June 2003 Archives

SuperKaramba is one of the cooler linux programs ever created. It enables the creation of eye candy for the linux desktop using python progam modules. SuperKaramba is also one of the biggest wastes of CPU and memory, but after all, how cool is it to overclock your processor while running an OS X style magnifying dock bar or a giant set of eyes that watches the cursor? It is very cool.

After numerous server difficulties, this blog now appears to be in working order. As you may have noticed, entries mysteriously vanished and comments were rendered unusable. I think that all of these troubles have subsided now, and everything should be in full working order.

"Adam Anderson, bebob has struck you."

--Ben Medler

Duphwap, du phweebadoopem, dweebadoopem, dweebop. Du phwiddlydumpem dubadoopem dubadubatweepadupm: dubadubm dwee bubop. Phweepadupm-dupm duda, duwah du dat. Bloopabeepamduba duwap... duwapadubop, phweepadu du dat.

Now that school is out, I have limitless time to drone on and on about our nation's unsurpassed leader George W. Bush. But just what is so unsurpassed about him? That is what I will try to relate to you. And I apologize in advance to any people who think that this is "leftist propaganda".
Let us journey back to the beginning of October 2002. I was enjoying myself, getting used to school, and the weather was very nice. At this time the administration was setting its sights on Iraq; "Iraq's the next Afghanistan!" was quietly bouncing off everyone's lips. There seemed to be more pressure on Iraq than usual, and although the world was apprehensive, it seemed that people were glad that Iraq was being confronted about its violations of Gulf War I agreements. However, the pressure eventually turned into a threat of invasion if Iraq did not submit to UN weapons inspector. The administration was spouting plumes of sensationalism about the need to disarm a "rogue state" of the infamous "weapons of mass destruction". After all, Iraq could give its weapons to terrorists, and terrorists could... well... terrorize!! After the tragedy of Sept. 11th, even the most hardened opponents of this preemptive policy could not help but feel the slightest guilt in their opinions. Amazingly, and contrary to my pessimism, Iraq let in the inspectors. There was for a short moment a glimmer of hope that all of these doomsday scenarios thought up by "Dateline", "20/20", and "60 Minutes"—the emotionalist's news shows—could be averted. But then as inspectors were let in and America expelled a sigh of relief, a strange thing happened. Bush and his assistants were claiming that UN inspectors were effectively useless. Indeed after a time they seemed not to be finding any of these weapons of mass destruction. The administration was also saying now that there were terrorists being harbored in Iraq. Not just any plain-vanilla terrorists, these guys were al-Qaeda! This just about caused people to blow up. These people who killed thousands of people—our people!—were being harbored by an official government?! Wehehell... This means war! Now apparently no one really stopped to wonder just what the word "harbor" meant in this context. Indeed Iraq's connection with al-Qaeda was limited to a few singular events where members passed through Iraq for the most part, and there was no solid evidence to indicate that Saddam Hussein's government had ties with the terrorist group. Then it became clear that weapons inspectors were not finding anything. Colin Powell went to the UN telling the general assembly specifically that Iraq was hiding weapons from weapons inspectors, had the means to produce biological, chemical, and possibly nuclear weapons, and had stockpiles of these weapons. On the eve of war, or motives seemed to change. As the war began, we were marching to war to liberate a people: the oppressed Iraqi people. Indeed the Iraqi people were oppressed brutally under Saddam Hussein, and millions were killed. But who was giving money and weapons to this awful man and his machinations, you ask? It was us, and George Bush I... just like we supported so many other dictators around the world from Pinoche in Chile, to Somoza in Nicaragua, etc., etc.. Now just maybe George Bush II was leading the US to turning over a new leaf of responsibility and decency by not supporting dictators. I unfortunately cannot come to this conclusion because of the fact that this idea of liberating Iraqis as a motive for war only came after the administrations motives of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism were peetering out. Is it not one of the first tactics of rhetoric and propaganda to appeal to your audience's senses of security and ethics, while all the while using name calling ("rogue state", "despotic regime", "cruel dictator", "evil dictator", etc.), and creating a polarization of good vs. evil where good stands for: a, b, and c, evil stands for: x, y, and z, and those are the only two options? (don't worry, I understand the irony in this statement) Now that Gulf War II is months finished, the best that we can find in the way of WMDs (as they are now called) are two trailers with fermenters. We have even able to find a single spore. And billions of dollars later (I've had trouble finding out exactly how many billion) there are still 40 million people living with AIDS, the female literacy rate of Senegal is still about 27%, etc., etc., etc..
So I guess my point is that George Bush lured a lot of people into believing something they might otherwise not have, if he hadn't been such a good general in the field of public opinion. Therefore, know when you're being spoonfed rhetoric.

