rare bird

Ukrainian deputies and supporters backing opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko try to prevent two other supporters from entering the parliament hall in Kiev, November 30, 2004. Supporters of Yushchenko broke through a fence surrounding Ukraine's parliament, massing around its main door after the chamber failed to debate a no confidence vote in the government. Photo by Mykola Lazarenko/Reuters 

Kuchma and Yanukovych are not negotiating in good faith. Apparently Yanukovych has even offered the post of Prime Minister to Yuschenko if he allows Yanukovych to become President! What a sheister! "Sure, just let me be president, and I'll make you No. 2 (a job Yuschenko has had before!) but you'll be totally impotent (because the president is omnipotent in Ukraine). I've also confirmed from Igor that Russian special forces are in Kiev, and they're wearing Ukrainian uniforms! Igor confirmed it from one of Yuschenko's personal assistants, with whom Igor goes to university. Igor is upset that the US and EU are basically doing nothing while Russia seeks to more or less, annex Ukraine. What has happened to NATO's original mission?

Here are several pictures from Kiev, courtesy of Igor. They're protesting all night long! Be sure to click on the pictures to get a larger view.

Marching in the street! 

These are Igor's workmates - they all came out for the protest 

Igor & friends 

Igor & friends 

flags and all kinds of people 

Igor with workmates 

Marching in the street. 

The riot police line with orange ribbons and flowers in their shields. 

some Yanukovych supporters 

surrounded Yanukovych supporters 

more crowds, with main stage (rock concerts and speakers and big television for live events - well organized!) 

crowds 

Tak! 

Kivalov. (I'll have to look this up!)

dog.jpg 

My mother-in-law tells me Russian-language news sites say the Russian special forces - 'spesnatz' - are in Kiev, as well as skinheads who want to cause trouble for Yuschenko's people. Yanukovych has had convicts released from prison and bussed to Kiev. She also says Yanukovych and Kuchma will probably ignore the supreme court if it rules against them. She is afraid Russia will use force if Yuschenko wins. Is the Cold War not over??

This is an email I got from Igor, my brother-in-law. He lives in Kiev. "Tak!" is "Yes!" From: Bogdanovs [boglar@i.com.ua] Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 12:36 PM To: Sean Subject: TAK! YUSCHENKO!!! TAK! MAN!!! Today is the fourth day of my personal participation in the revolution. I spend 6-8 hours a day striking. I participated in all major events. I was marching next to Yuschenko and other politicians several times. I participated in blocking of Administration of President. I was everywhere!!! Right now there are up to 1 million people striking in the center of the Kiev. I have a lot of digital pictures at office. I'll send them to you on Monday. UKRAINE! FREEDOM! YUSCHENKO!!!TAK!!! IGOR.

This color switch demonstrates my sympathy with The Orange Revolutio n .

There is also the campaign page, but it loads more slowly. It also looks like they've set up a way to give money to a bank account that has been set up to support the protesters and the coalition "Our Ukraine"! Click on the "ENG" link to see the page in English.

Ukrainian Protesters Vow to ‘Stay Until the End’ 

(Yuschenko) Cool tie! But look at the poor man's face. This was done by the poisoning. 

USATODAY.com - Powell says USA does not accept Ukraine vote results OK, that's more like it.

Life at a software company... Originally I made my comment verbally, but Greg thought it was funny - so I'll share it with you. -----Original Message----- From: Greg Sent: November 12, 2004 12:05 PM To: [ REDACTED ] Subject: Ver_380\QA All, Is there a reason we have a Ver_380\QA folder already? I am making modifications to the v370 test data and test scripts still. I would think this should not be created until we have created a v380 branch and are ready to build and populate a v380 database. Thoughts? ----I Said---- It's a "running start" - kind of like going towards Baghdad as fast as we can before we have the rest of the country under control.

testing w.bloggar...

He's been attending the demonstrations, and today saw Yuschenko give the oath of office, with his own eyes. I've asked him to send me any digital pics he has. He's going back to the crowds tomorrow. The tent city you may have heard about in Independence Square has a heater for every tent. This way the students and demonstration organizers can stay all night in the central square. The organizers have also arranged for hot breakfast (oatmeal) and soup to be served. Most people go home at night but then come back to the square in the morning and continue the demonstration. They won't stop until ... until justice is done. "Today or Never" is one of their slogans. The police generally support Yuschenko so they are not going to break up the demonstrators. Eat your heart out, MoveOn.org!

