http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog Musings, Poetry, and Madness Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:34:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Inspired by Edinbugger's relyricization of "Handlebars" by Flobots over at Ubercharged, I whipped up this possible album cover. I'm aware of how bad it is, especially the scout at the bottom. However, the idea of "Flobonks" was too good to resist. Original picture can be found here. http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/11/25/introducing-the-flobonks/ At the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, the conservative senator Stephen Douglas wielded racist sentiment like a katana. Lincoln was rather ambivalent toward the issue of slavery, only opposing it because of the instability of the slave system. Nevertheless, Douglas capitalized on the prejudices of the American public of the ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/10/29/the-end-of-homophobia/ Watching the presidential debate tonight was both worrisome and relieving for me. I was glad to see many important issues addressed. I wasn't so keen on how the issues were being handled. First of all, I was pleased to see that the issue of Pakistan, so often neglected in presidential campaigns, ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/09/27/reflections-on-the-presidential-debate/ Australia is famous for a supposedly idyllic lifestyle, "mateship", an opera house, funny accents, and kangaroos. The country is also going through the worst drought in its recorded history. Since 2003, the country has been completely parched. Rainfall has been at a record low—the last time Australia received so little rain was ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/06/13/the-war-for-water/ We remind you that the views expressed in this editorial are not necessarily indicative of the views of the editorial board of the Bourgeois Buffoon. Please see our disclaimer for further details. When the communists in Vietnam took over, there was widespread opposition and a pro-democracy movement. In defense of ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/05/18/western-hypocrisy/ Just about a year ago, the Baltic state of Estonia went offline. Botnets, immense networks of hijacked computers, poured billions of hits onto Estonian government and commercial websites, and the Estonian servers, attempting to shoulder many times their normal load, gave up. Tensions were elevated-Estonians blamed the Russian government, who ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/05/12/terrorism-20-is-the-us-prepared/ SeppukuChu here, in my star-studded (?) debut. The Last Prophet, Medivh, gave a dire warning to King Terenas. It proved to be the costliest mistake Terenas ever made in his troubled reign atop the throne of Lordaeron... A sundered soul, from sight of night had fled Sargeras' hate, that once had flowed ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/05/11/medivhs-warning/ This is a Shakespearean sonnet (14 line-structure, 3 quatrains and a couplet, alternate lines rhyme, and iambic pentameter) written in memory of my best friend, the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal :D . It helped me through the chamber seventeen before I killed it—what a dreadful act! The greatest buddy I have ever ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/05/10/an-elegy-to-the-companion-cube/ Computers are one of the greatest inventions of humanity, designed by some of humanity's most brilliant people. With all due respect, though, their brainchildren, while enormously useful, have been subjected to some serious pain due to developers' negligence. Here are a few examples from my personal experience. Canon's ZoomBrowser software for ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/04/15/internet-follies-part-1/ "The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad." ... said Salvador Dali, though this applies to me, too. No, I'm not exactly bourgeois, and no, I'm not (at least, I hope I'm not!) a buffoon. And just like any madman will tell you, I'm not mad. ... http://www.rahulbasu.com/blog/2008/04/14/first-transmission/