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February 2002 Entries
Can I quote a whole article? The whole thing. The WSJ has an absolutely amazing editorial titled Why the Muslims Misjudged Us. It's a comparison of the Arab Muslim world to the West. A comparison of democracy to theocracy and totalitarianism. Please read this editorial.
Like Third World Marxists of the 1960s, who put blame for their own self-inflicted misery upon corporations, colonialism and racism--anything other than the absence of real markets and a free society--the Islamic intelligentsia recognizes the Muslim world's inferiority vis-a-vis the West, but it then seeks to fault others for its own self-created fiasco.

. . .

By the same token, we are surprised at the duplicity of the Gulf States in defusing internal dissent by redirecting it against Americans, forgetting that such is the way of all dictators, who, should they lose office, do not face the golden years of Jimmy Carter's busy house-building or Bill Clinton's self-absorbed angst. Either they dodge the mob's bullets or scurry to a fortified compound on the French coast a day ahead of the posse. The royal family of Saudi Arabia cannot act out of principle, because no principle other than force put and keeps them in power.

I copied six other paragraphs to quote but deleted them all. I wanted you to see them in context. Please read this editorial.

They have a great section comparing Israel to the Palestians, Arabs and Muslims. Weep for the Palestinian people, held captive by Yassar Arafat and the Arab world. Wonder at the silence of Israeli Arabs. Why do they not rise up against Israel for their Arab brothers? Maybe democracy and religous tolerance have more value than the Arab world realizes. Please read this editorial. It's one of the best I've seen on the Arab world.

posted @ Thursday, February 28, 2002 7:44 PM | Feedback (0)
I hardly know what to say about this one. USA Today and Gallup did a poll of Muslim countries to gauge their attitudes toward America. I was going to post my usual inflamatory paragraph but there were so many to choose from. How about:
Two-thirds say the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were morally unjustifiable, but significant minorities disagree. In Kuwait, which U.S. troops liberated from Iraq in 1991, 36% say the attacks were justifiable, the highest percentage of any country polled.

I'm sure if we'd let Iraq take over their worthless little camel-ridden, oil-rich country they'd blame us for that too! Except we'd never know because the pollsters weren't even allowed in Iraq. I'm really not mad at the citizens. They are only repeating what they've been told. I'm really steamed at their governments:

The poll had about 120 questions, but not all were asked in every country because of censorship. For instance, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco did not allow the question about Arab responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks.

I'm sure their citizens will form valid opinions because they have so much accurate information. How about a little freedom of the press. And is the US to blame for that problem? We support the Saudi kingdom. Are we pushing Saudi Arabia to eliminate censorship? Jordan really suprised me. I thought they were better at censorship than that.

Until we eliminate our reliance on their oil we really can't do much. Fuel cells, baby, fuel cells! You can look at the poll and the USA Today article.

posted @ Thursday, February 28, 2002 7:13 PM | Feedback (0)
This just in: Montana full of wackos! Actually it probably isn't. Probably.
posted @ Thursday, February 28, 2002 6:58 PM | Feedback (0)
There just aren't enough good Dan Seligman articles. But there is one more I found :) Without Fear, Favor Or . . . Offensiveness is a review of William McGowan's "Coloring the News." The books discusses the politically correct leanings of major news publications. Seligman writes:
None of the media authority figures promoting this crusade seem prepared to admit that the new version of events has been a ghastly failure, but it has certainly not done what it was supposed to do. It has filled newsrooms with partisans for minority causes, many of them activists in the black, Latino, Asian-American, women's, and gay/lesbian journalists' associations, whose pressures lead editors to self-censorship and distortion when those causes seem threatened by stories -- like, say, the Patrick Chavis disaster -- at variance with politically correct news perspectives.
posted @ Thursday, February 28, 2002 2:03 PM | Feedback (0)
ZDNet's Windows Lite: Why less filling WON'T taste great talks about what Windows would be like if the "extra" stuff like Media Player, Internet Explorer, etc. were unbundled from Windows. It also ties this into the currrent lawsuit.
posted @ Thursday, February 28, 2002 1:38 PM | Feedback (0)
Edmunds has an article on Toyota's latest fuel cell cars. It's a good overview of the status of these cars and the hurdles they still need to overcome.
posted @ Thursday, February 28, 2002 8:12 AM | Feedback (0)
Personal Rapid Transit is making headway in the UK. Maybe the US will catch up soon.
posted @ Wednesday, February 27, 2002 11:16 AM | Feedback (0)
Saudi Arabia made an interesting proposal to Israel: return to your pre-1967 borders and the Arab world will recognize your right to exist. Which of course implies that the Arab world doesn't currently recognize Israel's right to exist. This seems to indicate a more sweeping agreement than one with just the Palestinian Authority. It might also mean giving up the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights. CNN has a map and additional commentary in their Mideast Peace section. Israel described it as a great starting point to negotiate. Has the Palestinian terror campaign brought Israel to it's knees?

