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August 2006 Archives
August 28, 2006
Weekend Observations & Site Updates
Had the unfortunate experience of hanging out at an extremely snobby upscale club this weekend (with Kitten, of course). Cover charge was twice the going rate, which resulted in a room full of young male lawyers (wearing, of all things, business shirts untucked over jeans) strutting around and checking out women (who were in turn preening and likely hoping to get noticed by rich professional males).
Now Kitten and I are both fairly successful young women, so we are not impressed by boring, witless men who announce that they are one of 500 associate attorneys at a giant lawfirm, and then wait for the dull thud of women falling at their feet. Why, I actually expected someone clever and interesting to approach us, only to be terribly disappointed by a pretentious wanker chatting us up about "wine culture" because we looked like the sort of women who could recommend a good red (having only recently taken up this activity, I am hardly in a position to be making recommendations beyond "disgusting" and "tolerable").
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Posted by eerie at 05:57 PM
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August 19, 2006
Some Changes (Updated)
I will be adjusting the 'Aqoul front pages to 1024px or floating width this weekend, so please ignore any strange behaviour (design-related) on site.
I may also implement pantom's earlier request to turn all the top banners into hyperlinks. If you guys have any other suggestions for improving the site, feel free to leave a comment here.
Update: New front page (in progress) is now available for viewing and comment.
Posted by eerie at 09:45 AM
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August 12, 2006
Saturday Afternoon
The war continues to gnaw at me, in spite of the UN deal. I am more restive than usual, and have taken to sniping at dear friends for no reason. Polls in Lebanon and Israel both fascinate and horrify me as they continue to reinforce the vile predictability of human nature.
Not to mention bad decisionmaking at the highest levels.
Condi bet on Israel's ability to wipe the floor with Hezbollah, Olmert bet on a "quick win" using airstrikes, and Hezbollah bet on Nasrallah's ability to cast anything that wasn't a complete rout as a complete victory (i.e. punching above its weight and standing up to mighty Israel even as Arab leaders cowered behind craven rhetoric). Obviously Hezbollah won, if one can truthfully stare at the smoldering heap that is Lebanon and call it victory.
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Posted by eerie at 06:08 PM
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August 09, 2006
Groupthink and the Internet
No time to comment on this FT article, but I did find it interesting (or more precisely, rather funny):
Prof Sunstein recognises all the potential flaws of such collaborative projects [Wikipedia, etc]. “For aggregating information, the internet offers great risk as well as extraordinary promise,” he writes. In the digital world, obtaining the views – right or wrong – of millions of people is virtually effortless. “Every day, like-minded people can and do sort themselves into echo chambers of their own design, leading to wild errors, undue confidence, and unjustified extremism,” he says.
The internet as a substrate for demagoguery.
Posted by eerie at 11:09 PM
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August 06, 2006
Best Google Ad Ever
Ah, so many potential jokes, most of which are in poor taste...
Posted by eerie at 03:58 PM
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August 04, 2006
Possession
Earlier, I mentioned being struck by A.S. Byatt's Possession, after having read about a third of it in a single evening. Unfortunately, as I approach the halfway mark, my attention is wandering and I find myself unable to read more than a chapter without having to put it down.
The premise seemed intriguing at first: a rumpled scholar named Roland, who specializes in the life and works of a long-dead poet, discovers some affectionate notes written by him to a mysterious poetess. Roland subsequently meets up with a female scholar (whose specialty is of course the poetess in question) and together they discover that the two poets enjoyed a sort of intellectual infatuation/affair through a series of letters. Alongside this mystery is an amusing satire of the literary-academic world, and an emerging relationship between the two modern scholars as they attempt to uncover this secret romance.
Posted by eerie at 09:44 PM
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August 01, 2006
Trip Photos & Commentary
I'm sick of Lebanon. There is no point in following it obsessively hour by hour because I'm not learning anything new beyond confirming my existing belief that rampant demagoguery and short-term gratification (political or emotional) has driven everyone in the region insane (oh I'm sure the war has its own internally consistent logic that allows for children to get blown up in service of some greater good but let's get a grip here).
So once again, a trivial and self-indulgent distraction: photos and commentary on my trip to the Dominican Republic.
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Posted by eerie at 08:56 PM
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Notes on Condi
While L believes Condi has demonstrated stunning incompetence in handling the Lebanon war, I am inclined to give her a bit more credit because she has in the past come across as fairly pragmatic, at least at a tactical level. However, she seems to have been painted into a corner by White House messaging (Lebanon is yet another front for the War on Terror) and Republican/Democrat contests over who is more fervently pro-Israel. And I suppose that "birth pangs" comment was rather stupid, but likely assumed that the IDF would wipe the floor with Hezbollah if given carte blanche by the US, and that the Lebanese would condemn Hezbollah instead of Israel.
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Posted by eerie at 01:34 PM
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