Honduras coup succeeded

So, Honduras held an election and the US will recognize it. This might seem to be a good conclusion, but think about what this means in terms of the structure of power in Honduras–suppose the elected president does something that the military doesn’t like, what will they do? This episode tells them that if they overthrow [...]

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m spending Thanksgiving in NH, so I’ll just hope everyone has many things to be thankful for today.
Ok, I must as well put up a couple pictures. The first is a Thanksgiving floral bouquet:

The second is a picture of my sister’s two cats (Mini and Sophie):

No more NU football

Northeastern University has decided to drop its football program (or look here in case NU doesn’t keep announcements long term). Here are their records (the team started in 1933):
1930’s : 24-20-7
1940’s: 14-29-2
1950″s: 38-30-4
1960’s: 52-29-1
1970’s: 39-53-1
1980’s: 36-66-1
1990’s: 39-70-1
2000’s: 47-67
Total: 289-364-17
They did have a good run in the 1960’s (they even went undefeated in 1963 and went to a [...]

US

The US had said that they were against the coup in Honduras, but they aren’t showing they care all that much. It is now less than two weeks until the election, Zelaya is still not back in power, and yet the US is hinting that they will support the election. This type of show is good [...]

Enceladus’ plume and a poem

To get a better of what is in the plume that’s spews out of Saturn’s moon Enceladus (it’s known to contain water vapor, sodium, and organic molecules), they sent Cassini through it on November 2, 2009. Here’s a picture of the plume (Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute–click on it to see it better):

And since today [...]

Web sites to avoid

Well now, it seems that some web sites are very sleazy (via here via KD):
In general, the customers of these companies have no idea that they’re customers until they discover mysterious charges on their credit-card bills. When they investigate further, they find that during the checkout process at reputable websites like priceline.com or 1800flowers.com, they [...]

Terrorists to be tried in NY City

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others are going to be tried for their crime in New York City. It seems to me that this is a simple proposition: a crime was committed in the US, so the perpetrators of the crime should be tried in the US. Given that, we need to follow the rules of [...]

Friday 13 and a poem

I’m incredibly lazy today, so here’s a random 13 in celebration of Friday the 13th:
She Sings Songs Without Words Harry Chapin
Does She Talk? Matthew Sweet
Fame David Bowie
Skrautvål Hedningarna
Unchain My Heart Ray Charles
Sweet Addiction Deb Pasternak
Blame It On Cain Elvis Costello
Big Mess Devo
Corner Soul The Clash
Fun World Mission Of Burma
Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey Little Richard
What’s Going On Hüsker Dü
Final Say Sambassadeur
Yup, not even a link to a video–you can find them [...]

Afghanistan and corruption

I don’t really like Afghanistan’s President Karzai. He obviously is willing to sell people out for votes and his government is corrupt enough that it might not make sense to back him. Still, I love this push back:
But Afghan officials have begun to push back, complaining the Americans are often overpaid, underqualified, and unfamiliar with the culture [...]

A walk along the Charles River

Since I had the day off, I decided to take a walk along the Charles. I started off by crossing the footbridge behind the Shaw’s market on River Street (click on any of the pictures to see the full size):

Behind the footbridge is an old train bridge which is, I think, no longer used. The [...]

Saturn at equinox

Still trying out my camera, here’s a picture of Saturn at its once every 15 years equinox:

Ok, this might really be from Cassini and perhaps was taken on August 12, 2009 in a series of pictures over eight hours and then put together (Image Credit, maybe: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute). In any case, it’s a nice picture [...]

Views from windows and a poem

I’m still testing my camera, so here’s a picture looking out my office window towards the Prudential

and here’s a picture from the meeting room down the hall looking at part of the West Village here at NU with the Museum of Fine Arts in the background.

 Here’s a better picture of the Museum which is going [...]

But it’s a state secret

Via KD, it seems the CIA lied about ’state secrets’ and the court found out. The judge was not happy:
The judge also criticized CIA Director Leon Panetta, saying he’s given conflicting accounts about what should be revealed in the case. The ruling led to the unsealing Monday of more than 200 unclassified versions of classified [...]

Gay marriage loses in Maine

The recall vote on gay marriage won yesterday in Maine (53% voted for the repeal with 83% counted). This is a little discouraging but somewhat expected: polls were showing it would be close. And there is the usual line in the article:
It is currently legal in five states, but only by virtue of politicians or judges.
The [...]

Views from Prospect Hill

Since it was a pretty nice day, I decided to hike up Prospect Hill in Waltham. It’s not a real steep climb (click on the pictures to see the full size)

but it has a pretty good view of Boston

and the Blue Hills just south of Boston (Prospect Hill is the second highest point inside 128, [...]