Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

June 2006

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complaints filed over EU sharing citizen data with the US - CT
poppy eradication in Afghanistan is increasing Taliban support - CSM
Liberia tries to build a professional army - HH
terrorists must be Muslim - OpEd [via MSpeak]
so a Catholic nicknamed "Sunny" becomes "Sunni"...
Gaza attacks leave hundreds of thousands without water and power - Guardian
"Israel's electricity company could make a handsome profit from the army's destruction"
Iceland and Australia the happiest places to live? - Guardian
but did they poll the Icelanders in August or in January?
the computer game Reservoir Dogs is banned in Australia - AmongDust [via EFA]
the movie is legal, but there's no such thing as a legal adult computer game in Australia...
tolls and taxes hold India back - CSM
"We are 28 different countries ... In many respects, the European Union is a more coherent polity."
more Homeland Security insanity - Chron [via ProRev]
returning from Pakistan, but quizzed about t-shirt sales
Alasdair Gray's socialist neo-Gothic novel - Poor Things [review]
humans as microbial colonies - Tele
with some totally gratuitous references to Hollywood stars
a long appreciation of SF novelist CJ Cherryh - LiteraryReview [via Wiki]
Torture Awareness Month [via Kos]
"June 26th is the date that the United Nations has marked as the International Day in Support of Survivors and Victims of Torture"
getting ready for hundreds of millions of Chinese tourists - Economist
Microsoft won't support Dzongkha for fear of the Chinese: enter Linux - Lang
"The logo of Tux the penguin in monk's robes is so cute it alone should motivate you to run Dzongkha Linux"
101 uses for a John Howard [via Barista]
13 cartoons so far
David Tiley survives - Barista
and returns to blogging with an insightful account of his hospital stay
ominous changes in the Greenland ice sheet - LA [via Majik]
"From cores of ancient Greenland ice, researchers have identified at least 20 sudden climate changes in the last 110,000 years, in which average temperatures fluctuated as much as 15 degrees in a single decade."
ask.com now blocks any search even *about* child sex - GGsystem [via RW] - "child sex helpline"
2006-07-12 note: they seem to have fixed this
air power is little use against a guerilla insurgency - D-N-I [via Billmon]
"The Taliban has expressed its thanks to the U.S. Air Force for greatly increasing its popular support"
African economies have been doing better - Economist
"Last year Angola's economy grew by an estimated 15.5%, the fastest on the continent"
Tinfoil Hat Linux and other niche distros - APC [via OSWALD]
Microsoft is spending big to stop ODF in Massachusetts - ConsInfo [via OSWALD]
the US doesn't bother being polite any more - Economist
the US starts moving from oil to natural gas - CSM
timing missiles to do maximum damage to bystanders - MSpeak
"Firing a missile to get some bad guys in an urban area is questionable, at the very least, Shooting a second one seven minutes later is terrorism, pure and simple."
Ann Coulter attacks biology and biologists - Pharyngula
the US tortured a mentally ill prisoner... - WP [via CT]
... and took all the plots he confessed to seriously
criticism of Australian smartcard proposal - CRN [via Link]
"I can't revoke my thumb without chopping it off"
Ahmadinejad is as popular as Bush is unpopular - Guardian
an Episcopalian blogging church politics - BlogDaniel
debates over "non celibate gay bishops"
A Modern History of Hong Kong [review]
an overview of the political situation in Somalia - HH
fun new comic - Cheshire Crossing [via Irregular]
Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy in an asylum
a critical look at Microsoft's FlexGo idea - Accra [via RW]
"the development equivalent of greenwashing - an initiative guaranteed to grab headlines, but surprisingly unfriendly to the goals it seeks to achieve"
secret embassy letter reveals something of Iraq's trauma - E+P [via RW]
Google is building huge data centres in Oregon and Georgia - SMH
India joins Thailand and Singapore as "health tourism" destination - AJ [vi RW]
the US Episcopalians elect a woman as primate - Guardian
"There were rumours that some conservative bishops had voted for Bishop Schori as a means of accelerating the disintegration of the church."
Japan wins majority vote on whaling commission - Guardian
"Pro-whaling countries still need 75% of votes in the IWC to end the moratorium but last night's vote was seen as a big step towards that goal"
trading negative films and books: the US and Turkey - Slate
Montenegro and Japan sign peace treaty after 100 years at war - WPH [via AntiWar]
"a technical state of war since the 1904-05 Russo-Japan War, when Montenegro sided with Russia"
Bolton runs away from questioning by Oxford students - CP [via ProRev]
fun sounding Icelandic detective novelist - Guardian [via RW] - Amazon
the winning "terrorist movie plot" - Schneier
