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U.S. vetoes

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

UN vetoes 95-07

After reading the news about Bush’s recent visit to Israel and the West Bank (obviously there was no mention of Gaza) and what according to the press might have been some of the strongest statements to date on the need for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians(…) I couldn’t help but wonder what the record (the U.N record that is) shows. A funny pattern of vetoes comes up dating from 1995, having almost every veto being from the U.S. against Palestine. This of course leads me to believe that this time around he REALLY wants peace. Right?

Click on the image above for a higher res version or read this fantastic chart of total UN vetoes here.

Read the BBC article here.

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The cusp of law?

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

Can you sue your drug dealer for selling you a substance that might be addictive, toxic and harmful, in other words, drugs?
It seems like in Canada you can. Sandra Bergen sued her drug dealer -Clinton Davey- for selling her crystal meth, which, after causing her a heart attack (do I hear O.D’ing?) sent her to a coma for 11 days. According to the article, “Ms Bergen said Clinton Davey had known the drug was highly addictive and dangerous but sold it to make money” and she continues that he “knew the drug was highly addictive” and that his dealing was not only “for the purpose of making money but was also for the purpose of intentionally inflicting physical and mental suffering” on her.

Is this the cusp of civility or of idiocy? In my mind, it seems like jumping off a window because your boss told you to do so would fall under the same category. You are assuming a risk for consuming an illegal substance (yes, that means that its quality cannot be guaranteed, because it isn’t regulated!). It is also a bit difficult to believe that she didn’t know about crystal meth’s addictiveness, maybe Googling it could have given her some insight, but perhaps she doesn’t know about Google either…

Read the BBC news article here.

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Is the future Round (smooth) or Square (straight)?

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Recently, I’ve entered this discussion with a few of my friends and colleagues, after it came up in a conversation after our final review at Pratt.
Is the future round or square?

Nowadays, it seems like the future is turning rounder, smoother and more NURBS-like (or Subdivision-surfaces-like) than before. Perhaps it’s that part of the cycle where everything becomes smoothed -which seems to be somewhere about every 10 years or so- but for some reason it seems like this time around is not just some fluctuation but instead is here to stay. So, where is the square future?

Most of the work being produced at the schools right now (Columbia, Pratt, DRL, etc) seems to be getting smoother – I’m trying not to use the word blobby in here – the result not only of the processes of generation which aren’t inherently smooth but typically default to 3rd degree surfaces.

I will continue building up with this post, right now this is a very incomplete rambling.

(more…)

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Bahhhseball

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Everyone is juiced, so? Who watches that sport anyways?

This instead is more interesting: The McLaren team has been fined £50m having in their possession a whooping 780 page Ferrari document, after loosing their constructors’ points in September for information handed to them by a Ferrari spy(?!?!). Spies in sports… sigh.

I guess this would be the equivalent of steroids in motor sports.

Read the BBC article here.

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C.I.A.’s waterboarding videos

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

hayden
Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It’s of course all over the press, so I’m not really going to comment on it. But in case you actually haven’t read what these people (Michael Hayden et al) use for excuses, read this excerpt from The Guardian’s article:

“The tapes posed a serious security risk,” the CIA’s director, Michael Hayden, told agency employees in a statement yesterday. “Were they ever to leak, they would permit identification of your CIA colleagues who had served in the programme, exposing them and their families to retaliation from al-Qaida and its sympathisers.”

Really? So the destruction of tapes which contain footage of an interrogation technique which cannot be admitted nor denied -because it would actually qualify as torture- is for the protection of the actual interrogators. Not because it *might* be torture.

Read The Guardian’s full article here.

BBC’s coverage here.

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iDiots

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Waiting for the iPhone…
zzzzzzz

iDiots

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Applewood Pond Jungle

Friday, June 1st, 2007

applewood jungle

We went to visit our recently acquired land upstate from Saturday to Sunday. Every time we see it it just looks like a completely different place. The first time we saw it was winter, fairly cold but not much snow. The second time it was a snow-covered world (imagine Star Wars’ ice planet). Two weeks ago, the place looked pretty full and lush, it seemed like some work would be needed but definitely nothing out of the ordinary. Last weekend we just got back from our latest visit and the place was a jungle. Imagine Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo… (more…)

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Beat the Horse…Dead

Friday, March 30th, 2007

I just wanted to quickly thank Coche for blazing this new trail, and allowing me to saddle up and get back on the horse after falling off almost two years ago.

Why take the reins now? Is this simply a carrot on a stick?

No, no, my trusty steads. There’s a very old Mexican proverb that I just found on the Internet. It says, “It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall.” My roots are speaking to me. They watched me walk and trot. They know I can prance with airs above the ground and gallop like the wind.

My intentions are to feed this blog with only the finest hay. To extend its lunge line and cut it loose. To make this gelding into a stallion.
And as with the previous trail of tears (www.g-digit.com), I don’t expect everyone to follow. There will be broken hooves and apple picking (not of the fruit variety). It’s up to you to break us in. But as Winston Churchill once said (also recently found on Internet), “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” Which outside part, I am unsure of, but I implore you to grab on and see where we go. It should serve as an oasis in the Arabian desert that is your life

But as they say, you can only lead a horse . . .

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Change this dang skin

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

I just installed wordpress and it rocks, but I’ve got to change the skin… If only I weren’t a PHP dummy.

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