:: Life of Dave ::

We finally made it to the Danish National Museum today, which I had actually visited the first time I was in Denmark back in 2001. It was more fun this time, as I had a better idea of what I was seeing. We then came back to find Trine had seriously underestimated how long her move would take, so now we're killing time in her apartment, which is actually nice - much of what's been good about this holiday has been the enforced inactivity.
:: David (14:54 in Michigan, 20:54 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, July 27 2005 ::

We're in København (Copenhagen) now, staying with my friend Trine. We'll be here through Sunday, but before that we're going to explore the city, see a performance of Hamlet by the Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre, and help Trine move to her new house. All in all, a very busy few days! We have already been several places, including the Viking Ship Museum, and one of the royal palaces.
:: David (13:08 in Michigan, 19:08 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, July 24 2005 ::

Still in Blåvand! Still hanging out on the beach (when it's not raining)! We're off to København (Copenhagen) on Monday or Tuesday, more then.
:: David (08:51 in Michigan, 14:51 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Friday, July 22 2005 ::

Well, we made it safely to Denmark. We're in Blåvand, which is all the way to the west of Denmark. Not a lot of internet access here, nor any other type of access, so I'll be offline for a while (like the rest of July). Hope you are all having a nice summer! See you in August!
:: David (08:58 in Michigan, 14:58 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Monday, July 18 2005 ::

Well, Monday dawned bright and early for us. The FedEx man arrived with our package containing the documents we need to give to the movers tomorrow. Lots of papers to fill out. I've got a telephone call in to the people on this side of the pond, asking them what additional items we need to give them for getting our stuff out of France. We'll be doing some paperwork, and later today the computers will get dropped off someplace more secure than our silly little apartment. Tomorrow all heck breaks loose, and Wednesday we escape to Denmark, and pretend none of this ever occurred!
:: David (03:46 in Michigan, 09:46 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, July 17 2005 ::

The pope, taking a break on his one-man mission to smack down heresy (which I guess must be someone else's job soon, if it isn't already), has said that holidays are good for the soul. Really. According to the BBC:
He said holidays "have become almost a necessity to recover in body and spirit, especially for those who live in the city where the often frenetic conditions of life leave little space for silence and reflection.
"In contact with nature, people can again find their true dimension. They rediscover themselves as creatures, small but at the same time unique."
So there you have it - take some time off, and if they try to stop you, tell them it's part of your religion!
:: David (17:26 in Michigan, 23:26 in Paris) - Comment

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Le Monde has a full page (and more) devoted to the Harry Potter phenomenon, which took place here as well, but only for those who read English (the French version is coming out the 1st of October). They quote one young woman as saying "Je ne peux pas attendre le livre en Francais. C'est impossible." (I can't wait for the book in French. It's not possible.) Her friend states that "Harry Potter has reconciled me to English."
Which isn't that surprising - I know lots of people who pick up Harry Potter in the language they are learning, so why not pick it up in English if you are studying that?
Also on the page is a small note about how the current pope, in 2003, denounced Harry Potter, saying it was subtly seductive, but might profoundly deform the christian character of the soul. Wow. This was in letters he wrote to Gabriele Kuby. You can see the full letters (in german) here.
:: David (05:03 in Michigan, 11:03 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, July 16 2005 ::

Well, we went out for a bit, picking up an oil painting and the new Harry Potter book, which you may have heard was released today. We have finished the first chapter, which seems auspicious enough. Only 580 pages to go!
I recently read a terribly amusing article by the author of the Barry Trotter books, which are, it goes without saying, a parody of the Harry Potter ones. He offers some examples of directions Rowling could have gone in the sixth book (tho I feel fairly safe she did not), and also offered some options for what to do at midnight at your favourite bookstore - "Hello, I wonder if you can help me. I'm looking for something on the Franco-Prussian war."
:: David (14:56 in Michigan, 20:56 in Paris) - Comment

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I saw the other day that the first edition of color 'e-paper' had been displayed. This is a thin, pliable plastic sheet which is actually an LCD screen. I figure this will be the future - anything you've ever wanted to do with paper, this will do, and do it better. In time. Right now, it's a party trick.
:: David (08:32 in Michigan, 14:32 in Paris) - Comment

