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Kreblog on public policy

I think Kreblog's idea is brilliant: ...schools should institute a policy that says you can go and protest [only] if you can pass a current events exam. However let's take this to the next logical step: this should be a federal requirement for any sort of political protest, and also for holding public office.

So the "D" in "DSL" is for "dog food?"

Interesting little tidbit from Robert X. Cringely's InfoWorld column: It seems that Verizon employees have not been eating the same dog food they shovel to customers. I got my hands on an internal poll and found that less than 20 percent of Verizon staffers have DSL, with another 20 percent saying it is too expensive. Meanwhile, more than half say it is not available in their area or their line does not qualify. This little survey was conducted earlier this month, by the by. No problem, those employees can just go get alternative DSL service from a CLEC -- oh but wait, they're all out of business -- and Verizon had nothing to do with that.

What ever happened to "Make love, not war?"

Someone missed the lit class where irony was discussed. But then again, the madrassa probably does not do much teaching in critical thinking -- not good for the suicide bomber recruitment. A Pakistani student wears a headband with the words 'kill jews,' during an anti-war rally at a university in Islamabad...

If your enemy's enemy is evil, what does that make you?

I find this mural almost as offensive as PETA. What kind of culture celebrates this sort of atrocity with a mural? Maybe I am being too general, stereotyping the culture based upon a few extremists. It's hard not to when you see something like this, followed by photos of Arabs across the Middle East carrying posters in support of Saddam. If you want to protest against US intervention that's one thing, but to also celebrate a man who is so awful... that is taking the "my enemy's enemy is my friend" thing a little too far.

Did he really say it?

I recently received this in email:

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush. He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return." It became very quiet in the room.

While this is a great quote, I can not seem to find any corroboration. Google only turns up three fairly jingoistic web sites which include this quote but without any formal attribution. And, as great a quote as it is, I don't think it is strictly true: We got quite a bit of land in the Mexican-American and Spanish-American wars.

Redhook Hefeweizen update

In a follow-up to my previous post lamenting the retirement of Hefeweizen: I got some clarification (and a little more confusion) from the West coast Marketing manager:

Which was almost immediately followed by an email from someone in Portsmouth:

Anyone up for a Redhook visit?

An Englishman, a Yankee and a Pole walk into an evil dictator's regime...

Here's a nice portrait of Polish and US troops in Umm Qasr under our favorite Evil Dictator's warchful eye. Who knew the Polish had contributed troops? Really, the Polish Special Forces look pretty badass. I wonder who else is part of the coalition; anyone seen a list anywhere? I did see that there are Gurkhas deployed, which surprised me. I recognized Gurkhas from my history reading. They are Nepalese soldiers who were part of the British army in India and they were renowned for their loyalty and tenacity. I didn't realize that there are still Gurkha divisions in the UK military.

P.O.W. B.S.

Really, there is nothing worse than being a POW of the US/UK as this picture and this picture clearly illustrate. Am I a naive Westerner? OK, sure, maybe our media and government are collaborating to show us only the "good" pictures. So why doesn't Saddam or Al Jazeera do the same and only show Iraq's "good" pictures -- the ones where they are giving our POWs medical treatment, food, water, sharing cigarettes...?

Hefeweizen, I hardly knew ye

Since focussing on wine for the last year or so, I have not really been drinking beer. But summer is coming (hopefully) and I started to get a little ice cold craving for my favorite, Redhook Hefeweizen. Puzzlingly, I could not find it at any of the usual places, so I dialed up Redhook on the dubya-dubya-dubya, and asked them. I thought maybe a shortage, or it was seasonal. The response was far worse than I imagined:

I have emailed back for clarification on what that means for those of us here in the eastern US, but I'm thinking the prospects don't look good. I have to say, Redhook gets serious points on my scorecard for answering quickly and personably, and extra credit for casually trying to sell me a new product. (This guy must have read the Cluetrain Manifesto). But, this still means I have to look for another favorite beer. It was the wheat I liked in the Hefeweizen, so I am afraid the "Sunrye" may not make the grade, and I have been unhappy with most of the other brands' Hefeweizens -- any suggestions?

