Archive for May, 2004

2004.05.13

Reactions

Following yesterday’s news of the beheading of an American, the Arab world seems strangely quiet. Then again why should I be suprised by this? They don’t have freedom of the press, and even where there is some leniency in what they can publish there is always fear of recrimination and retaliation.

That being said here (and to a lesser extent here) is a summary of Arabic reactions so far. I hope that this reaction quoted here is the most common reaction from people on the streets.

[O]ne Baghdad citizen, Adel Karim, told CNN: “If they are Muslims, the messenger of Allah, Mohammed, says, ‘Don’t kill, even sick dogs.’”

What suprises me is the reactions of, “perhaps America deserves this for starting a cycle of violence.” I do not believe for a minute President Bush’s assertion that we went into Iraq to combat terror, but I also do not believe we started a cycle of violence. If anything, America is too reactionary on a great many issues. We reacted to the September 11th attacks, we reacted to the stringing up and mutilation of four Americans in Fallujah… Unfortunately we are now reacting to prisoner abuses, too.

“We didn’t start the fire,” goes the song, and unfortunately it might never end until the Muslim majority makes up their minds. That won’t happen until these terrorists and “activists” start killing Muslims as well as westerners. Maybe then there will be an effective reaction against these terrorists and an end to the cycle of violence.

2004.05.12

Bottle and Socket

A few more pictures, these from the downstairs room. The bottles have been gathered over time from various BBQs, and the light socket is one of the prime sources of electricity in the down below. There’s also an extra “bonus” picture that carries on with the finger pics from the other day.

Read the rest of this entry…

2004.05.12

Atrocity

While there’s a media frenzy about the prison abuses in Abu Ghraib and how horrible we Americans are, why isn’t there a proponderance of disgust and vilification of the broadcast (the web is a medium of broadcast) of the beheading of an American civilian by Islamic extremists? Don’t get me wrong, the prison abuses need to be addressed and some people must be punished.

But freaking beheading a human being? Not even quickly with a sword but slowly sawing with a knife while he screams then holding his head in the air? Doesn’t anyone get how inhuman these beasts are? They are taint the air they breathe. I can’t believe anyone would think this is “good” for the cause of freedom, however ill founded that belief is. When American officials said, “Heads are gonna roll over the abuses at Abu Ghraib,” I don’t think they had this in mind.

And on the streets of the Islamic world? What do they believe? Where is their voice? I can’t even express the outrage I feel and I dare not think about it any longer because It. Makes. Me. Sick.

2004.05.06

Finger Pictures

Not long ago I saw something on bOING bOING about someone taking close up pictures of their fingers and hands that looked rather… erotic and/or pornographic. Today I had a moment of boredom. To alleviate that boredom, I tried to see what could be done with a phonecam and a few fingers. Read the rest of this entry…

2004.05.04

Cartography Collection

I found the David Rumsey Map Collection through an article in the CSM. The maps in the collection are pretty astonishing. A warning for Safari users, their site is none too friendly. IE seems ok, but still wonky at times.

Looking at old maps is always a great inspiration for me. Sometimes I still wonder if i should have gone into cartography.

2004.05.04

Kakistocracy

I saw this on someone’s weblog (sorry, I don’t remember who right now!) and thought it was a great word:

Kakistocracy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. [Greek kakistos, worst, superlative of kakos, bad; see caco- + -cracy.]

2004.05.04

Homemade Steadycam

Yesterday Sean and I built a homemade steadycam following these instructions. While it didn’t cost under $14 as the site claims, it was close to $20 excluding the equipment we had to buy.

Pretty soon we’re going to run out of reasons to not be shooting… something!

2004.05.01

Muslim Moderates

There was a rally recently to attempt to get moderate Muslims a voice and a confidence they seem, at least here in America, to lack elsewhere. Ironically, this rally was held here in America, in Arizona to be specific.

Some are saying the rally was a failure. Only around 400 people showed up, and many of them were not Muslim at all. Yet, as the article suggests,

It was a humble beginning that can grow into something large and strong. Jasser points out to me that “The beginnings of every great movement in our great nation’s history of freedom began in a small way.” He notes also that American Muslims, being predominantly first-generation immigrants, are still getting grounded. With time, he expects, “the vast majority of American Muslims will listen to the message of our rally and find complete agreement with its statement of faith.”

I am hoping this is true, and I am hoping that moderate Muslims around the world will start to speak out against people killing themselves and others in the name of Allah. It would go a long way towards calming the American fear of Islamic terrorists which is one reason why we are invading Middle Eastern countries. If you don’t believe that at least believe that a few people in power in America will have far less excuse to meddle in the Middle East if terrorism were to wane instead of wax powerful.

2004.05.01

I Want To Buy OOKEE.com

A few days ago an email arrived in my inbox with the subject, “i want to buy ookee.com.” I almost deleted it assuming it was a new spam format, but something made me look (I would later learn he left a comment on OOKEE.com here).

I was confused and mildly amused at the offer from a gentleman I would later learn is from Kuwait named Sultany. I was confused because why would anyone want to buy OOKEE.com? I was amused because, well, why would anyone want to by OOKEE.com?

Friends said if I was offered between $10K and $20K I should take it no matter what the reason given and, honestly, I probably would have. Mookee said $1.27 million would be his asking price. Instead I asked Sultany, “What would be the purpose of your acquisition of OOKEE.com? What would you use the domain name for?”

His answer suprised me, if only because I forget that in some parts of the world they say “ookee” instead of “OK”. Sultany is a big fan of PHP, a web scripting language and, as he says, I will use this domain to say to visitors “yes, php is ookee to learn and use not asp from Microsoft.” I am no Micro$oft fan, but it wasn’t a good enough reason for me to sell OOKEE.com and he was understanding.

I have to admit that the idea that Sultany might represent a large corporation interested in OOKEE.com for their latest product sort of got me excited for a while. It made me wonder if OOKEE.com could eventually become a brand of notice. Then I realized, “No freaking way OOKEE is ever going to make you money, just have as much fun with it as you can.” So that’s what I’ll continue doing.

I have enjoyed the exchanges I’ve had with Sultany since this started, and as he predicted it is not as long as a George Bernard Shaw script. :)