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May 27, 2004
Joey deVilla on being Canadian
You go, Joey! (his comments responding to a screed complaining about non-whites in Toronto)
Posted by thdyck at May 27, 2004 | Comments (0)
Tiananmen was 15 years ago
I remember very clearly that students from Qinghua University were marching in the front, carrying a huge banner. Several old professors in white hair were also part of the march. What caught my particular attention was that one of them was carrying a placard bearing the words: "We have kneeled down too long and are getting up to stretch our legs!"As a research scholar of Chinese history I understood the implied meaning of the slogan on the placard.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Witnessing Tiananmen: Protests mount
Posted by thdyck at May 27, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 24, 2004
How To Kill A Country
Mugabe's belief that he can strengthen his flagging popularity by destroying a resented but economically vital minority group is one that dictators elsewhere have shared. Paranoid about their diminishing support, Stalin wiped out the wealthy kulak farming class, Idi Amin purged Uganda's Indian commercial class, and, of course, Hitler went after Jewish businesses even though Germany was already reeling from the Depression. Whatever spikes in popularity these moves generated, the economic damage was profound, and the dictators had to exert great effort to mask it.
The Atlantic | December 2003 | How To Kill A Country | Power
Posted by thdyck at May 24, 2004 | Comments (0)
Robert Mugabe is an angry, evil and embittered little dictator
The nature of his quote compared to Archbishop Tutu's testifies to Mr. Mugabe's true nature.
Mugabe says Tutu is evil
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has hit out at South Africa's former Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "evil".
Archbishop Tutu once said that Mr Mugabe resembled a caricature of an African dictator.
"He is an angry, evil and embittered little bishop," he told Sky News TV in the first interview he has given to British media for several years.
BBC NEWS | Africa | Mugabe says Tutu is evil
Posted by thdyck at May 24, 2004 | Comments (1)
May 23, 2004
List of documentaries to see
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002)
FOG OF WAR (2003)
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (2003)
TOUCHING THE VOID (2003)
SUPER SIZE ME (2004)
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Documentaries turn up cinema heat
Posted by thdyck at May 23, 2004 | Comments (1)
May 18, 2004
Slate article on Alan Moore
Moore is comics' Orson Welles: a genius formalist with a natural collaborative impulse and a habit of taking on overambitious projects. His work is alternately groundbreaking and painfully lazy; he often coasts on his cleverness for a quick paycheck. The question of whether he's a fountain of imagination or just bats has never arisen: He's both, and his ability to see familiar ideas from an alien perspective is one of his best tricks.
Posted by thdyck at May 18, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 17, 2004
Ray Bradbury speaking at the President's Commission on Implementation on U.S. Space Exploration Policy
Bradbury: There's a scene in "Moby Dick," where Ahab is going after the white whale, and Starbuck says to him, "Where's the profit in this?" And Ahab touches his heart and he says, "The profit is here, man, the profit is here."
So the answer to all this is not incredible wealth, but incredible wealth of love and well being. A freedom to express joy instead of sorrow and melancholy. It has to be sold on the basis of a higher aesthetic, but an exciting one. Again, ask your children, and they will respond with shouts of joy! They will not demand gold or silver, or all the profits that we're speaking of on a practical level - they want the joy of going to space.
Ray Bradbury: The Illustrated Spaceman :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe
Posted by thdyck at May 17, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 15, 2004
David Goodstein's essay: Energy, Technology and Climate: Running Out of Gas
Dr. David Goodstein is Vice Provost and Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Caltech. His articles are amazingly clear and well-written. I particularly recommend "Energy, Technology and Climate: Running Out of Gas" on the upcoming Hubbert Peak for oil production.
SciScoop has an interview, SciScoop || Have We Hit The Oil Peak?, with him.
Posted by thdyck at May 15, 2004 | Comments (0)
Mental health risks in volunteering
Celia Richardson, of the Mental Health Foundation, told BBC News Online: "The benefits of work and the social inclusion it can bring are well known.
"Volunteering offers many similar benefits."
But she added: "Volunteering, like work, has to be structured and managed to ensure that stress is minimised.
"If people are feeling over-stretched or are witnessing depressing and difficult situations they aren't trained to deal with - and if they aren't offered appropriate protection or counselling - then it is not difficult to imagine they could feel there are negative health consequences attached to volunteering.
"Volunteering is best in an environment which is planned properly to maximise the benefits to the individual as well as the organisation."
BBC NEWS | Health | Volunteering 'bad for the health'
Posted by thdyck at May 15, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 14, 2004
Refuel Bible
The cover looks like any other teen magazine: Blurred fingers play an unheard riff on a guitar. Skater dudes, wearing shades, lean on their boards.
A headline on the magazine Refuel shouts, "GIRLS SPILL IT ALL!"
Inside is the complete New Testament, but with a twist: It's designed to appeal to teen-age boys. A preview copy offers statistics on condom use to prevent pregnancy and tips on what girls want in a Christian guy.
For centuries, the Bible has been the story that sold itself. But publishers, competing in an increasingly media-saturated climate, are turning to pop culture, and some say gimmicks, to sell the Bible to teens and young adults.
Bible lessons repackaged for youth
Posted by thdyck at May 14, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 13, 2004
The secret of a long and happy marriage appears to be not to expect too much from it
The study, by researchers from Ohio and Florida Universities looked at 82 couples.
They quizzed all the spouses independently over four years.
