A Little Bit of What We Know about Semyon Varlamov's Domestic Abuse Case

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while ago, I wrote a rather long post on Reddit regarding Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov's domestic abuse case. It appeared in the thread, "Stolen from r/soccer: Persuade r/hockey that a popular opinion held here is wrong." Recently, Dario Ronzone expressed a desire to use that post to educate ignorant hockey fans, so it occurred to me that it would be better to move what I said on Reddit to a slightly more permanent location. Although the world's foremost expert on anything to do with Varlamov is vtcapsfan99, what I've pasted below still provides some truth on the matter. Presently, most people believe he got away with domestic abuse because he's a rich athlete.

In cooperation with Mile High Hockey's Cheryl Bradley, vtcapsfan99 is taking on the arduous task of presenting all the evidence she has accumulated on the case, which will do better than I have here to serve as a starting point for people looking to understand the true story.

What I wrote is pasted verbatim.

The Video that Duped the News World

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t was fixed just half an hour later, but one still finds it remarkable that no news outlet, however reputable, was free of the deception of a video whose footage was taken over a year ago. If you check the original article, you'll find it no longer exists, because the Telegraph already deleted it. The article was a posting of this video, claiming it was taken during the search for flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean:

It's a harrowing piece of footage, to be sure, but in its haste to share it, the Telegraph neglected to look at its title: "LPG/C Venere, Hurricane, 19/jan/2013". How vague. Perhaps they could have taken a second step to confirm its veracity, by looking at when it was published: "Jan 28, 2013". Instead, this video was miscast, first by one source (intentionally or otherwise), and then by dozens of other penguins looking to jump in:

Links: Of Detroit, Eibenstock, and Hoffenheim. Of Musicians and Bears.

Look at your favourite team's stadium, and it's likely that you'll find a building paid for by the inhabitants of its neighbours. And yet, in cities that can't afford the bankrupt teams they're hosting or are bankrupt, themselves, people are convinced or threatened into believing that their cities need to help pay for facilities from which only billionaires will profit. As Aaron Gordon illustrates, while new arenas and stadiums are built to pacify the owners of sports teams, the problems of the common people are ignored. Citizens of cities like Chester and Detroit, and counties such as Hamilton County, are expected by the state to carry a large portion of the burden, despite the latter's inability to support the former, whether economically or socially.

There is nevertheless a perceived benefit (on the part of the former) to subsidising privately-owned facilities, however, in job creation and growth of the local economy. Is this economic benefit worth reducing education, police, and firefighting budgets? Economists argue that it's not, since most of the created jobs are "either temporary, low-paying, or out-of-state contracting jobs". Neither does a city like Chester benefit, when, after a game, "everyone makes their way to the highway that spans the bridge, not spending a dime" in the city.

Rather than continue to blather on, I suggest you read Gordon's article, and check out Neil deMause's excellent blog on stadium funding if you're further interested in this "$2 billion a year" matter.

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Meanwhile, in Eibenstock, police encountered a BMW convertible that had been converted into a moving swimming pool, when a motorcycle cop noticed water spilling out of it as it rounded a corner. Filled with around 2,000 litres of water, the sealed pool was decked with wooden panels and railings, and decorated with (presumably plastic) flowers, allowing for a driver, two submerged passengers, and a third one, whom the officer found "sitting on the trunk, dipping his feet" in the water.

Interestingly, whether this vehicle is even illegal remains debatable amongst police experts, as Spiegel Online asks, "Is it illegal to drive a swimming pool?" Possible charges presently concern driving without insurance and under the influence of alcohol.

Links: Warcraft is Playable; Celebrity Apprentice is Terrible; Gaza Strip is Contradictory; and Texas is Going Nowhere

Links is a segment focusing on articles, podcasts and radio programmes, and videos I feel are worth discussing. 

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In the third part of his Making of Warcraft series, Patrick Wyatt recounts that first moment when Warcraft was a playable game—and a multiplayer one, at that, recalling the exhilaration and terror he felt as he battled colleague Bob Fitch in the first ever multiplayer game in the franchise.

This is a fantastic read, and I really mean that. Perhaps I'm biased because of my close connection to the series, but stories of this seminal period in the videogame industry are always fascinating, particularly when they're as well-written as this one.

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In an excerpt from his book, Everyday is an Atheist Holiday, Penn Jillette reveals the ugly truth behind the cameras of Celebrity Apprentice, one in which vapid, washed-up hasbeens suck up to a pretend boss who pretend fires them. The best description of his time on the show comes in a passage after he talks about how easy the tasks laid on the contestants are:

“The Celebrity Apprentice” is easy like junior high is easy. All the arithmetic, the creative writing and the history are super simple, but like junior high, you do that easy work surrounded by people who are full-tilt hormone-raging bugnutty. Everyone is panicked, desperate, yelling, swearing, attacking, backstabbing, failing to get laid and acting crazy.

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It's all a rather damning portrayal of the show and its self-conscious star, while adding brief solace for the saps who take part: while they may be "normal" in reality, "The situation itself makes everyone crazy." Let us note, everyone.

Jim Thorpe, more than an Unrecognised Champion

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had a friend, once.  We went to primary school together, and then high school, before she left, one year earlier than me, to pursue her future, again, one year earlier than me.  She wasn't my best friend, and neither was I hers, but I always felt a strong bond with her.  Our conversations never got old, and to this day, I regret not spending more time with her.  She was, and would still be, one of the few people in my life whose integrity and intentions I would never have to question, whom I could spend an infinite amount of time with and never get to a point where I had to crawl into a boxed room, where I felt my inferiority complex create an invisible contest between myself and the other because they had more of whatever than me.  (This was an unfortunate product of my social status, a mirage that often failed to conceal my family's unshakable position at the top of the totem pole that hung from the peak of the little hill guarded by little kings.)  She was, simply, one of my few, true equals.

She was also a talented gymnast.  This was evidenced by the fact that she decided to leave her home and friends for more competitive pastures.  Her goal to be the best was obvious, and, getting to the topic at hand, so was the presumptive desire to make the Olympics, one day.

Now, I have a tough relationship with this event.  I feel it is a sham, with no connection to the original games from which it stole its name.  It has only ever succeeded in breeding hostility between nations (or, at least, the inhabitants of these nations), as well as leaving cities to writhe in their deflating economic bubbles in its wake.  And its corrupt leadership leaves much to be desired.  When I observe the obscene popularity of the Olympics, I'm, frankly, rather mystified.

But then, I think about this old friend, who is still on my mind some years later, who I hope managed to reach their goals, and my distaste lessens.  It's not our place to spit on the dreams of others, no matter the darkness of the walls within which they occur.  Which is why, regardless of my personal feelings, I can still imagine how gut-wrenched Jim Thorpe must have felt after being told that his performance in the 1912 Olympic Games, the greatest ever, was henceforth to be forgotten by the historical record, because he was a no-good cheater.

Links: Good Guys Don't Try to Control You; They Hate Us for Our Freedom to be Frisked by Perverts; Learning to Play Hockey

Links is a segment focusing on providing you with links worth clicking.  These are articles, podcasts and radio programmes, and videos that shed new light on the world around you.  Links is not about promoting philosophies (although I reserve the right to slobber my commentaries with a heavy dose of opinion) and taking you in partisan circles; occasionally, you will find a piece with which I disagree and may virulently lambast, but nevertheless feel needs to be highlighted.  It's about staying informed and seeing through both eyes.

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In "Various matters", Glenn Greenwald links to a piece by Robert F. Worth that paints a horrific picture in post-Qaddafi Libya.  Without a government* and army, and almost no police, unchecked violence has descended on the country, with the rebels who were once tortured by Qaddafi loyalists hunting them down and returning the "favour", making the captors the captive.  Elsewhere, Worth recounts the stories of those who survived the terror of that regime's final days, who "kept [their] head[s] down and let others take the risks" and "adapted to a place where fear was the only law," before adding that, "Most of the brave ones are dead."

It's a distorted reality, and, truthfully, an expected one.  While much of Libyan intervention focused on the short-sighted goal of the capture and/or murder of Muammar el-Qaddafi, little thought was given to what would happen when the beast was slain and his domain was offered up to whoever had the temerity to take it.  At least until the world saw what happened when the rebels finally got their hands on him.

