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Wed, 01 Jul 2009
Today's topic for discussion is:
Tue, 30 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is:
Notes from Origins '09 So, I attended Origins for the first time since 2006. While held in the same venue as years past, this year's edition drew roughly 1/2 the crowd I'd seen in my last trip. This made for a very relaxed con, with pleasant gaming in and around the convention center.
Games and such
The 'new' big hit of the convention was Dominion; one could find this game being played all over the con, all weekend. I've played Dominion a few times earlier this year, and I summarize this style of game as: inverted CCG Draft. Instead of building a deck from random cards drafted from packs, then playing the game, Dominion involves building a deck from a randomly-selected stacks of a fixed set of cards. I plan on ordering this game before end-of-summer.
I got my first look at Race for the Galaxy, and given the link's explanation of this game as a richer version of San Juan, I'll probably place an order for this game as well. (Actually, those cards make sense)
I also played the Zombie version of Fluxx over beers...the game is playable slapstick. Much fun!
Food find of the weekend: Thai chili peanut butter ice cream, at Jeni's Ice Cream booth in North Market. The cold of the ice cream holds off the chili fire juussst long enough to let the peanut/pepper/sugar tastes play.
As for V:tES? I turned my brain off on Wednesday, and was lucky to remember how to tap cards, much less keep track of interactions. I scored 0GW / 4VP in 8 rounds of standard constructed play, and 2 GW / 3.5 VP in 3 rounds of Rapid Thought.
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Mon, 22 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: [via Going Through the Motions]Text of opinion and dissents for the recent Supreme Court decision on Caperton v. Massey, wherein this gem may be found:In four separate opinions issued during the course of the appeal, {Justice Brent Benjamin} explained why no actual bias had been established. He found no basis for recusal because Caperton failed to provide "objective evidence" or "objective information," but merely "subjective belief" of bias...Nor could anyone "point to any actual conduct or activity on [his] part which could be termed 'improper'" ... In other words, based on the facts presented by Caperton, Justice Benjamin conducted a probing search into his actual motives and inclinations; and he found none to be improper. We do not question his subjective findings of impartiality and propriety. Nor do we determine whether there was actual bias.
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Sat, 20 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is:
Wed, 17 Jun 2009
Iran's Unrest: A Review and Timeline I'll save the meta-analysis for another post. This is a summary, current 6pm EDT, as picked up in a web discussion thread. I consider the users as credible, FWIW online, based on prior discussions dating back a few years. Emphasis and minor formatting and {notes} are mine.
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As of 18PM on the East Coast, all twitter posts about the army being involved are false. Warning, new twitter feeds are most likely government members trying to spread misinformation, ignore them! Also, there is a handful of good twitter feeds, but please do not publicize their usernames, they are in enough danger as it is and they don't need more publiclity. Those in the know will c/p their entries. Major timeline overhaul, including what has unfolded in the last few hours.
This seems to be helping quite a few people, so I'll go ahead and repost it in every threads with some adjustments. Sorry, this has reached the level of TL;DR but I really am trying to cram the most relevant information and speculation only. Everything is updated as events unfold, especially the timeline and what will happen in the future.
Suppression of Dissent - The Players
Currently, there are either two or three groups who are suppressing the students on the ground that you'll read about throughout this thread:
- The Basij
- Ansar Hizbullah (which I will refer to as Ansar)
- Lebanese Hizbullah (Unconfirmed but highly probable. Der Spiegel, based on a Voice of America report, says that 5,000 Hizbullah fighters are currently in Iran masquerading as riot police, confirming the independent reports. Many different independent reports and video point that way. Even in the last hours other independent twitter feeds have declared witnessing thugs beating on people while shouting in Arabic; I will refer to them as Hizbullah)
- The Basij are your regular paramilitary organization. They are the armed hand of the clerics. The Basij are a legal group, officially a student union, and are legally under direct orders of the Revolutionary Guard. Their main raison d'être is to quell dissent. They are the ones who go and crack skulls, force people to participate in pro-regime demonstrations, and generally try to stop any demonstrations from even starting. They are located throughout the country, in every mosque, every university, every social club you can think of. They function in a way very similar to the brownshirts.