Another stupid patent

When are they going to get serious about reforming patents? They just keep patenting the most obvious things: F5 files patent, lawsuits on Web session persistence: The Seattle company has been awarded U.S. patent number 6,473,802, entitled "Method and System for Storing Load Balancing Information with an HTTP cookie." This technology stores a cookie on a customer's computer to allow that customer to reconnect to the same server he or she previously visited on a Web site. I am still awaiting word on the status of my patent application, "Method of storing, recording, and accessing information using manual digits including fingers, thumbs or toes." I figure I'll start by suing Dixon-Ticonderoga for back royalties on the #2 pencil.

Shotgun upgrade

Thawte, the company with whom we register our SSL certificates, is very good about reminding you to renew -- to the point of annoyance. I think they start sending you a reminder-a-week about 11 months before your 1-year cert is due to expire. If only RedHat was as proactively annoying; today I got an "End of Life Reminder" email telling me maintenance support for my RedHat Linux 7.0 servers ends March 31 so I should upgrade! Aaaahhh! That's a week away. I guess this would be a good time to redo the RAID config on these machines too (currently RAID 0 -- I don't know why). So, anyone have suggestions on which version of RH I should go to? Is 8.0 stable and everyone happy with it? Beastie, if you'd like to scratch that itch some night over at my office, just let me know!

Meeting your "quoting quota"

It seems that "4KMnD" has gone "quote happy" in his latest post, Please Mr. Please or A goddess must make great wine, I'm just "not sure" why he thinks all "those quotes" are really "necessary"? Am I "missing something"? ;-)

TiVo Logjam

Wow, I just realized I am watching an episode of "The Practice" that has been saved on the TiVo since December 15th. My first clue was when I saw an ad flash by (while fast-forwarding) for "The Bachelorette - Premiering January 8th!" As much as I like "The Practice" sometimes it's hard to get motivated to watch a one hour drama, so they start to pile up.

Déja vu: The French look again

In Tom Friedman's latest op-ed piece, The Western Front, he reports some French may be rethinking their government's position. ...the angry chasm this has opened between Paris and both London and Washington has shocked many people here [in Paris] and prompted some to ask whether France went too far. The title of the latest cover story in the French newsmagazine Le Point said it all: "Have They Gone Overboard?" The "they" are President Jacques Chirac and his foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin.

I think this is very true: "What Chirac failed to understand was that between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the twin towers, a new world was created," said Dominique Moisi, a French foreign policy expert. "In the past, the Americans needed us against the Soviets and would never go so far as to punish France for straying. But that changed after 9/11. You have been at war since then, and we have not, and we have not integrated that reality into our thinking [and what that means] in terms of America's willingness to go it alone. We have fewer common interests now and more divided emotions."

BBC Blog

Here is an interesting blog-type-thing by BBC reporters: War in Iraq.

Remember the anti-war protest against Serbia?

Thousands protest Iraq war as nationwide strike paralyzes Greece: First of all, someone should tell the Greeks that a strike in their country only hurts them -- we could care less. Second: Remember when Serbia (in Greece's backyard) invaded Croatia, then Bosnia, then Kosovo, and started a systematic campaign of "ethnic cleasning" and rape? Remember the outrage of peace protesters in the streets across the world? No? Me either -- there were none. The killing continued until NATO (read: US) finally stepped in, while the UN sat on its hands, frozen in terror at the prospect of another war in Europe. But now, a war of liberation against a ruthless dictator in Iraq -- now this is worthy of protest. Granted, I don't believe for a second it's really about "liberation", but no matter what our motives, none of them involve genocide. At least the Kosovars remember and appreciate us.

Best allocation of our resources?

As I watched the TV reports about the various peace protests around the country yesterday I was struck by the hundreds of police necessary to control the protesters. I respect people's right to protest (even though I think it's futile at this point) but it made me think: We are under orange alert; I would sure feel a lot better if those police were protecting nuclear plants, airports, and public water supplies.

I vote for red

If Heidi is taking votes on hair color, I say go for the red. With such a latent violent streak, the phrase "fiery redhead" would definitely fit.

Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast, Freedom Sucks. Er, no wait...

As any IT person knows, for every domain name, there is companion site named domain name + "sucks". This led me to wonder, "Hmmm, what's at www.francesucks.com?" Bingo! Actually this site is a little extremist for my tastes, but about halfway down there is a hilarious list of quotes about the French. My favorite is Norman Schwartzkopf: "Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." Oh, and if you are wondering, www.americasucks.com is not anti-American, in fact it is 100% pure all-American, but I wouldn't suggest you check it out at work.

