If you’re looking for Political Correctness, don’t read this.  I apologize in advance if I offend anyone.

After 9/11, there was a considerable effort made to distance terrorism from mainstream Islam, and to combat the terrorists dramatic demonstration of their belief that Islam justifies such horrible violence.  After the London bombings, Blair took a bit different tack by asking for more responsibility from the Muslim community to moderate extremism.

I don’t know very much about Islam, especially the various sects that seem to be at war within it.  If Muslims can’t agree on a single interpretation of their religion, how can I hope to?  Which leads me to the question I’ve long been pondering: who speaks for what Islam really means - the moderates or the extremists?  I’d naturally prefer to listen to the moderates as they match my mental model better.  But does that best represent the unfiltered truth?

A recent Pew Global Attitudes Project poll helps put this in some kind of perspective.  It surveys the prevailing attitudes in middle eastern countries about whether suicide bombings of civilians and Osama Bin Laden’s agenda are justifiable interpretations of Islam or not.

The good news is that in most countries, many fewer people support civilian targets than just a few years ago.  Hurray!

The bad news is how many still believe that "violence against civilians is justified often or sometimes."  In Jordan, 57% of the people believe this and 60% have confidence in Osama Bin Laden.  In Pakistan, the numbers are 25% and 51% respectively.  In other less radicalized countries like Indonesia each number is still in double digits.

If one accepts that violence against civilians is inherently evil (including such violence when perpetrated by our own military in Iraq), one can interpret these results in two ways - that (let’s take the extreme case) most Jordanians are bad Muslims, or that the Jordanian brand of Islam harbors some evil.  Change "most" to "a significant proportion" for the other countries surveyed.

I suspect the truth is probably somewhere in between, requiring self-examination among Muslims to ensure they are striving to practice and spread enlightened Islam.  But it also seems a bit of a whitewash to say that Islam is completely pure and benign when it contains a term like jihad that can be so easily used to justify evil.

If you think my logic has gone off track, let me know.  I’m still searching for answers.

Well, it’s that time of year again.  Last night the day-off-of full moon shaded an amazing California poppy rose large over the hills not long after dark.  Horse trailers and large motor homes are more prominent on the roads of Auburn.  I checked the schedule and sure enough, this weekend marks the 50th annual Tevis Cup, one of the most prestigious long-distance horse races in the country.  While most riders are Californians, riders come from far and abroad to participate.  This year there are riders from Australia, Austria, French Polynesia, Japan, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates.  I know or have friends that know entrants riders between the ages of 14 and 80.  Some of the difficulties these hardy folks will be facing on Saturday (and into early Sunday morning):

• A predominantly single-track trail accessible to vehicles in only about a dozen places.  If it’s any consolation, Medevac insurance is available.
• Elevations that range from 8700 feet to 700 feet.
• Approx 19,000 feet of uphill (elevation gain).  Even more downhill, which can be even harder on the horse.
• Temperatures can range from 40F to 120F during the 24 hours of the event.
• 250 entrants are accepted.  Imagine up to 250 high-strung Arabs bolting off the starting line!
• Dust is a major vision inhibitor, though rumor has it that after about 25 miles the horses spread out enough to start to see.
• 15 vets man 10 checkpoints.  Horse’s pulse not dropping as fast as it should?  You’re pulled!
• Most riders finish the race well after dark (hence the importance of scheduling during a full moon.)
• You only are judged to have completed the race if your horse is in "fit to continue" shape at the finish line.
• On average over the 50 years the race has been going, only 54% of entrants finish cleanly (within the 24 hour window, without ruining the horse).
• If you complete all these obstacles you win $1 million dollars.  Err, well actually you win a belt buckle, which is definitely rarer than the million, and probably more coveted.

One of the most coveted trophies (and certainly the most talked about) is the Haggin Cup, awarded to the top-10 finishing horse in the best shape after their experience.  Some of these horses cross the finish line and look like they’re raring to do it again the next day!  I’ll probably check in on the webcast during the day, maybe even stop by the finish line tomorrow night to see a few of the early finishers.

Good luck to all the riders!  And if your horse just poops out partway through, you can try it again on foot in the Western States 100, which is essentially the same race, sans horse.

Well, it turns out our Governator is deeply engaged in the standard conflicts of interest we’ve come to expect of our leaders.  On March 6th 2004, less than 4 months after his swearing in as Governor of one of the largest economies on the planet, Arnold signed a 5-year contract giving him a whopping 1% of ad sales (minimum $1 million) for a monthly column and a position as "Executive Editor" which I assume is double-speak for "allow his name to be used".

Maybe I’m backward, but I have an expectation that a $1,000,000/year job might take a bit of time to fulfill. But it turns out Arnold was so capable of saving the state, that he was able to do it with one hand while penning columns with the other.  Columns so brilliant each was worth more (possibly much more) than $80,000!  Who knew the man was such a brilliant writer?

