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Things that could have been brought to our attention….three years ago!
This segment is a bit myopic, dealing mostly with whether Sec. Kathleen Sebelius said this (yes, she did) and one study that shows costs going up. But it's decent as far as it goes, and we could have used a whole lot more such mildly critical reporting before the bill was passed.
If CNN cared to look beyond the one Society of Actuaries study it allows the White House to trash as insurance-industry aligned, they'd find plenty of studies from the government itself that show overall health care costs rising, individual premiums rising, and costs higher over the next 10 years than they would have been without passing ObamaCare. That last is an important point because the administration loves to blame quickly rising premiums on evil insurance companies or the fact that they were already rising before ObamaCare. The fact is, the trajectory has changed, especially in the individual market, because of ObamaCare. Insuring more people and mandating more comprehensive coverage makes insurance more expensive. This was obvious to anyone who cared to think about it before the law was passed, but anyone who cared to point it out was called a dirty liar by the bill's proponents. (Here's a full write-up on the Actuaries' report and its conclusions and design. It is considered an expert, reliable report by most everyone but the White House, but as with any one study, it has limitations.)
Now, the truth can be told. Yes, advocates exclaim, some people's premiums are of course going to go up! Duh, silly billies! That's because we're insuring more sick and old people and making those scofflaw young and healthy folks pay their fair share (i.e. far more than their low level of risk requires in a free market) to subsidize it. Also, the young and healthy we're making buy insurance can only buy super-comprehensive coverage they don't need, which is more expensive, but they're really gonna love all the new services they get. Plus, subsidies will mask the cost of some of this.
A couple problems. That wasn't the pitch for the bill. The pitch for the bill was that we would get more coverage for more people, AND premiums would go down, AND the health care cost curve would bend down for the government, AND it wouldn't add a dime to the deficit, AND everyone who liked their insurance would be able to keep it. None of those things is true except for possibly more coverage for more people, and the jury remains out on that, even. Not everyone will qualify for subsidies, and woe betide those among the young and healthy who don't for they will be paying for more coverage than they need, subsidizing everyone else's coverage and subsidizing everyone else's subsidies. And, finally, the extremely complicated formula and mechanism by which subsidies will be decided and delivered— more complicated and comprehensive than any the feds have built before— does not yet exist in any working form. But I'm sure it'll work out just swimmingly.
Now, proponents will say I'm not allowing for the possibility that all of ObamaCare's rosiest cost-reducing predictions could turn out to be true and even better than expected, and that the exchange system for delivery thereof will come together seamlessly in the next eight months. Frankly, if rooting for such things to come to pass brought them to fruition, proponents would have the coolest, most comprehensive, affordable Travelocity for health care evah right now. Merely asserting things will work out doesn't overcome the logistical and economic obstacles the bill is encountering now that it has left the fevered minds of legislators and entered real life. And, hoping everything will work out also doesn't help those who were relying on the president's already broken promises of lower premiums and keeping their own insurance. Dealing honestly with the limitations and downsides of this bill would have been most helpful before it was passed, but remains necessary for those of us who will have to deal with them in the real world, where ObamaCare was never going to live up to all its expectations.


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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Few balancing acts are as difficult as the adaption of a beloved book to the screen. When that favorite book is part of the Harry Potter series, with its devoted fans of all ages worldwide, the problem becomes even more difficult. You see, while books and movies have many similarities - both, after all, tell narrative stories - they are also very different media. What works in one format may or may not work in another. Or, to put it another way, a book/movie adaptation is like the famous description of a poem translated into another language: it can be beautiful, or it can be faithful, but it can't be both.
When I reviewed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I commented that the film is very faithful to the book (and that it's this tenacious adherence to the book's structure that's the film's one weakness), but in retrospect, I can see that The Prisoner of Azkaban is a much "looser" adaptation than The Goblet of Fire. In The Prisoner of Azkaban, the story is slimmed down to focus on the key plot elements, with many details and secondary threads from the book left out. The result is a highly effective film, one that I considered (and still consider) to be the best in the series so far. But my point of view wasn't shared by a lot of diehard fans who wanted to see Every. Single. Scene. Unfortunately, it's those fans who seem to be the target audience for this newest film in the series.
Let's be totally clear: I'm a Harry Potter fan, and I was really looking forward to the film version of The Goblet of Fire. But the straight news is that The Goblet of Fire isn't really a Harry Potter film: it's a scene-by-scene video version of the book. And while that's likely to please a certain segment of the audience, it means that as on its own merits as a film, The Goblet of Fire just doesn't work very well. It manages to hold itself together, sure... but it never gets all its ducks in a row, either.
The Goblet of Fire gets off to a shaky start with the first scenes, which follow the exact sequence of events in the first few chapters of the original novel: an elderly Muggle stumbling upon evildoings in a ramshackle old house, Harry waking from a dream, and the friends trekking off on an adventure with the Weasley family. All of this leads into the Quiddich World Cup sequence, and in the novel Rowling uses it to start getting the action warmed up and to set the scene for later events. In the film, though, it's rushed and will almost certainly be confusing to viewers who don't have a precise recollection of how those scenes fit together in the book, where these events are given an explanation by Rowling that's missing in the film. Who was the old man? Was that what Harry was dreaming about? Where are they all going? A thorough familiarity with the book is necessary to keep the characters and events at all straight... and the longer it's been since you read the book, the more confusing the opening will be.
It's not just that the opening scenes are rushed, though: the entire movie is. The decision to make The Goblet of Fire a single, fairly long film rather than two films was a perfectly reasonable one, but in order to make that decision work, the story needed to be pruned much more aggressively than it actually was. The emphasis seems to be on preserving as many of the story elements and references as humanly possible, even if it means spending very little time on each one. The entire film follows the same formula: we see filmed versions of nearly all the plot and character-development points of the novel (major and minor), with the story abruptly cutting from one to the next without any real sense of flow. In essence, the film is asking the viewer to fill in the narrative context with information from the book.
One of the effects of this "follow the book page by page" approach is that there's a curiously flat feeling to the narrative: with each scene delivered in the same hasty, breathless manner, there's little to distinguish key dramatic scenes from minor details. Since it's impossible to sustain a constant high note of dramatic tension for an entire film (much less a two-and-a-half-hour film), the result is a general middling tone, with no building of suspense and only a weak rise in tension in important scenes.
The "include everything" approach for the plot might have worked if the film were a miniseries, but since it's not, it just means that many elements are included in a perfunctory manner and not really exploited. The dramatic events at the Quiddich World Cup seem overdone in the context of the surrounding scenes, since there was very little buildup; on the flip side, the murder of an important secondary character midway through the film is included but subsequently completely ignored. Why wasn't it just omitted entirely? The character of reporter Rita Skeeter is given a substantial amount of screen time, but while in the book we see the consequences of her involvement in the story, and there's a well-developed plot thread that makes her character relevant, in the movie the significant aspects of her role are dropped. She becomes just a random secondary character with no real function. On a smaller scale, Sirius Black is brought in for one scene that turns out to be completely irrelevant to anything in the story, and his character is never mentioned again; the only effect is to confuse viewers who don't have a crystal-clear recollection of the book.
Even the Triwizard Tournament, which ought to give structure to the film as a whole, feels like a random set of challenges with no connection to anything else in the story. In only one of the challenges is there any build-up featuring Harry trying to figure out how to deal with it, and that challenge suffers from too much time being spent showing off the underwater CGI effects. The final challenge in particular suffers from a lack of context. It's supposed to be the most frightening and challenging of the three, but the subtle psychological effects of the maze, which are explained in the book, are unexplained here, making the maze scene seem to be nothing more than an exercise in not being eaten by a living hedge. Once again, if you have the book fresh in mind, you can flesh things out slightly by interpreting the scenes here according to how they're "supposed" to be read... but this is an example of a storytelling failure on the part of the film, and truth be told, this setpiece doesn't work well even if you know what to look for.
In the meantime, havoc is being played with the characters as well as the plot. Snape and McGonagall, characters who are important for the story overall and who are played by excellent actors, are shoved to the sidelines, with barely a line or two apiece. Cedric, Fleur, and Victor are colorless as the other Triwizard champions. Neville Longbottom is shoved to the fore in several scenes that seem to have no other function than to highlight him as an up-and-coming character; certainly in The Goblet of Fire his scenes could have (and almost certainly should have) been cut to focus the audience's attention where it belongs.
That focus should have been much more squarely on the trio of Harry, Hermione, and Ron. One of the key themes of The Goblet of Fire is their restlessness as they enter puberty, and the tensions that erupt among them when Harry is thrust into the limelight once again. With the frantic pace of the film, there's no time to draw out the character development in a natural way. Instead, we have the fast-forwarded version. They're friends! They're mad at each other! They're friends again! As with everything else, the film tries to do too much too fast.
The best way to see how the book-to-film translation is mishandled is to compare it to Peter Jackson's adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, another "fan favorite." Jackson very wisely did not attempt to do a scene-by-scene rendition of the book; instead, he cut some parts and emphasized others, and significantly rearranged the narrative structure of the book, changing the order of events and sometimes reassigning roles or combining them in a single character. The result was a set of films that manage to succeed as films, while also being extremely faithful to the feel and spirit of the original book... which is a very different (and far better) thing than being blindly faithful to the way the author put the words down on paper. But it takes a certain degree of courage and confidence to do this with a popular story, and it would seem that with The Goblet of Fire, we see the director take the "safe" (and ultimately less successful) way out.
