Aside

So that’s why this man is laughing, huh? Yes, former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami just did a big interview with the Beeb. Yeah, he said some pretty predictable stuff, but here’s the part that caught my attention: During the speech he also urged British Muslims to obey UK law, saying they are “British first”. He said that the wearing of the scarf or veil was a woman’s personal choice, and she should not be obliged to do so. Now that’s…

Reuters: LONDON: Britain will send jailers to Pitcairn Island after six men – a 10th of the island’s population – lost their final appeal against convictions for child rape and indecent assault. The British colony – the world’s least-populated legal jurisdiction – is home to descendants of crew from the Bounty, who settled there with Tahitian wives in 1790 after a legendary high-seas mutiny. A British Foreign Office spokesman said seven New Zealand prison officers would be dispatched to establish…

Let’s all welcome my brother Alex Farivar to the blogosphere!

Its new location in Oakland was just confirmed today! It’ll open in Spring 2007! That means this new one will be about 0.2 miles closer to my Rockridge house than the one in Emeryville. Huzzah!

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m an Obama fanboy. I haven’t been this excited about any political candidate in my entire voting life. I *really* want him to run in 2008. He’s smart, well-spoken and has a very good chance at winning the White House. I was just reminded at why this guy is so freakin’ amazing after reading this Slate article. 2. John McCain can beat anyone the Democrats put up.“Our sense right now is that McCain would beat any…

Apparently for the last 18 months Scott Adams has been suffering from Spasmodic Dysphonia, a disease that affects the larynx, making ordinary speech extremely difficult. Somehow, he figured out how to hack his own brain to figure out how to speak again: My theory was that the part of my brain responsible for normal speech was still intact, but for some reason had become disconnected from the neural pathways to my vocal cords. (That’s consistent with any expert’s best guess…

Apparently people are blaming Sacha Baron Cohen for their own stupidity. As Slate points out, everyone interviewed for the new Borat movie was given a release form and paid for their troubles in cash. Further, most of them didn’t bother to read the contract that they signed. And in the brilliant analysis by one up-and-coming powerhouse of an attorney, Nate Cardozo: if you’re dumb enough to (a) get interviewed by borat, and (b) give a crap that you got fooled,…

I spent a good portion of last night listening to Game 7 of the NLCS on the radio last night. For those of you that missed it, the highlight of the game was Mets centerfielder Endy Chávez’ amazing grab in the sixth inning, saving the Mets from what should have been a two-run homer. Josh Levin, my editor over at Slate, has a great piece stacking up this play to the most famous baseball catch in history, Willie Mays’ The…

I listen to Soma FM pretty much nonstop while at work. These are my three favorite tracks as of late: Klee – Gold Les Sans Culottes – Allo Allo We Are Scientists – The Great Escape That is all.

Associated Press; Wednesday, October 18, 2006; 3:19 PM: By HEIDI VOGT The Associated Press THIAROYE, Senegal — At a funeral in this Senegalese fishing town, mothers wept for their sons _ dozens of whom drowned when the wooden craft they hoped to take to Europe was caught in a storm. Then the mothers decided to stop it from happening again. The group from that March funeral has grown to 357 women _ all having lost a son, husband or cousin…