It's been a crazy hectic month and it's not over yet.
On July 16th, we launched Federation II. It went off very successfully with a big online launch party that was great fun for everyone. It was also terribly stressful, enormous work, emotionally ravaging. People said heartbreakingly terrible things to each other as they started to break down toward the end. And now that we've built it, will they come? That's the $64,000 question as they used to say. And it's also my next project for Fed2.
My daughter Asti was in NYC and we met at Cafe Figaro for cappucino and cannolis. Had a lovely time chatting. Great afternoon
Andrew's getting ready for vacatin. Busy working in the lab. Getting paid for his research work.
Miserably hot and humid here.
Friday, July 23, 2004
All aboard the train from Paris, mes petits enfants doux
In Paris, railroad station focuseson history of Shoah deportations
By Philip Carmel
PARIS, July 18 (JTA) — Almost two months had gone by since the Normandy landings, and the Allies were closing in on Paris — but Nazi authorities in the French capital had other priorities.
On July 31, 1944, the final transport of French Jews left the transit camp of Drancy in the northern suburbs of Paris carrying 325 children. It was bound for Auschwitz.
That event, the 78th transport to leave France for the death camps, is being commemorated through July 19 at Paris’s Gare du Nord train station.
The station is hosting a photo exhibition entitled “The Last Transport, Jewish Children Deportees,” which marks the final event commemorating the 60th anniversaries of the deportations of some 73,000 Jews from France between 1942 and 1944.
The exhibit, which shows hundreds of portraits of Jewish children, already has appeared in 18 railway stations across France and at the head office of the SNCF, the national railway company.
The pictures are part of a vast collection of photographs and Holocaust archival material brought together by the French Holocaust survivors’ organization, Sons and Daughters of French Jewish Deportees.
Set up in 1979 by Serge Klarsfeld and his German-born wife Beate — who have spent decades seeking and prosecuting Nazi war criminals and the French collaborators who assisted them — the group has organized more than 80 commemorations over the past two years to mark the departure of every transport to the camps.
Those events, mostly held at Drancy but also at far-flung provincial railway stations and internment camps across France, generally have been modest affairs attended by a handful of local officials and activists of Klarsfeld’s group.
The group’s obstinate commitment to mark the exact date of each transport has been important in personalizing the horror of the deportations, but Klarsfeld recognizes that the station exhibits have been most effective in bringing the subject to a wider public.
For Klarsfeld, who approached the railway company to host the exhibitions in 2001, the choice of train stations was both a logical and a highly symbolic decision.
“There are thousands of people passing through these stations every day, and most of those people would never see these exhibitions in museums,” Klarsfeld said.
More importantly, he pointed out, was the centrality of trains in the deaths of millions of Jews during the Shoah.
“More than anything, it is the train that evokes the route of the martyr,” he said.
Klarsfeld, who successfully pursued and brought to trial Nazi war criminals like Klaus Barbie and French officials such as Maurice Papon and Rene Bousquet, rejects claims that the railway company should be held responsible for providing the trains for the deportations.
“We don’t hold them guilty. They had no choice as a public-owned company forced to carry out work by the Vichy government,” Klarsfeld said. “Justice should be carried out for those who led the anti-Jewish round-ups.”
“We have never claimed anything against the SNCF. That would be like trying French gendarmes or German soldiers,” he said.
For some, though, trains still evoke a painful memory, even 60 years later.
“I can’t stand trains, smoke, stations, even some kinds of light,” Simon Drucker said.
Drucker was rounded-up at the Vel d’Hiver bicycle stadium in July 1942 — where thousands of Jews from the Paris region were held before being deported to Auschwitz — and he was one of a number of Holocaust survivors explaining the significance of the photos to interested passengers at Gare du Nord.
Drucker said he remembered the clinical efficiency of the transports.
“The trains left at exactly the right time,” he said. “There was never a derailment and they always arrived at Auschwitz at the right time.”
Charles Barron, another French Holocaust survivor who was liberated from Dachau in1945, said he was particularly struck by the contrast between his own deportation and the bustling nature of Gare du Nord at the start of France’s summer holiday period this year.
“I remember the noise of the steam trains, the whistles and the shunting of wagons,” he said. “Today, it’s all so different. You see huge buildings with millions of people passing through.”
Nevertheless, it remains “symbolically important” to hold the exhibitions at the stations, he said.
“Stations are a place for release on the way to and from work. People sometimes have an hour to spare while they wait around for a train,” Barron said. “I think it’s better doing it here than in museums, where people can feel trapped and they become indifferent. Here they’re more sensitive to it.”
As at other stations, the exhibit dominates the front entrance to Gare du Nord.
Given the station’s function as a principal destination for trans-European routes and the departure point for London-bound trains, the railway company decided to host an additional exhibit in English in the waiting area for Eurostar trains crossing the English Channel.
David Rebibo, an Orthodox rabbi from Phoenix, Ariz., said he was taken aback when he arrived by train from Copenhagen to see a banner proclaiming the exhibition.
“It was the first thing I saw when I got here, and I was surprised,” he said. “I know there’s such strong anti-Semitism in France, so I never expected to see such a thing here.”
Rebibo said he was very moved by the pictures, and by the fact they had been placed in such a public place.
“It’s so important to educate people about this and so easy for people to forget what happened,” he said.
Rebibo said he had contacted Klarsfeld to ask whether he could bring the exhibition to his community in Arizona.
Arielle Ferhadian from Paris was seeing off her children as they boarded a train to London, and stopped to look at the photos.
“You see this and you realize that railway stations can be associated with contradictions,” she said. “It’s about travel and leisure, but there also has been murder and distress at these places.”
For others, it was not only the pictures of the victims that left a telling mark.
Axel Krause, a history teacher from Hamburg, stopped for a time in front of a picture of German soldiers.
“I know the pictures because I teach kids about this, but for me it’s also a very living memory because my grandfather and father were soldiers,” he said.
After it closes in Paris, the exhibition will appear probably for the last time in public in Jerusalem next Jan. 27, marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
But as Klarsfeld has noted, this form of remembrance is unlikely to be repeated.
In a booklet prepared in 2002 to introduce the 60th anniversary commemorations, Klarsfeld wrote that this period was exceptional “because there are still among us hundreds who survived Auschwitz, there are thousands of children who survived while their parents were deported, and tens of thousands who passed through the Shoah without being deported and who did not lose their parents.”
“In 10 years time, that will no longer be the case,” he wrote.
By Philip Carmel
PARIS, July 18 (JTA) — Almost two months had gone by since the Normandy landings, and the Allies were closing in on Paris — but Nazi authorities in the French capital had other priorities.
On July 31, 1944, the final transport of French Jews left the transit camp of Drancy in the northern suburbs of Paris carrying 325 children. It was bound for Auschwitz.
That event, the 78th transport to leave France for the death camps, is being commemorated through July 19 at Paris’s Gare du Nord train station.
The station is hosting a photo exhibition entitled “The Last Transport, Jewish Children Deportees,” which marks the final event commemorating the 60th anniversaries of the deportations of some 73,000 Jews from France between 1942 and 1944.
The exhibit, which shows hundreds of portraits of Jewish children, already has appeared in 18 railway stations across France and at the head office of the SNCF, the national railway company.
The pictures are part of a vast collection of photographs and Holocaust archival material brought together by the French Holocaust survivors’ organization, Sons and Daughters of French Jewish Deportees.
Set up in 1979 by Serge Klarsfeld and his German-born wife Beate — who have spent decades seeking and prosecuting Nazi war criminals and the French collaborators who assisted them — the group has organized more than 80 commemorations over the past two years to mark the departure of every transport to the camps.
Those events, mostly held at Drancy but also at far-flung provincial railway stations and internment camps across France, generally have been modest affairs attended by a handful of local officials and activists of Klarsfeld’s group.
The group’s obstinate commitment to mark the exact date of each transport has been important in personalizing the horror of the deportations, but Klarsfeld recognizes that the station exhibits have been most effective in bringing the subject to a wider public.
For Klarsfeld, who approached the railway company to host the exhibitions in 2001, the choice of train stations was both a logical and a highly symbolic decision.
“There are thousands of people passing through these stations every day, and most of those people would never see these exhibitions in museums,” Klarsfeld said.
More importantly, he pointed out, was the centrality of trains in the deaths of millions of Jews during the Shoah.
“More than anything, it is the train that evokes the route of the martyr,” he said.
Klarsfeld, who successfully pursued and brought to trial Nazi war criminals like Klaus Barbie and French officials such as Maurice Papon and Rene Bousquet, rejects claims that the railway company should be held responsible for providing the trains for the deportations.
“We don’t hold them guilty. They had no choice as a public-owned company forced to carry out work by the Vichy government,” Klarsfeld said. “Justice should be carried out for those who led the anti-Jewish round-ups.”
“We have never claimed anything against the SNCF. That would be like trying French gendarmes or German soldiers,” he said.
For some, though, trains still evoke a painful memory, even 60 years later.
“I can’t stand trains, smoke, stations, even some kinds of light,” Simon Drucker said.
Drucker was rounded-up at the Vel d’Hiver bicycle stadium in July 1942 — where thousands of Jews from the Paris region were held before being deported to Auschwitz — and he was one of a number of Holocaust survivors explaining the significance of the photos to interested passengers at Gare du Nord.
Drucker said he remembered the clinical efficiency of the transports.
“The trains left at exactly the right time,” he said. “There was never a derailment and they always arrived at Auschwitz at the right time.”
Charles Barron, another French Holocaust survivor who was liberated from Dachau in1945, said he was particularly struck by the contrast between his own deportation and the bustling nature of Gare du Nord at the start of France’s summer holiday period this year.
“I remember the noise of the steam trains, the whistles and the shunting of wagons,” he said. “Today, it’s all so different. You see huge buildings with millions of people passing through.”
Nevertheless, it remains “symbolically important” to hold the exhibitions at the stations, he said.
“Stations are a place for release on the way to and from work. People sometimes have an hour to spare while they wait around for a train,” Barron said. “I think it’s better doing it here than in museums, where people can feel trapped and they become indifferent. Here they’re more sensitive to it.”
As at other stations, the exhibit dominates the front entrance to Gare du Nord.
Given the station’s function as a principal destination for trans-European routes and the departure point for London-bound trains, the railway company decided to host an additional exhibit in English in the waiting area for Eurostar trains crossing the English Channel.
David Rebibo, an Orthodox rabbi from Phoenix, Ariz., said he was taken aback when he arrived by train from Copenhagen to see a banner proclaiming the exhibition.
“It was the first thing I saw when I got here, and I was surprised,” he said. “I know there’s such strong anti-Semitism in France, so I never expected to see such a thing here.”
Rebibo said he was very moved by the pictures, and by the fact they had been placed in such a public place.
“It’s so important to educate people about this and so easy for people to forget what happened,” he said.
Rebibo said he had contacted Klarsfeld to ask whether he could bring the exhibition to his community in Arizona.
Arielle Ferhadian from Paris was seeing off her children as they boarded a train to London, and stopped to look at the photos.
“You see this and you realize that railway stations can be associated with contradictions,” she said. “It’s about travel and leisure, but there also has been murder and distress at these places.”
For others, it was not only the pictures of the victims that left a telling mark.
Axel Krause, a history teacher from Hamburg, stopped for a time in front of a picture of German soldiers.
“I know the pictures because I teach kids about this, but for me it’s also a very living memory because my grandfather and father were soldiers,” he said.
After it closes in Paris, the exhibition will appear probably for the last time in public in Jerusalem next Jan. 27, marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
But as Klarsfeld has noted, this form of remembrance is unlikely to be repeated.
In a booklet prepared in 2002 to introduce the 60th anniversary commemorations, Klarsfeld wrote that this period was exceptional “because there are still among us hundreds who survived Auschwitz, there are thousands of children who survived while their parents were deported, and tens of thousands who passed through the Shoah without being deported and who did not lose their parents.”
“In 10 years time, that will no longer be the case,” he wrote.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
With all the serious things I could comment on- the agony of the world railing against injustice - the thing on my mind is why do deli counter clerks lie about slicing Boar's Head Ham thin when requested? It's like a point of honor for them to try to get away with slicing cold cuts as thickly as possible so they can get it over with and get rid of you and go on with whatever earthshaking occupation they prefer - like chatting up some cashier.
This is the truth about the human race. We don't really give a damn about genocide in the Sudan, government corruption, or space exploration. We really just want to leap over the deli counter and strangle that lazy, lying bastard clerk.
Thus ends the lesson.
This is the truth about the human race. We don't really give a damn about genocide in the Sudan, government corruption, or space exploration. We really just want to leap over the deli counter and strangle that lazy, lying bastard clerk.
Thus ends the lesson.
Friday, July 02, 2004
How can someone casually ask me, "Explain DNS to me?". I just couldn't believe this; this is a whole field of study and frankly I would never casually ask someone to just hand me info. Haven't people heard of Google? Duh! You go to google first and make an effort to learn for yourself. Then you go ask questions to clarify details or to get specifics about how it applies to a particular situation. But just "Explain this?", get real.
By default, I'm the Sys Admin for IBgames. I'm also the head of their Tech/Test Team, their marketing/PR person, and I wrote amusing pieces for their newsletter and build planets. Starting next week I'll be writing a regular, weekly column about IBgames/Fed2 tech news and advice for players.
Damn. The things we do for love.
By default, I'm the Sys Admin for IBgames. I'm also the head of their Tech/Test Team, their marketing/PR person, and I wrote amusing pieces for their newsletter and build planets. Starting next week I'll be writing a regular, weekly column about IBgames/Fed2 tech news and advice for players.
Damn. The things we do for love.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Brave New World of No-Cheese - Cheese Pizza
I'm just back from the supermarket, decided to combine my daily exercise walk with a practical bit of grocery shopping. It's so hot and humid here I hadn't eaten all day, seeing and seeing that frozen pizza was on sale, I decided a single serving size wouldn't be bad at all.
Bzzzt! Wrong! Unless you're in the mood for a mouthful of chemical goop masquerading as cheese...DO NOT BUY SUPERMARKET PIZZA - unless - it prominently displays the 100% REAL CHEESE symbol.
I searched the freezer cabinets and couldn't find a single package of frozen pizza marked 100% real cheese (and that 100% is important, folks!).
What is being foisted off on you is no different in spirit (and sometimes ingredients) than the adulterated, nauseating, and often toxic ersatz mixtures we read about in horror during previous centuries. And you Americans thought the FDA and the USDA were established to protect you? Wrong again.
How Can They Label It Cheese Pizza When There Is No Cheese?
I know, you're thinking, c'mon Barb, there are laws that cover labeling foods. And disclosure and what about the USDA?
Well, once upon a time food packages had to disclose what the contents really were in a truthful manner. Of course there were subtle workaround but at least you had standard clues. If it said cheese, it damn well had to be the natural DAIRY product defined by the USDA as cheese. If it said cheese flavour you know that meant Watch Out!.
With the introduction of mandatory product ingredient labeling (and I won't get into that because that is loaded with allowed cheats)food manufacturers lobbied for rule changes on the package labeling.
On October 22, 2003 the USDA eliminated the standards for pizza products. "The standards were eliminated to allow for more innovation in pizza manufacturing."
So what are they trying to feed you when they sell you ersatz cheese? Start with partially hydrogenated oils (can we say Trans-Fats? I knew you could), soy products, yeasts, fungus, starch, water, emulsifiers, colorings and artificial flavors, HIGH amounts of sodium, and other chemicals. You're basically getting processed oil.
And boy! but that oil looks good compared to the newest cunning trick in imitation cheese manufacture....replacing the oil with Genetically and Chemically altered manufactured FIBER. Yes, "functional fibre" the brave new world newspeak - Novelose resistant starch constitutes the first commercialised concentrated source of enzyme-resistant starch for the food industry.
Soylent Green, People, Soylent Green.
On your pizza.
