Denverites Love the Sauce

Not too big of a surprise really. Colorado Springs at number three is a little more surprising.
Denver voted city with biggest boozers.

Will It Blend?

A blender company has a pretty cool advertising idea, where they take items and see if they will blend. Host Tom Dickson is hilarious.
http://www.willitblend.com/
This appeals to the kid in me.

White House Continues to Support Torture

Today the White House raised opposition to a House bill that would require all government interrogators to rely on the Army's field manual. The manual is based on Geneva Convention standards and was updated in 2006 to specifically prohibit the military from using aggressive interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.

The White House said in its statement that the Geneva Conventions shouldn't apply to "captured terrorists who openly flout that law."

Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions forbids murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture, and humiliating and degrading treatment. The US has followed the Geneva Conventions from its adoption until this war. Torture has been proven to be an ineffective method of gaining intelligence. Those who are tortured will say anything to get their torturers to stop. And if we, the United States of America, won't follow the Geneva Conventions, how can we ever expect our enemies to treat captured US soldiers fairly and humanely?

In 1999, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on the rights of prisoners accused of being terrorists or security threats. The court declared cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment illegal. "A democratic, freedom-loving society," the court wrote, "does not accept that investigators use any means for the purpose of uncovering truth. The rules pertaining to investigators are important to a democratic state. They reflect its character." What has become of our character?

Rogan the Red

We recently welcomed a new member to our household. His name is Rogan, and he is a 1 1/2 to 2 year old golden retriever. He is a very sweet and affectionate fellow, and we couldn't be happier to have him live with us. We adopted him from the Golden Retriever Freedom Rescue in September. He was sent to Colorado from Arkansas after being abandoned by his previous owners. He may have been named either Theo or Joseph, but we changed his name to Rogan, which is an Irish name meaning red-headed. He and Ali quickly bonded, and he has been very good for her. She has lost over ten pounds and is much more active and playful. Here are a few photos of the fella.

A Hard Post to Write

I got some unfortunate news today about a friend and co-worker. Craig had been missing since Halloween, and I just found out this morning that he took his own life. Dealing with something like this is really tough, but I thought that sharing this info with you might help me cope with this and allow me to share the part of Craig's life that I knew. As I am writing this, I am listening to REM, his favorite band.

Craig was a really good climber and moutaineer. He was the kind of guy who would climb a fourteener, but not in the summer. That would be too easy. He would do it in the winter to make it more of a challenge. Sleeping in a tent in sub freezing temperatures with 3 feet of snow outside isn't my cup of tea, but he seemed to enjoy it.

I got to know Craig best this summer and fall, as he was part of our kickball team. He appeared to enjoy kickball as much, if not more than, I did. I think that the two of us really valued the camaraderie of playing a team sport, and he was always down for meeting up before the game to share a few beers. Craig never let a bad play or a losing score (of which there were many) get to him. He would say, "Who cares, it's just kickball. We're just out here to have fun and drink some beers." Our last game we dressed up in Halloween costumes, and Craig's was amazing. He went to McGuckin's and built his outfit. It was one of the most coolest costumes I have ever seen. He was a Roman Centurion and I have included a picture of him in his full regalia. It was hilarious watching him play in the costume. It was a little tricky to throw the ball with the shoulder armor (which was made of heating ducts). He figured out that it was easiest to fire the ball back to you like a bounce pass used in basketball. After rounding the bases for a run, he would give you a low five.

At work, he was one of the most valuable people that we had in the office. He worked in our GIS group and you could always rely on him to go above and beyond what was needed. Several of us were lobbying to get him a higher salary, as we didn't want to lose him.

Unfortunately, we have lost him and he will be dearly missed.