Slow news night in Rochester
Oct 31, 2006 In The News
Teddy Geiger, from Rochester suburb Pittsford, has been deemed the #5 hottie in Hollywood by Teen magazine.
Canada threatened by al Qaeda
Oct 29, 2006 In The News, War On Terror
The National Post reports:
An al-Qaeda strategist has warned Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or face terrorist attacks similar to 9/11, Madrid and the London transit bombings.
The threat, attributed to a member of the al-Qaeda information and strategy committee, condemns Prime Minister Stephen Harper for refusing to pull out of Afghanistan.
It also refers to Canada’s “fanatic adherence to Christianity” as well as its purported attempts to “damage the Muslims” and its support for the “Christian Crusade” against al-Qaeda.
Read the whole article for details. (Hat tip: Little Green Footballs)
RSS: Fixed
Oct 28, 2006 Ask Me Weekend, Blog News
Due to technical issues with the keyword tags, Q&A Weekend has been retroactively renamed Ask Me Weekend. Readers watching on LiveJournal may (or may not — LJ is fickle sometimes) see a sudden backlog of syndicated entries soon.
EDIT: Yep. LiveJournal users can now see all of my entries back to September 29th now on their LJ Friends pages.
Ben’s Halloween Party pictures
Oct 27, 2006 Brainwaves, Photos
Having finally concluded the month-long Ask Me Weekend, I present something a little more current: pictures of a Halloween Party that took place in Toronto last weekend.
Ask Me Weekend #3 Month: Why do I blog?
Oct 27, 2006 Ask Me Weekend, Brainwaves
Why do you blog? (This is not rhetorical – I’m really genuinely interested, because I often ask myself the same question…)
– Dave
I have a lot of friends, both in real life and on the Internet, and with large numbers of people comes many varying viewpoints. Interestingly, though, a great many of those viewpoints appear to differ significantly from my own, meaning that, in a lot of cases, I’m surrounded by a great number of people who disagree with my political/religious/musical/what-to-eat-for-dinner point of view.
As a result, be it the actual case or not, I end up left with the sensation that I’m being surrounded and silenced by the rest of the group — a group that is working from the assumption that they know how it is, and no other. That’s not a slight, insult or accusation against any person or group, only a perception. — that’s just the way my silly little brain works in this situation.
Therefore, in addition to the “I went to work/to school/to the mall/to hell/batshit crazy today” stories that tend to show up in some most personal blogs, I look at my blog as a place to express and explain my point of view on news, politics, technology, et cetera without getting shouted down by a mob telling me I’m wrong. Which is, of course, not to say that I don’t value other opinions — I welcome comments, will often answer back and continue to discuss my blog topics, and I don’t delete (non-spam/non-abusive) comments.
I just think of this as my own little soapbox on the web — a place where I can say, “Hi! This is what I have to say on this matter.”
Ask Me Weekend #3 Month: What do I believe in?
Oct 26, 2006 Ask Me Weekend, Brainwaves
Ok, after Googling “questionâ€, here’s a more interesting one:
“What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?â€
– Nate
I have seen, read, and heard reports of planets not of our solar system, orbiting around far-off stars. I can’t imagine that our world would be so unique as to have provided the only environment anywhere in our universe to evolve a living sentient being. Therefore, I cannot prove it, but I believe that another planet somewhere in our galaxy contains intelligent humanoid life. I also believe that some day in the future — hopefully, when both our civilization and theirs are ready — we will meet, and cooperate.
Though, I must say, I’m really liking Seth Lloyd’s answer:
I believe in science. Unlike mathematical theorems, scientific results can’t be proved.They can only be tested again and again, until only a fool would not believe them.
I cannot prove that electrons exist, but I believe fervently in their existence. And if you don’t believe in them, I have a high voltage cattle prod I’m willing to apply as an argument on their behalf. Electrons speak for themselves.
(emphasis mine)
Wait, where is that again, Jack?
Oct 26, 2006 In The News, Politics
I’m not a member of New York’s 26th Congressional District, so I don’t have a say in the election between Tom Reynolds, the Republican incumbent, and Democratic candidate Jack Davis.
Reynolds has been in the news a lot lately over the completely stupid things that Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida) did involving congressional pages. For the record, I think Foley fucked up big-time, for which there’s no excuse, and I think Reynolds did exactly what he should have done given the circumstances, but that’s not what this post is about.
Evidently, Davis doesn’t feel the need to actually go out and meet the people he’d be representing. So much so that he doesn’t even know the names of the towns and villages in his district. They’re not worth his “very valuable” time, he says.
Bob Lonsberry explains (referencing this Rochester Democrat and Chronicle article).
Oh, yeah, I have a blog…
Oct 17, 2006 Ask Me Weekend, Blog News
Life has been busy this month so far, so I haven’t been by in a while. I haven’t forgotten, and I know I still have Ask Me Weekend questions to answer. So, it’s been a long weekend. Go have a look at what’s been asked, and if you’ve got anything else to add, go for it — I’ll try to answer them this week.
