3,005 hits since February 2, 2002 seemed like a fine place to reset our counter. Especially since over 1,000 of them came in the last month.
First of all, I’d like to thank the academy…
How many people have reached your site by searching Yahoo! for Crtoon of Ancient Greek Encryption?
I thought so
Seems like this site is trying to steal our Louis Vuitton Takashi Bags search terms. A show of hands, should we declare war?
Please, no more war 
Especailly not when that site is also number one on google for I’ve really been enjoying geisha that makes it feel warm and use props in a demonstration for peace
Jean,
I MUST be more careful about my choice of words 
UltraBob
They are also number one for “I’ve really been enjoying geisha that makes it feel” since Google only accepts ten search terms.
Your point is well taken Kevin, and we hereby declare a truce, although we must warn against further incursions into our search term territory.
UltraBob
Oh, no worries, I was just kidding
Those search terms that appear in the logs for my site are actually pretty funny. I’d never really bothered to check them out. I’m still trying to figure out how “cosplayzelda” made it to my site…
Jean,
Ok, I have a good solution. You can have Louis Vuitton Takashi bag (currently number 31 on google, but sure to rise soon) in exchange for cosplay zelda. You can’t have Saddam Dixie Chicks though, it’s bringing me about 100 hits a day right now.
UltraBob
Oh, I never thought of checking Google lists for search terms. Now you’ve given me ideas…
Get your war on!
No deal, it require two votes on our security counsel to declare a truce. I demand reperations for you stealing some of our vuitton searchers, then I will consider terms of peace
As promised, here is the text of Robin Cook’s resignation speech, thanks to Stuart Woodward for pointing it out to me:
from BBC News
This is the first time for 20 years that I have addressed the House from the back benches.
I must confess that I had forgotten how much better the view is from here.
None of those 20 years were more enjoyable or more rewarding than the past two, in which I have had the immense privilege of serving this House as Leader of the House, which were made all the more enjoyable, Mr Speaker, by the opportunity of working closely with you.
It was frequently the necessity for me as Leader of the House to talk my way out of accusations that a statement had been preceded by a press interview.
On this occasion I can say with complete confidence that no press interview has been given before this statement.
I have chosen to address the House first on why I cannot support a war without international agreement or domestic support.
Backing Blair
The present Prime Minister is the most successful leader of the Labour party in my lifetime.
I hope that he will continue to be the leader of our party, and I hope that he will continue to be successful. I have no sympathy with, and I will give no comfort to, those who want to use this crisis to displace him.
I applaud the heroic efforts that the prime minister has made in trying to secure a second resolution.
I do not think that anybody could have done better than the foreign secretary in working to get support for a second resolution within the Security Council.
But the very intensity of those attempts underlines how important it was to succeed.
Now that those attempts have failed, we cannot pretend that getting a second resolution was of no importance.
French intransigence?
France has been at the receiving end of bucket loads of commentary in recent days.
It is not France alone that wants more time for inspections. Germany wants more time for inspections; Russia wants more time for inspections; indeed, at no time have we signed up even the minimum necessary to carry a second resolution.
We delude ourselves if we think that the degree of international hostility is all the result of President Chirac.
The reality is that Britain is being asked to embark on a war without agreement in any of the international bodies of which we are a leading partner – not NATO, not the European Union and, now, not the Security Council.
To end up in such diplomatic weakness is a serious reverse.
Only a year ago, we and the United States were part of a coalition against terrorism that was wider and more diverse than I would ever have imagined possible.
‘Heavy price’
History will be astonished at the diplomatic miscalculations that led so quickly to the disintegration of that powerful coalition.
The US can afford to go it alone, but Britain is not a superpower.
Our interests are best protected not by unilateral action but by multilateral agreement and a world order governed by rules.
Yet tonight the international partnerships most important to us are weakened: the European Union is divided; the Security Council is in stalemate.
Those are heavy casualties of a war in which a shot has yet to be fired.
I have heard some parallels between military action in these circumstances and the military action that we took in Kosovo. There was no doubt about the multilateral support that we had for the action that we took in Kosovo.
