Monthly Archives: January 2005

Major Gitmo Ruling by Joyce Hens Green

Word is that this new decision by Judge Joyce Hens Green is important and (mostly) well-reasoned.

Early news coverage: Guantanamo Bay Military Reviews Ruled Illegal, U.S. Denies Guantánamo Inmates' Rights, Judge Says.

I haven't read it yet. Late tonight, I hope, if I get my work done…

Posted in Guantanamo | 9 Comments

What the World Needed: Wide-Awake Drunks

As someone who tends to fall asleep after a couple of beers, I can see how caffeinated beer seemed to make sense. For a few seconds, anyway.

Bartender, Pour Me Another Cup: America's largest brewing company, Anheuser-Busch, released its latest product last week — a beer that contains caffeine. …

The beer is called B{+E} — with the E raised up, like an exponent in math, which is why the name is pronounced “B to the E.” (The B stands for Budweiser. The E stands for extra.) Sold in 10-ounce cans, B{+E} contains 54 milligrams of caffeine — about half the dose found in an average cup of coffee. B{+E} also contains ginseng, the fabled herb, and guarana, an Amazonian berry frequently found in Brazilian soft drinks. …

At first, beer with caffeine sounds like a terrific idea. With caffeine in your beer, you can stay awake longer and do many delightful things, such as drink more beer. …

But wait:

Alas, there is a potential downside to this great breakthrough. Drinking too much beer sometimes makes people do stupid things, … Until now, beer guzzling was a self-regulating activity. Sure, drinking too much made you do stupid things. But drinking too much also tended to make you fall asleep before you got into trouble.

Continue reading

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 10 Comments

YATA (Yet Another Torture Allegation)

Via Jurist: Released Briton details assault, torture at Guantanamo

Posted in Guantanamo, Torture | 1 Comment

Is Slashdot Losing Its Edge?

In Slashdot | Intuit Disables Features in Quicken To Force Upgrades, Slashdot discovers a very annoying Quicken problem…that I wrote about in May, 2004 (see Annals of Software Obsolescence: Intuit is Evil (Quicken Dept.)).

It's an odd feeling to be that much ahead of the Slashdot crowd. This sort of feeds a growing suspicion I've been having that Slashdot isn't as cutting edge as it used to be.

Posted in Software | 5 Comments

CIA Stonewalls on Its Relations With Nazis

Here's a example of why, when the CIA squares off with its sleazy and dangerous new Director, Porter Goss, I find two sides I can root happily against.

C.I.A. Said to Rebuff Congress on Nazi Files: For nearly three years, the C.I.A. has interpreted the 1998 law narrowly and rebuffed requests for additional records, say Congressional officials and some members of the working group, who also contend that that stance seems to violate the law.

These officials say the agency has sometimes agreed to provide information about former Nazis, but not about the extent of the agency's dealings with them after World War II. In other cases, it has refused to provide information about individuals and their conduct during the war unless the working group can first provide evidence that they were complicit in war crimes. …

“I think that the C.I.A. has defied the law, and in so doing has also trivialized the Holocaust, thumbed its nose at the survivors of the Holocaust and also at Americans who gave their lives in the effort to defeat the Nazis in World War II,” said Elizabeth Holtzman, a former congresswoman from New York and a member of the group. “We have bent over backward; we have given them every opportunity to comply.” …

“I can only say that the posture the C.I.A. has taken differs from all the other agencies that have been involved, and that's not a position we can accept,” Mr. Ben-Veniste said. In a separate interview, [former prosecutor Thomas H.] Baer said: “Too much has been secret for too long. The C.I.A. has not complied with the statute.”

Hard to imagine how releasing this info could harm national security today. But it might not look so good for the CIA.

Posted in National Security | Comments Off on CIA Stonewalls on Its Relations With Nazis

That’s A New One

I've been called many, many things in my life, but “whimsically surnamed”? That's new.

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments