Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps is a compelling editorial in The Guardian.

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As Americans turn away quite leisurely, keeping tuned to internet shopping and American Idol, the foundations of democracy are being fatally corroded. Something has changed profoundly that weakens us unprecedentedly: our democratic traditions, independent judiciary and free press do their work today in a context in which we are "at war" in a "long war" - a war without end, on a battlefield described as the globe, in a context that gives the president - without US citizens realising it yet - the power over US citizens of freedom or long solitary incarceration, on his say-so alone.

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Electric Cars (in Europe)

French plan green postal service [BBC] - the French postal service is going to start using electric cars to deliver mail.

The Seventeen Traditions

I finished reading The Seventeen Traditions. I got a copy when I went to see Ralph Nader speak in Olympia a couple months ago.

It was a quick read and only took me a few days to read. (The fact that it's only 150 pages long and the page size is small helped). The "Seventeen Traditions" are principles taught to him by his parents when he was a young child. So it's filled with stories about his childhood and about his parents and siblings. It's nostalgic - e.g. "A new toy was a special occasion, and most of them were the kind that could be used again and again - tops, crayons, picture books, puzzles, and dolls. Today's homes are often overflowing with dozen of complex, often violent electronic plastic toys, and yet children soon grow bored with them and demand the latest upgrade or fade." - and it is also a bit idealistic. Nevertheless, it made a number of points and provided some food for thought, so I think the book met its objective.

Cougar & Tiger Mountains

The past two Saturdays I've gone hiking. I've posted some photos to Flickr.

Cougar Mountain


Tiger Mountain


Both mountains are part of the "Issaquah Alps" which are in the suburbs east of Seattle. I think I'll try going to the northeast on my next hiking trip - Barclay Lake below Mount Baring sounds good.

Vimy Ridge

This weekend is the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge. It is a significant event in Canadian history because the entire Canadian army fought together for the first time in the War and won one of the few decisive battles in World War I.

I visited the Vimy Memorial when I was in France in 2004. It was quite an experience.

Dodgy Search

I was making a comment on my friends blog and was too lazy to walk to the other room and check the title of a book on my shelf (The Record of the Paper: How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy). So I tried searching Amazon.com with a few different combinations, such as New York Times Book Foreign Policy, which yields 48 results. They are mostly about crossword puzzles and you have to go to #21 (second page) for the singular result revelant to "Foreign Policy". The book I was looking for did not show up.

Maybe I should be thankful I got all books in my search results! The search New York Times Book has as its #5 result Sudoku Pro - Wildly Popular and Addictive Numbers Game That Challengers a Players Math & Logic Skills - it's an electronic Su Duko game. It has nothing to do with "New York" or the "New York Times" or "York" or "New" or "Times". And it is certainly not "Book".

How did I find the book title? (Certainly not by getting off my lazy butt and walking to the other room!) Googling the same text - New York Times Book Foreign Policy site:amazon.com - gives my book as the #2 result. (Google is the best thing since sliced bread).

And it's not my lame search text that is tripping up Amazon. Try something like To Kill A Mockingbird and the first result has no image, and is a used listing for $29. Hardly, the canonical entry for a famous book. How about Red Storm Rising? The first result is the book by Tom Clancy, but it has no image associated with it and it is a (used) Chinese version. Searching Amazon doesn't even give me books that I'm capable of reading!