After reading this far, you might justifiably ask whether I think there's anything worthwhile in the film. The answer is yes; The Goblet of Fire does manage to be moderately entertaining. It's simply that The Goblet of Fire is disappointing, considering the expectations that we as viewers quite justifiably have for it, especially after seeing three films that handled the book-to-film transition more effectively, if not perfectly.
I suspect that if director Mike Newell had been given more leeway with the material, he could have done a much better job. Whenever the film settles down to spend a moderate amount of time on a particular sequence, the quality markedly improves. As a result, the film has entertaining set-pieces scattered throughout the film's running time. The Quiddich World Cup scenes do a great job of capturing the revelry of the wizard world, and the "wow" factor of magic. Parts of the challenge with the Hungarian Horntail dragon are top-notch: the dragon itself is simply stunning, and the tense scenes with the dragon on top of the castle roof are fantastic, even if the overall sequence feels like it's padded with a too-long aerial chase. The Yule Ball section also feels almost right; the scene with Professor McGonagall teaching the Hogwarts students to dance is handled very well, with just the right touch of humor drawing on the different reactions of the girls and the boys to the prospect of a formal dance.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a film that's certainly hampered by the expectations of its fans, which is too bad; with a more confident approach to adapting the book (with an emphasis on adapting, not just recreating), we could have had a rousing success. After all, The Goblet of Fire is an excellent story. As a film, though, it's a prime example that "faithful" is not synonymous with "excellent."
The DVD
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a two-disc set, packaged in a single-wide plastic keepcase inside a cardboard slipcase.
The Goblet of Fire looks good, but not as good as I'd have expected it to look, given that it's a high-profile release. The main issue that I noticed is that the contrast feels a bit "off." In a number of scenes, the contrast feels too heavy, so that we lose detail in dark areas of the scene; in others, though, it seems like there's not enough contrast. Overall, the print is clean; we don't get any flaws, and I saw minimal edge enhancement. It's not a particularly sharp or crisp transfer, though. Close-ups look good, but in longer-distance scenes seem a bit softer, without the detail that I'd have liked to have seen.
The film appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is anamorphically enhanced.
The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is consistent with the video transfer in being quite good, but not as good as what we got for the DVD of the previous release. The sound is clean and crisp, with a nice depth to it; dialogue is always distinct and easy to understand. The overall sound is spread well across the channels, but when it comes to the use of the rear channels for the surround, the track doesn't stand out. Directional effects are used occasionally, and are quite effective when they are used, but they're not a consistent part of the soundtrack. Similarly, the rear channels aren't used to their best effect for an immersive sound; scenes like the ones with rainstorms could have been a lot more aggressive in the use of the surround sound. The action sequences ramp up the volume, but again the emphasis is on the front and side channels rather than the full surround package. We certainly get enough to feel that yes, it's a surround experience, but it's not as engaging as it could be. It's nice to hear, though, that even when the volume climbs, the various elements in the track are still balanced properly.
A Dolby 5.1 Spanish track is also provided, along with English, Spanish, and French subtitles. On the second disc, viewers are prompted to choose either English or French for the subsequent menu choices.
As a two-disc set, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire presents the film on the first DVD and all of the bonus content on the second DVD. It's a mixed bag, with a few features of genuine interest shuffled in among weaker material that's probably aimed at the younger viewers.
The special features are divided into themed sections. In the "Dragon Arena" section, the bonus features start off with a fairly silly game called "Triwizard Tournament: Dragon Challenge." (Does anyone actually play these DVD games?) "Harry and the Horntail: The First Task" turns out to be a 16-minute featurette that focuses on the creation of that sequence for the film. Last in that section is "Meet the Champions," a 13-minute "behind the scenes" segment that follows the actors who play the Triwizard Champions. It's a moderately interesting segment.
In "The Lake," we get another installment of the DVD game, and the mildly interesting ten-minute featurette "In Too Deep: The Second Task," which focuses on the visual effects required for the second task in the film.
"The Maze" section has two silly games: the last segment of the Triwizard game, and another one called "To the Graveyard and Back Challenge." A short featurette on "The Maze: The Third Task" (7 minutes) gives some background on the making of that sequence, and "He Who Must Not Be Named" (11 minutes) covers the character of Voldemort and the actor who brings him to life.
For adult viewers, the "Hogwarts Castle" section has the most substantial content. A ten-minute set of "Additional Scenes" is certainly worth viewing, with some scenes that really should have made it into the final cut and others that were definitely best left out. "Preparing for the Yule Ball" (9 minutes) is another short scene-specific featurette. The most substantial piece here is "Conversations with the Cast," which runs a full 30 minutes. Here, we have the three young actors in a casual setting, with host Richard Curtis drawing them out to discuss their thoughts on the making of the film. Following on the heels of this segment is "Reflections on the Fourth Film," a 14-minute piece that has various actors commenting on the changes they've seen over the years they've been involved with the Harry Potter projects.
The theatrical trailer is also included, as is some minor DVD-ROM content.
Final thoughts
If you've been following the Harry Potter films, but haven't seen The Goblet of Fire yet, you can predict your reaction to the film quite well by considering how much you liked The Prisoner of Azkaban compared to the two earlier films. If you found The Prisoner of Azkaban to be the best of the films, as I did, you'll almost certainly find The Goblet of Fire to be a letdown. If you agonized over the fact that not every single scene that Rowling wrote made it into The Prisoner of Azkaban, you're likely to be a lot happier with The Goblet of Fire than I was, since it's basically a video-illustrated version of the book rather than a strong film in its own right.
But if you've already seen the film... let's be realistic. If you (or your kids) are interested in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, you're going to pick up the DVD no matter what I say about it. I could say that it's a good choice for a rental, but then if you already own the first three films, as I do, are you really going to leave a gap on your shelf when the fifth film comes out? I didn't think so. With that in mind, I'll go ahead and generously give a "recommended" for this film. Sure, pick it up; just don't feel you have to rush out and get it in a hurry. Wait for a sale.
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subset: commoncrawl


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A Discourse on Thanksgiving Weekend given by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
I dedicate this essay to the memory of my closest friend, Ven. Bhikkhu Sumedha, who expired in Sri Lanka on Dec. 21, 2006, minutes after I finished writing it. I dedicate it to him as a true monk and visionary: cave-dwelling meditator, spiritual patron of the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital, genius artist, and one who always, even when on the brink of death, deeply remembered others.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday that brings families and friends together for the purpose of strengthening old bonds. It is a time when people forget their cares and worries, return home–sometimes over long distances–and share a sumptuous meal. After a year when we each pursue our private interests, we come together and light the lamp of loving affection over a table spread with roast turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and other culinary delights. The early American settlers who first established this holiday originally offered their thanks to God for the bountiful harvest he provided them in their new home, so far from the European motherland. Nowadays, Thanksgiving has lost its religious overtones and has become a secular holiday celebrating prosperity and success. It symbolizes the unity of the family, the solidarity of the community, the forging of closer ties.
Those of us who follow the Buddha's teaching can also use the Thanksgiving holiday as a time of reflection, as an occasion for giving thanks. Since the Dhamma is non-theistic, we don't give thanks to any God, but we can use the occasion to develop an attitude of gratitude: gratitude towards all the factors in our lives that contribute towards our fortune and success. In this short talk, I would like to mention briefly five things for which one might be thankful. I'll speak for myself and then generalize.
(1) I am thankful that I am a human being. When we reflect on how few are the number of human beings in the world compared to the number of other beings, we'll appreciate the precious opportunity that human life provides. It may seem trifling, even ridiculous, to be thankful that one is a human being–for, one might ask, what else could I be if not a human being?–but if you reflect a little, you might see that it's truly amazing that our own sense of "I," of being "this living being that I am," should be lodged in a human constitution. Just suspend for a moment your habit of taking your human identity for granted, and you can see that your sense of being "the `I' that I am" could just as well have been connected to a dog's body and mind, or a monkey's, or a bird's, or a fish's, perhaps even an ant's or a fly's! To be a human being is extremely rare, yet human life is also precious because human life has such great potential: the potential to develop our intellectual and aesthetic capacities, our ethical sensitivity, especially our spiritual faculties. Consciousness of any sort is a seed, and the human consciousness is the seed that can unfold the highest realizations of purity, love, wisdom, and inner freedom. When we reflect in this way, we realize how crucial it is not to squander this precious human life, but to devote our efforts to our spiritual development.
(2) I am thankful that I enjoy a reasonable level of material security. Here in this part of New Jersey, just about everyone has sufficient food, decent housing, and enough material resources to live comfortably and enjoy periods of leisure to pursue what interests them. This is a rare blessing. Throughout this world of six billion people, perhaps four billion are constantly struggling every day just to survive. They have to work long hours at tedious jobs, often dangerous jobs, just to earn enough money to buy food, clothes, and fuel. Many can't afford adequate housing or medical care. But you have had a good education, live in a peaceful area, and enjoy at least a moderate standard of material affluence.
(3) I live in a country where we enjoy fundamental social and personal freedoms. Our U.S. Constitution guarantees us freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of worship, freedom of the press. The present Administration may be cutting back on certain freedoms that this country has long cherished and long endorsed in the community of nations — particularly freedom from unwarranted search and seizure and from cruel and unusual punishment–but we still preserve the right to change the situation through our electoral process. If I want to, I can write essays criticizing our government, even our president, without fear of being arrested. Though almost all the people in governmental are Christians, I can practice Buddhism with perfect freedom and no restrictions are placed on my expression of my beliefs. In many parts of the world, people must conform to the prevailing religion of the country, even if they are privately convinced of the truth of some other religion. If they advocate another religion, they might even be beheaded.
(4) I have encountered the Buddha's teaching. As human beings, we need something more than material security, something more liberating than social and political freedom, something that leads to greater fulfillment than opportunities for personal creativity and self-expression. We need a path of ethical guidance that can help us make the right decisions in the face of tough personal dilemmas, a path of spiritual guidance that can show us how to realize our potentials for the highest wisdom, compassion, spiritual freedom, and peace. Among all the teachings known to humankind, that which stands out by its intellectual brilliance, ethical purity, and pragmatic versatility is the Dhamma, the teaching of the Buddha. The arising of a Perfectly Enlightened One is rare. The proclamation of the Dhamma is rare. Associating with good spiritual friends is rare. To have gained these three benefits is something for which one should be extremely grateful.
(5) I have gained faith in the Dhamma and have found a good place to learn the teachings. Many people encounter the Buddha's teachings but do not gain faith. They meet Buddhism as just one world religion among others; they see the Buddha as just one great religious teacher among others. Sometimes they become interested in the Dhamma, but that interest flares up and then soon fades away. However, when our interest leads to keen investigation; when investigation brings conviction; when conviction kindles steadfast faith in the Dhamma, and when we have found a good monastery to study and practice and knowledgeable teachers to guide us, then we have achieved an extraordinary blessing indeed.
To these five general items worthy of thanks by any follower of the Dhamma, I add a sixth of my own: that I have gained the opportunity to become a monk in the Buddhist order and to have encountered good teachers throughout my years as a monk.
Now, when we rejoice on Thanksgiving for our abundant blessings, we should also remember that there are many others in this world who don't share our fortune. Rather than neglect them, we should also welcome them into the citadel of our hearts. If Thanksgiving is truly a family holiday, we might recall the Buddha's words that it is hard to find a single person on this earth who has not, in some previous existence, been our mother or father, our brother or sister. Thus we should think of their misfortune as a matter of urgent concern to ourselves.
(1) First and foremost, we should remember that our nation is at war. We are embroiled in a terrible war in Iraq, a terrifying war that was initiated under sham pretexts, that has been prolonged against widespread opposition, and that daily brings disastrous consequences. So far the war has claimed nearly 3,000 American lives and left many more young Americans disfigured and disabled for life. And so, while most American families could laugh and rejoice at their Thanksgiving tables, many sat at their tables with pain in their hearts and tears filling their eyes. But the impact of this war on the country where it is being waged is far worse than it is on America. Iraq is sorely divided, its infrastructure paralyzed, its cities in shambles. A recent report suggests that the war may have claimed as many as 600,000 Iraqi lives, most civilians including many women and children. On Thanksgiving day itself, over 200 Iraqis were killed in senseless sectarian violence. Bringing all this to mind, we should make a determination to press for an end to this war and to bear witness for the cause of peace, resisting all warfare and militarism as a solution to international and inter-communal conflicts.
(2) Our planet's climate is undergoing drastic changes. Climate change is occurring at a more rapid rate than was earlier believed to be the case, and the climate change presently taking place spells major calamities in the future: floods, rising sea levels, disappearing coastal lands, prolonged droughts, desertification, and dangers we cannot as yet even foresee. These in turn bring greater poverty, migration, exploding cities, and urban violence. The main culprit is the United States. Our country is the world's largest consumer of carbon-based fuels, yet stubbornly refuses to cut down its production and consumption rates, refuses to accept limits on its right to exploit the earth, refuses to sign international agreements that might compel it to behave like a responsible adult. Yet we ourselves don't have to follow our leaders, who are themselves pushed around by profit-seeking corporations. On our own we can follow a different drummer. Under the Buddha's guidance, we can simplify our lifestyles, find contentment in the simple joys of life, and take "delight in renunciation." The Buddha teaches that craving is the root of suffering, simplicity the root of happiness; thus, by simplifying our lifestyles we can find deeper meaning and peace here and now while we behave more responsibly regarding the earth itself.
(3) A large proportion of the world's population goes hungry every day. While the U.S. over-consumes, billions of people around the world (including many poor people in the U.S.) have trouble finding enough food to sustain them through the day. When I lived in Sri Lanka some years ago, I had read that the average Sri Lankan family spends about three-quarters of the family income on food, and Sri Lanka was by no means near the bottom of the world's poverty scale. In Central Africa, increasing desertification and locust plagues have resulted in annual food scarcities that take horrifying death tolls, claiming adults, children, and animals without distinction. Sufficient food could be provided very easily, yet our own country prefers to spend its resources on weaponry and military campaigns. The leaders of these poor countries, too, become embroiled in struggles for power that result in reckless expenditures on weapons and in brutal ethnic killings. But we should bear the poor and hungry in mind, live moderately, and give substantial donations to philanthropic organizations like CARE, Save the Children, Direct Relief International, the Tzuchi Foundation, and Sarvodaya.
(4) Many people around the world are prisoners of conscience. They live lives of utmost deprivation locked away in prisons on charges they have never had the chance to challenge in courts, often simply because they dared to live in accordance with their conscience, or because they stood up against an autocratic leader or a tyrannical regime. There in prison they are often abused, humiliated, and tortured, and no one in the outside world even knows of their existence. Sadly, our own government, once the world's leader in human rights, has recently used the so-called "war against terror" as a justification for enacting policies that permit almost arbitrary arrests and indefinite detentions, depriving prisoners of their basic rights to a free and fair trial. As U.S. citizens, we should stand up for the rule of law and the inviolability of the Bill of Rights enshrined in our Constitution, as applying to U.S. citizens and to those foreigners residing in our land.
(5) In this world, people blindly follow the ten ways of unwholesome action. If we cast our gaze out upon the world, we see: (i) expanding waves of reckless violence, even high-ranking political groups resorting to murder as a way to eliminate foes; (ii) widespread disregard for the property of others; (iii) shameless sexual promiscuity; those in positions of responsibility showing no hesitation (iv) to lie and (v) to create divisions among others; (vi) angry denunciations spilling forth from the mouths of the powerful, (vii) senseless chatter from the mouths of entertainers; the minds of the multitude teeming with (viii) unrestrained greed, (ix) anger, and (x) wrong views. As followers of the Buddha who have been privileged to inherit his teaching, we should make some effort to sustain the light of his Dhamma in this dark world. Either by precept or personal example, we should teach the ways of wholesome action, the path of light and goodness that leads to all blessings, to happy living in this world, to higher rebirth, to the stages of samadhi, and to insight, enlightenment, and Nibbana. We should not be overly optimistic that we can kindle a spiritual revolution, for today the forces of darkness are indeed very strong. But with courage and persistence, we can hold up our candles in the night, and bring this light to those who have eyes to see, to those seeking an outlet from the tangle of suffering woven by greed, hatred, and delusion.


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Please only allow native titles in the Humble Indie Bundle.
Linux users have been supporting the Humble Indie Bundle from the beginning and a relation of mutual trust has grown between the people behind the Bundle and the Linux community. Unfortunately, I feel this trust has been violated by the inclusion of a non-native Linux game in the latest Bundle. This is not merely a complaint about one game included in one Bundle, in this case Limbo. It sets a horrible precedent for the future, encouraging developers to merely put out unoptimized Windows binaries of their games running through a WINE or similar layer merely to con Linux users out of their money. We can not allow this to happen, not to the Humble Indie Bundle. With all of this said, we do not want to boycott the Bundle as many of the developers involved are still very much deserving of our money, as are many of the charities, and even the Bundle guys themselves are still making an effort. But we can not let this go without at least getting our point across. So we implore: 1. Linux users to sign this petition. Guarantee that the integrity of the Bundle remains and that you get a fair deal for your money. 2. Mac users to sign this petition. The threat of non-native binaries applies to you just as much as to Linux users. 3. Windows users to sign this petition. Ports often lead to optimizations and fixes, making your gaming experience better. 4. Other developers to sign this petition. After all of the effort some of you have put into your native porting, it is just as much a slap in the face to you. Also remember that you have a choice as to how your money is distributed - if you feel you have not gotten a fair deal from Limbo, please make sure your money is divided as you feel is right. This is not meant as an outright attack or a smear on the Bundle itself. It is a merely a reflection of our desire to see the high standards that the Bundles have previously adhered to continue. We are doing this because we care. Please accept this in the manner in which it is given.


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Colegno, Italy: Ryan Cavalieri and his Trinity-powered B4 were a winning combo at the Worlds warm-up, where Cav took the 2WD trophy after winning all three Mains. He didn't TQ though: on-road hero Atsushi Hara had that honor with his Orion-powered B4. In 4WD, Hara wheeled Durango to TQ and win each of the three Mains. Talk about it at the RC Zone.
