afghanistan still sucks

so much for liberating the women of afghanistan... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3166566.stm

get your war on.

stephenson's "quicksilver"

i'm a couple of hundred pages into this now. as i expected, it's not so much about the plot (which hasn't really happened yet -- it's still mostly unspooling backstory), but more a chance to wallow in details and trivia.

it's being a fun read, albiet a bit overblown in parts. only two geneological diagrams so far. no graphs of sexual desire vs phase of the moon or whatever "cryptonomicon" had.