Archive for March, 2006
March 21, 2006 at 9:19 am
· Filed under U.S.
I just noticed the passing of the anniversary of the beginning of the current U.S. involvement with Iraq. I decided to look back at the pictures that I took of the protests leading up to and in response to the U.S. military invasion. At the time I was initially impressed by the turnout. At the largest one in Austin March 15th, 2003 there were, as I recall, estimated (by the police) to be 7,000 participants. The spontaneous rally in response to the beginning of the ’shock and awe’ offensive drew around 2,000 people. Further protests unfortunately drew fewer people; the war didn’t have much of an impact at all on most people going about their daily lives. Most people, besides military, didn’t have to sacrifice anything (except for Bush, of course, who had to give up candy for a few months). I quickly came to realize that the rallies and protests were essentially meaningless in terms of affecting U.S. policy. However I do think that the protests may have had some small significance demonstrating to the rest of the world that not everyone in the U.S. was a dangerous crusading megalomaniac.
Looking out over the South mall in front of the UT tower on the day of the student ‘walkout’ protest. 2/12/2003
Looking South from the capitol builing past the state police. 2/15/2003
Looking North towards the beautiful Austin capitol building. Marchers have already started down Congress Avenue in the largest of the protests. 3/15/2003
The group of protesters gathered in the street in front of the capitol at the beginning of the war. 3/20/2003
The riot cops, Austin’s finest. What better way to end a peaceful protest in a democratic country? 3/20/2003
Unfortunately, things haven’t gotten any better, even after three years. It seems that the U.S. will be involved in Iraq for a long time, due to the current mode of thought. Alas, the end to this tragic story in nowhere in sight.
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March 18, 2006 at 5:09 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
… I’m at the lab on a Friday night. Everyone else has gone home. How many Friday nights did I spend all alone in the lab while I was a graduate student? (countless… the easier number to estimate is how many Friday nights I didn’t spend in the lab!)
I’m finishing taking data on a laboratory shared PIV system. Someone else will take it tomorrow, so I have to get everything that I can out of it while I have it now. I’ll meet up later with my wife and some friends, but first I must finish taking data!
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March 17, 2006 at 9:26 am
· Filed under france, paris
Today I walked by a large group of police in riot gear on my way to work. There were many police vans parked along the street. There was one group of 10-15 police congregating off on a side street and I could see many more in some of the vans.
I read that there were continuing demonstrations against CPE (Contrat Première Embauche = First Employment Contract). CPE allows employers to arbitrarily fire, without reason, workers under the age of 26 (seemigly a special age, below which you are entitled to more benefits) within their first two years on the job. Supposedly this is to relieve the unemployment situation in France.
Later in the day, my wife walked down Les Gobelins, a major street, and encountered this scene:
Thousands of demonstrators had blocked off the road. There were demonstrations throughout the country today and there are even larger ones planned for Saturday. Here it seems that the pressure on the government by the demonstrations (and the fact that most people are against this law) may actually have the desired effect of changing the law.
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March 15, 2006 at 7:32 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Here is a clever use of miniatures placed in the landscape of various food items. It’s done by a French-Japanese couple (hence the site is in French). The navigation is a bit funky (perhaps depending on the web browser), however the photos are done quite well. The pictures have been used as generic images in food magazine articles, though they have quite a bit of artistic standing on their own.
http://mapage.noos.fr/minimiam/go.htm
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March 14, 2006 at 8:51 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
急に暖かくなったのに急に寒くなってもどった。先週末の最低温度はマイナス７度だったし。三月なのに！
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March 12, 2006 at 5:32 pm
· Filed under france, musuems, paris, sightseeing
Last weekend was the Pantheon and St. Sulpice (of the Da Vinci Code fame). Tomorrow we’ll visit the Louvre as our weekend outing. My wife has been inside before, but I have only walked around the outside and imagined what marvelous works such a huge building might contain. Now I’ll get to go inside. It’ll be a Sunday so I wonder what the crowds will be like. Will I get a chance to see the Mona Lisa or the Madonna of the Rocks? I’m excited!
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March 12, 2006 at 8:28 am
· Filed under france, paris
I’ve now passed the two month mark living in Paris and entered into the third month…
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March 10, 2006 at 10:10 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
パリには突然に暖かくなってきた。 。。と言うのは１０度ぐらいまでにあがった。東京と比べるとそんなに暖かくないけど、先週の０℃と比べるとね。寒いときには普段帽子をかぶって寝る。パリには、日本と同じくて、アメリカにあるセントラル・ヒーティングがないので冬の時に夜になると寝室は寒くなり風邪を引きやすいし。だけど、これから、かぶらなくていいのか？
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March 8, 2006 at 2:33 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
Last night we went for a movie. We elected to see the "original" version (as opposed to "version francaise") of Syriana. A lot of the dialogue was in arabic or pashtun (? I assume spoken by the pakistani characters). This made the multiple interwoven plot lines (just as in Traffic) a bit difficult to follow in detail at times with only the french subtitles. However, it was a great movie involving the CIA, terrosism, the oil industry in the middle east.
My wife raised an interesting point that the oil connection in this movie likely has a much deeper impact on Americans than those from other countries. The gasoline, taken for granted, that can be purchased so cheaply in the U.S. comes at a steep price, in particular for those living in the middle east and not a member of the various royal families.
In most other countries, for example Japan or those in Europe, petroleum is taxed heavily enough that it is not a cheap commodity, and there is enough public transportation infrastructure that oil is just not seen at the same level elsewhere as it is in the U.S.
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March 5, 2006 at 10:38 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve finished reading the Da Vinci Code. It was a very quick read filled with plenty of action, I can see how the book lends itself easily into making a Hollywood movie.
… Now we have to visit all the sites metioned in the book. The "rose-line" and "obelisk" of Saint-Sulpice, the brass markers of the prime meridian on the streets of Paris, the inverted pyramid of the Louvre, etc…
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