an attack on Grand Coulee dam
James Joyce's grandson is a control freak - NYer [via Kit]
"Over the years, the relationship between Stephen Joyce and the Joyceans has gone from awkwardly symbiotic to plainly dysfunctional."
a speed shootout between perl and python - Debian [via LWN]
the site allows comparisons between over two dozen programming languages
a landmine just happened to go off while Israel was shelling - Guardian
Ursula Le Guin on Jan Morris' Hav - Guardian - Amazon
the taxonomy of Barney - Improbable [via ProRev]
Manila Ransomed: The British Assault on Manila in the Seven Years War [review]
complex currency markets now link Iceland krona and Australian dollar - NineMSN
Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues [review]
are gyms a breeding ground for terrorism? - Slate [via 3q]
even Kant would understand Guantanamo suicides - left2right
"What we would say of the slave is, not that he lacks regard for human life, but that he shows precisely that regard which is appropriate to it."
Ehud Olmert and Israel's "mean little empire" - NYROB
coffee increases systematic thinking and facilitates persuasion - Cosma
responsible for the rise of modern rationalism?
should Iraqi militias be absorbed by the army or given civil service jobs? - Gulf
and what about the peshmerga?
the Iraqi city of Ramadi faces destruction - LA [via AntiWar]
excerpts from seven reporters on life in wartime - NYer - perm
searching for Zerzura: the exploration of the Libyan desert - SaudiAramco
Brits abandon French wines for Australian - SMH
"a billion bottles of French and Italian wine are to be turned into disinfectant and biofuels because no-one is prepared to buy and drink them"
Aus PM John Howard's father was a welfare cheat - SMH
he used his rights as a returned serviceman as a front for someone else
Korea's online gaming problem - IHT
the state of the UK ID card system in 2016 - AntiPope
the Spatial Way: GNOME and the Nautilus file browser - ByteBot
underreported labour unrest in Bangladesh - MeghBarta
"a garment worker in Bangladesh received only 6c as wage per hour, when the figure is 20c in India and Pakistan, 30c in China, 40c in Sri Lanka and 78c in Thailand"
the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta - Guardian [via ProRev]
20 new blogs join scienceblogs.com - Clock
success for the smear campaign against Juan Cole - Billmon
Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Satan, and Christ - WoCrap [via CT]
how the US fucked up in Somalia - NYT [via AntiWar]
skyscrapers - Economist
solar plant to provide shade for Portuguese sheep - Reg
controversial toponyms - ChicagoPress
the US tries to rule Afghanistan from the air - Fox [via AntiWar]
UK troops who drowned Iraqi get off in court-martial - Times
if the evidence of looters doesn't count, I guess they can now be murdered with impunity
Text Processing in Python [review]
Chilean strike run by activists as young as 11 - Guardian
"Admiration for the students is nearly universal, with some 87% of Chileans polled saying they support the movement."
20 things everyone needs to know - Independent [via RW]
living on monkey chow for a week - AngryMan [via JWalk]
criticism of East Timor's prime minister is largely uninformed - Age [via Crikey]
Rob and Ken designed UTF-8 over dinner - Kuhn
ethnic cleansing in Baghdad - Riverbend [via RW]
"At least a car bomb is indiscriminate. It doesn't seek you out because you're Sunni or Shia."
Pentagon to abandon key Geneva convention rule - SMH
wants to humiliate and degrade its prisoners
ethnic tensions in Iran - Asia
by train from Cairo to Luxor - Billmon
confusion as half of France takes today as a holiday - Guardian
deserts face grim future with climate change - Guardian
Christian anarchists in the UK - Ekklesia [via RW]
a conservative critique of Australian PM's approach to IR - Brookes
raid sparks "piracy" debate in Sweden - IHT
reality real-estate inspections? - Telegraph [via RW]
"Attractive film and stage actors are cast in the roles of cheerful-looking parents and their angelic children, recreating scenes of domestic bliss to impress buyers."
solid argument that fraud won Bush the 2004 election - CD
Salam Pax is having trouble getting video interviews in Baghdad - Shut
a specialised tool for splitting mangoes - Amazon [via sales]
I've just upgraded my desktop machines to Fedora Core 5 - Redhat
a detailed look at the sub-$100 laptop project - Accra [via RW]
this project sounds more interesting than I'd thought
learning to be a Javanese princess - Star - IMDB
a history of book-banning in modern India - BusStandard
a "top 30 travel books" selection - WorldHum [via CR]
the only one I've read is The Road to Oxiana
Nuremberg precedents limit travel options for Israeli military leaders - JewishWeek [via RW]
welfare doesn't trap the poor, but helps them escape - Kos
Haditha is just the tip of the iceberg - AntiWar - Truthout

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Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee