| (no subject) |
[Apr. 15th, 2008|06:30 pm] |
The Pope, religion, and the founding of the US...I was impressed:
“Therefore it was a state that was intentionally secular. It was the exact opposite of state religion, but it was secular out of love for religion and for an authenticity that can only be lived freely.” |
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| Future. |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|07:30 pm] |
I got me a ship out of San Diego. USS Kidd, DDG 100. "On to victory." Here's to my first post in well over a year.
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 10th, 2006|11:44 pm] |
Sweet, the author I was researching this spring was on the main page of nytimes.com. He's the author of the book my turkish prof translated....and the guy who was charged by hardline nationalists with denigrating Turkey in some comments a year or so ago...
Orhan Pamuk Video on nytimes.com! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 4th, 2006|07:48 am] |
We had the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert here in San Diego on Wednesday. There was some country music, but mainly ridiculous far-right rhetoric. Here are some key quotes:
"The liberals don't hold rallies like this, do they?" one of the featured guests, radio talk show host Mark Levin, asked the audience of 13,000. "We raise the flag. They burn the flag."
"It's not true that Alan Colmes takes ugly pills, North said of Hannity's ideological sparring partner on the "Hannity and Colmes" tv show. "But if he did, they're working."
"I'm thrilled to be with real Americans who really do support the troops - as opposed to liberals," Ann Coulter said.
That bitch. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 3rd, 2006|09:59 am] |
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Re: Iraq on the brink of civil war:
Mr. Rumsfeld counseled patience, from the lawmakers and their constituents. “Americans didn’t cross oceans and settle a wilderness and build history’s greatest democracy only to run away from a bunch of murderers and extremists who try to kill everyone that they cannot convert, and to tear down what they could never build,” he said.
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 27th, 2006|11:09 am] |
Department of Labor Job Description list excerpt:
POULTRY BREEDER 411.161-014
poultry culler 411.687-010
POULTRY DEBEAKER 411.687-026
POULTRY DRESSER 525.687-070
POULTRY FARMER 411.161-018
Poultry Farmer, Egg 411.161-018
Poultry Farmer, Meat 411.161-018
poultry helper 411.584-010
POULTRY INSEMINATOR 411.384-010
POULTRY TENDER 411.364-014
POULTRY VACCINATOR 411.684-014
Legal research can be entertaining. Note: I was looking up loan originators. I swear. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 30th, 2006|11:35 pm] |
Dear Vatican,
This whole "Excommunication is sought for stem cell researchers" thing is really encouraging me to attend mass. People who have committed their lives to helping people...yeah, those bastards should be excommunicated. Really, I applaud you guys. You've really outdone yourselves.
Fondly,
Me |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 4th, 2006|09:52 am] |
An excerpt from Colbert Shocks the Media Silent, by Greg Mitchell
...
Still, with the knocks on Colbert increasing, I have to ask: Where was the outrage when President Bush made fun of not finding those pesky WMDs at a very similar media dinner -- in the same ballroom -- two years ago? It represents a shameful episode for the American media, and presidency, yet is rarely mentioned today.
It occurred on March 24, 2004. The setting: The 60th annual black-tie dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association (with many print journalists there as guests) at the Washington Hilton. On the menu: surf and turf. Attendance: 1,500. The main speaker: President George W. Bush, one year into the Iraq war, with 500 Americans already dead.
President Bush, as usual at such gatherings of journalists, poked fun at himself. Audiences love to laugh along with, rather than at, a president, for a change. It shows they are good sports, which many people (including the president) often doubt. It's all in good fun, except when it's in bad fun, such as on that night in March 2004.
That night, in the middle of his stand-up routine before the (perhaps tipsy) journos, Bush showed on a screen behind him some candid on-the-job photos of himself. One featured him gazing out a window, as Bush narrated, smiling: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."
According to the transcript this was greeted with "laughter and applause" from the audience.
A few seconds later, he was shown looking under papers, behind drapes, and even under his desk, with this narration: "Nope, no weapons over there" (met with more "laughter and applause"), and then "Maybe under here?" (just "laughter" this time). Still searching, he settled for finding a photo revealing the Skull and Bones secret signal.
There is no record of whether Dana Milbank attended that dinner, but his paper the following day seemed to find this something of a howl. Jennifer Frey's report, carried on the front page of the Style section (under the headline, "George Bush, Entertainer in Chief"), led with Donald Trump's appearance, and mentioned without comment Bush's "recurring joke" of searching for the WMDs.
The Associated Press review was equally jovial: "President Bush poked fun at his staff, his Democratic challenger and himself Wednesday night at a black-tie dinner where he hobnobbed with the news media." In fact, it is hard to find any immediate account of the affair that raised questions over the president's slide show. Many noted that the WMD jokes were met with general and loud laughter.
