I spent a few hours yesterday with an interesting guy and a few lawyers :-)

Actually, I had a good time-- even if it was switching from proscecutor to referee to who knows what.

Lesson of the day: Never leave home without a copy of Ginsburg's Howl. You never know when it might come in handy.

Oh, and keep a file on a certain author.

Seriously, I have been intrigued by the nature of the few Blog meetups I have experienced. I could also use some computer troubleshooting advice from someone who is neither cat nor computer.

In other news, life has gone back to imitating satire. I just have to get past Doc Daneeka....

We even have an updated version of war profiteering....

The Financial Times (U.K.) reports that
perhaps the surest sign that the campaign in Iraq has shifted from a
military to a commercial footing is a conference to be held in Washington
next month. Participants from business, government and the non-profit
sector are to gather on May 5 for the first Iraqi reconstruction
conference.

"You are invited to participate in the most important reconstruction
event of the year," the invitation reads. "The Iraqi Reconstruction
Conference will provide the latest information on reconstruction programs
and funding." For $595 (there is a $100 discount for early
registration), corporate executives are promised "networking opportunities with top
government officials" and an "exclusive directory" of agencies and
organizations involved in the process.

Excerpted from Today's (041703) Global Development Briefing.

US policies has also given other countries' economies a boost-- Take the furniture business in Colombia.

New York Police stumbled onto one of the most inventive methods of smuggling heroin I've ever seen. Mary Lou Finlay (of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's news magazine As It Happens) did a very good interview with Lt. William Waters of the Queens Narcotics Unit.

Late last week, NYPD busted a suspected drug lab only to find--- furniture. Apparently, some Colombian craftsman mixed the pure heroin with resin, making a malleable substance that was then molded to look like ornamental woodwork on the various pieces of a bedroom set. Apparently, it was very difficult to differentiate them from actual headboards and dressers. That is, when it was solid. The smugglers had the furniture delivered to the apartment in question, where they proceeded to grind down each piece of furniture to a pile of sawdust and chemically extract the heroin.

It appears invention might actually be a bastard child.

More soon.