Friday, January 31, 2003
My Opinion (inspired to write this by
Instapundit)
It’s happening like I knew it would happen. It can’t be stopped now, it is too late. One let’s-attack-Iraq person (Bush) got voted into government. He appoints a few more. One day (September 11) something happens, which is the closest that they will get to a real excuse to bring up the Iraq “issue.” Eventually, they bully the rest of the government into it; many if not most don’t want it, but they go along. The people don’t want it. The government, now in support of attacking (but only a few really do), bullies other governments into doing the same. Eventually the governments that are against attacking are isolated (by the countries that don’t want it either), and so come on board or are ignored. If France uses its veto power, then that simply means the attack won’t have
UN approval, but it will still happen. So then there is war. Almost the whole world has been bullied into it. But everyone went along. I hope I am wrong. I hope if I am right, that it will be quick and painless. Iraq will become a stable democracy and pull the rest of the Middle East with it. But I am a pessimist.
Thursday, January 30, 2003
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
I’m watching Bush’s speech on
C-SPAN now. I won’t comment on everything he says that I have a problem with (that would take forever, although he did pledge money for hydrogen as energy technology), but this thought occured to me. Bush’s love is democracy, where each person’s voice counts. But on the world stage, he feels the same does not apply to each country’s voice; the
US can act unilaterally.
Update, 10:25 PM: “the course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others” - or is even much affected by it (
CNN transcript). Also Bush’s euphemism on killing terrorists: “Let’s put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.”
Monday, January 27, 2003
Saturday, January 25, 2003
Friday, January 24, 2003
The message from the Bush camp: ‘It's war within weeks’ - this is why I tend to be pessimistic. If he really begins the war so soon, there pretty much isn’t any chance of
UN approval. Which will certainly be the least of the world’s problems. Via
Blogdex. See also
related news.
Update, 11:55 PM: not that it makes any difference to the White House, but according to
Iraq: no nuclear evidence, “The United Nations’ nuclear inspectors will deliver a serious blow on Monday to Washington’s case for going to war with Iraq, telling the world they have found nothing and giving Saddam Hussein good grades for cooperation.” Via
Google News.
Thursday, January 23, 2003
This page was missing since late yesterday. I seem to be running out of disc space. Hopefully I can get this fixed soon.
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Conversational Terrorism - tactics people use in conversation (e.g. to avoid questions or when they know they’re wrong). Some of these remind me of things various politicians have said. I’d hate to interview someone who’d mastered all these techniques. Via
Blogdex. Searching found me
this amusing example: “[person A]: What time is it? [person B]: I am confident that in the fullness of time, it will become obvious to all members of this house that it is not just the right time, not even the best time, but the only time that it could possibly be at this precise moment.” Also check out
Propaganda and Debating Techniques.
Update, January 23: see also the
Metafilter discussion.
Here are my thoughts on a few issues that occured to my while reading an article I refuse to link to (and made me quite mad):
You can’t criticize someone unless they are absolutely perfect in every way and everyone they associate with is also perfect. Yeah, right.
You can’t support a good cause if there is a more important good cause (“why don’t you care about that?!”). Yeah, right.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Diamonds are for Never - great commentary (and links) on diamonds, their industry, morals, and relationship meaning. You should read it. Via
Blogdex.
Monday, January 20, 2003
Sunday, January 19, 2003
Saturday, January 18, 2003
I’ve improved a few things on Puzzlepieces lately. Some of my markup is a little better (using
hreflang, geo meta tag, etc.). I have altered the
Blogdex and
Waypath links that appear after almost every link (if you’re using a modern browser). Now, if you come to Puzzlepieces via most search engines, you will be redirected to a search on that same query on Puzzlepiece’s search engine.
Update: It seems I wasn’t the first to thing of this, it has been
done before for Moveable Type.
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
It’s over! I have finally submitted my university applications. And a full day or so before the deadline. Now just three billion things left to do...
Monday, January 13, 2003
U.S. Decision On Iraq Has Puzzling Past - six days after
9/11, Bush signed a plan for going to war in Afghanistan and “to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq.” You think maybe some people were a little eager to have this war? “The decision to confront Iraq was in many ways a victory for a small group of conservatives who, at the start of the administration, found themselves outnumbered by more moderate voices in the military and the foreign policy bureaucracy.” Read the whole article. Via
Blogdex. See also
related news.
Sunday, January 12, 2003
Saturday, January 11, 2003
Friday, January 10, 2003
Today I got a check (albeit a small one) in the mail from
Google for my work at
Google Answers. When Google Answers first came out I became one of the early researchers. I answered two questions, and haven’t answered any since. But seeing the check has inspired me, and I plan to answer more in the future.
Thursday, January 09, 2003
They Rule - this is just the sort of website I’ve been wishing someone would make. “They Rule aims to make some of the relationships of the elite of the US ruling class visible. It allows users to browse through the interlocking directories of some of the most powerful American companies and easily run searches on them.” You have to try it yourself. Via
Magnetbox (thanks for the link Ben!).
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
The Upsidedown Map Page - as
Francis points out, having North at the top of a map makes as much sense as having South at the top. “Since hanging one on my wall I’ve learnt geography again.” Via
Blogdex. See also
ODT Inc., “a source of alternative information on maps.”
The Colour of Words - interesting word origins for colour names. It seems that words like yellow, khaki, and auburn, no longer describe the same colour they used to. Lots of interesting colour names are covered such as vermillion, azure, carmine, ultramarine, ecru, taupe, etc.
World Wide Words has plenty of other word fun. For more colours, see the
Glossary of Colorful Language (over 200 colours),
KKK is for KKKhaki, the
Crayola Crayon Chronology, and
Colourful Words.
Monday, January 06, 2003
Gridlock - a virtually never play computer games, but I really like this simple one. The object is to move the blue block out of the box by rearranging the other blocks. Via
Daypop.
Sunday, January 05, 2003
LazyWeb opened a few days ago, and today I pinged (or should that be panged?) it for the first time.
LazyWeb is “the idea that if you wait long enough, someone will implement that wacky idea you had... (or already has!).” The new
LazyWeb website is a place to post ideas, hoping that someone else will take them up. The idea I pinged about was the one I posted a week or two ago about death and news.
Saturday, January 04, 2003
Friday, January 03, 2003
Thursday, January 02, 2003
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