The reporters covering the gala were apparently as swept away with laughter as the guests. One of the few attendees to criticize the president's gag, David Corn of The Nation, said he heard not a single complaint from his colleagues at the after-party. Corn wondered if they would have laughed if President Reagan, following the truck bombing of our Marines barracks in Beirut, which killed 241, had said at a similar dinner: "Guess we forgot to put in a stop light."
The backlash only appeared a day or two later, and not, by and large, emerging from the media, but from Democrats and some Iraq veterans. Then it was mainly forgotten. I never understood why Sen. John Kerry did not air a tape of the episode every day during his hapless final drive for the White House.
In any case, another 1,900 Americans have died in Iraq since Bush's ha-ha home video. As it happens, the Downing Street memo, and a similar British document that surfaced recently, suggested that Bush doubted WMDs existed and "fixed" the intelligence to take the nation to war. What a riot.
At that same Downing Street memo forum at the Capitol last year that Milbank mocked, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, after cataloguing the bogus Bush case for WMDs and the Iraqi threat, looked out at the cameras and notepads, mentioned the March 24, 2004 dinner, and acted out the president looking under papers and table for those missing WMDs. "And the media was all yucking it up ... hahaha," McGovern said. "You all laughed with him, folks." Then he mentioned soldiers who had died "after that big joke." |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 2nd, 2006|05:32 pm] |
Note: I can't believe there are this many stupid 18-24 year olds
Study: Geography Greek to young Americans
Source: The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed.
The study found that less than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.
The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study paints a dismal picture of the geographic knowledge of the most recent graduates of the U.S. education system.
"Taken together, these results suggest that young people in the United States ... are unprepared for an increasingly global future," said the study's final report.
"Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events."
The study, which surveyed 510 young Americans from December 17 to January 20, showed that 88 percent of those questioned could not find Afghanistan on a map of Asia despite widespread coverage of the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and the political rebirth of the country.
In the Middle East, 63 percent could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map, and 75 percent could not point out Iran or Israel. Forty-four percent couldn't find any one of those four countries.
Inside the United States, "half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map [50 percent and 43 percent, respectively]," the study said.
On the positive side, the study noted, seven in 10 young Americans correctly located China on a map, even though they had a number of misconceptions about that country. Forty-five percent said China's population is only twice that of the United States. It's actually four times larger than the U.S. population.
When the poll was conducted in 2002, "Americans scored second to last on overall geographic knowledge, trailing Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Sweden," the report said.
The release of the 2006 study coincides with the launch of the National Geographic-led campaign called "My Wonderful World." A statement on the program said it was designed to "inspire parents and educators to give their kids the power of global knowledge." |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 28th, 2006|03:56 pm] |
wow, magical disappearing day. thank you international dateline.
Mon, May 29:
NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NW 4055
Operated by ALASKA AIRLINES
From: SAN DIEGO, CA (SAN) Departs: 10:05am
To: PORTLAND OR, OR (PDX) Arrives: 12:37pm
Aircraft: BOEING 737-400 JET Mileage: 934
Flight Time: 2 hours and 32 minutes
Mon, May 29-Tue, May 30:
NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NW 0005
From: PORTLAND OR, OR (PDX) Departs: 2:20pm
Mon, May 29
To: TOKYO NARITA, JAPAN (NRT) Arrives: 5:00pm
Tue, May 30
Aircraft: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE JET Mileage: 4829
Flight Time: 10 hours and 40 minutes
Tue, May 30-Wed, May 31:
NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NW 0005
From: TOKYO NARITA, JAPAN (NRT) Departs: 6:40pm
Tue, May 30
Departure Terminal: TERMINAL 1
To: SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE (SIN) Arrives: 1:20am
Wed, May 31
Aircraft: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE JET Mileage: 3311
Flight Time: 7 hours and 40 minutes |
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| 20 Answers |
[Apr. 27th, 2006|11:27 pm] |
1. I've been learning to tie knots...neat slipknots (lusk) and bowlines, not to mention other ones with my fourteener. Kind of useful, kind of cool. Ok, shhh. That's just how I roll.
2. NYU in Prague sent me a lonely planet guidebook for Prague.
3. Liz got accepted to her program in Cairo - I'll be visiting in October.
4. Liz, Ransom, and myself all want to go to Morocco. Awesome.
5. I bought tickets to Pearl Jam in Prague. Sept. 22. Early entry, better seating, etc...amazing.
6. Genocide is utterly disturbing. 100,000 Tutsis a week were killed by Hutus in Rwanda. Hutus slaughtered off 86% of the Tutsi population. At least 800,000 were killed.
7. Last Day of Classes!!!
8. While scanning through the faculty page for NYU in Prague during class, I came to this picture. Robin and I couldn't stop laughing:
9. I'm getting an official passport - the people planning my itinerary are assuming I'm going to want to hang out in Thailand for awhile. Excellent.