They were the ones who first started the crackdown after the election, but it wasn't enough. While they are violent and repressive, they are still Persian and attacking fellow citizens. A beating is one thing, mass killings another.
- Another group was working with them, whose members are even more extreme, is Ansar. There is a lot of cross-membership between the Basij and Ansar, though not all are members of the other group and vice-versa. The vast majority of Ansar are Persians (either Basij or ex-military), though a lot of Arab recruits come from Lebanon and train with them under supervision of the Revolutionary Guard. They are not functioning under a legal umbrella, they are considered a vigilante group, but they pledge loyalty directly to the Supreme Leader and most people believe that they are under his control. They are currently helping the Basij to control the riots, but due to the fact that they are Persians and in lower numbers than the Basij, they are not that active.
- The Lebanese Hizbullah is a direct offshoot (and under direct control) of the Iranian Hizbullah (itself under direct control of the Supreme Leader) and cooperates closely with Ansar though Ansar occupies itself only with Iran's domestic policies, while Hizbullah occupies itself only with Iran's foreign policy unless there is a crisis like right now. However, Hizbullah has been called to stop violent riots in Iran in the past.
(the following paragraph includes some speculation based on reports from ground zero) Hizbullah flew in a lot of their members in Iran, most likely a good deal even before the elections in case there were trouble. They are the ones who speak Arabs and are unleashing the biggest level of violence on the Persians so far. Another wave arrived recently and there is chatter that yet another wave of Hizbullah reinforcements are coming in from Lebanon as we speak. According to Iranians on the ground, they are the ones riding motorcycles, beating men women and children indiscriminately and firing live ammunitions at students.
What will happen
Unless the army decides to intervene in the favor of the Council and to stop the early beginnings of the new Revolution, Ansar & Hizbullah members will be the ones doing the brunt of the killing and repression with Basij as a support while also protecting government buildings and try to do crowd control. The police seems to have for the most part disbanded in centers like Tehran according to all reports, including international media. If the police decides to come back, they will focus less on protection and crowd control, so the Basij will start to crack more skulls).
Currently, this is what is happening.
Timeline (updated and revamped!)
note: I built this through both articles and twitter feeds, so I do not claim that this is a 100% factually correct representation of reality, but this is the general narrative.
14th of June - While the previous day had been witness to some protests, they were for the most part peaceful. However, as time grew the protests turned more and more violent. When the first spontaneous riots erupted, the first wave of violence was unleashed. The Iranian Riot Police was called in to support the regular police officers controlling the protests, and shortly after the Basij also took the scene, moving from a passive to active role of repression. The RP concentrated mostly around public buildings and streets while the Basij took position around student groups, especiallly universities.
- As things got more out of hand, more and more Basij troops were called in, as the police started dispersing. The riot police are less inclined (or, rather I should say the Basij are more inclined) to use violence so they retreated and leaving the place to the Basij. The repressive forces concentrated their assault mostly around the main Iranian universities, while the riot police were concentrating on protecting various government buildings such as the Interior Ministry. At least two people had been killed already.
- On the telecommunication front, this is when we started to hear more and more from twitters while videos were being freely updated to youtube (while youtube started to delete the more violent ones a few hours later). This is also the moment where the government realized what was happening, and ordered for the internet, phone lines and cellphones to be cut off, in order to avoid people communicating with the outside world.
late 14th, early 15th of June - This is the second wave of violent repression. At this point, violent riots had spread all over the main cities of Iran. The violence against citizens was not only the fruit of the Basij anymore, but also came from Ansar Hizbullah members. This is the point where firearms started being used. There were reports of a few murders but it was mostly fired in the air or on walls in order to scare away protesters in University dorms.
