-gazing. case in point: the charming little missive from barbara kingsolver. she's a bourgeois pacifist. food, health care and education are seen by the taliban as proselytizing western culture, so they obstruct them. we've pumped millions of dollars over to afghanistan, seemingly without making a single friend. her remedies have not worked pre-september 11. why should they work now? and we must stop bin laden. we should be asking the average afghan what they want, what they need to get back to being an independent, prosperous country. zhuangzhi tells a taoist lesson about yuan-ju, a great sea bird. it visits the emperor, who has his orchestra play for it, offers a grand feast, and the best wines. after three days of being feted with the emperor's best, the bird dies. the point being that 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you' is never really applicable in a literal sense. you must aid an individual being according to his/her/its own wants, not your own.
yahoonews/reuters: low mortgage rates through 2002?
i hate to sound like a paranoid, but if the letter infections are not working, the terrorists can't get to a crop duster or water reservoirs, what will they try next? i'd like to know what we, at home, can use to destroy anthrax. i would assume normal antibacterials? listerine? lysol? what?
bbc: anthrax letter sent to tom daschle.
bbc sci/tech: clampdown on research fraud. oh, boy ... does the medical establishment ever need to get serious about this. i know of at least one instance where placebo did better than the high-priced drug ...
for meg, britain launches a new initiative to attract girls to information tech.
congrats to john over in iowa on scheduled publishing. sounds like a killer feature, esp. for schoolblogs.
webreference: exporting to xml from office programs, will it invigorate xml?
dotcombuilder: tuning your apache web server.
onlamp: accessing a cisco router from freebsd using a rollover cable.
linux journal: open-source web servers.
zdnet: linux-based gui's, a perspective.
yahoonews/reuters: leaflets added to food drop packages. of course the taliban are inflating casualty figures; it's a major p.r. tool in war. they inflate, we deflate. the truth is somewhere in the middle, and always too many.
wired: another step on the road to preventing hair loss. hurry up, will ya?
macnn: "by this time next year apple will be the world's largest supplier of unix-based operating systems." put that in your linux pipe and smoke it ...
infoworld: troublesome horizon (sssc and w3c).
freshmeat: gnome mysql client, galrey [perl], phpopentracker.
the register: amd to cut athlon xp prices.
the register: brit trapped in shed saved by u.s. net user.
slashdot: amd athlon 1800+ MP reviews.
times of india: britain prepared for anthrax attack.
times of india: al-qaeda's made an enemy of india. sounds like it, anyway.
times of india: al-qaeda tried to obtain nuclear materials.
santa fe new mexican: here's a cure for the 'turban' problem. a local restaurant owner sports a 'red-white-and-blue turban'.
then again, most americans think "new mexico" is somewhere south of the border. i've had checks returned to me stating "we cannot accept overseas currency." *snort*
while the news media talk of 'anthrax jitters' and broad american fear, i have to tell you that the albuquerque balloon festival was a big success this year, and the numbers (which won't be in officially for a month) look to be significantly *higher* than last year. again, all the scaremongering is an *urban* malady, not particularly present in other parts of the u.s. (unless you handle mail for a living, that is). the american media needs to be decentralized ...
ny times op-ed: my 'dunno' sheet, william safire.
ny times: maneuvering the arctic drilling issue.
ny times: new terrorist tactic, attacking the media? 'a brilliant move'? maybe. depends on whom you wish to panic.
international herald tribune: george bush changes his spots. instead of unilateralism, cooperation? hmmm. i do not believe that his unilateralist views have been 'abandoned,' just shelved for the moment until the immediate goals are reached. but maybe the circumstances worldwide won't allow their return.
international herald tribune: from golden arches to lightning rod. looking at america's "cultural imperialism." it's an issue even within our borders. for anyone who has travelled in america frequently over the past ten or twenty years, the wholesale dismantling of local color and customs has been quite depressing. some locations have staved off genericization better than others ... which is one of the reasons i'm in santa fe. we still have authenticity, though the corporate chains are banging down our doors.
reuters must be updating. they've gone blank on me. on to other news sources ...
reuters: flight diverted by 'middle eastern men saying prayers.' the men were orthodox jews.
reuters: promote hauntings ... ban cell phone use. i wonder what brainiac came up with this correllation ...
reuters: saudi arabia's not happy with the u.s. raids. walkin' the tightrope ...
reuters: bethlehem steel, our number three domestic steel producer, files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. far from being a 'panic', this is the world economy at work. new steel plants elsewhere in the world have newer, more efficient methods and equipment ... or so i'm told.
cnn: 'sir rudy'? ... well, not really.
legs're sore this morning, from all the climbing yesterday. feels good.