TQ: Atsushi Hara
WINNER: Ryan Cavalieri: Associated B4/Trinity
2. Masami Hirosaka: Associated B4/Reedy
3. Dave Montgomery: Associated B4/Reedy
4. Atsushi Hara: associated B4/Orion
5. Travis Amezcua: Team Losi Triple-X KE2/Trinity
TQ: Atsushi Hara
WINNER: Atsushi Hara: Durango/Orion
2. Travis Amezcua: Team Losi/Trinity
3. Gregg Hodapp: X5/Peak
4. Masami Hirosaka: Yokomo proto/Reedy
5. Jukka Steenari: Team Losi/Trinity


text:
As noted on the OLPC Oceania blog last week, the Marshall Islands is the latest nation to receive new XOs through OLPC Oceania.
Oceania continues to be a model for solid deployments. The Marshall Islands project has a clear project document and technology plan, and is moving steadily towards implementing them. Last week the national team held an educators workshop with teachers from across the region, and Mike Hutak and Ian Thompson.
Acting Minister of Education Mattlan Zackhras encouraged all teachers to take advantage of the workshop so that everyone in the islands could benefit from the program. As he said at the opening ceremony,
"By bridging the digital divide to an inclusive global community, our students here in the islands can share ideas with other students in the Pacific and from around world".


text:
Pakistan is best avoided in August, when the rains come and transform the plains into a huge steam bath. When I lived there we fled to the mountains, but this year I stayed put. The real killer is the humidity. Relief arrives in short bursts: a sudden stillness followed by the darkening of the sky, thunderclaps like distant bombs and then the hard rain. Rivers and tributaries quickly overflow; flash floods make cities impassable. Sewage runs through slums and posh neighbourhoods alike. Even if you go straight from air-conditioned room to air-conditioned car you can't completely escape the smell. In August sixty years ago, Pakistan was separated from the subcontinent. This summer, as power appeared to be draining away from Pervez Musharraf, the country's fourth military dictator, it was instructive to observe the process at first hand.
Disillusionment and resentment are widespread. Cultivating anti-Indian/anti-Hindu feeling, in an attempt to encourage national cohesion, no longer works. The celebrations marking the anniversary of independence on 14 August are more artificial and irritating than ever. A cacophony of meaningless slogans that impress nobody, countless clichés in newspaper supplements competing for space with stale photographs of the Founder (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) and the Poet (Iqbal). Banal panel discussions remind us of what Jinnah said or didn't say. The perfidious Lord Mountbatten and his 'promiscuous' wife, Edwina, are denounced for favouring India when it came to the division of the spoils. It's true, but we can't blame them for the wreck Pakistan has become. In private, of course, there is much soul-searching, and a surprising collection of people now feel the state should never have been founded.
Several years after the split with Bangladesh in 1971 I wrote a book called Can Pakistan Survive? for Penguin. It was publicly denounced and banned by the dictator of the day, General Zia-ul-Haq, but pirated in many editions. I had argued that if the state carried on in the same old way, some of the minority provinces left behind might also defect, leaving the Punjab alone, strutting like a cock on a dunghill. Many of those who denounced me as a traitor and a renegade are now asking the same question. It's too late for regrets, I tell them. The country is here to stay. And it's not religion or the mystical 'ideology of Pakistan' that guarantees its survival, but its nuclear capacity and Washington.
On the country's 60th birthday (as on its 20th and 30th anniversaries), an embattled military regime is fighting for its survival. There is a war on its western frontier, while at home it is being tormented by jihadis and judges. None of this seemed to make much difference to the young men on motorbikes who took over the streets of Lahore in their annual suicide race. It seems the only thing worth celebrating is the right to die. Only five managed it this year, a much lower figure than in the previous five years. Maybe this is a rational way to mark a conflict in which more than a million people hacked each other to death as the decaying British Empire prepared to scuttle off home. On the eve of Partition a cabinet meeting in London was devoted to the growing crisis in India. The minutes reported: 'Mr Jinnah was very bitter and determined. He seemed to the secretary of state like a man who knew that he was going to be killed and therefore insisted on committing suicide to avoid it.' He was not alone.
Now yet another uniformed despot was taking the salute at a military parade to mark independence day in Islamabad, mouthing a bad speech written by a bored bureaucrat that failed to stifle the yawns of the surrounding sycophants. Even the F-16s in proud formation failed to excite the audience. Flags were waved by schoolchildren, a band played the national anthem, the whole show was broadcast live and then it was over.
The European and North American papers give the impression that the main, if not the only, problem confronting Pakistan is the power of the bearded fanatics skulking in the Hindu Kush, who as the papers see it are on the verge of taking over the country. In this account, all that stops a jihadi finger finding the nuclear trigger is Musharraf. Alas, it now seems he might drown in a sea of troubles and so the helpful State Department has pushed out an over-inflated raft in the shape of Benazir Bhutto.
In fact, the threat of a jihadi takeover of Pakistan is remote. There is no possibility of a takeover by religious extremists unless the army wants one, as in the 1980s, when General Zia-ul-Haq handed over the Ministries of Education and Information to the Jamaat-e-Islami, with dire results. There are serious problems confronting Pakistan, but these are usually ignored in Washington, by both the administration and the financial institutions. The lack of a basic social infrastructure encourages hopelessness and despair, but only a tiny minority turns to jihad.
During periods of military rule in Pakistan three groups get together: military leaders, a corrupt claque of fixer-politicians, and businessmen eyeing juicy contracts or state-owned land. The country's ruling elite has spent the last sixty years defending its ill-gotten wealth and privilege, and the Supreme Leader (uniformed or not) is invariably intoxicated by their flattery. Corruption envelops Pakistan. The poor bear the burden, but the middle classes are also affected. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, small businessmen, traders are crippled by a system in which patronage and bribery are trump cards. Some escape – there are 20,000 Pakistani doctors working in the United States alone – but others come to terms with the system, accept compromises that make them deeply cynical about themselves and everyone else.
The resulting moral vacuum is filled by porn films and religiosity of various sorts. In some areas religion and pornography go together: the highest sales of porn videos are in Peshawar and Quetta, strongholds of the religious parties. Taliban leaders in Pakistan target video shops, but the dealers merely go underground. Nor should it be imagined that the bulk of the porn comes from the West. There is a thriving clandestine industry in Pakistan, with its own local stars, male and female.
Meanwhile the Islamists are busy picking up supporters. The persistent and ruthless missionaries of Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) are especially effective. Sinners from every social group, desperate for purification, queue to join. TJ headquarters in Pakistan are situated in a large mission in Raiwind. Once a tiny village surrounded by fields of wheat, corn and mustard seed, it is now a fashionable suburb of Lahore, where the Sharif brothers built a Gulf-style palace when they were in power in the 1990s. The TJ was founded in the 1920s by Maulana Ilyas, a cleric who trained at the orthodox Sunni seminary in Deoband, in Uttar Pradesh. At first, its missionaries were concentrated in Northern India, but today there are large groups in North America and Western Europe. The TJ hopes to get planning permission to build a mosque in East London next to the Olympic site. It would be the largest mosque in Europe. In Pakistan, TJ influence is widespread. Penetrating the national cricket team has been its most conspicuous success: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammed Yousuf are activists for the cause at home while Mushtaq Ahmet works hard in their interest in Britain. Another triumph was the post-9/11 recruitment of Junaid Jamshed, the charismatic lead singer of Pakistan's first successful pop group, Vital Signs. He renounced his past and now sings only devotional songs – naats.
The Tablighis stress their non-violence and insist they are there merely to broadcast the true faith in order to help people find the correct path in life. This may be so, but it is clear that some younger male recruits, bored with all the dogma, ceremonies and ritual, are more interested in getting their hands on a Kalashnikov. Many believe that the Tablighi missionary camps are fertile recruiting grounds for armed groups active on the Western Frontier and in Kashmir.
The establishment has been slow to challenge the interpretation of Islam put forward by groups such as Tablighi. Musharraf advised people to go and see Khuda Kay Liye ('In the Name of God'), a new movie directed by Shoaib Mansoor (who wrote and produced some of Vital Signs' most successful music). This may not help the film, or the moderate Islam it favours, given that Musharraf's popularity ratings currently trail Osama bin Laden's, according to a recent poll, but I went to a matinee performance in Lahore and the cinema was packed with young people. The film is well intentioned, also long-winded and crude. It has, however, had an impact. At least it tries out a few ideas, which is unheard of in a country where the film industry produces nothing but Bollywood-style dross, even if the ideas are limited to the good Muslim, bad Muslim stereotype. Jihadi violence is bad. Music is good and not anti-Islamic. Violence and rape in the badlands of the Pakistan-Afghan frontier are intercut with scenes in a post-9/11 United States, where an innocent Pakistani musician is lifted by intelligence operatives and tortured (these scenes go on far too long). The implication is that each side feeds on the other. It is a prim film and the row of youths sitting behind me clearly wanted some more action on the sex front. When a white female student in Chicago gives the Pakistani musician a present, one of them commented: 'She's giving him her phone number.' If the ushers hadn't told the youths to keep quiet I might have enjoyed the film more.
