Syria's political brilliance

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Y’know, Bush probably think’s he’s a pretty durn good politician. Got himself elected President of this here country and all. Too bad Syria just seriously one-upped him…

And while Iraq wielded the propaganda tool clumsily, Syria is proving a far better foe. It’s latest move, tactically brilliant, is to introduce a Security Council resolution calling for the elimination of all WMDs in the Middle East.

The move comes as some in the US side scream about Syria’s alleged WMDs. Thus Syria’s move is nothing short of genius. If the US is truly serious about ridding the Middle East of WMDs, it should have no problem endorsing a resolution that would compell Syria to disarm. Right?

Wrong. The resolution would have the (intentional) effect of forcing Israel to surrender its nuclear arsenal — a course of action Israel would never accept. And the US, Israel’s most loyal ally, will thus be forced to veto the resolution.

So picture this — the US vetoing a resolution calling for the banning of all WMDs from the Middle East. In one fell swoop, Syria has negated the charges of WMDs against it, exposed the US’s hypocrisy on WMDs (our allies can have them, everyone else can’t), solidified its leadership of the Arab world, and forced the US to veto a seemingly common sense resolution, after blasting France and Russia for threatening vetoes on Iraq.

(via Daily Kos)

Update:

Upon preview, it appears that the Reuters article linked to in the Daily Kos’ post doesn’t say anything about this resolution. Was it edited out after the Kos made their post, or did they mis-link? I’ll try to find another link…

Second update:

Google News to the rescue! Islam-Online: Syria To Submit Resolution On WMDs To Security Council.

Penis!

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This made me laugh — The Penis Blog Project.

Needless to say, this is NSFW (Not Safe For Work), and an open mind and good sense of humor is encouraged.

[Disclaimer: I’m not part of this project. Just so’s ya know.]

(via Dyanna)

Memories of Meier Lake

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Dad just posted a series of photos of Meier Lake, the retreat center for the Episcopal Diocease of Alaska, on our family website. I spent a lot of time there as a kid, usually twice a year — once for the congregational Winter Retreat, and once in the summer for church summer camp.

I’ve got two very clear memories from my time there.

The first was one of those bizarre moments of weather you get occasionally. The main lodge building sits alongside one side of the lake, looking out over the water, and has a balcony running aross the face of the lodge. One summer day I was able to stand on the balcony, dead center relative to the lodge, with half of the lake and everything to my right in a deluge of summer rain, and with the other half of the lake and everything to my left in beautiful summer sunshine. Just amazing.

The second was another summertime day, when there was some downtime in the camp. I grabbed one of the canoes and went out to the center of the lake with a book, stretched out, and had a nice lazy lie in the sun, floating on the water. After a while, I noticed something in the sky, and realized that there was a bald eagle circling me overhead, probably trying to figure out what I was, and if I was edible or not.

Summertime in Alaska. One of the few things that I miss about living up there. Not enough to move back — but I do miss it.

No more 404's

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I just implemented a very nice little PHP script for my website that ties into my site search function — the end result being that my site no longer has a “404 File Not Found” error page!

In brief: if a visitor puts in a URL address that doesn’t exist, it gets shunted to my search script. If the script returns multiple hits, that listing is displayed, but if the script only returns one hit, the visitor is automatically forwarded to that page. Very slick.

As a bonus, it provides a convenient shortcut to searching my site — just put in whatever search terms you want after “http://www.djwudi.com/” and see what you get!

(script via Scriptygoddess)

Pigface/My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult

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Just got back home from seeing Bile, Zeromancer, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and (last, but most definitely not least) Pigface at the Catwalk. Awesome show.

Work let me off early so I could go, so I got home about 6:30pm. Changed clothes and waited around the apartment for Candice to show up, then we walked down to the club and got there just a bit before Bile started. They weren’t bad, but were a little harder than I usually go for — wasn’t going to complain about seeing them, but not someone I’m likely to go searching out the CDs for, either. The high point of their show was a cover of the J. Geils Band’s ‘Love Stinks’, which worked surprisingly well as an industrial track.

Since Bile wasn’t really our thing, Candice and I hung out near the entrance, and toward the end of Bile’s set Chad and Don showed up. Not long after that, Kim and Kayo joined us right about as Zeromancer was starting. Zeromancer was more to my taste than Bile — I still might not go searching out their CDs, but if I happened to hear that they were playing in town and I had the money to go, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again. Again, the high point of their set was a cover tune, this time of Real Life’s ‘Send Me An Angel’.

We’d all stayed at our spot near the entrance during Zeromancer’s set where we could actually hear each other, as well as keep an eye on the door, and during the downtime between bands both Kate and Rick showed up. Just in time, too, as MLWtTKK hit the stage not long afterwards. Their set wasn’t quite as good as I had been hoping for — they were only a three-piece (vocalist, drums, and synth), and so nearly everything was sequenced, and they didn’t have the stage presence that I’ve seen from them in videos. That said, the updated arrangements to some of their classic material were really good, and the live drums made for a good show musically — it was just the stage show that wasn’t what I’d hoped for.

