Saturday, December 17, 2005

little red book


little red book
Originally uploaded by davebarber.
Hey everybody, I just discovered this wonderful book of wisdom!

I highly recommend you (and all your friends) request this book via interlibrary loan.

NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."
[...]
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.
(read the rest of the story at SouthCoastToday)


I gotta run now, I'm off to the library to request a copy of Mao's most excellent little red book.

2005 Dec 24 Update
:
Apparently this story is a hoax. damn, I requested my little red book for nothing.


Thursday, December 15, 2005

Hey Dubya, nice job keeping an eye on those "terrorists"

I feel much safer knowing that those radical militant quakers and dangerous anti-nuke activists are being spied on.

Earlier this week NBC News exposed the existence of a secret Pentagon database to track intelligence gathered inside the United States. The database including information on dozens of anti-war protests and rallies particularly actions targeting military recruiting.

The list included: counter-military recruiting meetings held at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Forth, Florida. Anti-nuclear protests staged in Nebraska on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. An anti-war protest organized by military families outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina. And a rally in San Diego to support war resister Pablo Parades. The Pentagon database described all of these events as threats. (continue the article at Democracy Now)

Good thing we're going to renew Patriot Act. I feel safer knowing that, when some crazed anti-war protester plans to set off a dirty bomb in Chicago, the military will be there to nip it in the bud. Yes, we should definitely take the advice of Georgy, Rummy and Dick and trust our government. Yep, those old post-Nixon restrictions on domestic surveillance are definitely antiquated.

What with all the dangerous war protestors, Quakers, anti-nuclear loonies and radical militant librarians we should probably just cut to the chase and bypass the Patriot Act by delcaring martial law until the War on Terrorism has been completely won (tm). The only way to protect our freedom is to destroy it.

Hopefully this seditious blog entry will be redacted by party censors soon seeing as how I'm probably blabbing state secrets by restating publicly accessible information.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Seen on Usenet

Remember usenet? That was the internet when I was a wee laddy. Here is an interesting quote I read in a usenet newsgroup today:


On the other hand: Lisp looks like a theoretical
optimum. It has a minimalistic way of structuring
hierarchical data, it has a minimalistic way of
expressing program structure as hierarchical data,
it has a minimalistic way of automatizing
writing program snippets. In this light it is
very well possible that a sufficiently advanced
civilization has Lisp, just as it is entirely possible
that it has a Go-like game. It would be a next
to impossible incident if this civilization had
a Chess-like game or Java because both are much
more arbitrary than Lisp or Go. Who knows how
well those extra-terristial Lispniks do in convincing
their compatriats adopting the language? Maybe
the first signal from space-alien will be a
flame-war between Lispniks and members of the
extra-terrestial equivalent of the ruling Java-mainstream.
(
Tin Gherdanarra ...@gmail.com>)

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Waiting for the bus


Waiting for the bus
Originally uploaded by funkyj.
I experimented with taking the 'highway 17 express' bus and the lightrail to get to work.

It was an interesting experiment. If I take the bus that arrrives at just the right time to immediately catch the light rail then I can get to work in about 1 hour 45 minutes (not including the trip between home and the bus stop). The commute by car takes 50 minutes. Uh yeah.

Cafe Baklava


Cafe Baklava
Originally uploaded by funkyj.
I asked this friendly waiter if I could take his picture and he kindly obliged me.

A few seconds after this picture he got suspicious of my motives and began asking me "WHY DO YOU WANT TO TAKE MY PICTURE?" over and over.

I may be wrong but this place has the feel of a family owned restaurant -- people who have a vested interest and care about the business are working here.

Oh, the food was very good and reasonably priced. A good place for an afforable lunch.