Kino under Ubuntu Edgy has some problems, so I've not been able to encode videos of timmy. Til now.
2007-03-05
American Interrogation, American Torture
The Chicago Reader has the story of an american interrogator who witnessed and performed torture in Iraq
The worst part of the story isn't even about the torture, nor even about the 500 dead he saw rottin in Fallujah. It's the stupidity and uselessness (or worse, creation of enemies where there probably weren't any before) of it all. People who clearly had no relationship with insurgents were arrested, tortured, had their bones broken and had mock executions performed. No doubt the Americans got some insurgents in the general sweeps. But it's stupid to catch 1 insurgent and 10 innocent people, and then keep them all in prison, torture them all, and maybe have only a 50% chance of finding the insurgent in that sea of people. Those 10 innocents have been made enemies for life. Killing them all won't help because all of their families have also been made enemies for life. And Iraqis have VERY LARGE EXTENDED families.
The Americans would do better for themselves to just kill everyone in that country and leave it a barren desert. Of course they won't, and so George W Bush will have his forever war on terror.
Where is American honor now? Not that I thought the U.S. government ever had any, but there was some hope for the military. If not as an institution, then perhaps individually. It seems though that the American people and their military are working with the government to bury that honor where no one will ever find it, what little is left after torturing innocents (everywhere in Afghanistan and Iraq), killing innocents (Haditha, but also far more places than are reported, no doubt), Raping innocents (and killing her parents in the other room, and telling her, while she's being raped, that her parents and siblings have been killed).
How many years did it take for the disgrace of Walter Reed to come to public attention? Two? Three? And those were American soldiers being merely left to their own devices. None were even being put under direct duress. How many tortures, massacres and rapes have American soldiers performed in Iraq and Afghanistan where their superiors turn a blind eye to, and kick reports under the carpets so that American honor is not tarnished. At Walter Reed, officers and senior NCOs were all actively ignoring the bad care that soldiers were getting. What does this say for the treatment of those who aren't even americans. If the army will do this to itself, what are they doing to those on the business end of their guns? There are already indications enough.
The worst part of the story isn't even about the torture, nor even about the 500 dead he saw rottin in Fallujah. It's the stupidity and uselessness (or worse, creation of enemies where there probably weren't any before) of it all. People who clearly had no relationship with insurgents were arrested, tortured, had their bones broken and had mock executions performed. No doubt the Americans got some insurgents in the general sweeps. But it's stupid to catch 1 insurgent and 10 innocent people, and then keep them all in prison, torture them all, and maybe have only a 50% chance of finding the insurgent in that sea of people. Those 10 innocents have been made enemies for life. Killing them all won't help because all of their families have also been made enemies for life. And Iraqis have VERY LARGE EXTENDED families.
The Americans would do better for themselves to just kill everyone in that country and leave it a barren desert. Of course they won't, and so George W Bush will have his forever war on terror.
Where is American honor now? Not that I thought the U.S. government ever had any, but there was some hope for the military. If not as an institution, then perhaps individually. It seems though that the American people and their military are working with the government to bury that honor where no one will ever find it, what little is left after torturing innocents (everywhere in Afghanistan and Iraq), killing innocents (Haditha, but also far more places than are reported, no doubt), Raping innocents (and killing her parents in the other room, and telling her, while she's being raped, that her parents and siblings have been killed).
How many years did it take for the disgrace of Walter Reed to come to public attention? Two? Three? And those were American soldiers being merely left to their own devices. None were even being put under direct duress. How many tortures, massacres and rapes have American soldiers performed in Iraq and Afghanistan where their superiors turn a blind eye to, and kick reports under the carpets so that American honor is not tarnished. At Walter Reed, officers and senior NCOs were all actively ignoring the bad care that soldiers were getting. What does this say for the treatment of those who aren't even americans. If the army will do this to itself, what are they doing to those on the business end of their guns? There are already indications enough.
2007-03-04
foreign-wife-ism's
I was reading LuminousLogic on his foreign-wife's-isms :-). It's interesting. Not as funny as it might be, but it's an honest post, not one that begs for people to laugh.
