Sketch

With birthday money to burn I picked up the Wacom Graphire 4x5 after seeing Josh tinker with it on his blog. After much playing around I still can't draw anything of substance. So I drew/wrote out my name in Arabic calligraphy. Enjoy.



My name is the darker blue; the frills are the lighter blue and swirly lines.

Quatorze Juillet

Joyeux Fête Nationale! That's right my non-cultured friends, it's Bastille Day across the pond in France. Today they celebrate the over throwing of the King by the elite - not quite a real independence in the manner in which we Americans view it but hey, whatever floats your boat - and the storming of La prise de Bastille.

I got to thinking about what other interesting historical facts occurred on this date and with the help of Wikipedia I have compiled a list of important historical events:

July 14, 1223: Louis VIII is crowned in Reims, France. Three years of turbulance and in-fighting ensue among the Christians, Jews, and French provinces.

July 14, 1789: Storming of the Bastille in Paris, France. Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin would have his surname attached to a vital and historical instrument during the Reign of Terror a few years later - replacing the breaking wheel as the preferred method of capital punishment in France.

July 14, 1798: The Sedition Act was passed by the United States Congress; making a federal offense to write, publish, or say false or malicious statements about the U.S. government. It was one of four laws that comprised the Alien and Sedition Acts. The purpose of the laws were to protect the United States from alien citizens (French at the time) and to attentuate seditious attacks. The Alien Enemies Act is still on the books, allowing the President to "disappear" resident aliens if the U.S. is at war with their homeland.

July 14, 1865: The first ascent of the Matterhorn in the Alps is completed by Edward Whymper + six others. Four die on the descent in an accident; the golden age of alpinism dies with them.

July 14, 1933: All political parties, except the National Socialist German Workers Party, are outlawed in Germany; an act within the doctrine of Gleichschaltung.

July 14, 1958: The British imposed Hashimite monarcy in Iraq is overthrown by Arab Nationalists during the Iraqi Revolution. Abdul-Karim Qassem assumes control of the country and King Faisal of Iraq and Shaykh 'Abd al-Ilāh - ruler of Kuwait - are executed. Qassem rules until 1963 when he is assassinated by the Ba'ath Party.

July 14, 1966: In Chicago, Illinois Richard Franklin Speck kills eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital. His death penalty sentence was overturned and he was ordered to serve 400 to 1200 years in prison. A statute later set a maximum of 300 years for a sentence in the state of Illinois. Speck was believed to have had XYY syndrome, however that was later proven erroneous.

July 14, 1968: In Atlanta, Georgia Hank Aaron becomes the eighth member of the 500 home run club.

July 14, 1969: The Federal Reserve makes the $100 bill the largest denomination in circulation, citing "lack of use" for the removal of $500, $1000, $5000, and $10,000 bills from ciruclation.

July 14, 1980: Kathleen Schuett will give birth to a 5lb 7oz jaundice Neal Darwin Schuett in Des Moines, Iowa after going into labor during the night. At 10:14am, the 15th of July, 1980 many Parisians have a hangover and Neal Schuett is brought into this world.

July 14, 1995: The MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 - MP3 - format was named.

July 14, 2000: French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt during Bastille Day celebrations. (Brings a nice symmetry to the post)

It's not personal; it's just business

For those of you that are looking for a new home - which isn't many people these days, leading to the decline of the dollar in the markets - consider yourself lucky because you could be the new proud owner of a piece of cinematic history. The home of the fictional Hollywood director Jack Woltz in the Godfather is on the market. For a low price of $165M, you can have the 1920's era palatial estate - 6.5 acres - complete with 29 bedrooms, 3 pools, a nightclub, tennis court, and cinema. The home was originally purchased for $120,000 in the forties.

Wag of the Finger

While male rebellion and even some illicit behavior is often socially constructed as a part of or measurement of our "manhood," I have never considered speeding as one of the crimes included. In Australia, not only does the toilet water spin the other direction, but speeding is a matter of machismo. Violent images of car crashes failed to decrease the amount of speeding in Australia, so what is the government left to do? Ah yes, a national campaign to attack penis size of offenders.

From time to time you'll hear a car or motorcycle rev its engine and/or squeal its tires for no real reason other than to draw attention to the driver. And to be fair, you think "oooo big tough guy" or "he's over compensating", right? While the attention grabbing actions seem to be fair game, general speeding seems a bit ridiculous. I don't think as I am driving down I-80 that the people passing me have a small penis; instead I usually think "Geez! Someone's in a hurry!"

What about female speeders? Are they just off the hook from national - now international - embarrassment? Perhaps Australia should go with an equally as funny and potentially offensive campaign to curb female speeders by playing up the stereotype that women can't drive?

G-Men Take On Zombie Hordes

The BBC News site has an article with a hilarious title "FBI tries to fight zombie hordes".

The FBI has found networks of zombie[s]... being used to ...steal...and attack
The agency said the zombies... were "a growing threat to national security".
The FBI has been trying to tackle networks of zombies for some time as part of an initiative it has dubbed Operation Bot Roast.

Unfortunately, it's not nearly as exciting as the X-Filesesque title and my creative editting suggests. It has to deal with cyber-crime. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention the clever title.

