Category: general

They caught that so-called “Bonnie and Clyde” couple.

Hyatte has felony convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated burglary and third-degree burglary dating back to 1989. His brother, Michael, said Hyatte had “made a lot of wrong choices in his life” but is “a nice, loving, easygoing guy.”

Yeah, whatever.

A tractor-trailer truck carrying explosives went out of control and exploded in Utah, leaving a huge crater in US 6.

The truck driver, a passenger in the cab, a motorist and a motorcycle rider were hospitalized after the truck “pretty much vaporized,” Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Todd Royce said.

The explosion left a crater in two-lane U.S. 6 estimated to be between 20 feet and 35 feet deep, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Hudachko said.

“The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder, there’s no asphalt left,” he said.

North Korea’s animation industry is gaining world attention with the release of a film called Empress Chung, a joint North-South production.

“Empress Chung” will be the first major feature animated entirely in communist North Korea to enjoy a wide release in a capitalist country when it opens in South Korea on Friday.

It opens in Pyongyang on August 15, the day the Korean peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonial rule but also divided into North and South by the Alied forces.

It will mark the first time a film has opened jointly in North and South Korea, and filmmaker Nelson Shin is thrilled.

“We made it together. We will watch it together. I couldn’t be happier,” he said.

“Empress Chung” was produced and directed by Shin, who also runs AKOM Production Co., the South Korean animation studio that has been animating “The Simpsons” since that show premiered in 1989.

A Hitotsubashi University professor specializing in multicultural studies has written an op/ed piece for the Asahi Shimbun about how Britain may have produced its own terrorists with its open-door multiculturalism. He warns against going too far the other way, however, citing France’s culture of “assimilation” as an example of what not to do. Curiously, he leaves Japan completely out of the discussion.

Could multiculturalism have bred home-grown terrorists in Britain? After the July bombings, critics within the country blamed their government’s tolerance toward different cultures for allowing Islamic extremists to develop.

But denying them freedoms doesn’t work, either.

Societies that do not adopt multiculturalism tend to strongly pressure ethnic minorities to blend in and assimilate.

The father of Thomas (the Art Lad) is a rather amusing writer. I’ve blogrolled him and am working through his past few posts, and this one had me in stitches.

That’s one of the fun things about a family of C.R.A.P. [“Chronic Regenerative Acquisitional Proclivity”] sufferers. You’re always taking each other’s stuff, whether it’s given to you or not. That Johnny West figure in the picture the other day? Okay, fine! It WAS my brother’s. But possession is nine-tenths, right. And anyway, who nibbled off the kung-fu grip on my GI Joe and then started calling him “Knuckles,” huh? Well?

This personality trait among C.R.A.P. sufferers is especially pronounced after a member of the family has perished. When my grandfather died of a heart attack in the early 70s, some of his children didn’t even wait til sun-up the next day to raid the house and the numerous sheds, looking for the old gingerbread clock, the Shaker dresser, the only known tintype images of our Abenaki grandmother, and dozens of other legendary items.

And so it was that my sleazy uncle Dennis crept up to the house at 4:30 the next morning, slid in through the side window of the house, intent on getting into his dead father’s bedroom, probably to make off with the coin collection, or the Amoskeag musket, or the wooden box full of Dick Tracy cap guns that the kids were only allowed to fire off on the Independence Day.

I know. Appalling, isn’t it? And we know for a fact that he did this, because as uncle Dennis was creeping through the darkened living room, he tripped over my dad, who had been hiding behind the sofa ever since he heard the window open.

As they sat their in the pre-dawn gloom, bickering, they saw a small pick-up coast into the barnyard, its lights off, its motor killed. It was their sister Brenda! Hastily, they came to terms: Dennis got the cap guns, my dad took the musket. They both squeezed out the side window with their acquisitions just as Brenda was opening the front door. They didn’t find the coin collection, but that was because the eldest child–my aunt Barbara–had dispatched uncle David to retrieve it (for safekeeping) approximately 45 minutes after my grandfather’s body had been discovered the day earlier.

The post that really got me hooked was an older one, though; it was my “gateway” post, if you will, because it was linked from Thomas’ latest post. Check it out; it’s a great story.

The world is waking up to how cool video game music is. The music has, of course, grown progressively more sophisticated.

“In movies, you write to picture, you write to the scene, and it’s considered background music,” said Tallarico. “I consider us foreground music.”

Indeed, the audio component of games is becoming an increasingly interactive part of the story. Games are programmed so scores react to virtual environments and player choices. Multiple sound backdrops shift with scenarios.

