“Chasing the Flame” argues, as Vieira de Mello himself once did, that the United Nations is often unfairly blamed for failures to protect the vulnerable or deter aggression, when the real failure is that of the great powers standing behind it. Those powers are seldom willing to give it sufficient resources, attention and boots on the ground to accomplish the ambitious mandates they set for it. At present, the United Nations is involved in eight separate peacekeeping operations in Africa alone; failure in a high-profile case like Darfur (which seems likely) will once again discredit the organization. Power (who has been a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama) makes the case for powerful countries like the United States putting much greater effort into making the institution work.

In the end, the book does not make a persuasive case that the United Nations will ever be able to evolve into an organization that can deploy adequate amounts of hard power or take sides in contentious political disputes. Its weaknesses as a bureaucracy and its political constraints make it very unlikely that the United States and other powerful countries will ever delegate to it direct control over their soldiers or trust it with large sums of money. But surely the life and death of Sergio Vieira de Mello is a good place to begin a serious debate about the proper way to manage world order in the future.

Chasing the Flame - Samantha Power - Book Review - New York Times

Heading down to the beach or up the coast but not far enough to load up the car? Racks make it a snap to sling your board on your bike and go. Now this is a great idea!

SurfDogz.com

Karl Rove Joins FOX News Channel

NEW YORK, February 5: Karl Rove, the senior advisor and former deputy chief of staff to U.S. President George W. Bush, has joined FOX News Channel (FNC) as a contributor, making his debut on the 24-hour cable news network during today’s live prime-time coverage of Super Tuesday.

During his time at the White House, Rove oversaw the Office of Political Affairs, Office of Public Liaison, Office of Strategic Initiatives and Intergovernmental Affairs Office. Rove also previously served as the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2000 Presidential campaign, and was also the president of Karl Rove & Company, a public-affairs firm based in Austin, Texas.

Karl Rove Joins FOX News Channel

Sheldon Brown: 1944 - 2008

02/03/08:

Dear Harris Cyclery friends and customers,
It is with heavy hearts that we convey to you the news that Sheldon Brown has passed away. Our thoughts go out to his family at this time. The cycling community has lost one of its most passionate members.

02/05/08:

Thank you all for your condolences and remembrances of Sheldon.
There will be a memorial service in early March. Details will be posted as available.

Sheldon Brown was a super cool cat.

Harris Cyclery-West Newton, Massachusetts Bicycle Shop

A siphon pot has two stacked glass globes, and works a little like a macchinetta, that stove-top gadget wrongly called an espresso maker by generations of graduate students. As water vapor forces water into the upper globe the coffee grounds are stirred by hand with a bamboo paddle. (In Japan, siphon coffee masters carve their own paddles to fit the shape of their palms.)

The goal is to create a deep whirlpool in no more than four turns without touching the glass. Posture is important. So is timing: siphon coffee has a brewing cycle of 45 to 90 seconds.

At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee - New York Times

At Liquid Fit, we specialize in making custom wetsuits to fit any body shape or size. No other wetsuit will be as comfortable and warm as a custom wetsuit from Liquid Fit. We offer a dazzling array of color selections for your custom wetsuit. We want to be your custom wetsuit maker.

Their superstrech customs are supposed to be good for da big guys.

LiquidFit.Com ~ Wetsuits That Fit Like They Were Poured On You.

I Gets Married, Surfs, and Gets Dumb Tatoo

Colonic explosions: In the early days of colonoscopies, attempts to burn off polyps in the colon ignited explosive hydrogen gas in the colon of several unlucky people, sometimes with tragic results. The colon-cleansing preparations people now take the night before a colonoscopy have solved the problem. Says Levitt: "I've never heard of an explosion in someone who's had a decent prep. But until they used these prep solutions, there was a problem with explosions.''

CTV.ca | Flatulence expert defines 'normal' output rate

The Wright brothers' first priority was to patent their airplane, and they duly received their patent in 1904. It didn't just cover their specific design, but the whole concept of three-axis control - being able to independently steer the aircraft in pitch, roll, and yaw - that was critical to powered flight. This patent became a mighty weapon that the Wright brothers used for the next thirteen years to sue the bejesus out of anyone else who tried to fly an airplane.

It may not have been a problem if the Wrights themselves had kept working on aircraft design, or if the original flyer had been good enough to license. But neither was the case - the Wrights became so consumed with their lawsuits that they had no time or energy left for further work, essentially becoming the SCO of the early aviation age. And their airplane design, while innovative, was mostly innovative in the wrong ways.

100 Years Of Turbulence

When John Titor first showed up on IRC chat in October of 2000, he was enjoying a neat kind of double billing - as his 38-year-old self sat downstairs in the kitchen, typing away, a two-year-old version of himself lay sound asleep upstairs in bed. The elder Titor had been sent back in time by the U.S. Army, which needed him to fetch some legacy computer hardware from the 1970's, and he had a sort of layover in the year 2000. So like anyone with time to kill, he went online.

Best Practices for Time Travelers