Hiroshima Day

Rather than preach at you or show you horrifying pictures of blast victims you've probably already seen, I'll give you a rendition of "Sadako"

Sadako Sasaki, born in 1943, was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. She was known for her love of sports, but on the day of a big race in 1955, she collapsed and was subsequently diagnosed with "Atom Bomb Disease" - leukemia. Her friend told her of a legend that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako folded over 1000 paper cranes before she died on October 25, 1955.

Her friends and classmates published a book of her letters and young people all over Japan formed a movement and collected the funds to build a peace monument in her honor at Hiroshima. Since then, the paper crane has become a symbol of peace.

There is also a statue of Sadako (that I have actually seen) at the Peace Park in Seattle, WA.

Here you go, a music video, Sadako

Bye, Bye, Brad

This is what I get from actually reading the protest posts...

Gossip blog Valleywag is reporting that LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick is leaving, most likely for Google.

Valleywag continues:
"The only reason that Six Apart management hasn't announced it, the source adds, is that they can't figure out how to spin it. Here, let me help, guys! It's bad. And Fitzpatrick's departure is just the tip of Six Apart's reality-denying iceberg.

Six Apart is in two separate businesses -- selling blog software and services to big companies, and managing social networks LiveJournal and Vox. The two don't mesh well, and it shows. CEO Barak Berkowitz's corporate-running-dog background has not prepared him at all for dealing with feisty online users, and his ineptness was on display in the recent fan-fiction censorship scandal.

Mena Trott, Six Apart's president and cofounder, is normally the company's most effective spokesperson. When she can be prevented from swearing, that is. But we haven't seen much from her recently.

And Andrew Anker is still listed as being in charge of the company's consumer business on its website. But I know that he's moved into a corporate-development role -- which I think is Silicon Valley code for "trying to find someone to buy the company...."

That's the rumor, anyway. Thanks to imaginarycircus.

Here is Brad's own version of events, where he says he is leaving, but not for the reasons cited by Valleywag.

Here is the thread where he discusses the current dust-up. He admits that,"...The flood of personal emails to me about this is a big part of the reason I realized that after 9 years, I need to find something else to do."