I mean this one is weird.

5 5 6 5
Très bon en effet!

School is over, and only if I were dead would this event not provoke my words. It is overall a happy time: no more work (not entirely true, but oh well), swaths of free time, and a mild satisfaction. But then again, at this same time one must bid one's friends farewell for 2 1/2 months. The fact of the matter is that I am sitting here at 1:00 in the afternoon, alone, at my computer typing. It is very sad. It seems this should be the time when I should go somewhere celebrating the end of the year and be having fun. But I'm not. So digest that.

"I believe that the population of the thirteen colonies was less than four million souls, and every one of them must have been frantically turning out tables, chairs, china, glass, candle molds, and oddly shaped bits of iron, copper, and brass for future sale to twentieth-century tourists. There are enough antiques for sale along the roads of New England alone to furnish the houses of a population of fifty million. If I were a good businessman, and cared a tittle for my unborn great grandchildren, which I do not, I would gather all the junk and wrecked automobiles, comb the city dumps, and pile these gleanings in mountains and spray the whole thing with the stuff that the Navy uses to mothball ships. At the end of a hundred years my decendants would be permitted to open this treasure trove and would be the antique kings of the world. If the battered, cracked, and broken stuff of our ancestors tried to get rid of now brings so much money, think what a 1954 Oldsmobile, or a 1960 toastmaster will bring—and a vintage Waring Mixer—lord, the possibilities are endless! Things we have to pay to have hauled away could bring fortunes."

--John Steinbeck in "Travels with Charlie: in Search of America" © 1962

I am dumb!!

I find it interesting that English have been evolving for thousands of years, originally from the base Indo-European language, and Esperanto—a single man's hobby for about a decade—is still light-years better. Funny how that works. Oh and by the way, anyone who thinks Ido is better than Esperanto is entirely incorrect and is commiting a treasonous crime against the international language movement.

Mi estas laca kaj enuas. La lernejo finas je dek unu antaŭtagmezo je la tagoj de abiturientaj ekzamenoj. Longaj vortoj: Esperanto havas multajn da ilin. Mi ĵus pli grande, pli grande faras la vortojn. Estas plej amuzo. Ĉu vi amuziĝas per min? Ne, tial mi ne estas amuza; mi estas enua. Vera, estas malfeliĉa. Hmmas.... bona. Mi iras. Adiaŭ!

The supports of our nation are buckling, and as part of those supports, as a groundnut farmer, I see impending collapse. The groundnut industry is in a crisis that is having devastating economic and humanitarian effects on our nation of Senegal. For the good of me, millions of other farmers, and the collective well-being of our country, I demand that you, the Senegalese National Assembly, take immediate measures to diversify our agricultural sector by working to eliminate our dependence the groundnut now.
So, consider the implications. 50% of our working population is employed in the business of growing groundnuts, and this enterprise is in state of exigency. This government has slashed agricultural subsidies for groundnut growers at the whims of the IMF and European Union, and abandoned its farmers. Consequently, our use of fertilizer for groundnuts has declined from 45,000 tons in 1997/1998, to 25,000 tons in 2001/2002 with an according drop in productivity. Adding fuel to the inferno, we have for decades witnessed our crops be decimated by chronic droughts, and this pattern continues. How can we sell our nuts at prices as low as the subsidized American groundnuts and still procure enough money to eat? We cannot. Just look to the rural poverty rate of 85%; the national average is 54%. Let not these numbers whisk past your mind as mere numbers, for that they are not. They are people, people like myself, people like my family, and people like you, except for their endless toils give them not the reward of a pleasant life, nor even a life where subsisting is remotely easy. As moral leaders, is it not imperative that you not overlook the supports that hold up the roof of our collective, national hut: the farmers of our dear Senegal?
It is imperative. It is so imperative that we must take permanent action now. Our nation's economy must be diversified. First, we must educate and support these rural farmers in growing millet, sorghum, and barley, crops that will provide our population with proper nutrition and be more resistant to droughts that have become commonplace. Second, the government's informal and fatuous policy of encouraging the growing of groundnuts must halt.
If you realize your duties of leadership, then you will support these actions and a new power will be born out of post-colonial West Africa. Our ability to grow staple crops here will create a self-sufficient Senegal that will be freed from the manacles of world food price fluctuations.
And so, I beseech you to take action now, ici, aujourd'hui! Unite to write and pass legislation which educates and assists farmers to make the transition away from groundnut production to a sustainable future.

