Mess_iah

Warning

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:03:43 GMT

Twice in the last two days, my always-on virus scanner has warned me of malicious software attempting to connect to my computer while reading LJ. I think the problem is with malicious ads. Between this and the new video ads, I'll now be reading the LJs of my friends through RSS, and you might want to too.

Launch Announcement

Mon, 25 May 2009 16:22:46 GMT

Engagement to glorgana is a go. T minus several months to the big launch party.

Socks?

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:06:56 GMT

We found the pictured socks while going through our spare room today. We don't think they belong to us, do these look familiar to anyone who's local or visited?

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and you can't kill us.

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:46:14 GMT

The Pirate Bay just suffered another attempt to shut them down, and surprise surprise, it didn't work.

Rome is burning

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:00:54 GMT

Can he get even better?

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:56:40 GMT

I've said a lot of times that Obama is the Best President Ever, at least so far. Turns out, there is one way he could be better: if the icon on this post was true.

Fuck yes, it is unquestionably the future!

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:01:14 GMT

Check out these fields of academic inquiry. My interest, you has it!

http://michaelo.phswebs.com/BerkeleyStarcraft/

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3158640.html?menu=news.quirkies

My interest

Rod Blagojevich thinks he's unstoppable, but we can stop him

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:50:09 GMT

Check this out. Rod Blagojevich thinks he's unstoppable the way we are, but he's using his powers for evil, and we can and will stop him, with the help of the impeachment process and the good state reps of Illinois

The LJ is dead, long live the Vox

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:08:14 GMT

After messing around with Vox for a few hours, it is indisputably better than LJ ever was. It has capabilities for photo and media sharing, and mirroring, and wow, so much better.

For now, I'll be mirroring many posts here through the Blog It Facebook app, but Vox is now my main blog.

Access me here, and come on over and join us in the future!

LJ is officially obsolete

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:36:23 GMT

Sixapart made a new blogging service, Vox, which looks really good. I guess this is what they're doing now that they sold LJ to the Russians.

Come on over there, before LJ gets shut down due to the economic crisis.

Link to my Vox profile
It integrates with your LJ and your Facebook and your Twitter, so all your old accounts work extremely well with it. It's the future of blogging, and here I come.

The US tries to give asylum to Kurdist Separatists, or at least we used to, and can again.

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:15:16 GMT

Ibrahim Parlak needs asylum, and the Bush administration wouldn't give it to him.

This is a man that my parents' know personally, who's restaurant they have eaten at. The Bush Administration has been trying to throw him out of the country and back to Turkey where he will likely be arrested and tortured. He came to this country in a better time, when Bill Clinton was President.

He just had his appeal denied by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, full legal ruling, here. I hope that under the new Obama administration, he can get some justice. This seems like the kind of things that will be changing now.

Actually, now that I think about it, we should write to President Obama, and tell him how much we want Mr. Ibrahim Huseyin to be able to stay in the US where he will be safe from persecution.

Please go to the new administration's website, and tell them to help. Contact information is available here, for internet, phone, or letter.

We can do this guys, we can help him keep his life.

Fight it

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:01:57 GMT

This is the kind of injustice we need to fight against!

Rod Blagojevich Crazy

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:43:39 GMT

"Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise crazy
Just be glad it’s him not you
If you had Tom Cruise’s troubles
You might be Tom Cruise crazy too
You’d flash your big white shiny smile
You’d buy expensive shoes
But you’d be the only man on Earth
Who couldn’t enjoy Tom Cruise
Oh no, you couldn’t enjoy Tom Cruise "

Just substitute out "Rob Blagojevich" for "Tom Cruise" in that song, and it works perfectly, as apparently on The View

VS

Who's the craziest in the crazy club?

Pass SCHIP with us

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:30:41 GMT

SCHIP is the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, which as you can learn in the following video, saves children's lives.

Right now it needs one more vote in the Senate to overcome a filibuster, we need to convince one Republican. Both of my Senators are Illinois democrats and are on board with this, so I tried to call them and they're busy because everyone is calling. If you have a Republican senator, especially one who is not evil and wants good things for children, call them and tell they you want them to help save the children's lives like Bethany who would be dead. Do it, please, help is win this.

Find your Senator's names and numbers and call them now. If we all call they cannot not pass it, because they represent us. Also call Harry Reid and tell him to make any Republicans who want to filibuster it do it for real, make them stand on the Senate floor with urine running down their fancy suit legs while they try to keep reading the phone book and stop us because they cannot do it they do not have the will that we do. Mitch McConnell can't stop us, he doesn't have the bladder fortitude, and neither do the rest of the brain trust of evil and death. As soon as they sleep, when they go to bed, we, the forces of good will convene the Senate and vote and they can't stop it!

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:38:27 GMT

Full article

For Holmes, the photograph serves as a reminder to ourselves of who we are and how we are perceived. He might have been commenting on photographic portraits in particular, photography, in general, but his meaning is clear.

