Re: Rights to Remember (Harold Hongju Koh)
John D. Giorgis wrote: In a world population by such nations as the DPRK, the People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Turkmenistan, and Zimbabwe - to call *the United States* the most visible human rights outlier should leave everyone absolutely speechless. But it is the most *VISIBLE* - it's nowhere near being the worst, and is still a net force for good in terms of human rights, but the lost human rights in the USA, by virtue of the openness of American society, are by far the most visible. This in itself wouldn't be bad, except that the USA itself, and the rest of the world, look to America for leadership in these things because of their past example... Of course, one of these examples is of Australia which if you think about Mr. Hoh's previous statements is just a little bit funny.Is Australia *really* seeking cover for crackdowns on human rights from the actions of Mr. Bush? Yep - he's way off base here - our illegal immigrant problems are nothing to do with either 9/11 or GW, and the new approaches to dealing with it are a result of increased numbers of illegal immigrants, (and indeed more being killed by shoddy people smugglers) rather than a sudden need to change human rights provisions. Cheers Russell C. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
[ADMIN] Multiple list problems
When it rains, it pours. This morning, I found that our Ethernet switch was dead AND our main server was down. This came on the heels of a disk drive failure (on another machine) that had me busy a lot of yesterday (and for a while to come) restoring our database (a mere 30 GB or so, 5 million records). I'm not sure what time things went south, but the list was definitely down for a while. We're back up... and perhaps things will STAY up! Nick -- Nick Arnett Phone/fax: (408) 904-7198 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Challenge: 80's Lyrics Quiz
From: Jim Sharkey [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Challenge: 80's Lyrics Quiz Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2003 21:59:43 -0500 (EST) Gary Nunn wrote: Kind of long, and my score was embarrassingly low...but fun. http://www.yetanotherdot.com/asp/80s.html I got this from Jon's LJ. I don't recall my exact score, but I do know I got The 80's are my life, which sounds about right. :) Jim As did I. And I can't remember my score either. :) I know it was at least 130+. The last question was my favorite. Jon Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com _ From the hottest toys to tips on keeping fit this winter, youll find a range of helpful holiday info here. http://special.msn.com/network/happyholidays.armx ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: snarkyness on the edge of town
Cleaning out my in-box... About a month ago, I wrote: Or perhaps he's referring to something like this: http://www.lucytune.com/academic/freq_to_wave.html To which Ronn! replied: I do point out in class (I think I originally read it in an essay by Isaac Asimov) the fact that the frequency of the most extreme violet light humans can see is just about twice that of the most extreme red light we can see, which is the same relationship between the frequencies of, say middle C (256 Hz) and high C (512 Hz), so one could make the analogy that the width of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is one octave, then note that while a piano keyboard spans 7 1/2 octaves, the frequency of detectable electromagnetic radiation as shown in that diagram covers something like 100 octaves or more . . . Just one tiny point of clarification... High C is actually 1024 Hz, two octaves above middle C, and on the staff with a treble clef it would be represented by a note two leger lines above the staff. The C at 512 Hz is (as you correctly stated) one octave above middle C and is on the third space from the bottom within a staff with a treble clef. Middle C is one leger line below the staff. Other than that, that's a very interesting observation, that visible light is within the span of an octave. I'm sure I can find a way to use that in a piece of music somehow... http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/2notes.html (I've seen both leger and ledger used, and I picked leger because it matches the usage on the quoted website.) Reggie Bautista _ Groove on the latest from the hot new rock groups! Get downloads, videos, and more here. http://special.msn.com/entertainment/wiredformusic.armx ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Stross Interview
A while back someone here posted a link to a great short story called A Colder War, by Charles Stross. There is a new interview with Stross up at scifi.com: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue343/interview.html He talks about space opera, The Singularity, Iain Banks, politics, Bruce Sterling (he calls Sterling's _Schismatrix_ one of the unsung classics of SF, probably the greatest space opera of the 1980s,) and his upcoming SF and fantasy projects, among other things. Reggie Bautista _ Is there a gadget-lover on your gift list? MSN Shopping has lined up some good bets! http://shopping.msn.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Challenge: 80's Lyrics Quiz
On Sun, 23 Nov 2003, Sonja van Baardwijk wrote: xVFP: Embarrasing that I actually liked most of the 80s music. As for the shoulder pads those you can keep. I used to remove them. My shoulders were blocky enough already, added padding right there was overkill. (I've filled out to where the shoulders aren't so blocky now.) :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Marketing on the internet
Does anyone have any really unique ideas for internet marketing? Doing the banner exchange thing with no success except getting a great deal of spam. Working on search engine rankings and submissions, but that takes a few weeks. Just curious. Gary ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
[Scouted]Master/Slave banned
The County of Los Angeles has requested that equipment vendors avoid using the industry term Master/Slave in product descriptions and labelling. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/master.asp It's insensitive, apparently. So what happens to male/female stuff next, I wonder? Jim ___ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Scouted]Master/Slave banned
In a message dated 11/24/2003 7:54:56 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The County of Los Angeles has requested that equipment vendors avoid using the industry term Master/Slave in product descriptions and labelling. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/master.asp It's insensitive, apparently. So what happens to male/female stuff next, I wonder? Jim Gay Happy Meal toys? Transcribed a bit from a less than reputable Disney newsgroup: Re Brother Bear. It has been discovered that Tuke and Rutt were made for each other in more ways than one. Rutt's legs splay out, lowering him just enough for Tuke to climb on board, and Tuke is a bobblehead who's head nods approvingly up and down, up and down. Even their expressions fit the pose! Vilyehm Teighlore -- You're now free to moose about the country. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [A4P] Change of address