Clearly the supplement industry understands the value of the written word, when he earned them millions of dollars of sales of probably unsafe supplements to high-schoolers by penning the lucrative word "veto" on the legislation designed to protect those kids.

I’m just amazed he didn’t see that this would be a problem.  Perhaps steroid use affects the brain more than we think.

Sigh.  At least California hasn’t invaded any foreign countries yet (Seattleites perceptions notwithstanding).  But Bush started out small too.

If you haven’t seen Paul’s post on Sending a Message, do so.  Bringing in news, history, and images in such a brilliantly concise way makes me think this blogging thing really has legs.

I laughed out loud when I read Rick Jeliffe’s Snow Season in SchemaLand, about the W3C XML Schema User Experiences Workshop which I attended on behalf of the W3C Web Services Description Working Group.  While I disagree strongly with Rick’s conclusion (start over on XML Schema), I do agree with many of his general points about independent review.  Even though IMO independent review wasn’t the primary purpose of the workshop, I observed a substantial undercurrent of discontent with the direction the XML Schema WG is taking - continuing to pursue XML Schema 1.1 to the exclusion of needed work to improve the interoperability situation surrounding XML Schema 1.0.

There was significant evidence at the workshop that the direction was wrong - namely of 31 participants, 22/23 favored a focus on errata/test suite, while only 11 (including IIRC most of the XML Schema WG membership but not including many of the major vendors) favored finishing XML Schema 1.1.

It’s therefore a bit baffling to see the chair’s report summarize this data as "only weak support, however, for proposals to drop XML Schema 1.1 from the Working Group’s task list."  Maybe that qualifies as a snow job, since the clearest translation of that data would seem to be something like "only weak (minority) support for continuing to work on XML Schema 1.1."  More likely it’s wishful thinking.

I think there’s a real possibility XML Schema 1.1 will be ignored by the marketplace, weakening the W3C’s valuable Recommendation brand.  It’s certainly worth investing some honest self-reflection in considering the possibility.

As always, these opinions are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.

Surprise surprise, the leak that illegally exposed a CIA agent came from the top all along.  I’m shocked, shocked!  When a warped sense of loyalty has become more important than honor, safety of our operatives, and even the law, it calls into question the moral judgment of our leadership.  This is so revolting I’ll even put in a plug for the MoveOn PAC petition to fire Rove.

But the bigger picture is even more disturbing in the long run, it’s just a small piece of a pattern of punishment that makes the Conservative power structure so alarming.  Punishing Ambassador Wilson for having more loyalty to the truth than to Bush’s agenda, punishing schools for failing to live up to standards, punishing Iraq for the appearance of seeking WMD.  The preoccupation with punishment seems to have pushed aside essential qualities like fairness and mercy.  The act of punishment seems more important than making sure the punishment is well deserved.  Well, OK, we give up already!  Punish away!  Just please — start with Rove.

I finally finished trolling through all the winners of the Industrial Design Excellence Awards for 2005 (which seems to go down quite a bit). There’s the usual collection of sleeker Sharper Image designs on the same old products, thinner cell phones, tougher laptops, every product made by A-P-P-L-E and its parasites.  Whoopee.

But there are a few gems that really have a unique approach on the subject material.  Here’s a mini-tour of my top ten:

1. ASUS Vento 3600 Desktop PC has the styling of race car fused with a storm trooper.  The front comes off and apparently twists to provide access to the DVD drive.  Nothing but styling, but still, hard to say it’s not unique!  (Alternate view.)
2. The bUNIT is a credit-card size authentication device with fingerprint reading built in.  The design was intended to convey the idea "exclusive", which is not the loftiest or most humane quality to strive for, but the design certainly expresses it in spades!  It certainly makes me want to be part of the club! (Alternate view.)
3. The BenQ LCD Monitor Crazy Arm provides a menacing array of devices to hook your USB devices into.  It seems to want to reach out and jack into your brain directly.  Is that how we are starting to think about our cameras, music players, USB keys, and so forth?  I don’t think this product would give me warm fuzzies, but I confess it’s refreshing to see someone design product that communicates "menacing" so well.  Looks like it’s right out of the Matrix.
4. I enjoy when someone solves a problem that seems obvious in hindsight, but simply was beneath the notice of most of us.  The Rubbermaid Paint Buddy is such a device.  Irresistible!
5. The Barrel Grill really takes a fresh look at the barbeques cluttering up America’s patios.  I keep my unsightly old Weber hidden in the garage, which makes me even less likely to use it.  This design addresses the unsightliness of the traditional grill, with it’s underside of unsightly and grimy struts, and addresses that issue in an elegant way.  Double use as a side table is a bonus!
6. The Hullavator Vehicle Roof Rack System.  What can you say?  It’s about time!  I’ve spent decades hefting kayaks and windsurfers onto car roofs, sometimes in adverse conditions. It’s great to see a solution engineered to address this, especially as I spend more time blogging than exercising and lifting that blasted kayak just seems to get harder and harder…
7. There is nothing revolutionary about the use of the Full Contact Spice Grinder.  I use a dedicated coffee grinder myself.  But what a great shape!
8. The Lenovo Smartphone ET960 isn’t all that revolutionary, but it is the coolest styling in a PocketPC phone I’ve seen yet!  If I ditch my laptop as my personal assistant, this might take its place
9. The SHIFT Concept Bicycle tackles the problem of discontinuities in the progression from trike, to bike with training wheels, to bicycle, by making this progression occur not only in a single device, but in a single usage of that device, based on the speed of the rider!  Having just been working with my daughter on the last of these stages, this idea really appeals to me!  If the mechanism is mechanical and based on momentum as I suspect, it’s brilliant!
10. The technology required for the Snap Bracelet Concept sounds a bit futuristic to me, but the idea of a device with a sophisticated user interface and no buttons (rather than a minimal set like the iPod) is pretty intriguing!