“It has fixed the most fleeting of our illusions, that which the apostle and the philosopher and the poet have alike used as the type of instability and unreality. The photograph has completed the triumph, by making a sheet of paper reflect images like a mirror and hold them as a picture…”

It is interesting to note that Holmes does not say that photography has dispelled our most fleeting illusions, or revealed the reality behind them. Only that it preserves them as if in aspic or a piece of taxidermy. In Holmes’s era, photography was thought to capture reality. We know that photographs do not capture reality, but they can capture our evasions and self-deceptions. Now, more than 150 years after Holmes wrote this essay, we have an opportunity to reflect on the past and to ask that same fleeting question that intrigued Holmes: “what manner of man he was…”

More W as a person

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:26:43 GMT

U.S. President George W. Bush re-enters the White House East room to say goodbye to staff and friends after his primetime address in Washington, January 15, 2009. Bush on Thursday defended his actions to avert a collapse of the financial system and protect America from another terrorist attack as he mounted a farewell bid to polish his troubled legacy. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)

"And I turned to one of my editors — First I said, “Oh, my God.” And he said, “What?” And I said, “You’ve got to see this picture of Bush. This is really stunning.” And I flipped it over to him to process and his first reaction was, “Wow.” And I said, “If he wasn’t just back there behind that door crying, I don’t know what that look on his face is.” Because he just looks absolutely devastated as he comes through this door after essentially ending his eight year presidency. And it’s just really striking. He just looks absolutely devastated."

If these aren't enough to make you pity the man, nothing is.

Wow

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:41:49 GMT

President Bush, center, answers questions from the media while standing with, from left to right, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Vice president Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers, after a meeting on his ranch Monday, Aug. 23, 2004 in Crawford, Texas. Bush summoned his defense team to his Prairie Chapel Ranch in Texas to map strategy on Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

I'm so glad the Bush Administration is over, but this whole story is so fascinating. Ex-president Bush is a human being, and these pictures and the discussion with them reveal that in a very important way. I believe he was a mediocre man thrust into the most important job in the world, a job that he was almost entirely unable to handle, and due to that lack of ability, he abdicated his power to older, more determined men like Cheney and Rumsfeld, with disastrous consequences. But nonetheless, ex-President George W. Bush is a person, and as a person, he deserves my consideration, and I think, my pity. It must have been hard to try to be President and not know how.

Cold War, Over

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:15:45 GMT

RUSSIE, ODINSOVSKY: US President George W. Bush (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin wave as the two presidents go for a ride in Putin’s 1956 Volga before dinner 08 May 2005 at the his residence outside of Moscow. Bush hailed Russia’s “bravery and sacrifice” in defeating Nazism, as he met Putin ahead of ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Bush, who the previous day criticized the decades-long Soviet occupation of central Europe, said he was looking forward to the 09 May ceremony on Moscow’s Red Square, to be attended by over 50 national leaders. (Tim Sloan/Agence France-Presse)

VINCENT AMALVY: I selected it because it was like the end of the Cold War. Is it a picture of typically what can happen during an official meeting between an American and a Russian? But this is the completion of the Cold War.

ERROL MORRIS: Yes. We were on the verge of annihilating each other, and this is how it ends. Tens of thousands of nuclear warheads targeted at each other followed by a ride in a ’56 Volga.

VINCENT AMALVY: The picture was really a huge success. And I liked it.

ERROL MORRIS: And then there was the shadow of Bush. Images can be interpreted in a myriad of different ways, but here he’s a ghost haunting the United Nations.

Best. President. Ever.

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:05:32 GMT

This why we win:

Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Statement released after the President rescinds "Mexico City Policy"

Yesterday, President Obama rescinded the "Mexico City Policy" and released the following statement:

It is clear that the provisions of the Mexico City Policy are unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under current law, and for the past eight years, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries. For these reasons, it is right for us to rescind this policy and restore critical efforts to protect and empower women and promote global economic development.

For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.

It is time that we end the politicization of this issue. In the coming weeks, my Administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world.

I have directed my staff to reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies. They will also work to promote safe motherhood, reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and increase educational and economic opportunities for women and girls.

In addition, I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the U.N. Population Fund. By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries.

Stop. Hammertime

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:58:29 GMT

They are the same person!

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:01:07 GMT

If anyone ever makes a biopic for this man:

From For Web Use

They need to get this man to play him:

From For Web Use

It only makes sense. Neither of them really did anything wrong!

And they both have luxurious hair!

(Spoiler protection: I have only seen the first two episodes of BSG season 4, so please don't spill any beans on here that I wouldn't know. Or any beans, really, since others read this too. Thanks)

Picture, related

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:19:34 GMT

Related to my feelings about our President, that is.

And so it begins

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:02:24 GMT

Obama's begun to issue executive orders contermanding Bush policy, disallowing torture, repealing the ban on funding for NGOs that provide abortions, setting out a process for closing Guantanamo. This is it people, we have a President who's working for good, and he's doig it right away. Elections have consequences, and today they're all good.

Edit: Here's a better article on the statements, with embedded video of Obama explaining to the public (seriously, how cool is that) what the signing statements mean.

The Cold of Aging

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:53:35 GMT

Today as I waited at the bus stop, I looked down at my beard, and was shocked to see evidence that the frigid temperatures were aging me!

From Digital Camera Pics

The whiteness in my beard was actually moisture from my breath frozen onto the hairs, which I've never noticed happening before.

Israel and Gaza

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:46:11 GMT

The conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has been all over the news, as well it should be. Most of the news, however, is textual or auditory, and descriptions and facts about the conflict do not bring it truly into our experience. Pictures can do what text and speech cannot, and I found the two Boston Globe "The Big Picture" features for last week, and yesterday, did it for me.

It can be easy to overlook the reality of war. Please go, and look, and don't forget.