It was supported by NATO; it was supported by the European Union; it was supported by every single one of the seven neighbours in the region. France and Germany were our active allies.
It is precisely because we have none of that support in this case that it was all the more important to get agreement in the Security Council as the last hope of demonstrating international agreement.
Public doubts
The legal basis for our action in Kosovo was the need to respond to an urgent and compelling humanitarian crisis.
Our difficulty in getting support this time is that neither the international community nor the British public is persuaded that there is an urgent and compelling reason for this military action in Iraq.
The threshold for war should always be high.
None of us can predict the death toll of civilians from the forthcoming bombardment of Iraq, but the US warning of a bombing campaign that will “shock and awe” makes it likely that casualties will be numbered at least in the thousands.
I am confident that British servicemen and women will acquit themselves with professionalism and with courage. I hope that they all come back.
I hope that Saddam, even now, will quit Baghdad and avert war, but it is false to argue that only those who support war support our troops.
It is entirely legitimate to support our troops while seeking an alternative to the conflict that will put those troops at risk.
Nor is it fair to accuse those of us who want longer for inspections of not having an alternative strategy.
For four years as foreign secretary I was partly responsible for the western strategy of containment.
Over the past decade that strategy destroyed more weapons than in the Gulf war, dismantled Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme and halted Saddam’s medium and long-range missiles programmes.
Iraq’s military strength is now less than half its size than at the time of the last Gulf war.
Threat questioned
Ironically, it is only because Iraq’s military forces are so weak that we can even contemplate its invasion. Some advocates of conflict claim that Saddam’s forces are so weak, so demoralised and so badly equipped that the war will be over in a few days.
We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat.
Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term – namely a credible device capable of being delivered against a strategic city target.
It probably still has biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions, but it has had them since the 1980s when US companies sold Saddam anthrax agents and the then British Government approved chemical and munitions factories.
Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to create?
Why is it necessary to resort to war this week, while Saddam’s ambition to complete his weapons programme is blocked by the presence of UN inspectors?
Israeli breaches
Only a couple of weeks ago, Hans Blix told the Security Council that the key remaining disarmament tasks could be completed within months.
I have heard it said that Iraq has had not months but 12 years in which to complete disarmament, and that our patience is exhausted.
Yet it is more than 30 years since resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
We do not express the same impatience with the persistent refusal of Israel to comply.
I welcome the strong personal commitment that the prime minister has given to middle east peace, but Britain’s positive role in the middle east does not redress the strong sense of injustice throughout the Muslim world at what it sees as one rule for the allies of the US and another rule for the rest.
Nor is our credibility helped by the appearance that our partners in Washington are less interested in disarmament than they are in regime change in Iraq.
That explains why any evidence that inspections may be showing progress is greeted in Washington not with satisfaction but with consternation: it reduces the case for war.
Presidential differences
What has come to trouble me most over past weeks is the suspicion that if the hanging chads in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops.
The longer that I have served in this place, the greater the respect I have for the good sense and collective wisdom of the British people.
On Iraq, I believe that the prevailing mood of the British people is sound. They do not doubt that Saddam is a brutal dictator, but they are not persuaded that he is a clear and present danger to Britain.
They want inspections to be given a chance, and they suspect that they are being pushed too quickly into conflict by a US Administration with an agenda of its own.
Above all, they are uneasy at Britain going out on a limb on a military adventure without a broader international coalition and against the hostility of many of our traditional allies.
From the start of the present crisis, I have insisted, as Leader of the House, on the right of this place to vote on whether Britain should go to war.
It has been a favourite theme of commentators that this House no longer occupies a central role in British politics.
Nothing could better demonstrate that they are wrong than for this House to stop the commitment of troops in a war that has neither international agreement nor domestic support.
I intend to join those tomorrow night who will vote against military action now. It is for that reason, and for that reason alone, and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the government.
Heh. I was about to include the very same thing in my blog, too. I have a lot of respect for Robin Cook’s position on these issues.
