Random noise, incoherent thoughts, whatever.
Yuri Chervochkin, a 22-year-old leader of the National-Bolshevik Party (NBP) has died from his injuries received from a vicious beating just before the Russian Parliamentary elections.
Mr. Chervochkin called a friend hours before his attack and claimed he was being chased by the police. The police had threatened him repeatedly before finally killing him.
That’s Russian democracy for you.
-TPP
Mr. Dvorak, a well known Microsoft and Intel fanboy, has taken time off from congratulating Bill Gates for his achievements in computing and written a completely idiotic and half-racist article about the OLPC project.
He’s calling the project a naive fiasco and justifying his opinion on the tired “why are you giving laptops to poor starving children when you could send them a bowl full of rice instead” argument which not only is wrong but also reveals his First World attitudes towards Africa.
Well done Massa, can I fetch you an ice tea now, Massa?
He doesn’t seem to understand the whole “give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him once. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll be fed for a lifetime” idea behind OLPC. The laptop is not meant to improve the conditions of starving people, but give children, who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance, access to computers so that they’d be better prepared in today’s global economy. The goal is to teach kids modern technology, give them access to technology that’ll help them in their schooling and do that in a large scale manner and cheap. There’s nothing naive about it. It may or may not end up being a fiasco, but that will not because the idea is wrong or naive, but because the execution of the idea was bungled.
What pisses me even more than his complete lack of understanding of different needs of people living in poverty is his attitude towards people who would be contributing to the project or receiving the laptops.
He says:
People don’t want to consider the possibility that their well-meaning thoughts are a joke and that a $200 truckload of rice would be of more use than Wi-Fi in the middle of nowhere. There seems to be a notion that the poor in Africa or East Asia are just like the kids in East Palo Alto. Once they get a laptop, there will be no digital divide, will there? People can say, “I did my part!”
And this is the dude telling that OLPC proponents are pretentious douchebags? Pot’s calling, bitch.
He goes on:
Of course, it might be a problem if there is no classroom and he can’t read. The literacy rate in Niger is 13 percent, for example. Hey, give them a computer! And even if someone can read, how many Web sites and wikis are written in SiSwati or isiZulu? Feh. These are just details to ignore.
The poor kids in Africa ARE exactly the same as poor kids in the United States, you racist ass. They have the same aspirations, the same drive, and most importantly they just as smart. Give them the tools to express themselves with something like the OLPC and even a racist little dick like John here would be amazed at the results. Maybe the plan is to have the kids write the websites and wikis in SiSwati or isiZulu? That’s the whole fucking point!
I’m sure the $200 of rice would REALLY improve the chances of a school kid in Africa getting into College, right? Food aid is the bandaid of relief work. It never really fixes the underlying problem, but just patches the symptoms. By all means, John, keep on applying bandaid to the problem. I’m sure in 200 years you’ll see some progress. But hey, at least you can feel good about “doing your part”. Dick.
Dvorak also fails to realize that I can give BOTH the rice and the laptop, if I so choose. I sure hope he’s giving more than $200 a year in charity, because if he isn’t, he’s seriously cheap.
The real motivation behind the article, I suspect, is his aggravation that the unholy Intel/Microsoft alliance didn’t get to ship a few million Windows machines to the poor, poor starving children.
But there’s one positive thing that came out from me reading his stupidity. I am going to send OLPC some of my money. I wasn’t really convinced they’re gonna succeed in their plan, but after reading the rant from Dvorak, I want them to succeed, so I’ll do my part to make that happen.
-TPP
The New York Magazine writer Chris Smith has written a rather harsh article on Rudy Giuliani, his overbearing ego and inflated claims of his accomplishments in New York City.
The article goes on to document how most of Giualini’s most important accomplishments were all either results of him being at the right place at the right time to benefit from positive results of programs started by the previous administration, other people in the NYC Government (like City Hall) or just background noise from the upturn of the economy as a whole. Never mind what the reason though, Rudy is here now to take the credit even for “accomplishments” he actually opposed. For example a tax cut proposed by New York City Council Giuliani fought against for two years before it was passed. He also claims credit for lowering taxes in NYC 23 times. The article documents eight of those tax cuts were because the New York State in Albany decided on them. Giuliani had nothing to do with getting them done.
The article also says Giuliani was accustomed to appointing relatives and other acquaintances to positions of influence in the NYC Government over other qualified candidates. Sounds kinda like what another Republican Power Family is doing in Washington, don’t you think? It’s working real well for that family, too.
But the biggest problem the writer sees with Giuliani’s campaign claims is that he’s somehow the savior of New York City who brought the city up from the gutter to be the playground for tourists from all over. The writer quotes Ed Koch, an ex-Mayor of New York City:
“It’s insulting to every New Yorker that he goes around the country talking as if he thinks he was the animal tamer and we were the animalsâ€
Yet even that pales in comparison to Giuliani’s character. His questionable professional relationships (e.g. Commissioner Kerik), his petty ways of dealing with the women in his life and the schoolyard bully tactics he goes into when faced with resistance from other people. Fitting for a President? Not according to New Yorkers.