Kayo and I had gone down to the main floor for MLWtTKK, spending our time standing just on the edge of the pit, tossing people back in when they went flying out and hauling the occasional body up from the floor after a tumble (one of my favorite positions for a good show, actually). When we went back to the rest of the group during the downtime, it turned out that they’d been given a choice spot to actually watch the show, in a security booth just behind the sound booth. We all stood and peoplewatched during the downtime (and believe me, a goth/industrial show is quite the place for peoplewatching), then I headed back out to the floor when Pigface came on stage.

Pigface, quite simply, tore the place up. Incredible set — anywhere from five to twelve people on stage depending on the lineup for the song, and constant insanely high energy. I stayed right on the edge of the pit area again, getting pulled in and taking a tumble once (then getting hauled right back up to my feet). Most of the songs were from their newest album, “Easy Listening (for Difficult Fuckheads)“, but they threw in quite a few old favorites, including ‘Divebomber’ (from “Notes From Thee Underground“) and finishing off with ‘Suck’ (originally from “Gub“, though it’s appeared in many incarnations on many albums over the years).

‘Suck’ first came out on the Pigface album “Gub”, credited to Martin Atkins, William Rieflin, Paul Barker, and trent reznor. When trent included a cover of ‘Suck’ as a hidden track on his ‘Broken‘ album, he listed the credits as ‘trent reznor with Pigface’. This apparently led to something of a falling out between trent and Martin, and trent hasn’t been involved in a Pigface project since…. Interestingly enough (for me, at least), when they introduced ‘Suck’, Martin said that “this is a song by trent reznor….” In all honesty, I didn’t know that they were still ticked enough at that to be making snide remarks at the shows!

At one point, they were playing a song off of EL(fDF) (the exact one I’m not sure of, as I haven’t quite memorized that album yet) that has the refrain “Jacob is a liar.” However, in a crowded club, at high volume, and with a ton of distortion, since I didn’t know the lyrics off the top of my head, the only thing I could make them out saying was “stainless steel papaya!” I knew that that wasn’t what they were saying, but it kept me laughing throughout the song — I didn’t actually find out what the actual lyrics were until Kate told me after the show.

Anyway, incredible show. My ears aren’t likely to recover before, oh, Thursday at the earliest, but that’s all part of the fun, right (for what it’s worth, I did have earplugs that I wore for some of the show, so it’s not as bad as it could be)? I also picked up a MLWtTKK shirt and the only Pigface album I didn’t have yet (“The Best of Pigface: Preaching to the Perverted“), plus earlier in the night I was handed a CD from a band apparently from Vancouver, BC by the name of Charlie Drown (I haven’t listened to it yet, so I have no idea what it’s like but I was told, “Here — you’ll probably like this,” when it was handed to me…). All in all, quite the good night.

I’ll leave off with something that Martin Atkins (the main force behind Pigface) said at one point during the set…

Never understimate the effect that you, as one individual, can have in any situation if you put your mind to it!

US priorities in Iraq

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Quick summary —

Iraqi buildings that have been looted, burned, and destroyed: the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Information, the Baghdad Archaeological Museum, the museum in the northern city of Mosul, and three hospitals.

Iraqi buildings protected by US troops, tanks, armored personell carriers, and Humvees: the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Oil.

It casts an interesting reflection on America’s supposed war aims. Anxious to “liberate” Iraq, it allows its people to destroy the infrastructure of government as well as the private property of Saddam’s henchmen. Americans insist that the oil ministry is a vital part of Iraq’s inheritance, that the oilfields are to be held in trust “for the Iraqi people”. But is the Ministry of Trade — relit yesterday by an enterprising arsonist — not vital to the future of Iraq? Are the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Irrigation — still burning fiercely — not of critical importance to the next government? The Americans could spare 2,000 soldiers to protect the Kirkuk oilfields but couldn’t even invest 200 to protect the Mosul museum from attack. US engineers were confidently predicting that the Kirkuk oilfield will be capable of pumping again “within weeks”.

(via Dru Blood)

How much longer can people claim that this conflict had nothing to do with oil? We’re still coming up empty of any of the “weapons of mass destruction” that were one of the original justifications for attacking. Our “liberation” of the Iraqi people has led to little but anarchy, chaos, and disorder. Our troops — those not protecting our oil interests, at least — stand by while looters rampage through the city.

So we got rid of Saddam — that’s a good thing, definitely. But what now? The situation, as it stands, is giving the US an ever-worsening standing in the eyes of the world. This is when the real work is going to start. And you can bet that it’s not going to be easy.

