out of the blue

This seems like a good step in the right direction. With a specific definition of terrorism, it will become harder to use "terrorism" as a blanket excuse to go out and destroy things. Not that anyone would do anything like that…

The Article

Their definition is: "any act intended to intimidate a population or to compel a government or an international body to act." That is pretty sensible.

But there are very tangible objections raised, mainly in the rights of civilians to take up arms against a government in order to protect their rights.

When confronted by this, Secretary General Annan's chief of staff compares the UN's move to limit terrorists to the limits placed on States by the Geneva conventions: "The argument now is that individuals who use violence for political purposes must similarly be constrained by similarly unambiguous definitions, and that there must be clear straightforwardness in condemning them."

What do you think about this definition? Is making a definition potentially as dangerous as leaving it undefined? I'm eager to see what people say.

Yesterday I went to see a band called March Fourth (named after the day of their first gig), and they were quite awesome. They're a combination of a marching band and a troupe of carnival performers. Tons of energy. If you ever get a chance to go see them, do so. Especially if you can do it for free like I did at the Saturday Market here in downtown Portland. I had a lot of fun sketching the various band members in their eclectic costumes, but it was very difficult because of how much they were moving around.

The highlight of the choreography had to be a song which was accompanied by the people on stilts moving some people on the ground like marionettes. At first, they were completely yielding, doing exactly what the puppeteers wanted them to. But as the dance went on, they would start to take their own initiative, and throw in small movements. They began to grab the strings that controlled them, and soon enough they were controlling themselves more than being controlled. At the finale, as the music got faster and faster, the marionettes ripped themselves free, string by string, and began circling around the puppeteers. The people on stilts ended up tied in the very strings that controlled their puppets at the beginning. Quite awesome.

So, go find them.

Although I'm in no way an alcohol-lover, I found this way too amusing not to pass on.

Vores Øl is the first of it's kind: an open-source beer. Generally, recipes for beers are carefully guarded by their brewers, so this is rather a unique case. Anyone is free to download the recipe and the label, and brew their own Vores Øl.

The Article

The FAQ from the Vores Øl page

That's the title of a news item on BBC News. I for one applaud their efforts. These grannies have been protesting outside of a Recruitment Center every week for three whole years. They got tired of that. So, instead of protesting inside it, they went inside to sign up to be recruited. The army claimed that they weren't serious, rather just harassing recruiters, but the article addresses that:

[Ms Birnie] said the charge was an "overreaction", and that the grannies had been serious about joining the army."We would like to replace our young who are in the firing line," Ms Birnie said.

The article can be found here.

Go grannies!

If you want a little bit of awesomeness (not coolness, of course), read Nathan's journal on turning twenty-one. It's brilliant.

Then, start using clutch as your new slang, as suggested by Ann.

I passed out today! Woohoo! It made me excited, and amused, and gave me some stuff to think about. Yeah. Probably not your typical reaction, but I'm not your typical person. So I decided not to pass out in a typical place. It went something like this…

My glasses have been giving me trouble for some time now. I snapped one of the earpieces off about 9 months ago, and they've never been the same. They break down often; I think they're enchanted so that the tape wears off at the most inopportune moment. I was finally able to take action against them by making a devil's contract with a lady certified as an optometrist. Dark magic, indeed.

I went there, suspecting trouble, but she was a most helpful lady with an interesting accent I can't place. It seemed she was going to help me after all. I sat down in her chair, looked through her arcane instruments, and allowed her to direct my actions. She peered carefully into my eyes through lenses, and flashed bright lights into them, and made notes on a small piece of parchment she held absently in one hand. Finally, she told me it was time to dilate them. What deviltry is this? I thought to myself, but still I submitted. She removed a cork from a cleverly crafted bottle that was kept unlabelled in a dark cabinet, buarded by enchantment so secure that not even a full-mage could break through them. She tilted the vial slowly, and let fall two silver drops glistening into each eye.

A strange sensation ran through my body, my eyes tried to blink, but felt strangely heavy. For a moment my mind whirled in meaningless circle. Then it faded away, and I thought everything was normal. After all, wouldn't one expect strange feelings and otherworldly humours when dealing with such magic as optometry? We went into the other room to discuss frames for my new pair of glasses. They would be carefully crafted with dwarf-forged hinges, and bespelled to resist scratches. The shape was being discussed, when the dizzy feeling returned. It began to get worse, quickly. What have you done to me! I cried to the sorceress, but she looked just as confused as I was. "I'm going to sit down", I told her fuzzily, and walked towards the chairs on the other side of the room. I was mostly there, when my mind left me, and I fell into a blurry oblivion.