Johann Norberg, a Swedish libertarian. writes: 13:16 - IS THE WORLD WATCHING?: Right now in the freezing cold, almost 100 000 Ukranians are protesting against the stolen election in central Kiev, and a huge demonstration has also started in the city of Lviv. The municipal councils in both cities have said they only take orders from the liberal presidential candidate Yushchenko, the real winner of the election. At the same time, security forces have said that they are ready to put down the protests "quickly and firmly". Where are the concerned European politicians who should condemn the fraud, and who could be with these crowds to show their support? And where are the "human shields"? A lot of young westerners were willing to risk their lives to stop the war on Iraq. Aren’t they willing to risk some discomfort to stop one of Europe’s biggest countries from slipping

Yuschenko 

breakfast 

send 

3 pictures 

pictures of the protest from BBC News 

while we sigh half a world away an era comes to an end

International News Article Reuters.com : "KIEV (Reuters) - Up to 200,000 protesters rallied outside an emergency session of Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday demanding authorities admit they cheated in a presidential poll which showed the country's Moscow-backed prime minister had won. " My brother-in-law Igor is part of this protest in Kiev, along with his wife. My mother-in-law is with us in Minnesota right now. We are watching this closely.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Ukraine crowds warm to protest : "'We will never allow the freedom of our country, so hard-won, to be sold to Russia.'"

ABC News: Ukraine PM on Verge of Victory, Monitors Cry Foul

Milestone Ho!

Russia to deploy new type of nuclear missile I don't believe this. Why is Russia doing this? What do they hope to achieve? I can understand that the US antiballistic missile shield tends to destabilize the deterrence concept, but 1. I thought the Cold War was over, and 2. At least it's a shield , not a new weapons system! These kinds of moves seem to demonstrate that Russia has the kind of paranoid leadership we have long suspected them of having. I guess the Cold War's still not over! Sauron is pleased. I wonder if this means the Doomsday Clock will be set closer to midnight, again? Cyr Currently it's set to seven minutes to midnight. What do you think? BTW, for those of you wondering, the title for the post is taken from my assertion that nuclear weapons are the postmodern world's Ring of Doom - more about this later.

Google Blog Great, but what about Russian (and Ukrainian)?

November 11 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : "1215 - The fourth lateran council meets, adopting the doctrine of transubstantiation , meaning that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ." The doctrine of the eucharist was the most important issue during the 16th century Reformation . It caused more divisions between evangelicals than any other issue. At that time, other doctrines were proposed as responses to this doctrine: Luther proposed the doctrine of consubstantiation . He used the allegory of a hot iron to demonstrate that, just as there is fire is in a hot iron but the fire does not become the iron, so Christ is present in the bread and wine but the elements do not become Christ. Zwingli proposed a symbolic interpretation of the Last Supper, saying that there is no real presence in the elements. Calvin proposed a doctrine of "spiritual presence," saying that the body and blood of Jesus Christ are received in a sp

My NEO Experience Hmmm...you have to admit, it sounds pretty impressive.

Yahoo! News - Thousands of Troops Storm Fallujah Here we go...they expect there will be more casualties in this battle than in any battle of the war so far. I hope this works, because if not Iraq really is a lost cause. Pray for the soldiers and the innocents. To quote Governor Tarkin: "I'm taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work."

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 11/10/2004 | Kerry taunts tied to school fight : "'It's a good thing to see young people interested and excited about politics,' said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. 'It's obviously very disturbing to see this kind of violence over it.'" Looks like they're just taking after our example of animosity!

The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share. | Creative Commons

`Incredibles' muscles into top box-office spot with $70.5 million My review to come...

Neither the incumbent Mr. Yanukovich or the challenger Mr. Yuschenko has gotten more than 50% of the vote in Ukraine's presidential election, so they go to to a runoff on Nov. 21. Mr. Yanukovich is a semi-communist, and advocates political reunion with Russia. Mr. Yuschenko is a reformer, and advocates closer ties to the EU, NATO, and the West. There were around 24 contenders in the presidential election. With 94.4% of precincts counted, pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had 40.12% of the vote, and top opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko had 39.15%, the Central Election Commission said Monday...turnout was about 75%. For some reason ;) Ukraine's government is not publishing official results, describing the tally as "unofficial preliminary results." My wife is visiting Ukraine right now. She says there's vibrant political activity all over the place in the capital Kiev, where her brother lives. They say people stayed up all night to vote in

Hello, Hello Hola! [Spanish for Hello] I'm at a place called vertigo (¿Dónde está?) [Where is it?] It's everything I wish I didn't know Except you give me something I can feel Feel