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Life is nuts right now.
The moving company arrives on Tuesday to ship our stuff back to the states. This means we need to inventory and pack. But we have no boxes. And we haven't done any of the paperwork. Yikes!
To top it all off, we leave for Denmark the day after we ship all our stuff. It seemed like a good idea at the time!
We have booked our tickets to the states this morning - we'll be taking British Air on the 31st of August to Detroit. Hopefully we can crash with someone, and on the 1st of September we can move in to our spiffy new apartment. Everything is happening quite quickly now. I'll be coming back to France for a wedding and possibly some paperwork on the 24th of September, and then back to the States to look for a job and whatever else needs to be done.
:: David (08:23 in Michigan, 14:23 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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:: Friday, July 15 2005 ::

Le Monde is doing this great series for summer, where they highlight some of the stuff you could be doing, reading, listening to, or whatever on your summer holiday. Today they did a full page spread on Treasure Island and another on a new translation of 1001 Nights. Other pages are devoted to particular songs, and yesterday they devoted a full page to the Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction'. Which came out, amazingly, 40 years ago this summer. They give the history of the song and put it in context, pointing out that the summer of '65 also gave us 'Like a Rolling Stone' (Dylan), 'Yesterday' (Beatles), 'My Generation' (The Who), and 'California Girls' (Beach Boys). A list of events in '65 included the Watts riots in LA, and the authorization by LBJ for american troops to go on offensive (that would be the opposite of 'defensive', though I'm sure the other meaning of 'offensive' also applies) missions in Vietnam.
While the political landscape might be familiar today, I'm a little curious why the music coming out these days doesn't seem to rival the stuff coming out 40 years ago. I'm sure someone somewhere is writing stuff that's as good, but I haven't heard it!
:: David (02:09 in Michigan, 08:09 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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Bastille day today, and there were some amazing fireworks at the Tour Eiffel. And Sasha has returned! Hooray!
:: David (19:02 in Michigan, 01:02 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Thursday, July 14 2005 ::

Very eventful day today. I somehow managed to put my foot directly in the soup at work - apparently two of my coworkers were seeing each other, and stopped, badly, and everyone knew this except me. So first I put my foot in it by telling the one I was going to visit the other. I followed this up by telling one of them that the other was seeing someone new. Overall, a very yucky process.
However, there were lots of exciting things going on today, too. There was a big party at Bastille (no, they didn't storm it - that's tomorrow (well, today now)) to celebrate Brazilian culture. An amazing array of artists were there, including the cultural secretary of Brazil, Mr Gilberto Gil, who is also a very famous musician. Then I went, with several friends from work, to the Fireman's Ball, held near the Bastille. There was a band, dancing, general silliness. Finally, to round out the night I decided to see if I could get home using the Night Bus. I caught the 2AM bus and walked in my door at 4AM. Not perfect, but mostly my own fault, for not paying more attention to the stops. My excuse is that I was tired. The walk from Reuil-Malmaison woke me up quite a bit, but now the energy is waning. Bedtime!
:: David (22:38 in Michigan, 04:38 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, July 13 2005 ::

I've just read on the BBC that Sarko (Nicolas Sarkozy) has stated that Britain had arrested one of the bombers previously, but released them. The British home secretary has denied it.
More troubling is M. Sarkozy's statement that border controls will be re-implemented. I really don't think that's a step in the right direction. Of course, given his statements this week on immigration, he may be using this event as a way to further control who comes in to the country - that is, he may be less interested in the potential terrorist, and more interested in the potential illegal alien.
:: David (12:50 in Michigan, 18:50 in Paris) - Comment

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Well, we thought Sasha was going to travel past the bombings and into the safe North of England, where nothing ever happens. Now the investigations into the London bombings have turned their attention to Yorkshire, and the city of Leeds (where her conference is being held), as it appears the bombers - who are now thought to have been suicide bombers - all came from Northern England. She told me the city was half shut down yesterday, which, given that they are saying in the news that there have been some 'controlled detonations' of things believed to have belonged to the bombers, does not surprise me.
:: David (02:31 in Michigan, 08:31 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Tuesday, July 12 2005 ::

