Finished rendering a few elements in preparation for #VMworld on Monday. 

Here’s one we shot yesterday.

I say this because Venture Capitalist Mark Suster has put out a public plea for help with regard to a friend of his who’s had this happen to him. Mark Suster’s account:

Colin & I have been close friends for 13 years when we started our MBA program together.  We then both lived in London and our children played together.  Colin moved back to his home town of Boston before I returned to the US and unfortunately he got divorced from his wife, an Egyptian national, in 2008.  He was granted full legal custody by the US courts of his two young boys (US citizens).  His wife created forged passports in a fake name and kidnapped his two children by illegally flying back to Cairo on Egypt Air.  He hasn’t seen them in more than a year and she is in hiding.

Mirvat el Nady now has an arrest warrant in the US and is wanted by Interpol (see here).  Colin is being supported by his Senator John Kerry and has received help from Vice President Biden and Attorney General, Eric Holder.  The problem is that Egypt doesn’t support the Hague Convention and doesn’t have an extradition policy with the United States so they don’t recognize any of the international legal rulings in Colin’s favor.  Colin has now won visitation rights in an Egyptian court, but Mirvat didn’t show up at the legally required meeting day / time in Egypt.

This is an issue that’s pretty close to my heart. I have a friend that I’ve known for so long, I consider him a brother. Shortly after his second daughter was born, my friend’s wife split on him (and shacked up with our former boss when we worked together at Nokia). My friend and I were the direct caregivers for his daughter six days a week, for a year or so. Eventually, I had to take job opportunities in other parts of the country, but my friend continued to care for his daughter while working from his home …

… Until a weekend visitation came along that never ended. His ex-wife picked up the daughter, boarded a plane for Canada, and hasn’t been seen since.

In the intervening years, the girl I came to regard as a niece, if not an adopted daughter, has become a pre-teen. She’s not been back to visit her daddy or I for one single day, and only very recently was allowed to contact us (after my friend tracked her down on MySpace and Facebook).

We know her exact location and exactly who she’s living with. The court paperwork says that my friend is the primary guardian, and my friend’s ex-wife is only to have “visitation rights.”

Still, the Canadian government nor the US government in the many years since seem to want anything to do with helping my friend.

So while I feel for Mark Suster’s friend – I don’t hold out much hope that he’ll see a happy resolution to this problem. If the US is afraid of fouling diplomatic relations with Canada (yes, that superpower known as CANADA, people), I don’t see a lot of bright spots coming from a diplomatic fiasco with Egypt.

1 Comments

At August 24, 2010, me2 wrote: Because in this world , people don't see women as a threat. Which you see in the news that they are and men as well.. If a father was given full legal custody to his children then he needs to take ever step to protect his children.As goes the same as if the mother.. Each parent knows , they way is to hurt each other is through their kids. And Laws in different countries don't want to step up to protect these children.

You need to watch this whole thing – truly brilliant.

In related news, Venture Capitalist Jeff Nolan had this to say:

It is estimated that there is as much as $2 trillion in cash on the balance sheets of public companies in the U.S. alone. The conventional wisdom of Keynesians has been that the unprecedented level of spending that the Federal government has undertaken would prime the economic pump which would create demand that would spur companies to use their strong balance sheets to accelerate job creation.

This clearly hasn’t happened.

Instead what appears to be happening is that companies are using their strong cash positions to embark on a new age of M&A, pay down debt, and buy back stocks… none of which will lead to job creation.

Fun. I like when people I admire make a lot of sense.

4 Comments

At August 20, 2010, Tweets that mention Penn Jillette Explains Universal Health Care- rizzn.com -- Topsy.com wrote: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by seanhackbarth, John Brodigan. John Brodigan said: RT @seanhackbarth: RT @rizzn: rizzn.com> Penn Jillette Explains Universal Health Care http://bit.ly/d4XrmY [...]At August 22, 2010, Why does the liberal media mislead the Americans to become Democrats? | call center software wrote: [...] Penn Jillette Explains Universal Health Care- rizzn.com [...]At August 26, 2010, Is welfare exansion a wise choice? Part 2? | Uncategorized | Information about Careers wrote: [...] Penn Jillette Explains Universal Health Care- rizzn.com [...]At August 30, 2010, Bruna Sylvain wrote: I had been really pleased to find this web site.I wanted to thank you for this great study I definitely enjoying each and every small bit of it and I've you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

“Sometimes you have to stand up and say, this is wrong — the wrong place… It’s a slap to the American people… There are some places where cheap political tricks should not be allowed.”  - Bill Press on the Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial

“There’s only one reason to oppose this mosque, and that is to paint Islam as an evil religion and to paint all Muslims and equate them with a 19 terrorist [sic] who’s flew into that building.” – Bill Press on the Cordoba Mosque

“In this case, [Bill] Press is not condemning an entire group of people for the actions of a few, but rather demonizing an entire group of people for the actions of none of them.” – Doug Powers

At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m shouting into the ether at my personal blog – at this point in my writing career, almost no one is interested in my political and religious opinions. That’s my assumption, anyway. I don’t really look at my stats on my personal blog anymore, but judging by my comment count, I don’t get a lot of activity actually on the site. Maybe people are reading it and they’re just too timid to have their name associated with what I’m saying when it comes to politics and/or religion.

Either way, that’s fine. I’m still going to write them down. It’s more about me than it is anyone else, I suppose.

I was reading Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson’s comments at his blog today regarding the Cordoba House. He praised himself as being “brave” to come out and say that he believes the construction of the mosque should go forward (… which of course implies that to think otherwise is cowardly; I’ll let that slide for now).

As is often the case at Fred’s blog, the comments were more fascinating than the post itself. If you get the chance, check out the comments from Morgan Warstler in the very deep comment thread. As I said on Buzz the other day, it’s “one of the most potentially offensive but unassailable commentaries on the Muslim mindset in Western society.” In particular, the very rational and even-handed responses from actual Muslim believers are worth reading as well.

This isn’t really about them, though. This is about me and my feelings on the topic.

The debate has centered around two things.

The first thing is whether most of America wants a mosque at Ground Zero. The answer to that is a resounding no.

The other thing is whether the government should stop it. To be completely honest, when I wrote my first post about it, I didn’t really consider whether the government should step in and say no to this. I can’t remain intellectually honest and say that the government should step in on the building of this mosque. The government doesn’t own the property, and if clearance and zoning has been properly provided for, then they should have the right to build the mosque.

That doesn’t mean I have to like it. It also doesn’t mean most Americans are going to be as well mannered as I am with their displeasure.

Many liberals have suddenly “found religion” when it comes to quoting Former President George W. Bush recently.  If you’ve followed this story at all, you’ve probably seen the following Bush quote trotted out a few times:

“When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race — out of every race. America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads. And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect. Women who cover their heads in this country must feel comfortable going outside their homes. Moms who wear cover must be not intimidated in America. That’s not the America I know. That’s not the America I value.”

- George W. Bush On The Toleration Of Islam 9/17/01

They’re strong words in defense of our Muslim US citizens. They were spoken at a time when they were most needed; emotions ran high and people behaved irrationally out of grief and a desire for immediate revenge.

It won’t be long before words like these from a President are needed again, because while time has healed many wounds with regard to 9/11, building a symbol of Muslim faith at the site of a disaster perpetrated as an act on behalf of that same religion will inflame those wounds.

“In fairness, we’ve been building ‘ground zeros’ near Iraqi mosques since March 2003.” - @jasonmustian

“A ground zero mosque data point? U.S. Marine Air Station Iwakuni was placed near Hiroshima. U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is near Nagasaki.” - @declanm

I’ve enjoyed all the cute little comparisons of 9/11 to wars the United States has engaged in over the last several decades. I really enjoy that CNet writer and editor Declan McCullagh equates the sacrifice of my grandfather’s bunkmates in World War II to the sacrifice of 19 assholes from Saudi Arabia. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Essentially what Declan is saying: “The United States committed a horrible atrocity to end a war costly in terms of human life. That is exactly the same thing that these Muslim ‘freedom fighters’ did when they killed 3,000 US citizens in New York City. 9/11 was a horrible atrocity, but it served an obvious higher purpose.”

As warm and fuzzy as that makes me inside, I imagine it makes my friends who actually fought in Iraq feel warm and fuzzy to know that some Americans think that they’re engaged in the wanton slaughter of Iraqi citizens. By warm and fuzzy, of course, I mean completely rethinking the wisdom behind the constitutional right to free speech for functional retards.

I think we all need to get a grip here. We should probably not be calling for the government to block the building of this thing.

I think we also need to stop condemning folks for having emotions. You’re not racist for being offended. Heck, you’re not even evil if you think building the Cordoba House at Ground Zero is a good idea. 

You’re just an asshole.

And it will always be perfectly constitutionally legal to be an asshole. Just know that most of the country wishes that you’d, you know, stop being such a douche.