I didn't buy the frozen pizza. I bought some fresh brown eggs for breakfast tomorrow and some rolls from the bakery. I stopped at the local pizzeria on my way home. I know they use real dairy mozzarella cheese, the empty boxes are stacked up to go into the rubbish tip. The make the pizza themselves. You can watch them making the dough early in the mornings. It's a simple product, crust dough stretched by hand, tomato sauce ladled on, handsfulls of shredded mozzarella tossed on top, pure virgin olive oil drizzled on, a quick flick of oregano. For $1.25 I bought myself 1 slice from a cheese pizza pie fresh from the oven.
Life could be so simple...
Bzzzt! Wrong! Unless you're in the mood for a mouthful of chemical goop masquerading as cheese...DO NOT BUY SUPERMARKET PIZZA - unless - it prominently displays the 100% REAL CHEESE symbol.
I searched the freezer cabinets and couldn't find a single package of frozen pizza marked 100% real cheese (and that 100% is important, folks!).
What is being foisted off on you is no different in spirit (and sometimes ingredients) than the adulterated, nauseating, and often toxic ersatz mixtures we read about in horror during previous centuries. And you Americans thought the FDA and the USDA were established to protect you? Wrong again.
How Can They Label It Cheese Pizza When There Is No Cheese?
I know, you're thinking, c'mon Barb, there are laws that cover labeling foods. And disclosure and what about the USDA?
Well, once upon a time food packages had to disclose what the contents really were in a truthful manner. Of course there were subtle workaround but at least you had standard clues. If it said cheese, it damn well had to be the natural DAIRY product defined by the USDA as cheese. If it said cheese flavour you know that meant Watch Out!.
With the introduction of mandatory product ingredient labeling (and I won't get into that because that is loaded with allowed cheats)food manufacturers lobbied for rule changes on the package labeling.
On October 22, 2003 the USDA eliminated the standards for pizza products. "The standards were eliminated to allow for more innovation in pizza manufacturing."
So what are they trying to feed you when they sell you ersatz cheese? Start with partially hydrogenated oils (can we say Trans-Fats? I knew you could), soy products, yeasts, fungus, starch, water, emulsifiers, colorings and artificial flavors, HIGH amounts of sodium, and other chemicals. You're basically getting processed oil.
And boy! but that oil looks good compared to the newest cunning trick in imitation cheese manufacture....replacing the oil with Genetically and Chemically altered manufactured FIBER. Yes, "functional fibre" the brave new world newspeak - Novelose resistant starch constitutes the first commercialised concentrated source of enzyme-resistant starch for the food industry.
Soylent Green, People, Soylent Green.
On your pizza.
I didn't buy the frozen pizza. I bought some fresh brown eggs for breakfast tomorrow and some rolls from the bakery. I stopped at the local pizzeria on my way home. I know they use real dairy mozzarella cheese, the empty boxes are stacked up to go into the rubbish tip. The make the pizza themselves. You can watch them making the dough early in the mornings. It's a simple product, crust dough stretched by hand, tomato sauce ladled on, handsfulls of shredded mozzarella tossed on top, pure virgin olive oil drizzled on, a quick flick of oregano. For $1.25 I bought myself 1 slice from a cheese pizza pie fresh from the oven.
Life could be so simple...
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I just returned home from an evening out with Andrew celebrating the end of another successful academic year, brilliant grades, and his first paying job (working in the organic chemistry lab) making and researching quantum dots. In fact, today was his first successful batch of quantum dots!
Alan and I got him a nifty little digital sound recorder with a rather nice built in camera. He wanted one so he could capture his summer session organic chemistry professor's lectures and then save them to files on his PC.
We decided to complete the celebration by watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on IMAX. So we met at the cinema near Lincoln Center and after buying tickets strolled up Broadway to a restaurant. A pleasant dinner, good food and good talk. Then back to the cinema for the much awaited Harry Potter 3 film.
I'm still thinking about it and deciding how I liked it as well as how much I liked it. It's not a simple decision as the first 2 films were. They were ace, they were brilliant, they were the book and the fantasy come to life. This one is different. I wouldn't bother seeing it on IMAX if you have a proper widescreen cinema.
I'll post my critque of the film later. Right now it's coffee and a cigarette time.
Alan and I got him a nifty little digital sound recorder with a rather nice built in camera. He wanted one so he could capture his summer session organic chemistry professor's lectures and then save them to files on his PC.
We decided to complete the celebration by watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on IMAX. So we met at the cinema near Lincoln Center and after buying tickets strolled up Broadway to a restaurant. A pleasant dinner, good food and good talk. Then back to the cinema for the much awaited Harry Potter 3 film.
I'm still thinking about it and deciding how I liked it as well as how much I liked it. It's not a simple decision as the first 2 films were. They were ace, they were brilliant, they were the book and the fantasy come to life. This one is different. I wouldn't bother seeing it on IMAX if you have a proper widescreen cinema.
I'll post my critque of the film later. Right now it's coffee and a cigarette time.
Monday, June 07, 2004
AMUSING vs IDIOTIC
There is a serious problem on the internet with perspective. So many people seem to have lost the line between what is amusing and what is just idiotic.Here's my personal list:
AMUSING IDIOTIC
Witty Roleplaying Elf princesses, Forsooth speak
Pirates of the Carribean Pireate Queens, Pirate Talk
Sapphire G&T Drunk
Witty flirting Cybersex, Porn, Adultery
AMUSING IDIOTIC
Witty Roleplaying Elf princesses, Forsooth speak
Pirates of the Carribean Pireate Queens, Pirate Talk
Sapphire G&T Drunk
Witty flirting Cybersex, Porn, Adultery
What a week this has been.
My hair.
It's long and getting longer and I like that. I changed the colour and I really like that. It's back to my own dark reddish brown and I love it.
vs
The miserable world.
A week of almost endless cold drizzle that stops just long enough for me to leave the house and starts just as I've gone slightly past the mid-way point of wherever I was going so I can walk back wet and chilled.
The US Mail.
My important letters have gone astray - 2 checks sent out 5 days ago.
Our postman delivers the mail at 4pm; the post office claims they rotate the route but it's over a year and I haven't seen us chamge from last delivery position to first yet.
The mail carriers are lazy, arrogant, often just don't deliver and there's an attitude problem.
I think there's a direct relationship between the sort of people working for the USPS and the sort of people working for the US Army in Iraq who recreationally torture people.
Crappy software
AOL - bloatware, controlware supreme
RealPlayer -spyware, controlware - AOL forced insall
ViewMgr/mediaplayer - (starts to sound familiar) spyware, controlware, - AOL forced install
Basically I got tired of my computer which used to be a clean quick responsive and stable machine turning into the digital experience fro hell. So I uninstalled AOL and all the programs they forced me to install that I never wanted in the first place. Ran spybot to make sure everythng was gone and cleaned up.
Voila! My computer is back to its normal pleasant to use stable state again.
Wait a minute! It's stopped raining! (to quote Alan Sherman)
I'm outta here! The sunshine is calling me....
My hair.
It's long and getting longer and I like that. I changed the colour and I really like that. It's back to my own dark reddish brown and I love it.
vs
The miserable world.
A week of almost endless cold drizzle that stops just long enough for me to leave the house and starts just as I've gone slightly past the mid-way point of wherever I was going so I can walk back wet and chilled.
The US Mail.
My important letters have gone astray - 2 checks sent out 5 days ago.
Our postman delivers the mail at 4pm; the post office claims they rotate the route but it's over a year and I haven't seen us chamge from last delivery position to first yet.
The mail carriers are lazy, arrogant, often just don't deliver and there's an attitude problem.
I think there's a direct relationship between the sort of people working for the USPS and the sort of people working for the US Army in Iraq who recreationally torture people.
Crappy software
AOL - bloatware, controlware supreme
RealPlayer -spyware, controlware - AOL forced insall
ViewMgr/mediaplayer - (starts to sound familiar) spyware, controlware, - AOL forced install
Basically I got tired of my computer which used to be a clean quick responsive and stable machine turning into the digital experience fro hell. So I uninstalled AOL and all the programs they forced me to install that I never wanted in the first place. Ran spybot to make sure everythng was gone and cleaned up.
Voila! My computer is back to its normal pleasant to use stable state again.
Wait a minute! It's stopped raining! (to quote Alan Sherman)
I'm outta here! The sunshine is calling me....
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
The glory of war...
From the darkness on all sides came the groans and wails of wounded men; faint, long, sobbing moans of agony, and despairing shrieks. It was too horribly obvious that dozens of men with serious wounds must have crawled for safety into new shell-holes, and now the water was rising about them and, powerless to move, they were slowly drowning. Horrible visions came to me with those cries - of Woods and Kent, Edge and Taylor, lying maimed out there trusting that their pals would find them, and now dying terribly, alone amongst the dead in the inky darkness. And we could do nothing to help them; Dunham was crying quietly beside me, and all the men were affected by the piteous cries...
Edward Campion Vaughan
'There was not a sign of life of any sort. Not a tree, save for a few dead stumps which looked strange in the moonlight. Not a bird, not even a rat or a blade of grass. Nature was as dead as those Canadians whose bodies remained where they had fallen the previous autumn. Death was written large everywhere. Where there had been farms there was not a stick or a stone to show. You only knew them because they were marked on the map. The earth had been churned and re-churned. It was simply a soft, sloppy mess, into which you sank up to the neck if you slipped from the duckboard tracks - and the enemy had the range of those slippery ways. Shell hole cut across shell hole. Pits of earth, like simmering fat, brimful of water and slimy mud, mile after mile as far as the eye could see. It is not possible to set down the things that could be written of the Salient. They would haunt your dreams.'
RA Colwell, Private, Passchendaele
Edward Campion Vaughan
'There was not a sign of life of any sort. Not a tree, save for a few dead stumps which looked strange in the moonlight. Not a bird, not even a rat or a blade of grass. Nature was as dead as those Canadians whose bodies remained where they had fallen the previous autumn. Death was written large everywhere. Where there had been farms there was not a stick or a stone to show. You only knew them because they were marked on the map. The earth had been churned and re-churned. It was simply a soft, sloppy mess, into which you sank up to the neck if you slipped from the duckboard tracks - and the enemy had the range of those slippery ways. Shell hole cut across shell hole. Pits of earth, like simmering fat, brimful of water and slimy mud, mile after mile as far as the eye could see. It is not possible to set down the things that could be written of the Salient. They would haunt your dreams.'
RA Colwell, Private, Passchendaele
Monday, May 31, 2004
Memorial Day
The jets just thundered overhead in the Missing Man formation. They flew by very low, I could feel the bass vibrations rumble through me.
I'm a child of the Vietnam era. I silently remember - dead bodies in jungle clearings, a letter from my brother asking for help for a orphanage in Quang Tri, a dinner party in South Ozone Park where a friend home from the war leaped behind a chair in relex duck and cover when a car backfired loudly outside. I remember a college friend who used to shyly carry my books going off and not returning.
I remember taking my children to Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville; walking the lines on a battlefield where the trenches were evident over a century later.
Taps was played earlier. I remember being taken as a child to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; standing silent, hand held by my mother. Years later I went with Alan and Nick to the Vietnam memorial in Washington. Walked the wall silently reading the names, tears dripping down my cheeks at the loss, the sacrifice. I remember Alan's voice when he told me about Passchendaele.
There are no easy answers for why we march these young souls off to war and sacrifice them to the firey mouth of Moloch. The least I can do is remember.
I'm a child of the Vietnam era. I silently remember - dead bodies in jungle clearings, a letter from my brother asking for help for a orphanage in Quang Tri, a dinner party in South Ozone Park where a friend home from the war leaped behind a chair in relex duck and cover when a car backfired loudly outside. I remember a college friend who used to shyly carry my books going off and not returning.
I remember taking my children to Fredricksburg and Chancellorsville; walking the lines on a battlefield where the trenches were evident over a century later.
Taps was played earlier. I remember being taken as a child to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; standing silent, hand held by my mother. Years later I went with Alan and Nick to the Vietnam memorial in Washington. Walked the wall silently reading the names, tears dripping down my cheeks at the loss, the sacrifice. I remember Alan's voice when he told me about Passchendaele.
There are no easy answers for why we march these young souls off to war and sacrifice them to the firey mouth of Moloch. The least I can do is remember.
Why I despise Opera browser
I haven't mention how much I dislike Opera broser. I really despise it and loathe the people who produced it both for their deception and arrogance. I uninstalled it tonight and suddenly all the awful problems my laptop was having disappeared. it definitely has a serious memory leak-resource management problem. It has loads of other problems I won't even go into. Also, the bastards who produce it do not supply a users manual. They refuse to support it if you use it as adware. They exchange the free use for allowin gthem to feed ads to your PC, claim it's free then. It's n ot, you HAVE paid for it by allowin gthem to send you adverts. And then they demand to be paid to tell you how to use it? No. This is not on.
In its place I installed Flashpeak Slimbrowser. This is an excellent product and freeware. Genuine freeware. As in no adverts. No bullshit. Free. And a real manual. And courteous support. My computer likes it as much as I do. It's a lovely piece of software, great usability, browsing becomes the pleasure it should be.
In its place I installed Flashpeak Slimbrowser. This is an excellent product and freeware. Genuine freeware. As in no adverts. No bullshit. Free. And a real manual. And courteous support. My computer likes it as much as I do. It's a lovely piece of software, great usability, browsing becomes the pleasure it should be.
Sunday, May 30, 2004
I must be suffering an episode of brain deadness. I logged onto Blogger to post something that occured to me and I thought was sufficiently important and interesting enough to post. By the time I got here, after all the interruptions, I'd completely forgotten what it was I wanted to post. I suppose that means it wasn't exactly world shaking.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Another thunderstorm today. Two in the afternoon and dark as past sunset. Then the thunder. It's soothing, a low rumble in the background slowly drawing nearer, getting louder. Almost hypnotic.
Loud, loud peals of thunder now. No lightning flashes that I can see from here. Just pouring rain, a heavy soaking downpour that has driven all the neighborhood children inside on the after-school start of a 3 day national holiday here. Not to belittle the memories of those whose sacrifices are the basis of this holiday, but we know the real meaning of this holiday here. It's the start of summer. The start of the slide towards the end of the school year, summer vacation.
When I was a small child this was the time of year when suddenly great towers of neatly folded linens would appear in the bedrooms to air in the breeze from opened windows. Closets would be turned out, storage boxes unpacked of all the summer wear. Then in a flash, a few days later, it would all disappear and huge steamer trucks and barrels would start to line the hall and block the pathways from the bedrooms. Next morning they would disappear; once I woke up very early, before dawn perhaps and discovered my dad wrestling a barrel down the front stairs and into an open truck. The back of the truck, boards for sides, no roof, was filled with trunks and crates and barrels.
All returned to normal then for the few remaining weeks of school. Finally, on the last Friday in June, the last day of school arrived. I, along with all the other noisy throng of children, went running home with my report card, proudly shrieking that I'd been promoted.
The next morning, Saturday, we'd be woken early, helped into play clothes and given a rushed breakfast. A loud honking from the street would stop everyone in their tracks and produce a sudden parental frenzy of activity. Then I'd remember, it's time to go to Spring Valley for the summer. Away from the sweltering heat, away from the dreaded polio epidemics. And we'd run to the hack waiting outside to take us north to a cool green valley with apple orchards, where my mother and grandmother would make vast cauldrons of applesauce and I'd sit with my grandfather on an old stone wall by the side of the road, waiting for the occasional car to go by and we'd shout KALAMAZOOO!!! at it as they passed.
I'm sitting at my laptop now, years later, it's pouring rain outside and thundering. Spring Valley is now a crowded commuter suburb north of New York City. It's dirty and noisy and has crime and heavy traffic. The apple orchards are long cut down for tract housing. The little rural 2 lane road is now Route 59, many lanes wide, a major highway through the country. Gone are the stone walls lining its length, gone are the apple farms, the chicken farms, the family farms with a vegetable stand by the side f the road. Now it's lined with huge malls, outlet stores, auto dealerships.
There's a thunderstorm here and I can still hear my grandfather shouting KALAMAZOO in the distance.