Arafat was allowed to travel inside Ramallah as Israeli tanks were withdrawn from near his compound. My cousin just got called up for a month's reservist duty in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). In Ramallah of all places. Which is in the West Bank and is the heart of the Palestinian terror groups. So you'll probably be reading a lot about the Middle East for the next month or so.

posted @ Monday, February 25, 2002 10:53 PM | Feedback (0)
A wormhole time machine cannot be used to go back to a time before the wormhole is constructed. That would explain why we don't encounter time tourists from the future in 2001. So the type of time machine that science seems to permit would not let us witness important historical events, or observe the dinosaurs. But it would enable someone to jump ahead in time and come back again to tell us the future. It may even act like a genuine crystal ball: you could peer through it and see the future.

That question was easier to get answered than I thought. This comes from an interview with Paul Davies. It's a good non-technical read on time travel.

posted @ Monday, February 25, 2002 7:47 AM | Feedback (0)
I made some changes to the style sheet that drives this site. All the text should render a little larger and be easier to read. You should also be able to make the text larger or smaller using your browsers ability to view text larger or smaller. On Internet Explorer 6, it's View -> Text Size -> and then choose your size. Let me know if I made everything too big :)
posted @ Sunday, February 24, 2002 11:28 AM | Feedback (0)
Discover has an article in their latest issue titled Einstein & Godel. It's a little about the friendship between Kurt Godel and Albert Einstien and a little about science. It also has an interesting comment on Einstein's theory of relativity:
Einstein's claim is more subtle. He suggests that change is an illusion. Things do not become, they have not been, and they will not be: They simply are. Time is like space; it is precisely like space. In traveling to Singapore, I do not bring Singapore into existence. I reach Singapore, but the city has been there all along. So, too, I reach events in the future by displacing myself in time. I do not bring them into being. And if nothing is brought into being, there is no change.

That would seem to imply that time travel is possible. The article has more discussion on that possibility. But if time travel is possible then where are the time travelers? (Thanks Chris!)

posted @ Sunday, February 24, 2002 10:44 AM | Feedback (0)
And while we're on the subject of wrongful convictions, my sister sent a second link to an article on Oprah Winfrey's site. Not being a regular reader of Oprah.com, I missed this when it first came out. The article is titled The Rape Kit Controversy. I'll use the same quote my sister sent to me:
To investigate this problem further, ABC's 20/20 paid the police department of Baltimore half of the money needed to test 50 rape kits. Their investigation solved five major crime cases and exonerated a wrongfully imprisoned man. Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC News, says that in Baltimore alone, it would take an estimated $4.5 million dollars to process their backlog of rape kits.

Can you feel it slipping? Your faith in the law enforcement bureaucracy. Thanks for the article.

posted @ Saturday, February 23, 2002 11:45 AM | Feedback (0)

My sister sent me an interesting link. It's the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions. Their site says the Center is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice. They seem to focus mainly on the death penalty. At least that's what I was looking for information on. In a weird way this reminds me of a quote from the movie Broken Arrow. One of the characters says, "In a weird way, I don't know what's scarier, losing a nuclear weapon or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it." It's sad that attempts at correctly administering the death penalty are so poor there's a Center trying to right the wrongs. Actually they have links to TWENTY-TWO orgranizations with a similar mission. It's enlightening that there's enough business to keep them all busy.

