Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

December 2004

<< November 2004 | January 2005 >>

Happy New Year to everyone
the British and the Mau Mau in Kenya - Economist
"parallels with American foreign policy today are apparent enough. The lack of real accountability, the rough justice, ignoring international conventions, maltreating prisoners, detention without trial"
post-disaster mass burials do more harm than good - ReliefWeb [via Wikipedia]
"no scientific evidence exists that bodies of disaster victims increase the risk of epidemics... cadavers in fact pose less risk of contagion than living people"
record donations by UK public to tsunami appeal - Guardian
edible hiking equipment - EAT
China encourages anti-Japanese hate - Guardian
this is scary: that kind of nationalism is a disaster waiting to happen
a dangerous life for Iraqis working for the Western media - Times [via AntiWar]
they should pay their cleaner more than 30 pounds a month!
The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 [review]
77 book reviews this year is a record: I wrote 76 in 1992, 1995, and 1996, but back then many were one-liners
some tourists continue holidaying regardless - Guardian
but the tsunami may have severe long-term effects on tourism
photos from my last bushwalk - danny [temporary]
thumbnails are linked to larger images, though not all of those are up yet
the tsunami hits Thailand: eyewitness accounts - IHT
Berlin Wall memorial is controversial - NYT
should the US recognise North Korea? - Asia [via AntiWar]
policeman who threatened to torture a kidnapper is found guilty - FOE [via CT]
Iraqi Christians were better off under Saddam Hussein - Informed
quirky, innovative approaches to government by the mayor of Bogota - Harvard [via ProRev]
such as using mimes to control traffic
the Law Lords, the House of Lords, and the Liberal Democrats - Times
holding the line against increasing state power in the UK
new documents reveal extensive war crimes - WP [via AntiWar]
"the appalling truth is that there has been no remedy for the documented torture and killing of foreign prisoners by this American government"
worker unrest in Guangdong factories - Guardian
a BSD advocate interviews Richard Stallman - LinuxDevCent [via /.]
winter partying in Reykjavik, Iceland - IHT
"where weekend throngs of natives and foreigners drink and dance the long winter nights away"
Bush and Sharon bring Blair to heel - Scotsman
learning how to learn photography - Dan Heller [via DPR]
is North Korea going to come apart? - Guardian
"growing speculation among diplomats and observers that Kim Jong-il is losing his grip on power"
US pharmaceutical firms fear Michael Moore - Guardian
"internal notices to their workforces warning them to be on the lookout for 'a scruffy guy in a baseball cap' who asks too many questions"
Bedouin on the front-line in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - Haaretz
improving freedom of the press, worldwide - Economist
"When journalists were mere mouthpieces of the state, the state had no reason to harm them. "
heat-tolerant algae may save coral reefs - NYT
Imre Kertesz's novel - Kaddish for a Child Not Born [review]
an interview with a journalist embedded with marines in Falluja - C4 [via AntiWar]
20 US soldiers killed by Iraqi rocket attack - CNN
how long before a Beirut-style attack with 100+ killed?
a Christmas(TM) short story by China Mieville - Socialist Review [via CT]
an update on North Korean nukes - CSM
Indian anti-pornography laws put Ebay subsidiary's CEO in jail - Guardian
the Christian version of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer... - Swiftreport [via JWalk]
... and the year in verse - Economist
methinks they should stick to economics
geopolitics of the Chinese economic boom - Asia
"were Christianity to disappear, Santa Claus would live on in China as a minor prosperity god"
a history of GI Joe - AntiWar
the world's fastest elevator? - Register
Icelanders find peacekeeping participation controversial - IHT
a blog about bats - Flying Fur [via JWalk]
Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition [review]
The Rise and Fall of Literary Censorship in Australia
building synthetic life - BBC
legal violence against women in Iran - Guardian
a 19 year old with a mental age of 6 faces flogging and execution
residents still can't return to Falluja - Yahoo [via AntiWar]
"Unfortunately the insurgents are not cooperating like we would like them to"
the hidden costs of Wal-Mart - NYROB
5 years of extra life with the Polymeal? - BMJ [via ProRev]
"The evidence based recipe included wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruits, vegetables, garlic, and almonds."
a Mexican football club signs a woman (for the men's team) - Guardian
a Pride and Prejudice quiz - Guardian [via Moor]
the Armenian genocide an issue in Turkey's bid for EU membership - BBC [via HH]
a key case for land ownership in Israel - HH
"the least the Supreme Court can do is extend the principle of equality to JNF land, and end the anomaly of a public authority administering a restrictive covenant over an eighth of the country"

