Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch

Due to recent events:

PERPETUAL PEACE:

Whether this satirical inscription on a Dutch innkeeper's sign upon which a burial ground was painted had for its object mankind in general, or the rulers of states in particular, who are insatiable of war, or merely the philosophers who dream this sweet dream, it is not for us to decide. But one condition the author of this essay wishes to lay down. The practical politician assumes the attitude of looking down with great self-satisfaction on the political theorist as a pedant whose empty ideas in no way threaten the security of the state, inasmuch as the state must proceed on empirical principles; so the theorist is allowed to play his game without interference from the worldly-wise statesman. Such being his attitude, the practical politician--and this is the condition I make--should at least act consistently in the case of a conflict and not suspect some danger to the state in the political theorist's opinions which are ventured and publicly expressed without any ulterior purpose. By this clausula salvatoria the author desires formally and emphatically to deprecate herewith any malevolent interpretation which might be placed on his words.

Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch

Ubuntu's new notification stuff

A. Walton has a good post about ubuntu's new notification system [mockups]. The mockup for sure looked shiny, but I totally disagree with the idea that you can't click on them anymore; they instead will get transparent as soon as you move the mouse near them (and they will be click-through-able).
On a second note about the action removal: While I of course agree that it is bad thing if a notification -that you could potentially miss- is the prominent (or even the only) way when a  user interaction is required, I don't get what is wrong with using actions (that includes clicking on them) as a shortcut to something.

Google food is good, frozen yogurt totally is a win and it is good to see Leslie and the rest of the cabal again. Oh and Michael coind a new phrase!

[Yes, as Jorge pointed out, my hackgotchi is totally outdated.]