Apple of my iMac

Here's a nice article I happen to agree with: Apple’s risky business: "I also ran into a story... warning Apple that it faces an uncertain future if it doesn’t innovate soon. Is Apple really in danger because it hasn’t made a major new product announcement in the past 30 days? If that’s true, the industry is on a tighter release schedule than I thought. There is no lack of innovation at Apple; most competitors fare poorly by comparison. Apple is sticking to its message (dare I say “vision"?) with such focus that it drives some paid observers crazy. A steady, consistent drive to push technology forward does not make headlines." For a few years now, Apple seems to be consistently doing a good job. The company just seems so in-tune with and responsive to its customers. I mean, think about it... OS X had a few browsers, all of which were a little funky, and then boom out-of-nowhere we get Safari, which is awesome.

Keeping abreast of the latest

Thus far I am pretty disappointed with the timeliness of news updates about the war on the web. It seems you either have to watch TV to get the lastest news -- but then you also have to sit through endless drivel of useless filler --or, you need to wait 4-6 hours for the major news web sites to get updated. Slate has an article with links to sites they suggest: The War on the Web - Sites to see on the road to Baghdad. So far, I have stuck to Debka and Dear Raed.

Front page news

Interesting images of newspaper headlines around the world.

My Afghanistan Trip

If you haven't noticed, I am on a sort of Central Asia/Afghanistan reading spree. The history of Central Asia -- "the 'stans" -- has been an area that I have been interested in even before 9/11. My interest was originally piqued by an excellent book by Peter Hopkirk: The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Hopkirk is a great author of history that reads like a thriller.

The "Great Game" was an euphemism (like "Cold War") for the covert intrigues of Russian and British spies in Central Asia around the late 19th/early 20th century. At that time, Central Asia was still a collection of small independant khanates that seemed stuck in the 16th century. These khanates had changed little since the Silk Road was obviated by sea trade. Britain wanted to keep Russia out to have a buffer between India and Russia, and Russia wanted to expand -- and maybe had their sites set on India. Afghanistan became a major pawn in the Great Game, and Britain fought (and ultimately lost) three wars in Afghanistan to try and secure their interests.

Stop flashing your lights at me!

It's funny Kreblog mentioned this. Since I changed my bulbs a couple months ago, people are constantly flashing their high-beams at me, apparently under the impression I have my brights on, but I don't. A few weeks back some guy went all road-rage on me on the Spaulding because he thought I was shining my brights in his mirror. A few evenings ago a guy pulled up next to me at a stop light and told me my brights were on and were "blinding". Now, I don't have those funny blue Xeon or whatever-they-are lights. I just bought whatever the book in WalMart said to get, I swear!

Finally some good news

A certain individual at work is well-known for his profuse perspiration whenever he dances. Today he found this: Male sweat brightens women's mood > "Perspiration also reduces stress, alters menstrual cycle ... researchers collected samples from the underarms of men who refrained from using deodorant for four weeks. The extracts were then blended and applied to the upper lips of 18 women... [who] believed they were helping to test alcohol, perfume or lemon floor wax.." I wonder what other similar studies these researches could be working on...?

Nickelodeon Diplomacy

I don't want to be a "me too" blogger and just keep reposting things from other blogs but this MP3, via GraniteRants, is priceless. It is an Iraqi-in-exile calling into a radio show and challenging the guest, a peace activist, to explain exactly how "peace and justice" will help the Iraqi people. My favorite part is when he refers to her "Nickelodeon Diplomacy." Unfortunately, the Iraqi caller attacks her personally which weakens his case. Too bad, since he was exposing the fact that she did not have any idea what she was talking about. I can understand his outrage though -- for him this is entirely personal. Members of his family have been murdered by Saddam.

Pick up a history book!

How does stuff like this get in the New York Times? It Used to Be Just the Soldiers Who Died > These days, warfare has become much safer for the American foot soldier... Civilians, on the other hand, have had nothing but grief since the advent of the bomber. Before World War II, they were a relatively carefree lot." Ridiculous! There was perhaps a small window in history when western European wars were "gentlemen's wars" only between armies, but by in large rape, pillage, siege, slavery, starvation, and extermination of civilian populations have long been the norm in warfare.

