ZHAO II And How To Make It a Personal Dance Machine
Okay, this actually makes a certain amount of sense, except that I have multiple versions of the animation overrider, in folders with different outfits.
If this makes no sense to you, relax, it’s a mini-post.
The Chinese view:
Zimbabwe police reaffirm zero tolerance to violence_English_Xinhua
HARARE, June 22 (Xinhua) — Police in Zimbabwe have reaffirmed zero tolerance to violence before, after and during the June 27 presidential run-off elections, local media reported on Sunday.
The Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Augustine Chihuri, said the MDC-T party and its leadership are to blame for causing political violence in the country.
Commissioner General Chihuri chronicled some of the incidents of political violence perpetrated by the MDC-T from the time of the launch of the opposition party’s campaign in Mutare.
He said the force is intensifying deployment of officers ahead of the presidential election run off on Friday.
Meanwhile, a total of 390 MDC-T activists and 156 Zanu PF supporters have been arrested in connection with political violence.
Police have reaffirmed their commitment for zero tolerance on political violence, adding that necessary force will be applied to maintain peace.
Several war veterans and Zanu PF supporters have been killed in Mashonaland east, Manicaland and Masvingo by suspected MDC thugs since the announcement of the results of the March elections.
And then there’s the view of the rest of the world:
Mugabe’s rival Tsvangirai pulls out of election
By Nelson Banya
Reuters
Sunday, June 22, 2008; 10:08 AMHARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence.
Speaking only hours after his opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop “genocide” in the former British colony.
MDC hopes poll pull-out spurs outside action: official
HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change hopes its withdrawal from the June 27 presidential run-off election will prompt “more serious action” from the United Nations, African Union and regional body SADC, an MDC official said on condition of anonymity.
MDC sources said on Sunday that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would announce that he was pulling out of the run-off with President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai will hold a press conference in Harare later on Sunday.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; editing by Paul Simao)
New wave of attacks on Zimbabwe opposition ratchets up the death toll
As the runoff election nears, Robert Mugabe’s regime unleashes violence in urban areas near the capital. A rights group says there have been at least 85 deaths since the March 29 vote.
By a Times Staff Writer
June 22, 2008
HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Still and silent in the darkness last week, opposition activist Sebastian Chipiyo hid in a smelly outhouse, listening, he said, to the agonized shrieks of his brother, Archiford, being beaten just yards away by a mob of ruling party thugs. His colleague, Question Dingo, hid in the hen coop. Others roosted silently in the trees, all listening, terrified.
“I could hear the sound of the beating. It sounded like they were using heavy objects. You could hear it: Bam! Bam!” said Chipiyo, 25. “It was very painful to hear my brother crying. I couldn’t do anything because these guys were carrying guns. We heard him crying, ‘You’ve killed me; you’ve broken my ribs.’
Mugabe rival quits election race
Morgan Tsvangirai announces he will not take part in a presidential run-off, 22/06/08
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he is pulling out of Friday’s presidential run-off, handing victory to President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and “the outcome is determined by… Mugabe himself”.
He called on the global community to step in to prevent “genocide”.
But the ruling Zanu-PF said Mr Tsvangirai had taken the decision to avoid “humiliation” in the poll.
The opposition decision came after its supporters, heading to a rally in the capital Harare, came under attack.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says at least 70 supporters have been killed in recent months.
Here’s a bit more information on the original election and the aftermath of violence – it appears that at least 120,000 “ghost” votes were somehow added to the final tally, which was officially announced (after a long, long delay) as “not an outright win” for Tsvangirai. Each polling place posted the total number of votes for each candidate, and it was a simple matter to collect the data (as it was posted online by several observing groups, so it could be verified). All the counts pointed toward an outright victory, but in the end, the count was mysteriously short.
Which view is likelier to be the true one? China is a major trade partner for Zimbabwe, and almost their only friend outside of Africa.
I’m sad to read that Tsvangirai is pulling out. This is a sad day for the people of Zimbabwe, and the world weeps for them (except for China, of course).
I totally gotta get me one of these, make it, whatever. And then walk around with an ice bukkit. AWESOME!
Thanks, BoingBoing!
BRRRRRRRRRRinnnnnngggg! Telephooooone!
Editorial: A stolen victory would finally damn Mugabe | Comment is free | The Observer
When Zimbabwe’s opposition party meets in Harare tomorrow, it faces the most critical decision of its nine-year existence. In the months leading up to this week’s presidential run-off election, the Movement for Democratic Change has seen supporters brutalised, raped and murdered. They can be sure that more lives will be lost before the polls close, so should they pull out of the race?
Aborting the campaign may halt, at least temporarily, the bloodletting. It would also send a clear signal of protest against the manifest illegitimacy of the poll; after all, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai almost certainly won the first round outright. But pulling out would deny Zimbabweans the opportunity to punish President Robert Mugabe at the ballot box. That expression of dissent, however futile in a rigged election, is one of their few remaining rights.
Meanwhile, This Is Zimbabwe is calling on South Africans to print out flyers for VoteZim.com to be handed out to all Zimbabweans they know who may need information about safely getting home to vote.
I’ve discovered a useful Firefox plugin for blogging: ScribeFire. I’m currently checking to see what it can do, but so far about the only thing is that I can’t seem to find a way to do a mini-post. However, it’s got an option for bookmarking with Technorati Tags to del.icio.us. More playing is warranted.
The slick thing is that it’s a graphical overlay that sits at the bottom of whatever webpage you invoke it on… and you can go from page to page to page, with the edit window open and useable. Rather handy for those kinds of posts where you have to add a lot of URLs and citations. So far I’ve configured it for my Second Life blog, my Flickr blog, and this one.
