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Saturday April 16, 2005

I am still a geek

Software

A fair share of my life revolves around gigs, offensive hoodies and haircuts, travelling and being nice to (and making out with) pretty girls. Developing SMS games for television and being HorrorPops webmaster do not hurt my social status either. But I am also active in the free software community, so there is no point in denying that despite all the hip properties I am still a geek.

On that note, let me announce that I have started to rebuild project pages for my software, starting with Atlantik, the board game application for KDE. I am still a bit cautious about the new technologies I want to use so I am not actively developing it at the moment, but something tells me I most definitely will do so again in the not too distant future!

Queensway tube station closure

Personal

Queensway tube station is closing down for an entire year and as someone who lodges there when visiting London, that is a tad annoying. While looking for alternatives, Jess recommended Travelodge but their singles are just as expensive as hotel deals I get elsewhere. I wonder if she knows I would probably not mind if she took me home instead.

So it is not unlikely my June trip will now once again take me to the Blakemore Hotel at £50 a night, as the Byron is fully booked and I really do like Bayswater enough to want to stay in that area again. Hotels aren't much more expensive than hostels in London anyway and I simply will not settle for anything but an en-suite bathroom. I would have prefered the Byron not just because it is named after a Lord with a lifestyle as flamboyant as my mine, but also because the rooms are larger than elsewhere in Bayswater, or they somehow always like to put me in a double at no extra cost.

Not that I'll need a double (if only she could stay the night), but the tube closure will provide ample opportunity for me to stay fit by walking from Notting Hill Gate. Silly tube reconstruction works. But at least Bayswater saves the time looking for a Subway because I know exactly where to find one there. And in the UK, Subway has sweet corn as possible topping - wonderful.

Stop Bush! (But stop rational thought first)

Anglosphere

A friend of mine apparently wants to join the protests called Stop Bush. The protest web site lists a number of arguments, or rather sentiments, to oppose the President of the United States and in fact some have gone to court in The Hague to demand a warrant for Bush's arrest for breaking the Geneva Convention, verdict due on April 29. Fortunately their case is easy to rebut:

Sure, the war in Iraq was illegal and bad. If you feel that resolution 1441 was illegal and that free elections are bad, or at least worse than dictatorship.

Sure, Abu Ghraib was bad. If you feel that it is bad the US and UK governments have been prosecuting those who engaged in improper conduct while such punishments surely do not exist in terrorist circles.

Sure, Guantanamo Bay is bad, if you feel that combatants targetting citizens and US soldiers with work ethics aimed to go against the Geneva conventions should be protected by the Geneva convention, even though Convention III Part 1 Article 4A sub 2 explicitely excludes them:

Art. 4. A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

(2) Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions: (a) that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; (b) that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance; (c) that of carrying arms openly; (d) that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

Sure, blocking UN resolutions against Israel is bad. If you feel that Palestinean suicide bombers should not get part of the blame of the problems in those resolutions and that US vetoes are more evil and less valid than French vetoes.

Sure, the war on terror increased violence against Muslims and racism. If you feel that the government's clear distinction between religion and terrorism is somehow confusing, despite similar actions against non-Muslim IRA and FARC, while terrorists themselves abuse the Islam by claiming to act in name of it.

Sure, the US refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Court is bad. If you feel that citizens of a country, captured soldiers included (but by definition not illegal combatants), should be denied a fair trial in their home country.

Sure, the US produces a lot of pollution and refusing to sign Kyoto is bad. If you feel that junk science that has been disputed by sunspot research and Steven McIntyre's exposure of the Mann hockey stick flaws tells the truth about global climate variances.

Sure, Bush demolishes civil rights in the US. If you feel that marriage, the institution to create a family, is a civil right and not a privilege for heterosexual couples who can actually create a family.

Sure, Bush is evil for leading the dollar democracy and making the global differences bigger. If you feel that apparently the failures of the rest of the world to keep up with Anglosphere economies is not their own fault.

I'm so sick of unfound criticism. Only wankers will demonstrate at the Museum Square in Amsterdam on May 7, trying to stop someone who will be gone in three years anyway because two terms is the maximum in the US and trying to make a case that will without a doubt be shut down by the courts on April 29. The only thing these people seem to be stopping are their upper brain functions.

Next day: Monday April 18, 2005 Previous day: Friday April 15, 2005

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