They also have a page that lists the exonerated by state. Forty-three by my count. The sole inmate listed for Missouri is Eric Clemmons. His write-up is an interesting read:

Eric Clemmons, a Missouri prison inmate, was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of another prisoner. The case rested solely on the testimony of a corrections officer who saw the murder. He testified that, during the actual stabbing, he was too far away to see who the killer was, but gave chase and saw that the man was Clemmons. At the trial in Greene County, Missouri, the defense called several prisoners who claimed the murder had been committed not by Clemmons but by a prisoner who died three months after the crime -- a contention the prosecution portrayed as self-serving and unworthy of belief. After his conviction, Clemmons, working on his own appeal, discovered an internal prison memorandum, prepared by a prison supervisor immediately after the crime, stating that the murder had been committed by the prisoner whom the defense witnesses had identified at the trial. Based on that and other new evidence, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted Clemmons a new trial, at which he was acquitted. Clemmons is African American and the victim was Caucasian.

Hopefully we'll add Joseph Amrine's name to this list soon.

posted @ Saturday, February 23, 2002 11:34 AM | Feedback (0)

I hardly know what to say about the Joseph Amrine case. Salon normally has this article in their subscriber section but they wanted this article to be available to everyone. Kudos to Salon. I've written about the death penalty before. That article said that 95 people had been released from death row as new evidence was found. Ninety-five innocent people convicted of murder beyond a shadow of doubt. Now Missouri is getting ready to execute an innocent man.

Joseph Amrine, a black man convicted by an all-white jury of killing a fellow prison inmate 17 years ago, still sits on Missouri's death row, even though all the witnesses against him now say he didn't do it, new witnesses have identified another inmate as the killer, and at least three of the 12 jurors who convicted Amrine, including the jury foreman, now say they think he is innocent.

And here's the real kicker:

Death penalty opponents say Amrine's case is among the most egregious examples of the flaws in the nation's capital punishment system. His legal appeals completely exhausted, Amrine's fate now lies in the hands of Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, a pro-death penalty conservative Democrat who has been authorizing executions at a rate of about one per month throughout his term, and who has yet to commute or even stay a single prisoner's sentence.

Is the Governor of the state I live in going to authorize the execution of an innocent man? I haven't seen anyone dispute that's he's innocent. The Missouri Attorney General's office asserted that the appeals had been ruled on, not that Amrine was guilty. Interesting choice of words. The article also has some disturbing information on Ashcroft.

I urge you to contact Missouri Governor Bob Holden at his web site. He has contact information on his site. You can fill out a form to send him e-mail. Please be polite and literate. Ranting and raving probably won't sway him. A large volume of mail might. Do something to make the world a better place. Do it today.

After I sent the e-mail the following message appeared: Thank you again for your email. Here's one more way that the Missouri government is working to serve you better. Serve me better by killing fewer innocent Missourians.

posted @ Friday, February 22, 2002 11:24 AM | Feedback (0)
Time has an article discussing the Napterization of TV shows using a ReplayTV 4000. I just may have to get one of these after all.
posted @ Thursday, February 21, 2002 2:50 PM | Feedback (0)
My coolness quota for today has been reached. Google, the greatest search engine yet, is available in a variety of languages. These include French, English, German, etc. This list also includes Bork, bork, bork!, Elmer Fudd, Klingon, h4x0r (hacker) and Pig Latin. And they are 4% finished with Sanskrit and Pashto. I'm pretty sure Sanskrit isn't spoken anymore and Pashto is native to Afghanistan (I think) so I doubt they'll get many users in those languages.

All of these I've heard of except Bork, bork, bork!? What the kind of language is Bork, bork bork!? So a quick search on Google (of course!) yielded ze Swedish Chef of Muppet's fame. He has a language? There's also a newsgroup for the language -- also found on Google. Just amazing. I am left speachless by this.

posted @ Wednesday, February 20, 2002 4:34 PM | Feedback (0)

I want one of these phones!

posted @ Wednesday, February 20, 2002 3:18 PM | Feedback (0)
The Privacy Foundation has an interesting interview with David Brin. He is a science-fiction author that writes about the future. Brin responds to one question this way:
The question itself is what concerns me most. All across the airwaves we see security mavens demanding tighter restrictions on daily life "for our children's safety,"while civil libertarians preach that we should accept risk and danger as a price for avoiding "Big Brother" and protecting freedom for our descendants. In fact, both sides are foisting a poisonous notion on us for their own self-interest. Both groups assume a fundamental trade-off between safety and freedom, and derive economic benefit from the fact that we swallow this awful notion.

But is such a trade-off real? I can tell you that I refuse to even let it be a basis for discussion! Nobody tells me that I must choose between safety for my children and their freedom. It's a non-starter.

