zen.org Communal Weblog

I wonder if Alberto Gonzales choose to resign now because Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert just started a two week hiatus.

The Princeton Protein Orthology Database (P-POD): A Comparative Genomics Analysis Tool for Biologists.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night, and spoiler alert! In the end everybody gets ice cream.

Grist sez the New York Times sez Al Gore sez to commit civil disobedience!

I watched David Beckham make is starting début for the LA Galaxy last night. Well, I watched the first half and went to bed, it started at 22:00 and I need my ugly sleep! I’ve read that a few days ago, in Washington, DC United defeated the LA Galaxy even after they subbed in Mr. Beckham in the second half. That was a regular MLS game, but then last night in SuperLiga, in Carson California, Mr. Becham showed his stuff. Apart from a mediocre showing in the World Cup I’ve never seed him play, and wondered what all the hype was about. In the start DC United dominated, then the unfit Mr. Beckham got tackled, he stood up with a huge grin on his face and he was on. Until Philadelphia gets a team, I’m a DC United fan, but with a goal and an assist last night I see why fútbol fans love or hate him.

Try not to miss the Perseid meteor shower this weekend. I would not normally post such a thing, but it also happens to be a new moon. Unless it’s cloudy you will not get better viewing then this.

As the world now knows, the city of Minneapolis in the US State of Minnesota suffered an overwhelming catastrophe last night, as one of its major bridges collapsed into the Mississippi River, taking with it the lives, hopes, loves and dreams of several dozen innocent people. Nothing can ease the pain of the families, friends, neighbours and colleagues impacted by this horrendous event and for whom people around the globe now pray.

Yet, on every U.S. TV news report, Government Officials have engaged in a constant repetition of the words, “This is the United States of America; bridges aren’t supposed to fall down here.”

For a country which has spent billions upon billions to mount an illegal, murderous war against a nation which never posed any threat to it, whilst at the same time disregarding its own failing infrastructure and humane needs, this is a truly disgusting attitude.

But then, superciliousness and presumption of some imaginary superiority have never been lacking in America … especially and most obviously so, since the G. W. Bush Administration seized power.

It is heartbreakingly sad, yet at the same time overwhelmingly offensive, that any nation should assume so haughty a position as to claim its people deserve to be safer or more highly valued than those of any other country. Still, one has to assume that is nothing at all new for the self-aggrandizing United States.

Even more difficult to swallow is the interview one of the financial networks did with an investment adviser who said: “As soon as I heard [of the tragedy], my first thought was: ‘what will this do to the grain market?’

What a pathetically apt illustration of American priorities.