And terror strikes again

Now the Russians have confirmed that both the planes were most likely blown apart by Black Widows - Chechen women who have lost their husbands/kids/families/... during the various Russian "incidents" in Chechnya - using the plastic explosive called hexogen or RDX.

"the Tu-154 plane, which crashed en route from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
... the Tu-134 plane which came down on its way to Volgograd in central Russia."

...and the sun shines on regardless...

Basket not coming home

Why U.S. lose? : "there isn't an American player in the NBA today who has Chris Mullin's jump shot or his economy of movement, who knows the lines and angles that can be exploited the way he knew them. And Mullin was probably the 10th best player on that Olympic team"

...ouch
...that gotta hurt your ego

:)

Gamers shouldn't surf?

"Due to incompatibility and non-compliancy issues in the CSS support between browsers, we recommend you to use Internet Explorer until specific browser css are implemented." [Electronic Sports World Cup] - so much for using Firebird to learn about the progress in CounterStrike and Warcraft III. The attempted link was the main site, just www.esworldcup.com - but they just want ms ie users.

Oh well, stick with other and better games related sites - and read up on nifty settings such as Seal of Evil and of course NWN 2... just far enough away to be interesting without being mindconsuming just yet.

Making it stick

Architecture - does it have to be buildable? Zaha Hadid [note: please excuse the skip-intro, the coverpage and other relics of 2001 webdesign] doesn't think so, she is just as happy designing something so far out there that you go "wooow". Practical? Nope. Art? Most probably.

But then again, judging from what you actually can build - "two sloping steel structures in our design could be connected only at dawn. They would be exposed to different solar heat gain due to their relative positions on the ground and would be most likely to share the same temperature after cooling off overnight." (Beijing Manifesto - actual article linked on the page; 5,2 mb pdf download... or just get the mag!!!)
... being all artsy just might not cut it anymore, with advances in cad and general engineering it, just about anything can be made in some way or the other.


On a different slope - TV-related software; XMLTV is a "standard" way of describing TV schedules in XML - making it easier to use PC-TV-DVR solutions in place that they haven't been rolled out (or without paying a premium every month)Kind of neat, provided you can get your local listings converted to the right version, and seeing how most local newssites also do TV listings it should be a rather trivial transform. Note to self; try to convert some and update post...
Update: no need to make it, "backends grabbing TV listings for Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Japan, Sweden, France, Norway, Portugal (currently down), and Romania" (main XMLTV site)


Boxes and bits you can get from Sage TV or beyond tv amongst others.

And then finalyy, Sony is at it again, trying to kick some life into the minidisc franchise, with the new Hi-MD walkman, up to 1 gb/disc... size/price as opposed to Muvo2 and iPod Mini as yet to be announced over here, but i'm guessing that with a recorder and 4 discs the total cost will be a bith higeher. So, I still want either a mini or a muvo... maybe for my birthday? To me from me :-D

Brad Pitt - mighty or misty?

Drinking water during interviews - naturally. Ditching his Mercedes G 500 - and getting the same car as Cameron Diaz and Leo DiCaprio; a white Toyota Prius - hybrid all the way?
"I got too into energy conservation. So I bought a Prius" [Modern God]
Well, I guess with the way oil prices have been hovering above $40 for some time now, a lot of people might discover that hybrid is a step in the right direction - since fossil fuel won't last forever it is about time we started making some real progress towards alternate solutions for our driving and cruising habits.

...and the sun is hiding its sad face behind clouds of rain...

Conic

Pine cones (img) - rather fascinating patterns and shape. So tight and solid - almost interlocking sections. Still only a few of the seeds fall out on normal impact - is it because the tree wants animals to pick up and carry the cones away - and either eat or loose the seeds in other parts of the forest? Or are they in the cone as "backup" - when someone comes along and cuts the tree, they'll most likely kick a cone or ten and scatter new seeds all over the place to add to those already distributed?

moving time

South Korea is building a new capital - in south-chungcheong, start building in 2007... finished? Maybe around 2030. Cost? Oh, some 40 billion US dollars. [IHT] President Roh Moohyun promised to create the new capital during the 2002 elections, citing among other factors "as-yet to be constructed (or named) city would take over from Seoul, which is plagued by overcrowding"


"my dark and cloudy words they do but hold
the truth, as cabinet enclose the gold"
- John bunyan, The Pilgrims Progress
... enjoying the sun whilst reading Quicksilver by Stephenson. Good fun, mixing up alchemy, science and crypto. And of course; some intrigue and close encounters.

Speaking of intrigue - the Iraqi situation is getting more tangled every day, or so it seems. About a week ago the arabian TV-news channel al Jazzera was "closed down" by the "iraqi government". Democracy, freedom and all that. Check.

...and the sun is here today as well - lovely summer days...

nwn 2

Neverwinter Nights 2 is officially coming... to be launched in 2006, suitably paced after KOTOR 2. With an improved "module wizard"; No, it won't be an annoying little paperclip with a staff and mage hat :D

nice!

millions in zurich

Party y time in Switzerland - not only a nice country to stash all those millions you got from dubios sources - but also a place for a good time, as seen here during the 13. rendition of the parade. Take back the street!

yo G

woooooooooo............ a gMail account... it is good to be a blogger!

...and the sun is out there somewhere, still warm...

The Memory Hole

The Memory Hole >Photos of Iraqis as the case against one of the US "models" (aka Lyndie England) goes to court.
Other than that a bit stunned by last evenings news about an apperently random stabbing in downtown Oslo.

"You are gone, much too soon. I stood here and waited for you. ... I hate the man that killed you and want you to come back. I love you." (dececed 23yr olds girlfriend)

ouch.


pain.


...

118 ways to decorate

Periodic table: "Element 118 has no name yet, does not occur in nature, and it has no isotopes that last long enough to allow significant quantities to be accumulated" - and hence it is just an empty square on the table made by Theodore Gray, partially as an actual table for an office room - and partially as a site to spread some information on "stuff" in a world of "bits"...