Aside

So I responded to an ad on craigslist yesterday. Tomorrow I’m going to pick up a cute, playful, eight week old black kitten from Pacifica. You, dear reader, have until 2 pm Pacific tomorrow to submit possible names that I’ll consider. Leave ’em in LJ comments or by email. The nominations are that I’ve found : Atoosah – ˆ-too-SAH (Daughter of Cyrus the Great) – آتوسا Baran – BAA-raan (Rain) – باران

NYT: A 23-year-old California man who the F.B.I. said volunteered to kill Americans after he received training at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan was arrested today along with his father and two others. Hamid Hayat and his father, Umer Hayat, 45, of Lodi, Calif., were being held on charges of lying to federal authorities because each had denied that Hamid Hayat had attended the training camp for about six months during 2003 and 2004, according to an F.B.I. affidavit.…

LA Times: As is almost always the case when the two sides quarrel over a patch of ground, it is known to them by different names. Palestinians call Silwan’s disputed part Al Bustan, or the Garden, evoking the fig and walnut groves for which it was once famous. Israeli authorities have been calling it the King’s Valley, in tribute to the biblical David. The shepherd boy-turned-warrior who ruled around 1000 B.C. is revered for helping unify the kingdom of Israel…

So this is supposed to be the Interns’ Guide to Washington — in the Washington Post — and Sather Gate (at UC Berkeley) is the background? Huh?

This morning the Chronicle ran a front page story about a 23 year-old woman named Alicia, a copy editor at the Chronicle who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s the first in a seven-part series. My thoughts go out to her. I came into The Chronicle building early, at 8 a.m., because it was a Wednesday, deadline day for my department, the Friday section. It was almost 10 o’clock when I grabbed a muffin and some yogurt from the…

Update: both measures passed! BBC: By Imogen Foulkes BBC News, Berne Swiss voters are going to the polls to decide on two different referendums. The first is to decide whether Switzerland – which is not a member of the European Union – should join the Schengen and Dublin agreements. This would mean opening Switzerland’s borders to its EU neighbours and sharing information on crime. The second will decide whether to legalise same sex partnerships, and marks the first time a…

So next time I have a big party, someone remind me to buy about a third to a half of as much food as I usually do. I ended up giving away two cases of beer, and still had a watermelon vodka, a bunch of veggies, loads of chicken, and lots of oatmeal raisin cookies left. Thanks for coming, everyone. It was great to see you all again. I want to do another one soon. And big ups to my…

Big ups to my former buddy at the Daily Cal, Ron Lin, who has this LA Times piece from my old stomping grounds, Santa Monica: By Rong-Gong Lin II Times Staff Writer June 4, 2005 To some people on the Westside and in the South Bay, 310 is more than just an area code. It’s a geographic marker Ñ one that many associate with wealth, glamour and the beach. “It stirs up feeling of ‘Ah, Ooh.’ You always have great…

Wired News (Disclaimer: I write for Wired News) has a new reprint policy, which seems to have a weird clause in it: Anyone is free to make one copy for personal use. This can include one photocopy, one printed copy, one email copy, or posting an HTML link (without text or photos). This includes use by a student for an academic purpose. Click on the article title above to go back to the article. From there, you can print (or…

So I had just a small problem with my DSL, so I called SBC Tech Support. Not surprisingly, they’re located in India. When I tried to strike up a conversation with the guy, “John”, and asked him where in India he was, he said “We’re not allowed to reveal it for security reasons.” Give me a break. (He did fix my problem though.) Why was I dead tired an hour ago and now I can’t sleep?