Philodemus

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While many mourn the loss of innumerable historic artifacts (excellent link via Shelley Powers) as one of the many tragedies of the current conflict in Iraq, work progresses in Italy at using infrared imaging to recover writings from charred rolls of papyrus recovered from the ruins around Vesuvius.

The ceremony begins with the presentation of a small plaque to the contingent from BYU. Booras and his colleague Roger MacFarlane, a younger man in a seersucker jacket and a natty bow tie, step up to receive it almost bashfully. On a lectern to one side of the room sits a larger plaque the visitors presented to the library earlier. It displays two different pictures of the same scrap of papyrus. One shows neat lines of Greek lettering. The other is utterly illegible, a ground zero of text. The difference between them is Steve Booras’ camera.

Booras and his team have recorded images of every piece of Herculaneum papyrus in the library: 25,000 images on 345 CDs. The images were made with a high-quality digital camera. More important, most of them were also made with infrared filters. On a legible papyrus seen under normal light, the ink appears black because it absorbs the light; the papyrus reflects it. The carbonized fibers of the Herculaneum scrolls, however, absorb light just as well as the ink does, making the background a distinctly low-contrast black. But the papyrus does not absorb infrared wavelengths quite as readily; in the infrared, there is still contrast.

Most of the scrolls uncovered so far have been written by first-century philosopher and poet Philodemus, leading to conjecture that the owner of the villa where the scrolls were found may have been trying to save Philodemus’ work specifically — but there may be far more in the as-yet unearthed sections of the ruins.

Details of Philodemus’ biography are scarce. It’s not known when he was born or died, how long he spent in Alexandria (possibly) or Athens (definitely). It’s not known which, if any, of the various women featured in his often bawdy poetry might have been his wife, though the ones who required pay can probably be ruled out. But it is known that when he settled in Italy, he did so under the patronage of a high-powered plutocrat — Lucius Calpurnius Piso, one of the richest Romans of his day, scourge of Cicero and father-in-law to Caesar.

Why, then, were the uncovered works more or less all by Philodemus? One answer is that these papyruses were in the process of being saved from the disaster when the mud rolled over the villa, the boiling sea lapping at its lower terraces. The papyruses were discovered scattered along the colonnades, some loose, some in packing cases, as though they were in transit. The writings of Philodemus, goes the argument, had a special emotional value to Piso’s heirs, because Philodemus had once lived in the villa. So when the volcano erupted, slaves were sent to gather the scrolls and carry them down to the shore, where boats would take them to safety with the rest of the household. The bulk of the library — works by more famous hands, but not as precious to the family and more easily replaced — was abandoned. According to this theory, some buried part of the palace may contain a collection of ancient texts too commonplace to have been worth saving then and too valuable to ignore now.

Who knows what treasures may yet wait to be discovered, both around Vesuvius, in other areas of the world — and hopefully, eventually, once again in Iraq.

All about love

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This was posted a long time ago to the alt.music.nin newsgroup, where I picked it up. I have no idea where it originally came from. It’s been bouncing around on my hard drive for a while, and I figured this was as good a time as any to resurrect it. Enjoy!

Notes on love (by primary schoolchildren)