Well I finally managed to get my tooth crowned. After five years, the saga of the random cavity that just wouldn't go away is finally finished. Now I just need to get used to having a tooth there.
Today was actually very eventful all around. I got dressed up in a giant bunny outfit for a staff meeting, and handed out 'bunny hugs' to staff who had done, well, just about anything special. One person joked, after seeing me emerge drenched in sweat from the sweltering costume that perhaps making it a rule that people leaving the organization have to wear the bunny costume - perhaps it would cut down on staff turnover!
I also picked up a print version of The Economist on my way home. It is chock full of truly random job ads, including one from the Islamic Development Bank and one for the World Bank, which would be in my reach. Sadly, I don't know that I could work at the WB - I think I would feel a little too compromised. At least my current employer is very up front about what they do.
:: David (14:20 in Michigan, 20:20 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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:: Monday, July 11 2005 ::

An interesting article from the BBC: nomist.com
An independent investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem.
The UN representative said that the government, although it had helped organize his trip, did not see racism as a serious problem.
:: David (09:03 in Michigan, 15:03 in Paris) - Comment

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I made it almost all the way to work today before I realized that I cut a moderately suspicious figure. Someone in town had asked for old magazines, and we had a stack of old L'Express and Economist magazines lying around, so I stuck them all in a paper bag and carried them to work on the train. Here's the rub - the bag full of magazines easily weighs 5 kilos, which is the estimated weight of the bombs in London. It scared me to realize how easy it was to get something like that on a train. Admittedly, the paper bag is open at the top, and people can see inside to what I'm carrying, but by the same token, I would have just as easily, and thoughtlessly, carried something closed - I have often brought boxes on the train, and in fact I will be taking my fridge home this week on the train. Who's to know that it really is what the label says?
:: David (03:56 in Michigan, 09:56 in Paris) - Comment

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There is an ad on the train each morning for a cleaning service called shiva. This disturbs me, as Shiva is also the Hindu aspect of God as Destroyer. Admittedly, creative destruction, but does that mean they break all your furniture so they can clean underneath it, and you can get nicer stuff?
:: David (03:47 in Michigan, 09:47 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, July 10 2005 ::

I got up at the crack of dawn this morning to take Sasha to the Eurostar terminal, where she caught the too early train to London. She had to go extra early, because the bombings have (naturally) led to increased security. Some people took the advice on the Eurostar website a little too seriously - at one point an announcement came over the speaker asking all the people on the train -after- Sasha's to clear the way so people could get through. It was especially crazy because the Eurostar terminal is on a sort of half-second floor, so the entire area had filled, but because it's an escalator that leads up to it, people were still cramming in, so as soon as you got to the top of the escalator you had to dive to one side so you didn't get squished between the people in the queue and the people behind you on the escalator.
Once I bid Sasha farewell, I wandered the streets of Paris for a couple of hours, through some of the more questionable areas of Paris. It was really interesting to see who was awake at seven a.m. on a Sunday morning. I finally ran out of steam and headed back to the apartment for some more coffee, before setting off again to explore further parts of the city I'd not seen.
I headed to the Louvre, and walked along the river for a bit before turning South, into the bits of the city I don't know very well. I finally managed to find Saint Sulpice, the church which has seen a huge increase in tourists thanks to The Da Vinci Code (which is filming here, now-ish). Lots of little shops, side streets, main streets, and so forth.
One of the more amusing moments of my day was buying a bottle of water from one of the street-side entrepreneurs. I was thirsty, he was there, I gave hima euro, he gave me a bottle of water. Simple. But the bottle felt funny, and I realized that he was more efficient at cost cutting than I had realized - it was not a new bottle of water that he had purchased, for example, in a six pack and then sold to me at a horrible markup - it was a refilled bottle of water. Where had he got it? Had it been cleaned? Dunno. But the water was wet, and I was thirsty, so I didn't ask any more questions of myself.
On the way back to my apartment, I passed the Starbucks near Opera, and I realized that they were in no way trying to compete with a French cafe. There were no roadside tables. There were no open windows. There was no smoking in the building. What they were selling was the same safe, sterile experience people have come to expect and associate with 'western'. Like your nicely plastic wrapped pre-packaged chicken. No mess, no fuss. So I can't really fault them for being here.
The evening has been spent getting things around, playing with wires, trying to print forms, and generally making a mess. And now it's 11:30, and I haven't done my French homework. Argh!
:: David (17:25 in Michigan, 23:25 in Paris) - Comment

