the art of writing is discovering what you believe
The European Secession Problem – How Belgium Broke Brussels.:
If Flanders eventually secedes, The EU will be in the bizarre position of having its capital in a country that is potentially no longer part of the EU.
The piece quickly reminds us that Catalonia and Scotland are watching to see how this plays out.
No one seemed all that excited by my suggestion of Indian food tonight, but I remembered I had the fixings for Caldo Verde (Portuguese Green Soup):
Considered by many to be Portugal’s national dish, caldo verde is found everywhere — in the dining rooms of Lisbon’s most luxurious hotels to the humblest of country homes. It’s a versatile dish: Serve it as a one-course meal at lunch or as a light supper in the evening.
I had never made it before but I will definitely make it again. Simple as can be but very flavorful and comforting. Make it your own, since the ingredients are so basic. Vegetarian sausage seems to work fine, but if you’re more omnivorous than we are, put some good spicy chorizo in there. And a good hearty bread for sopping up the broth, too.
Immigration Chronicles: A military “freedom legion” for illegal immigrants? :
On April 19, 2007 Representative Nathan Deal (R-GA) introduced H.R. 1940, The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2007. H.R. 1940 would end the process of granting automatic birthright citizenship to the babies born in the United States to illegal aliens.
I don’t think anyone should be granted automatic citizenship. I think everyone should pass a citizenship test, the same one for everyone.
Note the domain name — networkforgoods.org — not networkforgood.org. I wonder how many people have been taken in by this?
They’re using webspace at “micmacrecords.com” (no link) to host the ripoff, er, donation page.
I dropped them a note, with a CC to the whois contact at Network for Good:
Are you aware that someone is using your domain to rip people off who think they are giving to Network for Good? This piece of spam came to me just now. Really sleazy stuff. That DONATE link goes to a page on your website that looks like Network for Good, but isn’t. Someone who has access to your content put this together and linked your name to it.
The whole donation process uses images and text from Network for Good. That’s really awful.
http://www.micmacrecords.com/domain/templates_c/.donate/proceed/proceed.html
I think the right thing to do would be swap out the phony donate page and redirect people to the real Network for Good.
And the folks at Network for Good should make it impossible for people to rip off their images with a few tweaks to their server configuration.
So let’s see…
The kid was a real jerk.
The cops WAAAAYYYYY overreacted (pointing to the problem of excessive force being used by those in authority).
And the kid shouting out “Don’t taze me, bro” was pretty funny.
Is that about it? OK everyone have a great weekend.
as an alum of that school, it doesn’t surprise me that a. some egotist would set himself up for this and b. the under-trained and over-empowered constabulary would play into it. I would ask for the chief’s resignation and lock up their toys, if it were up to me.
Carl Howe on Apple’s iPhone Marketing Strategy:
Carl Howe is a very smart dude:
Consumers value what they pay for. They don’t value things the perceive as free. And that’s the marketing blunder the US mobile phone market has bought into over the last 10 to 15 years. By bundling “free” and generic phones with cell phone service, mobile carriers have devalued both the brand values of the handset makers and their own services.
But at the same time, they have pushed a lot of phones out into the market that would not have made it if people were not enticed by free free free . . . and if this axiom is true, it negates the success of the free software ecosystem, claims that Apple’s developer tools, iTunes, and Safari are worthless, ie have no value.
This is perhaps another example of the illusion of choice: too many choices can actually kill a sale, and if people had more than (say) three plans to choose from as well as every handset on the market with every carrier, I suspect a lot of folks would go with the carrier that made it simpler, even if it cost more in the long run. Gruber talks a lot about design decisions and how Apple, for example, makes decisions that will empower the users of it’s products and it does that by not asking them what they want. People will ask for features they will never use: better for someone who knows the product/service and a bit of human psychology to prune the features down and make implementation accessible.
Correct me if I’m wrong here. But by my calculation, more U.S. senators (72) voted today to condemn a newspaper ad attacking Gen. Petraeus than voted yesterday (56) to lengthen the time off troops get from the frontlines in Iraq, thereby reducing individual soldiers exposure to actual attacks. Am I missing something, or is that about right?
Yes, it is. That’s what the electeds think is important: condemning a newspaper ad is more important that R&R for combat troops. These creatures are beyond embarassment, shame, or any sense of dignity.
Bush’s stairway to paradise | Salon.com :
The elder Bush assumed that the Bush family trust and its trustees — James Baker, Brent Scowcroft and Prince Bandar — would take the erstwhile wastrel and guide him on the path of wisdom. In this conception, the country was not entrusted to the younger Bush’s care so much as Bush was entrusted to the care of the trustees. He was the beneficiary of the trust. But to the surprise of those trustees, he slipped the bonds of the trust and cut off the family trustees. They knew he was ill-prepared and ignorant, but they never expected him to be assertive. They wrongly assumed that Cheney would act for them as a trustee.
Cheney had worked with and for them for decades and seemed to agree with them, if not on every detail then on the more important matter of attitude, particularly the question of who should govern. The elder Bush had helped arrange for Cheney to become the CEO of Halliburton, making him a very rich man at last. But Bush, Baker, Scowcroft et al. didn’t realize that Cheney’s apparent concurrence was to advance himself and his views, which were not theirs. When absolute power was conferred on him, the habits of deference lapsed, no longer necessary. (“Thank you for the privilege of serving today.”) Cheney was always more Rumsfeld oriented than Bush oriented. The elder Bush knew that Rumsfeld despised him and that Cheney was close to Rumsfeld, just as he knew his son’s grievous limitations. But the obvious didn’t occur to him — that Cheney would seize control of the lax son for his own purposes. The elder Bush committed a monumental error, empowering a regent to the prince who would betray the father. The myopia of the old WASP aristocracy allowed him to see Cheney as a member of his club. Cheney, for his part, was extremely convincing in playing possum. The elder Bush has many reasons for self-reproach, but perhaps none greater than being outsmarted by a courtier he thought was his trustee.
This, I guess, is the downside of employing people who are smarter than you. If they’re too smart — too cunning, as people in love with power often are — it can be a real problem . . .