It's also around the same time that the first reports and videos of an important number of non-Persian thugs shouting in Arabic and violently beating people with chains, clubs and electric batons (similar to cattle prods), which led to many speculating that lebanese Hizbullah members were now in Iran. Der Spiegel, through Voice of America, later claimed that 5000 Hizbullah fighters were passing off as Riot Police, validating the claims of many independent sources and twitter feeds.
- Universities have been the hotbed of protests, serving as a hub of anti-government demonstrations and preparations. 120 teachers from the Sharid University resigned in protest over the election results. Perfectly away of this, the Basij, Ansar and possibly Hizbullah members concentrated their attacks on University Dorms all over the country, storming them and beating students, destroying everything, especially computers.
- The end of the second wave came right before the beginning of the current manifestation. Things were getting quieter with only sporadic reports of dissenters being assaulted. Important to note: at this time. the Supreme Leader authorized the plainclothes militias to use live ammunition against the crowd if things were to get out of hands. By the end of the first two waves of protests, hundreds of people had been arrested.
midday, 15th of June - This brings us to the third wave, which just began around 12:30PM for those of us on the East Coast. Plainclothes militia opened fire on civilians protesting peacefully. Possibly up to 2 million protesters took the street. Chaos erupted in the streets, with reports of fighting all over Tehran and spreading over Iran as the news circulated. Pictures of people shot, some to death, finally surfaced and were published in the mainstream media. Violent and murderous repression has started. At least a twenty people had been killed at this by the end of the 15th of June.
- There is a major national crackdown on students, especially those with connections to the outside world going on right now. Students are fighting back in some areas. Telephones are being bugged and everyone twittering and sending videos outside of Iran are being rounded up. ISPs were shut down, government hackers are threatening people who twitter, and some of them have vanished in the last 24 hours.
- Eventually, the people started to fight back. First, they took over and burned down a Basij base, killing its commander. Later, a Basij shot a young man in the face in front of their HQ, at which point a policeman went to confront them. The Basij beat the policeman, at which point students stormed the compound, throwing molotov cocktails, burning it to the ground.
- During the night, the police entered certain neighbourhood to arrest public servants and force them to appear at tomorrow's pro-Ahmadinejad manifestation, but the people went out in the street and forced them out of their neighbourhoods. The Basij have kept on storming dorms. So far the reports are conflicting, but it appears that the death toll could be as high as 40 for the protesters, with two dead on the side of the repressive militias. This is the end of the third wave.
early 16th of June - Supporters of Moussavi have a manifestation planned for 5pm, Tehran time. Roughly the same number or more is expected to attend. People are dressed in black and told to protest silently.
- The pro-Ahmadinejad crowd however are planning a counter-demonstration at the very same place the supporters are supposed to gather at 3pm. Most agree that basically they are simply going to gather for a confrontation. Rumours are that they are taking position in buildings next to the parade and in bunkers to attack. Basij from all over the country are moving to Tehran and supporters are being bused from all over the country. A major showdown is expected to unfold.
- The crackdown on people using telecommunication is as strong as ever. Anyone with a laptop, camera or cellphone is attacked in the street by plainclothes militias. Tehran hotels are under lockdown to prevent the members of the foreign press not yet expulsed from reporting what is happening.
- As for the Iranian Government and different branches, there are rumours that many Army Generals have been arrested for plotting a Coup d'État, but this is still speculation at this point. The Supreme Leader has also called for a 10-day inquiry into the claims of fraud, but it has been widely dismissed as cosmetic. Moussavi and his supporters have rejected this, claiming that they want new elections. Khameini is now using the armed Basij as his own bodyguards, hundreds of them are surround him and his residence to protect from attempted assassinations. Ahmadinejad himself is in Russia right now, for a planned visit, and tries to pretend that everything is good as usual.
midday 16th of June to 17th of June - The fourth wave of violence has started, and was expected to flare up very soon. It surprisingly was quite mild. Pro-Moussavi supporters said that there were even more people today protesting against the regime, though raw numbers are hard to get. If this is true, it means there are more than 2M protesters in the street right now. They are dressed in black and protesting silently and without violence so far. Other reports that only 250,000 were in the street, possibly scared by the Basij and propaganda.