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Worth noting - 20 years ago today, French special agents, carrying fake passports, blew up the Greenpeace boat 'Rainbow Warrior' while it was docked in New Zealand, killing a Portuguese photographer. There was a ceremony at Trocadero (the eiffel tower) today, and several articles in Le Monde, mainly about recent revelations concerning the bombing, including the fact that it had the full support of then president Mitterrand. You can read the full history at wikipedia.
:: David (17:06 in Michigan, 23:06 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, July 9 2005 ::

In an opinion piece sent to the New York Times on July 7th, Christoph Schoenborn, the Roman Catholic cardinal archbishop of Vienna, throws another log on the fire of intelligent design:

Ever since 1996, when Pope John Paul II said that evolution (a term he did not define) was "more than just a hypothesis," defenders of neo-Darwinian dogma have often invoked the supposed acceptance - or at least acquiescence - of the Roman Catholic Church when they defend their theory as somehow compatible with Christian faith.
But this is not true. The Catholic Church, while leaving to science many details about the history of life on earth, proclaims that by the light of reason the human intellect can readily and clearly discern purpose and design in the natural world, including the world of living things.
Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection - is not. Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.

I'm really pleased to see everyone wading in to this issue - there isn't quite enough on the table already. And by making such a clear statement, Cardinal Schoenborn has helpfully made the church's position absolutely clear. In an article today, the New York Times discusses the implications of his letter, both for the church's position, and for followers of the church who might not agree with what seems to be a new position.
:: David (09:00 in Michigan, 15:00 in Paris) - Comment

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So I went to the store today to pick up some juice, because Sasha is feeling a bit under the weather (which is problematic, giving that she has a presentation Monday). While there, as I always do, I wandered the store aimlessly for a bit, sticking random things in my basket. I had meandered to the potato chip aisle, and found myself looking at the Lays potato chips. At eye level was a new flavour, so bizarre I had to buy it, if only so I could prove to all of you it exists. I give you: Heinz Ketchup flavoured potato chips!
:: David (06:46 in Michigan, 12:46 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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:: Friday, July 8 2005 ::

Well, I couldn't find a way to link to them that I thought would last for more than a day, so I've put together my own collage of London's front pages on the day after the bomb attacks. It's mostly courtesy of the BBC, with some help from the Guardian. Be warned that at least one of the papers went a little graphic.
:: David (01:36 in Michigan, 07:36 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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:: Thursday, July 7 2005 ::

I finally finished typing up our adventures in the Loire Valley, which involved a whole lot more time than I expected, but was actually a nice way to remind myself of all the stuff we did. It's amazing how much we managed to squeeze in to four days. Sadly, I fear typing up the story took the time I had planned to devote to my French homework, so I may be going in empty handed tomorrow. As always.
:: David (17:35 in Michigan, 23:35 in Paris) - Comment

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A bit more clarity from the carnage - it looks like there were four bombs. The toll now stands around 30. I texted our friends soon after I heard, and everyone seems to be accounted for, and fine. The word on the streets of Paris is confused, and scared. People are talking about the olympics, some have speculated that London winning the games was the motivating event, though the news now seems to be focused on the G8. Concern about the Paris metro system is also being voiced, understandably. We'll see what they do here - I expect the trash cans will be closed up again, and we'll be seeing more police on and around the trains.
:: David (11:43 in Michigan, 17:43 in Paris) - Comment

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I just watched Tony Blair announce his intention to leave the G8 summit and go down to London, where a series of bombs (7 at present count) have killed and injured an unknown number of people.
:: David (07:07 in Michigan, 13:07 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, July 6 2005 ::

JO 2012 : Londres organisera les Jeux olympiques 2012
London beats Paris to 2012 Games
Londres, sede de los Juegos 2012
:: David (08:00 in Michigan, 14:00 in Paris) - Comment

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Unofficial word (in Spanish) holds that it is London. No Le Monde also - London, 2012!
:: David (07:52 in Michigan, 13:52 in Paris) - Comment

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46 minutes until the winner of the 2012 Olympic Games is announced. New York, Madrid, and Moscow have been eliminated, which makes it a head-to-head Paris/London showdown. Very exciting stuff!
:: David (07:03 in Michigan, 13:03 in Paris) - Comment

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According to the BBC Olympic vote blog, voting has started. There may be multiple votes to get it down to the city with 50% or more of the votes.
:: David (06:24 in Michigan, 12:24 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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:: Tuesday, July 5 2005 ::

