Cyrus Farivar

Holy crap. It’s really happening. The Wanderlust Geek in me is finally getting satisfied. I’m going to Estonia (!!!) to for a week in March to do some research for my book writing class. Best part? I have enough frequent flier miles to do it and so I only pay taxes. Final flight cost? $50 Wow, (not counting Canada) I haven’t been out of the country since I came back from Senegal in May 2003. Tallinn, here I come! (Anyone…

Is the hed of my latest article for Wired, on page 48 of the Feb. 2005 issue. It’s about Toland Grinnell, an NYC artist. I just got back from Hartford, and had to take the real Chinese bus, and not the one I’d paid for, which had been cancelled. I was at the Hartford train/bus station and saw all these Chinese people scrambling into a van. About 15 minutes of broken English, $22, and a few hours later, I found…

LA Times: SACRAMENTO Ñ As a Ventura County public defender, Liana Johnsson has handled many life-changing cases, but her biggest public crusade these days has been going topless. For months, Johnsson has been fighting to allow topless women at California beaches and parks, and now the issue has made its way to the Capitol. A group of lawyers, at Johnsson’s request, has asked the Legislature to make topless sunbathing legal, saying the ban is the last criminal sanction that treats…

I’m back in Hartford for the weekend — Heidi returns on Sunday. It’s supposed to drop a ton (read: 1-2 feet) of snow up and down the East Coast this weekend, from Boston to NYC and perhaps further. That should be interesting to say the least. I’m not taking too well to the cold, but over break I did score this really nice coat of my Dad’s from 30 years ago when he lived in England. He’s worn it only…

Ok, so that was predictable. Kudos to Sens. Boxer and Kerry for voting against. One thing that I really don’t understand about the Dems is why they aren’t more obstructionist. Why is it that they are such pushovers? No, really. I mean, they don’t have a majority in any branch/house, but they could still be much more rabble-rousers if they wanted to be. I don’t get it. And even more predictably, when The Daily Show aired yesterday and referred to…

Via MeFi: Springdale, Arkansas is now home to the largest population of Marshallese outside of the Marshall Islands. …They all spoke so highly of Springdale and how great it is to work the overnight shift in a chicken factory in the Ozarks. What a strange irony that everyone I knew in Arkansas considered paradise to be on South Pacific islands, with no schedule and great fishing.

Go watch this interesting interview with Salam Pax. And I’m proud that Sen. Boxer is one of my senators: Well, Mr. Chairman, again I thank you. I am — Dr. Rice, I was glad you mentioned Martin Luther King — it was very appropriate, given everything. And he also said, Martin Luther King, quote, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” And one of the things that matters most to my people…

[From yesterday] It’s a snowy Sunday here in Hartford. My big accomplishment of the day was making chocolate chip cookies with Martin. The rest of the day consisted of watching Eddie Izzard and playing FIFA 2004 on Martin’s Xbox. Sweet. This article provides an interesting perspective on what the Internet does for military officers in the field. I didn’t know about SIPRNET. And apparently Sy Hersh is coming out with a story came out with a story in the next…

AccordionGuy: Let’s say it’s the early 1980’s. You’ve just bought a Quick and Dirty Operating System and repackaged it for IBM to include with their new “Personal Computer” (IBM had such a revulsion for non-mainframe things that the PC was created by the “Entry Systems Division”, which suggested that these were things you used until you got a real computer). You’re a hot rising software star, and hot rising software stars need dates. Which photo should you send potential soul…

So apparently I’m linked on today’s Drudge Report for my story on UAVs. So that’s sorta neat. Click here for a mini screen-shot. (Thanks for the tip, Sam!) Let’s see what this does for my blog hits. Apparently I’m already one of the top hits for variations of “Chang Industry” (and related variations). Chang’s website isn’t very informative. In other news, I just got email from a guy called “Cyrus Faryar,” who from what I can tell is a musician…