rare bird

Kuchma has not been foolhardy at all, so far as I can tell. He seems, like Putin, to be a politician of the highest ability. He is trying very hard to checkmate Yushchenko so that even if Y. wins he will have lost the ability to produce any real change as president. So we won't see the Russian army taking over Kiev. On account of the response the EU/NATO/UN would give to an obvious threat to Europe's security? If this is the case, then I guess NATO has won the Cold War, and we are in a new era, one where Russia cannot project power by flexing military muscle. The only reason I bring it up is because one does not have to go that far back in time to remember the Russian army invading Ukraine, ostensibly to save it from the Nazis, but in reality to keep it under Russian control. These memories are fresh in the minds of Yelena's grandparents and parents, I am sure. When we talk about public opinion, whose is Putin afraid of offending? Ukraine's? Remember, most Russians...

This is a link to an NPR story about Neil Innes, the man responsible for Monty Pyton's music. I never even realized it was one person. He's still touring, though his newer songs have a more satirical bent.

Note: this is not mine. It's beautiful, though. Just like the 12 days, it goes through all of these individually before the end. I'm only showing the end, though. when the twelfth bug appeared, my manager said to me 1. tell them its a feature, 2. say it's not supported, 3. change the documentation, 4. blame it on the hardware, 5. find a way around it, 6. say they need an upgrade, 7. reinstall the software, 8. ask for a dump, 9. use a debugger, 10. try to reproduce it, 11. ask them how they did it, 12. see if it happens again.