Technorati Tags: Firefox, Second Life
Obama’s War Chest Drives a 50-State Strategy – NYTimes.com
Less than three weeks after securing the Democratic nomination, Mr. Obama is already dispatching paid staff members to all 50 states, an unusual move by the standards of modern presidential campaigns so often fought in just a contained group of contested territories.
His aides and advisers said they did not believe Obama necessarily has a serious chance of winning in many of the traditionally Republican states, but rather that he can at least draw Mr. McCain into spending time and money there while also swelling the rolls of Democratic voters and supporting other Democrats on the ballot.
This is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind the day after the 2004 Presidential elections, kind of like Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, but with teams of gay couples touring the country in Winnebagoes, distributing fabulousness, demonstrating tolerance, and giving out loves of banana bread.
Imagine people in previously Red states feeling emboldened and empowered to vote Democratic, rather than stay home and assume that there wasn’t any point in voting for the losing side. I suspect that there are a lot more people willing to vote for Democrats in Republican bastion states than we’ve been led to believe. Those “Dumb States” aren’t as think as we dumb they are.
Yes, we can make a difference – and the sweet part is forcing Republican pols to fire up their creaky machines in states where they haven’t had to work too hard to ensure that only the “right” people vote the “right” way.
I was awakened just now by a very loud, highly amplified announcement:
“[FirstName LastName],
This is the [MyTown] Police Department. We need you to answer the phone, and come to the door with your hands in the air. You are under arrest.”
Sometimes they vary it by adding the street address, and adding “we are not going away.”
This started at some time before 5am, and it’s been going on for at least 10 or 15 minutes.
It repeats and repeats, almost like a recorded announcement, quite calmly.
I got up and looked to make sure that no cop car was actually sitting in front of our house, and the announcement seems to be coming from a block or two to the south of us.
David says if I were a serious newsie/blogger I’d get dressed and grab my camera and go out to investigate. I must be a piker, because I have no intention of doing either. Although, it’s a lovely quiet morning, filled with birdsong (and metronomic, echoing arrest announcements).
There, it seems to have stopped. I guess whoever it is finally either answered the phone and came out with his hands up, or the cops figured ou…
Holy crap, two loud BANGs like big firecrackers just went off, and then the announcement sounded a lot more agitated and cajoling. David was at the window and thinks whoever it was is coming out, and that verbiage had changed. Something about “come out with your hands up and walk backwards.”
UPDATE: The story in the very local press (the minor league versions of the major Chicago dailies for the suburban areas) is that it was a domestic dispute, and that someone had barricaded himself in a nearby house last night after midnight for about 5 hours. The two loud bangs were described as “loud booming devices,” or in other words, “flash-bangs” just like they use on TV cop shows. And also, a news helicopter showed up, and I took pictures, but they’re crap and grainy because I used the long lens but not the tripod. But it was ABC7’s “Chopper 7 HD,” although there probably wasn’t much to see by then. It was long after the flash-bangs went off and the announcements stopped.
Now, my husband David claims that if he’d been awake enough to realize that flash-bangs had been used, he would have gotten dressed and walked over with his camera, after first stopping to print out a PRESS pass. Ho ho, I countered, first we need fedoras to stick our DIY press passes, and then we need spiffy pajamas and big fuzzy animal slippers if we want to be REAL blogger-journalists.
Oy. Coming this fall: a full slate of cop dramas, including “CSI: Burbclavia” and “Suburban Confidential.”
Technorati Tags: Arresting Developments
The posts that went up on BoingBoing’s “BBtv” section started early this year: this crazy French-German guy was trying to become the next big American action hero. But who was he? Really? Here’s the most recent BBtv video:
BBtv – Klaus Pierre: Super Pretty Action Hero Star – Boing Boing
There are links to earlier videos, and then if you search YouTube there are other videos, uploaded by the great Klaus Pierre himself. Some of them are very puzzling, as they are completely in French. What? you mean he’s really FRENCH? Intriguing. And then the profile points to his website, KlausPierre.com. Wear sunglasses before clicking the link, not only will you look cool, you’ll be doing yourself a favor, as there are many surprising colors and background images. Oh, the HTMLity! At least there are no blink tags.
But is Klaus Pierre for real? He has a listing at IMDB.com, although it looks a bit like it was tacked on as an afterthought to a cast list for a French short called “Les Anges Malicieux.”
A bit of Googling for the name of the short comes up with an interesting fact: there’s another French-German actor associated with the project, named Arnaud Collery. A comedian, in fact, living in Los Angeles. Who naturally has a blog. With photos.
And the annoying thing is I’m really late to the party, as everyone else that reads BBtv apparently figured it out long ago. But still, it’s quite funny and I’m relieved to find out that Klaus Pierre, action hero in training, is not really running around attacking pirates and chasing after Keanu Reeves look-alikes.
It appears that Arnaud is in China, or perhaps Klaus kidnapped him there, in pursuit of his/their dreams of Olympic gold, silver, bronze, or (most likely) tin. Bon chance, whoever happens to be in control of the nearly buff body of our next big American action hero!
Just fooling with the time/date stamp.
UPDATE: Hmm! I just figured something out. I thought I couldn’t update drafts started via WordPress in Linear (formerly ecto) because WP’s time/date stamps place drafts infinitely deep in my archives, lost in time and space.
However, if I at least edit the Publish On date (I picked a time a minute before the creation time) the post shows up on Linear’s list of “published” posts, although it’s still a draft as far as WordPress is concerned. Which is more like the way it used to behave before WP2.5, when the same function was called “edit time/datestamp” by clicking a little checkbox. So that little impediment is sorted.
Technorati Tags: Linear
