Verkhovensky’s Internals

From the CBC:

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien was inducted into the highest rank of the Order of Canada on Friday, receiving his medal at a ceremony in Ottawa.

I have fond memories of Mr. Chrétien.

Canada’s current PM, Stephen Harper, though I do not despise him as I do many other Conservative politicians, has no where near the charisma as did our retired leader. Harper’s pasty complexion and stiff body represent Canada to the world acceptably, I suppose, and there is something essentially Canadian about the man (difficult to put my finger on exactly what that quality is, though). Of course I voted for the NDP.

To me there has always been something slightly comic about Canadia. The absurd amount of snow, the national dish of french fires, gravy and cheese (doctors in my country unclog many a Poutine filled artery), and the meaningless ‘eh?’ appended to nearly every sentence, question or not, is all a bit silly, if endearingly so. But such a national persona demands an equally comic leader, and Chrétien always delivered in spades.

Most obvious is the man’s appearance, which is a caricaturists dream. Half of his face is virtually paralyzed, and when the conversation became heated his uneven face turned slightly red and spit would shoot sideways from his mouth as he spoke. Also, the man’s idiosyncratic accent, apparently affecting both his English and French, often made him excessively difficult to understand for those not familiar with him. (He was also the highest profile mark to take a cream pie in the face in Canada’s 2001 comedic ‘pieing of politicians’ epidemic.)

But it was under Chrétien that Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol, passed the Pledge to Africa (which allows patented pharmaceuticals and medical procedures to be delivered to Africa and other poor nations at a low cost), decriminalized marijuana, legalized same sex marriage across the country, and declined to join America in their assault on Iraq. As with many complicated laws, some of the above events are still in a process of implementation, but it was Chrétien and his government that began the process.

The man was by no means perfect, but he was extremely unique. I hope that one day Canada will produce another of his kind. Congrats, Mr. PM.

Last year I was fortunate enough to see Eric Clapton perform here in Seoul. The venue was much smaller than I imagined it would be, and stage decoration was non-existent. When Clapton took the stage, though, and without introduction unloosed the opening riff of Layla on the crowd, it was a magical moment. I, of course, had smuggled in some beer for the show, but consistently forgot to tap my stash during the performance. It was unbelievable.

To the left is the Dirty Mac, a ’supergroup’ that performed on the ‘Rolling Stones Rocking Roll Circus‘ variety show in 1968 (if you look closely at the picture, both Clapton and Lennon are sticking their tongues out!). Personally I don’t care much for the Stones (save for a few tunes - Under My Thumb, etcetera), but Clapton and Lennon are personal heroes.

It was inevitable that two individuals such as John Lennon and Eric Clapton would cross paths in the 1960s. But unlike other meetings between members of the Beatles and famous musicians (for instance their meeting Bob Dylan), Clapton’s encounter has not, to my knowledge, been so obsessively detailed.

Below is a snippet from Clapton’s The Autobiography. If you’re even slightly interested in Clapton or enjoy a song here and there in his huge catalogue, this book will keep you interested from cover to cover (there are many parts that are somewhat shocking, and he is very candid about his alochol and substance abuse, as well as his love/sex life). This part about meeting the Beatles really jumped out at me:

Having read a fair amount about John Lennon (I recommend The Lives of John Lennon), I didn’t find Clapton’s experience very surprising, but I did laugh quite hard. Difficult guy to get along with…

I found these on the Contemporist - the Object Frames.

Created by Steven Haulenbeek (whose homepage is awesome), these ‘object frames’ - I can’t come up with a better phrase - could save some space as well as some face in front of your ultramodern friends. I’m also a bit of a sucker for art/installations that appear to spite gravity.

From Haulenbeek’s bio:

I am an observer of the world and its inhabitants. I translate the code of the every day and derive from it, objects that challenge ordinary perceptions about the way we experience our environment. The objects that I create are made for people, derived from people, and are imbued with significance and personality…Design will save the world and the people in it.

Purity is to be found only in the irreconcilable extremities of experience.

(Doesn’t mean you should do it.)

I love fireworks, and, I’ll admit, this love has persuaded my better conscience into lighting them off in some dangerous situations. Having a lighter in one hand and a small-scale explosive in the other evokes a powerful feeling, a feeling enhanced by the inevitable drunkenness that inspired you to choose such a combination in the first place. But what a rush those cascading colors are!

As the US prepares to shoot down one of its wayward orbiters on thursday, a few notable onlookers are voicing their vexation. Russia, for instance, has said that,

There is an impression that the United States is trying to use the accident with its satellite to test its national anti-missile defence system’s capability to destroy other countries’ satellites.

There is an impression? What manner of fantastic thinking could lead one to such a verdict? They’re saving us from a rogue flying-machine hellbent on dousing the globe with ‘toxic fuel.’ Demonstrating to the world that America is capable of destroying ‘other countries’ satellites’ is a mere byproduct of this otherwise humanitarian mission.

What type of firework is this exactly? The impartials at the Washington Post:

The three-stage Navy missile, designated the SM-3, has chalked up a high rate of success in a series of tests since 2002, in each case targeting a short- or medium-range ballistic missile, [but] never a satellite. A hurry-up program to adapt the missile for this anti-satellite mission was completed in a matter of weeks.

That such an adaptation of the defensive weapon took weeks to accomplish is testament to its makers innocent intentions. Moreover, Navy officials went out of their way to assure anyone with (obviously irrational) fears that “changes will be reversed once this satellite is down.” I mean, once they’ve said that…

Russia is one thing, but China is really grasping at straws here. A ’specialist’ at a Beijing university - and this is some communist logic - has said that,

In my opinion, this decision is imprudent and ill advised…If this satellite is shot down, the toxic fuel will still be there. Therefore, the pollution still exists.

Sound logic, on the surface, although where the toxic fuel exists will not be the earth’s surface, but space. Of course, the US’ move will effectively prevent sensitive technologies from falling into the wrong hands, but, again, this is a byproduct of the humanitarian object of the operation. China itself conducted their own humanitarian ground-to-space dismissal of a weather satellite last year - you can’t have some weirded-out earth circler predicting off forecasts, after all. China, get a grip. You know the score.

I’m not suggesting that the US is the global version of a drunken kid with a bic and a Roman Candle (who in that scenario loses the thumb?), but they sure know how to spice up the party. The economy is hurtin’, the debt is growing, and we’re runnin’ out of booze. Ugh - fireworks!

Killing a bit of time looking for a replacement Firefox icon, I came across this flawless mix of geekdom and smut:

The new Firefox 3 beta is quite nice to look at, and as it gains compatibility with my favorite plugins, I’m not sure that my current (and recent) switch to Safari will hold out. Browser monogamy.

Update: To the right is the icon I have decided on for the moment. Quite nice, I think. You can download the icns files here if you like. (I assure you that it looks much nicer as an icon as my 30 second photoshop job made it appear here.)

Incidentally, I don’t know why I feel so compelled to customize every millimeter of my interface to the extent which I am do. Upgrading to Leopard was somewhat of a shock because of this tendency running rampant on my Tiger install for a year - as in, all of my modifications were gone, many of which I didn’t remember making in the first place. Cold comfort to know I’m on that path again…