I don't think I've spoken about the Grammy awards before, but I thought it was interesting that Dixie Chicks's song "Not Ready to Make Nice" won them awards tonight. The degree to which they stuck their neck out to criticise BushJr's invasions seems almost prescient, as that the nation is now slowly coming around to their views. The song's pretty nice too. Vladimir Putin made an argument at a european security conference that the American invasions undermine world security by fueling nuclear ambitions and making a joke of international law. Unfortunately, rather than provoke a discussion, America's defense secretary mocked Putin, saying "one cold war was quite enough", among other things. This is disappointing.

I recently heard about Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House. I wonder how expensive it would be to build one in modern times, and what modifications given modern materials and needs would be useful.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi is treading interesting ground in his criticism of the closure of a newspaper in Persia. In his shoes, I would worry that my blog would be censored for such criticism (although the Persian government is an interesting mix of rule of law and rule by personality - perhaps the details make this worry unfounded). I admire him nontheless for having the courage to make such a criticism.