4 Comments

At August 17, 2010, Tweets that mention Further Thoughts on Cordoba House- rizzn.com -- Topsy.com wrote: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins, Anthony Farrior. Anthony Farrior said: RT @rizzn: rizzn.com> Further Thoughts on Cordoba House http://bit.ly/9dsJU1 [...]At August 17, 2010, James wrote: Well said, Mark. Perhaps you were referencing the quote from "The Big Lebowski"; "No, Walter, you're not wrong, you're just an asshole!" At August 22, 2010, Karla Ottum wrote: Cool post. I wish far more folks had simple and focused content like your own. Cheers :)At August 23, 2010, rizzn wrote: I wasn't intentionally referencing that, though it's almost a direct quote! My subconscious at work again!

Facebook’s efforts to raise its reputation for technological openness suffered a blow with the departure of Monica Keller, a well-regarded program manager for open Web standards whose career at the company proved short-lived.

It’s just one of very many recent departures from Facebook in recent months, and one of (I predict, anyways) many more to come in the months ahead.

I think I may have mentally stumbled upon the reason why.

You know why, in life, it’s not a generally good idea to date the guy or girl who relationship hops? The one that’s never been alone for more than a few days at a time and tries to date around your circle of friends?

Sort of the same thing in the corporate world.  John Battelle (if memory serves) had the thought back when Facebook was stealing all those “top talents” from Google that these were really just the chaff of the organization. These were the least loyal or least productive, and Google wasn’t fighting to keep them.

In the beginning, it would be a PR hit for Google, but in the end, they’d be a much more efficient company for it.

Now, because of their innate desire for the bigger, better thing, I predict we’ll be seeing many of these same folks head off to greener pastures.

[Photo credit: Adam Tinworth. –mrh]

I was watching an interview Kevin Rose did with Marissa Mayer.  The first question Kevin asked was whether or not any of the search terms that comes through the system ever shocks her.

Of course, her answer dodged the question, and she played up the fact that the most popular searches on Google truly reflect the Zeitgeist of the world.

I’m reminded of that when I saw a post shared out by someone on Google Reader showing what pops up from Google’s “autocomplete” feature when you type in the phrase “Obama is ”.

I wound up trying it out myself to make sure it checked out. Below is a screenshot from my computer.

It’s unclear if this is generated from global, national or state algorithms, or if Google generates these based on my social circle.  In most of the likely sample-sets, they’re supposedly predominantly liberal-friendly, or if popular media is to be believed, at least Obama-friendly.

Nowhere on the list is the obvious query: “Obama is the president,” or “Obama is the leader” or anything of that nature. All the queries are 100% negative in their connotation, in the context of polite political discourse.

There’s something to be said about the fact that to create the negative Google momentum around former President Bush, a Google-bomb was required.  These queries are all natural, folks.

In reality, though, some of them are just downright undeniably hilarious.

This video from John Troyer (social media honcho at VMWare) is a perfect example of that hilarity.

Thanks to Stu for sending it along.

(and yes, I will be at VMWorld this year).

Never saw this before.

Hey guys.

My buddy Sean has been preaching ambivalence about the upcoming movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” Unlike Sean, I really don’t care if Michael Cera is a one note actor, I dig his style.  So I’ll probably like the movie any way it turns out.

I found the tracklist to the movie soundtrack today (thanks @nicefishfilms!). Decided to put it into a Spotify mix for ya.

I’m busy with all sorts of administrative work today, so you don’t get much more from me than that. Enjoy!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (track list)

1. We Are Sex Bob-omb - Sex Bob-omb
2. Scott Pilgrim – Plumtree
3. I Heard Ramona Sing - Frank Black
4. By Your Side – Beachwood Sparks
5. O Katrina! - Black Lips
6. I'm So Sad, So Very, Very, Sad - Crash and the Boys
7. We Hate You Please Die - Crash and the Boys
8. Garbage Truck - Sex Bob-omb
9. Teenage Dream - T. Rex
10. Sleazy Bed Track - The Bluetones
11. It's Getting Boring by the Sea - Blood Red Shoes
12. Black Sheep – Metric
13. Threshold (8 Bit) - Sex Bob-omb
14. Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl - Broken Social Scene
15. Under My Thumb - The Rolling Stones
16. Ramona (Acoustic Version) – Beck
17. Ramona – Beck
18. Summertime - Sex Bob-omb
19. Threshold - Brian LeBarton

Here’s the HTTP link. Here’s the Spotify link.

Previously:

2 Comments

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