Fahrenheit 9/11

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11, and I wasn't particularly impressed, since it didn't cover much new ground.

It's propaganda, and it has strong anti-capitalist, populist themes.

The last part, which covers the war on Iraq is probably the most effective. The visit to the White House of the grieving mother who lost her son in Iraq was gut-wrenching.

Ironically, despite the film's attack on the PATRIOT act, the movie's very existence indicates that the culture of dissent is alive and well in America. I got a fairly good impression of the American system, and it was reassuring to see that some of America's flag-waving patriots are quite unlike the cretins who inhabit parts of the internet.

Daily Links - 25/09/2004

I wanted to use Blogger's spellchecker, so I clicked on the icon to "temporarily enable popups" in IE. Clicking it wiped my post from the editor...so here's what I could salvage from memory:

• The difficulties of learning Cantonese
• The wheel in the Middle East - lost and found [via Foreign Dispatches]
• Detroit considers "reverse racism" to help majority black population [via Plastic]
• "Blood doping" in athletes
• How deadly are scorpions?
• The Ali G guest recruitment technique
• I did visit the airshow as planned, but, unlike Laurence, we saw the size of the crowd, and didn't go in, watching from a nearby hilltop instead
• Wind forecasting becomes big business
• The end of US welfare capitalism
• Treachery in Britain during World War 2
• This is quite old, but still funny: Things you would never know without the movies
• A feature on an Indian website, 40 years after the anniversary of the 1962 India-China war

Airshow

If the traffic over the last few days is any indication, the airshow this long weekend at Waterkloof Air Force Base will be very well attended.

Some friends phoned this evening, and asked if I wanted to go with, and I am seriously considering their offer. I've seen some of the rehearsals, and the SAAB Gripen will probably put on an amazing display.

Daily Links - 17/09/2004

• Zero-gravity commercial plane rides
  
• Food restrictions for pregnant women
• Some American cities roll out free wireless internet
  
• Is 150 the ideal size for a group of people? [via Gene Expression]
• When I was young, I remember watching people eating sand

I'm swotting for a test, so blogging will be light for a week or so.

Daily Links - 12/09/2004

• History of Buddhism
• Greco-Buddhism

Bonus Links - 11/09/2004

• Cooking for Engineers [via Onlineblog]
• Promoting your blog
• Juan Cole's Al-Qaeda 101

Weekend Links - 11/09/2004

• Wikipedia Links:
• Mains power plugs
• Republic of Macedonia
• Serbia and Montenegro
• American coal prices rising
• The Baltic Dry Index - measuring global economic activity by canvassing raw material shipping costs
• Chechnya discussion on Col Lounsbury's site

Living near an airport

As an aviation enthusiast, I always thought that it would be kind of cool to live near an airport....I found out today that I was wrong (I had to attend a gathering near the airport). The ear-splitting noise of jets taking off is very disruptive.

One has to wonder how the people who live in Kempton Park cope with the noise.

Weekend Links - 04/09/2004

• Salon's Pilot on Russian airliners and post-Soviet aviation
• Winglets on the 737. More information.
• Bill Clinton to undergo heart bypass.
• "Alien signal" report probably an exaggeration.
• California Earthquake predicted by Sunday

Daily Link - 02/09/2004

• The building of athletic tracks