my "best books" read in 2004
Holldobler & Wilson - The Ants
ecology, ethology and evolutionary biology
Primo Levi - The Periodic Table
stories of a chemist working with elements
Mesa Selimovic - Death and the Dervish
a spiritual crisis amidst Ottoman Bosnian politics
plus
Robert Irwin - Islamic Art: Art, Architecture and the Literary World
Danilo Kis - Garden, Ashes
Amelie Nothomb - Loving Sabotage
Ilan Pappe - A History of Modern Palestine
Wole Soyinka - Aké
Dubravka Ugresic - The Culture of Lies
Peter Weiss - Marat/Sade

war correspondent Chris Hedges on the trauma of war - Alternet
the Society for the Eradication of Television - webwm [via JWalk]
the occasional nature documentary is pretty much all I ever watch on tv
Bobby Fisher may move to Iceland?! - Guardian
an interview with Amartya Sen - AsiaSource [via CT]
a sparkling existentialist comedy - Chinese Letter [review]
2200 searches of UK anti-war protestors produced... a kite - Register
Google's A-Z "top of the Web" - Register
more Le Guin on the Earthsea miniseries - Trashotron [via ekumen]
"a generic MacMagic movie with a meaningless plot based on sex and violence"
Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy - AEI [via RtoS]
"Those who have hated the United States most hold the keys to spreading democracy among the faithful"
the US calls up a 70 year old for service in Afghanistan - Marion [via ProRev]
in Ramadi, US soldiers are totally isolated from the people - MEO [via AntiWar]
and fighting continues in Falluja - MEO
the US and foreign aid - Global Issues [long]
five authors look back at their first books - Telegraph [via Moor]
Antony Beevor, Ali Smith, Ian Rankin, David Almond, Margaret Atwood
Microsoft wants "ethical fair trade" in software?! - Reg
I wrote this five years ago...
the KGB has a poisonous history - CSM
"The situation seems to be deteriorating daily" - Baghdad Burning
racy, informal, blow-by-blow reports on the Kazaa trial - APCmag
the bridge on the Drina is in danger of collapsing - Guardian - Andric's novel [review]
three interesting articles - Linux Weekly News
on the XFCE desktop, PDF viewers, and Debian soft porn
some fascinating scientific microphotography - EOS
with informative captions
Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning - Ideogram [review]
an update on the UK ID Cards Bill - CL
Guernica forgotten: air power and Iraq - TomsDispatch [via Informed]
"Is the repeated bombing, strafing, and missiling of heavily populated civilian urban centers and the partial or total destruction of cities such a humdrum event that no one thinks it worth the bother to attend to?"
a candid report on Iraq from the CIA - Start [via Informed]
there have been 5500 US deserters since the Iraq war began - CBS [via AntiWar]

