Bread, Parrano cheese, a variety of good olives, and a damned fine Trappist ale. All eaten while listening to good musing and rereading Doug Hofstadter's explanation of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, which I have to say is remarkably well-written.

Said Trappist ale is also rather strong, which just makes this all the better. This has been a very relaxing evening.

Experimental cake attempt today. This is a roulade, so it's going to be 24h of refrigeration before I know how it turned out, but I suspect that the production version is somewhat better.

Grr. The problem with this cake is having to wait to find out what happened. But one bite tomorrow should tell me what I need to know to make the next version really damned good.

The Washington Post has an interesting article (free reg required, yadda yadda) about handling of information about Iraq. Notable remarks include that USAID has decided to restrict circulation of memoranda with bad news about the number of attacks, and perhaps more importantly, that Iraqi president Allawi's speech to the US Congress a few weeks ago was written in part by White House and Bush campaign officials.

A (displeased) response from Senator Feinstein (D-CA) can be found in this story.

Was interesting. I highly recommend that everyone who didn't see it watch it on tape - the mannerisms and tones of voice spoke volumes, and the transcripts won't show that.

One thing I'm curious to see how other people reacted to was the body language. From what I saw, it looked almost embarassing; if I had no idea who these two people were, I would have noticed a difference. Kerry was focused, relaxed, and, well, presidential. He answered questions, he took the offensive and kept it. Bush was highly defensive throughout; physically, he almost looked like he was crouching in the corner. He sounded whiny, to be honest.

From reading the news services, the phrase that stuck the most seems to have been Kerry's description of the war in Iraq as "a colossal error in judgement." I'm a bit surprised that another line wasn't noticed more - Kerry said, at some point in the past, that this was "the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time," and Bush quoted it. Repeatedly. Throughout the debate.

Anyway, I'm quite curious to know what other people thought - especially people who aren't quite as partisan as I am, or at least partisans of the other side. What things stuck out in your mind? What were the moments that your favored candidate looked the strongest, and the weakest? Did you get anything from this?

And a reminder again - if you haven't seen this debate, find a recorded copy and go watch it. It was very informative about both the platforms and the people.

I know most of you don't want to read this, and it's fairly long, so I'm going to put this behind a cut. The subject: the problem of terror has, in the past few weeks, gotten qualitatively worse in a way that it hasn't since 9/11.

( IssuesCollapse )

( Cut to preserve your virgin eyesCollapse )

Yesterday, two Palestinians convicted of working with Israelis were killed when a Palestinian police officer threw two grenades into their prison cell. One more of the wounded was then personally shot at the hospital. No arrests, of course; just the thin fiction of civilization evaporating.

( Comment, likely to offend the leftCollapse )

(I'll be back to offending the right soon too, don't worry)

For those of you thinking that Iraq is the only place that's on the verge of triggering extraordinary chaos, try this. It's a roundup article about various recent developments in the Hezbollah / al Aqsa brigades / al Qaeda field, mostly deals, weapons testing, and a couple of key people getting unexpectedly blown up.

(Footnote: There's enormous turmoil going on on the Palestinian political side at the moment - it looks like forces are finally starting to emerge against Arafat, that the myth that "he's the only one who can save us" is starting to erode in the face of over a decade of thuggery and kleptocracy. Looks like a huge opportunity for any number of even less salubrious people to step up to the plate - the main difference being that most of these guys won't even pretend to negotiate. They're just out for blood.)

A picture and a headline I never, never need to see again

(The story is just the usual from the Middle East)

Following up the analogy of individual to cell, species to organ, and biome to organism, and probably taking the metaphor to a place where it should never, never be allowed:

We might wonder what the functions of the human "organ" are in the system. If indeed the entire planet can be thought of as a single biome, the only way it could ever reproduce itself would involve seeding its particular biota onto other planets; so it could be that the urge for space travel is really a reproductive urge.

That's right, we may well be the Earth's gonads.

(This is not meant to detract from the actual serious intent of the previous post, and I am actually interested in comments and discussion on that one - this is just something that came up during a conversation last night)

I was recently reading a short story by Samuel Delany, which included the statement

"The reproductive function, was it primary or adjunctive? If... you
consider the whole ecological balance a single organism, it's adjunctive, a vital
reparative process along with sleeping and eating"

Rolex - obliterate tahiti

MSNBC is reporting that Tom Ridge wants to suspend the election in November if a terror attack occurs near that time.
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Our bodies are apparently eager little cannibals.

"At least most of the waiters aren't on fire."

"Yet."

This hasn't hit the English-language press yet anywhere that I can see, but for those interested here's a link to an article in Ha'aretz: Mohammed el-Baradei, the head of the Int'l Atomic Energy Agency, now says that Pakistan has transferred detailed nuclear knowledge to at least 20 "countries and corporations".