- The Basij, surprisingly, did not attacking the march itself but rather assaulted dorms again. It looks like they are using the march as a diversion. In Tehran proper, 2000 Basij are waiting to storm the male dorm, and they are backed by IRG helicopters, which seems to send the message that the IRG has broken from their undeclared neutrality toward tacitely supporting the Regime.
- The crackdown on telecommunications is starting to suffocate all of Iran. As of now:
- * Gmail and GTalk are shut down
- * Yahoo is shut down
- * AIM is most likely shut down
- * Phone lines are down
- * HTTPS and other such protocols are down
- * Iranian ISPs have been shut down
- * They are trying very hard to close down the Iranian connexion to twitter and giving proxies they control in order to track down people
- * Cellphones and SMS are shut down
People are also receiving phone calls from the government saying "We know you were in the protests".
Night has fallen on Iran, and the Basij are roaming, attacking passerbys at random. They have also surrounded dorms and waiting to storm them once again.
The Revolution lives on.
Demands from the protesters
- Dismissal of Khamenei for not being a fair leader
- Dismissal of Ahmadinejad for his illegal acts
- Temporary appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as the Supreme Leader
- Recognition of Mousavi as the President
- Forming the Cabinet by Mousavi to prepare for revising the Constitution
- unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners
- Dissolution of all organs of repression, public or secret.
Who is Grand Ayatollah Montazeri?
Ayatollah Montazeri is a pro-Democracy, pro-Human Rights Ayatollah who was at one point on the short list of possible successors of Khomeini, but became marginalized as he adopted what was seen as a too pro-Western, pro-Democracy stance.
Since the beginning of the Revolution, he has been one of the fiercest critics of the Regime, and one of the biggest proponents of women and civil rights for ALL Iranians, including much-maligned minorities like the Baha'is. In fact he goes further than the protections afforded to them under Sharia.
He is also a big critic of Ahmadinejad and has been seen for years as the best hope for Iran if he ever was to come to power, something that was unthinkable a mere week ago.
He has also come out with a statement saying that policemen who beat on protesters and follow orders will not be forgiven under Islam, and that even if the government cuts the lines of communication with the outside world, that it was too late and the truth was getting out.
Links
{my source is plaintext, no urls were provided with this section}.
- For further information on the Basij, Global Security has a good article about the history of the Basij.
- CNN has a good article where eyewitnesses describe the type of violence usually unleashed by the Basij.
- Here is another good article from GS again giving more background information on the ruthless Ansar thugs.
- BBC profile of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri
important: The Iranian government is looking for dissident twitterers, so if you have an account, change your location and timezone to tehran!
regarding the supposed numbers received by all three candidates giving Moussavi the winner and Ahmadinejad third with 7M votes: The only confirmation is an Iranian journalist. We don't have any external data confirming those numbers. 7M for Ahmadinejad seems quite low, so treat this as an unsubstantiated rumour for the moment.
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Today's topic for discussion is:
1 + 2 + 3 = Blah. | Somewhere between twitter's javascript, JQuery (1.3), and Firefox (3.0.10), a keystroke event is handled via "Update and render the page". :/
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Tue, 09 Jun 2009
Restoration The Statue of Liberty is re-opening on July 4th. I wonder if all the graffiti is still on the inside.
I will never forget standing in Liberty's crown, looking down at the dock, watching my classmates miss the ferry while waiting for me. :-D |
The Sacking of Savannah Hollywood is about to do what General Sherman opted not to. This time, the invading army will consist of several divisions of tweens, with support from parental Air Cavalry. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
Sun, 07 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is:
Fri, 05 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | The murky future of the In-N-Out burger chain. |
The Weekend The Virginia-Highland SummerFest is this weekend, probably going on right now. I'll be roving around Sunday, in search of tasty carnival food.