Loud, loud peals of thunder now. No lightning flashes that I can see from here. Just pouring rain, a heavy soaking downpour that has driven all the neighborhood children inside on the after-school start of a 3 day national holiday here. Not to belittle the memories of those whose sacrifices are the basis of this holiday, but we know the real meaning of this holiday here. It's the start of summer. The start of the slide towards the end of the school year, summer vacation.
When I was a small child this was the time of year when suddenly great towers of neatly folded linens would appear in the bedrooms to air in the breeze from opened windows. Closets would be turned out, storage boxes unpacked of all the summer wear. Then in a flash, a few days later, it would all disappear and huge steamer trucks and barrels would start to line the hall and block the pathways from the bedrooms. Next morning they would disappear; once I woke up very early, before dawn perhaps and discovered my dad wrestling a barrel down the front stairs and into an open truck. The back of the truck, boards for sides, no roof, was filled with trunks and crates and barrels.
All returned to normal then for the few remaining weeks of school. Finally, on the last Friday in June, the last day of school arrived. I, along with all the other noisy throng of children, went running home with my report card, proudly shrieking that I'd been promoted.
The next morning, Saturday, we'd be woken early, helped into play clothes and given a rushed breakfast. A loud honking from the street would stop everyone in their tracks and produce a sudden parental frenzy of activity. Then I'd remember, it's time to go to Spring Valley for the summer. Away from the sweltering heat, away from the dreaded polio epidemics. And we'd run to the hack waiting outside to take us north to a cool green valley with apple orchards, where my mother and grandmother would make vast cauldrons of applesauce and I'd sit with my grandfather on an old stone wall by the side of the road, waiting for the occasional car to go by and we'd shout KALAMAZOOO!!! at it as they passed.
I'm sitting at my laptop now, years later, it's pouring rain outside and thundering. Spring Valley is now a crowded commuter suburb north of New York City. It's dirty and noisy and has crime and heavy traffic. The apple orchards are long cut down for tract housing. The little rural 2 lane road is now Route 59, many lanes wide, a major highway through the country. Gone are the stone walls lining its length, gone are the apple farms, the chicken farms, the family farms with a vegetable stand by the side f the road. Now it's lined with huge malls, outlet stores, auto dealerships.
There's a thunderstorm here and I can still hear my grandfather shouting KALAMAZOO in the distance.
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Aiii, Mami!
If you happen to live in or near a hispanic community, as I do; and you are female and tend to wear tight jeans, as I do, you know those words well. It doesn't matter how old you are or how pretty or not, if you walk around with your bum showcased in a tight pair of jeans, you will hear the admiring chorus.
Aiii Mami!
You just have to smile. They're not coming on to you, of course. They're simply expressing their admiration of you and the whole female race. It's a nice part of the hispanic culture here.
What I really like, now that warm weather is here, is how entire large, multi-generational families come out in the evening and sit in the park. Riverside Park is literally just around the corner here and untill the wee hours of night you will see grannies sitting and gossiping and watching the children. Couples strolling, gaggles of teenage girls giggling together, men gathered around a new car. Sometimes, especially on weekends they will play music. Sometimes loudly. But it's melodic, traditional ballads most often, oaccasionally not from a box but from several men clustered together with their guitars and singing energetically. I went out one evening to listen to the music and found couples dancing in the street. A fiesta in NYC.
Aiii Mami!
You just have to smile. They're not coming on to you, of course. They're simply expressing their admiration of you and the whole female race. It's a nice part of the hispanic culture here.
What I really like, now that warm weather is here, is how entire large, multi-generational families come out in the evening and sit in the park. Riverside Park is literally just around the corner here and untill the wee hours of night you will see grannies sitting and gossiping and watching the children. Couples strolling, gaggles of teenage girls giggling together, men gathered around a new car. Sometimes, especially on weekends they will play music. Sometimes loudly. But it's melodic, traditional ballads most often, oaccasionally not from a box but from several men clustered together with their guitars and singing energetically. I went out one evening to listen to the music and found couples dancing in the street. A fiesta in NYC.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
Regarding the Torture of Others - The Culture of Shamelessness
----------------
Regarding the Torture of Others
*By SUSAN SONTAG*
*1*
For a long time -- at least six decades -- photographs have laid down
the tracks of how important conflicts are judged and remembered. The
Western memory museum is now mostly a visual one. Photographs have an
insuperable power to determine what we recall of events, and it now
seems probable that the defining association of people everywhere with
the war that the United States launched pre-emptively in Iraq last year
will be photographs of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Americans in
the most infamous of Saddam Hussein's prisons, Abu Ghraib.
The Bush administration and its defenders have chiefly sought to limit
a
public-relations disaster -- the dissemination of the photographs --
rather than deal with the complex crimes of leadership and of policy
revealed by the pictures. There was, first of all, the displacement of
the reality onto the photographs themselves. The administration's
initial response was to say that the president was shocked and
disgusted
by the photographs -- as if the fault or horror lay in the images, not
in what they depict. There was also the avoidance of the word
''torture.'' The prisoners had possibly been the objects of ''abuse,''
eventually of ''humiliation'' -- that was the most to be admitted. ''My
impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I
believe technically is different from torture,'' Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld said at a press conference. ''And therefore I'm not
going to address the 'torture' word.''
Words alter, words add, words subtract. It was the strenuous avoidance
of the word ''genocide'' while some 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda were being
slaughtered, over a few weeks' time, by their Hutu neighbors 10 years
ago that indicated the American government had no intention of doing
anything. To refuse to call what took place in Abu Ghraib -- and what
has taken place elsewhere in Iraq and in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo
Bay -- by its true name, torture, is as outrageous as the refusal to
call the Rwandan genocide a genocide. Here is one of the definitions of
torture contained in a convention to which the United States is a
signatory: ''/any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether
physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such
purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a
confession./'' (The definition comes from the 1984 Convention Against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Similar definitions have existed for some time in customary law and in
treaties, starting with Article 3 -- common to the four Geneva
conventions of 1949 -- and many recent human rights conventions.) The
1984 convention declares, ''/No exceptional circumstances whatsoever,
whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political
instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a
justification of torture./'' And all covenants on torture specify that
it includes treatment intended to humiliate the victim, like leaving
prisoners naked in cells and corridors.
Whatever actions this administration undertakes to limit the damage of
the widening revelations of the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and
elsewhere -- trials, courts-martial, dishonorable discharges,
resignation of senior military figures and responsible administration
officials and substantial compensation to the victims -- it is probable
that the ''torture'' word will continue to be banned. To acknowledge
that Americans torture their prisoners would contradict everything this
administration has invited the public to believe about the virtue of
American intentions and America's right, flowing from that virtue, to
undertake unilateral action on the world stage.
Even when the president was finally compelled, as the damage to
America's reputation everywhere in the world widened and deepened, to
use the ''sorry'' word, the focus of regret still seemed the damage to
America's claim to moral superiority. Yes, President Bush said in
Washington on May 6, standing alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan, he
was ''sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the
humiliation suffered by their families.'' But, he went on, he was
''equally sorry that people seeing these pictures didn't understand the
true nature and heart of America.''
To have the American effort in Iraq summed up by these images must
seem,
to those who saw some justification in a war that did overthrow one of
the monster tyrants of modern times, ''unfair.'' A war, an occupation,
is inevitably a huge tapestry of actions. What makes some actions
representative and others not? The issue is not whether the torture was
done by individuals (i.e., ''not by everybody'') -- but whether it was
systematic. Authorized. Condoned. All acts are done by individuals. The
issue is not whether a majority or a minority of Americans performs
such
acts but whether the nature of the policies prosecuted by this
administration and the hierarchies deployed to carry them out makes
such
acts likely.
*II.*
Considered in this light, the photographs are us. That is, they are
representative of the fundamental corruptions of any foreign occupation
together with the Bush adminstration's distinctive policies. The
Belgians in the Congo, the French in Algeria, practiced torture and
sexual humiliation on despised recalcitrant natives. Add to this
generic
corruption the mystifying, near-total unpreparedness of the American
rulers of Iraq to deal with the complex realities of the country after
its ''liberation.'' And add to that the overarching, distinctive
doctrines of the Bush administration, namely that the United States has
embarked on an endless war and that those detained in this war are, if
the president so decides, ''unlawful combatants'' -- a policy
enunciated
by Donald Rumsfeld for Taliban and Qaeda prisoners as early as January
2002 -- and thus, as Rumsfeld said, ''technically'' they ''do not have
any rights under the Geneva Convention,'' and you have a perfect recipe
for the cruelties and crimes committed against the thousands
incarcerated without charges or access to lawyers in American-run
prisons that have been set up since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
So, then, is the real issue not the photographs themselves but what the
photographs reveal to have happened to ''suspects'' in American
custody?
No: the horror of what is shown in the photographs cannot be separated
from the horror that the photographs were taken -- with the
perpetrators
posing, gloating, over their helpless captives. German soldiers in the
Second World War took photographs of the atrocities they were
committing
in Poland and Russia, but snapshots in which the executioners placed
themselves among their victims are exceedingly rare, as may be seen in
a
book just published, ''Photographing the Holocaust,'' by Janina Struk.
If there is something comparable to what these pictures show it would
be
some of the photographs of black victims of lynching taken between the
1880's and 1930's, which show Americans grinning beneath the naked
mutilated body of a black man or woman hanging behind them from a tree.
The lynching photographs were souvenirs of a collective action whose
participants felt perfectly justified in what they had done. So are the
pictures from Abu Ghraib.
The lynching pictures were in the nature of photographs as trophies --
taken by a photographer in order to be collected, stored in albums,
displayed. The pictures taken by American soldiers in Abu Ghraib,
however, reflect a shift in the use made of pictures -- less objects to
be saved than messages to be disseminated, circulated. A digital camera
is a common possession among soldiers. Where once photographing war was
the province of photojournalists, now the soldiers themselves are all
photographers -- recording their war, their fun, their observations of
what they find picturesque, their atrocities -- and swapping images
among themselves and e-mailing them around the globe.
There is more and more recording of what people do, by themselves. At
least or especially in America, Andy Warhol's ideal of filming real
events in real time -- life isn't edited, why should its record be
edited? -- has become a norm for countless Webcasts, in which people
record their day, each in his or her own reality show. Here I am --
waking and yawning and stretching, brushing my teeth, making breakfast,
getting the kids off to school. People record all aspects of their
lives, store them in computer files and send the files around. Family
life goes with the recording of family life -- even when, or especially
when, the family is in the throes of crisis and disgrace. Surely the
dedicated, incessant home-videoing of one another, in conversation and
monologue, over many years was the most astonishing material in
''Capturing the Friedmans,'' the recent documentary by Andrew Jarecki
about a Long Island family embroiled in pedophilia charges.
An erotic life is, for more and more people, that whither can be
captured in digital photographs and on video. And perhaps the torture
is
more attractive, as something to record, when it has a sexual
component.
It is surely revealing, as more Abu Ghraib photographs enter public
view, that torture photographs are interleaved with pornographic images
of American soldiers having sex with one another. In fact, most of the
torture photographs have a sexual theme, as in those showing the
coercing of prisoners to perform, or simulate, sexual acts among
themselves. One exception, already canonical, is the photograph of the
man made to stand on a box, hooded and sprouting wires, reportedly told
he would be electrocuted if he fell off. Yet pictures of prisoners
bound
in painful positions, or made to stand with outstretched arms, are
infrequent. That they count as torture cannot be doubted. You have only
to look at the terror on the victim's face, although such ''stress''
fell within the Pentagon's limits of the acceptable. But most of the
pictures seem part of a larger confluence of torture and pornography: a
young woman leading a naked man around on a leash is classic dominatrix
imagery. And you wonder how much of the sexual tortures inflicted on
the
inmates of Abu Ghraib was inspired by the vast repertory of
pornographic
imagery available on the Internet -- and which ordinary people, by
sending out Webcasts of themselves, try to emulate.
*III.*
To live is to be photographed, to have a record of one's life, and
therefore to go on with one's life oblivious, or claiming to be
oblivious, to the camera's nonstop attentions. But to live is also to
pose. To act is to share in the community of actions recorded as
images.
The expression of satisfaction at the acts of torture being inflicted
on
helpless, trussed, naked victims is only part of the story. There is
the
deep satisfaction of being photographed, to which one is now more
inclined to respond not with a stiff, direct gaze (as in former times)
but with glee. The events are in part designed to be photographed. The
grin is a grin for the camera. There would be something missing if,
after stacking the naked men, you couldn't take a picture of them.
Looking at these photographs, you ask yourself, How can someone grin at
the sufferings and humiliation of another human being? Set guard dogs
at
the genitals and legs of cowering naked prisoners? Force shackled,
hooded prisoners to masturbate or simulate oral sex with one another?
And you feel naive for asking, since the answer is, self-evidently,
People do these things to other people. Rape and pain inflicted on the
genitals are among the most common forms of torture. Not just in Nazi
concentration camps and in Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam
Hussein.
Americans, too, have done and do them when they are told, or made to
feel, that those over whom they have absolute power deserve to be
humiliated, tormented. They do them when they are led to believe that
the people they are torturing belong to an inferior race or religion.
For the meaning of these pictures is not just that these acts were
performed, but that their perpetrators apparently had no sense that
there was anything wrong in what the pictures show.
Even more appalling, since the pictures were meant to be circulated and
seen by many people: it was all fun. And this idea of fun is, alas,
more
and more -- contrary to what President Bush is telling the world --
part
of ''the true nature and heart of America.'' It is hard to measure the
increasing acceptance of brutality in American life, but its evidence
is
everywhere, starting with the video games of killing that are a
principal entertainment of boys -- can the video game ''Interrogating
the Terrorists'' really be far behind? -- and on to the violence that
has become endemic in the group rites of youth on an exuberant kick.
Violent crime is down, yet the easy delight taken in violence seems to
have grown. >From the harsh torments inflicted on incoming students in
many American suburban high schools -- depicted in Richard Linklater's
1993 film, ''Dazed and Confused'' -- to the hazing rituals of physical
brutality and sexual humiliation in college fraternities and on sports
teams, America has become a country in which the fantasies and the
practice of violence are seen as good entertainment, fun.
What formerly was segregated as pornography, as the exercise of extreme
sadomasochistic longings -- as in Pier Paolo Pasolini's last,
near-unwatchable film, ''Salo'' (1975), depicting orgies of torture in
the Fascist redoubt in northern Italy at the end of the Mussolini era --
is now being normalized, by some, as high-spirited play or venting. To
''stack naked men'' is like a college fraternity prank, said a caller
to
Rush Limbaugh and the many millions of Americans who listen to his
radio
show. Had the caller, one wonders, seen the photographs? No matter. The
observation -- or is it the fantasy? -- was on the mark. What may still
be capable of shocking some Americans was Limbaugh's response:
''Exactly!'' he exclaimed. ''Exactly my point. This is no different
than
what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin
people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort,
and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good
time.'' ''They'' are the American soldiers, the torturers. And Limbaugh
went on: ''You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm
talking about people having a good time, these people. You ever heard
of
emotional release?''
Shock and awe were what our military promised the Iraqis. And shock and
the awful are what these photographs announce to the world that the
Americans have delivered: a pattern of criminal behavior in open
contempt of international humanitarian conventions. Soldiers now pose,
thumbs up, before the atrocities they commit, and send off the pictures
to their buddies. Secrets of private life that, formerly, you would
have
given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to be invited on a
television show to reveal. What is illustrated by these photographs is
as much the culture of shamelessness as the reigning admiration for
unapologetic brutality.
*IV.*
The notion that apologies or professions of ''disgust'' by the
president
and the secretary of defense are a sufficient response is an insult to
one's historical and moral sense. The torture of prisoners is not an
aberration. It is a direct consequence of the with-us-or-against-us
doctrines of world struggle with which the Bush administration has
sought to change, change radically, the international stance of the
United States and to recast many domestic institutions and
prerogatives.
The Bush administration has committed the country to a pseudo-religious
doctrine of war, endless war -- for ''the war on terror'' is nothing
less than that. Endless war is taken to justify endless incarcerations.
