The Brunch Table

I hereby dub the render progress bar the “Porcupine Racetrack.” This lets you cheer it on with cries of “Go, you porcupines, go!” (It feels particularly apt right now, when as I write a humble 1.33GHz iBook–for various reasons, the only computer in the room able to step up to the plate–has definitely bitten off more than it can chew. It’ll be done in about 35 hours from now, it thinks.)

I’ve actually never seen the real “Porcupine Racetrack.” Far as I know, it was broadcast only once in the mid-’90s; I know it only through later references. However, I think it’s a perfect conceptual fit.

I came across an interesting transcript of a lecture by Bernard Lewis, considered the reigning American expert on Islamic history. Especially nice is the Q&A after, reading the response of his audience to the points he’s just discussed. (I think Lewis only really stumbles on the Iraq invasion–as an old conservative, he can’t bring himself to speak ill of the Administration, and tries to evade the question.) Even though I disagree with the guy on some points, he’s such a source of useful information:

And just think, for example, for a Muslim living in Hamburg, Birmingham, Los Angeles, or whatever it may be, it is very natural that he should want to give his children some sort of grounding in his religion and culture. So he looks around for evening classes, weekend schools, holiday camps and the like. These are now almost entirely controlled, financed, funded by the Wahhabis, so that you get, among the Muslims in the Diaspora more than among the Muslims in Muslim countries, an intense indoctrination from the most radical, the most violent, the most extreme and fanatical version of Islam.

I’ll give you a specific example. In the German constitution there is strict separation of church and state, but Germany, unlike the United States, allows time in the school curriculum for religious instruction. The way they do it is this: Time is provided in the curriculum of the German schools for religious instruction. Attendance at these classes is entirely optional, and the state provides neither teachers nor textbooks. The religious communities said, if they want this, provide the teachers and the textbooks.

The Muslim community in Germany is largely Turkish, and when they reached sufficient numbers they went to the German authorities and asked if they could have religious instruction in Islam in the German school curriculum. The Germans said, yes, you’re entitled to that, according to the law, but you will have to provide the textbooks. And the Turks said, no problem, we have excellent textbooks, which are used in Turkish schools and we can use those. And the German authorities said, no, that you cannot do. These are government-controlled textbooks. We cannot have government textbooks on religion. You have to produce them from your own community, with the result that Islam, as taught in Turkish schools, is a sort of modernized, semi-secularized version of Islam, and Islam as taught in German schools is the full Wahhabi blast. The last time I looked, 12 Turks had been arrested as members of al Qaeda. All 12 of them were born and educated in Germany, not in Turkey.

Looking up something entirely unrelated in Wikipedia, I found a picture of a 15th-century Aztec sword:

They were called Macahuitls, made of obsidian blades set into a wooden core. They were far from a primitive substitute for a steel sword–in fact, they were about five times sharper. (According to the source article, the best modern surgical scalpels have obsidian-edged blades.)

Unfortunately, Macahuitl blades were terribly brittle, which made them shatter uselessly against Spanish metal armor. Aztec armor was made of wood, so the issue had never come up before.

This video for Jason Forrest’s War Photographer is the most awesome piece of animation that I’ve watched since the Aeon Flux DVD box set. It’s a great combination of Forrest’s classic rock/disco cutup music with Joel Trussell’s Samurai Jack-style character design. Here’s a bit more about the video, as well as the list of nifty videos where I first came across this gem.

In a sequel to USA Today’s 2 shortage story from March, the New York Times reports on pricing problems that gas stations are facing. Some stations now have “3″ shortages, and many older pumps can’t deal with prices above $2.99 or totals above $99.99. I wonder whether we’ll keep moving through the digits at this rate?

Here’s a quick link to an article by Jon Udell which provides a straightforward discussion of a lot of ideas that have been bouncing around my head, like links-as-currency and addresses-as-identification.

The NHTSA is considering changing the classification rules for cars and trucks. If SUVs, minivans, and other weirdo things like the PT Cruiser are reclassified as cars rather than “light trucks”, automakers would likely be required to improve their fuel efficiency under CAFE.