One of the main threats to Musharraf's authority is the country's judiciary. On 9 March, Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, pending an investigation. The accusations against him were contained in a letter from Naeem Bokhari, a Supreme Court advocate. Curiously, the letter was widely circulated – I received a copy via email. I wondered whether something was afoot, but decided the letter was just sour grapes. Not so: it was part of a plan. After a few personal complaints, extravagant rhetoric took over:
My Lord, the dignity of lawyers is consistently being violated by you. We are treated harshly, rudely, brusquely and nastily. We are not heard. We are not allowed to present our case. There is little scope for advocacy. The words used in the Bar Room for Court No. 1 are 'the slaughter house'. We are cowed down by aggression from the Bench, led by you. All we receive from you is arrogance, aggression and belligerence.
The following passage should have alerted me to what was really going on:
I am pained at the wide publicity to cases taken up by My Lord in the Supreme Court under the banner of Fundamental Rights. The proceedings before the Supreme Court can conveniently and easily be referred to the District and Sessions Judges. I am further pained by the media coverage of the Supreme Court on the recovery of a female. In the Bar Room, this is referred to as a 'media circus'.
The chief justice was beginning to embarrass the regime. He had found against the government on a number of key issues, including the rushed privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills in Karachi, a pet project of Prime Minister Shaukat ('Shortcut') Aziz. The case was reminiscent of Yeltsin's Russia. Economists had estimated that the industry was worth $5 billion. Seventy-five per cent of the shares were sold for $362 million in a 30-minute auction to a friendly consortium consisting of Arif Habib Securities (Pakistan), al-Tuwairqi (Saudi Arabia) and the Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works Open JSC (Russia). The privatisation wasn't popular with the military, and the retiring chairman, Haq Nawaz Akhtar, complained that 'the plant could have fetched more money if it were sold as scrap.' The general perception was that the president and prime minister had helped out their friends. A frequenter of the Stock Exchange told me in Karachi that Arif Habib Securities (which owns 20 per cent) was set up as a front company for Shaukat Aziz. The Saudi steel giant (40 per cent) is reputedly on very friendly terms with Musharraf, who turned up to open a steel factory set up by the group on 220 acres of land rented from the adjoining Pakistan Steel Mills. Now they own it all.
After the Supreme Court insisted that 'disappeared' political activists be produced in court and refused to dismiss rape cases, there were worries in Islamabad that the chief justice might even declare the military presidency unconstitutional. Paranoia set in. Measures had to be taken. The general and his cabinet decided to frighten Chaudhry by suspending him. The chief justice was kept in solitary confinement for several hours, manhandled by intelligence operatives, and traduced on state television. But instead of caving in and accepting a generous resignation settlement, the judge insisted on defending himself, triggering a remarkable movement in defence of an independent judiciary. This is surprising. Pakistani judges are notoriously conservative and have legitimised every coup with a bogus 'doctrine of necessity' ruling (although some did refuse to swear an oath of loyalty to Musharraf).
When I visited Pakistan in April the protests were getting bigger every day. Initially confined to the country's 80,000 lawyers and several dozen judges, unrest soon spread beyond them, which was unusual in a country whose people have become increasingly alienated from elite rule. But the lawyers were marching in defence of the constitutional separation of powers. There was something delightfully old-fashioned about this struggle: it involved neither money nor religion, but principle. Careerists from the opposition (some of whom had organised thuggish assaults on the Supreme Court when in power) tried to make the cause their own. 'Don't imagine they've all suddenly changed,' Abid Hasan Manto, one of the country's most respected lawyers, told me. 'On the other hand, when the time comes almost anything can act as a spark.'
It soon became obvious to most people in the Islamabad bureaucracy that they had made a gigantic blunder. But as often happens in a crisis, instead of acknowledging this and moving to correct it, the perpetrators decided on a show of strength. The first targets were independent TV channels. In Karachi and other cities in the south three channels suddenly went dark as they were screening reports on the demonstrations. There was popular outrage. On 5 May Chaudhry drove from Islamabad to give a speech in Lahore, stopping at every town en route to meet supporters; it took 26 hours to complete a journey that should take four or five. In Islamabad they plotted a counter-strike.
The judge was due to visit Karachi, the country's largest city, on 12 May. Political power here rests in the hands of the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement/United National Movement), an unsavoury outfit created during a previous dictatorship and notorious for its involvement in protection rackets and other kinds of violence. It has supported Musharraf loyally through every crisis. Its leader, Altaf Hussain, guides the movement from a safe perch in London, fearful of retribution from his many opponents were he to return. In a video address to his followers in Karachi he said: 'If conspiracies are hatched to end the present democratically elected government then each and every worker of MQM … will stand firm and defend the democratic government.' It was typical of him. On Islamabad's instructions, the MQM leaders decided to prevent the judge addressing the meeting in Karachi. He was not allowed to leave the airport. His supporters in different parts of the city were assaulted. Almost fifty people were killed. After footage of the violence was screened on Aaj TV, the station was attacked by armed MQM volunteers, who shot at the building for six whole hours and set cars in the parking lot on fire.
The management of the TV station mysteriously failed to reach senior police officers, the chief minister or the governor. People understood why, and a successful general strike followed, which further isolated the regime. A devastating report, Carnage in Karachi, published in August by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, confirmed in great detail what everyone already knew: the police and army had been ordered to stand by while armed MQM members went on the rampage.
Musharraf, trying desperately to keep a grip on the country, had no alternative but to sound the retreat. The chief justice's appeal against his suspension was finally admitted and heard by the Supreme Court. On 20 July a unanimous decision was made to reinstate him, and shamefaced government lawyers were seen leaving the precinct in a hurry. A reinvigorated court got down to business. Hafiz Abdul Basit was a 'disappeared' prisoner accused of terrorism. The chief justice summoned Tariq Pervez, the director-general of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, and asked him politely where the prisoner was being kept. Pervez replied that he had no idea and had never heard of Basit. The chief justice instructed the police chief to produce Basit in court within 48 hours: 'Either produce the detainee or get ready to go to jail.' Two days later Basit was produced and then released, after the police failed to present any substantial evidence against him. Washington and London were not happy. They were convinced that Basit was a terrorist who should have been kept in prison indefinitely, as he certainly would have been in Britain or the US.
The Supreme Court is currently considering six petitions challenging Musharraf's decision to contest the presidency without relinquishing his command of the army. There is much nervousness in Islamabad. The president's supporters are threatening dire consequences if the court rules against him. But to declare a state of emergency would require the support of the army, and I was told that informal soundings had revealed a reluctance to intervene on the part of the generals. Their polite excuse was that they were too heavily committed to the 'war on terror' to be able to preserve law and order in the cities.
As the judicial crisis temporarily ended, a more sombre one loomed. Most of today's jihadi groups are the mongrel offspring of Pakistani and Western intelligence outfits, born in the 1980s when General Zia was in power and waging the West's war against the godless Russians, who were then occupying Afghanistan. That is when state patronage of Islamist groups began. One cleric who benefited was Maulana Abdullah, who was allotted land to build a madrassa in the heart of Islamabad, not far from the government buildings. Soon the area was increased so that two separate facilities (for male and female students) could be constructed, together with an enlarged Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque. State money was provided for all this, and the government is the technical owner of the property.
During the 1980s and 1990s this complex became a transit camp for young jihadis on their way to fight in Afghanistan and, later, Kashmir. Abdullah made no secret of his beliefs. He was sympathetic to the Saudi-Wahhabi interpretation of Islam and during the Iraq-Iran war was only too happy to encourage the killing of Shia 'heretics' in Pakistan. It was his patronage of ultra-sectarian, anti-Shia terror groups that led to his assassination in October 1998. Members of a rival Muslim faction killed him soon after he had finished praying in his own mosque.
His sons, Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, then took control of the mosque and religious schools. The government agreed that Aziz would lead the Friday congregation and preach the weekly sermon after Friday prayers. His sermons were often supportive of al-Qaida, though he was more careful about his language after 9/11. Senior civil servants and military officers often attended Friday prayers. The better-educated and soft-spoken Rashid, with his lean, haggard face and ragged beard, was left to act as spin-doctor. He was wheeled on to charm visiting foreign or local journalists, and did it well.
But after November 2004, when the army, under heavy US pressure, launched an offensive in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, relations between the brothers and the government became tense. Aziz in particular was livid. He might not have done anything about it, but, according to Rashid, 'a retired colonel of the Pakistan Army approached us with a written request for a fatwa clarifying the Sharia perspective on the army waging a war on the tribal people.' Aziz did not waste any time. He issued a fatwa declaring that the killing of its own people by a Muslim army is haram ('forbidden'), 'that any army official killed during the operation should not be given a Muslim burial' and that 'the militants who die while fighting the Pakistan Army are martyrs.' Within days of its publication the fatwa had been publicly endorsed by almost five hundred 'religious scholars'. Despite heavy pressure from the mosque's patrons in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence, the brothers refused to withdraw the fatwa. The government response was surprisingly muted. Aziz's official status as the mosque's imam was ended and an arrest warrant issued against him, but it was never served and the brothers were allowed to carry on as usual. Perhaps the ISI thought they might still prove useful.