Those held in the extralegal American penal empire are ''detainees'';
''prisoners,'' a newly obsolete word, might suggest that they have the
rights accorded by international law and the laws of all civilized
countries. This endless ''global war on terrorism'' -- into which both
the quite justified invasion of Afghanistan and the unwinnable folly in
Iraq have been folded by Pentagon decree -- inevitably leads to the
demonizing and dehumanizing of anyone declared by the Bush
administration to be a possible terrorist: a definition that is not up
for debate and is, in fact, usually made in secret.
The charges against most of the people detained in the prisons in Iraq
and Afghanistan being nonexistent -- the Red Cross reports that 70 to
90
percent of those being held seem to have committed no crime other than
simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught up in some
sweep of ''suspects'' -- the principal justification for holding them
is
''interrogation.'' Interrogation about what? About anything. Whatever
the detainee might know. If interrogation is the point of detaining
prisoners indefinitely, then physical coercion, humiliation and torture
become inevitable.
Remember: we are not talking about that rarest of cases, the ''ticking
time bomb'' situation, which is sometimes used as a limiting case that
justifies torture of prisoners who have knowledge of an imminent
attack.
This is general or nonspecific information-gathering, authorized by
American military and civilian administrators to learn more of a
shadowy
empire of evildoers about whom Americans know virtually nothing, in
countries about which they are singularly ignorant: in principle, any
information at all might be useful. An interrogation that produced no
information (whatever information might consist of) would count as a
failure. All the more justification for preparing prisoners to talk.
Softening them up, stressing them out -- these are the euphemisms for
the bestial practices in American prisons where suspected terrorists
are
being held. Unfortunately, as Staff Sgt. Ivan (Chip) Frederick noted in
his diary, a prisoner can get too stressed out and die. The picture of
a
man in a body bag with ice on his chest may well be of the man
Frederick
was describing.
The pictures will not go away. That is the nature of the digital world
in which we live. Indeed, it seems they were necessary to get our
leaders to acknowledge that they had a problem on their hands. After
all, the conclusions of reports compiled by the International Committee
of the Red Cross, and other reports by journalists and protests by
humanitarian organizations about the atrocious punishments inflicted on
''detainees'' and ''suspected terrorists'' in prisons run by the
American military, first in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, have been
circulating for more than a year. It seems doubtful that such reports
were read by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney or
Condoleezza
Rice or Rumsfeld. Apparently it took the photographs to get their
attention, when it became clear they could not be suppressed; it was
the
photographs that made all this ''real'' to Bush and his associates. Up
to then, there had been only words, which are easier to cover up in our
age of infinite digital self-reproduction and self-dissemination, and
so
much easier to forget.
So now the pictures will continue to ''assault'' us -- as many
Americans
are bound to feel. Will people get used to them? Some Americans are
already saying they have seen enough. Not, however, the rest of the
world. Endless war: endless stream of photographs. Will editors now
debate whether showing more of them, or showing them uncropped (which,
with some of the best-known images, like that of a hooded man on a box,
gives a different and in some instances more appalling view), would be
in ''bad taste'' or too implicitly political? By ''political,'' read:
critical of the Bush administration's imperial project. For there can
be
no doubt that the photographs damage, as Rumsfeld testified, ''the
reputation of the honorable men and women of the armed forces who are
courageously and responsibly and professionally defending our freedom
across the globe.'' This damage -- to our reputation, our image, our
success as the lone superpower -- is what the Bush administration
principally deplores. How the protection of ''our freedom'' -- the
freedom of 5 percent of humanity -- came to require having American
soldiers ''across the globe'' is hardly debated by our elected
officials.
Already the backlash has begun. Americans are being warned against
indulging in an orgy of self-condemnation. The continuing publication
of
the pictures is being taken by many Americans as suggesting that we do
not have the right to defend ourselves: after all, they (the
terrorists)
started it. They -- Osama bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? what's the
difference? -- attacked us first. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a
Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, before which
Secretary Rumsfeld testified, avowed that he was sure he was not the
only member of the committee ''more outraged by the outrage'' over the
photographs than by what the photographs show. ''These prisoners,''
Senator Inhofe explained, ''you know they're not there for traffic
violations. If they're in Cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners,
they're
murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them
probably
have American blood on their hands, and here we're so concerned about
the treatment of those individuals.'' It's the fault of ''the media''
which are provoking, and will continue to provoke, further violence
against Americans around the world. More Americans will die. Because of
these photos.
There is an answer to this charge, of course. Americans are dying not
because of the photographs but because of what the photographs reveal
to
be happening, happening with the complicity of a chain of command -- so
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba implied, and Pfc. Lynndie England said, and
(among others) Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican,
suggested, after he saw the Pentagon's full range of images on May 12.
''Some of it has an elaborate nature to it that makes me very
suspicious
of whether or not others were directing or encouraging,'' Senator
Graham
said. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said that viewing an
uncropped version of one photo showing a stack of naked men in a
hallway
-- a version that revealed how many other soldiers were at the scene,
some not even paying attention -- contradicted the Pentagon's assertion
that only rogue soldiers were involved. ''Somewhere along the line,''
Senator Nelson said of the torturers, ''they were either told or winked
at.'' An attorney for Specialist Charles Graner Jr., who is in the
picture, has had his client identify the men in the uncropped version;
according to The Wall Street Journal, Graner said that four of the men
were military intelligence and one a civilian contractor working with
military intelligence.
*V.*
But the distinction between photograph and reality -- as between spin
and policy -- can easily evaporate. And that is what the administration
wishes to happen. ''There are a lot more photographs and videos that
exist,'' Rumsfeld acknowledged in his testimony. ''If these are
released
to the public, obviously, it's going to make matters worse.'' Worse for
the administration and its programs, presumably, not for those who are
the actual -- and potential? -- victims of torture.
The media may self-censor but, as Rumsfeld acknowledged, it's hard to
censor soldiers overseas, who don't write letters home, as in the old
days, that can be opened by military censors who ink out unacceptable
lines. Today's soldiers instead function like tourists, as Rumsfeld put it, ''running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise.'' The administration's effort to withhold pictures is proceeding along several fronts. Currently, the argument is taking a legalistic turn: now the photographs are classified as evidence in future criminal cases, whose outcome may be prejudiced if they are made public. The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia, after the May 12 slide show of image after image of sexual humiliation and violence against Iraqi prisoners, said he felt ''very strongly'' that the newer photos ''should not be made public. I feel that it could possibly endanger the men and women of the armed forces as they are serving and at great risk.''
But the real push to limit the accessibility of the photographs will
come from the continuing effort to protect the administration and cover
up our misrule in Iraq -- to identify ''outrage'' over the photographs
with a campaign to undermine American military might and the purposes
it currently serves. Just as it was regarded by many as an implicit
criticism of the war to show on television photographs of American
soldiers who have been killed in the course of the invasion and
occupation of Iraq, it will increasingly be thought unpatriotic to
disseminate the new photographs and further tarnish the image of
America.
After all, we're at war. Endless war. And war is hell, more so than any of the people who got us into this rotten war seem to have expected. In our digital hall of mirrors, the pictures aren't going to go away. Yes, it seems that one picture is worth a thousand words. And even if our leaders choose not to look at them, there will be thousands more snapshots and videos. Unstoppable.
//http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/magazine/23PRISONS.html?pagewanted=1
/Susan Sontag is the author, most recently, of ''Regarding the Pain of
Others.''/
Regarding the Torture of Others
*By SUSAN SONTAG*
*1*
For a long time -- at least six decades -- photographs have laid down
the tracks of how important conflicts are judged and remembered. The
Western memory museum is now mostly a visual one. Photographs have an
insuperable power to determine what we recall of events, and it now
seems probable that the defining association of people everywhere with
the war that the United States launched pre-emptively in Iraq last year
will be photographs of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by Americans in
the most infamous of Saddam Hussein's prisons, Abu Ghraib.
The Bush administration and its defenders have chiefly sought to limit
a
public-relations disaster -- the dissemination of the photographs --
rather than deal with the complex crimes of leadership and of policy
revealed by the pictures. There was, first of all, the displacement of
the reality onto the photographs themselves. The administration's
initial response was to say that the president was shocked and
disgusted
by the photographs -- as if the fault or horror lay in the images, not
in what they depict. There was also the avoidance of the word
''torture.'' The prisoners had possibly been the objects of ''abuse,''
eventually of ''humiliation'' -- that was the most to be admitted. ''My
impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I
believe technically is different from torture,'' Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld said at a press conference. ''And therefore I'm not
going to address the 'torture' word.''
Words alter, words add, words subtract. It was the strenuous avoidance
of the word ''genocide'' while some 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda were being
slaughtered, over a few weeks' time, by their Hutu neighbors 10 years
ago that indicated the American government had no intention of doing
anything. To refuse to call what took place in Abu Ghraib -- and what
has taken place elsewhere in Iraq and in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo
Bay -- by its true name, torture, is as outrageous as the refusal to
call the Rwandan genocide a genocide. Here is one of the definitions of
torture contained in a convention to which the United States is a
signatory: ''/any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether
physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such
purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a
confession./'' (The definition comes from the 1984 Convention Against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Similar definitions have existed for some time in customary law and in
treaties, starting with Article 3 -- common to the four Geneva
conventions of 1949 -- and many recent human rights conventions.) The
1984 convention declares, ''/No exceptional circumstances whatsoever,
whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political
instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a
justification of torture./'' And all covenants on torture specify that
it includes treatment intended to humiliate the victim, like leaving
prisoners naked in cells and corridors.
Whatever actions this administration undertakes to limit the damage of
the widening revelations of the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and
elsewhere -- trials, courts-martial, dishonorable discharges,
resignation of senior military figures and responsible administration
officials and substantial compensation to the victims -- it is probable
that the ''torture'' word will continue to be banned. To acknowledge
that Americans torture their prisoners would contradict everything this
administration has invited the public to believe about the virtue of
American intentions and America's right, flowing from that virtue, to
undertake unilateral action on the world stage.
Even when the president was finally compelled, as the damage to
America's reputation everywhere in the world widened and deepened, to
use the ''sorry'' word, the focus of regret still seemed the damage to
America's claim to moral superiority. Yes, President Bush said in
Washington on May 6, standing alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan, he
was ''sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the
humiliation suffered by their families.'' But, he went on, he was
''equally sorry that people seeing these pictures didn't understand the
true nature and heart of America.''
To have the American effort in Iraq summed up by these images must
seem,
to those who saw some justification in a war that did overthrow one of
the monster tyrants of modern times, ''unfair.'' A war, an occupation,
is inevitably a huge tapestry of actions. What makes some actions
representative and others not? The issue is not whether the torture was
done by individuals (i.e., ''not by everybody'') -- but whether it was
systematic. Authorized. Condoned. All acts are done by individuals. The
issue is not whether a majority or a minority of Americans performs
such
acts but whether the nature of the policies prosecuted by this
administration and the hierarchies deployed to carry them out makes
such
acts likely.
*II.*
Considered in this light, the photographs are us. That is, they are
representative of the fundamental corruptions of any foreign occupation
together with the Bush adminstration's distinctive policies. The
Belgians in the Congo, the French in Algeria, practiced torture and
sexual humiliation on despised recalcitrant natives. Add to this
generic
corruption the mystifying, near-total unpreparedness of the American
rulers of Iraq to deal with the complex realities of the country after
its ''liberation.'' And add to that the overarching, distinctive
doctrines of the Bush administration, namely that the United States has
embarked on an endless war and that those detained in this war are, if
the president so decides, ''unlawful combatants'' -- a policy
enunciated
by Donald Rumsfeld for Taliban and Qaeda prisoners as early as January
2002 -- and thus, as Rumsfeld said, ''technically'' they ''do not have
any rights under the Geneva Convention,'' and you have a perfect recipe
for the cruelties and crimes committed against the thousands
incarcerated without charges or access to lawyers in American-run
prisons that have been set up since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
So, then, is the real issue not the photographs themselves but what the
photographs reveal to have happened to ''suspects'' in American
custody?
No: the horror of what is shown in the photographs cannot be separated
from the horror that the photographs were taken -- with the
perpetrators
posing, gloating, over their helpless captives. German soldiers in the
Second World War took photographs of the atrocities they were
committing
in Poland and Russia, but snapshots in which the executioners placed
themselves among their victims are exceedingly rare, as may be seen in
a
book just published, ''Photographing the Holocaust,'' by Janina Struk.
If there is something comparable to what these pictures show it would
be
some of the photographs of black victims of lynching taken between the
1880's and 1930's, which show Americans grinning beneath the naked
mutilated body of a black man or woman hanging behind them from a tree.
The lynching photographs were souvenirs of a collective action whose
participants felt perfectly justified in what they had done. So are the
pictures from Abu Ghraib.
The lynching pictures were in the nature of photographs as trophies --
taken by a photographer in order to be collected, stored in albums,
displayed. The pictures taken by American soldiers in Abu Ghraib,
however, reflect a shift in the use made of pictures -- less objects to
be saved than messages to be disseminated, circulated. A digital camera
is a common possession among soldiers. Where once photographing war was
the province of photojournalists, now the soldiers themselves are all
photographers -- recording their war, their fun, their observations of
what they find picturesque, their atrocities -- and swapping images
among themselves and e-mailing them around the globe.
There is more and more recording of what people do, by themselves. At
least or especially in America, Andy Warhol's ideal of filming real
events in real time -- life isn't edited, why should its record be
edited? -- has become a norm for countless Webcasts, in which people
record their day, each in his or her own reality show. Here I am --
waking and yawning and stretching, brushing my teeth, making breakfast,
getting the kids off to school. People record all aspects of their
lives, store them in computer files and send the files around. Family
life goes with the recording of family life -- even when, or especially
when, the family is in the throes of crisis and disgrace. Surely the
dedicated, incessant home-videoing of one another, in conversation and
monologue, over many years was the most astonishing material in
''Capturing the Friedmans,'' the recent documentary by Andrew Jarecki
about a Long Island family embroiled in pedophilia charges.
An erotic life is, for more and more people, that whither can be
captured in digital photographs and on video. And perhaps the torture
is
more attractive, as something to record, when it has a sexual
component.
It is surely revealing, as more Abu Ghraib photographs enter public
view, that torture photographs are interleaved with pornographic images
of American soldiers having sex with one another. In fact, most of the
torture photographs have a sexual theme, as in those showing the
coercing of prisoners to perform, or simulate, sexual acts among
themselves. One exception, already canonical, is the photograph of the
man made to stand on a box, hooded and sprouting wires, reportedly told
he would be electrocuted if he fell off. Yet pictures of prisoners
bound
in painful positions, or made to stand with outstretched arms, are
infrequent. That they count as torture cannot be doubted. You have only
to look at the terror on the victim's face, although such ''stress''
fell within the Pentagon's limits of the acceptable. But most of the
pictures seem part of a larger confluence of torture and pornography: a
young woman leading a naked man around on a leash is classic dominatrix
imagery. And you wonder how much of the sexual tortures inflicted on
the
inmates of Abu Ghraib was inspired by the vast repertory of
pornographic
imagery available on the Internet -- and which ordinary people, by
sending out Webcasts of themselves, try to emulate.
*III.*
To live is to be photographed, to have a record of one's life, and
therefore to go on with one's life oblivious, or claiming to be
oblivious, to the camera's nonstop attentions. But to live is also to
pose. To act is to share in the community of actions recorded as
images.
The expression of satisfaction at the acts of torture being inflicted
on
helpless, trussed, naked victims is only part of the story. There is
the
deep satisfaction of being photographed, to which one is now more
inclined to respond not with a stiff, direct gaze (as in former times)
but with glee. The events are in part designed to be photographed. The
grin is a grin for the camera. There would be something missing if,
after stacking the naked men, you couldn't take a picture of them.
Looking at these photographs, you ask yourself, How can someone grin at
the sufferings and humiliation of another human being? Set guard dogs
at
the genitals and legs of cowering naked prisoners? Force shackled,
hooded prisoners to masturbate or simulate oral sex with one another?