Shelby has a nice blog entry on the 4th of July, which in part talks about fireworks. It reminded me of some adventures:
When I was young, perhaps 16 or so, a friend of mine and I went out in the backyard with some Roman Candles, stood back to back, took ten paces, and commenced to shoot rockets at one another. In retrospect, fairly dumb (my mom thought so) but at the time, great gobs of fun.
Later, living in Japan, I went to a festival where small boats we launched to memorialize those who had passed away. The boats were loaded with rockets and somesuch, which would occasionally launch into the crowd. It seems less fun then....
:: David (12:13 in Michigan, 18:13 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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I suspect most of you haven't heard about this, but I'm moderately interested in seeing what this company does. The company is OQO, and their product is called the OQO model 01. It's basically a palm, except instead of having windows mobile or whatever, it's a full blown windows XP computer. I probably won't look at the first generation device, because for me battery life is the key, and everything I've read seems to indicate that's a problem on the first version (2-3 hours max). But I'm willing to wait and see what they can do with version 2. And even though the price is high, for a full blown computer as small as this one, I might think about paying it. I do wonder, however, if some variant of 'gameboy thumb' isn't waiting for people who use this device a lot....
:: David (04:42 in Michigan, 10:42 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Monday, July 4 2005 ::

Something I hadn't considered when I was typing this morning about the NASA project to crash things into a comet. A person I know, who is French, was expressing their distress at the Deep Impact mission. Now I knew there were some people who thought that maybe the comet would explode or crash into earth or some other thing. Witness this quote (pulled from the google cache of the website, as the site itself appears to have gone down):
When the first atomic bomb was detonated, it was not know in scientific circles whether the chain reaction started in the atomic bomb would lead to a whole Earth nuclear explosion or ignition of the atmospheric gases, killing all life on Earth.
This was the first time that life on Earth has been confronted with this type of man made peril.
The second time might be seen in attempts by scientists to develop nuclear fusion. This task continues, with higher and higher energy densities being achieved on a regular basis.
The third and most recent serious breach putting life on Earth at risk is unfolding in the heavens above.
The University of Maryland proposed space mission to penetrate deep into the nucleus of a comet and uncover secrets about the origin of the solar system has won approval by NASA.
[...]
If the comet is made of hydrogen peroxide it may explode under chemical decomposition if it is hit..... and break into many pieces that can and will go ANYWHERE. The forward momentum of Tempel 1 is Earthward.
A frozen hunk of H2O2 hitting the ground on Earth will explode,... like an atomic bomb, leaving no trace except vitrified matter...
Nevertheless, I didn't really think about one aspect of that fear - it's the United States that's doing it. They didn't ask anyone, noone else was given the chance to say 'hey - that looks dangerous!' - it was just done. They could, and because they could they did.
Now, I'm not suggesting that all scientific research should ask permission. But some things are simply more flashy, and/or more dangerous, and in those cases a little common sense wouldn't hurt. "Hey, neighbour - it's the fourth of july, and I'm gonna blow some stuff up. That ok?" It's just a thought....
:: David (17:37 in Michigan, 23:37 in Paris) - Comment

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I added a little link down below all my old blog entries to a Paris blog ring - click the 'au hasard' button to visit one at random, or visit this one, whose author was at the live 8 concert with me (tho we didn't meet) and took lots of photos (with his phone, if I'm not mistaken - I can't decide whether to be amused or offended at the sheer number of camera phones one sees at all popular events these days - it makes me sad, on the one hand, to think of all those shots that could be better, but on the other hand, a snapshot is almost better when it isn't good... it feels more 'real').
:: David (13:29 in Michigan, 19:29 in Paris) - Comment

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Nasa and the BBC were good enough to broadcast from the control room when a satellite smashed into a comet this morning, which allowed me not only to watch the moment of impact, but also the raucous party which happened afterward, with nasa engineers whooping and hollering and carrying on. Quite exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing the enhanced images, as the live ones were of fairly low quality, to allow their broadcast in real time.
:: David (02:23 in Michigan, 08:23 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, July 3 2005 ::

Well, we made up for all the excitement yesterday (parc floral and Live 8 for me, a conference and Live 8 for Sasha) by doing absolutely nothing today. It was too hot anyway. I read most of the first book in Robin Hobb's Liveship series, which is a good bit of fluff to prepare me for tomorrow, when I will be doing serious linguistic gymnastics as I start my two week intensive French classes. Three hours a day, five days a week. Look out world, here I come!
:: David (17:25 in Michigan, 23:25 in Paris) - Comment