"okay" is an alternate spelling of the word "OK". According to the oxford dictionary of current English, "OK" originated in the US "probably [as an] abbreviation of 'orl (or "oll") korrect', [a] jocular form of 'all correct'".

This is cool too!: http://lingvo.org/traduku/

This is cool!: http://lingvo.org/irvdel/eoxx.html

Now all of you who think that I shouldn't write in Esperanto can't complain. With this you can get a translation whose slight inaccuracy is a source of incredible amusement.

Georgo "duobla-ju" Buŝo estas la plej stultega Usonprezidanto en freŝa tempo. Li kaj liaj laboruloj faras tre malbonaj decidoj.

Jen ekzisto de "okay" aŭ "OK" en Esperanto. Estas "okej". Mi uzos "okej".

La fino de la lernejjaro estas je mi. Kvankam mi estas feliĉa, mi elreviĝas. Mi estas malfeliĉiĝita de la finjaro. La lernejjaro estas jam tre longa. Sed multa laboro faras nerva min. Mi havas multa laboro ankoraŭ fari. En la tempo da dusemajno, mi iros Californion. L'amo de aliaj personoj daŭras mallonga, kiam oni estas solo. L'amo estiĝas malamego. Ĉi tio tre rapide okazas iujn. Dankon, kaj adiaŭ!

P0: Leadership
P1: Spanish 3-4
P2: PSSC Physics
P3: Chemistry
P4: US History A
P5: Precalculus
P6: English 3-4 A

For those of you who don't know, I saw the Matrix Reloaded about a week and a half ago, and I must say, it was excellent. What I have noticed most from The Matrices are strong philosophical messages. The first Matrix was very heavily weighted with a "platoesque" philosophy of what is real and what is illusion and why it is necessary to see reality over illusion, even when illusion may be more comfortable. In the second Matrix, the philosophy primarily focused on technology and when technology goes from being controlled by us to controlling us, or if there really is a division. In short, the philosophy of The Matricies is our very own, modern equivalent to the works of Plato. Rather than dealing with the issues of classical thinkers: the ideal state or man's understanding of the world, they deal with very pertenant modern-day issues. When does reality become illusion because of the mass manufacturing of "reality TV" (actually further away from reality than any real show I've ever seen, except for Star Trek maybe) and video games whose emphasis is on how to maximize the number of calculations per second it takes to display blood splatters, consume more time than the world we actually live in? Or when do we become so dependent on technology that it orders the way our lives work? Who is controlling who then? Although I grew a bit tired of the endless and eventually boring battle scenes, it was a refreshing piece of "real" film. Or maybe I just over analyzed it, but it really does make it better that way.

Para la clase de Español:
Mi familia tiene tres otras personas y dos animales domésticos. Estoy aquí. Mi nombre es Adam. Tengo catorce años, y mi cumpleaños es el dos de Septiembre. Me gustan libros, mis amigos, comida, pasear en mi bicicleta, y computadores. No me gusta muy caliente tiempo. Soy moreno, alto, tonto, y tengo grande pies. Toco la trompeta.
Mi mamá se llama Marialice, y ella es baja, morena, atlética, y nerviosa. Tiene cuarenta-y-nueve años y su cumpleaños es el once de agosto. Le gustan leer, correr, trabajar en el jardín, y mí, pero no le gustan vegetales. Trabaja en un banco.
Es mi hermana. Se llama Erin. Tiene diez-y-nueve años. Su cumpleaños es el seis de mayo. Mi hermana y yo argüimos frecuentemente. Su escuela es Boston University. Le gustan lenguaje francés, perros, arte, videos, y escuchar música. No le gustan arañas o jamón. Ella es pelirroja, muy inteligente, exigente, y exagerada.
Mi papá vive en California, y yo regularmente lo visito. Él es muy alto, moreno, inteligente, y adventurero. Tiene cincuenta años, y su cumpleaños es el catorce de abril. Le gustan viajar, acampar, trabajar con computadores, y mirar aves. No le gustan perros, pero no sé porqué. Su ocupación es programador.
Por fin, tengo uno perro y uno gato. Mi perro se llama Sean. Él es blanco, muy pequeño, y mucho ladra. Mi gato se llama Tiger, y es negro y gris. Les gusta comida y atención.
Espero que ustedes gozaron encontrar mi familia ahora. ¡Adiós!

I've discovered an excellent way to make the writing of persuasive speeches entertaining. One can achieve a heightened state of personal amusement by employing tactics of propaganda and rhetoric. And then practice speaking in a very forceful manner.

Thou art my savior!! Thou hast graciously undone my pale drought of readership!! My salutations to thee! Telleth me thy name and I shall do thy bidding!