We had him.

RIP Michael Jackson. You were the biggest star on earth. Now you shine in heaven. At peace, away from the torments this stardom gave you. Thank you for all you gave us.

"We Had Him"

By Dr. Maya Angelou.

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing, now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer wind.

Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace. Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon.

In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing. No clocks can tell time. No oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure.

Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone.

Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him.

He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.

Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that.

He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.

We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.

His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.

And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.

We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing. He gave us all he had been given.

Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square.

In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Birmingham, England

We are missing Michael.

But we do know we had him, and we are the world.

BAHS needs your help!

Hello to all Old Hilarians. Here's a message from the Old Hilarians' Association. Please circulate... the School needs your help. BAHS is in dire need of paint – Sissons Weather Guard: Yellow Buff Emulsion to be exact. The annual luncheon is on July 04 2009 and we would like to get the word out to the Hilarian Community, asking attendees to bring 1 gallon of paint with them to the luncheon.

Concordia's Video III Showcase Wrap-Up

My cousin's graduation showcase film, "The Art of Being" is reviewed here. Great praise - "felt like something that could be aired on PBS - lil cuz ready for the big times?
Congrats baby cuz!!

"The Art of Being (9:55), a documentary on the life of a saxophone player, actually felt like something that could be aired on PBS - especially the open moments in which the viewer discovers the finer details of the saxophone before finally revealing its subject through a blur behind the instrument."

Read the whole post here

More on the Barbados crackdown against Caribbean immigramts

Barbados has stated that there are in excess of 30,000 illegal Guyanese immigrants in Barbados, and Prime Minister David Thompson's has proposed a six-month amnesty (June to December) for Caricom migrants who may be illegally in Barbados. Regularisation of their status must occur within this timeframe, and deportations will commence soon thereafter.

This number seems extraordinarily large, given that the official population of Barbados is only 300,000. No specific data has been given as to the accuracy of these numbers.
One must wonder if it is being pushed purely for domestical political gain given the economic issues facing the Caribbean countries. When economic issues arise, protectionism is the "easy" way out. However, this is a problem for CARICOM and the fledgling CSME.

"In the absence of data in support of official claims of huge numbers of illegal Caricom migrants in the country, and the extent of pressure their presence is causing for the social services, the amnesty, which went into force on June 2, has unleashed a witch-hunting atmosphere and is nurturing tensions never before known in Barbados" Trinidad Express.

Spam drops 15 percent after FTC Pricewert takedown

"IDG News Service - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's recent takedown of an Internet service provider thought to be a safe haven for spammers has reduced spam volumes, but only by a little.

According to e-mail security vendor Marshal8e6, total spam volume dropped by about 15 percent last week, as the FTC got a court order to pull the plug on a notorious ISP named Pricewert. 'We noticed quite a drop-off mid to late last week,' said Phil Hay, a threat analyst with Marshal8e6. 'Things got pretty quiet compared to what we'd been seeing.'

Pricewert, which also did business under the name 3FN, was knocked off-line after the companies that provided it access to the Internet stopped doing business with it. This happened after the FTC was granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California."

Read more here:Spam drops 15 percent after FTC Pricewert takedown:

Fallout from the Oxford Professor of Poetry Debacle

Underhanded, anonymous smears. This is what Oxford is about? Shameful!

Fallout from the Oxford Professor of Poetry Debacle � Repeating Islands

The nearly unanimous response to Derek Walcott’s withdrawal as a candidate for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from newspaper reporters, commentators, and bloggers has been one of regret and of condemnation of the tactics that pushed him to that decision.

Nominet given three months to live

Interesting article from Keiren McCarthy's blog. Nominet has generally been held up as one of the best and most successful ccTLD managers. Let's hope they get their act together.

April 30, 2009 ·

For the past year, the company that runs the UK’s Internet registry has been the unlikely location for a corporate soap opera, complete with scandals, villains, twists and turns, allegations of corruption, resignations, grand plans thwarted at the last minute and some nasty in-fighting that has left people alternatively amazed, entertained and worried.