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Thursday, October 28 2004

Bush Supporters Don't Know His Foreign Policy Positions

From PIPA, Bush supporters tend to be wrong about Bush's foreign policy stands; while Kerry supporters tend to be right about Kerry's:

"Majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assumed that Bush favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (84%), and the US being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the International Criminal Court (66%), the treaty banning land mines (72%), and the Kyoto Treaty on global warming (51%). They were divided between those who knew that Bush favors building a new missile defense system now (44%) and those who incorrectly believe he wishes to do more research until its capabilities are proven (41%). However, majorities were correct that Bush favors increased defense spending (57%) and wants the US, not the UN, to take the stronger role in developing Iraq’s new government (70%)."

Crazy Halloween Costumes

(via BoingBoing): DIY political costumes for your kids (or you!), cheap and quick to make. "Arrested Protester!" "Nancy Reagan!" "The Littlest Prisoner at Abu Ghraib!" Or, say, Lyndie England.
(That's just wrong.)

California Election: No on 62

Steven Hill of the Center for Voting and Democracy on why to vote against Proposition 62, which would let only the top 2 candidates (of any party) from an open primary run in a general election:

"In contrast, under Proposition 62 and Initiative 872, only the top two vote-getters in the primary will be eligible to appear on the November ballot. And here's the catch: The top two could be from the same political party!
"In a liberal district, that means the top two candidates probably will be two Democrats. In a conservative district, the top two probably will be two Republicans. And third-party candidates never will appear on the November ballot, becoming an extinct species in California and Washington, which have had fairly active third party movements."

Sunday, October 17 2004

Art Rogers: Yesterday and Today

Art Rogers, a Marin-based photographer, has been photographing people in West Marin for the past 30 years. The schtick: he'll photograph the same people, in the same poses, years apart, to see how they've changed (and remained the same).
This SFGate article has examples of his work, as does his own website.

Happy Birthday, Dungeons and Dragons!

Apparently, this weekend was the 30th birthday of Dungeons and Dragons, and players celebrated by - playing:

"An estimated 25,000 fans in 1,200 stores celebrated the anniversary Saturday, said Charles Ryan, brand manager for role-playing games at Wizards of the Coast, a Renton, Wash., company that owns Dungeons & Dragons."

Monday, October 11 2004

Low-Tech Solutions to Save the World

Wired has a profile on Amy Smith, an MIT "instructor"/mechanical engineer who comes up with low-tech location-appropriate technological solutions to problems in Third World countries:

"Smith recently created some simple, effective methods to make charcoal from agricultural waste. The first method she developed after visiting Haiti was simple: First, the juice is squeezed from the widely grown sugar cane. Next, the remaining fibers, called bagasse, are sealed inside a 55-gallon drum. After the bagasse carbonizes from lack of oxygen, it is combined with a cassava-root porridge to bind it. Voilà: charcoal that can be used to cook, and manufactured as a business enterprise.
"This new charcoal source can save lives in Haiti, where thousands die annually from massive flooding associated with the country's almost total deforestation. Until Smith began developing this alternative source of charcoal, Haitians had been forced to use trees as their sole source of cooking fuel."

Top Internet Security Vulnerabilities

Again, SANS has published its list of the top 10 security problems (each - total 20) for Windows and Unix machines on the Internet.

Wednesday, October 6 2004

Love Parade San Francisco, 2004 - Pictures!

(The pics are here.) So when I went to Europe in July, one of the things I wanted to do was go to Germany for the annual Love Parade there - hundreds of thousands of partiers dancing to electronic music in the streets of Berlin. But then they cancelled the parade due to lack of funding.
It's not quite the same, but San Francisco held its own Love Parade this year. I went, I danced, and I took a whole bunch of pictures. (Warning: some nudity. Some of it not so love-ly.)

Monday, October 4 2004

Essential Farscape Episodes

So the Science Fiction Channel is re-running all 88 episodes of Farscape in anticipation of the upcoming mini-series, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. In preparation, you really ought to watch all 88 1-hour episodes; but if you've actually got a life, here are the ones to watch, depending on how much time you have. (Format is Season Number.Episode Number Episode Name)

• 4 essential episodes
• 1.01 Premiere
• 3.20 Into the Lion's Den, Part 1
• 3.21 Into the Lion's Den, Part 2
• 4.22 Bad Timing
• 4 more (8 total)
• 4.11 Unrealized Realities
• 4.19 We're So Screwed #1: Fetal Attraction
• 4.20 We're So Screwed #2: Hot to Katratz
• 4.21 We're So Screwed #3: La Bomba
• 8 more (16 total)
  • 1.19 Nerve
  • 1.20 Hidden Memory
  • 2.04 Crackers Don't Matter
  • 2.11 Look at the Princess, Part 1: A Kiss is But a Kiss
  • 2.12 Look at the Princess, Part 2: I Do, I Think
  • 2.13 Look at the Princess, Part 3: The Maltese Crichton
  • 3.15 Infinite Possibilities, Part 1: Daedalus Demands
  • 3.16 Infinite Possibilities, Part 2: Icarus Abides
• 8 more (24 total)
  • 2.19 Liars, Guns and Money: A Not So Simple Plan (1/3)
  • 2.20 Liars, Guns and Money: With Friends Like These (2/3)
  • 2.21 Liars, Guns and Money: Plan B (3/3)
  • 2.22 Die Me Dichotomy
  • 3.01 Season of Death
  • 3.22 A Dog With Two Bones
  • 4.05 Promises
  • 4.13 Terra Firma

About this site

This is the personal web site for Edward (Ed) Piou. Consisting mainly of a blog (operational since 1999) and various photos.

Some online projects I'm working on

Politics

Charity, Non-profits...

A while ago, I decided to put my money where my mind is on a (roughly) monthly basis and give to:

Photos

Public events documented through pictures...