Instead of switching to entirely new music when a character, say, enters an eerie courtyard, the emphasis subtly shifts to a previously soft-playing track, using different instruments to ratchet up the tension.

The effect, Doud says, is that “all of a sudden it’ll seem a lot more intense, but you can’t really tell how it got there.”

The article alludes to a video game concert series that will take place in 15 venues across the US. It would be neat to go to something like that.

I swear…he is too funny to be allowed. Check out these excerpts from the tale of his trip to Thailand:

2- “Tokyo International Airport” is a total misnomer.

For those of you who have never been to Japan, Narita Airport, sometimes called New Tokyo International Airport, is possibly the least convenient transport terminal in existence.
Not only is it not in Tokyo, it’s not even in the same prefecture as Tokyo.

For the weary traveller coming to Japan and hoping to sleep in rice fields it is perfectly situated. However, if you actually want a hotel, or, heaven forbid, to go to Tokyo, prepare for more travel.

Fortunately government plans to bury the airport and surround it with mines to make it more inaccessible were thwarted at the last minute.

3 – Everything is beatiful when compared to India

This is the second time I’ve been to Thailand. Landing in the airport, Thailand seemed liked any other South East Asian city. The immigration was long and beurocratic, the air was dirty, the traffic was crowded, the people tried to rip you off and the water was dark brown.

The previous time I had been to Thailand was on the return from India. Contrastingly, at that time, everything seemed clean, bright, friendly, cheap and wonderful. 2 weeks in India can make anything seem that way.

6 – I’m a tight-arse

The number of times I found myself arguing over the equivalent of about 10 cents was staggering. I managed to rationalise it by saying “It’s not the money, it’s the principle.” My close friends know that I have no principles and that it actually was the money.

11 – “One Night in Bangkok” is actually a pretty clever song

Seriously, go to Bangkok and then listen to the song again. It’s very well done.

Soooo many gems in this post. Go see them for yourself :D The photo captions are not to be missed…

Hiro in H2 eats a lot of okonomiyaki. I’ve never had it, but I’d love to try it out.

Chris (Man in Japan) has learned (sort of) to make it!

It’s pretty simple to cook, you just whip up a batter, mix in the finely chopped cabbage and then put it to fry. Then add your meat on to the top, and flip as appropriate. I’d love to be a little more specific, but I’ve forgotten the more subtle details.

He also notes:

I thought I might learn to cook while I was out here, but all I really do is heat up a different meat each night, and stick it in a bowl of rice.

So keep that in mind ;> In any case, there are some nice pics of okonomiyaki in his post!

Joe Stump thinks we’re going to invade Iran (which is something I consider plausible, though not necessarily likely), and he asserts that to do so the draft will be reinstated.

I guess Sean and AJ are too old to be drafted, which is good. But Ben’s only turning 24 this month.

I wonder if any of them would jump to sign up for the military if they thought they were needed. I wonder what the situation would have to be for them to feel that they were needed.

The whole idea of a draft makes me uncomfortable. If we really need soldiers, I’d like to think that the men in my life would step up. Of course, I don’t want them to go at all.

I hope Stump’s wrong. Really, I just hope we can resolve the situation with Iran (and others) diplomatically, and concentrate on the terrorists.

In response to all the news articles lately about stealing Wi-Fi, Joe Stump has created a handy-dandy table to tell you whether or not it’s okay to hop online using someone else’s bandwidth. Check it out.

I have been trying to find good resources for Japanese study in the Augusta area, and so far I’m not finding much. The best possibility seemed to be Meetup.com, but the Augusta Japanese Language group doesn’t have an organizer. I would be an organizer in a heartbeat if I could afford to pay the $19/mo.

Instead, I’m going to try to create a group on my own. If you’re in Augusta and you’re interested in learning Japanese, please post a comment!

Officials are discussing possibly making Evans an official city, and then consolidating it with the rest of Columbia County. This would, I assume, be similar to the Augusta-Richmond County phenomenon.

The Augusta Chronicle has a roundup of opinions from proponents and dissentors. While I don’t know where I stand on the issue, particularly, it’s definitely something to watch, as Sean is interested in living in Columbia County.

I liked this last quote the best:

Augusta City Administrator Fred Russell, however, had some advice.

“I would caution them (Columbia County officials), though, that what little bit I have learned in the past couple of years about consolidated governments is that when it’s good for a city, the state considers us a county. And when it’s good for a county, we seem to be a city,” he said. “There’s a ‘Never Neverland’ there that they need to be real careful about entering.”