Where I live we're all foreigners (when compared to the english and the english-speaking americans). We also speak at least two languages (I speak three, some chinese and east-indian immigrants to the Philippines speak four or more). So we all have these foreign-isms.
Foreign-isms make for richer conversation. One can switch between languages in the same sentence, choosing the words that are better in whichever language. That only works when speaking to someone who has the same (or a superset) languages. The rest of the time, using a funny sounding foreign-ism from a language that isn't shared can be cute (if done sparingly). Or so my wife says :-).
Where I live we're all foreigners (when compared to the english and the english-speaking americans). We also speak at least two languages (I speak three, some chinese and east-indian immigrants to the Philippines speak four or more). So we all have these foreign-isms.
Foreign-isms make for richer conversation. One can switch between languages in the same sentence, choosing the words that are better in whichever language. That only works when speaking to someone who has the same (or a superset) languages. The rest of the time, using a funny sounding foreign-ism from a language that isn't shared can be cute (if done sparingly). Or so my wife says :-).
2007-02-27
how many drinks a day, and smoking = death
The last psychiatrist has a hilarious take on alcohol and its effects (the discussion of smoking is very terse, smoking=death).
OK, I don't know how hilarious it would be for some non-geek, probably not at all. But I'd be rolling on the floor laughing, if the floor weren't so hard and cold :-).
OK, I don't know how hilarious it would be for some non-geek, probably not at all. But I'd be rolling on the floor laughing, if the floor weren't so hard and cold :-).
2007-02-21
What's special about this number?
What's special about this number is blowing my mind! That's a lot of trivia to memorize. Or if not memorize, at least remember :-).
I won't remember all of that, but it'll be cool to look through the list and remember one apropos entry when someone says some number is uninteresting.
I won't remember all of that, but it'll be cool to look through the list and remember one apropos entry when someone says some number is uninteresting.
2007-02-19
On Happiness
Le journaliste misérable interviews the happiest man in the world
Interesting piece. A bit long.
It's funny too, that those two sentences come one right after the other in the same paragraph. Miserable he may be, but the author has a nice touch.
Interesting piece. A bit long.
But within minutes of speaking to him, I can tell that the $30m mansion in Malibu, where he secretly retires to snort cocaine off the thighs of Lithuanian hookers, in the tradition of innumerable TV evangelists, cannot conceivably exist.
In the foreword to Happiness, the psychologist Dr Daniel Goleman describes how a three-hour wait at an airport "sped by in minutes, due to the sheer pleasure of Matthieu's orbit" - a phrase which had made me faintly nauseous when I first read it. Now, it seems to make perfect sense. Ricard exudes a sense of tranquillity, kindness and - surprisingly enough - humour.
It's funny too, that those two sentences come one right after the other in the same paragraph. Miserable he may be, but the author has a nice touch.
2007-02-18
The Grand Tetons
I saw this image of sunrise over the tetons on digg.
The size isn't quite right for a desktop background image but I've made it my background anyway. I post the link here so I can get it from work and make it my background there too, tomorrow.
Flickr seems to block direct references to images. It's understandable, but frustrating. I'm going to stop working with flickr and instead will use some other image hosting service that allows me to point at the image from blogger or elsewhere.
Heh, for this image though. Well, a link is all I can put here since I'm not going to pirate someone else's content just so I can put an IMG tag here for it :-).
The size isn't quite right for a desktop background image but I've made it my background anyway. I post the link here so I can get it from work and make it my background there too, tomorrow.
Flickr seems to block direct references to images. It's understandable, but frustrating. I'm going to stop working with flickr and instead will use some other image hosting service that allows me to point at the image from blogger or elsewhere.
Heh, for this image though. Well, a link is all I can put here since I'm not going to pirate someone else's content just so I can put an IMG tag here for it :-).
A spot on my RSS feeds
Matt Taibbi has a very funny article in Rolling Stone. I don't have any particular preference among American politicians, although anyone who can kick GW Bush out of office is good for the world, but this article puts Matt Taibbi in my RSS reader because the writing is freaking hilarious
Hahahahaha.
