Who Were the Sea Peoples?

From Wikipedia : "Proust was quite close with his mother, despite her wishes that he apply himself to some sort of useful work. In order to appease his father, who insisted that he pursue a career, Proust obtained a volunteer position at the Bibliothèque Mazarine in the summer of 1896. After exerting considerable effort, he immediately obtained a sick leave which was to extend for several years until he was considered to have resigned. He never worked at his job, and he didn't move from his parents' apartment until after both were dead (Tadié)." In other words, the very first thing he did at his new job was take a several year sick leave!

I've ridiculed before the Army's slogan, which suggests that the government military is a bastion of individuality and free expression. On the back of some magazine spam I got at school, there is a full page Army ad that shows a dad with his hand on his young son's shoulder. The caption says: YOU TAUGHT HIM ABOUT RESPECT, HONOR AND COURAGE. IS IT ANY SURPRISE THAT NOW HE WANTS TO USE THEM? I think that this would be a better commercial for the Christian Peacemaker Teams than for the Army. Oh well.

Here's another great article about contradictions on the Right from Lew Rockwell, and here's my mockery of an article talking about scientists wanting to tax soda. (Thanks to Rachael for alerting me to the ridiculous article in question.)

Iraqis told not to cooperate with government security forces -- by the government!

I was with some academic friends Monday. One of them was praising V for Vendetta , which he had just seen over the weekend. He remarked, "Some of the lines in the movie could have come out of the mouth of Ayn Rand." I asked, "So some character said, 'Nathaniel, Frank's not home -- quick, bend me over the back of that couch!'" Feel free to add your own line in the comments.

I just noticed that this week's tropical storms in Australia are not in alphabetical order, so I went to the source to get my head straightened. It seems that each storm developed in a different area and comes under different naming rules. Larry formed in the "Eastern Australian Region"; Wati began its churning over in the "Fiji Region", and Glenda, which is about to pounce, is spinning around in the "Western Australian Region". I suppose this is only of true interest to geeks, but I had to share.

I was listening to some guy on NPR talking about rebuilding New Orleans. He said something like, "We don't want a top-down approach to the rebuilding, with the federal government dictating what businesses and residences will go where." This really warmed my heart. It reminded me of when the Twin Towers got knocked down and people kept asking each other, "What do you think we should put in their place?" My non-interesting answer was, "I imagine the owners of that plot should build whatever yields them the most revenue." My reminiscing was cut short when the NPR guy elaborated and said that local zoning would ensure that what "the community" wanted and needed would be built in the hurricane zone. I found out that it was Haley Barbour (sp?) talking.