Jamie Honan was guest blogging
Micro Stories - StorySouth [Making Light]
Very Short Stories.
Storiopathy - thecorpuscle [Making Light]
Stalking, story, voyeur
Speculating in Old German Bonds - Spiegel [Crooked Timber]
Murky tale. New Spiegel English Language Service.
More on Biometric Controls in Fallujah - El Reg
Urban Warfare.
Rumsfeld, the Military Irrelevance of Fallujah, and Retina Scans - Juan Cole
Demolition of Rumsfeld's Iraq visit.
Deriding Derrida - Troppo
In reality, he was a substitute second baseman.
Surveillance Devices Bill - Indymedia [slash comment]
Widens the circumstances in which they can be used
Aus: Tougher Copyright Laws - Age [slash]
Enable people other than copyright owners to force ISPs to take down material
Coca plants in Columbia Genetically Modified - Wired
Suspense journalism. Spoiler, they're not. Financial Times says they are.
Tim Hunkin, tinker artist, engineer - TimHunkin
Hours of fun. Be sure to visit the machines at Southwold Pier.
History of Safes and Safe Breaking - TimHunkin [Haddock]
Alas, criminals today tend to favour relatively crude techniques.
How We Work - rodcorp [Haddock]
Work habits of the famous
McDonalds and soft power - Quiggin
Economic explanation of McDonalds, Starbucks. Shows their limits.
What if: PetroEuros - American Street [General Glut]
What if OPEC had switched to Euros in Nov 2003? A thought game.
We never knew - Georgetown Bookshop [Making Light]
How much was known about Hitler before he came into power?
The 2004 Good Gift Game Guide - Defective Yeti
Board Games, card games.
Ray Oldenburg - PPS [Haddock]
Third places - in contrast to the first and second places of home and work.
Left Handedness - Pulse [slash]
Being left handed has more to do with motor skills. Chimp studies.
Speculation over IBM PC div sale - El Reg
Consumer PC's based on Power. More likely than buying Apple, but would still be a very bold move.
On Fanfic, ID Vortex, Good Writing - Making Light [JH]
Narrative, connecting. Some useful links at the end. Nielsen Hayden.
Homeland Security Czar Spray - Register [JH]
Yes, but is he any good?
Alternate View of Slashdot - Alsterslash [JH]
A different way to view slashdot comments
Comic Lit Crit - Movie Poop [JH]
Histories of comic characters. Silver Surfer is one hero with angst. Stan Lee etc.

insurgents overrun a Baghdad police station - Independent [via AntiWar]
got armadillo problems? - MSU [via JWalk]
the boom in green architecture - Economist
infralapsarianism versus supralapsarianism - BELIEVE [via Far]
finding the hardest simple sliding-block puzzle - Economist [via /.]
the US media ignores Iraqi civilian deaths - DailyStar [via Informed]
North Korean tourism has some way to go - CSM
New Zealand now has fewer than 40 million sheep - Guardian
down from a high of 70 million in 1982
evidence for ancient breeding of corn - Nature
monopoly price gouging with essential textbooks? - CT
1,000 US troops guard the road from Baghdad to the airport - WP
but the US embassy is now using helicopters for the trip
a plan to use drones to get information into North Korea - NKzone
a law-enforcement horror story from the UK - Telegraph [via ProRev]
arrested for possession of a penknife
food in Finland - Crikey
I've started a new "photography" area - photography
I bought a new camera two weeks ago - an Olympus E1 DSLR
who owns review copies: the editor or the institution? - Kit
dannyreviews.com is a one-person show, so this isn't an issue for me
the threat to newspapers - Wired
"focus-group participants declared they wouldn't accept a Washington Post subscription even if it were free"
Taiwan gets a rating system for books - TaipeiTimes [via CR]
"Publishers refusing to label restricted publications can opt to wrap them in plastic or sell them in special [adults only] sections of the store."
the most looked up words of the year - Merriam-Webster [via Panda]
"blog" is #1, "peloton" is a new word for me, and "defenestration" came in 10th
checkpoint service is brutalising Israeli soldiers - WP [via AntiWar]
the life of a gay plumber-activist in Jerusalem - Guardian [via AntiWar]
the culture of force - Physics Today [via Cosma]
"If F = ma is formally empty, microscopically obscure, and maybe even morally suspect, what's the source of its undeniable power?"
Western hypocrisy about Ukraine? - Guardian [John Laughland] - Guardian [about Laughland]
homophobic Boy Scouts a precedent for barring military recruiters from unis - NYT [via Kos]
Defense Science Board releases report on "strategic communication" - CSM - report [PDF]

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Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee