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No, nobody did. To be, or not to be?

Bicycle. Is the glass half empty, or half full?

I'd say some sort of an existing tiff between Gates and Larissa is probable, with Hammer perhaps being a one-up on his part. But the reference he made to his crew on the last page has me wondering a bit. Also, I'm not sure I get the point of making Hammer strip before releasing her. Well, aside...

Just because he's not eating doesn't mean he can't take a look at what's on the menu...

My three favorite scientific discoveries/inventions of all time: 1) The scientific method 2) Alphabet 3) Microwave oven

Yeah... a concerted bombing campaign against german cities in WWII didn't yield the expected result of significantly crippling the enemy populace's will to fight. On the other hand, Hiroshima and Nagasaki managed to convince the japanese that further resistance would be insane, though it was of...

Well, I can't resist but offer this quite possibly unfounded speculation that perhaps the brits, who are invested in the libyan affair, are calling in a couple of favors in Washington. You know, a couple of the ones they got while participating in the US-led operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I may actually be able to provide one. Apparently, the National Libyan Council has proclaimed a strong stance against arbitrary arrests, which is a good sign and is being hailed as such by some human rights organisations. Of course, such proclamations can easily be a propaganda stunt, and the...

My sentiments exactly. I'd have preferred it had they (France and Britain) just kept out, as getting involved in an open-ended operation in somebody else's civil war can be quite risky, and the payoff uncertain. The EU has had good trade relations with Libya, and Gaddafi's administration has...

The Arab League has critisized the bombing of pro-Gaddafi targets in Libya: This is odd, considering the support they gave the no-fly zone to begin with. Is this simply token critisism for the benefit of arab domestic concerns, a legitimate call for more target discrimination (apparently a few...

Looks like the no-fly zone in Libya just got UN authorisation, with the vote 10 in favor, 5 abstaining (such as Russia and China, but also Germany). Apparently the idea of Gaddafi retaining power is more unacceptable than I had thought. Things were beginning to go his way, but, although he...

At the risk of being tasteless:

Ahh. I just got back home from the General Assembly of my student organisation. The Assembly lasted three-and-a-half hours. The good thing is that it lasted a full half hour more than last year when I had to chair the damn thing. And this year I got to force a legal technicality down the board's...

Boo-yah!

In my opinion in general, the US has the same international responsibilities as any other state, which basically means observing their treaty obligations. Which treaties the US enters into is up to them to decide, but afterwards, a deal is a deal. Other than that, the US is free to act in...

I'm not sure that will come to pass, at least not as far as EU countries are concerned. Trade sanctions, perhaps. Peacekeepers to monitor the situation, sure. But I don't see the leaders of EU countries having the political will to send in an actively interventionist force to interfere in what...

After my day is done, I go to my regular joint to down a beer or two. The place has an internet connection, so I decide to check what's on at Halforums. Before I get to type in the url, a friend of mine comes over to say hello. We talk for a bit, chatting about this and that, with me sitting on...

Let's hope you're right about the effects. But the US annual aid to Egypt totalled about 1.5 billion $ in 2010, with 1.3 billion $ of it in military and security assistance. These figures do sound to me like too small to be a make-or-break deal for an egyptian government. According to this...

Yeah. But even if everything turns out for the best, it still feels kind of ironic to think of pro-democracy forces hailing it as good news when the military kicks out the parliament and puts the constitution on hold Myself, I must admit to some concerns over regional stability over this whole...

The egyptian military has dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution. Funny how good that sounds when one is talking democracy.