French Toast Belgian Waffles

And as predicted, France begins to waffle on their anti-war stance: France to Aid U.S. in Case of Chemical War > France... said Iraqi use of biological or chemical weapons in a war could change France's position. "France would assess what measures of assistance to take in a spirit of friendship and solidarity," a ministry statement said. It gave no other details. I think that quote would be more accurate if you replaced "a spirit of friendship and solidarity" with "an attempt to guarantee our economic interests in post-war Iraq."

I am not a conservative hawk. I am not a conservative hawk. I am not a conservative hawk. Crap... am I?

Am I turning into a right-wing war monger? I just can not find a single intelligent, educated argument for an alternative to war. I find most of the peace protesters to be crazy at worst, ignorant and unrealistic at best. This video, as funny as it is, also seems unfortunately all too true. I got a chain email today, which says in part:

...followed by the usual plea to sign your name and forward to EVERYONE YOU KNOW. I believe this is what they mean by closing the barn door after horse has escaped. The thing that really gets me about this: As it says, Congress authorized the President to use force. The time for petitions was then -- we should've been lobbying our Congressmen to vote against the authorization if that is how we felt. That's what a representative government is all about. I wonder how many signatories to this petition actually wrote/called/faxed their Congressional reps? That's probably too much work, but hey, forwarding an email -- now there's a stand against war I'm not too lazy to take up! God help us if national policy is ever dictated by chain email: Economic recovery plan: Gates to pay government $100 for every email forwarded.

Forget CNN, Debka is where it's at

A while back I posted about Debka, a web site which purports to have the inside scoop on issues of global war, terrorism, intelligence and security. Some of their stuff sounds like conspiracy theory, but they were profiled on NPR, and apparently what they post often ends up being proven true. With that in mind, check out this very intriguing article which describes how on March 8th a US military officer was flown into Baghdad by Iraqi intelligence to talk to Saddam. The article includes a transcript of the supposed conversation, in which the US officer tells Saddam March 19 will be the deadline. I read this yesterday and thought it was a little too specific to be true, and then last night the President announce a 48-hour deadline -- March 19th. Anyway, you should really go read the entire dialog (scroll about halfway down to get to the good part).

Netflix Night: Training Day and Tin Men

This Saturday night we stayed home and worked on our Netflix log jam. We actually watched two movies back-to-back: Training Day and Tin Men. We've had Training Day out forever and have been avoiding it. It turned out to be as bad as a I feared -- well, ok, it was a good movie, but not up my alley. For me, it falls squarely into the too-stressful-for-entertainment category. Tin Men I enjoyed more, although I felt a little cheated by the end. They sort of set you up so you pretty much know what is going to end up happening, but they don't give you the satisfaction of actually seeing it happen.

I'm famous!

I forgot I ever talked to this woman, and just recently stumbled across this. Sort of startling to be reading an article and suddenly see yourself quoted: Sales pitch overload. There are a couple quotes in the article, but I think this is the funny one: Young recalls one salesperson who left multiple voice mail messages, each time sounding more irritable than the last. A few days later, Young received a package in the mail that contained a brick and a note that read: "I'm trying to build a relationship here! Call me!" ... "I'm sure it was supposed to be funny, but it just further irritated me. . . . Our receiving department wasted time handling that box," Young says. That brick nows props open the back door in the receiving area when the smokers are out there.

Grok Different

Here's a funny little Flash movie poking fun at the Apple "Switch" ads: Everyone looks spiffy with a Tux. Speaking of Apple Swicth ads, if you haven't seen them, the Will Ferrell ones are really funny.

Pork Chops with Lemon & Pink Peppercorn Cream Sauce

Tonight I made another attempt at recreating this dish. The last time I found the sauce a little bland. This time, I used a lot more peppercorns and crushed them as well as I could. I also used some lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, and a little lemon olive oil. The pink peppercorn flavor came through pretty well this time, but I still thought the sauce lacked any real lemon flavor. Next time, more zest!

Where's the Pied Piper when you need him?

I don't know if it was the warm weather or something else, but downtown Portsmouth was absolutely overrun with kids this afternoon. They looked to be about middle school age, and some of them were pretty squirrely lookin'. Now don't get me wrong: It's not that I patently dislike kids -- I did teach school for a little while -- but I don't like loud, obnoxious, snotty, unsupervised kids running amok. (Unless of course we're talking college-age women at Mardi Gras.) Driving into town, I almost hit some on Fleet St when they ran out into the road from around a blind corner. At lunch, I found probably 15 or so hanging out -- not eating. The guy behind the counter made a crack that he felt like he was running a community center and he should toss them some basketballs.