-TPP
The Russian Parliamentary election results are in, and Chechnya ends up shining as the glorious example to the rest of the Soviet Union, um, Russia.
It seems that in this country, which was attacked by the Russians and Putin was the one who ordered the attack, 99% of eligible voters ended up voting. That, in itself, is pretty remarkable, almost Soviet-like (in Soviet Union, it would’ve been 100%, but, hey, who’s counting!). But even more remarkable is that 99% of the voters voted for the party led by Putin, the man who ordered Russia’s troops into Chechnya.
And if you believe those results, call me, I’ve got some grade A steel construction to sell you between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
-TPP
Watch an interesting video of Russian election officers in Moscow polling station 730 stuff the ballot box with votes presumably for Dictator Putin’s party.
It really can’t be more obvious than that. Well done Putin!
The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum is covering the widespread fraud in Russian Parliamentary Elections quite excellently.
-TPP
I just watched a really interesting segment of Now on PBS. It was about problems with voting in the United States and how the Department of Justice is no longer interested in enforcing laws that guarantee every eligible voter gets to vote.
Instead it seems the Department of Justice has been co opted by the neo-conservative arm of the Republican Party to work on making sure non-Republican voters can not vote. As a result the arm of the DOJ that is supposed to protect Americans’ right to vote has seen half of its career lawyers leave during the Bush Administration years. During the past five years the DOJ hasn’t brought on a single lawsuit in favor of voters whose right to vote have been illegally denied. It’s the first time in history that’s happened.
The Republican Party is actively engaging in several different practices that aim to remove seemingly “unrepublican” voters from the voter registries across the country but specifically in battleground states. What kind of a democratic institution would do that? China does that. Russia does that. Saddam Hussein did that.
What’s even more sad than catching the Republicans with their pants down giving it to the American public while they’re on their knees is that nobody but the PBS is covering it. Not a single mainstream media outlet is reporting on the issue other than in passing. Here you have the ruling party actively, and almost certainly illegally, preventing eligible voters from voting, for years, and people don’t even know, because nobody is talking about it.
What the hell.
-TPP
If the Burmese Government was as smart about suppressing free speech and civil rights as the Russian Government is, they would’ve probably already killed all the monks in the country and gotten a medal for it from the US.
The latest tactic by the Russian Government to shut down critics involves raiding the offices of newspapers and political activists in search of pirated software. It’s pretty ingenious really when you think about it. The United States has pressed Russia for stronger intellectual property protection laws and enforcement for years. I don’t think this is what the US bargained for however.
The Washington Post is writing that in the past 10 months several newspapers, advocacy groups and political activists have been raided, their computer equipment has been confiscated and staff has been detained for questioning because alleged use of pirated software in at least five different cities.
-TPP
Born November 9th 2007 at 9:53am EST.
She is beautiful.
-TPP
Looks like in its never ending quest to copy everything American Finland’s taken yet another step.
A high school student in Tuusula, Finland went on a shooting spree in his school killing 8 people earlier today.
It appears the shooter gave several clues about his intentions before the shooting. He was wearing shirts with gun imagery, drawing pictures of shootings and even placed a video titled “Jokela High School Massacre – 11/7/2007″ on YouTube before the shooting. He told others who asked about his behavior that he was just joking.
The shooter was arrested. There is no death penalty in Finland. Shame really. Although it might be unnecessary as the shooter shot himself in the head and is now in an intensive care unit in critical condition. Doctors are saying his prognosis is not good.
Update: The shooter has died in the hospital without gaining consciousness.
-TPP
Kimi Räikkönen today became the third Finn to win a Formula One World Championship. The other two are Keke Rosberg (1982), and two-time champion Mika Häkkinen (1998, 1999).
The Kimster won the championship despite seemingly unsurmountable obstacles having been 7 points behind the championship leader Lewis Hamilton, and 3 points behind Fernando Alonso. The Iceman had 100 points, Fernando Alonso 103 points and Lewis Hamilton 107 points before the final race. Not only that, but he started 3rd on the starting grid behind Lewis Hamilton and in front of Fernando Alonso.
In the race results Kimi was first gaining 10 points, Alonso third gaining 6 points, and Hamilton 7th gaining 2 points.
The final championship points are:
Kimi: 110 points
Hamilton: 109 points
Alonso: 109 points
Kimi is the World Champion by 1 point!
Finally his bad luck is gone. He’s been constantly the fastest racer on the track for the past 3 years, but reliability problems with his cars has kept him from winning the world championship until now.
Congratulations Kimi!
-TPP