Archive for October, 2004

More on comment spam

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Well, apparently I have been attacked by someone who has put comments into the system with a post id referencing a post that doesn’t exist yet. As soon as the post appears, the comment also appears. Clever.
So far I’ve done several things to stop this:
1) enabled built in keyword auto-moderation–if the post contains any of [...]

Pan’s people

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

And now, for something completely non-electoral:
The Guardian is running what is nominally a review of the new Tartarus Books collection of Arthur Machen stories, but which is actually much more a history of Machen.
If you’re into 19th century weird fiction, or you’ve heard of Machen’s “The Great God Pan” (or perhaps especially if you haven’t) [...]

A few more election links

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

If you’re reading this you probably should also read (or already have read) Hunter Thompson’s take on the election and George Soros’ last minute comments/plea.
Both are messages that the American people need to understand. How sad is it that Thompson’s gonzo delivery will have more success at reaching people than Soros’ calm, well thought-out piece.

Comment spam already?

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

So far I’m only writing this blog to learn WordPress, so I can use it to implement a blog for a friend.
I admit that, to my surprise, I am enjoying the process, and am now toying with the idea of actually doing this for real.
So far, though, I haven’t told anyone about this, except Alex [...]

Good election news

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

In the midst of all my Bush-hating, and worry about this election (and I know many other Canadians who are literally giving themselves ulcers over this–I can’t imagine how progressives in the US have any stomach left at all) it’s nice to get some good news.
This is from a report (yanked from an email sent [...]

I see this as a pro-Kerry ad.

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

The sad fact is that apparently around 50% of Americans feel this way without any irony.

Guantanamo Stonewall

Saturday, October 30th, 2004

So look, it’s no secret what I think about the forthcoming election and the Bush administration in general. Of all the horrible things they have done, perhaps the worst is their complete disrespect for the notions of the rule of law and the rights of individuals. You can see this an Abu Ghraib, and in [...]

Lots of stairs there too

Friday, October 29th, 2004

Every now and then I get email from friends who are in far off corners of the world, and I try to take a moment and recognize how amazing some of the things that we of the Net generation take for granted actually are.
My high school friend Shawn, who among other things helped me develop [...]

Lots of stairs…

Friday, October 29th, 2004

So, what’s that image in the header all about?
Well, as I have mentioned previously, we did a couple of weeks in Hungary last year, with lots of it spent in Budapest. One of the many architecturally amazing things in that city is the Basilica of St. Istvan (Istvan, pronounced “Isht-van”, is the Hungarian analog of [...]

I like cheese. And garlic. And mushrooms.

Friday, October 29th, 2004

Tonight’s first course for me will be this salad, which comes from last week’s Globe & Mail. Trish spotted the recipe, in an article entitled Hot, Cheesy Goodness and forwarded it to me with the comment “the first recipe sounds like it was created for you”.
Goat Cheese Sandwiches with Warm Mushroom Salad
Basically, this salad [...]

“Is there anything more dangerous than an ideologue who doesn’t know he’s wrong?”

Friday, October 29th, 2004

So, one the people who I apparently should have known about before this year, but who I didn’t was Seymour Hersh.
I’ve been reading all the articles of his that I can since he broke open the Abu Ghraib thing in Atlantic montly, and I intend to buy his new book at my next opportunity.
If anything [...]

We suck less

Thursday, October 28th, 2004

I see three possible way to look at this:

Canada in top 20!
Canada 7 times less free than the eight freest countries
Canada freest in North America
We suck less than the US.

Loving The Alien

Wednesday, October 27th, 2004

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that I bought the new Danny Michel album, Loving The Alien, the minute it came out. The entire album is Danny doing covers of David Bowie tune, and the short review is that they are all great–and very different from the Bowie versions.
When [...]

Bad Parenting Monthly

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

Can you get on the cover of Bad Parenting Monthly for letting a shoggoth eat your daughter?

Saving Me Some Time

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

I’ll add this post just in case is any doubt about the ease with which a massive list of the Bush Administration’s problems could be prepared.