I ate quickly and moved on to my sanctuary of lunchtime tranquility: Starbucks. Alas, they had already commandeered it as their HQ. In and out they ran, in small groups, the air thick with chattering, shrieking, yelping, belching and chirpy ringtones, all punctuated by the pounding on the window when their cohorts passed by. The cacophony laid bare the limitations of the earphones that came with my iPod. When they finally withdrew, their former campsite was a wasteland of soda cans, candy wrappers and what appeared to be several cookies mashed into bits on the floor. Nary a Starbucks cup in site. Wearily, the staff started the clean-up operation.

I wonder if this is sort of how the Kuwaitis feel right now?

Black Fur brings Good luck

Via Kreblog: Black Fur Brings Cats Good Luck > Apparently black cats may have a genetic immunity to HIV. "Cats are survivors of a lot of the same medical disease onslaughts that affect humans: cancers, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's," he said. "Animals have the same things, but they don't have the benefit of a hospital and HMO and pharmacy. All they have is genetic diversity and natural selection." Hmmm, does anyone really consider a HMO a "benefit"?

PF Changs status: 9 visits in 4 cities

I am happy to report that our long weekend in Boston included two visits to PF Changs for dinner! I believe I have now sampled all the fruity martinis on the menu, and nearly all the entrées (except the seafood). Mmm mmm good. On the "PF Changs in Portsmouth" campaign, I did get an encouraging email from their real estate person saying he would be visiting Portland in March and might stop in and check out Portsmouth. Of course, I encourage anyone interested to tell them they should open a restaurant here.

Contact

Last night we saw the musical contact at the Wang Theatre. Contact won the Best Musical award at the 2000 Tonys. It is sort of peculiar for a musical: It is basically three unrelated short stories told through dance (to recorded music) with almost no dialogue. I really had no interest in this show, but my mother and wife wanted to see it. It turned out to be better than I expected. Even my step-father agreed it was pretty good. The last piece mainly featured swing dancing, so it was pretty entertaining to watch. I'm not sure I would suggest this show to someone, unless they had an interest in dance.

I like my jello to jiggle a little, if I'm not being too subtle

After the museum, we saw a matinée showing of Bringing Down the House. I really like Steve Martin, and this movie kept me laughing throughout. There were a couple moments where the audience was laughing so loud you missed lines. I was happy to see the movie did not follow some typical clichéd plot twists. Every seat in the theatre was packed, which I thought was strange for a matinée, but we were in Boston, so who knows... One thing I noticed was how racially mixed the audience was and yet everyone seemed to really enjoy the movie. It seems the film makers did a good job of poking fun at both cultures without offending either.

Boston MoS Egypt Exhibit

Today we went to the Quest for Immortality Egyptian exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. It is really amazing to see these statues that are thousands of years old right in front of you, some not even encased in glass. It is very tempting to reach out and touch something that old (but I didn't). I was really surprised at the precision of some of the heiroglyphs carved into the statues. The thing I found the most interesting was a little wooden stool. It looked like any modern stool might, painted blue, with dovetail joints, little nails and a woven rope seat. The stool was buried with a craftsman who had worked on one of the tombs. In one respect, it was in great shape for its age -- still painted and the rope seat intact -- but you could see that it was worn from use in its orginal life, which was sort of eerie.

As I looked at the huge head of Rameses the Great, I though he'd probably be thrilled to know so many people were coming through to check him out. I guess his quest for immortality suceeded. I wonder who will be looking at the huge heads from Rushmore 3,000 years from now?

Cat spaz

We had a nice long, relaxing weekend in Boston planned, Thursday through Sunday. We took Thurday off, planning to take the 3:07 Downeaster. We were a little concerned about the cats: When we leave them alone for too long, Bad Things happen to our furniture. No problem. We decided we would board them at a neat place in Berwick just for cats. It's sort of like a cat spa. Things didn't quite work out...