If only we had more people like Cook in the U.S. I had hope for a while that Powell would resign over principles, but it seems that he has long since discarded any principles he may have had.
I took a walk through my town (Zushi, Japan) last week, just to look around and take pictures. I saw things that I have never noticed, as I went through town on one errand or another. It occurred to me that we miss most of the beauty of our surroundings by being too busy to look around us. I discovered a ballet school very near my apartment that I had no idea existed. Looking back on my pictures, I realized that the area I am in is much more beautiful than I had realized. I hope that everyone can discover more about the area around them, and share it with the rest of the world.
To facilitate this, I have started the neighborhood project. I would like everyone who can manage it to take an hour, and walk around their neighborhood taking pictures. Send me the photos, and I’ll add them to “The Neighborhood Project”.
Eventually, I hope to put this up as a site where you can zoom in and see local views of places all over the world. Please post your pictures, discover the beauty of your neighborhood, and share it with the world. Of course, if your neighborhood isn’t beautiful, you’ll want to warn everyone about it…
That’s an kewl idea! Looking through your photos makes me want to go through the town I recently moved to(Ogikubo) and blog about it. Create an image map with links to the photos and blog entry for that spot .. then create a map showing who’s blogging what area. Then a world map .. zoomable of course. Interlinked neighborhood blogs.
Wow Chris!
That sounds like a pretty cool idea. Maybe I can make that a reality, when I get enough photos up to make a map worthwhile. If you provide me with a blog link for your posts, I can put them up on the captions of the photos.
You’ve given me a whole bunch of new ideas too, I hope the response on this is big enough, because there is a lot of stuff I’d like to do.
UltraBob
Hi!!
I’m in...I think it’s a great idea...to show the nooks and crannies of where we all live instead of the typical touristy images people get of Japan. Plus I absolutely love my neighborhood and with the weather making me want to dance with joy, I’ll begin walking around more. I’ll gather a bunch and will send them on soon.
: )
I hope you have a big hard drive 
I also wish I remembered where I saw a link a while back about a (very rich) guy in Calafornia. who was flying a helicoptor along the coast and taking hi-res photos of every inch to post on the web. This was mostly to expose companies that were dumping waste and over developing and destroying the coast. He was going to make a time line type of thing where you could se how any particular spot cahnged in a certain time period.
I like the idea too, but unlike you I am a very negative person, and the more I look closely at Tokyo and my surroundings, the more I think we are killing ourselves. Sure there are some interesting nooks and crannies, and lots of sakura for sure, but I have grown caloused and long for an open field where I can breathe and see stars and eat fresh veggies without chemicals… (I almost moved to a great place in Fujino before someone stole the apartment I had my eye on)
I’ll have some photos for you of my neighborhood (which actually kicks some regular urban neighborhood butt) as soon as I go through my archives
Oh yeah, I also saw this site with a map of NYC bloggers a while back. A little different in that it doesn’t have the photos. but the map-to-blogger idea is similar. I may inspire you.
The sort of virtual space (web) to real space (geolocation) activity is a bit of a zeitgeist at the moment.
I’ve been working on a system myself, the first portion of which is a java applet that provides a globe which the user can spin around, zoom in on points and cause the web browser to load a URL associated with the point and simultaneously (using browser frames) a mapquest map or satellite photo of the same location. Points are attached to the globe using XML data. See headmap: blogosphere for more details on that. When you get your project running I’d like to try to hook a globe applet up to it.
I also wrote a system a few years ago that allows you to string a set of photos together into a navigable web tour (See Photour). A similar system could be useful if you get enough photos of a location.
Kevin,
If this takes off, I will definitely have to install more hard drive space in my server. To get me started I have a spare 70Gb drive to add, so that should last me for a while. Backing up is what I’m concerned about.
I really look forward to getting your submissions, and I will be putting up a page for people to submit soon. Right now, I am taking the submissions by e-mail, so please let me know ahead of time before you send anything. I will then make sure that my e-mail box can handle the load.