I have removed my site. If you have links, please update them to point to Matt's site. Congratulations to Matt Lundstrom, the new A4P Encyclopedia Editor in Chief. As of now the Alliance for Progress Encyclopedia is available at http://www.geocities.com/allianceforprogress (update your bookmarks!). It's also still available at Trent's own website, but it should disappear from there within a week or so, leaving only a link to the A4PE's new location. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Rights to Remember (Harold Hongju Koh)
Re: Koh's article in the economist from a couple of weeks ago ... 1) We are the most visible outlier. For all of their atrocities, Messieurs Qaddafi et al have kept a much lower profile than us. Whether or not that's a communication issue is debatable, but I would think the world is right in holding us to a slightly higher standard of behavior than Turkmenistan? 2) We may disagree on the validity of freedom from want -- I for one believe in freedom of opportunity rather than want. The latter is nonetheless a freedom, and one that we're not very good at providing (again, relative to other rich democracies). Merely pointing out that our track record on economic human rights is suspect does make a strong case, but is factually correct in and of itself. 3) Take it from someone who grew up in communist Russia -- without freedom from fear, all other freedoms are meaningless. Fear is what challenges and questions every other promise that this nation has made to its people ... That's why some people are up in arms about things as trivial as library background investigations. That is Koh's strongest point that renders everything else as back up evidence. 4) The Chinese regime has run over students with tanks 14 years ago and counting. A lot of these guys (including the boss) are out of power, and China (however frustratingly) is making a transition towards a MORE (relatively) democratic society without submerging in a Russia-like bedlam. As far as Russia in Chechnya, Turkey in Kurdistan, Pakistan in Kashmir, etc, yes, Mr. Koh could and perhaps should have used those examples. It has been this nations policy to justify the means by holding up the end for the past 160 years, and it has piled up a solid track record of more good ends than bad. However, as they say in the mutual fund business, past performance does not guarantee future returns. It has worked for us in the past, but nonetheless contains moral and strategic flaws that should be and were pointed out. Lastly, this administration has been notoriously cavalier about how it presents its actions to the world. I have said to you (John) time and time again, the longer I hang out in this little world of ours, the more I am convinced that the wrapping matters more than the gift therein. What we do is often masked, distorted and undone by how we do it. In this light, a photo opportunity with the United Nations would have been more than appropriate. Good night, Andrew Medvedev Boston, Massachusetts -Original Message- From: John D. Giorgis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 10:00 PM To: Killer Bs Discussion Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Rights to Remember (Harold Hongju Koh) I think that I have as much respect for _The Economist_, which I read religiously each week, as anyone on this List - but I must admit that I was embarassed to read this piece a week or two ago. It is not so much that _The Economist_ is printing a critique of the Bush Administraiton's policies on civil liberties - their editorial Board does that regularly enough - but rather my incredulity that they could find this ridiculousness worthy of devoting three pages of magazine space to. First, I hope that it is self-evident to everyone here that when Mr. Hoh writes that the US has moved from being the most visible supporter of international human rights to, and I quote, its most visible outlier - he is clearly lacking in all credibility as a sincere appraiser of the situation.In a world population by such nations as the DPRK, the People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Turkmenistan, and Zimbabwe - to call *the United States* the most visible human rights outlier should leave everyone absolutely speechless. Meanwhile, Mr. Koh's very understanding of human rights is also suspect. He frequently hints at international covenants enshrining freedom from want - but to the best of my knowledge, that has pretty much been a European human rights construct, and indeed, the United States has regularly shied away from codifying such economic human rights. Mr. Koh's lack of specifics on this point, other than a vage reference to The New Deal further confirms my suspicions on this point. He furthermore accuses the Bush Administration of reducing America's human rights presence around the globe - which I find very difficult believe, and somehow connects this to Bush's policy of prioritizing freedom from fear above the other fundamental human rights of freedom of speech, religion, and from want. (apparentlly freedom of the press and expression didn't rate for him, among others)I'll concede right now that if you follow this logic, you are one step ahead of me. In addition, given only a short space in which to present his case Mr. Koh recurringly resorts to very strange examples.For all I know, the Pakistani population of Atlantic County, NJ has decreased by 50% because the only Pakistani couple
Announcing the Sloan3D Store
I have finished what I hope will be the first of many pieces of merchandise decorated with my illustrations. This one is a shirt featuring a high-quality single frame from the Izmunuti animation I created a few years ago... http://www.sloansteady.com/#anims ...showing Streaker getting hammered inside the red giant Izmunuti. I emailed to ask David Brin for permission a couple of months ago, and I finally got something finished. To see the shirt, you can go to the intro page, where I talk about future merchandise I'm planning: http://www.sloan3d.com/store/ Or go directly to the main store page: http://www.cafeshops.com/sloan3d Special thanks go to: David Brin, for writing the original works that inspired these illustrations, and for graciously allowing me to use them in my merchandise. April Apperson Farrell, for first showing me what Streaker looks like in that sketch inside _Startide_ so many years ago, which heavily influenced the design of my Streaker 3D model; and for being so nice when I asked her blessing for selling a design so similar to hers. Dean MacLanders, for giving me the idea to sell t-shirts in the first place, and for giving me many helpful suggestions since. Bill Vilyehm Teighlore Taylor, for suggesting a lot of silly and not-so-silly ideas that will probably go into future shirts. My Mom, Dad, and sister Corie, for helping me polish up the caption on the Izmunuti shirt. Dee Daley, William T. Goodall, and the rest of the weekly chat regulars who have contributed several ideas. Anyone else I might have forgotten. __ Steve Sloan . Huntsville, Alabama = [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brin-L list pages .. http://www.brin-l.org Chmeee's 3D Objects http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee 3D and Drawing Galleries .. http://www.sloansteady.com Software Science Fiction, Science, and Computer Links Science fiction scans . http://www.sloan3d.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