Connor Crisp Plays Goalie

When the Erie Otters faced off against the Niagara Ice Dogs recently, something horrible happened.  As Otters goaltender Ramis Sadikov attempted to make a save, an Ice Dogs player slammed into him and knocked him over.  That was his first, and last, save of the game, as he would not return after trainers helped him off the ice.  With second goalie Devin Williams not dressed because of his own, earlier, injury, the team was left with 58:15 minutes of ice time and no dressed goalies.

What were they to do?  Call Connor Crisp, the Otters centre who, after sustaining a shoulder injury, hadn't played since the 5th of April, 2011.  Crisp was watching the game from the stands when he got the call from Dave Brown, the Otters' assistant general manager, asking him, "Are you ready?"  Crisp couldn't believe it.  With news that Sadikov would be the only goalie dressed for the game, the Otters designated the now-healthy Crisp as his backup, taking the risk, hoping, that nothing would go wrong.  Unfortunately, something did, and Crisp soon found himself sprinting to the change room before having equipment he'd never donned before strapped on him by the equipment manager and a teammate, while the goalie coach attempted to teach him a lifetime worth of accrued knowledge and refined technique in fifteen minutes.

By the time he got to the ice, he struggled to make it to his end in his loaned skates, three sizes too small.  "As soon as I stepped on the ice and could barely skate at first with the goalie skates on, I was thinking this could be a long day," he recalled later.  Crisp faced his first shot 23 seconds after the game restarted, when the Ice Dogs' Freddie Hamilton streaked into the Otters zone and took a long, high shot that clanged off the crossbar, bounced off Crisp's back, and dropped into the net.  His next series of attempted saves did not fair any better, resulting in another pair of goals.  It looked like the beginning of, at worst, a hockey massacre, and, at best, an unwinnable situation.  But Crisp and the Otters persevered, bringing the score to within one by the end of the first period, before the Ice Dogs turned the game into what ostensibly should have been an embarrassing blowout, but shifted into a mere predictable one.

In the end, Crisp made 32 saves on 45 shots, giving up 13 goals in a 13-4 loss, the Otters' worst of the season.  After any other game, fans would have jeered and players would have avoided the pupils of their teammates as they silently trudged back to the locker room.  But not tonight.  Ice Dogs fans applauded Crisp's effort.  Every single one of his teammates skated down to thank him for his courage.  And when he was done with his own team, his opponents - both players and coaches - went over to pat him on the back.  Crisp was awarded the first star of the game.

Having never played the position before^[8], Connor Crisp came in and made over thirty saves, some lucky and some unbelievable, and let in over a dozen goals, some abysmal and some unavoidable.  There was no Miracle on Ice - indeed, Crisp felt reality's sting in it: "[Defenceman Adam] Pelech and [defenceman Troy] Donnay were blocking shots left, right, and centre.  The guys were behind me 100 per cent.  It got embarrassing at points and you feel like you're letting the guys down and hurting their statistics.  I know Pelech took a hard one off the ankle and is in a lot of pain right now." - but what the hockey world saw was on-ice drama in whose aftermath we will not likely see again for a very long time.

It is said that sport does not build character, but reveal it.  On Sunday, 4th of March, 2012, Connor Crisp revealed his.

Sources and Notes:

1. Buzzing The Net: "Erie Otters’ Connor Crisp, after not playing all season, gets his 58 minutes of fame by going into OHL game in as an emergency goalie"
2. Erie Otters official website: "Crisp dons goalie pads in loss to Niagara"
3. Erie Otters roster
4. Erie at Niagara Game Summary
5. Connor Crisp interview on Marek vs. Wyshynski, 5th March edition (mp3).
6. YouTube video from user Ramboshaw: "Connor Crisp Plays Goalie for Erie Otters 'The Saves'"
7. Quote ("sport does not build character, but reveal it") is attributed to Heywood Hale Broun.  Original: "Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”
8. Although Crisp did have his obligatory turn at goalie in pee wee, that was the extent of his involvement with the position.

Links: Fan- and Media-induced Depression; a Bold Plan; Professional Weinman; Looking at the Wrong Hands; and Ketching Up

Links is a segment focusing on providing you with links worth clicking.  These are articles, podcasts and radio programs, and videos that shed new light on the world around you.  Links is not about promoting philosophies (although I reserve the right to slobber my commentaries with a heavy dose of opinion) and taking you in partisan circles; occasionally, you will find a piece with which I disagree and may virulently lambast, but nevertheless feel needs to be highlighted.  It's about staying informed and seeing through both eyes.

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Emmett "Doc Bear" Smith, in a piece about the It's All Over, Fat Man! community, makes several semi-related points that provide some perspective on the way modern coaches and athletes are treated.  Here is what he says about Bill Walsh, one of the greatest NFL coaches ever:

Bill Walsh, just as an example, despite the validity and importance of all the innovations he left behind as well as his own three SB wins in a decade (and, leaving a team to his successor that was so good that they, with some pretty fine guidance from the new HC, won the next Super Bowl as well), was essentially hounded from the game by both the media and the community. He found that he simply could not adjust to the incessant criticism. His experience with that aspect of the job was that the hostility he received was so foreign to him, so out of touch with how he saw reality, and so constant that it eventually overwhelmed him. He could not understand what drove it, and it eventually broke him inside in some very deep ways.

If the great Bill Walsh can't escape "the incessant criticism", who can?  It's rather sad that this man was driven away from something he loved by the actions of others.  Remember this next time you want to criticise your favourite team.  What is the value of being too harsh?

Smith also recalls the league's reaction to the videotaping scandal of 2007, in which most of the fuss appeared to come from fans:

The taping scandal was ignored around much of the league just because so many people admitted that it was a pretty common practice around the league, and of limited help. Very quickly, everyone knows everything about you, in terms of your tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. It’s all right there on film, and there’s more evidence to sift as the season goes on. That’s when you find out who the better teams are. The league’s central office and franchises really didn’t want to talk too much about that, either - you’ll notice that the whole thing was just suddenly shut down, with no real explanation. There have been several stories on this that I trusted, a consistency to the timeline that suggested that it wasn’t going to be allowed to linger because it would have cast the league in a bad light.

Read the full article for more.

Links: McDaniels Returns to the Patriots, Officially

With the Denver Broncos set to meet the New England Patriots today, NFL pundits are double-checking their notes and rehearsing their predictable, hackneyed storylines.  Many Broncos players will be "facing" the man that brought them in, by which I mean they will be facing the Patriots, while the extent of Josh McDaniels' role is currently unknown and nowhere as expansive as the writers want us to believe.

Masshole Sports' response to Klis and the cries of cheating.

Now that McDaniels' return to the Patriots is official, opinions vary.  The few Chiefs fans that genuinely wanted him are despondent, the rest are jubilant, or masking their bitterness over losing out with jubilance.  Patriots fans appear overwhelmingly positive, save for the odd goof that, blaming the Super Bowl defeat against the New York Giants on McDaniels, belligerently opposes the move.  Others, like the Denver Post's Mike Klis (the article itself doesn't deserve your page view, so I linked to Pats Pulpit's excellent response instead), are screaming bloody murder because the cheating Patriots™ have circumvented the rules yet again, despite the fact that when the Dallas Cowboys did the same thing, no one cared.  They're not the cheating Patriots™, after all.  As for me, let's revisit what I last said:

Links: Danny Walker is Going to School You; Thoughts on Robert Ayers

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Drummer extraordinaire Danny Walker just set up a YouTube account for "webisodes and lessons".  There is nothing up yet, save an introduction video, but I'm posting this so that when this gets big you can snootily tell your friends that you subscribed to his channel before he started doing any drumming videos.

Or, alternatively, you can just get on this because you agree with me when I say I think he is one of the funnest drummers to watch live and certainly one of the best at using his combination of speed and technicality.  It's about time he starts sharing some of his secrets.  Check out the video below.