Earlier that year the government claimed it had uncovered a terrorist plot to bomb military installations, including the GHQ and other state buildings, on 14 August. Machine-guns and explosives were found in Abdul Rashid Ghazi's car. New warrants were issued against the brothers and they were arrested. At this point, the religious affairs minister, Ijaz-ul-Haq, General Zia's son, persuaded his colleagues to pardon the clerics in return for a written apology pledging that they wouldn't become involved in the armed struggle. Rashid claimed the whole plot had been scripted to please the West and in a newspaper article asked the religious affairs minister to provide proof that he had given the undertaking the minister had supposedly asked for. There was no response.
In January this year, the brothers decided to shift their focus from foreign to domestic policy and demanded an immediate implementation of Sharia law. Until then they had been content to denounce US policies in the Muslim world and America's local point-man Musharraf for helping dismantle the Taliban government in Afghanistan. They did not publicly support the three attempts made on Musharraf's life, but it was hardly a secret that they regretted his survival. The statement they issued in January was intended as an open provocation to the regime. Aziz spelled out his programme: 'We will never permit dance and music in Pakistan. All those interested in such activities should shift to India. We are tired of waiting. It is Sharia or martyrdom.' They felt threatened by the government's demolition of two mosques that had been built illegally on public land. When they received notices announcing the demolition of parts of the Red Mosque and the women's seminary the brothers dispatched dozens of women students in black burqas to occupy a children's library next to their seminary. The intelligence agencies appeared to be taken aback, but quickly negotiated an end to the occupation.
The brothers continued to test the authorities. Sharia was implemented and there was a public bonfire of books, CDs and DVDs. Then the women from the madrassa directed their fire against Islamabad's up-market brothels, targeting Aunty Shamim, a well-known procuress who provided 'decent' girls for indecent purposes, and whose clients included the local great and good (a number of them moderate religious leaders). Aunty ran the brothel like an office: she kept office hours and shut up shop at midday on Friday so that clients could go to the nearest mosque, which happened to be the Lal Masjid. The morality brigades raided the brothel and 'freed' the women. Most of the girls were educated, some were single parents, others were widows, all were desperately short of funds. The office hours suited them. Aunty Shamim fled town, and her workers sought similar employment elsewhere, while the madrassa girls celebrated an easy victory.
Emboldened by their triumph, they decided to take on Islamabad's posh massage parlours, not all of which were sex joints, and some of which were staffed by Chinese citizens. Six Chinese women were abducted in late June and taken to the mosque. The Chinese ambassador was not pleased. He informed President Hu Jintao, who was even less pleased, and Beijing made it clear that it wanted its citizens freed without delay. Government fixers arrived at the mosque to plead the strategic importance of Sino-Pakistan relations, and the women were released. The massage industry promised that henceforth only men would massage other men. Honour was satisfied, even though the deal directly contradicted the message of the Koran. The liberal press depicted the anti-vice campaign as the Talibanisation of Pakistan, which annoyed the Lal Masjid clerics. 'Rudy Giuliani, when he became mayor of New York, closed the brothels,' Rashid said. 'Was that also Talibanisation?'
Angered and embarrassed by the kidnapping of the Chinese women, Musharraf demanded a solution. The Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Saeed al-Awad Asseri, arrived at the mosque and spent ninety minutes with the brothers. They were welcoming but told him all they wanted was the implementation of Saudi laws in Pakistan. Surely he agreed? The ambassador declined to meet the press after the visit, so his response remains unrecorded. His mediation a failure, Plan B was set in motion.
On 3 July, the paramilitary Rangers began to lay barbed wire at the end of the street in front of the mosque. Some madrassa students opened fire, shot a Ranger dead, and for good measure torched the neighbouring Environment Ministry. Security forces responded the same night with tear gas and machine-guns. The next morning the government declared a curfew in the area and the week-long siege of the mosque began, with television networks beaming images across the world. Rashid must have been pleased. The brothers thought that keeping women and children hostage inside the compound might save them. But some were released and Aziz was arrested as he tried to escape in a burqa. On 10 July, paratroopers finally stormed the complex. Abdul Rashid Ghazi and at least a hundred others died in the ensuing clashes. Eleven soldiers were also killed and more than forty wounded. Several police stations were attacked and there were ominous complaints from the Tribal Areas. Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a leading Taliban supporter, told thousands of armed tribesmen: 'We beg Allah to destroy Musharraf and we will seek revenge for the Lal Masjid atrocities.' This view was reiterated by Osama bin Laden, who declared Musharraf an 'infidel' and said that 'removing him is now obligatory.'
I was in Karachi in the last week of August, when suicide bombers hit military targets, among them a bus carrying ISI employees, to avenge Rashid's death. In the country as a whole the reaction was muted. The leaders of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties that governs the Frontier province and shares power in Baluchistan, made ugly public statements, but took no action. Only a thousand people marched in the demonstration called in Peshawar the day after the deaths. This was the largest protest march, and even here the mood was subdued. There was no shrill glorification of the martyrs. The contrast with the campaign to reinstate the chief justice could not have been more pronounced. Three weeks later, more than 100,000 people gathered in the Punjabi city of Kasur to observe the 250th anniversary of the death of the great 17th-century poet Bulleh Shah, one in a distinguished line of Sufi poets who denounced organised religion and orthodoxy. For him a mullah could be compared to a barking dog or a crowing cock.
The fact is that jihadis are not popular in most of Pakistan, but neither is the government. The Red Mosque episode raised too many unanswered questions. Why did the government not act in January? How did the clerics manage to accumulate such a large store of weapons without the knowledge of the government? Was the ISI aware that an arsenal was concealed inside the mosque? If so, why did they keep quiet? What was the relationship between the clerics and government agencies? Why was Aziz released and allowed to return to his village without being charged? Has the state decided to relinquish its monopoly of violence?
A lot of this has to do with Afghanistan. The failure of the Nato occupation has revived the Taliban as well as the trade in heroin and has destabilised north-western Pakistan. Indiscriminate bombing raids by US planes have killed too many innocent civilians, and the culture of revenge remains strong in the region. The corruption and cronyism of the Karzai government have alienated many Afghans, who welcomed the toppling of Mullah Omar and hoped for better times. Instead, they have witnessed land-grabs and the construction of luxury villas by Karzai's colleagues. And there are persistent rumours that Karzai's younger brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, has become one of the biggest drug barons in the country. The Pashtun tribes have never recognised the Durand Line, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan imposed by the British. And so when guerrillas flee to the tribal areas under Pakistani control they are not handed over to Islamabad, but fed and clothed till they go back to Afghanistan or are protected like the al-Qaida leaders. Washington feels that Musharraf's deals with tribal elders border on capitulation to the Taliban and is angry because Pakistani military actions are paid for by the US and they feel they aren't getting value for money. This is not to mention the $10 billion Pakistan has received since 9/11 for signing up to the 'war on terror'.
The problem is that some elements in Pakistani military intelligence feel that they will be able to take Afghanistan back once Operation Enduring Freedom has come to an end. For this reason they refuse to give up their links with the guerrilla leaders. They even think that the US might one day favour such a policy. I doubt whether this could happen: Iranian influence is strong in Herat and western Afghanistan; the Northern Alliance receives weapons from Russia and India is the major regional power. A stable settlement will have to include a regional guarantee of Afghan stability and the formation of a national government after Nato withdrawal.
Even if Washington accepted a cleaned-up version of the Taliban, the other countries involved would not, and a new set of civil conflicts could only lead to disintegration. Were this to happen, the Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line might opt to create their own state. It sounds far-fetched today, but what if the confederation of tribes that is Afghanistan were to split up into statelets, each under the protection of a larger power?
Back in the heart of Pakistan the most difficult and explosive issue remains social and economic inequality. This is not unrelated to the increase in the number of madrassas. If there were a half-decent state education system, poor families might not feel the need to hand over a son or daughter to the clerics in the hope that at least one child will be clothed, fed and educated. Were there even the semblance of a health system many would be saved from illnesses contracted as a result of fatigue and poverty. No government since 1947 has done much to reduce inequality. The notion that the soon-to-return Benazir Bhutto, perched on Musharraf's shoulder, equals progress is as risible as Nawaz Sharif imagining that millions of people would turn out to receive him when he arrived at Islamabad airport last month. A general election is due later this year. If it is as comprehensively rigged as the last one was, the result will be increased alienation from the political process. The outlook is bleak. There is no serious political alternative to military rule.
I spent my last day in Karachi with fishermen in a village near Korangi creek. Shortcut Aziz has signed away the mangroves where shellfish and lobsters flourish, and land is being reclaimed to build Diamond City, Sugar City and other monstrosities on the Gulf model. The fishermen have been campaigning against these encroachments, but with little success. 'We need a tsunami,' one of them half-joked. We talked about their living conditions. 'All we dream of is schools for our children, medicines and clinics in our villages, clean water and electricity in our homes,' one woman said. 'Is that too much to ask for?' Nobody even mentioned religion.
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- CueMix FX™ — flexible 10 input/14 bus mixer with onboard DSP effects, including reverb with sends/returns, plus EQ and compression on every input and output.
- 10 inputs / 14 outputs — there's no channel sharing in the UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid; the mic inputs, S/PDIF I/O, headphone out, and main outs are all handled as separate channels.
- Classic Reverb™ — provides five different room types, three frequency shelves with adjustable crossover points, shelf filtering, and reverb lengths up to 60 seconds.
