Et tu, Cthulhu

Sometimes, following a lead to its conclusion yields very satisfying results.

I was digging around old articles today to see where the widely differing numbers on Iraq mortality rates were coming from, hoping to be able to calculate a weighted average for my own opinion’s sake (with the weights based on perceived bias of the source). An article in a Norwegian newspaper had pretty good coverage of the latest “controversial” estimate of 300k-600k additional deaths, and it included a link to a “widely respected” dissenting paper, the so-called Iraq Index, which claims the toll is in the 30k-50k range.

Now, checking the Iraq Index’s sources, I saw several referrals to an organization called IRI (the International Republican Institute). On their web site, they claim to be “a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization (which) advances freedom and democracy worldwide”. So how do they do that? A little Google shake turned up this. An excerpt:

“The International Republican Institute, an arm of Bush’s party apparatus funded by the US government, admits to providing tactical training for Pan. Did Pan also make use of the purloined citizen files? (US contractor ChoicePoint, its Mexican agents facing arrest for taking the data, denied wrongdoing and vowed to destroy its copies of the lists. But what of Mr Bush’s copy?)”

I’d heard of the data theft before, but this is a new angle to me. IRI replied:

“As our web site also shows, IRI’s “tactical training” consists of helping members of the Mexican congress improve services for constituents, assisting political parties with internal party democracy, and encouraging women and young people to become involved in politics.”

Encouraging women and young people to become involved in politics? Maybe that would fly if they really were non-partisan. As their web site also shows, they clearly are not: Yuo win prize! So it’s pretty clear that they assisted the conservative PAN’s campaign; in Mexico, the preferred way to encourage people to vote is with monetary incentive and free transport to a polling station in the back of a truck. There’s a price, of course - you don’t get to cast your vote in private.

In sum, citing this Republican fake grassroots organization in a “research” paper is pretty disingenious, even if they didn’t directly provide the death toll numbers (the US government proper did that). It’s even sadder that there are a lot of these organizations, funded by the Bush administration to prop itself up.

I dag fant jeg ut at en gammel kompis, John, driver og skriver på en slik fiskeweblogg sammen med noen venner (deriblant Gustav og Jan Ole, som jeg kjenner såvidt). Loggen deres heter “fisk fisk fisk,” og er festlig lesning selv for meg som ikke har peiling på fisk eller fiske.

Events have had me thinking about computer games lately, so I thought I’d share. In case you’re looking for a Freed computer game classic, these are two underrated ones I’ve enjoyed:

Star Control 2 - Released for DOS in 1992, this is one of the few games I’ve played that actually provoked belly laughs at more than one occasion. Toys for Bob released the partially ported source under the GPL in 2002, to the delight of its persistent fan base. The game now runs pretty much perfectly on Linux, Windows and MacOS X, and fans have contributed additional artwork gravy.

Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe - This one is a real gem with a rough edge: The engine has been re-implemented from scratch and extended with tons of features including improved network play, but you need the artwork from the original game in order to play it. An effort is underway to produce high-quality replacement graphics - in the meantime, I’m told the original artwork is easy enough to “find”. This one is tri-OS too.

Oh, and don’t forget Toshok’s Starcraft clone! Although I’m not sure that’s playable yet. The SCSharp site seems to be broken at the moment.

In other news, Joakim is taking the Mexican media to task for its political bias and general hilarity. Hopefully he’ll keep this up with regular instalments - it’s funny because it’s true.

Refuse the shackles. Down with DRM! Pass it on.

If you have no idea what this means, go look at defectivebydesign.org, particularly their “about” page.

The lime tree in our garden keeps bearing large amounts of fruit.

I think we should just blow up Pluto.

This would put the poor bugger out of its misery and end the debate over whether it’s a planet or not. We’d learn a lot from the engineering challenges, and it’d be an interesting social experiment. Who’d chain themselves to Pluto and try to save it? Environmentalists? Astronomers?

Then someone could upload the movie to Youtube, and people would make billions of remixes - a Matrix version, a ping-pong ball version, the Star Wars version which would make it look like Alderaan and superimpose a giant laser on the footage, etc. Enterprising individuals would mix in their favourite musical scores and add subtitles in languages they don’t master. It’d be, literally, a blast.

And the best part is, I’m sure we could pull this off. Just convince the US administration that it’s time to think a little bigger. Make a statement. Show everyone who’s in charge. It’d make a nice little going-away present for the GWB too. You know, real mission accomplished stuff.

Lots of wind and rain yesterday. Our street turned into a muddy river. Heavy machinery was brought in today to fix it up ’till next time.

We just got back from seeing Inside Man at the cinema. We basically went to see what was on and picked it at random, not even knowing that it was a Spike Lee movie.

Naturally it was far above expectations. It’s an exciting and dramatic bank robbery movie, a fun Noo Yahk cop movie, and at the same time a trademark multicultural Spike Lee movie with a couple of takes at a society that for all its internal conflicts manages to plod along. The director knows when to apply formula and when to add a dash of originality. In the end, the movie isn’t really about the robbery, nor is it about flashy gadgets and big explosions. It’s about some of the strong characters involved in it and their back stories.

It runs longer than two hours, but it feels like a regular 1:30 film. I won’t say any more. Go see it.

Found a biggish spider in the shower yesterday. I’m sure this is everyday fare for people who live around these parts, but for us ex-city dwellers it’s kinda exciting.

I managed to set it free outside without harming it. Sorry about the low image quality - buy me a better camera.

This reminds me that I should post some pictures Maru took of the Tlacuache that visits our back yard every now and then:

You should be able to click on them and get bigguns.

We spent the weekend in Orizaba with Maru’s mother. She made chiles rellenos, which is my favourite Mexican meal besides anything that involves mole poblano. It consists of large chilis filled with good stuff (in this case meat) and fried with dough that forms a soft outer layer. The awesomeness of this dish simply cannot be overstated.

I also finally got a photo of Maru scanned. It sits on a shelf in her mom’s living room. Most of them have been lost. I want to preserve this one.