What would have happened had I not taken my mother along with me, I don't know. All I can be sure of is that the optometrist didn't do untoward things to me. I returned to my body slowly, and my mind took a minute to grow accustomed to being back. I didn't realize anything was wrong for a minute, before the slow thought pushed itself into my head that I was lying down. "Now why is that", I wondered, and through a series of remembrances and deductions, I realized that I had passed out. Naturally, my first thoughts were, Cool! I had been wondering how that felt. My thoughts soon crept over to the sizeable lump developing on my head.

Apparently, from my mother's account, I had been walking towards the chair, when I suddenly veered off towards the right and crashed into a glass case full of glasses frames. They flew everywhere, and scattered about the room, as my body decided to react by falling backwards. In the process of falling, my head hit the corner of a small table for magazines, and I came to rest lying on my back, unconscious.

So, I was pretty much aware of my situation by now, but I was still a bit dazed, so when I sat up and saw the glasses on the floor, I wondered what they were doing there. I wasn't as surprised as I should have been, because I didn't make the connection between the glasses' unusual resting places and my own spectacular collision.

I soon was able to get up, and complete my bargain with the optometrist. All devil's bargains have a cost, and it seems I have paid mine. We left under cover of bright sunshine that burned my eyes. Apparently all of my enemies were still hiding in their dark caves, for we weren't attacked in my state of weakness. Soon I had the story out of my mother, and I expressed my gratitude at her assistance.

My glasses will soon be in their full power, and I will be possessed of unusual clarity of Sight. May the world fear.

Found a mention of this book on an author's weblog. It's called The King in the Window, it's by Adam Gopnik, and it has an awesome first sentence:

I promised that I'd get my pictures up pretty soon, and I may have implied that a story would come with them. You're going to have to wait for a story, though, because I'm don't want to take the time right now to tell you one. Just make do with the pictures!

I encountered this on Making Light. It's a brilliant puzzle, and it actually does have an answer. I wasn't able to figure it out before I gave up and looked at the answer (which can be found on the linked page). I'd like to know if anyone can figure it out without looking.

Puzzle: Person x and y have the following conversation:

x: I forgot how old your three kids are.
y: The product of their ages is 36.
x: I still don’t know their ages.
y: The sum of their ages is the same as your house number.
x: I still don’t know their ages.
y: The oldest one has red hair.
x: Now I know their ages!

What are the kids’ ages?

Please, no posting the answer. If someone wants the answer, they can look it up on the other site. Just tell me when (and if) you get it, or when (and if) you give up.

EDIT: I made a page showing how to come by the answer. I think it's pretty well written. You can find it here: ( A Puzzling Resolved )

No, I am not a "troll". Trolling is a type of fishing, which involves dangling a line behind you as you drive your boat slowly through the water. This means that I was strolling across the internet, and as I moved slowly, I got a few bites. Actually, in this case I was through a long list of feeds, but it amounts to the same thing. A couple of my catches I kept, because they were interesting enough that I was allowed by Law to keep them. I'll be doleing them out to you folks in a careful manner.

First of all, an interesting commentary by Jim Winter, one of John Scalzi's guest bloggers: Time for a Change in the Language

He takes a look at the problem in English grammar of having no singular genderless pronoun. A common way of getting around that is using "they", but many people complain that using a plural form is even worse than using a gender-specific form such as "he" (the accepted method). Something you may or may not have realized, he reminds us, is that "you" is actually a plural form. If it's acceptible to use "you", then why wouldn't it be acceptible to use "they"?

Second, on a completely different subject, there's an article on the New York Times about hybrid cars. It seems that the trend isn't going towards more efficient cars, but rather towards more power. The extra efficiency given by a hybrid system is going to faster acceleration rather than towards consuming less fuel. Luckily, there are still options that get in the vicinity of 70 miles per gallon, but they don't have the impressive 0 to 60 numbers.

Finally, BBC news presents an article that shows us a glimpse of what might come in the future of cities. We all know that urbanization is a huge trend, but did you realize that 70 million people every year move to the city from the country? The last section of the article, "Waste as Energy", is by far the most fascinating. Imagine a city with parks layed out so people can go from place to place without crossing traffic. Imagine a city that uses it's own waste (energy waste, organic waste, etc.) to power other things. Methane from sewage used for cooking. Lighting will be carefully planned so that artificial lights aren't necessary during the day. As a final touch, "the soil will be moved onto the roofs. The city will be inhabited by species and the top of the city will be green." Talk about coexisting with nature! This is a beautiful dream, and if it comes off as planned, I look forward to visiting it someday.

Hope you enjoy this issue of Smurf's Random Internet Extravaganza, With Complimentary Thought and Consideration