The Braves are amidst a 10-game homestand; I'll be posting comments about the recent developments over at Rowland's Office.
I know summer has arrived, because the giant palmetto roaches are strolling into my apartment from the back lot. |
Thu, 04 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | Conyers Housing Authority director has pled guilty to embezzling $130k (not including official bonuses and the like) from HUD contracts. |
Mon, 01 Jun 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | Better snack/breakfast treat: a Krispy Kreme doughnut, or a Flying Biscuit? |
Challengers Appear A few weeks ago, I described Twitter as being 'inside out'. Google's "Wave" concept/platform, introduced last week, might be a valid answer. It's definitely worth a closer look.
Locally, the restaurant I mentioned back in April is, in fact, a 'cue joint: D.B.A. Barbecue. Needless to say, I'll have a report before the end of this week. |
Sat, 30 May 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | I believe I've posted this before, but these instructions on how to make iced tea are internet gold. |
Cubeling, or Flanlet? | Gelatinous Cubes, as we know, are a necessity for any dungeon master who wishes to spend more time scheming than cleaning. These mysterious creatures are distributed to customers through division (a la starfish), but researchers have not only discovered cubelings, but found them in the most unusual of places: the ocean floor. |
Fri, 29 May 2009
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Thu, 28 May 2009
Required Reading Certain Speculation has all but called out "Soapbox" Cynthia Tucker for being a hack regarding rapper T.I. and his ongoing legal issues. Part I. Part II.
The opening statements set the tone: Cynthia Tucker has a Pulitzer Prize, so I admit that gives her a certain amount of credibility.
Having a Pulitzer Prize and actually knowing what she is talking about would give her even more.
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The Smoky Room Regarding the recent burbling news of more detailed info regarding our post-9/11 prison system, and of President Obama's downplaying of such news, I'm reminded of one of Bill Hicks' classic routines. This time, however, I think this is exactly what has happened: "I have this feeling whoever's elected president, no matter what their promises were...When you win, you go into this smoky room...And this little screen comes down, and a big guy with a cigar takes a puff, and he says 'roll the film'... And it's shots from: 7 years of interrogations run by operatives and allied contractors of the prior administration; shots from Islamist camps throughout the world; all from angles you've never seen before, and showing things you've never heard of. Then the film cuts off, the screen goes up, and the big man says to the new president: 'Any questions?'"
Amidst the noise and whining from the Left, recall that we actually have a conflict to wage. It isn't really worth launching an internal shadow war, at least until we've cleaned up our existing messes. |
Today's topic for discussion is:
Thu, 21 May 2009
A Missing Link | I heard about the discovery (classification, really) of the proto-hominid fossil, but I didn't realize (a) the fossil has been in circulation, in two parts, since the 80's, and (b) the fossil includes not only a complete skeleton, but a fleshcast, including digestive tract. The full report (with links to full-size images) is over here.
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Today's topic for discussion is:
The Future is Here. (Part [n] of an ongoing series) Presenting: PediSedate, a combination headset/anesthesia delivery device for use with kids, who may be scared of anesthetic procedures. Plug the audio into an audio jack (the site mentions Gameboy by name), plug the 'snorkel' into the gas, and away you go.
Setting aside the obvious use of the clipart as photoshop fodder, I'm guessing this technology will be standard on airlines, and optional on SUVs/minivans, within five years. |
Tue, 19 May 2009
State of Denial Apparently, some Reagan appointee named Richard Posner has figured out which way the wind is blowing, and has described an "...intellectual deterioration of the once-vital conservative movement in the United States." Frankly, this essay reads very much like someone is blaming Dr. Frankenstein's monster for it's own existence. |
Today's topic for discussion is: | Somewhere in this page of an armory's website, amidst the various aftermarket AR-15 parts, you may find Tactical Bacon. You're welcome. :-) |
Pointing Fingers The current debate over 'who knew what' about waterboarding -- and whatever else our recently departed faction was doing -- might present a risky opportunity to hang both problem factions out to dry, at once. In accordance with their inheiritance strategy, Democratic leadership of this decade would allow the Bush administration to do anything it wanted, with expectations of eventually reaping electoral benefits (starting w/ 2006 elections, as it turned out). The strongest argument certain Republicans have been using is "you were ok with it," and that argument is really an implicit confession. Expose both factions, and watch them wither.
