A Postmodern Desi

Catherine bought these two awesome LED-lit glass globes for my front yard when it was put in a few weeks ago. They were early birthday presents from her.

It looks like one of them was stolen sometime today.

...and why is he acting like a fool on TV?

The author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" spoke at Google a few days ago. I've seen a part of this talk, and I suspect it might be interesting for those of you who eat.

If you have contacts at either Google, or Yahoo!:

Frequent readers of this LJ know what I do for a living. I need to find my counterparts in both companies, if such exist.

Please email me out-of-band.

Thanks

I love the weather, I love my garden ... it really is the simple things.

I remember from my training that at or below maneuvering speed (Va) meant that one could cause any abrupt control surface deflections without damaging the aircraft - the aircraft would stall before breaking.

How then to explain AA Flight 587? Overly aggressive use of the rudder (from one side full deflection to the other side full deflection) caused the rudder and tail fin to come off ... but I think most pilots prior to the accident would have said that such a maneuver would have been okay considering the speed of the aircraft.

awesome, via rivka

May 1, 2003:

President Bush declares Mission Accomplished on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

here's the running commentary from Free Republic on that day.

Suck it, liberals.

Arrived in San Jose last night.

Yes, I did feel the shakes when I was in Reno. No, it really didn't bother me. The one I did feel was a 3.0

Still, a swarm of 356 quakes in one week around Reno is a very curious thing...

The murder trial of Hans Reiser (of ReiserFS fame) has been concluded, and he's been found guilty of first degree murder. This has been something of a celebrity trial for the SF Bay Area techie crowd.

I guess the "Geek Defense" (e.g. he's too smart and logical to understand that his "innocent" actions after Nina disappeared might make him look like he's covering up her murder) didn't work. Nor should it - I know plenty of geeky people who have varying degrees of sociability, but it's not like they're covering up for murder!

It's possible that the decaf latte I ordered this evening at dessert was of the caffeinated variety.

This would explain why I'm wide awake at 0100.

However, I did get an email a few minutes ago from mrrouter that the amateur callsign N6ILG has become available, and I've used my insomnia to file the requisite FCC request to modify my license accordingly.

I've got a quick work-trip scheduled for tomorrow evening to head out to Reno, NV. I'll be there for less than 24 hrs.

Happy Birthday guardian_tiger!

The HBO series "John Adams" has been running, and I've recorded all the episodes, and watched about half of them. One of the things I've come to find inspiring are the opening credits, in which a number of famous Revolutionary War flags are displayed.



I have become curious as to what the flags were used for, and who made them. It turns out that the "Join or Die" motto was created by Benjamin Franklin (the man did everything, didn't he?) The striped flag with the rattlesnake may be historically inaccurate - It's called the "First Navy Jack" and is currently the Jack flown by all US Navy warships since 2002 and during the duration of the War on Terrorism.



So yes, a montage on television had gotten me interested in all sorts of early American flags. Everyone needs a hobby, I guess, but I've found through the variation and types of flags, you can piece together some of the drama of those times.

Dear LJ friends/enemies/others:

I'm trying to find some thoughtful analysis on why it seems that the global food system is going haywire. Confluence of events? Is it the media? Something else?

If you've come across any really good analysis, please drop me a link.

Thanks.

surlyone reminds us why it's important to get the right gear if you're going to ride a motorcycle.

I'm glad you're okay, man...

As I described a few days ago, Chinese activists attacked CNN.com, rendering it unusable for a few hours. Dancho Danchev has some good followup.

The DDoS attack against CNN.com, whether successful or not in terms of the perspective of complete knock-out, which didn't happen, is a perfect and perhaps the most recent example of a full scale people's information warfare in action. Utilizing the bandwidth of the over 200 million nationalism minded Chinese Internet users, can greatly outpace any botnet's capacity if coordinated, or though the use of automated DIY tools, like the ones we've seen released for the purpose of attacking CNN.com

Dancho references a "malicious culture of participation," where like-minded novice cyber-warriors incensed about $CAUSE can band together and create a DDoS that does not rely upon massive botnet arrays. It sounds very web 2.0, and I expect someone to put up a YouTube video of someone going "Leave CNN ALONE!"

