Mindbuzz blog

I did want to (finally) get around to posting the obvious: this blog really isn't maintained with any regularity any longer. Since returning from Zimbabwe and settling in to a routine, there hasn't been nearly as much motivation to post new things. I am thinking about experimenting with some new social-networking software and may wind up using this domain for that.

Before I end this post, I do want to share one recent news item. I have a fair number of friends who are quite concerned about how evil Trial Lawyers are ruining our legal system. I can often see and understand particular examples they bring up, but I for one almost always take the side of being able to litigate at will.

So often the McDonalds Coffee example is brought up as "proof" that the system is out of control. To which I say: Coffee is STILL served far too hot at so many places - maybe we need another lawsuit.

But the recent news from the San Diego Zoo makes the case better than most why we should all support our local trial lawyer. You know, the story about how on December 25th a tiger escaped it's enclosure, killed one person and mauled two others. Well, as it turns out:

Three days after the fatal attack, investigations by the San Francisco Police Department disclosed that the Lion House's wall was nearly four feet shorter than the height recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits zoos in the United States.

Whatever else may have been going on (and there are reports that a victim was dangling his legs over the enclosure), I am proud to live in a country where some official in charge of this tiger's pen has to worry quite a bit right now about what the lawyers are going to do.

The wife and I were talking a couple weeks ago, and I made the observation that it seems to no longer be possible to buy a good tomato in this world. Remember a few years back when home-grown tomatos could be sliced up like small red steaks, dashed with a bit of salt, and eaten as a meal?

I was reading some local political blogs and ran across a site called the "Great Firewall of China."

It let's you test out a website and see if it's been blocked by the Chinese government.

Turns out, mindbuzz.net is censored.

Of course, as much as I'd like to think it was due to some of my statements regarding Zimbabwe, it probably has a lot more to do with the content on my videos page - some of which contains a little nudity (even a close up view of a lip-syncing penis in one - makes even me wonder how I determined some things were "funny" enough to share with the world at the time).

So rather than let my chest swell with a little pride that the Chinese government thought their citizens shouldn't read real information on the political situation in one of their allied countries, I guess I'm going to have to settle for being too smutty.

The bragging rights aren't nearly as cool, but I'll take what I can get.

In the meantime, if you live someplace like China, and find yourself unable to visit a site like mine, try using your imagination.

If on the other hand you're looking for real, uncensored information from the outside world, you may want to use a service like Anonymouse.org.

If you'd like to send and receive email without a lot of snooping eyes, try www.hushmail.com. It even has a snoop-proof instant messaging client.

From my little amount of time spent overseas recently, I know that those kinds of tools can be very important to have access too.

Gee, why didn't anyone think of doing that before? This should solve all of Zimbabwe's problems...

A friend at work passed along this article to me from the New York Times:

As Inflation Soars, Zimbabwe Economy Plunges
By MICHAEL WINES

The New York Times
February 7, 2007

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 6 — For close to seven years, Zimbabwe’s economy and quality of life have been in slow, uninterrupted decline. They are still declining this year, people there say, with one notable difference: the pace is no longer so slow.

Indeed, Zimbabwe’s economic descent has picked up so much speed that President Robert G. Mugabe, the nation’s leader for 27 years, is starting to lose support from parts of his own party.

In recent weeks, the national power authority has warned of a collapse of electrical service. A breakdown in water treatment has set off a new outbreak of cholera in the capital, Harare. All public services were cut off in Marondera, a regional capital of 50,000 in eastern Zimbabwe, after the city ran out of money to fix broken equipment. In Chitungwiza, just south of Harare, electricity is supplied only four days a week.

Hello blog readers, or what's left of you.

We are still around and doing well. Amazing how gainful employment cuts down on my blog entries.

My personal computer crashed a little while back too. I need to get a new processor, and that's a larger ticket item so have been putting it off.

Work is going very well - very busy, but in a good way. Joy is currently back in Minnesota visiting family for a few weeks, and I'm here in Seattle taking care of the pets.

One nice thing about Seattle is the weather. It gets a lot of bad press 'cause of the rain, but except for a few days of temps in the mid-90's, we've been enjoying 70 and occasionally 80 degree weather while everyone else we know has suffered through a non-stop 100+ degree Summer. For our non-U.S. friends that's non-stop 40+ degrees celsius.

We'll try to post more, but I can't make any promises till after the November elections.

Someone we know has been in the news quite a bit this week. Here's an interview from allafrica.com:

Radio Voice of the People Trustees Face Trial Over Program
allAfrica.com

INTERVIEW
March 9, 2006
Posted to the web March 9, 2006

By Margaret McElligott
Washington, DC

A case against the six trustees of Zimbabwe's Radio Voice of the People (VOP) will go forward after Magistrate Rebecca Takavadi ruled that the communication trust may have been broadcasting without a license, in violation of the country's strict media laws. However, VOP trustee Isabella Matambanadzo said she and her colleagues have not broken any laws. She said VOP does not do any broadcasting, but instead sends reports to Radio Netherlands, which broadcasts them from outside the country. VOP has been silenced, she said, to prevent independent coverage of events in Zimbabwe.

VOP has been off the air since December when their Harare offices were raided by police. On April 27, the trustees will return to court to find out the date of their trial. Matambanadzo spoke to AllAfrica's Margaret McElligott about the situation last week.

What happened to Radio Voice of the People on Dec. 15?

Plainclothes police officers went to the offices of Radio Voice of the People, which is located on the sixth floor of a high-rise building in Harare, and they produced a warrant of search and seizure. The warrant, according to people who saw it, said they were there to seize any broadcasting equipment that they found. So they looked around and there was no broadcasting equipment, because it's not a station in the traditional sense of a radio station.

They [said]," Where's the broadcast equipment?" People looked at them like, "Are you normal? There is no broadcasting equipment because we don't have any." So they went back to the police station, had the warrant reauthored to permit them to seize any equipment, and they came back. They took letters we had received from people who had enjoyed the programs, they took computers and they took three members of staff. All of them were women. And they held them in police custody for four days.

Then they came back and they took the director, John Masuku. He was also held in custody for four days. Now the difference is that with the members of staff, the three women who were picked up, they weren't charged. They were released without charge, but they were held for four days.