Crepe. I see no RSS feed to just the Low Post. It might be in there somewhere. Or maybe available only to subscribers. I'll probably just add an entry to Memo to Me to remind me to look there every few months :-)
Throw a guy who can speak like that against the list of likely Democratic candidates in 2008 -- a sorry collection of human saline drips that included Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John Kerry, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd -- and Obama could fucking walk to the nomination, even if he chose a page from the Betty Crocker cookbook as his stump speech.
When Hillary Clinton spouts a cliche, it's four words long, she's reading it off a teleprompter, and it hits the ear like the fat part of a wooden oar.
Hahahahaha.
Even when Hillary announced she was running for president, she sounded like she was ordering coffee. Obama, on the other hand, can close his eyes and the cliches just pour out of his mouth in huge polysyllabic paragraphs, like Rachmaninoff improvisations. In this sense he's exactly like Bill Clinton, who had the same gift. He is exactly what is meant by the term bullshit artist.
Crepe. I see no RSS feed to just the Low Post. It might be in there somewhere. Or maybe available only to subscribers. I'll probably just add an entry to Memo to Me to remind me to look there every few months :-)
2007-02-17
on constructive argument
Brian O'Sullivan has a great blog post and summary on Anatole Rapaport on constructive argument
Daniel Dennet paraphrases Rapaport thus:
That's brilliant. Useful and interesting to try to practice, too. I don't know if it's economical to practice. But definitely worth trying for anything important, and generally worth trying for any online discussion/flamefest.
Daniel Dennet paraphrases Rapaport thus:
Serious argument depends on mutual respect, and this is often hard to engender when disagreements turn vehement. The social psychologist and game theorist Anatol Rapoport (creator of the winning Tit-for-Tat strategy in Robert Axelrod’s legendary prisoner’s dilemma tournament) once promulgated a list of rules for how to write a successful critical commentary on an opponent’s work. First, he said, you must attempt to re-express your opponent’s position so clearly, vividly and fairly that your opponent says “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.” Then, you should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement), and third, you should mention anything you have learned from your opponent. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism. I have found this a salutary discipline to follow–or, since it is challenging, to attempt to follow. When it succeeds, the results are gratifying: your opponent is in a mood to be enlightened and eagerly attentive.
That's brilliant. Useful and interesting to try to practice, too. I don't know if it's economical to practice. But definitely worth trying for anything important, and generally worth trying for any online discussion/flamefest.
2007-02-16
drug policy - long, comprehensive and practical
There's a Long, comprehensive, and practical article on U.S. drug policy and how to reform it.
It sounds good. I don't know any of the practical details (I've never taken illegal drugs, nor have I ever smoked, although I have a few glasses of beer or wine every week), but it sounds reasonable. It'll be generations (or never) before it flies though, likely. There's too much ideology invested in the current policy, and reasonable policies are very hard to sell to simple minds (such as those who are recruited into fundamentalist churches). To those minds, simple rules make sense, nuance, balance and tradeoffs between values complicate life too much.
It sounds good. I don't know any of the practical details (I've never taken illegal drugs, nor have I ever smoked, although I have a few glasses of beer or wine every week), but it sounds reasonable. It'll be generations (or never) before it flies though, likely. There's too much ideology invested in the current policy, and reasonable policies are very hard to sell to simple minds (such as those who are recruited into fundamentalist churches). To those minds, simple rules make sense, nuance, balance and tradeoffs between values complicate life too much.
Israeli Apartheid
There's a good article by Shulamit Aloni, former Israeli Education Minister on israeli apartheid
Israel takes land from the Palestinians, builds roads on them, and then won't let palestinians drive on those roads. Not only that, they won't even let Israelis ride on those roads if they have palestinian passengers and they haven't gotten permits from the government (or the military command) to transport those passengers on those Israeli only roads.
Israel takes land from the Palestinians, builds roads on them, and then won't let palestinians drive on those roads. Not only that, they won't even let Israelis ride on those roads if they have palestinian passengers and they haven't gotten permits from the government (or the military command) to transport those passengers on those Israeli only roads.
