Melty

My brain is all melty. I'm doing the smacking quotey bits into my paper thing and OMG not only is it dull and frustrating and makes me realize how much more work I need to do... but it's also making my brain go all melty. My physical body is fine (cold even - I'm in a lab) but my brain is gone.

*melty, melty, melty*

I've been working for over 4 hours total today and I just finished my third page (out of 11) from my draft. Good thing I ate a huge lunch. Must keep working.

3 From the Inbox

Since I managed to completely clean my Inbox out last night I'm going to pass these on now because (a) they're interesting and (b) then I can delete them and have a tidy Inbox again *tehehehe*

(1) Is a short editorial from the NYT, which pretty much gets at one of the keys to most on-going conflicts (though its focus is Israel-Palestine) - it's often the extremists who keep it going. Two nice quotes: "The enemies of peace are the fanatics on both sides: those who reject any compromise, those who claim that the other side has the right only to die or to disappear." and one of my favorite (maybe because I feel like doing a little name-calling right now) "The answer is simple: the leaders on both sides are cowards.". The editorial is archived by JUSTWATCH here

(2) For those who are worried about the Patriot Act - it looks like John Ashcroft will be going to major cities to talk about it. I haven't got much info yet, but Common Cause has a smidge here and if anything else comes my way I'll pass it on, since I know more than a few of you are interested in the topic. Maybe you can go and ask uncomfortable questions. The only thing (possibly)better than aiming the "rubber chicken canon" at a politician is watching one squirm. [EDIT: I just found an article over at Yahoo!, which you can go read here.]

(3)Finally in the "crappy news" section. The car bomb that exploded in Baghdad, killing 17 and injuring 100 killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UNs top representative in Iraq. Since the bomb exploded right underneath his office window (located in a hotel), they are thinking that Vieira de Mello was the intended target. Among other things, he became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2002 and was at one point the special representative for Kofi Annan in Kosovo. He wasn't perfect by any means, but he did try and do good work . You can read one of the CNN reports here

All right, that's it for me. It's either bedtime or worktime now and I'm going to go decide which. Enjoy my bits and bobs.