Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Don't Make Her Look Fat
As a webmaster I have to have permission to use some of the content I post on my webpages. That includes some images as well as some text, scripts, and maps or other content that may be protected or is not wanted to be used by the owner without special permission. So when I decided to use a picture of Victoria Secret Angel, Adriana Lima on my Cidon's Lair book website, I joined her fan club site on facebook. I'm hoping that will make it favorable that I captured her image and posted it on my Fiction website. http://web-ev.angelfire.com. Her beauty and her personality are extremely Execeptional by any means. I noticed, however, that there were some unfavorable comments posted on her fan club site. I decided they were just people who have nothing better to do than grouse. Even though there were pornographers involved. I personally don't have issues with Playboy being the devil or anything like that. I have sometimes looked at some of their pictures, who hasn't? And their models are beautiful women even if they rely heavily on nudity to promote themselves. However, when a pornographer tries to promote their subjects as being superior to a beautiful and famous personality; I get suspicious of their motives. Then I found that someone was increaing the width dimension of the image on my website, obviously they were trying to make Adriana look fat in the picture. It wasn't malicious, just a prank. I still decided to contact Lycos support about the fact that someone was using my password to infringe on my source code. I did mention, however, that she still looked very beautiful, even with the increased weight.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
THE SIGN AND THE SEAL exerpt from Chapter 3
It was in 1983 that I visited Axum and learned at first hand about Ethiopia's audacious claim to be the last resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. I had been living in Africa at the time. In 1984 I moved to England with my family. Nevertheless in the years that followed I continued to travel regularly to Addis Ababa, producing a number of publications for the government and generally strengthening my contacts with those in power - including President Mengistu Haile Mariam himself. The dictator had a bad reputation for abusing human rights but I cultivated him assiduously and won a number of useful privileges as a result - notably access to many areas that were normally closed to foreigners. If I had wanted to look further into the Ark mystery there is no doubt that I would have been strongly placed to do so. I was just not interested, however. I therefore did not feel even a tinge of regret when, at the end of 1988, the forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front launched a massive offensive against Axum and captured it in a single day of bloody hand-to-hand fighting - during which more than two thousand of the government's troops were killed or captured. At that stage my envolvement with the Mengistu regime had become so close that the rebels' success meant the doors of the sacred city were now effectively closed to me. But I had no particular reason to want to go back there anyway. Or at least so I thought.
Monday, November 30, 2009
What Does it Mean?
What does it mean when a ruler bows to the representative of another government? It means he is being submissive. This is no great revelation. For millennia visiting dignitaries have bowed to the king who held the most power or influence. They offered gifts so that their country would be held in favor and so that the king would be assuaged from making war with them and carrying away everyone and everything held by the inferior country. But this was no guarantee of safety. Warring kings were pre-disposed to use military might to advance their kingdoms and put more gold in their coffers by attacking weaker kingdoms. This is especially true of any kingdom that was perceived to be weak. So bowing was really more than just submission. By showing weakness the visiting representative was putting his kingdom more squarely on the chopping block. In China and Japan, bowing is examined closely to determine the attitude of the parties involved. Eagerness to bow and hesitation are both seen as signs of, respectively, submission or a lack of cooperation.
I think there has been more than enough cooperation with the nations which don't take human rights as seriously as they should. Now I'm not saying that the U.S. needs to posture itself for an attitude of aggression. I'm just saying that it does not look good for US in more ways than one. Let's just try going back to the handshake as a gesture of good will. Submission is not good will. It is willing to be held as an inferior.
I think there has been more than enough cooperation with the nations which don't take human rights as seriously as they should. Now I'm not saying that the U.S. needs to posture itself for an attitude of aggression. I'm just saying that it does not look good for US in more ways than one. Let's just try going back to the handshake as a gesture of good will. Submission is not good will. It is willing to be held as an inferior.
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