May 30, 2005
European Constitution Dead
The French referendum on the European Constitution failed decisively yesterday. The treaty is dead now, as is the constitutional project, although elements of it will probably come back once the integrationists have some time to lick their wounds and try to regroup. It's especially humiliating for French Europhiles (and Jacques Chirac, particularly), since the whole constitutional project was arguably the brain child of Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
What does it mean? European integration will languish for at least the next five years. In my opinion, it's a pity because Europe really needs to start moving in the same direction in order to face a world populated by a resurgent Russia, a rising China and a psychotically out-of-control United States. I respect the history and practicality of the European nation-state, but for God's sake, we've got to start pulling our act together if we're not going to get steamrolled.
It's funny how I'm probably the most outspoken European integrationist I know, even though I'm not even from here. Or maybe it's because I'm not from here that I can more clearly see the growing danger abroad. There are many worse things to fear than a United States of Europe, and a multipolar world with rules of behavior based on compromise and mutual respect can't be worse than what we have now.
May 28, 2005
Referrers
Weird. I looked at the referrer stats for this site today (for the first time ever), and found out my top referrers include the German "Meeting People is Easy" site, the Irish "Oxygen" site, a site called "Demonoid.com," and another site called "Vampirefreaks.com."
This last one especially pleases me- I don't know how you found me, but it's fitting.
May 25, 2005
Condi love serenade
This just in...
A musical love letter to Condi, from Ze Frank, by way of RocketBoom.
Explore, enjoy.
Imprisoned blogger goes on hunger-strike
The title of this entry kinda looks like the beginning of a joke, but it's not. This press release from Reporters Without Borders covers a blogger in Iran who has been imprisoned for writing entries that were critical to the government. He's gone on a hunger strike now and his life is in danger. More information here
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Reporters Without Borders today called on bloggers throughout the world to post messages in support of Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad, who has been in prison since 12 February and who began a hunger-strike on 14 May.
"The life of this young blogger is in danger as he is being held in a prison where several detainees have died or have been injured in violence between inmates," the press freedom organization said. "You must talk about him on the Web and in the media in order to put pressure on the Iranian authorities," the organization said, adding, "all bloggers must feel concerned about his fate and that of his two colleagues who are also imprisoned." According to his family, Mojtaba initially tried to file a complaint about mistreatment but his interrogators replied they were going to put him in a detention centre where he would "regret having complained." He is currently held in Gohar Dashat prison (in a Tehran suburb), which has a reputation for mistreatment of detainees. He shares his cell with non-political prisoners. Mojtaba's father, Sfar Saminejad, told the student news agency ISNA, "I wrote several letters to the authorities to complain about the unacceptable conditions in which my son is being detained, but no one replied." Mojtaba's hands and feet were in chains when he appeared in court on 11 May. A few days ago, Iranian bloggers launched a petition calling on the head of the judicial system, Ayatollah Sharoudi, to grant Mojtaba a pardon and unconditional release. An earlier petition was initiated shortly after his arrest. Two other bloggers and cyber-journalists have been detained since February. They are Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi and Mojtaba Lotfi. |
May 24, 2005
Nuclear Option
Hey, if someone over in the US has a few minutes to kill, could you send me a synopsis of what's going on with the fight over the nuclear option in the US Senate? I've been preoccupied and haven't been paying attention, but I just got an email from Ted Kennedy's list that the Republicans just took the option off the table.
I really didn't see that one coming. Was it a big surprise to everyone? I know I can just google it and start reading news stories, but I'm curious to how this evolved from the point of view of normal (meaning not working in news) people.
May 23, 2005
Kyiv i Krym
Okay, here's the deal. I'm off to Ukraine for a week in early June. I've wanted to go on a research trip there for a long time. Firstly because I do want to see the places I've been trying to write about so I could be a better writer. But also, I figure that if I'm going to make the time and resource commitment to do a trip like this, I'll be forced to dedicate myself to finishing this story I'm working on because it will be too humiliating for me to give up on it.
Also, honestly, I'm not very good at doing one thing and only one thing for a long time. I've been working too hard at my day job for the last year and I just feel like I've been gasping for air lately. Need to breathe, need to think about something else for a little while, and maybe I need an adventure.
So the cool thing is, while doing research for the book, I've stumbled into a couple of potential real stories. I'll be able to spend a couple of days in Kiev and a few days in the Crimea chasing them down, and I'm trying to get some newspapers to notice me so I can come back with a story I can sell.
