I've been absent for an unusually long time. There's been a lot to write about, but family and work responsibilities have kept me occupied. So, here's a few quick links and thoughts:
There's some good reading (as always) in the December 2002
Harper's. The November 2002 issue also has some great articles, particularly about the U.N. Sanctions against Iraq, and leads off its
Monthly Index with this:
Ratio of Japanese killed in 1945's U.S. atomic-bomb attacks to Iraqi children killed due to U.N. sanctions : 1:3.
I was first made aware of the inhumanity of the ongoing sanctions through a
Michael Moore show a couple of years ago, where they sold gas at discount prices with images of Saddam Hussein plastered all over the gas station
"Who wants to buy gas from the whacky Iraqi?". Lots of people showed up for the discount gas, and the money was used to smuggle food and supplies into Iraq.
Speaking of Michael Moore, I finally saw
Bowling for Columbine this weekend. It was a good film (for however good a film on such a subject can be), but I felt there were a few flaws - namely the exclusion of inner city gun violence. It may be that Moore is pitching his ideas to the masses in the suburbs in hopes that younger people in the suburban high schools will be awakened to these issues. In any case, I recommend seeing the movie. And I also recommend reading
this critique on "Moore's urban phobia" from the liberal site/magazine
The American Prospect.
On the technical side, there is an interesting page/discussion in the "Zope 3" wiki about
Trying to unify workflow concepts, primarily dealing with
Activity based Workflows and
Entity based Workflows.