Links: Update on Lloyd and McDaniels, One

In "Links: Lloyd and McDaniels and Carlin and Kroenke and Hewitt and Schadenfreude", I said:

Chemistry is a vital part of any successful team.  (One can just ask the New Jersey York Jets for confirmation of that.)  That's why it warmed my heart to read this story from STLtoday, about the relationship between a player, Brandon Lloyd, and coach, Josh McDaniels.  How often does a player find a coach that suits him perfectly, and vice versa?  I'll tell you: not very.  And, then, how often does that player admit that wherever that coach goes, he'll follow him?   Again, I'll tell you: not very.  It's remarkable to find an athlete that would rather take that chemistry over money, because he understands the value of a coach that knows how to use you.

Of course, I'm not surprised that this athlete would turn out to be Lloyd, a player that, when you hear him speak, exudes a surprising amount of thoughtfulness.

Now, speaking politically, this development has a fascinating consequence, if Lloyd is actually serious about following McDaniels.  Namely, whatever team hires McDaniels (or in the Rams' case, keeps him), will have the opportunity to get one of the best wide receivers in the NFL right now.  And, conversely, if that team doesn't want McDaniels, getting Lloyd will be trickier.  For example, we know the Rams want to re-sign Lloyd, but we also know McDaniels may not be on the team for much longer, so what do they do?  How much do they want Lloyd?

This is a problem worth considering and worth remembering.  Depending on how the 2012 NFL off-season progresses, we may soon be back here.

It has since been revealed that McDaniels is likely to join the New England Patriots.  I'll have more of an opinion on that when it's official, but I'm both excited and disappointed.  The Patriots will probably be an easier challenge than, say, the Kansas City Chiefs, and thus probably provide less room for growth, but can anyone blame him for preferring a less tumultuous location right now?  It's also worth mentioning that the Chiefs, when McDaniels talked with the Patriots, still hadn't asked the Rams for permission to meet with him.  Give credit to the Patriots here, they went out and got their man while the Chiefs twiddled their thumbs.

Regarding Lloyd, we may recall that the Patriots have attempted to acquire him before.   We don't know whether he'll want to sign with them, but this bodes well for both Lloyd and the Patriots, and I now believe they have the best chance of getting him - if they want him.

Links: Lloyd and McDaniels and Carlin and Kroenke and Hewitt and Schadenfreude

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With the 2012 election officially underway in the U.S., I want to send my sincere condolences to Americans everywhere. 

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We'll get properly underway with some personal pimping.  I've mentioned before that I was writing a piece for Mile High Hockey (it was originally two shorter ones, but morphed into one long one).  I've finally finished it and you can read it here.  If you prefer to read it on No. 0, I will be posting it here soon, after it has burned through on MHH.

As expected, the response to "Blanket Trends" has been fair, but underwhelming.  It feels, as expected, like an afterthought in the flavour-of-the-month morass.  And it has not, as expected, gained the traction I wished for it.  Honestly, I am disappointed with that.  I'm not feeling the familiar urge to pat myself on the back after a job well done, which means I'm feeling rather hollow.  Which, yeah, stinks.  But there's no use in whining about it.  Artists, whatever they are, don't choose how their audience responds to their work, no matter how hard (or not) they worked on it.

And, really, the frustration that comes out of learning that is a point of growth as one.  Because if you're not frustrated that what you're working on isn't popular enough, acclaimed enough, or understood enough, then you're either seriously underselling it, or never believed in it in the first place.  If you're content with your lot, then you've stopped growing.  You've very likely begun to stagnate and should start considering alternate occupations.

The pertinent quote here is the one Brian Forte took from Thomas Mann: "[a] writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people".  Were this journey easy, the path would have been a tad more crowded.  Alas, it's rather lonely, and if you're feeling similarly hollow that no one gets your masterpiece, take this advice: suck it up, because clearly we're all dumbasses for not getting it.  And I mean that.

Links: a Dash of McDaniels; a True Coach; a Continental Difference; as Many Concussions as You Can Spare; and One Lemon

Prepare yourself: this will be a sports-heavy edition.  Go!

