Category: Uncategorized

Did you know that simply turning on a hair dryer will cause a crying, unsettled baby to miraculously fall asleep? I didn’t until Debra showed me. Amazing!

Did you know that simply turning on a hair dryer will cause a crying, unsettled baby to miraculously fall asleep? I didn’t until Debra showed me. Amazing!

Well, I warned you that something big was about to happen, and it did…

Our son, Matthew, was born on Tuesday 13th July at 8.22 pm, weighing-in at 8lb 6oz. He is, obviously, absolutely wonderful in every conceivable way. Currently, he’s keeping us busy with feeding and nappy changing and washing – basically pandering to his every whim. We’re coping okay so far, and just enjoying spending a lot of time with him. Life is good.

I thought I’d better write a quick update to reassure anyone reading this that I’m still here and still alive. I know that this blogs has kind of gone dark recently, but big things are about to happen in my little life and the preparations have left little time for blogging. If that sounds a bit mysterious then just hang on for a few more days and all will be revealed.

caustictech: A bit like Rory, but with more fucking swearing.

The WSJ has now published the full text (large pdf) of the memo advising the US government on how to circumvent the anti-torture provisions in international law. Reading it requires a certain capacity for accepting mutually-contradictory concepts. IANAL, but to me this reads like someone said to the authors: “We’ve got to torture some people. We really want to do it, but we think its illegal. You find ways to make it okay.” (Via DefenseTech)  #

Doc Searls points to a little gem of an article: An Inquiry into Living While Walking the Roads of America, Mexico, and Beyond (pdf), by Jeffrey Sawyer. Its the story of a guy who sold all his possessions, and just walked the back-roads of the US, surviving on the plants he found and the kindness of strangers:

“…money would come, and though at the time I didn?t really need it, turning it down seemed to offend the giver. The money also gave me an opportunity to find out how rarely it brought me a true sense of security. Some days I would give away all the money I had, to see if the absence of it made me miserable. It didn?t. Rather, the giving opened up my mind and heart to an abundance that exists regardless of whether one has money or not.”

Reading this was the best thing that happended to me today. Which is sad, but also true.

Intel Dump: Another smoking memo. Defense Department legal memorandum provided a roadmap for getting away with torture. #

This site has a fairly astonishing real-time cost-of-the-war display. It only covers the US, but my own little country must be spending similarly obscene amounts  (Via Tim Bray)

The Law of Accelerating Returns, by Ray Kurzweil. Okay, so this is yet more “the Singularity is nigh” stuff, but its rather well thought-out. (Via Wesner Moise) #

Ray Kurzweil’s hard-to-find RSS feed.

Register: How to make your PC quiet. #

Seth Nickell on Why Mono is currently an unnacceptale risk. (Via TheServerSide.net)

How to Get Out of Iraq, By Peter W. Galbraith. Quoth he: “Early in 2005, Iraq will likely see a clash between an elected Shiite-dominated central government trying to override the interim constitution in order to impose its will on the entire country, and a Kurdistan government insistent on preserving the de facto independent status Kurdistan has enjoyed for thirteen years. Complicating the political struggle is a bitter territorial dispute over the oil-rich province of Kirkuk involving Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, Sunni Turkmen, and Shiite Turkmen. It is a formula for civil war.” (Via John Robb) #

A copy of the US military’s leaked Taguba report into the ‘mistreatment’ of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.