I was driving on Tuesday and thought I’d take a little side trip through the AM radio bands.  Naturally I came up against some of the most ludicrous right-wing shows imaginable.  Enter the twilight zone!

My favorite was the Lars Larson show, discussing whether states should regulate the sale of fireworks.  Living in an area of seasonally high fire risk, I personally get a lot of comfort from California’s firework ban.  Ridiculous! says Lars.  Citizens should be free to buy and ignite fireworks without government interference!  Hold individuals responsible for their actions if there are problems like injuries, fires, or deaths!  I think "holding responsible" means "punishing" rather than "forcing restitution", since the latter is impossible in many cases.

Lars says "if you can own a gun, why not a firework?"  Good point.  We should ban guns.

One caller agreed with Larsen that a law against fireworks was bad, as it could result in having more fodder for activist judges.  He pointed out as an example of this danger the case of an astrologer bringing a case against Nasa for cratering the comet (thereby affecting its orbit and any astrological predictions based on it, presumably).  Follow these leaps of logic (wormholes actually):  Too many laws cause activist judges to spring spontaneously into being.  Activist judges cause frivolous lawsuits.

Another caller from a no-firework state was angered that a cop had confiscated his fireworks, when all he was doing was driving around, lighting them off, and throwing them at other cars.  Gee, what could possibly be irresponsible about that?  Apparently Lars didn’t think of anything, at least he didn’t comment on that aspect.  I could think of no better example of why fireworks should be banned so such idiots can be legally apprehended before they cause irreversible damage for no benefit then their own perverse amusement.

It was also interesting to learn that an amazingly high percentage of callers that day are quite content, proud even, to break the law.  The Republicans count these listeners among their "base".  "Base" does seem to be an apt term.  It gives me hope that at least this small sample of the base seems to be on the verge of losing their voting privileges due to immanent felony convictions.

These guys make me proud to be part of the much defamed "elite", which is apparently anyone with a basic education and an even rudimentary grasp of logic.  Lars’ fans clearly aren’t there.  I think that even leaves Lars out, as I’m pretty sure he would engage in his own logical wormholes to disprove that his stated principle of individual responsibility supports flag-burning and the legalization of marijuana.

My conclusion: believing anything said on conservative radio is about as responsible as throwing lit firecrackers at passersby.  Next time, I’ll give Air America a try.

Played around with the nighttime presets on my Casio Z750.  A small selection of the results are posted over on flickr (trying to overcome the picture size limitations associated with MSN Spaces).

Each photo has some minimal levels tweaking to increase the contrast, and some cropping (hard to frame moving targets perfectly in the dark with 2 sec exposures).

Enjoy!

Our small end-of-the-road neighborhood (if neighborhood isn’t too grandiose a term for a few houses sharing a private road) only has one access road.  Which makes it difficult when you are preparing to leave town for the July 4th weekend and a tree is down across that road.  Even more difficult is when your chainsaw blade is simply shot, and the replacement you bought the last time you were at Home Depot only has 72 drive links instead of the 84 your saw actually requires.  But if you’re lucky and the tree is hung up on another, you might be able to sneak carefully under and trust that a hard-working neighbor will clean up the mess while you go on to visit your mom.

But then, when you return home, you might just find another tree down (a previously unobserved effect of the start of scorch season after an abnormally wet winter?)  That’s OK if the branches in question were too big and dangerous for an amateur to tackle, and you really wanted to head off quickly for firework watching anyway.  Who knows, someone might have trimmed off enough of the small stuff to squeeze your car under, with breath held, by the time you returned so you could sleep in your own bed without a two mile midnight walk first.  And if your luck really holds, you might find that someone else had cleared the whole thing by the next morning.