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Adam Schefter, the only writer on ESPN worth your time (and it's not even close), points out that Broncos fans elated with the recent successes of Tim Tebow should thank the man responsible for putting him in a Broncos uniform: Josh McDaniels.  I briefly discussed this here; for those too lazy to click, what I said:

Everyone derided McDaniels’ “personnel skills” in the most egregious of ways: by judging them before the decisions had time to mature, i.e. judging a draft a year later, and players before they've had a chance to learn the playbook. But now, those questionable decisions are maturing, and going against the opinions held about them.

When he was fired, the common idea was that he was a good coach, but just bad with personnel. Now that those previously-derided decisions are working out, does everyone change tack and agree that he knows personnel but is a bad coach? Or do we admit that he, Zeus forbid, actually knows what he’s doing?

It’s a sad irony that Fox is winning with the players McDaniels gave him. When he was fired, everyone said Denver was going to feel his influence for years. No one thought it would be positive.

And that's all I'll say on the matter.

Links: Lefsetz Gets it; Newt, Part Tew

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In discussing the cost of music, Bob Lefsetz hits it squarely in the groin, pointing out that the gravy train of CDs and overpriced concert tickets was nothing but a temporary mirage that lulled artists into seeing dollar signs instead of the waning receptiveness of fans.  (Now, that's one sentence with too many metaphors.)  The "CD era" is, or was, not an upward trend, but a spike in the history of music that will have to, or has already started to, regress to the mean.

He finishes with:

The war is over. The price of recorded music has deflated.

And this is good.

This allows more people to listen to more music. Recorded music used to be for the rich. Most people could only afford a few CDs a year. Now you can listen to everything, for free. And there’s nothing the rights holders can do about this.

I have said before, here or elsewhere, that I wish artists could live for free*, the way Olympians would.  Of course, with the way the modern world is structured, this is not possible; but in a certain hypothetical universe or point in history, it is.  I don't think you can put a price on art, though people have tried, because ideas are not quantifiable.  We can tell when we like one thing more than another, but we can't say, in definable ways, why Cynic, say, is better than whatever over-produced schlock is on the magazine cover this month. It just is.

Ideas are not copyrightable, they are not patents and creations.  The people (and other animals) that choose to traverse this road deserve to be commended, not derided.  And I don't say it because I'm one of those people, but because I think it's a genuine shame to find dazzling talent wasting away because the number of otherwise valueless sheets of paper collected in their wallet was never high enough.  Eliminating this need would allow us to witness an unprecedented era of creativity and invention because the people that do it best would be able to do so without having the politics of their industry slumping over their backs.

Eliminating it would also take away the bitterness many of the aforementioned dollar-eyed musicians must be feeling after reading that quote.  But I love it. Both because moving past the constriction of physical media has let me listen to what I want when I want (although, as previously stated, there are special cases in which I do like to have both), and now my decision to give away my mediocre music for nothing doesn't look so bad.

(Stick-tap Metalsucks.)

Links: Plane Mythology; Ruining a Legacy; and Overstacking Your Résumé

Patrick Smith tackles the myth that commercial planes can or will be able to fly themselves any time soon, and then takes on the bigger task of calling out misinformation in the media.

I really wish there was no need for someone like Smith.  That may sound cold, but I say it with a kind thought, because although I genuinely enjoy reading his articles that are full of invaluable knowledge, I've dealt with misinformation and bias enough that I don't wish those headaches on anyone (okay, mostly anyone).  And those that do will surely agree that it isn't done for any sort of pleasure but the sheer, obsessive compulsive will to salvage the truth from the retching oesophagus of lies, laziness, and idiocy.  (How's that for picturesque imagery!)

Hopefully, one day he, and everyone else, can escape both the eroding table and frontal lobe damage.

Links: Funding an Arena, Hawking on Heaven, a Newt's Twitter

In an article on the future of the New York Islanders hockey club, Puck Daddy's Sean Leahy takes the objectivity he has been using up until the final paragraph and throws it out the window:

So it's up to Nassau County voters on Monday to decide if they're better off with a revenue-generating arena for the next 30 years or let Nassau Coliseum's main tenant leave, thereby losing millions in potential tax revenues and more importantly, jobs.

This ending leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth, because the rest of the article is actually quite informative.  So, why the need make a judgement?  In any case, voters rejected the proposal by "about 57 percent to 43 percent".  I'll leave you to make your own snarky comment about Leahy's article - it's way too easy - and instead make a snarky comment regarding TSN's reaction:

The cost to run the referendum was estimated to be $2 million, which Wang said he would pay, but only if voters approve the project.