Concerning why love happens between two particular people
  • “One of the people has freckles and so he finds somebody else who has freckles too.”\
    Andrew, age 6
  • “No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell…That’s why perfume and deodorant are so popular.”\
    Mae, age 9
  • “I think you’re supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn’t supposed to be so painful.”\
    Manuel, age 8
On what falling in love is like
  • “Like an avalanche where you have to run for your life.”\
    John, age 9
  • “If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don’t want to do it. It takes too long.”\
    Glen, age 7
On the role of beauty and handsomeness in love
  • “If you want to be loved by somebody who isn’t already in your family, it doesn’t hurt to be beautiful.”\
    Anita, age 8
  • “It isn’t always just how you look. Look at me. I’m handsome like anything and I haven’t got anybody to marry me yet.”\
    Brian, age 7
  • “Beauty is skin deep. But how rich you are can last a long time.”\
    Christine, age 9
Reflections on the nature of love
  • “Mooshy…like puppy dogs…except puppy dogs don’t wag their tails nearly as much.”\
    Arnold, age 10
  • “All of a sudden, the people get movie fever, so they can sit together in the dark.”\
    Sherri, age 8
Concerning why lovers hold hands
  • “They want to make sure their rings don’t fall off because they paid good money for them.”\
    Gavin, age 8
  • “They are just practising for when they might have to walk down the aisle someday and do the holy matchimony thing.”\
    John, age 9
Confidential opinions about love
  • “I’m in favour of love as long as it doesn’t happen when”Dinosaurs\” is on television.\”\
    Jill, age 6
  • “Love is foolish…but I still might try it sometime.”\
    Floyd, age 9
  • “Yesterday I kissed a girl in a private place…we were behind a tree.”\
    Carey, age 7
  • “Love will find you, even if you are trying to hide from it. I have been trying to hide from it since I was five, but the girls keep finding me.”\
    Dave, age 8
  • “I’m not rushing into being in love. I’m finding fourth grade hard enough.”\
    Regina, age 10
The personal qualities you need to have in order to be a good lover
  • “Sensitivity don’t hurt.”\
    Robbie, age 8
  • “One of you should know how to write a cheque. Because even if you have tons of love, there is still going to be a lot of bills.”\
    Ava, age 8
Some surefire ways to make a person fall in love with you
  • “Tell them that you own a whole bunch of candy stores.”\
    Del, age 6
  • “Yell out that you love them at the top of your lungs…and don’t worry if their parents are right there.”\
    Manual, age 8
  • “Don’t do things like have smelly, green sneakers. You might get attention, but attention ain’t the same thing as love.”\
    Alonzo, age 9
  • “One way is to take the girl out to eat. Make sure it’s something she likes to eat. French fries usually works for me.”\
    Bart, age 9
How can you tell if two adults eating dinner at a restaurant are in love?
  • “Just see if the man picks up the cheque. That’s how you can tell if he’s in love.”\
    Bobby, age 9
  • “Lovers will just be staring at each other and their food will get cold…Other people care more about the food.”\
    Bart, age 9
  • “Romantic adults usually are all dressed up, so if they are just wearing jeans it might mean they used to go out or they just broke up.”\
    Sarah, age 9
  • “See if the man has lipstick on his face.”\
    Sandra, age 7
  • “It’s love if they order one of those desserts that are on fire. They like to order those because it’s just like how their hearts are — on fire.”\
    Christine, age 9
Titles of the love ballads you can sing to your beloved
  • “How Do I Love Thee When You’re Always Picking Your Nose?”\
    Arnold, age 10
  • “You Are My Darling Even Though You Also Know My Sister.”\
    Larry, age 8
  • “I Love Hamburgers, I Like You!”\
    Eddie, age 6
  • “I Am In Love With You Most Of The Time, But Don’t Bother Me When I’m With My Friends.”\
    Bob, age 9
  • “Hey Baby, I Don’t Like Girls But I’m Willing To Forget You Are One!”\
    Will, age 7
What most people are thinking when they say “I love you”
  • “The person is thinking: Yeah, I really do love him, but I hope he showers at least once a day.”\
    Michelle, age 9
  • “Some lovers might be real nervous, so they are glad that they finally got it out and said it and now they can go eat.”\
    Dick, age 7
How was kissing invented?
  • “I know one reason that kissing was created. It makes you feel warm all over, and they don’t always have electric heat or fireplaces or even stoves in their houses.”\
    Gina, age 8
How a person learns to kiss
  • “You can have a big rehearsal with your Barbie and Ken dolls.”\
    Julia, age 7
  • “You learn it right on the spot when the gooshy feelings get the best of you.”\
    Brian, age 7
  • “It might help to watch soap operas all day.”\
    Carin, age 9
When is it okay to kiss someone?
  • “When they’re rich.”\
    Pam, age 7
  • “It’s never okay to kiss a boy. They always slobber all over you…That’s why I stopped doing it.”\
    Tammy, age 10
  • “If it’s your mother, you can kiss her anytime. But if it’s a new person, you have to ask permission.”\
    Roger, age 6
How to make love endure
  • “Spend most of your time loving instead of going to work.”\
    Dick, age 7
  • “Don’t forget your wife’s name…That will mess up the love.”\
    Erin, age 8
  • “Be a good kisser. It might make your wife forget that you never take out the trash.”\
    Dave, age 8
  • “Don’t say you love somebody and then change your mind…Love isn’t like picking what movie you want to watch.”\
    Natalie, age 9

From Berkeley to the Matrix

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Wired has a great article about the special effects of the Matrix and its upcoming sequels (and speaking of which, the full trailer for The Matrix: Reloaded has been released, and kicks much butt).

In the course of the article, Wired mentions that much of the inspiration and technology for the more eye-catching special effects in the Matrix films were drawn from a project called The Campanile Movie, which is fascinating in its own right. The basic concept is taking photographs of an area and then wrapping them around a 3-D rendered landscape in order to create a photorealistic virtual environment. They explain it much better than I do, though….

(via Jason Kottke)

Nekkid

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Here’s a really interesting Flash presentation about being naked — sixteen volunteers photographed in various states of undress, with audio clips of interviews discussing various views on nudity, comfort and discomfort, and similar things.

Very nicely done, and being someone who’s been occasionally described by my friends as a “closet nudist” (if I’m at home, and the apartment’s warm enough, why bother with clothes?), I wholeheartedly approve.

(via Xeni Jardin)