You may even have felt a bit fortunate that you didn’t have to invest significant labor to address these problems yourself (although I admit that emergency chainsaw work is kind of fun), unless of course you just thought it to be a kind of karmic justice after spending several hours of the holiday with a pole saw in your mother’s driveway - you guessed it - trimming trees.

Just cooked up a rather impromptu Indian dinner for some visiting friends - always fun to spice up the kitchen!  I’ve got three cookbooks on my shelf that I turn to regularly for inspiration on an Indian menu. These were all recommended to me - I hereby pass along my +1 to those recommendations…

The Food of India by Priya Wickramasinghe

My friend and now co-worker Asir introduced this one to me, and I’ve found it to be full of inspiring photos and some great recipes that promise to be above average.  Some of the my favorites of the ones I’ve tried so far:

• Pork Tikka: Tender chunks of pork encrusted with spices and a lot of red onion reduced to a maximally carmelized essence - practically charred.  Apparently a popular street food wrapped in a chapatis, but I just use it as a main course contrasted with a saucier dish and a side of rice.
• Chicken Tikka Masala: Chunks of chicken marinated in a spice yoghurt sauce, then grilled (I have no tandoori oven), then mixed with a smooth creamy sauce based on tomatoes and cream, laced with cardamom, almonds, and spices.  Not too spicey which keeps the rest of the family happy.
• Naan: The best recipe for Naan that I’ve found in terms of duplicating the tandoori effects in a western oven.  Detailed directions for using a regular oven, including putting a pan of water in the bottom to keep the bread soft and moist.

Dakshin: Vegitarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan

Asir also recommended this one - it is intriguing because it contains many items not found on the average Indian restaurant menu.  Some of these are more challenging in terms of a more exotic mixture of spices.  I also love the frugality of some of the recipes, a few tablespoons of dal can form the basis of a tasty lunch.  These recipes also are very spicy, I usually tone them down quite a bit, and the family still often finds them a bit too much.  This book also requires an extensive spice shelf, which I’ve been cultivating for a while.  Some of my favorites so far:

• Curry Leaf Sambar: I have trouble finding curry leaves in the stores, but Asir provided me some and I immediately made this recipe since it had more curry leaves than any other recipe.  Wow, what a way to discover a rich and complex new ingredient!
• Garlic Rasam: Hard to believe you could make a soup based just on garlic cloves, but this one shows how one can deliver a rich and complex taste with humble ingredients.
• Mixed Vegetable Curd Salad: Looking past that rather unglamorous name, this is essentially a boosted raita - cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro mixed with yogurt.  The kicker is a final mix of tempered spices including some whole spices, chana dal and urad dal which gives the smooth cool texture a nutty crunch.
• Instant Mango Pickle: Not pickled at all, but a delicious mix of tempered spices coating a fresh mango (calls for green, but I just use the least ripe I can find).  Takes minutes to make and is a great snack on a tortilla (if you have any leftover naan.)

The Complete Asian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon

This classic (originally published almost 30 years ago) book was one of the first I remember seeing in large format and full of amazing photos.  It has sections covering the cuisine of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Korea, and Japan.  My mother used this cookbook at home, and I think she gave me a copy after I married.  I already had (good) experience with the Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese sections, but I am discovering gems in the Indian section that show that the breadth should not be interpreted as a lack of depth.  Some favorites:

• Gujarati Potatoes: A great side dish of potato cubes flavored with tamarind, shredded coconut, and spices.
• Saag: I learned (from dining out in London with Asir I think) that the smoothest spinach purees have a secret ingredient - turnips!  I’d made various saag recipes before, even off the internet, but there it was, secret ingredient and all, in Solomon’s book all along.
• Pani Puris: Asir also turned me onto these delightful appetizers - a crisp semolina puff, holed on top with a fork, stuffed with savory chickpeas and spiced potatoes, filled with tamarindy cumin water, and popped whole into the mouth to explode in a crunchy, tangy, taste explosion.  I went searching for a recipe, and Solomon came through with the precise recipe where even Google did not…

Gee, writing this is making me hungry all over again.  I think I’ll raid the refrigerator for leftovers…

California has a new law in effect (starting yesterday) that requires drivers to turn headlights on whenever there is enough precipitation to require windshield wipers.

That sounds like "best practice" material to me, indeed many vendors (e.g. my Chevy truck) already enforce this best practice by turning the headlights on all the time.  What’s strange is that I haven’t heard this practice promoted anywhere (did I just take my drivers test too many years ago?)  I wonder why it was necessary to pass a law?  Is there no other way to promote good safety practices?  Or is this just a knee-jerk reaction to our abnormally long wet season?

In any case, summer is here in force.  By the time it rains again (I’m guessing mid-October), some of us still will not have heard about this law, or forgotten it.  Hope the money goes to schools…