And you feel naive for asking, since the answer is, self-evidently,
People do these things to other people. Rape and pain inflicted on the
genitals are among the most common forms of torture. Not just in Nazi
concentration camps and in Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam
Hussein.
Americans, too, have done and do them when they are told, or made to
feel, that those over whom they have absolute power deserve to be
humiliated, tormented. They do them when they are led to believe that
the people they are torturing belong to an inferior race or religion.
For the meaning of these pictures is not just that these acts were
performed, but that their perpetrators apparently had no sense that
there was anything wrong in what the pictures show.
Even more appalling, since the pictures were meant to be circulated and
seen by many people: it was all fun. And this idea of fun is, alas,
more
and more -- contrary to what President Bush is telling the world --
part
of ''the true nature and heart of America.'' It is hard to measure the
increasing acceptance of brutality in American life, but its evidence
is
everywhere, starting with the video games of killing that are a
principal entertainment of boys -- can the video game ''Interrogating
the Terrorists'' really be far behind? -- and on to the violence that
has become endemic in the group rites of youth on an exuberant kick.
Violent crime is down, yet the easy delight taken in violence seems to
have grown. >From the harsh torments inflicted on incoming students in
many American suburban high schools -- depicted in Richard Linklater's
1993 film, ''Dazed and Confused'' -- to the hazing rituals of physical
brutality and sexual humiliation in college fraternities and on sports
teams, America has become a country in which the fantasies and the
practice of violence are seen as good entertainment, fun.
What formerly was segregated as pornography, as the exercise of extreme
sadomasochistic longings -- as in Pier Paolo Pasolini's last,
near-unwatchable film, ''Salo'' (1975), depicting orgies of torture in
the Fascist redoubt in northern Italy at the end of the Mussolini era --
is now being normalized, by some, as high-spirited play or venting. To
''stack naked men'' is like a college fraternity prank, said a caller
to
Rush Limbaugh and the many millions of Americans who listen to his
radio
show. Had the caller, one wonders, seen the photographs? No matter. The
observation -- or is it the fantasy? -- was on the mark. What may still
be capable of shocking some Americans was Limbaugh's response:
''Exactly!'' he exclaimed. ''Exactly my point. This is no different
than
what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin
people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort,
and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good
time.'' ''They'' are the American soldiers, the torturers. And Limbaugh
went on: ''You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm
talking about people having a good time, these people. You ever heard
of
emotional release?''
Shock and awe were what our military promised the Iraqis. And shock and
the awful are what these photographs announce to the world that the
Americans have delivered: a pattern of criminal behavior in open
contempt of international humanitarian conventions. Soldiers now pose,
thumbs up, before the atrocities they commit, and send off the pictures
to their buddies. Secrets of private life that, formerly, you would
have
given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to be invited on a
television show to reveal. What is illustrated by these photographs is
as much the culture of shamelessness as the reigning admiration for
unapologetic brutality.
*IV.*
The notion that apologies or professions of ''disgust'' by the
president
and the secretary of defense are a sufficient response is an insult to
one's historical and moral sense. The torture of prisoners is not an
aberration. It is a direct consequence of the with-us-or-against-us
doctrines of world struggle with which the Bush administration has
sought to change, change radically, the international stance of the
United States and to recast many domestic institutions and
prerogatives.
The Bush administration has committed the country to a pseudo-religious
doctrine of war, endless war -- for ''the war on terror'' is nothing
less than that. Endless war is taken to justify endless incarcerations.
Those held in the extralegal American penal empire are ''detainees'';
''prisoners,'' a newly obsolete word, might suggest that they have the
rights accorded by international law and the laws of all civilized
countries. This endless ''global war on terrorism'' -- into which both
the quite justified invasion of Afghanistan and the unwinnable folly in
Iraq have been folded by Pentagon decree -- inevitably leads to the
demonizing and dehumanizing of anyone declared by the Bush
administration to be a possible terrorist: a definition that is not up
for debate and is, in fact, usually made in secret.
The charges against most of the people detained in the prisons in Iraq
and Afghanistan being nonexistent -- the Red Cross reports that 70 to
90
percent of those being held seem to have committed no crime other than
simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught up in some
sweep of ''suspects'' -- the principal justification for holding them
is
''interrogation.'' Interrogation about what? About anything. Whatever
the detainee might know. If interrogation is the point of detaining
prisoners indefinitely, then physical coercion, humiliation and torture
become inevitable.
Remember: we are not talking about that rarest of cases, the ''ticking
time bomb'' situation, which is sometimes used as a limiting case that
justifies torture of prisoners who have knowledge of an imminent
attack.
This is general or nonspecific information-gathering, authorized by
American military and civilian administrators to learn more of a
shadowy
empire of evildoers about whom Americans know virtually nothing, in
countries about which they are singularly ignorant: in principle, any
information at all might be useful. An interrogation that produced no
information (whatever information might consist of) would count as a
failure. All the more justification for preparing prisoners to talk.
Softening them up, stressing them out -- these are the euphemisms for
the bestial practices in American prisons where suspected terrorists
are
being held. Unfortunately, as Staff Sgt. Ivan (Chip) Frederick noted in
his diary, a prisoner can get too stressed out and die. The picture of
a
man in a body bag with ice on his chest may well be of the man
Frederick
was describing.
The pictures will not go away. That is the nature of the digital world
in which we live. Indeed, it seems they were necessary to get our
leaders to acknowledge that they had a problem on their hands. After
all, the conclusions of reports compiled by the International Committee
of the Red Cross, and other reports by journalists and protests by
humanitarian organizations about the atrocious punishments inflicted on
''detainees'' and ''suspected terrorists'' in prisons run by the
American military, first in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, have been
circulating for more than a year. It seems doubtful that such reports
were read by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney or
Condoleezza
Rice or Rumsfeld. Apparently it took the photographs to get their
attention, when it became clear they could not be suppressed; it was
the
photographs that made all this ''real'' to Bush and his associates. Up
to then, there had been only words, which are easier to cover up in our
age of infinite digital self-reproduction and self-dissemination, and
so
much easier to forget.
So now the pictures will continue to ''assault'' us -- as many
Americans
are bound to feel. Will people get used to them? Some Americans are
already saying they have seen enough. Not, however, the rest of the
world. Endless war: endless stream of photographs. Will editors now
debate whether showing more of them, or showing them uncropped (which,
with some of the best-known images, like that of a hooded man on a box,
gives a different and in some instances more appalling view), would be
in ''bad taste'' or too implicitly political? By ''political,'' read:
critical of the Bush administration's imperial project. For there can
be
no doubt that the photographs damage, as Rumsfeld testified, ''the
reputation of the honorable men and women of the armed forces who are
courageously and responsibly and professionally defending our freedom
across the globe.'' This damage -- to our reputation, our image, our
success as the lone superpower -- is what the Bush administration
principally deplores. How the protection of ''our freedom'' -- the
freedom of 5 percent of humanity -- came to require having American
soldiers ''across the globe'' is hardly debated by our elected
officials.
Already the backlash has begun. Americans are being warned against
indulging in an orgy of self-condemnation. The continuing publication
of
the pictures is being taken by many Americans as suggesting that we do
not have the right to defend ourselves: after all, they (the
terrorists)
started it. They -- Osama bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? what's the
difference? -- attacked us first. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a
Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, before which
Secretary Rumsfeld testified, avowed that he was sure he was not the
only member of the committee ''more outraged by the outrage'' over the
photographs than by what the photographs show. ''These prisoners,''
Senator Inhofe explained, ''you know they're not there for traffic
violations. If they're in Cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners,
they're
murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them
probably
have American blood on their hands, and here we're so concerned about
the treatment of those individuals.'' It's the fault of ''the media''
which are provoking, and will continue to provoke, further violence
against Americans around the world. More Americans will die. Because of
these photos.
There is an answer to this charge, of course. Americans are dying not
because of the photographs but because of what the photographs reveal
to
be happening, happening with the complicity of a chain of command -- so
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba implied, and Pfc. Lynndie England said, and
(among others) Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican,
suggested, after he saw the Pentagon's full range of images on May 12.
''Some of it has an elaborate nature to it that makes me very
suspicious
of whether or not others were directing or encouraging,'' Senator
Graham
said. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said that viewing an
uncropped version of one photo showing a stack of naked men in a
hallway
-- a version that revealed how many other soldiers were at the scene,
some not even paying attention -- contradicted the Pentagon's assertion
that only rogue soldiers were involved. ''Somewhere along the line,''
Senator Nelson said of the torturers, ''they were either told or winked
at.'' An attorney for Specialist Charles Graner Jr., who is in the
picture, has had his client identify the men in the uncropped version;
according to The Wall Street Journal, Graner said that four of the men
were military intelligence and one a civilian contractor working with
military intelligence.
*V.*
But the distinction between photograph and reality -- as between spin
and policy -- can easily evaporate. And that is what the administration
wishes to happen. ''There are a lot more photographs and videos that
exist,'' Rumsfeld acknowledged in his testimony. ''If these are
released
to the public, obviously, it's going to make matters worse.'' Worse for
the administration and its programs, presumably, not for those who are
the actual -- and potential? -- victims of torture.
The media may self-censor but, as Rumsfeld acknowledged, it's hard to
censor soldiers overseas, who don't write letters home, as in the old
days, that can be opened by military censors who ink out unacceptable
lines. Today's soldiers instead function like tourists, as Rumsfeld put it, ''running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise.'' The administration's effort to withhold pictures is proceeding along several fronts. Currently, the argument is taking a legalistic turn: now the photographs are classified as evidence in future criminal cases, whose outcome may be prejudiced if they are made public. The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia, after the May 12 slide show of image after image of sexual humiliation and violence against Iraqi prisoners, said he felt ''very strongly'' that the newer photos ''should not be made public. I feel that it could possibly endanger the men and women of the armed forces as they are serving and at great risk.''
But the real push to limit the accessibility of the photographs will
come from the continuing effort to protect the administration and cover
up our misrule in Iraq -- to identify ''outrage'' over the photographs
with a campaign to undermine American military might and the purposes
it currently serves. Just as it was regarded by many as an implicit
criticism of the war to show on television photographs of American
soldiers who have been killed in the course of the invasion and
occupation of Iraq, it will increasingly be thought unpatriotic to
disseminate the new photographs and further tarnish the image of
America.
After all, we're at war. Endless war. And war is hell, more so than any of the people who got us into this rotten war seem to have expected. In our digital hall of mirrors, the pictures aren't going to go away. Yes, it seems that one picture is worth a thousand words. And even if our leaders choose not to look at them, there will be thousands more snapshots and videos. Unstoppable.
//http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/magazine/23PRISONS.html?pagewanted=1
/Susan Sontag is the author, most recently, of ''Regarding the Pain of
Others.''/
Great truths can be simply stated
The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words.
The Ten Commandments required 297 words.
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysberg address is about the same length.
The American Declaration of Independence takes all of 1,300 words.
The EU's directive on duck eggs contains 26,911 words!
---------------
(looking for the exact quote fr the following)
In the UK everything which is not specifically forbidden, is allowed.
In Germany everything is forbidden, unless something is specifically allowed.
In France everything is allowed, even if it is forbidden.
In Italy everything is allowed, especially when it is forbidden.
The Ten Commandments required 297 words.
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysberg address is about the same length.
The American Declaration of Independence takes all of 1,300 words.
The EU's directive on duck eggs contains 26,911 words!
---------------
(looking for the exact quote fr the following)
In the UK everything which is not specifically forbidden, is allowed.
In Germany everything is forbidden, unless something is specifically allowed.
In France everything is allowed, even if it is forbidden.
In Italy everything is allowed, especially when it is forbidden.
Photos
I've just added a bunch of links to photos on the photo collection list at the bottom of the left hand column. Next I have to get out the CD wiht all the photos of old Fed UnCons, meets, and other such sorid events and post some of those.
Andrew and I just had a really lovely afternoon. I was doing laundry when he phoned and suggested we go see Shrek 2. So he met me at the laundromat and we had a nice walk home to my place. There we went online and I showed him the SwapGmail website and he had a ball looking at all the funny and kooky offers from people desperate to get a gMail account. We also checked eBay where gMail account invitatons are selling in the $60 range!
Then we strolled to the subway, a few stops later we were at Broadway & 86 in time to make the 4:30pm showing of Shrek 2. The film was great. Funny and charming as ever. Afterward we wandered down Broadway to Zabars for a small but choice bit of shopping for treats and then back up Broadway to a spacious deli for monstrous corned beef sandwiches and Dr Browns soda. It was just so nice, weather perfect, company the best.
Then we strolled to the subway, a few stops later we were at Broadway & 86 in time to make the 4:30pm showing of Shrek 2. The film was great. Funny and charming as ever. Afterward we wandered down Broadway to Zabars for a small but choice bit of shopping for treats and then back up Broadway to a spacious deli for monstrous corned beef sandwiches and Dr Browns soda. It was just so nice, weather perfect, company the best.
Friday, May 21, 2004
Where are they now....
I was just in Alan's new game, Fed2 when who should show up but Occy (Jason). He's using the name Looney at the moment till he gets access to his name Occy sorted out. Same old, same old Occy tho.
Also got an email in tonight's mail from Wingdman (Greg H) - he's returning to Fed.
Naiad (Angela)is going back to working full time at the bank on June 1. She's currently working part-time. She'll be back in fed2 soon.
As some of you know, my old buddy from GEnie Fed (and also Hundred Years War) Krell passed away last summer. Krell (Karen Hillyer) was a long time online and real life friend and I miss her a lot. There are some memorial pages to her at: http://www.geocities.com/jagerdude69/kaz/ and http://zilal.byond.com/gs3/culture/gemkali.html
Paladin (Jon) is back in Fed2 and on my Tech Test Team. He's still in Chicago, still working as a chemist.
West (Ni in Fed) and Jim (The infamous Devon of the milk cartons) are married and still in Florida. I haven't dragged them into fed2 yet ;)
Steph (Reade) moved out to San Francisco several years.
Greg (Tantris, Icedrake) is still in Northern VA, still doing marvelous things like running marathons.
Toby's (Nightdroid and other unnamed personnas) still in Toronto, still a sys admin/programmer, still brilliant, still riding his bike, still one of the nicest people I know.
Nick (Cryptosporidium, Pegasus, etc) and Asti (Selena) are married and living in Switzerland .
Gordon (what the hell was his name in Fed?) is in Florida and working as a game programmer for EA.
Bo (Arrogant, Prospero) is still holed up in his stately home in the rural hills outside Bristol, England. He gave up Fed for Yahoo voice-chat rooms and WebCam chat.
Dana (Satinsheets, Blaze) married Nick Z (Bart) and they currently live in Colorado.
Oxcart - last time I talked to him was years ago and he was in Texas. I lost touch with him but about 2 years ago Starr told me she'd been with him in real life for a bit and he was now in residentail care. If you know anything new about him, please let me know.
Scott (Tellurian) is now married and still living in NYC.
Nancy (EvilExWife, Gerhilda)and her husband Tro are still in Northern VA, he still works for AOL and they have a gorgeous 3 year old little boy named Demetrius.
Neil (Gonzo) is still in MD, still with Simutronics.
Fletcher is still in Toronto and everything is still his fault!
Also got an email in tonight's mail from Wingdman (Greg H) - he's returning to Fed.
Naiad (Angela)is going back to working full time at the bank on June 1. She's currently working part-time. She'll be back in fed2 soon.
As some of you know, my old buddy from GEnie Fed (and also Hundred Years War) Krell passed away last summer. Krell (Karen Hillyer) was a long time online and real life friend and I miss her a lot. There are some memorial pages to her at: http://www.geocities.com/jagerdude69/kaz/ and http://zilal.byond.com/gs3/culture/gemkali.html
Paladin (Jon) is back in Fed2 and on my Tech Test Team. He's still in Chicago, still working as a chemist.
West (Ni in Fed) and Jim (The infamous Devon of the milk cartons) are married and still in Florida. I haven't dragged them into fed2 yet ;)
Steph (Reade) moved out to San Francisco several years.
Greg (Tantris, Icedrake) is still in Northern VA, still doing marvelous things like running marathons.