I'm assuming this count includes North Korea, Iran and Libya; he says that he knows of no other country in the Middle East to which he gave this information, so the locations of the other 17 or so targets are left as exercises for the rather alarmed reader.

Of course, given that A. Q. Khan (the head of Pak's nuclear program) was printing out four-color glossy brochures with his picture on them advertising nuclear capability, I suppose this shouldn't be too much of a surprise...

(Correction: Here's a story in English)

Date:	2004-07-06 22:21
Subject:	Miscellanea
Security:	Public
Mood:	busy

"Intelligence is useful only to the intelligent."

-- R. A. Heinlein, in re Neville Chamberlain

Hence:

You are an SECL--Sober Emotional Constructive Leader. This makes you a politician. You cut deals, you change minds, you make things happen. You would prefer to be liked than respected, but generally people react to you with both. You are very sensitive to criticism, since your entire business is making people happy.

At times your commitment to the happiness of other people can cut into the happiness of you and your loved ones. This is very demanding on those close to you, who may feel neglected. Slowly, you will learn to set your own agenda--including time to yourself.

You are gregarious, friendly, charming and charismatic. You like animals, sports, and beautiful cars. You wear understated gold jewelry and have secret bad habits, like chewing your fingers and fidgeting.

You are very difficult to dislike.

Spider-Man 2 is excellent. Go see it.

We just transferred sovereignty to Iraq two days early. Bremer left the country shortly afterwards. Surprise! (Ulp)

In three decisions, the Supreme Court ruled that detainees of various sorts have the right to judicial review by the courts. (Important!)

The Supreme Court also agreed to hear a medical marijuana case.

And "Fahrenheit 9/11" has set various box office records, including top grossing documentary, and interestingly enough has been selling out theatres in Republican strongholds. The overall meaning of this is still a bit unclear, but people certainly seem interested in seeing it.

Date:	2004-06-21 08:59
Subject:	THEY DID IT!
Security:	Public
Mood:	elated

SpaceShipOne completed the first private manned spaceflight this morning.

Three important things from the news:

1. The Washington Post has posted the full text of the DoJ memo suggesting how torture of detainees abroad "may be justified," along with some related memoranda and transcripts of recent press conferences and senate hearings of interest. All very interesting reads.


2. Next Monday, at 0630 PDT, the SpaceShipOne will attempt to become the first private manned spacecraft. It looks like it will probably work. (Knock on wood!) This is very possibly the coolest single thing on the planet at this time.


3. And on a related note, on July 1st, the Cassini-Huygens probe is scheduled for orbit insertion around Saturn. Its route will take it straight through the rings, going through the F-G gap, then up close by the planet (snapping pictures all the time) and into an elliptical orbit. This is going to be extremely neat.

A question for y'all:

Elementary mathematics (say, anything below calc) is a hard subject to teach because there are very few applications. It's like several years of grammar without reading a single good book. I'm trying to find some good topics that can get a student interested in the subject, without requiring extensive background knowledge. So far, I've thought of:

• Classifying strangely shaped polyhedra, and thence into problems in geometry,


• Computability theory - recursion, Godel's theorems, and so on, maybe using Godel, Escher Bach as a text


• Something involving fractals - but what?


• Probability, and teaching them why not to draw to an inside straight.

Some "administration lawyers," to be none to specific, apparently opined in a March 2003 confidential memo that the President is bound neither by international treaties nor federal laws regarding torture, and that any such prohibition "must be construed as inapplicable to interrogation undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority." (News story)

Phrased another way, torture is permissible so long as it's for interrogation purposes and done for ultimately military purposes.

Or to highlight the obvious inference, the president is above all laws, federal, state, or international treaties, so long as he argues that his actions are in some way, shape or form pursuant to his duty as CiC of the armed forces.

Apparently this wasn't a sole memo - there was a chain of them, largely prepared for Rumsfeld, used to justify activities first at Guantánamo, then in Afghanistan, and finally in Iraq. Much of its basis was an earlier memo (22 Jan 2002) from the Justice Department on arguments to keep American officials from being charged with war crimes.

Where the hell does our administration find these people? And have they lost their minds completely? Are they completely unaware of what happens when a leader or a military places itself above the law, above the Constitution, and above civil society?

(And let me state, for the record: I believe that commanders need a great deal of flexibility to deal with situations in war, especially nonconventional war. But decisions such as the use of torture cannot be unilateral and immune to judicial and legal review, and the President cannot demand blanket exemption from American law for any reason whatsoever.)

...your moment of "what the fuck?"

To quote TLHines on this matter: "Use Axe anti-perspirant, and you will become a hairy torso with no head, arms or genitalia."

Curiously enough, the main site for their ads doesn't seem to have many disembodied torsos at all.