It's a longshot at best because I will not have enough time to do serious research before the trip (my fucking job again), and my stay in Ukraine will be too brief to chase follow-on leads that I may get from my initial contacts. My Russian skills have degraded below the point of usefulness and my Ukrainian is nonexistent (though Russian is probably more important in Crimea and especially around Sevastopol).
And I'm having to leave more details to chance than I'd like (for example, I've booked a plane down to Crimea but have no way of confirming the night train back to Kiev till I get there).
But what the hell, it might work. The way things are going I'll be able to pull off--at most--one trip like this every couple of years, so I'll make it work. I do have some contacts and the country is probably easier for an American to get around in since Yushchenko won the Orange Revolution. What does not yet exist, is possible.
May 22, 2005
Orbit
Okay I'm like, deep in planning for this trip and way, way behind on answering mail and being social, but I just want to make a quick note here... I just got William Orbit's remix album from 2001. It's good! Listening to Orbittish remixes of Depeche Mode, Olive and other Old Wave classics, and am happy... I hadn't known this was out there.
Back to work.
May 17, 2005
Flying again
One of the cool things about having a digicam and a decent printer is that I can make my own passport photos and not hassle with those stupid machines at the train station.
This one is for a visa application for the Ukraine, with a duplicate sent to the Dansk Journalistforbund for an international press card. (Odd that the fatigue doesn't show so much in this pic.)
Something interesting is happening. More soon.
May 16, 2005
Pubsub
Okay, here's a new cool thing I've just found. There's a realtime web search engine called PubSub, that lets you subscribe to web search strings, and then have matches for that string pulled as links automatically to your browser.
It works like this. You go to the PubSub page at http://www.pubsub.com/index.php. Enter a search string, let's say "Ukrainian power industry." The site will save the search string, and rather than executing a single search and sending you a million results like Google, I'm guessing that PubSub has a spider or some kind of intelligent assistant that looks for new material that matches the string and sends it back to the PubSub page as it finds it.
If you download the PubSub sidebar, the links will be mirrored in your browser too. Pretty cool, though I haven't tested how effective it is yet. Getting too many hits on a string would render the thing just as useless as getting too few, so we'll see. Unfortunately there's no sidebar for Safari yet, but that will probably come. Or maybe I should just give in and switch to Firefox like all the other cool people I know.
iPod Candy
Apple iTunes music store finally, finally, opened for biz in Denmark. Woohoo!
On a somewhat related note, my commute to and from work has gotten a lot more tolerable since I got into podcasting. I still like listening to music, especially at the end of the day when my head needs a break. But hearing some narrowcast content that appeals to just me and maybe 300 other people in the world (Slacker Astronomy, for example) is kinda cool in the morning.
If you haven't yet, go to www.iPodderx.com and check it out. Well worth it.
May 15, 2005
Working, still
Working every day without a break for three weeks straight now. We just had our internationals come in last week for a week of briefings. It's always fun--more than 30 came in this time, from Toronto, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Moscow, Warsaw, Paris, Sydney, Berlin. This part of it is what I love, the confirmation of the gorgeous, big wide international community we all belong to. But at the end of the conference it was another week without sleep... Never thought that simple physical and mental stamina would be such an important part of a job like this.
Now I'm trying to catch up on all the work I couldn't do because I was busy last week. Big release on Monday, but frankly, I'd prefer to be in a club dancing to Slow Track by Miss Kittin. Or, you know, sleeping.
May 07, 2005
West Wing Angst
I just got the West Wing season five on DVD from Amazon, and Cecilie and I have been watching two episodes a night since it came in.
I love that show but sometimes it just gets to me. I mean, I love politics. I love the fight, and the idea of using whatever energy and talent you have to try to push the ideas and messages you believe in. To try to make the country and the world a better place, or at least more interesting.
My job is great because I'm spending 60-plus hours a week in that space--fighting like hell against formidable opponents in a mindfuckingly complex environment to try to move a message forward, but it's not my message. It kills me because I like the nature of my work, but all the energy I'm spending isn't moving anyone or anything towards a positive or more interesting result. I like the means, but the don't care about the end.
So what do I do, move to Washington? Quit my job for an easier job that will leave me some energy at the end of the day to write books?
Yeah, well. Just tired and frustrated, what the hell.
May 01, 2005
May Day 05
Happy May Day everyone, pozdravlyayu vas!
I hope everyone's taken the day off to be with friends and enjoy the, you know, socialism. I didn't catch any of the Social Democratic party speeches or flag waving here in Denmark, but am feeling a little bit of empathy for the global proletariat anyway, wherever you are.
Love you all.