Toby's (Nightdroid and other unnamed personnas) still in Toronto, still a sys admin/programmer, still brilliant, still riding his bike, still one of the nicest people I know.
Nick (Cryptosporidium, Pegasus, etc) and Asti (Selena) are married and living in Switzerland .
Gordon (what the hell was his name in Fed?) is in Florida and working as a game programmer for EA.
Bo (Arrogant, Prospero) is still holed up in his stately home in the rural hills outside Bristol, England. He gave up Fed for Yahoo voice-chat rooms and WebCam chat.
Dana (Satinsheets, Blaze) married Nick Z (Bart) and they currently live in Colorado.
Oxcart - last time I talked to him was years ago and he was in Texas. I lost touch with him but about 2 years ago Starr told me she'd been with him in real life for a bit and he was now in residentail care. If you know anything new about him, please let me know.
Scott (Tellurian) is now married and still living in NYC.
Nancy (EvilExWife, Gerhilda)and her husband Tro are still in Northern VA, he still works for AOL and they have a gorgeous 3 year old little boy named Demetrius.
Neil (Gonzo) is still in MD, still with Simutronics.
Fletcher is still in Toronto and everything is still his fault!
Kick Off The Summer With Great Fares From American Airlines?
Are they nuts? Is there someone at American Airlines sneaking in some of the very strange "deal" offerings and falling over laughing at the imagined responses?
An example...from this Great Fares offer announcement AA sent me just now:
New York LaGuardia,NY - (LGA) NW Arkansas Regional,AR (XNA) $262RT
Umm HELLO! Who in their right mind in NYC wants to go to ARKANSAS REGIONAL AIRPORT? And for that fare - which by the way is PLUS taxes and fees so we're talking shelling out about $350 to go to god-knows-where rural Arkansas? This is a deal?
Other cities are offered deals going to Los Angeles, San Jose, Miami, Honolulu. All at prices well under $250 - real deals.
New Yorkers get offered an expensive flight to RedNeckLand.
There's got to be someone at American Airlines with a very warped sense of humour!
An example...from this Great Fares offer announcement AA sent me just now:
New York LaGuardia,NY - (LGA) NW Arkansas Regional,AR (XNA) $262RT
Umm HELLO! Who in their right mind in NYC wants to go to ARKANSAS REGIONAL AIRPORT? And for that fare - which by the way is PLUS taxes and fees so we're talking shelling out about $350 to go to god-knows-where rural Arkansas? This is a deal?
Other cities are offered deals going to Los Angeles, San Jose, Miami, Honolulu. All at prices well under $250 - real deals.
New Yorkers get offered an expensive flight to RedNeckLand.
There's got to be someone at American Airlines with a very warped sense of humour!
Perjury charge against Martha witness!
Ho, ho, ho!
From CNN Breaking News:
A Secret Service employee involved in the government's case against the domestic diva Martha Stewart was charged with perjury Friday, according to federal prosecutors. Larry Stewart, who testified as an expert witness about the ink on a broker's worksheet, was charged with two counts of perjury in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
Full story: http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/21/news/midcaps/martha/index.htm?cnn=yes
------
I'm simply not convinced that Martha Stewart was guilty of anything more than being a clever woman in what is jealously considered a "man's world". I'm disgusted at the waste of taxpayer money to persue this woman. In a perfect world, where all other top business executives were pure and innocent of any dubious dealings, her actions might be called into question. But considering what's out there, her "crimes" on a scale of 1-100 rate down in the <10 range whilst others who we can all easily name who are notoriously in the >90 range go merrily whistling along unmolested by the so called forces of justice.
From CNN Breaking News:
A Secret Service employee involved in the government's case against the domestic diva Martha Stewart was charged with perjury Friday, according to federal prosecutors. Larry Stewart, who testified as an expert witness about the ink on a broker's worksheet, was charged with two counts of perjury in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
Full story: http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/21/news/midcaps/martha/index.htm?cnn=yes
------
I'm simply not convinced that Martha Stewart was guilty of anything more than being a clever woman in what is jealously considered a "man's world". I'm disgusted at the waste of taxpayer money to persue this woman. In a perfect world, where all other top business executives were pure and innocent of any dubious dealings, her actions might be called into question. But considering what's out there, her "crimes" on a scale of 1-100 rate down in the <10 range whilst others who we can all easily name who are notoriously in the >90 range go merrily whistling along unmolested by the so called forces of justice.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
It's only 2pm and already my anti-virus program has caught 23 virus attachments in my email today. All Netsky. That's disgusting.
I'm going out to buy a TV today. I had a rather nice 27" (or something like that) TV, but it was stored in my Ex's basement in PA and his insane wife threw it out. Ah well, easy enough to buy a new one. I haven't really missed watching TV the past year or so. In fact, my feelings even now are sort of lukewarm. So lukewarm that I can't be bothered getting anything more than a minimal 13" cheap model.
Regarding my calling my Ex's new wife insane, the woman is genuinely mad. More than mad, she's malicious; not just to me but to him and to the kids. Adam and Andrew have her number and stay clear of her. I have no sympathy for the Ex, he's earned every bit of misery she's caused him. He got precisely what he wanted. He's actually gotten quite strange as he's aged becoming increasingly like his father. He usually means well or thinks he does, but it always comes out wrong.
I'm going out to buy a TV today. I had a rather nice 27" (or something like that) TV, but it was stored in my Ex's basement in PA and his insane wife threw it out. Ah well, easy enough to buy a new one. I haven't really missed watching TV the past year or so. In fact, my feelings even now are sort of lukewarm. So lukewarm that I can't be bothered getting anything more than a minimal 13" cheap model.
Regarding my calling my Ex's new wife insane, the woman is genuinely mad. More than mad, she's malicious; not just to me but to him and to the kids. Adam and Andrew have her number and stay clear of her. I have no sympathy for the Ex, he's earned every bit of misery she's caused him. He got precisely what he wanted. He's actually gotten quite strange as he's aged becoming increasingly like his father. He usually means well or thinks he does, but it always comes out wrong.
MAC OS critical vulnerability
As you may know, I started out as a MAC user. A devoted MAC user at that. I don't count my Commodore years since it never really gripped my consciousness as a part of my everyday life. However, I once was one of those who ignored all the negatives like insane overpricing, lack of software, lack of games, lack of upgradeability, fragile file format causing constant file losses (broken fork issue), etc.
Then one day I got a virus on my MAC SE. Yes, back then there was none of that idiotic smug nonsense that Mac's were somehow invulnerable to malicious attacks. And where did I get this virus? Not on the Internet mind you, but from a document for my son's Lutheran Church School that I transferred to my computer by floppy disk to work on for them as a favor. What a nightmare that was! MACs are vulnerable, any computer is vulnerable, perhaps in different ways but believe me they are vulnerable.
Anyway, I switched and am now a Windows user, and that was the only time in all these years (almost 20!) that I have had one of my computers infected with anything. This is due to 95% vigilance and 5% luck. I did have 1 virus infection at an office computer at AboveNet, but that was during a short interval when they insisted on letting a true dork from Desktop Support at the White Plains HQ control my PC. His idea of security was to block all DL/installs on staff computers. What an arrogant, ignorant, sexist idiot he was. I resolved that issue fast. Got control of my PC back from the head of the dept with backup by my director, cleaned up my machine and never had a problem with it again.
Anyway, I put the blame for this crap on the real guilty parties. The criminals who create and send out the viruses, worms, trojans, malware, etc. Put them in jail.
So here's another critical flaw in the MAC OS that leaves users vulnerable to attack and takeover. They'll still keep singing the MACs are safe song, I know. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/05/mac_os_x_highly_critical_security_flaw
http://mamamusings.net/archives/2004/05/18/serious_os_x_security_problem.php
Thanks go to Tavie for bringing this to my attention in her blog www.tavie.com. Tavie is one of the saner MAC users out there and I rate her highly for many reasons having nothing to do with MACs.
Then one day I got a virus on my MAC SE. Yes, back then there was none of that idiotic smug nonsense that Mac's were somehow invulnerable to malicious attacks. And where did I get this virus? Not on the Internet mind you, but from a document for my son's Lutheran Church School that I transferred to my computer by floppy disk to work on for them as a favor. What a nightmare that was! MACs are vulnerable, any computer is vulnerable, perhaps in different ways but believe me they are vulnerable.
Anyway, I switched and am now a Windows user, and that was the only time in all these years (almost 20!) that I have had one of my computers infected with anything. This is due to 95% vigilance and 5% luck. I did have 1 virus infection at an office computer at AboveNet, but that was during a short interval when they insisted on letting a true dork from Desktop Support at the White Plains HQ control my PC. His idea of security was to block all DL/installs on staff computers. What an arrogant, ignorant, sexist idiot he was. I resolved that issue fast. Got control of my PC back from the head of the dept with backup by my director, cleaned up my machine and never had a problem with it again.
Anyway, I put the blame for this crap on the real guilty parties. The criminals who create and send out the viruses, worms, trojans, malware, etc. Put them in jail.
So here's another critical flaw in the MAC OS that leaves users vulnerable to attack and takeover. They'll still keep singing the MACs are safe song, I know. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2004/05/mac_os_x_highly_critical_security_flaw
http://mamamusings.net/archives/2004/05/18/serious_os_x_security_problem.php
Thanks go to Tavie for bringing this to my attention in her blog www.tavie.com. Tavie is one of the saner MAC users out there and I rate her highly for many reasons having nothing to do with MACs.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
What's it worth to you?
Sometimes I wonder why all my logic and good sense seem to turn off when it comes to IBgames. Why do I spend so much time working for a company that pays me nothing? I invest vast amounts of my time, knowledge, skills, and money in a company that essentially gives me nothing in return. Well, they do give me lots of agro and abuse and insult. And that is wrong.
I've decided to take Alan's advice and apply it to IBgames. Recently in a discussion about why players should pay for Alan's game when there are loads of excellent free games out there, he said, if it has real value, people will pay for it. If they won't pay for it, you're only kidding yourself.
I think it's time to stop kidding myself and start asking, "What's it worth to you?" every time IBgames asks me to do something for them. I don't mean they have to payme a salary. But they have to offer me some sort of quid pro quo, some value in exchange for what they propose I give to them.
The time has come, the Walrus said...
I've decided to take Alan's advice and apply it to IBgames. Recently in a discussion about why players should pay for Alan's game when there are loads of excellent free games out there, he said, if it has real value, people will pay for it. If they won't pay for it, you're only kidding yourself.
I think it's time to stop kidding myself and start asking, "What's it worth to you?" every time IBgames asks me to do something for them. I don't mean they have to payme a salary. But they have to offer me some sort of quid pro quo, some value in exchange for what they propose I give to them.
The time has come, the Walrus said...
Monday, May 17, 2004
The US is trying to use the old chocolate, nylons, and smokes routine that won over europeans in WWII, but it doesn’t work in Iraq.
A CIA report in March '03 said democracy is almost impossible in Iraq.
Well, we can just pattern it after one of the OTHER successful, democratic, freely elected, solvent, popular, progessive arab governments....
Oopsss.
How about after one of the successful, democratic, freely elected, solvent, popular, progessive black governments....
Oopsss.
How about a hispanic....
Oopsss.
How about an asian....
Oopsss.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
Of course not. Those countries ALL have repressive, corrupt, volatile, bankrupt governments because of western racism. And every democratic candidate will say so, repeatedly. As Hitler proved, people will believe anything if you repeat it frequently enough.
Plus que change, plus que le meme chose.
A CIA report in March '03 said democracy is almost impossible in Iraq.
Well, we can just pattern it after one of the OTHER successful, democratic, freely elected, solvent, popular, progessive arab governments....
Oopsss.
How about after one of the successful, democratic, freely elected, solvent, popular, progessive black governments....
Oopsss.
How about a hispanic....
Oopsss.
How about an asian....
Oopsss.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
Of course not. Those countries ALL have repressive, corrupt, volatile, bankrupt governments because of western racism. And every democratic candidate will say so, repeatedly. As Hitler proved, people will believe anything if you repeat it frequently enough.
Plus que change, plus que le meme chose.
I first became interested in medieval China after reading a book about a Confucian Judge called Judge Dee. He is the subject of a series of mystery books based on the casebooks of a real life administrator and jurist from 8th century China. The original Chinese book Dee Goong An ( Casebook of Dee) is set in 15th century China, that era being much more familiar to the unknown anicent author than the actual era 7 centries earlier. I then began to read the series of modern books recounting further adventures of Judge Dee written in English by Robert Van Gulik. This lead to me discovering the complex and fascinating culture of classic China extending my reading into not only Chinese literature but history, science, and technology as well. I have a great fondness for books written by the classical Chinese female writers; Chinese women being free to write and publish enjoyed a golden era covering several centuries.
I went to an International Ethnic festival today. The city closed off 8th Avenue in Manhattan for over a mile and it was filled with interesting booths offering foods, crafts and books. There were bands along the way playing the music of the sponsoring ethnic group as well as 1940's big band tunes and jazz. I had to be in midtown Manhattan today anyway so I left the house early and got off the subway at Columbus Circle/59th Street. I walked over to 8th Ave and then strolled down the avenue enjoying the gloriously warm and sunny spring day. I think the nicest part of the festival was towards the very end of the route. There was a band playing very lively music; I'm no expert on these things but it seemed to be the sort of tunes popular in the 30s and 40s for dancing. Couples filled the street dancing, some with lively enthusiasm and some with an obvious sense of nostalgia. The rest of us stood around watching and admiring and enjoying.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
I truly believe that people who write viruses, trojans and similar things must start getting serious jail time. Regardless of age. if they are over 16, treat them like an adult and put them in jail; if they are under 16, put them in a youth facility and punish them by removing access to computers entirely, not just the net.
I'm not interested in what they claim their intent was. I'm not interested in their claims that they had no idea how much damage and loss it would create. First of all, to put it bluntly, those are simply lies. They know. You know they know. Let's stop kidding ourselves.
If I sneak into the subway system as a "lark", on a dare, or because I'm a sociopath and turn off the safety warning lights and cause two trains to crash; I will still be heal CRIMINALLY liable for the damage I cause and any loss of life or damage to the people involved. How is it different if I do the same thing by releasing a virus that knocks out the subway's warning light control system? What difference does that make to the people killed and injured in any resulting accidents?
What difference is there? None. Except that the person who creates or launches a virus is actually capable of causing far more damage then the person who just walks in and turns off a warning switch. In recent virus/trojan attacks multiple systems around the world have been damaged, knocked out, and corrupted. The dollar cost is often in the multi-millions. The costs to individuals in lost time and damaged equipment are massive and they are never reimbursed by any victims fund.
And that's what we are folks, make no mistake, we are the VICTIMS of these Cyber-Sociopaths. And as long as we don't put them in jail, they will continue to amuse themselves at our expense.
Put them in jail.
I'm not interested in what they claim their intent was. I'm not interested in their claims that they had no idea how much damage and loss it would create. First of all, to put it bluntly, those are simply lies. They know. You know they know. Let's stop kidding ourselves.
If I sneak into the subway system as a "lark", on a dare, or because I'm a sociopath and turn off the safety warning lights and cause two trains to crash; I will still be heal CRIMINALLY liable for the damage I cause and any loss of life or damage to the people involved. How is it different if I do the same thing by releasing a virus that knocks out the subway's warning light control system? What difference does that make to the people killed and injured in any resulting accidents?
What difference is there? None. Except that the person who creates or launches a virus is actually capable of causing far more damage then the person who just walks in and turns off a warning switch. In recent virus/trojan attacks multiple systems around the world have been damaged, knocked out, and corrupted. The dollar cost is often in the multi-millions. The costs to individuals in lost time and damaged equipment are massive and they are never reimbursed by any victims fund.
And that's what we are folks, make no mistake, we are the VICTIMS of these Cyber-Sociopaths. And as long as we don't put them in jail, they will continue to amuse themselves at our expense.
Put them in jail.
