Proceedings of the Radial Symmetry Institute

Dr Mozillalove

Or how I learned to stop worrying and get rid of Outlook (mostly).

For some time now I have been trying to figure out how to divorce myself from the Microsoft Virus Delivery System, also known as Outlook, and still be able to function in my office's Exchange-centric communications world. I have finally arrived at the point where I only need to fire up Outlook for a few seconds once a day. Read on to learn how I did this.

City of the future

We're number 3! We're number 3! Of course we used to be number 2. San Antonio is now the second largest city in Texas (after Houston). Dallas has slipped to number 3.

Rooh Afza

The other day I was at the store and on a whim I picked up a bottle of Rooh Afza, the summer drink of the east. It seems to be made in Pakistan according to the bottle, but the website says it's made in India. Maybe it is made in both and the bottle I got came from the Pakistani factory.

It is a red syrup that you mix in cold water or milk. I've only tried it in water. It is very, very, very sweet with a slight taste or aroma of something else that makes it seem sort of exotic. There are various flowers and other flavorings listed, but the overwhelming taste is just sugar. Interesting enough I guess. I'll probably finish the bottle I've got, but I probably won't get it again.

Maybe it would mix well with rum or vodka.

Forgotten news

Seems like the case of Maher Arar is still a big deal up in Canada, even if the US press and government seem to have forgotten about it. The Canadian government's official inquiry got underway this week. Be interesting to see if anybody in the US notices.

Sunningdale for Extremely Slow Learners

Yesterday Danny Morrison posted a great article called The Real Slow Learners on his website. It's a great article, but not for the reasons he intended. He's on the defensive about the use of the phrase Sunningdale for Slow Learners to describe the Surrender Agreement of 1998, but he's not on the defensive for the reasons you'd think. He's on the defensive against the SDLP, who think the IRA wasted 25 years and many lives by accepting in 1998 basically the same agreement they rejected in 1974. He argues against the SDLP that the IRA was justified in rejecting the agreement in 1974 for various reasons, and he's right. He shouldn't be bothering to try to win that argument. But by throwing up a big smokescreen against the 1974 agreement, he hopes to obscure the fact that you could change the year and make the same arguments about the 1998 agreement. The problem isn't that the IRA rejected the 1974 agreement, it's that it accepted the 1998 agreement.

He also includes the closest I've heard an Adams insider come to admitting that they have surrendered. Referring to the situation before the current cease fire, he says But when a clear military stalemate emerged, even after the re-arming of the IRA, republicans had to examine the option of ceasefiring and negotiating in a way that would optimise gains and might do justice, if that were ever possible, to the suffering and sacrifices of the past.

He also brings up the MI5 speech I blogged about a while back. That story sounded odd at the time and now it's apparent what the deal was. It was leaked to the press by somebody to make it look like the Brits thought the Adams IRA had won something, to bolster their credentials as republicans and keep the republican masses in the PSF fold.

Thanks to micheailin's Irish Republican Fenian Blog for the link. I used to read dannymorrison.ie back in the days of the Badger's Sett but haven't for months now because he doesn't have an RSS or Atom feed.

More branches down

Surfing my way through the blogroll while waiting for the rain to stop so I can pick up the 3 large branches in the yard and one on the roof. A joke stolen from Dive Into Mark. A joke told by a former English major:

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Fuck.
Fuck who?
No, fuck whom?