Good news, Barry Bonds!

You are no longer the most disbelieved figure in the world of sports:

Thanks for the memories

At 36, Paul Scholes is finally retiring from Manchester United.  Scholes appeared 676 times for United since his debut in 1994, won 10 league titles, and was described by Zinedine Zidane as "the complete midfielder ... my toughest opponent ... undoubtedly the greatest of his generation."  Scholes moves into a coaching role at United, and nobody could have imagined him anywhere else.

PC's Phone Home

From the boys at Intel, good news for everyone in the network security business:

As part of its keynote at Computex today, Intel unveiled a pair of new sleep-related technologies, though funnily enough, neither of them is particularly boring. Smart Connect checks up periodically on web apps you have open while your computer is in sleep mode -- meaning that email clients and in-browser web apps like Twitter and Facebook will update themselves without the need for you to flip the computer on in full.

So ... the system initiates connections even when you think you turned it off.  Great!  Sure want to be behind a firewall in that case!

Hard to give up ...

... the ways of Empire:

Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard - the elite security force deployed during recent protests in Bahrain - in public order enforcement and the use of sniper rifles.
The news has outraged human rights groups, which point out that the British Foreign Office recognises that the kingdom's human rights record is "a major concern".
In response to questions under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training".
The courses are organised through the British military mission to the Saudi national guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British Army personnel commanded by a brigadier.
The ministry's response reveals that Britain sends up to 20 training teams to the kingdom a year. Saudi Arabia pays the bill.
Bahrain's royal family used 1200 Saudi troops to help put down demonstrations in March. At the time Britain expressed concern about reports of human rights abuses by the troops.

"Britain's important role in training the Saudi Arabian national guard in internal security over many years has enabled them to develop tactics to help suppress the popular uprising in Bahrain," said Nicholas Gilby of the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Analysts believe the Saudi royal family is desperate to shore up its position in the region by preserving regimes in the Gulf that will help check the increasing power of Iran.
"Last year we raised concerns that the Saudis had been using UK-supplied and UK-maintained arms in secret attacks in Yemen that left scores of Yemeni civilians dead," said Oliver Sprague, director of Amnesty International's UK Arms Programme.
Defence Minister Nick Harvey confirmed to Parliament last week that British armed forces provided training to the Saudi national guard.
The confirmation that this training is focused on maintaining public order is potentially embarrassing for the Government. Coming at the end of a week in which the G8 summit approved funding for countries embracing democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring, it has led to accusations that the Government's foreign policy is in conflict with itself.

N.Z. Herald

Memorial Day Sunday, Amsterdam

Champions League ended football season?  You wouldn't know in Dam Square during beach soccer!

Sunday art fair

Memorial Day in USA

From President Obama's recent visit to Dublin, Ireland:

Soldaat van Oranje

A regular in my neighborhood, the 'Soldier of Orange,' making the turn to the west.

Sasquatch

I can't be there to see it, but I can stream it live over KEXP:

Barcelona 3, Manchester United 1

"In my time as manager, it's the best team I've faced."  Sir Alex Ferguson, after the match.

And it wasn't even that close ... Barcelona overwhelmed United in this game, football being played the way everyone wishes they could play it.

Watched the game and had dinner at Barney's Uptown:

Quiet street in the center

Phone camera didn't do a good job of picking up the background sound (besides the birds), but there is a music studio in one of the buildings where a piano/violin duet was practicing ... very peaceful early evening.

We are ready for some football

Champion's League Final tonight ... Heineken is aware ...

Walking around ...

Langestraat, between me and Harlemaarstrat ... nice quiet street, beautiful townhouses with garages and back yards in the middle of downtown ... if you have to ask you can't afford it.

Monaco

Yes I want to see a Formula One race someday ... no, this one won't be in my budget.  Still, I'll be watching on Sunday, there's nothing like Monaco.

Slave Gaming

Interesting article from The Guardian today highlighting the practice in some Chinese prisons of forcing prisoners, after a day of manual labor, to "gold farm" in games like World of Warcraft for the profit of their guards:

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Orwell could hardly have imagined how truly strange the police state would become in our era.

Europe's Super Bowl

This Saturday sees the Clash of the Titans showdown for the Champions League title between Manchester United and Barcelona, the top two teams in the world who have been expected to reach this game since their 2011 campaigns began back in August.  Barcelona is led by Lionel Messi of Argentina, undoubtedly the top player in the world today at age 23 (sorry, C-Ronaldo), who scored 52 goals for Barcelona in all competitions in 2011.  United is led by English star Wayne Rooney, although the personality of the team is definitely that of legendary Scottish manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

This is Europe's equivalent of the Super Bowl, the game that decides who has bragging rights as the best football team in Europe, not just in one country's domestic league.  Amsterdam will grind to a halt during the Final, as the football-crazy Dutch watch the most important football game outside the World Cup.

Worth toasting

Ten years ago, I don't think either one of them really imagined they'd ever live this moment:

Smoosh

Seattle sister band Smoosh

Go, Endeavour!

25th and final flight for Shuttle Endeavour, which first flew on May 7, 1992.

Now that's a shake

Barney's Uptown ... also my favorite ribeye with salad is there.

Bear Watching

Gotta try this someday ...

Kodiak Bear Watching

Limassol, Cyprus

Many thanks to my hosts at Cypriot lawfirm Chrysses Demetriades, who showed me their state-of-the-art IT setup and introduced me to the great beach town on the Med that I will need to spend some actual vacation time in ... sometime in the future when I have vacation!

No pictures here from inside of their beautiful server room ... it's a "secure" network, duh.

Dick Dale

Home again

Beautiful sunny weather greeted me in Amsterdam, and the sun isn't setting until after 9 now ...

Friday Farmer's Market, Athens

Oh my god ... those olives ....

The market is on both sides of the block beyond the compound of red buildings

On the road to Lemesos

Cyprus

Pretty great so far, fantastic weather, nice people, great food ... they speak Greek but they don't have strikes and protests while I'm here so I guess it really IS different (although I do love Athens too) ...

War memorial at Green Line border between Turkish and Greek Nicosia

Saturday shopping, Nicosia

No escaping the Evil Empires