Thanks a lot for writing,
UltraBob
Dav,
You are a crazy genius! I had noticed the blogsphere thing on your page before, but didn’t know you were actually working on making it. I would really like to have a link between the two projects, that would be extremely cool. I would really like for people to be able to scroll around the globe and find pictures of neighborhoods they are interested in, find pictures of a random neighborhood, or search by postal code. Please let me know by e-mail, what information I need to gather with the photos to make it work with your system. My address (in paranoid anti-spam format) is ultrabob AT REMOVEME.t4ac.com.
I look forward to discussing with you how we could make this happen.
UltraBob
Hi UltraBob,
All you currently need is the lat/long to associate with any URI. The XML file the globe applet needs simply requires four things 1) latitude 2) longitude 3) url 4) descriptive name. It could be as simple as indicating the general lat/long for each neighborhood and then we can link that point on the globe to your main photo page for the neighborhood.
Of course sometime in the future digital cameras will include GPS information with each photo, at that point any geo-coded system will be much more detailed (and systems like the one you’re thinking of will be rather commonplace I would think).
So, for your project, just ask people to try to determine the lat/lon for their neighborhood when they submit their photos. I would point them to http://www.geourl.org/resources.html for information on how to find their lat/lon. Specific to Japan there is http://www.mapfan.com/. That’s what I used to find Mie’s neighborhood when I added her to geourl.org. That was a fun adventure, since it’s almost wholly in kana and I don’t read kana; it helps to do the “View Only This Frame” option on your web browser as you’re using the maps to zero in on a location, that way you can see the lat/lon in the URL, such as this one: http://www.mapfan.com/map.cgi?ZM=2&SbmtPB=MAP↦=E139.28.51.1N35.39.56.6&Func=INDEX&&.
Note however that those coordinates in that URL are in arc format not decimal, in other words it is degrees/minutes/seconds, so you need to translate that to decimal format (easy to do, use this tool: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html) Oh yeah incidentally you’d probably want to submit each one of your neighborhood URL’s to geourl.org also.
Oh by the way, I’d really suggest taking the time to set up a web form to handle submissions rather than plain email. A little work up front will save you a lot of work down the road. Since you already have the ability to run perl based cgi’s on your server (I’m typing into one now, heh) then it shouldn’t be too difficult…
Hey check this out:
seamless city.
Dav,
Cool site, thanks for the link. I am working on the form for photo submissions that you suggested I make now, and hope to have it up within the week. Perl’s not really my strength so I’m doing it in PHP.
I run my own server so I can run whatever I want on it as long as I can figure out how to do it, which I’m sure is a lot more of a limit for me than it is for you.
I’ll let you know when I’ve got it up, and maybe you’ll have suggestions for how to make it better.
Also, I hope that you have some photos you can contribute too. You’re in S.F. as well right? I love that town, if I went back to the states, that is high on the list of places I’d want to live. Of course in the seemingly McCarthyist tone of America I don’t feel very inclined to move back there now.
thanks again,
UltraBob
The Seamless City project looks like fun. How about something similar except take shots from where you live or a certain start point and then goto the closest station.
Hi UltraBob,
About my neighborhood some photos here:
[url=http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/woon3.html]http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/woon3.html[/url]
[url=http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/woon4.html]http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/woon4.html[/url]
[url=http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/woon5.html]http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/woon5.html[/url]
and
[url=http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/wie.html]http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/wie.html[/url]
[url=http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/wie2.html]http://www.belgium.co.jp/vincentvds/wie2.html[/url]
I live in Noge-cho, near Sakuragicho-eki in Yokohama. Noge is an old neighborhood with omiya’s, bars… Was a poor area. The contrast between this Noge and modern Waterfront Area Minato Mirai 21 is enormous. Nice old neighborhood, but I like also to escape once in a while to the nearby shopping malls and the seaside parks at MM21.
Zushi Rocks! I have been to Hayama twice. Each time I was amazed at the communication between neighbors. People actually spoke to each other! One guy remembered me from the visit I had made two years previous. One housewife would shout hello to me as I walked past her kitchen window. Absolutely wonderful place. Tokyo proper sucks.
