Muneeb Ali, a good friend of mine and fellow computer science researcher in the Netherlands, has been covering the situation in Pakistan. For those of you that listen to your white iPod headphones all day and never interact with another human being, the Pakistan situation is a very serious one. The president of Pakistan, General (errrr, now "Not-General") Musharraf, suspended all freedoms and effectively imposed martial law after a vote was held for his re-election. His primary competitor was exiled back to Saudi Arabia, and democratic leaders have been jailed or exiled. With an ally of the United States going to such extremes to ensure that one man remains the leader, it is amazing that few people here even know what's going on. We're too concerned about the writer's strike (seriously? get back to work! you're costing jobs of people that support you but are not on strike).

What Muneeb has done is to rally his friends abroad and in Pakistan to blog about the situation in Pakistan. Muneeb went to college at LUMS, Lahore University of Management Sciences, and former students are posting their thoughts online. The LUMS Blog has provided insight into the situation in Pakistan. I've never been to Pakistan and one day I would love to go; however, the information in the blog published on a regular basis lets me know what friends like Muneeb (and their friends) are going through. It is hard for someone here, in the United States, that has never been to Pakistan, to imagine what life is like there. Through the eyes of Muneeb and his peers, we all get a glimpse into what life is like for people my age in Pakistan.

Check out the LUMS Blog.

We have cars that parallel park themselves but no one has figured out how to make a jar of pasta sauce that is easy to open?

I rediscovered how good Scapa is. I have a 1l bottle that I bought in the Heathrow airport about a year ago. What is great about the airport was they poured about 15 different types of Scotch and let me try each of them. Then, after tasting them all, they had a deal that if you bought any two bottles, they would: (1) give you 10 pounds off the total price, (2) not charge any duties, and (3) give you a US$1.75 to 1 pound conversion rate. Very good deal I must say.

Scapa is, unfortunately, not sold in the US. BevMo claims to have a few bottles, but I'm skeptical. Anyone else have some good scotches that aren't the standard American imports?

Apparently some 'penis enlargement' site got a hold of the fact that I allow comments on my site. They decided that they'd spam the comments section to advertise their penis enlargement products. Apparently they believe that the demographic that reads my blog could benefit from such services... interesting...

I originally said that I'd allow a free-for-all comments policy until it was abused. Unfortunately, the abuse came from stupid spammers rather than my friends. That is slightly upsetting.

Anyway, comments are now "moderated" but not disabled. I figure this is a decent compromise.

I'm seriously obsessed with Top Gear on the Discovery Channel. It is originally a BBC show, but apparently Discovery has picked it up. Some notable episodes:

Which is faster: An Aston Martin DB9 or the French TGV High Speed Train to get from the UK to Monte Carlo? Yep, you guessed it, the DB9 won.

In another episode, they had to purchase a Porsche for 1500 quid (that's like how Americans call the dollar a "buck"). So they buy these cars, one purchases a cheap Porsche made for the masses, the other a midrange Porsche with a horrible body, and the last a V8 top of the line Porsche that barely runs. Their next task is to get the car from London to the coast; the caveat is that you lose 5 points every time you open the bonnet (that's "hood" to us Americans). The V8 guy finally gives up and tows his car to the coast so he doesn't have to open the bonnet anymore (clever solution, if you ask me). Finally they have to put an ad in the personals using the car to get responses. Now this is where the intelligence of the V8 guy shines--he puts an add in the "men seeking men" personals talking about his V8, and not surprisingly, gets the most responses.

Tonight there's an episode on about whether the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti can beat a jet plane to Verbier in the Swiss Alps. Good stuff.

Times for watching Top Gear can be found at discovery.com

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) as his running mate on the ticket together for the 2008 Presidental Election? Oh what a happy day it would be to have a bi-partisan ticket. Just throw the whole party...

Friday July 29 was my last day employed by the University of California, Berkeley. I am now a free agent, starting work at Moteiv full time officially on Monday August 1. As a result, I now have a new blog...

I've decided that all good executives must own an Aston Martin DB9. If you've never seen one, check out the following pictures... Interior -- stainless steel gauges are very sweet Exterior -- oooooh aaaah...

On The Family Guy tonight, Chris spray paints "That's enough, John Mayer" on the wall of a building and then exclaims "mischief IS fun!". Now that's freakin' hillarious....

I thought my english was bad. I criticized others for their english. But this article is unbelievable. Seriously. There needs to be an award for worst use of the english language. Amazing. I'm still just in awe. ps: No US...

Thanks to Kevin, I learned that I will no longer be eligible for the armed forces starting January 1, 2006--the year that I turn 26. I will be too old. Sometimes getting old isn't half bad......

Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I watch the very popular TV show called "Cheaters". I have noticed, while watching Cheaters, that there is a common behavior that seems to recur. It goes something like this: Victim: Why are you...

I have a Cal icon for my webpage now. Woohoo. I was trained in the early 1990s web design. This webpage is still updated with emacs. Other folks have these overly complex weblog systems which I still don't understand. The...

Verizon is evil. SFLan is good....

everything is better with garlic salt. seriously... try it....

I've discovered that the hot girl (Vanessa Marcil, left in photo next to Paris Hilton) in Las Vegas [ok, all of the women in that show are hot] was married to Corey Feldman and now her claim to fame is...

Over a year ago, George and I cancelled all of our SBC services to boycott SBC renaming "Pac Bell Park" to "SBC Park". This included Cingular, which used to be part of the SBC mega-corporation. This week, it turns out,...

Bay Street in Emeryville has the newest, nicest movie theatre in the east bay after opening a two years ago. Parking was free and we would frequent the establishment, often stopping at Asqew Grill for dinner. But in the past...

Apparently others had the same idea... oh well. Canada's immigration officials report their Web site is being flooded by Americans. A new record was set within hours of Bush's victory speech Wednesday. Canadian officials say the hits on their Web...

I'm moving to Canada. No, seriously. As soon as I graduate. Move to a country with small business initiatives and universal health care. Europe sounds nice too. Mmmm skiing....

hehe. this is funny. courtesy of the daily show blog...

If anyone knows where I can get flying toasters screensaver for windows, please let me know. I need the flying toasters. Seriously. Have you seen the flying toasters? They're rad....

I've gotten numerous IM's saying "when are you going to update your blog? In fact, Steve uses my blog to procrastinate at work (sorry Steve, your secret is out). So here's your update, I'm sure it was worth the anticipation......