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Tuesday May 10, 2005

Unequal before the law

European Union

A 20-year old Dutchman was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of preparing an arson attack on a mosque:

Shortly after the murder of Theo van Gogh, the man and a friend were arrested near the mosque at night. Molotov-cocktails were found in their car. According to the judge it cannot be proven the men wanted to set arson on the in-use mosque.

This story reminds me of someone else: Samir Assouz, friends of Van Gogh's murderer Mohammed Bouyeri and his Hofstad group of extremist rascals. Owner of detailed maps of the intelligence agency, parliament and Borssele nuclear facility. Owner of explosive materials, silencers and reading material describing jihad, terrorist attacks and other fun playground activities.

In his case, judges said "circumstancial evidence" and Samir walks freely. In the arson case, judges said "no proof, three years" and the guy from Venray can wear his Lonsdale clothes behind bars, joining three mates who got two years of prison. I don't object the second decision, but it makes the first look so much worse. Apparently it's legally more dangerous in the Netherlands to be a hot-head than to carefully plan religiously motivated attacks.

George Bush must have missed this press release when he called the Dutch a strong ally in the war on terror yesterday, I myself am not so sure whose side our government is on these days.

More Blakemore

Urbanity

June trip update: after browsing HotelClub (nothing decent/affordable in Bayswater), Venere (£300) and some other sites, I booked the Blakemore Hotel through HotelsGreatBritain.com for £260 which is not bad at all for six nights. I could've gone cheaper by staying near Earl's Court, but I don't like surprises when it comes to hotels and I'm quite familiar with the Blakemore: nothing special but it's still proper lodging with an en-suite bathroom.

Bayswater, or Bayard's Watering, of course, is an excellent place to stay for morbid people like me. Tyburn Tree (at Edgeware Road and Marble Arch) was a proud place of execution in London between 1196 and 1783:

Hangings were a big public festival. Crowds gathered along the route from Newgate to Tyburn, and around the Tyburn tree itself, often exceeding 100,000. The rich rented upper-storey rooms in houses and pubs so that they could get the best views. Street hawkers and food vendors also lined the route - they knew a good bet when they saw one. A grandstand was even erected at the gallows. Thieves and pickpockets also took advantage of the holiday atmosphere.

I love cities with a bit of history.

I don't like Wednesdays

Personal

can't come to my birthday because it's on a Wednesday and she'll be in school. Which is very interesting, because my birthday isn't on a Wednesday until 2008 and school should be out for summer on July 23 anyway. Silly girl!

Homosexuality - defect or social choice?

Anglosphere

I'm posting this under Anglosphere because that's where most of the debate on homosexuality seems to occur. The results of research involving natural body scents should come as a shock to communities that have been claiming orientation is all about social choice. I might have kissed blokes for that sole reason, social fun, but I'm definitely looking at Page 3 girls and their likes for actual sexual stimulation. And indeed, actual preference goes beyond choice:

Lead researcher Dr Charles Wysocki said: "Our findings support the contention that gender preference has a biological component that is reflected in both the production of different body odours, and in the perception of and response to body odours."

Bad news for gay bashers: social choices can be mocked, biological disorders cannot be. However, possibly bad news for gays as well: these findings give further credibility to claims homosexuality is a reproductive disorder that should be treated as undesirable medical condition.

The smell of gay men were the least liked by heterosexual men and women, and lesbians.

Poor gays. I guess they're really on their own.

Atlantik, monopd and libCapsiNetwork

Software

I'm still enjoying my break from software development and when I look at my gig plans I must admit there is still not much room for such activity in the near future (blame all the lovely punk rock girls). But due to popular request I have uploaded the latest versions of all Atlantik related sofware, so go ahead to once again download Atlantik, monopd and libCapsiNetwork straight from the source!

GNU Arch development archives will follow as soon as I resume development. After all, I still have plans to merge the server code and base classes into a single library. And I'd love to see an Atlantik complete with all the wonderful features I envision such as SVG game boards and instant messaging integration. Maybe when I get tired of those punk rock girls I'll start playing with the new Qt and KDE stuff instead!

Next day: Wednesday May 11, 2005 Previous day: Monday May 9, 2005

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