Dawn mentioned to me the other day that “the haze” has gotten really bad, and that a lot of people are getting sick. Drudge links to this article in the Jakarta Post about the situation.

Air in many parts of Malaysia turned unhealthy as a weeklong haze blamed on forest fires in neighboring Indonesia worsened on Wednesday, and the government said it may declare an emergency and close schools.

Hospitals reported a spurt in complaints of respiratory and eye ailments from the dust and smoke-laden white haze, which hung over Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s largest city, and seven othertowns.

[…]

The haze wrapping tropical Kuala Lumpur resembled fog in a European city on a wintry morning but the hot and humid outdoors belied the impression. The visibility at Kuala Lumpur International Airport fell to 1 kilometer but no flights were affected.

An emergency may be declared if the air quality becomes hazardous, Uttusan Malaysia newspaper reported. That would entail closing schools and shortening work hours to reduce people’s exposure to pollution.

Here’s hoping schools and workplaces shut down until this passes. It sounds really icky and unhealthy.

LA Times: Servants — and Weapons — of War

Insurgents have long stuffed roadside bombs into the carcasses of animals. But Iraqi security officials say they increasingly worry about the use of live animals.

“Dogs have been used in many areas by insurgents throughout Iraq” to carry explosive devices, said Noori Noori, inspector-general at the Interior Ministry. “They used mentally retarded people for operations during the elections, so why wouldn’t they use animals?”

Last year in Ramadi, in the vast desert west of the capital, insurgents dispatched a booby-trapped donkey toward a U.S.-run checkpoint around sunset. “As one of the soldiers tried to stop it, the donkey exploded,” said resident Mohammed Yas, 45. The only casualty was the donkey.

“Before, they used to use car bombs. Now they are using people and animals,” said Col. Adnan Jaboori, a spokesman for the interior minister. “They are finding new ways to use remote-control technology.”

The daily newspaper Al Mada recently published an editorial cartoon showing an insurgent who strongly resembled Saddam Hussein trying to persuade a dog to strap on a belt bomb to advance the cause of the Baath Party, which once ruled Iraq.

“It is such a simple task,” the insurgent tells the terrified dog. “All you have to do is to put on this explosives belt, repeat the party’s slogans, and may Allah have mercy on your father’s soul!”

Even people who side with the insurgency in principle decry these actions.

Despite a common prejudice in the Muslim world against dogs, which are considered unclean, even the most virulent clerical opponents of the U.S. presence in Iraq have decried the use of canines as proxies in the war.

Abdel Salam Kubaisi, a spokesman for the Muslim Scholars Assn., a hard-line Sunni Arab clerical organization sympathetic to insurgents, called the practice un-Islamic. “Our religion does not permit us to hurt animals,” he said, “neither by using them as explosive devices nor in any other manner.”

How do they justify these things to themselves and to their god?

I hurt!

I had the occasion, purely randomly, to meet one of Augusta’s mayoral candidates yesterday afternoon in a parking lot. She was very enthusiastic and friendly, asking my name as she shook my hand and gave me her card.

I just read the front page of her website. The essay there seems to be the speech she gave as she announced her candidacy. And I have to say, I liked it a lot. I like that she is so dedicated to Augusta, to unity, to the community, and she certainly seems to have a good record in that regard.

At this time, I can’t say that I’m voting for her, because I don’t actually know anything about the other candidates…including who they even are. But meeting Helen and reading her website has made me very interested in the campaign, and now I think further research is in order.

Update 3:20 pm: Via this page, I have discovered that the other two candidates so far are Deke Copenhaver and Tommy Boyles. Deke Copenhaver is the executive director of the Central Savannah River Land Trust, and several people have written in to the Chronicle about him (here, here and here). Tommy Boyles is a member of the Augusta Commission, from District 7. Neither of these candidates seem to have a website yet.

The election will take place November 8, according to WAGT.

Why? Well, it’s one of the places Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and wrote about!

In De Smet, a railroad surveyor’s house where the Ingalls family lived during the winter of 1879-1880 and a house built in 1887 by Laura’s father, Charles, are the top attractions, Palmland says.

Sixteen other sites mentioned in the “Little House” series can be found there, too, along with the cemetery where Wilder’s parents, three sisters and an infant son are buried.

A pageant that retells the Ingalls’ family story is held each July.

It’d be a pain to get out there–40 miles from the nearest interstate and 100 miles from the nearest big city–but I think it’d be worth it someday. Maybe when I finally go on my nationwide road trip…