I'm feeding my twisted sense of humour tonight with a mini-festival of Apple Switch Commericial Parodies. Listening to Simon & Garfunkle in the background. I need to get the new Hamsters CD. What I really need to do is get my arse over to London and go to one of their live concerts at the Half Moon in Putney. I have to synchonize my flight to London with their end of month concert.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
You have to love the US Post Office. If not, we'd all go berzerk and find AK47s and destoy them all! If it's Saturday, you can tell that I'm probably getting up disgustingly early to treck down to the local post office to personally pick up the -priority mail- parcel that the bastard postman lied about trying to deliver on Friday. I kid you not, this is a continuing saga with almost everything I order online that gets delivered here. I really don't know what it is with the parcel delivery crews. The regular postman is ok, well ok if you don't mind having your mail delivered after 4pm every day. But the parcel crew have serious issues. I have already escalated the situation to the Postal Inspectors enforcement unit and my local congressman's office. I suspect the postman on my route thinks he can do as he pleases because this neighborhood has a high percentage of immigrants who he thinks are afraid to complain. Wrongo buster, this girl knows how to complain.
Returning from the post office, parcel in hand, I made some coffee and settled in for 40 minutes on the phone this morning chatting with Alan mostly about business. Late in the afternoon, almost 5pm my time, 10 PM Alan's time, we met again online in Fed2 (Alan's new sequel to his originail game Federation - see the link in the left column. In cyberspace we chatted about family, his parents, the copy of 1421 I sent his dad, Andrew's studying for finals, going to WorldCons and finally as it always does the talk turned to the usual topic of couples far apart. The man is wicked. And he's very good at it. I'll check flights and tickets in the morning and see how quickly I can get back to London.
One of the semi-personal topics we talked about was the women who try to have a go at Alan. We both make it quite clear to people that we're in a long term comitted relationship so one wonders at the obvious moves of these women. Most of them come under the heading of "star-f'kers". In the internet games world, the Game Designer is the star and the target of would be Elf Princesses, Lady Pirates, Cyberspace Red Sonias and wannabe Fantasy Dominatrixes. They are generally so strange or socially dysfunctional that normal standards of reality and behaviour simply never enter the picture. It's the non-internet over-the-line flirts that we really wonder about. Since when has it become acceptable to proposition someone in front of their partner?
Returning from the post office, parcel in hand, I made some coffee and settled in for 40 minutes on the phone this morning chatting with Alan mostly about business. Late in the afternoon, almost 5pm my time, 10 PM Alan's time, we met again online in Fed2 (Alan's new sequel to his originail game Federation - see the link in the left column. In cyberspace we chatted about family, his parents, the copy of 1421 I sent his dad, Andrew's studying for finals, going to WorldCons and finally as it always does the talk turned to the usual topic of couples far apart. The man is wicked. And he's very good at it. I'll check flights and tickets in the morning and see how quickly I can get back to London.
One of the semi-personal topics we talked about was the women who try to have a go at Alan. We both make it quite clear to people that we're in a long term comitted relationship so one wonders at the obvious moves of these women. Most of them come under the heading of "star-f'kers". In the internet games world, the Game Designer is the star and the target of would be Elf Princesses, Lady Pirates, Cyberspace Red Sonias and wannabe Fantasy Dominatrixes. They are generally so strange or socially dysfunctional that normal standards of reality and behaviour simply never enter the picture. It's the non-internet over-the-line flirts that we really wonder about. Since when has it become acceptable to proposition someone in front of their partner?
I can't believe I forgot the login info for my Gmail acct. Ok, so I never used it after I created it but still, I usually cut-n-paste the info into an email and save it in my regular mail files. Not there tho. Nor in my notebook I keep track of important info in. Gmail's lost info system sucks. Sorry but there's no other word for it. Very flip actually. Arrgh!
Friday, May 14, 2004
I spoke with Alan yesterday and it turns out that the robo-voice was his voicemail. Apparently BT upgraded their software or something and managed to delete his custom voicemail message and replace it with the robo-voice. He was muttering about demanding BT pay him 25 quid to replace the custom recording they binned.
At the time I phoned he was out walking. We've both gotten seriously into exercise, walking being one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do that. I however, have my home phone set to forward calls to my cell phone if the landline is busy or unanswered. If the cell call doesn't get answered, then it drops to voicemail. Much more convenient, I think.
At the time I phoned he was out walking. We've both gotten seriously into exercise, walking being one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do that. I however, have my home phone set to forward calls to my cell phone if the landline is busy or unanswered. If the cell call doesn't get answered, then it drops to voicemail. Much more convenient, I think.
Aside from the usual day to day activities of life which I won't bore anyone with by sharing, I was doing some work for Fed2 yesterday. We're creating a new purpose built front end for Fed2 and I was researching and collecting images for various objects. Not an easy task as many were quite obscure or imaginary:
The boxed set of highly polished Venusian opals.
The holo is an advance copy of a forthcoming Martian Studios
blockbuster.
The small casket is sealed with the seal of the United Church of Earth
I did manage to collect the whole set (or what I thought would illustrate them anyway) and send it off to Alan.
I finally set up newsgroups again so I can read messages from old friends like West and Greg. The nice thing about the internet is that it makes it so easy to keep track of old friends and keep in touch. The bad thing about the internet is that it sometimes makes it so difficult, for many and varied reasons, to keep in touch. I'm somewhat uneasy at how much I rely on email to keep in touch rather than just pick up the phone.
The boxed set of highly polished Venusian opals.
The holo is an advance copy of a forthcoming Martian Studios
blockbuster.
The small casket is sealed with the seal of the United Church of Earth
I did manage to collect the whole set (or what I thought would illustrate them anyway) and send it off to Alan.
I finally set up newsgroups again so I can read messages from old friends like West and Greg. The nice thing about the internet is that it makes it so easy to keep track of old friends and keep in touch. The bad thing about the internet is that it sometimes makes it so difficult, for many and varied reasons, to keep in touch. I'm somewhat uneasy at how much I rely on email to keep in touch rather than just pick up the phone.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
I feel like I'm up all night tonight. Tried to sleep earlier. Pah!
Did the usual, tried to relax and read. No dice. Tried phoning Alan, phone rang and rang and then a BT robo-voice answered instead of Alan's usual annoying answerphone message. I know Alan thinks the message on his answerphone sounds professional and sexy. It's not. It's simply annoying. I left a message with the robo-voice anyway just in case it was Alan's and something was wrong with his usual message service. If it was some stranger's, then he or she will either be intrigued and frustrated because I left no call back number or delete it and forget it.
On a different topic entirely, I found a marvelous new website when I was looking for information on heuristics. It's called Zen Haiku: Usability applied to life. I have a link on the left. Check it out.
Did the usual, tried to relax and read. No dice. Tried phoning Alan, phone rang and rang and then a BT robo-voice answered instead of Alan's usual annoying answerphone message. I know Alan thinks the message on his answerphone sounds professional and sexy. It's not. It's simply annoying. I left a message with the robo-voice anyway just in case it was Alan's and something was wrong with his usual message service. If it was some stranger's, then he or she will either be intrigued and frustrated because I left no call back number or delete it and forget it.
On a different topic entirely, I found a marvelous new website when I was looking for information on heuristics. It's called Zen Haiku: Usability applied to life. I have a link on the left. Check it out.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Oxford
As I mentioned in more detail earlier in this blog, Alan and I attended the annual ACCU conference in Oxford about 3 weeks ago. It was a pleasant and interesting week away from the usual responsibilities and aggro. The speakers were consistently excellent and interesting. I become interested enough in Python thanks to Anna Ravenscroft to pick up an excellent book on learning Python, it's listed on my book list in the left hand column here. I spent a reasonable amount of time wandering the streets taking photos, visiting the Ashmoleon museum, and poking about the old covered market.
It was interesting to note that almost all the speakers at the conference came with a wife/girlfriend, the few female speakers were all partners of male speakers. The attendees generally didn't but spent a lot of time looking longingly at any female.
ALan proposed that at next year's conference ACCU include a panal on Women in Programming. This was enthusiastically welcomed and approved. I spoke with Anna Ravenscroft, Jutta Eckstein, and a few other of the female speakers who agreed to be on the proposed panal. I think this will be a real winner on next year's schedule.
Sylvan Terrace, NYC
I walked to the local library last week and discovered this charming little side street of late 18th century houses. Of all things to find in Manhattan, three blocks from my house. And yes, I did enquire about a house there. I'll know more in about a month when the owner returns from Jamaica.
Monday, May 10, 2004
The Visitors
I watched a charming French film last night called The Visitors. The combination of French langauge and subtitles works very well here. (I think English dubbing would have been a big mistake.) My Fench is good enough that I caught most of the dialogue and the subtitles became almost invisble, just a useful almost subliminal poke to direct my mind on the right path as needed.
On to the film itself. Marvelous. Funny and charming, reflective as well about changing morals and manners, and an elegant touch of tristesse. And romantic in many ways.
I highly recommend you see this film. (If you can't find it locally to rent, I have the DVD and will lend it to you. This offer extended only to personal family and friends; you know who you are.) Yes, the film is THAT GOOD. Even if it is in French.
On to the film itself. Marvelous. Funny and charming, reflective as well about changing morals and manners, and an elegant touch of tristesse. And romantic in many ways.
I highly recommend you see this film. (If you can't find it locally to rent, I have the DVD and will lend it to you. This offer extended only to personal family and friends; you know who you are.) Yes, the film is THAT GOOD. Even if it is in French.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
I just viewed a selection of photos of the Abu Ghraib prison tortures. I'm so revolted, so sickened. This is inexcusable. Period. There's no explanation, no excuse that will wash this away. Yes, I believe that the MPs/reservists/grunts who did the actual dirty work were ordered to do so. However, I also believe they were not told specifically what to do; they used their own sick creativity to drive their actions. They are no different than the concentration camp guards and NAZI MPs who were also acting "under orders". That several ethical and decent military personnel refused those orders, reported them to their superior officers with formal protests, and were BACKED UP ON ON THEIR REFUSALS! by said superior officers gives the lie to any excuses floated. Yes the DIA, CIA and civilian contractors must be held responsible for their illigal acts and orders but the rank and file who cooperated must also feel the full weight of justice. Looking at those grinning and gleeful faces tells it all. These people have placed themselves beyond the pale. All those good ole boys and good ole gals enjoyed their sadistic and indecent activity and proudly photographed it all - much like the Nazis proudly documented their accomplishments.
I'm completely sickended by the entire situation. I blame Rumsfeld, I blame Bush, I blame the entire pantheon on NeoCons and I blame each and every person who participated instead of refusing and protesting.
As an American Citizen I'm ashamed of them all.
I'm completely sickended by the entire situation. I blame Rumsfeld, I blame Bush, I blame the entire pantheon on NeoCons and I blame each and every person who participated instead of refusing and protesting.
As an American Citizen I'm ashamed of them all.
Friday, May 07, 2004
Thursday, May 06, 2004
The meetup was a bust- I was feeling unwell and when no one showed up by the 8pm meet time, I told Andrew let's get out of here. I did see 1 chap who looked familiar; I'm pretty sure he was the one I met at the last meetup I tried to go to about 6 months ago. If so, he was a classic inarticulate, female-phobic, internet sort whose interests in SF & F were diametrically opposite to mine. He was a fan of TV/Film derivative series books. 'Nuff said.
I did have a pleasant time with Andrew in the afternoon at least. We had something reasonable to eat at Cosi and he brought me the Life of Brian dvd. We went to Virgin Magastore and they had a $10 DVD sale - so I bought 4 new DVDs and handed them over to Andrew. Two Eddie Murphy films, Trading Places and Coming to America, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the 4th film. I was shocked to discover that Blues Brothers is out of print. I can buy a new copy of the DVD from the resale market at a massively inflated price but the thought annoys me.
Today the new phone line was installed so I finally have reliable access to the internet again.
Alan's really progressing with the rewrite of his online game, Federation. While retaining the charm and attractions of the old, original game, the new one has it's own slightly different but increased charm. It has a great deal more attraction with loads of nifty new features and Alan's only up to working on Trader level. The added years of game design experience show in the more elegant storyline, system development and gameplay design. Yes, I'm prejudiced. I think its a fantastic game. I think Alan's brilliant. Brilliant but modest. Well, ok, brilliant.
Had an interesting chat with the Verizon tech who installed the phone line. He said within 5 years ALL phone lines in NYC will be fundamentaly DSL and all calls carried over the internet (fiber-optic lines). So when someone wants local service or DSL it'll all be the same, they'll just get supplied with a filter for the DSL. Clever.
I did have a pleasant time with Andrew in the afternoon at least. We had something reasonable to eat at Cosi and he brought me the Life of Brian dvd. We went to Virgin Magastore and they had a $10 DVD sale - so I bought 4 new DVDs and handed them over to Andrew. Two Eddie Murphy films, Trading Places and Coming to America, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the 4th film. I was shocked to discover that Blues Brothers is out of print. I can buy a new copy of the DVD from the resale market at a massively inflated price but the thought annoys me.
Today the new phone line was installed so I finally have reliable access to the internet again.
Alan's really progressing with the rewrite of his online game, Federation. While retaining the charm and attractions of the old, original game, the new one has it's own slightly different but increased charm. It has a great deal more attraction with loads of nifty new features and Alan's only up to working on Trader level. The added years of game design experience show in the more elegant storyline, system development and gameplay design. Yes, I'm prejudiced. I think its a fantastic game. I think Alan's brilliant. Brilliant but modest. Well, ok, brilliant.
Had an interesting chat with the Verizon tech who installed the phone line. He said within 5 years ALL phone lines in NYC will be fundamentaly DSL and all calls carried over the internet (fiber-optic lines). So when someone wants local service or DSL it'll all be the same, they'll just get supplied with a filter for the DSL. Clever.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
I'm going to a F&SF meetup at Virgin Megastore's cafe tomorrow night. We'll see if this one is any better than the last one I attended. Frankly the Lunarians meeting are the real thing and so far the only ones worth attending that I've found.
I was voted in to the Lunarians (the NY Science Fiction Society) in January but each month since I've missed the meeting because I've been in the UK so much. I'll finally make the May meeting- and make sure to pay my annual dues.
I was voted in to the Lunarians (the NY Science Fiction Society) in January but each month since I've missed the meeting because I've been in the UK so much. I'll finally make the May meeting- and make sure to pay my annual dues.
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Spam - hate it. I mean really and truly hate it and the people who send it. I want to have them sent to jail for many years, confiscate all their property, hurt them. A lot.
Seriously, spam used to just annoy me when I was on broadband and using Outlook. The speed of broadband made downloading 1000+ pieces of abominable, sick, sexual offers and drug sales, and fraudulent offers of every kind a quick and almost transparent process. Outlook easily let me set up a simple filter (rule) to separate mail ONLY from people or lists in my addressbook from the vast deluge of spam. It was a snap.
Now however, I'm back on plain old dial-up and downloading the huge accumulations of rubbishy spam takes real time! A lot of time. My time at MY expense. And to protect myself from the increasingly sophisticated malicious crap arriving I'm forced to use Pegasus mail (which I find seriously inferior to Outlook in ALL ways). The worst part about Pegasus mail is the filtering system is so crappy I haven't been able to get it to separate the mail the way Outlook did. This means MAJOR amounts of my time being wasted to manually delete the spam. I hate this!
I hate spammers.
Seriously, spam used to just annoy me when I was on broadband and using Outlook. The speed of broadband made downloading 1000+ pieces of abominable, sick, sexual offers and drug sales, and fraudulent offers of every kind a quick and almost transparent process. Outlook easily let me set up a simple filter (rule) to separate mail ONLY from people or lists in my addressbook from the vast deluge of spam. It was a snap.
Now however, I'm back on plain old dial-up and downloading the huge accumulations of rubbishy spam takes real time! A lot of time. My time at MY expense. And to protect myself from the increasingly sophisticated malicious crap arriving I'm forced to use Pegasus mail (which I find seriously inferior to Outlook in ALL ways). The worst part about Pegasus mail is the filtering system is so crappy I haven't been able to get it to separate the mail the way Outlook did. This means MAJOR amounts of my time being wasted to manually delete the spam. I hate this!
