Idealogian

Searching

To the web surfer who arrived at this site looking for "spanking ice cream agreement trial 57" (for which I am the first result): I hope you found what you're looking for. Whatever that may be.

To the web surfer who arrived at this site looking for "sell my internal organs to highest bidder" (for which I am the seventh result): I hope you didn't find what you're looking for. You'll probably need them at some point.

How To Kill a Mockingbird

An impressive book report discussing the literary symbolism in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

I don't remember the mysterious slave woman. Or the ninjas. Or the army of undead mockingbirds. But I haven't read it since sixth grade, so maybe I just forgot those parts.

(If you do not share my sense of humor, you may think this unfunny and too long. Personally, I find it highly amusing, and part of that is because it just doesn't give up - the length just makes it more epic.)

Jewish Blood is Not Cheap

I'm not sure why this took so long, but one of the most notorious symbols of the intifada has been sentenced to life in prison. Considering that this seems to have been quite an exceptional crime, I wonder why he wasn't sentenced to death.

Drinking

Last week, for the first time in my life, I went to a bar. I mean, I've been in places that have a bar - jazz clubs, restaurants, wedding halls - but I've never actually gone to a place that is a bar. Not really the type of atmosphere I enjoy. But last week, it wasn't really up to me. To celebrate the completion of a project at work, the whole team was going out to a bar for drinks and food. And since I was one of the main people who worked on that project, I pretty much had to go.

I decided that I'd go but not hang out for too long or drink anything. I didn't want to be a part of the whole "eat, drink and be merry" experience, especially with some people who have a history of taking that creed a bit too far, in my opinion. So I got there at 6:30, left at 7:00, and drank only a glass of water. (I later found out that some of my co-workers didn't get home until 2:00 AM and can't remember all that much about the last few hours before that.)

I told my parents about this over the weekend, and the following conversation ensued:

My Father: So what'd you drink?

Me: Just a glass of water.

MF: A glass of water?!

Me: Yeah, just some water. With ice.

MF: New York City, unfiltered water?

Dang.

I would have been better off with a beer. That'll teach me to stay sober.

Reuven's Recipe corneR - How Not To Make Chocolate Chip Cookies

OK, this one's a little bit different than usual - more of a learning by (negative) example. Here's a very good way to make two very bad chocolate cookies.

Wow

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day reaffirms why the aurora borealis is one of those things that I simply must see sometime during my life. (The other big one being the Grand Canyon, with an honorable mention going to Ireland.)

It's a cool site in general, and you can find such awe-inspiring pictures as this and this (click on them for a larger versions) in the archives. Check out this interesting perspective on a solar eclipse.

Low-Carb Backlash

Study: Low-fat vs. low-carb

Regardless of how they shed pounds in the first place, big losers stayed that way by limiting fat rather than carbohydrates, according to new research that could add fuel to the backlash against low-carb diets.

Dieters already have been turning away from Atkins-style plans as a long-term weight-control strategy, and the new study gives them more reason: Low-fat plans seem to work better at keeping weight off.

"People who started eating more fat ... regained the most weight over time," said Suzanne Phelan, a Brown Medical School psychologist who presented results of the study Monday at a meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.

. . .

The type of diet -- low-fat, low-carb or in between -- made no difference in how people lost weight initially.

But those who increased their fat intake over a year regained the most weight. That meant they ate less carbohydrates, because the amount of protein in their diets stayed the same, Phelan said.

"Only a minority of successful weight losers consume low-carbohydrate diets," she and the other researchers concluded.

Reminds me of a recently overheard conversation (modified slightly):

D: I should go on one of those new diets, you know, Atkins or South Beach. But, just for a short while, till I've lost maybe 15, 20 pounds. I probably don't need to stay on it more than a couple of months.

R: And then you'd just stop? Would you go back to your old eating habits, or would you make any changes?

D: Oh, of course there'd be changes. I'd have to make up for lost time. :-)

Bedknobs and Stick Shifts

The Street Sleeper

Arafat's Obituaries

Reuters has a rundown of international response to Arafat's death. Some are sickeningly glamorous:

"President Arafat will always be remembered for having, in 1988, led the Palestinians to accept the principle of peaceful coexistence between Israel and a future Palestinian state. By signing the Oslo accords in 1993 he took a giant step towards the realisation of this vision."

-Spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan

Some are conspicuously neutral:

"With the death of President Yasser Aarafat [sic] the Palestinian people have lost their historical leader. An era has ended. ... Everything must be done now to achieve an orderly transfer of power. Of utmost importance is a leadership, made legitimate through early elections, which remains committed to a fair peace settlement."

-German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer

But only three nations (as excerpted here) make any mention of his "failures":

"Without Arafat there could have already been peace in the region and a Palestinian state."

-Israeli Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid

"I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, that involved the Israelis agreeing to about 90 percent of what the Palestinians wanted."

-Australian Prime Minister John Howard

"His failure was to not make the transformation from resistance leader to statesman. Under his leadership the Palestinian Authority was marked by incompetence, corruption and a lack of constitutional and democratic procedure."

-New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff

No mention (at least not in these excerpts) of his being a terrorist, and in a sense the father of all modern-day terrorists. The New York Times obituary, however, makes significant mention of that aspect.

Personally, I'm not sure whether to actually rejoice or not, but at the very least: good riddance. May he reap in his next life what he has sown in this one.

CGI

'Tis the season, apparently, for computer animated movies, with The Incredibles having opened last week (and being dubbed by The Wall Street Journal "the year's best movie so far, and by far; it's hard to see what might still come along to surpass it") and The Polar Express opening this week. In that spirit, some links:

• After seeing The Incredibles, you may be inspired to develop your own super identity, which will of course require a secret lair of sorts. If so, you'll be needing one of these.
• After You, a satirically clever short film.
• Alien Song, a short that had me laughing out loud (and has me laughing again now just thinking about it).
• Rockfish, a slightly longer but more visually impressive film.
• If you've seen the trailer for The Polar Express and are wondering why it feels slightly unsettling, it's probably due to one of two reasons:
  1. It seems to have less plot than a weekday comic strip. ("Boy doesn't believe in Santa but then goes on a magical train ride to the North Pole where he meets Santa. The End.")
  2. The characters are in an unfortunate position somewhere in the Uncanny Valley.
  The CNN review confirms both points.

Reports of Arafat's Demise

Is he or isn't he? Only his mortician knows for sure. Regardless (as Shosh points out), he's clearly not in very good shape, or else there wouldn't even be reports like this:

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was declared clinically dead on Thursday in a French hospital, Israeli television said citing French sources.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie denied the report, saying: "I have just spoken to the officials in Paris and they say the situation is still as it was. He is still in the intensive care unit."

Israel's Channel Two television cited unnamed sources in Paris saying that Arafat underwent a brain scan and was found to be "no longer alive."

Man, what a way to find out. Can you imagine that? You go in for a routine brain scan, and then when you come out, they're all like, "Sir, we have some bad news for you."

Voting Results

CNN has a very thorough analysis of who voted for whom.

Two Evils

As I write this post, CNN shows Bush with 170 electoral votes and Kerry with 112 (with 270 needed to win). I find myself unexpectedly feeling a sense of - apprehension? uneasiness? dread? I'm not quite sure what to call it - that this man very well be our president for the next four years.

The bad part is that I think I would feel exactly the same way if the numbers were reversed.