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Well, Live 8 was there. We were there. It was lots and lots and lots of people, lots and lots and lots of music. Lots and lots and lots of, bizarrely, marketing. Nestle provided all the water, which seems ironic, given that they are a company which takes money out of Africa, rather than the other way round. There were adverts shown on the big screen for new movies from the big studios, and random stuff like that - even one from Nokia. It seemed terribly wrong to be marketed to while watching a concert about poverty... but one guy had the idea - he had collected beer bottles, either from the overflowing trash cans or from passers by, and arranged them in the shape of Africa. It was impressive! We're watching the Cure live now (on the TV), at 1:30 in the morning. It's not clear to me that the concert will ever end. We had quite a fight getting home, but since we were leaving before the end of the concert, the train was only packed to capacity, rather than overflowing. Well, the second train - the first station we went to was completely shut down, half an hour before the train was scheduled to leave.
:: David (19:26 in Michigan, 01:26 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, July 2 2005 ::

How many databases do you have in your life? It's starting to get crazy - I can't keep track of my music, movies, tv shows, books, etc. That doesn't even count legitimate databases like the ones I use to track the weblog and stuff like that - I'm just talking about all those lists you have, that seem to reproduce at a rate of 10 a week. Somebody is going to figure out a better way to keep lists, and that person will be rich rich rich!
:: David (07:16 in Michigan, 13:16 in Paris) - Comment

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In a statement recently, the US government announced it would not be relinquishing control of the internet in September 2006 as had previously been envisaged, and would instead continue to control it indefinitely. As the register noted in its report on the statement,
The vision of a US-controlled internet infrastructure will be anathema to large parts of the world however and it is a demonstration of the US administration’s failure to think globally that it doesn't recognise that there is surprisingly little preventing other parts of the world from creating a second Internet outside of US control.
Which is, of course, the fear - that a second network will be created, with all of the inefficiencies which go along with it. Of course, that would be expensive and time consuming, but a country like China, for example, would reap enormous benefits running its own private network. By the same token, I don't really think the EU can let this stand. We'll have to see who does what, when. Most of this will probably take place behind the scenes.
:: David (03:53 in Michigan, 09:53 in Paris) - Comment

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When the new prime minister of France, Dominique de Villepin, was named, he made a big deal of his plan to overhaul the employment situation in France within 100 days. The opinion piece in this morning's Le Monde says it all - "Employment: Bet Lost?" Another article indicates that the new job type he created, which was intended to make hiring people easier, has created not the 100,000 jobs he said it would create, but a mere 500. Ouch.
Also according to the article is a statistic I find amazing: "more than 40% of those looking for work have been unemployed for more than a year, versus 32% on average among OECD countries." That's just under 1,000,000 people here who've been unemployed for a year or more. Now, given that unemployment benefits last a lot longer than that, I'm not very surprised, but that's still a whole lot of people with nothing to do on a Tuesday morning!
:: David (02:32 in Michigan, 08:32 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Friday, July 1 2005 ::

Well, here we go. Sandra Day O'Connor retired from the supreme court. The first of many? Certainly she was not the one we all expected to retire. We'll see what happens. Bush, of course, is expected to find someone conservative beyond belief. We'll see how that goes.
:: David (11:32 in Michigan, 17:32 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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The BBC is reporting that in an interview with the Indian press, Henry Kissinger has said he regrets his comments which have been revealed by recently declassified documents.
However, in further developments on the documents, and presumably further making India unhappy, the Hindustan Times is reporting Nixon wanted a publicity campaign to malign India (or as Nixon said it "piss on Indians").
:: David (10:16 in Michigan, 16:16 in Paris) - Comment

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The Belgians have cancelled a lunch with representatives from Iran due to a request not to have alcohol present, reports the BBC. Actually, there were two points - one, not serving wine, and two, not shaking hands with any of the women present.
This one is tougher than it looks - the wine issue seems just plain dumb on the part of the Belgians - it really shouldn't be a hardship to serve water, or juice. The question of women is a different one, I fear - I think there is a point where one has to hold fast to one's beliefs, and I think equality is one of those places.
:: David (04:05 in Michigan, 10:05 in Paris) - Comment

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