Can we have both safety and freedom? The evidence can be seen all around us. We are - even after 9/11 - toweringly safer and freer than any other people in history. The two go together. All it takes is breaking the stupid notion of dichotomies and trade-offs.

It's a pretty interesting read. He has some very interesting ideas. I may have to take another look at his books.

posted @ Wednesday, February 20, 2002 9:26 AM | Feedback (0)
Coming soon to a timezone near you: 20:02, 02/20, 2002.
posted @ Tuesday, February 19, 2002 5:59 PM | Feedback (0)
The Weekly Standard has a neat article on the Chinese Internet. They discuss how American companies such as cisco heldped build the great firewall of China.
During Bush's current visit to China, any attempt to discuss loosening Chinese Internet controls is likely to be brushed aside using the rhetoric of our own struggle against terrorism (what, you're against surveillance?). But if the Chinese take this tack, they are of course being dishonest about their own motives.

It's always good to see American companies sell out the ideals of freedom that our country espouses. Shame on all of us for letting this happen.

posted @ Tuesday, February 19, 2002 7:33 AM | Feedback (0)
Whatever you do, don't get in the express line with more than 12 items. During an altercation related to one woman's purchase of 13 items in the express lane (which had a 12 item limit), the other woman
"...got out of the car and commenced a whooping on me," the woman told The Sun of Lowell.

After being repeatedly kicked in the head, the beatee (er, vicitim) still managed to get the license number of her assailant as she drove off. There's nothing like a little irrational rage to brighten up everyone's day. The Boston paper has the original article. Apparently in Lowell, natural selection isn't happening quite fast enough.

posted @ Monday, February 18, 2002 2:52 PM | Feedback (0)
Craig McCaw's OneWorld racing syndicate picked up the victory in the America's Cup International Regatta, a tune up for the America's Cup later in the year. New Zealand was sailing last year's boat while the Americans had a brand new boat. The Challenger Series (the Louis Vitton Cup) starts in October. Last years challenger, Prada, is expected to compete again this year. Larry Ellison also has an entry this year.
posted @ Sunday, February 17, 2002 9:56 PM | Feedback (0)
The more I think about this Olympic skating scandal the more disgusted I am. Marie Reine Le Gougne is the judge of the moment. They say she recieved pressure from "outside sources" to cast her vote in a certain way. Didier Gailhaguet, head of the French Olympic committee, described her as "emotionally fragile". So what in the world was she doing judging figure skating? And when do we get her side of it? Everything I've read so far suggests that the pressure came from her superiors. Did France and Russia really make a deal to swap votes? Maybe we should ban them both from the next Olympics. Marie Reine Le Gougne didn't make a decision to violate the rules. Someone much more senior in the French Olympic program did. Heaven forbid we should ever bring that person to justice.
posted @ Friday, February 15, 2002 2:52 PM | Feedback (0)
So the IOC awards a second gold medal to the Canadians after the shocking discovery that voting was based on things other than skating. Don't these people remember the Cold War? One memorable phrase to come out of that was "The Russian judge only gave you an 8". Except now it's France and Russia in a tryst. That probably means France surrendered to them.
posted @ Friday, February 15, 2002 1:13 PM | Feedback (0)
Unmasking Miss Cleo. Or some such.
posted @ Friday, February 15, 2002 8:52 AM | Feedback (0)
I've been a big fan of John Grisham's novels for quite a while. Not so much is recent stuff but definitely his early novels. Slate has two articles on him. The first, What Makes Johnny Write?, is an overview of Grisham's career. The second, Grisham's Homily, is a much more interesting article.
Grisham, it is clear, wants nothing to stand in the way of his central point--that a man who surrenders all his worldly possessions to defend the homeless is a hero. To have Brock agonize, to have him spend the bulk of the book desperately weighing the pros and cons of his decision, would be to have him act as people normally act in novels. And The Street Lawyer isn't a novel, exactly. It's a homily.