10. My running shoes smell utterly disgusting thanks to the 5K on Saturday...despite being run through the washer/dryer combo. Thank you sketchy golf course trail puddles. I knew you were sewage.
11. Austrian Airlines named a plane after the Vienna Philharmonic - thanks to a captain who is a classical music enthusiast.
12. Grabbed from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) squire_jons, this lady is officially insane
13. Champagne and a lecture on torture = strange combination.
14. I leave for Peru in fewer than 2 weeks.
15. I'm being surveyed for the 2010 Census by the Dept. of Commerce:
You are one of ten students randomly selected from Edens 1C3 and 1C4 to
participate in the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
The U.S. Census Bureau is conducting a very important national survey called
the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is part of the 2010 Decennial
Census Program. It is a survey that provides information each year about
social, economic, and housing characteristics of the United States.
The Census Bureau selects a sample of facilities, such as residence halls,
to conduct this survey. Individuals are randomly selected to participate in
the ACS from these group living facilities.
16. Canon SD600 should arrive tomorrow! Plus Sandisk 1gb card. woo!
17. Myrtle Beach.
18. "This is very well-written and you put up a good argument. The only problem is, it is not really a history paper, nor is it about the twentieth century." "While an excellent paper in its own right, this did not really match the assignment"
oops. So much for sending him an outline. Note: I have found that history is useful when it provides a reason for current problems in the world. Public Policy has managed to inject a certain level of real-worldness into things I learn...that is, applying what I learn to something that can be done. I suck at simply regurgitating past events and commenting with 20/20 hindsight.
19. Madonna. The Temptations. They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
20. small caps + futura = best font ever |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 19th, 2006|11:33 am] |
We heart Professor Davidson and his quotes, particularly at a concert on the night of the elite 8....in which Duke WASN'T playing. but in fact...he told the audience....:
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 13th, 2006|06:32 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Variation 10 : The Defeat of Don Quixote by the Knight of the White Moon | ] |
Ship: DDG 70 Hopper
Embark: 29 MAY 06 Singapore
Debark: 25 JUN 06 Thailand
Thank you, United States Navy, for giving me a free trip to Southeast Asia aboard a sweet DDG. And by free, I mean that I will also be paid to do my training.
As an interesting note, the USS Hopper is the first and so far only ship to be named after a woman - she was quite a brilliant woman.
This will be an amazing summer/fall semester. Wow. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 9th, 2006|10:33 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Nielsen - Symphony No. 3, Op. 27 - "Espansiva": 2. Andante Pastorale | ] |
Ok, so we know I'm not a fan of the Bush Administration - but it is pretty cool that Condoleezza Rice is a great pianist....such that she attended the Aspen Music Festival, was orinigally a music major, and accompanied Yo-Yo Ma when he received a National Medal of the Arts in 2002. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 9th, 2006|03:21 pm] |
as the antithesis to my last post:
Hung Up by Madonna is trashily delicious. I'm probably about a year behind the bandwagon, but I could care less.
To then make up for what THAT last line said , I also wish to add that Carl Nielsen is an AWESOME danish composer that no one knows about. African Dance from Aladdin Suite and his Symphony No. 3 are great.
And ALL NIGHT arias from the Marriage of Figaro provided a soundtrack for my dreams.
Kiri Te Kanawa, Dawn Upshaw, the Met/James Levine - "Dove Sono I Bei Momenti" and ("Sull'aria...") - "Che Soave Zeffiretto" = glorious. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 8th, 2006|03:48 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | The Living End - West End Riot | ] |
Why is it hard to see underwater?
The cornea that protects your eye has an index of refraction that is very similar to water. Normally, when the light waves cross the air-eye threshold, they are refracted such that they form an image in the back of your eye. When you're in water, the light waves just keep going when they hit your eye, making you super farsighted. There's your poorly explained, useless info for the day.
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|06:52 pm] |
things that make me happy:
volunteering at a middle school band and teaching a guy how to read about 1 line of music.
sitting in with a woodwind class at the middle school and listening to an awesome girl playing alto next to me.
mozart operas - and the met recording of the marriage of figaro
realizing i love listening to opera (that is, more than just wagner overtures/preludes/sailor's chorus)
bernstein's candide - the whole opera
West Side Story - the music in general
seeing a couple of runners from San Diego State at the Duke Invitational and saying "go sdsu!" and then talking for awhile.
checking in a girl from my math 41 class (who's a math major) for the 400 m hurdles at the clerk's tent.
seeing deathcab and franz ferdinand tonight. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 4th, 2006|05:56 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Mozart - Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551 - "Jupiter": II. Andante Cantabile | ] |
whole wheat mini pitas + pear + cheddar cheese + microwave = delicious |
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