Ha!  Sounds awfully similar to the old ploy of, "If you're not gonna vote for me, don't vote at all."  I have no opinion on whether Nassau County was right or wrong to vote against the proposal - it's a tough position either way, and I'm not the one that'll have to be paying for it - but insulting them for their decision is wrong and trying to force a county that's already in financial trouble to vote your way using the threat of money is even worse.

Links: Dealing with Advertising; a Pot Meets a Kettle

Lifehacker details the effects advertising has on us, and dispenses some advice for those of us looking to steer clear of it, whether through things like Adblock Plus or pure avoidance.  It's a valuable read.

It also unintentionally reminds me of a recent episode of Dan Carlin's Common Sense, in which Dan discussed the use of advertising by politicians.

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Two doses of irony from LucasFilm's High Court loss against Andrew Ainsworth:

Thayne Forbes, a managing director at the brand-valuation company Intangible Business, told Bloomberg that Lucasfilm was trying to protect the "upmarket fantasy experience," and that the company probably didn't want the stormtrooper helmets and armor "to be found in cheap plastic toy territory."

/implying LucasFilm isn't already there.

James Burns, who co-owns the UK's leading Star Wars fan site Jedinews, says he sides with Lucas on the debate about art.
"If you employ someone to design and sculpt it [a helmet] for you, surely by definition that would have to be a work of art. The drawings done and things that come out of that are all art," he said.

If it's a work of art, to whom does it belong except for the artist, himself?

Links: Infecting the Orphans of Another Nation; So Many Pictures; and a Burst of Heat

"They never told me what they were doing, never gave me a chance to say no," Marta Orellana says as she recalls the moment a group of doctors ordered her to "lie down and open her legs."  It was 1946, when, "worried about GIs returning home with sexual diseases," the U.S. government decided to infect 1500 Guatemalans - all orphans, prisoners, military conscripts, and prostitutes - with syphilis, chancroid, and gonorrhea in order to test their countermeasures against these diseases.  None of these test subjects agreed to be infected; in some cases, like that of Orellana, a four-year-old orphan at the time, they weren't even given the option of choosing.

Links: New Firefox and John Perry Barlow Trashes a Summit

With Mozilla attempting to quicken their development cycle, the time has come for the Firefox 5 Beta.  It was only two months ago that Firefox 4 was released, and we're already moving on.  In any case, one thing to remember is that Firefox 3.5 was so difference from Firefox 3 that it was essentially Firefox 4.  The contrast is indeed so great it deserves an entirely different version number.  Firefox 5, however, will not be so different from its predecessor, but as companies appear to prefer higher version numbers nowadays, Mozilla will be following that trend and giving Firefox 4.1 the title of Firefox 5. 

That isn't to say it's not worth checking out, though.  I've been using the Aurora channel, and you definitely feel an extra jump.  If you want to try it without having to lose your regular, ol' Firefox, I have written a tutorial for installing them both on Windows.

You can download the Firefox Beta or Aurora here.

Links: Justice; Greed; Public Relations Idiocy; Fact is Fiction; it was Never Aliens; and Foote's Final Day

Glenn Greenwald refers us to an interview with Benjamin Ferencz, a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, who, with Greenwald, laments the modern idea that the the Nuremberg principles no longer apply because they're from an ancient, entirely different era (/sarcasm).

The funny thing about Greenwald's article is that I always took the cries that Bush is a war criminal to be melodramatic kowwing.  When you consider that his war killed just as many people as those Nazi war criminals, however, it suddenly dawns on you that Bush really is one, after all.  The only difference between the Iraq War and Second World War, to be frank, is the scale.  Both leaders (Hitler and Bush) started wars that caused countless deaths - Hitler is held accountable for his actions; why not Bush?

Of course, unlike bin Laden, Bush will never be brought to justice (Barack Obama has already prevented that from happening), but it's a step going from knowing someone won't be prosecuted and therefore not caring to thinking they should be prosecuted.  I've taken that step.