I just registered a new domain name and will probably be moving this site there soon. It's http://jeffmilner.com!

What is life like for new recruits in the climate of the Iraq War? This article gives a good portrait of those who jump ship and why they do it.

Particularly facinating to me, is the statistics on firing rates. Apparently in World War II only 15 to 20 percent of the combat infantry were willing to fire their weapons this number has steadily increased over the years.

By the Korean War, the firing rate had gone up to 55 percent; in the Vietnam war, it was around 90 to 95 percent. How did the military achieve this? As Grossman writes, "Since World War II, a new era has quietly dawned in modern warfare: an era of psychological warfare—psychological warfare conducted not upon the enemy, but upon one's own troops. ... The triad of methods used to achieve this remarkable increase in killing are desensitization, conditioning, and denial defense mechanisms."

I have never been put in a situation like the ones a new soldier has to face, but I would hope that if I did have to go to war, it would be a war I could believe in.

It's my birthday today. Happy Birthday to me!

On Wednesday night I drove to Calgary and then just for kicks we headed out to Banff to see King Muskafa play at the Rose and Crown Pub. We had a pretty good time, especially because we got to meet the band before they went on and with a band as much fun as they are, a good time is just bound to happen.


One of the more vocal patrons became very obnoxious when he started asking if the singer would expose herself for his viewing pleasure. I didn't see the bouncers remove him, but as we left shortly after we saw him talking to his friends outside; this is what he said, "You just don't piss people off. That's what I learned."

They are playing at the Rose and Crown all week so if you're in Banff today I recommend going and checking them out - it was well worth the trip.

Kuro5shin writes about some software he came up with that exploits Google's book browsing service.

Many people are curious about the inner workings of Google, but they are mostly interested in keeping it a secret. So, any information we can glean comes from "black box" analysis. Recently, I wrote a short article that explains how I wrote some simple code that can instantly create PDFs of entire books from Google Print.

Read Hacking Google Print.

I found a new blog about drawing, illustration, and art called Drawn! that looks pretty sweet. It's still new, but so far the posts include (among others) links to Vintage magazine art, a collection of Batman logos from the past, and even some 3D animation from Blur. I love it; I'm adding the link to my sidebar.

Drawn! is a collaborative weblog for illustrators, artists, cartoonists, and anyone who likes to draw. Visit us daily for a dose of links and creative inspiration.

There is a movement in Canada to make sure there are Stanley Cup playoffs this hockey season.

From the Freestanley.com web site:

We love the Stanley Cup playoffs and we love the Cup. We believe it is the best trophy in all of sport, and it should not be denied to the best hockey team is playing this season. If there is no NHL season the Stanley Cup should then be awarded to the best hockey team in Canada, which was Lord Stanley's original intent for the Cup.

Free Stanley is asking fans to contact the Trustees and demand a challenge for the Stanley Cup. Email the Trusees at: info@hhof.com or send a letter by regular mail to:
Ian "Scotty" Morrison and Brian O'Neill
Stanley Cup Trustees
Hockey Hall of Fame
BCE Place
30 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5E 1X8

Claim: Iraqi militant web site displays image of action figure toy identified as a captured American soldier.


Snopes reports that the status of this claim is True.

From All Your Base to Zombo.com, the Wikipedia has a pretty good collection of Internet Memes.

The Thought Project is a collection of headshots taken of random people in Copenhagen, Denmark and New York City. Beside each image is the thought(s) they were thinking just as they were approached for a picture.

Over a period of 3 months I stopped 150 strangers on the street and asked them what they where thinking about the second before I stopped them. Using a mic and a dictaphone I recorded what they told me, then took a picture of them. 55 of the 150 thoughts are presented on this website as quotes. All quotes state exactly what was said during the interviews. The interviews took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and New York City.

Amazing story about a man's promise to his grandfather.

When I was 9, I caught my grandfather shaving in the bathroom and that is when I saw it: His Camp Number - 58877241.

Not knowing any better, I asked him why he got such a "stupid tattoo". He told me that he really didn't want to get it and quickly tried to cover it with a towel. I followed him asking him, "Why don't you get it removed then?" He stop dead in the hallway and without turning around said "So I don't forget." We never discussed it again.

When he died last summer, I told myself that he was finally at peace. As I stood over his coffin with my wife, I reached down and took his arm in mine. I unbuttoned his sleeve and rolled it up. I looked at the number again - 58877241. My wife looked at me and asked "Why are you doing that?" All I could say was "So I don't forget." Right then I made my promise to him - Never again.

What is particularly fascinating about this story is the response he got from one woman about her own grandfather and his experience in the war:

They hauled him in front of a firing squad. The Captain of the Guard again demanded that the Jews among them be identified. Then one of the soldiers came forward and identified himself as a Jew. The Captain grabbed him and hauled him away and stopped the execution. The troops never saw the soldier again.

The soldier that volunteered the information that he was Jewish was named Roman Edemskoi (58877241) - the same man.

(Via MeFi)

I got a parking ticket today; how irritating. I discovered it when leaving from the figure drawing studio.

Anyway, here are my figure drawings. Please leave a comment if you like them.

I just installed another great extention for Firefox. It's called Sage.

Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox. It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don't.

On June 5, 1996 HoTMaiL was publicly announced. 3 years and 8 million users later it sold to Microsoft for $400 million.

Read about it in this interesting Wired Article.

GXM Studio is the new media company in Malaysia that I am hoping to work for while I am over there in two months. They have some pretty nifty little animations, web design, and video work. I'm very excited.

By now, you've likely seen the Numa Numa Dance. The New York Times reports that the dancer, Gary Brolsma, isn't enjoying his newfound fame. "These days, Mr. Brolsma shuttles between the house and his job [...] He is distraught, embarrassed." (silly registration req'd)

(Via)