I need to move.
hi this pade is total crap nothing good and i was lookind for duo decimal system.
Michael Moore just appeared briefly on CNN, and he was brilliant. He explained his performance at the Academy Awards, and pointed out that in the footage of the audience, there was almost no one standing and booing. He also pointed out that the loudest boos were coming in over a microphone, which he thought was backstage. I was happy to hear his explanation of that, but that is neither here nor there.
What I really liked was when the reporter questioned his statement that his views were in synch with the majority of Americans. She said looking at the recent polls would suggest that you are not in the majority, and that polls show that an increasing majority of Americans support the war. Michael Moore replied that the people being polled are the people who have friends, children, and neighbors over there, and they want them to come home. Of course they have to support them. I think that that is a very important distinction: I think most people support the troops, but not the war. The pro-war protests, they were mostly organized by Clear Channel Communications – this info courtesy of a generally brilliant post on V-2.org
Anyway, the reporter sat there speechless for a minute, and then told Michael Moore, thank you for being here, we have to go on to something else now.
His closing statement, when the CNN reporter told him they’d have to go on to someone else after about one minute on the screen? – “Gotta get back to the generals right?”
Brilliant, just Brilliant!
I have yet to see any evidence that there is anyone who does not support our troops. I think that everyone can agree that our armed forces deserve nothing less than our unconditional support.
That being said, however, I think that Moore is right on target about being critical of the president, who deserves nothing more than our unreserved skepticism.
You can argue that an awards ceremony is not the place for political statements (although I personally don’t see why not), or that Moore’s message was over the top (although I personally was pleased to see such passionate outrage on display), but you cannot deny that Michael Moore believes in patriotic dissent.
Well, God bless him, so do I!
While I do hope that all of our troops come home safely, I actually don’t think I can in good conscience support them in their actions. Under military code soldiers are requirted to refust to follow orders that are against the law, and I think (NOTE: this is debateable, but it is my opinion) that any soldiers involved in this are in violation of international law, and are hence in violation of their own military code. To put it clearly and nearly certainly controversially they are war criminals. I wish them no harm, but they are frankly murdering innocents on the orders of a thief.
Whether this is in opposition to what you are saying or not, I’m not sure.
UltraBob
Interesting point. I agree that soldiers should refuse to comply with orders that are clearly illegal, but there seems to be a large gray area surrounding the legality of this particular conflict. Are the cumulative U.N. resolutions tantamount to a legal sanction, as Bush claims? I tend to think not, but it seems that the jury is still out on that issue.
Frankly, I think that the Bush administration should be held collectively accountable for all of the war crimes that take place in Iraq. Bush may be a thief, but he’s still in charge, unfortunately.
I would be very glad to see him impeached and turned over to an international war crimes tribunal (particularly if the allegations of forged documents knowingly being used as “evidence” are shown to hold any water), but there seems to be little support for such action just now.
But I cannot bring myself to condemn our troops in this situation. This war is unprecedented, leaving them in uncharted territory. The sole responsibility for this war belongs to Bush. Whatever goes wrong should be placed squarely on his head, not our troops.
The other day, when hanging out with an International crowd, and the topic turned to the war, and supporting the war, I was asked by an Italian frined… “Do you support your troops?” It was the first time I had ever been asked that question, as opposed to “do you support the war”. I accused him of trying to be a sneaky bastish and said “of course I support the troops, they didn’t make the decision to go there, but I sure don’t support crazy-boy-Bush!”
(ok… maybe I didn’t say “crazy-boy")
I don’t claim to have read the military code, but how does it define illeagal? Sommeone must have to decide diffinitivly that it is illeagal, or else it is leagal… If any group with the authority had previously declaired that the war was illeagal, and the soldiers continued to follow oreders they knew where illeagal, then there may be a case for holding them responsible.
But that hasn’t happened, and what if it was you? I simply didn’t join the armed forces to increase the chance that I would not be in the position to kill or be killed, or follow orders I don’t agree with. But some people aren’t as fortunate as I am and having collage paid for is pretty enticing.