From now on, Israelis and International humanitarian organisations’ volunteers are prohibited from assisting a woman in labour by taking her to the hospital. [Israeli human rights group] Yesh Din volunteers cannot take a robbed and beaten-up Palestinian to the police station to lodge a complaint.
hopes raised, hopes dashed
I saw a headline that The U.S. would resettle Iraqi refugees and I thought that sanity had reared its head in the U.S.
And then I read the article and I see that the U.S. will accept only 7000 Iraqi refugees. That leaves somewhere in the vicinity of 1,599,993,000 U.S. created Iraqi refugees to fend for themselves.
What the U.S. *should* do (but it won't, of course, since this would be merely good, but not necessarily leading to any financial benefit to any americans) would be to get out of Iraq (yes, it'll descend into chaos, but the Iraqis will carve out a peace for themselves after a few generations, and if the Americans don't leave, exactly the same chaos will exist, except there'll a thousand Americans dead and five thousand wounded every year [the casualty rate is increasing]). And then, for the next ten years, the U.S. should take that several hundred billion dollars a year and pay it in reparations to the Iraqi people (individually, to people, not to the government) and a similar amount for repatriation costs to all the Iraqi refugees who have fled the country because of the chaos and death.
It'll never happen though. Even $100 million in reparations, a drop in the bucket and not enough for anything will never get granted.
And then I read the article and I see that the U.S. will accept only 7000 Iraqi refugees. That leaves somewhere in the vicinity of 1,599,993,000 U.S. created Iraqi refugees to fend for themselves.
What the U.S. *should* do (but it won't, of course, since this would be merely good, but not necessarily leading to any financial benefit to any americans) would be to get out of Iraq (yes, it'll descend into chaos, but the Iraqis will carve out a peace for themselves after a few generations, and if the Americans don't leave, exactly the same chaos will exist, except there'll a thousand Americans dead and five thousand wounded every year [the casualty rate is increasing]). And then, for the next ten years, the U.S. should take that several hundred billion dollars a year and pay it in reparations to the Iraqi people (individually, to people, not to the government) and a similar amount for repatriation costs to all the Iraqi refugees who have fled the country because of the chaos and death.
It'll never happen though. Even $100 million in reparations, a drop in the bucket and not enough for anything will never get granted.
Bloglines wall of images
Bloglines has a constantly updated wall of images. That is a *cool* concept. Potentially NSFW though for short periods, but a great concept. It's too bad I don't have the time to just sit there slackjawed and goggle eyed.
Lushlush
lushlush has a blog. But that sounds as if I know who lushlush is. I don't though. I ran across her blog from following a link on reddit. Good posts, literate. I don't quite know what to make of that pic. Artist type personality, I guess. Which is interesting in some ways, disappointing in others. I'm philosophically conservative, to me the artistic temperament is entertaining but not, generally, deep enough to be interesting. No doubt there are exceptions to that, I'd love to get to know some of those exceptions.
2007-02-15
Nintendo Wii support
There's a heartwarming story on incredibly good Nintendo tech support.
I don't play computer games much anymore (no time), and certainly not console games. But if I went there, this article would tilt me toward buying nintendo. I don't think I'd buy Sony (installing any DRM, and worse, malware on PCs is evil). I never buy anything from Microsoft (nor do I pirate anything from there, let the rest of the world use crap, I'm too busy to struggle with all that). So Nintendo it would be.
But I don't play games anymore. Maybe in a few years, when timmy can play computer games :-).
I don't play computer games much anymore (no time), and certainly not console games. But if I went there, this article would tilt me toward buying nintendo. I don't think I'd buy Sony (installing any DRM, and worse, malware on PCs is evil). I never buy anything from Microsoft (nor do I pirate anything from there, let the rest of the world use crap, I'm too busy to struggle with all that). So Nintendo it would be.
But I don't play games anymore. Maybe in a few years, when timmy can play computer games :-).