There was a fundamental weakness in the CNN attack, though ... almost all the attackers were located in mainland China, so all CNN did to restore service was block incoming traffic from certain geographical regions ... blackholes are a really nice thing, y'know. While CNN did go down for a few hours, most security people I've talked to about the subject consider the attack to be a failure, but perhaps a portent of things to come...


EDIT: BBC has a good wrapup of things going on inside of China coinciding with the DDoS.

A college student challenged Ashcroft on torture, last night at Knox College. It was a very heated q&a session with the former AG at a very liberal college, but I thought this snippet was worth reposting. Remember that a recent ABC story quoted Ashcroft attending high-level meetings about "enhanced interrogation" :

ME: First off, Mr. Ashcroft, I'd like to apologize for the rudeness of some of my fellow students. It was uncalled for--we can disagree civilly, we don't need that. (round of applause from the audience, and Ashcroft smiles) I have here in my hand two documents. One of them, you know, is the text of the United Nations Convention against Torture, which, point of interest, says nothing about "lasting physical damage"...

ASHCROFT: (interrupting) Do you have the Senate reservations to it?

ME: No, I don't. Do you happen to know what they are?

ASHCROFT: (angrily) I don't have them memorized, no. I don't have time to go around memorizing random legal facts. I just don't want these people in the audience to go away saying, "He was wrong, she had the proof right in her hand!" Because that's not true. It's a lie. If you don't have the reservations, you don't have anything. Now, if you want to bring them another time, we can talk, but...

ME: Actually, Mr. Ashcroft, my question was about this other document. (laughter and applause) This other document is a section from the judgment of the Tokyo War Tribunal. After WWII, the Tokyo Tribunal was basically the Nuremberg Trials for Japan. Many Japanese leaders were put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture. And among the tortures listed was the "water treatment," which we nowadays call waterboarding...

ASHCROFT: (interrupting) This is a speech, not a question. I don't mind, but it's not a question.

ME: It will be, sir, just give me a moment. The judgment describes this water treatment, and I quote, "the victim was bound or otherwise secured in a prone position; and water was forced through his mouth and nostrils into his lungs and stomach." One man, Yukio Asano, was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor by the allies for waterboarding American troops to obtain information. Since Yukio Asano was trying to get information to help defend his country--exactly what you, Mr. Ashcroft, say is acceptible for Americans to do--do you believe that his sentence was unjust? (boisterous applause and shouts of "Good question!")

ASHCROFT: (angrily) Now, listen here. You're comparing apples and oranges, apples and oranges. We don't do anything like what you described.

ME: I'm sorry, I was under the impression that we still use the method of putting a cloth over someone's face and pouring water down their throat...

ASHCROFT: (interrupting, red-faced, shouting) Pouring! Pouring! Did you hear what she said? "Putting a cloth over someone's face and pouring water on them." That's not what you said before! Read that again, what you said before!

ME: Sir, other reports of the time say...

ASHCROFT: (shouting) Read what you said before! (cries of "Answer her fucking question!" from the audience) Read it!

ME: (firmly) Mr. Ashcroft, please answer the question.

ASHCROFT: (shouting) Read it back!

ME: "The victim was bound or otherwise secured in a prone position; and water was forced through his mouth and nostrils into his lungs and stomach."

ASHCROFT: (shouting) You hear that? You hear it? "Forced!" If you can't tell the difference between forcing and pouring...does this college have an anatomy class? If you can't tell the difference between forcing and pouring...

ME: (firmly and loudly) Mr. Ashcroft, do you believe that Yukio Asano's sentence was unjust? Answer the question. (pause)

ASHCROFT: (more restrained) It's not a fair question; there's no comparison. Next question! (loud chorus of boos from the audience)

Rad.

My attempt at HDR photography this weekend was less than successful. Out-of-date software that wasn't aware of the 40D I now shoot with, combined with very windy conditions that moved vegetation in between exposures meant that it wasn't anything I'd be terribly proud of.

However, I found this set of exposures this evening while going through some of this weekend's shots and it turned out pretty good as an HDR, if I do say so myself.

I prefer rendering HDR shots in that surrealistic way you can get - some are more biased towards more "natural" looking scenes, but if I wanted natural, I'd just shoot a normal photo!