Unfortunately, when I called on Wednesday, they were full. I left my work number in case there were any cancellations. A few hours later the woman at cat spa called back to say they had a room "a little smaller than usual" which sounded like a tight fit for our three cats. I told her I'd have to call her back and consulted with my wife. We decided to just send one cat (the one we suspect being the culprit of Bad Things) so I called the cat spa back and she said we were all set.

A few hours later she called me back to say they were closed Sunday, so I would have to pick up our cat on Monday. I thought this would be a problem, and I was getting tired of all the phone tag and feeling like this was turning into more trouble than it was worth. However, after further discussion with my wife, I called them back and left a message confirming that we would be coming. When I got home that night there was a message from the cat spa on the answering machine confirming my confirmation. I was a little perplexed that after calling back all day at my work number, she had called home, but no matter -- things were set.

So at 2:00pm, I load up the one cat in question and head over to the cat spa. As soon as I step outside, my first thought is, "Whoa, it's snowed a lot more than a realized." From inside the apartment, I thought it was just flurries. Now I realize have to clean my car off, and that the driving is not going to be great. But it's not far -- downtown Dover to Berwick, just over the bridge from Somersworth. How bad could it be? Bad. Driving was horrendous. The roads didn't seem all that bad, but the people were awful. Central Ave and High St were almost stop-and-go the whole way. I finally arrived at the cat spa at 2:40pm, now worried about making it back to catch the 3:07pm train.

As I walk in and the woman says, all bright and cheery, "Hi! Is this Cleo!?" "Yup," I reply, "I'm kind of in a rush--" "Did you get my message?" she asks. Uh-oh. "I called the vet and Cleo's shots are not up-to-date so we can't take her. I left the message this morning." She left it at work, of course. I just said "Great" and left before I said anything I would regret. I was livid with the entire situation... Why had she called to confirm it was all set if it wasn't? Why hadn't she tried to also call at home? Why had the vet let us fall behind?--the vet says bring in the cats, I bring in the cats! To top it all off, given the snow, I was in risk of not making it back in time for the train.

I thought it might be smarter to take Broadway all the way back from Somersworth. At first this was working out great. The road had more snow on it than Central Ave and High St, but no traffic and I could keep at about 25mph... and then I found the school bus. Aaargh! At this point I thought the game was up -- there was no way I was going to make it back in time, and then miracuously, the school bus turned onto another road! I made it back just in time to drop off the cat, stuff some clothes into the suitcase, and drive over to the train station (yes we drove over to the train station). We even had about 5 minutes to spare sitting in the station.

And so began our "relaxing" long weekend. Thankfully, they serve all sorts of stress-relieving beverages in the café car on the train.

Duelin' Winos

Last night (Wed March 5) we attend the much-anticipated dual-vineyard wine tasting at Crescent City Bistro, along with our friends over at 4KMnD. This wine dinner featured wines from both Four Vines and Vigil. We had a familiarity with both these wineries: Vigil has been one of the house Zinfadels at CCB for some time, and we had tasted Four Vines at the Boston Wine Expo. Regular readers will remember that I had spoken not-so-nicely about the Four Vines winemaker, Christian, after meeting him at the Wine Expo (and he responded). Well, I take it all back. He was excellent and a lot of fun at the wine tasting. If you can find any Four Vines, I would highly suggest it.

The absolute stand-out of the night for me was the dessert: Chocolate Cherry Jubilee paired with Four Vines Port. The dessert alone was great, and when paired with the Port it was absolutely fabulous. The rest of the menu consisted of: taro root fritters, smoked salmon, four pork gumbo, and Carribean stewed chicken as the main entrée.

Computer Science in the middle ages

Whenever the topic of computers comes up, my step-father will tell you how much he hates computers, because he had to study them in college and he couldn't stand the f--n punch cards. I stumbled across this page from his old textbook. Amazing. Who knew that something like this would eventually lead to a world where you can pull up every conceivable genre of porn from home or work!?

Shanghai String Quartet

Last Saturday (March 1) we saw the Shanghai String Quartet at UNH. They were absolutely phenomenal. The sound of a really good string quartet is amazing -- if you close your eyes, it is hard to believe there are only 4 musicians performing. They opened with a piece called "The Matador's Prayer" by Joaquín Turina (1882-1949). Turina is a Spanish composer who I was not familiar with, but his piece was probably my favorite. It was followed by a piece by Wolf ("Serenade"), and then Shostakovich's Quartet no. 3 and Schubert's Quartet in d minor no. 14 .