2007-02-10
escape for an evening
There's an anonymous post on www.thisisby.us on the pleasures and considerations involved in an evening out with one's significant other, without a child in tow
That's five years away from where we are now. Or three. or four. It might be a significant factor though, in our not immigrating to New Zealand. Sol and I have applied for NZ, we've spent a whole lot of money on the application and the medical exams. We're about to spend more on Timmy's medical exams. I'm not sure I want to go though. We'll make the decision when NZ makes the decision. In any case, I am thoroughly and truly enjoying my work at $DAYJOB, I have extra work (sidelines, we call them, in the Philippines) which is sufficiently remunerative that we really don't need to go to NZ to make a good living.
And then there's the dates. In NZ we'd have to rely on ourselves, alone, and maybe the occasional filipino/a friend. There are a lot more of those in NZ than in the U.S., so that would help. Of course one can get babysitters of non-filipino extraction. I doubt if sol would go for that though. In any case, dates are a LOT easier to schedule and setup in the Philippines since our family is here. There's a large support system.
Of course the politicians are corrupt, the police are not only corrupt but also incompetent and there are major quality of life issues that make NZ very attractive. As I say, we'll make that decision when NZ makes the decision. For now, though, partly because of that article, but also because I'm enjoying work so much, I'm currently inclined to stay.
That's five years away from where we are now. Or three. or four. It might be a significant factor though, in our not immigrating to New Zealand. Sol and I have applied for NZ, we've spent a whole lot of money on the application and the medical exams. We're about to spend more on Timmy's medical exams. I'm not sure I want to go though. We'll make the decision when NZ makes the decision. In any case, I am thoroughly and truly enjoying my work at $DAYJOB, I have extra work (sidelines, we call them, in the Philippines) which is sufficiently remunerative that we really don't need to go to NZ to make a good living.
And then there's the dates. In NZ we'd have to rely on ourselves, alone, and maybe the occasional filipino/a friend. There are a lot more of those in NZ than in the U.S., so that would help. Of course one can get babysitters of non-filipino extraction. I doubt if sol would go for that though. In any case, dates are a LOT easier to schedule and setup in the Philippines since our family is here. There's a large support system.
Of course the politicians are corrupt, the police are not only corrupt but also incompetent and there are major quality of life issues that make NZ very attractive. As I say, we'll make that decision when NZ makes the decision. For now, though, partly because of that article, but also because I'm enjoying work so much, I'm currently inclined to stay.
2007-02-08
baguio fruits
I was in baguio this last weekend. All of my software development team (there are only 3 of us) and some other people (contractor, business analysts, some random friends) at work went too.
On Sunday, getting ready to go back to Manila, we went to the market (and elsewhere) to buy things to bring back. I bought 3 kilos of strawberries and 2 kilos of Sagada oranges. I would post pictures, but I ate them all already (well, with some help from family :-). No one is interested in pictures of the insides of my stomach. And anyway, the strawberries aren't even in me anymore :-).
Everything was incredibly good. The strawberries were perfect and the Sagada oranges are indescribable. I used to ignore them since I didn't know how good they were. From now on I'm going to buy more oranges than strawberries, even though the strawberries are less expensive :-).
I brought 2 kilos of Baguio longaniza too. Two different kinds. We had the less fatty one the other day. It was very, very good. Sweeter and less garlicky than Vigan longaniza. Normally I don't like sweet, and I love garlic. But this was really very good. I'm bringing back a lot more of that too, when I go to Baguio next.
On Sunday, getting ready to go back to Manila, we went to the market (and elsewhere) to buy things to bring back. I bought 3 kilos of strawberries and 2 kilos of Sagada oranges. I would post pictures, but I ate them all already (well, with some help from family :-). No one is interested in pictures of the insides of my stomach. And anyway, the strawberries aren't even in me anymore :-).
Everything was incredibly good. The strawberries were perfect and the Sagada oranges are indescribable. I used to ignore them since I didn't know how good they were. From now on I'm going to buy more oranges than strawberries, even though the strawberries are less expensive :-).
I brought 2 kilos of Baguio longaniza too. Two different kinds. We had the less fatty one the other day. It was very, very good. Sweeter and less garlicky than Vigan longaniza. Normally I don't like sweet, and I love garlic. But this was really very good. I'm bringing back a lot more of that too, when I go to Baguio next.
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