Category Archives: Travel

a Steve Irwin Tribute

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I posted this over at Scoble’s site, so I feel no hesitation about cross-posting it here, as there is zero crossover between our readerships. Every time I got cranky about Aussies (like the time six of them drank all the beer in the Bandas in 48 hours and we had to do without for a week till the Pelni ferry brought more) a single reference to Steve Irwin would calm me down. Any nation that can produce a man like that must have more going for it than I could even imagine.

Steve Irwin’s death is a great loss to the world. The sheer beauty of his enthusiasm for animals was inspiring to thousands of people, more than he ever intended or imagined. He was mobbed when he made appearances here in Canada, a fact which never failed to flabbergast him, but in this detached society we simply never get to see that kind of unreserved love; when we do, how can we help but be drawn to it?

I’ll never forget the time Steve was in Kalimantan, climbing trees with the endangered orangutans, and a mother gave him her baby to hold. He was thirty feet up a tree, but even in a long shot you could see his tears falling down like rain.

The man had a gift for not only feeling love, but for expressing that love before the world in a way that made us all around the world honour and share it, if only for a brief time.

And from CNN:

As fellow countrymen and fans from around the world mourned his death, it was announced that a state funeral for Irwin would be held if his family so chose, an Australian state premier said. “We will honor Steve Irwin in whatever way his family wants,” said Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, speaking to CNN affiliate Channel Seven.

TWAT: what the terrorists want, and how not to give it to them

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Never Forget 

This is from Bruce Schneier, a man after my own shrivelled heart. Looking around the globe at the hysterical overreactions on the part of individuals, corporate staff, and governments, he concludes that the terrorists are not the losers in TWAT: we are.

I’d like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.

Go on and read the rest before you board so much as a skateboard.

NYT article censored by NYT: Details Emerge in British Terror Case

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Boingboing reports on the self-censorship that the NYT has engaged in and why:

NYT ad tech blocks UK web visitors from terror plot article
The NYT website is using geo-targeting ad technology to block UK visitors from accessing a news article about the investigation surrounding the alleged UK airline terror plot. The technological self-censorship is an attempt to comply with UK law. The Times’ Tom Zeller explains how the block works and why it’s in place here. Snip from MSNBC article:

“We had clear legal advice that publication in the U.K. might run afoul of their law,” Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty said Tuesday. “It’s a country that doesn’t have the First Amendment, but it does have the free press. We felt we should respect their country’s law.”Visitors who click on a link to the article, published Monday, instead got a notice explaining that British law “prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial.” The blocked article reveals evidence authorities have in the alleged plot to use liquid explosives to down U.S. airliners over the Atlantic.

Link to MSNBC coverage, here’s an item on Foreign Policy blog, Link to Guardian UK coverage. Here’s what web visitors identified as UK-based will see:

“On advice of legal counsel, this article is unavailable to readers of nytimes.com in Britain. This arises from the requirement in British law that prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial.”

And, of course, a visitor to the raincoaster blog will see instead the article itself, after the jump. Continue reading →

the Simpsons vs Star Trek

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From a WordPress blog I can’t seem to find at the moment; sorry, if it’s you, leave a comment and I’ll update the entry.

The Simpsons theme meets capitan Kirk. Performed with Rhodes piano, Theremin and funnel.

What he does not say is that it’s performed by a COMPLETE LUNATIC! I love this whackjob, and so do 380,000 other people, primarily sexy Scandinavians, according to the YouTube stats. I bet he never has to suffer through a chilly Arctic night alone.

Olbermann: the nexus of politics and terror

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Keith Olbermann’s broadcast from August 14, 2006. Think about that timing, in light of subsequent events.

From the Youtube notes:

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann updated his top 10 list of occasions that the Bush Administration has gained political benefits around the same time that the public’s fear of terrorism was at a peak. Olbermann describes it as “The Nexus of Politics and Terror.”

In this video from last night’s broadcast, Olbermann includes the latest foiled terrorist plot in Britain with the newest edition of the “Nexus of Politics and Terror Top 10 List”. Olbermann concludes that if these occasions are more than just coincidences then, he says, “it underscores the need for questions to be asked in this country, questions about what is prudence and what is fear-mongering.”