The audience gave them a standing ovation. For an encore they played a traditional Chinese folk song arranged by their 2nd violinist, from their latest album "Chinasong" (their web site has some excerpts). If "Chinese traditional" makes you think of the music you'd hear in a Chinese restaurant, you'd be very surprised. They also have a really great web site, featuring wine recomendations and even a blog!

This was really a tremendous concert, and I think we're lucky to have something like the Celebrity Series bringing performers of this caliber to the area. As my wife noticed, the day after their UNH concert, the Shanghai Quartet was playing Carnegie Hall.

You say "efernet," I say "ethernet"

Lnotes' post about Bush's pronunciation of "Iraq" reminded me of an article I saw a while ago on Star Tribune (which no longer seems to be available) which suggested Bush may mispronounce words like "nuclear" on purpose. To paraphrase, the hypothesis was that it makes him appeal more to the "common man" who don't like them uppity East coast academics and West coast pinkos.

Actually, after reading that book about the development of the English language, it really seems that there is no such thing as "correct" pronunciation of anything in English. Especially when you consider England, you're dealing with people who have spoken that way forever and consider it part of their heritage. When they pronounce "th" as "f" they aren't doing it as a quaint colloquialism -- they believe they are pronouncing it as good Anglo-Saxon Old English should be, before those French Normans came in and corrupted the language (or something like that).

Xenos Yardley Zalmai

Interesting collection of thoughts by kids about their names: What's in a name? Plenty. I'm not crazy about my name because it's pretty boring and when you Google it you get some weirdos. I'd like something unique like Xenos Yardley Zalmai. It means: "favored guest" (Greek) "enclosed meadow" (Old English) "young" (Afghani). I'd really prefer a last name with more syllables, but it seems practical to stick with something that still means the same thing as my current last name. I think Xenos Y. Zalmai would look great on a book cover (if I ever wrote a book), or be very distinctive if I ever became a famous composer ("Did they play the Schubert?" "No they played the Young Zalmai"). But mostly: How cool would those initials be!? Here pick your own: boys or girls.

Douro Altano 1999

Last night we tried a bottle of Douro Altano 1999. I bought this on a whim. We really like a particular wine from the Douro region in Portugal (Sentus Douro 1997), so I thought I'd try another. The state store I was in only has two other Douros to choose from. I was really very happy with it, especially for about $8 a bottle. Wine Spec says: "A medium-bodied and quaffable red from Portugal, with plenty of plum, pepper and berry flavors and a clean finish. Drink now. Score: 86." (If you're wondering: quaff (kwf, kwf, kwôf) v. tr. To drink (a beverage) heartily: quaffed the ale with gusto. I also Googled "quaffable" -- it pretty much only shows up in reference to wine).

Sometimes third place is best

Joel (of "on Software" fame) wrote a little bit about the concept of a "third place" in a recent article. (Kreblog also mentioned this but I didn't get what he was talking about until I read Joel's article.) ...humans need a third place, besides work and home, to meet with friends, have a beer, discuss the events of the day, and enjoy some human interaction... But capitalist society has been eroding those third places, and society is left impoverished. In "Bowling Alone," Robert Putnam brings forth, in riveting and well-documented detail, reams of evidence that American society has all but lost its third places. Over the last 25 years, Americans "belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often." ... For too many people, life consists of going to work, then going home and watching TV. Work-TV-Sleep-Work-TV-Sleep.

This is a topic I have wondered about, in fact I bought the book mentioned above ("Bowling Alone") about a while ago but have not yet read it. Look around any small city here: Masonic Temple, Odd Fellows Hall, Order of Eagles, The Grange, Moose Lodge, VFW, American Legion... who has time nowadays to be part of these? And yet, look at the size of some of their buildings -- they obviously used to garner huge membership. Is it all the fault of television and the Internet?

Your flight attendant may be used as a flotation device

Wow, now I really wish I was one of those lucky guys at work who travel all the time: Introducing Hooters Air. Actually, I think the most exciting part of this is: Does this mean I can now get boneless buffalo tenders in-flight?

Idiots. Absolute f—ing idiots.

For me, PETA just crossed the line from activists with position I could respect (although not necessarily agree with) to absolute fascist radical wackos. This site is one of the most offensive things I have ever seen: www.masskilling.com.