One other aspect I haven't seen mentioned, is the lack of practical perspective: what the hell is a minority congressional party going to do about the problem in 2002? The topic wouldn't even make a subcommittee agenda until 2007, and wouldn't receive the benefit of actual numbers (much less any chance of White House cooperation), until this year. |
Who Shall Bake the Bread? | This week presents the high irony of Atlanta (anywhere in Georgia, for that matter) hosting a large-scale biotech conference. Bonus: Daschle, Frist, Rove, and Dean will be debating "healthcare reform", either today or Wednesday. |
Sat, 09 May 2009
Death to Boutiques It looks like Mitzi and Romano's four shops and EcoBella are all closing down in the next week or two. I suppose the new economy is finally catching up to the local boutiques, and I hope these stores are replaced with something useful. I have my doubts, however; the first two closures were replaced with chains (Paper Source and Half-Moon Outfitters).
Down the street, it isn't much better, as several of the boutiques on Charles Allen and Highland have flipped over the past 6 months or so.
My morbid curiosity, however, centers on who/what is moving into the corner 'slice' location formerly occupied by Lulu Blue. The new occupant is called "The Green Pomegranate", and the windows are currently masked to hide progress. |
Fat Tire coming to Georgia The headline speaks for itself. New Belgium Brewing greased whichever palm was necessary to distribute Fat Tire in Georgia. I look forward to trying it, as this was a beer I heard about, and didn't try, during one of my western trips. |
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Fri, 08 May 2009
In Which I Twit... So, I opened up a twitter account (flyingtilapia) a few months ago. The site has enough outages to not be confused with a reliable service, and frankly, that's how web services should be -- half-assed, run on duct tape, baling wire, and divine grace.
After this initial 'play with the new toy' period, I've determined that it's better to have one twitter account for each circle one is involved in. In my case, I'd rather not spam international queues with Atlanta updates, and vice-versa.
My initial impression is that twitter's model is inside out; more on that later (aka "one more topic I'll never get around to fully explaining"). |
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Thu, 07 May 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | Favorite crawly thing: roly-polys, centipedes, or millipedes? |
Braves Musings We're past game 25, so here are a few random notes on the home team (stats as of May 6):
- Rookie Jordan Schafer is the NL's strikeout leader (38!), yet the Braves are tied for 5rd lowest team strikeout total (166). I find this very promising for the remainder of the season.
- The Braves are batting par for the league, at .256.
- Last month, I left a post on Rowland's Office, to the effect of "Peter Moylan will be alright, once fully recovered from surgery. Blaine Boyer should be alright, if we don't run him out of town first." Well, Moylan is starting to rack up scoreless innings, and we traded Boyer to the Cardinals, where he's...racking up scoreless innings.
- Jeff Francoeur is back, and he's anchoring the lineup, .282 and a team-leading 17 RBI.
- Garret Anderson is in the lineup again, here's hoping for a good season.
- It seems the leaden horseshoe is still in play: In 6 starts, Jair Jurrjens has a 1.89 ERA and a 2-2 record.
- The Kudzu offense has returned: 9 team stolen base attempts in 27 games, by far the lowest total in the NL. We're second in the league with 24 ground-ball double plays.
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Fri, 01 May 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | Have you hugged a commie today? |
A Revolting Development I got my hands on the newly rebranded AJC today, and honestly, I was nauseated. Once I gather a coherent opinion, I'll post a review.
Suffice to say, the largest content block in this 'new' AJC was the four-page Obituaries section. |
Mon, 27 Apr 2009
Today's topic for discussion is: | An appetizer idea: cream cheese (block) covered in steak sauce. |
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