Recently, the former President of Chechnya, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, was assassinated in Qatar. Two Russian intelligence agents were arrested. Russia protested and promptly detained two Qatari wrestlers on their way to a sports competition. The Gulf state of Qatar says Russia arrested two of its citizens after Qatar charged two Russians over the death of a… Continue reading Assassinations and Arrests
Year: 2004
Political Contributions
I knew that one could check who has contributed to political campaigns by name on the Open Secrets website. But now you can enter an address at the Fund Race 2004 website and find out who contributed to whom in that neighborhood. There are other ways to collate the information as well, some of which… Continue reading Political Contributions
Mexican Immigration Threat
Samuel Huntington has written an article about the threat of Mexican immigration to the US. His article is full of assumptions, half-truths and ignoring data that doesn’t fit his thesis. In some ways, it is worse than his Clash of Civilizations idea some years ago. I can’t be bothered by this so-called “threat.” As someone… Continue reading Mexican Immigration Threat
Newton’s Laws of Graduation
I read and cried. First Law: A grad student in procastination tends to stay in procastination unless an external force is applied to it. Second Law: The age, a, of a doctoral process is directly proportional to the flexibility, f, given by the advisor and inversely proportional to the student’s motivation m. Third Law: For… Continue reading Newton’s Laws of Graduation
A Tasty Dinner
I made this dinner last week which is a combination of a few recipes. I am not sure how to classify this. May be it could be called a Brazilian dish. Couscous is a North African staple which I was introduced to while living in Libya more than 2 decades ago. I bought two packs… Continue reading A Tasty Dinner
Nauroz Mubarak
Happy Persian New Year to Kianoush and my Iranian readers.
Weeks 11–19
Will my child be bald? In weeks 14th—17th the fetus grows hair. I was very upset that time ‘cause it looked like I was going to get laid off. So Zack kept telling me that due to all that worry, we will have a bald child as the fetus will lose all his/her hair. So… Continue reading Weeks 11–19
Semi-Hiatus
I am going on a semi-hiatus. What that means is that I’ll still be posting but more irregularly. I am trying to get Amber and Captain Arrrgh to write more regularly. Let’s see how that works out. I have got to work on my thesis. Plus I had some surgery done yesterday and am a… Continue reading Semi-Hiatus
The Jingoists Have Won
I have been hopping mad since yesterday. Somehow I waded into the warbloggers’ world and found everyone berating the Spanish for letting the terrorists win. I disagree. The terrorists did win. But not on sunday. They won on thursday when they killed 200 people. On sunday, the Socialist party won. I don’t understand what the… Continue reading The Jingoists Have Won
Spring Break Movies
When one’s pregnant and not feeling well, there’s not much one can do outdoors. So no camping trips or long drives for us this spring break. We stayed home and watched a lot of movies. For the ones we watched in theater, I am not sure Amber enjoyed them since she went to the restroom… Continue reading Spring Break Movies