I also think about what kind of things I do at work that I don’t agree with. Nothing illeagal, but still, it is easy to have strong morals when your not in the position. Compares to the military, and being ordered to go to Iraq and fight, my job is a complete joke. Yet I wind up doing things I don’t totally agree with…
First think of yourself in their position, and then decide if they are war criminals or victims. The decision makers, whose “chose” to enter the situation should be held accoutnable, but not those who are only following orders which are not clearly illeagal.
I’m sure there are some crazy bastards who join because they like the thought of war and guns and killing people, but I have never met any of them myself… I just read about them in all those Gun magazines at the newsrack.
Kevin and Sako,
I guess I should make my views a bit clearer. What I meant is that I feel that what our soldiers are doing abroad is a crime, and I do not support it. I do however understand that, although I would have sooner broken my own leg than go to war with Iraq, it is hard for the individual troops to make a stand on this issue in light of the fuzzy issue of international law and especially given their constant indoctrination by the military.
I do not propose trying all of our soldiers as war criminals by any means, although I feel that they are committing war crimes. I, as Sako, believe that Bush should be held responsible for these crimes, I would however also include any officer above the rank (or it’s non-army equivalent) of Captain because they have the education and access to information to know better. I also don’t want to forget Cheney, Powell, and the rest of Bush’s cabinet. I feel very strongly about this issue, but I’m not saying we should blame the soldiery for the decisions of their leaders.
UltraBob
I bought a wireless lan access point so that I would be able to watch tv in the living room while I work. I love the wireless lan, but am less enamored with CNN, the only English news available to me here all day long.
I’ve been particularly outraged today to here CNN report that there is mounting evidence of possible chemical weapon use by Iraq. As an argument, they cite the fact that several chemical and biological attack defense measures have been found. Including Atropine (sic?) injections, and chemical protection suits. It should be obvious to anyone that defensive measures do not mean that you have offensive chemical weapons or that you plan to use them. The things mentioned above are standard parts of any U.S. servicemans gear. The U.S. military wouldn’t be caught without these things.
To be fair, CNN’s Aaron Brown seems to have always been willing to play devils advocate to these kind of claims, and just brought up the question to retired major from the U.S. military who dodged the question. At any rate, I am on the lookout for some good independent media sources. Anyone know of any?
Just remember. Independent doesn’t mean unbiased.
Brian,
Good point, and I’m very aware of it. As you can read in the post, I am exposed to primarily corporate media which is very much in Bush’s camp. I want independent media, not because I feel it is unbiased (guess my post title was wrong), but for two other reasons:
<ol><li>To provide a balance to the corporate media that I am deluged with</li>
<li>Because I feel that independent media is much more to be biased in the same way that I am since they are not the possessions of major oil-related companies</li></ol>
Hope that makes my position and my post clearer.
UltraBob
Rachna,
Thanks for the link, but I’m sure that I’m the one who told you about that one, whether you admit it or not.
UltraBob
Everyone knows NPR is quite lefty = biased of course, but at least it is a different bias than righty, and there are really great informative programs available online. My favorite are
The Connection
And
Talk Of The Nation
both of which have 2 hours every day of “expert” guests and call-ins from regular folk in the US (of course those regular folk have to pass by the program screeners)
Kevin,
I had forgotten about NPR. I’ll take a listen today.
UltraBob
You are an idiot....and next time the towel heads attack us it might be you...you dumbass
Hi Keith,
I didn’t want your brilliance confined to the comments page, so I moved it up to the main page. Please see my response to your comment here.
UltraBob
With over 250 members and still rising fast, The NewsNighters Club was formed for the best news anchor and man in general, Mr. Aaron Brown of CNN’s NewsNight With Aaron Brown. It’s the 1st ever online club for him. And the best. Aaron appreciates that we have the club in his honor.
GO TO THE NEWSNIGHTERS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aaronbrown/
what about now, it will be interestim whow the counter grows up in over 1 year
6000 at this time ...
My respect! Very interesting site - a good resource for everybody!