Sabbath

As the Economist said, blogging is no longer what it was, because it has entered the mainstream. This does not explain the dearth of contributions to my online oeuvre. I wonder if I have run out of vitriol. Have I become a safely dull professional with insipid opinions? I surely have not run out of curiosity. I have become a consumer – not a creator, not even a repeater. I am a gravitational singularity. What happened to posting a picture here and an article there? What happened to highlighting and synthesizing? What happened to descriptive observation?

More than neck roles

Did someone poop their pants?

Yup, over here, that was me.

The Art of Management

Staying at the top
Mao and the art of management
Dec 19th 2007
From The Economist print edition

... The disparity between Mao's performance and his reputation is instructive, for behind it are four key ingredients which all bad managers could profitably employ.

1. A powerful, mendacious slogan

2. Ruthless media manipulation

3. Sacrifice of friends and colleagues

4. Activity substituting for achievement

Sound Policy Criteria

It is a universal if dispiriting fact that most people vote with their guts, forming their views on policy on the basis of character judgments rather than vice versa.

The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating

1. Beets
2. Cabbage
3. Swiss Chard
4. Cinnamon
5. Pomegranate Juice
6. Dried Plums (Prunes)
7. Pumpkin Seeds
8. Sardines
9. Turmeric
10. Frozen Blueberries
11. Canned Pumpkin

Way to Go Matt!

USA Olympic Trials
5k Finals

1 Bernard Lagat Nike 13:27.47
2 Matt Tegenkamp Nike 13:29.68
3 Ian Dobson adidas 13:29.76
4 Bolota Asmerom Oregon TC Elite 13:31.24
5 Chris Solinsky Nike 13:32.17
6 Robert Curtis Reebok 13:35.00
7 Stephen Pifer Colorado 13:37.46
8 Matthew Gabrielson Reebok 13:38.06
9 Brent Vaughn Nike 13:39.15
10 Thomas Morgan ZAP Fitness 13:47.76
11 Kyle King ZAP Fitness 13:51.03
12 Ryan Vail Oklahoma State 13:54.77
13 Jonathon Riley Nike 13:57.58
-- Adam Goucher Nike DNF
-- Galen Rupp unattached DNS
-- Josh Rohatinsky Nike DNS

Seven Dirty Words

"Shit, Piss, Cunt, Fuck, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits. "
— George Carlin

What's Obscene? Google Could Have an Answer

Judges and jurors who must decide whether sexually explicit material is obscene are asked to use a local yardstick: does the material violate community standards?

That is often a tricky question because there is no simple, concrete way to gauge a community’s tastes and values.

The Internet may be changing that. In a novel approach, the defense in an obscenity trial in Florida plans to use publicly accessible Google search data to try to persuade jurors that their neighbors have broader interests than they might have thought.

In the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search for terms like “orgy” than for “apple pie” or “watermelon.” The publicly accessible data is vague in that it does not specify how many people are searching for the terms, just their relative popularity over time. But the defense lawyer, Lawrence Walters, is arguing that the evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that interest in the sexual subjects exceeds that of more mainstream topics — and that by extension, the sexual material distributed by his client is not outside the norm.

Carbon Neutral Beer

East Green – the UK's first carbon neutral beer

High yielding barley, grown and malted in East Anglia
English Boadicea Hops are naturally aphid-resistant, reducing need for pesticides
Adnams energy efficient brewhouse
Adnams lightweight beer bottle
Tiny amount of remaining CO2 will be offset

Fair

"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal rather than religion-specific values," Obama said. "It requires their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason."

Delicate Sensibilities

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (a UN treaty that came into force in 1976) states that “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law. Is that justification for curtailing freedom of speech?

How, if at all, can freedom of speech be reconciled with the Muslim demand for a ban on public statements or cultural products that offend Islamic sensibilities.

Comparative Statements

I can never accept that freedom of speech is morally right when it offends my faith.

I can never accept that freedom of speech is morally right when it offends my atheism.

* * *

We need some formal, internationally agreed restriction on the defamation of religion.

We need some formal, internationally agreed restriction on the defamation of atheism.

* * *

There is a Muslim demand for a ban on public statements or cultural products that offend Islamic sensibilities.

There is a atheist demand for a ban on public statements or cultural products that offend atheism's sensibilities.

* * *

Imagine that. The example of atheism is a little extreme, but instructive. Or imagine the italics substituted with Christians, Hindus, Chinese Universalists, Buddhists, ethnoreligionists, neoreligionists, Sikhs, Jews, Spiritists, Baha'is, Confucianists, Jains, Shintoists, Taoists, or Zoroastrians.

Picture

Surly Open

Marye and I played in the 2nd Annual Surly Open at Hyland Park in Bloomington on the summer solstice. To begin the day we signed in and selected a Discraft Surly Open disc of our choice. I chose a red putter/approach disc. Then we played 18 baskets over a long course with significant elevation changes. Surly was on tap for $1. Mmmm. At the end of the round we ate lunch and stayed for the raffle. I won a gift certificate to the Muddy Pig and Marye was deemed the only participant worthy of receiving the Surly onesie. I look forward to next year.

Dyson Airblade

Has anyone used this to dry your hands?
Best. Dryer. Ever.

Gravlax Recipe

Ingredients

1 (3- to 4-pound) salmon, weighed after cleaning and beheading, skin on
3 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 good-size bunch dill, roughly chopped, stems and all
1 tbsp spirits: brandy, aquavit, lemon vodka, etc.

Preparation

Fillet the salmon or have the fishmonger fillet it for you; the fish need not be scaled.

Lay both halves, skin side down, on a plate.

Sprinkle with the salt, sugar and pepper, spread the dill over them, and splash on the spirits. Sandwich the fillets together, tail to tail, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Cover the sandwich with another plate and something that weighs about a pound -- an unopened can of coffee or beans, for example. Refrigerate.

Open the package every 12 to 24 hours and baste, inside and out, with the accumulated juices. On the second or third day, when the flesh has lost its translucense, slice thinly as you would smoked salmon -- on the bias and without the skin -- and serve with rye bread or pumpernickel, and lemon wedges.

Yield: 12 or more appetizer servings

Legal Empowerment

Report of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor
Making the Law Work for Everyone

A new report launched today found that four billion people – the majority of the world’s people – are excluded from the rule of law. The report, by the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, a group co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, called on governments, international institutions and civil society to make legal empowerment a top agenda item in the fight against global poverty. As the global food crisis wreaks havoc on nations across the globe, the new report proposes solutions that focus on the core of the problem...

Hymenoplasty

RARELY has a judicial verdict in a civil court set off so much argument. But the annulment of the marriage of two French Muslims in Lille, granted because the bride falsely claimed to be a virgin, has prompted an outcry, culminating in a riotous parliamentary debate on June 3rd. The verdict touched a raw nerve in France, mixing complex questions of sexual equality, secularism and Islam.

* * *

In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity

The operation in the private clinic off the Champs-Élysées involved one semicircular cut, 10 dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900.

But for the patient, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, the 30-minute procedure represented the key to a new life: the illusion of virginity.

Like an increasing number of Muslim women in Europe, she had a hymenoplasty, a restoration of her hymen, the vaginal membrane that normally breaks in the first act of intercourse.

Sexy Beast

El Padre

From the right: Simon, Ziyad, Kofi, and man
wearing thawb, shumagh, and igal.