Russian Ninjas

It seems the Russians are launching a ninja attack on northern Italian farmers. (BBC article)

I was reminded of Kill Bill Vol.1 when reading about the old man that warded off the powerful Russian ninja. The difference being two-fold: 1) This ninja isn't Uma Thurman, and 2) The old man didn't land his shot square in the chest of his would-be assailant. Minor details really.

I was reminded of a funny cartoon I saw online about 5 years ago that detailed how to survive a ninja attack. Unfortunately for everyone I can't find the cartoon, and thus cannot enlighten everyone on how to survive a deadly ninja attack. However I did find these amusing videos and sites:

1. How to Survive a Ninja Attack
2. Howto: survive a ninja attack
3. Ask a Ninja Question 16 "How to Kill a Ninja"

Hopefully you can find a nugget in there to help you sleep easier tonight, knowing that if the Russian ninjas come you'll be better prepared.

Shawskank Redemption*

The daily soap opera that is the "incarcerated" life of Paris Hilton has taken a new twist. Every person able to watch, listen to, or read a TV or news website, has surely been informed of the socialite's release from a California jail. It's received more press than the G8 Summit.

Sheriff Baca stated that she was released for "medical reasons;" yet the sheriff refused to expound upon his statement for "privacy reasons." The blogosphere and news outlets have been full of rampant speculation as to what the major "medical" problem is. I had heard everything from a rash to a refusal to eat prison food, and from sleep deprivation to claustrophobia.

Baca is further quoted as saying, "The problem here is that there is a medical issue and it isn't wise to keep a person in jail with her problem over an extended period of time and let the problem get worse." I'm a little confused, but shouldn't a modern prison facility have a medical ward? We're not talking about Devil's Island, Abu Ghraib, Chateau d'If, Old Tolbooth, or The Maze. It's a modern day Los Angelos prison, with a wing designed to keep celebrities, police officers, and politicians from mingling with the general prison population. (see BBC Article). I don't remember any other inmates getting out recently because they missed their caviar or 24 carat ring - which I saw on a news show once, it was obscene, even by legal standards.

Something I will rarely say, but I agree with Rev. Al Sharpton in this BBC article on the subject. This release by the sheriff smacks of favoritism. It seems Baca is sheriff by day and a fighter for social justice and inequity by night. He is quoted as saying, "My message to those who don't like celebrities is that punishing celebrities more than the average American is not justice." I agree that punishing celebrities more than the average Joe Schmoe is not equal justice and is a poor use of our justice and penal systems. However, I fail to see how the punishment that Ms. Hilton received was more severe than other probation violators. As my previous post described, her attorney claims the cell was too small and isolated, yet is designed to protect her. Baca's logic only works if: 1) Keeping celebrities with unnamed medical conditions is more severe in punishment than keeping non-celebrities with the same medical condition or 2) Ms. Hilton received a worse sentence merely because she has celebrity status. Violating probation can lead to imprisonment of the entire sentence for the original crime. In Iowa, a DUI usually leads to a 6-month deferred sentence. However, a violation of your probation gives the court the discretion to incarcerate you for the entire six months that it originally deferred. I may not be familiar with the laws of CA but I doubt it's much different.

Ms. Hilton -unless the judge rules otherwise- will get to spend 40 days in house arrest. Baca made a big deal to point out she won't be able to leave her home. Sorry, but 40 days in a four-story 1920's Hollywood mansion is not a deterrent. ET showed a delivery van bringing Ms. Hilton her favorite cupcakes and two friends coming to visit. It seems her "medical" concerns have abated quite quickly. Hopefully the air of the Hollywood hills and cupcakes will allow her to heal better than would have otherwise happened under state doctor supervision.

Of course, since writing this and before I could post it after work, Ms. Hilton was taken back to her cell, kicking and screaming the entire way. She now has to serve the full 45 day sentence in jail as opposed to the 23 day sentence she was originally required to serve after 'good behavior.' She screamed "[i]t's not right" at the judge while in tears after the sentence can down. She also screamed for her mommy... how more cliche can you get?

* The title is borrowed from the 7-Jun-2007 Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in which Jon stated they would not be covering the Hilton saga but if they did the story might be titled "The Shawskank Redemption."

The Hilton Prison Suite

Ms. Hilton's lawyer is complaining that his client's prison stay is cruel and unusual punishment. Okay, he didn't use those words but he is saying that it's unfair. Evidently, Ms. Hilton is in a confinement/isolation cell. Her lawyer is complaining that 45 days in isolation (23 of 24 hours in her cell) isn't fair and a normal person would have been placed in a dormitory with other inmates, which would make the time go faster for Ms. Hilton. All she did, he says, is drive on a suspended license while on probation. Of course, he convienently left out the part that it was probation for a DUI.

I am pretty sure that reason Ms. Hilton is in the isolation cell is so that she doesn't have to interact with the "common folk" in the prison population; most likely a move for her safety rather than as extra punishment for being an hotel heiress. I doubt the court system or prison is really all that troubled that Ms. Hilton's time isn't passing very fast. It's the penal system, not summer camp. Although, if every person that went to prison for a DUI received isolation treatment, we might have less repeat offenders.

Just look at it this way, it'll give Ms. Hilton time to write her book on life in the klink.