Could be?

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All of this blather coming from Bush trying to justify the invasion of Iraq with the (two? three?) trailers that have been found is driving me up the wall. I keep seeing various news reports trumpeting that we found these two trailers that “could be used to produce chemical weapons.”

Oh, really?

Look — give me a few gallons of bleach and a few gallons of ammonia, and my bathtub could be used to produce chemical weapons (depending on the mix, Chlorine Gas, Nitrogen Trichloride, or Hydrazine can be produced, none of which are particularly friendly). You’re faltering, Bush, and the world knows it.

Well, hey there, sailor!

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In an unusual act of patriotism, a Nevada brothel is offering free sex to troops returning from the U.S.-Iraq war.

The first 50 servicemen and women through the door will receive a sexy knockoff of their military-issued “TA-50” kits of personal hygiene items. Instead of toothbrushes and soap, Hof’s kits contain condoms, lubricant, an adult magazine and a certificate for free sex.

Thirteen men and three women in uniform have shown up so far to claim their gifts. All told, the free and discounted sex will cost Hof about \$50,000 — a worthy sacrifice, he said.

Okay…so maybe there are some benefits to joining the military! ;) Actually, in addition to the humor factor of the story, I was rather impressed that thirteen men and three women have taken advantage of the offer so far. Good for them! Most of the time in our culture, women don’t seem nearly as free to express their libido as men are — even in movies, those women that do are often portrayed as disturbed in some way (think Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction) — it’s always nice to see that tendency being shaken up a little bit.

Personally, I’m all for women expressing their libido more often.

And more obviously.

Especially around me. ;)

(via Prairie)

Don't talk and drive

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Update: This was originally a post ranting about people driving and talking on cell phones at the same time.

Unfortunately, I seem to be running into a problem where, due to a bug either in Safari, in MovableType, or the combination of the two, sometimes when editing a comment (for instance, deleting a duplicate), the text of the comment gets put in the body field of the post being edited. If you don’t see this before saving the post, the post is wiped out, and replaced with the text of the comment.

Grr.

Ah, well. Guess I just need to pay more attention next time. I just wish I knew who to send the bug report to…

26 Things

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This could be fun: 26 Things, another project from the organizers of the Mayday Project.

on tuesday july 1st 2003, 26 things to hunt for will be posted on this website and you are free to complete the project on or before thursday july 31st 2003. come back friday august 1st to submit your 26 things website.

(via D)

More on Salam Pax

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Slate’s Peter Maass offers some more details on Iraqi blogger Salam Pax, after realizing that he knew Salam personally:

Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me to suggest that I track down “Salam Pax.” I had no idea who or what they were talking about. I could have handed over the job of sorting out this Salam Pax thing to my interpreter — he was a clever and funny Iraqi who never failed to provide what I needed, whether it was interviews or pizza — but I let it pass. I thought I had better things to do.

The day after I returned to New York, reunited with my cable modem, I checked out a friend’s blog that linked to an Austrian interview with Salam Pax. I clicked to it. Salam Pax mentioned an NGO he had worked for, CIVIC, and this caught my attention. I knew the woman who was in charge of CIVIC; she stayed at my Baghdad hotel, the Hamra. Salam Pax mentioned that he had done some work for foreign journalists. We traveled in the same circles, apparently. He also mentioned that he had studied in Vienna. This really caught my attention, because I knew an Iraqi who had worked for CIVIC, hung out with foreign journalists, and studied in Vienna. I clicked over to his blog.

His latest post mentioned an afternoon he spent at the Hamra Hotel pool, reading a borrowed copy of The New Yorker. I laughed out loud. He then mentioned an escapade in which he helped deliver 24 pizzas to American soldiers. I howled. Salam Pax, the most famous and most mysterious blogger in the world, was my interpreter. The New Yorker he had been reading — mine. Poolside at the Hamra — with me. The 24 pizzas — we had taken them to a unit of 82nd Airborne soldiers I was writing about.

Such an amazingly small world at times, isn’t it?

The Animatrix

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I got woken up this morning at 9am (thankfully, only half an hour before my alarm usually starts blaring) by the door buzzer. “Package for ya.” Rock on. Hauled myself out of bed, tossed on clothes, and stumbled downstairs.

End result — thanks to Amazon, I’ve got my copy of The Animatrix one day before its official street date. As long as I was awake, and didn’t have to actually wander out to my bus stop until around noon, I popped in the disc.

Very, very cool.

The Animatrix (just in case you didn’t catch my earlier posts) is a collection of nine animated short subjects expanding the universe portrayed in the Matrix films.

My favorite two episodes are Final Flight of the Osiris (incredible near photorealistic animation from the team behind Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and the sexiest sword fight I’ve ever seen) and Beyond (nice animation, and a quietly magical story).