- Two forms of compression — a standard compressor with conventional threshold/ratio/attack/release/gain controls and the Leveler™, an accurate model of the legendary LA-2A optical compressor, which provides vintage, musical automatic gain control.
- Modeled EQ — provides 7-band parametric EQ modeled after British analog console EQs, featuring 4 filter styles (gain/Q profiles) to effectively cover a wide range of audio material. LP and HP filters are also supplied with slopes that range from 6 to 36 dB.
- CueMix FX cross-platform mixing software — attractive graphic mixing, graphic editing of parametric EQ and a convenient tabbed interface for quick access to all features in one window. It also provides full-screen real-time FFT display, spectrogram "waterfall" display, oscilloscope, X-Y plot, and linear or polar phase analysis.
- Front-panel control — access any setting in your entire UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid mix directly from the front panel.
- "Reverb return" stream — allows users to record or mix UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid reverb output separately in their DAW. Effects can also be applied when the UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid is operating stand-alone (without a computer) as a complete stand-alone mixer.
- Stand-alone operation — program your mixes at the studio and then bring the UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid to your gig — no computer needed. Just plug in the included power adapter and you are ready to go. Need to tweak the mix? Do it on-site using the back-lit LCD and front-panel controls.
- Multiple CueMix FX mixes — for example, create different monitor mixes for the main outs and headphones. Or add send/return loops for outboard gear — with no latency.
- Two combo jacks provide hi-Z 1/4" guitar input or low-Z XLR mic input with phantom power, pad, and plenty of gain.
- Eight 24-bit 192kHz analog inputs and outputs on balanced/unbalanced 1/4″ TRS jacks
- Precision Digital Trim™ — Digitally controlled analog trim on all analog inputs (mic/guitar inputs + quarter-inch TRS inputs) provides accurate adjustments in 1 dB increments. Fine-tune the balance of your analog inputs and then save/recall trim configurations.
- Direct Digital Synthesis™ (DDS) — a DSP-driven phase-lock engine and internal clock source that produces imperceptibly low jitter characteristics (below the noise floor), even when the UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid is resolved to an external clock source via SMPTE time code.
- Time code support — directly resolves to (or generates) time code via any quarter-inch input or output, without the need for an extra synchronizer.
- Sample-accurate MIDI — connect a MIDI controller and/or sound module with no separate interface needed. MIDI I/O is sample-accurate with supporting software.
- Expandable — add additional interfaces for more I/O as your needs grow.
- Separate TRS main outs with front panel volume control.
- Stereo 24-bit 96kHz S/PDIF in/out.
- DC-coupled TRS outputs — can be used with Volta™ (sold separately) to manipulate and sequence voltage-controlled modular synthesizers from a host DAW.
- Includes native 32- and 64-bit drivers for Mac OS X and Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP, including ASIO, WDM, Wave, Core Audio, and Core MIDI. Supports all popular Mac and Windows audio software.
- 100% compatible with all host-based effects processing in today's popular audio programs.
- Includes AudioDesk full-featured sample-accurate workstation software for Mac and Windows with recording, editing, mixing, real-time 32-bit effects processing & sample-accurate sync.
- Plug-and-play operation with your Mac or PC via FireWire or USB2.
- Front panel volume control for monitoring. Stereo, Quad, 6.1, 7.1, and user-defined surround monitoring setups are available.
- Front panel headphone jack with volume control.
- Bus-powered FireWire operation. No need for external power when operating as a FireWire interface connected to a computer. A power supply is included for stand-alone operation.
- Chassis dimensions, excluding rack ears and front and back panel knobs and connectors: 9.5 × 7 × 1.75 inches (24.13 × 17.78 × 4.45 cm). Knobs and connectors extend up to 0.5 inch (1.27 cm) from the front and back panels, adding 1 inch (2.54 cm) to the depth. With rack ears attached, fits one-half of a standard 19-inch (48.26 cm) rack at 1U high.


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OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City hotel group named as one of four defendants in the $30 million wrongful death lawsuit filed in February by the family of two Pennsylvania tourists who perished from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in their Boardwalk hotel room in June 2006 yesterday filed a formal answer to the complaint, outlining the reasons the company should not be held liable in the accidental deaths and also filed countersuits against its co-defendants and a third party, which had not been named as a defendant previously.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in February, names as defendants the Bay Shore Development Corp., the owner of the Days Inn Hotel on 22nd Street in Ocean City where the tragedy occurred; Heat Transfer Products, Inc., the manufacturer of the faulty water deemed as the source of the CO leak; R.E. Michel Co. Inc., the Glen Burnie-based company that distributed the water heater; and All About Plumbing, the local company that purchased and installed the water heater at the Boardwalk hotel.
The 24-count federal suit is seeking a combined $30 million from the defendants, citing negligence, breach of warranty and strict liability in the deaths of Patrick J. Boughter and his daughter Kelly M. Boughter, both of Lebanon, Pa., who died of exposure to carbon monoxide poisoning while staying at the Days Inn Hotel in Ocean City on June 27, 2006. The suit is also seeking personal injury damages for the surviving members of the family, Yvonne and Morgan Boughter, who were also in the hotel room and suffered from exposure to CO.
Two of the co-defendants in the suit, Heat Transfer Inc. and R.E. Michel Inc., have already filed answers to the complaint in an attempt to absolve themselves of any liability. Yesterday, the Bay Shore Development Corporation filed its formal answer to the suit filed by the victims' family in an attempt to deflect liability to its co-defendants in the case.
Bay Shore also filed a cross-claim against its three co-defendants holding them liable for any and all judgments handed down in the case. Finally, Bay Shore filed a third-party complaint against Karl Dungs, Inc., a Minnesota-based company that allegedly designed and supplied a gas control valve blamed in part for the emission of deadly carbon monoxide levels into the hotel rooms where the tragedy occurred.
In short, the Days Inn owners, in one fell swoop, attempted yesterday to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the events laid out in the initial complaint and instead placed the blame on the various designers, manufacturers, suppliers and installers of the faulty Munchkin hot water heater blamed in the deaths.
"If the plaintiffs were injured and damaged as alleged in the complaint, then those injuries, losses and damages were the result of defects in the manufacture and/or design of the Munchkin water heater which defects were unknown to this defendant and for which All About Plumbing, Heat Transfer Products, R.E. Michel and/or others who are currently not parties to this action are responsible," the answer reads.
In the formal answer to the victims' suit, Bay Shore implies the tragedy was caused by the negligence of other parties, the co-defendants, over which it had no control.
"The defendant, Bay Shore, asserts that the plaintiffs' injuries and damages, if any, were caused by the intervening and supervening acts and omissions of persons and/or entities other than this defendant…over whom defendant, Bay Shore, had no control or right of control and for whom Bay Shore is therefore not legally responsible," the answer reads. "Wherefore, having fully answered the plaintiffs' complaint, Bay Shore Development Corporation moves that it be dismissed with costs assessed against the plaintiffs."
In its cross-claim suit against the other defendants named in the case, Bay Shore denies any liability.
"Bay Shore has answered the complaint filed by the Boughter family denying all liability and continues to deny all liability," the cross complaint reads. "Nevertheless, in the event that Bay Shore is found to be liable to the Boughter family for any of the claims set forth in the complaint, said liability and damages will be because of and is a proximate result of the negligence, breach of contract, breach of warranty, strict liability, breach of duty and/or other wrongful conduct of the cross defendants."
Finally, in yet a third formal action filed in U.S. District Court yesterday, Bay Shore filed a third-party complaint against Karl Dungs, Inc. alleging the injuries and deaths sustained by the Boughter family were the direct and proximate result of the design, manufacture, distribution, supply, sale and/or defective installation of the gas control valve which created an unreasonably dangerous condition that exposed each of the members of the Boughter family and various customers of Bay Shore to an unreasonable risk of injury, harm and death.
"The unreasonably dangerous condition created by the component parts of the Munchkin hot water heater, including but not limited to the gas control valve, rendered it unsafe, unfit and unreasonably dangerous and were known to and/or should have been anticipated by Dungs," the complaint reads.


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Mobile web interfaces take a different sort of design practice, whether they are for mobile websites or native mobile applications. With a different sort of device, and a more noticeably different screen size, we as designers must consider a new set of best practices for design.
Any web designer may be noticing the close in the gap between web designer and mobile websites designer. Before, many designers chose to be within that niche, but as the mobile web grows, we web designers don't really have a choice to do mobile design or not! It is often a requirement for most projects, and in years to come that fact will be even more so.
In this article we'll look over the basic best practices for designing for the mobile web, and the major differences in designing for the "traditional web" (via desktops/laptops and all other bigger screens).
Limited and Big Navigation
Navigation is the number one thing all web designers and developers need to focus on. Without good, usable navigation, our users may get confused, not be able to find what they need or want, and will end up leaving our sites, never to return!
We know this though, that fact has been paraded throughout all of the previous generations of the web. Just as it's important to plan and design effective navigation for a regular website, so is it important to do the same for a mobile interface.
If you're going for a creative look, feel free to keep it creative. Just like with traditional web design, creative navigation should still be usable, meaning the user should be able to understand how to use it right away, and be able to use it easily!