Their study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found those who believed their partner would be unfailingly kind, loving and agree with their every word, could retain their positive outlook by being forgiving, and having charitable explanations for their partner's negative behaviour.
However those with high expectations but without those relationship skills are likely to be brought down to earth fairly quickly as their Prince or Princess Charming falls off their pedestal.
BBC NEWS | Health | Newlyweds advised to lower hopes
Posted by thdyck at May 13, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 10, 2004
Fine dining at 22,326 feet
"It's all wonderfully surreal now, but I can still remember a lot of the pain.
"It was incredibly difficult. Every effort leaves you panting, struggling for every breath.
"Then you start tucking in to the food and think: 'This is actually very nice'," he explained.
The meal included a starter of caviar and biscuits, followed by duck, couscous and a medley of vegetables.
A third course consisted of a chocolate pudding followed by a cheese board, with a birthday cake to finish.
It was all washed down by a white wine.
BBC NEWS | England | Dining climbers reach new heights
Posted by thdyck at May 10, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 9, 2004
BBC: El Salvador's reformed killers
Turning to God
Aside from a toothbrush and toothpaste, the only possession which he was allowed in the cell was a religious book.
His mother, whose name is tattooed on his neck, sent him the Bible.
"I was reading it at that time, when I felt real bad - real humble."
"I read it four or five times right the way through. It was like God was telling me - the way you are outside, that's the way your heart is."
"You need me to help change you. So I said, if you help me, then I will change."
BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | El Salvador's reformed killers
Posted by thdyck at May 9, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 7, 2004
Emily Yoffe on silence in daily life
Some wonderfully funny writing. Her other columns are good too.
To judge by the number of silent retreats listed on the Internet--Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Sufi--Americans are eager to spend their money to go to bucolic settings for a chance to shut up. But as befits Human Guinea Pig, I would do it homemade and cheap--keeping to my routine, which since I work at home is somewhat like being under house arrest, and skipping the cultivation of a higher consciousness.
To prepare for my temporary vow, I cleared away all my work and social obligations and did some reading. Thomas Merton, the American monk, wrote: "In silence we face and admit that gap between the depths of our being, which we consistently ignore, and the surface which is so often untrue to our own reality." I learned that in Buddhism, one cannot achieve enlightenment without the practice of silence. The Catholic Encyclopedia cites silence's long history: "Pythagoras imposed a strict rule of silence on his disciples." In Christian orders, not speaking to people allows one to better speak with God and is a means of self-restraint.
At the least, our household could use some self-restraint. Normally, the morning routine resembles a Supreme Court oral argument with our 8-year-old daughter playing the part of Alan Dershowitz. Not that first morning. When I woke her up, instead of being greeted with an observation such as, "Stop nudging me, are you trying to break my shoulder?" she quietly said, "Oh hi, Mom, you can't talk today, right?" I smiled beatifically, which required the use of dormant facial muscles, and led her into the bathroom where I supervised her shampoo and shower. It was like our own Zen monastery.
Posted by thdyck at May 7, 2004 | Comments (0)
Using the Eucharist as a political weapon
Religion as politics
Many in both camps question where those who begin denying Communion to elected officials will draw the line.
Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, said her organization believes that all priests and lay Eucharistic ministers who hand out Communion are obligated â€" with or without instructions from their bishops â€" to refuse Communion to any federal, state or local official who is known to disagree with church teaching on abortion, contraception, stem cell research, euthanasia or in vitro fertilization.
Karl Maurer, vice president of Catholic Citizens of Illinois, a conservative grass-roots group, said he would add sodomy and gay marriage to that list. Some liberal grass-roots groups have said they believe the church's teachings against war and the death penalty are worthy of equal treatment.
"Once you open this door, what's going to come rolling through it?" asked Deal W. Hudson, editor of the magazine Crisis and a key Catholic ally of the Bush administration. "Pretty soon, no one would be taking Communion."
Hudson said he believes the denial of Communion should begin, and end, with Kerry. Even better, he said, would be if priests would read letters from the pulpit denouncing the senator from Massachusetts "whenever and wherever he campaigns as a Catholic."
MSNBC - Ad assails cardinal for stance on communion
Posted by thdyck at May 7, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 4, 2004
book: "The Diamond Invention" by Edward Jay Epstein
The invention had a wide array of diverse parts: these included a huge stockpile of uncut diamonds in a vault in London; a billion-dollar cash hoard deposited in banks in Europe; and private intelligence network operating out of Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Johannesburg and London; a global network of advertising agencies, brokers and distributors; corporate fronts in Africa for concealing massive diamond purchases; and private treaties with nations establishing quotas for annual production.
The invention is far more than merely a monopoly for fixing diamond prices; it is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of power and romance. For it to ultimately succeed, it must endow these stones with the sort of sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them onto the market. The illusion thus had to be inculcated into the mass mind that diamonds were forever -- "forever" in the sense that they could never be resold.
Prologue - The Diamond Invention
Posted by thdyck at May 4, 2004 | Comments (0)
May 2, 2004
Total Guitar poll on top guitar riffs of all time
Guns N' Roses' anthem Sweet Child O' Mine has the greatest guitar riff ever, according to a poll in a music monthly.
Total Guitar magazine's readers put it in top place, ahead of Nirvana's grunge anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love came third, followed by Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Guns N' Roses top rock riff poll
Posted by thdyck at May 2, 2004 | Comments (0)