The author makes the point that Grisham is the leading moralist in America today. It's an interesting view point. Grisham has attacked greed (in every novel), big tobacco and the death penalty. Each arguement is wrapped in an easily readable novel. A very interesting read and a different take on one of my favorite authors.

posted @ Tuesday, February 12, 2002 9:40 PM | Feedback (0)
What the heck?!? I take their stupid test to figure out what OfficeSpace character I am. I put their link up on my site. And they aren't able to host the graphic? What the heck?!?
posted @ Tuesday, February 12, 2002 9:33 PM | Feedback (0)


I am Peter Gibbons from Office Space. Take the test and find out who you were.

posted @ Monday, February 11, 2002 11:09 PM | Feedback (0)
Did you put your money on New England? Apparently everyone in Boston did.
"We got annihilated," said one South Shore bookmaker whose operation was creamed for $150,000 in losses on Super Bowl Sunday. "I had housewives and grandmothers betting on this game. People who never bet were betting hundreds and regular $50 bettors were betting thousands. There will most definitely be a problem with some bookies not paying."
It seems New England's victory may put a dent in the bookie business in the northeast.
posted @ Monday, February 11, 2002 1:28 PM | Feedback (0)
This weekend I will open my refrigerator for the first time after going EIGHT days without power. Fear for me.
posted @ Friday, February 08, 2002 3:37 PM | Feedback (0)
Top 25 Accessible Beers? Ok, I've only even HEARD of 6 of these. What the heck is Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock? It sounds more like the name of obscure German beatnik poet from the early 70's. These are accessible beers? So I checked the Best Little Known Beers. I hadn't heard of ANY other of those. I guess it's all relative.
posted @ Friday, February 08, 2002 3:36 PM | Feedback (0)
Racism over the phone? Can you tell someone's race from their voice? I was suprised at how well I did on the quiz in The Color of Voice.
When Rosa Rice, an African-American in her 20s, placed a call to inquire about a room for her nephew to rent in Belleville, Ill., she says she was met with hostility.

Since the owner had gone through the trouble to advertise the room in the local newspaper, thought Rice, why would she talk to a prospective renter with a bad attitude and rush her off the phone?

The answer, Rice believes, was simple. "I'm quite sure she picked up that I was black from my voice," she said.

The article is a pretty interesting read. I like how they were able to have people call the landlords and see who got calls back.
posted @ Friday, February 08, 2002 1:45 PM | Feedback (0)
Can you imagine my excitement at calling my house and hearing my own voice on the answering machine? My electrically-powered answering machines? I'm as giddy as a school girl! w00t!
posted @ Thursday, February 07, 2002 2:13 PM | Feedback (0)
And on top of this little "electricity issue" I got summoned for jury duty. Kick me when I'm down!
posted @ Wednesday, February 06, 2002 4:20 PM | Feedback (0)
Merriam-Webster defines electricity as
Pronunciation: i-"lek-'tri-s&-tE, E-", -'tris-tE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ties
Date: 1646
1 a : a fundamental entity of nature consisting of negative and positive kinds, observable in the attractions and repulsions of bodies electrified by friction and in natural phenomena (as lightning or the aurora borealis), and usually utilized in the form of electric currents b : electric current or power
2 : a science that deals with the phenomena and laws of electricity
3 : keen contagious excitement
4 : what Bill doesn't have

I don't know about that phonetic pronunciation. I just know I want a little of the stuff.

posted @ Wednesday, February 06, 2002 9:26 AM | Feedback (0)
Donald Rumsfeld? A hottie?
posted @ Tuesday, February 05, 2002 3:27 PM | Feedback (0)
Electricity
Lights, heat, computer, broadband
Their loss leaves me cold

posted @ Tuesday, February 05, 2002 3:18 PM | Feedback (0)
My quest for electricity continues. If I seem preoccupied with my lack of electricity that's because I AM! Bah! If you're without electricity you can check KCPL's status page.
posted @ Tuesday, February 05, 2002 10:12 AM | Feedback (1)
Still hoping for electricity soon. If you live near me and have a really loooong extension cord please let me know.
posted @ Monday, February 04, 2002 11:30 PM | Feedback (0)
"Our airforce has doubled up its capability and is watching our skies," said air force chief Brigadier General Reza Pardis.

"American threats are nothing new and nothing to worry about because we have the capability to confront them," Iran's IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

That's choice. Iran is ready to confront our military. That should last about . . . oh . . . 45 minutes or so. Just like Iraq and the Taliban "confronted" our military. I think a country's bluster and rhetoric are inversely related to their actual ability to wage war.

posted @ Monday, February 04, 2002 11:28 PM | Feedback (0)
Electricity. That word has such sizzle, such an aura of excitement, such an air of elusiveness . . . at least for me. Still no power. Kansas City continues to dig itself out from an ice storm and I think it's time to dig me out!
posted @ Saturday, February 02, 2002 11:21 PM | Feedback (0)
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