I hate spammers.
Rat Race - what a trite, dumb, derivative and totally hilarious film! Andrew brought it over and insisted we watch it. We were laughing so hard at times I couldn't breathe. Bad film. Bad, bad, bad,. So bad it was perfect. Each and every little detail was so perfectly horrible. This has to be the funniest film I've seen in ages. I don't mean charming and amusing. I mean laugh so hard your abdominal muscles start to spasm and hurt and you can't breathe.
Absolutely a charm for a boring, lazy, warm spring afternoon with nothing to do.
Absolutely a charm for a boring, lazy, warm spring afternoon with nothing to do.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
I'm currently reading 1421, The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Mensies. Excellent read so far. I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw the review when it was first published. Alas, it was only available in hardcover at $25! What a pleasant syurprise to see it on sale in paperback in Oxford. I scooped it right up.
Wandering about Oxford was a delight. I took lots of photos of the old college buildings and crooked narrow streets, poked about the old covered market and chatted with farmers and shopkeepers and bought strange but tasty cheeses. Alan and I and a bunch of the other programmers had a great curry dinner at a restaurant called Chutneys. I still owe Francis a copy of the infamous Exhibit A photo; Alan tells me Francis is fretting over it. It's nothing really naughty, given that it was taken at the ACCU speakers' dinner in front of several hundred people, or behind them as the case may be. Next year I'll take all the photos myself, thank you very much. I'm constanly surprised at what lousy photographers most people are.
Wandering about Oxford was a delight. I took lots of photos of the old college buildings and crooked narrow streets, poked about the old covered market and chatted with farmers and shopkeepers and bought strange but tasty cheeses. Alan and I and a bunch of the other programmers had a great curry dinner at a restaurant called Chutneys. I still owe Francis a copy of the infamous Exhibit A photo; Alan tells me Francis is fretting over it. It's nothing really naughty, given that it was taken at the ACCU speakers' dinner in front of several hundred people, or behind them as the case may be. Next year I'll take all the photos myself, thank you very much. I'm constanly surprised at what lousy photographers most people are.
Finally back online with my own laptop. Also picked up a wifi card, turned out to be a cheap convenience, very cheap. Of course it would be nicer if I had a lighter laptop rather than the old panzer-puter. This Toshiba laptop is a serious contender for the doorstop computing award.
Got an invite to sign up for gmail when I logged onto the blog tonight. Couldn't resist trying out something new, espcially something free and new. I'm very concious of the devil's deal Google is offering but keeping that in mind, I can still find uses for the account.
I just finished a really brilliant novel called Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hillary Mantel. It was very aptly compared to Henry James' novel The Turn of the Screw. Also as an Orwellian nightmare. I keep thinking of the moment when the book's protagonist, a professional cartographer, labels a map of Jeddah as "cartography by kafka". Perfection. Chilling. You NEED to read this book. In fact, I found this book at the local library and now I have to go to B&N and buy it and others by the author to add to my collection. More, more!
Got an invite to sign up for gmail when I logged onto the blog tonight. Couldn't resist trying out something new, espcially something free and new. I'm very concious of the devil's deal Google is offering but keeping that in mind, I can still find uses for the account.
I just finished a really brilliant novel called Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hillary Mantel. It was very aptly compared to Henry James' novel The Turn of the Screw. Also as an Orwellian nightmare. I keep thinking of the moment when the book's protagonist, a professional cartographer, labels a map of Jeddah as "cartography by kafka". Perfection. Chilling. You NEED to read this book. In fact, I found this book at the local library and now I have to go to B&N and buy it and others by the author to add to my collection. More, more!
Friday, April 23, 2004
Back in NYC. Damn - it's miserably hot one moment, chilly the next and threatening to rain constantly.
I have to buy a wireless internet card for my toshiba laptop. God knows what that will cost but needs must.
I discovered a side street of houses right out of the early 19th or perhaps 18th century. Called Sylvan Terrace, between St Nicholas Ave and Jumal Terrace around 160th Street. Wonder of wonders, one is being renovated and will be up for rent in June. I spoke to the owner's friend and if it's not insanely expensive I can rent it.
Unreal- I want it so much. I'll get photos.
I have to buy a wireless internet card for my toshiba laptop. God knows what that will cost but needs must.
I discovered a side street of houses right out of the early 19th or perhaps 18th century. Called Sylvan Terrace, between St Nicholas Ave and Jumal Terrace around 160th Street. Wonder of wonders, one is being renovated and will be up for rent in June. I spoke to the owner's friend and if it's not insanely expensive I can rent it.
Unreal- I want it so much. I'll get photos.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Home again, home again, Blah! In about 30 minutes the cab will arrive to take me to Heathrow to start the journey back to New York City. I really hate this part of the trip. This is going to have to stop sometimes very soon and I'll get to pretty much just stay put except for interesting holidays in exotic places. (Which is a hell of a lot easier to do from the UK than the US!)
I've loaded my luggage down with so many books and goodies that I'll have to actually let them check it into cargo.
I've loaded my luggage down with so many books and goodies that I'll have to actually let them check it into cargo.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Just back in London from 6 days in oxford at the ACCU (CC++) Annual Spring Conference. First thing I do is check my email and find 5189 unread emails waiting for me. I sensibly did a search for all emails from my son Andrew and replied to them. Then I started slogging thru the rest of the mountain. Now, I tried to be clever about this and use the web based mail interface to dump the worst of the spam directly from the server. Somehow, in the process, I managed to simply delete it ALL! Yes, that's right, all 5186 emails vanished into the proverbial bit bucket. Dammit!
At least I did have a great time in Oxford and at the conference. Learned a lot, got a book on Python, made a lot of great business contacts, took an amusing few photos at the speakers' dinner including on potential Exhibit A photo.
I need to call Andrew tonight and make sure he has some cash. I wish I'd given him Alan's cell phone number so he could have phoned us while I was away. On the nice side of the scale, I did pick up some good books and nifty stuff for him.
I made some interesting contacts at the conference. Tomorrow Alan and I are going into central London to have lunch with a very nice chap from Microsoft. If he has time, we'll also show him some interesting bits of the city.
Alan did a presentation on How to Design Computer (MMPG) Games on the last day of the conference and it was quite a hit - filled the entire room, not a seat to spare. The supposed 45 min presenatin ran an hour and a half and then only broke up because Alan said we really ought to call a halt. I ran the visuals; a live projection and demonstration of Age of Adventure.
At least I did have a great time in Oxford and at the conference. Learned a lot, got a book on Python, made a lot of great business contacts, took an amusing few photos at the speakers' dinner including on potential Exhibit A photo.
I need to call Andrew tonight and make sure he has some cash. I wish I'd given him Alan's cell phone number so he could have phoned us while I was away. On the nice side of the scale, I did pick up some good books and nifty stuff for him.
I made some interesting contacts at the conference. Tomorrow Alan and I are going into central London to have lunch with a very nice chap from Microsoft. If he has time, we'll also show him some interesting bits of the city.
Alan did a presentation on How to Design Computer (MMPG) Games on the last day of the conference and it was quite a hit - filled the entire room, not a seat to spare. The supposed 45 min presenatin ran an hour and a half and then only broke up because Alan said we really ought to call a halt. I ran the visuals; a live projection and demonstration of Age of Adventure.
Monday, April 12, 2004
Woke at midnight. Couldn't sleep. So what do I do? Come out to the lounge and run a complete anti-virus scan. Then post about it here. Yes, a certfiable moment of madness. I'll go back to bed and sleep in about 15 minutes. I promise.
I know I haven't mentioned it lately but my son Andrew is a gem. A rare and genuine, precious and scintillating diamond of a person. It simply comes down to that. The kid is terrific.
Tomorrow, well this morning really at this point, we leave for Oxford by train. The organizers, officers and speakers at the annual ACCU conference are arriving the day before the program starts. We'll be getting to gether with a bunch of old friends and collegues for drinks and a meal later. I'm realy looking forward to this, marvelous people. Take a look at the ACCU web site at www.accu.org - you can even click on the link to the program. Whats more, if you know me or Alan, if you're in the area stop by and have a drink with us. If you're a programer or gamer you'll find some of the conference of great interest. Alan will be talking about game design and development on Saturday. I think he may drag me along to speak on the panel about game management designs related to code.
We had a lovely Thai dinner tonight with some very drinkable SE Australian wine. Moderately priced Australian wine has really improved recently to the point where I refuse to be ripped off by most French wines.
I know I haven't mentioned it lately but my son Andrew is a gem. A rare and genuine, precious and scintillating diamond of a person. It simply comes down to that. The kid is terrific.
Tomorrow, well this morning really at this point, we leave for Oxford by train. The organizers, officers and speakers at the annual ACCU conference are arriving the day before the program starts. We'll be getting to gether with a bunch of old friends and collegues for drinks and a meal later. I'm realy looking forward to this, marvelous people. Take a look at the ACCU web site at www.accu.org - you can even click on the link to the program. Whats more, if you know me or Alan, if you're in the area stop by and have a drink with us. If you're a programer or gamer you'll find some of the conference of great interest. Alan will be talking about game design and development on Saturday. I think he may drag me along to speak on the panel about game management designs related to code.
We had a lovely Thai dinner tonight with some very drinkable SE Australian wine. Moderately priced Australian wine has really improved recently to the point where I refuse to be ripped off by most French wines.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
For once the posted time is correct. I'm back in London for the holidays. (Have I mentioned how much I hate Citibank and their arrogance which supasseth all understanding - and they lie, too!)
My flight was delayed because the moron cargodroids were slobby loading on the cargo pods and managed to puncture a fireproof compartment wall. That had to be repaired and tested before we could take off. Reasonable and sensible proceedure but not how I like to start transatlantic flights. Arrived safely enough, tho to find Alan waiting for me a Heathrow. That's a very endearing habit of Alan's, always meeting me at the airport.
So it's now Easter morning and I've had a realy good night's sleep and morning coffee. Outside it's a bit grey but still birds and chirping and trees are flowering. I'm going out to walk in a short while; down to Isleworth Dock to see the Concord beached by the low tide on its barge. We went out for a curry with Ron and Hilary last night (quelle surprise, eh?) and they're coming around a bit later to pick us up for a Easter Sunday drive in the country.
What a strange feeling it is to be here on Easter. Not being a christian myself, I don't go to Easter servies. But here in this nation of christians that habit is almost completely missing. In NYC attending Easter Sunday services is serious business and even more so very serious spring fashion business. Today of all days, anywhere you look in Manhattan you'll see well dressed families strolling about, especially dressed up little girls wearing traditional frilly dresses and hats and even little white gloves.
NYC still does the traditional Easter Parade up Fifth Ave and in the good spirit of the event the strolling dowagers in their finery can usually be seen nodding and returning the greetings of their fellow Easter paraders, the outragous queens in their usually sensational millinary.
My flight was delayed because the moron cargodroids were slobby loading on the cargo pods and managed to puncture a fireproof compartment wall. That had to be repaired and tested before we could take off. Reasonable and sensible proceedure but not how I like to start transatlantic flights. Arrived safely enough, tho to find Alan waiting for me a Heathrow. That's a very endearing habit of Alan's, always meeting me at the airport.
So it's now Easter morning and I've had a realy good night's sleep and morning coffee. Outside it's a bit grey but still birds and chirping and trees are flowering. I'm going out to walk in a short while; down to Isleworth Dock to see the Concord beached by the low tide on its barge. We went out for a curry with Ron and Hilary last night (quelle surprise, eh?) and they're coming around a bit later to pick us up for a Easter Sunday drive in the country.
What a strange feeling it is to be here on Easter. Not being a christian myself, I don't go to Easter servies. But here in this nation of christians that habit is almost completely missing. In NYC attending Easter Sunday services is serious business and even more so very serious spring fashion business. Today of all days, anywhere you look in Manhattan you'll see well dressed families strolling about, especially dressed up little girls wearing traditional frilly dresses and hats and even little white gloves.
NYC still does the traditional Easter Parade up Fifth Ave and in the good spirit of the event the strolling dowagers in their finery can usually be seen nodding and returning the greetings of their fellow Easter paraders, the outragous queens in their usually sensational millinary.
Monday, April 05, 2004
I take the subway to work and home again every day. Using my native New Yorker secret strategies I usually get a seat both ways which means I can read at least 30 minutes each morning and afternoon. I have a special selection of books I can read in 30 minutes segments.
I'm currently reading From Potter's Field by Patricia Cornwell. Definitely a 30 minutes at a bite book. But a good subway read.
I'm currently reading From Potter's Field by Patricia Cornwell. Definitely a 30 minutes at a bite book. But a good subway read.
NORMAN BORLAUG: One of only 3 living American Nobel Peace Prize winners, famine preventing plant breeder for the Third World and almost unknown to anyone in the United States. Yes, another one of those politically incorrect heroes.
I put up a link to a fascinating article about Norman Borlaug. Well worth reading. Then think about it. Then worry about it.
I put up a link to a fascinating article about Norman Borlaug. Well worth reading. Then think about it. Then worry about it.
Penn & Teller - Masters of Disillusionment
They're absolutely brilliant.
I've added a link to the page of their website where you can view some clips from their show Bullshit.
They're witty, they're intelligent, they're skeptical and they're big fans of debunking some of the biggest of our current icons.
They're absolutely brilliant.
I've added a link to the page of their website where you can view some clips from their show Bullshit.
They're witty, they're intelligent, they're skeptical and they're big fans of debunking some of the biggest of our current icons.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Why Do I?
Why do I go on doing these things?
Why not cease?
Is it that you are yet in this world of welterings
And unease,
And that, while so, mechanic repetitions please?
When shall I leave off doing these things?--
When I hear
You have dropped your dusty cloak and taken your wondrous wings
To another sphere,
Where no pain is: Then shall I hush this dinning gear.
- Thomas Hardy
Why do I go on doing these things?
Why not cease?
Is it that you are yet in this world of welterings
And unease,
And that, while so, mechanic repetitions please?
When shall I leave off doing these things?--
When I hear
You have dropped your dusty cloak and taken your wondrous wings
To another sphere,
Where no pain is: Then shall I hush this dinning gear.
- Thomas Hardy
Jamaica, Queens.
Me: (is in Jamaica)
Me: (takes picture)
Cop: Why are you taking a picture of a mailbox?
Me: There's no law against taking pictures in public.
Cop: I know that, but why are you taking a picture of a mailbox?
Me: It's not a mailbox. See?
Cop: (looks at sticker that says "Syringes Only! No Mail")
Cop: Why would you want a picture of that?
Me: I'm weird.
Cop: (shrugs, walks away)
Me: (is in Jamaica)
Me: (takes picture)
Cop: Why are you taking a picture of a mailbox?
Me: There's no law against taking pictures in public.
Cop: I know that, but why are you taking a picture of a mailbox?
Me: It's not a mailbox. See?
Cop: (looks at sticker that says "Syringes Only! No Mail")
Cop: Why would you want a picture of that?
Me: I'm weird.
Cop: (shrugs, walks away)
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Sunday, July 13, 2003
How can you tell if the book you are reading is truly smashing? Easy. You get so wound up in reading it that even tho you know you have to get off at the next train station and are watching for it, you manage to pass right by and barely make it off the train at the next station on. ;)
This time it's Harry Turtledove's A World of Difference.
Once upon a time, Harry wrote actual books. Books. Not series. A book you could pick up and start from the beginning and when you came to the end of the book, the story had finished. Wonderful books. I suggest skipping series by anyone. Get books.
This time it's Harry Turtledove's A World of Difference.
Once upon a time, Harry wrote actual books. Books. Not series. A book you could pick up and start from the beginning and when you came to the end of the book, the story had finished. Wonderful books. I suggest skipping series by anyone. Get books.
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Monday, July 07, 2003
Have I mentioned how much I loathe tourists? Working in the Empire State Building means you can't ever escape tourists. Some needs to pound it into their little pea sized heads that it is possible to visit cities without being rude. Without acting like a complete brainless wonder. WIthout shaming all of civilization by your existence. Tourists. God's great excuse for shotguns.
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