For mobile website versions, there are a few best practices for navigation to keep in mind:
- Keep buttons large with extra padding and spacing. Many mobile devices are touchscreen and bigger buttons mean easier clicking.
- Keep navigation simple. Don't flood a navigation bar with several options; instead choose five or less, and create sub-navigation if necessary. This not only gives more room to make navigation larger for touchscreens, but also simplifies navigating for those who may have other forms of input (like tiny arrows on a tiny keyboard!).
- Vertical navigation is far more of a trend, and easier on many mobile input devices. If using any sort of horizontal navigation, keep it extra minimal.
- User the "button style" design over standard text links for the navigation.
Shorter Elements (Vertical Space)
A smaller screen means saving space in a practical way. Since horizontal scrolling is not even possible on many mobile browsers, let alone not user friendly in the slightest for everything else that does support it, you should create flexible designs that prevent horizontal scrolling at all costs. With horizontal scrolling out of the question, our main way of viewing content now turns to vertical scrolling.
Nobody wants to scroll indefinitely to get to one piece of content. Super long pages are just not an option with mobile design, and on top of that, the more there is on a page (a super long page), the more there is to download on a device that may not be able to handle large pages that well. Because of this, it's essential to keep vertical scrolling to a minimum, with a variety of techniques:
- Break longer content into sections and various pages if needed.
- Use things like accordions to break content up, and let the user shorten and expand as needed.
- The smaller the screen gets, shorten unessential elements. Take for example my portfolio design, KaylaKnight.com, as the browser size gets thinner, I switch to a background with a shorter middle section, which would just take up unnecessary space on a smaller screen.
- Use vertical navigation that leads to more sub-navigation. Narrow down to what the user is navigating to through different, shorter screens.
Responsive Design
When it comes to mobile design, responsive web design often comes to mind. Have a layout that is fully flexible while implementing other practices that help out mobile users or otherwise, such as saving on bandwidth and file sizes for lesser devices, changing image sizes, and having alternatives for certain features (like video) that may not be supported by all devices.
While full responsive design takes time and while there are countless practices that come along with it, when it comes to mobile design, designs should be at least partially responsive. In the very least, layouts should be flexible. Think of how iPad users can switch in an instant to horizontal and vertical view; think about how the majority of all other mobile devices can now do that too. (Actually, even my standard-size laptop can do it with the press of a button on the side!)
Beyond how many users can switch orientations in an instant, creating a flexible — and at best, responsive — design will allow for the huge range of mobile devices available, and screen sizes available. With flexible design, you may have to design a few interfaces for various screen sizes (think of the huge difference in design layout when it goes from iPhone to a 2-inch feature phone), but for the most part the design should transform per screen size itself.
Building a responsive web design from the get go will help prevent the need for endless pixel-perfect mobile designs.
Helpful Icons
One major trend for mobile design that can also be considered a great design practice is the use of icons. This is especially helpful for primary navigation, but icons can also be of great use for other types of links, or even as just visual helpers.
As with native mobile applications, icons are a standard part of the interface. Recreating this on a mobile website can create consistency, as well as a more user-friendly interface. Icons are much easier to click on then small text links, and the visual aspect can mean navigation that takes less thought, which is great for mobile sites that must use a lot of sub-navigation to keep an interface simple.
Limited Images Within Content
For incredibly small screens, some images should be cut out entirely. Anything that would drastically increase vertical scrolling can be an issue, and even more so for slower mobile devices where simply downloading excess images is enough of a problem. For mobile design, keep the use of images small, and only use when needed.
Surely, this can be a tricky thing to implement. Perhaps unneeded images within content can have a certain class, and can therefore be hidden if a screen reaches a size small enough. As for download times, the only solution really is to create responsive images that have a smaller file size and detect via JavaScript. There are many solutions that can be researched, but perhaps the best way to limit images where needed is to carefully consider when images are in excess no matter what screen size the content is being viewed on.
Don't Be Afraid of Whitespace
Just like with design on a standard size screen, whitespace is needed in mobile design as well. In fact, it might be needed more as screen sizes get smaller and navigation may get harder to deal with. Without whitespace, on a smaller screen content could be more difficult to read, and anything smooshed together isn't a good idea!
Yet, it can be an initial instinct for every designer that the smaller the screen gets, the more space-efficient we should be. Keep in mind that with a proper and well planned out interface design, whitespace can be used to increase usability, and still not sacrifice other mobile considerations, like excessive vertical scrolling.
While many of our basic design principles may remain the same, when it comes to designing for smaller devices, and possibly less capable devices as well, we must consider a whole new set of best design practices. The interface of a mobile website design should be drastically different than that of a standard size design, and it can take a whole new learning curve to learn what works best for smaller screens.
What additional tips to you have for creating mobile interfaces? What are some differences, and are there any design practices that should remain the same no matter what device?


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It is generally advised to leave a yeast starter for at least 24 hours to get optimal yeast growth.
If I only have a few hours, is there any point making a starter from my liquid yeast pack?
Is there any harm done by doing a very short starter, or do I just get a lower cell count than a starter left for the optimal duration?


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Project Prometeus
Prometeus project is an attempt to create analytic site for developers and users of Sisyphus repository.
It is useful for developers due to ability to more closely interoperate with other developers and users of respective packages. This site is especially valueable to new ALT Linux Team members. It gives answers "who is who", "who does what", "what status is" in interesting field.
Sisyphus users can get full information about a package beforehand. There are handy links (site of origin, ALT Linux specific issues, wiki, etc.).
The project is useful for ALT Linux Ltd. and ALT Linux core team too, as it gives information about Sisyphus development, strong and weak aspects, actively supported and used groups of packages.
Another nice property of the project is posibility to use it together with any other package repository snapshot (not only Sisyphus itself), for local development within a small group or even one's self.


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I asked a reporter at Unnamed Major Metropolitan Newspaper, why they don't cover suicides. Why is it that traditionally in the press there's a veil of silence draped over taking your own life? He said it's because they don't want to encourage the behavior. The concern is if they report on it; others will copy. There's no such apprehension when it comes to covering homicides, but I digress. "Plus there are far more suicides than murders and we don't cover every murder," is how another crime reporter put it.
But then there are notable suicides which involve famous people. Enter Jamey Rodemeyer: a 14-year-old boy from Buffalo, New York, who was tormented at school for being gay. Jamey made a video for the "It Gets Better Project" professing his love and admiration for Lady Gaga. A couple of months after posting the clip, the bullying apparently became intolerable and he committed suicide. Now Lady Gaga is tweeting about how she plans to lobby the President to elevate bullying to the level of a hate crime.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old, compared to 11th in the general population. The teenage suicide rate is 6 per 100,000, nearly half of the general population's at 11 per 100,000. It means that of the total number of suicides in this country, few of them are teenagers, but among deaths of teenagers, suicide is one of the leading causes.
Every day around 100 Americans kill themselves. Every day.
Jamey's death was not a statistical anomaly, we just have a media which doesn't report suicides if they can avoid it. But when Lady Gaga tweets about it to her 14 million followers, they can no longer avoid it. Jamey's YouTube videos only add to the haunting nature of his story.
When you watch at Jamey's videos and hear his promise to others that it "gets better" – one is too many. It feels like an injustice. And because Jamey's plight hurts, we all want to DO something.
I don't know how to eradicate bullying. I don't know if we need more people in jail in this country, especially teenagers like those who bullied Jamey. I don't know how to make kids nicer to each other. I don't know how to make being a teenager less painful.
I do know that suicide needs to be taken out of the closet. The idea that if we talk about suicide – if we read about it in the paper – it'll be so tempting more people will kill themselves is ridiculous. It reeks of superstition. Censoring stories doesn't save lives.
Eighteen U.S. military veterans a day kill themselves. It's a kind of Don't Ask, Don't Tell that's still being implemented. Over 6,500 vets a year die this way. That's more soldiers dying at home in one year than in 10 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. And among those currently serving, in 2010 suicide took more lives of our military personnel than battle. The problem is so prevalent Obama is the first President in history to send letters of condolences to military families of troops who committed suicide.
Suicides for Native American males ages 10-24 are almost three times the national average. Also, Alaska has the most suicides per capita. In case you think it's from lack of sunlight, New Mexico ranks number two. The vast majority of suicides are gun deaths.
The statistics on suicide are not done in real time; they're not like opinion polls. The rate was steadily decreasing in the U.S. from the 1950s to 2007. But then, the world melted. Studies link higher rates of suicides to economic downturns. During the Great Depression, the rate spiked at 18.9 per 100,000 nationally (which is actually low for Alaska today). The iconic image of the stock market crash was of people jumping out of windows.
So we can guess that our national suicide rate is probably on the rise, across the board, along with the rising unemployment and a flailing economy. We just aren't reading the individual episodes in newspapers…unless Lady Gaga mentions them. Suicide is still stigmatized.
And since we're highlighting an issue – here's one of the causes: cut backs. As states are slashing their budgets, social services and mental health resources (including the VA) are disappearing. The number one cause of all suicides is mental illness and services to treat it are on the chopping block.
A falling tide sinks all ships.
A bad economy adversely affects our birth rate, health, increases in homelessness, domestic abuse, substance abuse and of course, suicide.
It's the economy…stupid.
Cross posted at TinaDupuy.com